L. O. BURLING. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 270 
 WUK 
 
Return this book on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. 
 
 University of Illinois Library 
 
 HP"' o t 
 
 
 L161 — H41 
 
V 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE EARLIEST AGES 
 
 TO 
 
 THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Bf THE REV. GEORGE WADDINGTON, M.A. 
 
 jrELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND PREBENDARY OF 
 FERRING, IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF CHICHESTER. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 PEARL STREET, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
 
 1872. 
 
270 
 
 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Author's reasons for abandoning in this work 
 
 the usual method of division by centuries 
 This history is divided into five parts or periods, 
 ending respe ctively at the establishment of the 
 Church by Constantine ; at the death of Charle- 
 magne ; at the death of Gregory VIL; at the seces- 
 sion of the Popes to Avignon ; at the beginning of 
 the Reformation 
 The study of ecclesiastical history teaches religious 
 moderation 
 
 PART 1. 
 
 Chapter I. — T/ie Propagation of Christianity. 
 
 Page 
 25 
 
 4.D. 
 
 CO 
 
 65 
 
 107 
 
 27 
 
 The Church of Jerusalem. James the Just its 
 
 first President or Bishop 29 
 Secession of the Christian Church to Pella 30 
 No tabularies or public acts preserved by the 
 
 primitive Christians 30 
 Foundation of ^Elia Capitolina by Adrian 30 
 Church of Antioch, founded by St. Paul and 
 
 Barnabas 31 
 There the converts first assumed the name of 
 
 Christian 31 
 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- 
 to and Papias. Conversion of Bithynia 32 
 j07 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 
 193 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 
 frenaeijs was subsequently Bishop of Lyons 37 
 Some reasons why the Church of Alexandria 
 
 was probablv numerous at an early period 37 
 St. Mark, the first Bishop 37 
 134 Testimony of the Emperor Adrian, respecting 
 
 the reUgious cnaracter of the Alexandrians 37 
 Establishment there of the Catechetical School, 
 and subsequent labors of Pant.nenus, Cle- 
 mens, and Origen 38 
 
 Chapter II. — On the J^ambf-rs, Discipline, Doctrine, 
 and Morality of the Primitive Church. 
 
 100 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 39 
 
 The great facility of intercourse throughout Ine 
 Roman Empire, the zeal of the missionaries, 
 &c. 39 
 
 On the miraculous powers claimed by the 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Church, and the period to which they were 
 most probably confined 46 
 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 42 
 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 
 150 etseq. OriginVind composition of the first pro- 
 
 they rose in 
 
 43 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
 45 
 
 45 
 
 vincial assemblies or synods 
 Greece 
 
 From these synods proceeded the title and dig- 
 nity of the Metropolitan, and the general ag- 
 grandizement of the episcopal order 
 
 Excommunication the oldest weapon of the 
 Church 
 
 Community of property had not universal prev- 
 alence 
 
 The primitive institution of the Lord's day 
 The two most ancient festivals were those of 
 
 the resurrection and of the descent of the 
 
 Holy Spirit 
 
 The only public fast on the day of the cruci- 
 fixion 
 
 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 Agapse, 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 47-43 
 
 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 
 313 Before the time of Constantine, Christianity 
 was deeply rooted in all the ea.stern provin- 
 ces of the Roman empire it had also spread 
 among the northern and western nations 
 Some vague pretensions of Rome advanced 
 and resisted 
 
 251 The Roman Synod against Novatian was at- 
 tended'by sixty Bishops 
 
 203 Origen was made President of the Catechetical 
 School, and remained so for nearly thirtv 
 years. His great diligence and erroneous 
 principles in the interpretation of Scripture. 
 He was successful in converting some Arabi- 
 an Heretics 
 
 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 respectinc 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..5' 
 
 49 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 51 
 
 592407 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 i. D Page 
 The ccr.mexion 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, Plolinus, 
 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 
 apolitical engine ; the laws were rigid in ex- 
 cluding foreign Gods ; and the practice of the 
 Repubfic 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 Tlie Christians suflfered, during the reign 
 of Antoninus Pius, through popular violence, 
 rather than legal oppression 61 
 
 162 — 181 The fiist systematic persecution was that 
 of Marcus Antoninus, and it lasted during 
 his whole reigij. 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 
 
 25* Jyprian suffered martyrdom in the reign of 
 
 Valerian, on his refusal to sacrifice 64 
 
 [X)3 The teachers of philosophy were instrumental 
 in bringing Diocletian to begin his persecu- 
 tion. It was cfmtinued for ten years, with a 
 severity comprehending every form of oppres- 
 sion ; and ceased not till the accession of 
 Constantine 64 
 
 3rj 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, avers.ou for 
 idolatry, &c. 65,66 
 The Church learned from her suffcrincs tne 
 lesson of persecution, which she practised 
 in after ages 67 
 Contumacy the pretext for these Pagan inflic- 
 
 tionH 68 
 Various false notions respecting the cliararter* 
 and cridd of the emperors who persecuted 
 and who tolerated 68 
 These pr;rHecuti(»n» were not, upon the whole, 
 unfavorable to the progress of religion 69 
 
 f/HAi'TER V. — On the Iferenea of the First Three 
 Centuries. 
 
 The original meaning ii( the word hernsy is 
 choice; it pnsHfd from phil(iM<i|(hy into relig- 
 ion ; niid various hoiihch, rm longer inditler- 
 enl, were then attached to it 
 
 The enrlieHlfatlirrH xtront-'ly opito^rd crronnoiiH 
 ojiinionii; yet |H;rniitted no personal Hoveri- 
 ticit 
 
 The nnmoH «if tUnnrnt were in no age inore nii- 
 merou<» than the ••arllcMt — proving IIk! num- 
 liern of the eiirly ronvertu 
 
 Home errr)rH probably older than the npoxtolic 
 prenrhiiig 
 
 Thfi ('hnrch mifTrred from the nlinurd opinions 
 of Home of the lieretin* who were confounded 
 with it 
 
 MfMiheirn dlNtingiilNhex the early herrllm iiilr) 
 
 thre»! r\nnoen 
 A dilferrnt view In taken hy Dr. P.iirtnn, who 
 
 A. D. Pa^ 
 
 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 siipposilion of an evil principle 73 
 The association of this piiilosophy 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 J these were held by the 
 Gnostics 73 
 Smion Magus was classed among these ; and 
 bis 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 Docetse (Phantastics) were of very early 
 origin ; they had a system of en;anations from 
 the Divinity, called yEons, 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 
 
 2G9 Paul of Samosata was deposed, and removed 
 
 by Aurelian 76 
 The creed of Tertullian in his answer to 
 Praxeas 76 
 
 250 Sabeilius denied the distinct personality of the 
 second and third persons, considering them 
 as energies, or portions of the first Thence 
 his followers were called Patripassians 77 
 
 170 Montanus began to prophesy in Phrygia, in 
 company with Maximiila 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 73 
 
 — 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 llarnabas, the Shepherd of 
 Hermas, 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 Irenams was made Ri^hopof Lyons. He wrote 
 
 five books "Against Heresies " 81,83 
 
 PART IL 
 
 CHAPTEn VI. — Constantine the Great. 
 
 312 An inquiry into the miracle of the luminous 
 
 cross ; it r<>sts on very insuflicient evidence 62,83 
 
 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 profi'ssion ; and are counteriicted by ma- 
 ny particulars of his conduct and character 83 
 Before ( 'otistantine, ncitht r llii- authority of 
 synods or hishojis, nor the property of the 
 Chun h, was recognised bvlaw. Here is the 
 <'arlii-si vostigi; of distinction between spirit- 
 ual and temporal power ti.l 
 In what the slrcncth of the Anfeniceiie Church 
 rotiMj.sted. Thiit Hlrrimth, as well as tho 
 peculiar (jualilies of ChriHtians, inlluenced 
 C<mHtanfiii(' to legalize Chrislianily 86 
 
 — He received tlie Church itilo strict alliance 
 
 with Ihi' Slate; investing the Crown with 
 the liiKliesi ecclesiastical authority, with 
 Kreat mutual advantage* 86 
 321 The internal administration of the Church je- 
 niained in the hands of the Prelates. Per- 
 mission was graiileil to lieipu'ath property k 
 the Clinrch: aNo evempl ioa Croin cItII olll- 
 ces, and independent jurisdiction 8? 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 A. D. rage 
 
 Tl/0 Emperor assurred 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 oC 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 
 
 JVote. On the historical respectability of Euse- 
 bius ; to what his professions are confined, 
 and how far he fulfils them 90-91 
 
 Chapteu 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 
 Constantino presently published laws against 
 various heretics 93 
 3U> 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 inefli- 
 cacy was discovered 96 
 The character of Arius, according to Epiphanius 96 
 335 Constantius encouraged Arianisin in the East 96 
 323 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 
 IMflTerence among the Arians as to the likeness 
 between the two persons j leading to divis- 
 ions 98 
 The Semiarians, Homoiousians, Anomoians, 
 or Eunomians 98 
 353-9 Synods of Ancyra and Seleucia 98 
 3jO The Council of Rimini established Arianism 
 
 (or rather Semiarianism) in the West 99 
 370 Valens persecuted the Catholics throughout the 
 
 East 99 
 333 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 
 5S9 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 
 JVofc on Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and 
 other ecclesiastical writers 103-4 
 
 Chapter VIIl. — The Decline and Fall of Paganism. 
 
 The overthrow of Paganism contemporary with 
 Die Arian dissensions 104 
 
 A. D. F«g( 
 
 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 VIC 
 
 The supposed motives of Julian, and his char- 
 acterj as compared to that of Marcus Anto- 
 ninus iOG 
 
 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 
 
 His endeavors 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 phenomenon which 
 interrupted the work was natural or miracu- 
 lous 10? 
 
 A recent explanation of it is attended with 
 some difficulties, and still leaves room for 
 uncertainty . 109 
 
 Valentinian I. practised universal toleration llfl 
 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 contempt of a philos- 
 opher, but the passion of a rival ; a passage in 
 the Misopogon proves his own superstitious- 
 ness or hypocrisy ; his charitable edicts were 
 derived from the Christian practices 113-14-15 
 
 Chapter IX. — Fi-om the Fall of Paganism to the 
 Death of Justinian. 
 
 370 — 600 The various barbarian tribes were con- 
 verted, some before, some after, their inva- 
 sion of the empire 
 
 496 The probable account and consequences of the 
 conversion of Clovis- The first connexion 
 between France and Rome 
 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 
 
 The internal condition of the Church was still 
 further corrupted by the admixture of anoth- 
 er superstition 
 
 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 Pliantastics 
 On the system of persecution adopted by the 
 Christian Emperors. Theodosius 11. embodi- 
 ed the various barbarous edicts in the The- 
 odosian Code, and instituted inquisitions for 
 the deteqtion of heresy 
 
 115 
 
 113 
 
 118 
 
 118 
 
 121 
 
 121-1 
 
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 — J30 Many eminent Christian writers flourish- 
 ed, and were the best of that a<;e 122-3 
 39S The Council of Carthage prohibited the study 
 of secular books by Hishops ; preat 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 123 
 
 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 ' 126-7 
 
 JVute on certain ecclesiastical writers 127 
 310,&:c. The ' Divine Institutions,' and ' Deaths of 
 
 the Persecutors,' the works of Lactantius 127 
 3C2,&c. 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 Pee 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. Jlis 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 
 
 b'22 — 732 The .Mahometans conquered Persia, Sy- 
 ria, Egypt, (through tlie co-operation of the 
 Jncobites) the northern parts of Africa, and 
 Spain. They invaded France, and were de- 
 feated by Charles Martel 135-6 
 
 772 Charlemagne converted the Saxons by the 
 
 sword ; and had reason to complain of their . 
 contumacy 137 
 
 593—004 Gregory the Great was raised to the Ro- 
 man See ; he possessed some good and great 
 qualities, and applied himself to reform some 
 abuseH. He was charitable, zealous for the 
 propauatinn of Christianity, and the unity of 
 the Church 138-9 
 The charge against him of having burned the 
 Palatine Lil)rary is probably unfounded 139 
 
 ■- He encouraged the use, and prohibited the 
 
 worHhip, of images 139 
 He inculcated purgatory, an:I pilgrimage to 
 
 holy plncex 140 
 HiH extravagant letter to the Empress Constan- 
 tina on the bodies of the Saints and the sanc- 
 tity of their rcllcH MD-l 
 
 — Worship waH Htill celebrated by every nation 
 
 ^ in ilH own language ' Ml 
 
 Gregory JnKiiiutird rlie ranon of the MnHS, and 
 added Mplendur to the rer*'in(HiieH of the 
 Church 111 
 
 488 The tlrlc of a:rnmnnlc wnn ronferrrd bv the j 
 Emperor Maurice upon llie Pntriarcli of ( "on- 
 Ktantinoph-. (Jregorv vehemently difipiiled I 
 the propriety of the title, without claiming it 1 
 for hliiiHPlf 142! 
 GrPgory flrKf rhiirned Hie power of the Kryo for I 
 thi- nttrrrnmir of ."t. Peti r, rnther tlinh Ihi- ! 
 fMtdy of the Mi.lr.ps 112 
 The iiM' of jiajiiil i nvoyn ami advor.ilrn, unil ' 
 
 A. D. Pag, 
 
 the practice of appeal to Rome, became more 
 common during the |)ontiticate of Gregory I4i 
 — Of his claim to tiie title of Great, and the mis- 
 chief occasioned by the superstitions encour- 
 aged by him u 
 604 — 770 No character of ecclee iastical eminence 
 from Gregory to Charlemagne. But many 
 changes were silently introduced into the 
 W^estern Church, through the barbarian con- 
 quests. The East remained unaltered Ii4 
 
 The lower orders of tiie clergy were greatly 
 debased in the West. The oflice 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 14S 
 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 XI. — On the Duiscnsioiis jf the Church 
 from Constantine to Charlemagne. 
 
 311 The principal cause of the schism of the Dona- 
 tists was a disrespect shown to the Numidiaii 
 Bishops. The principle which it pleaded 
 was the invalidity of the ministry of the 
 Traditors 153 
 Constantine interfered, by fsynods, first at 
 Rome, then at Aries ; iastly, by personal in- 
 vestigation. He decided against the Dona- 
 tists, and used the secular power 155 
 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 jjersecuted. 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 Agapaj ; and became 
 celebrated by his Catholic zeal, and his 
 writings 15-1-a 
 Erasmus had drawn a parallel between Augus- 
 tin and Jerome 155 
 Some particulars relating to his private life 15(i 
 
 383 Priscillian was condemne<l on the charge of 
 Maniclieism by the Council of Snrairossa, and 
 executed at Treves, by Maximiis, four years 
 afterwards. He is generally considered as 
 the first martyr to religious dissent. It is 
 disputed what his opinions were 15(V7 
 
 390 Jovinian was ccmdenined by a Cq^incil held by 
 Ambrose, at Milan, and banished by the em 
 jMTor. He wrote agiiinst celibacy, and relig- 
 ious seclusion 159 
 
 405 Vigilantius wrote against the temples of mar- 
 tyrs, prodigies, vigils, prayers to saints, fast- 
 ing, &r. 158 
 
 412 The opinions of Celestiniis were roiidemned 
 by a Coiinril at Carllingi". Angnxtin then 
 ncciised Pelagius before twoCouncils, In Sy- 
 ria ; but he was accpiitti-d in both. Zosimus, 
 Bishop of KoMie, at first declared in his favor. 
 But iin lm|»erial «Mlicl was obtained againct 
 the heresy, AiC. l5!Ki0-«i 
 What iMtheHiilmlanreof the Pi-lnplan opinionn ; 
 and what Heem to have been the real senti- 
 menlK of Aiii/uiitin 16 
 
 42S The Semipelnginn doctrinen began to nprend 
 In Frame, and Hemi to have had earlier 
 lirevaleiice in the I'.iMl ; but they Wfreoqiinl 
 
ANALYTICAL TATTLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 1 
 
 i. ir Page 
 
 ly condemned by the Church of Rome 102 
 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 
 
 482 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 v/as 
 established by the sixth General Council at 
 Constantinople, held in 680 166 
 Some remarks favorable to the parties engaged 
 in these controversies 166 
 
 726 Leo the Isaurian attacked the worship of ima- 
 ges, established in the East before 600 167 
 And was resisted both in the East, and in Ita- 
 ly, aqd by Gregory II. ' 168 
 
 754 An aslE?mbly 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 171 
 
 794 But the Council of Francfort, under Charle- 
 magne, was much more moderate 171-2 
 
 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 Lesates of Leo the 
 Great " 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 affiiirs 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 Gentilli, and advocated by Charlemagne 
 at Aix-Ia-Chapelle, in 809 174 
 
 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 eff'ect in healing the schism 175 
 
 10S4 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 
 .—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. Pag. 
 
 The rise lof synods ; their co-operation for the 
 union of the various churches 177 
 
 The principal bond of union was the catalogue 
 of the Sacred Hooks ; and perhaps the salva- 
 tion of the Church may be ascribed to that 
 union 178 
 
 An opinion of Semler considered JVote 178 
 
 The writings of the Anteniccne 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 ]7S 
 
 The nature of those which it asserted 179 
 
 On exorcists and Diemoniacs. The words of 
 Cyprian ISO 
 
 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 ofllsrings 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, &c. 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 in Trullo 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 th« 
 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 Constantino. 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 w^eight 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 18S 
 
 The influence of the Presbytery in the govern- 
 ment of tlie diocese cradually decayed ; and 
 the authority of the Bishop rose far above the 
 inferior clergy 19€ 
 
 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 
 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 i 
 
 The Athanasian Creed, originally written in 
 
8 
 
 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 A. D Page 
 Latin, is commonly attributed to Vigilius 
 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 19.5 
 
 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 195 
 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 Ante;iicene 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 conferrea 
 773 the right was that of Charlemagne. Other 
 constitutions followed, but the payment does 
 not seem to have been commanded ' aa 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 l)y the general exorcise 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 outraee and internatinnal warfare, by 
 preserving the ancient writings, and dissem- 
 inating the imperfect education of the age 203-4 
 
 PART in. 
 
 CHtPTTR XIV. — 77ic Garrmmrnt and Projcct.s 
 of the Church duritig the .Yinth and Tenth Cen- 
 turies. 
 
 The cont^ntg of thiH chapter are divided under 
 
 three Heparatc headn : — 20o i| 
 
 I. Th(! original law (if 1'«|iaI rlertion continued 
 to the time <if Charlrm;ignr', and was n(il dis- 
 turbi'd by him. It Iteram*-, in two rfsptrrlH, 
 ofri)n»ive to the INtpcH ; thi'.y began to diH- 
 pi-nm; with tlm Imperial confirmiition uiidrr 
 (h(! ('arlovingian nrinroH, and Charles the 
 Hald ^H?:.; rrKignr-d bin right 2;)6 
 960 Otho the fireal, aO' r a long prevalence of din- 
 ordcrin the pontilirnl fli rtionii, reHumed ihd 
 privilege of ihe empire, and extended It bo 
 far fin lo appoint I'opeM liy IiIn own niitltorily 900 
 (047_r,!) 'J'he liberty of the Se<! wum gradually rr.rov- 
 rrcd, and the appolnliiipnt vnHted in the Col- 
 lege ofCnrdinnH by .Nlcholan II. 5?Cfi 
 
 Quod Ifpriiiur nrite Tiihiiln •olvailluf ' 
 
 A. D. Pag* 
 
 Remarks on the fluctuations of the contest, 
 and the causes which produced them 20ff 
 
 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 20"< 
 
 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 militarj' 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 property of the church was liable to per- 
 petual spoliation 210 
 832 etseq. 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 papal, 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 Rheims, 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 Popei 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 274 
 
 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 VI f. 215 
 
 Some French Prelates retorted the threat of ex- 
 communication against PopeGregory IV. 2!l516 
 
 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 210 
 
 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 
 gaining ground among the laity in this age 217 
 
 876 John Vlll. apiiointed 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 that 
 Bishops derived their power from tlie Pope, 
 by the exclusive convocation of councils 218-11 
 
 Chapter XV. — On the Opinions, Literature, Dis- 
 cipline, and erlcrnal Fortunes of the Church. 
 The vicissitudes of religion, during these ages, 
 in the diHereiit countries of the West, gen- 
 erally corresi)oiulod witii their literary revo- 
 lutions 219 
 A half enlightened age is more fertile in contro- 
 versies than one of perfect darkness 219 
 It is a (pHisiion whether the bodily presence 
 was universally received in the beginning of 
 the iiinlii ago 21S 
 831— 81(i I'ascliasius Radbertua oritinafed the con- 
 troversy concerning the body and blood of 
 Christ ■ JSC 
 His doctrine is exjiressed in two proiiosillons. 
 Katramn and -'"bn Scoliis were ordered by 
 CharleH the Ilald lo writi- on the same snb- 
 Jert. 'J'he controversy died away before the 
 end of this century, without any result, and 
 • reposed during th«! tenth 22C 
 848 CodesrhalcuH advanred prede-itinnrian opin- 
 lonH. which were condemned by the conncll 
 of Aliiyenre, convoked by Habanus MaiiruK. 
 Next year he waH atraln condemned b\ Hiric- 
 mnr, ileposed, llagelltiled, imprisnneM (nr life, 
 and deprived of i'hriKliiin Hepniliire t>2l-Q-? 
 fJTiO— JOWO Ilerr.ard, a 'I'liuriiigian iK-rniil, pic a< lied 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 9 
 
 A. D- Page 
 the approaching end of the world ; the opinr 
 ion generally spread and produced great com- 
 motion and mischief to society 223 
 
 gOO>-999 Letters, somewhat revived hy 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 228-7 
 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 X[I. 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 Ansgarius 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 IF. succeeded, on the recommendation 
 
 of Hildebrand 232 
 '059 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 Jii.? ter- 
 ritories as a fief of the Roman See 234 
 lOGl 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 11.— Pontificate of Grea-ory. 
 
 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 233 
 
 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 sovereign! had 
 performed the office of investiture wii h the 
 ring and crosier, symbols of a spiritual c See ; 
 this was the point ostensibly disputed 237 
 
 Henry IV. resisted Gregory's demands, ar. d the 
 Pope deposed some German prelates, and 
 menaced anathemas 237 
 
 Gregory summoned Henry to Rome, to clear 
 » •(mself from certain charges alleged by his 
 ^.jbjects 238 
 
 Henrv assembled a Synod at Worms to depose 
 the Pope 238 
 
 The Pcpe excommunicated and deposed Henry 233 
 
 A civil war in Germany followed, and a coun 
 2 
 
 A. D. 
 
 cil was appointed, in which the claims of 
 both parties were to be referred to the decis- 
 ion of the i'oiK; 239 
 
 Henry cr^ossed the Alps, and made submission 
 to the Pope at Caiiossa, and was restored to 
 comnii\nion 239 
 
 The civil wars were then renewed, and three 
 years afterwards (1080) Gregory bestowed the 
 crown on Rodulphns 239 
 
 Gregory extended liis 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 
 
 Wliat were the grounds qn which Gregory 
 founded his pretensions to this universal do- 
 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 churclies, 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 242 
 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 
 1035 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 'J46 
 
 Section IIL 
 
 1045 Berenger, Scholastic at Tours, published his 
 opposition to the doctrine afterwards called 
 Transubstantiation ; he was condemned at 
 Rome live years afterwards, and again by 
 some French councils, especially that of 
 Tours; he retracted, and immediately return- 
 ed to his opinion 
 
 He was summoned to Rome hy Nicholas II . 
 when he again retracted, and again abjurea 
 his retractation 
 1073 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 
 1088 He died in peace, at an advanced age 
 
 Gregory's moderation has occasioned a suspi- 
 cion that he shared the opinions 
 
 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 
 
 JVtite 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 Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII. 
 Chapter XVII. — From Gregory VII. to Innocent III. 
 1037 — 99 Urban II. pursued the schemes of Gregory, 
 and in 1995, he held the councils of Placentia 
 and'Clermont, and seton foot the first crusade 252-3 
 The notion of a crusade was first started by 
 iSvlvester IT., and taken up bv Gresorv VII. 
 1099— lli8 Pascal II. (like Gregory and^Urban, a 
 monk of CI ani), revived the contest with the 
 empire 
 
 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 
 
 The contest continued with Henry V. 
 
 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 255 
 
 247 
 
 248 
 
 249 
 
 253 
 
 254 
 
 254 
 
 255 
 
10 
 
 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 Pascal II. agreed to cede them, on tlie Empe- 
 ror's cediiis; the nsht of investiture. The 
 lllO ceremony of coronation was to follow ; but a 
 dispute arose in St. Peter's, and the J'ope 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 
 11^ The Investiture question was reasonably ar- 
 ranged in a council or diet held at Worms, 
 under Calixtus FI., 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 280-1 
 
 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 2G2 
 
 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 
 age 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 
 If., 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 2G5 
 
 Frrtm 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 
 aeras of theological literature ; that of the ec- 
 clesiaHtical Fathers ; that of the collectors 
 and compilers ; that of the Schoolmen 267 
 
 On the Trivium and (iuadrivium 268 
 Km 1153 jYotron St. Hernard. He founded Clair- 
 val, and, in thecourHO of his life;, about a hun- 
 dred and Hixly other monasteries 269 
 
 He wa-< very influential in establishing Inno- 
 cent II. in the diH|)iited See; and through 
 IiIh nnincniun ecclesiastical merits, he is de- 
 n<iMiinated (Ik; \:iHt of the falhers 269 
 
 In his opiniim respecting grace, he f(dlowed St. 
 AtigiHtin 270 
 1110 He entered the IImIr in public disputation against 
 AI.elard, at S»!nH ; but llu- lalU r drdijicd the. 
 controverHy, ntid a|»pe;il( (I Id the INipc 271 
 
 He w:iH a zcralouH Hupjxirter of jiapal authority 
 and ndvcirnary of licreHy. V'ariouH expren- 
 iiion? fnitn liin writingn oti both theM(' Hubjects 272-3 
 
 He likewi'<e rlmouncrd, with great indigniition, 
 the nuiiir rouH abiiweN prevaliMit in thi; Chnrrli 
 nt that period 274-.'5 
 
 On hi* niinitled good and dnngorntiM (innlitinn, 
 and the widu extent of his pcraonnl Influunco S^C 
 
 CHArTRR XVIH.— 77(r Pimtlflralnif limnr.rnt. III. 
 (II!)- P,'l<i.) 
 
 1063-110^ rotiiidfrnble improvement had been ef- 
 fer.led In the Churrh MyHteni between i',rr^{t- 
 
 A. D. Pj^-, 
 ry VII. and Innocent. Three Lateran coun- 
 cils assembled in the twelfth century 27«i 
 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 27. 
 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 276 
 His designs may be classed under four heads 278 
 
 I. The character of the Roman people, accord- 
 ing to the expressions of Luitprand, a Loni> 
 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, VVallachia, Bulgaria, 
 and Armenia 283 
 
 The resistance and final humiliation of John 
 of England 28^4 
 
 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 f(^urth Lateran Council met for the recov- 
 ery of the Holy Land, and the reformation 
 of the Church 285 
 
 The name of transiibstantiation 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 do liruys originated the sect of Petro- 
 brussians, who rejected some superstitions, 
 and advanced some errors. He was burnt in 
 n popular tumult 287 
 
 1148 Henry, from whom the Henricians were named, 
 
 was opposed by St. Hernard, and died in prison 287 
 Both these lieiesies prevailed chielly in the 
 South (It' I'ranre, as well as some others of 
 no name, aufl perhaps of no very definite 
 tenets, but professing an ajxistolical character 
 and origiti U88 
 The Cathari, or Gazari, &r., may probably have 
 descended from the Paulicians of the East, 
 and may thus have been Semi- Manicbieans ; 
 but it would Ik; absurd to rhart'e this error 
 upon all the heretics of the tweltUireiitury 288-89 
 
 1160 Peter Waldus cnmmenred his pteaching, and 
 caused houk- part of tin; Scriptures to be trans- 
 lated into the vulgar tongue: but the Vaii- 
 dolf*, or Walilenses, w»'re of earlier anri im- 
 memorial origin, though it is iniposHible tn 
 trace them to the apostolical times. The 
 opinioiiN anrribed to them 289-90 
 AlblgeoW, or AlbigenseH, was the common 
 ruimi! Sir the various heret rs of the South of 
 Franr(! al the enil of llio twell^h tcnturv 291 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 11 
 
 1017 Some persons of good condition, charged with 
 Alanicheism, and probably guilty of mysti- 
 cism, were condemned by a synod at Or- 
 leans, and burnt to death 
 
 il63 Alexander III. publislied, in a Council at 
 Tours, an edict against the heretics of Tou- 
 louse and Gascony, and afterwards attacked 
 the Catliari in liis Lateran Council 
 
 I19&-1207 Innocent III. attempted to reduce the Al- 
 bigeois, first 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 
 Simon de Montfort then led the crusade against 
 them, with barbarous success 
 
 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 
 
 I-2i6 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 
 His policy was strictly temporal. The taxation 
 of the clergy was the principal change which 
 he introduced into the economy of the Church 
 A comparison drawn between his public char- 
 acter and that of Gregory VII. is to the ad- 
 vantage of the latter 
 
 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 
 
 Section I. 
 
 250 The practice of seclusion was indigenous in 
 the East ; the testimony of Pliny the philo- 
 sopher 
 
 The original Therapeuta? or Essenes were pro- 
 bably Jews ; but in assuming Christianity 
 they may have retained their eremitical habits 
 
 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 
 250 et seq. Many flying from the persecutions of De- 
 cius and Diocletian adopted the anachoretical 
 life 
 
 The first institution of Coenobites is attributed 
 to St. Anthony, the contemporary of Atha- 
 nasius ; and Egypt was the country wherein 
 it rose 
 
 395 Cassian made his visit to the monks of Egypt. 
 They were divided into Anchorets, Cojno- 
 bites, and Sarabaites. A passage respecting 
 the first of these 
 The numerous establishments and moderate 
 discipline of the Coenobites. Thf times and 
 manner of their devition. The four objects 
 comprehended by tlieir profession. A great 
 • portion of their time was devoted to manual 
 labor 
 
 The Sarabaites are probably calumniated both 
 by Cassian and Jerome ; what they seem re- 
 ally to have been 
 360 el seq. Basil, the patriat cli of Monachism, is be- 
 lieved to have deliveied a Rule, and estab- 
 lished the obligation of a vow ; yet this is 
 not certain 
 
 . All the Fathers of that age encouraged the 
 growth of Monachism ; yet their motives 
 were not selfish nor sordid, nor such as are 
 commonly ascribed to them 
 
 The earliest form of Monachism was subject to 
 many wholesome restraints, which were first 
 weakened by Justinian 
 
 The original monks were laymen 
 
 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 
 
 The institution of nunneries is also attributed 
 to St. Anthony; hut it never attained such 
 prosperity in the East as in the West 
 
 Section II. 
 
 141—430 Monachism, said to have been introduc- 
 ed into Rome by Athanasius, was diffused 
 through the North of Italy and the South of 
 P'ran ce 
 
 The love for insular retirement, which prevail- 
 among the recluses of the liast, was imi- 
 
 Page 
 
 291 
 
 292 
 
 291 
 295 
 296 
 
 296 
 
 297 
 297 
 
 297 
 298 
 
 298 
 
 299 
 
 299 
 300 
 
 300 
 
 301 
 
 304 
 
 A. D. Paf» 
 
 tated in the Adriatic, and on the western 
 coasts of Italy 304 
 
 The general spreading of Monachism was con- 
 temporaneous with tlie barbarian conquests j 
 and those establishments were of use in pre- 
 seiving religion, and relieving individual 
 misery 305 
 
 The Rule of St. Basil was that first professed 
 in the West 305 
 529 Benedict of Niirsia instituted a new order 305 
 
 His object was excellent, and the principle of 
 his establishment beneficial in those ages 306 
 
 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; difliculties 
 offered to the introduction of novices 308-V 
 
 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 3yv 
 817 Benedict of Aniane reformed the Benedictine 
 Order, and his regulations were confirmed by 
 the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle 308 
 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 309 
 1098 The Cistertian Order was founded in its neigh- 
 borhood, and honored and advanced by St. 
 Bernard 310 
 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 311 
 1040 The distinction between monks and lay breth- 
 ren was first introduced at Vallombrosa ; and 
 it secured the corruption of the former 31] 
 
 The Abbot was originally subject to the Bish- 
 op of the Diocese ; the practice of Papal ex- 
 emption occasioned extreme relaxation of 
 discipline 3]J 
 
 The prevalence of monastic corruption was 
 acknowledged by councils held early in the 
 thirteenth century 31g 
 
 Section III 
 The order of Cations Regular, professing the 
 institution of St. Augustin, is of uncertain 
 origin. A general rule was imposed on them 
 by the Councils of Mayence and Aix-la-Cha- 
 pelle, early in the ninth age 3l!J 
 1059 They were subsequently reformed by Nicholas 
 II., and were first subjected to a vow by In- 
 nocent II. 313 
 
 Section IV. 
 The Monastic Orders 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 
 
 lO.'/O 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. Theii 
 Rule was written by St. Bernard ; their olhce 
 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 3»6 
 
 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 318 
 
 These two o 'dsrs adopted each other's charac- 
 teristics, ;ind presently became both Preach- 
 ers and both Mendicants 31C 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 k. D. r»ge 
 
 The severity of the Rule of St. Francis occasion- 
 ed many dissensions among his disciples, and 
 great insubordination in the Church 317 
 
 Tlie Dominicans were more orderly and obe- 
 dient 317 
 
 St. Dominic was not the founder of the Inqui- 
 sition 317 
 U22S-12o9 The Dominicans became learned scholas- 
 tics, and contested the theological chairs 
 with the University of Paris 318 
 
 The good proceeding from this strugsle. 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 
 12u9 Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, gave a Rule to 
 the Carmelites, confirmed in liH6 by Hono- 
 rius HI., and afterwards interpreted by In- 
 nocent IV. 319 
 
 Alexander IV. collected various Hermits into 
 one order, railed 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 Egypt, 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 Clbilcedon was moderate in the 
 
 fenalty denounced against its violation ; but 
 nnocent 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 ordf r 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 
 UV 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 
 lh«^ age and circumstances in which they 
 flourished, and the qualities required for the 
 Biipfiort of Papacy ; as were the Jesuits at a 
 later period 325-G-7 
 The Monastic system was only perj)Ptuated by 
 a puccesxion of reformations and regenera- 
 tionn 325-G 7 
 
 Rucli was the history of every order, and none 
 
 could have long HuliHistcd otherwise 327-8 
 Many advantagcH were conferred on Hoci(!ty by 
 MonachlHtn. 'I'racts of land were brought 
 lnt(» rultivalion ; liofpitality and r<!fiig(! af- 
 forded to tlic! wretched ; rhiiiity largely dis- 
 tributed ; Holriiual crjiHolai ion commonly 
 adminixK'red lo the lowtir orders ; and an 
 example wft of piety and humanity. Kdura- 
 tion was intrunted to the MntikH ; rind nmn- 
 unrript", profane and Hacri'd, were presi-rved 
 and mnliiplied by them ; ho that, if they were 
 only useful in l>ad au'rrn, then at leaMt they 
 were neeminuly the bent memberH of Hoclely 328-IR2 
 Yet tli^y were the Hteady defendern of ovrry 
 ■iiperNtltiouM aluiMe, and the Nworn enemieN 
 of all icnernl reform, 'i'hi; HyHtem of exemji 
 tlon made them firm NupporterN of the Papal 
 ■yHtrm ; and in rerompenMe, IndiiU'enren, 
 private maMwo, and many <ifllie worHt abiweii 
 of the Chnrrli t^rn- HiiHtniried, rl ielly for 
 their profit, by Pontidcal aulliorlly 332 Ml 
 
 A. D. Pi^ 
 
 Chapter XX. — From the Death of Innocent to 
 that of Boniface Fill. 
 
 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 330 
 
 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 frotn 
 that conxnenced by Gregory VII. 349 
 
 Taxes were rigidly levied by the Pope upon 
 the clergy, and a crusade was preached 
 against the Emperor 340 
 
 Innocent returned to Italy, and afler 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 312 
 
 1273 Gregory X., a pious enthusiast, was raised to 
 
 the See ; and labored earnestly, and with 
 promise of success, to excite a grand crusade 340 
 
 1274 He convoked the second Council of Lyons for 
 
 thatpurj ose, and for the reformation of the 
 Church. The canon was then enacted, which 
 itnposed severe restraints upon the conclave 314 
 
 The Pope died before the expedition set sail, 
 and it immediately disper.«ed 344 
 
 Martin IV., a Frenchman, accepted the office 
 of senator, and held it for life 345 
 1294 The circumstances of the election of Pictro Mo- 
 rone, Celestine V.; his utter incapacity ; his 
 simplicity, piety, hnmility, and good inten- 
 tion« ; his resiiination and the pontificate ; 
 ami impiisonuieiit by liis successor Boniface 
 VIII. 346-7-8 
 
 The lofty and various pretensions of Boniface ; 
 in whose reign the Papal supremacy prob'a- 
 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 Clcricis Laicos, 
 against all who should exact contributions 
 from the clergy 350 
 
 It was chiefly levelled acainst Philip of France. 
 A disjiule was the consequence, but it was 
 soon suspended 350 
 1301 Philip arrested the Bishop of Pamiern. Boni- 
 face piililishi'd Xhv bull ^usculta, Fili, de- 
 mandinu his liberation, <Scc.; and it was pub- 
 licly burnt by the King 351 
 
 Phili|)wart sui)ported by his barons. Some of 
 the clergy attended tlu! Pope's summons to 
 nHS(MMble at Home; and ninler the name of 
 tliis Counril, he jiuhlislied the bull Unnm 
 Sniirlam, asserting the unity <if the Church, 
 and the nue of the double sword 3tJ 
 1303 William of Nog:ir«'t and Sclarra Colonna sur- 
 prised the Pope at Ana(.-ni ; but offered him 
 no hodily injury. lie returned to Kome and 
 died. The rlrrunihtanceH of his lntr<'pldity, 
 and of his death 
 
 C II .\ P T K R X X I 
 
 Skction i 
 
 1215-1270 Louis IX. «)f Frnnce was one »>l th« few 
 nionnrrlis, wh > fonnileil hm imliry on relig- 
 ious roriHiderationii, and w lioNe life is thus 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 13 
 
 « D. Page 
 closely connected with ecclesiiutical history. 
 The excellence of his private morality 355 
 In what language he is characterized t)y Hume 356 
 His various legislative attempts to extend the 
 
 civilization of his subjects 356 
 Much superstiricMi was mixed with his piety; 
 exemplified in his acquisition and reception 
 of the Crown of Thorns. Jle instituted fes- 
 tivals in its honor, &c. 356 
 t 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. 
 
 1233 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 3G1 
 Beftire he setoff on his last crusade, Louis pub- 
 lished his Pragmatic Sanction. It consisted 
 of si^< articles, which were cliiefiy 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 3G2-3 
 
 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 fals'fic ai.m ; and 
 the authority which he pie 1 1 -^d in his de- 
 fence 363-4 
 1189-1291 The third crusade was that of Richard of 
 England ; tlie fifth and sixth were projected 
 by [nnocent III.; the disastrous expedition 
 and captivity of Louis in Esypt: his second 
 against Tunis may be considered as conclu- 
 ding the liistory 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 fanaticisui 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 3G9 
 
 The olijects of those wliich followed became 
 diversified by new circumstances ; tlie 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 
 
 It does not seem that the crusades produced 
 any one general advantage to Europe or to 
 Christendom, either in promoting commerce 
 or advancing the arts 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 cleriry may have been 
 augmented, but the imposition of a tax more 
 than counterbalanced that gain 374 
 
 A. D. Fact 
 
 JVotc A. On the first Decretals of the Pope 374 
 
 1151 The collection of Gratian was published j di- 
 vided into three part's ; abounding in errors 375 
 
 1210 The Roman collection was published under 
 Innocent III.j the Liber Sextus under Bo- 
 niface VHI. ; the Clementines under John 
 XXH and the Extravagants presently fol- 
 lowea 375-6 
 JVute B. The Academy of Paris first took the 
 name of University ; its classes and lectures ; 
 the four faculties 3745 
 The institution of four degrees 37G 
 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 
 JVote 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 37/ ' 
 
 1150 Petar 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, &c. 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 3gi 
 
 1311 A general council was assembled at Vienne, 
 
 with ti)ree 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 3S3 
 
 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 335-6 
 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 Xfl. made some attempts to reform 
 the Church abuses, but with no great effect 383 
 
 1313 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 3S9 
 Clement renewed the disputes with Louis, and 
 bought the city of Avignon of the Q.ueen 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 301 
 
 1376 Gregory XL finally restored the papal residence 
 to Rome ; Catharine of Sienna made an em- 
 bassy to the Court of Avignon ; hersmgular 
 fanaticism 391-1 
 
14 
 
 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 I. D. Page 
 
 Section II. 
 I On the decline of Papal power ; the Popes 
 wereeng.i!ied in continual and fruitless wars 
 in Ital}' ; tlieir 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 XXir. 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 393-399 
 
 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 ecciesiasical abuses ought to be 
 regarded by Church..ien 403 
 
 JVut.es (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 1-250, and was probably a 
 Franciscan fabrication 404 
 1390 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 Sdusm 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 N'eapolitan, 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 court ; the cardinals 
 Boon atterwardH withdrew to Anagni, and 
 annulled the election of Urban 408 
 1378 Thence retiring to F«)ndi, they there rhoso 
 
 (Sept. 20_) Robert of (;eneva, (Jlcment VI F. 409 
 
 Ah the carrlinals had previously confirmed the 
 election of Urban, a great fiartof Kurope con- 
 tinued in obedience to him ; France declar- 
 ed, on the other hanil, for CleuKUit; the 
 kingH of Scotland, (JaHtile, ntuf Arragon, the 
 countH of Savoy and (Jeneva, the duke; of 
 Austria, and otherH, finally joined the Haine 
 party 409-10 
 
 Chunent fMiabliHhed bin reHldencc at Avignon 410 
 138C The cruelly of Urban towardn Home cardinals 
 
 MUHi)crterl of having C(mM(»ired agaitiHt him 411 
 1380 Bonifare IX. xiirrecded Urban; bo appointed 
 a JiihiU-n at Rome for the year following, and 
 grantrd the Maine privilege to certain citieM 
 and lovviiH in (;erinany 412 
 1301 Tin- UniviT-'ily of I'arit began to take neriou« 
 
 iiie ixiire* for tlir lu riljiia of tin? ScliiMin 413 
 
 And (irop'iMfd, n* iiioMt likely to beefreciiial, the 
 tnctliod of (.'e^Nion 413 
 
 Clement wu iticcecded by Peter of I.ui.a, 
 
 A. D. PsfB 
 
 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 bv 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-U< 
 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 
 
 1405 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 Baltazar Cossa (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 425-36 
 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 ; Jit length he fled to Panisco- 
 la, and was then formally deposed 
 
 1417 Nov. II, 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 Martin, 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 
 JVotc on the White Penitents, &,c. Account of 
 throe descriptions of Enthusiasts, who rose 
 in the fourteenth century 432-33 
 
 CfiAi'TETi XKiy.—.^tfemptji of the Church at Self- 
 Jirfiinnation. 
 
 Manv Roman <^ath()lic diviiioH wore nnxiotis 
 for a |)artial Reformation of thiur Church ; in 
 fart, the |)rinriple of Reformation had ev- 
 er been acknowledged, and even |)raclised 
 by Churchmen. Very general complaints 
 against ecclesiastical abuses had l)«'en i«- 
 ceHsantly repeated in all countries, fiom tlin 
 dayn of St. Bernard to those of (Jerson ; but 
 tliAy were ilirecled against the Clergy, rather 
 than against the Hysleni, which was Htill 
 held sacn-d 434-37 
 
 They attacked the urandals even of the Vati- 
 can ; but did not (piestioii the inherent pow- 
 er and iiiliilllbility oftlu! Church 434-37 
 
 The alli'mplM of tin- Couik II of Pisa were nu- 
 gators ; but mi.iiic Anil piipiil priiiciph s wer» 
 broached, if not eMiabliHlied there 438 
 
 In that (if t 'owstaiuc, I'npnl delinipiences were 
 deiiouiMcd ill wry wtnuig language 4.18 
 
ANALYTICAL TABl E OF CONTENTS. 
 
 16 
 
 A. D. Page 
 1415 Jii^ue 15; A committee of Reform was appoint- 
 ed for tlie consideration of all remediable 
 abuses. Some expressions of Gerson — ' De 
 signis Ruina? Ecclesice' 439 
 14 17 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, h^ 
 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 
 1433 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. — instory of the Hussites. 
 
 1324-1384 (I.) The early reputation of Wiclif, his 
 advancement, opposition to Papacy, persecu- 
 tion and death 460-i 
 
 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 VViclif were introduced 
 into Bohemia, and propagated by John Husg ; 
 his character and early preaching at Prague 462-3 
 
 Disputes in the University ©^Prague 462-3 
 
 Huss preached against the jrusade of John 
 XXiri., and some disorders followed. John 
 cited him to Rome in vain 463-4 
 
 The tenets imputed to Iluss^and for the most 
 part disclaimed by him ; w ' opinion on the 
 nature of tithes. Ths cem. d for the resto- 
 ration of the Cup to tho not origia- 
 
 A.D. P«g» 
 ate with Huss, but with another pteacher, 
 named Jacobellus of Misnia 464 
 
 1414 The nature of the safe conduct, in faith of 
 
 which Huss presented himself at Constance 4G5 
 His own confidence and enthusiasm 4GG 
 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 469 
 
 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 470 
 
 (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 ^neas 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 474 
 1436 The compact of Iglau between Sigismond and 
 the Hussites ; the description of the Thabo- 
 rites by ^neas Sylvius 475 
 
 Continued disputes between the Popes and the 
 Calixtines ; the attempt of Paul II. to transfer 
 the crown to John Huniades 476 
 
 Many of the Hussite opinions were preserved, 
 and published by the Bohemian Brothers in 
 the following century 476 
 
 Chapter XXVI. — History of the Oreek Church 
 after its separation fronn 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- 
 lians, were an early sect of Mystics : in the 
 fourteenth century arose the Hesychasta or 
 duietists (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 difTerences 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 4S3 
 
 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 {87-8 
 
 The attempt was repeated by Innocent IV. and 
 other Pontiff's, with the same result, till the 
 second Council (1274) of Lyons, when an in- 
 sincere accommodation was eflTected and soon 
 afiervvards broken off 488-8 
 
 The same negotiations conti^uied under the 
 (\vianon Popes, and were at length renewed 
 oy Eugenius iv., who summoned the Coun- 
 
lb 
 
 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENIS. 
 
 1. D. Fage 
 cil of Fe/rara for the termination of the 
 schism 489-90 
 
 The principal parties there present ; the points 
 chiefly deb/ited ; the nature of those debates; 
 the respective opinions of the Churches on 
 purgatory ; conduct of Bessarion of Nice, and 
 Marc of Epliesus 490 
 1439 The Council was removed to Florence, and 
 after great debates a common confession of 
 faith was agreeil 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 
 tlie Union 494 
 
 Fortunate prediction of Nicholas V. 494 
 
 The violence of the Greeks continiied 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 
 
 J^Tute (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 
 lil41-51 Renewed negotiations and correspondence 
 between Armenia and Rome ; the errors then 
 charged upon the former and the extravagant 
 demands of the latter 497 
 
 ^Tole (2) on the Maronites 498 
 
 On their name and origin, and the circumstan- ■ 
 ces of their connexion with the Roman 
 Church 498 
 
 Chapter XXVU.— From the Council of Basle to 
 the beg-'inning 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 
 
 1458 itlneas Kylviua, after liaviiig been engaged in 
 
 the service both of the Emjicror and the Holy 
 Pee, was at length raised to the pontificate ; 
 the recorded circumstances of his elevation ; 
 he took the name of Pius II. 
 
 1459 June Ist. lie (.pen«!d the Council of Mantua, 
 
 and exerted hiiriself to ralHe a confederacy 
 against the Turks, but without any perma- 
 nent HurreyH 
 
 14f.O A deputation from the Princes of the East ar- 
 rived at Rome 504 
 
 ("atharine of Hienna war* ranoni/.ed by Pius II. 505 
 14C3 I'iuH If., originally the advocate of the (.'ouncil 
 of BaHb;, after having gradunlly adopted all 
 the lligli-l'a|)al priiiriplcrt, publiHhed liiH cele- 
 brated Bull of U(!trartation, condemning IiIh 
 fiirnicr actH anil expreNHionH ; IiIh profuMMud 
 and probable niotiveM 505-G 
 
 He then prepiired to conduct in perxon an ex- 
 (tedition againnt the 'i'urkH ; proceeded to 
 Anrdtia, and there died 500 
 
 H« had Hinne pointH (if reHemlilnrire, bol^ with 
 Nirhdlim V. and Cardinal Julian 507 
 
 After rdiifirming oti oath the ( 'apitiilatinn 
 drawn n|i in Cnncliive, Paul II. waH r(inno- 
 crated Ifi the ."ee, and liiiniediatelv violated 
 hiM oath ; reinarkM on lliiM<< CapiiiiiallonM A07 
 
 Paul II. turned the arniM of CorvlnuH, huu o( 
 
 502 
 
 503 
 
 504 
 
 1471 
 
 1484 
 1492 
 
 1493 
 1494 
 
 1503 
 
 513 
 
 513 
 514 
 
 514 
 514 
 
 516 
 
 516 
 516 
 
 517 
 
 1511 
 
 1512 
 
 1517 
 
 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 
 
 Sixtus IV. succeeded. The circumstances of 
 his dispute with Florence, and the obstinacy 
 with which he persisted, till Otranto was 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 
 
 Elevation and character of Innocent VIII. 610 
 
 Circumstances of the elevation of Alexander 
 VI. 510-11 
 
 Some of the earliest acts of his Pontificate 512 
 
 His overtures of alliance against Charles VIII. 
 to the Sultan Bajazet 
 
 He bestowed the newly- discovered regions on 
 the Crown of Spain. The donation was con- 
 tested by the Portuguese: on what ground 
 
 He concluded a treaty at Rome with Charles 
 VIII., and received" his homage 
 
 Zizim, brother of Bajazet, who had been the 
 Pope's prisoner, was given uptoChailts,and 
 died immediately afterwards 
 
 The Duke Valentino ; his character and pro- 
 jects 
 
 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 
 
 Pius III. was elected as his successor, and died 
 in twenty-six days 
 
 Julius II. was then raised to the See 
 
 A proof that the spiritual authority of the Pope 
 was not yet by any means disregarded, in 
 the conduct of Louis XII. of France 
 
 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 
 
 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 
 
 But Julius in defence w as obliged to convoke 
 the Fifth Lateran Council, and died the year 
 following 
 
 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 Unarn Sanctam, of Boniface VIII. 
 
 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 
 
 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- 
 tills 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 
 
 Chai'teu XXVIII. — Prrliminarics of the 
 Reformation. 
 Skction 1. — On Uie Power and Constitution cf 
 the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 I. The temporal sovereignty of the Pope was 
 never before ho exttMisivo and firm, as in the 
 beginning of the tenth century, to which re- 
 Hult JuliuH II. chielly contributed 5Q5-6 
 
 Th<! argument, by which the possession of such 
 power liv the Spiritual Chief iH defend«'d ; 
 y«'t it leil to great and necessary evilH, which 
 were reflected back u[iiin the See itself 5SM 
 
 II. The iMduresH of the Spiritinil Supremacy of 
 Rome, and the full extent to which it finallv 
 advaiued. 'J'hu UHurpation of the Church 
 patronage wan one of the chief iiiHtruin<>nIa 
 
 fur itK Hupport 527-8 
 On the Piipe'H MiHioiiN to perHonal infalli- 
 bility Ml- 521 
 On the ciMiiriifi. (piireil over the morality 
 of the Fttfi-rv w», ^«'t «P''it""l |iow(!r had 
 
 519 
 
 519 
 
 521 
 
 535 
 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 17 
 
 A. D. ^'^e 
 
 somewhat decayed before the time of Lu- 
 ther, though still strong 529 
 
 III. Attempts of the Popes, from Gregoi7 Vfl., 
 to usurp authority over Civil (Jovernments. 
 How far they were aided by the dissensions 
 and \\ eakness of the Princes themselves 530 
 
 Their political interference has been sometimes 
 used for a good purpo'je, though their princi- 
 ples were frequently worse than the ordinary 
 principles of the age 539-31 
 
 IV. On the Constitution of the Church. The 
 origin and gradual growth of the dignity and 
 power of the Cardinals. The attempts n)ade 
 in Conclave to impose obligations upon the 
 future Pontiff, which were invariably violat- 
 ed or eluded 531 
 
 The relative situation and mutual iuduence 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 raaxiois of Papal policy 534 
 
 A JVote on the nature of one branch of spiritual 
 jurisdiction, as exercised in England . 535-6 
 
 On the vicarious character assumed by tne 
 Priesthood of the Greek and lloman 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. — On the {\.) 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 tho original system of Penance 533 
 88C Penitential of Theodore of Tarsus, and various 
 abuses which crew 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 whirh was sold by Tetzel 540 
 
 TJie origin and abuse of Private Masses 541 
 
 On the practice-^ rtovving from the doctrine of 
 Transubslantiation. 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 orisin, both in 
 the Kast and in the VVest. False Miracles. 
 Abuse of Images, &c. On various Festivals, 
 and childish Dissensions. The Slvjmata 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. Pa?i 
 
 A seeming exception in favor of Cardinal XI- 
 menes, and the S|)anish Clergy 54G 
 
 Yet the Cfiurch indifferent ages has forwarded 
 in various manners the ends of morality 54G 7 
 
 The original princii)les of Monacliism 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- i 
 
 Even at the beginning of the reformation, the 
 Church was not wholly destitute of pi(ity 
 (I.) 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 Clersy, where the great 
 mass of the piety of the Cliurch 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 Churcfi 
 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 Ileal — 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 JVote 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-ff 
 
 IV. Some individual reformers of the fifteenth 
 century. John of Wesalia was condemned 
 and imprisoned, John Wesselus of Gronin- 
 gen is mentioned with very high respect by 
 Luther. An instance of his disinterestedness 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-Gl 
 
 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 his establishment 
 required ; and the moment for t »e Reforma- 
 tion was arrived 562-4 
 
 3 
 
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 hai\ 
 been entered upon rashly, and without due consideration of its difficulty. This is not the case ; 
 I am not Wind 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 dev(!lope 
 ihemselves, 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 tha interval which time may have 
 thrown between them: for time has scattered his lessons over the records df 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 affi3rds greater facility 
 to bring into relief and illustrate matters v/hich 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 naiTation 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, wl;j^t 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 
 
 L\TRODUCTION. 
 
 over external hostility. Tlie second will carry us through the age of Charlemague. Wf 
 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 ahenated from Romo. 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 1 mjst observe, 
 that, from the eighth century downwards, our attention will, for the most part, be occupied 
 by the Church of Rome, 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 anna'.s. 
 Fiom 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 strange character which it was destined to assume; Gre- 
 gory grasj)ed the materials which he found lying before him, and put them together with 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 exliibit'ed 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 repe 
 the advancing tide of reason. The concussion v/as indeed fearful ; tlie face of the Church 
 was again darkened by the blood of her martyrs, £tnd the rage of bigotry was found to be 
 more destructive than the malice of Paganism. The last division will follow the decline of 
 paj)al power, and the general decay of papal principles ; and in this more grateful ofiice, it 
 will be my most dihgent, perhaps most profitable, task, to examine the various attempts 
 which were made by the Roman Chiu'ch 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 i)icty, 
 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 sui)eradded to the 
 truth of God, as they are huinan so are they perishable ; some have fallen, and all will gi-ad- 
 ually fall, by their own weight and weakness. This reflection will serve, perhaps, to allay 
 certain aj)prehensions. From the multitude of others which suggest themselves, I shall 
 Mclect one only. The readers of this work will observe, from the experience of every age of 
 Christianity, tliat, through the failings and variety of our nature, diversity in religious opin- 
 ion is inse|)arable from religious belief ; they will observe the fruitlessness of every forcible 
 attempt to re|)reHs it; and they will also remark, that it has s(>ldom proved dangerous to the 
 happiness of soci(;ty, unless when civil authority has interfered to restrain it. The moral 
 eflect of this great historical lesson can be on(; only — uncontentious, unlimited moderation— 
 a temperate zeal to soflen the div(!rsities which we cannot possibly ])revent — a fervent dispo- 
 Hition to conciliate the passions where wc fail to convince the reason ; to exercise that for- 
 bearance which w<; sunily require ourselves, and constantly to bear in mind that in our 
 common pursuit of the same eternal object, we are aliki; imj)ede(l by the same Innnan and 
 irremediable im])erfectior)s. 
 
 • George Waddington. 
 
 Tiinily College^ Cambridge 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART 1. 
 
 FRO VI THE TIMES OF THE APOSTLES TO THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE. 
 Chapter I. — The Propagation of Christianity. 
 
 I^TSthod of treating the subject. (1.) Church of Jerusalem — Its earliest members — Death of St 
 James — Succession of Symeon — Destruction of the city by Titus— Succession to Pella — Bishops 
 of the Circumcision — Destruction of the city by Adrian — ^lia 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 Rom€ — Ireneeus — 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 29 
 
 Chapter II. — On the Numbers^ Discipline, Doctrine, and Morality of the 
 
 Primitive Church, 
 
 (1.) General view of the extent of the Church — Facility of intercourse favourable to Christianity — 
 Other circumstances — Miraculous claims of the Church — To what limits they ought to be con- 
 fined. (2.) Government of the Primitive Church — During the time of the Apostles — After their 
 Death — Deacons — Distinction of Clergy and Laity — Earhest form of Episcopal Government — 
 Independence of the first Churches — Institution of Synods — Their character and uses — The evil 
 supposed to have arisen from them — Metropolitans — Excommunication — Supposed community of 
 property — Ceremonies of religion — Feasts and fasts — Schools. (3.) Creeds — The Apostles' 
 Creed — Baptism — The Eucharist — The Agapas. (4.) Morality of the first Christians — Testimonies 
 of St. Clement — Pliny — Bardeanes — Chastity — Exposure of infants — Charity — The earliest con 
 verts among the lower orders — The progress of the faith was upwards — Testimony of Lucian in 
 history of Peregrinus — Suffering courage. ------ 38 
 
 Chapter III. — The Progress of Christianity from the year 200 a. d. till the 
 Accession of Constantine, a.d. 313. 
 
 Incipient corruption of the Church — Reasons for it — Its extent — External progress of religion in 
 Asia and in Europe — Claims, character, and prosperity of the Church of Rome — That of Alex- 
 andria. — Origen — his character — Industry — Success — Defect — The Church of Carthage — Tertul- 
 lian — His character — Heresy — Merits. — Cyprian — Government of the Church — Increase of epis- 
 copal power, or, rather, influence — Degeneracy of the Ministers of Religion exaggerated — Insti- 
 tution of inferior orders — Division of the people into Faithful and Catechumens— Corruption of 
 the sacrament of Baptism — Effect of this — The Eucharist — Dsemons — Exorcism — Alliance with 
 philosophy — Its consequences. — Pious frauds — Their origin — Excuses for such corruptions — 
 Eclectic philosophy — Ammonius Saccas — Plotinus — Porphyry — Compromise with certain philoso- 
 phers — The Millennium — The writings of the early Fathers — ^Apologies. - 49 
 
 Chapter IV. — On the Persecutions of several Roman Emperors. 
 
 Claims of Roman Paganism to the character of tolerance examined — Theory of pure Polytheism — 
 Roman policy — ^Various laws of tlie Republic — continued under the emperors — Mecaenas — Re- 
 marks- -The ten persecutions — ^how many general — That of Nero — its character— Of Domitian — 
 The grandsons of St. Jude — The epistle of Pliny to Trajan— His answer— Real object of Trajan 
 — Letter of Serenius Granianus to Hadrian — Antoninus Pius. — Marcus Antoninus — Gibbon's par- 
 tiality — Real character of this persecution compared with those preceding it — His principles and 
 knowledge, and superstition— His talents and virtues— Connection of his philosophy and 
 intoleranee — Commodus— Decius— His persecution— accounted for — its nature— Valerian — Mai 
 
22 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 tyrdom of Cyprian — Persecution of Diocletian — Its origin and motives — Influence of Pagan 
 priesthood — Progress of the persecution — Its mitigation by Constantius, and final cessation at the 
 accession of Constantine. General remarks — Unpopularity of the Christians — accounted for-«- 
 Calumnies by which they suffered — Their contempt of all false gods — Change in the character of 
 their adversaries — Philosophy — Excuses advanced for the persecutors — their futility — General 
 character of persecuting emperors — Absurd opinions on this subject — Effect of the persecutions — 
 upon the whole favourable — For what reasons. - - - 57 
 
 CHArxER V. — On the Heresies of the three first Centuries. 
 
 Meaning of the word Heresy — Charges of immorality brought against Heretics — Their treatment by 
 early Church — Number of early Heresies — Moderation of the primitive Church — Three classes ol 
 Heretics. (1.) Two kinds of Philosophy — Gnosticism — Origin and nature of that doctrine — its 
 association with Christianity — Moral practice of the Gnostics — Their martj'rs — Various forms of 
 Gnosticism — Basilides. — Carpocrates — Valentinus — Cerdo and Marcion — Tatian and the Encra- 
 tites. (2.) The Ebionites — Eusebius's account of them — Conclusions from it — The Heresy of 
 Artemon — revived by Paul of Samosata — his sentence and expulsion — how finally enforced — He- 
 resy of Praseas — Doctrines of the Church stated by TertuUian — Sabellius — his opinions — Patro- 
 passians. (3.) Simon Magus — Montanus — his preaching and success — Controversy on the Baptism 
 of Heretics — The Novatians — their schism and opinions — Conclusions respecting the general 
 character of the early Heresies, and the manner of opposing them — On the Fathers of the primi- 
 tive Church — Real importance of their writings — Shepherd of Hermas — Epistle of St. Barna- 
 bas — Ignatius — Polycarp — Clement of Rome — Respecting their doctrine — Irenseus. - G9 
 
 PART II. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE 
 
 Chapter VI. — Constantine the Great. 
 
 The Luminous Cross — Edict of Milan — Character, Conversion, Policy of Constantine — Changes in 
 the Constitution of the Church — Imperial Supremacy — Rights of the Church — Its internal Ad- 
 ministration — External — Conclusion. ....... ^ 
 
 Chapter VII. — The Avian Controversy. 
 
 Controversies among Christians accounted for — Conduct of Constantine — Alexander — Arius — 
 Council of Nice — Constantius — Athanasius — Council of Rimini — Theodosius — Council of Con- 
 stantinople — Arianism of the Barbarians— Justinian — Spain — Council of Toledo — Termination of 
 the Controversy — Observations. -------- 92 
 
 Chapter VIII. — The Decline and Fall of Paganism. 
 
 Policy of Constantine — of Julian — Designed Reformation of Paganism — Attempt to restore the Tem- 
 ple of Jerusalem — Gradual Decline of the Superstition and virtual overthrow by Thedosius 104 
 
 Chapter IX. — From the Fall of Paganism to the Death of Justinian. 
 
 Conversion of the Northern Barbarians — Superstitions of the Church — Leo the Great — Papal Ag- 
 grandizement — Justinian — his Ecclesiastical Policy — Established Laws against Heresy — Litera- 
 ture, Profane and Christian — Causes and Periods of the Decay of ritlier — Moral Condition of the 
 Clergy and People — Note on certain Fathers of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries. - 111: 
 
 Chapter X. — From the Death of Justinian to that of Charlemagne. 
 
 1. Mission of St. Austin to England — of St. Boniface to Germany — Mahomet and his Successors- 
 Victory of Charles Martel — Ciiarlemagne. 2. Grej^ory the Great — his Character — Policy — its per- 
 manent RcHults — Council of Francfort — Deposition of Childeric — Donation of Pepin — Charle- 
 magne's Liberality to the Church. ....... 133 
 
 Chapter XI. — Tfie Dissensions of the Church from Constantine to Charlemagne. 
 
 ]. Schism of the Donatists — St. Augustin. 2. Priscillian — his Opinions, and Death. Jovinian — 
 VigilantiuH — St. Jerome. 4. Pelagian Controversy — Councils of Jerusalem and Diospolis — St. 
 Augustin. f). Controversy respecting the Incarnation — Apollinaris — Nestorius — Council of Kph- 
 eHUH — Eutychf's — Second Council of K[)h<'sun — Council oi' Chalccdon — The Mnnolhclilcs — 
 (Jouncil of'^ C. I*. ('). Wor.shii) of linages — Leo the Isaurian — The Empress Irene — Seventh General 
 Council — Empress Theodora — Observations. - ... 151 
 
 Chapter XII. — Schism between the Greek and Latin Churches. 
 
 Oriffin of the Disputr — Cr)unril of ('halccdon — Title of Q^>cuinenicnl Bi8ho|)— John the Faster—' 
 Gregory the (iri-al — l'ror. ssif)n of tlw Holy Spirit — Piiotius — iiis Fortunes — Micliuel Cerularius 
 ■ Anathema by the Lc^ratcs of L<'o IX - • . 17U 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter XIII. — The Constitution of the Church as fixed by Charlemagne. 
 
 Retrospect of the Condition of the Church at preceding Periods — at the Accession of Constantine — 
 the Death of St. Gregory — the Accession of Charlemagne — The Judicial Rights of the Clergy 
 under Constantine — Justinian — Charlemagne — The false Decretals — Donation of Constantine— 
 The Revenues of the Church — their Sources and Objects. 176 
 
 PART III. 
 
 FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE TO THAT OF POPE GREGORY VH. 814-1085. 
 
 Chapter XIV. — On the Government and Projects of the Church during the 
 JYinth and Tenth Centuries. 
 
 Division of the Subject into Three Parts. (I.) Independence of Papal Election — Original Law ana 
 Practice — First Violation — Posterity of Charlemagne — Charles the JBald — Otho the Great — Henry 
 III. — Alterations under Nicholas II. — Reflections. (II.) — Encroachment of Ecclesiastical on Civil 
 Authority — Indistinct Limits of Temporal and Spiritual Power — Till the time of Charlemagne — 
 After that time — Influence of Feudal System — Kind of Authority conferred by it on the Clergy — 
 Military Service — of Church Vassals — of Clergy — latter forbidden 'by Charlemagne — Supersti- 
 tious Methods of Trial — by Hot Iron — the Cross — the Eucharist — Political offices of the Clergy — 
 Influence from Intellectual Superiority — Plunder of Church Property — Lay Impropriators — 
 Advocates — Louis le Debonnaire — his Penance — Council at Paris in 820 — Charles the Bald — Coun- 
 cil 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 Reflections — ^Robert, King of France — his Excommunication and Submission — Episcopal 
 distinct from Papal Encroachment. (III.) Internal Usurpation of the Roman See — Its Original 
 Dignity — Metropolitan Privileges — Appellant Jurisdiction of Pope- The False Decretals — Contest 
 between Gregory IV. and the French Bishops — between Adrian II. and Hincmar — Character oi 
 Hincmar — Consequence of regular Appeals to the Pope — Vicars of the Roman See — Exemption 
 of Monasteries from Episcopal Superintendence — Remarks. - - - - 20.^1 
 
 Chapter XV. — On the Opinions, Literature, Discipline, and External 
 Fortunes of the Church. 
 
 'I.) On the Eucharist — Ongmal Opinions of the Church — Doctrine of Paschasius Radbert — Com- 
 bated by Ratram and John Scotus — Conclusion of the Controversy — Predestination — Opinions and 
 Persecution of Gotteschalcus — Millennarianism in the Tenth Century — Its strange and general 
 Eflfect. (il.) Literature — Rabanus Maurus, John Scotus, Alfred — its Progress among the Saracens 
 — Spain — South of Italy — France — Rome — Pope Sylvester II. (HI-) Discipline — Conduct ot 
 Charlemagne and his Successors — St. Benedict of Aniane. Institution of Canons Regular — Epis- 
 copal election — Translations of Bishops prohibited. Pope Stephen VI. — Claudius Bishop of Turin 
 — Penitential System. (IV.) Conversion of the North of Europe — of Denmark, Sweden, Russia — of 
 Poland and Hungary — how accomplished and to what Extent — The Normans — The Turks. 219 
 
 Chapter XVI. — The Life of Gregory VII. 
 
 Division of the Subject.— Section I. From Leo IX. to the Accession of Gregory. Section IL 
 The Pontificate of Gregory. Section III. Controversy respecting Transubstantiation and Estab- 
 lishment 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 — imper- 
 fection of that Measure— Subsequent and final Regulation— Inconveniences of popular SufFrage- 
 Restriction of the Imperial Right of Confirmation — 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. 
 
 Section II.— Gregory's First Council— its two objects— to prevent (I.) Marriage or Concubinage of 
 the Clergy— (2.) Siraoniacal Sale of Benefices— On the Celibacy of the Clergy— why encouraged 
 by Popes— Leo IX.— Severity and Consequence of Gregory's Edict— Original Method of appoint- 
 ment to Benefices — Usurpations of Princes— how abused— the Question of Investiture— Ex- 
 plained— Pretext for Royal Encroachments— Original form of Consecration by the King and 
 Crown— Right usurped by Otho— State of the Question at the Accession of Gregory— 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 Allegiance— 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 Gregory'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 
 k Latere— Alliance with Matilda— his Norman allies German Rebels— Internal Administration 
 -Effect of his rigorous Measures of Reform— his grand scheme of Supremacy within the Church 
 --False Decretals— Power conferred by them on the Pope— brought into action by Gregory— Ap- 
 peals to Pope— Generally encouraged and practised— their pernicious Effects— Gregory's DoubU 
 
24 
 
 C O N T E N T S. 
 
 Scneme of Universal Dominion— Return to Narrative— Clement III. anti-Pope - Death of Rodoi- 
 phus---IIenry twice repulsed from before Rome— fifially succeeds— his Coronation by Clement— 
 the Normans restore Gregory— he follows them to Salerno and there dies— his Historical impor- 
 tance—his Character— Public— his grand principle in the Administration of the Church— Private 
 — as to Morality— as to Religion. 
 Section III.— (I.) Controversy respecting Transubstantiation— suspended in the Ninth, renewed 
 in the Eleventh Century— Character of Berenger— Council of Leo IX. — of Victor II. at Tours 
 in 1054— Condemnation and conduct of Berenger -Council of Nicholas II.— repeated Retractation 
 and relapse of Berenger— Alexander II.— Council at Rome under Gregory VII.— Extent of the 
 Concession then required from Berenger— further Requisition of the Bishops — a Second Council 
 assembled— Conduct of Gregory — Berenger again solemnly assents to the Catholic Doctrine, and 
 again returns to his own— his old Age, Remorse, and Death— Remarks on his Conduct— on the 
 Moderation of Gregory. (2.) Latin Liturgy— Gradual Disuse of Latin Language throughout Eu 
 rope — Adoption of Gothic Missal in Spain— Alfonso proposes to substitute the Roman — Decision 
 by the Judgment of God--by Combat— by Fire — doubtful Result— final Adoption of the Latin 
 Liturgy— Its introduction among the Bohemians by Gregory— Motives of the Popes — other instan 
 res of Liturgies not performed in the Vulgar Tongue — Usage of the early Christian Church. 231 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 FROM THE DEATH OF GREGORY VII. TO THAT OF BONIFACE VIII. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. Fr^om Gregory VII. io Innocent III. 
 
 (1.) Papal history — Urban II. — Council of Placentia — that of Clermont — their principal acts — The 
 Crusades — their origin and possible advantage — Pascal II. — Renewed disputes with Henry — his 
 misfortunes, private and public — his death and exhumation — Henry, his son, marches to Rome — 
 Convention with Pascal respecting the regalia — its violation — Imprisonment of the Pope — his 
 concessions — annulled by subsequent Council — Henry again at Rome — Death and character of 
 Pascal — Final arrangement of the investiture question by Calixtus II. — Observations — The first 
 Lateran (ninth general) Council — Death of Calixtus — Subsequent confusion and its causes — 
 Arnold of Brescia — his opinions, fate, and character — Adrian IV. — Frederic Barbarossa — Disputes 
 between them, and final success of the Pope — Alexander III. — his quarrel with Frederic, and 
 advantages — his talents and merits — Celestine III. — The differences between Rome and the 
 Empire — The internal dissensions at Rome on papal election — National contentions between 
 Ciiurch and State. (II.) Education and theological learning — Review of preceding ages — in Italy 
 and France — Parochial schools — Deficiency in the material — Papyrus — Parchment — Consequent 
 scarcity of MSS. — Invention of paper — Three periods of theological literature — the characteristics 
 of each — Gradual improvement in the eleventh century. .... 252 
 
 Chapter XVIII. — Pontificate of Innocent III. 
 
 Prefatory facts and observations — Circumstances under which Innocent ascended the chair — Col- 
 lection of Canons — Ccmdition of the clergy — Ecclesiastical jurisdiction — by what means extended 
 — Innocent's four leading objects — (1.) to establish and enlarge his temporal power in the city and 
 ecclesiastical states — Otfice of the Prefect — Favorable circumstance, of which Innocent avails 
 himself — his work completed by Nicholas IV. — (2.) to establish the universal pre-eminence of 
 papal over royal authority — His claims to the Empire — His dispute with Philippe Auguste of 
 France he places the kingdom under interdict — submission of Philippe — His general assertions 
 of supremacy — particular applications of them — to England and France, Navarre, Wallachia and 
 Bulgaria, Arragon and Armenia — His contest with John of England — Interdict — the Legate Pan- 
 dulpli — ilumiliation of the King — (:3.) to extend his authority within the church — Italian clergy 
 in England — his general success in influencing the jjriesthood — Power of the Episcopal Order — 
 The fourth Lateran Council. Canons on transubstantiation — on [)rivate confession — against all 
 heretics — (4.) to extinguish heresy. Tiie Petrobrussians — their author and tenets. Various other 
 sects, how resisted. The Cathari — suj)position of Mosheim and Gibbon the more probable opin- 
 ion — The Waldcnses — their history and character — error of Mosheim — Peter Waldus — his perse- 
 cution. The Albigcois or Albigenses — their residence and opinions — attacked by Innocent — St. 
 Dominic — title (jf Inquisitor — Raymond of Toulouse — holy war jinvirluul against them — Simon de 
 Montfort — resistance and massacre oi'Uw. heretics. Tiie crusade of ciiildren — Continued perse- 
 cution of the Albigeois — Death of Innocent. ...... 270 
 
 Chapter XIX. — The Ilislorij of JMonachism. 
 
 (I.) Early instance of the monastic spirit in the oast — Pliny the philosopher — The Tliernpoulm or 
 EsHencH — The AHceticH — their real cliara(Mer and origin — 'JMie earliest (Mirislian hermits — dated 
 from th«' D*'cian or I)if)clelian pcr.src.utions — (,'irnobilcH. I'achoniius and St. Anthony — originated 
 in Egypt — IJaHiliuH of ('ii-Harea — liis order and rule — his institution of a vow <piestionable — Mo- 
 naHteri<.'H (-nconraged by the fathers of tlu! fourth and tilleenth ages — from what motives — Vow 
 ofceliljacy — KeHlrictions ofadmiHHi«)n into nionantic rjrder — Original monks were hiymen — Com- 
 parative lanaliciHm f)f the east and west — Severity and discipline in the west — motives and 
 indueem»TitM to it — contrnHted witli the Oriental j)rartire — I'stablishment of nunneries in the 
 rtsiHi. (II.) Intro(ln<'tif>n ftf moniu-hi.-iin into the west — St. Athanasins— Martin ofTonrs — Most 
 ancient rule of the western monaHterieH — their probabli- pnueity and jxiverty — Benedict of Nursia 
 - bis order, and rcusonablo rule. .uhI oliject — l''oMnd:ition of Monti- Cassino — France — St Co- 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 26 
 
 lumban — Ravages of the Lombards and Danes — Reform by Benedict of Aniare — The order of 
 Cluni — its origin, rise, and reputation — its attachment to papacy and its prosperit)^ — The order of 
 Citeaux — date of its foundation — Dependent Abbey of Clairvaux — St. Bernard — its progress and 
 dechne— Order of the Chartreux." (III.) Order of St. Augustin— Rule of Chrodegangus - -Rule of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle — subsequent reforms. (IV ) Connexion between the monasteries and the Pope — 
 mutual services — The military orders— (1.) The Knights of the Hospital — origin of their institu- 
 tion — their discipline and character — (2.) Knights Templar — their origin and object— (3.) Thf. 
 Teutonic order — its establishment and prosperity. (V.) The mendicant orders — causes of their 
 rise and great progress — (1.) St. Dominic — his exertions and designs — (2.) St. Francis and his 
 ^bllowers — compared with the Dominicans — apparent assimilation — essential differences — disputes 
 of the Franciscans with the Popes, and among themselves — Inquisitorial office of the Dominicans, 
 their learning and influence — quarrels with the Doctors of Paris — Austerity of the Franciscans—- 
 The Fratricilli — (3.) The Carmelites — their professed origin — (4.) Hermits of St. Augustin— Privi- 
 leges of these four orders. (VI.) Various establishments of Nuns — their usual offices and char- 
 acter — General remarks — The three grand orders of the Western Church (suited to the ages in 
 which they severally appeared and flourished) — The Jesuits — The Monastic system one of perpet- 
 ual reformation — thus alone it survived so long — its merits and advantages — The bodily labor of 
 the Monks — their charitable and hospitable offices — real piety to be found among them — super- 
 intendence of education, and means of learning preserved by them — limits to their utility — their 
 frequent alliance with superstition — their early dependence on the Bishops — gradual exemption, 
 and final subjection to the Pope — Their profits and opulence, and means of amassing it — Luther a 
 mendicant. - 296 
 
 Chapter XX. — History of the Popes from the Death of Innocent HI. to that of 
 
 Boniface VIII. 
 
 The ardor of the Popes for Crusades — its motives and policy — Honorius III. — Frederic's vow to 
 take the cross, and procrastination — Gregory IX. — his Coronation — he excommunicates the 
 Emperor — who thus departs for Palestine — Gregory impedes his success, and invades his domin- 
 ions— their subsequent disputes — Innocent IV. — his previous friendship with Frederic — Council 
 of Lyons — Various charges urged against Frederic — Innocent deposes Frederic and appoints his 
 successor — on iiis own papal authority — Civil war in Germany — in Italy — death of Frederic — his 
 character and conduct — his rigorous Decree against Heretics — Observations — Other reasons 
 alleged to justify his deposition — this dispute compared with that between Gregory VII. and 
 Henry — Taxes levied by the Pope on the Clergy — Crusade against the Emperor — Exaltation of 
 Innocent — his visit to Italy and intrigues — his death — his qualities as a statesman — as a churchman 
 
 — expression of flie Sultan of iEgypt — Alexander IV. — Urban IV. — Clement IV. — Introducticr. 
 if Charles d'Anjou to the throne of Naples — Gregory X. — his piety, and other merits — Second 
 Council of Lyons — Vain preparations for another Crusade — Death of Gregory — Objects of Nicho- 
 las II. — Martin IV. — Senator of Rome — Nicolas IV. diligent against Heresy — Pietro di Morone 
 or Celestine V. — circumstances of his elevation — his previous life and habits — his singular inca- 
 pacity — disaffection among the higher Clergy — his discontent and meditations — his resignation — 
 Boniface VIII. — his excessive ambition and insolence — on the decline of the papal power — his 
 temporal pretensions — Sardinia, Corsica, Scotland, Hungary — Recognition of Albert King of the 
 Romans — and act of his submission — Philip the Fair — The Galilean Church — origin of its liberties 
 —St. Louis and the Pragmatic Sanction — Differences between Boniface and Philip — Bull Clericis 
 Laicos — ij;s substance and subsequent interpretation — Affairs of the Bishop of Parmiers — Bull 
 An:;culta Fill — burnt by Philip — Conduct of the French Nobles — of the Clergy — of Boniface. Bull 
 Unam Sanctam — other violent proceedings — Moderation of Philip — further insolence of the Pope 
 
 — Philip's appeal to a General Council — William of Nogaret — Personal assault on Boniface — his 
 behavior and the circumstances of his death. ...... 334 
 
 Chapter XXI. 
 
 On liouis IX. of France — his religious and ecclesiastical acts and projects — On the origin and estab- 
 lishment of the Inquisition — On some of the principal effects of the Crusades — The Pragmatic 
 Sanction, and the Liberties of the Galilean Church. - - - - - 354 
 
 PART V. 
 
 Chapter XXIL — Residence of the Popes at Avignon. 
 
 (I.) History of the Popes— Clement V.— Council of Vienne— Condemnation of the Templars— John 
 XXII. — his contest with Lewis of Bavaria — supposed heresy — Benedict XII. — Clement VI. — the 
 Jubilee— Innocent VI. — Urban V. — goes to Rome but returns to Avignon — Gregory XI. — dies at 
 Rome. (II.) General history of the Church — Dechne of papal power — Rapacity and profligacy of 
 the Court of Avignon — Attempts at Reform — Schism among the Franciscans — their disputes with 
 John XXII. and other Popes — Change in the Imperial policy— The Beghards— The Lolhards— 
 Heresy and fate of Dulcinus — The Flagellants — Conclusion. - - - 381 
 
 Chapter XXIIL — The Grand Schism of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 Turbulent election of Urban VI.— his harshness — secession of the college to Anagni.and election of 
 Clement VII. — his retreat to Avignon — division of Lurope — Boniface IX. succeeds Urban — hia 
 extraordinary avarice— Pietro di Luna (Benedict XIII.) succeeds Clement— Attempts to heal the \ 
 4 
 
26 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 schism — Boniface succeeded by Innocent VII. — he by Angelo Corrario (Gregory XII.) — his repu 
 tation — Collusion of the two pretenders — Council of Pisa — their deposition and election of Alex- 
 ander v., who is succeeded by John XXIII. — Council of Constance — escape and deposition of 
 John — Abdication of Gregor}' — Conference of Perpignan and deposition of Luna — Election of 
 Martin V. — Fate and character of Gregory — Benedict and John. ... 405 
 
 Chapter XXIV. — .Attempts of the Church at Self-Reformation. 
 
 Spirit manifested at the Council of Pisa — Testimonies of Churchmen against ecclesiastical corrup- 
 tion — extent of their complaints — Conduct of Alexander V. — Council oPConstance — Gerson — The 
 Committee of Reform — their labors — nature of the opposition — how their exertions are eluded — 
 Election of Martin V. — who succeeds in evading all efficient Reform — Real objects of the Refor- 
 mers — Remarks — Assembly of the Council of Basle — Eugenius IV. — Three objects of the Council 
 — Cardinal Julian Cesarini — Struggle between the Council and the Pope — Substance of the enact- 
 ments of the Council for Church Reform — New differences with Eugenius — Council of Ferrara 
 and Florence — Cardinal of Aries — Deposition of Eugenius — Felix V. — Confirmation of the liberties 
 of the Gallican Church — Conclusion. 434 
 
 Chapter XXV. — History of the Hussites. 
 
 VViclif — his opinions — introduced into Bohemia — John Huss — his proceedings — arrival at Constance 
 — Safe-conduct of Sigismond — Various charges and processes of the Council against him — His 
 firmness and execution — Jerome of Prague — his persecution — vascillation and final execution — 
 Remarks — Insurrection of the Bohemians — their sanguinary and prolonged contest with the 
 Church. 559 
 
 Chapter XXVI. — Historij of the Greek Church after its Separation from the Latin. 
 
 The Paulicians — their history and opinions — Various mystics — Messalians, Quietists and others — 
 Dispute on the God of Mahomet — Attempts to re-unite the two Churches — System of the Greek 
 Church — distinguished from Latin — The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem — duration and consequences 
 — Latin conquest of Constantinople — Establishment of a Roman Catholic. Church in Greece — 
 its endowments — Embassy to Nice for the re-union — its failure — other similar endeavors — faith 
 less reconciliation at Lyons — attempts renewed in the fourteenth century — Negotiations with 
 Eugenius IV. — Council of Ferrara — removed to Florence — its deliberations — Conditions and decree 
 of union — Reception of the Greek deputies on their return to Constantinople — Violence of the 
 Greeks — unabated — till the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II. - - - 477 
 
 Chapter XXVII. — History of the Popes, from JVicholas V. to Leo JSC 
 
 Nicnoiio V. — his popular character — Callixtus III. — ^JEneas Sylvius or Pius II. — his election — €.\er 
 tions against the Turks — Paul 11. — Sixtus IV. — ^riis literary pretensions — Innocent VIII. — Ro 
 derigo Borgia or Alexander VI. — consummation of papal iniquity — Pius III. — Julius II. — his war- 
 like talents, enterprise and success — Leo X. — The Lateran Council convoked by Julius and carried 
 to its conclusion by Leo. ........ 498 
 
 Chapter XXVIII. — Preliminanes of the Reformation. 
 
 (\.) A review of the decline of the papal system — in respect to its temporal power and pretensions — 
 its internal constitution — its discipline, and moral instruction and practice — its spiritual innova- 
 tions — Festivals, controversies, &c. — the mystics. (2.) On the endeavors of the Church to 
 remove its own abuses — to what limits they were confined — On the exertions of Sectarians or 
 Separatists — how early they began, and to what objects they tended — tiie treatment which they 
 jereived from the Church — Some distinguished Reformers of the fifteenth century — A particular 
 reference to tiic German Church — The conclusion of this history. - - - 524 
 
A 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 PART I. 
 
 FROM THE TIMES OF THE APOSTLES TO THE AC CESSION 
 OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 The propagation of Chnstianity. 
 
 Method of treating the subject. 1. Church of Jerusalem 
 —Its earliest members— Death of St, James— Succes- 
 sion of Symeon— Destruction of the city by Titus— Suc- 
 cession to Pella— Bishops of the Circumcision— Destruc- 
 tion of the city by Adrian— /Elia Capitolina— Second 
 succession of Bishops — Conclusion. 2. Cliurch of An- 
 tioch — Its foundation and progress — Ignatius — Theoplii- 
 lus — 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 Ron^e. 4. 
 Church of Smyrna — Polycarp — His Martyrdom — Sardis 
 — Melito— Hierapolis— Papias— Apo'ilinaris— Bithynia- 
 Testiraony of the younger Pliny. 5. Church of Athens 
 —Character of the people-Q.uadratus-Aristides-Athen- 
 ngoras — Their apologies — Other Grecian Churches. 6. 
 Church of Corinth — Character of the people— Nature 
 of their dissensions — Clemens Romanus — His Epistle — 
 Form of Government — Dionysiug 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 per- 
 secution — Extent of Romish superiority over other 
 Cliurches— Controversy respecting Easter — Conduct of 
 Victor, Bisiiop of Rome — Irenaeus — France — Church of 
 Lyons. 8. Church of Alexandria— St. Marc— Its in- 
 crease and importance — Epistle of Hadrian — Remarks 
 on it— Education of the first Christians— PantEenus- 
 Clemens Alexandrinus— The Church of Carthage. 
 
 It is our object in this chapter to state what 
 is jnaterial in the early history of such of the 
 Churches of Christ, whether founded by the 
 apostles themselves, or their companions, or 
 their immediate successors, as were permit- 
 ted to attain importance and stability during 
 the first two centuries. For this purpose we 
 have na; thouglit it necessary to describe the 
 circumstances which are detailed in the sa- 
 cred writings, and are familiar to all our 
 readers. The Churches which seem to claim 
 our principal attention are eight in number, 
 and shall be treated in the following order : 
 Jerusalem and Antioch, Ephesus and Smyr- 
 na, Athens and Corinth, Rome and Alex- 
 andria ; but our notice will be extended to 
 some others, according to their connexion 
 with these, their consequence, or local situa- 
 
 tion. It is thus that we shall gain our clear- 
 est view of the progress made by infant Chris- 
 tianity, and tlie limits within which it was 
 restrained. 
 
 1. The converts of Jerusalem natuiaily 
 formed the earliest Christian society, and for 
 a short period probably the most numerous : 
 but the Mosaic jealousy which repelled the 
 communion of the gentile world, and thus 
 occasioned some internal dissensions, as well 
 as the increasing hostility of the Jewish peo- 
 ple and government, no doubt impeded their 
 subsequent increase. The same causes ope- 
 rated, though not to the same extent, on the 
 Churches established in other parts of Pa- 
 lestine, as in Galilee and Cassarea, and even 
 on those of Tyre, Ptolemais, and Caesarea. 
 About the year 60 a. d., James, surnamed 
 the Just, brother of the Saviour, who was the 
 first President or Bishop of the Church of 
 Jerusalem, perished by a violent death ; * 
 and when its members f subsequently as- 
 
 * Le Clerc, H. E. (vol. i. p. 415) ad ann. 62, in 
 which year he places the death of St. James, and af- 
 firms that nothing is known respecting its manner. 
 The state of the question is this: Eusebius (lib. ii. 
 cap. 23), on the authority of Hegisippus (a Jew ish 
 convert who wrote under the Antonines), gives a very 
 long and circumstantial narration of the Bishop's mar- 
 tyrdom ; of the circumstances many are clearly fal)u- 
 lous, and all may be suspected; but the leading fact, 
 that St. James was killed in a tumult of the Jews, it 
 would not be safe to reject. His violent end, with 
 some variation in particulars, is confirmed by Jose- 
 plius, Antiq. p. xx. chap. 9. 
 
 t Eusebius (lib. iv. cap. 11) places the election of 
 Symeon after the destruction of Jerusalem, which ae 
 makes immediately subsequent to St. James's roar- 
 tyrdom; the Jewish rebellion probably was so. In 
 the same book (cap. 32) he relates the martyrdom of 
 Symeon during the reign of Trajan, at the age of 120 
 — again on the authority of Hegisippus. This author 
 wrote five books of ecclesiastical history. Such a 
 work, by a judicious writer of that age, would have 
 been invaluable ; but the fragments preserved to us by 
 Eusebius Dersu;>d'j us that Hegisippus was not so. 
 
30 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 scmbled for the purpose of electing his suc-i 
 cessor, tlieir choice fell on Sj^meon, who is j 
 also said to have been a kinsman of Jesus. 
 Shortly after the death of St. James, an in- 
 surrection of the Jews broke out, which was 
 followed by the mvasion of the Roman ar- 
 mies, and was not finally suppressed until 
 the year 70, when the citj^ was overwhelmed 
 by Titus, and utterly destroyed. During the 
 continuance of this war, as well as through 
 the events which concluded it, the Holy Land 
 was subjected to a variety and intensity of 
 suffering, to which no parallel can be found 
 in the records of any people.* 
 
 A short time before the Roman invasion, 
 we are informed f that the Christian Church 
 seceded from a spot which prophecy had 
 taught to hold devoted, and retired to Pella, 
 beyond the Jordan. From this circumstance 
 it becomes at least probable, that the Chris- 
 tians did not sustain their full share of the 
 calamities of their country ; but though their 
 proportion to the whole population may thus 
 have been increased, their actual numbers 
 could not fail to be somewhat diminished, 
 since they could not wholly withdraw them- 
 selves from a tempest directed indiscrimi- 
 nately against the whole nation. 
 
 During the next sixty years we read little 
 respecting the Church of Jerusalem, except 
 the names of fifteen successive presidents, 
 called * Bishops of the Circumcision ; ' four- 
 teen of these only belong to the period in 
 question, since they begin with James: and 
 they appear to end at the second destruction 
 of the city by the emperor Adrian. J But 
 the times of these successions are extremely 
 uncertain, as the first Christians had little 
 thought of posterity, § nor were any tabula- 
 laries [)reserved in their Churches, nor any 
 public acts or monuments of tiieir proceed- 
 ings. The Church over which they presided 
 
 * It iH KiiflTicicnl to refer to tlio history of Josephiis. 
 
 f EiiH(;l). lil). iv. c. 5. Lc Clerc phiccs this scccs- 
 iioii in tlio yoiir 66. Scmlcr (Kcrt. 1) fixes the bcgin- 
 ning of the Je\vi."h war in 64. 'i'he Christians prolja- 
 oly retired, nn tlie war iK'caine more «)ljstinate, and 
 idvanc(;d nearer to .leruHaleiii. 
 
 X VAm:\). lil). iv. c. 5. 
 
 § TliiH i.-* the complaint of I^e ('lerr, ad ann. l.'}5. 
 4nd in fu-t the two most prominent featnreH in (he 
 jiBtoriee of (JlirixtianM, during the three first eeiitiirieH, 
 ire their diviriion>4 and tlu'ir perHeeutioiiH. 'J'hese nul)- 
 jcctit we r*hall ex imine in Heparatc; ehaptern, and all 
 (hat ran l)<!rofifi«liMilly aHHerted on otlurr pfiintH we are 
 contented to j^li*an fr<Mn FiMsehinH and Home writernof 
 amhi;;nouM authority who are (|not(;d liy him, from the 
 apolo«{ieH, epiHtlen, and treatiHe.>< of iIk; early fath(>r«<, 
 und from a few fraymentrt of profaiu- aiiti([iiily . 
 
 seems to have perished with them; im 
 there is still reason to believe that it was not 
 numerous, and we may attribute its weak- 
 ness partly to the continued action of the 
 two causes above mentioned, and partly to 
 the absolute depopulation of the country 
 Yet it would appear from Scripture that 
 some sort of authority was at fii-st exercised 
 by the Mother Church over her Gentile 
 children; and that 'the decrees ordained by 
 the apostles and elders which were at Jeru- 
 salem ' found obedience even among distant 
 converts. 
 
 On the summit of the sacred hill, out of 
 the ruins which deformed it, Adrian erected 
 a new city, to which he gave the new and 
 Roman title of ^lia CapitoHna, * thinking 
 perhaps that he should erase from all future 
 history the hateful name of Jerusalem, or 
 that a city with a more civilized appellation 
 would be inhabited by less rebellious sul> 
 jects, or that the contumacy of the Jews was 
 associated with the name of their capital. A 
 new Church was then established, com])osed 
 no iQuger of Jews, but of Gentiles only, and 
 was governed by a new succession of bish- 
 ops, as obscure and as rapid as that which 
 we have mentioned. Their names arc also 
 transmitted to us by the diligence of Euse- 
 bius (H. E. lib. v. c. 12), but none widi any 
 distinction except Narcissus, the fifteenth in 
 order, who flourished about the year 180, 
 and of whom some traditionary miracles arc 
 recorded (Euseb. H. E. lib. vi. c. 0). 
 
 Such are the imperfect accounts which re 
 main to us respecting the early history of 
 the Churcli in Palestine ; but, imperfect as 
 they are, we are enabled to collect from 
 them that the progress of Christianity in 
 that stubborn soil was slow, and its condi- 
 tion uncertain and thwtuating. And this 
 conclusion is confiruHvl by the direct asser- 
 tion of Justin Martyr, a Samaritan prose- 
 lyte of the second century, our best nuthori- 
 
 * Ecclesiastical writers difi'er about the date of this 
 event. Semler (cent, ii.) places it in Uie year 119. 
 Flemy (liv. iii. nect. 21.) mentions ^'"ilia Capitolina 
 as existinij previous to the rehellion of Barcoclialias, 
 hntKlill as the work of Adrian. Le Clerc (ad ann. 
 119) seems to waver — (ad. ann. IJM) decidedly fixca 
 the foundation for that year, and aUrilniles the com- 
 motions of the .lews to that cause. Those conunotiotw 
 certainly liroke out in i:}2,and wi're soon (|uel!ed ; l)Ii. 
 l)((th Mosheim and BaKnaH;e (Aim. Tolit. I'ccles. A. I). 
 l.'J2, vol. ii. p. 72) consider tlx; foundation of the new 
 city to have been innnediately siihsecincnt to the rebel- 
 lion. Trobably Le Clerc is ri^dit as he admits too thai 
 ' the city was finally established in 174, after the; jnsur 
 reetion (adann. 171)— ^^<'«: M. E. lib vi. c. 6 
 
CHURCH OF ANTIOCH. 
 
 31 
 
 ty for that age and countiy, who expressly 
 assures us that the converts in Judoea and 
 Samaria were inferior, both in number and 
 fidehty, to those of the Gentiles. ' We behold 
 the desolation of Judtea, and some from every 
 race of men who believe the teaching of 
 Christ's Apostles, and have abandoned their 
 ancient customs in which they fell astray. 
 We behold ourselves, too, and we perceive 
 that the Christians among the Gentiles are 
 more numerous and more faithful than among 
 the Jews and Samaritans.' He then proceeds 
 to account for the fact, 'that none of these 
 have believed excepting some few,' by appeal 
 to the prophetic writers.* 
 
 2. From the spectacle of the infidelity and 
 devastation of Palestine, foretold by so many 
 prophecies, and truly designated by Jortin as 
 an ' event on which the fate and credit of 
 Christianity depended,' we turn to the more 
 grateful office of tracing its advance, and 
 .celebrating its success. We may consider 
 the neighboring Church of Antioch to have 
 been founded about 40 a. n.f by St. Paul 
 and St. Barnabas. It was there that the con- 
 verts first assumed the name of Christian, and 
 the first act which is recorded respecting them 
 was one of charity to their suffering brethren 
 in Judsea. In a mixed population of Greeks, 
 and natives unfettered by the prejudices of 
 Judaism, our holy faith made a rapid and 
 steady progress. In the residence of the Pre- 
 fect of Syria, under the very eye of the civil 
 government, it is probable that the infant soci- 
 ety was protected against the active hatred of 
 the Jews ; and there can be no doubt that its 
 early prosperity was greatly promoted by the 
 zeal of its second bishop, Ignatius. This 
 ardent supporter of the faith, the contempo- 
 rary, and, as we are informed, the friend 
 of some of the Apostles, presided over the 
 Church of Antioch for above thirty years, and 
 at length was led away to Rome, and perished 
 there, a willing and exulting martyr. He fell 
 in the prosecution of Trajan, in the year 107^ 
 
 * Apol. i., ch. 53. 
 
 jLe Clerc, Hist. Eccl. t. i., p. 347 (ann. 40). 
 Semler places the foundation of the Church in 39. In 
 spite of Scripture (Acts xi. 21, 22, &c.) Baronius 
 claims the honor for St. Peter, and is confuted bj Bas- 
 nage, vol. i , p. 502. (ad ann. 40). 
 
 %lL,e Clerc (Saec. Sec. ann. 116) fixes this event 
 after the earthquake in 116, which destroyed a great 
 part of the city, and was attributed by the heathen 
 priesthood to the ' impiety ' of the Christians. Pear- 
 son, Pagi, and Fabricius are of the same opinion. 
 But that of Tillemont, Du Pin and Cave, which we 
 ibllow, is more probable, and is confirmed by Lardner 
 
 I During hisjom-nev through Asia to Rome he 
 addressed epistles to some of the Christian 
 Churches, in which we may still discover the 
 animated piety of the author, through the in 
 terpolaiions with which the party zealots oi 
 after times have disfigured them. 
 
 The fourth bishop in succession fi'om 
 Ignatius was Theophilus, a learned convert 
 from paganism, more justly celebrated for his 
 books to Autolycus in defence of Christianity, 
 than for his attack on the heresies of Marcion 
 and Hermogenes. Under such guidance the 
 Church of Antioch became numerous and re- 
 spectable ; and from the ordinary course of 
 events we may reasonably infer, that the re 
 ligion which was popular in the capital of 
 Syria obtained an easy and general reception 
 throughout the province.* 
 
 A correspondence between our Saviour 
 himself and Abgarus, a prince of Edessa in 
 Mesopotamia, is delivered to us at the end of 
 the first book of Eusebius, as copied from the 
 public records of the city. The genuineness 
 of the correspondence has long ceased to find 
 any advocate, and this is probably among the 
 earliest of the many pious frauds which have 
 disgraced the history of our Church ; but the 
 existence of the forged record in the archives 
 of Edessa has never been disputed ; and, as 
 it is clearly the work of a Christian intending 
 to do honor to the founder of his religion, it 
 proves at least how early was the introduction 
 of that religion into the province of Mesopo- 
 tamia. 
 
 8. The seven Churches of Asia mentioned 
 in the Revelation are, Ephesus, Smyrna, Per- 
 gamus and Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, 
 Laodicea. Of Pergamus and Thyatira little 
 subsequent mention is made in history ; the 
 other five, and especially the two first, are 
 distinguished among the most fruitful of the 
 primitive communities. The Church of 
 Ephesus, which was founded by St. Paul and 
 governed by Timothy, was blessed by the 
 presence of St. John during the latest yeeu'S 
 of his long life. Of him it is related, on suf- 
 ficient authority, that when his infirmities no 
 longer allowed him to perform the offices of 
 religion, he continued ever to dismiss the 
 society with the parting benediction. *My 
 
 (p. ii., c. V.) But Basnage, after all, is right, when 
 he candidly places ' the year of Ignatius's deatli 
 among the obscurities of Chronology.' — Hist. Polit 
 Eccles., ann. 107, sect. 6. 
 
 * Even before his journey to Macedonia we read 
 that ' Paul wentlln-ough Sy7^ta, and Cilicia, confirm- 
 ing the churches.' — Acts xv 41. 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ciiildrcn, love one another ! ' and there is 
 nothing in the early history of this Church to 
 persuade us that the exhortation was in vain, 
 [n fact, Ignatius, during his residence at 
 Smyrna, addressed an Epistle to the Ephesi- 
 ans, hearing testimony to their evangelical 
 purity, and to the virtues of their bishop 
 Onesimus. And it is important to add, that 
 two other Epistles addressed at the same pe- 
 riod to churches at Magnesia and Tralles (or 
 Trallium), of more recent foundation, prove 
 the continued progress of our faith in those 
 regions, even after the last of the apostles had 
 been removed from it. At the end of the 
 second centmy we find that Ephesus still re- 
 mained at the head of the Asiatic churches, 
 and we observe its bishop, Polycrates, con- 
 ducting them in firm but temperate opposi- 
 Xion to the fii-st aggression of the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 4. It would appear from the Epistle 
 of Ignatius to the SmynKBans, that some in 
 that communion were tainted with heresies, 
 whi(;h ai)peared unpardonable to that zealous 
 bishop, and which perhaps might be attend- 
 ed with some danger to an infant society. 
 JJut wlien he designates those schismatics as 
 ' beasts in the shape of men,' * we may doubt 
 whether his exertions in this matter were 
 calculated to restore the union of the Church. 
 A pious bishop named Polycarp at that time 
 presided over the Church of Smyrna: he had 
 l3ecn appointed to his office by St. John, and 
 continued faithfiiily to discharge it until his 
 aged hmbs v/erc affixed to the stake by the 
 brutahty of Marcus Antoninus. 'Eighty and 
 six years have I served Christ, and he hath 
 never wronged me,' was his reply to the in- 
 quisitorial interrogations of the Roman pro- 
 consul ; and it will not be out of place here 
 to transcribe his last beautiful prayer, which 
 has reached us frotn the pen of those who 
 witnessed his martyrdom, f 
 
 *Fat!ier of thy beloved and blessed Son 
 J(,'(SUH (y'lirist, through whom w(; have know- 
 ledge of thee ; (iod of angels and powers and 
 of all creation, and of the whole family of the 
 just who live in thy pn!Henc«;! I thank thee 
 that thou hast thought ni(; worthy of this day 
 and this lioin-, that I may tak(; part in tin; 
 number of th<; rnartyrH in th(! cup of Christ 
 for the resurrerlion of (itcM'nal life, soul and 
 body, in the irieon iiptibility of the Holy Spir- 
 
 ♦I^at. Fipi»t. Srnyrn. Bcct. 4. 
 t F^i-ixtle of iIm; Ch.iicli i.f Sriiyrnu to l!i:it of IMiil- 
 orncliuin. Fiiseb. Iv. 15. 
 
 it — among wnom may I be received ai thy 
 presence to-day in full and acceptable sacri 
 fice, as thou hast prepared, foreshown, an(^ 
 fulfilled, the faithful and true God. For this, 
 and for everything, 1 praise thee, I bles? 
 thee, I glorify thee, through the eternal High 
 Priest, Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son.' The 
 martyrdom of Polycarp took place about ] (3(j 
 
 A. D.* 
 
 The Church of Sardis, whose imperfect 
 faith is rebuked by St. John, may have ju'ofit- 
 ed by the reproaches of its founder, for about 
 the year 177 a. d. , we again discover it un- 
 der the government of a learned and eloquent 
 bishop, named Melito. To this writer we are 
 indebted for the first catalogue of the books 
 of the Old Testament compiled by any Chris- 
 tian author,! and it may be useful as well as 
 curious to quote from Eusebius the titles of 
 some of his works : — ' Two Books concern- 
 ing Easter — Rules of Life of the Propliets— 
 A Discourse of the Lord's Day — Of the Na- 
 ture of Man — Of the Obedience of the Sen- 
 ses to Faith — Of Baptism — Of Tmth and 
 of Faith, and the Generation of Jesus Christ 
 — Of Prophecy — Of Hospitality — Of the 
 Devil — Of the Revelation of St. John.' And 
 least of all should we omit to mention the 
 Apology for Christianity,' J which he ad- 
 dressed to M. Antoninus. 
 
 Before we take leave of the Asiatic Church- 
 es, we must remark that the early establish- 
 ment of Christianity was not confined to the 
 shore of the iEgean, § or to places little re- 
 moved from it. Hierapolis, an important 
 city of Phrygia, contained a Christian society, 
 over which Papias presided in the beginning 
 of the second century. Papias was an Indus 
 
 *Tliis is the opinion of Du Pin, Tillcmont, Arcli- 
 Ijishop Usher, Liu'dner (p. ii. 1. 6.) and otliers. Eu- 
 sebius and Jerome also j)lace the event in the time of 
 M. Antoninus. Bishop Pearson (Op. Post Diss. 2. 
 0. 15, 16, 17,) however, argues that it took place im- 
 dcr Antoninus Pius in 148. Le Clerc advocates as 
 late a year as 169, vol p. 724— /.'JO. 
 
 f Floury, lib. iv. sect. 3, xi. IMclito \v;is, by many 
 ancient Chiistinns, accounted a prophet — in the 
 Fcnse, no doubt, of an inspired teacher. Sec Jortin. 
 Rem. Feci. Hist, book ii. part i. end. 
 
 X Fra;>nients of this are preserved by Fuscbius. II 
 F. lib. iv. c. 26. lie boldly censured the Fmperor's 
 decree against the ChristiauB, ns one * which ought 
 not to have been pronnilgated even against barbarous 
 eneinieH.' Aiul, tliercfore, he expressed a loyal doubi 
 whether if really prorrcdcd from the councils of ihe 
 Fmperor. I.e Clert: supposes the Apology to have 
 been published in ItD : Fleury (I. iv. 1.) , in 170. 
 
 § • \V ! know from rertuin (IocuuhmIs that the 
 (.liristiaii religion was firndy eslabliyhed among the 
 Anil'--, ill .•(•fDiid cfiitiirv. Sciiilrr, -■.•(•(. ii c ii 
 
CHURCH OF SMYRNA. 
 
 trious coUecior of all reported acts and say- 
 ings of the Apostles, and has been justly de- 
 signated the Father of Traditions ; he may 
 nave lx3en a feeble and credulous man, but it 
 is enough that his mere existence as Bishop 
 of Hierapolis proves the very early progress 
 of our religion towards the interior of Asia. 
 Claudius Apollhiaris was bishop of the same 
 church, in the reign of M. Antoninus, 'a 
 man of great reputation,' as says Eusebius, 
 and celebrated for his 'Apology for Christian- 
 ity,' * and his ' Books against Jews and Pa- 
 gans.' 
 
 The province of Bithynia was situated at 
 the south-western extremity of the Euxine 
 Sea. We have no record of any Apostolical 
 Church here founded ; but we are accident- 
 ally furnished with proof that, in the very be- 
 ginnmg of the second century, a great por- 
 tion of the population were Christians — proof 
 which has never been disputed, because it is 
 derived from the annals of Pagan history. 
 
 Pliny the younger, a humane and accom- 
 plished Roman, was governor of Pontus and 
 Bithynia for about eighteen months, during 
 the persecution of Trajan ; and on that sub- 
 ject, in the year 107, f a. d., he addressed to 
 die Emperor his celebrated Epistle. This 
 being justly considered as the most impor- 
 tant document remaining to us in early 
 Christian histoiy, we shall here transcribe 
 some portion of it, the more willingly as we 
 shall have occasion hereafter to refer to it. 
 
 After mentioning the difficulty of his own 
 situation, and his perplexity in what manner 
 to proceed against men charged with no other 
 crime than the name of Christian, the writer 
 proceeds as follows : — ' Others were named 
 by an informer, who at first confessed them- 
 selves Christians, and afterwards denied it ; 
 the rest said they had been Christians, but 
 had left them, some three years ago, some 
 longer, and one or more above twenty years. 
 They all worshi])ped your image, and the 
 statues of the gods ; these also reviled Christ. 
 They affirmed that the whole of their fault 
 or error lay in this — that they were wont to 
 meet together on a stated day before it was 
 light, and sing among themselves alternately 
 a hymn to Christ, as to God, and bind them- 
 selves by an oath, not to the commission of 
 any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, 
 or robbery, or adultery, never to falsify their 
 word, nor to deny a pledge committed to 
 them when called upon to return it. When 
 
 * Fleiiry, H. E. 1. iv. sect. 4. 
 tLardncr, Test, of Anc. Heathen. 
 
 S 
 
 these things were performed, it was thoir 
 custom to separate, uid then to come together 
 again to a m(;al, which they ate in common 
 without any disorder; but this they had for- 
 borne since the publication of my edict, by 
 which, according to your commands, I pro- 
 hibited assemblies. 
 
 'After receiving this account, I judged it 
 the more necessary to examine, and that by 
 torture, two maid servants, which were call 
 ed ministers ; but I have discovered nothing 
 beside a bad and excessive superstition. Sus- 
 pending, therefore, all judicial proceedings, I 
 have recourse to you for advice, for it has a[)- 
 peared to me matter highly deserving consid- 
 eration, especially upon account of the great 
 number of persons who are in danger of suf 
 fering, for many of all ages, and every rank, 
 of both sexes likewise, are accused, and will 
 be accused. Nor has the contagion of this 
 superstition seized cities only, but the lesser 
 towns also, and the open country ; neverthe- 
 less, it seems to me that it may be restrained 
 and corrected. It is certain that the temples 
 which were almost forsaken begin to be more 
 fi-equented ; and the sacred solemnities, after 
 a long intermission, are revived. Victims 
 likewise are every where bought up, where- 
 as for a time there were few purchasers. 
 Whence it is easy to imagine what numbers 
 of men might be reclaimed if pardon were 
 granted to those who repent.' 
 
 So few * and uncertain are the records left 
 to guide our inquiries through the obscure 
 period which immediately followed 'the con- 
 clusion of the labors of the Apostles, that the 
 above testimony to the numbers and virtues 
 of our forefathers in faith becomes mdeed in- 
 valuable. No history of our Church can be 
 perfect without it ; and its clear and unsus- 
 pected voice will be listened to by every can- 
 did inquirer in every age of truth and histo- 
 ry. At present our only concern is with the 
 concluding paragraphs, which show us how 
 extensively our religion was disseminated 
 within seventy-five years from the death of 
 its founder, in a province very distant from 
 its birthplace, and where no apostle had ever 
 penetrated ; and certainly it is not unfair to 
 infer that in other provinces more favorably 
 situated, and more industriously cultivated, 
 as rich a harvest may have gi-own up of faith 
 and piety, though unnoticed by the pen of 
 
 * Ecclesiaetical history discovers to us no impor- 
 tant event between the deatli of St. Peter and St 
 Paul, and that of St. John, excepting the rise of the 
 Gnostic heresy, Avhich Le Clerc places in tlie year 76 
 
34 HISTORY OF 
 
 the Roman officers, whose mere duty requir- 
 ed nothing more from them than its extirpa- 
 tion. 
 
 5. From the churches of Asia we proceed 
 to the description of those of Greece, and 
 among these our first notice shall be directed 
 to Athens. A vain, and light, anrl learned 
 city, the theatre of lively wit and loose and 
 cai-eless ridicule, the school of intellectual 
 subtlety and disputation sness, the very Pan- 
 theon of Polytheism, where the utmost efforts 
 of human genius had been exhausted to cele- 
 brate a baseless and gaudy superstition — such, 
 assuredly, was not a place where the homeli- 
 ness of the Gospel could hope to find favor. 
 More curious in the pursuit of theories than 
 in the investigation of facts, the Athenian 
 philosopher (of whatever sect) would not 
 readily embrace a faith which required him 
 to believe so much and allowed him to specu- ■ 
 late so little ; and, we may add, that he would 
 bring to the inquiiy a mind either hardened 
 by previous habits of universal skepticism, or 
 fraught with some sort of theistical notions 
 inconsistent with the truths he was called 
 upon to receive. For these, and similar rea- 
 sons, Christianity made, for some years, very 
 trifling progress at Athens. We read, indeed, 
 of a succession of bishops, beginning with Di- 
 onysius the Areopagite, the convert of St. Paul. 
 But it appears diat Quadratus, on his acces- 
 sion in Adrian's time, found the church in a 
 state verging on apostacy,* and to him, per- 
 haps, may belong the honor of restoring, if 
 we should not rather say, of establishing it. 
 After that period we find it more flourishing; 
 and we have the authority of Origen, in his 
 second book against Celsus, for believing that, 
 about the middle of the second century, the 
 Christians of Athens were eminent for their 
 piety; and their industry, if not learning, 
 is attested by the publication of three apolo- 
 gies for their faith. Two were written by 
 Quadratusf and a contem[)orary i)hiloso- 
 
 * Dionyp. apiid EuBcb. iv. 23. The age of Qiiad- 
 ratuH is wi;ll diHcusHcd hy Lc Clerc.II. E. ad ami. 121. 
 
 f T1u;ho ApologioH, certainly that of Ari.stidcH, were 
 exUint in tlie time of Fiim;hins (1. iv. c. 3) and SSt. 
 Jerome (Catal. Seript. Va:c\i'».) — See FU'iny, lih. iii. 
 lect. 22. Athena;,'oraH dediealed his Ajiolo^fy to M. 
 Aurc'iinM and L. VeruH,in the year IfiO, railing' it an 
 EinlniMHy for the ('hrinlianH.' Hee Le Clere, ad ann. 
 166 (vol. i. p. 702— 710), and I'lcnry, lib. iii. neet. -17. 
 Baylc (vie Athena^.) nientionH with Hurprixe that that 
 writer wan unknown to EiiH(<hiuH, Jeroirte, and inoMt 
 of the aneient fiithern. appear* to have held 
 
 ■ome orroneoiw opinioiiH, and in noticed hy Epi|)h;i- 
 fiiw. Ad» Miv- niirn *»4. •» M4 • 1. , 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 pher named Aristides, and were presented or 
 dedicated to Adrian. The third was publish- 
 ed several years afterwards, by another philo- 
 sopher, named Athenagoras, and is still extant. 
 
 To the Philippians an epistle was address- 
 ed by Polycarp, about 108, a. d., attesting, 
 at least, the permanency of that apostolical 
 Church ; and that that of Thessalonica had 
 also been perpetuated, and another subse- 
 quently established at Larissa, is proved by the 
 circumstance that Antoninus Pius addressed 
 copies of his 'Order of Toleration' to the 
 governors of those cities. 
 
 6. Tracing the footsteps of the apostle of 
 the Gentiles from Athens, we proceed to 
 Corinth. We still find ourselves surrounded 
 by graceful temples and statues, consecrated 
 to the deities of Paganism. We observe the 
 same elegance of opulence, the same aban- 
 ' donment to fastidious luxury, but there is this 
 difference, that the character of the people, 
 with less renown for wit, vanity, and ambi- 
 tious pretension, is even more distinguished 
 for immorality. Not so warmly attached to 
 the keen and fruitless contests of the schools, 
 the Corinthians rather sought their happiness 
 in the vulgar excitements of sensuality. It is 
 easier to remove many moral imperfections, 
 than to convince the self-sufficiency of wit. 
 And this may have been one of the reasons 
 which decided St. Paul to select Corinth as 
 his principal residence in Greece. The early 
 years of this Church are not free from re- 
 proach ; but we observe that they are distin- 
 guished rather by the spirit of dissension and 
 contumacy than by that of immorality — it 
 retained tlie vices* of the Greek character 
 after it had thrown off those of the Corinthian. 
 Cephas and ApoUos divided the very converts 
 of the apostle, and, about fifty years after- 
 wards, the disunion had so far increased as 
 to call for the friendly interference of the 
 Church of Rome. About 95, a. D.,f St. Cle- 
 ment, the bishop, addressed to them his fir^t 
 and genuine I'ipistle, which has fortunately 
 been pres(!rv(!(l to us, and is probably ihe most 
 ancient of uninspired Christian writings.! '^^^^ 
 
 * They'arc thus enumerated hy St. Clement, c. 85, 
 u()ixl(t, iirnula,'n\i-oi' Polity lQ£ig, xi(XOi[<'htai 
 TF y.(tl d6h)i, ijuOvnuTfinv Xitl xanth'tliaiy 
 
 ')( (XTTVytu, iufQIUf Ui'Ut, <xhtt,OVFlu X(tl 
 
 XI i'otio^lu. 
 
 I There are very wide dilTcrences anion^ historiaiw 
 renpcctinf,' this date. Lanhier (|)art i. ch. 2.) appctiri 
 to UH to have Keh'Cted lh(> uiohI |)rol)a1il«* opinion. 
 } I'erhapH wc should except the Epistle UHcrihed to 
 , St. MarnaliaN. 
 
CHURCH 
 
 author is related to be the same Clement 
 whom St. Paul mentions as one 'of his fellow 
 .aborers w^hose names are in the Book of 
 Life.'* The dissensions of the Corinthians 
 seem to have entirely regarded the discipline, 
 not the doctrine of the Church ; they had dis- 
 missed from the ministry certain presbyters, 
 as St. Clement asserts, undeservedly, and 
 much confusion was thus introduced. For the 
 purpose of composing it, five deputies were 
 sent from Rome, the bearers of the Epistle. 
 
 We should here observe, that the epistle is 
 written in the name of ' the Church sojourn- 
 ing at Rome,' not in that of the Roman bishop ; 
 that its character is of exhortation, not of 
 authority ; and that it is an answer to a com- 
 munication originally made by the Church 
 of Corinth. The episcopal form of govern- 
 ment was clearly not yet here established, 
 probably as being adverse to the republican 
 spirit of Greece. This spirit, naturally ex- 
 tending from political to religious affairs, may 
 have acted most strongly in the most numer- 
 ous society; and to its influence, so dangerous 
 to the concord of an infant community, we 
 may, perhaps, attribute the evils of which we 
 have spoken. At what precise moment the 
 converts of Corinth had the wisdom to dis- 
 cover that their unity in love would be better 
 secured by a stricter form of Church govern- 
 ment, we are not informed, but, about seventy 
 years after these dissensions, we find them 
 flourishing under the direction of a pious and 
 learned bishop, Dionysius. This venerable 
 person is chiefly celebrated for his seven 
 Epistles called, by Eusebius,f Catholic, — two 
 of these were addressed to the Churches of 
 Rome and Athens, two other to those in Pon- 
 tus and Bithynia, two to those of Gortyna and 
 Gnossos in Crete, and one to that at Lacedse- 
 mon. It is thus, incidentally, that we are 
 furnished with our best evidence of the grad- 
 ual growth of Christianity. From Athens 
 we proceed to Corinth, from Corinth to 
 Lacedsemon ; established in the capital, we 
 advance into the towns and villages ; and we 
 doubt not that, at that early period, the wild 
 mountaineers of Taygetus received that faith 
 which they have through so many centuries 
 50 devotedly preserved, and which is, at 
 length, confirmed to them forever. 
 
 7. In the Annals of the historian Tacitus 
 (xv. 44), after the description of a terrible fire 
 at Rome, we read with sorrow and indigna- 
 
 * ' Ancient writers, without any doubt or scruple,' 
 assert this. Lard. Cred. G. H. p. ii. 1. 2 
 tH. E. 1. iv c. 23. 
 
 Oh' ROME 35 
 
 tion the following passage : — ' To suppress the 
 common rumor, that he had himself ^et fire 
 to the city, Nero procured others to be accus- 
 ed, and inflicted exquisite punishments upon 
 those people who were held in abhorrence 
 for their crimes, and were commonly known 
 by the name of Christians. They had their 
 denomination from Christus, who, in the 
 reign of Tiberius, was put to death as a crimi- 
 nal by the procurator Pontius Pilate. This 
 pernicious superstition, though checked for 
 awhile, broke out again, and spread not 
 only over Judsea, the source of this evil, but 
 reached the city also, whither flow from all 
 quarters all things vile and shameful, and 
 where they find shelter and encouragement. 
 At first those only were apprehended who 
 confessed themselves of that sect ; afterwards 
 a vast multitude was discovered by them, all 
 of whom were condemned, not so much for 
 the crime of burning the city, as for their en- 
 mity to mankind. Their executions were so 
 contrived as to expose them to derision and 
 contempt. Some were covered over with the 
 skins of wild beasts, and torn to pieces by 
 dogs ; some were crucified ; and others 
 having been daubed over with combustible 
 materials, were set up as lights in the night 
 time, and thus burnt to death. Nero made 
 use of his own gardens as the theatre upon 
 this occasion, and also exhibited the diversions 
 of the Circus, sometimes standing in the 
 crowd as a spectator, in the habit of a char- 
 rioteer, at others driving a chariot himself, 
 till at length these men, though really crimi- 
 nal and deserving exemplary punishment, 
 began to be commiserated, as people who 
 were destroyed, not out of regard to the 
 public welfare, but only to gratify the cruelty 
 of one man.' This passage, which will scarce- 
 ly be deemed creditable to the philosophy of 
 its author even by those who most extol it, 
 and which is most deeply disgraceful to his 
 historical accuracy, to his political know- 
 ledge, and to his common humanity, was 
 written at the end of the first century, about 
 thirty-six years after the persecution* Avhich 
 it so vividly describes. It was in the midst 
 
 * That event is placed in the year 64, by a general 
 consent of Christian antiquity. It is also commonly 
 agreed, that St. Peter, as well as St. Paul, suffered mar- 
 tyrdom under Nero. (Euseb. 1. ii. c. 25, on the au- 
 thority of Caius an Ecclesiastic, and Dionys. Epist. 
 to Romans.) But there are diflerences as to the exact 
 time of that suffering. Le Clerc (vol. i. p. 447, A. D. 
 68) places it at the end of Nero's reign in the year 68 ; 
 but the general opinion refers it to the persecution. 
 The doubt as to fact rests rather on the martyrdoia 
 
S6 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 tf this awful scene, that St. Peter and St. i 
 Paul * are believed to have suffered. We ! 
 shall not pause to investigate very deeply the 
 a-uth of this opinion, but rather confine our | 
 attention to the testimony here afforded as to | 
 the number of Christians existing at Rome i 
 even at that very early period. ' A vast mul- 
 titude was discovered' by the eye of persecu- 
 tion, and the compassion excited by their suf- 
 ferings would naturally awaken an attention, 
 which had never before been directed to 
 them. The assault of Nero was furious and 
 probably transient ; and such is precisely the 
 method of aggression, which fails not in the 
 end to multiply its objects ; and if it be thus 
 probable that, before the end of the first cen- 
 tury, the Church of Rome surpassed every 
 other in power and consideration, we may 
 rest assured that these were rather augment- 
 ed than diminished during the century fol- 
 lowing. To this belief we are persuaded, 
 pardy by the greater facility of conversion of- 
 fered by the size of the city, and the number 
 of the inhabitants ; partly by consideration 
 that the force of opinion would naturally lead 
 the feeble Christian societies throughout the 
 empire to look for counsel and protection to 
 the capital, as we know the Church of Co- 
 rinth to have done ; and pardy by the fact, 
 that frequent pecuniary contributions were 
 transmitted by the faithful at Rome, to their 
 less fortunate brethren in the provinces.-} In 
 this, then, consisted the original superiority 
 of Rome ; in numbers, in opinion, in wealth : 
 to these limits it was entirely confined, and 
 
 of St. Peter than of St. Paul, but the authority appears 
 to lis sufficient historically to establish the violent end 
 of both. 
 
 ♦Eusebius asserts tliat these two apostles wore joint 
 founders of the church of Rome, and thus the order 
 of their three immediate successors has been most 
 warmly disputed. The difficulty is not removed by 
 the suppot-ition that the Church was originally divided, 
 — one apostle (or bishop) presiding over the Jewish, 
 the other over the Gentile converts. According to 
 tliis distribution, St. Peter, of course, had the charge 
 of the former. 
 
 t DionyHius, liinhop of Corinth, thu.H addresses the 
 Roman Church, about the year 156 : — ' This is your 
 cujilom from the In-ginnnig lo confi.-r benefits on all 
 brethren, and to nend reli(;f to various churches in 
 CTcry city. Hy which means, while you assist iIk; indi- 
 gent, and siiMfain the brethren who arc in the mines, 
 and while you contimi.-illy persist in such donations, 
 you pri'Hcrvc the national custom of Romans — that 
 which your cxc«'llent Bi.shop Soter has ev(Mi carri(!d 
 further than usual by making grmerous donations to the 
 SaintK, and edifying by ex. elUmt discourse (as a lov- 
 ing father his children) the ln<'thren, who visit him 
 from abroad '-— Ivixeb Mb. iv , c. 23 
 
 it was not until quite the conclusion of the 
 second century that we heai' of any claim to 
 authority. 
 
 The circumstances of that claim arose from 
 a very early difference in the Church respect- 
 ing the celebration of Easter. It was short- 
 ly this : the Christians of Lesser Asia observ- 
 ed the feast at which the Paschal lamb was 
 distributed, in memory of the Last Supper, at 
 the same time at which the Jews celebrat 'd 
 their passover; that is, on the 14th day of tl.*; 
 first Jewish month; and three days afterwards 
 they commemorated the resurrection, with 
 out reg^ird to the day of the week. The 
 western churches confined the anniversary of 
 the resurrection to the first day of the week, 
 and kept their Paschal feast on the night 
 preceding it. Hence arose some inconveni- 
 ences ; and we find that Polycarp had visited 
 Rome about 100, a. d. for the purpose of ar- 
 ranging the controversy.* He was not per- 
 manently successful ; and about ninety years 
 afterwards (a. d. 196, Fleury, 1. iv. c. 44), Vic- 
 tor, Bishop of Rome, addressed to the Asiat- 
 ics an express order to conform to the practice 
 of Rome. They convoked a numerous synod, 
 whose feelings of independence, and disdain 
 of the assumed authority of the Roman, wero 
 temperately expressed in the answer of Poly- 
 crates, Bishop of Ephesus.f The insolence 
 of Victor was irritated by the refusal, and 
 he published an edict of excommunication 
 against the churches of Asia. This was the 
 first aggression of a Roman bishop on the 
 tranquillity of the Church of Christ ; and we 
 may reasonably believe th .\t it was disapprov- 
 ed by the best Christians of the West, since 
 we know that it provoked the remonstrance 
 of Irena)us, Bishop of Lyons. The churches 
 of Palestine and Alexandria | appear to have 
 united with those of Asia in an affair so high- 
 ly inflamed by the arrogance of Victor, that 
 it advanced from a controversy to a' schism, 
 which was not finally healed till the Council 
 of Nice in :i25. 
 
 ♦Euseb. H. E. lib. v.,c. 23. See Tillcm. vol 
 iii. p. 102, &c. 
 
 t It contains these words : — *I, my Incthren, who 
 have lived five and sixty years in the Lord, who have 
 conversed with my brethren disp(>rsed over the whole 
 world, who had read through the whole Scriptures, am 
 nothing moved by the terrors (of exconmumiral ion) 
 which are held over us. For I know that it has been 
 said by those whoarefar my superiors, that it is better 
 to obey (jlod than man.' — Sec LeClerc, vol. i. p. 800 
 
 4. Eus<!b. v., 23 and 2.'j. 'Vhv. church of Alexand- 
 ria agreed with that of Rome on the rights of the 
 question, but opposed the overbearing inaolcnce with 
 which they werir asserted. 
 
CHURCH OF 
 
 Our earliest knowledge of the existence of 
 Christianity in France is derived frqm its ca- 
 lamities. During the persecution of Marcus 
 Antoninus, the churches of Vienne and Ly- 
 ons sent a relation of their sufferings to those 
 of Asia and Phrygia, which is by some as- 
 cribed to the pen of Irenseus. It is written 
 with simplicity and beauty, and is one of the 
 most affecting passages in the ancient history 
 of Christianity. Pothinus, the bishop,, with 
 several others, underwent the last infliction ; 
 still we have not reason to believe that the 
 rehgion was at that time, (a. d. 177,) * widely 
 diffused in the country; probably, indeed, 
 the same Pothinus first introduced it from 
 the East, f Irenseus, the learned and zeai- 
 ous combatant of heresy, succeeded to the 
 dangerous eminence of Pothinus, and under 
 his prolonged and vigilant protection Chris- 
 tianity took deep root, and finally fixed itself 
 in the soil of France. According to the best 
 authorities, he died in the year 202. J 
 
 8. It was an early belief that St. Mark first 
 preached his gospel at Alexandria, and found- 
 ed churches there ; and he is expressly men- 
 tioned by Eusebius, § as the first bishop of 
 that city The same writer asserts that a 
 multitude of converts, both men and women, 
 listened to his instructions, from their very 
 first deliveiy. The evidence which he brings 
 for this fact is not quite conclusive, but other 
 circumstances render it highly probable. The 
 population of Alexandria was very numerous, 
 and composed of every variety of race and 
 superstition — so that no general prejudice 
 against the introduction of a new religion 
 could exist there; it was commercial, and 
 therefore enlightened; and it was also re- 
 markable for the ardor with which it culti- 
 vated every branch of literature, || the facility 
 
 * Le Clerc places that event seven years earlier. 
 
 t Dupin, H. E., vol. i. p. 32. 
 
 X That he died a martyr is the common belief ; but 
 as the fact is not mentioned either by Tertullian or 
 Eu?ebius, we may be allowed to suspect it, though as- 
 serted by Tillemont, vol. iii. p. 94. 
 
 § H. E. L ii. c. 16 and 24. St. Luke is also be- 
 lieved to have visited this city, and the Acts of the 
 Apostles to ha\'e been written and thence diffused over 
 the Christian world. Semler, c. i. ch. 5. 
 
 II Le Clerc, (H. E. ann. 129,) thinks it possible that 
 Adrian was deceived by informers, who mistook the 
 Gnostics, many sects of whom were then found at 
 Alexandria, for the Orthodox Christians. But this 
 supposition is not necessary ; the very style of the pas- 
 Fage argues inaccuracy and exaggeration, If not indif- 
 ference. The Emperor erected a number of temples, 
 without statues, which he intended, no doubt, to be 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 37 
 
 with ''Yhich it admitted and reconciled philo 
 sophical tenets the most dissimilar, and the 
 freedom which it indulged to every novelty 
 of truth or speculation. Again, through the 
 number of Jews originally established there 
 at the foundation of the city, and continu- 
 ally increased by their domestic calamities: 
 through the moderation * and even liberality 
 of those Jews, as compared to their brethren 
 in other countries, and especially through the 
 Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, 
 which was there chiefly circulated, anc' 
 studied by the learned of every sect, the 
 knowledge of the true God was more gener- 
 ally diffused in x^lexandria than in any other 
 Gentile city, and the minds of men in some 
 degree prepared to receive the second Cove- 
 nant. We do not pretend to assert that they 
 received it in entire purity, or with a perfect 
 comprehension of its true character and ines- 
 timable advantages; but we doubt not that 
 a vast number believed and were baptised, 
 and constituted, under the holy guidance of 
 the Evangelist and his successors, a respecta- 
 ble and powerful community. St. Mark was 
 succeeded by Anianus, and the Latin names 
 of many of the following bishops persuade 
 us that the same alliance and continued in 
 tercourse subsisted between the ecclesiastical, 
 as between the civil, governments of Rome 
 and Alexandria. 
 
 Vopiscus, an historian who flourished about 
 300, A. D., has preserved a letter, written by 
 the Emperor Adrian in the year 134, imme- 
 diately after his visit to Alexandria. Its con- 
 tents are nearly as follows : — ' I have found 
 Egypt in every quarter fickle and inconstant 
 — the worshippers of Serapis are Christians, 
 and those are devoted to Serapis who call 
 themselves Christian Bishops. There is no 
 ruler of the synagogue, no Samaritan, no 
 presbyter of the Christians, no mathematician, 
 no soothsayer, no anointer; even the patri- 
 arch himself, should he come into Egypt, is 
 compelled by some to worship Serapis, by 
 others Christ — a most seditious and turbulent 
 sort of men. However, the city is rich and 
 populous. . . . They have one God : him 
 the Christians, him the Jews, him all the Gen- 
 tile people worship.' We need not be sur- 
 prised or offended by the insolent levity with 
 
 consecrated to himself Hence, some afterwards 
 imagined that they were built for the Christians, but 
 with little reason. Lampridlus, Vit. Alex. Ser. ch. 
 xlili. Eusebius, however, (Prep. lib. iv. c. 17,) as- 
 sures us that It was particularly in the reign of Adrian 
 that Revelation made progress. 
 * See note IT, p. 17. 
 
38 HISTORY OF 
 
 which the profligate imperial philosopher 
 places the religion of Serapis on a level with 
 that of Christ, while, through the numerous 
 misrepresentations so obvious in these sen- 
 tences, one important truth may be descried. 
 They manifestly prove, that, within a hundred 
 yeai*? from the resurrection of Christ, his 
 worshippers formed at least an important part 
 of the inhabitants of the second city of the 
 empire ; and, perhaps, it is not unfair from 
 this record to conclude, that they were as 
 numerous as those who remained attached to 
 the indigenous superstitions. 
 
 There is another circumstance which in 
 creases the importance we should attach to 
 the early prosperity of the Alexandrian 
 Church. Before the birth of Christ, a very 
 great proportion of the learning of the East- 
 ern world had been transferred from the 
 schools of Greece to those of Alexandria. 
 Not that Athens was entirely abandoned by 
 disputants, or even by philosophers ; but the 
 uncertain renown which it still maintained 
 was surpassed by the splendid institutions of 
 a city, whose literary triumph was preceded, 
 and perhaps occasioned, by its commercial 
 superiority. The early Chi-istians felt the ne- 
 cessity of education, though they differed as 
 to its proper limits and object. We are told 
 that St. John erected a school at Ephesus, 
 and Polycarp at Smyrna, ind even that St. 
 lyiark originally establishei\ the Catechetical 
 School at Alexandria.* There can be no 
 douVjt that these schools, by whomsoever 
 established, were useful in the propagation 
 of religion ; but it was long before any of 
 them produced any persons of great literary 
 merit. Panta:'nus a convert from stoicism, 
 who flourished about 180, a. d., directed and 
 adorned for several years that of Alexandria. 
 He resigned his office in 190, in order more ef- 
 fectually to serve his religion as a missionary. 
 His exertions were directed, with what success 
 we know not, to the higher regions of the 
 Nile.f He was succeeded by Clemens, com- 
 monly called the Alexandrian, and Clemens 
 
 ♦ SchinitliuH do Scliol. Cufoch. Alex: Jcroin. dc Vir. 
 illn«t. c. 36. 
 
 t From EiiHob. II. E. 1. v. c. 10, and Orig. F|)i.st. 
 I. vi. c, 19, Clc;ro infcrrf tli:it I'antii'iiiiH roHUincd 
 i liii MclioliLMtic offuc. after IiIh return from Ktlii<)|)i!i, 
 
 (India,) vol. i. p. 757, (ad ann. 17.9.) Lardner fixes 
 the earlicHt date of IiIh return in 192, (p. ii. c. 21.) 
 St. Jerome, (de Vir. Ill.r. .36,) relalen that rnnla nuM 
 fuiind, ' tliat the A|)OHllr; Bartholomew had already 
 preaehed in tho»e ret^ionn the romin<f of JeniiH ChriHt, 
 BcrordinK to the <J«fHpel of St. Mattliew, wliirh he 
 brought back to Alexandria, written in Hebrew.' 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 j by the celebrated Origen, whose fame, howev- 
 j er, belongs to the third century. Tt is only 
 : necessary here to obsei-ve, that these learned 
 Christians being tinctured with certain ph'- 
 losophical notions which they were desu-ous 
 to reconcile with the Gospel, and influenced 
 by the society of those professing them, have 
 very frequently distorted and discolored the 
 features of then' religion. 
 
 At. the end of the second centuiy, the 
 Church of Carthage was already growing in- 
 to eminence : but we shall not at present do 
 more than notice its existence. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 On the J^umhers, Discipline^ Doctrine^ and 
 Morality of the Primitive Church. 
 
 1. General view of the extent of the Church— Facility oi 
 intercourse favorable to Christianity — Other circum- 
 stances — Miraculous claims of the Church — To what 
 limits they ought to be confined. 2. Government of 
 the Primitive Church— During the time of the Apostles 
 — After their Death — Deacons — Distinction of Clergy 
 and Laity — Earliest form of Episcopal Government — 
 Independence of the first Churches — Institution ol 
 Synods— Their character and uses— The evil supposed 
 to have arisen from them— Metropolitans— Excommu- 
 nicition — Supposed community of property — Ceremo- 
 nies of religion— Feasts and Fasts— Schools. 3. Creeds 
 — The Apostles' Creed — Baptism — The Eucharist — Tlie 
 Agapae. 4. Morality of the first Christians— Testimo- 
 nies of St. Clement — Pliny — Bardesanes — Chastity — 
 Exposure of infants — Charity — The earliest converts 
 among the lower orders — The progress of the faith was 
 upwards— Testimony of Lucian in history of Peregri- 
 nus — Suffering courage. 
 
 1. From a review of the preceding chapter, 
 we find that before the year 200, a. d., the 
 religion of Christ had penetrated into most 
 of the provinces of the Roman empire, and 
 was very widely diflused in many. By one 
 of those dispositions in the scheme of Divine 
 Providence, which it is not given us perfectly 
 to comprehend, the ])eople to which the faith 
 was immediati^ly addressed, was that which 
 was most r(;liirtant to receive ii ; indeed, its 
 earliest and bitterest enemies,* wherever it 
 
 ♦ Less so, however, at Alexandria than in (Greece 
 and Asia, which we may attribute, not bo much to 
 any {general disposition in tiiat people lo engraft for 
 ei};n snperstilion.s on their national worHhip, (See i)r 
 Ihn toii, Hamp. Lect. iii.,) as to the fact, that the 
 Alexandrian Jews wore much more enlightened by 
 (>reek literature and Platonic philosophy tiian the 
 rest of their race. It wafl also another and principal 
 cauHO of tlieir greater moderation, liiat they had been 
 allowed to build for themsc^lves a tenipK; at Ueontoj)o- 
 lin, near AK-xandria, which (ended to di.scounect them 
 from Jcriualeni, and ihuM ^ wAeu iJieir jirejiidicoi. 
 
EXTENT OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 3S 
 
 presented itself, were Jews ; * but heaven pro- 
 tected its weakness, and proved its legitima- 
 cy, and avenged its sufferings, by executing 
 on its first persecutor the severest chastise- 
 ment ever inflicted on any nation. 
 
 During the few first years of Christianity, 
 he most flourishing Church was, undoubted- 
 ly, that of Antioch ; until, in the wider pro- 
 gress of the Gospel, it was surpassed by the 
 superior populousness of Rome and Alexan- 
 dria. 
 
 From Syria to the shores of the Black Sea, 
 throughout the rich provinces of Asia Minor, 
 Cilicia, Phrygia, Galatia, Pontus, Bithynia, 
 and along the whole coast of the iEgean Sea, 
 a considerable proportion of the inhabitants 
 were Christians, and we find their establish- 
 ment in all the leading cities of Greece. 
 From the cities, in each instance, the religion 
 was silently derived and distributed among 
 the surrounding towns and villages and ham- 
 lets, purifying morality, and infusing hope 
 and happiness ; and thus every Church was 
 surrounded by a little circle of believers, 
 which gradually enlarged, according to the 
 zeal and wisdom which animated the centre. 
 
 The earliest converts were to be found 
 chiefly among the middling and lower class- 
 es, which will account as well for their num- 
 bers as for their obscurity, and the little men- 
 tion that is made of them by contemporary 
 writers. 
 
 We shall not enter into any elaborate con- 
 sideration of the various human causes which 
 may have facilitated the progress of our reli- 
 gion,! i^or of the many impediments which 
 have been opposed to it. Instances of both 
 will frequently present themselves in the 
 course of this histoiy, and some of the former 
 in the present chapter. It would neither be 
 wise nor consistent to deny their existence, or 
 to assert that Providence, which condescends 
 to effect its other earthly purposes by the 
 agency of man, has wholly neglected such 
 means in effecting its great purpose, the pro- 
 pagation of Christianity. 
 
 A very general facility of intercourse, ren- 
 dered still easier by the diffusion of the 
 Greek language through the Eastern provin- 
 
 *Mosh. Gen. Hist. cent. i. p. i. ch. 5. 
 
 t Le Clerc, (ad ann. 102-3,) ascribes the rapid pro- 
 pagation of Christianity during the second century to 
 four causes : (1.) some remaining miracles performed ' 
 by the last disciples of the Apostles : (2.) open con- 
 futation of heathenism by Christian apologists ; (3.) 
 the constancy of the martyrs ; (4.) the morals of the 
 Christians. Others might be added, but these were 
 unquestionably among the principal. 
 
 ces, and by the knowledge of the Latin, 
 which was universal in the West, prevailed 
 throughout the Roman Empire ; for the con- 
 querors well knew that without great rapirli- 
 ty of communication by sea and by land, so 
 vast a compound of discordant materials 
 could not long be held together in one mass. 
 This was the most beneficial result of their 
 political speculations; and hence proceeded 
 their great diligence in the formation of 
 roads and the construction of bridges. The 
 means which were intended to advance the 
 progress of armies, and perpetuate the dura- 
 tion of slavery, were also converted to the 
 more honorable purposes of commerce and 
 civilisation ; and more than that, they were 
 made serviceable to an end which was least 
 of all contemplated by their authors, when 
 they became instrumental in the dissemina- * 
 tion of Christianity. But they speedily be- 
 came so ; and it was thus that the weak were 
 enabled to obtain support from the more pow- 
 erful, the poor from the more wealthy, the ig- 
 norant from the more enlightened brethren ; 
 that the churches in distant provinces could 
 maintain an easy and rapid intercourse ; that 
 the East could send missionaries to the 
 West ; and the more recent converts hold 
 fearless correspondence with the establish- 
 ments of the Apostles.* The devoted zeal of 
 the primitive missionaries, the pure and aus- 
 tere morals of their converts, and the union 
 and discipline of the Church, are universally 
 admitted. By these and similar considera- 
 tions we are led to believe, that, at least 
 throughout the Eastern provinces of the em- 
 pire, in Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, 
 a respectable proportion of the people were 
 Christians, even before the end of the second 
 century ; f and there is strong reason for sup- 
 posing our religion to have been already so 
 firmly rooted in those parts, that its extirpa- 
 tion by any domestic persecutor would even 
 then have been wholly impossible. This, at 
 least, is our opinion ; if true, it is an impor- 
 tant service to have established it from the 
 fair examination of such imperfect records as 
 
 * As in the case of the Church of Lyons, which 
 seems to have been established by a Greek missionary, 
 Pothinus, and continued in correspondence with the 
 Churches of Asia. 
 
 t The great number of councils assembled about 
 the years 195 and 196, on the controversy about 
 Easter, proves, as Tillemont, (vol. iii. p. 11-1.) ob- 
 serves, the tranquillity of the Church ; it proves also 
 its prosperity ; and the autliority of T ertuUiaa has 
 persuaded that historian that the Christians formed 
 at that time almost the majority of the inhabitants. 
 
40 HISTORY OF 
 
 remain to us ; for infidel writers are fond of 
 insinuating that Christianity emanated from 
 the court of Constantine, and had nowhere 
 assumed any permanent or consistent form 
 until its character was fixed and its stability 
 decided by the policy of an emperor. 
 
 Miraculous claims. In order to rest on 
 ground which will not be disputed, we have 
 been contented to seek our proofs of the early 
 strength and security of Christianity in the 
 ordinaiy records of history, made probable 
 by natural circumstances and human opera- 
 tion. But we should treat the subject hnper- 
 fectly if we were to make no mention of those 
 higher powers which have been so generally 
 claimed for the primitive Church, not mere- 
 ly through the interposition of Divine Provi- 
 dence at such moments as seemed fit to His 
 omniscience, but as a gift confided by the 
 Most High to the uncertain discretion of his 
 ministers on earth, and placed through a 
 succession of ages, at theu* uncontrolled dis- 
 position. The chain of historical evidence 
 on which this claim rests is continued from 
 the days of St. Irenaeus to those of St. Ber- 
 rard, (and even much later,) with much uni- 
 tormity of confident assertion and glaring 
 improbability; it is interwoven in insepara- 
 ble folds throughout the whole mass of eccle- 
 siastical records, and the links which compose 
 it so strongly resemble each other both in 
 material and manufacture, that it appears 
 absolutely impossible to break the succession, 
 or to distinguish which of the portions were 
 fabricated by the wisdom of God, which by 
 the impiety of man.* Various writers have 
 assigned various periods to the cessation of 
 supernatural aids; but they a[)pear for the- 
 most part to have been rather guided by their 
 own views of probability, than by critical ex- 
 amination of evidence ; which would have 
 led them equally to receive or ecjually to re- 
 ject the claims of every ag(;, excoi)ting the 
 first. The powers whicii were undoubtedly 
 
 * The f)crform:incc of a pretended miracle for the 
 purpose of deluHioti in the highest iiiiagiiiahio impiety, 
 and the delilxirate pn)|)agation of accounts of eucli 
 performance?, with knowledge of their cliaracter, is 
 not far Hhort of it. lint we do not intend to impute 
 thifl gnilt to all tlic ancient Chrintian relailcrH of mir- 
 aculouM HtorieH, — far from it; — crcdidity m tlie weak- 
 new of Home mindn, an mendacity is tlie vice of 
 otiiern; and tlie former of thc»c (pialitieH, jierhapH 
 even morn than l\u; latter, has diaractcri/.cd mime 
 Ksii-leni nationa in every iige. And we hIkjuM recol- 
 lect (hat to ilffm wc are indebted for iIm; fdirication 
 of moni of thu tale>« which Mlain ecrk'niaflical history, 
 %id Sor tiic cxum])le w hich led (o them all. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I communicated by the Apostles to some of 
 their immediate successors probably contin- 
 ued to enlighten and distinguish those holy 
 persons to the end of their ministry, and 
 were eminently serviceable in the foundation 
 of the faith ; * but it is a reasonable opinion,f 
 that after their departure the possession of 
 miraculous aids was no longer vouchsafed to 
 the Church as a community, or to any indi- 
 viduals as its ministers. All miracles which 
 are related to have taken place after that pe- 
 riod must be separately subjected to the usual 
 tests, f and must stand or fall on their own 
 merits, according to the degrees of evidence 
 and probability. On the other hand, we are 
 far from intending to assert that Providence, 
 at the same time, withheld His occasional as- 
 
 * Mosh. Hist. Gen. c. i. p. i. eh. 4. 
 
 t On such a question as this it is vain to appeal to 
 authorities ; and unhappily we have here no space for 
 full developement of our reasons We must be con- 
 tented, then, to say, that the argument by which 
 we arc principally moved is this : miracles become 
 improbable in proportion as tliey seem to be not ab- 
 solutely necessary ; and we consider that through the 
 wonders wrought by the Apostles, and those, their 
 contemporaries, to whom similar power was vouch- 
 safed, some of whom may have survived them forty or 
 fifty years, the foundation of the Cliristian Church wag 
 so firmly estalilished as to remove the necessity of the 
 further continuance of that power to it. The factM 
 which have chiefly decided us are tlie following : — In 
 the writings of the Apostolical Fathers and those im- 
 mediately succeeding, we read notliing respecting 
 apostles, prophets, interpreters, or other inspired ard 
 extraordinarily gifted ministers : we have no record 
 of the perpetuation of any office in the ministry which 
 in its nature and name included the certainty of in- 
 spiration and miraculous powers. Again, the fathers 
 who succeeded them, those of the second and third 
 centuries, when they speak of the existence of such 
 powers, confine themselves to the use of general lan- 
 guage; they seldom specify an instance of their ap 
 jjlication; and when they do so, it may usually be 
 classed in that description of miracles which is most 
 liable to misrepresentation or mistake; such as the 
 healing of diseases, or the expulsion of demons. Add 
 to these and sinnliir considerations that which we do 
 not hesitate to call the historical impossibility of 
 assigning any period for the cessation of such gifts in 
 the Church, if we once exceed the barrier w hich ike 
 infallibility of the inspired writers has, in our opinion, 
 clearly marked out. — See Hishop Kayc on Terlullian, 
 j xcvi. 102. In the meantime there is one most im- 
 |)ortant C(jnsi(!cratioii which we should always bear in 
 mind — that the truth of Christianity is not at all in- 
 terestcul in the decision of this (|ueslion. 
 
 \ 'I'huH, when fairly tried by these tests, tlie once 
 jxipular miracle of the Thundering Legion appears at 
 length to have fallen into universal discredit. Oneoi 
 two otherB will bo diMCUwsed in the course of this 
 work.— Mosh. (ien. Hiel. c. ii. p. i. ch. 1. 
 
DISCIPLINE OF 
 
 Bistance from His faithful and afflicted ser- 
 vants ; and, perhaps, we may observe gener- 
 ally, that the accounts of His interposition 
 which we should receive with the least sus- 
 picion are those which describe the super- 
 natural support afforded to missionar 'es in the 
 prosecution of their holy labore. 
 
 2. Church government We must now pro- 
 ceed to examine the discipline and govern- 
 ment of the primitive Church, and, in this in- 
 quiry, we shall discover no marks of a loose 
 and passing superstition, but, on the contrary, 
 the surest prognostics of vigor and immortal- 
 ity. There are many reasons which make it 
 necessary, in the treatment of this subject, to 
 distinguish clearly between what is historical- 
 ly known and what is plausibly conjectured ; 
 for it is from the confusion of facts with prob- 
 abilities that most of the difficulties of this 
 question have arisen. In the first place it is 
 certain, that, from the moment in which the 
 early Churches attained a definite shape and 
 consistency, and assumed a permanent form 
 of discipline ; as soon as the death of the last 
 of the Apostles had deprived them of the 
 more immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
 and left them, under God's especial care and 
 providence, to the uninspired direction of 
 mere men ; so soon had every Church, res- 
 pecting which we possess any distinct infor- 
 mation, adopted the Episcopal form of govern- 
 ment. The probable nature of that govern- 
 ment we shall describe presently ; bur here it 
 is sufficient to mention the undisputed fact, 
 that the religious communities of the Christ- 
 ian world universally admitted the superin- 
 tendence of ntinisters, called bishops, before 
 the conclusion of the first century.* In the 
 next place it is equally true, that neither our 
 Saviour nor his Apostles have left any ex- 
 press and positive ordinances for the admin- 
 istration of the Church;! desiring, perhaps, 
 that that which was intended for every age 
 
 * To save the space which would be occupied by 
 an accumulation of authorities, it will be sufficient, 
 perhaps, to remind our readers, that this fact is ad- 
 mitted by Gibbon in his 15th chapter. 
 
 t See Mosh. Gen. Hist., c. i. p. ii. ch. 2 and the 
 translator's impartial note. Also Disnage, torn. i. 
 iiv. i. c. 8. Principles are given, but no specific 
 rules (Hinds' Early Church, vol. ii. p. 100). After 
 all, no form of Church government now exists, or 
 could exist, accurately framed on the model of the 
 earliest, since that was regulated by an inspired min- 
 istry, and enlightened by extraordinary gifts. The 
 government which immediately followed that earliest 
 was episcopal 
 
 6 
 
 THE CHURCH. 4J 
 
 and condition of man, to be the associate and 
 guardian of every form of civil government, 
 should have the means of accommodating its 
 external and earthly shape to the various 
 modifications of human polity. It is also 
 true that in the earliest government of llie 
 first Christian society, that of Jerusalem, not 
 the elders only, but the ' whole Church' * 
 were associated with the Apostles : and it is 
 even certain that the terms bishop and elder 
 or presbyter were, in the first instance, and 
 for a short period, sometimes used synony- 
 mously,* and indiscriminately applied to the 
 same order in the ministry. From the com- 
 parison of these facts it seems natural to draw 
 the following conclusions, — that during the 
 lifetime of the apostles they were themselves 
 the directors, or at least the presidents of the 
 Church ; that, as long as they remained on 
 earth, it was not necessary, in all cases, to 
 subject the infant societies to the delegated 
 authority of a single superintendent, though 
 the instances of Titus and Timothy clearly 
 prove that it was sometimes done ; and that, 
 as they were severally removed from the 
 
 * Acts XV. 2, 4, 22, 23, &c.— still, of course, wifh 
 some degree of subjection to apostolical authority. 
 This, according to Mosheira (c. i. p. i. ch. 2.), wa« 
 the model of all the primitive churches. 
 
 •f Theodoret, (Com. on 1 Tim. iii. 1.), a father 
 of the fourth century, admits and explains that cir- 
 cumstance as follows: — 'The same persons were an- 
 ciently called both bishops and presbyters, while those 
 which are now called bishops were called apostles J 
 but, shortly afterwards, the name of apostles was 
 appropriated to those who were apostles indeed, and 
 then the name bishop was given to those before called 
 apostles.' (See also a passage from St. Ambrose, 
 cited by Amalarius and Bingham.) Whatever value 
 we may attach to this explanation, it is quite certain 
 that bishops began very early to assume the title of 
 ' successors of the apostles,' which we find to have 
 been done by Firmilian, Cyprian, and other bishops 
 of Carthage. See Bingham's Church Antiquities, b. 
 ii. c. 2. Le Clerc, ad ann. 44. (vol. i. p. 358), and 
 ann. 47 (vol. i. p. 449), places the general institution 
 of elders in the year 47. Bingham (b. ii. c. 19.) and 
 others, admitting the confusion of names, would still 
 persuade us that there was no identity of office. Bishop 
 Pearson (Vindic. Ignatianoe) is of opinion that, in 
 some churches, there were bishops and not presby- 
 ters ; in others, presbyters and not bishops — a plausi- 
 ble opinion, strongly confirmed by the assertions of 
 Clemens and Epiphanius, tliat in some chmxhes there 
 were bishops and deacons, in others only presbyters 
 and deacons; but tliat the larger communities had 
 all the three orders. Mosheim, however, considers 
 ' the two terms as undoubtedly applied to the same 
 order of men,' (c. i. p. i. ch. 2.); and such is the 
 plain interpretation of the Scripture passages.— See 
 Hinds' Early Prog. Clurist., vol. i. p. 349, &c. 
 
42 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 world, some distinguished brother was in 
 each instance appointed to succeed, not in- 
 deed to the name and mspiration, but to the 
 ecclesiastical duties of the blessed Teacher 
 \vho had founded the Church. The concur- 
 rence of ancient records confirms this last 
 conclusion ; the earliest Church historians* 
 euvimerate the first bishops of the Churches 
 of Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Smyrna, Al- 
 exandria and Rome, and trace them in each 
 case from the Apostles. And thus it came to 
 pass that, for more than twenty years before 
 the death of St. John, most of the considera- 
 ble Churches had gradually fallen under the 
 presidency of a single person entitled Bishop ; 
 and that, after that event, there were certainly 
 none which did not speedily follow the same 
 name and system of administration. 
 
 Prophets. Again, for the first thirty years, 
 perhaps somewhat longer, after the ascension 
 of Christ, the labors of the apostles were 
 aided by certain ministers entitled Prophets,f 
 who were gifted with occasional inspiration, 
 and taught under the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit This order of teachers was with- 
 drawn from the Church when their ofiice be- 
 cfeme no 'onger necessary for its advance- 
 msnt, and it appears v/holly to have ceased 
 before the end of the century, at which peri- 
 od, as we have already observed, ecclesiasti- 
 cal government universally assumed that du- 
 rable shape which has been perpetuated, and, 
 with certain variations, generally adopted 
 through every age of Christianity. 
 
 Deacons. We have yet made no mention 
 of the deacons, who were the thu-d order in 
 the Episcopal Church. The word deacon 
 (Jtdzo/^oc) means minister, and in that sense 
 is sometimes applied to the office of the 
 Apostles ; but in a general sense only, since 
 we are assured (Acts vi.) that the diaconal 
 
 ♦ IIf'jjcsij)p»s and Eupcbius. * It is highly probable,' 
 says MoHhcim, (c. l.p. ii. ch. 2.) 'that the Church 
 of Jcru.salcrn, grown considerably numerous, and de- 
 prived of tiie inininters and the apostlcH, who were 
 gone to instruct other nations, was the first which 
 chose a prcsidfint or bifhop: and it is no less proba- 
 ble that the other churches fjllowed, by degrees, such 
 a respectable example.* And it is certain that, in at 
 least two instancpH, puch pnisidcnts w(;re appointed 
 by an a[)ostIe. The Church of Corinth seems, indeed, 
 to liave \hh'.u (he only exception. Till the dale of St. 
 Clement's Kpintle, (ch. 47.) its government had Ixu n 
 clearly precbylerial, and wo do not learn lh(! exact mo- 
 ment of the change. — See Hinds' Karly ('hurch, vol. 
 ii. p. and Bingham, b. ti. c. 1. 
 
 fSt. I'aiil, 1 Cor. xii. 20, «tc. ; Ephes. iv. 11. 
 Monheim de Flebus Christ, ante Connt. Sa-c. 1. h. xI. 
 and (ini. Hint. c. i. p. ii. Ji. 2. 
 
 ' order was distinct, and instituted for a speci- 
 1 fic purpose. However it seems certain that, 
 i in the very beginning, the office of the dea- 
 cons was not confined to the mere ministry 
 of the table, since we read that Stephen dis- 
 puted publicly on the Christian truth with 
 irresistible wisdom and spirit ; and, moreover, 
 that 'he did great wonders and miracles 
 among the people.' It is equally clear that 
 attendance on the poor was for several centu- 
 ries attached to it ; even after the office of 
 treasurer was held by the bishop, the portion 
 destined to charitable relief continued to pass 
 through the hands of the deacon. It is not 
 I so easy to ascertain the extent of their spirit- 
 i ual duties in the earliest Church. Ignatius 
 speaks of them with high respect, and, in one 
 place,* calls them ' ministers of the mysteries 
 of Christ.' Tertullian distinguishes them from 
 the laity, together with bishops and presby 
 ters. Cyprian asserts that the Apostles ap 
 pointed them as ' ministers of their episco- 
 pacy and Church.' By the Nicene Council 
 tliey are designated as servants (^67iT]QSTai) 
 of the bishop. It is certain that they were or- 
 dained by the bishop alone, without any im- 
 position of hands by presbyters ; that in some 
 Churches they were admitted to read the 
 gospel, and that they universally assisted in 
 the distribution of the Eucharist, without any 
 share in its consecration. Their early ac- 
 knowledgment as members of the ministry is 
 proved by their occasional presence in the 
 original synods of the clergy .f 
 
 Clergy and Laity. The origin of the dis- 
 tinction between the clergy and the laity has 
 given rise to much controversy. Bingham | 
 is of opinion that it was dertvcd from the 
 Jewish into the Christian Church in its earli- 
 est days. And Clemens Alexandrinus § has 
 expressly declared, 'that St. John, after his 
 return from Patmos, ordained bishops, and 
 ajjpointed such men for clerical ministers as 
 were signified by the Holy Spirit.' If the 
 persons here mentioned were actually set 
 
 ♦ Ignat. Ep., ad Trale. Tertulliar. de Juge, c 11 
 Cyprian Epist. 65. (ad Rogalian) Cone. Nic. c. 19. 
 j t On this subject constdt liingham, Ch. Antiq., b. 
 ii. ch. 20. 'rh(! deaconesHcs, of whom we read in 
 early Churcii History, niay probably have l)een wid- 
 ows api)ointed, for the better preservation of the min- 
 istry from scandal and calumny, to sujjcr intend the 
 charitable distribution made; to the female portion of 
 th(! i)oor. 
 
 I Eccleij. Anti(|., b. i. ch. 6. 
 
 § Ap. Euseb. H. E. lib. iii., c. 28. xX^iQia Ivayi 
 lint xXtjQO)(Tuii> 70)/' in6 inv llrt vftujos 
 
♦ 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 43 
 
 apart and consecrated to the ministry, the 
 reality as well as the name of the distinction 
 might with greater assurance plead apostolic 
 authority ; but this does not positively appear. 
 On the other hand, the separation of the sa- 
 cred order is so commonly mentioned by the 
 early Fathers, not by Cyprian only» but by 
 his predecessors* Tertullian and Origen, and 
 so invariably treated as a necessary part of 
 the Christian system, that if its origin was not 
 coeval with the foundation of the system, it 
 was at least unrecorded and immemorial. 
 The fairest supposition respecting this ques- 
 tion appears to be, that the first converts, those 
 who spread the earliest tidings of redemption 
 before the Aposdes themselves had quitted 
 Judsea, were commissioned to preach the 
 name, and diffuse the knowledge of Christ 
 indiscriminately. But it seems equally cer- 
 tain, that this commission was of very short 
 duration ; and that as soon as in any place 
 converts were found sufficient to form a soci- 
 ety or church, a bishop or presbyter f w^as 
 ordained for life to minister to them. The 
 act of ordination established the distinction of 
 which we are treating. 
 
 According to the earliest form of Episcopal 
 government it would appear that the bishop 
 possessed little, if any, power in matters of 
 discipline, except with the consent of the 
 council of presbyters ; that the council pos- 
 sessed no sort of power except in conjunction 
 with him; I and that, in affairs strictly spirit- 
 ual, as the ordination § of the inferior clergy 
 
 * This writer goes so far as severely to censure cer- 
 tai 1 heretics for following the contrary practice. 
 
 tSee Epiphan, Haeres. 75; ^rian. n. 5, as refer- 
 red to by Bingham. 
 
 X We refer to the passages from the Councils of 
 Laodicea, Aries, and Toledo, from Ignatius's Epis- 
 tles and the Apostolical Canons, and the writings of 
 Tertullian, Jerome, and Ambrose, collected by Bing- 
 ham, b. ii. ch. 3. 
 
 § It appears probable (notwithstanding the silence 
 of St. Paul on this subject in his commission to Titus, 
 i. 5.) that, in the ceremony, of ordination, even in the 
 earliest church, the imposition of hands was perform- 
 ed by certain presbyters, in conjunction with the 
 bishop; but the consecration to tlie ministry was the 
 act of the bishop only, through the power derived in 
 the first instance from the apostles, and at no time 
 claimed by any inferior order in the church. When 
 Jerome (Dissert. 85 ad Evagr.) and Chrysostom, in 
 tlie fourth century (Hom. 2 in 1 Tim. iii. 8), are en- 
 deavoring to exalt presbyterial almost to the level of 
 episcopal authority, they agree in considering the 
 power of ordination as constituting the grand, and, as 
 they assert, the only distinction. It has been argued 
 that the power of preaching was originally confined to 
 tlie bishops, and from them derived, and by their per- 
 
 and the administration of the sacraments, 
 especially that of baptism,* he acted as some 
 think with original, and certainly with inde- 
 pendent authority. His office was for life, 
 and the funds of the society were committed 
 to his care and dispensation. Of most of the 
 apostolical churches, the first bishops were 
 appointed by the apostles ; of those not apos- 
 tolical, the first presidents were probably the 
 missionaries who founded them ; but, on their 
 death, the choice of a successor devolved on 
 the members of the society. In this election 
 the people had an equal share with the pres- 
 byters and inferior clergy, without exception 
 or distinction ; and it is clear that their right 
 in this matter was not barely testimonial, but 
 judicial and elective, f This appointment 
 was final, requiring no confirmation from the 
 civil power or any superior prelate ; and 
 thus, in the management of its internal affiiirs, 
 every church was essentially independent of 
 every other. 
 
 The Churches, thus constituted and regu- 
 lated, formed a sort of federative body of in- 
 dependent religious communities, dispersed 
 through the greater part of the empire, in 
 continual communication, and in constant 
 harmony with each other. It is towards mid 
 die of the second century that the ffi-st change 
 is perhaps perceptible : as the numbers of the 
 believers and the limits of the faith were ex« 
 tended, some diversities in doctrine or disci- 
 pline would naturally grow up, which it was 
 not found easy to reconcile except by some 
 description of general assembly. Accord- 
 ingly w^e find the first instances of such as- 
 mission exercised, by the inferior clergy ; the reasons 
 adduced for this opinion are plausible, though not, 
 perhaps, conclusive. — Bingham's Church Antiq., b. 
 ii. ch. 3. 
 
 * Mosh. Gen. Hist. (c. i. p. ii. ch. 4. sec. 7 and 
 : 8.) When the bishop extended the right of baptism 
 , to presbyters and suffiagan bishops (Chorepiscopi). 
 j he still reserved to himself the exclusive power of 
 I confirmation. — Bingham's Church Antiq. c. ii. p. ii. 
 : ch. 4. 
 
 I f This is made very clear, from the comparison of 
 I much contradictory evidence, by Bingham, Ch. Hist., 
 b. iv. ch. 2. sec. 2, 3, 4, &c. There were some vari- 
 : ations in the mode of election, according to times and 
 : circumstances, since no rule is laid down in Sci ipture 
 on the subject; but there is a great concurrence of 
 i evidence to show that no bishop was ever obtruded on 
 I an orthodox people without their consent. Mosheim 
 i (c. i. p. ii. ch. 2.) attributes a great extent of general 
 I power to the people, not only in the election of their 
 teachers, but in tlie control of their conduct, and 
 even extends it to decision cm coptroverted points and 
 excommunication of unworthy members. We are not 
 [ aware on what authority he advances tliese assertions. 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CH'JRCH. 
 
 eemblies * (unless that Avhich was summoned I 
 by the Apostles may be so called) at this pe- 
 riod. They were composed, either of the 
 bishops only, or of these associated with a 
 party of the priesthood ; those ministers pre- 
 sented themselves as the representatives of 
 liieir respective societies ; nor was any supe- 
 riority claimed by any of them in vu'tue of 
 the supposed pre-eminence of particular 
 Churches. These councils were called by 
 the Greek name Synods, and seem at first to 
 have been provincial, following in some man- 
 ner the pohtical division of the empire. They 
 had their origin in Greece — the land of pub- 
 lic assemblies and popular institutions, of 
 which the memory was fondly cherished 
 there, after the reality had been lost in Ro- 
 man despotism. Their character was essen- 
 tially popular; the representatives of equal 
 Churches, elected to their sacred offices by 
 the whole body over which they presided, 
 assembled to deliberate as equals ; and we 
 may reasonably indulge the belief, since the 
 exertion of freedom in any one direction 
 makes it more ready to act in every other, 
 that the political emancipation of mankind 
 was promoted, even thus early, by the free 
 ^nd advancing spirit of Christianity. 
 
 Such were the principles on which the 
 affairs of the Churches were conducted for 
 some time after the period mentioned by us ; 
 and none can be conceived more favorable to 
 the progress of the faith. The government of 
 a single person protected each society from in- 
 ternal dissension — the electiveness of that gov- 
 ernor rendered probable his merit — the meet- 
 ing together of the deputies of the Church- 
 es, in occasional assemblies, on equal terms, 
 taught the scattered members of the faith that 
 they were animated by one soul, and inform- 
 ed and dignified by one spirit. Some evil 
 will be expected to arise out of much good ; 
 and evils of some imi)ortancc have been at- 
 lril)Ut(;d to the necessary fretjuency of synods. 
 The first wjiH an early addition to the orders 
 and gradations of the hi(!rarchy ; for, as it was 
 soon discovered that these provincial Coun- 
 cils required the control of a President, tiic 
 liishop of the capital of the province was 
 usually ai)fK)inted to that ofiice, under the 
 lofty title of the MalropoUtnn ; f from an oc- 
 casional ofiicci he p'CKcntly assiuned u i)er- 
 manent dignity, and his dignity was inniif- 
 ficienl until it was attended by authority. 
 
 • Wc l)eIicvo the view of MoBliciin upon ihist sub- 
 ject to \)C wry nearly correct. C. 1. p. i. tli. 2. 
 t MomIi. Cicn. Hint. c. ii. p. ii. ch. 2. 
 
 Again, the ecclesiastics who composed tnem 
 properly appeared there in no other charac 
 ter, than as the deputies of their Churches , 
 but it may sometimes have happened, that on 
 their return home they individually assumed 
 some part of the power which they had pos- 
 sessed collectively ; at least, it is certain that 
 many notions respecting the exalted and irre- 
 sistible nature of episcopal authority,* were 
 already floating about the Christian world, 
 and the Bishop was not likely to disclaim the 
 homage which would occasionally be offered 
 to him. But it was not untU the habit of 
 acting in bodies made them sensible of their 
 common interest and real power, that they 
 ventured to assert such claims, and assumed 
 a loftier manner in the government of their 
 dioceses ; so that, though these synods were 
 doubtless indispensable to the well-being of 
 Christianity, they seem to have been the 
 means of corrupting the original humility of 
 its ministers ; and the method which was in- 
 tended to promote only the eternal interests 
 of the Church, promoted, in some degi*ee, the 
 worldly consideration of the order which 
 governed it. This change began to show 
 itself towards the end of the second century ; 
 and it is certain that, at this period, we find 
 the first complaints of the incipient corruption 
 of the clergy .f On the other hand, there can 
 be little doubt that the increased authority 
 and influence of the hierarchy was highly 
 serviceable to the whole body in periods of 
 danger and persecution, and that in those 
 times it was generally exerted to excite the 
 courage, and sustain the constancy of the 
 faithful. 
 
 Excommunication was the oldest weapon 
 of ecclesiastical authority. Doubtless, eveiy 
 society has the right to expel its unworthy 
 members; and this right was of extreme use 
 to the first Christians, as it gave them frequent 
 opportunities of exhibiting to the heathen 
 world the scrupulousness of their moral pu- 
 rity. But aft;ervvards wc know how danger- 
 ous an engine it became when wielded by 
 
 ♦ Tlio Fpit(tl('S attributed to Ignatius arc tlie earli- 
 est uriliiif^H wliich countenance kucIi claims; and they 
 were afterwards more l)oI(iIy advocated hy Cyprian, 
 Bishop of Carthage. In fict, we (il>ouId remark (hut 
 Ignatius exalts the preshyterial with almost as mucn 
 7.cul UH the e|)isc(i|)al order, and that his nhjcct was 
 ratlier to increase the authority of tlie whole ministry 
 rlian to elevate any liranch of it. 
 
 t From the moment that tli(> interestR of the niinla- 
 tcrf Iterame at all dislingnished from the interests of 
 the religion, the rorrnplion of Christianity may l>c 
 considered to huvu begun. 
 
DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH 
 
 46 
 
 weak or passionate individuals, and directed 
 by caprice, or interest, or ambition. 
 
 The question has been greatly controvert- 
 ed, whether an absolute community of prop- 
 erty ever subsisted in the Church. That it 
 did so, is a favorite opinion of some Roman 
 Catholic writers, who would willingly dis- 
 cover, in the first apostolical society, the 
 model of the monastic system ; and the same, 
 to its utmost extent, has been partly asserted, 
 and partly insinuated by Gibbon. The learn- 
 ed argument of Mosheim* disposes us to the 
 contrary belief ; and if the words of Scrip- 
 ture in one placef should seem to prove that 
 such community did actually exist among the 
 original converts in the Church of Jerusalem, 
 we are obliged to infer from other passages,! 
 not only that it did not universally prevail as 
 one law of the whole Church, but that it 
 gained no favor or footing in the several 
 Churches which were founded elsewhere. 
 This inference is generally confirmed by the 
 uninspired records of Christianity ; and it is 
 indeed obvious that a society of both sexes, 
 constituted on that principle, could not pos- 
 sibly have had a permanent existence. The 
 truth appears to be this, that the ministers of 
 religion, and the poorer brethren, were main- 
 tained by contributions perfectly voluntary, 
 and that a great and general intercourse of 
 mutual support and charity prevailed, as well 
 among the various Churches, as among the 
 members of each. 
 
 It is probable that the ceremonies of relig- 
 ion had somewhat outstripped their primitive 
 simplicity, even before the conclusion of the 
 second centuiy. Some additions were intro- 
 duced even thus early, out of a spirit of con- 
 ciliation with the various forms of Paganism 
 which were beginning gradually to melt into 
 Christianity ; but they were seemingly differ- 
 ent in different countries ; and it is not easy, 
 or perhaps yery important, to detect them 
 with certainty, or to enumerate them with 
 confidence. We shall, probably, recur to 
 this subject at some future period, when we 
 shall have stronger light to guide us. 
 
 The first Christians were unanimous § in 
 setting apart the first day of the week, as be- 
 ing that on which our Saviour rose from the 
 
 * Dissertationes ad Hist. Eccl. pertinentes, vol. ii. 
 Mosheini's object is to prove that St. Luke means 
 community of use, not of possession. Some sup- 
 pose the passage in Acts v. 4, to be at variance with 
 that opinion. 
 
 t Acts iv. 32, 34, 35. 
 
 % Acts V. 4. ' After it v as sold, was it not in 
 thine own power 1 ' 
 
 § Mosh Gen Hist., 1. i. p. ii. c. 4. 
 
 dead, for the solemn celebration of public 
 worship. This pious custom was derived 
 from the example of the Church of Jerusa 
 lem, on the express appointment of the Apos 
 ties. On these occasions, portions of Scrip- 
 ture were publicly read to the people fron. 
 the earliest age. 
 
 The two most ancient feasts of the Churc h 
 were in honor of the resurrection of Christ, 
 and of the descent of the Holy Spirit. At a 
 period when belief must almost have amount- 
 ed to knowledge, the first Christians, the 
 companions of the Apostles, perhaps the dis- 
 ciples of our Saviour himself, were so seri- 
 ously and practically earnest in their beliel, 
 and so satisfied of the generality of that 
 belief, in the truth of those two mighty mi- 
 racles, which have presented, perhaps, the 
 greatest difficulties to the skeptical inquir 
 ers of after ages, as to establish their two 
 first festivals in solemn commemoration of 
 them. 
 
 We find no m.ention of any public fast, 
 except on the day of the crucifixion. The 
 superstiiioQS multiplication of such acts ot 
 mistaken devotion was the work of a later 
 age. 
 
 Christian schools existed in the second 
 century, as well at Rome, Ephesus, and 
 Smyrna,* as at Alexandria ; they were con- 
 ducted on the model of the schools of ph) 
 losophy, and even the terms, by which the 
 different classes of the faithful were designat- 
 ed, were borrowed from these latter. There 
 appears to have been as yet no costume pecu- 
 liar to the ministers of religion. The bishops 
 usually adopted the garb of the heathen phi- 
 losophers. 
 
 3. Creeds. The first Christians used no 
 written Creed ; the Confession of Faith, 
 which was held necessary for salvation, was 
 delivered to children or converts by w^ord 
 of mouth, and entrusted to their memory. 
 Moreover, in the several independent Church- 
 es, the rule of faith was liable to some slight 
 changes, according to the opinion and discrf;- 
 tion of the Bishop presiding in each, llenc c 
 it arose, that when the creeds of those nume- 
 rous communities came at length to be writ- 
 ten and compared together, they were found 
 to contain some variations ; this was natura. 
 and necessary ; but when we add that those 
 variations were for the most part merely ver- 
 bal, and in no instance involved any question 
 of essential importance, we advance a truth 
 
 * Iren. ad Florinum, ap. EuseK. 1. v. c. 20 
 Mosh. Gen. Hist.,r. i. D. ii. cb. 3 
 
46 HISTORY OF 
 
 M-nich will seem strange to those who are 
 familiar with the angry disputations of later 
 ages. But the fact is easily accounted for, — 
 the earliest pastors of the Church drew their 
 belief fi-om the Scripture itself, as dehvered 
 to them by writing or preaching,* and they 
 were contented to express that belief in the 
 language of Scripture. They were not cu- 
 rious to investigate that which is not clearlj'^ 
 revealed, but they adhered firmly and faith- 
 fully to that which they knew to be true ; 
 therefore their variations were without schism 
 and their differences without acrimony. The 
 creed which was first adopted, and that per- 
 haps in the very earliest age, by the Church 
 of Rome, was that which is now called the 
 Apostles' Creed, and it was the general opin- 
 ion, from the fourth century downwards, that 
 it was actually the production of those bless- 
 ed persons assembled for that purpose ; our 
 evidence f is not sufficient to establish that 
 fact, and some writers J very confidently re- 
 ject it. But there is reasonable ground for 
 our assurance that the form of faith which 
 we still repeat and inculcate was in use and 
 .lonor in the very early propagation of our re- 
 igion 
 
 The sacraments of the primitive Church 
 were two — those of Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper. The ceremony of immersion (the 
 oldest form of baptism) was performed in the 
 name of the three Persons of the Trinity; 
 it was believed to be attended by the remis- 
 sion of original sin, and the entire regenera- 
 tion of the infant or convert, by the passage 
 from the land of bondage into the kingdom 
 of salvation. A gi'cat proportion of those 
 baptized in the first ages were, of course, 
 adults, and since the Church was then scru- 
 pulous to admit none among its members, 
 excepting those whose sincere repentance 
 
 * It is cxprcsHly aflirnicd by Eiiscbiiis (E. II. book 
 iii. c. 2t) that tiic four gospels were collected during 
 the life of St. Joliii, and tliat tlic three received the 
 approbation of that apostle. And though there is 
 groat (linicnlty in ascertaining the precise period in 
 which all the bookH of the New Testament were col- 
 lected into one volume, it is unqiiestiona1)le that 1)C- 
 fore the middle of the second century the greatest 
 part of thf;m were received as the rule of failh in eve- 
 ry Christian society. Mofh. c. 1. p. ii. rh. 2. 
 
 f Ignatius, Justin, and Iren;rus make no mention 
 of it, but tlu-y occasionally repeal some words con- 
 lamed in it, which ia held as proof that they knew it 
 by heart. — See Cent. Magdeb., cent. i. lib. ii. c. -1. 
 
 ^ Ah MoHheim, cent. i. p. ii. ch. 3; admitting 
 however, (c. ii. p. ii. ch. .3) that the first teachers in- 
 culcated no oilier doctrines than those contained in 
 what IK noiiitnunlv cullvd the ApoBtlcH' Creed. 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 gave promise of a holy life,* the admmistra 
 tion of that sacrament was in some sense 
 accompanied by the remission, not only of 
 the sin from Adam, but of all sin that had 
 been previously committed by the proselyte 
 — that is to say, such absolution was given to 
 the repentance necessary for admission into 
 Christ's Church. In after ages, by an error 
 common in the growth of superstition, the 
 efficacy inherent in the repentance was at- 
 tributed to the ceremony, and the act which 
 washed away the inherited corruption of na- 
 ture was supposed to secure a general iinpu- 
 nity, even for unrepented offences. But this 
 double delusion gained very little gi'ound 
 during the two first centuries. 
 
 The celebration of the sacrament of tho 
 Eucharist was originally accompanied by 
 meetings which somewhat partook of a hos- 
 pitable, or at least of a charitable character, 
 and were called Agapae or Feasts of Love, 
 Every Christian, according to his circumstan- 
 ces, brought to the assembly portions of bread, 
 wine, and other things, as gifts, as it were, or 
 oblations to the Lord. Of the bread and 
 wine such as was required for the adminis- 
 tration of the sacrament was separated from 
 the rest, and consecrated by the bishop alone ;f 
 its distribution was followed by a frugal and 
 Serious repast. Undoubtedly, those assem- 
 blies acted not only as excitements to ardent 
 piety, but also as bonds of strict religious 
 union and mutual devotion, during the dark 
 days of terror and persecution. It was pro- 
 bably on those occasions, more than any oth- 
 er, that the sufferers rallied their scattered 
 ranks, and encouraged each other, by one 
 solemn act of brotherly conununion, to con- 
 stancy in one faith and association in the 
 same afflictions. Wc observe, moreover, that 
 as the dangers passed away from the Chin'cli, 
 that more social form (if we may so express 
 it) of eticharistical atlministration gradually 
 fell into disuse. 
 
 4. Morality. The morality of the primi- 
 
 ♦ • Who!;oever arc persuaded that those things are 
 true which are taught and inculcated by us, and en- 
 gage to live according to them, are taught to pray to 
 Ciod, fasting, for the remission of their former sins, 
 while wc pray and fast with them. Then they nie 
 led by us to Bome place where water is, and are re- 
 generatctl even as we ourselves were regenerated ; for 
 they are then immersed in the water, in the name of 
 the Father of all, the Lord (Jod, and of our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, and of (he Holy Ghost. '-Austin Martyr, 
 Apol. i. ch. 61. 
 
 t IMonh., c. i. p. ii. ch. 4. Justin. Mart. Ap. 2 
 p. 98. 
 
MORALITY OF THE 
 
 FIRST CHRISTIANS. 
 
 47 
 
 tive Church is the subject to which we pro- 
 ceed with high confidence and unalloyed sat- 
 isfaction — fl3r since, in the various history on 
 which we are entering, our admiration of the 
 excellence of Christianity will be sometimes 
 inteiTupted by sighs for the degeneracy of its 
 professors, it is delightful to pause on that 
 period when the faith, yet fresh from heaven, 
 did really carry practice and devotion along 
 with it — a period which preceded the birth 
 of intestine persecution, and was unstained 
 by the furious contests of sectaries ; which 
 did not witness the superstitious debasement 
 of the Church, or the vulgar vices of its 
 ministers, or the burning passions of its ru- 
 lers. We are taught, indeed, humbly to be- 
 lieve that at some future, and probably distant 
 t^eriod, the whole world will be united in the 
 '.rue spirit and practice of Christianity ; but 
 n reviewing the history of the past, we are 
 compelled to confess that the only model at 
 all approaching to that perfection is confined 
 to the two first centuries of our faith, and 
 that it began to fall off in excellence even 
 before the conclusion of that period. But 
 transient as it was, we still recur to it with 
 pious satisfaction, and we rejoice both as men 
 and as Christians that our nature has been 
 found capable of such holy exaltation, and 
 that our religion was the instrument which 
 exalted it. 
 
 Certainly the character of the first Christ- 
 ians, and we are not without guides who 
 make us acquainted with it, presents to us a 
 singular spectacle of virtue and piety, the 
 more splendid as it was surrounded by very 
 mournful and very general depravity. We 
 cannot read either St. Clement's description 
 of the early condition of the Church of Co- 
 rinth, or Origen's panegyric on that of Athens, 
 without recognising a state of society and 
 morality such as all the annals of paganism 
 do not discover to us, and such as its princi- 
 ples (if it had any fixed principles) could not 
 ever have created. The following lines are 
 a quotation from the former. ' You were all 
 humble in spirit, nothing boasting, subject 
 rather than subjecting, giving rather than re- 
 ceiving. Contented with the food of God, 
 and carefully embracing his words, your feel- 
 ings were expanded, and his sufferings were 
 before your eyes — so profound and beautiful 
 the peace that was given to you, and so insa- 
 tiable the desire of beneficence. Every di- 
 vision, every schism was detestable to you ; 
 you tvept over the failings of your neighbors ; 
 you thought their defects your own, and were 
 impatient after evei-y good work,' &c. 
 
 It is true that soon afler the period cele- 
 brated by this glowing description, some dis 
 sensions disturbed the peace, and probably 
 the morality, of the Church of Corinth — but 
 we have no reason to believe that they were 
 of long duration, or left any lasting conse- 
 quences behind them. 
 
 The above passage refers to the Christians 
 of Greece ; and there is a sentence in the 
 letter of Pliny to Trajan, already quoted, 
 giving still stronger testimony to the virtues 
 of the Asiatics. ' They bind themselves by 
 an oath, not to the commission of any wick- 
 edness, but not to be guilty of theft, or rob 
 bery, or adultery, — never to falsify their word, 
 nor to deny a pledge committed to them 
 when called upon to return it.' 
 
 Bardesanes,* a learned Christian of Meso- 
 potamia, who lived in the time of Marcus 
 Antoninus, has the following passage, pre- 
 served to us by Eusebius. ' Neither do Christ- 
 ians in Parthia indulge in polygamy, though 
 they be Parthians ; nor do they marry their 
 own daughters in Persia, though Persians. 
 Among the Bactrians and the Gauls, they do 
 not commit adultery ; but, wheresoever they 
 are, they rise above the evil laws and cus- 
 toms of the country.' This is not only a 
 very powerful, but almost an universal tes- 
 timony in favor of Christian morality ; and 
 there are some to whom its truth will appear 
 the less questionable, because it comes from 
 the pen of a heretic. 
 
 The virtue of chastity, which however it 
 may have been celebrated in the heroic ages 
 of paganism, was certainly little reputed in 
 the east, during the more enlightened rule 
 of philosophy, was very rigidly cultivated by 
 the primitive converts. This truth, which 
 is generally attested by the passages above 
 quoted, is made the subject of peculiar exult- 
 ation by Justin Martyr.f But the continence 
 of the first Christians did not degenerate into 
 any superstitious practice ; yet it seems cer- 
 tain that, in the ages immediately subsequent, 
 the simple principle of the Gospel began to 
 be unreasonably exaggerated ; and somewhat 
 later the progress of monasticism was for- 
 warded by the exalted value placed on that 
 virtue. So that excess of admii-ation blinded 
 enthusiasts as to its real nature and character, 
 and led them to invest it with perfections and 
 pretensions which were at variance with the 
 advancement and happiness of human so- 
 ciety. 
 
 The heathen governments, even the Ro 
 
 * Euseb. H. E., 1. iv., c. 30. 
 t C. 15. Apol A. 
 
48 HISTORY OF 
 
 man, in its highest civiUsation, tolerated, and 
 perhaps encouraged, the unnatural practice 
 of exposing infants — who in that condition 
 were left, as it might happen, to perish from 
 cold or starvation, or preserved for the more 
 dreadful fate of public prostitution. This 
 practice was held in deserved detestation by 
 the followers of Christ.* 
 
 Charity was the corner-stone of the moral 
 edifice of Christianity, and its earliest char- 
 acteristic ; and as this is still the vu'tue by 
 which it is most distinguished, both publicly 
 and privately, from every false religion, so 
 we need not hesitate to avow that this of all 
 its excellences was the most efficient under 
 Divine providence in its original establishment. 
 Every Christian society provided fbr the 
 maintenance of its poorer members; and 
 when the funds were not sufficient for this 
 purpose, they w^ere aided by the superfluities 
 of more wealthy brethren.f The same spirit 
 which 'preached the Gospel to the poor,' 
 extended its provisions to their temporal ne- 
 cessities ; and so far from thinking it any 
 reproach to our faith that it first addressed 
 itself, by its peculiar virtues as well as pre- 
 cepts, to the lower orders of mankind, we 
 der:7e from this very fact our strongest argu- 
 ment against those who would persuade us 
 that the patronage of kings was necessaj-y for 
 its establishment : it rather becomes to us 
 matter of pious exultation that its progress 
 was precisely in the opposite direction. By 
 far the majority of the early converts were 
 men of low rank ; and their numbers were 
 concealed by their obscurity, until they be- 
 came too powerful to dread persecution. 
 Every step which they took was upwards. 
 Until the middle of the second century, they 
 could scarcely discover among their thou- 
 sands one learned man. From the schools 
 they advanced into the senate, and from the 
 senate to the throne ; and tlu^y had possessed 
 thcmsf.'lvcs of every other office in society, 
 before tlicy attained the highest. It is im- 
 portant to attend to this fact, that we may 
 not be niisled ; it is important to observe, that 
 the basis from which the |>yrami(l start(!<l up 
 was the faith and constancy of tin; common 
 people — thf; s[)irit of the religion, and tin; ear- 
 liest government of the Church, was popular; 
 and it ih in its earliest history that we find 
 those proofs of general moral purity on which 
 
 • Ju.ilin Martyr, Apol. A., c. 27. 
 
 t Our roadcrM will n!r<»ll<Tt llial DiouyMiiiH of Co- 
 rinth, in IiIm KpihlU; (o lliu KoiiiariN, drfircs tlicin to 
 contirnu; llin ciisloin CKlaMiHlwd from llie l)r;;iimin|^, 
 
 fcndirig cliarilahlc cuntributiuiiit tu ull cliiirclicM. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 we now dwell with the more pleasure, be 
 cause, in the succeeding pages, the picture 
 wiU never again be presented to us. 
 
 We will make one short extract from the 
 writings of a very witty pagan of the second 
 century, which throws great light on the 
 character of the Christians of that age. Lu- 
 cian, who considered every form of worship 
 as equally an object of ridicule, tells a story 
 of one Peregrinus, who had been expelled 
 from his country, Armenia, for the most hor- 
 rible crimes ; who thence wandered into 
 Palestine, became acquainted with the doc- 
 trine of the Christians, and affected to em- 
 brace it. Being a man of talents and educa- 
 tion, he acquired gi-eat influence among their 
 illiterate body ; and, in consequence, he soon 
 attracted the notice of the Roman governor, 
 and was thrown into prison for being a Christ- 
 ian. In prison he is represented to have 
 been consoled by the pious charity of the 
 faithful : — ' There came Christians, depirted 
 from many cities in Asia, to relieve, to en- 
 courage, and to comfort him, for the care and 
 diligence which the Christians exert on these 
 occasions is incredible — in a word they spare 
 nothing. They sent, therefore, large sums to 
 Peregrinus, and his confinement was an oc- 
 casion of amassing great riches ; for these 
 poor creatures are firmly persuaded they shall 
 one day enjoy eternal life ; therefore they 
 despise death with wonderful courage, and 
 offer themselves voluntarily to punishment. 
 Their first lawgiver has taught them that thej 
 are all brethren, when once they have passed 
 over and renounced the gods of the GrcckS; 
 and worship that blaster of theirs who was 
 crucified, and regulate their manner and con- 
 duct by his laws. They despise, therefore, 
 all earthly possessions, and look upon tliem 
 as common, having received such rules with- 
 out any certain grounds of faith. Therefore, 
 if any juggler, or cunning fellow, who knows 
 how to make his advantage of opportunity, 
 happens to get into their society, he immedi- 
 ately grows rich ; because it is easy to abuse 
 the simplicity of these silly people.' We 
 have no reason to complain of such descrip- 
 tion from tin; \)vu of an adversary ; for, on 
 the on(! hand, it attributes to our ancestors in 
 faith boundless charity, zeal inexhaustible, 
 brotherly love, conlemi»t of death, and of all 
 earthly possessions, and a steady adherence 
 to the fiiith and prece|)ts of Christ ; on the 
 other hand, it lays no charge against them 
 except simplicity, the usual associate of in- 
 nocence. 
 
 There is one (piality mentioned in the 
 
ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 49 
 
 above passage which we shall take occasion to 
 notice hereafter, without entirely overlooking 
 it now, the suffering courage of the persecuted. 
 We consider it a strong proof of the lively faith 
 of the sufferers in the atoning merits of their 
 Saviour, since it could seldom proceed from 
 any other conviction than that the change 
 which they were about to undergo would lead 
 them :j a state of recompense ; a confidence 
 which seems scarcely consistent with the 
 conscio isness of unrepented sin. * Such, at 
 least, we know to have been the impression 
 sometimes produced on the more enlightened, 
 even among the heathen spectators. The 
 ancient author of the Second Apology, attrib- 
 uted to Justin Martyr, urges this proof with 
 much fervor and reason ; and the conversion 
 of Justin himself is, in a gi-eat degi*ee, ascribed 
 to the persuasion of Christian excellence and 
 sincerity, wrought in him by those awful 
 spectacles. 
 
 We shall conclude this chapter by a quota- 
 tion from his First Apology (c. xiv.) : — ' We 
 who formerly rejoiced in licentiousness, now 
 embrace discretion and chastity; we who 
 rejoiced in magical arts, now devote ourselves 
 to the unbegotten God, the God of goodness ; 
 we who set our affections upon wealth and 
 possessions, now bring into the common 
 stock all our property, and share it with the 
 indigent ; we, who, owing to the diversity of 
 customs, would not partake of the same hearth 
 with those of a different race, now, since the 
 appearance of Christ, live together, and pray 
 for our enemies, and endeavor to persuade 
 those who unjustly hate us, that, by leading 
 a life conformed to the excellent precepts of 
 Christianity, they may be filled with the good 
 hope of obtaining the same happiness with 
 ourselves from that God, who is Lord above 
 all things' 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Progress of Christianity from the year 
 200, A. D. till the Accession of Constantine, 
 
 A. D. 313. 
 
 Incipient corruption of the Church — Reasons for it — Its 
 extent — External progress of religion in Asia and in 
 Europe — Claims, chara8ter,and prosperity of the Church 
 of Rome — That of Alexandria. — Origen — His charac- 
 ter — Industry — Success — Defect. — The Church of 
 Carthage.— Tertullian— His character — Heresy— IMer- 
 Its. — Cyprian. — Government of the Church — Increase 
 of episcopal power, or, rather, influence — Degeneracy 
 of the Ministers of Religion exaggerated — Institution 
 of inferior orders — Division of the people into Faithful 
 and Catechumens — Corruption of the sacrament of 
 Baptism — Effect of this — The Eucharist — Daemons 
 7 
 
 — Exorcism — Alliance with philosophy — Its conse- 
 quences.- Pious frauds— Their origin — Excuses fof 
 such corruptions — Eclectic philosophy — Ammonius 
 Saccas — Plotinus — Porphyry — Compromise with cer- 
 tain philosophers — The Milennium — The writings of 
 the early Fathers — Apologies. 
 
 Reserving for subsequent consideration the 
 persecutions and the heresies by which the 
 early Church was disturbed, we shall now 
 pursue its more peaceful annals as far as its 
 establishment by the first Christian emperor. 
 We have found it almost necessary to sepa- 
 rate, and indeed widely to distinguish the 
 events of the two first from those of the third 
 century, for nearly at this point are we dis- 
 posed to place the first crisis in the internal 
 history of the Church. It is true that the first 
 operations of corruption are slow, and gener- 
 ally imperceptible, so that it is not easy to as- 
 certain the precise moment of its commence- 
 ment. But a candid inquirer cannot avoid 
 perceiving that, about the end of the second 
 and the beginning of the third century, some 
 changes had taken place in the ecclesiastical 
 system which indicated a departure from its 
 primitive purity. Indeed, such a state of so- 
 ciety as that which we have recently described 
 could scarcely hope for permanent endurance, 
 unless through a fundamental alteration in 
 human nature and in the necessary course of 
 human affairs. In addition to this, the very 
 principles of Christianity prevented it from 
 remaining stationary ; the spirit of the faith is 
 active, penetrating, and progressive ; and thus, 
 as it expanded itself in numerical extent — as 
 it rose in rank, in learning, in wealth — as it 
 came in contact with the people of all nations, 
 and with all classes of the people, a great 
 variety of human passions and motives was 
 comprehended by it, which had no place in its 
 early existence. As it increased in the num- 
 ber of converts, the zeal of brotherly love and 
 ardent charity became more contracted, since 
 it could no longer be universally exerted. As 
 it rose in rank, it lost that perfect equality 
 among its members which formed the very 
 essence of its original and best character — 
 false learning corrupted its simplicity, and 
 wealth undermined its morality. If it gain- 
 ed in prosperity and worldly consideration, it 
 resigned the native innocence and fireshness 
 of childhood. 
 
 We are far from intending to assert that 
 any sudden demoralization or violent apostasy 
 from its first principles took place in the 
 Church during the third century — far fi*om 
 it — we feel even strongly assured that it still 
 continued to embrace the great proportion of 
 whatever was truly virtuous and excellent in 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 the Roman empire, * But, in closely attend- 
 ing to its histon", we observe that it becomes 
 thenceforward the history of men rather than 
 of things ; the body of the Church is not so 
 much in view, but the acts of its ministers 
 and teachers are continually before us. We 
 read little of the clergy of the two first cen- 
 turies ; they appear to have discharged their 
 pastoral duties with silent diligence and dis- 
 interested piety. We learn their character, for 
 the most part, from the effects of their labors ; 
 and we find its ample and indisputable record 
 in the progress of their religion, and in the 
 virtues of their converts. 
 
 The progress of religion, indeed, continued, 
 under easier circumstances, with equal rapid- 
 ity ; and we have reason to believe that, be- 
 fore the time of Constantine, it was deeply 
 rooted in all the eastern f provinces of the Ro- 
 man, as well as in the Persian empire. Gib- 
 bon X has candidly acknowledged his error in 
 attributing the conversion of Armenia to the 
 reign of that emperor ; and, perhaps, a more 
 impartial reflection on the mission of Pan- 
 taenus, which we have no reason to believe 
 fruitless, would have led him to doubt his own 
 accuracy when he makes a similar assertion 
 respecting ^Ethiopia. The light of Christian- 
 
 * ' Who will not confess (says Origen to Celsus) 
 that the worst members of the Cluirch, who are few^ in 
 comparison with the better, are much more virtuous 
 than those who compose the popular assemblies 1 
 The Church of God, at Athens, if you will, is tranquil 
 and peaceable, searching only to do God's pleasure : 
 the Assembly of the Athenians is seditious, and bear- 
 ing no comparison to it. The same is true of the 
 Churches of Corinth and Alexandria, compared to the 
 
 popular assemblies of those cities So that, if 
 
 we compare the senate of the Church with the scirate 
 of every city, we tihall find the senators of the Church 
 worthy to govern the city of God ; while the otlicrs 
 have nothing in their morals which fits them for their 
 rank, or places them above the ordinary qualities of 
 citizens. And, if we carry the comparison further, 
 we shall observe the immense moral superiority of the 
 ino«l dissolute and imperfect of the binhops and pres- 
 byterH over the civil magistrates.' — See Flcury, lib. 
 vii., HOC 18. 
 
 t Dionys. ap. Euseb., H. E., vii. 5. Dionysius 
 waH Hichop of Alexandria during the middle of the 
 lliird century Tillrmont (vol. iii. p. 405), on the 
 authority of Origen, UHScrrtH that the (;hriKtians,l)cfore 
 the middle of the perond century, not only had built a 
 number of churrhcfl, but had ventured in Home places 
 an a.xfault ui>on templen, altarn, and idolrf. 
 
 X Vindication, p. 74. Wc give him cnidit for this 
 HdmiKxion, iK'cause the error was of hi.s own diHCov(!ry. 
 He a<ld!«, ' Th(! ncviU of the faith were deeply nown 
 here during the la«t and grcratent peri«ecution. Tiri- 
 datex may diH|iut(; \vi(li Conxtantinc the honor of 
 being llie firnl ChriHlian novcrcign.' 
 
 ity had certainly penetrated, with varying 
 splendor, among the Bactrians, the Parthians, 
 the Scythians, Germans, Gauls, and Britons 
 the Goths of Mysia and Thrace were convert- 
 ed by missionaries from Asia, and laid aside, 
 on the reception of the faith, the primeval 
 barbarity of their manners.* 
 
 While the Church of Antioch retained, 
 after the fall of Jerusalem, a nominal supre- 
 macy among the Christians of the east, that 
 of Rome continued to advance, among the 
 western churches, certain vague assertions 
 of authority. On one occasion indeed, in the 
 conviction of a heretical bishop, Paul of Sam- 
 osata, its claims appear to have been indu'ect- 
 ly encouraged f by the Emperor Aurelian ; 
 but they were not then acknowledged by 
 any Christian Church, and were very warm- 
 ly contested by Cyprian, Bishoi) of Carthage. 
 That prelate maintained with equal zeal and 
 truth the primitive equality of the churches. 
 If the early Christians had for the most part 
 derived the rudiments of their learning I from 
 Alexandria, their charitable exertions had beeit 
 principally animated by the wealth and mu- 
 nificence of Rome. These two cities appear 
 still to have maintained their respective advan- 
 tages. During the suspension of persecution, 
 in the reign of Commodus, many great and 
 opulent families were converted ; and welearu 
 from an epistle of Cornelius, Bishop of Rome 
 that it was among his duties to provide for 
 the maintenance of more than 1500 widows 
 and mourners. § The excellences of the reli- 
 gion contributed to its progress, and so rapid 
 at this period was that progress, that at the 
 synod assembled at Rome in the year 251 to 
 pronounce upon the heresy (or schism) of 
 Novatian, || sixty bishops, and a greater num- 
 ber of presbyters and deacons were present, 
 though the rustic pastors in the other districts 
 held their separate meetings respecting the 
 
 * Mosh. Gen. Hist., c. iii., p. i., ch. 1. The 
 
 progress of Christianity in Gaul was not rapid. Even 
 as late as the reign of Dccius, we observe that it was 
 necessary to send fresh missionaries from Rome for 
 the complete conversion of that country. 
 
 t Euscb. n. E., 1. vii., c. 30. Tagi.ad ann. 271, 
 n. 3, 4. 
 
 X The Catechetical School there established, was 
 clearly tiKj most important among the early literary 
 institutions of Christianity. 
 
 § Olt^lnui i'(U. See Sender, vol. i., p. Gti. The 
 clergy of Rome then conHisled of forty-six presbyters, 
 seven deacons, pevrn snb-cK-acons, besides the inferior 
 orders, Euseb. lib. vi., c. 43. 
 
 II EuHcb., H. E., vi. 43. NovntUH origiuatcul the 
 heresy ; Novatian carried it into a schifm. Soo 
 Tillein. , vol. iii., p. 433 to 493 
 
ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 .51 
 
 same questiou. Under such of the emperors 
 as were not decidedly opposed to Christianity, 
 a considerable number of its professors were 
 to be found in the army and even at the court, 
 since their profession did not exclude them 
 from public preferment ; and their assemblage 
 for divine worship, in certain houses * set 
 apart for that purpose, was permitted by the 
 connivance of the civil magistrate, f 
 
 Origen. The best history of the Church 
 of Alexandria during the first half of the third 
 century, is furnished by the life of Origen. 
 That extraordinary person, the most eminent 
 among the early fathers, was a native of 
 Egypt, the son of one Leonidas, who suffered 
 martyrdom in the year 202. When in prison 
 he received an epistle from his son, of which 
 one sentence only is preserved to us. ' Take 
 heed, father, that you do not change your 
 mind for our sake.' Origen Vas then about 
 seventeen years old — his religious instructions 
 he had received from Clemens Alexandrinus, 
 his philosophical lore from Ammonius Saccas, 
 and such proficiency had he made in both 
 those studies, that he was called to preside 
 e'\crthe Catechetical School of Christianity 
 at the age of eighteen. He filled that office 
 for nearly thirty years, and discharged its 
 duties with zeal and genius so distinguished, 
 with such fruitful diligence of composition, 
 such persuasiveness of oral eloquence, as to 
 make it a question whether our religion was 
 ever so much advanced, in point of numbers, 
 by the mere intellectual exertions of any other 
 mdividual^ He merited the honor of per- 
 secution, and had the double fortune to be 
 expelled from his chair and country by the 
 jealousy § of the Bishop Demetrius, and to 
 be tortured in his old age by the brutality of 
 a Roman emperor. || The works of Origen 
 exhibit the operation of a bold and compre- 
 
 * Mosh. cent, iii., p. ii., ch. 4. 
 
 t Mosh., c. iii., p. i.,ch. 1. The emperors during 
 this age who were most favorable to Christianity were 
 Caracalla, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severiis, Gordian, 
 and his two successors, the Philips. Respecting the 
 first of these two, a great mass of authorities is adduced 
 to prove that he had actually, though secretly, embrac- 
 ed the religion. 
 
 X The diligent distribution of his translation of the 
 Scriptures was among the most certain means of ac- 
 complishing that work. 
 
 § Mosheim appears to think that, because Demetrius 
 patronised Origen in his youth, it is not probable that 
 he was jealous of him afterwards. 
 
 II Decius. The reader may find a satisfactory ac- 
 count of the life and writings of Origen in Tillem. 
 Mem., vol. iii. p. 494, 495. 'He was followed by 
 
 hensive mind, burning with religious warmth, 
 unrestrained by any low prejudices or inter 
 ests, and sincerely bent on the attainment of 
 truth. In the main plan and outline of his 
 course, he seized the means best calculated to 
 his object, for his principal labors were di- 
 rected to the collection of correct copies of 
 the Holy Scriptures, to their strict and faithful 
 translation, to the explanation of their numer- 
 ous difficulties. In the two first of these 
 objects he was singularly successful ; but in 
 the accomplishment of the last part of his 
 noble scheme the heat of his imagination and 
 his attachment to philosophical speculation 
 earned him away into error and absurdity ; 
 fbr he applied to the explanation of the Old 
 Testament the same fanciful method of alle- 
 gory by which the Platonists were accustomed 
 to veil the fabulous history of their gods. 
 This error, so fascinating to the loose imagin- 
 ation of the East, was rapidly propagated by 
 numerous disciples, and became the founda- 
 tion of that doubtful system of theology, called 
 Philosophical or Scholastic. 
 
 The fame of Origen was not confined to his 
 native country, or to the schools of philosophy, 
 or to the professors of the Faith. Mamm?ea, 
 the mother of the Emperor Alexander, sought 
 a conference with him in Syria ; he was held 
 in high repute at Rome ; his personal exertions 
 were extended to Greece, and among the most 
 fortunate efforts of his genius we may be 
 allowed to mention, that when a numerous 
 synod was twice convoked in Arabia on two 
 occasions of heresy, Origen, who was present 
 by invitation, was twice successful in convinc- 
 ing his opponents. * His school gave birth 
 to a number of learned men, Plutarch, 
 Serenus, Heraclides, Heron, who proved the 
 sincerity and multiplied the followers of their 
 religion, by the industry with which thev 
 adorned life, and the constancy* with which 
 they quitted it. 
 
 Tertullian. The Latin Church of Carthage 
 attained little celebrity till the end of the 
 second century, when it was adorned by Ter- 
 
 the same fate (says that audior) after his death as 
 during his life. The saints themselves were divided 
 on that subject. Martyrs have made his defence, and 
 martyrs have written his condemnation. T)ie one 
 party has regarded him as tlie greatest doctor possessed 
 by the Church since the apostles ; the other has exe- 
 crated him as the parent of Arius and every other 
 heresiarch, &c.' Tillemont takes the favorable side. 
 
 * Euseb. H. E. vi. 19 and 37. Origen had alsa 
 the credit of converting various other heretics, espe- 
 cially one Ambrose, whose errors had some celebritj 
 at the moment. 
 
52 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 tulhan and we find that, about that period, 
 Christianity, which liad already scattered its 
 blessings along the banks of the Nile, and 
 into the adjacent deserts, also made great * 
 progress along the northern coast of Africa. 
 Tertullian is described by Jerome f as 'a man 
 of eager and violent temper ; ' and he appears 
 to have possessed the usual vice of such a 
 temperament — inconstancy. The same is 
 the character of his ™tings ; they contain 
 some in-egular eloquence, much confidence 
 of assertion, and a mixture of good with very 
 bad reasoning. He wrote many tracts against 
 heretics, and then adopted the opinions of the 
 least rational of all heretics, the Montanists. 
 But in spite of many imperfections, his gen- 
 ius, his zeal, and his industry place him at the 
 head of the Latin fathers of that period ; his 
 moral writings must have been eminently 
 ser\'iceable to converts who had been educated 
 with no fixed principles of morality ; and his 
 *^Apology' is among the most valuable mon- 
 uments of early Christianity. He appears to 
 have been made a presbyter of the Church of 
 Carthage about 192 a. d., at the age of forty- 
 five. His secession from the Church may 
 have taken place seven years afterwards, and 
 some of his most valuable works were proba- 
 bly composed during the period of his heresy .J 
 The fame of Tertullian was succeeded in 
 the same Church, but not sui'passed, by that 
 of Cyprian, an African and a heathen, who 
 was converted to Christianity late in life, and 
 
 ♦ Tertullian in several places indulges in somewhat 
 exaggerated descriptions of the multitude and power 
 of the Christians throughout the empire. But when 
 lie tells Scapula, proconsul of Africa, tliat the effect 
 of continuing the persecution against tlie Christians 
 would Ikj to decimate the inhabitants of Carthage, he 
 probably docs not exceed the truth. Yet Carthage 
 was at that time one of the youngest among the 
 Churclujs. See Bishop Kaye, p. 92. 
 
 t CataloguH Script. Ecclesiast. 
 
 X We acknowledge great obligations to Bishop 
 Kaye for the manner in which he has brought within 
 the reach of ordinary readers of theology the works of 
 Jiintin an<l Tertullian. Whoever shall imitate his ex- 
 ample in the treatment of the oilier principal Fathers, 
 exammift^ with the same learning, judgment, and mo- 
 deration tlieir merits and dcfertM, and rifling from the 
 various contents of their folios what is really valuable 
 to till; tiHtoryand right undcrKtaiidiiig of religion, will 
 C()tu\)\rlt: an undertaking of inralciilablo use in tho 
 ■tudy of ear y Christianity. And at the camo time lie 
 will perform a Hecoiidary, but not unworthy, office — 
 tliat of placing those wriliTH in their jiint rank in 
 literature — n rank from which they are e(iiially far 
 removed by the enthusiasm of th«)»e who revcrr-nce 
 tbcm i<*o highly, and by tin- ij^'iiorance of the more nti- 
 merou« party who ncurn them altogether. 
 
 presently raised to the see of Carthage aboK 
 the year 250. It is said that he was exalted 
 to that dangerous honor rather by the popular 
 voice of the Church than by his own inclina- 
 tion : it is certain that, after a very short and 
 disturbed possession of it, he suflTered mar- 
 tyrdom with great fortitude in the reign of 
 Valerian. An interesting and probably faithful 
 account of his suflferings will be found in a 
 later page. 
 
 Government. The government of the Church 
 at the beginning of the third century was 
 nearly such as we have described in the last 
 chapter. The more important Churches were 
 severally supermtended by a bishop, possessed 
 of a certain, but not very definite degree of 
 authority, who ruled in concert with the body 
 of presbyters, and even consulted on matters 
 of great moment the opinion of the whole 
 assembly. The provincial synods, of which 
 we have spoken, composed of those bishops, 
 assisted by a few presbytere, now began to 
 meet with great regularity* and to publish 
 canons for the general ordination of ecclesi- 
 astical aflTairs. The Metropolitans gradually 
 rose in consequence. Their dignity seems to 
 have been conferred for life ; but their legiti- 
 mate power was confined to the calling and 
 presiding in councils, and the fraternal admo- 
 nition of ofifenders. Still it was the natural 
 consequence of this system, acting on human 
 imperfection, that the occasional presidents 
 insensibly asserted a general preeminence 
 over the other bishops, which it became their 
 next step to dispute with each other ; and that 
 the other bishops, being now constantly dis- 
 tinguished from their presbyters by these 
 synodical meetings, assumed both over them 
 and the people a degree of ascendency not 
 originally acknowledged, but which it was not 
 difiicult gradually to convert into authority. 
 Tf we are to bestow on any individual the 
 credit of having accomplished a change so 
 iiatiu-al and so nearly insensible, that distinc- 
 tion may jiossihly be due to Cyprian ; certain 
 it is, th.'it in? j)leaded for ej)iscopal supremacy 
 with nnu'h more zeal and vehemence than 
 had hitht.'rto been emj)l()yed in that cause, f 
 It seems clear, indeed, from several of his 
 epistles, X especially that addresscnl to Koga- 
 
 * Twice every year — in the spring and uiil Jinn 
 t Mo.sli. Cen. Hist. c. iii. p. ii. eh. 2. 
 X r>ingliani, Cli. Aiiticp b. ii. ch. 3. The apostol- 
 ical canons c(jntlrm these pretensions, and so do certain 
 ranons of the councils of Nice, Snrdica, Antioch, 
 j Chalcedon, and olher« ; but, according to the firet 
 I and Bocond councila of Cartlmjje, the consent of three 
 
ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 53 
 
 tian, that bishops possessed in his time, or at 
 least in his Church, the power of suspending 
 or deposing delinquents among the clergy; 
 yet even this was liable to some indefinite 
 restrictions as to circumstance and custom, 
 and to a direct appeal to a provincial council. 
 Ariu it does not appear that such power 
 was frequently exerted without the consent 
 of the presbyterial college, or ' senate of the 
 Church.' From these facts, compared with 
 the assertions afterwards made by St. Jerome 
 and St. Chrysostom, (which we have already 
 mentioned,) we infer that the actual progress 
 of episcopal usurpation, during the third cen- 
 tury, was much less than some have imagined 
 — or at least, that the power of the bishops 
 grew chiefly through the growth of their 
 influence, and was not yet publicly acknow- 
 ledged by the constitution of the Church. * 
 
 We admit, however, with sorrowful reflec- 
 tion, that the individual conduct of some, 
 perhaps many, among the directors of the 
 Ciiurch, during the course, and especially the 
 conclusion, of this century, deserved the rep- 
 rehensions of contemporary and succeeding 
 writers.! Some assumption of the ensigns of 
 temporal dignity — the splendid throne, the 
 sumptuous garments, the parade of external 
 pomp — indicated a departure from apostolical 
 simplicity ; and a contentious ambition suc- 
 ceeded to the devoted humility of former days. 
 And though we believe this evil to have been 
 exaggerated by all the writers who have dwelt 
 upon it, since the abuses which we have 
 noticed could scarcely be carried to violent 
 excess by an order possessing no legally re- 
 cognised rights or property, we may still be 
 
 bishops waa necessary for the censure of a deacon, 
 six for that of a presbyter, of twelve for that of 
 a bishop. ' Reliquorum Clericorum causas solus Epis- 
 copusloci agnoscatet finiat.' — Cone. Carth. iii. Can. 
 8. Cyprian himself (Epist. v. p. 11. Ep, xiii. p. 
 23. Ep. xxviii. p. 29, and in many other places) 
 avows tliat he cannot act without his council of pres- 
 byters and deacons, and the consent of the people. 
 See Mosh. (De Reb. Christ, ant. Const, sec. iii. sec. 
 xxiii. xxiv.) for a full examination of the principles 
 and conduct of Cyprian. The writings of that prelate 
 seem to have been more effectual in exalting the epis- 
 copal dignity in following times than during his own. 
 
 * We are disposed to attribute much of this increase 
 of influence to a cause not eufiiciently attended to by 
 ecclesiastical writers, — the judicial, or rather arbi- 
 trative, autliority originally vested in tlie bishops by 
 the consent of their people, and which would naturally 
 extend its limits, as it was confirmed by time and usage. 
 
 t Origen. Comm. in Matthceum, par. i. app. p. 
 420. 441, 442 ; Euseb. H. E. 1. viii. c. 1. Cyprian 
 himself rates his contemporary prelates with great 
 teverity. (Laps. p. 239, &c.) The language of 
 
 convinced, by the institution of certain inferior 
 classes in the ministry, such as subdeacons, 
 acoluthi, readers, exorcists, and others, that 
 the higher ranks had made some advances in 
 luxurious indolence.* 
 
 Catechumens. This deterioration in the 
 character of the ministers was attended by a 
 corresponding change in the ceremonies of 
 the Church. The division of the people into 
 two classes, the Faithful and the Catechu- 
 mens, was the practice, if not the invention, 
 of the third century. It was borrowed from 
 the pagan principle of initiation ; and the out- 
 ward distinction between those classes was 
 this: that after the performance of public 
 worship the latter were dismissed, while the 
 former, the true and initiated Christians, re- 
 mained to celebrate the mysteries f of their 
 religion ; and this term is by some thought to 
 have expressed not only the administration 
 of the sacraments, but the delivery of some 
 doctrinal instructions. The original simpli- 
 city of the oflice of baptism had already un- 
 dergone some corruption. The symbol had 
 been gradually exalted at the expense of the 
 thing signified, and the spirit of the ceremony 
 was beginning to be lost in its form. Hence 
 a belief was gaining ground among the con- 
 verts, and was inculcated among the heathen, 
 that the act of baptism gave remission of all 
 sins I committed previously to it. It was not 
 fit, then, that so important a rite should be 
 hastily performed or inconsiderately receiv- 
 ed ; and, therefore, the new proselytes w ere, 
 in the first instance, admitted into a proba- 
 tionaiy state under the name of Catechumens, 
 
 Mosheim, who is always extremely violent on this sub- 
 ject, will not bear careful examination. Gen. Hist, 
 cent. iii. p. ii. ch. 2. See also Tillem. vol. iii. p. 306. 
 The praise which Origen has bestowed on Christians 
 generally, may be contrasted with his censures on the 
 clergy, and they will serve to moderate each other. 
 
 * Mosh. de Reb. Ch. ante Const, sec. ii*. sect. 23. 
 
 t The term mystery is in the Greek Church synon- 
 ymous with sacrament. See Semler, Cent, iii, p. 
 63; and particularly Le Clerc, cent. ii. ann. 101. and 
 ad ann. 118. Neither were the catechiunens allowed to 
 use the Lord's Prayer, which was even denominated 
 e-vxri TTiarwv , the prayei- of the faithful. Chrj-sost. 
 Horn. ii. in 2 Cor. p. 740, and Horn. x. m Coloss. 
 For other references see Bingham, Ch. Antiq. b. i. 
 ch. 4. 
 
 t Cyprian, Epistle 73. ' It is manifest when and 
 by whom the remission of sins, whioh is conferred in 
 baptism, is administered. They who are presented tt 
 the rulers of the Church obtain, by our prayers ana 
 imposition of hands, the Holy Ghost.' See also Euseb. 
 H. E. 1. vii. c. 8. Mosh. c. iii. p. ii. c. 4. Compare 
 Cyprian's language with the passage of Justin MartjT 
 on the same subject. 
 
54 
 
 JIISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 whence they were chosen, according to their 
 progress in grace, into the body of the Faith- 
 ful. As long as they remained in that class, 
 great care was taken to instruct them in the 
 important truths, and especially in the moral 
 obligations, of rehgion ; yet doubtless there 
 would be some among them in whom the 
 love of sin survived the practice of supersti- 
 tion,* and such would naturally defer their 
 baptism and their pardon until the fear of 
 death, or satiety of enjoyment, overtook them. 
 It is true, that baptism was not supposed to 
 bestow any impunity for future sins ; on the 
 contrary, the first offence committed after it 
 required the expiation of a public confession, f 
 and the second was punished by excommuni- 
 cation. But if the hope and easy condition 
 of pardon for the past tended, as it may have 
 done, to fill the ranks of the catechumens, 
 we may reasonably indulge the belief that the 
 great majority were amended and perfected 
 by the religious instruction which was then 
 opened to them. 
 
 . About the same time, and from causes con- 
 ■ nected with this misapprehension of the real 
 nature of baptism, and the division of the con- 
 verts, a vague and mysterious veneration be- 
 gan to attach itself to the other Sacrament ; 
 its nature and merits were exaggerated by 
 those who administered and partook of it ; it 
 was regarded with superstitious curiosity by 
 those to whom it was refused ; and reports 
 were already propagated of the miraculous 
 efiicacy of the consecrated elements. 
 
 An opinion at this time became prevalent 
 in the Christian world, that the demons, the 
 enemies of man, were, in fact, the same be- 
 iigs whom the heathen worshipped as gods, 
 who inhabited their temples and animated 
 their statues. It became, therefore, the duty 
 of the soldiers of Christ to assail them under 
 every form, and expel them from every resi- 
 dence. That, indeed, whicli they are nslated 
 most frefiueiitly to have occupied was the 
 body of man, \ and from this rffuge they were 
 persevcringly disturbed by tiie j>ious exor- 
 cisms of the clergy ; and this j)ractice was 
 carried to such superstitious excess, that none 
 
 * Orij^en, nowcvcr, aHHiircH iih, that among his con- 
 vertH there wen; more who luid pniviouHly led a moral life 
 than of l\u: oj)po«ite dcrscriptioii — a fact which may 
 »o.r\o .'in an anwwer to one of (iilibon'M inHiimationH. S(;<; 
 Celn. 1. iii. p. ISO, ITjl. Tillem. Mem. vol. iii. p. 116. 
 
 I Celibacy, though imder no cir<:umnUinre9 conHid- 
 er«d a* a duty eitlier by cler^jy or laity, acr|uired Home 
 unmerited honor dunn^ liiiri a^c, through the abHurd, 
 but general p<:r»uaition, iJiat (Jioi^e wliu had w ivctt were 
 
 were admitted to the ordinance of baptism 
 until they had been solemnly delivered from 
 the dominion of tlie Prince of Darkness. * 
 The Sign of the Cross, which was already in 
 much honor in the time of Tertullian, f was 
 held to be of great effect in the expulsion of 
 demons, and in other miracles. We also find 
 that the use of prayers for the dead obtained 
 very general prevalence during this age. 
 
 Philosophy. A dispute had divided the 
 Church during the second century, as to the 
 propriety of adopting, in its contests with the 
 heathen, the weapons of philosophy, -and it 
 was finally decided by the authority of Ori- 
 gen, and the superior loquacity of the phi' 
 losophical party. By this condescension the 
 Christians gained great advantages in the dis- 
 play of argument, in subtlety of investigation, 
 in plausibility of conclusion, in the abuse and 
 even in the use of reason ; but they lost that 
 manly and simple integrity of disputation 
 which well became, in spite of its occasional 
 rusticity, the defender of truth. It is to thirf 
 alliance | that some are disposed to trace the 
 birth of those pious frauds which cover the 
 face of ecclesiastical history. The original 
 source of this evil was at least free from any 
 stain or shame. It had long been a practice 
 among ancient philosophical writers to as- 
 cribe their works to some name of undisput- 
 ed authority, in order to secure attention to 
 their opinions, though the opinions were well 
 known to be only those of the writer ; but the 
 consequences whicli flowed from it have in- 
 fected the Church of Christ with some of 
 its deepest and most dangerous pollutions, 
 liooks written in later ages were zealously 
 
 peculiarly liable to tlio influence of malignant demons. 
 At least Motfheim (cent. iii. p. ii. ch. 2) asserts this 
 on the authority of Porphyry, -^7io;f7j;- 1. iv 
 p. 417. In the time of irena;us, (1, i c. 24.) the 
 profession of celibacy was a heresy. 
 
 * Mosh. fJen. Hist. cent. iii. p. ii. ch. 4. 
 
 f I)e Corona, cap. iii. Semler, Hist. Eccl. cent, 
 iii. cap. 3. 
 
 X Lc Clerc adjudges to an earlier year (ami. 122) 
 the celebrated forgery, under tlie name of Hermes 
 TrismegistuH, of which the object was to trace the 
 doctrine of Christ to a nuich higher period than his 
 incarnation, and thus to increase its sanctity. The 
 interpohition of the Sibylline IJooks is referred by tlie 
 same historian to the year 131. This latter impoa- 
 tnre,aH foolish as shameful, was v^Lrmly patronised by 
 a host of l''athers, including Clei.nens Alex., Tertullian, 
 Kusebius, Jerome, Auguslin, hv. and thus occasioned 
 nmch scandal to ( .'hristians in general am<mg their ene- 
 mies in that age, and no little disrepute to its ancient pa- 
 trons among candid writers of every age. See Lc Clerc, 
 vol. i. p. 106. Jortin, KenuukB, &c. vol. i. p. 18» 
 
ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 56 
 
 firculated as the writings of the Apostles, or 
 of the Apostolical Fathers.* Tlie works of 
 these last were altered or interpolated, accord- 
 ing to the notions of after times or the capri- 
 ces of the interpolator ; but usually for the 
 purpose of proving the antiquity of some new 
 opinion, some innovation in discipline, some 
 usurpation in authority. The practice was 
 justified by the detestable, but popular prin- 
 ciple, ' that truth may be defended by false- 
 hood it was encouraged by the difficulties 
 of detection in ignorant ages ; and it contin- 
 ued for more than six centuries to disgrace 
 the Roman Church. It was the same princi- 
 ple, pushed a little farther, which has stained 
 the writings of so many among the early Fa- 
 thers with statements at least doubtful, if not 
 with palpable falsehood. But, on the other 
 hand, we should ever recollect that Christian- 
 ity in those days was chiefly in the hands of 
 Greeks and Africans,f men of subtle intel- 
 lects and violent passions, whose habits ajid 
 whose climate too often carried them into the 
 extreme either of metaphysical sophistry or 
 wild enthusiasm — men who could speculate 
 on their faith, or who could die for it, but 
 who were little calculated for the tranquil 
 equanimity of sober and reasonable belief 
 We should recollect also, that some of our 
 jest and commonest principles of action were 
 then unknown or partially received ; and that, 
 in fact, many of them are the result of the 
 patient operation of Christianity on the human 
 character, through a long succession of ages. 
 We shall never do justice to the history of 
 our religion, unless we continually bear in 
 mind the low condition of society and mor- 
 als existing among the people to whom it was 
 first delivered. 
 
 During the concluding part of the second 
 century, a philosophical sect arose at Alex- 
 andria, who professed to form their own ten- 
 
 * Such, in tlie second century, were the celebrated 
 Apostolical Canons ; and, afterwards, the Apostolical 
 Constitutions, attributed to the diligence of Clemens 
 Romanus ; and such were the False Decretals in the 
 eighth.— Mosh. G. Hist. c. i. p. ii. ch. 2. Le Clerc 
 (9«c. i. ad. ann. 100) supposes the Canons to be of 
 the third, the Constitutions of a later age. Jortin, 
 supposing that the Canons may have been forged, 
 some in the second and some in the third century, 
 refers the Constitutions to some period after Constan- 
 tino, vol. i. pp. 152, 185. 
 
 f It is certainly very remarkable, that for the first 
 three centuries Rome produced no ecclesiastical writer 
 of any merit, excepting Clement; and the western 
 provinces not one of any description : Rome was very 
 •early as barren during the thr«e which followed. 
 
 ets, by selecting and reconciling what wai 
 reasonable in the tenets of all others, and re- 
 jecting what was contrary to reason — they 
 were called the new Platonics, or Eclectics. 
 What they professed respecting philosophy, 
 they easily extended to religion, since with 
 them religion was entirely founded on philo- 
 sophical principles. It is strange that the 
 great founder of this sect, Ammonius Sac- 
 cas,* had been educated in Christianity ; and 
 he seems never to have abandoned the name-f 
 of the faith, while he was disparaging its doc- 
 trines and its essence. A sect, which was 
 founded on the seductive principle of univer 
 sal concord, soon made extraordinary pro 
 gress. In his eminent disciple Plotinus, Am- 
 monius left a successor not inferior to him- 
 self in subtlety of genius, and power of pro 
 found and abstruse investigation ; and next 
 to Plotinus in age and reputation, is the cele- 
 brated name of Porphyry. J The efforts of 
 these philosophers were for the most part di- 
 rected against Christianity, and the contest 
 was waged with gi-eat ardor during the third 
 century. But as Origen and his scholars, c n 
 the one hand, adopted into the service of re- 
 ligion some of the peculiar principles of their 
 adversaries, so, on the other, certain disciples 
 of Plotinus assumed the name and professed 
 the faith of Christians, at the same time 
 that they retained some favorite 
 opinions of their master ; § an accession 
 which was only valuable in so far as it swell- 
 ed the body and increased the lustre of the 
 church. II 
 
 * Mosh. Geu. Hist. c. ii. p. ii. ch. 1. Memoires 
 de Tillem. torn. iii. p. 279. 
 
 t Porphyry asserts that Ammonius deserted Qiris- 
 tianity, Eusebius that he adliered to it. To these 
 two opinions, variously advocated by most modern 
 divines, others have added a third, tiiat Eusebius mis- 
 took a Christian writer of the same name for the hea- 
 then philosopher ; and this is warmly maintained by 
 Lardner (Collection of Heathen and Jewish Testimo- 
 nies.) Tlie question was not worth one page of con- 
 troversy ; and, in our mind. Christian writers would 
 act a more politic, as well as a more manly part, if 
 they at once disclaim their ambiguous defendei-s. 
 
 I Mosh. de Reb. Ch. ante Constant, sect, iii 
 xxi. 
 
 § August. Epist. 56, ad Dioscor. — Mosh. c. iii. p 
 ii. ch. 1. 
 
 II To give some idea of the nature of Christian lit 
 erature in this age, it may be worth while to mention 
 the subjects of some of the most celebrated productions 
 — On Temptations — The Baptism of Hercticsi - 
 Promises — Chastity — The Creation — The Origin 
 of Evil — The Vanity of Idols — The Dress of Vir . 
 gins — The Unity of the Church — Circumcision — 
 
56 HISTORY OF 
 
 Millennium. It has been too hastily assert- 
 ed by some historians, and too readily admit- 
 ted by others, that the expectation of the Mil- 
 lennium, or presence of Christ on earth to 
 reign with his elect, was the universal opinion 
 of the ancient church. The fair statement 
 of that much-disputed question appears to 
 be this : — Eusebius * informs us that Papias, 
 ' among certain parables and sermons of the 
 Saviour, and other seemingly fabulous records 
 which he professed to have received tradition- 
 ally said, that there would be a thousand 
 years after the resurrection of the dead, during 
 which Christ was to reign bodily upon the 
 earth ; in which I think that he misunderstood 
 the apostolic naiTations, not penetrating what 
 was mystically spoken by them ; for he ap- 
 pears to have been exceedingly limited in 
 understanding [^a^inqbg xbv voiv), as one 
 may conjecture from his discourses.' The 
 historian then proceeds to attribute the gen- 
 eral reception of this opinion among ecclesi- 
 astics, and particularly by Irenaeus, to their 
 respect for ' the antiquity of the man.'f To 
 
 Clean and Unclean Animals — The Lapsed, or those 
 who had fallen from the Faith during Persecution — 
 The Millennium ; besides numerous books against 
 heretics. 
 
 * H. E. Vih iii. c. 39. — On tliis important subject 
 see Whitby's excellent • Treatise on the Millennium,' 
 at the end of vol. ii. of his * Commentaries.' This ob- 
 scure doctrine was probably known to very few except 
 the Fathers of the Church, and is very sparingly men- 
 tioned by them during the two first centuries. And 
 there is reason to believe that it scarcely attained 
 much notoriety even among learned Christians until it 
 was made matter of controversy by Origen, and then re- 
 jected by the great majority. In fact, we find Origen 
 himself, in his Prolegomena to the Canticles (69 B. ), 
 asserting that it was confined ' to those of the simpler 
 eortj' and, in his Philocalia (c. xxvi. p. 99) he di- 
 rectly declares that the few ^TfJ'f?^ who held it did 
 t. 90 with Huch secrecy, that it had not yet come to the 
 ears of the heathen .... In all fiiirncss, tlien, we must 
 connider the opposite declarations of Origen and Euse- 
 bius either to have Ixien applied to different parts of 
 Christendom, or to qualify each other : always recol- 
 lecting that tiie latter is confined to ecclesiastics, while 
 the fonner extends to all claKsea. 
 
 t The words are these — nX-^y xnl loZg [.iex^ 
 uvt6v nXEimoXg oaoig tC)v ixxXTjaKxanxCop 
 T^ff ufiolug ai5iaJ do^r^g naQuLjiog ylyovF, 
 T^lV dLQX"i6T7]Ta tdvd()dg rcQoflp^Xiifiirolg' 
 U}(rne(f olf E^QT]vut(f xul tl' rtg &XXog T(i o//ot« 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I Papias, then, we may attribi/te the origin of 
 the behef. It was first adopted by Justin 
 Martyr,* next by Irenseus, and connected 
 by both of them with the resurrection of the 
 flesh. But the passage of the latter f plainly 
 declares 'that there were some in the church, 
 in divers nations and by various works, who, 
 believing, do consent with the just, who do 
 yet endeavor to turn these things into meta- 
 phors ;' which proves that even the orthodox 
 were divided on the question at that early age, 
 though the names of the disputants have not 
 reached us. The first distinguished opponent 
 of the doctrine was Origen, who attacked it 
 with great earnestness and ingenuity, and 
 seems, in spite of some opposition, to have 
 thrown it into general discredit ; and, proba 
 bly, we shall not have occasion to notice the 
 opinion again until we arrive at the tenth 
 century. 
 
 Dr. Whitby expresses his belief that the 
 Fathers who adopted that doctrine ' received 
 it from the traditions and notions of the 
 Jews and he proceeds very truly to assert 
 that that error ' will not invalidate their au- 
 thority in any thing delivered by them as wit- 
 nesses of what they have seen, or declared to 
 have been then the practice of the Church of 
 Christ.' In these points, indeed, consists a 
 great portion of the direct value of their works. 
 But they are also greatly, perhaps principally, 
 useful to us, as they prove, by numerous r uo- 
 tations, the early existence of the books of the 
 New Testament as we now read them, and 
 their reception in the primitive Church. J 
 
 * Dial, cum Try ph. 
 
 t Adv. Hajr. 1. v. c. 33. 
 
 X The Apologies for Christianity, published by the 
 early Fathers, however imperfect as specimens of 
 reasoning or even as representations of religion, were 
 probably, at the time, the most useful of their labors, 
 not only because they brought Christianity into notice, 
 and challenged examination, and put forward some of 
 its leading excellences, but also because they publicly 
 assaulted the tottering temples of Paganism, and expos- 
 ed to irresistible coMtempt and contumely its origin, 
 its rites, its morals, and its mythology. And those 
 Apologies were very numerous — to tliosc of Justin, 
 Athenagoras, Tatian, Melilo, Quadratua, Aristides, 
 find Tertulllan, already mentioned, we n)ay add otheri 
 by Clemens Apollinarirt, and Tlieophlliis of Anticch 
 — Monh. G. Hist. c. ii. p. ii. chap. Flmu-y, L 
 BCCt. 4, &c. 
 
PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS 
 
 57 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Persecutions of several Roman Emperors. 
 
 Claims of Roman Paganism to the character of tolerance 
 
 — examined — Theory of pure Polytheism —Roman 
 policy — Various laws of the Republic — continued un- 
 der the emperors — Mecaenas — Remarks —The ten 
 persecutions — how many general — That of Nero — its 
 character — Of Domitian — The grandsons of St. Jude 
 
 — The epistle of Pliny to Trajan — His answer — Real 
 object of Trajan — Letter of SereniusGranianus to Ha- 
 drian — Antoninus Pius — Marcus Antoninus — Gib- 
 bon's partiality — Real character of this persecution 
 compared with those preceding it — His principles and 
 knowledge, and superstition — His talents and virtues 
 
 — Connexion of his philosophy and his intolerance — 
 Commodus — Decius — His persecution — accounted for 
 
 — its nature — Valerian — Martyrdom of Cyprian — 
 Persecution of Diocletian — Its origin and motives — 
 Influence of Pagan priesthood — Progress of the per- 
 secution — Its mitigation by Constantius, and final 
 cessation at the accession of Constantine. — General 
 Remarks — Unpopularity of the Christians — accounted 
 for — Calumnies by which they suffered — Their con- 
 tempt of all false gods — Change in the character of 
 their adversaries — Philosophy — Excuses advanced 
 for the persecutors — their futility — General character 
 of persecuting emperors — Absurd opinions on this sub- 
 ject — Effect of the persecutions —upon the whole fa- 
 vorable—For what reasons. 
 
 Certain writers have industriously exerted 
 themselves to display the mild and tolerant 
 nature <rf the religion which prevailed in the 
 Roman world at the introduction of Christian- 
 ity ; and then, when its seeming claims to 
 this excellence have been established, they 
 have placed it in contrast with the persecuting 
 spirit which has occasionally broken out from 
 the corruptions of our faith ; insomuch that 
 some persons may possibly have been per- 
 suaded that there was some latent virtue in 
 that superstition, which Christianity does not 
 possess. We shall not here pause to show, 
 what none can seriously deny, that the intol- 
 erance of Christians, like all their other vices, 
 is in spite, and not in consequence, of their 
 belief; but it is worth while shortly to ex- 
 amine the pretensions of Polytheism to one 
 of the virtues in which we are most disposed 
 to exult, and which we are accustomed to 
 consider most peculiarly our own. 
 
 The religion called Polytheism means ' the 
 worship of many gods.' Now the observation 
 which first occurs to us is this ^ that, when 
 tlie number of gods is not limited, the easy 
 reception of an additional divinity does little 
 more than satisfy the definition of the word ; 
 it is not the endurance of a new religion, but 
 the slight extension of that already establish- 
 ed. The intrusion of one stranger would 
 scarcely be noticed in the numerous synod 
 of Mount Olympus ; the golden portals were 
 ever open — useful virtue or splendid vice 
 
 gave an equal claim to admission ; and the 
 policy or servility of Rome bowed with the 
 same pliancy to the captive gods of her ene- 
 mies or the manes of her imperial tyrants. 
 This was not a virtue, but a part of Polythe- 
 ism ; the new deities became new members 
 of the same monstrous body ; they assisted 
 and sustained each other ; and the whole 
 mass was held together by ignorance, and an- 
 imated by the gross spirit of superstition. It 
 seems, indeed, that a Pagan statesman, who 
 may have permitted additions to the calendar 
 of his gods, deserves no higher description 
 of praise than that which we should bestow 
 on a pope, who has been zealous in the ca- 
 nonization of saints. For one idol will pres- 
 ently become as holy as another idol ; nor 
 could there be any reason why Jove should 
 scorn the society of Serapis, since their re- 
 spective divinity was founded on the same 
 evidence, and their worship conducted on the 
 same principles. 
 
 Such is the real theory of pure Polytheism. 
 But we should be doing it much more than 
 justice, if we were to confine ourselves to its 
 abstract nature, without mention of the po- 
 litical uses to which it was converted ; and 
 which, indeed, subjected it to so much re- 
 straint and limitation, that we shall be unable 
 to discover in its practice even that ambiguous 
 virtue which some have supposed to be in 
 herent in it. 
 
 The belief or infidelity of the statesmen of 
 antiquity, who were left to wander over the 
 fields of conjecture, with no better guide than 
 reason, may have varied in individuals, ac- 
 cording to the understanding, or the passions, 
 or the wishes of each ; but those were certain- 
 ly very rare, who admitted into their closet 
 the various and irrational worship which they 
 encouraged in the people. They supported 
 religion only as one of the easiest means of 
 governing ; and valued devotion to the gods 
 as they supposed it naturally connected with 
 obedience to man — a just supposition, in a 
 case where the gods were little removed from 
 the nature, and generally tainted with the 
 vices, of humanity. Our short inquiry into 
 the manner in which the ancients wielded 
 this engine of state shall be confined to the 
 History of Rome, as being immediately con- 
 nected with the subject of the present chapter. 
 
 Cicero (de Legibus, c. ii. s. 8.) gives us the 
 following extract fi-om the most ancient laws 
 of Rome. ' Let no one have any separate 
 worship, nor hold any new gods ; neither to 
 strange gods, unless they have been publicly 
 adopted, let any private worship be offered . 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 men should attend the temples erected by 
 their ancestors,' Sec. From Livy (b. iv. c. 
 30.) we learn that about 430 yeai-s before 
 Christ, orders were given to the j;Ediles to see 
 that none except Roman gods were worship- 
 ped, nor in any other than the established 
 forms.' Somewhat more than 200 years af- 
 ter this edict, to crush certain external rites 
 which were becoming common in the city, 
 the following edict was published, 'that who- 
 ever possesses books of oracle, or prayer, or 
 any written act of sacrifice, deliver all such 
 books and writings to the Pretor before the 
 Calends of April ; and that no one sacrifice 
 on public or sacred ground after new or for- 
 eign rites.' But it may seem needless to pro- 
 duce separate instances, when from the same 
 historian (b. xxxix. c. 16.) we learn, that it 
 had been customary in all the early ages of the 
 republic to empower the magistrates ' to pre- 
 vent all foreign worship, to expel its ministers 
 from the forum, the circus, and the city, to 
 search for and burn the religious books (vati- 
 cinos libros), and to abolish every form of 
 sacrifice except the national and established 
 fbrm.' 
 
 The authority of Livy is confirmed by that 
 of Valerius Maximus, who wrote under the 
 emperor Tiberius, and bears testimony to the 
 jealousy with which all foreign religions were 
 prohibited by the Roman republic (b. i. c. 3.). 
 That the same principle, which had been 
 consecrated by the practice of seven hundred 
 years, was not discontinued by the emperors, 
 is clearly attested by the historian Dio Cassi- 
 us * (p. 490-2.). It appears that Mecajnas, in 
 the most earnest terms, exhorted Augustus 
 ' to hate anfl punish' all foreign religions, and 
 to compel all men to conform to the national 
 worship ; and we arc assured that the scheme 
 of government thus proj)Oscd was pursued 
 by Augustus and adopted by his successors. 
 
 Now, from the first of the passages before 
 us it appears that all right of private judgment 
 in matters of religion was ex|)Hcitly forbidden 
 by on original law of Rome — which never 
 v/as r('[)eale(l. We know not what stronger 
 proof it wf)uld bo possible to adduci; of iIk; 
 inherent intolerance of Roman Polytheism. 
 The four n(!Xt references prove to us that the 
 ancient law, Kui)verHive of the most obvious 
 right of human nature, was strictly act(.'(l upon 
 during the long continuance of the common- 
 wealth. The established form of I'aganiHm 
 might not 1»<! vif)lated by individual schism 
 or (liHsenl ; the gods whom the government 
 
 • In the y«;«r I J. ('. 701 llw) t<'inplrM i>( IhIh iind 
 Oiirifwerc (lci)U-t)}cd byor«l«*i of tlir .>cimtf (H. 10.). 
 
 created the people were compelled to worship 
 according to the forms imposed by the gov- 
 ernment. Under the early emperors the same 
 w^as still the maxim of state ; and if the influx 
 of idolaters from every nation under Heaven 
 made it difficult to preserve the purity of the 
 Roman religion, that religion became more 
 domestic and (let us add) more Roman by the 
 successive and easy deification of some of the 
 most vicious of mankind. 
 
 These few lines may suffice for the present 
 to disprove the plausible theory of the toler- 
 ance of Paganism, and they may lead us, 
 perhaps, to discover the true reason why the 
 worship of Christ was forbidden in that city 
 which acknowledged the divinity of Nero. 
 At least, we shall have learnt from them, that 
 the religion which Christianity supplanted 
 was very far from possessing the only point 
 of superiority which its admirers have ever 
 claimed for it. And we shall not forget, in 
 the following pages, to direct to the religious 
 system of Rome some portion of the abhor- 
 rence which is usually confined to the iudi 
 viduals who administered it. 
 
 Number of persecutions. Hitherto we have 
 followed the progress of Christianity through 
 nearly all the provinces of the Roma!i em- 
 pire, and some countries without its limits, 
 as if we had been attending a triumphal pro - 
 cession. The less pleasing duty remains to 
 describe its difficulties and its afflictions. 
 And in so doing it is not easy to ascertain the 
 precise path of truth, entangled as it is, on 
 one side, by the exaggerated fictions of en- 
 thusiasts, and perplexed, on the other, by the 
 perversity of skepticism. 
 
 Early, though not the most ancient, eccle- 
 siastical historians, followed by many mod- 
 erns, have fixed the number of j)ersecutions 
 at ten ; and if we thought proper indiscrimin- 
 ately to designate by that name every partial 
 outrage to which Christians were subjected 
 from the reign of Nero to that of Constan- 
 tine, ])erhaps even this number might be con- 
 siderably extended. * On the other hand, 
 
 ♦ Mosli. (JcMi. Hist. Cent. i. p. i. ch. 5. Idem de 
 Clir. Ant. Const. Sire. i. sect. xxvi. The number 
 of ten pcrscjcntiona \vii8 nn invention of the fiUli cen- 
 tury, derived from arhitrnry interjjrctation of propl>- 
 ory rather than historical evidence. Lactantiu*', in 
 the fourtli af,'e, (Munnerates only six. Enseljius upocifics 
 no niniihcr, lluxiyli lie a|)pcar« to nientitm nine. Tlie 
 Hanw! niunhcr is adopted l)y Sul|)i( iiiH SevcruH, in Uic 
 fifth century, wln) prepares his readers, however, fo. 
 the indirlion of the tcnlh and last by Anlielirist at tlio 
 end of tlie world; from this time <«7* became the pop- 
 uliir conipututiou. 
 
PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 
 
 69 
 
 3ibbon has so carefully palliated the guilt, 
 and softened down the asperity of those suc- 
 cessive inflictions, that in his representation 
 not one of them wears a serious aspect, ex- 
 cepting that of Diocletian ; though he admits 
 that some transient excesses may be charged 
 upon Nero, Domitian, Decius, and perhaps 
 one or two others. 
 
 Differing in many respects fi-om that author 
 in our view of this portion of history, and an- 
 imated, perhaps, by a more general and im- 
 partial humanity, we are still willing, in this 
 matter, to make some concessions to his 
 opinion ; and though other occasions to prove 
 the sincerity and constancy of Christians were 
 abundantly presented, yet we are not disposed 
 to impute the shame of deliberate unrelenting 
 persecution to more than four or five among 
 tlie emperors ; but in one important respect 
 our estimate of these events will still differ 
 from that of the philosophical historian, as 
 we shall bestow a much greater share of at- 
 tention on the conduct of Marcus Antoninus. 
 Our reasons will appear in the progress of 
 the narrative. 
 
 JVero. The persecution of Nero was the 
 first to which the Christian name was subject- 
 ed, and the best account which has reached 
 us respecting it is that of the historian Tacit- 
 us, which we have translated in a former 
 chapter. From his description it appears, 
 tliat the sufferings of the Christians did not 
 originate in any evil that had been committed 
 by them, nor even in the general calumnies 
 which blackened their character,* but in a 
 specific charge, which was notoriously false, 
 that they, had occasioned the destructive con- 
 flagration so generally attributed to the mad- 
 ness of the Emperor himself. The nature 
 of their tortures is related, and the very spots 
 particularized on which they were inflicted. 
 But their duration is not mentioned, nor the 
 extent to which the persecution prevailed (if 
 It at all prevailed) in other parts of the empire. 
 The fact, that it arose in the first instance 
 from a charge which was necessarily confined 
 to the inhabitants of Rome, is certainly not a 
 conclusive argument that it might not after- 
 wards spread beyond the boundaries of the 
 city ; and yet both the words and the silence 
 of Tacitus are such as indirectly persuade us, 
 that the calamity, which he is describing, was 
 
 * Suetonius, Vit. Neronis, cap. 16., mentions the 
 same event, in the midst of some trifling details of 
 sumptuary restrictions, in tliese few words — 'Afflicti 
 suppliciis Christian!, genus homin»un superstitionis 
 novae et maleficae.' But we must follow the circum- 
 stantial narrative of Tacitus. 
 
 botli local and transient. The imperfect ac- 
 count of Eusebius * throws little more lighl 
 on these questions, which have in vain divid- 
 ed the opinions and exercised the ingenuity 
 of a multitude of critics, f For our own 
 part, if that were sufficiently proved which 
 is continually asserted, that the persecution 
 lasted for four years, until the death of Nero,:| 
 we should very readily admit the probability 
 that it was general. But whatever uncertain- 
 ty may rest on this point, the expressions of 
 the Pagan historian unhappily convey suffi 
 cient evidence that the assault was exceed- 
 ingly destructive and attended by every cir- 
 cumstance of barbarity. 
 
 Much difference has also existed respecting 
 the laws supposed to have been enacted by 
 Nero against the Christians, and their contin- 
 uance or repeal § by subsequent emperors. 
 And this question is so far at least connected 
 with the preceding, that the mere existence 
 of any general edicts against Christians as 
 such, proves that the particular charge on 
 which the persecution was founded had been 
 gradually lost in more general accusation^ 
 which had been followed by general inflio* 
 tions. But even in this case, it becomes 
 question, whether Nero's edicts proceeded any 
 further than to enforce against Christiana 
 specifically the ancient statutes unrversally di- 
 rected against religious innovation — w^hether 
 it was not rather a precedent which that 
 emperor established, than a law which he 
 enacted — a precedent which would be fol- 
 lowed or disregarded by his successors, as 
 their character and religious policy might lead 
 them to execute or suspend the standing stat- 
 utes of the empire. At least it is strange that, 
 when his other laws were repealed, that 
 against the Christians should alone remain in 
 force, unless we conclude that that alone had 
 existed before his time, and had been applied 
 or perverted, but not enacted, by him.|| 
 
 * Euseb. H. E. lib. ii. c. 25. 
 
 t In this question, which involves the historical ac- 
 curacy of Tertullian, compare the reasoning of Sem- 
 ler (saec. i. cap. 6.) with that of Mosheim (Gen. Hist. 
 Cent. i. p. 1. ch. 5.) The forgery of the Lusitanian 
 inscription, according to which Nero ' purged that 
 province from the new superstition,' is now universal- 
 ly admitted. 
 
 X In the year 6a Mosh. de Re. Christ, ante 
 Const, scec. i. sect, xxxiv. 
 
 § Some declare them to have been repealed by the 
 Senate (Mosh. de. R. Christ, ante Const, saec. ii 
 sect, viii.), and Tertullian (lib. i. ad Nationes, c. 7.V 
 asserts that while all Nero's otlier institutes were r©. 
 pealed, that against the Christians alone remained. 
 
 II Tertullian (lib. i. ad Nationes, c. 7.) calls Nero's 
 edict Institutum Neronianum, and ia other places (as 
 
60 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Domttian. After this first affliction, the 
 Christians passed about thirty years in the 
 silent and undisturbed propagation of their 
 rehgion. In tlie year 94 or 95, they again at- 
 tracted the attention of the civil power, by 
 exciting, as it would seem, the poHtical fears 
 of the emperor. Domitian was no doubt ac- 
 quainted with an ancient prophecy prevalent 
 throughout the east, and probably an imper- 
 fect adumbration of the prophecies of the 
 Old Testament, that the imperial sceptre was 
 destined one day to pass into the hands of a 
 Jew. This led to some inquiries into the 
 actual condition of the royal family of Jeru- 
 salem ; and the grandsons of St. Jude the 
 Apostle, the brother of the Saviour, are said 
 to have been brought before the throne of the 
 tyrant: but his jealousy was disarmed by 
 their poverty and simplicity, — their hands 
 were hardened * with daily labor, — and their 
 whole property consisted in one small farm 
 of about twenty-four acres. And when the 
 emperor inquired respecting the nature of 
 their prophetic hopes, and the character of 
 the monarch who was to rise up from among 
 them, he was informed, 'that his kingdom 
 was not of earth, but heavenly and angelic- 
 al ; and that in the completion of time he 
 would come in glory to judge both the liv- 
 ing and the dead, according to their merits.' 
 They were dismissed without injury ; and 
 eoon after this event, some severities, which 
 had lately been exercised against the Christ- 
 
 Apol. cap. 5, and 7,) Bpeaks of laws existing, and 
 occasionally enforced against Cliristians ; still we sus- 
 pect him of error, if he intended to attribute to Nero 
 the invention of those laws — an error very naturally 
 rising from the fact, that that Emperor was the first 
 who applied them to Christianity. See, however. 
 Bishop Kaye on this subject, (Lec. on Tertull. pp. 
 115, et BCfj.) Certainly Gibbon is rather presumptu- 
 ous in his manner of concluding, * that the effects, as 
 well as the cause, of NeroV persecution were confined 
 to the walls of Rome, and that the religious tenets of 
 the Christians were never made a subject of punish- 
 ment or even of inquiry.' (Chap. 16.) Still we arc 
 disposed to awKcntat least to the first of his conclusions, 
 as we are aware of norxjjreHs authority for the contra- 
 ry opinion earlier than the fifth century. (Snip. I. ii. 
 p. 146.; Orofl. I.vii. c. 7, &c.) And if, on the one 
 hand, Tillemont enumerates a great variety of martyrs 
 wh<j perished in that persecution (tom. ii p. 71, ct 
 »ef|.) ; on the other, Le Clerc ha» anticipated (libboii 
 in both his ponitions, and argues very plausibly in fa- 
 vor of them. (Hint. Eccles. ad ann. 61.) 
 
 • lIcgej4ip()UH apud Kiweb. iii. 20. Le ('lerc, 
 M/ho in gf-nerally and juHtly Huwpicious of the uutiiority 
 of }{egeMippii]«, iit fXTHuaded of the truth of tluM narra- 
 tive, by itii itimplicity and candor. — Ilivt. Eccl. ad 
 anc. 06. 
 
 ians, were suspended by the prudence * or 
 the death f of the emperor. 
 
 Trajan. The celebrated epistle of Pliny to 
 Trajan was written ten or twelve years after- 
 wards, and proves that the Christians in 
 Bithynia (and probably in every province ol 
 the east) were subjected to many vexations 
 and sufferings. The emperor's answer 
 amounted to this — 'that the Christians are 
 not to be sought for, nor molested on anony- 
 mous information ; but that on conviction 
 they ought to be punished.'l From a com- ' 
 parison of these two documents, we CQllect, 
 first, that the spirit of persecution in this in- 
 stance § originated rather in their heathen 
 fellow-subjects than in the character of the 
 emperor; and secondly, that the laws by 
 which they were punished were not any re- 
 cent edicts issued by an express act of leg- 
 islation against Christians, but the original 
 statutes of the republic continued and applied 
 to them. II The object of Trajan, in this re- 
 script, was their mitigation ; it is probable 
 that he knew little respecting the nature and 
 evidence of the new religion, but was desir- 
 ous somewhat to soften the practical intol- 
 erance of his own ; but the effect was not in 
 the end favorable to the Christians, T since > 
 gave a sanction to legal persecution, and e»- 
 
 * Tertull. Apol. c. 5. This author is the raiher to 
 be believed on this point, because it does not go to 
 support his favorite theory, that tlie only persecutors 
 were the bad emperors — a fancy to which he has un- 
 fortunately sacrificed many indisputable facts. See 
 also lleg. ap. Euseb. loc. cit. 
 
 t Mosheim (Gen. Hist. c. i. p. i. ch. 5.) In 
 another place, after adducing the authoritjes of Lac- 
 tantius (cap. iii. Dc. Hist. Perscc), and Xiphilinus 
 in Nerva (De Rcb. Christ, ante Const. 8a!C. i. sect. 
 36.), he leaves the question doubtful. — Gibbon follows 
 the opinion which shortens the persecution. 
 
 ^ Tertull. Apoi. c. ii., exposes with great vehe- 
 mence and reason the injuslicc and inconsistency ex- 
 hibited in this rescript. If Qnistians deserved con- 
 (l(!mnation, they should be sought after; if not sought 
 after, they should not be condemned. — Si danmas, cur 
 non et in(|uiris; si non incjuiris, cur non ct absolvisl 
 
 § Euseb. H.E. lib. iii. c. 32., confirms this posi- 
 tion. 
 
 II From the moment that a precedent existed for 
 the application of those statutes to the religion of tlie 
 Christians, their condition would at all tiuics be very 
 precarious, as being dependent not only on the policy 
 of the emperor, but on the caprice of the provii* 
 cial governors; since it woidd naturally seem to rest 
 at their discretion to enforce, or not, the Ptanding 
 laws ugaiuBt a sect which had already fell Uieir se- 
 verity. 
 
 IT Mosh. dc Kvb. Christ, ante Conit. mcc. ii 
 scot. X. 
 
PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 
 
 61 
 
 taolished on high authority the fatal maxim, 
 that the mere profession of Christianity was 
 a criminal offence.* 
 
 The truth of the first of the above conclu- 
 sions is confirmed by the annals of succeeding 
 reigns. About the year 120, Serenius Gran- 
 ianus, Proconsul of Asia, wrote to Adrian, 
 *that it seemed to him unreasonable that 
 Christians should be put to death merely to 
 gratify the clamors of the people, without 
 trial and without any crime proved against 
 them.' And there is a rescript of the empe- 
 ror, addressed to Minucius Fundanus, in 
 which this letter is noticed, and in which it 
 is enjoined that Christians should not be 
 sacrificed to the clamors of the multitude. 
 
 During the long reign of Antoninus Pius 
 (from 138 to 161 a. d.), no deliberate injuries 
 were inflicted upon the Christians; and it 
 appears that they suffered much more from 
 tlie violence of popular tumult than from the 
 operation of the ancient laws. It became 
 common about this time to attribute national 
 calamities of every description to the con- 
 tempt of the national religion exhibited by 
 the Christians. ' If the Tiber has overflowed 
 its banks,' (exclaimed Tertullian in the next 
 generation,) ' or the Nile has not overflowed ; 
 if Jieaven has refused its rain ; if the earth 
 has been shaken; if famine or plague has 
 spread its ravages, the cry is immediately 
 raised — Away with the Christians to the 
 lions.'f The emperor, influenced, as some 
 have supposed, by the Apologies of Justin 
 Martyr, published one, possibly two,| edicts 
 for their protection against such outrage ; and 
 during this reign especially they gi'ew and 
 extended in dignity as well as number, and 
 became more generally known by writings 
 not devoid of energy and eloquence. Pius 
 was succeeded by Marcus, of whom Gibbon 
 has said, that ' during the whole course of 
 his reign he despised the Christians as a phi- 
 losopher, and punished them as a Sovereign.'' 
 
 Marcus Antoninus. It seems singular, that 
 a historian, who makes great profession of 
 candor and universal humanity, should al- 
 most have excepted from the number of per- 
 secutors the only name (as far at least as this 
 part of our inquiry) to which that ignomin- 
 
 * Illud solum expectatur, coiifessio nominis, non 
 examinatio criminis. Tertull. Apol. c. ii. 
 t Tertull. Apol. cap. 40. 
 
 J That mentioned by Justin Martyr at the end of 
 his 1st Apol., and by Eusebius, 1. 4, c. 13. (if it 
 could establish its claims to be genuine) would, witli 
 much more probability, be ascribed to Pius than to 
 M. Antonmus. 
 
 ious designation appears justly and certainly 
 to belong : for under all the preceding empe- 
 rors, the injuries inflicted upon the Christians 
 had either been occasional, as arising^ from 
 Some casual circumstance, or staining only a 
 portion of their reign ; or partial, as confined 
 to a few provinces, or perhaps cities of the 
 empire. Moreover, they had been sometimes 
 excited, and generally encouraged, by popu- 
 lar irritation ; they had been directed against 
 a small and obscure and calumniated sect, 
 through the operation, and according to the 
 seeming intention, of the ancient statutfs. 
 And the efforts of individual emperors were, 
 for the most part, turned rather to the suspen- 
 sion or mitigation of those statutes than to 
 the rigid enforcement of them. In addition 
 to this, let us not forget, that those individu- 
 als possessed little means or opportunity to 
 inform themselves respecting the peculiar 
 principles, doctrines, or habits of Christians ; 
 still less to examine the foundation of their 
 belief, or even to understand that it had any 
 foundation: — if they permitted the work of 
 destruction to proceed, it was in ignorance 
 and blindness. On the other hand, Marcus 
 Antoninus undertook the task of 'punish- 
 ment ' or persecution among the earliest * of 
 his imperial duties, and he continued to fulfil 
 it with unremitting diligence throughout the 
 nineteen f years of his splendid administra- 
 tion. He acted on deliberate principles, and 
 his principles were not of partial or local op- 
 eration, but were equally applicable ta every 
 province of his empire. And thus he everj 
 where enforced the laws in their full severi 
 ty ; the lives | and the property of the con 
 victed were forfeited by the most summary 
 process of justice; and the search § which 
 
 * Mosh. de Reb. Ch. ante Const, saec. ii. sect. xv. 
 xvi. 
 
 t From 161 a. D. to ISO. 
 
 X Euseb. H. E. lib. v. c. 1. « The Emperor's edict 
 was, that those who denied the charge of Christianity 
 should be spared, but the rest put to death by torture.' 
 
 § Movie on Marcus Antoninus. We do not ac- 
 cuse him of promulgating any new laAvs against the 
 Christians, though Melito tells us of a violent persecu- 
 tion in this reign 'by new edicts.' In fact, such i 
 step was perfectly unnecessary, for the original stat- 
 utes, to which* the Christians were made liable, con- 
 tained every penalty. His letter to tlie Assembly of 
 Asia seems indeed to be a forgery. Moyle certainly 
 makes out this point, and Jortin is of the same opin- 
 ion. It is attributed by Eusebius to Antoninus Pius, 
 and his rescript it must be, if it be genuine at all. 
 We should add, that Moyle believes Adrian's letter to 
 Fundanus to be ' as arrant a juggle as that of Anto- 
 ninus, though the conveyance be a little more cleanly, 
 but be does not provt this opinion. 
 
62 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 was made after the suspected, and which the 
 uninformed humanity of Trajan had so nobly 
 discouraged, sufSciently proves the activity 
 of the pursuit, and the earnestness of the 
 pursuer. But the most important point of 
 distinction is probably this : Marcus Antoni- 
 nus knew much better the nature of the evil 
 which he was committing : he was acquaint- 
 ed, to a certain extent at least, with the opin- 
 ions of the Christians, and the innocence of 
 tkeir character ; and it is not likely that he 
 had entirely neglected to examine the grounds 
 of their faith. He watched the process of 
 his own inflictions, and when he perceived 
 the fortitude with which all endured, and the 
 eagerness with which many courted them, he 
 coldly reproved the unphilosophic enthusiasm 
 of the Martyrs.* And yet, perhaps, his own 
 philosophy was not quite devoid of enthusi- 
 asm, or, at least, it was not strictly regulated 
 by reason, when it led him to labor for the 
 destruction of the most moral and loyal por- 
 tion of his subjects, only because they dis- 
 claimed the very superstitions which he 
 placed his pride in despising. Nor again 
 was his practice consistent with his professed 
 contempt of these : for it is said, and seem- 
 ingly on good foundation, that Marcus Anto- 
 ninus was frequent in consultation with the 
 Chaldtean sages, deeply conversant with the 
 mysteries of astrology, credulously attentive 
 to oracular prophecy, obedient to the pre- 
 monitions of dreams, which he believed to 
 lescend from Heaven — assertions not in- 
 credible, nor inconsistent with his studies or 
 his principles ; and there is ground to hesi- 
 tate whether we should not rather convict 
 him of superstition than hypocrisy. But it 
 is certain that his understanding was of 
 the broadest and most comprehensive de- 
 scription ; that it was enlightened by every 
 worldly knowledge, and fortified by frequent 
 meditation ; that his character was founded 
 in excellent dispositions, confirmed by the 
 best [irinciples which were known to the 
 Pagan world. His general regard for justice 
 has never been questioned ; even his human- 
 ity is cormnonly celebraUid ; and if the rep- 
 resentations of history be not exagger^ited, iie 
 reached as high a degree both of wisdom 
 
 ♦ B. xi., HOC. iii. He aHHcrta that inoii should meet 
 their (Icatli, ' not through mere oHtciitalioii as do the 
 ChriKiiaiiH, hut conHideratcly and with dignity, and 
 withfiiit theatrical display.* x«/u xfnXi^v 
 
 n(i(>'u<t^iv , o)ff (A X(>i(TTi(tV()lf (xXlu XfXoyia- 
 filvut;, yul (jrfiv<~)g, xul uiQuyui(%)g, The 
 word which wn have rendered ontentation, parade 
 ^7i6r(_^'if «s"'), U in Uiid passage usually interpreted 
 obstinacy. 
 
 I and of moral excellence as is attainable by 
 I the unassisted faculties of man — and yet 
 this prince polluted every year of a long 
 reign with innocent blood. 
 
 In our natural anxiety to honor everj* form 
 of human excellence, we search for his ex- 
 cuse in the religious policy so long established 
 in the empire. But we find that those of his 
 predecessors who were disposed to soften or 
 suspend its operation upon Christians, pos- 
 sessed the power to do so ; and we cannoj 
 doubt that the despotic authority of Marcus 
 would have enabled him to revise or repeal 
 those oppressive statutes, if he had learnt 
 from the books of his philosophers the virtue 
 or the meaning of Toleration. This, indeed, 
 is the real and only ground of his defence ; 
 and we shall regard his conduct with less in- 
 dignation, if we reflect how feeble were the 
 mightiest principles of conduct with which 
 he was acquainted ; on what a loose and 
 shifting foundation they rested ; how large 
 was the class of virtues which they did not 
 comprehend, and how imperfect were the 
 motives which they proposed for the practice 
 of any. And thus considered, we shall dis- 
 cover, perhaps, some trace of heavenly prov- 
 idence in the circumstance, that the imperial 
 philosopher, flourishing in the maturity of his 
 science, and deficient in nothing which na- 
 ture or man could bestow, was armed with 
 the highest temporal authority and permitted 
 to direct it against the infancy of our faith. 
 From the splendid imperfection of Marcus 
 Antoninus, from the perseverance of his 
 powerful enmity, from its final failure, we 
 may learn what narrow limits have been as- 
 signed to the virtue and wisdom and power 
 of unassisted man ; and we derive a new mo- 
 tive of gratitude for that heavenly aid, Avhich 
 has fixed our sociiil happiness on a certain 
 and eternal foundation. 
 
 The greatest prince of antiquity was suc- 
 ceeded by a son, who neither inherited his 
 virtues, nor imitated his crime; so far from 
 this, that we might almost imagine it to have 
 been the object of Commodus to redeem his 
 numerous vices by his humanity towards the 
 Christian name. 
 
 Severus ascended the throne in the year 
 193, and is represented by Terlullian * to 
 
 * Tertul. ad Soap., cap. iv. Scd el clarissimas 
 ferninaH et clarisNimoH viros SevcruH scien.H hujnu 
 Bcctn; ePHO non modo non hrHit veruni ct tcsliinonio 
 j ornavil, &c. His afTectinn for the ChriHtiaiis iti at- 
 ' tributed to a cure formerly prrforincd on hinj, ljy tlic 
 I ajiplication of oil, hy a Cin-iHtian natncd Troculus 
 I We inuHt be careful nut to confound thiu medical uso 
 
PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 
 
 63 
 
 have bestowed testimonies of approbation on 
 several distinguished Christians, and openly 
 to have withstood the popular fury which as- 
 sailed the sect. But this account will apply 
 only to the earlier part of his reign ; for in 
 the year 202 (about the time of the publica- 
 tion of TertuUian's Apology) he issued an 
 edict, which indirectly occasioned a variety 
 of inflictions, the most barbarous of which 
 appear to have beeji perpetrated in Egypt. 
 The professed object of that edict was only 
 to prevent conversion either to Judaism or 
 Christianity ; for the fears of the emperor 
 t)egan to be awakened by the extraordinary 
 progress of the latter. Its effect was to op- 
 press and torture the most zealous ministers 
 of the faith, and to inflame the prejudices of 
 the people against all believers. This enact- 
 ment continued in force for about nine years, 
 until the death of Severus ; and from that 
 period, if indeed we except the injuries in- 
 flicted by Maximin * (from 235 to 238 a. d.), 
 and directed chiefly against the instructers 
 and rulers of the churches, the Christians, 
 though occasionally liable to popular outrage, 
 had not much reason to complain of the in- 
 justice of the government until the accession 
 of Decius, in the year 249. 
 
 Deems. Decius, like Marcus Antoninus, 
 is also ranked, and justly ranked, among the 
 most virtuous of the emperors. The virtues 
 of a pagan were usually connected with his 
 philosophy, and his philosophy taught him 
 to despise every form of worship. Perhaps, 
 too, an imperial eye might view with natural 
 distrust the free and independent principles 
 of Christianity, which were now spreading 
 into more general operation and notice — 
 principles which acknowledged an authority 
 superior to the throne of man ; and though 
 they devoted the body to Csesar, yet set apart 
 the soul for God. It would be observed, too, 
 with some jealousy, that the progress of that 
 worship was rapid and universal, in spite of 
 ancient law, popular opposition, and imperial 
 edict. Its truth was seldom investigated, be- 
 cause it was not yet sufficiently distinguished 
 from surrounding superstitions, which laid no 
 claim to truth, nor even professed to rest on 
 any evidences; and thus the prejudices of 
 the schools at once assumed that the worship 
 of Christ was no better founded than those 
 of Jove and Serapis.f 
 
 of oil with the practice of extreme unction, which did 
 not then exist. 
 
 * Euseb., H. E., lib. vi. c. 28. Tillem., torn. iii. 
 p. 305. 
 
 + In the entire pasjan scheme f«oiild we nrooerlv 
 
 These reasons, carefully considered, wiB 
 partly account for the peculiar suspicion 
 which armed itself against the ' Christian su- 
 perstition,' and at the same trnie will exhibJl 
 to us the motives, through the influence of 
 which some of the wisest and best among 
 the emperors unhappily numbered them- 
 selves among our adversaries.* 
 
 The persecution of Decius proceeded on a 
 broader principle than that of Severus, as it 
 pretended no less than to constrain all sub- 
 jects of the empire to return to the religion 
 of their ancestors ;f it was also strictly uni- 
 versal, as neither confined to particular prov- 
 inces nor classes, but extending from the 
 lowest confessors to the highest authorities 
 of the Church. Several were consigned to 
 exile or death : Fabienus, bishop of Rome, 
 Alexander of Jerusalem, Babylas of Antioch, 
 were among the latter; and the celebrated 
 Origen was subjected to imprisonment and 
 torture.l At Alexandria, in the year preced 
 consider it as one scheme), religion and philosophy 
 together professed to furnish that, which Christianity 
 supplies to us: the mysteries, which also held th| 
 place of doctrines, the ceremonies, and the name werj 
 provided by the religion ; the ethics by philosophy. 
 We need not particularize the numerous points of ad- 
 vantage which both branches of the Christian system 
 possess over the corresponding departments of pagan- 
 ism. But the distinctions chiefly to be remarked, are, 
 that the religion demanded no belief, proposed no 
 creed, inculcated no faith, but was, in fact, identified 
 with its ceremonies, procession and sacrifice; and 
 that the philosophy which undertook the whole 
 charge of morals, in vain proposed an elaborate series 
 of barren rules and lifeless exhortations, since it pos- 
 sessed no substantial motive whereby to enforce them. 
 When we reflect how essential are these distinctions, 
 we shall see reason sufficient for the jealousy with 
 which Christianity was assailed both by the one and 
 the other. But their incongruity and incoherence 
 with each other formed the most striking and hope- 
 less deformity of the system; for philosophy lived in 
 open warfare with her senseless associate, and em- 
 ployed a great portion of her diligence and her wit in 
 exposing the multiform absurdities of polytheism. 
 ' Quiniino et Deos vestros palam destruunt. . . . laud- 
 antibus vobis!' Tertul. Apol., c. 46. 
 
 * Eusebius (H. E., lib. vi. c. 39.) very concisely 
 attributes the persecution of Decius to the hatred 
 borne by that emperor to his predecessor Philip 
 Cyprian considers it as a divine chastisement for the 
 sins of the Church. 
 
 t Tillemont, vol. iii. p. 310, on the authority of 
 Greg. Nyssensis, who gives a very vivid description 
 of the effects of the edict. 
 
 4: Alexander and Babylas died in prison. Some 
 of the sufferings of Origen are particularized in Euse- 
 bius, loc. cit.; and those of the most celebrated mar- 
 tyrs who perished on this occasion occupy above a 
 hundred pages in the Memoires de Tillem. vol. iii 
 ... Ro^_4?«. F,d. 2. 
 
64 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ing the accession of Decius, some Christians 
 had been massacred by the hatred or the ava- 
 rice of the Pagan mob; and as such fatal 
 outrages, in addition to authorized injustice, 
 were rather tolerated than promptly repress- 
 ed by the government which succeeded that 
 sanguinary reign, it was much more calami- 
 tous to the faith than its short duration of 
 three years would lead us to apprehend. In- 
 deed, the unusual number of those who fell 
 away from their profession in the hour of 
 trial, by which this persecution is distinguish- 
 ed fi'om those preceding it, is a sufficient 
 proof of its intolerable barbarity.* 
 
 Valerian. We pass over the comparatively 
 lenient inflictions of Gallus and Volusianus ; 
 but the sceptre of Valerian was more darkly 
 stained by the blood of Cyprian,t bishop of 
 Carthage, a man of learning and eloquence 
 and piety, whose blameless life and final 
 calmness and constancy have escaped the 
 censure and almost the sarcasm of history. 
 It will be instructive, as well as interesting, 
 to transcribe the simple narrative of his mar- 
 
 Oi) the 13th of September, 258, an officer 
 with soldiers was sent to Cyprian's gardens 
 by the proconsul to bring him into his pres- 
 ence. Cyprian then knew his end was near; 
 and with a ready and constant mind and 
 cheerful countenance he went without delay 
 to Sexti, a place about six miles from Car- 
 thage, where the proconsul resided. Cypri- 
 an's cause was deferred for that day. He 
 was therefore ordered to the house of an 
 officer, where he was detained for the night, 
 but was well accommodated and his friends 
 had free access to him. The news of this 
 having been brought to Carthage, a great 
 number of people of all sorts, and the Christ- | 
 ians ill general, flocked thence to Sexti ; and 
 Cyprian's people lay all night before the door 
 of the ofiicer, thus kc^epiiig, as Pontius ex- 
 presses it, the vigil of their bishojj's passion. 
 
 On the iM.'Xt morning, the 14th of S(!i)tem- 
 l)cr, lie was led to the proconstil's palace, 
 surrounded by u mixed multitude of people 
 and u strong guard of soldiers. Afler some 
 time, the proconsul camo out into the hall, 
 and Cyjirian being placed before liim, he 
 Baid, 'Art thou TliasciuH Cyprian ?' Cyprian 
 
 ♦ TIhJ fill)1(! of lllC Seven .SI(!( |H'IH of I''|)1U'HMH 
 
 longd to tWiH |)(;rH<'nilion; supposed inartyidorii of 
 the TIh-Ikiii N't^iori to tlw; rei^n of Diocletian. 
 
 t It appcHTH from ('yprian'n KpinllcH llial, in liin 
 Cliiirrli at leant, llic full Meverity of the pmKcrulion 
 fcarccly rai^rd for ni'ire than one year. He'- 'I illfin., 
 Tol. iii. p. 32 1. 
 
 the bishop answered, 'I am.' Galerius Max 
 imus the proconsul said, ' The most sacred 
 emperors have commanded thee to sacrifice. 
 Cyprian the bishop answered, ' I do not sac 
 rifice.' Galerius Maximus said, 'Be well 
 advised.' Cyprian the bishop answered, ' Do 
 as thou art commanded ; in so just a cause 
 thou needest no consultation.' The procon- 
 sul having advised with his council, spoke to 
 Cyprian in angry terms as being an enemy 
 to the gods and a seducer of the people, and 
 then read his sentence from a tablet, 'It is 
 decreed that Thascius Cyprian be beheaded.' 
 Cyprian the bishop said, 'God be praised*' 
 and the crowd of his brethren exclaimed, 
 ' Let us too be beheaded with him. 
 
 This is the account given in the acts of 
 Cyprian's passion, and that of Pontius is to 
 the same purpose.* 
 
 Diocletian. For nearly fifl;y years after this 
 outrage, the peace and progress of religion 
 were not seriously interrupted. The earliest 
 portion even of the reign of Diocletian was 
 favorable to its security, and it was through 
 the weakness of that prince, rather than his 
 wickedness, that his name is now inscribed 
 on the tablets of infamy as the most savage 
 among our persecutors. Two circumstances 
 may be mentioned as having engaged his 
 tardy consent f to the commencement of a 
 plan into which he appears to have entered 
 with the most considerate calmness, though 
 it is also true that during its progress some 
 incidexits occtJrred which enlisted his pas- 
 sions in the cause, and even so inflamed 
 them that, in the height of his madness, he 
 certainly pro[)Osed nothing less than the 
 extermination of the Christian name. The 
 influence of the Caesar, Galerius, who, was 
 animated, from whatsoever motive, by an 
 uumitigated detestation of the worshippers 
 of Christ, and who thirsted for their destruc- 
 tion, was probably the most powerftil of 
 those circumstances. But the second must 
 not be forgotten. In the diHputos, now be- 
 come general, between the Christian minis- 
 ters and the pagan jiriests, the teachers of 
 
 ♦ Lardner, vol. iii. p. 141. Tiic niorc usual date 
 of Cyprian's niarlyrdoni is 257. 
 
 t Uali-riuH represented to liini that tlie perninncnco 
 of the Roman inHtilutions was ineonipatii)lo willi the 
 prevalence of ( 'In istianily, which .should thcrcf»)rc be 
 extirpated. Diocletian proposed the snhjecl to a sort 
 of Council, composed of some eminent military and 
 judicial oflicers. They assented to the <»|iinion of 
 (Jalerius; hut the emperor still hesitated, until the 
 mcasuri! was sanctioned and sanctified l«y the oracli» 
 1 of the Mile»ian Ap<dlo. 
 
PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 
 
 66 
 
 philosophy are almost invariably found on 
 the sifle of the latter ; and .as it is not denied 
 — not even by Gibbon — that those learned 
 persons directed the coui-se and suggested the 
 means of pereecution, we need not hesitate 
 to attribute a considerable share in the guilt 
 of its origin to their pernicious eloquence. 
 
 Diocletian published his first edict in the 
 February of 303. Three others of greater 
 severity succeeded it ; and, during a shame- 
 ful period of ten yeare, they were veiy gen- 
 erally and rigorously enforced by himself, his 
 colleagues, and successors. It is needless to 
 particularize the degrees of barbarity by 
 which those edicts were severally distin- 
 guished ; the substance of the whole series is 
 this.* The sacred books of the Christians 
 were sought for and burnt; death was the 
 punishment of all who assembled secretly 
 for religious worship ; imprisonment, slavery, 
 and infamy were inflicted on the dignitaries- 
 and presidents of the Churches ; every art 
 and method was enjoined for the conversion 
 of the believers, and among those methods 
 were various descriptions of torture, some of 
 them fatal. During the preceding ninety 
 j^ars, the Church had availed itself of the 
 consent or connivance of the civil govern- 
 ment to erect numerous religious edifices, 
 and to purchase some landed property ; these 
 buildings were now demolished, and the 
 property underwent the usual process of 
 confiscation. A more degi-ading, but less 
 effectual, measure attended these ; Christians 
 were excluded from all public honors and 
 offices, aiid even removed without the pale 
 of the laws and the protection of justice ; 
 liable to all accusations, and inviting them 
 by their adversity, they were deprived of 
 every form of legal redress. Such were the 
 ])enalties contained in those edicts ; and 
 though it be true that in some of the western 
 provinces of the empire, as in Qaul and per- 
 haps Britain, their asperity was somewhat 
 softened by the character and influence of 
 the Caesar, Constantius, we are not allowed 
 to believe that their execution even there 
 was generally neglected, and we have too 
 much reason to be assured that it was con- 
 ducted with very subsei-vient zeal throughout 
 the rest of the empire. In process of time 
 the suflTerings of the Christians were partially 
 alleviated by the victories of Constantine ; 
 
 * Nearly the whole of Eiisebias*s 8th book is dc- 
 Toted to this subject; on which he possesses, indeed, 
 ihe authority of a contemporary, as he is believed to 
 have been born about the year 270 a d. See, too, 
 Lsctant. de Morte Persecut. cap. 13 
 9 
 
 but they did not finally terminate til his 
 accession. 
 
 Accession of Constantine. That event, which 
 took place in the year 313, and which marks 
 the first grand epoch in ecclesiastical history, 
 ended at the same time both the fears and 
 the suflTerings of the followers of Christ, and 
 established his worship as the acknowledged 
 religion of the Roman empire. 
 
 As the account here given of the persecu- 
 tions of the early Christians diflTers in some 
 respects from the views usually taken of this 
 important portion of our history, it may be 
 proper to close this chapter with a few addi- 
 tional remarks. 
 
 Unpopularity of Christians. 1st. Contem- 
 porary evidence obliges us to admit, that the 
 Christian name was for many years (so late 
 at least as the reign of Decius) an object of 
 decided aversion to many of those who did 
 not profess it ; whether of the learned, who 
 scorned the origin, were ignorant of the prin- 
 ciples, and feared the progress, of the new 
 religion, or of the vulgar, who believed the 
 calumnies so industriously propagated against 
 its professors. Hence proceeded those popu 
 lar tumults, which, during the first two cen 
 turies (if we except from them the reign ol 
 Marcus Antoninus), may have destroyed as 
 many victims as the dehberate policy of tlje 
 emperors, or the established system of relig- 
 ious government. Still it must appear singu- 
 lar that a body of persons, distinguished by 
 the moral qualities which are almost univer- 
 sally attributed to the first Christians, should 
 have incurred the hatred of their fellow- 
 subjects, rather than the admiration, or at 
 least the sympathy, which was claimed by 
 the character of their virtues. There are 
 several reasons by which we may account 
 for this strange circumstance. The prejudices 
 and passions of mankind were opposed to the 
 new religion ; it contradicted their received 
 ways of worship, the dictates and practices 
 of their forefathers, their own indulged lusts 
 antl evil habits. Even the fame and sem- 
 blance of peculiar sanctity are ever objects 
 of bitter jealousy to those who are incapable 
 of its practice, and who consequently dispute 
 its reality. Again, when it was observed that 
 Christians were not contented with mere 
 inactive profession, but were animated with 
 industrious zeal for the extension of their 
 faith, a disposition to suspect and resist it, as 
 it were in self-defence, was excited among 
 many ; and those who might have tolerated 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 an indifFerent or merely speculative supersti- [ 
 tion, armed themselves against the active and 
 converting spirit of Christianity. Another, 
 perhaps the most effective, and certainly the 
 original cause of that aversion, was the perse- 
 vering hostility of the Jews to the name of 
 Christ. In some of the more populous and 
 commercial cities, the Jews formed no incon- 
 siderable portion of the inhabitants, and they 
 were scattered in smaller numbers over the 
 whole face of the East. The destruction of 
 then* capital increased the crowd of exiles, 
 and inflamed the angry spirit by which they 
 were animated. It is true that, in their at- 
 tempts at open outrage, they were sometimes 
 * restrained by the civil power ; but they were 
 more successful in their secret endeavors to 
 excite against the rising sect the contempt or 
 malice of the heathen. To their inalignity we 
 may probably attribute those monstrous cal- 
 umnies which tainted the Christian name, at 
 the very period when its professors were 
 farthest removed from corruption. It was 
 rumored and believed that the religious meet- 
 ings of the faithful were polluted by alternate 
 excesses of superstition and debauchery ; the 
 mysteries especially were invested with the 
 most revolting character ; the Eucharist was 
 said to be celebrated by the sacrifice of an 
 infant, and the Feast of Charity was repre- 
 sented to be a revel of cannibals.* These 
 stories contained nothing incredible to a 
 pagan, whom the external piety of the new 
 religionists rendered still more suspicious of 
 their private conversation. Without difficul- 
 ty he believed in the perpetration of rites 
 which bore some resemblance to the darker 
 parts of his own superstition ; and his belief 
 was followed by insult and outrage. 
 
 The notorious malevolence of the Jews did 
 not prevent the prevalence of another very 
 early and very injurious oi)iuion respecting 
 CUri^^tifinity — that it was merely a form, and 
 a rej(;i;ted form, of Judaism. Tliis was a nat- 
 ural error — since tin; r(;ligion proceeded from 
 Juda'B, and many among its original prcach- 
 ei*s, and all its most active enemi(!H were Jews 
 — it was indeed gradually, though slov^ly, 
 rerrioved by the writings of tlur early fiithers, 
 and the progress of the faith ; but i)n'ju- 
 d'lCA- arising from it was tin; rlii(!f c-ause of 
 that ronlctiipt with which the worshij) was 
 n;gnr<l('(l for above one iiundrcd years both 
 by pliiloHopherH and Htatemncsn. 
 
 Again, in tlio sceru's of public f<'stivity, in 
 the teniplcH, and at tin? sacrifices of tlic gods, 
 the C'h ristinn was ncvr-r j)n'sent ; he partook 
 • S«i' Jii(«tii) Martyr, Apol. i, ii. I I. j 
 
 not in triumphs and rejoicings of which relig- 
 ion formed any portion, and appeared not at 
 the sports of the amphitheatre, except as a 
 victim. This seclusion from the amusements 
 of his fellow-countrymen was mistaken for 
 indifference to the happiness and interests of 
 his country ; it was mistaken for disaffection 
 to the government, for moroseness or misan- 
 thropy ; its real motive was never estimated 
 or even conceived ; for the careless temper 
 of polytheism was unable to comprehend an 
 exclusive religion, or to understand why the 
 worship of Jupiter was not consistent with 
 that of Christ. Another difficulty was ere 
 ated by the spiritual nature of our religion. 
 It was in vain that the Roman magistrate 
 inquired for the images and statues of the 
 God of the Christians, for the altars and tem- 
 ples consecrated to him. Unwilling, or una- 
 ble to believe that an Invisible Being could 
 be the immediate object of adoration, he 
 pronounced that to be atheism, which differ- 
 ed so widely from the general appeai'ance of 
 theism ; and thus, among the ignorant at 
 least, the Christians were liable to the double 
 imputation, not only that they repudiated the 
 national divinities, but that they substituted 
 none other in their place. It was probably 
 this last charge which inflamed and enven- 
 omed the rest ; for the same moral enormi- 
 ties which were pardonable in the devotee of 
 Apollo, became infamous in those who par- 
 took of no devotion, and the worshippers of 
 every idol under heaven united their clamore 
 against the impiety of the atheists ; and un- 
 happily, among the impassioned natives of 
 the East, clamors are seldom unattended by 
 violence, and violence is only satisfied with 
 blood. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no characteristic by 
 which Christianity was so early and so 
 strongly distinguished, as the pious honor of 
 every approach to idolatry;* this suigularity 
 would be more commonly forced on the at- 
 tention of pagans than any other, and no 
 doubt, in the opinion of the vast majority, 
 with whom the image was in fact the object 
 of worship, it would bo suflicicnt alone to 
 constitute irreligioii. Again, it led them into 
 a S(Tond and scarcely less dangcTous impu- 
 I tation, tliat of disloyalty ; since the imago 
 of the (Miiperor, which was usually exalted 
 among the standards and in public places, 
 
 ♦ TluH cxlrcmo aversion from every form of idol- 
 atry is aHcrihcd to u previileiil hclief, tlial tlx; statucfl 
 wcrij urtiially animated l»y tlxmo Htipposcd heiiigg 
 \vli(»m tlu! paKiin« worshipped as godc, and whom tho 
 jj ('hrisliaiiM ahomiiialed an devils 
 
PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 
 
 67 
 
 was not honored by the devout salutation of 
 the Christian ; and this omission naturally 
 gave pretext to a political charge. 
 
 As another cause of the early unpopularity 
 of the Christians, we may mention the un- 
 ceasing opposition of all whose personal in- 
 terests were concerned in the support of 
 paganism. The magnificent temples and 
 gorgeous ceremonies of that superstition were 
 a source of unfailing profit, not only to a 
 numerous race of priests and hierodules, of 
 architects and statuaries, but to multitudes 
 of citizens, who lived, like the craftsmen of 
 Ephesus, on the treasury of the temple, and 
 were engaged by their most immediate ne- 
 cessities to maintain the worship; and not 
 these only, but the whole mass of the popu- 
 lace, were in some degree gainers by the 
 sacrificial profusion which distinguished their 
 religion ; to say nothing of the share which 
 they took in those splendid processions and 
 rites, which converted the practice of religion 
 into mere sensual enjoyment and careless 
 festivity. When, in the place of this pomp- 
 ous pageantry, it was proposed to substitute a 
 simple spiritual worship, recommended, not 
 oy the display of external ceremony, which it 
 scorned, but by inward purity and the sanc- 
 tity of moral excellence, in opposition at the 
 same time to the passions of all men, and to 
 :he immediate interests of many, it would 
 nave been strange indeed if the popular voice 
 had not been raised against it. 
 
 To the many causes of excitement already 
 mentioned we may add one more — the sub- 
 stantial motive of avarice ; since we invaria- 
 bly find that the Christians, who were the 
 objects of these popular commotions, sustain- 
 ed, among other injuries, the loss of their 
 property. And we must not forget that, in 
 many instances,* the Roman police tolerated. 
 
 * During the whole course of these persecutions, 
 with the exception of those few in which the emperor 
 pronounced his will by an express specification of the 
 penalties, very much rested on the disci etion of the 
 magistrates, and, undoubtedly, many among these 
 were guided by the conmion feelings of humanity. 
 (Tertul. Apol.,c. 27. Ad Scapulam, c. 4. Scorpiace, 
 c.l.) But the clamors of an importunate populace 
 also demand more than common firmness, to be inva- 
 riably resisted. Gibbon, in his endeavor to exaggerate 
 the humanity of the Roman magistrates, has forgotten 
 his own: — 'They were far from punishing with death 
 all those who were convicted of an obstinate adherence 
 to the new superstition; contenting themselves for the 
 most part with the milder chastisements of imprison- 
 ment, exile, or slavery in the mines, they left tlie 
 unhappy victims of their justice some reason to hope 
 foi a nrosperous event — the acce.ssion, the marriage, 
 
 perhaps encouraged, excesses which it might 
 possibly consider as an innocent exercise of 
 popular feeling, or as a part of a religious 
 ceremony. 
 
 The evils which we have here noticed, or 
 at least, the causes which produced them, 
 were most prevalent in the earliest age of the 
 religion, and seem gradually to have died 
 away during the third centiny. For they 
 were chiefly founded in ignorance of the real 
 principles of Christian it}^, aided by contempt 
 for the weakness of its professors ; circum- 
 stances which were gradually removed as the 
 members of the Church advanced in numbers 
 and its ministers in learning. But this pro- 
 gress of the faith (as we have had occasion to 
 observe) did not immediately reconcile or 
 disarm its adversaries, but rather changed 
 their character and their weapons. For in- 
 stance, during the first ages we do not ob- 
 serve that the pagan priesthood were distin- 
 guished by any systematic exertions against 
 the new worship, and they may possibly have 
 despised and overlooked it ; but presently 
 their seeming indifference was changed into 
 suspicious jealousy, and then into active and 
 persevering hatred ;* and we may be assured 
 that the influence which they possessed over 
 the people (whatsoever that may have been) 
 was exerted to the prejudice of the rival re 
 ligion. In the next place, philosophy de- 
 scended from the contempt with which she 
 had professedly viewed the earliest efibrts ol 
 Christianity, and proceeded to distinguish it 
 from all other ' superstitions ' by her malice 
 and enmity ; and she knew not in so doing 
 how honorable a distinction she had confer- 
 red on it. This coalition of philosophy with 
 paganism, though strange, was not unnatural ; 
 nor would any evil consequences have fol- 
 lowed it, had it not engaged the concurrence, 
 and advanced under the banners, of civil au- 
 thority.! And if it be true that from her 
 numerous chastisements and inflictions our 
 religion may have somewhat profited in 
 purity, we must admit that she learnt one 
 hateful lesson in the school of adversity, 
 
 or the triumph of an emperor, which might restore 
 them by a general pardon to their former state 
 Chap. xvi. 
 
 * See Mosh. de Reb. Christ. Ant. Const. Scec. iv 
 sec. 1. 
 
 t There seems reason to believe that this alliance 
 was fortified by the powerful addition of the Roman 
 bar ; at least Ave are assured that the proconsuls felt 
 themselves so interested in the defence of ancient laws 
 during Ulpian's time, as to endeavor to excite Alex- 
 ander Severus against an illegal religion. This took 
 place about 223. Baron. Ann. t. ii. p. 367, 369 
 
68 HISTORVr OF 
 
 which in after ages shu did not forget to 
 practi^:e ; it was deeply ingrafted on her in- 
 fancy by her sufferings, and it brought forth 
 in her maturity tlie bitter fruits of crime and 
 misery. However, the poisonous plant was 
 not the native of her own vineyard, and it is 
 now, for the most part, rooted up and cast 
 away ; and she accounts it the severest 
 among the wrongs of her pagan oppressors 
 that they instructed her in tlie maxims, and 
 accustomed her to the spectacle, of persecu- 
 tion 
 
 II. As an excuse for the rigor of the Ro- 
 man government, it has been argued that the 
 Christians were not punished for their wor- 
 ship of Christ, but for their refusal to sacrifice 
 to the gods of their ancestors and their gov- 
 ernment;* and that the crime for which 
 they suffered was not in fact their religion, 
 but their contumacy; and some set great 
 value on this argument. In our opinion it 
 amoimts to nothing more than this : the laws 
 of Rome punished all religious dissent with 
 death ; openly to oppose those laws was sedi- 
 tion ; and thus the punishment was inflicted 
 on the sedition, not on the dissent. This is 
 foolish and unworthy sophistry; and its 
 utmost consequence could go no farther than 
 
 ♦ The dialogue, which is supposed to have taken 
 place during tlie reign of Severus (about 200) be- 
 tween Saturn inns, proconsul of Africa, and Speratus, 
 one of the famous Scyllitan martyrs, whether genuine 
 or not, is very ancient and perfectly consistent with 
 probability. ' You may hope for the pardon of tlie 
 emperors our masters, if you come to your senses and 
 observe the ceremonies of the gods.' ' We have never 
 done any evil, nor partaken in injustice. We recol- 
 .ect not to have injured anyone; on the contrary, 
 when we suffer we render thanks to God: in which 
 re=pect we obey our Empci or, who has ordained that 
 rule for us.' * We also have a very simple religion; 
 we swear by the genius of the emperors, and make 
 vows for their iiealtli; you must do as much.' * If 
 you will listen to me calmly, I will tell you the myste- 
 ry of Christian simplicity.' 'I will not thus allow 
 in.-ultH to be introduced 1 Swear rather by the ge- 
 nius of the emperors our masters, that you may con- 
 tinue to live.' ' I recognise not the genius of the 
 em|)eror of this world, but I nerve the God of Heaven, 
 whom no man hath neon or ran fee. I have never 
 committerl any crime punishablt; by the laws.' 'I'hey 
 were remanded, and on the f(j|lowing day brought up 
 again. • Do you pcrBCverc in being a Chrintian V 
 'Yen, I jK.THCvere: I call ycni all to wilnesH — I am a 
 Christian.' All thoHC who had been arreHt<r(l with 
 him heard him, and cried, * Wo aim) are (.'hrihliauH.' 
 * Y(ju will neither «leliberate then nor receive pardon.' 
 ♦We need no parrhtn with juKlico on our ftidc?; do 
 what yoo will; we die with joy for Jcwuit ('hri«t.' 
 iic. &c. Art. Marl. Hryll. p. 87. Floury, H F,., 
 
 V net 2. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 to excuse the individual who executec tne 
 laws, and to throw the whole odium upon 
 the system.* But to allow it even this weight 
 is too much concession ; for we perceive, by 
 the very different manner in which the law 
 was enforced by different emperors, that they 
 possessed, in fact, an authority superior to it, 
 and power to suspend or revise it ; and that 
 there was not one of whom it can be truly said 
 that he was barbarous on compulsion. But 
 on the other hand, if any will persist to justify 
 the personal character of certain emperors at 
 the expense of the religious policy of the em- 
 pire, they give us only additional reason to 
 rejoice at the triumph of Christian principles 
 over the inherent depravity of the pagan 
 system. 
 
 Another and a very fruitless dispute has 
 been raised respecting the general virtues or 
 vices or fortunes of those sovereigns who are 
 most remarkable for severity towards the 
 Christians ; and while some have asserted 
 that our persecutors are to be found only 
 among the most odious and vicious of the 
 emperors, and while others endeavor to es- 
 tablish a sort of temporal retribution which 
 overtook, by violent or untimely deaths, all 
 who were hostile to our name ; there are 
 again other writers who have been willing to 
 insinuate that the wisest and most virtuous 
 monarchs were those most sensible of the ne- 
 cessity to repress the growing religion. All 
 these writers are almost equally remote fiom 
 truth. The former are obliged to qualify the 
 unrelenting injustice of Marcus Antoninus 
 out of respect to his various virtues and his 
 natural end : and the last must extenuate the 
 outrages of Nero onl}*^, or Domitian, or Max- 
 iinin, but of Galerius and the stupid barbarian 
 Licinius. But if the insinuation were really 
 founded in fact, the only important conclu- 
 sion which could be derived from it is one 
 which we are not anxious to dispute ; that 
 the noblest hmnan wisdom was not exemin 
 from shameful folly, and that the Iiighest 
 principles of justice discoverable by man 
 permitted the perpetration of revolting enor- 
 mities. In the mean time, the truth ajijK ars 
 to be nearly this: that, in the want ol' any 
 fixed and sub.stanlial rulcMif action, the impe- 
 rial character fluctuated between the extreme 
 
 ♦ l^recisely of the same value is nnolhcr excuse, 
 derived from the admiHsion that it was diflicult or im- 
 possible for a pagan to comprelu^nd even liie meaninfj 
 of toleration, accordmg to the latitude which we give 
 to it. ltf» only eflcct ran be to turn away our indigna- 
 tion from the individualH upon the nyHtcm which made 
 tlwm tyranlH and pcrnerutorH 
 
PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS. 
 
 69 
 
 limits of depravity and (what was called) 
 virtue ; that the motives of all our enemies 
 (except M. Antoninus and Diocletian) and of 
 many of our protectors are to be sought either 
 in accidental circumstances or in their own 
 caprices • and that in both those classes we 
 may number princes of the highest moral and 
 intellectual excellence and of the lowest im- 
 aginable turpitude.* 
 
 III. Without giving our universal assent 
 to tlie popular paradox, that the effect of per- 
 secution is to nourish that which it seems to 
 consume, we may admit that the pagan per- 
 secutions were not, perhaps, upon the whole 
 unfavorable to the progress of our religion.f 
 Among many reasons for this opinion, there 
 •ire three which appear to us important. 
 
 1. The first of these is the nature of the 
 persecutions themselves ; which, in the first 
 place, were usually of short duration, and re- 
 lieved by longer intermissions, if not of secu- 
 rity, at least of repose and hope, so that the 
 survivors had space to refit their shattered 
 vessel against the tempests which were still 
 in the horizon ; and which, in the next, were 
 generally sigralized by such extreme barbar- 
 ity, and such obvious injustice as civil pun- 
 Lshments, as not only to revolt whatever 
 humanity ftight be found among the specta- 
 tors, but to harden and fortify the obstinacy 
 
 * Another question has been raised concerning the 
 probable number of the martyrs ; and this has led to 
 wider difference, as it is less capable of accurate 
 determination. (Dodwell, Dissert, in Cypr. XI. 
 Ruinart, Pref. Act. Martyr.) The spirit of exag- 
 geration or credulity on the one hand h^s excited that 
 of disparagement or skepticism on the other ; and the 
 truth, if it could be ascertained at all, would be found 
 to lie between thenv It is certain, however, that 
 when Gibbon estimates the whole number of Diocle- 
 tian's victims throughout the provinces of the Eastern 
 empire according to the trifling portion who perished 
 in Palestine, he infers neither very fairly nor very con- 
 sistently; for in other places he is forward enough to 
 acknowledge the narrow limits and to extenuate the 
 population of Palestine, and he was not ignorant that 
 even the proportion of Christians in that country was 
 less than in any,other province. Sender (sec. 1. c. 6.) 
 inclines to the opinion of Dodwell, admitting the dif- 
 ficulty of the question; and Bishop Kaye (Lect. on 
 TertuU. p. 138.) remarks that 'though the number 
 may have been greater than Dodwell was willing to 
 allow, it is certain that his opinion approaches much 
 nearer to truth than that of his opponents.' It has 
 been one cause of the exaggeration, that the term 
 martyr (witness) was in the early Church indiscrim- 
 nately extended to all whose religion had exposed 
 hem to any infliction, as loss of property or liberty- 
 class of sufferers now usually called confessors, 
 t The same was the professed opinion even of Ter- 
 lullian himself. 
 
 of the sufferers. 2. The noble and devoted 
 constancy with which martyrdom wos gene- 
 rally endured, excited the admiration of the 
 best portion of the Gentile world ; and not 
 their admiration only, for those who reflected 
 on what they beheld were persuaded, first, 
 of the piety of the sufferers, and next of their 
 sincerity ; and this persuasion led some 
 among them to examine the foundation of 
 those motives and principles which seemed 
 to infuse an original energy into the human 
 soul. If a new crime was invented for the 
 affliction of the Christians, a new virtue ap- 
 peared to be sent down to them for their 
 support; and it became a serious question, 
 whether that virtue could otherwise have 
 sustained them, than by the direct interfer 
 ence of Heaven. 3. Several driven from 
 their country by persecution, carried with 
 them into distant and barbarous exile the 
 faith of the Christian, and the zeal of the 
 missionary and the martyr. And thus the 
 victims of man's blind and insensate impiety 
 became instruments in the scheme of Provi- 
 dence for the advancement of his great 
 purposes in the propagation of faith and 
 knowledge. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 On the Heresies of the first three Centuries, 
 
 Meaning of the word Heresy — Charges of immoralily 
 brought against Heretics — Their treatment by early 
 Church — Number of early Heresies — Moderation of 
 the primitive Church — Three classes of Heretics.- 
 1. Two kinds of philosophy — Gnosticism — Origin 
 and nature of that doctrine — its association with 
 Christianity — Moral practice of the Gnostics — Their 
 martyrs — Various forms of Gnosticism — Basilides — 
 Carpocrates — Valentinus — Cerdo and Marcion — Ta- 
 tian and the Encratites. 2. The Ebionites — Ense- 
 bius's account of them — Conclusions from it — The 
 Heresy of Artemon — revived by Paul of Samosata — 
 his sentence and expulsion — how finally enforced — 
 Heresy of Praseas — Doctrines of the Church stated by 
 Tertullian — Sabellius — his opinions — Patropassians. 
 3. Simon Magus — Montanus — his preaching and 
 success — Controversy on the Baptism of Heretics — 
 The Novatians — their schism and opinions — Conclu- 
 sions respecting the general character of the early Her- 
 esies, and the manner of opposing them — On the 
 Fathers of the primitive Church— Real importance of 
 their writings — Sheplierd of Hernias — Epistle of St 
 Barnabas — Ignatius— Polycarp — Clement of Roma 
 Respecting their doctrine — Irenaeus 
 
 The original meaning of the word heresy la 
 choice ; it was long used by the philosophers 
 to designate the preference and selection of 
 some speculative opinion, and in process of 
 
YO 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 time * was applied without any sense of re- 
 proach to every sect — a term with which it 
 thus became neai'ly synonymous. From 
 philosophy it passed into the service of relig- 
 ion, and we find it applied both by St. Luke 
 and Josephus f to the Pharisees and Saddu- 
 cees, with no imputation of censure or error. 
 Next we observe, that it was employed by 
 the Jews to distinguish the new opinions of 
 the Christians ; St. Paul is accused of being 
 the 'ringleader of the heresy of the Naza- 
 renes,' and confesses that he 'worships the 
 God of his fathers, after the way which they 
 call heresy' — an expression which indicates, 
 that some reproach had been intended by the 
 term. The w^ord was then adopted by 
 Christians ; and though it still continued for 
 some ages to be used, in its first and most 
 general sense, to designate every denomina- 
 tion, not only of sects but of false religions,:]^ 
 yet for the most part it was employed in 
 speaking of those who, professing Christiani- 
 ty, had departed from the doctrine which 
 was taught by the Apostles. In the mouth 
 of an orthodox Christian it could not, in any 
 of these senses, be a term of indifference ; 
 since, according to the necessary exclusive- 
 ness of our principles, the faith which was 
 revealed through Christ and interpreted by 
 his Apostles is alone truth ; every other be- 
 lief is error. 
 
 We next observe, that the notion of wilful- 
 ness and perversity (perhaps a much worse 
 notion) was very early attached to it ; and 
 even by the writers of the New Testament it 
 is sometimes so used, that a somewhat indefi- 
 nite idea of evil appears to have been afliixed 
 to it. Some, indeed, have supi)0sed that it 
 was understood by early Christian writers to 
 contain the imputation of immorality,^ and 
 
 ♦ Cicero. (Paradox I. vol, vii. p. 845. Ed.Oxon.) 
 Pliilo Jiidscus. (Fragrn c lib. H. in Exod.) Burton, 
 Bainpt. Lect. I. 
 
 t Acts of ApoHll. V. 17, XV. 5. Joseph. Antitj. 
 xiii. 5. 9. 
 
 X Kpi[)h:miiiH, in liis Book on Heresies, nien- 
 tiotiH lUtoifxtnuTUi);, 2.'xvOi(ru{tg, ' KXhivuTUoc, 
 fovduurfjvg, ^.'aiiannjKrfiog , all under the name 
 of heresy. BalHainon (Couiinent. 14lh Can. Council 
 of (.'halcedon) cxprCKHCM himself (Iiu.h: — ' Heretics arc 
 divided into two kindH: 1. TIiom; who receive the 
 Christiari reli^ion, but err in poinlH, wlir), when they 
 Cf)mc over to the Church, are anointed with »)il; 
 2. tlioKC who do not rec<:ivo it at all, and are unbe- 
 liever«», hucIi aH JewM and (jreirks; and thewe wc bap- 
 tize.' Kce Burlon'H ]iam|)t. Lect. I. 
 
 § The argument amounts lo thiM: here«y is opposed 
 by .St. I'aul to faith, and is commenHurate with it; 
 and :in faith rompnrhendx an tin eH.tence and xenda 
 forlli as iti< emanation purity of hear', and exco'leiice 
 
 thus we may partly account for the exceeding 
 zeal with which many of them labored for 
 its extirpation, and the language which they 
 applied to those who had deviated into it. 
 Charges, indeed, or insinuations of the gross- 
 est impurities are sometimes thrown out by 
 the orthodox wi'iters against the early here- 
 tics ; but we are bound to receive them with 
 great caution; because the answers which 
 may have been given to them are lost ; and 
 because they are not generally justified by 
 any authentic records which we possess 
 respecting the lives of those heretics. The 
 truth appears to be this ; that some flagrant 
 immoralities were notoriously perpetrated by 
 some of the wildest among their sects, and 
 that these have given coloring to the charges 
 which have been thrown upon them too in- 
 discriminately. 
 
 But whatsoever uncertainty may rest on 
 this inquiry, it cannot be disputed, first, that 
 the Apostolical Fathers, following the foot- 
 steps of the Apostles themselves, regarded 
 with great jealousy the birth and growth of 
 erroneous opinions; and next, that they did 
 not authorise, either by instruction or exam- 
 ple, any severity on the persons of those in 
 error. They opposed it by their reasoning 
 and their eloquence, and they avoided its con 
 tagion by removing from their communion 
 those who persisted in it ; but they were also 
 mindful that within these limits was confined 
 the power which the Church received from 
 the Apostle who founded it over the spiritual 
 disobedience of its members. 
 
 The heretics or seceders from the primitive 
 Church were extremely various, at least in 
 name, and th(U'e is no period in ecclesiastical 
 history in which dissent has appeared under so 
 many denominations as the earliest. But it 
 seems doubtful whether many of those sects 
 had very numerous adherents, or were at all 
 generally dispersed over the surface of Chris- 
 tendom ; some of them were merely local 
 scarcely extending beyond the spot which 
 gave them birth, and others were chieily con 
 fined to the controversial writers, as the diflcr 
 cuec was on points too abstruse to create much 
 inter(>st in those days among the body of the 
 people. Many, again, have left behind them no 
 traces of their existence, and their very names 
 have only been preserved through the labors 
 of their a(lv«M-sarieH ; .so that we may fairly 
 prestmie, in npitt; of the dis|)lny and parade of 
 deiioininations, that the great majority of the 
 i'arly (Jhristians n;mained attached to the 
 of conduct, so heresy must contain, of necessity, the 
 contrary (jualitics. 
 
THE EARLY HERESIES. 
 
 71 
 
 primitive faith. In the meantime, the mere 
 fact of the existence of so many different 
 forms of Christianity certainly proves, not 
 only the zeal, but also the numbers of the ear- 
 ly converts ; for if these had been inconsid- 
 erable, we should have heard little either 
 about dissenters from the orthodox body, or 
 of their divisions among themselves. The 
 paucity and weakness of the faithful would 
 have been a sufficient guarantee for their una- 
 nimity. 
 
 TJiat many of those errors gained footing 
 at a very early period, long before the conclu- 
 sion of the first century, has not been disputed 
 witii any probability ; * and the fact is attrib- 
 uted with great appearance of truth to the 
 twelve or perhaps fifteen years which inter- 
 vened between the ascension of Christ and 
 the departure of the Apostles from Judeea. 
 During this period, partly through the disper- 
 sion of the converts after the martyrdom of 
 Stephen, partly through the periodical reli- 
 gious communications of foreign Jews with 
 their native country, some imperfect accounts 
 of the history and doctrine of the Saviour 
 were spread abroad, even before the fulness 
 of the truth was delivered by the Apostles. 
 This circumstance will assist us in account- 
 ing for the great variety of forms in which 
 error presented itself, especially if we consid- 
 er the vast extent of country and the widely 
 separated regions over which the faith was 
 diffused. But the cause to which we should 
 more directly ascribe the multiplicity of her- 
 esies is the philosophical subdivisions of the 
 heathen world, and the facility of combining 
 opinions the most incongruous. Thus, while 
 all parties were desirous to adapt the particu- 
 lar tenets of Christianity to their own p-econ- 
 ceived opinions, which again materially dif- 
 fered in diflferent sects, the forms created by 
 such associations were necessarily very nu- 
 merous, and frequently very monstrous. 
 
 Again, the manner in which the differences 
 between the Church and those at variance 
 with it were conducted, was not entirely free 
 from violence of feeling and invective ; the 
 contrary would have been wonderful indeed, 
 when we consider the situation and character 
 of tiie parties. For, in the first place, as we 
 shall presently see, a very large proportion of 
 
 * Tittman,* De Vestig. Gnosticornm,' &c. has, in 
 our ojjinion, entirely failed in his learned attempt to 
 fix the origin of the Gnostic heresies in the second 
 century. The passages which seem most in his favor 
 are Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. vii. p. 764. Ed. Sylburg. 
 Hegisipp. ap. Euseb. 1. iii. c. 32. But the general 
 voice of history is on the other side. 
 
 the early heresies were divided froii. the doc- 
 trine of the Gospel, not by slight or partia. 
 deviations, but by delusions so extravagant 
 and irrational as to place them almost in di- 
 rect opposition to the true spirit of Christiani- 
 ty. But this was not all ; in themselves they 
 were pitiable and pardonable, but in their 
 effects on the Church they were fraught with 
 injury and danger. Because the real charac- 
 ter of the religion was not yet generally com- 
 prehended, and the heathens formed theii 
 estimation of it according to the specimen 
 which was presented to them ; and when 
 they observed that absurdities were professed, 
 and perhaps immoralities practised, in the 
 name of Christ, they extended their contempt 
 and indignation to the whole body of his fol- 
 lowers.* The individual expression of those 
 sentiments would naturally retard the pro- 
 gress of the faith ; but neither was this the 
 whole evil, for calumnies springing from that 
 origin not only tainted the Christian name, 
 but contributed to call down upon it, during 
 the moments of its most perilous weakness, 
 those visitations of popular fury and imperial 
 injustice, which threatened to crush and ex- 
 terminate it. Under such circumstances we 
 shall scarcely condemn some intemperance 
 of expression into which the early defenders 
 of the apostolical doctrine were occasionally 
 betrayed. At the same time we may remark, 
 that as the controversies of those days were 
 at least exempt from personal infliction, so 
 religious dissent, being unrepressed by civil 
 penalties, was less rancorous, as well as less 
 consistent and less permanent. 
 
 The great multitude of those heresies was 
 not only reconcilable with the moderation of 
 the primitive Church, but may, in some de- 
 gree, have proceeded from it. For as the 
 imperfection of human nature will not allow 
 us to hope, under any circumstances, for per- 
 fect unanimity in religious opinion, so the 
 names of dissent will generally become more 
 numerous as its expression is less discouraged. 
 But as the difterences of dissenters from each 
 other are generally greater than their devia 
 tions from the Church, from which they 
 branch out in all directions as from a common 
 centre, so any lasting coalition is little to be 
 
 * See Orig. Contr. Celsum, lib. iii. p. 119. 1. v. p 
 271. Le Clerc, H. E., ad ann. 83. Notwithstand- 
 ing, Gibbon supposes the exertions of the heretics to 
 have promoted, upon the whole, the progress of 
 Christianity ; because (as he thinks) the heathen, to 
 whom they communicated an imperfect knowledge of 
 the faith, subsequently threw off their errors and melt- 
 ed into Jhe body of the Church 
 
72 HISTORY OF 
 
 apprehended, and least so, hen no temporal 
 authority is exerted to chastise, and by chas- 
 tisement to multiply and unite them. 
 
 It would be tedious and unprofitable suc- 
 cessively to enumerate all the heresies and 
 dissensions of tlie early Christians ; and it is 
 very difficult to classify them with accuracy ; 
 for several, which were distinct in their ori- 
 gui, arrived by different roads so nearly at 
 the same conclusions, that tl>ey may there 
 seem to be identified ; while others are so ob- 
 scure in their own nature, or from defects in 
 our information, as to make it neither very 
 certain, nor perhaps very important, to which 
 class they most properly belong. 
 
 Mosheim distinguishes three classes of ear- 
 ly heretics : 1. those who associated Christ- 
 ianity with Judaism, who were the Nazarenes 
 and Ebionites ; 2. those who engrafted some 
 of its doctrines on the system of the orien- 
 tal philosophy, among whom are accounted, 
 of the Asiatic school, Elxai, Simon Magus, 
 Menander, Saturninus, Cerdo, and Marcion ; 
 of tlie Alexandrian, Basilides, Carpocrates, 
 and the perfecter of the system, Valentinus ; 
 3. those who endeavored to explain certain 
 of the Christian mysteries by the principles 
 of the Grecian philosophy, among whom 
 are placed Praxeas, Artemon, Theodotus, 
 and others. It has been objected to this di- 
 vision, that it is not supported by the author- 
 ity of the ancient fathers, who, in no instance, 
 derive the opinions which they combat from 
 the oriental philosophy. Tertullian, indeed, 
 expressly calls the [)hilosophers the parents 
 or ' patriarchs of the heretics,' but it is to the 
 Grecian school that he intends to confine that 
 charge, and especially to the sects of Pytha- 
 goras and Plato, against which he constantly 
 alleges it. Other writers hold the same lan- 
 guage, and Irenajus goes so far as to derive 
 the doctrine of the succession of ^ons, pro- 
 mulgated by Valentinus, from the Greek The- 
 ogonics, not from the speculations of the 
 eastern sages. From this circumstance we 
 are at liberty to inf<T, either that the eastern 
 philoso[)hy had no share in the origin of the 
 < arly heresies, or that those fathers were en- 
 tin;ly iMiac(juaint«.'d with its existence. 
 
 A difr('r«'nt vi(;vv is tak(!n of this subject by 
 Dr. IJiirti)n.* He ascribes the rise of all the 
 ohh'Mi lifnisies to the; (ilnostic philosophy. 
 lJut at the Ham(; limi; under that coniprrhcn- 
 Hiv(; name, we inuNustand him directly or 
 iiidiiTctly t(» coinbine ahnoHt every i\uin of 
 |il)iloHopliy wiiich \vun profuHScd throughout 
 
 * Hec Bumpt. Ix;ct. II. and III. and note 7 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 the whole extent of the eastern and western 
 empire. The three sources which contribut 
 ed to form this heterogeneous mixture, were, 
 1. the easteni doctrine of the two princi- 
 ples ; 2. the Jewish Cabala ; 3. the Platonic 
 philosophy : the last of these, under its vari- 
 ous modifications, supplied the most abundant 
 stream ; and the point of their conflux and 
 commixture is naturally supposed to have 
 been that vast emporium of commerce and lit- 
 erature, Alexandria. In this city principally 
 Gnosticism, such as it is here described, is 
 believed to have been amalgamated into one 
 substance, and hence distributed over the 
 various provinces of the Roman empire not 
 very long before the birth of Christ. 
 
 We have no space to state the learned ar- 
 guments by which that opinion is supported, 
 nor those which might reasonably be urged 
 against it ; but the fact is indisputable, that, 
 before the period of which we are treating, 
 the theological speculations of the eastern 
 philosophers had been received in ii^urope 
 with favor and attention, in so far that even 
 the worship which was founded on them was 
 iti very common practice. But whether we 
 should still continue to distinguish the Gre 
 cian from the Oriental, as peculiarly the 
 Gnostical philosophy, or whetlier we should 
 employ the term Gnosticism to designate a 
 single system formed from their union, is a 
 question which it is not necessary for us to 
 discuss, since it is admitted that Gnosticism, 
 in its more extended sense, embraced a mul- 
 titude of ill-assorted opinions, impregnated 
 more or less deeply with the character of the 
 soil out of which they respectively rose. 
 
 For our own part, in the concise view 
 which ^e are here enabled to present of the 
 multiform family of heresies, we shall rather 
 be directed by their subject than by their 
 supposed origin — by the common character 
 which runs through them, than by the source 
 whence that character may have been deriv 
 ed. And with this intent, we shall^Crs/ men- 
 tion those wherein some of the Christian 
 doctrines were corrupted by association with 
 that extended philosophical system which 
 took its root in the vain inquiry respecting 
 the origin of evil ; sccondhf, we shall notice 
 those which laid the foundation of the great 
 controversies respecting tlu! Trinity and In- 
 carnation, which broke out in succetuling 
 jages; and, Imlbly wv. t^hall n)entit)n one or 
 two of those which appear to have been ex- 
 I cit(Hl by mere individual enlluirfiasm or mad 
 I nc88. In the meantime, wo readily admit 
 I the imperfection of this division in the I'g^t 
 
THE EARLY 
 
 of an absolute distinction, since some of the 
 opinions held by those whom we shall place 
 in the second class, might be traced to the 
 principles which will be treated in the first ; 
 and there is so much wildness in the raving's* 
 of certain in both those classes, that they 
 might p'erhaps, without much error, be ad- 
 judged to the third. The mention of the 
 Manichseans we shall entirely defer until a 
 later period in our history. 
 
 I. The Oriental philosophy, which is com- 
 monly confounded with Gnosticism,! proceed- 
 ed from the hopeless inquiry into the nature 
 and origin of evil. Convinced that this could 
 not possibly be ascribed to the divine agen- 
 cy, the speculators embraced what appear- 
 ed to be the only alternative, and attributed 
 it to matter ; and matter must of consequence 
 be eternal. And then, when they proceeded 
 to consider the various forms of matter, sense- 
 less and animal, exhibited in the visible 
 world, and their seeming imperfections, they 
 found it impossible to account for so many 
 modifications of evil, except by the supposed 
 agency of some being, superior indeed to 
 man, but subordinate to the Author of all 
 good. At this point ceased the uniformity of 
 the fanciful theory, and it branched off into 
 inquiries like the following: What if;a5 this 
 mighty, though inferior, being ? — of what 
 origin, power, attributes ? — one and alone, or 
 assisted or sei-ved by others, equal or inferior? 
 
 All these points were disputed ; all how- 
 ever agreed as to the independent existence of 
 the two principles, good and evil ; and nearly 
 all that the latter was the Creator of the 
 world. Such were the philosophical notions ' 
 of these persons ; and such was their attach- 
 ment to them, that even when they became 
 persuaded of the divine mission of Christ, 
 they were unwilling entirely to sacrifice them, 
 but rather strove to associate them with the 
 doctrines and engraft them on the history of 
 the Bible. The first consequence of so per- 
 verse a misapplication of human reason was 
 this — the monstrous conclusion that the God 
 of the Jews was the evil principle, and that 
 Jesus Christ was sent down by the good prin- 
 ciple to put an end to his reign on earth; 
 
 ♦ See Irenceiis, lib. -i. c. 29, at seq. Le Clare, H. 
 E., ann. 76- 
 
 t The word is derived from yv(baig, signifying 
 merely knowledge, erudition. But its later sense 
 among Christian writers implies some acquaintance 
 with mysterious doctrines or occult interpretations, 
 not possessed by ordinary persons. See Lo Clerc on 
 Uie Bubject of Gnosticism, Hist. Eccl. ad aim 76. 
 
 10 • 
 
 HERESIES. 73 
 
 that the former was the God of the Old, and 
 the latter that of the New Testament. At 
 this point the philosophy of the Gnostics end- 
 ed, and their heresy began ; and tlie errors 
 which Ave have mentioned, speedily led them 
 into others: after rejecting — such was the 
 necessary consequence of their opinions — the 
 inspiration and authority of the Old Testa- 
 ment, they applied themselves to the misrep- 
 resentation of the New. They denied the 
 humanity of Christ, asserting that he came 
 not in the flesh ; that he suffered not, that he 
 died not ; that what seemed to be material in 
 his nature was a fantastic, incorporeal sub- 
 stance. The same principles obliged them 
 also to dispute the resurrection of the body, 
 a substance too gross for an eternal destiny. 
 This opinion again variously affected their 
 moral practice ; for while there were undoubt- 
 edly some who mortified the sensual portion 
 of our nature, for the greater pefection of the 
 soul, there are also said to have been others, 
 of more violent enthusiasm or fiery tempera- 
 ment, who permitted every license of impuri- 
 ty to that which lay so far beneath considera- 
 tion and respect. It is chiefly to the Gnostic 
 heretics of Egypt (who were distinguished 
 from their brethren by greater wildness in 
 their speculations) that these excesses are 
 attributed ; we cannot now determine how 
 truly. But on the other hand it is just to men- 
 tion that, in professing the Christian name, 
 those heretics did not always shrink from the 
 dangers which surrounded it ; and we have 
 evidence that many among them encounter- 
 ed persecution with the same courage which 
 distinguished their brethren of the Church, 
 and endured it with the same unbending 
 constancy.* 
 
 Among the Gnostic heretics (thus we shall 
 contiime to denominate those who associated, 
 however variously and diversely, the Eastern 
 or Persian system with some belief in Christ) 
 it is usual to account the followers of Simon 
 Magus, f the first corrupter of the Christian 
 
 * In Diocletian's persecution, Peter and Asclepias, 
 the former a member of the Church, the latter a iMar- 
 cionite Bishop, were burnt. ' Peter,^ says Tille- 
 mont, ' went to Heaven, and Asclepias to hell-fire.* 
 That intemperate bigot might have taken a lesson of 
 moderation even from the language of Euseljius :- 
 'With Peter suffered Asclepias ; througn a zeal, as 
 he thought, for piety, but not for that which is accord- 
 ing to knowledge ; however, they were consumed in 
 one and tlie same fire.' — Jortin, Rem. Eccl. Hist., book 
 ii. p. ii. 
 
 t ' Simon Magus taught in Samaria that he was 
 the Father, in Judiea that he was the Son, among the 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 doctrine: these are said to have heen numer- 
 ous, especially at Rome ; and the celebrity 
 of their master has been considerably in- 
 creased by an error of Justin Martyr, re- 
 peated by several of the fathers, who mistook 
 a statue mscribed to Semo, a Sabine deity, 
 for a proof of the deification of that heresi- 
 arcn. * Nicolas, one of the seven deacons 
 mentioned in the Acts, is asserted to liave 
 misled the sect called Nicolaitans ;f Menan- 
 der, the pupil of Simon, perpetuated his 
 teacher's errors, and through him they were 
 transmitted to Saturninus, who disseminated 
 them in the Asiatic, and to Basilides, X who 
 may have introduced them into the Egyptian 
 school. In this prolific soil, equally favorable 
 to the growth of evil and of good, they be- 
 came, among the gross disciples of Carpocra- 
 tes,§ the principles of deliberate immorality, 
 while II they received from the ingenuity of 
 Valentinus such refinement, as to call on that 
 writer the particular attention both of Irense- 
 us and Tertullian. H Cerdo, and after him 
 Maicion, the most distinguished among the 
 heretics of his day, introduced the same de- 
 lusion, with certain** vai'iations, into Rome 
 during tne 3gn of Antoninus Pius. Here 
 
 Gentiles that he was the Holy Spirit.' Iren., i. c. 
 20. Tertuil, de Pnescr. Her., c. 45. Simon Magvis 
 ausus est summam se dicere virtutem, i. e. suiniiiuin 
 Dcuin, post huiic Menander, discipukis ipsius, eadem 
 diceiisqure Simon ipse. He denied that any one could 
 be saved unless baptized in his name. 
 
 * Justin asserts tliat a statue was erected in his 
 honor bearing the following inscription in Latin, 
 Simoni Deo Sancto. This was generally believed 
 until, in the year 1574, a statue was discovered in the 
 island of the Tiber having an inscription beginning 
 thus : — * Semoni Sanco Deo Fidio Sacrum.' We 
 cannot think Dr. Burton successful in his attempt to 
 defend Justin. 
 
 f 'I'his appears to have been the same with the 
 heresy of Ccrinthus, against which St. John is by 
 many believed to have written his Gospel. 
 
 t 'Sce Le Clerc, H. E., adann. 78 and 118. 
 
 § Iren. lib. i. c. 25. Enseb. lib. iv. c. 7. This 
 reproach is shared with the Nicolaitans. Burton, 
 Bampl. Ixjct. v., conclusion. 
 
 II liO (^lerc placcH Ciirpocratcs at the year 120 A. I>., 
 and Vaientiriua in Uic year following — uut non nuilto 
 KcriuK. 
 
 IT Onr information renpecting Gnosticism is (chiefly 
 coUc'ftfMl from tlu! writern who oppoy('d V^alentinus, 
 and ejipocially from IrentfUH 
 
 ** (-'erdo and Mansion ap|K!ar toliavc; iiHwrtcd llu- 
 doctiine (ff the two princi|)lcH with uion; bohhu^sH 
 ♦Iwn the ValcntiniauH ; but both partien agreed in 
 teaching that die I-'athcr of JenuH ("hriMt wan not the 
 Creator of ih" world nor tlwf (»od of the Old Tc-nta- 
 incnl. Tcrtnll, r. Marc, lib, i. r. 15, KJ. Iren., lib. 
 i. C.47. Burton, Bampt. Luct., p. 50. 
 
 the doctrines * were immediately disc laim^d 
 by the prelates of that Church, and confuted 
 by the ablest Christian writer, Justin JMartyr. 
 They were afterwards made the subject of a 
 separate treatise by Tertullian. It has been 
 inferred from the discovery of some Gnostic 
 medals in France that the heresy was at one 
 time generally disseminated in the western 
 provinces. But this fact, liable as it is to 
 soine dispute, is not sufficient to counterbal- 
 ance the silence of history confirmed by the 
 certainty of the early disappearance of the 
 sect. In the mean time we do not dispute 
 that the philosophy of the Gnostics had some 
 prevalence throughout that part of the em- 
 pire during the first and second centuries, 
 but it was not until the end of the second that 
 Christianity can be said to have made any 
 progress there. 
 
 Soon afterwards, in the year 172, Tatian, a 
 man of some learning, and a disciple of Justin 
 Martyr, built on the basis of Gnosticism the 
 heresy of the Encratites. These sectarians 
 professed the simplest principles of the mo- 
 nastic life, meditation and bodily austerity. 
 It may be said, perhaps, that under the names 
 of Essenes and Therapeutt3e such enthusiasts 
 existed in the very earliest age of Christian- 
 ity, and even before its foundation ; but it is 
 certain that it was at this period, and under 
 this designation, tliat they first attracted seri- 
 ous attention ; and it is not disputed that they 
 met with utter discouragement and condem- 
 nation from the Church. For the birth of 
 monasticism was not destined to take place 
 in an age of piety and sincere devotion ; and 
 when at length it was produced by fanaticism 
 infuriated by persecution, its growth was still 
 slow and unequal, keeping pace with the 
 corruption of religion and the degradation 
 of the Church. 
 
 It is a strong, but scarcely exaggerated ex- 
 pression of St. Jerome, f that the body of 
 our Lord was declared to be a phantom while 
 the Apostles were still in the world, and the 
 blood of Christ was still fresh in Judtea. 
 The Phantastics, under the denomintit ion of 
 
 ♦ It a|)pcar8 tlmt one of the grounds on wliich 
 Marcion resisted was the refusal of the Church to 
 make any concession to the Jews, or conciliate them 
 by any comproniise of the pure, faith. This appears 
 to prove that the principal Huccess of the Gnostic 
 heresy had lH;en among the Jewish converts. Proba- 
 bly it was most prevalent in Juda a and yl-gypt; but 
 we also learn that the (.'lunch of Kpheaus wa* early 
 tainted by it, an<l jjrobably it had gained some foot- 
 ing ihronghonl Asia Minor. Marcion was a na/iv« 
 of TonlUH. The work of J«intin is lost. 
 
 t v^vors. Lucif. c. viii. vol. ii. p. 208. 
 
THE EARLY HERESIES. 
 
 75 
 
 Doceiw, were, indeed, a sect of very early 
 origin, and we connect their opinions with 
 one peculiarity of the Gnostic system which 
 we have not yet mentioned. Certain among 
 those philosophers, in order to remove the 
 Author of good to an immeasurable distance 
 from the contact of matter, imagined a vast 
 succession of created but superhuman beings, 
 as the agents of communication between the 
 Supreme God and the world, or at least its 
 Creator. These were emanations from the 
 Deity ; and they appear, when their office was 
 discharged, to have been restored to the Ple- 
 roma, to the presence of Him who sent them 
 • — these beings were called JEons. Among 
 them a very high rank, possibly the highest, 
 v/as assigned to Christ ; but from this point 
 the Gnostics broke off into two different and 
 almost opposite theories ; many imagined that 
 Jesus was a mere man, and maintained that 
 the aeon Christ descended upon the man Je- 
 sus at his baptism and left him immediately 
 before his crucifixion, so that Christ was not, 
 in fact, subjected to pain and death ; while 
 others held that the body, with which Christ 
 appeared to be invested, was not really human 
 and passible, but unsubstantial or sethereal, 
 or at least immaterial : these last were called 
 Docetae. At the same time, both parties 
 alike misunderstood that which the Church 
 considered to be the peculiar doctrine and 
 object of Christianity; for they agreed in be- 
 heving that the mission of Christ had no fur- 
 ther intention than to reveal the knowledge 
 of the true God ; they denied the resurrection 
 and the final judgment, and by explaining 
 away the death of Christ they deprived his 
 religion of the doctrine of the Atonement. 
 
 From the above brief and very general out- 
 line of the Gnostic Heresies — which differed 
 again widely from each other in many subor- 
 dinate opinions — we perceive how very far 
 they were removed from the precincts of rea- 
 son and truth. Indeed, they retained so much 
 more of Gnosticism than they assumed of 
 Christianity, that it was only in the ancient 
 and very broad acceptation of the term that 
 they could be fairly denominated Heresies, 
 and thus we are less disposed to censure the 
 severity of those Fathers who refused them 
 the name of Christian. For however cau- 
 tious we should be in withholding that appel- 
 lation from those whose errors are founded 
 on the mere perversion of reason, we may 
 safely disclaim our fraternity with men, who 
 substitute for the fundamental doctrines and 
 the clearest truths of the Gospel, wild visions 
 end theories which have not any ground or 
 
 existence, except in vain and lawless imagi- 
 nation. We shall do well to conclude this 
 subject in the words of Le Clerc — one of the 
 most rational and faithful among our histori- 
 cal guides. ' I am weary of the Valentinians, 
 (thus he begins his account of the year 145,) 
 and so I imagine are my readers ; but the 
 history of the second century is so crammed 
 with them, and the Fathers, both of those 
 and of later times, so often refer to them, tliat 
 it is necessary to expose monstrous opinions, 
 which in themselves do not merit one mo- 
 ment's attention.' In truth, their principal, 
 if not their only claim on our attention, is, 
 that the Books of the New Testament appear 
 to contain some allusions to them, which it 
 is our duty to examine and understand. * 
 
 II. We have just observed, that among the 
 earliest corrupters of the Christian doctrines, 
 there were some who disputed the human 
 nature of Christ. It appears to us equally 
 clear there were also others who denied his 
 divinity. The oldest and perhaps the most 
 numerous among these were the Ebionites. 
 
 Ebionites. Tertullian considers them as 
 a sect of Judaizing Christians, named from 
 their founder Ebion, who strictly maintained 
 the observance of the ceremonial law, and 
 rejected the miraculous conception and the 
 divine nature of the Saviour, f Eusebius, in 
 his Ecclesiastical History, (book iii. c. xxvii.) 
 describes them in these'words: — 
 
 'The Ebionites were so called from the 
 poverty and meanness with which they dog- 
 matized concerning Christ ; for they consid- 
 ered him as a mere man born of the connex- 
 ion of a man and Mary. And they thought 
 too that the ceremonial law (^rouixri dgrjay.iia'^ 
 was to be followed ; as neither faith in Christ, 
 nor the life led through that faith, was suf- 
 ficient for salvation. But there were others 
 bearing the same appellation, who escaped 
 the extravagant absurdity of these former, 
 
 * Any one desirous of more ample details respect- 
 ing the Gnostic Heresies may safely consult the learn- 
 ed author in the Encycl. Britan., pp. 24, 25, 26. 
 
 t De Prescript. Heret. c. 33 ; De Virgin. Veland. 
 c. 6. ' Quam utique Virglnem fuisse constat, li(,-et 
 Ebion resistat.' De Carne Christi, c. 14. IS, 19. 
 The Ebionites are classed by Mosheim among the 
 Judaizing sects; and Ebion, if he existed at all, was 
 probably a Jew: the numbers and influence of tliose 
 sects diminished so rapidly during the second century, 
 after the promulgation of Adrian's Edict, and are 
 consequently so little noticed by the fathers of the 
 third and following ages, tliat it seems mnecessary to 
 bestov a separate notice on them. 
 
76 HISTORY OF 
 
 since they did not deny that the Lord was 
 born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit. But 
 neither did these, acknowledging his preex- 
 istence, and that he was Logos and Sophia, 
 (the Word and the Wisdom,) turn entirely 
 away from the unrighteousness of the former, 
 chiefly because they too were careful about 
 the bodily service (^uo)f.tccTixi]v luiQeiuv'^ of 
 the law. These then did not receive the 
 epistles of the apostle, calling him an apostate 
 from the law, and only used the gospel ac- 
 cording ID the Hebrews; but they observed 
 Sunday in commemoration of the resurrec- 
 tion, keeping the Jewish sabbath.'* 
 
 This description agrees in all material 
 points with the account of Tertullian ; and 
 without proceeding to deeper investigation, 
 we may safely infer from it two historical 
 truths — that the peculiar opinions of the 
 Ebionites were confined (or nearly so) to the 
 Jewish converts — and that they were neither 
 wholly nor in part the doctrines of the ante- 
 Nicene Church. 
 
 It is well known that the high antiquity of 
 the opinions of the Ebionites has been held 
 by some to be an evidence of their truth ; but 
 the same inference might be drawn, with the 
 same reason, respecting the delusions of the 
 Phantastics, which had at least as early an 
 origin. The Ebionites probably arose after 
 the publication of three of the gospels. The 
 Gnostic errors of the Docetae may even have * 
 preceded the preaching of the Apostles ; they 
 were certainly conteiriporary with it. Again, 
 if it be admitted that the Apostles were the 
 mtcrpretcrs of God's word, and if it be not 
 proved that the sect of the Ebionites was 
 founded by any one of them, and if it be 
 certain that the fathers who subsequently 
 directed the Church, and ex[)laincd its doc- 
 trine, did invariably disclaim that sect, we 
 may fairly conclude, that its opinions were 
 ncith(;r favorably received, nor at all com- 
 monly adopted. On the other hand, it is en- 
 deavored, by confounding the Ebionites with 
 the Gnostic Hfjretirs, to make them in some 
 d<!gree accoiniUible for all the al)sin(lities of 
 the latter; and these, it is truly urged, had all 
 
 ♦ Lf; ('Icrc (liHtin^jiiislics the oiiily from tlio more 
 recent KI)ionilr-H, plariii^ lliem rrspectively at iidii. 72 
 ami 10.3. The former lie cfm^iderH, on ihe aiitliority 
 of Jerome, to have been merely Jiul:ii/,inf( (/hriHtians 
 — who, ax that Father remarkH, in (heir wIhIi to Ik; 
 both JewH and ( 'liri»«(ian», were neither. Lc Clero 
 conHiderH the Nazarenfr.i to havo been the •»arne neet »h 
 iIm; «irly KbionileH, ann. 72. Moxheim (I)e Reb. 
 CliriKt. ant. CoiihI. .See i. nect. Iviii. and See. ii., 
 ncct. xxxix., xl. ke.) refem the tIhc of the Ebion- 
 iteit to the lecond centurv. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 a tendency to the opposite extreme, to spirit- 
 ualize the body rather than to degrade the 
 divine nature of Christ. And it is hence m- 
 ferred, that it was Jestis alone to whom the 
 Ebionites attributed a human nature, while 
 they acknowledged the uncontaminated di- 
 vinity of Christ. It is possible that there 
 were some, caUing themselves Ebionites, who 
 were in fact merely Gnostics. But in the 
 face of our direct authorities we cannot ad- 
 mit the hypothesis in question. WhatTer- 
 tulhan and Eusebius * expressly tell us to 
 have been the Ebionitical opinions respect- 
 ing Christ, we caimot suppose to be meant 
 of Jesus as opposed to Christ. And we feel 
 obliged to believe, that those are as far re- 
 moved from truth on the one hand, w-ho dis 
 pute the early existence of the Unitarian opin 
 ions, as those are, on the other, who assert 
 their early reception by the Church ; they 
 have existed from the beginning, and from 
 the beginning they have been condemned. 
 
 Again, the doctrine of the mere humanity 
 of Christ, separated from the Judaism of the 
 Ebionites, was advanced towards the end of 
 the second century by Theodotus and Arte- 
 mon ; and during the episcopacy of Victor, 
 the former was expelled from the Church of 
 Rome for that error. Eusebius in this place 
 designates him as the ^father of an impious 
 apostasy,' — and in so far as he had divested 
 the old opinion of its Judaism, and advanced 
 it nakedly in the very face of the Church, 
 the assertion is true. For any claim, which 
 it may have advanced to a previous existence 
 at Rome, or in any of the European Church- 
 es, is sufhciently answered by reference to 
 the writings of Justin, and Miltiades, and 
 Tatian, and Clement, and Irena^us, and Melito, 
 ' by all of whom (says Eusebius) the divinity 
 of Christ is asserted.' f 
 
 Arlcmon. In the next century the heresy 
 of Artemon (it became more generally known 
 by his name) was revived by Paul of Samos 
 ata, ]{ishop of Antioch. \ A synod of Bish 
 ops, Pr('si)yters and deacons was convoked at 
 Antioch in the year 2G9, to take cognizance 
 
 * See also Irena-us L. iii. c. 24, and Epiphaniiw. 
 Ha}rc8. 30. 
 
 t tV oJi unuai, \) f oloyi lmi o X{tnTiug. 
 End. of eh. 5. 
 
 X We follow in this Htatenienl the authority of Eu- 
 Hebius, and the opinion almost uiiiverKally received 
 I lint it Ih fair to mention (hat Dr. Ilnrton in^eniouHl^ 
 ' arjjncH, from n carefid <'xainina(ion of contemporary 
 i evidence, compared ehielly with (he UHHeidonH of 
 I Adiananinn, lhat • I'anI believed Jentis to Ix; a mcire 
 ! hnnian bein<;, but conceived him to Iwcome CVif •>/ 
 
'IHE EARLY 
 
 Of the offence ; and Eusebius notices the 
 eagerness with which they hurried ' from all 
 directions against the defiler of Christ's flock.' 
 In a numerous assembly, in his own metrop- 
 olis, the Bishop found many defenders, but 
 he was at length convicted and sentenced to 
 expulsion from his throne. But as he resist- 
 ed the execution of the sentence, and as the 
 Church was not yet able to enforce its own 
 judgments, apphcation was made to the Em- 
 peror xlurelian, whose authority finally re- 
 moved the refractory offender. * These facts 
 are sufficient to prove beyond controversy, 
 that the opinion in question, whatever may 
 have been the zeal or number of its indi- 
 vidual supporters, was not at any period ac- 
 knowledged by the Church. 
 
 Praxcas. The controversy respecting the 
 nature of Christ's existence on earth, which 
 presently so branched out, as to involve the 
 doctrine of the Trinity as well as the Incar- 
 nation, may be said to have first assumed a 
 tangible form under the pen of Praxeas, a 
 writer of the Grecian school. He published 
 his opinions about the year 200 a. d., and was 
 answered very soon afterwards by the great 
 champion of the church, Tertullian. The 
 opinions of Praxeas (as is natural in a ques- 
 tion capable of so much metaphysical sub- 
 tilty) are variously represented ;f but the doc- 
 ti-ine of the Church is very clearly stated in 
 the following words of his antagonist.^ ' We 
 
 oy being xmited to the eternal Logos of God.' — 
 (Bampt. Lect. viii. notes 99. 102.) It does not ap- 
 pear that the contemporaries of the Heretic placed | 
 that ci'nstruction upon his doctrine. And Eusebius ■ 
 (H. E. L. vii. c. 27) expressly says — lOvTOu ds 
 ruTieii'u x(tl /uinuineiri negl jou Xgiaiov 
 TtuQu 7i]i^ ixxlrjaiaaTiyriv didaaxuliav 
 ipoovi\(ravTOQ, (bg xoii'ov Trjy q)vOLV uvd'oomov 
 pvofdi'ov, &c. &c. See Mosheiin, De R. Christ, 
 ante Const. Seec. iii. sect. 35. 
 
 * This was the first instance of the interference of 
 llie 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 
 *nn. 314. Sect. xxxv. We shall have occasion to 
 recur to this subject hereafter. 
 
 t They are chiefly to be divined from the treatise |] 
 written against Tertullian. It should be mentioned j 
 also, that Praxeas had declared very strongly against I 
 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 I 
 Church. Thus during that respecting Paul of Sam- 
 osata, the Council declared, (as wc learn from Athan- 
 Mius,) ' that the Son existed before all tilings, and 
 
 HERESIES. 77 
 
 believe in one God, but under the following 
 dispensation or economy — that there is also a 
 Son of God, his Word, who proceeded froni 
 Him; by whom all things were made and 
 without whom nothing v. as made ; who was 
 sent by him into thfe 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 t\te 
 Gospel ; and we consider this to be historic>:l 
 truth of no small importance.* 
 
 Sabcllius The heresy of Praxeas was sue 
 ceeded, (or revived,) in the course of abotit 
 fifty years, by that of Sabellius. Both pro- 
 ceeded, in appearance, from the difficulty of 
 reconciUng the trinity with the unity of the 
 Godhead — in realit)^, from otu- human und 
 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 either 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 Ircnajus' 
 writings against the Valentinians, that that more an- 
 I 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. 
 
 t 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 
 
 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 Trith'eism, (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. 
 
 in. We shall not dwell upon the vai-ying 
 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 w^ould refer to the same origin 
 the opinions of the Manichaean sect ; but we 
 shall here confine ourselves to those of the 
 Montanists. About the year 170 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 sanief 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 faitliful ; and his trances, and ecstatic 
 raptures, and fanatic ravings, were probably 
 regarded by the credulous and wondering 
 multitude as the surest signs of divine ins|)i- 
 ration. Certainly there were many in those 
 regions who followed him ; and his success 
 was promoted by his association with two 
 prophetesses, named Maximilla mid Priscilla, 
 wlio confirmed his mission, and shared his 
 spirit. Another cause of the temporary 
 fnirio of Montanistri was the severity of the 
 morality inculcated by it; the strictest celiba- 
 cy and the njost rigid fasts w(!re exacted from 
 the proselytes, and this circumstance threw 
 on appearance of sanctity round the sect, 
 which seems to have deadened the penetra- 
 
 * \V'«! perceive how nearly Uuh opinion appro:irlifs 
 lo Uio old (inoHtic heresy, wliicli eonHidercd Cliriwl an 
 An i1-'on or Divine Knianalion united for a time lo 
 ilic man Jchiw — but for a lime only — the (JnoHtirs 
 ivilli.lif w the A\nn Inifore the Crucifixion, and thuM 
 V(»ided the cf»nnlnnion <;har(,'e(| ajfaiiiHt the Patripart- 
 fiann. 
 
 t Sec Uiiihop Kaye on 'rtrtullian, p. 23. et 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 tion of Tertullian, for he presendy 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 progi-ess 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 Chui'ch 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. J Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who was 
 at the head of those who held the contrai-y 
 opinion, conducted his opposition with in- 
 judicious violence; he excommunicated all 
 who diflfered 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 hi which Heresy was regarded by the 
 Churchmen of those days, and the scru])u- 
 loiisness of tlieir care to preserve the purity 
 of the true faith. 
 
 JVovatians. We may conclude with some 
 notice of the sect of the Novatians, who 
 were stigmatized at the time, both as schis- 
 
 ♦ Wc ob.serve the name of Montanism among the 
 heresies stigmatized in the Thcodosian Code. 
 
 t Wc may accotuit for this greater moderation of 
 the western Churches, by their having escaped eomo 
 of the most extravagant and revolting among tlic early 
 heresies — tliesc, as they ehielly originated in the fa- 
 natic imaginations of the east, were for the most part 
 confined to tiiose regions. 
 
 X The council of Carthage held by Cyprian, on 
 this (pieHtion, w!W in the year 2ri6. Mosh. (Jen. H. 
 c. iii. p. ii. chap. iii. 
 
 § This controversy resembles, in two points, 
 that before mentioned, respecting the celebration 
 of KuHter. The Roman was right perhaps ir 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 earUest 
 body of ecclesiastical reformers. They arose 
 at Rome about the year 250 a. d. ; and sub- 
 sisted until the fifth century throughout every 
 pai-t of Christendom, f Novatian, a Presby- 
 ter of Rome, I 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 
 liad 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, ]j 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, ev^ their adversa- 
 ries do not advance any point of doctrine oti which 
 tliey 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. lUust. 
 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, 
 intending to confound him with an unworthy associate, 
 presbyter of Cartilage, 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. 
 
 II It should be mentioned that Cornelius, Bishop 
 of Home, the principal opponent of Novatlan's opin- 
 ions, had in( lives for personal enm ty against that 
 Ecclesiastic. 
 
 in doctrine and practice, was maintained by 
 the early Church, and its eflTorts 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 hallucmations are 
 not worthy of serious consideration ; the 
 great questions respecting predestination and 
 grace had not yet become matter of cowtro 
 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 eai-liest among tliem. 
 We do not profess any blind veneration for 
 their names, or submission to their opinions 
 but we are very far removed from the coi> 
 
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 neai-est to the 
 source of revelation, and received the cup of 
 knowledge from the veiy 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 they were earnest and ardent 
 Christians ; in respect at least to their religion 
 they had access to infallible instructers, 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 comj)osed with various objects, accord- 
 ing to the dispositions or circumstances of 
 their writers. Tiie 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 conjmands, in the third ten similitudes. 
 The first and third pans are of course very 
 fancifid, yet wen; they not jxirhaps unsuited 
 to the genius of the coinitries and the age to 
 whirli ihey w<'re addressed ; the second con- 
 tains some exrell(M)t moral preeej)ts ; and all 
 nnoinid with paraphrastical allusions to the 
 oooks of the New Testament. The epistles 
 of IgiiatiuH have sufiered many obvious in- 
 terpoIntiouH and corru[)tionH ; but h^artied 
 and eatidid critics, who hav(! distinguished 
 and n iecird these, Htill leave us much behind 
 of undisputed (trigin. The Jiuthor was liish- 
 op of Autioeh ; he sufl'ered martyrdom about 
 the year 107 a. n., and the ojiiuion that he 
 invited, rather than Hhinuied this fiite, seems 
 to l>c CfjUsiHteiit with the ardor of his eiiMrac- 
 
 ter. The genuineness of Polycarp's epistle 
 to die Philippians has scarcely been ques- 
 tioned ; * it was written (soon afi;er 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 or. 
 the appointment (as is asserted without any 
 improbability) of the Aposde St. John : and 
 he suflfered martyrdom, as we have already 
 described, in 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 tiie 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 then: 
 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 insepai'able 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 arrangetnent in the (lisj)]ay 
 of their arguments, or the delivery of their 
 rules of conduct ; a neglect which uncpies- 
 tionably expt)se(l them to the coutem|)t of the 
 philosoph(!r, who sought in vain I'or a sptcm 
 in their lore, but which well accorded with 
 th(! ])lain and un|>retending character of truth. 
 But that merit by which they have conferred 
 tlu; most lasting advantage on Christianity, 
 (at least the three last of thenj,) and which 
 will mak(i them very valuable moiuunenls, in 
 every age, in their frequent reference to al- 
 
 * I.anlnn-. Crrd. of (Jowp. I list. p. ii. rli vi 
 
THE EARLY 
 
 most all the books of the New Testament, 
 such as wo 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 learned 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 tney prove the general acceptance of all 
 the fundamental articles of our belief. As 
 
 HERESIES, 
 f 
 
 * See Jortin — Remarks, &c. B. ii. p. i. A. D. 
 150. Also supra pp. 30, 31. 
 
 t It lias been often asserted, and we believe v/itliout 
 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- 
 ,^ortunity 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 'A no 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. 
 
 Irenseus was Bishop of Lyons, about the 
 year 178 a. d. He is chiefly celebrated for 
 his five books ' Against Heresies ; ' contain.ng 
 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 m 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 sera into thi-ee periods, in respect to its internal 
 history. The first century was the age of Christ and 
 the Apostles, of miracles and inspiratioa inherent in 
 the Church ; the next fifty yeai's we may consider as 
 that of the Apostolical Fatliers, enlightened by some 
 lingering rays of the departed glory, which were suc- 
 cessively and insensibly witlidi awn ; the tirrd 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 witli the meanest of its 
 progeny, in order to oppress and desolate the Church 
 of Christ — vet ever this was not without tlie Spirit of 
 God 
 
32 HISTORY OF 
 
 t 
 
 were yet ro anicles 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 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE TO THE DEATH OF 
 
 CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Constaniine 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 prohably taken 
 by Constantine — he sought its alliance — Three periods 
 of the ecclesiastical life of Constantine — How circum- 
 stanced with regard to the state Constantine found the 
 Church — He assumes the supremacy — Rights of the 
 Church — Its Internal administration — little altered in 
 theor>' — 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 Ciilorus ruled, with as 
 much humanity as circumstances permitted 
 him to exercise, the provinces of the West. 
 On his death, at York, in the y(!ar 30(1, the 
 army proclaimed Constantino, his son, Em- 
 peror. In the meantime, the provinces 
 eastward of Gaul wen; distracted by tin; 
 disHJ-'iiHionH of rival <'ini)er()rs which fuvonMl 
 the growing Hlrcinglh of ('onslanlinj;. In 
 31 1, (ialeriuH, tin; fiercest among iIk; assail- 
 anlH of CiiriHtinnity, died, an<l his (lominions 
 wen; dividfMl b(!twe(!n Maxiiniii and Licini- 
 Uk; MaxentiiiH Iiad already iiHiirped the 
 govertnnefit ()f Italy tmd Africa. I'n senily 
 rnnHtanlin", jiiHfified, as most asHcrt. bv 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 — TovTis} rlxa — 'jBy 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 
 dirccttxl him to frame a standard afi;er that 
 shape. And it is certain that, about that 
 period, and j)ossibly 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 soldiei-s — but the 
 extraordinary npjiearances to which itsadop 
 tion is ascribed demand the most rigid exani 
 inatioi). 
 
 In \\h\ fii*sl i)lj>ee, the story which we have 
 shortly given is related by jjo C()ntemj)orary 
 author, excepting Eusebius ; next, it is relat- 
 
 * In ihc relation of this elory wc have ventured to 
 omit iIh! dream piiMishcd l)y llie uncertiiia iiutlior of 
 llie liofik l)e INIortiltuN rerHMMitorum, us well us IVuz 
 uriu«'H army of <livin(^ warriorH. Wc conrnie our- 
 nelveH to tliaf, which appears ywuhr (Im; uiok; leHpec- 
 t:ili|i- itiifhorilv of l''iiscl)iuH. Sec (liljlioii, ( Idid \> 
 
CONSTA 
 
 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 weai'S 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 
 juid oblivion. | 
 
 The defeat of Maxentius was followed by 
 a conference between Constantine and Licin- 
 ius, which led to the pubhcation, 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. 
 
 t Eusebius says, that Constantine related the story 
 to himself on oath. May we not believe Eusebius in 
 ti l is '? And may we not also suppose, that the Empe- 
 ror deceived him in some moment, when enthusiasm, 
 or indisposition, or mereiuiman weakness had brought 
 him first to deceive himself 1 He may really have re- 
 collected some uncommon appearance about the Sun, 
 not strongly noticed at tlie 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 nodiing in it unnatural ; and it is the 
 only supposition which can save both the intention 
 of the Emperor and the veracity of tlie historian. 
 See Note at the end of the chapter. 
 
 X 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 the Sibylline books, 
 and credulously applied to his own circumstances a 
 orediction v'hich he foiuid there. 
 
 NTJNE. 83 
 
 molished, and the lands which had been 
 confiscated — atid 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 tlie 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 m^st 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 
 fii-st, if it was so, among the many by which tlie name 
 of Clirist has been profaned. 
 
 f Nevertheless, the general spirit of his laws was 
 decidedly humane and favorable to the progress of 
 civilisation — for instance, he made decrees tending to 
 tlie termination of slavery ; he abolished some bai-ba- 
 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 31S 
 Sect. 30. 
 
84 
 
 HISrORY OF THE aiURCH. 
 
 parison with some of the best among his 
 pagan predecessoi-s ; while it was fre<i 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 gi-ace. In compliance with this 
 custom* the emperor was not baptized (he 
 did not even become a Catechumen f ) until 
 his last illness ; but no argimient 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 tlie 
 empire ; he celebrated the festivals of the 
 Church ; he associated in the closest intima- 
 cy with Christian writers I 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 reasonjUle doubt on this subject ; nor 
 
 * Constantius in like manner put off his Baptism 
 till his last illness, (Athana«. lib. de Synodis) so did 
 ThcodosiuH tlic Great, until the illness which he mis- 
 look for his last. Socrat. I. v. c. 6. 
 
 t From Eufcb. de Vit. Const, lib. iv. c. 61., it 
 ap|icars that tlie Emperor, just before his baptism, re- 
 ceived for the; firn 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 xani/r/O alg 
 oil his first profession of ( 'luistianity, immediately 
 after the vision. We are dis|)OH<'d to attach greater 
 credit to tlic former account. Sec Fleury, I. xi. 
 sect. 00. 
 
 X LactaritiuM poHiKjHscd his confidence, while his 
 comiiuuid was confincid tfi the West, and Kusebius cn- 
 joyed thro>i;,dioiit his life great itilluence at tlu; (A>un 
 of ConnUuitinrjplr!. Tlu; respect which he paid to the 
 fe<i(ivulM of the Church, his 'diligence in prayer,' tin; 
 Liimiing of mrfdals tliroughout the Empire, in which \n' 
 ia represented in tJie altitude of devotion, an' facts 
 mcnlioncd by Etmrb. Vil. ConM. 1. i\ . c. & 22. 
 
 need we hesitate for a moment to acquit a 
 wise and, m 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 Jirsl 
 instance have originated in his policy. But 
 this is perfectly consistent with his subse- 
 quent conversion. And we may here le- 
 mark, that those w^ho 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 which 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 w as no real proselyte. Two facts he 
 mentions in support of his suspicion — that Constant he 
 ' 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 
 I. iv. c. 18,) and the second directed the regular con • 
 sultation of aruspices. Botli are literally true; bin 
 the inferences drawn from both are folse — 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 tlie Christians, 
 but till then he did not proclaim, nor could he perhaps 
 safely have proclaimed, his own belief ; but he seized 
 the earliest moment to do so, and during the twenty- 
 five following years, he maintained his professicm with 
 ardent and active perseverance. By bringing for- 
 ward tlie second fact as an jurgumcnt against his belief, 
 the historian has forgotten that the Edict of IMilan 
 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 neccss.-uy couscciuence 
 of that generous policy, which had been so little un- 
 d«Tst(»od by the I'agan Emjierors. Before we cjuit 
 this subject we should mention, that Zosimus (lib. ii.) 
 attributes ('onstanline's change of faith to the persua- 
 sion, iunlilled into him by one ylCgypKus, a Spaniard, 
 that the reniisHion of siuH attendcil the act of conver- 
 sion to Christianity. TIiuh it ajipearH, at least, tha 
 the Pagan Historian did not doubt the reality of tht 
 <:(»nversion, tliough he may have mistaken its motive. 
 
CONSTANTINE. 
 
 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 
 wliat 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 
 ofiences. 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 mediative in- 
 terference throughout his diocese, in the civil 
 disputes of the Christians, to which they very 
 frequently appealed, and admitted his decis- 
 •ons 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 
 hereafler 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 vv^hich 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 into 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^xertion, 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 
 il the whole Church, and thereby (without the 
 
86 HISTORY OF 
 
 direct interposition of Providen:e ■ 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 Constantuie had not discovered its 
 real strength, and courted its friendship and 
 alliance. It is true, that in becoming ac- 
 quainted 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 tliat 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 Constantino into three periods. In 
 the first of these he confined liimsolf, at least 
 ostensibly, to the imj)artial 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 Ik; had established. It 
 was not till the third and latest period of his 
 lif(;, that he attacked tin; superstition of his 
 forefath<;rs, by edicts di|^ctly l(!V(;lled against 
 Paganism. The Arian controversy and the 
 overthrow of Paganism will form the sub- 
 jecta of H(!paratc chapters — at presjuit we shall 
 rnrl(!avor to point out the; most important 
 nlferatioiiH introduccrd during this reign into 
 the constitution of tli(; ('hurcli, and tlxur iin- 
 infMliatfj efier-tH upon its minisl<'rH and mem- 
 l)erH. ( 'on.MtarUinc! found the ('hurcli an in- 
 dejK-ndent body, a kind of Helf-conHlitut<!(l 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 pereecution, 
 in actual opposition to it. And so long as 
 the C hurcli, 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 ^tlu; 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 secMued fair that he 
 should impose the same, as the condition of 
 the cstnhlishmcnt of Christianity. And yet a 
 great distinction is to be observed even in 
 this point. For, according to the princii)le3 
 of Polytheism, the most sacnul iimctiouH of 
 religion might lu- performed by ilu; Iwuuls of 
 the civil magistrates ; but the consecration 
 of a se|>aint«; order to those purposes by the 
 Christian system I'xchided the Fniperor from 
 
CUNSTANTINE. 
 
 87 
 
 s4ie administration of the rites of religion ; 
 and the Prmce and the Priest became hence- 
 forward characters wholly distinct, and inde- 
 pendent. It was perhaps by this restriction, 
 that the fii-st 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- 
 opd on the disputes between Athanasius and Eusebius 
 of Nicodeinia, admits — Vestri est, non raei judicii, 
 de ea re cognoacere. See Baronius ad unn. 329, 
 uect. 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 ail 
 civil ofiices 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^ 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 m 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. J On this 
 foundation was imperceptibly established the 
 vast and durable edifice of ecclesiastical ju- 
 risdiction ; fi-om 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., Jib. 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.' 
 
 t Baronius, ad ann. 319. sect. 30. 
 
 i 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. sec^. 38, with refer 
 euce to Cod. Theodos. 
 
88 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 tlie 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 their 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 Constantino did not trans- 
 fer to himself from the Church any power 
 which had before belonged to it: most of 
 the cases, there jjrovidcd for, must by neces- 
 sity have always fallen under civil cognizance 
 — for whenever it hajjpencd, either that the 
 external encroachments of the Church, or 
 the differences among Christians, or their 
 ministers, proceeded to endanger public tran- 
 quillity, HTich ofl*('nc(!8 fell, of course, under 
 the cogni/anco of the K(;culnr, which was 
 then the only acknowledged, jurisdiction. 
 
 There apjiear, indcied, to be two cases in 
 which the Emperor assumed a power not 
 before belonging to the State — interference 
 for the arrnrigerru nt of niligious controv(T- 
 sicH by the nppoiiitmetit of judges, and the 
 convocation of (General (.'oururils. IleH|)ect- 
 
 ♦ The aiilliority aHHiimcd \>y the Kin|MT«)rH iipix-arH, 
 under varioun titled, in the Ifllli hoftk of ihe 'I'lieudo- 
 ■ian Cixii', u« nUo in iJie (N)(le of Jii!<tinian. 
 
 ♦ MoKhfiin Cent. iv. part ii. ch. ii. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 ing the Jirst 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 ai*e often 
 vague and indeterminate ; and that, when 
 they are not so, the points of contact and 
 intersection are very numerous, ofiering fre- 
 quent means and temptations to mutual inno- 
 vation. We shall see that, in afler ages, they 
 led to much aggression and injustice in both 
 parties ; but as matters then stood, with so 
 large a i)ortion of the population still uncon- 
 verted, and even adverse to the Faith, under 
 an Emperor possessed of undivided and 
 seemingly unbounded authority, wc should 
 be siuprised, perhaps, to find so many i)rivi- 
 legcs confirmed to a distinct religious com- 
 munity, if we were not acquainted with the 
 l)old and vigorous character of Constantino, 
 and also i)crauaded of his attachment to 
 Ciu'istianity. 
 
 Wc should not omit to nu'ntion some 
 changes at that time introduced into tiie titles 
 and gradations of the Hierarchy, in order to 
 associate their administration more intimate- 
 ly with that of the civil ofiicers; 'J'o the 
 lhr(;e Prelates of Home, Antioch and Alex 
 andria, who enjoyed a certain degree of pre- 
 einiiHince in the Church, was added th« 
 
CONSTANTINE 
 
 89 
 
 Patriarch of Constantinople — these four cor- 
 responded with the four Praetorian Prefects 
 tlien also created. After these 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 >f 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 time 
 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 
 snnction 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 
 
 ♦ Mosheim, loc. cit. 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 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 
 gi'adually 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 Constantine's j^refenrfee^ 
 conversion to his policy. The second of 
 their assertions has a greater show of truth, 
 but is, in fact, almost equally eiToneous. A 
 fairer view of that question, and, if we mis- 
 take not, the correct view, is the following — 
 the estahlishment 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, veiy 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 attained 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 thai 
 condition with more dignity, and more lion or 
 and much more security. 
 
90 HISTORY OF 
 
 The prosperity of the Church was uuques- j 
 tionably followed by an increase in the num- 1 
 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 centuiy which immediately preceded 
 the reign of Constantine — to the fourth we 
 may undoubtedly assign the extravagant hon- 
 ors paid to jMartyrs, 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 gi-atuitous 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.) 
 
 JSfote on Eusebius. The name of Eusebi- 
 us has been so frequently referred to in this 
 Histor}', that being now aiTived at the age in 
 which he flourished, we are bound to give 
 Lome account of his life and character. He 
 is believed to have been born at Ca?sarea 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- 
 temj)orary 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- 
 nutii'rablc volumes.'* And among those 
 which still exist, his Ecclesiastical History, 
 and his Life of Constantine, furnish us with 
 t}»e best lights which we possess respecting 
 his own times, and with our only consecutive 
 narrative of the previous fortunes of Ciiristi- 
 anity. Eusebius admits, in the first chapter 
 of his History, that he has ' (iiitored upon a 
 desoUite and unfreciucnted path;' and in 
 gleaninj^ the KcattcnMl n^cords of pn;c(:(ling 
 writers, und prcsr;iiting tlujin fi)rthe most j)art 
 in tbr ir own language and on their own au- 
 thority, he has indeed very frequently dis- 
 coverrd to us the scantineHS of the harvest 
 nnd thfi poverty of the soil. Still in that 
 rcKpcrt he has fnitlifidly discharged his histo- 
 ricnl dutirH, and has rescuj-d iriucli valuable 
 itiatti-r fniiii ecrtain oblivion. In this indeed 
 consiHlH oiw. peculiar merit of his Hislory, 
 
 • Jcruiiic dc Vir. llluMt. c. xxxi. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 that it unfoldj to us a number of earlier 
 menioirs, 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 suflferings of the Chris- 
 tians during the last persecution, Eusebius * 
 (H. E. lib. viii. c. ii.) admits ' that it does not 
 agi-ee 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 ineir 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 ' aro 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 niay remark that in this determination, his 
 first error was one of judgment — if indeed 
 he imagined that the great lessons of History 
 were jnore surely taught by the records of 
 what is splendid and glorious, than by the 
 l)ainfid, but impressive story of human im- 
 piM-fi'ction, and of the calamities which man 
 has gath(M-ed from his own folly and wicked- 
 ness. But his second and less pardonable 
 deviation was lioni principle — there is a di- 
 rect and avow{!d disregard of the second fun- 
 damental precept of historical composition. 
 However, the crime is less dangerous because 
 it is avowed, nnd more excusable because 
 less dangerous ; and at any rate, if W(5 shall 
 perceive, in the frcmral cours(« and character 
 
 * 111 Vit. CoDHlunt. cap. ix., ho nuikcH tliu t<aino 
 fu''t uf prufuatiion. 
 
CONSTANTINE. 
 
 ot* 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 impairea 
 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 jnst establishe4 it — if in any case he might make 
 bold to deceive young persons for tlieir 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 '? ' ' Truth, 
 my fricrtd, is honorable and permanent; but not, it 
 would seem, very easy 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 (in wgpe^.f t'a rwv dso^dvMV tov 
 roiOi'TOV TQonou.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 sei-vice 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- 
 j 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 con-ected a mis- 
 take of Dr. Middleton, who had attributed to Eusebi- 
 us an absurd respect for the Erythrean Sibyl — which 
 seem^ in fact, to have been entertained by Constan- 
 tine. 
 
92 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 Ciesarea — Gib- 
 bon's account of this Council — Temporal Penalties — 
 to what extent carried. Conduct of the successors of 
 Constantine — 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 Writers. 
 
 When Constantine established Christianity 
 as the religion of the Empire, he probably 
 did not foresee how 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 Cliurch 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- 
 ^prelieud from the. former. lJut, whether it 
 was, as some suppose, that the evil passions 
 of Christians were inflamed by their present 
 security, or, as we rather l)elieve, that the 
 expression of dissent had been softened by 
 the impiuiity which attended it during form- 
 er r(;igiis, it is certain that scarcely U\n years 
 from the Edict of Mihm had rhipscd, befon; 
 the Christian world beheld tin; bci^inning 
 of a convulsion, which continucjd for sonic 
 years to increase in violencjr, and which was 
 not finally composed without a long and des- 
 o''iting struggh!. 
 
 It hnd becfi the vice of the (Jhrislians of 
 the third century, to involve theinselveH in 
 'certfiin metnphysieal (jiM'Klif)nH, which, if 
 considfTed in one light, ixro. too sublime to 
 lieroine the Md)jert of liMniati wit ; if in an- 
 other, too tridint: lo gain the att<'ntion of rea- 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 diflTerent. 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- 
 I en(Ml 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 nien- 
 tion the loose and unsettled principles of that 
 age, which had prevailc<Z Ix'fon? the nppcar- 
 anceof Christianity, and had been to a certain 
 extent adople<l by its profes.'^nrs — those, for 
 instance, wirn-h justifie<l tin; metuis by the 
 
 * Warluirlon, Tost, to 4tli cd. ol' the Alliance of 
 Church iind State. 
 
• 
 
 THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY, 
 
 tnd, and admitted fraud and forgery into the 
 eervice 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 
 Novations, 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 disthiguished and 
 stigmatized by a name. 
 
 In tlie freedom exei'cised 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, t Alexander was the Bishop, 
 Arius a Presbyter, in that city ; and the 
 former, in an assembly of his clergy, felt it 
 
 * The Marcionites 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 Consta.ntine'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., 
 oook iii. A. V. 364. 
 
 93 
 
 his duty strongly to impress on them his 
 sentiments jcsp&cting the nature of the God- 
 head ; maintaining, among other thnigs, * 
 that the Son was not only of the same emi- 
 nence and dignity, but also of the same e* 
 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 coeiernai 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 if 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 o{ the second 
 person place him upon the very borders of the error 
 subsequently denominated sewi-Arianisra. 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. 
 
 f Mosh. Gen. Hist. c. iv. p. ii. ch. 5. Maimb. 
 Hist. Arian. book i. p. 16. Gibbon, chap. 21. 
 The original materials from Avhich the history of Ari- 
 anism 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 alsi: 
 mention the 69th (or 49th) Heresy of Ep phauins 
 
 I Sozomen i. 15. iii. 18. 
 
 § Constantine's epistle appears in Euseo. Vil. 
 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 t^'-TfO uiyo(bi' y.al lluv ila/lcTToyp 
 — ' about trifling, and most truly insignificant matters. 
 This account is confirmed by Sozomen, H. E. 1. i. o. 
 15 and 16. Socrates, U E. lib. i. q. 7. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 94 
 
 who were united on so many subjects of infi- 
 nite weight, should be interrupted by such 
 unprofitable speculations — and in the Epistle 
 containing those sentiments he enjoined peace 
 to both parties. Constantino knew not the 
 nature * of the tempest which was excited, 
 for neither experience nor history had yet 
 presented to him any thing resembling it. 
 However he had adopted the only measure 
 which offered any hope of appeasing it, and 
 had he persisted in his neutrality, it is proba- 
 ble that the Arian controversy, after some 
 noisy debates and angry invectives, would 
 have discharged its passion in words, and the 
 heresy itself would have fallen into dishonor, 
 almost into oblivion, like so many others, f 
 But the firmness of the Emperor was not 
 proof against the importunity of the orthodox 
 prelates, seconded, as some think, by his own 
 theological vanity; a General Council was 
 suggested as the only remedy for the evil, and 
 the Emperor would, of course, preside over 
 its deliberations. Still the matter was some 
 little time in suspense ; and that was perhaps 
 the most critical moment in ecclesiastical 
 history, in which Constantino determined to 
 convoke the Council of Nice. 
 
 * It would appear indeed from the following pas- 
 sage in his Epistle, that he was very imperfectly in- 
 formed even respecting the nature of the question 
 controverted. * Wherefore, says he, let an unguarded 
 question, and an inconsiderate answer mutually excuse 
 each other — for neither docs the cause of your conten- 
 tion regard the chief among the commandments of the 
 law, nor has any neio heresy been introduced by 
 you respecting the worship of God, but both of you 
 hold one and the same opinion — so that there is noth- 
 ing to prevent your concord and conuDunion.' Vit. 
 Const. 1. ii. c. 70. There was nothing, indeed, to pre- 
 vent their concord and communion — yet the opinions 
 which they held were widely and essentially different. 
 
 t Jortin has suggested a>»other method in the follow- 
 ing very rational passage — (Eccles. Hist. R. iii.) 
 • If, when the fpiarrel between Alexander and Arius was 
 grown to Fuch a height as to want a remedy, the Fa- 
 thers of the Church had, for the sake of peace, agreed 
 to draw up a Confession of Faith in words of Scrip- 
 ture, and to cHtablish the divinity of Christ on the ex- 
 prcHHionrt Uf-cd by the Apostles, every one might have 
 afisentcd to it, and the Arian party would most certainly 
 have received it. The; diffcrencte of Hentiment«, in-" 
 deed, and of interpnrtatif>n, would not have ceased, but 
 the controversy wrjuld have cooled and dwindled away, 
 after ev»;ry rham|)ion iiad dirtcliarged his zeal upon pa- 
 per and wrilf« n to his licart's content. Tlie Arian no- 
 tion tliat tli(! Son wan crratrd in /imr, and that there 
 wa»n timnuhrn he cxinled not, would prol)al)ly have 
 Bunk.aHnot Ix-iiig llur language «iflhe Nr-w Tenlament ; 
 nnd tlie Macedonian notion, ihiinhc If nly fihont was 
 created in time, would have sunk with the other for 
 the !«amf: riraiion ; at leant these opinionn would never 
 Irtive Utii obtruded upon uh nn ArtielcN of Failli.* 
 
 Council of JVice. In the year 325 a. d 
 about three hundred and eighteen * Bishops 
 assembled at Nice (Nicaea) in Bithynia,for the 
 purpose of composing the Arian Controversy 
 *Let us consider (says Dr. Jortin) by wha 
 various motives these various men might be 
 influenced; by reverence to the Emperor, or 
 to his counsellors and favorites, his slaves and 
 eunuchs ; by the fear of offending some great 
 prelate, who had it in his power to insult, 
 vex and plague all the Bishops within and 
 without his jurisdiction ; by the dread of 
 passing for Heretics, and of being calumniat- 
 ed, reviled, hated, anathematized, excommu- 
 nicated, imprisoned, banished, fined, beggar- 
 ed, starved, if they refused to submit; by 
 compliance with some active, leading and im- 
 perious spirits ; by a deference to the majori- 
 ty; by a love of dictating and domineering, of 
 applause and respect ; by vanity and ambition ; 
 by a total ignorance of the question in debate 
 or a total indifference about it ; by private 
 friendship, by enmity and resentment, by old 
 prejudices, by hopes of gain, by an indolent 
 disposition, by good-nature, by the fatigue of 
 attending, and a desire to be at home, by the 
 love of peace and quiet, and a hatred of con- 
 tention, &c. &c.' To tliese considerations, 
 which comprehend perhaps the usual mo- 
 tives of human action, we should add that 
 among so many assembled, many there must 
 have been of sincere intention and earnest 
 piety, and certainly several well instructed in 
 the learning of that age ; and the excellence 
 of these persons doubtless so influenced the 
 general character of the Council, that, though 
 unable to repress the intemperate violence of 
 some of its members, they were sufficient to 
 conduct it to that decision, which has now 
 been followed by the great majority of Chris- 
 tians for fifteen centin-ies. 
 
 The Bishops began by much personal dis- 
 sension, and presented to the Emperor a 
 variety of written accusjitions ngaiuvst each 
 other ; the I '.mperor burnt all their libels, and 
 
 ♦ • Persons not more widely separated and diversi- 
 fied in sentiments, than in person, residence nnd race, 
 her(! met together; and one City received them all, 
 aH it were an aniple garland variegated with beautiful 
 flowers.' Such is the light in which this assembly ap- 
 peared to Kusebius, who was oiw of its members. Vit. 
 Const. 1. iii. cap. 6. Respecting the number of Risli- 
 ops, EusebiuH, as the passage; has come down to up, 
 makes it wore than two hundred and fifty. Socrates 
 (lib. i.e. 8.), professing to follow Eusebius, deHcril)e8 
 it in oiw place as above three hinulred, in another m 
 three Innwhed and eighteen. And that mnnber is 
 generally receiv<'d by moilern writers, on the additiona' 
 authority of Alhanasiiis, Hilary, Jerome and Rufiniis 
 
THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 
 
 96 
 
 exhorted them to j^eace and unity. They 
 then proceeded to examine the momentous 
 question proposed to them. It was soon dis- 
 covered that the differences, which it was in- 
 tended to reconcile, might in their principle 
 be reduced to one point, and that that point 
 might be expressed by one word — and thus 
 the question appears to have been speedily 
 simplified (as indeed was necessary, that so 
 many persons might come to one conclusion 
 on so mysterious a subject) and reduced to 
 this — whether the Son was, or was not, con- 
 
 suhstantial with the Father Many of the 
 
 leading Bishops hesitated, or even held in the 
 first instance the negative opinion, and among 
 them were Eusebius* of Csesarea, the histo- 
 rian of Constantine, and Eusebius of Ni- 
 comedia, from whose hands the Emperor 
 afterwards received baptism. The former 
 proposed to the assembly a Creed, in which 
 the word consttbstantial f (Homoousian) was 
 omitted : but in which he anathematized 
 evei-y impious heresy, without particularizing 
 any. His advice was not followed. Then 
 arose subtile disceptations respecting the 
 meaning of the word, 'about which some 
 conflicted with each other, dwelling on the 
 term and minutely dissecting it ; it was like 
 a battle fought in the dark ; for neither party 
 seemed at all to understand on what ground 
 they vilified each other.' | However, the 
 result was perfectly conclusive ; they finally 
 decided against the Arian opinions, and es- 
 tablished, respecting the two first persons of 
 the Trinity, the doctrine which the Church 
 still professes in the Nicene Creed.§ 
 
 * Jortin (Eccl. Hist. b. iii.) lias discussed the reli- 
 gious opinions of Eusebius very reasonably. 
 
 f He objected to the term as unscriptural — and to 
 the use of such terms, he attributed nearly all the ton- 
 fusion and disorder of the Churches (See Socrates, 
 lib. i. c. viii. near the end.) We may observe that 
 this was the most tenable ground in which the Arians 
 of every denomination intrenched themselves in the 
 course of their subsequent disputes with the Consub- 
 stantialists. — See Maim. Hist. Arian. b. iv. (vol. i. 
 p. 223.) The distrust of tradition which they ven- 
 tured to express even in that early age, Avas closely 
 connected with it— yet it proved also, that the early 
 tradition of the Church was favorable to the Catholic 
 opinion. 
 
 % See Socrates, 1. i. c. xxiii. This passage has 
 rather reference to the differences on the same subject 
 which continued after the Council; but it well des- 
 cribes the nature of the disputations. Sit ista in 
 Grsecorum levitate perversitas qui maledictis insectan- 
 tur eos a quibus de veritate dissentiunt Cic. Fin. 11. 
 
 § Gibbon's account of this Council does not seem 
 to rest on evidence sufficient to counteract its im- 
 orobabilily. He divides the Christian world, as 
 
 Their labors being completed, the JBishopa 
 dispersed to their respective provinces— ^le- 
 sides the solemn declaration of their opinion, 
 on a most important point of doctrine (since 
 it established the equal divinity of the Son,) 
 they finally set at rest the question respecting 
 the celebration of Easter, and enacted some 
 profitable regulations relating to Church dis- 
 cipline.* Thus far, then, we can have no 
 just reason to condemn the result of their 
 meeting, or to pronounce such assemblies 
 either pernicious or useless. The doctrine 
 of the majority of Christendom was proclaim- 
 ed by a public act, on a subject hitherto un- 
 controverted, and henceforward it was reason- 
 ably considered the doctrine of the Church. 
 And if matters had rested here, perhaps the 
 dissentients would either have concealed their 
 opinions, or gradually melted away into the 
 mass of the orthodox. But Constantine 
 thought the work of ecclesiastical legislation 
 incomplete, until the spiritual edict was en- 
 forced by temporal penalties. Immediate 
 exile was inflicted on those who persisted in 
 error — and the punishment of a Heretic by a 
 Christian Prince was defended by the same 
 
 represented at Nice, into three classes or parties, 
 all Heretical — Arians, Sabellians and Tritheists; 
 and then he asserts that the two last (professing opin- 
 ions diametrically opposite to each other) combined 
 against the Arians. Without affecting to believe, 
 that the majority of the Nicene Bishops would have 
 explained the mystery of the Trinity in the precise 
 language of the Athanasian Creed, we think it very 
 irrational to suppose, that there were none (that there 
 were not many) among them, impressed with notion? 
 of the Trinity very far removed either from Sabeliian 
 ism or Tritheism. Those, who know the pertinacitj 
 with which men adhere to their own previous notions 
 on such matters, will not easily believe, that two nu 
 merous parties, professing opinions not only contrary 
 but adverse, should immediately waive those opinions 
 and assume, and persist in, other opinions essentiallv 
 different from either, and then unite, merely for the 
 sake of outvoting a third party, agamst which thej 
 were not inflamed by any personal animosity. It is 
 possible that there may have been some Sabellians as 
 well as Tritheists among the members of the Council, 
 notwithstanding the repeated condemnations of tnose 
 heresies by the Church writers ; but it is impossibla 
 to believe, that the opinions, which were finally sane 
 tioned by the great majority of the Bishops, and were 
 ever afterwards followed as the rule of orthodoxy, 
 were not previously very geiieral among the ministers 
 of the Church. 
 
 * The three written monuments of this Council were 
 the Rule of Faith — a number of Canons — and the 
 Synodical Epistle which was addressed to the Church- 
 es on its dissolution. Socrates, E. Hist. lib. i., c 
 ix. See Sender, Cent. iv. cap. iii. De Conciliis 
 •Mosheim. E. H. Cent. iv. p. ii. c. v. 
 
96 HISTORY OF 
 
 plea of rebellious contumary, which is urged 
 by the apologists of his Pagan predecessors 
 to justify the execution of a Christian.* 
 
 In justice, however, to the character of 
 Constantine, we must admit, that he was ani- 
 mated throughout these perplexing dissen- 
 sions not by any private or sectarian animosi- 
 ty against the Arian party, but by a sincere 
 desire to restore peace to the Church. It 
 was his object to correct and chastise the 
 pervei-sity of the Heretics, and thus to force 
 them into communion with the great body of 
 his Christian subjects ; but he had no design 
 or wish for their extermination. And as soon 
 as he discovered that his first severities were 
 ineffectual ; that the Arians, under the epis- 
 copal guidance of Eusebius of Nicomedia,f 
 lost little strength in Asia and even maintain- 
 ed the contest in Alexandria itself, and that 
 they were not without support in his own 
 Court and Household, he perceived the inu- 
 tility of his measures, and chose rather to re- 
 trace the steps which he had taken, than to 
 advance more deeply into the paths of per- 
 secution. IJ»^ therefore recalled Eusebius in 
 the year 330, and six years afterwards Arius 
 himself, after presenting to the Emperor a 
 modified profession of faith, was released 
 from the sentence of banishment. J That 
 Heresiarch perished soon afterwards by a 
 sudden, l)Ut probably a natural, death — and 
 so far from joining in the anathemas, which 
 are commonly heaped upon him, we shall 
 perform a more grateful oflice in bearing 
 testimony to the purity of his moral life, and 
 the probable sincerity of his religious opin- 
 
 * In a formal Edict addressed to the Bishops and 
 People, Constantine compares the blindness of Arius 
 to tint of Porphyry, and commands his followers to 
 be desijjnatcd by tlic ignominious name of Porphyri- 
 ans. He then proceeds to consign the books of Arius 
 to the flames, nearly in the following terms: — * If any 
 man }>e found to have concealed a copy of those Books, 
 and not to have instantly produced it and thrown it 
 into the fire, he shall be put to death. The moment 
 he is convicted of this he shall be subjec'ed to capital 
 puninhment. The Lord continue to preserve you.' 
 SocratcK, Hint. E., lib. i., p. .32. 
 
 f PhiloHtopgiuH, the Arian historian, attributes mi- 
 racIeH to thiH KuHcbius; and Athanasitis (Orat. 2,) 
 BccmH to oonKider him rather as the mastiT than the 
 diHciple of Arius. See Tillenumt. Sur Ivh Aricus. 
 Art. VI. 
 
 X It iH anothrr, perhapH a more probable opinion, 
 tiisit EuHoliiiiH wad recalled in 32R, and Arius even 
 ■f>onrr; l)Ut that ihc l''rn[)rror di i not invite Arius to 
 Oinntarilinojilf! until .'5.% Mosh. Ecc. Hint., ('ent. 
 IV, p. ii. c. V. See also Tillem. loc. cil., who dates 
 the real rancor <»f the content from the rcfiiwal >( 
 AtliananiuH jr'ill to conninmicate with bin advernary 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 ions. Respecting the less important circum 
 stances of his manners and conversation, we 
 shall be contented to adopt the language of a 
 writer who has seldom treated either him or 
 his followers with any show of candor or 
 justice.* ' Arius made use of the advanta- 
 ges he was master of, by art and by nature, 
 to gain the people — for it is certain that he 
 had a great many talents, which rendered 
 him capable of nicely insinuating himself into 
 their good opinion and affections. He was 
 tall of stature and of a very becoming make, 
 grave and serious in his carriage, with a cer- 
 tain air of severity in his looks, which made 
 him pass for a man of great virtue and aus- 
 terity of life. Yet this severity did not dis- 
 courage those who accosted him, because it 
 was softened by an extraordinary delicacy in 
 his features that gave lustre to his whole per- 
 son, and had something in it so sweet and 
 engaging, as was not ■ easily • to be resisted. 
 His garb was modest, but withal neat, and 
 such as was usually worn by those who were 
 men of quality as well as learning. Ilis 
 manner of receiving people was very cour- 
 teous, and very ingratiating, through his 
 agreeable way of entertaining those who 
 came to him upon any occasion. In short, 
 notwithstanding his mighty seriousness, and 
 the severity and strictness of his mien, he 
 perfectly well understood how to soothe and 
 flatter, with all imaginable wit and address, 
 those whom he had a mind to bring over to 
 his opinion, and engage in his party.' 
 
 On the death of Constantine in 336 a. d. 
 the Empire was partitioned among his sons. 
 Constantius occupied the e.istern throne, and 
 Constantino and Constans divided that of the 
 west. These two Princes (in compliance 
 perhaps with the inclinations of their sub- 
 jects) supported the Nicene faith in their 
 dominions; but Constantius loudly proclaim- 
 ed his adhesion to the Arian or Eusebian f 
 doctrine ; and, perceiving that a numerous 
 sect already professed it, he j)rocee(lod by 
 every art to imi)()se it upon the body of his 
 pcoi)Ie. It is admitted that Constantius pos- 
 sessed * a vain and feeble mind, alike inca- 
 pable of being moderated by reason or fixed 
 by faith.]: Instead of reconciling the parties 
 by the weight of his authority, he cherished 
 and j)n)pagated by verbal disputes the difler- 
 
 *** Maimbourg, Hist. Arian., b. 1. Epiphaniui 
 Ha res. 69. 
 
 ■f Eusebius of Nicomedia died in the year 342, af- 
 ter gaining some advantages over his great antagoniM 
 AthaiiasiuN. 
 
 t(;ibb..n, r. 21 
 
THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 
 
 97 
 
 ences which his vain curiosity had excited.' 
 And it is the complaint of Ammianus, a con- 
 temporary historian, that the highways were 
 covered, and the estabUshment of posts ahnost 
 exhausted, by the troops of J3ishops, who were 
 perpetually hurrying from synod to synod. 
 These measures served only to animate dis- 
 sension ; and the evils and the odium which 
 it produced are more jusdy charged upon the 
 Prince who inflamed, than upon the parties 
 who blindly waged it. 
 
 In the year 350 Constans was assassinated, 
 and soon afterwards Rome and Italy, with a 
 great part of the western Empire, fell into the 
 hands of Constantius. Hitherto the Church- 
 es of the West had not been deeply agitated 
 by the controversy, but having willingly em- 
 braced, had steadily maintained, the doctrine 
 of Nice ; but the first attention of the Empe- 
 ror was directed to the disturbance of their 
 repose and their faith. 
 
 Athanasim. In the meantime, an adversa- 
 ry, dangerous to the opinions, and not wholly 
 subject even to the power, of the Sovereign, 
 had been raised up in the person of Athana- 
 sius. That great champion of Catholicism, 
 the most distinguished among the Fathers of 
 the Church, not by tiis writings only but by 
 his adventures and his sufferings, steadily de- 
 fended the Nicene doctrine during forty-six 
 years of alternate dignity and persecution.* 
 He succeeded Alexander in the See of Alex- 
 andria in the year 326 ; he succeeded also to 
 his enmity against the opinions and person 
 of Arius, and boldly raised his voice against 
 his recall from banishment by Constantine. 
 Some intemperance in his zeal seems soon 
 afterwards to have given a pretext to the 
 Asiatic Bishops, many of whom were still 
 Arian ; and in a Synod held at Tyre, f they 
 pronounced the sentence of degradation and 
 exile, which was enforced by the Emperor. 
 At the end of twenty-eight months, soon after 
 the death of Constantine, he was restored ; but 
 in 341 he was once more exiled by the Synod 
 of Antioch,! acting under the influence of 
 
 * His character is admirably described by Gibbon 
 (chap. 21,) and the history of his constancy and his 
 misfortunes is written with splendor and impartiality, 
 even when Julian becomes his persecutor. 
 
 t It was hold in the year 335. The most important 
 of the charges brought against Athanasius were mani- 
 festly confuted, and the justice of his sentence is at 
 least very questionable. 
 
 4; At this time, or soon afterwards, the Arians drew 
 up a Creed in which they omitted the offensive word 
 Consubstantial ; but the terms which they applied to 
 the Son, calling him urqtTi'tov re y.al uvaXXo'narov 
 Tt^S 6toT»;TO$, ovoiag rs y.al fiovXi^g y.al dvrauiwq 
 
 13 
 
 Constantius. The place of his former ban- 
 ishment was France ; that of his second was 
 Italy, and chiefly Rome ; so that he became 
 fixmiliar witl^flic language of the West, with 
 the discipline and Primates of its Church, and 
 with the Court of its Emperor He profited 
 by all these advantages, and availed himself 
 so effectually of the last, that Constans* at 
 length prepared to interfere with arms in his 
 favor. Threatened by the horrors of a reli- 
 gious war, Constantius reluctantly consented 
 to his restoration.f In the year 349 he reoc- 
 cupied his former throne. ' The entrance of 
 the Archbishop into his capital was a trium- 
 phal procession ; absence and persecution had 
 endeared him to the Alexandrians; his au- 
 thority, which he exercised with rigor, was 
 more firmly established, and his fame was 
 diffused from ^Ethiopia to Britain, over the 
 whole extent of the Christian world.' 
 
 It was immediately after this event that 
 Constantius succeeded to the Western Em 
 pire; and in his zeal for the propagation of Ari- 
 anism he presently renewed his attacks on 
 Athanasius. He summoned \ Councils of the 
 Western Bishops ; he menaced and caressed 
 and corrupted the Bishops whom he had 
 summoned, and at length (in the year 356) 
 with great difficulty succeeded in deposing for 
 the third time his spiritual adversary. 
 
 This struggle must not be passed over with 
 
 y.al Suirjg ananu?.Xay.Tov ily.ura, yul nqwroroy.ov 
 TTuofjg y.Tiatwg — are such as might \iave been sub- 
 scribed by the most zealous Catholic See Le Clerc, 
 ap. Jortin, E. H. b iii. ; and Tillemont. Sur les 
 Ariens. Article xxxii. Also, Sozomen, 1. 3. c. 5; 
 and Athanas. de Synodis. 
 
 * The celebrated Council held at Sardica, in Thrace, 
 in 347, in which the great majority were Catholics, 
 probably encouraged the Emperor of the Wesi i:. ' ' " 
 resolution. 
 
 f It was on this occasion, that Constantius request- 
 ed Athanasius to grant to the Arians one Church at 
 Alexandria. This request the Patriarch answered by 
 another, proposing a similar concession to the Catho- 
 lics at Antioch. From this Conference we learn not 
 only what high ground was assumed by the Prelate, in 
 his transactions with the Emperor, but also with what 
 different success the measures of the latter had been 
 attended in tlie Capitals of Syria and of Egypt. 
 
 I The most numerous Council assembled on this oc 
 casion appears to have been that of 3Iilan in 355, 
 which was attended by above 300 Western, as well a*s 
 many Eastern Bishops. (See Mainib., Hist. Arian., 
 b. iv. vol. i., p. 174., et seq.) In the same year Li- 
 berius, Bishop of Rome, was banished for his faithful 
 attachment to the doctrine and cause of Athanasius ; 
 but he was presently recalled, through the intercession 
 first of the matrons, and afterwards of the populace, oi 
 Rome. Sozom., lib. iv. c. 2. Theod. lib. ii. c. 17. 
 
93 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 plight notice, since it presents to us an event, 
 of which there had yet been no experience in 
 the history of the Church, or in the history 
 of Rome, or perhaps in the hj|tory of man. 
 Hitlierto, at least till a very short time pre- 
 vious, the Church had been a despised and 
 seemingly defenceless community, subject, as 
 a Body, to the capricious insults of every ty- 
 rant, and liable, in its individual members, to 
 his ai-bitrary inflictions. Until very lately, 
 the Emperor of the Roman world possessed 
 authority uncontrolled over the liberty and life 
 of his subjects, undisputed by any, except as 
 rebels, or rivals for the throne. And certainly 
 the monstrous evils of despotic government 
 have never been more signally displayed, than 
 during the dreary interval which separated 
 Augustus and Constantine. Still at the end 
 of that period the rules of government re- 
 mained the same as at the beginning — no civil 
 revolution iiad assigned limits to the authority 
 of the Prince, or introduced any counteract- 
 ing power — no political change had given 
 weight to popular opinion or honor to free 
 principles. And yet scarcely forty years from 
 the accession of Constantine had elapsed, 
 when we behold his son and successor reduc- 
 ed to the employment of intrigue and artifice, 
 for the deposition of a Magistrate whom he I 
 detested. The singularity of this circum- j 
 stance is even increased by two other consid- : 
 erations — one of which is, that the Emperor ! 
 had the cordial support of a considerable por- I 
 tion of his subjects, the Arian party, in this 
 contest — and the other, tliat his adversary was 
 not sustained by any armed force of soldiers 
 or followers ; nor is it probable even that his 
 violent execution would have been followed 
 by any serious insurrection.* Yet Constan- 
 tius, with a prudent resj)ect both for the spi- 
 ritual authority of the Rishop and the rights 
 of the Church, proceeded to the accomplish- 
 ment of his object by indirect and tedious and 
 unworthy methods. Such circumstances be- 
 come indeed familar to us in the pages of lat- 
 er history ; but we should not for that reason 
 overlook their first occurn.'iic(^, nor fail to re- 
 rord with [)leaHin-e and gratitud(! tlu; (NHrfKist 
 proof we |K)HHeHS of the polificul eflisct of 
 (.'hristianity in moderating the d('sj)()tisni 
 with which it was ftssociatrd. 
 
 'JMh! third banishment of AtliannsiuH lastcul 
 mx years, until the death of his perHrcutor in 
 
 ♦It \n true lliat some popiihir cotnmf)ti(»i)M did at 
 bfltiiltrml tlic! cxcnition frvcn f>f tlio l<!f,';il ord« r for llin 
 d'-jK/fiitiori of ihfi I'/ihliop, wliirli wove. Hiippr(!HHcd hy 
 force; Imt lliey w»Te of very elmrl diir.il ion, mid ni- 
 tirrly confined to Alexandria. 
 
 362.* They were passed in the deserts ot 
 Upper Egypt, in concealment and depen 
 dence ; and they were consoled by the pious 
 exertions of the exile for the opinions for 
 which he suffered — exertions, which the vi- 
 gilance of the Imperial police could neither 
 prevent nor neutralize. After his final resto- 
 ration he enjoyed his See without interrup- 
 tion for eleven years, and at length died in 
 peace and dignity. 
 
 Divisions of the Anans. In the meantime, 
 as is natural among those who indulge in any 
 laxity of speculation respecting mysteries 
 really inscrutable, the Arians were divided 
 among themselves almost as widely as the 
 more moderate among them varied from the 
 Church. The original and pure Arians, fol- 
 lowing the opinions of their founder, main 
 tained not only that the substance of the 
 Word was different from that of the Father, 
 but that it did not even resemble it ; while 
 others, pretending the authority of Eusebius 
 of Nicomedia, denied with equal confidence 
 the Consubstantiality of the two Persons, but 
 at the same time affirmed their perfect likeness. 
 These last are commonly called Semiarians ; 
 and their doctrine appears to have been first 
 proclaimed at the Synod tf Ancyra in Galatia, 
 held by Basil, the Bishop of that place, in the 
 year 358 ; but the Council of Seleucia, by 
 which their tenets were sanctioned in the fol- 
 lowing year, holds a more prominent place in 
 ecclesiastical annals.f They were very nu- 
 merous during the reign of Constantius, who 
 was their protector and proselyte ; but they 
 afterwards yielded in some measure to the 
 pure Arianism of Valens and his Patriarch, 
 Eudoxius. Again the Semiarians were not 
 themselves entirely united; several among 
 thorn maintained the precternity of the Word ; 
 while others believed that, though it had sub 
 sisted before all ages, it had once had a begin- 
 ning ; and that partyj was not inconsiderable 
 which, admitting a e^eneral likeness between 
 the Father and the Son, denied that there was 
 any similarity of substance. § Athanasius, in 
 
 ♦ It is asserted by Tillcinont (Sur les Ariens, Art. 
 103) that dnrini; tlic neiifrality of Julian, the Catholics 
 fjaiiiod considtM-ahle jjroiind upon their advcrsiu ies. 
 
 t In the foiu (li cf'iitury were lield tliirteen Councils 
 afjainst Arius, fifleeri for him, and neventccn foi the 
 rt{Mniarian3; in all forty-five. Jortin, Kcc. Ilist , 1) 
 iii. 
 
 \ I( would appear that Conntantius himself helongod 
 to lliis Hcct of the Semiariaiw. See (Jil)l»on, cliap. 21. 
 
 § Tito Consul)slantialistii arc known in history by 
 the (Jrci'k term Udmooiksi AN9 ; those who asserted 
 the similarity of the HubMlanccs, l)y the name of Ho* 
 
THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 
 
 95> 
 
 his Epistle respecting the Synods of Seleucia 
 and Rimini exposes the great variety of the 
 Arian Creeds, and the subject has been en- 
 larged upon by Catholic Historians, to show 
 the inevitable perplexities of those who have 
 once permitted therasoh es to deviate from the 
 established doctrine 
 
 Council of Rimini. Having succeeded in 
 his attack on the Consubstantialists (and, we 
 ought add, on the pure Arians) of the East, 
 Constantius removed the scene of action to 
 the Western Provinces, and convoked a Coun- 
 cil at Rimini in the year 360: by nearly the 
 same arts which he had employed to procure 
 the condemnation of Athanasius,* supported 
 by a moderate, but firm exertion of the civil 
 authority, he succeeded in influencing the 
 members to the subscription of a Creed, con- 
 taining some expressions capable of heretical 
 interpretation. 'The whole world groaned 
 (says St. Jerome) and wondered to find itself 
 Arian ! ' But this conversion was neither 
 sincere nor lasting ; and however opinions 
 may have been divided in the East — for even 
 
 mOiousians; those who denied any sort of resem- 
 blance were called Anomoians ; and, to complete tlie 
 confusion, the last mentioned Sectarians are some- 
 times denominated — from the name of one of tlieir 
 most popular teachers — Eunomians. The unimpoi'- 
 tance of the verbal difference might provoke our ridi- 
 cule, did we not reflect how much the angry applica- 
 tion of those terms tended to prolong and imbitter 
 the controversy. See Semler, cent. iv. chap. 4., ad 
 finem. The distinction which Tillemont (Sur les 
 Ariens, Art. 66) draws between the Arians and Euse- 
 bians refers rather to their situation in respect to the 
 Church than to their doctrine. ' By the Arians we 
 mean those who were expelled from the Church by the 
 Council of Nice — by the Eusebians those who remain- 
 ed in communion with the Church, but who bent 
 themselves insidiously to ruin its doctrine, by the in- 
 vention of new formularies, who endeavored to expel 
 Athanasius, and who communicated with the original 
 Arians. So that these two formed only one sect in 
 intrigue, and perhaps in belief too — though the one 
 party appeared in the Church, and the other was visi- 
 bly separated from it.' The word ouooioiog is in- 
 terpreted — habcns simjl essentiam, i. e. eandem es- 
 eentiam. 
 
 * He directed Taurus, the Governor of the Pro- 
 vince, to confine the Bishops, until tliey should be all 
 of one mind, that is, until they should be all of the 
 Emperor's mind. The conditions of concord on 
 which they at length agreed amounted to this: that 
 the Catholics conceded the offensive term (Consub- 
 stantialisin,) and the Arians to all appearance the 
 doctrine ; at least all parties agreed in anathematiz- 
 ing the name of Arius, while they professed, as it 
 wotjid seem, the Semiarian opinions. Sulpic. Sever, 
 lib, ii. Maimb. Hist. Arian., b. ill. Gibbon, cliap. 
 21. 
 
 there, though the majority of the Bishops * 
 followed the faith of the Emperor, there is 
 reason to believe that many among the peo- 
 ple remained Catholic f — we may safely infer 
 from the small number of Arian prelates who 
 were found willing to proclaim that doctrine, 
 even under an Arian Emperor, that it had yet 
 made little progress in the Latin Church.^ 
 For we should always bear in mind, that any 
 sudden change in the opinions of the vulgar 
 respecting an abstruse mystery must neces- 
 sarily be preceded by the same change in their 
 spiritual directors. 
 
 The path of intolerance, which had been 
 pointed out and abandoned by Constantme. 
 but so steadily followed by his heretical suc- 
 cessor, was trodden with equal diligence hj 
 the Eastern Empire by Valens. That Prince, 
 who is believed to have been converted to 
 Arianism by the influence of his Empress § 
 Dominica, in the year 367, perinitted consid- 
 erable license against the Catholics to his 
 Patriarch Eudoxius,even during the beginning 
 of his reign, and proceeded, after a few years, 
 to more direct and intemperate measures. || 
 
 * The throne and principal Churches of Constanti- 
 nople were occupied by Arian Patriarchs from the year 
 3-12 till their restoration to the Catholics by Theodo- 
 slus nearly 40 years afterwards. Semler, Eplt. sec. Iv. 
 
 + At Antioch at least the dissent of the people from 
 the established Arianism was strongly and violently 
 expressed, and at Constantinople itself, the very cita- 
 del of the heresy, In spite of the savage edicts of Cou- 
 stantius, some very sanguinary tumults still proved the 
 steady perseverance of many Catholics. In one of 
 these 3150 persons were killed. 
 
 :}: Of the four hundred Bishops assembled at Rimini 
 eighty only were Arians. 
 
 § The Arians had no cause to blush at the obliga- 
 tions which they likewise owed to two preceding Era- 
 presses. Constantia protected their Infancy and their 
 misfortunes during the reign of Constantlne, and Eu- 
 sebla promoted their prosperity under the sceptre of 
 Constantius. The Catholics could also boast of simi- 
 lar patronage; but Maimbourg (Book vl.) establishes 
 a very broad distinction as to the agency by which 
 such aid was in each case administered; 'as the devil 
 (says that very rigid Catholic) had employed the as- 
 sistance of Princesses to Introduce Arianism into the 
 Court of Constantlne, of Constantius and Valens, so 
 God made use of the Empress iElla Flaccilla in order 
 to prevent it from creeping into the Court of Theodo- 
 slus.' In a later page (b. xll. a. d. 590) the same 
 author again alludes to the diabolical agency ' which 
 introduced the Arian heresy Into the East by the means 
 of three women,' and which was afterwards compen- 
 sated by the divine benevolence in raising up three 
 Princesses, Clotilda, Indegonda and Theodelinda for 
 the purification of France, Spain and Italy. 
 
 II They are enlarged upon by Tillemont, Sur lea 
 Ariens, Art. 115. 
 
100 HISTORY OF 
 
 Alexandria, by »vhose pernicious fertility the ji 
 controversy was first engendered, remain- i 
 ed however, through the influence of Alex- i 
 aiider and Athanasius, strongly attached to , 
 the Nicene faith. It became the scene of 
 frightful disorder, as soon as the civil authori- 
 ties added strength to the malignity of the 
 Arians, and proceeded again to expel Peter, 
 the othodox Patriarch. The calamities thus 
 occasioned were undoubtedly heightened by 
 the zealous interference of the Jews and 
 Pagans, who derived their best argument 
 against Christianity from the furious dissen- 
 sions of its professors, and who were, on all 
 occasions, anxious from other motives to join 
 in the assault on the stronger and wealthier 
 party. On the other hand, the Monks, a new 
 but numerous Body, continued faithful to the 
 doctrine of xVthanasius, and loved it the more 
 because they suffered for it. Peter avoided 
 the tempest by a hasty retreat to Rome, and 
 the success of the Arians does not appear 
 permanently to have increased either their 
 numbers or their popularity. However, there 
 can be no doubt that the profession of Arian- 
 ism was common, and even general, through- 
 out the East during the reign of Valens, and 
 that in some of the Asiatic Provinces, espe- 
 cially Syria, such may have been the real be- 
 lief of the majority ; but its progress was 
 attended with perpetual tumults, and at the 
 death of Valens in 378 it had reached the 
 highest point of prevalence which it was des- 
 tined in those regions to attain. 
 
 Thcodosius the Great. Two years after- ! 
 wards, Theodosius tlie Great proclaimed his \ 
 adhesion to the doctrine of Nice, and imme- 
 diately prepared to establish it as the Creed 
 of his subjects. 'I will not permit (thus he 
 addressed certain Arians in the year* 383) 
 throughout my dominions any other religion 
 than that which obliges us to worship the Son 
 of God in unity of essence with the Father 
 and Holy Ghost in the adorable Trinity — as 
 1 hold the Empire of Ilim, and the power \ 
 wiiicli I liavc to command you, he likewise 
 will give m(; strength, as ho hath given me 
 the will, to make myself obcycul in a |)oint so 
 absolutely necessary to your salvation, and to 
 the peace of my subjects.' 'J'he peace of his 
 subjects was not indeed the immediate re- 
 ward of his violent mea-sures, but, on the con- 
 trary, general confusion and much individual 
 Fuffering was ocrasioiKMl by tln'iii. Still, as 
 lie persevJTcd inflexibly, as he was .supported 
 even in the lOusl by the more zealous, and, in 
 
 * See Muiiiii)., IliHt. Arian., b. vi. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 ji some places, the more numerous party, and 
 j as he was seconded almost by the unanimity 
 j of the Western Empire, his severities were 
 attended by general and lasting success, and 
 the doctrine of Arius, if not perfectly extir- 
 pated, withered from that moment rapidly 
 and irrecoverably throughout the Provinces 
 of the East. 
 
 The work of Theodosius was considerably 
 promoted by the Council which he assembled 
 at Constantinople in the year 381, and which 
 stands in the history of the Church as the 
 Second General Council. Its object, besides 
 the regulation of several points of ecclesiasti- 
 cal discipline, was to confirm the decision ot 
 Nice against the Arians, and especially to pro- 
 mulgate the doctrine of the Divinity of tlie 
 Third Person, against the Macedonian * Here- 
 tics. The Doctrine on those fundamental 
 points, which was then established, is the 
 same (if we except the manner of the Holy 
 Procession) which is still professed in our 
 Church: by the Oriental Church it has been 
 unceasingly maintained, without any varia- 
 tion, to the present moment. 
 
 Arianism of the Barbarians. We turn to 
 the consideration of the Western Empire. 
 W^hile Valens was disturbing his subjects with 
 fruitless persecution, the Western Empire was 
 administered by his brother Valentinian with 
 justice and moderation. Those, and they 
 were few in number, among the Western 
 Bishops, who had openly deserted to the faith 
 of Constantius, were now concealed in ob- 
 scurity, or removed by death ; Damasus, the 
 Bishop of Rome, was an ardent supporter of 
 the Nicene doctrine, and the Church pre- 
 served the general aj^pcarance, if it could not 
 quite secure the reality, of concord. At Mi- 
 lan, during the reign of Theodosius, the cele- 
 brated St. Ambrose exerted his genius in the 
 same cause, and at the end of the fourth cen- 
 tury the proselytes of Arianism formed an 
 inconsiderable and a declining party. Sud- 
 denly it received a new and extraordinary 
 impulse from a (juarter which could not have 
 been suspected, from accidents which could 
 not be averted, nor innnediately controlled ; 
 and which prolonged the existence of that 
 heresy beyond the duration which seemed 
 
 ♦ I\I;icc(l()niiis, in coiiiinoii willi other Arians (or 
 rather Seniiarians,) <l(Miie(l the ('onHnhstanliality, and 
 afrunied the likenesH of the two first Tersons; but he 
 posiliv(!ly a?«crted that the Holy (Jhost was y.noilr, 
 created. He is said to liave pnhlislicd thi.s notion 
 twenty years Ix-'forc the (ieneral ( 'ounril which eon- 
 dennicd it. Le Cierc, Compend. Hift , aj). Jort., b 
 iii. Mobh. H. E., Cent. iv. p. ii. ch v 
 
THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 
 
 101 
 
 Otherwise to have been assigned to it. Din- 
 ing the course of the fifth century numerous 
 tribes of Barbarians, Goths, Huns, and Van- 
 dals, Suevi and Alani and SaHi, overran and 
 occupied the provinces of the west. Of these 
 some had been previously converted to Christ- 
 ianity in their native forests, before their emi- 
 gration to the south, though others for the 
 most part adopted the religion of the van- 
 quished ; and while they professed generally 
 the name of Christianity, they followed in its 
 particular tenets the faith of their Prince or 
 leader. Now it so happened that all these 
 tribes, excepting probably the Salii, imbibed 
 in the first instance the notions of Arius. 
 This circumstance is thus accounted for : — 
 The Goths, who were the earliest and most 
 zealous aihong the converts, were directed in 
 their religious creed by their Bishop Ulphilas, 
 a man of great talents and influence. This 
 prelate, in the course of two missions to Con- 
 stantinople, during the reigns of Constantius 
 and Valens, accommodated his opinions 
 (whether sincerely or not, is questionable) to 
 those of the Imperial Court, and he returned, 
 at least from his second embassy, the zealous 
 proselyte of Arianism. This doctrine he 
 rapidly propagated among his compatriots, 
 and diffused it through the whole nation. 
 The example of the Goths was respected by 
 the leaders of tribes of subsequent invaders 
 and converts ; in embracing the religion of 
 the provinces which they conquered they 
 preferred that form of it which was professed 
 by their predecessors in conquest ; and thus 
 the tenets of Arius were disseminated among 
 the barbarian colonists in every province of 
 the western empire. Other means of spread- 
 ing those tenets were the persecutions of the 
 orthodox Emperors, especially Theodosius : 
 by scattering the followers of the heretic 
 among distant and populous nations they dif- 
 fused to the same extent the knowledge of 
 his doctrine, and multiplied the number of 
 its professors. 
 
 Again, those of the barbarian prmces who 
 embraced Christianity after their success, 
 when they saw the great controversy by 
 which the Christian world was divided, 
 would be guided also by political motives as 
 to the side they chose in it, and one of these 
 would probably be opposition to the Eastern 
 throne ; and, as they were little versed in the 
 arguments by which the question was contest- 
 ed, and probably blind even to its real nature 
 and importance, the mere effect of their igno- 
 rance would be to direct them to what might 
 seem the simpler creed. Their soldiers and 
 
 followers, still blinder than themselves, nat 
 urally acquiesced in their belief ; and even 
 among the vanquished natives, tfie many who 
 were indifferent would turn to the same ])ro- 
 fession. On the other hand, the Church re- 
 mained firm ; the exertions of its most eminent 
 directors were bent almost without exception 
 on the maintenance of the Niccne faith, and 
 with such success, that the great majority of 
 zealous and influential Christians probably 
 retained, even under foreign and Arian rule, 
 their attachment to the established doctrine. 
 
 This reaction in favor of Arianism, as it 
 was sudden and somewhat violent, was not 
 of long duration ; indeed we may fairly con- 
 sider the sixth century as having brought 
 about its termination. The conversion of 
 Clovis to the Catholic faith in the year 496. 
 and his subsequent zeal in its favor, are 
 commonly mentioned as having first opened 
 the path to the conclusion of the dispute ; and 
 as it is sometimes the pleasure of Divine 
 Providence to select the vilest instruments for 
 the accomplishment of His mysterious de- 
 signs, so we may believe without astonish- 
 Ipient that He deigned to bring about a great 
 good even by the impure and flagitious min- 
 istry of Clovis. A more effective agent in 
 the same work was Justinian. That Emper- 
 or began his long and active reign in 527, and 
 his rigid orthodoxy was disgraced by the 
 most violent proceedings against every de- 
 scription of heresy. His victories extended 
 his means of extirpation into the West, and 
 before his death he had very generally 
 strengthened, though he had not universally 
 restored, the authority of the Church. 
 
 The Arians still retained a very powerful 
 party in Spain, which was not destined to be 
 otherwise extinguished than by the accession 
 of an orthodox monarch. In the year 585 
 Recared assembled the leaders of the two 
 parties in a conference, which concluded in 
 the triumph of the Catholics ; and that Prince 
 pursued his victory both in Spain and Nar- 
 bonese Gaul, with so much diligence and 
 rigor, that after some sanguinary tumults and 
 barbarous executions,* the great body of his 
 subjects ranged themselves under his doc- 
 trine, and never afterwards relapsed into 
 heresy. The celebrated Council of Toledo, 
 which was held by the same King in 589, 
 may be considered as having completed the 
 
 * Maimb. Hist. Arian., b. xi. The fact is admit- 
 ted and justified by Mariana, Hist. Hispan., lib. v., 
 ch. xiv. See Bayle's Diet., Ariiis. The facility 
 with which the Arians yielded to this persecution has 
 II given great matter of exultation to Catholic writers 
 
102 HISTORY Ot 
 
 extiipation of Arianism from the soil of 
 Spain. 
 
 The Lombards. In Italy the victories ob- 
 tained by the Generals of Justinian gave 
 strength and confidence to the Catholic 
 Cliurch, and weakened the opposition of its 
 adversaries ; and the heresy appears to have 
 been falling into discredit, when it received 
 a fresh but momentary impulse from the 
 invasion and triumphs of the Lombards. 
 Those Arian warriors crossed the Alps in the 
 year 569, and presently became masters of 
 the greater part of the country. Their con- 
 quests were attended by unusual circumstan- 
 ces of bai'barity, and the necessary horrors of 
 uncivilized warfare were inflamed by sectari- 
 an animosity. But the sufferings of the Cath- 
 olics were not of long duration ; they were 
 speedily and effectually terminated by the 
 conversion of the conqueroi-s. This event is 
 ascribed, in the first instance, to the diligence 
 and fidelity of the orthodox Bishops,* who 
 availed themselves of the first moments of 
 tranquillity to recommend the Nicene doc- 
 trine to the conscience of the victors. It is 
 at least probable that their exertions prepart 
 ed and facihtated the success of a Catholic 
 Queen, Theodelinda, who appears to have 
 completed the overthrow of Arianism even 
 among her Lombard subjects before the con- 
 clusion of the sixth century. The triumph 
 of that Princess may be read by the Catholic 
 without a blush, and recorded by the histo- 
 rian without a sigh ; since it was accomplish- 
 ed, if not by the process of rational convic- 
 tion, at least without the savage inflictions by 
 which sudden religious changes are usually 
 effected. 
 
 It was thus that this lamentable controver- 
 sy, after perplexing the faith, and animating 
 the malice, and disturbing the happiness of 
 the Christian world for more than two hun- 
 dred and fift/ years, was at length extin- 
 guished ; an'' it this moment the very name 
 of Arius is almost f()i-gott(Mi in the Eastern 
 world ; and in tlie West his opinions are con- 
 fined to the breasts of a v(.'ry inconsiderable 
 prf)portion of tlic; Christian rommimity. 
 
 We shall close this account with a few ad- 
 ditional observations. The Arians have laid 
 claim to the greater mo(l(!ration, both in the 
 origin and in the conduct of this controversy, 
 and they moreover assert that their comnni- 
 liioM wjis free; from many of tin; HUjxuHtiliouH 
 rorrufJtioMH, whicli, at that time, were grovv- 
 
 • Mniin)K>iiri; (IliHt. Ariuii.,b. xii.) in tlie more to 
 Iks lK;lif;vf;<l in (IiIh \uAni, :i» he mentions the fact ul- 
 nioHt incidentally. 
 
 XHE CHURCH. 
 
 I ing up so rapidly in the Catholic church 
 This latter assertion is, at least, founded in 
 probability ; because the principle of their 
 faith, by disparaging the dignity of the Re- 
 deemer, removed them fai-ther from religious 
 excess. Their tendency was rather to^\ards 
 too little, than towards too much belief; and 
 we can readily suppose that those who Avere 
 so averse from the worship of Christ, would 
 certainly refuse any adoration to the V irgin 
 or other created beings. But notwithstand- 
 ing this, we find that Constantius had a su- 
 perstitious veneration for relics, and was the 
 first to encourage their transfer from place to 
 place, with the miraculous qualities attached 
 to them ; and when that Arian disturbed the 
 (real or supposed,) bodies of Timothy, St. An- 
 drew, and St. Luke, and conveyed them to 
 Constantinople, he assuredly introduced into 
 the Church of Christ one of its most degrad- 
 ing corruptions.* But their claims to supe 
 rior moderation are still more disputable, ex- 
 cept, indeed, as far as it might be the fruit of 
 their weakness. In the East, the reign of 
 Constantius was the sera of their triumph, 
 and it was polluted by constant and sanguina- 
 ry persecution. That of Valens was not less 
 distinguished by the same spirit and prin- 
 ciple, and the same oppression ; and as the 
 Arian Bishops were then exceedingly nume- 
 rous and powerful, at least in x\sia, it would 
 be unfair to itiipute the whole criminality to 
 the Emperor. Athanasius, the continual ob- 
 ject of their hostility, has the following pas- 
 sage concerning them. ' Whenever any man 
 differs from them, they have him before the 
 Governor or the General ; him whom they 
 cannot subdue by reason and argument, they 
 take upon them to convince by whipj)ings 
 and imprisonments; which is enough to show 
 that their princij)los are any thing rather than 
 religion ; for it is the property of religion not 
 to compel, but to persuade.' On the other 
 hand, Atlianasiiis himself either had not yet 
 l(!arnt, or had wholly forgotten, this excellent 
 truth when he appended to Constantine against 
 th(! recall of Arius ; nor was it generally either 
 practised or acknowledged afterwards by the 
 Catholic Emi)erors of the East.f Gradually 
 the faith of the prelates submitted itself U; the 
 injunctions of those inonarchs ; the pov 4)le 
 were, upon tin; whole, always favorable to 
 
 * This took place iu 356. See Jortin, Eccl. Hiif , 
 vui. iv., p. xii. 
 
 t There is one distinction, however, which lo a err- 
 tiiiti extent is Inio, that the Ariuns were more lenient 
 in their trcatincnt of other heretics; wherciid iho 
 [ (,'alliolics perMiciiled univer«idlv. 
 
THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 
 
 103 
 
 Catholicism ; and thus before the middle of 
 the sixth century the Nicene doctrine was 
 very firmly established throughout that part 
 of the Empire. 
 
 In the west Arianism would never have 
 taken any deep root, except through the in- 
 fluence of the barbarian conquerors ; for the 
 Church was steadily and zealously opposed to 
 it, and so was the most religious, if not the 
 most nu merous, part of the conquered. It was 
 probably confined to the courts of the victors, 
 to their armies, and to such of the natives 
 as were in most immediate intercourse with 
 them. In Gaul, in Spain, and in Italy, the 
 Gothic Princes appear seldom to have perse- 
 cuted their Catholic subjects, except in retali- 
 ation for some outrage exercised against the 
 Arians by the Catholic Emperors of Constan- 
 tinople. But in Africa the Vandal Arians 
 were guilty of horrible excesses during the 
 last half of the fifth century, which were not 
 terminated until their expulsion by Belisarius 
 in the year 530. On the other hand, in all 
 those provinces the Catholic population, 
 whether persecuted or not, seems always to 
 have been equally disposed to rise in favor 
 of a Catholic invader. But we should here 
 recollect that the distinction of x'\rian and 
 Catholic was in general so closely connected 
 with that of Barbarian and Roman, conquer- 
 or and conquered,* that we can scarcely say 
 how much of this we should attribute to reli- 
 gious, how much to national, animosity. Up- 
 on the whole, we have little reason to give the 
 praise of moderation, or even humanity, to 
 either party ; much depended on the personal 
 character of the Princes on either side, and 
 on the principles or prejudices in which they 
 had been educated. But in as far as the sec- 
 tarian feeling was concerned, we may discov- 
 er on both sides an equal disposition to give 
 loose to it. 
 
 The Arian was more flexible, the Catholic 
 more rigid under persecution ; f the former 
 finally submitted to conversion ; the latter 
 would probably never have yielded to any 
 
 * See Maimb., Hist. Arian., b. xi. passim. In 
 the month of an Arian, the terms Catholic and Roman 
 were synonymous. 
 
 t Bayle (in his Life of Arius) observes this incon- 
 sistency in Roman Catholic writers, that they urge 
 generally •.ha obstinate perversity of heretics as a proof 
 of their errors; and yet press their flexibility in par- 
 ticular cases to the same conclusion. Yet the Roman | 
 Catholics endeavored to accommodate their practice 
 to both their suppositions ; which, indeed, could only 
 be reconciled by the assumption, that heretics were 
 obstinate until they were persecuted, and no longer; 
 and on this ground they erected the Inquisition. 
 
 infliction short of extirpation: and this dis- 
 tinction is attributed by some to the undoubt- 
 ed circumstance, that it is easier to extend 
 tiie belief of the multitude, than to contract 
 it; a circumstance which proceeds from the 
 false but prevalent notion, that too much be- 
 lief is at least an error on the safe side, and 
 that Jesus Christ would more readily inter- 
 cede for those who might have paid Ilirn 
 excessive honor, than for those who had 
 fallen short in their worship. Others imagine, 
 that the Arian always felt in his heart some la- 
 tent consciousness of error, which undermined 
 his constancy in the hour of trial, and depriv- 
 ed him of that energy of invincible endurance 
 which is inconsistent with the very shadow 
 of insincerity. 
 
 NOTE ON CERTAIN EARLY ECCLESIASTICAl^ 
 HISTORIANS. 
 
 Three Greek writers, Socrates, Sozomen, 
 and Theodoret, take up the annals of the 
 Church about the time of its establishment 
 by Constantino, nearly where the history of 
 Eusebius terminates, and caiTy them on as 
 far as the reign of Theodosius the younger, 
 through a space of about one hundred and 
 twenty years. It is necessary to give a short 
 account of them. 
 
 1. Socrates was a native of Constantinople ; 
 he was carefully instructed in grammar and 
 rhetoric, and presently assumed the profession 
 of a scholastic or advocate. Much time, how- 
 ever, and very considerable diligence he di- 
 rected to the compilation of his historical ma- 
 terials, and no scanty judgment is shown in 
 their arrangement and composition. The 
 epistles of Bishops, the acts of Councils, the 
 works of preceding or contemporary ecclesi- 
 astics are consulted with care, and seemingly 
 cited with fidelity, and the principal events 
 are chronologically distinguished by olym- 
 piads or consulates. His impartiality is so 
 strikingly displayed, as to make his ortho- 
 doxy questionable to Baronius, the celebrated 
 Roman Catholic historian ; but Valesius in 
 his life has clearly shown that there is no 
 reason for such suspicion. We may men- 
 tion another principle, which he has followed, 
 which in the mind of Baronius ma}^ have 
 tended to confirm the notion of his hetero- 
 doxy — that he is invariably adverse to every 
 form of persecution on account of religicus 
 opinions — ' dicoy/Ltdv ds Xiyo) to ottoxtovi' . 
 TCiQixneiv TOvg r^av/u'C.ovTct; — and I call it 
 persecution to ofiTer any description of moles- 
 tation to those who are quiet.' Some credu' 
 lity respecting miraculous stories is his priu 
 cipal failing. 
 
104 HISTORY OF 
 
 2, Hermias Sczmnen was also an advocate, 
 resident at Constantinople ; but he was a na- 
 tive of Palestine, born near Gaza, and was 
 educatijd in a monastery in that country. In 
 his writings we perceive a great ardor for the 
 monastic life, and a concomitant tendency to 
 superstitious extravagance. Superior in style 
 to his contemporary, be is below bim in judg- 
 ment and discrimination ; still his work con- 
 tains much valuable matter; though some of 
 it is probably borrowed from that of Socrates, 
 which seems to have been published some 
 little earlier. 
 
 3. TheodoretjWke Sozomen, received a mo- 
 nastic education ; but he entered into the ec- 
 clesiastical profession, and became Bishop of 
 Cyrus, in Syria. He was remarkable, not 
 only for his learning and piety, but for his 
 absolute and voluntary poverty. ' I was or- 
 dained Bishop against my will ; for twenty - 
 five years (says he, in an epistle still extantj I 
 have so lived in that station, as never to be at 
 variance, never to prosecute any one at law or 
 to be prosecuted. The same I can say of all 
 the pious clergy who are under my inspec- 
 tion, none of whom was ever seen in any court 
 of justice. Neither I nor my domestics ever 
 received the smallest present from any per- 
 son, not even a loaf or an egg. My patrimo- 
 ny I gave long ago to the poor, and I have 
 made no new acquisitions. I have neither 
 house, nor land, nor money, nor a sepulchre 
 where my friends may lay my body when I 
 die. I am possessor of nothing save the poor 
 raiment which I wear.' As a writer, howev- 
 er, he is inferior to his two fellow-laborers, 
 both in judgment and jnoderation ; he is more 
 violent against schism and heresy, more big- 
 oted, and more absurdly credulous. Yet he 
 did not himself escape the charge of heresy, 
 and was certainly attached to the party, prob- 
 ably to the opinions, of Nestorius. His style j 
 is pronounced by Photius to be clear and 
 lofty without redundancy. 
 
 To this liHt we may venture to regret that 
 wo cannot add the name of Philostorfrius. 
 This writer was an Arian ; his history ex- 
 tended from the year 300 to 425, and he had 
 witnessed rnu(!h of what Ik; <lesrrib(;(l. But 
 of his works nothing n-mains, except an epi- 
 tome by Photius, and some fragments. Plio- 
 lius assures us that ho l)etray(Mi great partial- 
 ity for tln! M'cX to which he l)el()nge(l, and 
 this may have been so ; yet su<*h is th<! nar- 
 rative; wiiich we would wilHngly confront 
 with th»! prnbablr niiHrcprcHrntationH of his j 
 adv<TM:iricH. 
 
 We have also refiirred to the authorities of | 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 Epiphanius, Hilary, and Rufinus, but have 
 been very sparing in our use of them. Epiph 
 anius was bred a monk, and became Bishop 
 of Salamis, in Cyprus. He was tlie author 
 of a voluminous book against all the heresies 
 which had hitherto arisen. But his Avork is 
 disfigured by so many marks of levity and 
 ignorance, that we can follow him with no 
 general confidence. Hilary was Bishop of 
 Poictiers, for the most part a copyist of Ter- 
 tullian and Origen, but celebrated for ' Twelve 
 Books concerning the Trinity,' written against 
 the Arians. Rujinus was a Presbyter of Aqui- 
 leia, a translator, and not always a faithful 
 one, of Origen and other Greek writers. He 
 was engaged in a violent contest with St. Je- 
 rome, and was assailed by the virulence of 
 that intemperate writer ; and he had the addi- 
 tional misfortune of being excommunicated 
 by Anastasius, the Bishop of Rome, for his 
 attachment to the opinions of Origen. These 
 three writers belong to the fourth century. 
 Jortin, H. E., b. ii., p. ii., p. 96 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 The Decline and Fall of Paganism 
 
 Condition of tlie two Religions on the accession of Con- 
 stantine— Progress of Christianity during liis reign— 
 His successive measures against Paganism— Remarks 
 on them— Proceedings of his sons — Accession of Julian 
 — Reasons given for his Apostasy — Ilis enthusiasm for 
 Paganism— His character compared with that of M. 
 Antoninus— his policy contrasted with that of Constan- 
 tine — his successive measures against Christianity — 
 His attempts to reform Paganism — directed to three 
 points— his attack on the truth of Christianity— In the 
 attempt to rehuild the Temple of Jerusalem — defeated 
 — by what means — whether miraculous or not — 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. Arcad/.is and 
 Honorius — abolition of dladiatorial (James. 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 tinn to a 
 more pleasing subject — the final triumi)h ot 
 the Faith over tin; superstition which had 
 hrretofore ])rcvailed throughout i\ui Roman 
 ein|)ire ; and in proceeding to this investiga- 
 tion, that wliich first strikrs tis as most re- 
 niai Unblc is, that the vrry ]>rriod during which 
 th(! Christian world was most widely and 
 angrily divided by the Arian controversv, the 
 
DECLINE AND FAL 
 
 fX O AGANISM. 
 
 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 Constantine, 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- 
 I)le 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. 
 
 Constanline. 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 
 y^ars longer, he held with tolerably equal 
 hand the balance of the two religions, f and 
 
 * See a note on Dr. Arnold's seventh Sermon, p. 88. 
 + In hook iii. of Eusebius'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 pcrceiv * 
 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 mentioti some prohibitions 
 agaiiist sacrifice and idol-worship, addressed first to 
 Pagan 3Iagistrates, and then to the people ; but in hi? 
 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 J 
 as such friendly communion has most tendency to lead 
 men into the straight path.' 
 
 * Semler, tab. sec. quarti, on author, of Julian, 
 Orat. 7. Mosheim (cent, iv., p. i., c. i.) date? the 
 exertions of Constantine from the overthrow of Licin- 
 ius. See Euseb. Vit. Const, lib. iv. c. 23, 25, 
 &c. Fleury (lib. xi., sect. 33) assigns the destruction 
 of the Temples of Venus, in Syria, and of yEscula- 
 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. 
 
m 
 
 HIS rOR\ OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 he had b(en 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 i 
 • 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- j 
 tians, and their rancor against each other, i 
 his faith was perplexed ; he found it hard to ! 
 distinguish the excellence of the religion froi7i 
 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 paganisn". 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 
 — ' ho was eloquent and liberal, artful, insin- 
 uating and indefatigable ; which, joined to a 
 severe temperance, an affected love of jus- 
 tice,! and a courage superior to all trials, first 
 gained him the affections, and soon after the 
 peaceable [)ossession of the whole empire.' 
 A strong attachment to literature distinguisli- 
 ed his character, and may hav^e tended to 
 nourish his heatluai j)r('judices ; and the pas- 
 sion for glory whicli soMKitimes misled him 
 was probably the strongest among his pas- 
 b'nm, and his lending motive of action. 
 
 If wo compare the character of Julian 
 with that of the other great (!nemy of the 
 religion, Marcus Antoninus, we Khali find all , 
 
 • Sco note nt tho ond of tlio chapter. 
 
 fTlur paHHii^r ix tpiotod from VVai hiirtoii ; Init wo 
 havo iif) rc:\nni\ to (picHtion thn winrorily of lliat pi iii- 
 ciplf* in Julian. tli(»iit»li i( was HomcliincH ovcipowficd 
 1)V liiii rcligiouh u<i'<putliy. 
 
 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 
 j led him, was precluded by the situation of 
 the emj)ire. 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 
 nation and conduct of Julian and of Con 
 stantine. Both arrived at the possession of 
 unlimited power, through great difliculties, 
 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 p.roved its excellence, and 
 ensured its durability ; the only weakness 
 which it acknowledged was that of immatu- 
 rity. TIk; religion of Julian had long been 
 h(;ld in derision by all reasonable men ; its 
 energy had long pjLSsed away from it, and 
 its fi'ebleness was the decrepitude of old ago. 
 So that tho one led on to certain victory aii 
 aspiring assniiant ; the other endeavored to 
 rally a shattered, undisciplined, dispirited 
 fugitivt;. 
 
 liCt UH next examine the maimer in which 
 .lulinn procMMMh'd to th<' acc()m|»lishment of 
 , his hopcli'SM enterprise. Ilis first step was in 
 
DECLINE AND FALL OF PiGANISM. 
 
 107 
 
 tfirect imitation of the first act of Constan- 
 tine. He published edicts which estabhshed 
 the rehgion of the Emperor as that of the 
 state, and wliich tolerated every other. By 
 siicli decrees lie placed Christianity in a very 
 similar situation to that in wliich, about fifty 
 years before, his uncle had placed paganism 
 and he fiirther increased this resemblance by 
 inviting the mos. e?ninent 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, 
 v/hich 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 tlie 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 tliat 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- 
 ianzeii) tells us of another method adopted by Julian i-.i 
 order to bring the religion into disrepute, which proves 
 how low his enmity was contented to descend, for tlie 
 sake of inflicting one additional and ignoble wound. 
 He commanded by edict (rouodtiilaag) tliat 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- 
 
 re has especial importance among orientals. 
 
 of persecution, he made very rapid progress 
 in the practice of it ; and had he been suflTer 
 ed by Providence much longer to persist ;n 
 his aggression, with proportionate increase 
 of severity, it is probable that the final ti'i- 
 umpli 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 J ulian 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 su})eriority 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 chaiitable 
 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 , 
 sliow that the only art by wliich 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 tide 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 wliich its 
 overthrow could possibly have been effected. 
 Tiie persecution of its professors was certain 
 to teririinate in a reaction favorable to them ; 
 the r(;form and adornment of paganism was 
 only a ridiculous and c()ntcmj)tiblc mockery ; 
 but the falsification of on(; pro|)h(!cy woidd 
 liuve n;duced the worship of ('hrist, as fir as 
 its origin was concerned, to a l(!vel with that 
 of Jove : so that we need not wonder at the 
 ardor with which ita adversaries engaged in 
 this attempt, at the suspicion with which some 
 wavcM-ing ("hristians beheld it, at the joy of 
 nnticiimted triiunph which it excited in true 
 
 lM!lif!VerH.* 
 
 •T\vir«! pn-vioiiHly, (luring tlu; nii'jn.M of Adrian mid 
 (kitiHtantino, llio J«;wh had exiiretitfcd a dioposilioii to 
 
 The historical facts are simply these'.— tnc 
 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 thi^, 
 it clearly appears, not once only, but on re- 
 peated attempts. Many of those who surviv- 
 ed bore about with them lasting mai'ks 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, 
 Ammiajtius 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. 
 
 * Amniian. Marc, lib. xxiii.,c. i. Ambrose, Epist. 
 xi.jt. ii. Chrysostom adv. Jud. et Gentiles. Gregory 
 Nazianzen, Orat. iv. adv. Julian. The passage of 
 Aminianus 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 gcstiens propagare,ambitiosum quoddam apud 
 Hierosolymam Templum, quod post multa et interne- 
 civa certaniina obsidente Vespasiano posteaque Tito 
 a?gre est cxpugiiatum, instaurare sumptibus cogitabat 
 immodicis; negotiuinque maturandum Alypio dcdit 
 Antiochcnsi, qui olim Britanuias curaverat pro praj- 
 fcctis. Cum itaqucrei idem fortiter instaref Aly- 
 jnus, juvaretque provincia: Rector, metuendi gto- 
 bi Jlammarum prope fundamenta crebris adsuUibus 
 erumpentes fccere locum extistis aliquoties oper 
 antibus inaccessum; hocque modo clemento dcsti- 
 natius repellente cessavit inceptum.' The epistle 
 of Ambrose is addressed to the Emperor Theodosius, 
 and Chrysostom was not far distant from tho spot 
 when the event took place. Botli these writers spe^ik 
 of it with brevity as notorious, and undisputed. But 
 Gregory enters into more detail; and, Ixjsides tho cir- 
 cumstances mentioned in the text, relates a miracu- 
 lous closing of tho doors of a church in which the 
 workmen would have taken refuge, and tJic impression 
 of the figure of the Ooss on the dress and persons of 
 those present. This last phenomenon is very i"gO" 
 niously, and even probably explained by Warburton. 
 
 t T\u'. miracle is relalcd almut half a century aftoi 
 wards, with the addition of various particulars, by 
 Rufinus, Socrates, Sozoujcn, and Theodorit. 
 
DECLINE AND F 
 
 aie 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 convulsiDn, and thrown forth destructive 
 fire from johysical causes, at that very crisis 
 (and at that crisis only) when the test was ap- 
 plied, and the insult offered ; tho^. 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 i*^ to 
 
 LL OF PAGANISM. IQg 
 
 any unprejudiced mind to decide, w nether 
 such a concurrence of fortuitous circumstan 
 ces at such a conjuncture were more or lesa 
 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 secrethig 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 
 long 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 singidarly con- 
 genial to superstitious ap])rehensions, 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 v/ere 
 ignorant of the mysteries of nature, would re- 
 ceive it unhesitatingly, as an especial pi'oof of 
 divine protection. Such might natirally be 
 the case ; and suspicious as we should always 
 be of any attempt to substitute plausible con- 
 jecture for facts historically proved, haw 
 
 * 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. Metropol. (Life of 
 Julianus,) and still more lately has been adopted, with 
 too little hesitation or comment, by the author of Thi> 
 History of the Jews.' 
 
 t See Tacit, v. 12. Dio, 66. p. 747. Josephus. 
 Bell lud 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, than 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. 
 
 Valcntinian I. place(^ 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 Constantino and 
 Julian hastened to deviate from the generous 
 princi|)l('S whicli they first proclaimed. But 
 Valcntinian is scarcely, if at all, liable to this 
 reproHfii ; and thongli 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 afllicted the Catholics in ilie 
 East, he appears himscdf to have; maintained 
 ihoughout the wiiole Western empire a per- 
 fect civil ciiuality, as well between the reli- 
 gions which divided it, us among the sects of 
 each religion.* 
 
 Iiiclnriiit lif)c inofloramino prinrifjaliiH inter 
 rcli^ioniiiii (livnrHitatoH iiiRdiiis Ht(rfit, rirc (|itcii(|iiaiu 
 inr|i>icta\ it, iirr(|ii(! lit hoc cohrrotiir iiiiprravit, uiit ill- 
 lul ; tu'c. iiitfiidictiH minariliiH Kiilijcr.toriiiii ccrviccMn 
 id <|iiihI ipHc coliiit iiirliiiahat, scd iiitrincralaH rcli- 
 
 The short reign of Gratian, which likewise 
 commenced with gi-eat 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 eflTect — '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 w'ine, or odoi-s, 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 eflTect, was no 
 doubt much ficilitated by the zeal of Chris- 
 tian informers ; and there could be few who 
 would suffer martyrdom for a religion,]: 
 
 quit has partes, ut repcrit.' — Animianus Marcclliiiiis. 
 Was there any Emperor of those days (if we cxcepi 
 the short rule of Jovian) who can share tliis honoi 
 witli Valentiiiian 1 
 
 * We may remark that l)y some of the earliest laws 
 against paganism Divination was permitted, while 
 Magic was forbidden ; because the former was a pub' 
 lie ceremony, instrumental for political purposes, 
 while the latter was the jirivate and individual exer- 
 cise of a similar descri|)tion of art. The object of 
 both was siiperslitious deception, but the Ciovcrmneni 
 would not ])ermit the people to i)e deceived except 
 itself. 
 
 t The bold resistance of an oIVumt of high rank anc. 
 character, named (ieiinadius, to a very impolitic edict^ 
 of Honoriiis, has been |)rt>ducc(l as a solitary instiinct. 
 even of tin; disposition to HiilTer in the cause of pa 3 
 gaiiisni. Honoriiis had forbidden any except Chria.j 
 tiaiis to wear a girdle or sash at court, and fiennadiili ' 
 ill consef|ii(Mice declined io present himself there. Thtj 
 
DECLiiNE AND FALL OP i'AGANISM. 
 
 Ill 
 
 which, as it rested on no evidence, could offer 
 no certainty of recompense ; and, tlierefore, 
 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 disai peared ; 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 faitli will not readily throw 
 themselves into 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, hi might easily accord 
 to a favorite subject the innocent indulgence of Avrit- 
 ing its defence ; for he knew that it was not by reason 
 but by habit that the worship would subsist, if it could 
 possibly 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 
 Ih the iron days of Christianity, and there 
 are others yet unnoticed by us, of whicli 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 eve^ 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 suflferings 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 miractdous 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 iastructers 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, Chrj'sostom, 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 difTer- 
 enccs 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 tlie religion. And 
 
 ♦In the yciir 410, Syiicsiurt, :i I'hitoiiic pliiloHoplier 
 of Cyroric, was ordiiiiic-d HiKliop of I'tolcmaiH l)y The- 
 cphiluH of Alexandria. SynesiuH reinoii.'-t rated againHt 
 tliiii election, declared himself to he a IMatonint, and 
 ■pccified Hcveral points in which iiis npeculativo opin- 
 ionH difT(;red from thoHC of the ChristianH. But uh he 
 was an agreeable orator, and had much influence in 
 the province, hin ohjectionH were overlooked, and 
 after rec(rivin!^ haptiHm ho entered «ipon IiIh rpiscoj)al 
 fiinctionH. Thin ih far from \H-'m<^ th<! (tidy instance! 
 of the jdiancy of the ear y ('hurch, at a period too 
 »l»cn it had no excn»c from fear or perm'uticjn. 
 
 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 
 tinned, 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 its 
 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 in 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 Gladiatonal Games. Arcadius 
 and Ilonorius 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 temi)les and idols of 
 Phcenicia. Ilonorius is more honorably cel- 
 ebrafed by the law which abolished the Gla- 
 diatorial Games. This institution, the most 
 barbarous that ever disgraced a civilized na- 
 tion, was the genuine oflspring of the charac- 
 ter and morals of pagan antiquity ; and it was 
 suj>ported through the extinction of human 
 feeling, and the contempt of hinnan life. It 
 was not suppressed initil the year 404, or 
 
 * It must he observed that the Pagans on their side 
 
 made the concession of sacrifice, or at least of imino- I 
 
 lalion, which was the centre of their whole system. 1 
 
 They were indnlged with a sort of rolytheism of 1 
 
 saints and martyrs ; and even sensihh; objects of wor- 1 
 
 sliij) were not withheld from them. lint tlu\sc Heinga J 
 
 and Images were to he appioached only with pruyei 1 
 
 and liMpplication ; and if it was presently fomid expe 1 
 
 dient to p(!rmit offcrin^n to he madt; to tin ni, theii I 
 
 shrines were rfvcr contaminaled by thu blood of I 
 
 I victims. I 
 
• PAGAN 
 
 aooiit 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 iiim 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 
 daemons,' 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- 
 aosius II,, published by the latter in 438. 
 15 
 
 WRITERS. li^ 
 
 to reconcile with the principles oi Christian 
 ity tlie 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. ; ai .1 whatever fleeting vestiges we 
 may discover in succeeding reigns, 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 reforme 
 for more than twenty-five years. 
 
 NOTE ON CERTAIN PAGAN W^RITERS 
 
 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 Emperoi*s,' 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 
 1 the singular 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 pei-sonal 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 j>en of a Christian. Be- 
 sides these two works, several epistles ana 
 rescripts are extant which "-^-e of greater his 
 torical importance. 
 
 That Julian's feeling t( yards the Chris 
 tians was not the contempt of a philosonhei 
 
114 HISTORY OF 
 
 but t. I 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 tlie 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 command ; 
 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 Egj'^pt ; the scoun- 
 drel who has dared, and in my reign too, to 
 persecute soroe distinguished Grecian ladies, 
 till they submitted to baptism.' Again, in a 
 decree addressed to the Alexandrians, the 
 Emperor declares, ' that he had recalled the 
 Galilseans, who had been banished by Con- 
 stuntius,* 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 botii 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 Gall- 
 Iseans 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 J severities against 
 tlie persons of 'the Atheists.' 
 
 * In a very kind cpislle to A^aUw?, :i celebrated 
 Arian BiHliop, and formerly hid friend, Julian men- 
 tions the Hamc fact. 
 
 t JlnojifiiiaSai fitvToi Tovq 'JfoatHttg y.ui tiuvv 
 (f^,ui <?«;>. Epintle to ABtabiuH. 
 
 X He HecmH however very readily to have availed 
 hiiiiKcIf of the ofTcnccfl of the CliriMlians, in order to 
 plundfr thcin, and that too with grcwi religiouH im- 
 partiality. In an epistle to Ecebolus he complainH 
 that ilur ArianH of Edc^Hsa, exulting; in their opidencc, 
 had made an asnaidt \\\um (he ValtmtinianN ; and htt 
 addf, * that with a view to aHKint them in effcetnaling 
 ihc innt-uctionM of their own admiraldo law, and lhat 
 thnv mi 'lit more easily travel to the kin;{dom of ilua- 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 tht 
 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 afiectation 
 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 
 (^I(i'o8nyiTn) in every city, for the humui'3 
 pur|)09e of hospitality and charity : ' for it is 
 shameful to us, tliat no beggar should be 
 fomid among the Jews, and that the imi)ious 
 Galiheans should support not only their own 
 poor, hilt ours also ; while these last appear 
 
 veil, he had ordered all the possessions to he taken 
 away from the Chnrch of Edcssa ; di.slril)nlin>T the 
 money among (he HoldierH, and eonfisratinj,' the fixed 
 |)roper(y.' 
 
 * /•';/ *<T(j/f;) » iiDi tidtXdurri /7()i'>iuf To uyukua 
 p. 112. Ed. TariH. 
 
CONVERSION OF 
 
 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- 
 specti^e 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 
 histoiy in the Latin language, and published 
 it with the geuer^ll 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 second 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. 
 
 t Julian is his great hero, and ^onstantine the prin- 
 cipal object of his censure. Respecting the latter, it 
 has been observed, that we may safely believe any evil 
 that lias escaped from Eusehius, and any good that 
 haa been extorted from Zosimus. But tiiese combined 
 
 THE BARBARIANS. 115 
 
 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 is. 
 
 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 mors 
 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 tlje court of 
 Valens in 378, and on his return home he diligently 
 diffused that heresy. It would appear, hoAvever, that 
 his method of seduction was to assure the Goths, that 
 the disputes between the Catholics and Ai wns 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 Gotte avowed their belief, that the Father was 
 greater than the Son ; but they were not yet prepared 
 to affirm that the Son was created — though they con- 
 tinued to communicate with those who held tliat opin* 
 
IKJ HISTORY OF 
 
 tie of the Goths, was difFiising the knowledge i 
 of the Gospel with gi-eat rapiditj^ among tliat 
 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 
 ChristiaKity ; and 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, in her days of warlike triuinph, 
 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 
 cosr.version of so many tribes. That of Clovis, 
 King of the Franks, has obtained the greatest 
 Jiiflorical celebrity, and many of the particu- 
 lars respecting it wear great ai>pearance df 
 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 Rhcims ; but he steadily refus- 
 ed to abandon his hereditary idols on the im- 
 portunity either of the ])rclate 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- 
 einanni, Clovis is related to iiavc raised his 
 weeping eyes to heaven, and exclaimed, 'Je- 
 sus Christ! thou whom Clotilda asserts to be 
 the Son of the living (jod, I iirjplore thy suc- 
 cor. If thou wilt give nu; the victory, I will 
 believe in tiiee, and be baptized in thy name.' 
 
 ion. Fleury, U. E, liv. xvii. soct. 36. Tillom. 
 (Sur IcH ArienH, Art. 132, 133) pronoimcds an eulogy 
 upon virtiicH, in Hpitc of liiH heresy; and yet he 
 uddn, * Voil^ coinnnnt uii lioninic cntraiua dans I'cMifcr 
 cc noMiltro iiifirii dorf Seiptcnlrionaiix, «|ni avcc liii cl 
 apr«-M liii ont vtiAirnnHv I'At iaiiisinc. ' 
 
 ♦ TlioHc wliirli wf! wicrl, toi^etlicr w'itli many otIioiH, 
 arc lelalcd on tlit; aulliority of (ircjfory of Toiu'h, and 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 i At that moment the King of the Alomanii* 
 was slain ; his soldiers imniediately 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 their Prince. The 
 conversion of Clovis took place in 496 ; and 
 though it had not the eflfect 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 Empu*e had embrac- 
 ed without any exception, f the heresy of 
 Arius; Clovis alone adopted the Catholic faith ; 
 and this accident ;we awe 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 establishe 1 
 by Charlemagne. 
 
 The success of the Roman arms during the 
 reign of Justinian, which began about thirty 
 years afier 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, afi:er 
 settling in a conquered province, were dispos- 
 ed long to resist the influence of the Gospel. 
 
 Resi)ecting the natural causes which facil- 
 itated this powerful accession to the body of 
 Christianity from a quarter whence the darkest 
 danger was i)ortended, it is proper to suggest 
 a few brief observations, that we may be en- 
 abled calmly to consider, whether or not they 
 are suflicient to account for the phenomenon 
 
 Hincm. Vita San. Rcinigii. See Fleury, liv. xx>:. 
 sect. 46. 
 
 * Clovis, innncdiatcly after his baptism, made sonn' 
 considerable donations of land to St. Rcmi, wlio ap- 
 plied ihv.m to the use of divers clinrolies, and the foini- 
 dation of the Hisliopric of Laon. Flenry, H. E. bv. 
 XXX., sect. 46. 
 
 I Thrasamond, King of llie Vandals, in Africa; 
 Tlieodoric, of the OslroRoths, in Italy; Alaric, of the 
 Vi-sigotlis, in S))ain; CJondcband, of the Bnrgnndi- 
 any, were all Arians; and, as if to complete tlie he- 
 l<!rodoxy of the princeB of ('hrii^tendom, even Anasta- 
 niiis, tlie Emperor of the Eant, was involved in ti»c 
 Eutychian licrcny 
 
CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 
 
 117 
 
 without the intervention of miraculous assist- 
 an(;o. 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 
 ruh?s 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 
 abato 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- 
 ijpect 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 ,f 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- 
 fully 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 i-espect at 
 least, the natural fruits of their conversion. Socrat. 
 vii., chap. ,30. Fleury, H. E. liv. xxiii., sect. 5. 
 
 t At a Council held at Brague, 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 tlie 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 igi 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 
 careful 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, w^ere obliged by preternatm-al 
 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) w^ere 
 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 
 convinced, that the ^eatest 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 propor- 
 tioned 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 
 cruth 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, th(; changes which were gradually 
 taking f)lar(; within the Church were by no 
 means fav()rai)le to its purity. We have al- 
 ready mentioned tluj copious transfusion of 
 lieatli(;n ceremonies into the Christian wor- 
 «hi|) which had taken place before the end 
 of the fourth century, and^toa certain extent, 
 [)ag;uiize(l (if w<; may so express it) the out- 
 ward form and asj>ect of religion ; those cer- 
 eiiioni(!H b<;rame inon; general and more nu- 
 Mu:rouH, and, ho far as the calamities of the, 
 limes would permit, more sjih-ndid in the 
 age which followed. To console the convert 
 for the loHH of his favorite festival, others, of 
 a different name, but similar Jescriplion, were 
 mtroduced ; and the simple and serious occu- 
 
 ♦ Cent, v., |). 1. , c. 1. 
 
 pation of spiritual devotion was beginning ta 
 degenerate into a worship of parade and de- 
 monstration, or a mere scene of riotous fes- 
 tivity. But, various were the forms assu mea, 
 and numerous the excesses occasioned, by re- 
 ligious corruption ; which was by no othei 
 circumstance more plainly evidenced, or more 
 effectually promoted, than by the growing 
 prevalence of the monastic spirit. 
 
 Symton 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 
 in 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 lake, 
 without risk or difficulty, the diflfercnt ])os 
 lures of devotion. Sometimes, especially on 
 great solemnities, he assumed an erect alti- 
 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 worshij) ; 
 one slender meal in the couree of a week suf- 
 
 **A cuiious spectator (says Gibbon), after num- 
 bering 1244 repetitions, at length desisted from the 
 endless account.' Tlieodorit, who had fretiuently 
 seen and conversed with him, wrote an account of 
 his life during its continuance. That author himself 
 entertained some doubts as to the crcdii)ility of hil 
 narration : ' altlu)Ugh (says lu<) I liavc for my wit- 
 nesses, if I may so express my.self, every man in ex- 
 istence, yet 1 fear that to jjosterity my account may 
 appear a groiujdlesH fal)le ; for what is passing hero 
 is ab(xve lunnanity, and men are wont to proportion 
 tlieir l»clief to llie |)owerH of nature, and all whk'h sur- 
 passes those l)o(nidaries appears falseliood to sucli 
 are not familiar w' h things divine.' ye(* Kleurv* 
 i \\\ xxix., Bcct. 9. 
 
INTERNAL CO.NDriHUN UK TUK CHURCtl. 
 
 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 th<i 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 feehngs par- 
 taking of adoration. Nor are we, in any de- 
 gree, sin-prised 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 ; + 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 i)er- 
 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 a)id 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 tiie Catholic church. 
 
 t (iibbon, chap, xxxvii. Fleury, liv. xxix. sect. 
 9. The Emperor Marcian is also said to have in- 
 dulged his curiosity by a secret visit to the Holy Pil- 
 lar, in the throng of his miserable subjects. 
 
 history of tb Roman See to the middle of 
 the fifth ceniury, 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 j)romoted 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 presentedP 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; ana, 
 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 ann. 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 
 pel iod it had been usual for all Christians to direct 
 tiieir prayers to the East ; but as this form was with 
 the Manichfeans essential, with the orthodox only 
 matter of ceremony, he directed the latter to discon- 
 tinue the practice, in order that the perverse miglit 
 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 ista districtio ecclesiasticae lenitati, quee, etsi 
 sacerdotali coutenta judicio cruentas refugit ultiones, 
 severis tamen Christianorum principum constitution- 
 ibus adjuvatur, dum ad spirituale nonnunquam rer ii- 
 runt remedium, qui timent corporale supplicium ' 
 
i20 
 
 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, 
 mdeed, 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 power,f 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,J 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 me 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 po\¥er, 
 the indolence and the absence of the Empe- 
 rors, left little civil control over the authority 
 if the Bishop who presided in the imperial 
 
 * One hundred and forty-one Epistles and ninety- 
 six Sermons still remain to us, though several of botli 
 are lost. Upon the whole they indicate great talents, 
 and an improved and exercised mind. Respecting 
 \heir genuineness, see Dupin, t. iii. p. 2. 
 
 fiMosh. cent, v., p. ii., c. ii. 
 
 X Held in 451. The substance of the enactment is 
 ns follows : — ' That the Fathers did reasonably accord 
 its (irivilfges to Ancient Rome, because it was the 
 imperial city; and for the same reason the hundred [ 
 and fifty Bishops here assembled have decided that 
 \ew Rome, whicii is honored with the empire and , 
 the senate, shall iiave the same advantages with An- ji 
 i;if'ril R')me in the ecclesiasliral constitution, and be , 
 the aecond after it* — meaning, o!)viously, that the 1 
 two Sees were to be inde|)(!nflenl in power and e(|ual 
 in privilege ; but that in rank and precedence the su- 
 periority wa» due to the nioro ancient. This Canon 
 ti.iH given birlh to the most voluminoiiH contentions, j 
 Fleury, liv. xxviii. nact. 30. liaron. arm. 451. ji 
 Sect, 148. 
 
 § Home F<piMtlf<« arc ntill extant, nddresMcil by St. 
 Ix^o to ihf! EmjMrror Tlieodosius, on the Hiibject of the 
 KsiJ«irTii coritrovcrnieM. i 
 
 |! city ; and the incursions and triumphs of the 
 1 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 toi the hierarchy, while they 
 courted tlie 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 ministei-s 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 
 Churchman, might coimterbalancc 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 
 indivichial imperfection to the torture of pri- 
 vate iiKiuisitioii uiul scrutiny, — Leo the Creat 
 liad indeed tlie glory of laying the first and 
 corner-stone of the Pai)al 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 wouid never have 
 been formed. 
 
 ♦Cent. V. p. 2. rh. iv. The epistle containing thil 
 ftrdinanre is the l.*{6lh, addressed (on March 6, 459) 
 to the Hishop of the March of Ancona and Abru/.zo 
 Dupin, N<iuv. HibliotJi. lorn. iii. par ii. 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 121 
 
 Justmian. 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 
 ir. 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- j 
 sion of civil power, are sufficient to restrain 1 
 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 J 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. j 
 
 \ The trumpet of Gibbon (upon the whole a humane ! 
 historian) is too often and too loudly sounded in cele- i 
 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. 
 
 t 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 heretics, excit- 
 ed and justified their rebellion; and it was not sup- 
 press^jd without horrible carnage. On the other hand, 
 he exerted himself with equal vigor against various 
 form« of impiety and immorality (Fleury, liv. xxxii , 
 Q 
 
 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 G*eneral Council (assembled at Con- 
 stantinople during his reign) conferred upon 
 hi-m 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 11 
 able to corruption ; and this divided Oriental 
 Christians into the two sects of Corruptibles 
 and Incorruptibl.es. 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 Constantine, 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 com 
 
 sect. 27.); and was no less zealous in the conversion 
 of the Heruli and other barbarian tribes to the belief 
 in the Gospel, tlian in oppressing all who did not in- 
 terpret that Gospel as he did. 
 
 * The history of Henry VIII. of England fm-nishea 
 an instance at first sight very similar to this 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 plete llie 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 Theodosian Code;* it may suf- 
 fice to say, that they extended to ahnost 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 excce- 
 catos Judoeos, Sainaritas, Paganos, et ccetera hcereti- 
 corum genera portentorum audere cognoscimiis'? Quod 
 si ad sanitatem mentis egregio legum edicto revocare 
 coneinur, severitatis culpam ipsi prajstabunt; qui du- 
 rae frontis obstinato piaculo locum venias non relin- 
 quunt. Quamobrem, cum sententia veleri desperatis 
 morbis nulla sit abhibenda curatio, tandem, ne ferales 
 sectse in vitani, immemores nostri sosculi velut indis- 
 creta confiisione, licentius evagentur, hac victura in 
 omne cBvum lege sancimus — Neminem Judseum, nem- 
 inem Sainaritam, neutra lege constantem, ad honores 
 et dignitates accedere; nuUi administrationem patere 
 civilis obsequii, nee defensoris fungi saltern officio. 
 Nefas quippe credimus, ut supernje majestati et Ro- 
 manis legibus inimici, ultoresque etlani nostrarum le- 
 gum surreptivic jurisdictionis habeantur obtentu et 
 acquisitse dignitatis auctoritate muniti adversum 
 Christianos, et ipsos plerumque sacra? Religionis 
 Antistites, velut insultantes fidei nostra; judlcandi vel 
 pronuntiandi quid velintj liabeant potestatem, &c. 
 Again: — Hinc prospicit nostra Clementia Paganorum 
 quoque et gentilium immanitates vigiliam nostram de- 
 bere sortiri, qui natural! vesania et licentia pertinaci 
 religionis tramite dissidentcs nefarlos sacrificiorum 
 ritus occultis exercere quodauunodo solitudinibus 
 desigiiantur — quos non promulgatarum legum mille 
 terrores, non denuntiati exitii p iMia compescant, ut 
 81 emendari non possint mole saltern criminum et il- 
 luvie victimarum discerent abstinere. Sed prorsus 
 ea furoris pcccatur audacia, &c. &c. Leg. Novell. 
 Div. Tlieod. A. lib. These enactments of the first, 
 confirmed by the second Thcodosius, are in every 
 sense barbarous. 
 
 f ' Summa exploratione rimetur, ut, quicunque in 
 UDum Pa.«(:h;n diem non obse(|uenli religione convene- 
 rint, talcH indubitanter, (|ualo8 hac lege danmamuH, 
 halwantur.' ThiHHcoms to have been l(;v<-ll(!d against 
 the remaiuH of the (tnartadecimans. The Kncratites, 
 8accophori, and HyilroparaHtatrr*, are the namcH 
 which are threatened ' HUinmo Hupplicio et inexpi- 
 abili p'fna.' A law waf also enacted to prevent the 
 mectitigs of tin: TaHCodragita' — a denominalion of pcr- 
 ■onu ' who nia(l(; their [)rayerH inwardly and t<il(!ntly, 
 comprccHii)^ their wm'M and lipo with their hanilM, IcHt 
 any Moiitid tihoiild trauHpire.' Hasnage, iii. 82. Jor- 
 tin, vol. iv. ad ami. ."Wl. That any danger (tither t«) 
 (^lurch or State could fo • itn inxlaut have Ixjon ap- 
 
 pose of unmasking them. It has i)een 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 plea as 
 may be found for him in the penal system 
 ]treviously 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 maiiifest 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, arc 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 ])rogress 
 of science and the increased knowledge of 
 man, and it ni)i)lied that knowledge with im- 
 mortal succ(>ss to history as well as philoso- 
 j)hy ; but fi om the reign of Antoninus to that 
 of Diocletian the fall was sudden and precip- 
 itate. In the barren records of th(; third cen- 
 tury we find no names of good, few even of 
 
 prchended from Buch abject and pitiful cntiiusiaain 
 might have been pronounced imposNible, if the history 
 of |)crm!('uti()n iti every age, howsoever nuxlified and 
 divgiiiscd by liuu; and rircuniHtance, did not inceS' 
 snntly ulttHt it to \ic both credible and probable. 
 
DECLINE OF 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 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- 
 giwning 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 affoct 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 
 causes of singular phsenomena, 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 
 
 ♦ Tlie 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 certJiin extent, hostile, their ultimate operation 
 was certainly to invigorate and renovate. Some of 
 the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries write 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 rule ; 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 itsi 
 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 tht* 
 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 Athenian philosphers by 
 Justinian. 
 
 During the second period, Constantino, 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. 
 
 hJd, 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 Chiistian 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 ordinance 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 
 Eudden defection, and of the darkness which 
 followed it, are two : the first of these, which 
 alone perhaps might gradually have complet- 
 ed tlie 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 
 
 ♦ Tlu; colohi atod Canon in question appears in the 
 midst of several otiicrs, generally respecting tlic epis- 
 copal oflice and duties: tlicir substance is as follows — 
 the* liisliop slif)uld have a small residence near the 
 cluirch; his furniture should be of small price, and his 
 table poorly supplied ; he shoidd sustain his dignity by 
 liis faith and his holy life; he shall read no profane 
 bookit, nor those of the heretics, Jinless by necessity. 
 He shall take no concern in the execution of wills, 
 nor any care of his domestic sifTairs, nor plead for any 
 temporal intercHts. He shall not himself take charge 
 cither of thr; widows, orjjhans, or strangers, but cotn- 
 mil that oflice to the chief priest — he shall have no 
 other orrupalion than reading, prayer and preaching. 
 He nhall |M-rform no ordinations without the counsel 
 of liiH clergy, and the consent of the people.' Sec 
 FIrury, Iiv. xx., sect, xxxii. We are not to suppose 
 that thr; above canons were every where received, or 
 pcrha[m i^triclly 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 
 mcreased 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 conunonly 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 
 imi)ostin-o which it might be expedient to 
 practice upon them. Such were the mate- 
 rials of Christian literature dm'ing the liffh 
 and sixth centuries, and such they continuc(J 
 with very little alteration uiuil the eleventh 
 
 Kdirt of Justinian. Souk^ renuiants of iho 
 philosophy of anci(;iit (irrecct} still lingtT' d at 
 Alliens ; und a few degcinerato descenduntH 
 
 * Mosh., cent v., p. xi., c i 
 
MORALITY. 
 
 125 
 
 ot Plato, Aristotle or Zeno, still exhibited in 
 their half deserted schools the shadow of the 
 lore of former ages. Tiiose teachers had 
 been encouraged by M. Antoninus and Ju- 
 lian, and tolerated by the Christian Emperors, 
 and 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 
 tlieir 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 befo]*e 
 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 
 ilius 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- 
 lignity 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 triumpli, 
 more efl^ectually inflicted, at least our com 
 passion for the sufferer is diminished by th« 
 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 whicn 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 huraa i 
 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, 
 and too little to the unceasing moveme* i ai2d 
 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 perhapa 
 with rather more probability) to the decision of the 
 fifth General Council, by which some of the opinions 
 of Origeiij who was a New Platonician, vere 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 
 ai'e 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 weaUh, 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- 
 sidis which we should recollect that it is at 
 least as common an effect of wealth to en- 
 l;u-ge ai d exalt, as to debase, the character 
 of its pDSsessor. 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 
 8o 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 
 Moslieirn clla^gcs that order, f And there- 
 fore, without advo cating its perfect moral y)U- 
 
 * Moslieim, cent, vi., p. ii., c. ii. 
 
 f • \VIicik;c so many laws to restrain the vices and 
 preserve the morals of tlie occlesiaatical orders, if tliey 
 had fulfilled even the obligations of external decency, 
 or shown, in the general tenor of their conduct, a cer- 
 tain degree of res|H;ct for religion or virtnc. Be that 
 a>: it will, the cflTects of all these laws and edicts were 
 so iii'^onsiderahle as to be lianily perceived ; for so 
 liigli was the veneration paid at this time to the cler- 
 gy, that their most Hagitious rrinics were corrected 
 by the slightest and goiitlest pnnisliuKints : an nnhappy 
 circumbtance, which added to their presninption, and 
 rcndfMcrl them more daring and audacious in iniquity.' 
 Thexe are Mosheim's words ; and Home will think 
 that they carry their own confutation with them. 
 At leant we may Haf<:ly believe, that the flagrant of- 
 feiiccf) of a few notorious individuals have been dark- 
 ly reflected n|»on the whole body ; and Hurli Itiis 
 been the minfortunc of the Cliristian pricsthoud 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, oven*un 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 estal)lishment 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 tht> 
 once victorious Rome to be a prey to barbari- 
 ans.* This foolish delusion was immediately 
 and succ(;ssftdly combated by the eloquence 
 of St. Augustin. In his noble composition, 
 * The City of God,' f ho confuted the error 
 
 ♦ Fleury, II. E., liv. xxiii., ecct. vii. 
 
 fTlic 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 fir^t aro 
 d(;vot(!d to the confutation of the various errors of 
 raganinm, ond among otherfl of that which we havn 
 now mentioned ; while the twelve lust establish tliA 
 truth of Christianitv. 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS. 
 
 127 
 
 by irrefragable auguments, and conclusive 
 appeals to the evidence of profane history ; 
 and inculcated the more reasonable opinion, 
 tnat 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 Carthage 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 city. ' It seemed as if the inhab- 
 itants had entirely taken leave of reason — the streets 
 were filled with drunkards crowned with flowers and 
 perfuiries, 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 th.e extreme of impu- 
 dence. The orphans and widows were oppressed, 
 and t'i2 poor were tortured to such despair, that they 
 prayed God to deliver the city to the barbarians. 
 Blaspliemies, 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), tiie 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 corrupt^n of Christians to have 
 been the cause of their chastisement. Baronius adds 
 * another reason — the prevalence of heresy. At the 
 year 412, he asserts — Barbari praevalent ubi. hoareses 
 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 opposi te, 
 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 perferinuis mutari tempo- 
 rum vices irata cxli temperie; quce Paganorum ex- 
 acerbata perfidia, nescit natura; libramenta servare. 
 Unde enim ver solitam gratiam abjuravitl Unde a;st- 
 as messe jejuna laboriosum agricolam in spe destituit 
 aristaruin 1 Unde intemperata ferocitas ubertatem ter- 
 rarum penetrabili frigore sterilitatis l^sione damnavit 
 — nisi <.]uod ad impietatis vindictam transit lege sua 
 natura; decretum'? Quod ne posthac sustinere cogam- 
 ur, pacifica ultione, ut diximus, pimda est supremi 
 lUMiinis veneranda luaj'-stas.' 
 
 NOTE ON CERTAIN ECCLESIASTICAL WRIT- 
 ERS OF TIIE 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 v/ith 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 oflen 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 antiquity ,f and contains some 
 valuable facts not elsewhere recorded ; but it 
 is still more remarkable for an attempt to 
 
 * Epist. 13, addressed to Paulinus, Bishop of Nola 
 See Dupin, Nouvelle Biblioth. Vie de Lactanco 
 The Institutions were dedicated to Constantine, proAa- 
 bly during the conclusion of the last persecution (be- 
 tween 306 and 311), and may possibly have influmccd 
 his religious opinions. 
 
 t Probably published about 315. 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 128 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 JVazianzus, 
 was born about 320. He was animated by a 
 strong natiu-al love for literary and religious 
 seclusion, and a disinclination to ecclesiastical 
 dignities, of wliich we are compelled to ac- 
 knowledge the sincerity, though it so happen- 
 ed that he occupied, in succession, the sees 
 of Sasimi, 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 
 Churclies, 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 he 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. 
 
 TlK-re 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 arc the third and fourth,' 
 which are directed against the Emperor Ju- 
 lian. In the seventeendi discourse, delivered 
 on the occasion of some seditious disturbances 
 at Na/ianzus, in i)resenting himself as a me- 
 diator between the people and tin; civil officer, 
 he (!xalls the authority of the Cliurrli in very 
 lofty I.Miiiruage. He tlnis addresses the Gov- 
 ernor of tlx; city: 'tlu; law of (Christ sul))('cts 
 you to my power and to my pulpit ; for ours 
 is the authority— an authority greater and 
 more excellent than that which you poss«!ss, 
 unleHH, indeed, spirit is to be subject unto 
 
 •n« was niijtfd to a Bharc of thin Sco, an a kind 
 v( Coadjutor in liii* fatlier,and on Wm <li;ath fled U om 
 thftcily, !<-> tin; nndiviil< d rcHpontiihility Hlioiild then 
 Ix; f(jrt < <l ii|)<in liim. 
 
 flesh, and heaven unto earth : * you command 
 with Jesus Christ ; it is He witn 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 frienHship 
 with St. Basil, the founder of oriental mon- 
 achism ; and the brother of St. Basil was 
 another Gregory, Bishop of JVyssa, in 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 Neocre- 
 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 wa^ born in Gaul, about the 
 year 340, of Roman and noble parents ; f 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 
 
 * Diipin, a liberal Catliolio, tliiows into his trans- 
 lation of this passage the words Church and Princes^ 
 neillicr of which came from the lips of Gregory. 
 
 f It should l)c observed, tiiat in his sixth Discourse 
 (delivered l)efore Gregory of Nyssa) he exalts the hon- 
 or of the martyrs, and even attributes to them the of- 
 fice of mediators. 
 
 X I)u|)in, Nouv. Biblioth. Vio St. Ambrose. 
 While the infant was one day sleeping in his father's 
 palace, a Hwarni of hvv.s 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 si own n» 
 disincrmalion to adopt tlie 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 
 pci"Son to compose the disorders. The peo- 
 I>.e were assembled in the principal church, 
 and tliere 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 
 sUght ; 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 
 tne age of 34. His first act was to make over 
 the whole of his ])roperty 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 Fleury, liv. xvii., sect, xxi., he. 
 
 17 
 
 accuse him t)f having wantonly mflamed it. 
 The empress Justinia, the widow of Valen- 
 tinian, was an Arian, together with her sol- 
 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 tfie 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- 
 tinctions 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. 
 
 4: 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 Syramachus. 
 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 Qods ; 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.' Eoistle 17 
 
J30 HISTORY OF 
 
 ed upon the boldness with wRich Gregory 
 Nazianzen proclaimed (about eighteen yeai-s 
 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 ela[)3ed, ere 
 
 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 literarj'^ 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 asseitor 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 afiirmcd 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 
 oflice.s of the ministry ; and after edifying his 
 native city for eighteen years by the most an- 
 imating instructioiiH, he was at once exalted, 
 without solicitation, and even against his pro- 
 fessed wish, to th(! S(;e of Constaiitino|)le. 
 Chrysostom carried with him to that danger- 
 ous eminence not only the fervor of Christ- 
 inn (doquence, but the severity of monastic 
 virtue ; and he thought it litth; to move tin; 
 afTfctions and raisf; th(; admiration of iiis au- 
 dirnc*', indcsH |je could reach their praclici! 
 and rjiH'll tln'ir vices. Had he confuicd his 
 exhortations to iIm^ mass of iIk; people, In; 
 would havf! produced lews eA'cct perhaps, 
 
 * I 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 but he would have excited no odium — bu 
 the intrepid and earnest orator rose in his 
 vehement denunciations from the people to 
 the clergy, and from the clergy to the cour^ 
 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,f 
 no less than against the vices and sc£\ndals 
 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 naturallj^. 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 the populac^ 
 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 efliectual ; I and after a tumultuous rule 
 of six years, Chrysostom w^as 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- 
 no])le, and his name assumed an eminent 
 place among the saints of the Church ; and 
 it is proper to add, that the justice, which 
 
 ' ' ' 5 
 
 * Eudoxiii, after failing in her first attcmfjt to dis- 
 place Chrysofiloin, renewed her hostilities ; and it was 
 then (hat the Bishop delivered the sermon (if indeed 
 he did at a!l deliver it) beginning with the celebrated 
 words — ' Herodias is again furious ; Hermlias again 
 dances ; she once again requires tlie head of St. John 
 * An insolent allusion, (says CJibbon,) 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* 
 qiicnce and fairness. 
 
 t In his visitation through the Afiatic provinces h« 
 deposed thirteen I5isho|)fl of I-ydia and I'hrygia, ani 
 passed a very severe cen8ur<r upon the whoh; order. 
 
 J Still his expulsion was not efll-eted without pop- 
 ular commotions, which \v.<\ to the conflagration of lha 
 prin(-i|).il ehtirch and the adjoining palace. 
 
ECCLESlAtSTlCAb WKITERS. 
 
 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 is 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 w^hich 
 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 superstitions 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 ; ^hile in another passage, 
 where he affirms the real presence, he also 
 (and incidentally) asserts that the nature of tha 
 bread is not changed. Upon the whole, it is 
 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 tliey embraced the most 
 characteristic and striking particulars of their pri- 
 vate, as well as public, conversation, their writings 
 and their doctrine. 
 
 t The commentator on Virgil and Terence. 
 
 X In his twenty-second letter, in order to divert his 
 correspondent (Eustochium) from the study of profane 
 authors, St. Jerome recounts, that formerly, during 
 the access of a violent fever, he had been dragged iw 
 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 foi-bidden to read them more. Moreover^ 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 3^ 
 
 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 
 Vv'as still chiefly confined to the Eastern 
 world, he bade adieu to hi§ native hills, to his 
 hereditary property, to pontifical Rome her- 
 self, and transferred his library, his diligence, 
 tid hi^ enthusiasm, to a convent at Bethle- 
 hflu a retreat so well qualified to nour- 
 ish ^t.-/gious emotion even in the most tor- 
 pid heart, the zeal of Jerome did not slumber, 
 KfTit rather seemed to catch fresh fire from 
 ihe objects and the recollections which sur- 
 rounded him. From that wild and awful 
 »bode 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, Jovinian 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 
 
 lie assures Eusiochium, tlmt that story is no dream, 
 and invokes the licavcnly tribunal before which he 
 had appeared, to attest his veracity. See Duphin, 
 Nouv. Bibl., vie S. Jerome. 
 
 * St. Jerome died in the year 420. 
 
 t In the meantime St. Jerome was not himself 
 exempt from error, and sucii too as called for the 
 reprehension even of St. Augustin. 'Ilio former 
 »omewhere expresses an opinion, tiiat tiie dilTereiicc 
 between St. Paid and St. I'eter, d','Hcril)ed in the 
 A(.tn, was not real, but only feijjned — for pious pur- 
 poten; an opinion wlii(-li tlie Hishop of Hippo most 
 justly ( ondemn-i as of very dangerous conse(iuence. 
 
 But while we censure both the superstitioua 
 and contentious spirit of St. Jerome, we must 
 also recollect how great a compensation he 
 made for evils thus occasioned, by his grea; 
 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 Latin Church, f 
 
 As the name of Athanasius more properly 
 belongs to the Arian controvei-sy, 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 
 nimicrous and obscure associates whom we 
 have no space to notice, may apply, though 
 with diflTercnt degrees of confidence, to the 
 compilations of Lardncr, 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 concluHive reasoning; and thus it continued in hon- 
 or for about six hundred years, until the patience of 
 time at lenglli falsified it. 
 
 ♦ Dupin, Nouv. liibliotli., loc. cit. 
 
 t Of all the works of St. Jerome, his * Catalogue 
 of Ecclesiastical Writers' is that which ]m now moKt 
 fre(|ucutly 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- 
 nonians,— 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 GEcumenic 
 Bishop — Power of the Keys — Apocrisiarii and Defen- 
 Bores— 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 m Britain, when it 
 was suddenly swept away, with the language 
 itself, by the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons 
 111 452, 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 Berthg^ daughter of the King of Pa- 
 ris, a Christian. Some clergy appear 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 trreat miracles among that i 
 
 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 intei*preter. 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 gi'adually emerged from the rudest 
 barbarism into a condition of comparative 
 civilisation, and that the principles and mo- 
 tives of Christianity extended their salutaiy 
 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 
 
 HISTORY Ol THE CHURCH. 
 
 supremacy of Rome, not only over Lis own 
 converts, but also over that faithful portion 
 wlio still maintained among the Cambrian 
 mountains the doctrine and practice trans- 
 mitted from their forefathers. It appeal's in- 
 deed that those simple believei-s 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 
 Quartadecimans ; 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 
 rhem 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- 
 
 * Joiliii (Eccl. Hist., vol. iv., p. 417) says, ' The 
 Cliristianity whicli 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 GoJ, the Pope, 
 and to Austin, iiis deputy and vicegerent. Such were 
 the boasted blessings and l)enefits which we received 
 from ihe mission and ministry of this most audacious 
 and insolent monk.' Tliis is passionate and unjust 
 abuse. St. Austin was indeed the missionary of a 
 Ff/j*) — but his conversion of the mass of the inhab- 
 itants of this island was perf(;ctly in(lep(!n«lent of his 
 endeavors to bring over to the (.'luncii 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 tw(;lvc hundred tnonks of IJangor 
 If very fairly stated by Fulk-r ; and it s«-ems upon tin.' 
 whole probabk', that the event took place after the 
 death of St. Austin. But at any rate the crime was 
 connnitted in the heat of battle, apparently wilh 
 out design nr premrdilation — so that it is absurd to 
 rharpfe it upon a iMrrsoti, who, even if he was living, 
 Wiu certainly not present at the Hcene. 
 
 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 th6 Roman em 
 pire.* In the year 715, Winfrid,f 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 Apostle 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 Friescland,§ 
 
 * Fleury (1. jtxxviii., sect. Iviii.) mentions three 
 monasteries as having been founded at Touruay and 
 Client about the middle of the seventh century. 
 
 t We are not to confound this missionary w ith St. 
 Wilfrid, another Englishman, who also gained some 
 reputation both in France and at Rome, fronj 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. 
 
 4^ Mosheiin, Cent, viii., p. i.,c. i. Milner takes 
 great pains to exculpate Boniface from the vaii- 
 ous charges of violence, arrogance, fraud, &c. , whiih 
 Mosheim very liberally heaps upon him, and to pro%e 
 him, from his own correspondence, to have been 
 a mere pious, unambitious missionary. There is 
 some reason in the defence ; and Mosheim ma) 
 very probably have been prejudiced against Boniface 
 by that aVisolute 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 
 liadbod, the King of the Frieselanders, retarded the 
 progress of the new religion- That Prince was 
 standing at the baptismal f.mt, prepared f )r the ecre- 
 ,„„„y — only «nie point remained, respecting which 
 his curiosily was si ill unsatisfied — * Tell me,' said ho 
 to the holy Bishop, ' where is now tlie greater num- 
 ber of the Kin/s and I'cinces of the nation of the 
 ' Frlescluiiders — are they in the rai adisc which you 
 
EXTERNAL F0RTUM!:S Oir CHRISTIANITY. 13^ 
 
 that he might terminate liis labors where he 
 had begun them, he was massacred by the 
 savage inhabitants, togetiier with fifty eccle- 
 siastics who attended him. (a. d. 755.) 
 
 To the eighth century we may also refer 
 the introduction of Christianity among the 
 Tartars, the inhabitants of those regions which 
 now constitute the southern Asiatic provinces 
 oi' 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 ^narked 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 ihi\t 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 jj 
 me V ' Do not deceive yourself,' replied St. Vulfran ; 
 *lhe Princes, your predecessors, who liave died without 
 baptism, are most assuredly damned; but whosoever 
 shall believe henceforward, and be baptised, shall be 
 in joy eternal witli Christ Jesus.' Upon this Radbod 
 withdrew his foot from the font and said — ' I cannot 
 resolve 10 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 willjfather adhere to the ancient usages 
 of my nation.' It was not until after the death of this 
 Frince 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 in 
 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 fiite 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» 
 of the Euxine 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 j)romoted 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 theii 
 desertion, was with many the suggestion of 
 
136 HISTORY OF 
 
 their malice : tliat besides the recollection of 
 wrongs, and tlie 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 diflTerences are most trifling ; and 
 which, while it exaggerated the lines that 
 separated them from their 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 frons 
 the native Moors, litde 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 711 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 Danjas- 
 cusand Saniarcaiul ; and the south of France, 
 from the mouth of the G.-ironnn to that of the 
 Rhone, assumed the; manners and religion of 
 Arabia.'* Still diHsatisfi(;d with those ample 
 
 ♦Gibbon haa not compoBcd a more eloquent, or a 
 Icflfl philoHopliiral chnpter, tlian lii.s Hfly-firsf . As if ho 
 were bliiirlcd by llic Hpi«!n(l(>r of tlu; IMahoinclaii con- 
 (pieHtH, lie ovorlookn, not only the niiwry innnedialcly 
 oceaHioncd by tluMii, but their fatal inlliience on the 
 projfrexHije and permanent iniprovenieiit of man. 
 IIinlory ix philoHophy leaehinj^ by exuin|)le ; and the 
 le«<H(iim of hiMtr»ry are lh(!n, indeed, noble and proflt- 
 llde, anrl llurii oidy, when philoHopliy ranLs auay her 
 pride and her pedantry, and condcsceiidH to rise into 
 |iliilanthroDhy 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 limits, or impatient of any limit, these cml- 
 dren of the desert again marched fox ward in- 
 to th^ 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 fieids 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 hi$ 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 ti e 
 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 Saraoens 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 i)resently ended in tlie 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, ami the 
 greater i)art 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 pro|)agation of their religion 
 fiirnishcd to all the pretext, and to many the 
 sincero motive, of aggression ; and as the 
 
 ♦(Jibbon, c. lii. Koderic Toletan. c. xiv., tilcni 
 Anstri;p lucmbrornm pre-eminentia valida, et gens 
 (lermana cordc v.l rorpore pra-Ftaiflis.sima, (pia.si iu 
 ictu oeidi manu ferrea el pectore arduo Arabe« ex 
 tinxerunt. 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITV. 
 
 137 
 
 most violent jieans were not forbidden by 
 llieir law, and as religious wars are seldom 
 dir»tinguished 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 
 jnen, 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 tlie actual extinction of Christianity 
 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 Maliometans drew a broad distinction be- 
 tween those infidels who had a Book of faith, and 
 those who had none. Among the former they placed 
 the disciples of Zoroaster, and therefore showed them 
 great mercy — but they had no compassion on the 
 Pnaan. 
 
 18 
 
 Arabian, and that he imitated the fury of his 
 armed apostles ; and, as if Christianity liad 
 not already sufficiently suffered by adof ting 
 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 the}- 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. 
 
i38 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ing; but it is certain that there are many 
 secondary names and many occurrences of 
 mere temporary importance, wliich may be 
 consigned to silence without any danger to 
 tlie integrity and usefuhiess 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 
 msults * 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 Greed. Two prominent vices 
 overshadowed and counteracted the nume- 
 rous excellences of Gregory — superstition 
 , and ambition. For the former of these some 
 excu=;e 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 
 natiu-e 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, asaffi3Ct- 
 ed, that humility which preferred the cloister 
 to the chair of St. Peter, and so long rejected 
 the proffi'red 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 
 sincern, though often misdirected, devotion. 
 The exfrcMne severity of his moral practice 
 has not been contested, nor his honest en- 
 
 * * Pope nro;Tory the Grciit, called St. Gregory, 
 was rermtrkal)l(; for many tluiiga ; for exaltin|^ his 
 own mithority, for riuiiiinj doun human learning and 
 polite literature, for bin ning classic aiitliors, for pat- 
 ronr/.iiig ignorance and Htupirlity, for persecuting 
 heretic."*, for flattering tho most execrable princes, 
 and for i elating a multitude (*f alisurd, moristrouB and 
 ridiculous lies, called miracles. He was an ambi- 
 tious, in-^olrnt Prelate, under the mask of huyiility.' 
 Jorfiu, ReruarkH, vol. iv., p. 403. Most, though by 
 uo means all, of the al>ove charges are Inic ; but tlx; 
 connler|Ktise of good and powerfid (jualitics is left 
 almosr enfiiely uiuioticcd t)y their atuhor. 
 
 \ Harou. :inii. 590, sect. vii. &.c. &c. 
 
 deavors to enforce the same practice m every 
 rank and order of his clergy. Circumstances, 
 political as well as religious, had. introduced 
 abuses into the system of ecclesia.stical 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 adtninister 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 
 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 
 suflferers 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 Bish' 
 think that reading and preaching alone sui 
 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 i)risoners 
 from captivity, and to alleviate their suffer 
 inga during it. 
 
 lit; was diligent in his cflTorts to ])ropagato 
 the Catholic faith. His most important spirit 
 nal con(iu<'st was that of FiUgland ; and if it 
 be a reproach to him that lui there permitted 
 the first converts to retain, under oth(>r names 
 
 * Se(! Haroniiis, ann. 55)1, sect, iii xxiv. &c, ; ann 
 592, sect, ii.; ann. 59fi,sect. viii. Fleury, I • xxxv 
 secL xvi. (Jibl)on, cha|). xl\. 
 
 t I. ill. v., I'pist. 29, apud Maron. ann. 592, ewrt 
 I xvi. 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 139 
 
 ihe 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 J was 
 another favorite object with him ; and in one 
 respect he adopted the most promising means 
 for tliat 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 /)n 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 religioPi, found 
 some excuse in the degenerate principles of 
 the sixth century. 
 
 Through the disturbed condition of Italy, 
 the aggi-essions 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 apjjears not that he sought that charge, so 
 eagerly gi-asped 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 destriiantur, relliquicB ponantur. He 
 allows even sacrifices on Saints days — substituting, 
 however, a convivial, for a superstitious, motive — nec 
 diabolo tam aniinalia immolent, sed ad laudem Dei 
 in esu suo aninialia occidant, &c. Baron, ann. 601. 
 xxii. 
 
 t Fleury, H. E., lib. xxxv., sect. xxi. He com- 
 plains of immolations to idols, vv'orship of trees, sac- 
 rifices of the heads of animals, &c. — Quia pervenit ad 
 .los quod multi Christianorum et ad Ecclesias occur- 
 rant, et (quod dici nefas est) a culturis doemonum non 
 discedant. See Baron, ann. 597. xviii. 
 
 X Baron, ann. 594, sect. viii. ann. 59S, sect. xiv. 
 
 § The subject of the fifth General Council. One 
 of these schismatics, named Stephanus, came to Rome, 
 and offered to Gregory to return to the Church, if the 
 Bishop would take upon himself tlie risk of his sotil, 
 and intercede with God as his sponsor and fidejussor, 
 that his return to the Catholic Church, should be 
 Banctioned in Heaven ; which Gregory undertook 
 without any hesitation — quod Gregoriusminime facere 
 «ij»ctatus 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 tliat 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 ;| 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 nec regem, nec duces, nec comites 
 habuisset, atque in summa confusione esset divisa. 
 Sed quia Deum timeo, in mortem cujuslibet homin- 
 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. 
 
 I ' Disciplinis vero liberalibus, hoc est grammatica, 
 rhetorica, dialectica, ita a puero est institutus, ut 
 quamvis eo tempore florerent adhuc Romse studia lit- 
 erarum, tamen nuUi 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 ligliton tiie early History of his Church. Baro- 
 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 die thirteertll 
 Chapter. 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 the Eastern Church. Serenus, the Bishop 
 of Marseilles, caused some of them to be re- 
 mo »'ed, 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 ])ossibly 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 waiuing to make it permanent and 
 uni versa.. 
 
 The belief in tne 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- 
 stantina, 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 
 ijegins his answer l)y 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 hapi)y memory, wished to 
 chang(; some silver ornament which was 
 placed over the most lioly body of St. Peter, 
 
 ♦ Baronius, ann. 592, sect. xix. 
 
 t HaroniiiH, wlio cites tho Popo'H rop]y whh con- 
 nifl(!r:jl)lfi admiral ion, attril)iitf!H tlx; KiiiprosH'B rxor- 
 bitaiit rff|tift«l to ErrloHiaHtiral ambition, — to a desire 
 ♦o pxalt tlio See of ConHtantinfipIc to a level \villi 
 that of Rome, l)y fjetlinjf into lier pt>HHeHHi()ii ho im- 
 porUuit a portion of ho ((rent an Aponlle. I'leiiry 
 (jnofen tlie letter < liietly in proof that llie trau$ft r 
 of relicH wiiH forbidden in the Rfiman (^linrrli, while 
 Uvit ahime ""is i«Tmitl«;<l in the KaHt. 
 
 though at the distance of almost fifteen feet^ 
 a warning of no small terror ajipeared 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 tomb; 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 
 ndght 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 hrandeum\ 
 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 toucFi 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 
 faithftd came from the East to claim them ? 
 liut when they liad carried them out of the 
 city, to tho second milestone, to a place called 
 the Catacombs, the whole multitude was un- 
 abl(^ to move them farther, — such a temi)est 
 ()l'thim(l(!r and liglitnitig terri(i«'d and dispers- 
 vx\ them. 'JMie luipkin, too, which you wished 
 to be sent at tln^ sanie time, is with the body 
 and eaniiot be loiirhed more than the body 
 r,Q.u be opprotiched. liut that yotir religion)* 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 141 
 
 desire may not be wnolly frustrated, I will has- 
 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 with a Jile ; 
 and sometimes it happens that some portions 
 fall oflf 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 wliom the Roman Church 
 reveres almost as tiie 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 Ihem over in complete 
 silence.t 
 
 *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 
 many days before the solemn festivals, observes strict 
 chastity, thouglThe be man led, 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. 
 
 f 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 syllogism. 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, ihat 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 e^y 
 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. 
 
 ■f Fleury, lib. xxxvi., sect. xxi. 'In the time of 
 John the Deacon (about 900,) the original of liis 
 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, Avhich 
 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 I'on chantoit alternativement; d''ouvient le nom 
 d'antiphones ou antiennes (anthems) comme il a e*e 
 explique.' 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 sal Cliurch may justly be regarded as hav- 
 ing ceased at the accession of Constantine, 
 it is not a fanciful position that its Middle 
 Affe — that indistinct period, during which the 
 principles that were hereafter to give it a 
 more lasting and definite form were collect- 
 nig 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 Chalccdon. It appears, too, that 
 St. Leo was addressed by certain oriental 
 corres[)ondents by the title of CEcunienic, or 
 Universal Patriarch, though his immediate 
 successors refrained from adopting that lofty 
 appellation. Matters rested thus till the year 
 568, when the Emperor Maurice conferred 
 that same title upon his own Patriarch John, 
 commonly called the Faster,* an austere and 
 am!)itious prelate. Pope Pelagius opposed 
 those pretensions; and, eight years after- 
 wards, the contest was much more vigorously 
 renewerl by Gregory. In 595, he addressed 
 five epistles on this 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 Hpirit of Christian humility. In his 
 letter lo the Emj)eror he declares that the 
 I)ul>rM* calamities are to be ascril)ed to no oth- 
 er cause than the ambition of the ]}i8ho])S. 
 * We destroy (he says) by exam[)lc that which 
 
 * .Ii.lin tlie FaKtcr, dlRpnting an unmeaning title 
 ivi'J. (iregory, is assimilated by IJaronins (ann. 595, 
 BCCv. xxvii.) to the apostate angel rising ag;iinst the 
 MoHt High CJod — a compirison not far r(;ni()V(;(l from 
 blai*pl»(;my. In more tli.m tliirty nectioriH, wliicli tliat 
 nistorian tlevotes to the nuhject, he labors to dcprcHH 
 the Hen of Conntanlinople even below tliat of Alexan- 
 dri I, and ronliniially advanroB the obtriisivenexH of 
 Rome, an a proof of lu;r rightful authority. However, 
 it in true cwiw^U that the |>ower of Rome was now 
 growing real aiiri MiiliMtantial — a fart much more easily 
 rbnwn than either its aii*i(iuity or legitimacy. 
 
 we preach in word ; our bones are consumed 
 with fastings, and our soul is puflfed 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 we nourish the fangs of the 
 wolf.' (He proceeds) 'The direction and 
 primacy of the whole Church has been given 
 to St. Peter ; neveitheless we do not call him 
 the Universal Apostle, and yet the holy inan 
 John, my brother, is ambitious to be called 
 the Universal Bishop.'* To Constantina he 
 mournfully complains of the insult which 
 has been oflfered 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 oflTered 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 t1ie 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 Cresars. 
 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 giv^e to that uncertain gromid- 
 work a stability which has enabled it to sup- 
 port the mighty papal edifice for so many 
 ages. 
 
 It has also been observed that Gregory w as 
 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 
 
 I ♦St. (iregory could not foresee that, within twelve 
 years frouj that in which he was writing, th« samo 
 title would be proiully worn by a successor to the 
 chair of St. I'eter (iJonifacc IH.,) though granted tc 
 that pontiff by na Emperor who disgraced lumiar 
 natur*?. 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 143 
 
 tie betrayed on many occasions a very ridic- 
 ulous eagerness to secure their honor. Con- 
 sequendy, he was profuse in his distribution 
 of certain keys, endowed, as he was net 
 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 descri|)tions 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 fmd sufficient evidence in the records of 
 .his 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- 
 
 *'Ainatoris vestri, beati Petri Apostoli, vobis 
 claves transinisi, qua; super segros posit?e multis solent 
 iiiiraculis coruscare.' He addresses nearly the same 
 words to one Andreas, a nobleman, nith a similar 
 present. And in another epistle (to Theotistus) he 
 coolly relates a prodigy which had once lieen per- 
 formed by one of those keys upon a Lombard soldier. 
 Baronius, ami. 585, sect, iv., ann. 597, sect, xiv., 
 ann. 59L, 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 (eliap. 
 xiv.) considers them to have possessed not a civil only, 
 but a criminal jurisdiction over the tenants and hus- 
 Ijandmen 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 ,| of 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. xiv. 
 
 t Fleury, H. E. lib. xxxvi. sect. 33 and 34. 
 
 I 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 Jiistory, proves (as Bayle has malignantly 
 remarked) that those who prevailed with him to ac- 
 cept the Popedom, knew him better than he knew 
 himself. ' lis voyoient en lui le fonds de toutes les 
 ruses et de toutes les souplesses dont on a besoin pour 
 se faire de grands prolecteurs, et pour attirer sur 
 I'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 
 
 or DODularity, 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 avarice of liis 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 supei-stitious 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 
 prejti Jices of the people. But the religious 
 nnpostures 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 n(!ccssary tendency was to debase the 
 mass of believers, and to deliver them over 
 in blindness and bondage to the control of 
 their spiritual tyrants, tlieir 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 liis Ki)istle to the King of England, Gregory 
 (cited l)y liiironius, Ann. 601. sect, xix.) tluis ex- 
 presses lii-i own tnillcnnarian opinions. ' Besides, we 
 wish yon(vestrain gloiiatn) to know as we learn from 
 the words of .Alrniglity (lod, in the Holy Scriptures,' 
 that tlic end of the present worhl is already near, and 
 the kingdom of the Saints is at hand, wliich "can 
 know no end. IJnt as the ct,i\ of the world is now 
 ajjproaching, many things hang over us wiiich before 
 were not, — to wit, cliangc of atmosphere, and terrors 
 from HcavrMi, and iiiiseasonaljlo t(!m|)('sts, war, fam- 
 in'!, |w«tilence and (rarlliquakes, — wliich however Hhall 
 not all fall out in our days, but will certainly follow 
 ofUrrwards.' The caution of the concluding sentence 
 would almoft prove the I*ope'») diMlrust in his own 
 prophecy. 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 Changes from Gregory to Charlemagne^ 
 Ecclesitistical 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- 
 cun*ence 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, whicli 
 may be traced in name, at least, to the divi 
 sion of the Empu*e, was afterwards extended 
 and widened by many substantial points of 
 difference. In the former, indeed, very few 
 alterations took place afler 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 ])rcserv- 
 ing their temporal rights over the Church, and 
 even in usurping others which they did not 
 possess, especially that of episcopal el(!Ction 
 but they abstained from all intervention in 
 matters strictly spiritual, and in cotnmitting 
 to the priesthood the entire regulation of doc- 
 trine, and consigning to their uncontrolled 
 direction the consciences of their ignorant 
 and inu'lvilized subj«!cts, they lell to that Body 
 much larger m<'ans of despotic and j)ennanent 
 juithority than any of thosc^ of which they 
 d<'|fJ*iv<!d it. In the more rnlightcn«Ml proviti- 
 C(>H of th(! Iwist, the discussion of lh(H)logicn 
 
 * Giannonc, Stor. di Nap. .^b., iii., cap vi 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 145 
 
 subjects was not uncommonly sliared 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 Avere 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- 
 lianity, 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 ordejL- 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 
 ordinem,) 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 principle of the ' Unity of the 
 Church ' — existing as one mighty s[)iritual 
 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 
 Lecon) 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, whethe) 
 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 Chm-ch; at Rome they were called 
 Defensores, and they were afterwards employed in Gaul, 
 under the title of Advocates. Fleury (end of liv. xliv,) 
 mentions tliat they w^ere originally Scholastics or 
 Lawyers ; but that after tlie barbarian concjuests tliey 
 possessed also a military character — to tlie end that, 
 in case of necessity, tliey might also be qualified to 
 defend the interests of the Church by material 
 weapons 
 
]46 
 
 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 ai)out to mention. 
 
 The early origin and office of the Metro- 
 politans have already been noticed ; they 
 were the Prelates resident in the ca))ital of 
 the Province, and their legitimate office was 
 to preside in provincial councils; but they 
 end(;avored 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 8Ucc(!S3 until the sixth 
 centuiy. But from this period we may date 
 llicir downfall : the ambition of the Popes,f 
 
 ♦ The fourth Council of Toledo, M d in 633, or- 
 daiiiH an uniformity of rites and con ootiics, prayer 
 and pwahiiody, tliroughout Spain and ("Jaul — the Hanie 
 office of llu; rnaHri, and oU»cr BcrviceH. Tleury, 1, 
 xxxvii., H(rct. 46. 
 
 •f The progrcHU of thin unurpation in bo well de- 
 •crilNid liy fJiannotic, (Storia di Nnp., lib. iii. c. vi.) 
 that *vn •<hall licrc ^ivc llie nuhntance of hiMacrount. 
 \i\ ihc fifth rciitiny tlie title nf I'atriarch \\:\h univcr- 
 
 always jealous of their power, and anxious 
 to transfer it to the Holy See, pressed and 
 assailed them fi*om 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 Avas 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 upder 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 
 ordinar^y 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 tinie, 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 lUyria first, 
 afterwards in Thessaly and Macedonia, the delegates 
 of the Roman Pontiff exercised Patriarchal authori- 
 ty. This he presently afterwards extended over the 
 wliole 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 tc 
 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 hy them unless by this grant of the 
 Pallium. Here another point was gained — the INIctro- 
 politanshad not the jjowerof exercising all ihc episco- 
 pal fiuictions until ihcy had received the Pallium from 
 the Tope. The last stop 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 
 — ho contrived that appeals from the decisions of the 
 Mefrojjolitans, especially relating todisjaited elections 
 of Bishops, should be brought before himself; that if 
 the electorfl had been negligent, or the elected unfit, 
 the election .should devolve on the Pope ; that he alone 
 Hhould posHcsH th(! right of accepting the cessions of 
 SecH.of determining translation.s, and the coadjutor- 
 nhipH in the next HUCccHHion; and lastly, that the con- 
 firmation of all episcopal elections should be vcfiled iii 
 I the Holy See. 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 147 
 
 liitle 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 brought about 
 oy tlie 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. Accordingly we collect, even from 
 the Councils of those ^imes 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 !y 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 centuiy 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 
 Beize 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 \ias 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 tiie 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 plimder 
 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 Pnnciple. We now turn to 
 Rome — the centre to which most of our at- 
 tention must hereafter be directed — and hav- 
 
 * It should not be forgoUen, 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 :he progress of the religious aris- 
 tocracy during tiie 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 ain- 
 bition, the period of papal usurpation might 
 have been gi-eatly anticipated. But the fact 
 was so far otherwise, that through a dreary 
 j.ieriod 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 
 tlie 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 whicli 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 fifly 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 witli orders to seize the per- 
 son of the Pontiff. By the employment of 
 some address he succeeded in his mission ; 
 in the year G53 St. Martin was carried away 
 from Rome a caj)tivc 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 (0.55) he died then;; and his successor 
 Eugenins was appoint<;d by the Eni|)ur()r. 
 Tlie Hingnlarity of this circumstance has 
 ic^'Oliinjcndf'd it to our notice, rather than 
 itH iinj.matice. It was an isolatcul event, de- 
 pending Kolfly on the political power whicli 
 the Enip<;ror of the day might ha[)prn to 
 possesH over Win Italian HubjertH, and not at 
 ^1 affecting the inllucnce u hirh tin; Holy S<'e 
 
 was now acquiring in every i^aarter of the 
 West — for that was the gi'ound 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 suflTered no re- 
 verses in that field, it mattered litde 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, and to usurp the name, after 
 having long exercised the power of royalty. 
 xA.ccordingly he assembled the States of the 
 realm, and they gave it as their opinion that 
 the Bishop of Rome should previously bo 
 consulted respecting the lawfulness of the 
 project. In consequence, ambassadors were 
 sent to Zacliary 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 slrijiped of royalty without any 
 oj)i)osition, 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 i)rinccs and the allegiance ov 
 
 * 'i'lic piilliiiin or peculiar vest was requested of tlie 
 INipo hy llic Metn)|)olitans, at first iiiorely, bb it 
 would neeiu, in token of an iionor to wliich no con- 
 dition was annexed, but afterwards in attestation of 
 their Huhjection to the See, and ohedienco to its ca 
 nonical ccmtnanda. The virtues of the pallium ar« 
 (h scrihcd at length in an Epintlo from I'opo Zacha- 
 ry to Ilonifacc. Harou. ann. 712, sect, v S«« 
 aliove, note on p. 14G. 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 14b 
 
 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 v^hich 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 disinterestetjness, 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 fQi;eiguers 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 includecl 
 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 the interior as far as the ridges of the 
 Ajpennines. Gibbon c. 49. 
 
 overthrew the Lombards, and recovered tlie 
 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 peiinanent 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 haSj 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 v*'hose 
 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 
 
 that lie was one of the greatest and wisest 
 princes wlio ever reigned, some writers 
 would not liave hesitated to place him among 
 the weakest of mankind. But the motives 
 of his liberality were such as became a mag- 
 nanmious and a benevolent monarch. Su- 
 ^ pei^tition 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 
 ■contemporary in either of those merits; the former, 
 nowever, does not appear greatly to have influenced 
 hid 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 tlie 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 Trance a Christian Athens. And his own writings 
 attest liis industry in restoring almost every branch 
 of Hludy. (Fleury, Hist. Ecrl., liv. 45, sect, xviii.) 
 The devotion of Charlemagne to the service*) of reli- 
 gion iH not disputed; through his whole life he was 
 a regular allentlant on the oftices, even the nocturnal 
 coreu«(iiii<.'«, of liie (Jhurch, and his last days were 
 pauned in correcting the text of the Compel w ilh the 
 Qfliialancc; of certain CJreekM and Syrianu. Fleury, 
 II. E. 1. 45, a. viii. 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 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 w^hich they 
 subsequently studied to improve by methods 
 not always honorable, but which, as circum- 
 stances then existed, it was pardonable if nov 
 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 IMein) 
 held in 794, it was enacted, among many 
 other wholesome regulations, that liishops 
 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 afler 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- 
 %'nt('(l to him by all the p(>ople of his States, 
 of which the following was the substance — 
 ' Wo ])ray your Majesty that hcnctiforward 
 ]{isho|)s may not be constrained to join the 
 
 ♦ Fleury, H. E. liv. 44, sect. 46, and liv. 4C 
 Hcci. 26. 
 
DISSENSIONS. 
 
 15J 
 
 army, as they have been hitherto. But when 
 we inarch 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 
 concihate,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 
 amied 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.' 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 On the Dissensions of the Church from the Age 
 of Constantine to that of Charlemagne. 
 
 Division of the subject : — I. 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 
 — eflcct of I'riscillian's death on his followers. — III. Jo- 
 vinian — his opinions — by whom chiefly opposed — Edict 
 of Ilonoriu.s — Vigilantius — his cliaracter — 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 — opj)osite 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 theEutychians — 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 D^bonnaire- 
 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 indu'ectly, by the writings of 
 Origen, and the many real (or supposed) 
 ramifications of the Manichcean 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 citigy 
 and people of that city and district elected ic 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 his place the Archdeacon Ccecilianus, and 
 proceeded to his consecration without wait- 
 ing, as it would seem, for the consent of the 
 Bishops of Numidia, 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 cliaracter * of one Felix, a Bishop 
 who had been prominent in the consecration 
 of Ccecilianus, 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- 
 fain Donatus, assembled a Council of their 
 own, condemned CseciHanus, and appointed 
 his deacon, Majorinus, for his successor. 
 Both parties then proceeded to great extrem- j 
 ities, and as there appeared no other pros- 
 pect of reconciliation, they agreed to bring | 
 the dispute before the Emperor Constantino, 
 who had just then proclaimed the establish- 
 ment of Christianity. Constantino inquired 
 into the affair, first by means of a Synod at 
 Rome, consisting of three Gaulish and fifteen 
 [talian prelates,f at which the Bishop of the 
 capital presided ; and presently afterwards, 
 by an inquiry into the truth of the charges 
 ngainst 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 solenui an 
 act be superseded by a commission of a small 
 numbpr of obscure Bishops meeting in a dif- 
 ferent [)rovince, 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 Hununoned a much more nume- 
 rous synod at Arlc^s, in Gaul, and here again, 
 after much serious d<;bate, the Donatists lost 
 their cause. Still dissatisfied, th(!y had re- 
 course to the final expedient, an appeal to the 
 personal justice of Constantine. The Empe- 
 ror agaiji consented to their request; but on 
 this occnHion the motive of his indulgence 
 
 ♦ II<; wax acniKcd of bciiifj a Traditor; i. c. of 
 having driivcircl up copies of tlic Scri|)tmc.H during 
 Dioclrtiaii'H prrccciilioti. 
 
 t FlfMiry, lil). x., «ect. 11., n;cordrt tlu; namwH of 
 'noal of Uu^; and llu: order of iircccdcncc. 
 
 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, in 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 pen'^ersity 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 Jlfrica, 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 ju'ob- 
 ably none. 
 
 The moment of reaction was not fai 
 distant ; the numerous and revengefiil exiles 
 were restored to their home by the suspicious 
 justice of Julian ;t and the sect appears to 
 
 * He ccrtaiidy exiled some, and is said to have de- 
 prived llioni of their cluirchea, and even to have shed 
 some blood. See Mosh., cent, iv., p. ii., ch. v 
 
 f This ciian<,'C in his policy seems to have taken 
 place in 321 — after five years experience of tno oppo 
 site system. 
 
 X The horrors which they committed on their res 
 toration arc very vividly and seriously related by 
 Fleury, (1. xv., s. 32.) ' Tliey expelled the Catholic 
 people, violated iho women, and nun<lered the chil- 
 dren. They threw the Kueharist to the dogs, but the 
 dogH became mad, and turning against their mastoif 
 tore them in |)ieees. One of them threw out of llw 
 
DISSENSIONS. 
 
 153 
 
 have sprung up, during the few following i 
 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 
 here=y, of which no one has ever accused 
 then: ; but a dangerous wound was inflicted 
 by the celebrated conference held at Carthage 
 in 411. The tribune Marcellinus 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, and about two hundred and seven- 
 ty-nine Donatist bishops, presented 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 ol" 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 — they 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. 
 
 t ' Let the Bishops (says Marcellinus in a previous 
 proclamation) signify to the people in their sermons 
 10 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. Augustin has 
 deserved the glory of this spiritual triumph 
 — and, that no meanfe 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 them, 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, Dulcitius, hesitated to enforce it, until he 
 should have taken counsel of Augustin. That prelato 
 exhorted him to proceed — ' since it was much better 
 (he said) that some should perish by tlieir 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 then- schism to very great 
 extremities — even to that of rejecting the 
 comnmnion of all who were in communion 
 vriih 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 i 
 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. I 
 In the fortunes of the Donatists do we 
 no ; trace the usual history of persecution ? i 
 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 ; 
 Jiereon its object rises up and takes strength 
 and courage. The same process is then re- 
 peated, under circumstances slightly different 
 — with the same result. Then follows the 
 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 
 symjiathy which it may not have merited by 
 its excellence, and on the first occasion breaks 
 out Mgain 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, imless the pursuit be carried 
 to absolute, individual extermination, the ex- 
 tinction even of the silliest h(;resy can only 
 be effected by time — and time itnelf will com- 
 
 ♦ Moshciin, cent, v., p. ii, ch. v. An aiitliority for 
 this fiinl in Aiij,'tislin in IiIm Ejji.MlU; (o lloiiifacc, cli. iii. 
 Qui Jain r;tiain hc trucidanfloH iiruiatiH vialf)iil)UH ingc- 
 rcUinl, pornissnroM coh w;, niHi ub Hh p»rriin«'rcntiir, 
 ten il>ilil«!r comtniiianteii. Noiinun(|uani «;t al) jndici- 
 bua traowMuililinH «xt<)n|iii;l)anl violcnler, ut a carnifi- 
 cibiiJi vi'l al» ollicio frrircnttir. Jam vcro per ulinipta 
 prifripilia, per a(|iiiM I't danunas occidcro BcipHOB 
 quotidianiiM illix liidas full. 
 
 plete its work, at least as much by calming 
 passion as by correcting judgment. 
 
 JVotice 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 
 unceashigly 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 
 rehgious subjects ; and when we recollect 
 that Tertullian, 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-fif\h 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 Agapoe or feasts of 
 charity, and the good i)urposes to which, in 
 early times, they contributed. But lus the in- 
 flux of the Pagan converts grew more rapid, 
 and as these naturally sought in the new 
 religion for any rescMublMiire to the popular 
 ceremonies of the; old, the solemnity in ques- 
 tion insensibly changed its characti^r under 
 their influence, and degenerated into the li- 
 censo and debauchery of a iiealhen festival. 
 Augustin, while yet a presbyter, un(h*rlook 
 the dillicult oWm'm o{ ptrsnading; the people to 
 
DISSENSIONS 
 
 abandon a favorite and hereditary practice, 
 and by the simple exertion of his eloquence 
 he succeeded. Services of reading and 
 chanting weA'e 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- 
 i.opal 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 Manichfeans, 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 daro 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 Augustin. 
 
 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 winch it is recorded, that as long as his el- 
 oquence was honored only by 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. 
 
 t 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 
 
 tCent. iv., p. ii., eh. iii. 
 
 persecution. The maxim (says Mosheim; 
 which justified the chastisement of religious 
 errors by civil penalties, was confirmed an,, 
 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 earaestly en- 
 treated that magistrate to extend mercy to 
 certain Donatists, who had been convicted 
 of some sanguinary excesses against the 
 Catholics ; but the misfortifne 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 
 afl;er 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 has 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, a barbar- 
 
 * Besides the 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 
 provided the animus be to correct, not to revenge! 
 
156 HISTORY OF 
 
 <ius region, and singularly indifferent to liter- 
 ary \ rsiiits, as he avows in his epistles. Je- 
 rome a Christian, the child of Christians, 
 hnbibed 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 mimediately 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! between 
 them he was very properly corrected by that 
 
 * Dr. Lardner makes, we think, a very ineffectual 
 attcni[)t to prove that Augustin knew much more of 
 that laaiguage than he even himself professed to have 
 knowu — for a few 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 affirming, ' 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.' 
 
 ^ 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 
 hi8 opinion, that the apostles had this public difler- 
 cncc on a previous understanding, and by a charitable 
 artifice; and that St. Paid in fact saw the policy 
 and propriety of St. Peter's adhesion to the Jews, at 
 the moment when he profesfed to condenm it. Ac- 
 cording to Augustin, thirt interpretation goes to over- 
 throw the whole aulhf)rity of Scripture; for if it id 
 once allowrd lo admit there the exintcncc of service- 
 able falxclKjodn, and to say that St. Paul in that 
 pa«Ha^<; H|)oke what he did not mean, and treatcul St. 
 I'ctcr :in rcprrlieiiHiblc when he did not think him ho, 
 lliere in no pahHuije which may not lie Himilarly <;lu(led. 
 'J'lie lierelicM who condctnni marriage would aHHerllliat 
 St. Paul only approved it through rondcHceuHion to 
 
 ' THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 aujd 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 AiaW 
 make one an enemy.' He apj)liod himself 
 little to the temporal interests of the Church, 
 but busied himself much more in study, and 
 in the meditation of spiritual concerns.^ 
 
 H. The PriscilliamsLt. Priscillian, a Spa- 
 nish Jiishop of birth and fortimo and e.o- 
 
 the imperfection of the first Clirislians— and so of olhcri. 
 
 ♦ Compare, fi)r iuHtance, the manner of his opposi* 
 lion to the opinions of Joviniun with that of Jeromft 
 
 t rieury, liv. xxiv., chap, xxxviii. xxxix. 
 
DISSENSIONS 
 
 quence, was accused by certain other Bish- 
 ops of tlie heresy of the Manichceans ; he was 
 condemned by a Council held at Saragossa 
 (in 380), and a rescript was then obtained for 
 his 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- 
 fortunate 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. X 
 
 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- 
 Han 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- 
 ch8eans,§ 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 
 
 *Sul|)icius Severus mentions Magnus and Rufus as 
 tlie two Bishops who were finally the successful agents 
 in procuring the condemnation of Priscillian. 
 
 f Their opinions may htive been adopted by sever- 
 al both atnong the nobility and the people, and by a 
 vast multitude of women (as is also asserted) in 
 Spain; l)ut they obtained no footing elsewhere. 
 They are said to have been introduced into that 
 country by one Marc, an Egyptian of Memphis, and 
 a Maniclvccan, 
 
 X We need not pause to notice some monstrous 
 charges of iiiunorality — 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 Manijheean 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 Old and New Testament. They are 
 stated to have disbelieved the resurrection of 
 the body, and they had some errors concern* 
 ing the nature and functions of the soul. 
 They are blamed for not consuming the Eu- 
 charist at Church, and for some irregularity 
 in the season of their fasts; and some of 
 them were charged besides (strange charges 
 to be brought by Catholic accusers!) with 
 having deserted their social rank, in order to 
 betake themselves to solitary devotion ; and 
 with holding opinions favorable to celibacy 
 For these offences, or such as these, Priscil- 
 lian suffered death ; and his fate has gained 
 him the more celebrity, because it is usual to 
 consider him as the first martyr to religious 
 dissent. Not perhaps truly so — for between 
 the years 325 and 384 many an obscure vic- 
 tim of the Arian heresy must have perished 
 for his opinions, in silence and ignominy — 
 but Arius himself escaped the storm ; and it 
 cannot be disputed, that Priscillian was the 
 first vi^ho atoned with his life for the danger- 
 ous distinction of founding a religious sect.* 
 It is some consolation to be enabled to add^ 
 that the principle by which he suflTered v'hs 
 not yet in favor with the Christian Church* 
 the character of Ithakius, his most active 
 enemy, is thus described by a contemporai y 
 historian ( Sulpicius Severus), — ' he was & 
 man void of all principle; loquacious, im- 
 pudent, expensive, a slave to gluttony — so 
 senseless as to represent every holy person 
 who delighted in religious studies, and prac- 
 tised mortification and abstinence, as an as- 
 sociate or a disciple of Priscillian.' On the 
 other hand, the persecuted heretic found a 
 powerful protector in one of the most vener- 
 able prelates of that age, Martin of Tours, ' a 
 man comparable to the apostles.' So long as 
 Martin remained at the Court of Maximus, his 
 authority was sufiicient to prevent the medi- 
 tated injustice ; he had even ventured to rep- 
 resent to that usurper, that it was ' a new and 
 unlawful attempt of the civil magistrate to 
 take cognizance of an ecclesiastical cause ' 
 — a boldness consistent with his peaceful vir- 
 tues, and derived from the now^ acknowledg- 
 ed dignity of his profession. The deed was 
 
 * We should mention, perhaps, the distinction that 
 Priscillian suffered death for the opinions themselves 
 — directly and avowedly — not, as thousands before 
 him had suffered, for contumacy in persisting in them 
 — a distinction which has no real value, except as 
 marking the greater shamelessness of persecution in 
 at length casting ofi' her mask. 
 
158 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 perpetrated in his absence, and he then pro- 
 tested against the act, and withdrew from the 
 communion of the murderers. The memory 
 of this excellent prelate has been disfigured 
 oy the credulous historian, who intended to 
 be his eulogist ; and we would willingly be- 
 neve, that the stupendous 'miracles so pro- 
 fusely attributed to him were created by the 
 veneration of the vulgar, or even by the en- 
 thusiasm of the writer, not by the deliberate 
 imposture of a pious Christian.* 
 
 Sulpicius proceeds to say, that ' the death 
 of Priscillian was so far from repressing the 
 heresy of which he had been the author, that 
 it conduced greatly to confirm and extend it ; 
 for his followers, who before had reverenced 
 him as a pious man, began to worship him as 
 a martyr. The bodies of those who had 
 suflTered death were carried back to Spain, 
 and interred with great solemnity ; and to 
 swear by the name of Priscillian was prac- 
 tised as a religious act.' Such were the im- 
 mediate consequences of his execution ; it 
 does not appear, however, that his opinions 
 took any deep or lasting root, or ever agam 
 became the occasion of offence or confusion 
 to the Chuich. 
 
 III. Jomnian. The same age, almost the 
 same year, which witnessed the death of one 
 heretic for opinions, among which was a 
 rigid, undue admiration of bodily austerities 
 and religious seclusion, beheld with less sur- 
 prise the banishment of another heretic, for 
 daring to raise his voice in dis[)aragement 
 of those same practices. Jovinian had re- 
 ceived his education in an Italian convent, 
 but the common feelings and })rinciples of 
 nature were not extinguished in him. He 
 left bis retirement, and published a volume 
 in whirb he rasiily endeavored to show, that 
 those wlio followed the rules of the Gospel, 
 amid the tcmj)tations and perplexities of so- 
 cial life, possessed as just a claim to the re- 
 
 ** R!cn of probity in other rospcctf!, and fully per- 
 puadcd of tlic truth of Christianity, (and such I takft 
 Martin, I'anlinuH, and .Sulpicius to iiavc been) hav- 
 ing found in ll«c populace a strong taste for the tnar- 
 vellouH, and no capacity for better profjfs, judged it 
 expedient rather to leave them to their prejudices, 
 and to make use of those prejudices to confirm tliern 
 in the true faith, than to unflerUikc the vain tank of 
 curing them of their superstition, and run the risk of 
 plunging tlicm into vice and unbelic^f. Therefore 
 Uiey hniiiored the trick, and complied with iIk; fashion 
 for the g«>f<d of tlu)8e wlu) were deceived.' Lc (/lerc, 
 Bibl. Chois., ap. Jrtrtin.ad. ann. 402. 'I'liis neernM to 
 OR the simpleiit solution (jf the difficulty. 
 
 wards of futurity as those who observed the 
 same rules in solitude ; that pleasures are 
 not necessarily sins; that temperance is aa 
 excellent a virtue as abstinence ; and that the 
 chaste enjoyments of marriage are as agree* 
 able to the eye of a benevolent Deity, as 
 the mortifications of unnatural celibacy.* 
 Jerome, ' the monk of the age,' poured out in 
 reply much passionate declamation in praise 
 of the established superstitions, and some 
 calumnious invective against the person of 
 the reformer ; and as the current already ran 
 too strongly in his favor, his clamors were 
 echoed by the zealous multitude, while the 
 wise were constrained to sorrow and si 
 lence.f Among Christian Churches the 
 foremost in the extinction of reason and true 
 Christianity was the Church of Rome. Her 
 impatience to crush the dangerous innovator 
 was emulated by St. Ambrose at Milan ; and 
 the opinions of Jovinian were formally con- 
 demned, in the year 390, by a Council there 
 held by that Prelate. But the work was not 
 yet complete ; the Emperor Honorius w^as 
 prevailed upon to interpose the secular au- 
 thority in the same cause ; and the following 
 was his proclamation — ' The complaint of 
 some Bishops mentions as a grievance that 
 Jovinian assembles sacrilegious meetings 
 without the walls of the most holy city. 
 Wherefore we ordain that the above-men- 
 tioned be seized and whipped, together with 
 his abettors and attendants, and confined to 
 some place of banishment ; and that the 
 machinator himself be immediately sent 
 away to the island of Boa. ' Boa was a 
 wretched rock, near the Illyrian coast; and 
 in this exile, Jovinian, during the remainder 
 of his life, expiated the crime of proclaiming 
 in the fourth century truths which no one had 
 dreamed of disputing in the second, and which 
 are defended with almost equal clearness by 
 the authority of reason and of revelation. 
 
 VigUantius. This example did not pre- 
 vent another and a bolder attempt at Refor- 
 mation — for as the corruptions of that time 
 
 * Ho was also charged with the speculative error, 
 th'at all who have been regenerated by baptism, with 
 perfect faith, were indefectible, and could not fail of 
 tlu!ir heavenly recompense. He may have held this 
 opinion — but the points on which the controversy 
 turned, were those which much more nearly aflected 
 the practice of mankind. 
 
 t It should bo mentioned that the reply of Jerome 
 was ivtt written till after the condemnation of tlie of- 
 fender, in consequence of Pome progress which the 
 opinions are Kiid for tho moment to have made af 
 Home. 
 
DISSENSIONS. 
 
 158 
 
 had not yet subsided into habits ; as they 
 could not yet plead prescription and long fa- 
 , miliar practice ; as they were not yet conse- 
 crated by the claims of hereditary reverence, 
 It was natural that the voice of reason should 
 sometimes raise itself in faint opposition to 
 their progress. Very early in the follow- 
 ing century Vigilantius, a native of Gaul, 
 who had performed the functions of presby- 
 ter in Spain, and afterwards, by his travels 
 through Egypt and Palestine, enlightened 
 and enriched a vigorous understanding and 
 character, boldly avowed his disgust at the 
 growing abuses of the day. Nor did he 
 confine his attack to one or two points ; he 
 directed it against the castles and strong 
 holds of superstition. He denied that the 
 tombstones of the martyrs were proper ob- 
 lects of homage and worship ; he denied the 
 holiness of places so sanctified, and censured 
 the pilgrimages that were made to them. 
 He derided the prodigies by which the tem- 
 ples of the martyrs were so much celebrat- 
 ed, and condemned the vigils performed in 
 them ; and he even ventured to assert that 
 the custom of burning tapers at their tombs, 
 in the face of day, was a foolish imitation of 
 the Pagan practice. He denied the efficacy 
 of prayers addressed to departed saints, and 
 spake lightly of fasting and mortifications, 
 and celibacy, and the various and useless 
 austerities of the monastic life. And lastly, 
 he disparaged the merit of that suspicious 
 charity which lavished large sums for devout 
 purposes, in fancied atonement for unrepent- 
 ed sin. The clamorous guardian of ecclesias- 
 "tical depravity was again awakened by this 
 second invasion of abuses so dear to him ; 
 and immediately, from his monastery at 
 Bethlehem, he assailed the Reformer with 
 such overbearing vehemence of plausible and 
 popular argument, that the good Vigilantius 
 deemed it wiser to retire from the conflict 
 than to expose himself to unprofitable martyr- 
 dom. And in fact we find that this heresy 
 (so it was designated) gained so little ground, 
 that the interference of a Council was not re- 
 quired to extinguish it. The principal credit 
 of both these triumphs is due to St. Jerome — 
 than whom the Church, in her whole histo- 
 ry, has not ever listened to a more pernicious 
 counsellor. 
 
 IV. TTjc Pelagian Controversy. The con- 
 troversy to which we next proceed was on a 
 subject of the deepest and most permanent 
 importance to the whole Christian world; 
 and .though through the perverse misappli- 
 
 cation of human ingenuity, dissensions havo 
 flowed from it, to the great disturbance of 
 former ages, and to the division even of the 
 present, we cannot aflTect either surprise or 
 regret, that a question of so much moment 
 should have agitated thus early t?ie minds 
 of pious men — for it went to the bottom of 
 the Christian doctrine respecting the original 
 corruption of human nature, and the neces- 
 sity of divine grace, to enlighten the under 
 standing and to purify the heart. 
 
 It is in all cases extremely difficult, in the 
 statement of those ancient controversies, to do 
 justice to the arguments, or even to the opin- 
 ions, maintained by either party — because 
 these, in the process of the dispute, became 
 closely, often inseparably, connected with 
 consequences imputed to them by the adver- 
 sary as necessary, and disclaimed by the ad 
 vocate as unfair and arbitrary. So that those 
 very subtilties of reasoning, which professed 
 to unfold and explain the difference, did in 
 fact only produce perplexity. In the Pelagi- 
 an controversy this difficulty is increased by 
 two causes : first, that we know little of the 
 opinions of the heretic, except from the writ- 
 ings of his opponents; secondly, that the fear 
 of public condemnation, and perhaps tempo- 
 ral punishment, occasionally led him into un- 
 worthy equivocation ; so that his expressions 
 are sometimes such as seemingly to convey 
 an assertion of orthodoxy at variance with 
 the whole drift of his previous argument. 
 Again, the mere facts of the controversy have 
 been variously related, according as the opin- 
 ions of the relators have been tinged, howev- 
 er slightly, by the opposite colors of Pela- 
 gianism or Fatalism. We must endeavor, 
 however, to disentangle the truth from these 
 intricacies. 
 
 Pelagius was a native of Britain, probably 
 of Wales; the associate of his travels, his 
 heresy, and his celebrity, was Celestius, an 
 Irishman : both were monks ; both, too, were 
 men of considerable talent«, and no just sus- 
 picions have ever been thrown on the sanc- 
 tity of their moral conduct. They arrived at 
 Rome in the very beginning of the fifth cen- 
 tury, and remained there in the undisturbed, 
 and perhaps obscure, profession of their opin- 
 ions till the year 410, when they retired, on 
 the Gothic invasion, the former to Palestine, 
 the latter to Carthage. Here the peculiar 
 doctrines of Celestius did not long escape 
 detection ; they first attracted the attention 
 of the Deacon, Paulinus of Milan, who ar- 
 raigned and caused them to be condemned 
 in a Council held at Carthage in the year 
 
160 
 
 BISIORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 412.'* It does not appear that Augustin assist- 
 ed at this Council, as he was still engaged in 
 pursuing his advantages over the Donatists; 
 however, he did not delay to enter the field 
 agabar^t the new advei-sary, and very soon 
 afterwards assailed the infant heresy, both by 
 his sermons and writings.f Dissatisfied with 
 the easy triumph which attended his exer- 
 tions in his own Church, he followed the fu- 
 gitive into the East, and having ascertained 
 that Pelagius maintained the same errors in 
 Palestine, he occasioned him to be accused 
 before two Councils ; the one at Jerusalem,^ 
 
 * The errors here charged against Celestius were 
 comprised in seven articles — 1. That Adam was cre- 
 ated mortal, and would have died, whether he had 
 sinned or not; 2. that the sin of Adam injured him- 
 self alone, not the human race; 3. that infants, at 
 their birth, are in the condition of Adam before his 
 sin; 4. that neither the death nor sin of Adam is the 
 cause of man's mortality, nor the resurrection of 
 Christ of his resurrection ; 5. that man may be saved 
 by the Lnw as well as by the Gospel ; 6. that before 
 the coming of Christ there had been men without sin ; 
 7. :bat infants inherit eternal life without baptism. 
 TIjjse were partly disclaimed or explained away, but 
 eJOiigh remained to sliow the real nature of his opin- 
 icns, though we may observe that the words free-will 
 and grace do not yet appear in the controversy. 
 
 f The natural causes of the opposition of the 
 Church to the Pelagian opinions are ingeniously and 
 reasonalily discussed by Guizot (Cours d'Histoire 
 Moderne, Lecon V.) We shall transcribe one pas- 
 sage, which deserves attention, and which cannot be 
 condensed: — 'Augustin, who was the chief among 
 the doctors of the Church, was peculiarly called upon 
 to mai'itain the general system of its belief. Now, 
 the notions of Pelagius and Celestius appeared to him 
 to be in contradiction with some of the fundamental 
 points of Christian faith, especially the doctrine of 
 original sin and that of redemption. He attacked 
 them, tlien, in tliree characters; — as philosopher, be- 
 cause their science of luunan nature was, in his view, 
 narrow and incomplete; as practical reformer and 
 governor of the Church, because they weakened, in 
 his mind, the most eflicacious method of roforu) and 
 govcrninenl; as logician, because their ideas did not 
 exactly Kjiiarc with the consequences which flowed 
 from ihii es.-ienlial |)rincii)lc of the faith. Observe, 
 then, what gravity the dispute assumed from that mo- 
 ment; every thing was engaged in it — philosophy, 
 politics, and religion ; the opinions of St. Augustin, 
 and his hiisineff, hiu vanity, and his duty. He aban- 
 doni<\ liiniHcIf entirely to it, publishing treatises, writ- 
 n;g letters, collecting connnunications which (lowed 
 in upon him from all quarterf, profuse in nigulations 
 and cr)un.selH, and carrying into all his writings and 
 all \m meaHures, that mixture of |)asHi()n and mildncsH, 
 of authority and cympathy, of expanse of mind and 
 logical fltriclnesH, which gave him such ningular pow- 
 er.' 
 
 X On tliiH occanion, Ijeing UHkcd if \'v really niain- 
 tained opinioMs wliirh AugUMtin had condcnuii il, lie 
 
 the other at Diospolis. John, Bishop of Je- 
 rusalem, was favorable to the cause, perhaps 
 to the tenets of Pelagius ; and thus, partly by 
 his influence, partly from the absence of 
 any fixed rule of orthodoxy on those pai'tic- 
 ular subjects in the Eastern Church, partly 
 from the very modified statement of his own 
 opinions delivered to the Councils by Pela- 
 gius, that sectarian, in spite of the violent 
 opposition of Jerome, wds acquitted in both. 
 This event took place in 415 ; and in the j^ear 
 following, Augustin, undaunted by this re- 
 pulse, again assembled Councils in Africa 
 and Numidia, and again condemned the of- 
 fensive doctrines. 
 
 The scene of action was then transferred 
 to Rome, on the appeal, as it would seem, of 
 the two heretics, and with the hope, perhaps, 
 (not a reasonable hope,) that the authority 
 of the Church of Jerusalem w^ould have as 
 much weight at the Vatican, as that of the 
 Church of Carthage. Zosimus had been just 
 raised to the pontificate ; to him the contro- 
 versy was referred, with great show of hu- 
 mility, by Celestius; and whether deceived 
 by the artfid composition of the creed pre- 
 sented to him for approval, or overlooking 
 the importance of a question to which his at- 
 tention had not previously been much direct- 
 ed, or flattered by the personal appeal to his 
 justice and the acknowledged submission to 
 the Chair of St. Peter, or influenced by all 
 these reasons, Zosimus pronounced the inno- 
 cence of the disputed doctrine. 
 
 Augustin was not even thus discouraged ; 
 and his ardent religious feelings, as well as 
 his reputation, were now too deeply interest- 
 ed in the controversy to allow him to rest 
 here. Once more he assembled his Bishops, 
 and after the public renewal of former de- 
 clarations, he proceeded to inform the Pope 
 more clearly as to the real nature and impor- 
 tance of the question ; as to the errors which 
 had been actually ])rofcssed by the heretics ; 
 and those which, though disingenuously dis- 
 avowed, followed of course from them. Zo- 
 simus does not appear to have been much 
 moved by these representations ; but in the 
 meantime a more powerful avenger had 
 
 replied, * What is Augustin to mcl ' Many were of- 
 fended, for Atigu.stin was the most vrnerabli? authority 
 of the age; and some inuncdiately proposed to excoin- 
 numicate the sjiirilual rebel: but .lolm averted the 
 blow, and kindly addressed Priiigius, — ' It is I who 
 am Augustin liere; it.is to mo that you shall answer.' 
 PclagiuH ppoko (neck, and is sai<l to have thus ob- 
 taincd sonu! advantagcH over Iuh accuser Orotiiu^, wht 
 w as igni>r;mt of llial language. 
 
DISSENSlONc 
 
 161 
 
 been roused by the perseverance of the Afri- 
 cans. An imperial Edict descended from 
 Constantinople, which banished both the de- 
 Inquents from Rome, and menaced with 
 perpetual exile and confiscation of estates all 
 who should maintain their doctrines in any 
 place. This decisive blow was struck in the 
 March of 418 ; in the May following, another 
 and still more numerous Council * met at 
 Carthage for the purpose of completing the 
 triumph ; and then the Bishop of Rome was 
 at length prevailed upon to place, in conjunc- 
 tion with his clergy, the final seal of heresy 
 on the Pelagian opinions. The opinions 
 themselves did not, indeed, expire from these 
 successive wounds, but have frequently re- 
 appeared under different forms and modifi- 
 cations ; but no further attempts were made 
 to extend them by their original authors. 
 
 The sum of those opinions, was this: — 1. 
 That the sins of our first parents are imput- 
 ed to themselves alone, and not to their pos- 
 terity ; that we derive no corruption from 
 their fall ; that we inherit no depravity from 
 our origin ; but enter into the world as pure 
 and unspotted as Adam at his creation. It 
 was a necessary inference from this doctrine, 
 that infant baptism is not a sign or seal of the 
 remission of sins, but only a mark of admis- 
 sion into the kingdom of Christ. 2. That 
 our own powers are sufficient for our own 
 justification ; that as by our oviirn free-will we 
 run into sin, so, by the same voluntary exer- 
 cise of our faculties, Ave are able to repent, 
 and reform, and raise ourselves to the high- 
 est degree of virtue and piety ; that we are, 
 indeed, assisted by that external f grace of 
 God which has taught us the truths of reve- 
 lation ; which opens to us our prospects, and 
 enlightens our understanding, and animates 
 our exertions after godliness ; but that the 
 internal and immediate operation of the 
 Holy Spirit is not necessary, either to awaken 
 us to religious feeling, or to further us in, our 
 progi-ess towards hoHness; in short, that 
 man, by the unassisted agency of his natural 
 perfections under the guidance of his own 
 free-will^ is enabled to work out his own sal- | 
 vation. j 
 
 * Two hundred and three, or, as some assert, two ! 
 hundred and fourteen Bishops were present. 
 
 t Pelagius artfully perplexed the subject, by his as- 
 sertion of six different kinds of grace; and if there 
 be any of his expressions which may seem to imply 
 more than we here give them credit for, they are, at 
 least, so vague, and, we think, purposely so vague, as 
 to mane it impossible to attach any definite meaning 
 'o them. 
 
 21 
 
 Regarding these doctrines, it is suflScient 
 for a Christian to examine, whether or not 
 they are in accordance with the obvious in- 
 terpretation of Scripture ; and the long ex 
 perience of a fruitless controversy must at 
 length have convinced us respecting such 
 inscrutable subjects, that if we advance one 
 step beyond the safe and substantial ground 
 of revelation, we become entangled in the 
 mazes of metaphysical disputation. In these 
 matters, we are not to inquire what is 
 probable, but what is written; and it has 
 become a question, whether the presumptu- 
 ous arrogance of reason, which is objected to 
 the system of Pelagius, did not lead his op- 
 ponents, who believed themselves humble, 
 equally far away from that entire submission 
 to the Gospel, which is the only true hu- 
 mility. 
 
 Augustin maintained the Church doctrines 
 of original sin and saving grace with great 
 force and zeal, and the most unaffected sin 
 cerity ; and his writings on this subject con 
 tinned for above twelve centuries to distrib- 
 ute the waters of regeneration over the bar- 
 ren surface of the Roman Catholic Church 
 But Augustin himself, in the ardor of his op- 
 position to free-will, did he not overstep the 
 just limits of reason, and advance into the 
 contraiy extreme of fatalism ? It is true that 
 he warmly disclaimed that doctrine, when 
 nakedly objected to him as the obvious and 
 inevitable result of those which he professed ; 
 but it was not without some sacrifice of logi- 
 cal severity that he declined the formidable 
 conclusion. Nevertheless, more rigid logi- 
 cians and more daring theologians were 
 found, who pressed to their utmost conse- 
 quences the opinions of their master, and de- 
 duced from them the predestinarian dogma 
 in its full extent. Again, the publication of 
 the astounding tenet on such authority (for 
 St. Augustin, as well as his adversaries, was 
 held responsible for the consequences of his 
 positions*) became the occasion of another 
 series of divisions in the Church, which more 
 particularly distracted that of Gaul ; so that 
 the discord wliich grew out of the Pelagian 
 controversy was not confined to the original 
 
 *In fact, St. Augustin attributed the progressive 
 sanctificalion of man to the direct, immediate, and 
 special action of God on the soul; tliat is, to grace, 
 properly so called; grace to which man had, by his 
 own powers, no title : and which proceeded from the 
 absolutely grat litous gift and free choice of the Divin- 
 ity. His twelve fundamental points of tlie doctrine 
 of grace are delivered in the epistle (to Vitalis) num- 
 bered 217 or 107. 
 
162 HISTORY OF 
 
 ground of dispute, but spread with baneful 
 luxuriance over the vineyard of Christ. 
 
 The Semi-Pelagians. Among the opinions 
 to which it gave birth, the most popular, and 
 perhaps the most reasonable, were those of 
 the Semi-Pelagians. They began to spread 
 m the South of France about the year 428, 
 find are attributed to an oriental, named Cas- 
 sian, w^ho resided in a monastery at Mar- 
 seilles. These Sectarians* regarded with 
 equal suspicion that absolute independence 
 of the Divine aid, so rashly ascribed to the 
 human soul by the Pelagian system, and its 
 entire prostration and helplessness as exhibit- 
 ed by the Fatalists ; and they consequently 
 concluded, that, by holding a middle course 
 Oetween opposite errors, they should most 
 nearly amve at truth. And so they main- 
 tained, on the one hand, that the Grace pur- 
 chased by Christ was necessary for salvation, 
 and that no man could persevere or advance 
 in holiness without its perpetual support and 
 assistance : on the other, that our natural fac- 
 ulties were sufficient for the beginning of 
 repentance and amendment ; that Christ died 
 for all men, and that there was no particular 
 dispensation of his grace in consequence of 
 predestination, but that it was equally offer- 
 ed to all men ; that man was born free, and 
 therefore capable of receiving its influences, 
 or resisting them. These doctrines were gen- 
 erally condemned in the Western Church.f 
 It is true, they have continued, with slight 
 variations, to find many advocates there in 
 every age ; but the Church faithfully follow- 
 ed the line which had been traced by Au- 
 gustin. J}y adopting his doctrines on grace, 
 it condemned the heresy both of the Pela- 
 gians and Semi-Pelagians; and by rejecting 
 the dogma of the Fatalists, it relieved itself 
 from that, which would have proved a per- 
 petual source of intenial dissatisfaction and 
 
 * Guizot lias justly observed, that none of these 
 doctrines gave hirth to a Sect, properly so called; 
 those who held them were not formally separated 
 from the Church and formed into a distinct religious 
 aociety, nor had they any peculiar organization or 
 worship. The doctrines were pure oj)inions dcl)aied 
 among enlightened men, and varying both in their 
 credit and in the degrees of their deviation from the 
 Church, but never such as to numacc a formal 
 
 HChiHMI. 
 
 t St. Augnstin di<;d about two years aft(;r iheir 
 oirth, but I) is work was followed up by Prosper and 
 Hilary, who caused them to be condemned very soon 
 after warda by I'opo Celestin. On tho other hand, 
 the opinion* of the PredestinarianH were also con- 
 dcnnic;d by the Councili of Aries (in 172), and of 
 Lyor-M (in 173.) 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 dissent. But ii i? i East, if we may judge 
 fi-om the writi? ge. of Chrysostom, * and the 
 general tone of th< Gieek fathers, the Semi- 
 Pelagian opirions had obtained an earlier 
 and commor pre--'alence, and they appear to. 
 have maintained it, w 'nh little interruption or 
 dispute, to the present moment. The Greeks, 
 however, engaged with little ardor in the Pe- 
 lagian disputes ; anu the reason may have 
 been, that the seeds of another contention, 
 I even more suited to the peculiarity of their 
 I metaphysical taste, were now ready to burst 
 I forth with abundant fertility. The great 
 controversy respecting the Incarnation of 
 Jesus Christ, which engaged, for about two 
 hundred and fifty years, the ingenuity and 
 the passions of the Eastern world, first dis- 
 covered itself in tne beginning of the fifth 
 century, emerging, as it were, from the mists 
 of some early heresies. We shall give as 
 concise an account of it, as is consistent with 
 the illustration of its more important fea 
 tures. 
 
 V. Controversy on the Incarnation. The 
 controversy respecting the Trinity was ter- 
 minated by the Council of Constantinople 
 in the year 383, which established the belief 
 in the personality and divinity of the Holy 
 Spirit, as the true doctrine of the Universal 
 Church. The Arian heresy had been previ- 
 ously condenmed ; and about the end of the 
 fourth century, the attention of speculative 
 minds began to turn from the momentous 
 consideration of the eternal and celestial 
 nature of Christ, and the consequent .degree 
 of worship whicli is due to him, to a subor- 
 dinate inquiry into the probable nature of 
 his existence diu-ing his temporary residence 
 here on earth. This question had, indeed, 
 been moved in the first ages of the Chin-cli, 
 and some of the errors of Marcion, of Cer 
 inthus, Carpocratcs, Basilidcs, and others, are 
 connected with it ; but their opinions were so 
 immediately derived from the absurd theories 
 of Gnosticism, that they gained no great or 
 lasting prevalence, nor have any claim on 
 our [H-csciit attention. And it will seem, in- 
 deed, a very singular circum.stnnce, that the 
 fir.st s|)eculafi()ns on this subject, which ncc 
 essarily fix our notice, should have proceed 
 ed from the friend and associate of Athaiia- 
 sius— Apollinaris, lii.shop of Laodicea, wheth- 
 er carried into excess by his hostility to 
 
 ♦The opinions of Chrysostom on tho Fubject up 
 pear to be fairly discussed by Dupin. Nouv Jiibl., 
 in his Life of that FaUicr 
 
DISSENSIONS. 
 
 16S 
 
 Arianism, or inextricably entangled in his 
 own unnecessary subtilties, so far lost sight 
 of the moderation of reason, that in asserting 
 llie divinity of Christ he denied the coality 
 of his human nature. For he held that the 
 divine nature (the Logos) supphed in Him 
 the place of the spiritual and intellectual 
 principle, and constituted, in fact, His mind. 
 In this sense he could not be considered as 
 perfect man; and in effect, the substitution 
 of the Divine essence for the human soul, so 
 far confused the two natures of Christ, as to 
 reduce them to 'one incarnate nature,' — a 
 doctrine which, indeed, Apollinaris did not 
 disavow. This opinion took deep root in the 
 Egyptian Church, but it was condemned by 
 the clergy of Asia and Syria. 
 
 JVestonus. The question, however, not be- 
 in^ publicly pursued by the directors of the 
 Church, rested in an unsetded state until the 
 accession of Nestorius to the See of Con- 
 stantinople in the year 428. That Prelate 
 was a native of Antioch, and had been edu- 
 cated in the Syrian schools ; and having then 
 been strongly impressed with the distinction 
 of the two natures and the dangerous error 
 of confusing them, he inculcated so strongly 
 the difference between the Son of God and 
 the Son of Man, as to seem almost to extend 
 the distinction of natures to a distinction of 
 oersons, though he avowed no such intention. 
 In consequence of these principles he defen- 
 ded one of his presbyters, Anastasius, who in 
 a public discourse had ventured to argue, that 
 the Virgin Mary ought not properly to be 
 called ' Mother of God ' ( Gfor^xog), but ' Moth- 
 er of Christ' {X'naroT^y.oc), or even 'Mother 
 of Man ' i^'Ar&QwnoToy.og). Whatsoever may 
 be the most appropriate appellation for the 
 Mother of Jesus Christ, it was assuredly the 
 proof of a narrow and contentious spirit, that 
 the Head of the oriental Church should in 
 any* way interfere in so vain a dispute. 
 But Nestorius interfered with earnestness and 
 ardor. It also happened, that the opinion 
 which he undertook to protect was at vari- 
 ance with the popular enthusiasm ; that had 
 already set in the opposite direction, and it 
 was easily urged on and roused into a tem- 
 pest, when an insult was represented to have 
 
 * In a letter addressed to John of Jerusalem, about 
 two years afterwards, when the matter was inflamed' 
 '#.!most beyond hope, Nestorius, indeed, attempts a 
 /»stification, by saying that he found the religious 
 world divided between Theotocos and Anthropoto- 
 cos; and that his only object was to unite both par- 
 ties by the intermediate term Christotocos. But he 
 kad M)en discovered the folly of his attempt. 
 
 been offered to the dignity and holiness of 
 the Virgin. On one occasion, in the midst 
 of a numerous assembly, one Eusebius (then 
 a lawyer, and afterwards Bishop of Dorylo 
 um) interrupted the sermon of the patriarch 
 with these words : — ' It is the eternal Logos 
 himself who has undergone a second birth 
 according to the flesh, and by means of a 
 woman.' The people were excited ; the 
 subject occupied universal attention ; the pas- 
 sions became inflamed, and Nestorius, in his 
 own capital, was absurdly * accused of re- 
 viving the heresies of Photinus and Paul 
 of Samosata. But it was not among his do- 
 mestic adversaries that he found his most 
 formidable opponent. That opponent was 
 Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria — a man of 
 learning and eloquence, and intolerable ar 
 rogance. And some jealousy which at that 
 time subsisted, respecting the relative digni- 
 ty of the two Sees, probably heightened the 
 contention, yrV. is believed by some to have 
 caused it. \ / icther that be so or not, the two 
 patriarchs anathematized each other with 
 mutual violence; and such troubles were 
 raised, that the Emperor (Tlieodosius the 
 yo'jnger) deemed it necessary to convoke a 
 general Council for the purpose of appeasing 
 them. It was assembled at Ephesus in the 
 year 431, and stands in the annals of the 
 Church as the third General Council. Cyril 
 was appointed to preside, and consequently 
 to judge the cause of his adversary ; and he 
 carried into this office such Jittle show of 
 impartiality, that he refused even to wait for 
 the arrival of the Bishop of Antioch and oth 
 ers, who were held friendly to Nestorius, ar. J 
 proceeded to pronounce sentence, while the 
 meeting was yet incomplete. To secure or 
 prosecute his advantages, he had brought 
 with him from Egypt a number of robust and 
 daring fanatics,f who acted as his soldiery ; 
 
 * In a sermon, delivered in answer to a public at- 
 tack made by Proclus, Bishop of Cyzicum, Nestori- 
 us maintains that it is improper, ' nakedly to assert, 
 that God was born of Mary; but rather, that God. 
 the Word of the Father, was joined to him who was 
 born of Mary. It was the Man, and not the Word 
 God, which rose again; the Temple should be dis- 
 tinguished from the God who dwells there.' (Fleury, 
 liv. XXV. sect. 2.) It seems very probable, that if 
 Nestorius had abstained from all mention of the Vir- 
 gin Mary, or merely avoided the imprudence of in- 
 terfering with the title of a being Avho was already 
 becoming the object of superstition, the controversy 
 would not have taken place at all. 
 
 t These were chiefly monks — a race which swarm- 
 ed with singular fecundity along the banks of tl^ Nile, 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 and it had been skilfully arranged, that Ephe- 
 sus should be chosen for the decision of a 
 difference respecting the dignity of the Vir- 
 gin ; since popular tradition had buried her 
 in that city, and the imperfect Christianity of 
 its inhabitants had readily transferred to her 
 the worship which their ancestors Jiad of- 
 fered to Diana. 
 
 After publishing an unjust condemnation * 
 of the undefended patriarch, and causing, 
 through its own dissensions, some sanguinary 
 tumult throughout the city, the third Gene- 
 ral Council was at length dismissed by The- 
 odosius in these words : — ' God is my wit- 
 ness, that I am not the author of this confu- 
 sion. His providence will discern and pun- 
 ish the guilty. Return to your provinces; 
 and may your private virtues repair the mis- 
 chief and scandal of your meeting.' The 
 banishment of JVestorius did not immediately 
 follow his condemnation ; and four other 
 years of intrigue and malevolence were ne- 
 cessary, before he was dismissed, — first, to his 
 original convent at Antioch, and finally to an 
 island (Oasis) in the deserts of Upper Egypt. 
 There he died ; and as he died a persecuted 
 exile, he has a strong and natural claim on 
 our sympathy ; but it is lessened by the recol- 
 lection of his dangerous indiscretion ; and we 
 are forbidden to forget or to conceal, that in 
 his days of prosperity, while in the enjoy- 
 ment of dignity and power, he had not refus- 
 ed to inflict on the Arians and other heretics 
 the calamities which were impending over 
 himself f 
 
 In the meantime his opinions extended 
 
 and in the deserts of the Thebais. The influence wliich 
 tliey possessed in the Egyptian Church is proved by 
 the circumstance, tiiat the first attack which Cyril 
 made upon his brother-patriarch, appeared in the 
 form of an Epi.stle General to the Monks of Egypt. 
 Its BUCCCH8 was very sensibly displayed at Ejjhcsus. 
 
 *Thc first Inirst of the unanimous (if it was so) 
 indignation of the Fathers was expressed nearly in 
 these words: — ' Anathema to him who does not ana- 
 thematize Ncstorius ; the orthodox faith anathematizes 
 him; the holy Council anatluMuatizos him. We all 
 anathematize the heretic Ncstorius; we anatlunnatize 
 all who communicate with him and his impious belief. 
 All the earth anathematizes the unholy religion of 
 N(Mtorius. Anathema to him who does not anathe- 
 uiHlize NestoriuH,' — Fleury, liv. xxv. sect. .39. 
 
 t During his baninhment he wuh carried into cap- 
 tivity by the IMeimnycs; and after his release by 
 tbem, wan liurrii;d aljout from place to ))lace by the 
 governor of (Jp|)er K^ypt, ho that he had no rcpow; 
 even in exile. ' Knfm (nayH Fleury) il monrut, acca- 
 de vieillcHJw; ct d'iiifirmit<''M ; et on dil, (jue Ha 
 langue fut rongZ-e de vers.' Of all Roman Catholic 
 lintorianii, Fleury is the moMt charitable 
 
 themselves rapidly throughout central Asia 
 along the Eastern extremities of Christen- 
 dom. Through Chaldea, Persia, Syria, and 
 Assyl'ia ; in Arabia, India, Tartary, and even 
 China, they took deep root during the fifth 
 and following century ; and the niimbers of 
 their professors, their indignation against the 
 persecutors of Nestorius, and their conse- 
 quent enmity against the Church and name 
 of Greece, prepared them, in a later age, for 
 alliance with the Mahometan invader.* 
 
 They assembled their councils at Seleucia, 
 and their doctrine, as there determined, 
 amounted to this — ' That in the Saviour of 
 the world there were two persons or sub- 
 stances [vTToaTuosig)^ of which the one was 
 divine, the Eternal Word ; and the other, 
 which was human, was th€ man Jesus ; that 
 these two substances had only one aspect 
 (barsopa, itoooujTcov) ; that the union between 
 the Son of God and the Son of man was not 
 an union of nature or of person, but only of 
 will and affection ; that Christ was therefore 
 to be carefully distinguished from God, who 
 dwelt in him as in a temple ; that Mary was 
 to be called the mother of Christ and not the 
 mother of God.' From this exposition f of 
 doctrine it has been suspected, and with great 
 justice, that the difference between the Nes- 
 torians and the Orthodox was in fact merely 
 verbal ; and that the more rational disputants 
 of both parties were maintaining, with some 
 variation of expression, the very same opin- 
 ions. Indeed, if in that exposition we are to 
 consider the word person as in both cases 
 synonymous with Hypostasis, or substance, 
 there remains little, if any thing, which could 
 divide the most pugnacious polemics. 
 
 Eutyches. In the history of this contro- 
 versy, the name of Eutyches immediately 
 succeeds to that of Nestorius. This person 
 was the abbot of a convent at Constantinoj)le, 
 and an intempprate opposer of the opinions 
 
 * ' The successors of Mahomet in Persia employed 
 the Nestorians in the most important aflairs, both of 
 the cabinet and of the provinces, and suflercd the pa- 
 triarch of that sect only to reside in the kingdom of 
 IJabylon. The Monophysites enjoyed in Syria and 
 Egyi)t an equal degree of favor and protection.' 
 Mosh. (Cent. vii. p. ii. ch. v.) 
 
 t It is taken from Mosheim; and the peculiar word 
 narM)pa may perhaps be properly translated aspect. 
 Only render it person, and < mit that same word when 
 it is used Hynonyniously with substance, and even tlie 
 shadow of the (lifTcrence is ahnost removed. It is at 
 least certain that the Monothclitts have commonly 
 accused the Catholics of Neslorianism, and have 
 Homctimes mistaken the one for the other. Soc J leu 
 ry, xxvii. , sect. 28. 
 
DISSENSIONS. 
 
 1(15 
 
 of Nestorius. He carried the doctrine of the 
 Egyptian school to its extreme interpretation, 
 and appears to have exceeded the obscure 
 hmits of the error of ApolHnaris. * 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. 
 Tiie 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 
 anatliernatized Apollinaris, together with Valentinus, 
 Manes, Nestorius, and Simon the magician. He 
 had reached his seventy-first year, when his opinions 
 \rere attacked by the very same man who had first 
 sounded the trumpet against Nestorius — Eusebius, 
 now Bishop of Doryleum, 
 
 f A necessary consequence of this doctrine seems 
 to \)e 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. Tbeee disputes chiefly prevailed in Egypt, the 
 liot-bwi of the Monophysite heresy. 
 
 i 2i'rodog P.>;fTTO(X),', Conventus Latronum, Latro- 
 einium Ephesinum, are the terms in which it is usu- 
 bMv 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 Marciah. 
 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 •rthodox — for in this last dispute 
 thei'e is no confusion of terms; in the very same 
 words the one party plainly asserts one, the other 
 two natures of Clirist ; 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. 
 
 t The Eutychians, or Slonophysites, are also 
 known in history by the appellation of Jacobites^ 
 from (he name of one of tluir teachers, James Bara 
 d?eus. 
 
166 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 veiy 
 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, aiikl 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. 
 
 The 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 — ' Wiicther Christ, of one ])er- 
 son but two natures, was actuated by a single 
 or a double tvill ? ' Tlie Greeks in general 
 favored the former opinion, but not with 
 Iheir usual impetuosity ; indeed they seem at 
 /(Migth to have been so far exhausted by such 
 fruitless contests, as to have considered the 
 question trifling and sujxjrfluous. And it 
 was not until the year fJHO, that, through the 
 angry opp()si;ion of the ]>atiuH to this dogma, 
 tin; Sixth fiencral Council was assiMublcd at 
 Cofistantinoplc, whicli fonwiilly pronounced 
 that two wills were harmonized in the person 
 <»f ( 'hrist. Hucii is Hlill (he <!octrin(i both of 
 the Greek and Latin ChurcheH; and with 
 the establiHhnient of that doctrine; the contro- 
 versy resj)ecling the incarnation, after an in- 
 leirnjjted dination of about three; hundred 
 yearH, expin:*!.* 
 
 • AcriiraU:ly Hpetikiiifj, M()in»lhelil(! ('oiiliovcr- 
 (ly whM ralluT a »:(»ii«(;(|uuiice, tliuti u part, of that 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 The heretics who advocated the one loill 
 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, indifterent aj)athy, 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 excitetnent of religious dissension 
 and the bustle of public councils, heated too * 
 by the various passions which the mere spirit 
 of ri sistance will create in the calmest tem- 
 p(!rament, ran loose into scandalous excesses, 
 might very consistently be endued with the 
 j)urest piety, and habituated, in the private 
 exercise of tiieir sacerdotal functions, to tiie 
 fervent discharge of every Chrif*tian duty. 
 It argues a very slight or a very partial view 
 
 roHpcctiiig the Incarnation, nince lliosc who adopted 
 \\w doctrine of oik; will, did not in consiMpii-nce reject 
 lh(! derisions citlior of Ephrsus or C'lialcedon, bnt 
 adhered, on the contrary, to Itoth, — bo as to unite (in 
 profession at leant, if not in reason) the PtricttHt or- 
 thodoxy r(!specting tlu' nature and person of Chri«\ 
 \ with their pervert)'; opinion respecting hia will 
 
DISSENSIONS 
 
 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 
 lis 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 setde, 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: — j 
 * Eodem tempore aliud ex Germania certamen in I 
 Gallias inferebatur de modo quo Sanctissimus Serva- 
 tor ex utero Matris in lucem prodiit. Germani qui- 
 dain Jesum Christum non communi reliquorum homi- 
 nuir. lege, sed singulari et extraordinaria, utero 
 MatJiS exiisse statuebant. Qua sententia in Galliam 
 delata, Ratranmus earn oppugnabal, atque Christum 
 per natune januam in munduin ingressum esse tueba- 
 tur. Germanis 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 thai we find the great patron 
 of Transubstantiation, Paschasius Radbertus, advo- 
 cating such extravagant and imp-ous nonsense. 
 
 vestiges may, in some cases, be traced to ite 
 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 ])re- 
 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 tl^em 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 600, idolati-y 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 witli submissive reverence the 
 sins and follies of their ancestors. Never- 
 theless, the Eijiperor 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 ascril^ed 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 Avhicb 
 his attachment is more than insinuated. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 many diffictilties, the purification of the i, 
 Church ; and he began his pious enterprise I, 
 by an attack on its most flagrant corruption. I 
 It is disputed, whether the first measure of I 
 Leo was prudently confined to the abohtion 
 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 :o»iceaied them from 
 view, and even destroyed tnem. The eflTect 
 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 ])aid 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 ihem. 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 CoT);^ntiiio, 
 surnamed Copronymus, who faithfnily fol- 
 lowed liis footsteps. Thirteen years after- 
 wards that Prince assembled a eynod in the 
 8ul)urbs of Constantinople;, at which three 
 hundred and thirty-eight Bishops attended. 
 They decreed the destruction of images,* 
 and the decision, yrhich has sometimes been 
 attributed to ll.eir loyalty, may with equal 
 justice be ascribed to th(!ir sense and their 
 piety. They were called Iconoclasts, or 
 image-breakers J and the execution of their 
 decrees occoHioncd many calumnies against 
 
 • Some of the argtiiiionts seriously advanced on 
 thiM orcHhum hy (lie IronochiHtH Hccin intended to 
 KiirjKiKH llie alwnrility of their udvcrparies ; arrordinj; 
 to ihrin, even ilie painter is eonvictcd of several and 
 <;»o.i the nioMt oppocile heresies. They may 1)0 found j 
 In V'leury, liv. xliii , «;ct. 7. ,1 
 
 I the Emperor's character, and many tumulta, 
 I which distui bed the peace and even endan- 
 gered the security of his reign. Neverthe- 
 less, that reign lasted thirty-four years ; and 
 the whole space was perse vei mgly 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 atler his accession, 
 and the education of his son, a boy of ten 
 years old, as well as the direction of public 
 aflfairs, was entrusted to the Empress Irene. 
 Immediately the religious policy of the pal- 
 ace was changed ; and as fifl,y 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 
 Coimcil, 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 suinmoned ; not 
 merely as matters of barren recollection, but 
 because we perceive in them, if we are not 
 greatly in error, an indication of the gradmaZ 
 departure of the Church, first from scriptural 
 8im{)licity, and then from truth. Between 
 the first and the last of them the space of 
 4G2 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 willi the authority of this Council: — 
 * We receive, l)esideH the figure of tlic cross, the 
 relics of saints, and their images; wc embrace them 
 according to the ancient tradition of our fathers, 
 who luive placed theuj in all the Churches of God, 
 and all the places where he is served. We honor 
 and adore them, viz. that of Jef^us Christ, of his 
 holy M<»tlier, of the angels, — for though they are 
 incorporeal, they have revealed thenjselves in a hu- 
 man form; those of the nposlles, the prophets, the 
 martyrs, and other saints; becau.ie those paintings 
 recall to us the memory of the originals and make us 
 \parliripate in their sanctity.' Fleury, liv, xliv 
 Isert 'M 
 
DISSENSIONS. 
 
 cfMfiges 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 popular cries are unworthy of the episcopal 
 character, and are of no use to either party — allow 
 the pajjer to be read to you.' The Egyptians ex- 
 slaimcd, ' Expel that one man only, and we will all 
 listen; out voice is raised for tbo Catholic laith,' &c. 
 
 naturally result from eager disputation on ft 
 matter of mysterious and almost impcnetra 
 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 air 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 centurj'. 
 
 t At Nice, among 318 members, three were of the 
 Western Church; at Constantinople (I), among 150, 
 one only ; at Ephesus, among 68, one ; at C-iialcedon, 
 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, aM^ *^ »1rr-"'»» 
 ' of the Bishop of Sardinia. 
 
170 
 
 HISTOR-i 01- THE CHURCH. 
 
 The edicts of the last j^eneral 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 sliall 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 tirne. 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 fornrerly, 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 openitions ; we im|)lore 
 the intercession of tin; Holy Virgin, the 
 mother of God, and of all the Saints; we 
 reverence their relics; we rec<!ive all the 
 
 ♦Thus it appears tl>at the diHtinction at present so 
 broadly drawn hy the Cireek Chiircli bclwccMi llu; 
 wornliip of painted and of graven irna;^(>n (\\(\ not 
 thcncxi«t. Tlur dfrtinrtion is, inderd, very old in the 
 writings of the C'hnrrh ; Init it is probable that it was 
 not prartirally introduced until aflf-r the Mahometan 
 
 CUKtUCttt. 
 
 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,'! ^^^^ 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 
 
 concUiding confession we observe how many were the 
 abuses to which even a reformer of the Church felt 
 obliged to publish his adhesion. 
 
 t There seems some reason to believe that this feast 
 was not established until after the Council which was 
 assembled by IMiotius, in 879, in further confirmation 
 of idolatry. 
 
 X In favor at least of the consistency of that sex, 
 we must mention that it declared itself for idolatry 
 from the very coinn)enccmcnt 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 Antiphonefes, or 
 Respondent; and he despatched one of his officers, 
 named Jovinus, to break it down. Seveial women 
 who were present endeavored to avert his design by 
 their feupplications ; but Jovinus, nothing moved l>y 
 them, ascended a ladd(!r and dealt some severe blows 
 on the image. On this the women became furious; 
 t!iey pulled down the ladder, massacred (he oflicer on 
 (he Hpot, and tore him in pieces. 'J'he iniage fell 
 notu ilhHianding, and the wom^a w«r« led away 
 execution. 
 
DISSENSIONS. 
 
 best writer in the Easleni Church during this 
 most critical period in its history, — indeed, 
 the only writer of any reputation even in his 
 own day, — was John 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 eloquence 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 familiar, 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 j 
 monastery of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, beyond the I 
 limits of the imperial control. He condescends to ap- 1 
 peal to the authority of older fathers in his defence of im- 1 
 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. 
 
 t 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 watchca 
 with an anxious eye the endeavors which 
 i were made to remove it. But such charac- 
 Iters, which are among the best of the sacred 
 ' profession, are seldom busy or ambitious ; and 
 I the anxiety of those excellent men may have 
 been often confined to their own bosoms, oi 
 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 monk^ 
 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 alii 
 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 hav3 
 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 
 
 established, under the guidance of Chai-le- 
 magne,'* a very broad distinction between 
 positive and relative vvorehip ; 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 IIL — Perseverance of the 
 Greeks — Forgery of the Latins — the Patriarch Photius 
 — his character — his excommunication of Pope Nicholas 
 L — Viva 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 difTerences- Michael Ccriilarius— 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 dclihcrations 
 were lielfl imder the eye of lluit monarch, wont, in- 
 deed, soMiowliat furllici ll.an tliis, and, ihougli it pcr- 
 mitterl ihc: ini:i^.f«'H to remain, forbade any Kort of ado- 
 ration to Im; aiMrf.HHed to tlieni. 
 
 + Diipin ^Nouv. liihi. on second Council of Nice) 
 given a to.er.ibly fair hinforiral view of (lie Huhjeel 
 of imaj^e wor»liip. Il*- admits that, diirin;? tin; llin-e 
 6rBt agen and the iK-fjiimin;^ oflli(! fnurtli, imaj^es were 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 Arcadius and 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, clii(!lly in the East, and became common in the 
 sixth; they represented combats of martyrs and oth- 
 er sacred stories, for (he instruction of those who 
 were unable to read. The simple vulgar were touch- 
 ed by these representations; and when they beheld tho 
 Saints eo vividly, and, as it were, bodily presented 
 to them, they could not preverjt themselves from tes- 
 tifying, by exterior sifjnt, the esteem, the respect, 
 and the veneration which (hey felt for them. Thus 
 (he worship of images insensibly established i(Helf, and 
 it was still furdier confirmed by the miracles whicil 
 were aUribnted to them. 
 
GREEK AND LATIN CHURCHES. 
 
 173 
 
 risdictioii 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 impeiial 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 
 Constan.ine ; however, the superior rank and 
 precedence of the Roman Pontiflf 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 Pontifl^s 
 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 aflfront 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- 
 aaV, Bishop of Jerusalem, usurped the title of patri- 
 arch, which, however, was confirmed to him by The- 
 odosi'is the Younger. 
 
 found to pursue the same course at Constan- 
 tinople as at Rome. But there it was liable 
 to severer mortifications and 'more eflfectual 
 control from the immediate presence of tht 
 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 PontiflT, 
 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, 
 I 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 bey or he 
 limits of the Eastern Church. But GiCgory 
 could not brook such assumption in an East- 
 ern Prelate, and used every endeavor to de- 
 prive his rivr.1 of the obnoxious title, and at 
 the same ti»^ to establish his own superi- 
 
174 
 
 HISTORY OF TUtL. CHURCH 
 
 oritj-. 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 Emneror 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 
 igain 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 (Jhurcli, pertinaciously claimed by 
 the our, and persovoringly refused by the 
 other; and to this difl'ercnce we need not 
 doubt that a great j)roportion of the violence 
 wliich disgraced the controversy may be as- 
 cribed. But during the eighth century the 
 contention ossumcd a diflerent aspect, and 
 took a ground and charurtcr less discreditable 
 to eitlu-r party. 
 
 The (loiihle Processwn. Acrordiiig to the 
 original cicrd of the Latin aH w<;l! as of iIk? 
 GpM.'k (.'hurch, the Holy Spirit was hclicv- 
 ed to prorcj'd from the Jutlhcr oiibj ; and iIk; 
 7:*'Htion, tiiough of great theological impor- 
 ttcce, does not appear to have been generally 
 
 investigated until the eighth century — at least 
 to that period we must refer the origin of th? 
 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 agitatec 
 in the Council of Gentilli, near Paris ; it dien 
 received the assent of the French clergy. 
 Soon afi;erwards 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 creec^;' nevertheless, 
 as it had previously obtained place in the 
 Latin creeds, his authority, or his inclination, 
 was not sufficiently strong to eflfect its gen- 
 eral erasure. It was maintained in France, 
 and its rejection by Rome was feeble and tera- 
 poraiy. 
 
 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 
 groinid than its antiqtiity. 
 
 Plwtius. 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 
 body kiiidhul, and to accelerate the certain 
 hour of separation. This consummation wa8 
 presently secured by the promotion of a very 
 
 ♦ Baroniiis asBcrte, that (ho words Filioque were 
 first ad(h'(l by the Council of 'r<il(;(lo, bij the auttior- 
 ily of Pope Leo /.,al)out llic year 417 ; but he con- 
 fesses (hat (lu! (ioclriiic was not expressly received by 
 tlu: Roman ( 'hinrli until soino a;;eH afterwards. 
 
 I Fleury, Hist. V.ccX. |iv. xlv. sect. 48. The Tope 
 defen<le<l Ilis opinion l)y llic arffunient, that two (Jen- 
 eral ( 'ouncils, that of Chah edon and the Fifth, iiad 
 forliidden any athlilion to the erei'd 
 
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 
 oy the Emperor Michael, who, with that 
 view, 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 Rome f in 
 862, in which he pronounced the election of 
 Photius illegal, and excommunicated him 
 with all his abettors. The patriarch was not 
 much 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 wp may more clearly show what 
 were held to be the principal points on which 
 the Churches were divided, and also that vve 
 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, style, fidelity, 
 authority.' Caoe, ap. Jortin, in A. D. 861. 
 
 t Mosheim, cent. ix. p. ii., c. iii. 
 
 the holy chrism, withholding that power fronr. 
 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 Holv Spirit from th 
 Son as well as the Father. 
 
 These charges, and the consequent recrim- 
 inations, imbittered as they also were by 
 national animosity, had, of course, no other 
 eflTect 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, 
 lilyricum, 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 oflTence 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 Christianit}'" by Greek missionaries ; or, 
 if it be admkted 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 Poj)e maintained a sort of communica- 
 tion with the Bulgarians, by means of missionaries, 
 and that their King actually sent his son to Rome iii 
 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 oi equal claims. 
 
176 HISTORY OF 
 
 in rt'hich the papal legates had gi'eat 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 he playing her part most ai-tfully, 
 she was httle more than a tool in the more 
 artful hands of a Greek paiiy, who flattered 
 her as long as their own interests required 
 her supi)ort, hut 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, juid at length the legates in the heart 
 of Constantinople, in the Church of St. So- 
 
 * While the Pontiffs were contending for authority, 
 the Cliurcheri were debating witli extreme ardor a 
 point of d^flTenrnce posterior in origin to the tima of 
 PhotiiiH, viz. \vhell;[;r the hrcad used at tlie Eucharist 
 should 1)0 leavened or unleavened^ 'J'he (ireek clergy 
 hehl the former rjpinion, and olijected the latter to the 
 LiitiuK a^ an tnipardonahic error. Some other abuses 
 are also impnicd to ihrm by ('erularius, and they are 
 amoni{ ihe niosl frivolous which could have l)een selfict- 
 ed out of the lon^ and dark list of their corru|)tions — 
 a proof that the spirit of the (ireck (.'hurch in lliat 
 age was MM far from the true cuuiprchension of Clu wt- 
 fianity im thai of its rival. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I phia, publicly excommunicated the patriarch 
 I and all his adherents. They then solemnly 
 deposited the written act of their anathema 
 on the grand altar of the Temple, and, having 
 shaken oft' 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 
 i has been occasionally resumed since that 
 I time, as political rather than religious exi- 
 j gences have required it, the imputed errors 
 j of the Greeks (of which the most oflTensive 
 j was their independence) have never been se- 
 I riously retracted by their Church, nor ever 
 i have been pardoned by its rival, 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 I CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 I The Constitution of the Church as fixed by 
 j Chaiiemagne. 
 
 ! I. Review of the ante-Nicene Church — Its construction 
 I and government — its real character and utility — Doc- 
 i trines and heresies — moral excellences — Origin of 
 j various abuses— Early false miracles— their nature and 
 j object — Exorcism — Literary forgeries — Distinction of 
 j the converts — mysteries — Original Sacraments — their 
 I gradual corruption — Reverence for martyrs — celebration 
 I of their nativities — Prayers and offerings for the dead 
 ! — Fasts, occasional and general — Certain terms and 
 I usages borrowed from Jewish and Pagan systems — In- 
 ' ferences — the ante-Nicene Church had imperfections 
 I which might easily have been remedied. — II. From 
 < Coiistantine to Gregory the Great — (I.) Some particular 
 ! innovations — Celibacy of the Clergy practices of the 
 ! Eastern and Western Churches— Gregory I. and VII.— 
 ! Relaxation of Penitential discipline — Purgatory — Use 
 J and consequent worship of images — (2.) TJie Church 
 j in connexion with the State — Origin of distinction 
 ! between temporal and spiritual power — sources ot 
 j 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 — 
 I causes of this change — Elements of the Papal system — 
 ; the most obvious causes of its rise and progress. — III. 
 I From Gregory to Charlemagne — Ditferences between 
 the Eastern and Western Churches — Further growth 
 j of episcopal authority in the latter— Further exaltation 
 I of the See of Rome — The Athanasian creed. — IV 
 j Jurisdiction and imnninitics of the Clergy— Arbitration 
 ' of ancient Bishops — confirmed by Constantine — en- 
 I largful by Justinian— Great extent of privilege conferred 
 i by Charlemagne — liis probable motives — The False 
 ■ Decretals— Donation of Constantine— their objects and 
 i effects.— V. Revenues of the Church— oblations— fixed 
 I property- Donations — various descriptions nnd objects 
 I of — other sources of wejilth — Early distribution and 
 I ap|)licati()ii of ecclesiastiral funds — Payment and estn- 
 ! blisliiiiciit of Tithes — Various advanta'jes conferred 
 1 upon the world by the Churcli during the ages preceding 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 Wf, slmll depart from that importntit position 
 ill <mr history which is occupied by ihc acts 
 of CJiiarlcmtigiic, with a clearer view of their 
 nature and a belter coinprelH'iisieii ol* the 
 
THE AIN IE-NICENE CHbRCH. 
 
 177 
 
 character of the Roman Church, if we pre- 
 viously throw even a hasty retrospect over 
 some portion of the path which v/e 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 
 tham, we shall complete the account which 
 W3 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-JVicene Church. The Primi- 
 tive Assemblies {iy.x?.t'iOiai) 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 aflTairs 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. 
 
 Th as, 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 ol 
 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 ovei 
 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 membei's 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. 
 
 t De Jejuniis. — ' Aguntur per Groecias ilia in locis 
 concilia ex universis ecclesiis, per quce et altiora 
 qua;que in commune tractantur, et ipsa reprsesentatio 
 totius nominis Christian! magna veneraticne celebm 
 tur.' 
 
 X 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 pow^r 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 
 teht, the opinions which might be stigmatized 
 as heretical by any one of the Churches 
 wore," 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, j 
 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 iniity among religious societies possessing 
 the same canon of fiiith 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. * 
 
 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 
 view's and prejudices of the time or place in 
 which they w^ere 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 ofl;en deviated very widely from 
 sense and truth themselves, f Those contro- 
 
 • S«;mlcr (ObHcrvalionoa Novsn in HiHtoriiun HI, 
 primor. wrc.) conHidcrs it to have l)con tlic noisl 
 conw;i|in;rK!C! of llio fonnatiori of llin early Cliiirrli as a 
 •infflcr l>o(ly,tliat it n-Htraiiied (Ik; liljcrty of iiHlividiial 
 jmiginciif, or what v■A\t^ intprnal rrlii::ton ; that: 
 it iiiipoMnI certain riilr;)*, l)oth of doctrine aiifl diMci- 
 pline. MIX. II ilu- inorr- i.,'nr)rant and wor 'dly (.'hristianH, | 
 
 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- 
 fal 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 Sernler, 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 llic faillifid in discipline, and in devoted 
 resistance to the attacks of persecution. 
 
 ♦ * C'est la maticrc dc tons Ics Sermons dcs Peres 
 la morale ct les h^r^sics du terns. Sans cetlc clef 
 souvcnt on nc les cntcnd paa; ou du inoins on no les 
 pent gouter. Et c'est encore nne utility considimble 
 do rilistoire Eccli^siasticjuo. Car (|uand on scait les 
 lu'rcrtics (|ui r/;gnoient en cha(|uo terns et cn cha(|uc 
 paiH on voit pounpioi les pc^rcH revenoient loiijours 
 ;\ certains points dc doctrine.' Flcury, Disc. 1. sur 
 I 'Hist. Eccles., B. xiv. 
 
 t Even IreinvuH, Hlmost the earliiist f uiong th<MU, ii 
 
THE ANTE-NICENE CHLRCH. 
 
 versies. ho vever, uiougli not always conduct- 
 ed Willi becoming rnoderacion, 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 
 miprovement 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 pecuUarity 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 
 tlie 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 ; his 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,f 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- 
 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 testimonj 
 of Irengeus (lib. ii. cap. 31 or 57) as cited by Euse- 
 bius (lib. V. cap. 7) : — ot uh ylxQ Saluovag ilavvovoi 
 ^e^aicjg y.al aXr^Mg' wars noXXuy.ig y.al rciOTsvdv 
 avTovg iysa ovg xa6aQio6tvrag ano twv novrjQcoi' 
 TrrivuuTvjv y.al slvai iv rij iyyXtjola' ot ds xat 
 Tt^oyvixioiv t ^ovairiov utXX()vrwv,y.ai bnraoiag y.al 
 Qtjosig TiQOifTjrixag' uXXoi Ss Tovg y.af.ivovrag Sia 
 tyj-g xmv _;fs(()wv Ini&taewg icHvrai, xal vyittg 
 ocTvoyaQioraOiv. y'jdr] Se xa&a>g e'(pausv xat vsyQol 
 iytQ^yjoav, y.al TtaQi^istvav ovv r^utv ixavotg %rtOi^ 
 Kul 11 yuq; ovx soriv uQi&iiov sircsiv rcHv jraqLOu- 
 arwv wv xara navxhg rov xoo/nov ij txxXtjaia naqa 
 Ot-ov ka^ovoa, &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 ovv (-j/rv cannot, without great violence, 
 be understood of any preceding generation, and we 
 doubt not 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. xaQiog xal no?.?.cov 
 axovouev aSaXipoiv iv rij Ixxlr^ala TTQOifjjTixa 
 /aqlouara l/ovtcjv, xat navroSaTvatg J.a'/.otvrwv 
 Sia IIvevuaTog ylwaoaig. After this passage, there 
 is scarcely any mention made of that gift in ecclesias- 
 tical history. We should observe, that Eusebiua 
 makes the above citation in proof of his assertion 
 *that miraculous powers Iv txy.Xr,olaig rioiv vtts- 
 XsiTiTo as late as the time of Irenseus.' He does not 
 appear disposed to claim them /or the Church at any 
 later period. 
 
180 HISTORY OF ' 
 
 but the evil of the practice overbalanced its f 
 profit, even its momentary profit ; since the ; 
 minds of men were thereby hurried away ■ 
 from the proper understanding of the Gospel, i 
 and the true character of the rehgion, to gaze : 
 after marvels and prodigies, and prepared to '. 
 ascribe to fallacious impressions a belief, \ 
 which can only be sound when it is founded | 
 in reason. It is proper, however, to point out ! 
 one general distinction between these early j 
 miracles and those which clouded the Church ; 
 in later ages ; for, though it is insufficient to 1 
 establish their credit, it may lead us to regard j 
 their authors with more charity. There ap- 1 
 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, i 
 nor to subvert any obnoxious heresy, nor to i 
 establish any new doctrine, nor to recom- 1 
 mend any foolish practice or superstitious ; 
 observance. * We can seldom trace them to j 
 any other motive than an injudicious zeal for i 
 the propagation of the faith. ' 
 
 The triumphs of the Exorcists over the j 
 powers of darkness are so loudly and perpet- { 
 ually celebrated by the oldest Church writers, j 
 that they may deserve a separate notice. It | 
 seems, indeed, i)robable that the Jews, espe- | 
 cially after their intercourse with the Chal- 1 
 daeans 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 ' Da) mo n lacs,' whose mani- 
 fold (lis(;ases could hope for no relief from 
 ordinary remedies, as tbey proceeded not 
 from human accidents. The language even 
 of Scripture, when literally understood, ap- 
 pears to sanction such an ojjiiiion, and the 
 literal interpretation has had its advocates 
 among the learned and pious in every age of 
 the Church. Hut the notion of real Dx-mo- 
 niara agency was carried loan extreme of 
 aljsurdity, and led, W(! f(;ar, to many acts of 
 deceit in the second and third ccnlurii's. 
 
 • Thi^ milijcct in very fairly treated by Dr. Jortiii 
 in th<; iM'giiiiiin;^ of Ii'im mrcorid hook. 
 1 Sec LiyliU'oot, Horn- lldiniicuj. 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 * Oh, could you but heai- (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 tlieir invisible enemy, and 
 that the promised Redemption was nothing 
 more than a sensible liljeratiou 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 
 \ATiters partook more or less of one or the 
 other of these tendencies ; Justin Martyr, 
 Tatian, Irenajus, and even TeituUian himself, 
 
 * Epist. 7G. Both IrciKinis and TerUilliiin are very 
 animati'd on the fame siihjcct. 
 
 t Among these, besides (ho Epistle to Abgarus,tIio 
 works ascribed to Hcrmea Trisniegistiis, the Sibyl- 
 line ProphcsicK, Hydafpis, the Apostolical Canona 
 and Constitutiona, we may mention varions apocry- 
 phal hisloricH of Jesiin, of IMary, and his other rela- 
 tives — of TibcritiH, N (codenms, and Joseph of Arima- 
 thea — of (lie ApoKllcfi, eH|)eciaily St. Peter — the origin 
 of the Apostles' Creed — the Synods f)f the Apostles — 
 the Epistle of Seneca to Paid— tlie Acts of Pilate, 
 &c. &c. 
 
THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 
 
 181 
 
 were in some degree tainted by tlie former 
 infection, and Clemens Alexandrinus 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- 
 hig writers. 
 
 The distinction of the converts into ' Cat- 
 echumens,' and ' Faithful,' or ' Believers,' 
 (Iltaroi) was introduced after the age of Jus- 
 tin, and before or during that of TertulHan.* 
 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 :\ all that followed 
 
 * De Prescrip. adv. Haeret. cap. 41. He censures 
 the heretics for not making ihe distinction in question 
 in their congregations. 
 
 t 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 ay.oivcjvrjToi, TctQmaT\]aars — 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 
 M issa 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 tnan the preceding, centuries. But a 
 summary of the 'nstructions 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 Qot 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 (Comm. in 
 Psalm ciii., Concio. i.) says, ' Quid est quod occul- 
 tum est et non publicum in Ecclesia'? Sacramentum 
 Baptismi, Sacramentum EucharisticE. Opera nos- 
 tra bona vident et Pagani, Sacramenta vero occultan- 
 tur illis.' The practice probably vai-ied in diflferent 
 Churches ; but the whole proves that the Seven Sac- 
 raments were not yet acknowledged in any. 
 
 t 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'^ 
 
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 Euchaiist 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 
 disposal 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 erven pious custom to celebrate the birth- 
 days of those who had offered themselves up 
 as sacrifices for their religion. By their birth- 
 days (their y(iid?.tu) 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 
 depcu-ted, and of the example which they had 
 bequeatlied to posterity. Assemblies were 
 held for this purpose at the tombs of the mar- 
 tyrs, or on tlie spots where they had perished, 
 and their frequency is attested by Tertullian, 
 Cyprian, Origen, and others of the oldest 
 fathers. The Munrrnotv ytr»'(3/j« were the 
 Haints' days of the early Christians, and may 
 be traced at least as far back as the execution 
 
 * The passages in Irena.'UH wliiclj liave givc^n occa- 
 sion to the warmoBt conlrovcrj<y, and not wliolly with- 
 out grouod, arc lib. iv.,c. 17 (or 32) and IS (or 34), 
 and lib. v., c. 2, Miraciila Sacraj Cn'im: vel Cyprianns 
 andct narrare. SoinI«;r, Obncrv, Nov., &c. 
 
 t TcrluU. de ReHurrcctiono Cnrnin, cap. 43. Nemo 
 cnim pcregrinatiiH a rorjxire Htatiin innnoratnr penes 
 Dorninum, n'm cx niartyrii prerogativa, I'aradiso 
 flcilicet Qon Infcria dcvcrstiriis. And lib. du Anitna, 
 
 of Poly carp ; * and as ihe places of meeting 
 were not then consecrated by chapels r/r 
 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 ; I 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. 
 rov Xntorov nuQe^iQoi, %ai ri^g (iaai?.tiag aihov 
 y.oivcjvoL xal ^iro/oi T/;? XQiotung avTov, xai 
 avrdiy.uLovTtg avTto. 
 
 * In the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna to tliat 
 of Philomelium (in Enseb., 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 l)irth-day.' See 
 Cave, Primitive Christianity, p. ii., ch. 7. 
 
 t 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 ; l)ut these were the natural excesses of 
 popular enthusiasm, and would have ceased with the 
 cessation of persecution, if they had not afterwards 
 been pcrpctnalcd and systematized by the an* of a 
 corrupt prirsthood. 
 
 X 'IVrtull. de Monogamia, c. 10. 
 
 § He may do so, for in his ' Liber de Jejuniis ' he 
 is writing in favor of RIontanism against the Church. 
 Wvwc autem (ptod et Episco|)i nniversa- plebi mandate 
 jpjiuiia assolcnt ; non dico de induslria ttipmm 
 confer mdarumy tit veatra: capturtc est, scd intci- 
 dnni et ex ali(|ua Holiritudiuis Erclesiastica; causa 
 See 'I'lioniaHsin, Traitr <lw» Jinnos dc PEglisc. 
 
THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 
 
 i89 
 
 there can be no doubt, that long before the 
 fourth contury 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 vciy 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 can 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 
 orignial Priesthood, and the power of the 
 Presbytery, proceeded from the same source,f 
 ar.d 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 diflfered 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.' | To what 
 
 * The Quadragesimal Fast (TsaoaQayoari^) 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 unciuestionably observed. See 
 Cave on the Early Church, chapter vii. 
 
 t There is a passage in St. Clement's First Epistle 
 tn the Corinthians, chap. 40, in which the system of 
 Jewish discipline is indirectly proposed as a model 
 for the imitation of Christians. 
 
 X Bingham (Church Antiq. Book xiii., chap, v.) I 
 in prosecution of this subject, exhibits too warmly 
 ih*> zeal of an advocate. I 
 
 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, Irenaius, 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 6vGiaaT)lQiov, 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 — ava&)]uaTa) 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 resei-ved 
 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 
 ])erpetual 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 apostolictd 
 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 insuflicient 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. I'rom 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 |)icty 
 along with it. 
 
 To conclude, then : — a general view of the 
 Church of the three first ages presents to us 
 a l)0(ly always unconnected with tln! State, 
 frequently at variance wilii it; surrounded 
 by (iiultiln<l<H of heresieH, ninny of them 
 very fnonHlrouH, whieh it combated with tin; 
 Hword of the S|)irit alone ; under a govern- 
 rncnl iu which the gradually-inrreawin^; in- 
 
 fluence of the Bishop was stdl for the most 
 part extremely limited by the power of hia 
 presbytery ; with a rule of faith not curiously 
 definite on abstruse questions, hut simply 
 conceived and scripturally expressed — rising 
 into strength and confirming its consistency, 
 and, finallj^, 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 
 diflferent 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 sanctifi(Hl 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 
 
 * Discoiirs siir I'HIst. Eccl/'s. depnis I'an 600 jus- 
 (lucs fi ran 1100. * Lcs beaux jom s de 'Eglise sont 
 passes, inais Dicu n'a pas rejctlc son pcuploni oublii 
 ses jjronicsHCH,' &c. &c. 
 
 f ' It was one of the rules of dlHciplinn not to coni- 
 niil it to writing, but to preserve it by a trcret tra- 
 dilion among llic liishop.s and Priests, chiefly that 
 regarding tlu; adininlKtralion of the BacranientH; nnd 
 tlie b(;tlcr to keep that secret, that the Ilishops shotdd 
 confide their eeelesiaslical letters to llie Clergy otdy 
 So, when the ancients speak of observing the cunoni 
 
PARTICULAR INNOVATIONS. 
 
 185 
 
 and indiscriminate eulogy. But it was an 
 error (for to FlQury 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- 
 ohc Church from the age of St. Clement to 
 that of St. Gregory. Even the first of those 
 periods was somewhat removed from apos- 
 tolical perfection ; but in the second the dis- 
 tance was incalculably multiplied, and that, 
 not only according to the customary progress 
 of unreformed abuse, but also through a 
 change of principles in the administration of 
 the Church, which proceeded from other 
 causes. 
 
 Paiiicular Innovations. At present, before 
 we enter on any general review of the out- 
 ward form and position of the Church, or 
 even of its internal administration, we shall 
 mention, as in continuation of the subject 
 which has been most lately treated, some 
 particular innovations in belief and disciphne 
 which either began or were established dur- 
 ing the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. The 
 first, and by far the most important of these, 
 was the institution of the monastic system, of 
 which it cannot be properly said that there 
 existed any vestige before the beginning of 
 the fourth age, and which, before its termina- 
 tion, had fijced its roots deeply, and struck 
 them with pernicious vitality into the very 
 heart of Christendom. Its origin and pro- 
 gress will be the object of future inquiry ; at 
 present we shall confine our notice to a sub- 
 ject very closely connected with it — the celi- 
 bacy of the Clergy. In the first ages the 
 Church writers advocated the universal law- 
 fulness of marriage against the heretical rigor 
 of the Encratites, of Saturninus and Basil- 
 ides, of the Montanists, and even the Nova- 
 tians ; so that any undue respect for celibacy 
 which may have prevailed during the three 
 first ages cannot justly be attributed to the 
 Church : it was also very partial and vague 
 in its nature, and wholly unsupported by ca- 
 
 imagine not that they speak of written canons; they 
 speak of all that was practised through a constant 
 tradition. For we must believe, according to the 
 maxim of St. Augustin, that that which the Church 
 has observed at every time, and in every place, is 
 apostolical tradition. In fact, from what other source 
 could have come those universal practices, such as the* 
 veneration of relics, the prayer for the dead, the ob- 
 servance of Lentl' Fleury, Discours sur I'Hist. des 
 Six Premiers Siecles, &c. &c. — Of the three prac- 
 tices here instanced, two at least were much posterior 
 lo the times of the Apostles. 
 
 24 
 
 nonical regulations. Afterwards, there can be 
 no question that the cause which first gave 
 impulse to the principle, and carried it into 
 practice, and subjected it to repeated legisla- 
 tion, was the growing prevalence of Mona- 
 chism, and the popular veneration which was 
 found to attach to excessive austerities. Al- 
 ready at the Council of Nice * it was propos- 
 ed to forbid the marriage of the Clergy ; but 
 through the opposition of an Egyptian Bish- 
 op, named Paphnutius, it was only enacted, 
 that all Clerks who had been married before 
 they took orders should be allowed to retain 
 their wives, according to the ancient tradition 
 of the Church, but that they should not mar- 
 ry a second time.f Such continued both the 
 rule and practice of the Eastern Church ; it 
 was confirmed by the Council in Trullo in 
 the year 692, with an exception against Bish- 
 ops, who were obliged, on their promotion, 
 to separate from their wives ; and this law 
 was never afterwards altered. But in the 
 West, where the spirit of sacerdotal domina- 
 tion more strongly prevailed, many attempts 
 were made in those days to enforce perfect 
 celibacy on all the orders of the ministry, 
 and their constant repetition proves their in- 
 efficacy. Siricius, who held the See of Rome 
 from 385 to 398, published some letters or 
 decretals, which have acquired the weight of 
 canons in the Roman Church. One of his 
 great objects was to discourage the marriage 
 of the Clergy, but it does not appear J that 
 his regulations much exceeded the severity 
 of those of Nice. However, it must be ad- 
 mitted, that the perseverance of his succes- 
 sors was not fruitless, at least so far as their 
 immediate influence extended; and we are 
 assured that at the end of the fifth century, 
 the rule of celibacy was very commonly ob- 
 served by the Clergy of Rome. § But a hun- 
 
 * Eleven years earlier it was enacted, by the tenth 
 canon of the Council of Ancyra, that when a Deacon 
 declared his intention to marry, at the time of his or- 
 dination, he might be allowed to do so, but not other- 
 wise. Dupin. Nouv. Bibl. tome ii. p. 312. Bingham, 
 Church Antiq. b. iv. ch. v. — Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., 
 tome i. (Abrege de la Discipline) mentions, as the 
 rule of the early (ante-Nicene) Church, that it was 
 permitted to a Priest to keep his wife, but not to 
 marry again : on a Deacon there was no such restraint. 
 It is impossible to trace tliat, which is mentioned as 
 being imposed upon the Priest, to tlie first ages ; but 
 in the beginning of the fourth century, perhaps some- 
 what earlier, it was undoubtedly established, that no 
 man who was ordained Priest could marry. 
 
 t Socrates, lib. i., c. 11. Sozomen, lib. i., c. 23. 
 
 :j: Dupin, Nouv. Bibl., Vie de Sirice. 
 
 § A disti/iction in tliis /espect was observed a cen- 
 
186 HISTORY Ol 
 
 dred years afterwards, Gregory, as we have 
 seen, was still engaged in the same struggle 
 against the natural affections and the com- 
 niun reason of man, and he transmitted it, 
 still unfinished, to his distant* posterity. His 
 object was clerical celibacy in the strictest 
 sense ; but we should remark that no ordin- 
 ance going to that extent had yet been enact- 
 ed by any general Council, even of the West- 
 ern Church, and that the common practice 
 was still in opposition to it ; a great number, 
 probably far the larger proportion, of the Ger- 
 man, French, English, and Spanish Clergy 
 continued to avail themselves at least of that 
 portion of their scriptural right, which the 
 Council of Nice had left them. 
 
 The penitential discipline of the ante- 
 Nicene Church was exceedingly severe, even 
 in the season of persecution, and it was by 
 rigor rather than indulgence that it sought to 
 secure the fidelity and increase the number 
 of its members. For the space of fifteen, or 
 sometimes of twenty years, it might be for 
 his whole life, the repentant sinner was ex- 
 cluded from the precincts of the Church, and 
 exposed to the contempt or compassion of 
 every beholder. After this long endurance, 
 when the gates of the sanctuary were at 
 length unclosed to him, it was only, perhaps, 
 that 15 might worship there for some addi- 
 tio lal years in the attitude of prostration, 
 muffled and unshaven, fasting and covered 
 with ashes, f A discipline which, in some 
 ages, would be deemed barbarous if it were 
 not impracticable, was found very effectual 
 in those early times, both in preserving indi- 
 vidual morality, and in upholding the exter- 
 nal show and dignity of the Church. It 
 seems to have been maintained in its original 
 spiri; throughout the fourth century, | and its 
 
 tury earlier between the Catholic and the Arian Clergy ; 
 tlie laxity of the latter, who were almost universally 
 married, was made matter of reproach by their more 
 rigid adversaries. 
 
 * In the ninth century (about the year 860) we ob- 
 Bcrve Hulderic, Bishop of Augsburg, vigorously re- 
 Bisting the Edicts of Tope Nicholas ; and two hundred 
 and twenty years aflerwardn, when (iregory VII. at 
 length achieved liic object which had foiled his predc- 
 cesHors for alxjve nix centuries, he encountered an 
 opfXJKition wiiich could scarcely have been suruiounted 
 by a less extraoniinary cliaracter. 
 
 f Fieury, Discours sur les Six Premiers Sicicles, 
 Sec. ct pUMsim. (^'yprian is tiic most ancient I'adier 
 who IK mentioned as having laid down rides of pen- 
 ance. Hut flome (l(>rive sucli rules from th(> disciplin*) 
 impowrd in the Pagan nystem previous to initiation in 
 tb« great mynlerieji. 
 
 i See I)u|)in, Nouv. liibl. tome ii. p. 217, V iu de 
 
 'I'hE CHURCH. 
 
 I rigor was st:.il further aggravated by the ne- 
 cessity of public confession. The measure 
 of Pope Leo. which stibstituted private con- 
 fession, may have been made necessary by 
 the universal profession of Christianity, and 
 the degeneracy of many who professed it. 
 But not only was it attended by an immedi- 
 ate relaxation in the penitential discipline of 
 tlie Church (for secret penance very speedily 
 followed secret confession,) but it became, in 
 process of time, one of the most abundant 
 sources of sacerdotal influence. 
 
 During the four first centuries there was 
 no mention or thought of Purgatory — neither 
 St. Ambrose, nor even St. Jerome, had any 
 belief in such an intermediate state. But 
 St. Augustin* expresses himself somewhat 
 more ambiguously ; for if, in some passages, 
 he rejects the supposition as vain and improb- 
 able, in others he admits that the truth cannot 
 be certainly ascertained, but may deserve in- 
 vestigation. During the two following ages, 
 the plausible scheme gained some little credit 
 among the Clergy of the West, and most es- 
 pecially among the monastic orders ; but the 
 credit of establishing it among the unques- 
 tionable truths of the Church is due to the 
 superstition or the craft of Gregory the Great. 
 In the Fourth Book of his Dialogues he main 
 tains the existence of a purgatory for the ex 
 piation of the more venial offences of persons, 
 whose general excellence may have deserved 
 such indulgence. He then takes occasion to 
 remark, that many discoveries had lately been 
 made respecting the condition of souls after 
 death, which had not been penetrated by an- 
 tiquity, and for this reason — that as this world 
 was approaching to its end, men saw more 
 closely into the secrets of the next.f A theory 
 
 S. Ambroise. 1. Sinners were expected to request 
 that they might be admitted to penance. 2. The cir- 
 cimjstance of tlieir doing penance separated them from 
 the Communion. 3. Tiiey did penance publicly. 
 
 4. They practised a number of fastings, austerities, 
 and humiliations during the whole time of penance. 
 
 5. They could be admitted to that penance once only. 
 Of course the penance here mentioned was the severest 
 whicii the Church ever inflicted for the most enormous 
 
 * IMosheim (cent. v. p. ii. c. iii.) remarks tliat 
 ' the famous Pagan doctrine concerning tlie purifica- 
 tion of d(?parted souls by means of a certain kind of 
 fire was more amply explained and confini'cd now 
 than it had hillierlo been,' and he refers to St. Augus- 
 lin, I)e viii. (iueslionilnm ad Dulcitium N. xiii.tome 
 vi. De Fide el ()|)eribus, cap. xvi. p. 182. DeFido, 
 Spo et Charitate, sect. 118, p. 222. Enarrat. Psahu 
 XXXV. s. '.i. 
 
 t See Diipin, Nouv. Hibl., Vic dc St. Gr<^goire I. 
 
• PARflCULAR INNOVATIONS 
 
 187 
 
 which had been tolerated by St. Augustin, 
 and defended, however absurdly, by St. Gre- 
 gory, found easy acceptance in the Western 
 Church ; it was eagerly seized by the Bene- 
 dictine Monks, and was presently perceived 
 to be so profitable in its operation on the 
 people, that it soon became one of the dear- 
 est and most necessary tenets of the Roman 
 Communion. 
 
 The general influence of Paganism on the 
 Christian ceremonies was already discover- 
 able in the second and third ages; and the 
 particular practice which, in its abuse, was 
 especially destined to assimilate two forms of 
 worship essentially dissociable, and to bring 
 them together, too, on that very point where 
 their difference had been the widest, may be 
 traced, perhaps, to the early but innocent rev- 
 erence which was paid to martyrs. During 
 the progress of the fourth and fifth centuries 
 many new concessions were made, on vari- 
 ous and important points, to the popular 
 genius of the old superstition. Expiatory 
 processions and supplications were fi'amed 
 and conducted after the ancient models. 
 The sanctity which had been inherent in the 
 Temples of the Gods was now transferred to 
 the Christian Churches, * which began to 
 rival the splendor and magnitude, if they 
 failed to emulate the elegance, of their pro- i 
 fane competitors. If any inspiration had | 
 been communicated to the devout Pagan by j 
 sleeping within the holy prerincts, the same j 
 descended upon the Convert when he re- 
 posed upon a martyr's tomb. If any purity 
 had been conferred by customary lustration, 
 it was compensated by the frequent use of 
 holy water. Other such compromises might 
 be mentioned ; and so completely was the 
 spirit of the rejected worship transfused into 
 the system which succeeded it, that the very 
 miracles which the Christian writers of those 
 days credulously retailed concerning their 
 saints and martyrs were, in many instances, 
 only ungraceful copies of the long-exploded 
 fables of heathenism : f so poisonous was the 
 expiring breath of that base superstition, and 
 so fatal the garment which it cast, even dur- 
 ing its latest struggles, over its heavenly de- 
 stroyer. But in no respect was its malice so 
 lastingly pernicious as when it fastened upon 
 
 * Tlie ancient privilege of sanctuary was conferred 
 upon Christian Churches by Constantine, and after- 
 wards extended by Theodosius II. to the consecrated 
 precincts. 
 
 t See Jortin, Eccl. Hist. vol. iv. p. 73, 124, 220, 
 23S, &c. &c. ; and Middleton's Letter from Rome, 
 passim. 
 
 Christianity the badge of his own character 
 by the communication of idolatrous worship 
 It is true that in the ante-Nicene Church 
 martyrs were reverenced, and even relics 
 held in some estimation ; but no description 
 of image, whether carved or painted, was 
 tolerated in the Churches of Christ, and it 
 was through that distinction chiefly that they 
 claimed exclusive sanctity. In the fourth 
 and fifth centuries the previous veneration 
 for the saints was exalted into actual worship, 
 their lives and their miracles were recited 
 and devoured with ardent credulity, aston- 
 ishing prodigies were performed by frag- 
 ments of their bones or garments, distant and 
 dangerous pilgrimages were undertaken to 
 obtain their ashes, or only to pray at their 
 tombs ; and this rage was encouraged by the 
 unanimous acclamation of the ecclesiastical 
 directors. Yet does it not appear that any 
 one, even the least considerate among those 
 writers, warmly advocated the worship, or 
 even the use, of images ; * the opinions and 
 practice of some of them were certainly op- 
 posed to it. Among the Emperors, both 
 Valens and Theodosius enacted laws against 
 the painting or graving the likeness of Christ. 
 Nevertheless we perceive (from passages in 
 Gregory of Nyssa, St. Cyril, St. Basil, and 
 others) that representations of the combats of 
 the martyrs, and of some scriptural scenes, 
 had already obtained place in some of the 
 Churches, though they were not yet in gene- 
 ral honor. Thus the seeds were sown, and 
 as they were watered by the enthusiasm of 
 the vulgar, ever prone to some sort of sensible 
 worship, and fondly nourished by the head- 
 
 * St. Epiphanius, in his letter to John of Jerusa- 
 lem, translated by St. Jerome, and written towards 
 the end of the fourth century, writes as follows : — 
 ' Having entered into a church in a village in Pales- 
 tine, named Anablatha, I found there a veil which was 
 suspended at the door, and painted with a represen- 
 tation, whether of Jesus Christ or of some Saint, for 
 I do not well recollect whose image it was, but seeing 
 that, in opposition to the authority of Scripture, there 
 was a human image in tlie Church of Jesus Christ, I 
 tore it in pieces, and gave order to those who had 
 care of that Church to bury a corpse with the veil 
 And as they grumbled out some answer, that " since 
 he has chosen to tear the veil he might as well find 
 another," I promised them one, and I now discharge 
 that promise.' Baronius, Bellarmine, and some oth- 
 ers, have disputed the genuineness of this passage by 
 arguments, which have been very easily and candidly 
 confuted by Dupin, Nouv. Bibl. Vie de S. Epiphane. 
 St. Augustin somewhere praises the religious severity 
 of the ancient Romans, who worshipped God without 
 images. 
 
188 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 strong prejudice of the heathen converts ; 
 and as the fathers of the Church did not in- 
 terpose to root them out, they spread with 
 rapid, though, perhaps, silent gi'owth, and 
 before the end of the sixth century the use of 
 images was very generally permitted through- 
 out the Christian world. During the pontifi- 
 cate of Gregory the Great, Severus, Bishop 
 of Marseilles, observing that the people wor- 
 shipped the images which were placed in his 
 Church, tore them down and destroyed them : 
 on this occasion the Pope addressed to him 
 two epistles, in which, while he praised the 
 zeal that combated any show of idolatry, 
 he maintained the propriety of filling the 
 Churches with idols; 'for there is a great 
 difference,' he says, 'between worshipping 
 an image, and learning, from the history rep- i 
 .-esented by that image, what it is that we | 
 ought to worship ; for that which writing \ 
 teaches to those who can read, painting makes i 
 intelligible to all who have eyes to see. It is ; 
 11 such representation that the ignorant per- 
 ceive what they ought to follow; it is the 
 book of the illiterate. On this account it is 
 of great service to the barbarians, to which 
 circumstance you, who are placed in the 
 midst of barbarians, should be peculiarly at- 
 tentive, so as to cause them no scandal by an 
 indiscreet zeal.' This passage probably dis- 
 closes the principal motive of that attachment 
 to the cause of the images which was after- 
 wards so warmly manifested by the Church 
 of Rome; at least, it teaches us, that the 
 places, which they had gradually usurped 
 during the three preceding ages in the Chris- 
 tian Churches, were at length confirmed to 
 them, and secured by the highest authority. 
 We may pause once more to condemn the 
 sophistry which distinguished between the 
 use and the worship, and coldly forbade the 
 ignorant barbarian to adore an object which 
 could not seriously be placed in his hands 
 with any other prospect. 
 
 The Church in connexion ivith the State. 
 From the above review of the principal 
 abuses in doctrine and discipline * which 
 
 ♦ Diipin has collected from tlie works of Atlianasius 
 aeortof Bummary of the (ii.sripline of tliat ajje. Among 
 the particulars we obHcrve, tliat there were Priests, 
 and even Bi.shojjH, who were marri»'(l, though in Bmall 
 numlxsr; that the people an«l Clergy continued to 
 chooHc their niHlK)pH; that there were no tranHla- 
 tionH; that Lfnt wan olwerved aa a fast; Easter aH a 
 Boleinn ffHiiviil; that the (iospel wan read in (lie 
 vnli^ar ton:,MU'. It in St. Jcronie who has somewhere 
 declarrd, that fiMling i.s not ho truly called a virtue 
 M the foundation of every virtue. 
 
 took root in the Church durin? the three 
 centuries following its establishment, let us 
 proceed to consider that body ; first, in re- 
 gard to its connexion with the state ; secondly, 
 in respect to its own internal administration. 
 As the Pagan system was merely an engine 
 of State, so its entire regulation, even to the 
 performance of its most sacred rights and 
 ofiices, was consistently and properly intrust- 
 ed to the control and exercise of the civil 
 magistrate. The power which directed it, 
 the power which its ministers possessed to 
 enforce their decrees, was not distinguished 
 from that with which they were invested 
 for any other purpose, — it was strictly and 
 exclusively temporal. Christianity rose from 
 a very different foundation ; it claimed to be 
 a direct revelation from Heaven ; its truth, 
 not its utility, was the fact which its profess- 
 ors unbendingly asserted by their arguments 
 and their sufferings ; they believed that it was 
 the work of God which they were forward- 
 ing, and that their souls were placed for ever 
 in his retributive hands. From this lofty 
 ground they were enabled to discern that 
 there was a limit to all human authority, and 
 that there was a Power above, which was 
 greater than the might of Emperors. That 
 heavenly power they considered to be, iQ 
 some degree, communicated to Christ's min- 
 isters on earth, and associated with their 
 spiritual office. 
 
 During the period preceding the accession 
 of Constantine, the exercise of this power 
 was confined to preserving the purity of the 
 apostolical doctrine, to augmenting the num- 
 ber, enforcing the morality, and j)rcventing 
 the apostasy of the converts. It was working 
 silently among the faithful, and had already 
 established a solemn and indissoluble con- 
 nexion between the clergy and the lower 
 orders ; but it had not hitherto, on any occa- 
 sion, been brought into open communication 
 with the temporal power, either to co-operate 
 or to contend with it, nor, indeed, was its 
 existence yet acknowledged, or perhaps per- 
 ceived, by the latter. * Let us now advance 
 
 * Paul of Samosata was the subject and favorite of 
 Zcnohia, and that (iucen was engaged in hostile de- 
 signs against the Roman empire at the time when 
 Aurelian, on the solicitation of the Italian Pishops, 
 deposed the heretic. Semler (Observat. Neva', sec. 
 iii. sec. Iv.) seems to infer from this coincidence, that 
 the wliolo accusation against Paul proceeded from 
 political rather than from spiritual diflerences, which 
 is not probable; but we so far agree with him as tc 
 attribute the interference of the Ein|)eror entirely Ic 
 that motive. It is un isolated fact in the history of 
 
INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Dne century, and consider the position of the 
 Church as it then stood in connexion with 
 tlie State. Its real substantial weight pro- 
 ceeded, in fact, from one cause, and from one 
 only, — the influence of the Clergy over the 
 people. Many circumstances at this time 
 contributed to confirm and consolidate that 
 influence — the judicial authority and ac- 
 knowledged dignity of the Bishops, the in- 
 crease in their number and wealth, the pop- 
 ular character of their election, their public 
 and powerful eloquence. Moreover, there 
 can be nc question that even the spirit- 
 ual control of the ecclesiastics was exerted 
 with greater confidence, when the civil pow- 
 er was at hand to support them ; while their 
 zeal was warmly and successfully employed 
 in asserting the vast superiority of that con- 
 trol, and the interests connected with it, over 
 any that were merely temporal and worldly. 
 To these considerations we should add, that 
 during the three preceding centuries the no- 
 bility of the Roman empire had, for the most 
 part, fallen into decay ; no body had grown 
 up in the State to supply the defect of the ar- 
 istocratical influence, and hence it rose that 
 the vacant place in the social system was 
 occupied by the Christian hierarchy. This 
 order, sometimes powerful from other causes, 
 always possessed peculiar advantages for the 
 acquisition of popular influence, through the 
 very office which forces it into contact with 
 the lower classes, and through the attractive 
 character of its duties, which are such as can 
 never fail, when faithfully and discreetly dis- 
 charged, to conciliate the affections of those 
 for whose happiness alone they are imposed. 
 
 From the above and similar causes, the 
 authority of the Church grew with great ra- 
 pidity even during the first century after its 
 alliance with the State ; of the boldness thus 
 communicated to its individual Ministers, 
 both in speech and action, some instances 
 have been mentioned, and many might be 
 added. Indeed, the mere existence of eigh- 
 teen hundred magistrates (to speak of the 
 Bishops only) who held their offices for life, 
 over whose nomination the civil power had 
 no direct control, who were connected by in- 
 timate relations with the people, and who, for 
 the most part, were bound together by com- 
 mon opinions and principles and interests, 
 was alone sufficient to establish a counter- 
 poise against the weight of imperial despot- 
 
 the ante-N iccne Church, and probably only proves 
 Aurelian's willingness to avail himself of any charge 
 to punish a magistrate who was in fiivor with his 
 enemy. 
 
 ism. In fact, under the uncertain sceptre of 
 the successors of Constantine, it might have 
 been difficult to moderate the progress of ec- 
 clesiastical power, had it not been checked 
 and dissipated by the perpetual dissensions 
 which divided the Church itself 
 
 The same cause which restrained the vigor, 
 polluted the character, of the Church ; foir be 
 ing unable immediately to repress by its own 
 spiritual weapons the violent animosities of 
 its ministers, and impatient of the gradual in- 
 fluence of time and reason, in a dark and dis 
 astrous moment it had recourse to that tem- 
 poral sword which was not intended for its 
 service, and which it has never yet employed 
 without disgrace or with impunity. Thus 
 was it, indeed, a blind, if not suspicious affec 
 tion, which led even the most orthodox Em 
 perors to labor for the ' Unity of the Church ;' 
 since it was the unfailing effect of their meas 
 ures to influence and nourish the intolerance 
 of the ruling party, without entirely quench 
 ing even one among the thousand eternal 
 fountains of dissent. We repeat that the most 
 fatal consequence which has in any age result- 
 ed from the connexion between Church and 
 State, is the application of the penalties of the 
 one to the disorders of the other, — the correc- 
 tion of spiritual oflfences by temporal chas- 
 tisements. But that abuse of the civil power 
 is so far from being the necessary conse- 
 quence of that connexion, that it is manifestly 
 injurious to the interests of both ; and since 
 its wickedness and its folly have been expos- 
 ed and acknowledged, there can now be no 
 circumstances under which a wise govern- 
 ment would employ such interference, or an 
 enlightened priesthood desire it. 
 
 Internal administration of the Church. It 
 has been observed that in the ante-Nicene 
 Church the power of the Bishop was closely 
 limited by that of the Presbytery of his dio- 
 cese, though less so in the third, as it would 
 seem, than in the preceding century. During 
 the three following ages that restraint was 
 gi'adually loosened, though not yet entirel}' 
 cast away. The affairs of the diocese were 
 still, in name at least, conducted ' with the as- 
 sent of the clergy' (cum assensu clericorum ;) 
 and their influence, in many places, was prob- 
 ably more than nominal. Still we cannot faii 
 to observe that a higher and more independ- 
 ent authority was assumed by the Prelates , 
 a broader interval was interposed between 
 the diflTerent ranks of the hierarchy ; the gov- 
 ernment lost most of the remains of its pop- 
 ular character, and assumed the form of an 
 active and powerful aristocraoy Some of 
 
190 mSlORY OF 
 
 the causes of this change have been vncideut- 
 ally mentioned in the prece^^.ing pages ; and 
 among them we should particularly notice 
 the prevalence of councils, both general and 
 provincial, by which the public affairs of the 
 Church were now regulated, and in which 
 the only influential members were the Bish- 
 ops,* The legislative authority thus exercis- 
 ed by the order, added to the judicial power 
 which was vested in the individual, raised the 
 prelacy to a necessary and legal preeminence 
 before the next inferior gi"ade of the ministry. 
 It would appear, moreover, especially from 
 the records of the fifth and sixth centuries, 
 that the greater portion of the learning of those 
 times was in possession of the episcopal or- 
 der. Such reasons are sufficient to account 
 for the aggrandizement of that order : while, 
 at the same time, they show us, that the stei)S 
 by which it rose were neither unlawful nor 
 dishonorable. The change in the form of 
 Church government naturally followed the 
 change in other circumstances ; and it would 
 be unjust to qualify that as usurpation, which 
 proceeded from causes independent of private 
 interest or professional ambition. It is not 
 denied that such motives may frequently have 
 stimulated many to individual encroachment ; 
 but the elevation of the body was the natural 
 effect of ecclesiastical, of political, and even 
 of moral combinations. 
 
 Having observed in what respect the alter- 
 ation in the general a(hninistration of the 
 Church extended to the economy of its sev- 
 eral dioceses, we shall shortly retrace some 
 of those early vestiges of the monarchical form 
 of administration, which were already dis- 
 cernible during the rise and progress of the 
 religious aristocracy ; or, in other words, we 
 shall search among the component parts of 
 the episcopal system for some elements of the 
 papal government. Before the establishment 
 of the Church, notwithstanding one or two 
 attempts at aggression on the part of Rome, 
 which were immediately repelled, the various 
 
 * Fifteen Councils are recorded to have been licid 
 in France alone during the foinlli, and five-and-twcn- 
 ty during the fflh ccnlury. Th(! Hishops still attend- 
 ed iin tlio d»!|)Utica of their people, hut Preshyters 
 appear now to have been never |)reKent, unless as 
 reprenenta lives of their IJiKlio{). Many canons of the 
 Councils of the fiflh century ((:H))ecially of that of Or- 
 nnge held in 441) declare that no ('oiincil shall ever 
 uoparale without appointing thn time of the n(;xt 
 meeting, 'i'lie ancient canonical regulation for meet- 
 ing twice a year was still in force, but in those dis- 
 tiirlN-d agen it wan not easily observed. See Ciiiizot, 
 Couis d'lliMloire Moderne, le^on iii. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 [ Sees were, without any acknowledged dis- 
 tinction, equal and independent. Thus far 
 at least, the Bishop of that city had no superi- 
 ority, or even claim to superiority, above his 
 brethren ; and it was to the imperial dignity 
 of his See that he owed any accidental and 
 voluntary deference which may have beer. 
 oflTered to him. The next circumstance 
 second in time and very considerable in in- 
 fluence, which contributed to his exaltation, 
 was the name (for it was little more than the 
 name) of Patriai-ch. This title was conferred 
 first upon three, subsequently upon four, of 
 the Prelates of the Eastern Church ; but in 
 the West it was confined to the Bishop of 
 Rome : and the distinction was not w ithout 
 effect in creating, especially among the dis- 
 tant and the ignorant, that sort of blind and 
 indefinite respect which is so easily converted 
 into submission. 
 
 The next event which may be mentioned 
 as having augmented the authority of the See 
 was the removal of the civil government from 
 Rome to Ravenna by Honorius. The do- 
 mestic importance of the Bishop was essen- 
 tially increased, and facilities for usurpation 
 were created by the absence of the Emperor. 
 
 That which follows, perhaps, next in time 
 (for we are disposed to place it towards the end 
 of the fifth century,) but which yields to none 
 in importance, was the special protection 
 vouchsafed by St. Peter to the same See, and 
 at this time loudly asserted by it. While some 
 have invented circumstantial fables respect- 
 ing the marvellous success of that apostle in 
 Italy and at Rome, others have advanced in- 
 genious nrguments to show that he never at 
 all visited that city. To us, so far as any 
 opinion can be formed on so obscure a mat- 
 ter, it appears probable that St. Peter died at 
 Rome, as well as St. Paul ; and during their 
 previous residence there, it is not impossible 
 that the one may have presided over the 
 Jewish, while the other superintended the 
 heathen, converts. But the question itself 
 can now possess so little im})ortance in the 
 mind of any reasonable being, that we care 
 not to leave it in uncertainty. However, it is 
 luidisputed, that in the fifth and the following 
 ages a vtist accession of honor and sanctity 
 accrued to the See of Rome from its perse- 
 verance in that claim. In times when the 
 partictihir protection of heaven was believed 
 to attend the possession of the m(>anest relic 
 of th(! most obscinc; martyr; when sfupend- 
 ouH prodigies were performed by the fragment 
 of tlic gartnent of some nameless saint, or the 
 dust whirh bad l)een brought froir lis toiv\b. 
 
FROM GREGORY TO CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 191 
 
 was It strange that a peculiar impression of 
 holiness should attach to that spot where the 
 chief of the Apostles had suffered a barbarous 
 death, and where his bones still lay unviolated 
 in sacred repose ? But this was not all — the 
 martyr of Christ had been at the same time 
 the Bishop of Rome ; and the keys which had 
 been confided to his inspired wisdom were 
 still preserved, through a long and uninter- 
 rupted chain, to the Bishops his successors. 
 Such assertions were first advanced about 
 this period, or very soon afterwards ; and it 
 is one of the most certain proofs of the credit 
 they obtained, that applications now began 
 very commonly to be made, from many parts 
 of Europe, for counsel or opinion, on points 
 of discipline or faith to the Roman See. It 
 might, indeed, not rarely happen, that its re- 
 scripts were not obeyed or respected ; but 
 still the appeal was becoming customary, and 
 each successive reference confirmed a prac- 
 tice which could not fail in time to give some 
 authority to the decision. These are some 
 of the leading circumstances which were so 
 far improved by the genius of two among the 
 Popes, and the perseverance of almost all, 
 that, at the death of Gregory the Great, the 
 Bishop of Rome, though he might in vain 
 dispute the name of universal supremacy 
 v;ith the Patriarch of Constantinople, was 
 unquestionably acknowledged to be the lead- 
 ing member of the ecclesiastical aristocracy 
 of Europe, the spiritual head or president of 
 the Western hierarchy. * 
 
 III. From Gregory to Charlemagne. An 
 account of the general changes which took 
 place in the Church, during the two centuries 
 between Gregory and Charlemagne, has been 
 given in a preceding chapter ; and in respect 
 to particular abuses in belief or discipline, it 
 appears not that any remarkable novelty pre- 
 sented itself during this period. Among its 
 leading features, we have observed, Jirst^ an 
 
 * Still it is not asserted that his authority was 
 generally acknowledged even in the West. Fleury 
 ''lib. XXXV. s. 19.) fairly admits that Gregory exer- 
 cised no definite jurisdiction beyond the Churches 
 which immediately depended on the Holy See, and 
 were therefore called Suburbicarian (Giannon. Stor. 
 di Nap. lib ii. c. 8.) those of the South of Italy, 
 Sicily, and some other islands. It is true that the 
 Bishop of Aries was his vicar in Gaul, as that of 
 Thessalonica was in Western Illyria; and that he 
 jxercii-ed some inspection over the Churches of Africa 
 for the assembling of Councils and the observation 
 of the canons ; but he possessed no ordinary official 
 autiiority over those Churches, nor did they yet ac- 
 knowledge any direct posifjve dependence on Rome. 
 
 increasing dissimilarity in character and in- 
 stitutions between the Eastern and Western 
 Churches, which gradually loosened the 
 bonds of their union, and prepared them foi 
 dissolution. The alterations which caused 
 the distinction originated for the most part in 
 the West, and are chiefly to be ascribed to 
 the entire social revolution which was effect- 
 ed by the barbarian conquests : whereas, in 
 the East, the undisputed supremacy of the 
 civil power and the unvarying character of 
 the government prevented any important in- 
 novations. They prevailed, indeed, to such 
 an extent, that even the divisions which dur- 
 ing this period disturbed the Oriental Com- 
 munion, — those respecting the ' two wills of 
 Christ,' and the 'worship of images,' — receiv- 
 ed in both instances their first impulse from 
 the throne. In the West the subdivision of 
 the empire into numerous and variously- 
 constituted kingdoms, the peculiar institu- 
 tions, the superstitions and the ignorance of 
 the people, opened an extensive field for ec- 
 clesiastical exertion. That many among the 
 clergy availed themselves of these circum- 
 stances for personal or professional aggrand- 
 izement, the voice of history is ever forward 
 to proclaim to us ; but the private piety of 
 the more numerous and obscure members of 
 that order, who interposed, not ineffectually, 
 their religious offices to alleviate the wretch- 
 edness and soften the barbarism of those 
 dreary times, is slightly and incidentally re 
 corded, though better deserving of celebrity, 
 since its claims are on the gratitude of the 
 latest posterity. 
 
 The second characteristic of this period 
 (and we here confine ourselves to the West- 
 ern Church) was the continued and even in- 
 ordinate growth of episcopal authority. A 
 great number of causes contributed to that 
 result, some of which had been in continual 
 operation since the establishment of Chris- 
 tianity ; others had grown up in later ages. 
 The most direct and effectual were the ex- 
 tensive and increasing domains of the Bish- 
 ops; the judicial and even municipal power 
 which they exercised in their metropolis; 
 their political influence in the great national 
 assemblies ; the exclusive possession of a 
 contracted learning, which still was mistaken 
 for wisdom in an age nearly destitute of both 
 To these we may add the removal of some 
 restraints. The superintendence of the me- 
 tropolitans was abolished, and it was supplied 
 by no other ; for the civil governments were 
 then too weak and unstable to enforce a dis- 
 puted authority, while that of the Pope was 
 
192 HISTORY OF 
 
 distant and indefinite, even where it was 
 acknowledged to be rightful. * On the other 
 hand, the degraded condition of the priest- 
 hood and the independence conferred on the 
 prelate by the disuse of popular election, 
 placed him above any apprehension of oppo- 
 sition or censure from the lower ranks of the 
 clergy. And since the Councils, to whose 
 legislation he was liable, were entirely com- 
 posed of his own order, he had little reason 
 to expect severity from that quarter. We 
 have observed into what great license that 
 unbridled e})iscopal power was can'ied. 
 
 Thirdly. The Bishop of Rome failed not 
 to profit, at least in an equal degree, by the 
 various causes which conspired to the exalta- 
 tion of his bretiiren ; and let us add to these, 
 since we can add it with truth, that the con- 
 duct of the Popes during this period was for 
 the most part such as inspired respect, and 
 even commanded gratitude. If they were 
 stained with the superstitions of the day, they 
 lost nothing in popular opinion by that fail- 
 ing j born at Rome and at once elevated from 
 the native priesthood, not translated from a 
 foreign See, they began with some claims on 
 tile attachment of their subjects, and they 
 maintained them by the severe and uncor- 
 r."j:;:ed sanctity of their morals. But besides 
 fti^se circumstances, we should also recollect 
 that two events occurred in the eighth cen- 
 tury, which exclusively promoted the ad- 
 vancement of that See — the political separa- 
 tion of Rome from the Eastern empire, and 
 the donation of Pepin. During the short re- 
 public which followed the former, the nations 
 (as Gibbon has remarked) began once more 
 'to seek, on the banks of the Tiber, the kings, 
 the laws, and the oracles of their fate and 
 the solid power conferred by the latter, and 
 confirmed by Charlemagne, did much more 
 than compensate for the loss of a recent and 
 precarious independence. Once more asso- 
 ciated as a powerful member of the Western 
 empire, Rome reoccupied the proper field 
 of her ami)ition and her triumi)hs. It is 
 true that llie nature of her warfare, and the 
 character of her weapons, were now wholly 
 changed ; nevertluilcss, the temporalities so 
 j)rofus(!ly conf(!rn'd upon h(;r, failed not to 
 give great additional efl[icacy to her spiritual 
 
 ♦ It would HC'in-cly appear, for instance, tliat llic 
 Pope any oflK^ial coniiniinicalion with tlio (^liurch 
 of (iaiil Ix twt.'fMi (Irogory I. and Circgory II., t. c. 
 for alMUJt a hundred and Ion years. Yet tlie IJiMhop 
 of Arli-H i)re«ided ov(;r tlial (Jhurch in the character, 
 or ratlier under the name, of his Vicar. Sco (iuizot, 
 Hint, de la Civil, de la I'Vanre, le^on xix. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 claims — claims which she had already ad- 
 vanced with some boldness, but which she 
 was now qualified lo press, if disposed so to 
 press them, to the last extremity of usurpation 
 
 The Athanasian Creed. Before we take 
 leave of this period, it is proper to mention, 
 that the first appearance of the Creed, com- 
 monly called Athanasian, is ascribed to it 
 with great probability.* There can be no 
 doubt that this exposition of faith was com- 
 posed in the West, and in Latin ; but the 
 exact date of its composition has been the 
 subject of much difference. The very defi- 
 nite terms, in which it expresses the Church 
 doctrine of the Incarnation, are sufficient to 
 prove it posterior to the Councils of Ephesus 
 and Chalcedon, or later than the middle of 
 the fifth century. Again, if we are to con 
 sider the doctrine of the double procession of 
 the Holy Spirit as being expressly declared 
 in it since that mystery w^as scarcely made 
 matter of public controversy until the eighth 
 century, it might seem difficult to refer a 
 creed, positively asserting the more recent 
 doctrine, to an earlier age. But the historical 
 monuments of the Church do not quite sup- 
 port this supposition ; the Creed, such prob- 
 ably as it now exists, is mentioned by thf 
 Council of Autun f irf the year G70, and its 
 faithful repetition by the Clergy enjoined 
 and we find the same injunction repeated in 
 the beginning of the ninth age. Thus it 
 gradually gained ground ; nevertheless, there 
 seems to be great reason for the opinion, that 
 it was not tmiversally received even in the 
 Western Church until nearly two centuries 
 afterwards. 
 
 Considered as an exposition of doctrine, 
 
 * Bishop Pearson, Archbishop Usher, Hainond, 
 L'Estrange, Dr. Cave, Schelstrate, Pagi, and Du 
 Pin, are all of opinion that this creed was composed, 
 not by Athanasins, but by a later and a Latin writer. 
 Vossius, Qucsnel, and others, go so f.rt- as to ascril)e 
 it to Vigilius Tapsensis, an African liishop, who 
 lived at the end of the fifth century. This last posi- 
 tion, however, is not indisputable; thougli Vigilius 
 certainly published some writings under tiic nnnic of 
 Athana.>^ius, with which this creed is fre(|uently 
 joined. 
 
 ■f ' Si(ini8 Presbyter, Diaeonus, Subdiaeonus, vcl 
 Clericus, Symbolurn, quod inspirante S. Spiritn 
 Apostoli tradiderant, vel Fidem S. Athanaxii Pr(C- 
 auUs irreprehensibiliter non rccensiierit ab K|nseopo 
 condamnetur. ' Cone. Angnstodun. Can. ult., as 
 cited by llingham. At a Council, held at Toledo ir 
 675, an exposition of this Trinitarian doctrine waw 
 published, very nearly resembling that contained in 
 the Athanasian ('reed. (Semler. (,«nt. vii. ea]). iii.) 
 In 791 Theodidphus Aurclianensis ngain mentions lie 
 (/r(!ed as Alhananius's. 
 
JURISDICTION OF THE CLERGY. 
 
 193 
 
 the Athanasian creed contains a faithful sum- 
 mary of the high mysteries of Christianity as 
 interpreted by the Church of Rome. Con- 
 sidered as a rule of necessary faith enforced 
 by the penalty of eternal condemnation, the 
 same creed again expresses one of the most 
 rigid principles of the same Church. The 
 Unity of the Church comprehended unity of 
 belief: there could be no salvation out of it; 
 nor any hope for those who deviated even 
 from the most mysterious among its tenets. 
 And thus, by constant familiarity with the 
 declaration of an exclusive faith, the heart of 
 many a Romish priest may have been closed 
 against the sufferings of the heretic, rescued 
 (as he might think) by the merciful chastise- 
 ment of the Church from the flames which 
 are never quenched ! 
 
 It would be irrelevant in this work, and 
 wholly unprofitable, to inquire, how far any 
 temporary circumstances may have justified 
 the introduction of the Athanasian creed into 
 the Liturgy of our own Church — constructed 
 as that Church is on the very opposite princi- 
 ple of universal charity. But we cannot for- 
 bear to offer one remark, naturally suggested 
 by the character and history of this creed, 
 that if, at any future time, it should be judged 
 expedient to expunge .it, there is no reason, 
 there is scarcely any prejudice, which could 
 be offended by such erasure. * The sublime 
 truths which it contains are not expressed in 
 the language of Holy Scripture ; nor could 
 they possibly have been so expressed, since 
 the inspired writers were not studious mi- 
 nutely to expound inscrutable mysteries. 
 Neither can it plead any sanctity from high 
 antiquity or even traditional authority ; since 
 
 * The opinions of some of our own Churchmen on 
 this subject, are collected by Clarke in his Book on 
 the Trinity. The expression of Bishop Tomline 
 cannot be too generally known — 'We know (he 
 says) that different persons have deduced different 
 and even opposite doctrines fiom the words of Scrip- 
 ture, and consecjuently there must be many errors 
 among Christians; but since the Gospel nowhere in- 
 forms us what degi ee of error will exclude from eter- 
 nal happiness, I am ready to acknowledge that iii my 
 judgment, nothwithstanding the authority of former 
 times, our Church would have acted more wisely and 
 more consistently with its general princii)les of mild- 
 ness and toleration, if it had not adopted the damna- 
 tory clauses of the Athanasian Creed. Though I 
 firmly believe that the doctrines themselves of this 
 Creed are all founded in Scripture, I cannot but con- 
 ceive it to be both unnecessary and presumptuous to 
 say, that " except every one do keep them whole and 
 undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlasting- 
 ly Exposition, part iii. art. viii. 
 
 it was composed many centuries after the 
 time of the apostles, in a very corrupt age of 
 a corrupt Church, ami composed in so much 
 obscurity, that the very pen from which it 
 
 proceeded is not certainly known to us 
 
 The inventions of men, wlien they have been 
 associated for ages with the exercise of re- 
 ligion, should indeed be touched with respect 
 and discretion ; but it is a dangerous error to 
 treat them as inviolable ; and it is something 
 worse than error to confound them in holi- 
 ness and reverence with the words and 
 things of God. 
 
 IV. There are two subjects which we 
 have hitherto refrained from noticing, not- 
 withstanding their great importance — the 
 Jurisdiction and Judicial Immunities of the 
 Clergy, and the Revenues of the Church. 
 We have purposely deferred them until this 
 occasion ; because both were deeply influ- 
 enced by the ecclesiastical policy of Charle- 
 magne ; and the former can scarcely be said 
 to have assumed any definite or tangible form 
 before his reign. United, they constituted 
 the temporal power of the Clergy ; and that 
 object will be so constantly before our eyes 
 in the future pages of this History, that we 
 must no longer delay to examine the materi- 
 als which formed it. 
 
 Jurisdiction of the Clergy. The arbitrati\e 
 authority of the Primitive Bishops was tole- 
 rated or overlooked by the Pagan Emperors j 
 if it received no direct discouragement from 
 the civil power, it was never aided nor even 
 recognised by it. It reached of course only 
 those who voluntarily sought it, and was 
 binding upon none who chose to appeal 
 from it to the secular courts. The ecclesi- 
 astical offences of Bishops were subject to 
 the decision of provincial councils ; but in 
 respect to all temporal matters, they were on 
 the same footing with the other subjects of 
 the empire. 
 
 The arbitration of the Bishops was ratified 
 by Constantino ; and the magistrates were 
 instructed to execute the episcopal decrees. * 
 At the same time it seems certain that this 
 power was for some time confined (1.) to 
 spiritual differences and offences; (2.) to 
 such questions of a temporal nature as were 
 brought before the Bishop by the joint refer 
 
 * Gibbon (who quotes Euseb. Vit. Const, iv. 27; 
 and Sozom. i. 9) has treated this subject in his twen- 
 tieth chapter; but in the following account we have 
 chiefly followed Fleury, in his Seventh Discourse; 
 and Giannone, Storia di Napoli, 1. ii. c. 8; 1. iii c 
 6; 1. vi. c. 7. 
 
194 HISTORY OF 
 
 ence of both parties ; (3.) to civil suits, in 
 which both parties were Clerks. And it is 
 even probable, that, in the second of these, 
 the decision of the Bishop was then liable to 
 an appeal to the civil tribunals. The suc- 
 ceeding Emperors, for nearly two hundred 
 years, were contented to publish such occa- 
 sional edicts, as seem rather intended to 
 check any encroachments by which the ec- 
 clesiastical privileges may have gained or 
 suffered, than to alter the nature of the laws 
 on that subject. For instance, in the year 
 398, Honorius proclaimed that it was permit- 
 ted to those who desired it, to plead before 
 the Bishop, but in civil matters only ; and in 
 408, he ordered the arbitrative sentence of 
 the Bishop to be executed without appeal to 
 the civil officers. In 456, Marcian ordained, 
 that a plaintiff who should object to bring a 
 Clerk before the Archbishop had no resource, 
 except to summon him before the Praetorian 
 Prefect, which he might do. In 452, Valen- 
 tinian III. declared, that the Bishop had no 
 power to judge even Clerks, unless by their 
 own consent, and in virtue of a compromise ; 
 because ecclesiastics had no tribunal estab- 
 lished by law, nor any legal cognizance, 
 except of religious matters. There were 
 constitutions of Arcadius and Honorius and 
 of Theodosius to the same efTect. Thus far, 
 then, it seems clear, that the Episcopal 
 Courts (if we are to give them that name) 
 possessed no coercive authority over laymen, 
 nor indeed any which could properly be de- 
 signated jurisdiction. 
 
 The first change was introduced by Jus- 
 tinian ; and it is important to observe exactly 
 to what extent it went. That legislator, wil- 
 ling to enlarge the privileges of the Church, 
 enacted (1.), That in Civil actions Monks and 
 Clerks should, in the first instance, go before 
 the liishop, who shoidd decide the difference 
 without any publicity or judicial parade ; 
 still, if either party, within ten days, declared 
 himself discontented with the decision, that 
 the civil magistrate should take cognizance 
 of the cause, not as a superior, in form of 
 app(!al, but as an efpial, examining a new 
 (piestion. Their agreement was conclusive ; 
 if they differed, an appeal was open to the 
 Imperial court. (2.) In criminal causes a 
 Clf-rk might be Hued <;ither befon; tlu; Bishoj) 
 or in the ordinary Courts ; but if the dcfmd- 
 nnt should be found guilty by a lay judge, 
 Htill tin; H<'iitenc(; roidd not be excciitt d, nor 
 the pri<'Hl degraded, without llie ajjjtntbalion 
 of the Bishof). In rase that was refused, 
 there wa« n dln-et nppeal to the Emp(!r()r. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 (3.) The Bishops were entirely exempted 
 from lay jurisdiction. It may seem scarcely 
 necessaiy to add, that all cognizance of spir- 
 itual matters, from the crime of Heresy down 
 to what were held the more venial offences 
 of Simony, clerical insubordination, and even 
 the violation of the ecclesiastical discipline 
 by laymen, was confided, as it had always 
 been, to the unrestricted authority of the 
 Church. Still we should observe, that as 
 temporal power was yet entrusted to the 
 spiritual judges for the enforcement of their 
 sentence, the penalties which they could im- 
 mediately inflict were censure, suspension, 
 deposition, fasting, penance, excommunica- 
 tion — penalties which, in those ages, not only 
 inspired terror, but involved much positive 
 suffering — but to touch the person or proper- 
 ty of the culprit the aid of the secular author- 
 ity was still necessary. 
 
 After the time of Justinian, we are not 
 informed that any material change was intro- 
 duced into this department of the constitution 
 of the Eastern Church ; in fact and practice 
 it is not probable that the Clergy then en- 
 croached with any success on the civil, which 
 was so nearly identified with the imperial, 
 power, and which at all times was jealously 
 maintained. In the West, during the period 
 of dark confusion which divided Justinian 
 from Charlemagne, some additions were 
 made to the immunities of the Clergy in most 
 of the provinces, and especially in Gaul ; but 
 neither were these universally acknowledged, 
 nor securely enjoyed ; and it was not till the 
 great restorer of the Western Empire had 
 leisure to legislate for the happiness (as he 
 believed) of his subjects, that the character 
 of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and immunity 
 was wholly and })ermanently altered. Char 
 lemagne voluntarily conceded to the Church 
 (1.) that the jurisdiction of the Bishop should 
 extend to all causes which either of the par- 
 ties, whether Clerks or not, chose to refer to 
 it, and that there should be no appeal from 
 his decision ; * (2.) that the whole body of 
 the Clergy should be entirely exempt from 
 secular jurisdiction. The enormous extent 
 of power f conferred by the first of these 
 Capitularies was confirmed by the right of 
 imi)risonment (the Jus Carceris), which was 
 also granted to the episcopal .ludge ; so that 
 
 * Tile testimony of one bishop was received in 
 every ciiUBC as conclusive. 
 
 •f By iIm; (.'ouncil lield at Aries in 813, the edicts 
 (if wliidi wore confirmed hy ('hiirlomiignc, it was or- 
 dained, ' tlial, if ju<l;r(>H and people in power do not 
 pay dcfcrenro to tlic Ijicliop's inHlrnctions, he nhall 
 
JURISDICTION OF THE CLERGY. 
 
 the means which he thus possessed of execut- 
 hig his own decisions, rendered him, in a 
 great degree, independent of the civil author- 
 ities. The effect of the second was to widen 
 the distinction, already too broad, which sub- 
 sisted between Clerks and Laymen, and to 
 increase the distrust with which the sacred 
 orders already began to be regarded, by en- 
 tn-dy withdrawing their offences from the 
 cognizance of secular justice. It seems, in- 
 deed, to be true, that Charlemagne thus grant- 
 ed to the Clergy both greater power and 
 greater immunity, than the existing state of 
 society permitted them to exert or enjoy. 
 Such, nevertheless, were become their rights ; 
 and in so far as the mere possession of them 
 was the object of the struggles which they 
 maintained in after ages, we cannot jusdy 
 censure them. Neither ought we to forget, 
 that a different, and even a more solid ground- 
 work of judicial authority began to fall into 
 their occupation during this period. Many 
 of the Sees were already enriched with large 
 territorial endowments, and consequently ex- 
 ercised all the rights in those days annexed 
 to them ; and not the least valuable among 
 these was the administration of justice. By 
 this circumstance the character of the Ec- 
 c.2siastical jurisdiction became inextricably 
 compHcated; and the lines, by which it was 
 separated from the authority of the civil tribu- 
 nals, were rendered so indistinct even where 
 tliey really existed, that incessant and una- 
 voidable occasions were afforded for artful 
 encroachment on the one hand, and violent 
 aggression on the other. But these were 
 the evils of after ages ; the design of Charle- 
 magne was probably no more, than to vest 
 extensive judicial power in the most enlight- 
 tened body in his empire ; and no doubt he 
 trusted to prevent its abuse by the vigorous 
 exercise of his own supremacy. 
 
 In the mean time, while the Episcopal 
 order was thus generally strengthened and 
 aggrandized, the particular interests of the 
 Bishop of Rome were especially promoted. 
 Adrian I., a man of great talents and much 
 influence with the French King, occupied 
 the Papal Chair at this crisis ; and while he 
 profited, as he was justified in doing, by the 
 voluntary and legitimate donations of that 
 Monarch, he also adopted (as some historians 
 think) a less ingenuous method of exalting his 
 
 give information thereof to the king. All the people 
 shall obey the bishop, even the counts and judges ; and 
 they shall act in concert for the maintenance of peace 
 and justice " See Fleury, H. E. 1. 46, sect. ii. 
 
 own Sec. So much, at least, is certain, tha 
 two instruments, now denominated the ' False 
 Decretals,' and the ' Donation of Constantine,' 
 the two most celebrated monuments of hu- 
 man imposture and credulity, were put forth 
 about the conclusion of the eighth century 
 and immediately and universally received as 
 genuine. Probably they were the composi 
 tion of some monk or scribe of that age.* 
 Their direct object was the unlimited ad- 
 vancement of the Roman See ; and for that 
 purpose, the Decretals furnished the spiritual, 
 the donation the temporal, authority ; the for- 
 mer, professing to be a compilation of the 
 epistles and decrees of primitive Popes and 
 early Emperors, derived from the first ages 
 the ghostly omnipotence of Rome.f While 
 the latter proclaimed no less than that Con 
 stantine, on removing the seat of government 
 to the East, had consigned the Western Em- 
 pire to the temporal as well as spiritual gov 
 ernment of the Bishop of Rome — unbounded 
 dominion over Churches, and nations, and 
 kings, was delegated to the successor of St. 
 Peter and the Vicar of Christ. It was assert- 
 ed that the original deed of the Emperor had 
 been recently discovered : the monstrous for- 
 gery went forth, and spread itself through the 
 world without confutation, seemingly without 
 suspicion ; and it continued for above six 
 hundred years to form the most prominent, 
 and not the least solid, among the bulwarks 
 of Papacy. 
 
 If, indeed, Charlemagne shared in this 
 matter the credulity of his subjects, we may 
 reasonably infer the very narrow extent of his 
 own learning, and his little familiarity with 
 
 * See Mosh. Cent. viii. p. ii. chap. ii. The former 
 of these forgeries is frequently called the ' Decretals of 
 Isidore.' There was a celebrated Bishop of Seville of 
 that name in the sixth century, and it was probably 
 thought, that it would add some authority to the Col 
 lection, if it could be received as his work. But, 
 unfortunately, it contains some mention of the Sixtli 
 General Council, which was later than the death of 
 that Isidore. The clumsiness of the fabrication is ac- 
 knowledged and exposed by Fleury, liv. xliv. sect. 22. 
 
 f The false Decretals advanced to this end, to the 
 great detriment both of Church and State, chiefly by 
 three methods: (1.) They diminished the frequency 
 of provincial councils by asserting for the Pope the 
 exclusive right to summon them; and those councils 
 contributed very usefully both to the discipline and 
 independence of the Church. (2.) They gave great 
 encouragement to Episcopal license by subjecting the 
 Bishops to Papal authority only, and thus offermg 
 them a fair prospect of impunity. (3.) They disturb- 
 ed the course, and diverted the efficacy, of justice, by 
 promoting the practice of appeal to the Roman See. 
 
196 HISTORY OF 
 
 the annals of the preceduag ages. That he 
 did so is not impossible ; at least, it appears 
 certain, that his capitulary respecting Epis- 
 copal jurisdiction was in part founded on an- 
 other forgery — a Constitution which was for 
 many ages attached, under the name of Con- 
 stantine, to the Theodosian Code, but which 
 has long been condemned as a production of 
 the eighth or preceding century. The credit 
 of this preUminary fraud may liave embold- 
 ened its patrons to make a more audacious 
 attempt on his facihty. Upon the whole, 
 however, we are very far from attributing so 
 decided a course of policy in so great a 
 Prince to the success of an ecclesiastical im- 
 posture. Without any knowledge of the pre- 
 tensions or existence of those fabrications, 
 there were reasons sufficient why Charle- 
 magne should be willing to aggrandize a 
 Prelate whose interests were closely connect- 
 ed with his own ; and to propitiate an order * 
 of which the power was very considerable, 
 and the influence still gi-eater than the power ; 
 from which he was receiving and expecting 
 eminent personal as well as political services ; 
 which he considered as a counterpoise to the 
 licentiousness of his nobles, and to which he 
 looked for the gradual improvement and civ- 
 ilization of his subjects. It should be remem- 
 bered, too, that during the whole of his long 
 reign he maintained the royal authority in- 
 disputably paramount to every other, and that 
 if his posterity, some of whom were the fee- 
 blest of the human race, had inherited any 
 share of his talent or vigor, the subsequent 
 usurpations of the Clergy could not have been 
 accomplished, and might not have been med- 
 itated ; while the advantages, which Charle- 
 magne reasonably anticipated for the State 
 from their subordinate co-operation with the 
 Prince, would have been certainly and splen- 
 didly realized. 
 
 V. Revenues of the Church. During the 
 three first centuries the clergy w^re support- 
 
 ♦ The increase of Papal power was very fairly 
 balanced within llie Climcli l)y the general aiigineii- 
 tation of E|)iriCopul authority and influence whicli ac- 
 companied it. The entire Ecelewiastical Ijody was 
 exceedingly aggrandized, but in such ineannre that tiie 
 head did not innnediately exceed the proportion of 
 the other principal members. It is true that, by the 
 ■ecds tlien sown, tlie disease of after ages was engen- 
 dered ; but time was retpiired to give tlu-tn eflirary, 
 and during the century which f(dlowed Chai lemagne, 
 the power (if tlie llisliopH, or (as they rallcil il) their 
 independence, was boldly and not unconiinctidy as- 
 ■crtcd 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 ed by the voluntary oblations of the faithfiii 
 these were, in the first instance, daily or 
 weekly : they were offered on the altar, and 
 for the most part by communicants. This 
 example led at an early period to the pay- 
 ment of monthly offerings, which were placed 
 in the treasury of the Church. ' Every one ' 
 (says Tertullian*) ' brings a moderate contri- 
 bution once a month, or when he chooses, 
 and only if he chooses and is able ; for there 
 is no compulsion, but the gifl is spontaneous 
 — being, as it were, the deposit of piety.' 
 The sums which were thus presented by the 
 generous devotion of the converts, and which, 
 in the third century at least, were far from in- 
 considerable, were entrusted to the adminis- 
 tration of the Bishop ; and employed in the 
 maintenance of the clergy, f in the support 
 of public worship, in the relief of widows and 
 orphans, and persons suffering persecution. 
 It also appears, that, before the reign of Dio 
 cletian, the Church had become possessed of 
 some fixed property, which that Emperor con- 
 fiscated ; we do not learn whether it was ob- 
 tained by purchase or donation ; J in either 
 case it must have borne a very trifling pro- 
 portion to the revenues derived from custom- 
 ary oblation. 
 
 Constantine restored and confirmed tz the 
 Church such property as it had acquired 
 under the heathen Emperors, and tnen enact- 
 ed laws to permit and encourage its increase 
 Thus the sources of ecclesiastical wealth 
 were varied and multiplied, and the work 
 
 * Apolog. c. 29. His words are these — * Neque pre- 
 tio ulla res Dei constat. Eiiani siquod Arose genus 
 est, non de oneraria sumnia quasi redempt* religionis 
 congregatur: modicain unusqiiisque stipem menstrua 
 die, vel cum velit,etsi niodo velitetsi modopossil, ap- 
 ponit. Nam nemo compellltur, sed sponteconfert. II;ec 
 quasi deposita pietatis sunt.' Tiie term (stipem) is bor- 
 rowed from the use of the heathen in the collections 
 made by them for religious purposes. Tcrtullian pro- 
 ceeds to enumerate several charitable objects to which 
 the Christian oflcrings were applied. ' Egenis alcndis 
 humandisque,et pueris ac puellis re et parentibus dcs- 
 titutis, a?tatequc domitis senibus, item naufragis et si 
 qui in mctallis et si qui in insulis vel in custodiis dun- 
 taxat ex causa Dei secta* alumni confessionis euie 
 funit.' 
 
 t Tiie monthly salaries given to the Ministers of 
 theCJospel are mentioned by Cyprian by the name of 
 JMensurn.e Divisiones. 
 
 X I'adre Paolo (Hist. Eerles. Benefices) ascribes it 
 to donations made dining the confusion which pro- 
 vailed in tiie empire after the iinpriBonnient of Valeri- 
 an, when iIk; general Konian law, wliicii forbade tlie 
 i)e(|ueatliing of real estalcs to any coiU-ge, society, or 
 corporation, without liie apjirolialioii of tlic .Senate ot 
 tiie Prince, may liavc been vicjiated with lafety 
 
REVENUES. 
 
 197 
 
 which was begun by Constantine was some- 
 what advanced by his immediate successors. 
 Occasional allowances were advanced from 
 the exchequer; the estates of martyrs and 
 confessors dying without heirs were settled 
 on the Church ; presently those of all clergy- 
 men so dying were similarly disposed of; * 
 and while some Princes transferred to the 
 Christian establishment the temples of the 
 Heathen and their revenues, there were oth- 
 ers who extended the same principle to the 
 Churches of the heretics. At the same time, 
 the original oblations continued to be abun- 
 dantly supplied ; and a still broader field was 
 opened by the general and unlimited permis- 
 sion which was given to bestow real property 
 upon the Church, both by donation and lega- 
 cy. The disposition not uncommonly exist- 
 ing to act on that permission was encouraged 
 by the baser portion of the clergy ; and their 
 persuasions were sometimes conducted with 
 so little decency, that it became necessary to 
 impose a legal restraint f upon their cupidity. 
 Nevertheless, in spite of occasional interrup- 
 tion, the tide flowed onward ; the partial de- 
 relictions of the ecclesiastical body were 
 forgotten in their general power, their dignity, 
 a id their virtues ; | and, before the close of 
 
 * Tlie former by a law of Constantine, the latter 
 by cne of Theodosius II. and Valentinian III. See 
 Bingham's Antiq. book v. ch. iv. 
 
 t There is a remarkable law of Valentinian (made 
 in 370, and particularly addressed to Damayus, 
 Bishop of Rome), which forbids Churchmen to fre- 
 quent the houses of widows and orphans, or to receive 
 any gifts, directly or indirectly, by will or donation, 
 from women to whom they might have attached them- 
 selves under pretext of religion. ' Ecclesiastici aut 
 ex ecclesiaticis viduarum et pupillorum domus non 
 adeant, sed publicis exterminentur judiciis, si eos 
 affines eorum vel propinqui putaverint deferendos. 
 Censeraus etiam ut memorati nihil de ejus mulieris, 
 cui se privatim sub pretextu religionis adjunxerint, 
 liberalitate quacunque vel extremo judicio possint 
 adipisci, et omne in tantura inefficax sit quod alicui 
 iiorum ab his fuerit derelictum, ut nec per subjectam 
 personam valeant aliquid vel donatione vel testamento 
 recipere.' (Lege 20. Cod. Theod. de Episc. et Ec- 
 cles.) This was presently (in 390) followed by an- 
 other to the same effect, but more generally expressed. 
 The former would not seem to preclude gifts to the 
 Church, as a body, only to individual ministers^ the 
 latter goes so far as to ordain ' nullam Ecclesiam, 
 nullum Clericum, nullum pauperem scribat haeredes.' 
 We may here also observe, that Charlemagne made a 
 Jaw to prevent the Church from receiving any gifts 
 which disinherited children and kindred. See Padre 
 Paolo, ch. vi. 
 
 :j: The most pious among the Fathers raised their 
 voices very early against the practice of making 
 over fixed property to the Church. St. Chrysostom 
 
 the fifth century, the Church had very amply 
 profited by the pious generosity' of the faith- 
 fiil. 
 
 . The increase of ecclesiastical revenues was 
 further aided by certain exemptions granted 
 to the clergy by the first Christian Emperors. 
 These, though not so general as some have 
 supposed, were numerous and important. It 
 appears certain that Church lands were liable 
 to the ordinary tax (census agrorum) or ca- 
 nonical tribute ; * and also, that they contin- 
 ued subject after donation to all burdens 
 which might have been previously charged 
 upon them ; but a law of Theodosius II. 
 exempted them from all extraordinary im- 
 positions. Moreover, ecclesiastics were not 
 liable, even from the time of Constantine, to 
 the census capitum or capitation tax ; they 
 were also excepted (by Honorius and Theo- 
 dosius II.) from the payment of a number of 
 occasional imposts, many of which are speci- 
 fied by Bingham ; and it was not a trifling 
 privilege, even in a pecuniary view, that they 
 were relieved from the discharge of all the 
 civil offices of whatsoever degree, which 
 were attached to the possession of fixed pro- 
 perty. So studious were those early princes 
 to observe the distinction between the spirit- 
 ual and the temporal character, and, while 
 they prevented the encroachments of the 
 clergy on that which did not belong to them, 
 to give them the full benefit of that which 
 was peculiarly their own. 
 
 The ancient manner of dispensing the 
 revenues of the Church was for some time 
 maintained without any remarkable altera- 
 tion. All alms and incomes arising from 
 
 (Homil. 86. in Matt.) attributes the great corruption 
 of the Bishops and other Churchmen to the possession 
 of lands and fixed revenues ; since they forsook their 
 s[)iritual occupations to sell their corn and wine, to 
 increase the value of tlieir property, or to defend it in 
 courts of law. He looks back with admiration on 
 the Apostolical purity of the Church, when it was 
 nourished only by oblation and charity. It is like- 
 wise related of St. Augustin, that he would neither 
 purchase land, nor even accept inheritances whioli 
 were left to tlie Church ; also maintaining, that the 
 system of oblation and tithe would be better calculat- 
 ed to preserve the peculiar character of the clergy. 
 P. Simon observes that the possession of any great 
 wealth was for a long time confined to the Churches 
 of the principal cities. The opulence of the Bishop 
 of Rome, as mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus 
 (lib. xxvii.), must have been derived almost entirely 
 from oblation ; but towards the end of the sixth cen- 
 tury we find that Prelate in enjoyment of arapla 
 ' Patrimonies,' not in Italy only, but far beyond it* 
 limits. See Fleuiy, liv. xxxv. sect. 15. 
 * See Bingham, book v. ch. iii. 
 
^98 HISTORY OF 
 
 real * estates were yet in common, under the 
 immediate care of Deacons and Subdeacons, 
 but under the control and at the discretion of 
 the Bishop, who ordered all the distributions. 
 The whole of the clergy in every Church 
 was maintained from the general funds of 
 that Church; and in many places we find 
 that great multitudes of poor were nourished 
 by the same resources. 
 
 We are not informed that any material 
 change in the application of its revenues at 
 any time took place in the Eastern Church ; 
 and we may even be allowed to doubt, 
 whether its property received any very great 
 augmentation after the fifth or sixth century. 
 At least such increase was incessantly watch- 
 ed by a powerful and jealous Sovereign ; f 
 and the political revolutions, which finally 
 raised the hierarchy of the West to such in- 
 ordinate opulence, extended neither in act 
 nor influence beyond the Adriatic. The 
 prevalence of the monastic spirit did not 
 fiiil, indeed, to create new establishments, 
 enriched by new endowments ; but even that 
 spirit, after two or three centuries from the 
 days of St. Basil, blazed with little compara- 
 tive ardor in the East, where it was neither 
 renovated by perpetual reformations, nor 
 nourished and diversified by the interested 
 patronage of Papacy. 
 
 But in the West, the confiision introduced 
 by the invaders made it necessary, even in 
 the fifth century, to legislate more expressly 
 respecting the revenues of the Church. It 
 was discovered that the confidence, placed 
 from the earliest ages in the discretion of the 
 Bishop, was now occasionally abused, and 
 began to require the restraint of some canon- 
 ical regulations. It was, therefore, ordained 
 about the year 470 1 that the revenue should 
 
 * See Padre Paolo, Eccles. Benef. ch. vi. 
 
 f At an early period stewards were apjioiiited to 
 superintend tlie temporalities of the Churches, and 
 were chosen by the Bishop. But as aljuses were 
 found to proceed from this arrangement, the Council 
 of Chalcedon decreed, that. the stewards should for 
 the future be choi-en from among tlie clergy, and that 
 the administration of the revenues should no longer 
 Ix,' left in the power of the Bishop. That oflice be- 
 came afterwards bo consi<lerable in the Church of 
 Conntanlinople, thai the Emperors took from the 
 clergy the nomination of the stewarrls itito their own 
 handn. This practice lasted till the time of Isaac 
 CotnneniiH, who remitted that riglit to the discretion 
 of the Patriarch. See P. Simon's History of Kccle- 
 ■ iaMtica! Kevenuefl. 
 
 X We follow the probable conclusion of Padre 
 Paolo, without being ignorant that this division has 
 bn«n ■ornctimeH ancriUtd to Pope Sylvester (who 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 be divided into four parts ; the first for tne 
 Bishop, the second for the rest of the Clergy, 
 the third for the fabric of the Church, the 
 fourth for the poor. The duties of hospital- 
 ity, which included the entertainment of 
 indigent strangers, were annexed to the 
 Episcopal office. This distribution related 
 only to the income of the several Churches: 
 the funds whence they proceeded, whether 
 immovables, oblations, or alms, continued, 
 as heretofore, the common property of the 
 body. In the meantime, it would be incor- 
 rect to suppose that the above division was 
 necessarily made into four equal portions : 
 the great variation in the number of the cler- 
 gy and of the poor, in the size and splendor 
 of the fitbrics, in the extent of the diocese, 
 must have subjected so very broad a rule to 
 very frequent modification. 
 
 During the tumultuous ages which follow- 
 ed, it is asserted, without any improbability^ 
 that the bishops and clergy in many places 
 enlarged their own portions to the neglect of 
 the sacred buildings and the destitution of 
 the poor; that the minister frequently con- 
 verted to his own use the oflferings deposited 
 1 in his own church ; and, in some places, that 
 the lands themselves were divided for the 
 usufruct of particular individuals. These 
 innovations may have gained footing insen- 
 sibly at diflTerent times, in difl^'erent places ; 
 and the last was ultimately absorbed in that 
 great change in the nature and distribution 
 of church property which was introduced by 
 the system of feudalities. 
 
 Those estates, which the Franks and Lom- 
 bards called Fiefs, were, by the Latins, de- 
 signated Beneficia, as being held by the 
 bounty of the Prince. This term was orig- 
 inally confined to baronial or military ten- 
 ures, and thence it afterwards passed into 
 the service of the church. To the endow- 
 ments of sees or churclies, in those times so 
 commonly made by princes, the word ♦ Ben- 
 efice ' was appli(Ml, perhaps without impro- 
 priety ; it was easily extended to such digni- 
 ties as were confiTrod by the bishops with 
 the permission of the princes; and thus it 
 became connnon to all the separate portions 
 of the ecclesiastical estates. These altera, 
 tions, though not completed till a much later 
 period, * were in gradual process din ing the 
 
 lived one hundred and fifty years before), on the 
 faith of some writings falsely attributed to him. 
 j ♦Some footsteps of the foundations of Benefices 
 j! and the right of patronage may perhaps l)c discovered 
 !l in the lOlli Cano.i of the First Council of Orange^ 
 
REVENUES. 
 
 199 
 
 seventh and eighth centuries ; in the mean- 
 <?»nn the territorial possessions of the Church 
 were spreading widely ; and they had already 
 swelled to a bulk too great for their security, 
 when Charlemagne ascended the throne of 
 the Western empire. 
 
 Some portion of those possessions was un- 
 questionably acquired by methods disgraceful 
 to individual churchmen, or through the cor- 
 ruptions of the Church itself ; and this was 
 more especially the case (for reasons which 
 we have already given) in the Latin com- 
 munion. As to the former means — the gross 
 ignorance of the barbarian conquerors, and 
 their hereditary reverence for the ministers 
 of religion, offered irrisistible temptation to 
 the astute avarice of the French and Italian 
 clergy : for thus, besides that general abuse of 
 spiritual influence for the spoliation of weak, 
 or superstitious, or dying persons, which was 
 common to them with their Eastern brethren, 
 peculiar facilities and invitations to imposture 
 v/ere almost pressed upon them by the pop- 
 ular credulity. The efficacy of gifts to expiate 
 offences was a profitable principle, tor vv'hich 
 the minds of Uie converts were already pre- 
 pared by their previous prejudices : the wild 
 rapacity of the savage is usually associated 
 with reckless profusion ; and we cannot doubt 
 that many individuals of the sacred order suc- 
 cessfully availed themselves of dispositions 
 so fav^orable to their own temporal interests. 
 Respecting the corruptions of the Church, it 
 would probably be too much to assert, that 
 masses for the release of souls and the fruit- 
 ful fable of Purgatory were actually invented 
 for the purpose of enriching that body ; but 
 we need not hesitate to assign that among the 
 leading causes of the encouragement which 
 was given to them. The pernicious swarm 
 of superstitious practices, such as the wor- 
 ship of images, the adoration of Saints, and, 
 above all, the demoralizing custom of pilgrim- 
 held in 441: — ' But the custom of that time (as P. 
 Simon remarks) was far different from the present 
 practice.' Again, about the year 500, under Pope 
 Symmachus, it appears that to some Churchmen por- 
 tions of land were assigned to be enjoyed by them for 
 life; this appears from an Epistle of that Pope to 
 Cajsariup, where he prohibits the alienation of Church 
 lands, unless it should be in favor of Clerks meriting 
 such reward — ' nisi Clericis honorem meritis, aut 
 Monasteriis, religionis intuitu, aut certe peregrinis 
 necessitas largari suaserit — sic tamen ut hsec ipsanon 
 pcrpcfuo, sed temporaliter, 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 
 llie 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 impunityTor 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 sucb 
 pilgrimages accompanied by prayer, alms, and cor 
 rection of morals ' Fleury, H. E., 1. xlvi., sect v 
 
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 reU- 
 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, i 
 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 j 
 the ecclesiastical establishments, were a sure 
 and eflfective 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 rca- 
 .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'a Dissert, xxxvii. De Hospitali- 
 bufl, &c.; and also his Ivith, De Rcligioiio per Itali- 
 ain, post anil. 6(X). 
 
 f Cliarlcs Martd, for inHtaiicr, wry amply coin- 
 pcnj^ated his military Xjllowcrs for their HiicecK.sfiil 
 defence of ( 'hriHtianity hy the monasterien and other 
 cccleniaHticalendowmentH, wliich he diHti ihiilcrd arnon;,' 
 them, fie thus incurred the indignation of St. lloni- 
 fare; hut as to the ceh'l)rat«-d vision of Tuh IwriiiH, 
 there wemH ((re;it reaxoii to (h)ul)t whether tiie Ilishop 
 did not precede the rrinrc in the race of mortality. 
 Bee Daron. apud Selden, eh. v 
 
 There is another source of ecclesiastical 
 wealth 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 
 lo 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. xxni. In the 
 former place he is reproaching one Geminins Fansti- 
 nus, a priest, for having undertaken the discharge of a 
 secular oflicc — 'qu;e nunc ratio ct forma in Clero ten- 
 ctur, ut (|ni in Erclc.^ia Domini ad ordinationcm Cler- 
 icalem promoventnr, nullo niodo ab administratione 
 divina avocentur, scd, in honore sportulantium fra- 
 trum, lancpiam Decimas ex fructibus accipiontcs ab 
 altari et sacrificiis non rccedant. . . In the latter, 
 wliile deploring the lukewarm devotion of the faith- 
 fid, he complains, ' at nunc de patriumnio nec deci 
 mas danuis.' See Selden, chap. 4. 
 
 f This may surprise those historians who distin 
 guish Origen from the Church writ(>rs, and exalt him 
 accordingly. Had Cyprian published a homily to in- 
 culcate the divine obligation of jjaying first-fruits to 
 the pri«'st, he would W.xw been sligmati/cd as the most 
 avaricious (he is already denounced as the most am 
 , bilious) among those early churchmen. 
 
REVENUES. 
 
 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 X 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 unile vivis; de militia, de negotio, de 
 artificio redde decimas: aliiid enim pro terra dependi- 
 mus, aliud pro usura vitee pensamiis. Selden appears 
 to share in a doubt which has been raised, whether 
 the Homily in question be really the production of 
 Augustin. 
 
 f 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 tlie 
 contributor. 
 
 if We refer jjarticularly to Selden's 5th chap., and 
 his remarks on the Council of Mascon (in 586). 
 Thomassin (Vetus et Nova Ecclesiae Discipliua, P. 
 III. 1. i. c. v\.) 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 Ma^on decree — statuimus 
 et decern imus. 
 
 26 
 
 I 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,! and re- 
 echoed from the pulpits of France and Italy. 
 Nevertheless, it was found exceedingly dif- 
 ficult to enforce them. J The laity were 
 
 * Ut unusquisque suam decimam donet; atque per 
 jussionem Episcopi sui (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 thir d 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. 
 
 t The celebrated Council of Fraiicfort (in 794) 
 published a canon foi the universal payment of tithes, 
 besides the rents due to the Church for benefices 
 See Fleury, 1. xliv. s. Ix. and Thomassin, P. III. 1 
 i. cap. vii. 
 
 X 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 
 prsevideat, si melius sit rudibus populis in principio 
 fidei jugum imponere Decimarum, ut plena fiat per 
 singulas domus exactio illarum ; an apostoli quoque 
 ab ipso DeoChristo edocti et ad prsedicandum mundc 
 missi exactioncs Decimarum exegisscnt, vel alicui 
 demandassent dari, t onsiderandum est. Scimus quia 
 
202 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 strongly (ri>posed 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 Coinicils 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 
 Hghtly received nor contemned with securit3^ 
 
 Such are the principal quarters from which 
 tlie 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 ])icty or superstition ; but those losses 
 were afterwards compensated by a liberality 
 
 Deciniatio siibstantiie nostra} valde bona est. Set! 
 melius est illarn amittere quarn fidein perdere. Nos 
 vero ill fide Catliolica nati, nutriti et edocti vix con- 
 senliirius substantiam nostram pleniter decimari ; 
 quanto maj^is lenera fides et infantilis animus et 
 avara mens illorum la^gitati non consentitl' Tlie 
 passage is (|uotcd by Sclden in Chapter v. 
 
 * See Si'lden, chap. vi. There were various pon- 
 tifical decrr-cs rnspeciing Tithes by Nicholas II., 
 Alexander II., and (»regory VII. in the eleventh 
 century. Sulden mentions tlie direct coinniand of 
 Nicholas in 1059. ' Pra-cipimus ut Dccima; et Priin- 
 itia; sen oblationea vivoriim et inortuorum Ecclesiis 
 Doi fidcliter reddantiir a Laicis, et ut iu (nspositioiie 
 E|)ir<coporuin siiit: (jiiaH (jui rctiiiueriiit a S. Krclosia' 
 Coiiimiiiiione separentur.* Trn years earlier we ob- 
 serve that Leo IX,, in his council a},'aiiiHt Simony, 
 ^ettored Tillies to all the Churches, willi the admis- 
 lion, ' that no mention was at that tiiixr made of llieiii 
 in Apulia, and Koine oth<;r parts of the world.' A 
 doiibit- diviHion of iIkmii is on that occaHiwi meiitioni'd 
 — I>elw»ren the Hixliop, atid the Altar, or IMiniHtor of 
 llic Church. See WiLeilUi*, uji. I'iijfi., Vil. Leo IX. 
 
 which was sometimes heedless, sometimes 
 political ; and, upon the whole, in spite of oc- 
 casional spoliations, the fimds 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 n.ost 
 in need of aid and consolation. 
 
 General Benefits conferred by the Church. 
 We do not here propose to enumerate tlie 
 beneficial eflTects of the religion itself, which 
 are scarcely contested by any one ; but only 
 to mention some of the good fruits of the 
 Institution caWed 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, instnmient 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, tlie 
 ecclesiastical body was in possession of very 
 considerable dignity and power throughout 
 the whole of Christendom ; and in that body 
 the opiscoj)al order had risen into a pre- 
 eminence, not indeed in imison with its an- 
 cient iMunility, but attributable to its activity 
 and its virtues more than to its ambition, and 
 j)erhai)s to the circumstances of the empire 
 even more than to cither. In the enjoyment 
 of extensive revenues, of some * municipal 
 
 * Sec Cod. Justin. I. i., til. iv. I)e Kpiscopali 
 Audicnlia, s. 2(), .'50. The Huporintendeiice of public 
 works, and of tlu; fimds for defraying their expenses, 
 was intrusted fo the bishop, together with some «)f lh« 
 leading iiieu in ihu ciiy. 
 
BENEFITS CONFERRED BY THE CHURCH. 
 
 203 
 
 authority, of certain judicial privileges and 
 immunities, of high rank and reputation, and 
 of very powerftd influence over the people, 
 and united for all grand purposes by conimon 
 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 
 vierdy 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 
 v^ery 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 uf 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-niind 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 Generale, &c. Le- 
 9on n.) has expressed the same opinion with the 
 same confidence. ' Je ne ci-ois pas trop dire en af- 
 firmant qu'a la fin du quairieme et commencement du 
 cinquieme siecie, c'est I'Eglise Chretinne qui a sauve 
 e Christanisme. C'est I'Eglise, avec ses institutions, 
 ees magistrats, son pouvoir qui s'est defendue vigour- 
 eusemerit contre la dissolution interieure de I'empire, 
 contra la Barbaric; qui a conquis les barbares, qui 
 est devenue le lien, le moyen, le principe de civilisa- 
 tion entre le monde Remain et le monde bai oare,' 
 8cc. &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 would 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 rehgion 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 indrgent tWe 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 Avaa 
 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 veiy slender means for self-correc- 
 tion ; and when even the secular laws were 
 feebly or partially executed. Thirdly — After 
 the' fifth centuiy 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 antl 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 cn a une preuve irr6cu8uble: la plupart dca 
 fbrmuics d'aflfrarchiescment, k diverges ^potjues, ee 
 
 without such advocacy so steadily pursued 
 through so long and hopeless a period, the 
 complete emancipation of the lowest classes 
 v/ould 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 ])lcdge of future 
 improvement, as an inviolable and everlasting 
 treasure, consecrated to the brighter destinies 
 of ages to come. 
 
 foiuleiit siir uii motif religieiix ; c'est au nom des idees 
 religieiises", des esp6ranccs dc ravcnir, de l'ogalit6 
 rcligieusc des homines, que rafTraiichissement est 
 prcsqiie tonjonrE prononc6. — Guizot, Hint. Gcii^rale 
 Le^on VI. 
 
INDEPENDENCE OF PAPAL ELECTION. 
 
 205 
 
 PART III. 
 
 FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE TO THAT OF 
 POPE GREGORY VH. 814—1085. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 On the Government and Projects of the CJiurch 
 during the JVinth 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— r>y 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 t!iough 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- 
 
 ti cal 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. 11. 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. 
 III. The exertions of the See of Rome to sub- 
 due to itself the ecclesiastical body, and thus 
 to establish a despotism ivithin the Church. 
 In the two first of these objects we may re- 
 gard the Church as waging for the most pait 
 an external warfare : the last occasioned her 
 intestine or domestic struggles , and the ex 
 aniination 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 tlie 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 Constantino 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 he 
 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 consocratioD 
 Both these restraints became ofFensiv^e 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. 
 
 liCwis, 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. Tw^o 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- 
 2quivocally 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 9G0, 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 em|)erors 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 9G0, Otho the Great, on the invi- 
 tation of John XIL, resumed the Imperial 
 authority in Italy, and exercised, as long as 
 he lived, the most arbitrary discretion in the 
 election, ar)d even apj)()intm(.nt, of the Pon- 
 tifl'. He |)n's<!ntly degraded John, and sub- 
 siitutrd in his place; Leo VIII.; and imder 
 that Po|)e (or anli-Poj)e — for it is (lis|)uted) 
 a Lateral! cotmcil f was \\v.\d in which 
 conf(;rred 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 ol'ifs bishops. And for tin; guidance of 
 
 • Gnnnrully railed Stephen IV. Sec Baron, ann. 
 i (ji;uin'»ric, Slor. Niip., 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 himdred 
 and fifty yeare, 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 tiie 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- 
 abh; to the confirmation and extension of 
 [)apal privileges. Why then was it, that the 
 I)rivil(^g(! 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 tlu; hands of an unjM'in- 
 
 ♦Mosheim, Cent, x., p. ii.,c. ii. 
 file had ocrnsion lo exert it three times. Sc« 
 below, chaj). 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 Othothe 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 uader 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 
 v.'e 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 
 sur aucun gouvernement que celles de Rome er. ob- 
 tinrenl, 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 XIL, Benedict VL, 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 vera 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, sowedl 
 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 tnight 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 mbout 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 
 eflx>rts 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 
 
203 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 tliat .ve 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 generally violent and interrupted, tliose 
 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 
 liad 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 hie permanent setdement of the north- 
 ern nations generally introduced the feudal 
 system of government, the Clergy, tliough 
 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 the ' Capitularies of Interrogations' proposed 
 by Charlemagne, three years before his death, — 
 * First,' (he says) ' I will separate the bishops, tl>e 
 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 it'? 
 Whence come those frequent complaints which I 
 hear, either concerning their property or the vassals 
 which pass from the one to the olhcrl In what the 
 ecclesiastics impede the service of the laity, the laity 
 that of llic ecclesiastics'! To what extent a bishop 
 or abbot ought to interfere in secular a flairs ; or a 
 count or other layman in ecclesiastical matters,' &c. 
 (I'leury, II. Eccl. I. xiv. sect. 51. Guizot, Hist. Mod. 
 Leijon 21.) Soon afterwards, in 826, the Council 
 of I'ari.s, after proposing some very extravagant epis- 
 copal claims, observeH, aa one great olj.stacle to har- 
 mony, that the princes have long mixed too much in 
 ecclcHiaMlical mailers, and that the clergy, wliellicr 
 through avarif e or ignorance, take unl)»;comiiig in- 
 tnrcMt ill fl«<!iilar matters. Again, at the Hynod of 
 Aix-la-< "hapclli; (in H'Mi) all the evilu of the limi' are 
 expre^*!y attrilailed to the mutual cncroachmrntH of 
 tim >|iiiilual and M*r-iilar powers 
 
 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 becatne 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 am})ly 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 j)rivilcge 
 
 * Tliis subject is treated clearly, though shortly, by 
 LIurke, in his Abridgment of English History. Mos- 
 heiiu, who ascribes the secular encroachments of 
 the Hishops to their acquisition of secular titles, de- 
 nies that such titles were conferred on them before 
 the tenth age. Louis Thomassin (I)e Disciplin. 
 Eccl(!S. Vet. el Nova) endeavors to trace the prflc- 
 lice to the ninth and even to the eighth cenlury 
 Whatever maybe the fact respecting the titles, the 
 jurisdiction certainly gained great ground during the 
 ninth age; n>ore, perhaps, ihrotigh tiic superstition 
 of llie jM'ople, and the weakness of (he 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, accoixiing 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- 
 iinary 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. X 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. 
 
 t 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 ofler 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 
 acme religious forms; great precautions were taken 
 to prevent the arms from being enchanted; and in 
 97 
 
 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 tlie only nierit 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 vario.us 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 parlies 
 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 ort'i 
 nance.' See Fleury, 1. xlvi., s. 48. 1. xlvii, s. 30. 1. 
 xlix., s. 23. 
 
 t In many of ihe councils held during the ninth 
 century, canons were enacted enjoining the Bishop to 
 suspend a Priest for ignorance, and to promote and 
 regulate the schools which were established lor the 
 education of the clergy 
 
210 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 which the only pei*sons at all qualified to fill 
 the offices of the state should be the only 
 persons excluded fi*om them. It is far from 
 our intention to advocate any general depar- 
 ture fi'om 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 hved, 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- 
 sen-ed ? 
 
 If the clergy were in many respects gainers 
 by the imperfection of civil government, it 
 would be partial to conceal, that they were 
 sufferei-s 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 nintli 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 
 fretjuency 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 sucli oflfencoH. Some promulgated in 
 France (probably in 822) 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 llcsh and 
 wine for the whole of his life, to (|iiit the profi-ssion of 
 anuH, and alwtain from marriage.' Yet the confir- 
 mation of this canon was thonglit highly important 
 by the cpit^copal order. Fleiiry I. xlvi, h. 48 ; l.xlix, 
 1.40. 
 
 t>\n abuBc (a« Mr. Hallam rrmarkB) which ha:^ 
 never rra»ed in the Church. Mifldle AgrH,chap. vii. 
 Wc take tliiM opportunity of arknowleilging various 
 obligalions to thut liiMlorian. 
 
 tors, under the name of Advocates, vvith con 
 siderable fiefs, as the price of their protection 
 against depredatof-s. 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 p^femise 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 ever 
 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 combatant^ 
 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 apostolica. 
 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 sous, 
 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 CJerman Conrad just a century after his death; 
 and in 987 his dynasty was extinguished in Franc* 
 by the accession of Hugh Capet. 
 
 t Baron., ann. 83.3, b. v. (Jregory held the Se« 
 from 828 to 844. It was made a complaint sigamat 
 the Emperor by Agobard, the Archbishop of Lyona 
 (ap. Baron., ann. 833, 8. vi.) that he did not address 
 the I'ope with the due expn'ssions of respect — pince 
 he saluted him, in a letter, Brother au<l I'apa iiidiB- 
 criminately: the paternal Hp|)ellation should ".ilone, it 
 Burms, have been adopted. 
 
KCCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 
 
 2IJ 
 
 01 his pretended crimes, and confessed his 
 guilt, he prostrated himself on a rough mat 
 at the foot of the altar, ca'fet 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 residence. 
 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 
 ny 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 
 ofLewisbythe pretext of penance. Yet it 
 had been surpassed in an 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 682, 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 Eyvigius ; on which matter the prelates 
 pron(.unced as follows — ' We have read this 
 
 * The prohibition to carry arms or discharge civil 
 ©fifices did not extend beyond the duration of the pen- 
 ance. See- Fleury, 1. xlvii. s. 40. Baron, ann. 882. 
 8. i.; ann. 833. s. xix. 
 
 tWe 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 for 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 llie 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 
 sacreil 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 
 affiairs 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 according 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 s cited 
 by Fleury, 1. xl. s. 29. 
 
 t Fleury, H. E. 1. xlviii. s. 11. Baron., am 842. 
 s. 1,2, 3. 
 
212 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 querors, were immediately, and, as it would 
 eeem, 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, wliich 
 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 
 Ai'chbishops, consecrated me King, accord- 
 ing to the tradition of tlie 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 heanng 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 td 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 liovvis 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 
 ({ueen 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 Baroiiius, aim. 859. s. 
 xxvi. The BiHho|)H had a very simple process of 
 reaKonin^', which they j)roved tlicir m>j)rciTiacy. 
 A liij-hop can coriKCcratc a Kirij,', \mt a King cannot 
 coMHocrate a IliHhop: thercifore a IJislioj) is Hiiperior 
 to a King. We iniglit well wonder tliat any eerioua 
 aliention should ever liuvc l)ecn paid to biicIi inidis- 
 giiised nonsense, if we did not recollect what inidiic 
 weight is always attached to ceremony in i^rnmaiit 
 
 t It fhould ttl*:> Ih; recollccled that thi- was ihe 
 criais of the geneml diBHoliitiou of government and 
 ■ocicty into 'iie lismjal 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 tlie 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 degi'ee 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, m which 
 he eulogized 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 Emi)eror, 
 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 unsuccessfid ; 
 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 eftbrts of the Pontift'to oblige him 
 to abdication were rcp(nied with courage and 
 constancy both by the king and his metro- 
 politan, f 
 
 * Fleury (I. li. s. 7.) collects the fact from (ho 
 Pope's letter to Charles, in favor of Ileltrude, widow 
 of Count lierenger, and sister of Lothaire. Hut many 
 historians are silent respecting it, and in the first in^ 
 tercourse between Lothaire and Adrian H. the suc- 
 cessor of Nicholas, we can discover no proof that tl.o 
 Kii)g was then lyinjf under the sentence. 
 
 t 'I'he Pope connnanded Ilincniar to abstain from 
 (he cointnunion of Charles, if he contiiuied refractory. 
 The Archbishop (professedly in the name of hid fel 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL 
 
 Lewis III. and Hiiicmar of 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 desii-ous 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 
 ■awihor of this. 
 
 ENCROACHMENTS. 213 
 
 the grace of God, during six f ud thirty years 
 
 of episcopacy ' A subsequent letter 
 
 by the same Prelate contained even stronger 
 expressions to the following eflfect — 'It is 
 not you who have chosen me to 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 PontiflTs of after ages 
 one of their pretexts for interference in the 
 succession to the Imperial throne. The cere- 
 mony of coronation to which Qiarlemagne 
 had consented to submit at Rome was their 
 only foundation for the pretension that the 
 empire had been transfeired 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 
 Slor Nap. lib. viii IntrodiMit. 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 by the same agenpy from the French to the 
 ItaUans, 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, 
 tho-.igVi 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 i)rivation of all dignity for 
 laymen. ' The Pope and the King were both 
 
 * Some of tlic expressions of die Pope delivered on 
 tills occasion slionld be cited. ' Unde nos, tantis 
 indiciia Jivinilus incinnlH;ntibns, luce clarius agiiitis, 
 euperni decreti conJIliirn manifest^ cognovinius. Et 
 (|uia pridcin Apostolicaj mcinoria; Dcces&ori nostro 
 Pap;u Nicolao idipHum jam inspiratioiic divina 
 ifvrl;ifutn fiiicBC compt'rimiiH, clff^imus merito et 
 upprohavimun una cum annisn et vofo f)mninm Fra- 
 trnm el C<)f[)iHropornm nootronim ot aliornm Sanclm 
 Rom. Eccle/iia; MiniKtrorum, ampli(|ue scnatus, loti- 
 iiHf|ii(; Rom. popnii g('ntiH(|ue togatu-, et HccMuidiini jjris- 
 rani conHuriliidinom, Holemnitcr ad Imperii Romani 
 Scrptra proveximuit, et AiiffiiHlali nomine decoravi- 
 miiH, iin^rnN-H cum oleo extrinHOCUH, ut interioriH 
 f|ii'ifjnf! SpiriruM Sancti iinctionis mf)n«trari!mnH vir»u- 
 U:m, &c ' Sec Burun. Ann. 876 » 6. 
 
 I present at this Council, and the latter appears 
 to have sanctioned the very bold usurpation 
 contained in the last clause. 
 
 Soon after this period the Popes became s ) 
 much embarrassed by domestic inquietudu 
 and disorder, that they had little leisure to 
 extend their conquests abroad ; and thus foi 
 above a century the thunders of the Vaticar 
 murmured with extreme faintness, or alto- 
 gether slept. But the principle of ecclesias- 
 tical supremac}^, 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 tho 
 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 hav^) been produced are the 
 most important, and they are worthy of more 
 particidar reflection than can here be bes- 
 towed on thom. But at present it must suffice 
 to have noticed, even thus briefly, the earliest 
 movements by which the spirit of ccclesias- 
 
 * Pelrus Daniiani, ulio wrote about sixty years 
 afterwards, relate*, that the ecclesiastical censure was 
 so exactly observed, that no one would hold anycoin- 
 nuniion with tlie king, excepting two servants who 
 carried him the necessaries of life, and that even these 
 I)urnt the vessels which he had used. Rut tliat nii- 
 thor throws susjiicion on a narration not improbable, 
 by adding that the fruit of the marriage was a mon- 
 ster whi(;h had the head and nerk of a goose. See 
 1 Fleurv, I. lvii.,ii. 57 
 
USURPATIONS OF 
 
 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 fijst rank among the rulers of the Church ; 
 and il, 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 v/ithin 
 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 ol" 
 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 ROMAIM SEE. 2i5 
 
 the moment was not yet arrived iR which it 
 was possible to enforce all the rights so boldly 
 claimed on their authority ; and though some 
 ground was gained by Vope 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 
 presumptir n, 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 sufficienth 
 discovered in their letters ; but their firmnesi. 
 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. 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pope returned to Italy without either pro- 
 rM)uncing or receiving excommunication. 
 
 The occurrence which we shall next men- 
 f toD took place thirty years afterwards ; and 
 iu is the more remarkable, because tlie 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 
 legate 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- 
 raandevl, with repeated menaces, the imme- 
 diate liberation of Rothadus, in order to the 
 persons 1 prosecution of his appeal at Rome. 
 Through the interference of Charles the 
 Bald, tl e j)risoner was released ; and after 
 some delays, the deputies of Hincmar also 
 appeared before the pontifical tribunal. The 
 decision was such as all probably anticij)atcd : 
 all the charges against Rothadus were ascrib- 
 ed to the malice and perfidy of liis enemy ; 
 he was ordered to resuine the episcopal vest- 
 ments, and a legate was sent to escort him on 
 his return to his country and his see. It does 
 not ai)j)car, from the particulars* of this con- 
 test, that Hincmar and the Bishops who sup- 
 ported hitri went ho far as to deny the right of 
 a deposf'd Jiisliop to appeal to Rome against 
 the sentence of liis M(;tr()poIitan ; indeed, ihe^y 
 rested their defence on much lower ground, 
 
 * BcsidcH die ecclesiastical liislorians, kcc the Life 
 cf Nicholas in the Hrcviariuin Tonlif. Romanor. R. 
 P. I'rancisci Pagi.loinc ii. That Tope, in his Kpis*- 
 lle ' Ad iinivcrfOM (Jallia,' KpiHcopoH,' admit.", how- | 
 ever, that the authority of the I)<Trftals was not yet 
 unitcrnally received in the (Jalliran ('hinch. VV^e 
 read in llie f<ame author, that A<lrian II. rommnnded 
 ihc d'allican IJirthops to raine ActarduH of Nantes to 
 the firHl Mclropolitan hcc which might Ik* varant; and 
 tliMt, in the year K71, he was rained to that of Tours, 
 liut with the additioD — Regc, cicro, ac popniu po«tu- 
 LiritilMut. 
 
 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 Pontiflfs,' 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 crown 
 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, fhat 
 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 hokl 
 that which it holds in conformity with Scrip- 
 ture and the Canons.' The Bishops who 
 were present professed the strictest unanimity 
 with the PontiflT ; and the good understand- 
 ing which was then, perhaps, established be- 
 tween the Churches of Rome and France, 
 and which assumed the inferiority, \ if not 
 
 * In 853, Hrncniar had deposed a number of Clerks 
 ordained hy hi.s jjredeccssor, whose canonical right to 
 the Sec was disputed. In SG6, Pope Nicholas order- 
 ed a revision of that aflair; Hincmar maintained the 
 sentence vigorously ; but Nicholas, having Charles o» 
 his side, obtained once more a complcle triumph, and 
 restored the Ecclesiastics to their rank in the Church, 
 In both these dispulcs it would appear that ihe popu- 
 lar vrtice was against Hincmar. 
 
 f The following is the substance of an Address to 
 the Tope, made by the Rishops at this Comicil — tl«3 
 original may be found in Haronins. Ann. 878,8. 17, 
 &c.: 'We, the Rishops of (uiul and Relgium, your 
 H(mH, servantH, and disciples, dcci)ly suffer through 
 the wounds which hare been inflicted upt)n our Hoi> 
 
USURl ATIONS OP 
 
 THE ROMAN SEE. 
 
 the dependence of the latter, appears to have 
 subsisted long, with no material interruption. 
 
 Character of Hincmar. Ilincmar 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 cither 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 Rheiras 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 inore 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 
 <ixcommunicated, and anathematizing those whom you 
 
 have anathematized And since we also liave 
 
 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 Lc^on 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 
 cientthat 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 indiflferent hexameter and pentameter 
 verses 
 
218 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ledgtru.'nt tlie existence of that authority was 
 in fact admitted. 
 
 In the yeai- 876, John VIII. designated the 
 Archbishop of Sens as l^riniate of the Gauls 
 und Germany, and Vicar of the Pope for the 
 Convocation of Councils and other ecclesias- 
 li 'al 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 
 denied 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 estHblished their Vicars 
 in Gaul itself, he contended that the office 
 was temporary, instituted for occasional and 
 fcpecific purposes, such as the prevention of 
 einiony, 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 iiis 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 y)rincos 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 
 oeginning of the tenth age. Hitherto the 
 nionast(;riea, with very few exceptions, were 
 Hubjert to the Hishop of the diocese in which 
 lin y stood, and who in many cascH had horu 
 their found< rs. Kxemptions from rj)isc()pal 
 jurindiction were now granted with houw. 
 frequeiHty, and the establiHhmenlH thus privi- 
 
 •Flpiiry, H. E. lib. lii., b. 33. FrodoiinliiH (in u 
 pnimn^u rilrd l»y lUironiiiH, Ami. fi76. h. 21) iuliiiitH 
 the powcrfu rcni»liinc(; of lliiiciiiar on occuuion. 
 
 ledged acknowledged a direct dependerrce 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, w^hich 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 Gertrj^jry 
 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 })olitical 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 
 (flection with a great degree of success; next 
 \v(; have b(?h(!l<l him engaged in occasional 
 contests with the most powerfiil Sovereigns 
 oi'ihi) age, not only in those domestic concerna 
 which might seem to give some plea for 
 (M'cIcsiaKtical interference, but about affaira 
 strictly secular, and the very successions tC 
 
 *Sce Moilieim, Cent, x., p. 2, c. 2. 
 
ITS OUNIONS. 
 
 219 
 
 tfieir fhrones; and, lastly, we have noticed 
 jlie movements of that more confined, but 
 scarcely more legitimate ambition, which 
 pretended to depress the superior ranks of 
 the Clergy, to despoi 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. IT. Literature — Rabanus 
 RIaurus, 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 
 Ciiapter 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 
 dame charge. To this age belongs the popular story 
 of the female Pope; the pontificate of Joan is record- 
 ed 10 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 cTid not prevail without a severe and 
 tumultuous struggle with a rival named Anaslasius. 
 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 arc 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 
 nation 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 — ]io 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 sortie 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 characjte'i- ; 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 befort 
 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 
 I biography 
 
5220 HISTORY OF 
 
 important controversies. The first was that 
 wliich Photiiis 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 tlie 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 
 Chunh ; and we shall then observe the j)ro- 
 gi-ess 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 
 ;:.nsequently 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 foUy were hitherto 
 eft free in this matter ; nor had any imperi- 
 ous mode of fjjith 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 tlu; vain and intrusive curiosity of 
 orierjtal 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 Rody and 
 Blood ofCy'hrist,' wiiich he presented, fifteen 
 years aftfrunrds, can.'fiilly revised and aug- 
 mented, to Cliarh's tiie Bald. The doctrine 
 advanr(;d by PaschasiuH may be exprcssc'd in 
 the two fJillowing jjrojjositions : — First, that 
 after the. consecration of th(! bread and wine, 
 nothing remains of those symbols except the 
 oiuwanl figure, under which the body and 
 blood ofC.'lirist W(Te really and locally pres- 
 ent. Hee()n<lly, that the body of Christ, thus 
 j)reHeiit, is the surrje body wliich was born ol' 
 
 • Cent. ix. |). 2, c. 3. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 the Virgin, which suflfered 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, \ to investigate by arguments the sus- 
 
 * Pacliasius 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 Stercoranisra. 
 — Fleury, 1. xlvii., s. 35. Semler (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. 
 
 t A monk of Corbie. His book was long received 
 under the name of Bertram ; and some have evea 
 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 tlie 
 spirit perceives within; so that all which is made is 
 manifestly apparent. You intjuire besides, whether 
 it Is tlie same body which was born of the Virgin 
 Mary, which suflered, 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 diflicult certain- 
 ly to pronounce on what they diflercd, 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 con8C(iuenct — that Jesus Christ suffers anew on 
 every occasion that mass is celebrated. The writer 
 acknowledges the real presence as a necessary tenet. 
 ' Every Christian' (thuH he coinmenc^is) * ought to 
 believe and confess that the body and blood of the 
 liord irt (rue (IchIi and true blood; whoever denies 
 thin proves himself to In: without faith.' It appears 
 indeed true lliat I'aiicliasius' record proposition gave 
 much more general o(reuc(! than {\w first. 
 
 ^JuUii ScotiH Erigcna (i. o. John the IriKlinmn) 
 
ITS OPINIONS. 
 
 221 
 
 picious opinion. The composition of the 
 former is still extant, and has exercised the 
 mgenuity 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 
 opinions 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 gi'cat mischief, and the subject 
 was left open to individual inquiry or neglect, 
 -as it had ever 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 hy 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. 
 
 f 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. 
 
 4: As early as the conclusion of the eighth century, 
 a iieresy 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 triun.ph of 
 that Pontiff, nor deprive his name of any ray 
 of that ambiguous splendor which illustrates it. 
 
 Opinions of Gudeschalcus. The subject of 
 Predestination and Divine Grace, which had 
 already * been controverted in France with 
 some acuteness, and, wliat 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 w^hich the subsequent animosity of Hinc- 
 mar is sometimes attributed. He possessed 
 considerable learning, but a mind witlial 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 very publicly in the 
 diocese of Verona. Information was instant- 
 ly conveyed to Rabanus Maurus, Archbisnop 
 of Mayencc, the most profound theologian of 
 the age. That Prelate immediately replied , 
 and in combating the errror of a professevl 
 Augustinian, protected himself also by the 
 authority of Augustin.f 
 
 * In the fifth century. — See chap. xi. 
 
 t Rabanus was tlie most profound <? vine in the 
 
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 IMayence, at which the king was 
 present, and Godeschalcus was summoned 
 before it. Here he defended, in a written 
 treatise, the doctrine 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 Hinc- 
 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. JVIoreover, 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 suflTerer yielded so far as 
 to conmiit 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 
 
 nintli century, as Augustin was in the fifth, but tlic 
 spirit of the one age was original thought and reason- 
 ing — that of the other, blind and servile imitation: 
 tlierefore Raljaniis was contented to cite and explain 
 Augustin; and the controversy descended from lofty 
 philoso|)hi(-al investigation (o logical, and even critical 
 Bubtility. The object in the fifth age was, to solve 
 nn al).«lru«e and difl'icult r|Ucstion; that in the ninth, 
 to penetrate the real opinions of an ancient writer. 
 
 * In one of the letters written on this subject, 
 Rabanus asserls that ti>e doctrine f)f (lodeschalcus had 
 already driven many to despair, and that several began 
 lo in«juire — * Wherefore should I strive and labor for 
 my salvation 1 In what docB it profit me to be right- 
 eoui", if I am not predestined to happiness 1 What 
 evil may I not safely commit, if I am surely predes- 
 tined to lifr- eternal 1 ' This natural inference, how- 
 ever disavowed by the more ing(;nioiis teachers «)f tlu; 
 doctrine, is very liable to be drawn by the people, 
 Ctcn in ag«'s much m»)re enlighlened than the ninth. 
 
 ^ Ciodcitchulcua nolicitcd |)crmiHHion lo 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 j)assing 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 his contemporaries. 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 lo the Council; 
 while all former heretics have been convicted by 
 words and ronsnns. The long and inhuman detentiou 
 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 lo overwhelm 
 him with misery.' — See FIcury, 1. xlix., s. 5. 
 
 t Godeschalcus appears to have propounded three 
 leading ([ucstions to Rabanus and the other Doctors. 
 (1.) Whether it could b(; 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. (.*?.) Con- 
 cerning free will The theologians of IMayence, 
 
 however, very prudently confined their attention lo 
 the first — 'Whether it can be said that God predesti- 
 nates the wicked lo damnation ! * (Dupin, II. 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., fi. T)}).) This w.is ob- 
 viously a conncquence ; and no doubt the heretic had 
 eany nn anH of gelling rid of it. For a full and por- 
 hups faithful uccoiint of the whole controversy, Bce 
 
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 
 ' 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 bottomh'ss 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 ajler 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 ai)proached 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 
 ooth sides alike professed to support the doctrine of 
 the Church, as taught by the Fathers, and especially 
 St. Augustin; Avhose authority on this question was 
 universally admitted, while his real opinion was dis- 
 puted. 
 
 f Chap. XX. 2 and 3. 
 
 of A Citichrist 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. Siecle. Mosheiin 
 (Cen. X., p. 2, c. iii.) cites a passage from the Apolo- 
 geticura of Abbo, Abbot of Fleury — ' De fine quoque 
 mundi coram populo sermonem in Ecclesia Parisiorum 
 adolescentulus audivi, quod statimfinito mille annorura 
 numero Anti-Christus adveniret, et non longo post 
 tempore universale judicium succederet; cui preedica- 
 tioni ex Evangeliis ac Apocalypsi et libro Danielig, 
 qua potui virtute restiti, 
 
 t Not Nobles only, but Princes, and even Bishops, 
 are mentioned as having made a pilgrimage to Pales- 
 tine on this occasion. 
 
 tAn opportune eclipse of the sun produced thin 
 effect on the array of Otho the Great. 
 
M24 
 
 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 ; f 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, Rabanus, 
 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 
 
 ♦ A'aiosI all the donations which were made to the 
 Church in tliis century proceeded from this avowed 
 motive. ' Appropinquante jam mundi termino, &c. 
 Since the end of the world is now at hand.' Mosh., 
 Cen. X., p. 2, cli. 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- 
 eiastical History as far as 731, and appears to have 
 died four years afterwards. 
 
 4. This decline is very commonly imputed to the 
 despotism of the Ciuirch, and the triumph of the papal 
 principle of a blind faith, and absolute submission over 
 the independence of reason. But this is a mistake pro- 
 ceeding from an imperfect knowledge of ecclesiastical 
 history. At the period in question, tlie Cluuch had not 
 by any means attained the degree of authority necessa- 
 ry for that pnr))osc : it was not yet sufficiently organized, 
 nor even sufficiently united, to possess any power of 
 universal inrlividual tyranny; the Romish system was 
 Still only in its infincy; the Episcopal system, which 
 was pr(;df>ininant, was full of disorder and disunion — 
 tlie piinci()le in (putslion was certainly to Ijc found in 
 the arrhivcs of the Church, but the day was not yet 
 arrived to enforce it. It came ind(;ed into full effijct 
 in the twelfth and follfjwing ages, and not earlier than 
 the twelfth; but learning then revived in desj)ite of it, 
 and grew up trj ovcrtlirow it. The truth in, that the 
 degradation of the pixth and seventh centiuics are 
 ■ufficicntly accoiuiti'd for by the political confusion, or 
 rather anarchy, then ho generally prevah-nt, as to 
 make any moral i xellence ahnoHt impossible, ami to 
 dclKixc till! Church in common with every thing tjlne. 
 
 § (inizol liaH He|r;rtcd Ilincmar and Jfthaimrn Sco- 
 tUfl an tlir two n prcxcnlalivcH of ihc 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 ol" 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 litde has reached posterity excepting 
 his celebrity. It is true that, in the centt;ry 
 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 ; !)iit 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 eflTect, it failed to excite 
 even the momentary energy of the Greeks. 
 
 But,din-ing the same ])criod, 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 com})anions 
 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, tind whether 
 tridy ascribed or not,* generally credited, 
 
 age — the former as the centre of the theological move 
 ment; the latter as the philosopher of his day. It is, 
 indeed, impossiblo to convey any faithful notion of 
 the litcratine of any age without entering into jjoine 
 such detail. 
 
 ♦The burning of the -Alexandrian Library by the 
 Saracenic Htands on authority about i)s good as the 
 similar V^ind.ilism charged on Gregory the (I'rout. 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 225 
 
 attest at least their contempt of learning, and 
 their aversion for the monuments which ihey 
 are slated 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 Cufa, 
 and 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 
 ruiCS, of her ])bilosophy. 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- 
 tpi of the Turk* can answer that question 
 
 J9 
 
 and his power to the acquirement, the ampli- 
 fication, * and the diffusion of knowledge. 
 Among th(3 vulgar, indeed, he obtained a 
 formidable re[)utation 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 aflirmed, 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 
 Charlenjagne — 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 itnpulse 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 
 sce})tres 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 ^vhich 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 m the Hist. Litt. de la France. His rarioiu 
 virtues are highly extoHed in the same work ; and the 
 only fault which his eulogists can find in his character 
 is, ' that he used too much flatterv in making his court 
 to the great.' The grandees of tlie tenth century 
 appear to have pardoned him this imperfect ion. 
 
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 
 pereeverance of the Bishops, and especially 
 of Hincniar, 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 
 countiy. Presently afterwards, in an assem- 
 bly of Barons held at Epernay, the Canons 
 of 3Ieaux 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 gi*eat frequency \ 
 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 Cliarlemagne's Capitulary, the 
 military service of the Bishops w.is already renewed, 
 if indeed it was ever wholly discontinued. 
 
 t Fleury, 1. xlviii., s. 35. 
 
 X France was at this time the principal scene of 
 ecclesiastical exertion. During the forty-six years of 
 Charlemagne's reign, the numbc 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 tlie thirty-seven years of 
 CharlcH the Bald. Their frc(|uency then gradually 
 decreased; and in the following hundred and ten 
 years, to the accession of Hugh (Jajjct, we observe no 
 more tiian fifty-six. 
 
 § The disorders of the age are vividly depicted in 
 the prt fatory Kx|)OHition of the Coimcil of iMayr iice in 
 888. ' Behold the magnificent edifices, which llic 
 itcrvanis of fJod were wont to iiihabil, destroyed and 
 burnt toaxhcs; the altars overthrown and trampled 
 under f<»«>i, the most precious ornaments of ihc 
 Cburclica diHptrsedor couHumed; the Bishops, I'ricsly, 
 
 was the principal purpose to launch excflm 
 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 ol 
 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 contetnptible eflTectually 
 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, Stc' 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 SC5, Pope Nicholas address- 
 ed some strong pacific exhortations to the princes of 
 France: — ' Parcite gladio: humanum fundcre shngui- 
 nem formidolosius exhorrescitc; cosset ira, ecdentur 
 odia, Bo|)ianlur jurgia, et omnis cx vobis simultan 
 radicitiis evcillatur. . . . Non in vobis vana^ glorim 
 typus,n(>n alterius usurpandi terminos ambitio, sed 
 justitia, charitas, et coucordia regnet et summum pax 
 inter vos tencat onmino fastigium.' Jiut such gener- 
 al addicsKcs had probably lillleen'ect; and (Ik! first 
 authoritative interfc^rence of the Cliin ch for the jjartial 
 n-Htoration of peace, and the institution of the Tr<Jve 
 d(! Dieu, took place in the first half of the eleventh 
 century. 
 
DISCIPLINE. 
 
 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 826. 
 
 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 
 Atligni 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 
 Hheims ' by the Clergy and people of Rheiras, 
 by the Bishops of the province, with the con- 
 sent of the Archbishop of Sens, the Bishop 
 of Paris, and the Abboi 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 Bisliops 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- 
 Dle 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; 1. 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 ofiice, 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 neai' at hand, 
 for, in the order of Providence, the most re- 
 voltmg offences are soinetimes 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 
 
 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. 1-n 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 verj^ 
 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- 
 oj) 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, J 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 Ills subsistence. The prohibition was 
 repeated in 889 by the Council of Metz ; wiiich seems 
 to piovctliat it was either not generally received, or 
 imperfectly obeyed. 
 
 X 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- 
 Iricula,) cither present or service, in the house or 
 drtewhere. I persist in forbidding it; since such 
 conduct ia 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 
 «hall Ixi refuscfl to him.' Again — • I learn that some 
 among you neglect their ehurciics 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, accnrding to the 
 Canons, but to their relatives or others. Be inUirni- 
 ed that I shall punish with the ulnioHt rigor of the 
 Ruh-M ihoHe whom I shall fmd guilty of this iibust;.' 
 It witH unollu:r of Ilincniar's meritorious endeavors 
 to rcMtrict ilic abuw: of j)rivate palnmage, by refusiufj 
 
 THE CHURCH. • 
 
 from the Canons of Councils, that we learja 
 the practice of the Galilean Church during 
 the ninth century : that of the Churches of 
 Italy was probably less severe. 
 
 Claudius, Bishop of Tuiin. 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, Bisho}) 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, may 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. Thus 
 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 stolon away by a pious artifice. Their 
 success is recorded by Eginliard, 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. 
 
 t 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 unjiopular on (he 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 probubly the greatest, that lie n«- 
 herled the term Ajiontulical Father to Iw |)roperly 
 applied, not to him who iWWA the chair of Apos- 
 tle, -but to him who discharged the duties utlacli'td ic 
 
EXTERNAL 
 
 FORTUNES. 
 
 Wherefore (he indignantly exclaimed) do 
 i.ot the worshippers of the wood of the Cross, 
 in conformity with their new principles, adore 
 chapletsof 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 
 uj)on 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 
 h^^retic 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 very 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 G lily's Introduction to the History of the 
 Waldenses. 
 
 t The follow ing 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 (he 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 tlie 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 
 
 gence of 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- 
 criljed, 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 n 1. xlvii.. 
 s. 36. 
 
230 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 •Bark; presently afterwards (in 830) he ad- 
 vanced into Sweden ; and such promise of 
 %:3ccess attended him, that Lewis determined 
 to estabhsli an Archiepiscopal See at Ham- 
 burgh, as the centre of future operations. 
 Gregor}' IV. gave his consent, and bestowed 
 'the jjaliium, 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, 
 wlio have more influence in public affairs I 
 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 i)roclaim the object of the 
 im[)erial 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 [)coplc ! listen to 
 me. We arc already acquainted with the 
 service of that God, and he has been found 
 of groat assistance to those who invoke him. 
 There are many among us who have cxpc- 
 rien(r«Ml it in perils by sea and on other occa- 
 gions; why, then, shoidd w(; reject Him? 
 ForM)(!rly there were some who travelh^d to 
 Dorstadt for the sake of embracing tliat re- 
 ligion of which they well knew the utility : 
 why, then, shouUl wc now refuHo that blea- 
 
 * Afl»;r rc'lalini^ Hoinc fxtraordiiiary prodi^irs (I. 
 x\\x.,n. 19,) rieury olwrvcH — ' TIujho iiiira(^l(!H dc- 
 ■ervc Ixilicf, if cvf;r there wer« any wliicli <li(i bo, 
 •iiirc \\u-y arc mlatcd in tlic Life of St. Anscaire hy 
 UcnilM-rt, luH (liMciple and HUcreiiHor; and if we an; 
 pcrniilted tu aMHcrt* dial tliure is any occaMitjn on 
 
 sing, when it is here proposed and presented 
 to us ? ' The people were convinced by thia 
 discourse, and unanimously consented to tno 
 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 performea 
 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- 
 
 wliicli God might be expected to perform miracles it 
 is doiihlloss in support of his infant Churches,' — a re- 
 ligiouri and pious observation, to whidi we give our 
 full assent. But tlic work of Ronibert is lost, and 
 our only accounts of Ansgarius are derived from the 
 ancient chronicles. — See llaronius, Ann. 858, s. 14, 
 15, &c. ; and Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 21, and 1. Iv , s. 19. 
 
 ♦ W«! are not to suppose that even the general pro- 
 fijssion of the faith was immcditite: in fact we ob- 
 serve tliat a pious missionary of the Roman Church, 
 nanifrd Rrmio or Ronifiicc, was massacred in the year 
 10(H), witli several associates, l)y certain Russiana 
 whom he woulil have converted. 1 1 is ardor for mar- 
 tyr<h)m was rotised by the sight of a church, dedicn- 
 ted at Rome to the ancient martyr Roniface. — Seo 
 I'etrus IVimiani ay V' ron. Ai)U. s. :}3. 
 
GREGORY VTl. 
 
 231 
 
 gencralioii 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 us (and 
 could r/e 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- 
 sti'ucted it is almost hopeless to address the 
 revelations of truth or the persunsions of rea- 
 son. And accordingly we observe, that the 
 litde 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 
 tlie gi-eatest 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 sei-vice, it may 
 De 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 JVortnans and Turks, In the mean- 
 time, during the accomplishment of these 
 gradual and distant conquests, the Saracens 
 had wasted the south of Italy, aiid approached 
 the very 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 
 oi' conquest. The former adopted the religion 
 of the vanquisiied, 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 VIL 
 
 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 yeai* 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- 
 
 I * Giannoni, Storia di Napoli, I. ix., s. 3. Mura- 
 1 ton, Vit. Rom. Pontif., t. iii., p. 2. The earliest 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ing through France into Italy in his pontifical 
 vestments, he hecanie acquainted at Cluni 
 with a monk named Hiklebrand; who pre- 
 vailed upon him to lay aside those ornaments 
 which he had prematurely assumed, to enter 
 Rome in the dress of a pilgi'im, 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 carried him 
 along with him to Rome. 
 
 Hiklebrand was probably a native of Saona, 
 in Tuscany, and (so at least it is generally as- 
 serted) of low origin;* yet he became eaily 
 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 
 tlie 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 tlieatre of ecclesiastical ambition, 
 in which so extraordinary a part was destined 
 ^o himself. 
 
 T eo 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 [)urpose (or under that pretext,) hi 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 difiicult 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. 
 Wiberlusjwho was Leo's archdeacon and biographer, 
 docs not mention it. However, the two facts tliat 
 Hildebrand accompanied hina to Rome, and that he 
 entered tliat city in the habit of a pilgrim, are not 
 disputed. Sec Pagi, Breviar. Vit. Leo IX. 
 
 * Both these facts arc contested. In the Chronicle 
 of Hugo Flavin iacensis it is expressly asserted that 
 he wa« a Roman, born of Roman citizens; and Pa- 
 ponbrochius thinks it |)roba]»lc that ho was of a noble 
 family. Pagi (Vif. (ireg. VII. s. 8.) admits that the 
 truth cannot Ix; clearly asccrlaiiied. 
 
 t Ho made an unHUCCessfid rampai^Ni agninst tlui 
 Normans, and was dcfirated by them in person the 
 year Intfore his death. On this occasion Jlilrlebrand 
 may havi; learnt the policy of cidlivaling their friend- 
 >hip. 
 
 ^ Leo Onlieimiii, lib. ii., cap. 90. 'I'he Kmperor 
 profcMxpil extreme n liK-fanrp fo part with his coun- 
 •4-llor and favorite. 
 
 ( He de{K>iicd nix Bishops on various charges < by 
 
 the Holy See. Victor was succeeded in 1057 
 by Stephen IX., and on his death, in tne 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 confii'med 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 i ^mai'ks 
 in illustration of it. ' We have thought nrop- 
 er to enact (says the Pontiff") that, upon the 
 decease of the Bishop of this Roman Univt 
 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 tlie 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 -eiglit Roman 
 parishes or principal Churches. These five- 
 and-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 authorily 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 oflended name of the Holy Ghost, though he could 
 pronounce those of tlie Father and the Son w ithout 
 any difliculty. Petrus Damiani, Epist. ad Nicolauni 
 Papam. Desiderius Abbas Cassincnsis., &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 (lerand. Bishop of Florence, who took the 
 name of Nicholas II.' Hist. Litt. de la Fiance, Vio 
 Nich. II. See also Leo Ostiensis, lib. ii , cap. 101. 
 Pagi, Breviar. Vit. Steph. IX. 
 
 t Mosli. Cent, xi., p. ii., c. ii. Tlit; Canlinali 
 were to Ix; unanimous in their choice. Hist Litt 
 Franc, Vic Nich. II 
 
ex.ept m conjunction with the Presbyters. 
 The rest of the Clergy, the nobihty, and the 
 people, were excluded from any positive share 
 in the election, but were allowed a negative 
 sufirage 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 contmued to 
 tJie present time. 
 
 No one acqijainted with the frightful f dis- 
 orders which were the scandal of the Roman 
 Church during the two i)receding 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 
 tl ie 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, abundandy 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., I. v., c. vi.) details them i 
 with great force. 
 
 Gibbon seems to have considered the Popes as I 
 
 30 
 
 lY VII. 233 
 
 Imperial Comjirmalion. We have also men- 
 tioned another iini)ortant clause contained in 
 the Edict of Nicholas ; that which reduced 
 the imperial confirmation to a mere personal 
 privilege, conferred indeed on Henry HI., 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 ofiice, 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 that 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 adhi- 
 beant, sicque reliquus Clerus et populiis ad consensum 
 novae electionis accedant. . . . Eligant auteni 
 de ipsius Ecclesias gremio, si repertus fuerk idoneus; 
 et si de ipsa non invenitur ex alia assumatur; salvi 
 debito honore et revereniia dilecti Filii nostri Henri- 
 ci, qui imprjesentiarum Rex habetur, et futurus Im- 
 perator Deo concedente spcratur, sicut jam ipsicori' 
 cessimus, et successorum illius qui ab Apottolica 
 Sede personaliter hoc jus impetraverint.' Pafii, 
 Brev. Vit. Nicolai TI., s. 7. 
 
£34 HISTORY OF 
 
 that Hildebrand lived not to behold with his 
 own eyes tJie 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 
 unmediate advantage and great promise of 
 future excellence — the use and enjoyment of 
 its perfection is destuied to other generations. 
 
 Another important event distinguished the 
 pontificate of Nicholas. The Norman con- 
 queroi-s of the South of Italy bemg 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 then- security, if they held them 
 as a fief from the See of Rome. The Pontiflf 
 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 difiiculty in tracing 
 It to the hand of Hildebrand. 
 
 .Alexander II. On the death of Nicholas in 
 lOfil, the dissensions which had disturbed his 
 election wore to some extent renewed. The 
 more powerfid party, under the guidance of 
 Hildebrand, i)]acc(l Alexander II. in the chair; 
 the Nobles resisted, and their opjmsition was 
 encouraged by the direct sui)|)ort of the Em- 
 peror ; wlio8<; confirmation had not been re- 
 quired by the new Pope, and who was justly 
 cxfisporated at the neglect. NevertlKiless, the 
 |j;enins f)f Iliidebnmd triumphed ov(T all dif- 
 firultif's; and afler a contest ol' thrcM! y(>arH 
 A.fcxuridr r was firmly eHtabliHhed in llu; chair, 
 
 * ' Arrc|)i:i priiiK ab ilfi, cum sncrniiiciito, noin:iii:i! 
 ccrlrniif (iddicile ; c«-nHiHjiie (|Hol;iiiriiH |)<t jii^Ji hotiiii 
 lill^llla (IciiHriiK (liiodfriiii.' — Leo OntioiiMiH, lib. iii. 
 cap. 16. Tlif wordH f)f tlio oaili ;iie cited l)y Haioii- 
 liw 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I though it was still feebly disputed with him 
 He occupied it for twelve yeai-s, and passed 
 the greater portion of that time in the retire 
 mentof 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 afFaii-s 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 oflice 
 with dignity, or fill it with gi-eat advantage; 
 j)robably 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 pcrliajis do 
 not nuicli exaggerate the actual supremacy of Hilde- 
 brand. 
 
 * Papain rite coIo, sed te prostratus adore : 
 Tu facis Innic dominum — tc facit illc Deum. 
 Vivere vin Roma;'? clarii d('|)r()mito voce, 
 IMus Dumlno I'apa", (iiiain Domiio paroo Papae.' 
 
 Pelr. Damiani. 
 
 t St. Marc, p. 460. HaIlam(Mid(l. Ages, c. vii.) 
 conMidcrH thiu ))roviHion to iiavc contrilnited more than 
 any oilier \va\ya\ pnvilcge, to the inainlenanoe of the 
 temporal inlluence, ax well as the ecclcHiaHlical su- 
 prcniacy of Home. 
 
 X See Sendf-r, cent. xi.c. 1, and Pagi, Vit. Alex- 
 and. H. Hccl. IH. 'I'hin par' of Mo.Mhrin>'s history if 
 exceudinjfly hurried uiul 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 suflTrage of the Cardinals, and the 
 universal acclamation of the Clergy and peo- 
 ple ; and that he might mark, at least, the 
 beginjiing 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. — 7^e PontiJicaU of Gregory. 
 
 Gregory's First Council — its two objects — to prevent (1.) 
 Marriage or Concubinage of the Clergy — (2.) Simoniacal 
 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 — Ori;;iiial 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 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 tlie sacerdotal character. ; ^ 
 
 False Decretals — Power conferred by Ihem on the Pope 
 — brought into action by Gregory — Appeals to Pope — 
 Generally encouraged and practised— their pernicious 
 Effects — Gregory's ^ioui/Ze 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 — his historical importance — hia 
 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 coiTCcting two 
 abuses in Church discipline and go\ ernment, 
 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 pf the Clergy. Most of the early 
 Fathers were dil'gent in their 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 
 AVest, 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 wero 
 naturally averse to this relaxation of disciplme 
 — pardy from the contmued prevalence of the 
 original notion, that those were better qualifi- 
 ed for spiritual meditations and offices who 
 were severed from secular interests and afl^ec- 
 tions ; partly from the scandal thus occasion- 
 ed to the prejudices of the laity ; partly from 
 respect to established ordinances and usages ; 
 pardy from attachment to a principle, which, 
 by withdrawing the Clergy from tv'orldly 
 connexions, bound them more closely to each 
 other and to their Head. At any rate the evil 
 
236 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 I'.ad no /V grown to so great a lieigFit, 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 w as Leo IX. His immediate successors 
 trod in his stejvs ; but as sufficient measures 
 n-ere not taken (perhaps could not have been 
 taken) to carry these edicts into effect, they 
 seem generally to have fallen to the ground 
 witliout 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 ordei-s should 
 abstain from marriage ; and that sucli 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 Gregor}^ 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 
 tliis nieasure ; at Milan * and in Germany the 
 Edict was openly resisted, and many ecclesi- 
 astics were found in eveiy country, 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 Ixjtween tiie Clergy and the Laily, under Ste- 
 phen IX., in the year 1057. (Pagi, Vit. Sleph. IX.) 
 The scliism continued under Nicliolas II., who sent 
 Irgrttos to compose it; but it still continued during 
 (he pontificate of Alexander. Tlie Popes took part 
 with the Laity against the married Clergy, who were 
 named Nicolaites. 
 
 t ' Malle se sacerdotium quam conjugium descrere.' 
 Lainlxirt. SchalTn. in Chronico. Gregory is much 
 cctiHurcd 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 ]irotected the eternal 
 precepts of Cliristiaii 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. Amliroseand the example 
 of the Orwks — it was well known that the former pro- 
 lertcd nf)t iho/w who admitt(rd pa[)al supremacy; and 
 that tlie Coimril, which i)ermitt« (l llie latter, was never 
 acknowledged by the Itoman Church. It sciems in- 
 deed jirolialile that St. (Jrejfory wai« the fust Pope 
 who ri;j;i(lly eriforr.ed the |)raclice of r< libacy; but ft»r 
 Iwocetituries after hirt time, il was both the law and 
 die pructico of the Church, and in the two ugen 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 centmy, and to 
 call down the denunciations of her Popes and 
 her Councils. 
 
 2. Edict against Shnony. 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 
 afi:er 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 Prmces 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 ofiices of the ministry were connnoidy 
 and pul)licly sold to the highest bidder, with- 
 out regard to literaiy qualification or sanctity 
 of character, or the most obvious interests of 
 religion. This was, in fact, the avowed cor- 
 ruj)tion which Gregory sought to remedy; 
 and tin; six'cious object to wliich his extM tions 
 and th()H(! of his successors, through so many 
 conflicts, tended, was to (l('pnv(; the Prince of 
 liis usurped authority in Episcopal election. 
 
 succee(l(!(l, though it had c(>afie(l to be the practice, i 
 Hi ill conliniH'd (he law, — See Ikyle, Vie flreg. I. 
 I'leury, Discours Hur I' H. K. depuis 600 juB(ju'4 
 1 1 100. 
 
GRtiWORV'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 
 ch-curnstances 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 afl 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 ri??o' 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 
 nand 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 light 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 ihan 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 
 eflfect 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 foi-mer ordi- 
 nances in a variety of letters, addressed, with 
 various effect or inefficacy, to diflTerent 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 tlie Bishops of Strasbourg, Spires, 
 and Bamberg, besides some Lombard Bish- 
 
 * According to tlie church writers, Kiyjg only. 
 He had not yet gone through the ceremony of coi." 
 nution at Rome. 
 
^38 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 die 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 3Iilan 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, befo*'e the Pope 
 and his Council, from various cliarges 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 Ilildebrand, had it been expressly 
 asserted that he was amenable for such of- 
 fences to any ecclesiastical tribunal. 
 
 Excommunicated and deposed. He treated 
 the summons aa a wanton insult, and wan- 
 
 ♦ The words of tho edict are: ' Si quis deinceps 
 EpiKCopaliim vel Abbaliatn de maim aliciijiis laica; 
 person:!! siisccpcrit, nullatcnus inter Episcopos vol 
 Al)l)al('s lialwatur, nec ulla ci ul Episcopo vel Ahbati 
 aiidienlia ctinccdatnr. Insiiper etiain gratiain 13. Pe- 
 tri et inlroiluin Ecclosia; interdiciuiuH, (pioad ua(|ne 
 locum, cpicm sul) crimine lain amhilionis fjnam ino- 
 bcdienlia-, (piod CHt'scehw id(j|i>latriir, rcpif, descruc- 
 rit. Similiter etiam dc inferioril)nH EecleHiasticiH 
 jignitatilMiH roustittiimuH. Item hI (piiH Imperatorum, 
 Dncntn, Marrhioniun, Comitum, %'<•! tpiililM t Hecula- 
 riiim potet-talum ant perHonarinn invoHlilnram Epiw- 
 coi)atnH, vel alicnjiiH Ec(-leHiasticm dij^nitatia dare 
 prH'MimpNerit, ejnHdem Hcntenliir vinculo nr. adntric- 
 tum »riat.' liu^o I'laviniaceUHix, ap. I'a;,'. V'il. 
 (ire/. VIE, H. 2«, 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 tonly retorted it. He collected at Worms * 
 a council of about twenty German Bishot>a 
 (some of whom were already pei-sonally 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 excommmiication 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.' f 
 
 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 fii-st 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 
 
 * * Quae le^atio Regeni vehementer permovit ; sta- 
 timque abjectis cum gravi contumelia Legatis, omnes 
 qui in regno suo essent Episcopos el Abbales Wor- 
 metice Dominica Septuagesiina? convenire pra?ccpit, 
 tractare cum eis volens ad deponcndum Romanmn 
 Pontificem, |i qua sibi via, si (jua ratio patoret: in 
 hoc cardine totam verti ratus salutem suam et 
 regni stabilitatem, si is nan esset Episcopus.* 
 Lambert SchaflTn. ad ann.-1076. 
 
 f The words in which tiiis celebrated sentence was 
 conveyed shoidd be recorded : * Petre Apostolorum 
 Princeps, etc. etc. Hac fiducia frelus pro Ecclesiaj 
 tuaj honore et defensione, ex parte Omnipotentis Dei, 
 Palris el Filii et Spiritiis Sancti, per tuam potesta- 
 lem el auctoritalcm Henrico Regi, fdio Henrici Im- 
 peraloris, (jui contra Ecclesiam lam inaudita sn|)crbia 
 insurrexil, lotius regni Teutonicorum cl Italiie gu- 
 Ijcrnacula contradico, et omncs Chrislianos u vinculo 
 juramenti quod sibi feccre vcl facicnt, absolve; et 
 ut nullus ei sicut Regi scrviat, inlerdico. Dignum 
 est cnim, ut, t\\\i studet honorcm Ecclcsia^ tua> imini- 
 nuerc, ipse honorem amiltat (piem videtur habere. 
 Et (piia Christianns conlcmpsit obedire ncc ad Dom- 
 imnn rediit, (jren. diniisit parlicipando excommunica- 
 lis el nudtas initprKates faeiendo, mcaqxie monita, 
 qua: pro salute sua sibi misi, te teste spernendo, 
 se(jue ab Ecelesia sua, tentans eam scinderc separan- 
 do, vinculo eum analhematiH vice tua alligo, ut 8ci- 
 anl (Jcntes el comprobenl (piia Tu cs Petru«, cl 
 8\iper tiiam I'etram Filius Dei vivi a'dificavit Eccle- 
 Biam Huam, ct porta; Inferi non pnevalebunt advorsui 
 eam.' Paul. Bernricd., cap. 75; Pagi, Vit., (ireg 
 VII., 8. 42. 
 
GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 
 
 23ft 
 
 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 artns ; they were supported 
 by a fresh revolt of the Saxons ; and there 
 were those even among 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 Jiumble 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, 
 descril)e-5 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 
 t>uite remained without the exterior. See Sismondi, 
 Hist. Rep. Ital. c. iii. Paul. Bernried speaks of the 
 insoliia papa duritia sho\vn on this occasion. 
 
 and helpless humiliation. At length, on the 
 fourth day, he was permitted to approach the 
 person of the Pontiflf, 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, w'lih. 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. * Henricus, confusus et 
 humiliatus ad me veniens absolutionem ab excommu- 
 nicatione qutesivit. Quem ego videns humiliatum, 
 multis ab co promissionibus acceptis de vitoe sufe 
 emendatione, solam ei commiinionem reddidi; non 
 tamen in regno instauravi, nec fidelitatem hominura 
 qui sibi juraverant vel erant juraturi ut sibi serventur 
 prajcepi, &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 in tlie year 1080, decided, as some say, 
 by the misfortunes, as othei-s assert, by tlie 
 crimes * of Henry, he pronounced a second 
 sentence of deposition, and conferred upon 
 Rodolphus tlie crown of Germany, f 
 
 Temporal claims of Gregory, Thus far we 
 ' hav e 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 agamst 
 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 miglit 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 this 
 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 Sec 
 by every Frencbinan. And the King, hitnself 
 (Philip I.) was reminded 'that l)oth his king- 
 dom and his soul were under the dominion 
 of St. Peter, who had the power to hind 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 
 
 * Sisrnf)n(li, wliosc partialities are ai^ainst Gregory 
 and the Cliiircli, tays respecting Henry, that ' liis 
 charactf-r was generous and nolde; but he abandoned 
 himneh' u illi too little restraint to the passions of his 
 age and tliose passifjns nndonbtcdiv h;d him to 
 ihc commission of great poliliral ofTenees. Private 
 excenscH may H»)inctimes find tlutir excuse in youth; 
 but th(! vices of Kings des(!rvc less infhdgence, since 
 they usually influence the morals and happiness of 
 Uieir subjects. A less favorable, but proI)ably a more 
 correct \ie\v of the character of Henry is taken by 
 Deniiia. Ddle Rivoluz. d'lta.ia, lib. x., c. v. 
 
 f The a«:t and the wilhorily for it were expressctl 
 in a ii' XHineier verse, inscrilnid on the crown which 
 Gregory wnt lo Ilodolph — 
 
 IV tra ilidit I'l tro, IViruH illrtilfrna Koddlplio. 
 
 J J'cr \< r;im oLedii'ii Iani. 
 
 to it. It was pretended that the kingdom of 
 Spai7i had been the property of the Holy Se« 
 from the earliest ages of Christianity. VVil- 
 liam the Norman, after the conquest of Ung- 
 land, was astonished to learn that he lield that 
 country as a fief of Rome and tributaiy to it. 
 The entire feudal submission of the kingdom 
 of JVaples has been already mentioned. No- 
 thing was so lofl;y 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 univereal kingdom 
 of Christ, t 
 
 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 eacli 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 Gro- 
 goiy 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 
 whicii the Prince aspired, and which so soon passed 
 away from his sceptre, but that spiritual despotism, 
 affected by the Priest, and Avhich was much more 
 extensive, as it was much more durable. 
 
 t Amid this multiplicity of objects, which divided 
 without distracting the mind of Gregory, lie 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 Mahome- 
 tans. This is mentioned in a letter to Henry, writtcgi 
 in 1074, in which, afler some mention of his project, 
 he adds — ' Illiid enim me ad hoc opus permaximO in» 
 stigat, (plod Coustantinoporuana ecclesia de Spiritii 
 Sancto h nobis dissidcns concordiam ApostolicK Scdii 
 cxpetat, &c.' Pagi, Vit. (Jreg. VH., b. xx. Wo 
 may observe that, among the numerous points of dif- 
 ference; which had in latt<'r linu\s grown up iM'twcen 
 tin; two Churches, and hail been exaggerated with 
 Huch inten>perale /.cal by both, the eye of fJregorr 
 I notices one onlv 
 
GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 
 
 241 
 
 philanthropy which is ever found to burn 
 most brightly in the noblest minds ; if he 
 really dared to hope that his project would 
 reconcile the quarrels of the licentious princes 
 of his day, or remedy the vices of their gov- 
 ernments, or alleviate the misery of the people 
 who w ere suffering equally from both those 
 causes — we may smile at the vanity of the 
 vision, but we are bound to respect the mo- 
 tive which created it. Nor is it only the po- 
 litical degradation of Europe which we are 
 called upon to consider, before we may pro- 
 nounce sentence upon that Pontiff ; we must 
 also make great allowance for the principles 
 of ecclesiastical supremacy which had already 
 taken root before his time, which had been 
 partially acted upon, and which, to a certain 
 extent, were acknowledged — for the necessary 
 confusion of temporal with spiritual authority, 
 which the feudal system had still worse con- 
 founded, so that their limits were indiscerni- 
 ble, inviting both parties to mutual aggression 
 — and for the usui-pations which the crown 
 had already made on the privileges of the 
 Church, and the evil purposes to which it 
 had turned them. These circumstances, when 
 duly and impartially weighed by us, will miti- 
 gate the astonishment which the bare recital 
 of Gregory's proceedings is calculated to 
 awaken, and moderate the indignant censure 
 with which the example of other writers 
 might dispose us to visit them. 
 
 We are not, however, to imagine, that the 
 Pope's extraordinary claims were universally 
 admitted. The King of France refused the 
 tribute demanded of him ; the conqueror of 
 England consented to the tribute (called Pe- 
 ter's pence,) but disclaimed allegiance. Vari- 
 ous success attended his attempts on the other 
 states, according to the variety of their strength 
 or weakness, or the circumstances of their ac- 
 tual politics. But at the same time, the mere 
 fact that such claims were confidently asserted 
 and repeated obstinately, that in many instan- 
 ces they were practically assented to, and very 
 rarely repelled with vigour and intrepidity, 
 persuaded ignorant people (and almost all 
 were ignorant) that there was indeed some 
 real foundation for them, and that the Holy 
 See was, in truth, invested with some vague 
 prescriptive right of universal control, and 
 surrounded by mysterious, but inviolable 
 sanctity. 
 
 We must add a few words, both respecting 
 the grounds on which Gregory founded those 
 claims, and the means which he employed to 
 enforce them. As to the former, it does not 
 appear that he openly availed himself of the 
 
 grand forgery of his predecessors, or at least 
 that he justified any of his pretensions by di- 
 rect appeal to the ' donation of Constantino ; 
 unless, indeed, it were assumed that the uni- 
 versal rights of St. Peter over the Western 
 Empire originated in that donation. Re- 
 specting Spain, for instance, he pai'tichlarly 
 admitted that, though that country was among 
 the earliest of the pontifical possessions, the 
 grant which made it so had perished among 
 other ancient records. * In treatmg with 
 those provmces which had formed no part 
 of the Western Empire, he seems to have as- 
 sailed them severally as the circumstances of 
 their history happened to favor his demands. 
 Saxony, for example, he asserts to have been 
 bestowed on the Roman See by the piety 0£ 
 Charlemagne. Some among the smaller states 
 were merely exhorted to make a cession of 
 their territories to St. Peter ; by which it was 
 admitted that the apostle had yet obtained no 
 rights over them. Some of them made such 
 cession, and thus encouraged the arrogance 
 of Gregory and the aggressions of future pon- 
 tiffs. 
 
 The power possessed by the successors of 
 St. Peter ' to bind and to loose ' was not con- 
 fined by them to spiritual affairs, however 
 wide the extremities to which they pushed it 
 in these matters. It was extended also to 
 temporal transactions, and so far extended as 
 to be made the plea of justification with a 
 Pope, whenever he presumed to loose the 
 sacred bonds of allegiance which connect the 
 subject with the sovereign. It woidd be diffi- 
 cult, perhaps, to produce a more certain index 
 of the character of religious knowledge, and 
 the degradation of the reasoning faculty, which 
 prevailed in those days, than by exhibiting that 
 much perverted text as the single basis on 
 which so monstrous a pretension rested and 
 was upheld. 
 
 Power of Gregory. Secondly — The appall- 
 ing influence of anathema and excommunica- 
 tion f over a blind and superstitious people 
 had long been known and frequently put to 
 trial by preceding Popes ; and the still more 
 formidable weapon of Interdict began to be 
 
 * Lib. X., epist. 28. 
 
 t The frequent use and abuse of excommunication 
 by all orders of the priesthood had greatly diminished 
 the terror and efficacy of the sentence even in much 
 earlier ages. We find the councils of the ninth cen- 
 tury continually legislating for the purpose of restoring 
 their weight to both ecclesiastical weapons. By the 
 Council of Meaux (held in 845) it was especially 
 enacted, that the anathema could not be pronouncec 
 even by a bishop, unless by the consent of the arch 
 bishop and tlie other bishops of the province 
 
242 HISTORY OF 
 
 valued and adopted about the time of Gregoiy. 
 Exti-aordinary legates,* whose office suspend- 
 ed the resident vicars of the pontiff, had been 
 sparingly commissioned before the end of the 
 tenth century ; they now became much more 
 common, and fearlessly exercised their un- 
 bouifded authority in holding councils, in 
 promulgating canons, in deposing bishops, 
 and issuing at discretion the severest censures 
 of the Church. But it was not concealed from 
 the wisdom of Gregory that temporal author- 
 ity could not surely be advanced or perma- 
 nently supported without temporal power. 
 Accordingly he cemented his previous alli- 
 ance witli the Normans of Naples ; and also 
 (which was still more important, and proved, 
 perhaps, the most substantial among his tem- 
 poral conquests) he prevailed upon Matilda, 
 the daughter and heiress of Boniface, Duke 
 of Tuscany, to make over her extensive terri- 
 tories to the apostle, and hold it on feudal 
 tenure from his successoi-s. By these means 
 the ecclesiastical states were fortified, both on 
 the north and south, by powerful and obedient 
 allies, while the disaffection of Henry's sub- 
 jects ci:eated a great military diversion in the 
 Pope's favor in Saxony and Swabia. 
 
 Objects of Gregory in the internal adminis- 
 tration of the Church. Let us return for a 
 moment to the internal administration of the 
 Church. We are disposed to think that the 
 very vigorous measures which Gregory em- 
 ployed for what he considered its reform were 
 favorable, upon the whole, to the success of 
 his other projects. We may observe that 
 these were of two descriptions, one of which 
 tended to restore the discipline of the clergy ; 
 the other to reduce the ecclesiastical ordei-s 
 into more direct subjection to the Papal See. 
 It is true that, by the former of these, great 
 disaffection was excited among such as suf- 
 fered by them ; that is, among those who had 
 ])ccn already living in open disobedience to 
 the canons of the Church ; but such, it is pro- 
 bable, were not the most numerous, as cer- 
 tainly they were the least respectable portion 
 of the \H)dy. The same severity which of- 
 fended them would naturally gratify and attach 
 all those, whose religious zeal and austere 
 morality secured them greater influence in 
 the Church and decjpcr veneration froin the 
 peo[)h.'. So that, notwithstanding the clamors 
 of the iriomcnt, we doubt not that the Vopv 
 was Hul>stantially a gainer by his j-xcrlions ; 
 nfid that (like (;very judicious reformer) Ik^ 
 extended his actual power and credit with 
 
 • Cnllcd Lpgatca d latere — •cnt from llic Hide of 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 . only the partial loss of a worthless popo- 
 lai'ity. 
 
 The second object of Gregory in his eccle- 
 siastical government has not yet been men- 
 tioned by us. It seems to have been no less 
 than to destroy the independence of national 
 Churches ; and to merge all such local dis- 
 tinctions in the body and substance of the 
 Church univei-sal, whose head was at Rome. 
 For the effecting of this mighty scheme he 
 used every exertion to loosen the connexion 
 of bishops and abbots with their several sove- 
 reigns, and to persuade them that their alle- 
 giance was due to one master only, the suc- 
 cessor of St. Peter. And to that end he very 
 readily availed himself of the materials which 
 he found prepared for his purpose, and which 
 had been transmitted to him undisputed by so 
 many predecessors, that it probably never 
 occurred to him to doubt their legitimacy. 
 The false decretals contained the canons 
 which he sought ; and Gregory had the bold- 
 ness at length to bring them forth from the 
 comparative obscurity in which they had re- 
 posed for above two hundred and fifty years, 
 and openly to force them into action. We 
 have mentioned the nature of those decretals 
 — they were a series of epistles professing to 
 be written by the oldest bishops of Rome, the 
 Anacletes, Sixtus the First and Second, Fa- 
 bian, Victor, Zephyrinus, Marcellus, and oth 
 ers.* They recorded the primitive practice iii 
 the nomination to the highest ecclesiastical 
 offices, and in that and many other matters 
 ascribed authority almost unlimited to the 
 Holy See. It is worth while here to j)articu- 
 larize, even at the risk of repetition, some of 
 the points on which they most insisted. (1.) 
 That it was not permitted to hold any council, 
 without the command or consent of the pope ; 
 a regulation which destroyed the independ- 
 ence of those local synods, by which the 
 Church was for many centuries governed. 
 (2.) That bishops could not be definitely judg- 
 
 * The first collection of canons made in the west 
 was (he work of a Roman monk named Dionysiug, 
 who lived in the sixth cciUury. This was followed 
 by many others; but that which {gained the greatest 
 celebrity was the one ascribed to St. Isidore, Hishop 
 of ►Seville; and it had great prevalence in (Janl as 
 well as in Spain. (Jnizot remarks that it was in the 
 North and East of Trance that the ' false decrelala * 
 first made their appenrancc, in the In ginning of the 
 ninth C(!ntnry. (Hist, de la Civ. en Trance, Le^on, 
 27.) The collection of decrees, known by the name 
 of DictauiH Ilildebrandini, and falsely a.scrilxjd to 
 (Iregory VII., is gcnerallyjield to be the next forgery 
 which disgraced the pimciples and Bwclled the uu 
 thorily of the Koman Chnrch. 
 
GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 
 
 ed, except by the Pope. (3.) That the right of 
 episcopal translation rested with the Pope 
 alone. (4.) That not only every bishop, but 
 every priest, and not the clergy only, but every 
 individual,* had the right of direct appeal 
 from all other judgments to that of the Pope. 
 — These rights, and such as these, had been 
 neglected or vainly asserted by the Roman 
 See during the long period of imbecility f 
 ■which followed their forgery ; but the spu- 
 riousness of their origin had never been ex- 
 posed or suspected ; and the simplicity of 
 every succeeding generation added to their 
 security, their antiquity, and their respecta- 
 bility. Gregory at length undertook to give 
 them full efficacy; and though none were 
 ceded or overlooked by him, that which he 
 appears most earnestly to have pressed was 
 the Pope's exclusive jurisdictioii over the 
 whole episcopal order : to this end he en- 
 forced universal appeal to Rome. Orders to 
 attend before the pontifical court were issued 
 to every quarter of Europe ; and they gene- 
 rally met with obedient attention, not only 
 from those whose principles sincerely ac- 
 knowledged such spiritual supremacy, or 
 who expected from their submission a more 
 favorable sentence, but also from the great 
 mass of offenders, who naturally preferred a 
 distant and ecclesiastical tribunal to the close 
 judicial inspection of a temporal magistrate. 
 The good which Gregory proposed from this 
 system could be one only, and that a very 
 ainbigaous advantage — to secure the independ- 
 ence of the Church, or, in fact, to withdraw it 
 from the control of all secular power, and 
 subject it to one single spiritual despot. The 
 evils which he occasioned were numerous 
 and of most serious magnitude — to create and 
 nourish inextinguishable dissensions between 
 princes and their clergy, to retard and perplex 
 the operations of justice, and to multiply the 
 chances of a partial or erroneous decision.^ 
 
 * Fleury, 4'"e Disc, sur H. E. sect. v. 
 
 fPope Nicholas I., who ruled from 858 to 867, is 
 the principal exception to this remark: he is described 
 by contemporary chronicles as the greatest pontiff since 
 ,he days of St. Gregory — kind and lenient in his 
 treatment of the clergy, but bold and imperious in his 
 intercourse with kings. His conduct to Hincmar in 
 the affair of Rothadus is at seeming variance with 
 part of this eulogy; but though Nicholas was trium- 
 phant both in that dispute and in the more important 
 difference with Lolhaire, neither he nor any other 
 Pope under the Carlovingian dynasty could establish, 
 in France at least, the claim first mentioned in the 
 text. The emperors continued to convoke all councils 
 and to confirm their canons. 
 
 4, -Gregory also obliged the Metropolitans to attend 
 
 His double scheme, of universal dominion. 
 In the prosecution of this histoiy we have 
 frequently lamented the necessity of dismiss- 
 ing some important event or useful specula- 
 tion with a few hasty and unsatisfactory sen- 
 tences, and especially do we lament it at this 
 moment. But enough may possibly have 
 been said to give the reader some insight into 
 the DOUBLE scheme of universal dominion to 
 which the vast ambition of Gregory was di- 
 rected — enough to make it evident how he 
 projected, in the first place, to unite under the 
 suzerain authority of St. Peter and his suc- 
 cessors the entire territory of Christian Eu- 
 rope, so as to exert a sort of feudal jurisdiction 
 over its princes, and nobles, and civil govern- 
 ors ; and, in the next place, to establish through- 
 out the same wide extent of various and di- 
 versely constituted states one single spiritual 
 monarchy, of which Rome should be the centre 
 and sole metropolis ; a monarchy so pure and 
 undivided, that every individual minister of 
 that church should look up to no other earthly 
 sovereign than the Pope. Such does indeed 
 appear to have been the stupendous scheme 
 of Gregory VII. We have already seen by 
 what measures he proceeded to its execution, 
 and we shall now trace his extraordinary 
 career to its conclusion. 
 
 Henry advances to Rome. The election of 
 a new Emperor by the Pope was very rea- 
 sonably retorted by the election of a new 
 Pope by the Emperor ; and Clement III. was 
 exalted to the honor of being the rival of 
 Gregory. But a much more sensible injury 
 was inflicted on the fortunes of that pontiff 
 immediately aflerwards by the defeat and 
 death of Rodolphus. That prince received a 
 mortal wound in battle in the year 1080 ; and 
 with him was extinguished the spirit of rebel- 
 lion, or at least the hope of its success. Hen- 
 ry immediately turned his victorious arms 
 against Italy ; the opposition presented to him 
 by Matilda and the Tuscans he overcame or 
 evaded, and advanced with speed and in- 
 dignation to the gates of Rome. From his 
 dreams of universal empu'e — from the lofty 
 anticipations of princes suppliant and nations 
 prostrate m allegiance before the apostolic 
 
 at Rome from all countries, in order to receive the 
 pallium at his hands. This, together with the appeal 
 system, kept that capital continually crowded with 
 foreign prelates, with great vexation to themselves, 
 with great detriment to their dioceses, and with no 
 real profit to the Catholic Church. In the meantime, 
 it is certain that mere papal influence gained by this 
 system ; for all authority, to be always respected, must 
 sometimes be felt; but unfounded a»i irrational au- 
 thority most chiefly so 
 
244 HISTORY OF 
 
 throne, Gregory was rudely awakened by the 
 shouts of a hostile army, pressing round the 
 Imperial City. But he woke to the tasks of 
 constancy and courage ; and so formidable a 
 show of resistance was presented, that Henry, 
 after desolating the neighboring countr}-, with- 
 drew, without honor or advantage, to the cities 
 of his Lombard allies. 
 
 Not deten-ed hy this repulse, he renewed 
 nis attempt earl\ in the spring following, and 
 encountered the same opposition with the 
 same result. The soldiers of Germany re- 
 tired for the second time before the arms of 
 the unwarlike Romans and the name of Gre- 
 gory. But in the succeeding year (1084,) the 
 efforts of the Emperor were followed by 
 greater success. The citizens, wearied by 
 repeated invasions, and suffering from the 
 ravages attending them, abandoned that which 
 now appeared the weaker cause — on this third 
 occasion they threw open their gates to Hen- 
 ry, and to Clement, the Antipope, who follow- 
 ed in his train. Henry placed his creature on 
 the throne of Gregory, and the exultation of 
 that moment may have rewarded him for the 
 l)ittemess of many reverses. The measure 
 which he next adopted should be carefully 
 noticed, since it proves the veneration which 
 was exacted even from him by the See itself, 
 without consideration of its occupant. By an 
 immediate act of submission to the chair 
 which his own power had so recently be- 
 stowed, he solicited the Imperial Crown from 
 the hand of Clement, and he received it amid 
 the faithless salutations of the Roman people. 
 In the meantime, his victory w^as neither 
 complete nor secure : from the Castle of St. 
 Angelo, Gregory surveyed in safety the partial 
 overthrow of his fortunes, and aw^aitcd the 
 succors from the south with which he pur- 
 posed to repair them. Robert Guiscard — 
 whether mindful of his feudal allegiance, or 
 jealous of the Emperor's progress — was al- 
 ready ap})roarhing at the head of his Norman 
 warriors; Henry and his Pope retired with 
 j)recij)itate haste;, and Gnigory was tumultu- 
 ously restored to his rightful dignity. 
 
 Death of Gregory. 'J'lie success of the Nor- 
 mans was disgraced ])y tiie pillage of a large 
 portion of the city : this circumstance depress- 
 ed still furt her the declining ])opularity of the 
 Pope, and Ik; had learnt by his late; <'xp(M iencc 
 how little he could confnle in the cnpriciotis 
 alleginnrn oi' th(! Kornnns.* Accordingly, on 
 the r<;turn of I^olu rt to his own doniinions, 
 Gregory followrd him, and retired, fust to the 
 
 • ♦ Qli umori ncmprc (Jivcrti del popolo lloiiiano.'— 
 Denina, Riv. d' Ital., lilj. x., c. 8, 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 monastery of IMonte Cassino, afterwards to 
 Salerno. It is recorded that, on this occasion, 
 Robert would have profited by the weakness 
 or the gratitude of Gregoiy, to obtain from 
 him the concession, on the part of the Church, 
 of some disputed feudal right of no great im- 
 portance, but that the Pope resisted the soli- 
 citations of his protector in the veiy centre of 
 his camp. And, no doubt, his pei-severing 
 and fearless spirit was still meditating the re- 
 occupation of his chair, and the prosecution of 
 his mighty projects. But such anticipations 
 were speedily cut short, and in the year 1085, 
 very soon after his arrival at Salerno, he died.* 
 He concluded a turbulent pontificate of twelve 
 years in misfortune, in exile, with little honor, 
 with few lamentations ; f without having wit- 
 nessed the perfect accomplishment of any 
 portion of the project which had animated his 
 existence, and even at the very moment when 
 it appeared most hopeless. He died — but he 
 left behind him a name, which has ai-rested 
 with singular force the attention of history, 
 which has been strangely disfigured indeed 
 by her capricious partiality, but which has 
 never been overlooked, and will never be for- 
 gotten. He did more than that^ — he left b^. 
 hind him his spirit, his example, and his prin- 
 ciples ; and they continued, through many suc- 
 cessive generations, to agitate the policy and 
 influence the destinies of the whole Christian 
 world. 
 
 His Character. The latest words of Greg- 
 oiy are recorded X to have been these : — ' 1 
 have loved justice and hated iniquity ; there- 
 
 * These are Scmlcr's words: — Grcgorius. . .tanlis 
 ausibus ipse imniortuus est; milli jam parti carus aut 
 amatus; diu omnibus, exccratioiiibus, scommatibus, 
 satiris, mendaciis -iim post mortem oiieratus — Sec. 
 xi. c. 1. 
 
 fGiiilliobmis Apuliensis, a jpof/ica/ eulogist . of 
 Gregory, sings, that Robert Guiscard, who would have 
 beheld with tearless eyes the death of his fatiier, his 
 son, and his wife, was moved to weakness by tliat of 
 Gregory: — 
 
 Dux non se laerymis audita ((irte coercet 
 Morte viri tanti: non mors patris amplius ilium 
 Cogcret ad lacrymas, non tilius ipse nee uxor, 
 Extremos elsi casus utriuscpie videret. 
 
 Pagi, Vit. Greg. VII. sect. cxv. 
 X IVIiliot, Hist, dc la France. They are givei 
 somewhat dincMcnlly by Paulus Bcrnriedensis : — 
 ' Ego, fratres mei dilcctiSHiini, nullos labores ineoB 
 alicujus momenti facio, in hoc sohunmodo confidcns, 
 (|Uod Miniper dilexi justitiain et odio habui ini(|uita- 
 tem.' And when iiis frienris who were present ex 
 prcHHcd some anxiety respecting his future condition, 
 hn Htretchcd forth liitt hand« to Heaven, and said, 
 « Iliuc ascendam; el obnixin precibuH Deo propilio 
 VOH connuiltam.' 
 
GREGORY— HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 
 
 245 
 
 fore I die in exile ;' words which seem to in- 
 dicate a discontented spirit, rekictantly bend- 
 ing before the decrees of Providence. But 
 tlie same complaint may also have proceeded 
 from a sense of pious intention, and the re- 
 collection of duties conscientiously performed. 
 It becomes us then to inquire, in what really 
 consisted that justice which he loved, and 
 that iniquity which he hated ? what were the 
 principles which guided his public life ? what 
 were the habits which regulated his private 
 conversation ? The leading, perhaps the only, 
 principle of his public life was to reform, unite, 
 and aggrandize the Church over which he pre- 
 sided, and especially to exalt the office which 
 he filled. He may have been very serious 
 and sincere in that principle — he may even 
 have considered, that the whole of his duties 
 were contained in it, and that he was bound 
 to pursue it through every danger and diffi- 
 culty, as a churchman and a pope. This was 
 his grand and original delusion, and here alone 
 caji we discover any trace of narrowness and 
 littleness. And yet there have existed so many 
 good men in all ages, even in the most en- 
 lightened, who have mistaken their own form 
 of faith for the only true faith, and held their 
 own particular church to be synonymous with 
 the Church of Christ, that the error of Greg- 
 ory will meet with much sympathy, though 
 it can deserve no pardon. But when we ob- 
 serve the measures into which it betrayed 
 him, and through which he followed it with 
 deliberate hardihood ; when we recollect the 
 profusion of blood which flowed through his 
 encouragement or instigation, for the support 
 of an Ambitious and visionary project ; and, 
 more than that, when we compare the nature 
 of that project with the humble, and holy, 
 and peaceful system of Christ, whose gospel 
 was in the pontiffs hands, and whose blessed 
 name was incessantly profaned for the support 
 of his purposes — it is then that we are obliged 
 to regard him with unmitigated disgust. His 
 endeavors to reform the morals of his clergy 
 and the system of his church * will only be 
 
 * Some writers have represented Gregory as an 
 enemy to innovation, as one of those characters who 
 have placed their pride in keeping the age stationary, 
 and perpetuating all that was transmitted to them. 
 Had Gregory been such a man, he had been long ago 
 forgotten. Far otherwise : he was the greatest of all 
 innovators ; but, like Charlemagne and Peter of Rus- 
 sia, he marched to his object by the road of despo- 
 tism. The reforms which he projected, in affairs 
 civil, political, and ecclesiastical, embraced every in- 
 terest and reached every department of society ; but 
 It was by the establishment of a spiritual monarchy — 
 a Bort of papal theocracy — that he proposed to com- 
 
 censured by those who prefer diseases to their 
 remedies, or who think it dangerous to apply 
 any remedy to ecclesiastical corruption — and 
 over such persons the sceptre of reason has 
 no control. But his claims of temporal sove- 
 reignty, his usurpation of spiritual supremacy, 
 his lofty bearing, and pontifical an'ogance, 
 were so widely at variance with the spirit of 
 that book * on which his church was origin- 
 ally founded, that we must either suppose him 
 wholly to have disdained its precepts, or to 
 have strangely f misintei-preted them. 
 
 In descending to the personal character of 
 Gregory, we may first observe, that he was 
 superior to the spirit of intolerance, which 
 
 pass them. Guizot has somewhere made this obser- , 
 vation: he has further attributed to Gregory two er- 
 rors in the conduct of his plan, but not (as it seems 
 to us) with equal justice. He blames that pope for 
 having proclaimed his plan too pompously, menacing 
 when he had not the means of conquering; and also 
 for not having confined his attempts to what might 
 fairly seem practicable. Guizot appears for the mo- 
 ment to have forgotten on what uncertain ground the 
 papal power really rested; how much of it was built 
 on mere claims, disputed perhaps at first, but finally 
 established and enforced by mere impudent importu- 
 nity — the very, advance of such claims by one pope 
 was always a stepping-stone for his successors. Again, 
 in treating of what was practicable by Gregory, if 
 we well consider the peculiar nature of his weapons, 
 hitherto untried in any great contest, and the charac- 
 ter of the age to be moved by them, it will seem quite 
 impossible that he could exactly have calculated what 
 he could, or what he could not, accomplish. Under 
 all circumstances it was probable, that the bolder his 
 claims, and the more loudly he asserted them, the 
 greater was his chance of some immediate success, 
 and the broader the path that was opened for future 
 pontiffs. And Gregory had too extensive a geniu.. 
 not to think and act also for posterity. 
 
 * The first evil consequence of associating tradition 
 with the gospel as the foundation of the Church was* 
 that the former was soon considered as substantial a 
 part of the building as the latter. United in words, 
 they were presently confounded in idea, and that not 
 by the very ignorant only, but even by men, especial- 
 ly churchmen, who had deeply studied the subject, 
 and most so by monks. Gregory had received a mo- 
 nastic education ; and though his mind was naturally 
 vast and penetrating, it is not absurd to suppose that 
 he might sincerely consider the false decretals (be 
 lieving them to be genuine) as possessing authority 
 almost equivalent to the Bible; at least, he might 
 think it a fair compromise to govern his church by 
 the former, and his private conduct by the latter rule. 
 
 t In his epistles he frequently repeats the prophet's 
 words : ' Cursed is he tliat doeth the work of the Lord 
 deceitfully,' — * that keepeth back his sword fi-om 
 blood ; ' that is, who does not execute God's com- 
 mands in punishing God's enemies: hence his severity 
 with simoniacal bishops, and other ecclesiastical of 
 fenders. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 was then becoming manifest in his church. 
 The only doctrinal controversy in which he 
 was engaged was that with Berenger, on tran- 
 substantiation. The pope maintained the doc- 
 trine, which appears then to have been gen- 
 erally received in Italy and France, and he 
 may have menaced the contumacy of the 
 heretic. But no impartial reader can rise 
 from the perusal of that controversy with the 
 impression that Gregory was personally the 
 advocate of persecution. On the contrary, 
 his moderation has been noticed by writers * 
 little favorable to his character, and has even 
 led some to the very unnecessary inference 
 that he was friendly to the opinion, because 
 he spared and endured its autlior.f 
 
 Among the calumniators of Gregory, none 
 are found so unjust as to deny his extraordi- 
 nary talents and address, his intrepid constan- 
 cy, his inflexible perseverance. And there 
 are none among his blindest admirers who 
 would excuse the unchristian arrogance of his 
 ambition. His other qualities are for the most 
 part disputed : — his moral excellence,^ and the 
 
 * Jortin (among others) thinks that the pope was 
 much inclined to defend Berenger — :a merit which 
 might have led that candid writer to pause before he 
 entered into the absurd and fanatical notion that Greg- 
 ory was Antichrist. Milner also holds this last opin- 
 ion more confidently — a very remote point of contact 
 between two men of very different and even opposite 
 views, but of equal sincerity and excellence! But (to 
 speak without reference to either of those authors) it 
 has been the misfortune of Gregory to excite the 
 spleen of two descriptions of writers who agree in 
 very few of their principles — those who abhor the 
 Roman Catholic Church and all its supporters with 
 vehement and unqualified hatred, and those who dis- 
 like every church and every assertor of ecclesiastical 
 rights. The former are our religious, the latter our 
 philosophical, historians — both arc equally unjust. 
 
 t After all, it is a question whether Gregory's 
 moderation on questions purely theological docs not 
 furnish a fair argument against his general conduct. 
 It proves, at least, that his violence and arrogance 
 were not merely faults of temper, showing themselves 
 whenever tliere was a dispute; but feelings which, to 
 excite them, required the Htimulus of temporal ambi- 
 tion. Again, in an age when reason and philosophy 
 had little influence, moderation on theological (jucs- 
 lioiiH naturally excites the suHpicion of indifference, 
 fiiit if Gregory was indiff"er(!Mt on theological qucs- 
 tionn, and violent on matters touching the temporal 
 uggrandixcinent of himself and his Church, his char- 
 acter had even less merit than we liavc aH.signed to it. 
 
 X His intrigue with Matilda, which in insinuated 
 in a very childish manner by MoHheitn, in cxpr(;Hhly 
 df-nied by LamlMTlnn, a contemporary IiiKlorian of 
 I^Kid repute. Aniltition wuh motive (|uitc Hufficient 
 for hin intimacy with lliat princcHH, and hiH advanced 
 age (Hcventy-two) iiiiglil reasonably huvc naved him 
 
 depth of his private piety, have been strongly 
 asserted by some, and contested by others: 
 for our own part, aftei carefully comparing 
 the conclusions of his more moderate histo- 
 rians with the particular acts and general 
 spirit of his life, we are disposed to assent to 
 the more favorable judgment — to this extent 
 at least, that we believe him to have possessed 
 those austere monastic virtues, common, per- 
 haps, in the cloister, but rare in those days 
 either among princes * or popes. And if, in- 
 deed, in addition to those merits, he was com- 
 passionate to the poor, the defender of the 
 oppressed, the protector of the innocent (as a 
 very impartial, as well as accurate, writer f 
 affirms) we shall find the greater reason to 
 lament that his private sanctity was overshad- 
 owed and darkened by his public administra- 
 tion. 
 
 Respecting his religious disposition, though 
 passages may be found in his Epistles not un- 
 inspired with Christian piety, it is more pro- 
 bable that he sought his motives of godliness X 
 
 from the imputation of any other. Besides which, 
 there is no single fact or circumstance to authorize 
 the suspicion ; and his deep enthusiasm and intrepid 
 zeal, and the very austerity which made him danger- 
 ous, are qualities wholly inconsistent with \idgar hy- 
 pocritical profligacy. * That a widow of thirty (saya 
 Denina,) also motherless, should be the declared pro- 
 tectress and body-guard of an old and austere pontiff, 
 furnished a famous pretext for calumny to the con- 
 cubinary clergy who were persecuted by the Pope,* 
 (Rivoluz. d'ltal. 1. x. c. 6.) and to them we may 
 probably ascribe this charge. 
 
 * Gregory reproved the abbot, who admitted Hugo, 
 Duke of Burgundy, into his monastery, on this ground 
 — ' We have abundance of good monks, but there is 
 a great scarcity of good princes.' Those are the vir- 
 tues which Gibbon calls dangerous; and it is in 
 speaking of Gregory that he advances that remarka- 
 ble assertion — that the vices of the clergy are less 
 dangerous than their virtues, — a position which is 
 seldom understood with the qualification which the 
 author obviously intended to attach to it. The pas- 
 sage is illustrated by another in the sixty-ninth chap- 
 ter — ' The scandals of the tenth century were oblit- 
 erated by the austere and more dangerous virtues of 
 Gregory VH.' 
 
 t Giannone, Storia di Napoli, lib. x. c. 6. Greg- 
 ory has been reproached with placing faith in the pre- 
 dictions of astrologers ; with dealing in divinations, 
 interpreting dreams, and exercising the magical art. 
 Few of those who have shone with great 8])lendor in 
 an ignorant age have escaped the same 8us])icion. 
 
 X When Muratori (Vit. Rom. Tontif. in Leo IX.) 
 Hp(;:ikH of him as * Adolescens .... clari ingcnii, 
 Hancta.>(|iic Reliffionit,* and when Giannone calls 
 him ' iiomo |Heno di Religione,* nothing more is at 
 all neccNHarily implied than Gregory's monastic Miio 
 lity would justify. 
 
THE AGE OF GREGORY. 
 
 247 
 
 wid the aliment of his fervor in the interests 
 of his church, than in the lessons of his Bible. 
 A profound canonist, a skilful theologian, a 
 zealous churchman, he may still have been 
 unacquainted vi^ith the feelings of a Christian, 
 and uninformed by the spirit of the faith. 
 And it is not impossible that even his reforms 
 in discipline and morals, which were the best 
 among his acts, proceeded from a narrow ec- 
 clesiastical zeal, not from the purer and holier 
 influence of evangelical devotion. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 • 1.; Controversy respecting Transubstantiation — suspen- 
 ded in the Ninth, renewed in the Eleventh Century— 
 Cliaracter of Berenger— Council of Leo IX.— of Victor 
 II. at Tours in 1054 — Condemnation and conduct of 
 Berenger — Council of Nicholas II. — repeated Retracta- 
 tion and Relapse of Berenger — Alexander II.— Council 
 at Rome under Gregory VII.— Extent of the Concession 
 then required from Berenger— further Requisition of 
 the Bishops — a Second Council assembled — Conduct of 
 Gregory— Berenger again sloemnly assents to the Cath- 
 olic Doctrine, and again returns to his own — his old 
 Age, Remorse and Death — Remarks on his Conduct — 
 on the Moderation of Gregory. (II.) Latin Liturgy- 
 Gradual Disuse of the Latin Language throughout Eu- 
 rope—Adoption of the Gothic Missal in Spain — Alfonso 
 proposes to substitute the Roman — Decision by the Judg- 
 ment of God— by Combat— by Fire— doubtful Result — 
 final Adoption of the Latin Liturgy — Its introduction 
 among the Bohemians by Gregory— Motives of the 
 Popes — other instances of services not performed in the 
 Vulgar Tongue— Usage of the early Christian Church. 
 
 Opinions and conduct of Berenger. The 
 age of Gregoiy was distinguished by a very 
 important doctrinal controversy : but though 
 that pontiff was abundantly pugnacious in 
 asserting the most inadmissible rights of the 
 church, he showed no disposition to encour- 
 age the dispute in question, nor any furious 
 zeal to extirpate the supposed eiTor ; and yet 
 the error was no less than a disbelief in the 
 mystery aftei-wards called Transubstantiation. 
 We have already mentioned the promulgation 
 of that dogma by Paschasius Radbertus : we 
 have observed with what ardor and liberty it 
 was both supported and combated during the 
 ninth century, until the flames of the contro- 
 versy, unsustained by any public edicts, grad- j' 
 ually and innocently expired. The arguments 
 which had been urged on both sides were 
 thus left to produce their respective fruits of 
 good or evil, according to the soil on which 
 they fell, and the season in which they were 
 sown. Both these circumstances were fear- 
 fully unfavorable to the growth of any whole- 
 some knowledge : for in those days reason 
 was less persuasive than its abuse, and truth 
 was less attractive than specious show ; so 
 that religion was buried in superstitious ob- 
 sei*vances. Thus it happened that, during 
 
 the tenth centuiy, the op.nion in question 
 made a general, though silent progress ; and, 
 in the beginning of the eleventh, it \\as tacit- 
 ly understood to be the doctrine of the Roman 
 church. In the year 1045, Berenger, princi- 
 pal of the public school (scholastic) at Tours, 
 and afterwards Archdeacon * of Angers, pub- 
 licly professed his opposition to it. 
 
 Roman Catholic writers do not dispute the 
 brilliancy of his talents, the power of his elo- 
 quence, his skill in dialectics, and his general 
 erudition ; they admit, too, that habits of ex- 
 emplary virtue and piety gave life and efficacy 
 to his genius and his learning.f By these mer- 
 its he acquu-ed the veneration of the people, 
 and the friendship of the most distinguished 
 ecclesiastics of his day. But when some of his 
 historians assert that his virtues suddenly de- 
 serted him, and were even changed into their 
 opposite vices, at the moment when he pro- 
 pounded his opinion, we can only consider 
 them as illustrating their own definition of 
 ' heresy.' It is also said, that Berenger was stim 
 ulated to publish, even to mvent, his doctrine 
 by private jealousy of the learned Lanfranc : 
 and in truth the most splendid actions do so 
 commonly originate in sordid motives, that this 
 charge may possibly be true : but it is nol 
 probable, because it is at variance with the 
 tenor of his character ; nor is it at all impor- 
 tant, since it affects neither the truth nor the 
 prevalence of his doctrine. 
 
 Berenger's opposition to transubstantiation 
 became known to Leo IX., who condemned 
 it at a council held at Rome in 1050 ; and in 
 the same year two other councils were sum- 
 moned in France, at Verceil and Paris, both 
 of which strongly anathematized the heresy ; 
 and, in consequence of the decree of thejat- 
 ter, Hemy I. deprived the offender of the 
 temporalities proceeding from his benefice. 
 He did not attend these councils, but continu- 
 ed to profess and promulgate his doctrine. 
 During the pontificate of Victor II. a council 
 was assembled at Tours in 1055, X at which 
 
 * Mosheira is guilty of a strange blunder in mak 
 ing him Archbishop of Angers, and of designating 
 him throughout as a prelate. In fact, Angers is 
 only an episcopal aee, and Eusebius Bruno, one of 
 Berenger's own pupils, was raised to it in 1047 
 Hist. Litt. de la France, Vie de Berenger. 
 
 t His learning is perhaps sufficiently proved, by 
 the fact, that he too attained the honorable reputation 
 (common to him with so many learned persons) of 
 being a magician. 
 
 t See Pagi, Vit. Victor II., sect, v . where vari- 
 ous authorities are collected, and among them the 
 following expressions from Lanfranc addressed to 
 Berenger: ' Denique in Concilio Turonensi, cui ipsi 
 
248 HISTORY OF 
 
 Hildebrand presided as legate of the pope. 
 Bereiiger was summoned before it, and on 
 this occasion he obeyed the summons — with 
 ihe less apprehension, because he possessed 
 the personal regard of Hildebrand. He ap- 
 pears to have urged little in defence of his 
 opinion, and to have made no difficulty in 
 sMbscribing an oath to the received faith of 
 tlie Church concerning the real presence of 
 the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the 
 Eucharist. And having subscribed to this 
 faith, he immediately returned to the propa- 
 gation of his actual opinions. 
 
 He then remained undisturbed for four or 
 five years, until Nicholas H. called upon him 
 to justify himself before a Roman Council. 
 He appeared there, and professed his readi- 
 ness to follow the doctrine which should 
 seem good to that assembly. Accordingly, a 
 profession of faith was drawn up, which went 
 to the furthest extent to which the dogma has 
 ever been carried,* and with the same hand 
 which signed it Berenger committed to the 
 flames the books containing his opposition to 
 it. He then returned to France, resumed his 
 sincere profession, and abjured his abjuration. 
 
 Alexander II. (acting probably under his 
 archdeacon's counsels) contented himself with 
 
 us Victoris interfuere legati, data est tibi optio de- 
 fendendl partem tuani. Quam cum defendendam 
 suscipere non auderes, confessus coram omnibus com- 
 munem ecclesiaj fidem, jurasti te ab ilia hora ita cre- 
 diturum, sicut in Romano Concilio te jurasse est 
 superius compreliensum.' From this it would appear 
 that Berenger had been present at the council of Leo, 
 though he disregarded those assembled in France; 
 unless indeed the Roman Council mentioned by Lan- 
 franc be that afterwards held by Nicholas, which is 
 more probable. 
 
 * In the presence of the pope, and one hundred 
 and thirteen bishops, Berenger subscribed the follow- 
 ing profession: 'Ego Berengarius, indignus diacouua, 
 &c. . . consentio S. R. Ecclesiic et Ap. Sedi, et ore 
 et corde profiteor do sacramento Dominicic mensfc 
 cam fidrm me tenere quam dominus et venerabilis 
 Papa NicolauH et ha c sancta synodus tencndam tra- 
 didit . . scilicet pauem et vinum, (]u;c in altari po- 
 nuntur, post consccratioiiem non solum sacramentum 
 Hcd eliam vernm corpus et sanguinein Domini nostri 
 Jcfu Cliristi chhc; et scnsualil(;r, non solum sacra- 
 mento sed in veritate, manibus sacerdotum tractari 
 et fratigi et firh lium denlibuH atlrri ; jiu ans per sauc- 
 tam el homoo«iHiam Trinitatem. Eos vero (jui contra 
 banc fidcm v< nerint leterno anathematc dignos esse 
 proniuilio. (^uod »\ ego alitjuando alic|uid contra 
 ha-c KCiiliro nt pra-dicare pnesuinpHero subjaream ca- 
 nonuin HcvcriJati. Loclo el pcrlerlo npontc siibscrip- 
 • i.* It in <:ited liy I'agi in the Life of NirholaH IL, 
 an air the Herond and third profi'HHioiiH of lirreng«'r 
 (in 1078 und 1079) in the Life of (iregory, Hcct. Ixx. 
 Ixxii. 
 
 THL CHURCH. 
 
 addressing to the heretic a letter of peaceful 
 and friendly exhortation ; but as his opinion 
 and his contumacy now created some confu- 
 sion in the Church, Hildebrand, not long alter 
 his elevation to the chair, summoned Beren- 
 ger to Rome a second time. For the space 
 of nearly a year Gregory retained him near 
 his pei-son, and honored him with his famil- 
 iarity ; and then, io a council in 1078, he was 
 contented to require his subscription to a 
 profession which admitted the real presence 
 without any change of substance ; and Ber- 
 enger did not hesitate to sign it. 
 
 But this moderation did not satisfy the zeal 
 of certain ardent prelates, who required not 
 only a more specific declaration of orthodoxy, 
 but also that the sincerity of the retractation 
 should be approved by the fiery trial. Ber- 
 enger is stated to have prepared himself by 
 prayer and fasting for submission to that cer- 
 emony ; but Gregory, though he^iccorded the 
 first of their requisitions, refused to counte- 
 nance the senseless mockery of the second. 
 The year following, another council assem- 
 bled, and once more Berenger in their pres- 
 ence solemnly renounced his opinions, and 
 confirmed by oath his adherence to the broad- 
 est interpretation of the Catholic faith. He 
 was then dismissed by the pontiflT, with new 
 proofs of his satisfaction ; and no sooner was 
 he restored to the security of his native coun- 
 trj^, than he renewed the profession of the 
 doctrine which he had never in truth abandon- 
 ed. But he received little further molestation * 
 from the ecclesiastical powers, and died in 
 1088, at a very advanced age, with no other 
 disquietude than those severe internal suflTer- 
 ings which were the consequence of his re- 
 peated and deliberate perjuries, f 
 
 Berenger was anxious for the reputation of 
 a gi-cat Reformer, and perhaps sincerely zeal- 
 ous for the extirpation of what he considered 
 a revolting corruption— but he did not aspire 
 to the glory of martyrdom. And when he 
 presented himself at four successive coiuicils, 
 under the obligation either to defeiKl or re- 
 tract his opinions, we cannot doubt that, as he 
 saw the former course to be useless as well as 
 
 ♦ Dupin mentions that he wan summoned before a 
 council at Bo\irdeaux, in 1080, ' where he gave an 
 account of his faith.' 
 
 t A loud and very unimportant dispute has bee« 
 raised between Tapists and Prntestanls as to the 
 opinions in which Berenger actually died. The truth 
 jippears to be that he died a prnitenf , — and tlw 
 former attribute to the c«)nHrionsue»s of his heresy 
 that remoiHC whicli ti»c latter much more probably 
 ascribe to his perjury. 
 
THE AGE OF GREGORY. 
 
 249 
 
 dangerous, he went there calnnly prepared to 
 debase himself by an insincere and perjured 
 ijumiliation. Perhaps he preserved his prop- 
 erty, or prolonged his life for a few years, by 
 such reiterated sin and degradation ; but if his 
 latest days were passed in remorse and bitter 
 penitence, his gain was not great, and the 
 moments which he added to his existence 
 were taken away from his happiness. His 
 followers were not, probably, very numer- 
 ous ; * and they were chilled by his weak- 
 ness and confounded by his frequent recan- 
 tations. His fortitude and constancy would 
 have confirmed and multiplied and perpetu- 
 ated them. We admire his talents, we re- 
 spect his virtues, and venerate the cause in 
 which he displayed them ; but m that age the 
 defence of that cause demanded (as it deserv- 
 ed) a character of sterner materials and more 
 rigid consistency than was that of Berenger. 
 
 From the moderation which Gregory used 
 towards the person of that Reformer, it has 
 been infeiTed that he secretly favored his 
 opinions ; and this may be so far true, that 
 he generally inculcated an adherence to the 
 words of scripture ; f and discouraged any 
 curious researches and positive decisions re- 
 specting the manner of Christ's presence at 
 the Eucharist. And as a real spiritual (or in- 
 tellectual) J presence was probably admitted 
 by Berenger himself, who professed only to 
 follow the opinions of John Scotus, § there 
 could remain no ground for any violent dif- 
 ference between the pope and the heretic. 
 
 II. Establishment of the Latin Liturgy. 
 But if we are to consider the doctrine of tran- 
 substantiation to have been effectually estab- 
 lished, rather through the obstinate zeal of his 
 ecclesiastics, than by the favor of Gregory, 
 we shall have no hesitation in attributing to 
 his personal exertions a contemporary cor- 
 ruption in the ceremonies of the church. It 
 was the will of Hildebrand that the liturgy 
 of the Universal Church should be delivered 
 in Latin only ; and having once adopted that 
 scheme, as in every other object which he 
 
 * We mean that they formed a very trifling pro- 
 portion to the whole body of the church. They con- 
 tained no individual of any great eminence, nor do 
 they appear to have existed at a sect after the death 
 of Berenger. 
 
 t Mosheim, cent. xi. 
 
 % Hist Litt. de la France, Vie de Berenger. 
 
 § Ambrose, Jerome, and A ugustin are the Fathers 
 on whose authority Berenger chiefly rests his defence. 
 Lanfranc, before he became Archbishop of Canterbu- 
 ry, was his most distinguished opponent. 
 
 32 
 
 thought proper to pursue, he neglected no 
 imaginable means to cari-y it into effect. The 
 use of Latin as the vulgar tongue, wMcli had 
 I)revailed throughout the southern provinces 
 of Europe, gradually ceased during the course 
 of the ninth century ; and the language of the 
 first conquerors insensibly gave place to the 
 barbarous jargon of the second. Latin tlius 
 became a subject of study, and all knowledge 
 of it was presently confined to the priesthood, 
 still it seems clear that, in France as well as 
 in Italy, the services of the church continued 
 to be performed entirely in Latin, and even 
 that sermons were for some time delivered in 
 that tongue to an audience most imperfectly 
 acquainted with it. But in Spain, the Gothic 
 missal had gi-adually supplanted the Roman, 
 and at the middle of the eleventh century was 
 universally prevalent in that church. Soon 
 after that time, by the united influence (as is 
 said) of Richard, the papal legate, and Con- 
 stance, Queen of Leon (who had brought 
 with her from France an attachment to the 
 forms of her native church,) Alfonso, the 
 sixth of Leon and first of Castile, was per 
 suaded to propose the introduction of the 
 Roman liturgy. The nobility and the peo- 
 ple, and even the majority of the clergy 
 warmly supported the established form, and 
 after some heats had been excited on both 
 sides, a day was finally appointed to decide 
 on the perfections of the rival missals. To 
 this effect, recourse was had, according to the 
 customs of those days, to the 'judgments of 
 God,' and the trial to which they were first 
 submitted was that by combat. Two knights 
 contended in the presence of a vast assembly, 
 and the Gothic champion prevailed. The 
 king, dissatisfied v/ith this result, subjected 
 the missals to a second proof, which they 
 were qualified to sustain in their own per- 
 sons — the trial by fire. The Gothic liturgy 
 resisted the flames, and was taken out unhurt, 
 while the Roman yielded, and was consumed. 
 The triumph of the former appeared now to 
 be complete, when it was discovered that the 
 ashes of the latter had curled to the top of 
 the flames, and leaped out of them. By this 
 strange phenomenon the scales were again 
 turned, or at least the victory was held to be 
 so doubtful, that the king, to presen e a show 
 of impartiality, established the use of both 
 liturgies. It then became very easy, by an 
 exclusive encouragement of the Roman, ef- 
 fectually, though gradually, to banish its com- 
 petitor. * 
 
 * See Dr. Macrie's History of the Progress and 
 Suppression of the Reformation m Spain. The coi>- 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 It was one of the latest acts of Alexander 
 II. especially to prohibit the Bohemians from 
 performing service in their native Sclavonian, 
 and to impose on them the Roman missal ; 
 and about seven years afterwards Gregory 
 prosecuted, as pope, the enterprise which, 
 as archdeacon, he had doubtless originated. 
 Little serious resistance appears to have been 
 opposed to this and similar attempts ; and it 
 may be asserted without dispute, that before 
 the conclusion of the eleventh century, the 
 Latin liturgy was very generally received in 
 the western churches. 
 
 The motive * of the popes for this vexa- 
 tious exertion of ecclesiastical tyranny was 
 undoubtedly their ardor for the Unity of the 
 church, as one body under one head ; and to 
 this end it certainly conduced, that she should 
 speak to all her children, of all nations and 
 races, in one language only. It was also ne- 
 cessary that that language should be Latin, 
 because it thus became a chain which not 
 only united to each other the extremities of 
 the North and the West, but also bound them 
 in universal allegiance to a common Sovereign. 
 But this policy, like some other of the pro- 
 foundest schemes of the Vatican, was calcu- 
 .ated on the continuation of general ignorance, 
 
 test between the liturgies began during the pontificate 
 of Alexander II., between the years 1060 and 1068; 
 but one of the first acts of Gregory was to give his 
 strenuous and effectual support to the Roman. See 
 Pagi, Vit. Alex. II. et Greg. VII. 
 
 * Tlie reason, which Gregory fairly avowed in his 
 answer to Vratislaus, Duke of Bohemia, was the im- 
 policy of making the scriptures too public; and, in 
 this document, it is curious to observe with what 
 ease, when it suited hia purpose, he could dispense 
 (like Gregory the Great) with the authority of the 
 primitive ciiurch, so conclusive and venerable when it 
 was expedient to follow it. The expressions of so 
 great a pontiff deserve to be recorded: — ' Quia Nebi- 
 litas tua postulavit, quod secundum Sclavonicam lin- 
 guani apud vos divinum celebrari annueremus officium, 
 Bcias nos huic pctitioni tuic ne(iua()uam posse favere. 
 Ex hoc neuipe Kir-pc volventibus litjuct non immerito 
 Sacrum Scripturam omnipotenti Deo placuisse 
 quibusdam Incis esse occultam, ne, si ad litjuidum 
 cunctiK pateret, forte vilescerct et subjaccret despectui, 
 aOt pravO jntcllocta a mediocribus in errorem induce- 
 ret. Ncf|iic enim ad cxcuHationem juvel, (juod (jui- 
 dam n.ligioHi viri hoc qur»d ninipliciu r |)0|)u1uh (|u:n- 
 sivit, palic'iilcr tulerunt, hcu iiicorrcctiun diniiscriuit ; 
 C'Jm Primitiva EcclcHia multa diiitiimulfivrrit,(\\m) 
 \ taiicAtH r.itribuH, poHtinoduin firniata ( 'hrihlianilate 
 et rr linioiur rrcHccnlf, nuhtili cxaminntionr correcta 
 sunt. Undo no ifl flat, quod n veHlrirt iuiprurldnlcr 
 exp'iMcilur, aiiclorilatr H. I'cfri inhibrniUH, al(iuc ad 
 honornn omnipotciiliH !)«•! huic vann- tenuTilali viri- 
 bus toliM rcdiHleie pru-cipiuiuit.' 
 
 and the stability of pnnciples which the 
 slightest efforts of reason were suflicient tc 
 overturn. 
 
 We should add, however, that a similfir 
 custom prevails among certain other nations 
 and creeds, which cannot have originated in 
 similar motives, but is rather to be attributed 
 to the superstitious veneration for antiquity, 
 so common where the understanding has been 
 little cultivated. The ^Egyptians or Jacobites 
 performed their service in Coptic ; the Nesto- 
 rians in Syriac ; the Abyssinians in the old 
 ^thiopic ; and the prayers which are offered 
 to the god of the Mahometans are universally 
 addressed in Arabic. But the usage was en- 
 tirely contrai-y to tlie practice * of the early 
 Christian church, which permitted every va- 
 riety of language in its ceremonies ; a practice 
 which received the positive confirmation of 
 the Council of Francfort at the end of the 
 eighth century, and which was not entirely 
 subverted till the pontificate of Gregory and 
 of his immediate successors. 
 
 (1.) In an early part of this work (Chap. V. 
 p. 63,) Justin Martyr is accused of eiTor in 
 having given to Simon Magus a statue which, 
 in fact, was dedicated to Semo Sangus, a Sa- 
 bine deity. The question, however, is in- 
 volved in some uncertainty ; for it appears 
 that the inscription found in 1574 was not 
 engraved on a statue (as above asserted,) but 
 on a stone, bearing resemblance, indeed, to 
 the basis of a statue, yet so small, that it could 
 scarcely have supported any representation 
 of the human body. Such is the account of 
 Baronius, (Ann. 44.) which at the time had 
 escai)cd the author. Under these circum- 
 stances, whatever may be the leaning of our 
 own private judgment, we are historically 
 bound to admit the direct affirmation of 
 Justin, who expressly asserts that the statiie 
 existed in his time. If we believe Baronius, 
 
 * ' You may have observed (says Fleury) that the 
 oflices of the church were thcJi in the language most 
 used in each country, that is to say, in Latin through 
 all the West, and in Greek through all the East, ex- 
 cept in the remoter provinces, as in Tiiebais where 
 the Ji'igyptiin was spoken, and in Up|x;r Syria 
 
 where Syriac was used The Armenians 
 
 have, from the very beginning, performed divine ser- 
 vice in iheir own tongue. If the nations were of a 
 mixed kind, there were in the church inlerpretera to 
 
 explaiu w hat was read In Palestine, St. Sabas 
 
 and St. Tlicod«)HiuH had in their monasteries many 
 clnirchcH, wherein the monks of difTcrent nations ha4 
 their liturgy, each in his own language.' 
 
COLLATERAL REMARKS. 
 
 251 
 
 til at this stone caiinot reasonably be consider- 
 ed as a pedestal, we must also believe Justin ; 
 otherwise we are compelled to suppose that 
 the Father deliberately called that a statue 
 which has no part, or even support, of a 
 statue, but a mere stone consecrated to rude 
 Pagan divinity. At any rate, the direct evi- 
 dence is all on one side, with only a bare, and 
 as many will think, unreasonable supposition 
 on the other. 
 
 (2.) In Chapter X, p. 141, a passage is cited 
 from St. Eligius, a bishop of Noyon, contem- 
 poraiy of Gregory the Great. The sense, and 
 even the words in question, had been previ- 
 ously retailed both by Robertson and Jortin ; 
 and the original Latin is quoted by Mosheim, 
 whom the latter of those writers has followed. 
 The author of this work, who had also con- 
 fided in the same guide, has been lately led 
 to look more particularly into the ' Life of • 
 Eligius,' as it is published in the Spicilegium 
 Dacherii (vol. v., p. 147 — 304;) and he was 
 pleased to discover many excellent precepts 
 and pious exhortations scattered among the 
 strange matter with which it abounds. But 
 at the same time, it was with great sorrow 
 and some shame, that he ascertained the 
 treachery of his historical conductor. The 
 expressions cited by Mosheim, and cited too 
 with a direct reference to the Spicilegium, 
 are forcibly brought together by a very un- 
 pardonable mutilation of his authority. They 
 are to be found, indeed, in a surinon preached 
 by the bishop ; but found in the society of so 
 many good and Christian maxims, that it had 
 been charitable entirely to overlook them, as 
 it was certainly unfair to weed them out and 
 heap them together, without notice of the rich 
 harvest that surrounds them. In justice, then, 
 to the character both of St. Eligius and his 
 church, and that the exact extent of the his- 
 torian's delinquency may be known, we shall 
 here subjoin the entire passage which Mos- 
 heim has disfigured ; and we are glad of the 
 occasion to present even this short specimen 
 of the discourses, which were delivered to a 
 Christian people in the age of its darkest ig- 
 norance. 
 
 ' Wherefore, my brethren, love your friends 
 in God, and love your enemies on account of 
 God, for he who loveth his neighbor (saith 
 the apostle) hath fulfilled the law; for the 
 man who would be a true Christian must 
 observe the precepts, since he who observes 
 not circumvents himself. He, then, is a good 
 Christian, who believes not in charms or in- 
 rentions of tbe devil, but places the whole of 
 
 his hope in Christ alone; who receives the 
 stranger with joy, as though he were receiv- 
 ing Christ himself ; since it was He who said, 
 " I was a stranger, and ye took me in," and 
 "inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of 
 these my brethren, ye have done it unto me " 
 i/e, 1 say, is a good Christian, who washes the 
 feet of the strangers, and cherishes them as his 
 beloved parents ; who gives alms to the poor 
 in proportion to his possessions ; who goes 
 frequently to church and makes his oblations at 
 God^s altar ; who never tastes of his own fruit 
 until he hath presented some to God ; who has 
 no deceitful balances, nor deceitful measures ; 
 who has never lent his money on usury ; who 
 both lives chastely himself, and teaches his 
 children and his neighbors to live chastely 
 and in the fear of God ; and ivho for many 
 days before the festivals observes strict chastity, 
 though he he married, that he may approach the 
 altar with a safe conscience ; lastly, who can 
 repeat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and 
 teaches the same to his children and his 
 family. He who is such as this, without any 
 doubt is a true Christian, and Christ dwells 
 in him. 
 
 ' Behold ! ye have heard, my brethren, what 
 sort of people good Christians are ; wherefore 
 strive as much as you are able, with the help 
 of God, that the name of Christ may not be 
 false in you ; but to the end that ye be true 
 Christians, always ponder the precepts of 
 Christ in your mind, and also fulfil them in 
 your practice. Redeem your souls from pun- 
 ishment ivhilst you have it in your power ; give 
 alms according to your means ; keep peace 
 and charity ; recall the contentious to concord ; 
 avoid lies ; ti-emble at perjury ; bear not false 
 witness; commit no theft ; offer your free gifis 
 and tithes to the churches; contribute towards 
 the luminaries in the holy places ; repeat the 
 Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and teach it to 
 your children ; instruct and coiTcct even your 
 god-children, and recollect that you are their 
 sponsors with God. Repair frequently to 
 church, and humbly implore the protection of 
 the saints ; obsei-ve the Lord's day, through 
 reverence for Christ's resurrection, without 
 any bodily work; piously celebrate the so- 
 lemnities of the saints ; love your neigh boi-s 
 as yourselves, and do as you would be done 
 by; and what you wish not to be done to 
 yourselves, that do to no man. Observe 
 charity before all things, because charity cov 
 ers a multitude of sins ; be hospitable, hum- 
 ble, placing all your solicitude in God, since 
 he hath care of you. Visit the infirm, seek 
 
252 HISTORY OF 
 
 out those who are in prison, take charge of 
 strangers, feed the hungry, clothe the naked. 
 Despise jugglere and magicians ; be just in 
 tour measures; require of no man more than 
 your due; and on no account exact usury. 
 If you observe these thiyigs, you may appear 
 holJIy at God's tribunal in the day of judgment, 
 and say, Give, Lord, as ive have given ; show 
 compassion even as we have show^n it ; we 
 have fulfilled what thou hast commanded, do 
 thou now reward us as thou hast promised.' 
 The sentences rinted in italics are those 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 which Mosheim has selected and strung to- 
 gether, without any notice of the context 
 The impression which, by this method, he 
 conveys to his readers, is wholly false ; and 
 the calumny thus indh'ectly cast upon his 
 author is not the less reprehensible, because 
 it falls on one of the obscurest saints in the 
 Roman calendar. If the very essence of his- 
 toiy be truth, and if any deliberate violation 
 of that be sinful in the profane annalist, still 
 less can it deserve pardon or mercy in the 
 historian of the Church of Christ. 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 FROM THE DEATH OF GREGORY VII. TO THAT OF BONIFACE VIII. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. I 
 From Gregory VII. to Innocent III: 
 
 (1 ) Papal history — Urban II. — Council of Placentia — 
 that of Clermont — their principal acts — The Crusades 
 — their origin and possible advantage — Pascal II. — Re- 
 newed disputes with Henry — his misfortunes, private 
 and public — his death and exhumation — Henry, his 
 son, marches to Rome — Convention with Pascal re- 
 specting the regalia — its violation — Imprisonment of 
 the Pope — his concessions — annulled by subsequent 
 Council — Henry again at Rome — Death and character 
 of Pascal — Final arrangement of the investiture ques- 
 tion by Calixtus II. — Observations — The first Lateran 
 (ninth general) Council — Death of Calixtus — Subse- 
 quent confusion and its causes — Arnold of Brescia — 
 his opinions, fate, and character— Adrian IV.— Frederic 
 Barbarossa — Disputes between them, and final success 
 of the Pope — Alexander III. — his quarrel with Fred- 
 eric, and advantages — his talents and merits — Celestine 
 III.— The differences between Rome and the Empire — 
 The internal dissensions at Rome on papal election — 
 National contentions between Church and State. (II.) 
 Education and theological learning — Review of pre- 
 ceding ages— in Italy and France— Parochial schools- 
 Deficiency in the material — Papyrus— Parchment — 
 Consequent scarcity of MSS. — Invention of paper — 
 Three periods of theological literature — the character- 
 istics of each --Gradual improvement in the eleventh 
 century. 
 
 The death of yirv'^ory did not restore cither 
 concord to the Church or repose to the Em- 
 pire. The succo^^sor, whom ut the solicitation 
 of his cardinals, h(; notninated on his death- 
 bed, testified a singular, but sincere, repug- 
 nance for a dignity, which being proba])ly too 
 fecl)le to sustain, he was too wise to de- 
 eirc. Desiderius, * Abbot of Mount Cassino, 
 
 • H'lH (liHlnolinntion for llie dan^oronH honor in 
 said to havf! Incn ho f,'r(!at, that lie wiiH artuully <lra','- 
 gcfl to the Church, and forcilily inv<'Ht«(l uitli llie 
 fK>ntifiral fjarim nfH. Flcury, H. E., liv. Ixiii., ncct. 
 25 i\iu\ 27. Hut thin <:irnnn»<tanr.c iu not mentioned 
 
 held for a short period, under the name of 
 Victor III., a disputed rule ; and on his early 
 death in the year 1087, Urban II., a native of 
 France, was proclaimed in his place. But 
 Clement the Antipope was still in possession 
 of the Capital, where the imperial party was 
 triumphant, and five years of dissension * in 
 tervened before the authority of Urban was 
 generally acknowledged. That Pope had 
 been a monk of Clugni, and owed his pre 
 ferment to the See of Ostia to the favor of 
 Gregory ; and he continued to the end of his 
 life to exhibit his fidelity by following, as far 
 as his talents permitted him, the scheir.es 
 which had been traced by his patron. 
 
 Urban 11. Of the numerous councils held 
 during his pontificate two are entitled to par- 
 ticular attention — those of Placentia and Cler- 
 mont : f in both of these he confirmed the 
 
 by Pagi ; though, on the authority of Leo Osticnsis, 
 lie bears ample testimony to Victor's reluctance. 
 
 * The only remarkable acts of personal hostility 
 which these two rivals appear to luive exchanged, 
 was a satiric taunt couched on either side in a pair 
 of very innocent hexameters. Clement, insolent in 
 the possession of the city, wrote to his rusticating 
 adversary as follows: — 
 
 Diceris Urbanus, cum sis projectus ab Urbe; 
 
 Vcl nuita nomcn, vel rcgrcdiaris ad Urbcm. 
 To this Urban replied, 
 
 Clemens nomen liabca, Fcd Clemens non potcs esse, 
 
 Trndita solvcndi cum sit tibi nulla potestas. 
 
 Hist. Lift, de la France 
 
 t Both were held in 109.') — the former on March 1, 
 the latter on November IS. At the former were 
 present two Innulred bishops, nearly four thousand of 
 the inferior elerf^y, and njoro than thirty thousand 
 of the Inity; ho that the assemblieH were held in the 
 open air. The latter ap|K;arH to have l)ecn still mov* 
 
FAPAL history: 
 
 253 
 
 laws aiiJ asserted the principles of Greg- 
 ory, and carried his favorite claims to their 
 full extent ; for by the fifteenth canon of the 
 latter he enacted, 'that no ecclesiastic shall 
 receive any church dignity from the hand of 
 a layman, or pay him liege homage for it ; 
 and that no prince shall give the investiture.' * 
 But that council is recommended to general 
 history by other and more important recollec- 
 tions. And while at Placentia the final sanc- 
 tion was given to the two strongest character- 
 istics in the doctrine and in the discipline of 
 the Roman Church— namely, f transubstanti- 
 ation and the celibacy of the clergy, it was 
 the Council of Clermont which first sounded 
 that blast of fanaticism which shook the whole 
 fabric of society, from the extremities of the 
 west even to the heart of Asia, for above two 
 centuries. 
 
 Origin of the Crusades. It may seem strange 
 that the sanguinary project of launching the 
 power of Christendom in one vast armament 
 against the Mahometan conquerors of the 
 Holy Land should first have been proposed 
 by a Pope, who was celebrated for his studi- 
 ous cultivation of the noblest arts of peace. 
 It was Sylvester II. J with whom the scheme 
 of a general crusade originated ; but to him it 
 may have been suggested by personal obser- 
 
 nuraerously attended. See Fleury, H. E., liv. Ixiv., 
 sect. 22. Hist. Litt. de la France. 
 
 * ' Ne episcopus vel sacerdos regi vel alicui laico 
 in manibus ligiam fidelitatem facial.' See Mosheini, 
 Cent. xi. p. ii. c. ii. Fleury, liv. Ixiv., sect. 29. 
 
 f Hist. Litt. de la France. Vie de Berenger. 
 Fleury, loc. cit. The question regarding the ordina- 
 tion of the sons of presbyters, Avhich was warmly de- 
 bated about this time, was set at rest by the Council 
 of Clermont. It was conceded, that with dispensa- 
 tion from the Pope they might be admitted to Holy 
 Orders. Pagi (Vit. Urban. H., sect. 43.) ascribes 
 to this period the practice of administering the Eu- 
 charist to the laity under one species only, which, 
 he adds, became more confirmed, after the establish- 
 ment of the kingdom of Jerusalem by the crusaders; 
 for in that Church (he maintains) it has existed from 
 primitive times. We may also mention in this place, 
 that the ' Office of the Holy Virgin,' though perhaps 
 not composed by Urban, was brought into more gen- 
 eral use during his pontificate. 
 
 X It will be recollected that Sylvester, as well as 
 Urban and his agent Peter the Hermit, was a French- 
 man. So that the entire credit of the scheme, both 
 of its invention and the bringing it into practice, 
 belongs, such as it is, to that enthusiastic and incon- 
 liderate people. It is a remark, of Gibbon, that at 
 the Council of Placentia, in Italy, the people wept 
 over the calamities of the Christians of the East — 
 while at Clermont, in France, they took up arms to 
 avenge them 
 
 vation of the sufferings of Spain and the hu- 
 miliation of the Christian name. And to any 
 one beholding and deploring the various dis- 
 orders of Europe — the fierce contentions of 
 kings with each other, their more fatal dis 
 sensions with their subjects, the military 
 license which every where prevailed and 
 forbade all security of person or property — it 
 might have seemed an act of comparative 
 mercy .to unite those discordant spirits even 
 by the rudest tie, and to divert against a com- 
 mon foe the turbulence which engaged them 
 in mutual destruction. The same measure 
 was not without some justification in pru- 
 dence ; since the slightest caprice of a Sara- 
 cen conqueror might have directed his rage 
 against Christendom, and especially against 
 Italy, the most attractive, the most exposed, 
 the least defensible province — the centre of 
 the Christian Church, aiid, as it were, the Pa 
 lestine of the West. These and similar con 
 siderations may have recommended the same 
 project to a much greater mind than that of 
 Sylvester ; for it was also (as has been men 
 tioned) a favorite design of Gregory VII., 
 who proposed personally to conduct against 
 the infidel the universal army of Christ. It 
 was realized by Urban II. ; and his exhorta- 
 tions * to the Council of Clermont, being at 
 the same time addressed to the superstitious 
 and the military spirit, the two predominant 
 motives of action hi that age, were received 
 with an enthusiastic acclamation of frenzy, 
 which was mistaken for the approbation of 
 God. 
 
 * The Pope closed the session of the council by a 
 sermon, which has been variously reported by differ- 
 ent writers. Fleury gives the following sentences as 
 a part of it, on the authority of William of Tyre, ' a 
 grave and judicious author :' — ' Do you then, my dear 
 children, arm yourselves with the zeal of God; march 
 to the succor of our brethren, and the Lord be with 
 you. Turn against the enemy of the Christian name 
 the arms which you employ in injuring each other. 
 Redeem, by a service so agreeable to God your pil- 
 lages, conflagrations, homicides, and other mortal 
 crimes, so as to obtain his ready pardon. We ex- 
 hort you and enjoin you, for the remission of your 
 sins, to have pity on tiie affliction of our brethren in 
 Jerusalem, and to repress the insolence of the infidels, 
 who propose to subjugate kingdoms and empires, and 
 to extinguish the name of Christ.' Hist. Eccl., Liv. 
 Ixiv., sect. 32. As the populace devoutly believed 
 the Pope's assurance, that the pilgrimage would atone 
 for the most abominable crimes, the immediate effect 
 of the crusade might be to rid Europe of the refuse of 
 its population; just as the certain consequence would 
 be the encouragement of crime, when the method of 
 atonement was always at hand. 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 We do not propose to enter into any de- 
 scription of the military adventures of the 
 crusadei-s, which have employed the eloquence 
 of so many writers ; but shall confine our- 
 selves to the less attractive, but perhaps more 
 useful, task of occasionally recurring to the 
 domestic changes connected with them, and 
 investigating the traces which they have left 
 in the History of the Church. 
 
 Pascal 11. Urban died in 1099, aiid was 
 succeeded by Pascal II. Nearly contempora- 
 neous with the decease of Urban was that of 
 Clement IIL, the Antipope, who had main- 
 tained Avith some interruptions the possession 
 of the capital, though unacknowledged by 
 the great body of the Church. The imperial 
 party was at that moment too weak to appoint 
 a successor, and therefore Pascal entered into 
 undisputed occupation of the chair. Pascal, 
 as well as Gregory and Urban, had been edu- 
 cated in the monastery of Clugni ; like the 
 former, he was a Tuscan ; like the latter, he 
 was indebted for his early advancement to 
 Gregory ; and thus the spirit of that extraor- 
 dinary man, by animating the congenial bo- 
 soms of his two disciples, continued to haunt 
 the pontifical chair, and to regulate the coun- 
 cils of the Vatican, for above thirty years after 
 his departure.* And if Urban prosecuted the 
 reforms undertaken by his master, and real- 
 ized one of his fondest speculations, to Pascal 
 remained the more difficult and odious office 
 of resuming with fresh violence tlie interrupt- 
 ed contest with the empire. He engaged in 
 it earnestly, if not eagerly ; and as the empe- 
 ror was still unprepared for submission, he 
 prevented an attempt (perhaps an insidious 
 attemi)t) at compromise, by renewing (in 1102) 
 all foruKu* decrees against investitures, and 
 then commenced the conflict by the usual 
 sentence of excommunication. 
 
 MisfoHunes and Death of Henry IV. Hen- 
 ry IV'., <Mficr siu'viving so many Popes, was 
 still in j)ossession of the throne ; but his latter 
 years had been afflicted by the rebellion, and, 
 what might be less bitter to him, by the death 
 of hirf eldest son. The aflTections of his sub- 
 jects he never ])osseHsed nor deserved ; but 
 we do not learn that by any domestic delin- 
 (juency he had forf«'ited the less dissoluble 
 ttllegianee of his children. And yet, srarc(!ly 
 had Conrad terminat(;d his unnatural i?npi(;ty 
 by death, when — as if the anathemas of (Jreg- 
 ory W(,'re still suspended over him — as if to 
 
 • PjiHriil (lic«l on January 18tli, 1118, nflor an iin- 
 miially Ikmk pontificate of ciglitccn yearn, five inonlliH, 
 nn(\ five (Imjh. 
 
 accomplish the temporal retribution which 
 that pontiflT had denounced against the foes 
 of St. Peter * — Henry, his other son, on learn- 
 ing the excommunication of his father, rose 
 in arms against him. A scene revolting to 
 nature and humanity was the consequence • 
 and even the death of the Emperor, whici 
 speedily followed, does not close the story of 
 his persecutions. His body, which was still 
 lying under the anathema, having been incon- 
 siderately consigned to consecrated ground, 
 was immediately dug up, ejected from the 
 holy precincts, and condemned to an unhal- 
 lowed sepulchre ; f and there it rested for the 
 space of five yeai-s, a revoltmg monument of 
 papal power and papal malignity : at length 
 the sentence was withdrawn,! and Henry V. 
 was permitted to make a tardy atonement to 
 oflTended nature and piety. 
 
 There is no proof that Pascal positively 
 excited this monstrous rebellion, but it is well 
 known that he countenanced and promoted 
 it, and that too, not as a reluctant concession 
 of vu-tue to interest, but with ardent and un- 
 compromising zeal. Indeed, his interest was 
 not engaged in this matter, but his passions 
 merely, and the vindictive hatred for Henry 
 IV. which he had contracted in the school of 
 Gregory. The Holy See had nothing to gain 
 by the death or deposition of an unpopular 
 monarch, but everything to fear from the union 
 which would probably ensue among his sub- 
 jects. For, as to any prospect of gratitude 
 from his successor — any hope that the Em- 
 peror would be mindful of services conferred 
 upon the rebel, — a Tuscan and a Pope could 
 scarcely indulge so simple an expectation. 
 If Pascal did so, he very speedily discovered 
 his error ; ror scai'ccly was Heniy IV. dead, 
 when his son asserted with equal vehemence 
 the disputed rights. The Pope resisted, and 
 both parties prejiared for a second struggle. 
 
 * It will be recollected thai, in his second cxcotn- 
 mnnication of Henry, Gregory supplicated St. Peter 
 to take away from that prince prosperity in war and 
 victory over his enemies, * that all the world may 
 know' (i-ays Ik;) ' that thou hast power both in heaven 
 and on earth.' 
 
 t * (.V)m|)r()l)antibus his qui adcrant Archirj)iscopis 
 ct Episcopis; (juia quibus vivis ccclesia non commu- 
 nicat, illis etiam nec mortuis connnunicare possit.' — 
 Urspergensis Abbas, ap. I'agi, Vit. Pascalis II. 
 Some ascribe this act of l)arl)arity to the (iennan 
 liishops, and exculpate the Pope, except in as far as 
 he had BOt them the example, by exhumating the 
 l)ones of (luibert the Antipope, who had been buried 
 at Rav(Mma, and casting th«'m into the neighborip; 
 river. 
 
 t I'lcury, H. E., lib. Ixv. s. 44, and lib. Ixvi. s. 5. 
 
PAPAL HISTORY. 
 
 255 
 
 Henry V. nothing deterred by the porten- 
 tous appearance of a comet, which inspired 
 general dismay, descended into Italy during 
 the summer of 1110, carefully prepared for a 
 twofold contest with the Holy See ; for he 
 was not only attended by a powerful army, 
 but also by a suite of literary protectors,*^ so 
 that the pen might be at hand to justify the 
 deeds of the sword. His advance was pre- 
 ceded by a declaration of his intention, which 
 was ' to maintain a right acquired by privilege 
 and the custom of his predecessors from the 
 time of Charlemagne, and preserved during 
 three hundred years under sixty-three popes 
 — that of presenting to bishoprics and abbeys 
 by the ring and crosier.' In reality, his ob- 
 ject, when more fully explained, was to pre- 
 vent the election of bishops without his con- 
 sent, to invest the bishop-elect with the regalia, 
 to receive from him homage and the oath of 
 allegiance. At the same time, he proposed to 
 undergo the solemn ceremony of coronation 
 at the hands of the Pope. 
 
 Dispute between Henry V. and Pascal. By 
 the regalia above-mentioned were understood 
 various grants conferred on the bishops by 
 Charlemagne, which partook of the privileges 
 of royalty, such as the power of raising trib- 
 ute, coining money, and also the possession 
 of certain independent lands, directly derived 
 from the crown, with some other immunities. 
 And it seemed natural that the successors of 
 Charlemagne should retain the right of con- 
 firming the privileges which he had bestowed. 
 This circumstance involved the Pope in great 
 perplexity ; and though it was easy to publish 
 edicts, and advance vague and exorbitant pre- 
 tensions, when the Emperor was distant or 
 embaiTassed, he could scarcely hope by such 
 expedients to withstand his near and armed 
 approach. In this difficulty, Pascal proved 
 at least the sincerity of his professions, and 
 his attachment to the best and purest interests 
 of the Church. He had the virtue to prefer 
 its spiritual independence to its worldly splen- 
 dor, and the courage to proclaim his prefer- 
 ence. This better part being chosen, he con- 
 cluded a treaty with Henry, by which it was 
 agreed that the bishops, on the one hand, 
 should make to Henry a positive cession of 
 all that belonged to the crown in the time of 
 
 * * One of them was a Scotsman named David, 
 who had presided over the schools at Wurtemberg, 
 and whom the King had appointed his chaplain, d 
 cause de sa vertii. He wrote a relation of this ex- 
 pedition, but rather as a panegyrist than a historian.' 
 — Fleury, lib. Ixvi. s. 1, on authority of Will. Mal- 
 inea lib v. p. 166. 
 
 Louis, Henry, and his other predecessors, on 
 pain of excommunication if they attempted to 
 usurp such regalia; and that the Emperor, 
 on the other, should resign the right of inves- 
 titure. On this arrangement, the Pope con- 
 sented to perform the ceremony of corona- 
 tion,* and Henry proceeded to Rome for that 
 purpose. 
 
 The circumstances which followed are told 
 with some trifling variations, but were proba- 
 bly thus. The bishops interested in the trea- 
 ty, and especially those of Germany, who 
 would have been the greatest suflferers, felt 
 the deepest repugnance to resign so large a 
 portion of their splendid temporalities for a 
 remote and invisible object, which, however 
 it might be accessory to the honor of the 
 Church, did not benefit then* own immediate 
 interests. Consequently they protested with 
 so much violence against the compromise, 
 w^hich seemed to them to exchange a sub- 
 stance for a shadow, that the Pope despaired 
 of his power to execute that condition of the 
 treaty. In the meantime, Henry arrived at 
 Rome : he was conducted with acclamations 
 to the Basilica of St. Peter, where the Pope, 
 with his Bishops and Cardinals, was waiting 
 to receive him. The King, according to the 
 accustomed ceremony, prostrated himself be- 
 fore the Pope, and kissed his feet ; he then 
 read the usual oath, and they advanced to- 
 gether into the church.f But here, before 
 they proceeded to the office of consecration, 
 a dispute broke out respecting the fulfilment 
 of the treaty, and it was presently inflamed 
 into an angry quarrel. Henry availed him- 
 self of the presence of his soldiers to arrest 
 the Pope and several Cardinals ; the Roman 
 populace took arms and endeavored to rescue 
 him ; a fierce and tumultuous conflict ensu- 
 ed, and the courts of the Vatican, and even 
 
 * For this compact we have the authority of Petrns 
 Diaconus (who cites a contemporary account of the 
 transaction) confirmed by that of Urspergens. Abbas, 
 as follows. ' Ibi Legati Apostolici cum missis Regis 
 advenientes, promptum esse Papam ad consecralionem 
 ... si tamen ipse sibimet annueret libertatem Eccle- 
 siarum, laicam ab illis prohibens investituram — re- 
 cipiendo nihilominus ab Ecclesiis Ducatus, Marchias, 
 Comitatus, Advocatias, Moneta, Telonia, ceeteror- 
 umque Regalium quae possident summam.' — See Pagi, 
 Vit. Pasch. II. — Fleury, lib. Ixvi. s. ii. 
 
 t This took place on Feb. 11, 1111. ' Ter se in- 
 vicem complexi, ter se invicem osculati sunt; et, 
 sicut mos. Rex dexteram Pontificis tenens cum magno 
 populi gaudio et clamore adPortam venit Argenteam. 
 Ibi ex libro professionem imperatoriam faciens a 
 Pontifice designatus est Imperator, &c.'— Acta Vati 
 cana ap. Baronium. 
 
256 HISTORY OF 
 
 the hallowed pavement of St. Peter, were 
 polluted with blood ; but the Geriiians suc- 
 ceeded in preserving then- prisoners, and car- 
 ried them away to their neighboring encamp- 
 ment at Viterbo. After a rigorous confinement 
 of two months, Pascal yielded to such persua- 
 sion as a king may exercise over his captive ; 
 and then he not only performed the required 
 ceremony, but, by a new convention, ceded 
 unconditionally the right of investiture. 
 
 The presence of the Emi)eror was demand- 
 ed in Germany ; Pascal returned to Rome ; 
 but he was saluted there by such a tempest 
 of indignation, as to find it necessary, in the 
 year following, to submit the whole affair, 
 even as it involved his own personal conduct, 
 to a very numerous Council at the Lateran. 
 Here the Pope confessed the error into which 
 his w^eakness had betrayed him ; and the 
 Council, with his consent, solemnly revoked 
 and cancelled the treaty, and justified their 
 perfidy by pleading the violence which had 
 extorted it. The immediate resentment of 
 Henry was diverted by civil disorders ; but in 
 1117, he marched to Rome as an avowed en- 
 emy ; Pascal retired to Benevento, and sought 
 the protection of his Norman vassals, still 
 faithful to the chair of Gregory. The Empe- 
 ror presently withdrew, and Pascal returned 
 to his see, and died; and his fortunes, in 
 many respects similar to those of his patron, 
 ■were blessed with a happier termination, 
 since he Avas permitted to close his eyes at 
 Rome. His fortunes were, in some respects, 
 similar to those of Gregory, and similar was 
 the audacity of his ])retensions ; but he want- 
 ed the firmness necessary to dignify the form- 
 er, and to give weight and stability to the 
 latter; his adversity was inglorious, and his 
 arrogance feel)le and without consequence. 
 The levity of his character disqualified him 
 for the task ho had undertaken, and its plian- 
 cy did not cf)mj)ensate for its want of cohe- 
 rence and consist(Micy. 
 
 Conclusion of the quarrels about Investitures. 
 The question respecting investitures, after 
 having variously agitated the kingdoms of 
 the west for half a century, was now draw- 
 ing near to its final decision. After a short 
 interval of disj)nt(Mi succession,* \\m\ usual 
 on the dcalh of every Pope, Cahxtus H., 
 Arciibisiioj) of Vienna, a Count of JJurgnndy, 
 and a near relative of the Enii)eror, was rais- 
 ed to tlie pontifical chair. It does not ap- 
 pear, how()v<!r, that he sacrificed to the elainiH 
 
 • (ji;hi«iuf< II. HtaiulH in llic li«t of Voi)C» uu linviiif; 
 filled that iiitr I v:il. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 of consanguinity any portion of the rights or 
 
 pretensions of his see ; but he consented that 
 the differences should be submitted for their 
 final arrangement to a Council, or Diet, to be 
 assembled at Worms for that purpose. A 
 Convention was there concluded, which was 
 reasonable and permanent ; its substance was 
 this: * — (1.) That the election of bishops and 
 abbots, in his Teutonic kingdom, take place in 
 its rightful form, without violence or simony, 
 in the presence of the En)peror or his legate, 
 so that in case of a difference, his protection 
 be given with the advice of the metroj)olitan 
 to the juster claim, f (2.) That the ecclesias 
 tic elected receive his regalia at the hand of 
 the Emperor, and do homage for them. But 
 (3.) that in the ceremony of hivestiture the 
 Emperor no longer use the insignia of spirit 
 ual authority, but the sceptre only. A sinfilar 
 arrangement had previously J taken place in 
 England between Henry I. and Pascal XL; 
 and in France, § if the custom of investiture 
 by the ring and crosier ever prevailed, which 
 seems uncertain, it had been abolished about 
 the same time. 
 
 The terms of this treaty, in which each 
 party yielded what was extravagant in his 
 claims, || were undoubtedly favorable to the 
 
 * See Fleurj', liv. Ixvii. sect. 30. Pagi, Vit. Cal- 
 listi II. sect. xxiv. xxv. This convention took place 
 in September, 1122. 
 
 t * Si qua inter partes discordia emerserit, metro- 
 politvini provincialinm consilio vel judicio, saniori 
 parti assensum et auxiliuin pra^beas.' So this clause 
 is expressed in the acts of the Lateran Council held 
 in the following year. 
 
 ^ Probably in 1106, after a severe dispute between 
 the Pope and King during the primacy of Anselm. 
 Hist. Litt. France, Vie Pascal. Pagi, Vit. Pascal. II. 
 
 § Guillaume de Chanipoau, Bishop of Chalons, is 
 related to have addressed (in 1119) the following dis- 
 coinsc to the Emperor: — ' Sire, if you desire a sub- 
 stantial peace you must absolutely renounce the in- 
 vestiture to bishoprics and abbeys. And to assure 
 you that you will thus sutler no diminution of your 
 royal authority, let me inform you, that when I was 
 elected in the kingdom of France, Ircceivcd nothing 
 from the hand of the 1dn{^, neither In-fore nor alter 
 consecration. INcverlheless I serve him as faithfully 
 in virtue of the tributes and various other rights of 
 the state which ( hristian kings have in ancient days 
 given to the Church, as faithfully, I say, as your 
 bishops in your kingdom serve yon, in virtue of that 
 investiture wliich has drawn such discords and anath- 
 emiiH on you.' Fleury, II. K. liv. Ixvii., sec. 3. 
 The Fmp(;ror yielded to that argument. 
 
 II The peace of the Church is thus celebrated bj 
 GotfriduH of Viterbo, in his (Uuonicle: 
 
 Ilcddit Apostolico Cu-sar (|u:rcun(]ue mgavit; 
 Pax bona conficitur; Hub.atii Deo reparavit; 
 .Inra huir p:\rtiN lirlus ul(:n|uc traliit. 
 
PAPAL HISTORY. 
 
 257 
 
 Church. Her restitution of tlie 'rightful 
 form ' of election deprived the Emperor of 
 an usurped privilege which had been ex- 
 tremely valuable and profitable to him, both 
 in its use and its abuse. And since the 
 Popes, ever after the edict of Alexander II., 
 had claimed as indisputable the right of con- 
 firmaiion in episcopal election— a claim which, 
 as it was purely ecclesiastical, the Emperor 
 had not greatly cared to contest — a large por- 
 tion of the influence which was ceded by the 
 crown did in fact devolve on the holy see. 
 Again, the oiiginal form of election was in 
 no case positively restored, since the advan- 
 tage of excluding the people, and even the 
 body of the diocesan clergy, had been long 
 and generally acknowledged ; so that the 
 right seems to have been invested almost im- 
 mediately in the chapters of the cathedral 
 Churches ; at least it was confirmed to them 
 about the end of the twelfth century. 
 
 The second condition of the Convention 
 secured to the sovereign the civil allegiance 
 of his ecclesiastical subjects, and repressed 
 their dangerous struggles for entire immunity 
 from feudal obligations. At the same time it 
 restored to them the integrity of their ghostly 
 independence, and cut off the last pretence 
 for secular interference in matters strictly 
 spiritual. 
 
 So easy and reasonable was the conclusion 
 of that debate, which, in addition to the usual 
 calamities of international warfare, had excit- 
 ed subjects against their sovereign, and chil- 
 dren against their fathers, which had con- 
 vulsed the holy Church, and overthrown its 
 sanctuaries, and stained its altars with blood. 
 However, on a calm historical survey of the cir- 
 cumstances of the conflict, and of the crimes 
 find errors which led to them, we are little i 
 disposed to load with unmixed reprehension 
 any individual of either party. The crimes^ 
 indeed, and the passions which produced 
 them, were equally numerous and flagrant on 
 either side; on the one, were tyranny and 
 profligacy and brutal violence : arrogance 
 and obstinacy and imposture, on the other ; 
 pride and ambition and injustice, on both. 
 Yet our prejudices naturally incline to the 
 imperial party ; because the same or equal 
 vices become infinitely more detestable when 
 they are found under the banners of religion.* 
 
 * Mosneim is disposed to throw all the reproach of 
 this dispute on the monastic education and character 
 of Gregory and his two disciples; and these he con- 
 trasts with the more secular virtues which high birth 
 and society had nourished in Caiixtus. But in tlie | 
 lirst place, the whole blame is not bv any means on 
 
 But the errors were those of the times rather 
 than of the men, and even served, in some 
 degree, to palliate the crimes. The barbarism 
 of preceding ages and the ignorance actually 
 existing, had engendered and nourished a 
 swarm of obscure notions and active fireju- 
 dices, which infatuated the vulgar, and pai- 
 tially blinded even the best and the wisest. 
 The records? of past events were little studied; 
 indeed they were seen only by those discon- 
 tinuous glimpses, which perplex and deceive 
 far more than they enlighten ; and reason 
 had lost her native force, and health, and 
 penetration, through neglect and abuse — so 
 that claims the most absurd were established 
 by arguments the most senseless ; and men 
 could not rightly discern the real nature of 
 their adversaries' pretensions, nor even the 
 strength of their own, so as effectually to 
 controvert the one, or rationally to maintam 
 the other. Thus were their contests carried 
 on in a sort of moral obscurity, which took 
 off nothing from their positiveness and ob- 
 stinacy, and pen-mitted even additional license 
 to their malignity. 
 
 The First Lateran Council. In the year 
 1123 a very numerous * assembly was held at 
 Rome, which is commonly acknowledged iripf 
 that Church as the ninth General, and the 
 First Lateran council. Of the two-and-twen- 
 ty canons which resulted from its labors, the 
 greater part were in confirmation of the acts 
 of preceding Popes ; and we observe that the 
 object of several of the original enactments 
 was to protect the property of the Church 
 from alienation, and lay usurpations. There 
 was one which promoted the Crusading zeal, 
 both by spiritual promises and menaces. And 
 among the most important we may consider 
 that (the 17th) which prohibited abbots and 
 monks from the performance of public mass- 
 es, the administration of the holy chrism, and 
 other religious services, and confided those 
 solemn offices entirely to the secular clergy. 
 This was an early and very public manifesta- 
 
 that side, but is very equally divided with the empire; 
 and in the next, Pascal at least did actually prove, 
 by his arrangement with the English king, his dispo- 
 sition to end the controversy, on the very terms final- 
 ly accepted by Caiixtus. Mosheim moderates with 
 great impartiality between contending sects, and a 
 very great merit that is ; but when the contest is be- 
 tween a Pope and a German sovereign, his feelings 
 sometimes overpower his perfect judgment. 
 
 * About a thousand prelates were present, of whom 
 above three hundred Avere bishops, and above six 
 hundred abbots. Many pontifical Councils had been 
 previously held at the Lateran, but this was the first 
 which obtained a pi ice among the General Councilf 
 
2o8 HISTORY OF 
 
 liv/tj of that jealousy between the two orders 
 of the Romish hierarchj', which in a later 
 age displayed itself so generally as to become 
 an efficient instrument in working its over- 
 throw. 
 
 Popular tumults at Rome. Calixtus died in 
 1124, and during the thirty years which fol- 
 lowed, the pontifical city enjoyed scarcely 
 any intermission from discord and convul- 
 sion. The names of Honorius and Inno- 
 cent,* and Anaclete and Eugenius, with some 
 others, pass by in rapid and tumultuous pro- 
 cession. The chair, which was generally 
 contested, was never maintained to any good 
 purpose ; and one of its possessors, Lucius 
 II., was actually murdered by the populace 
 in an attempt to restore tranquillity. 
 
 Arnold of Brescia. But we must here ob- 
 serve, that the popular commotions of this 
 period were not of the same description with 
 those which we have already found occasion 
 to notice ; the question of papal election had 
 ceased to be their sole, or even their princi- 
 pal, cause; the turbulence which had been 
 occasioned by the abuse of that right, and 
 prolonged by the endeavor to reclaim it, was 
 now founded in a deeper and much more 
 ^werful motive. A party had lately grown 
 up in the Roman city of patriots ambitious to 
 restore the name, and, as some might fondly 
 deem, the glory of the ancient republic. And 
 the first and necessai7 step towards the accom- 
 })lishment of this scheme was the subversion, 
 or, at least, the entire reconstruction of the 
 ecclesiastical system. To diminish the j)rivi- 
 leges, to reduce the revenues of the church, 
 to deprive the Pontiflf of temporal power and 
 all civil jurisdiction, and to degrade (should 
 we not rather say, to exalt ?) his stately splen- 
 dor to the homeliness of his primitive pre- 
 decessors — these were the projects prepara- 
 tory to the })olitical regeneration of Rome. 
 About the year II80, Arnold, a native of Bres- 
 cia, a disri|)le of the c(!lel)ratod Abolard, re- 
 turned to Italy from the schools of Paris, and 
 having assumed the monastic habit, began 
 publicly to preach and declaim against the 
 vices of the clergy. It is admitted by a 
 Catholic writer, f that the \ioin\) of the pre- 
 
 * The rontificalc of Innorent II., lli(Mif;li intor- 
 riiptc;(l by frnjiiorit (liHHCiiHion, wan the loiifrcHt and 
 tlic nioHt importani; and during it, in ilio year ]1.3f>, 
 thf! tnitli (icnc-ral Council, or Bccond Lalcran, was 
 aMMcnihIcrl. 
 
 t Flniry, H. F., lib. Ixviii., srct. 55. Arnold 
 nuiintainrd lliat llicrcr was no lio|Kr of salvation for 
 prelalcH u lio lidd haronicH, or for any cIcrkH or nionkH 
 v 'nn luit'M'ffcA :iiiy fixed |)ro|)« rly; llial tlioHO poj<H« n- 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 lates, and the soft licentious life K)th of clerks 
 and monks, furnished abundant material? for 
 his denunciations; but it is complained thai 
 he exceeded the limits of truth and modera 
 tion ; and it is besides asserted, that his or- 
 thodoxy was liable to suspicion, and that he 
 held some unsound opinions respecting the 
 Eucharist and infant baptism. In conse- 
 quence of these various charges, he was con- 
 demned by a Lateran Council, in 1139 : he 
 immediately retired from Italy, and transfer- 
 red his popular declamation to Zurich, m 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Adrian IV. Not many years afterwards, 
 encouraged by the independent spirit which 
 was rising at Rome, he boldly selected that 
 metropolis for the scene of his two-fold exer- 
 tions against papacy and despotism. In the 
 meantime (in the year 1154) a man of decided 
 firmness and energy had obtained possession 
 of the Chair. Adrian IV., the only English- 
 man who ever attained that dignity, had raised 
 himself from the very lowest office in society* 
 to the throne of St. Peter ; and though the ar- 
 rogance which he then exhibited might en- 
 tirely belong to his latest fortunes, an intrepid 
 resolution, tempered by the most refined ad- 
 dress, must have characterized every stage of 
 his progress; since these are qualities which 
 offices and dignities may exercise, but can 
 never bestow. In the year following his ele- 
 vation, one of his cardinals was dangerously 
 wounded in some tumult excited by the asso- 
 ciates of Arnold. Adrian instantly placed the 
 city of Rome under an interdict ; the churches 
 were closed, and the divine offices for somo 
 time suspended, in the very heart of the 
 Catholic church. The priests and the people 
 wearied the pontifical chair with sup])lications 
 for a recall of the edict, but Adrian did not re- 
 lent until Arnold and his associates were ex- 
 ])elled from the city. 'All the people (says 
 Fleury) blessed God for this mercy: on the 
 
 sions belonged to the prince, and that he alone could 
 l)cs(()\v them, and on laymen only; that the clergy 
 ought to live on the tithes and tlic voluntary oblations 
 of tlip people, content with a moderate anil frugal 
 sullicieney. Pni^i, Vit. Innocent II., sect. Ixix., re- 
 fers to Olh(» Frisingensis. The ravings (deliramenta) 
 of Peter de llruis were condemned on the 9i\n\c oeca- 
 Bion. That lleresiareh objected to ihe reven,nce paid 
 to the cross, d(!nied the daily sacrifice of the body and 
 blood of (Jhrist, and the cIVk ary of prayers 01 ■\\mt 
 for the dead, In-sides oiImm- unpanlcmable errors. 
 
 ♦ His name was Nicholas Hreaks|K'are : goin^ to 
 Aries, in Provence, he was admitted in the (pialityof 
 Hervant to the ('unoiiH of St. Rufus, where he In-came 
 monk, and in the Bcquel Ablwt and General of th« 
 Order. 
 
PAPAL HISTOKl. 
 
 following day (Holy Thursday,) they rushed 
 from every quarter to receive the customary 
 absolution, and a vast multitude of pilgrims 
 was also present. Then the Pope, attended 
 b} bishops and cardinals, and a numerous 
 troop of nobles, came forth from his residence, 
 and crossing the extent of Rome, amidst the 
 !icclamations of the people, arrived at the La- 
 teran Palace, where he celebrated the festival 
 of Easter.' 
 
 Frederic Barharossa. Soon afterwards, A 
 nold unhappily fell into the power of Frederic 
 Barbarossa, who was then in Italy on his ad- 
 vance to Rome ; and the Emperor, probably 
 actuated by a common dislike to independence 
 and innovation under every form, yielded up 
 his prisoner to the solicitations of the Pope. 
 He was conducted to Rome, and subjected to 
 the partial judgment of an ecclesiastical tribu- 
 nal. His guilt was eagerly pronounced, the 
 prefect of the city delivered his sentence, and 
 he was burnt alive, 'in the presence of a 
 rareless and ungrateful people.' But lest this 
 same multitude, with the same capriciousness, 
 should presently turn to adore the martyr and 
 offer worship at his tomb, his ashes were con- 
 temptuously scattered over the bosom, of the 
 Tiber. His name has been the subject of 
 splendid panegyric and scandalous calumny : 
 Nvith its claims to political celebrity, we have 
 no concern in this history ; but in respect to 
 his disputes with the church, we may venture 
 to rank Arnold of Brescia among those earnest 
 l)ut inconsiderate reformers, whose premature 
 opposition to established abuses produced little 
 immediate result except their own discomfi- 
 ture find destruction ; but whose memory has 
 become dear, as their example has been useful, 
 to a happier and a wiser posterity ; whom we 
 celebrate as martyrs to the best of human 
 principles, and whose very indiscretions we 
 account to them for zeal and virtue. 
 
 Frederic Barbarossa, whose elevation was 
 nearly contemporaneous with that of Adrian, 
 had also announced his intention to restrain 
 the increasing wealth and moderate the inso- 
 lence of the Pope and his clergy ; and in 1155, 
 he proceeded to Rome for the purposes of 
 celebrating his coronation, and commencing 
 his reform : but he found the Pontiff as firm 
 and as powerful to resist imperial interference 
 as to quell domestic disorder. And so far was 
 Adrian, on this occasion, from betraying the 
 interests of his order, or the prerogatives of 
 his office, that he even asserted a recent and 
 ambiguous and singularly offensive claim — 
 he demanded the personal sen^ice of the Em- 
 
 peror to hold his stirrup when he mounted 
 his horse.* A precedent for this indignity 
 having been pointed out to him, Barbarossa, 
 the haughtiest prince in Europe, at the head 
 of a powerful and obedient* army, submitted 
 to an office of servitude, which he may possi- 
 bly have mistaken for Christian humiliation. 
 But, however that may be, the triumph of the 
 See over so great a monarch proved the sub- 
 stantial reality of its power, and the awe 
 which it deeply inspired into the most intre- 
 pid minds. 
 
 Some vexatious pretensions of Adrian ro 
 specting the regalia, and a gratuitous insinu- 
 ation that Frederic held the empire as a fief 
 (beneficium) from Rome, served to keep alive 
 a jealous irritation between the Church and 
 the empire, though peace was not actually 
 interrupted. Frederic, on the other hand, 
 published, in 1158, an edict, of which the ob- 
 ject was to prevent the transfer of fiefs with- 
 out the knowledge and consent of the superior , 
 or lord in whose name they were held. It 
 was by such unauthorized transfers of feudal 
 property that the territories of the Church had 
 for a long period been gradually swollen, so 
 as to spread themselves in every direction 
 over the surface of Europe. The law in 
 question was well calculated to check their 
 further increase, and it seems to have been 
 the first that was enacted for that purpose. 
 Its obvious tendency did not escape the di- 
 rectors of the Church ; but the opposition 
 which it had peculiarly to expect from the 
 Holy See was suspended by the death of 
 Adrian and the confusion which followed it. 
 
 Alexander III. Alexander III. was imme- 
 diately elected by a very large majority of 
 the cardinals; but as some of the other party 
 still persisted in supporting a rival named 
 Octavian,f Frederic, on his own authority, 
 summoned a General Council at Pavia to 
 decide on their claims. Alexander disputed 
 the Emperor's right to arbitrate or at all to 
 interfere in the schisms of the Church ; X and. 
 
 * ' This homage ' (says Gibbon) « was paid by 
 kings to archbishops, and by vassals to their lords ; 
 and it was the nicest policy of Rome to confound di(« 
 marks of filial and feudal subjection.' Chap. 69. 
 
 t After the death of Octavian, Alexander had still 
 to struggle successively with three other Antipopes. 
 The second, called by his adherents Calixtus III., 
 was appointed in 1168, and abdicated in about ten 
 years ; but his party replaced him by another puppet, 
 whom they called Innocent III. 
 
 X Frederic had two precedents for his claim, though 
 he might not perhaps much regard, or even know, 
 that circumstance In 408 Honorius held a Council 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH- 
 
 as he refused to present himself at the Coun- 
 cil, his rival was declared to be duly elected, 
 and the decision received the approbation of 
 the Emperor. But Alexander was still sus- 
 tained by the niorfe faithful and powerful party 
 within the Church, and acknowledged by 
 most of the sovereigns of Europe ; and from 
 these supports he derived confidence suffi- 
 cient to excommunicate his advei*sary, and to 
 absolve his subjects from their oath of fidelity. 
 But Frederic did not feel the blow ; he pro- 
 ceeded to place his creature in possession of 
 the pontifical city, while Alexander adopted 
 the resolution, so commonly followed by his 
 successors in after ages, to seek security in the 
 territories of France. He withdrew to Mont- 
 pelier with his whole court, and resided in 
 that neighborhood for the space of three years, 
 till circumstances enabled him to return to 
 Rome in 1165. Here he was soon afterwards 
 assailed by Frederic in person, and though 
 defended for some little tnne by the ambigu- 
 ous and venal fidelity * of the Romans, he was 
 finally obliged to escape in the disguise of a 
 pilgrim. He retired to Benevento, but not till 
 he had thundered another anathema against 
 Frederic , and on this occasion he not only 
 deprived him of the throne, but also forbade, 
 ' by the authority of God, that he should 
 thereafter hav^e any force in battle, or triumph 
 over any Christian ; or that he should enjoy 
 anywhere peace or repose, until he had given 
 sufficient proofs of his penitence.' f The de- 
 nunciations contained in tliis friglitfid sen- 
 tence were not, indeed, wholly accomplished ; 
 yet did it so come to pass, that Frederic was 
 obliged to retire almost immediately from 
 Rome by the sickness of his army ; and that, 
 in the long and destructive war which follow- 
 ed, he suffisred such reverses as to find it ex- 
 pedient (in the year 1177) to sign a disad- 
 vantageous treaty with the Pope. } The war 
 
 at Riivcnna to decide llie disputed election between 
 Boniface and Eulalius, and Ills decision was followed 
 by the Church. Afterwards the schism between Sym- 
 rnachusand Laurentius was terminated by Theodoric, 
 though an Arian. The imperial power docs not ap- 
 pear to have been disputed in cither instance. 
 
 * It appears that lie could secure little influence 
 over the Roman people, * who, jjrctendini^ to wish 
 well to both particn, were failhfid to neither,' until 
 be received a large sum of money from William, his 
 Sicilian vassal. Fleury, H. K., liv. Ixxi., sec. 31, 
 &C. &c. 
 
 t Hec Vin>i, Vit. Alexandri HI., s« rt. who 
 rcaHonaI)ly aHHi^tis this event to the year llfiT. 
 
 Alexander is arcus<'d, and with Home justice, of 
 havinf( too excluHively consullt^d bin own interextri in 
 tlii« uflDiir, and of having negotiated a truce oidy for 
 
 was for the most part carried or in the North 
 of Italy ; and as it was fomentect by the ad- 
 dress and policy, rather than by the s^^^^^rd, of 
 Alexander, the calm expression of his ej^ilta 
 tion was in some manner justified — ' it hath 
 pleased God (he said) to permit an old mar 
 and a priest to triumph without the use of 
 arms over a powerful and formidable em-, 
 peror.' * 
 
 From that time Alexander possessed in 
 security the chair which he had merited by 
 his persevering exertions, as well as by his 
 various virtues. He immediately turned his 
 attention to the internal condition of the 
 Church, and his first object was to remove 
 from his successors an evil which had so long 
 and so dangerously afflicted hiinself Accord- 
 ingly he summoned (in 1179) a Council, com- 
 monly called the third of Lateran, and there 
 enacted those final regulations f respecting 
 papal election which have already been men 
 tioned. 
 
 Among the very few characters which 
 throw an honorable lustre upon the dark 
 procession of pontifical names, we may con- 
 fidently record that of Alexander III., not 
 only from the splendor of his talents, his con- 
 stancy, and his success, but from a still noblei 
 claim which he possesses on our admiration 
 He was the zealous champion of intellectual 
 advancement, and the determined foe of igno- 
 rance. The system of his internal adtninis- 
 tration was regulated by this principle, and he 
 carried it to the most generous extent. He 
 made inquiries in foreign countries, and csjie- 
 cially in France, for persons eminent for learn- 
 ing, that he might promote them, without re- 
 gard to birth m' influence, to the highest eccle- 
 siastical dignities. He caused large numbers of 
 the Italian Clergy, to whom their own country 
 did not supply sufficient means of instruction, 
 to proceed to Paris for their more liberal edu- 
 cation ; and having learnt that in some places 
 the chapters of cathedrals exacted fees from 
 young proficients before they licensed them 
 to lecture j)ublicly, Alexander removed the 
 abuse, and abolished every restriction which 
 
 his faithful allies, while he secured an honorable and 
 profitable peace for himself. Denina (Rivol. d' Ital 
 li. xi. C. iv.) calls it a ' Vnca particolarc fra Ales- 
 sandro IH. c Federico.' 
 
 ♦ Murntori, in his forty-ci;,'hth dissertation, de- 
 scribes Frederic as ' Vii* alii animi, ncris ing<'nii 
 mullarumque virtutum consensu ornatus.* 
 
 f These regulations were bo eflectual, that durinj| 
 th(; ()00 following years, n doulile choiro (as Oibbor 
 observcH) only once disturbed the unity of the Collcje 
 Chap. 69. 
 
I'APAL HISTORY. 
 
 201 
 
 aad been arbitrarily imposed on the free ad- 
 vance of learning. At the same time he was 
 not so blinded by this zeal as to consider the 
 mere exercise of the understanding as a suffi- 
 cient guarantee for moral improvement. But 
 observing, on the contrary, with great appre- 
 hension the progress of the scholastic system 
 of theology, and the numberless vain disputa- 
 tions to which it gave rise, he assembled a 
 very large Council of Men of Letters * for the 
 jairpose of condemning that system, and dis- 
 couraging its prevalence at Paris. 
 
 He died in 11^1 : in die course of the ten 
 following years four pontiffs ruled and passed 
 away, and in 1191 the chair was occupied by 
 Celestine III., the fifth from Alexander. This 
 prelate has deserved a place in the history of 
 mankind by the protection which he afforded 
 to Richard I. of England, when imprisoned on 
 his return fi-om the Holy Land. He died in 
 1198, and was succeeded by Lotharius, Count 
 Df Segni, a Cardhial Deacon, who assumed 
 ihe name of Innocent III. 
 
 We shall conclude this account with a few 
 of the observations which most naturally offer 
 themselves. From the moment that the Ro- 
 man See put forward its claims to temporal 
 authority, its histoiy presents a spectacle of 
 contentions, varying indeed in character and 
 til bitterness, but in their succession almost un- 
 interrupted. The retrospect of the period of 
 one hundred and fifteen years, of which the* 
 most memorable circumstances have now been 
 related, presents to us a mass of angry dissen- 
 sions, which may generally be distinguished 
 mto three classes: (1.) The first and most 
 urominent of these contains such quarrels as 
 arose in continuation of the grand debate be- 
 tween the popedom and the empire. It was 
 not sufficient that the original matter of dis- 
 pute was removed by the concordat of Calix- 
 tus ; the roots of animosity lay deeper than the 
 form of an investiture, and they had branched 
 out more widely and more vigorously during 
 the contest which succeeded that concordat. 
 The coronation of every new- emperor was 
 .low attended by a new dispute, which usually 
 caused immediate bloodshed, and was some- 
 times prolonged into obstinate warfare. Rome 
 nad never a more formidable German adver- 
 sary than Frederic Barbarossa ; yet so far was 
 he from obtaining any lasting advantage over 
 ner, that the papal pretensions appear to have 
 gained considerably both in consistency and 
 general credit during his reign, or, to speak 
 
 * Three thousand gens de lettres are said to have 
 been assembled on that occasion. Hist. Litt de la 
 Fiance, xii. sidcle. 
 
 more properly, during the pontificate of Alex- 
 ander III. Frederic was not justified in con- 
 testing the legitimacy of that pontiff. What- 
 sover general rights he might possess over the 
 Roman church (and they were very vague and 
 could only be temporal ;) whatsoever prece- 
 dents he might plead for interference (and 
 those were very remote, and not wholly ap- 
 plicable to the present case ;) the election of 
 Alexander was unquestionably valid, accord- 
 ing to the canons which had been enacted a 
 century before and never repealed or contest- 
 ed, and according to the practice of the See 
 since the days of Gregory VII. Assuredly, 
 the desire to recover an obsolete privilege, 
 virtually ceded by the silence of intervening 
 treaties, was excuse insufficient for that vio- 
 lent opposition, which did properly terminate 
 in defeat and humiliation, as it was com- 
 menced and continued in injustice. (2.) The 
 contentions among the rival candidates for 
 the pontifical chair, so scandalous and so usual 
 in former periods, had abated nothing of their 
 rage in the present ; for though they changed 
 their character, they lost not any part of their 
 virulence, from the intermixture of political 
 animosity. The short reigns of the greater 
 number of the pontiffs, and the most trifling 
 divisions in the college, gave frequent occa- 
 sion, and some pretext, for popular interfer- 
 ence ; and this could never be exercised with- 
 out excess. The regulation of Nicholas 11. 
 was not in fact of much real advantage, except 
 as a preparatory measure to that of Alexander 
 III., — for it was vain to exclude from positive 
 election an unprincipled and venal mob, as 
 long as they retained a negative influence, — it 
 was of no avail, as a final arrangement, to 
 forbid their suffi*age, and to require their con- 
 sent, — for the turbulent expression of their 
 disapprobation was instantly seized by the 
 defeated candidate, as furnishing some hope 
 for success, or, at least, some plea for perse- 
 verance. And perhaps it was not the least 
 evil of those tumults, that they encouraged 
 and almost invited the' interference of the 
 emperor, so seldom offered with any friendly 
 intention. There was no other possible me- 
 thod of securing at once the justice and decen- 
 cy of papal election, than by the entire exclu- 
 sion of the people — this measure was at length 
 effected by Alexander. (3.) Of another des- 
 cription again were those dissensions which 
 distracted the several kingdoms of Europe by 
 the internal division of the church and the 
 state, — that is, by the ojiposition of the eccle- 
 siastical to the civil authorities. But since in 
 these matters the affairs of every nation coa 
 
262 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 stitute histories essentially distinct from each 
 other, and mainly influenced, in every in- 
 stance, by civil concerns ; and since the de- 
 tached incidents which we might produce 
 would form independent narratives, standing 
 for the most part on separate foundations, it 
 would be difficult, in these limited pages, to 
 give them consistency, or even coherence. 
 We must, therefore, content ourselves witli 
 referring to the annals of the different nations 
 for the details of such disputes ; to those of 
 France, for instance, for the quarrel between 
 Louis le Gros and the Bishop of Paris, who 
 had the boldness to excommunicate his sove- 
 reign ; and to those of our own country for the 
 particulai-sof the aggression of William Rufus 
 on the property of the church, made during the 
 pontiticate of Urban II., and of the protection 
 pei-severingly vouchsafed to Thomas a Becket 
 by the piety or policy of Alexander III. 
 
 To those abovcmentioned we might rea- 
 sonably add another form of discord which 
 was beginning obscurely to present itself, with 
 omens and menaces of tribulation. The voice 
 of heresy had been already raised in tiie val- 
 leys of France, and the ministers of spiritual 
 despotism had already bestirred themselves for 
 its suppression. But this subject is so pecu- 
 liarly connected with the celebrity of Inno- 
 cent III., that we shall not disconnect it from 
 his name. 
 
 II. Education and theological learning. The 
 gradual establishment of the peculiar doctrines 
 and practices of the Chtnrh of Rome, though 
 occasionally influenced by the vicissitudes of 
 literature, is not inseparably connected with its 
 history, but was i)romoted in diflTerent ages by 
 very different causes. It is indeed remarked, 
 that in the tenth century the disputes respecting 
 predestination and other subtile questions be- 
 came less common, and gave i)lace to the final 
 establishment of the doctrine of Purgatory,— 
 a change well suited to the transition from an 
 age (the ninth,) distingiiislied by some efl^()rtsof 
 int(!llectual iiniuisitivcness, into one remarkable 
 for the gcnfnd piostmtion of th*; human un- 
 dei-standing. But, on th<' othrr hniid,w<; find 
 that, in the eleventh and twelfili ai^es, the ne- 
 cessity of. ?ccrc<confi!Ssioii wasuionistrietly and 
 assiiluously inndcated; yet the firmer riveting 
 of that spiritual chain cnnnot certainly be attri- 
 buted to any further access of darkness. In 
 fart, the roiitrary was the case, since the par- 
 tial revival of letters is very justly ascribed to 
 that period. P.ut the innovation which we 
 have last m<'ntion<d, and to which otluiffl 
 might be added, was probably occasioned 
 
 by the disputes then prevailing between the 
 church and the empire, which. made it neces- 
 sary to extend by every exertion the influence 
 of the clergy over their lay fellow-subjects. 
 Again, the use of indulgences in the place 
 of canonical penance, which grew up in the 
 twelfth age, was one of the earliest and most 
 pernicious creations of the cnisades, and 
 wholly independent of the growth and move- 
 ments of literature. But notwithstanding these 
 and many other points of disconnexion, there 
 has ever existed a sort of genieral correspon- 
 dence between religion and learning, most 
 especially remarkable in those ages when the 
 ministei-s of the one could alone give access 
 to the mysteries of the other, and when the 
 only incentive to studious application was 
 religious zeal or ecclesiastical ambition ; so 
 that it would be as im[)roper entirely to sepa- 
 rate those subjects as it would be impossible, 
 in these pages, to enter very deeply into dis- 
 cussion concerning the ecclesiastical literature 
 of so many ages. We shall therefore content 
 ourselves by striving from time to time to il- 
 lustrate this \vork by such subsidiary lights as 
 shall most obviously present themselves, so 
 far at least as regards the diflferent forms of 
 theological learning, and the methods of the- 
 ological education. At present, after a very 
 brief review of earlier times, we shall conclude 
 our imperfect inquiries at the end of the 
 eleventh century. 
 
 Early Schools. The earliest schools estab- 
 lished in the provinces of the Western Em- 
 pire were of civil foundation, and intended 
 entirely for the purposes of civil education ; 
 and so they continued until the social system 
 was subverted by tlie barbarian conquest. 
 This revolution affected the literary in com- 
 mon with all other institutions : in the coui-se 
 of the sixth century profane learning entire- 
 ly disai)peared, together with the means of 
 acquiring it ; and before its conclusion, the 
 office of instruction had passed entirely into 
 the hands of the clergy. The municipal 
 schools of the emi)ire gave ])lacc to cathedral 
 or e|)iscopal establishments, which were at- 
 tached, in (!very di()C(>se, to the residence of 
 the bishop ; and throughout the country ele- 
 mentary schools were fi)rme(l in many of the 
 monasteries, and even in the manses of the 
 pa roc h ial p r i est h ood . 
 
 TIm^ system of education which prevailed 
 ill thos<^ of Italy, and which was probably 
 very general, is described by the <'anon* which 
 
 * Concilium Vasence Secundum (529 A. D.) Th« 
 matfriaU for the folluu iiig pagca are pnnoipallv taken 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 263 
 
 enjoins it. — ' Let all presbyters who are ap- I 
 pointed to parishes, according to the custom | 
 eo wholesomely established throughout all j 
 Italy, receive the younger readers into their | 
 houses with them, and feeding them, like good ! 
 fathers, with spiritual nourishment, labor to 
 instruct them in preparing the Psalms, in in- 
 dustry of holy reading, and in the law of the 
 Lord.' Such regulations prove, no doubt (if 
 they were really enforced,) that the education 
 of the clergy was not entirely neglected : but 
 they i)rove also, that such education, even in 
 that early age, was confined to the clergy, 
 and that it embraced no subjects of secular 
 erudition. It is true, indeed, that the names 
 of rhetoric, dialectics, and the former subjects 
 of civil instruction, were perpetuated in the 
 ecclesiastical seminaries ; but those sciences 
 were only taught, as they were connected, or 
 might be brought into connexion, with theolo- 
 gy, and made instrumental in the service of 
 the church.* 
 
 But even this partial glimmering of know- 
 ledge was extinguished by the invasion of the 
 Lombards, and the very genius of Italy seems 
 to have been chilled and contracted by the 
 iron grasp of the seventh century. Rome 
 alone retained any warmth or pulsation of 
 learning; if learning that can be called, which 
 scarcely extended beyond a superficial ac- 
 quaintance with the canons of the church. 
 And though there exist some monuments, 
 which appear to prove the existence of ])res- 
 byteral or archi-presbyteral schools in the 
 eighth century, we need scarcely hesitate to 
 prolong to the middle of that age the stupe- 
 faction of the preceding, and to attribute the 
 first movement of reanimation to the touch 
 of Charlemagne, or his immediate prede- 
 cessor. 
 
 While Italy was thus lifeless, some seeds 
 from the plant of knowledge, which had been 
 blown to the western extremity of Europe, 
 took root there, and reached a ceitain matu- 
 rity. Accordingly, we find it recorded, that 
 
 * two Irishmen, persons incomparably skilled 
 in secular and sacred learning,' had reached 
 
 from (he Dissertations (43 and 44) of Muratori, the 
 Hist. Litt. de la France, two Discourses of Fleury, 
 and the 16th Le9on of Gnizot. 
 
 * 'J'he reproach addressed by Gregory the Great to 
 St. Dizicr, Bishop of Vienne, is commonly known. 
 That [)relate had ventured to deliver lessons on 
 
 * Grammar' in his cathedral schools: ' It is not meet 
 (said the pope) that lips consecrated to the praises 
 of God should open to those of Jupiter.' The exten- 
 sive meaning then attached to the word grammar will 
 he mentioned presently. j 
 
 I the shores of France, and were giving public 
 I lectin-es to the people.* Their fame reached 
 I the ears of Charlemagne, who immediately 
 j eniployed them in the education of the youth 
 j of Gaul and Italy. 
 
 A leu in, as we have mentioned, enjoyed the 
 honor of affording personal instruction to the 
 emperor and presiding over his Palatine 
 school ; and Dungal, another native of Ire- 
 land,f has acquired some importance in the 
 history of Italy by the lessons which he de- 
 livered in her schools. This eagerness of 
 Charlemagne to avail himself of foreign talent 
 and acquirements evinces his earnestness in 
 the prosecution of his great project, to civilize 
 by the path of knowledge — a project which 
 failed indeed through the perversity of polit- 
 ical circumstances and the incapacity of jnost 
 of his successors ; but which, if persevering- 
 ly pursued, must generally be successful, be- 
 cause it is in unison with the natural inclina- 
 tions, and energies, and prospects of the mind 
 of man. 
 
 France profited by this conjuncture more 
 rapidly than Italy, as she had not previously 
 fallen quite so low in ignorance : and it would 
 even seem that the schools, which were now 
 instituted in that countiy, were open to the 
 laity as well as to those intended for the sacred 
 profession, though the oflSce of instruction 
 remained entirely in the hands of the clergy. 
 But it is certain, that very few were found to 
 avail themselves of a privilege of which they 
 knew not the value. Among the numerous 
 names, which adorn the literary annals of 
 France during the ninth century, there are 
 scarcely one or two which are not ecclesiasti- 
 cal. Even Germany outstripped in the race 
 of improvement the languid progress of Italy ; 
 and under a sky so splendidly prolific of taste 
 and genius there arose not any one character 
 conspicuous, even in his own day, for intel- 
 lectual advancement, through a space of more 
 than four centuries.^ And this extraordinary 
 dearth of merit is not entirely to be charged 
 
 * Not gratuitously, it would seem, as literary mis- 
 sionaries, but for money contributed by their hearers. 
 
 t Scotus: a term which was long confined to the 
 sister island. Muratori condescends to employ some 
 pains to ascertain whether or not Dungal was a monk, 
 as were his two compatriots mentioned in the text — 
 a question deemed of some importance to the honor 
 of the monastic order. 
 
 t Some may consider Pope Nicholas as an excep- 
 tion ; and he certainly possessed great talents, and 
 was not devoid of canonical learning, though in both 
 respects probably much inferior to Hincmar. But 
 his character was ei-sentially ecclesiastical ; it wai 
 not adorned by any recollection purely literar}-. 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 on the neglect of rulers, whether temporal or 
 ?<piritual. Italy shared with his other provin- 
 ".es tlie admirable institutions of Charlemagne 
 and of some of his successors ; and there are 
 canons of Roman councils still extant, pub- 
 lished in the ninth century,* which directed 
 the suspension of any among the priesthood 
 who should be convicted of ignorance, and 
 provided means for the instruction of the ru- 
 ral clergy, f But these measures, though they 
 might possibly secure a mediocrity of theo- 
 logical acquirement, were insufficient to call 
 forth any commanding spirit into the field of 
 literature. 
 
 The tenth century did not increase the store 
 of knowledge, nor multiply the candidates for 
 fame either in Italy or France. | In France, 
 the depredations of the Normans during the 
 conclusion of the preceding age, destroyed 
 not only the leisure and security, but even the 
 means and food of study. For in their sav- 
 age incursions, those unlettered pagans direct- 
 ed their rage against the monasteries, as being 
 the principal seats of letters and religion ; the 
 buildings were reparable, but the manuscripts 
 which they contained perished irretrievably. 
 Nor was this the only calamity, nor even the 
 most fatal of the injuries, which obstructed 
 the progress of learning: for it was during 
 the same period that the kingdom of France 
 was broken up into small principalities under 
 independent hereditary vassals, who despoiled 
 the people of the few rights and blessings 
 which they had possessed under a single 
 sceptre, and whose rule permitted the license 
 which their example encouraged. In the 
 prostration of human laws the law divine was 
 easily forgotten, and the hand which was ac- 
 customed to robbery did not long refrain from 
 sacrilege. In such wild periods the wealth 
 and the weakness of the Clergy have always 
 pointed the mout as the earliest victims ; § and 
 this domestic anarchy was probably more 
 effectual in arresting the steps of learning 
 
 ♦ In the years 826 and 85.3. 
 
 t Tlic rlccrro of Popo Leo IV. is cited hy Mniatoi i. 
 
 X The two leading literary heroes of France dnrinj,' 
 this age were (1.) St. Odo, Al)hnt of Cintii, who 
 wrote Home theolofjical works and a Life of St. Grc- 
 i^ory of Tours — he died in .912 — anrl (2 ) F-odoard, 
 ('anon of RheiinH, who eomposcjd the History of the 
 </hiirch f)f Rheims, and a (/hronicle, exlendinf; from 
 919 to Ihe year of liis death. 
 
 § Most of Ihe monasteries which CRcapcd <]eslruc- 
 (iiin fell into the hands of lay Ahljots, who us<'d them 
 nu refidenres or castles, or nsirally ns hiniliiij,'-seafs. 
 On the other hand, ihe fotmdatiim (.'liini , in ihe 
 »aine a((e, c(»m|M'iiMaled the loss of manj old, and pro- 
 bably corrupt entubliMhmtrnti. 
 
 and civilization than the more transient tern 
 pests of foreign invasion. We shall here only 
 pause to remark, that during the struggles of 
 this frightful period, the defence of the tower 
 of knowledge, as heretofore its construction, 
 was intrusted by Providence to ecclesiastical 
 hands ; while its walls were incessantly men- 
 aced or violated by a lawless military aristoc- 
 racy, which had closely wrapped itself in ig- 
 norance, and was partly jealous and partly 
 contemptuous of every exertion to improve 
 and enlighten mankind. 
 
 We are not surprised to observe that a con- 
 dition of civil demoralization, such as then 
 existed, should have been attended by cor- 
 ruption in every rank of the clergy. The 
 Bishops were negligent and immoral, and the 
 inferior orders indulged in still grosser vices 
 and more offensive indecencies ; * and we 
 may be well assured that the laity were still 
 further debased by the example of deformi- 
 ties, which then* own turbulence had so great- 
 ly tended to create. 
 
 Comets, and eclipses, and earthquakes were 
 fearful prodigies and sure prognostics of dis- 
 aster, and the most penetrating astronomers f 
 of the day shared (or pretended to share) the 
 common solicitude. Enchantments, augu- 
 ries, and divinations were ardently sought 
 after, ^nd commanded implicit belief. The 
 forms of trial called ' the Judgments of God,' 
 were of the same description, and scarcely 
 less remote from the precincts of reason ; 
 and yet these degrading superstitions, though 
 never canonically received as a })art of 
 Church discipline, and even continually com- 
 bated by the more enlightened ecclesiastics, 
 were both respected and ])ractised among the 
 lower Clergy din-ing this and tho three fol- 
 lowing ages. 
 
 Howbeit, even in the dreary records of this 
 century we find traces of parochial schools 
 for the instructioit of children of both sexes ; + 
 and we read a long list of literary worthies 
 
 * In the cmnneralion of tiicse by the truly Catholic 
 compilers of U>e Hist. Litt. dc la France, it is men- 
 tioned, as not v'»o lij^htest scandal, that * there were 
 priests who dared to marry publicly.' 
 
 f Astrolo<r(Ms. we sliould rather say. Muratori 
 (Dissert. 44) attnhuies the introduction of liese van- 
 ities to tho study of Arabic literature. But was thnt 
 study generally in lashion In'fore the lime of Pope 
 Sylvester 1 
 
 X According lo the rejiuJ»««on« of that at Toul the 
 children wen^ admissible at ncwii years of age, and 
 received their fust hissons in the l'*ialnis; arid it WM 
 provid(;d that the boys and girls slinidd i)e taught sep- 
 arately. 'IMie parochial cincii a|)p( ar (as in Ititiy) tC 
 I have ha<l the charge of hucIi establishments. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 266 
 
 whose names have in many cases survivea 
 *hcir works, and whose works were chiefly 
 remarkable for the meanness of their sub- 
 jects, and the pei-plexed or puerile manner in 
 which they are ti'eated. And yet even these 
 are sufficient to exhibit to us the spirit of 
 improvement striving against the casual tor- 
 rents which threatened to wash it away ; and 
 though it unquestionably receded during the 
 calamitous interval between the death of 
 Hincmar and the end of the tenth century,* 
 still, if we look somewhat farther back, and 
 confine our attention to the country about 
 which we are best informed, we need not 
 hesitate to pronounce that the literary condi- 
 tion of France was, upon the whole, more 
 prosperous when Sylvester II. ascended the 
 chair, than when Charlemagne mounted the 
 throne of Rome. 
 
 As to Italy, the spell which had bound her 
 genius during the preceding centuries seerlied 
 to be confirmed and riveted in the tenth. It is 
 true, that some schools were yet found scatter- 
 ed through the towns and villages, which may 
 have raised the character of the clergy some- 
 what above the degradation of the seventh 
 and eighth centuries, to which the Lombard 
 conquest had reduced it ; but the industry of 
 those schools appears still to have been con- 
 fined to the study of grammar and some 
 necessary knowledge of canonical law; and 
 it is complained that the nobles, who sent 
 their sons to them, had rather in view the 
 episcopal dignities for which they thus be- 
 came qualified, than the spiritual fruits of 
 religious education. It is very probable that 
 thoy were attended by none of any class ex- 
 cepting those intended for some branch of the 
 ministry. 
 
 These remarks sufficiently explain, to what 
 extremely narrow limits was confined, both 
 in respect to its character and diffusion, the 
 learning of those ages which immediately 
 followed the subversion of the Western Em- 
 pire. From civil, it had passed under ec- 
 clesiastical superintendence ; but the Church 
 which undertook the charge was itself cor- 
 rupted and barbarized by contact with the 
 
 * About this time the establishment of some Greek 
 .ommonalties took place in Lorraine, introducing a 
 partial knowledge of tliat language. And these Ori- 
 entals were ,here encountered by certain emigrants 
 from Ireland, a country which appears never to have 
 forfeited tlr; affections, nor to have secured the resi- 
 dence, of its sons. ' Nationem Scotorum quibus con- 
 suetudo peregrinandi jam paene in naturam conversa 
 est.' Walafridus Strabus (liv. ii., c. 27, de vita 
 Sai cti Galli), apud Murat. Diss. 37. 
 
 34 
 
 profound ignorance and rude character and 
 institutions of the conquerors: so that the im- 
 mortal models were neglected, the precepts 
 of the ancient masters forgotten, and the 
 whole light of literature, properly so called, 
 extinguished. Nevertheless, we .ire not to 
 sup[)ose that the ecclesiastics of those days 
 offered to their contemporaries no substitute 
 for those treasures which they had not the 
 means or the inclination to dispense. On 
 the contrary, their productions were at some 
 periods extremely abundant in number, and 
 in character far from unprofitable : and on 
 this last point there is one important observa- 
 tion, which it is here proper to make, and 
 which we press the more seriously, because 
 it is not very commonly urged. These writ- 
 ings were almost wholly confined to theolog- 
 ical matters, and their object (however faultily 
 it may sometimes have been pursued) was 
 practical. Instructions, sermons, homilies, in- 
 terpretations and illustrations of scripture, 
 were published in great profusion, and fur- 
 nished to the people the only means of intel- 
 lectual instruction. It is true that they were 
 rude and unskilfully composed ; but they 
 were addressed to rude assemblies, and were 
 for the most* part directed to the moral im- 
 provement of those who read and heard 
 them ; and moreover, their effect to that end, 
 whatsoever it may have been, was at least not 
 counteracted by any other description of lit- 
 erature : the whole mass had one object only, 
 and that, upon the whole, beneficial. Even 
 the ' Lives of the Saints,' and other legends 
 of those days, may have conduced, though 
 by a different and more doubtful path, to the 
 same purpose ; for among the swarms of 
 those compositions which were then produc- 
 ed, and of which so many had a tendency to 
 mere superstition, some may be found un- 
 questionably calculated to move the real de- ' 
 votion and amend the moral principles of a 
 barbarous people. Thus was there much 
 even in the effusions of the most illiterate 
 times which must have persuaded, influenc- 
 ed, and profited the generation to which they 
 were addressed; but their action was con- 
 fined to then- own day, to the moment of 
 
 * It is unquestionable that these writings contained 
 a vast deal calculated to mislead, many errors of an 
 absurd and superstitious tendency; but these evils 
 were probably more than counterbalanced, in their 
 immediate effect upon the people, by the expositions 
 of sound doctrine and lessons of practical piety, 
 which are even more abundant. We I'efer as a fair 
 example, to the passage of St. Eligius, (filed at tha 
 conclusion of the last chapter. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 their delivery ; they were not associated with 
 any of the stable wisdom of former ages ; nor 
 were they qualitied. nor were they indeed in- 
 tended to fix the attention of posterity. 
 
 iScarcitif of Manuscripts. Italy had suffered 
 to a certain extent from calamities similar to 
 those which suspended the progress of France, 
 and which were there followed by the same 
 moral degeneracy ; but these causes would 
 scarcely have been adequate to so general an 
 extinction, not of learning only, but almost of 
 the curiosity and wish to learn, had they not 
 been ])0werfully aided by another circum- 
 stance, which is less regarded by historians : 
 this was no other than the extreme scarcity 
 and dearness of manuscripts. This misfor- 
 tune was not entirely, nor even mainly, at- 
 tributable either to the destruction of monas- 
 teries or the indolence of monks : a more 
 general and substantial cause existed in the 
 absolute deficiency of the material. The 
 ancients had obtained from the shores of the 
 Nile, through easy and continual intercourse 
 with Alexandria, sufficient supplies of papyrus 
 to satisfy at a slight expense their literary 
 wants ; but after the conquest of Egypt by 
 the Saracens, the comnnmication became less 
 frequent and secure, and the fabric of an im- 
 plement of peace was probably discouraged 
 by the warlike habits of the conquerors. At 
 least it is certain, that about that period the 
 papyrus began to be disused throughout Eu- 
 rope, and that the monuments which remain 
 of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, 
 are invariably composed of parchment. It 
 was not possible, when the material was so 
 expensive, that manuscripts could multiply 
 very rapidly, or even that the losses occasion- 
 ed by decay or devastation could be repaired 
 with atjy facility; and thus the libraries of 
 the catlu'drals and monasteries, to which all 
 the treasures of former ages were at this period 
 confid<'d, were gradually impoverished or de- 
 Btroy(;(l. The records of the time abound 
 with complaints of this general penury of 
 books, as well as with facts in proof of it, one 
 of wlii^ h is the following: — In the year 855, 
 JiUpus, of Ferrara, wrote from his abbey, in 
 Fratiee, to Pope Heiiedirt 1 1 1., pray ing for the 
 l<»ati of th<! concluding part o|" St. Jeromij's 
 Comiiienlary on .lereiuiah, wiih the promist; 
 tliat it should Ix; rapidly copied and retin ned 
 — 'for in our regif)nH nothing is to Im^ found 
 Inter than the Sixlh liook, and we pniy to re- 
 cover through you, that which is wanting to 
 our own Jiisigni(ican<'e.' In addition to this, 
 he ventured to solicit the use of three books 
 
 of profane writers — the Treatise of Cicero 
 de Oratore, the Institutions of Quintilian, and 
 Donatus's Commentary on Terence. 
 
 Muratori considers the zealous Abbot's re 
 quest as unreasonable and immoderate, and 
 we do not learn whether the Pope consented 
 to grant it; but if the resources of France 
 were really unable to supply him with the 
 books in question, we need not distrust him 
 when he laments the general scarcity of an- 
 cient and valuable compositions. This con- 
 sideration will prevent the disdainful feeling 
 which is almost necessarily roused, when we 
 obsen e a succession of generations plunged 
 in torpid ignorance, without an effort to ex- 
 tricate themselves from shame, or to let loose 
 the human mind on its natural career of ad- 
 vancement : it disposes us much more nearly 
 to compassion — especially if we reflect how 
 frec^uently the energy of a vigorous and en- 
 terprising soul, secluded in the hermitage or 
 the cloister, must have exhausted itself on the 
 most contemptible subjects, or pined away 
 from the mere dearth of literary sustenance. 
 We shall find little reason to be astonished 
 that genius itself was so seldom able to emerge 
 out of the noisome mist and rise into light and 
 vigor, since its infancy was chilled by pre- 
 judices, unexcited by any wholesome exer 
 cise, and famished by the positive destitution 
 of intellectual nourishment. 
 
 The cause of literary stagnation wiiich we 
 have last mentioned was removed in the 
 eleventh century by the invention of j)aper, * 
 and accordingly we find that the number of 
 MSS. was greatly multiplied after that time, f 
 But the fury of civil dissension was Hot miti- 
 gated ; and under governments at the same 
 time feeble and arbitrary, there was little en- 
 couragement for studious api)lication, as in- 
 deed there was little honor, or even security, 
 except in the profession of arms. And in sad 
 truth, during the earlier years of this age, the 
 wildest disorders were of such ordinary per- 
 petration, misery had such universal preva- 
 lence, and injustice walked abroad so boldly 
 and triumi)hantly, that there were those who 
 held the p<>rsuasi()n that the millenarian pro- 
 
 ♦ A very iiiterosting account of the progress of 
 |)i»l)cr-in!ikiiif,', writiiif,', prinlinf,', &C. maybe found 
 ill the Life of Caxlon, |)iil)lisli(Ml l)y the Society for 
 tljc Diflusion of U.scful Knowlcdfjr. 
 
 f Still it in the clcvfulli a<;o (luit a CountcsH 
 of Anjdu Ih rccortlcd tt» liavc j)uitIi:is(>(1 ihc Homilies 
 of llaiuxin, at tlir price «>f 200 Klicep, l)efli(les a very 
 lar:;*- payinriil in wiieat, Itariey, skins, and otiier val 
 uuble Ui ticieit. Hr»t. Lilt, de la Trunce, xi. siiicle. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 267 
 
 phecy had been alreaoy accomplished ; that 
 Satan had shaken off his fetters at the one 
 mousaiidth year, and was actually directing 
 the evil destinies of the human race. 
 
 Exertions of Ecclesiastics. At the same 
 time, let us recollect that great exertions were 
 made by the higher ecclesiastical orders to 
 apply an indirect but very powerful remedy 
 to these excesses, by re-establishing the dis- 
 cipline of the Church. For this purpose, 
 about eighty councils were held in France 
 alone during the eleventh century. * We 
 have already related how zealously the au- 
 thority of Rome had engaged itself in the 
 same cause ; and by a necessaiy reaction, the 
 success of every effort for the improvement 
 of morality was favorable to the advancement 
 of literature. The example of Sylvester II. 
 might be sufficient to rouse the jealous emu- 
 lation of Italy ; and Sylvester left to that 
 country not his example only, but the fruits 
 of his active zeal in encouraging the learned 
 of his own time, and in establishing schools 
 and collecting libraries for the use of other 
 generations. Some of the Poj)es, his succes- 
 sors, followed his traces with more or less 
 earnestness ; and among 'the rest, Gregory 
 VII. added to his extraordinary qualities the 
 undisputed merit of promoting the progress 
 of education.! 
 
 The voice of controversy, which was once 
 more heard in this century, not only created 
 another motive for literary activity; but proved 
 the revival of u spirit of inquiry, inconsistent 
 at least with universal ignorance. The talents 
 of Lanfranc, j the earliest boast of reviving 
 Italy, were animated by the ' Heresy ' of Ber- 
 
 * The zeal which was applied in ihe beginning of 
 this age to the building and restoration of churches, 
 basilicse, monasteries, and other holy edifices, is 
 warmly praised by ecclesiastical writers. ' Erat 
 enim instar ac si mundus ipse excutiendo seniet, re- 
 jecta vetustate, passim candidarum ecclesiarum ves- 
 tem indueret — Glabrus Rodolph. apud Du Chesne, 
 Script. Franc, lib. xiv., cap. 4, cited by Muratori. 
 
 t In a council held in 1078, he strongly pressed on 
 all bishops the necessity of superintending education 
 ;n their respective dioceses. 
 
 t ' Lanfrancus teneriorem ajtatem in ssecularibus 
 detiivif, sed in Scripturis divinis animo et jevo ma- 
 turavit ' France was for some time the principal 
 field of his exertions, and Muratori supposes that 
 Hildebrand, attracted by his celebrity, may have vis- 
 ited that country for the purpose of hearing him. 
 The name of Anselni succeeds to that of Lanfranc: 
 that learned prelate was born at Aosta, which then 
 belonged to the Duke of Burgundy — so that France 
 disputes with Italy the honor of having produced him. 
 He too is considered by Muratori as having prepared 
 the way for the scholastic system of theology. 
 
 enger ; and to the ingenious disputations thus 
 occasioned it is usual to attribute the growth 
 of the new system of theological science, after- 
 wards called Scholastic. 
 
 Three Characters of theological Literature. 
 That is a very broad, but in many res])ects a 
 correct view of early theological literature, 
 which distributes it into three seras. The first 
 of these comprehends the whole list of the 
 ecclesiastical fathers — men who, though they 
 varied exceedingly in character, style, and 
 even opinion, were nevertheless united by 
 one great principle ; for they acknowledged 
 no other sources of faith, and reverenced no 
 other authority, than Scripture and apostolical 
 tradition. On this foundation, they boldly 
 applied to the elucidation of religious subjects 
 such reasoning and eloquence as Nature had 
 bestowed on them : perverted, it might be, 
 by the peculiar prejudices of the times and 
 countries wherein they lived, but little re- 
 strained either by the use or abuse of edu- 
 cational discipline, and wholly exempt from 
 servile subjection to the opinions of any ])re- 
 decessor. The characteristics of this age are 
 such as we should expect from such principles 
 — an ovei-flow of piety stained by superstition, 
 exuberance of learning without a proportion- 
 ate fruit of knowledge, and sallies of oratory, 
 which sometimes ascended into eloquence, 
 and sometimes dwindled away into puerile 
 declamation, or cold and empty allegory. 
 This aera is by many extended down to the 
 eighth century, and considered as properly 
 terminating with John Damascenus ; but the 
 concluding half of the fourth age and the be- 
 ginning of the fifth was the true period of its 
 glory ; and thence we may trace the gradual 
 dissolution of its distinguishing qualities into 
 that system which was afterwards established 
 in its place and on its ruins. 
 
 The second was the sera of intellectual blind 
 ness and dependence ; its most laborious works 
 were mere collections, quotations, and compil- 
 ations ; as if the minds of that generation w^ere 
 stupified by gazing on the brilliant creations 
 of their predecessors, till they mistook them 
 for pure and inimitable perfection. St. \u- 
 gustin and St. Gregory were the idols of t'lose 
 abject worshippers; and if their piety wap 
 sometimes kindled by the enthusiasm of the 
 former, their Catholic zeal and Papal preju- 
 dices were more commonly (or at least more 
 manifestly) nourished by the principles of Gre- 
 gory. The termination of this period is fixed 
 at the middle of the eleventh century ; but its 
 character had been partially interrupted by 
 the writers of the ninth, and most especially 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 !263 
 
 by John Scotus ; and his style and manner, 
 as well as his opinions, were followed and re- 
 vived by Berenger. 
 
 The grand principle of the thij'd sera was 
 the exaltation of reason to its proper pre- 
 eminence over the influence of human au- 
 thority ; a true and noble principle as long as 
 reason itself can be restrained to its just pro- 
 vince, so as neither to deviate into minute and 
 barren sophistry, nor to break loose into those 
 dark and interminable inquiries which God 
 has closed against it. Unhappily it Avas not 
 long before it fell into both these errors, which 
 are, indeed, very closely connected. In the 
 establishment and support of the Scholastic 
 theology, it so frequendy descended to de- 
 grading artifice, and perplexed itself so blind- 
 ly in the mazes of chicanery, as to make it 
 doubtful whether religious truth was not more 
 disfigured by the minute disceptations which 
 thenceforward prevailed, than by the super- 
 stitious extravagance of the first period, or the 
 obsequious ignorance of the second. 
 
 We shall possibly recur to this subject here- 
 after. At present we need only remark, that 
 during the latter half of the eleventh century 
 considerable addition was made both to the 
 copiousness of libraries and the number of 
 schools and of students, as well in Italy as in 
 France ; * but the course of study was still 
 generally confined to the two paths denomin- 
 ated the Trivium and Quadrivium. The first 
 of these embraced grammar, rhetoric, and dia- 
 lectics ; and grammar was defined to be ' the 
 ait of writing and speaking well,' f and pro- 
 fessed to comprehend the study of several 
 classical as well as sacred writers. The 
 knowledge of arithmetic, music, geometry 
 and astronomy swelled the j)retensions of the 
 Quadrivium. 
 
 ♦ Schools of civil law were founded in both those 
 countries in the eleventh century, and accjuired some 
 eminence Ixjfore its conclusion. Physic, of course, 
 had never Ixien entirely nej^lected; and as wc find 
 that by a council held at Rheims, in 1131, monks 
 were forbidden the practice either of law or medicine, 
 we would willingly have IiojmmI that some attention 
 now bo an to l>c paid to the edu(;ation of the laity. 
 But the prohibition only extended to the walls of the 
 monasteries; the practice of those professions is de- 
 scribed to have been very lucrative, and for tliat rea- 
 son, and ihrou^li the continued i<^'noranre of the laity, 
 '•vcn in the ctrntnry fiillowing (if we are to believe 
 the compilerH of the Hist. Liu<^raire), there were 
 scarcely any who profcKsed medicine except clerks 
 ond m'jnkH ; with the addition indited of cctrtaiu 
 JcwH, who were held llu; most fkilful practitioners. 
 
 t Hint. Litt. de la France, xii. silicic. 
 
 But, in real truth, the productions and Ian 
 guage of the Greeks were wholly neglected 
 and unknown. The science of criticism — the 
 art of distinguishing what is graceful in style, 
 and what is true in fact — was not cultivated ; 
 and both the study and composition of history 
 were still confined to legendary- chronicles, * 
 or to the ill-digested details of contemporary 
 narrative. Besides which, the sciences pro- 
 fessed were for the most part imperfectly un- 
 derstood even by those who pretended to 
 them ; and it is moreover admitted that, as 
 the students of those days usually aflTected to 
 become acquainted with all the subjects plac- 
 ed before them, they generally departed with- 
 out any profitable knowledge of any of them. 
 The great mass of the people had no educa- 
 tion whatsoever. The result was such as 
 must necessarily follow, whenever the pos- 
 session of any valuable portion of literary ac- 
 quirement is confined to veiy few individuals: 
 the possessors employed it to delude as well 
 as to enlighten the people. So that those 
 ages, deeply as they suflfered from the scanty 
 provision of useful and liberal knowledge, 
 were scarcely less vitiated through the ine- 
 quality with which that little was distributed. 
 The small number who had penetrated the 
 mysteries felt too strongly the advantage and 
 the power conferred by exclusive initiation, to 
 desire their more general promulgation. The 
 more numerous class, wlio from a distant and 
 hasty glimpse had caught some imperfect in- 
 sight, by communicating their own obscure 
 views and misconceptions, disseminated many 
 fanciful, if not pernicious, errors and absurd 
 notions. So it proved that the lights which 
 were thus faintly transmitted to the body of 
 the people, were not faint only, but sometimes 
 false and deceitful also. And it is a question 
 for the decision of Philosoj)hy, whether plain 
 and downright ignorance, with all its demoral- 
 izing consequences, be not a condition of less 
 dang(>r and better ho})c than one of mistake 
 and delusion. 
 
 * The first Christian chronicler was Gregory of 
 Tours. He was born at Auvergne in 539, and be- 
 sides many copious narratives of martyrdoms and 
 miracles, he produced an ' Ecclesiastical History of 
 the Franks.' This work, which contains souk; faint 
 indications of an educated mind, was not surpassed 
 during that century, or the two which followed. 
 The history begins at the death of St. Martin, in 
 377, and ends at the year 591. It was continued 
 for the fifty following years, in a n)uch inferior style, 
 by one I'rcdcgariuH, u Burginidian, and probablv a 
 uionk. 
 
ST. BERNARD. 
 
 269 
 
 NOTE ON ST. BERNARD. 
 
 The life of St. Bernard coniiected, within 
 a few years, the pontificate of Gregory VII. 
 with that bf Alexander III. Born in 1091, 
 be flourished during one of the rudest pe- 
 riods of papal history; and he died (in 1153,) 
 just before the era commenced of its proudest 
 triumphs, and, perhaps, of its deepest crimes. 
 His actions and his writings throw the best 
 light which now remains upon that period, 
 and even the following short account of them 
 will not be without its use. St, Bernard was 
 a native of Fontaines, in Burgundy, and de- 
 scended from a noble family. He entered, at 
 the age of twenty-two, into the monastery of 
 Citeaux, near Dijon ; and so early was the 
 display of his zeal and his talents, that only 
 two years afterwards he was appointed to es- 
 tablish a religious colony at Clairvaux,* in 
 the diocese of Langres. It grew with rapid- 
 ity, and spread its scions with great luxuri- 
 ance under his superintendence — so that at 
 his decease, at no very advanced age, he was 
 enabled to bequeath to the Church the inesti- 
 mable treasure of about one hundred and 
 sixty monasteries, founded by his own exer- 
 tions. As for himself, though it seems clear 
 that the highest ecclesiastical dignities were 
 open, and even offered to him, his humbler 
 ambition was contented to preside over the 
 society which he had first created, and to 
 influence the character of those which had 
 proceeded from it, by counsel, example, and 
 authority. 
 
 But the influence of St. Bernard was not 
 confined to his monastic progeny — it display- 
 ed itself in all grand ecclesiastical transac- 
 ions, in France, in Germany, in Italy ; from 
 the ahars of the church it spread to courts 
 and parliaments. And, as it was founded on 
 reputation, not on dignity ; as it stood on no 
 other groimd than his wisdom and sanctity ; 
 so was it generally exerted for good purposes; 
 and always for purposes which, according 
 to the principles of that age, were accounted 
 good . 
 
 ' On the schism which took place after the 
 death of Honorius n.,f St. Bernard advocat- 
 ed the cause of the legitimate claimant, Inno- 
 cent IL, with gi-eat zeal and effect. During 
 eight years of contestation and turbulence he 
 persevered in the struggle. His authority X un- 
 
 » Or Clairval— Clara Vallis. 
 
 t In 1130, Innocent II. succeeded, and ruled 
 thirteen years and a half. Eugenius III. was elected 
 1145, and reigned for eight years. 
 
 \ The means by which ecclesiastical authority 
 
 questionably decided the King and the Clergy 
 of France. The King of England * at Char- 
 tres, the Emperor at Liege, are stated to have 
 listened and yielded to his persuasions. IIo 
 reconciled Genoa and Pisa to the cause of 
 Innocent. In the latter city a council was 
 held in 1134, in which St. Bernard was the 
 moving and animating spirit. Nevertheless 
 it is obvious, from the genuine piety which 
 pervades so many of his works, that his mind 
 was then most at home when engaged in holy 
 offices and pious meditation. How well so- 
 ever he might be qualified to preside in the 
 assemblies, and rule the passions, and recon- 
 cile the interests of men, it was in the peace- 
 ful solitude of Clairvaux that his earthly 
 affections were placed, and it was to the 
 mercy-seat of heaven that his warmest vows 
 and aspirations were addressed. Through 
 these various qualities — through his charita- 
 ble devotion to the poor ; through that earn- 
 est piety which tinctured his writings with a 
 character sometimes approaching to mysti- 
 cism ; through his imitation of the ancient 
 writers, Augustin and Ambrose ; through his 
 zeal for the unity and doctrinal purity of the 
 Church, St. Bernard has acquired and de- 
 
 sometimes (and not, perhaps, very uncommonly) at- 
 tained its ends in those days, are well displayed in 
 the following anecdote of St. Bernard. The Duke 
 of Guienne had expelled the Bishops of Poitiers and 
 Limoges, and refused to restore them, even on the 
 solemn and repeated injunctions of the Pope and hi? 
 Legate. St. Bernard had exerted his influence for 
 the sauie purpose, equally in vain. At length, when 
 cele!)rating, on some particular occasion, the holy 
 sacrifice, after the consecration was finished and the 
 blessing of peace bestowed upon the people, St. Ber- 
 nard placed the body of the Lord on the plate, and 
 carrying it in his hand, with an inflamed countenance, 
 and eyes sparkling fire, advanced towards the Duke, 
 and uttered these thrilling words: — 'Thus far we 
 have used supplication only, and you have despised 
 us; many servants of God, who were present in this 
 assembly, joined their prayers with ours, and you 
 have disregarded them: behold, this is the Son of 
 God, who is the King and Lord of the Church which 
 you persecute, who now advances towards you ; — 
 behold your Judge I — at whose name evei-y knee bends 
 in heaven, in earth, and beneath the earth. Brhold 
 the just avenger of crimes, into whose hands tha* very 
 soul which animates you will some day fall. VV^ill 
 you disdain him alsol Will you dare to soni the 
 Master, as you have scorned his servants!' This tre- 
 mendous appeal was successful. The Duke is related 
 to have fallen with his face to the earth when he 
 heard it; the prelates were restored to their sees, 
 and the schism extinguished. See Dupin, Nouvelle 
 Bilioth. torn. ix. ch. iv. 
 
 * Ernardus, Vita Sancti Bernardi. Pagi, Gest 
 Pontif. Roman. Vit. Innocent II. 
 
270 HISTORY OF 
 
 served the rt-fepectable appellatiou of the Last 
 of the Fathers. 
 
 The reniamiiig works of St Bernard con- 
 sist of about four hundred and fifty Letters, 
 a great number of Sermons, and some very 
 important Tracts and Treatises. It would 
 not here be possible, nor any where very 
 profitable, to ])resent a mere analysis of so 
 many and sucii various compositions. A 
 great proportion of the matter is devoted to 
 the ends of piety and charity, — to the exalta- 
 tion of the soul of man, — and the inculcation 
 of his highest duties. On points of doctrine, 
 the Abbot of Clairvaux was too ardently at- 
 tached to his Church to venture upon any 
 deviation from the established, or, at least, 
 the tolerated faith. On the important subject 
 of grace, he ai)pcars to have followed the 
 opinion of St. Augustin. He considered the 
 freedom of will to be preserved by the volun- 
 tary consent which it gives to the operations 
 of grace ;— that that consent is indeed brought 
 about by grace, but that being voluntary, and 
 without constraint, it is still free. The neces- 
 sity of this freedom he argues at great length, 
 as indispensable to any system of retribu- 
 tion.* ' Where there is necessity there is not 
 liberty ; where there is not liberty, neither is 
 there merit, nor, consequently, judgment. ' 
 • (Ubi necessitas, ibi libertas non est ; ubi liber- 
 tas non est, nec mcritum, nec per hoc judici- 
 um.) On the other hand, he maintained the 
 indisputable ethcacy of grace ; and in defin- 
 ing the limits of its operation, and reconciling 
 its overruling influence with the necessary 
 liberty of a responsible agent, he fathomed 
 the depths, and, perhaps, exhausted the re- 
 sources of human reason. 
 
 Peter Abelard. As Lanfranc had been the 
 rbarnpion of th(; Church against the heresy 
 of Hcrcnger ; ns the a(lmiral)le Anscltnf had 
 
 * Exccpto pane |)er omnia oi iginali peccato, quod 
 a}iain constat liaberc ralionciii — S. Bernardi ' Trac- 
 taliis <!«; (iralia ct LIIkto Arl)iu io.' 
 
 t Ansr-lui waH proliably l)orn at Aosta in 1034, and 
 (lied in 1105; and tliou^li lie U clainicd by tlic (ialli- 
 can clinrcli ax ilH noblest ornain<-nt since (lie fiflli 
 centniy, IiIh liiftory Urloiigs nion? properly U> our 
 own. He wrote several works: a<;ainst the '(Jr('<'k 
 Doctrine of tlie Holy ProceHnion,' — ' On llu; Trinity 
 and Incarnation,' af^ainnt Roscr-llinu*', — * On the In\- 
 macnlale ('«)nception,' — * On llu; Fall of the Devil,' — 
 ' On I'reewill,' — • On Orifjinal Sin,' — « Necessity,' 
 — • Predestination,'— on which latter Hubjects he had 
 drawn at (he well of Ht. Auguatin. ' IIIh obseciuieH 
 (»ay« the writer in the Histoirc Litt«^raire de la 
 I'rnnci') were preceded, attended, and Hdlowed by 
 »ome mirach-H; l)ut the holy prelate had perfornu;d a 
 viiht riiiifil)cr more during his lifetime.' Ilis Lif«*, as 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 maintained the better reason and sounder 
 doctrine against the dangerous subtilties of 
 Roscellinus ; * so St. Bernard, in his turn of 
 controversy, was confronted with the most 
 ingenious Scholastic of the age, Peter Abe- 
 lard. This celebrated doctor was born in 
 Brittany, in 1079 ; and while St. Bernard was 
 shaping his character and his intellect after 
 the rigid model of Augustin, Abelard was 
 learning a dangerous lesson of laxity in the 
 school of Origen. We shall not trace the 
 various and almost opposite heresies f into 
 which he was betrayed by the obtuse subtilty 
 of his principles ; still less shall we investi- 
 gate the oblique patlis by which he reached 
 those conclusions. It may suffice to say, that 
 he was charged with being, at the same titne, 
 an Arian, a Nestorian, and a Pelagian, and 
 with as much justice, perhaps, as such char- 
 ges were usually advanced by the Roman 
 Catholic Church against its refractory *'hil- 
 dren. 
 
 The history of the crimes and the misfor 
 tunes of Abelard is known to every one. 
 When the Abbot of Clairvaux, in the course 
 of his oflficial visitation, inspected the ntinne- 
 ry of the Paraclete, he found the establish 
 ment well conducted, and he approved of 
 every regulation. Only, in the version of 
 the Lord's prayer there in use, he observed 
 these words, — ' Give us this day our super 
 substantial [iTiiotoiov) bread ' — and he thought 
 it insufferable that the very prayer which the 
 Deity had deigned to communicate to man 
 
 given in the Histoire Litteraire, is an abridgment of 
 that by the Monk Edmcn, his pupil and panegyrist. 
 
 * During llie infancy of St. Bernard. 
 
 t The opinions generally attributed to him arc, that 
 he considered the doctrine of the Trinity to have 
 been known to certain ancient philosophers, and re 
 vcalcd to them in recompense for their virtues, — that 
 the Son bore the same r<-lation to the Father, as the 
 species does to the genus ; as a certain power to 
 power; as materiatuni to materia; as man to ani- 
 mal; as a brazen seal to brass; — that he denied the 
 Atonement, and reasoned against the murder of an 
 innocent being as the means of appeasing God's an- 
 ger; — that he conse(|uently denied the Redemption, 
 though he received the Incarnation as the pro|KM-cst 
 method for illuiliinaling the world with divine light 
 and love; — that the Holy (Ihost proceeded from the 
 Father and the Son, but not from their substance; 
 and that it was the soul eif the world; — that it is not 
 the fault, but the jH-nalty, of original sin which we 
 (l<!riv(! fiom Adam; — that free will, with<»ut the liel|» 
 of grace, was suflicitnt for nalvation. In addition 
 to these, and many other imputations, he was also 
 charged U-forc the Council of Soissons (1121) with 
 'I'rilheism, and, at the same time, wiih having iusscrl- 
 ed, that the Father alone was almighty. 
 
ST. BERNARD. 
 
 211 
 
 for His own service, should be thus sense- 
 lessly corrupted by the infection of Aristotle. 
 Abelard defended his version ; and hence 
 arose the first recorded altercation between 
 those celebrated theologians. The strictures 
 of St. Bernard nritated that vain Scholastic ; 
 and as it happened that a large assembly of 
 the Clergy of France was appointed to meet 
 in the city of Sens, on some occasion deemed 
 important,* Abelard challenged his rival to 
 make good, in the presence of that august 
 body, his repeated charges of heresy. St. 
 Bernard would willingly have declined that 
 conflict : he feared the superiority of an ex- 
 perienced polemic ; — ' I was but a youth,f 
 and he a man of war from his youth. Be- 
 sides, I judged it improper to commit the 
 measures of divine faith, which rested on the 
 foundations of eternal truth, to the petty reas- 
 onings of the schools.' Howbeit, the counsel 
 of his friends prevailed ; after some hesitation 
 he accepted the challenge, and appeared on 
 the appointed day. 
 
 Louis VII. honored the assembly with his 
 presence ; the nobles of his court, the leading 
 prelates and abbots, and the most learned doc- 
 tors of the kingdom were there ; and the 
 highest expectations were raised, from one 
 end of the realm to the other, by the rumor 
 of this theological monomachy. The two 
 champions were confronted. Bernard arose : 
 ' I accuse not this man ; let his own works 
 speak against him. Here they are, and these 
 are the propositions extracted from them. 
 Let him say — I wrote them not; or let him 
 condemn them, or let him defend them against 
 my objections.' The charges were not en- 
 tirely read through, when Abelard interrupted 
 the recital, and simply interposed his appeal 
 to the Pope. The assembly was astonished 
 at his hasty desertion of the field, which he 
 had so lately sought. 'Do you fear,' said St. 
 Bernard, ' for your person ? You are per- 
 fectly secure ; you know that nothing is in- 
 tended against you ; you may answer freely, 
 and with the assurance of a patient hearing. 
 Abelard only replied, ' I have appealed to the 
 Court of Rome ; ' and retired froin the as- 
 sembly. ' I know nothing,' says Milner,| ' in 
 
 * For the translation of the body of some saint into 
 the cathedral church. The assemblj' took place in 
 1140. 
 
 t The Abbot probably meant a youth in contro- 
 vtrsy, — for as to age, he was then foity-nine, and his 
 adversary only two years older. Milner, whose ac- 
 count of this transaction has great merit, seems to 
 have understood him literally. 
 
 t Church Hist. Cent. xii. ch. 2. This author is 
 
 Bernard's history more decisively descriptive 
 of his character, than his conduct in this 
 whole transaction. By nature sanguine and 
 vehement, by grace and self knowledge mod- 
 est and diffident, he seems on this occasion to 
 have united boldness witW timidity, and cau- 
 tion with fortitude. It was evidently in the 
 spirit of the purest faith in God, as well as in 
 the most charitable zeal for divine truth, that 
 he came to the contest.' 
 
 We shall now proceed to consider St. Ber- 
 nard in another (if, indeed, it is another) cha- 
 racter, — that of a zealous defender of the 
 power and prerogatives of the church ; and 
 we shall observe how far the same principle 
 engaged him, on the one hand, in the support 
 of papal authority, and in the extirpation of 
 heresy on the other. We willingly omit all 
 mention of the miracles which are so abund- 
 antly ascribed to him, and which, if they are 
 not merely the fabrications of his panegyrists, 
 are equally distreditable to his honesty and 
 his piety. We defer to a future chapter any 
 notice of the very equivocal zeal which urged 
 him to preach a holy war, to proclaim its pre- 
 destined success with a prophet's authority 
 and then to excuse the falsification of his pro 
 mises by a vulgar and contemptible subter 
 fuge. Yet were all these transactions very 
 certain proofs of his attachment to the prin- 
 ciples of the Roman Catholic church. Of 
 the same nature were the eulogies which he 
 so warmly lavished, in one of his treatises, 
 
 probably nearer to truth in his praise of Bernard, 
 than in his censure of the * heretic' The reason of 
 Abelard's sudden appeal to a higher court was, un- 
 questionably, his distrust of that, before which he 
 stood; he might doubt its impartiality, or he might 
 certainly have discovered its determined prejudice 
 against him; and that it was, in fact, very provident 
 in him to appeal betimes from its decision is clearly 
 proved by a passage in the Account, which certain 
 Bishops of France addressed to the Pope, of the pro- 
 ceedings at Sens. * As the arguments of the Abbot 
 of Clairvaux ... convinced the assembled bishops 
 that the tenets which he opposed were not only false, 
 but heretical, they, sparing his (the heretic's) per- 
 son out of deference to the apostolic sef, condemn- 
 ed the opinions.' A loco et judice quem sibi ipse 
 elegerat, sine Isesione, sine gravamine, ut suam pro- 
 longaret iniquitatem, Sedem Apostolicam appellavits 
 Episcopi autem, qui propter hoc in unum convenerant, 
 vesti-je Reverentiae deferentes nihil in personam ejus 
 egerunt, sed tantummodo capitula librorum ejus,' &c. 
 &c. It is therefore manifest that this appeal saved 
 him from some personal infliction. — This Letter is 
 published among the works of St. Bernard, p. 1560. 
 edit. Lutet. Paris. 1640. After all, it is some satis- 
 faction to record, that Aljelard died (in 1142) in quie* 
 obs'''"*'*". in the Monast'"*-^' of Cl""i. 
 
^2nS> HISTORY OF 
 
 upon the newly instituted order of the Temp- 
 lars. But we pass tliese mattei-s over, and 
 proceed directly to observe the expressions 
 by which he characterised the Bishop of 
 Rome. ' Let us inquire,' says he, in his letter 
 to Pope Eugenius ill., * ' yet more diligently 
 who you are, and what character you support 
 for a season in the Church of God. Who 
 ai*e you ? — a mighty priest, the highest pon- 
 tiff. You are the first among bishops, the 
 heir of the apostles ; in primacy Abel, in go- 
 vernment Noah, in patriarchate Abraham, in 
 order JMelchisedech, in dignity Aaron, in au- 
 thority Moses, in judgment Samuel, inpoiver 
 Peler, in unction Christ. You are he to whom 
 the keys have been delivered, to whom the 
 flock has been intrusted. Others, indeed, 
 there are who are doorkeepers of heaven, and 
 pastors of sheep ; but you are pre-eminently 
 so, as you are more singularly distinguished 
 by the inheritance of both characters. They 
 have their flocks assigned to them, each one 
 his own ; to you the whole are intrusted, as 
 one flock to one shepherd ; neither of the 
 sheep only, but of their pastors also ; you 
 alone are the pastor of all. Where is my 
 proof of this? — in the Word of God. For 
 to which, I say, — not of bishops, but of apos- 
 tles, — was the universal flock so positively 
 intrusted ? " If thou lovest me, Peter, feed 
 my sheep." .... Therefore, according to your 
 canons, others arc called to a share of the 
 duty, you to a plenitude of power. The 
 power of others is restrained by fixed limits ; 
 yours is extended even over those who have 
 received power over others. Are you not 
 able, if cause arise, to exclude a bishop from 
 heaven, to depose him from his dignity, and 
 even to consign him over to Satan ? These 
 your privileges stand unassailable, both 
 through the keys which have been delivered, 
 and the flock which has been confided to 
 you,' cScc. Thus the authority of St. Bernard, 
 which was extremely great, both in his own 
 age and those which immediately followed, 
 was exerted to subject the minds of religious 
 men to that spiritual desjjotism, which was 
 already swollen ihv beyond its just limits, and 
 was threatening a still wider and more fatal 
 inundation. 
 
 Among tfie numeroijs discourses of St. 
 BfTJiJird, twof were more especially directed 
 against the liereticH of the day ; and the 
 preacher declnre.s, that he was moved to this 
 dcflij(n by *tho multitude t of those wiio were 
 
 • * Dc ('f)HHi(lcniti»)nc,Mil). ii.,c. viii. 
 
 t ScrrnonH ♦ Siiih.t (.'aniica,' Ixv. ct Ixvi. 
 
 ^ III oilier j)l;iCfrH lie ar,kii()\vl(!(lcf'fl llii- siiitir fart. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 destroying the vine of Chnst, by the paucity 
 of its defenders, by the difficulty of its de- 
 fence.' In the discharge of this office he in- 
 veighs against the innovators in the usual 
 terms of theological bitterness; and at the 
 same time charges them with those flagrant 
 violations of morality and decency, which 
 were so commonly imputed to seceders frotn 
 the church, though they were, in truth, in- 
 consistent with the first principles of civil 
 society. We shall not repeat those charges, 
 nor copy his ardent vituperations , but there 
 is one passage (in the sixty-sixth sermon), 
 which possesses some historical importance, 
 and which exposes besides the principles of 
 the orator. * In respect to these heretics, they 
 are neither convinced by reasons, for they 
 understand them not ; nor corrected by au- 
 thority, for they do not acknowledge it ; nor 
 bent by persuasion, for they are wholly lost. 
 It is indisputable that they prefer death to 
 conversion. Their end is destruction ; the 
 last thing which awaits them is the flames. 
 More than once the Catholics have seized 
 some of them, and brought them to trial. 
 Being asked their faith, and having wholly de- 
 nied, as is their usage, all that was laid against 
 them, they were examined by the TVial of 
 water,* and found false. And then, since 
 further denial was impossible, as they had 
 been convicted through the water not receiv- 
 ing them, they seized (as the expression is) 
 the bit in their teeth, and began with pitiable 
 boldness, not so much to make confession as 
 profession of their impiety. They proclaimed 
 it for piety ; they were ready to suffer death for 
 it ; and the spectators were not less ready to 
 inflict the punishment. Thus it came to pass 
 that the populace rushed upon them, and gave 
 the heretics some fresh martyrs to their own 
 l)erfidy. I approve the zeal, but I do not aj)- 
 ])laud the deed ; because faith is to be the fruit 
 of persuasion, not of force. Nevertheless, it 
 were unquestionably better that they should 
 be restrahied by the sword, — the sword of 
 him, I mean, who wears it not without rea- 
 son, — than be permitted to seduce many 
 others into their error ; 'for he is the minister 
 of God, a revenger to execute wrath u|)on him 
 that doetli evil. . . . Some wondered that the 
 oA'cnders went to execution not only with 
 f()itilude, but, as it seemed, with joy ; but 
 
 * Et item do hErresi, qun> clam psnne ubiquc scrpit 
 apml ali(|uoH sa'vit palam. Nam parvaluH Ecclcsinp 
 pas.siin ct piihiicn dcgliitiic fi\stinat.' &c. &c D» 
 Consid., lib. iii., c. i. 
 
 * Tliia wnH one of the miwt p()|)iiiai- anuria ' Tiu 
 Jnd','iin'iilH of dud.' 
 
ST. BERNARD. 
 
 213 
 
 those persons had not observed how great is 
 the power of the devil not only over the 
 bodies, but even over the hearts of men, 
 which have once delivered themselves into 
 his possession. . . . The constancy of martyrs 
 and the pertinacity of heretics has nothing in 
 common ; because that which operates the 
 contempt of death in the one is piety, — in the 
 other, mere hardheartedness.' . . . Marcus 
 Antoninus, in the insolence of empire and 
 philosophy, insulted by a similar distinction 
 the firmness of those samted sufferers, to 
 whom the Abbot of Clairvaux addressed, as 
 to heavenly Mediators, his daily and super- 
 stitious supplications. And now again, after 
 another long revolution of centuries and of 
 principles, those despised outcasts, whom St. 
 Bernard, in the loftier pride of ecclesiastical 
 infallibility, consigned, with no better spirit, 
 to eternal condemnation, are revered by us as 
 victims m a holy cause, the earliest martyrs 
 of the Reformation ! 
 
 In the same work in which the office and 
 prerogatives of the Pope were so highly ex- 
 alted, the writer boldly exposed some of the 
 favorite abuses of the system; and dictated, 
 from his cell at Clairvaux, rules for its better 
 administration, and for the guidance of the 
 autocrat of the church. His instructions were 
 wise, because they were virtuous, and pro- 
 C3eded from a true sense of spiritual duties 
 and dignity. His general exhortations to Eu- 
 genius to cast aside the unworthy solicitude 
 respecting secular matters, which at once em- 
 barrassed and degraded the Roman see, and 
 to emulate the venerable patriarchs of the 
 ancient church ; to leave to kings and their 
 ministers the jarring courts of earthly justice,* 
 and to content himself with distributing the 
 judgments of heaven — these lessons were 
 conceived in the loftiest mood of ecclesiastical 
 exaltation, and with the justest sense of eccle- 
 siastical policy ; but the venom had already 
 sunk too deep, and the healing admonitions 
 of the reformer failed to arrest for a moment 
 the progress of corruption. 
 
 St. Bernard next addressed his censures 
 more particularly to the practice of appeal to 
 Rome, which was then growing into a noto- 
 rious abuse. After enumerating some of the 
 
 * Qiioenaiii tibi major videtur et potestas et digni- 
 tas; diinitteiidi peccata, an prjedia dividendi 1 Sed 
 non est comparatio. Uabent hsec infirma et terrena 
 judices suos et reges et principes terrae. Quid firies 
 alios invar'itis 1 Quid falcem vestram in alienam 
 messeni extcnditis'? Non quia indigni vos ; sed quia 
 indignum vobis talibus insistere, quippe potioribus 
 occupatis. De Consid., lib. i., c. vi. 
 
 evils thus occasioned, the delay, the vexation^ 
 the positive porvei-sion of all the purposes 
 of justice, 'How much longer,' he exclaims, 
 'will you shut your ears, whether through 
 patience or inadvertency, against the murmur 
 of the whole earth ? How much longer will 
 you slumber ? How much longei* will your 
 attention be closed against this monstrous con- 
 fusion and abuse ? Appeals are made in defi- 
 ance of ]aw and equity, of rule and order. No 
 distinction is made in place, or mode, or time, 
 or cause, or person. They are commonly 
 taken up with levity, frequently too with ma- 
 lice ; that terror which ought to fall upon the 
 wicked, is turned against the good ; the honest 
 are summoned by tlje bad, that they may turn 
 to that which is dishonest ; and they tremble 
 at the sound of your thunder. Bishops are 
 summoned, to prevent them from dissolving 
 unlawful maiTiages, or from restraining or 
 punishing rapine and theft and sacrilege, and 
 such like crimes. They are summoned, that 
 they may no longer exclude from orders and 
 benefices unworthy and infamous persons. . . . 
 And yet you, who are the minister of God^ 
 pretend ignorance, that that, which was in 
 tended as a refuge for the oppressed, has be 
 come an armory for the oppressor; and that 
 the parties who rush to the appeal are not 
 those who have suffered, but those who med 
 itate injustice.' 
 
 Another papal corruption, against which bt. 
 Bernard inveighed with equal zeal was the 
 abuse of exemptions. 'I express the concern 
 and lamentations of the churches. They ex 
 claim that they are maimed and.dismembered. 
 There are none, or very few, among them 
 which do not either feel or fear this wound : 
 Abbots are removed from the authorit}=^ of 
 their Bishops, Bishops from that of then* Arch- 
 bishops, Archbishops from that of their Patri- 
 archs and Primates. Is the appearance of this 
 good ? Is the reality j ustifiable ? If you prove 
 the plenitude of your power by the frequency 
 of its exercise, haply you have no such plen 
 itude of justice. You hold your office, that 
 you may preserve to all their respective gra- 
 dations and orders in honor and dignity, not 
 to grudge and curtail them.' . . If the vir- 
 tuous Abbot was moved to such boldness of 
 rebuke by the delinquencies of the eleventh 
 century — the earliest and perhaps the most 
 venial excesses of pontifical usui-pation — with 
 what eyes had he beheld the court of Innocent 
 IV., or the chancery of John XXII.! with 
 what a tempest of indignation had he visited 
 the enormities of later and still more degener- 
 ate days — jubilees and reservations, annates 
 
^74 HISTORY OF ' 
 
 and tenths and expectative graces — the long 
 and sordid list of Mammon's machinations ! 
 The halls of Constance and Basle would have 
 rung with his lamentation and his wrath, and j 
 both Gei-son* and Julian would have shrunk | 
 before the manifestation of a spirit greater far ; 
 than themselves. ! 
 
 But the inquisition of St. Bernard was not i 
 confined to the courts of the Vatican. It pen- i 
 etrated into the dwelhng-places and into the 
 bosoms of j)relatcs and of monks. '.Oh, am- 
 bition, thou cross of those who court thee ! 
 How is it that thou tormeutest all, and yet art 
 loved by all ? There is no strife more bitter, 
 no inquietude more painful than thine, and i 
 yet is there nothing more splendid than thy 
 doings among wretched mortals ! I ask, is it 
 devotion which now wears out the apostolical 
 threshold, or is it ambition ? Does not the 
 pontifical palace, throughout the long day, 
 resound with that voice ? f Does not the 
 whole machine of laws and canons work for 
 its profit? Does not the whole rapacity of 
 Italy gape with insatiable greediness for its 
 spoils? Which is there among your own 
 spiritual I studies that has not been inter- 
 rupted, or rather broken oflT, by it? How 
 often has that restless and disturbing evil 
 blighted your holy and fruitful leisure ! It is 
 in vain that the oppressed make their appeal 
 to you, while it is through you that ambition 
 strives to hold dominion in the church.' . . . 
 In another place § — ' The unsavory contagion 
 creeps through the whole church, and the 
 wider it spreads the more hopeless is the 
 remedy; the. more deeply it penetrates, the 
 
 more fatal is the disease They are 
 
 ministers of Christ, and they are servants of 
 Anti-Christ. They walk abroad honored by 
 the blessings of the Lord, and they return the 
 Lord no honor : thence is that meretricious 
 splendor everywhere visible — the vestments 
 of actors — the parade of kings : thence the 
 gold on their reins, their saddles, and their 
 
 ♦ John Gerson was a great admirer of St. Bernard. 
 He frcfpicntly cited his authority, and composed one 
 diBCOiirHC expressly in his honor. We always watch 
 with anxiety, and record witli respect, ll>o cxpres- 
 siona in which one great man has celebrated the ex- 
 cellence of another. But in Gcrson's ♦ S(!rmo de 
 Sancto Bernardo* we can discover little hut fuiicifid 
 and mystical rhapsody. 
 
 t Annon f|ir.rKtii)ns ejus tola Ic^iini Canoniim(|nc 
 (lisciplina inundut 1 
 
 X Thift passatre is from the ' Third Book of the 
 Coiwiderafio.' It is addrensed, wo should recollect, 
 to Pope EuReniiiH, who had Ikxmi educated in the 
 oionaHtery of ('lairvaux. 
 
 § ' Super Cantic a Scr. xxxiii 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 spurs, for their spurs (calcaria) shine brighter 
 than their altars (altaria ;) thence their tables 
 splendid with dishes and cups ; thence their 
 gluttony and drunkenness — the hai-p, the 
 lyre, and the pipe, lardei-s stored with provis- 
 ion, and cellars overflowing with wine . . 
 For such rewards as these men wish to be- 
 come, and do become, rectors of churches, 
 deans, archdeacons, bishops, archbishops — 
 for these dignities are not bestowed on merit, 
 but on the thing which walks in darkness.' . 
 A considerable portion of another composi- 
 tion * is devoted to the exposure of monastic 
 degeneracy. ' It is truly asserted and believ- 
 ed that the holy fathers instituted that life, 
 and that they softened the rigor of the rule in 
 respect to weaker brethren, to the end that 
 more might be saved therein. But I cannot 
 bring myself to believe that they either pre- 
 scribed or permitted such a crowd of vanities 
 and superfluities, as I now see in very many 
 monasteries. It is a wonder to me whence 
 this intemperance, which I observe among 
 monks in their feasting and revels, in theii 
 vestures and couches, in their cavalcades and 
 the construction of then* edifices, can have 
 grown into a practice so inveterate, that 
 where these luxuries are attended with the 
 most exquisite and voluptuous prodigality 
 there the order is said to be best preserved, 
 there religion is held to be most studiously 
 cultivated. . . For behold ! frugality is deemed 
 avarice; sobriety is called austerity; silence 
 is considered as moroseness. On the other 
 hand, laxity is termed discretion ; profiision, 
 liberality ; loquacit}^, affability ; loud laughter, 
 pleasantness ; delicacy and sum])tuousncss 
 in raiment and horses, taste; a superfluous 
 change of linen, cleanliness; and then, when 
 we assist each other in these practices, it is 
 called charity. This is a charity indeed which 
 destroys all charity ; it is a discretion which 
 confounds all discretion ; it is a compassion 
 fiill of cruelty, since it so serves the body, as 
 mortally to stab the soul.' . . Again — 'What 
 ])roof or indication of humility is this, to 
 march forth with such a pomp and cavalcade, 
 to be thronged by such an obsequiotis train of 
 long-haired attendants, so that the escort of 
 one abbot would sufiico for two bishops ? I 
 vow that I iiavo seen an abbot with a suite 
 
 ♦ Ad (Juillclmum Ahhal. Apologia— An Apology 
 to William, Ahhot of St. Thierry. The pretext for 
 this Apology was, to defend himself and his own re- 
 formed order of Cistercians from the charge of calum- 
 niating the rival order, (heir more opulent brethren 
 of Cluni. St. Bernard did not lone that opportmiitj- 
 of generally inveighing against monastic abuses. 
 
ST. BERNARD. 
 
 275 
 
 of sixty horsemen and more.* To see them 
 pass by, you would not take them for fathers 
 of monasteries, but for lords of castles ; not 
 for directors of souls, but for princes of prov- 
 inces.' . . St. Bernard then proceeds to cen- 
 sure the show of wealth which is exhibited 
 iDithin the monasteries, f and subsequently 
 exposes the secret motive of such display. 
 ' Treasures are drawn towards treasures ; 
 money attracts money, and it happens that 
 where most wealth is seen, there most is offer- 
 ed. When the relics are covered with gold, 
 the eyes are struck, and the pockets opened. 
 The beautiful form of some Saint is pointed 
 out, and the . richer its colors the greater is 
 deemed its sanctity. Men run to salute it 
 — they are invited to give, and they admire 
 what is splendid more than they reverence 
 what is holy. To this end circular orna- 
 ments are placed in the churches, more like 
 wheels than crowns, and set with gems which 
 rival the suiTounding lights. We behold in- 
 ventions like trees erected in place of can- 
 dlesticks, with great expense of metal and 
 ingenuity, also shining with brilliants as gaily 
 as with the lights they hold. Say, whether 
 of the two is the object in these fabrications 
 — to awake the penitent to compunction, or 
 the gazer to admiration ? Oh vanity of vani- 
 ties, and as insane as it is vain ! The church 
 is resplendent in its walls, it is destitute in its 
 poor. It clothes its stones with gold — it 
 leaves its children naked. The eyes of the 
 
 * ' Mentior,' says the holy abbot, ' si non vidi ab- 
 batem sexaginta equos et eo amplius in suo ducere 
 coniilatu. Dicas, si videas eos Iranseuntes, non pa- 
 Ires esse monasteriorum, sed dominos castellorum ; 
 non rectores animarum, sed principes provinciarum.' 
 
 ■f'Omitto Oratorium inimensas altitudines, immo- 
 deratas longitudines, supervacuas latitudines, sump- 
 tuosas depoliliones, curiosas depictiones, quje dnm 
 oiantium in se detorquent aspectum impediunt et af- 
 fectum, ct mihi quodammodo reprsesentant antiquum 
 ritum Judajorum. Sed esto — fiant hsec ad honorem 
 Dei. lllud autem interrogo monachus monachos, 
 quod in gentilibus gentilis arguebat — 
 
 Dicite, Pontifices, in sancto quid facit auruml 
 Ego aulem dico, Dicite Pauperes ! Non enlm at- 
 tendo versum sed sensum — Dicite, inquam, pauperes, 
 si tamen pauperes, in Sancto quid facit auruml' — 
 Loo. Citat. It seems probable that St. Bernard, in 
 the interval of his theological labors, had studied the 
 Roman Satirists with pleasure, and not without ad- 
 vantage 
 
 rich are ministered to, at the expense of the 
 indigent. The curious find wherewithal to 
 be delighted — the starving do not find where- 
 with to allay their starvation.' * . . . 
 
 Such was the Abbot of Clairvaux ; in j)ro- 
 fession and habits a monk — in ecclesiastical 
 polity at once a reformer and a bigot — in 
 piety a Christian. His single example (if 
 every page in history did not furnish others) 
 would suffice to show that a very great pre- 
 ponderance of excellence is consistent with 
 many pernicious errors ; and that innumer- 
 able ensamples of purity and holiness have 
 flourished in every age, as they doubtless still 
 flourish, in the bosom of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. Because many Popes were ambi- 
 tious and many prelates profligate, it would 
 be monstrous to suspect that righteousness 
 was nowhere to be found in that communion , 
 it would be unreasonable to suppose that the 
 great moral qualities, which distinguished 
 St. Bernard, were not very common among 
 the obscurer members and ministers of hia 
 church. His genius, indeed, was peculiarly 
 his own. The principles which least became 
 him were derived from his church and his 
 age ; but his charity and his godliness flowed 
 from his religion, and thus they found sym- 
 pathy among many, respect and admiration 
 among all. These were the crown of his 
 reputation ; and while they fortified and ex- 
 alted his genius, they also gave it that com- 
 manding authority which, without them, it 
 could never have acquired. From this alli- 
 •ance of noble qualities St. Bernard possessed 
 a much more extensive influence than any 
 ecclesiastic of his time — more, perhaps, than 
 I any individual through the mere force of per- 
 I sonal character has at any time possessed ; 
 nor is it hard to understand, if we duly con- 
 sider the imperfect civilization of that super- 
 stitious age, that monarchs, and nobles, and 
 nations should have respectfidly listened to 
 the decisions of a monk, who gave laws from 
 his cloister in Burgundy to the Universal 
 Church. 
 
 * ' O vanitas vanitatum, sed non vanior quam in^ 
 sanior. Fulget ecclesia in parietibus, et in pauperi- 
 bus eget. Sups lapides induit auro et suos filios nu- 
 dos deserit. De sumptibus egenorum servitur ocuHi 
 divitum. Inveniunt curiosi quo delectentur, et non 
 inveniunt miseri quo sustententur.' 
 
276 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Pontificate of Innocent III. 
 
 [From 1198 to 1216.] 
 
 rrefatory facts and observations — Circumstances under 
 which Innocent ascended the chair — Collection of 
 Canons — Condition of the clerfry — Ecclesiastical juris- 
 diction — by what means extended — Innocent's four 
 leading objects — (1.) To establish and enlarge his tem- 
 poral power in the city and ecclesiastical states. Office 
 of the Prefect — Favorable circumstance, of which In- 
 nocent avails himself— his work completed by Nicholas 
 IV. — (2.) To establish the universal pre-eminence of 
 papal over royal authority. His claims to the Empire 
 
 — His dispute with Philippe Auguste of France — he 
 places the kingdom under interdict — submission of 
 Philippe — His general assertions — supremacy — par- 
 ticular applications of them — to England and France, 
 Navarre, Wallachia and Bulgaria, Arragon and Arme- 
 nia — His contest with John of England — Interdict — 
 the Legate Pandulph — Humiliation of the King — (3.) 
 To extend his authority within the church. Italian 
 clergy in England — his general success in influencing 
 the priesthood — Power of the Episcopal Order — The 
 fourth Lateran Council. Canons on transubstantiation 
 
 — on private confession — against all heretics — (4.) To 
 extinguish heresy. The Petrobrussians — their author 
 and tenets. Various other sects, how resisted. The 
 Calhari — supposition of Mosheim and Gibbon — the 
 more probable opinion — The Waldenses — their history 
 and character— error of Mosheim — Peter VValdus — his 
 persecution. The Albigeois or Albigenses — their resi- 
 dence and opinions— attacked by Innocent— St. Domi- 
 nic — title of Inquisitor — Raymond of Toulouse — holy 
 war preached against them — Simon de Montfort — re- 
 sistance and massacre of the heretics — Continued per- 
 secution of the Albigeois — Death of Innocent — Remarks 
 on liis policy. 
 
 During the period of one hundred and thir- 
 teen years, which intervened between Grego- 
 ry VII. and Innocent III., the progi-ess of 
 ecclesiastical i)ower and influence was very- 
 considerable ; and the latter ascended the 
 j)ontifical chair unembarrassed by many of 
 the difficulties which impeded the enterprises 
 of the former. The principal causes of that 
 progress may be traced, perhaps, in a few 
 sentences. In the first place, new facilities to 
 learning had been opened diu'ing the twelfth 
 century, of which the clergy had availed 
 themselves very generally, and which the 
 laity had as generally neglected. It is true 
 that the kind of learning then in fashion pos- 
 sessed, for the most ])art, no substantial or 
 p(;rmanent value ; still it was a weai)on as 
 powerful, perhaps, i'or the government of the 
 ignorant, as if its j)olish had been brighter, or 
 its edge more ke(!n ; and, as its real inefli- 
 ci(;ncy wtis unknown, it e(jually answered 
 tlie end of exciting a l)lind respect for those 
 who iiad the e-xclusive use of it. In iIm; n<!xt 
 place, tlic discipline of the church had under- 
 gone* an important r<'f()rmati{>n, the honor of 
 whicn we are bound to as<'ril»e to tin* vigor- 
 ous exertionH of Gi'egory, imitated, wiili more 
 
 advantage perhaps, by feebler successor*. 
 Tln-ee Lateran Councils (the first General 
 Councils of the Western Church) were held 
 during the twelfth century ; and the second 
 and third of these, assembled respectively in 
 1139 and 1179, by Innocent 11. and Alexan 
 der III., more particularly directed their at 
 tention to the extirpation of ecclesiastical 
 abuses, to the confirmation of ancient canons, 
 and the introduction of such others as might 
 amend the discipline and consolidate the in • 
 terests of the church. This object was ma- 
 terially advanced by the labor of a monk 
 of Bologna, named Gratian, who published, 
 in 1151, his celebrated Collection of Canon 
 Laws.* And this branch of study, thus facil 
 itated, received further encouragement from 
 Eugenius III., who instituted the degrees 
 of Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctor in lliat 
 science. By the advance of learning among 
 the sacred profession, by the greater precision 
 and more general knowledge of the canons 
 of the church, and by the rigor with which 
 they were frequently enforced, the morals of 
 every rank of the clergy were essentially im 
 proved. The two notorious scandals of the 
 former age, concubinage and simony, if not 
 effectually removed, were at least restrained 
 within more decent limits ; and the extreme 
 license, in some other respects, which had 
 prevailed for about tw'o centuries before Greg- 
 ory VII., was checked and repressed. So 
 that Innocent was called to the command of 
 a more enlightened, a more orderly, a more 
 moral, and therefore a more influential priest- 
 hood. 
 
 Ecclesiastical property. It may be true, as 
 IMosheim assi.'rts, that the revenues of the 
 Pope had received no considerable augmen- 
 tation between the ninth century and the 
 time of Innocent ; but those of the clergy, 
 and especially of the monastic ordei-s, had 
 been swelled during the same ])eriod by the 
 most abundant contributions. Indeed, in most 
 countries the territorial domains of the church 
 were at that time spread so widely, as almost 
 to justify the complaint that they compre- 
 hended half the siyfaco of Europe ; nor 
 should we omit to mc^ntion that the clergy, 
 though in some kingdoms liable to annual 
 donatives, and to arbitrary j)hmder in all, 
 were still legally exempt from taxation, and 
 from every regular contribution to the service 
 of the state. Erom such imnninity, though 
 
 • The accidcntnl discovery of the Pandects of 
 Jii.Htiniun, in 11JJ7, nmy liavo fiiniiHlicd to Gratiiin 
 (Ik; notion, us il certainly unpplic-d the model, of hit 
 work. 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 
 
 217 
 
 it was occasionally violated, and the violation 
 usually attended with outrage, they must, 
 nevertheless, have reaped great advantage,, 
 ana especially in peaceful periods. But such 
 partial profits have always a drawback in the 
 jealousy whic.i the distinction occasions, and 
 which exposes those who enjoy it to the dis- 
 trust and dislike of their fellow subjects. 
 
 Ecclesiastical jurisdiction. We have already 
 observed how extensive, and, at the same time, 
 how indefinite, were the rights of jurisdiction, 
 which were partly conferred on the church 
 and partly confirmed to it by Charlemagne, — 
 rights, which were scarcely less important to 
 the general influence of the clergy, than their 
 learning or their revenues. During the tu- 
 mults of the three following centuries, they 
 were transgressed or exceeded as the civil or 
 ecclesiastical portion of the state happened in 
 any country to preponderate ; but they appear 
 to have sustained no permanent alteration, 
 either in abridgment or increase, until the be- 
 ginning of the twelfth century. About that 
 time the ecclesiastical tribunals commenced a 
 system of encroachment, which made great 
 I)rogress even before the pontificate of Inno- 
 cent, and was carried by that Pope and his 
 successors to still greater excess, and seemed 
 to threaten the entire subversion of the secu- 
 lar courts.* It was the first step in this usur- 
 pation to multiply the number of persons 
 subject to the jurisdiction of the church ; 
 the next, to extend almost without limit the 
 offences of which it took cognizance. The 
 first of these objects was accomplished by the 
 indiscriminate Tonsure, which we have be- 
 fore mentioned to liave been so generally given 
 by the bishops. This sign of the clerical state 
 did not indicate ordination or any spiritual 
 office ; but it conferred the use of the eccle- 
 siastical habit, and with it the various privi- 
 leges and immunities enjoyed by that order, 
 without the restraint of celibacy ,f to which 
 it was liable. This very numerous class, 
 though for the most part engaged in secular 
 professions and occupations, was subject to 
 no other than the episcopal tribunals ; | and 
 
 * Tirate tutte le cause d' appellazione in Roma, si 
 proccuro d' ampliare la giurisdizione del Foro Epis- 
 opale, e stendere la conoscenza de' Giudici Ecclesi- 
 astic! sopra piu persone ed in piu cause, sicche poco 
 rirnanesse a' magistrati secolari d' impicciarsene. 
 Giannone, 1st. di Napoli, lib. xix., c. v., sect. iii. 
 
 t In this respect, those persons were placed in the 
 condition of the priests of the Greek Church : they 
 were allowed to marry once only, and a virgin. 
 
 X In the kingdom of Naples, under the dynasty of 
 Anjou, this matter afterwards went io far (says Gi- 
 
 wc may remark, that all the movable prop- 
 erty of this body fell under the same juris- 
 diction.* 
 
 Another very large class, under the denom- 
 ination of ' miserabiles personae ' (persons in 
 distress,) was also exclusively subjected to the 
 episcopal courts. It comprehended, even in 
 the first instance, a multitude of the lowest 
 orders; and it was presently so enlarged as 
 to include orphans and widows, the stranger 
 and the poor, the pilgrim and the leper, f 
 Again ; the opportunity offered by the Cru- 
 sades was not neglected in the progress of 
 usurpation ; and in this case the arm of ec- 
 clesiastical justice extended itself not only 
 over all who engaged in the expedition, but 
 over those too who had bound themselves by 
 the vow. 
 
 A great facility was also aflTorded for enlarg, 
 ing the boundaries of ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion, by the want of definiteness in the nature 
 of the offences subject to it. These were de- 
 signated by one name, spiritual ; but it is clear 
 that, in an ignorant age, that term might be 
 so extended by an artful priesthood as to em- 
 brace every sin and almost every crime ; since 
 there are no sins J and few crimes which do 
 not indicate some disease of the soul, and 
 touch its eternal safety. 
 
 The general term, under which ecclesiastics 
 contrived to comprise the greatest number of 
 causes, was Bad Faith ; as being unquestion- 
 ably a sin, yet such, that an action could sel 
 dom occur, in which both parties were clear 
 from the suspicion of it. Thus they claimed 
 for their tribunals all trials on executions of 
 contracts, because the contract was founded 
 on oath. They also claimed to be natural in 
 terpreters and executors of all wills and testa 
 ments, as being matters peculiarly connected 
 with the conscience ; and thus they gradually 
 extended the spiritual net over the entire field 
 of civil litigation.^ But they forgot that thai 
 
 annone), that even the concubines of the clergy en- 
 joyed immunity from secular jurisdiction. 
 
 * In conseguenza di quella massima mal intesa, 
 mobilia sequuntur personam. — Giann loc. cii. 
 
 t We refer to the seventh chapter of Mr. Hallam's 
 Middle Ages. It is a bold and, in most respects, an 
 accurate disquisition on papal history. 
 
 t ' Si peccaverit frater tuus, die Ecclesice.' This . 
 seems to have been the text on which ecclesiastical 
 jurisdiction was mainly founded. It had a much 
 better foundation in the superior intelligence and 
 moral principles of ecclesiastics. 
 
 § Having once interfered in the matter of wills, the 
 bishops proceeded in some countries to arrogate the 
 power of making wills for the laity, ad pia$ causas; 
 and the interests of the church were advanced by tha. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 which properly belonged to them was censure, 
 not jurisdiction ; or they affected artfully to 
 confound the office of penal chastisement 
 with that of penitential correction. The en- 
 croachments of the church were aided by die 
 negligence, as they were almost justified by 
 the incompetence, of die lay tribunals; and 
 thev had already made considerable advancos, 
 with litde apparent opposition, and acquired 
 extensive conquests in the domains of secular 
 jurisdiction, at the time when Innocent III. 
 took possession of the pontifical chair. 
 
 From the above circumstances, we have 
 reason to presume that in actual authority, not 
 less than in moral influence, the church had 
 acquired growth and strength since the era 
 of Gregoiy VII. ; and that the sacred militia, 
 whom Innocent was appointed to command, 
 and by whose aid he meditated and almost 
 accomplished the destruction of the temporal 
 authorities, then exerted a much more power- 
 ful control over every department of society, 
 than it had ever possessed at any former pe- 
 riod. 
 
 We shall obtain a more distinct knowledge 
 of the designs and success of that celebrated 
 pope, if we examine separately the principal 
 points to which his exertions were directed, 
 than we could gain by a chronological narra- 
 tive of his pontificate. According to such a 
 
 piety. Some were found who even claimed the pro- 
 perty of all intestate persons. Again, when the in- 
 terests of a clerk were involved in connexion witii 
 those of laymen, the decision was claimed by the 
 Ecclesiastical Court. So also, when the cause was 
 very difficult in point of reason, in case of the in- 
 competence, negligence, or suspiciousness of the lay 
 judge, the matter was referred to tlie Episcopal 
 Tribunal. So likewise, under the name of forum 
 mixtum, it claimed its share in all cases of bigamy, 
 usury, sacrilege, adultery, incest, concubinage, blas- 
 phemy, sortilege, |)crjury, as in those of tithes and 
 pious legacies. So in all causes arising from mar- 
 riage, as lx;ing a Sacrament of the church. And 
 lastly, there were some Roman doctors who maintain- 
 ed tliat every condemned person in every country 
 ehould Ijc sent to Rome for punishment; seeing that 
 Rome was the commf»n country and metropolis of all 
 men, that the world was Roman, and all its inhabit- 
 ants atizens and su.)j(!cts of Rome. — (iiannonc, loc. 
 cit. The following lines were inlcjjded to compre- 
 hend the jurisdiction of the Hpiritual court: — 
 Ha.reticuK, Simon, fdMUis, perjurus, adidtcr. 
 Pax, privilcgium, violentus, HacrilfgH.>^(|ue ; 
 Si vacat Imperium; si ncgligit, ambigil, ant ait 
 SuHfK;ctuM judex ; Hit subdita terra, vcl uhus, 
 RiiHlicuH et HcrvuH, jMtregriniLM, feuda, viatctr. 
 Hi (|uiH jKirninMt, miH«;r! onmin canMat|ue miHtn — 
 Si denunciat EcclcMi;i! (|uis, judirat ipxa. 
 Wc Mhall tak»! a fuliin; ()|)portunily of recurring to 
 the xnbjecl of Ecclc»iuHli(-al Jurisdiction 
 
 distribution, we may properly consider these 
 objects to have been four ; not, indeed, that 
 they were thus minutely analysed in the mind 
 of Innocent, or that his daring schemes sub- 
 ject to any such classification : but the histo- 
 rian who contemplates great transactions after 
 an interval of many centuries, and a change 
 in many principles, is bound to consider par- 
 ticular actions as parts of the whole mighty 
 drama, in the respect they bear to the circum- 
 stances of the actors, and the character of the 
 age. Thus it is, that in studying the actions 
 of Innocent III., our observation is necessa- 
 rily most directed to the following points : — 
 I. To establish the temporal power of the 
 Holy See in the city of Rome, and in the ec- 
 clesiastical states ; audio enlarge their bound- 
 aries. II. To fix the preeminence of the 
 papal over the royal authority, throughout all 
 the kingdoms of the west, and to reduce all 
 princes to the condition of vassalage to the 
 Pope ; which was, indeed, merely a continu- 
 ation of the scheme of Gregory. III. To en- 
 large the pontifical authority and influence 
 within the church. IV. and lastly. To secure 
 the unity of the faith by the extirpation of 
 heresy. All tliese were at that time becoming 
 essential parts of the papal polity ; and almost 
 all the important acts of Innocent may be 
 traced to some one of them. 
 
 I. The temporal power of the Pope. As the 
 policy of the Holy See becomes more and 
 more entangled in temporal transactions, as 
 wc observe the sj)iritual majesty of the apos- 
 tolical chair gradually degenerating into tlie 
 Court of Rome, it is fit that we employ a few 
 sentences on the character of the people 
 which was subject to its immediate sway ; 
 partly because we shall thus discover what 
 sort of instruments for their secular design.s 
 the Po})cs possessed at home, and partly that 
 we may learn, whether the groat moral bless- 
 ings were more abundandy diftiised among 
 the subjects of an ecclesiastical monarchy. 
 For this i)uri)osc wc shall select two very 
 well known authorities, tlie one from the tenth, 
 the other from the tiiirteenth century, only 
 premising that, though the particular facts 
 wliich thev convey may be highly colored, 
 the general consent of history confirms the 
 sul)stnnc<'. 
 
 Chnrndcr of the. lioinnna. Luitprand,* who 
 wjus sent as legate IVom Otho the First to the 
 Eastern Emperor, expressed in this languoge 
 
 ♦ Sec Luitpr. Legntio, apud Muratori Script. It«l 
 vol. ii.; alHo Disaertat. 40 ejusd. uuct. 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III 
 
 the sort of reputation then possessed by the 
 Roman people : — ' We Lombards despise 
 them so deeply, that for our very enemies, 
 when most moved against them, we can find 
 no designation more contumelious, than Ro- 
 man. In this single term, I mean Roman, we 
 intend to comprehend all that is base, all that 
 is cowardly, all that is avaricious, all that is 
 luxurious, all that is false and lying — ay, 
 ev«ry vice that has a name.' The evidence 
 of St. Bernard on the same subject is more 
 particular, and scarcely more honourable to 
 the descendants of the Gracchi: — 'Why 
 should r mention the people ? the people is 
 Roman. I have no shorter, nor have I any 
 clearer term to express my opinion of your 
 parishioners (parcecianis.) For what is so 
 notorious to all men and ages as the wanton- 
 ness and haughtiness of the Romans? A 
 race unaccustomed to peace, habituated to 
 tumult — a race merciless and intractable, and 
 to this instant scorning all subjection, when 
 it has any means of resistance. . . Whom 
 will you find, even in the vast extent of your 
 city, who would have you for Pope, unless 
 lor profit, or the hope of profit ? * And it is 
 ihen most that they seek to rule, when they 
 profess to serve. They promise fidelity, to 
 have the better means of injuring those who 
 trust them. . . . They are men too proud 
 to obey, too ignorant to rule, faithless to supe- 
 riors, insupportable to inferiors ; shameless in 
 asking, insolent in refusing ; importunate to 
 
 * Eugenius III. The passage in the De Conside- 
 ralione, lib. iv. Cap. ii. We have purposely omiued 
 some parts of it in the text, the following for instance : 
 — ' Et nunc experire paucis noverinine et ego aliqua- 
 tenus mores gentis. Ante omnia sapientes sunt, ut 
 faciant mala, bonum auteni facere nesciunt. Hi in- 
 visi lerrce et coelo utrique injecere manus, impii in 
 Deum, temerarii in sancta, seditiosi in invicem (qu. 
 judicem 1) aemuli in vicinos, inhmnani in extraneos; 
 quos neminem amantes amat nemo. Et cum timeri 
 affectant ab omnibus, omnes timeant necesse est. Hi 
 
 sunt qui subesse non sustinent,' &c Ita omne 
 
 humile probro ducitur inter Palatinos, ut facilius, 
 qui esse quam qui apparere humilis velit, invenias. 
 Timor Domini simplicitas vocatur, ne dicam fatuitas,' 
 &c. ... These Palatines seem to have been the emi- 
 nent Ecclesiastics resident at the Holy See. The 
 cardinals, who formed the nucleus of the future court 
 of Rome, though now gradually rising in dignity, 
 were not yet, probably, in possession of any corporate 
 prerogatives. We shall only add one more testimony, 
 that of John of Salisbury, the contemporary and 
 countryman of Adrian IV., against the Roman clergy: 
 — ' Provinciarum diri. punt spolia, ac si thesauros 
 Crcesi studeant reparare. Sed recte cum iis egit 
 Altissimus, quoniam et ipsi aliis et saepe vilissimis 
 bominibus dati sint Id direptionem.' . . . 
 
 obtain favors, restless while o.otaining them- 
 ungrateful when they have obtained them , 
 grandiloquous and inefficient ; most profuse 
 in promise, most niggardly in performance ; 
 the smoothest flatterers, the most venomous 
 detractors,' &c. ' Among such as these you 
 are proceeding as their pastor, covered with 
 gold and every variety of splendor. Wliai 
 are your sheep looking for ? . . If I dared 
 to use the expression, I should say, that it is 
 a pasture of demons rather than of sheep.' . 
 
 Many of the features in this revolting picture 
 are common to the courts*of every climate and 
 religion — to the sycophants of every race and 
 age. The exclusive appropriation of mean- 
 ness and treachery — the monopoly of human 
 baseness — could not truly be ascribed even to 
 the people of Rome. But there is one among 
 the vices imputed to them which was indeed 
 their characteristic — restless and turbulent in 
 subordination. Shall we consider this defect 
 as the corruption of an ancient virtue ? Cer 
 tainly even a cursory review of t^e^ govern- 
 ment (if government it can be cSiled) under 
 which the imperial city had struggled lor 
 above four centuries, will show that the vice, 
 whether indigenous or not, received much 
 encouragement and excuse from extraneous 
 circumstances. We have already mentioned 
 the doubtful limits of the authority respective - 
 ly exercised by the Patrician and the Bishop 
 under the Greek emperors. When that rule 
 finally passed away, Charlemagne (and before 
 him Pepin) assumed the temporal administra- 
 tion of Rome under the same name. Patrician ; 
 and during his reign the imperial supremacy 
 was in practice felt, as it was undisputed in 
 right. Weaker princes, and ages almost of an- 
 archy succeeded. Nevertheless, the supreme 
 dominion of the emperors, which may have 
 been partially suspended, was re-established 
 by Otho ; ' their title ?ind image were engrav- 
 en on the Papal corns, and their jurisdiction 
 was marked by the sword of justice which 
 they delivered to the Prefect of the city.' * 
 
 On the other hand, the residence of the 
 Emperor was remote, and the communication 
 slow and precarious. Once only, in the course 
 perhaps of a long reign, he presented himself 
 to his Roman subjects. The purpose of that 
 visit was to receive his crown from the pon- 
 tifical hand, and the ceremony was usually 
 attended with tumult and bloodshed. Again 
 — at that coronation he thrice repeated the 
 royal oath, to maintain the liberties of Rome. 
 The ancient fable, too, was continually incul- 
 
 * See Gibbon's 69tli chapter 
 
^280 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 cated, and perhaps universally believed, that 
 Constantino had consigned the temporal scep- 
 tre to the hand of the Bishop. And in those 
 ages of superetitioiis darkness, the prejudices 
 of mankind saw nothing incongruous in the 
 » double character of a sacerdotal monarch. 
 These circumstances were on both sides un- 
 favorable to the welfare of Rome, for while 
 they i^eutralized, and almost desti-oyed the 
 power of the Prefect, they gave no substantial 
 foundation to that of the Pope. So that in 
 the uncertainty thus created, as to where the 
 civil executive authority really was placed, the 
 people were left without any efficient control. 
 Their inclination would naturally lead them 
 to respect most the power, which was more 
 nearly and immediately exercised. But the 
 short reigns of most of the Popes ; the tumul- 
 tuous scenes which commonly disgraced their 
 election, and which were prolonged so ob- 
 stinately whenever there was a rival for the 
 chair ; the very circinnstance, that the choice 
 of a ruler was influenced by the rabble — all 
 conspired to lower his dignity, and to lessen 
 t!ie efficacy of his temporal authority. It is 
 true, that during the latter half of the twelfth 
 century, after the constitution of Alexander 
 III. (in 1179,) these evils were in some degree 
 abated. Still there were no principles of 
 staljility in the civil administration ; and it is 
 scarcely too much to assert that, from the time 
 of Charlemagne to that of Innocent, the pon- 
 tifical city had never once felt either the re- 
 straint or the blessing of a strong government. 
 
 The regulation of Alexander III. was an 
 omen of greater improvements. But a change 
 of more importance in the civil history of 
 Rome was the establishment of the Senate ; 
 and this is refen-ed, as a permanent act, to the 
 year 1144. In the meantime, the dignity of 
 'Prefect of the City' had gradually declined 
 to a municif)al office, filled from the families 
 of the native nobilitj. Even the name was, 
 for a short time, abolished, and succeeded l)y 
 that of Patrician, though it was speedily re- 
 stored, together with the original ensigns of 
 power. But at length Innoc(;nt III. broke off 
 the h'lst link of the imjM'rial jjowcr. He re- 
 jcctr'd at the same tiu)e its ancient (Mubleuj ; 
 and while he absolved the Pnifcct from all de- 
 ix iidciire of oaths or Kcrvicc; on the. (icirman 
 lOmpcrors, lie nimovcd tin; sword from his 
 hand, and substitut* d a jx accful Ixtnncr in its 
 plan*. 
 
 But the traiifjtiillity of Rome was not H(v 
 cured by its indr jx ndcnrc; ; and other rliMuges 
 •ucceeded, in the difficult Mtt»«mi)t at K<'lf-gov- 
 crnment by a people; educated almost in an- 
 
 archy. In the first mstance, the name and 
 authority of the Senate was condensed in the 
 office of a single magistrate — the Senator; 
 and soon afterwards in that of two colleagues. 
 The most jealous precautions* were taken to 
 I secure their integrity, or, at least, their harm 
 lessness. But they were still Romans; and 
 the turbulence of the subjects seem to have 
 been rivalled by the rapacity of the rulers. 
 Another scheme, which had been elsewhftre 
 successful, was then applied to the disorders 
 of Rome. In the dearth of native virtue, oi 
 at least in the despair of domestic dismterest- 
 edness and impartiality, she called to the helm 
 of state a foreign governor. It was about the 
 year 1250, that Brancaleone of Bologna was 
 chosen Senator ; and, in the progress of sev- 
 enty-eight years, the same office was filled and 
 dignified by Charles of Anjou (about 1265,) 
 by Pope IMartin IV. (in 1281,) and lastly, by 
 Lewis of Bavaria ; ' and thus (says Gibbon) 
 both the sovereigns of Rome acknowledged 
 her liberty by accepting a municipal office in 
 the government of their own metropolis.' A 
 government susceptible of such strange ano- 
 malies could not hope for peace or perma- 
 nence. Even the secession of the Popes to 
 Avignon did not emancipate Rome from th(?ir 
 occasional sway, and their ceaseless persecu- 
 tion. And thus the people were doubly suf- 
 ferers — they suffered, when subject, from the 
 weakness of an absent sceptre — they suffered, 
 when independent, from the pei-petual strug- 
 gles which were made to reduce them. After 
 seventy years of foreign residence, the Pontiffs 
 returned to their legitimate abode. But the 
 schism, which immediately followed the res- 
 toration, s^ill further enfeebled a grasp already 
 trembling with the weight of the temporal 
 sword. That inveterate turbulence, transmit- 
 ted through so many ages, continued for some 
 generations longer ; and it was not until the 
 middle of the fifteenth century, that the pon- 
 tifical city became permanently subject to 
 ])ontifical government. 
 
 Temporal policy of Innocent. From tliia 
 short anticipation of some future events, wo 
 return to observe the working of that i)ow- 
 erfid haFid, which influenced so deeply the 
 
 ♦ According to tlic laws of Rojue (in the fifieenth 
 century), ihc Senator was re(|uirc(l to Ihj a Doctor 
 of Law.H, an alien, of some place at least forty miles 
 (li.»1ant, and nnconnecled, to the third canonical de- 
 Rree, with any Roman inhabitant. The election wni 
 annual; the departure from oflico was attended will: 
 a Fev«;rc Bcruliny; nor could tiie Hain<! piMson bo rc« 
 elected until nfivr two years. The salary was 300C 
 fl(jrinH (jil)l)on. c. 70. 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 
 
 281 
 
 Sestuiies of the Church, and which hifluenc- 
 ed them aUnost wholly for evil — and in no 
 one respect more so, than when it construct- 
 ed the temporal fabric for the support of a 
 power essentially spiritual, and waved before 
 those brilliant portals the dark bloodstained 
 edge of the material sword. Possibly the 
 powerful mind of Innocent was seduced into 
 those projects by the inviting circumstances 
 of the moment. During his entire i)ontificate 
 the situation of the empire was extremely fa- 
 vorable to any hostile schemes. The legiti- 
 mate sovereign (afterwards Frederic II.) was 
 a minor, and the sceptre was for some time 
 disputed by two princes (Philip and Otho 
 IV.,) to each of whom the patronage of the 
 Pontiff was equally important. At a later 
 period, after the death of Philip, the dissen- 
 sion was renewed, in another form, but with 
 the same character, between Otho and Fred- 
 eric ; and the latter of these rivals now be- 
 came as anxious to cultivate the friendship of 
 the Pope, as heretofore the former. Inno- 
 cent availed himself of these advantages to 
 enrich and fortify the Church at the expense 
 of all those disputants, or at least of the em- 
 pire which they disputed. Accordingly, one 
 of the earliest acts of his reign was to dis- 
 arm the Prefect of all authority derived from 
 abroad, and thus to erase the last remaining 
 vestige of German domination. Again, the 
 extensive donation of territory which the 
 Princess IMatilda had made to the Roman 
 see, during the administration of Gregory 
 VII., had been unceasingly contested by the 
 empire ; and the greater force had generally 
 constituted the better right. Innocent, to- 
 wards the end of his pontificate, was enabled 
 so far to profit by the weakness of Frederic, 
 as to obtain from that prince a formal confir- 
 mation of the grant; at the same time, a con- 
 siderable territorial cession, made to the see 
 by the Count of Fundi, received the same 
 ratification. It is proper, indeed, to ascribe 
 the completion of this work to Nicholas IV., 
 who ruled about seventy years afterwards. 
 That Pope reduced under his dominion some 
 cities, which had hitherto owned a nominal 
 allegiance to the Emperor ; and extended the 
 states of the Church to those nearly which 
 are their present boundaries. But to Nicho- 
 las no higher celebrity is due, than that he 
 pursued with success the policy which had 
 descer.ded to him from his predecessors, and 
 which had received its first impulse from 
 Innocent ; for, until his pontificate, the tem- 
 poralities of the see, notwithstanding the suc- 
 36 
 
 cessive donations (pretended * or real) of 
 Constantino, and Pepin, and Charlemagne, 
 and Lewis the Meek, and even Matilda, form- 
 ed, in fact, if not a mere field for incessant 
 contention, at best a very precarious and un 
 profitable possession. 
 
 II. On the Usurpations of Papal over Royal 
 Authority. — In respect to this part of the i)on- 
 tifical system, we have already seen that the 
 equivocal glory of creating it is not due to 
 Innocent; he received it from former (per- 
 haps from better) ages, among the established 
 duties of the apostolical office. It was sealed 
 by the consent of many venerable Pontiffs ; by 
 the authority of Gregory VII. It was con- 
 genial to the unconverted pride of the human 
 heart — tliat passion, which burnt most fierce- 
 ly in the breast of Innocent, and whicli the 
 waters of the gospel were seldom invited to 
 allay. His was indeed the character formed, 
 under whatsoever ordination of Providence, 
 to fill up the outlines so daringly traced, and 
 to pursue the scheme which his great prede- 
 cessor had bequeathed to him. The same 
 circumstances which forwarded his other 
 temporal projects were, as far as they exten- 
 ded, favorable to this. Once more he drew 
 his strength from the divisions of the empire. 
 He deposed Philip — Philip denied his right — 
 but it was willingly acknowledged by the rival 
 Otho, who did not scruple to accept (in 1209) 
 the diadem from the pontifical hand. Only 
 three years afterwards the Pope pronounced, 
 in the same plenitude of power, the same 
 sentence of anathema aud deposition against 
 Otho. With what justice could Otho dispute 
 the power by which he had deigned to rise ? 
 The vacant throne was then conferred upon 
 Frederic. 
 
 A purely spiritual despotism can rest on no 
 other ground than popular prejudice — com- 
 mands which have no visible power to enforce 
 them will only be obeyed through a general 
 predisposition to believe, that they proceed 
 from some still superior authorit}^ The mo 
 narch would have derided the sentence of de- 
 position, had it not found attention and resj)ect 
 among his subjects. That it should ever have 
 acquired such general respect may indeed 
 seem strange, and the causes which were then 
 
 * Sismondi (Repub. Ital. c. iii.) remarks that 'as 
 the act of Pepin's donation is lost, we know not on 
 what conditions it may have been made.' He also 
 expresses a reasonable doubt, whether this donation, 
 though nominally confirmed by Charlemagne and 
 Lewis, was ever effectuated 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 sufficiexiC for that end could only have operat- 
 ed in a very blind and ignorant age. For in- 
 stance, the mere ceremony of coronation by 
 the Pope, to which the Emperoi-s, in imitation 
 !of Charlemagne, had almost invaiiably sub- 
 mitted, would seem to afford no trifluig pre- 
 text for the claims of the former ; since it was 
 ;in those days an easy inference that the crown, 
 'which for many generations had been habit- 
 ually received from the hand of the Pope, 
 could not legally be worn except through such 
 presentation ; and then it followed, since there 
 were many who zealously inculcated the con- 
 sequence, that the gift conferred was in fact 
 tRe properly of the donor,* who again had 
 po^ver to recall his gift, and present it to some 
 worthier candidate. At the same time we 
 should never lose sight of that general vener- 
 ation for the throne of St. Peter, which at 
 that period especially overspread the prostrate 
 nations, and overawed the reason of man ; 
 for it was, in truth, not an uncommon belief 
 that the blessed Apostle invisibly presided 
 over the altar of his martyrdom, and guarded 
 and sanctified with mysterious majesty the 
 chair of his successors. 
 
 The eagerness with which the emperors 
 generally courted the ceremony of coronation, 
 though it was attended by circumstances very 
 hujiiiliating to their pride, certainly proves 
 that there existed among their subjects a strong 
 feeling as to its propriety, perhaps its necessi- 
 ty. But that which gave the greatest color to 
 the extreme pretensions of the See, was the 
 readiness with which princes acknowledged 
 them, when they found their profit in tlie ac- 
 knowledgment. The very edicts which they 
 rejected with scorn when addressed to them- 
 selves, they embraced and effectuated when 
 levelled against a rival. The right, as a gen- 
 eral right, was never contested. The partial 
 interests of the moment overpowered every 
 consideration of a broader })olicy ; and thus 
 amid the ever-reviving jealousies and dissen- 
 sions of inonarchs and pretenders, the con- 
 sistent perseverance of the Vatican established 
 the most groundless claims, and accomplished 
 the most extravagant i)urpo8e8. Of course 
 the agents for the diRs<!mination of its princi- 
 ples and the instruments of its success were 
 
 • Tliia inference rcfiuircd, of course, a large Bliare 
 of zr-al in tlio tcarher and docility in tiic diHriplc. 
 The ratriarcli of ('onH(aMliti(»|)lo ha<l poHWHHcd from 
 the rarlioHt at^i'H tlio olTice of crowning' (In; Circck 
 cm[»eror, uillioul evfr drfamin^f tliat lie ar(|iiin'd any 
 iort of inliT«'Ht in the crown itwif by tlie |)crf(»rnianre 
 of an ordinary cfn'Miony. Ilut errloHiaHtical inattcrH 
 «iferc very difli-renlly conducted in tlio went. 
 
 the ecclesiastical orders, and especially the 
 monks ; and the very general union and co^ 
 operation which at this time prevailed (more 
 perhaps than at any other period, more cer- 
 tainly than at any later period) between the 
 Pope, the clergy, and the monasteries, facilitat- 
 ed the execution of Innocent's boldest designs. 
 
 Contest with Philippe Auguste. The first 
 interference of that pontiff in the affairs o^* 
 the French court was defended by precedents, 
 and occasioned by an offence at all times pe - 
 culiarly liable to spiritual jurisdiction. Phil 
 ippe Auguste having espoused a Danish prin 
 cess, named Ingelburg, or Isemburg, hastened 
 on the very day following the nuptials to di- 
 vorce her. He pretended to have discovered 
 that they were connected by too near a de- 
 gree of affinity ; and after some investigation, 
 at which two legates of Pope Celestine as- 
 sisted, the marriage was declared null. In- 
 nocent, probably considering that concession 
 as extorted from the timidity of hispredeces 
 sor, lost no time in setting aside the divorce, 
 and commanding the king to take back his 
 bride. He refused, and an interdict was im- 
 mediately thrown on the whole kingdom. 
 The public offices of worship were suspend- 
 ed ; even the doors of the churches were 
 closed ; the Sacrament of Christ was no long- 
 er administered,* and the rites of marriage 
 and sepulture remained unperformed. We 
 should here recollect, that with the mass of 
 an ignorant people professing a corrupt form 
 of faith, the public exercise of religion con- 
 stituted, in fact, its entire substance. Depriv- 
 ed of that, they had no refuge in private prayer, 
 or the consolations of internal devotion. To 
 such ])ersons the sentence of an interdict 
 must have fallen like an immediate edict of 
 rejection and separation from heaven ; and 
 such in the twelflh century was the multitude 
 
 * Wc should iiicniion, that even under the oppres- 
 sion of the severest interdict, the sacraments of Bap- 
 tism, Confession, and Extreme Unction still continued 
 to be administered. But it was attended by other pro- 
 hibitions, not strictly of a religious nature, calculated 
 to insj)ire gloom and fanaticism. The hair, for in- 
 stance, and the beard were to be left unshaven ; the 
 use of n)eat was forbidden; and even the ordinary 
 salutation was prohibited. But the suspension ot 
 sepulture, the exposure of the corpses to dogs or birds, 
 or even their promiscuous interment in unhallowed 
 ground, was probably in practice the most appalling 
 part of the sentence. I''ron> the learned treatise, * Do 
 rOrigin(! et du I'rogrt^s dcs IiilerdilH Ecclesiastiques,* 
 by I'i(;rre Pillion, it appears that there were indicU' 
 tiona of such an exercise of ecclesiastical power in 
 very early iig«'H; though it was not applied to any 
 grand purpose, ns a pontifical implement, until the 
 time of llildebrund. 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT HI. 
 
 283 
 
 ©f evei-y class. Philippe Auguste was a prince 
 of uncommon resolution and address. Nev- 
 ertheless he found it expedient to bend before 
 the tempest, and obey the pontifical mandate. 
 
 This was the earliest triumph of Innocent, 
 wad it encouraged his ambition to attempt 
 more daring achievements. At least he c'id 
 not long confine it to objects which oflfered 
 any particular justification, but advanced on 
 the broadest ground of universal interference. 
 In a bull published in 1197, he declared, ' that 
 it was not fit that any man should be invested 
 with authority, who did not serve and obey 
 the Holy See.' At another time he proclaim- 
 ed, ' that he would not endure the least con- 
 tempt of himself, or of God, whose place he 
 held on earth, but would punish every diso- 
 bedience without delay, and convince the 
 whole world that he was determined to act 
 like a sovereign.' ' As the sun and the mooji 
 are placed in the firmament, the greater as 
 the light of the day and the lesser of the night, 
 so are there two powers in the church, the 
 pontifical, which, as having the charge of 
 souls, is the greater ; and the royal, which is 
 the lesser, and to which only the bodies of 
 men are trusted.'* ' Though I cannot judge 
 of a fief,'f said Innocent to the kings of France 
 and England, 'yet it is my province to judge 
 when sin is committed, and my duty to pre- 
 vent all public scandals.' This was indeed 
 the loftiest and the most respectable ground 
 on which the Papal pretensions could be 
 placed; and if the Bishops of Rome had 
 really been contented with the exercise of a 
 beneficial authority — if they had employed 
 the mighty power with which they found 
 themselves invested, only for the reconciliation 
 of enmities, for the concord, the morality, the 
 most obvious interests of the human race, then, 
 indeed, we might have forgotten the origin 
 of that power in its blessed uses, and pardon- 
 ed to the Vicar of Christ his presumptuous 
 appellation, when we saw him engaged in 
 doing the works of Christ, and consoling his 
 children upon earth. 
 
 Hov/ever, the interference, even of Innocent 
 
 * Innocent's famous Rescript to the emperor of 
 Constantinople (in which the above allegory is pro- 
 duced) respected chiefly the immunity of clerks; and 
 as it was founded on the maxims published by Gra- 
 tian, which were themselves founded on the False 
 Decretals, so itself became in process of time a new 
 Decretal, the groundwork, if necessary, of other still 
 more inordinate pretensions. It was thus that the 
 system grew. 
 
 f The general cognizance of causes relating to fiefs 
 had escaped, as it would seem, ecclesiastical usurpa- 
 tion. 
 
 III., was not always for evil On the strength 
 of his delegated authority he dictated a truce 
 to Philippe and Richard, and after some diffi- 
 culties obliged both parties to submit to it. 
 It was about the same time that he directed 
 one of his legates to compel the observance 
 of peace between the Kings of Castile and 
 Portugal, if necessary, by excommunication 
 and interdict. He moreover enjoined the 
 King of Arragon to restore to its intrinsic 
 value the coin which he had lately debased, 
 thereby oppressing and defrauding his sub- 
 jects. The mere wanton display of power 
 may not have been his motive — some gener 
 ous considerations may sometimes have iti 
 fluenced him. ' A great mind (says Hallam,) 
 such as Innocent III. undoubtedly possessed, 
 though prone to sacrifice every other object 
 to ambition, can never be indifferent to the 
 beauty of social order and the happiness of 
 mankind.' 
 
 Not contented to influence the most vigor- 
 ous monarchs of the most powerful king- 
 doms of the age, he descended to issue his 
 edicts to inferior princes. He sent forth in- 
 structions to the King of Navarre respecting 
 the restoration of certain castles to Richard 
 He distributed the insignia of royalty to Bris- 
 cislaus, Duke of Bohemia, and to the Dukes 
 of Wallachia and Bulgaria. He conferred 
 the crown of Arragon on Peter II. as his sub- 
 ject and tributary. And finally (that no race 
 or clime might seem inaccessible to his arm), 
 he gave a king to the Armenian nation, dwell- 
 ing on the border of the Caspian Sea. 
 
 IVith John of England. Yet, with all this 
 extent of despotic sway, it was in England 
 that his boldest pretensions were advanced, 
 and advanced with the most surprising suc- 
 cess. The circumstances are known to all 
 readers. In the year 1199, Richard I. was 
 succeeded on the throne by John, the feeblest 
 of the human race ; and that prince was pre- 
 sently assailed by an outrage from the Holy 
 See, which disturbed for some years the Ve- 
 pose and allegiance of his subjects, and the 
 stability of his throne. On the vacancy of 
 the see of Canterbury, the monks in chapte: 
 publicly elected to that dignity John, BisLop 
 of Norwich, who was recommended and con- 
 firmed by the King. At the same time they 
 chose, at a private meeting, Reginald, their 
 own sub-prior,* and sent him to Rome for in- 
 stitution. When this matter was referred to 
 Innocent, he immediately revei*sed both elec- 
 tions, and nominated Stephen Langton, a 
 
 * Pagi Brev. Pont. Rom. Vit. lunoc ill. Sec*. 49 
 
284 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Koman cardinal, of English descent. The 
 chapter listened to the spiritual, in preference 
 to the temporal, tyrant ; and the monks were 
 in consequence expelled from their residence, 
 and their property was confiscated. The 
 Pope proceeded with no less energy to en- 
 force his asserted rights, and commanded the 
 Bishops of London, Worcester, and Ely, to 
 lay tlie whole kingdom under an interdict. 
 There were some prelates, however, and 
 several inferior ecclesiastics, who hesitated 
 to enforce this edict: and since John made 
 no concession. Innocent issued, in the follow- 
 ing year (1201), a bull of excommunication 
 against the name and person of the sovereign. 
 This sentence, still ineffectual, was followed, 
 in 1211, by another yet more appalling. The 
 subjects of John were absolved from their 
 allegiance, and commanded to avoid his pre- 
 sence. Yet as even this measure was insuffi- 
 cient for his entire success, he had then re- 
 course to the last and most dangerous among 
 the bolts of the Vatican. He pronounced the 
 final sentence of deposition ; and having de- 
 clared the vacancy of the throne, gave force 
 to his words by conferring it upon Philippe 
 Auguste of France. At the same time he 
 ordered that monarch to execute the sentence. 
 
 Philippe's obedience was secured by his 
 ambition ; he was joined by the exiles of his 
 ri\ al's tyranny ; and to ensure his success, 
 or, more probably, to complete the consterna- 
 tion of John, Innocent proclaimed a crusade 
 against the English king as against an infidel 
 or a heretic. The armies were assembled on 
 both sides, and hostilities were on the point 
 cf commencing, when Pandulj)h, the legate 
 of the Pope, presented himself at the camp 
 at Dover. He there disi)layed the final de- 
 mands of the Pope, and the King had cour- 
 age to resist no longer. The demands to 
 wiiich he submitted were these, — that he 
 should resign his crown to the legate, and re- 
 ceive it again as a present from the Holy See; 
 th«t he should declare his dominions tributary 
 to the same See; and that he should do hom- 
 age and swear fealty to Innocijnt, as a vassal 
 and £ feudatory. The shani(! of this humilia- 
 tion was increased by the cercinony attending 
 ii ; by the multitude of Horrowfiil or indignant 
 witneHH(;s; by the wry mftnncr * in which the 
 haughty legate bon; hiniself on his triumph. 
 Yet, to the ey(; of an earnest and U'rv(!nt 
 Papist, is th«; degradatir)n of I'higland's mon- 
 
 ♦ Airifing ollirr circiimHl}inr,CB it is rclatrd, thai 
 Pandiilpli (lid artiially k«fp the crown in hin pr)HB('H- 
 «ion for Home iiiiiiiiicii. 'I'lic annuul tribute Blipidatfd 
 waH irXK) riiaikM 
 
 arch, while he stood waiting, amid his nobles 
 and his soldiers, to accept his crown from the 
 suspended hand of Pandulph — is it, after all, 
 a spectacle of such lofty exultation — is it a 
 picture so flattering to his spiritual, even to 
 his ecclesiastical, pride — as the half-naked 
 form of the imperial penitent of older days, 
 shivering, with his scanty train of attendants, 
 before the castle gates of Gregory ? 
 
 III. The Increase of Pontifical Avthority 
 tvithin the Church. — The description of John's 
 humiliation, and of the steps which led to it, 
 connects the second with the third part of 
 this inquiry — for, in the first place, it shows 
 the extent to which Innocent carried his 
 claims to patronage within the Church ; and 
 in the next, it exhibits one motive of the 
 general anxiety evinced by the see to extend 
 that internal influence. The Interdict, which 
 was now become the favorite instrimient 
 of papal usurpation, however formidable in 
 name and deed, was an empty denunciation, 
 unless enforced by the personal exertions of 
 the Bishops, and even of the inferior clergy 
 of the kingdom subjected to it — as we, indeed, 
 observed, that in England the sentence of 
 Innocent failed of its full effect, through the 
 opposition of a part of the clergj\ And thus, 
 in any project of temporal aggrandizement 
 which a Pope might undertake, success could 
 never be secured unless he could command 
 the co-operation of the very great proportion 
 of the ecclesiastical body. It was partly for 
 this reason that so many foreign, and espe- 
 cially Italian, prelates were j)laced, for many 
 ages, in English sees. In Germany, too, In- 
 nocent showed the same anxiety to extend 
 his right of appointment ; by a formal caj)it- 
 ulation with Otho IV. he obtained that of 
 decision in disputed cases ; and it is obvious 
 to what easy abuse it was liable. In other 
 countries he advanced the same claim, which 
 had been so fatally disputed in England, with 
 less resistance and ecpial success. His exam- 
 ple was imitated by following Pontiffs : and 
 the facility thus acquired, of exciting rebellion 
 amongst a restless nobility and a superstitious 
 peoi)le, against a weak and arbitrary govern- 
 ment, lerrifi(Ml the boldest monarciis, and fre- 
 quently led them to sacrifice the fiiture secu- 
 rity of the crown to the iiopcs or aj>prehen- 
 sions of the moment. 
 
 The Sahtilin Tar. On the other hand, the 
 very great pr(»gress made by Imiocent in ex- 
 tending llie papal influ(Mic<« among the priest- 
 hood, was cotniteracted l»y h nieasiu(^ wliich 
 may have been necessitated by other causes, biU 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 
 
 285 
 
 ivhich certainly was ill calculated to increase 
 the attachment of that body. Not contented 
 to exact from them very considerable occa- 
 sional contributions, he imposed a regular tax 
 on ecclesiastical property, and he was the first 
 Pope who ventured upon that measure. It 
 was called the Saladin tax ; and it is true that 
 the service of religion, — whether in Langiie- 
 doc or in Palestine, for the murder of Sara- 
 cens or of heretic Christians, — was alike the 
 pretext, and in part the motive, for those ex- 
 actions. Nevertheless, they were advanced 
 with reluctance ; and the innovation was the 
 less tolerable, as it would certainly become a 
 precedent for future and more oppressive ex- 
 tortions. 
 
 It is also necessary to observe, that the 
 collective power of the episcopal order was 
 not so great at that time as it had been in the 
 ninth or tenth, or even in the earlier part of 
 the eleventh century, owing to the gradu- 
 al disuse of those national synods which, 
 in former ages, controlled the conduct of 
 kings. But we should at the same time re- 
 mark, that the authority thus lost by the 
 hierarchy was not gained by the sovereign. 
 It changed owners, indeed, but it did not 
 pass out of the possession of the church. It 
 was merely transferred from one part of that 
 body to another; from the members to the 
 head ; from the prelacy to the Pope : and by 
 him it was exercised with a restless audacity, 
 an unity of design, and a consistent persever- 
 ance, which could not possibly have directed 
 a long series of local and dependent councils. 
 So that the change in the constitution of the 
 cliurch, by which it became less aristocratical, 
 (if we may so apply that term,) and more des- 
 potic, though it considerably altered the rela- 
 tive positions of the crown and the mitre, did 
 not at all increase the preponderance of the 
 former ; on the contrary, the greater con- 
 centration of ecclesiastical authority in one 
 instead of many hands, made it a more dan- 
 gerous rival to the civil government. The 
 advance of pontifical po\^ er was very closely 
 connected with the improvement of disci- 
 pline, and the progress of that system of 
 uniformity, which was designed entirely to 
 pervade and bind together the Universal 
 Church. 
 
 The fourth Lateran Council. Among the 
 most important acts of Innocent's pontificate 
 was the convocation of the fourth Lateran 
 Council, — the most numerous and most cel- 
 ebrated of the ancient assemblies of the Latin 
 church. This august body consisted cf near- 
 
 ly five hundred* archbishops and bishops, 
 besides a much greater multitude of abbot? 
 and priors, and delegates of absent j)reiatcS, 
 and ambassadors from most of the Christian 
 courts of the west and of the east. It met 
 together in the November of 1215, for the 
 professed consideration of two grand objects. 
 The first was the recovery of the Holy Land • 
 the second was the Reformation of the church 
 in fiith and in discipline. Seventy canons 
 were then dictated by Innocent, and received 
 its obsequious confirmation. It does not ap- 
 pear that its deliberations (if they may so be 
 called) were attended with any freedom of 
 debate; and within a month f from the day 
 of its opening, having executed its appointed 
 office, it was dismissed. 
 
 Among the articles on that occasion enact 
 ed, there were several wisely constructed for 
 the welfare of the Roman Catholic church : 
 they amplified the body of the canon law, 
 and regulated in many respects the practice 
 of ecclesiastical procedures, which is follow- 
 ed to this day. But as we cannot in this 
 work pursue such a variety of matter into its 
 detail, we shall select only those which were 
 the most important in substance or in conse- 
 quence. 
 
 Ti-ansuhsianiiation. If any doubt hitheiio 
 remained in the orthodox church respecting 
 the manner in which the body and blood of 
 Christ were present at the Eucharist, it was 
 on this occasion removed by Innocent, who 
 unequivocally established, or rather confirm- 
 ed,! that which is now, and which had then 
 been for some time, the doctrine of Roman 
 Catholics. Moreover, as he well knew the 
 efficacy of a name to propagate and per- 
 petuate a dogma, and also that he might have 
 a fixed verbal test whereby to try the opinions 
 and obviate the evasions of heretics, he in- 
 
 * The numbers are, of course, variously stated ; 
 that of the archbishops at seventy-one or seventy -seven, 
 that of the bishops generally at four hundred and 
 twelve, that of the abbots and priors at eight hun- 
 dred. 
 
 f This fact alone proves that the canons in question 
 were not made matter of discussion with that nu- 
 merous assembly. 
 
 X Mosheim is probably wrong in supposing that 
 full liberty had hitherto been left to pious persons to 
 interpret the doctrine according to tlieir own reason. 
 The sense of the church w-as sufficiently expressed by 
 the councils which were held against Berenger; or 
 had it not been so, at least the Council of Piacenza 
 confirmed the doctrine explicitly declared on former 
 occasions. It only remained to Innocent to ascertait 
 and consolidate the doctrine by the term 
 
:286 HISTORY OF 
 
 vented and stamped upon that tenet the name 
 of ' Transubstantiatiou.' 
 
 Sacramental confession. Another canon 
 ^the twenty-first) strictly enjoined to all the 
 faith fill of both sexes, to make, at least once 
 In the year, a private confession of their 
 Bins, and that to their own priest or curate ; 
 and to fiilfil the penance which he might im- 
 pose on them. They were at the same time 
 prohibited from confessing to any other priest, 
 without the special j)ennission of their own.* 
 They were also directed, under severe eccle- 
 siastical penalties in case of neglect, to receive 
 the Eucharist at Easter, unless a particular 
 dispensation should be granted them, also by 
 their own priest. By this regulation, the 
 system of auricular confession was indeed 
 carried to very refined perfection ; and there 
 is no reason to doubt that a canon, which im- 
 parted even to the lowest of the priesthood 
 such close and searching influence over the 
 conscience and conduct of a superstitious gen- 
 eration, was speedily brought into universal 
 operation. That in some instances, that on 
 VC17 many particular occasions, the effect of 
 this influence has been beneficial to society ; 
 that sinful dispositions have been frequently 
 repressed and crimes prevented by the present 
 and immediate control of a pious minister, 
 is not merely probable, but indisputable. But 
 Es a system of morality, that could not possi- 
 bly be creative of righteous principles which 
 held out, through bodily penance, a periodi- 
 cal absolution from sin, — even if the hands 
 (vhich administered it were always j)ure. 
 But when we consider the abuse to which 
 such a power is necessarily liable, and how 
 greatly, too, it would increase through the 
 abuse, we cannot fail to perceive that it was a 
 machine too povvcrfiil to be intrusted to the 
 necessary infirmity, to the possible caprice or 
 wickedness, of man. 
 
 Extinction of Heresy. By the proposed re- 
 formation in the faith of the Church, nothing 
 was in fiict meant, exciipt the extirpation of 
 here8y,'and this wfis the first object presented 
 to the attention of the council. After a for- 
 mal exposition of faith, upon those points 
 especially on which the existing erroi-s were 
 
 * The sarnimcnt was taken immediately after con- 
 fcHHion. * This Ih llic first canon, as far as I know,' 
 says rienry, ' which imposes tlic general ol)li(;ali(»n 
 of Bacramental confession. There was tlien a par- 
 ticular reanon for it, on accoimt of the errors of the 
 Vaiuluifl and Albif^eois toucliin^ the sacrament of 
 penance.' At th*; Oiuncil of Tonlotise, in 122H, the 
 confession an<l sacrament were enjoined thrice in the 
 yCBr; hut thi^ a^'ain was in the very focus of her«'sy. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 supposed to have arisen, the Pope and the 
 Prelates immediately proceeded (in the third 
 canon) to anathematize every heresy. As 
 soon as they are condemned (says the Coun- 
 cil,) they shall be abandoned to the secular 
 power, to receive the suitable punishment. 
 The goods of laymen shall be confiscated ; 
 those of clerks applied to the uses of their re- 
 spective churches. Those who shall only be 
 suspected of heresy, if they do not clear 
 themselves by sufficient justification, shall be 
 excommunicated. If they remain a year un- 
 der the suspicion, they shall be treated as 
 heretics. The secular powers shall be ad- 
 vised, and, if need be, constrained by cen- 
 sures, to make public oath that they will 
 exile all heretics marked out by the Church. 
 If the temporal lord, on admonition, shall 
 neglect to free his teiTitories from their pol- 
 lution, he^shall be excommunicated by the 
 Metropolitan and the other Bishops of the 
 province ; and if he should not submit with- 
 in a 3'^ear, .the Pope shall be informed ; to the 
 end that he may pronounce his vassals absol- 
 ved from the oath of fidelity, and expose his 
 domain to the conquest of the Catholics. 
 These, after having expelled the heretics, 
 shall peaceably possess and preserve it in 
 doctrinal purity — saving the right of the liege 
 lord, provided he oflfer no obstacle to the ex- 
 ecution of this decree. . . It is remarkable 
 that this decree, which placed secular author 
 ities directly at the disposal of the spiritual, 
 and on the penalty, not of sj)iritual censures 
 onl}'^, but of subjugation and military posses- 
 sion, was enacted in the presence, and with 
 the consent, of the ambassadors of several 
 sovereigns. But this subject has already led 
 us to the last division of the chapter, into 
 which we shall properly enter with a general 
 inquiry as to the forms which heresy assum- 
 ed in that age, and the measures which Inno- 
 cent actually adopted for its extinction. 
 
 IV. On the Exliiyalion of Heresy. — Since 
 the t(M-minntion of the controversy concerning 
 images, nearly four hinidred years had elnj)sed, 
 during which the Clnnrh had been very rarely 
 disturbed by doctrinal dissension; and amid 
 the various vices which may have stained, in 
 so long a space, her jirincij)les and her disci- 
 pline, siie was at least free from the blackest 
 of all her crimes, since her hands were frcc 
 from blood. The cucliaristical opinion of 
 .Tohanncs Scotiis, as it had been nourished by 
 th(^ i)artial brightness of the ninth century, 
 and overshadowed, btit not oppniS'-ed, by the 
 stupid indilferenct; of the tentli, so, when re 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 
 
 287 
 
 vived by Berenger, it disappeared in the su- 1 
 perstitioii of the eleventh, without violence or 
 outrage. Not, perhaps, because the ecclesi- 
 astics of that age were tolerant or temperate, 
 out rather, because its advocates were not 
 sufficiently numerous or formidable to make 
 a general persecution necessary for its sup- 
 pression. But in the dawning light of the 
 twelfth age some new heresies were called 
 into life, and others, which had previously 
 lain hid, were discovered and exposed : so 
 that the attention of men was more generally 
 turned to the subject, and the rulers of the 
 Church were roused from their long and 
 harmless repose. Since it was even thus early 
 that several of the Protestant opinions were 
 publicly professed, and expiated by death ; 
 and since these may be traced, under a variety 
 of forms and names, but with the same iden- 
 tifying character, from the beginning of the 
 twelfth century to the Reformation ; it is prop- 
 er to notice the first obscure vestiges which 
 they have left in history. In so doing, we 
 shall first describe those sects which were 
 founded (in the West at least) at that time ; 
 we shall then proceed to the mention of the 
 Vaudois, to whom a still earlier existence is, 
 with great probability, ascribed. 
 
 The Petrohrussians. — About the year 1110, 
 a preacher, named Pierre de Bruys, began to 
 declaim against the corruptions of the Church, 
 and the vices of its ministers. The principal 
 field of his exenions was the south of France, 
 Provence and Languedoc, and he continued, 
 for about twenty years, to disseminate his 
 opinions with success, and, what may seem 
 more strange, with impunity. Those opinions 
 may probably have contained much that was 
 erroneous; but they are known to us only 
 through the representations of his adversaries. 
 In a Letter or Treatise, composed against his 
 followers (thence called Petrohrussians,) by 
 the Venerable Abbot of Cluni, * they are 
 charged with a variety of offences, which the 
 writer reduces under five heads — (1.) The re- 
 jection of infant baptism. (2.) The contempt 
 of churches and altars, as unnecessary for the 
 service of a spiritual and omnipresent Being. 
 (3.) The destruction of crucifixes, on the same 
 principle, as instruments of superstition. (4.) 
 The disparagement of the holy sacrifice of 
 the Eucharist, in asserting that the body and 
 blood were not really consecrated by the 
 priests. (5.) Disbelief in the efiicacy of the 
 oblations, prayers, and good works of the 
 
 * Petri VenerabilJs, Lib. contra Petrobrussianos, 
 in Biblioth. Cluniensi 
 
 living for the salvation of the dead. These 
 errors, howsoever various in magnitude, are 
 controverted with equal warmth by Peter the 
 Abbot ; but that which appears to have been 
 most dangerous to the heretic, was the third ; 
 at least we learn, that in the year 1130, the 
 Catholic inhabitants of St. Giles's in Langue- 
 doc were roused by their priests to holy indig- 
 nation against that sacrilege ; and consigned 
 the offender to those flames, which nis own 
 hand had so frequently fed with the images 
 of Christ. He was burnt alive in a populai 
 tumult ; and this may possibly be the suffer- 
 ing to which St. Bernard, in a passage already 
 cited, has made allusion. But the errors were 
 not thus easily consumed ; the list, on the 
 contrary, was enlarged by many additional 
 notions, proceeding, some from the piety, 
 others from the ignorance, of his followers. 
 
 The Hemicians. One of these, * named 
 Henry, an Italian by birth, obtained a place in 
 the contemporary records, and gave an appel- 
 lation to a sect, from him called Henricians 
 This enthusiast traversed the south of France, 
 from Lausanne to Bourdeaux, preceded by 
 two disciples, who carried, like himself, long 
 staffs, surmounted with crosses, and were 
 habited as Penitents. His stature was lofty, 
 his eyes rolling and restless ; nis powerful 
 voice^ his rapid and uneasy gait, his naked 
 feet and neglected apparel, attracted an atten- 
 tion, which was fixed by the fame of his learn- 
 ing and his sanctity. These qualities gave 
 additional force to his eloquence ; and as it 
 was not uncommonly directed against the un- 
 popular vices of the clergy, he gained m.any 
 proselytes, and excited some connnotions 
 Eugenius III. sent forth, for the suppression 
 of this evil, a legate named Alberic ; but it 
 appears that his mission would have been at- 
 tended with but little success, had he not pre- 
 vailed on St. Bernard to share with hirn the 
 labor and the glory of the enterprise. Henry 
 wxis then in the domain of Alfonso, Count 
 of St. Giles and Toulouse ; and St. Bernard 
 wrote f to prepare that prince for his arrival, 
 
 * Henry is generally described as a disciple aad 
 fellow-laborer of Pierre de Bruys. The objection to 
 this opinion, urged by Mosheim, is, that Henry was 
 preceded in his expeditions by the figure of the cross, 
 whereas Pierre consigned all crucifixes to the flames 
 Without supposing that the object>^ n of Pierre might 
 be to the image of the Saviour, not to the form of 
 the cross, tiie objection is far from conclusive. Some 
 account of the heresies of the twelfth century is given 
 by Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth. 12 Siecle, c. vi 
 
 t Epistol. 240. (Lutet. Paris. 1640.) It begins, 
 ' Quanta audivimus et cognovimus mala quae in ec 
 
288 HISTORY OF 
 
 aiid to signify his motives. ' The churches 
 (he said) are witliout people ; the people with- 
 out priests ; tlie priests without honor ; and 
 Christians without Christ. The churches are 
 no longer conceived holy, nor the sacraments 
 sacred, nor ai'C the festivals any more cele- 
 brated. Men die in their sins — souls are 
 hurried away to the terrible tribunal — without 
 penitence or communion ; baptism is refused 
 to infants, who are thus precluded from sal- 
 vation.' He added many reproaches against 
 Henry, whom he accused of being an apostate 
 monk, a mendicant, a hypocrite, and a debau- 
 chee. The biographers of that Saint relate, 
 that he was received, even in the most con- 
 taminated provinces, like an angel from heav- 
 en ; and at Albi, the place most fatally infected, 
 an immense multitude assembled to hear his 
 preaching. The day which he skilfully se- 
 lected for their conversion, was that of St. 
 Peter. He examined in succession the various 
 peculiarities of their belief, and showed their 
 deviation from the Catholic faith. He then 
 required the people to tell him which of the 
 two they would have. The people immedi- 
 ately declared their horror of heresy, and their 
 oy at the prospect of returning to the bosotn 
 of the Church. ' Return, then, to the Church 
 (replied St. Bernard ;) and that we may the 
 better distinguish those who are sincere, let 
 all true penitents lift up their hands.' They 
 obeyed this injunction with one consent: and 
 though St. Bernard, in the coui-se of a leisurely 
 journey from Clairvaux to All)i, had perform- 
 ed many extraordinary miracles, ' this (as the 
 6imi)l(' Chronicler reports) was the mightiest 
 of all.' Henry himself appears to have fled 
 to Toulouse, whither the eager Abbot pursued 
 him. Thence he once more escaped, and 
 once more St. Bernard followed, purifying the 
 places infected by that pestilence. At length 
 the fugitive was seized and convicted at 
 Rheiiiis, before Eugenius in i)erson, and con- 
 signed to prison (ill 1148,) where he presently 
 afterwanls dird. 
 
 Al)out the same time it would aj)pear that 
 certain other sects, difiering in some less im- 
 I)ortant points among themselves, but united 
 in a sort of desultory ojiposition to the Ro- 
 man Church, had gained footing, not in 
 France only, but in Flanders, in Germany, 
 and ev» n in the north of Italy. Without any 
 formal scjjaration from the ('hurcli, or an en- 
 lire disregard of its j)ublic oHiceH, ihvy had 
 
 cfcuiiH Dei fcoir ft facil (|!ioti(lic Ilcnrinw liiiToliciiH! 
 Vcrsatiir in U-rru vcjiira Hub veHtimciilis oviiiin liipiiN 
 rapax/ Uc. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 1 their own ministers, both Bishops and 
 j Priests, * to whom they paid a more obser- 
 ! vant deference, and whom they affirmed to 
 I be the only legitimate descendants from the 
 i apostles. The opposition of tliese heretics 
 j seems to have been more particulai-ly directed 
 against the wealth and temporal power of the 
 Catholic clergy — but at the same time they 
 rejected infant baptism, the intercession of 
 j saints, purgatory — and professed, in fact, to 
 I receive only those truths which were posi- 
 I tively delivered by Christ or his apostles. 
 They are described to have been extremely 
 ignorant, and confined to the lowest classes. 
 But it is at least certain, that in the principali- 
 ty of Toulouse, the nobility had engaged with 
 some obstinacy in the heresy of the Pauli- 
 j cians — less through eiTor than through design, 
 j and a malicious satisfaction in the humiliation 
 j of the clergy. But the same motives are not 
 less likely to have operated, wheresoever the 
 same or similar oi)inions were promulgated. 
 
 Heresy of the Cathari and Pauliciaiis, An 
 other religious faction had at that time con 
 siderable prevalence, which, under the various 
 names of Cathari (or Catharists — Puritans,) 
 I Gazari, Paterini, Paulicians or Publicans, 
 Bulgari or Bugari, f was more particularly 
 
 * Milner, Cent. xii. c. ill., cites the following pas- 
 sage from Evervinus's Letter to St. Bernard, pre- 
 served by Mabillon, and written about 1140: — 
 ' There Jiave been lately some heretics discovered 
 among us, near Cologne, though several have with 
 satisfaction returned again to ihe Church. One of 
 their Bishops, and his companions, openly opposed 
 us in the assembly of the clergy and laity, in the 
 presence of the Archbishop, and many of the nobilitVj 
 defending the heresies l)y the words of Christ and the 
 apostles. Finding thai they made no impression, 
 they desired that a day might be appointed for tiiem. 
 on which they might bring their teachers to a con- 
 ference, promising to return to the Church, provided 
 they found their masters unable to answer the argu- 
 ments of their opponents; but tliat, otherwise, they 
 would rather die than depart from their judgment. 
 Upon this declaration, having been admonished to 
 repent for three days, they were seized by the people 
 in the excess of zeal, and burnt to death. And what 
 is amazing, they came to the stake, and bare the 
 pain, not only with patience, but even with joy.' 
 
 t Al)()ut the middle of the ihirteenlh cenlnry, the 
 Emperor Frederic H. enumerated all the forms, or 
 rather names, of heresy then most scandalous, in the 
 opening of an edict published against them. It l)c- 
 gins as follows: — ' Catharos, Patarenos, Speromis- 
 tas, Leonislas, Arnahlistas, Circumcisos, Passaginni , 
 JoiM'phinoH, (Jaratonses, Albanenses, Franciscos, Bc- 
 ghardoH, Commissos, Valdenses, Komanolos, Com- 
 muuclloM, Varinos, Orluleuoa, cum illis do Aqua 
 
 I Ni|;rft, ct onuu-H hii-rclicoii . . . damuanius,' &<; S«« 
 
 I LiiMl)iir( l). Ili.'^l. Iii(|uisi( lib. i. c. 12 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III 
 
 charged with Manichsean opinions. The 
 origin of these heretics has been the subject 
 of much controversy ; for while some sup- 
 pose their erroi-s to have been indigenous in 
 Europe, there are others who derive them in 
 a direct Hne from the heart of Asia. It is 
 certain that a very powerful sect named Pau- 
 licians, arid tainted, though they might affect 
 to disclaim it, with the absurdities of Manes, 
 spread very widely throughout the Greek 
 provinces of Asia during the eighth century. 
 It is equally true, that after a merciless perse- 
 cution of about one hundred and fifty years, 
 their remnant, still numerous, was permitted 
 to settle in Bulgaria and Thrace. Thence, as 
 is believed by Muratori, Mosheim, and Gib- 
 bon, they gradually migrated towards the 
 West ; at first, as occasions of war, or com- 
 merce, or mendicity (another name for pil- 
 gi'image) might be presented ; and, latterly, 
 in the returning ranks of the crusaders. It 
 is asserted, that their first migration was into 
 Italy ; that so early as the middle of the 
 eleventh century, many of their colonies were 
 established in Sicily, in Lombardy, Insubna, 
 and principally at Milan ; that others led a 
 wandering life in France, Germany, and other 
 countries ; and that they everywhere attract- 
 ed, by their pious looks and austere demean- 
 our, the admiration and respect of the mul- 
 titude. It is moreover maintained, that these 
 widely scattered congregations were organiz- 
 ed in united obedience to a Primate, who re- 
 sided on the confines of Bulgaria and Dal- 
 matia. In confirmation of the authorities 
 on which these opinions rest, it should be ob- 
 served, that among the various forms of heresy 
 which were detected by the keen eyes of the 
 early Inquisitors, there was scarcely one which 
 escaped the charge of Manichseism. * 
 
 Admitting, then, that this charge was very 
 commonly invented for the purpose of mak- 
 ing the others more detestable, we cannot 
 question that it was sometimes founded in 
 truth. And while, on the one hand, we are 
 far removed from an opinion, that would re- 
 fer the origin of all the earliest Western sects 
 to the emigrants from the East — that would 
 consider, not only the Cathari, but the Petro- 
 brussians, Henricians, and even the Vaudois 
 themselves, as descendants from the family 
 of Manes — it is equally unreasonable to con- 
 tend, that his wild opinions had no existence 
 
 * The first canon of Innocent's Lateran Council 
 distinctly states the church doctrine respecting the 
 Unity of the Deity, in opposition to that of the Two 
 Principles — a sufficient declaration, that many Mani- 
 cha^ans were believed to be found among the heretics. 
 37 
 
 in the West of Europe ; or even to dispute 
 their perpetuation through parties of Pauli- 
 cians, who, from time to time, may have mi- 
 grated into Sicily or Italy. It is indeed unr 
 questionable, that such was the case ; and it 
 is not impossible, that they may have formed 
 even after their dispersion throughout Europe, 
 a distinct and characteristic sect. But it would 
 be absurd to ascribe to their influence the 
 formation of sects, of which the leading prin- 
 ciples were wholly distinct, if not entirely at 
 variance, with those of the Asiatics. Even 
 in the dawn of returning knowledge, the 
 faintest glimmerings of reason were suffi- 
 cient to light the mind to the detection of 
 papal delinquency, of the abberrations of the 
 Church and its ministers. It required not a 
 star from the East to indicate, even in those 
 dark times, how distinct were the principles 
 of the Church from the precepts of the Gos- 
 pel ; or to contrast the deformities of the 
 Clergy with the purity of their heavenly Mas- 
 ter. Such incongruities obtrude themselves 
 perhaps the most forcibly upon illiterate 
 minds, and excite the deepest disgust in the 
 simplest conscience. It is to this cause, that 
 the heresies of those early ages may most 
 confidently be traced — they may indeed have 
 been infected, in a gi*eater or less degree, with 
 some of the notions of the Paulician colonists 
 — but that assuredly was not the source from 
 which they flowed. 
 
 The Vaudois. As we have been careful to 
 distinguish the Catharists, who may have been 
 semi-Manicheean, from the other sects of re- 
 formers who were scattered throughout Eu- 
 roi)e, so we must again consider the Vaudoih 
 or Waldenses as a separate race among these 
 latter, — ^that we may not fall into the error of 
 Mosheim, who ascribes the origin of that sect 
 to an individual named Waldus. Peter Wal 
 dus, or Waldensis, a native of Lyons, was a 
 layman and a merchant ; but, notwithstanding 
 the avocations of a secular life, he had studied 
 the real character of his church with atten- 
 tion, followed by shame. Stung by the spec- 
 tacle of so much impurity, * he abandoned 
 
 * It is said that the worship of the Host, which 
 was first enforced about this time, was the partietilar 
 sunerstition which awakened the indignation of Peter 
 Waldus". If, indeed, that practice was generally es- 
 tablished in 1160, there remained little for Innocent 
 to add to the sanctity of the sacrament thirty-five 
 years afterwards. There is no mention of it in 
 the ancient car)o.n>cai books of the church, — those 
 of Alcuin, Amularius, Walfridus, and Micrologus. 
 I'here is proof, however, that it existed iu France, 
 both at Paris and at Tours, a century at least before 
 Innocent III. In Germany there is also evidence of 
 
290 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 his profession, distributed his wealth among 
 llie poor, and formed an association for the 
 diffusion of scriptural truth. He commenced 
 his ministry about the year 1160. Having 
 previously caused several parts of the Scrip- 
 tures to be translated into the vulgar tongue, 
 he expounded them with great effect to an 
 attentive body of disciples, both in France 
 and Lombardy. In the course of his exer- 
 tions he probably visited the valleys of Pied- 
 mont ; and there he found a people of con- 
 genial spirits. They were called Vaudois or 
 Waldenses (Men of the Valleys) ; and as the 
 preaching of Peter may probably have con- 
 firmed their opinions, and cemented their 
 discipline, he acquired and deserved his sur- 
 ^lame by his residence among them. At the 
 same time, their connexion with Peter and 
 his real Lyonuese disciples established a 
 notion of their identity ; and the Vaudois, in 
 return for the title which they had bestowed, 
 received the reciprocal appellation of Leon- 
 *ists: such, at least, appears the most probable 
 among many varying accounts. * 
 
 There are some who believe the Vaudois 
 to have enjoyed the uninterrupted integrity 
 of the faith even from the apostolic ages ; 
 others suppose them to have been disciples 
 of Claudius Turin, the evangelical prelate of 
 the ninth century. At least, it may be jjro- 
 nounced with great certainty, that they had 
 been long in existence before the visit of the 
 Lyonnese reformer. A Dominican, named 
 Rainer Saccho, who was first a member and 
 afterwards a persecutor of their communion, 
 described them, in a treatise which he wrote 
 against them, to the following purpose: 
 • There is no sect so dangerous as the Leon- 
 ists, for three reasons: first, it is the most an- 
 cient, — some say as old as Sylvester, others 
 as tlio apostles themselves. Secondly, it is 
 very generally disseminated : there is no 
 country where it has not gained some footing. 
 Tliinlly, while other sects are i)rofane and 
 blas|)h('mouH, this retains the utmost show 
 of piety ; they live justly Ixifore men, and be- 
 lieve nothing resj)ecting (iod which is not 
 good ; only they blaspheme against the Ro- 
 man church and the clergy, and thus gain 
 
 ilH prcvioiiH exiatcncfi. But in tlio Roman clnnch it 
 rlors not a[)|)far to liavc \)Ocn cslahlihlicd l)r'f<»r« llic 
 pontificatf; of Honifacc VIII. Hcc I'at(i, Vi(. Innoc. 
 III. firir-m. 
 
 ♦ Thrrf; am Homn wlio dfrivc the Hurnanir of Vcirr 
 from Bonw lown or lianilct in the; virinily "f I,yr»iiM; 
 olhcrH rrtntcnM that )ic rwvrr |)orfonally prcaclicil 
 omon;( lh»: Vandoia of I'icdinont. 
 
 many followers.' * The author of this pas 
 sage lived about the middle of the following 
 century ; and if the sect against which he 
 was writing had really originated from the 
 preaching of Peter some eighty years before, 
 the Dominican would scarcely have conceded 
 to it the claim of high and unascertained an- 
 tiquity. Again, St. Bernard in one place ad- 
 mits, in substance, 'that there is a sect, which 
 calls itself after no man's name,f which pre- 
 tends to be in the direct line of apostolical 
 succession; and which, rustic and unlearned 
 though it is, contends that the church is 
 wrong, and that itself alone is right. It must 
 derive (he subjoins) its origin from the devil ; 
 since there is no other extraction which we 
 can assign to it.' 
 
 At the same time we must admit that the 
 direct historical evidence is not suflficient to 
 prove the apostolical descent of the Vaudois.^ 
 Alcuin, the tutor of Charlemagne, may have 
 complained 'that auricular confession, was 
 not practised in the churches of Languedoc 
 and the Alps in his time.' Claudius of Turin 
 may have presided over a reformed and 
 Christian diocese. Somewhat later (in 945,) 
 Atto, Bishop of Verceil, § may have lamented 
 ' that there were sovie in his diocese who held 
 the divine services in derision.' And lastly, 
 at the Synod of x\rras, in 1025, it may have 
 been deplored, ' that certain persons, coming 
 from the borders of Italy, had introduced 
 heretical doctrines,' — and such as the Wal-' 
 denses, indeed, professed. It still appears thai 
 the name is not mentioned in any writing 
 before the twelfth century ; and there is no 
 direct specific evidejice of the previoys ex- 
 istence of the sect. Nevertheless, as its 
 origin was confessedly immemorial in the 
 thirteenth century, and as there has not, per- 
 haps, existed in the history of heresy any other 
 sect to which some origin has not been ex- 
 
 ♦ Bibliothcca Pairuni, apud Lenfant, Guerre dcs 
 Hnssilcs, liv. ii., sect. v. 
 
 t (iiULMc ab illis aim sccAx auclorem, nemineni 
 dahii. Qn-cC hvcrcsis non ex hominilnis habuit propri- 
 nni lia^rcsiarchaml Maiiicha'i Manoin habucrc prin- 
 cijjein et pra-ccptorcni, Sabclliani Sabclliuin, &c 
 Ila onuies cetera) Intjnsinodi prstcs singnhe singidos 
 niagistros lioniines habnissc noscnntur, a (|nibiiH origi- 
 ncin n'limi] diixcre rt nonien. (^uo nomine istos tilu- 
 love vocabis'? Nullo; qnoniam non est ab honiine 
 illornm ha're.siH,.-"Sed magis el al)S(juc dnl)io pel im- 
 miN.sionem et frandem duMnonionun, &c Senno «u 
 per ('ant. Ixvi. ad init. 
 
 X We refer to Mr. CJ lily's w« l'-known work ov 
 thirt Knbjecl. , 
 I § A city Hituatcd lN;i\veen Tnrin and Milan 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 
 
 291 
 
 pressly ascribed, we have just reason to infer 
 the vei-y higli antiquity of the Vaudois. 
 
 Many will think it more important to learn 
 then* doctrines, than to speculate on their 
 origui. On almost all material points they 
 were those of the Reformation.* In their 
 discipline they endeavored to attain the rigid 
 simplicity of the primitive Christians, and in 
 that endeavor, perhaps, they exceeded it ; for 
 while they maintained and imitated the divine 
 institution of the three orders in the priest- 
 hood, they also reduced their clergy to the 
 temporal condition of the apostles them- 
 selves; they denied them all worldly pos- 
 sessions, and while they obliged them to be 
 poor and industrious, they compelled them to 
 be illiterate also. 
 
 The persecution of Peter Waldensis, and 
 the dispersion of his followers, occasioned, 
 as in so many similar instances, the dissemi- 
 nation of the opinions ; and, notwithstanding 
 some partial sufferings which were inflicted 
 in Picardy by Philippe Auguste, they were a 
 numerous and flom'ishing sect at the conclu- 
 sion of the twelfth century. They were of- 
 ten confounded in name with the Vaudois, in 
 crime and calamity with the Catharists and Pe- 
 trobrussians, and other adversaries of Papacy. 
 
 Tke Alhigeois. But of these various de- 
 scriptions, such as were found in France 
 during the pontificate of Innocent, vwere 
 known by the general name of Albigeois 
 or Albigenses. A city in Languedoc, named 
 Albijf which was peculiarly prolific of here- 
 sy, is usually supposed to have given a com- 
 mon designation to these numerous forms 
 of error. Such, very briefly described, were 
 the factions which distracted the church on 
 
 * Reiner, the Dominican, already cited, also di- 
 vides the crimes of the Vaudois into three classes : 
 1. Their blasphemies against the church, its statutes, 
 and its clergy; 2. Errors touching the sacraments 
 and the saints ; 3. Detestation of all honest customs 
 approved by the church; which really means, objec- 
 tions to the administration, the sacraments, and the 
 practices of the Roman Catholic church. Mosheim 
 treats the subject at Cent, xii., p. ii., ch. v. Pierre 
 ^d'Ailly, in a discourse composed at the Council of 
 Constance, alleges as their principal errors, that they 
 refused temporalities to the priesthood, and asserted 
 that the church of God only lasted till the endowment 
 by Constantine. Then arose the church of Rome, — 
 the other being extinct, except in as far as it was 
 perpetuated in themselves. 
 
 f According to the.Histoire Generale de Langue- 
 doc, by the Benedictine monks, the term is more 
 accurately derived from Albigesium, the general de- 
 nomination of Narbonnese Gaul in that century. See 
 Mosh., note on Cent xiii., p. ii., ch. v., sect. vii. 
 
 the accession of Innocent III. It now re- 
 mains to observe the measures which he 
 adopted to repress them. And let us first 
 inquire to what extent he might plead the 
 previous practice of the church. 
 
 It appears that, at a Synod held at Orleans, 
 in the year 1017, under the reign of Robert, 
 a number of persons, of no mean condition 
 or character, were accused of heretical opin- 
 ions. Manicheism was the frightful term, 
 ! employed to express their delinquency ; but 
 i it is more probable that their real oflence was 
 the adoption of certain mystical notions, pro- 
 ceeding, indeed, from feelings of the most 
 earnest piety, but too spiritual to be tolerated 
 , in that age and that church. It is said that 
 they despised all external forms of worship, 
 and rejected the rites, the ceremonies, and 
 even the sacraments of the church ; that 
 they valued none save the religion within, — 
 the abstracted contemplation of the Deity 
 and the internal aspirations of the soul after 
 things celestial. Some philosophical specu- 
 lations they may also have admitted respect- 
 ing God, the Trinity, and the human soul, 
 which excited the fears of that generation,* 
 I in the same degree that they surpassed its 
 , comprehension. Accordingly, they were ac- 
 cused and convicted of heresy ; and as tliey 
 firmly persisted in their errors, and as the 
 
 * Such, at least, is the opinion of Mosheim (Cent 
 xi., p. ii., ch. V.) The history of this Synod of 
 Orleans is found in Dacherius's Spicilegium Veter. 
 Script, (tom. ii., p. 670, Edit. Paris,) and the 
 charges there alleged (besides the usual calumny of 
 promiscuous prostitution) respect the nativity, the 
 I death and resurrection of Christ, and impute a disbe- 
 lief in the efficacy of baptism, in the change wiought 
 by consecration in the eucharistical elements, and in 
 the meritoriousness of prayers to martyrs and confes- 
 sors. In the place of this faith they substituted ' ce- 
 lestial food,' ' angelic visions,' 'the companionship 
 of God,' &c. . . . and when the prelate sitting in 
 judgment on them laid down the orthodox doctrine 
 respecting some of those points, the heretics replied, 
 ' You may tell such tales as those to men whose wis- 
 dom is of this world, and Avho believe the fictions of 
 carnal men, written on the skins (membranis) of 
 animals. But to us, who have a law inscribed on the 
 inward man by the Holy Spirit, and who have no 
 other wisdom than that which we have learnt from 
 God the creator of all things, you preach superfluous 
 vanities, deviating from real holiness. Wherefore, 
 cease from your discourse, and do what you will with 
 us. Already do we behold our King reigning in the 
 heavens, who exalts us with his right hand to immor- 
 tal triumphs, and to the joys which are above.' We 
 should recollect that this account (like almost every 
 other in which any heretical opinions are described) 
 comes to us from the pen of an enemy 
 
292 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURvJH. 
 
 kiiig had no repugnance to enforce the sen- 
 tence, they were finally consigned to the 
 flames. 
 
 Edicts of Alexander IIL In this barbarous 
 transaction, which was rather in anticipation 
 of the policy of later ages, than in accordance 
 with that of the eleventh, we have found no 
 proof of papal interference ; nor, indeed, have 
 we obsen-ed any very important pontifical 
 edicts for the extirpation of heresy, earlier 
 than the reign of Alexander III. That Pope, 
 in a council held at Tours in 1163, published 
 a decree to this effect : ' Whereas a damnable 
 heresy has for some time lifted its head in the 
 parts about Toulouse, and has already spread 
 its infection through Gasconyand other prov-. 
 inces, concealing itself like a serpent within 
 its own folds ; as soon as its followers shall 
 have been discovered, let no man aflTord them 
 a refuge on his estates ; neither let there be 
 any communication with them in buying or 
 selling ; so that, being deprived of the solace 
 of human conversation, they may be compel- 
 led to return from error to wisdom.' * 
 
 The same pontiff, in the third Lateran 
 Council, held in 1179, published other edicts 
 against the heretics, variously named Cathari, 
 Paterini, Publicani, &c., pursuing them with 
 anathemas, refusal of Christian sepulture, and 
 other spiritual chastisements. But it does 
 not ajipear that he invoked, on either occa- 
 sion, the secular arm to his assistance. Nev- 
 ertheless, without that aid, his power was 
 sufficient to expel Peter Waldensis from his 
 native city, and subsequently to pursue him 
 from Dauphiny to Picardy, and thence to 
 Germany, till he found his final resting-place 
 among the Bohemian mountaineers, the an- 
 cestors of Huss and Jerome. The fugitive 
 died in that country about the year 1180. 
 
 Persecution of the Albigtois. When the 
 torch of persecution was transmitted to Inno- 
 cent, f the two [)rincipal seats of religious dis- 
 affection wen; the vall(!ys of Piedmont and 
 the cities of Languedoc ; with this difference, 
 
 * The original Ib given by Pagi, Vit. Alexandii 
 IH., sect. xlii. He conliniic-s to apply to them, 
 acronling to the ordinary confiKiion, tlu; name of 
 WaMenHffl. 
 
 t That Innorent waH very rrady to lak»! turn 
 in tiiifl Iainpa<l»-phory appears from wevcral epistles, 
 writlPii to var'KjiiH prclat<'H in the very first year of 
 h^ prmtififalp, in which he exhf»rts them to gir<! 
 llicnixrlvoM for tlio work of extirpation, arnl to employ, 
 if nrcr sxary, tin- arms f»f the princes and of the pi oplr. 
 Thii Uift siiggcHtion was pn)vident. Thf populace 
 might somctimfs Ixr excited to an act of outrage, 
 when the auihoriiies wore ueuiral iu llie (juarrel. 
 
 however, that the Vaudois flourished in com- 
 parative and perhaps despised security, while 
 the latter, more particularly denominated Al- 
 bigeois, were rendered more notorious, as 
 well as more dangerous, by the protection 
 publicly afforded them by Raymond VI, 
 Earl of Toulouse.* Against these, therefore, 
 the Pope's earnest and most assiduous efforts 
 were directed ; and first, observing that the 
 bishops in those provinces were deficient 
 in true Catholic zeal for the Unity of the 
 Church, he sent, in 1198, two legates into the 
 rebellious districts ; but rather, as it would 
 seem, for the purpose of exploring and men 
 acing, than of actually commencing th^^ con 
 test. Presently afterwards, a more numerous 
 commission, the advance of his array, invaded 
 the haunts of heresy, and brought argument 
 and eloquence in support of intimidation. 
 This body again received great additional 
 efficiency from the accession of a Spaniard, 
 named Dominic, a young ecclesiastic, remark- 
 able for the severity of his life, the extent of 
 his learning, the persuasiveness of his man 
 ner, and the ardor of his zeal. These quali 
 ties, and some successful services, infused a 
 new spirit into the ranks of the orthodox. It 
 would also appear that their exertions were 
 no longer restricted to verbal exhortation and 
 reproof ; but that they also aimed to animate 
 the civil authorities in their favor, and to en- 
 force the infliction even of capital punish 
 ment, whenever they had influence to do so. 
 This expedition lasted six or seven years ; 
 and, at the end of that time, the s])iritual mis 
 sionaries engaged in it were generally known 
 by the title of Inquisitors, — a name, not in- 
 deed honorable or innocent even in its origin, 
 but not yet associated with horror and infamy. 
 
 Still matters did not proceed with the 
 rapidity desired by the pontiff; and then the 
 missionaries had rccoui-se to n new and very 
 harmless expedient to accelertito succovss. 
 They laid aside the pomp and dignity of their 
 train and habits, discharged the unpoptilar 
 j)arude of servants and equipage, and con- 
 tinued their preaching with the more impos- 
 ing pretension of apostolical huiiiility. lint 
 neither had this method the result which was 
 hoped from it. At length, in the year 1207, 
 
 ♦ Limhorch, in the first hook of his History of the 
 Inquisition (cap. viii.). very clearly shows, both fron: 
 the * Senleuliie In(|uisitionis Tnlositanie,' and other 
 evidence, that the Vaudois, while they lield some 
 t)pinions in common with the All)igeus(>«, had- many 
 m«)re points of diflerence, in riles as well as in der- 
 trine; for instance, the INIanichcau errors imputed tc 
 the latter are; never aacrihed to the Vaudoin. 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 
 
 293 
 
 Innocent at once addressed himself to the arms 
 of Philippe Auguste. He easily exhorted that 
 monarch to march into the heretical provinces, 
 and extirpate the spiritual rebels by fire and 
 sword. 
 
 About the same time one of his legates or 
 inquisitors, Pierre de Castelnovo* (or Chateau- 
 nouf,) was assassinated by the populace in the 
 states of Raymond. The act was imputed 
 to the connivance, if not to the direct instiga- 
 tion, of that prince, f The Pope immediately 
 launched the bolt of excommunication ; and 
 his emissaries, by his command, proceeded 
 to those measures which iiitroduced a new 
 feature into the history of inter-Christian war- 
 fare. They proclaimed a general campaign 
 of all nations against the Albigeois, and at the 
 same time promised a general grant of indul- 
 gences and dispensations to all who should 
 take arms in that holy cause. Having thus 
 reduced those dissenting Christians to the 
 same level in a religious estimation with the 
 Turk and the Saracen, they let loose an in- 
 furiated multitude of fanatics against them ; 
 and the word 'Crusade,' which had hitherto 
 signified only religious madness, was now ex- 
 tended to the more deliberate atrocity of sec- 
 tarian persecution. 
 
 Simon de Montfort. — Several monks and 
 some prelates were the spiritual directors of 
 this tempest : but the military leader was Si- 
 mon, Count de Montfort, 'a man like Crom- 
 well, whose intrepidity, hypocrisy and am- 
 bition marked him for the hero of a holy 
 war;' X To irritate his ambition, the Pope 
 artfully held out to him the earldom of Tou- 
 louse, as the recompense of his exertions in 
 the service of the church. His hypocrisy was 
 displayed and hardened by the seeming de- 
 votion with which he continually perpetrated 
 the most revolting enormities, and his intre- 
 pidity was exercised by the resistance of the 
 heretics. It would be a painful office, and 
 of little profit, in the present prevalence of 
 reason and of humanity, to pursue the fright- 
 
 * Some write the name Castronovo. 
 
 f Historians differ as to the probability of his guilt; 
 ttlso as to the fact whether the first appeal of Inno- 
 cent to the court of France preceded or followed the 
 death of his legate. On this point we incline to the 
 former opinion. Respecting the charge against Ray- 
 mond, there seems to be no clear proof on either side ; 
 It is known that he favored the heretics, and that cir- 
 cumstance might occasion either the crime or the 
 calumny. The latter '\?,,perhap!t, the more probable. 
 
 X Hallam, Middle Ages. Simon de Montfort was 
 descended, by an illegitimate branch, from Robert 
 king of France. He was connected on his mother's 
 (tide with the Earls of I .eirester. 
 
 ful details of religious massacre. * It is suf^ 
 ficient to say, that after many conflicts and 
 some variety of success, but no intermission 
 of barbarity, the triumph rested with the 
 Catholics. It was not, however, so complete 
 as either to exterminate the rebels, or to place 
 the promised sceptre in the hand of the per- 
 secutor. In the year 1218, Montfort was kill- 
 ed in battle before the walls of the city,f which 
 Innocent had vainly bestowed on him. 
 
 Council of Toulouse. — The contCvSt was con- 
 tinued by succeeding Popes according to the 
 principles of Innocent ; and eight years after 
 the death of Montfort, Louis VIII. king of 
 France was engaged to gird on the sword of 
 persecution. Another crusade was preached, 
 and in 1228 a system of Inquisition was per- 
 manently established within the walls of Tou- 
 louse. In the same, or the following year, a 
 Council there assembled published decrees, 
 which obliged laymen, even of the highest 
 rank, to close their houses, cellai's, forests. 
 
 * It was said in this war, when the Crusaders were 
 on the point of storming Beziers, that some one in- 
 quired how the Catholic were to be distinguished 
 from the heretical inhabitants in the massacre about 
 to take place; ' Kill them all (replied Arnold, a Cis- 
 tercian abbot, who happened to be present), God will 
 know his own.' ' Caedite — novit Dominus, qui sunt 
 ejus.' His advice appears to have been followed, 
 and about seven thousand of all persuasions suffered. 
 
 The life of Innocent III. apud Muratori, (which is 
 more properly the History of Montfort's wars,) men- 
 tions many instances in which small bodies of heretics 
 chose to be burnt, rather than return to the Catholic 
 faith. 
 
 t The recorded circumstances of his death seejn 
 well to illustrate one trait at least in his character. 
 He was at Matins (on June 25,) when he was inform- 
 ed that the enemy were in arms, and concealed in the 
 fosse of the fortress. He instantly armed also, and 
 hastened to church to hear mass. Mass was just 
 begun, and he was engaged in earnest prayer, when 
 news were brought him that the Toulousans had 
 made a sally, and were attacking his machines — ' Let 
 me finish the mass (he replied) and see the sacrament 
 of our redemption.' Instantly afterwards another 
 courier arrived, and said, * Hasten to the succor; our 
 men are pressed, and can hold out no longer.' ' I 
 will not stir (he answered) until I have seen niy 
 Saviour.' But as soon as the priest had lifted up 
 the Host, according to the usage, the Count, w ith his 
 knees still on earth, and his hands raised to heaven, 
 exclaimed, *Nunc dimittis,^ and he then added, ' Let 
 us now go and die, if necessary, for Him who has. 
 died for us.' Accordingly he went forth and died. 
 Yet, after all, k were too much to ascribe this con- 
 duct to pure hypocrisy; much of fanaticism was 
 undoubtedly mixed with it; and when religious en- 
 thusiasm is united, as has too commonly happened; 
 with religious hypocrisy, it is impossible even for the 
 person possessed with them to distinguish their limits 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 against the heretical fugitives, and to take all 
 means to detect and bring them to trial ; here- 
 tics voluntarily converted were compelled to 
 wear certain crosses on their garments ; those 
 who should return to the church, under the 
 influence of feai*, were still to suffer imprison- 
 ment at the discretion of the bishop ; all chil- 
 dren of the age of twelve or fourteen were 
 compelled by oath, not only to abjure every 
 heresy, but to expose and denounce any which 
 they should detect in others ; and this code 
 of bigotry was properly completed by a strict 
 prohibition to all laymen to possess any copies 
 of the Scriptures.* 
 
 Still the Count, who succeeded to the scep- 
 tre and to the moderation of Raymond, mani- 
 fested not sufficient ardor in the Catholic 
 cause, and it was not till the Archbishop of 
 the city was formally associated with him in 
 the office of destruction, that the work was 
 thought to proceed with becoming rapidity, f 
 
 * Some of the statutes of this Council are worth 
 citing', as they show not only how far the system, 
 strictly speaking inquisitorial, was carried in that 
 early age, but also how closely the laity of that time 
 co-operated with the clergy for the unity of the church : 
 — ' Statuimus itaque ut archiepiscopi et episcopi in 
 singulis parochiis, tarn in civitatibus quam extra, 
 sacerdotem unum et duos vel tres laicos vel plures 
 ctiam, si opus fuerit, juramenti religione constringant, 
 quod diligenter, fideliter et frequenter inquirant hao- 
 reticos in iisdem parochiis, domos singulas et cameras 
 subterraneas alitjua suspicione notabiles perscrutando, 
 et appensa seu adjuncta in iis tectis ajdificia, seu 
 qua:'cunque alia latibula (qua; omnia destrui pra?cipi- 
 mus) perquirendo repererint hecreticos, credentes, 
 fautores et receptatorcs seu defcnsores eorum, &c. . . 
 Sollicili ctiam sint doinini tcrrarum circa inquisitio- 
 nem hxreticoruili, in villis, domibus ct neinoribus fa- 
 ciendam; et circa hujusmodi appensa, adjuncta, seu 
 subterranea latibula dcstrucnda. Statuimus igitur ut 
 quicuncjue in terra permittat scienter morari ha-rcti- 
 cum . • . . et fuerit inde confessus et convictus, aniit- 
 tat in perpetuum totam suam tcrram, et corpus sunin 
 sit in maiui domini ad faciendum inde (|Uod debebit. 
 Illam donium in (jua fuerit inventus luereticus diruen- 
 dam dccerninui.s ; et locus sive fundus ipse confiscetur,' 
 &c.— Sec Spicilcg. Dacliorii (vol. ii. p. 621. Edit. 
 PariH.) under the head, ' Varia Ciallia; ('oncilia.' 
 
 t We read in Matthew Taris, that about the year 
 12.%, the Fratres rre<licat()n'3 and other divinc.-s 
 \\< rr. Htill making great exertions for ihe conversion 
 of (he miHbelievers. One of thoHc preachers, naniiul 
 Iloljerl, waH ko powerful in proHtralin^ an adversary 
 UH to have obtained the name of Mallrus ila relicorinn 
 — the Hammer of HereticH. Nor yaw this only meant 
 ill a Hpiritnal Kcnw;, ' since th<;re w(!re many of Ixfth 
 nexfH whom, bcin^ unable to convert, he rauswl to be 
 burnt to death; ho that within two or three montliH 
 there were aljout fifty (leiHoiiM whom hir oceani(ined 
 •illicr to be burnt or buried alive.' — Mattli. Tarin, 
 
 At length, in 1253, the Count entered serious- 
 ly on the hateful task ; and from that moment 
 the remnant of the Albigeois were consigned, 
 without hope or mercy, to the eager hands of 
 the inquisitors. 
 
 Death and Character of Innocent. — Innocent 
 did not himself live to behold the success 
 of his measures ; and the cause which is as- 
 signed for his pre [nature death is the more 
 remarkable,* as it arose out of the most 
 triumphant exploit in his life. Since the 
 humiliation of John, the crown of England 
 had been considered by the Pope as a posses- 
 sion valuable to his ambition no less than to 
 his avarice: and when, on the deposition of 
 John, Louis of France was proclaimed, and 
 actually proceeded to occupy the country in 
 spite of the Pontiff^'s determined opposition, 
 Innocent was indignant at the affi-ont and the 
 injury. He preached a sermon on some pub- 
 lic occasion, and selected for his text, ' Even 
 say thou, the sword, the sword is drawn — for 
 the slaughter it is furbished.' f In the course 
 of his passionate harangue he pronounced a 
 solemn sentence of excommunication against 
 Louis and his followers ; and immediately 
 afterwards, as it is said, while in the act of 
 dictating to his secretary some very harsh 
 censures against Philippe and his kingdom, 
 he was seized by that fatal fever, which was 
 ordained, perhaps, to prevent some new en 
 terpri«e of warfare and desolation. 
 
 If we would reconcile the lofty panegyrics 
 with the violent vituperation, which are alike 
 bestowed upon the name of Innocent IIL, 
 we must first distinguish his private from his 
 public character, and next reflect how differ- 
 ent and even opposite are the principles on 
 which the latter has, in different ages, been 
 judged. The very same exploits which would 
 naturally call fortli loud approbation from the 
 
 Henric. HI., ad an. 1236. We should add, how. 
 ever, for the honor of pontifical humanity, that only 
 two years afterwards the cruelties of Robert were 
 arrested by an order from Rome, and the persecutor 
 (who, by the vvay, had previously l)ecn a heretic) 
 was himself convicted of some less e(juivocal oflenccs, 
 and imprisoned for life. 
 
 * Some writers make no mention of this circum- 
 stance, but merely assert that Innocent died rather 
 suddenly, while on his way to reconcile some difler- 
 ences between the Pisans and Genoese, which iin- 
 |)ed(;d his graiul crusading projects. — See the Chron. 
 of Ricliardus do S. Gerinano, and of Urspcrgcnsis 
 Abbas, ap. Pagi, Vit. Innoc. III. Sect. 104. It is 
 certain that his death took place at Perugia, on July 
 l(i, 1216, aft(!r a reign of eighteen years and six 
 months. 
 
 ■f K/.ekiel, c. xxi. V. 28. 
 
PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III. 
 
 29« 
 
 Catholic historians of those days, nay, from 
 some perhaps even at this moment, arc made 
 the subjects of severe censure by Protestant 
 writers. This difference is less properly his- 
 torical than moral. It does not respect the 
 reality of the questionable acts ascribed to 
 him, but only the light in which we are bound 
 iv regard them. But in respect to the private 
 qualities of Innocent there is no ground for 
 such diversity ; and that they were great and 
 noble is attested by most of his biographers. 
 That he was gifted with extraordinary talents 
 — that he was a profound canonist, and gene- 
 rally conversant with the learning of his time 
 — that he was frequent in charitable offices, 
 and generous in the distribution of his per- 
 sonal revenues — that his moral conduct was 
 without reproach, and that he was sometimes 
 not untouched by sentiments of piety, is clear 
 from the evidence of contemporary authors 
 and of his own writings. But great personal 
 virtues are perfectly consistent witli great 
 pubhc crimes ; and it is a truth which leads 
 to melancholy reflection, that some of the 
 heaviest evils which have ever been inflicted 
 upon churches and nations, have proceeded 
 fi'om the weak or even wicked policy of men 
 of immaculate private characters. 
 
 Such was Innocent III. ; charitable to the 
 poor who surrounded his palace, steeled 
 against the wretch who deviated from his 
 faith — generous in the profusion of his private 
 expenditure, avaricious in the exactions which 
 he levied for the apostolical treasury — hu- 
 mane* in his mere social relations, merciless 
 in the execution of his ecclesiastical projects 
 — pious in the expressions of internal devo- 
 tion, impious and blasphemous in his repeated 
 profimation of the name of God and of the 
 cross of Christ. 
 
 Policy of Innocent.— Again : if we confine 
 our retrospect to the public acts of this Pon- 
 tiff, we observe that they bear, perhaps with- 
 out any exception, the same stamp — that of a 
 temporal and worldly policy. Innocent sub- | 
 jected the civil authority of the Imperial Pre- 1 
 feet to his own. He extended, with great 
 diligence, the boundaries of the Ecclesiastical 
 States. He found means to control a great 
 portion of the secular power of Europe, so 
 that he might hold it at his disposal ; whether 
 
 * Simon de Montfort killed Peter of Anagon in 
 batile, and took his son prisoner. The widow, unable 
 to prevail witli Montfort for the release of the boy, 
 supplicated the interference of Innocent. There is 
 no proof that his policy was, in this matter, concern- 
 ed on either side, so he commanded the liberation of 
 the captive, and for once humanity had its triumph. 
 
 it was his will to overthrow a pretender, or to 
 depose a king, or to extinguish a heresy. For 
 the accomplishment of his most important 
 objects his final and most confident appeal 
 was invariably made to the material sword. 
 Again : as if it were little to submit the con 
 sciences of men to the dominion of the Holy 
 See, he endeavored to comprehend in its 
 grasp their property also. Heretofore the 
 Popes had been contented with the exercise 
 and the rewards of a spiritual tyranny — they 
 had been satisfied with the obedience, the 
 ecclesiastical fidelity, the ghostly services of 
 their clergy ; but Innocent opened a more 
 direct and, as he thought, a more solid path 
 to power. He availed himself of the pretext 
 of the crusades to levy pecuniary contribu- 
 tions, immediately on the clergy, and, through 
 the clergy on the people. This was the most 
 essential change which he introduced into the 
 system of the church. From this epoch its 
 history takes another, and we need not hesi- 
 tate to say, a lower character ; and though 
 this was not instantly developed, but awaited 
 the profligacy of Avignon, and the vices and 
 necessities of the Schism, to bring it to full 
 perfection, still it was from this crisis that the 
 revolution must be dated; here originated 
 that gradual substitution of worldly objects 
 and vulgar motives for the splendor of spirit- 
 ual pretension, which led, through a succes- 
 sion of pitiful disputes and sordid usurpations, 
 to mere naked avarice and avowed and shame- 
 less venality. 
 
 In the comparison which we might here 
 be tempted to draw between Innocent III. 
 and the greatest among his predecessors, 
 there is perhaps no point on which the pref- 
 erence could be refused to Gregory. Both 
 availed themselves of the divisions of the em 
 pire ; but the favorable circumstances which 
 Innocent found, Gregory in a great measure 
 created. The design of universal monarchy, 
 which was carried so far into execution by 
 the one, was conceived and transmitted to 
 him by the other. With Innocent the libera- 
 tion of the Holy Sepulchre was made the ex- 
 cuse for pecuniary exactions ; with Gregory 
 it was the lofl;y aspiration of erring magnanim- 
 ity, earnest, and attended by a determination 
 to devote his repose and person to the cause 
 which he deemed holy. In the treatmeni 
 of heretical delinquency, the one was moder- 
 ate * beyond the principles of his age and the 
 
 * It is true, that Gregory offered to Sweno, King 
 of Denmark, a province occupied by heretics. But 
 in this matter his temporal ambition was probablj 
 more interested than his ecclesiastical bigotry. 
 
296 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 passions of his clergy ; the other urged the | 
 course and heated the rage of persecution, 
 and by his perversion of the crusading frenzy 
 into that channel, identified in the popular 
 hatred dissent with infidelity, and established 
 the law of vengeance, and multiplied the 
 crimes of his posterity. And after all, how 
 severely soever we may condemn the means 
 which have created it, there is something of 
 majesty and magnificence in the character of 
 a spiritual despotism — an invisible power 
 which enthrals mankind without the aid of 
 physical force, and even in defiance of it ; 
 which humbles the mightiest sceptre, and 
 blunts the sharpest sword by a menace or a 
 censure ; a power mysterious and undefinable, 
 swaying the human race by the name — the 
 much-abused name — of religion. If we look, 
 indeed, to its origin, it is only an empire over 
 man's ignorance and credulity. Still it is the 
 empire of intellect ; and as such it stands on 
 loftier gi'ound than that worldly fabric which 
 employed the ambition of Innocent ; the 
 mere temporal sovereignty of arms and opu- 
 'f'nce, supported by corruption and massacre. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 The History of Monachism. 
 
 ;1 ) Origin of Monachism — Early instance of the monastic 
 ipirit in the east — Pliny the philosopher — Tlie Thera- 
 peutae or .Essenes — 'I'iic Ascetics — their real character 
 and origin — The earliest Christian hermits — dated 
 from the Decian or Diocletian persecutions — Coenobites. 
 Pacliomius and St. Anthony — originated in ^gypt — 
 account of ti)e monks of /Egypt — Hasilius of Ca;sarea — 
 his order and rule — his institution of a vow (piestiona- 
 hle — Monasteries encouraged by tlie fiitliers of the 
 fourth and fifteenth ages — from wliat motives — Vow 
 of celibacy — Restrictions of admission into monastic 
 order — Original monks were laymen — Coniparative 
 fanaticism of the east and west — Severity of discipline 
 in the west — motives and inducements to it — contrast- 
 ed with the Oriental practice — Establishment of nun- 
 neries in the east. (11.) Inxlitutinn of Monachism in the 
 West — St. Athanasius— Martin of Tours — Most ancient 
 rule of the western monasteries — their probable paucity 
 and povfrrty — Henedict of .Nursia — his order, and rea- 
 sonable ruir;, and objerl — roundali(m of Monte Cassino 
 
 — France — St. (.'olumbaii — I{avag<-s of the Lombards 
 and I)an<!H — Heform by IJciKdict of Aniatu; — The order 
 of Cluni — lis f>rigin, rise, and r(;pulation — its attach- 
 ment let papacy and its proHiierily — The order of Cile- 
 niix — date of its fniindation — I)e|H-ndent Abiicy of 
 ('lairvaux — St. Kcrnard — its progreMH and d«'cline — 
 Order of the Chartreiix. (IH.) Canons hrniilnr and 
 Srrulnr—OxAvx of St. AuguMlin— llule of ( 'hrodr-gatigus 
 
 — Ftub-(.f Aix la Cliapelle— Hubsc(pi( iit reforms. (IV.) 
 rdtiMcxiiin bftwreti the nionaHleries and the Puiie 
 
 -mutual siTVir»!M. 'I'he Military ordrm — (I.) The 
 KniirhtN o'* Uic lloNpital — oriuin of their inxtilution — 
 tlirir diKripime and rliararter— ('i ) Ktiighls Tem|)lar — 
 lliclr <»rli.'in and tibject — ('A.) Tlifl Teutonic order — \ln 
 ••tablUlimcnt and pro»ii»erlty. (V.) The Mmilirant or- 
 
 ders — causes of their rise and great progress — (1.) Si 
 Dominic — his exertions and designs — (2.) St. Francii 
 and his followers — compared with the Dominicans — 
 apparent assimilation — essential differences— disputes 
 of the Franciscans with the Popes, and among them- 
 selves—Inquisitorial office of the Dominicans, their 
 learning and influence — quarrels with the Doctors oi 
 Paris — Austerity of the Franciscans — the Fratricilli — 
 (3.) The Carmelites— their professed origin — (4 ) Her- 
 mits of St. Augustin — Privileges of these four orders. 
 (VI.) Various establishments ofJ^Tuns — their usual offices 
 and character — General remarks — The three grand or- 
 ders of the Western Church (suited to the ages in which 
 they severally appeared and flourished) — The Jesuits — 
 The Monastic system one of perpetual reformation — 
 thus alone it survived so long — its merits and advantages 
 — The bodily labor of the Monks — their charitable and 
 hospitable offices — real piety to be found among them 
 — superintendence of education, and means of learning 
 preserved by them — limits to their utility — their fre- 
 quent alliance with superstition — their early depend- 
 ence on the Bishops — gradual exemption, and final 
 subjection to the Pope — Their profits and opulence, 
 and means of amassing it— Luther a mendicant. 
 
 It is not through inadvertence, nor any blind- 
 ness to the magnitude and importance of the 
 subject, that a particular account of the mon- 
 astic system has been so long deferred. We 
 have had frequent occasion to recognise its 
 existence and its influence on the general 
 character of the Church ; and it was reason- 
 able perhaps to expect some earlier notice of 
 its origin and progi*ess. But as it is absolutely 
 necessary for the correct com])rehension of 
 ecclesiastical history, that the scheme of 
 monachism be understood aright ; as that end 
 could scarcely be accomplished, unless by 
 presenting the entire institution at a single 
 view ; and as it is much more insti-uctive, in 
 the order of historical composition, to retrace 
 some steps and to revisit such periods as have 
 been examined imperfectly, rather than to 
 anticipate events and ages which are remote 
 and wholly unexplored — for these reasons wo 
 have abstained from a j)artial or premature 
 treatment of this extensive subject. More- 
 over, when we consider the successive muta- 
 tions which have per})ctually varied the aspect 
 of monasticism, it will appear, perhaps, that 
 the ])rosent, as bring the epoch of its latest 
 change, is tlu; mouKMit most jjroper for tlie 
 delineation of iIk; whole struotiu'e. That latest 
 change (we sjx'ak only of changes ])receding 
 the R(!f()rination) was th(^ instituVion of the 
 M(?ndicant Orders — an event which arose out 
 of the ministry of St. Dominic, and immedi- 
 ately followed the death of InMoe«'nt III. This 
 aj»p»'iidag(^ comph^ted the anomalous fabric: 
 and whih; it was so closely intermixed with 
 the peeuliju- eircumstauces of the age, that it.M 
 nature could not liav(; been rightly comprc- 
 ln'nded, unless described in connexion with 
 llicm ; it was at the same time an innovation 
 
ORIGIN OF MONACmSM. 
 
 29'7 
 
 so essentially affecting the form and character 
 of monachism, that any account, not embrac- 
 ing it, would have conveyed very imperfect 
 and even erroneous notions. Led by such 
 considerations, we have selected the present 
 period for this purpose ; not unmindful how 
 little justice after all can possibly be done to 
 materials so ample within such scanty limits, 
 and almost despairing to throw any new light 
 on a subject which has exercised the genius, 
 and deserved — as it still deserves — the deepest 
 meditation both of historians and philosophers. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The origin of Monachism and Us progress in 
 the East. 
 
 The monastic spirit was alike congenial to 
 the scenery and climate of the East, and to 
 the peculiar character of its inhabitants. Vast 
 solitudes of unbroken and unbounded ex- 
 panse , rocks, with the most grotesque out- 
 lines, abounding in natural excavations ; a dry 
 air and an unclouded sky, afforded facilities — 
 might we not say temptations — to a wild, un- 
 social, and contemplative life. The serious 
 enthusiasfn of the natives of Egypt and Asia, 
 that combination of indolence with energy, 
 of the calmest languor with the fiercest pas- 
 sion, which marks their features and their 
 actions, disposed them to embrace with eager- 
 ness the tranquil but exciting duties of relig- 
 ious seclusion. And thus, even in earlier 
 ages, before the zeal of devotion superseded 
 all other motives to retirement, we observe, 
 without any surprise, the mention of that 
 practice, as indigenous and immemorial. 
 
 Therapeuta. or Essenes. — Pliny* the phi- 
 losopher has recorded the existence of an ex- 
 traordinary race, who lived on the borders of 
 the Dead Sea, the associates of the palm trees ; 
 and who had been perpetuated (as it was said) 
 through thousands of ages without women 
 and without property. Satiety and disgust 
 with the business of life, rather than any re- 
 ligious feeling, are mentioned as the motives 
 of their seclusion. Again, it is certain that 
 the Therapeutse or Essenes inhabited the 
 
 * Lib. V, cap. xvii. Ab occiden e Judaeae litore 
 Esseni fugitant; gens sola et in toto orbe praeter 
 csDteras mira, sine ulla faemina, onini Venere abdica- 
 ta, sine pecunia, socia palmaium. Indiem ex aequo 
 advenaruin tuiba renascitur, longe frequentantibus 
 quos vita fessos ad mores eorum forliina fluctibus 
 agitat. Ita per saeculorum miilia (incredibile dictu) 
 gens aeterna in qua nemo nascitur. Tarn foecunda 
 illis aliorum vitae poenitentia est. The most import- 
 ant references on this subject are collected by Hospin- 
 ian. Orig Monach. — Lib. I. cap. v. 
 
 38 
 
 deserts both of Egypt and of Syria, as early 
 as the days of our Saviour. They had pro- 
 bably dwelt there long before that time ; and 
 they appear to have sought to exalt the merit 
 of their retirement by the jjractice of great 
 austerities. Some Roman Catholic writ(;rs, 
 being anxious to prove Monachism coeval 
 with Christianity, have asserted, on the au 
 thority of Eusebius, * Sozomcn, and Cassian, 
 that the Therapeutae were Christians ; and 
 that they scattered the seeds of the monastic 
 life through the populous villages of Lower 
 Egypt, whilst St. Marc, their founder, presid- 
 ed over the Church of Alexandria. But the 
 opinion is more probable, that they were, for 
 the most part, Jews by religion as well as by 
 birth ; and of a much earlier origin. Never- 
 theless, it may well be, that such of them as 
 became converts to the faith, still retained 
 their rigid eremitical life ; nor can it be doubt 
 ed, that the example of their severities, and 
 the popular respect which followed them, 
 would excite the attention and emulation of 
 surrounding Christians. 
 
 The Ascetics. — This is one of the causes to 
 which we may attribute the very early exist- 
 ence of a sect unquestionably Christian, called 
 the Ascetics ; and these also have been erro 
 neously confounded with the original Monks. 
 The term Ascetic was applied by early -f 
 Christian writers to the most rigid and zeal- 
 ous among the primitive converts, whether 
 they exhibited their fervor in unusual assidu- 
 ity in prayer and the offices of charity, or 
 extended it to the more equivocal merits of 
 fasting and celibacy. But these persons did 
 not withdraw themselves from the world ; 
 they merely exercised with ardor, perhaps in 
 extravagance, the virtues which best qualified 
 them to benefit and amend it. Possibly, in 
 their rigid devotion to the duties of society, 
 they may have shunned with aversion even its 
 most innocent amusements. But such pious 
 excess, which has ever marked the best forms 
 and ages of Christianity, was emmently useful 
 to its propagation, and should be sparingly 
 censured under any circumstances. | It is at 
 
 * Hist. Eccles, lib. ii. c. xvi. He applied to the 
 Christians that which Philo had written about the 
 Jewish Essen6s. Such at least is the opinion of 
 Marsham, a very impartial as well as learned writer, 
 in his IJnont'Xatov to Dugdale's Monasticon. — See 
 Joseph, de Bell. Judaic, lib. ii. cap. vii. for a partic- 
 ular description of that sect. 
 
 t Bingham (Christ. Antiq. b. vii.) confirms his 
 account of the Ascetics by numerous and conclusive 
 authorities. 
 
 t The Ascetics were of all ranks and professiona 
 
298 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 least manifest, that the rule of the Ascetics 
 >vas essentially at variance with the monastic 
 principle ; they dwelt and associated with their 
 fellow Christians; and perhaps they might 
 never have acquired the historical distinction 
 of a name, had it not been, that they affected 
 a different garb, and assumed the philosophical 
 cloak as the badge of their sect. Their origin 
 is attributed by Mosheim * to the double doc- 
 trine of morals, which he supposes to have 
 prevailed in the second century — so that, 
 while vulgar Christians were contented to 
 obey the precepts of the Gospel, those who 
 aimed at higher perfection, professed to be 
 also directed by its counsels. This notion is 
 unquestionably borrowed from heathen phi- 
 losophy ; and, if it really existed to any extent 
 among the Ascetics, it affords another proof 
 of their connexion with the schools of Greece. 
 But the unsettled condition of the Church in 
 those days, and the jealousies and sufferings 
 to which it was subjected, the general demor- 
 alization of the pagan world, the example of 
 popular austerities in another religion, and the 
 melancholy genius of Egypt, where Ascetism 
 chiefly prevailed, were causes alone sufficient 
 to have produced — as they did produce — 
 forms of enthusiasm far less rational, than any 
 which can justly be ascribed to the Ascetics. 
 
 Anchorets. — But about the middle of the 
 third century the monastic spirit exhibited it- 
 self in a much less equivocal shape ; and we 
 may observe that the purest and most legiti- 
 mate character of seclusion was that which it 
 first assumed. Flying from the fury of the 
 Decian persecution, a number of Christians 
 took refuge in caves, in deserts, or inaccessi- 
 ble islets, where they exercised their pro- 
 scril)ed religion in solitary security. Egypt 
 and Syria, and Mesopotamia, and the wildest 
 parts of Asia IMinor, were suddenly visited by 
 a rnco of exiles, in whom devotion, irritated 
 by injustice and fed by s(;clusion, sometimes 
 sank into sullen and gloomy fanaticism. Thes(; 
 probably were the earliest Christian Hermits 
 or Anchon;ts; they i)rofesse(l an absolute re- 
 ligious solitude, occasionally interrupted in- 
 
 EuwiWiuH calU tlicin o( miov^uioi — the zealous. 
 ClemcnB Alcxatuii liiiis iy.?.iy.rv>v iy.kty.io ifnoi — llio 
 more elect aiiion(( ihe elect. Tliene cxpreHKions im- 
 ply nolliiiiff more than a greater fer\or (or at leant 
 grcatc-r prelenHion) of piety. 
 
 • The name writer (Cent, iii., p. 2., rh, ii.) HeeiiiH 
 dmposerl to atlrihutf; llur riwc of Moiikn and JlermitH 
 to the infliienrc- of tin; iiiyHliral ihecdogy. Yet he ud- 
 nitM, in (he Kiiiie para^ra|)h, that that method of life 
 won rery common in r'l^ypl, Syria, India, and Meno- 
 potamia even Wfure the coining of Chriitl 
 
 deed by the pious importunity of the neigu 
 boring inhabitants, but never broken by any 
 regular connexion or association wit^ each 
 other. Their numbers were further increase*] 
 by the severities of Diocletian ; and still more, 
 perhaps, by the reverence and sympathy, 
 which the spectacle of their austere piety ex 
 cited among the vulgar. They continued for 
 some time to deserve by their habits the title 
 of Solitaries ; nor do we learn that they were 
 formed into assemblies until afler the estab 
 lishment of the Church by Constantine. 
 
 Cxnohites. The first institution of persona 
 living in common for religious purposes, and 
 therefore called Coenobites, is attributed to St. 
 Anthony, the contemporary and" friend of 
 Athanasius, and his fellow-laborer in the same 
 soil. And it is obvious to remark, that while 
 the greater of those champions of the ancient 
 Church was engaged in defending the purity 
 of the Christian faith, in the schools of Alex- 
 andria, the other was scattering in the same 
 soil, with the same applause and success, the 
 seeds of a system directly at variance with 
 some of its best practical principles. Another 
 Egyptian, named Pachomius, divides with 
 St. Anthony the fame of this enterprise ; in 
 as far at least as he immediately extended to 
 the Upper Thebaid the work which Anthony 
 commenced in the Lower. * He even ven- 
 tured thus early to enlarge upon the first 
 scheme of religious union ; and introduced 
 the custom, which in much later ages was so 
 generally adopted in the Western Church, of 
 combining several monasteries into one So- 
 ciety, or ' Congregation.' These events took 
 place during the first half of the fourth cen- 
 tury ; and it is from this epoch that we prop- 
 erly date the origin of the monastic system. 
 
 The multitudes who instantly embraced 
 that manner of life, and thronged the ])rimi- 
 tive edifices of Upper Egypt, were, no doubt, 
 exaggerated, when calculated at nearly half 
 the population of the country. But it is cer- 
 tain, that the 'New Philosophy ' (it was early 
 designated by that name) was eagerly adopted 
 by a crowd of proselytes ; nor is this wonder- 
 ful ; since those to whom its advantages were 0 
 the most obvious, and its duties the most easy, 
 were tlx; lowest of mankind — and since in 
 Egy|)t, mon; thtui in any other land, religious 
 noveltioH hiiw floinished liom th(^ remotest 
 ages with a peculiar fi'cundity. 
 
 The Monks of Ki!;}ipt. Since the original 
 monks of I'^gypt are praised by Itoman (^atho- 
 lic writers, m the true inodtils of monastic 
 
 * Hivluiru dcu Ordrcu MunatttiqucB, Dissert. Pr<^liia 
 
ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. 
 
 1299 
 
 perfection, and since some accounts of them 
 remain, which may be followed with Httle 
 suspicion, it is proper to employ some ad- 
 ditional attention on that subject. John Cas- 
 sian, a native of Scythia, a deacon by the 
 ordination of St. Chrysostom, and an inmate 
 of the Monastery of Palestine, near Bethle- 
 hem, wejit forth, about the year 395, to ex- 
 plore the holy solitudes of Egypt, and draw 
 from its more perfect institutions a profitable 
 lesson of religious instruction ; and seven 
 years devoted to those inquiries give weight 
 and credit to the descriptions which he pub- 
 lished. The latter part of his life was passed 
 in retirement at Marseilles ; and to the two 
 convents which he there established, he pre- 
 scribed a rule founded on the venerable prac- 
 tice of the East. According to his account, 
 the recluses of Egypt were divided into three 
 principal classes : — the Anchorets, the Coeno- 
 bites, and the Sarabaites. The two former, 
 whose numbers were nearly equal, formed 
 the respectable and genuine portion of the 
 prof(*;sion. The last were independent, and 
 were regarded as spurious and unworthy 
 brethren. The Anchorets occupied, either 
 in perfect solitude or in very small societies, 
 the rudest and most secluded recesses of the 
 desert. ' We are not destitute of parental 
 consolation, (said the Hermit Abraham to 
 Cassiau, who was beginning to sigh after the 
 more agreeable solitudes of Asia and Europe,) 
 nor devoid of means of easy sustenance — 
 were we not bound by the command of our 
 Saviour to forsake all and follow Him. We 
 are able, if it seemed good, to build our cells 
 on the banks of the Nile, instead of bringing 
 our water on our heads from four miles' dis- 
 tanced—were it not, that the Apostle has told 
 us, that " every man shall receive his reward 
 according to his labor." We know that in 
 these our regions there are some secret and 
 pleasant places, where fruits are abundant, 
 and the beauty and fertility of the gardens 
 would supply our necessities with the slightest 
 toil — were it not that we fear "to receive in 
 our lifetime our good things." Wherefore 
 n we scorn these things, and all the pleasures 
 of this world ; and we take delight in these 
 horrors, and prefer the wildness of this deso- 
 lation, before all that is fair and attractive, ad- 
 mitting no comparison between the luxuri- 
 ance of the most exuberant soil and the bit- 
 terness of these sands.' * 
 
 * Cassianus, Collationes, lib. xxiv, c. 2. Such 
 nassagesare illustrated by other writers of the same, or 
 nearly the same age. Among many others, the descrip- 
 
 I The establishments of the Coenobites, which 
 were s{)read from one end of the country to 
 the other, contained, severally, from one hun- 
 dred to five thousand inhabitants. In some 
 instances, the wall which confined them in- 
 closed also their wells and gardens, and all 
 that was necessary for their sustenance, so as 
 to leave no pretext even for occasional inter- 
 course with a world, which they had deserted 
 for ever. The discipline to which they were 
 subjected was rigid, but neither barbarous nor 
 at all charged with injurious austerities. We 
 read nothing of those chains and collars of 
 iron, which formed a necessary part of self- 
 devotion in the Syrian convents, nor is there 
 any mention of sackcloth or flagellation, or 
 any other voluntary torture. The whole 
 severity of their practice consisted in abste- 
 miousness ; but even that was moderate ; 
 positive fasting was not encouraged ; nor was 
 it thought necessary to macerate the body in 
 order to purify the soul. Bread and water 
 was indeed the only nourishment allowed fo 
 the healthy devotee ; but the bread was abun- 
 dantly supplied ; and those who have drawn 
 from their infancy the sweet waters of the 
 Nile seldom require or seek an artificial 
 beverage. Neither was this rule enforced on 
 all with indiscriminate rigor ; but it was fre- 
 quently modified according to age, or sex, or 
 constitution. 
 
 They assembled to prayer twice in the twen 
 ty-four hours, at evenuig and during the night. 
 Twelve psalms were chanted, (the chant had 
 been taught them by an angel,) each of which 
 was followed by a prayer ; and then two les 
 sons were read from the Scripture to those 
 who desired to be instructed in that volume. 
 The hearers remained sitting during the 
 greater part of the service, with very short 
 interruptions of genuflexion or prostration. 
 The signal which summoned them to prayer 
 was a simple trumpet or horn ; it was suffi- 
 
 tion of the Egyptian monks by Gregory Nazianzen (in 
 Orat. xxi. Eig tov JMiyav ' A&avuOiov) is perhaps 
 worth citing: Ot xoouov jfwQ'iLovrsg iavrovg, y.at 
 tI^v fQy-uov cecfncciuusroi tioOi 0£t5 ttuvtoiv uaXXov 
 Tfoj OTsipouivojv Tea Ocouari. Ot ulv rhv n:ivr{j 
 uoraSr/ov y.al auty.rov $ia&?.ovvr£g (iibv favroig 
 iioroig 7rQoo?.a?.ovyrsg yal TO) 0fw, xai rovTo uorov 
 yooiiov ttSuTBg ooov tv rrj ioyjula yvojQiilovai. oT Se 
 rouov uyunijg rj) yoivoMicf OTinyovTfg iny-utyol Tt 
 ouov y.al iuyuJfc, roig idv cc?.?.otg rt&vr^yoTt? av^o- 
 (oTTOig aX?.i'jXoig y.oOuog oiT«c, yal ti/ Tiaoa&lati 
 Ti^v aQsri^v Q/jYOvrsg. The same writer describes 
 the character of a true monk with great minuteness 
 and fervor in hisXIIth Oration, (£('^>;r/vo5 _4, Eni 
 T»i EvcDOti Tiov JMoratovrujv.) 
 
HISTORY OB 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 cient to break the silence of their deserts ; 
 and the hour of their night-prayer was indi- 
 cated by the declining stai*s, which shine 
 in that cloudless atmosphere with perpetual 
 lustre. The offices of their worship were 
 undisturbed by any sound of worldly care 
 or iiTeverent 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 
 nave 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. \ 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 cffi^ct- 
 ual method to prevent distractions, and fix 
 the soul on worthy considerations ; that thus 
 alone the tcdiousnoss of solitude, and its at- 
 tendant evils, ran ha remedied ; that the 
 monk who works has only one demon to 
 tempt him, while the, monk nnocni[)ie(l is 
 haroHsed by demons inmnn('nU)Ie. § 
 
 * See Fleiiry'H admirable Eiglitli DlHcourse. 
 
 1 CaHHiiin. Colliit. xxiv. 11, 12, 13. 
 
 4 Ita lit ex (|UO peiulcat liaiui farilt; poKKit a 
 
 quopiam (li«r«Tni — t. e. ulriim pif»p(iT incdilaiioiM-m 
 npinlalctii iiir»'HHal)ilitc;r inamiiirn <>\>m »'xeic<-aiit ; an 
 propter opfriH jiijjitatciii tarn pni-clariirn profeciiim 
 ■piriliiK, Mrii;riti:f'(|ii«- liitiicii a(-(|iiiraiil. CaKHiaii. Iii- 
 •lit. I'll), it. c. I t. 
 
 ( Undc ha:c cat apiid yf lg^puiiii ab aiiti(|ui') Palri- 
 
 77ie Sarabaites. The Sai*abaites * 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 Coenobitical 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 transmitt(jd to 
 Pontus and the shores of the Black Sea, and 
 there it found a respectable patron, the most 
 eminent among its primitive protectoi*s, Ba- 
 silius. Archbishop of Cresarea. 
 
 bus sancta (al. sancita) senfcntia — operantcin Mona 
 churn dirmonc uno pulsari ; otiosiiin vcro ininimcris 
 ^pirilibiis dcvaHtari. Cassiani Instit. lib. x. c. 23. 
 It appears from Cassiaii's preoedin«T chapter, llint any 
 sniierfhiity which (he monks mij^ht liave acquired was 
 frccjuently (Mnployed in charitable purposes, and espe- 
 cially in the redemption of captives. 
 
 * The same sect, no <loubt, uhich St. Jerome calls 
 R(!ni()both, and stigmatizes as • genus dcterrimum nt- 
 (|ue neglccttim.' Kpist. xviii. ad Eustochium. Dc 
 Custodia Virginilatis. 
 
 t Cassian. (.'ollat. xviii. e. 7. Cassian's dislike 
 for the Saiabaites was probalily contracted in the cells 
 of the ('(rnobites, who viewed with a sort ofseelarmi 
 j»'aloUHy the iiiduslry and the profits of rebels of o 
 rivaU. 
 
ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. 
 
 301 
 
 Tha^ celebrated ecclesiastic — who was a 
 native of Cappadocia, the brother of Gregoiy 
 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 I the obligation of a vow, on admis- 
 eion 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 tlse rule 
 of Sr. Anthony; but St. Anthony delivered, in fact, 
 no rule When solicited to impose some code upon 
 his disciples, iie recorded to have presented to them 
 the Bible — an etern<x and universal rule. Hospin. 
 lib. ii. c. 4. 
 
 t It does not, however, appeal, ;nai a.:* rule va,« 
 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 modum diversis in locis diversum canonem' 
 agnovimus institutum, totque propemodum typos et 
 regulas vidimus usurpatas, quot etiam monasteria cel- 
 lasque conspeximus. Sunt qnibus .... Quapropter 
 necessarium reor antiquissiniain pairum proferre con- 
 stitutionem quie nunc usque per totam Egyptum a Dei 
 famulis custodiiur,' &c. It is, indeed, the opinion 
 of Hospinian (though it does not seem sufficiently 
 founded), that St. Basil's Coenobia were little more 
 than tiieological 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, ia Latin, in the same 
 place. 
 
 X Bingham, Ch. Antiq. book vii. The author of 
 iho Histoire des Ordres Monastiques expressly as- 
 acrts, 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, gi*ew 
 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 vyho 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 unanimi'^y 
 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 mistakey 
 if we were to attribute their conspiracy to 
 any deep design for the esiablishment 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 
 aniong 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 
 m.istaken men be excused. And peihaps 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 bear in 
 mind, that the early patrons of monasticism 
 were, with very few exceptions. Orientals or 
 Africans ; men of ardent temperament, and 
 impetuous imagination ; a nong 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 tiie princes or nobles of those days ; nor 
 even that the influx of oblations from the 
 vulgar %v as the immediate fruit of the profes- 
 sion of poverty,* as was elsewhere the case 
 in later tanes. 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 oflTered no imaginable 
 temptations to avarice or sensuality. On 
 these and similar considerations, we may 
 acquit the oiiginal 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 
 msufficient guides to religious knowledge, 
 who, at a crisia of such infinite importance, 
 inculcated any other rule of life, than such as 
 lended 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 niany 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 rnfon'od ; though the j)ractice was 
 usual, and held indicative; of a higher condi- 
 tion of sanctity. Community of property was 
 
 * Not that even tlie earliest monks have escaped 
 the icproacheH of ihe conteinpoiai y Fathers. St. 
 Jerome especially (Epist. xxxv., ad Heliodonmi Mo- 
 nachum) notices the birth of corruption: — 'Alii 
 numnruun addant niunmo, et marsupiiim HnfTocan'tes 
 malronarnm opes venenliir ol)se(|uii8 ; sint ditiores 
 Monaclii, (jiiam fii(;rant sircidares; poHsideant opes 
 •ub CliriHio panpere, (pias sub locuplete I)ial»olo non 
 habiieraril ; et Hiispiret eon Eeclesia diviles, (pios 
 teniiit mnnduH ante mendicos.' . . . Hut notwithstand- 
 ing ihiM and filher particular passages, the gent-ral 
 C'xpreflsionB used by those; writers respecting the inon- 
 nstic condition, prr)ve its general respeclabilitv 
 
 indeed established among them ; but that 
 proi)erty was chiefly acquired by the labor 
 of their hands The necessity of manuai 
 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 improvidonce 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 ofiice of Abbot or 
 Hegoumonos. 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 
 werd considered as schools and nurseries for 
 
 ♦Epist. v., ad Heliodorum Monachum. 'Alia 
 Monachorum est causa ; alia clericorum. Clerici 
 pasciml ovea; ego pascor. Illi dc altario vivunt; 
 mihi, (piasi infrnctuosa? arbori, secnris ponitur ad 
 radicem, si munus ad altare non defero. . . . Mihi 
 ante Presbylerum sedere non licet,' &c. . . . Hos- 
 pinian, (lib. iii., c. 13), nnder the head * Rlonachi 
 ab initio non Clerici,' adduces strong reason (in spiic 
 of some contradictory decrees) 'to believe tliaf. they 
 were permitted to take orders as early as the time of 
 Pope Siricins, in 3{)0; and that all the privileges of 
 th(! secular priesthood were snbsetpicntly conferreil on 
 monastic priests, an<l confirmed by (Jregory the (jreat 
 Still, as they continued to be bound by their vow«, 
 they ac(|uired the clerical, without losing tho monastic , 
 cliarnr'"" 
 
ORIGIN OF MONACIIISM. 
 
 30.*^ 
 
 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 monks (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, inonas- 
 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 anjmate and people them ; but its ardor 
 grarlually 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 temi)oral 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 of 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 Empiess 
 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. Pariie, 
 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. 
 
 t Another class of religious females, called Virgini 
 of the Church, had an early existence in the East 
 They continued to unite the discharge of their socia 
 duties with a strict profession of religious chastity — 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 The original monasiic establish menta of 
 every description were subjected, without any 
 exception, to the 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 
 sti'ong motive, in the East. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Institution of Monnchism in the West, 
 
 It is very generally asserted,* that the mon- I 
 astic system was introduced into the West by ; 
 Athanasius, during his compulsory sojourn at ; 
 Home, 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, i 
 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- 1 
 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.M 
 
 ihiw advancing one gtep Ijeyond the ascetism of their 
 forefathers. 
 
 ♦ Baronius, (ann. 328), Mabillon, and Gibbon hold 
 tliis opinion; hut Min-atori pretends that tlic first 
 inonaKtcries fuutxlcid in Italy were erected at Mihtn. 
 Mosheiin more wisely jjronoiinccH the unccMlainly of 
 the fan, 
 
 t 'f'hf; follr»win<f are some of the pansai^es wliich 
 In-ar on ihiH Hubjert. St. Jerome, Hpcakin<( of the 
 time of AtlianaHinsVs vinit to Rome, HayH, (in Kpisl. 
 16, ad l*rinri|)iam Virginem,) * Nulla ei> tempore 
 noljiliutn f i ifiinaruiM nov«Tat Roma- propositum !Mo- 
 naehoriMii, ncr audeliat, |>ropter rei novitatem, igno- 
 mini'ihiim (ut tune putabatnr) et vile in populiN nomen 
 OMumere. Hue (Marcella) ab AlexandriniH priiis 
 «»ccr<lo»ibu» V:\\)\i([\\i'. Ailiana«io, et pof>i( a I'l ir<., . . 
 
 We may here obser\ e, that, as m the wide 
 wilderness of the East, a secluded rock, or an 
 unfrequented oasis — a spot cut off by tlie 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 Virginum ac Vidua- 
 rum didicit disciplinam, nee erubuit profiteri 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 ignominiap fuerat, 
 esset postea glorige.' So also Augustin (De Morib. 
 Eccles. c. 33) ' Romae etiam plura Monasteria cog- 
 novit, in quibus singuli gravitate atque prudenlia et 
 divina scientia pollentes, caetcris secum habitantibus 
 praeerant Cliristiina 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 mcenia sub Ambrosio nutri- 
 tore.' Sulp. Severus mentions the success of St. 
 Martin to have been so great, * ut ad exequias ejua 
 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 quotidic aul ad iEgypti Monasteria per- 
 gere, aut Mesopotamia} invisere choros, aut certe 
 insularum Dalmatia? soliludines occupare,' &c. 
 
 t See Marsham's ITQo.iv?.aior, in Dugd. Monast. 
 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 tollit; 
 
 Squallet lucifugis Insula plena viris. 
 Ipsi se Monachos Graio cognomine dicunt, 
 
 Quod soli nullo vivere teste volunt. 
 Munera fortuna; mctuunt, dum damna vcrentur. 
 
 (iuis(iuam sponte miser, ne miser esse queatl 
 Sive suas repetunt ex fato ergastula pcrnas; 
 
 Tristia sen nigro viscera felle tumont. 
 
 if. * Hi * * 
 
 Nohier cnim nuper Juvenis, majoribns amplia, 
 
 Nec censii inferior, coiijugiove minor, 
 Impidsiis furiis homines Divoscpie relitK^iit, 
 
 Kt turix in latebram credulus exul agit 
 Infelix putat illuvie cd lestia jiasci, 
 
 Seqne premit ca-cis sajvior ijisc Deis. 
 Num. rogo, (leterior CircH'is eecla v«nenifl( 
 
 Tunc tnuiabantur corpora, nunc animi. 
 Many other ihlauds arc nienlioncd as liav.ng Itecn 
 tliua consecrated, (or deseci-uti-d — as the di MMilK;) 
 
INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 
 
 305 
 
 Calaliria, throughout tlie islets of the Tuscan 
 Sea, the chants of monastic devotion every- 
 where resounded, as well as at Lerinus and 
 the StcEchades, consecrated by the piety of 
 Cassian. Such, in the frst 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 monachism to the churches 
 of Carthage ; and thus was transmitted, af- 
 ter the revolution of half a century, to the 
 more Western Afi-icans, 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 fifdi 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 jiagan 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 relievmg 
 much individual misery ; that during the 
 
 might be an ecclesiastical annalist, or a pagan poet). 
 The island Barl)ara, 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 
 quibvis monachorum consistebant Chori.' . . . See 
 Mabilloi>, Pref. in Ann. Bencd. Sacc. i. Giannone's 
 View of the Origin of the Monastic Life in the West 
 (Stor. di Nap., lib. ii., cap. 8.) does not appear to 
 be marked by the accuracy and perspicuity usual to 
 that excellent historian. 
 
 overthrow of justice and humanity, they de- 
 rived power, as well as [)rotection, from the 
 name of God, and frotn the trust which they 
 reposed in him ; that their power was gen- 
 erally exerted for good })urposes ; and that 
 their gates were thrown open to multitudes, 
 who, in those days of universal desolation, 
 could hope for no other rcfiige. 
 
 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 pui-suits, 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 aweh 
 among the mountains in unsocial and inde 
 pendent seclusion, very clearly proves, that 
 the more attractive system of the Coenobites 
 had not hitherto attained any luxurious refine- 
 ment. No large ten-itorial endowments had 
 yet been attached to religions 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 JVnrsia. 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 o^ 
 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 ^vame p 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THL 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 
 uliould 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 fii-st 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 Gyrovagi 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 
 Plonks of Kgypt. I Two hours after midnight 
 they were aroused to vigils, on which occa- 
 ^ sion twelve psalms were chanted, and cer- 
 tain lessons from the Scrii)tures read or recit- 
 ed. At day -break the matins, a service little 
 diflfering from the preceding, were perform- 
 ed ; and the intervening space, which in 
 winter was long and tedious, was employed 
 in learning the Psalms by hcart,§ or in med- 
 
 * CJregory the Great was a zealous patron of this 
 iiifititiition, and eo approved the moderation of the 
 rule, tliat he has not esr:i|)ed (he suspieion of being 
 itN author. 
 
 t It iH (jiven at Icn^'llt \>y Hospiniaii. — T)e Olivine 
 MonaeliatiiH, lib. iv. cap. v. 
 
 i See Mabillon, I'ref. in y.ac. II. Annul. I5. i.c.li(t. 
 'ni<\ Flint. d. H Onl. Monayt. 
 
 § In I'.iif{latid the fHtabliHliment of Monaehi.sni was 
 ronteniporary with that of ChriMlianily. * Au;;ii.stinn.H, 
 Monaftcrii Kef^nlis erndiluH, itiMtiliiit cotiverHationein, 
 qutr initir) na><rentiH rcrhnhr fail palribuH nonlri'*, 
 ^uibiid omnia crant cfHinnnnia — MonaHlcrinni fcil 
 
 itating on their sense, or in some jther 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 s.abbath was entirely devoted to 
 reading and prayer. Those whose work was 
 allotted at places too remote from the Monas- 
 tery to admit of then- 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 imi>osed 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 pcrni 
 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 unal)lo to 
 read or meditate, some other occupation ishouhl Ije 
 ini|)ot;cd on him. Hut as Latin, the hmgnage of re- 
 ligious study, was at that time tlic vidgar tongue, at 
 leafit one great impediment to religious instruction, 
 whicli was so powerful in after ages,. did not then 
 exist. 
 
 t In this matt(!r Si. I?cnediet relaxed from the 
 rigor of the Kastcun obsiirvance; but he did so with 
 reluctance, regretting tii(> necessary imperfection of a 
 ."vstem, wliich he was compelled to acconwnodalc to 
 gradually <l<!creaHing vigor of th(! Iiuman frame. 
 Kven l-'leury (see hi?i ICightli Disconrse) docs not dit- 
 daiii to coniliat this notion. 
 
INSTITUTION OF MONACIIISM 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 Cccnobites was 
 well enforced by their poverty — but it con- 
 tains no injunction of fasting or mortification. 
 T'^ose 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 difllcult was 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 morai 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 sei-ve 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 monasteiy 
 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- 
 tabUshments. 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 afi;erwards 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. — Histoirc 
 des Ordres Monastiques. 
 
508 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHLKCH. 
 
 vitiated b}' 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 msufficient pro- 
 tection. Throughout this period of devasta- 
 tion, while all other laws and establishments 
 were overthrown, it was not probable that 
 iven 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 i-emained 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 
 ilso named Benedict ; he was descended from 
 a powerful Gothic family, and a native of 
 Aniane in the diocese of Montpellier. Born 
 ahout 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 ho strove to regulate his discipline 
 after the sublimer models of Basil and Pacho- 
 
 * See Leo Ostieiiai*. Cliron. Cassincns, lil). i. 
 (jregory HI. restored the inoiiaatcry, and Zacliary 
 Ilia HiicccHHor granted to it (abont the year 74.3) tlie 
 privilege of cxcIuHive dependence on the liishop of 
 Rome. Hut one IjlecMing was still wanting to secnrc 
 its proyperify — and that was ha|)pily supplied hy the 
 Ahljot f)esiderins in lOGfi. In ex|)loring some rnins 
 a)>onl the edifire, lie diHCovercfi the body of St. IJen- 
 cdiet! It is true that a pope was Hoon fonnd to pro- 
 nounce the genninenesH of the relie. Nr-verlhclcss 
 the f'irl was loti|;j ami tnalr-volently di^piili'd by ri\al 
 impoMlora 
 
 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 afi;er 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 coidd 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 corru])tions 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-ChapcUe. From this epoch f we may 
 
 * Besides the general mention of his profuse dona- 
 tions to the poor, it is particularly related rcsijectini; 
 this Benedict, that whenever an estate was ukuIc over 
 to him, he invariably emancipated all the serfs whom 
 he found on if. Act. SS. Benedict., torn. 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., 
 wc observe for instance — •Silentium observent sem- 
 per in Kcclesia sua, semper in Keli-ctorio, semper in 
 Dormitorio,' — and even on the most necessary occa- 
 sions for conversation the monks were instructed to 
 speak remissa voce, humiliter, et honestc. — Sec Hug* 
 dale, vol. ii. p. 8.30. 
 
 X It would not appear that these changes very murh 
 induenced the condition of monachism in l''n;^lHnd, 
 The three great reformntions in that Hy.xtem which 
 look place in (jtir church were, (1) that of Archbishop 
 
INSTl'l UTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 
 
 309 
 
 date the renovation of the Benedictine Order ; 
 and though, even in that age, 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 tlie 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 
 
 Culhbert, in the year 747; (2) that of Dunstan, in 
 965, promulgated in the Council of Winchester, on 
 which occasion the general constitution, entitled, — 
 Regula Concordige Anglicae 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. . . Mabillon, 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 
 
 was passing by, if indeed it was not already 
 passed irrevocably ; and we remark bow rap- 
 idly the close embrace of the pontifical power 
 was converting to evil the rational principles 
 and pious purposes of the original institution. 
 
 Tlie Cistercian Order. Howbeit, we do not 
 read that any flagi-ant 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 origm 
 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 austerit}', 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 
 soujetimes 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 
 1:250, 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, ccnteno, bis minus uno, 
 Pontifice Urbano, Fianconini Rege Pliilippo, 
 Biirgnndis Odone dtico ol fundamina dante, 
 Sub I'atrc Roberto cn pit Cisteiciiis Ordo. 
 Pagi, Vit. Urban II., sect. 73. Tlie date of another 
 celebrated In.stitution, wliich we have no space to 
 notice, lias been hiinilarly (ihougli less artificially) 
 rrcorded : — 
 
 Anno milleno, centcno, bis (|nf)(|ne deno 
 
 Sub Paire Norlxjrto Prj inon«traten.sis vigct Ordo. 
 
 iVorljert was areiibiHliop of IMagdebnrg, and in 
 great repute with Irmocenl II. The hile of tlie mon- 
 aittcry wjm pr:emon><trate(l by a vinion — hence the 
 name. Tlie ride was that of St. Augustin ; the 
 Hrnthren were confirmj;d by Calixttifl II., under tlie 
 denignatii^n of Canon ici RcgiilarcH Kxempti ; and 
 they Hprea<l to the cxtreniilicH of the ea«t and the 
 »c«t. — lIoKpin. lib. v. c. xii. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 mother monastery. But the Citeaux was 
 less fortunate in the duration of its authoi'ity, 
 and the union of its societies. About the 
 year 1350, some confusion grew up atnongst 
 them, arising first from their corruptions, 
 and next from the obstruction of all e>ndeav- 
 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 ; til at 
 length, about the year 1500, they broke . p 
 (first in Spain, and then in Tuscany t>nd 
 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 Albcric,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 tliis reason, that 
 they had lands and cattle, whence they could live by 
 work. They avoided cities and poindous 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), a3 
 well as horses and cattle. Their only addition to the 
 old rule was that of lay brothers and hired servants. — 
 Freres Convcrs Laitiucs. 
 
 t Floury, II. 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 |niichased ex- 
 cept for the sick ; that no supcrlluous 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 tho 
 same period they were j)ermitted to shave only six 
 times. 
 
 Some statutes of this ord(!r are given by Dugdale, 
 IMonast. vol. i. p. 951. Among them we observe a 
 strict injunction to manual labor: — 
 
 Nunc lege, nunc ora, nunc rum fervore laboro ; 
 Sic cril lioru brcvia.cl labor illo lcvi« 
 
INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 
 
 31. 
 
 nble notoriety ; and at lengtli, about the year 
 1178, its rule was sanctioned by tlie approba- 
 tion of Alexander III. From this event, its 
 existence as a separate order in the church is 
 pmperly to be dated ; and henceforward it 
 went forth from its wild and desolate birth- 
 place, and spread its fruitful branches over 
 the gardens and vineyai-ds of Em-ope. Tiie 
 rise of the Chartreux 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 cyused 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 ahke 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 the 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 j 
 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 j 
 sorts of laymen are mentioned as living in French ' 
 
 forward the Monks (for the higner class began 
 to aj)pro[)riate that name) became entirely 
 composed either of clerks, or of persons des- 
 tined for holy orders; the religious offices 
 were celeljrated and chiefly attended by them • 
 while the servant was commanded to repeat 
 his pater without suspending his work, and 
 presented with a cha})let for the numbering 
 of the canonical hours. A reason was ad- 
 vanced for this change ; and had not a much 
 stronger been affi^rded 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. Accorduig to the old- 
 est practice, every monastery was governed 
 I 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 Vatican, the facilities for coiTuption were 
 I multiplied ; and a number of evils were creat- 
 ed, which escaped the observation or correc- 
 tion of a distant and indulgent master. A 
 the same time, the effect of this connexion 
 
 monasteries: (1) Such as gave themselves over as 
 slaves to the establishment, and uere called Oblats 
 or Donnes. (2) Such as were recommended for sup 
 port to monasteries of royal foundation by the king 
 |i But neither of these classes were, prope»-'y speaking, 
 'l lay brethren. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 was to infuse aii 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 cloistef 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 rnonas- 
 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 tin; innovations in the annals of 
 monachism, took place almost immediately 
 afterwards. 
 
 Sfxtio.v III. 
 
 Canons Regular and Secular. 
 
 The order of monks was originally so widely 
 dlHtinct from that of clerks, that there were 
 seldom found more than one or two (•crl(!si- 
 n.sticH in any nnricnt convent. But |)r('S('ntly, 
 in tiif^ growing prcvaicrirfi f>f tlu^ inonasiic 
 life, fu rsouH ordniiM'd, or drHtin<'d to tlic sacn-d 
 profcHHion, formed Hori(!ti«'H on similar princi- 
 
 ples ; and as they were bound, though with 
 less severity, by certain fixed canons, they 
 were called, in process of time, Canomci* 
 The bishop of the diocese was their abbot 
 and president. It is recorded that St. Angus 
 tine set the example of livhig 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 their observance, except such in- 
 structions as are foimd 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, 1 and that it passed thence 
 into other churches ; and Dugdale appeal's 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 eflforts, 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- 
 phne, 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 imj)Osed on 
 them one general and })erpetual rule. 
 
 The plausible principle on which the order 
 of canons was founded, to withdraw from the 
 contagion of the world those who had ])ecu- 
 
 * The term Canon originally included not only all 
 professors of the monastic life, but the very Hiorodu- 
 Ics and inferior officers of ihe Church. Moshcim (on 
 the authority of Le Brruf, Memoires sur rHistoire 
 d'Auxerre, vol. i. p. 174.) asserts that it became pe- 
 culiar to clerical monks (Fralres Doniinici) soon 
 after the middle of the eighth century. But we should 
 rather collect from the Ilistoire des Ordres Monas- 
 tiques, that the iliftinction was not generally establish- 
 ed till the eleventh age. 
 
 t It should bo 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 conv(!nt of refractory inuifl, who had quarrelled 
 with their Abbess, and exhibited some unbecoming 
 violence in the dispute. 
 
 :|. See I)ug<lalo Dc Canonoruin Ordinis Origine. 
 There may Ikj found the Rule which St. Augustin is 
 itaid to hav(! prescribed. 
 
 § TIk! rule here publiHlied was borrowed, in many 
 pari iciilaiH, from that of St. Beiunlirt. l^ut the ordci 
 hi ill retained the name and bannrrs of St. Augustin 
 — U'lHt. les Ordics RIonanli(jucB. 
 
ON THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 313 
 
 liarly devottjd 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- 
 niius, and in the year 977,) by whicit the re- 
 formed were separated from the un reformed 
 meirihcrs 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 cdiitradistinction, 
 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 11. 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 in 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. 
 
 071 the Military Orders. 
 
 We have thus shortly mentioned the three 
 grand religious Orders, which 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 tlie reputation of sanctity, 
 and in popular influence. Thus were they 
 soon recommended to the Bishop of Rome ; 
 and in his ambition to exalt himself above his 
 40 
 
 brother prelates, he discovered an effi/;ient 
 and willing instrument in the regular estab 
 lishments. At an early period, he 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 vvhicli cov- 
 ered tlie Christian world The monks repaid 
 these services by the most im}>licit 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 pontifl" 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 spito 
 of repeated prohibitions, among all ranks of 
 the clergy. It was exercised by the vices of 
 the feudal system ; which had given then 
 wealth in enviable profusion, but wl?ich pro- 
 
314 HISTORY OF 
 
 vided by no sufficient laws or strength of 
 government for llie protection of that which 
 it had bestowed — so that force w^as necessary 
 to defend wliat had been lavished bv super- 
 stition. The warhke 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 oftensive 
 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 
 3099, he 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 juMiitence: and, whatsoever laxity 
 they may have admitted in the observance of 
 them, thoy un([U<;stionabIy derived from that 
 prof«'ssion some real virtues which were not 
 shared by the fanatics who surrounded them; 
 and they softened the savage fratmCs of re- 
 ligious warfare with some fiiint shades of un- 
 wonted humanity. Ho long as their residence; 
 was Jerusalem, they nJtained tin; j)earefid 
 narrif! of HospitalN-TS ; but they were subsc;- 
 quently better known by the successive appel- 
 
 * Tlur riili! of ihi; IIoHpitallcrH (jih ronfirmcd \>y 
 R«)Mif;iff) may Ik; found in DiigdaK;'*! MoiiaHticoii, 
 vol. ii, p. 493. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 lations of Knights of Rhodes and of Malta 
 Faithful at least to one of the objects of theii 
 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. 
 
 Tlie 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- 
 i scribed duties, was exclusively military. — To 
 extend the boundaries of Christendom, to 
 presei*ve 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 
 abimdant ojjulence. 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 })roper 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 })lace 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 somewliat similar object, was 
 founded in France about the year 1233, called the 
 Order of the (ilorious Virgin IMary. It was confined 
 to youn^ men of family, who associated tlirmselves, 
 under the title of Les Frch-es Joyeux, for the defenco 
 of the injured, and the preservation of public tran- 
 (Hiillity. They took vows of obedience and covjugat 
 chastity, and solemidy pledged thems<dve8 to the JMO- 
 tecti(m of widows and orphans. 
 
 I In the treaty bct\ve<'n the empire and the pope- 
 dom in 1230, we find thai the interests of the three 
 niilitary orders wen; <'xprcssly stipulated for by the 
 I'ope; and also, that certain places were he/i in se- 
 I (juestration by Herman, Master of the Teutonic Order 
 
THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 
 
 315 
 
 sessioiiS ; and soon afterwards, by a deviation 
 Irorn the purpose of their institution, which 
 might seem slight perhaps in a superstitious 
 age, they turned their consecrated arms to the 
 conversion of Prussia. 
 
 That country, and the contiguous Pome- 
 ran ia, 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 tlie 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 
 mihtary 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 Teutonic Order con- 
 tinued to subsist in great estimation with the 
 Church ; and this patronage was rej)aid 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. 
 The 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 disaflTection, 
 
 until the Emperor should have fulfilled liis part of the 
 engagement. Fleury, 1. 79. s. 64. 
 
 than subdued it ; and the regular orders, be 
 cojnc sluggish from wealth and indulgence, 
 wanted tlie 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 had 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 
 
 * Hospiiiian'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 someiimes 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 
 
 St. Fra:icis. 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 Umbria, 
 w ithout 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 tlie 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. ' From 
 liencefortli let no man trouble me; for I bear in my 
 body the marks of the Lord Jesus.' We read in 
 Scmlcr, ann. 1222, that a rustic, who made tlie same 
 experiment on human credulity at about the same 
 lime, was imprisoned for life — felicius cessit Francis- 
 co, sec. xiii. cap. iii. 
 
 t Giannone, an impartial writer, thus begins a 
 Ecctifin (lib. xix. cap. v. sec. v.) entitled ' Monaci e 
 Beni Temporal!.' 'Henceforward we shall phice 
 together the subjects of " Monks " and " Temporali- 
 ties;" eince, aH we have already observed, that he 
 who pronounccB " Monachistn " (Religione,) pro- 
 nounccH " Riches," ho the Monks were now become iii- 
 com|)arably more cx|)crt in the ac(|uisition of wealth, 
 than all the other ecclesiasticH ; and the monasteries 
 in these days reaped profits tf) which those made by 
 the Cliiirchci^ bore no proportion — so that the exprcH- 
 ■ioPH " New Jieliffions^' and *' New Jtichrs,^^ be- 
 came, properly Hpeakin^, Hynonymoiis. And this was 
 titc more moiiHlroiiH, Ix.-cauHC it was in despite of their 
 fuuiidalion in mendicity, (whence they had the name 
 of Mendicnntn,) that llutir ac(|ui^ilionK and treasureri 
 were enonnouH.' — I'oVil. KccIch. del ducimo tcrzo 
 •ecolu. 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 character, but likewise free from the vow ot 
 mendicity. St. Francis himself, in the 'Tes- 
 tament ' which he lefl 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 liis 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 afi;er 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 | — 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 
 
 * Fleiu'y, Dissertat. 8me. 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. \\\ 1231 he wrote a letter to the 
 Archbishop of Sorrento, in order to introduce the 
 Dominicans to his patronage, in these terms: — ' Di- 
 Icctos Filios Fratres Ordinis Predicatorum velul no- 
 vos Vinitorcs su;c vineie suscitavit; (jui, non sua sed 
 (|u;e sunt Jesu Christi quivrentes, tam contra profli- 
 gandas luercses, <iuam pestes alias niortiferas extir- 
 pandas se dedicilrunt evangclizationi Vcrbi Dei, in 
 abjectione voluntariic paupcrtatis.* The passage ii 
 cited by Giannone. 
 
 X We read, in the * Histoirc des Ordrcs Momii- 
 ti<|iic8,' of Franciscan monasteries of very earif 
 foundation — residences inconsistent with the perpet- 
 ual practice of beggary. But those mansions were 
 probaljly tlu; first profits of the trade, the firBt-fruiU 
 of the viohition of the vow. 
 
THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 
 
 317 
 
 fi'om the affioe of publir preaching, they also | 
 betook themselves to tli.at practice ; and, per- 
 haps, with almost equal success. Thus it 
 came to pass, that, after a very few years, two 
 orders, essentially different in their original, 
 were very nearly assimilated in character, 
 and even in profession, and entered upon the 
 sariie career with almost the same objects 
 and the same principles. 
 
 Nevertheless, in the features of their policy 
 and the character of their ecclesiastical in- 
 fluence, they continued to be distinguished 
 by many important diversities. The whole 
 course of their history is more or less strong- 
 ly marked by these. And if many of them 
 were occasioned (as is unquestionably true) 
 by the passionate jealousy which they bore 
 to each other, and which they displayed upon 
 all occasions, to the great scandal and injury 
 of the Church, it is equally certain, that the 
 difference in their first constitution ever con- 
 tributed to cause a difference in their des- 
 tinies. The original vow and rule of St. 
 Francis was at no time perfectly erased from 
 the memory of his followers. Attempts were 
 soon made to revive it in its native austerity ; 
 and thus, in addition to the general conten- 
 tion with the rival order, the most violent 
 intestine dissensions were introduced into the 
 family of that Saint, which terminated in per- 
 manent alienation and schism. 
 
 Again : another evil was brought upon 
 the Church by these disputes — sharpened as 
 they also were by the scholastic subtleties 
 which in those days perverted reason. The 
 authority of the Pope interposed to set them 
 at rest, but his interference produced the op- 
 posite effect: * it not only increased the ani- 
 mosity of both parties, but also raised up a 
 powerful branch of the fraternity in avowed 
 opposition to the pontifical supremacy. In 
 the controversy in which these 'indocile' 
 brethren engaged during the fourteenth age, 
 against John XXII., they proceeded so far in 
 rebellious audacity as formally to pass the 
 sentence of heresy upon the Vicar of Christ, 
 and to abet the efforts of Lewis of Bavaria to 
 depose him ! Such (as Fleury has observed) 
 was the termination of their humility — the 
 deposition of a pope ! Owing to these inter- 
 nal contests, it has even been made a question 
 with somo, whether the institution of the 
 Mendicants has not contributed, upon the 
 whole, to the decline, rather than the ad- 
 vancement of the papal interests. But there 
 
 * The good and simple pope, St. Celestine, sanc- 
 tioned the division among the Franciscans by estab- 
 lishing the congregation of the ' Poor Hermits.' 
 
 is not sufficient reason for such a doubt. 
 The wound which the Roman See may have 
 received from the passionate insubordination 
 of a faction of one of those orders, bears no 
 comparison with the benefits whicii it has do- 
 rived from the faitliful assiduity, the learning, 
 the zeal, and the uncompromising devoted- 
 ness of the other. 
 
 If the Dominicans surpassed the rival order 
 in obedience to their cotnmon master, they 
 also afforded a better example of internal 
 harmony and discipline. Indeed, as they ad- 
 hered very closely to the original object of 
 their institution, the destruction of heresy, 
 there was little reason why they should dis- 
 pute with each other, and the strongest mo- 
 tive for concord with the Holy See. The 
 destruction of heresy they were willing (as 
 we have observed,) in the first instance, to 
 accomplish by the sword of the spirit ; but, 
 whether through the natural impatience of 
 bigotry, or because the wisest among them 
 began to suspect the weakness of their own 
 cause, the futility of their soj)histry, and the 
 falsehood of their positions, after a very short 
 attempt they abandoned that method of con- 
 version, and betook themselves to the materi 
 al weapon. The secular arm was summoned 
 to their aid, and it became in process of time 
 their favorite, if not their only, instrument. 
 
 Nevertheless those are in error who attri 
 bute the foundation of the Inquisition, as a 
 fixed and permanent tribimal, to the hand of 
 St. Dominic. It may seem indeed to have 
 been the necessary consequence of his labors, 
 the result to which his principles infallibly 
 tended ; and it is true that the administration 
 of its offices was principally delegated to his 
 order. But it was not any where formally 
 established until ten or twelve years after his 
 death.* In the meantime, the Dominicans, 
 already trained to the chase, and heated by 
 the scent of blood, eagerly executed the trust 
 which was assigned to them. Over the whole 
 surface of the western world they spread 
 themselves in fierce and keen pursuit ; and 
 the distant kingdoms of Spain and Poland 
 were presently inflicted with the same deadly 
 visitation. Rome was the centre of persecu- 
 tion ; the heart, to which the circulating poison 
 continually returned — and whence it derived, 
 as it flowed onward, a fresh and perennial 
 supply of virulence and malignity. 
 
 Dispute of the Dominicans ivith the Univer 
 sity of Paris. The Dominicans, soon after 
 their institution, seem to have appropriated 
 
 * Tlie origin of the Inqui^^ition will be described in 
 chapter xxi. 
 
318 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 most or the learning, then so sparmgly dis- | 
 tributed among the nionr.stic orders. They 
 applied themselves chiefly to the science of 
 controversy, and soon became ver}'^ formida- 
 ble in that field — the more so, since they em- 
 ployed the resources of scholastic ingenuity 
 in the defence of the papal government. The 
 means and the end harmonized well ; the 
 prejudices of the age were to a great extent 
 favorable to both ; the exertions of reviving 
 reason were perpetually baffled, and her 
 friends discomfited and overthrown. . . We 
 shall briefly notice one signal campaign of 
 the Dominicans — that which tliey carried on 
 for above thirt}^ years against the University 
 of Paris. . . That body, which was already 
 the most eminent in Europe, thought it expe- 
 dient, in the year 1228, to confine the Dom- 
 inicans, in common with all other religious 
 orders, to the possession of one of its theolog- 
 ical classes, while those Mendicants warmly 
 asserted their claim to two. Many violent 
 contentious arose from this difference, and 
 continued till the year 1255, with no decisive 
 result: tlie matter w^as then referred to the 
 wisdom of Pope Alexander IV. It is not 
 difiicult to anticipate the response of the Vat- 
 ican. The University received an unqualified 
 injunction to throw open to the Domuiicans, 
 not two classes only, but as many chairs and 
 dignities as it might seem good to them to 
 occupy. For four years the refractory doc- 
 lore resisted the execution of the sentence 
 with a boldness worthy of a better age and 
 a hapj)ier result. At length, terrified by the 
 repeated menaces of the pontiflT, they submit- 
 ted. . . Nevertheless, the struggle had not been 
 without its benefit. During the course of 
 a protracted controversy, subjects had been 
 handled of higher and more general im- 
 portance, than the right of lecturing in the 
 scho )l8 of Paris. Wiiilc the discipline and 
 print ii)les of the Mendicants were examined 
 and assailed, the power which upheld them 
 did not escape from i)ublic rcpn^hension. 
 The possibility of error even in the Church 
 itself was ()j)<'nly maintained ; and the spirit 
 of learning, wliich had hilhcrlo ministered to 
 ecclesiastical oppression, was at length arous- 
 ed against it. The first J'flbrts of the best prin- 
 niples arc generally baflled and disappointed ; 
 but the examjjle wlii<'h they leave does not 
 periwh ; but oidy wails till the concurrence of 
 hM|)pi<;r cin-iniiMtanccs may l>ring iIk; season 
 for nion* siirrcssfid imitation. 
 
 In tru; conduct of this dispute, as both pnr- 
 lieH lM;cam<! e(|UMlly healed, tin* limits of rejisou 
 were exceeded, with olmost e(iual Icmi rily, 
 
 by both. Among many laborious productionSj 
 perhaps the most celebrated was that publish- 
 ed by Guilliaume de St. Amour, a doctor of 
 Sorbonne, and a powerful champion of the 
 University, 'Concerning the Perils of the 
 Latter Times.' The peculiarity which has 
 recommended it to our notice is this. It was 
 founded on the belief that the passage of St. 
 Paul relating to ' the perilous times which 
 were to come in the last days,' was fulfilled 
 by the establishment of the Mendicants! . . . 
 Every age has affixed its own interpretation 
 to that text, and all have been successively 
 deceived ; and this might teach us some cau- 
 tion in wresting the mysterious oracles of 
 God from their eternal destination to serve 
 the partial views — to aid the transient, and 
 perhaps passionate, purposes of the moment. 
 Yet is there an undue value almost indissolu- 
 bly attached, even by the calmest minds, to 
 passing occurrences : hov^^ever trivial and fu- 
 gitive their character, they are magnified by 
 close inspection, so as to exceed the mightiest 
 events farther removed in time ; and it is this, 
 our almost insuperable inability to reduce 
 present occurrences to their real dimensions 
 — to place them at a distance, and examine 
 them side by side along with the transactions 
 of former days — to consider them, in short 
 disinterestedly and historically — it is this cause 
 which has begotten, and which still begets, 
 many foolish opinions in niinds not destitute 
 of reason ; and which, among other fruits, 
 has so frequently reproduced, and in so many 
 shapes, the pitiable enthusiasm of the Millen- 
 arians. 
 
 Dissensions among the D'anciscans. Though 
 both Dominicans and Franciscans professed 
 to be at the same time mendicants and preach- 
 ers, yet, in some sort of conformity with their 
 original rules, the former continued to retain 
 more of the })rcdicatory, the latter more of the 
 mendicant, character. These last were con- 
 sequently less distinguished by their literary 
 contests, than by those which they waged 
 against each other, respecting the just inter- 
 pretation of the rule of their founder. In all 
 other monastic institutions, the ])ossession of 
 property ^vas forbidden to individuals, but 
 permitt(!d to tlu; commmiity ; whereas the 
 more rigid injunction of St. Francis <lenied 
 every desiniplion of fixed n^venues, even to 
 the Societies of his followers. There were 
 many among those who wished for i rehix 
 ation of this rule; and they obtained it wnn 
 out dillicidty, both from (Jregory IX. antl In- 
 nocent IV. Hut another party, who mlled 
 li themselves the Spirituals, insisteil on a strict 
 
THE MENDICANT ORDERS 
 
 319 
 
 adhesion to the original institution ; they even 
 refused to share tlie glorious title of Francis- 
 can with those who had abandovit?d it. This 
 feeling displayed itself with particular vehe- 
 mence in the year 1247, when John of Parma, 
 a rigid spiritualist, was chosen general of the 
 order. But the more worldly brethren still 
 adhered to their mitigated discipline; and 
 their perseverance, which was favored, per- 
 haps, by the secret wishes of many of the op- 
 posite party, received the steady and zealous 
 concurrence of the Holy See. For whatso- 
 ever value the popes might attach to the vol- 
 untary poverty of their myrmidons, — to the 
 respect which it excited, and the spontaneous 
 generosity which so abundandy relieved it, — 
 they no doubt considered, that it was more 
 important to the permanent interests of the 
 Church to encourage the increase of her fixed 
 nd solid and perpetual possessions. 
 
 The success of the Dominicans and Fran- 
 ciscans encouraged the profession of beggary ; 
 and the face of Christendom was suddenly 
 darkened by a swarm of holy mendicants, in 
 such manner that, about the year 1272, Gre- 
 gory X. endeavoi-ed to arrest the overgrowing 
 evil. To this end he suppressed a great mul- 
 titude of those authorized vagrants, and dis- 
 tributed the remainder, still very numerous, 
 into four societies, — the Dominicans, the 
 Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Hermits 
 of St. Augustine. 
 
 The Carmelites. — The order of the Carme- 
 lites was, in its origin. Oriental and Eremitical. 
 John Phocas, a monk of Patmos, who visited 
 the Holy Places in 1185, thus concludes the 
 narrative of his pilgrimage : — ' On Mount 
 Carmel is the cavern of Elias, where a large 
 monastery once stood, as the remains of build- 
 ings attest ; but it has been ruined by time and 
 hostile incursions. Some years ago a hoary- 
 headed monk, who was also a priest, came 
 from Calabria, and established himself in this 
 place, by the revelation of the Prophet Elias. 
 He made a little enclosure in the ruins of the 
 monastery, and constructed there a tower and 
 a small church, and assembled about ten 
 brothers, with whom he still inhabits that 
 holy place.' * Such appears to be the earliest 
 authentic record of the foundation of the Car- 
 melites. About the year 1209, Albert, patri- 
 arch of Jerusalem, gave them a rule. It 
 consisted of sixteen articles, which contain 
 nothing original, and are merely sufficient to 
 prove the ignorance, the abstinence, and the 
 poverty of the original brothers. The institu- 
 
 tion was not, however, legitimately introduced 
 into the grand monastic family till the year 
 122(), when it received the sanction of Uo- 
 norius III. Twelve years afterwarcb it waa 
 raised from among the regular orders to the 
 more valuable privileges and profits of men- 
 dicity ; and we observe that the severe rule 
 of its infancy was interpreted and mitigated 
 soon afterwards by Innocent IV. Accord- 
 ingly it became venerable and popular, and 
 was embraced with t]ie accustomed eagerness 
 in every country in Europe. 
 
 Hermits of St. Augustine. — A great num- 
 ber of individuals were still found scattered 
 throughout the western Church, who cher 
 ished the name, though they might dispense 
 with the severer duties, of hernnts ; and they 
 professed a variety of rules by which their 
 several independent societies were governed. 
 Innocent IV. expressed his desire to unite 
 them into one order ; and it was executed by 
 his successor. Alexander IV., the better to 
 withdraw them from their seclusion, and en- 
 gage them in the functions of the ecclesiastical 
 hierarchy, f formed them into a single con- 
 gregation, under one rule and one general, 
 and associated them by the same title of 
 ' Hermits of St. Augustine.' We may ob- 
 serve, however, that as they were the most 
 modern, so they were the least considerable of 
 the mendicant institutions. 
 
 To these four orders the pontiffs granted 
 the exclusive indulgence of travelling through 
 all countries, of conversing with persons of 
 all ranks, and instructing, wheresoever they 
 sojourned, the young and the ignorant. This 
 commission was presently extended to preach- 
 ing in the churches, and administering the 
 holy sacraments. And so gi-eat veneration 
 did they excite by the sanctity of their ap- 
 pearance, the austerity of their life, and the 
 authoritative humility of their manners, that 
 the people rushed in multitudes to listen to 
 their eloquence, and to crave their benedic- 
 tion. And thus the spirit of sacerdotal des- 
 potism, which had been chilled through the 
 indecency or negligence of the secular clergy 
 and the luxurious languor of the regular es- 
 tablishments, was for a season revived and 
 restored to an authority, in its extent more 
 ample, and in its exercise far more unspar- 
 ing, than it had possessed at any preceding 
 period. 
 
 Early merits and degeneracy of the Mendi- 
 cants. — In their early years, the two great 
 nurseries of the Dominicans w'ere Paris and 
 
 We cite the passage from Fleury, 1. Ixxvi. sec. 55. f Giannone, Stor. Nap., lib. xix , oap. v., sec. 5. 
 
320 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Bologna. In those cities, Jourdain, the Gen- 
 eral of the order, and successor of its founder, 
 alternately passed the season of Lent ; and 
 thence he sent forth his emissaries through 
 me south and the west. Among the first 
 converts to the discipline of St. Dominic were 
 many distinguished by rank and dignity, many 
 eminent ecclesiastics, many learned doctors, 
 both in law and theology, and many young 
 students of noble parentage. Nor is it hard 
 to believe those accouijts, which praise the 
 rigor of their moral excellence, and the gen- 
 eral subjection of their carnal appetites to the 
 control of the sph'it. The very enthusiasm, 
 which at first inflamed them for the purity 
 and beauty of their institution, was inconsis- 
 tent with hypocritical pretensions to piety ; it 
 tended, too, somewhat to prolong the exercise 
 of those virtues whence it drew its origin. 
 And thus, if their literary exertions were 
 really stimulated by the highest motiv^es — the 
 glory of God, and the salvation of the faithful 
 — they may well have surpassed the languid 
 labors of the old ecclesiastics, which were so 
 commonly directed to mere vulgar and tem- 
 poral objects. Accordingly, as the Mendicants 
 rose, the ancient orders and the secular clergy 
 fell into disrepute and contempt; and the chairs 
 and the pulpits, which they had so long filled, 
 were, in a great measure, usurped by more 
 zealous, more laborious, and more popular 
 competitors. 
 
 But these conquests were not obtained or 
 preserved without many violent and obstinate 
 contrsts. * ]5oih regulars and seculars de- 
 fended their ancient ])rivilcges with an ardor 
 which seemed to su[)ply the want of strength. 
 Their disputes with each oth(;r were for the 
 season laid aside ; they united with equal 
 
 * Tlie grand dispute in England between the Clergy 
 and the Mendicants, in which the Arclibishop of Ar- 
 magh was so prominent, took place about 1357. Tlio 
 great com|)laint at that time was, that the latter had 
 seduced all the young men at the University to con- 
 fess t(; \\u'm, to enter iheir order, and to remain there. 
 And the prelate mentions the remarkaiilc fact, that, 
 through the suspicions thus infused into families, the 
 number of stuflents at Oxford had been reduced during 
 his time from llii|ty thousand tf» six thousand. It 
 was niarle another matter of rej)roarh on the mendi- 
 cants, that they liad bouglit up all ihe books, and 
 collected in every convent a large and fine library. 
 The field of content w'as transferred to the pontifical 
 lourt (then at Avignon); the mendicants were tri- 
 umphant, and the Archbishop's mission appears to 
 have had no resiih. And aboiit the fiunc. tiim; two 
 conniderable princes, l»el<'r, Infiint of Aragmi, and 
 Charles, (y«)Uiit nf /\len(jon, became mcmbeiM respec- 
 Cively of the I-'ranciscan and Dominican orderx. 
 
 earnestness against the mvaaer of their com- 
 mon interests; and the rancor i:'.us occasion- 
 ed, and shared, in some degree, even by the 
 most obscure individuals of both parties, was 
 far from favorable either to the purity of re- 
 ligion, or to the honor of the Church — in- 
 somuch, that some Roman Catholic writers 
 have expressed a reasonable doubt, whether 
 the interests of their Church would not have 
 been more effectually consulted by a thorough 
 reformation of the two classes already conse- 
 crated to religion, than by the establishment 
 of a new order. It is certainly true, that no 
 cause has more scandalized the name of 
 Christ, in every age of his faith, than the bit- 
 ter dissensions of his mmistei-s. Their very 
 immoralities have scarcely been more poison- 
 ous in their influence on the people, than the 
 spectacle of their jealousy and rancor. And 
 thus, if the ancient zeal and piety could have 
 been revived by ordinary regulations among 
 the ecclesiastics of the thirteenth century — 
 had it been possible to infuse into the decrepit 
 the vigor of the young, into the pampered the 
 virtue of the poor, — such had, indeed, been 
 the safer method of regeneration. It appears, 
 however, very questionable, whether the popea 
 had power to accomplish so substantial a re- 
 formation in the Church, even had they been 
 seriously bent on it. It is perfectly certain 
 that they were not so disposed. The interests 
 of papacy were now becoming widely differ- 
 ent from the interests of the Chiu'ch, and their 
 policy (though they might not themselves be 
 conscious of the distinction) was steadily di 
 rected to the former. With that view, the 
 institution of the Mendicants was eminently 
 useful, as it communicated a sort of ubiquity 
 to the pontifical Chair. Moreover, the scan- 
 dals which it occasioned were, in some mea- 
 sure, compensated by the energy to which the 
 old establishments were reluctantly awaken- 
 ed ; and which had been more honoral)le to 
 themselves, and more usefid to religion, had 
 it been excited by a less equivocal motive. 
 
 One essential characteristic of the Mendi- 
 cants was the want of any j)ermanent resi- 
 dence ; and thus their influence over the 
 p(H)ple, though nt seasons vast and overruling, 
 roidd not be deeply fixed, or very durable. 
 Again, sitice they professed absolute poverty, 
 they coidd sciurely exercise any fearless con- 
 trol over thos(\ on whose; fivor ttnd charity 
 lh(!y wen; deptMident for tlu^ir daily subsist- 
 ence : so that their po|)tilar iiiitliority wn8 
 destitute; of those sidisttintial s.ipporls which 
 th(;ir opponents deriv»'d from the por^Si'ssion 
 of opident establishments, and resied wholly 
 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 
 
 321 
 
 on their talents and their virtues. As long as 
 their zeal and their eloquence far surpassed 
 those of the ancient ecclesiastics,— as long as. 
 the sanctity of their moral practice was be- 
 yond reproach or suspicion, — so long they 
 deserved and maintained the superiority of 
 their influence. But though the impression 
 thus produced will generally last somewhat 
 longer than the excellence which produces it, 
 still the solid foundation of their power de- 
 cayed with the decay of their original quali- 
 ties; and the wealth which they at length 
 substituted in the place of these, reduced them 
 at best to the level of their rivals. 
 
 And no long time elapsed from their origin, 
 nefore the reproach of corruption was com- 
 monly and justly cast upon them. ^ General 
 
 * The evidence of Matthew Paris, an established 
 Benedictine of St. Alban's, may be somewhat colored 
 by professional jealousy, but nevertheless it is sub- 
 stantially true. In his Henry HI., anno 1246, he 
 mentions, how, from being preachers, they became 
 confessors, and usurped the other oiifices of the Ordi- 
 nary. In the same place he publishes a celebrated 
 Bull of Gregory IX. in their favor, and strongly des- 
 cribes the insolence which they derived from it. ' Ec- 
 clesiarum rectores . ' procaciter alloquentes, in- 
 dulta sibi talia privilegia in propatulo demonstrantes, 
 erecta cervice ea exigentes recitari, &c, . . He 
 then relates the manner in which they supplanted the 
 clergy in the affections of the people. ' Esne pro- 
 fessus 1 Etiam. A quo 1 A sacerdote meo. Et 
 quis ille idiotal Nunquam theologiam audivit ; nun- 
 quam in decretis vigilavit ; nunquam unam qufestio- 
 nem didicit enodare. C?eci sunt et duces coecorum. 
 Ad nos accedite, qui novinius lepram a lepra distin- 
 guere . . . Multi igitur, pracipue nobiles et 
 nobilium uxores, spretis propriis sacerdotibus, pr?e- 
 dicatoribus confitebantur . . unde non mediocriter 
 viluit ordinariorum dignitas.' . . . Matthew Paris 
 then goes on to show the immorality thus introduced; 
 smce the people did not feel for the Mendicants any 
 of that awe which their own priests had been accus- 
 tomed to inspire, and therefore repeated their sins 
 with less scruple. The same author (ad. ann. 12.35) 
 repeats the complaints of the insolence of the Men- 
 dicants, and of the extensive footing which they had 
 already usurped upon the domains of the old establish- 
 ments. In another place, (ann. 1247,) he describes 
 them as the pope's beadles and tax-gatherers. ' Ut- 
 pote fratres minores et predicatores (ut credimus in- 
 fitos) jam suos fecit Dominus Papa, non sine ordinis 
 eorum lajsione et scandalo, teloniarios et bedellos.' 
 
 . . These passages were written within half a 
 century from the foundation of the order The evi- 
 dence of the great Franciscan, Buonaventura, and of 
 Thierri d'Apolde, bolii writers of the same age, is 
 also adduced by Fleury, to prove the early corruption 
 of the Mendicants. Bzovius (ann. 1304, sec. vii.) 
 publishes a long decree of Benedict XL, still further 
 augmenting the privileges of the Mendicants, and ex- 
 empting them from certain episcopal restraints. 
 
 coiiq)laints arose res[)ecting the multitude of 
 pretexts whicli they invented for the extortion 
 of money ; rusj)ecting the vagabond habits, 
 the idleness, and importunity of many among 
 them. It was particularly asserted, that, hav- 
 ing insinuated themselves into the confidence 
 of families,, they took under their special 
 charge the management of wills, and con- 
 structed them to their own advantage. They 
 became perpetual attendants on the death-bed 
 of the rich. Moreover, they engaged with 
 intriguing activity in the political transactions 
 of the day, and were intrusted with the con- 
 duct of difficult negotiations. The cabinets 
 of princes were not too lofty for their ambi- 
 tion, the secrets of domestic life were not 
 beneath their avarice. Again — it offended 
 the reason of many, that holy persons, pro- 
 fessing profound humility and perfect poverty, 
 should appear in the character of magistrates, 
 having apparitors and familiars at their dis- 
 posal, and all the treasures and all the torturea 
 of the Inquisition. They thus became rich, 
 indeed, and they became powerful : but there 
 were those who did not fail to contrast the 
 contempt of woifdly glory, which illustrated 
 the birth of "their order, with the pomp which 
 they afterwards assumed so willingly ; and to 
 remark, that through the abandonment of 
 every possession, they possessed every thing, 
 and were more opulent in their poverty than 
 the most opulent* . . . Such reflections 
 were obvious to the most illiterate ; and they 
 gradually diminished a popularity, which was 
 ill compensated by riches. Howbeit, amid 
 the decline in their reputation and the degen- 
 eracy of their principles, from the one grand 
 rule of their ecclesiastical policy they never 
 deviated, — they persevered, without any im- 
 portant interruption, in their faithful ministry 
 to the Vatican. But from the time that they 
 parted with their original characteristics, their 
 agency became less useful ; and the extrava- 
 gance with which they sometimes exalted the 
 pretensions of the See, began, in later ages, 
 to excite some disgust among its more moder- 
 ate and reasonable supporters^ 
 
 Section VI. 
 
 TTie Establishment of JVuns. 
 
 That there existed, even in the Autenicene 
 Church, virgins, who made profession of re- 
 ligious chastity, and dedicated themselves to 
 
 * Pietr. delle Vigne. (i. Episl. 37). Fleury, lib. 
 Ixxxii., sec. 7. The Capucines, a branch of reformed 
 Franciscans, did not arise till the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century. Their progress, which was cou 
 
3212 HISTORY OF 
 
 the service of Christ, is clear from the writings 
 of Tertiillian, Cyprian, and Eusebius.* But 
 there is no sufficient reason to believe that 
 they were formed into societies ; still less that 
 they constituted any order or congregation. 
 They exercised individually their self-imposed 
 duties and devotions ; and found their practice 
 to be consistent, like the Ascetse, among whom 
 they may properly be classed, with the ordi- 
 nary occupations of society. 
 
 The origin of communities of female reclu- 
 ses was probably coeval with that of monaste- 
 ries, and the produce of the same soil. The 
 glory of the institution is commonly ascribed 
 to St. Syncletica, the descendant of a Mace- 
 donian family settled in Alexandria, and the 
 contemporary of St. Anthony. It is at least 
 certain, that many such establishments were 
 founded in Eg}^pt before the middle of the 
 fourth century ; and that they were propagated 
 tlu-oughout Syria, Pontus, and Greece, by the 
 same means and at the same time with those 
 of the Holy Brothers, though not, as it would 
 seem, in the same abundance. It appears, 
 however, that they gradually penetrated into 
 every province where the nihie of Christ was 
 known ; they were found among the Arme- 
 nians, Mingrelians, Georgians, Maronites, and 
 others ; and finally formed an important and 
 not incongruous appendage to the Oriental 
 Church. 
 
 A noble Roman lady, named Marcella, is 
 celebrated as the instrument chosen by Provi- 
 dence to introduce the pious institution into 
 the West. In emulation of the models of 
 Egypt, she assembled several virgins and 
 widows in a community consecrated to holy 
 purposes ; and her example found so many 
 imitators, that the Fathers of the next genera- 
 temporary with that of the Lutherans and the Jesuits, 
 is also described as extremely rapid. 
 
 * Vit. Constant, lib. iv., TertuUian, lib. ad Uxo- 
 rem. Cyprian (lib. i. epist. xi. ad Pomponianum, 
 De Virginibus) reproaches in very severe language 
 certain consecrated virgins, who had fallen under the 
 Buppiciun of incontinence, — ' Quid Christus Doiniinis 
 et Judex noster, cum virginem suam Kii)i dicatam et 
 Hunctiiati fiure destiiiatam jacere cum altero cernit, 
 f|uktn indignatur et irascitur!' . . . Again: 'Quod 
 si in fide hc Christo dedicavenmt, pudicd et castii sine 
 ulla fabula peruevercnl. . . »Si autem perseverare 
 nolunt vcl non possunt, melius est nubant, cpiatn in 
 igncm delictis Buis cadant.' . . Again : (lib. v. 
 epint. viii.) he npcnkn of * Mcnilira (JhriHto dirata et 
 in a-lernum continentia; h«)norcm pudicji virtute de- 
 vota.' . . alno Imh ' TrarlatuH de Diwriplina 
 
 ct Ilabitu Virgiiiuiii.' . . 'I'liesc paRnagrH hIiow, 
 at the Hame linn-, ih;it iherr were in that age virgiuH 
 dedicated to religion, and thai tliey were not boinid 
 by any irrrvornljle vow. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 tion, St. Ambrose,* St. Jerome, and St. Augus- 
 tine, bear sufficient testimony to the preva- 
 lence of the institution in their time. It is 
 true that, at least as late as the year 400, many 
 devout virgins (Virgines Devotae) still pre- 
 served their domestic relations and adhered 
 to the more secular practice of the Antenicene 
 Church ; and it is possible that those devotees 
 were never wholly extinct in any age. But 
 the Associations for the same end gradually 
 embraced most of those w-ith whom religious 
 zeal was the leading motive ; and their sane 
 tity was recommended to popular reverence, 
 as it may also have been exalted and fortified, 
 by the discipline and the vow which restrain- 
 ed them. 
 
 The Rules, to which the convents of Nuns f 
 were subject, \yere formed for the most part 
 upon those which bound the monks. Like 
 the monks, tliey lived from common funds, 
 and used a common dormitory, table, and 
 wardrobe ; the same religious services exer- 
 cised their piety ; habitual temperance and oc- 
 casional fasting were enjoined with the same 
 severity. Manual labor was no less rigidly 
 enforced ; but instead of the agricultural toils 
 imposed upon their ' Brethren,' to them were 
 committed the easier tasks of the needle or 
 the distaflf. By duties so numerous, by occu- 
 pations admitting so great variety, they be- 
 guiled the tediousness of the day, X and the 
 dulness of monastic seclusion. 
 
 * Lib. i. de Virginibus ad Marcellinam. The tes- 
 timony of St. Jerome, respecting Marcella, has been 
 already cited (supra, p. 396.) St. Augustin (De 
 Moribus Ecclcsia*, c. 33.) says, in speaking of the 
 monastic establishments both at Milan and Rome * 
 — ' Jejunia prorsus incrcdibilia, non in viris tantura, 
 sed etiam in feminis; quibus item, niultis viduis et 
 virginibus simul habitantibus et lana ac tela victum 
 qnan itantibus, pronsunt singula) gravissim;c probatissi- 
 mxMiuc non tantuin in instituendis componendisque 
 moribus, sed etiam instruendis mcntibus peritae et 
 parata'.' See Marsham's JToojivJ.aiov to Dugdale, 
 and Ilospinianus de Orig. Monach., lib. iii. c. xi., 
 et se{]. 
 
 f The words Nonnus, Nonna, are .said to be of 
 Egyptian origin. The latter is used by St. Jerome, 
 Epist. ad Eustochium Virginem. Benedict of Nursia 
 (Regul. 63) gives it the interpretation of paternal 
 reverence, and ordains, that 'Juniorea monachi pri- 
 orcH 8U08 * Tjonnos voccnt; quod iniclligitur patcrna 
 rcverenlia.' The terms Monialis and Sanrtimonialia 
 arc usually derived from Movoq. Hospin. Orig 
 Monach., lib. i. c. 1. 
 
 X The two following passages from St. Jerome de- 
 nerve to be cited, flinre they .-"how as well what were 
 the vaniticfi, an what wen; the duties, of the earliest 
 nuns: — • Vestia tua ncc sit satis munda, nec sordida, 
 nulla(|uo divprHitatc notabilis; ne nd te obviam prw 
 ti rcuriliiim tnrba consintut et digito monstreris. . . , 
 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 
 
 Vow of Chastity. It appears probable, as 
 is warmly argued by Hospinian, * that in the 
 very early ages the virgins, who were dedicat- 
 ed to religious purposes, could enter without 
 any scandal into the state of marriage. But 
 we should recollect that, at that time, the mo- 
 nastic condition, properly speaking, did not 
 exist. Immediately after its institution, we 
 find the authority of St. Basil loudly declared 
 against such a departure from the more per- 
 fect purity; that patriarch of monasticism does 
 not hesitate to pronounce the marriage of a 
 nun to be incest, prostitution, and adultery 
 (incestus, stupri scelus, et adulterium ;) and 
 Ambrose and Augustin exacted the same 
 sacred obedience to the irrevocable vow. By 
 
 Plures . . hoc ipso cupiunt placere quod placere con- 
 temnunt, et minim in moiliim laus, dum vitatur, appe- 
 titiir . . . Ne cogitatio taclta subrepat, ut, quia in 
 auratis vestibus placere desiisti, placere coneris in 
 sordidis; et quando in conventum fratrum veneris vel 
 sororum, humilis (al. humi) sedeas; scabello te cau- 
 seris indignam; vocem ex industria, quasi confectam 
 jejuniis, non tenues, et deficientis mutuata gressum 
 humcris innitaris alterius. Sunt quippe nonnullce ex- 
 tcrminantes (extenuantcsl) facies, ut appareant ho- 
 minibus jejunantes; quse statim ut aliquem viderint 
 ingcmiscunt, demittunt supercilium, et operta facie 
 vix unum oculum liberant (al. librant) ad videndum. 
 Vestis pulla, cingulum sacceum et sordidis manibus 
 pedibusque ; venter solus, quia videri non potest, 
 apstuat cibo. Aiiee virili habitu, veste mutata, eru- 
 bescunt esse quod natae sunt; crinem amputant et 
 impudenter erigunt facies eunuchinas. Sunt quae cili- 
 ciis vestiuntur et cucullis fabrefactis; ut ad infantiam 
 redeant, imitantur noctuas et bubones . . Hasc omnia 
 argumenta sunt Diaboli.' — Hieron. (Epist. xviii.) ad 
 Eustoch. Virginem. — Again, (Epist. to Demetrias, 
 De Servanda Virgin it.) ' Prteter Psalmorum et Ora- 
 tionis ordinem, qui tibi hora* teitia, sexta, nona, ad 
 vesperem, media nocte, et mane semper est exercen- 
 dus, statue quot horis Sanctam Scripluram ediscere 
 debeas, quanto tempore legere, non ad laborem, sed 
 ad delectationem ac instructionem animte. Cumque 
 hose finieris spatia . . . habeto lanam semper in mani- 
 bus, vel staminis pollice fila deducito, vel ad torquen- 
 da subtegmina in alveolis fusa vertantur ; aliarumque 
 neta aul in globura collige, aut tenenda (nenda'?) com- 
 pone. Quae texta sunt inspice: quae errata repre- 
 hende: quae facienda constitue. Si tantis operum 
 varietatibus occupata fueris nunquam dies tibi longi 
 erunl.' Similar instructions are delivered in Epist. 
 86, ad Eustochium Epitaph. Paulae Matris. And St. 
 Augustin (De Morib. Ecclesiae., cap. 31.) mentions 
 that the garments manufactured by the nuns were 
 given to the monks in exchange for food. ' Lanificio 
 corpus exercent et sustentant ; vestesque ipsas fratri- 
 bus tradunt, ab iis invicem quod victui opus est re- 
 suraentes.' The Tonsure was not originally impos- 
 ed, though it appears to have been an Egyptian cus- 
 'tom. 
 
 * Lib. iii. c. xii. 
 
 323 
 
 the Council of Chalcedon, nuns who married 
 were made liable, together with their hus- 
 bands, to the sentence of excommunication ; 
 yet in such manner, that penance might be 
 imi)osed, if they reverently requested it, and 
 communion restored in consequence of that 
 penance, after a long interval pro])ortioned to 
 the offence. This canon was generally re 
 ceived in the West. But in the year 407, 
 Innocent I. closed the outlet of penance, and 
 left no loop-hole of forgiveness open to thos« 
 who had violated their vow. Subsequent 
 ages mcreased, rather than mitigated, this 
 rigor ; and imprisonment, and tortures, and 
 death, were finally held out as the punish- 
 ments of monastic incontmence. The re- 
 source of penance was still reserved by In 
 nocent * for mconstant Novices — those who 
 married, after having avowed the intention of 
 chastity, but without having yet taken the 
 veil. 
 
 The Veil. The ceremony of consecration 
 and the imposition of the veil was of origin 
 earlier even than the time of St. Ambrose ; f 
 and it appears, that it might then be performed 
 by a priest, no less than by a bishop. The 
 words I pronounced on this occasion were 
 prescribed by the Fourth Council of Car- 
 thage ; but they varied, or were entirely chang- 
 ed, in subsequent times. The age at which 
 the novice might be consecrated was equally 
 variable, and seems to have been left, at least 
 in early times, to the discretion of the prelate. 
 An age as advanced as sixty years, appears 
 at first to have been usual ; but St. Ambrose 
 gives reasons for permitting the veil to be 
 sooner assumed ; and the age of twenty -five 
 was afterwards (generally, though by no 
 means universally) established as the earliest, 
 at which the recluse was permitted to place 
 the indelible seal upon her resolution. 
 
 Benedictine JVuns. The first period, or, if 
 we may so call it, the Aritiquity of Monachism, 
 was terminated in the Western Church by 
 the epoch of St. Benedict; and it is generally 
 recorded, that vv^hile that hermit was invent- 
 ing his new institution for the brothers of his 
 
 * Hospin. Orig. Monach. lib. iii. c. ult. 
 
 •f We must not however be misled by the title of 
 Tertullian's work, (De Virginibus Velandis,) to as- 
 cribe to that practice so high an antiquity. The ob- 
 ject of that book is only to show, that all virgins, as 
 well as matrons, ought, in their attendance on divine 
 worship, to be veiled. It has no reference to any 
 particular condition of life 
 
 ^ They were these — ' Aspice, filia, et intuere; et 
 obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui, ut ccn 
 cupiscat Rex decorem tuum.' 
 
324 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 obedience, his sister Scholastica was raisiug [ 
 tlie standard, * round which the holy virgins | 
 might collect with greater regularity and dis- i 
 cipline. It would appear, however, that the j 
 rule of her disciples was rather given in res- 1 
 toration of the original observance, than on | 
 any new principle of religious seclusion. The i 
 alternations of industry and prayer; absti- 1 
 nence, silence, obedience, chastity were or- j 
 dained, as m the primitive establishments; 
 anil the first Benedictine Nuns were in fact 
 rather reformed nuns of St. Basil, than a dis- 
 tinct order. . . Howbeit, they acquired repu- 
 tation and flourished so rapidly, that in the 
 pontificate of Gregory the Great, Rome con- 
 tained (according to the assertion f of that 
 Pope) three thousand ' handmaids of God, ' 
 (Ancillae Dei,) who followed the Benedictine 
 rule. And so boldly did they afterwards rise 
 in rank and power, that about the year 813 
 it became necessary to repress the pretended 
 right of the Abbesses to consecrate and or- 
 dain, and perfonii other sacerdotal functions. | 
 
 Canonesses. The establishments of female 
 recluses followed veiy closely the numerous 
 diversities of the monastic scheme, and imi- 
 tated the names of the male institutions, where 
 they could not adopt their practice, or even 
 their profession. An order of Canonesses- 
 Regular was founded, or at least presented 
 with a rule, by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 in 813. And we read, in later times, of a 
 community of noble young ladies, who were 
 associated under a very easy discipline, and 
 unrestrained by any vow of celibac}', under 
 the title of Canonesses-Secular. But these 
 last pretenders to religious seclusion were, on 
 more than one occasion, discountenanced by 
 the authorities of the Cliurch. 
 
 JVuns of the Hospital. An imitation of the 
 Military Orders might, at first sight, seem still 
 more repugnant to the feelings and duties 
 of Iioly virgins. But, in respect at least to the 
 oldest of those orders, it was in fact far other- 
 wise. That community originated (as has 
 already b(;(;n mention(!d) in an office of gra- 
 tuitous humanity ; — to entertain tin; stranger, 
 and to tend the sick, were the earliest offices 
 
 ♦ Mahillon (Pref. Hist. Boncdict.) asserts this 
 .Scholastica to liave Ijccn the fonn(l(!r of rctjiilar luin- 
 ncrifH in the West; ami calls licr ' Viininiim Bonc- 
 (lictiiiariim Diicnm, Magistrain ct Anlcsijfnanain.' 
 
 t I'ib. vi. Epist. xxiii. Sec Hospiiiian, Ori<f. 
 Munacli. lil). iv. c. xvi. The ccroinony of ronsccra- 
 lion, by tlif; hislirip, is hero given at great letiglh. 
 
 X At the Council of Heronfeld in Kent, aliliesscH 
 lulMtcrilicd their HignatnreH, no lenH than Ahhots and 
 other Errlewiaxticii. This iri recorded to have l)een 
 the firH* instance uf kiicIi assnniplioii of e()iiality. 
 
 I of^ the Knight of the Hospital. By him, in 
 deed, those humbler tasks may afterwards 
 have been forgotten in the. character of the 
 soldier of the Cross ; but the ' Nuns of the 
 Hospital ' * adhered to the earliest and the no 
 blest object of the institution. Their founda 
 tion was contemporary with that of the Chev 
 aliei-s ; and in after times, they extended their 
 establishments, and perhaps their charities, 
 into every part of Europe. 
 
 The calamities of the Crusades were fol 
 lowed and alleviated by another institution, in 
 which charitable females immediately took a 
 share, and of which the purpose was not less 
 worthy of its religious profession. A multi- 
 tude of Christian captives had been thrown 
 by the vicissitudes of war into the power of 
 the Saracens ; and for their redemption, the 
 order of the ' Nuns of the Holy Trinity ' was 
 established very early in the thirteenth cen 
 tury. It sui-v'ived the occasion which gave it 
 birth, and flourished widely, under the pat- 
 ronage of certain pious princesses,! especially 
 in Spain. 
 
 JVuns of St. Dominic. The foundation of 
 several nunneries divided with his other ec- 
 clesiastical duties the busy zeal of St. Domi- 
 nic. And though we cannot discover that the 
 essential characteristics of his order, preach- 
 ing and mendicity, were in practice connnu 
 nicated to the holy sisters who bore his name, 
 yet the name was sufficient to procure for them 
 wealth and popularity; and they probably 
 were not surpassed in either of tliose respects 
 by any other order.J St. Catharine of Sien- 
 na, a vehement devotee, professed especially 
 to reverence the virtues and imitate the disci- 
 pline of St. Dominrc ; and she may properly 
 
 * A long account of these • Religieuses Hospitali^- 
 res,' together with the formalities of reception into 
 the order, may bcfoinid in the Hist, des Ordres Mo- 
 nastiqncs, Trois. Partie, chap. xiv. We may remark 
 that their ' Habits de Ccremoniede Choonr,' indicate 
 wealth, if not vanity. The ' Religieiise Chcvalierc de 
 rOrdre de St. Jaques de I'Epce ' was a Spanish in- 
 vention of a much later age. This order seems to 
 have originated at Salamanca. 
 
 t Hist. Onhes IVFonast. partie II. chap, xlix 
 :|. The historian * Des Ordres IMonastiques,' asserts, 
 that when he wrote (about 1715,) there were in Italy 
 more than one hinuired and tiiirty nunneries of that 
 ordi^r, about forty-five in France, fifteen in Portugal, 
 and forty in Germany, in spite of the devastations of 
 
 [ the heretics. The order which bears the name o» 
 St. ('atharine, was probal)lv not founded by herself 
 (thou;;h Hospinian asserts otherwist;,) and it is vari- 
 ously assigned to ihc year V.i72 or 1165 — a diversity 
 
 j which floino ntlenipt' to reconcile. W«! shall huv« 
 
 ' occasion to make further mcnli(e,i of ll/'w celehat#»(; 
 
 I devotee in a f dlowing chapter. 
 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 
 
 oe accounted among his most genuine disci- 
 ples, since she interposed to smooth the po- 
 htical difficulties of her country, and to influ- 
 ence, by her reason and authority, the most 
 momentous concerns of the Church. Among 
 the female Mendicants, the latest institution 
 was that of the Carmelites. They appear to 
 have been founded about 1452, by virtue of a 
 bull of Nicholas V.; and nearly a century af- 
 terwards, they were reformed by the celebrat- 
 ed St. Theresa, a native of Castille. 
 
 We shall not trace the endless catalogue, 
 nor enumerate the various names, under 
 which the same or very similar institutions 
 perpetually reappeared. Among those of 
 somewhat earlier times, that of St. Brigida, a 
 Princes of Sweden, is most renowned. It 
 was an establishment for the reception of 
 both sexes — though separated in residence — 
 under the superintendence of an Abbess; and 
 its Rule * was confirmed by Urban V. about 
 the year 1360. Though manual labor was 
 strictly enjoined, the royal hand which found- 
 ed the community appears, at the same time, 
 to have blessed it with ample endowments. 
 
 The Ursulines. Of the more modern orders, 
 there is als9 one which may seem to require 
 our notice — that of the Ursulines. Its origin 
 h ascribed f to Angela di Brescia, about the 
 year 1537, though the Saint from whom it 
 received its name, Ursula Benincasa, a native 
 of Naples, was born ten years afterwards. 
 Its chaiacter was peculiar, and recalls our at- 
 tention to the primitive form of ascetic devo- 
 tion. The duties of those holy sisters were 
 the purest within the circle of human benevo- 
 lence — to minister to the sick, to relieve the 
 poor, to console the miserable, to pray with 
 the penitent. These charitable offices they 
 undertook to execute without the bond of any 
 community, without the obligation of any 
 monastic vow, without any separation from 
 society, any renouncement of their domestic 
 duties and virtues. And so admirably were 
 those offices, in millions of instances, per- 
 formed, that, had all other female orders been 
 really as useless and as vicious, as they are 
 sometimes falsely described to be, tlie virtues 
 of the Ursulines had alone been sufficient to 
 redeem the monastic name. 
 
 But it is very far from true, that these other 
 
 * This Rule occupies eight folio pages in Hospinian, 
 lib. VI. cap. 39. It professed to proceed from the im- 
 mediate dictation of Christ. 
 
 t Hist, des Ordres Monast. Suite de la Trois j 
 Partie, chap. xiv. et xx. The historian enumerates | 
 and describes thirteen congregations of Ursulines, j 
 tstablished for the most part in France and in Italy. I 
 
 j orders were either commonly dis.solute or 
 generally useless. Occasional scandals have 
 engendered universal calumnies. To recite 
 the mere names* of those most lately founded 
 is sufficient to show that their professed ob- 
 jects were almost always excellent ; and it 
 would be as injurious to human nature, as it 
 is contrary to historical evidence, to suppose 
 that those objects were instantly abandoned, 
 and made merely a cover for the opposite 
 vices. In the more secular institutions of the 
 other sex there was greater space for the ope- 
 ration of evil passions. In those polluted 
 cloisters, the seeds of avarice were commonly 
 nourished by the practice of profitable decep- 
 tions, and the prospect of opulent benefices. 
 The holiest contemplations were interrupted 
 by the voice of ambition inviting the most 
 austere recluse to dignity and power — to ab- 
 bacies, to prelacies ; to the councils of kings, 
 to that predominant apostolical eminence, 
 whence kings and their councils were insulted 
 and overthrown . . . But into the cell of 
 the female Devotee, those passions at least can 
 seldom have intruded, because they had no 
 object there.f Without insisting upon any 
 
 * Such were the Religieuses Hospitali^res de la 
 Charite de Notre Dame, De Notre Dame du Refuge, 
 De N. D. de la Misericorde, &c. Orphan asylums 
 were numerous as ' the Congregations of St. Joseph.' 
 Many were founded for the maintenance and edu- 
 cation of poor girls ; many for the sick ; many for 
 the penitent. In a description of the plague, in 
 1347, Fleury (Hist. Eccles. liv. xcv. s. 45) bears 'he 
 following accidental testimony to female charity: — 
 * Plusieurs Pretres timides abandonnoient leurs trou- 
 peaux et en laissoient les soins h des Religieux plus 
 hardis. Les Religieuses servoient les malades sans 
 crainte, avec leur charite et leur humanite ordinaire. 
 Plusieurs entre elles moururent, mais on les renouvel- 
 loit souvent.' 
 
 t Some remarks have been suggested to us on this 
 passage, which we recommend to the reader's consid- 
 eration — premising, however, that the position in the 
 text only affirms the moral superiority of nuns to 
 monks, on the ground that some of the passions on 
 which the habits of the latter were formed, had no 
 object to rouse them in the former. 
 
 I cannot help thinking (says an ingenious friend) 
 that the argument implied in the words * passions 
 which had no object there,' is fallacious. Many 
 passions, if not all, will find objects, natural or un- 
 natural. The danger of wandering, in the absence 
 of express revelation, from that knowledge of the will 
 of God, which may be collected from induction, is as 
 pernicious to morals, as the a priori reasoning is to 
 science. An institution preventing women from be- 
 coming wives and mothers, was immoral (considering 
 the natural evidence of their propensities) in the same 
 sense in which the opposition to the philosophy of 
 Galileo was unreasonable 
 
326 HISTORY OF 
 
 natural predisposition to piety and benevo- 
 lence, we may be well assured that the pre- 
 cincts of the convent were very fruitful in 
 the exercise of both ; and wliatsoever judg- 
 ment we may finally form respecting the 
 character of that influence, which monachism 
 has exercised through so many ages on so 
 many forms of society, we may pronounce 
 without hesitation the general purity and use- 
 fulness of the Female Orders. 
 
 Voltaire, in his Chapter on the Religious 
 Orders, after eulogizing the charities of the fe- 
 male institutions in the noblest spirit of philan - 
 thropy, has remarked that ' those who have 
 separated themselves from the Church of 
 Rome have but faintly imitated that generous 
 virtue.' The taunt is undeserved. We did 
 not lay aside our charities, when we dispens- 
 ed with our vows ; we did not languish in 
 the practice, when we rejected the profession ; 
 the religious motive acts not less powerfully, 
 because the 7iame is less commonly put for- 
 ward ; and in as far at least as the tender sex 
 is concerned, there is not a district in our 
 Cities, nor a village in our Provinces, which 
 does not profit by the unpretending, unavow- 
 ed, enlightened benevolence cf Protestant 
 Ursulines. 
 
 We shall now conclude a chapter — already 
 disproportionate to the dimensions of this 
 w^ork, but far too contracted for the immen- 
 sity of the subject — by a few obvious and al- 
 most necessary observations. 
 
 General Observations. Without recurring 
 to the less definite shape which monachism 
 assumed in the West during the fourth and 
 fifth ages, we may observe, that the three dis- 
 tinctive characters which it afterwards adopt- 
 ed were well suited to the several periods in 
 which they successively rose and flourished. 
 First in origin were the Regular Benedictine* 
 Coenobites ; and they reigned without any 
 rivals over the consciences of the faithfiil for 
 above six centuries. — Those were centuries 
 of the deep(!St ignorance and superstition 
 which the history of Europe exhibits. That 
 Order irnitat(;d the Oriental cnfliusiasin in 
 which the whole system originated ; it like- 
 u isn inculcated moral sevcjrity, and exercised, 
 in a greater or less degree, both usefiil in- 
 diiHtry and virtiioiiH benevolcnrc. As it thus 
 grew in reputation and temporal grandeur, it 
 
 ♦ We do not hero intend to diiitiiigiiiHli bctvvocn 
 monkH and riinonji, Ihtjiuho both were Cd-mjIiitcH, 
 und |)<jH<trHHcd tlio s.itiin i^r'ncral cliaracleriHlicH, wichrly 
 reniovwl from ilii- prim iplcM ImmIi of tlie Military and 
 lh»' M<'?idirant Ordrrn— xiill less heluccn tli« Original 
 and Krfoniirfl H(.'n«:dictiiJt:»i. 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 extended and multiplied its demands upon 
 human credulity. The most extravagant spi- 
 ritual claims were recommended by a great 
 parade, and by some reality, of devotion. 
 Spacious and imposing edifices, whence the 
 chant of holy voices was heard unceasingly 
 to proceed in solemn prayer, by night and by 
 day — some practice of charitable offices — 
 great superiority in manner and education — 
 the possession, almost exclusive, of the learn- 
 ing of the age — these advantages prepared an 
 uninstructed people to receive with blindness 
 any form of superstition, which their ghostly 
 directors might think proper to impose on 
 them, and gave efficacy to deception and im- 
 posture. And thus it proved, that, when su- 
 perstition had once taken root in the soil of 
 ignorance, it was nourished through so many 
 ages by a much less proportion of moral and 
 religious excellence, and scarcely more of 
 knowledge, than had been necessary to plant 
 it there. The most inactive among the forms 
 of monachism was found sufficient to hold 
 the human mind, as long as it was uninform- 
 ed and unexcited, in servile subjugation. 
 
 The next which rose were the Militai-y Or- 
 ders, — and of these it is sufficient to remark, 
 that they formed no regular part of the church 
 system, but were the casual consequence of 
 the Crusades. They were instituted, to assail 
 the external enemies of the faith ; they were 
 continued, to repel their invasions, and defend 
 the outworks of Christendom ; but they did 
 not very long survive the cu'cumstances which 
 created and sustained them. Indeed, the pro- 
 fession of arms in the name of Christ was so 
 palpable a mockery of the true spirit of his 
 religion, that its permanence was scarcely 
 consistent with the fundamental princij)los of 
 Christian society. An extraordinary occur- 
 rence could alone have given it existence, but 
 it could not possibly give it perpetuity. 
 
 As corruption increased Avithin the Church, 
 and ignorance diminished without it, heresy 
 began to spread widely, and the voice of 
 reason found many listeners. And then it 
 was that a band of active and int(>lligent 
 emissaries was required for the maintenance 
 of the estanlishcd ecclesiastical system. For 
 this puipose the talents of the Dominicans 
 were more especially serviceable. But since 
 a large measure of superstition still infected 
 the lower orders, and none were wholly free 
 from it, the abstinent and ragged (l(!votion of 
 tin; J'^nujciscans was also not without its use,, 
 in <'xeiting veneration towards tliemselv(>s, and 
 towards the Church, whos<' missionnries thej 
 were. Besides, the original JMeiidicants do- 
 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 
 
 321 
 
 nounccd, with courage and vehemence, the 
 vices and the violences of the great. Their 
 close connexion vv^ith tlic papal, or Guelphic 
 hiterests, placed thein in opi)osition to the 
 imperial domination, and thus made them, in 
 their political mediations, the advocates of 
 liberal and popular principles. But above all, 
 they were careful to provide themselves with 
 that powerful weapon, which, from the days 
 of St. Augustine to those of the Crusadjss, had 
 entirely rested, and which had been, very j)ar- 
 tially employed afterwards. True eloquence, 
 indeed, is not commonly attainable ; but they | 
 possessed and perpetually exercised that flu- 
 ency of passionate declamation, which pro- 
 duced on the people all the ejects of elo- 
 quence. It had even some advantages over 
 Ihe more chastised effusions of antiquity.* 
 It derived its authority from the oracles of 
 God ; the moral obligations which it urged 
 were more directly subservient to human hap- 
 piness ; and its particular application in the 
 mouth of the Mendicants was very commonly 
 to ^ benevolent object, — to negotiate treaties, 
 to reconcile party animosities, to stay the ca- 
 lamities of public or private warfare. Ac- 
 cordingly, the records of the thirteenth and 
 following centuries abound witii proofs of its 
 efficacy and its influence in political, no less 
 than in ecclesiastical, transactions. It has 
 moreover been mentioned, that the Mendi- 
 cants availed themselves with great address 
 of the peculiar learning f of that age, and ac- 
 quired uncommon dexterity in the perversion 
 of reason. Conversant, more than any others, 
 with the metaphysical subtilties of the schools, 
 they well knew how, at the same time, to in- 
 dulge the sophistical and the superstitious 
 spirit of the age, and, by indulging, to nourish 
 both. Thus they combined, for the defence 
 of papacy, the abuse of reason with the abuse 
 of religion ; and their genius and their indus- 
 
 * A comparison in favor of the Mendicants is in- 
 geniously drawn by Denina, lib. xii. cap. vi. I 
 
 t Giannone even asserts, that the merit to which 
 the Mendicants were chiefly indebted for the favor of 
 the Popes, \uas their success in substituting the scho- 
 lastic, for the dogmatic theology and the study of an- 
 tiquity and history, so as to occupy the minds of the 
 learned with abstract and useless questions and dis- 
 putes, and so many contrasti and raggiri, that no 
 one not conversant with that art could confront them 
 with any hope of success. It was indeed by such a 
 metlio 1 of reasoning that the pretensions of Rome 
 were best defended; and the Mendicants were bound 
 to defend them, since all their exemptions, and much 
 of their property, flowed directly from Rome; for the 
 Pope not uncommonly gave them convents belonging 
 to other Orders 
 
 try, by pandering to the existing prejudices, 
 l)rolonged the servitude and degradation of 
 the human mind. 
 
 A Roman Catholic writer has observed, 
 with a demonstration of pious gratitude, that 
 the same God who raised up St. Athanasius 
 against the Arians, and St. Augustine against 
 the Pelagians, and St. Dominic and St. Francis 
 against the Albigeiises, deigned, in a later and 
 still more perilous age, to call forth the spirit 
 of Loyola against the Lutheran and Calvin 
 istic apostates. And it may be, that at the 
 moment when Luther was writing his book 
 against monastic vows, the Spaniard was 
 composing his ' Spiritual Exercises ' for the 
 restoration of other orders and the establish- 
 ment of his own. It is only necessary for us 
 to observe, that the defensive system of the 
 Roman Church was completed by the institu- 
 tion of the Jesuits, though somewhat too late 
 for its perfect preservation. And we may add, 
 in pursuance of our other observations, that 
 that order was as justly accommodated to the 
 increasing intelligence of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, as were the Benedictines to the darkness 
 of absolute ignorance, and the Mendicants to 
 the twilight of reason. But each, in theu* turn 
 of pernicious operation, though they enjoyed 
 their appointed range and season of influence, 
 were too feeble to prevent the revival, to arrest 
 the growth, or to crush the maturity of truth 
 and religious knowledge. 
 
 Successive Reformations of the Monastic 
 System. — If we regard the monastic system in 
 another point of view, we shall perceive it to 
 consist in a continual succession of reforma- 
 tions. The foundation of every institution 
 was laid, as it rose out of the corruption of 
 its predecessor, in poverty, in the most rigid 
 morality, in the duties of religion, of educa- 
 tion, of charity. The practice first, and next 
 the show, of these qualities, led, in every in- 
 stance, to wealth ; and wealth was surely fol- 
 ! lowed, first, by the relaxation of discipline — 
 I next, by the contempt of decency. Then fol- 
 lowed the necessity of reform ; and the same 
 system was regenerated under another, oi 
 perhaps under the same name, and passed 
 through the same deteriorating process to a 
 second corruption. Again, — the Reformed 
 Order was re-reformed and re-regenerated, 
 and again it fell into decay and dissolution. 
 The history of the monastic orders, when 
 piu-sued into the details of the several estab- 
 lishments, presents to us an unvarying picture 
 of vigor, prosperity, dissension, followed by 
 new statutes, and a stricter rule. A system, 
 1 of which the foundations were not placed 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 either iii Scripture or in reason, was necessa- 
 rily liable to perpetual change ; nor was it ca- 
 pable of any other condition of existence, than 
 one of continual decay and reproduction. 
 
 If we reflect for an instant on the outlines 
 of Western IMonachism, we observe, that the 
 Rule of Benedict of Nui-sia had already fallen 
 into great degradation, when it was revived 
 by Benedict of Aniane. The system then 
 flourished with extraordinary vigor ; but for 
 so short a period, that when, about the year 
 900, the Reformed Order of Cluni was estab- 
 lished, its founders deserved the glory of res- 
 toring the ancient discipline ; and that event 
 is justly considered as marking an important 
 epoch in monastic history. Again, within 
 two other centuries, we observe the younger 
 and more rigid Cistertians censuring the secu- 
 lar pride and luxurious relaxation of their 
 rivals. In the next age, it was proposed to 
 heal the disorders, or at least to supply the 
 deficiencies, of the old system, by the super- 
 addition of tlie Mendicants, models of primi- 
 tive and apostolical austerity.* But even the 
 very slight notice, which we have been able 
 to bestow on the history of the Franciscans, 
 has proved how very early they fell into dis- 
 orders, succeeded, though not repaired, by 
 reformation. Even the institution of St. Do- 
 minic was very far from securing the purity 
 of his children ; indeed, it was at no distant 
 period from their foundation, that a part of 
 them assumed the distinctive appellation of 
 Reformed Dominicans. (Dominicani Rifor- 
 mati.) ... By this process of continual 
 change and restoration, the monastic system 
 maintained an influence, varying extremely 
 in degree, but never wholly suspended, over 
 the nations of the West for eleven hundred 
 years. That it did so, may well surprise us, 
 if we consider only the princij)les of its first 
 foundation, and the monstrous and avowed 
 abuses, which at various periods infi.'ctod it. 
 But on the other hand, it was sustained by an 
 infusion of much real piety and of many un- 
 questioned virtues ; and it was prolonged from 
 time to time by a scries of judicious and sea- 
 sonable ultcralions, such as are able to give 
 
 ♦ This \v:iH, indwd, tr» neck K.ifrfy in tlu; opposite 
 cxlromc, and by the entire rcntinciaiion of all tempo- 
 ralities to exceed tlm Kcverify of St. IJcncrdict ; Inii 
 tlu; diHease at that time demanded a violent remedy. 
 The rhoiee for hiicIi an Order lay l)(!t\ve(;n hoddy la- 
 hor and mendieity — the latter was pref<:rred, an Ix-inf,', 
 II name, nirire hiimdialin^, and aluo more eoiiHiHtent 
 with intelleetiial allainmirntH, and ihe (;rand xpiritnal 
 !»nir(Mi of inwtriK ting the vulvar, curnerting liereticn, 
 
 kc. 
 
 permanence even to a feeble and mischievous 
 establishment, and without which there ih no 
 security even for the wisest and the most 
 excellent. 
 
 Still this last cause had alone been insuffi- 
 cient. It is not possible, that any policy of 
 Church government could have uphel 1 the 
 system so long and so triumphantly, if jt had 
 not possessed something not only plausible in 
 its principle, and respectable in its prefession, 
 but also practical and profitable in its influ- 
 ence on society. It would be ungrateful and 
 unjust to disj)arage the benefits which it has 
 really conferred on former ages, and of wliich 
 the consequences may have reached our own. 
 
 Advantages produced by JSIonacMsm. We . 
 may comprehend all the useful merits, which 
 have ever been claimed for monachism, with 
 any shadow of reason, under four heads. 
 (1.) The earliest monks lived by the labor 
 of their hands ; and the large tracts of waste 
 land, with which their houses were endowed, 
 were brought into cultivation by their person- 
 al exertions. Even in the eighth and ninth 
 centuries, when they became for the most 
 part clerks, their estates continued to bear 
 marks of more careful superintendence ; their 
 serfs and dependents were more numerous 
 and more prosperous ; cities grew up luider 
 their economy ; provinces were feitilized, for- 
 ests and marshes were peopled under their 
 administration. Nor is there any reason to 
 question, what is generally admitted, that the 
 vassals of the monasteries were raised at least 
 some degrees nearer to domestic comfort and 
 civilization, than those of the adjacent baronies. 
 
 (2.) The earliest monasteries were very 
 commonly consecrated to the discharge of 
 imi)ortant moral and social, as well as reli- 
 gious, duties. That of hosj)itality, or the 
 entertainment of travellers and pilgrims, was 
 certainly ])ractiscd with great fidelity ; and in 
 ages and countries in which 'inns and cara- 
 vanscras * were yet unknown, and even the 
 p(»rs()nal safety of the stranger was ill-secin-ed 
 by law, it was iisriiilly and benevolently insti- 
 tuted, that his reception and protection should, 
 in some maimer, be associated with the oflices 
 of religion. The worldly authority of religion 
 is never more profitably employed, than in 
 supf)lying the defects of police, of govenuuent, 
 and civilization. And thus it proved, that, 
 during tin; five or six centuries of ronfiision 
 
 ♦ INlin alori hIiowb that the \wc of inns, as places of 
 reception for Ktrangers, w;i8 aa late as the eleventh 
 or t\v«-lflh century. He throws f,Meat lii'lit on tho 
 nature of th(> earliest ('hristian eslalilit^iiiui ntts for tluit 
 pur|)oiie, in DiMttertutions 37 und Oti. 
 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 
 
 329 
 
 tnd barbarism, which follovVed the subversion 
 of the Western Empire, the monastic system 
 became a powerful instrument in correcting 
 the vices of society, and alleviating their pres- 
 sure on the lower orders. 
 
 The earliest donations, with which the 
 Church was enriched, were for the most part 
 the genuine unconditional fruits of supersti- 
 tion. But in somewhat later times, when it 
 was discovered that the property of the 
 Church was liable not only to spoliation by 
 laymen, but to abuse by churchmen, the pro- 
 fusion of the pious admitted the admixture of 
 human motives, and was less than formerly 
 directed to the support of the clergy, more to 
 .that .of the poor and miserable. Accordingly, 
 among the ecclesiastical records of the eighth 
 and ninth centuries, no less than of those 
 which followed, we find many monuments,* 
 which prove the general application of a part 
 (and in some few cases the greater part) of 
 the revenues of certain monasteries to the use 
 of the sick, the poor and the traveller. A 
 particular building f appropriated to these 
 purposes was attached to many monasteries, 
 and was an essential part of the establishment. 
 Thus, these religious inst'^utions became the 
 channel, through which ti.e benevolence of 
 the wealthy was communicated to the lower 
 classes. And though the charity, which seem- 
 ed to acquire sanctity by passing through that 
 medium, may sometimes have been diminish- 
 ed or perverted, there can be no doubt that 
 
 * Among those produced by Muratori, are some 
 bearing the dates 759, 812, 790, 718, 721, 757, 764, 
 847, 825, &c. A charter given to the monks of Mo- 
 dena, in 996, contains these words: — ' Et domum 
 Hospitalcm habeant, ubi secundum morem hospites 
 de decimis hiboriim suorum recipiant.' Some assert, 
 that, before the middle of the eighth century, there 
 was no monastery in the west which had not an Hos- 
 pital attached to it; and we have remarked (hat in 
 later ages, that was, in at least one instance, the 
 very foundation on which a new order was established. 
 We might add that such was the origin of the Ordre 
 du Saint Esprit at Montpelier; and we observe that 
 in 1198, Innocent III. rebuilt an Hospital, which 
 had been founded at Rome, in 715, by a Saxon king 
 for the use of Saxon pilgrims. 
 
 t Some of these, called Matriculas, seem to have 
 corresponded very nearly with our poor-houses. The 
 Domus Hospitalis was nearly synonymous: a Church 
 was usually founded with them. We have an instance 
 of one of these built by Ansaldus at Lucca, in 784, on 
 the condition ' that every week, twelve poor and 
 strangers should be admitted to the table of the 
 Church.' There are abundant records of such esta- 
 blishments; but some of them were, in process of 
 time, seized and appropriated by the lay-rector. See 
 Muratori, Divert. 37. 
 
 42 
 
 much of it reached its destination, even in the 
 worst ages of the church. In seasons of gen- 
 eral strife and anarchy, the contributions of 
 the pious found their best hope of security 
 and usefulness in monastic hands ; and if the 
 sacred deposit was sometimes violated by the 
 treacherous avarice of those to whom it was 
 confided, a much greater portion was unques- 
 tionably applied to its intended purpose, the 
 alleviation of disease and misery. 
 
 In the Eastern Church, the introduction of 
 every variety * of charitable establishment im- 
 mediately followed the reception of the Gos- 
 pel. It was the work of Christian principles 
 and of Christian men ; and was closely, though 
 not inseparably, connected with the monastic 
 institution. Two of the greatest patrons of 
 that system, St. Basil and St. Chrysostom, 
 were likewise the founders of hospitals (Nos- 
 ocomia) : places of entertainment for strap 
 gers (Xenodochia) were early attached to 
 several Churches, and deacons appointed 
 to (Jischarge their duties. But the monaste- 
 ries of the East were at no period so enriched 
 by charitable deposits, as those of the Latin 
 Church : for the monks in those countries 
 never obtained influence so despotic over a 
 more enlightened people ; and a more settled 
 form of civil government secured the wealthy 
 against the rapine, to which they were con- 
 tinually liable under the feudal anarchy. 
 
 But it was not merely in respect to their 
 temporal necessities that the people, and es- 
 pecially the lower orders, wore benefited by 
 those establishments. Many blessings were 
 at the same time conferred by their religious 
 character; many afflictions were consoled, 
 many hopes suggested, many sins prevented, 
 by the exertions of pious monks. Those 
 brothers, though exalted as a community, 
 were not individually removed above the 
 condition of the peasants, and they had com- 
 monly the same origin ; so that the inter 
 course wa^. close and searching, and its ad- 
 vantages frequently reciprocal. There are 
 many spiritual wounds, which are most effec- 
 tually probed and healed by a pastor, whose 
 condition, whose associations and understand- 
 ing, are not much elevated above those of the 
 penitent. A more perfect confidence, a deep- 
 er sympathy, is then excited, than when the 
 parties are widely separated in rank or intel- 
 lect. This advantage the monks in general 
 possessed over the secular clergj' in the Ro- 
 
 * This is proved by the mere use of the terms 
 Xenodochia, Gerontocomia, Nosocomia, Orphano- 
 irophia, Ilrephotropliia, Ptochotrophia so familiar 
 to the writers of those ages. 
 
330 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 man Church ; and to this we may partly 
 attribute the superiority of tlieir influence. 
 That this influence was often abused, we 
 know too well ; nor can there be any doubt j 
 that the intercourse which led to it has beer, 
 sometimes injurious. But during the better 
 ages of monachisra, it is unquestionable that 
 the blessings of that religious connexion be- 
 tween the monks and the poor were greatly 
 predominant. 
 
 It is the boast of St. Bernard that those 
 who had embraced the monastic condition 
 hved with greater purity than other men ; 
 that they fell less frequently and rose more 
 quickly ; that they walked with greater pru- 
 dence ; were more constantly refreshed with 
 the spiritual dew of heaven ; rested with less 
 danger ; died with greater hope. And far 
 as the monastic practice has generally fallen 
 below its profession, we doubt not, that in the 
 earlier ages, and especially in the infancy of 
 their several institutions, their inmates sur- 
 passed all other classes of society, not except- 
 ing the secular clergy, in the exercise of mor- 
 al and religious offices. Devoted to the re- 
 lief of the poor, and the service of the sick and 
 the stranger, they were so placed, that even 
 the imperfect discharge of their charitable 
 duties conferred no scanty benefits on an 
 uncivilized generation. Among the millions 
 who have entered religious houses, under the 
 most solemn vows of virtue and piety, there 
 must have been multitudes whose mere inno- 
 cence made at least some amends to society 
 for their seclusion from its care and its temp- 
 tations ; there were certainly many, whose 
 acquirements and indisputable excellence 
 threw out a light and example to their con- 
 temporaries ; and some there were, and not a 
 few, whose eminent qualities were directed, 
 as steadily as the spirit of their age allowed 
 them, to the honor and improvement of their 
 Church — to alleviate private affliction, and 
 mitigate the general barl)arism. 
 
 {'•i.) Froui the earliest period, in the East- 
 ern as well as in the Rotnan Church, the du- 
 ties of education w(;re intrusted to the monks. 
 In process of time th(!y became, in the latter 
 Church, nearly confined to them, and they, 
 continued so at least txa late as the eleventh 
 century. Monastic schools were establisluul 
 by St. Br-nedict; {hvy were inseparably nt- 
 taclied to his institutions, and spread, with 
 the progress of his order, over the kingdoms 
 of th»; W<?Ht ; and they w(T(; op(!ii to children 
 of the earlicHt age.* It would H(!em that, in 
 
 • Thii WHa (leruliur to the order of St. noiicdict. 
 Iliat. I>ilt. »lo III KnituM', HiOcIc xii. p. 11. Soo also 
 
 the eighth century, the cathedral or episcopa. 
 academies * were first established ; and these 
 afterwards became the most distingiusned for 
 j the rank and eminence of their scholai*s. 
 i They were conducted, under the superintend- 
 ence of the bishop, by the canons of the Ca- 
 thedral. And here we need only repeat a 
 former observation, that, if the office of in- 
 struction was confined to the clergy, so also 
 were its benefits, for many ages, to those in 
 tended for the ministry. So that the advan- 
 tages which those establishments really con- 
 ferred on the body of society were neither 
 immediate nor certain ; while the power of 
 the clergy, being unduly exaggerated by the 
 exclusive possession of learning, was thereby 
 placed upon a principle absolutely at variance 
 with the highest earthly interests of man. 
 
 (4.) This subject naturally leads us to our 
 last consideration — the extent and character 
 of the literature, whether sacred or profane, 
 which was protected and nourished in the 
 monastic establishments. On the first matter, 
 Roman Catholic writers do not hesitate to 
 ascribe the veiy preservation of the pure doc- 
 trine of the Church to the refijge which it 
 found within those fortresses — though it may 
 seem doubtful, whether that doctrine might 
 not have been preserved with equal purity, 
 through ages too ignorant for controversy or 
 cavil, by the fidelity of fhe secular clergy. At 
 any rate, this praise can scarcely be granted 
 to the monks without some qualification. For 
 if it be true that, during the Arian controversy, 
 they were the most zealous defenders of the 
 Nicene faith, it is not less certain, that the 
 principles of Origen, and the mystical f in- 
 terpretation of Scripture gained great footing 
 among them, and that not merely in the East ; 
 
 Mabilloii, Etudes Monastiques, p. 1. ch xi. The 
 same writer (ch. xv.) enumerates several among the 
 early Christian heroes, — Gregory Nazianzon, Ciiry- 
 sostom, Epiphanius, Jerome, &c. — who studied for a 
 greater or less time in monasteries. St. Basil, in the 
 first instance, established a school in his monastery 
 for the reading of holy (as distinguished from profane) 
 histories, and appointed rewards for superior merit. 
 ' Nun(iuanj de manu ct oculis reccdat liber,' says St. 
 Jerome; and it is from the same monastic student 
 that we have received that much contemned precept, 
 ' ne ad scribendum cito prosilias. IMnUo tempore 
 priufl disce (juod doceas.' 
 ♦ Sec Mosh. vol. ii. p. 55. 
 
 t This is said to have been, in the first instance, 
 I occasioned by the substitution of mental prayer foi 
 manual labor. From the cxwsses of mysticism pro- 
 (!cc(lcd the errors of the ftcghards and Beguines, and 
 other enlhusiaHtH of the thirleenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies; they Htrovo after absolute |)erfection, and they 
 fell into fanaticism. 
 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NUNS. 
 
 331 
 
 nor should tne support which they persevered 
 in aftbrding to the cause of the Images, during 
 that long and angry controversy, be forgotten 
 in any estimate which we may endeavor to 
 form of their pretensions to doctrinal or eccle- 
 siastical purity. It is indeed unquestionable, 
 that the externals of religion, so valuable to 
 the Latin church, its offices, * and ceremonies, 
 were enriched and dignified by the monks 
 and canons. They acquired an imposing 
 splendor from the number -engaged in their 
 performance, and the resources of their sev- 
 eral comni unities. But passing over these 
 equivocal merits, we may mention one great 
 and truly incalculable service which those es- 
 tablishments conferred on future ages, though 
 they neglected to derive much advantage from 
 it themselves. They preserved, through dan- 
 gerous and turbulent periods, ancient copies 
 of the inspired writings, and of the most val- 
 uable commentaries made on them in the ear- 
 liest times. And those were among the most 
 profitable moments of monastic leisure, which 
 were employed in multiplying the sacred 
 manuscripts.f 
 
 Though religious houses were intended to 
 be the depositories of virtue and piety, J not 
 of letters, yet letters were, to a certain extent, 
 encouraged there, as subsidiary to the grand 
 object of the institution. It is shown, indeed, 
 by the learned author § of the ' Monastic Stud- 
 
 * Fleury, Discours. depuis 800 . . 1100. Mura- 
 lori, Dissertat. 56. The monks gained great advan- 
 tages by the introduction of chants into the service; 
 and tins was imitated, in the ninth century, by the 
 cathedral clergy. Some rivalry ensued between these 
 ecclesiastics, and thus, ' ccjepit frequentius agi et au- 
 giistiiis procedere divina Res.' Some ' modulation of 
 prayers and praises,' they had indeed used from the 
 earliest ages; but not with that plenitude and majesty, 
 which the chorus of monks and canons afterwards in- 
 troduced. The organ appears to have come into use 
 about the year 826. 
 
 t The great increase of MSS. during the eleventh 
 century, is to be ascribed to this monastic leisure, 
 and could scarcely be effected otherwise. And this 
 was the first step, after the devastation of the four 
 preceding ages, towards the revival of ancient, and 
 the creation of modern, learning. In the twelfth age 
 we find St. Bernard inculcating the duties of writing 
 and copying as the best substitute for labor. 
 
 t The words of St. Peter, ' We have left all to 
 follow Thee,' are those, as St. Bernard observed, 
 which have founded cloisters and peopled deserts. 
 
 § Mabillon (Etudes Monastiques, p. 1.) proves the 
 prevalence of literary industry, in the monastic life, 
 by direct historical evidence ; by the multitude of 
 learned ecclesiastics who emerged from them; by 
 Iheir libraries; by direct reference to the rule of St. 
 Benedict. To the neglect of study he atti butes the 
 
 ies,' titat the earliest monks entirely renounced 
 j)rofane literature, and confined their dihgence 
 to theological works and contemplations : the • 
 authority and example of St. Jerome confirm 
 ed that preference. But in later times, and 
 especially when the practice of manual labor 
 fell into disuse, the limits of their studious in- 
 dustry were enlarged, and they gradually em- 
 braced some department of profane science, 
 as well as of classical lore. The compilation 
 of Decretals led to the study of canon law ; 
 the discovery of the Digest directed attention 
 to civil legislation. The art of medicine pre- 
 sented a spacious field, which was made at- 
 tractive, first, perhaps, by its salutary and 
 charitable uses, afterwards by the gain* which 
 followed it. The monastic establishments 
 furnished the leisure and the best existing in- 
 struments for all those pursuits ; and, after 
 the eighth or ninth age, they were distin- 
 guished by some efforts after knowledge, not 
 fruitless of beneficial effects and even of use- 
 ful discoveries. 
 
 Again, many of the most precious monu- 
 ments of profane antiquity owe their preser- 
 vation to the sanctity of the monasteries, or to 
 the zeal of then* defenders. All these might 
 have perished, as many, notwithstanding, did 
 perish, had there not existed, during the long 
 and barbarous anarchy of the Western Em- 
 pire, certain communities, associated in the 
 name of religion for peaceful, if not pious, 
 purposes ; whose interests were opposed to 
 the progress of disorder and rapine, and 
 whose holy profession secured them some re- 
 spect from a lawless, but superstitious, people. 
 The diligence which was employed in trans- 
 cribing those valuable models, while it pro- 
 moted their circulation, could scarcely fail to 
 infuse some taste or energy into the dullest 
 mind ; and it certainly appears, that during 
 the eighth and ninth, and especially the elev- 
 enth ages, most f of the characters, who ac- 
 
 decline of the several Orders, and observes, that re- 
 form was commonly atteiided by its restoration; that 
 academies or colleges were invariably connected with 
 the Benedictine establishments ; and that both Popes 
 and Councils perpetually inculcated the duty of study 
 
 * A couiicil held at Rheims, under Innocent II. in 
 1131, published a canon, prohibiting monks and 
 canons-regular to study civil law or medicine; and 
 the injunction was repeated by the Lateran Council in 
 1139. These occupations were on this occasion ex- 
 pressly ascribed to avarice. And we may remark, 
 that the prohibition was confined to the monks — Jie 
 secular clergy, in the entire ignorance of the laity 
 were permitted to practise both law and physic. 
 
 t Bede, Alcuin, Willibrod, &c. were monks; and 
 most of the Popes and Cardinals of the eleventh cea 
 
332 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 quired any ecclesiastical celebrity, proc'eeded 
 from the discipline of the cloister. 
 
 Having thus intended to give a general 
 view of the advantages which the monastic 
 system has conferred on society, we cannot 
 fail to observe, that they are for the most part 
 confined to ages of ignorance or turbulence ; 
 that they were almost proportionate to the 
 debasement of the people, and to the weak- 
 ness or wickedness of the civil government. 
 The former of those evils was somewhat al- 
 leviated, the latter was partially obviated, by 
 the monastic institutions. Herein is compre- 
 hended the sum -and substance of their utility. 
 In a civilized nation, under a just and enlight- 
 ened rule, it is their necessary effect to ob- 
 struct industry and retard improvement. But, 
 on the other hand, if we consider them in re- 
 ference to the times in which they rose and 
 began to flourish, — if we compare the habits, 
 the morals, the intelhgence of the monks v^^ith 
 those of their secular contemporaries, — shall 
 we not immediately admit, that in bad ages 
 they were probably the best men ; that they 
 were tlie most useful members of a disjointed 
 community ; that their vicious principles were 
 less vicious than the general principles of so- 
 ciety ; that they were in advance of the civ- 
 ilization of their day ? If so — and to us it 
 appears indisputable — let us be cautious how 
 W3 cast unqualified censure upon a body of 
 religious persons, who formed, for the space 
 of five or six centuries, the most respectable 
 portion of the Christian world. 
 
 Superstitious tendency. — At the same time, 
 we ought not to forget, that, even in those 
 times to which their utility was confined, it 
 was continually obstructed both by the orig- 
 inal defects of their system, and its consequent 
 corruptions. Almost from their first estab- 
 lishment, in the East no less than in the West, 
 we find them the faithful defenders, if not 
 parents, of superstitious abuse. The adora- 
 tion of saints, the miraculous qualities of relics, 
 and the liomagc due to them, and, {\bovc all, 
 the sanctity and worship of images, have been 
 inculcated with peculiar zeal by the monks 
 of every order, in every age of the churdj. 
 Again, as they ev(!r have been the ymtrons of 
 religioiiH abii.-?e, so have thny inflexibly oj)- 
 ])()S('(\ nuy frrnrrnl n\U'in\)t at eliurch r('n)rm. 
 Ri'forniH, indt.'cd, in tlicjir parlicular cslablish- 
 incMls havf! been incessant. Such, agnin, as 
 tourhcd thr; discipline of the H(!cular <'lergy 
 Jinv<! Horrictirnes found support in the jealousy 
 
 liiry roHO from iIk? laiikH of the, rr-giiiiir cIcMgy. Sec 
 iiitt. Lin dc la Franco, xi SiOclc. 
 
 of the regular orders. But any exertion, tend- 
 ing to the restoration of pure Christianity, has 
 ever found its fiercest opponents in the clois- 
 ter ; and thrc jgh such opposition many un- 
 scriptural practices have been perpetuated 
 both in the Eastern and Western Churches. 
 Of course it is no't intended to ascribe to them 
 all the corruptions of religion ; indeed, we 
 have already traced the origin of many of 
 these to a period preceding the creation of 
 monachism. The 'vices of the clergy' are 
 acknowledged in ecclesiastical records long 
 before the prevalence of monastic influence ; 
 and it seems probable even that the traffic in 
 indulgences finally so scandalous to the Men- 
 dicants, was begun by the bishops. * But all 
 existing abuses were carefully nourished and 
 fostered by the hands of monks ; and the ex- 
 ecution of miracles and other popular impos- 
 tures was conducted with peculiar ingenuity 
 and success by the inmates of the monastery .f 
 And we may add, that the lucrative system 
 of Purgatory was by them most zealously sup- 
 ported, as indeed the wealth v/hich flowed 
 from it was distributed for the most part 
 among those establishments. 
 
 In early ages the monks were the subjects, 
 and, as it were, the army of the bishops ; they 
 maintained their rights, they fought their bat- 
 tles, and profited by their protection. In the 
 East this mutual relation long subsisted ; and 
 as the original monasteries were expressly 
 subjected, by the Council of Chalcedon, to 
 the bishop of the diocese, and as many were 
 indebted for their foundation to episcopal 
 munificence and piety, the claims were just^ 
 and the connexion natural. But in the Ro- 
 man Church it was violated almost by the 
 first movements of papal ambition. 
 
 Exemptions. In the year GOl, Gregory the 
 Great J (himself for some time the inmate of 
 
 * See Moslieim, vol. ii. p. 420. We may remark, 
 that the same author sometimes distinguishes the regu- 
 lar canons as more exempt from the vices which he so 
 indiscriminately objects to the other monastic orders. 
 
 t The Carthusians arc stigmatized by monastic 
 writers for inferiority in that power, if not for the 
 entire destitution of it. The consequence is, that, 
 having performed few or no miracles, they boast very 
 few names in the calendar of the saints. Sec Hos 
 pinian, lil). v. cap. vii. 
 
 % Giannone, Slor. Nap., lib. iv., cap. xii. Mob- 
 lieim, seemingly overlooking this circumstance, is 
 dis|)08ed to attribute the growing alliance of the 
 p<»peH and monks in the eleventh centiu'y lo the op- 
 prcKsion and rapacity of |)rinccH and bi^hopH. (Cent, 
 xi. p. 2, rliap. ii.) Doubtless there were instances 
 of tliiN; l)ut the principle ef the alliance was of muca 
 earlier origin. 
 
MONASTIC 
 
 WEALTH. 
 
 a monastery) held a Council, in which were 
 passed many regulations favorable to what 
 the monks considered their independence. 
 They were permitted to choose their own 
 abbot; and the bishop was precluded not 
 only from all interference in their temporali- 
 ties, and all exercise of jurisdiction over them, 
 but even from the celebration of the divine 
 offices in their churches. From this event 
 (if from any single event) we may probably 
 date tHe undue aggrandizement of the mon- 
 astic order, and its increasing influence on civil 
 as well as ecclesiastical politics. But in inde- 
 pendence it only so far gained, as to exchange 
 a near for a distant master — a petty tyrant, it 
 might be, for an imperious but partial despot. 
 One evil effect of this change was presently 
 felt, — the removal of the bishop's immediate 
 superintendence facilitated the progress of 
 abuse and licentiousness. * The eighth and 
 ninth ages were, in truth, the most triumphant 
 era of monasticism. f Whatsoever learning 
 then existed was confined, or nearly so, to 
 the convents ; and not only did nobles and 
 kings contest with each other the honor of 
 endowing them, but there were many who 
 took refuge there in their own persons from 
 the miseries and dangers of a turbulent world. 
 By such secession they conferred the security 
 whicli they courted ; and additional sanctity 
 seemed to surround the buildings which were 
 dignified by the retreat of great, perhaps even 
 of good, men. 
 
 Absolute exemptions from episcopal au- 
 thority were for some time rare. The first 
 instance was probably that of Monte Cassino, 
 which might be excused by its vicinity to 
 Rome. But the exam })le, though sparingly 
 imitated, was by no means lost on following 
 times ; and after the pontificate of Gregory 
 VII., the abbots began universally to claim 
 the immediate protection of St. Peter ; and 
 his Vicar was seldom slow to accord it. In 
 process of time, entire congregations of mo- 
 nasteries (the Clunian, for instance, and the 
 
 * One of Charlemagne's Capitillaries prohibited 
 abbots and abbesses from keeping fools, buffoons, and 
 jugglers, for their amusement. But this implied no 
 particular censure on the monastic orders, since we 
 
 I observe tlie same prohibition to be extended to bish- 
 
 « ops. 
 
 f Giannone, lib. v, cap. vi. The same have also 
 been considered as the grand periods of 'episcopal 
 authority. Both may be true. For the monasteries, 
 though in some cases, and to a certain extent, inde- 
 pendent of the bishops, were not yet placed in rivalry 
 with tliem ; but ihey probably made common cause, 
 whenever the general interest? of the Church were 
 concerned. 
 
 Cistertian) were included in a single sxcmp 
 tion ; so afterwards were the Mendicant Or 
 ders ; and finally the whole monastic body 
 acknowledged no other dependence than on 
 the Pope * alone. The abuse was at length 
 pushed so far, that even a private clerk might 
 obtain — of course by purchase — exemption 
 from the control of his bishop. Undoubted- 
 ly, during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth 
 centuries, the Holy See derived great power 
 from the sort of separate hierarchy thus es- 
 tablished ; and for the two following ages, 
 when ambition became less its ruling spirit, 
 and avarice more so, such exemptions became 
 the means of abundantly gratifying the favor- 
 ite passion. But in the excess to which they 
 were then carried, they shook the foundation 
 of papal power, by inflaming the jealousy and 
 disunion of the regular and secular clergy , 
 and thus they mainly tended to promote, in 
 due season, the rise of the Reformation, and 
 to facilitate its progress. 
 
 Monastic Wealth. Purgatory, IndvIgenceSf 
 &fc. — At the same time, if the Popes were long 
 supported and aggrandized through their close 
 connexion with the monastic Orders, so were 
 they very sedulous to return the favor, and to 
 enrich those Orders, sometimes at the expense 
 of the secular clergy, but more usually by 
 contributions from the laity. In earlier ages, 
 the profusion of kings and nobles abundantly 
 satiated the avarice of every department of 
 the church ; but when this spirit gradually 
 expired, and new Orders were still every- 
 where starting up, professing povertj^, and 
 clamorous for wealth, it became necessary to 
 open new resources for their nourishment. 
 These were easily discovered in the fruitful- 
 ness of superstition. Pin-gatory presently as- 
 sumed a more definite shape ; and it was no 
 difficult office for the priests, who created it, 
 to conduct its administration and economy 
 Their power over the concerns of that state 
 was believed on the same fe.ithority, which 
 had established its existence This grand in- 
 vention, with the devices of masses, indul- 
 gences, &c., which flowed fi-om it, extended 
 its influence from the highest even to the low- 
 est classes of the people ; so that through 
 
 * The papal right to grant these exemptions does 
 not seem to have been disputed. Yet it rested on no 
 better foundation than a confused notion, confirmed 
 and augmented by the Decretals, that there were no 
 limits to that authority. We should observe, tl.at 
 even in the East there were also insti^nces of the di- 
 rect dependence of monasteries on the Patriarch ; but 
 they were rare, and probal)ly in faint imitation of 
 the practice of the West. 
 
334 
 
 rtiSiORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 these means every condition of society be- 
 came tributary to the church. The monks 
 enjoyed a very great share in the profits of 
 tliis imposture. During the tenth and elev- 
 enth centuries, the reputation to which they 
 had ah-oady risen was so much augmented by 
 the foundation and name of Cluni, that some 
 are disposed to date their triumph over the 
 secular clergy from this period * — it is cer- 
 tain that the attention of churchmen was from 
 this time more anxiously . directed to their 
 temporalities f than heretofore. . . After 
 the institution of the Mendicants, the lucra- 
 tive X departments of the profession were 
 chiefly committed to then* superintendence ; 
 and it was especially through their heedless 
 abuse of favors, as heedlessly lavished on them 
 by a succession of necessitous Popes, and 
 most so through tlie public and confessed ve- 
 nality of indulgences, that the deformities of 
 the papal system became generally acknow- 
 ledged and execrated. These were the scan- 
 dals which, more than any of its pretensions 
 and impostures, awakened the indignation of 
 mankind. And thus it came to pass, in the 
 fulness of time, that out of the bosom of that 
 very order which had been most instrumental 
 in supporting papal power, and corrupting 
 the very corruptions of religion, the voice of 
 Providence was pleased to call forth the great 
 restorer of his holy church. While the Ben- 
 edictines were reposing in their luxurious 
 edifices — while the Mendicants were openly 
 prostituting for gold the offices and pretended 
 solaces of religion, the progress of knowledge 
 and the increase of corruption prepared the 
 field of triumph for the Saxon reformer. 
 
 * It is prol)able that tliey far surpassed the secular 
 clergy of tliis time in austerity and even in real piety 
 of liff, wiiich was not, indeed, any very diflicult tri- 
 umph. It is certain that they now began to apply 
 not only to study, but to business, v\hich the seculars 
 almost cfjually neglected. Hence the succession of 
 five monks, who, during the eleventh age, governed 
 the Ciiurch for fifty years; and to whom Mosheim, in 
 his uiit|alified haired for every (hing monastic, attri- 
 butes almost all its sins. 
 
 f Giannone (Slor. Nap., lib. vii., cap. v.) remarks, 
 that cennures and excommunications — those spiritual 
 weapons which hitherto had been usually employed 
 ^or the corr<!Ction of sin — were from this [leriod 
 rhicfly directed against persons who plundered or 
 ilietKited (Ijc properly of the Church. 
 
 X It is worthy of remark that the French, in pur- 
 suance of their constant d(!lerminalion to preserve 
 thcm«elveH from pure paj)acy, strongly discr)uragcd 
 tlio acf|iiiHi:ion of pro|H'rty in France by iIk; Mi iidi- 
 raulH, fairly objecling to tlietn their uncciiiivocal vow 
 of poverty. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 History of the Popes, from the Death of Inno^- 
 cent III. to that of Boniface VIII. 
 
 The ardor of the Popes for Crusades — its motives and 
 policy — Honorius III. — Frederic's vow to take the cross, 
 and procrastination— Gregory IX. — his Coronation— he 
 excommunicates the Emperor — who thus departs for 
 Palestine — Gregory impedes his success, and invades 
 his dominions — their subsequent disputes — Innocent 
 IV. — his previous friendship with Frederic — Council 
 of Lyons— various charges urged against FredeHc— In- 
 nocent deposes Frederic and appoints his successor, on 
 his own papal authority — Civil war in Germany — in 
 Italy— death of Frederic— his character and conduct — 
 his rigorous Decree against Heretics — Observations — 
 Other reasons alleged to justify his deposition — this 
 dispute compared with that between Gregory VII. and 
 Henry— Taxes levied by the Pope on the Clergy— Cru- 
 sade against the Emperor— Exaltation of Innocent— his 
 visit to Italy and intrigues— his death— his qualities as 
 a statesman— as a cimrchman— expression of the Sultan 
 of Egypt— Alexander IV.— Urban IV.— Clement IV.- 
 Introduction of Charles d'Anjou to the throne of Naples 
 — Gregory X. — his piety, and other merits — Second 
 Council of Lyons — Vain preparations for another Cru- 
 sade — Death of Gregory — Objects of Nicholas II.- 
 Martin IV. — Senator of Rome — Nicholas IV. diligent 
 against Heresy — Pietro di Morone or Celestine V. — 
 circumstances of his elevation — his previous life and 
 habits — his singular incapacity — disafiection among the 
 higher Clergy— his discontent and meditations— his re- 
 signation — Boniface VIII. — liis excessive ambition and 
 insolence — on the decline of i!ie papal power — his tem- 
 poral pretensions — Sardinia, Corsica, Scotland, Hun- 
 gary — Recognition of Albert King of the Romans — and 
 act of his submission — Philip the Fair — The Galilean 
 Church — origin of its liberties — Differences between 
 Boniface and Philip — Bull dcricis Laicos — its substance 
 and subsequent interpretation — AHairs of the Bishop 
 of Parmiers— Bull JlmcuUa F(7i— burnt by Philip— Con- 
 duct of the French Nobles — of the Clergy — of Boniface 
 — Bull Unam Sanctam — other violent proceedings — 
 Moderation of Philip — further insolence of the Pope — 
 Philip's appeal to theGencrnl Council— William of No- 
 garet— rcrsDual assault on Boniface— his behavior and 
 the circumstances of his death. 
 
 The Church of Rome had now so habitually 
 stained herself witli blood, as to be callous to 
 the common feelings of nature, and insensible 
 to the miseries of mankind. For more than 
 a century she had emjjloyed her ])o\vor in 
 promoting the destruction of human lile, by 
 the mo.st senseless expeditions: and as the 
 rtiinoiusncss and vanity of the Crusades be- 
 came more manifest, she seemed to redouble 
 her exertions to renew and perpetuate them ; 
 for she thrived by contributions levied for 
 this purpose, and by \hv. i)n)p(«rty which was 
 thus thrown imd<T ecclcsi.-istical ])rotertion ; 
 and she gatlu^rod strength through the weak- 
 ness of mdiiarchs, and the superstition of their 
 subjects. Again, after Innoc(>nt had succced- 
 vi\ in throwing an additional outrage upon 
 humanity and reason, by converting the urn- 
 
THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 
 
 335 
 
 chine, which had been intended against the 
 enemies of Christ, into an engine of domestic 
 persecution and torture, it became more than 
 ever the interest of the pope to keep alive a 
 spirit, which might so easily be made to de- 
 viate into arbitrary channels. And thus the 
 zeal for Crusades, which inflamed the breast 
 of Innocent, passed without any diminution 
 into those of his successors. Moreover, it is 
 well known how earnestly the holy See sup- 
 ported the interests of Frederic II. against 
 Otho IV., as long as the former was the 
 weaker party, and how zealously it began to 
 raise enemies against him, as soon as he be- 
 came powerful ; while the industry, with 
 which it renewed and prolonged the contests 
 between the Guelphs and the Ghibelines — 
 contests which lacerated the vitals of Italy — 
 furnishes melancholy proof, that its interests 
 were even at this time associated with every 
 principle that is subversive of peace and bane- 
 ful to society ; and that it pursued those inter- 
 ests with callous, persevering, uncompromis- 
 ing obduracy. 
 
 Honorius III. — Innocent III. was succeeded 
 by Honorius III., a native of Rome, who for 
 four years had been governor of Palermo 
 under Frederic II. ; but the remembrance of 
 that connexion was easily thrown off, as soon 
 as he rose from the condition of a subject to 
 that of a rival. Frederic had made a solemn 
 vow to Innocent, to engage without loss of 
 time in a new crusade ; and on his coronation 
 at Rome, in 1220, he renewed that promise 
 with still greater solemnity to Honorius. In 
 the year following, instead of proceeding on 
 his expedition, he ajipears to have appointed, 
 on his own authority, to some vacant see ; in 
 virtue, as he maintained, of his royal right ; 
 in violation, as the pope asserted, of the liber- 
 ties of the church. During the time consumed 
 in tliis dispute, Damietta fell into the power 
 of the Mahometans. In the year 122:3, at a 
 council held at Terentino in Campania, the 
 Emperor renewed his oath to depart, and that 
 within the space of two years ; and to give 
 earnest of his sincerity, he espoused the 
 daughter of John of Brienne, King of Jeru- 
 salem. In the year following, that he might 
 atone to the church for his continued delay, 
 and evince to her the sincerity of his affec- 
 tion, he published some savage constitutions 
 against heretics, which we shall presently no- 
 tice. At the same time, in a long letter to 
 the Pope, he complained of the general indif- 
 ference to the cause of the Crusades, which 
 then unfortunately prevailed throughout Eu- 
 
 rope. * Some disputes with the Lombards 
 formed the next excuse for his delay ; and in 
 1227 Honorius died, still pressing the depart- 
 ure of the monarch, and still pressing it in vain. 
 
 Accession of Gregory IX. — Gregory IX., 
 who was nephew of Innocent III., was imme- 
 diately raised to the pontifical chair, with loud 
 and unanimous acclamation. On the day of 
 his coronation he proceeded to St. Peter's, 
 accompanied by several prelates, and assumed 
 the pallium according to custom ; and after 
 having said mass he marched to the palace of 
 the Lateran, covered with gold and jewels. 
 On Easter Day, he celebrated mass solemnly 
 at Sta. Olaria Maggiore, and returned with a 
 crown on his head. On Monday, having said 
 mass at St. Peter's, he returned wearing two 
 crowns, mounted on a horse richly capari- 
 soned, and surrounded by Cardinals clothed 
 in purple, and a numerous clergy, f The 
 streets were spread with tapestry, inlaid with 
 gold and silver, the noblest productions of 
 Egypt, and the most brilliant colors of India, 
 and perfinned with various aromatic odors. 
 The people chanted aloud Kyrie ehison, and 
 their songs of joy were accompanied by the 
 sound of trumpets. The judges and the offi- 
 cers shone in gilded habits and caps of silk 
 The Greeks and the Jews celebrated the 
 praises of the Pope, each in his own lan- 
 guage ; a countless multitude marched before 
 him carrying palms and flowers ; and the sen- 
 ators and prefect of Rome were on foot at 
 his side, holding his bridle — and thus was he 
 conducted to the palace of the Lateran. 
 
 The first and immediate act of a pontificate 
 
 * See Fleun^, Hist. Eccle. 1. 78, sect. 65, where 
 a part of the letter is quoted. The actual restitution 
 of the territories of the Countess Matilda to the Ro- 
 man See, is by some ascribed to this Pontificate. 
 Raynaldus (ann. 1221, Num. 29) asserts, that the 
 { imperial diploma existed in the Liber Censuum of the 
 Vatican library — apud Pagi. Vit. Honor, iii. Sect. 
 XXX i. 
 
 f Thi? description is very faintly copied from a 
 life of Gregory IX. cited by Odoricus Raynaldus; 
 the following is a specimen : Divinis missarum officiis 
 reverenter expletis duplici diademate coronatus sub. 
 fnlgoris specie in Cherubini transfiguratur aspectum, 
 inter purpuratam venerabilium Cardinalium, Cleri- 
 corum et Preelatorum comititivam innumeram, insig- 
 nibus papalibus prsscedentibus, equo in phaleris pre- 
 tiosis evectus, per almie Urbis mirauda moenia Pater 
 Urbis et Orbis deducitur admirandus. Hinc cantica 
 concrepant, etc- etc. See Pagi, Vit. Gregor. ix., s. 
 iii. Fleury, 1. 79. s. 31. There seems no reason to 
 believe, that these demonstrations of joy or ebullitions 
 of adulation exce*»dpd tke '•ustonj-iry par'ide of the 
 thirteenth century 
 
536 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 so gorgeously undertaken, was to urge the 
 renewal of the Crusades, both by persuasion 
 and menace, at the vaiious courts of Europe. 
 The forces of Frederic were already collected 
 at Otrauto, and, if we are to believe some 
 writers,* the Emperor did actually embark, 
 and proceed on his destination as far as the 
 narrow sea between the Morea and Crete, 
 when a dangerous indisposition obliged him 
 to return. It is at least certain, that he once 
 more deferred the moment of his final depar- 
 ture. The Pope was infuriated ; he treated 
 the story of illness as an empty pretence, and 
 without waiting or asking for excuse or ex- 
 planation, instantly excommunicated the Em- 
 peror. This took place on the 29th of Sep- 
 tember, within six months from his elevation 
 to the See ; and the sword of discord, which 
 was drawn on that day, had no secure or last- 
 ing interval of rest, until the deposition, or 
 rather the death of Frederic. 
 
 The Emperor wrote several papers in his 
 justification, and among them a letter to Hen- 
 ry III. of England, containing much severe 
 and just reproach against the Roman Church. 
 ' The Roman Church (such was the substance 
 of his upbraiding) so burns with avarice that, 
 as the ecclesiastical revenues do not content 
 it, it is not ashamed to despoil sovereign Prin- 
 ces and make them tributary. You have a 
 very touching example in your father King 
 John ; you have that also of the Count of 
 Toulouse, and so many other princes whose 
 kingdoms it holds under interdict, until it has 
 redurrd them to similar servitude. I sj)eak 
 not of the simonies, the unheard-of exactions, 
 whicli it exercises over the clergy, the mani- 
 fest or cloaked usuries with whicli it infects 
 the whole world. In the meantime, these in- 
 satiable leeches use honeyed discourses, saying 
 that the Court of Rome is the Church, our 
 motbor and nurse, while it is our stepmother 
 and tlio source of every evil. It is known by 
 its fruits. It s(;nd.s on every side legates witli 
 power to j)unish, to suspend, tocxcommuni- 
 
 ♦ See Giannonc, 1. xvi. c. 6. Sigonio scguitci la 
 fedc di Matleo Pai iH, il quale (ad ann. 1227, p. 286) 
 BcriHSf.-: * Aiiimo tiiiiiis coiiKtcniali in iisdcm navihiis 
 qiiibus vcnfrant pIiiHciiiain 40 aiuiatDnim inillia Kiint 
 rcversi.' lint (liis pasHagc more prohahly rclalos to 
 the niiinei'oiiH pil^^riiriK, wlio liad acliially Hailed to the 
 Holy Land for tin- piirpoHc of iiiocling l-'rcdci ir, and 
 who iinmcdiali ly returned on not finding him there. 
 Fleury uiakeH no tnetitioti of Iuh having put to nea at 
 all on ihiM oeraHi«>n ; hnl HzovinH asHftrlH — 'per tri- 
 dunin in mare proveetnH ciirHum convertit an kc netpie 
 tnnriM jaclalionetn neqnc ineoinmudam vahiudinein 
 pall pohnc UMseruit.' Ann. KccIeH. ad ann. 11.'27. 
 
 cate ; not to diflTuse the word of God, bif to 
 amass money, and reap that which they have 
 not sown.* And so they pillage churches, 
 monasteries and other places of religion, which 
 our fathers have founded for the support of 
 pilgrims and the poor. And now these Ro- 
 mans, without nobility and without valor, in 
 flated by nothing but their literature, as})ire to 
 kingdoms and empires. The Church was 
 founded on poverty and simplicity, and no 
 one can give it other foundation than that 
 which Jesus Christ has fixed.' At the same 
 time the Emperor continued to prepare for 
 immediate departure, in spite of the sen- 
 tence which hung over him. The Pope as- 
 sembled a numerous Council, and thundered 
 forth a second excommunication ; and in the 
 spring following, without making any humil • 
 iation, or obtaining any repeal of the anathema 
 mider which he lay, Frederic set sail for the 
 Holy Land. 
 
 Fi'cdcnc II. in Palestine. — If there had been 
 a shadow of sincerity in Gregory's profesvsed 
 enthusiasm for the liberation of Palestine^ — 
 if he had loved the name and birth-place 
 of Christ with half the ardor with which he 
 clung to his own papal and personal dignity, 
 he would not have pursued the departed Em- 
 peror with his perverse malevolence, he would 
 not have prostituted the ecclesiastical censures, 
 to thwart his projects and blast his hopes. 
 Yet he did so : his mendicant emissaries were 
 despatched to the Patriarch and the military 
 orders of Jerusalem, informing them of the 
 sentence under which Frederic was placed, 
 and forbidding them to act, or to connnunicate 
 with him. At the same time, provoked, as 
 some assert, f by a previous aggression from 
 Frederic's lieutenant, he invaded with all his 
 forces the Apulian dominions of the Emperor. 
 Under these adverse circumstances, Frederic 
 made a hasty, but not inglorious,^ treaty with 
 
 * In 1229, Gregory IX. levied an exaction of 
 tenllis in England with so much severity, that even 
 the slanding crops were anticipated, and the bishops 
 obliged to sell their property, or borrow money at a 
 high interest, in order to answer the demand. Erat 
 Pajia tot et tantis involiitus debitis, ut undo bellicam, 
 (]nam susccpcrat, expedilioncm sustineret, penitus 
 ignorabat. Matth. Paris, anno citato. Mention ia 
 made of the continnal, though secret, maledictions 
 with which the Tope was pursued. 
 
 t Fleury, I. 79, 8. 43. (Jiannone, I. 16, c. (). 
 
 X The possession of the City and of tlu; Holy He- 
 pulchrc was secured to the Christians, while the Tctn- 
 ple (now the Moscpie of Omar) which had already 
 been jlesecrated to the Mahometan worship, was IcH 
 in the (lossession of the Saracens: a fair arrangement, 
 which was misrepresented by the ro/)e and mi>t o". 
 
THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305 
 
 the Saracens, and instantly returned to the 
 defence of his own kingdom — a measure 
 wliich became the more necessary, since the 
 Pope had issued a third excommunication, 
 releasing his subjects from their oath of alle- 
 giance.'' We do not profess, in this peaceful 
 narrativ*', to describe the details of military 
 adventures, or to trace the perplexed and faith- 
 less politics of Italy. We must be contented 
 to add, that some successes of the Emperor 
 led to a nohow and fruitless reconciliation ; 
 that this again broke out (in the year 1238) 
 into open war, which lasted till tlie death of 
 the Pope, three years afterwards. The period 
 of nominal peace had been disturbed by the 
 constant complaints and recriminations f of 
 both parties. The perusal of those papers is 
 sufficient to convince us, that if both had some, 
 the Pope had the greater, share of blame ; and 
 while the style, which the prelate assumes, is 
 that of an offended and injured protector and 
 patron, the language of the Emperor, though 
 never abject, frequently descends to the bor- 
 ders of querulousness and hunjility. 
 
 Innocent IV. — The cause of Frederic gained 
 jotljng by the death of Gregory, since he 
 was succeeded by Innocent IV.J This ex- 
 traordinary person (Sinibaldo Fieschi, a Ge- 
 noese) had been distinguished as cardinal by 
 his attachment to the person, if not to the 
 cause, of the emperor ; and on his election to 
 the pontificate, the people of Italy indulged 
 the fond and natural expectation, that the dis- 
 sensions which blighted their happiness would 
 at length be composed. Not so Frederic ; for 
 he was familiar with the soul of Innocent, 
 and had read his insolent and implacable 
 character. To his friends, who proffered 
 their congratulations, he replied, that there 
 was cause *for sorrow rather than joy, since 
 he had exchanged a cardinal, who was his 
 dearest friend, for a pope, who would be his 
 bitterest enemy.§ And so, indeed, it proved. 
 
 cleslastical writers, and restored to history by Gibbon 
 and Sismondi. Rep. Ital. chap. 15. 
 
 * The plea which he gave was ' because no one 
 should observe fidelity to a man who is opposed to 
 God and his Saints, and tramples upon his command- 
 ments.' A new maxim (as Fleury simply observes,) 
 and one which seems to authorise revolt. 
 
 t These disputes are related at great length by 
 Fleury, liv. 81, sect. 32', &c. 
 
 X On June 24, 1243. Celestine IV., in fact,' in- 
 tervened, but died on the sixteenth day after his 
 election. 
 
 § See Giannone, Stor. di Nap., lib. xvii., c. 3, 
 and various authorities collected by Sismondi, Rep. 
 Ital., ch. xvi. 
 
 43 
 
 331 
 
 On the occasion of an early and amicablV'? 
 conference. Innocent refused to withdraw his 
 predecessor's excommunication, until Freder- 
 ic should restore all that he was charged with 
 having plundered from the Church. The 
 meeting had no result ; and Innocent present 
 ly repaired to France, and summoned a very 
 numerous council at Lyons. 
 
 First Council of Lyons. — As soon as the 
 members were assembled* (in 1245) Inno- 
 cent, taking his throne, with Baldwin, empe- 
 ror of the East, on his right hand, began the 
 proceedings, by conferring the use of the red 
 bonnet on his cardinals f — to the end that they 
 might never forget, in the use of that color, 
 that their blood wfjis at all times due to the 
 service of the Church. At the same time he 
 adorned them with other emblems of dignity, 
 in imitation of regal pomp and state, and in 
 scorn (as it was thought) of a favorite ex 
 pression of Frederic, that a Christian prelate 
 ought to emulate the meekness and poverty 
 of the disciples of Christ. He then opened 
 his discourse respecting the defence of the 
 Holy Land, and of other states at that time 
 endangered by the Tartar invasion,| and con- 
 cluded with some general reproaches on the 
 character and conduct of Frederic, — that he 
 
 * See Giannone, lib. xvii., cap. 3. Sismondi, Rep 
 Ital., ch. xvi. 
 
 t Bzov. Ann. Eccles., ad ann. 1245. Giannone, 
 loc. cit. Pagi. vit.. Inn. IV. sec. xxxi. investigates 
 the question whether this dignity was conferred at 
 that time, or two years later. 
 
 4: Besides the affair of Fi;ederic, to which our 
 account in the text is nearly confined, the first Gene- 
 ral Council of Lyons professed three grand objects 
 (1.) To assist the Latin emperor of Constantinople 
 against the Greeks. (2.) To aid the emperor of 
 Germany against the Tartars. (3.) To rescue the 
 Holy Land from the Saracens. For the attainment 
 of the first of these objects, the Pope ordained a 
 contribution of half the revenues of all benefices on 
 which the incumbents were not actually resident, 
 (a wholesome and admirable distinction,) placing a 
 still higher impost on the largest; also of a tenth of 
 the revenues of the Church of Rome. For the second, 
 he exhorted the inhabitants to dig ditches, and build 
 castles. For the third, he commanded the priests, 
 and others in the Christian army, to offer up continual 
 prayers, moving the Crusaders to repentance and vir- 
 tue. Besides which he promised a twentietli part of 
 the revenues of benefices for three years, and a tenth 
 of those of the Pope and his cardinals. He likewise 
 encouraged all who had the care of souls to influence 
 the faitliful to make donations by testament and other- 
 wise. The decree touching the levies of money dis- 
 pleased many prelates, whc openly opposed it, de- 
 claring that the Court of Rome now peipetually 
 despoiled thefn under that ptetext. 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 had persecuted the pontiffs and other minis- 
 ters of the Church of God ; exiled and plun- 
 dered the bishops ; imprisoned the clergy, and 
 even put many to a cruel death, with other 
 similar charges. The same were repeated on 
 the next day of meeting, and supported and 
 exaggerated by the suspicious testimony of 
 two partial and intemperate prelates. On both 
 occasions they were boldly repelled by the 
 emperor's ambassador, Taddeo di Suessa. 
 After the delay of a fortnight, occasioned by 
 an unfounded expectation of Frederic's ap- 
 pearance in person, the council assembled for 
 the third time ; and then, after premising some 
 constitutions respecting the Holy Land, In- 
 nocent, ' to the astonishment and horror of all 
 who heard him,' pronounced the final and 
 fatal sentence against Frederic. He declared 
 that prince deprived of the imperial crown, 
 with all its honors and privileges, and of all 
 his other states; he released his subjects from 
 their oath ; he even forbade their further 
 obedience, on pain of excommunication, and 
 commanded the electors to the empire to 
 choose a successor. He presently recom- 
 mended to that dignity Henry, Landgrave of 
 Thuringia. For the kingdom of Sicily, he 
 took upon himself, ' with the counsel of the 
 cardinals, his brethren,' to provide a sove- 
 reign. 
 
 Deposition of Fredenc. — Frederic was at 
 Turin when he received the news of this 
 proceeding. He turned to the barons, who 
 suiTOunded him, and, with deep indignation, 
 addressed them. 'The pontiff has deprived 
 me of the imperial crown — let us see if it be 
 so.' He then ordered the crown to be brought 
 to him, and placed it on his head, saying, 
 'that neither pope nor council had the power 
 to take it from him.' Most of the princes of 
 Europe were, indeed, of the same opinion, 
 and continued to acknowledge him to the end 
 of iiis life. And wo may remark, that the 
 usurpation of Innocent was in one respect 
 marked with peculiar audacity, — he did not 
 even plead the approbation of the Holy Coun- 
 cil, but contented himself with proclaiming 
 that the sentence had been pronounced in its 
 prese.jice.^ 
 
 Nevertheless, his edict found uilliiig obe- 
 
 • * Sacro prffiBcntc Concilio.* Dzovius (Ann. 
 Ecclcn., ad ann. 1445) pivos the prccionH docnincni 
 entire, pn-faced, f»f conrKO, willi un{|uali(ie(l cuKtgy. 
 ViiU't, liowoviT, (Vit. Inn. IV., nv.c. xx,,) mi^mich, 
 (hat the appmlialion (if tlio Council waa implied in 
 iln prori'i-dinKH, if not aclnally cxproHxod in llic title 
 ©f the Hcntcncu 
 
 dience from the supei*stition or the turbulence 
 of the German barons. Henry was supported 
 by numerous partisans, and waged a prosper- 
 ous warfare against Conrad, the son of Fred- 
 eric ; and on his early death, William, Count 
 of Holland, was substituted by the Pope as a 
 candidate for the throne. Innocent's genius 
 and activity suggested to him the most refined 
 arts to insure success, and his principles per- 
 mitted him to adopt the most iniquitous. He 
 even departed so far from the observance of 
 humanity, and the most sacred feelings of 
 nature, as to employ his intrigues to seduce 
 Com ad from the service of his father, into 
 rebellious and parricidal allegiance to the 
 Church. That virtuous prhice, rejecting, with 
 firmness, the impious proposition, replied, that 
 he would defend the side he had chosen to 
 the last breath of life ; * and neither the Pope 
 nor the Church gained even a temporary ad- 
 vantage by an attempt which covers them with 
 eternal infatny. 
 
 1 His death and character. — The same indus- 
 trious hostility which had kindled rebellion 
 among the German princes, was exerted with 
 no less effect among the contentious states of 
 Italy. The Guelphic interests were every- 
 where strengthened by the energy of Inno- 
 cent ; and the utmost efforts of Frederic were 
 insufficient to restore tranquillity to Germany, 
 or even to obtain any important triumphs over 
 his Italian enemies. He died in Apulia, in 
 the year 1250 ; and though he had never for- 
 mally renounced the title of Emperor, his 
 deposition was virtually accomplished by the 
 edict of Innocent, since the rest of his life was 
 spent in uninterrupted confusion and alarm, 
 in the midst of battle, and sedition, and treason, 
 without any enjoyment of the repose of royalty, 
 and with a very limited possession" either of its 
 dignity or authority. The character of Fred- 
 eric nas been vilified by Guelphic writers, and 
 j)robably too highly exalted by the oj)posite 
 faction. In the conduct of afiiiirs pm-ely tem- 
 I)oral, he is celebrated for justice, magnifi- 
 cence, g(Mierosity, as well as for the patronage 
 of arts and literatm-e. Familiar with the use 
 of many languages, and himself an author, 
 he exhibited that disposition to cultivate sci- 
 ence, and nourish every branch of knowledge, 
 which is so seldom associated with great 
 vices. In regard to his long and comj)licated 
 conti-ntions with tin; ( 'hiu'ch, it is u.n(]ii('slion • 
 Jibiy trtie that he; violated, without juiy known 
 necessity, certain soleiini obligtitions respect* 
 
 I ing the time of commencing his Crusade 
 
 ' * diannonc, Stor. Nup., lib. xvii., ch. 4. 
 
THE POPES PROM 1216 TO 1305. 
 
 339 
 
 His reluctance to engage at all in such san- 
 guinary and fruitless enterprises may be ac- 
 knowledged and justified; but his repeated 
 breach of faith gave some reason to the Holy 
 See for suspecting his subsequent promises. 
 It is also true that he exiled some bishops, 
 and imprisoned othci-s, and even proceeded to 
 greater extremities against some individuals 
 of the inferior orders of the clergy ; and also 
 that he levied contributions and imposts on 
 all classes of his ecclesiastical subjects.* But 
 those who felt his rigor may probably have 
 deserved it by moral or political misconduct ; 
 and it was just and legal f that the clergy 
 should contribute some proportion to the sup- 
 port of the state. It may seem strange that, 
 while.his adversaries heap upon him the bit- 
 terest charges of impiety and blasphemy, | his 
 friends persist in asserting the unalterable 
 fidelity and affection which he bore to his 
 mother church, the protectress of his infancy ; 
 that he was ever eager to advocate her cause, 
 and promote her interests. In support of 
 this singular pretension, it is advanced, that 
 he was the inflexible and implacable extirpa- 
 tor of heresy. This fact, though urged by his 
 admirers, is not disputed by his enemies. It 
 is faithfully recorded, that at an early period 
 (in 1224) he published three constitutions, 
 which aggravated the guilt and punishments 
 of heresy even beyond those of treason, and 
 placed the temporal authorities at the disposal 
 of the ecclesiastical inquisitors. § ' Those (he 
 
 * Hence (says Giannone) probably arose the re- 
 port, that he had commonly proclaimed his intention 
 of reducing the clergy to primitive poverty; * so that 
 Matthew Paris, who, before Frederic's deposition, 
 had always adhered to his party, as soon as he mider- 
 siood that such were his common expressions, as he 
 WHS himself abbot of Monte Albano (St. Alban's,) 
 in England, and wealthy and well beneficed, was dis- 
 pleased with such a proposition, and so began to 
 change his style, and to write against him, in a man- 
 ner difierent from his former.' Stor. di Nap., lib 
 xvii., c. 4. 
 
 t Giannone proves that such had been the invaria- 
 ble custom, at least in the southern provinces of the 
 empire of Frederic. 
 
 :}: One of these is the celebrated expression respect- 
 ing the Three Impostors, then commonly attributed 
 to Frederic, though solemnly and publicly denied by 
 him. Another is a tale, recorded by certain monks, 
 that, when they requested him to spare their crop of 
 wheat, Frederic commanded his soldiers ' to desist, 
 and to respect those ears of corn, since some day the 
 grains which they contained might become so many 
 Christs.' Giannone, loc. cit., on authority of Simon 
 Hanh, Hist. Germ, in Frederico II. 
 
 § Several authors assert that, in virtue of a pro- 
 mise made to Innocent III » he established a perma- 
 
 ordaincd) who have been arrested for heresy, 
 and who, being moved by the fear of death, 
 are desirous to return to the Church, shall bfe 
 condemned to the penance of perj)etual im- 
 prisonment. The judges shall be bound to 
 seize the heretics discarded by the inquisitors 
 of the holy Sec, or by others zealous for tlie 
 Catholic faith, and to confine them closely 
 until their execution, according to the sen- 
 tence of the Church . . We also condemn 
 to death those who, having abjured to save 
 their life, shall return into error. We deprive 
 heretics, and all who abet them, of all benefit 
 of appeal ; and it is our will that heresy be 
 entirely banished from the whole extent of 
 our empire. And as the crime which assails 
 God is greater than that of treason, we ordain 
 that the children of heretics, to the second 
 generation, be deprived of all temporal bene- 
 fits, and all public offices, unless they come 
 forward and denounce their parents.' * 
 
 Such were the measures by which an inde- 
 pendent, and powerful, and (for those days; 
 an enlightened monarch, evinced his affection 
 for the Church of Rome ! Such were the 
 favors 'by which he courted her friendship, 
 and sought to merit her gratitude ! by feeding 
 her fiercest passion — by sanctioning the most 
 fatal of all her evil principles. It is true that 
 Frederic may thus have established some 
 claims on the sympathy of the furious zeal- 
 ots of- his time; but his indulgence to tho.se 
 churchmen was no deed of friendship to the 
 Church. To protect and foster the vices of 
 a system, is to prevent its permanence, and 
 poison its prosperity ; and if ever, during his 
 long reign, he appeared as the real friend of 
 Rome, it w^as the time when he least profes- 
 sed that name — at the time when he exposed 
 her abuses, and proclaimed her shame, and 
 called upon her to repent and amend. And 
 assuredly, when he lent his obsequious sword 
 to swell the catalogue of her crimes, he was 
 already preparing for his latter years the tem- 
 pest which disturbed and tormented them : 
 nor did it happen without the spirit of God, 
 that his calamities were inflicted by that same 
 hand, whose darkest atrocities had been ap- 
 proved and directed by himself. 
 
 It is strange, too, that among the four rea- 
 sons by which the Pope justified his sentence 
 of deposition, it was one, that Frederic had 
 
 nent Inquisition in Sicily in the year 1213. Stor. di 
 Nap. loc. cit. This, however, is scarcely probable, 
 for the Inquisition was not at that time permanently 
 established even at Toulouse. 
 
 * Fleury, Hist. Eccl., lib. Ixxviii., sec. Ixv. 
 
340 HISTORY OF \ 
 
 rendered himself ginlti/ cf heresy, by his con- j 
 tempt of pontifical censures, and his unholy 
 tilliance with the Saracens. Thus, then, did 
 that prince, according to the strict letter of his 
 own constitutions, become liable, on his con- 
 demnation by the Church, to the monstrous 
 penalties contained in them. 
 
 Disputes between Church and Empire. — An- 
 otlier, * perhaps a more plausible reason, was 
 this, — that he had been deficient in that fidel- 
 ity, which he owed to the Pope, as his vassal 
 for the kingdom of Sicily ; for that claim, 
 however absurd in origin and principle, had S 
 been previously asserted and acknowledged, i 
 But, in truth, when we compare the character I 
 and causes of this second conflict between the 
 Church and the Empire with those which 
 marked the contest of Henry with Gregory 
 VII. and his successors, we find it much 
 more difiicult to discover what was the spe- 
 cific and tangible ground of quarrel. In the 
 former instance there existed one grand and 
 definite object, for which both parties perse- 
 ^'eringly struggled ; in the latter, many vague 
 complaints and indeterminate oflTences were 
 advanced and retorted ; but no single great 
 principle was avowedly contested, nor was 
 any one additional right cr privilege acquir- 
 ed or confirmed to the Church by its final 
 triumph. Only the power and influence of 
 Rome were made more manifest; and other 
 nations were taught to tremble at the omnipo- 
 tence of the double sword. 
 
 This leads us to remark another distinction 
 — that, in the contest with Henry, it was, in 
 reality, the Church of Rome which rose in 
 oi)position to the empire — the spiritual, or, at 
 least, the ecclesiastical, interests of the See 
 were those most consulted and most promi- 
 nent in the debate. In that with Frederic, it 
 was rather froin the Court of Rome, that the 
 spirit and motives of policy proceeded. In 
 the former case, the mat(,'rial sword was in- 
 troduced as secondary and subsidiary to the 
 ^)iritual ; but in the latter, if the contrary 
 was not actually the case, f at least the two 
 
 ♦ See SiamoiKli, Kep. Ital., cli. xvi. 
 
 t In tlic yf.'ir 1251, Clirifitiamis, (or Conrad,) 
 ArrlihiHlioj) of Mentz, waH aoliiiilly dopofod by Inno- 
 cent, for reluctance to use annn ni tlu; dofnicc «)f the 
 Cliiirch. 'He Haid, lliat tlu; \vn, fts of war did not 
 Ixjconu; the sacerdotal cliaracl<!r; but that lu; was 
 cvrr willin;; to use ihv Hword »)f the H|)irit, whh li was 
 llie word of (iod. 'I'lie ScripturcH had roinuiandcd 
 liim to put hiM hword in the nlieath.' Of thiw oflencf 
 (and no other charge irt mentioned) h<! uaH acruhcd 
 by thi; kiri^ and certain of the hiily l)efore lh«' Tope, 
 und WHM iuiuie<iiately d<'gra(h d from \m h?oe. I'iiK'i 
 Innoc. IV., Hec, xlvii. 
 
 ^HE CHURCH. 
 
 weapons were so dexterously substituted ano 
 interchanged for each other — the one was sc 
 continually presented under the holy sem- 
 blance of the other — as to show the profi- 
 ciency which the See had latterly made in 
 the art of deluding the human race. 
 
 Agam — the avarice or the necessities of 
 Rome compelled her, during these disputes, 
 to a measure which, however expedient at 
 the moment, was finally very injurious to 
 her — that of levying taxes rigidly and gener- 
 ally upon the clergy-. It was not in England 
 only (though there most successfully ) * that 
 Gregory IX. exacted from all ranks of eccle- 
 siastics the tenth of their movables immedi- 
 ately on his breach with the emperor ; and 
 every one recollects with what repugnance 
 his second requisition (in 1240) was admitted 
 by our clerical forefathers. From the mo- 
 ment that the Pope was found so infatuated 
 as to publish a Crusade f against a Catholic 
 
 * The pages of Matthew Paris abound with instan- 
 ces of pontifical rapacity and insolence. See ad 
 annos 1244, 1245, 1246, 1247, 1250, 1252, &c. . 
 . Sometimes a legate a latere was the instrument ; 
 sometimes the Mendicants acted as tax-gatherers; 
 and even Ireland did not escape their visitations. In 
 1247, the complaints both of the French and English 
 clergy assumed a formidable shape for that age. The 
 lasting effect was, that the former devotion to Rome 
 was turned into ' execrabile odium ct maledictiones 
 occultaii.' For all both saw and felt that the Pope 
 was insatiable in his extortions, to their great loss 
 and impoverishment. And there were many who l-e- 
 gan to question whether he had really received ficm 
 heaven the power of St. Peter to bind and to loose, 
 seeing how very unlike he was to that apostle. * Re- 
 solutum est igitur os iniqua loquentium, &c.' . . 
 and this as well in France as in England. 
 
 t The same indulgences were promised to those 
 who armed against the emperor as against the sultan ; 
 and the apostolic j)reachers, under Innocent at least, 
 even pointed out the former as the easier and broader 
 road to salvation. Sismondi, Rep. Ital., chap. xvi. 
 Flcury, Ilist. Eccl., lib. Ixxxiii., sec. xxxiii. The 
 nobility of France, and the Queen Blanche, were 
 highly offended by this measure oflnnoccnt, during 
 the Crusade of St. Louis. ' Tl»e Pope (they com- 
 plained) is preaching a new Crusade against Christ- 
 ians for the extension of ^lis own dominions, and 
 forgets the king, our master, who is suffering so nuich 
 for the faith.' ' Let the Pope (the queen replied) 
 kee|) those who go into his service; and let iheni de- 
 part, never to return.' 'i'he nobles alt^o rejirimanded 
 the Mendicants who had preached this Crusade. • We 
 build for you churchcH and houses : we receive, nourish, 
 and entertain you. What good doeu the Pope for 
 youl Jlo fatigiiert and torments yon ; he makes you 
 his tax-galhererK, and renders you hatcfid to you' 
 Ijcnefaetor.s.' They excu.sed ihcmsclvos on the plea 
 of the obedience duo to him. . . Here we dis- 
 co\cr the elements of the Ciullican libf hub. 
 
THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 
 
 341 
 
 emperor, and to feed his own temporal ambi- 
 tion by despoiling his faithful Catholic clergy, 
 the minds of all reasonable laymen were start- 
 led and revolted by the former outrage, while 
 the hearts of the clergy, being touched by the 
 injustice of the latter, began gradually to close 
 against so rapacious a protector. 
 
 Conduct of Innocent— When Innocent re- 
 ceived the news of the death of Frederic, his 
 exultation broke forth without restraint or 
 moderation ; — 'Let the heavens rejoice, and 
 ler the earth be in festivity ; for the thunder 
 and the tempest with which a powerful God 
 has so long threatened your heads, are chang- 
 ed by the death of that man into refreshing 
 breezes and fertilizing dews.' * It was thus 
 that he addressed the clergy of Sicily, while, 
 at the same time, he prepared to reduce that 
 province, together with the kingdom of Na- 
 ples, under his own immediate government, 
 and attach it in perpetuity to the dominions 
 of the Church. In pursuance of this project, 
 he quitted Lyons, his constant residence f 
 during the uncertainties of the war, and vis- 
 ited, in a sort of triumphal procession, the 
 Guelphic cities of Italy. He was cA ery where 
 received with an enthusiasm which he had 
 not merited by any regard for any interests 
 except his own ; and he is even supposed 
 somewhat to have chilled the misplaced grat- 
 itude of his allies by the unexpected assertion 
 of some spiritual pretensions over themselves. 
 In Sicily, and the south of Italy, he succeeded 
 m creating a powerful party ; but it was over- 
 thrown by the arms of Conrad and Manfred, 
 the sons of Frederic. Foiled by force, the 
 Pope had recourse to intrigue ; and he began 
 to treat successively with the kings of Eng- 
 
 * In a similar spirit of Christian forgiveness, the 
 same Pope is related to have expressed his exultation 
 at the death of Grosstete, bishop of Lincoln. ' I re- 
 joice; and let every true son of the Church rejoice 
 with me — that my great enemy is removed.' ... 
 Assuredly that admirable prelate had gone very fiir 
 in disaffection, not hesitating to denounce Innocftnt, 
 almost with his dying breath, as Antichrist; 'For 
 by what other name are we to designate tliat power, 
 which labors to destroy the souls that Christ came to 
 savel ' 
 
 •f- On the departure of the Pope from Lyons, the 
 Cardinal Hugo made a valedictory address to all the 
 population of both sexes; and it contained the fol- 
 lowing sentence: — ' Amici, magnain fecinuis, post- 
 quam in banc Urbem venimus, utilitatem et eleemosy- 
 nam. Quando enim primo hue venimus, tria vel 
 quattuor prostibula invenimus. Sed nunc recedentes 
 unuin solum relinquimus. Verum ipsum durat con- 
 tinuatum ab orientali parte civitatis usque ad occi- 
 dentalem.' This is related as fact by Matt Paris. 
 Ad ann. 1251. 
 
 land and France, with a view to bestow the 
 crown of the Sicilies on a branch either of 
 the one family or the other. In the mean- 
 time, the death of Conrad revived in him the 
 expiring hope of uniting it to his own. Am- 
 bition resumed her sway ; and he broke off 
 the imperfect negotiations. The kingdom of 
 Naples was again thronged with his emissa- 
 ries ; seditions were in cveiy quarter excited 
 in his favor ; and even Manfred himself, in 
 the belief that resistance would be vain, ad- 
 vanced to the frontiers to offer his submission, 
 and deigned to lead by the bridle the horse 
 of the pontiff as he crossed the Garigliano. 
 
 This event, which seemed to secure to the 
 Court of Rome the throne of Naples and Sic- 
 ily, and thus to extend its dominions beyond 
 any limits which it had at any time reached, 
 or, till lately, aspired to, took place in the 
 summer of 1254. The duration of this un 
 natural prosperity was even shorter than could 
 have been predicted by the most penetrating 
 statesman ; for before the conclusion of the 
 very same year, IManfred had again possessed 
 himself of the keys of the kingdom. But In- 
 nocent did not live to witness this second re- 
 verse ; — he had already expired * at Naples, 
 in mature old age, and in the confident per- 
 suasion that he had achieved the dearest ob- 
 ject of his ambition,- and that he died the 
 most powerful prince who had ever filled the 
 throne of St. Peter. 
 
 The Character of Innocent IV. — During a 
 pontificate of eleven years and five months, 
 
 * Soon after Innocent's death, (of which the exact 
 day, it is proper to remark, is disputed — Pagi, Inn. 
 IV., sec. Ixv.) a cardinal had the following vision. 
 He saw a noble matron, on whose brow the word Ec- 
 clesia was written, present her petition at the Judg- 
 ment-seat, saying, Justissime Judex, juste judica. She 
 then lirought forward these charges against Innocent 
 IV. (1.) At the foundation of the Church, Thou 
 didst give it liberties proceeding from Thyself; but 
 he has made it the vilest of slaves, (ancillam vilissi- 
 mam.) (2.) It was founded to benefit the souls ot 
 the miserable; — he has made it a table of money- 
 gatherers. (3.) It was founded in Faith, Justice, 
 and Truth; — but he has staggered Faith, destroyed 
 Justice, and clouded Truth. Justum ergo judicium 
 redde mihi. Then the Lord said to him, Go and re- 
 ceive thy reward according to thy mei its. And thus 
 he was carried away. The cardinal then woke, 
 through the terror of this sentence, and shouted so 
 loud, as to excite the suspicion of insanity. Ista 
 visio (continues Matthew Paris) (nescitur si fantas- 
 tica) multos perterruit; et utinam cum efTectu casti- 
 gans emendavit. That it was generally propagated, 
 and perhaps believed at the time, is sufficient to prove 
 to us (if we needed indirect proof) what was the. 
 sort of reputatjon which Innocent IV. possessed 
 among his contemporaries. 
 
342 HISTORY OF 
 
 he had displayed all the qualities which con- 
 summate an artful politician, and which dis- 
 grace a hishop and a Christian. As a states- 
 man, he designed daringly, he negotiated 
 skilfully, he intrigued successfully ; he per- 
 fectly comprehended the means at his .dis- 
 posal, and adapted them so closely to his 
 pui'poses, that his reign presented a series of 
 those triumphs * which are usually designated 
 glorious. As a churchman, he hade defiance 
 to the best principles of his rehgion ; he set 
 at nought the common feelings of humanity. 
 The spiritual guide to eternal life, he had no 
 fixed motive of action, except vulgar temporal 
 ambition. 'The servant of the servants of 
 God,' he rejected with scorn the humiliation 
 of Frederic, f and spurned a suppliant empe- 
 ror, who had been his friend. And lastly, 
 when the infant son of Conrad was presented 
 *o his tutelary protection by a dying father, 
 the prayer was haughtily refused ; and ' the 
 father of all Christians, and the protector of 
 all orphans,' liastened to usurp the hereditary 
 rights of a Christian child and orphan. These 
 circumstances duly considered, with every 
 allowance for times and prejudices, seem, 
 indeed, almost to justify the expression of the 
 sultan of Egypt, in his answer to a letter of 
 Innocent — the taunt of a Mussulman addres- 
 sed to Christ's vicar upon earth ; — 'We have 
 received your epistle, and listened to your en- 
 voy : he has spoken to us of Jesus Christ — 
 whom we know better than you know, and 
 whom wc honor more than you honor him.^ f 
 
 Alexander IV. — Alexander IV. succeeded 
 to the chair, to the passions, and to the pro- 
 jects of Innocent ; and it was the leading ob- 
 ject of his reign of six years to maintain or 
 
 * We should mention, however, that the fall of 
 Frederic is not wholly altribiitfijjle to Innocent's in- 
 fluence. A very strong rej)iiblican and antl-inipcrial 
 8|)irit previously prevailed in many, especially the 
 northern, cities of Italy, which the Pope could not 
 have created, though he very well knew how to avail 
 himself to it. Another remark we may liere make 
 — that Innocent was much more successful in foment- 
 ing pc/Iitions, and making parlies in foreign states, 
 ihhu in securing the subordination of his own capital. 
 There were few cities in Italy where he had less 
 inniience than at Kome; which may accoiuit for his 
 continual aiwence from it. fSee Sisuiondi, I{cp. Iial., 
 rhap. xviii. Matthew Taris, Hist. AiiL'lia-, aim. 
 1254. 
 
 t Sismonrli, Re|). Ilal., chap. xvii. 
 
 X \)c. (|uo ('hristo plus sciuniH cpiam voh Hciatis, ct 
 mii^MiificamuH niun |)liiN(|uam voh magnilicatis. H/.ov., 
 Ann. KcclcH., ad anti. 1264 Matthew Taris, Hist, 
 ad ann. eiindem. Tii*- letter ih a very Hensibh; com- 
 f)OKition, and deulit very directly with the rubjeclH on 
 whidi it treutH. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I recover the temporal possession of the king- 
 dom of Manfred. But he possessed neither 
 the firmness of character nor the various tal- 
 ents necessary for success. The machine, 
 which had not always moved obediently even 
 to the hand of Innocent, seemed to lose, in 
 his feebler grasp, all the elasticity of its action ; 
 
 ' and it became evident, before the end of his 
 pontificate, that the sceptre of Naples and 
 Sicily was not destined to a bishop of Rome. 
 
 I At the same time, Alexander was celebrated 
 
 I for the exercise of some of those virtues, 
 which were not found in his predecessor — 
 for earnestness of piety, or, at least, for assid- 
 uity in prayer, and the strict observance of 
 Church regulations. * The favors which he 
 bestowed upon the Mendicant . orders will 
 prove his zeal, indeed, rather than the wisdom 
 of his policy. But the Crtisade which he 
 preached, from whatsoever motive, against 
 Eccelino, the tyrant, was almost justified by 
 the crimes of that miscreant ; for though a war 
 proclaimed 'in the name of God' is, in most 
 instances, only wickedness cloaked by blas- 
 phemy, yet we may view it with some indul- 
 gence, when it is directed against the convicted 
 enemy of mankind. 
 
 Vrhan IV. and Clement IV. — For the seven 
 following years (from 1261 to 1268) the chair 
 was occupied by two Frenchmen, Urban IV. 
 and Clement IV., who have obtained an emi- 
 
 I nent place in civil as well as ecclesiastical liis- 
 
 j tory, by the introduction of Charles of Anjou 
 to the throne of Naples. Whether from per- 
 sonal hostility to the actual occupant of that 
 throne, or from ecclesiastical rancor against 
 the son of Frcd(n-ic, or from a political de- 
 termination to cut off all connexion between 
 the south of Italy and the empire, or from all 
 these causes united, the holy See, by whom- 
 soever administered, did not remit or relax its 
 exertions for the expulsion of Manfred. The 
 negotiations with the court of France, which 
 Innocent IV. had connnenced and interrujUed, 
 were renewed and (X)iu'lude(l by Urban IV. ; 
 and dining tlie following reign of Clement, 
 the Crusade against a lcgitimat(; and virtuous 
 monarch was completed with the most san- 
 guinary success. Ti)e brother of St. Louis 
 supported his usurpation by the same mcrci- 
 
 I loss sword which htid nchicviMl it ; and the 
 historians of Italy still recount, with teai-s of 
 
 ♦ Alexander IV. is thus charnclerized by Mittlhcw 
 Paris; — .Satis beniguus ct bene religiosus; a^^isiduus 
 in orationibus, in abstinentiu strenuus, sed sibilis 
 adulautium scducibilis ct pravis avarorum Huggestion 
 ibiis iucliiiitivus. I'agi is very much oflendcd by the 
 (Ucdification of I'le |)raisc. 
 
THE POPES FROIVI 1216 TO 1305. 
 
 343 
 
 indignation, the more than usual horrors of 
 the French invasion. 
 
 But, however strong this Pope's nationahty 
 may have been, it did not cause him to forget 
 his papal interests. The conditions which he 
 exacted from Charles, on investing him with 
 the crown of Naples, contained most of the 
 claims then in dispute between kings and 
 popes, such as the unqualified appointment 
 to vacant sees, the exclusive care of the tem- 
 poralities during vacancy, and even the aboli- 
 tion of all pretensions rising from the regalia.* 
 
 Gregory X. — On the death of Clement, the 
 See was vacant, through the disunion of the 
 cardinals, for nearly three years. At length, 
 in 1271, an Italian, a native of Piacenza, was 
 elected, and assumed the name of Gregory X. 
 — 'a person (says Fleury)f of little learning, 
 but of great experience in secular affairs, and 
 more given to the distribution of alms, than 
 the amassing of riches.' He was in the Holy 
 Land at the tiine of his appointment ; and as 
 he returned with a keen and recent impres- 
 sion of its sufferings, and with an enthusiasm 
 freshly kindled by that spectacle, the first act 
 of his pontificate was directed to the revival 
 of the crusading ardor; and the same con- 
 tinued to the end of his life to be the favorite 
 object of his exertions. He was successful, 
 because he was sincere. Those, who cared 
 not for his reasoning, listened to his disinter- 
 ested supplications ; those who were not in- 
 flamed by his enthusiasm, still respected and 
 loved it. It was no longer against a Christian 
 sectarian, or a Catholic Emperor and his per- 
 secoled race, that the monarchs of Europe 
 were called upon to arm; it was no longer 
 for the peculiar aggrandizement of the Court 
 or Church of Rome, that the father of Chris- 
 tians summoned them to battle ; they had 
 
 * See Giantione, Stor. di Nap., lib. xix., cap. v. 
 In a Bull, dated in 1266, he declared that the dispo- 
 sition of all benefices rightfully belonged to the Pope. 
 The claims of the princes were supported by a decree 
 of the Council of Lyons. See Dupin, Siecle xiii , 
 Bee. X. That author observes generally that com 
 mendams of benefices, and the distinction between 
 simple benefices and those with cure of souls, were 
 the introduction of this age; and that the jurisdic- 
 tion, privileges, and immunities of the clergy, Avere 
 thus extended as far as possible. Pluralities were 
 strictly prohibited, and commonly enjoyed. On the 
 other hand, ecclesiastics were compelled to contri- 
 bute, not only to the real or pretended necessities of 
 the church, but frequently, under one pretext or other, 
 to the exigences of the state. Hence their murmurt 
 and discontent. The possession and enjoyment was 
 the liabit and the riglit — tb.e contribution was novel 
 and vexatious. 
 
 t Hist. Eccl., lib. Ixxxvi. sec. xvii. 
 
 already learnt to distinguish between the in- 
 terests of the Vatican and the honor of Christ ; 
 and the magic which a spiritual Pope had so 
 long exercised over the human mind, lost 
 nmch of its fascination and power, as soon ay 
 he degenerated into a tem[)oral prince. 
 
 But Gregory X. had higher and less am- 
 biguous claims on the gratitude of Christen- 
 dom than any zeal for the deliverance of Pal 
 estine could possibly give him. He labored 
 to compose the dissensions of his distracted 
 country; to heal the wounds which had been 
 so wantonly inflicted by the selfish ambition 
 of his predecessors. He interposed, impar 
 tially, and therefore not vainly, to reconcile 
 the opposite factions of Guelphs and Ghibe- 
 lines ; * and exhibited to them the new and 
 venerable spectacle of a pacific Pope. He in- 
 terposed too in the affaii-s of the empire ; but 
 it was again for the purpose of terminating a 
 division which threatened the peace of Ger- 
 many ; and he proved the sincerity of his in- 
 tention by confirming the election of Rodolph, 
 who had secured and deserved the affections 
 of his people. Another project, on which he 
 was bent with like earnestness, had the sauje 
 respectable character, — the reconciliation of 
 the Greek and Latin Churches ; and in this 
 difficult affair he also obtained a complete 
 (thougli very transient) success, by the con- 
 cessions of the Emperor Pi'Iichael, and the 
 temporary or nominal submission of his 
 Church. 
 
 The Second Council of Lyons. — It was at 
 the second Council of Lyons, that the deputies 
 
 * Leonarclus Aretinus (Histor. Florent. lib. iii. p 
 48, edit. Argent, 1610) bears ample testimony to the 
 sanctity and pacific character of Gregory, and details 
 the circumstances of his attempt to reconcile parties 
 at Florence. The following is given as part of his 
 address to the citizens: — Quae est igitur haec tam 
 pra;potens causal Quod Guelphus est (inquit) aut 
 Gibellinus — nomina ne ipsis quidem qui ilia proferunt 
 nota! — Ea nimirum causa est cur cives necantur, do- 
 mus incenduntur, evertitur patria, sititur proximi 
 sanguis. Oh puerilem stultitiam ! oh amentiam non 
 fcrendam ! Gibellinus est — at Christianus, at civis, 
 at proximus, at consanguineus. Ergo ha°c tot et tam 
 valida conjunctionis nomina Gibellinis succumbentl 
 Et id unum atque inane nomen (nam quid significet 
 nemo intelligit) plus valebit ad odiurn, quam ista 
 omnia tam praeclara et tam solida et expressa ad cari- 
 tatem, &c. These sentiments (the historian adds) 
 were grateful to the multitude, but displeased the 
 aristocracy. The Pope was then obliged to lay the 
 city under an interdict; and his admirable intentions 
 involved him in an obstinate contest with the nobles. 
 But any doubts which migl.t still remain respecting 
 his sanctity were removed (as Leonardus gravely 
 asserts) by the numerous miracles performed at hia 
 tomb. 
 
344 HISTORY OF 
 
 ot the East presented their faithless homage 
 to the Roman pontiff, i^ut that prelate had 
 two other, and, perhaps, dearer objects, in the 
 snmmouing of that vast assembly.* The one 
 was to complete the preparations for this long- 
 projected Crusade ; the other was the worthier 
 of his wisdom, and even of his piety — to re- 
 form the obnoxious abuses of his Church. In 
 the course of the six sessions of the Council, 
 thirty-one constitutions were enacted for the 
 better administration of the Church, and they 
 did hohor at least to the intentions of those 
 who promulgated them. Some eight or ten 
 of these related to the election of bishops ; 
 several others to cures and benefices, to the 
 discipline or temporalities of the Church. 
 Another (the 21st) was levelled against the 
 unlimited growth of Mendicant orders; dis- 
 banding all, which had not formally received 
 the papal confirmation, and discouraging the 
 foundation of others. But that among the 
 acts of this assembly, which was at the time 
 the most celebrated, and perhaps in effect the 
 most permanent, was the law which regulated 
 the method of papal election, by severe re- 
 straints imposed upon the conclave.f Tt was 
 tlien enacted, that the cardinals should be 
 lodged in one chamber, without any separa- 
 tion of wall or curtain, or any issue — that the 
 chamber should be so closed on every side, 
 as to leave no possibility of entrance or exit. 
 'No one shall approach them or address them 
 [)rivately, unless with the consent of all pres- 
 ent, and on the business of the election. The 
 conclave (properly the name of the chamber) 
 shall have one window, through which neces- 
 sary food may be admitted, without there be- 
 ing space for the human body to enter. And 
 if (which God forbid) in three days after their 
 entrance tliey shall not yet have come to a 
 decision, for the fiflecn following days they 
 shall 1)0 cont(!ntod with a single dish, as well 
 for diiiner as for Rni)per. But after these 
 fiftf;cn days thoy Hhall have no other nourish- 
 ment than bread, wine .ind water, until the 
 election shall be made. During the election, 
 
 ♦ Five liiiiidred biHiiopfl, seventy mitred al)l)()(s, 
 and a thousand inferior clergy and theologians coin- 
 I'osc'd ihiH Council, asKcnihlcd in 127 J. 'I'lie le;,'ates 
 of Michael the (ireek Fniperor, and of the Kin^' of 
 the Tartarn were prcHcnt. AIho the amha.ssadors of 
 France, (icrrnany, England, Sicily, 8ic., and one 
 \ rincr, JaiiicH of Arragon. I'agi, f«reg. x., h. xxv. 
 
 t rai,'i, Vil. fireg. X. Kcct. xli. Fleury, liv. 
 Ixxwi., Hf« l. xlv. It \vafl(|iiile ohviouH thal,aMnicn 
 and rardinalH arc conftituti-d, thcHe reguiatioiiii could 
 not \h: enfr»rced rigorously. Hnl uilii «omo inodifi- 
 calioiii* they Mihhi.U < v< ti Im t|il iiKiinciil. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 they shall receive nothing from the apostol- 
 ical chamber, nor any other revenues of the 
 Roman Church.' 
 
 Intended Crusade, and Death of Gregory. — 
 j The expedition to Palestine gave promise of 
 I the most favorable issue. The Emperor Ro- 
 I dolph had engaged to conduct it ; Philip the 
 Hardy, King of France, Edward of England, 
 James of Arragon, and Charles of Sicily, had 
 pledged their faith to attend it : supplies had 
 been secured by the universal imposition of a 
 tax on Ecclesiastical property ; and the fol- 
 lowing year was devoted to the necessary 
 preparations. At the end of that year,* before 
 one galley had departed, or perhaps one sol- 
 dier embarked, the Pope himself fell sick and 
 died. From that moment (says Sismondi) 
 the kings into whom he had inspired his en 
 thusiasm, renounced their chivalrous projects ; 
 the Greeks returned to their schisms, and the 
 Catholics, divided afresh, turned against each 
 other those arms which they had consecrated 
 to the deliverance of Palestine. 
 
 JViclwlas III. — The short reigns of Innocent 
 v., Adrian V. and John XXI., were not dis- 
 tinguished by any memorable event. Nich- 
 olas III., a Roman of the family of the Ursini, 
 succeeded in 1277, and devoted himself with 
 great prudence and success, not so much to 
 enlarge the temporal edifice of his church, as 
 to secure the foundations on which it stood. 
 For that purpose he resumed some negotia- 
 tions, commenced by Gregory X. at Lyons, 
 with Rodolpli, King of the Romans, and 
 brought them to so fortunate a termination, 
 that that prince finally satisfied all the dona- 
 tions of preceding Emperors, and recognised 
 the cities of the ecclesiastical states, as being 
 absolutely independent of himself, and owing 
 their entire allegiance to the Pope. Nicholas 
 had another object of jealousy in the increas- 
 ing power of Charles, King of Sicily, and he 
 had the address f to engage that prince to re- 
 sign two very important dignities, which he 
 had probably acquired through the subservi- 
 ence of Clement IV. One w^as the oftico of 
 Imperial Vicar-general in Tuscany ; the other 
 was that of Senator of Rome. We have al- 
 ready had occasion to mention the incflicacy 
 of the Pope's civil authority in his own capi- 
 tal ; and this had lately been subjected even 
 to additional insult by the frecjuent appoint- 
 
 * In January, 1276. 
 ^ t Tl»c art with which he played ofl" the Emperor 
 and K'ln^ of Sicily agaiiiHt each other, until he ob- 
 taiiu'd all lhat lie rccpiired from holh, waH worthy of 
 the moHt refined ag .s of papal diplomacy. .See Sis- 
 mondi, Rep. Ilal. clinp. xxii. aim. 1277, 127S 
 
THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 
 
 345 
 
 ment ol foreigners to the highest offices. 
 Pope Nicholas pubhshed a constitution to 
 prevent the recurrence of this evil, and to 
 liniit the time of possession to one year. 
 
 It is worth remarking, that, in defence of 
 his temporal sovereignty, as well over the 
 state?, as over the city, of Rome, he appealed 
 to th3 immovable foundations on which he 
 conceived them to rest. In favor of tiie first, 
 he pleaded the donations of Lewis the Meek, 
 and the confirmations of Otho I. and St. 
 Henry ; * in favor of the second, the ' Dona- 
 tion of Constantino and he maintained, that 
 the temporal power of the Pope and his 
 Cardinals was absolutely necessary for the 
 free exercise of their spiritual functions. He 
 reigned only two years and nine months : he 
 is commonly described as possessing many 
 good qualities ; and we read of no other seri- 
 ous charge against him, than that he heaped 
 upon his greedy relatives and connexions the 
 most splendid benefices of the church, with 
 unmerited and shameless profusion. 
 
 Martin IF. — The King of Sicily was suc- 
 cessful in procuring the election of a French- 
 man, Martin IV., who is chiefly remarkable 
 m history for his entire subservience to the 
 interests of his patron. In violation of both 
 ihe clauses of the constitution of Nicholas, he 
 accepted the office of Senator, and held it for 
 life. As this was the first instance of such 
 condescension on the part of St. Peter's suc- 
 cessors, it has not escaped the notice of the 
 historian. , And if indeed the claims on the 
 temporal sovereignty of Rome, which they 
 had asserted for above two centuries, had 
 been well founded, it would have been a 
 srrange and unprecedented degradation for a 
 sovereign prince to exercise a simple magis- 
 tracy in his own city, f But Martin was 
 probably less disposed to examine the remote 
 and general question of right, than to avail 
 himself of the substantial power thus firmly 
 vested in his own person. 
 
 He enjoyed his dignity for a very short time, 
 though sufficient to make him witness of the 
 
 * Fleiirj', liv. Ixxxvii., sect. xv. and xvi. 
 
 f Sisinondi (chap, xxii.) asserts tliat he immedi- 
 ately transferred his dignity to Charles, following 
 Jordaniis, apiid Raynaldum, and other authorities. 
 The words of the appointment sufficiently express the 
 extent of the power conferred. * Nobiles viri . . 
 Electorcs ordinati . . . domino Martino Papae IV. 
 unanimiter et concorditer transtulerunt et plenarie 
 commiserunt regimen senatus Urbis, ejusque territorii 
 et districtus toto tempore vita? suae: et dederunt sibl 
 plenam et liberam poteslatom regendi toto tempore 
 Urbem . . . per se, vel per alium, vel per alios, >.t 
 Rlisjendi senatorem, vel senator?.-,' &c. &c 
 
 44 
 
 ' Sicilian Vespers,' and the misfortunes of his 
 countrymen. He was buried i i the Clnu'ch 
 of St. Lawrence, and many sick were healed 
 at his tomb, in the presence of vast numbers 
 of the clergy and laity, — according to the evi- 
 dence of a contemporary author, who affirms 
 that those miracles still lasted while he was 
 writing, which was six weeks afi;er the de- 
 cease of the pontiffi* The mention of these 
 impostures is so common, even in the pages 
 of the most enlightened Catholic historians, 
 that we are not justified in passing them over 
 in entire silence. In fact, they formed so es- 
 sential a part of the Roman Catholic system, 
 that we should do injustice to its whole charac- 
 ter, if we were not occasionally to notice them. 
 
 Martin Avas succeeded by a noble Roman, 
 Honorius IV. ; and he, by another native of 
 the Roman states, Nicholas IV., who was 
 elected in 1288. The claims of this Pope on 
 historical notice, are confined to some diligent 
 but almost hopeless exertions to excite the 
 princes of Europe to another Crusade ; and to 
 some as zealous and as fruitless efforts for the 
 extirpation of heresy. In 1288, he stimulated 
 his Blendicant emissaries to peculiar diligence 
 both in Italy and Provence, and put in prac- 
 tice a somewhat singular method for securing 
 the orthodoxy of his people.f He obliged the 
 converted heretic to be bound in a pecuniary 
 recognizance against relapse, and to find suf- 
 ficient securities for payment. Avarice was 
 scarcely become even yet the ruling passion 
 of the Vatican ; but since the sway of Inno- 
 cent III., it had been rapidly gaining ground ■• 
 and the edict of Nicholas gives fearful indica 
 ticns of its progress. In the year following, 
 an ordinance was published at Venice, for the 
 pin-pose of facilitating the operations of the 
 Inquisition ; and it was approved and con- 
 firmed by the pontiff 
 
 Election of Pietro di Morone, or Celestine V. 
 — Nicholas died soon afterwards; and the 
 history of his successor is distinguished by so 
 many strange circumstances from the ordina- 
 ry annals of papal biography, that it may affi3rd 
 relief as well as advantage to unfold its par- 
 ticulars. Through the disunion of the cardi- 
 nals, the See had already been vacant foi 
 seven -and-twenty months, and no progre££ 
 
 * Fleury, liv. Ixxxviii., sect. xvi. Both Martin 
 and his predecessor were extremely attached to the 
 Franciscan Order. 
 
 t The idea was not original. Instructions to the 
 same effect were given to the Minorites by Alexander 
 IV. in 125S. It was then provided, that the money 
 so raised should be employed in the prosecution of 
 heretics. 
 
316 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 seemed yet to have b^sn made towards the 
 decision. They were still assembled m con- 
 clave, and still without any prospect of imme- 
 diate accommodation, when, on some day in 
 the beginning of July, 1294, one of their num- 
 ber was prevented from attending the delib- 
 eration by the sudden and violent death of 
 his brother. By this casual occurrence, the 
 thoughts of the venerable society were direct- 
 ed to man's mortality ; and their reflections 
 jissumed a serious and solemn character. At 
 length, returning to the subject before them, 
 the bishop of Tusculum asked with vehe- 
 mence, 'Why then delay we so long to give 
 a head to the Church ? whence this division 
 among us ? ' To which Cardinal Latino add- 
 ed, ' It has been revealed to a holy man, that 
 unless we hasten to the election of a Pope, in 
 less than four months the anger of God will 
 burst upon us.' Hereupon, Benedict Gaiet- 
 ano, (the same who was afterwards Boniface 
 VIII.) sarcastically smiled and said, ' It is 
 brother Pietro di Morone, to whom that rev- 
 elation has been vouchsafed ? ' Latino ans- 
 wered, ' The same ; he has written to me that, 
 when engaged in his nocturnal devotions be- 
 fore the altar, he had received the command 
 of God to communicate this warning.' Then 
 the cardinals began to discourse of what they 
 knew concerning that holy man. One dwelt 
 on the austerity of his life, another on his 
 virtues, another on his miracles : presently 
 some one proposed him as a candidate for the 
 See : and a discussion immediately arose on 
 that question. 
 
 The debate was of very short duration, for 
 reason had given place to passionate emotion, 
 and passion was mistaken for inspiration. 
 Cardinal Latino first gave his suffrage for 
 Pietjo di Morone : his example was eagerly 
 followed by his colleagues, and the sudden 
 and ardent unanimity of the conclave was 
 attriiiutcd to the immediate impulse of the 
 divinity.* 
 
 Its clK)ic(! had fillen U))on a weak and aged 
 recluse, whoso lif(3 had been devoted to the 
 most rigorous observance's of superstition, and 
 whose invet(!rate hahits of solitary meditation 
 disqualified him for the commonest offices of 
 
 * A Bimpicioui historian would pnrhapB except 
 B<!HcJirl (iaiotano from llic rliar;;«; of Kiip«>rHtili(iiiH 
 eiitliiiKiaHrii. I'onHil)ly c;v(;n llion lie jjropoHrd to profit 
 by Uic ueakiKfHwjM ii( l'i«'lro; IhiI Ik; roiild Hcarccly 
 have roOHidcrcd iIk'HI iIk; ohjrrt of (iod'H r'M|H;cial 
 inlurposilion ; or liav(! Iwliaved that an old man, who 
 liad not liilhfTto filled any oflirn in Horiely, liad Ixten 
 wrlerled l)y ihr eMpecial fax or of I'rovidtMice to occupy 
 til): liiglicMt. 
 
 society. His very name was derived frotn 
 the mountain top where his existence had 
 passed away. The cave in which he dwell 
 had been the refuge of a dragon, who obse- 
 quiously resigned it to his human sutcessor ; 
 and we are seriously assured, that his infancy 
 had been the object of that miraculous agency, 
 which he so profusely exercised in his later 
 years ; and that even at his entrance into this 
 polluted world, he was protected by the sem- 
 blance, or the reality, of the monastic habit.* 
 The deputies proceeded to announce to him 
 the astounding change in his fortune. They 
 arrived at the city of Sulmone, and having 
 received permission to present themselves, 
 ascended with toil and sweat the narrow and 
 rugged path, which led through a desolate 
 wilderness to the cell they sought. The cell 
 was closed against them, and they were com 
 pelled to make their communication through 
 a small grated window. Through the inter- 
 stices they beheld a pale old man, attenuated 
 with fasting and macerations, with a beard 
 dishevelled, and eyes inflamed with tears, 
 trembling with the agitation into which the 
 awful announcement had thrown him. The 
 Archbishop of Lyons then assured him of the 
 enthusiasm which had united the Cardinals 
 in his favor; and pressed him, by accepting 
 the dignity, to compose the troubles of the 
 Church. Pietro answered, 'I must consult 
 God — go and pray likewise.' He then pros- 
 trated himself on the earth, and after remain- 
 ing some time in supplication, he rose and 
 said, ' I accept the pontificate, I consent to the 
 election — I dare not resist the will of God, I 
 will not be wanting to the Church in her ne- 
 cessity.' No sooner was the result of this 
 interview bruited abroad, than the sides of 
 Mt. IMorone were frequented by assi(hious 
 visitants, whom piety, or interest, or curiosity 
 con(lucte<l to the cavern of the hermit-pope. 
 Churchmen and laymen of every rank hasten- 
 ed to ])ay homage to his virtues or his dignity ; 
 and his earliest levee was adorned l)y the 
 presence of two kings.f 
 
 * AH these fables are sedulously and solemnly re- 
 lated hy lizovius. IMancbat mairi fixnm (juod na«- 
 centi olim (ilio contigerat, ac tantjuam magnum ali- 
 (|uod divinuMxpie portendchat. Ex utero sicjuidem 
 materno cxierit ciremnamictus indiuiiento quodain, 
 (|Uod nihil ah his (juihus rcligiosi homines vestiuntur, 
 diflerehat. Ad ann. 1294. 
 
 t Charles le lloiteux of Sicily, and his son Charles 
 IMarlel, titular Prince of Hungary. The Pope elect 
 descended to .\(|uila to asitume his pontificals, on an 
 aus, and llie {\\i> princes held the bridle. 
 
 liitumidui* vilum Murru conscrndit usellutn 
 
THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 
 
 347 
 
 Ris Charade)'. — It was immediately discov- 
 ered that the qualifications of Celcstine V. 
 (Pietro assumed that name) fell far short even 
 of the ordinary limits of monastic capacity. 
 He was«entirely ignorant of all science and 
 all literature ; even the Latin language was 
 nearly strange to him; against the com[)re- 
 hension of worldly matters his eyes were 
 closed by peri)etual seclusion, and his blind- 
 ness was confirmed by old age ; his simplicity 
 tempted and rewarded deception, and he was 
 guilty of the most extraordinary errors in the 
 discharge of his easiest duties. Besides this, 
 he brought with him from his cell and his 
 convent (for he had been the founder of a new 
 Order of Monks, distinguished for their illite- 
 rate vulgarity) a disaffection towards the high- 
 er ranks of the secular clergy, which was not, 
 perhaps, without reason ; and a contempt for 
 their luxuries and abhorrence for their vices, . 
 which formed the holiest feature in his char- 
 acter. It was probably this disposition, which 
 endeared him to the laity, as well as to many 
 among the regular clergy; and no doubt it 
 was the alienation from his own official coun- 
 sellors, wliich subjected him too obsf quiously 
 to the influence of the king of Sicily. For 
 under this influence he was assuredly acting, 
 when, without any foresight of the inevitable 
 consequences of the measure, he added to the 
 college of Cardinals seven natives of France. 
 
 These were circumstances suflicient to ex- 
 cite the dissatisfaction of that body, and their 
 suspicions respecting the nature of the spirit 
 which had decided their choice. They pro- 
 fessed apprehensions, which were not wholly 
 unreasonable, lest, by some new imprudence, 
 the Pope should compromise or concede the 
 inviolable rights of the Church. — They dis- 
 liked the frugal severity of his Court ; they 
 complained with justice, that he preferred an 
 obscure residence in the kingdom of Naples 
 to the Holy and Imperial City ; and the bit- 
 terness of their displeasure was completed, 
 when he revived, in all its rigor, the obnox- 
 ious constitution of Gregory X. respecting the 
 manner of papal election. 
 
 In the meantime, Celestine had discovered 
 his own disqualifications, and his inability to 
 correct them. Amidst the incessant toil of 
 occupations which he disliked and dignities 
 which he despised, he sighed for the tranquil- 
 lity of his former solitude ; and then, that his 
 
 Regum freeiia inanu dexU-a Icevaque regente 
 
 Pontificis. . . 
 Might there not in this act be some of that ' Humility 
 which apes the Divinity'? ' 
 
 pious meditations might not wholly be dis 
 continued, he caused a cell to be constructed 
 in the centre of his palace, whither he fre- 
 quently retired to prayer. On such occasions, 
 he sometimes gave vent to his deep disquie- 
 tude. ' I am told that I possess all power 
 over souls in this world — why is it then that 
 I cannot assure myself of the safety of mine 
 own ? that I cannot rid myself of all these 
 anxieties, and impart to my own breast that 
 repose, which I can dispense so easily to 
 others? Does God require from me that 
 which is impossible ; or has he only raised 
 me in order to cast me down more terribly.' 
 I observe the Cardinals divided ; and I hear 
 from every side complaints against me. Is it 
 not better to burst my chains, and resign the 
 holy See to some one who can rule it in 
 peace ? — if only I could be permitted to quit 
 this place and return to my solitude!' 
 
 His Resignation. — Several of the Cardinals 
 having observed that disposition, were sedu- 
 lous to encourage it. It was entirely in ac- 
 cordance with their general wishes, with that 
 most especially of Benedict Gaietano ; since 
 he designed himself for the successor. Those, 
 on the other hand, who profited by Celesline's 
 simplicity, or reverenced his piety, or admirexi 
 his popular austerities, dissuaded him from so 
 unprecedented a project. But the good man 
 was sincere and inflexible ;* and after tasting 
 for only five months of the bitterness of power, 
 he pronounced his solemn resignation! of the 
 pontificate. 
 
 Thus far his vows were accomplished with- 
 
 * Bzovius describes his ardor for abdication, by 
 the strong expression, ' that no one ever accepted of- 
 fice so eagerly as he resigned it.' That writer (if 
 we could forget the miraculous absurdities which 
 overload his narrative) has described this curious epi- 
 sode in papal history more fairly than Mosheira; for 
 the latter overlooks the old hermit's absolute incapa- 
 city, in a partial eagerness to attribute the discontent 
 of his clergy to the consciousness of their own vices, 
 and the fear of a rigorous reformation — though that 
 may unquestionably have been one of their motives. 
 
 t * I, Celestine V., moved by sufficient causes — by 
 humility, by the desire of a better life, by respect for 
 my conscience, by the feebleness of my body, by my 
 deficiency in knowledge, by the evil disposition of the 
 people ; and to the end that I may be restored to the 
 repose and consolation of ray past life — resign the 
 papacy freely and voluntarily, and renounce that office 
 and that dignity, &c. . . . ' Such was the form ol 
 his resignation, as given by Fleury (1. 89, s. 34) on 
 the authority of Wadingus, 1294, n. 6. As his power 
 to resign was by some held doubtful, the Cardinals 
 suggested to him first to publish a general Constitu- 
 tion, authorizing a Pope to abdicate his office. He 
 did so. 
 
348 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 out any obstruction. But the last aspirations 
 of his prayer were not accorded, nor was it 
 given him again to breathe the peaceful 
 breezes of Mt. JMorone. The shadow of his 
 dignity continued to haunt him after he had 
 cast away the substance ; the man who had 
 possessed the chair of St. Peter, and abdicated 
 it, could not possibly descend to insignificance 
 or rise to independence. The merit of re- 
 signing a throne was insufficient to atone for 
 the imprudence of accepting it ; and Celestine 
 was condemned for the remainder of his days 
 to strict confinement by the jealousy of Boni- 
 face. * 
 
 Boniface VIII. — As the pontificate of Boni- 
 face VIII. is the hinge on which the subse- 
 quent history of papacy almost entirely turns, 
 we must follow its particulars with more than 
 usual attention. Whatsoever flexibility or 
 show of moderation Benedict Gaietano may 
 have exhibited before his advancement, he 
 threw off all disguise and all restraint as soon 
 as he had attained the object of his ambition. 
 His pride seemed to acknowledge no limit, 
 and no considerations of religion, or policy, 
 or decency could repress his violence. In 
 1298, Albert of Austria caused himself to be 
 salufed king of the Romans ; and having slain 
 his c ompetitor in battle, made the usual over- 
 ture to the Pope for confirmation. But this 
 favo' Boniface was so far from according, that 
 he p aced the crown f upon his own head, and 
 seizing a sword, exclaimed, 'It is I who am 
 Ceesar, it is I who am Emperor ; it is I who 
 will defend the rights of the empire !' There 
 is a solemn and affecting function in the Ro- 
 man Church, (celebrated on the first day of 
 Lent,) in which ashes are thrown on the 
 heads of the proud and great, to remind them 
 
 * Soon after his resignation, he escaped from some 
 attendants whom Boniface had placed over him, with 
 the view of returning to his ancient cell; but finding 
 himself pursued, he turned towards the eastern coast, 
 in the hope of finding a refuge in Greece. He was 
 speedily overtaken; but in the meantime he had ma- 
 terially swelled the catalogue of his miracles, and 
 established that sort of reputation by which he merit- 
 ed his canonization. 
 
 f We may here observe that, in consistency with 
 his principles, Boniface VHI. introduced the use of 
 the double crown. It appears from the images of 
 the Popes, as well as from historical evidence, that 
 ♦"rom St. Sylvester to Boniface VIII., they were con- 
 tented with a single crown. From Bonifiice to Ur- 
 ban v., they doubled the symbol of royalty, as its 
 Bul)stance was really falling from under them. From 
 Urban downwards, throughout the decline and over- 
 throw of tluiir avuhority, they have fondly clung to the 
 majcBty of the triple crown. 
 
 of their insignificance and mortality. While 
 the Pope was performing this ceremony, one 
 Spinola, Archbishop of Genoa, a political ad- 
 versaiy, presented himself in his turn to re- 
 ceive the lesson of humiliation. Boniface 
 beheld him, and dashing the ashes in his face, 
 said to him, ' Ghibeline ! remember that thou 
 art dust, and that with thy brother Ghibelines, 
 thou wilt return to dust.' * As the kingdom.s 
 of Europe were then situated, not only in po 
 litical reference to papal usurpation and pre- 
 dominance, but also in respect to the revival 
 of learning, the progress of civilization, the 
 change of principles, and the decay even of 
 some inveterate prejudices, there only wanted 
 an intemperate defender, such as, Boniface, 
 to decide the wavering balance, and precipi- 
 tate before its time the baseless despotism of 
 Rome. 
 
 Those historians are, notwithstanding, in 
 error, who date the decline of the papal su- 
 premacy from the reign of Innocent HI. On 
 the contrary, the system had not then quite 
 attained the fulness of its force ; it had not 
 then achieved its greatest triumph, which, 
 without question, was the deposition of Fred- 
 eric II. And if it is true, that, from Innocent 
 IV. to Boniface VIII., no additional ground 
 was gained, that no fresh claims were assert- 
 ed, even that some former claims were less 
 effectually enforced ; it is certain, on the other 
 hand, that not one iota of the papal preten- 
 sions had been resigned ; and that they had 
 met for the most part with ready, or at least 
 undisputed, acquiescence. But in the mean- 
 time, the understanding of mankind had been 
 no longer stationary ; knowledge and genius 
 and reason had revived and taken coiu-age, 
 and were advancing to the assertion of their 
 eternal rights; and in the eye of the philoso- 
 pher, it was a circumstance of evil omen to 
 tlie projects of Boniface, that they were urged 
 by the contemporary of Dante. Nevertheless, 
 whether insensible to the weakness of his 
 own cause, or to the progress of the princi- 
 ples opposed to it, or imagining by violence 
 to supply the want of strength, he resolved to 
 push the temporal pretensions of the See to 
 their most extravagant limits, f 
 
 * These anecdotes are related by Sismondi (Rep. 
 Ital. chap, xxiv.) without suspicion, on the authority 
 of Pipini and 3Iuratori. 
 
 t Ruggiero di Loiia having conquered Gerba, and 
 some other islands, till then nearly unknown, near the 
 coast of Africa, was contented to receive them in fief 
 and on condition of tribute, from Boniface, who 
 vouchsafed liim a Bull of Investiture, in 1295. (In- 
 sulasobjacenles Africa), Gcrbam nimirum ct Cherchi 
 
THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 
 
 349 
 
 Bis temporal pretensions. — His first meas- 
 ures wore, indeed, a specious appearance, 
 since he presented himself as the advocate of 
 peace. He endeavored to reconcile Charles 
 of Sicijy and James of Arragon ; and more 
 than once obtruded his mediation upon the 
 Kings of England and France : these attempts 
 seem to have had no other fruit, than a con- 
 siderable contribution levied upon the English 
 clergy. He then turned his attention in other 
 directions. In 1297, he gave the kingdom of 
 Sardinia and Corsica in fief to James of Ar- 
 ragon and his posterity, on certain conditions 
 of aid and subsidy to Rome. In 1300 he laid 
 claim to the kingdom of Scotland, and direct- 
 ed Edward I. to withdraw his soldiers from 
 that country ; and in the correspondence thus 
 occasioned between those two great usurpers, 
 each party might have found it easier to in- 
 validate the claims of the other, than to estab- 
 lish his own — this burst of empty arrogance 
 passed of course without effect. He pretend- 
 ed to the disposal of the crown of Hungary, 
 and gave it to a grandson of Charles le Boi- 
 teux ; and when some of the nobles (in 1302) 
 ventured to support a rival prince, he addres- 
 sed his legate there established, in the follow- 
 ing terms: — 'The Roman pontiff', established 
 by God over kings and their kingdoms, sove- 
 reign chief of the hierarchy in the church 
 militant, and holding the first rank above all 
 mortals, sitteth in tranquillity in the throne 
 of judgment and scattereth away all evil with 
 his eyes. * ... You have yet to learn that 
 St. Stephen, the first Christian King of Hun- 
 gary, oflTered and gave that kingdom to the 
 , Roman Church, not willing to assume the 
 crown on his own aut;K)nty, but rather to re- 
 ceive it from the vicar of Jesus Christ ; since 
 he knew, that no man taketh this honor on 
 himself, but he that is called of God.' f In 
 1303 Boniface found it expedient to acknow- 
 ledge as king of the Romans the same Albert 
 whom he had formerly reviled : this conces- 
 sion was attended by a recognition of his own 
 authority, by that prince, to. the following ef- 
 
 nas, qiias Loria barbaris eripiierat, jure fidiiciario, 
 eedis ApostolicoB liberalitate Bonifaciiis ei possiden- 
 das altribuit. Raynaldus. Ann. 1295, s. xxxvi.) It 
 was on the ground of tliis precedent, tliat two centu- 
 ries afterwards, Alexander VI. assumed the right to 
 dispose of all undiscovered tracts, continental or in- 
 sular; and to concede the whole extent of terra in- 
 cognita to Ferdinand and Isabella, by drawing a line 
 on the map from pole to pole. Giannone, lib. xix. 
 cap. 5. 
 
 ♦ Prov. XX. 8. 
 
 t Ileb. V. 4. 
 
 feet. ' I acknowledge that the Roman empire 
 has been transferred by the holy See, from 
 the Greeks to tiie Germans in the person of 
 Charlemagne ; that the right to elect a king 
 of the Romans, destined to be emperor, has 
 been accorded by the holy See to certain 
 princes ecclesiastical and secular ; and that 
 the kings and emperors receive from the holy 
 see the power of the sword.' He concluded 
 that act of subservience by an unconditional 
 promise of military aid, if it should be re- 
 quired by the Pope. His sincerity was never 
 put to trial, and when we consider for how 
 long a period, and with what general success, 
 the dependence of the empire had been as- 
 serted by the Popes, and recollect the peculiar 
 i foundation on which that claim rested, we 
 shall scarcely wonder at its unequivocal ac- 
 knowledgment by Albert. From these facts, 
 we may at least observe the assiduity, with 
 which Boniface pressed his temporal preten 
 sions in every quarter of Europe. We shall 
 now proceed to the principal theatre of his 
 exertions, and watch the accumulation of the 
 tempest which followed them. 
 
 Philip the Fair of France. — The throne of 
 France was then occupied by Philip the Fair 
 — a man as arrogant, as jealous, as violent as 
 Boniface, and perhaps even surpassing him ii 
 audacity. The clergy of France, though verj 
 faitliAilly attached to the Catholic Church and 
 respecting the Pope as its head, had on vari- 
 ous occasions, from the earliest period of 
 papal usurpation, displayed an independeni 
 spirit of which we find no trace in other 
 countries — yet not such as to give the slight- 
 est indications of schism, or even to prevent 
 the holy see from making some successful 
 inroads. The first * mention that we find of 
 the liberties of the Galilean (as distinguished 
 from the Roman) Church, is in the year 1229, 
 and on an occasion of which it has no reason 
 to be proud. A very rigorous Ordonnance 
 was then published in the king's name for the 
 extinction of Heresy — enjoining the immedi- 
 ate punishment of offenders, commanding ihe 
 strictest search to be made for them, and of- 
 fering a reward on conviction — and the end 
 of this was — 'to establish the liberties and 
 immunities of the Gallican Church.' — But 
 the act from which those liberties really date 
 their origin, is the celebrated Pragmatic Sane 
 tion of St. Louis, published in 12G9, on his 
 departure against the Saracens. Its constitu- 
 tions will be recorded in the next chapter. 
 Their leading object was to protect episcopal 
 
 * Fieurv, liv. Ixxix. sect. L 
 
S50 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 election and preferment to benefices, the priv- 
 ileges granted to monasteries and ecclesiasti- 
 cal persons, and the property of the church 
 generally, from the intrusions and exactions 
 of Rome. Thus this matter rested till the 
 reign of Boniface VIII. The fixed and dis- 
 tinct principle on which the Galilean liberties 
 were finally placed (the inferiority of the Pope 
 to a General Council) was not yet established, 
 not perhaps even broached ; but enough had 
 been done to prove to a moderate Pope, that 
 neither the king nor the clergy of France 
 were prepared to acknowledge an implicit 
 obedience. 
 
 Bull Clericis Laicos. — The first diflference 
 between Boniface and Philip was merely suf- 
 ficient to discover the disposition, and inflame 
 the animosity of both. The Pope had learnt, 
 that the kings both of France and England 
 had levied contributions on their clerical, as 
 well as their lay, subjects, for purposes of state. 
 In consequence, he published, in 1296, his 
 celebrated Bull, beginning Clericis Laicos, of 
 which the substance was this : ' Antiquity re- 
 lates to us the inveterate hostility* of the laity 
 to the clergy, and the experience of the pres- 
 ent age confirms it manifestly — since, without 
 consideration that they have no power over 
 ecclesiastical persons or property, they load 
 with impositions both prelates and clergy, 
 regular and secular; and also, to our«deep 
 affliction, prelates and other ecclesiastics are 
 found, who, from their greater dread of tem- 
 poral than eternal majesty, acquiesce in this 
 abuse.' He then proceeds to pronounce sen- 
 tence of excommunication against all who 
 shall hereafter exact such impositions, wheth- 
 er kings, princes, or magistrates, and against 
 all wlio shall pay them. 
 
 Disputes between Boniface and Philip. — 
 Very soon afterwards, Philip published, in re- 
 tort, an edict, forbidding the export of money, 
 jewels, and other articles specified, out of his 
 dominions. The Pope, who was thereby de- 
 prived of his ecclesiastical contributions, pre- 
 sently put forth a long reply and remonstrance, 
 in which he expjained his preceding Bull to 
 mean, that the consent of the Pope is neces- 
 
 * On this sentence, Fleury, the most candid of 
 Calliolics, very simply remarks, 'That aversion of 
 /aymen for the clergy, vi'hich the Pope mentions, as- 
 cended not to a very high anticjuity; since /or the 
 five or six first ages, the clergy secured the respect 
 and affections of all men, by their charitable and dis- 
 interested conduct.' (liv. Ixxxix. s. xliii.) No clergy, 
 which fhapcs its conduct by any other principle, ever 
 will secure, or ever ought to secure, either affection 
 •r respect. 
 
 sary for the levying of the aforesaid contriDU 
 tions ; that, in circumstances of great uationa 
 exigency, even that might be dispensed with 
 and that the prohibition did not extend to do- 
 nations strictly voluntary.* At the same time 
 he enlarged on the liberty of the Church — 
 the ark of Noah — the spouse of Jesus Christ 
 — to which He had given power over all the 
 body of the faithful, and over every individual 
 member of it. By these general expressions 
 he intended to insinuate, not only that princes 
 had no power over the Church, but that the 
 Church possessed unlimited control over prin- 
 ces. The rejoinder on the part of the king 
 had more reason in its theology, and more 
 piety in its reason. It professed a holy fear 
 of God, and respectful reverence for the min- 
 isters of the Church; but, in the full con 
 sciousness of justice, it repelled with disdain 
 the senseless menaces of man. In the follow- 
 ing year, the Pope had the prurience to ad- 
 dress to the archbishop of Rheims such an 
 interpretation of the Bull as left to Philip no 
 reasonable ground of complaint ; and French 
 historians, with great probability, attribute the 
 rare moderation of Boniface to his necessities 
 or his avarice, f 
 
 The truce thus tacitly established between 
 the parties was of very short duration. In 
 deed, where were so many undefined and dis- 
 putable rights, it was not possible that peace 
 could long subsist between two rivals equally 
 disposed to encroachment and usurpation. In 
 the year 1301, PhiUp arrested (and seeming- 
 ly with justice) Bernard de Saisset, bishop 
 of Pamiers, a creature of the Pope, on the 
 charge of sedition and treasonable language, 
 and caused him to be confined until the sen- 
 tence of degradation should be passed on him, 
 previous to the infliction of legal punishment. 
 At the same time he wrote a respectful letter 
 to Boniface, praying him to deprive the cul- 
 prit of his clerical privileges, or at least to take 
 measures for his conviction. But Boniface, 
 having learnt that a bishop had been placed 
 in confinement, addressed his answer (which 
 he sent by a special legate) to that point only ; 
 and denying that laymen had received any 
 power over the clergy, he enjoined the king 
 to disr.aiss the prisoner freely to the pontifical 
 presence, with full restitution of all his pro- 
 perty, at the same time reminding him that 
 
 * Pagi, Vit. Bonif. VHL, sect, xxviii. 
 
 f To the same cause we may probably ascribe tlie 
 proclamation of the first Jubliee, in the year 1300, 
 by Boniface, — an institution to which we shall recui 
 I in a futm-p chapter. 
 
THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305 
 
 351 
 
 he had himself hiciirred canonical punish- 
 ment for having rashly laid his hand on the 
 person of a bishop. On the same day, or 
 very soon afterwards, he published a Bull, 
 addressed also to Philip, in virhich, after ex- 
 horting his son to listen* w^ith docility to his 
 instructions, he proceeded in the following 
 terms: — 'God has set me over the nations 
 and over the kingdoms, to root out and to 
 pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, 
 to build and to plant, f in his name, and by 
 his doctrine. Let no one persuade you, then, 
 that you have no superior, or that you are not 
 subject to the chief of the ecclesiastical hier- 
 archy. He that holds that opinion is sense- 
 less, and he that obstinately maintains it is an 
 infidel, separate from the flock of the good 
 Shepherd.' . . He then continued, still out 
 of his affection t for Philip, to charge him 
 with many general violations of the ecclesias- 
 tical privileges, or, as they were then more 
 commonly called, Liberties; and concluded 
 by informing him, that he had summoned all 
 the superior clergy of France to an assembly 
 at Rome, on the 1st of the November follow- 
 ing (1302,) in order to deliberate on the reme- 
 dies for such abuses. 
 
 Pliilip burns the Pope's Bull. — Philip was 
 astonished by this measure, but not so con- 
 founded as to deviate either into timidity or 
 rashness. He convoked a full and early as- 
 sembly or parliament of his nobles and clergy. 
 In the meantime, he burnt the Bull of the 
 Pope as publicly as possible, and caused that 
 act to be proclaimed with trumpets through- 
 out the whole of Paris. In his subsequent 
 address to his parliament, he mentioned the 
 proceedings of Boniface, disclaimed with 
 
 * Ausculla,fih — the two first words of this Bull 
 — have adixed to it its historical name. It was pub- 
 lished in December, 1301, and was preceded only two 
 days by another constitution of Boniface, called Sal- 
 oator Mundi, by which he suspended all favors and 
 privileges which had been accorded by his predeces- 
 sors to the kings of France, and to all their subjects, 
 whether lay or clerical, who abetted Pliilip. Pagi, 
 Bnnif. VIII., sec. Ivii. 
 
 t Jerem. i. 10. The words are addressed to Jere- 
 miah, in respect to his prophetic mission; but they 
 had been perverted to the support of the papal pre- 
 tentions long before the time of Boniface. See, for 
 instance, the letter of Honorius III., written in 1225, 
 to Louis of France. The ' plenitude of power 
 which the Holy Sec has received from God' is tliere 
 placed chiefly on that foundation. 
 
 X Another reason, by which he justified his inter- 
 'erence, was his own responsibility to God for the soul 
 of King Philip. 
 
 scorn any temporal allegiance to him, retorted 
 the charges of corn ption and mal-adminis- 
 tration, declared his readiness to risk any loss 
 or suffering in defence of the common m- 
 terests, and referred the decision of the ques- 
 tion to the assembly. The barons and lay 
 j members pronounced their opinions loudly 
 i and unhesitatingly in favor of the king. With 
 I them the question was, in a great degree, na- 
 ! tional. They were jealous of the honor of 
 the crown, and eager to protect it from any 
 foreign insult. And though a calmer judg- 
 ment would, perhaps, have taught them, that 
 such a restraint upon the monarchy might, in 
 its effects, be beneficial to all classes of the 
 I people, they sacrificed every consideration of 
 policy to the passion of the moment. The 
 situation of the clergy was exceedingly diffi- 
 cult, since they had two duties to reconcile, 
 which, even in ordinary times, were not al- 
 ways in strict accordance, and which were 
 then in direct opposition. Their first attempt 
 was to explain and justify the intentions of 
 the Pope ; but that was repelled with general 
 contempt and indignation. Then they ex 
 pressed a dutiful anxiety to assist the king, 
 and maintain the liberties of the kingdom ; 
 but at the same time they pleaded the obedi- 
 j ence due from them to the Pope, and prayed 
 I for permission to attend his summons to 
 ; Rome. This permission was clamorously 
 refused by the king and his barons. 
 
 The clergy then addressed a letter to the 
 Pope, in which they expressed an apprehen- 
 sion lest the violent and universal hostility,* 
 i not of the king and his barons only, but of 
 the body of the laity, should lead to an entire 
 rupture between France and Rome, and even 
 between the clergy and the people ; and they 
 prayed that he would release them from the 
 i summons to Rome. At the same time the 
 barons also wrote — not, indeed, to the Pope, 
 but to the College of Cardinals — in severe 
 censure of the new and senseless pretensions 
 of Boniface, on whom personally they cast 
 the entire blame of the difference. Li reply, 
 j the cardinals disavowed, on the part of Boni- 
 face, any assertion that the king of France 
 I held his temporalities of the Pope ; while, in 
 defence of his ghostly authority, they main- 
 
 * 'The laity absolutely fly from our society, and 
 repel us from their conferences and councils, as if we 
 were guilty of treason against them. They despise 
 ecclesiastic censures, from whatsoever quarter they 
 may come, and are preparing and taking precautions 
 to render theiti uselesf ' Fleury, Hist. Eccles., liv. 
 xc, sec. ix. 
 
352 HISTORY OF 
 
 rained, ' that no man in his senses can doubt, 
 that the Pope, as chief of the spiritual hie- 
 rarchy, can dispense with the sin of every 
 man Hving.' In his reply to the dutiful sup- 
 plication of the prelates, the Pope rebuked 
 them for their want of courage and attach- 
 ment, enforced on them the indisputable 
 subjection of things temporal to things spirit- 
 ual, and persisted in commanding their at- 
 tendance at Rome. 
 
 Bull Unam Sandam. — The great majority 
 disregarded the summons ; but some few 
 were found who considered their first obedi- 
 ence as due to their ecclesiastical sovereign. 
 These proceeded to Rome ; and, in spite of 
 their small nujriber, Boniface availed himself 
 of the nan^e of this Council to publish the 
 Decretal, commonly known as the Bull Unam 
 Sandam. The propositions asserted in this 
 celebrated constitution are, first, the Unity of 
 the Holy Catholic Church, without which 
 there is no salvation; wherein is one Lord, 
 one faith, one baptism. Hence it follows, 
 that of this one and only Church there is one 
 body and one head, (not two heads, which 
 would be monstrous,) namely, Christ, and 
 Christ's vicar, St. Peter, and the successor of 
 St. Peter. The second position is, that in the 
 power of this Chief are two swords, the one 
 spiritual, and the other material ; but that the 
 former of thase is to be used by the Church, 
 the latter for the Church ; the former is in 
 the hand of the priest, the latter in the hand 
 of kings and soldiers, but at the nod and suf- 
 ferance of the priest. It is next asserted, that 
 one of these swords must be subject to the 
 other sword, otherwise we must suppose two 
 opposite principles, which would be Mani- 
 chsean and heretical. Thence it is an easy 
 inference, that the spiritual is that which has 
 rule over the other, while itself is liable to no 
 other judgment or authority than that of God. 
 The general conclusion is contained in one 
 short sentence, — 'Wherefore we declare, de- 
 fine, and pronounce, that it is absolutely es- 
 sential to the salvation of every human being, 
 that he be subject unto the Roman pontiff.'* 
 
 But Boniface did not content himself with 
 mere assertions. On the very same day he 
 also j)ublished a Bull of excommunication 
 against all persons, of whatsoever rank, even 
 kings or emperors, who should interfere in 
 any way to ])revent or impede those, who 
 
 * Tlic texts on vvliich these j)ropositioiis were 
 chiefly founded arc .lol)n x. 16; Romrfns xiii. 1 ; Jc- 
 reini'ili i. 10; 1 Corin''aians ii 15. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 might desire to present themsehes before tne 
 Roman See. This edict was, of course, un- 
 derstood to be directly levelled against Philip. 
 Soon afterwards he sent a legate into France; 
 the bearer of twelve articles, which boldly 
 expressed such papal pretensions, as were in 
 opposition to those of the king; and con- 
 cluded with a menace of temporal as well as 
 spiritual proceedings. The claims contained 
 in these articles have been already mentioned, 
 and do not require enumeration. But what 
 may raise our surprise is, that the answer of 
 Philip was extremely moderate ; that he con- 
 descended to explain away much that seemed 
 objectionable in his conduct; that he prom- 
 ised to remedy any abuses which his officers 
 might have committed, and expressed his 
 strong desire for concord with the Roman 
 Church. 
 
 His moderation may have been affected, 
 and his explanations frivolous, and the abuses 
 in question he may not have seriously intend- 
 ed to alleviate. But at least it is true that he 
 had never sought the enmity of Rome ; and 
 had Boniface availed himself of that occasion 
 to close the breach, when he might have 
 closed it with profit and dignity, his last days 
 might have been passed in lofly tranquillity , 
 he would have bee'n respected and feared, 
 even by those who hated him ; and posterity 
 would still have admired the courage and the 
 policy which had contended against the most 
 powerful prince in Europe, in no very blind 
 or superstitious age, without disadvantage or 
 dishonor. But the Pope did not perceive this 
 crisis in his destiny. He proceeded in his 
 former course — he proclaimed his dissatis- 
 faction at the answers of the king, and repeat- 
 ed and redoubled his menaces. 
 
 Philip had then recourse to that public 
 measure which so deeply influenced the fu- 
 ture history of papacy — the convocation of a 
 General Council, to pronounce on the pro- 
 ceedings of the Pope. But while he was 
 engaged in preparations for this great contest, 
 and for the establishment of a princi})le to 
 which his clergy were not yet prepared to 
 listen, * a latent and much shorter path was 
 opened to the termination of his perplexities. 
 
 Outrage on Boniface. — William of Nogaret, 
 a celebrated French civilian, in conjunction 
 
 * Not only did the bishops and the whole clergy 
 decline any active part in the proceedings against the 
 Pope, but tlicy refused any share in them, and only 
 consented to the convocation of the council through 
 the necessity of seeking some remedy for the disorder* 
 of the Churcli. 
 
THE POPES FROM 1216 TO 1305. 
 
 353 
 
 with certain Romans of the Colonna family, 
 who liad fled for refuge to Paris from the 
 oppression of Boniface, passed secretly into 
 Italy, and tampered successfully with the 
 personal attendants of the Pope. The usual 
 residence of the latter was Anagni, a city 
 some forty or fifty miles to the south east of 
 Rome, and his birth-place. There, in the 
 year 1303, he had composed another Bull, in 
 which he maintained, 'that, as vicar of Jesus 
 Christ, he had the power to govern kings 
 with a rod of iron, and. to dash them in pieces 
 like a potter's vessel ; ' * and he had destined 
 the 8tli of September, the anniversary of the 
 nativity of the Virgin, for its promulgation. 
 A rude interruption disturbed his dreams of 
 omnipotence, and discovered the secret of 
 his real weakness. On the very day preced- 
 ing the intended publication of the Bull, 
 Nogaret, with Sciarra Colonna, and some 
 other nobles, escorted by about three hun- 
 dred horsemen, and a larger number of par- 
 tisans on foot, bearing the banners of France, 
 rushed into Anagni, with shouts' of ' Success 
 to the kmg of France ! — Death to Pope 
 Boniface!' After a feeble resistance, they 
 became masters of the pontifical palace. 
 The cardinals dispersed and fled — through 
 treachery, as some assert, or, more prob- 
 ably, through mere timidity. The greater 
 part of the Pope's personal attendants fled 
 also. 
 
 Boniface, when he perceived that he was 
 surprised and abandoned, prepared himself 
 with uncommon resolution for the last outrage. 
 'Since I am betrayed (he cried) as Jesus 
 Christ was betrayed, I will at least die like a 
 Pope.' He then clothed himself in his official 
 vestments, and placed the crown of Constan- 
 tine on his head, and grasped the keys and the 
 cross in his hands, and seated himself in the 
 pontifical chair. He was now eighty-six 
 years of age. And when Scian-a Colonna, 
 who first penetrated into his presence, beheld 
 the venerable form and dignified composure 
 of his enemy, his purpose, which doubtless 
 was sanguinary, seemed suddenly to have de- 
 serted him, and his revenge did not proceed 
 beyond verbal insult. f Nogaret followed. He 
 
 * Psalms ii. 9. 
 
 f Some modern French historians assert that Bon- 
 iface was severely wounded by the assailants — a story 
 which is idly repeated by Mosheim, and re-echoed 
 even by Gibbon. It is the unanimous affirmation 
 of contemporary writers, that no nand was raised 
 against him. See Sismondi, chap. xxiv. The words 
 of S. Antoninus (part 3., tit. xx., cap. 8. sec. xxi.) 
 
 approached the Pope with some respect, but 
 at the same titnc imperiously informed him 
 that he must j)repare to be present at the 
 council forthwith to be assembled on the sub- 
 ject of his misconduct, and to submit to its 
 decision. The Pope addressed him — ' Wil- 
 liam, of Nogaret, descended from a race of 
 heretics, it is from thee, and such as thee, 
 that I can patiently endure indignity.' The 
 ancestors of Nogaret had atoned for their 
 errors in the flames. But the expression of 
 the pontiff was not prompted by any offence 
 he felt at that barbarity ; not by any conscious- 
 ness of the iniquity of his own oppression,* 
 or any sense of the justice of the retribution ; 
 it proceeded simply from the sectarian hatred 
 which swelled his own breast, which he felt 
 to be implacable, and whic?i he believed to be 
 mutual. 
 
 While their leaders were thus employed, 
 the body of the conspirators dispersed them- 
 selves throughout the splendid apartments in 
 eager pursuit of plunder. Any deliberate plan 
 which might have been formed against the 
 person of the Pope, was disappointed by their 
 avarice. During the day of the attack, and that 
 which followed, the French appear to have 
 been wholly occupied in the ransack. But 
 in the meantime the people of Anagni were 
 recovered from their panic ; and perhaps they 
 were more easily awakened to the shame of 
 deserting their Pope and their citizen, when 
 they discovered the weakness of the aggres- 
 sors, and the snare into which then* license 
 had led them. They took up arms, assaulted 
 the French, and having expelled or massacred 
 them, restored to the pontiff" his freedom and 
 authority. 
 
 His Death. But they were unable to restore 
 his insulted honor and the spirit which had 
 been broken by indignity. Infuriated by the 
 disgrace of his captivity, he hurried from 
 Anagni to Rome, burning for revenge. But 
 the violence of his passion presently over- 
 powered his reason, and his death immediate- 
 are express. ' Domino autem disponente, ob digni- 
 tatem Apostolicae Sedis, nemo, ex inimicis ejus ausus 
 fuit mittere in eum manus ; sed indutum sacris vestibus 
 dimiserunt sub honesta custodia, et ipsi insistebant 
 prsedae, &c.' See Pagi, Bonif. VIII., sec. Ixx. 
 
 * Boniface VIII. was a very faithful patron of the 
 Inquisition ; and if his name is not distinguished in 
 the list of persecuting popes, it is rather from the 
 want of opportunity, than of inclination. Persecu- 
 tion being now systematized by the regular machinery 
 of the inquisition, there were fewer occasions for in- 
 dividual distinction. See Whately on ' The Errorg 
 of Romanism,' ch. v., sec. iii., vi., p. 241 — 244. 
 
.354 HISTORY OF 
 
 ly followed. He was attended by an ancient 
 servant, who exhorted him to confide himself 
 in his calamity to the Consoler of the afflicted. 
 But Boniface made no reply His eyes were 
 haggard, his mouth white with foam, and he 
 gnashed his teeth in silence. He passed the 
 day without nourishment, the night without 
 repose ; and when he found that his strength 
 began to fail, and that his end was not far dis- 
 tant, he removed all his attendants, that there 
 might be no witness to his final feebleness and 
 his parting struggle. After some interval, his 
 domestics burst into the room, and beheld his 
 body stretched on the bed, stiff and cold. The 
 staff which he carried bore the mark of his 
 teeth, and was covered with foam ; his white 
 locks were stained with blood ; and his head 
 was so closely wrapped in the counterpane, 
 that he was believed to have anticipated his 
 impending death by violence and suffoca- 
 tion. * 
 
 This took place on the 10th of October; 
 and precisely on the same day, after an inter- 
 val of three hundred and three years, his 
 body was dug up, and transferred to another 
 place of sepulture. Spondanus,f the Catholic 
 historian, was at Rome at the moment. He 
 relates the circumstances, and mentions the 
 eagerness with which the whole city rushed 
 to the spectacle. His body was found, cov- 
 ered with the pontifical vestments, still fresh 
 and uncorrupted. His hands, which his ene- 
 mies had asserted to have been bitten away in 
 his rage, were so free from decay and mutila- 
 tion, with every finger entire, that even the 
 veins and nerves appeared to be swelling with 
 flesh and life. 
 
 After the death of Boniface the French in- 
 terest presently prevailed in the College ; and 
 in the year 1305 the archbishop of Bourdeaux, 
 a native of France, was elected to the chair. 
 He took the title of Clement V., and presently 
 transferred the papal residence from Rome to 
 Avignon. 
 
 * SismondijRep. Ital.,end of chap. xxiv. ' Con- 
 • .erning which Boniface (says Matthew of Westmin- 
 ster) a certain versifier wrote as follows: — 
 
 Ingrcditur Vulpcs, regnat Leo, sed Canis exit; 
 
 Re tandem vera si sic fuit, ecce Chima?ra! — 
 
 Flores Ilistor. ad ann. 1303. 
 
 Others give the same in the form of a prophecy, 
 delivered by Morone during his imprisonment. As- 
 cendisti ut Vulpes, regnahis ut Leo, et nioricris iit 
 Canis. Antiq. Ecclcs. Brilann. ad ann. 1295. 
 
 t SpondairjH continued the History of Baronius 
 from the year 1197, in which it concludes, to 1646. 
 See also Bzovius on this same occurrence. — Ann. 
 1303. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 (I.) On Lewis IX. of France — His public motives — con- 
 trasted with those of Constantine and Charlemagne — . 
 His virtues, piety, and charity— Particulars of his civi. 
 legislation — His superstition — The original Crown of 
 Thorns — its removal to Paris — its reception by the king. 
 His death His miracles and canonization — The Bull 
 of Boniface VIII. — (II.) On the Inquisition. — Whether 
 St. Lewis contributed to its establishment — Origin of 
 the Inquisition — Office of St. Dominic and his contem- 
 poraries — Erection of a separate tribunal at Toulouse — 
 by Gregory IX. — The authority then vested in the Men- 
 dicants—Its unpopularity in France — Co-operation of 
 St. Lewis— Conduct of Frederic II.— Of Innocent IV 
 — Limits to the prevalence of the Inquisition. — (III.) On 
 the Oallican Liberties. — Remonstrance of the Prelates of 
 France respecting excommunications. Firmness of 
 Levi'is— His visit to the Cistercian chapter. The sup- 
 plication of the monks, and the reply of the King — 
 Early spirit and sense of independence in the French 
 clergy — The Pragmatic Sanction of St. Lewis — Its prin- 
 ciple — The six articles which constitute it — Conse- 
 quences of the policy of Innocent III. — (IV.) On the 
 Crusades. Remarks on the character and circumstan- 
 ces of the first Crusade — Exertions of St. Bernard for 
 the second Crusade — its fatal result — Excuse of that 
 abbot — Causes of the fall of the Latin kingdom of Je- 
 rusalem — Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh Cru- 
 sades—The eighth and ninth. St. Lewis— Termination 
 of the Crusades, and final loss of Palestine — General 
 remarks — (1.) On the Origin and first motives of re- 
 ligious pilgrimage— Treatment of first pilgrims by the 
 Saracens — Pilgrimage during the 10th and 11th centu 
 ries — Conquest of Palestine by the Turks — Practice of 
 private feuds and warfare in Europe— prevalent in the 
 10th century — The superstitious spirit of the same agft 
 —associated with the military — General predisposition 
 in favor of a Crusade — Failure of Sylvester II. aTid 
 Gregory VII. — (2.) On the Objects of the Crusades — 
 what they were— what they were not — The object of 
 the first distinguished from that of following Crusades 
 — Conduct and policy of the sovereigns of Europe — Of 
 the Vatican — Gradual change in its objects. — (3.) On 
 the Results of the Crusades — Advantages produced by 
 them— Few an.d partial— on government— on commerce 
 — on general civilization — Evils occasioned — Religious 
 wars — Immoral influence — Corruption of Church disci- 
 pline — Canonical penance — Introduction of the Plenary 
 Indulgence— its abuses— The Jubilee— Interests of the 
 clergy. JVofe (A.) On the collections of papal decretala 
 — That of Gratian— the Liber Sextus— Clementines, &.C. 
 — JVote (B.) On the University of Paris — The Four 
 Faculties — Foundation of the Sorbonne. — JVoie (C.) 
 On certain Theological Writers — Rise .and progress of 
 the Scholastic System of Theology — Peter the Lombard 
 —His ' Book of the Sentences '—St. Thomas Aquinas 
 — His history and productions— St. Bonaventure— the 
 character of his theology — The Realists and Nomin- 
 alists—or Thomists and Scotists. — The Immaculate 
 Conception. 
 
 It is seldom that the stream of ecclesiastical 
 history receives any important contribution 
 from the biography of kings. Our more 
 peaceful course is indeed perpetually troubled 
 by the eddies of secular polity, and most so 
 in the most superstitious ages. The names of 
 Constantine and Charlemagne have, it is also 
 true, deserved an eminent rank among the 
 heroes of the church. 13ut if we pass over 
 
LEWIS IX. < 
 
 the legendary tales of the monarch-monks of 
 the darkest days, we shall scarcely discover 
 any other powerful prince whose policy was 
 formed either on an ardent sense of religion, 
 or an attachment to ecclesiastical interests, 
 until we arrive at the reign of Lewis IX. 
 And here we must at once distinguish the prin- 
 ciples of that prince from those either of Con- 
 stantino or of Charlemagne. By whatsoever 
 motives of genuine piety those two sovereigns 
 may really have been influenced, it is certain 
 that their ecclesiastical institutions were chief- 
 ly regulated for political ends. It was their 
 object — an object worthy of their royal rank 
 and virtues — to improve the moral and relig- 
 ious condition of their subjects through the 
 mstru mentality of Christ's ministers ; and at 
 the same time to raise the dignity and charac- 
 ter of those, whose sacred office, when they 
 are not the worst of men, is calculated to 
 make them the best. But the actions of 
 Lewis were not guided by any such consid- 
 erations. They proceeded from that which it 
 was the purpose of the others' policy to cre- 
 ate — an absorbing Christian piety, with its 
 train of concomitant excellences. On this 
 subject there is no difference among histori- 
 ans, except in as far as some are more dis- 
 posed to ridicule the superstitious excesses 
 mto which he fell, through the practice of 
 his age, than to do justice to the lofty motives 
 whence his virtues proceeded. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 On Lewis IX. 
 
 Lewis IX. was born about the year 1215, 
 and came to the throne at a very early age. 
 He was educated by a mother natned Blanche, 
 who was eminent for her devotion to God 
 and the church ; and we should here remark, 
 that he drew his first breath, and received his 
 earliest notions of ecclesiastical polity, among 
 the groans of the suffering Albigeois. The 
 sanctity of his private life was not sullied by 
 any stain, nor was it clouded by any austerity. 
 * Never, since I was born,' (says Joinville,) 
 *did I hear him speak ill of any one.' He 
 loved his subjects ; and had his lot been cast 
 in happier days, he would have loved man- 
 kind. But the principles of his church so 
 contracted those of his religion, that his 
 benevolence could never expand itself into 
 philanthropy. 
 
 He was devout in private prayer, as well as 
 a co.istant attendant on the offices of the 
 church. On the one hand, his submission to 
 ihe admonitions, anl even to the personal 
 
 W FRANCE. 356 
 
 corrections, of his confessor, is diligo'.itly re- 
 corded ; and on the other, his adoration of 
 the Holy Cross * is recounted with no less 
 admiration. He would descend from his seat, 
 and advancing in a homely garment, with his 
 head, neck, and feet bare, and his children 
 behind him, bend with such profound hu- 
 mility before the emblems of his salvation, 
 that the spectators were moved to tears of 
 affection and piety. He appears, too, from 
 the same accounts, to have washed the feet of 
 monks and of mendicants, by a very common 
 exercise of self-abasement. And we may 
 overlook this foolish affectt-Ition in that sub- 
 stantial excellence, which distributed his char- 
 itable benefactions without thrift or partiality, 
 through every class of those who needed 
 them. The foundation of many churches 
 and monasteries secured at the same time the 
 gratitude and fidelity of his spiritual subjects. 
 
 Hume has ascribed to Lewis IX., together 
 with ' the mean and abject superstition of a 
 monk, the magnanimity of a hero, the integ- 
 rity of a patriot, the humanity of a philoso- 
 pher.' — That insatiable zeal for crusades, 
 which neither his reason, which was power- 
 ful, nor his humanity, nor his philosophy, nor 
 all united, were even in later life sufficient to 
 allay, afforded at the same time the most per- 
 nicious proofs of his superstition and his 
 heroism. But his patriotism was more hon- 
 orably displayed in the internal regulation of 
 his kingdom ; in the removal of abuses, in the 
 advancement of civilization ; and in this office, 
 (as his domestic biographer observes,) he so 
 combined the secular with the spiritual inter- 
 ests of his subjects, that he seemed to dis- 
 charge by the same acts the double office of 
 priest and king, f He detested the, practice 
 of usury ; and to that motive we may perhaps 
 attribute his hatred for the Jews, who exer- 
 
 * See the book ' De Vita et Actibiis Ludovici,' 
 &c. by his chaplain, William (Carnotensis) of Char- 
 tres ; and his ' Vita, Conversatio et Miracula,' bj' F 
 Gaufridus his confessor. One object of the latter is 
 to point out the exact correspondence of the charac- 
 ter of Lewis with that of Josiah. The particular 
 description and changes of his coarse raiment; the 
 days of his fasting, of his abstinence from meat, or 
 from fruit and fish, or from every kind of fish except 
 one, or from everything except bread and water, and 
 such like details of his devotional observances, are 
 related by both writers ; especially by the confessor, 
 and in his 17th chapter. The king's eleemosynary 
 liberality forms the worthier subject of that which 
 follows. Both his biographers were Dominicans 
 
 t ' Quod etiam quodammodo regale sacerdotihm, 
 aut sacerdotale regimen videretur pariter exei'cere.* • 
 Gulielm. Carnotensis. 
 
366 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 cised tiie trade exclusively. Still we must 
 doubt the wisdom, while we censure the cru- 
 elty, of the edict, by which he expelled them 
 from the country. He enacted a very severe 
 (according to our notions, a barbarous) ^ law 
 against blasphemy. While we praise his 
 bold, though seemingly ineffectual, attempts 
 to restrain the moral profligacy of his nobles, 
 we shall scarcely less applaud the vigor, with 
 which he exerted against that body the power 
 of royalty, in a cause almost equally sacred. 
 1, was a leading object of his polic)^, to pro- 
 tect the lower classes of his subjects against 
 the brutal f oppression of the aristocracy ; 
 and to unite the interests of the crown and 
 she people against that privileged order, which 
 was equally hostile to the independence of 
 both. Justice he commonly administered in 
 person,! and tempered it with his natural 
 clemency. At the same time he endeavored 
 to purify its sources by permanent alterations, 
 and to secure at least for future ages the bles- 
 sings, which he might despair effectually to 
 impart to his own. Accordingly, he struck 
 at the root of the evil, and made it the grand 
 object of his efforts, to substitute trial by evi- 
 dence for the 'judgments of God ;' and most 
 especially for the most sanguinary among 
 them, the decision by duel. His ordinances 
 on those subjects were obeyed within the 
 boundaries of his own domains: but he had 
 
 * He caused the lips (or, as some say, the fore- 
 head) of those convicted, to be seared with a hot iron. 
 
 ■f Having learnt, on one occasion, that a nobleman 
 had hanged three children for the offence of hunting 
 • rabbits, Lewis condemned him to capital punishment. 
 But the rest of the nobility united with so much de- 
 termination to preserve the life of their fellow-tyrant 
 and the prerogatives of their order, that the king was 
 obliged to commute the punishment for deprivation 
 of properly. 
 
 i ' I have often seen the saint,' (says Joinville,) 
 * after he had heard mass, in summer, come out to the 
 Forest of Vincennes, and seat himself at the foot of 
 an oak, and make us sit all round him. And those 
 who had any business came and spoke to him without 
 any officer giving them hinderance. — And sometimes 
 he would come to the Garden of Paris, and have 
 carpets spread for us to sit near him; and then he 
 administered justice to his people, as he did at Vin- 
 cennes.' — Histoire du Roy St. Louis, p. 23. Edit. 
 Paris, 1617. This history, which is the life of an 
 admirable king and Christian, by a candid, loyal, 
 unaffected soldier, is a beautiful specimen of inarti- 
 ficial biography. But, unhappily, the most beneficial, 
 and, therefore, the noblest acts of the monarch, are 
 not those which have most attracted the attention of 
 the soldier. The details of his campaigns, and many 
 anecdotea of his private life, are related witli iniinite- 
 aess and Bccming accuracy ; but his great Icgi^l:^live 
 enactments are aliylitly, or not at all noticed. 
 
 not the power to enforce them universally 
 The Barons, who were severally the legisla- 
 tors in their own estates, adhered to the ven- 
 erable establishments of former days ; and a 
 more general diffusion of knowledge was re- 
 quired, before the plainest reason, aided even 
 by royal authority, could prevail against the 
 inveterato sanctity of instituted absurdities. 
 
 It was the same with those humane endeav- 
 ors to arrest the practice of private warfare, 
 in which he anticipated the course of civiliza- 
 tion by more than two centuries.* But when 
 he despaired of effecting this object at once, 
 he attempted at least to mitigate the mischief 
 by a judicious prohibition — that neither party 
 should commence hostilities till forty days 
 after the offence had been offered.f Thus 
 was he compelled to temporize witfi a great 
 national evil, of which he felt at the same time 
 the whole extent, as well as his own incapa- 
 city to correct it. From these instances we 
 may observe, that the civil legislation of St. 
 Lewis was generally founded on wise policy, 
 and that it always sprang from benevolent 
 motives. We shall presently notice some of 
 his ecclesiastical enactments; but, at the same 
 time, it must be admitted, that the charge ot 
 ' abject superstition ' alleged against him by 
 the philosophical historian is not less just, 
 than the merits also ascribed to him ; nor will 
 it here be out of place to recount one cele- 
 brated incident in support of this imputation 
 
 Reception of the Crown of Thorns. — The 
 History of the Church comprises the records 
 of superstition, which in those corrupt ages 
 was indeed so interwoven with piety, that it 
 is rare to find them separate. The character 
 of St. Lewis particularly exemplified their 
 combination ; it may be perpetually detected 
 in his warlike enterprises ; but there is not 
 one among his spiritual adventures which 
 better illustrates himself and his age than the 
 following : — The original Crown of Thorns 
 had been long preserved at Constantinople as 
 the most precious and venerable among the 
 relics of Christ ; yet such were at this time 
 the necessities of the government, that the 
 holy treasure was consigned in pawn to the 
 government of Venice. It was delivered over 
 to the commissioners of the Republic, who 
 
 * The right of private feud cannot be considered 
 as abolished, until nearly the end of the 15th century. 
 In collecting a large and, for those days, a valuable 
 library, and in encouraging the progress of knowledge 
 among his subjects, St. Lewis opened the only certain 
 path to their civilization 
 
 t Some attribute this regulation to Philippe Au- 
 guste. 
 
LEWIS IX. OF FRAiVCE. 
 
 357 
 
 immediately set sail, in a wintry and incle- 
 ment season, full of religious confidence, and 
 were preserved (as it was thought) through a 
 perilous voyage by the holiness of their charge. 
 The pledge, which the Greeks were too poor 
 or too wise to redeem, was eagerly purchased 
 by St. Lewis, and the relic, after a few months 
 at Venice of repose and adoration, continued 
 its pilgrimage to the west. During the course 
 of an overland journey it was again distin- 
 guished by the favor of the elements; and 
 though the rain fell abundantly during the 
 nights, not a drop descended by day to inter- 
 rupt its progress. At length when it arrived 
 at Troyes in Champagne, the event was noti- 
 fied to the king at Paris, and he instantly set 
 off to welcome it, accompanied by the Queen 
 Blanche his mother, by his brothers, by some 
 prelates, and other nobles. 
 
 The royal company met their holy acquisi- 
 tion in the neighborhood of Sens, and after 
 they had uncovered the case and beheld the 
 object, and moistened it with pious tears, they 
 assembled the clergy of the diocese and form- 
 ed a solemn procession towards the city. As 
 they approached the gates, the king and his 
 eldest brother, the Count d'Artois, received 
 the venerated burden on their shoulders ; and 
 in this manner, with naked feet, and no other 
 covering than a shirt,* they carried it, in the 
 midst of the adoring crowd, into the cathe- 
 dral. . . Thence it proceeded to Paris, and 
 there its arrival was hailed with a repetition 
 of the same degrading solemnities. The 
 whole clergy and the whole people were in 
 motion, and again the two illustrious brothers, 
 barefoot and naked as before, supported and 
 deposited it in the destined sanctuary. An 
 annual festival was instituted to commemorate 
 an event of such national importance — the in- 
 troduction of this new palladium. But its 
 value was soon afterwards diminished by the 
 importation of a formidable rival for the pop- 
 ular adoration. It was not long before the 
 royal enthusiast succeeded in procuring some 
 substantial fragments of the real Cross ; and 
 this acquisition again furnished him with an- 
 other pretext to multiply to his lively subjects 
 the occasions of religious festivity. 
 
 His Death and Canonization. — In the year 
 1270, St. Lewis died before Tunis, while in 
 the prosecution of his second crusade. His 
 last word s wer^yid to have b een these f — 
 
 * Vita et Convers. S. Ludovici, &c., per F. Gau- 
 fSridum. Aug. 11, 1239, was the day consecrated by 
 this exploit. 
 
 t So says William of Chartres, and Boniface VIII. 
 in his Bull of Canonization, confirms it 
 
 ' Lord, I will enter into thine house ; I will 
 worship in thj holy temple, and give glory to 
 thy name. Into tliy hands I commend my 
 spirit.' From the beginning of his life to its 
 latest breath the same principle predominated, 
 the same religious fervor (however it may 
 sometimes have been perverted) influenced all 
 his actions; and, perhaps, in the interminable 
 catalogue of her Saints, the Church of Rome 
 cannot number a name more worthy of that 
 celestial dignity than Lewis IX. But the 
 merit to which that pious monarch was chief- 
 ly indebted for his heavenly office, was not 
 that to which he had ever particularly pre- 
 tended. His eminent virtues, his religious life 
 and death, even his services to the Catholic 
 Church, might seem to have entitled him to 
 that high reward. But those claims had been 
 wholly insufficient, had it not also been con- 
 clusively attested that he had performed many 
 manifest and astonishing miracles. 
 
 The canonization of Lewis IX. took place 
 twenty-seven years after his death, and almost 
 the whole of that time was employed in col- 
 lecting the necessary documents.* The rapid 
 succession of the Popes was the cause which 
 retarded it ; and it may seem as if in mockery 
 of his holy character, that the performance 
 of this office did at last devolve upon Boni- 
 face VIII. It was Boniface who preached 
 the panegyrical sermon, and enlarged on 
 those various virtues which had no counter- 
 part in his own bosom. It was the genius of 
 arrogance which paid homage to the spirit of 
 humility, and exalted it even to the thrones 
 of heaven. 'Let the hosts of heaven rejoice 
 at the arrival of so noble and glorious an in- 
 habitant — an approved and eminent husband- 
 man of the Christian faith is added to their 
 multitudes. Let the glorious nobility of the 
 celestial citizens sound the jubilee of joy, for 
 an honored stranger is adscribed to their 
 ranks. Let the venerable assembly of the 
 Saints arise with gladness and exultation, to 
 receive a compeer who well deserves such 
 dignity. Arise, thou innumerable council of 
 
 * In the first of the two sermons delivered by 
 Boniface on that occasion, he expressly asserts, that 
 after the fullest examination into the evidence for the 
 miracles, he has ascertained that sixty- three miracles 
 were assuredly performed, besides others which God 
 evidently vouchsafed to him — (sexaginta tria, inter 
 csetera qiue Dominus evidenter ostendit, certitudi'na- 
 liter facta cognovimus.) Respecting the tedious du- 
 ration of the investigation, Boniface remarks, in the 
 same discourse, with great simplicity — * Et ita per 
 tot et totiens ex«minatum est, rubricatum et discussum 
 negocium, quod de hoc plus facta est descriptura 
 quani unus asinus posset portare * 
 
35d 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 faith ; zealots of the faith arise, and sing the 
 hymn of praise in concert with the Church 
 which is your own. . . He offered offence 
 to no one, to no one violence or injury. He 
 carefully observed the boundaries of justice, 
 without deserting the path of equity. He 
 punished with the sword the daring and law- 
 less enterprises of the wicked. An ardent 
 lover of peace and concord — an anxious 
 promoter of unity — hostile to scandals and 
 dissensions,'* &c. &c. We may remark that 
 this last topic, in the mouth of Boniface VIH., 
 was at best an equivocal eulogy. A zeal for 
 ' unity,' and an abhorrence of ' scandals and 
 dissensions,' is a praise which, when proceed- 
 ing from pontifical lips, conveys the necessary 
 suspicion of intolerance. Lewis has been 
 accused of that crime — the ruling iniquity of 
 his age — and we shall now examine on what 
 f'icts that charge is really founded. 
 
 • Section II. I 
 
 On the Inquisition. 
 
 It is asserted, and with truth, that the Inqui- 
 sition was permanently established in France 
 during the reign of St. Lewis ; that he never 
 ceased to manifest great partiality for the 
 Dominicans and Franciscans,! and all invest- 
 ed with the inquisitorial office ; and that it 
 was even at the particular solicitation of the 
 king,! that Alexander IV. confirmed, in 1255, 
 the institution of that tribunal, and appointed 
 the Prior of the Dominican Convent at Paris 
 to be Inquisitor-general in France. That we 
 may be able to estimate the real weight of 
 
 * It is difficult to conceive a more turgid and tau- 
 tologous composition than this celebrated bull. The 
 merits which Lewis really possessed, are enumerated 
 without taste or feeling ; and the author of the pane- 
 gyric seems to have been wholly incapable of esti- 
 mating the character which he pretended to eulogize. 
 
 t It appears that he intended to educate two of his 
 sons in monasteries, and that by his Testament he 
 consigned one to Dominican, the other to Franciscan 
 tuition. — Gaufiidus, Vita et Conversat. chap. 14. 
 
 4: See Limborch, Hist. Inquisit. lib. i. cap. 16. 
 The annalist Raynaldus has expressed his pious re- 
 gret, that the admirable institution of the Saint was 
 feebly supported, and even entirely overthrown by his 
 degenerate successors! We should observe that the 
 domains of the Count of Poitiers and Toulouse, who 
 was then Alphonso, brother of the king, were except- 
 ed from tiie jurisdiction of the prior, as being already 
 subject to a special commission on matters of faith, — 
 Fleury, liv. Ixxxiv. § Ixxxv. The act of St. Lewis 
 was to establish that generally throughout his king- 
 dom, which had hitherto been confined to the most 
 nfected province. 
 
 these assertions, and (what is more important 
 than the reputation of any individual) that we 
 may understand on what ground that fright- 
 ful structure was erected, we must trace as 
 shortly as possible the causes which led to its 
 foundation. 
 
 The itinerant emissaries of Innocent III., 
 among whom Dominic is the name most 
 celebrated, first obtained the title of Inquisit- 
 ors — that is to say, they were invested by the 
 Pope with authority to discover, to convert 
 or to arraign before the ecclesiastical courts 
 all guilty or suspected of heresy. But this* 
 was the limit of their commission. They did 
 not constitute an independent tribunal, nor 
 were they clothed with any judicial power 
 The process was still carried on, according 
 to the practice then prevailing, before the 
 bishop of the diocese, and the secular arm 
 was invited, when necessary, to enforce his 
 sentence. But this form of proceeding was 
 not found sufficiently rapid to satisfy the 
 eagerness of the Pope and his missionaries. 
 The work of extirpation was sometimes re- 
 tarded by the compunctions of a merciful pre- 
 late, sometimes by the reluctance of the civil 
 authorities to execute a barbarous or unpop- 
 ular sentence.* And to remove these im- 
 pediments to the course of .destruction, there 
 was no resource, except to institute in the in- 
 fected provinces, with the direct co operation 
 of the ruling powers, a separate tribunal for 
 causes of heresy. This object was not hnme - 
 diately accomplished. In the meantime the 
 Dominicans and Franciscans were spread hig 
 their numbers and influence in every country. 
 And as they were the faithful myrmidons of 
 the Roman See, and more devoted in their 
 allegiance than either the secular or the regu 
 lar clergy, thus arose an additional reason for 
 investing them with a distinct jurisdiction. 
 By the council held at Toulouse in 1229, (of 
 which the decrees have been noticed in a 
 former chapter,) a canon was published which 
 united ' one priest with three laymen,' in a 
 sort of council of inquisition. It is this regu- 
 
 * It should be remarked on the other hand, that it 
 was sometimes (especially in the beginning of the 
 persecutions) precipitated by the agency of popular 
 fury, excited by the preachers against the heretics. 
 Their favorite text is said to have been (Psalm xciv. 
 v. 16.) 'Who will rise up for me against the evil- 
 doers'? Who will stand up for^p against the work- 
 ers of iniquity V Many of them were eloquent — the 
 people were superstitious — the preachers were fana- 
 tics. In fact, when the ecclesiastical censures were 
 despised, and the secular power refused its aid, pop 
 ular madness Aas t'^eir only reiv.aining instrument 
 
THE INQUISITION. 
 
 359 
 
 lation winch is reasonably considered as the 
 foundation of the Court of Inquisition. * 
 
 To Pope Gregory IX. be ascribed tlie honor 
 of this success! Still the court thus established 
 continued to be a court of bishops. Its object 
 was indeed exclusively such as the most zeal- 
 ous pontiff could have desired; but it was 
 composed of materials neither wholly desti- 
 tute of human feeling, nor blindly subservient 
 to the papal will. A further change was, 
 therefore, necessary ; and, accordingly, about 
 three years afterwards, Gregory found means 
 to transfer the authority in the new court to 
 the Dominican order. It was thus that the 
 Inquisition, properly so called — that is, a 
 court for the trial of heretics, erected by 
 papal authority, and administered by pa})al 
 dependents — was indeed instituted. . . Some 
 popular commotions f followed its first pro- 
 ceedings; — the persons of the judges were 
 exposed to insult, and the whole body was, for 
 a short time, expelled from the city. But the 
 spirit of Rome was yet too powerful, — the fu- 
 gitives were presently restored. And though 
 the inquisitorial system never reached in 
 France those refinements in barbarity which 
 some other countries have endured — though 
 it obtained, in truth, no very permanent foot- 
 ing among a humane and generous people — 
 it continued to subsist there for several years; 
 and if there was any sceptre under which it 
 can be said to have flourished, it was assur- 
 edly the sceptre of St. Lewis. Still we must 
 not forget that it was established in his boy- 
 hood ; so that the guilt of that J act is unjustly 
 
 * By the Council of Naibonne, held two years be- 
 fore, it was enacted, ' that the bishops should estab- 
 lish in each parish synodal witnesses to inquire into 
 heresy, and other notorious crimes, and to make their 
 report.' These were truly established inquisitors; 
 -still their office was to report, not to judge. 
 
 f Besides the indignation excited by the object of 
 this institution, there was a general objection among 
 laymen to the establishment oi any new ecclesiastical 
 tribunal, to which all classes were alike amenable. 
 And this was not diminished when, to the original of- 
 fences of heresy, those of Judaism, Mahometanism, 
 sodomy, sacrilege, and even polygamy, were added. 
 But we have not observed that this wide extension 
 of the objects of that court was ever made in France. 
 
 I We must notice the injustice which has hastily 
 been offered to the character of Lewis IX. by Mosh- 
 eim. That writer having asserted (on the authority 
 of the Benedictine compilers of the history of Lan- 
 guedoc) that Lewis published a barbarous edict against 
 heretics, in the year 1229, proceeds thus: — 'A great 
 part of the sanctity of good King Lewis consisted in 
 his furious and implacable aversion to heretics.' . . . 
 • Now, that this aversion formed, at any age, a promi- 
 nent part of his character, will be asserted by no one 
 
 cast upon him. He perpetuated the evil which 
 he foimd ; and in the religious code of those 
 days, the ' unity of the Church' was so care 
 fijlly identified with the glory of Christ, that 
 an ardent desire for the one might easily de 
 generate into a misguided zeal for the other : 
 and thus, without intending to exculpate the 
 royal persecutor, we are bound to distinguish 
 between the crime of those who created that 
 ecclesiastical system, and of him who blindly 
 supported it; — of the churchmen* who art 
 fully confounded the essence of religion with 
 the maintenance of their own power, and of 
 the pious laymen, who adopted with reverence 
 the undisputed and consecrated maxims. 
 
 Progress of the Inquisition. The brutal 
 edicts f of Frederic II., published about 1244 
 and not exceeded by the most barbarous em 
 anations of the Vatican, were not palliated by 
 any motive of misdirected piety: yet were 
 they much more effectual than the encour- 
 agement of Lewis in arming the fury of the 
 Dominicans, at least within the limits of his 
 empire. Btit the intolerant zeal of Frederic 
 neither softened the hostility of Innocent IV., 
 nor preserved himself from the anathemas of 
 the Church. \ After his triumph, Innocent 
 pursued and exceeded the footsteps of his 
 predecessors. He established the Tribunal § 
 
 who has studied the whole of his life. But in res- 
 pect to this particular edict, was Mosheim ignorant 
 that it was published under the regency of Queen 
 Blanche, when the prince was not yet fifteen years 
 oldl 
 
 * In 1239, one hundred and eighty heretics were 
 burnt in Champagne, in the same flames, and in the 
 presence of eighteen bishops. ' It is a holocaust 
 agreeable to God! ' exclaimed a monk who witnessed 
 the execution. . . . Was it to be expected that 
 a woman and a child should rise up against an eccle- 
 siastical practice, which was sanctioned by the con- 
 current zeal of monks, of prelates, of popes, and of 
 councils'? 
 
 f Four of them are cited by Liraborch, Hist, of 
 Inquisit., lib. i. cap. 12. 
 
 X He was accused of having favored and fostered 
 heresies. His edicts wa^ have had that tendency; 
 but he was assuredly innocent of the intention. 
 
 § Giannone (lib. xix., chap. v. sect, iv.) seems to 
 ascribe the establishment of the court virtually ad- 
 ministered by the Mendicants, to Innocent IV., and 
 with truth, so far as Italy was concerned. Two cir- 
 cumstances (he remarks) were opposed to it. (1.) 
 The judicial rights of the episcopal courts. (2.) The 
 executive rights of the secular magistrates. The first 
 was obviated by the nominal association of bishops 
 in the inquisitorial office. The second, by permitting 
 the magistrate to have his minister in the court, 
 though at the appointment of the grand inquisitor. 
 There was much art in this concession; for thus, 
 while the ecclesiastics really held the whole power. 
 
360 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 of the Inquisition in the north of Italy, and in 
 that form which made it most effectually the 
 engine of the Vatican. It is true, that in this 
 court the bishop was nominally appointed as 
 ' oadjutor to the papal inquisitor ; but all sub- 
 stantial judicial authority was placed in the 
 hands of the latter. * The civil magistrate 
 was likewise admitted to a seat among the 
 members of the court ; but in reality his 
 power was ministerial only. The whole 
 effective power, both judicial and executive, 
 was vested in the Dominicans and Francis- 
 cans. . . From Italy, the pestilence rapidly 
 spread to the island of Sardinia, to Syria, and 
 to Servia. f On the other hand into Spain, 
 the field of its most destructive ravages, it 
 was introduced so late as the reign of Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella — a reign more renowned, 
 more panegyrized, than any other in the his- 
 tory of that country. But from Spain even 
 the despotism of Charles V. was insufficient 
 
 communicate it to the rest of his subjects ; 
 the natural humanity of the Germans perse- 
 veringly repelled that pestilence ; and the in- 
 habitants of Naples on one side, and of the 
 Low Countries on the other, resisted and re - 
 jected it with equal constancy. 
 
 We shall not enter more deeply into the 
 records of the Inquisition, nor particularize 
 the combinations of its machinery, and the 
 exquisite harmony of its movements, because 
 it did not reach that fatal perfection until a 
 
 the secular authorities, by being united with them in 
 name, were associated in hatred. They were tools, 
 
 they were mistaken for accomplices. 
 
 * We learn from Bzovius at a later period, (ann. 
 1302, sect. X.,) that Boniface VIH. transferred the 
 inquisitorial office from the Franciscans to the Domi- 
 rsitsams, publishing- at the same time some severe con- 
 stitutions against heretics. There is one feature in 
 them which we have not remarked in the earliest 
 edicts. Not only were their defensores, receptatores, 
 &€., included in the penalties, but also their filii et 
 nepotes — children and grandchildren. The bishop 
 of the diocese was permitted to act in concert with 
 the inquisitors ; and the investigation was ordered to 
 proceed ' simpliciter et de piano, absque, advocato- 
 rum et judiciorum strepitu et figura! ' The accusers 
 were allowed to give evidence secretly, if there should 
 seern to be any danger to them from the publication 
 of their names. 
 
 t Limborch, lib. i.,cap. xvi. The ' Liber Sen- 
 tentiarum Inquisitionis Tholosana?,' published at the 
 end of his work, is of great value, not only as it 
 faithfully represents the spirit of the ruling party in 
 the Church at that time, (there were no doubt many 
 individuals of greater moderation and humanity,) 
 but also as the best storehouse of the opinions with 
 which the heretics were charged, and for which they 
 suffered 
 
 time posterior to the conclusioii of this His- 
 tory. * It is with no trifling satisfaction that 
 we dispense with this labor; for the details 
 of ingenious barbarity, though they may 
 awaken a transient attention, convey little 
 that is instructive to a reasonable mind ; and 
 the feelings of horror and indignation which 
 they excite, do they not sometimes miss their 
 true object, and exceed their just limits ? — do 
 they not sometimes rise into a detestation 
 too general and too unqualified against the 
 Church which permitted such iniquities? — 
 do they not sometimes close our charities 
 against fellow Christians and fellow Catho- 
 lics, who perhaps abominate, as intensely as 
 we do, the crimes of their ancestors ? To ex- 
 pose the deviations from the precepts of the 
 Gospel and the principles of philanthropy, 
 into which the Church of Rome, in different 
 ages, has fallen, is a painful task so common- 
 ly obtruded upon the historian, that he may 
 well be spared the gratuitous denunciation 
 of those which do not lie within t]?e bounda- 
 ries prescribed to his work. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 On the Gallican Liberties. 
 
 St. Lewis and his Clergy. — A difference 
 which took place between St. Lewis and his 
 clergy, in the year 1263, throws some light 
 both on his own character, and on the eccle- 
 siastical history of the age. The bishops 
 were desirous to make to the king a remon- 
 strance from their whole body ; and when 
 they were admitted into his presence, the 
 bishop of Auxerre spoke in their name as 
 follows : — ' Sire, all these prelates here assem- 
 bled desire me to say, that you are permitting 
 the Christian religion to fall to ruins, and to 
 crumble in your hands.' On which the good 
 king f made the sign of the Cross, and said, 
 'Now tell me, bishop, how that is, and for 
 what reason ? ' ' Sire,' continued the bishop, 
 'the evil is, thr.t no regard is any longer paid 
 to excommunication. In these days, a man 
 would rather die under the sentence, than 
 obtain absolution by making the necessary 
 satisfaction to the Church. Wherefore, Sire, 
 all these here present request, with one voice, 
 that, for the honor of God, and in the dis- 
 
 * It was indeed introduced into Spain under Pope 
 Sixtus IV., before the close of the fifteenth century; 
 but Its first eflbrts, which were directed against the 
 Jews, were merely characterized by savage barbarity. 
 
 t Joinville, who tells the story, was present. Prem ^ 
 Partie Vie de St. Louis, p. 24 
 
GALLICAN 
 
 charge of your own duty,* it may please you 
 to command all your bailiffs, provosts, and 
 other administrators of justice, as follows : — 
 that, if any one be found in your kingdom 
 who shall have lain under a sentence of ex- 
 communication for a year and a day continu- 
 es, he be compelled, by seizure of his goods, 
 to reconcile himself to the Church.' The 
 holy man (le saint homme) answered, that he 
 would issue such order in respect to those 
 who should be proved guilty of injustice 
 cither to the Church, or to their neighbor. 
 The bishop pressed, in reply, the exclusive 
 privileges of ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; but 
 the king firmly refused the secular aid, un- 
 less the nature of the offence, and the justice 
 of the censure, should be such as required its 
 interference. This was the endeavor of a 
 wise prince to distinguish the boundaries of 
 ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction, and to re- 
 strain the former within its just limits ; and it 
 shows at least, that, on matters which were 
 still left open to the exercise of reason, Lewis, 
 how much soever he might love the religion, 
 was not at all disposed to be overreached or 
 overawed by its ministers. 
 
 We may relate another anecdote of the 
 same monarch, which will suggest one or 
 two instructive reflections to the intelligent 
 reader. St. Lewis had promised to be pres- 
 ent at a chapter-general of the Cistercian or- 
 der, to be held in the year 1244 with unusual 
 solemnity. Innocent IV. received informa- 
 tion of his intention ; and as the contest with 
 Frederic involved him at that moment in 
 some difficulties, he took measures to profit by 
 the pious disposition of the king of France. 
 The monarch arrived, attended by his moth- 
 er, his brothers, and some nobles ; and all the 
 abbots and the monks of the community, con- 
 sisting of five hundred, went forth in proces- 
 sion to meet and welcome the royal visiter. 
 Immediately, while he was seated in the 
 chapter, surrounded by his court, the abbots 
 and the monks fell on their knees before 
 him, with their hands in the attitude of pray- 
 er, and their eyes suffused with tears — for 
 
 * ' Pour Dieu, et pour cequ' ainsi le devez faire.' 
 We should observe that the demand on the part of the 
 prelates was not new, and that it had even been grant- 
 ed by the predecessor of Lewis. The first canon of 
 the Council of Narbonne, held in 1227, mentions, as 
 the law then in force, that whoever remained under 
 the sentence, after three admonitions, should pay a 
 fine of nine livres and a denier; but that whoever 
 remained so for a whole year, should suffer the con- 
 6'5cation of all his property. Fleury, liv. Ixxix. sec. 
 txxii 
 
 46 
 
 LIBERTIES. 361 
 
 such had been the instructions of Innocent. 
 Their prayer was this: — 'That, according to 
 the ancient custom and liberty of France, he 
 would protect their father and pastoi-, the 
 holy [)ontiff, against the insults of the empe- 
 ror ; that he would receive him, if necessary 
 into the bosom of his kingdom, as Alexander 
 had formerly been received, while flying be- 
 fore the Emperor Frederic, and Thor.ia? of 
 Canterbury, in his persecution by Henry of 
 England.' . . St. Lewis descended from 
 his seat, and placed himself in like manner 
 upon his knees before the holy suppliants. 
 But his reply was dictated by the calmest 
 prudence and policy — 'that he would defend 
 the Church, as his honor required, from the 
 insults of the emperor ; and no less willingly 
 would he receive the exiled Pope into his 
 kingdom, if his barons should so counsel 
 him ; but that a king of France could on no 
 occasion dispense with the counsels of his 
 nobles.' * . . It was no secret from the 
 king, nor, perhaps, even from his monastic 
 petitioners, that the barons of France would 
 never consent to open their rich domains, as 
 a refuge for the rapacious court of Innocent 
 IV. 
 
 If St. Lewis, on the one hand, protected the 
 liberties of his lay-subjects from the usurpa- 
 tions of the clergy, he was no less vigihnt, 
 on the other, in shielding all parties from the 
 increasing exactions of Rome. Even from 
 very early ages the Church of France had 
 exhibited on some important occasions marks 
 both of independence and good sense, above 
 the level of other nations. The oriental ab- 
 surdity of the Stylites was rejected by that 
 more rational people. The rising authority 
 of St. Leo was unable to silence the refracto- 
 ry bishops of France. The use of images 
 was for sometime discountenanced in that 
 country. The Augustinian doctrine of pre- 
 destination found, perhaps, its warmest ad- 
 versaries among the divines of France. But 
 most especially in the contest of Hincmar 
 with Pope Nicholas, and some other occur- 
 rences of the ninth century, do we detect 
 the spirit of a clergy not prepared to pay im- 
 plicit obedience to the foreign autocrat of the 
 ■ Church. Nevertheless, no formal declaration 
 of resistance — no national attempt to emanci- 
 pate the Gallican Church from any of its fet- 
 
 * See Matthew Paris, ad ann. 1244. We must 
 not confound this affair with a conference which did 
 actually take place two years afterwards between the 
 king and the Pope within the walls of Cluui. S«^e 
 Pagi, Vit. Innoc. IV., sec. xxxiii 
 
362 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ters or give it security by a separate constitu- 
 tion against further aggressions — had hitherto 
 been made by any king of France. 
 
 The Pragmatic Sanction. It w^s the last 
 among the legislative acts of St. Lew's to 
 publish those institutions which formed the 
 basis of the boasted ' Liberties of the Gallican 
 Church.' Just before his departure for Tu- 
 nis, he issued his Pragmatic Sanction. It 
 was founded on the necessity of distinguish- 
 ing temporal from spiritual authority, and 
 Decame, in after times, the foundation of a 
 more extensive emancipation. Like those, 
 however, which were built upon it, it was pe- 
 culiarly directed against the pecuniary usur- 
 pations of Rome, and her claims to the pat- 
 ronage of the Church. The latter subject 
 had indeed occasioned the earliest conten- 
 tions between the empire and the Vatican, 
 at a time when the rights of the dispute were 
 on the side of the latter. But since the days 
 of Innocent 11., the usurpations, whether in 
 the imposition of taxes, or the distribution of 
 benefices, had proceeded from the court of 
 Rome ; and Lewis IX. having acquired by 
 his personal character, as well as his wise 
 Establishments,' * the affection and fidelity 
 of his subjects, felt strong enough to repress 
 lliem. 
 
 Accordingly, in the year 1269, that he might 
 insure the tranquillity of his Church and king- 
 dom during his absence, and also secure for 
 his enterprise the protection of God, he pro- 
 mulgated his celebrated Ordinance. It is 
 comprised in six articles. (1.) The churches, 
 the prelates, the patrons, and the ordinary 
 collators of benefices, shall enjoy their rights 
 to their full extent, and each shall be sustain- 
 ed in his jurisdiction. (2.) The cathedral and 
 other churches shall possess the liberties of 
 elections, which shall be carried into complete 
 eflTect. (3.) We will, that simony, the pest of 
 the Church, be wholly banished from our 
 kingdom. (4.) Promotions, collations, pro- 
 visions and dispositions of prelatures, dignities, 
 and other ecclesiastical benefices and offices, 
 whatsoever they may be, shall be made ac- 
 cording to the institutions of common law, of 
 
 * The ' Establislimcnts of St. Louis' belong, for 
 tlie most part, to civil history. It is only necessary 
 to observe, that though many particular enactments 
 vere severe, and even barbarous, according to the 
 estimation of a civilized age, they were founded upon 
 principles of policy, and even humanity, far above 
 those of the times in which they were promulgated. 
 Le Roi (says Millot) devint legislatcur: I'anarchio 
 feodale devoil fmir. Another half century, and it 
 did BO. 
 
 the councils, and of our ancient Fathers. (5.; 
 We renew and approve of the liberties, fran- 
 chises, prerogatives, and privileges, granted 
 by the kings our predecessors, and by our- 
 selves, to chtirches, monasteries, and other 
 places of piety, as well as to ecclesiastical 
 persons. (6.) We prohibit any one from, in 
 any manner, levying and collecting the pecu- 
 niary exactions and heavy charges which the 
 Court of Rome has imposed, or may hereafter 
 impose, upon the Church of our kingdom, 
 and by which it has been miserably impover- 
 ished — unless it be for a reasonable and very 
 urgent cause, or by inevitable necessity, and 
 with the free and express consent of the king 
 and of the Church. * 
 
 Six years earlier, when the archbishop ol 
 Tyre arrived in France, as the legate of the 
 Holy See, to impose a contribution on the 
 clergy for the cost of a holy f war, an assem 
 bly of bishops referred his Bull to the king 
 and ordained that, if any chose to accede to 
 the claim, they would do so by their own free 
 will, not through any legal compulsion from 
 Rome. . . It is obvious, from these occa- 
 sional ebullitions, to observe, that the sordid 
 policy of Innocent IV. was already producing 
 its effect, in disposing the secular clergy to 
 resist the despotism of Rome. Fifty years 
 had not yet elapsed from the death of that 
 pontiff, when we find the prelacy of France 
 placed in direct opposition! to the Vatican, 
 
 * ' Item exacliones et onera gravissima pecuniarum 
 per Curiam Romanam Ecclesire regni nostri imposi- 
 tQS vel imposita, quibus regnum nostrum miserabiliter 
 depauperatum extilit, sive etiam imponendas vel ira- 
 ponenda, levari aut coUigi nullatenus volumus, nisi 
 duntaxat pro rationabili, pia et urgentissima causa, 
 vel inevitabili necessitate, ac de spontaneo ac expresso 
 consensu nostro et ipsius Ecclesise regni nostri.' . . 
 There are some copies in which the last article does 
 not appear. But there is more reason for the opin- 
 ion, that it was curtailed in those, than interpolated 
 in the rest. Though the other articles do not make 
 express mention of the court of Rome, yet it seems 
 clear that the second, third, fourth, and a part of the 
 first, are levelled against it. See Fleury, liv. Ixxxvi. 
 sec. i. Dupin. Nouv. Biblioth., sec. xiii. chap. vii. 
 The act was cited, as here given, by the Parliament 
 to Lewis XL, in 1483, and in the Act of Appeal of 
 the University of Paris, in 1495. 
 
 t The Declaration of the bishops is given by Me- 
 nard in his notes on Joinville, p. 287. 
 
 4; The same spirit, of course, extended itself to the 
 lower clergy. It was during this reign that a Cure 
 at Paris thus addressed his congregation. — 'You 
 know, my brethren, that I am ordered to publish an 
 excommunication against Frederic (11.) I am igno- 
 rant of tlie motive. I am only certain that there hae 
 been a (juarrcl between that prince and tlie Pope— 
 
THE (^RU-SADES. 
 
 363 
 
 and a politic prince availing himself of tnat 
 spirit to the disadvantage of the Holy See. 
 As long as the Popes were contented to make 
 common cause with their clergy against the 
 secular authorities, they were indeed strong 
 and formidable. But when they openly dis- 
 tinguished between the interests of the court 
 of Rome and of the rest of the hierarchy - - 
 when they proceeded to supply the luxuries, 
 or forward the ambitious projects of the one 
 by invading the revenues of the other — from 
 that moment the despotism of the apostolical 
 Chair, notwithstanding the swarm of Mendi- 
 cants which it created for its defence, had 
 parted with its only ground or hope of per- 
 manence. 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 On the Crusades. 
 
 *The report of the Council of Clermont 
 wafted a cheering gale over the minds of 
 Christians. There was no nation so remote, 
 no people so retired, as did not respond to 
 the papal wishes. This ardent wish not only 
 mspired the continental provinces, but the 
 most distant islands and savage countries.' * 
 Accordingly a mighty mass of fanaticism put 
 itself in motion towards the East. The frame 
 of society was convulsed, and seemingly dis- 
 solved ; and as the will of Heaven is not un- 
 commonly pleaded to justify the extravagance 
 of man, the phenomena of th '^ physical world 
 were pressed into the same adventure : mete- 
 ors and exhalations pointed out the road to 
 Jerusalem, and the most ordinary signs of 
 nature became portents and prodigies. The 
 first burst of the storm fell upon some mise- 
 rable Jews, who were living in peace under 
 Christian protection, and many were massa- 
 cred. It then rolled onwards ; and the follies, 
 the sufferings, and the crimes, which marked 
 the progress of the first crusade, have not ever 
 been equalled in the history of human mad- 
 ness. Nevertheless, as a military enterprise, 
 it was successful. Some exploits were per- 
 formed of extraordinary daring. The same 
 
 God alone knows wliich is right. I excommunicate 
 him who has injured the other, and absolve him who 
 has suffered the injury.' The congregation were 
 amused with the sally. The emperor is said to have 
 sent a present to the preacher ; but the Pope con- 
 demned him to canonical penance; and he performed 
 it accordingly. 
 
 * Malmsbury, p. 416. He continues : ' The Welsh- 
 man left his hunting; the Scotch his fellowship with 
 vermin; the Dane his drinking party ; the Norwegian 
 his raw fish 
 
 agency which had lighted the flame was at 
 hand to nourish it on every occasion of disas- 
 ter ; and the spirit that was chilled by famine 
 or by fear, was immediately revived and in- 
 flamed by some new and stupendous miracle. 
 Men who could be brought really to believcj 
 j while under the endurance of the most fright- 
 I ful reverses, that the favor of God was espe- 
 cially extended and continually manifested to 
 them, were capable of more than human ex- 
 ertion ; the entire abandonment of reason left 
 space for the operation of energies which do 
 not properly belong to man. 
 
 The victory of Doryleum was followed by 
 the siege of Antioch ; the capture of that city 
 led the way to the investment of Jerusalem 
 itself ; and the banner of the cross was finally 
 planted on Mount Sion amidst horrors, which 
 probably had not been paralleled since the 
 triumph of Titus over the same devoted city 
 Respecting the double massacre inflicted upon 
 the infidels, we shall merely remark, that it 
 had not the excuse of hasty uncontrollable 
 passion, but that it was designed and deliber 
 ate. A deeply settled resolution of revenge 
 may have had some share in the deed, but 
 the policy of extermination had probably 
 more ; and the spirit of religious persecution 
 certainly directed the weapons and poisoned 
 the wounds. In tlie meantime, Deux el volt 
 — it is the will of God — was the watchword 
 and the battle-shout of the Christians ; it 
 overpowered the prayers of the women and 
 the screams of their dying children ; * and 
 was then loudest upon Sion and Calvary 
 when the commandments of God and Christ 
 were most insultingly violated. 
 
 St. Bernard preaches the Second Crusade. 
 The loss of the Crusaders, in this first enter- 
 prise, is calculated with probability at about 
 1,200,000 lives ; but the Holy Sepulchre was 
 freed from the pollution of the infidel ; and, 
 what perhaps was of more consequence, as 
 respects the continuance of similar expedi- 
 tions, a Latin kingdom was established in 
 Jerusalem. It is remarkable, that not one 
 of the sovereigns of Europe adventured his 
 person, or even deeply risked his reputation, 
 in the unknown perils of the first crusade. 
 But, nearly fifty years afterwards, the loss of 
 Edessa, and some other reverses in the East, 
 awakened the sympathy of Lewis VII. of 
 France and Conrad III. of Germany, and 
 
 * Christiani sic neci totnm laxaverant animum, ut 
 nec sugens masculus, aut foemina, nedum infans uniua 
 anni vivens manum percussoris evaderet. — Albert, p 
 283, cited by Mills, Hist Crusades, chap. vi. 
 
S64 HISTORY OF 
 
 they determined to aid an afflicted Christian 
 and a brother king. For this purpose it was 
 necessary to rouse the fury of Europe a 
 second time ; and the eager co-operation of 
 St. Bernard secured success. A less powerful 
 instrument might have answered the object. 
 Any intemperate enthusiast * can excite his 
 fellow-mortals to deeds of wickedness; the 
 genius of St. Bernard was given him to do 
 good to mankind — but it was contracted by 
 the severity of monastic discipline ; it was 
 stained with the prejudices of an ignorant 
 age ; it was distorted by the very austerity of 
 his virtues ; it was misdirected even by his 
 piety. He entered with ardor upon his mis- 
 sion of evil. He traversed fruitful provinces 
 and populous cities. Vast multitudes every- 
 where assembled to applaud and to listen ; 
 and the energy of his delivery and the vehe- 
 mence of his tones and action, roused the 
 feelings of many, who were even ignorant of 
 the language in which he addressed them, f 
 Such excitement, in a matter w^here passion 
 and not reason was engaged, produced every 
 effect of persuasion ; and if, besides, there 
 were any so torpid, as to resist the natural 
 eloquence of the holy man, he enjoyed that 
 ether resource, so potent in its influence where 
 all the ordinary operations of the mind are 
 suspended, — he possessed the gifl of mira- 
 cles, and proved his heavenly mission (so his 
 credulous panegyrists assert) by many preter- 
 natural signs. At the same time he affected, 
 by a more dangerous assumption, the pro- 
 phetic character; and, on the faith of Him, 
 who can neither err nor deceive, he foretold 
 and promised a splendid career of triumphs. 
 Armed with so full and various a quiver 
 against the feeble reason of a superstitious 
 generation — with high personal celebrity and 
 eloquence ; with the support of powerful 
 princes ; with pontifical approbation ; with 
 the repute of supernatural aid, and preten- 
 sions to heavenly inspiration — what wonder 
 
 * It is amusing to observe the contempt with which 
 the Abbot of Clairvaux speaks of the hermit-preacher 
 of the first crusade; ' Fuit in priori expeditione, an- 
 tequam Hierosolyina capcretur, vir quidam, Petrus 
 nomine, cujus ct vos (ni fallor) sncpe mentionem au- 
 distis,' &c.— Bernard. Epist. 363, p. 328, vol. i. ed. 
 Mabil. The reference is made by Mills, Hist. Cru- 
 *ades, chap. ix. 
 
 t Latin was the language which lie indiscriminately 
 addressed to tiic vulgar in all the provinces in which 
 he preached. Since preternatural powers have been 
 ascribed to him, it has been thought remarkable that 
 the gift, of which lie seemed to stand most in neetJ, 
 was perversely withheld. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 was it that St. Bernard confounded the sens© 
 and broke up the repose of Europe ; that he 
 depopulated cities and provinces (such was 
 his own rash boast,) and sent forth the whole 
 flower and vigor of Christendom on the holy 
 enterprise ! 
 
 The history of religious war has not re- 
 corded any expedition at the same time more 
 fatal and more fruitless, than the crusade of 
 St. Bernard. After two or three years of 
 suffering and disaster almost uninterrupted, 
 a miserable remnant of survivors returned to 
 relate their misfortunes and marvel at their 
 discomfiture. A general outcry was raised 
 against the author of those calamities; in- 
 numerable widows and orphans demanded 
 of the prophet their husbands and their sires, 
 or at least they claimed the sacred laurels 
 which he had promised — the triumphs which 
 he had vouchsafed, in his dispensation of the 
 boons of heaven, to the soldiers of the cross. 
 The detected impostor was not ashamed to 
 take shelter under the usual pretext of relig 
 ious hypocrites. He asserted that his pro- 
 phecies (the prophecies of God) were only 
 conditional ; that in foretelling the success of 
 the crusaders, he had assumed their righteous- 
 ness and the purity of their lives ; that their 
 own enormous crimes had diverted or sus- 
 pended the designs of Providence, just as in 
 ancient days the sins of the Jews in the wil- 
 derness had foiled the policy and foresight of 
 Moses. * If at any time we can regard with 
 levity any pious artifice of the meanest ec- 
 clesiastic for the most innocent purpose, still 
 
 * This celebrated passage is in the beginning of 
 the second book of his Treatise, ' De Consideratione,* 
 addressed to PopeEugenius III., and should be cited: 
 — ' Moyses educturus populum de terra iEgypti me- 
 liorem illis poUicitus est terram. Namquando ipsum 
 aliter sequeretur populus, solam sapiens terram"? 
 Eduxit; eductos tamen in terram quam promiserat 
 non introduxit. Nec est quod ducis temeritati im- 
 putari queat tristis et inopinatus eventus. Omnia 
 faciebal Domino imperante, Domino cooperante, et 
 opus confirmante sequentibus signis. Sed populus 
 ille, inquis, durje cervicis fuit, semper contentiose 
 agens contra Dominum et contra Moysem servum 
 ejus. Bene illi creduli et rebelles — Hi auteni quidl 
 Ipsos interroga. Quid me dicere opus est quod fa- 
 tentur ipsi"? Dico ergo unum — Quid poterant confi- 
 cere, qui semper revertebantur, cum ambularent'? 
 Quando et isti per totam viam non redierunt ".orde 
 in iEgyptum"? Quod si illi ceciderunt et perierunt 
 propter iniquitatem suam, miramur istos, cadem fa- 
 cientes, eadem passos! Sed numquid illorum casuB 
 ad versus promissa Dei "? Ergo, nee istorum. Neque 
 eniin aliqnando promissiones Dei justitise Dei praeju 
 dicant ' 
 
THE CRUSADES. 
 
 566 
 
 our smile is not unmixed witli melancholy or 
 contempt. But the crime of St. Bernard, the 
 most enlightened prelate of his time, who 
 usurped the attributes and forged the seal of 
 God, in order to launch some hundreds of 
 thousands of confiding Christians into pro- 
 oable destruction, or at best into successful 
 massacre, excites a serious indignation, which 
 it would be partial to suppress, and which 
 neither his talents, nor his virtues, nor his 
 piety, nor the vicious principles of his age, 
 are sufficient to remove. 
 
 Subsequent Crusades. — Forty years after the 
 departure of this expedition, in the year 1187, 
 Saladin gained the batde of Tiberias, and soon 
 afterwards recovered from the Christians the 
 possession of the Holy City. The Latin 
 kingdom of Jerusalem had struggled through 
 eighty-eight years of precarious existence, 
 against internal dissension and tumult, and 
 the perpetual aggressions of the infidel. Per- 
 haps it must have yielded under any circum- 
 stances to the genius of Saladin ; but its fate 
 was precipitated by the feudal divisions of its 
 defenders, the jealousy subsisting between 
 the Knights of the Temple and those of the 
 Hospital, and the violent quarrels in which 
 the latter were engaged, through the effect 
 of their papal immunities, with the avaricious 
 hierarchy of Palestine.* 
 
 The Third crusade (1189—92) was distin- 
 guished by the adventures of the lion-heai;ted 
 Richard. The Fourth followed only three 
 years afterwards, under the auspices of Pope 
 Celestine III., and terminated in inglorious 
 failure. The Germans, of whom it chiefly 
 consisted, accused the faint co-operation of 
 the barons resident in the Holy Land. The 
 Fifth and Sixth were created, or at least pro- 
 tected and fostered, by Innocent HI. The 
 former of these may possibly be ascribed to 
 the still surviving spirit of popular supersti- 
 tion, lashed into fanaticism by the preaching, 
 or at least by the miraculous pretensions, of 
 an enthusiast named Fulk. But whatever 
 may have been its origin, its termination — 
 the capture of Constantinople — was certainly 
 neither foreseen nor designed by its advocates. 
 The warriors of the sixth crusade likewise 
 declined from the original object of these mili- 
 tary pilgrimages, and deviated, with greater 
 promise of profit if not of glory, into the 
 wealthy plains of Egypt. Their courage 
 was repaid by the conquest of Damietta ; but 
 
 * This subject will be again mentioned in the 
 twenty-sixth chapter. 
 
 the advantage thus obtained was neither great 
 nor permanent. The force of the Christiana 
 in the East was weakened by division, and 
 they were contented to despoil what they 
 could not hope to possess. Still, if we are 
 to assign to this expedition the concluding 
 exertions of Frederic II., it terminated with 
 more honor to the Christian name, and with 
 a nearer approach to the liberation of the 
 Holy Sepulchre, than any which had been 
 undertaken since the first. And that its re- 
 sults were not more lasting, is to be ascribed, 
 not to the insincerity of the emperor, but to 
 the narrow jealousy of a passionate pope, * 
 who roused all his military and monastic 
 myrmidons in opposition to that very cause 
 which he, as well as his faithless predecessor, 
 had dared to designate the cause of God. 
 
 Those of St. Lewis. — The chivalrous enter 
 prize of the Count of Champaigne, and Rich- 
 ard Earl of Cornwall, followed the council of 
 Spoleto, in 1234 ; and -the imperfect success, 
 which attended it, was rather occasioned by 
 the dissensions of the Mussulman princes, 
 than by the cordial co-operation of the Chris- 
 tians. It added one to the list of the crusades } 
 and was presently succeeded by two others, 
 the Eighth and Ninth, with which the melan- 
 choly catalogue at length concluded. Beth 
 of these may probably be attributed to the re- 
 ligious fervor of St. Lewis In the access of 
 a dangerous sickness, in the year 1244, th&* 
 prince vowed the sacrifice of his personal ser- 
 vice to God, should his health providentially 
 be restored. It was so. In the following 
 year, the numerous host of prelates, assembled 
 at the council of Lyons, proclaimed the cru 
 sade, and enjoined four preparatory years of 
 peace and seriousness throughout the western 
 nations. During this interval large contribu- 
 tions were levied both on the clergy and laity 
 and other effectual means adopted to secure 
 success ; and at its expiration, the pious mon- 
 arch spread his sails for the East. His imme- 
 diate object, however, was not the liberation 
 of the Sepulchre, but the conquest of Egypt ; 
 and in the conduct of this campaign he close- 
 
 * Gregory IX. Innocent III. died before the de- 
 parture of the expedition, which he had been par- 
 ticularly and personally diligent in promoting. See 
 the preceding chapter. Not professing to give a 
 regular history of these various expeditions, nor to 
 mention more facts than are necessary for our infer- 
 ences, we have not noticed the celebrated Crusade of 
 Children under this pope; yet it may fairly be con- 
 sidered as the consummation of the work of fanati 
 csm. 
 
366 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ly irailated both the gallantry and the errors 
 of his predecessors, who had triumphed and 
 perished in the same field. The misfortunes 
 of the sixth crusade, though still fresh in the 
 memory of mankind, taught as usual no les- 
 son and conveyed no warning to the genera- 
 tion which followed ; and the repetition of 
 similar blunders only led to a more disastrous 
 result. The army was defeated, and Lewis 
 himself fell a captive into the power of the 
 infidel. But his follies were redeemed by the 
 gold of his subjects ; and he returned to expiate 
 his fatal enthusiasm by the exercise of peace- 
 ful virtues, and to repair, by useful and hu- 
 mane institutions, the wrongs which he had 
 done to his people. 
 
 But the spark of superstition was neither 
 extinguished by the discharge of his best du- 
 ties, nor chilled by the advance of age. After 
 an interval of twenty years of wisdom, he re- 
 lapsed into the old infatuation, and unfurled, 
 for the last time, the (jonsecrated banner of 
 fanaticism. His second expedition consisted, 
 for the most part, as the first had done, of 
 Frencli and English ; and, like the first, it was 
 again directed against the Moslems of Africa, 
 not against the usurpers of the Holy Land. 
 The heroic plains of Carthage were occupied 
 by the Christian force ; and the tombs of Ter- 
 tullian, Cyprian and Augustin may perhaps 
 have been rescued from the pollutions of the 
 unbeliever; but the army was still encamped, 
 without any decisive success, before the walls 
 of Tunis, when St. Lewis was called away 
 for ever from the sanguinary scene. 
 
 His death was immediately followed by 
 the romantic adventures of the English Ed- 
 ward, which closed the long succession of 
 fruidess efibrts for a worthless object. The 
 power of the Infidel presently increased in 
 might and boldness; and, in the year 1291, 
 the last fragments of Christian rule were swept 
 away from the surface of Palestine. . . Acre, 
 the conquest of the English hero, was the last 
 possession of the Cross : it had long been the 
 only strong bulwark against the Moslem force. 
 It was important, through its situation at the 
 end of that large and fertile plain which ex- 
 tends to the Jordan eastward, and which has 
 been the field of decisive conflicts in every 
 age of the history of Palestine ; it was import- 
 ant, as the centre of commercial intercourse 
 between the east and the west, the resort of 
 all nations and all languages. But the uni- 
 versal profligacy which prevailed within its 
 walls, and the crimes with which it was stain- 
 ed, beyond the shame of any other Christian 
 
 city, were thought to justify the judgment of 
 God, when at length he delivered it over to a 
 Mahometan conqueror.* 
 
 The Causes of the Crusades. — To this hasty, 
 but necessary outline of the history of the 
 Crusades, we are called upon to subjoin some 
 general observations on their causes, their 
 objects, and their results: not aspiring to em- 
 ulate the eloquence with which this subject 
 has been so commonly treated, nor aflTecting 
 to add any thing original in thought or ex- 
 pression to the successful labors of our pre- 
 decessors; but simply to justify the preten- 
 sions of this work, which would vainly assume 
 the title of an Ecclesiastical History, if it 
 should pass in entire silence over the most 
 amazing phenomena, which ever proceeded 
 from the abuse of religion. And if, indeed, it 
 be a true reflection, that the only enterprise, 
 in which the nations of Europe have at any 
 time engaged with a single arm and a com- 
 mon soul, — and that, too, no vague and tran- 
 sient adventure, but the passion or policy of 
 two hundred years, — stands singularly mark- 
 ed in the historic temple, as a monument of 
 human absurdity : if this be true, is it possible 
 to search too frequently for the sources of such 
 unanimous infatuation, or to ascertain too mi- 
 nutely what passions or what prejudices, oi 
 what interests those were, which availed tc 
 dispossess and enchain for so long a period 
 the reason of mankind ? Moreover, as we 
 have found occasion to obsei-ve, that an indul- 
 gent Providence will sometimes extract bless- 
 ings from man's blindest follies, it becomes us 
 also to inquire, whether the fruits of those 
 wild enterprises were any other than shame, 
 degradation, and misery. Though, indeed, in 
 this case, it might seem presumptuous to look 
 for any manifestation of divine compassion, 
 where impiety called i;self religious devotion, 
 and massacre pleaded for reward, and pleaded 
 in the blessed name of Christ. 
 
 Pilgrimage. — To visit the spots which have 
 been consecrated by immortal deeds, — to 
 tread in the footsteps which those have traced 
 whose memory we love and revere, — is the 
 suggestion of natural piety, not the maxim or 
 observance of religion. Nevertheless, such 
 practice is easily associated with any religion, 
 whenever the qualities of its founder have 
 been such as to excite the enthusiasm of ita 
 
 * E qucsto pericolo non fii senza grande e giusto 
 giudlzio di Dio, die quclla citt.\ era plena di piu 
 peccatori uomini e femiiie d'ogni dissoliito pcccatc, 
 clie lerrachi fosse tra' Cliristiani. Giovanni Villani, 
 I lib. vii., c. 144, as cited bv Mills, Hist Crusadp<« 
 
THE CR 
 
 votaries ; and thus the performance of holy 
 pilgrimage became an early, a frequent, and 
 almost a peculiar usage of the Christians. 
 From an innocent, perhaps useful custom, it 
 was gradually exalted into a spiritual duty ; 
 and the journey to the sepulchre of the Sav- 
 iour was encouraged and enjoined by some of 
 the oldest Fathers of the established Church. 
 The pure principle of pilgrimage w^as pres- 
 ently mixed and alloyed by vulgar motives : 
 a faint shade of superstition was insensibly 
 heightened into a darker ; and the traveller 
 returned from the holy places, no longer satis- 
 fied with the consciousness of pious intent 
 and sincere devotion, but also charged with 
 relics of departed saints, or fragments of the 
 holy crown or cross. . . This degenerate 
 passion was nourished by the rulers of the 
 church ; multitudes thirsted for those vain 
 possessions, whom a mere ardor to worship 
 at the tomb of Christ would scarcely have 
 fortified against the toils of the journey ; the 
 Syrian dispensers of the profitable i)atrimony 
 unceasingly discovered new treasures by rev- 
 elation, or multiplied the original by miracles ; 
 so that the crowds who thronged the sanc- 
 tuary perpetually increased, and the sources 
 which fed their credulity were never closed 
 nor lessened 
 
 It was natural to expect that the conquest 
 of Palestine by the unbelieving Saracens 
 would have abolished the means, if it did not 
 desecrate the objects, of pilgrimage. But it 
 proved otherwise. The enlightened Caliphs 
 immediately perceived the policy of tolera- 
 tion ; they saw the direct advantages which 
 flowed into Syria through the superstition 
 and commerce of the West; they may even 
 have learned from their own practice to re- 
 spect the motives of the travellers, and the 
 kindred ])assion which occasioned an annual 
 visit to the Christian Mecca. Certainly they 
 received the visiters without insult, and dis- 
 missed them without injury. 
 
 During the concluding portion of the tenth 
 century, a strange impulse was given to the 
 spirit of pilgrimage by an accidental cause, ! 
 which, as it was sown in delusion, produced 
 the customary harvest of wickedness. The 
 belief i)revailed of the approaching dissolution 
 of the world and the termination of earthly 
 things ; Mount Sion was to become the judg- 
 ment-seat of the Most High ; and the Chris- 
 tian nations were taught to depart and humble 
 themselves before his throne. Those inter- 
 ested exhortations were too obsequiously obey- 
 ed; and though the notion which created 
 4iem was after a few years falsified and ex- 
 
 JSADES. 36*" 
 
 ploded, yet the habit of journeying to the 
 Holy Land had in the meantime gained great 
 prevalence, and the idea of an expiatory obli 
 gation became commonly attached to it. In 
 the century following, the journey assumed 
 not unfrequently the form of an expedition, 
 and was sometimes undertaken by considera- 
 ble bodies of associated and even armed de- 
 votees. We still peruse, in the narrative of 
 Ingulphus, a native and historian of England, 
 the adventures of seven thousand holy Ger- 
 mans, who engaged in the enterprise under 
 the direction of the archbishop of Mayence, 
 and in the society of thirty Norman horsemen. 
 They encountered many dangers and suffered 
 many losses; but they attained their object, 
 and worshipped at the fountain of their relig- 
 ion. And when they recounted, in domestic 
 security, their various fortunes, their listeners 
 were more likely to be inflamed by the admi- 
 ration of their success, than deterred by suf 
 ferings or perils, which greater foresight or 
 felicity might easily ward off from themselves. 
 
 Towards the close of the eleventh age 
 about the year 1076, the dominion of Palestine 
 was torn from the Arabian dynasty by the 
 wilder hand of the Turks. The pure flmati 
 cism of that rude people was not yet softened 
 by friendly intercourse with the followers of 
 the adverse faith, nor would it stoop to yield 
 even to the obvious dictates of interest. Many 
 outrages were at this time unquestionably per- 
 petrated upon the strangers who visited the 
 sepulchre, and upon the Christian natives and 
 sojourners in Syria. Those who returned 
 from the East were clamorous in their des- 
 criptions and their complaints ; and tales of 
 suffering and of sacrilege, of the prostration of 
 Christ's followers, the profanation of his name, 
 the pollution of his holy places, tales of jMos- 
 lem oppression and impiety, were diffused 
 and exaggerated and believed, with fierce and 
 revengeful indignation, from one end of Eu- 
 rope to the other. 
 
 fVarlike Spiiit of the Age. — Whatsoever 
 may have been the merits of the feudal prin- 
 ciples in earlier times, they had degenerated, 
 in the eleventh century, into a mere code 
 of military service and subordination. The 
 whole business, the pleasure, the passion of 
 that age was war. It animated alike the cities 
 and the villages ; it presided over the domestic 
 regulations of every family ; it was familiar 
 with the thoughts, where it did not constitute 
 the habits, of every individual. Even the 
 higher orders of the clergy forgot their spirit- 
 ual in their secular obligations, and very com 
 raonly engaged in the same pursuits from 
 
368 HISTORY OF 
 
 common necessity. * It was in vain that 
 Charlemagne had restrained by his Capitula- 
 ries that preposterous practice. The policy 
 of Charlemagne was too wise for the times in 
 which be lived* he attempted to anticipate 
 the operation of progressive ages ; he enacted 
 some useful laws ; but he was unable to per- 
 petuate a premature, and therefore transient, 
 civilization. No sooner was he removed by 
 death than inveterate barbarism resumed its 
 sway, and the bulwark which his single hand 
 had raised against the principles, customs, 
 and prejudices of ancestral ignorance, was 
 hastily swept away. During the two centu- 
 ries which followed, in spite of the general 
 exertions of the clergy, as a body, to arrest 
 the desolating spirit, in spite of canonical leg- 
 islation and ecclesiastical censure, the practice 
 of private warfare continued with no mitiga- 
 tion. Early in the eleventh age, the Treuga 
 Dei (the Truce of God) was solemnly enjoin- 
 ed, with the purpose of enforcing a suspension 
 of hostilities during certain days in every 
 week. But though this humane ordinance 
 was frequently confirmed and reiterated, there 
 was no age in which the military frenzy had 
 such general prevalence throughout Europe, 
 none in which the exercise of arms and the 
 effusion of blood were so completely the habit, 
 the motive, almost the morality, of the west- 
 ern nations. 
 
 Superstitious zeal. — At a period when re- 
 ligious notions or observances were mingled 
 with all customs and all institutions, and thus 
 interwoven with the whole texture of private 
 as well as public life, — and when, besides, the 
 corruptions of Christianity had so superseded 
 its genuine spirit, that the notions which we 
 have called religious should rather have been 
 designated superstitious, — the ruling passion 
 of the age was easily associated with its ruling 
 weakness. Martial enterprise went hand in 
 hand with enthusiasm, misnamed pious ; the 
 exploits of the one were consecrated by the 
 expressions, sometimes by the feelings, of the 
 other ; and the words of the priest were re- 
 peated, or the image of the Saviour embraced, 
 even in the fiercest moments of the strife. 
 Abject ignorance, followed by credulity, held 
 dominion almost undisputed ; and the minds 
 
 * Olim (says Guido, abbot of Clairville) non liabe- 
 bant castclla et arces eccleslaj cathedralcs, ncc ince- 
 debant pontificcs loricati. Sed nunc, propter abiin- 
 dantiarn teinporaliiim rerum, flairima, ferro, ctcde 
 posscssioncs ecdesiarum prailali defenduiit, quas de- 
 berent paii[)eribus orogarc. Du Cange, Gloss. Lat., 
 art. Advocatiis. Tlie abbot's olim extended llirongli 
 first five centuries, and not much later. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 of men were destitute of any moral princip e« 
 to restrain, or any moral knowledge to direct, 
 the course of their passions. The faculties 
 which distinguish sense from absurdity, piety 
 from fanaticism, truth from falsehood and im- 
 posture, were extinct or dormant ; and a rest- 
 less and irrational generation lay exposed to 
 the impulse of any rising tempest. 
 
 On such an age and race, — so inured to the 
 use of arms, so alive to the emotions of re- 
 ligion, so familiar with the practice of holy 
 pilgrimage, — the indignity of Turkish oppres- 
 sion, the outrages on the name and sepulchre 
 of Christ, fell with an electric efficacy. At 
 another time, under other circumstances, the 
 bolt might have passed by unfelt and almost 
 unheeded ; but at that moment it was no 
 premature nor unseasonable visitatiop, but it 
 found men prepared, and intensely sensible 
 to its operation ; and the flash which attend- 
 ed it descended on materials prepared for ex- 
 plosion. 
 
 It argues a superficial knowledge both of 
 nature and of history to suppose that a phe- 
 nomenon, so astounding as the first crusade, 
 could have been produced in any condition 
 of society without strong predetermining 
 causes ; and that the preaching of the Hermit 
 or even the indulgences of the Pope could 
 have excited to that enterprise, minds that 
 were not deeply disposed to receive the im- 
 pulse. There are some, indeed, who consider 
 the increase of pontifical power during the 
 eleventh age, under the auspices of Hilde- 
 brand, to have been a leading cause in pro 
 ducing the Crusades. It is true that, a cen- 
 tury earlier, the aspirations of Sylvester II. 
 were without effect : it is more remarkable 
 that even Gregory himself, though professing 
 an ardent and even personal eagerness for the 
 enterprise, carried his project to no result ; 
 while Urban, with much less individual in- 
 fluence, accomplished the work with great 
 Tacility. But in the time of Sylvester, some 
 of the popular motives for the crusade did not 
 yet exist, others had not attained sufficient 
 prevalence and maturity; and Gregory was 
 diverted from his scheme by the more press- 
 ing solicitations of domestic ambition. But 
 when Urban threw the torch among the mul- 
 titudes of Placentia and Clermont, their hands 
 were prepared and eager to seize it, and ex- 
 tiiiguish it in Moslem blood. A i)ilgrimage to 
 the sepulchre of Christ was then a common 
 and almost customary act of devotion ; a pil- 
 grimage in arms was congenial with the spirit 
 of a warlike race ; to liberate the holy i)lace8 
 and to chastise the usurpers were objin-ts con- 
 
THE CRUSADES, 
 
 sistent with each other, and with the ruHng 
 principles of the age. 
 
 Objects of the first Crusarfe.— And such were 
 the objects of the first crusade— to deliver the 
 Holy Land from a state of imaginary pollution, 
 and to take vengeance on the infidel possessor. 
 No consideration of distant consequences, nor 
 even of immediate utility, entered into them. 
 Reason was not consulted, iTor were her pre- 
 cincts approached: of the passions themselves, 
 those most akin to reason had no share in the 
 adventure. Ambition was silent in the up- 
 roar. * Policy might, indeed, have offered 
 plausible justification, by suggesting that the 
 hurricane which had wasted Asia might pre- 
 sently break over Europe ; but the argumenta 
 justi metus,if they have satisfied some writers 
 on this subject, entered not in any degree in- 
 to the motives of the Crusaders. They were 
 not men to calculate remote dangers ; still less 
 did they perplex themselves with any theo- 
 retical speculation as to the right of hostility, 
 or seek their excuse in the antichristiau prin- 
 ciples of their enemy. From the rule and 
 practice of Mahometan aggression, they might 
 almost have inferred the right of reciprocal 
 invasion ; but they looked for immortality, 
 not for justification ; it never occurred to 
 them to doubt the justice, or rather the holi- 
 ness, of their cause ; they sought no plea or 
 pretext, except in the })assion of their re- 
 ligious frenzy and in the sharpness of their 
 sword. 
 
 There was still another motive which might 
 have seemed substantial 'to the warriors of 
 those days, and which they might equally 
 have borrowed from the Infidel — a design to 
 convert the miscreants by force, and to drag 
 them in chains to the waters of baptism ; but 
 even this project held no place among the in- 
 centives to the Jirst crusade. In later times, 
 indeed, when, in the vicissitudes of military 
 adventure, the arms of the iVIahometan were 
 found to preponderate, some faint attempts 
 were made, or meditated, f to convince those 
 
 ♦ The success which had attended the Asiatic, and 
 even Syrian, campaigns of Nicephorus, Phocas, and 
 John Zimisces (963 — 975) might have offered rea- 
 sonable hopes to the arnbition of the Crusaders, and 
 almost justified the military policy of the expedition 
 — if ambition or policy had ever entered into their 
 consideration. 
 
 t In 1285, Honorius IV., in order to convert tlie 
 Saracens, strove to establish at Paris schools for 
 Arabic and other oriental languages. The Council 
 of Vienna, in 1312, recommended the same method; 
 and Oxford, Salamanca, Bologna, as well as Paris, 
 were places selected for the establishment of the Pro- 
 47 
 
 369 
 
 whom it proved impossible to subdue but 
 the earliest soldiers of the Cross were mcved 
 by no such design : they rushed in thought- 
 less precij)itation to an unprofitable end, and 
 they believed that a Power irresistibly im 
 polled them, and that that Power was — the 
 Will of God. 
 
 Of those which followed. — These remarks 
 are properly confined to the origin of the first 
 crusade — to that burst of pure fanaticism 
 which was itself unmixed with worldly in- 
 centives, though it opened the field for other 
 enterprises, proceeding from the usual motives 
 of human action. An inattention to this dis- 
 tinction has misled some writers, who, failing 
 to discriminate between the circumstances 
 which produced, and those which nourished, 
 the crusades, have not taken an accurate view 
 of either. A multitude of causes combined 
 to impel the machine when it was once in 
 motion, though the agency which launched 
 it was simple and uniform. In the first place, 
 by the success of the first expedition, an im- 
 portant kingdom was established in the East. 
 Immediately measures were taken to provide 
 for its protection, and secure its stability 
 Natives of most of the western states settled 
 in Palestine. The Latin colony adopted the 
 feudal discipline, and the common constitu 
 tion of Europe. Hence a thousand links 
 were extended of sympathy and of interest , 
 and together they formed an entirely neu 
 ground for exertion, and gave a different 
 character to the movement which agitated 
 the West. Henceforward, reciprocal rela- 
 tions existed ; the honor of Christendom was 
 now engaged to maintain its conquests over 
 the unbehever ; it was held base to relinquish 
 a possession, acquired through so many losses, 
 even by those who might not think the Josses 
 counterbalanced by the possession. It is one 
 thing to rush into a desperate enterprise, and 
 another to encounter some additional risk in 
 defence of that, which by much previous risk 
 has been achieved. 
 
 Not one of the sovereigns of Europe was 
 either personally engaged in the first crusade, 
 or very zealous in promoting it: it proceeded 
 from sources wholly distinct from the policy 
 of courts and the springs of civil government. 
 But the second, and most of the following 
 expeditions, were und^ertaken,^ some with the 
 aid and countenance, others under the very 
 authority and direction, of the leading mon- 
 archs. It is unnecessary to observe how 
 
 fe^sorships. But the decree appears to have remain- 
 e l without effect, until Francis I. called it into life 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 370 
 
 many different ingredients were thrown into 
 the cup of fanaticism by such co-operation, — 
 obedience to the command, affection for the 
 person, gratitude for the favor, hope from the 
 generosity, of the prince — and, what was 
 scarcely less potent than these, the seal of ap- | 
 probation which stamped the practice, which j 
 gave it prevalence and fashion, which placed I 
 it among the ordinary means of distinction, 
 among the legitimate duties of military ser- 
 vice. . . Again, the policy, which mixed 
 itself altnost necessarily with the royal mo- | 
 tives, entirely lost sight in some cases of the 
 original object. The pollution of the holy 
 places was forgotten in the fruitful prospect 
 of the plains of Egypt, or of the commerce 
 which thronged the African ports ; in such 
 'iianner, as to make it very questionable 
 whether plunder, rather than conquest, was 
 not the principal motive of three, at least, 
 among the latest crusades. St. Lewis himself 
 was, perhaps, as politic as he was pious ; and 
 it is not easy to perceive how the sufferings 
 of the Holy Land could have been much al- 
 leviated by any advantages which he might j 
 have achieved before the walls of Tunis. At | 
 any rate, though the same vows and intentions j 
 might still be professed, very different incen- 
 tives were certainly proposed, and very dif- 
 ferent methods adopted, to accomplish them. 
 
 The policy of the Popes. — The principles 
 and motives of the Vatican, which are gen- 
 erally found so consistent, were subject to 
 some fluctuation in the encouragement which 
 it extended to the crusades. The feeling of 
 Sylvester appears to have been the anticipation 
 of that, which animated the first adventurers a 
 centiu-y afterwards. Gregory VIL had more 
 specific and tangible objects. His practical 
 mind was not perhaps much moved by the 
 tears fef Palestine and the tales of her pollu- 
 tion; but he considered the union of the rival 
 churches, and the general triumph of the 
 Christian over the Moslem cause, as projects 
 not unworthy of the confederacy of the West, 
 gnd of his own superintendence. 
 
 The Popes of the 12th century followed, 
 where they did not direct or inflame, the pas- 
 sion of their age ; and the successive arma- 
 ments of martyrs were launched with the 
 apostolical benediction on their holy destina- 
 tion. TJut the designs of Lmocent HL were 
 of a different and more selfish descrii)tion ; 
 and he did not fear to pervert to their accom- 
 plishment the machine intrusted to him for 
 other purposes. The arms which had boon 
 consecrated to the service of Clu-ist, against 
 the blasphemers of liis name, were now tuni- 
 
 : ed against the domestic adversaries of the Se« 
 of Rome. The views and policy of Innoceni 
 were purely ecclesiastical : they did not ex- 
 tend in any direction beyond the interests of 
 the Church over which he presided ; and it 
 was the impulse of the moment to crush the 
 foe in his bovsom, before he sought for a re- 
 mote and defensive enemy. 
 
 When the precedent of converting the ban- 
 ner of the Cross into a badge of Papal sub- 
 servience was once established, the name and 
 object of a holy war passed through different 
 methods of profanation ; and the sword of 
 the Crusader, after being steeped in heretical 
 blood, was drawn, in the same hateful service, 
 against a Catholic adversary. The Popes had 
 thus accomplished their final object in sub- 
 stituting the defence of the Church — which 
 really meant the temporal interests of the See 
 of Rome — as a recognised object for arming 
 the subjects of all governments, in the name 
 of Christ; and to this purpose the plenary 
 indulgence, still the great lever of popular 
 fanaticism, was commonly and not vainly 
 applied. 
 
 From that time forward it does not appear 
 that the Vatican pursued any fixed policy 
 respecting the expeditions really undertakem 
 for the chastiseinent of the Infidel. Its gen- 
 eral voice was indeed loud in their favor; 
 and bulls and exhortations were perpetually 
 promulgated to quicken or revive the ardor 
 of the Faithful. Notwithstanding, there were 
 particular occasions — such as the attempts of 
 Frederic IT. and the seventh crusade — on 
 which the pontifical power was employed to 
 thwart, or even to prevent, the enterprise. 
 But the secret of this fluctuation was too often 
 and too openly betrayed. The advantage 
 and aggrandizement of Rome was now be- 
 come in papal eyes the only legitimate object 
 of the religious spirit ; and, according to the 
 more modern an^ favorite method, she now 
 turned that spirit into the channel of her ava- 
 rice. The Indulgence, which in the first 
 instance was only granted as the reward of 
 actual service in the holy cause, was, in pro- 
 cess of time, publicly exchanged for gold ; 
 and the timid or indolent devotee was first 
 permitted, and afterwards encouraged, to re- 
 deem by his wealth the toils and dangers of a 
 military penance. Again : Innocent III. had 
 taxed the clergy of Europe for the benefit of 
 the Holy Land ; but presently we find com- 
 plaints, that the tax was become the object, 
 instx^ad of the means, and the crusade only 
 the pretext. And thus the treasury of Rome 
 was filled, amidst the disappointment of all 
 
THE CRUSADES. 
 
 371 
 
 honest enthusiasts and the murmurs of a de- 
 frauded priesthood. The memory of Gregory 
 VII., and the fame of his spiritual triumph 
 and lofty ambition, were put to shame by the 
 sordid cupidity of his degenerate successors. 
 
 Decline of the Crusading Spirit. — The above 
 observations are sufficient to show how wide- 
 ly both the causes and objects of the Crusades 
 varied during the long period of their contin- 
 uance, and how far they sometimes deviated 
 from the pure martial fanaticism of their ori- 
 gm. As they were thus mixed up with the 
 ordinary motives of policy, and were de- 
 graded to the selfish service of Rome, so the 
 fuel by which they were nourished gradually 
 disappeared, and the flame insensibly burnt 
 out ; and in this circumstance we observe the 
 limits to which the influence of the Vatican 
 itself was confined. When popular spirit 
 was kindled by other causes, the Pope was 
 abundantly powerful to fan and excite it ; 
 when it had risen to the height of its fury, he 
 had control sufficient to misdirect it ; but 
 when it began to sink and die away, his ut- 
 most efforts were unable to sustain or revive 
 it. As long as the Vatican was contented to 
 feed and minister to the universal passion, its 
 influence, which was really great, appeared 
 to have no bounds ; but when that passion 
 had once subsided, the Pontiffs lost their hold 
 on human weakness ; and neither the increase 
 of exemptions* or indemnities, nor the mul- 
 
 * The Crusaders, besides their plenary indulgences, 
 had several alluring temporal privileges, which are 
 perhaps correctly reduced under the following heads: 
 — 1. They were exempted from prosecution for debt 
 during the time of their service. 2. From paying 
 in*erest for the money which they had borrowed for 
 the outfit. 3. For a certain time, if not entirely, 
 from the payment of taxes. 4. They might alienate 
 their lands without the consent of the superior lord. 
 5. Their persons and effects were taken under the 
 protection of St. Peter, and anathemas denounced 
 against all who should molest them. 6. They enjoy- 
 ed all the privileges of ecclesiastics; such as not be- 
 ng bound to plead in civil courts, &c. — (See Robert- 
 son's Proofs and Illustrations.) It remained, of 
 course, very uncertain how far these privileges would 
 be acknowledged by the secular authorities, and to 
 what extent those civil courts would consent to forego 
 their jurisdiction over so large a multitude; and thus 
 the real value of these papal immunities depended 
 on the Pope's influence, and various other causes. 
 The serfs who exchanged their agricultural service 
 for that of the Cross appear by that act to have' ob- 
 tained their freedom: at least, that which was con- 
 ferred by common military service, would scarcely be 
 withheld from the crusader 
 
 tiplication of indulgences, availed to inflame 
 the descendants of those spontaneous enthu- 
 siasts, who, in obedience to the preaching of 
 the Hermit, had rushed forth to restore the 
 honor of Christ, and avenge the wrongs of 
 his worshippers. 
 
 Effects of the Crusades. — As the causes, from 
 which the crusading frenzy at first broke forth, 
 were of long and regular growth, so likewise 
 was the process of its extinction slow and 
 gradual. Throughout the space of two hundred 
 years, the original flame, though continually 
 sinking, was not wholly lost; — it was still min- 
 gled, though in smaller proportions and fainter 
 colors, with the various mass of new motives, 
 which ineffectually endeavored to supply its 
 place, and which really derived their bright- 
 ness from it. But when at length the sky 
 cleared, and the last clouds had passed away, 
 what were the traces of evil or of good which 
 were left upon the face of the earth ? What 
 permanent effects were engraven upon the 
 destinies of Europe by the violent hand which 
 had so long directed them ? From a system of 
 military aggression, which had no foundation 
 in reason, or even in those passions which are 
 nearest to reason, few indeed were the fruits 
 which could be expected for the benefit of 
 society ; and if any such did in effect proceed 
 from the crusades, it was through circumstan- 
 ces wholly independent of their design. It 
 appears to us, that these fortuitous advantages 
 were both few in number and extremely par- 
 tial. Perhaps it would be unreasonable to 
 dispute that the decline of the baronial des- 
 potism, with the birth of municipal rights on 
 the one hand, and the just extension of royal 
 authority on the other, was accelerated by the 
 violent alienations of property which the cru- 
 sades occasioned ; but those salutaiy changes 
 would have been produced, and perhaps at 
 no later period, by the sure agency of wiser 
 principles, advancing with the advancement 
 of knowledge. We may indeed hail the acci- 
 dent which hastened (if it hastened) their ap- 
 pearance ; but we should err were we to as- 
 cribe to it their existence. The commercial 
 benefits which historians too generally connect 
 with the expeditions to the East were princi- 
 pally confined to three cities of Italy — Venice, 
 Genoa, and Pisa ; * and if they were thence 
 
 * The results were probably unfavorable to Ham- 
 burgh, LubecK, and the other towns forming the 
 Hanseatic League, by draining the capital southward. 
 Besides the aristocratic military spirit, which wa* 
 nourished by the Crusades, is essentially anfi-com 
 mercial. 
 
372 HISTORY OF 
 
 partially reflected to some other parts of the 
 Peninsula, that was a poor compensation to 
 the commonwealth of Europe for the violent 
 extortions which exhausted its more powerful 
 members — France, Germany, and England. 
 Their treasuries were drained, and the mighty 
 sources of their national industry dried up, 
 that the sails of two or three small re])ublics 
 might overspread the ]>Iediterranean, and re- 
 ceive the first fruits of the contributions so 
 painfully levied for the chastisement of the 
 Infidel. 
 
 The loss of Christian life occasioned by the 
 Crusades is fairly calculated at more than two 
 millions. But if the mutual animosities of 
 princes, or, what was even more destructive, 
 the rage of private warfare, had been suspend- 
 ed during their continuance, some consolation 
 for the sacrifice would have been offered to 
 humanity by the repose and concord of the 
 survivors. The fact, however, was otherwise : 
 for a very few years after the departure of the 
 first crusaders, the Truce of God was indeed 
 observed ; but immediately the tide of feudal 
 barbarism returned into its former channel, 
 and proved that the passion for international 
 or domestic broils was neither consumed in 
 foreign adventure, nor superseded by the thirst 
 for it. It is even probable that the nature of 
 such contests was still further imbittered by 
 the introduction of those habits of unrelenting 
 ferocity, which are invariably generated by 
 religious warfare. 
 
 It is, again, at least questionable, whether 
 the arts of peace and civilization acknowledge 
 any obligation to the influence of the Crusades. 
 The barbarians gazed in ignorant admiration 
 at the splendid magnificence of Constantino- 
 ple — ' How great is this city ! how noble and 
 beautiful I What a multitude of monasteries 
 and palaces it contains of exquisite and won- 
 drous fabric ! How many structures are scat- 
 tered even in the streets and alleys, which are 
 marvellous to behold ! It were tedious to 
 recount what an abundance of all good things 
 is found there, of gold and of silver, of every 
 form of vestment, and of the relics of the 
 saints. ' * The records of the time are filled 
 
 * Fulcher. ap. Bongars. vol. i. p. 38(5. Fulche- 
 rius Carnotensis was chaplain to the Count of Char- 
 Ires. The original passage is cited by Mills, Hist. 
 Crus. chap. iii. It is certain that the collecting of 
 relics was a vei'y (livorite occupation with the crusad- 
 ers, who thus enriched with many remarkable trea- 
 sures the sanctuaries of the West. But to this pursuit 
 their curious industry seems to have been confined. 
 We do not learn that they brought buck any other 
 
 rHE CHURCH 
 
 with similar expressions of wild astonishment. 
 But have we any proof that these enthusiasts 
 profited by what they beheld ? — that they imi- 
 tated what they admired ? — that they strove 
 to transplant to their own soil that exotic ge- 
 nius and taste of which they felt the excel 
 lence ? Or were they merely ruffled by a 
 transient inconsequential emotion, unconnect 
 ed with any principle of action, or intelligence 
 of observation ... It is asserted, that 
 if the Greeks were far superior to the western 
 nations in the cidture of humanity, the Sara- 
 cens were scarcely less so ; and the strangers 
 had thus a double opportunity of discovering 
 and correcting their deficiencies. But it is 
 forgotten that the soldier of the Cross was no 
 enlightened and leisurely traveller, searching 
 to instruct himself and his generation ; but a 
 fierce, unlettered fanatic, proceeding on a pur- 
 pose of bloodshed. In his prejudiced eyes, 
 the civilization of the Greeks was inseparably 
 associated with luxurious indolence and ef- 
 feminate timidity ; that of the Saracens with 
 an impious faith and blaspheming tongue ; 
 and the disdain with which he regarded the 
 one, and the detestation with which he ap- 
 proached the other, repelled him eq'ially from 
 the imitation of either. And if it be true, that, 
 during the long period of two hundred years, 
 some trifling advancement in the arts of civili 
 zation did in fact take place, it would still be 
 difficult to specify a single invention as the 
 indisputable effect of the Crusades. Chrono- 
 logical coincidences are sometimes mistaken 
 for moral connexions ; and the changes which 
 distinguish any age are thus too commonly as- 
 cribed to the passion or principle which n)ay 
 have predominated at the time. But in the 
 present case, when we reflect that during the 
 eleventh centiny — before the commencement 
 of the crusades — the human mind had already 
 revived and entered upon its certain career 
 of improvement, we may indeed wonder that 
 its progress was so slow, and its exertions so 
 barren, during the two which followed ; but it 
 would be preposterous to attribute the few 
 advantages, which may really have been in- 
 troduced, to a cause which was in itself 
 decidedly hostile to every moral meliora- 
 tion. 
 
 For, since knowledge is the only sure in- 
 strument for the elevation of man, can we 
 
 contributions to the store of Euro|)ean piety, or any 
 to the store of its learning. On the other hand, 
 many monks took up arms, who would have been 
 more irmocently and more profitably empldyed af 
 home 
 
THE CRUSADES. 
 
 375 
 
 imagine a condition of society more fatal to 
 Its progress than that which was regulated by 
 the co-operation of superstitious zeal with 
 military turbulence? — wherein two princi- 
 ples, separately so fruitful of mischief and 
 misery, were leagued together against the vir- 
 tue and happiness of mankind ? What need 
 we to pursup the inevitable consequences ? 
 War assumed a more frightful character by 
 the impulse of fanaticism ; and the ordinary 
 barbarities of European strife were nmlti- 
 I)lied in the conflicts of the East. This ne- 
 cessarily grew out of the very nature of the 
 contest. When the authority of Heaven is 
 pleaded for the infliction of punishment, it 
 creates an implacable and remorseless spirit ; 
 since it supei-sedes, by a stern necessity, all 
 ordinary motives, and stifles the natural plea- 
 dings of humanity. The crusaders exclaim- 
 ed, ' It is the will of God ! ' and in that fancied 
 behest the fiercest brutalities, which the world 
 had ever beheld, sought not palliation, but 
 honor, and the crown of eternal reward. 
 
 The spirit of religious persecution appears 
 to have borrowed the peculiar * features, 
 which afterwards distinguished it, from the 
 practice, and even from the principles, of the 
 Crusades. To destroy the votaries of a dif- 
 ferent faith was esteemed an act of religion ; 
 and that, too, not so much because they were 
 dangerous, as because they differed. The prin- 
 ciple, which was originally intended against 
 Mahometans only, took root generally. The 
 rude understandings of a superstitious race 
 were perplexed. One sort of difference might 
 be as offensive to Heaven as another. The 
 word heresy was not less diligently and deeply 
 stignmtized in the tablets of the church, than 
 infidelity. To the Pope, the infallible inter- 
 preter of the spiritual oracles, the former was 
 at least as formidable and as hateful as the 
 latter. And thus the weapon which had 
 been applied with so much praise- of piety to 
 chastise the one, might be turned, with the 
 same salutary efficacy, to the extirpation of the 
 other. Through such an inference, which 
 
 * We more particularly mean ihe practice of as.' 
 saulting whole sects and districts of heretics, as such, 
 by authorized military force. The religious wars 
 between the Catholics and the Arians were of a very 
 different character from those between the Church 
 and the Albigeois, &c. ; and from the Arian Contro- 
 versy to the time of the Crusades, persecution, in the 
 West, had never the opportunity, whether it had the 
 will or not, of destroying by wholesale. The exist- 
 ence of the heresy of the Vaudois during that period ., 
 though not \nprobable, is not historically certain. 
 
 then appeared not unreasonable, urged by the 
 authority of a powerful i)ontiff, the practice 
 of religious massacre was introduced into the 
 church of Christ ; and when the ministers of 
 bigotry had once revelled in blood, they were 
 not soon or easily compelled to relinquish the 
 cup. Among the many evil consequences 
 of the Crusades, we may account this, per- 
 haps, as the worst, — that they put arms into 
 the hands of intolerance, and finally kindled 
 in the bosom of Europe the same fanatical 
 passions, with which they had desolated the 
 East. 
 
 If we are to believe the contemporary 
 historians, the heroes of the cross were re- 
 markable for their contempt of every moral 
 principle ; and the cities of Palestine were 
 peculiarly polluted by the prevalence of vice. 
 If those who resorted to the birth-place of 
 their religion were not touched even on that 
 holy spot by its plainest precepts — if the wo- 
 men were involved with the men, the priest 
 with the warrior, in equal and indiscriminate 
 profligacy — there can be no doubt in which 
 direction the moral system of Europe was in 
 fluenced by the Crusades ; nor can we sup- 
 pose that the habits acquired in Syria were 
 forgotten or abjured by the returning pil 
 grim. 
 
 The Plcnai-y Indulgence. Ecclesiastical 
 writers are equally loud in their compldints, 
 respecting the corruption sustained through 
 the same means by the discipline of the 
 church. The final cessation of canonical 
 penance is ascribed to the introduction of 
 the plenary indulgence. In uncivilized ages, 
 the moderate use of the spiritual authority 
 was unquestionably attended with advantage. 
 The practice of prayer, of fasting, of alms- 
 giving, under the superintendence of a pious 
 confessor, was salutary to the offending indi- 
 vidual and useful to society. It taught humili- 
 ation to the proud spirit ; it taught the exercise 
 of charity ; and it may often have produced the 
 genuine fruits of repentance. It is true that, 
 in early times, some discretion had commonly 
 betiU intrusted to the bishop, to mitigate and 
 even, within certain limits, to commute the or- 
 dinary penalties ; and it was not later than the 
 eighth century, that even pilgrimages to cer- 
 tain specified places were substituted for the 
 appointed penance. But before the times of 
 the Crusades there was no mention of plenary 
 indulgence. It had not hitherto been held 
 out to the sinner that, by a single act, he 
 might be discharged from all the temporal 
 
374 HISTORY OF 
 
 penalties imposed on him by the Divine Jus- 
 tice. This was an innovation exceeding the 
 boldness of all former changes, and suited to 
 the extraordinary occasion which called for 
 it. But it is properly observed, that those 
 who introduced it had forgotten the legiti- 
 mate object of canonical penance ; that it was 
 enjoined to the sinner, not so much for his 
 chastisement, as for the discipline and purifi- 
 cation * of his soul. But what, after all, were 
 the religious duties or merits, which took the 
 place of the original system, and through 
 which this full indulgence was acquired ? To 
 wear those arms, of which it had been pen- 
 ance indeed to be deprived ; to turn them 
 against a foreign, instead of a domestic foe ; 
 to engage in a mighty and soul-inspiring en- 
 terprise, instead of contesting the boundaries 
 of a manor, or the fosse of a fortress. Such 
 were the previous habits of the Crusaders ; 
 and a system, which offered pardon on such 
 easy terms, must have acted with many as 
 a positive encouragement to sin. 
 
 As the process of canonical penance was 
 commuted for the plenary indulgence, so was 
 the indulgence itself directly and unreserved- 
 ly f commuted for money. On the conse- 
 quences of this second corruption we shall 
 not further dwell, than to mention it among 
 the causes which finally operated to quench 
 the d'usading ardor. So soon as absolutions 
 were made matters of open traffic, the motive 
 became too manifest ; and thus at length the 
 preachers of Crusades attracted so few listen- 
 ers, that it became necessary to promise tem- 
 porary indulgences — of days or even years 
 — to any who would consent to attend their 
 sermons. | 
 
 The evil did not expire with its occasion ; 
 and after the Crusades were at an end, the 
 popes discovered for it a new, an easier, and 
 perhaps a more profitable object. By the in- 
 
 * Sucli was ihe original design of penance; but it 
 IS also true, that the idea of expiation, or an atone- 
 ment for sin by suffering, very soon entered into the 
 consideration, and very commonly took place of the 
 first motive. Tiiat idea is at variance with the first 
 principles of Christianity; and so far as it was pre- 
 valent, the penitential system was founded on a false 
 principle, and its abolition can be no matter of regret 
 to any true Christian. 
 
 t Penances, as we have mentioiied, had been pre- 
 viously commuted, and commuted for money too, 
 when thoy were commuted for alms: only, that vhich 
 had hitherto been sparingly and decent.y and indi- 
 re/;tly practised, grew into an avowed, authorized, 
 habitual abuse. 
 
 ■{• See Fleury's Discourse on the Crusades. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 stitution of the Jubilee (in the year 1300,) the 
 place of pilgrimage was skilfully changed 
 from Jerusalem to Rome ; ar.'d tlie Tombs 
 of the Aposdes supplied, in the popular in- 
 fatuation, the Cross and the Sepuicnre of the 
 Saviour. A consoling compensation was thus 
 made both to the avarice of the Vatican and 
 the superstition of the people ; and the indul- 
 gence was not abandoned, nor its venality at 
 all restrained, until the insulted sense and 
 piety of mankind at length revolted against 
 the enormous abuse. 
 
 If, tlien, we are obliged to admit that tne 
 effects of the Crusades were generally per 
 nicious ; if it is true that they caused an use- 
 less waste of human life, that they increased 
 the ferocity of war, that they gave a deadlier 
 form to religious persecution, that they de- 
 pressed the level of morality, that they intro- 
 duced into the discipline of the church its 
 mortal corruption. — their good effects will be 
 found insignificant in the comparison, even 
 though we should account among them the 
 aggrandizement of the sacred order ; for one 
 of their effects certainly was the immediate 
 increase of the ecclesiastical revenues. The 
 property of the Crusaders was commonly 
 placed, during the expedition, under the 
 bishop's protection ; and in case of his death, 
 it often fell, without supposing any direct 
 fraud, into the possession of the church. 
 Again, — though there were wanting neither 
 priests nor monks who assumed the cross in 
 person, yet the number of those was by no 
 means proportionate to the wealth and mul- 
 titude of the holy community ; so that they 
 suffered less severely than any other class the 
 immediate evils of the conflict. But the tax 
 which was imposed on them \)y Innocent, 
 did in effect much more than counterbalance 
 those temporary gains ; and even in the most 
 sordid calculation of the sacerdotal interests, 
 we may safely pronounce that they did not 
 permanently profit by that commotion, which 
 overthrew for a season the general welfare of 
 society. 
 
 NOTE (a) on papal DECRETALS. 
 
 In the first ages of Christianity the letters 
 written by the leading Fathers of the Church 
 for the regulation of doctrine and discipline * 
 were called Decretals (Epistola) Decretales.) 
 As the authority of the bishop of Rome grad 
 ually rose above that of other bishops and 
 I)atriarchs, he also claimed an especial defer- 
 
1 APAL DECRETALS 
 
 37.^ 
 
 ence for his epistles ; and in a synod held at 
 Rome, in 494, under Pope Gelasiiis, the de- 
 ;;rctals of the Roman prelate were invested 
 with the same authority as the canons of 
 ^ councils. 
 
 Collection of Gratian. — After the time of 
 Charlemagne, the Popes, as they felt their 
 gi'owing power, ])roceeded not only to deny 
 tiie necessity of any confirmation of their de- 
 cretals, but to distinguish and exalt them, so 
 as to supersede the canons of the church. 
 As they increased in weight, they multiplied 
 in number. Gratian, a native of Chiusi in 
 Tuscany, a monk of St. Felix of Bologna, 
 published his celebrated collection in 1151. 
 Many had been previously put forth, but 
 without obtaining any public authority. But 
 that of Gratian was more favorably received, 
 and was made the subject of the public lec- 
 tures of the canonists. It was entided the 
 Book of Decrees, or simply The Decretal — 
 Decretum,* and was divided into three parts. 
 The first of these, called The Distinction, 
 comprised one hundred and one articles, re- 
 garding chiefly the different descriptions of 
 laws, ecclesiastical and civil ; the authority of 
 the canons and decretals ; the ceremonies of 
 ordination ; the duties of the clergy; the power 
 of the pope. The second — The Causes — con- 
 tained thirty-six sections, relating to various 
 matters of church discipline and jurisdiction ; 
 — simony, appeals, evidence, elections, cen- 
 sures, testaments, sepultures, usury ; of the 
 rights of monks and abbots ; of commendams, 
 oaths, war, heresies, sorcery, &c. The third 
 part — On ike Consecration — treated of the 
 consecration of churches ; of the celebration 
 of mass and the divine offices ; of the eucha- 
 rist and other sacraments ; of fasts and festi- 
 vals, and some other subjects. The work 
 abounded in errors, not only as it attributed 
 to the false decretals and other fabrications 
 the authority of genuine compositions, but 
 also as it falsified many of the passages cited 
 from unsuspected monuments. Nevertheless, 
 it was received without hesitation ; and, after 
 furaishing alone the materials of canonical 
 learning to the schools of Europe, it became 
 a sort of basis on which new and additional 
 decrees and commentaries were fixed and 
 long supported. Another collection was made 
 by Bernardo Circa, Bishop of Faenza, in the 
 year 1191. This work was intended as a 
 ?up])lement to the Decretals of Gratian, and 
 
 * The author admitted the object and difficulty of 
 his work, when he called it Concordia Discordantium 
 Canonum. 
 
 was therefore called the Book of Exirava- 
 gants, u e. of matters not comprised in the 
 Decretals. But as this was a private compi- 
 lation, it obtained no force ; and accordingly, 
 about the year 1210, Innocent III. caused a 
 more perfect collection to be made, and gave 
 it the seal of public authority. This was called 
 the Roman Collection. 
 
 As circumstances changed, and edicts in 
 creased in multitude, fresh compilations were 
 thought necessary ; and Gregory IX. * avail 
 ed himself of so favorable an occasion for es- 
 tablishing and extending the monarchy of his 
 see. In that, which was published under his 
 auspices, and which affected to be modelled 
 on the code of Justinian, f such former con- 
 stitutions, as seemed to him unsuitable to the 
 character of his own times, were fearlessly 
 cut away, and others inserted, on the pleni- 
 tude of his own authority, which were more 
 congenial to the age and more favorable to 
 pontifical usurpation. As the compilation 
 of Tribonianus had been divided into five 
 books, so was that of Gregory. This work 
 was immediately published throughout all 
 the schools and universities of Europe ; and 
 as it w*as composed with great diligence and 
 enforced by the highest authority, it was very 
 generally and even eagerly received. 
 
 To this collection Boniface VIII. added, 
 about the year 1299, an additional book, 
 commonly known as the Sixth (Liber Sex- 
 tus,) and containing all the constitutions pos- 
 terior to the pontificate of Gregory IX. This 
 too was universally acknowledged, excepting 
 perhaps in France. It was further augment- 
 ed, in the following age, by the Clementines ; t 
 
 * It is usual to reckon five different compilations 
 of Decretals between Gratian and Gregory IX. — that 
 of the Bishop of Faenza, three during the pontificate 
 of Innocent III., and a fifth containing the Letters 
 of Honorius III. — Dupin, Bibl. Nouv., S. XII. ch. 
 iii. and x. Raimond de Pennafort was the person to 
 whom Gregory committed the labor of his compila- 
 tion. The effect of these successive collections (as 
 even the moderate Roman Catholic Historians avow) 
 was to complete the overthrow of the ancient law, to 
 establish the absolute and unbounded power of the 
 pope, and to create an infinity of suits and processes, 
 to be decided by the venal justice of the court of 
 Rome. They were extensions of the principles of 
 Gratian, as Gratian had enlarged upon those of the 
 false Decretals, in at least two important points — in 
 exempting the pope from the authority of the canons, 
 and the clergy universally from every sort of lay juris- 
 diction. See Fleury's Seventh Discourse. 
 
 t The MS. of the Pandect was discovered among 
 the ruins of Amalfi, in 1187. 
 
 X John XXII. published, in 1317, the Constitutions 
 
316 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 and they were succeeded by the Extrava- 
 gants — a name adopted, probably, from tlie 
 work of the Bishop of Faenza. These were 
 the labors of the popes of Avignon ; and 
 as the Decretum was intended to correspond 
 with the Pandects, and the Decretals with 
 the Code, so the Extravagants had their mo- 
 del in the Novelise of the imperial legislator. 
 Under these heads the different branches of 
 pontifical jurisprudence were, for a long pe- 
 riod, comprised,* until they were further aug- 
 mented by the much more modern addition 
 of the Institutions. 
 
 NOTE (e) on the university OF PARIS. 
 
 The numerous public schools or academies 
 which had previously been formed in various 
 parts of Italy and France, at Salamanca, at 
 Cologne, and elsewhere, assumed the form 
 by which they were afterwards characterised 
 during the thirteenth centuiy. The most 
 celebrated was that of Paris. It was adorn- 
 ed more than any other by the multitude, the 
 rank, and the diligence of its students, and by 
 the abilities and various acquirements of its 
 professors ; and since, while other acade- 
 mies confined their instructions to particular 
 branches of science, that of Paris alone i)re- 
 tended to embrace the entire range, it was 
 the first which took the title of University. 
 In its origin, f in the century preceding, it 
 had been composed of two classes — of artists, 
 who gave instructions in the arts and philos- 
 ophy ; and of theologians, who delivered ex- 
 positions and commentaries, some of them 
 on the Holy Scriptures (they were afterwards 
 called Biblici ;) others (denominated Senten- 
 tiarii) on Peter the Lombard's Book of the 
 Sentences. These two appear to have been 
 the earliest Faculties ; nor is mention made 
 ^f any others I in the Constitution^ delivered 
 
 of his predecessor, Clement V. They were divided, 
 as was the Liber Sextus, into five books, and recom- 
 mended by a bull to the most eminent universities. 
 
 * In this short account we have chiefly followed 
 Giannone, Stor. di Nap., lib. xix. cap. v. s. 1. See 
 also Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., Siecle XH. chap. xvii. 
 
 ■f We refer not to its antiquity, — since it boasts to 
 have been founded by Charlemagne, and augmented 
 by Lewis the Meek and Charles the Bald. Its com- 
 pletion it certainly owed to the kings of the third 
 race, especially Lewis the Young and his son Philippe 
 Auguste. It had some celelirity at the end of the 
 lenlh century; but before that epoch, the academy at 
 RhciniR seems to have been in greater repute. 
 
 X Diipin, Nouv. Biblioth., Sice. XIII., chap. x. 
 Mosliein^ Cent. XIII. p. ii. chap. i. 
 
 in 1215 by the legate of Innocent III. But 
 the other two — law and medicine — were 
 founded immediately afterwards ; and in a 
 letter addressed by the university, in 1253, to 
 all the prelates of the kingdom, the four fac- 
 ulties are boldly compared to the four rivers 
 of the terrestrial paradise. Over each of 
 these societies a doctor was chosen to pre- 
 side, during a fixed period, by the suffrages 
 of his colleagues, under the title of doyen, or 
 dean. 
 
 In the first instance, the members of the 
 academy were divided into two classes only 
 — masters and scholars. There were no dis- 
 tinctions in grade or title ; no previous cer 
 emonies were necessary for advancement to 
 any office. But the introduction of various 
 degrees, to be conferred after certain fixed 
 periods of study, followed very soon ; and 
 four were expressly specified — those of bach- 
 elor, licentiate, master, and doctor — in the 
 reform by which Gregory IX. gave a per- 
 manent character to the university. While 
 some of the Italian academies may have 
 been more eminent for a peculiar proficiency 
 in the science of law or of medicine, * the 
 palm of theological superiority wasconcededj 
 without any dispute, to Paris. To afford stiL 
 greater facilities and encouragement to this 
 study, Robert de Sorbonne, a man abounding 
 both in wealth and in piety, the chaplain and 
 friend of St. Lewis, founded, about the year 
 1250, that very renowned institution, which 
 has associated his name, for so many centu- 
 ries, with the theological labors, glories, and 
 controversies of his countrymen. 
 
 These few sentences may be sufficient to 
 call the reader's attention to an important and 
 attractive subject, and even to render intelligi- 
 ble such passing mention, as will be made 
 hereafter, of the university of Paris. But as 
 the particulars of its origin, its construction, 
 its growth, and its prosperity, do not strictly 
 belong to ecclesiastical history, we must not 
 permit them to usurp those scanty pages, 
 which may be more appropriately, if not 
 more instructively, occupied. 
 
 * As was Bologna, for instance, for the former, and 
 Salerno for the latter. Gratian published his Decre- 
 tal at Bologna; and the stimulus thus given to the 
 study of canon law continued long to produce its ef- 
 fect. The study of civil law in the same school is 
 dated from about twenty years earlier — i. e. from the 
 discovery of the Pandect. The medical precepts, 
 which issued from Salerno, are said to have been de- 
 rived from the books of the Arabians, or the schools 
 j of the Saracens in Spain and Africa 
 
THEOLOGICAL WRITERS. 
 
 377 
 
 NOTE (C) ON CERTAIN THEOLOGICAL WRITERS. 
 
 The fathers of the early Church were cau- 
 tious in provoking subtle speculations on the 
 holy mysteries, and seldom engaged in that 
 field of theology, unless to repel the invasion 
 of some popular error. And even then they 
 were usually contented to arm themselves 
 with scripture and tradition as the princi- 
 ples of their defence, reserving the resources 
 of reason for what they considered its le- 
 gitimate object in theological controversies, 
 the interpretation of the sacred writings. 
 When philosophy was at length admitted to 
 pai-lake in these debates, the method first 
 adopted, as most congenial to the sublime 
 truths of religion, was that of Plato ; and if 
 they were sometimes exalted by this alliance 
 into fantastical mysticism, they at least escap- 
 ed the degrading torture of minute and pug- 
 nacious sophistry. But the rival system also 
 found some early advocates, * though insuffi- 
 cient to give it general prevalence. Boethius 
 applied the principles of Aristotle to the mys- 
 teries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, 
 thus moving many abstruse and inexplicable 
 questions ; and John Damascenus afterwards 
 published a methodical exposition of all the 
 questions or difficulties of theology. Ln the 
 West, in the ninth century, John Scotus 
 Eiigena fell into the same snare ; but his 
 method of subtilizing was not suited to the 
 genius of his age ; and during that which fol- 
 lowed, every operation of the human mind 
 was suspended. 
 
 But when reason again awoke, she was 
 straightway delivered into the fetters of Aris- 
 totle. Towards the tniddle of the eleventh 
 century, his philosophy was taught, after the 
 Arabian method, in the public schools ; and 
 though, in the first instance, it was confined 
 to the illustration of profane subjects, yet 
 
 * To such, and to the errors occasioned by them, 
 is the allusion of Prudentius. Pref. secunda in Apo- 
 theosim. 
 
 Statum lacessunt omnipollentis Dei 
 
 Calumniosis litibus: 
 Fidem minutis dissecant ambagibus, 
 
 Ut quisque lingua nequior: 
 Solvunt ligantque quaestionum vincula 
 
 Per syllogismos plectiles. 
 Vse captiosis sycophantarum strophis, 
 
 Vse versipelli astutiee! 
 Nodos tenaces recta rumpit regula, 
 
 Infesta dissertantibus. 
 Prudentius flourished at the end of the fourth cen- 
 tury 
 
 48 
 
 as men became commonly imbued with its 
 principles, and as the whole system, political 
 and moral, in those days, was interwoven 
 with religious, or at least with ecclesiastical, 
 fionsiderations, it was not long before the 
 I)revalent system passed obsequiously into 
 the service of theology.* John the Sophist, 
 Rocellinus, Berenger, Lanfranc, Anselm, in- 
 troduced that method : it was improved by 
 Abelard ; it was rapidly propagated in all the 
 schools of Europe ; f and its immediate and 
 necessary eflfect was to multiply, without any 
 limit, the difficulties which it affected to re- 
 solve. The objects of the investigation were 
 too immense for human comprehension, yet 
 they were sought by the meanest exercise of 
 human ratiocination. The end was unattain- 
 able ; and, had it not been so, the means were 
 those least likely to have attained it. Never- 
 theless, the disputants proceeded with eager- 
 ness and confidence ; and thus it proved that, 
 in this boundless field, the most different con- 
 clusions were reached by paths nearly simi- 
 lar ; and that out of every question which it 
 was proposed to resolve, a thousand other 
 questions started forth, more abstruse, more 
 absurd, more immeasurably remote from \}^e 
 precincts of reason and of sense | tlian »Qe 
 original. 
 
 * ' Fateiidum simul est, (says Brucker, Historia 
 Critica Philosophiae,) ex quo Philosophia Saracenica 
 seculi xii Occidentis Christianis innotuit, plenis eos 
 amplexibus inconditum philosophise genus recepisse,et 
 insanientiummore in Dialecticam debaccliato*, maluna 
 malo augendo ad Theologiara earn transtulisse.' (See 
 Per. ii., par. ii., lib. ii., cap. ii. and iii.) Tliat author 
 shows, that, from the seventh until nearly the twelfth 
 age, philosophy was confined to the possession of ec- 
 clesiastics, and to the limits of the Trivium and 
 Quadrivium. The system which succeeded was call- 
 ed scholastic, as emerging from the schools of the 
 monasteries. After tlio time of Gratian, the study 
 of canon law was very commonly mixed up with it; 
 and the combination of the three incongruities, Canon 
 Law, Scholastic Philosophy, and Theology, formed 
 what Brucker aptly denominates a Triplex 3Ion- 
 strum. 
 
 t Otho Frisingensis introduced the scholastic sys- 
 tem into Germany. That prelate, the son of Leopold, 
 marquis of Austria, and Agnes, daughter of Henry 
 IV., was made bishop of Frisingen, in Bavaria, in 
 the year 1138. He attended Conrad to the Holy 
 Land in 1147, and died nine years afterwards. He 
 wrote (in seven books) a Chronological History of 
 the World, from the Creation to his own time, which 
 is frequently cited by the ecclesiastical annalists. 
 
 X Among the multitude of these questions, there 
 were some which ended, and after no very long inves- 
 tigation, in absolute infidefity. The Latin writers of 
 the thirteenth age abound with complaints (exagger- 
 
o78 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Peter the Lomhard. To impose some re- 
 straint on this great intellectual licentiousness, 
 — to revive some respect for ancient authori- 
 ties, — to erect some barrier, or at least some^ 
 landmark, for the guidance of his contempo- 
 raries, Peter the Lombard published, about 
 the middle of the twelfth century, his cele- 
 brated ' Book of the Sentences.' Born in the 
 country whence he derived his surname, and 
 educated at Bologna, then more flimous as a 
 school for law than divinity, he proceeded to 
 Paris for the prosecution of the latter study. 
 He was recommended to the patronage of St. 
 Bernard ; and presently attained such emi- 
 nence in academical erudition, that he was 
 raised, in the year 1.150, to the See of Paris. 
 The Book of the Sentences is a collection of 
 passages of the Fathers, especially of St. Hila- 
 ry, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and St. Augustin, 
 explaining and illustrating the principal ques- 
 tions, which then so violently agitated the 
 scholastic doctors. The author was cautious 
 in intermixing original observation with the 
 venerable oracles of the early Church ; and 
 he trusted, by the ancient simplicity of his 
 work, and his contempt of the fashionable 
 subtleties, to restore some respect for the less 
 vicious system of older times. The intrinsic 
 merit of this production, the talents and ex- 
 tensive learning which it exhibited, recom- 
 mended it to universal attention ; and the 
 'Master of the Sentences' long retained an 
 undisputed supremacy in the theological 
 schools. But the effect of his work was not 
 that which he had warmly and, perhaps, rea- 
 sonably anticipated. The schoolmen made 
 use of his text, principally that they might 
 hang on it their futile disceptations and com- 
 mentaries ; and so fruitful was that elaborate 
 book in matter for ingenious disputation, that 
 Peter the Lombard, so far from having arrest- 
 ed the current, is usually ranked among the 
 chiefs or fathers of the scholastic * theology. 
 
 ated, no doubt, but not unfounded) of the progress of 
 unchristian opinions, directly deduced from Aristote- 
 lian principles — that the soul perished with the body 
 — that the world had had no beginning, and would 
 have no end — that tliere was only one intellect among 
 all the human race — that all things were subject to 
 absolute fate or necessity — that the universe was not 
 governed by Divine Providence, &c., &c. We should 
 observe, that the Aristotelians declined what might 
 have been the personal consequences of these opinions 
 by a subtile distinction. These matters (they said) 
 are philosophically true — but they are theologically 
 false— Vera sunt secundum Philosophiam, non secun- 
 dum Fidcm Catholicam. See Mosheim, Cent. XHI. 
 p. I. chap, ii., and p. ii. chap. v. 
 
 • See Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., Cent. Xll. chap.xv. 
 
 St. Thomas Aquinas. If the dominion ol 
 Aristotle was for a moment suspended by the 
 decree of the council of Paris,* (in 1209) which 
 condemned to the flames his metaphysical 
 works, it was effectually restored by the pa- 
 tronage of Frederic II. That emperor caused 
 numerous translations to be made from hi? 
 most celebrated compositions, and diffused 
 through Italy, and especially at Bologna, the 
 genius which had hitherto ruled with peculiar 
 prevalence in France. At the same time, a 
 new description of disputants had grown up, 
 for whose character and offices the scholastic 
 method was admirably calculated, and who 
 carried it to its most pernicious perfection.! 
 
 Neanmoins on peut le considerer comme le chef de 
 tons les scholastiques ; car quoiqu'il ait suivi dans 
 son ouvrage una melhode bien difierente des autres, 
 quant la maniere de traiter les questions de Theo- 
 logie; son livre leur a tontefois servi de fondement 
 et de base, et ils n'ont fait en apparence que de com- 
 menter. 
 
 * The reason assigned for the condemnation of 
 Aristotle on tliis celebrated occasion was, that his 
 works had given occasion to the errors of Amalric, 
 and might probably do so to many others. (See 
 Brucker, Loc. cit.) And they did so ; but the errors 
 which scholastic subtlety raised, were as easily laid 
 by a different formula of the same incantation — they 
 appeared and disappeared, fleeting, impalpable, un- 
 substantial. The permanent heresies of the age 
 stood on firmer ground. The grievances of the Wal- 
 denses and the Wicliffiies were not the creations of 
 sophistry ; so neither could sophistry, though back- 
 ed by persecution, silence the murmurs which they 
 caused. 
 
 t We should here observe that the popes, however 
 they profited by the influence of the mendicants, were 
 by no means decided advocates of the scholastic the- 
 ology. The celebrated Epistle of Gregory IX. to 
 the doctors of Paris, contains (for instance) these 
 words — Mandamus et strict^ praecipimus, quatenus, 
 sine fermento mundana3 scientiae, doceatis theologi- 
 cam puritatem, non adulterantes verbum Dei philoso- 
 phorum figmentis . . . sed contenti terminis a 
 patribus institutis, mentes auditorum vestrorum fructu 
 cffilestis eloquii saginetis, ut liauriant a fontibus Sal- 
 vatoris. The passage is cited by Mosheim. Cent. 
 Xin. p. ii. chap. iii. Brucker (Hist. Crit. Philo- 
 soph. p. ii. Pars. ii. lib. ii. c. iii.) cites the follow- 
 ing passage from a bull of the same pope published in 
 1231. — ' Magistri vero et Scholares Theologiae . . 
 nec philosophos se ostentent, sed satagant fieri Theo- 
 didacti — nec loquantur in lingua populi linguam 
 Hebra?am cum asotica confundentes, sed de illis tan- 
 tum in scholis qua^stionibus disputent, quae per libros 
 theologicos et sanctorum patrum tractatus valcant ter- 
 minari.' But the system was extremely popular with 
 the students j their ardor was aided by the edicts of 
 Frederic XL; and the system of Aristotle, superior 
 to all edicts, was destined to yield only to the pre- 
 dominance of another system, that of polite litera- 
 ture and natural reason See Petrarch's complaints 
 
ST. BONAVENTURA. 
 
 375 
 
 The mendicants now gave laws to the acade- 
 mies of Europe ; and the rules which they 
 imposed were drawn from tlie code of Aris- 
 totle. At this time arose Thomas Aquinas, 
 the 'angelic doctor,' the Coryphaeus of the 
 disciples of the Siagyrite. He was'descendcd 
 from an illustrious family and born in the 
 neighborhood of Naples, in the year 1224. 
 He entered very young into the Dominican 
 Order, and studied at Paris and at Cologne, 
 under Albert the Great, a German scholastic, 
 the dictator of his day.*= St. Thomas (he was 
 indue season canonized by John XXH.) died 
 at the early age of fifty; but the writings which 
 he has left behind him compose seventeen 
 folio volumes. The most important among 
 them are his Commentaries on Aristotle, and 
 his Sum of Theology. But they likewise con- 
 tain most voluminous observations on various 
 books of the Old and New Testament, and 
 investigations of many theological, metaphy- 
 sical, and moral » questions. They were 
 studied in those days with insatiable avidity. 
 They are now confined to the shelves of a few 
 profound students, whence they will never 
 again descend. It might seem harsh indeed 
 to say of them, ' that they are of less account 
 in the eyes of a sage, than the toil of a single 
 husbandman, who multiplies the gifts of the 
 Creator and supplies the food of his breth- 
 len. ' f But there is room for doubt whether 
 any important practical benefits were ever 
 derived from them ; whether the reflections 
 which they awakened were generally profit- 
 able either to the present condition of man, 
 or to his future prospects. And we certainly 
 cannot question, that the spirit of contentious 
 disceptation, which they nourished and pro- 
 pagated, was injurious to one of the best 
 ])nnciples of religion, religious forbearance 
 and universal charity .J 
 
 of the dishonor brought on theology, by ' the profane 
 and loquacious dialecticians ' of his day. De Remed. 
 Utriusq. Fortun, and Tiraboschi, vol. v. p. i. lib. ii. 
 
 * This honor was, however, contested by our 
 countryman, Alexander Hales, a Franciscan, who 
 taught philosophy at Paris, and acquired the formid- 
 able title of ' The Irrefragable Doctor.' Another 
 and more attractive appellation was ' The Fountain 
 of Life.' He entered into the Franciscan Order in 
 1222, and died at Paris twenty-three years after- 
 wards. His most important work was a Commen- 
 tary on the ' Book of the Sentences,' composed by 
 the order of Innocent IV. 
 
 t The words are Gibbon's— applied to a different 
 subject. 
 
 X Fontenelle, we believe, (see Tiraboschi, Stor. 
 Lett. Ital., vol. iv. p. i. lib. ii.) has somewhere said 
 of St. Thomas Aquinas, ' that in another age and 
 
 j St. Bonavenlura. Contemporary with St, 
 I Thomas Aquinas was another celebrated or- 
 I nament of the church, St. Bonaventura. He 
 was a native of Tuscany, * and entered in the 
 year 1243 into the Order of the Franciscans. 
 He likewise completed his studies at Paris, 
 and with such success, as to acquire the title of 
 the Seraphic Doctor. In the year 125G he was 
 appointed General of his Order, and died at 
 no very advanced age. His works are less 
 voluminous than those of Aquinas, and bear 
 the stamp of a very different character.f The 
 tendency of his mind was rather towards the 
 extreme of mysticism, than that of minute and 
 frivolous disputation. It rose into the regions 
 of spiritual aspiration ; it courted no intellect- 
 ual triumphs and despised the abuse of rea 
 son. By this quality he has obtained, and in 
 a great degree merited, the eulogies of Ger- 
 son ; \ who has pronounced (and the authority 
 is respectable) that his works surpass in use- 
 fulness all those of his age, in regard to the 
 spirit of the love of God and Christian de- 
 votion which speaks in him that he is pro- 
 found without being prolix, subtle without 
 being curious, eloquent without vanity, ardent 
 without inflation. There are many (says the 
 critic) who teach the accuracy of doctrine; 
 there are others who preach devotion ; there 
 are few who in their writings combine both 
 these objects. But they are united by St. 
 Bonaventura, whose devotion is instructive, 
 and whose doctrine inspires devotion. 
 
 The celebrated controversy between the 
 Realists and the Nominalists, § of which the 
 
 under«other circumstances he would have been Des 
 Cartes.' No one ever questioned his genius and im- 
 mense erudition ; or that he has intermixed some sen- 
 sible remarks with the fashionable sophistry, — only 
 we should not value him too highly for this. A great 
 mind should oppose the evil principles of the time — 
 at least it should lend no aid to them. Roger Bacon 
 in the same age acted a nobler part. 
 
 * The Italians are justly proud of the success of 
 their countrymen in the schools of Paris. Besides 
 the three eminent ecclesiastics mentioned in the text, 
 they enumerate, among the Parisian Professors of the 
 same age, John of Parma, a Franciscan ; Egidio da 
 Roma, an Augustinian ; Agostino Trionfo of Ancona ; 
 and Jacopo da Viterbo. Through the following cen- 
 tury the series continued, though with diminished 
 brilliancy — and then it ceased. 
 
 t Both these doctors are praised for professional 
 disinterestedness. Bonaventura is related to have 
 refused the archbishoprick of York; Aquinas that of 
 Naples, as well as other dignities. 
 
 X See Dupin. Nouv. Biblioth. Cent. XIII., chap, 
 iv. 
 
 § Roscellinus, a native of Brittany, has the repute 
 i of haung invented these opinions. He was opposed 
 
330 
 
 HISTORY OF 
 
 TUE CHURCH. 
 
 I 
 
 origin was not long posterior to the general 
 study of Aristotle, was continued with no great 
 intermission till the days of Luther. The 
 fourteenth century was particularly disturbed 
 by its violence. Two of the leading champions 
 of that age were John Duns Scotus, * and his 
 disciple William of Occam. The former had 
 ventured boldly to impugn some of the posi- 
 tions and conclusions of St. Thomas Aquinas, 
 and his opinions found many advocates. These 
 formed the party of the Nominalists; and 
 since, in the political disputes of the day, they 
 favored the cause of the emperor, they fell 
 under the spiritual denunciations of the Vati- 
 can. Again, the Dominicans for the most 
 part rallied round the banners of Aquinas and 
 the pope, while the Franciscans commonly 
 defended the tenets of Scotus, a member of 
 their own order. Thus the controversy as- 
 
 by Anselm, and compelled to abjure before a Council 
 at Soissons, in 1092. He seems also to have incurred 
 some danger from a popular tumult. He was exiled 
 from France, and then passed a short time in Eng- 
 land, where he gave great offence by censuring the 
 concub.iiage of the clergy, attested by their numerous 
 illegitimate children, and by calumniating (as is said) 
 Archbishop Anselm. The writers of the Hist. Litt. 
 de la France treat him throughout as a heretic — but 
 none of his writings (if any ever existed) now re- 
 main. 
 
 * This — the subtle — doctor died in the year 1308. 
 He was a native of Dunse, in Scotland, and a Fran- 
 ci.sc:in. 
 
 sumed a new name, as its character became 
 more rancorous ; and the ambitious polem 
 ics of that and of succeeding ages severally 
 enlisted among the conflicting ranks of the 
 Thomists and the Scotists. The principal 
 points * of theological difference between 
 these renowned adversaries, were ' the nature 
 of the divine co-operation with the human 
 will,' and ' the measure of divine grace' neces- 
 sary for salvation. These were subjects which 
 have employed the devout in every age, and 
 provoked the perpetual exercise of reason. 
 But the production, which was more effect- 
 ual, perhaps, than any other, in exalting the 
 reputation of Scotus, was his demonstration 
 of the immaculate conception of the Virgin 
 Mary. The Dominicans maintained that the 
 holy Virgin was not exempt from the stain of 
 original sin ; the deeper devotion, or the bold- 
 er hypocrisy of the Franciscan supported the 
 contrary opinion. That either party was 
 right, it is beyond the capacity of man to 
 ascertain ; and it is clear, that both were 
 equally absurd, in as far as both were equally 
 positive. Yet, will it be believed that thia 
 inscrutable and most frivolous question forfn- 
 ed an important subject of difference in the 
 Roman Catholic church — a subject deemed 
 not unworthy of the cognizance of popes and 
 of councils — for the space of more than two 
 hundred years ? 
 
 * See Mosheim, Cent. XIV., p. ii., chap. iii. 
 
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 
 
 381 
 
 PART V. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Besidence of the Popes at Avignon. 
 
 ) History of the Popes. — Clement V. — conditions iin 
 posed on him by Philip — he fixes his residence in 
 France— Charges against the Templars— their seizure 
 — Council General of Vienne— its three professed ob- 
 jects—Condemnation and punishment of the Templars 
 — Remarks — Questions on the orthodoxy of Boniface 
 VIII. — Ecclesiastical abuses — Attempt at Reform — Ele- 
 vation and character of John XXII.— his avarice— the 
 apostolical chancery — his contest with Lewis of Bavaria 
 — the Emperor advances to Rome — creates a rival Pope 
 — fruitless issue of the struggle— appeals from Pope to 
 a General Council — charges of heresy against John — 
 his opinion respecting the intermediate State — commo- 
 tion in the Church— his dying confession— Remarks- 
 Benedict XII. — his virtues and endeavors to reform the 
 Church — Clement VI. — Deputation from Rome — its 
 three objects — the Jubilee — multitude of pilgrims — 
 conduct of the Romans — Temporal prerogatives exer- 
 cised by this Pope — Restrictions imposed in conclave 
 on the future Pope — Innocent VI.— and instantly broken 
 by him— his character and objects— disputes with the 
 German Church — Urban V. — passed some time at Rome 
 — but returned to Avignon — Gregory XI. — deputation 
 from Rome — Catharine of Sienna — her pretensions — 
 Embassy to Avignon — interview with the Pope — he 
 goes to Rome and dies there — Observations — (II.) Oe- 
 neral history of the Church, its heresies, ^'c. — (1.) Decline 
 of the papal power — Intestine convulsions of the Ec- 
 clesiastical States — consequent deficiencies in papal 
 revenues — means employed to replenish them — profli- 
 gacy of the Court of Avignon — surpassing that of Rome 
 — Temporal weakness and dependence of the Avignon 
 Popes — Growing contempt for spiritual censures — Ap- 
 peals to General Council — Disputes between the Pope 
 and the Franciscans — Diffusion of knowledge among 
 the laity. — (2.) Attempts at Reform feeble and ineffect- 
 ual. — (3.) The character of the rigid Franciscans — 
 Schism in that Order — The Spirituals and Brethren of 
 the Community — Their treatment by Clement V. — By 
 John XXII. — The Bull Gloriosam Ecclesiam — Some 
 Spirituals burnt for here!=y — their consequent increase 
 — they unite with Lewis of Bavaria — The Pope aided 
 by the Dominicans — Remarks — Charles IV. — Change 
 in the Imperial policy — Triumph of the Pope and In- 
 quisitors — Final division of the Franciscans — The Beg- 
 hards — The Lollards — their origin and character — their 
 alleged opinions and mysticism — Some contemporary 
 institutions of the Church — Heresy and persecution of 
 Dulcinus — The Flagellants — their origin — progress — 
 practice and sufferings— Concluding observations. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 History of the Popes. 
 
 When Philip undertook to raise the arch- 
 bishop of Bourdeaux to the pontifical chair, six 
 conditions are believed to have been imposed 
 by the monarch, and accepted by the subject. 
 Five of them stipulated for the entire forgive- 
 ness of all the insults which had been offered 
 to Boniface, and the Roman See ; for the res- 
 toration of the friends of Philip to communion 
 and favor ; for the power of exacting tenths 
 
 for the five following years ; for the condem- 
 nation of the memory of Boniface ; for resti- 
 tution of dignity to two degraded cardinals 
 and the creation of some others, friends of 
 the king. The sixth was not then specified ; 
 the mention of it was reserved for a more 
 convenient season ; * and we may remark, 
 that the others were obviously not suggested 
 by any long-sighted policy aiming a*t the per- 
 manent humiliation of the Roman See, but 
 rather by passion and temporary expediency. 
 If we except the nomination of new cardinals, 
 who would probably be French, there is not 
 one among the conditions dictated, under the 
 most favorable circumstances, by the great 
 enemy of the See, which tended in effect to 
 reduce it to dependence on his own throne, 
 or even materially to weaken any one of the 
 foundations of its power. Nor should this 
 surprise us ; since the violence which Philip 
 exhibited throughout the contest, and the 
 provocations which he received, make it pro- 
 bable, that his animosity was rather personal 
 against Boniface, than political against the 
 Church, or even Court, of Rome. 
 
 The Secession to Avignon. — The first act of 
 the Pope elect was to assemble his reluctant 
 cardinals at Lyons, to officiate at his corona 
 tion ;f and his reign, which began in 1305 and 
 lasted for nine years, was entirely passed in 
 the country where it commenced. Clement 
 V. was alternately resident at Bourdeaux, 
 Lyons, and Avignon ; and he was the first 
 among the spiritual descendants of St. Peter, 
 who insulted the chair and tomb of the apostle 
 by continual and voluntary absence: his ex- 
 ample was followed by his successors until 
 the year 1376. Thus for a period of about 
 seventy years, the mighty pontifical authority 
 
 * Bzovius, Contin. of Baron. Annal. Ann. 1305, i 
 Fleury, liv. xc. s. xlix. Giannone, lib. xxii. cap . 
 viii. Historians are not agreed what the sixtli con- 
 dition was — some assert that it was to heap additionaJ 
 anathemas on Boniface, and burn his bones; others 
 suppose it to have been fulfilled bv the condemnation 
 of the Templars, others by the transfer of the papal 
 residence to France. The violence of Philip's cha- 
 racter, and the mere temporary character of most of 
 his other stipulations, make the first, perhaps, the 
 most probable conjecture. 
 
 t King Philip ofiiciated also, and condescended 
 to lead the Pope's horse by the bridle, according to 
 the ancient fashion of Imperial humiliation. Lyons 
 boasted to be a free city, and the bishop had, in fact, 
 gained the principal authority there, to the exclusion 
 of that of the king of France. 
 
382 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 which was united by so many ties to the name 
 of Rome, which in its nature was essentially 
 Italian, and which claimed a boundless extent 
 of despotism, was exercised by foreigners, in 
 a foreign land, under the sceptre of a foreign 
 prince. This humiliation, and, as it were, 
 exile of the Holy See,* has been compared by 
 Italian writers to the Babylonian captivity; 
 and a notion, which may have originated in 
 the accidental time of its duration, has been 
 recommended by other points of similarity. 
 French authors have regarded the secession 
 to Avignon in a very different light — but we 
 shall venture no remarks on the general char- 
 acter of this singular period, until we have 
 described the leading occurrences which dis- 
 tinguished it. 
 
 Clement V. immediately fulfilled most of 
 the stipulated conditions — he restored the par- 
 tisans of the French king to their honors ; he 
 created several new cardinals, Gascons or 
 Frenchmen; he revoked the various decrees 
 made by Boniface VIII. against France, even 
 to the Bull Unam Sanctam — at least he so 
 qualified its operation, as not to extend it to a 
 country wJiich had merited that exception by 
 its faithful attachment to the Roman See ; — 
 but when called upon to publish a formal con- 
 demnation of the memory of that pontiff, he 
 receded from his engagement with the direct 
 avowal, that such an act exceeded the limits 
 of his authority, unless fortified by the sanction 
 of a General Council. 
 
 Very soon afterwards, rumors were propa- 
 gated respecting various abominations, both 
 religious and moral, perpetrated by the Order 
 of the Knights Templars — not in occasional 
 licentiousness, but by the rule and practice of 
 the society. Information of these offences was 
 first communicated to Philip, afterwards to 
 the pope ; both parties attached, or affected to 
 attach, infinite importance to it ; and at length 
 it was determined to refer that question also 
 to a G'?neral Council. The Pope issued or- 
 ders for such an assembly, and appointed 
 Vienne, in Dauphiny,as the place of its meet- 
 ing. In tiie meantime, Philip caused all the 
 Tem[)lars in his dominions to be seized in one 
 day (October 30, 1307;) and Clement exerted 
 himself with various, but very general, suc- 
 cess to engage the other sovereigns of Europe 
 to the same measure. 
 
 Council of Vienne. — On October 1, 1311, 
 t'ne Council assembled. Its professed objects 
 
 were three: — 1. To examine the charges 
 against the Templars and secure the purity 
 of the Catholic Faith. 2. To consult for the 
 relief of the Holy Land. 3. To reform the 
 manners of the clergy and the system of the 
 Church.* The first of these terminated in 
 the entire suppression of the Order; their 
 property f was transferred to the Knights of 
 the Hospital, who were considered a more 
 faithful bulwark against the progress of the 
 Infidel — (it was thus that the second purpose 
 of the assembly was also supposed to be ef- 
 fected ;) while their persons were consigned 
 to the justice of provincial Councils, to be 
 guided by the character, confession, or con- 
 tumacy of the individual accused. By these 
 means the greater part unquestionably escaped 
 ji with their lives ; but several were executed, 
 and among these the Grand Master and the 
 Commander of Normandy suffered under 
 singular circumstances. They had confessed 
 their guilt, and were consequently condemn- 
 ed by the bishops, to whom that ofiice had 
 been assigned by the Pope, to the mitigated 
 punishment of perpetual imprisonment. On 
 hearing this sentence, they retracted their con- 
 fession and inflexibly j)rotested their entire in- 
 nocence. The cardinals remanded them for 
 further trial on the morrow, but in the mean- 
 time, Philip, having learnt what had passed, 
 and not brooking even so trifling a delay in 
 the chastisement of an enemy, caused them to 
 be burnt alive in a small island in the Seine, 
 on the same evening. They endured their 
 torments with great constancy ; and the as 
 sembled crowd, as it believed their guilt, was 
 astounded by their firmness. 
 
 Probable Innocence of the Templars. — On 
 the reality of their guilt or innocence depends 
 the character of Clement V. ; for it is not pro- 
 bable that he was deceived in a matter so im- 
 portant, involving the lives and property of so 
 numerous and powerful a body, and to a cer- 
 tain extent the interests and honor of so many 
 kings and nations. It is true, that it was by 
 Philip that the first attack was made both up- 
 on their character and their persons ; but the 
 
 * The Popes who reigned at Avignon, and who 
 «ere all French, were — Clement V. — John XXH. — 
 Benedict XH. — Clement VI. — Innocent VI.— Urban 
 \. — Gregory XI. 
 
 * Bzov. Contin, Baron. Ann., 311, s. i. Fleury, 
 1. xci. sect. xxvi. 
 
 f Excepting that in Spain and Portugal, which 
 was consecrated to the formation of a new order, 
 with the prospect of a Moorish Crusade, under tlie 
 especial superintendence of the pope. We find it, 
 moreover, affirmed by Dupin, Nouv. Bibliolh. Cent. 
 XIV. chap. ii. that the publication of the Bull for 
 the dissolution of the order was prevented in Ger- 
 many, and tliat the Templars were there acqi itied by 
 a Provincial Council. 
 
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 
 
 38-3 
 
 blast which he sounded was presently repeated 
 by the Pope, and reiterated in every quarter 
 of Europe. Again, the Templars were rich ; 
 and notwithstanding the nominal disposal of 
 their property which was made at Vienne, 
 there were few princes who entirely lost so 
 favorable an opportunity for spoliation.* It is 
 admitted, indeed, that Philip continually dis- 
 claimed any avaricious motive for his aggres- 
 sion ; and that he does not appear in fact to 
 have turned his success to those ends ; but he 
 was irritated by their opposition to some for- 
 mer schemes, and against the Grand Master, 
 in particular, he was known to entertain a 
 personal and implacable animosity. ... As 
 to the proofs of their guilt — the confessions, 
 which several are affirmed to have made, do 
 not rest on any satisfactory evidence, though 
 it seems probable, that some did really ac- 
 knowledge all that was imputed to them. 
 But of these, some may have been driven into 
 weakness by torment or terror ; while others, 
 individually guilty, may have imputed to the 
 society their private crimes. At any rate, 
 their confessions are confronted by the firm- 
 ness of many others, who repelled, under 
 every risk and torture, the detestable accusa- 
 tions. Indeed many of the charges were of 
 a nature so very monstrous, f so very remote 
 from reason or nature, as almost to carry with 
 thetn their own confutation — at least, the most 
 explicit and unsuspicious evidence was neces- 
 sary to establish their truth ; and none such 
 was offered. 
 
 Philip was more successful in his efforts 
 to destroy an ancient and powerful Military 
 Order, than to disgrace the memory of an 
 insolent pontiff; and the Council, which sup- 
 pressed the Templars with such little show 
 of justice or humanity, contended with in- 
 vincible eagerness for the reputation of Bo- 
 
 * As the princes enjoyed the rents of the landed 
 estates, until the coinniissioners of tlie Knights of 
 Rhodes had made out their claims, there arose great 
 delays in resigning them. Philip himself retained a 
 certain siun for the expenses of the prosecution; but 
 not sufficient to justify any suspicion of rapacity. 
 
 f They are contained (see Bzovius, Ann. 1308, s. 
 iii.) in six charges and fourteen questions — involving 
 hifidelity, blasphemy, and the most abominable im- 
 purities. That which the sufferers appear most gen- 
 erally to have confessed under the torture. Was the 
 public denial of Christ, as a condition of admission 
 into the Order, attended with insults to the cross. 
 VVc need scarcely refer the reader to the excellent re- 
 marks of Voltaire and Sismondi on this subject. The 
 latter especially confirms his opinion, that the Temp- 
 ers were sacrificed, by contemporary autliority and 
 8ubslanlia\ reasons. Ital. Rep., ch. xix. 
 
 niface. It was perseveringly attempted to 
 attach the stain of heresy to his name ; but 
 though the king pursued this design with all 
 the vehemence of malignity and revenge, the 
 prelates assembled at Vienne, three hundred 
 in number, * unanimously proclaimed his 
 spotless orthodoxy — that he died, as he had' 
 fived, in the bosom of tlie Catholic faith. 
 Disappointed in this favorite hope, the king 
 was compelled to seek consolation in an edict 
 published at the same time by the pope, which 
 accorded a gracious pardon to the enemies 
 and caluminators of Boniface. 
 
 The abuses of the Church. — For the third 
 and worthiest object of the labor of the Coun- 
 cil, an abundant harvest was provided by the 
 multiplied abuses of the Church. It was 
 complained that (in France at least) the Lord's 
 day was more generally devoted to business 
 or to pleasure than to divine worship ; that 
 the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was frequently 
 delegated to improper persons, and by them 
 so scandalously perverted, that the censures 
 of the Church had lost their power and their 
 terrors ; that many contemptible individuals, 
 defective alike in learning and in morals, were 
 admitted to the priesthood ; that prebends and 
 other dignities, being now in most cases filled 
 by the pope, seldom by the bishop, were 
 usually presented to strangers and even for- 
 eigners, men of dissolute morals, elevated by 
 successful intrigues at the Court of Rome ; 
 and that thus the young and deserving as- 
 pirants for ecclesiastical promotion were fie- 
 quently compelled to abandon the profession 
 with disgust, and invariably became the bit- 
 terest and most dangerous enemies of the 
 Church. Another abuse was, the immoderate 
 indulgence of pluralities ; many held at the 
 same time four or five, some not fewer than 
 a dozen benefices. Another evil mentioned, 
 is the non-residence of many of the higher 
 clergy, occasioned by the necessity of person 
 ally watching their interests at the Vatican. 
 The sumptuous luxury in which they lived, 
 and the negligence and indecency with which 
 the divine services were performed, consti- 
 tuted another charge against the beneficed 
 clergy. The profligacy and simony, publicly 
 
 * Bzov. ad ann. 1312, i. A very tedious process 
 against the orthodoxy of Boniflice had been carried 
 on in 1310, before the pope at Avignon, where No- 
 garet appeared as his principal accuser, and the Agent 
 of Philip. But Clement, unwilling on the one hand 
 to offend the King, and not daring on the other to 
 scandalize the Church, interposed so many delays, 
 that Philip at length decided to await the decision 
 of the General Council See Fleury, 1. xci. s. xliii 
 
384 HISTORY OF 
 
 practised at the Roman Court, swelled the 
 long list of its acknowledged deformities. * 
 On the dissolution of the Council, Clement 
 published, in 1313, its canons, which were 
 fifty-six in number. Most of these were, in- 
 deed, nominally directed to the reformation 
 of the Church ; the progress of heresy was 
 vigoiously opposed ; and attempts were made 
 to prevent or heal some divisions now begin- 
 ning to spring up ivithin the Church : sub- 
 jects to which we shall presently recur. 
 Some constitutions likewise regulated the re- 
 lation of the bishops to the Monastic Orders ; 
 and others imposed greater decency on the 
 lower f orders of the clergy ; but the grand 
 and vital disorders of the Church, those from 
 which its real danger proceeded, and which 
 were in fact the roots whence the others 
 started into life and notice, these were left to 
 flourish unviolated, and to spread more and 
 more deeply into the bosom of the commun- 
 ion. 
 
 Eledion of John XX//.— Clement V. died X 
 very soon afterwards, and his death was fol- 
 
 * The pope ordered all tlVe bishops to bring with 
 the n to the Council expositions of all which seemed 
 to demand correction. Two of thest memoirs are 
 still extant, and from them the abuses here briefly 
 enumerated are taken. See Fleury, liv. cxi. s. li., 
 ii. Semler, sec. xiv. cap. ii. • Infinita fere sunt 
 qufe reformari deberent; ignorantur quasi totaliter a 
 Cliristianis articuli fidei et aha qute ad religionem et 
 salutem animarum pertinent . . . Monachi non 
 vivunt in suo monasterio; sicut equus elTrenis discur- 
 runt, mercantur, et alia enormia faciunt, de quibus 
 loqui verecundum est et tnrpe . . prjelati non possunt 
 bonis personis hodie providere obstante multitudine 
 Clericonim apud Curiam Romanam impetrantium, 
 qui quidem nunquam Ecclesiam intrarunt . . etiam 
 pueri obtinent dignitates . . Utinam Cardinales, qui 
 sunt animalia pennata, plena oculis ante et retro, 
 talia perspiciant . . similes sibi similes eligunt . . 
 bene dico opus esse in Capite etiam et in membris 
 reformatione. ' The author of this bold appeal to the 
 Head, which was not itself excepted from the general 
 censure, is not known to posterity — the document is 
 given by Raynaldus e Cod. Vaticano. Bzovius (ann. 
 1310, sec. vi.) enumerates, at great length, fifteen 
 of the principal abuses with which the Church was 
 charged on this occasion. 
 
 f The following is the Twenty-second Canon. 
 ' Clerici conjugati carnificum seu macellariorum aut 
 tabernariorum oflicium publice et personaliter exer- 
 centes, vcstcs virgatas, partitas, neque statui suo con- 
 duccntc's, portrfntcs severius puniantur. See Bzovius, 
 Contin. Ann. Baron., ann. 1313, sec. i. 
 
 % Ho died immensely rich, through the sale of 
 benefices and other such traffic ; and the moment that 
 he was known to have expired, all the inmates of his 
 ualace arc staled to have rushed with one consent to 
 his trcasurv not a single servant remained to watch 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 lowed by an obstinate differe.ice between 
 the French and Italian cardinals respecting 
 the nation of his successor. This was pro- 
 longed by the impatient interference of the 
 populace, * excited, as it would seem, by 
 some Gascon soldiers, who proposed to ter- 
 minate the dispute by seizing the persons of 
 the Italians. Accordingly, they set fire to the 
 conclave ; but the ten'ified cardinals escaped 
 by another exit, and immediately dispersed 
 and concealed themselves in various places 
 of refuge. Such, indeed, was their panic, or 
 at least their disinclination, that two years 
 elapsed before they could be reassembled. 
 At length, after a second deliberation, which 
 lasted forty days, they elected James of Euse, 
 a native of Cahors, cardinal bishop of Porto 
 — such long delay and repeated consultation 
 did it require, to add to the list of pontifical 
 delinquents the name of John XXII. ! That 
 Pope was of very low origin, the son of a 
 shoemaker or a tapster ; f but he had natural 
 talents and a taste for letters, which were 
 early discovered and encouraged, and his 
 gradual rise to dignity in the Church was not 
 disgraced by any notorious scandals. J But 
 he had not long been in possession of the 
 highest eminence, before he abandoned him- 
 
 the body of his master, insomuch that the lights which 
 were blazing round fell down and set fire to the bed. 
 The flames were extinguished; but not till they had 
 consumed half the body of the richest Pope who had 
 yet governed the Church. Sismondi believes this 
 anecdote. 
 
 * The conclave was held at Carpentras, a place on 
 the banks of the Rhone, not far from Avignon. It 
 happened that the Court was assembled there when 
 the Pope died ; it therefore became the legal place for 
 the new election. 
 
 •f Giovanni Villani, lib. ix. c. Ixxix. Giannone, 
 lib. xxii. cap. viii. 
 
 X The violent party-writers of the day, Francis- 
 cans and Ghibelines, who heaped every epithet of 
 abuse upon the hostile name of John XXII., have 
 been too hastily credited by some modern writers. 
 Giovanni Villani admits that he was modest in his 
 manner of life, sober, not luxurious, nor profuse in 
 his personal expenditure. In the course of almost 
 every night, he rose to say his office and to study; he 
 celebrated mass almost every day ; was easy of access 
 and rapid in the performance of business. He was 
 hasty in temper, of an informed and penetrating un- 
 derstanding, and magnanimous in aflliirs of import-, 
 ance. (See Fleury, 1. xciv. s. xxxix.) These 
 qualities and habits at least repel the charge of uni- 
 versal profligacy which has been brought against him. 
 Nevertheless, it is the opinion of Sismondi (chap, 
 xxix.) that his elevation was not less ascribable to 
 his intrigues and cflrontery than to his talents; and 
 the public acts of his pontificate require no counnent 
 
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 
 
 38d 
 
 belf, without scruple or shame, to his predom- 
 fnant passion, avarice. He was not, indeed, 
 exempt from the ambitious arrogance with- 
 out the Church, and the vexatious intolerance 
 within it, which seem at this time to have 
 been communicated by the chair of St. Peter 
 to its successive possessors — in a greater or 
 less degree to each, according to his previous 
 disposition to those qualities; but avarice 
 was the vice by which John was individual- 
 ly and peculiarly characterized, and to which 
 he gave, during his long pontificate, the most 
 intemperate indulgence. 
 
 .77ie Apostolical Chancery. — Not contented 
 with the usual methods of papal extortion, he 
 displayed his ingenuity in the invention of 
 others more effectual ; he enlarged and ex- 
 tended tlie Rule of the Apostolical Chance- 
 ry ; * he imposed the payment of annates on 
 Ecclesiastical Benefices ; he multiplied the 
 profitable abuse of dispensations ; he increas- 
 ed in France the number of bishoprics ; and 
 commonly took advantage of the vacancy of 
 a rich See, in order to make five or six trans- 
 lations, promoting each prelate to a dignity, 
 somewhat wealthier than that, which he had 
 before held : so that all were contented, (says 
 Giannone) f while all paid their fees. In a 
 word, he considered kingdoms, cities, castles 
 and territories to be the real patrimony of 
 Christ, and held the true virtue of the Church 
 to consist, not in contempt of the world and 
 zeal for the faith and evangelical doctrine, but 
 in oblations and tithes, and taxes, and collec- 
 tions, and purple, and gold and silver. Such 
 is the language of the Italian historians, and if 
 it be somewhat exaggerated by their general 
 prejudices against the popes of Avignon, the 
 immense | treasures which were unquestion- 
 ably amassed by John ; prepare us to believe 
 
 * He reduced the system of Apostolical taxation 
 to a'code of canon law. A deacon or sub-deacon 
 might be absolved for murder, for about twenty 
 crowns; a bishop for about three hundred livres : 
 every crime had its price. See Penina, 14, vi. 
 
 t We might be disposed to receive this with some 
 little suspicion, even from Giaimone — since he was 
 not only an Italian, but a decided anti-Gallican also 
 — were not the facts directly derived from Giovanni 
 Villani. 
 
 ^ Giov. Villani (lib. xi. c^ip. xx.) asserts (on the 
 authority of his own brother, resident at Avignon, 
 who received his information from the treasurers of 
 the pope) that the treasure fbund on the death of John 
 XXII. amounted to more than eighteen millions of 
 florins in gold coin; while that in services of the 
 table, crosses, crowns, mitres and other trinkets of 
 gold and precious stones, rose to about seven millions 
 more — total, twenty-five millions of golden florins. 
 
 much that is asserted respecting the methods 
 of his exaction. 
 
 Contest with Louis of Bavaria. — But the 
 circumstanc(!, ])y which this pontificate was 
 most distinguished, and *vhich for a moment 
 raises us from the sordid details of fraud and 
 extortion to the recollection of the loftier vices 
 of the Gregories and the Innocents, was a 
 contest which the Pope perseveringly main- 
 tained with the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria. 
 Having entered at greater length, perhaps, 
 than was necessary into the description of the 
 two former conflicts between the empire and 
 the holy See, and of that also between Philip 
 and Boniface, we shall not pursue the partic- 
 ulars of this last and feeblest effort of declin- 
 ing papacy. The leading events are briefly 
 these. The Electors assembled at Frankfort 
 in 1314 were divided ; and while some chose 
 Louis for successor to the throne, others sup- 
 ported Frederic, Archduke of Austria. John * 
 refused to confirm either of the Pretenders, 
 and they continued to dispute the empire with 
 the sword till the year 1323, when Frederic 
 was defeated and taken prisoner. The Duke 
 of Bavaria then took upon himself the impe- 
 rial administration, without at all soliciting 
 the sanction of the Pope. Thereupon the 
 latter pronounced sentence against him, and 
 pre})ared to support Leopold, the brother of 
 Frederic. Louis boldly appealed to a General 
 
 The greater part of this was amassed by John, and 
 chiefly by his reservations of all the benefices of all 
 the collegiate Churches of Christendom. His ordi- 
 nary pi etext was the liberation of the Holy Land. 
 
 The ' Storia or Nuova Cronica,' of Giovanni 
 Villani, a citizen of Florence, begins at the earliest 
 age and continues to the year of his death, 134S. It 
 chiefly relates to the aft'alrs of Florence, and is most 
 instructive during the last century. His brother 
 Matteo continued the History (with an addition by 
 hia own son Philip) as far as the year 1364. 
 
 * In a bull published in 1317, John maintained 
 that all imperial vicars lost their authority at the 
 death of the Emperor, and that it devolved on the 
 Pope. ' God himself,' he continued, ' has confided 
 the empire of the earth, as well as that of heaven, to 
 the sovereign pontiff. During the interregnum, all 
 the rights of the empire devolve upon the diurch; 
 and he who, without the permission of the apostolic 
 see, continues to exercise the functions intrusted to 
 him by the Emperor in his lifetime, offends against 
 religion, plunges into crime, and attacks the divine 
 Majesty itself.' See Sismondi, Rep. It., ch. xxix. 
 This claim was pressed more than once by the Avig- 
 non Popes — the more eagerly because the legitimacy 
 of ' the King of the Romans' was involved in that 
 of the Emperor; and the Pope, who pretended tc 
 the prerogatives of the one, had a nearer interest in 
 usurping the funct ous of the other 
 
336 HISTORY OF 
 
 Council, and to a future and legitimate Pope, 
 and be received in return an ineffectual sen- 
 tence- of excommunication and deposition. In 
 the meantime, the war between the opposite 
 parties had been maintained with great fury 
 in Italy, and upon the whole to the advantage 
 of the Gu el plis, through the powerful aid of the 
 King of Naples, still faithful to the Roman 
 See. Consequently Louis was pressed to 
 cross the Alps. He assembled a parliament 
 at Milan, and assumed with great solemnity 
 the iron crown. From Milan he advanced to 
 Rome : the celerity of his march anticipated 
 all opposition, and the ceremony of his coro- 
 nation was there performed, with abundant 
 pomp and acclamation, in January, 1328. 
 Vigorous measures of hostility were at the 
 same time adopted — a sentence of degradation 
 against John XXII., and the appointment of 
 a new and imperial Pope, who assumed the 
 name of Nicholas V. But though an empe- 
 ror might at this time be sufficiently powerful 
 to repel with impunity the pontifical censures, 
 his aggressive attempts were at least as futile 
 as those of his adversary. Nicholas was re- 
 jected by the Catholic world ; and, after two 
 years of vain pretension, surrendered his title 
 and his person* to John. The Emperor had 
 been previously compelled to retire from 
 Rome. So that, after a fruitless contest of 
 about seven years, the relative situation of the 
 combatants was litde altered : and the senten- 
 ces of degradation and deposition, mutually 
 reiterated, had uo other effect than to prove 
 to the world (though not so to the individuals 
 engaged) that there was something in the 
 claims of both parties extravagant and un- 
 founded; and that the temporal authority on 
 the one hand, and the spiritual on the other, 
 though occasionally confounded by the abuse 
 of both, were in fact, as they were in essence 
 and origin, independent. 
 
 We observe that, in one respect at least, 
 Louis deviated during this contest from the 
 tactics of his two predecessors, and adopted 
 those of the French King. The appeal from 
 the authority of the Pope to that of a General 
 Council was the severest wound which could 
 be inflicted on papal arrogance. It was more 
 
 * According to the account of Giovanni Villani 
 (lib. X. cap. clxiv,) he was delivered up by the 
 Pisans, and sent to Avignon. He threw himself at 
 the feet of the Pope, and prayed for mercy : e con bel 
 sermone e autoritii se confesso peccatore eretico col 
 Bavero insiemo, che fatto 1' havea. It should he ad- 
 ded, that John treated him extremely well, and that 
 he died a natural death at Avignon tliree years after- 
 wards. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 than that,— since it led almost necessarily to 
 the limitation of papal power. In an age of 
 darkness, such an appeal might have been 
 treated as a wanton, though bitter insult. But 
 reason was at length awakened, and men were 
 beginning to consider what ought to be, as 
 well as what had been. The promulgation 
 of a new and grand ecclesiastical principle, 
 on the authority of a king and an emperor, 
 would excite some consideration even among 
 the most bigoted ; and there would be few 
 who did not begin to entertain a question res- 
 pecting the spiritual omnipotence of the Pope. 
 
 Charges of Heresy against John XXIL — 
 Another measure was taken by the Emperor, 
 also after the example of Philip, which tended 
 more directly to the same end. In the Assem- 
 bly held at Milan, at which several prelates 
 attended, John XXII. was formally impeach- 
 ed on the charge of heresy. Sixteen articles 
 were specified, in which he erred against the 
 constitutions of the General Councils ; and he 
 was pronounced to have virtually forfeited 
 the pontifical dignity. It was a bold proceed- 
 ing in Louis on the judgment of a provincial 
 meeting of his own ])artisans, to convict the 
 Vicar of Christ of heretical depravity.* It 
 was indeed to repel usurpation by usurpation, 
 and to seize the spiritual sword in his strife to 
 recover the material. The accusations were 
 probably false, and certainly fruitless: they 
 acquired no general credit at the time, nor 
 have they adhered to the memory of the ac- 
 cused. Nevertheless, the mere assumption 
 of pa])al falibility in matters of faith by two 
 povverllil monarchs, and the vigor of the mea- 
 sures taken on that assumption, naturally con- 
 firmed the confidence of those whom reason 
 had already led to the same conclusion. 
 
 The Beatific Vision. — But it also happened 
 very strangely, that the same extraordinary 
 charge was again incurred by John XXII. 
 towards the end of his life, and with m'uch 
 greater appearance of reason. In some public 
 discourses delivered in the course of the years 
 1331 and 1332, he had rashly declared his 
 oj)inion, that the souls of the faithful, in their 
 intermediate state, were indeed permitted to 
 behold Christ as a man ; but that the face of 
 God, or the Divine Nature, was veiled from 
 their sight until their reunion with the body 
 
 * The Pope's disputes with the Spiritual Francis- 
 cans had raised a considerable party, even in the 
 church, against him. Besides, all the theologians 
 and sectarians, who were discontented with papal 
 government, declared in favor of Louis. See the 
 latter part of this chapter 
 
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 
 
 387 
 
 at the last day * The publication of this new 
 doctrine produced a deep sensation through- 
 out Christendom. The immediate admission 
 to the beatific Vision, a received and popular 
 tenet, had been openly impugned by the high- 
 esl spu'ituai authority: it became necessa- 
 ry cither to resign the tenet or to condemn 
 the Pope. Robert, King of Sicily, warmly 
 exhorted John, whom he had attached by a 
 long and useful alliance, to retract the offen- 
 sive declaration. Philip VI. of France united 
 with equal ardor in the same solicitation. 
 The most learned Dominicans, together with 
 all the doctors and divines of Paris, humbly 
 urged the same entreaty. Laymen joined 
 with churchmen, the friends of the Pontiff 
 with his bitterest enemies, in rejecting and 
 denouncing his error. The Pope was so far 
 moved by such general and powerful interfer- 
 ence, that he assembled, at the close of 1333, 
 his Cardinals in public consistory ; and after 
 having caused to be read in their presence all 
 the passages of all writers who had treated 
 the subject, (the labor of five days,) he protest- 
 ed that he had not designed to publish a de- 
 cision contrary to Scripture or the orthodox 
 faith ; and that, if he had so erred, he express- 
 1) revoked his error. This ex})lanation may 
 possibly have been considered somewhat equi- 
 vocal ; at least it had not the effect of allaying 
 the irritation which prevailed, and a second 
 consistory was appointed for the same purpose 
 in the December following. But on the even- 
 ing preceding its assembly, John was seized 
 by a mortal malady. Nevertheless, he sum- 
 moned his Cardinals around him, and one of 
 the last acts of his long life (he died at 90) was 
 to read in their presence a bull, containing the 
 following declaration : ' We confess and be- 
 lieve that souls purified and separated from j 
 their bodies are assembled in the kingdom of 
 heaven in paradise, and behold God and the 
 Divine Essence face to face clearly, in as far 
 as is consistent with the condition of a sepa- 
 rated soul. Any thing which we may have 
 preached, said, or written contrary to this 
 
 * Mosh., Cent. XIV., p. ii., cli. ii. ' The recom- 
 pense of the saints, before the coming of Jesus Christ, ' 
 was the bosom of Abraham ; after his coming, liis | 
 passion, and ascension, their recompense, till the day ' 
 of judgment, is to be under the altar of God, that is, ' 
 under the protection and consolation of the humanity 
 of Jesus Christ. But after the judgment they shall be 
 on the altar, that is, on the humanity of Jesus Christ, 
 because then they shall behold not only his humanity, 
 but also his divinity as it is in itself; for they shall 
 see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' These 
 are the expressions of John, as given by Fleury, liv. 
 xciv., sect. xxi. 
 
 opinion, we recall and cancel.' * Still even 
 the expiring confession of the Pontiff was not 
 considered sufficiently explicit to satisfy the 
 measure of orthodoxy ; and thus it came to 
 pass that John XXII., after having ruled the 
 apostolical church for above eighteen years, 
 which he passed for the most part in amassing 
 treasures,! in fomenting warlike tumults, and 
 in chastising heretics, died himself under the 
 general imputation of heresy. But the error 
 of the pontifical delinquent was discreetly 
 veiled by the church which it scandalized ; 
 and when Benedict XII., his successor, hast- 
 ened, in the year following, to restore the una- 
 nitnity of the faithful respecting the Beatific 
 Vision, he described it as a question which 
 John was preparing to decide, when he was 
 prevented by death.J 
 
 The reasons which gave such popularity 
 to the orthodox opinion on this subject, and 
 excited such very general opposition to the 
 other, were chiefly these : — If the Virgin, the 
 Saints, and Martyrs, were not yet admitted to 
 the Divine presence ; if they were only in 
 distant and imperfect communication with 
 the Deity, it was absurd to uphold their medi- 
 atorial office ; it was vain to supplicate the 
 intercession of beings who had no access to 
 the judgment-seat of Christ. Moreover, the 
 mere insult thus offered to the dignity of the 
 saints, and the disparagement of their long- 
 acknowledged merits, were offences very 
 sensibly felt and resented throughout the 
 Catholic world. Another reason is likewise 
 mentioned; and it may, in fact, have been 
 the most powerful motive of dissatisfaction — 
 if the dangerous opinion were once establish- 
 ed, that the souls of the just, when liberated 
 from purgatory, must still await the day of 
 judgment for their recompense, the indulgen 
 ces granted by the Church would be of no 
 avail ; 'and this (as the King of France very 
 zealously proclaimed) would be effectually to 
 vitiate the Catholic faith ! ' § 
 
 * Bzov., Ann. 1334. i. Fleury, liv. xciv., sect 
 xxxviii. 
 
 t In the histories of his life we find many edicts 
 directed against alchymists and the adulterers of coin, 
 — proving at least how much of his attention was 
 turned in that direction. He issued money from the 
 pontifical mint, and counterfeited, with some loss of 
 reputation, the florins of Florence. Giov. Villani, 
 lib. ix., cap. clxx. 
 
 t In the bull Benedictus Deus, of which the sub 
 stance is given by Fleury, liv. xciv., sect. xliv. 
 
 § See the end of the Tenth Book if Giovanu 
 Villani. In the course of the controversy, excite 
 solely by his own vanity, John professed the most in 
 
388 HISTORY OF 
 
 Benedict XII — Benedict XII. was bom at 
 Saverdun, in the county of Foix, and was the 
 son of a baker. He possessed considerable 
 theological learning, but such little talent for 
 the management of an intriguing court, that 
 he suspected and proclaimed his own inca- 
 pacity* for the pontifical fjnctions. But it 
 proved otherwise; for he brought to that 
 office a mind sensible of the corruption which 
 surrounded him, and of the abuses which dis- 
 figured his Church, and he employed his use- 
 ful administration in endeavors to remedy 
 such of them as were placed within his reach. 
 In the first exercise of his power, he dismiss- 
 ed to their benefices a vast number of courtly 
 ecclesiastics, who preferred the splendor, and 
 perhaps the vices, of Avignon, to the dis- 
 charge of their pastoral duties. A large body 
 of cavaliers had been maintained by the pomp 
 of his predecessor, with whose services Ben- 
 edict immediately dispensed. He was spar- 
 ing in the promotion of his own relatives, lest 
 the king should make them the means of 
 exerting influence over himself. He under- 
 took the serious reform of the Monastic Or- 
 ders — not confining his view to the less pow- 
 erful communities, but purifying, with indis- 
 criminate severity, the poor and the opulent, 
 the Mendicants, Benedictines, f and Augusti- 
 
 partial desire for truth; but it was observed that he 
 showered his benefices most liberally upon those who 
 supported the new opinion. Philip of France came 
 boldly forward as the champion of orthodoxy, and the 
 inviolable unity of the Church — ' dicendo laicamente 
 come fidel Christiano, che invano si pregherebbero i 
 Santi, 6 harebbesi sperenza di salute per li loro meriti, 
 se Nostra Donna Santa Maria, e Santo Giovanni, e 
 Santo Piero, e Santo Paolo e li altri Santi non po- 
 tessero vedere la Deitade al fiuo al di del Giudizio, e 
 havere perfetta beatitudine in vita eterna ; e che per 
 quella opinione ogni indulgenza e perdonanza data 
 per anlico per Santa Chiesa, 6 che si desse, era vana. 
 Laqual cosa sarebbe grande errore e guastamento 
 deila Fede Catholica.' 
 
 * The cardmals, twenty-four in number, agreed 
 with an unusual decision and unanimity, ascribed by 
 some to divine inspiration, by others to a ridiculous 
 mistake. Jacques Fournier (such was his name) 
 being also a cardinal, was present at his own election, 
 and when he heard the determination of his brethren, 
 he reproached them with having elected an ass. He 
 was certainly the least eminent member of the Sacred 
 College; and to that circumstance, according to Gio- 
 vanni Villani (lib. xi. cap. xxi.,) he was iiidebted for 
 his elevation. The cardinals, intending in the scru- 
 tiny to throw away their vctes, fatally concurred in 
 heaping them upon him — * ch' era tenuto il piu me- 
 nomo dc' Cardinali.' 
 
 t Vit. Benedict. XH. ap. Baluzium. Benedict 
 has been celebrated by the pen n f Petrarch — 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 nians ; and the Order of Citeaux, to which 
 he had himself belonged, was the first object 
 of his correction. He established numerous 
 schools within the monasteries, and also com- 
 pelled the young ecclesiastics to frequent the 
 universities of Paris, Oxford,* Toulouse, and 
 Montpellier. In the education of the clergy 
 he saw the only reasonable assurance for the 
 stability of the Church. Lastly, he even dis- 
 played a willingness to restore the papal resi- 
 dence to Italy, if it should appear that his 
 Italian subjects were desirous of his pres- 
 ence ; but the Imperialists were at that mo- 
 ment so powerful, and the party spirit so 
 highly inflamed, that he received little en- 
 couragement in that design. 
 
 Clement VI. — Clement VI., who succeeded 
 Benedict, in the year 1342, did not imitate his 
 virtues ; but while, in his public deportment, 
 he more nearly followed the footsteps of John 
 XXII., he appears even to have outstripped 
 that pontiflf in the license of his private life. He 
 was scarcely installed in his dignity, when he 
 was addressed by a solemn deputation from 
 the Roman people. It consisted of eighteen 
 members, f one of whom was Petrarch ; and 
 it was charged with three petitions. The 
 first was, that Clement would accept, per- 
 sonally and for his life only, the offices of" 
 Senator and Captain, together with the mu- 
 nicipal charges ; the second, that he would 
 return to the possession of his proper and 
 peculiar See ; the third, that he would anti- 
 cipate the Secular Jubilee ordained by Boni- 
 face VIII., and appoint its celebration in the 
 Jiftiethjear. The Pope accepted for himself 
 the proflered dignities, but without prejudice 
 to the rights of the See ; to the second, which 
 was an important and wise request, he return- 
 ed a friendly but decided refusal ; but the 
 
 Te cui Telluris pariter Pelagique supremum 
 Contulit Imperium virtus meritumque pudorque. 
 Yet we observe (in Bzovius, ann. 1339, s. 1,) that 
 on one occasion this virtuous pontiff reserved the 
 appointment to all the prelacies of all the churches 
 for the space of two years. Did he overlook in hia 
 reforming zeal the abuses by which he profited'? 
 
 * About twenty years later, an Archbishop of Ar- 
 magh complained, that when he was resident at Ok- 
 ford, the University contained thirty thousand st i- 
 dents ; whereas, at the time when he wrote (in 1353} 
 it contained only six thousand. The reason givctj 
 for the decrease was, that the Mendicants, who oc- 
 cupied several of the chairs, had seduced so many of 
 the young students into their Order, that parents were 
 no longer willing to expose their children to that risk. 
 
 t The orator on this occasion was Colas di Rienzo, 
 afterwards the Tribune of the Republic. 
 
HISTORY Ob 
 
 hml, which only tended lo swell the profit- 
 able abuses of religion, he accorded without 
 hesitation. The following is the substance 
 of the bull which he issued (in 1343) for 
 mis purpose — ' That the love of God has ac- 
 quired for us an infinite treasure of merits, to 
 which those of the Virgin and all the Saints 
 arc joined ; — that he has left the dispensation 
 of that treasure to St. Peter and his succes- 
 sors ;- -and consequendy, that Pope Boniface 
 \'1II had rightfully ordained, that all those 
 who m the year 1300, and every following 
 centurial year, should worship for a specified 
 number of days in the churches of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, at Rome, should obtain full in- 
 dulgence for all their sins. But we have 
 considered (he continues) that in the Mosaic 
 Law, which Christ came spiritually to ac- 
 complish, the fiftieth year was the jubilee and 
 remission of debts ; and having also regard to 
 the short duration of human life, we accord 
 the same indulgence to all henceforward who 
 shall visit the said churches, and that of St. 
 John Lateran, on the fiftieth year. If Ro- 
 mans, they must attend for at least thirty fol- 
 lowing days ; if foreigners, for at least fifteen.' 
 
 Celebration of the Jubilee. — This proclama- 
 tion was diligently published in every part of 
 Christendom, and excited an incredible ardor 
 for the Pilgrimage. During a winter of un- 
 usual inclemency, the roads were thronged 
 with devout travellers, many of whom were 
 compelled to pass the night without shelter 
 or nourishment, in the fear of robbery, and 
 the certainty of extortion. The streets of 
 Rome presented for some months the specta- 
 cle of a vast moving multitude, continually 
 flowing through them, and inexhaustibly ren- 
 ovated. The three appointed churches * were 
 thronged with successive crowds, eager to 
 throw off the burden of their sins, and also 
 prepared to deposit some pious oflfering at 
 every visit. 
 
 It is affirmed, that from Christmas till Eas- 
 ter, not fewer than a million, or even twelve 
 
 * ' In visiting the three churches (says Matt. Vil- 
 lani,) including the distance from his lodging and the 
 return to it, each pilgrim performed about eleven 
 miles. The streets were perpetually full, so that every 
 one was obliged, whether on foot or on horseback, to 
 follow the crowd ; and tliis made the progress very 
 slow and disagreeable. The Holy Napkin of Christ 
 was shown at St. Peter's every Sunday and solemn 
 festival, for the consolation of the pilgrims (Romei.) 
 The press then was great and Indiscreet; so it hap- 
 pended that sometimes two, sometimes four, or six, 
 or oven twelve, were found there crushed or tramjiled 
 to death.' , 
 
 IHE rOPES. 389 
 
 hundred thousand strangers, were added to 
 the population of the pontifical city ; for a.s 
 many as returned home after the completion 
 of the prescribed ceremonies, were replaced 
 by fresh bands of credulous sinners, — and 
 those again by others, in such perennial 
 abundance, that, even during the late and 
 unwholesome season of the year, the number 
 was never reduced below twb hundred thou- 
 sand. Every house was converted into an 
 inn ; and the object of every Roman was to 
 extort the utmost possible profit from the oc 
 casion : neither shame nor fear restrained the 
 eagerness of their avarice. While the neigh- 
 boring districts abounded with provisions, the 
 citizens refused to admit a greater supply, 
 than was scarcely sufficient to satisfy, at the 
 highest expense, the simplest demands of the 
 pilgrims ; and thus those deluded devotees, 
 after surmounting all other difficulties on 
 their errand of superstition, were at length 
 delivered up to be starved, as well as plun- 
 dered, by the inhabitants of the Holy City. 
 Such was the moral effect produced upon 
 the Roman people by a festival, which was 
 established for their pecuniary profit, and 
 which disturbed the social system through 
 every rank and profession, from one end of 
 Christendom to the other.* 
 
 Clement renewed with Louis of Bavaria 
 those vexatious disputes, which had been 
 begun by John XXII., and conducted with 
 so little advantage or honor to either party. 
 Neither had the present difi^erence, after 
 many haughty words, any lasting result ; 
 though it seems probable, that the Pope 
 might have succeeded in exciting a civil 
 war in the dominions of his adversary, had 
 not the latter escaped that calamity by death. 
 The same pontiff* defended his temporal pre- 
 rogatives in a correspondence with Edward 
 III. of England. At another time, publicly and 
 in full consistory, he presented to Alphonso 
 of Spain the sceptre of the Fortunate Islands. 
 Nor was this right contested : the less so, 
 perhaps, since St. Peter had claimed, in much 
 earlier ages, the peculiar disposal of all insu- 
 lar f domains. Clement also made an im- 
 
 * This account is abbreviated from Matloo Villani, 
 lib. i. cap. Ivi. It is to be observed, that the Pope 
 received a slnre of the oblations left by the pilgrims 
 in the different churches. Clement VI. employed the 
 fruits in an unsuccessful attempt to recover the prop- 
 erty of his church from the nobles, who had usurped 
 it. 
 
 t Urban II., in his Bull of 1091, presented the 
 island of Corsica to the Bishop of Pisa; and we all 
 recollect that our Henry II. received from Adrian IV 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 portant acquisition to the patrimony of the 
 Apostle by the purchase of the city of Avig- 
 non. The jurisdiction over that territory be- 
 lonoed to the Queen of Naples, as Countess 
 of Provence ; and for 80,000 golden florins 
 she consented, in a moment of poverty, to 
 part with the valuable possession. A splen- 
 did palace, which Benedict XII. had begun, 
 was now completed and amplified by Clem- 
 ent ; and the luxury of the. cardinals follow- 
 ed, at no very humble distance, the example 
 of the popes. These circumstances seemed 
 to remove still farther the prospect of the 
 Pope's restoration to his legitimate residence, 
 and thus heightened the alarm, which some 
 were beginning to entertain for the stability 
 of the papal power. 
 
 Clement VI. died five years afterwards, in 
 1352 — celebrated for the splendor of his es- 
 tablishment, for the sumptuousness of his ta- 
 ble, and for his magnificent display of horses, 
 squires, and pages ; for the scandalous abuse 
 of his patronage ; for manners little becom- 
 ing the sacred profession, and for the most 
 unrestrained and unmufiled profligacy.* 
 
 Oath or Capitulation taken in Conclave. — 
 During the vacancy of the See, the cardinals, 
 whila in conclave, passed certain resolutions 
 for the limitation of the pontifical power and 
 the extension of their own wealth and privi- 
 leges; and the whole body bound themselves 
 by oath to observe them. One of their num- 
 ber was then elected, Etienne Aubert, bishop 
 of Ostia, who took the name of Innocent VI. ; 
 and almost his earliest act was to annul, as 
 
 the donation of Ireland. En quoi (says Fleury) ce 
 qui me paroit le plus remarquable n'est pas la pre- 
 tention des Papes, mais la credulite des Princes. But 
 credulity, like many other weaknesses, is very com- 
 monly the ofi'spring of interest. 
 
 * See Matt. Viilani, lib. iii. cap. 43. He delight- 
 ed to aggrandize his relatives, by conferring on them 
 baronies in France, and raising them, however young 
 and abandoned, to the highest dignities. ' At that 
 time there was no regard to learning or virtue; it 
 sufficed to satiate cupidity will) the Red Hat — Huomo 
 fii di convenevole scienzia, molto cavallaresco, poco 
 religioso. Delie femine essendo Archivescovo non si 
 guardo, ma trapasso il modo de' secolari giovani 
 Baroni: e ncl Papato non sene seppe contenere ne 
 occultare; ma alle sue camere andavano le grandi 
 dame, come i prelati, e fra 1' altre una Contcssa di 
 Torenna fu tanto in sno piacere, die per lei faceva 
 gran parte delle grazie sue. Quando era infermo le 
 Dame il servivano, e governavono come congiunte 
 parent! gli allri secolari. II tesoro della Chiesa 
 Ptribui con larga mano. Delle Italiane discordic 
 poco si euro, &c.' We observe, that some of the car- 
 dinals so appointed incurred the severe reproach of 
 Innocent VI. by their undisguised debaucheries. Matt. 
 Villaii. lib. iv. cap. Ixxvii. 
 
 pope, what he had subscribed ns carvlmal. 
 We must detest his private perjury ; yet, as 
 the Sacred College had no power of legisla- 
 tion, unless under the presidency of the pope, 
 and as their office while in conclave was ex- 
 pressly restricted to the election of a pope, 
 their constitutions could not legally be bind- 
 ing either on the church or on the future pon- 
 tiflf. The attempt of the cardinals is chiefly 
 important, as it shows the power and the 
 arrogance into which they had risen during 
 the disorders of the Church; and the con- 
 duct of the pope is remarkable, as having 
 furnished an example and a plea to several 
 of his successors, who violated similar en- 
 gagements in after times with the same per- 
 fidy. In every instance the future pope was 
 a voluntary party to the compact delibei-ately 
 made in conclave ; in most cases he confirm- 
 ed it after his election ; he finally broke or 
 evaded it in all. 
 
 Innocent VI. — Yet Innocent VL was a man 
 of simple manners and unblemished moral 
 reputation ; and having found the Church 
 nearly in the same condition in which John 
 XXIT. bequeathed it to Benedict, he imitated 
 the latter in his judicious efforts to reform it. 
 But, though he held the See for more than 
 nine years, it seems doubtful whether Ids 
 mild and perhaps feebly executed measures 
 were effectual in removing any important 
 abuse. At least, in the year 1358 we perceive 
 him engaged in a dispute with his German 
 clergy, not respecting the relaxation of their 
 discipline, but upon a subject which was 
 usually much dearer to the Popes of Avig- 
 non. Innocent demanded an extraordinary 
 subsidy of the tenth of all ecclesiastical rev- 
 enues, for the use of the apostolical cham- 
 ber. The clergy of the three provinces of 
 Treves, Mayence, and Cologne boldly refused 
 payment ; the spirit of interested opposition 
 spread rapidly ; and all orders of ecclesiasties 
 throughout the whole empire united to re- 
 sist the demand. The Pope yielded without 
 struggle or remonstrance ; but he immediate- 
 ly sought his consolation in the exercise of 
 one of the grossest usurpations of his See. 
 He sent his messengers into every part of 
 Germany, with orders to collect half the rev- 
 enues of all vacant benefices, and to reserve * 
 
 * Even the see of Avignon was left without a 
 bishop during this and the jircccding pontificate ; it 
 was reserved, and its revenues usurped by these popes 
 at tlieir own pleasure. Thus it would seem that the 
 reforms of Innocent VI. were not more disinterested 
 than those of Benedict. See Vita Urban) V. ap 
 Buluz. and Baluzius's Notes. 
 
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 
 
 391 
 
 them for the use of the Holy See. The Em- 
 peror (Charles IV.) ap[)rove(l the resistance 
 Df his bishops ; * but on the one hand he 
 denounced, in the strongest language, their 
 pride, their avarice, and luxurious indul- 
 gences ; while, on the other, he warmly de- 
 manded of the Nuncio from Avignon, where- 
 fore the pontiff was so forward in taxing the 
 property of the clergy, so remiss and languid 
 in the restoration of their disci{)line ? We 
 should add, however, that Innocent, on his 
 side, did not disregard that appeal, but turn- 
 ed himself to restrain the vices of the German 
 prelates ; while the Emperor exerted his au- 
 thority to protect them from the spoliations 
 to which they were perpetually liable from 
 powerful laymen. 
 
 Urban V. — He was succeeded, in 1362, by 
 Urban V., whose reign was distinguished by 
 the first serious attempt to restore the i)ontifi- 
 cal court to Rome. On the solicitation of 
 his Italian subjects, urged by the eloquence 
 
 * In an assembly of the princes of the empire held 
 on this subject in 1359, Conrad d'Alzeia, Count Pal- 
 atine, who was charged with the defence of the 
 clergy, addressed the meeting to this effect: — ' The 
 Romans have always considered Germany as a mine 
 of gold, and have invented various methods to exhaust 
 It. And what does the pope give in return, but epis- 
 tles and speeches'? Let him be master of all the 
 benefices as to their collation, but let him leave the 
 revenues to those who own them. We send abund- 
 ance of money into Italy for divers manufactures, 
 and to Avignon for our children who study there, and 
 who there solicit, and let us not say purchase, bene.- 
 fices. No one is ignorant what sums are every year 
 carried from Gennany to the court of Rome, for the 
 confirmation of prelates, the obtaining of benefices, 
 the carrying on of suits and appeals before the Holy 
 See — for dispensations, absolutions, indulgences, 
 privileges and other favors. In all former days the 
 archbishops used to confirm the elections of the bisli- 
 ops tlieir suffragans ; but in our time John XXII. 
 violently usurped that right. And now another pope 
 demands from his clergy a new and unheard-of sub- 
 sidy, threatening his censures on all who shall refuse 
 or oppose. Resist the beginning of this evil, and 
 permit not the establishment of this degrading servi- 
 tude.' — (Fleury, 1, xcvi. s. xxxviii.) It was in the 
 same year that the Emperor addressed to the Arch- 
 bishop of Mayence the following complaints respect- 
 ing the secular habits of his Clergy: — De Christi 
 Patrimonio ludos, hastiludia ettorneamenta exercent; 
 habitum militarem cum praetextis aureis et argenteis 
 {jestant, et calceos militares ; comam et barbam nu- 
 triunt, et nihil, quod ad vitam et ordinem Ecclesias- 
 ticuiii spectat, ostendunt. Militaribus se duntaxat et 
 secularibus actibus, vita et moribus, in suae salutis 
 dispendium et generate populi scandalum, immis- 
 cent. — The passage is cited by Robertson, History 
 Charles V., B. ii. 
 
 of Petrarch, * and on an understanding of 
 [)erfect friendship and mutual co-operaiioi: 
 with the emperor, he abandoned the S|)lendid 
 security of Avignon, and departed, with bis 
 reluctant court, for Home. On his way, a 
 popular tumult at Viterbo dismayed and even 
 endangered some of the cardinals; but no 
 other impediment was offered ; and in Octo- 
 ber, 13G7, the pope once more occuj)ied the 
 half-dismantled palace of his predecessors. 
 He divided a peaceful residence of about 
 three years between Rome f and Montefias- 
 cone, where he passed the summer months ; 
 and his alliance with Charles IV. of Germa- 
 ny, whatever may have been the dispositions 
 of his subjects, guaranteed him against any 
 political outrage. Nevertheless, in 1370, pro- 
 bably on the persuasion of the French cardin- 
 als, \ he returned to Avignon, where he died 
 immediately afterwards. 
 
 Gregory XL — Again was a Frenchman, 
 Gregory XL, elected to the chair, and he pro- 
 fessed his inclination to repeat the experiment 
 which had been made by his predecessor ; 
 but his resolution was weakened and retarded 
 by the intrigues of his countrymen. He list- 
 ened, indeed, with attention to the prayer of 
 a solemn deputation from the Roman people, 
 in 1374 ; but he took no immediate steps to 
 grant it. 
 
 Catharine of Sienna. — Two years aflerwardti 
 he was still at Avignon, when he was again 
 importuned on the same subject by a very dif- 
 ferent instrument of solicitation. There was 
 one Catharine, the daughter of a citizen at Si- 
 enna, who had embraced the monastic life, and 
 acquired extraordinary reputation for sancti 
 ty. In the rigor of her fastings and watch- 
 ings, in the duties of seriousness and silence, 
 in the fervency and continuance of her pray- 
 ers, she far surpassed the merit of her holy 
 
 * ' Cogita tecum' (says Petrarch) ' in die ultimi 
 judicii an resurgere amas inter Avinionicos peccato- 
 res famosissimos nunc omnium qui sub ccelo sunt, an 
 inter Petrum et Paulum, Stephanum et Laurentium, 
 &:c. &c.' The same argument, which is the con- 
 cluding one, may probably have been adopted a few 
 years afterwards by Catharine of Sienna. Petrarch 
 became a very ardent eulogist of this Pope. 
 
 t The Pope had the honor, during this period, of 
 entertaining both the Emperors as his guests. Charles 
 IV. visited him at Montefiascone in 1368; John 
 Palseologus in the year following at Rome. 
 
 X Spondanus, Ann. 1370, s. iv. St. Brigida,who 
 was at that time in Italy, is related to have assured 
 the Pope, on the authority of an express revelation 
 from the holy Virgin, that his return to Avignon 
 would be immediately followed by his death — abiil 
 nihilo-minus. Peter of Arragon likewise prophesieo 
 the Grand Schism from the same event. 
 
392 HISTORY OF ' 
 
 sisters ; and the austerities which she prac- 
 tised prepared people to beheve the fables 
 which she related : * for she professed to have 
 derived her spiritual knowledge from no hu- 
 man instructer — from no humbler source, 
 than the direct and personal communication 
 of Christ himself On one occasion especial- 
 ly she had been blessed by a vision, in which 
 the Saviour appeared to her, accompanied by 
 the Holy Mother and a numerous host of 
 saints, and in their presence he solemnly es- 
 poused her, placing on her finger a golden 
 ring, adorned with four pearls and a diamond. 
 After the vision had vanished, the ring still 
 remained, sensible and palpable to herself, 
 though invisible to every other eye. Nor 
 was this the only favor which she boasted to 
 have received from the Lord Jesus ; she had 
 sucked the blood from the wound in His side ; 
 she had received His heart in exchange for 
 her own ; she bore on her body the marks of 
 His wounds — though these too were imper- 
 ceptible by any sight except her own.f 
 
 We do not relate such disgusting impiety, 
 either because it was uncommon in those 
 days, or because it was crowned by the sol- 
 emn approbation of the Roman Church ; for 
 the wretched fanatic was canonized, and 
 occupies no despicable station in the Holy 
 Calendar: but it is a more extraordinary cir- 
 cumstance, awakening a deeprr astonishment, 
 that Catharine ot Sienna v/.is invited from 
 her cell by the messengers of the Florentine 
 people, and officially charged, by the compat- 
 riots of Dante and the contemporaries of Pe- 
 trarch, with an important commission at the 
 Court of Rome; the office of mitigating the 
 papal displeasure, and reconciling the Church 
 with the Republic was confided to her en- 
 thusiasm. She was admitted to an early 
 audience. Her arguments, which she deliv- 
 ered in the vulgar Tuscan, were explained by 
 the interpreter who attended her ; and in 
 conclusion, the Pope (assured, no doubt, of 
 her devoted attachment to the Church) ex- 
 pressed his willingness to leave the differences 
 entirely to her decision. | But the embassy 
 
 * Fleury thinks that she believed them herself, and 
 lie may be right: — Une imagination vive, echauffee 
 par Ics jeuiies et les veilles, pouvoit y avoir grande 
 part: d'autant plus, qu'ancune occupation extericure 
 no detournoit ces pcnsces. — Liv. xcvii. s. xl. 
 
 t On the body of St. Francis the wounds were 
 visible — a distinction conferred, as his disciples as- 
 pert, 0)1 him alone. Sec Spondanus, ann. 1376. s. iv. 
 
 I Spondanus, ann. 1.376, s. ii. It docs not ap- 
 ^••ar, by the way, that the Florentines were ready to 
 fxtuii I the same deference to her judgment. See 
 Rismondi, chap. xlix. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 of Catharine was not confined to that object 
 only ; for, whether in obedience to the wish 
 of the Florentines or to the suggestions of her 
 own s})irit, she urged at the same time the 
 duties, which the pontiflf owed to his Italian 
 subjects, to the tombs of the Apostles, to the 
 chair of his mighty predecessors ; and her 
 reasons are said to have influenced a mind 
 already predisposed to listen to them. 
 
 Respecting the motives which created that 
 disposition, it must be mentioned that the 
 residence at Avignon was no longer recom- 
 mended by that careless security which at 
 first distinguished it from Rome. The open 
 country had been invaded and the city men- 
 aced by one of those Companies of associated 
 brigands who were the terror of the fourteenth 
 century. During the pontificate of Innocent 
 VI. the inhabitants and the court had been 
 compelled to seek for safety sometimes in 
 their arms,* sometimes in their riches ; and 
 though the danger might not be very pressing, 
 yet being near at hand and fresh in recollec- 
 tion, it perhaps influenced beyond its impor- 
 tance the Councils of Avignon. The Pope's 
 resolution, however, still wavered ; and was 
 at length decided by a second embassy from 
 Rome, which arrived about two months after 
 the visit of St. Catharine. The envoys ex- 
 pressly assured him, that unless he returned 
 to his See, the Romans would provide a Pope 
 for themselves, who would reside among 
 them ; his cardinal legate at the city gave him 
 the same assurance ; and it afterwards ap- 
 peared, that overtures had already been made 
 to the Abbot of Monte Cassino to that eflTect. 
 This was no moment for delay. Gregory 
 immediately departed for his capital ; and 
 thence, whatever may have been his private 
 intentions, he was not destined to return. 
 
 The place of the death of a pope was at 
 that time of more lasting importance to the 
 Church than his living residence, because the 
 election of a successor could scarcely fail to 
 be aflTected by the local circumstances under 
 which he might be chosen. There could be 
 no security for the continuance of the papal 
 residence at Rome, until the crown should 
 be again placed upon the head of an Italian. 
 At Avignon, the French cardinals, who 
 were more numerous, were certain to elect 
 a French pope ; but the accident which 
 should oblige the Conclave to assemble in an 
 Italian city, might probably lead, through the 
 oj)cration of external influences, to the choice 
 of an Italian. That accident at length occur- 
 
 * Matl. Villan., lib. vii. cap. xcvi. 
 
irS HERESIES AND DIVISIONS. 
 
 3y5 
 
 red, and its consequences will be pursued in 
 the following chapter. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 General History of the Churchy its Heresies, ^c. 
 
 In the meantime, the account which has been 
 given of the pontiffs of Avignon is sufficient 
 to throw some light on their individual mer- 
 its and, what is of much more consequence, 
 or. the general character and principles of 
 their government. But a deeper considera- 
 tion of this important period, suggests some 
 reflections which it is proper to express; 
 while there are some facts, less closely con- 
 nected with papal biography, but not less 
 strictly appertaining to the history of the 
 Church, which have not been noticed, but 
 which cannot wholly be overlooked. Ac- 
 cordingly, we shall first observe the decline 
 which took place, during these seventy years, 
 in the pontifical power, and point out some 
 of its most efficient causes. We shall then 
 inquire, whether any attempts were made to 
 obviate that decay, by measures of reform or 
 renovation. The heresies which divided the 
 Church, and the efforts which aimed to ex- 
 tinguish them, will be the last, and not the 
 least instructive, subject of our examination. 
 
 I. Decline of the papal power. — The various 
 and desultory warfare, alike savage in its cir- 
 cumstances and fruitless in its results, which 
 was waged in Italy by the legates and mer- 
 cenaries of the Pope, * in defence of the pat-' 
 rimony of St. Peter, .is described by the civil 
 historians of those times ; nor shall we de- 
 scend to recount the intrigues which were 
 employed in the same contest, or the bulls 
 M'hich were so repeatedly and vainly launch- 
 ed from Avignon. But the evil, which these 
 measures were intended to repress, was deep- 
 ly felt at the time, and. was fatally pernicious 
 in its consequences. We have observed that, 
 even during his residence at Rome and in the 
 fulness of his power, the Pope was seldom in 
 undisputed possession of the apostolical do- 
 
 * It is truly remarked by Sismondi, that the Avig- 
 non Popes prosecuted these wars with greater ardor, 
 than they would have done, had they been resident in 
 Italy, or than they could, had they drawn their re- 
 sources only from Italy. They suffered no personal 
 dangers, they saw nothing of the evils which they in- 
 flicted, and they derived their supplies from the con- 
 tributions of the whole churcli. The complaints 
 which the Florentines had against the papal Guher- 
 natores are enumerated with great warmth by Leo- 
 ^ardus Aretinus, Hist. Florent., lib. viii., 181 , 2- [ 
 
 5C 
 
 mains. But, in the season of his emigration, 
 he could place little reliance on the frioiidi 
 whom he had deserted, while the license of 
 his enemies and depredators increased with- 
 out restraint. Cities and populous districts 
 were thus separated from the ecclesiastical 
 states, and several among the Roman barons, 
 who were his feudatories, usurped in perjje- 
 tuity the lands of the Church. The deficiency 
 thus occasioned in the pontifical treasury must 
 needs be stipplied from some new soiu'ce; 
 since the change in nation and residence had 
 abated nothing of the pomp and prodigality 
 of the Vicars of Christ. The funds to which 
 they had chiefly recourse for this purpose 
 were twofold. By the more general and 
 easy sale of indulgences, they levied a pro- 
 ductive tax upon the superstition of the peo- 
 ple; at the same time they made a dangerous 
 experiment on the submission of the clergy 
 by various imposts on all ecclesiastical pro- 
 perty.'* The right of presentation to all vacant 
 sees appears to have been first usurped by the 
 Popes of Avigtion. It was abused as soon as 
 usurped ; and the system of reservation de- 
 prived the diocese of its pastor, while it car- 
 ried away its revenues into the apostolical 
 chancery. At the same time the frequent 
 contribution of tenths and first-fruits, raised 
 under crusading or other pretences, gave 
 deeper offence to the sacred order, as it 
 touched their interests more directly and 
 personally. It was vaiii to imagine, that the 
 monstrous system of papacy could long sub- 
 sist, unless supported by the attachment and 
 almost unanimity of the ecclesiastical body; 
 nor could such concord easily take place, un- 
 less the Pope could contrive to identify his 
 
 * The following are mentioned as the sources of 
 the papal exactions from England during the four- 
 teenth century: — (1.) Peter's Pence; for the supposed 
 support of the English pilgrims at Rome: it scarcely 
 exceeded 200/. a-year. (2.) King John's census, of 
 1000 marks. This was tolerably well paid, till the 
 time of Urban V., in 1366, w hen king, clergy, lords, 
 and commons, proclaimed the payment illegal, and 
 it ceased. (3.) The payment of First-fruits. The 
 origin of this is referred to the presents which, in 
 very early ages, a bishop at his consecration, or a 
 priest at his ordination, paid to the officiating pif late. 
 It was abolished by Gregory the Great, but soon 
 grew up again, and insensibly came to be rated at a 
 year's income. Presently, when prelates obtained 
 their sees by provisions, those first-fruits flowed into 
 the apostolical treasury. Those of smaller benefices 
 were at first granted, seemingly in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, to bishops and archbishops. At length, Clemen*. 
 V. reserved for his own use all first-fniits, and Join 
 XXII imitated his example. See Lingard's Hist 
 
394 HISTORY OF 
 
 interests with those of the clergy, or at least 
 to persuade the clergy of such identity. But 
 from the hour that his exigencies could only 
 be supplied at their expense, — that his dig- 
 nity, his luxuries, his very vices, tended to 
 impoverish, and no longer to enrich, them ; 
 from that hour a very powerful, though very 
 sordid instrument of connexion began to give 
 way, and the discontent, which might orig- 
 mate in pure selfishness, found abundant fuel, 
 as well as ample justification, in the manifold 
 abuses which disgraced the papal court. 
 
 Rapacity of the Popes, and projligacy of the 
 Court. — Still there had been less danger from 
 this disaffection, had the Popes pressed their 
 impolitic exactions with any show of modera- 
 tion ; had they been contented to satisfy their 
 necessitieSj or even to maintain with judicious 
 liberality the ceremony and pomp of office. 
 But so far were they removed from any such 
 discretion, that it rather seemed their object so 
 to reign, as to unite prodigality with avarice 
 — to spend profusely and hoard insatiably. 
 It was this spirit of rapacity which presided 
 over the councils of Avignon. The lofty pre- 
 tensions which animated and even dignified 
 the Pontiffs of former days, were degraded 
 into mere lifeless instruments to the lowest 
 worldly purposes. We seek not now for 
 the deep religious enthusiasm of the earliest 
 Popes, for' that had long been extinguished ; 
 but the exalted and magnanimous audacity 
 of the Gregories and even the Innocents, — 
 the settled ecclesiastical fanaticism (if we may 
 use the expression,) which so long dazzled 
 the reason of man, — these too had at length 
 given place to baser principles and passions. 
 The cloud of mystery, which had so long 
 hung over the chair of St. Peter, filling the 
 nations with awe for the invisible power and 
 majesty residing there, was at length dispersed 
 and broken away, and in its place was dis- 
 covered the nakedness of human turpitude. 
 The charm of opinion began gradually to dis- 
 solve; and whatsoever prejudices many still 
 retained in favor of the papal government, 
 they were w^eakened by the sordid motives 
 which now directed it ; and an unpopular 
 vice became still more detested, when it was 
 found engrafted upon the ecclesiastical char- 
 acter. 
 
 Another cause, which materially assisted, 
 during this period, in hastening the decline 
 of papacy, was the shameless profligacy of 
 the court of Avignon. There is no dispute as 
 to this fact; and oven moderate writers have 
 straijicd their language, ui order to present a 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 just picture of that defornnty. We lefer not 
 to the partial philippics of Petrarcn ; nor to 
 the unholy name of Babylon, which may first 
 have been affixed to the city of the Popes, 
 from a similarity in crime. But when Den- 
 ina assures us, that the licentiousness of the 
 clergy became excessive and universal, from 
 the time that the scandals of Avignon had re- 
 moved all restraint and shame ; and when Sis- 
 mondi* declares, that that people and that coui-t 
 made themselves manners out of the vices of 
 all other nations, those historians do not exceed 
 the testimony of contemporary authorities. 
 The causes and sources of this pestilence are 
 disputed : it is ascribed by the French writers 
 to the importation of Transalpine fashions and 
 morals into their less corrupt climate ; while 
 the Italians retort the charge of greater im- 
 purity, and enlarge, perhaps with more jus- 
 tice, on the temptations which may ensnare 
 a bishop who resides at a distance from his 
 diocese, who is surrounded by a court of pre- 
 lates also non-resident, without any spiritual 
 care or any restraint from the obsei*vation of 
 the people. Howbeit, this argument would 
 have had more weight, had the court of Rome 
 been less polluted: but whatever may have 
 been the comparative delinquencies of Rome 
 and Avignon, it is at least certain, that the 
 latter were more indecent and more notori- 
 ous ; that oflfences, which (if they were really 
 practised) had been heretofore veiled or only 
 partially known, were now exposed and stig- 
 matized universally ; and that the only alter- 
 native thenceforward remaining to the ponti- 
 fical government was to correct those flagrant 
 abuses, or by their means to fall. | 
 
 The publication of the celebrated bull, call- 
 ed Unam Sanctam, in which Boniface VIII. 
 asserted the extreme pretensions -of his see to 
 both descriptions of supremacy, may be view 
 ed, perhaps, as the great Crisis in papal his- 
 tory. As far as that moment, nothing had 
 been ceded in the pontifical claims, and noth- 
 ing abated in the arrogance with which they 
 were pressed. It may be, that their founda- 
 
 * Denina, Delle Rivoluz. d'ltalia, lib. xv., cap. vi. 
 Sisinondi, Rep. Ital., chap, xlviii. SeeBaluz., Pref. 
 in Vitas Pontif. Avenionensium. 
 
 t During the pontificate of John XXH., complaints 
 against the clergy began to break out very commonly 
 in France, occasioned by the excess to which they 
 carried their jurisdiction, as well as other ofl'ences. 
 But Philip the Regent protected them, — 'Jura eccle- 
 siaruin auxerim potius quam imniinuta velim.' It ia 
 remarkable, that it was to this declaration that the 
 kings of France are indebted for the title of Catholic^ 
 — 80, at least, says Bzovius, Ann. 1329, s. xxiii 
 
ITS HERESIES AND DIVISIONS. 
 
 J93 
 
 lions had been silently crumbling beneath 
 them, but their actual instability was still 
 concealed by outward show and magnificent 
 pretension. But from this point the descent 
 was perceptible, and it soon became very 
 rapid ; and Philip, having penetrated tlie se- 
 cret of the real weakness of the See, effectu- 
 ally brought about its humiliation. His attack 
 on the personal safety of Boniface, though in 
 a great measure defeated by the undaunted 
 constancy of that Pontiff, disclosed to the 
 whole world tne domestic insecurity of the 
 Bishop of Home. 
 
 Still it must be acknowledged that a Pope, as 
 long as the seat of his government was his own 
 capital, could not ever be the mere depend- 
 ent of any sovereign ; and this is the argument 
 by which Roman Catholic writers most plau- 
 sibly defend the temporal power of the Chief 
 of their church. But no sooner had he cross- 
 ed the Alps and transferred his court to 
 France, than he descended to the condition 
 of a subordinate })rince. It was in vain, 
 that the formalities of respect, and even the 
 show of equality, were observed : the influ- 
 ence of the King of France predominated in 
 the councils of Avignon ; and the sense and 
 the notoriety of temporal dependence dis- 
 couraged the ghostly pretensions of the Pope, 
 and blunted the edge of his weapons. For 
 this, among other reasons, we are not sur- 
 prised to observe, that the ecclesiastical cen- 
 sures lost much of their effi -acy during this 
 age ; that they were received in various coun- 
 tries with various degrees of indifference, 
 but that this indifference was everywhere 
 increasing. Italy herself was the most con- 
 spicuous for the general neglect with which 
 she treated them ; and Italy, in her spiritual 
 rebellion, did no more than imitate the pre- 
 eminent obduracy of Rome. For Rome was 
 irritated by the absence of her prelate ; and her 
 habitual contumacy and lawlessness found 
 gi'eat pretence and some justification, when 
 she was deprived even of the ordinary ad- 
 vantages of an episcopal residence. 
 
 Another severe, and even incurable, wound, 
 was inflicted on papal despotism by the threat 
 of appeal to a General Council, which was 
 first urged by Philip, and eagerly repeated by 
 Louis of Bavaria. That there was a power 
 superior to the Pope within the church itself, 
 was a principle which was sure to find many 
 advocates even in the ecclesiastical body. 
 Once broached, and on such high authority, 
 t was commonly discussed, and by discus- 
 
 on gained ground ; and though the progress 
 
 of reason against established prejudice is usu 
 ally very slow, the minds of many were pre- 
 j)ared for this innovation during the first half 
 of the fourteenth century ; but it was not 
 carried into full cfl'ect till somewhat later. 
 
 Of the dissensions which divided the church 
 during this period, and which we shall jjres- 
 ently notice, none probably occasioned so 
 great scandal at the time, as the disputes car- 
 ried on by the more rigid Franciscans against 
 the Pope himself Between the higher ranks 
 of the secular clergy and their acknowledged 
 head, we have observed differences not un- 
 common respecting their authority, their rev- 
 enues, or the removal of their corruptions. 
 But the regular orders had hitherto observed 
 the strictest allegiance to a president, whose 
 interests were inseparably connected with 
 their own ; and this was the first occasion 
 on which the pontifical court was disturbed 
 by the sound of monastic insubordination. 
 There was danger in an example, which might 
 be followed by any discontented branch of the 
 priesthood ; but the consequence, which real- 
 ly and immediately followed it, was to open 
 the eyes of the laity to the deformities of 
 the system, and to rouse them against those 
 abuses, which ecclesiastics themselves no 
 longer conspired to defend. 
 
 But another, and a still more certain instru 
 ment for the subversion of papacy had beer 
 now for some time in operation, and it ac- 
 quired additional power during the fourteenth 
 century ; an instrument, independent of the 
 accidents of papal ' captivity ' or ecclesiastical 
 discord, and one which, however aided by 
 such circumstances, would surely have ac- 
 complished its task without them. Human 
 reason had at length been awakened from its 
 long lethargy; and though its first flights 
 were wild and irregular, it was beginning to 
 extend its influence and to know its authori- 
 ity. The means of education were multipli- 
 ed, its character was varied and exalted ; and 
 what was most important to all purposes 
 of general improvement, its advantages were 
 no longer confined to a privileged body, but 
 were diffused through every condition of 
 society. The subjects, indeed, which still 
 engrossed the greater portion of the learning 
 of those days, were generally connected with 
 theology, or with the constitution and disci- 
 pline of the church. Still it was not to 
 churchmen alone, that such discussions were 
 confined. Those who profited by the ecclesi- 
 astical sj stem were no longer the only persons 
 qualified to argue respecting it. No sooner 
 
30K 
 
 HISTORi' OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 were the gates opened, than the laity rushed 
 into that province with great eagerness ; and 
 the seeds of the Reformation were already 
 scattered, though it was uncertain when they 
 would break forth, or what fruits they would 
 bear in their maturity. 
 
 II. Attempts at Reformation. — The abuses 
 which gave most offence at the commence- 
 ment of this period, so as to excite the indig- 
 nation of the better portion of the clergy, and 
 even to claim the attention of the hierarchy, 
 have been enumerated in a former page, as 
 they were presented to the Council of Vienna. 
 They were not corrected on that occasion, and 
 they increased in consequence. 
 
 We must not, however, suppose, that no 
 regulations were enacted under the Avignon 
 Popes for the amendment of the ecclesiastical 
 system ; they were very numerous ; * but the 
 misfortune was, that they were generally mis- 
 directed. They descended to insignificant 
 p rticulars, or were fabricated by one portion 
 of the clergy against another, or by the or- 
 thodox against the heretics ; or they related 
 to the imposts of the Pope and the means 
 of evading them ; they never reached those 
 grand deformities which endangered the 
 church, through the just offence which they 
 gave to the laity. It is true that some papal 
 constitutions were published both against the 
 non-residence of the clergy and the holding 
 of pleuralities. But the first could not be 
 consistently enforced by a prelate who had | 
 never visited his own see ; and the Popes, \ 
 thougn they held decisive language, f were 
 
 * A number of the Councils assembled for this pur- 
 pose, and the principal canons enacted by them are 
 mentioned by Semler, sec. xiv., cap. ii. The follow- 
 ing are specimens: — Concil. Coloniense, ann. 1313. 
 Neclericis publica poenitentia imponatur, cum alii in 
 albis procedunt, alii in nigris cappis, in facie laico- 
 rum. Ne fiant imprecationes contra aliquas personas. 
 Concil. Trevirense, ej. ann. Contra gerentes cu- 
 cuteras, seu cucusas, mitras, virgatas, scacatas vestes. 
 Contra convivia in excquiis. . . Ut ante vel post vel 
 super altare sit imago, gculptura, pictura, in cujus , 
 Sancti meritum constructum sit. . . Si infans caput 
 ex utero emiserit a muliere baptizetur ; si solum caput 
 vel pars corporis major appareat nec discerni potest 
 sexus: dicat, Creatura Dei, ego, &c. &c., et erit 
 baptizatus. 
 
 t John XXII. ia 1317 put fortli a constitution 
 against all ambitious and avaricious clergymen, com- 
 plaining of tlioir non-residence, neglect of hospitality, 
 the ruin of their churches, &c. And we oljservc, at 
 the same time, tliat he deposed a bishop; not, liow- 
 evcr, on any of these grave charges, but for tlie of- 
 fence of contumacy. (Bzov., ann. 1317, s. x"ii.) 
 The same pontifTalso publislied an edict against phi- 
 
 manifestly insincere in the second. Or, if we 
 are to admit that one or two among them 
 were really earnest in their wishes and en 
 deavors, they were at least prevented from 
 taking measures to effectuate them by the 
 fear of offending the most powerful, though 
 perhaps the least deserving, part of the sacred 
 body. 
 
 III. Divisions and Heresies. — When Fran 
 cis of Umbria first established his rigid Order, 
 his rule was celebrated by the applause of 
 successive popes. The impious fables which 
 he propagated, respecting the miraculous im- 
 pression of the Saviour's wounds on his body, 
 and other such matters, were countenanced 
 and dignified by the authority of the Church ; 
 he was adopted with eagerness into the fami- 
 ly of the Saints ;* and the extreme austerity 
 of the institution seemed in some fashion to 
 be sanctified by the superstitious reverence, 
 thus studiously thrown around the name of 
 the Founder. We are not, then, to be aston- 
 ished when we observe, that several among 
 his followers adhered to the very letter of his 
 instructions with unprecedented pertinacity, 
 and scorned the vulgar temptations to soften 
 their severity. The example of relaxation 
 set to them by almost every other Order, the 
 desertion of the more numerous part even of 
 their own brethren, the moderate indulgence 
 enjoined by the Pope himself, were insuffi- 
 cient to seduce those honest fanatics from 
 strict obedience to their law, or to abate the 
 
 ralities, beginning ' Execrabilis quorundam,' &c., 
 and continued in a strain of emphatic abuse. (See 
 Vit., (3tia.) Joh. XXII. ap. Baluzium.) Similar 
 laws were launched, with the same inefficiency, by 
 Benedict XII., and afterwards by Innocent VI. A 
 curious story is told to prove the zeal of this last. 
 Innocent, before his elevation, had a favorite chap- 
 lain, on whom had been conferred seven benefices. 
 As soon as he became Pope, the chaplain again pre- 
 sented himself, bringing with him a little godson, for 
 whom he wished also to procure a benefice. But the 
 Pope, like a just man, answered him: * You have 
 seven good benefices; resign the best of them vo thet 
 boy.' On which, when Innocent saw that the pe- 
 titioner was discontented, he again said, * You have 
 still six benefices, and fewer would suffice for your 
 necessities: choose, then, for yourself the three best 
 of them, and resign the others, that I may bestow 
 them, for the honor of God, on three poor clergymen.' 
 The Pope was highly applauded for that act, as hav- 
 ing therein followed the path of spiritual, rather than 
 carnal afiection. See Vita (4ta) Innocent. VI., apud 
 Baluzium. 
 
 * Both Francis and Dominic were canonized by 
 the same pope, Gregory IX. (about 1235;) so like- 
 wise was Anthony of Padua, and other less consider 
 able personages. 
 
ITS HERESIES AND DIVISIONS. 
 
 397 
 
 vivid faitli which they placed in their master. 
 For indeed it was to faith that their feehngs 
 amounted, when they maintained that St. 
 Francis was a second Christ — nothing inferior 
 or dissimilar to the first; and that the institu- 
 tion which he left behind him was the true 
 gospel of salvation. 
 
 Entire and absolute poverty, the complete 
 renunciation of all property, whether connnon 
 or personal, was the fundamental principle of 
 the society, the only principle of Christian 
 obedience — the only rule of evangelical per- 
 fection. In defence of that position, it be- 
 came them at the same time to profess and 
 argue, that the practice of Christ and his 
 Apostles had been rigidly formed upon the 
 same rule ; and this became accordingly the 
 question in dispute with their theological ad- 
 versaries. Those adversaries, as we may well 
 suppose, were neither few nor of humble 
 rank. A courtly and luxurious hierarchy 
 were scandalized by that unqualified asser- 
 tion of the necessity of poverty ; and Christ's 
 imperious vicegerent upon earth was shocked 
 by so homely a picture of the humility of his 
 heavenly Lord. 
 
 Some unsuccessful endeavors were made 
 in the preceding century to bring the Fratri- 
 celli, or Minorites (so they were denominated) 
 to a more reasonable view of the gospel in- 
 stitution, and of the spirit of their own rule : 
 but it does not appear that any personal out- 
 rage was oflfered them until the year 1306 ; 
 and even then it proceeded, as was naturally 
 to be expected, from the more worldly mem- 
 bers of their own fraternity. From Italy, 
 many then fled into Provence, and were scat- 
 tered over the south of France ; and at this 
 time they are represented to have united with 
 the Spirituals, and the Beghards and Be- 
 guines. The name Spiritual is said to have 
 been first assumed by the followers of a schis- 
 matic of that age, named Pierre d'Olive ; the 
 others were the Tertiarii, or third order of 
 Franciscans. All were equally opposed to 
 the existing system of papal government. 
 As their principles were henceforward iden- 
 tified, so also was their history ; and the term 
 spiritual is that by which the observers of the 
 rule of absolute poverty were commonly dis- 
 tinguished from their less austere Breikren of 
 the Communiti). 
 
 Disputes betiveen the Popes and the Francis- 
 cans. — Clement V. interposed his mediation 
 between these contentious mendicants; and 
 at the Council of Vienna he issued the Bull 
 Exivi de Paradise, with the design of bring- 
 ing them tc concord by mutual coucession. 
 
 He permitted to the Spirituals the enjoyment 
 of the most abject poverty; while at the same 
 time, to such Franciscans as resided in barren 
 countries, where the resources of mendicity 
 were precarious, he allowed the use of gran- 
 aries and store-houses, as places of deposit for 
 their common alms. Nevertheless, though all 
 acts of violence were for the moment sus- 
 pended, the division of the Order continued 
 as before, and the mutual animosity was in 
 no degree abated ; and a distinction in dress 
 at this time introduced by the Minorites, 
 who adopted a meaner and coarser habit, 
 contributed no little to inflame the contro- 
 versy. 
 
 Matters stood thus, when John XXII. was 
 raised to the pontificate ; and since the mod- 
 eration of his predecessors had not availed to 
 heal the scliism, ke entered without any delay 
 into the opposite system. We observe that 
 the Fratricelli are enumerated among the 
 heretics condemned in an edict whic4i he 
 published in 1317; and in the year following 
 he made them the object of a memorable bull : 
 — " The glorious Church which has neither 
 stain nor wrinkle, which Christ loved, and for 
 which he delivered himself to death, that he 
 might sanctify it by wasljing it with water m 
 the Word of Life — this Church the Propiie* 
 knew by the revelation of the Spirit to be 
 placed before all nations ; and admiring ihp 
 splendor of so much dignity, he exhibited it 
 under the similitude of royalty, saying — A 
 queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded 
 garments, &c. &c." * After describing the 
 nature of the union between Christ and liis 
 spouse the Church, and especially eulogizing 
 
 * ' Gloriosam Ecclesiam, non liabentein maculam 
 aut rugam, qiiam Clnistus dilexit, pro qua semet 
 jpsum tradidit, &c. Nimirum ipsa Chiisti Spon£;a 
 Virgo Mater Ecclesia, quia inclyto Capiti suo Domino 
 Jesu Cliristo inviolal)ilis fidei glutino copulatur, et 
 ejus inii)erio prona obedientia substernitur, cum lUo 
 unum effecta, tarn incomparabilis unionis merito rebus 
 omnibus, more regio, principatur. Qufe dum pia ot 
 devota religione terrena despicit, cseleslia petit, ornne 
 sinistrum premens, k dextris Sponsi gloriosa consistit. 
 Et quia geminae charitatis splendore omni ex parte 
 rutilat, ia vestitu aureo etiam angelicis spiritibus 
 admiranda coruscat. Cujus ineestimabilis decor, 
 quia vario vivendi genere in una tamen cliai itate per 
 ficitur, quasi de vestis pulcherrima varielate Ireta. 
 tur. . . ' Such were the senseless and even impiocs 
 rhapsodies, with which a very bad pope celebralf.d 
 the corrupt church, which he still further corruptsd 
 by his acts and his eulogies; — not that he was really 
 blind to its deformities, but because he was too timid 
 or too wicked to correct them, and because he b*,"- 
 lieved that the system, with all its vices upon its head, 
 would still last and be piofitable for kis oten time 
 
398 HISTORY OF 
 
 the chanty of the latter, the Pope proceeded 
 to expose the errors of the Minorites. He 
 classed them under five heads, and showed 
 how they combined the various enormities 
 of the Donatists, of the Waldenses, and the 
 Manicheans, while they also followed the 
 ' foul traces ' of Montanus * and Priscilla. 
 The burden of their offence was contempt 
 of the ' bonds of the Church,' and disrespect 
 for its ministers ; howbeit, being convicted by 
 the edict of John of certain condemned and 
 stignjatized heresies, they were consigned by 
 the same act to inquisitorial authority. The 
 agents of oppression executed their part with 
 no delay ; and the very same year four of the 
 Fratricelli were seized at Marseilles, and burnt 
 to death. 
 
 From this moment the contest assumed a 
 much more serious characte**. The devotion 
 of the Spirituals was now sealed, and their 
 resistance sanctified, by the blood of their 
 martyrs ; their zeal, their activity, their num- 
 bers everywhere increased; and the more 
 violent were the proceedings of the inquisi- 
 tors, the more advocates did the persecuted 
 acquire, the more generally they rose into 
 respect and consideration. Their great prin- 
 ciple respecting the poverty of Christ was now 
 made the subject of solemn deliberation ; and 
 the most celebrated divines of the age, espe- 
 cially those of Paris, were officially consulted 
 on the question, and finally the Pope himself 
 descended into the field of controversy — and 
 happier had been his fortunes, and his memo- 
 ry more honored, had he confined his hostility 
 to that bloodless warfare. At the end of 1322 
 he published a Constitution, in which he con- 
 futed the arguments of the Franciscans, and 
 asserted for the monastic orders the right of 
 property, instead of the simple use of their 
 immediate necessaries. The Spirituals re- 
 
 * In the account of Montanus (given in Chap. V. 
 p. 78.) it is too confidently assei ted that he professed 
 to he the Paraclete or Comforter. It is indeed 
 the deliberate opinion of Moslieim that he professed 
 to be the Paraclete, sent down to complete the 
 Christian system ; but that writer supposes the fanatic 
 to have distinguished between the Paraclete and the 
 Holy Spirit, and not to have proceeded so far as to 
 assert his identity with the latter. Bishop Kaye is 
 of opinion that Montanus only laid claims to inspi- 
 ration by the HolyGhosi; and he certainly shows 
 that the distinction, supposed to have been made be- 
 tween the Holy Ghost and the Paraclete, has no 
 foundation. It seems probable that the bishop's 
 opinion is correct. At least the only alternative is 
 to believe, that Montanus pretended to be the Holy 
 Ghost — an absurdity by no means unparalleled in the 
 liintorv of heresy. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 jected the right with the same obstmacy, 
 with which it was dictated by the Pope ; and 
 it was at least a singular contest, and worthy 
 of a more religious age and more reasonable 
 motives, where the one party indignantly re- 
 pudiated the worldly possessions, which the 
 other imperiously obtruded — where a body 
 of beggars preferred the endurance of a dead- 
 ly persecution to the sacrifice of the duty of 
 poverty. 
 
 In this manner the dispute proceeded, until 
 the rupture between John and Louis of Ba- 
 varia became open and decided. Then the 
 Emperor, as if to turn against the Church the 
 old ecclesiastical policy, hastened to profit by 
 the divisions of his adversary, and to foment 
 the spiritual rebelhon. The provinces of the 
 empire were thrown open to all the denom- 
 inations of schism and heresy ; and the multi- 
 form enemies of papacy found refuge in the 
 dominions of Louis, and honor at his court. 
 Marsilius of Padua, Csesenas, Bonagratia, and 
 William Occam, were the most illustrious 
 among those exiles. They directed their elo- 
 quence, their learning, and their satire, both 
 personally against John, and generally against 
 the system of the Church ; and their writings, 
 which were eagerly read even b}'^ that genera- 
 tion, were transmitted with still greater profit 
 ' to a less i)rejudiced posterity. 
 
 On the other hand, the Pope * was ardent- 
 ly supported by his Dominican emissaries. 
 Their thirst for heretical blood was heated by 
 a particular jealousy of the Franciscan Order. 
 Wherever an avenue was open they penetrat- 
 ed. They pursued the fugitives even into the 
 remote plains of Poland and Hungaiy, and 
 introduced into those ignorant regions the 
 machinery of the Inquisition. But France 
 and Italy f were the scene of their most suc- 
 cessful exertions; and these were not con- 
 fined to the pontificate of John. Even the 
 
 * The history of John XXII. abounds with edicts 
 against the various denominations of heresy. We 
 are also bound to mention that he published (in 1326) 
 one Constitution to repress the too great zeal of 
 certain inquisitors in Sicily; but when we examine 
 the nature of that zeal, we find that it had ventured 
 to attack ' nostros et apostolicao sedis ofiiciales vel 
 nuntios, &c.' John, as well as several other jiopes, 
 extended more protection to the Jews than they en 
 joyed elsewhere. 
 
 f Vit. John XXII. ap. Baluz. Mosheim calcu 
 lates, from various records published and unpublished, 
 that the names of about two thousand persons, of 
 both sexes, may be enumerated, who suffered martyr- 
 dom in France and Italy for their inflexible attach- 
 ment to the poverty of St Francis. Cent. xiv. p 
 2. eh. ii. 
 
ITS HERESIES 
 
 virtuous Benedict began his reign by an ana- 
 thema against the FratricelH ; and it is re- 
 markable, that, in the Constitution which he 
 published on this occasion,* the articles of 
 their heresy are swelled to fifty-five. Their 
 denial of the power of the Pope to permit them 
 to have property is among the most curious, 
 and not the least grave, of their offences ; — 
 some ve"v gross absurdities were also imputed 
 to them, which may have been calumniously, 
 as indeed they may have been truly, alleged. 
 . . But there is one observation here neces- 
 sary, which will tend to account for the great 
 multiplicity and vagueness of the charges ad- 
 vanced. A furious war was at that time rag- 
 ing in Italy between the imperial and papal 
 factions; and it was a part of the crooked 
 policy of the churchmen of Rome to confound 
 political enmity with spiritual perversity, and 
 to brand the adversaries of the visible church 
 with the crime of heretical depravity. Among 
 the adversaries of the church they usually 
 classed its reformers — those who were indeed 
 its only real friends ; and thus it happened, 
 that the term heresy came now to compre- 
 hend every opinion unfavorable to the eccle- 
 siastical government of the day, and the gates 
 of the Irquisition received without distinction 
 a various and indiscriminate multitude. 
 
 Still, as long as the reign of Louis continu- 
 ed, a secure asylum was offered to all descrip- 
 tions of Dissenters ; and these, being already 
 connected by one common principle and one 
 common wrong, may have adopted from each 
 other the absurd opinions, which some of 
 them certainly held. But the spirit which 
 united them was deep animosity against the 
 Pope, whom they accused in their turn of 
 impiety and usurpation. In the year 1345, f 
 Louis was succeeded by Charles IV. ; and as 
 that Prince was chiefly obliged for his eleva- 
 tion to pontifical influence, so his policy fol- 
 lowed the interests of the Court of Avignon. 
 If the principles of the Bavarian had con- 
 tinued to govern his dominions for another 
 generation, it is not improbable that the em- 
 pire would have Vholly freed itself from 
 
 * Bzov. ad ann. 1335, s. ii. 
 
 t About the same time died William Occham, 
 ' pestilentissimusHseresiarcha.' — Bzovius (ann. 1347, 
 «. xxxvi.,) though he designates this Englishman to 
 ha\e been * omnii^ incentor malorum, auctor scele- 
 ruirj, cultor tenebrai um, &r. &c.,' still does not at- 
 tribute his death to divine interposition; — which is 
 the more surprising, because he had not hesitated to 
 pronounce somewhat earlier (ann. 1321, s. xxi.) that 
 Dante died through the peculiar vengeance of Hea- 
 ven, which visited his calumnies against the popes. 
 
 AND DIVISIONS. 399 
 
 papal supremacy, and raised the oanners of 
 Reformation in the fourteenth century with 
 no inconsiderable advantage to religion. But 
 such anticipation of the more perfect triumph 
 of a more enlightened age was cut short by 
 the perfidy * of the Imperial counsels. The 
 ninnerous insurgents against the despotism 
 of Rome, whom Louis had encouraged and 
 protected and created, were betrayed by his 
 successor into the hands of the avenger. The 
 peaceful j)rovinces of the empire, hitherto 
 sacred from the inroads of persecution, were 
 now thrown open to the Dominicans. Their 
 irruption was supported by secular edicts and 
 arms ; and the extirpation of the ' Voluntary 
 beggars' — the enemies of the Church and the 
 ^ Raman empire,'' — was pressed with equal 
 ardor by the pope and the emperor. The 
 houses of the offenders were given to the tri- 
 bunal of the Inquisition, to be converted into 
 prisons for heretics ;f and their effects were 
 publicly sold, for the equal profit of the in- 
 quisitors who ordered, of the magistrates who 
 enforced, and of the poor who witnessed, their 
 execution. The survivors fled towards the 
 banks of the Rhine, to Switzerland, Brabant 
 and Pomerania ; but they were followed by a 
 j tempest of mandates and bulls, and hunted 
 by the keen Dominicans even into their misi 
 distant retreats; till at length it is admitted, 
 that the greater part of Germany was restor 
 ed, after this sanguinary purification, to the 
 peaceful embrace of the Church. 
 
 But neither edicts, nor bulls, nor inquisitors, 
 could suppress the spirit of the schism, though 
 they might extinguish its name ; and those 
 who preserved their obedience to the more 
 rigid rule, were still found to be so numerous, 
 and the love of that discipline was still in 
 some provinces so prevalent, that the popes 
 at length thought proper to sanction the in- 
 stitution. Accordingly, the Franciscan Order 
 was by authority divided into two bodies, 
 
 * This is no ground perhaps for imputing to Charles 
 personally, that his intolerance was aggravated by 
 treachery. The individual stands convicted of per- 
 secution only. But the circumstance of this change 
 adds one to the many instances, in which the steady, 
 consistent perseverance of the Vatican has carried 
 its point, through the fluctuations of the Imperia 
 policy. 
 
 t See Mosheim, Cent. xiv. p. ii. oi • li. Their 
 crime is mentioned in the edict (published at Lucca in 
 1369) which condemns them. ' They are a pernicious 
 sect, who pretend to a sacrilegious and heretical 
 poverty, and who are under a vow that they neitlei 
 ought to have, nor will have, any property, whetlier 
 special or common, in the goods they use — which 
 they extend even to their wretched habits ' 
 
400 HISTORY OF 
 
 which subsist to this day — the more indul- 
 gent were called the Conventual Brethren 
 — the more austere, the Brethren of Ob- 
 servance. The disputes which afterwards 
 ciisturbed this arrangement were partial and 
 insignificant ; and the historian may express 
 his astonishment mixed with sorrow, that so 
 simple a method of reconciliation could only 
 be reached through the paths of intolerance 
 and oppression. 
 
 Beghards and Lolktrds. — The term Beg- 
 hard was in this age commonly applied to 
 the Tertiaries of St. Francis ; and, though in 
 its origin probably innocent of such princi- 
 ples, it was now involved in the guilt and fate 
 of the anti-papal heresies. The ' Brethren 
 of the free spirit,' the harmless mystics of the 
 last century,* had been some time known by 
 that appellation ; and sometimes they are de- 
 signated as Lollai'ds, in the records of the 
 following age. The reason of their confu- 
 sion is, that both names were indiscriminately 
 used by the Church to stigmatize those who 
 dissented frotn it, without any new inquiry 
 as to the grounds and points of their dissent. 
 Mosheim, who has mvestigated this subject 
 with great diligence, considers the Lollards f 
 to have been a society of pious laymen, form- 
 ed in the first instance at Antwerp, for the 
 purpose of visiting the sick and burying the 
 dead during a season of pestilence ; for the 
 clergy are affirmed to have deserted their 
 official duties, as soon as they became attend- 
 ed with peril. The humane motives and re- 
 ligious practice of the new society caused it 
 to sj)read throughou Flanders and many 
 parts of Germany, and it was encouraged by 
 the respect of the magistrates and the love of 
 the inhabitants. Its success excited the jeal- 
 ousy, as indeed it reflected on the reputation, 
 of all the clergy ; but the Mendicants had per- 
 haps a deeper motive for animosity against it, 
 when they found that their own profits suffer- 
 ed through its gratuitous charity. Accord- 
 ingly, they raised the customary clamors of 
 impiety and heresy: under the mask of ex- 
 traordinary holiness, the Lollards concealed 
 forsooth the blackest errors and the most 
 enormous vices ! they were denounced at the 
 pontifical throne, and their name has passed 
 
 * See Mosheim, Cent. xiii. p. ii. ch. v. 
 
 t Mosheim, Cent. xiv. p. ii. ch. ii. The word 
 Lolhard means a singer — as Beghard means one who 
 prays. Tlie l<jrmer were also called the ' Ccllite 
 bretlircn and sisters — the Alexian brethren' — from 
 the colls ill which they lived, and the saint who was 
 iheir patro.i. See Semlor, Secul. xiv. caj). i. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 into the language ot the Church to designate 
 a misbelieving and sanctified hypocrite. 
 
 They may have held some foolish opinions 
 — among those generally attributed to them 
 the following are the most peculiar : that the 
 mind ought to be called away from the ex 
 ternal and sensible parts of religion, and fixed 
 on inward and spiritual worship ; that the 
 soul which is wholly absorbed in the love of 
 God is free from the restraint of every law, 
 and may gratify its natural appetites without 
 sin ; that perfect virtue and perfect beatitude 
 may be obtained in this world ; and that per- 
 sons so circumstanced are removed above 
 every worldly consideration ; so that the 
 moral virtues, as well as the religious cer- 
 emonies, might be neglected without offence. 
 Moreover they pretended that there were two 
 Churches, the carnal Church, which was 
 that of Rome ; the spiritual, which was con- 
 fined to their own society* 7 . . Such 
 were the crimes imputed to them by the 
 Churchmen ; and this last may really have 
 been the secret of their offence. Yet, though 
 we should believe them to have held almost 
 every tenet with which they are charged, 
 (for the contempt of moral duties was clearly 
 not a tenet, but a consequence calumniously 
 drawn by their enemies,) may we not discern, 
 that the principle from which they departed 
 was excellent and holy ? It led them into 
 some extravagances; but were those so gross, 
 or nearly so detestable, as the deliberate absur- 
 dities which were committed by the Church 
 itself during the same period ? — the insertion 
 into the Liturgy of ' the words in which the 
 angel Gabriel saluted the Virgin Mary ' — the 
 
 * Other charges are instanced by Bzovius (ann. 
 1307, s. ix.) They held that the Mass, Baptism and 
 Extreme Unction were useless ceremonies; that Lu- 
 cifer was an injured being, and that the angels, as 
 well as all the enemies of their own sect, would be 
 finally condemned ; thai Mary did not continue a vir- 
 gin after the nativity; that the body of the Lord in 
 the Eucharist was not real; that marriage was only 
 sanctified whoredom; that God neither punished nor 
 regarded human sins. Besides this, they lay together 
 promiscuously under the pretence of charity; they 
 ate flesh when they would; they observed no festivals 
 and derided the merits and intercession of the saints; 
 and finally they were so obstinate under persecution, 
 dial whatever might be their sex or age, they unani- 
 mously preferred death to conversion. ... In this 
 strange and calumnious catalogue we may observe the 
 malignity, with which some tenets, merely rejecting 
 the innovations of Rome, arc mixed up with the most 
 horrible crimes and blasphemies. Yet this was one 
 of the most vulgar among the artifices of the Church 
 men of those days. 
 
ITS HERESIES AND DIVISIONS. 
 
 401 
 
 Institution of festivals in honor of the lanco, 
 the nails, the crown of Christ * — the appoint- 
 ment of a holy day for the solemn celebration 
 of the wounds of Christ, miraculously im- 
 pressed upon the body of St. Francis ! . . . . 
 If we should believe all the calumnies that 
 churchmen have ever fabricated in vilifica- 
 tion of the Mystics, we shall find among them 
 nothing so irrational, nothing nearly so impi- 
 ous, as those authorized ecclesiastical mum- 
 meries. 
 
 The Lollards suffered some oppression in 
 Austria and other countries; but a war of 
 extermination does not appear to have been 
 formally proclaimed against them. No doubt, 
 they were confounded by the inquisitors, 
 sometimes erroneously and sometimes wil- 
 fully, with the more avowed enemies of the 
 papal government; and thus they shared that 
 vengeance, which was chiefly intended for 
 the Spirituals and Beghards. But whether 
 through their greater obscurity or more man- 
 ifest harmlessness, they escaped in compara- 
 tive safety, without any direct attack, — and to 
 this tolerance it may perhaps be attributed, 
 that the sect of the Lollards f (properly so 
 called) never rose into great power and never 
 became dangerous to the Catholic Church. 
 
 Dulcinus. — During the reign of Clement 
 v., a preacher named Dulcinus, attended by a 
 woman called Margaret, his wife or his mis- 
 tress, presented himself in Lombard y, and 
 erected in the neighboring mountains the 
 standard of heresy. He was charged with 
 contempt of the Catholic hierarchy, and with 
 censuring the abuses of their immoderate 
 wealth ; also with asserting a succession of 
 three theocracies — that those under the Fa- 
 ther and the Son were already passed ; that 
 the third, under the Holy Spirit, was then in 
 operation. | Lastly, to consummate his odium, 
 
 * Others might be added. For instance, John 
 • XXII. re-established with fresh indulgences the festi- 
 val of ' the body of Christ ' — granting to all Christ- 
 ians a general pardon of forty days for every reverence 
 made^ on the name of Jesus Christ being pronounced 
 by thr priest. Giovanni Villani, lib. ii. cap. Ixxix. 
 
 t The name Lollard, as is well known, was after- 
 wards generally applied to various adversaries of the 
 popish establishment; but the real origin both of the 
 name and sect was probably such as has been her' 
 described. 
 
 X His followers called themselves ' the Spiritual 
 Congregation and the Order of the Apostles.' ' We 
 alone (they said) are in the perfection in which the 
 apostles were, and in the liberty which proceeds 
 immediately from Jesus Christ. Wherefore we ac- 
 knowledge obedience neither to the pope nor any 
 other human being: nor has he any power to ex-com- 
 
 51 
 
 his followers, who were not very numerous, 
 were assailed with the primitive and accus- 
 tomed calumny of promiscuous prostitution. 
 A crusade was ])reached by the Church 
 against these miserable enthusiasts, and its 
 armies were led to the assault by a zealous 
 bishop. Surrounded and pressed among the 
 Alpine passes, many had already perished 
 from cold and want, before the sword was 
 drawn to complete their destruction. It did so 
 most effectually ; and Roman Catholic writ- 
 ers record without emotion, that the heretic 
 was torn in pieces limb from limb, after his 
 ' Spiritual Sister' had suffered before his 
 eyes by the same torture. As the massacre 
 is recorded without emotion, so its conse- 
 quence is told without understanding or re- 
 flection — that the disciples of the martyr were 
 multiplied by the deed, and increased beyond 
 number. * 
 
 The history and heresies f of Wiclif 
 also belong to this period ; but we shall at 
 present leave them unnoticed, as more im- 
 mediately appertaining to English history, 
 and already familiar to most readers. And 
 if we pass from the name of that great patri- 
 arch of the Reformation to the mention of a 
 transient sect of mere fanatics, we shall most 
 faithfully exhibit the character of an age, in 
 which the long reign of ignorance and error 
 was first disturbed by the irregular struggles 
 of reviving reason. The beginnings of those 
 great revolutions, which renovate the whole 
 frame of society, are invariably marked by 
 some transient excesses, occasioned by the 
 first fermentation of new and active princi- 
 ples, in a body not yet qualified to give them 
 full efficacy. And so it befell in the present 
 instance — an age, in which the true principles 
 of Christianity were beginning once more 
 to glimmer through the ecclesiastical system 
 which had so long obscured them, was troubled 
 
 municate us . . . The pope can give no absolution 
 from sins unless he be as holy as St. Peter, living ia 
 entire poverty and humility . . so that all thfc popes 
 and prelates, since St. Sylvester, having deviated 
 from that original holiness, are prevaricators and se- 
 ducers, with the single exception of Pope Celestine, 
 Pietro di Morone, &c.' See Fleuiy, liv. xci. sec 
 xxiii. 
 
 * Supra numerum. See Vita (4ta) Clementis V 
 apud Baluzium. Bzovius, ad ann. 1310. sec. xiii. 
 
 t Wiclif's Sixty-one Heresies are carefully enu 
 merated by Bzovius, (ann. 1352, s. xv.) and that au- 
 thor expresses very sincere regret at his escape from 
 the bishops, whom the pope had stirred against him 
 Indeed, notwithstanding his great protectors, the Re- 
 former seems not to have been secure till the grand 
 schism frittered away the power of papacy. 
 
402 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 by some of the wildest absurdities of super- 
 stition. 
 
 The Flagellants. — The sect of the Flagellants 
 6rst betrayed its existence about the middle of 
 the thirteenth century ; but it was discouraged 
 by the authorities both spiritual and secular, and 
 seemingly repressed : nevertheless, about the 
 year 1340, it broke out again with additional 
 violence. Its first re-appearance was in Italy, 
 in the neighborhood of Cremona:* suddenly 
 a multitude, amounting to ten thousand per- 
 sons, issued from the surrounding cities and 
 villages, and paraded the country, flogging 
 themselves and (in the first instance) begging. 
 The contagion spread with a rapidity which 
 will afflict, but cannot surprise, the observer 
 of religious absurdities ; and in the course of 
 ten years scarcely a country in Europe was 
 exempt from its visitation. As the Flagellants 
 increased in numbers, they adopted some sort 
 of system and method in their fanaticism ; 
 which, though it may have varied under dif- 
 ferent circumstances, possessed the same gen- 
 eral character. Naked from the loins upwards, 
 and marked on their front and back with red 
 crosses, they spread themselves in numerous 
 bands over the face of Europe. Twice every 
 day, in the most public places, they perform- 
 ed their discipline, until blood flowed from 
 the wounds ; and they completed their duties 
 by one nocturnal and private flagellation. No 
 one among them begged. No one was admit- 
 ted into the society who was entirely destitute ; 
 no one, unless he had made a full confession of 
 his sins, unless he had received the consent of 
 his wife, unless he had forgiven his enemies 
 every injur j^f Their appearance and charac- 
 ter chiefly moved the enthusiasm of the Ger- 
 mans, who opened their doors and entertained 
 them at their tables. But it is affirmed, that 
 they could never be persuaded to partake twice 
 of the same hospitality, nor to prolong their 
 visit beyond a single day : they then departed 
 on their destination. Women were confound- 
 ed men in their irregular ranks ; and as 
 they advanced in indiscriminate procession, 
 each bearing in his hand a wooden cross, they 
 chanted in their native language a hymn on 
 the Passion of Christ, and frequently interrupt- 
 ed their song by prostration and prayer. Their 
 eyes were ever downcast, and the aspect which 
 they wore was solemn and sorrowful. 
 
 * Bzov. arm. 1340, s. xxiv. 
 
 f Sec Bzov. ann. 1349, a. ii. It is the testimony 
 of an enemy. Spondaniis (ann. 1349, sect, ii.) who 
 confirms these particulars, also mentions that the 
 Flagcllante professed the authority of a letter, or 
 wri'.ing, sent down to them from heaven. 
 
 The innocence of their demeanor, the se- 
 verity of their discipline, the very singularity 
 of their enthusiasm attracted a multitude of 
 proselytes ; but as their numbers increased, 
 their conduct no longer escaped reproach; 
 and the offences of individuals threw suspic- 
 ion and obloquy on the whole body. More- 
 over, as they presently began to preach to the 
 people, and as their society was not authorised 
 by the pope, many Lollards and schismatics 
 eagerly mingled in their companies, and car- 
 ried into them the name of heresy, and sub- 
 jected them to that fatal charge. Accord 
 ingly, we read in the Roman Catholic records, 
 that the Flagellants were a sect who slighted 
 the priesthood and the Gospel — who had no 
 reverence for the holy ceremonies, or even 
 for the body of the Lord : such was the con- 
 fidence (says Spondanus) which they placed 
 in their own madness. By thirty-three con- 
 secut>ve days of flagellation, they held them- 
 selves absolved from the most heinous sins, 
 to the disregard of the salutary penance and 
 indulgences of the Church. And lastly, they 
 maintained, that stripes were more honorable 
 than martyrdom ; that the baptism by water 
 had passed away, and given place to the 
 baptism by blood ; and that through this last 
 alone was there any road to salvation.* These 
 charges were partly fabricated, and no doubt 
 partly true ; and even the limits of the truth 
 and the falsehood are not difficult to discern ; 
 but the agents of persecution, who were pre- 
 sently in motion, were not retarded by any 
 such considerations. They marched onwards 
 in the path of destruction ; and the Emperor 
 Charles IV. encouraged and directed their 
 zeal. It appears that, in the year 1351, a 
 number of those pitiable enthusiasts were 
 collected in Lithuania, in the exercise of their 
 absurd practices. Pope Clement VI. pro- 
 claimed a holy war ; f the Master of the Teu- 
 tonic order marched in person against them 
 and after a solemn fast and public prayer, that 
 God would aid him in the extirpation of His 
 enemies, for the glory of His Holy Name, he 
 assaulted tliem, and massacred eight thous- 
 and : the remainder, about two thousand 
 more, were carried away captive into Prussia, 
 that they might be restored, by a second bap- 
 tism, to the bosom of the Church. 
 
 * See Mosheim, Cent. xiii. p. ii. chap, iii., and 
 Cent. XIV. p. ii. ch. v. 
 
 t Bzov., ann. 1351, s. viii. The pretext alleged 
 for this expedition was, that when two Mendicants, 
 on some occasion, interrupted the devotion of the 
 Flagellants, these had stoned one of them to death. 
 It does not appear that they were armed 
 
FRANCISCANS AND OTHER MENDICANTS. 
 
 403 
 
 General Character of these Heresies. — Wlien 
 we examine the various denominations of 
 heresy which appeared in the thirteenth and 
 fourteenth centuries, and in the fourteentli 
 most especially we observe that almost all 
 were directed, wholly or in part, openly or 
 covertly, in tenet or in practice, against the 
 sacerdotal government and the system of the 
 Roman Church. It was not so with those 
 of earlier ages. Among the numerous sects 
 which divided the ante-Nicene Christians, it 
 has been already remarked, that not one orig- 
 inated in any disaffection for the ministers of 
 religion, or the ecclesiastical polity. In the 
 tinges which followed, the Arian and Incarna- 
 tion controversies, with their numerous names 
 and progeny, were confined to matters of 
 faith. During the prolonged disputes which 
 succeeded about the worship of images, no 
 clamor was raised against the corruptions or 
 undue aggrandizement of the hierarchy. The 
 dissensions of the ninth century regarded the 
 nature of the Eucharist and the doctrine of 
 Fatalism, and the former of those subjects 
 was revived in the eleventh ; but no sect had 
 Hitherto risen in revolt against the abuses and 
 tyranny of the Church. The standard was 
 fii*st erected in the twelfth age ; and from that 
 moment there was never wanting a succes- 
 sion of bold and righteous spirits who rallied 
 -ound it. The depravity of the church sys- 
 tem was indeed, in some respects, more scan- 
 dalous in the fourteenth, than in any preced- 
 ing century : yet was there no lack, even in 
 much earlier ages, of such enormities, as might 
 well have offended the reason and provoked 
 the indignation of an evangelical Christian. 
 But the fact was, that the civil institutions 
 were at the same time so defective, and the 
 dearth of knowledge so general, that the sins 
 of the Church were overshadowed or kept in 
 countenance by the secular depravity that 
 surrounded them. Presently, as the social 
 condition improved, the ecclesiastical abuses 
 excited remonstrance and clamor; the foun- 
 dations were shaken, and the edifice itself as- 
 sailed ; but the clamor was still the clamor of 
 the few — the voice of enlightened individuals 
 or of scattered sects : it did not yet endanger 
 the established hierarchy, because it was not 
 yet supported by the general prevalence of 
 rational principles. The political system of 
 the age still abounded with vices, and the 
 learning in fashion was still perplexed with 
 prejudice and fallacy. It is always with re- 
 ference to such considerations as these, that 
 we are to estimate the danger of ecclesiastical 
 abuses and the necessity of reformation. It is 
 
 not sufficient to compare existing defects with 
 those which have been tolerated in the same 
 church, or in a different church, in a different 
 age. Such a comparison would only tend to 
 blind and mislead us. They must be exam- 
 ined in relation to the measure of civilization 
 actually abroad — to the prevalence of know- 
 ledge, to the authority of reason, to the gen- 
 eral principles of human conduct. Thus it 
 will happen, that a much slighter defect, in 
 days of improvement and inquiry, may prove 
 more perilous to the system in which it is 
 suffered to remain, than a much grosser de- 
 formity in a darker age: — it is the access of 
 light which renders the stain conspicuous and 
 offensive. And therefore it has ever been 
 among the foremost duties of churchmen, and 
 their surest wisdom, to detect the blemishes 
 in their institution, and having detected, to 
 remove them : since it avails them litde to be 
 free from the vices of preceding generations, 
 unless they share the spirit, and adopt, to a 
 great extent, the character and principles of 
 their own. 
 
 NOTE ox THE FRANCISCANS AND OTHLR 
 MENDICANTS. 
 
 (I.) As something has been said in this 
 chapter respecting the intestine divisions of 
 the Franciscans, it is proper here to mention 
 the sect of the Fratricelli, or Ultra-Spirituals, 
 who made some figure in the dissensions of 
 the fourteenth age. They arose, in that which 
 preceded, from the stock of St. Francis ; and 
 as they disclaimed any right even to the use * 
 of property, in which they surpassed the self- 
 denial of the Spirituals, they may have de- 
 served the praise which theyj^rrogated, of 
 being the genuine disciples or their Master 
 They professed great personal respect for 
 Celestine V., who had been in some measure 
 the founder of their Order ; but they hesitated 
 to acknowledge the legitimacy of his succes- 
 sors : they proclaimed the deep corruption of 
 the Church, and they looked with ardent and 
 almost pious enthusiasm for its immediate 
 reformation. 
 
 The Eternal Gospel. — This notion — that a 
 thorough regeneration of the Church was near 
 at hand, and that the reign of the true gospel 
 
 * In 1279, Nicholas III. published a celebrated 
 Constitution known as the Bull Exiit, in which he so 
 interpreted the Franciscan Rule, as to prohibit to its 
 observers every possession; but to permit them the 
 temporary use of houses, books, &c. of which the 
 property, in conformity with the edict of Innocent IV., 
 was to reside in the Church of Rome 
 
404 HISTORY OF 
 
 was to be restored by the followers of St. 
 Francis — was not the creation of the Fratri- 
 celli, nor was it indeed of very recent origin. 
 As early as the beginning of the thirteenth 
 century, a work was circulated, abounding 
 with such like prophecies, under the name of 
 the Eternal Gospel. It was founded on tlie 
 text* — ' I saw another angel fly in the midst 
 of heaven, having the Everlasting Gospel to 
 preach unto them that dwell on the earth ; ' 
 and it was such, as Mosheim has designated 
 it, the senseless production of an obscure, silly 
 and visionary writer. The perfect scheme of 
 revelation which it propounded was this — as 
 there were three persons in the godhead, so 
 was it necessary that there should be three 
 dispensations. The first was that of the Fa- 
 ther, which ended at the coming of Christ — 
 the second was that of the Son, which was 
 now on the point of concluding, to give place 
 to the third, and last. This rhapsody was as- 
 cribed, but not with sufficient foundation, to 
 Joachim, abbot of Flora in Calabria, who 
 flourished about the year 1200 ; who had de- 
 claimed against the abuses of the Church, and 
 predicted their extirpation. But in spite of 
 the respectable name, under which it had 
 sought protection, the Eternal Gospel would 
 not perhaps have attracted any general notice, 
 had it not been adopted by the Franciscans, 
 who eagerly appropriated the prophecies. 
 Accordingly, about the year 1250, it was again 
 published, with an elaborate Introduction, in 
 which the assertion was advanced, that St. 
 Francis was the angel mentioned in the Rev- 
 elations ; that the gospel of Christ was imme- 
 diately to give place to this new and everlast- 
 ing scriptui^ ; and that the ministers of this 
 great Reformation were to be humble and 
 barefooted friars, destitute of all earthly pos- 
 sessions.! 
 
 The Gospel might have passed unnoticed 
 and despised ; but the introduction contained 
 a doctrine too daring, if not dangerous, to es- 
 cape ecclesiastical reprehension ; and in the 
 very year following its publication at Paris, 
 the book was suppressed by Alexander IV. 
 Yet such was the tenderness of a Pope for the 
 reputation of the Mendicants, that tlic censures 
 were lenient, and the edict was issued with 
 reluctance. 
 
 The introduction has been connnonly as- 
 cribed to no less distinguished an ecclesiastic 
 than John of Parma, General of the Francis- 
 
 ♦ Revelations xiv. 6. 
 
 t This account is chiefly taken from Mosheim 
 (Cent. XIII. p. ii. eh. ii.) who has investigated the 
 subject witii great diligence. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 cans ; though the opinion is more probable 
 that it was composed by one Gerard, his friend. 
 It is true, indeed, that writers of that order 
 have entirely disclaimed the work, and imput- 
 ed it to their rivals, the Dominicans, but with- 
 out any plausible reason. And as the intro 
 duction was manifestly a Franciscan fabri 
 cation, so is it extremely probable that the 
 Eternal Gospel also proceeded from the same 
 forge. 
 
 Pierre df Olive. — We should also mention 
 one Pierre Jean d'Olive, a native of Serignan, 
 in Languedoc, who acquired some reputation 
 towards the end of the same century, by a 
 similar description of merit. He, likewise, 
 was a leader of the Spirituals, a disciple of the 
 Abbot Joachim, and a reformer of ecclesiasti- 
 cal iniquities. He published a work called 
 Postilla, a commentary on the Revelations, 
 in which he boldly denounced the Roman 
 Church as the ' Mystery, Babylon the Great, 
 the Mistress of Harlots, and abominations of 
 the Earth.'* But he mixed so much wild and 
 senseless superstition with his reforming zeal, 
 tliat his labors were neither profitable to the 
 Church, nor dangerous to the despotism of 
 the Pope. 
 
 (II.) Contest between the Mendicants and 
 Cures about Confession. — We read from tim© 
 to time of disputes, which arose in various 
 countries between the Mendicants and the 
 secular clergy, respecting the administration 
 of several Church ceremonies, but most espe- 
 cially of the rite of Confession. It may, there- 
 fore, be useful to trace very concisely the his- 
 tory of that contest. A canon of the Fourth 
 Lateran Council (commonly known as Omnis 
 utriusque Sexus) gave the entire power of re- 
 ceiving confessions to the priest ; but Gregory 
 IX., by a bull of Sept. 26, 1227, opened that 
 privilege also to the Preachers. The Cures re- 
 sisted ; and in 1250 the Faculty of Paris loudly 
 declared in their favor : so that Innocent IV., 
 who in 1244 had shown every disposition to 
 favor the Mendicants, prohibited them, in 1254, 
 from hearing confessions without the permis 
 sion of the priest. But Alexander IV. imme- 
 diately revoked this bull, and presently afl;er- 
 wards issued others, to the interest of the 
 Mendicants. Great heats vvci-e thus excited 
 and in the hope to allay them, Martin IV 
 published, in 1282, a sort of edict of compro- 
 mise, by which the Mendicants were permit- 
 ted to receive confessions, yet so that the same 
 persons were still obliged to confess once a 
 
 * Revelations xvii. 5. 
 
-THE GRAND SCniS3l. 
 
 405 
 
 year to their own priest, according to the canon 
 of the Lateran. 
 
 Thereon arose a fresh question — whether 
 the people were obhged again to confess to j 
 their cures the same sins which they had | 
 before confided to the Mendicants, and for 
 which they had received absolution ; and va- 
 rious appeals were made to the Popes on this 
 point. Nicholas IV. delivered no express res- 
 ponse ; but Boniface VIII. published a decre- 
 tal called Supra Cathedram, in which he en- 
 gaged to grant the privilege to the Mendicants 
 by his own plenitude, in case they had previ- 
 ously asked the favor of the Bishops, and it had 
 been refused. Benedict XI. was still more 
 decided ; for he gave the Mendicants direct 
 permission to hear confessions, and also deci- 
 ded that the people were not obliged to recon- 
 fess the same sins. This decretal, again, was 
 revoked in the Council of Vienne, and re- 
 placed by the Clementine Dudum, which re- 
 vived the Constitution of Boniface. 
 
 The above account, which is the bare out- 
 line of a tedious and angry controversy, is 
 nevertheless sufficient to exhibit, not only the 
 obstinacy with which the contending parties 
 advanced or defended their privileges — not 
 only the value which both of them affixed to 
 the possession of that particular privilege, 
 which contained indeed the grand secret of 
 ecclesiastical influence, but also the vacillating 
 policy of the Vatican, and the little consistency 
 with each other or with themselves, which 
 directed, in their councils, the chiefs of an in- 
 fallible Church. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The Grand Schism of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 Remonstrance of the Romans to the College— its reply— 
 The Conclave— Probable extent of popular intimidation 
 — Constitution of the Conclave — various designs of the 
 parties— violence of the people— Election of the Arch- 
 bishop of Bari, Urban VI. — his character, and general 
 reception — his first acts of harshness, and their effect — 
 The Cardinals retire to Anagni, and annul the election 
 of Urban — they choose Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, 
 Clement VII. — his character — real merits of the ques- 
 tion — Retreat of Clement to Avignon — Division of Eu- 
 rope — St. Catharine and other enthusiasts — Conduct of 
 Urban to six Cardinals accused of conspiracy— Death 
 of Urban, and election of Boniface IX. — The Jubilee — 
 its extension — Sale of indulgences — Privileges granted 
 to some German towns — Exertions of the University 
 of Paris for the extinction of the Schism — Address to 
 the King — three methods proposed in it — favorable cir- 
 cumstances — Death of Clement VII. — Election of 
 Pietro di Luna, Benedict XIII.— Grand embassy of the 
 King to Benedict— its failure— Continued exertions of 
 
 the King and the University — attempts lo in/luence 
 Boniface — his assurance to tiie Roman deputies — The 
 French withdraw their obedience from Benedict — 
 Blockade of the palace at Avignon— Benedict restored 
 to liberty and office — simoniacal rapacity of Boniface 
 —The Jubilee of 1400— Boniface succeeded by Innocent 
 VII.— Death of Innocent— Solemn engagement of the 
 Conclave — Election of Angelo Corrario, Gregory XII — 
 Attempt at a conference — Perjury of Gregory — Retire- 
 ment of Benedict to Perpignan — Convocation of the 
 Council of Pisa — proceedings of that council — deposi- 
 tion of the two competitors — and election of Alexander 
 V. — his birth and char^icter — Conduct of the Antipopea 
 — Intercourse of Alexander with the Roman people — 
 — his death — Election of Baltazar Cossa, John XXIII. 
 — Sigismond emperor — Convocation of the Council of 
 Constancy — choice of the place — its advantages— num- 
 ber of members— its objects— Proposition of John XXII 
 — Two opinions respecting the course to be followed- 
 Arrival of Sigismond — duestion as to the power of the 
 Council over the Pope— division of the Council— it de- 
 cides on the method of cession — cession of the Pope- 
 suspicions of the Council— Escape of John from Con- 
 stance — Question de auferibilitate Papce — the Pope be- 
 trayed to Sigismond — his deposition, and the charges 
 against him — his sentence — conduct and imprisonment 
 — opinions of the justice of the sentence — Sigismond 
 goes to Perpignan — Conference there — Union of ah 
 parties — Obstinacy of Benedict — he retires to Peniscola 
 — is deposed by the Council of Constance— his conduct 
 — the Council proceeds to the election of a new pope— 
 — Otho Colonna, Martin V. chosen — Observations — 
 Death of Angelo Corrario — Pertinacity, death, and cha- 
 racter of Pietro di Luna — Fate of John XXIII. — his 
 liberation — return to Italy — counsels of his friends — ho 
 goes to Florence, and makes his submission to Martin 
 — his treatment, conduct, and character. 
 
 The number of Cardinals at the death of 
 Gregory XI. was twenty-three, of whom six 
 were absent at Avignon, and one was legate 
 in Tuscany. The remaining sixteen, after 
 celebrating the funeral ceremonies of the de- 
 ceased, and appointing certain officers to se- 
 cure their deliberations from violence, pre- 
 pared to enter into conclave. But the rites 
 of sepulture were scarcely performed, w^hen 
 the leading magistrates of Rome presented 
 to them a remonstrance to this effect : — On 
 behalf of the Roman senate and people, they 
 ventured to represent, that the Roman Church 
 had suffered for seventy years a deplorable 
 captivity by the translation of the Holy See 
 to Avignon ; that during that period the cap- 
 ital of the Christian world had suffered more, 
 both in its spiritual and temporal interests, 
 than when it was subject to the cruel domina- 
 tion of the barbarians ; that tumults, seditions, 
 revolts, and sanguinary wars, had desolated, 
 without interruption, the ecclesiastical states , 
 that its cities and its provinces were in part 
 usurped by domestic tyrants, and occupied in 
 part by the neighboring republics, or by the 
 Lombard princes ; that fire and sword were 
 carried even to the gates of Rome, which had 
 neither power nor authority to repress such 
 fury ; — so that the aspect of the Holy City, 
 
406 HISTORY OF 
 
 the bead of religion, formerly venerable 
 throughout the whole earth, was no longer to 
 be recognised through its strange and foul 
 disfigurements. That the sacred edifices, 
 those august monuments of ancient piety, 
 were left without honor, or ornament, or rep- 
 aration, nodding to their ruin ; that even the 
 Titles of the cardinals, abandoned by those 
 who derived their dignities from them, were 
 left without roof, or gates, or walls, the abode 
 of beasts, which cropped the grass on their 
 very altars. That the Faithful were no long- 
 er attracted to Rome, either by 'devotion, 
 which the profanation of the churches pre- 
 cluded, or by interest ; since the Pope, the 
 source of patronage, had scandalously desert- 
 ed his church — so that there was danger, lest 
 that unfortunate city should be reduced to a 
 vast and frightful solitude, and become an 
 outcast from the world, of which it was still 
 the spiritual empress, as it once had been the 
 temporal. Lastly, that, as the only remedy 
 for these evils, it was absolutely necessary to 
 elect a Roman, or at least an Italian Pope — 
 especially as there was every appearance that 
 the people, if disappointed in their just ex- 
 pectation, would have recourse to compul- 
 sion. . . . The Cardinals replied, that as 
 soon as they should be in conclave they wCuld 
 give to those subjects their solemn delibera- 
 tion, and direct their choice according to the 
 inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They repell- 
 ed the notion, that they could be influenced 
 by any popular menace ; and pronounced 
 (according to one account) an express warn- 
 ing, that if they should be compelled to elect 
 under such circumstances, the elected would 
 not be a pope, but an intrude]-.* They then 
 immediately entered into conclave. 
 
 The Conclave at Rome. — In the meantime 
 the populace, who had already exhibited proofs 
 of impatience, and whom the answer of the 
 cardinals was not well calculated to satisfy, 
 assembled in great crowds about the place of 
 assembly. It may be true (though the cir- 
 cumstances rest for the most part on French 
 and partial authority,) that the civil magis- 
 trates had previously possessed themselves 
 of the keys of the gates, which were usually 
 confided to ecclesiastical officers, in order to 
 preclude the escape of the canhnals to a more 
 secure place of deliberation ; that in the room 
 ol*the ordinary police they introduced a num- 
 
 * * Quam si faccrcnt, eos ex mine avisaverunt, 
 quod si ex ejus occasionc aliquem eligcrent ille non 
 essct pnpa Bed iutrusus. ' — Aut. Vif. Grog. XI. ap. 
 Bosouet. Maimb., Ili.st. du Grand Scliisine, liv. i. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 ber of Montanarii^ the wild and lawless inha- 
 bitants of the adjacent mountains, who para- 
 ded the streets in arms by day and by night ; 
 that a quantity of dry reeds and other com- 
 bustibles was heaped together under the win- 
 dows of the conclave, with threats of confla- 
 gration ; that, at the moment when the Col- 
 lege was proceeding to election, the bells of 
 the Capitol and St. Peter's were sounded to 
 arms : * — these, and other circumstances of 
 direct constraint and intimidation, are assert- 
 ed by some writers, and though probably ex- 
 aggerated, have undoubtedly some foundation 
 in truth. But it is without any dispute, that 
 a vast crowd of people continued in tumult- 
 uous assemblage during the whole delibera- 
 tion of the conclave,! and that the debates of 
 the Sacred College were incessantly interrupt- 
 ed by one loud and unanimous shout — 'Ro- 
 mano lo volemo lo Papa — Romano lo volemo 
 — o almanco almanco Italiano!' — 'We will 
 have a Roman for Pope — a Roman, or at 
 least, at the very least, an Italian ! ' 
 
 Let us now inquire, whether the College 
 was then so constituted, as to make it hkely 
 that its free choice would have fallen upon a 
 Roman, or even an Italian. Of the sixteen 
 cardinals in conclave, eleven were French, 
 one, Pietro di Luna, a Spaniard, and four 
 Italians. The unanimity of the Fronch 
 would, of course, at once have decided! the 
 question ; but it happened that they were di- 
 vided into two parties. Seven amongst them 
 were Limousins, natives of the same prov- 
 ince; and having succeeded during the fast 
 twenty-nine years, in electing four successive 
 popes from their own country, they were nat- 
 urally eager to keep possession of so profita- 
 ble a distinction. But the other four, unwil- 
 ling to appropriate the pontificate to a single 
 district, even though that district was French, 
 designed that the choice should fall on one 
 of themselves. The Limousins found in their 
 superior numbers their hope of success and 
 their excuse for perseverance ; and at length 
 the others, being more keenly excited by pro- 
 vincial than by national jealousy, began to 
 turn their thoughts to a coalition with the 
 Italians. These last were equally bent on the 
 election of one of their own party; and as 
 their only chance of success arose from the 
 division of the French, they very readily join- 
 ed their forces against the exclusive ambition 
 of the Limousins. Such were the intrigues 
 
 * ^rfs/wrriMm, according to the Roman cxpressioi 
 of that time. 
 
 t Sj)ondanus, ann. 1378, s. viii, ct 8eq. 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM. 
 
 107 
 
 wnicn commenced immediately aftertbe death 
 of Gregory, and ripened during the eleven * 
 days which followed ; and such was i)rol)a- 
 bly f the state of parties when the cardinals 
 entered the conclave. There were materials 
 in abundance for long and angry dissensions ; 
 and though tbe indignation of the Limousins 
 against their compatriots might finally have 
 forced their consent to the election of an Ital- 
 ian, rather than a native of any other French 
 province, still it was not without a struggle, 
 that they were likely to forego the courtly 
 magnificence of Avignon, to which a French 
 pontiff' would surely have ^restored them, for 
 a remote and tumultuous residence among 
 the citizens of Rome. 
 
 But the internal disputes of the College 
 were speedily silenced by the tempest from 
 without. Even after the sacred body had 
 been shut up in deliberation, the Bannerets, 
 or heads of the twelve regions of the city, 
 forced themselves, together with their disor- 
 derly followers, in contempt of custom and 
 decency, into the recesses of the conclave. 
 Here they repeated their demands with re- 
 doubled insolence, and direct menaces. The 
 cardinals are recorded to have returned their 
 former reply, with the additional declaration, 
 that in case any violence were used, he, whom 
 they should so elect, and whom the people 
 would take for a real pope, would in fact be 
 no pope at all.J The people received this an- 
 swer with indignant clamors ; § the disorder 
 
 * Gregory XI. died on the 27th of March, and 
 the cardinal? entered into conclave on the 7th of 
 April. 
 
 t Fleury (iiv. xcvii. s. xlviii.) seems persuaded 
 that there was some secret understanding in favor of 
 the Archbishop of Bari (who was afterwards elected) 
 even before tiie cardinals entered into conclave. But 
 the view of Maimbourg is more probable, that so 
 wide a division, with so many opposite interests and 
 passions, was not so easily reconciled. 
 
 X ' Ista verba manifeste sonant minas ; et ideo ex- 
 pressd nos dicimus, quod, si per vos aut ipsos aliqiia 
 contra nos attententur, et contingat nos talium occa- 
 sione et timore aliquemeligere, credetis habere papani 
 et non habebitis, quia non erit.' — Vita Greg. XI. ap. 
 Baluzium. 
 
 § One of the cardinals addressed them from the 
 window: — ' State a pace — perche i Signori Cardinali 
 dicono cosi, che domani faranno dire una messa dello 
 Spirilo Santo, e poi faranno che voi sarete contenti.' 
 Qui vero Romani maledicti tunc responderunt sic — 
 ' No — ni6 lo volemo, mo.' Et interim I'idebant inter 
 se, et unus faciebat alteri signum, ut plus clamarent 
 ut supra. In circuitu item Conclavi erat maxima 
 multitudocum caboris et flautis, et eodem modo clam- 
 abant fortiter juxta posse.' — Vita (secunda) Greg. 
 XI. apud Baluzium. We should observe, however, 
 that this is not the description of a sanguinary mob. 
 
 round the chapel augmented ; the most fnght- 
 threats were uttered in case of hesitation 
 or disobedience ; and the same shout, which 
 was indeed the burden of the uproar, contin- 
 ued to j)enetrate the conclave — * A Roman 
 for our pope ! a Roman — or at least, at tlie 
 very least, an Italian ! ' 
 
 Election of Urban VI. — These were not 
 circumstances for delay or deliberation. If 
 any inclination towards the choice of an Ital- 
 ian had previously existed in the college, it 
 was now confirmed into necessity ; and on 
 the very day following their retirement the 
 cardinals were agreed in their election. How- 
 beit, they studiously passed over the four Ital 
 ian members of their own body, and casting 
 their eyes beyond the conclave, selected a 
 Neapolitan named Bartolomeo Prignano, the 
 Archbishop of Bari. The announcement was 
 not immediately published, probably through 
 the fear of popular dissatisfaction, because a 
 Roman had not been created ; and presently, 
 when the impatience of the people still further 
 increased, the Bishop of Marseilles went to 
 the window, and said to them, ' Go to St. Pe- 
 ter's, and you shall learn the decision.' Where- 
 upon some who heard him, understanding 
 that the Cardinal of St. Peter's, a Roman, 
 had been indeed chosen, rushed to the palace 
 of that prelate, and plundered it — for such 
 was the custom then invariably observed on 
 the election of a pope. Others thronged in 
 great multitudes to oflfer him their salutations : 
 and then they bore him away to St. Peter's, 
 and placed him, according to ancient usage, 
 upon the altar. It was in vain that the good 
 cardinal, enfeebled by extreme old age and 
 painful disease, disclaimed the title, and trem- 
 bled at the honors that were forced on him. 
 ' I am not pope,' said he ; ' and I will not be 
 antipope. The Archbishop of Bari, who is 
 really chosen, is worthier than I.' They as- 
 cribed his resistance to modesty or decent dis- 
 simulation, and continued through the whole 
 day to overwhelm him with the most painful 
 proofs of their joy. In the meantime the 
 other cardinals escaped from the conclave in 
 great disorder and trepidation, without digni- 
 ty or attendants, or even their ordinary habili- 
 ments * of office, and sought safety, some in 
 their respective palaces, and others in the 
 Castle of St. Angelo, or even beyond the walls 
 of the city. On the following day, the people 
 were undeceived; and as they showed no 
 strong disinclination for the master who had 
 
 * Recesserunt pedes, unus sine Capa, alter cunr 
 Capa, alter sine Capucio, soli, sine sociis scutiferii 
 — Vit. Greg. XI. ap. Baluz. 
 
408 HISTORY OF 
 
 Deen really chosen for them, the Archbishop 
 of Bari was solemnly enthroned, and the scat- 
 tered cardinals reappeared, and rallied round 
 him in confidence and security. 
 
 The archbishop's exalted reputation justifi- 
 ed the choice of the college, and secured the 
 obedience of the people. Through a long 
 life, devoted to the service of the Church, he 
 had reconciled the most ardent disposition 
 with the most devout humility, and improved 
 by assiduous study a powerful comprehension. 
 He submitted to the utmost severity of eccle- 
 siastical discipline ; yet his deep and danger- 
 ous enthusiasm did not close his mind against 
 the liberal pursuit of learning, and the patro- 
 nage of learned men. His zeal for the Church 
 was not stained by the suspicion of bigotry, 
 nor inconsistent with a stern opposition to its 
 abuses ; and among many other virtues, he 
 was perhaps chiefly famed for the rigorous 
 exercise of justice. Such was the character 
 to which Rome looked with sanguine hope 
 for the repair of her declining fortunes ; nor 
 was it, indeed, without the general approba- 
 tion of Christendom, that Urban VI. ascended 
 the apostolical chair. The cardinals sent the 
 customary communications to the courts of 
 Europe of the free and canonical election 
 which they had made,* and peaceably as- 
 sumed their official stations about the person 
 of the pontiff. 
 
 His harshness. — The ceremony of corona- 
 tion was duly performed, and several bishops 
 were assembled on the very following day at 
 vespers in the pontifical chapel, when the 
 Pope unexpectedly addressed them in the 
 bitterest language of reprobation. He accus- 
 ed them of having deserted and betrayed the 
 flocks which God had confided to them, in 
 order to revel in luxury at the court of Rome ; 
 and he applied to their oflTence the harsh re- 
 proach of perjury. One of them (the Bishop 
 of Pampeluna) repelled the charge, as far as 
 himself was concerned, by reference to the 
 duties which he performed at Rome ; the 
 others suppressed in silence their anger and 
 confusion. A few days afterwards, at a pub- 
 lic consistory. Urban repeated his complaints 
 and denunciations, and urged them still more 
 generally in the presence of his whole court. 
 In a long and intemperate harangue, he ar- 
 raigned the various vices of the j)relates — their 
 simony, their injustice, their exactions, their 
 scandalous luxuiy, with a number of other 
 
 ♦ A similar announcement was made to the six 
 cardinals remaining at Avignon, who immediately 
 ©cognised the new pope. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 offences — in unmeasured* and uncompro- 
 mising expressions ; and while he spared no 
 menace to give weight to his censure, he 
 directed the sharpest of his shafts against the 
 cardinals themselves. . . . There is not any 
 dispute, that his violence proceeded from an 
 honest zeal for the reformation of the Church ; 
 but the end was marred by the passionate in- 
 discretion, with which he pursued it. The 
 consistory broke up ; and the members car- 
 ried away with them no sense of the iniqui- 
 ties imputed, no disposition to correct their 
 habits or their principles, but only indigna- 
 tion, mixed with some degree of fear, against 
 a severe and discourteous censor, f 
 
 The cardinals continued, notwithstanding, 
 their attendance at the Vatican for a few 
 weeks longer, and then, as was usual on the 
 approach of the summer heats, they withdrew 
 from the city, with the pope's permission, and 
 retired to Anagni. The four Italians alone 
 remained at Rome. The others were no 
 sooner removed from the immediate inspec- 
 tion of Urban, than they commenced, or at 
 least more boldly pursued, their measures to 
 overthrow him. On the one hand, they 
 opened a direct correspondence with the 
 court of France and university of Paris; J on 
 the other, they took into their service a body 
 of mercenaries, commanded by one Bernard 
 de la Sale, a Gascon ; and then they no longer 
 hesitated to treat the election of Urban as null, 
 through the violence which had attended it. § 
 
 * " Nullo reprehensionibus modo imposito. " — 
 Ciacconius. 
 
 f " Hunc et posteris diebus, cessante jam metu, 
 venerari ut pontificera perseverarunt. Sed fuit in illo 
 honiine natura inquieta et dura; et tunc pra^ter spem 
 ad tantae dignitatis fastigium sublevatus intolerabilis 
 videbatur. Nulla patribus gratia, quod se potissi- 
 mum delegisseut, nulla humanitas, nulla conciliatio 
 animorum. Contumax, et minabundus, et asper ma- 
 lebat videri, et metui potius quam diligi. Ea per- 
 versilas Patres coegit metu et indignatione aliorsum 
 respicere. Itaque clam inter se de electione con- 
 questi," &c. — Leonardus Aretinus, Histor. Florent., 
 lib. viii. ad fineiii. Leonardus was himself person- 
 ally attached to the popes of that succession. By 
 some the character of Urban is compared to that of 
 Boniface VHI. Baluzius, the organ of the French 
 opinion, represents him as a very monster — " Cujua 
 electio facta arte diabolica." 
 
 4: This learned and now influential body was court- 
 ed with equal assiduity by Urban. In a letter ad- 
 dressed to it on this same occasion, that jjontiff com- 
 pared it to a constellation irradiating every othei 
 academy; to a fountain whence the purest doctrine 
 perennially flowed ; to a tree bearing excellent fruit. 
 See Spondanus, Ann. 1378, s. xviii. 
 
 § There exists a letter written during that crisis 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM. 
 
 409 
 
 Clemmt Vll. elected at Fondi. — To give 
 eoiisequence to this decision, they assembled 
 with great solemnity in the i)rincipal church, 
 and promulgated, on the 9th of August, a 
 puhlif3 declaration, in the presence of many 
 ])relates and other ecclesiastics, by which the 
 Archbishop of Bari was denounced an in- 
 truder into the pontificate, and his election 
 formally cancelled. * They then retired, for 
 greater security, to Fondi, in the kingdom of 
 Naples. Still they did not venture to proceed 
 to a new election in the absence, and it might 
 be against the consent, of their Italian breth- 
 ren. A negotiation was accordingly opened ; 
 and these last immediately fell into the snare, 
 which treachery had prepared for ambition. 
 To each of them separately a secret promise 
 was made in writing, by the whole of their 
 colleagues, that himself should be the object 
 of their choice. Each of them believed what 
 he wished ; and concealing from each other 
 their private expectations, theyf pressed to 
 Fondi with joy and confidence. The College 
 immediately entered into conclave ; and, as 
 the French had, in the meantime, reconciled 
 their provincial jealousies, Robert, the Car- 
 dinal of Geneva, was chosen by their unani- 
 mous vote. This event took place on the 20th 
 of September (1378); the new pope assumed 
 the name of Clement VII., and was installed 
 with the customary ceremonies. 
 
 Robert of Geneva was of noble birth, and 
 even allied to several of the sovereigns of 
 Europe. He possessed talents and eloquence, 
 a courage which was never daunted, and a re- 
 solution which was never diverted or wearied. 
 Little scrupulous as to means, in his habits 
 sumptuous and prodigal, he seemed the man 
 most likely to establish his claims to a disput- 
 ed crown, and to unite the courts of Christ- 
 
 by Marsilius d'Inghen, ancient Rector of the Univer- 
 sity of Paris, who happened to be residing with Ur- 
 ban at that time. His description of affairs is such 
 as we have given. See Flemy, 1. 97, s. 52. 
 
 * In this document, the cardinals, after describing 
 the tumults of the Romans, declared, that they elected 
 the Archbishop of Bari in the persuasion that, seeing 
 the circumstances under whicli he was chosen, he 
 would in conscience liave refused the pontificate ; that 
 on the contrary, forgetful of his salvation, and burn- 
 ing with ambition, he consented to the clioice; that 
 under the effect of the same intimidation, he was 
 enthroned and crowned, and assumed the name of 
 pope, though he rather merited that of apostate and 
 Antichrist, Tliey then anathematized him as an 
 usurper, and invoked against hin^ all aids and suc- 
 cors, divine and human. 
 
 I They were now reduced to three, by the death 
 of U»e Car linal of St Peter's. 
 
 52 
 
 endoni in his favor. His age, besides, which 
 did not exceed thirty-six, gave promise of a 
 vigorous and decisive policy. 
 
 Nevertheless, his first endeavors had very 
 little success. It was in vain, that the sacred 
 college sent forth its addresses to princes and 
 their subjects, detailing all that had occurred 
 at Rome, Anagni, and Fondi, and protesting 
 against the violence, which occasioned the 
 illegal election of Urban. It was argued, on 
 the other hand, that the Cardinals had assisted 
 at the subsequent ceremonies of enthronement 
 and coronation ; that they had announced 
 their choice in the usual language to all the 
 courts of Europe ; that they had continued 
 their personal attendance on the Pope for 
 some weeks afterwards, and had even allow 
 ed four months to elapse, before they with- 
 drew their obedience. Besides which, many, 
 no doubt, were well pleased to see the chief 
 of their church restored to his legitimate re- 
 sidence ; they disliked the irregular influence 
 of the French, and were glad to shake off 
 their spiritual usurpation. In truth, the rea- 
 sons, which were advanced with such ardor 
 and obstinacy on both sides, were not per- 
 fectly conclusive for either ; and though it is 
 certain that the election was conducted under 
 some degree of intimidation, * the subsequent 
 acquiescence of the Cardinals makes it highly 
 probable, that the legitimacy o*f Urban would 
 never have been questioned, had he followed 
 the usual course of pontifical misgovernment, 
 or even published his schemes of reformation 
 with less earnestness, or more discretion. 
 The severity of his rebukes rankled in the 
 
 * Sismondi (Repub. Ital., ch. I.) does not con- 
 sider the choice of the Cardinals to have been decid- 
 ed by the tumult of the people, because after all they 
 did not elect a Roman, and therefore incurred some 
 danger even by that compromise with their indepen- 
 dence. However, the real object of llie populace was 
 effected, if they obtained a Pope who would probably 
 reside at Rome: this, and not the place of his na- 
 tivity, was the point which touched their interests, 
 — and the election of a Neapolitan secured it almost 
 as certainly, as that of a Roman. Upon the whole, 
 it seems most probable (and the result of the second 
 election confirms this) that, had no external influence 
 been exercised, the Cardinals would have chosen an 
 Ultramontane, or, at any rate, not the Archbishop 
 of Ban. Sismondi's eloquent description of this 
 affair is chiefly drawn from the contemporary account 
 of Thomas d'Acerno, Bishop of Lucera, who was 
 present. On the other hand, Baldus, a celebrated 
 lawyer and adherent of Urban, does not dispute the 
 influence of the popular uproar, but rests the legiti- 
 macy of that Pope on the subsequent confirmaUor 
 and obedience of the sacred college. 
 
410 HISTORY OF 
 
 conscience of those who deserved them ; and 
 his menaces persuaded the court, that, to pre- 
 serve its beloved impurities, it must depose 
 a master who presumed to arraign them. A 
 Pope, so dangerous to the vices * of the pow- 
 erful clergy, could not hope to niaintain with- 
 out dispute an ambiguous right. 
 
 Such was the origin of the schism which 
 divided the Roman Church for about forty 
 years, and accelerated more than any other 
 event the decline of papal authority, f We 
 have related the particulars with some minute- 
 ness, not only in justice to the importance of 
 the subject, but also to show, that the great 
 difficulties, which were soon afterwards found, 
 even by impartial judges, in determining the 
 rights of the competitors, were not without 
 foundation ; but that both parties had a plausi- 
 ble plea for their respective obedience, though 
 the true policy and interests of the church 
 clearly recommended an undivided adherence 
 to the cause of Urban. 
 
 France declares for Clement. — The hopes 
 of Clement were fixed on the court of France; 
 he knew that prejudices in his favor naturally 
 existed in that kingdom, and he knew, too, 
 that the first steps towards his general ac- 
 knowledgment must be taken there. Charles 
 v., aftecting great impartiality, and admitting 
 the deliberation due to so grave a question, 
 convoked at Vincennes a grand Assembly of 
 liis clergy, nobles, and council. This august 
 body, after individually abjuring the influence 
 of all personal considerations, expressed an 
 
 * He strictly forbade the Cardinals, on pain of 
 excommunication, to accept any presents. He en- 
 deavored to restrain the luxury of all his prelates, 
 and even to reduce their tables to a single dish, — a 
 laudable moderation, of which he set the example 
 himself. Again, he threatened the French, that he 
 would create so many Cardinals as to place them in a 
 minority in the college. " Item Cardinali de Ursinis 
 dixit quod erat unus Sotus." (Thomas d'Acerno, p. 
 725.) His harsh and offensive manner increased the 
 unpopularily of his proposed reforms. 
 
 f The entire number of the schisms, which have 
 disturbed the Roman Catholic Church, is variously 
 estimated by its historians. Johannes Marius, a 
 Belgian, hi.5torian of Louis XII., (a Latin translation 
 of whose work is published, together with that of 
 Theodoric of Niem,) makes the fated number to be 
 twenty-four, — the last of which, the Schism of Anti- 
 christ, the most deadly of all, had not yet in his time 
 befallen. The first in his catalogue is that of the 
 Novatians ; the sixteenth was that occasioned by 
 Gregory VII. ; the twentieth by Frederic Barbarossa ; 
 the twenty-second was that, which we are now des- 
 cribing. His Book is divided into three parts, of 
 which the second, " De Conciliis Ecclosia? (ialli- 
 canis." contains some useful information. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 unanimous * conviction of the legitimacy" of 
 Clement. The king was guided by their voice, 
 and declared on the 13th of November in his 
 favor. The Queen of Naples, the city of 
 Avignon, and the six Cardinals who resided 
 there, had already come to the same deter- 
 mination. In the meantime, a passionate war- 
 fare of bulls and anathemas commenced on 
 both sides; but happily the thunders must 
 on this occasion have fallen harmless, even 
 in the judgment of a moderate Catholic, since 
 it was impossible certainly to decide which 
 were the genuine bolts ; and the ambiguous 
 election of the rivals placed them both in the 
 situation of Antipopes, rather than of Popes. 
 
 But they were not contented with those 
 innocuous conflicts; the rights which were 
 ineflfectually asserted by ecclesiastical cen- 
 sures, appealed for protection to the sword • 
 a succession of combats desolated the South 
 of Italy, and ended in the discomfiture of 
 Clement. His first refuge was Naples; but 
 at length, finding it impossible to maintain 
 himself in Italy against an Italian rival, he re- 
 tired to the residence most suited to his for- 
 tunes and his prospects, Avignon. From a 
 city which was already consecrated by the 
 tombs of so many Popes, supported by the 
 court and nourished by the clergy of France, 
 he bade defiance to his Transalpine adversa- 
 ry ; and since he could not command, he was 
 contented to divide, the spiritual obedience of 
 Europe. 
 
 Division of Europe. — It does not enter into 
 the plan of this History to pursue the afl?airs 
 of the Church into all their connexions with 
 political matters ; to attend the march of pa- 
 pal armies, hateful alike in their reverses and 
 their triumphs ; or to trace the flimsy threads 
 of intrigue, by which the momentary interests 
 of Popes and kings have been suspended. It 
 is enough to say, that, notwithstanding an in- 
 temperate ambition and some acts of singular 
 imprudence. Urban continued to retain the 
 greater part of his adherents. The Kings of 
 Scotland and Cyprus, the Counts of Savoy 
 and Geneva, the Duke of Austria, and some 
 other German princes, and even the Kings 
 of Castille and Arragon, were finally united 
 with France in allegiance to Clement. But 
 
 * In a Council previously held (on Sept. 8), to 
 examine the rights of the dispute between Urban and 
 the French Cardinals, before the election of Robert 
 of Geneva, the majority declared for the Cardinals^ 
 though they advise<ithe king still to suspend his dC' 
 cision. Gibbon remarks, that it was the vanity, 
 rather than the interest of the nation, which deter- 
 in iried the court and clergy of France. 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM. 
 
 411 
 
 the other states of Europe remained faithful 
 to the vows, which they had earUest taken ; 
 and it was no unreasonable reply to the Anti- 
 pope, Robert of Avignon, that he should be 
 the last to reject that Pontiff, whom the Car- 
 dinal, Robert of Geneva, had officially recom 
 mended to universal obedience. The doctois 
 and learned men of the age were similarly 
 divided, and their division produced the most 
 voluminous controversies. And lastly, as is 
 observed by some Roman Catholic writers, 
 many pious and gifted persons, who are now 
 numbered among the saints of the Church, 
 were to be found indifterently in either obe- 
 dience ; which sufficiently proved (they assert) 
 that the eternal salvation of the faithful was 
 not in this case endangered by their error. 
 In this holy society, Catharine of Sienna was 
 again conspicuous, as the advocate and adviser 
 of the Roman Pope. She declared herself 
 (says Maimbourg) loudly for Urban, and em- 
 ployed whatever talents, and eloquence, and 
 force she possessed, in writing and exhorting 
 all the world to acknowledge him. At the 
 same time, in six epistles, which she addressed 
 to himself, she discreetly recommended him 
 to relax somewhat from that extreme auster- 
 ity, which had made him so many enemies. 
 To what extent Urban profited by that coun- 
 sel we are scarcely able to decide, though 
 some assert, that he held his holy inonitress 
 in much veneration. But we are credibly in- 
 formed, that his predecessor, who had cer- 
 tainly been influenced by her persuasions, 
 when at length, on his death-bed, his stronger 
 reason prevailed, called around him his friends 
 and assistants, and solemnly cautioned them 
 against all pretenders of either sex, who should 
 propound their private revelations as rules of 
 conduct and policy. ' Since I, (he said,) hav- 
 ing been seduced by such as these, and having 
 rejected the rational counsel of my friends, 
 have dragged myself and the Church into the 
 perils of a schism, which is now near at hand, 
 unless Jesus, her Spouse, shall interpose in 
 )ns mercy to avert it.' * 
 
 Such persons, notwithstanding, were found 
 in abundance on both sides ; and their wild 
 visions were interpreted by the devotees of 
 
 * " Ille positiis in extremis, liabens in inanibus 
 sacrum Christi Corpus, protestatus est coram omnibus, 
 ut caverent ab hominibus, sive viris sive mulieribus 
 sub specie religionis loquentibus visiones sui capitis; 
 quia per tales ipse seductus, dimisso suorum rationa- 
 bili consilio, se traxerat ct ecclesiam in discrimen 
 schismaiis imminentis, nisi misericors provideret 
 Bponsus Jesus." See Gerson, De Examinatione 
 Doctrinarum, Pars ii., consid. iii. 
 
 the day, and recorded by the grave historians 
 of after times ; and it was this, among other 
 circumstances, which has seduced Roman 
 Catholic writers to the very consoling conclu- 
 sion, that, though a schism did unquestion- 
 ably exist, yet there were none who could 
 properly be termed schismatics; that the ad- 
 herents of Urban and of Clement were equal- 
 ly tlie children of the church ; and that, while 
 the faithful differed as to the name of the bish- 
 op, they were united in unshaken allegiance 
 and attachment to the See.* 
 
 Certainly the character of Urban Avas not 
 permanently softened by the admonitions of 
 his inspired instructress ; and to many reported 
 acts of harshness and rigor he presently added 
 one of positive barbarity. The follov/ing 
 story rests on satisfactory evidence. A plot 
 for his deposition had been set on foot, origi- 
 nating, as it would seem, with the King of 
 Naples ; and a paper, which had been circu- 
 lated with that object, was placed in the hands 
 of some of his Cardinals — for Urban had im 
 mediately supplied the defection of his original 
 court by a large and, for the most part, re- 
 spectable creation. How far tli-ey counte- 
 nanced the propositions contained in it does 
 not certainly appear ;f but as by one of those 
 the provisional government of the cliurch 
 was vested in the hands of the sacred college, 
 it is not improbable that some may have as- 
 sented to them. Urban discovered the con- 
 spiracy ; he immediately seized six, the most 
 suspected of the body, and after subjecting 
 them to the utmost severity of torture, cast 
 them into a narrow and noisome dungeon. 
 
 * Never, says Maimbourg, was the unity of the 
 See better preserved, than during this schism. 
 
 t Respecting some of the particulars of this affaii 
 we have the directly opposite evidence of two con- 
 temporaries, who had both excellent means of infor- 
 mation. Gobellinus was attached to the house of 
 Urban, and he relates, as the report which had 
 reached him, that the Cardinals not only assented to 
 the plan proposed lo them, but actually suborned 
 false witnesses to convict the Pope of heresy, and in- 
 tended to burn him on the day of his condemnation, 
 — and that this appeared from their own confessions. 
 Theodoric of Niem, who was on the spot, and one 
 of the judges appointed by the Pope to try the Car- 
 dinals, attests that all of them constantly asserted 
 their innocence, excepting one only, who confessed, 
 in the agony of the torture, any thing that was asked 
 him. Though neither author is free from tiie t harge 
 of partiality, we must here give our credence to the 
 latter account, recollecting, that even that does not 
 necessarily acquit the accused. Fleury (1. xcviii., 
 s. XX., xxi., &c.), who relates the particulars of the 
 torture from Theod. de Niem with painful minuteness, 
 certainly believes the conspiracy. 
 
412 HISTORY OF 
 
 This affair took place at Nocera, in the king- 
 dom of Naples ; but some reverses presently 
 obliged the Pope to take refuge at Genoa. 
 He carried his prisoners along with him in 
 chains, and afflicted with severe hardships ; 
 and, during a year of sojourn in that civilized 
 city, he could never be moved by the counsels 
 of his friends, or the prayers of the republic 
 which protected him, to release his captives. 
 At length, when on the point of departure, as 
 he feared the inconvenience or the scandal of 
 dragging them after him through a second 
 journej\ and as he could not exalt his resolu- 
 tion to the performance of an act of clemen- 
 cy, if, indeed, it were not justice, he consigned 
 five of them to sudden and secret * execution. 
 The other, an Englishman named Adam Es- 
 ton. Bishop of London, owed his preservation 
 only to the frequent and pressing remonstran- 
 ces of the English King. This affair took 
 place in the December of 1386. 
 
 Election and character of Boniface IX. — 
 In the October of 1389, Urban died at Rome ; 
 and as soon as the glad intelligence reached 
 Avignon and Paris, great wishes v/ere express- 
 ed and some hopes entertained in both places, 
 that the schism would thus terminate ; that 
 the Cardinals of Rome, wearied by the labors, 
 the vicissitudes, and the dangers of the con- 
 flict, would voluntarily unite themselves with 
 the College at Avignon, and acknowledge 
 Clement for Pope, on the condition of his res- 
 idence at Rome. In the university especially 
 the public lectures were suspended, and no 
 subject was discussed, except the probable 
 determination of the Roman Cardinals. In 
 the meantime, that body, on whose resolution 
 at that moment so much depended, appear 
 not to have been embarrassed by any hesi- 
 tation as to the course before them. The 
 members immediately assembled, to the num- 
 ber of fourteen ; they entered into conclave, 
 and elected, within a fortnight from Urban's 
 decease, another Neapolitan for his successor. 
 
 TTie Jubilee. — Pietro or Perrino Tomacelli, 
 Cardinal of Naples, assumed, on the second 
 of November, the name of Boniface IX., and 
 was placed on the throne for which his igno- 
 rance f alone was sufficient to disqualify him. 
 
 * Most assert that he threw them into the sea in 
 sacks ; others affirm that they were strangled in pri- 
 son, and their bodies consumed by quick-lime. It is 
 certain that thoy disappeared. 
 
 t Tlieodoric of Niem, lib. li., cap. vi., *scribondi 
 at<iue canendi imperitus. . . Nemo prospcratur in 
 illo quod ignorat; unde inscitia fere venalis facta 
 fiiit in ipsa Curia, tempore suo. Fuit tamen satis 
 edoctus gramiiiatic;o ac disertus, sed non habuit in 
 alirjua scieutia prajemineutiam sive gradum.' 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 But the scandal of his ignorance was enhanc* 
 ed by his avarice. On the year following his 
 accession, a Jubilee * was held at Rome, and 
 the devout were exhorted to present them- 
 selves from every quarter. Unmoved by dis- 
 tance and expense, and even by the personal 
 dangers which awaited them from the parti- 
 sans of Clement or the neutral bandits of the 
 mountains, great multitudes undertook, and 
 many accomplished, the pilgrimage. The 
 altars of the Roman churches were again en- 
 riched by the contributions of superstition ; 
 and if some part of the offerings was expend 
 ed in the repair of the sacred edifices, by far 
 the larger proportion flowed directly into the 
 coffers of the Pope. But Boniface was not 
 contented with that partial stream, which had 
 found its way to his capital ; and being desir 
 ous, no doubt, that even those of his children, 
 who had not listened to his call, should still 
 participate in the spiritual consolation, he sent 
 his emissaries among all the nations by whom 
 he was acknowledged, with commissions to 
 sell the plenary indulgence to all indiscrimi- 
 nately, for the same sum which the journey 
 to Rome would have cost them. This abso- 
 lution extended to every sort of offence, and 
 appears not to have been preceded even by 
 the ordinary formalities of confession or pen- 
 ance, — it was purely and undisguisedly venal. 
 The necessary consequences of this measure 
 were sufficiently demoralizing , but the evil 
 was multiplied by the impostures of certain 
 mendicants and others, who traversed the 
 country with forged indulgences, which they 
 bartered for their private profit. 
 
 Still dissatisfied, and determined to carry 
 this lucrative mummery of the jubilee to its 
 utmost depth, and, as it were, to fathom the 
 superstition of his age, Boniface communicat- 
 ed the privileges of the holy city to two towns 
 of Germany — Cologne and Madgebourg; and 
 permitted them also to hold their year of Ju- 
 bilee, after the fjishion and example of Rome. 
 By this rash act he disparaged the supererni- 
 nent sanctity of the see of St. Peter, of the 
 tombs of the apostles, and the relics of so many 
 martyrs! He called in question the exclu- 
 
 * The indication of this jubilee was the act of 
 his predecessor. Urban VI., moved by the gradual 
 abbreviation of human life, determined to reduce the 
 interval (already reduced from 100 to 50) from 50 to 
 .33 years, — this last space being the probable duration 
 of Christ's sojourn on earth. See Spondanus, ann. 
 1.389, s. ii. and iii. The new institution was to be- 
 gin afresh from the year 1390; but it was not intend- 
 ed, as we shall presently observe, to supersede lh« 
 secular celeL""ation 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM. 
 
 413 
 
 siveness of that glory, vvhicli was tliought to 
 encircle the throne of tlie Vicars of Christ ! 
 He sacrificed — that which he least intended 
 to sacrifice — even the teinj)oral interests, 
 even the pecuniary profits, which were ever 
 closely connected with the peculiar holiness of 
 the apostolical city. But his immediate gree- 
 diness was gratified ; his collectors were pre- 
 sent in both places to share the offerings of 
 the faithful ; and when he perceived that their 
 fatuity was not yet exhausted, he extended the 
 license still further, and accorded it to several 
 insignificant places. At length, says Fleury, 
 that Pope became so prodigal of his indulgen- 
 ces, that he refused them to no one, provided 
 he was paid for them ; the effect of which was, 
 that they grew into contempt.* 
 
 Projects of the University of Paris. — In the 
 meantime, the necessity of restoring the union 
 of the church became more evident, and the 
 expressions of that opinion more loud and 
 general. Boniface himself professed an ar- 
 dent, though, as it proved, an insincere desire 
 for the same consummation, and even address- 
 ed a letter to Charles of France (in April, 
 1393,) in which he exhorted him seriously to 
 undertake the sacred oflSce of conciliation.f 
 The king consented ; the University of Paris 
 eagerly caught at any hope of removing the 
 scandal and the daily growing evils which 
 attended it, and applied itself to discover the 
 most efficient means. After mature delibera- 
 tion, a public harangue was delivered before 
 that body (in the June of 1394,) by a doc- 
 tor J appointed to the office, and after receiv- 
 ing their approbation, was presented to the 
 king. It contained in substance, that there 
 were three methods of hoaling the schism, any 
 one of which might be adopted with reasona- 
 ble hope of success: — the method of cession, 
 — the method of compromise, — the method of 
 
 * The indulgence-mongers of Boniface IX., when 
 they arrived in any city, suspended at their windows 
 a flag, with the arms of the Pope and the keys of the 
 Church. Then they prepared tables in the cathedral 
 church, by 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. Ixii. 
 
 t It appeared, on subsequent explanation, that 
 Boniface saw only one solution of the difficulty, — the | 
 expulsion of his rival, and the universal acknowledg- 1 
 ment of himself. | 
 
 X Nicholas de Clemangis. 
 
 I a General Council. By tlie 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 bo 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 A«»- 
 sembly should no longer consist of j)relates 
 only, many of whom were ignorant or jjas- 
 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 many, 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 
 vi^ere 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 ])lundered indif- 
 ferently churches and monasteries, whatever 
 was profane and whatever was sacred ; and 
 oppressed the inferior ministers of religion 
 i with intolerable exactions. The dominion of 
 I simony was universal ; benefices and cures 
 I were conferred only on those, who had means 
 ;.rto 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 
 pubhcly 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- 
 ai ice, had their price in gold. 
 
 A politica circumstance occurred at this 
 moment w hich 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 
 envo}' 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 their 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 XIIL — 
 llowbeit, they previously took a precaution, 
 which was certainly necessary for their own 
 
 * Wlu;n the esrnest and reasonaole exhortations 
 of tho University were pressed upon him — when he 
 was afpurcd that the evil had gone so far, that some 
 began ahnosl to advocate a plurality of popes, and 
 the appointment of one to every kingdom — the in- 
 fatuate! l)igot only started from his seat in anger, 
 and declared that * the letters were poisoned, and 
 te »'cd to bring the Holy Sec into discredit ' 
 
 j credit, though there were few, probably, who 
 j expected any real advantage from it. Before 
 j 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 ; 
 I and that he should even be prepared to cede 
 his dignity, if his cardinals should judge it 
 I expedient for the concord of the Church, 
 j 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 tliat it would 
 bum with equal fervor under the pontifical 
 robes. The University adilressed to him con- 
 gratulations, which were seemingly sincere, 
 and Benedict XIIL (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 tlie great majority ; and it 
 was agreed, that an eml)assy 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 Panipehma, a Sjianiard 
 and com) atriot of the Pope. 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM. 
 
 415 
 
 of cession. Nevertheless Benedict, during i 
 several weeks of repeated conferences and I 
 debates, inflexibly persisted in his refusal. 
 At length the illustrious mission returned to 
 Paris, without any other result tlian the dis- 
 covery of Benedict's insincerity. 
 
 Notwithstanding this failure, the king ad- 
 dressed himself very warmly, to unite the dif- 
 ferent courts and learned bodies of Europe in 
 favor of the method, which still seemed to i 
 promise the greatest hopes. Messengers tra- 
 versed the country in all directions, and every | 
 state and every city in Europe was agitated j 
 by the same momentous question. The spec- j 
 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 j 
 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 othei- 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 yn-oceedings 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 ])ersist ; — 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, i 
 in case his cardinals should hereafter recom- 1 
 mend it, and as his cardinals had strongly re- 1 
 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 Beneaicis 
 general delinquency, and of the particular 
 grievances of the complainants, and to appeal 
 from his censures, whether past or fiiture, 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 extreinities of Ger- 
 
 * On this occasion numbers of polemical tracts 
 and pamph ets were published on both sides, con- 
 taining, as Flcury has observed, many words but few 
 'easons. i 
 
 I many assemblies were held and resolutions 
 adopted ; and the vows, and talents, and en 
 ergies of all men were directed to the same 
 object ; consefjuently, 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, l)y 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 and his pro- 
 digal court, and the train 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 hhi , 
 but sustain, with their very lives and proper- 
 ty, his just and holy cause. 'My children,' 
 replied Boniface, 'take courage I rest assured 
 that I will continue to be pope ; and ^vhatever 
 I may say, or however I may play off" the 
 King of France and the Emj)eror 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 ilvignon, proceed- 
 ed to a measure of greater efficac}' — 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 teinpora 
 authority over them, such ^as no former pope is said 
 to have possessed. See -tEgidius Card. Viterb, apud 
 Fa^i. Vit. Bonif. IX. s. xliii. 
 
416 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 tie 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 
 fidhesion 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 refiige in a small town near 
 Avignon. As a pope was never wont to tra- 
 vel, imless pn^ceded by the Holy Sacrament, 
 Benedict carri(;d out with him a little; box. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 containing the consecrated eiement ; and eren, 
 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 ; | and that, while the pontiff of 
 
 * It is the word used by ecclesiastical writers — 
 Subtractlo, soustraclion. 
 
 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. Tl)e 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 (jucstion 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 g>»nume 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. 
 
 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 
 suflScient — 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 intelhgence. Im- 
 mediately the benefice was in the market ; 
 and it not uncommonly happened, that the 
 same was sold as vacant to several rivals, 
 even under the same date. The ravages of 
 a frightful pestilence only contributed to fill 
 the pontifical coflTers : 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 Tlieodoric 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 ',he 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 
 
 411 
 
 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 * Bonifoce 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 siraoniacal 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 J:he exportation 
 of their wealth to a foreign and even hostile 
 treasuiT. Still in many, the religious zeal 
 
 * The system of Annates, or the payment of a 
 year's first fruits to the 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 y^ars 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 
 •rieasures could be taken in concert with the 
 college at Avignon. 
 
 Election of Angelo Co7rario, or Gregory 
 XIL — 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, whose 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 lenf^th tliey unanimously fixed their choice 
 upon Angelo Corrario, "virtnn prisca severitate et 
 ■anf tinionia rcverendum." 
 
 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 Coiistanti- 
 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 time 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 luiion 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, quee privatns fecerat, tunc in potes- 
 tate constitutus iterato novavit. Atque ita loquebatur 
 de Unione primo illo tempore, ut, si cjetera deessent, 
 pedibus et haculo se iturum ad earn conficiendara 
 asseveraret. Statimque adversario scripsit benigne 
 ilium ad pacem invitans et abdicationem mutuam 
 offerens. Adversarius autem tantisdem ferine syU 
 lahis ad eum rescripsit; eadem invitatio fuit, eadem- 
 que cohortatio . . Locus deinde necessarius visus est 
 in quo et Ponlifices ipsi et collegia convenirent. Ad 
 hoc Savona pari consensu recepta est. . . . Prospere 
 hue usque et plane ex sententia. Deinde paulatim res 
 labascere coepit et cuncta indies deteriora fieri. Vo- 
 luntas autem ilia Pontificis recta uequaquam satis 
 habere firmitatis reperta est ad pontificatum deponen- 
 dum ; cujus rei culpam multl in propinquos ejus re- 
 ferebant, &c. . . Erat in altero Pontifice non melior 
 sane mens, sed occulebat callidius malam vohuitatem, 
 et quia noster fugiebat, ipseobviam Ire videbatur. . . . 
 
 ■ Sed cum de congressu eorum per internuntios agere- 
 tur, noster tanquam terrestre animal ad littus accedere, 
 ille tanquam aquaticum a mari discedere 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. 
 llistoria. Ego (the historian presently continues) 
 Pontificem secutus sum polius familiaritatis gratia, 
 quam quod ejus causam probarem. Quanquam fuit 
 in Gregorio perniagna vita? morumque honestas et 
 prisca qutedam, ut ita dixerim, bouitas, scriptura- 
 ruin quoque scientia et indagatio subtilis et recta" . 
 Denique in cunctis ferme rebus mihi satisfaciebat, 
 pra^terquam in Unionis negotio . . . Id. loc. cit. 
 i Gibbon has referred to tliis passage in his TOth *''hap 
 
 I ter. 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM, 
 
 41; 
 
 flence, 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- 
 rjewed his usual protestations. But they were 
 no longer able to deceive either tne 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 an-anged, 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 
 s>7orn 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.! It is enough to mention the 
 leading facts. In the first place, in contempt 
 of one important 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. Ixx. 
 
 t " That both parties shall promise to make no 
 
 in conclave, Gregory created four new card) 
 uals ; 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 
 tinned 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. 
 
 The 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 endy,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 stmimoned 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 been more scrupulous, when the obligation 
 was direct and unequivocal, we might have given him 
 the benefit of tliis supposition. 
 
420 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 abbot?, 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 tlio early 
 church: — perseverance in schism was at this time 
 Rufficicnt to constitute heresy. 
 
 X That tlierc were cases, in which thoy possessed 
 that right, does not appear to have been disputed — 
 Uiat, for instance, of the insanity of a pope. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 summon the pretenders to appear in persons 
 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, he 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 Coimcil was ad- 
 journed for an interval of three years, till the 
 April of 1412. 
 
 The authority of the Council of Pisa waa 
 recognised by all the national churches of 
 Europe, excepting Arragon, Castillo, Bavaria, 
 and Scodand ; and Rome itself, by placing 
 Alexander in the list of its genuine bishops, 
 has ofFcrcd it the same acknowledgment. Its 
 
 * It was the boast of his friends, that, from being 
 a rich archbisliop, he had become a poor cardinal; 
 and that the popedom had reduced him to beggary. 
 
THE GRAND SClIISxM. 
 
 4^21 
 
 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 
 eflect produced upon the antipopes by de- 
 cisions so solemnly delivered. On the de- 
 termination of an assembly, which expressed 
 tiie 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, and 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 com-tiers, 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. Anf^. when it appeared that the pos- 
 session of Rome could only be recovered 
 
 from Ladislaus by military measures, Baltazar 
 undertook to conduct an expedition foi that 
 purpose. The Roman people acknowledged 
 the authority of Alexander, and sent to \i'un 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 1413 
 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 XXIIL 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 ; and 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 proinise of that vigor, whic?i 
 was 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 XXIIL (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, f<5r 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 witb 
 
 * Fleury, 1. c. sec. xliii. 
 
4^22 HISTORY OF 
 
 three cardinals vvhc stiJl followed him, he 
 liad 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 agi'eed, 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 
 lliey were sent. Then, speaking kindly to them, he 
 jy-aised their prudence and fidelity, and said that they 
 knew what ought to be done better than himself. 
 While he was thus tallying 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 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 nunierous and opulent assembly. As th« 
 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 the 
 leading ecclesiasticsf of Europe were present; 
 but the greater proportion of etuinent 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 meana 
 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. 
 
 t Nine and twenty cardinals and three hunflred 
 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 ohjects were the extinction 
 of the schism and the Reformation of the 
 Churcn. 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 die 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 circumslanco, 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 i\s 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 t*eter of 
 Luna nor Angelo Corrario Tims their course 
 was obvious — to declare tue See vacant, 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 sim])ly 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 brotight forward as the only 
 healins; measure ; and that the true and re 
 
424 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 disgi-ace, 
 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 off'ers 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 
 fneans 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 Aretimis (Rer. Italicar. Historia) 
 speaks of him thus: — " Fuit procnldubio vir inclytus, 
 prfcclara facie, corpore turn specioso, turn robusto; 
 mii^nitudino aniini sive pace sivc bello exiniia; lib- 
 eralitale veto tuula, ut hoc uiiuni ilii vitio daietur, 
 quod lai }ji(;iido et crogaiido sibi ip.si facultatcs dctia- 
 heret ad negotia bellaque obcunda." 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 they pressed upon hini 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 wa? 
 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 
 Univereity, 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 French 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 ap})eared 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 delibcra ini s, 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 XXIIL, 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 afler 
 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 antipopes ; 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 XXIII.,for the repose of the 
 people of Christ, profess, promise, vow, and swear, 
 before God, the Chnrch, 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 
 Jeath, 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 js 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. 
 
 wliich side the real strength lay. The Court 
 ot 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. AVe 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 
 asykim. 
 
 TTie Council then turned to the aflfair 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 oflfences 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 pco[)le by unjust acts and exorbitant 
 imposts. His escape from Constance, and his 
 subsequent endeavors to elude the demands 
 of the Council, w^ere urged against him with 
 the greater minuteness, as they were the most 
 ecent and the least pardonable of his oflTcn- 
 Zos. 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 ran^Iy assisted at tlie 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 imi)urities 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 XXIIL accused and deposed. — It is not 
 disputed, that the paper, which receired the 
 approbation of the Council, contained many 
 heinous charges, expressed in very uneqyiv- 
 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 ])nvate station, his personal frec- 
 
 * Fit si aliqnotirs celoliravit, hoc fuit currenier, 
 > more venatoruniet armigerorum. Act. Concil. Const. 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM. 
 
 427 
 
 doni and security. Accordingly, he addres- 
 sed a respectful and even pathetic letter to 
 Sigismoiid, in which he reminded him of ser- 
 vices formerly conferred, and snpi)iicated in 
 return his friendship, or at least his clemency. 
 This apj)eal was written in a tone of deep 
 humiliation, and with an affectation of attach- 
 ment, which could scarcely be sincere. But 
 neither Eniperor nor Council was softened 
 by this tardy display of ol)sequiousness. 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 })leasure 
 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 ])erused 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 
 appi-obation ; 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 j)urely 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 ])ut 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 himselfj with his former humility, 
 on the mercy of the Council and the Emper- 
 or — not, however, without reminding them, 
 that he possessed legitimate moans 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 rleprived of the services of hi3 
 Italian attendants, and surrounded by Ger- 
 mans, with whom his ignorance of the Ian 
 guage permitted no other intercourse, than 
 by signs.* Such rigor, exercised against a 
 fallen Pope, awakened sympathy and swelled 
 the ranks of liis 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 XXIH. 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 ot 
 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 
 
 * Plalina and Nauclerus assert the severity witli 
 which John was treated. Theodoric of Niem gives 
 a difierent 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 ^voceedeA, papaliter, to interfeie with 
 the State also. Previously to Sigismond's departure 
 for Perpignan, through France, it published an edict 
 — " Quicunque, cujuscunque status aut conditionia 
 existat, etiamsi regalis . . . euntes aut redeuntes 
 impediverit, perturbaverit — sententia excommunica- 
 tionis percellitur — et ulterius omni honore et 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 
 
4^23 
 
 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 by 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 *r» undertake 
 in person the journey to Perpignan. 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 j)]ace of conference. 
 
 An extraordinary scene was then enacted. 
 Ferdinand of Arragon sincerely desired the 
 extinction of the schism ; ambassadors from 
 the courts of Castille and Navarre, and others ' 
 who v/ere present, united their vows for the ' 
 same object. The Emperor pressed it with i 
 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 indeed 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 supplicatecV th^t ^'6 would raise her 
 from her degradation ; that he would volun- 
 tarily sacrifice that dignity, which he could 
 not possibly retain mucii longer ; and that he 
 would invest his few remaining y( ars with 
 tiie 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 furdier 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 infliexibly. 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- 
 sori 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. 
 
 f Theodoric of Niem ijicntions that Vincent Ferriet 
 did then, in fact, take so decided a part against his 
 former nmster, as to declare it a merit to persecute 
 or kill him. " Quod sit vir pravus et fallax el fictus, 
 deciplendo populum Dei, quodque juste persequendus 
 sit usque ad mortem ab omnibus Christianis, Sec." . . 
 Vit. Johann. XXIII. p. 63. This holy zealot had 
 as little charity in his enmity, as discretion in iiii 
 friendship. 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM. 
 
 429 
 
 mcnt, the stronger was his obligation to resist 
 the tempest, and avert the anger of Heaven 
 by pereevering 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 — I 
 reason, and justice, and every wise, and every 
 good principle, arrayed against the infatuated 
 obstinacy of one crafty, fliithless, old man. 
 Yet the thoughtful were still in some sus- 
 pense, and many had greater fears from the i 
 inveterate subtilty of Benedict, than hopes i 
 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 ])ossession 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, Scodand, which had taken 
 no ]KU't 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, 14] 7. " I. 
 
 blow. The sentence of deposition was pro 
 nounced against Peter of Luna, according to 
 the })rescribed forms ; and the bolt, whicii 
 had fallen alm<^st 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 storn) 
 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 presei-ved 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 
 iirragon, and retorted, with ludicrous earnest- 
 ness, tlie excommunications of the Christian 
 world. 
 
 Election of Martin V. by th.e Council, and 
 termination of the schism. — The Council of 
 Constance, having thus at length, throi;gh 
 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 interest? 
 which it was necessary to reconcile, so severe 
 were the precautions required, to secure foi 
 the future Pontiff the undivided obedience of 
 Europe. Accordingly, on the 8th ofNovem 
 her, 1417, the electors entered into conclave 
 and afler 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 Benetlict was JectVd, the 
 Spanish nation was added to the four, wnich haf? 
 hitherto constituted the Assembly. 
 
430 HISTCRY OF 
 
 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 dehght ; 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 
 yeai-s. 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. 
 
 * Tliesc were forty-five in number; lasting, at va- 
 rious intervals, from November 16lb, 1414, to August 
 9ti, 1418 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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- 
 goiy 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 fresli and unabated, gave some color to 
 the suspicion of i)oison, 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 their obedience, 
 he died ; and it is related in ecclesiastical re- 
 cords, that six years aflerwards his body was 
 found entire, and without symptom of decay ; 
 
 * The year is disputed. We follow Spondanus, 
 ann. 1424, s. ill. 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,' tlie prophetic address to the succes- 
 sors of the apostle, had not been accomplislied in the 
 case of Luna, therefore he could not be a genuine 
 successor. 
 
THE GRAND SCHISM. 
 
 431 
 
 and that, being then trans{)orted to Tgluera, 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 pretendei-s 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 aflcr 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 VIH. 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. Veiy 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 h'lH 
 liberation from Martin V. ; and it ap})car8 
 that, presently afterwards, whether through 
 the imprudence,* the i)olicy, 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 aflfection 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 suflfered 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 Rerurn 
 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, 
 whetlier 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 he 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 onlv 
 Pontiff. In adventu ejus tota ci vitas obviam profusa 
 multis lacrimis et incredibili commiseratione respexit 
 hominem de tantse 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 among the 
 rabble, of which the burden was — 
 
 Papa Martino 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 lo tears ; for they beheld the 
 man, m 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 generosit}^, 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 stmggle ; 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, 
 in which he was followed by general com- 
 miseration. But whether he passed his re- 
 maining days in successful conflict with a 
 bad and i)owerfiil passion, or whether (as 
 KRcms to us more nrobable^ ho. Kin-vcyed with 
 
 philosophical disdain the dignity of which ne 
 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 his youth the 
 trade of a pirate. ..." Dum simplex Clericus ac 
 in adolescentia constitntus existeret, cum quihusdam 
 fratribus suis piraticam in mari Ncajjolilano, ut fcr- 
 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 Nicm, Vit. Johann. 
 XXHI. 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 itoice laise.l 
 to the pontificate (for he Avas really chosen when 
 Alexander V. was made Pope,) nor retained so many 
 valuable friends to the end of his life. Leonardui 
 Aretinus describes him lo have been " Vir i i tempo- 
 ralibus (juidem magnus; in spiritualilnis vf ro luilhi- 
 ornnino el ineptus." . . Rer. Italic. Historia. 
 
THE WHITE PENITENTS AND OTHER ENTHUSIASTS. 
 
 eminence or family distinction, created a 
 strong, though temporary, sensation in Loin- 
 bardy and Tuscany. The object of his preach- 
 ing was to bring sinners to rejyentance ; 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 
 Df the higher ranks, set out to pass the season 
 of Lent at Rome. They were clad in the 
 haUt of St. Dominic ; 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 that 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. ' Swch,' says Villani, 
 *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 doubdess his intentions 
 were excellent.' 
 
 (IL) 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 singing, 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 e/(pressions 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 liest 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 ])ortion 
 55 
 
 of this irregular independence was dirpct- 
 cd. 
 
 (ML) 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 afiirm 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. Lom- 
 bardy was the scene of his first exhortations 
 he traversed its cities and villages, followed 
 by multitudes, who assumed at his bidding 
 the (u-oss, 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 among 
 them the celebrated Stahat 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) 
 I with equal fervor ; and thus was it propa- 
 I 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 anc' 
 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 
 
 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. Eveiy 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; 
 tfie 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. 
 
 J]ttempts 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 enthnsi- 
 aHts, arc Theodoric of Niem, an eye-witness, Pogirio, 
 in Win History of Florence, Sigoniiis, IMatina, Mura- 
 tori. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 meeting of the Council of Basle— deRth of Martm \ 
 crisis of the Church— Accession of Eugenius IV.— hia 
 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 prorogatioi 
 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 Bourses 
 — 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 ihe 
 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 
 lluss, the real reformers of the Church, will 
 be noticed hereafl:er: 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 7cal of those reformers 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION 
 
 435 
 
 was directed, and the perverse and narrow 
 nnd 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 accomi)lished 
 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 mon.istic 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 th^. defects of the existing 
 institutions, but by a generous endeavor to 
 correct them : so that the word at least was 
 famili.ir and resprctable in the eyes of Pi'e- 
 lates and of Pop*js, and the principle might 
 be atowed, under certain restrictions, with- 
 out any suspir?on, or even insinuation, of 
 heresy. 
 
 General Complaints against the abuses of the 
 Church. — Ibe. 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 in 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 ot 
 Constance, 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 Gersou, in reply tf- 
 tlie 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 oilier. It iray be found in the 
 6lh volume of Von der Hard* He was born in 
 Picardy in 1350, and both Gerson and Clemangis 
 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. s 1 
 
436 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 money ; 
 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 Avas, 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 Ills 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 cej'^o etconducto 
 cum suis Prcclatis pretio passim et publice Concu- 
 binas tenentl Quod subditorum excessus et vitia, 
 omniaque officia, quae judiciis prseesse sunt solita, 
 publice venundantl Sed adhue levia haec 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 qu?Rdam, non dico 
 Dei sanctuaria, sed Veneris execranda prostibula, 
 sed lascivorum et impudicorum .Tuvenum ad libidincs 
 explendas receptacula. Ut idem hodie sit puellam 
 velarc, quod ad publice scortandum cxponere.^ 
 (Nicol de Clemangiis, de Ruina Ecclesia?. cap. 
 xxxvi. Apud Von der Ilardt, tom. i. Cone. Con- 
 8tan.) Gerson, also, in his sermon at Rhcims, used 
 thefle words: ' Et utinam nulla sint Monasteria mulie- 
 rum, facta sunt prostibula mcietricum, et prohi- 
 beat adhuc detcriora Deus.* Ser. factus in Concil. 
 Remcnsi. Op. Gers., vol. ii., p. 625. Edit, Paris. 
 See Lenfanl, Cojic. Const., 1. vii., c. l.S 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 greatest among the reformeis ot 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, in 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 tlib 
 debaucheries of the monks ; he represei ted 
 the cathedrals as no better than dens of rob- 
 bers, and the monasteries as taverns and 
 brothels.^ 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 Cle)-gy,'§ 
 was composed during the pontificate of Bo 
 niface IX., the most triumphant era of schism 
 
 5 In 1410 he addressed to Pierre d'Ailly his treat- 
 ise ' De Modis Uniendi et Reformandi Ecclesiam in 
 Concilio Universal!.' His more celebrated^work , 
 ' De Simonia abolenda Constantiensis Concilii Ope,' 
 was written during the Council. Both may be found 
 in Von der Hardt, tom. i. 
 
 t 'Consilium Pacis de Unione ac Reformalione 
 Ecclesia) in Concilio Universal! qua^renda.' It oc- 
 cupies sixty columns in the beginning of Von der 
 Hardt's second volume. 
 
 X This reformer seems also to have looked somu- 
 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 ofi'endcd by the multiplication of festivals, 
 and the frivolous nature of the controversies which 
 divided the CIuutIi. 
 
 § * Aureum Speculum Papip, ejus Curiae, Pra^Ialo- 
 rum, aliorumque SpirituaMuni.' The work gained 
 great celebrity on the Continent. 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SEI 
 
 ail J simony ; and the Treatise of Richard 
 Ullerston, an Oxford Doctor, is said to have 
 guided the views of the Bishop of Salishury, 
 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,f 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 
 XIIL, vented at Constance, in some satirical 
 compositions, the indignation, which it was 
 not yet politic to express openly. 
 
 We have thus seen how generally | 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 Ills Ingenua Paranesis ad Sigismund. 
 I/nper. De Rfformatione Ecclesite 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 Innocenlii 
 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 TheodoricVrie, 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 quseque reguntur, 
 
 Judiciumque pium gaza nefanda vetat. 
 Curia Papalis fovet omnia scandala mundi, 
 
 Delubra sacra facit perfiditate forum. 
 Oido sacer, baptisma sacrum cum Chrismate Sancto 
 
 Venduntur, turpi conditione foro. 
 Dives honoralur, pauper contemnitur, atque 
 
 Qui dare plura valet munera gratus erat. 
 A urea quee quondam fuit, hinc argentea Papse 
 
 Curia procedit deteriore modo. 
 Ferrea dehinc facta, dura cervice quievit 
 
 Tempore non madico ; sed modo facta lutum. 
 Posique lutum quid deterius solet essel Recordor — 
 
 Stercus. Et in tali Curia tola sedet. j 
 Semler,in Cap. ii. Secul. xv., ' De Publico Ecclesiae | 
 Statu,' enumerates a great multitude of compositions ^ 
 produced by the discontented spirits of the 14th and : 
 loth centuries. Several are given at length oy Her- j 
 man Von der Hardt, Hist. Concil. Constant. I 
 
 .F-REFORMATION. 437 
 
 of their own imperfections. . ; . Wc 
 may observe that the lamentations and cen- 
 sures, so abundantly poured ^orth 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 tlje 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 S(!andals 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. 
 
 The 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 j intention. We have seen, in- 
 deed, to what insufficient hmits their project 
 was confined : still was it no inconsiderable 
 design in that age, nor unworthy of a bold 
 ana generous character, especially in minis- 
 ters and prelates of the Roman Church, to 
 repress the licentiousness, and to moderate 
 the power, of the successoi- 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 the 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 fi-om 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- 
 nals ; 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 genei'al 
 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 sei-vant 
 of the servants of God, he would em])loy 
 himself in rendering service to the faithful 
 and assisting the poor, who are the members 
 
 * ' Non Christi, sed mores gerunt Anticliristi ; * 
 and again, ' Non legimiis Christum iili conUilisse 
 potestatcm bcncficia, dignitates, episcopatiis, villas, 
 terras dispensandi aiit distribuendi, sed iiec unqiiam 
 legimus Petrmn hajc fecisse. Sed solum banc potes- 
 tatcm ci tribuit specialem, scriptam Matt, xvi., 
 (]uam etiam iniriimo mundi episcopo concessit.' Such 
 expressions miglit be flattering to the dignity "of the 
 surrounding prelates. But he was an injudicious 
 friend to the Roman Catholic Church, who appealed 
 to the liiblo as the test of its purity. John IIus8,had 
 iu; been present at this discourse, might have pressed 
 (Ivit arguujcnt somewlut fartiier 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION 
 
 ot (/brist Je&us. But so far is he from call- 
 ing the poor about hiiii, 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 suth 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 prtesumit dicere esse tantam suam potes- 
 tateiii, quantam Christus habuit, secundum quod Deus 
 e; secundum quod homo.' Opera Gersoni, Apud 
 Lenfant, Hist. Cone. Const. 1. vii. s. xiv. The same 
 doctor, in his sermon, ' De Signis Ruinte Ecclesiae,' 
 mentions eight such indications: (1.) Rebellio et 
 inobedientia; (2.) Inverecundia ; (3.) Lnmoderata 
 insequalitas, qua alius et ssepe dignior esurit; alius 
 et frequenter indignior prae multitudine et magnitu- 
 dine beneficiorum ebrius est; (4.) Fastus et superbia 
 praelalorum et aliorum ecclesiasticorum — tantus fastus 
 in Dei Ecclesia, prcecipue in temporibus istis, non 
 tarn multos m )vet ad reverentiam quam multos ad 
 indignationem; et plures invitat ad pradam, qui se 
 reputarent fortasse Deo sacrificium offerre, si possent 
 quosdam divitcs ecclesiasticos spoliare; (5.) .Signum 
 sumitur ex tyrannide prjesidenlium — tales sunt pasto- 
 res qui non pascunt gregem Domini sed semetipsos; 
 (6.) Conturbatio principum et commotio populorum ; 
 (7.) Recusatio correctionis in priiicipibus ecclesite ; 
 (8.) Novitas opinionum. Moderno quidem tempore 
 unusquisque interpretari et trahere non veretur sacram 
 BCripturam, jura, sanctorumque patrum instituta ad 
 libitum suae voluntatis, prout amor, odium, invidia, 
 
 spes promotionis, aut vindicta eum inclinat 
 
 Praeter haec sunt alia signa, videlicet recessus justitiae, 
 distinctio studiorum, prajlalio puerorum, et ignoran- 
 tium et pravorum,et hac erit destructio Latinorum. 
 Plura alia sunt descripta in Prophetis de dejectione 
 Baccrdotalis honoris, ex quibus et praedictis, sapiens 
 potest coiicludere ruinam tem|)oralium de propinquo 
 imminere. A multis annis non fuerunt tot malevoli, 
 tanti corde rebelles et animo accensi contra ecclesiam 
 eicut his diebus. Quos in longum compescere nequa- 
 quam valebinius, nisi signis virtutum 'manifestis ad 
 benevolenliam eos inclinaverimus.' Gersoni Opera, 
 vol. i. p. 199, Ed. Paris, 1606. This sermon was 
 Breached 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 
 tljcir 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 exanjine into 
 particular abuses, and prepare a general pro- 
 ject for the approbation of the whole assem- 
 bly. This College, named on the 15tli 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 
 nqt 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 kee}) 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 fathei-s. 
 
 Divisions, ending in the election of Martin 
 V. — The labors of the committee were con- 
 tinued through the whole of 1416 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 tht, 
 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 
 
 was declared vacant, a veiy important ques- 
 tion was moved — whether it were not wise 
 to defer the new election, until after the work 
 of reformation should have been 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 durhig 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- 
 
 » Til is sudden change is ascribed to their national 
 jealousy of the English, the victors of Agincourt 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 {he opuiions 
 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 comi)atriots, 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 was 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. Howbeic, the 
 cardinals persisted, without any fear or com- 
 promise ; two days afterwards, a second f 
 memorial, more explicit and decided than 
 tlie 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 presumptii- 
 
 * Von der Hyu dt calls him Caesar's ^rftts Achates. 
 
 t They may both bo found in the first volume of 
 Von der Hardt's Hist. Cons. Constat. Praefat. in part 
 XX. p. 916 ct seq. 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 
 
 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 the Council, pressed very forcibly the real 
 argument on which the contest now turned. 
 In tliis paper they maintained, with great 
 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, how^ever 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 
 cardin&ls) 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. 
 56 
 
 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 thft 
 Council ; and that he should not depart from 
 Constance, until his task was accomplished. 
 The cardinals, with their coadjutors,* soou 
 afterwards assembled in conclave, and on the 
 11th of November following, INIartin 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 
 substantid measure of renovation was gone. 
 Notwithstanding the strong sense of the 
 Church's degradation and danger, with which 
 so many of the fathers were deepJy 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 earnesdy 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 pei-fect 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 
 
 exception, in opposition to reform. Yet this 
 combination did not, probably, arise, eitlier 
 because they were very rich, or very power- 
 ful, or very generally demoralized. Inriches, 
 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 pardy, 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 
 ihey 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- i 
 .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 tViey 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 friendliness of the 
 design — they did not perceive that an increase 
 of vigor and stability would assuredly follow 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 the immediate sacrifice: — they snatched a\ 
 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 w*as 
 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 pontift' 
 and Council — for the majority were still sin- 
 cere in their intentions, though they had blind- 
 ly cast away the means of eflfecting 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 Chanceiy 
 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 exlir 
 pation of Simony ; (15) Dispensations ; (16) 
 Provision for the Pope and the Cardinals; 
 (17) Indulgences; (18) Tenths. To t^ese 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 
 
ATTEaiPTS AT SEI 
 
 probation of a General Council. And again, 
 thai there were certain cases in which a Pope 
 mij^ht 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 j 
 Regarding the Pope. — The Committee of 
 Reform also prohibited the Popes from reserv- 
 ing * the spoils of the bishops, the revenues I 
 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 months 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 
 gi'anted 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 others in that they 
 were not published. If a benefice was vacant, and 
 either tlie ordinary had conferred it, or any one went 
 to Rome to obtain it, the datary would answer, that 
 the Pope liad made a mental reservation to present it 
 to whom he thoujrht proper. 
 
 t In Apnb'a, 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 Ecclesiae Statu, cap. xi.) ' that there 
 were at that time ecclesiastics who held as many as 
 five h\mdred 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, Itenefices of ail orders and of all professions.' 
 Lenf Hist. Co ^o»ist., 1. vii. s. xxxii. 
 
 .F-REFORMATION. 443 
 
 lating from see to see, without consulting 
 the inclination of the prelates affected by the 
 change. These forcible translati(»ns were pro- 
 hibited by the cotmnittee ; 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 e{)iscopal 
 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, wh#se 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. 
 
 Tke 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 chaiuber, 
 respecting protonotaries and participants ; the 
 auditors, or judges della rota (the parliament 
 of the Pope ;) scriptors of the penitentiary ; 
 abbreviators of Bulls ; clerks of the chamber ; 
 correctors of the apostolical letters ; auditores 
 contradictariorum, and auditors of the cham- 
 ber ; acoluthes, subdeacons, chaplains, refer- 
 endaries, penitentiaries, and registrars — not 
 for the Qj)olition 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 we 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 
 
 ♦ierive 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 botli 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 profancness 
 were exhibited by the monastic establish- 
 ments^ 
 
 • Lenfant, Hist. Cone. Const., liv. vii., s. 46. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 f 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, had not perhaps 
 veiy 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 i)rinciple 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 hy 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 publislied by M. Von dcr Hardt, from tlie 
 MSS. of tiie 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 
 iocollum, &c. &c. 
 
 t It is only necessary to refer to the writings Oi 
 leading reformers, Gerson, Pierre d'Ailli, &c., and 
 the acts of the councils both of Constance and Bash 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 
 
 445 
 
 ot hift 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 their 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- 
 lion htfore 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 sedret attachment towards their per- 
 verse compatriot, the Pope of Paniscola. 
 Martin was somewhat moved by tljis 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 dela}^, 
 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 
 gi'anted 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 res])ectcd papal dispensations to hold 
 beaefices 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 se^ion 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: il 
 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 Semler, Seen), 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. 
 
 f 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 perpetnam rei uiemo- 
 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, "semel in vita; " so that eacll 
 among them may 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 
 
 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, liut 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, res[)ecting 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 
 ClKJrch, 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 
 tiain of incurring the indignation of the omnipotent 
 God, and of his blessed apostles St. Peter and St. 
 Paul.' Such were the consolations which were ofier- 
 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 beti ay them. They demanded a substan- 
 tial reform, and he paid the debt in indulgences. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 E'carcely assumed the shape of a right till tiie 
 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 cu'iy this 
 measiu-e. The fathers, in a general assem 
 bly, even })assed a resolution to that eflfect, 
 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 disiriissed 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 afterwai-ds have been made 
 by individual Popes, the general principle 
 was immutably established in the Chiu'ch.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 
 |)articulars of the dispute between the French and 
 the Cardinals on the subject of Annates may be found 
 ill 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 u[)on. 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 car lib- 
 erate them from this dilennna. 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 
 
 447 
 
 eonifort 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; in such places as the Pope, 
 with the consent of the Council sitting, 
 should appoint. But in the first instance, as 
 the actual exigencies of ihe 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 indidgences 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 ahnost 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 CJiaracter of Eugenius IV. — 
 The Cardinals were not, indeed, disturbed by 
 such distant considerations; and the views, 
 with which most of them entered tlie con- 
 clave, extended not beyond their private in 
 trigues or immediate interests. Being unable 
 at once to agree, they proceeded to the scri*^ 
 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 retiact ; 
 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 hav6 
 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, througk 
 the very resdessness 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 Sisniondi 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 Andrese Billii Histoi 
 Mediolan. 1. ix. p. 143. 
 
 t He was remarkable for a downcast look. ' Vultu 
 alioqui decoro et venerabili, nunquam oculos in pub- 
 lico attollebat, ut a parente meo, qui eum seqiiebatur, 
 accepi.' — Volaterra, lib. xxii., p. 815, ap. Bayle. 
 
 X Contemporary Italian historians exert all the 
 talents of partisanship in 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 ou 
 on le voit sans cesse engage, en guerre avec son clerge, 
 avec ses sujets, avec ses bienfaitcm-s, il manque pves- 
 que toujours en m6me temps et de la bonne foi, et de 
 la politique. II y a peu de tyrans k qui on pent re- 
 procher plus d'actes de perfidie et de cruaute; il y a 
 
448 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 transfeired 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 
 liim 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 otjjer party, thwarted by perpetual 
 
 peu (le monavqiies imbecilles, qui aient donne plus de 
 preuves d'incapacite el d'iiiconscquence.' Republ. 
 Ital.; cap. Ixx. 
 
 * ' Concilium hoc coiigregatuiii est propter oxtir- 
 pandas liacrcses, faciendum paccin, reformanduin mo- 
 res.' Eplst. (2) .Tuliani Card, ad Eugen. IV. Julian 
 places first tliat which Pccms to have been in his mind 
 the most important object: the tliird, the reformalion, 
 he regarded rather as the means of restoring tla; unity 
 of the Church. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 impediments, insults, artifices, so as to con- 
 fine its exertions to unworthy objects, and not 
 effectually to accomplisli 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 Poye. 
 — 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 pubhshed 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 sucli, 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 I 
 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 lengtli by 
 the Contin. of Fleury, liv. cvi., § 6. 
 
 f The ' 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 
 
 X This is urged by ili.neas Sylvius, Comment, de 
 Gestis Basil. Concil., lib. i., p. 16. The same write* 
 also argues that the Pope is more properly the Vtcn^ 
 of the Church than the Vicar of Christ. 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 
 
 449 
 
 that mystical body;* and conseqiieJUly (for 
 this was the ,oint to which tlie whole tend- 
 ed,) that he possessed no power over the 
 Council, either to di&solve 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 as^siduous 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 necessary for the presei*vation 
 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 
 hoar 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 tlie Church 1 
 
 t The first Epistle begins in these words — ' Multa 
 me cc^unt libere et intrepide loqui ad Sanctitatem 
 vestram; periculum videlicet eversionis fidei ac status 
 eccl'jsiastici, et subtractionis obedienlise a Sede Apos- 
 tolica in iis partibus; denigratio quoque famie ejus- 
 dern Sanctitatis. Cogit ct me charitas qua erga V. 
 S. afiici )r et (jra inihi affici scio. Ita enim opus est 
 
 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 lefl, 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 discrimine, cautius rebus agendis postea 
 consulatur.' 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 ecclesise, po- 
 tius subveniendum est fidei et animabus, pro quibus 
 Dominus noster Jesus Christus mortuus est, quam 
 arcibus et moeniis civitatum. Carior est Christo 
 una anima quam non solum temporale ecclesiae patri- 
 monium, sed etiam ccelum et terra.' .. . Again, 
 ' Pro Deo, non permittat sibi V. S. talia persnaderi, 
 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 tlie country, 
 indicated by Julian. 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 der or despoil the clergy. Sunk in general 
 estimat'on 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 I . . 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? . . ' 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 defomiity 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 
 
 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 k. And 
 where the layman ? there are none, or next 
 to none ? And if some princes shquld hap- 
 ly send their aml^assadors, 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 .1 
 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, 14^33, the fathers proceeded one step 
 fiirther ; they suspended the pontiflT from his 
 dignity, and prohibited all Christians from 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 
 
 451 
 
 payjag 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 inteiTupted 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 
 mcreased during the following spring, so fai- 
 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 sliould, 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, loo — in the twelfth session — a 
 general decree had been promulgated, with a view to 
 restore episcopal elections io their original form, and 
 to deprive the Pope of reservations; but it was so 
 general, that little practical effect could 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 aimates, servitia mimita, 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. Buyhey were de- 
 
 * (1.) Tlie 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 riglit ori- 
 ginated in simple recommendation ; afterwards it 
 changed into command. To the first letters, called 
 monitory, letters preceptory 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, witn 
 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 both 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 disposiiiona 
 of benefices previous to vacancy. — Fleury, lostitut 
 an Droit Eccles., p. ii., ch. xv. 
 
4d2 HISTORY OF 
 
 feated by the firmness of the majority of the 
 council in 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 tlie 
 election. It proceeded to moderate the nepo- 
 tism of the pontiifs, — so far, at least, as to 
 confine their secular favors, — the dukedoms, 
 inarquisates, captaincies, governorships, and 
 other ofiices 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 co^ciences' 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 specified restrictions ; 
 but tlicse, even had they been very funda- 
 mental improvements, were passed at a })criod 
 when the legitimacy of the council itself was 
 much disputed ; and probably they never ac- 
 quired general authority. Those which we 
 have above enumerated may be considered 
 ns comprising all that the assembled fathers 
 really accomplished, during deliher'i'.ions 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 which continued, at least nominally, through 
 the space of nearly twelve years. 
 
 Conduct of the 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 caicu 
 lated to thwart the progress of reform, had 
 been neglected by them. Every objection 
 had 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 beei 
 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 etenially 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 hse vobis dilationen 
 nocuerint, quotiesque paucorum mora dierum longis- 
 simuin tiaxit spatium; qui jam octavum annum ux 
 dilationibus agitis, semper dilationes ex dilationibus 
 vidistis emergere.' — Cardinalis Arelatensis, ap 
 JEn. Sylv. Gest. Basil. Concil. 
 
 f ' Quis est qui existimet Romanum pontificein ad 
 sui emendationem concilium conjugarel Nempe ut 
 peccant liomines, sic etiam impune peccar evolimt ' 
 ^neas Sylv. de Gest. Basil. Cone, 1. i., p. 20. 
 
 X The expressions of ^neas Sylvius almost rise 
 into eloquence. ' Ubinam gentium talis patrum est 
 chorus, ubi tantum scientia; lumen, ubi prudentia, ubi 
 bonitas est, qua? nomen patrum aequare virtutibus 
 queatl Oh iutegerrimam fraternitatem! oh vernm 
 orbis terrarum Senatum! Quam pulchra, quam 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- 
 delfe scribentem cernere, alium vero grande aliquid 
 meditantem intueri. . . . Illic cum exeuntem cella 
 aut Cliristianum aut alium qucmpiamex antiquioribus 
 vidisses, non alium certe vidcre putasses, quam vel 
 magnum Antonium, vel Paulum simplicem; et ilium 
 sane Hilarioni, ilium Paphnutio, ilium Amoni a?qui- 
 parasses. Plus autem hoc in loco quam in Antoniana 
 solitudine reperisses, siquidem Hieronymo etiam et 
 Augustino obviasses, quorum litterai in conclavi fiie- 
 runt,incremo non fuerunt. . Custodiebatur inter dom- 
 inos magna charitas, inter famulos bona dilectio, miei 
 iitrosque 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 6iite of the council. 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATl N. 
 
 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, 
 in 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 dangei'ous 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 theii* 
 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 pontiflT, %vithout 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. 
 
 Cordinal Archbishop of Aries, who was 
 bom 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.' JEn. 
 Sylv. Comment, de Gestis Basil. Concil., lib. i. p. 
 25. Tliis particular commendation is explained by 
 subsequent expressions. We shall select two of a 
 very different character. (1) The Cardinal, on an 
 imjjortant 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 fimbrias, deosculabantur, 
 secuticjue 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! fuge hunc saltern lunje 
 defectum, salva tuum caput, quo salvo salvamur 
 omnes; quo etiam pereunte omnes perimus. Quod 
 si te pestis opprimat, ad quem confugiemusl quis nos 
 regell quis ductor hujus fidelis exercitus eriti Jam 
 tuam Cameram irrepsit virus, jam Secretarius tuus, 
 jamquc Cubicularius tuus mortem obiit. Considera 
 discrimen, salva teipsum et nos . . . ." Sed neque 
 ilium preces neque domesticorum funera flectere po- 
 tuerunt, volentem potius cum vitee periculo salvare 
 concilium, quam cum periculo concilii salvare vitam. 
 Sciebat enim, quoniam, se reccdente, pauci re- 
 mansissent, facilequc 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 
 tlie Church, iEneas Sylvius. His work is chiefly 
 employed on those Acts of the Council, which more 
 iinmediately 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; 
 pince, 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 unjiardonable sophistry to 
 iEncqs Sylvius — to Pope Pius II. it probably ap- 
 peared a vory 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 
 ^neas 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. x'\nd 
 throughout the whole Church there was a 
 soft and affectionate bewailing of pious men, 
 who implored in sorrow tlie 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 ^neaa 
 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 i.s 
 of the Pope, and the inferior orders on the other. In 
 the session (the thirty-third) described in the text, 
 ' Nullus Arragonensium prselatorum interfuit, nuUus- 
 que omnino ex tota Hispania. Ex Italia soli Gros- 
 sitanus Episcopuset Abbas de Dona. Doctores autem 
 et cteteri inferiores magno in numero Arragonenses 
 fuerunt, et omnes fere, qui aderant, ex Italia Hlspan- 
 iaque (nec enim inferiores, sicut Pralati, princi- 
 pem timuerunt.) Maximaque tunc Arragonensium 
 et Cathelanorum virtus in inferioribus emicuit^ 
 qui sese minime necessitati ecclesiaj denegarunt ' 
 *Si enim episcopi hand multi erant, plena tamen 
 omtiia fuerunt subsellia procuratoribus episcoporum, 
 arcliidiaconis, pryepositis, prioribus, presbyteris et 
 divini et humani juris doctoribus, quos aut qua- 
 dringentos aut certe plures esse dijudicavi, &c.' Thia 
 republican constitution of the Council must, indeed, 
 have rendered it peculiarly obnoxious to the prejudi- 
 ces of a monastic Pape — Comment /En Sylvii, I. 
 ii. p. 43. 
 
ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 
 
 456 
 
 Election of Felix V. and Dissolution of the 
 Council. — On the 5th of November followitiir, 
 Amadeus, (!iike 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 fathei-s 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 litde 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. 
 
 JVicholas 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 ot 
 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, 
 iEneas 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 
 Galilean 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 arainst 
 liiUgenius. 
 
 t 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 during 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, canonically disqualified, 
 being presented for confirmation. — See Hallam, M d 
 die Ages, chap. vii. 
 
4{j6 history of 
 
 matic Sanction,* the gi*eat 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 Galilean 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, inileed, modified, with a view to accojn- 
 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. 
 
 t ' La premiere est, Que les Papes ne peuvcnt rien 
 commander ni ordonner, soit en general soit en par- 
 ticulier, de ce qui concerne les choses temporelles es 
 pays et terres de I'obeyssance et souverainete du Roy 
 Tres-Chrcstien : et s'ils y commandent on statuent 
 quelque chose, les sujets du Roy, et^corcs qu'ils fus- 
 sent clercs, ne sont tonus pour obeyr pour cc regard. 
 
 ' La seconde, Qu'encorcs 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 ct 
 regies dcs anciens concilcs de I'Eglise rcceus en cc 
 royaume. Et in hoc maxime consistit Libcrtas Ec- 
 rlcsia; Gallicana;.' See Commcntairc sur Ic Traite 
 des Lib. de TEglisc Gall, de Pierre Pithov. Paris, 
 1652 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 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 XI. was never ratified by 
 his subjects, nor eflfected 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 hei 
 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 
 treasiu'ies, 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 Germanj'^, 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- 
 
 I * 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 Hiatoire de I'Orig. de 1« 
 Pragm. Sanct., &c. par Pierre Pithov. 
 
\ 
 
 ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFURMATION. 
 
 Btant 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 tlie 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 only 
 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 
 continuaRy 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 jmssionate 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 
 
 457 
 
 otherwise modifying the system by season 
 able alterations, would have afforded tlie best 
 human probability of preserving the papal 
 supremacy undisputed, and deferring the 
 hour of a more.i)erfect reformation. But, on 
 the other hand, it is equally manifest, that, a3 
 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 ])rnici 
 pies, 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 ir 
 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 sinking 
 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 reformihg projects of 
 the fathers of Constance and Basle, as indi 
 eating 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, 
 afler 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 
 France by the orders which they issued respecting the 
 safe conduct of Sigismond in his journey to Spain; 
 
4.58 
 
 HISTC RY 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, wbo 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- 
 lined 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 
 hunself down to the meanest Italian papal 
 rninion, 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 founded 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. 
 
 * Sec tlie following Chapter. 
 
 f * Cum tamon dictus Johannes Huss, fidem ortho- 
 doxam i)ortinacitor impuguans, sc 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 privilegio reddiderit alienum, nec aliqua sibi fides 
 aut promissio de jure natural!, divino vel humano, 
 fuerit in prejudicium Catholicte fidei observanda: 
 ideirco dicta sancla 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 spuriousncss. 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 tlie Catholic faith ul 
 this moment. 
 
THE HUSSITES. 
 
 459 
 
 were contest! ig 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. 
 Sonie individuals tn-jst 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 f 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 whovse 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 
 doable communion amounted, at last, only to this, 
 that whether the sacrament was administeied 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 tlwt the custom of communica- 
 ting the laity in one kind, introduced with reason by 
 the Ciiurch 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. 
 
 f 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 tne heretics might not possibly be 
 right; 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 thek* 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 pontiflT, who was blind to the whole, 
 the art of printing was discovered ; and the 
 star of universal knowledge, the future arbitei 
 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 Rome 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 
 IIuss— His sermons in the Chapel of Bethlehem— Di- 
 vision in the University of Prague — Secession of the 
 Germans, in hostility against Huss — He incurs the di3 
 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 -tineas 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 Jacobellus of Misnia— The 
 principle of persecution advocated by Gerson — Husa 
 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 trial granted to Huss — The insults 
 and calumnies to which he is exposed — Three article! 
 to which he adhered— Principles of the Council— Husa 
 refuses to retract — Declaration of Sigismond — Variou3 
 solicitations and trials to which Huss is subject during 
 his imprisonment — Overture made to him by Sigismond 
 — Interview between Huss and John of Chluni — The 
 sentence passed on Huss — The process of his degrada- 
 tion — and execution — Two principal causes of his des- 
 truction. — (III.) Jerome of Prague appears before the 
 Council — His retractation — Subsequent avowal of his 
 fl pinions— and execution— Observations.— (IV > Mov» 
 
46U 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHtJRCH. 
 
 meats 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 defile 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 the 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 clo(juently 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 m 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 knov/n to harbor many anti-papal 
 opinions: but he was not yet committed in 
 direct opposition to Rome. Soon afl;erwards 
 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 powerfiil 
 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 oflTender was subsequently sum- 
 moned to Lambeth, he was dismissed with a 
 simple injunction to abstain from diff'using 
 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 ' th6 
 head of Antichrist cloven in twain, and the 
 two parts made to fight against each other.' 
 
 * ' Diu in pendulo hajrebant, utrum papalera Bul- 
 lara deberent cum honore suscipere, vel omnino cum 
 dedecore refutare.' Walsingham. 
 
 t 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 oflice 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 advancinj 
 J age which surpassed that of his youthful enthusiasin 
 
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 ')e 
 an evil at all — at least it was still so d. ^'i y 
 rooted in the prejudices of the people, thai 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 gloiy, that he anticipated, by almost two 
 centuries, the principles of a more enUghtened 
 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 — afi;er 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 
 Jvhich should be engraven on every heart) 
 did convey his ashes into Avon ; Avon 
 into Severn ; Severn into the narrow seas ; 
 they mto the main ocean. And thus the 
 ashes of Wiclif are the emblem of his doc- 
 trine, which now is dispersed all the world 
 ov«r ' 
 
 Opinions of Wiclif. — His doctrine was 
 fornied, with an entire disregard of all spir 
 itual authority, on the foundation of Scrip- 
 ture alone — for ' the Scrij)ture 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 oflf 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 i)riest3 
 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 clei- 
 gy, and maintained that the ecclesiastical 
 endowments were, in theJr origin, eleemosy 
 
462 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 nary . and that they remained at the disposal 
 of th'd 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 above 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 
 an^ong those, to whom they were first ad- 
 
 * It is observed that, with these opinions, Wiclif 
 held tlie Divinity Professorship at Oxford, a Preben- 
 dal Stall, and the Rectory of Lutterworth. He thought 
 it excusable, no doubt, to conform to the system vvliich 
 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, Iiad he dis- 
 dained the plausible excuse, and placed the unequivo- 
 cal seal of private disinterestedness and generosity 
 upon his public principles. 
 
 t 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 asci ibed to him is, * that he 
 represented God as subject to the devil.' 
 
 ^ Men whom he called his 'poor priests.' See 
 chan. 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 of Huss. — n. The queen of Richard 
 n. 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 wortliy 
 of the heavenly office. John of Huss, or 
 Hussinetz, was very early distinguished by 
 the foj-ce and acuteness of his understanding, 
 the modpsty 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 affiibility 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 eflcct 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 ic 
 1408, it was prohibited either to compose or consult 
 any private translation of the Scriptures, on the pen- 
 alties attached to heresy 
 
THE HUSSITES. 
 
 433 
 
 he was made confessoi 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 countiymen. 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 the 
 maintenance of two preachers, ' qui festis profestis^ue 
 dicbus verbum Dei Bohemico sermone plebibus in- 
 sinuarent.' iEn. Sylv., Hist. Bohein., cap. xxxv. 
 
 f The University, founded in 1347, by the Empe- 
 ror Charles IV., was composed of four nations, Bo- 
 hemia, 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- 
 <?ors, 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 King 
 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 oflTence, which 
 awakened the displeasure of the archbishop. 
 At least it is manifest, that this was the period 
 at which the indignation of that prelate * l^rst 
 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 j)roduced 
 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 oflTenders 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 oflTer- 
 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 iEneas Sylvius (Hlstoria 
 Bohcmica, 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- 
 quebantur Johannem clerici fere omnes, sere alieno 
 gravati, sceleribus et seditionibus insignes, qui rerum 
 novitate evadere poenas arbitrabantur. His et non 
 nuUi doctrina celebres juncti erant; qui cum in eccle- 
 sia consequi dignitatem non potuissent, iniquo animo 
 ferebant sacerdotia majorum censuum his committi, 
 qui,quamvis nobilitate praeirent, scientia tamen vide- 
 bantur inferiores.' The probability seems to be, that 
 Huss mav have won, in the beginning of his preach- 
 ing, the partial support of the secular clergy by the 
 j bitterness with which he inveighed against monastic 
 'abuses; but that they deserted him, as soon as theT 
 I' saw his views more perfectly developed. 
 
134 HISTORY OF 
 
 John XXIII. cited him, hut without effect, 
 before the tribunal of the Vatican. In fact, 
 so grmt was the agitation which these dis- 
 putes had now excited, that when the Council 
 o^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 imjnited 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 too 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 libcnter audiri animadverteret, 
 multa de libris Viclefi in medium attulit, asserens in 
 its omnem vcritatem contineri ; adjicicnsque crebro 
 inter prsedicandum, se, postquam ex luce migraret, 
 ea loca proficisci cupere, ad qua; Viclefi anima pcrve- 
 nisset; quem virum fuisse bonum, sanctum, cadoque 
 dignum non dubitaret.' JEn. Sylv., Hist, Boh., 
 I. XXXV. 
 
 f « Quot um major pars argenteis atquo inauralis 
 fibulis cl prctiosis integumentis oniabatur.' Ilaips- 
 field. ap. Contin. Fleury. ^,neas Sylvius mentions 
 the same fact nearly in the same words. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 It was another general charge against Hujm!, 
 that he was ' infected with the leprosy ' of the 
 Vaudois : and that it may be seen how many 
 gross offences were thouglit to be contained 
 in this single accusation, we shall here follow 
 the enumeration of JEneas 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. 
 I 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 tne land to withhold or to pay 
 
THE HUSSITES. 
 
 465 
 
 them, according to the measure of his charity. 
 But the sul)ject, on which the greatest heals 
 were afterwards excited, and in 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 < ountry, 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, 
 ' the heretics embraced it with immoderate 
 exultation, as evincing 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. 
 
 * ' Per id ternpns populurn pnedicando instruebat 
 Jacobellus Misnensis, literariun doctrina et monim 
 pr«stantia juxla clarns.' JEn. Sylv., loc. cit. 
 
 f Sufficient extracts from Gerson 's LeUer to the 
 dfchbishop are given by Coclilseus, Historite Hussita- 
 ruin, 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, very nearly at the same moment, the Pope, 
 John XXin., was inditing an epistle to Wenceslas 
 to the same purport. ' Inveniuntur adhuc hsereses 
 extirpata? ab agro ecclesiastico diversis viis, veluti 
 falce" multiplici. Inveniuntur quidem primitus extir- 
 pataj falce vel acuto sarculo miraculorum, attestan- 
 tium divinitus Calholicae veritati, et hoc tempore 
 apostolorum. Inveniuntur extirpatae postmodum per 
 falcem disputationis argumentatlvae per doctores. 
 Sunt extirpatoR deinde pel" falcem sacrorum Concilio- 
 rum, faventibus imperatoribus, quuin di&putatio doc- 
 trinalis particularium doctorum inefficax videbatur. 
 Tandem accessit, velut in desperata peste, securis 
 brachii secularis, excidens haereses cum auctoribus 
 suis et in ignem mittens. Providens hac tanta 
 severitatc et viisericordi, ut sic dicatur, crudeli- 
 tate ne sermo talium, veluti cancer, serpat in perni- 
 ciem tam propriam quam alienam. Et ante multo 
 tempore no.n sinere peccatoribus ex sententi-a agere, 
 fed statim ultiones adhibere magni beneficii est 
 indicium.' After showing that none of the ancient 
 methods of extirpation were applicable to tlie exist- 
 
 The safe-conduct of Huss. — It has been 
 matter of surprise to many writers, that Hus», 
 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 securily, and 
 placed himself at once in the power of his 
 enemies. It was not that he was ignorant ol 
 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* 
 
 ing heresy, he thus proceeds: — ' Superest igitur, si 
 de pr'tEinissorum nihil prosit, quod ad radicem in- 
 fructuosfe, Immo maledicttE, arhoris ponatur 
 securis brachii secul aris. Quale vos brachium 
 invocare viis omnibus convenit, et expedit ad salu- 
 tein omnium vobis creditoriun.' . . . 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- 
 guage which might very weli have proceeded from 
 the court of John XXIII. 
 
 * The following are given as the words of th * 
 frequently controverted 'safe-conduct:' — ' Honora 
 bilem magistrum Johannem Huss, S. T. Baccalaure* 
 um, etc., de regno Boemise, in Concilium Generale . . 
 transeuntem . . . vobis omnibus *t vestrum cuilibe; 
 pleno recomiuandamiis affectu, desiderantes, quatenus 
 ipsum, cum ad vos pervenerit, grate suscipere . . . 
 omnique prorsus impedimento remoto transire, stare, 
 morari "et redire libere permittatis, sibique 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 treacliery. 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 m^ight have been taken 
 up de Jiouo, without any reflection on the faith of any 
 party. The best illustrations of the rights of this 
 question are such fiicts, as prove the light in which 
 it was viewed by succeeding generations. Thus we 
 observe, that before the assemblinij of the first Diet 
 of Worms (1521,) the Elector of Saxony privately 
 
466 HISTORY OF 
 
 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- 
 «levotion, which redeeiu 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 apophtliegm — ' 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 Boemiie et omnibus nationibus, 
 me velle sisti primo quoque tempore coram Concilio 
 Constantiensi, in celeberrimo loco, pra'sidente Papa, 
 etc. ... Eo conferat pedem quisquis suspicionem 
 de me haVjuerit, quod aliena a Christi fide docuerim 
 vel defcnderim. Item doceat ibi, adstante Papa, me 
 uUo unquam tempore erroncam et falsam doctrinam 
 tenuifisc. Si me de errore aliquo convicerit, etc. ... 
 non recusabo quascunfjue hacrctici pcrnas ferrc.'. . — j 
 Huiis. Buhemlc, ajj id Bzovium, ad ann. l tl-1. | 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 XXHI. 
 ' 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 mos> 
 ardent were found among his countrymen* 
 and accordingly eight | articles of accusatioit 
 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 heresy. And then, instead 
 
 * Lenfont. Hist. Cone. Constant, lib. i § xxviii. 
 f The cardinals were the agents in this aff.iir; and 
 John does not appear to have been present at that 
 congregation. But we should not forget, tint 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. 
 
 X It seems almost unnecessary to enumerate thes' 
 charges, — fhey were as follows: — (1) That commu 
 nion in 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 Constantino 
 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 eftect 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 \m 
 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 
 nf 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 gi*ave. 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. 
 
 fThe Bishop of Toulon preached the sermon — 
 
 * iibi puram dixit veritatem de Papa et cardinalibus.' 
 'Benedicatur anima Domini Episcopi,' de Papa 
 dixit, — ' Maledicatur caro sua;'et alibi vere — 
 
 • ita mcntitur, 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. 
 
 TYied. — 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 aj)- 
 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. lie 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 werfe 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 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 Sylvester and the Emperor Constantine did 
 evil to the Church when they enriched it. 
 (2.) That, if any ecclesiastic, whether Pope, 
 prelate, or priest, be 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 perha])s 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 tlie 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 tliat infallible body 
 was law, and the alternative was ol>edience 
 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-SLX 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 unmoved. 
 '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, 'thattiie 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.' 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 Huss was again conducted to his prisoiij 
 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 oflicial formula of 
 retractation was sent to him by the Council ; 
 it was exjiress 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 aflTord 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 rerifioved 
 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 sufiicient to lead him to 
 retract; and Huss requested tliat the same Palotz 
 miglit be the person so coumiissioned — 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 tiiink proper to accede to tliis generous rccjuejt 
 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 hngering 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, 
 'whelher 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- 
 ])osal — the obligation to retract that wiiich 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, thaw to re- 
 nounce anything which you hold to be true.' 
 John Huss replied with tears, ' that God was 
 his witness, how ready he haa 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 
 Sciipture.''* ... 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 
 no 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 hio 
 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 be demonstrated 
 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 sinccritv 
 of my heart.' See Contin. of Fleury, I ciii, Ixxviii 
 
 t Opera Job. Huss., epist. 14, aniyl Lenfr»t 
 
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 obstmate 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, Heresiarch. 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 slake 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 him nearly so violently as this appeal. 
 The point which, al>ove all others, that assembly was 
 interested to establish, was its own omnipotence and I 
 infullibility — its agency nnder the immediate opera- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit — in fact, its divine power. 
 Consecjuently, an appeal to any superior, even though 
 it were Christ himself, was derogatory to the hcaven- 
 •y attributes, with which the Council had clothed 
 itself. 
 
 f ' Animam tuam devovemus infcrnis Diabolis.' i 
 
 at the same time his voice and his nte. . 
 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 hi& 
 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 offences 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 
 I presently followed, were a lesson of bloody 
 and indelible instruction both to those who in- 
 dulged that error, and to their 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 
 
 iKCue 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 
 John Huss. Huss (says ^neas 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 obserred, that he also 
 obtained a safe-conduct from the Emperor ; 
 but that in his case the conditional clause, 
 salva semper justiiia, was inserted ; whei eas 
 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 afler 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 
 hiir). They found many eager listeners 
 among the members of the Council ; and 
 Gcrson* himself again took up the pen of 
 
 ♦ He composed at this time (in October, 1415) his 
 treatise * De Protcstatione et Revocatione in Negotio 
 Fidei ad eluendam HaereseofJ notani.' He sought to 
 
 bigotry, and again sought to dip it in blood. 
 Matters continued thus until the 23rdof Mft'/i 
 141G, when a final and public audience was 
 granted to liis repeated entreaties. On this 
 occasion he recalled, with sorrow and shame, 
 his former retractation, and openly attributed 
 the unworthy act to its rfial and oidy 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 it& 
 
 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, tom. iii. pars iii.; and 
 other writers. There was, indeed, a little more of 
 l)hilosophical parade, and a little less of the genuine 
 Christian spirit in the death of Jerome than in thaf 
 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. ' Pertulerunt ambo constanti 
 animo necem et quasi ad epulas invitati ad incendiuni 
 properarunt, nullam emittentes vocem, quse miseri 
 animi posset facere indicium. Ubi ardere coeperunt, 
 hymnum cecinerunl, quem vix flamina et fragor ignis 
 intercipere poluit. Nemo Philosophorum t£.m fort: 
 anirao mortem pertulisse traditur, quam isti incen- 
 dium.' Hist. Bohem. cap. xxxvi. 
 
472 HISTORY OF 
 
 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- 
 
 * Cochl'tEUS (lib. i. p. 314) cites some verses •' Con- 
 radi Celtis primi apud Gerinanos Poetie Laureati,' 
 ill praise of the city of Prague: — 
 
 Visa non est Urbs meliore ccelo; 
 Explicat septem h:cc spatiosa colles, 
 Anibitii tnurorum imilata magna') 
 M(Enia Roma;, 
 t 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 his 
 safe-conduct with indignation. Their letter to the 
 Council immediately followed the execution of IIuss, 
 and was dated September 2. The giont considered j 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 Bull f of Crusade aganis^t the contu- 
 macious heretics, every hope of reconciliation 
 was removed, and the diflTerence 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.J 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 Sanctje, 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. 
 Lenfaut follows the account of ^Eneas 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. Anticjuity, of course, is the great ob- 
 ject of appeal; and yet the antiquity of this prac- 
 tice could scarcely reach two centuries (Lcnfant, liv 
 iii., §xxxi.); and it certainly never ac(iuired 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 
 
 tfle lowest classes. Again, the distinction of 
 a name was useful in rousing enthusiasm, and 
 preserving the show of concord. And so 
 this chosen people stigmatized the surrounding 
 nations as Tdumaeans 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, the 
 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 ; Zisca 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- 
 owers. Atrocities were per[)etrated by both 
 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 
 •oeen 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. 
 
 surroimded and destroyed them without any 
 discrimination or mercy ; but lest we should 
 ; on this account consider him as having sur- 
 i passed the wickedness of his Catholic adver- 
 saries, we may remark, that by this very act 
 he has in(;urred 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 appeas-ed 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 v/ith 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 
 I of the fathers, and immediately proposed the 
 conditions of reconciliation, which were four 
 in number. J (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 debate was then 
 opened upon each of these articles; and John 
 of Rokysan, the most conspicuous among the 
 
 * See Cochla^us, lib. v., p. 218. 
 t See Lenfant, Guerre des Hussites, 1. xvi. s 
 V. &c. 
 
 ^ According to Cochljeus (lib. v., p. 205,) these 
 were first agreed upon in a general assembly ' Baro- 
 num terrae Bohemiae et Moravifp, et dominorum in- 
 clytfe urbis Pragensis, militarium, clientum, civitatum 
 et communitatum,' A. D. 1421. This will account 
 
 I for the moderation of the demands contained in 
 
 j thera. 
 
474 HISTOl Y OF 
 
 Ilussitc 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 prohxity of his 
 opponent, as to occupy eight mornings in the 
 delivery of his arguments ; * six others were 
 then consumed by the reply of Rokysan. 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 ten-itories ; 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 obsci ved that John of Ragusa gave great 
 offence to his opponents by the frequent use of the 
 word heresy, as applied to tlieir opinions. With 
 them it was still a (juestion whether it was not the 
 Church which was in heresy; with the Dominican, 
 tlie Church was infallible. With 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 Cochlajus (lib. v., p. 192) mentions early dif- 
 ferences between the Magistri Pragenses and the 
 Thaborites. The former were the more moderate 
 Dissenters; the Church Ilutssites and Jacobellus Mis- 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 chalice * to which their demands were confia 
 ed — and they were distinguished from th« 
 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 suflTerers 
 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. 
 
 Renewal 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 stvonger 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 the ujore rigid reformers. 
 
THE HUSSITES. 
 
 47b 
 
 draw to some adjacent buildings, where 
 more abujidant entertainment and a worthier 
 residence were prepared for them. They 
 believed these promises ; and then it came 
 to pass (says ^neas * Sylvius,) ' that many 
 thousands of the Thaboritos 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 draff of the human race, at length 
 made atonement in the flames, for the crimes 
 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 
 v)f 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 Rok3^san, 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 1436, 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 tlie 
 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 retiu'ned 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 s{)irit 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 Cnurch. 
 
 In September, 143G, 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 flesiring 
 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 X intercourse 
 
 * Hist. Bohem., cap. li., ad finein. 
 
 "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 quis communicet, secundum ordinationem seu 
 observalionem Ecclesiae, proficit digne communicant- 
 ibus ad ^lutera.' Cochlaeus, lib. viii. p. 308. Com- 
 municants might be saved according to either method, 
 BO long as that method was sanctioned by the Church. 
 
 ♦ The appointment of a double administrator of 
 the Sacrament in every Church, one for the Calliolic, 
 the other for the Separatist, was of somewhat later 
 date. Lenfant places it in 1441, and mentions that 
 great good proceeded from it. 
 
 t 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 tliirty- 
 six of them to the flames. . . . He is described by 
 Coclilteus (lib. x. ad finem) as a little emaciated old 
 man, fuM of fire and enthusiasm, and indefatigable in 
 the service of the Church. 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. 
 
 X It was in 1451 that iEneas Sylvius made his 
 celebrated visit to Bohemia, as imperial envoy. His 
 mission was merely political; but it deserves our 
 notice from tiie 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 01 his leg, another none. One was deprived of 
 
476 HISTORY OF 
 
 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. 
 
 Tfie 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 tempora raptic 
 
 Auribiis 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 botli eyes . . whom the Thaborites followed, 
 not only after he had lost one eye, but when he became 
 a perfectly blind leader. Nor Avas 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 ^Eneas 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 woul 1 never resign it. His persecution of 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 pies were so far from having expired in 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 attrac^ the historian's 
 notice. Beausobre* affirms, that this associ- 
 ation was originally formed ai 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 spirit.ual emancipation by renouncing 
 the authority of the Pope.f 
 
 the Thaborites sufficiently proves how far he was 
 from 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. 
 
 * Dissertatior sur les Adamites. Part I. 
 
 t Bossuet (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 lime, 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 I'Eglise Romaine * ^ 
 
IHE GREEK CHURCH. 
 
 477 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Hisiory of the Greek Church after its Separation 
 from the Latin. 
 
 Origin, progress, and sufTerings of tlie Taulicians— Tlicy 
 are transplanted to Thrace, and the opinions gain some 
 prevalence there— Their differences from the Manich- 
 aens— and from the CJiurch— 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- 
 ject and 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— Suggestions 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 angry 
 reception — Honors paid to Mark of Ephesus — Insubor- 
 dination of three Patriarchs — Russia also declares 
 against the Union— Critical situation of the Emperor— 
 The opposite Party gains ground— The prophetic ad- 
 dress of Nicholas V. to the Emperor Constantine— 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 — JVofe. 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 and Pho- 
 
 tius,'^ the Eastern Church was m the crisis 
 of a dangerous contest with a domestic foe. 
 A. sect of heretics named Paulicians had 
 arisen in the seventh century, and gained 
 great prevalence in the Asiatic provinces, 
 especially Armenia. It was in vain that 
 tliey were assailed by imperial edicts and 
 penal inflictions. Constans, Justinian II., 
 and even Leo the Isaurian successively chas- 
 tised their errors or their contumacy ; but 
 they resisted with inflexible fortitude, until 
 at length Nicei)horus, 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 libeity. 
 
 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 Aniienian ; 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 shah' 
 not transfer the narrative to this history, for 
 it belongs not 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 conflict 
 lasted till nearly the end of the century ; and, 
 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 not thus were the doctrines 
 silenced, or the spirit extinguished. The 
 fierce exiles carried with them into their uevi 
 habitations the sectarian and proselytizing 
 zeal ; and the eri-ors of the East soon took 
 root and flourished in a ruder soil. Durint 
 the tenth and eleventh centuries the Pauli- 
 cians of Thrace v/ere sufliciently 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 ih^ reader to the 12th chapter of thi 
 History. 
 
478 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 heretical doctoi's. 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 w^e find little mention of 
 the Pauhcian 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. — It is generallj'^ 
 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 Manichseans — it 
 was the name most obnoxious to the Eastern 
 as well as the Western Communion : yet, if 
 we may credit contemporary testimony,! they 
 
 * They were removed to Constantinople, and plac- 
 ed in a sort of honorable exile in the immediate 
 precincts of the imperial palace. Anna Comnena 
 (Alexiad, b. xiv.) describes with filial ardor her 
 father's zeal and patience in converting these Mani- 
 cheans. Toig i.iiv o7V?.oig rovg ^aq^uqovg trixa, 
 roig $s /.uyotg l/tiqovxo rovg avri&iovg. loontQ 
 ds T(jT£ xara twv JMavi/aiiav icmtt^uOto, aitooro- 
 Xiy.i^v uvxl aroaTijYiy-ijg ccraSeituusrog or/wi /ai' — y.'ui 
 iyv^ys rovrov roLOxaiStxarov «v an6aro7.ov ovou- 
 uaaiuL . . . alio nqwi'ag ovv wf/oi Sa'iXrig fwag -r] 
 y.UL t-a/ifQas-, ioriv ov y.ai devrtQag y.ai rnirtjg 
 (pvAay.i^g rijg vvy.Tog usTUTTEujivuevog aVTovg, &c. 
 &c. 
 
 t See the Note at the end of this chapter. 
 
 X ' lidem sunt (says Petrus Siculus, page 764) nec 
 quicquam divertunt h. Manicha;is I'aiilliciani, qui hasce 
 recens a se procusas hrereses prioribus assnerunt, et 
 ex sempiterno exitii barathro effoderiint: qui,tametsi 
 se a Manichceorum impuritatibus alienos dictitant, 
 sunt tamen dogmalum ipsorum vigilantissiini custodes, 
 &c.' ' Historia de Manichseis;' a Latin translation 
 of which is published in the Maxima Bibliotheca 
 Patrum Veterum; tom. xvi., ann. 860 — 900. The 
 expressions of Photius are Mii^Big d' diioSw QiLtjg 
 s'ttqag pkuartjua tlvat^ nan' i^v tqoitwasv 6 -dfou- 
 a/og Murt]g, xi^v TianaipvuSa ravTrjv rt^v dvrias({o)v 
 Stnylov SoyfiuToiV fila y^Q ^^T^i- '^o^'- V ofi^i"/^, &C.' 
 (/iii'iYV^'?? &C'5 published in the Bibliotheca Cois- 
 liana (Paris, 1715) pa^e 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 Manichasans 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 Synecdemij 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 
 only 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 ma} 
 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 tlieir 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 (^Ji)'<Yr]Oig xoiv 
 viO(purTa)v ]\Iavi/a'i(x)r xaTaj^AufTTj^'aetoc), and Petrus 
 Siculus (Historia de Manichaiis). By the account 
 of Petrus Siculus we learn, that, in the year 870, un- 
 der the reign of Basilus the Macedonian, he was seni 
 as am1)assador to the Paulicians at Tibrica, to treat 
 with them concerning the exchange of prisoners, ana 
 that he lived among them for nine months 
 « t Cent. ix. p. 2. chap, v 
 
THE GREEK CHURCH. 
 
 4/9 
 
 lution of the Lord's Suppel.* 4. That they 
 loaded the cross of Christ with contempt and 
 reproach. 5. That they rejected, after the 
 example of the gi-eatest 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 tlie 
 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 and 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 treinendam corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri 
 conversionern negent, aliaque de hoc mysterio doceant 
 , -A Domino nempe non panem et vinum in cosna dis- 
 cipulis propinatum, sed figurate symbola tantnm et 
 verba, tanquam panem et vinum, data.' In the arti- 
 cle following — ' Quod forinam et vim venerandae et 
 vivificae crucis non solum non agnoscant, 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 or 
 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 wiiere every outward proof is Avant- 
 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 recommended 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 difference 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 it, the Schisma- 
 tics of Armenia resembled, both in their prin 
 ciples and 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 v;hich 
 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 Constantine, the foun- 
 der of the sect, was corrupted by the seductions of a 
 Manichpean woman. The following is an important 
 specimen of the dialogue (page 761) : ' Audio, Domine 
 Sergi, te literarum scientia et eruditione pra?stantem 
 esse, et bonunj prieterea virum usquequaque. 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 itautputas; nec enim personarum acceptio 
 est apud Deum. Omnes siquidem homines vult salvos 
 fieri Dominus et ad agni tionem veritalis venire At 
 sacerdotes vestri, quoniam Dei verbum adulterant el 
 mysteria occulunt, quae in Evangeliis continentur 
 idcirco, vobis audientibus omnia non legunt quae 
 scripta sunt, &c. It is related that Constantine le 
 ceived from a deacon, in return for some acts of hot- 
 pitality, the present of the New Testament. Thus it 
 j appears that, befqre the middle of the seventh centurj, 
 i the Eastern clergy had effectually shut up the sourceji 
 i of sacred knowledge. 
 
480 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 acter, gave frequent proofs of its activity, I 
 though it never became the predominant 
 spirit. It was principally cherished in the j 
 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, by 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 obhvion. The noblest 
 patriots in the kingdom of Christ are men 
 who sei-ve 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 pubhsh 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 i 
 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- I 
 gite, sent by the Emperor Michael Balbus to i 
 Lewis the Meek. Whether this be true or j 
 not, it was certainly in the East that those 
 opinions were most prevalent, not in earlier 
 only, but also in later ages. It is ])articularly 
 
 * ZciV. \. p 2, chap. iii. Tlie works of Diony- 
 sius, tnoiign 'oiig 'eccAvail as gomiiiio, an; a palpable 
 forgerv uroha )!} if (!.>e fiflli century. 
 
 [ recorded, that, in the twelfth century, nu- 
 ' merous fanatics 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 Albigenses with the 
 same latitude and for the same purpose ; 
 and as, in the one instance, we are weU 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 Aniioch, 
 held towards the end of the fourth age. See Fleury, 
 1. xix. s. 25, 26, and 1. xcv. s. 9. 
 
 t 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. 
 
 48 
 
 poivers of the soul reside. At first thou wilt 
 encounter thick darkness ; but by persevering 
 night and day thou wilt find a marvellous and 
 unuiterrupted 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 mterrogated 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 Oiufu'/.vxpvxot^ 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. Yet 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 partioe 
 silence and reconciliation. Hovvbeit, 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 Baiiaamites. 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 witli the Patriarch and 
 many of the nobility of the empire. 
 
 + See Mosheirn. Cent. xiv. p. 2, ch. v. 
 
 The former was the opinion of the piou» 
 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 then- 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.! 
 
 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 6t nqog anaaav riuoiqiav xai aTtst?.i^v 
 y.uTafpnorijTiy.og xarsipa'irtTo. ovrt yaq to nvq 
 y.uTfuu.).a%B li^v oidijoav avrov ifjvj^l^v, outs at tov 
 ^dvroxQuTOQog 7/()oc avrhv Siarcourcuiol SiauViVtang 
 y.aridi/.zuv. The people demanded the execution 
 of all his followers, but the Emperor was contented 
 with a single victim. See the Alexiad. book xx. 
 
 t Anna Conmena's expression is, 76 T(ov Boyou'J.vyv 
 Svytiu, ty. I\Iaaaa?.iay(ov xai JSIuvi/aioiv (TfyzEiKE- 
 rov. 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 e"ror respect- 
 ing the Eucharist; but is not otherwise rery 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 ((t/stixw? tcqoouvvovusv ov 
 ?.arQ£vTixMg rug BLXovag) ; 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 
 j)artake 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 5oZi(/ 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, t 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 ' Olodipainog. The Arabic word, which bears 
 that signification, also signifies eternal. 
 
 X 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 w(;re diflfereut. 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 usuai 
 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 havb 
 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 resulta 
 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 GRELA CHURCH. 
 
 483 
 
 eir public estimation of the sacerdotal cha- i 
 •acter, and the true polity of the Chiirch. 
 
 How much more widely was this distinc- 
 rion 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 sei-vility 
 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 onl^ 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 
 commendables for their knowledge of theology, canon 
 law, and history) are Cinnamus, Glycas, Zonaras, 
 Nicephorus, Dionysius the geographer, and the cele- 
 brated commentator Eustathius, 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. 
 
 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 occ.isional 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 
 Chiu'ch 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 gi'eat measure upon them. We have ob- 
 served, that, after their promulgation, a sys- 
 tem of government and a form of discipline 
 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 
 
184 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 institution was measured. TJie 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 nt)t 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 begmning; 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 their 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 ])rospect of 
 peace. If any circumstance of place or as- 
 sociation, any rever(?nce 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 Liitiii practice of Tonsure (xoi'^)f may 
 be particularly tnonlioncd, as exciting the inilignatioii 
 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 peculitu* 
 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 ig^iorance, 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 Goppel 
 (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 Cluisti- 
 anity, approaching as nearly as possible to tlie punty 
 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 tne East may 
 have previously and i)erha[)s 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- 
 tins 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 any 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- 
 dience 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 pei-version 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 
 
 In 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 merito Latinos abhorreant plus quam 
 canes.' Epistle to the Marquis of Montserrat. 
 
 t See the Epistle of Innocent to the Marquis of 
 Montserrat, published by Raynaldus, ad. ann. 1205. 
 ' Divinum enim videtur fuisse judicium, ut qui tamdiu 
 misericorditer tolerati, et toties non solum ab aliis sed 
 etiam a nobis studiose commoniti noluerunt redire ad 
 Ecclesiee universitatem, nec ullum terrje sanctse sub- 
 sidium impertiri, per eos, qui ad utrumque pariter 
 intendebant, omitterent locum et gentem, quatenns 
 perditis male malis terra bona bonis Agricolis loca- 
 retur, 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- 
 uales pariter et temporales divitias ad pi-aefa mdq 
 
186 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 liand, 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 
 nad been made between those two nations, to 
 this eflTect — 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 
 
 Iinperatorem accedant, qui singulos viilt et potest, 
 secuiulum status suos, &c. augere divitiis et honori- 
 bus ampliare. . . .' 
 
 * It should be mentioned that the French and 
 Venetians had entered into a convention, by whicli, 
 after making a decent provision for the Oriental 
 clergy, they proposed divide between themselves 
 the rest of the Church property. But Innocent look 
 under liis own protection the property even of a rival 
 Church, and immediately annulled the convention. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I the Church of St. Sophia, with arms jr thcii 
 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 pa''t, that 
 there were many of their clergy who, befoi'e 
 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 l^ands 
 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 ditst, the sacred utensils desecrat- 
 ed, and the sanctuary of St. So[)hia 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 luunanely 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 (.Tohn Vata- 
 
 I ces) had strong political reasons for desiring 
 
THE (rREEK 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 JVice. — 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 em[)eror 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 tiling 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 w ithout 
 constraint or domination!' In his letter to the car- 
 dinals he wrote with equal bitterness. ' Permit me 
 to speak the truth to you. Our dTvision has arisen 
 from the tyrannical oppression which you tfxercisf, 
 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 are 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 u« 
 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 w'lW 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 well 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 off. Now this assumption was 
 .lot (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. 
 
 f ' De corpore Christi ita dicimus — quod oportebit 
 vos firmiter credere et aliis pi-sedicare quod Corpus 
 Christi confici potest ita in Azymis sicut in fermeu- 
 tato; et omnes libri, quos vestri scripserunt contra 
 Fidem, condemnentur et comburanfur. De S. Sancto 
 ita dicimus; quod oportebit vos credere S. S. pro- 
 cedere a Filio sicut a Patre, et istud necesse, ut 
 pra?dicetur in populo ; quod auiem cantetis istud in 
 Symbolo, nisi velitis, non compellet vos Dominus 
 Papa; condenina*.is et combustis omnibus libris, qui 
 
• 
 
 483 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ings of indigTiation 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, 
 am. confirmations of the ancient anathema, 
 riib 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 Constantino})le, 
 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 aiuliens imperator 
 graviter tulit, Sec' The envoys wrote an account of 
 their own embassy, addressed to tlic Pope, and con- 
 tained in Libro Censuumj 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 Ni^e, we oliserve, that the emperor, on 
 9ome occasion, -emarked, that the schism had then 
 lasted tliroe hundred years. On the oth(?«- liand, the 
 e;nperor did not date with accuracy — from the breach 
 iM^twcon Photius and Nicholas, tlie space was above 
 3(iO y(!ar8; from the dispute between Cerularius and 
 liCo IX., not more than 180. 
 
 re-union was negociated 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 Palfleo- 
 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 easi^, 
 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 pov/er, and the duty of universal 
 appeal to that tribunal were carefully incul- 
 cated. Clement could scarcely have expected 
 so mtich 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 
 cd 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 cinirches. It 
 was still asscmbl(Hl, when (on Jime 24, 1274) 
 the ambassadors from the East arrived. Sev- 
 eral difficulties wore still a])prcliended ; and 
 
THE GREEK CHURCH. 
 
 489 
 
 tlnere 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 
 oy 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 Palseologus 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 emph*e 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 i 
 was aifsembled 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 circinnstance, 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 Paloe- 
 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 | 
 •ate connexion to ipplaud its hasty dissolu- ! 
 62 
 
 tion ; and there remained ever afterwards a 
 party in the East which ])rofessed its adhesion 
 to the Roman communion. 
 
 We shall not pursiie the insincere and 
 fruitless overtures which were so often de- 
 feated and renewed during the fourteenth 
 century, and especially under the Po])es 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 
 [)arties 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- 
 })roach 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 thb 
 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, 
 (tlie same who instructed Petrarch in the rudiments 
 of Greek,) to the court of Avignon. Sufficient ac- 
 counts of these various negotiations are given by 
 Bzovius, ad ann. 1331, s. i. 1339, s. 22, 1345-6-9, 
 and particularly 1356, s. 22. On one occasion (in 
 1339) great eflorts were made to show that the Greek 
 opinions had always been the same with the Latin 
 (after so many mutual excommunications!) and this 
 as we all know, furnished Leo Allatius in a later agt 
 with a fruitful field for sophistry. The detestation^ 
 which the Gieeks still entertained for the Pope, is 
 strongly expressed by tiie Patriarch Gennadius in a 
 document which is cifed by Bzovius, ann. 1349, s 
 14. 
 
490 HISTORY OF 
 
 T427) 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 w^hich 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 ately the President of the rival Council ; 
 and with him were Andreas, Bishop of Co- 
 lossus (or Rhodes,) John a Doctor of Spain, 
 ard 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) Piu*- 
 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 exf)iate that sin, (even though tlicy 
 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 
 ibr a longer, otli(!rs for a shorter period, ac- 
 cording to the nature of tbeir offences; and 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 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 first 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 solemnit)' : 
 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 Doctore 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 Sgnropulos, who was present at all these discus- 
 sions, and cxp! issed his astonishment at the obqiienca 
 of Julian. 
 
'IHE GREE 
 
 in defence of the doctrine of his Church, tlie 
 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 ])rincipally 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 inunediate 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 direcdy 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, I 
 the Latins found a new and powerful cham- 
 pion 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 alope 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 tlie 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 fr(m time to 
 time a strong desire to return to Greece 
 
 CHURCH. 4c) 
 
 sometime taken little share in the dispute* 
 and at length even M.'U'c 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 })ro- 
 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, I^atins and 
 Greeks, agree in the holy union of these two 
 Churches, and confess that all true Christians 
 ought to receive this genuine doctrme : that 
 the Holy Spirit is eternally of the Father 
 and tbe Son, and that from all eternity it pro- 
 I ceeds from the one and the other as from a 
 
$92 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 Falhti 
 that the Son has received, from all eterinly 
 •that productive virtue through which tne 
 Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, as well 
 as from the Father.' 
 
 Treaties of Union. — We should here men- 
 lion, that while this spiritual negotiation was 
 m 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 onQ 
 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 confescion 
 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- 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 atoned sins, be received into immediate be- 
 atitude, nor yet deserved eternal condemna- 
 tion, were delivered into some abode of 
 teniporary 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 tp 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- 
 
 * Til is subject has been shortly treated by the 
 author of this history, in a work ' On the Condition 
 and Prospects of the Greek Churoh.' 
 
THE GREEK CHURCH. 
 
 49" 
 
 ration on that point, before .he ' 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 lis here trace his concludnig for- 
 tunes. 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 his sanction, and with his consetit, (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 Bosphorus, or emplpyed his forces in 
 gome 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 tiie generals, seized a favorable moment to 
 counsel the violation of the truce. To this effect, he 
 urged the impolicy of the secret engagement, tlie 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, s<jt forth, with various 
 emotions perhaps, but with general satisfac- 
 tion, on their return to the east. The voyage 
 was favonible ; 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 othei 
 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 cons-idered 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 
 vvidi 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 tne Danube; 
 that he was plundered and murdered b,- Hungarian 
 robbers. And it had been happier for his memory 
 had the last struggle of his genius been wrapped in ihe 
 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 
 lion and their disaster, and the infamv of all. 
 
4BA HISTORY OF 
 
 universal acclamation. Marc of Ephesus had 
 alone stood forth as the defender of the faith, 
 and of the honor of the (Ecumenic 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 Jerusaletn, 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 
 Palaeologus 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 ai;d 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- 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I ed the feelings of his subjects ; that the pron 
 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 JVicholas 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 eflforts which Provi<lence 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 Constantino 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 whirh God still indtilged to them, 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 Etnperor took 
 such measures as were left to him to concil- 
 iate the dispositions of the Vatican. But what 
 was the sjnrit 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 tho 
 innovations of RoiT»e, an( their adherence to 
 
THE ARMENIANS. 
 
 495 
 
 ine true fa"'th ; and, finally, called on them to 
 conclude a treaty of Union with themselves — 
 /lot 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 
 enerpies 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 
 vfho 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 Cliurch. 
 
 t Constantinople was certainly taken in the third 
 year (inclusive) after the prediction of Nicholas. 
 The Pope wrote some time in 1451 ; the city fell on 
 May 29, 1453. The coincidence, even with this 
 latitude, was fortunate; but after the battle of Varna, 
 no light from heaven was necessary to foreshow the 
 •peedy 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 obser/e 
 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 pouits, 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 HI 
 Viterbo. 
 
496 HISTORY OF 
 
 toriu3. 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 Apollinaris: but in 
 the ' orthodox ' sense of Cyril of Alexandria.* 
 The Greeks cleared their own tenets from 
 the charge of Nestoriani-sm 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 IIL, 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 on 3 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 cifil 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 ' Theorian i Orthodoxi cum Catholico Ar- 
 menloruin Colloquium,' in tiie Maxima Biblioth. 
 P.P. torn. xxii. p. 796—812, (Edit. Lugdun. 1677), 
 * Dicimus in Clirislo naturam unam esse, non secun- 
 dum Eutychen confundentcs, nec secundum Apollina- 
 rem dctrahcntes, sed secundum Aiexandrinum Anti- 
 Btitem Cyi illum, in Ortliodoxia, quno in libro contra 
 Nestorium scripsit. unam esse naturam Sermonis 
 incarnatam ' . . . Tlic controversy turned a good 
 deal on the dis-'Jiiction (real or imaginary) between 
 Chrisiut and Sermo, in this question. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 placed the act ot his submission in the hand 
 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, oi 
 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 shoujd be received at once, a«d 
 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.f 
 
 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 Arnieni- 
 orum pessima Religione,' it appears that they still 
 retained all the errors imputed to them by either 
 Cluiich Among a multitude here enumerated it is 
 one iliat ' they do not adore the venerable images, 
 but, lui ihe 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 
 Stn 
 
THE ARMENIANS. 
 
 4^7 
 
 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 be 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 episdes was accompa- 
 nied by 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 (Ecumenic 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 
 prevalance 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 thief of the Church of Christ, 
 and to solicit copies of the decretals, for the 
 more faithful administration of his own sub- 
 ordinate communion. The Pope engaged to 
 send them, and in November, 1346, despatch- 
 ed two legates on a mission to the East. 
 
 r>3 
 
 Five years afterwards, the PontiflT, still dis- 
 satisfied with the communicalions ( perhaps 
 equivocal) which he received from his new 
 subjects, and desiring a more express declar 
 ation of their oj)inions 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 opinioni 
 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 \|hich 
 the apostles znay 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 
 elFect 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, corr%ction, or destitution ; that he alone 
 can make general canons, and grant plenary 
 indulgences, and decide disputes on matters 
 of faith ?'.... These interrogations were 
 accompained 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 MAR0NITE9. 
 
 Maro, or Maroiin, 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 in 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 Monothehtes, 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 their 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 ficcording 
 to the manner generally in use in the East. 
 They retained, too, in other matters, a nmch 
 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 
 n Syria * 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIT. 
 
 From the Council of BdsU to the beginning ^ 
 the Reformation. 
 
 The real weight of General Councils as a part of the Ccn 
 stitution of the Church — Circun stances preceding tho 
 accession of J\Picholas F.— His popular qualities— Lov« 
 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 oi yEneas Sylvius — Jealousy be- 
 tween the Pope and Alphonso of Arragon — Nepotism 
 of the former— ^neas 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 Palasologus arrives at Rome — 
 Canonization of Catharine of Sienna — The Bull of Pius 
 II. against all appeals from the Holy See to General 
 Councils-*- The Pope retracts the errors into which he 
 fell, as ^neas 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. ia 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 • drsecutes a literary Society at Rome- 
 SUtus IF. mal 3s a faint attempt to rouse Christendom 
 against the Tu.ks— Violent broil between the Pope and 
 the Florentines— Otranto taken by the Turks— Exces- 
 sive Nepotism of this Pope — Institution of the Minimea 
 — Increased venality of the Court of Rome— The moral 
 character, talents, learning of Sixtus— Elevation of In- 
 nocent F7//.— 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— CiEsar 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 ///. 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 th« 
 Pragmatic Sanction, through the co-operation of Francis 
 I.— Dissolution of the Council — Observations — On the 
 gradual degeneracy of the See— Of the Government Oi 
 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. 
 
 49SI 
 
 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 Church Ke- 
 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 satne 
 object — whereas the controlling body, the 
 Senate of the Church, had only an occasional 
 and wery 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. cai-efuUy 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 uninten-upted. 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 FeiTara, 
 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 ilnrestrain- 
 ed licentiousness of the Vatican, as the lesser 
 evil. 
 
 JVicholas 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 afi, 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 leai-ning of the 
 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- 
 
THE CHUKCH 
 
 One of the first act of |^iiiholas was, to sigii 
 a Concordat with the German Church. Ita 
 provisions did not extend heyond the siibjeci 
 of patronage ; and it was arranged that the 
 Pope sliould appoint to all great benefices of 
 every description which should become va- 
 cant in 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. Thie rest 
 j appear to have been left at the disposal of the 
 I Ordinaries ; all (except the smallest) being lia- 
 l)le 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 efiTect 
 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 ; 
 i and so vast were the multitudes which on 
 I this occasion sought the plenary indulgence 
 ! at the tombs of the apostles, that many are 
 I said to have been crushed to death in Ciuu'ch- 
 es, and to have perished by other accidents.* 
 Nevertheless, as there were still many devout 
 I 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 
 
 500 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 permii 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 ; anfti 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.f 
 
 * We may be allowed to cite (from Platina) a part 
 of liis epitaph, because the praises it offers were reaHy 
 well founded: — 
 
 Hie sita sunt Quinti Nicolai Antistitis oas.i, 
 
 Aurea qui dederat siccula, Roma, tibi. 
 Consilio illustris, virtute illustrior omni, 
 
 Excoluit doctos doctior ipse viros. 
 Abstulit orrorem, quo Schisma infecerat orbcDi. 
 
 Rflstituit mores, mojnia, templa, domos. 
 Attica KomanrR complura volumina lingurc 
 Prodidit— en tumulo funditc thura sacro. 
 f The Roman people were allowed to retain (in re- 
 turn, perhaps, for their long-lost share in the elertion) 
 
 tlie licentious privilege of plundering the mansion of 
 the Pope elect. On this occasion it happened, that 
 Prosper Colonna, as first Deacon, had the oflice 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 lie 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. Aiijjelo, 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 pa.-::, to the purposes professed. There 
 are shades in 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 capkal of the jvncient 
 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 v/hile ^ncas Sylvius was 
 astonishing the Princes of Germany by hiM 
 polished eloquence, a simi)lc Monk, a hermit 
 of St. Augustine, was exertnig 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- 
 ffecting 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 pia-pose, 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 humilem 
 et incognitum monachum Italiam pacavisse.' >^^neae 
 Sylv. Hist, de Europa, cap. 68, p. 460, edit. I asii 
 See Platina, Vit. Nic. V. ad finea 
 
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 sev<irity. 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 
 ^neas 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 Castihans, 
 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 hai-vest. . . . 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 lukevvarmness 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 hcreafler 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 
 (>hrist. Probably, the monarch had not for- 
 
 gotten, and perhaps the Pontiff could not tor 
 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 JVepotism. — 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 Treasuiy, 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 I From that lofty spiritual aiTogance, 
 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 HI. and Six- 
 tus IV. that the ambition of St. Peter's sue 
 cessors degenerated into mere family passion, 
 and was confined to the narrowest circle of 
 selfishness. 
 
 Policy of Mneas Sylvius. — In the yeai* 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 JEneas Sylvius, for- 
 merly the adversary of pontificial oppression, 
 more recently the advocate of the Imperial 
 claims, came forward in defence of the Pope, 
 and vigorously maintained his rights and jus- 
 tifitul his conduct. In some letters, composed 
 during this dispute, he reproached the Ger 
 
PIUS II. 
 
 303 
 
 man Prelates for referring to any other au- 
 thority, rather than the Chief of the Church.* 
 He asserted that their grievances, even had 
 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 Germany, 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. yEneas 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 tliat those, who had 
 spurned the commands of the Apostolical See, should 
 not now have any occasion for exultation. Hos enim 
 Calholica Veritas, nisi resipuerint ante obitum, ignis 
 aeterni mancipio sine iiitermissione deputat.' JEn. 
 Sylv. Epiflt. 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 Pontijicate. — Three still 
 were wanting to the former to make good his 
 election ; and the Cardinals then 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 thet excuses and 
 congratulations of the opposite pmty, ten- 
 dered by Bessarion of Nice, he assumed the 
 name of Pius II., and went through the cus- 
 tomary solemnities. 
 
 Council of Mantua. — The object to which 
 the exertions of ^Eneas 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 Illyria — 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 indiflTerence 
 of the Christian Princes ; in contrasting the 
 devotion of the Turks for theu' 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 Pontifif. 
 The methods by which he proposed to eflTec- 
 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 pecuniai^y means were to be furnished 
 chiefly by Italy ; the clergy* were to contri- 
 
 * The Venetians and Genoese were not included in 
 lliis eniraj,'etn(;nt. The greatest difficulties were raised 
 I)y the former, partly owing to their commercial and 
 ol.ier 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 j)rofessed 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 ^ircerity 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 then* 
 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 r»nvv i- l us , 
 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. ai)plauded their zeal, 
 and accepted their homage; but assuring 
 them that Tittle could be* done on his part, mi- 
 less in conjunction with the Courts of France 
 and Burgundy, he sent them forth to tell their 
 . })ompous tale beyond the Alps. It may seem 
 needless to add, that this deputation had no 
 result. 
 
 The year following, Thomas Palseologus 
 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 
 oOered 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 Ancoiia, and brought 
 to that city the relics of the Aposde 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 vei^ 
 intelligent, and even very pious, ecclesiastics, 
 we may still record another humiliating act, 
 which it was the fate of Pins 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- 
 tiflf of the day to do that justice to her ex- 
 traordinary qualities ; but the ceremony had 
 been deferred through the confusion of the 
 Cnjrch and the disorders of the Holy See. 
 It was reserved to the genius of ^Eneas Syl- 
 vius at length to perform that office ; and one 
 of the most extravagant enthusiasts, that ever 
 dishonored the profession of Christianity,! 
 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 ^neas 
 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 calculafed to revive his ardor 
 for its reformation. To have imposed limits 
 on an authority exercised by himself had 
 been a rare, and difficult eflfort 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 Joiin XV., in behalf of Udalrig, 
 Bishop of Augsburg. The right in the first instance 
 was not excUisively vested in tl»e 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. oh. 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 
 «eq.) 
 
 Church government, which were enteitained 
 by many ecclesiastics, and which had so late- 
 ly been [)ropagated 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 ail 
 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, and prejudicial to the Chris- 
 tian republic. . . .' The Pope then proceeded 
 to paint 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 II. — This Edict, pub- 
 lished in January, 1460, was no unworthy 
 prelude to the most remarkable act of the 
 pontificate of Pius — his pulilic 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 stejjped 
 forward as his own judge, and published the 
 most unequivocfil 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 effects — 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, retracted 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 ei \)v\^t\ms temporibus inauditus' 
 are the opening words which give the title to the 
 decree 
 
606 
 
 HISTORY Ol 'HE 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 dialognies, 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 1 
 spoke as a youth ; pay more regard to the 
 Sovereign Pontiflf than to the individual ; 
 reject ^neas — 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 retnove 
 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 arras 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 
 
 • ' ^Hoatn rojicite, Pium rocipite — illud Gentilo 
 noraoii piiroiites iiulidf.Te naBcciiii ; hoc Christianum 
 in ApoBtolatu Kimcepi.' 
 
 of Christendom in succession. What expe 
 dients remain to us? Tc oppose arms tc 
 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 11. — 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. x\ngelo 
 — 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 
 ox[)cdition immediately dispersed; and it 
 seemed as if so many spectators had aseem- 
 * RuynalduR, ami. 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 Avhich 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 nioment 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 ; 
 be 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 imposeu 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 tlie })ontificate, 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 whi^h 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-esrablish 
 the ar.cient discipline of the Roman Court. 
 
 and assemble a Council General within three 
 years. That he shall not augment the num 
 her 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 corjsent 
 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 tt^e 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.' 
 
 Paul 11. — 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 licentigusness 
 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 
 ex])ressed 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, pardy by menaces, partly by promises, 
 partly by granting them some childish indul- 
 gences,^ he obtained it. He then proceeded 
 
 * He permitted thein to wear mitres of silk, such 
 as had hither* r beej confined to tlie pontifls alone 
 
508 HISTORY OF 
 
 lo administer the Church, according to the 
 estabhshed maxims of government.* 
 
 His abominable policy. — Paul II. was a na- 
 tive of Venice, and his election was, in some 
 mcisure, 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 aad 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 efRcient 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 Plalina was one of them. 
 And when he remonstrated with the pontiff, and 
 threatened to bring the Case iJefore the judges of the 
 Rota, Paul regarded him fiercely, and said, — ' Nos 
 ad judices revocasl Ac si nescircs omnia jura in 
 tcrinio pectoris nostri collocata esse ? Sic stat 
 eentcntia. Loco cedant omnes ; eant quo volunt ; 
 nihil cos moror; pontifex sum ; mihicjue licet arbitrio 
 animi aliorum acta ct rcscindcre et approbare.' 
 Platina, notvv itiistanding, was contumacious, and the 
 Pope placed him, for some months, in rigorous con- 
 finement. See his Life of Paul H. 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 might have chastised the foreign aggressot, 
 were fiercely directed against the kings of 
 Bohemia ; and it is no alleviation of the pon- 
 tiff's 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 barbarity ; 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,!) 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 IL Tlir.t 
 Pope's hatred for learning was so great, that he held 
 the terms studiout and heretical to be synonymous, 
 and carefully impressed upon his subjects the advan- 
 tages of ignorance. The historian died in- the yea 
 148L 
 
 f Thus the year 1475 became a year of jubilee. 
 
SIXTUS IV. 
 
 509 
 
 thuteen years, by professing 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 
 Bhould 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 
 l)resently 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 sanguinaiy 
 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- 
 hshed 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 Counail. At" 
 the same time they retorted all the blame of 
 the original offence u{)()n the Pope himself, 
 and called upon France and Milan to aid 
 them against his oppression. 
 
 Soon afterwards Louis XI. held an As- 
 senjbly at Orleans, principally for the purpose 
 of restoring the Pragmatic Sanction, which 
 he had previously and hastily annulled. But 
 an embassy, subsequently sent to Rome, was 
 likewise charged to exhort the Pontiff to 
 make peace with Florence, and to assemble, 
 without any delay, a General Council. These 
 Bolicitations 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 lenglh by Roscoe, LiPi of 
 l<oren7.n de' Medici. Appendix, No. XXVL 
 
 he allowed it to melt away before the tempo 
 rizing policy of the Vatican.* In the mean 
 time the Pope persevered in measures of hos- 
 tility, and the blood of the Archbishop cried 
 so loudly for vengeance, that all extcmal dan- 
 gers were forgotten, and the hosts of Mahomet 
 II. 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 wjis more remote, per- 
 sisted in hostility against a Christian State, 
 when it was already imi)cnding 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,f 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- 
 1 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 JVepotism. — The nepotism of no former 
 I Pontiff had been iiidulgtiil 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 
 I was afterwards Julius II., was enriched with 
 ! several ecclesiastical benefices. For a third, 
 named Jerome Riario, the principality of 
 Imola was ])urchased from the resources uf 
 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 n( Pavia, the most accomplislied 
 politician in his Court, affords an excellent illustra- 
 tion of the great principle of ecclesiastical statesman- 
 ship — not to remove the grounds of complaint; but 
 to gain time, to preserve the abuse, to defer the liour 
 of danger, rather than avert it altogether by tJinely 
 concession. 
 
 t This scene is described at length by JMachiavel, 
 Slor. Fiorent., lib. viii. The particulars of the dis- 
 pute are detailed by Paul Jovius, in his First Book 
 of his Life of Leo X. This connexion of Pope Sixtirs 
 with the history of Florence has procured for him a 
 peculiar, and not very enviable, celebrity. « Di grossi 
 I conti (says Muratori, Annal. v. 9) avra avuto questo 
 Ponte-fice nel tribunale di Dio.' 
 
510 HISTORY OF 
 
 pie Francisca: Monk, Pietro was immediate- 
 ly elevated tc the dignity of Cardinal. He 
 was made titjilar 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 
 Minimes 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 oflices, 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 (li Parma, his own valet, he may seem 
 to have offered the last insult to his Court and 
 liis Church. The deeper outrage, which was 
 now continually cast upon the religion of 
 Christ, has almost ceased to be matter of 
 tnention 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. 1 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 Character of Sixtus. — 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 i:)rojects with falsehood and pei-fi- 
 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 ])iety or innocence. 
 His learning, the exertions which he made, 
 and the funds which he appropriated to en- 
 rich the Library of the Vatican fi:om 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 and 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 Vincula, 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 Sesio was his great work. His lit- 
 erary rnonumenls wore of a less durable construction; 
 for, indeed, the subjects which he chose were nol 
 always the most favorable to their perpetuity. One 
 treatise he composed on The Blood of Jesus Christ; 
 another on Indulgences accorded to Souls in Purg-a- 
 tory; another on the Conception of the Holy Virgin, 
 &c. &c. Such, however, were the controversies of 
 the day. 
 
 t The letter of Guidanlonio Vespucci to Lorenzc 
 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 j 
 Church, and he assumed the name of Inno- . 
 cent. I 
 
 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 >yere 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 repealed 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 t\ie unrestrained license of so 
 many masters. Fewer crimes would, per- 
 haps, have been perpetrated, had the Pontiff 
 resolved to be tfie 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 Cliapler XXII. p. 390. 
 i This boy was John, the son of Lorenzo de' Medici, 
 
 not resent the indignity — it was sunk even 
 below the sense of its own infamy. 
 
 The Pontiff sounded, like most of his ])rc- 
 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 sui)port 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 Ch»irch has breathed a vv^hisper 
 in his praise. Thus, those who have pi'.sued 
 him with the most unqualified vitup'^^r^tions 
 are thought to have described him mo a 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 ejection 
 amidst the tumults of the Roman people, v/ho 
 were venting their curses against the arice 
 of the deceased Pontiff ; and it was not hll rhe 
 Conclave had been garrisoned by st Jdiers. 
 and fortified by cannon, that the Cardinals 
 ventured to proceed to their deliberatioxis. It 
 was presently discovered that the candidates, 
 who had any prospect of success, v^ere two f 
 
 the same who became Leo X. It should l>c observed, 
 that Innocent, on making the creation, stipulated that 
 the boy should not take his seat ip Cop^jstory till he 
 was sixteen. Some state the age of crea'ion at fifteen, 
 that of admission at eighteen. See Reynaldufl, ann 
 1489. 
 
 * Ascagna Sforza, who appeared at rK<c co possess 
 some claims, very soon resigned their Ta^or of 
 Borgia. 
 
612 HISTORY OF 
 
 only. One of them was Roderic Borgia, who 
 was l ephew 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 
 l is 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 simoniacaily elected him. On Ascagna 
 Sforza he conferred the profitable dignity of 
 vice-chancellor ; to Cardinal Orsini 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, imdisguised 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. 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 cision of the Conclave with unusual expref. 
 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 unmuffled 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 afiect 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 those festivities, and shut himself up 
 in the fortress of Ostia. 
 
 JVegotiaiions with Bajazet. — At this period 
 in the annals of papacy, the spiritual exertions 
 of the See wwe 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 Sisuiondi, or Guicciardini f — con- 
 
 * The following distich was published on this oc- 
 casion: — 
 
 Cajsare magna fuit, nunc Roma est maxima j Sextus 
 
 Regnat 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 Cicsar and Pasquin 
 
 Vendit Alexander Claves, Altaiia, Christum. 
 
 Emerat ille prius : vendere jure'potest. 
 De vitio in vitium, de flamml transit in ignem ; 
 
 Roma sub Ilispano deperit impcrio. 
 Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et iste — 
 Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit. 
 t We shall cite the words in which this author lias 
 drawn the character of Alexander VI. * In Alesfiun 
 
ALEXANDER VI. 
 
 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 
 oi aUiance 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 crovt^n of Castillo 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, consigho 
 eccellente, efficacia a persuadere maravigliosa, e a 
 tutte le faccende gravi soUecitudine e destrezza in- 
 credibile — ma erano queste virtu avanzate di grande 
 intervallo da' vizii — costumi oscenissimi, non sin- 
 cerita, non vergogna, non verita, non fede, non re- 
 iigione, avarizia insaziabile, ambizione immoderata, 
 crudelta piu che barbara, e ardentissima cupidita di 
 esaltare in qualunque modo i figliuoli, i quali erano 
 molti ; 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. 
 
 C5 
 
 of the See bore no proportion to its ancient 
 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 ilne, 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'? Did they dispute the au- 
 thority by which the edict had been issued 1 
 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 displayed, 
 Alexander persisted, and succeeded, in defi- 
 ance of every right and every semblance even 
 of pontifical justice. In the year following, 
 Africa became the subject of a very similar 
 dispute ; but on this occasion 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. V^e may smile at the arrogance of a 
 declining despotism ; nor shall we be aston 
 ished by the obsequiousness of those who 
 found their interest in obsequiousness. At 
 the same time, if the right of the See was not 
 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, an^ol 
 the Catholic Church. 
 
 Charles VIII. at Rome.— When Charles VIIL 
 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.* 
 
 * Guicciardini (Ub. i. cap. iii.) does not hesitate 
 to ascribe the accomplishment of Charles's designs 
 
514 HISTORY OF 
 
 Frcm the determined hostility of Julian; 
 from the wish for reformation, which had 
 so often been 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 mass, took his seat below the first cardinal, 
 and ministered water to the hands of the 
 Pope.* Such 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 pontiflf 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 
 named Zizim, or Jem, (like himself, the son 
 of Mahomet II.,) whose popularity, courage, 
 
 against Italy to this Cardinal — ' fatale instrumento IS 
 allora, e prima, ^ poi de'inali 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 
 l^niemory 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- 
 fid, 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 Coiiventionis Pap;e ct Regis Francia?, &c.,' are 
 cited from the ' Diary of Burchard,' by Roscoe, Life 
 of Leo X., Appendix, No. xxxr 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 and ambition, made ,iim dangerous to th« 
 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 his confinfj- 
 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.f 
 
 The Duke Valentino. — Csesar Borgia was 
 the secondj 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, whic|^ 
 he has rendered one of the most famous in 
 history. As Duke Valentino, or Valentinois, 
 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 
 territories. Supported by the talents and 
 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 
 
 * Guicciard., lib, i. cap. iii. 
 
 t Of course this fact is not, nor could it well hav 
 been, undisputed. Raynaldus (ann 1495, s. 8, &c.) 
 refers to Burchardus to prove that the captive died 
 from a change of diet. The words of Biuchardua 
 are — ' 15 Feburier, le fils du grand Turc mourut a 
 Naples — ex esu sive potu non convenicnti natnrte sim 
 
 et consueto ' At the same time, Raynaldus 
 
 mentions the vulgar account, which is affirmed bj 
 Guicciardini. See Roscoe, Life of Leo X., chap, iv 
 
ALEXANDER VI. 
 
 .516 
 
 «orf, 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, appH- 
 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 he did (says Machiavel) turned to 
 ihe 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 tlie public character of the Duke (with whom he 
 WHS personally acquainted) is known to every one. 
 Vet 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 profime 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 
 man.' In a separate narrative, usually published in 
 the same volume, Machiavel relates at length (what 
 IS, no doubt, one of those lively examples) 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 
 Gandia, is believed by most historians; and that 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 
 ■ufiicient 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 Rome 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 Pope 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 poisoned 
 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 Aiex» 
 
 * 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 Jovius of this trans- 
 action, in the beginning of lib. ii., De Vita Leonis X. 
 ' Nam Pontifex inopiaa metu rapax atque illo immani 
 ingenio saevus, ut Cjesari filio magnos alenti exercitus 
 et regio luxu liberalitatem passim ostendenti pecuniam 
 suppeditaret, ditissimum quemque Cardinalium veneno 
 sustulerat, baud dubie in reliquos aul?e sacerdotiis at- 
 que opibus insignes haereditatis spe saeviturus, nisi 
 admirabili deorum providentia homo in religionis 
 causa probrosus et quod omnium fortuna? interfuit, ad 
 exitium Iialiee natus, sibi mortem, supremam vero 
 Cassari filio calamitatem, peperisset — hilariori scilicet 
 in coena dum ad umbrosum Vaticani fontem venenum 
 bibunt, higena pocillatoris errore commutata, quam 
 dira fraude opulentis aliquot senatoribus honoris 
 specie paravissent. Mortuo Alexandro, et Cacsare 
 exquisitis antidotis vel in ipso juvent^e robore veneni 
 impetum vix sustinente, Comitia sunt habita,' &c. &c. 
 The same author describes the same event (De vita 
 Magni Consalvi, lib. ii.) with little variation, but 
 with the following addition: — ' Accepi ego ab Ad- 
 riano Cardinale Cornetano, in cujus villa coenabatur, 
 se eodem mortifero poculo petitum ita exarsisse eo 
 subito viscerum fervore, ut obortae caligines oppressis 
 sensibus sibi rationem excuterent, sese in solium 
 frigida plenum mergere cogeretur, neque prius per- 
 ustis interaneis ad vitani rediisse, quam ei extrema 
 cutis in exuvias abiens toto corpore decideret.' 
 Raphael Volaterranus, 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 havi^ig taken his draught nearly pure, 
 and being hkewise 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 Martiri d'AngJeria, 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 
 we 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 parmi les puissances de I'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 ev#iry day, and have always happened. 
 
 * Siemondi likewise refers to the ' Letters of the 
 Ainl)as3idor of the House of Este,' and to Muratori, 
 Annali d' Italia, lorn, 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 V uso dei Pontific inella Chiesa di San 
 Piero, nero, infiato e bruttissimo segni manifostissimi 
 di ve.eno ' 
 
 his corpse with incredible festivity; nor Was 
 there any man who could satiate his eyea 
 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 III. — 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 mon? 
 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. 
 
 Julius 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 poj'ty 
 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 Alexander VI We should here 
 
PIUS III.— 
 
 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 such points as 
 these: — 'Whether the Pope had a right to 
 
 * The form of the oath deserves to be cited in its 
 very words. * Praemissa omnia et singula promitto, 
 voveo et juro observare et adimplere, in omnibus et 
 per omnia, pure et simpliciter et bona fide, realiter, 
 et cum effectu perjurii et anathematis, a quibus nee 
 me ipsum absolvam, nec alieni absolutionem commit- 
 tam. Ita me Deus adjuvet, &c.' It appears in 
 Beausobre, Hist. Reform, liv. i. 
 
 f The same who caused a coin to be struck, bear- 
 ing the inscription, Perdam Bahylonis nomen 
 
 JULIUS II, 517 
 
 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 tho 
 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 on popular 
 opinion, fostered b}^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 Romagna, which 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 his 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- 
 mitted that he had one, though only one, redeeming 
 quafity: it was veracity. This reputation, Guicciar- 
 dini says, gave him great opportunities of lying with 
 advantage. Nevertheless, in this case, having the 
 Duke's person entirely in his power, he 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 Churcn.* 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 bull 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 Jlrts. — 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 his liberality to support them. Tlie 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., 11., ill. 
 
 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 afler 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., &c. It should, 
 perhaps, bo mentioned, that Julius published, in 1506, 
 a severe edict against the siinoniacal election of 
 Popes. He pronounced Popes so elected to be Here* 
 siarclis, and consetjuently degraded and dej)osed. 
 The decree was confirmed in the Lateran Couucif 
 wUicli followed. 
 
L£0 
 
 German bishops had never joined them, and 
 as ihe emperor had at length withdrawn even 
 the equivocal coimtenance 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, after 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 tlie 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 — the comparative auferihil- 
 ity of a council and a Pope, — it was clearly the king, 
 who was now fighting the battle, not the council. 
 
 t The confirmation of Julius's former decree against 
 the simoniacal election of Popes, should, perhaps, be 
 considered as important, though there could be no 
 great hope of its efficacy — not, at least, '.ill tlie con- 
 stitution of the sacred college -/vas v. holly cha nged. 
 
 619 
 
 But he was interrupted by a fatal sickness. 
 On the night of February 20, 1513, he died ; 
 and it* was the last recorded act of his life, to 
 refuse the cardinal's hat to an undesen'ing 
 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 iiriposing 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 be held 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 
 litde value (less than 200 ducats a year) 
 should not be so held even by cardinals. 
 That there be no separation or union of 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 Churches, unlevss 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 (fecree of this council, it 
 is scarcely necessary to observe, that they 
 touched very ineflfectually even those few 
 among the muUifarious 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 I^uthcran heresy, which came so soon afterwards ' 
 Ann. 1514. sect. 31, &c. 
 
 tions; to refer the decision of trifling suitf 
 respecting the smaller benefices to the ordi- 
 naries ; and to encourage provincial councila 
 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, ' that, 
 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 Sanc- 
 tam of Boniface VIII. He showed the ille- 
 
 * This was not the first effort of the Popes against 
 what tliey 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 (Raynakiiis, 1501, s. 
 36). But Sixtus IV. has the distinction of being th» 
 first who established that inquisition. 
 
LEO 
 
 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. 
 
 Tlie 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. Xeo 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 Jjnnates 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 le>4ied 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 ; thaf 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 Ciiurch 
 IS therein included, &c. &c. 
 
 66 
 
 X. 521 
 
 Dissolution of the Council- 'On the IGth of 
 the following March (1517,) the council met 
 for the twelfth and concluding session, ant* 
 after prohibiting the popular practice of [)il- 
 laging the mansion of the Pope elect, and or- 
 daining an 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 Church, 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 XL actually threw 
 the keys into the Tiber, and drew the sword of St. 
 Paul, seems to be founded (at least so thinks Bayle) 
 on the following ut fama est of an obscure poet, Gil« 
 bertus Ducherius Vulto:- 
 
 In Galium, ut fama est, bellum gesturus acerbum, 
 Armatani educit Julius Urbe manum 
 
622 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 such 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 Claves in Tybridis amnem 
 
 Projicit, et, sa;vus talia verba facit — 
 Uuiim Petri niliil efficiant ad praelia Claves 
 
 Auxilio Pauli forsitaii ensis erit. 
 *(1.) Eugeniiis IV. was nephew of Grpn^ory XII. ; 
 (2.) Paul II., of Eugenius IV.; (3.) A'e^ftinder VI., 
 of Calixtns III.; (4.) Piua III., of Pius II.; (5.) 
 Julius II.,of Sixtus IV.; (6.) and finally, Leo X. 
 was broUter -in-law of the bastard of Innocent VIII. 
 We should remark, however, that the thirst for ag- 
 grandizing their ovvt» families was not peculiar to the 
 Popes, though peculiarly disgraceful to them. It was 
 connected with that general struggle for super-emi- 
 nence among private families which distinguished the 
 liifcViry of Italy during this century. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 Italy ; and these projects all proved 
 fortunate to him, and so much the more to his praise, 
 in that he did all for the good of the Church, and in 
 no private regard.' Machiavel (Principe, cajx. xi.) 
 is no great eulogist of Julius. 
 
LEO 
 
 f roceeds, however, frorr. (he singular princi- 
 ples of the papal hierarchy. In the first place, 
 the Pope, who enjoyed i)ower unlimited over 
 the obligations of others, might reasonably 
 claim the right to dispense with his own. In 
 the next, he had means of influencing those 
 who might release him from his 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 jiermitted 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. 
 
 Lnterary 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 
 
 X. 523 
 
 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 his 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 pou 
 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 unit^, 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 
 proportionably 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 ages, in their exer- 
 tions for the liberation of Palestine — but many 
 
 * Some of these — for instance Cardinal Bessarion, 
 who died under Sixtus IV. — were the creatichs of an 
 earlier period — the turbulent times of Constar.ve 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 (p. 113, 126). His 
 defence of platonism (in Calumniatorera Platonis) 
 against George of Trebisond is the most celebrated 
 of his writings 
 
624 HISTORY OF 
 
 more weie not so: yet these raised the same 
 outcr}^, and repeated as loudly the same ar- 
 guments and declamations. One of them, 
 indeed, Paul IL, 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 othei-s, 
 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 botli 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 
 veiy 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 Poicer 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 France, 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. Floury, L. 113, s. 145. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 trol over the general morality— in Penance, Purgatory 
 and Indulgences— decline of the pcwer— not of the pr» 
 tensions. (3) Claims of Rome tc 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, &cc. — 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, <fcc, — 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 Church — Canon of Innocent III. — its 
 fair explanation— consequence— Inquisitionr— Unity of 
 the Cijurch — A more moderate party — Principle of in- 
 tolerance adopted by the Laity also — Conduct of the 
 Church in the fifteenth age. (4) On some individuoJ 
 witnesses of the truth— John of Wesalia— Wesse'us — 
 Jean Laillier— Savonarola— his history and pretensions 
 
 — Erasmus. (5) Particular condition of Germany — 
 Great scene of clerical licentiousness and papal extnr 
 
POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 626 
 
 Mon — Political hostilities of Rome and the Empire — 
 Violation of the Concordats — 'The Hundred Griev- 
 ances ' — Thirst of the people fcf the Bible — Character 
 of Leo X.— Conclusion. 
 
 Section I. — On the Power and Constitution of 
 
 the Roman Catholic Church. 
 I. — In retracing the steps by which Papacy 
 descended to that ground whereon it received 
 its effectual overthrow, we shall observe in 
 ^onost 6f 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 tlie 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 gi'asp ; 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, Pyrrhonisnie 
 de I'Histoire) depuis le temps de I'Empereur Leo HL 
 risaurien, comme una ville libre, protegee par les 
 Francs, ensuite par les Germains, qui se gouverne 
 tant qu'elle put en republique, plutot sous le patronage 
 que sous la puissance des Empereurs, dans laquelle le 
 souverain Pontife cut toujours le premier credit, et 
 qui enfin a eie 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 cliapter. 
 
 [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, Eugenius, Nicholas, and Sixtus"^ even 
 then had some storms and reverses to en- 
 counter, the machine of temporal power upon 
 the whole moved onwards ; and at length, 
 under the guidance of Alexander VI. and 
 Julius IL, it reached those ample boundariesj 
 from which it has never since receded. 
 
 The dangerous feuds of the Colonna and 
 Orsini were extinguished ; the usurpations on 
 the states of the Ciiurch 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 of 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 and military Pope f was not well calcu- 
 
 * Gibbon has remarked, that Eugenius IV. was tlie 
 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 (Prencipe, cap. xi.) has 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 feud accounted, in a great degree, for the 
 temporal weakness of the Popes. At length, Alexan- 
 der VI. and his son overthrew the Barons from motives 
 of family ambition, and Julius II. reaped the fruits 
 of their victory for the advantage of the Chui-ch. 
 
 t A plausible precedent was aficrded by the per- 
 sonal expedition made by that simple, pious Pontiff 
 Leo IX. against the Normans who so signally over 
 threv Van. But it should be recollected, that Lei 
 nevci- repeated the experiment — his military thirsl 
 ^♦as satisfied by a single enterprise. 
 
HISTORY OF 
 
 lated to conciliate to the See, in the most 
 critical moment of its histoiy, the affection or 
 res})ect 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 labored 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 
 shred or fragment of his ghosdy authority 
 could have been saved vvithout it. 
 
 Argument for 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- 
 tained, that the Chief of the (Ecumenic 
 Church, scattered throughout so many na- 
 tions, ought to stand unconstrained by any 
 earthly potentate, and owe norther 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 
 feet, 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 wliich 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 tb'i Popes have waged in Italy, it real- 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 ly appears that they had, tor 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 — but that very necessity annihilat- 
 ed the pastoral character, and despiritualized 
 the Vicar of Christ. 
 
 The 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 
 with an obedient clergy and a superstitious 
 people it was not difficult to make the whole 
 of Christendom tributary. Once in posses- 
 sion of this ample treasury, and of the keys 
 which unlocked its innumerable chambere, 
 the Pontiffs explored and ransacked it with- 
 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 exlmusted 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 v^^as continued through the Schism 
 and the century which followed it, as fiir as 
 the Popes had power to continue it ; and there- 
 fore, when we admire their final success in 
 erecting a ])ermanent principality, we shall, at 
 the same time, recollect the methods which 
 
 * This system no doubt began soon after the eleventh 
 age, 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. 
 
 h21 
 
 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 Roine. — 
 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 Mid 
 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 we 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 imn/ediatcly exerted, shall we find any 
 department, religious or moral, into which, in 
 its triumphant days, it did not penetrate ? In 
 
 the first place, the Pope was the fountain of 
 all ecclesiastical legislation. All the Canons 
 and Constitutions of the Cliurch were sub- 
 ject to him.* He could enact, suspend, abro- 
 gate, as might seem good to Iiitn, 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 Beausobre, 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, living 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 West under the name of ' Codex oi 
 Corpus Canonum.' Some other collections, of littla 
 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 motu proprio. It appears that Bulls pro- 
 ceeding de motu proprio were received with great 
 hesitation in France. But they were held by the 
 high Papists to be as valid as any other Decrees or 
 Canons 
 
528 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 him 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 Provision] was enlarged with no 
 
 * See Mosheim, 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. 
 
 t 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 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 limit, and the whole patronage ot the univer 
 sal Church seemed to be absorbed by the 
 cupidity of one man. 
 
 The same power which thus created Car- 
 dinals and Bishops, and all 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 his 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 procurator 
 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 neiglibor- 
 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 hia 
 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 ' OatU 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 suft'er 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 Infallihility 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, liut, 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 hability to error. Again, in some- 
 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 pre fen ed in the delibera- 
 tions at Florence, though conducted in the 
 presence of the Pope and his Court, and en- 
 tering veiy 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 
 genera] 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 Rom:in Catholics consider as the most 
 accurate summary of their faith ; and the Universities 
 hare 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 e,lso invested w ith the latter — that is, that though 
 ne cannot err in judgment, he may possibly be deceiv- 
 ed bv falsehood ' 
 
 67 
 
 1 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 Purgatory. — 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 clerg}", ex- 
 cept the credulity of the vulgar. 
 
 We shall recur to this scandal, for it was 
 the immediate cause :f 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. The 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 sui-passing 
 magnitude of his temporal pretensions. The 
 design of Gregory VII. was the most daring 
 imagination of human ambition. To estal>- 
 lish the Chair of St. Peter as the source of all 
 power, secular as well as [)astonil, 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 ancieii 
 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. 
 
 of the European Republic, vested in the head 
 of the universal religion, if exercised whh 
 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, 
 ..s 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, thaii 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 de'testable 
 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. Tlie 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 ; 
 by the former as the electors, the constitutional 
 
 * * Et idcirco status monarchicus Ecclesiae regimine 
 aristocratico et democratico temperatur.' A position 
 laid down by Gerson on tlie same subject is not at 
 variance with this — ' Ecclesiastica Politia ita est 
 monarchica, ut non mutari possit in aristocraticam 
 But democraticam,' 
 
 counsellors and coadjutors of the Pope; by 
 the latter as the slates-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 dig 
 tinction, and the body had no existence, as 
 an acknowledged branch of the Ecclesiastical 
 sy.Jtem. 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 sufiicient for a legM 
 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 arrivesj through 
 much learning, at the probable conclusion, that the 
 term was in Italy originally applied to all, whether 
 bishops, priests, or deacons, who were immoveably, 
 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 Diaconiae (pious houses for tlie 
 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 lUustrissimus, was 
 given them by Urban VIII. ; but it is an observation 
 of Fleury, (Discours 4me. sur la Discipline,) that 
 their frequent appearance in the character of Legates 
 a latere, on which occasions tliey took precedence of 
 all ecclesiastical dignitaries, and ruled as the repre- 
 sentatives of the Pope, contributed more than ant 
 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 w^hich arrested the flight and 
 dimmed the eye of Papacy ; but also because 
 it introduced a new element into the Eccle- 
 siastical polity, which gi-adually 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 
 hishopsf 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 frequendy 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 
 ■ame time, Pierre d'Ailly in his Discourse De Ec- 
 clesies 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 rcprosenlative of Christ We 
 
 Bliouid never forgot tliat Pierre d'Ailly was a reformer, 
 »nd decidedly opjw.sed 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, vei^ 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 Eugeijius IV. was 
 ' ad conservandum statum ecclesite Romana) et mon- 
 archiam ecclesiasticam cum cardinalium dignitate; 
 qui cum sint lumina et ornamenta prope Papam, 
 Sedem Apostolicam illustriantia, et columna? firmis- 
 simaj 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 witliout the 
 consent of the old ; that half the revenues of the 
 Cliurch should be paid to the College, &c. Se« 
 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, requii-ed 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 to 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 Avere publislicd by their counsel. 
 
 t The average reign of tlie Popes din ing the first 
 fifleeD centuries was of about seven years. 
 
 General Councils. — Notwithstanding tlie 
 restraints which the Cardinals endeavored to 
 impose upon the Papal 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 piiblished 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, thaf 
 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 and Instnunents 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 
 
634 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 uities, 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, 
 loo 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 11. 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 
 pprings 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 
 Eorpent. Both have found their imitators in the his- 
 tory of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. 
 
 t The great mass of business, carried from all 
 iliiartcrs to Rome, so as to make it for such matters 
 llie school of Europe, drew thither men of talents and 
 uibition, and gave them occupation, and consequently 
 .-ngaged them in the defence of the system, by which 
 they profited. 
 
 of the ecclesiastics were those least paitfen 
 able, and least pardoned, in the ecclesiastica. 
 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 : and 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 serving 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 
 
 uess, it is because they are deceived, not I 
 becxiuse they are depraved. 
 
 The discipline of the Church of Rome 
 vradically 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 disci[)le 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 w^ithout 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 and 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 Vatican. — 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 tlie nature of 
 one branch of spiritual jurisdiction, as exercised in 
 Uiis kingdom, having been kindly furnished him by a 
 legal 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 
 early times claimed the authority, and the king as- 
 sented to the claim, the result might be stated 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 tlie 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 tliose who 
 died intestate — its origin has been the occasion of 
 much controversy. The question relates sunnily 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 oi.ly 
 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 law. But it is here sufficient to stale 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 ^\ ill, as to personalty, cannot 
 be directly questioned in the temporal courts, after 
 probate has been granted; nor can it be asserted 
 there, before probate is granted. If there be no exe- 
 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 courts. The bishop and 
 the sheriff sat together in these courts, as presidents. 
 A charter of William the Conqueror separated the 
 
 ' (a) Originally, tlie form cf bequeathing personal pro 
 perry extended only to a part • tlie law regulated the dis 
 tribution of the remainder 
 
536 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 coui't from the civil ; giving to the former 
 the cognizance of suits prosecuted pro salute anima. 
 But testamentary questions are not expressly men- 
 tioned. In the seccuo jeai of the reign of Richard 
 the Second, the iaw of \V luiara 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 ogic, a very plain inference that the dis- 
 posal of the goods of a man who left no will, was a 
 mattei in which the clergy, for the sake of his eternal 
 inleroHts, were bound to interfere. It was beyond 
 tlie skill of the priests, or at any rate of those whom 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 ment, and they are best exemplified in ths 
 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 (^). 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 as 
 his servants or attorneys. But a statute, passed in 
 the thirty-first year of the reign of Edward HI 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 
 tAventy-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 dangerous power to the 
 hands of the administrator absolutely. In the twenty 
 second year of the reign of Charles II. a statute wa3 
 passed to prevent this mischief. By this act, the 
 
 ' (b) Cum post mortem alicujus decod'entis intestati. et 
 oblifiati aliquibus in debito, bona deveniant ad ordinarium 
 disponcnda, obligetur de cfctero ordinarius ad responden- 
 dum de debitis quatonus bona defuncti sufliciunt, eodem 
 modo quo executores respondere tenerentur si testamen 
 turn fecisset. Cap. 19. Lord Coke says that this waa 
 only an affirmance of the conmion laW (2nd Inst. 397). 
 It however was so far a new enactment tbat it put a de- 
 cisive end to any question on the point. Many enact- 
 ments of the same statute arc clearly intended lo settle 
 disputed rights 
 
PUWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 537 
 
 not always directed. Every one 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* msensibly 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 — usalrai, 
 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 myste- 
 
 method in which the administrator is to distribute the 
 personalty is pointed out. By these successive steps, 
 the power of the spiritwal authority has been almost 
 reduced to the exercise of a imited discretion in the 
 appointment of a deputy, wno is to act according 
 to prescribed rules. The ecclesiastical courts have 
 ceased, for some ages, to be any instruments of power 
 to the Cluirch, for good or for evil. Their share in 
 tlie distribution of justice is very limited; but they 
 are still characterized by the 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 word Priest (Pres- 
 bytes) is ' Elder.' This subject is very well treated 
 by Archbishop Whately, in his * Errors of Roraan- 
 ■em,' 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 thein 
 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 censure, 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 pastoi-s, 
 under the superintendence of a vigilant hier- 
 archy, may at all times be made serviceable 
 to the best pin-poses of religion ; and it 
 diffused many spiritual blessings, even in the 
 most secular ages of Rome. 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 secrecy and 
 silence ; while nations and their princes 
 worshipped under the golden branches, and 
 gathered the bitter fruit which sometimes feU 
 from them. 
 
 Serviceable abuses. — The very corruptions 
 in the ecclesiastical system were for a season 
 serviceable in rivetting its influence. Auric- 
 ular confession, the various abuses of penance, 
 
538 mSTORY OF 
 
 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 confl- 
 dence he has deceived or insulted ; and the 
 error is seldom discovered till the moment 
 #Dr correcting it has passed by. It was thus 
 with the Hierarchs of Rome. They increas- 
 ed the measure of degradation and imposture, 
 till they exnausted 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 coiionMice, su!)sided in progressive 
 decay and dissolution. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 On the (I.) Spiritual Character^ (II.) Disciplxnt, 
 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 treastn-e 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, Gcrontoco- 
 mia, &c., of the ancient establishmer.t ; and 
 these works were considered satisfactory to 
 
 * It was a general, but not quite correc, opinion 
 of the early reformers, that the Scliolasticri had ni- 
 vcnted 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 Basic were leielled against 
 tlie later innovations in her discipline. 
 
ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE. &c. 
 
 539 
 
 God. This system was <,Tadually corrupted, 
 and fell, especially in the western 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 was presently reduced 
 to a regular system : in the place of so many 
 days of fasting, 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 nur^er of the Pen- 
 itentials was increased, and their character 
 altered, according to the caprice of individual 
 confessors; and, in spite of some attempts* 
 
 * IMuratori (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 adinventio, juxta placitum scili- 
 cet proprise voluntatis sua?, nunc i)huiinis periciilosa 
 consuetudo est, non sit eleemosyna porrecta ad min- 
 •uendam sed ad mutandam satisfactionem per jeju- 
 nium ct reliqua expiationis opera a Sacerdote Dei 
 indicia,' it is ordained, that alms are to be so offered, 
 that the person of the Penitent may not be wholly 
 spared. The vicarious recitation of Psalms was at 
 the same time prohibited, as well as other abuses. 
 This Council was held by the Archbishop of May- 
 ence, not forty years, perhaps, after the death of 
 Theodore. About twenty years earlier, Gregory II. 
 (Epist. 13.) addressed to Leo the Isaurian the fol- 
 lowing vigorous description of ecclesiastical, as con- 
 trasted with civil, discipline. ' Ubi peccaverit quis 
 et confessus fuerit, suspendii vel amputationis capitis 
 loco, evangelium et crucem ejus cervicibus circumpo- 
 nunt, eunique, tanquam in carcerem, in secretaria 
 sacrorumque vasorum aeraria conjiciunt, in Ecclesiae 
 Diaconia, et in Cateciuimena ablegant, ac visceribus 
 eorum jejunium oculisque vigilias et laudationem ori 
 ejus indicunt. Cumque probe castigaverint, probeque 
 fame afflixerint, tum pretiosum illi Domini Corpus 
 impartiunt et sancto ilium sanguine potant ; et cum 
 ilhim vas electionis restituerint ac immunem peccati, 
 sic ad Deum purum insontemque transmittunt. Vides, 
 Imperator, ecclesiarum imperiorumque discrimen, 
 &c.' (The passage is cited by Giannone, Stor. Ital. 
 lib. iii. cap. vi.) It was not till the eleventh age, 
 that the practice of flagellation became common, and 
 
 to repress the abuse, pecuniary redemption 
 became more and more common, and pres- 
 ently almost every sort of i)cnance had its 
 fixed price in gold. It may seem needless to 
 add, that the clergy (the Servi Dei) easily 
 proved themselves to be the properest objects 
 of these eleemosynary contributions, and that 
 a great proportion of the wealth, so expended, 
 flowed almost directly into the treasuries of 
 the Church. 
 
 Indulgences. — These, however, were only 
 corruptions of the ancient penitential system, 
 they did not effect its entire destruction ; but • 
 that result was afterwards brought about by 
 the abuse of indulgences. An indulgence, as 
 a mere relaxation of canonical penance, exist- 
 ed as early as the days of Cyprian ; and it was 
 not till the council of Clermont, that the dis- 
 charge of a single duty was substituted for all 
 that was due, or might hereafter be due, to, 
 the penal authority of the Church. When 
 people thenceforward found it so easy to re- 
 lease themselves at once from the ancient bur- 
 den of redemption, they became clamorous 
 to receive, what the Pope, on sufficient con 
 sideration, was never reluctant to grant. We 
 shall recur to this subject immediately : in the 
 meantime, it is very true, that there existed 
 from time to time many ecclesiastics, even in 
 the worst age of the Church, who exclaimed 
 against the abuse of that papal prerogative, 
 — against the indiscriminate distribution and 
 open venality of indulgences. But we have 
 not perceived, that any argued on the false 
 principle on which they were founded ; it was 
 not then made a reason for their condem- 
 nation, that they disparaged the efficacy of 
 Grace ; and perverted, if they did not wholly 
 overthrow, the doctrine of salvation through 
 the' merits of Christ alone. 
 
 The existence and nature of an intennediate 
 state naturally awakened the s])eculations of 
 the early Christians; but the subjects were 
 long left open to the curiosity, the vanity, or 
 the piety of contemplative individuals — these 
 were not restrained by any ecclesiastical edicts, 
 and impunity yet attended the profession of 
 opposite doctrines. Among the Greeks the 
 question was not afterwards pressed to any 
 practical system or inference. It is true, in- 
 deed, that a certain opinion was selected and 
 sanctioned as that most probable, and was 
 apparently inscribed among the authorized 
 tenets : but it was at no time recommended 
 
 it was then that St. Dominicus, surnamed LoricatuB^ 
 the friend of Peter Damiani, acquired his celebrity. 
 He could discharge by stripes in six days the penanc* 
 of a hundred years. 
 
540 HISTORY OF 
 
 to the peculiar reverence of the faithful ; still 
 less was it converted into an engine of eccle- 
 siastical government. But during the iron 
 ages of the Roman Church, the same inex- 
 plicable question assumed a much more defi- 
 nite and durable shape. Differing from the 
 Greeks, who considered the immediate abode 
 of the departed to be one of obscurity and 
 discomfort, the Latins boldly lighted the pe- 
 nal fire of purgatory, and gave a substance, 
 a locality and an object to the timid and dis- 
 trustful speculations of the early Christians. 
 
 Doctrine of Purgatory. — It is the modern 
 doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church* 
 * that there is a purgatory ; and that the souls 
 imprisoned there are aided by the prayers of 
 the faithful, and the acceptable sacrifice of the 
 altar.' But in this matter, it is not so impor- 
 tant to ascertain what has been, at various 
 times, the outward profession of the Church, 
 ds to remark the consequences which have 
 practically flowed from the dogma, and influ- 
 enced the happiness and morahty of mankind. 
 For the history of the Church is not a lifeless 
 record of its Canons and Confessions, but a 
 display of their operation, whether for good 
 or for mischief, whether in their use or in 
 their aliuse, upon the Christian community. 
 The consequence, which presently followed 
 from the establishment of a place of tempo- 
 rary punishment, or purification, for departed 
 Bouls, was, that the successor of St. Peter 
 assumed, through the power of the keys, 
 unlimited authority there. By indulgences, 
 issued at the discretion of the Pope, the sin- 
 ner (in the theory, the repentant sinner) was 
 released from suffering, and immediately 
 passed into a state of grace. As long as these 
 indulgences were granted with discrimination 
 and reserve,! the ill effects, which they occa- 
 
 * Founded on the Canons of Trent. — It is frequent- 
 ly asserted to be the doctrine of that Church, that 
 the fund, whence the above forgiveness is drawn, is 
 composed of the supererogatory merits of the saints, 
 (added to those of Jesus Christ,) which are inex- 
 naustible; and such, indeed, it is clearly laid down 
 by St. Thomas Aquinas (see Mosheim, Cent. xii. p. 
 ii. c. iii.) Modern divines disclaim this opinion, as 
 at variance with the great doctrine of justification — 
 and this is not the only instance of salutary change, 
 which has purified the bosom of the Roman Catholic 
 Church during tiie last three centuries. — May such 
 changes be multiplied! 
 
 t Baronius (Ann. 847. s. iv.) boasts the modera- 
 tion of the indulgences granted in those days, and 
 instances one (trium annorum et trium quadragena- 
 nim) given under Leo IV. Even as late as the 
 eleventli age there are proofs (as Muratori observes) 
 of similar discretion in the directors of tlie Church. 
 And it ■« proper to mention, that Gregory the Great, 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 sioned, do not often meet tlie eye of the his- 
 torian. But as soon as they were turned into 
 mere instruments of papal ambition, and as 
 such were not only promiscuously scattered 
 over the world, but also extended in character 
 to a plenary remission, they became simple 
 manifest means to poison the morality of the 
 faithful. 
 
 Thenceforward, their nature could scarcely 
 be further corrupted ; for the only proof, which 
 was now required of the sinner's spiritual 
 mortification and amendment, was his willing- 
 ness to perform a single act. But on the char- 
 acter of that act, that is, on the object of the 
 indulgence, it still depended, whether the 
 subversion of the principle of evangelical re- 
 pentance was to be made subservient to the 
 seeming advantage of the world, or obviously « 
 instrumental in aggravating its misery. 
 
 The object of the indulgence was changed 
 repeatedly ; yet never so changed, as to take 
 the guise of philanthropy. First, it was the 
 recovery of the Holy Land and the extirpation 
 of the Infidel. Then from the general foe of 
 Christ it was turned against the spiritual ad- 
 versaries of the Catholic Church; from the 
 spiritual adversaries of the Chiu'ch it descend- 
 ed to the temporal enemies of the Pope. It 
 next assumed a more innocent shape (if su- 
 perstition could ever be innocent,) and sum- 
 moned the obedient pilgrims to enrich, on 
 stated Jubilees,* the apostolical shrines of 
 Rome. Lastly, it degenerated into a mere 
 vulgar, undisguised implement for supplying 
 the necessities of the pontifical treasury, f — 
 
 in his Chapter on Purgatory (Dialogorum, lib. iv. 
 cap. xxxix.), expressly limited its operation to venial 
 and very trifling offences (de parvis minimisque pec- 
 catis hoc fieri posse credendum est,) such as mere 
 vain and leisurely discourse, immoderate laughter, 
 or an error in unimportant matters proceeding from 
 ignorance. He adds, moreover, that thus much is 
 certain — that no one will obtain any purgation even 
 1 from the least offences, unless he merit, by his good 
 works here, to obtain such remission there. 
 
 * In the Jubilee of 1300 ' Papa (Boniface VIII.) 
 innumerabilem pecuniam ab iisdem recepit; quia die 
 et nocte duo Clerici stabant ad Altare Sancti Petri 
 tenentes in eorum manibus rastellos, rastellantea 
 pecuniam infinitam.' — Gulielmus Astensis Venturm 
 (an eye-witness) Chronicon Astense, cap. 26. ap, 
 Muratori. Again, in the Bull of Clement VI. for 
 the jubilee of 1350 are these words — ' Et nihilominus 
 prorsus mandamus Angelis Paradisi, quatenus animara 
 illius a Purgatorio penitus absolutam in Paradisi 
 gloriam introducant. ' See Giannone, lib. xvii. cap. 8. 
 
 t It should be recollected, that the sale of indul- 
 gences was faintly countenanced by the corresponding 
 enormities of civil legislation, according to which, in 
 somewhat earlier times, every crime had its price 
 The Cimrch in every age should, in some degree. I* 
 
ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACl'ER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 
 
 54. 
 
 and it was in this last form, that it at length 
 aroused the scorn and indignation of Europe. 
 
 The profane and even blasphemous expres- 
 sions, by which the emissaries of the Vatican 
 recommended their treasures to popular cre- 
 dulity were tacitly permitted by the authori- 
 ties of the Church; yet we shall not detail 
 them here, nor hnpute them to any others, 
 than the individuals who uttered them — they 
 may repose in the same oblivion. But it is 
 proper to transcribe a specimen of the in- 
 dulgences which were publicly sold in the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, because 
 they were the authorized productions of the 
 Church. The following is the translation of 
 ♦hat which was circulated by Tetzel : — 
 
 'May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy 
 upon thee and absolve thee, by the merits of 
 His most holy passion. And I, by his author- 
 ity, that of His blessed Apostles, Peter and 
 Paul, and of the most Holy See, granted and 
 committed to me in these parts, do absolve 
 thee first from all ecclesiastical censures, in 
 whatever manner they have been incurred ; 
 and then from all thy sins, trangressions, and 
 excesses, how enormous soever they may be, 
 even from such as are reserved for the cog- 
 nizance of the Apostolical See.* And as far 
 as the keys of the Church extend, I remit to 
 you all punishment which you deserve in 
 purgatory on their account ; and I restore you 
 to the Holy Sacraments of the Church, to the 
 unity of the faithful, and to that innocence 
 and' purity which you possessed at baptism ; 
 so that, if you should die now, the gates of 
 punishment shall be shut, and the gates of 
 the Paradise of delight shall be opened. And 
 if you shall not die at present, this Grace 
 shall remain in full force when you are on the 
 point of death. In the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' This 
 indulgence, in spite of the ambiguity of one 
 or two expressions, is nothing less, when fair- 
 ly interpreted, than an unconditional permis- 
 sion to sin for the rest of life : and as such it 
 was assuredly received by those classes of the 
 people, for which it was chiefly intended, and 
 whose morality is peculiarly confided to the 
 superintendence of the clergy. And thus was 
 
 judged according to the principles of that age, — yet 
 in such wise, that we never lose sight of that one 
 great and unchangeable standard, by Avhich the ac- 
 tions of a Christian ministry must, in every age, be 
 measured. 
 
 * The translation given by Beausobre (Hist. Re- 
 form. Hv. i.) here differs slightly from that published 
 by Dr. Robertson (Hist. Charles V. b. ii.); but not 
 so as to make any important change in the sense of 
 the whole passage. 
 
 it, that the destiny of the Church was accom- 
 plished. 
 
 Private Masses. — However easy the acqui- 
 sition of pardon (for the moderate price of 
 indulgences placed them within the reach 
 of the lowest orders,) still many neglected to 
 profit by the facility, and were accordingly 
 
 } consigned to the penal fire. Yet even thus 
 they were not removed beyond the power and 
 mercies of the Church.* It was inculcated, 
 that the prayers of the living were efficacious 
 in the purification of those departed souls ; 
 but that their release was most speedily se- 
 cured by the sacrifice of the altar. Hence 
 arose in early times f the practice of oflTering 
 masses, both public and private, for that pur- 
 pose ; and, as these too had subsequently their 
 price in gold, the piety of the survivors was 
 
 ! taxed to redeem the transgressions of the dead 
 — so various were the devices of the Church, 
 to render tributary the'weaknesses, the virtues,' 
 even the natural affections of the faithful. The 
 sale of private masses was a fruitful source of 
 revenue to the clergy, especially to the mon- 
 astic orders, and that likewise was one of the 
 abuses first proscribed by the eloquence of 
 Luther. 
 
 The Elevation of the Host, &c. — When In- 
 nocent III. gave the sanction of a General 
 Council to the Roman doctrine of the Eu- 
 charist, and distinguished it by the name of 
 I Transubstantiation,t he not only secured its 
 
 I * Gerson, however, (De Indulgentiis, vol. ii. p. 
 
 j 351,) admits, that it is a question ad utramque. 
 partem probabilis, whether the keys have such power 
 in purgatory, as to remit the punishment of a venial 
 fault or excommunication, conunitted or incurred 
 during life. This doubt of the Chancellor must have 
 made him unpopular in the monasteries. He asserts, 
 in the same place, without any hesitation, — < Indui- 
 gentije ad pcjenas ex corruptione naturee non extenduni.' 
 
 f We find it proclaimed by the Protestants at 
 Augsbourg (1530,) that there is no instance of pri- 
 vate masses in ecclesiastical history earlier than the 
 time of Gregory the Great. Mosheim is contented 
 to assert, that manifest traces 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 of any earlier public regula- 
 tion on this subject, than the 43d Canon of the Coun- 
 cil of Mayence, held in 813, and this is expressly 
 prohibitory, — ' No priest shall say mass alone.* 
 
 t The following is a part of the celebrated Canon 
 (Can. i. Lat. Concil. IV.) in question — ' Una est 
 fidelium Universalis Ecclesia, extra quam nullua 
 omnino salvatur. In qua idem ipse sacerdos et 
 sacrificium Jesus Christus; cujus corpus et sanguis 
 in Sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini 
 veraciter continentur, transmbstantiatis pane incor* 
 pus et vino in sanguinem, potestate divina,' 8f &c 
 
542 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 Par6, 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 suflicient to recognise the divinity of 
 the consecrated elements. 
 
 The Retrenchment of the Cup. — The sufli- 
 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 j9?*adice of the 
 Church (it was maintained to be no more than 
 that,) was introduced, we cannot pronounce 
 with certainty ; f 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. Ixxviii. s. 24. The Institution of the 
 Festival of the Holy Sacrament or Body of Christ, 
 another early consequence of the universal establish- 
 ment of Transubstantiation, 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 
 III the year 1246. Mosh. Cent. xiii. p. 2, chap. iv. 
 
 t We have not observed that it was formally and 
 universally established by the highest ecclesiastical 
 Huthority, till it attracted the attention of the Council 
 of Constance. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 {)rccaution so necessary for pre- 
 serving the unity of the Church and con 
 coaling its abuses. It was authorized by the 
 * See Chapter XXVI., p. 479 
 
ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 
 
 43 
 
 Council of Toulouse in 1229; but the spirit 
 of independence neveithcless gained ground. 
 From the time of Wiclif the unhallowed veil 
 was gradually withdrawn ; curiosity was more 
 keenly excited, as it 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 cen- 
 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 Laurentius 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 
 jM'ofit, which at length conducted them to the 
 jrecipice, whither it had always tended. 
 
 Certain other unscriptural practices, long 
 :nherent in the Romish system, never had 
 fiourished 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 
 I)opular adoration of the saints had never de- 
 viated farther from the professed moderation 
 of the Churchf — relics had never been ap- 
 
 * De Donatione Constantini. ' Nostii Fabula- 
 torcs passim inducunt Idola loquentia; quod ipsi 
 Gentiles et idolorura cultores non dicunt, et sincerius 
 iiegant, quam Christian i affirmant.' Ti)e passage of 
 Gerson is, — ' Mundus senescens palitur phantasias 
 falsorum miraculorum, sicut homo senex phantasi- 
 atur in somno; propterea sunt habenda miracula 
 valde suspecta.' Both these passages are cited by 
 Semler. The detection of the artifices practised 
 upon Jetzer at Berne, for the confirmation of the 
 •Dominican opinion respecting the immaculate con- 
 ception, created a notorious scandal, which assisted 
 in preparing the patli for Zuinglius. 
 
 t The following is the docti ine of modern Roman 
 Catholic Divines: — ' That the saints reigning with 
 Christ offer up their prayers to God for men: that it 
 is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them and 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- 
 hood.* 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, Controversies, S^c. 
 — 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 ceJebivite 
 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. About 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 tlfe nuptial ring of St. Catha- 
 rine, the hereditary property of the latter, her 
 compatriots. The object was holy ; and its 
 sanctity was enhanced (as a grave historian X 
 
 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 lioly contents 
 of the Church of All Saints at Wittenberg, which 
 had been most profusely enriched by the bulls of 
 Julius II. and Leo X. The whole number of relics 
 exceeded 19,009, 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 days, might retain all property dishonestly 
 acquired, to the amount of twenty-five golden ducats; 
 and that any one who doubted the validity of such 
 indulgences was ipso facto excommunicated, w ithout 
 powei- of obsolution even by the Pope himself, and 
 in articulo mortis.^ 
 
 t See the continuator of Fleury, lib. ex. s. 97. 
 
 + Raynaldus, ann. 1480, n. 44. See Semler, cenf 
 XV. cap. ii., and Bzovius, ann. 1480. 
 
544 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 the 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 11., 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 aflerwards to 
 have retracted his prohibition. These matters 
 to&k 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 th*i 
 course of the next hundred years the refe- 
 rence so paid gi-ew into worship. Among 
 the attributes early | ascribed to ber, was ex^ 
 emption from original sin ; btic this opinion 
 was for some time confined to the breasts of 
 
 * It is perhaps proper to mention that the Domin- 
 icans likewise claimed the stigmata for their patron; 
 but they were compelled to admit, that his extreme 
 Iiumility had prevented him from disclosing them. 
 
 f Earlier in the same century, an opinion was 
 propagated ' that those who die in the habit of St. 
 Francis, and making profession of the third order, 
 remain only one year in purgatory; because the saint 
 descends thither once a year, and takes away all 
 those of his order to heaven with liim.' Tliis 
 proposition was not beneath the notice of the Council 
 of BrbIc — on the contrary, it was solemnly condemned 
 (May 19, 1443) in the forty-fourth or forty-fifth ses- 
 sion. 
 
 X As early as the ninth century — some ascrilje the 
 origin of the opinion to Paschasius Ridbertus. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I a few individuals — it had no place in eccieai 
 I astical ceremonies, or the arguments of the 
 learned.* At length, however, about the year 
 1136, the Canons of Lyons ventured to intro- 
 duce it into the offices of their Church. St. 
 Bernard immediately opposed that innova 
 tion, and attacked the indiscreet zeal of those 
 ecclesiastics. But in the following age, the 
 subject was found to open too large a space 
 for disputation, to escape the polemical zeal 
 of the scholastics — it became, on the contrary, 
 their favorite field of controversy. And since 
 the Dominicans ranged themselves on the one 
 side and the Franciscans on the other, f the 
 contest was heated and perpetuated by mo- 
 nastic jealousy. But it was reserved for the 
 Council of Basle to establish the doctrine, 
 and to excommunicate all who should preach 
 the contrary. A feast was then instituted in 
 honor of the Immaculate Conception, and it 
 received in 1446 the official confirmation of 
 Sixtus IV.J Yet not thus was the controversy 
 composed, nor even the show of concord res- 
 tored between the contending orders. 
 
 Without closely pursuing the inexhaustible 
 subject of monastic dissension, we may men- 
 tion that a violent dispute arose in this age 
 between the Canons regular and the hermits 
 of St. Augustin, respecting the dress assum- 
 ed by the original monks of that father. The 
 clamor ascended to the Apostolical chair and 
 commanded the attention of Sixtus IV. He 
 published a Bull, in which he wisely enjoined 
 peace to both parties — wisely, but vainly; — 
 for the controversy (as it was called) continued 
 for some time longer to disturb the harmony 
 of those holy brethren. 
 
 A difference, respecting the kind of wor- 
 ship, which is due to the Blood of Christ, 
 first arose at Barcelona, in 1351, between the 
 Dominicans and Franciscans. It was renew- 
 ed at Brixen§ in 1462. James a Marchia . 
 
 * See Padre Paolo, Hist. Concil. Trident, lib. ii. 
 
 f Semler (Sec. xiv. cap. 1) mentions 1384 as the 
 year in which the controversy on the Immaculate 
 Conception broke out between the rival orders at 
 Paris. In 1387 the faculty censured John de Mon- 
 lesono for maintaining the less exalted opinion — that 
 is, the opinion of St. Bernard and the Dominicans. 
 Nevertheless, the war continued to rage. 
 
 X The bull of Sixtus is given by the continuator 
 of Fleury, lib. cxv. s. 102. 
 
 § Semler, cent. xv. cap. ii. While such were the 
 subjects on which monastic absurdity was exhausted, 
 a very different description of nonsense was in vogue, 
 proceeding more directly from the scholastic method 
 — the following may serve as a six;cimcn. One Jean 
 de Mercanu- was condemned in 1346 for errors, 
 among whicli were the following: ' (1) Jesiin Cliritt, 
 through his created will, may have v illcd t^oniethiMg, 
 
ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 
 
 645 
 
 a Franciscan, publicly maintained, that the | 
 blood, which Christ shed on the cross, did 
 not belong to the divine nature, and conse- 
 quently was not an object of worship. The 
 Dominicans were roused to fury by an asser- 
 tion so derogatory to the Redeemer; and the 
 preachei was immediately summoned before 
 the Inquisition. Pius IL made some ineffec- 
 tual attempts to suppress the controversy ; 
 but, finding his authority insufficient for that 
 purpose, he at last submitted the question to 
 a commission of divines. Howbeit, both par- 
 ties were so highly inflamed, that the doctors 
 were unable to arrive at any decision. At 
 length the Pontiff published a reasonable de- 
 cree, 'that both opinions might be lawfully] 
 maintained, until Christ's vicegerent should ! 
 find leisure and opportunity for examining 
 the question ' — and so the matter rests at this 
 moment. 
 
 In 1492, some laborers, repairing the foun- 
 dations of the Church of the Santa Croce 
 at Rome, discovered what was immediately 
 proclaimed to be the original Inscription on 
 the cross of Christ. The belief was propa- 
 gated, that it had been sent to Rome by St. 
 Helena, mother of Constantino ; and though 
 there was no authority for this tradition, and 
 though the pious Catholics of Toulouse pre- 
 tended to have possessed the true inscription 
 undisturbed for many ages, Alexander VI. 
 pronounced (four years afterwards) the au- 
 thenticity of the Roman title, and recom- 
 mended it by particular indulgences to the 
 devotion of the faithful On the 29th of May 
 in the same year an ambassador from Bajazet 
 arrived, bearing, as a present to the Pope, the 
 head of the true lance. All the clergy went 
 forth in procession to receive it, and the Pon-. 
 tiff assisted in person at the miserable mum- 
 mery. Raynaldus likewise assures us (on 
 the authority of Jacobus Rosius) that the 
 sponge and the reed were presented on the 
 same occasion : such were the offerings with 
 which the Infidel insulted the superstition of 
 Christendom, and found his ready agent and 
 most zealous accomplice in the Pope. 
 
 But while the spiritual guides of the faith- 
 ful were thus degradingly employetl — while 
 absurdity and imposture seemed triumphant 
 in the Church, and the monks and the clergy 
 
 wliich has never come to pass. (3) In whatsoever 
 manner God wills, he wills efficaciously, that it conte I 
 to pass. (4) God wills, that such a one sin and be ' 
 a sinner, and he wills it by his will, at his free plea- 
 sure. (5) No one sins in willing otherwise than 
 God wills, that he will,' &c. More may be found in j 
 Fleury, lib. rc\. s. 37. 
 
 69 
 
 I were lending, in rivalry, their aid to nourish 
 them — a far different spirit was growing up 
 among those who had sought their instruction 
 elsewhere. Many pious Laymen had already 
 explored the forbidden treasures of Scripture. 
 They had long ago abhorred the vices of the 
 ecclesiastical system ; they now discovered 
 that whatever in it was wicked wpg likewise 
 unfounded in truth. They advanced with 
 increasing confidence towards evangelical 
 perfection, just as the Churchmen were rush- 
 ing most wildly in the opposite direction, 
 and casting wisdom and piety, as if in scorn 
 and detestation, behmd them. Yet was there 
 some reason even in this their madness. The 
 superstitions of Rome were closely connected 
 with her authority, and these exerted on each 
 other a reciprocal and potent influence. The 
 superstitions enslaved the consciences, and 
 thus commanded the riches of the faithful : 
 and so they ministered to the Papal power — 
 while, on the other hand, that power estab- 
 lished and canonized the abuses : and it had 
 so long been efficient in protecting them, 
 that to many it seemed capable of sustaining 
 them for ever. 
 
 II. On the Discipline and Morals of the 
 Church. — The severe edicts of Gregory VII. 
 against the concubinage of the clergy, and 
 the disorders which followed them, in no 
 very dissolute age of the Church, sufficiently 
 prove that a law, which offended the prin- 
 ciples of nature, could not command ob- 
 servance, even though professional zeal and 
 worldly interest and morality itself pleaded 
 against its violation. And if the severity of 
 that Pontiff for the moment abated the scandal, 
 it was never wholly removed, but continued 
 sometimes to elude, and sometimes to defy 
 the unremitted exertions of Popes and Coun- 
 cils. Insomuch that, considered only as an 
 instrument of ecclesiastical policy, it would 
 seem that the celibacy of the clergy has 
 produced less advantage to the Church of 
 Rome by the exclusive spirit which it en- 
 courages, and the popular influence of which 
 it facilitates the acquisition, than it has done 
 mischief by the reproach and shame to which 
 it has given unceasing occasion.* 
 
 * The following Canons of a Council held at 
 Toledo in the year 4U0, sufficiently show the practice 
 of the Church of Spain, nearly 80 years after the 
 Council of Nice. Canon I. ' Married deacons or 
 priests who have not preserved continence with their 
 wives shall not be promoted.' Canon VII. * If the 
 wife of a priest has sinned, he may bind her in his 
 house, and make her fast and chastise her . . . he 
 ' should not, however, eat with her until she has dono 
 
546 HISTORY OF 
 
 General Demoralization. — Early in the 
 twelfth age, the general relaxation of disci- 
 pline and morals was deplored by St. Bernard, 
 and it increased in despite of his eloquent 
 denunciations. From that time forward the 
 Reformation of the Church, in its Head and 
 its members, became a subject of frequent 
 mention, and of constant hope or apprehen- 
 sion, according to the sanctity or the world- 
 liness of individual Churchmen. At the 
 Council of Vienne, the particulars of eccle- 
 siastical corruption were boldly exposed, but 
 imperfectly remedied. During the exile at 
 Avignon the pestilence increased ; it was 
 inflamed by the schism, which succeeded; till 
 at length, whatever still remained of learn- 
 ing and excellence in the Church, combined 
 against its further progress. It is superfluous 
 to repeat the names or transcribe the indig- 
 nant expressions of those Reformers. The 
 truth of their testimony has never been dis- 
 puted;* and one of the few circumstances in 
 the history of the Roman Catholic Church, 
 which has escaped all controversy, is that of 
 its demoralization. The fathers of Constance 
 and Basle having failed to repair the discipline 
 of the Church, it received no improvement 
 during the interval which succeeded ; nor 
 were the examples of Innocent VIII., Alex- 
 ander VI., or Julius II., well calculated to 
 re-establish the authority of the Canons, or 
 restore the model of ancient purity. 
 
 Cardinal Ximenes. — If there was any coun- 
 try, which at that time had escaped the gene- 
 ral degradation, the exception may have been 
 formed by Spain : and Spain is chiefly indebt- 
 
 penance.' Canon XIX. ' If 6l*e be the daughter 
 of a bishop, priest, or deacon,' &c. And again, ' the 
 widow of a bishop, priest, or deacon, who marries 
 again, shall not receive communion, except on her 
 death-bed.' On this subject Guizot has remarked, 
 that the necessity of recruiting an unmarried clergy 
 from the l anks of the laity was one reason for the 
 failure of the Papal scheme of universal monarchy. 
 To have secured its success (he adds,) the clergy 
 ought to have been a disiinct caste, bringing up their 
 own children to their own profession. But there is 
 much to be said against this opinion. A caste pro- 
 ducing itself is a much more separate and distinguish- 
 able object for an enemy's aim, than a body wiiich is 
 incessantly recruiting itself from the mass. 
 
 ♦ La discipline ecclesi<islique(says Bossuet) s'eloit 
 relSkchce par toute la terre: les desordres et les abus 
 portes jusqu'aux environs de I'autel faisoient gemir 
 lev bons, les humilioient, les pressoient k se rcndrc 
 encore mcilleurs — mq,is ils fircnt un autre cffct sur les 
 esprits aigres et superbes.' llistoire des Variations, 
 lib. xi, 8. 294. We might also refer to the celebrated 
 avowal made (in 1522) by Adrian VI at th- diet of 
 Nuremberg 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 ed for that distinction to the morose, monaMic 
 austerity of Cardinal Ximenes. That haugh- 
 ty Churchman revived the image of the spir- 
 itual champions of early days. Under the habit 
 of a Franciscan, he nourished unbounded am- 
 bition, and more than pontifical insolence.* 
 As regent of the kingdom, he possessed great 
 secular authority ; but his religious profession 
 was ever nearest to his heart, and it was his 
 favorite boast, ' that he could bind the gran- 
 dees to their duty by his cord, and crush their 
 pride with his sandals.' The object, on which 
 he was most ardently bent, was the conver- 
 sion of the vanquished Moors. His impa- 
 tience permitted no method, except compul- 
 sion ; and no fewer than fifty thousand are 
 related to have submitted to baptism, and 
 made their heartless professions of conformity. 
 The triumph was applauded ; the tyrant was 
 feared and imitated; and his severe, court 
 presented a remarkable contrast to the licen- 
 tiousness of Rome. In the opposite extremi- 
 ties of the moral scale the evangelical Chris- 
 tian will discover, perhaps, an equal departure 
 from the will of the Saviour. That selfish 
 arrogance, which swells and hardens under 
 the garb of religion, is scarcely less at variance 
 with the spirit of the Gospel, than poe-itive 
 sensual sin. . . . Yet both were the inevitiible 
 produce of an ecclesiastical system, which 
 was compelled to maintain its hold on the 
 affections of men, by ofl^ering, at the same 
 time, encouragement to their fanaticism, and 
 imj)unity to their vices. 
 
 Benefits confeired by the Church. — Yet 
 should we be very unjust to the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church, if we should allow it to be sup- 
 posed, that she opened no receptacles for the 
 nurture of true excellence — that in her gene- 
 ral institutions, especially in her earlier ages, 
 s-he has overlooked the moral necessities of 
 man — the truth is far otherwise. We have 
 repeatedly observed, how commonly, in sea- 
 sons of barbarism, religion was employed in 
 supplying the defects of civil government 
 and diffusing consolation and security. The 
 Truce of God mitigated the fury of private 
 warfare, by limiting the hours of vengeance, 
 and interposing a space for the operation of 
 
 * On one occasion Ximenes opposed the levy of 
 tenths in Spain, though commanded by Leo X., under 
 the pretext of a Turkish war. The Cardinal (should 
 we not rather say the Regent'?) informed the Pope, 
 that, unless on the urgency of some very pressing 
 occasion, he would never allow the clergv of Spain, 
 under his government, to become tributary. See 
 Beausobre, Hist. Reform, liv. i. It should be mer.' 
 tioned that Ximenes published a Polyglo;t Bible 
 J Cont. Fleur. 1. 119. s. 142. 
 
ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 
 
 647 
 
 justice and humanity. The name of the 
 Church was associated with peace * — and it 
 was a prouder position, that when siie tram- 
 pled on the necks of kings. The emancipa- 
 tion of the Serfs was another cause, equally 
 sacred, in which her exertions were repeated- 
 ly employed. In her interference in the con- 
 cerns of monarchs and nations, she frequently 
 appeared as the advocate of the weak, and 
 the adversary of arbitrary power. Even the 
 much abused law of Asylum f served through 
 a long period as a check on baronial oppres- 
 sion, rather than an encouragement to crime. 
 
 The duty of charity, during the better ages 
 of the Church, was by no means neglected 
 by the secular clergy, while it was the prac- 
 tice and office of the monastic establishments. 
 And even the discipline so strictly inculcated 
 by the earlier prelates, however arbitrary in 
 its exereise and pernicious in its abuse, was 
 not unprofitable in arresting the first steps 
 and restraining the earliest dispositions to sin. 
 Confession and penance, and the awfiil cen- 
 sures of the Churchy when dispensed with 
 discretion, must have been potent instruments 
 for the improvement of uncivilized society. 
 
 Vrinciples of Monachism. — The original 
 principles of monachism were entirely guilt- 
 less of the evils which flowed from it in later 
 ages. In J;he East, it was the passion for 
 retirement and contemplation which chiefly 
 contributed to people the mountains and wil- 
 dernesses with holy recluses. In the West, 
 it was rather a desire of association for useful 
 purposes, which caused the construction of 
 so many monasteries — schools were connect- 
 ed widi their establishment, and whatever 
 impulse was given to the human understand- 
 ing proceeded from them. In both, they were 
 eflTectual in drawing oflT from the virtual ex- 
 ercise of paganism tliose nominal proselytes. 
 
 * The ' Peace of the Church ' was first proclaimed 
 early in the eleventh century. The particular edict, 
 which was more formally promulgated at the Council 
 of Clermont, prohibited all private warfare from sun- 
 se: every Widnesday till sun-rise on the Monday 
 following, so 5.hat four days a week were sanctified 
 from acts of violence. On this occasion, we cannot, 
 perhaps, give the Pope much credit for his motives; 
 hut our question is not widi motives, but witli facts. 
 
 t This subject was made a matter of legislation in 
 the Theodosian and Justinian codes. It drew a de- 
 cree from Boniface V. in the seventh century; and in 
 the eighth the Lombard Kings passed some laws to 
 deprive the worst description of criminals of such 
 protection. The Abbots and Bishops were command- 
 ed, under severe penalties, to give up such fugitives 
 into the hands of civil justice. Consult Giannone, 
 lib. V. cap. vi. 
 
 extremely numerous in all ranks of the laity 
 who concealed, under the profession of Chris 
 tianity, a lingering affiiction for the hereditaiy 
 superstition. It is, indeed, true, that such an 
 institution could not have originated, except 
 in a very peculiar and unhaj)py condition of 
 society ; that it took root and flourished in 
 general demoralization, and public and pri- 
 vate misery. But on the other hand, it is 
 equally true, that it operated for some ages 
 with great eflicacy in abating the evils out of 
 which it sprang. 
 
 The rule of St. Benedict.was well calculat- 
 ed to imi)rove the generation to which it was 
 delivered ; and the retreats which he opened 
 gave security and employment to multitudes, 
 in the most calamitous period of Christian 
 history. No self-torture or maceration was 
 prescribed to his disciples by that reasonable 
 legislator — those were the inventions of the 
 later and more depraved ages of the Church, 
 when the fanaticism of some was found requi- 
 site to counterbalance the profligacy of others. 
 These changes insensibly took place, as the 
 monks departed step by step from the inde- 
 pendence of their original profession ; first 
 throwing oflT the character of laymen, and 
 obtaining admission into the ranks of the 
 clergy, by which they became subject to se- 
 vere oppression from the bishops ;* and then 
 gradually escaping from that yoke to the 
 more indulgent, but not less arbitrary, despo- 
 tism of the Pope. Nevertheless, even during 
 the decline of the monastic principles, some 
 sparks of former virtue were revived by the 
 frequent reformation of the old orders and 
 the establishment of new — some remains of 
 pristine excellence were very long preserved 
 amid the ruins of the system. 
 
 Mendicants distinguished as Missionaries.— 
 If we have been compelled on ipany occa 
 sions to notice the vices of the Mendicant 
 orders, and to observe how soon they became 
 the zealous agents of the Holy See in all its 
 worst practices and projects, so should we 
 not forget, that the same were for sometime 
 the most active ministers of the Church, in 
 
 * See Guizot (Hist. Moderne, Lec. 14. and 15.) 
 from whom some of the above observations are bor- 
 rowed. It is perhaps too hastily asserted in chap, 
 xix. (p. 311) of this work, that 'as late as the 
 eleventh age the monks were, for the most part, lay- 
 men.' The change had taken place earlier; and 
 though the distmction, such as it now exists, between 
 the monks and the lay brethren, was then first estab- 
 lished, it seems probable, that the greater pait of the 
 monks were already ecclesiastics, and that the lay 
 brothers were introduced, for the discharge of the 
 il inferior and more laborious offices. 
 
548 HISTORY OF 
 
 the discharge of its holiest offices. It is not 
 without reason, that Roman Catholic writers 
 vaunt the disinterested devotion of the early 
 Mendicants — how assiduous they were in 
 supplying the spiritul wants of the poor, how 
 frequent in prisons and in hospitals, how for- 
 ward to encounter the fire or the pestilence ; 
 how instant on all those occasions where the 
 peril was imminent, and the reward not in this 
 world. They were equally distinguished in 
 another, and not less righteous, duty, the pro- 
 pagation of Christianity among remote and 
 savage nations. A^e have noticed in a former 
 Chapter the method, by which the Gospel 
 was introduced into the North of Euroj:)c, 
 before the middle of the eleventh century. 
 In the twelfth, we observe Boleslaus, Duke 
 of Poland, opening the path for its reception 
 in Pomerania by the sword ; and in like 
 manner, both the Sclavonians and Finlanders 
 were prepared for conversion by conquest. 
 Again, Urban III. consecrated Mainhard, an 
 unsuccessful missionary, Bishop of the Livo- 
 nians, and proclaimed a holy war 'against 
 them; the Bishop conquered his See, and 
 promulgated at the head of an army the 
 tidings of evangelical concord. The same 
 methods were pursued by Innocent III. But 
 from that time forward we find much more 
 frequent mention of pious missionaries, whose 
 labors were directed to accomplish their groat 
 work by legitimate, or, at least, by peaceful 
 means. It may be true, that some of them 
 were satisfied with mere nominal conversions, 
 and that others had chiefly in view either 
 their own advancement, or the extension of 
 the papal sovereignty. But there were like- 
 Avise many, who were animated by the most 
 admirable motives, and whose exertions, if 
 they failed of complete success, failed not 
 through any want of disinterested devotion. 
 
 The missions of the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries were principally directed to 
 the North of Asia. In 1245, Innocent IV. 
 sent an embassy composed of Dominicans and 
 Franciscans to the Tartars; and a friendly 
 communication was so maintained, that the 
 envoys of Abaca, their king, were present, in 
 1274, at the second Council of Lyons. Nich- 
 olas III. (in 1278) and Nicholas IV (in 1289) 
 renewed those exertions. John of Monte 
 Corvino, a Franciscan, was distinguished dur- 
 ing the conclusion of the century by the suc- 
 cess of his labors ; * and in 1307, Clement V. 
 erected an Archicpiscopal See at Cambalu 
 (Pekin) which he conferred upon that mis- 
 
 ♦ He is recorded to liave translated the Gospels 
 and Paalrna into the language of tlie Tartars 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 sionary. Seven other Bi.jhopg, also Francis* 
 cans, were sent to his support by the same 
 Pope ; and this distant branch of the hierarchy 
 was carefully nourished by succeeding Pon- 
 tiffs, especially John XXII. and Benedict XII. 
 It is certain, that the number of Christians was 
 not inconsiderable, both among the Chinese 
 and Moguls, as late as the year 1370, — ana 
 they were still increasing, when they wert 
 suddenly swept away and almost vholly ex- 
 terminated by the Mahometan arms.* How 
 beit, the disastrous overthrow of their esta 
 blishment detracts nothing from the merit ot 
 those who constructed it ; and it must not b^ 
 forgotten that the instruments in this worl^" 
 we.e Mendicants, and, for the most pari 
 Franciscans. But during the following ag< 
 (the fifteenth,) there are no discoverable trace, 
 of the same spirit; nor can we refer with an; 
 satisfaction to the compulsory proselytism oi 
 the Moors of Spain, or to those spiritual con 
 quests which immediately followed the dis 
 coveries of the Portuguese and Spaniards. 
 
 When we reflect on the various excellcn 
 ces ascribed in the preceding paragraphs t^ 
 the Papal system, we cannot fail, howevei 
 unwillingly, to make two observations ; first, 
 that they had declined and almost disappeared 
 before the conclusion of the fifteenth century ; 
 next, that the greater part of them were only 
 adapted to times of civil anarchy or general 
 ignorance. But are we therefore to suppose, 
 that, even during the reign of Alexander VI., 
 the great Christian community of the" wesi 
 was wholly destitute of religious instruction, 
 or of examples of sacerdotal piety ? that the 
 practice of moral justice, or even of Evange- 
 lical righteousness, was entirely confined to 
 the sectarians of Bohemia, or of the Alpine 
 valleys? The prospect is not quite so gloomy; 
 the destinies of man were not thus abandoned 
 by his Creator. 
 
 Mysticism a source of piety. — (1.) Under 
 the respectable name of Mysticism much 
 genuine devotion was concealed, and many 
 ardent and humble aspirations poured forth 
 before the Throne of Grace. Since the intro- 
 duction of the supposed works of Dionysius 
 into the west (in the ninth century,) the flame 
 has ever continued to burn with more or less 
 
 * It is certain ^says Moslieim) that we have no 
 account of any members of the Latin Church residing 
 in Tartary, China, or among the Moguls, later than 
 tlie year 1370; nor could we ever learn the fate of 
 the Franciscan missionaries, who had been sent 
 thither from Rome. Yet some doubtful records may 
 seem to prove, thai there were Nestorians in CM\m 
 as late as the sixteenth age 
 
ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIFLIiNE, &c. 
 
 of intensity or languor, of purity or the con- 
 trary, according to the principles of the age, 
 the policy of the Church, and the character 
 of the prevalent literature. In the tenth and 
 eleventh centuries, we may search, indeed, 
 almost in vain for any useful records of the 
 piety of the Mystics — in the latter, some 
 traces, which they have left, are strongly 
 marked by visionary enthusiasm, and bear 
 no comparison with the more rational de- 
 votion of Anselm. In the twelfth, the age 
 of Abelard and his scholastic disciples, they 
 faintly* opposed the progress of that barren 
 system of speculative morality, which grew 
 out of the theology of the Schoolmen, and 
 which spread with such freezing prevalence 
 in the succeeding centui-y. Yet, while those 
 heartless teachers (the ' Patriarchs of Pedan- 
 try ') were classifying the duties of man, dis- 
 tinguishing moral from theological virtues, 
 minutely subtilizing and dissecting, and sub- 
 dividing their subdivisions — while they were 
 creating subjects for angiy dispute, rather 
 than holy meditation, and laboring in vain to 
 resolve the difficulties which themselves had 
 created, the Mystic Moralists formed an op- 
 posite, and not inconsiderable, party in the 
 Church. They ventured openly to combat 
 the positions of the Scholastics ; and they 
 were followed by those with whom religion 
 addressed the affections, rather than the rea- 
 son, and who more wilingly abandoned 
 themselves to an ardent emotion, than en- 
 gaged in an intellectual controversy. Thus 
 numerously supported, they commanded the 
 respect of their adversaries ; and some of 
 these even deigned to write commentaries on 
 the Book of the Areopagite. 
 
 Though not less opposed to the foshionable 
 casuistry' of the fourteenth age, they were 
 then less active, or at least less prominent ; it 
 5s probable that they employed that interval 
 m the purification of their own system, and 
 m cleansing away those fanciful absurdities 
 which had covered it with dishonor and ridi- 
 cule. At least, in the fifteenth century, they 
 again came fonvard with the show of a far 
 more rational piety than had heretofore distin- 
 guished them : uisomuch, that the Platonists 
 of the day strove to reconcile the warm de- 
 votion of the Mystical scheme with the plau- 
 sible ingenuity of the Scholastic, and thus 
 to construct a new and more perfect method 
 of moral theology. It is unquestionable that 
 they comprehended, together with the Pla- 
 tonists, many individuals of deep and ardent, 
 
 *Mosheim (Cent, xii." p. ii. chap, iii.) meniions 
 ;lie names of a few of their works. 
 
 though, it might be, misdirected, piety,* and 
 of the purest simplicity of moral conversation 
 Yet the age in wh'ch they flourished was de- 
 fective in expositions of Scripture ; the Ora- 
 cles of Truth were insufficiently consulted, 
 or injudiciously interpreted, even by the best 
 among the servants of the Church ; and the 
 Bookjf by which her pretensions were so soon 
 to be tried, was studied most successfully by 
 her enemies. The merits of the Mystics 
 were not sufficient either to reform, or to 
 preserve, the declining establishment. Their 
 sublime aspirations after the Divine presence 
 removed them too far from the ordinary 
 sphere of human action. In the abstract 
 contemplation of the attributes of the Deity 
 they lost the pOwer of influencing the coun- 
 sels of men; and their warm imagination 
 was not controlled by that firm and temperate 
 judgment, which is as essential for the good 
 government of churches, as of empires. 
 
 Virtues and Piety of the inferior Clergy. — 
 (2.) The real heroes of Ecclesiastical history 
 are those, whose belief and life are regulated 
 by the laws of Christ ; and the very circum- 
 stance, which constitutes their excellence, 
 ensures their obscurity. They are not with- 
 out their reward even in this world — but it 
 is not in the enjoyment of renown, or in the 
 hope of worldly immortality. It is in silence, 
 that they perform their offices of charity ; it 
 is in secrecy, that they fulfil the commands 
 of their Master ; it is in humility, that they 
 exalt their fellow creatures ; and as soon as 
 their peaceful course of usefulness is over> 
 they disappear, and leave no sort of trace or 
 record of their virtues. It is to the proud, the 
 turbulent, -the ambitious, to the fanatic or the 
 hypocrite, that the pages of the annalist are 
 principally consecrated ; and those whose life 
 has been an insult to their religion, stand far 
 more prominent in the Ecclesiastical picture, 
 than those who have loved and obeyed it. 
 It is not, th*at many have not existed, even in 
 the worst ages of the Church, whose almost 
 spontaneous piety has supplied its laws and 
 
 * Among the Mystics, Mosheim places Thomas k 
 Kempis, Lam'cntiiis Justinianus, Vincent Ferrier, 
 Savonarola, Bernard of Sienna. Among the Platon- 
 ists, John Gerson, Nicholas Casanus, Dionysius the 
 Carthusian, and others. 
 
 t The Bible Divines, who had been declining from 
 the thirteenth century, were now become nearly ex- 
 tinct. Books of Sentences and Sums of Schoolmen 
 were the principal objects of study; and when, in 
 1515, Erasmus published his edition of the New 
 Testajnent, and thus ' laid the egg which Luther 
 hatched,' the clergy exclaimed against the act 
 dangerous, if not impious. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 corrected its abuses, and refyaired, as far as 
 their private influence extended, the ruins of 
 its discipline — under whose sacred guar- 
 dianship the treasuras of life have been faith- 
 fully dispensed, and whose example has 
 given sanction to their instructions. It is not, 
 that even monastic depravity has not been 
 redeemed by thousands of instances of mo- 
 nastic excellence. But it is, that the vices 
 have been registered and blazoned, while the 
 opposite qualities have either attracted no 
 notice, or have generally been so exaggerat- 
 ed, as to revolt our reason and belief. Among 
 the numerous progeny of saints, so venerat- 
 ed by Catholics, so proscribed by Protestants, 
 there have been some examples of pure 
 Evangelical holiness ; there have been some 
 cardinals who have dared to deviate from the 
 rule of profligacy ; there have been many pre- 
 lates, eminent for learning and integrity, as the 
 History of National Churches and General 
 Councils sufficiently demonstrates. But such 
 characters were far more common among 
 the humble and undistinguished ])astors, who 
 were free from the vanity, the enthusiasm, or 
 the ambition, which so often lurks beneath 
 the garb of celebrated sanctity. Yet the eye 
 of the historian is fixed by the austere and 
 wonder-working Saint, by the pompous Pre- 
 late, and the intriguing and rapacious Car- 
 dinal, while it overlooks the plants wliich 
 flourish in the lower regions of serenity and 
 fruitfulness. Notwithstanding, it is scarcely 
 too much to affirm, that it was the zeal and 
 piety of the inferior clergy, which so long 
 supported the cumbrous machinery of the 
 Court and Prelacy of Rome. It was their 
 virtues, which sustained the vices of their 
 su|)eriors ; it was their humble piety, which 
 enabled mitred apostates so long to outrage 
 the name of Christ. And it was not till the 
 poison had descended to the extremities of 
 the system, and communicated even to the 
 village pastor some portion of its hierarchical 
 malignity, that the Church of Rome reeled to 
 its foundation, and l)y its weakness and de- 
 pravity invited and justified the rebellion of 
 its children. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Oil various Attempts to reform or subvert the 
 Church. 
 
 I. — An attentive consideration of the facts 
 and remarks advanced in the preceding sec- 
 tions will show, that in almost every partic- 
 ular, whether of internal y)olity, or ghostly 
 authority, or doctrinal purity, or dis(;i[)line, 
 or morals, the Church of Rome stood lower 
 
 at the end of the fifteenth century than at any 
 preceding period. There was one circum- 
 stance only in which it had gained ground. 
 The temporal power of St. Peter had been 
 exalted into a durable monarchy, and the 
 limits of the sacred patrimony extended and 
 secured, during the last decay of the spiritual 
 fabric. The era of Boniface VIII. was prob- 
 ably that, in which the various pretensions 
 of the See combined with the greatest effect 
 for its aggrandizement. Its territorial do- 
 mains were then respectable ; its clergy were 
 generally exempt from civil jurisdiction ; its 
 divine right to worldly power was not uni- 
 versally disputed ; its abuses were compar- 
 atively inoffensive ; its domestic enemies 
 were almost harmless. Then commenced its 
 downfal ; and it was precipitated through 
 two centuries of progressive calamity and 
 disgrace. Its constitution, which by the co- 
 operation of the Pope with the Cardinals and 
 General Councils presented the means of 
 regeneration, was suspended and perverted 
 by Eugenins IV. and the succeeding pontiffs. 
 In the pageantry of its ceremonies, in the 
 character of its festivals and its controversies, 
 it receded farther and farther from the so 
 berness of reason and the simpUcity of the 
 Gospel : and its moral degeneracy kept pace 
 with its other deprivations. On the other 
 hand, the general principles of society were 
 improved, and the laity had begun to shake 
 off the deep slumber of obedience and con- 
 formity. The corruption was universal, the 
 danger imminent; many even among the 
 prelates of the Church were not insensible to 
 either ; and some, who might perhaps have 
 tolerated the scandal, were moved by the 
 peril. Thus there grew up a large party 
 within the Church, who proclaimed the ne- 
 cessity of Reform. 
 
 JVature of the Reform attempted by the 
 Churchmen. — The necessity of some reform 
 having aroused the wisest and most virtuous 
 among the churchmen, questions might nat- 
 urally have grown up among them, to what 
 extent, and on what principles their work 
 ought to be conducted Yet on this sub- 
 ject no important difterence appears to have 
 arisen. A sacred barrier was placed befoie 
 them which separated that, which might be 
 touched, from that, which was inviolate ; and 
 it was guarded by irresistible prejudices. On 
 this side lay the field of discipline and tem- 
 poralities — on the other wore the mysterious 
 regions of Faith, embracijig all that mass ot 
 mingled truth and superstition, which the 
 Infallible Mother had imi)osed with equal 
 
VARIOUS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM, &c. 
 
 551 
 
 rigor, as eqiially holy upon her believing 
 children. Into the former space the Fathers 
 of Constance and Basle entered with some 
 boldness of upright determination; but it had 
 been sacrilege and heresy to have invaded the 
 latter. Hence it arose that the inost danger- 
 ous wounds were not examined, perhaps not 
 even suspected. ' In a mortal disease lenitives 
 were administered and oil applied ; '* and if 
 Some outward impurities were feebly reme- 
 died, their inward causes were purposely 
 covered from all inquiry with a venerable 
 veil. Thus, while all the genius and learning 
 of the Church were combined to repress 
 the abuses of Pontifical power — while the 
 Pontiff was essaying every art in defence of 
 those abuses — while anathemas were inter- 
 changed, and the contending parties seemed 
 to be emulating each other's rancor — no 
 question was for a moment started* as to the 
 legitimacy of that power. It was thought 
 much to deny the infallibility of the Pope, to 
 contest his absolute despotism ; but his su- 
 premacy was as sacred as the Church itself, 
 and the Church was identified with the re- 
 ligion. In this delusion both parties were 
 equally sincere ; and though the high Papists 
 were certainly the farthest removed from any 
 consideration of Gospel truth, it must be 
 admitted, that their opponents were almost 
 equally destitute of evangelical principles. 
 The Church was the exclusive object, to 
 which their education, their interests, their 
 prejudices, their enthusiasm, their very piety 
 attached thein. Within it whatever was holy 
 and righteous was concentrated. Without 
 it, all was blindness and rebellion and blas- 
 phemy ; and their belief was not so much, that 
 the Church was founded on the Bible, as that 
 the Bible was comprehended in the Church. 
 
 From men with such principles, it was to 
 be expected, that those who pleaded Scripture 
 as an independent testimony of truth — that 
 those who spoke even of truth as independent 
 of ecclesiastical authority, would meet with 
 no sympathy, and little mercy. Accordingly, 
 their advances towards reform were made 
 in the very bosom of orthodoxy. The most 
 frivolous superstitions were rather encour- 
 aged, than restrained; no innovation was 
 introduced, which could have startled the 
 bigotry of the most rigid Romanist. Nothing 
 was even remotely intended for change, ex- 
 cept the discipline. Yet even this depart- 
 
 *The Bishop of Segovia addressed this expression 
 to the Fathers of Trent, who, under still more dan- 
 gerous circumstances, were following the same policv. 
 See Padre Paolo, b. vi. 
 
 ment presented ample employ nient for the 
 hand of the reformer, had he entered upon 
 his work honestly and fearlessly. Ilovvbeit, 
 even on this groimd, unhallowed as it was 
 by any spiritual prejudices, those fathers did 
 not penetrate, in their boldest attempts, to the 
 roots of the evil. They confined their hos- 
 tility to the abuses which were of modern 
 origin. Their veneration for antiquity, thai 
 professional reverence for established prac- 
 tices, which so strongly characterized the 
 clergy of that Church, forbade them to search 
 very deeply or very generally. They endeav- 
 ored, indeed, to correct some disorders, which 
 had notoriously grown up during the two or « 
 three preceding ages ; it was a specious object 
 to abolish the corruptions of Avignon, to re- 
 pair the ruins of the schism I But they were 
 awed by the holy obscurity of earlier times ; 
 and the clumsy forgery of a monk of the 
 eighth century arrested the most enlightened 
 among the doctors of Constance and Basle. 
 
 Nevertheless, the schemes of the reformers, 
 though bearing no proportion to the real 
 emergencies of the Church, were wise as far 
 as they went, and calculated to prolong the 
 existing system. Had they been cordially 
 carried into effect, some useful improvements 
 would have been introduced, some unpopular 
 scandals removed ; the most distinguished 
 ecclesiastics would have rallied round the 
 Pope, and the laity would have respected, for 
 a certain time, the concessions and the union 
 of the clergy. But even this imperfect result 
 did not take place. It has been shown with 
 how great ])ertinacity the Pope and his profli 
 gate adherents fought the battle of corruption, , 
 and defended every abuse, which was fraught 
 with present profit, and future and early de- 
 struction.* In the struggle which divided 
 
 * 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 quinzieme siecle le Cardinal 
 (Julien), le plus grand homme de son temps, en 
 deplorait les maux, et en prevoyait la suite funeste 
 par ou il senible avoir predit ceux, que Luther allai 
 appreter toute la Chrestiente, en commen^ant pai 
 I'Allemagne; et il ne s'est pas trompe lorsqu'il a 
 cru, que la Reformation meprisee, et la haint 
 redoublee contre le Clerge allait enfanter une 
 secie plus redoutable d VEglisc, que celle des 
 Bohemiens. Elle est venue celte secte sous la con- 
 duite de Luther; et en prenant le titre de Reforme, 
 elle s'est vantee d'avoir accompli les voeux de toute 
 la Chrestiente, puisque la ref irmation estoit desiree 
 par les peuples, par les docteurs, et par les prelats 
 Catholiques.' Histoire des Variiitions, liv. i. 
 
,-^52 HISTORY OF 
 
 me Church, the policy of the hour prevailed. 
 The unity of power and design, the keen 
 sense of personal interest, the tyranny of in- 
 veterate prejudice, gave the triumph to the 
 less virtuous, the less provident, even the less 
 numerous party ; and after the fathers of Basle 
 had reluctantly dispersed, and their creature 
 Felix V. resigned the name of Pontiff, the 
 bark of St. Peter was urged forward by a gale 
 of unruffled prosperity, until suddenly, and 
 soon, and in the moment of most exulting se- 
 curity, it was dashed against the rocks and 
 shattered irreparably. 
 
 A circumstance, which may have suspend- 
 ed the downfal of the Church, was the ele- 
 vation of two Popes (Nicholas V. and Pius 
 II.), whose reputation and pursuits were in 
 harmony with the popular passion for re.viving 
 letters. Their personal qualities concealed 
 for a moment the vices of the system, and 
 substituted in public observation the splendor 
 of a literary court. Again, the overthrow of 
 the Eastern Empire, and the danger of Turk- 
 ish invasion, became powerful instruments 
 fur diverting attention from ecclesiastical 
 grievances: and the clamor for reform was, 
 for awhile, drowned in specious appeals to 
 the policy of princes, and the enthusiasm 
 of their subjects — but for awhile only. The 
 spirit of the age, when once decided and 
 pronounced, can neither be long eluded, nor 
 safely rCvsisted. A little time may be gained: 
 the progress of improvement may be slightly 
 retarded ; but it will presently spring forward 
 the more rapidly, as it has been the longer 
 held back. Now, the preceding century (the 
 fourteenth) was one of mixed and conflicting 
 principles ; it had not assumed any marked 
 or definite character; and thus the Church 
 marched safely through it, with all its de- 
 pravity on its head. But in the fifteenth, the 
 principles of society were fixed ; the general 
 voioe of Christendom proclaimed the necessi- 
 ty of reformation ; the high-church dominant 
 [)arty presumed to disobey, or, with equal 
 impolicy, descended to evasion ; and through 
 their own perver^ty they lell. And whether 
 it was, that they were too blind to see their 
 danger, or too obstinate to sacrifice their 
 vices, they fell by a fate, which few will 
 aflfect to deplore, and which none can deem 
 undeserved. 
 
 Howbcit, since tiie secession of the Protes- 
 tant communities, a gradual though tardy 
 reformation has been virtually accom[)lished 
 in the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 Its most extravagant jiretensions have been 
 generally withdrawn ; and if no important 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 change has been introduced into the body of 
 its doctrine, yet the abuse of some of its tenets 
 has been in some places mitigated; and its 
 discipline has been every where amended 
 and purified. When it had lost the half of 
 its dominions, it turned itself to improve and 
 preserve the rest — from the blow which cleft 
 its triple crown, it first began to learn the 
 wisdom of moderation; and to discover in 
 sackcloth and ashes, that its wisest counsellors* 
 and truest friends had ever been those, who 
 had warned it to repent and atnend. 
 
 II. Attempts to trace the. continuity of the 
 Protestant opinions to the Apostolical times. — 
 Several learned and pious Protestants have 
 attempted to trace the uninterrupted descent 
 of their doctrines, or at least of some essen- 
 tial portion of them, even from the apostolic 
 times. Great ingenuity and research have 
 been employed for this purpose, partly to 
 make it thus manifest, that the Almighty, 
 while he permitted so much iniquity to be 
 perpetrated in his name, did still nourish in 
 secret his true and perpetual Church ; partly, 
 that the perpetual succession of the ministry 
 might not seem wanting to the reformed 
 communities; partly, because the reverence 
 for antiquity, especially in ecclesiastical mat- 
 ters, has a powerful, perhaps an undue, influ- 
 ence on the greater part of mankind. For 
 these reasons very much has been written 
 about the ' Lutheranism which was prevalent 
 before Luther ; ' the unbroken series of ' Wit- 
 nesses of the truth;' the unceasing protesta- 
 tions which have been silently breathed in all 
 ages, against the abuses of Rome.* 
 
 * This subject has been treated by Bossuet, in 
 the eleventh chapter of his Variations, eloquently, 
 learnedly, and of course not impartially: and thus, 
 while he has unquestionably established many of his 
 positions, he has advanced others which are untena- 
 ble. (1) Respecting the Albigeois. He has estab- 
 lished that they were wholly distinct from the Vau- 
 dois: and that they held many opinions which are 
 condemned by all Protestants. But be has failed in 
 proving their Manichean origin — still more their 
 Manichean doctrines — for to make out this identity 
 he has invented so many marks or characters of 
 Manicheism, wholly unconnected with its original 
 and only true mark, the doctrine of the two princi- 
 ples, as to embrace under that name errors entire- 
 ly dissociated from it. He calls them indeed new 
 Manicheans, and admits that * they had softened 
 some of their errors.' But they had parted with the 
 characteristic error, cr, in fact, they had never held 
 it. For the same reason i e has failed in confounding 
 them with the Catharists, Bulgari, &c., who were 
 the real descendants of the Paulicians. (2) Respect 
 ing tlie Vaudois. He shows the great uncertainty 
 
VARIOUS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM, &o. 
 
 it is unquestionable, that so early as the 
 beginning of the twelfth century, some of the 
 Protestant opinions were openly professed, and 
 atoned for by death. And it is equally certain, 
 that, from the preaching of Peter de Bruis to 
 that of Luther, there have subsisted in some 
 quarter or other of the western community 
 various bodies of Sectaries,* who were at open 
 or secret variance with the Church of Rome 
 —who rejected, according to their respective 
 principles, in part or in whole, her tenets, or 
 her ceremonies, or her ministry. It may be 
 doubted, whether the Albigeois, in spite of 
 the crusades of Innocent, and the Inquisition 
 of Toulouse, w^ere ever entirely extirpated. 
 The Vaudois were certainly preserved through 
 
 perhaps the entire vanity, of their claims to a sepa- 
 rate descent from the Antenicene Church. He shows 
 that, at their first appearance, their differences with 
 Rome were less numerous and important than they 
 became afterwards: that they adopted some new 
 opinions after their union with the Protestants: that 
 they were the same with the Leonists and the Insab- 
 bates. But he does not establish liis assertion, that 
 they were fjunded by Peter Waldo of Lyons. (3) 
 Respecting the Bohemian Brethren. He rightly 
 supposes, that the Hussites were not descended from 
 the Vaudois ; and that the ' Brethren ' made some 
 doctrinal concessions on their union with the Luther- 
 ans. But when he asserts that Huss had no doctrinal 
 difference w4th the Church, except on the single 
 communion ; and that the same was the only subject 
 of disaffection with the Calistines; he has not fairly 
 represented either the one or the other. The * here- 
 sies ' of Huss were less bold and numerous than those 
 of Wicliff; those of the Calixtines than those of the 
 Tliaborites; and that respecting the cup was the 
 most publicly professed ; but it was associated with 
 others less notorious. In the meantime, we must 
 admit, that he has, in our opinion, established his 
 two leading positions; viz., that the Protestants fail 
 in their attempts to prove an uninterrupted succes- 
 sion; and that those whom they claim as their ances- 
 tors differed from them in numerous points of doc- 
 trine. We might notice some rash assertions on less 
 important points — but our readers are aware that 
 they, should be cautious in following Bossuet on his 
 jwn unsupported assertion — on that paro/e, ' toujours 
 eloquente ' (as Voltaire truly says of it) ' et quelque- 
 fois trompeuse.' 
 
 * It might seem scarcely necessary to remark, that 
 we have frequently, in the course of this work, used 
 the word Sect in its original and proper sense — of a 
 body of men united by certain tenets, — the sense in 
 which Tertullian used it (Ap(3t.. capi v.) when he 
 called the whole Christian community hanc Sectam. 
 Only it is a common error to connect with this term 
 the idea of cutting off, and thus to attach a degrad- 
 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 Wicliff were not lost in their rough 
 descent into the ocean ; and the spirit, which 
 rose out of the funeral flames of Huss, sur- 
 vived to expand in the bosoms of liis com- 
 patriots. 
 
 From this short catalogue we have pur- 
 posely excluded innumerable denominations 
 of heresy, of which there were ucarcely any 
 which did not, in some one respect, or in 
 more than one, anticipate the Confession of 
 Augsbourg. The various forms of Mysticism 
 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 the 
 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 Zuinglius,* there w^as not one 
 which furnished in all respects a faithful mo- 
 del for their more perfect reformation. There 
 were points on which they 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, and fell far short of the 
 subsequent doctrine of the latter. But there 
 were also many articles of essential impor- 
 tance, on which they opposed, with prematiu*e 
 independence, their reason and their Bible, 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 non-conformity. 
 But they sprang up before their season ; their 
 imperfect lights were unable to preserve them 
 fi'om error; curiosity and knowledge were 
 
 * Semler (Secul. xv. cap. iv. p. 218) enumerates 
 a variety of opinions hostile to the Church, in the 
 design to show that Luther was not so much the first 
 who came into the design of vindicating the public 
 Christian religion, as that he trod in footsteps clearly 
 traced before him — so tliat those are in error, who 
 consider the Reformation as a political, rather than a 
 religious, movement 
 
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 
 in tercepted 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 Constantino 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.* 
 
 * Tlie claims of the Protestant Mountaineers in 
 Paiipliine appear to be somewhat stronger than thoi^c 
 of the Vaudois; because (as has been mentioned) 
 neither the worship of images, nor the pontifical 
 jurisdiction was established in France, so early as 
 
 The Alhigeois. — When \fe turn the nii*- 
 tory of the Albfgeois, 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 waa 
 engendered by the contrast, so perceptible 
 even to the least instructed, between the cha- 
 racter of the Church and the first principles 
 
 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 as 
 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 An as 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 i\vts 
 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 anostles and martyrs — not extended 
 to the confessors, i. e. holy men, not martyrs (12.) 
 That church music is reprehensible. (13.) That itie 
 cross is not an object of worship, (14.) nor the 
 Saviour's image on the cross, nor any other image. 
 (15.) That tl>e orders of the hierarchy are objection- 
 able. (16.) That the doctrine of works (Justitia) 
 supersedes that of divine grace, and everj man's 
 hope of salvation lies in his own deserts (see Labbaei 
 Concil. torn. xix. p. 423. Ex Dacherii S|)icileg. 
 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. 
 
us TREATMENT OF HEREIICS. 
 
 565 
 
 of Christianity — its birth must at least have 
 succeedel 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, w^e 
 should identify those Dissenters (as some have 
 done) with the Cathari, the Gazari, Paterini, 
 Pubhcani, 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 protestani principles, were faith- 
 fully perpetuated in tliat heretical race. But 
 these attractive characteristics were tainted, 
 more or less deeply, by the poison of Man- 
 ichseism : 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 
 ])robability. 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, firom 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 even 
 if they were not so, the truth of the Protes- 
 tant principles would gain little assurance, 
 
 * Manes, a Persian, (the pretended Paraclete,) 
 propounded liis system, fur reconciling the Magian 
 wilh the Cluistian 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 
 liave seen) employed by the Gnostics for the corrup- 
 tion of Christianity, long before the time of Manes. 
 It is for this reason, that we have not bestowed that 
 attention on llie 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 Bayle, Article — Manicheens. 
 
 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 witliout 
 influence, nor even without peril to the pon- 
 tifical predominance. Innocent III. did not 
 despise their infancy : 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 de.struction. 
 He knew the real character of his own des- 
 potism, and the secret of its weakness ; and 
 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 httle 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 hy 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 stonn 
 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 
 1 to the effect, ' that temporal lords be admon 
 
556 HISTORY OF 
 
 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 tie 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 verp Dominiis Tem- 
 poralis requisitus et monitus ab ecclesia terram suam 
 purgare neglexerit ab hac heretica foeditate, per 
 metropolitanos et CcPteros episcopos comprovineiales 
 excommunicationis vinculo innodetur. Et si satis- 
 facere contempserit infra annum, significetur hoc 
 eummo pontifici: et extunc ipse vassallos ab ejus 
 fidelitate denuntiet absolutos, et terram exponet ca- 
 tholtcis occupendam . . . salvo jure domini principa- 
 lis, dummodo super hoc ipso nullum pra?stet obsta- 
 culum, nec alitjuod impedimcntum opponat: eadem 
 nihilominus U'.^v. sorvata circa cos, (pii non habent 
 domintjs princi[)alcs.' See Labb. Concil. Collect, torn, 
 xxii. p 981, ct dcq., et supra chap, xviii. p. 349. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 waa 
 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 ofSce 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 efl'ect nugatory. Thus, for instance, 
 respecting the abuses of pluralities and non-residence 
 — tlie fourtoenih canon of the Third Lateran Council 
 (held by Alexander III.) denounced both those prac- 
 tices in very strong terms, as in direct violation o^ 
 
INDIVIDUAL 
 
 lh«Nice 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 ecclesiasticum ministerium committi debuerit, 
 talis ad hoc persona qngeratur, quae residere in loco, 
 et curam ejus per seipsum valeat exeicere ' — on the 
 penalty of deprivation to the minister, and loss of 
 patronage to the patron. Innocent III., thirty-six 
 years afterwards, published a canon (the* twenty- 
 ninth) in the Fourth Latoran, on the same subject. 
 Herein, lie referred to tlie law of Alexander, men- 
 tioned the little fruit which it had produced, and 
 decreed in confirmation of it, ' ut quicunque receperit 
 aliquod beneficium habens curam animarum annex- 
 am, si prius tale beneficium (,i>tinebat, eo sit jure ipso 
 privatus: 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 souls. But then he concluded with 
 a salvo, which Alexander had not interposed, in 
 favor of the Pope's dispensing power; ' Circa sub- 
 limes tamen el literatas pcrsonas, quie majoribus sunt 
 beneficiis honorandse, 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 Pragela and driven to the summits -of the moun- 
 tains, where many died from starvation. In 1460 
 the Separatists in the Val Fressiniere (on the French 
 side) were persecuted by a Franciscan, under the 
 authority of the Archbishop of Ambrun. Every 
 Uiino; that fraud and calumny could invent seems on 
 
 REFORMERS. 557 
 
 were not victims, but enemies and warrior*' — 
 attention was turned to the perversity of the 
 Jews; and Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII. and 
 Alexander VI. added to their othiT 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 ma^'ked 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 1488 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 convertir les Bohemicns 
 (says Sismondi,) on voulait les trainer sur le bucher.' 
 We may plead the authority of that historian for the 
 justice of some of these last remarks. See likewise 
 Semler, Secul. xv. cap. iii. p. 51, &c. &c. Still it 
 should be observed, that a certain latitude of private 
 judgment, on certain subjects, was generally indulg- 
 ed to the members of the Church, as, for instance, 
 to many Mystics; but this was either' when the 
 ' Latitudinarians ' were in themselves deemed ini.o- 
 cent, or when the opinions touched none of the essen- 
 tials of the ecclesiastical system, none of the soiircee 
 of* dignity, revenue, &c. Thus, for example, in the 
 dispute between Luther and Cardinal Carvajal, there 
 were 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 he would retract his 
 error respecting indulgence?, the other affair could 
 be easily arranged. 
 
558 HISTORY OF 
 
 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, but not fruitless, 
 elforts 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 Testium Veritalis,' by Flaciiis, 
 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 particular#of 
 this Catalogue (which begins with Sacra Scriptura 
 and ends with Concilia XV. Seculi,) we select as 
 epeclmens the following names: — Constantinc, Greg- 
 ory the Great, Bede, Charlemagne, Claudius of Turin, 
 Hincmar, Paschasius Radbcrtus, Otho Frisingensis, 
 Nicholaus Orem., Scotus, Occam, Dante, Petrarch, 
 Wiclif, Gerson, Ziska, Peter of Luna, iEiicas Syl- 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 humble, 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 oflfered to grant him any re- 
 quest. Wesselus replied by a solemn exhor- 
 tation to the PontiflT, 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 Ho 
 brew Bible* which was given in consequence 
 
 vius, Platina, Trithemius, Wesalia, Wesselus, Savo- 
 narola, Machiavcl, and above all GermanitB vulgus 
 Reasons arc alleged under each of these names for itt 
 ' insertion in the honorable list 
 
INDIVIDUAL 
 
 of this dialogue, was long preserved in the 
 library at Groningen.* 
 
 Tnhn Laillier, — John Laillier, licentiate in 
 ineology, advanced, at Paris, in July, 1485, 
 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 ophiions 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 scaffialds to canonize a 
 saint, I am not bound to beheve 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 
 tliird part of it, according to the sense which 
 it presents, is heretical.' Proposition (V.) 
 ' The priests of the Eastern Church do no 
 sin in marr}'ing; 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- 
 
 * ' Haec nobis erunt curse; tu pro te aliquod pete. 
 Rogo, ergo, inquit Wesselus, ut milii detis ex Bibli- 
 olheca Vaticana Graeca et Hebraea Biblia. Ea, 
 inquit Sextus, tibi dabunlur — Sed tu stulte ; quare 
 non petis episcopatum aliquem, aut simile quidpiainl 
 Respondit Wesselus, quia iis non indigeo.' See 
 Vita IVesseli inter Vitas Professorum Gronin- 
 gens. Tlie story is there related as one. that was 
 frequently told by Wesselus himself. Some valuable 
 abstracts from tlie writings of this reformer are given 
 by Milner, History of the Church, end of cent. xv. 
 and Semler, cent. xv. cap. iv. p. 212 — 219. Bayle 
 calls him ' un des plus habiles hommes du quinzieme 
 siecle.' 
 
 REFORMERS. 559 
 
 gates from the authority of the Church, and, 
 if taken universally, is even heretical.' 
 
 Sentence of condemnation was passed m 
 the following year, and the offender was com- 
 manded to retract. He did so with \)erfect 
 humility. The Bishop of Paris immediately 
 granted him full and unconditional absolution. 
 But the faculty, less placable, prohibited hira 
 from proceeding to his doctor's degree, and 
 appealed from the bishop's decision to the 
 Pope. Innocent VIII. seems even to liave 
 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 has 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 
 born at Ferrara in 1452, the descendant of 
 an illustrious family. His early years gave 
 
 * This account is taken from the continuator of 
 Fleury (liv. cxvi. s. 30—38) who refers to D'Ar- 
 gentre Collectto. Judic, torn. i. p. 308. ann. 1484. 
 
 ■f Lest Spain should seem to have had no candidate 
 for admission into this venerable host, we should 
 mention that one Peter of Osma, professor of theolo- 
 gy at Salamanca, published some anti-papal ,ind anti- 
 ecclesiastical opinions in the year 1479. It is re- 
 markable, that the Pope, in condemning, refused to 
 specify them, on account of their enormity — ' to the 
 end, that those, who already know them, may the 
 sooner forget them; and that those, who know them 
 not, may learn no new sin.' See the continuator of 
 Fluery, lib. cxv. s. 2, 3. &c. 
 
660 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 indications of a profound religious feeling, 
 and he 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 ; 
 6ut 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, whicli 
 was already impending over Italy, should de- 
 scend and overwhelm it. He made no ap- 
 peals to reason, none to the ordinaiy 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) joner 
 h. la fois le rule de Jercmie 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 remind the 
 reader, that Sismondi compares the sort of mixed 
 influence, acquired by Savonarola over the people o 
 Flonnce, 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, ami 
 commit every kind of absurdity, f 
 
 Savonarola's interview with Charles VIll. — 
 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 uccasiors, the 
 following specimen (it can scarcely be a fair epeci* 
 men) of the popular effusions: — 
 
 ' Non fii mai piu bel solazzo * 
 Piii grande, ne maggiore, 
 Che per zelo e per amore 
 Di JESU — diventar pazzo — 
 Ognun gridi, com' io grido, 
 Sempre pazzo, pazzo, pazzo ' 
 
INDIVIDUAL 
 
 commissioned lo chastise the crimes of Italy. 
 The monk presented hinjself. before the vic- 
 torious monarch, as the ambassador of a sup- 
 phant 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 hj^ customaiy 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 
 ajid 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 ; 
 against 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 thee 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 servant 
 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 sentences of the prophet's 
 harangue. Sismondi (wlio displays even more than 
 his usual eloquence in his account of this enthusiast) 
 has translated the whole address, chap, xciii- 
 
 REFORMERS. 551 
 
 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, thai 
 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 came 
 Luther, and set fire to the crooked ones, &c. Reuch- 
 lin was honored by the hatred of the monks, who wonld 
 willingly have fixed upon him the imputation of heresy 
 
►,52 HISTORY OF 
 
 died in 1522, :ind 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 
 "^athers; he had covered with ridicule and 
 contempt the vices of the monks, and their 
 love for the ignorance in w^hich 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 
 superstition, 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, 
 anil condemned by civil, historians. 
 
 t 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 
 af celibacy, there were better for repealing it, was 
 Q0\/ in every aian's mouth. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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 against 
 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 
 \\\s last moments, that his greatest regret in dying 
 
ABUSES DISPLAYED IN GERMANY. 
 
 5bS 
 
 pernicious efficacy as in Germany. The 
 privileges of the Jubilee, so fruitful to the See 
 which gi-anted. 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 
 j)eople exhibit an extraordinary passion for 
 reading the Scriptures ; | and if the Court 
 
 was to leave to his poor subjects the burden of buying 
 the pallium o( 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, commendams, annates ; 
 exemptions of ecclesiastics from the legal punish- 
 ments; excommunications and unlawful interdicts; 
 secular causes tried before ecclesiastical tribunals; 
 great expenses in consecrating churches and cemete- 
 ries; pecuniary penance; fees for sacraments, burials, 
 &c. P. Paolo, Hist. Concil. Trident, lib. i. n. 65. 
 
 t On Aug. 23, 1520, Luther wrote to Spalatin, 
 • that he dreaded neither censures nor violence; that 
 lie had a safe asylum in the hearts of the Germans, 
 nnd that his enemies should beware, lest, in destroy- 
 ing one adversary, they should give birth to many.' 
 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 sophists exercise their 
 ingenuity. The people are thir&ling 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 followed. 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 
 they 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 [)re- 
 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 nevei 
 more numerous or more zealous ic 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 attemptea 
 to close the source against them, they will open it 
 for themselves by force.'' 'i'his letter is translated 
 by Beausobre. Hist. Ref. liv. iv 
 
564 HISTORY OF 
 
 she did not so readily discern the moral 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 Pope 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, Hiat. Concil. Trident, liv. i. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 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. 
 
 POFES. 
 
 Linus - - - - 
 
 Anacletus - 
 
 Clement - - - 
 
 Alexander - - - 
 
 Sixtus - - - - 
 
 Telesphorus 
 
 Hygiims - 
 
 Pius . - - - 
 
 Anicetus - 
 
 Soter - - - - 
 
 Eleutherus* - 
 
 Victor _ - - 
 
 Zephyrinus - - - 
 
 Gallistus _ . - 
 
 Urban - - - - 
 
 Pontianus - 
 
 Anterus . - - 
 
 Fabianus - 
 
 Cornelius - 
 A Schism between Corne- 
 lius and Novatian. 
 
 Lucius - 
 
 Stephen - 
 
 Sixtus II. - - - 
 
 Dionvsius - 
 
 Felix" - - - - 
 Eutychianus 
 
 Caius - - - - 
 
 Marcellinus 
 
 Marcellus - 
 
 Eusebius - 
 
 Melchiades - 
 
 Sylvester - - - 
 Mark - 
 
 Julius - - - 
 
 Liberius - 
 A Schism between Liber 
 and Felix. 
 
 Died. 
 
 78 
 91 
 100 
 116 
 126 
 137 
 141 
 157 
 168 
 177 
 192 
 196 
 
 219 
 224 
 231 
 235 
 236 
 251 
 253 
 
 255 
 257 
 259 
 271 
 275 
 283 
 296 
 
 304 
 309 
 311 
 t314 
 
 335 
 
 336 
 352 
 
 367 
 
 Eminent Persons connected with 
 Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 Pliny the Younger. Ignatius. 
 Tacitus. 
 
 Justin Martyr. 
 Polycarp. 
 
 Montanus. 
 Pantsenus. 
 Irengeus. 
 
 Ammonias Saccas. 
 Clemens Alexandrinus. 
 Tertullian. 
 Origen. Celsus. 
 
 Sabellius. 
 Cyprian. 
 
 Paul of Samosata. 
 
 Manes. 
 
 Porphyry. 
 
 Lactantius. 
 
 Constantine. Eusebius of Cse- 
 sarea. Arius. Eusebius of 
 Nicomedia. Athanasius. 
 
 Constantius. 
 Martin of Tours. 
 
 Julian. Ainmianus Marcellinus. 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 Gregoiy Nazianzenus. 
 Basil. Gregory of Nyssa. 
 Priscillian. 
 
 Important Councils 
 
 A Synod at Rome 
 against Novatian 
 (251). 
 
 Synod at Carthage 
 (256), by Cyprian, 
 on the Baptism of 
 Heretics. 
 
 Synod at Antioch 
 (269), against Paul 
 of Samosata. 
 
 Aries (314), against 
 
 the Donatists. 
 I. {General\.) Tlie 
 
 Council of JVice 
 
 (325). 
 
 Synod of Tyre (335), 
 against Athanasius. 
 Council of Seleucia 
 
 (359) , held by the 
 Semi-arians. 
 
 Council of Rimini 
 
 (360) . 
 
 Synod of Saragossa 
 (380) against Priscil- 
 lian. 
 
 * The succession of the earliest Bishops of Rome and the duration of their government are involved in inexplica- 
 ble confusion. We have followed Spanheim. 
 
 ■f The Jndiction was a cycle of three lustres, or a revolution of fifteen years. It was instituted by Constantine soon 
 after his victory over Maxentius (September 24, 312), and the financial accounts for the payment of tribute were reg- 
 ulated by this term. At the Council of Nice the method of Indiction was substituted for that of Olympiads. The 
 year of the first Indiction began January I, 313; consequently, to find this Indiction, subtract 312 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 tlieir bulls and diplomas. 
 
 X The Italics designate the Councils I e'd General by the Latin Church. 
 
566 
 
 A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EMINENT MEN, 
 
 Died. 
 
 Eminent Persons connected with 
 Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 Important Councils. 
 
 Damasus _ - - 
 Schism between Damasus 
 and Ursicinus 
 
 Siricius - 
 
 Anastasius - 
 
 Innocent - 
 
 Zosimus _ - - 
 
 Boniface - 
 
 Schism between Bonifiice 
 
 and EulaHus 
 Celestine - 
 
 Sixtus III. 
 
 Leo the Great 
 Hilary - - - - 
 Simplicius - 
 Felix 11. 
 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 Vigilhis. 
 
 Vigilius - - - 
 
 Pelagius - 
 
 John III. 
 
 Benedict - 
 
 Pelagius II. - 
 
 Gregory the Great 
 
 Sabinianus 
 
 Boniface III. - 
 
 Boniface IV. - 
 
 Deodatus 
 
 Boniface V. 
 
 Honorius 
 
 Scverinus 
 
 John IV. 
 
 Theodore 
 
 Martin 
 
 Eugenius 
 
 Vitalianus 
 
 Adrodatus 
 
 Domnus 
 
 Agatho 
 
 385 
 
 398 
 
 402 
 417 
 418 
 423 
 
 432 
 440 
 
 461 
 467 
 
 483 
 492 
 496 
 498 
 
 514 
 5^d 
 526 
 530 
 532 
 
 535 
 536 
 540 
 
 555 
 559 
 573 
 577 
 
 590 
 
 604 
 605 
 606 
 614 
 617 
 6^5 
 638 
 639 
 641 
 648 
 655 
 656 
 669 
 676 
 678 
 682 
 
 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. 
 
 VigiliaS 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. 
 
 Ilcraclius. 
 
 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 of Ephe 
 sus (431 ), against 
 Nestorius. 
 
 Second {False) Coun 
 cil ofEphesus(449), 
 
 IV. Council of Choice - 
 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 the 
 Arians. 
 
 VI. Cousianlinopte^ 
 (680), against the 
 Monotlielites. 
 
AND OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS. 
 
 567 
 
 Popes. 
 
 Leo II. 
 
 Benedict II. - 
 JohnV. 
 
 Conon . - ~ 
 
 Sergius _ - - 
 JohnVL 
 
 John VII. - 
 
 Sisinnius _ _ - 
 
 Constantine - - - 
 
 Gregory II. - 
 
 Gregory III. - 
 
 Zachaiy - 
 
 Stephen II. - 
 
 Stephen III. - - - 
 
 Paul - - - - 
 Sell ism between Paul and 
 
 Theophylact. 
 
 Stephen IV. - 
 
 Adrian - - - 
 
 SSgQ 
 
 Leo III. 
 
 Stephen V. 
 Paschal 
 
 Eugenius II. 
 
 Valentine 
 Gregory IV. 
 
 Sergius II. 
 
 Leo IV. 
 
 f Benedict 
 Schism. 
 Nicholas 
 Adrian II. 
 
 John VIII. 
 Martin II. 
 Adrian [II. 
 Stephen VI. 
 
 Died, 
 
 684 
 
 685 
 686 
 
 687 
 
 701 
 704 
 707 
 707 
 714 
 731 
 741 
 752 
 752 
 757 
 767 
 
 772 
 795 
 
 816 
 
 817 
 824 
 
 827 
 
 827 
 
 844 
 
 847 
 854 
 
 858 
 
 867 
 872 
 
 882 
 884 
 885 
 890 
 
 Eminent Persons connected witli 
 Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 The Venerable Bede. 
 
 St. Boniface, the Apostle of 
 
 Germany. 
 Leo the Isaurian. 
 Charles Martel. 
 Archbishop Cuthbert. 
 Pepin, king of France. 
 John Damascenus. 
 Paul the Lombard. 
 
 Charlemagne. 
 Alcuin. Eginhardt. 
 
 Benedict of Aniane. 
 Lewis the Meek. 
 
 Claudius Bishop of Turin. 
 
 Rabanus Maurus. 
 Ansgarius. 
 
 Paschasius Radbertus. 
 Ratramn. John Scotus. 
 Godeschalcus. Rabanus Mau- 
 rus. 
 
 Photius raised to see of C. P. 
 Charles the Bald. 
 Hincmar of Rheims. 
 Lupus of Ferrara. 
 Petrus Siculus. 
 
 Anastasius the Librarian. 
 John the Deacon. 
 
 Alfred. 
 
 Important Councils. 
 
 Council of Toledo 
 (682), deposed Vam- 
 ba. King of the Vis- 
 igoths. 
 
 Constantinople, in 
 Trullo (692) (Qui- 
 ni-sextum)* on the 
 marriage of the Cler- 
 gy, &c. 
 
 The last Council of 
 Toledo (696). 
 
 Constantinople (754), 
 against Images. 
 
 VII. jYlce (787), 
 Seventh General, 
 for the restoration 
 of Images. 
 
 Aix la Chapelle (789) 
 for Reformation. 
 
 Francfort (794), 
 against Image-wor- 
 ship. 
 
 Others at Aix la Cha- 
 pelle (in 797 799, 
 802, 809, 816, 817 
 818, 819). 
 Five CouncOs, held 
 in 813, at Aries, 
 Mayence, Rheims, 
 Tours, and Clia 
 Ions. 
 
 Paris (824), on Image 
 worship. 
 
 Mayence (848), against 
 Godeschalcns 
 
 VIII. [Latin] Con- 
 stantinople (869), for 
 the condemnation of 
 Photius. 
 Constantinople (879) 
 held by Photius, 
 called by the Latins 
 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 
 Trullus (Cupola) ; 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 Rome ; on which account the 
 Latins do not hold it general. Mosh., cent. vii. p. 2, ch. 5. 
 
 t It is to this place that the fable of the female pope, Joan, seems properly to belong. 
 
-5^8 
 
 A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ExMINENT MEN, 
 
 Popes. 
 
 Died. 
 
 Eminent Persons connected with 
 Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 Important Council* 
 
 Fonnosus 
 Schism. 
 Boniface VI. 
 
 Stephen VII. 
 Schism. 
 Jonn 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. - 
 
 Agapetiis II. - 
 John XIL - 
 Schism. 
 Benedict V. - 
 Leo VIIL - 
 John XIII. - 
 Domnus II. - 
 Benedict VI. - 
 Boniface VII. 
 Benedict VII. 
 John XIV. - 
 John XV. - 
 John XVL - 
 Gregoiy V. 
 Schism. 
 
 Sylvester II. - 
 John XVIII. - 
 John XII. - 
 Sergius IV. - 
 Benedict VIIl. 
 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 in. - 
 
 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 
 
 St. Odo, Abbot of Cluni. 
 
 Frodoard, Canon of Rheims, 
 Otho the Great. 
 Bernhard of Thuringia. 
 Liutprand, Otho's Legate at C. 
 P. 
 
 St. Dup.stan. 
 
 Michel Ceridarius. 
 
 Petrus Damiani. 
 
 Lanfranc. 
 
 Berenger. 
 
 Henry IV. of Germany. 
 St. Bruno. 
 
 Roscellinus. Anselm. 
 Peter tlie Hermit. 
 
 Council at Orleans- 
 some Heretics burnt 
 (1017). 
 
 Council of Nich. IL 
 (1059) regulating 
 Papal election. 
 
 At Rome, against Ber- 
 enger. 
 
 Placentia and Cler- 
 mont (1095) orig- 
 inate first crusade. 
 
AJND OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS. 
 
 569 
 
 Popes. 
 
 Paschal II. 
 Schism. 
 
 Gelasius II. - 
 Calixtus II. - 
 
 Honorius II. - 
 
 Innocent II. - 
 Celestine II. - 
 Lucius II. 
 Eugenius III. 
 Anastasius IV. 
 Adrian IV. - 
 Schism. 
 
 Alexander III. 
 Lucius III. 
 Urban III. - 
 Gregory VIII. 
 Clement III. 
 Celestine III. 
 
 Innocent III. 
 Honorius III 
 Gregory IX. 
 Celestine IV. 
 
 Innocent IV. 
 
 Alexander IV. 
 Urban IV. - 
 Clement IV. 
 Gregoi-y X. 
 Innocent V. 
 Adrian V. - - 
 John XXI. - 
 Nicholas III. - 
 Martin IV. - 
 Honorius IV. 
 Nicholas IV. 
 Celestuie V. (abdicted) 
 
 Boniface VIII. 
 Benedict XL - 
 Clement V. - 
 JohnXXIL - 
 
 Benedict XII. 
 
 Died. 
 
 1118 
 
 1119 
 
 1124 
 
 1130 
 
 1143 
 1144 
 1145 
 1153 
 1154 
 1159 
 
 1181 
 1185 
 1187 
 1188 
 1191 
 1199 
 
 1216 
 1227 
 1241 
 1243 
 
 1254 
 
 1261 
 1264 
 1268 
 1276 
 1276 
 1276 
 1277 
 1280 
 1285 
 1288 
 1292 
 1294 
 
 1303 
 1304 
 1314 
 1334 
 
 1342 
 
 Eminent Persons connected with 
 Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 Pierre de Bruis. 
 Peter the Venerable. 
 
 Abelard. 
 
 Bernard of Clairval. 
 Henri the Heretic. 
 
 Otho Frisingensis. 
 Gratian of Bologna. 
 Peter the Lombard. 
 Arnold of Brescia. 
 Frederic Barbarossa. 
 Thomas a Becket. 
 Peter Waldus. 
 
 Dominic. 
 
 Simon de Montfort. 
 Francis d'Assisi. 
 
 John of Parma. 
 Robert Grossetete. 
 Frederic II. 
 Louis IX. of France. 
 Robert of Sorbonne. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas. 
 Bonaventura. 
 Roger Bacon. 
 
 Matthew Paris. 
 
 Philip the Fair 
 Dante. 
 
 Louis of Bavaria. 
 John Duns Scotus. 
 William Occam. 
 Marsilius of Padua. 
 
 Important Councils. 
 
 A Lateran Council 
 (1111), which can- 
 celled Paschai's 
 treaty with Henry 
 
 At Worms (1122), on 
 question of Investi 
 tures. Calixt. II. 
 
 IX. [Latin). First 
 Lateran Council 
 (1123), on Investi 
 tures. Twenty-two 
 canons. 
 
 Council of Pisa (1134). 
 
 X. [Latin). Secoiia 
 Lateran (1139), 
 against Heretics ; 
 for the general 
 Reformation of the 
 Church. 30 can- 
 ons are extant. 
 
 XI. [Latin). Third 
 Lateran (1179), for 
 the airangement 
 of Papal Election ; 
 against Heretics ; 
 and for the Re- 
 formation of the 
 Church.* 
 
 Council of Paris 
 (1212). 
 
 XII. [Latin). Fourth 
 Lateran (1215), un- 
 der Innocent HI. 
 
 XIIL [Latin). First 
 Council of Lyons 
 (1245), under Inno- 
 cent IV. 
 
 XIV. [Latin). Second 
 of Lyons (1274), 
 under- Gregory X. 
 
 XV. [Latin). Council 
 of Vienne (1311), 
 under Clement V. 
 
 * The substance of the principal Canons of the First Lateran is briefly given at page 257. Of the Second, the Ninth 
 Canon prohibited Monks and Canons Regular from practising Civil Law or Medicine ; the Thirteenth was directed 
 against usurers ; the Fifteenth protected the persons of the Clergy and the right of Asylum. The condemnation of 
 Petrus Leonis and of Arnold of Brescia were separate Acts of Legislation. Of the TTiird, the First Canon ordained, 
 rtjspecting papal election, that if the Cardinals should not be unanimous in their choice, two-thirds of the votes, 
 and not less than two-thirds, should be sufficient. Of the Fourth, the most important Canons have been mentioneo 
 >n various places. 
 
 72 
 
570 
 
 A CHRONOLOlilUAL 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. 
 
 SixtusIV. 
 Innocent VIII. 
 
 Alexander VI. 
 
 Pius III. - 
 
 Julius II. - - - 
 
 Leo X. - - - 
 
 Died. 
 
 1352 
 1362 
 
 1370 
 1378 
 1389 
 1394 
 
 1404 
 1406 
 
 1409 
 
 1409 
 1410 
 1415 
 
 1431 
 1447 
 
 1455 
 1458 
 1464 
 1471 
 
 1484 
 1492 
 
 1503 
 1503 
 1513 
 
 Eminent Persons connected with 
 Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 Jovanni and Matteo Villani. 
 
 Petrarch. 
 
 St. Brigida. 
 
 John Wiclif. 
 
 St. Catharine of Sienna. 
 
 Theodoric of Niem. 
 
 Pien-e d'Ailly. 
 Nicholas de Clemangis. 
 John Gerson. 
 John Huss. 
 Jerome of Prague. 
 Sigismond. 
 Poggio of Florence. 
 Leonardus Aretinus. 
 Julian Cesarini. 
 The Cardinal of AtIcs. 
 -^neas Sylvius. 
 Laurentius Valla. 
 
 St. Antoninus, A. B. of Flor- 
 
 ence. 
 John of Wesalia. 
 John Wesselus. 
 John Laillier. 
 Jerome Savonarola. 
 
 Cardinal Ximenea*. 
 Erasmus. 
 
 Luther. 
 
 Important Councils. 
 
 Pisa (1407). _ 
 XVI. {Latin). Con- 
 stance (1414). 
 
 XVIT. {Latin). Basle 
 (1431). 
 
 XVIII. {Latin). Fifth 
 Lateran, by Julius 
 IL (1512.) 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbe 5es, 324 
 Abbots, their office, 311 
 
 Abelard, account of, 270 ; his disputes with St. 
 
 Bernard, 271 
 Adamites, the, a sect of Bohemian fanatics, 473 
 Adrian I., 195 
 
 IV. (Nicholas Breakspeare) 258 
 
 iElia Capitolina, new city founded by Adrian 
 from the ruins of Jerusalem, 30 
 
 .^neas Sylvius (Piccolomini) espouses the pre- 
 tensions of the pope after advocating the im- 
 perial claims, 502 ; account of him, 503 ; raised 
 to the pontificate on the death of Calixtus TIL, 
 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 
 
 Agapae, 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 ; encourages 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 sclieme 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 
 
 \ndrew, St., his relics brought from Greece by 
 Palaeologus, 
 
 Angelo, St., cardinal of See Cesarini. 
 
 Annates, or first year's income of vacant bene- 
 fices, disputes relative to, between the pope 
 and tht* council of Constance, 446 ; restored 
 after being abolished by the Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion, 521 , note 
 
 Anselm, his writings, 270, note 
 
 Ansgarius 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 Laodicasa, 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, 102 
 
 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 
 Basle, 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 imputed to them by the pontiff, 496 
 
 Arnold of Brescia, an early reformer, 258 ; put to 
 death, 259; 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 Caesarea, introduces mo- 
 nachism into the Greek church, 300 
 
 Basle, council of, convoked, 447; its objects, 447; 
 contentions with Eugenius 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 Amadeus, duke of 
 Savoy (Felix V.,) 455; and dissolves itself, 
 4.55; 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, 303 
 
 , St., of Murcia, founder of an order of 
 
 monks, 306-; its rule, 306 
 
 XII. attempts to reform some of the abu- 
 ses in the church and the monastic orders 338 
 
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 Tliaborites, 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 Sanctam, 252; he is seized by 
 the French, 353 ; his singular death, 354 
 
 IX. (Pietro Tomacelli) elected on the 
 
 death of Urban VI., 412; his avarice, 412; 
 permits Cologne and Magdeburg to hold 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. 
 
 CfEsar, 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 Petrobrussians, burnt alive, 287 
 Burgundians, converted to Christianity, \\(j,notc 
 
 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 Nicholag 
 v., 502; introduces the system of Nepotism, 
 502 
 
 Calumnies against the early Christians, 65 
 Cambalu ( Pekin, ) see of, founded bv Clement 
 v., 548' 
 
 Canonization, first instance of, 505, nofe 
 
 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 tHle, 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 cf 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 W^est- 
 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 m rfie 
 ninth century, 228 
 
 Clement v., archbishop of Bourdeaux, conditions 
 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 
 
EX. 
 
 Clement VI. shortens the period of the Jubilee to 
 fifty years, 3d9; his quarrels with Louis of 
 Bavaria, 389 ; his profligate character, 390 
 
 Vn. 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, 194 ; condition 
 and morals in the ninth century, 2G4 ; their 
 general immoraUty, 546 
 
 Clovis, king of the Franks, converted to Chris- 
 tianity, 116 
 
 Cluni, monastic order of, founded. 310 
 
 Coenobites, 299 
 
 Communion, the cup forbidden to the laity, 
 542 
 
 Community of property among the early Chris- 
 tians doubtful, 43 
 
 Conclave, the, institution of, 532 
 
 Concubinage of the clergy, 546 
 
 Confession introduced by St. Leo, 120; estab- 
 lished, 228,286 
 
 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, 85; 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, 105 
 
 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, 100; Chalcedon, 120; fourth 
 council of Carthage, 124; Toledo, 146; Pla- 
 centia. 253 ; Clermont, 253 ; the first Lateran, 
 257 ; Vienne, 382; Constance, 422; Ferrara, 
 453 
 
 , general, 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 
 
 Daemoniacs, ISO 
 
 Damascenus, John, last of the Greek fathers, 
 171 
 
 Dancers, sect of, in Belgium, 433 
 Dauphin6, protestants in, 554, note 
 
 Deacons, their office, 42 
 
 Dead, prayers for, first introduced, 54 
 
 Decretals, papal, 374 ; Gratian's collection olj 
 
 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 
 Docetae, sect of, 75 
 Dominic, St., 315 
 
 Dominicans, 316, 317 ; their dispute with tiie 
 
 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, 'diS 
 
 Ebionites, their doctrines, 75 
 
 Eclectics, sect of, 54 
 
 Education and theological learning, 262 
 
 Ecclesiastical property, 276 
 
 Egypt, monks of, 299 
 
 Election, papal, independence of, 205 ; regula- 
 tions regarding, passed by the second council 
 of Lyons, 344 
 
 Eligius, St., bishop of Noyon, specimen of hia 
 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, 16*4 ; 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 after 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 
 
 France, Christianity introduced into, 37 
 
 Francis, St., of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan 
 order, 316 ; 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, 
 251) 
 
 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., 3G2 
 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 
 
 Gnosticn, 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 Pauii- 
 cians, 478; heresies imputed to them, 478; 
 prevalence of mysticism in the east, 479; 
 Euchites, or Messalians, 480; Hesychasts, or 
 Quietists, 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 JNice, 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 ; 
 
 VI [. (see Hildchrand) interdicts the mar- 
 riage of the clergy, 235 ; and simony, 236 ; 
 excommunicates the Emperor Henry IV., 238 ; 
 his temporal usurpations, 240 ; his objects in 
 tbc internal 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 
 
 i Xn., 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, noti 
 
 Henricians, the sect of, 287 
 
 Henry IV., emperor, calls a council at Worms, 
 which deposes Gregory VIL, 238; is excom- 
 municated by him, 238; 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 il., 
 235; See Gregory VIL 
 
 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 in 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 Inquisitov-s 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 
 
 qftarrels regarding it, 256 
 Irenacus, 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, 484 
 church of, 30 
 
 John XXII., succeeds Clement V., after a lapse 
 of two years, 384 ; his avarice and rapacity, 
 384 ; 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, 380 ; 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, 426; is deposed, 426; 
 acknowledges Martin V., 432 ; his character, 
 432 
 
 Tortin, his character of St. Austin, 134, note; of 
 Gregory the Great, 138 ; note 
 
 Jovinian, his attempt to reforiii monastic asceti- 
 cism, 158 
 
 Jubilee, institution of the, 374 
 
 Julian the Apostate, 106 ; 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 VIII., 514; succeeds 
 Pius III., 516 ; his military character, 517; his 
 patronage of the arts, 518 ; he excommunicates 
 a council convoked by same cardinals at Pisa, 
 519 ; convokes the fifth La^c ran council. 519; 
 dies, 519; 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, 276 ; the fourth, 285; the fifth 
 convoked by Julius II., 519 ; its canons of re- 
 formation, 519; 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, 119 ; introduces private confession 
 120 
 
 the Isaurian, (emperor) attempts to abolish 
 
 idolatrous worship, 167 
 
 IX., attempt at church reform by, 232 
 
 X., (see Medici, Giovanni de) succeeds 
 
 Julius II , 519 ; his decree against the press, 
 520; he abolishes the Pragmatic Sanction, 520; 
 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.) accouKtof, 355 ; obtains the orig- 
 inal crown of thorns, 356; his death, 357 ; 
 canonized by Boniface VIII., 357 
 
 Libanius, his apology for paganism, 111, note 
 
 Literature, decline of, 122; the clergy intei die- 
 ted from secular literature, 124 ; state of 
 learning before the tenth century, 224 
 
 Christian, in the third century, 50 
 
 nortc 
 
 theological, three feras of, 207 
 
 Liturgy, the Latin, established by Gregory VIl., 
 249 
 
 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, 399 
 
 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, 498 
 Marriage of the clergy prohibited, 235 
 Mardn, St., (pope) carried captive to Constanti- 
 nople, 148 
 St., (of Tours) 157 
 
 IV., miracles said to be worked at his 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, made 
 
 cardinal by Innocent VIII., at the age of thir- 
 teen, 5]l,7iote; succeeds Julius II., 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, ?iote , 
 their contest with the cures about confession, 
 404 
 
 Metropolitans, decline of their power, 146 
 
 Millennium, opinions regarding, 56 ; general ex- 
 pectation of, in the tenth century, 223 
 
 Minimes, order of, founded by Francisco of Pau- 
 la, and confirmed by Sixtus IV., 510 
 
 Minorites, or Fratricelli, the, condemned by John 
 XXII. as heretics, 397; 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 progioss in the East. 
 297; 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 monachisni in the West, 307 ; order 
 of Cluni,309; general remarks on monachism, 
 32G ; successive reformations in the system, 
 327 ; advantages produced by it, 328 ; super- 
 stition encouraged by it, 332 ; the monastic 
 orders gradually become dependent on the 
 pope, 333 ; their vi^ealth, 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. Eligius, 
 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 11. , 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; C]uni,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 
 eccleBiastical 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 emperoi 
 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 dar gerous 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, Recount 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 persecut: ons, 
 69 
 
 Peter, the Lombard theological writer, 378 his 
 book of the sentences, 378 
 
 Petrobrussians, followers of Pierre de Bruys, 287 
 
 Philip the Fair of France, his disputes with Boni- 
 face VIII., 350 ; he burns 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, ^neas 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 XIIL, 
 and Gregory XII. 420 ; character and results 
 of this assembly, 43? 
 
 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 ol 
 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 
 
IN D 
 
 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 
 
 EX. 577 
 
 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 ♦^-e 
 papal see, and on the two antipopes, 42;^: ; -ntf 
 character, 424 ; opposes John's interesi 125 
 
 Simon Magus, the heresiarch, 73 
 
 Simony, edict against, 236 
 
 Sixtus IV, succeeds Paul II., 508 ; lays F'orence 
 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, jiote 
 
 Sylvester II., his encouragement of learning, 225 
 originates the scheme of the crusades, 253 
 
 Symeon the Sty lite, 118 
 
 Synesius, a platonic philosopher, made bishop, 
 
 112, note 
 Sylvius, .^neas. 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 
 TherapeutoB or Essenes, 
 Tho mists 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 Pi^js 11. 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., 253 
 
 Urban V. restores the papal residence from Avig- 
 non to Rome, 391 
 
 Urban VI., archbishop of Bari, his election, 407, 
 arraigns the bishops for their misconduct, 408 ; 
 the cardinals cancel his election, 409; his 
 cause espoused by St. Catharine of Sienna, 410 j 
 
 73 
 
678 
 
 INDEX 
 
 imprisons six cardinals, 411 ; dies at Rome, 
 412 
 
 Ursuline Nuns, 325 
 Valentinian I., 110 
 
 Vaudois, or Waldenses, 289 ; crimes alleged 
 against them by Rainer, 290, 291 , note ; account 
 of them, 554; persecutions, 556, note 
 
 Venturius of Bergamo, founder of a sect of fana- 
 tics, 
 
 Vienne., 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 
 Wetalia, John of, a reformer, acoountof, 558 
 
 Wesselus, John, a reformer, 558 ; designated th« 
 
 forerunner of Luther, 558 
 White Penitents, a sect of religious enthusiasts 
 
 434 
 
 Wiclif, John, account of, 560 ; his bones dug up 
 by order of the council of Constance, 461 ; his 
 opinions, 461 ; his doctrines carried into Bohe 
 mia, 462 
 
 Wilfrid, St., 134, note 
 
 Winfrid, an English missionary m Germany, 134 
 Ximenes, cardinal, 546 
 
 Zeno, emperor, his Henoticon, or edict of union 
 165 
 
 Zisca, heads the insurgent reformers in Bohemia 
 473 
 
 ZosimuB, the historian, 115 
 
1 
 
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