Every political régime may be characterised by the place where the

exercise of power is bestowed. Ancient republics had their agora and

fora. The great monarchy of Louis XIV had its palace of Versailles. The

feudal lords had their castles. They were, as a usual thing, enormous

edifices, situated on high places, massive, round, or square, without

architecture or ornamentation, the walls pierced by a few loopholes for

the discharge of arrows. There was a single entrance giving on a great

moat which could only be passed by a drawbridge. The castle was crowned

with parapets and battlements, from which rocks, molten pitch, and lead

could be thrown down on the heads of too venturesome assailants at the

foot of the walls. To-day the gaping gray masses are but nests for crows,

crumbled and eaten away by time. Seen from afar they quite eclipse the

small and light habitation of modern days--these monuments at once of

legitimate defence and oppression. But they could have been nothing less

than they were to provide shelter from the northern incursions and the

feudal wars. Everyone sought refuge in them. Those who had not the right

to live within the castle, who were neither lords nor warriors, settled

around its great walls, under their powerful protection. This was the

nucleus of many towns.

ECCLESIASTICAL FEUDALISM

Even the clergy had their place in this system. The bishop, formerly

“defender of the city,” had often become its count, by traditional

usurpation or by express royal concession when the king had united the

county and the bishopric, the temporal and the spiritual authority. This

made the bishop sovereign of all the lords of his diocese.

Besides her tithes the church possessed, through the donation of

the faithful, immense wealth, and in order to protect this from the

brigandage of the times she had recourse to secular arms. She chose

laymen, men of courage and wisdom, to whom she confided her property

that they might defend it, if necessary at the point of the sword. But

these attorneys of the monasteries and churches did as the counts of the

king--made their functions hereditary, and took for themselves the wealth

entrusted to their care. They condescended, however, to regard themselves

as the vassals of those whom they had despoiled, and to swear faith and

homage under ordinary conditions of natural right and personal service.

Abbés and bishops in consequence became suzerains, temporal lords having

numerous vassals ready to take up arms for their cause, courts of

justice--in fact all the prerogatives exercised by the great landlords.

There were bishops, dukes, and bishop-counts, vassals themselves of

greater lords and especially of the king, from whom they received the

investiture of the property attached to their churches, or, as it was

called, their temporal domain.

This ecclesiastical feudalism was so extensive, so powerful, that in

France and England it possessed during the Middle Ages more than a fifth

of all the land; in Germany nearly a third. For there was this difference

between the church and king, that the latter, a conquest once made,

received nothing more, but on the contrary constantly gave away until it

came to pass that he possessed nothing but the town of Laon; while the

church, if she did lose some of her land (a difficult thing since she had

excommunication to defend it with), was acquiring more every day, since

few of the faithful died without leaving her something. And so it was

that she constantly got more and never or very rarely gave anything up,

and then only when it was wrested from her by force.[i]

The manner in which the church often lost her property in feudal times is

described by Carl Spannagel:

THE CHURCH AND THE FEUDAL ARMY

The bishops and abbots as land proprietors went into the battle-field

at the head of their contingents. They often wore armour under their

priestly garments, and they did not shrink from actual fighting in

action. The care for souls (if such an expression can be used with

regard to a priestly dignitary of the Middle Ages) which even in peace

made but a slight demand upon them, must have nearly vanished under

such circumstances in the field. The account of Bishop Daniel of Prague

attending to the wounded and administering them spiritual comfort has a

modern foreign tone about it. Only special royal permission could exempt

the bishops and their respective abbots from appearing at the head of

their men.

But the king did not make such frequent demands upon the participation

of the spiritual dignitaries in campaigns as we are inclined to think.

This idea arose from the command of Otto II in 981, which demanded the

personal command of their contingents of seven bishops and the seven

abbots, whilst twelve bishops and three abbots are told only to send

their _loricati_ to the emperor. Substitutes for the bishops and abbots

in this case would be priests or vassals of rank of their diocese, or

abbotship.

It is worthy of note that the immunity, the purport of which had so

increased in extent since the Carlovingian time, exercised no influence

on the military obligations of the churches to which it was addressed.

In most of the immunity documents military duty is not touched upon, so

it was considered something quite independent. In some it is expressly

mentioned that no _index publicus_ should exercise the arrière-ban over

the particular cloister, but this made no change in the obligation of

the abbots themselves. On the contrary, in a privilege of Otto I for the

bishopric of Worms, the sentence from a document of Louis the Pious is

retained which commands that the military followers of the men of the

church are only to be called upon in the interest of the kingdom. The

transfer of their service to the princes was of greater import to the

military obligations of the church than the immunity.

Such transfers, however, only refer to monasteries and not also to

bishoprics. There were two different kinds of exemption--either the king

gives the cloister in question to a lord of his kingdom as a favour or

as his property, so that (forever or for a time) it ceases to be a royal

cloister, or he takes away a part of its landed property and makes it

over to lay princes who thenceforward undertake the military duties

hitherto pertaining to the cloister. By this means the cloister remains

royal, only it is exempt from military obligations. A third possibility

was added to these two. Very often the great lords did not wait for the

king’s initiative to enrich themselves with church property, but they

seized it on their own account and obtained possession of the longed-for

cloister by any means.

With such measures by force there was certainly no legal adoption of the

obligation which the cloister owed the kingdom. But there is no doubt

that the property thus gained was taken into account in the valuation

of the service due to the kingdom by the new owner. The documental

protection of the king generally proved most inefficient against

such seizures. In more ancient times, particularly under the later

Carlovingians, we find taxations of abbotships. The cases became rarer

later on without quite disappearing. The kingdom evidently did not

depend upon increasing the power of the princes which was continually

developing by such means, so that the seizures of the princes increased

with the feudal system.[d]

SERFS AND VILLEINS

In the eleventh century, Carlovingian Europe was divided into a multitude

of fiefs which formed each its own state, having its own life, laws,

customs, and its almost perfectly independent lay or ecclesiastical chief.

We have described the community of the lords, but they were not the only

feudal community. That was the fighting and war-making community, the

community that ruled, judged, punished, and oppressed. Below this was

the community that worked, by which the other lived, got its clothes,

its arms, its castles, and its bread--the community of serfs, or rather

craftsmen (_gens potestatis_). We must not now look for free men, for

they have disappeared. Some have raised themselves and become the

fortunate lords; others have been pushed back into the lower regions of

society and have become serfs and villeins. That class of simple freemen

which had been nearly swept away in the invasion of the Roman Empire had

been engulfed a second time. There were no longer any freehold owners, or

so few that their mention is not worth while.

But the villeins were a numerous lot. The chief, the noble, had not only

vassals but subjects residing on that portion of his estate that he never

enfeoffed. And these were the serfs, properly called, men of the soil who

were entirely at their lord’s disposal. “The lord,” says Beaumanoir,[f]

“can take from them all that they have, put them in prison, rightly or

wrongly, and as often as he pleases, and has no account to give of them

except to God.”

In spite of this the condition of the serf was better than that of the

slave of ancient times. The progress which slavery had made at the fall

of the Roman Empire was not entirely lost in the wreckage of invasion,

but appeared again in feudal society. The freeman of antiquity had been

harder towards his slave than was the barbarian in whom the leaven of

Christianity had produced some effect. The serf was recognised as a man

having a family, sharing the common ancestry of his lord, and made in the

image of God. Serfs finally entered the church, and sometimes mounted

higher than the most powerful lords.

Above the serfs were the inalienables (_mainmortables_), “more kindly

treated,” continues the old jurist of Beauvais,[f] “since the lord, if

they did no wrong, could ask nothing of them except their dues and rents

and the debts which they were accustomed to pay for their servitude.” But

the inalienable could not marry without the consent of his lord, and if

he took a free wife, or one outside the seigneury, there was a fine at

the pleasure of the lord. This was the right of “formarriage” (a tax for

marriage out of rank or condition), and the issue of such a marriage was

divided between the lords of the husband and of the wife. If there was

but one child, it went to the lord of the mother. At an inalienable’s

death all his property went to his lord. For these people there was no

way of escape from the hand that bent them to the furrow. Wherever they

went the right of succession was attached to their persons and their

purse. The lord inherited on every hand from his serfs.

In a higher degree still were to be found the free tenants known as

villeins, peasants, or commoners. Their condition was less precarious.

They had preserved the freedom the serf did not possess, and had hung

on to it at the sacrifice of an annual tax, a statute duty, and the

rent of the land which the landlord had ceded them and which they could

transmit with all their other property to their children. But while the

beneficiary holdings or fiefs were under the protection of a public

and well-defined law, the land of the villeins was under the absolute

jurisdiction of the landlord and protected only by private agreements.

This is why the villeins, and especially those in the country, where

it was not necessary to oversee them as strictly as those in the large

towns, were often under the heel of absolute dominion.

One reads in ancient documents about the lords: “They are masters

of heaven and earth; they have jurisdiction above and beneath the

ground, over necks and heads, over the water, winds, and fields.” The

villeins could not escape their jurisdiction, for the feudal law said,

“Between thee, lord, and thee, villein, there is no judge but God.” “We

recognise from our gracious lords,” runs another formula, “both ban

and convocation; the high forest, the bird in the air, the fish in the

stream, the beast in the bush, as far as our sovereign lord, or the

servants of his grace, can hold his own. For this our gracious lord will

take under his shelter and protection the widow and orphan as well as the

peasant.” Thus were all rights given over to the lord, but in exchange

he protected the weak. Such is the principle of feudal society towards

its subjects. Royalty no longer filled the office for which it was

instituted; bishops, counts, barons, and other powers were called upon

for the protection which could no longer be expected from the nominal

head of the state.

Everything belonged to the lord; but since there was no industry or

commerce, no luxury by which one alone could consume in a few moments the

fruit of the labour of many, the exactions of this lord were not at first

oppressive, and for the villeins these exactions were as systematically

determined as are to-day the rights of the landlord over his

farmer-tenants. Only in the Middle Ages was there always the element of

arbitrariness and violence which modern law does not allow. The villeins’

tax was paid either in natural produce, as provisions, corn, cattle, and

fowl, products of the soil and the farm; or in work, or manual labour, as

statute labour in the fields and vineyards of the lord, in the building

of his castle, or digging ditches, in the repair of roads; or the making

of furniture, utensils, horseshoes, ploughshares, carts, etc. In towns

and wherever money was scarce, the lord did not make the mistake, it must

be understood, of demanding his dues in coin, or of imposing arbitrary

taxes. But let us go back to the times themselves and listen to the words

of a scribe: “The lord who demands unjust rights of his villein, does so

at the peril of his soul.” If the fear of heaven did not suffice, here

were the commoners coming to the rescue, and the king’s officials were

not far behind.

There were some strange compensations to enliven the sad life of the

feudal lord, shut up the whole year within the sombre walls of his

castle. At Bologna, in Italy, the tenantry of the Benedictines of St.

Procule paid as a tax the steam from a boiled capon. Every year each man

brought his capon between two plates to the abbot, uncovered it, and,

the steam having all been given off, was quits, and took his capon back

with him. Elsewhere the peasants brought solemnly before their lord, in

a carriage drawn by four horses, a little bird, or perhaps a may-bush

decorated with ribbons. The man who owned a monkey was quits, according

to an ordinance of St. Louis, when he had caused the monkey to perform

before the lord’s tax-gatherer; the jongleur had to pay with one song.

The lords themselves did not refuse, sometimes, to play a rôle in these

folk comedies. The markgraf of Jülich, whenever he made a solemn entry,

was mounted on a one-eyed horse, with wooden saddle, and bridle of bark

from the linden, and wearing two spires of hawthorn, and carrying a

white stick. When the abbé of Figeac came into town the lord of Monbrun

received him in a most grotesque costume with one leg bare.

Feudalism, bored with itself, laughed sometimes with the poor people, as

did also the church when she authorised the celebration in the basilicas

of the feast of the Asses. The powerful and the fortunate, in this age

so sad and so stern, where misery was everywhere and security nowhere,

owed much to their villeins and peasants for giving them some moments of

forgetfulness and pleasure.

ANARCHY AND VIOLENCE; FRIGHTFUL CONDITION OF THE PEASANTS AND SOME HAPPY

RESULTS THEREFROM

They were in truth hard times for the poor people, these Middle Ages,

when in spite of all the formulæ and other conventions, the noble did not

believe in anything but the right of the sword. In theory the principles

of the feudal relation were very beautiful; in practise they nearly

brought matters to a state of anarchy, for its judicial institutions

were too defective to prevent the tie of vassalage from being constantly

broken. Here lay the cause of the interminable wars which broke out in

all parts of feudal Europe, and which were the great affliction of that

epoch. Everyone could have recourse to his sword in a proven wrong or

a sentence he deemed unjust, and a state of war was chronic in that

society. Every hill became a fortress; every plain a field of battle.

Shut up in strong castles, covered with mail, and surrounded by armed

men, the feudal lords, “the tyrants,” as a monk of the eleventh century

calls them, lived but to fight, and knew no other mode of enrichment

than pillage. There was no more commerce--the roads were no longer safe;

no more industry, for the lords, masters of the towns, levied upon the

burghers as soon as some little sign of wealth would appear. The most

different customs were established everywhere, since there was no longer

any general legislation, each noble having sole law-making power on his

own fief.[83] Everywhere, likewise, there was the deepest ignorance

except perhaps in the heart of some of the monasteries; and the clergy,

guardians of moral law, were compelled not to forbid violence, but to

regulate it by the “Truce of God” [_Treuga Dei_], which forbade killing

and robbing from Wednesday evening to Monday morning.

On whom fell all the burden of these feudal wars? They were not very

murderous for the nobles wrapped in steel, but they were so for the

peasant with scarcely any defensive armour. At Brenneville, where the

kings of France and England fought, nine hundred knights took part, and

only three were left on the battle-field. At Bouvines, Philip Augustus

was thrown from his horse and remained some time helpless amidst the

foot-soldiers of the enemy. They vainly sought some opening in his armour

through which to pass a dagger blade, and they dealt heavy blows which

could not break his cuirass. His knights took their time about rescuing

and replacing him in the saddle. After which he threw himself with them

into the midst of that rabble where their long lances and heavy axes

did not deliver a single blow in vain. The sovereign captured, another

calamity; his ransom must be paid. But who paid for the cottage and the

burned fields of the poor peasant--who stanched his wounds, who provided

for his widow and orphans?

Two contemporary writers, historians of the Crusades, paint thus these

direful times: “Before the Christians left for the countries beyond the

sea,” says Guibert de Nogent, “the kingdom of France was in the throes of

constant trouble and hostilities. One heard nothing but of brigandage on

the public roads. Fires were innumerable, and war was inflicted on every

hand for no other reason than insatiable cupidity. In short, grasping men

respected no right of property and gave themselves up to pillage with

unrestrained boldness.”

And William, archbishop of Tyre,[h] says: “There was no security for

property. Were a man regarded as rich, this was sufficient excuse for

throwing him into prison, keeping him in irons, and putting him to cruel

torture. Sword-girded brigands infested the roads, lay in ambush, and

spared neither strangers nor men devoted to the service of God. Cities

and fortified towns were not safe from such crimes. Cut-throats made the

streets and squares dangerous for the wealthy man.” In the seventy years

between 970 and 1040 there were forty of famine and pestilence.

However, the onward march of civilisation can never be so completely

suspended that these centuries were absolutely sterile for the progress

of humanity. In the church thought awakened, and in lay society poetry

made its appearance. There was even some progress in morals, at least

among the ruling classes. In the isolation in which each one lived,

exposed to all sorts of perils, the soul fortified itself to meet them.

The feeling of the dignity of man, which despotism managed to smother,

was revived; and the society which spilled blood with such deplorable

facility showed often a moral elevation which is to be found only in

this age. The low vices and cowardice of the decadent Romans or enslaved

peoples were unknown to them, and the Middle Ages have bequeathed to

modern times the sentiment of honour. The feudal nobility knew how to

die, which is the first condition of knowing how to get the most out of

life.

Another beneficial consequence was the reorganisation of the family. In

ancient cities the head of the family lived outside his house, in the

fields or in the forum. He scarcely knew his wife and children, yet had

over them the right of life and death. In primitive times the custom

of polygamy and the facility for divorce prevented the family from

establishing itself on any better basis. In feudal society men lived in

isolation, and the head of the family was brought into close touch with

it. When wars gave him leisure in his castle, perched like an eagle’s

nest on the mountain top, he had nothing to occupy his life and his heart

but his wife and children. The church, which brought rough soldiers to

the feet of a virgin and made them for the sake of the mother of Christ

respect female virtue, softened the temper of the warrior and prepared

him to come under the spell of the finer feelings and more delicate

sentiments with which nature had endowed the other sex.

Woman assumed, then, her place in the family and in society which the

Mosaic law had once given her. Things went even further--she became

the object of a cult which created new sentiments, which the poetry of

troubadours and minstrels seized upon and which chivalry expressed in

action. As in the beautiful legend of St. Christopher, the strong was

conquered by the weak, the giant by the little child.

[Illustration: TOWER OF A GERMAN FEUDAL CASTLE]

This is seen in an institution of the times. Robert d’Arbrissel founded

near Saumur at Fontevrault, about the year 1100, an abbey which soon

became famous, and which opened its gates to recluses of both sexes. The

women were cloistered, and spent their time in prayer. The men worked

in the fields, drained the marshes, cleared the land, and remained the

perpetual servants of the women. The abbey was governed by an abbess,

“because,” says the bull of confirmation, “Jesus Christ in dying gave his

best beloved disciple to his mother for a son.”

Outside the family, the state was doubtless badly organised. It is

necessary to call attention, in spite of all contradictory facts, to

the political theory which this society represents. If the serf had no

rights, the vassals had them, and well-defined ones too. The feudal tie

was formed on conditions well known and accepted by him in advance; new

conditions could not be placed upon him except by his own agreement. From

these come those grand and strong maxims of common law which, in spite

of a thousand violations, have come down to us--no tax can be imposed

without the consent of the contributants; no law is valid unless accepted

by those who must obey it; no sentence is legal unless declared by the

peers of the accused. These are the laws of feudalism which the states

general of 1789 buried under the débris of absolute monarchy; and in

guarantee of these rights the vassal had the power of breaking the tie

of vassalage by giving up his fief or of responding by war to a denial

of justice from his lord. This right of armed resistance, which St.

Louis himself recognised, led, it is true, to anarchy; it weakened the

social structure, but it strengthened the individual. But it is with the

individual that we must commence. Before intelligently building up the

state, it is necessary to elevate the individual and the family; this

double work was the task of the Middle Ages.

The church worked with energy to establish the sanctity of marriage, even

for the serf; in preaching the equality of all men before God, which was

a threat to the great inequalities of this world; by proclaiming by the

principle of election that she reserved for herself at the very pinnacle

of hierarchy the rights of the intellect, in contradistinction to the

feudal world which recognised but the right of blood; and in crowning

with the triple crown and seating in the chair of St. Peter, where they

had one foot on the neck of kings, a serf like Adrian II and the son of a

poor carpenter, like Gregory VII.

GEOGRAPHIC OUTLINES OF THE KINGDOM OF GERMANY

Such were the principles that ruled in all the countries comprised within

the limits of Charlemagne’s empire, that is to say, almost the whole of

the Germanic peoples, France, Germany, Italy, and the north of Spain. The

political geography of the countries formed itself after the fashion of

its feudal organisations. As the fundamental axiom of feudalism expressed

itself, “No territory without its lord,” there did not exist throughout

the land a domain so small that it was not incorporated in some degree

in the hierarchy. Of all these superimposed suzerainties, the royal was

the only one whose limits served to determine the extent of the realms

already formed but still very vaguely outlined.[i]

The difference between feudalism and the politics both of antiquity

and of modern times lies, according to Paul von Roth,[j] chiefly in

the absence of a state power. There was no proper monarchy; public

offices are hereditary or belong to an estate. The impossibility of the

permanence of feudalism is shown, he says, most clearly in the feudal

army by which even feudal justice suffered. Von Roth draws a vivid

comparison between France and Germany at the end of the tenth century:

France is much the more feudal and anarchic under the powerless Hugh

Capet; Germany is more centralised under monarchic power. He compares

them again three centuries later: France is a consolidated monarchy;

Germany weak with a lasting weakness. The cause he finds above all is

this--that the French kings had vigorously and in every way worked for

the uprooting of the feudal system.[a]

THE TRANSITION FROM FEUDALISM TO MONARCHY

The moral phenomena above mentioned, tending in the direction of a

general principle, were partly of a subjective, partly of a speculative

order. But we must now give particular attention to the practical

political movements of the period. The advance which that period

witnessed presents a negative aspect, in so far as it involves the

termination of the sway of individual caprice and of the isolation of

power. Its affirmative aspect is the rise of a supreme authority whose

dominion embraces all--a political power properly so called, whose

subjects enjoy an equality of rights, and in which the will of the

individual is subordinated to that common interest which underlies the

whole.

This is the advance from feudalism to monarchy. The principle of feudal

sovereignty is the outward force of individuals--princes, liege lords;

it is a force destitute of intrinsic right. The subjects of such a

constitution are vassals of a superior prince or seigneur, towards whom

they have stipulated duties to perform; but whether they perform these

duties or not depends upon the seigneur’s being able to induce them so

to do, by force of character or by grant of favours. Conversely, the

recognition of those feudal claims themselves was extorted by violence

in the first instance; and the fulfilment of the corresponding duties

could be secured only by the constant exercise of the power which was

the sole basis of the claims in question. The monarchical principle

also implies a supreme authority, but it is an authority over persons

possessing no independent power to support their individual caprice,

where we have no longer caprice opposed to caprice; for the supremacy

implied in monarchy is essentially a power emanating from a political

body, and is pledged to the furtherance of that equitable purpose on

which the constitution of a state is based.

Feudal sovereignty is a polyarchy--we see nothing but lords and serfs; in

monarchy, on the contrary, there is one lord and no serf, for servitude

is abrogated by it, and in it right and law are recognised; it is the

source of real freedom. Thus in monarchy the caprice of individuals is

kept under, and a common gubernatorial interest established. But since

this monarchy is developed from feudalism, it bears in the first instance

the stamp of the system from which it sprang. Individuals quit their

isolated capacity and become members of estates (or orders of the realm)

and corporations; the vassals are powerful only by combination as an

order; in contraposition to them the cities constitute powers in virtue

of their communal existence. Thus the authority of the sovereign ceases

to be mere arbitrary sway. The consent of the estates and corporations

is essential to its maintenance; and if the prince wishes to have it, he

must will what is reasonable.

We now see a constitution embracing various orders, while feudal rule

knows no such orders. We observe the transition from feudalism to

monarchy taking place in three ways: (1) Sometimes the lord paramount

gains a mastery over his independent vassals, by subjugating their

individual power, thus making himself sole ruler. (2) Sometimes the

princes free themselves from the feudal relation altogether, and become

the territorial lords of certain states; or lastly (3) the lord paramount

unites the particular lordships that own him as their superior with his

own particular suzerainty in a more peaceful way, and thus becomes master

of the whole.

These processes do not indeed present themselves in history in that

pure and abstract form in which they are exhibited here; often we find

more modes than one appearing contemporaneously, but one or the other

always predominates. The cardinal consideration is that the basis and

essential condition of such a political formation is to be looked for in

the particular nationalities in which it had its birth. Europe presents

particular nations, constituting a unity in their very nature, and having

the absolute tendency to form a state. All did not succeed in attaining

this political unity; we have now to consider them severally in relation

to the change thus introduced. First, as regards the Roman Empire, the

connection between Germany and Italy naturally results from the idea

of that empire: the secular dominion united with the spiritual was to

constitute one whole; but this state of things was rather the object of

constant struggle than one actually attained. In Germany and Italy the

transition from the feudal condition to monarchy involved the entire

abrogation of the former; the vassals became independent monarchs.

PROGRESS IN GERMANY

Germany had always embraced a great variety of stocks--Swabians,

Bavarians, Franks, Thuringians, Saxons, Burgundians; to these must

be added the Slavs of Bohemia, Germanised Slavs in Mecklenburg, in

Brandenburg, and in a part of Saxony and Austria; so that no such

combination as took place in France was possible. Italy presented a

similar state of things. The Lombards had established themselves there,

while the Greeks still possessed the exarchate and lower Italy; the

Normans too established a kingdom of their own in lower Italy, and the

Saracens maintained their ground for a time in Sicily. When the rule

of the house of Hohenstaufen was terminated, barbarism got the upper

hand throughout Germany; the country being broken up into several

sovereignties, in which a forceful despotism prevailed. It was the maxim

of the electoral princes to raise only weak princes to the imperial

throne; they even sold the imperial dignity to foreigners. Thus the unity

of the state was virtually annulled.

A number of centres of power were formed, each of which was a predatory

state; the legal constitution recognised by feudalism was dissolved, and

gave place to undisguised violence and plunder; and powerful princes

made themselves lords of the country. After the interregnum the count of

Habsburg was elected emperor, and the house of Habsburg continued to fill

the imperial throne with but little interruption. These emperors were

obliged to create a force of their own, as the princes would not grant

them an adequate power attached to the empire. But that state of absolute

anarchy was at last put an end to by associations having general aims in

view. In the cities themselves we see associations of a minor order; but

now confederations of cities were formed with a common interest in the

suppression of predatory violence. Of this kind was the Hanseatic League

in the north, the Rhenish League consisting of cities lying along the

Rhine, and the Swabian League. The aim of all these confederations was

resistance to the feudal lords; and even princes united with the cities,

with a view to the subversion of the feudal condition and the restoration

of a peaceful state of things throughout the country.

[Illustration: EARLY CANNON WITH PROTECTED MOUNTING]

What the state of society was under feudal sovereignty is evident from

the notorious association formed for executing criminal justice; it was a

private tribunal, which, under the name of the _Vehmgericht_, held secret

sittings; its chief seat was the northwest of Germany. A peculiar peasant

association was also formed. In Germany the peasants were bondmen;

many of them took refuge in the towns, or settled down as freemen in

the neighbourhood of the towns (_Pfahlbürger_); but in Switzerland a

peasant fraternity was established. The peasants of Uri, Schwyz, and

Unterwalden were under imperial governors; for the Swiss governments were

not the property of private possessors, but were official appointments

of the empire. These the sovereigns of the Habsburg line wished to

secure to their own house. The peasants, with club and iron-studded mace

(_Morgenstern_), returned victorious from a contest with the haughty

steel-clad nobles, armed with spear and sword, and practised in the

chivalric encounters of the tournament.

INFLUENCE OF GUNPOWDER

Another invention also tended to deprive the nobility of the ascendency

which they owed to their accoutrements--that of gunpowder. Humanity

needed it, and it made its appearance forthwith. It was one of the chief

instruments in freeing the world from the dominion of physical force and

placing the various orders of society on a level. With the distinction

between the weapons they used, vanished also that between lords and

serfs. And before gunpowder, fortified places were no longer impregnable,

so that strongholds and castles now lost their importance. We may indeed

be led to lament the decay or the depreciation of the practical value of

personal valour--the bravest, the noblest may be shot down by a cowardly

wretch at safe distance in an obscure lurking-place; but, on the other

hand, gunpowder has made a rational, considerate bravery, spiritual

valour, the essential to martial success.

[Illustration: EARLY TYPE OF MORTAR]

Only through this instrumentality could that superior order of valour

be called forth--that valour in which the heat of personal feeling has

no share; for the discharge of firearms is directed against a body of

men--an abstract enemy, not individual combatants. The warrior goes to

meet deadly peril calmly, sacrificing himself for the commonweal; and

the valour of civilised nations is characterised by the very fact that

it does not rely on the strong arm alone, but places its confidence

essentially in the intelligence, the generalship, the character of

its commanders, and, as was the case among the ancients, in a firm

combination and unity of spirit on the part of the forces they command.

MONARCHISM IN ITALY

In Italy, as already noticed, we behold the same spectacle as in

Germany--the attainment of an independent position by isolated centres of

power. In that country, warfare in the hands of the condottieri became

a regular business. The towns were obliged to attend to their trading

concerns, and therefore employed mercenary troops, whose leaders often

became feudal lords; Francis Sforza even made himself duke of Milan. In

Florence, the Medici, a family of merchants, rose to power. On the other

hand, the larger cities of Italy reduced under their sway several smaller

ones and many feudal chiefs. A papal territory was likewise formed.

There, also, a very large number of feudal lords had made themselves

independent; by degrees they all became subject to the one sovereignty of

the pope.

How thoroughly equitable in the view of social morality such a

subjugation was, is evident from Machiavelli’s celebrated work _The

Prince_. This book has often been thrown aside in disgust, as replete

with the maxims of the most revolting tyranny; but nothing worse can be

urged against it than that the writer, having the profound consciousness

of the necessity for the formation of a state, has here exhibited the

principles on which alone states could be founded in the circumstances

of the times. The chiefs who asserted an isolated independence, and the

power they arrogated, must be entirely subdued; and though we cannot

reconcile with our idea of freedom the means which he proposes as the

only efficient ones, and regards as perfectly justifiable--inasmuch

as they involve the most reckless violence, all kinds of deception,

assassination, and so forth--we must nevertheless confess that the feudal

nobility, whose power was to be subdued, were assailable in no other way,

since an indomitable contempt for principle and an utter depravity of

morals were thoroughly engrained in them.

IN FRANCE

In France we find the converse of that which occurred in Germany and

Italy. For many centuries the kings of France possessed only a very

small domain, so that many of their vassals were more powerful than

themselves; but it was a great advantage to the royal dignity in France

that the principle of hereditary monarchy was firmly established there.

The consideration it enjoyed was increased by the circumstance that the

corporations and cities had their rights and privileges confirmed by the

king, and that the appeals to the supreme feudal tribunal--the court

of peers, consisting of twelve members enjoying that dignity--became

increasingly frequent. The king’s influence was extended by his

affording that protection which only the throne could give. But that

which essentially secured respect for royalty, even among the powerful

vassals, was the increasing personal power of the sovereign. In various

ways, by inheritance, by marriage, by force of arms, etc., the kings

had come into possession of many earldoms (_Grafschaften_) and several

duchies. The dukes of Normandy had, however, become kings of England;

and thus a formidable power confronted France, whose interior lay open

to it by way of Normandy. Besides this there were powerful duchies

still remaining; nevertheless, the king was not a mere feudal suzerain

(_Lehnsherr_) like the German emperors, but had become a territorial

possessor (_Landesherr_); he had a number of barons and cities under him,

that were subject to his immediate jurisdiction; and Louis IX succeeded

in rendering appeals to the royal tribunal common throughout his kingdom.

The towns attained a position of greater importance in the state.

For when the king needed money, and all his usual resources, such as

taxes and forced contributions of all kinds, were exhausted, he made

application to the towns and entered into separate negotiations with

them. It was Philip the Fair who, in the year 1302, first convoked the

deputies of the towns as a third estate, in conjunction with the clergy

and the barons. All indeed that they were in the first instance concerned

with was the authority of the sovereign as the power that had convoked

them, and the raising of taxes as the object of their convocation; the

states nevertheless secured an importance and weight in the kingdom, and

as a natural result, an influence on legislation also.

A fact which is particularly remarkable is the proclamation issued by the

kings of France, giving permission to the bondsmen on the crown lands to

purchase their freedom at a moderate price. In the way we have indicated

the kings of France very soon attained great power; while the flourishing

state of the poetic art in the hands of the troubadours, and the growth

of the scholastic theology, whose especial centre was Paris, gave France

a culture superior to that of the other European states, and which

secured the respect of foreign nations.

IN ENGLAND

William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, introduced the feudal system

into England, and divided the kingdom into fiefs, which he granted almost

exclusively to his Norman followers. He himself retained considerable

crown possessions; the vassals were under obligation to perform service

in the field, and to aid in administering justice; the king was the

guardian of all vassals under age; they could not marry without his

consent. Only by degrees did the barons and the towns attain a position

of importance. It was especially in the disputes and struggles for the

throne that they acquired considerable weight.

When the oppressive rule and fiscal exactions of the kings became

intolerable, contentions and even war ensued; the barons compelled King

John to swear to Magna Charta, the basis of English liberty, _i.e._, more

particularly of the privileges of the nobility. Among the liberties thus

secured, that which concerns the administration of justice was the chief;

no Englishman was to be deprived of personal freedom, property, or life

without the judicial verdict of his peers. Everyone, moreover, was to

be entitled to the free disposition of his property. Further, the king

was to impose no taxes without the consent of the archbishops, bishops,

earls, and barons. The towns, also, favoured by the kings in opposition

to the barons, soon elevated themselves into a third estate and to

representation in the commons’ house of parliament. Yet the king was

always very powerful, if he possessed strength of character: his crown

estates procured for him due consideration; in later times, however,

these were gradually alienated, given away, so that the king was reduced

to apply for subsidies to the parliament.

We shall not pursue the minute and specifically historic details

that concern the incorporation of principalities with states, or the

dissensions and contests that accompanied such incorporations. We have

only to add that the kings, when by weakening the feudal constitution

they had attained a higher degree of power, began to use that power

against each other in the undisguised interest of their own dominion.

Thus France and England carried on wars with each other for a century.

The kings were always endeavouring to make foreign conquests; the towns,

which had the largest share of the burdens and expenses of such wars,

were opposed to them, and in order to placate them the kings granted them

important privileges.

THE PAPACY AND FEUDALISM

The popes endeavoured to make the disturbed state of society, to which

each of these changes gave rise, an occasion for the intervention of

their authority; but the interest of the growth of states was too

firmly established to allow them to make their own interest of absolute

authority valid against it. Princes and peoples were indifferent to

papal clamour urging them to new crusades. The emperor Louis set to work

to deduce from Aristotle, the Bible, and the Roman law a refutation

of the assumptions of the papal see; and the electors declared at the

diet held at Rense in 1338, and afterwards still more decidedly at the

imperial diet held at Frankfort, that they would defend the liberties

and hereditary rights of the empire, and that to make the choice of a

Roman emperor or king valid, no papal confirmation was needed. So, at an

earlier date, 1302, on occasion of a contest between Pope Boniface and

Philip the Fair, the assembly of the states convoked by the latter had

offered opposition to the pope. For states and communities had arrived at

the consciousness of independent moral worth.

Various causes had united to weaken the papal authority; the great

schism of the church, which led men to doubt the pope’s infallibility,

gave occasion to the decisions of the councils of Constance and Bâle,

which assumed an authority superior to that of the pope, and therefore

deposed and appointed popes. The numerous attempts directed against the

ecclesiastical system confirmed the necessity of a reformation. Arnold

of Brescia, Wycliffe, and Huss met with sympathy in contending against

the dogma of the papal vicegerency of Christ, and the gross abuses that

disgraced the hierarchy. These attempts were, however, only partial

in their scope. On the one hand the time was not yet ripe for a more

comprehensive onslaught; on the other hand the assailants in question

did not strike at the heart of the matter, but (especially the two

latter) attacked the teaching of the church chiefly with the weapons of

erudition, and consequently failed to excite a deep interest among the

people at large.

HEGEL ON THE RISE OF MANKIND THROUGH FEUDALISM

But the ecclesiastical principle had a more dangerous foe in the

incipient formation of political organisations than in the antagonists

above referred to. A common object, an aim intrinsically possessed of

perfect moral validity, presented itself to secularity in the formation

of states; and to this aim of community the will, the desire, the

caprice of the individual submitted itself. The hardness characteristic

of the self-seeking quality of “heart,” maintaining its position of

isolation--the knotty heart of oak underlying the national temperament of

the Germans--was broken down and mellowed by the terrible discipline of

the Middle Ages.

The two iron rods which were the instruments of this discipline were

the church and serfdom. The church drove the “heart” (_Gemüth_) to

desperation--made spirit pass through the severest bondage, so that the

soul was no longer its own; but it did not degrade it to Hindu torpor,

for Christianity is an intrinsically spiritual principle and, as such,

has a boundless elasticity. In the same way serfdom, which made a man’s

body not his own but the property of another, dragged humanity through

all the barbarism of slavery and unbridled desire, and the latter was

destroyed by its own violence.

It was not so much from slavery as through slavery that humanity was

emancipated. For barbarism, lust, injustice constitute evil: man, bound

fast in its fetters, is unfit for morality and religiousness; and it

is from this intemperate and ungovernable state of volition that the

discipline in question emancipated him. The church fought the battle with

the violence of rude sensuality in a temper equally wild and terroristic

with that of its antagonist; it prostrated the latter by dint of the

terrors of hell, and held it in perpetual subjection, in order to break

down the spirit of barbarism and to tame it into repose.

Theology declares that every man has this struggle to pass through, since

he is by nature evil, and only by passing through a state of mental

laceration arrives at the certainty of reconciliation. But granting this,

it must on the other hand be maintained that the form of the contest is

very much altered when the conditions of its commencement are different,

and when that reconciliation has had an actual realisation. The path

of torturous discipline is in that case dispensed with (it does indeed

make its appearance at a later date, but in quite a different form), for

the waking up of consciousness finds man surrounded by the elements of

a moral state of society. The phase of negation is, indeed, a necessary

element in human development, but it has now assumed the tranquil form

of education, so that all the terrible characteristics of that inward

struggle vanish.[c]

FOOTNOTES

[83] [In the words of Bryce,[b] “Nascent feudalism was but one remove

from anarchy.”]

[Illustration]

BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS

[The letter [a] is reserved for Editorial Matter.]

CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF THE CRUSADES

[b] J. F. MICHAUD, _History of the Crusades_.

[c] CHARLES MILLS, _History of the Crusades_.

CHAPTER II. THE FIRST CRUSADE

[b] E. GIBBON, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_.

[c] FR. WILKEN, _Geschichte der Kreuzzüge_.

[d] J. F. MICHAUD, _Bibliothèque des Croisades_ (including many Arab

accounts).

[e] VICTOR DURUY, _Histoire du Moyen Age_.

CHAPTER III. THE SECOND CRUSADE

[b] E. GIBBON, _op. cit._

[c] CHARLES MILLS, _History of the Crusades_.

[d] L. VON RANKE, _Weltgeschichte_.

[e] “Imad ad-Din” and others in MICHAUD’S _Bibliothèque des Croisades_.

CHAPTER IV. THE THIRD CRUSADE

[b] CHARLES MILLS, _op. cit._

[c] J. F. MICHAUD, _op. cit._

[d] “Imad ad-Din” quoted in MICHAUD’S _Bibliothèque des Croisades_.

[e] RICHARD DEVIZES, _Chronicle Concerning the Deeds of King Richard the

First, King of England_.

[f] BOHA AD-DIN, _Life of Saladin_.

[g] GEOFFREY DE VINSAUF, _Itinerary of Richard I and others to the Holy

Land_.

[h] ROGER OF HOVEDEN, _Historia post Bedam_.

[i] THOMAS FULLER, _Holy War_.

[j] ABULFEDA, _History of the Human Race_.

[k] J. F. MICHAUD, _Bibliothèque des Croisades_.

CHAPTER V. THE FOURTH TO THE SIXTH CRUSADES

[b] V. DURUY, _op. cit._

[c] CHARLES MILLS, _op. cit._

[d] J. F. MICHAUD, _op. cit._

[e] A. JOURDAIN, _A Letter to Michaud on the Children’s Crusade_.

[f] FULLER, _op. cit._

[g] GEOFFREY DE VILLEHARDOUIN, _Conquête de Constantinople_.

CHAPTER VI. THE LAST CRUSADES

[b] C. MILLS, _op. cit._

[c] MATTHEW OF PARIS, _Historia Major_.

[d] FULLER, _op. cit._

[e] V. DURUY, _op. cit._

[f] JOHN DE JOINVILLE, _Memoirs of Louis IX_.

[g] MAKRIZI, _The Book of Paths for the Knowledge of Kings._

CHAPTER VII. CONSEQUENCES OF THE CRUSADES

[b] J. G. VON HERDER, _Philosophy of the History of Man_.

[c] C. MILLS, _op. cit._

[d] E. GIBBON, _op. cit._

[e] CHOISEUL D’AILLECOURT, _De l’influence des Croisades_.

APPENDIX. FEUDALISM

[b] JAMES BRYCE, _The Holy Roman Empire_.

[c] G. W. F. HEGEL, _Philosophy of History_.

[d] CARL SPANNAGEL, _Zur Geschichte des Deutschen Heerwesens vom X bis

zum XII Jahrhundert_.

[e] OTTO VON FREISING, _Chronik_.

[f] PHILIPPE DE BEAUMANOIR, _Coutumes de Beauvaisis_.

[g] GUIBERT DE NOGENT, _Gesta Dei per Francos_.

[h] WILLIAM OF TYRE, _Historia belli sacri_.

[i] V. DURUY, _Histoire du Moyen Age_.

[j] PAUL VON ROTH, _Feudalität und Unterthanenverband_.

[Illustration]

BOOK II. THE PAPACY

_INTRODUCTION_

HISTORY IN OUTLINE OF THE PAPACY

THE BISHOPS OF ROME [42-590 A.D.]

The early history of the Papacy is involved in much obscurity.

For the early centuries we shall attempt little more than

to repeat the names of the successive bishops, as accepted

by the traditions of the church of Rome. According to these

traditions, the Apostle =Peter= founded the Church in the

year 42 (modern criticism does not accept this date, which is

almost surely too early by about a score of years); he was

martyred in 67, and succeeded by =Linus=, who was followed in

79 by =Cletus= or =Anacletus=. 91, =Clement I= or =Clemens

Romanus=. Some writers make him the third bishop in 68 A.D.

100, =Evarestus=.

109 =Alexander I.= The political life of Rome extinguished

by the empire, begins to revive in the organisation of the

Christian church. 119, =Sixtus I=. 129, =Telesphorus=. 139,

=Hyginus=. 143, =Pius I=. 157, =Anicetus=. 168, =Soter=. 177,

=Eleutherius=. 193, =Victor I=. The bishop of Rome is beginning

to assume supremacy over other bishops. This is resented in

some quarters.

202 =Zephyrinus.= 219, =Calixtus I=. 223, =Urban I=.

230, =Pontianus=. 235, =Anterius=. 236, =Fabianus=. 251,

=Cornelius=. 252, =Lucius I=. 253, =Stephen I=. 257, =Sixtus

II=. 259, =Dionysius=. 269, =Felix I=. 275, =Eutychianus=. 283,

=Caius=. 296, =Marcellinus=.

308 =Marcellus I.= 310, =Eusebius=. 311, =Melchiades=. 314,

=Silvester I=. 325, The authority of the metropolitan is

distinctly recognised. The idea has been developing since the

primacy of Fabianus and Cornelius. 330, Removal of the capital

from Rome to Constantinople. This increases greatly the power

of the Roman bishop, who henceforth announces his supremacy in

more decided tones. 336, =Marcus I=. 337, =Julius I=. He is the

recognised protector of the orthodox faith against Arianism and

other heresies. The church begins to organise landed properties

by bequests from emperors and nobles.

352 =Liberius.= 356, First instance of schism in the church of

Rome. _Felix_ maintains a rival claim to the primacy.

366 =Damasus I= elected to the see, after a bitter and

violent contest, over his rival, Ursinus. Damasus represents

the cause of orthodoxy. 384, =Siricius=. In his primacy the

decretals--pastoral letters--are begun.

398 =Anastasius I.= The papacy has emerged from obscurity.

Paganism is in its death throes.

402 =Innocent I.= He does much to free the church from

political interference. 417, =Zosimus=. He attempts to

temporise with paganism.

418 =Boniface I.= His election is contested. _Eulalius_

maintains a rival claim. The emperor Honorius intervenes, and

the provisions for election are revised. This is the first

instance of imperial interference.

422 =Celestine I.= 432, =Sixtus III=. 440, =Leo (I) the

Great=, sometimes called the real founder of the papacy. The

precedence of the bishops of Rome is now fully recognised. 461,

=Hilarius=. 468, =Simplicius=. 476, The fall of the Western

Empire increases the bishops’ authority. 483, =Felix II= (or

=III=, if the rival bishop in 356 is reckoned as Felix II).

He feels himself powerful enough to summon the patriarch of

Constantinople to Rome, and excommunicates him on his refusal

to obey. 492, =Gelasius I=. He enunciates the principle

that his acts are not to be controlled by synods. 496,

=Anastasius II=. 498, =Symmachus=. The election is contested by

_Laurentius_, who maintains a rival claim. The Palmary synod

disavows its own right to sit in judgment on the acts of the

Roman bishop.

514 =Hormisdas.= 523, =John I=. Theodoric sends John to

Constantinople to obtain indulgence for the Arians. Not

entirely successful, Theodoric imprisons the bishop on his

return (525), and he dies the following year. 526, =Felix III=

or =IV=. Dionysius Exiguus collects and publishes the canons

of the councils and the papal decretals. 530, =Boniface II=.

His election contested by _Dioscorus_ until the latter’s death,

the same year. Boniface obtains the power of appointing his own

successor, but a second synod annuls it.

532 =John II.= 535, =Agapetus I=. Theodotus sends him to

Constantinople in his behalf. 536, Belisarius enters Rome;

the pope becomes the vassal of the emperor. =Silverius.= 537,

Through the intrigues of the empress Theodora and the deacon

Vigilius, Silverius is deposed and banished to the island of

Pandataria. =Vigilius= becomes bishop of Rome. The bishops now

become mere puppets of the Eastern court.

552 Vigilius, resisting the will of Justinian, is imprisoned.

553 Vigilius again seized, and sent to exile.

554 =Pelagius I.= 560, =John III=. 574, =Benedict I=. 578,

=Pelagius II=.

FROM GREGORY THE GREAT TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PAPACY AS A

LEGISLATIVE POWER [590-867 A.D.]

590 =Gregory (I) the Great= elected pope. He raises the papacy

to eminence and determines its future policy. Gregory’s work is

of threefold character. (1) He perfects the church ritual and

introduces a new mode of chanting, and organises the revenues

of the church. (2) He exercises supreme authority over the

churches of western Europe. The Lombards are converted from

Arianism, 599, and Britain is converted by St. Augustine.

(3) He makes the pope a temporal sovereign. By this time the

bishop of Rome has become the largest landholder in Italy. The

Lombard invasion has given the bishops opportunity for temporal

control, and in Rome and its vicinity the people recognise

Gregory at the head of affairs.

604 =Sabinianus.=

607 =Boniface III.= The emperor Phocas bestows title

of universal bishop on Boniface, but the patriarch of

Constantinople resumes it on Phocas’ death.

608 =Boniface IV.= He converts the Roman Pantheon into a

Christian church.

615 =Deusdedit.=

618 =Boniface V.=

625 =Honorius I.= The monothelitic controversy begins.

638 =Severinus.= He is not confirmed until 640.

640 =John IV.= The monothelite doctrine condemned.

642 =Theodore I.=

649 =Martin I.= The whole West repudiates monothelitism. Martin

condemns the Type of Constans II.

653 Martin seized by the exarch and carried to Constantinople,

by order of Constans.

654 =Eugenius I= elected in place of the absent Martin.

655 Martin banished to Cherson, where he soon dies.

657 =Vitalianus.=

672 =Adeodatus.=

676 =Domnus= or =Donus I=.

678 =Agatho.= Time of Wilfrid’s preaching in Britain and Gaul.

680 The Sixth Œcumenic Council at Constantinople settles the

monothelitic question.

682 =Leo II.= 683, =Benedict II=. 685, =John V=. 686, =Conon=.

687 =Sergius I.= _Paschal_ and _Theodore_ are supported as

anti-popes by different factions. The exarch finally recognises

Sergius.

701 =John VI.= He saves the life of the exarch in a rising of

the army. He drives the invading duke of Benevento back to his

own territory.

705 =John VII.= The emperor Justinian II tries to force certain

decrees objectionable in the West upon the church of Rome.

708 =Sisinnius= lives but twenty days after election.

=Constantine.= Justinian perseveres in his aim to reduce the

West to obedience.

710 Constantine goes to Constantinople at order of Justinian,

who remains content with this act of submission.

715 =Gregory II.= Time of Bede’s teaching.

725 Boniface establishes the German church.

726 The emperor Leo issues edict against image-worship. Italy

rebels.

728 Rebellion of Ravenna over the iconoclastic edict.

Liutprand, the Lombard king, captures the city. The papacy

begins to free itself from the Eastern Empire. The popes are

unwilling to submit themselves to the Lombards. Gregory appeals

to Charles Martel for aid against the Lombards.

731 =Gregory III.= He defies Leo in the matter of image-worship.

739 War with the Lombards. Appeal of Gregory to the Franks for

help against them.

741 =Zacharias.= He is the first pope to be elected without

obtaining the customary consent of the exarch. The papacy is

now free of the empire. It has become practically a political

dukedom.

742 Zacharias visits Liutprand and obtains treaty of peace.

Many possessions of the church restored by the Lombards.

749 The Lombards renew attacks on the pope.

751 Zacharias sanctions the transfer of the French crown to the

Carlovingian line.

752 =Stephen II= dies before his consecration. Usually not

reckoned in list of popes. =Stephen II= or =III=.

755 Pepin of France forces Aistulf, the Lombard king, to

relinquish all territory taken from the exarch and the pope.

Ravenna, Pentapolis, and other territory turned over to the

pope. “The Donation of Pepin.” The foundations of the papal

states are laid. Pepin bestows title of Patrician of Rome on

the king of the Franks.

757 =Paul I.= The Lombards do not encroach upon the papacy.

767 On death of Paul, Toto, duke of Nepi, compels a bishop

to ordain one of his brothers, _Constantine_, a layman. He

discharges all the offices of pontiff for a year, when

768 Desiderius, the Lombard king, sends a band to rescue Rome.

Constantine is seized. Election of =Stephen III= or =IV=.

All of Constantine’s acts are declared null and void. Cruel

treatment of Constantine.

772 =Adrian I.= Troubles with the Lombards are renewed. Adrian

appeals to Charlemagne.

774 Charlemagne captures Desiderius in Pavia, and assumes

title of king of the Lombards. End of the Lombard kingdom.

Charlemagne gives a large amount of territory to the pope.

“Donation of Charlemagne.” Adrian takes possession of the

exarchate, with all power and privileges of a temporal prince.

780 The pope summons Charlemagne to protect him against a

coalition of his Byzantine enemies. Peace is purchased.

786 Charlemagne reduces Arichis of Benevento to subjection. The

pope’s dominions extend to Calabria.

795 =Leo III.= He recognises the supremacy of Charlemagne.

799 Assault, attempted mutilation, and imprisonment of Leo

by an armed band headed by his nephews. Leo escapes to

Charlemagne, but returns to Rome.

800 Charlemagne goes to Rome to inquire into charges against

Leo. Leo crowns him emperor. Foundation of the empire of

Charlemagne. The pope and emperor begin the upbuilding of the

fabric of the Middle Ages. The pope is subordinate to the

emperor.

816 =Stephen IV.= He is unpopular, and makes the Romans swear

fealty to the emperor. Is compelled to take refuge with Louis

le Débonnaire. Returns to Rome, and dies.

817 =Paschal I.= Assumes pontificate without imperial sanction.

The Romans, admonished by the emperor, agree not to allow this

again.

824 =Eugenius II.=

827 =Valentinus= dies in five weeks. =Gregory IV.= He mediates

between Louis le Débonnaire and his sons. His pontificate

is uneventful, but materially advances pretensions of the

hierarchy.

844 =Sergius II= consecrated without consent of the emperor

Lothair. Lothair sends his son, Louis, with an army to Rome,

but his meeting with the pope is amicable. Louis II made king

of Lombardy.

847 =Leo IV.= The Saracens invade Italy as far as the gates of

Rome. Driven off by Louis. Leo fortifies a portion of Rome,

henceforth known as the Leonine city, including the Vatican and

church of St. Peter.

850 The “False Decretals” come to light.

855 =Benedict III.= His election contested by _Anastasius_,

who, at head of armed faction, seizes the Lateran. The imperial

legates decide in favour of Benedict, and Anastasius is

expelled. Beginning of the strife between Photius and Ignatius

for the see of Constantinople, which ends in the permanent

schism between the eastern and western churches.

858 =Nicholas I.= Under him the papacy makes a signal advance

in power. He interferes in the quarrel over the patriarchate

of Constantinople, espousing the cause of Ignatius, and

pronouncing sentence of deposition upon Photius. He adopts and

declares authentic the “False Decretals,” thus establishing the

principle of the sole legislative power of the pope.

861-864 Humiliation of the archbishops of Cologne, Trèves, and

Ravenna. The act of archbishop Hincmar of Rheims in deposing

Rothrad, bishop of Soissons, is reversed by Nicholas, on

authority of the “False Decretals.”

863 Nicholas forbids Lothair II to divorce his wife.

FROM THE DEATH OF NICHOLAS I TO THE BEGINNING OF THE ERA OF PRACTICAL

REFORM [867-1046 A.D.]

867 =Adrian II.=

868 On death of Lothair II of Lorraine, Adrian attempts to

bestow that crown on the emperor Louis II. This extension of

the papal prerogatives is not welcome to the German bishops,

and they rebuke Adrian.

870 Hincmar renews his struggle with the pope, and the whole

Frankish church arrays itself against the power of the pope in

dealing directly with bishops.

872 =John VIII.= During his pontificate, Rome is constantly in

danger from the Saracens.

875 John bestows the imperial crown on Charles the Bald, not as

his right, but as a gift. Victory over Hincmar and the Frankish

church by the appointment of Ansegis as primate of France.

876 Beginning of quarrel with Formosus, bishop of Porto.

877 In league with Athanasius, duke-bishop of Naples, the

Saracens reach the walls of Rome. Charles the Bald ignores

John’s appeals for help. The pope compelled to pay the Saracens

tribute.

878 Lambert, duke of Spoleto, in the interest of the imperial

claimant, Carloman, enters Rome, seizes John, and imprisons

him. John escapes, and flees to Provence. He returns to Rome.

881 John crowns Charles the Fat emperor.

882 Death of John, possibly murdered. =Martin II.=

884 =Adrian III.=

885 =Stephen V.=

887 On deposition of Charles the Fat the Carlovingian empire

comes to an end.

891 =Formosus= elected by influence of Guido of Spoleto. The

papacy enters a period of anarchy. The popes are elevated

by whichever rival party is in the ascendant, “obtaining,”

says Reichel, “their pontificate by crime, and vacating it by

murder.”

896 =Boniface VII= dies in a few days. The Italian party elects

=Stephen VI=. He mutilates the dead body of Formosus.

897 Stephen imprisoned and strangled. =Romanus= occupies the

see a few months. =Theodore II=, who belongs to the faction of

Formosus.

898 =John IX=, though of Formosus’ party, submits to the

emperor Lambert. The right of plundering the pope’s palace, on

his decease, is prohibited.

900 =Benedict IV.=

901 He crowns Louis of Provence, the rival of Berengar.

903 =Leo V.= In a few months he is imprisoned by =Christopher=,

one of his chaplains, who secures his own election.

904 Christopher driven from Rome by the soldiers of Berengar.

Election of =Sergius III=. The infamous Theodora and her

daughters, Marozia and Theodora, have complete influence over

Sergius. They further the aims of Berengar’s party. Complete

degradation of the papacy.

911 =Anastasius III.=

913 =Lando.=

914 =John X=, archbishop of Ravenna, is elected through

influence of Theodora, whose paramour he is. He proves an able

pontiff, and forms a league among the Italian dukes to resist

the Saracens, and, in furtherance of this project,

916 crowns Berengar emperor; then, for the first time in the

history of the papacy, the pope goes forth to battle, defeats

the Saracens, and destroys the fortress of Garigliano.

925 John expels the marquis Alberic, lover or husband of

Marozia. Marozia’s power increases. She seizes the castle of

St. Angelo. On death of Alberic she marries Duke Guido of

Tuscany.

926 Treaty between Hugo of Provence and John.

928 John imprisoned by Marozia’s party, and dies, probably by

violence. =Leo VI.=

929 =Stephen VII.=

931 =John XI=, son of Marozia and Sergius III or Alberic,

elected through his mother’s influence. Guido is dead, and

Marozia marries Hugo of Provence.

932 Rome rebels at this. Alberic, brother of the pope, casts

him and Marozia into prison, and makes himself master of Rome.

Alberic marries the daughter of Hugo.

936 Death of John in prison. He has exercised his spiritual

functions, but the government of Rome has been conducted by

Alberic. =Leo VII.=

939 =Stephen VIII.=

941 =Martin III.=

946 =Agapetus II.= These four are appointed by the sole will of

Alberic--they have no power.

953 Death of Alberic, leaving his authority to his son,

Octavian.

955 On death of Agapetus, Octavian is elected pope. He takes

the name of =John XII=, the first to take an ecclesiastical

name.

961 John, threatened by Berengar II, appeals to King Otto I of

Germany, who comes at once to Germany and is crowned king at

Pavia.

962 John crowns Otto emperor at Rome. Pope and Roman people

take oath of allegiance to Otto. Otto returns to Pavia, and

learns that John, fearing his mastery, has entered into

correspondence with the deposed Italian king, Adalbert. He

sends officers to investigate this, and they return with a long

list of crimes charged against John by the Roman people.

963 Adalbert returns to Rome. Otto marches thither. The pope

and Adalbert flee. Trial and deposition of the pope by Otto.

=Leo VIII=, the chief secretary of the Roman see, is elected.

964 Otto leaves Rome. A rebellion forces Leo to flee, and

the gates are opened to John, who reassumes his office. The

people embrace his cause. Death of John, probably at the hands

of an injured husband. Disregarding the emperor and Leo, the

people elect a new pope, _Benedict V_. Otto proceeds against

the anti-pope, who submits and is degraded. Leo, in council,

recognises right of Otto and his successors in the kingdom of

Italy to elect his own successors to the empire.

965 =John XIII= (bishop of Narni). On account of his

haughtiness the Romans expel him. The prefect Rotfred assumes

government of Rome.

966 Otto comes to Rome on appeal of John. Rotfred killed; John

restored. Otto treats the Romans barbarously. Overawed by Otto,

the Romans let John reign in peace.

972 The see vacant for three months, on death of John, while

Otto is consulted. =Benedict VI= elected.

974 Bonifazio Francone, at the instigation of the Tuscan party,

imprisons Benedict, strangles him, and assumes the papacy as

_Boniface VII_. This anti-pope compelled to flee in a month

to Constantinople. He carries off all the treasure from St.

Peter’s. Election of =Benedict VII=, who excommunicates

Boniface and, under protection of Otto II, rules in peace.

983 =John XIV.= Death of Otto in Rome.

984 Boniface suddenly reappears, imprisons John (who dies

by starvation or poison), and seats himself in the papal

chair. Re-establishment of the Roman Republic with the consul

Crescentius at its head.

985 Sudden death of Boniface. =John XV.= Crescentius compels

him to leave Rome, and he appeals to Otto III.

987 John is permitted to return. He now rules, but in

subjection to the consul and senate.

996 On death of John, Otto brings about election of his

kinsman, =Gregory V= (Bruno, duke of Carinthia). He crowns

Otto emperor. Crescentius condemned to exile, but pardoned at

intercession of Gregory, to whom he takes oath of fidelity.

Crescentius compels Gregory to flee, and puts _John XVI_

(Philagathus) in the papal chair.

998 Otto, as soon as possible, comes to Italy. John escapes,

but is brought back and horribly punished. Crescentius

surrenders, and is put to death. Gregory restored.

999 Death of Gregory, perhaps by poison. =Silvester II=

(Gerbert). Otto and Gregory plan together to restore the empire

to its grandeur in the Augustan Age--the emperor to have

boundless temporal, and the pope boundless spiritual, power.

1001 The Roman nobles revolt at this idea, but are quickly

brought to terms.

1002 Death of Otto, probably by poison administered by

Stephania, widow of Crescentius.

1003 Death of Gregory, perhaps due also to poisoning by

Stephania. The plans to rescue the papacy from the patricians

and populace of Rome have thus failed. =John XVII= (Sicco)

occupies the see six months. =John XVIII= (Fanasus).

1009 =Sergius IV.= Rome is again a republic, with the patrician

John, son of Crescentius, at its head. The Tuscan party is in

the ascendency.

1012 =Benedict VIII= elected by the Tusculan party, to which

the house of Crescentius has yielded the power. An anti-pope,

_Gregory_, is set up by the party of Crescentius. Benedict has

to flee, but soon returns to Rome, protected by the emperor

Henry II.

1014 Benedict administers a defeat to the Saracens near Pisa.

1021 Benedict assists Henry II in his war against the

Byzantines in southern Italy.

1024 On Benedict’s death the Tusculan party elevates his

brother, =John XIX=, a layman, to the papal chair.

1033 On John’s death the power of the Tusculan house secures

the pontificate for his young nephew, =Benedict IX=.

1042 The “Truce of God” sanctioned.

1044 Benedict, after leading a vicious and depraved life, is

driven from Rome by the people. They then elect _Silvester

III_, but Benedict returns in triumph, and the anti-pope flees.

1045 Benedict sells the pontificate to _Gregory VI_ (Johannes

Gratianus) of the house of Tusculum, a man of learning and

unimpeachable chastity, who endeavours to institute reforms.

1046 The scandal of Benedict’s act leads to Henry III

assembling the Council of Sutri, which deposes the three

popes and elects Suidgar bishop of Bamberg, =Clement II=, to

the papal chair. The council gives the emperor the right of

nominating future popes, which displeases the Roman clergy and

people.

THE AGE OF GREATNESS [1046-1305 A.D.]

A new era is inaugurated for the papacy. The power of the popes

begins to overshadow that of the emperors.

1047 Clement summons a council to condemn the all-pervading

vice of simony. Death of Clement. Benedict IX seizes the throne

and holds it for nine months.

1048 Poppo, bishop of Brixen, =Damasus II=, appointed pope by

the emperor. Benedict flees on his appearance. Damasus dies

in less than a month. Hildebrand voices the objections of the

Roman clergy as to the power of the emperor to appoint the

popes. Bruno, bishop of Toul, =Leo IX=, is the imperial choice

for the next pope.

1049 With the assistance of Hildebrand, Leo plans many reforms,

including prohibition of marriage to the clergy, simony, etc.

The synods of Rome, Rheims, and Mainz enact reformatory canons.

Leo forms the college of cardinals.

1049-1051 Leo visits France and Germany.

1052 Third visit of Leo to Germany to mediate between Henry III

and Andrew of Hungary.

1053 Campaign of Leo against the Normans. Capture of Leo at

Civitella. Treaty of Hildebrand with Berengar of Tours.

1054 Leo returns to Rome and dies. Hildebrand goes to the

emperor as plenipotentiary of the Roman clergy and people.

1055 Gebhard of Eichstadt, =Victor II=, Hildebrand’s candidate,

made pope. He carries on Leo’s work of reform.

1056 Death of Henry III, leaving infant son, furthers plan of

Hildebrand.

1057 The Romans reassert their right to create popes on death

of Victor. Cardinal Frederick of Lorraine, =Stephen IX=, made

pope.

1058 Stephen dies. Ignoring the empress Agnes, the Roman party

makes Giovanni di Velletri, =Benedict X=, pope, getting the

most lavish grants from him. The empress empowers Hildebrand to

proceed with new election.

1059 Gerard, archbishop of Florence, =Nicholas II=, is elected

and Benedict declared deposed. Hildebrand determines to deal a

blow at the imperial prerogative. Second Lateran Council. The

election of pope is vested solely with the cardinal-bishops.

Simony and clerical marriage forbidden.

1061 Election of Anselmo Baggio, =Alexander II=, without

consent of emperor, inaugurates the great struggle between pope

and emperor. The imperial party calls a council at Bâle and

elects Pietro Cadolaus _Honorius II_. He advances to Rome.

1063 The anti-pope driven by the Normans into the castle of St.

Angelo, where he holds his position until

1064 when the fall of Adalbert crushes his last hopes.

The schism is healed by Hanno, and Alexander universally

acknowledged pope. Resistance to the decrees of celibacy is

strong.

1073 Hildebrand, =Gregory VII=. His election is confirmed by

the emperor. His main objects are the enforcement of celibacy

among the clergy and the prohibition of investiture by the

laity which is the great cause of simony. He demands that Henry

IV shall acquiesce in all the newly assumed prerogatives of the

papacy.

1075 Lay investiture prohibited. Breach between pope and Henry

IV.

1076 Henry calls diet at Worms and declares pope deposed.

Gregory excommunicates Henry, who is suspended from his royal

office by Diet of Tribur.

1077 Henry humbles himself before the pope at Canossa. Gregory

establishes the principle of the papal power to judge kings.

1080 Second excommunication of Henry. His adherents call a

council and declare Gregory deposed. Election of Guibert,

archbishop of Ravenna, _Clement III_, as anti-pope.

1084 Henry finally takes Rome. Gregory shuts himself in the

castle of St. Angelo. Clement crowns Henry emperor. The Normans

take Rome. Robert Guiscard releases Gregory, who goes to

Salerno and dies the following year. Clement III rules at Rome.

1086 The cardinals elect Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino,

=Victor III=, pope. He lives mostly at Monte Cassino.

1087 Death of Victor.

1088 Five months after Victor’s death Eudes, bishop of Ostia,

=Urban II=, is elected pope. He resides at Monte Cassino.

1094 Urban in Rome. Clement holds only the Vatican, St. Angelo,

and the Lateran.

1095 Urban preaches the First Crusade in France. Council of

Clermont.

1099 =Paschal II.= He expels Clement III from Rome, who dies

the following year.

1100 On Clement’s death, _Theodore_, anti-pope, is elected by

the imperial party. He falls into Paschal’s hands and condemned

to be a hermit.

1102 _Albert_ anti-pope--he is thrust into a monastery.

1105 _Silvester IV_, anti-pope. He is eventually deposed by the

emperor himself.

1106 On death of Henry IV, the question of investiture is

renewed with Henry V.

1110 Henry V makes a warlike descent on Italy. Treaty of Sutri,

compromising rights of the church.

1111 Paschal refuses to crown Henry, who imprisons both pope

and cardinals. Paschal compelled to bestow the crown on Henry.

1115 Death of the countess Matilda, leaving her possessions to

the pope. Henry threatens another visit to Rome.

1116 Excommunication of Henry in the Lateran Council. Henry

advances on Rome. The pope retreats to Benevento.

1118 Paschal returns to Rome. He dies. The cardinals elect

Giovanni da Gaeta, =Gelasius II=. He is at once seized by

Cencius Frangipani. The Transteverines compel his surrender.

Henry V arrives in Rome. The pope flees to Gaeta, where he

is consecrated. Henry, with the assent of the people, makes

Maurice Bourdin, _Gregory VIII_, anti-pope. On Henry’s

departure, Gelasius returns to Rome, but, again attacked,

leaves Rome for France.

1119 Death of Gelasius at Lyons. Election of Guido, archbishop

of Vienne, =Calixtus II=. He excommunicates Henry and the

anti-pope, and sets out for Rome.

1120 Calixtus captures Gregory and submits him to great

degradation.

1121 Death of Gregory in prison. _Celestine II_ anti-pope.

1122 The Concordat of Worms settles the question of

investiture. The emperor cedes the right of investiture by

ring and staff. The pope allows the election of bishops and

abbots according to canonical procedure in the presence of the

emperor, but without bribery or compulsion.

1124 Lambert di Fagnano, =Honorius II=, elected through the

Frangipani influence. He rules in peace with Germany, but heads

the papal forces in the south of Italy.

1130 At death of Honorius, a portion of the cardinals elect

Gregorio de’ Papi, =Innocent II=. The remainder choose Peter

Leonis, _Anacletus II_, who gains the support of Roger of

Sicily. Innocent wins over Bernard of Clairvaux, and, through

him, Lothair II.

1132 Lothair goes to Italy against Anacletus and Roger.

1133 Coronation of Lothair by Innocent, who gives him the

allodial possessions of the countess Matilda as a fief.

1138 Death of Anacletus settles the disputed election. Gregorio

Conti, _Victor IV_, the new anti-pope, holds out for two

months. All Rome acknowledges Innocent.

1139 Great Lateran Council. It condemns Arnold of Brescia.

The pope asserts his unlimited power over the episcopal

order. Innocent goes to war with Roger of Sicily and is taken

prisoner. He is released on recognising Roger’s title and

kingdom.

1143 Guido di Castello, =Celestine II=.

1144 =Lucius II.= The Roman people carry out the plans of

Arnold of Brescia, institute a republic, and accept only the

spiritual authority of the pope. Lucius appeals to the emperor,

Conrad, in vain.

1145 Death of Lucius while storming the Capitol. The abbot,

Bernard, of Pisa, =Eugenius III=, succeeds. He recovers Rome

from Arnold of Brescia. The republic capitulates.

1146 Arnold regains Rome. Eugenius flees to France. He becomes

the satellite of Bernard of Clairvaux. Council of Vézelay

promotes Second Crusade.

1153 Conrad, bishop of Sabina, =Anastasius IV=.

1154 Nicholas Breakspear, =Adrian IV=.

1155 Rome put under religious interdiction. The clergy and

people compel the senate to yield. Banishment and execution of

Arnold of Brescia. Coronation of Frederick Barbarossa.

1156 Frederick retires to Germany. Alliance of Adrian with

Sicily.

1157 Quarrel of Frederick and Adrian.

1158 Frederick goes to Italy to settle quarrel.

1159 Frederick threatened with excommunication. Adrian dies.

The election divided: Rolando Ranuci, =Alexander III=, and

Octavian, cardinal of St. Cecilia, _Victor IV_.

1160 Frederick summons Council of Pavia to decide claim of the

two popes. On account of Alexander’s haughty attitude Frederick

recognises Victor.

1162 After many struggles with Victor, Alexander takes refuge

in France.

1164 Death of Victor. Guido of Crema, _Paschal III_, chosen by

a small faction to succeed as anti-pope. He does not dare enter

Rome.

1165 Alexander returns to Rome where the senate receives him.

1167 Frederick takes Rome and installs Paschal. His second

coronation by Paschal.

1168 The cause of Paschal much weakened by departure of

Frederick. Death of Paschal. John, bishop of Tusculum,

_Calixtus III_ succeeds as anti-pope. His power grows weaker.

1176 Frederick makes armistice with pope and Lombards after

defeat at Legnano.

1177 Reconciliation of Frederick and Alexander at Venice.

1178 Calixtus abdicates his title. End of the schism.

1181 Ubaldo Allucingoli, =Lucius III=.

1182 Rebellion in Rome drives Lucius out.

1185 Humbert Crivelli, =Urban III=. He lives chiefly at Verona.

He quarrels with Frederick over several matters.

1187 Death of Urban as he is about to excommunicate Frederick.

Albert, cardinal of San Lorenzo, =Gregory VIII=. He preaches a

crusade. He goes to Pisa to settle quarrel between Genoa and

Pisa and dies. Paolo Scolari, =Clement III=.

1188 Clement makes peace with the Roman people.

1191 Giacinto Orsini, =Celestine III=. Surrender of Tusculum to

the Romans.

1194 The pope excommunicates Henry VI for his cruelty to the

Sicilians.

1198 Lothario Conti, =Innocent III=. His pontificate marks

the culmination of the papal power. Innocent preaches the

Fifth Crusade. He compels the prefect of Rome to swear

allegiance to him, thus practically establishing the temporal

sovereignty of the pope over Rome. He orders the seneschal

Markwald of Anweiler to surrender the march of Ancona. Death of

Constanza. Markwald lays claim to the administration of Sicily.

Association of Guelfs with papal party.

1199 Conrad of Lutzenberg, count of Spoleto, is forced to

return to Germany. The Italian cities welcome Innocent as a

deliverer.

1201 Decision in favour of Otto IV, of Germany. Defeat of

Markwald by Walter de Brienne and the papal army. Innocent

compels Philip Augustus to take back his divorced wife.

1202 Alfonso IX refuses to annul his marriage to his cousin.

Papal interdict in the kingdom of Leon. Innocent protests

against the crusaders’ expedition against Zara.

1204 Innocent sends legate to crown Joannice king of Bulgaria.

Dominic begins to preach in Languedoc.

1208 Resistance of King John of England to the consecration

of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury. Interdiction

placed on England.

1209 Otto abandons the lands of the countess Matilda and

other territories in Italy to the pope. Innocent crowns him.

Excommunication of King John. Crusade against the Albigenses is

begun.

1210 Excommunication of Otto who has not given up all the

territories he promised. Foundation of the Franciscan order.

1212 Innocent makes Frederick II king of Germany. He deposes

King John and offers crown of England to Philip Augustus.

1213 John submits to the pope.

1215 Innocent attempts to annul Magna Charta. Fourth Lateran

Council. Transubstantiation a doctrine. Auricular confession

enforced. Coronation of Frederick II as king of Germany, who

promises to undertake a crusade.

1216 Confirmation of the Dominican order. Death of Innocent.

Cencio Savelli, =Honorius III=, elected.

1217 Honorius obliges Andrew of Hungary to undertake a crusade.

1220 Coronation of Frederick as emperor. He renews promises to

go to the Holy Land.

1223 Congress at Ferentino. Frederick pledges himself to start

within two years.

1225 Frederick obtains another delay. On account of trouble

with the senate Honorius goes to Tivoli.

1227 Ugolino Conti, =Gregory IX=. He excommunicates Frederick,

who makes an unsuccessful attempt to start for the Holy Land.

Ezzelino da Romano drives the Guelfs out of Verona and Vicenza.

1228 Second excommunication of Frederick for starting without

absolution. The pope sends his army into Apulia.

1229 The papal army ravages Apulia but Frederick hastens back

from Syria to recover his territory. He is excommunicated

a third time. Close of the Albigensian Crusade. Council of

Toulouse forbids reading of Scripture by laymen and adopts

severe measures for the suppression of heresy.

1230 The pope and Frederick are reconciled. Great flood in Rome.

1231 Negotiations are opened for the union of the Greek and

Latin churches.

1232 Tribunals of the Inquisition established in southern

France.

1233 The Germans put to death the first inquisitor.

1234 Rising in Rome drives Gregory from the city.

1238 League of Venice, Genoa, and the pope against Frederick,

on account of his growing power and successes in Lombardy.

1239 Excommunication of Frederick and charges preferred against

him.

1240 Gregory proclaims a crusade against Frederick, who invades

the papal territory.

1241 Frederick’s fleets capture twenty-two Genoese galleys,

containing many ecclesiastics on their way to a council

at Rome. They are imprisoned. Death of Gregory. Goffredo

Castiglione, =Celestine IV=, elected. He dies in eighteen days.

The see is vacant.

1243 Frederick releases some of the imprisoned ecclesiastics

that an election may take place. Senibaldi di Fieschi,

=Innocent IV=, is chosen. Peace negotiations fail.

1244 Innocent escapes to Lyons.

1245 Innocent calls the Thirteenth General Council at Lyons.

Frederick is excommunicated and deposed.

1246 Louis IX fails in an attempt to reconcile Innocent and

Frederick. Innocent demands large sums from England, France,

and Italy, to prosecute his struggle with Frederick, and this

causes great discontent in those countries.

1247 Frederick besieges the papal forces in Parma.

1248 Frederick raises the siege.

1250 Death of Frederick.

1251 Return of Innocent to Italy. He goes to Perugia to reside.

Excommunication of Conrad. The pope incites Sicily and Apulia

to rebellion. Manfred puts the rebels down.

1252 Conrad IV and Manfred attack Naples, and capture Capua.

1253 Surrender of Naples to Conrad.

1254 The pope bestows the crown of Sicily on Prince Edmund

of England. Death of Innocent, at Naples, on an expedition

against Manfred. Rinaldo di Segni, =Alexander IV=. Rise of the

Flagellants.

1255 The people of Messina expel the papal governor. The papal

legate makes treaty with Manfred, but Alexander will not

ratify it, claiming that Edmund is king of Sicily. The English

parliament will not grant Edmund the money to take the throne.

1256 Manfred makes himself supreme in Sicily in the name of

Conradin. Imprisonment of the senator Brancaleone, who is

released by the people (1258). Establishment of the Augustine

order of mendicant friars.

1257 Interdiction of Portugal on account of divorce of Alfonso

III.

1258 Battle of Corticella. Ezzelino da Romano defeats the

pope’s army, and captures Brescia.

1259 Excommunication of Manfred, who has been crowned the

previous year. The pope decides the question of emperorship in

favour of Richard of Cornwall. Fall of the Ghibelline champion,

Ezzelino da Romano.

1260 The Ghibellines regain Florence. Execution of Alberic da

Romano.

1261 Death of Alexander in exile. Jacques Pantaléon, patriarch

of Jerusalem, =Urban IV=.

1262 Urban, to resist Conradin, offers crown of Sicily to

Charles of Anjou. The Ghibellines in Tuscany acknowledge

Manfred.

1263 Milan refuses to accept Otto Visconti as archbishop of the

city.

1264 Charles of Anjou appointed senator of Rome. Death of Urban.

1265 Guy Foulques, =Clement IV=. Coronation of Charles of Anjou

as king of Sicily.

1269 Death of Clement. The see is vacant for over two years,

owing to discord among the cardinals.

1271 Teobaldo di Visconti, =Gregory X=. Rudolf of Habsburg

acknowledges papal supremacy.

1273 Gregory excommunicates the inhabitants of many north

Italian cities for banding against Charles of Anjou.

1274 Fourteenth General Council at Lyons. A new crusade is

preached, and a union of the Greek and Latin churches is

effected. The union is never fully accepted in the Eastern

Empire, and soon falls to pieces.

1276 Death of Gregory. Pietro di Tarantasia, =Innocent V=, dies

in five months. Ottoboni Fiesco, =Adrian V=, dies in six weeks.

Pedro Juliani, =John XX= or =XXI=.

1277 Giovani Gaetano, =Nicholas III=, “=Il Comperto=.” He

belongs to the Orsini family.

1278 Cession of Romagna, the exarchate of Ravenna, and other

territory, by Rudolf of Habsburg, to the pope, who acts as

ruling sovereign over all his dominions. Nicholas is hostile to

Charles. Nepotism practised by Nicholas.

1280 Death of Nicholas in the midst of plans to establish his

family in kingdoms in Italy. Discord caused by Charles in the

College of Cardinals.

1281 Simon de Brion, =Martin IV=, elected after six months,

through influence of Charles. The pope retires to Orvieto.

1282 Martin excommunicates Pedro of Aragon, who has been

declared king of Sicily after the “Sicilian Vespers.”

1283 The pope offers crown of Aragon to Charles of Valois.

1285 Death of Charles quiets the affairs of Sicily. Giacomo

Savelli, =Honorius IV=.

1287 Honorius prevents ratification of treaty between Aragon

and France. Death of Honorius, and owing to disputes, the

cardinals fail for ten months to elect a new pope.

1288 Girolamo d’Ascoli, =Nicholas IV=.

1289 After liberation of Charles the Lame of Naples, the pope

absolves him from all conditions, by which he obtains his

freedom. The Guelf and Ghibelline contest continues fiercely in

the north. Nicholas becomes enslaved to the Colonnas.

1292 Death of Nicholas. The see vacant for over two years.

1294 Election of Pietro di Murrhone, =Celestine V=, a lowly

hermit. The cardinals repent, and compel him to abdicate.

Benedict Cajetan, =Boniface VIII=, elected. He carries the

papal pretensions further than any other pope, and prepares the

way for the Reformation.

1296 Boniface begins his great struggle with Philip the Fair by

issuing a bull excommunicating all princes who tax the clergy.

Edward I of England outlaws all the clergy who obey this bull,

and Philip retaliates by prohibiting the exportation of gold

and silver out of France. Interdiction of Sicily. The Sicilians

invade Calabria.

1297 Excommunication of the entire Colonna family because a

member of it plundered a papal convoy.

1298 The pope proclaims a crusade against the Colonnas.

1299 Surrender of Palestrina to the papal army. It is razed to

the ground.

1300 Plenary indulgence of Boniface.

1301 Boniface is prevented by the English parliament from

interfering in the affairs of Scotland. Renewed quarrel with

Philip over his imprisonment of the bishop of Pamiers. Charles

of Valois is invited into Italy.

1302 Publication of the bull declaring that the church can have

only one head.

1303 Philip burns a bull of excommunication issued by Boniface

and refuses to acknowledge him as pope. Capture of Boniface by

Guillaume de Nogaret. Death of Boniface. Niccolo Boccasini,

=Benedict XI=. He attempts to conciliate France and the Colonna

family.

1304 Benedict excommunicates those who take part in the capture

of Boniface. Death of Benedict, probably by poison, at the

hands of the French party.

THE “BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY” [1305-1378 A.D.]

1305 The influence of Philip the Fair in the College of

Cardinals brings about the election of Bertrand d’Agoust,

=Clement V=. The pope does not interfere in Philip’s

persecution of the Templars.

1309 The pope removes his residence to Avignon, principally

because of the strife between the Orsini and Colonnas, in Rome.

He pronounces a fearful ban of excommunication against the

Venetians, in a quarrel over the possession of Ferrara. The

Venetians driven from Ferrara, which is annexed to the papal

states.

1310 Revolt of Ferrara and its severe punishment by the papal

government.

1311 Suppression of the Templars at the Council of Vienne.

1314 The pope makes the king of Naples viceroy of Italy. The

Guelf party is now in the ascendant. Death of Clement. The see

is vacant for over two years.

1316 Jacques d’Euse, =John XXI= or =XXII=, of the French party,

elected.

1317 The people of Ferrara restore the city to the Este family.

1322 The Visconti capture Cremona, and the whole family is

excommunicated. John offers to recognise Frederick of Austria

king of Germany, in return for his help. Frederick sends an

army to Italy, but withdraws it.

1323 Excommunication of Ludwig IV of Bavaria. The papal

forces take Alessandria and Tortona, and lay siege to Milan.

Excommunication of Ludwig IV of Bavaria for helping the

Visconti.

1324 The papal and Sicilian forces defeated by Galeazzo

Visconti at Vaprio.

1326 John incites the duke of Lithuania to attack the Teutonic

knights. The papal forces capture Parma and Reggio.