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THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL
Volume IV
THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE
THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL
Brief Histories of Her Continuous Life
A series of eight volumes dealing with the history of the Christian
Church from the beginning of the present day.
_Edited by_
The Rev. W. H. Hutton, B.D.
Fellow and Tutor of S. John's College, Oxford,
and Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Rochester
THE CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES.
The Rev. Lonsdale Ragg, M.A., Vicar of the Tickencote, Rutlandshire,
and Prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral.
"Mr. Ragg has produced something far better than a mere text-book: the
earlier chapters especially are particularly interesting reading. The
whole book is well proportioned and scholarly, and gives the reader
the benefit of wide reading of the latest authorities. The contrasted
growth and fortunes of the Judaic Church of Jerusalem and the Church
of the Gentiles are particularly clearly brought out."--_Church
Times_.
"Written in a clear and interesting style, and summaries the early
records of the growth of the Christian community during the first
century."--_Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette._
"A careful piece of work, which may be read with pleasure and
profit."--_Spectator_.
THE CHURCH OF THE FATHERS.
The Rev. Leighton Pullan, M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, and
Theological Lecturer of St. John's and Oriel Colleges, Oxford.
"If we may forecast the merits of the series by Pullan's volume, we
are prepared to give it an unhesitating welcome. We shall be surprised
if this book does not supersede of the less interesting Church
histories which have served as text-books for several generations of
theological students."--_Guardian_.
"The student of this important period of Church history--the formative
period--has here a clear narrative, packed with information drawn from
authentic sources and elucidated with the most recent results of
investigation. We do not know of any other work on Church history in
which so much learned and accurate instruction is condensed into a
comparative small space, but at the same time presented in the form of
an interesting narrative. Alike the beginner and the advanced student
will find Mr. Pullan a useful guide and companion."--_Church
Times_.
THE CHURCH AND THE BARBARIANS.
The Editor. _3s. 6d. net._
"In so accomplished hands as Mr. Hutton's the result is an instructive
and suggestive survey of the course of the Church's development
throughout five hundred years, and almost as many countries and
peoples, in Constantinople as well as among the Wends and Prussians,
in Central Asia as well as in the Western Isles." _Review of
Theology and Philosophy._
"The volume will be of great value as giving a bird's-eye view of the
fascinating struggle of the Church with heathenism during those
spacious centuries."--_Church Times._
THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE. 1003-1304.
By D. J. Medley, M.A., Professor of History in the University
of Glasgow. _4s. 6d. net._
THE AGE OF SCHISM. 1304-1503.
By Herbert Bruce, M.A., Professor of History in the
University College, Cardiff.
"We commend the book as being fair in its judicial criticism, a great
point where so thorny a subject as the Great Schism and its issues are
discussed. The art of reading the times, whether ancient or modern,
has descended from Mr. W. H. Hutton to his pupil." _Pall Mall
Gazette._
"It is a great period for so small a book, but a master of his subject
knows always what to leave out, and this volume covers the period in
comfort."--_Expository Times._
"Usually such an 'outline' is a bald and bloodless summary, but Mr.
Bruce has written a narrative which is both readable and
well-informed. We have pleasure in commending his interesting and
scholarly work."--_Glasgow Herald._
THE REFORMATION. 1503-1648.
By the Rev. J. P. Whitney, B.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical
History at King's College, London. _5s. net._
"A book on the Reformation as a whole, not only in England, but in
Europe, has long been needed.... This present volume fills,
therefore, a real want, for in it the Reformation is treated as a
whole.... The value of the book is quite out of proportion to its
size, and its importance will be appreciated by all those whose duty
or inclination calls to study the Reformation."--_Guardian_.
"It is certainly a very full and excellent outline. There is scarcely
a point in this momentous time in regard to which the student, and,
indeed, the ordinary reader, will not find here very considerable
help, as well as suggestive hints for further study."--_Church Union
Gazette_.
THE AGE OF REVOLUTION. 1648-1815.
By the Editor. _4s. 6d. net_.
"The period is a long one for so small a book, but Mr. Hutton has the
gift not of condensing, which is not required, but of selecting the
essential events and vividly characterizing them."--_Expository
Times_.
"Mr. Hutton's past studies in Ecclesiastical History are sure to
secure him a welcome in this new venture. There is a breadth of
treatment, an accurate perspective, and a charitable spirit in all
that he writes which make him a worthy associate of Creighton and
Stubbs in the great field of history."--_Aberdeen Journal_.
THE CHURCH OF MODERN DAYS. 1815-1900.
By the Rev. Leighton Pullan, M.A. [_In preparation._]
London: Rivingtons
THE CHURCH
AND THE EMPIRE
Being an outline of
the history of the church
from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304
By
D. J. Medley, M.A.
Professor of History in the University of Glasgow
EDITORIAL NOTE
While there is a general agreement among the writers as to principles,
the greatest freedom as to treatment is allowed to writers in this
series. The volumes, for example, are not of the same length. Volume
II, which deals with the formative period of the Church, is, not
unnaturally, longer in proportion than the others. To Volume VI, which
deals with the Reformation, has been allotted a similar extension. The
authors, again, use their own discretion in such matters as footnotes
and lists of authorities. But the aim of the series, which each writer
sets before him, is to tell, clearly and accurately, the story of the
Church, as a divine institution with a continuous life.
W. H. Hutton
PREFACE
The late appearance of this volume of the series needs some
explanation. Portions of the book have been written at intervals; but
it is only the enforced idleness of a long convalescence after illness
which has given me the requisite leisure to finish it.
I have tried to avoid overloading my pages with details of political
history; but in no period is it so easy to miss the whole lesson of
events by an attempt to isolate the special influences which affected
the organised society of the Church. The interpretation which I have
adopted of the important events at Canossa is not, of course,
universally accepted; but the fact that it has seldom found expression
in any English work may serve as my excuse.
The Editor of the series, The Rev. W. H. Hutton, has laid me under a
deep obligation, first, by his long forbearance, and more lately, by
his frequent and careful suggestions over the whole book. It is
dangerous for laymen to meddle with questions of technical theology. I
trust that, guided by his expert hand, I have not fallen into any
recognisable heresy!
Mears Ashby,
_October_, 1910.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH REFORM
CHAPTER II
GREGORY VII AND LAY INVESTITURE
CHAPTER III
THE END OF THE QUARREL
CHAPTER IV
THE SECULAR CLERGY
CHAPTER V
CANONS AND MONKS
CHAPTER VI
ST. BERNARD
CHAPTER VII
THE SCHOOLMEN AND THEOLOGY
CHAPTER VIII
GUELF AND GHIBELLINE (I)
CHAPTER IX
INNOCENT III
CHAPTER X
THE PAPAL POWER IN THE CHURCH
CHAPTER XI
DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH
CHAPTER XII
HERESIES
CHAPTER XIII
THE MENDICANT ORDERS
CHAPTER XIV
THE CHURCH AND THE HEATHEN
CHAPTER XV
GUELF AND GHIBELLINE (II)
CHAPTER XVI
THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE AND OF THE PAPACY
CHAPTER XVII
THE CHURCHES OF THE EAST
The Church and the Empire
Introductory
[Sidenote: Political thought in Middle Ages.]
The period of three centuries which forms our theme is the central
period of the Middle Ages. Its interests are manifold; but they almost
all centre round the great struggle between Empire and Papacy, which
gives to mediaeval history an unity conspicuously lacking in more
modern times. The history of the Church during these three hundred
years is more political than at any other period. In order to
understand the reason for this it will be well at the outset to sketch
in brief outline the political theories propounded in the Middle Ages
on the relations of Church and State. So only can we avoid the
inevitable confusion of mind which must result from the use of terms
familiar in modern life.
[Sidenote: Unity of world.]
Medieval thought, then, drawing its materials from Roman, Germanic and
Christian sources, conceived the Universe as _Civitas Dei_, the
State of God, embracing both heaven and earth, with God as at once the
source, the guide and the ultimate goal. Now this Universe contains
numerous parts, one of which is composed of mankind; and the destiny
of mankind is identified with that of Christendom. Hence it follows
that mankind may be described as the Commonwealth of the Human Race;
and unity under one law and one government is essential to the
attainment of the divine purpose.
[Sidenote: Duality of organisation.]
But this very unity of the whole Universe gives a double aspect to the
life of mankind, which has to be spent in this world with a view to
its continuation in the next. Thus God has appointed two separate
Orders, each complete in its own sphere, the one concerned with the
arrangement of affairs for this life, the other charged with the
preparation of mankind for the life to come.
[Sidenote: Relations of Church and State.]
But this dualism of allegiance was in direct conflict with the idea of
unity. The two separate Orders were distinguished as
_Sacerdotium_ and _Regnum_ or _Imperium_; and the need
felt by mediaeval thinkers for reconciling these two in the higher
unity of the _Civitas Dei_ began speculations on the relation
between the ecclesiastical and the secular spheres.
[Sidenote: Theory of Church party.]
The champions of the former found a reconciliation of the two spheres
to consist in the absorption of the secular by the ecclesiastical. The
one community into which, by the admission of all, united mankind was
gathered, must needs be the Church of God. Of this Christ is the Head.
But in order to realise this unity on earth Christ has appointed a
representative, the Pope, who is therefore the head of both spheres in
this world. But along with this unity it must be allowed that God has
sanctioned the separate existence of the secular no less than that of
the ecclesiastical dominion. This separation, however, according to
the advocates of papal power, did not affect the deposit of authority,
but affected merely the manner of its exercise. Spiritual and temporal
power in this world alike belonged to the representative of Christ.
[Sidenote: Sinful origin of State.]
But the bolder advocates of ecclesiastical power were ready to explain
away the divine sanction of temporal authority. Actually existing
states have often originated in violence. Thus the State in its
earthly origin may be regarded as the work of human nature as affected
by the Fall of Man: like sin itself, it is permitted by God.
Consequently it needs the sanction of the Church in order to remove
the taint. Hence, at best, the temporal power is subject to the
ecclesiastical: it is merely a means for working out the higher
purpose entrusted to the Church. Pope Gregory VII goes farther still
in depreciation of the temporal power. He declares roundly that it is
the work of sin and the devil. "Who does not know," he writes, "that
kings and dukes have derived their power from those who, ignoring God,
in their blind desire and intolerable presumption have aspired to rule
over their equals, that is, men, by pride, plunder, perfidy, murder,
in short by every kind of wickedness, at the instigation of the prince
of this world, namely, the devil?" But in this he is only re-echoing
the teaching of St. Augustine; and he is followed, among other
representative writers, by John of Salisbury, the secretary and
champion of Thomas Becket, and by Pope Innocent III. To all three
there is an instructive contrast between a power divinely conferred
and one that has at the best been wrested from God by human
importunity.
[Sidenote: Illustration of relations.]
There are two illustrations of the relation between the spiritual and
secular powers very common among papal writers. Gregory VII, at the
beginning of his reign, compares them to the two eyes in a man's head.
But he soon substitutes for this symbol of theoretical equality a
comparison to the sun and moon, or to the soul and body, whereby he
claims for the spiritual authority, as represented by the soul or the
sun, the operative and illuminating power in the world, without and
apart from which the temporal authority has no efficacy and scarcely
any existence. An illustration equally common, but susceptible of more
diverse interpretation, was drawn from the two swords offered to our
Lord by His disciples just before the betrayal. It was St. Bernard
who, taking up the idea of previous writers that these represented the
sword of the flesh and the sword of the spirit respectively, first
claimed that they both belonged to the Church, but that, while the
latter was wielded immediately by St. Peter's successor, the
injunction to the Apostle to put up in its sheath the sword of the
flesh which he had drawn in defence of Christ, merely indicated that
he was not to handle it himself. Consequently he had entrusted to lay
hands this sword which denotes the temporal power. Both swords,
however, still belonged to the Pope and typified his universal
control. By virtue of his possession of the spiritual sword he can use
spiritual means for supervising or correcting all secular acts. But
although he should render to Caesar what is Caesar's, yet his material
power over the temporal sword also justifies the Pope in intervening
in temporal matters when necessity demands. This is the explanation of
the much debated _Translatio Imperii,_ the transference of the
imperial authority in 800 A.D. from the Greeks to the Franks. It is
the Emperor to whom, in the first instance, the Pope has entrusted the
secular sword; he is, in feudal phraseology, merely the chief vassal
of the Pope. It is the unction and coronation of the Emperor by the
Pope which confer the imperial power upon the Emperor Elect. The
choice by the German nobles is a papal concession which may be
recalled at any time. Hence, if the imperial throne is vacant, if
there is a disputed election, or if the reigning Emperor is neglectful
of his duties, it is for the Pope to act as guardian or as judge; and,
of course, the powers which he can exercise in connection with the
Empire he is still more justified in using against any lesser temporal
prince.
[Sidenote: Theory of Imperial party.]
To this very thorough presentation of the claims of the ecclesiastical
power the partisans of secular authority had only a half-hearted
doctrine to oppose. Ever since the days of Pope Gelasius I (492-6),
the Church herself had accepted the view of a strict dualism in the
organisation of society and, therefore, of the theoretical equality
between the ecclesiastical and the secular organs of government.
According to this doctrine Sacerdotium and Imperium are independent
spheres, each wielding the one of the two swords appropriate to
itself, and thus the Emperor no less than the Pope is _Vicarius
Dei_. It is this doctrine behind which the champions of the Empire
entrench themselves in their contest with the Papacy. It was asserted
by the Emperors themselves, notably by Frederick I and Frederick II,
and it has been enshrined in the writings of Dante.
[Sidenote: Its weakness.]
The weak point of this theory was that it was rather a thesis for
academic debate than a rallying cry for the field of battle. Popular
contests are for victory, not for delimitation of territory. And its
weakness was apparent in this, that while the thorough-going partisans
of the Church allowed to the Emperor practically no power except such
as he obtained by concession of or delegation from the Church, the
imperial theory granted to the ecclesiastical representative at least
an authority and independence equal to those claimed for itself, and
readily admitted that of the two powers the Church could claim the
greater respect as being entrusted with the conduct of matters that
were of more permanent importance.
Moreover, historical facts contradicted this idea of equality of
powers. The Church through her representatives often interfered with
decisive effect in the election and the rejection of secular
potentates up to the Emperor himself: she claimed that princes were as
much subject to her jurisdiction as other laymen, and she did not
hesitate to make good that claim even to the excommunication of a
refractory ruler and--its corollary--the release of his subjects from
their oath of allegiance. Finally, the Church awoke a responsive echo
in the hearts of all those liable to oppression or injustice, when she
asserted a right of interposing in purely secular matters for the sake
of shielding them from wrong; while she met a real need of the age in
her exaltation of the papal power as the general referee in all cases
of difficult or doubtful jurisdiction.
Thus the claims of each power as against the other were not at all
commensurate. For while the imperialists would agree that there was a
wide sphere of ecclesiastical rule with which the Emperor had no
concern at all, it was held by the papalists that there was nothing
done by the Emperor in any capacity which it was not within the
competence of the Pope to supervise.
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH REFORM
Previous to the eleventh century there had been quarrels between
Emperor and Pope. Occasional Popes, such as Nicholas I (858-67), had
asserted high prerogatives for the successor of St. Peter, but we have
seen that the Church herself taught the co-ordinate and the mutual
dependence of the ecclesiastical and secular powers. It was the
circumstances of the tenth century which caused the Church to assume a
less complacent attitude and, in her efforts to prevent her absorption
by the State, to attempt the reduction of the State to a mere
department of the Church.
[Sidenote: Lay investiture of ecclesiastics.]
With the acceptance of Christianity as the official religion of the
Empire the organisation of the Church tended to follow the
arrangements for purposes of civil government. And when at a later
period civil society was gradually organising itself on that
hierarchical model which we know as feudalism, the Church, in the
persons of its officers, was tending to become not so much the
counterpart of the State as an integral part of it. For the clergy, as
being the only educated class, were used by the Kings as civil
administrators, and on the great officials of the Church were bestowed
extensive estates which should make them a counterpoise to the secular
nobles. In theory the clergy and people of the diocese still elected
their bishop, but in reality he came to be nominated by the King, at
whose hands he received investiture of his office by the symbolic
gifts of the ring and the pastoral staff, and to whom he did homage
for the lands of the see, since by virtue of them he was a baron of
the realm. Thus for all practical purposes the great ecclesiastic was
a secular noble, a layman. He had often obtained his high
ecclesiastical office as a reward for temporal service, and had not
infrequently paid a large sum of money as an earnest of loyal conduct
and for the privilege of recouping himself tenfold by unscrupulous use
of the local patronage which was his.
[Sidenote: Clerical marriage.]
Furthermore, in contravention of the canons of the Church, the secular
clergy, whether bishops or priests, were very frequently married. The
Church, it is true, did not consecrate these marriages; but, it is
said, they were so entirely recognised that the wife of a bishop was
called Episcopissa. There was an imminent danger that the
ecclesiastical order would shortly lapse into an hereditary social
caste, and that the sons of priests inheriting their fathers'
benefices would merely become another order of landowners.
[Sidenote: Church reform.]
Thus the two evils of traffic in ecclesiastical offices, shortly
stigmatised as simony and concubinage--for the laws of the Church
forbade any more decent description of the relationship--threatened to
absorb the Church within the State. Professional interests and
considerations of morality alike demanded that these evils should be
dealt with. Ecclesiastical reformers perceived that the only lasting
reformation was one which should proceed from the Church herself. It
was among the secular clergy, the parish priests, that these evils
were most rife. The monasteries had also gone far away from their
original ideals; but the tenth century had witnessed the establishment
of a reformed Benedictine rule in the Congregation of Cluny, and, in
any case, it was in monastic life alone that the conditions seemed
suitable for working out any scheme of spiritual improvement. The
Congregation of Cluny was based upon the idea of centralisation;
unlike the Abbot of the ordinary Benedictine monastery, who was
concerned with the affairs of a single house, the Abbot of Cluny
presided over a number of monasteries, each of which was entrusted
only to a Prior. Moreover, the Congregation of Cluny was free from the
visitation of the local bishops and was immediately under the papal
jurisdiction. What more natural than that the monks of Cluny should
advocate the application to the Church at large of those principles of
organisation which had formed so successful a departure from previous
arrangements in the smaller sphere of Cluny? Thus the advocates of
Church reform evolved both a negative and a positive policy: the
abolition of lay investiture and the utter extirpation of the practice
of clerical marriages were to shake the Church free from the numbing
control of secular interests, and these were to be accomplished by a
centralisation of the ecclesiastical organisation in the hands of the
Pope, which would make him more than a match for the greatest secular
potentate, the successor of Caesar himself.
[Sidenote: Chances of reform.]
It is true that at the beginning of the eleventh century there seemed
little chance of the accomplishment of these reforms. If the great
secular potentates were likely to cling to the practice of investiture
in order to keep a hold over a body of landowners which, whatever
their other obligations, controlled perhaps one-third of the lands in
Western Christendom; yet the Kings of the time were not unsympathetic
to ecclesiastical reform as interpreted by Cluny. In France both Hugh
Capet (987-96) and Robert (996-1031) appealed to the Abbot of Cluny
for help in the improvement of their monasteries, and this example was
followed by some of their great nobles. In Germany reigned Henry II
(1002-24), the last of the Saxon line, who was canonised a century
after his death by a Church penetrated by the influences of Cluny. It
was the condition of the Papacy which for nearly half a century
postponed any attempt at a comprehensive scheme of reform. Twice
already in the course of the tenth century had the intervention of the
German King, acting as Emperor, rescued the see of Rome from
unspeakable degradation. But for nearly 150 years (904-1046), with a
few short interludes, the Papacy was the sport of local factions. At
the beginning of the eleventh century the leaders of these factions
were descended from the two daughters of the notorious Theodora; the
Crescentines who were responsible for three Popes between 1004 and
1012, owing their influence to the younger Theodora, while the Counts
of Tusculum were the descendants of the first of the four husbands who
got such power as they possessed from the infamous Marozia. The first
Tusculan Pope, Benedict VIII (1012-24), by simulating an interest in
reform, won the support of Henry II of Germany, whom he crowned
Emperor; but in 1033 the same faction set up the son of the Count of
Tusculum, a child of twelve, as Benedict IX. It suited the Emperor,
Conrad II, to use him and therefore to acknowledge him; but twice the
scandalised Romans drove out the youthful debauchee and murderer, and
on the second occasion they elected another Pope in his place. But the
Tusculan influence was not to be gainsaid. Benedict, however, sold the
Papacy to John Gratian, who was reputed a man of piety, and whose
accession as Gregory VI, even though it was a simoniacal transaction,
was welcomed by the party of reform. But Benedict changed his mind and
attempted to resume his power. Thus there were three persons in Rome
who had been consecrated to the papal office. The Archdeacon of Rome
appealed to the Emperor Conrad's successor, Henry III, who caused Pope
Gregory to summon a Council to Sutri. Here, or shortly afterwards at
Rome, all three Popes were deposed, and although Benedict IX made
another attempt on the papal throne, and even as late as 1058 his
party set up an anti-pope, the influence of the local factions was
superseded by that of a stronger power.
[Sidenote: Imperial influence.]
But the alternative offered by the German Kings was no more favourable
in itself to the schemes of the reformers than the purely local
influences of the last 150 years. As Otto I in 963, so Henry III in
1046 obtained from the Romans the recognition of his right, as
patrician or princeps, to nominate a candidate who should be formally
elected as their bishop by the Roman people; and as Otto III in 996,
so Henry III now used his office to nominate a succession of men,
suitable indeed and distinguished, but of German birth. This was not
that freedom of the Church from lay control nor the exaltation of the
papal office through which that freedom was to be maintained. Indeed,
so long as fear of the Tusculan influence remained, deference to the
wishes of the German King, who was also Emperor, was indispensable,
and when that King was as powerful as Henry III it was unwise to
challenge unnecessarily and directly the exercise of his powers.
[Sidenote: Leo IX (1048-54).]
But Henry, although, like St. Henry at the beginning of the century,
he kept a strong hand on his own clergy, was yet thoroughly in
sympathy with what may be distinguished as the moral objects of the
reformers; and, indeed, the men whom he promoted to the Papacy were
drawn from the class of higher ecclesiastics who were touched by the
Cluniac spirit. Henry's first two nominees were short-lived. His third
choice was his own cousin, Bruno, Bishop of Toul, who accepted with
reluctance and only on condition that he should go through the
canonical form of election by the clergy and people of Rome. On his
way to Rome, which he entered as a pilgrim, he was joined by the late
chaplain of Pope Gregory VI, Hildebrand, who had been in retirement at
Cluny since his master's death. Not only did the new Pope, Leo IX,
take this inflexible advocate of the Church's claims as his chief
adviser, but he surrounded himself with reforming ecclesiastics from
beyond the Alps. Thus fortified he issued edicts against simoniacal
and married clergy; but finding that their literal fulfilment would
have emptied all existing offices, he was obliged to tone down his
original threats and to allow clergy guilty of simony to atone their
fault by an ample penance. But Leo's contribution to the building up
of the papal power was his personal appearance, not as a suppliant but
as a judge, beyond the Alps. Three times in his six years' rule he
passed the confines of Rome and Italy. On the first occasion he even
held a Council at Rheims, despite the unfriendly attitude of Henry I
of France, whose efforts, moreover, to keep the French bishops from
attendance at the Council met with signal failure. Here and elsewhere
Pope Leo exercised all kinds of powers, forcing bishops and abbots to
clear themselves by oath from charges of simony and other faults, and
excommunicating and degrading those who had offended. And while he
reduced the hierarchy to recognise the papal authority, he overawed
the people by assuming the central part in stately ceremonies such as
the consecration of new churches and the exaltation of relics of
martyrs. All this was possible because the Emperor Henry III supported
him and welcomed him to a Council at Mainz. Nor was it a matter of
less importance that these visits taught the people of Western Europe
to regard the Papacy as the embodiment of justice and the
representative of a higher morality than that maintained by the local
Church.
[Sidenote: Effect of Henry III's death.]
Quite unwittingly Henry III's encouragement of Pope Leo's roving
propensities began the difficulties for his descendants. It is true he
nominated Leo's successor at the request of the clergy and people of
Rome; but Henry's death in 1056 left the German throne to a child of
six under the regency of a woman and a foreigner who found herself
faced by all the hostile forces hitherto kept under by the Emperor's
powerful arm. And when Henry's last Pope, Victor II, followed the
Emperor to the grave in less than a year, the removal of German
influence was complete. The effect was instantaneous. The first Pope
elected directly by the Romans was a German indeed by birth, but he
was the brother of Duke Godfrey of Lorraine, who, driven from Germany
by Henry, had married the widowed Marchioness of Tuscany. and was
regarded by a small party as a possible King of Italy and Emperor.
Whatever danger there was in the schemes of the Lotharingian brothers
was nipped in the bud by the death of Pope Stephen IX seven months
after his election. Then it became apparent that the removal of the
Emperor's strong hand had freed not only the upholders of
ecclesiastical reform but also the old Roman factions. The attempt was
easily crushed, but it became clear to the reformers that the papal
election must be secured beyond all possibility of outside
interference. At Hildebrand's suggestion and with the approval of the
German Court, a Burgundian, who was Bishop of Florence, was elected as
Nicholas II. The very name was a challenge, for the first Nicholas
(858-67) was perhaps the Pope who up to that time had asserted the
highest claims for the See of Rome.
[Sidenote: Provision for papal election.]
The short pontificate of the new Nicholas was devoted largely to
measures for securing the freedom of papal elections from secular
interference. By a decree passed in a numerously attended Council at
the Pope's Lateran palace, a College or Corporation was formed of the
seven bishops of the sees in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome,
together with the priests of the various Roman parish churches and the
deacons attendant on them. To the members of this body was now
specially arrogated the term Cardinal, a name hitherto applicable to
all clergy ordained and appointed to a definite church. To all Roman
clergy outside this body and to the people there remained merely the
right of assent, and even this was destined to disappear. More
important historically was the merely verbal reservation of the
imperial right of confirmation, which was further made a matter of
individual grant to each Emperor who might seek it from the Pope. In
view of the revived influence of the local factions it was also laid
down that, although Rome and the Roman clergy had the first claim, yet
the election might lawfully take place anywhere and any one otherwise
eligible might be chosen; while the Pope so elected might exercise his
authority even before he had been enthroned.
[Sidenote: Papacy and Normans.]
But in the presence of a strong Emperor or an unscrupulous faction
even these elaborate provisions Papacy might be useless. The Papacy
needed a champion in the flesh, who should have nothing to gain and
everything to lose by attempting to become its master. Such a
protector was ready to hand in the Normans, who, recently settled in
Southern Italy, felt themselves insecure in the title by which they
held their possessions. Southern Italy was divided between the three
Lombard duchies of Benevento, Capua and Salerno, and the districts of
Calabria and Apulia, which acknowledged the Viceroy or Katapan of the
Eastern Emperor in his seat at Bari. The Saracens, only recently
expelled from the mainland, still held Sicily. Norman pilgrims
returning from Palestine became, at the instigation of local factions,
Norman adventurers, and their leaders obtaining lands from the local
Princes in return for help, sought confirmation of their title from
some legitimate authority. The Western Empire had never claimed these
lands, but none the less Conrad II and Henry III, in return for the
acceptance of their suzerainty, acknowledged the titles which the
Norman leaders had already gained from Greek or Lombard. Rome was
likely to be their next victim, and Leo IX took the opportunity of a
dispute over the city of Benevento to try conclusions with them. A
humiliating defeat was followed by a mock submission of the conqueror.
The danger was in no sense removed. Pope Stephen's schemes for driving
them out of Italy were cut short by his death, and meanwhile the
Norman power increased. Thus there could be no question of expulsion,
nor could the Papacy risk a repetition of the humiliation of Leo IX.
It was Hildebrand who conceived the idea of turning a dangerous
neighbour into a friend and protector. A meeting was arranged at Melfi
between Pope Nicholas and the Norman princes, and there, while on the
one side canons were issued against clerical marriage, which was rife
in the south of Italy, on the other side Robert Guiscard, the Norman
leader, recognised the Pope as his suzerain, and obtained in return
the title of Duke of Apulia and Calabria and of Sicily when he should
have conquered it. Pope Leo's agreement, six years before, had been
made by a defeated and humiliated ecclesiastic with a band of
unscrupulous adventurers. Pope Nicholas was dealing with an actual
ruler who merely sought legitimate recognition of his title from any
whose hostility would make his hold precarious. Thus resting on the
shadowy basis of the donation of Constantine the Pope substituted
himself for the Emperor, whether of West or of East, over the whole of
Southern Italy. Truly the movement for the emancipation of the Church
from the State was already shaping itself into an attempt at the
formation of a rival power.
[Sidenote: Alexander II (1061-73) and Milan.]
The value of this new alliance to the Papacy was put to the test
almost immediately. On the death of Pope Nicholas (1061) the papal and
imperial parties proceeded to measure their strength against each
other. The reformers, acting under the leadership of Hildebrand, chose
as his successor a noble Milanese, Anselm of Baggio, Bishop of Lucca,
who now became Alexander II. He was elected in accordance with the
provisions of the recent Lateran decree, and no imperial ratification
was asked. On the purely ecclesiastical side this choice was a strong
manifesto against clerical marriage. The city of Milan as the capital
of the Lombard kingdom of Italy had for many centuries held itself in
rivalry with Rome. Moreover, it was the stronghold of an aristocratic
and a married clergy, which based its practice on a supposed privilege
granted by its Apostle St. Ambrose. But this produced a reforming
democracy which, perhaps from the quarter whence it gained its chief
support, was contemptuously named by its opponents the Patarins or
Rag-pickers. The first leader of this democratic party had been Anselm
of Baggio. Nicholas II sent thither the fanatical Peter Damiani as
papal legate, and a fierce struggle ended in the abject submission of
the Archbishop of Milan, who attended a synod at Rome and promised
obedience to the Pope.
[Sidenote: German opposition.]
The weak point in the decree of Nicholas II had been that the German
clergy were not represented at the Council which issued it, and it was
construed in Germany as a manifest attempt of the reforming party to
secure the Papacy for Italy as against the German influence maintained
by Henry III. The Roman nobles also had seen in the decree the design
of excluding them from any share in the election. It was only by the
introduction of Norman troops into Rome that the new Pope could be
installed at the Lateran. A few weeks later a synod met at Basle in
the presence of the Empress-Regent and the young Henry IV. The latter
was invested with the title of Patrician, and the election of
Alexander having been pronounced invalid, a new Pope was chosen in the
person of another Lombard, Cadalus Bishop of Parma, who had led the
opposition to the Patarins in the province of Milan. The Normans were
recalled to their dominions, and the imperialist Pope, Honorius II,
was installed in Rome. The struggle between the rival Popes lasted for
three years (1061-4), and fluctuated with the fluctuations of power at
the German court. Here the young King had fallen under the influence
of Archbishop Hanno of Köln, who, surrounded by enemies in Germany,
hoped to gain a party by the betrayal of imperial interests in the
recognition of the decree of Nicholas II and of the claims of
Alexander. Again by the help of a Norman force Alexander was installed
in Rome, where he remained even when Hanno's influence at the German
court gave way to that of Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen. Honorius,
however, despite the desertion by the imperialist party, found
supporters until his death in 1072, and it was only by the arms of
Duke Godfrey of Tuscany acting for the imperialists and those of his
own Norman allies that Alexander held Rome until his death.
[Sidenote: Steps towards reformation.]
Meanwhile the ecclesiastical reformation went steadily on under the
direction of Hildebrand. The young King Henry endeavoured to free
himself from the great German ecclesiastics who held him in thrall, by
repudiating the wife whom they had forced upon him. He was checked by
the austere and resolute papal legate, Peter Damiani, and was obliged
to accept Bertha of Savoy, to whom subsequently he became much
attached. Peter Darniani's visit, however, brought him relief in
another way, for the legate took back such a report of the prevalence
of simony that the archbishops of Mainz and Köln were summoned to
Rome, whence they returned so humiliated that their political
influence was gone. It is almost equally remarkable that the two
English Archbishops also appeared at Rome during this Pontificate,
Lanfranc of Canterbury in order that he might obtain the pall without
which he could not exercise his functions as Archbishop, and Thomas of
York, who referred to the Pope his contention that the primacy of
England should alternate between Canterbury and York. In France, too,
we are told that the envoys of Alexander interfered in the smallest
details of the ecclesiastical administration and punished without
mercy all clergy guilty of simony or of matrimony. Almost the last
public act of Pope Alexander was to excommunicate five counsellors of
the young King of Germany, to whom were attributed responsibility for
his acts, and to summon Henry himself to answer charges of simony and
other evil deeds.