Chapter IX: Part 9

We have dwelt at some length upon these matters, but it was necessary in order to show what was the action of the popes in the Middle Ages, and it was at this point that their influence reached its apogee. The two conceptions of Gregory VII. had been realised: in accordance with the idea generally received at that time, the kings or emperors, in the eyes of the people, only possessed authority as long as they were orthodox, and obstinacy, under the ban of excommunication, amounted to heresy; hence the pope was regarded as the supreme chief of the Christian republic, and was entrusted with the duty of making princes respect morality, the faith, the rights of the Church, and the rights of the people. The election of the head of the Church had, therefore, to be free from the influence of the temporal power, since that head would be called upon to be its judge. This was the point which Hildebrand caused to be recognised in respect to the election of the popes, beginning with Leo IX.; and the perseverance of his successors got the principle extended to that of the bishops, during the reign of Calixtus II.

The second object which Gregory VII. had in view, was the preservation of Christian civilisation from the Mussulman yoke, by carrying the war into the East; and the Crusades realised this great design. We may now sketch in a few lines the part played by the popes during the last centuries of the Middle Ages.

The great Roman families, anxious to obtain power, elected an anti-pope. By means of these agitations, Arnold of Brescia, under the pretext of creating a Roman republic, established a kind of dictatorship in the city. The emperor overthrew this usurper, who was burnt alive; but he set up anti-popes, and Alexander III., when besieged in Rome, declared himself the ally of the Lombard cities, the chief of the Guelfs against the Ghibelins, and the champion of Italian liberty. Under his pontificate, it was ordained (at the third Council of the Lateran, in 1179, that for the future, the cardinals alone should take part in the election for the pontiff, without the intervention of the clergy or the people. The Crusades occupied men’s minds during the last twenty years of the twelfth century. The thirteenth began with one of the most celebrated of the popes, Innocent III., who, following in the footsteps of Gregory VII., made emperors and kings to tremble by his threats of excommunication, and preached the crusade against the infidels and the Albigenses. His two successors, Honorius III. and Gregory IX., imitated his zeal and resolution. Gregory IX., amidst the multifarious cares of his holy office, found time to draw up a new collection of his own letters and constitutions, and those of his predecessors. He confided this heavy task, which was carried out with remarkable skill and order, to Raymundus de Pennaforti, his chaplain. This collection, which was received with respectful gratitude, has since been called the _Decretals_ (Fig. 213).

After these three eminent popes, sedition broke out afresh inside Rome. The Holy See was vacant for a long period more than once during the latter part of this century, as the cardinals could not agree in their choice; and in consequence it was decided that the election should take place in conclave. After a numerous series of popes, who occupied the chair for only a short time, Boniface VIII. (Fig. 218) endeavoured to march in the footsteps of Gregory VII. and Innocent III. Philippe le Bel, anxious to destroy all traces of the feudal régime in order to obtain absolute power, would not submit to the reprimands and menaces of the pope, and it is well known how he caused the pontiff to be seized at Anagni by Nogaret. The aged pontiff, whom nothing could move, was set free by the people, who expelled Nogaret and his soldiers; but the rough treatment he had received hastened his death.

Philippe le Bel, who saw how seriously he had compromised himself, profited by the dissensions which arose between the Guelfs and the Ghibelins at the conclave to ensure the election of a Frenchman, Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who took the title of Clement V., and immediately came to reside in France. The prestige of the papacy was diminished by this selection of Avignon as a place of residence, for the Italians came to look upon themselves as being enfeoffed to the French kingdom. Rome and the Pontifical States fell into a condition of complete anarchy, and a man of enterprise, Rienzi, endeavoured to re-establish the ancient republic. The cardinals, nearly all of whom were Frenchmen, always nominated popes of their own nationality. One of them--Gregory XI.--who had come to Rome for a short visit, died there in 1377. The people then induced the cardinals by threats to select a pope of Italian birth, and their choice fell upon the Archbishop of Bari, who took the title of Urban VI. The cardinals who were at Avignon when the election took place, at first recognised it as valid, but when he manifested his intention of remaining at Rome, they declared it to be irregular, and chose Cardinal Robert of Geneva, formerly bishop of Cambrai, who took the title of Clement VII., and the Christian world was divided between the two popes. Each had several successors, and this long schism proved the termination of the Christian republic which had been the work of the Middle Ages. At last, the General Council of Constance, convoked by one of the anti-popes, but confirmed by Gregory XII., received that pontiff’s resignation, and Cardinal Otho Colonna, a man of great piety and zeal, elected by a unanimous vote, assumed the government of the Church under the name of Martin V. He shortly afterwards repaired to Rome, where he was received with enthusiasm; and his presence brought back the prosperity and prestige of the Holy City. Notwithstanding, one of the anti-popes, with a following of two cardinals, still had a successor who was recognised by the kingdoms of Aragon, Valentia, and Sicily; but he finally complied with the wishes of Christendom, and his abdication in 1429 put an end to the schism which had lasted for half a century.

Ten years after this, during the reign of the same pontiff (Martin V.), another and an older schism seemed to all appearance extinguished at the Council of Florence, in which the Emperor of the East and the patriarchs of his Church were present. After grave deliberation, the Greeks drew up an orthodox profession of faith, and, by the complete submission of the Eastern Church to her Roman sister, union was restored in 1439. But the emperor and his patriarchs found upon their return that this was so deeply resented by the Greek people, that they gave way to popular clamour and withdrew from their formal engagements, the schism thus becoming wider than ever. The ruin of the Eastern empire followed very closely upon this decision.

The fall of Constantinople into the hands of the Turks indicated only too plainly the danger with which Europe was menaced, and the popes endeavoured to impress it upon the kings and their subjects. Pius II., who had distinguished himself by his erudition and his writings, was considered to be the most talented man of his day, and in a council held at Mantua in 1459 did his utmost to hurry on the preparations for the crusade. After five years’ hard work, he collected a fleet at Ancona, and was about to set sail, when he was struck down by a mortal illness. His successors continued the work which he had begun; but, though the Christians obtained successes over the Turks which promised well for the undertaking, their compatriots failed to respond to the appeals of the pope, who saw that Italy was seriously threatened with invasion. It was under these critical circumstances that the choice of the cardinals fell upon a man of extraordinary energy, Roderick Borgia, who took the name of Alexander VI. He was charged with crimes which ought to have been laid at the door of members of his family, and he struggled against the oppressive spoliation to which the great Roman families had subjected the city, setting courageously to work in order to reconstitute the temporal power of the Holy See. Pius III., chosen as his successor, died a month after he was elected.

The Cardinal of Rovero was then nominated unanimously, and took the title of Julius II. In pursuance of the idea of Italian independence, this warlike pontiff carried on an obstinate struggle against Louis XII., with the view of retaking several towns of Italy which had once belonged to the States of the Church. Unintimidated either by the armies of Louis XII., or by the threats of the councils convoked under the protectorate of the King of France and the Emperor of Germany, he himself assembled a council at Rome, and this inflexible old man, after having brought about wise measures of reform which all Europe applauded, cited the king and the members of his parliament to come and answer for their revolt against the Holy See. But Julius II., worn out by his exertions, died in 1513. His successor, Leo X., who had effected a reconciliation with Louis XII., was obliged to head the Italian league against Francis I. An understanding had been brought about after the battle of Marignano, and the Pragmatic Sanction, which had been the pretext of so many disputes since the days of Philippe le Bel, was given up and replaced by a concordat concluded in 1516 between France and the Holy See. Leo X., continuing the Italian policy of his predecessor, also kept in view the idea of a crusade against the Turks; but this great work of the papacy was only realised half-a-century later under the pontificate of Pius V. The faithful were aroused by his voice; Cyprus had fallen into the hands of the Mussulmans, and the whole of Europe was in imminent peril. The cost of the expedition was divided between the King of Spain, Venice, and the pope; fifty thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry were got together, and the command of the fleet was given to Don John of Austria. It encountered the Turkish fleet, which consisted of two hundred and twenty-four vessels, in the Gulf of Lepanto, on October 7th, 1571. The infidels were annihilated, losing twenty-five thousand men and ten thousand prisoners, while fifteen thousand Christians whom they had chained to their galleys were set at liberty (Fig. 215). Catholic Europe breathed once more, and in its gratitude attributed this prodigious victory to the protection of the Virgin, to whom the faithful told their beads at the hour at which the battle took place, and the memory of this event was perpetuated by a yearly fête on the first Sunday in October.

Led away from our subject in order to relate an account of the struggle against the then indomitable Islam power, we omitted to mention another event which was the second greatest achievement of the popes in the sixteenth century, namely, the Council of Trent (Fig. 216). The progress made by Protestantism led to the convocation of a general council, which was to pronounce as to all the disputed points of doctrine, and to effect the indispensable and long-looked-for reforms in ecclesiastical discipline. The town of Trent was selected as the place of meeting, because its situation between Italy and Germany made it so easy of access for those who were expected to attend. Although the holding of this council was mutually agreed on by Pope Paul III. and the Emperor Charles V., in concert with the other Christian princes, the opening was deferred until 1545, and it lasted with frequent adjournments until 1563, when Pius IV. was pope. No council ever dealt with so many topics, both of dogma and of discipline. The abuses which had been pointed out by many Catholic divines were abolished even before the Protestants could draw attention to them. The catalogue of holy books which were received as canonical was inserted in one of the first decrees of the council; and it was there declared, that the interpretation of these sacred works should be given by the Church, to whom alone it belonged to decide what was the true meaning of Scripture. The questions at issue were then gone into minutely; original sin, the justification of the sinner, the seven sacraments, the mass, purgatory, indulgences, the worship of saints, &c. The twenty-fifth and last session was held on the 3rd of December, 1563. But the hopes of conciliation to which this assembly gave rise were not realised, and the Protestant Churches rejected the decisions of the Fathers of the Council of Trent, whose authority they refused to recognise. The unity of the Christian republic, which had been the work of the Middle Ages, was destroyed, and a new era brought with it new duties for the head of the Catholic Church.

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

The Minor and the Major Orders in the Early Centuries of the
Church.--Establishment of Tithes originally voluntary, and
afterwards obligatory.--Influence of the Bishops.--Supremacy
of the See of Rome.--Form of Episcopal Oath in the Early
Centuries.--Reform of Abuses by the Councils.--Remarkable
sayings of Charlemagne and Hincmar.--Public Education created by
the Church.--The Establishment of the Communes favoured by the
Bishops.--The Beaumont Law.--Struggle with the Bourgeoisie in
the Fifteenth Century.--The Council of Trent.--Institution of
Seminaries.

Near the close of the ninth century, Anastasius the Librarian wrote, at Rome, an Ecclesiastical History, from which we learn that the hierarchical order of the functionaries in the primitive Church was composed as follows: the doorkeeper (Fig. 220), the reader, the exorcist (Fig. 221), the acolyte, the sub-deacon, the keeper of the confessions of the martyrs, the deacon, the priest, the bishop. To these were afterwards added the chanters or psalmists, entitled _confessors_, because their function was to confess the name of God by celebrating His praises. The interpreter-linguists, the copyists, and the notaries, who figure in the Greek as well as in the Roman Church down to the fourth or fifth century, ranked with the order of confessors and that of clerks.

In the early days of Christianity the bishop in each diocese consecrated to the service of religion, after the manner of St. Paul, those who were represented to him as being the most worthy, or whom he himself deemed fitting. The aspirant to the major orders sometimes rose very slowly, however meritorious he might be; thus Latinus, Bishop of Brescia, who died towards the close of the third century, had been, as his epitaph recorded, simple exorcist for twelve years, priest for fifteen, and bishop for three years and seven months. There were, however, some rapid and almost immediate promotions, called _per saltum_, because they jumped, as it were, from one grade to another; but these were made under exceptional circumstances.

Miniature from the “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum” of William
Durand (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), in the Library of
M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.]

At first the Christians had not any clergymen, properly so called; priests, however, ministered in each locality, for we read that St. Paul appointed Titus “to ordain elders in every city” (Titus i. 5). But in most cases, during the first centuries, the bishop alone ministered in his episcopal city, particularly in the East (Fig. 222).

After the fourth century we find that, in the East as at Rome, there were other churches in the large towns besides the cathedral; the functions of the clergymen, or _cardinals_, who ministered in them were confined to giving the people religious instruction, and to keep the bishop informed of everything relating to the government of the church. Down to the fifth century, the administration of the sacraments and the celebration of the holy communion took place in the cathedral only. Pope St. Marcellus founded, in the fourth century, twenty-five _titles_ or parishes in Rome, in order to afford greater facilities for the preparatory instruction by which the sacraments of baptism and penance were preceded. But in the fifth century, when the cathedrals were found too small to hold all the congregation, it became the custom to distribute, in the _titles_ or parishes of the city, the holy eucharist which the bishop sent by the hands of deacons to the titulary clergy. The bishops also delegated to their clergy the power of receiving the reconciliation of the penitents in cases of necessity, of admitting heretics in danger of death (but only in the bishop’s absence), and of pronouncing excommunications in their parishes, by virtue of a sentence delivered by the bishop. The clergyman also visited the sick, administered the sacrament of extreme unction, blessed the private dwelling-places, and himself selected the staff for his church. At last, in the sixth century, clergymen celebrated, in the quarters or _titles_ wherein they ministered, the entire liturgy of the holy communion, and from the seventh century they were empowered to diminish or to increase, as they thought proper, in accordance with the revenues of the parish, the number of the clerks, choristers, and the various subordinate officers. In compliance with the wishes of the faithful, the bishop would often authorise the clergy to celebrate two masses upon the same day, one to take place of necessity in the parish church, the other perhaps in some oratory attached to the parish (Fig. 223).

Independently of the offerings made by the faithful, the churches, which already possessed landed property, after the conversion of Constantine found their domains increasing in value. The barbarian chiefs who became converts to Christianity outrivalled each other in their liberality towards the clergy. Tithes, the regular payment of which was only proposed towards the close of the fifth century, were soon made compulsory, more especially in the countries subject to the Franks. It is incorrect that tithes were not made obligatory until the time of Charlemagne; all he did was to ensure their collection, and to impose them upon the newly-converted under threat of excommunication. In conformity with a decree issued by Pope Gelasius, he ordained that the produce of the tithe should be equally divided amongst the bishop, the priests, the fabrics in each diocese, and the poor--that is to say, the hospitals. These establishments were administered and provided with religious services by the charity of the clergy; thus the increase of ecclesiastical wealth turned to the profit of the needy.

By the name of _presbyters_ (from a Greek word equivalent to the Latin words _seniores_, sages, and _sacerdotes_, sacred men) were designated the functionaries who stood in the second rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. From this term was afterwards derived that of _priest_. At first there was no fixed age for admission to the priesthood; but at the end of the fourth century Pope St. Syricius decided that a clerk, promoted to be a deacon at thirty, should not become a priest for at least five years.

The Emperor Justinian prohibited a deacon from being promoted to the priesthood until he had attained the age of thirty-five; but in Gaul, Spain, and Germany the minimum age was thirty, and as soon as the people had given their sanction to the ordination of a deacon, the election took place. The functions of deacons are from the first clearly indicated by what they did, for in the first century Philip, one of the seven deacon-cardinals chosen by the Apostles, preached the Gospel and baptized. At the end of the third century we find in Spain that St. Vincent, only a deacon, took Bishop Valerian’s place when he felt himself unable to minister the word. Moreover, St. Stephen, the first of the deacons and martyrs, was also preaching, within a few months of the death of Jesus Christ, when he was dragged from the sanctuary to be stoned. The deacons, therefore, performed liturgical functions, but their ordinary duty was to preside at the tables of the Christian communion.

The tumular epigraph on the catacombs of Rome exhibits a curious list of the various special duties allotted to the priests, as well as to the deacons, besides the service of the altar: here we find a priest doctor; a priest guardian, overseer, possibly our inn or lodging-keeper (_mansionarius_); again, we find a deacon archivist, or keeper of the archives (_scrinarius_), a priest schoolmaster (_magister ludi_), &c.

In the first three centuries of the Church, holy orders were conferred not only in the basilicas and in the catacombs, but also in private oratories; some few recluses were even ordained in their own cells. From the reign of Constantine, it was decided by the councils that the laying on of hands upon the clerks to raise them to deacons, or upon deacons to raise them to the priesthood, should always take place in public (_coram populo_) and at fixed periods. The epoch chosen was at first the calends of December, afterwards extended to each of the four seasons.

The iconography of the officers of the sanctuary nearly always represents the bishop as seated upon an elevated chair, laying hands upon clerks of a gradually descending order; the priest raising his arms and spreading them out to give the benediction; the deacon, bearing a cross or a book of the Gospels, or perhaps both, as he is portrayed in an ancient mosaic in St. Lawrence-without-the-walls, at Rome. It must also be noted that the deacons and the priests, as well as the clerks of a lower order, are represented as beardless and with short-cut hair.

In the sixth century, the tonsure or _clerical crown_, was universally adopted by the Church. It was a mark of dignity which distinguished the clerks from the monks and the rest of the faithful; laymen wore their hair more or less long with a proportionate amount of beard, and the monks cut their hair almost as close as if shorn.

The primitive Church had created the office of acolyte, whose duty consisted in accompanying the bishops, the priests, and even the deacons. Under the pontificate of Cornelius (251), there were forty-two of these assistants. The Eastern Church also had its acolytes, but did not accord them the importance which they had in the city of the popes, where they formed three classes: the _palatines_, who assisted the sovereign pontiff in the basilica of the Lateran; the _stationaries_, who aided him in the churches where the stations took place; the _regionaries_, who assisted the deacons in each of the regions or parishes.

The political power of the bishops was founded in Gaul at the beginning of the sixth century (Fig. 225), and down to the end of the first dynasty they were the real organizers of the French monarchy. Converted to Christianity after the battle of Tolbiac, and baptized by St. Remigius, Clovis became the protector of the Gallo-Roman Church. The Clergy then enjoyed a legitimate influence, as is justly remarked by a grave historian: “The barbarians, accustomed to carry all before them by the weight of arms, could not be subdued by a force or civilised by a literature which they despised or failed to understand; but the clergy, surrounded by that pomp which has so great an influence over uncultivated imaginations, combated them with simple and plain doctrines, with a vigorous and united hierarchy, and with a faith which, needing no subtle reasonings, imposes only the duty of belief, and leans for support upon a morality the sanctity of which they could not but feel, even while violating it. Was it not most fortunate that there should have been an order capable of arresting the universal disorder? Unarmed priests mingled with these savage hordes and inspired them, by means of baptism, with some notions of humanity; they taught them to hold their hands, showing them that they whom they were about to strike was a brother.

“The bishops carried out, with as much dignity as benevolence, their sublime mission of sympathizing with the people and those who were oppressed; having a paternal solicitude for their flock, they placed themselves face to face with conquerors, whom they knew how to pacify and to conciliate. The veneration with which they were surrounded and the holiness of their lives earned them the respect even of Attila and Genseric.

They were entrusted with the embassies, and they administered in the room of magistrates, whose power had been crushed. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia, was sent to the Burgundian kings Gundibald and Godegesil, to procure the release of a number of Italian prisoners, whom he brought back with him in triumph. When the Ligurians were ravaged by the incursions of the Transalpines, the king remitted, at the prayer of the bishop, one-third of the indemnity. St. Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles, sold the patens and chalices to ransom the prisoners. Euspicius, Bishop of Sergiopolis, upon the Euphrates, paid Chosroës for the ransom of twelve thousand prisoners. St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, gave away even his own tunic by way of charity; ‘so that,’ to use the language of an artless chronicler, ‘he was often shivering with cold, while those upon whom he had bestowed his favours were warm.’”

The bishops were sometimes obliged to exercise the duties of royalty. Honorius, of Novara, when Theodoric and Odoacer were at war, fortified, in order to give shelter to his flock, a certain number of places similar to those in which the military were garrisoned. Nicetius, Bishop of Trèves, “an apostolic man, in his progress through the country, constructed, like a good shepherd that he was, a fold to protect his flock; he surrounded the hill with thirty towers, which shut it in on all sides, and an edifice rose where hitherto a forest had cast its shadow.”

During the reigns of the last of the Merovingians and the first of the Carlovingians, the jurisconsults and the magistrates were generally bishops or plain priests, whose venerable character, in addition to their knowledge and wisdom, had caused them to be designated to fulfil these high functions. Dagobert, when about to draw up the Capitularies which were to govern the Germans, the Thuringians, the Burgundians, the Neustrians, the Ripuairians, and the Romans, entrusted the work to four ecclesiastical doctors, and consequently the disposition of this new code was remarkably tolerant,--“for,” said these pious legislators, “there is no sin so grave, but that the culprit’s life may be spared, if he will but hold God in fear and the saints in respect, seeing that the Lord hath said, ‘He who pardons shall himself be forgiven, but he who pardoneth not shall obtain no mercy.’” In cases where the crime seemed of a nature to deserve no clemency, the law remitted the culprit to be judged by the bishop or a priest delegated by him, whose tribunal, standing in the midst of a church, was from that very fact inviolable, and placed under the tutelary protection of religion. The royal decree added, “When the culprit shall take refuge in a church, let no one dare to drag him out with violence; if he has already crossed the threshold of the sanctuary, let the bishop or curate of that church be sent for, and if they refuse to deliver him up, it is to them that the pursuers shall look for his punishment.”

For more than a century before, the spiritual and temporal constitution of the Church was regularly organized throughout France. The diocese comprised the territorial boundaries which the Roman administration had established in the provinces for the civil government of the vicars and the counts, and most of these dioceses were kept, within about the same limits, down to 1789. The ecclesiastical province, of which the metropolitan or the archbishop was head, was made up of several dioceses or suffragan bishoprics, and when a provincial council took place, it assembled in the metropolis under the presidency of the archbishop. Above the metropolitans there were the patriarchs and the primates, dignitaries occupying the principal apostolic sees, such as Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Cesarea, and Heraclea in the East, and in the West, Milan, Lyons, Rheims, Trèves, and Mayence--which latter city became, under Pope Zacharias (741–752), the metropolis of all Germany. The supremacy of Rome was acknowledged by the universal Church from the days of the Apostles, as is attested by all the Fathers, and especially by St. Irenæus, whose spiritual father was Polycarp, a disciple of St. John.

History has handed down to us the form of oath of allegiance to the pope taken by the apostle of Germany in the eighth century, Wilfred, better known by the name of Boniface, who, in the course of a few years, made more than a hundred thousand converts. So far from being exalted with pride at the success of his mission, he continued to go for advice to Pope Gregory II., and to submit to his decision any intricate matters which might occur in the course of his ministry. The following translation of the form which he signed when raised to the dignity of bishop, will give an idea of his deference and spirit of submissiveness; it forcibly exhibits the power of the hierarchy at this epoch:--“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has saved us, Leo the Great being Emperor, the seventh year of his consulate, and the fourth of his son Constantine the Great, Emperor,--I, Boniface, by the grace of God bishop, promise to thee, blessed St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and to thy vicar, the blessed Gregory, as well as to his successors, in the name of the indivisible Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and by his most holy body here present, to observe in purity and fidelity the Catholic Faith, and, with God’s assistance, to persevere in the unity of this same Faith upon which indubitably depends the salvation of all Christians. I also promise never to yield to any instigation contrary to the unity of the common and universal Church, but faithfully and sincerely to devote all my strength to thee and to the interests of thy Church, which has received from the Lord the power of binding and loosing, and also to thy Vicar and his successors. If I find any prelate living in disobedience to the ordinances of the holy Fathers, I undertake not to hold any kind of communion with him, but to win him back if I can; if not, to send a faithful report of his conduct to my lord the successor of the Apostle. And if (which may God forfend!) I should attempt to infringe the terms of this declaration, at any time or in any manner whatsoever, I acknowledge myself guilty of eternal punishment, and deserving the fate of Ananias and Sapphira, who were guilty of fraud in the declaration of their goods. I, Boniface, a humble bishop, have written with my own hand the text of this oath, which I lay upon the most holy body of St. Peter, in the presence of God who is my witness and judge; I have taken, as is herein stated, the oath which I undertake to observe.” It is worthy of notice that this formula was already in use in the time of Pope Gelasius, in the fifth century.

From the sixth century, the influence which the bishops enjoyed under the Roman empire went on increasing. Chilperic I. was alarmed at its progress, declaring that “the bishops alone were supreme in the cities.” Each one administered the affairs of his diocese with sovereign authority (Fig. 228), and, by means of the councils convoked by the kings, they governed the whole of the kingdom. In Gaul, there were twenty-five councils during the fifth century, fifty-four in the sixth, and twenty in the seventh, all of which were composed of bishops, supplemented by a few abbots and priests who were either well-known masters of ecclesiastical law, or eligible upon other grounds. From the diminution in the number of councils dates the decline of the authoritative influence of the French episcopacy; during the eighth century, in the first half of which there were only two councils, it declined still further, because the intrusion of the _leudes_ in several bishoprics had brought about a great change in the austere morals of the ancient Church, replacing the cultivated spirit, the orderly conduct, and the charitable habits of the first prelates (Fig. 229) by a display of gross ignorance and unbridled barbarism. Three successive councils, held respectively in Germany, Belgium, and at Soissons (742, 743, 744), aimed at a reformation of the morals of the clergy, which were thoroughly perverted, as is evident from the decrees of these councils, forbidding the priests to follow the chase with hounds, falcons, and sparrowhawks. Other provincial councils of the same epoch condemned simony, the traffic in the immunities and privileges of the Church, and the plurality of benefices. This last abuse went beyond all bounds; the same prelate would hold three or four bishoprics at once, several abbeys, and the revenues of numerous parishes left without a pastor. On the other hand, many lay lords, who had usurped the property of the Church, and appropriated to themselves benefices, monasteries, and episcopal revenues, especially since the days of Charles Martel, created great confusion in the temporal economy of each diocese.

Charlemagne applied himself to the reformation of these abuses. That illustrious monarch at all times displayed the most respectful deference for the clergy, from amongst whom he selected his principal ministers and most trusted councillors. Two-thirds of his Palatine Academy were ecclesiastics; the _missi dominici_, the official inspectors appointed to visit the provinces, the churches, the presbyteries, and the hospitals, to render justice upon appeal, to suspend or dismiss the fiscal agents, were all, or nearly all, bishops and priests. Royalty was looked upon by Charlemagne as a kind of priesthood, and his mission was to give the people greater facility for practising the Gospel, and to bring it within the reach of the idolatrous nations. The capitulars say, “The king must walk uprightly, as his name signifies (‘Rex a _recte_ agendo vocatur’). If he acts with piety, justice, and clemency, he deserves the name of king; otherwise he is not a king, but a tyrant. The special duty of royalty is to govern the people of God, but to govern them with equity and justice; for _the king is above all_ the defender of the churches, of the servants of God, of the widows, the other poor, and all who are in distress.” These rules, laid down in the time of Charlemagne, were adopted by all Europe. The king who did not observe them was to be deposed; his judges were the bishops, the councils, and the pope, as head of the Church (Charlemagne, in a capitular from Thionville, in 805, submitted his own sons to be judged by the bishops). If they refused obedience, they were condemned to be driven from their palaces, deprived of their dignities and goods, declared infamous, and sent into exile. This is why, during the unhappy dissensions that broke out between the sons of Louis the Good-natured, each one endeavoured to procure the deposition of his rival by sentence of the council.

Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, the noblest representative of the Western Church at this epoch, constituted himself the defender of the throne (Fig. 230). He endeavoured to arrive at an equitable settlement as to the respective limits of the two great powers--the Church and the Crown. Commenting upon, but not receding from, the ideas expressed by Charlemagne, he declared, “When it is said that the king is not subject to the laws or judgment of any man, but only of God, the statement is true if he be a king indeed, as his name indicates. He is called king because he reigns and governs; if he governs himself according to the will of God, if he directs the good in the right path, and corrects the wicked to draw them from their evil way, then he is king, not subject to the judgment of any man (Fig. 231 and 232); but if he be an adulterer, a homicide, an iniquitous person, a ravisher, then he must be judged, in secret or in public, by the bishops, who are God’s representatives.” It is necessary to bear well in mind these ideas, inculcated in the Middle Ages, if we would understand the important functions of the secular clergy.

At this early period of society, civilisation was, beyond all doubt, in the hands of the ecclesiastics. Public education, which the Church had established, and which was given in one or several episcopal schools in each diocese, under the direction of the archdeacon, was subject, like judicial proceedings, to hierarchical regulations. Although the bishop was free to extend or to limit certain branches of instruction, all the clerks admitted to follow the courses of these schools had to go through the series of studies prescribed and specified in the capitulars of Charlemagne. Thus, at Metz and Soissons, for instance, the school of singing was an imperial institution, and the bishop, no matter what authority he might have in other matters, had no power to suppress it. The same was the case with the courses on law and medicine, which had been founded, since the days of Charlemagne, in various episcopal cloisters at Paris, Rheims, Lyons, Metz, Trèves, Canterbury, Milan, &c. Roman chanting, grammar, Holy Scripture, the Liturgy, and calligraphy, formed the classical basis of clerical education. Other studies were looked upon as accessories, without being absolutely prohibited. At the same time, to the superficial study of Latin, was added that of Greek or of German, or of the vulgar idiom of the Latin, Teutonic, or Sclavic tongues, when deemed useful for the purposes of popular preaching. In certain cases, and for the exclusive service of the Church, the clerks were taught the rudiments of architecture, painting, mechanics, agriculture, and hygiene, but it was more especially at the Palatine school, which was always open, and in the large abbeys, that this literary and scientific course of education prevailed.

Clerical discipline, though continually being reformed, was incessantly needing fresh changes. The usurpation of the Church’s domains by the monarchs, the princes, and the great lay lords, contributed to the disorder which prevailed in many abbeys. In some churches an intruder would thrust himself into a canonry, usurp the abbatial seat, or live at the expense of the community. The bishops were often powerless to get rid of these false abbots, canons, and monks, who set them at defiance. Ecclesiastical cures and prebends were formed, like many public bakehouses and mills, sometimes as dowers for daughters about to marry, and even for new-born infants. Severe measures were adopted at several provincial councils (in 860, 863, 888, 895) against the disorderly acts committed, to the detriment of the Church.

A diploma issued by the Emperor Henry III. (May 12th 1052), confirmed the doctrine of the Roman Church, declaring that the episcopal jurisdiction was entirely independent of the civil jurisdiction. By this diploma, all judges and officers of justice were prohibited from exercising their authority in the churches, castles, villages, and parishes which formed the temporal domain of the diocesan chapter.

When the Crusades brought about the concord, or rather the calm, of which the Church had so long been deprived, its progress became more regular, more marked, and more easy; it also suffered less from the encroachment of laymen upon its rights and privileges (Fig. 233), but the enormous expenses of these distant expeditions had ruined it. There was not, indeed, a single diocese where the property was not loaded with mortgages, nor where the services were not crippled by the reduction of the diocesan revenues. This penury, coupled with the absence of a great number of the most esteemed ecclesiastics, who had taken up the cross, left many important churches almost without resources or guidance; hence arose a general relaxation of morals on the part of the clerks, whose misconduct was in some cases so flagrant that it became necessary to expel them from the religious houses and parishes which had been committed to their charge. The abuses of authority, the uncertainty in point of faith, and the Vaudois heresy, which shot through Western Europe like a poisoned barb, gave rise to frequent dissensions amongst the faithful, the disputes being carried on even amongst members of the same family, whilst in many localities the people, attracted by a form of worship where the chanting and the prayers were recited in the vulgar tongue, deserted their parish church for the heretic priest; this was the origin of an infinity of disturbances and tumults in the large towns, especially in those governed by a municipality.

And yet the bishops had contributed in a material degree to the establishment of the communes; for, if history tells us of some towns being at war with their ecclesiastical lord, in order to declare themselves independent, we find, on the other hand, that a great number of the charters of enfranchisement were due to the initiative of the bishops. The two most interesting of these documents which have been preserved to us in their integrity, are the charter and the law of Beaumont-en-Argonne, formerly a fortified place, but almost forgotten in the present day, until brought into prominence by the war of 1870. This town had the satisfaction, not of imposing its law, but of seeing it adopted by numerous communes, amongst which may be cited Nancy, Lunéville, Verdun, Luxemburg, and Longwy, together with all the Duchy of Bar, Montmédy, &c. A lord-bishop, William, whose love of equity earned him the appellation of William the White-handed, was the author both of this law and of this charter, in the twelfth century (Fig. 234). By the charter, the lord-bishop made all the inhabitants of the commune of Beaumont proprietors of a sufficient quantity of land to give them the means of subsistence, with the use of the woods and water-courses; every precaution was taken to prevent fraud in commerce and trade, especially in regard to the millers, the bakers, and the butchers; and the administration of the commune was entrusted to so many burghers elected by the most notable citizens; while intrigue was powerless in its attempts to bias the free and independent suffrages of the burgher-electors. The time that the Beaumont law has lasted is a proof of its merits, for, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of time, five hundred communes were being governed by it in the eighteenth century.

In the communes which adopted the Beaumont law, the burghers, exempt from all military burdens, were only compelled to take arms in the event of a sudden invasion of their territory, and this forced service was only of twenty-four hours’ duration. After that, the lord had to provide for the ordinary protection of the inhabitants in return for the trifling taxes which they paid him. In the commune of Escombes, for instance, which, being a frontier village, was very exposed to attack, the right of safe-guard (_le droit de sauvement_) consisted of two measures of oats, a hen, and a French denier for each burgher. A charter of an archbishop of Rheims, successor of William the White-handed, recounts how a good chevalier, in return for the gift of a piece of land belonging to the bishopric, undertook to bring together, train, and maintain a body of armed men for the protection of the burghers of Beaumont, who were thus enabled safely to carry on the tillage of the land and their commercial operations. Towards the close of the fourteenth century, the Archbishop of Rheims exchanged with the King of France the sovereignty over the towns of Mouzon and Beaumont-en-Argonne against the lordship of Vailly and its dependencies; but the law of Beaumont was respected, and by letters patent, “given at Montargis in the month of September, the year of grace one thousand three hundred and seventy-nine,” King Charles V. solemnly recognised and sanctioned all the advantages which the law of Beaumont assured to the inhabitants. “By these presents,” said the king, “we approve and confirm all their charters and liberties, franchises, usages, privileges, and customs which they have been granted by our above-mentioned Archbishops of Rheims in times past, to enjoy and use without deducting, innovating, or diminishing anything, and in the same manner and fashion as they have formerly enjoyed and used them before our acquisition.”

Throughout nearly all France, justice, which had been for eight centuries episcopal, became almost entirely civil; but the bishop still levied a part of the fines imposed, and when the citizens of a town or district were brought together to settle some grave dispute, it was the prelate of the diocese, or the dean of the chapter, or the precentor, who had the right of naming the day and the place of the meeting, which they had no power to prevent. Louis IX., great as was his piety, undertook the task of forming a lay magistracy capable of rendering justice. To avoid a conflict with the national clergy, he obtained from Innocent IV. a dispensation from the ordinary jurisdiction for the person of the King of France, for his consort, and his heir-presumptive. He solicited the intervention of the Pope to reform numerous abuses that had crept into the Church in France, especially in respect of the right of asylum, and the excessive immunities accorded to the ecclesiastical tribunals. Towards the end of the thirteenth century the jurisdiction of the clergy was, with the exception of the episcopal court, confined to the vassals of the bishops’ temporalities.

Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the episcopal power was engaged in a ceaseless struggle with a turbulent bourgeoisie (Fig. 235), whose spirit of opposition drove it into open and armed rebellion. In order to obviate this, and to order an effective resistance to the civil authority, itself overpowered by the populace, several diocesan chapters formed a league with the clergy and with the monks; but this did not bring them any increase of strength to combat the lay magistrates, because the bishop often deserted their cause or showed himself indifferent to it. Hence arose excommunications, imprisonments, proscriptions, and acts of seizure which only led to increased scandal. The schism which desolated the Christian world since the death of Gregory IX. (1378), the struggle for influence between the anti-pope Urban VI. and Pope Clement VII., were not calculated to allay the internal troubles of the Church.

The desire to remedy this general disorder was at that time uppermost in every Christian mind, for the question as to the territorial possessions of the two Churches had long been settled. Rome possessed nearly all Italy, except the manufacturing and maritime States of the peninsula; she also had Germany, a part of Switzerland, Bohemia, Hungary, England, and Holland. The other Church was recognised by France, French or Vaudois Switzerland, Savoy, Lorraine, Luxemburg, the Metz district, Scotland, and Spain. The most respected of the Christians, alarmed at a state of things which was so fatal to religion, in vain attempted to stem the torrent. The only remedy lay in the reformation of the clergy, and the Church’s independence of the civil power. In the year 1469, a noble and pious woman, the Countess Vio di Thiene, gave birth at Gaeta to a son, afterwards known as Cajetan, who became cardinal-bishop, and was one of the greatest men of the age. The Countess Vio di Thiene had resolved that the heir of her noble house should be born, as was the Saviour of mankind, in a stable. It was thus that in an actual manger this blessed infant first obtained his indifference to the world, his love of simplicity, his spirit of prayer and charity, his angelic modesty, which made him a martyr of penitence, a hero of self-denial, and a model of humility. When in 1505 Luther received the minor orders at the monastery of the Augustines at Erfurt, and when, upon the occasion of a granting of indulgences by Leo X. to the Dominicans (1517), he published the programme of his anti-papal and anti-canonical propositions, he at once found himself face to face with Cajetan, who was the leader and promoter of the Catholic movement in opposition to the German pervert. Cajetan conceived the happy idea of instituting a vast confraternity of the regular clergy, with the view of re-establishing ecclesiastical discipline. He was the ideal of the praying and working priest, without family ties, with no close or continuous relations with the outside world, and yet so brought up that while mixing with it he could forward the interests of the Church. The Somasques, regular clergy for the education of orphans (1528); the Barnabites, regular clergy of St. Paul (1532); the Jesuits, regular clergy of the Company of Jesus; the Crucifers, regular clergy ministering to the sick (1592); the Scholopians, regular clergy for the poor of the Mother of God; the Minorites, regular clergy of the minor order, and many other institutions of the same kind, are the offspring of Cajetan’s creation, and thus he has been called the patriarch of the clergy. The project of the Council of Trent was the conception, and its preliminary elaboration was the work, of Cajetan, and this famous council, which was to have so much influence over the Christian world, raised the moral dignity of the clergy, while it prepared the way for a general reform of the Church.

The instruction of the young men who were destined for the priesthood also dates from the same epoch. It is true that there existed in Italy, France, and Spain, schools of theology frequented by the clergy, but the latter prepared themselves for holy orders without rule or guidance, without any of those intellectual and moral resources which a community can offer. Many of the pupils wore no tonsure nor even a uniform ecclesiastical dress, they mixed in society, sometimes led a dissipated life, and reached the solemn period of ordination without having received any proper teaching. The Council of Trent, at the instance of Cajetan, decided that each diocese should have a school of ecclesiastics termed a _seminary_. St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, the good Paul d’Arezzo, Archbishop of Naples, and several Italian bishops, set Europe the example by establishing these pious retreats in their dioceses; the Cardinal of Lorraine imitated them by founding the seminary of Rheims, and two French bishops also created seminaries at Carpentras and Bordeaux. These were the only seminaries in France for more than eighty years, and they were so badly managed, so little in harmony with the importance of their design, that they were looked upon as attempts that had miscarried. The seminary of Paris, the most famous of all those in France, was not created until the middle of the seventeenth century, when it was founded by the active and generous co-operation of two pious women, with the help of St. Vincent de Paul and the Abbé Ollier, for ecclesiastical retreats and for the establishment of the _Congregation de Saint-Sulpice_.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

The First Monks.--St. Anthony and his Disciples.--St. Pachomius
and St. Athanasius.--St. Eusebius and St. Basilius.--Cenobitism
in the East and in the West.--St. Benedict and the Benedictine
Code.--Monkish Dress.--St. Columba.--List of the Monasteries
in Charlemagne’s Time.--Services rendered by the Monks to
Civilisation, Arts, and Letters.--Reform of the Religious
Orders in the Twelfth Century.--St. Norbert.--St. Bernard.--St.
Dominic.--St. Francis of Assisi.--The Carmelites.--The
Bernardines.--The Barnabites.--The Jesuits.

During the early days of the Church, monastic life began in the vast solitudes of the Thebais, in Upper Egypt. It soon extended to Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and even beyond the limits of the Roman Empire. St. Jerome, just before the Middle Ages, wrote, “We daily receive troops of monks from India, Persia, and Ethiopia.”

The fearful austerities of the first ascetics in the East seem, at first sight, excessive, but they are justified by their results, and may be explained by the state of society at that epoch. A gross sensualism was generally prevalent, and people lived only for pleasure. The slaves, after having accomplished the work necessary for the existence of the free men, further assisted in satiating the disordered appetites of this society, which had exhausted all the refinements of sensuality and luxury.