§ 110. THE PAPACY.[323]
From the time of Gelasius II. (§ 96, 11) it had been the custom of
the popes whenever Italy became too hot for them to fly to France, and
from France they had obtained help to deliver Italy from the tyranny of
the latest representatives of the Hohenstaufens. But when Boniface VIII.
dared boldly to assert the universal sovereignty of the papacy even
over France itself, this presumption wrought its own overthrow. The
consequence was a seventy years’ exile of the papal chair to the
banks of the Rhone, with complete subjugation under French authority.
Under the protection of the French court, however, the popes found
Avignon a safe asylum, and from thence they issued the most extravagant
hierarchical claims, especially upon Germany. The return of the papal
court to Rome was the occasion of a forty years’ schism, during which
two popes, for a time even three, are seen hurling anathemas at one
another. The reforming Councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel sought
to put an end to this scandal and bring about a reformation in the head
and the members. The fathers in these councils, however, in accordance
with the prevalent views of the age, maintained the need of one visible
head for the government of the church, such as was afforded by the
papacy. But the corruptions of the papal chair led them to adopt the
old theory that the highest ecclesiastical authority is not the pope
but the voice of the universal church expressed in the œcumenical
councils, which had jurisdiction over even the popes. The successful
carrying out of this view was possible only if the several national
churches which had come now more decidedly than ever to regard
themselves as independent branches of the great ecclesiastical
organism, should heartily combine against the corrupt papacy. But
this they did not do. They were contented with making separate attacks,
in accordance with their several selfish interests. Hence papal craft
found little difficulty in rendering the strong remonstrances of these
councils fruitless and without result. The papacy came forth triumphant,
and during the 15th century, the age of the Renaissance, reached a
degree of corruption and moral turpitude which it had not approached
since the 10th century. The vicars of God now used their spiritual
rank only to further their ambitious worldly schemes, and by the most
scandalous nepotism (the so-called nephews being often bastards of the
popes, who were put into the highest and most lucrative offices) as
well as by their own voluptuousness, luxury, revelry, and love of war,
brought ruin upon the church and the States of the Church.
§ 110.1. =Boniface VIII. and Benedict XI.,
A.D. 1294-1304.=--=Boniface VIII.=, A.D. 1294-1303 (§ 96, 22),
was not inferior to his great predecessor in political talents
and strength of will, but was destitute of all spiritual
qualities and without any appreciation of the spiritual
functions of the papal chair, while passionately maintaining
the most extravagant claims of the hierarchy. The opposition
to the pope was headed by two cardinals of the powerful Colonna
family, who maintained that the abdication of Cœlestine V.
was invalid. In A.D. 1297 Boniface stripped them of all their
dignities, and then they appealed to an œcumenical council as
a court of higher jurisdiction. The pope now threatened them
and their supporters with the ban, fitted out a crusade against
them, and destroyed their castles. At last after a sore struggle
Palæstrina, the old residence of their family, capitulated. Also
the Colonnas themselves submitted. Nevertheless in A.D. 1299 he
had the famous old city and all its churches and palaces levelled
to the ground, and refused to restore to the outlawed family
its confiscated estates. Then again the Colonnas took up arms,
but were defeated and obliged to fly the country, while the
pope forbade under threat of the ban any city or realm to give
refuge or shelter to the fugitives. But neither his anathema
nor his army was able to keep the rebellious Sicilians under
papal dominion. Even in his first contest with the French king,
=Philip IV. the Fair=, A.D. 1285-1314, he had the worst of
it. The pope had vainly sought to mediate between Philip and
Edward I. of England, when both were using church property in
carrying on war with one another, and in A.D. 1295 he issued
the bull _Clericis laicos_, releasing subjects from their
allegiance and anathematizing all laymen who should appropriate
ecclesiastical revenues and all priests who should put them to
uses not sanctioned by the pope. Philip then forbade all payment
of church dues, and the pope finding his revenues from France
withheld, made important concessions in A.D. 1297 and canonized
Philip’s grandfather, Louis IX. His hierarchical assumptions
in Germany gave promise of greater success. After the first
Hapsburger’s death in A.D. 1291, his son Albert was set aside,
and Adolf, Count of Nassau, elected king; but he again was
overthrown and Albert I. crowned in A.D. 1298. Boniface summoned
Albert to his tribunal as a traitor and murderer of the king,
and released the German princes from their oaths of allegiance
to him. Meanwhile, during A.D. 1301, Boniface and Philip were
quarrelling over vacant benefices in France. The king haughtily
repudiated the pretensions of the papal legate and imprisoned
him as a traitor. Boniface demanded his immediate liberation,
summoned the French bishops to a council at Rome, and in the
bull _Ausculta fili_ showed the king how foolish, sinful, and
heretical it was for him not to be subject to the pope. The
bull torn from the messenger’s hands was publicly burnt, and
a version of it probably falsified published throughout the
kingdom along with the king’s reply. All France rose in revolt
against the papal pretensions, and a parliament at Notre Dame in
Paris A.D. 1302, at which the king assembled the three estates of
the empire, the nobles, the clergy, and (for the first time) the
citizens, it was unanimously resolved to support Philip and to
write in that spirit to Rome, the bishops undertaking to pacify
the pope, the nobles and citizens making their complaint to the
cardinals. The king expressly forbade his clergy taking any part
in the council that had been summoned, which, however, met in the
Lateran, in Nov., 1302. From it Boniface issued the famous bull
_Unam Sanctam_, in which, after the example of Innocent III.
and Gregory IX., he set forth the doctrine of the two swords,
the spiritual wielded _by_ the church and the temporal _for_
the church, by kings and warriors indeed, but only according
to the will and by the permission of the spiritual ruler. That
the temporal power is independent was pronounced a Manichæan
heresy; and finally it was declared that no human being could
be saved unless he were subject to the Roman pontiff. King and
parliament now accused the pope of heresy, simony, blasphemy,
sorcery, tyranny, immorality, etc., and insisted that he should
answer these charges before an œcumenical council. Meanwhile, in
A.D. 1303, Boniface was negotiating with king Albert, and got him
not only to break his league with Philip, but also to acknowledge
himself a vassal of the papal see. The pope had all his plans
laid for launching his anathema against Philip, but their
execution was anticipated by the king’s assassins. His chancellor
Nogaret and Sciarra, one of the exiled Colonnas, who, with the
help of French gold, had hatched a conspiracy among the barons,
attacked the papal palace and took the pope prisoner while he
sat in full state upon his throne. The people indeed rescued
him, but he died some weeks after in a raging fever in his
80th year. Dante assigns him a place in hell. In the mouth of
his predecessor Cœlestine V. have been put the prophetic words,
_Ascendisti ut vulpes, regnatis ut leo, morieris ut canis_.[324]
His successor =Benedict XI.=, A.D. 1303, 1304, would have
willingly avenged the wrongs of Boniface, but weak and
unsupported as he was he soon found himself obliged, not
only to withdraw all imputations against Philip, who always
maintained his innocence, but also to absolve those of the
Colonnas who were less seriously implicated.
§ 110.2. =The Papacy during the Babylonian Exile,
A.D. 1305-1377.=--After a year’s vacancy the papal chair
was filled by Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux,
a determined supporter of Boniface, who took the name of
=Clement V.=, A.D. 1305-1314. He refused to go to be enthroned
at Rome, and forced the cardinals to come to Lyons, and finally,
in A.D. 1309, formally removed the papal court to Avignon, which
then belonged to the king of Naples as Count of Provence. At
this time, too, Clement so far yielded to Philip’s wish to have
Boniface condemned and struck out of the list of popes, as to
appoint two commissions to consider charges against Boniface,
one in France and the other in Italy. Most credible witnesses
accused the deceased pope of heresies, crimes, and immoralities
committed in word and deed mostly in their presence, while the
rebutting evidence was singularly weak. A compromise was effected
by Clement surrendering the Templars to the greedy and revengeful
king. In the bull _Rex gloriæ_ of A.D. 1311 he expressly declares
that Philip’s proceeding against Boniface was _bona fide_,
occasioned by zeal for church and country, cancels all Boniface’s
decrees and censures upon the French king and his servants, and
orders them to be erased from the archives. =The 15th œcumenical
Council of Vienne in A.D. 1311= was mainly occupied with the
affairs of the Templars, and also with the consideration of the
controversies in the Franciscan order (§ 112, 2).--=Henry VII.=
of Luxemburg was raised to the German throne on Albert’s death
in A.D. 1208 in opposition to Philip’s brother Charles. Clement
supported him and crowned him emperor, hoping to be protected by
him from Philip’s tyranny. At Milan in A.D. 1311 Henry received
the iron crown of Lombardy; but at Rome the imperial coronation
was effected in A.D. 1312, not in St. Peter’s, the inner city
being held by Robert of Naples, papal vassal and governor of
Italy, but only in the Lateran at the hands of the cardinals
commissioned to do so. The emperor now, in spite of all papal
threats, pronounced the ban of the empire against Robert,
and in concert with Frederick of Sicily entered on a campaign
against Naples, but his sudden death in A.D. 1313 (according
to an unsupported legend caused by a poisoned host) put an end
to the expedition. Clement also died in the following year; and
to him likewise has Dante assigned a place in hell.
§ 110.3. After two years’ murderous strife between the Italian
and French cardinals, the French were again victorious, and
elected at Lyons =John XXII.=, A.D. 1316-1334, son of a shoemaker
of Cahors in Gascony, who was already seventy-two years old.
He is said to have sworn to the Italians never to use a horse
or mule but to ride to Rome, and then to have taken ship
on the Rhone for Avignon, where during his eighteen years’
pontificate he never went out of his palace except to go into
the neighbouring cathedral. Working far into the night, this
seemingly weak old man was wont to devote all his time to his
studies and his business. The weight of his official duties
will be seen from the fact that 60,000 minutes, filling 59 vols.
in the papal archives, belong to his reign.--In Germany, after
the death of Henry VII. there were two rivals for the throne,
=Louis IV. the Bavarian=, A.D. 1314-1347, and Frederick III.
of Austria. The pope, maintaining the closest relations with
Robert of Anjou, his feudatory as king of Naples and his
protector as Count of Provence, and esteeming his wish as
a command, refused to acknowledge either, declared the German
throne still vacant, and assumed to himself the administration
of the realm during the vacancy. At Mühldorf in A.D. 1322
Louis conquered his opponent and took him prisoner. He sent
a detachment of Ghibellines over the Alps, while he made himself
master of Milan and put an end to the papal administration
in Northern Italy. The pope in A.D. 1323 ordered him within
three months to cease discharging all functions of government
till his election as German king should be acknowledged and
confirmed by the papal chair. Louis first endeavoured to come to
an understanding with the pope, but soon employed the sharp pens
of the Minorites, who in May, 1324, drew up a solemn protest
in which the king, basing his claims to royalty solely on the
election of the princes and treating the pope as one who had
forfeited his chair in consequence of his heresies (§ 112, 2),
appealed from this false pope to an œcumenical council and a
future legitimate pope. John now thundered an anathema against
him, declared that he was deprived of all his dignities, freed
his subjects from their allegiance, forbade them, under pain
of anathema, to obey him, and summoned all European potentates
to war against the excommunicated monarch. Louis now sought
Frederick’s favour, and in A.D. 1325 shared with him the royal
dignity. In Milan in A.D. 1327 he was crowned king of Lombardy,
and in A.D. 1328 in Rome he received the imperial crown from
the Roman democracy. Two bishops of the Ghibelline party gave
him consecration, and the crown was laid on his head by Sciarra
Colonna in the name of the Roman people. In vain did the pope
pronounce all these proceedings null and void. The king began a
process against the pope, deposed him as a heretic and antichrist,
and finally condemned him to death as guilty of high treason,
while the mob carried out this sentence by burning the pope
in effigy upon the streets. The people and clergy of Rome, in
accordance with an old canon, elected a new pope in the person
of a pious Minorite of the sect of the Spirituales (§ 112, 2),
who took the name of Nicholas V. Louis with his own hand placed
the tiara on his head, and was then himself crowned by him. All
this glory, however, was but short lived. An unsuccessful and
inglorious war against Robert of Naples and a consequent revolt
in Rome caused the emperor in A.D. 1328, with his army and his
pope, amid the stonethrowing of the mob, to quit the eternal city,
which immediately became subject to the curia. He did not fare
much better in Tuscany or Lombardy; and thus the Roman expedition
ended in failure. Returning to Munich, Louis endeavoured in vain
amid many humiliations to move the determined old man at Avignon.
But Nicholas V., the most wretched of all the anti-popes, went
to Avignon with a rope about his neck in A.D. 1328, cast himself
at the pope’s feet, was absolved, and died a prisoner in the
papal palace in A.D. 1333. Next year John died. Notwithstanding
the expensive Italian wars 25,000,000 gold guldens was found in
the papal treasury at his death.--Roused by his opposition to
the stricter party among the Franciscans (§ 112, 2), its leaders
lent all their influence to the Bavarian and supported the charge
of heresy against the pope. Against John’s favourite doctrine
that the souls of departed saints attain to the vision of God
only after the last judgment, these zealots cited the opinions
of the learned world (§ 113, 3), with the University of Paris
at its head. Philip VI. of France was also in the controversy
one of his bitterest opponents, and even threatened him with
the stake. Pressed on all sides the pope at last in A.D. 1333
convened a commission of scholars to decide the question, but
died before its judgment was given. His successor hasted to
still the tumult by issuing the story of a deathbed recantation,
and gave ecclesiastical sanction to the opposing view.
§ 110.4. =Benedict XII.=, A.D. 1334-1342, would probably have
yielded to the urgent entreaties of the Romans to return to Rome
had not his cardinals been so keenly opposed. He then built a
palace at Avignon of imposing magnitude, as though the papacy
were to have an eternal residence there. Louis the Bavarian
retracted his heretical sentiments in order to get the ban
removed and to obtain an orderly coronation. The first diet of
the electoral union was held at Rhense near Mainz, in A.D. 1338,
where it was declared that the election of a German king and
emperor was, by God’s appointment, the sole privilege of the
elector-princes, and needed not the confirmation or approval
of the pope. This encouraged Louis to assert anew his imperial
pretensions. Benedict’s successor =Clement VI.=, A.D. 1342-1352,
added by purchase in A.D. 1348 the city of Avignon to the county
of Venaissin, which Philip III. had gifted to the papal chair in
A.D. 1273. Both continued in the possession of the Roman court
till A.D. 1791 (§ 165, 13). Louis, now at feud with some of the
powerful German nobles, sought to make terms of peace with the
new pope. But Clement was not conciliatory, and made the unheard
of demand that Louis should not only annul all his previous
ordinances, but also should in future issue no enactment in
the empire without permission of the papal see; and on Maunday
Thursday, A.D. 1346, he pronounced him without title or dignity
and called upon the electors to make a new choice, which, if
they failed to do, he would proceed to do himself. As fittest
candidate he recommended Charles of Bohemia, who was actually
chosen by the five electors who answered the summons, under the
title of =Charles IV.=, A.D. 1346-1378, and had his election
confirmed by the pope. The new emperor solemnly promised never
to set foot on the domains of the Roman church without express
papal permission, and to remain in Rome only so long as was
required for his coronation. Louis died before he was able to
engage in war with his rival, and when, six months later, the
next choice of Louis’ party also died, Charles was acknowledged
without a dissentient voice. He was crowned emperor in Rome
by a cardinal appointed by Innocent VI., in A.D. 1355. Without
doing anything to restore the imperial prestige in Italy, Charles
went back like a fugitive to Germany, despised by Guelphs and
Ghibellines. But in the following year, at the Diet of Nuremberg,
he passed a new imperial law in the so called Golden Bull of
A.D. 1356, according to which the election of emperor was to
be made at Frankfort, by three clerical electors (Mainz, Cologne,
and Treves) and four temporal princes (Bohemia, the Palatine of
the Rhine, Saxony, and Brandenburg), and he appeased the pope’s
wrath by various concessions to the curia and the clergy.
§ 110.5. The famous Rienzi was made apostolic notary by
Clement VI. in A.D. 1343, and as tribune of the people headed
the revolt against the barons in A.D. 1347. Losing his popularity
through his own extravagances he was obliged to flee, and being
taken prisoner by Charles at Prague, he was sent to Avignon in
A.D. 1350. Instead of the stake with which Clement had threatened
him, =Innocent VI.=, A.D. 1352-1362, bestowed senatorial rank
upon him, and sent him to Rome, hoping that his demagogical
talent would succeed in furthering the interests of the papacy.
He now once more, amid loud acclamations, entered the eternal
city, but after two months, hated and cursed as a tyrant, he was
murdered in A.D. 1354, while attempting flight.--By A.D. 1367
things had so improved in Rome that, notwithstanding the
opposition of king and court and the objections of luxurious
cardinals unwilling to quit Avignon, =Urban V.=, A.D. 1362-1370,
in October of that year made a triumphal entrance into Rome
amid the jubilations of the Romans. Charles’ Italian expedition
of the following year was inglorious and without result. The
disquiet and party strifes prevailing through the country made
the position of the pope so uncomfortable, that notwithstanding
the earnest entreaty of St. Bridget (§ 112, 8), who threatened
him with the Divine judgment of an early death in France, he
returned in A.D. 1370 to Avignon, where in ten weeks the words
of the northern prophetess were fulfilled. His successor was
=Gregory XI.=, A.D. 1370-1378. Rome and the States of the Church
had now again become the scene of the wildest anarchy, which
Gregory could only hope to quell by his personal presence. The
exhortations of the two prophetesses of the age, St. Bridget and
St. Catherine (§ 112, 4), had a powerful influence upon him, but
what finally determined him was the threat of the exasperated
Romans to elect an anti-pope. And so in spite of the renewed
opposition of the cardinals and the French court, the curia
again returned to Rome in A.D. 1377; but though the rejoicing
at the event throughout the city was great, the results were by
no means what had been expected. Sick and disheartened, the pope
was already beginning to speak of going back to Avignon, when
his death in A.D. 1378 put an end to his cares and sufferings.
§ 110.6. =The Papal Schism and the Council of Pisa.=--Under
pressure from the people the cardinals present in Rome almost
unanimously chose the Neapolitan archbishop of Bari, who took
the name of =Urban VI.=, A.D. 1378-1389. His energies were
mainly directed to the emancipating of the papal chair from
French interference and checking the abuses introduced into
the papal court during the Avignon residence; but the impatience
and bitterness which he showed in dealing with the greed, pomp,
and luxury of the cardinals roused them to choose another pope.
After four months, they met at Fundi, declared that the choice
of Urban had been made under compulsion, and was therefore
invalid. In his place they elected a Frenchman, Robert, cardinal
of Geneva, who was enthroned under the name of Clement VII.,
A.D. 1378-1394. The three Italians present protested against
this proceeding and demanded, but in vain, the decision of a
council. Thus began the greatest and most mischievous =papal
schism=, A.D. 1378-1417. France, Naples, and Savoy at once, and
Spain and Scotland somewhat later, declared in favour of Clement;
while the rest of Western Europe acknowledged Urban. The two
most famous saints of the age, St. Catherine and St. Vincent
Ferrér (§ 115, 2), though both disciples of Dominic, took
different sides, the former as an Italian favouring Urban,
the latter as a Spaniard favouring Clement. Failing to secure
a footing in Italy, Clement took possession of the papal castle
at Avignon in A.D. 1379. The schism lasted for forty years,
during which time =Boniface IX.=, A.D. 1389-1404, =Innocent VII.=,
A.D. 1404-1406, and =Gregory XII.=, A.D. 1406-1415, elected
by the cardinals in Rome, held sway there in succession, while
at Avignon on Clement’s death his place was taken by the Spanish
cardinal Pedro de Luna as Benedict XIII., A.D. 1394-1424. The
Council of Paris of A.D. 1395 recommended the withdrawal of both
popes and a new election, but Benedict insisted upon a decision
by a two-thirds majority in favour of one or other of the two
rivals. An =œcumenical council at Pisa=, in A.D. 1409, dominated
mainly by the influence of Gerson (§ 118, 4), who maintained that
the authority of the councils is superior to that of the pope,
made short work with both contesting popes, whom it pronounced
contumacious and deposed. After the cardinals present had bound
themselves by an oath that whosoever of them might be chosen
should not dissolve the council until a reform of the church
in its head and members should be carried out, they elected
a Greek of Candia in his seventieth year, Cardinal Philangi,
who was consecrated as =Alexander V.=, A.D. 1409-1410, and for
three years the council continued to sit without effecting any
considerable reforms. The consequence was that the world had the
edifying spectacle of three contemporary popes anathematizing
one another.
§ 110.7. =The Council of Constance and Martin V.=--Alexander V.
died after a reign of ten months by poison administered, as
was supposed, by Balthasar Cossa, resident cardinal legate
and absolute military despot, suspected of having been in
youth engaged in piracy. Cossa succeeded, as =John XXIII.=,
A.D. 1410-1415. He was acknowledged by the new Roman king,
=Sigismund=, A.D. 1411-1437, and soon afterwards, in A.D. 1412,
by Ladislas [Ladislaus] of Naples, so that Gregory XII. was thus
deprived of his last support. The University of Paris continued
to demand the holding of a council to effect reforms. Sigismund,
supported by the princes, insisted on its being held in a
German city. Meanwhile Ladislas [Ladislaus] had quarrelled
with the pope, and had overrun the States of the Church and
plundered Rome in A.D. 1413, and John was obliged to submit
to Sigismund’s demands, He now summoned the =16th œcumenical
Council of Constance=, A.D. 1414-1418 (§ 119, 5). It was the
most brilliant and the most numerously attended council ever
held. More than 18,000 priests and vast numbers of princes,
counts, and knights, with an immense following; in all about
100,000 strangers, including thousands of harlots from all
countries, and hordes of merchants, artisans, showmen, and
players of every sort. Gerson and D’Ailly, the one representing
European learning, the other the claims of the Gallican church
(§ 118, 4), were the principal advisers of the council. The
decision to vote not individually but by nations (Italian,
German, French, and English) destroyed the predominance of
the Italian prelates, who as John’s creatures were present
in great numbers. Terrified by an anonymous accusation, which
charged the pope with the most heinous crimes, he declared
himself ready to withdraw if the other two popes would also
resign, but took advantage of the excitement of a tournament
to make his escape disguised as an ostler. Sigismund could with
difficulty keep the now popeless council together. John, however,
was captured, seventy-two serious charges formulated against
him, and on 26th July, A.D. 1415, he was deposed and condemned
to imprisonment for life. He was given up to the Count Palatine
Louis of Baden, who kept him prisoner in Mannheim, and afterwards
in Heidelberg. Meanwhile the leader of an Italian band making use
of the name of Martin V. purchased his release with 3,000 ducats.
He now submitted himself to that pope, and was appointed by him
cardinal-bishop of Tuscoli, and dean of the sacred college, but
soon afterwards died in Florence, in A.D. 1419. Gregory XII. also
submitted in A.D. 1415, and was made cardinal-bishop of Porto.
Benedict, however, retired to Spain and refused to come to
terms, but even the Spanish princes withdrew their allegiance
from him as pope. The cardinals in conclave elected the crafty
Oddo Colonna, who was consecrated as =Martin V.=, A.D. 1417-1431.
There was no more word of reformation. With great pomp the
council was closed, and indulgence granted to its members. As
the whole West now recognised Martin as the true pope the schism
may be said to end with his accession, though Benedict continued
to thunder anathemas from his strong Spanish castle till his
death in A.D. 1424, and three of his four cardinals elected as
his successor Clement VIII. and the fourth another Benedict XIV.
Of the latter no notice was taken, but Clement submitted in
A.D. 1429, and received the bishopric of Majorca.--Martin V.
on entering Rome in A.D. 1420 found everything in confusion
and desolate. By his able administration a change was soon
effected, and the Rome of the Renaissance rose on the ruins
of the mediæval city.[325]
§ 110.8. =Eugenius IV. and the Council of Basel.=--Martin V.
commissioned Cardinal Julian Cesarini to look after the
Hussite controversy in the =Basel Council=, A.D. 1431-1449.
His successor =Eugenius IV.=, A.D. 1431-1447, confirmed this
appointment. After thirteen months he ordered the council to
meet at Bologna, finding the heretical element too strong in
Germany. The members, however, unanimously refused to obey.
Sigismund, too, protested, and the council claimed to be
superior to the pope. The withdrawal of the bull within sixty
days was insisted upon. As a compromise, the pope offered to
call a new council, not at Bologna, but at Basel. This was
declined and the pope threatened with deposition. A rebellion,
too, broke out in the States of the Church; and in A.D. 1433
Eugenius was completely humbled and obliged to acquiesce in the
demands of the council. One danger was thus averted, but he was
still threatened by another. In A.D. 1434 Rome proclaimed itself
a republic and the pope fled to Florence. The success of the
democracy, however, was now again of but short duration. In
five months Rome was once more under the dominion of the pope.
Negotiations for union with the Greeks were begun by the pope
at =Ferrara= A.D. 1438. A small number of Italians under the
presidency of the pope here assumed the offices of an œcumenical
council, those at Basel being ordered to join them, the Basel
Council being suspended, and the continuance of that council
being pronounced schismatical. Julian, now styled “_Julianus
Apostata II._,” with almost all the cardinals, betook himself
to Ferrara. Under the able cardinal Louis d’Aleman (§ 118, 4),
archbishop of Arles, some still continued the proceedings of
the council at Basel, but in consequence of a pestilence they
moved, in A.D. 1439, to =Florence=. A union with the Greeks was
here effected, at least upon paper. The Basel Council banned by
the pope, deposed him, and in A.D. 1439 elected a new pope in
the person of Duke Amadeus of Savoy, who on his wife’s death
had resigned his crown to his son and entered a monkish order.
He called himself Felix V. Princes and people, however, were
tired of rival papacies. Felix got little support, and the
council itself soon lost all its power. Its ablest members one
after another passed over to the party of Eugenius. In A.D. 1449
Felix resigned, and died in the odour of sanctity two years
afterwards.[326]
§ 110.9. Only =Charles VII.= of France took advantage of the
reforming decree of Basel for the benefit of his country. He
assembled the most distinguished churchmen and scholars of his
kingdom at Bourges, and with their concurrence published, in
A.D. 1438, twenty-three of the conclusions of Basel that bore on
the Gallican liberties under the name of the =Pragmatic Sanction=,
and made it a law of his realm. For the rest he maintained an
attitude of neutrality towards both popes, as also shortly before
the electors convened at Frankfort had done. Those assembled at
the Diet of Mainz in A.D. 1439 recognised the reforming edicts
of Basel as applying to Germany. =Frederick IV.=, A.D. 1439-1493,
who as emperor is known as Frederick III., under the influence of
the cunning Italian Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (§ 118, 6), though
at first in the opposition, went over to the side of Eugenius IV.
in A.D. 1446 upon receiving 100,000 guldens for the expenses of
an expedition to Rome and certain ecclesiastical privileges for
his Austrian subjects. Some weeks later the electors of Frankfort
took the same steps, stipulating that Eugenius should recognise
the decrees of the Council of Constance and the reforming decrees
of Basel, and should promise to convene a new free council in
a German city to bring the schism to an end, which if he failed
to do they would quit him in favour of Basel. But at the diet,
held in September of that year at Frankfort, the legates of the
pope and of the king succeeded by diplomatic arts in coming to
an understanding with the electors met at Mainz. Thus it happened
that in the so-called =Frankfort Concordat of the Princes= a
compromise was effected, which Eugenius confirmed in A.D. 1447,
with a careful explanation to the effect that none of these
concessions in any way infringed upon the rights and privileges
of the Holy See. In the following year Frederick in name of the
German nation concluded with Eugenius’ successor, Nicholas V.,
the =Concordat of Vienna=, A.D. 1448. The advantages gained by
the German church were quite insignificant. Frederick received
imperial rank as reward for the betrayal of his country, and was
crowned in Rome, in A.D. 1452, as the last German emperor.
§ 110.10. =Nicholas V., Calixtus III., and Pius II.,
A.D. 1447-1464.=--With =Nicholas V.=, A.D. 1447-1455, a
miracle of classical scholarship and founder of the Vatican
Library, the Roman see for the first time became the patron of
humanistic studies, and under this mild and liberal pope the
secular government of Rome was greatly improved. The conquest of
Constantinople by the Turks, in A.D. 1453, produced excitement
throughout the whole of Europe. The eloquence of the pope
roused the crusading spirit of Christendom, and oratorical
appeals were thundered from the pulpits of all churches and
cathedrals. But the princes remained cold and indifferent.
After Nicholas, a Spaniard, the cardinal Alphonso Borgia, then
in his seventy-seventh year, was raised to the papal chair as
=Calixtus III.=, A.D. 1455-1458. Hatred of Turks and love of
nephews were the two characteristics of the man. Yet he could
not rouse the princes against the Turks, and the fleet fitted out
at his own cost only plundered a few islands in the Archipelago.
Calixtus’ successor was Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the able and
accomplished apostate from the Basel reform party, who styled
himself, with intended allusion to Virgil’s “_pius Æneas_,”
=Pius II.=, A.D. 1458-1464. The pope’s Ciceronian eloquence
failed to secure the attendance of princes at the Mantuan
Congress, summoned in A.D. 1459 to take steps for the equipment
of a crusade. A war against the Turks was indeed to have been
undertaken by emperor Frederick III., and a tax was to have been
levied on Christians and Jews for its cost; but neither tax nor
crusade was forthcoming. Pius demanded of the French ambassadors
a formal repudiation of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, and
when they threatened the calling of an œcumenical council, he
issued the bull _Execrabilis_, which pronounced “the execrable
and previously unheard of” enormity of an appeal to a council to
be heresy and treason. In A.D. 1461 the pope, by a long epistle,
attempted the conversion of Mohammed II., the powerful conqueror
of Constantinople. As the discovery of the great alum deposit
at Rome in A.D. 1462 was attributed to miraculous direction, the
pope was led to devote its rich resources to the fitting out of
a crusade against the Turks. He wished himself to lead the army
in person, in order to secure victory by uplifted hands, like
Moses in the war with Amalek. But here again the princes left him
in the lurch. Coming to Ancona in A.D. 1464 to take ship there
upon his great undertaking, only his own two galleys were waiting
him. After long weary waiting, twelve Venetian ships arrived,
just in time to see the pope prostrated with fever and excitement.
§ 110.11. =Paul II., Sixtus IV. and Innocent VII.,
A.D. 1464-1492.=--Among the popes of the last forty years of
the 15th century =Paul II.=, A.D. 1464-1471, was the best,
though vain, sensual, greedy, fond of show, and extravagant.
He was impartial in the administration of justice, free from
nepotism, and always ready to succour the needy. His successor,
=Sixtus IV.=, A.D. 1471-1484, formerly Franciscan general,
was one of the most wicked of the occupants of the chair of
Peter. His appeal for an expedition against the Turks finding no
response outside of Italy, his love of strife found gratification
in fomenting internal animosities among the Italian states.
In favour of a nephew he sought the overthrow in A.D. 1478 of
the famous Medici family in Florence. Julian was murdered, but
Lorenzo escaped, and the archbishop, as abettor of the crime,
was hanged in his official robes. The pope placed the city
under ban and interdict. It was only the conquest of Otranto in
A.D. 1480, and the terror caused by the landing of the Turks in
Italy, that moved him to make terms with Florence. His nepotism
was most shamelessly practised, and he increased his revenues
by taxing the brothels of Rome. His powerful government did
something towards the improvement of the administration of
justice in the Church States and his love of art beautified
the city. In A.D. 1482 Andrew, archbishop of Crain, a Slav by
birth and of the Dominican order, halted at Basel on his return
from Rome, where he had been as ambassador for Frederick, and,
with the support of the Italian league and the emperor, issued
violent invectives against the pope, and summoned an œcumenical
council for the reform of the church in its head and members. The
pope ordered his arrest and extradition, but this the municipal
authorities refused. After a volley of bulls and briefs, charges
and appeals, and after innumerable embassies and negotiations
between Basel, Vienna, Innsbrück, Florence, and Rome, in which
the emperor abandoned the archbishop and the papal legates
dangled an interdict over Basel, the authorities decided to
imprison the objectionable prelate, but refused to deliver him
up. After eleven months’ imprisonment, however, he was found
hanged in his cell in A.D. 1484. Sixtus had died three months
before and Basel was absolved by his successor =Innocent VIII.=,
A.D. 1484-1492. In character and ability he was far inferior to
his predecessor. The number of illegitimate children brought by
him to the Vatican gave occasion to the popular witticism: “_Octo
Nocens genuit pueros totidemque puellas, Hunc merito poterit
dicere Roma patrem_.” The mighty conqueror of half the world,
Mohammed II., had died in A.D. 1481. His two sons contested
for the throne, and Bajazet proving successful committed the
guardianship of his brother to the Knights of St. John in Rhodes.
The Grandmaster transferred his prisoner, in A.D. 1489, to the
pope. Innocent rewarded him with a cardinalate, and Bajazet
promised the pope not only continual peace, but a yearly
tribute of 40,000 ducats. He also voluntarily presented his
holiness with the spear which pierced the Saviour’s side. All
this, however, did not prevent the pope from repeatedly but
ineffectually seeking to rouse Christendom to a crusade against
the Turks. To this pope also belongs the odium of familiarizing
Europe with witch prosecutions (§ 117, 4).[327]
§ 110.12. =Alexander VI., A.D. 1492-1503.=--The Spanish cardinal
Roderick Borgia, sister’s son of Calixtus III., purchased the
tiara by bribing his colleagues. In him as Alexander VI. we have
a pope whose government presents a scene of unparalleled infamy,
riotous immorality, and unmentionable crimes, of cruel despotism,
fraud, faithlessness, and murder, and a barefaced nepotism, such
as even the city of the popes had never witnessed before. He
had already before his election five children by a concubine,
Rosa Vanossa, four sons and one daughter, Lucretia, and his one
care was for their advancement. His favourite son was Giovanni,
for whom while cardinal he had purchased the rank of a Spanish
grandee, with the title Duke of Gandia, and when pope he bestowed
on him, in A.D. 1497, the hereditary dukedom of Benevento. But
eight days after his corpse with dagger wounds upon it was taken
out of the Tiber. The pope exclaimed, “I know the murderer.”
Suspicion fell first upon Giovanni Sforsa of Pesaro, Lucretia’s
husband, who had charged the murdered man with committing incest
with his sister, but afterwards upon Cardinal Cæsar Borgia, the
pope’s second son, who was jealous of his brother because of the
favour shown him by Lucretia and by her father. Alexander’s grief
knew no bounds, but sought escape from it by redoubled love to
the suspected son. In A.D. 1498 the papal bastard resigned the
cardinalate as an intolerable burden, married a French princess,
and was made hereditary duke of Romagna. Suddenly at the same
time, and in the same manner, in A.D. 1503, father and son took
ill. The father died after a few days, but the vigour of youth
aided the son’s recovery. Cæsar Borgia was at a later period cast
into prison by Julius II., and fell in A.D. 1507 in the service
of his brother-in-law, the king of Navarre. It was generally
believed that Alexander died of poisoned wine prepared by his
son to secure the removal of a rich cardinal. The father as well
as the two brothers were suspected of incest with Lucretia. This
pope, too, did not hesitate to intrigue with the Turkish sultan
against Charles VIII. of France. With unexampled assumption,
during the contention of Portugal and Spain about the American
discoveries, he presented Ferdinand and Isabella in A.D. 1493
with all islands and continents that had been discovered or might
yet be discovered lying beyond a line of demarcation drawn from
the North to the South Pole. Once only, when grieving over the
death of his favourite son, had this pope a twinge of conscience.
He had resolved, he said, to devote himself to his spiritual
calling and secure a reform in church discipline. But when
the commission appointed for this purpose presented its first
reform proposals the momentary emotion had already passed away.
Nothing was further from his thought than the calling of an
œcumenical council, which not only the king of France, but also
the Florentine reformer Savonarola demanded (§ 119, 11).
§ 110.13. =Julius II., A.D. 1503-1513.=--Alexander’s successor,
Pius III., son of a sister of Pius II., died after a twenty-six
days’ pontificate. He was followed by a nephew of Sixtus IV.,
a bitter enemy of the Borgias, who took the name of Julius II.
He was essentially a warrior, with nothing of the priest about
him. He was also a lover of art, and carried on the works which
his uncle had begun. His youthful excesses had seriously impaired
his health. As pope, he was not free from nepotism and simony, in
controversy passionate, and in policy intriguing and faithless.
He transformed the States of the Church into a temporal despotic
monarchy, and was himself incessantly engaged in war. When
he broke with France, which held Milan from A.D. 1499 with
Alexander’s consent, =Louis XII.=, A.D. 1498-1515, convened
a French national council at Tours in A.D. 1510. This council
renewed the Pragmatic Sanction, which in a weak hour Louis XI.,
in A.D. 1462, had abrogated, and had in consequence obtained,
in A.D. 1469, the title _Rex Christianissimus_, and refused to
obey the pope. Also =Maximilian I.=, A.D. 1493-1519, who even
without papal coronation called himself “elected Roman emperor,”
directed the learned humanist Wimpfeling of Heidelberg to collect
the gravamina of the Germans against the Roman curia, and to
sketch out a Pragmatic Sanction for Germany. France and Germany,
with five revolting cardinals, convoked an œcumenical council at
Pisa, in A.D. 1511. Half in sport, half in earnest, Maximilian
spoke of placing on his own head the tiara, as well as the
imperial crown. The pope put Pisa, where only a few French
prelates ventured, under an interdict, and anathematized the
king of France, who then had medals cast, with the inscription,
_Perdam Babylonis nomen_. In a murderous battle at Ravenna, in
A.D. 1512, the army of the papal league was all but annihilated.
But two months later, the French, by the revolt of the Milanese
and the successes of the Swiss, were driven to their homes
ingloriously, and the schismatic council, which had been shifted
from Pisa to Milan, had to withdraw to Lyons, where it was
dissolved by the pope “on account of its many crimes.” Meanwhile
the pope had summoned a council to meet at Rome, the =fifth
œcumenical Lateran Council=, A.D. 1512-1517, at which however
only fifty-three Italian bishops were present. There the ban upon
the king of France was renewed, but a concordat was concluded
with Maximilian, redressing the more serious grievances of which
he had complained. The pope succeeded in freeing Northern Italy
from French oppression, and only his early death prevented him
from delivering Southern Italy from the Spanish yoke.
§ 110.14. =Leo X., A.D. 1513-1521.=--John, son of Lorenzo
Medici, who was cardinal in A.D. 1488, in his eighteenth year,
when thirty-eight years of age ascended the papal throne as
Leo X.; a great patron of the Renaissance, but luxurious and
pleasure-loving, extravagant and frivolous, without a spark
of religion (§ 120, 1), and a zealous promoter of the fortunes
of his own family. The attempt of Louis XII., with the help of
Venice, to regain Milan failed, and being hard pressed in his
own country by Henry VIII. of England, the French king decided
at last, in Dec., 1513, to end the schism and recognise the
Lateran Council. His successor, =Francis I.=, A.D. 1515-1547, was
more fortunate. In the battle of Marignano he gained a brilliant
victory over the brave Swiss, in consequence of which the
duchy of Milan fell again into the hands of France. At Bologna,
in A.D. 1516, the pope in person now greeted the king, who
proferred him obedience, and concluded a political league and
an ecclesiastical concordat with his holiness, abrogating the
Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII., but maintaining the king’s
right to nominate all bishops and abbots of his realm, with
reservation of the annats for the papal treasury. The Lateran
Council, though attended only by Italian bishops, was pronounced
œcumenical. During its five years’ sittings it had issued
concordats for Germany and France, the papal bull _Pastor
æternus_ was solemnly ratified, which renewed the bull _Unam
sanctam_ and by various forgeries proved the power of the
pope to be superior to the authority of councils, quieted the
bishops’ objections to the privileges of the begging friars by
a compromise, and as a protection against heresy gave the right
of the censorship of the press to bishops, while explicitly
asserting the immateriality, individuality, and immortality of
the human soul.[328]
§ 110.15. =Papal Claims to Sovereignty.=--From A.D. 1319 the
popes secured large revenues from the Annats, revenues for a
full year of all vacancies; the Reservations, the holding of
rich benefices and bestowing them upon payment of large sums;
the Expectances, naming for payment a successor to an incumbent
still living; the Offices held _in commendam_, provisionally
on payment of a part of the incomes; the _Jus spoliarum_, the
Holy See being the legitimate heir of all property gained by
Churchmen from their offices; the Taxing of Church property for
particularly pressing calls; innumerable Indulgences, Absolutions,
Dispensations, etc. The happy thought occurred to Paul II., in
A.D. 1469, to extend the law of Annats to such ecclesiastical
institutions as belonged to corporations. He reckoned the
lifetime of a prelate at fifteen years, and so claimed his tax
of such institutions every fifteenth year. The doctrine of the
papal infallibility in matters of faith, under the influence
of the reforming councils of the 15th century, was rather less
in favour than before. The rigid Franciscans opposed the papal
doctrine of poverty (§§ 98, 4; 112, 2); and John XXII. was almost
unanimously charged by his contemporaries with heresy, because
of his views about the vision of God. Even the most zealous
curialists of the 15th century did not venture to ascribe to
the pope absolute infallibility. A distinction was made between
the infallibility of the office, which is absolute, and that of
the person, which is only relative; a pope who falls into error
and heresy thereby ceases to be pope and infallible. This was the
opinion of the Dominican Torquemada (§ 112, 4), whom Eugenius IV.
rewarded at the Basel Council with a cardinalate and the title
of _Defensor fidei_, as the most zealous defender of papal
absolutism. From the 14th century the popes have worn the triple
crown. The three tiers of the tiara, richly ornamented with
precious stones, indicated the power of the pope over heaven by
his canonizing, over purgatory by his granting of indulgences,
and over the earth by his pronouncing anathemas. Until the papal
court retired to Avignon the Lateran was the usual residence of
the popes, and after the ending of the schism, the Vatican.[329]
§ 110.16. =The Papal Curia.=--The chief courts of the papal
government are spoken of collectively as the curia, their members
being taken from the higher clergy. The following are the most
important: the _Cancellaria Romana_, to which belonged the
administration of affairs pertaining to the pope and the college
of cardinals; the _Dataria Romana_, which had to do with matters
of grace not kept secret, such as absolutions, dispensations,
etc.; while the _Pœnitentiaria Romana_ dealt with matters which
were kept secret; the _Camera Romana_, which administered the
papal finances; and the _Rota Romana_, which was the supreme
court of justice. Important decrees issued by the pope himself
with the approval of the cardinals are called _bulls_. They are
written on parchment in the Gothic character in Latin, stamped
with the great seal of the Roman church, and secured in a metal
case. The word bull was originally applied to the case, then
to the seal, and at last to the document itself. Less important
decrees, for which the advice of the cardinals had not been asked,
are called _briefs_. The brief is usually written on parchment,
in the ordinary Roman characters, and sealed in red wax with the
pope’s private seal, the fisherman’s ring.
§ 111. THE CLERGY.
Provincial synods had now lost almost all their importance, and
were rarely held, and then for the most part under the presidency of
a papal legate. The cathedral chapters afforded welcome provision for
the younger sons of the nobles, who were nothing behind their elder
brothers in worldliness of life and conversation. For their own
selfish interests they limited the number of members of the chapter,
and demanded as a qualification evidence of at least sixteen ancestors.
The political significance of the prelates was in France very small,
and as champions of the Gallican liberties they were less enthusiastic
than the University of Paris and the Parliament. In England they
formed an influential order in the State, with carefully defined
rights; and in Germany, as princes of the empire, especially the
clerical elector princes, their political importance was very great.
In Spain, on the other hand, at the end of the 15th century, by
the ecclesiastico-political reformation endeavours of Ferdinand
“the Catholic” and Isabella (§ 118, 7), the higher clergy were made
completely dependent upon the Crown.
§ 111.1. =The Moral Condition of the Clergy= was in general
very low. The bishops mostly lived in open concubinage. The lower
secular clergy followed their example, and had toleration granted
by paying a yearly tax to the bishop. The people, distinguishing
office and person, made no objection, but rather looked on it
as a sort of protection to their wives and daughters from the
dangers of the confessional. Especially in Italy, unnatural vice
was widely spread among the clergy. At Constance and Basel it
was thought to cure such evils by giving permission to priests
to marry; but it was feared that the ecclesiastical revenues
would be made heritable, and the clergy brought too much
under the State.--The mendicant orders were allowed to hear
confession everywhere, and when John de Polliaco, a Prussian
doctor, maintained that the local clergy only should be taken
as confessors, John XXII., in A.D. 1322, pronounced his views
heretical.
§ 111.2. The French concordat of A.D. 1516 (§ 110, 14),
which gave the king the right of appointing commendator abbots
(§ 85, 5), to almost all the cloisters, induced many of the
younger sons of old noble families to take orders, so as to
obtain rich sinecures or offices, which they could hold _in
commendam_. They bore a semi-clerical character, and had the
title of =abbé=, which gradually came to be given to all the
secular clergy of higher culture and social position. In Italy
too it became customary to give the title =abbate= to the younger
clergy of high rank, before receiving ordination.
§ 112. MONASTIC ORDERS AND SOCIETIES.
The corruption of monastic life was becoming more evident from day
to day. Immorality, sloth, and unnatural vice only too often found
a nursery behind the cloister walls. Monks and nuns of neighbouring
convents lived in open sin with one another, so that the author of the
book _De ruina ecclesia_ (§ 118, 4, c) thinks that _Virginem velare_
is the same as _Virginem ad scortandum exponere_. In the Benedictine
order the corruption was most complete. The rich cloisters, after the
example of their founder, divided their revenues among their several
members (_proprietarii_). Science was disregarded, and they cared
only for good living. The celebrated Scottish cloister (§ 98, 1) of
St. James, at Regensburg, in the 14th century, had a regular tavern
within its walls, and there was a current saying, _Uxor amissa in
monasterio Scotorum quæri debet_. The mendicants represented even
yet relatively the better side of monasticism, and maintained their
character as exponents of theological learning. Only the Carthusians,
however, still held fast to the ancient strict discipline of their
order.
§ 112.1. =The Benedictine Orders.=--For the reorganization of
this order, which had abandoned itself to good living and luxury,
Clement V., at the Council of Vienna, A.D. 1311, issued a set of
ordinances which aimed principally at the restoration of monastic
discipline and the revival of learning among the monks. But they
were of little or no avail. Benedict XII. therefore found it
necessary, in A.D. 1336, with the co-operation of distinguished
French abbots, to draw up a new constitution for the Benedictines,
which after him was called the Benedictina. The houses of Black
Friars were to be divided into thirty-six provinces, and each
of them was to hold every third year a provincial chapter for
conference and determination of cases. In each abbey there
should be a daily penitential chapter for maintaining discipline,
and an annual chapter for giving a reckoning of accounts. In
order to reawaken interest in scientific studies, it was enjoined
that from every cloister a number of the abler monks should be
maintained at a university, at the cost of the cloister, to study
theology and canon law. But the disciplinary prescriptions of the
Benedictina were powerless before the attractions of good living,
and the proposals for organization were repugnant to the proud
independence of monks and abbots. The enactments in favour of
scientific pursuits led to better results. The first really
successful attempt at reforming the cloisters was made, in
A.D. 1435, by the general chapter of the Brothers of the Common
Life, who not only dealt with their own institutions, but also
with all the Benedictine monasteries throughout the whole of
the West. The soul of this movement was Joh. Busch, monk in
Windesheim, then prior in various monasteries, and finally
provost of Sulte, near Hildesheim, A.D. 1458-1479. The so called
_Bursfeld Union_ or Congregation resulted from his intercourse
with the abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Bursfeld, on the
Weser, John of Hagen (ab Andagine). Notwithstanding the bitter
hostility of corrupt monks and nuns, there were in a short time
seventy-five monasteries under this Bursfeld rule, where the
original strictness of the monastic life was enforced. The rule
was confirmed by the council of A.D. 1440, and subsequently
by Pius II. Most of the cloisters under this rule joined the
Lutheran reformation of the 16th century, and Bursfeld itself is
at this day the seat of a titular Lutheran abbot.--A new branch
of the Benedictine order, the =Olivetans=, was founded by Bernard
Tolomæi. Blindness having obliged him to abandon his teaching of
philosophy at Siena, the blessed Virgin restored him his sight;
and then, in A.D. 1313, he forsook the world, and withdrew
with certain companions into almost inaccessible mountain
recesses, ten miles from Siena. Disciples gathered around him
from all sides. He built a cloister on a hill, which he called
the Mount of Olives, and founded under the Benedictine rule
a congregation of the Most Blessed Virgin of the Mount of Olives,
which obtained the sanction of John XXII. Tolomæi became its
first general, in A.D. 1322, and held the office till his death,
caused by infection caught while attending the plague stricken
in A.D. 1348. There were new elections of abbots every third
year. The Olivetans were zealous worshippers of Mary, and
strict ascetics. In several of their cloisters, which numbered
as many as one hundred, the study of theology and philosophy
was diligently prosecuted. They embraced also an order of nuns,
founded by St. Francisca Romana.
§ 112.2. =The Franciscans.=--At the Council of Vienna, in
A.D. 1312, Clement V. renewed the decree of Nicholas III., and
by the constitution _Exivi de paradiso_ decided in favour of
the stricter view (§ 98, 4), but ordered all rigorists to submit
to their order. But neither this nor the solemn ratification of
his predecessor’s decisions by John XXII. in A.D. 1317 put an
end to the division. The contention was now of a twofold kind.
The =Spirituals= confined their opposition to a rigoristic
interpretation of the vow of poverty. The =Fraticelli= carried
their opposition into many other departments. They exaggerated
the demand of poverty to the utmost, but also repudiated
the primacy of the pope, the jurisdiction of bishops, the
admissibility of oaths, etc. In the south of France within
a few years 115 of them had perished at the stake; and the
Spirituals also suffered severely.--The Dominicans were the
cause of a new split in the Seraphic order. The Inquisition
at Narbonne had, in A.D. 1321, condemned to the stake a Beghard
who had affirmed, what to the Dominicans seemed a heretical
proposition, that Christ and the apostles had neither personal
nor common property. The Franciscans, who, on the plea of a
pretended transference of their property to the pope, claimed
to be without possessions, pronounced that proposition orthodox,
and the Dominicans complained to John XXII. He pronounced
in favour of the Dominicans, and declared the Franciscans’
transference of property illusory; and finding this decision
contrary to decrees of previous popes, he asserted the right
of any pontiff to reverse the findings of his predecessors. The
Franciscans were driven more and more into open revolt against
the pope. They made common cause with the persecuted Spirituals,
and like them sought support from the Italian Ghibellines and
the emperor, Louis the Bavarian (§ 110, 3). The pope summoned
their general, Michael of Cesena, to Avignon; and while detaining
him there sought unsuccessfully to obtain his deposition by
the general synod of the order. Michael, with two like-minded
brothers, William Occam (§ 113, 3) and Bonagratia of Bergamo,
escaped to Pisa in a ship of war, which the emperor sent for
them in A.D. 1328. There, in the name of his order, he appealed
to an œcumenical council to have the papal excommunication and
deposition annulled which had now been issued against him. After
the disastrous Italian campaign in A.D. 1330, the excommunicated
churchmen accompanied the emperor to Munich, where they conducted
a literary defence of their rights and privileges, and charged
the pope with a multitude of heresies. Michael died at Munich,
in A.D. 1342.--After the overthrow of the schismatic Minorite
pope, Nicholas V. (§ 110, 3), the opposition soon gave in
its submission. But to the end of his life John XXII. was a
bloody persecutor of all schismatical Franciscans, who showed
a fanatical love of martyrdom, rather than abate one iota of
their opposition to the possession of property.
§ 112.3. The strict and lax tendencies were brought to light in
connection with successive attempts at reformation. In A.D. 1368
Paolucci of Foligni founded the fraternity of Sandal-wearers,
which embraced the remnants of the Cœlestine eremites
(§ 98, 4). This strict rule was soon modified so as to admit
of the possession of immovable property and living together
in conventual establishments. Those who adhered rigidly to the
original requirements as to seclusion, asceticism, and dress
were now called =Observants= and the more lax =Conventuals=.
Crossing the Alps in A.D. 1388, they spread through Europe,
converting heretics and heathens. Both sections received
papal encouragement. Their leader for forty years was =John
of Capistrano=, born A.D. 1386, died A.D. 1456, who inspired
all their movements, and as a preacher gathered hundreds of
thousands around him. His predecessor in office, Bernardino
of Siena, who died in A.D. 1444, was canonized after a hard
fight in A.D. 1450. John was deputed by the pope in that same
year to proceed to Austria and Germany to convert the Hussites
and preach a crusade against the Turks. His greatest feat was
the repulse, in A.D. 1456, of the Turks, under Mohammed II.,
before Belgrade, ascribed to him and his crusade, which delivered
Hungary, Germany, and indeed the whole West, from threatened
subjection to the Moslem yoke. Capistrano died three months
afterwards. Notwithstanding all the efforts of his followers,
his beatification was not secured till A.D. 1690, and the decree
of canonization was not obtained till A.D. 1724.--Continuation
§ 149, 6.
§ 112.4. =The Dominicans.=--The Dominicans, as they interpreted
the vow of poverty only of personal and not of common property,
soon lost the character of a mendicant order.--One of their most
distinguished members was =St. Catharine of Siena=, who died
in A.D. 1380, in her thirty-third year. Having taken the vow of
chastity as a child, living only on bread and herbs, for a time
only on the eucharistic elements, she was in vision affianced to
Christ as His bride, and received His heart instead of her own.
She felt the pains of Christ’s wounds, and, like St. Dominic,
lashed herself thrice a day with an iron chain. She gained
unexampled fame, and along with St. Bridget procured the
return of the pope from Avignon to Rome.--The controversy
of the Dominicans with the Franciscans over the _immaculata
conceptio_ (§ 104, 7) was conducted in the most passionate
manner. The visions of St. Catherine favoured the Dominican,
those of St. Bridget the Franciscan views; during the schism
the French popes favoured the former, the Roman popes the
latter. The Franciscan view gained for the time the ascendency.
The University of Paris sustained it in A.D. 1387, and made its
confession a condition of receiving academic rank. The Dominican
Torquemada combated this doctrine, in A.D. 1437, in his able
_Tractatus de veritate Conceptionis B. V._ In A.D. 1439, the
Council of Basel, which was then regarded as schismatical,
sanctioned the Franciscan doctrine. Sixtus IV., who had
previously, as general of the Franciscans, supported the views
of his order in a special treatise, authorized the celebration
of the festival referred to, but in A.D. 1483 forbade controversy
on either side. A comedy with a very tragical conclusion was
enacted at Bern, in connection with this matter in A.D. 1509.
The Dominicans there deceived a simple tailor called Jetzer, who
joined them as a novice, with pretended visions and revelation
of the Virgin, and burned upon him with a hot iron the wound
prints of the Saviour, and caused an image of the mother of
God to weep tears of blood over the godless doctrine of the
Franciscans. When the base trick was discovered, the prior and
three monks had to atone for their conduct by death at the stake.
(Continuation § 149, 13.) A new controversy between the two
orders broke out in A.D. 1462, at Brescia. There, on Easter Day
of that year, the Franciscan Jacob of Marchia in his preaching
said that the blood of Christ shed upon the cross, until its
reassumption by the resurrection, was outside of the hypostatic
union with the Logos, and therefore as such was not the subject
of adoration. The grand-inquisitor, Jacob of Brescia, pronounced
this heretical, and at Christmas, A.D. 1463, a three days’
disputation was held between three Dominicans and as many
Minorites before pope and cardinals, which yielded no result.
Pius II. reserved judgment, and never gave his decision.
§ 112.5. =The Augustinians.=--In A.D. 1432, =Zolter=, at the
call of the general of the Augustinians, reorganized the order,
and in A.D. 1438 Pius II. gave a constitution to the Observants.
The “Union of the Five Convents” founded by him in Saxony and
Franconia, with Magdeburg as its centre, formed the nucleus of
=regular Augustinian Observants=, which had =Andrew Proles= of
Dresden as their vicar-general for a second time in A.D. 1473.
Notwithstanding bitter opposition, the union spread through
all Germany, even to the Netherlands. In A.D. 1475 the general
of the order at Rome took offence at Proles for looking directly
to the apostolic see, and not to him, for his authority. He
therefore abolished the institution of vicars, insisted that all
Observants should return to their allegiance to the provincials,
and make full restitution of all the cloisters which they had
appropriated, and empowered the provincial of Saxony to imprison
and excommunicate Proles and his party, in case of their refusal.
Proles did not submit, and when the ban was issued appealed
directly to the pope. A papal commission in A.D. 1477 decided
that all Observant cloisters placed by the duke under the pope’s
protection should so continue, confirmed all their privileges,
and annulled all mandates and anathemas issued against Proles
and his followers. With redoubled energy and zeal Proles now
wrought for the extension and consolidation of the congregation
until A.D. 1503, when he resigned office in his 74th year,
and soon after died. He was one of the worthiest and most
pious men in the German Church of his time; but Flacius is
quite mistaken when he describes him as a precursor of Luther,
an evangelical martyr and witness for the truth in the sense
of the Reformation of the 16th century. Energetic and devoted
as he was in prosecuting his reformation, he gave himself
purely to the correcting of the morals of the monks and
restoring discipline; but in zeal for the doctrine of merits,
the institution of indulgences, mariolatry, saint and image
worship, and in devotion to the papacy, he and his congregation
were by no means in advance of the age.
§ 112.6. As his successor in the vicariate the chapter, in
accordance with the wish of Proles, elected =John von Staupitz=.
He had been prior of the Augustinian cloister at Tübingen, and
became professor of theology in the University of Wittenberg,
in A.D. 1502. Like his predecessor, he devoted himself to
the interests of the congregation, and by the union which he
effected between it and the Lombard Observant congregation,
he greatly increased its importance. In carrying out a plan
for uniting the Saxon Conventuals with the German Observants
by combining in his own hand the Saxon provincial priorate with
the German vicariate, he encountered such difficulties that he
was obliged to abandon the attempt; but he succeeded thus far,
that from that time the Conventuals and Observants of Germany
dwelt in peace side by side. He directed the troubled spirit of
Luther to the crucified Saviour (§ 122, 1), and thus became the
spiritual father of the great reformer. The new constitutions
for the German congregations, proffered by him and accepted
by the chapter at Nuremberg, A.D. 1504, are characterized by
earnest recommendations of Scripture study. But of a deep and
comprehensive evangelical and reformatory application of them
we find no traces as yet, even in Staupitz; neither do we
see any zealous study of Augustine’s writings, and consequent
appreciation of his theological principles, such as is shown
by the mystics of the 13th and 14th centuries. All this appears
later in his little treatise “On the Imitation of the Willingly
Dying Christ” of A.D. 1515. A discourse on predestination
in A.D. 1517 moves distinctly on Augustinian lines, and the
mysticism of St. Bernard may be traced in the book “On the
Love of God” of that same year. True as he was to Luther as
a counsellor and helper during the first eventful year of
struggle, the reformer’s protest soon became too violent for
him, and in A.D. 1520 he resigned his office, withdrew to the
Benedictine cloister at Salzburg, and died as its abbot in
A.D. 1524. His continued attachment to the positive tendencies
of the Reformation is proved by his “Fast Sermons,” delivered
in A.D. 1523.--His successor =Link=, Luther’s fellow student
at Magdeburg, was and continued to be an attached friend of
the reformer. Unsuccessful in his endeavours to remove abuses,
he resigned office in A.D. 1523, and became evangelical pastor
in Altenburg, and married. The very small opposition chose in
place of him Joh. Spangenberg, who, unable to withstand the
movement among the German Conventuals, as well as among the
Observants, resigned in A.D. 1529.
§ 112.7. =Overthrow of the Templars.=--The order of Knights
Templar, whose chief seat was now in Paris and the south of
France, by rich presents, exactions, and robberies in the
island of Cyprus, vast commercial speculations and extensive
money-lending and banking transactions with crusaders and
pilgrims and needy princes, had acquired immense wealth in
money and landed property in the East and the West. They
had in consequence become proud, greedy, and vicious. Their
independence of the State had long been a thorn in the eye
of Philip the Fair of France, and their policy was often at
variance with his. But above all their great wealth excited
his cupidity. In a letter to a visitor of the order Innocent III.
had in A.D. 1208 bitterly complained of their unspirituality,
worldliness, avarice, drunkenness, and study of the black art,
saying that he refrained from remarking upon yet more shameful
offences with which they were charged. Stories also were current
of apostasy to Mohammedanism, sorcery, unnatural vice, etc.
It was said that they worshipped an idol Baphomet; that a
black cat appeared in their assemblies; that at initiation
they abjured Christ, spat on the cross, and trampled it under
foot. A Templar expelled for certain offences gave evidence in
support of these charges. Thereupon in A.D. 1307 Philip had all
Templars in his realm suddenly apprehended. Many admitted their
guilt amid the tortures of the rack; others voluntarily did so
in order to escape such treatment. A Parliament assembled at
Tours in A.D. 1308 heartily endorsed the king’s opinion, and
the pope, Clement V., was powerless to resist (§ 110, 2). While
the pope’s commissioners were prosecuting inquiries in all
countries, Philip without more ado in A.D. 1310 brought to the
stake one hundred Templars who had retracted their confession.
The =œcumenical council at Vienne in A.D. 1311=, summoned for
the final settlement of the matter, refused to give judgment
without hearing the defence of the accused. But Philip threatened
the pope till a decree was passed disbanding the order because
of the suspicion and ill repute into which it had fallen. Its
property was to go to the Knights of St. John. But a great part
had already been seized by the princes, especially by Philip.
Final decision in regard to individuals was committed by the
pope to the provincial synods of the several countries. Judgment
on the grand-master, James Molay, and the then chief dignitaries
of the order, he reserved to himself. Philip paid no attention
to this, but, when they refused to adhere to their confession
of guilt, had them burnt in a slow fire at Paris in A.D. 1314.
Most of the other knights turned to secular employments, many
entered the ranks of the Knights of St. John, while others ended
their days in monastic prisons.--Scholars are to this day divided
in opinion as to the degree of guilt or innocence which may be
ascribed to the Templars in regard to the serious charges brought
against them.[330]
§ 112.8. =New Orders.=--In A.D. 1317 the king of Portugal,
for the protection of his frontier from the Moors, instituted
the =Order of Christ=, composed of knights and clergy, and to
it John XXII. in A.D. 1319 gave the privileges of the order
of Calatrava (§ 98, 13). Alexander VI. released them from the
vow of poverty and allowed them to marry. The king of Portugal
was grand-master, and at the beginning of the 16th century
it had 450 companies and an annual revenue of one and a half
million livres. In A.D. 1797 it was converted into a secular
order.--Among the new monkish orders the following are the most
important:
1. =Hieronymites=, founded in A.D. 1370 by the Portuguese
Basco and the Spaniard Pecha as an order of canons regular
under the rule of Augustine, and confirmed by Gregory XI.
in A.D. 1373. Devoted to study, they took Jerome as their
patron, and obtained great reputation in Spain and Italy.
2. =Jesuates=, founded by Colombini of Siena, who, excited
by reading legends of the saints, combined with several
companions in forming this society for self-mortification
and care of the sick, for which Urban V. prescribed the
Augustinian rule in A.D. 1367. They greeted all they met
with the name of Jesus: hence their designation.
3. =Minimi=, an extreme sect of Minorites (§ 98, 3), founded
by Francis de Paula in Calabria in A.D. 1436. Their rule
was extremely strict, and forbade them all use of flesh,
milk, butter, eggs, etc., so that their mode of life was
described as _vita quadragesimalis_.
4. =Nuns of St. Bridget.= To the Swedish princess visions of
the wounded and bleeding Saviour had come in her childhood.
Compelled by her parents to marry, she became mother of
eight children; but at her husband’s death, in A.D. 1344,
she adopted a rigidly ascetic life, and in A.D. 1363
founded a cloister at Wedstena for sixty nuns in honour
of the blessed Virgin, with thirteen priests, four deacons,
and eight lay brothers in a separate establishment. All were
under the control of the abbess. She also founded at Rome a
hospice for Swedish pilgrims and students, made a pilgrimage
from Rome to Jerusalem, and died at Rome in A.D. 1373.
The _Revelationes S. Brigittæ_ ascribed to her were in
high repute during the Middle Ages. They are full of bitter
invectives against the corrupt papacy; call the pope worse
than Lucifer, a murderer of the souls committed to him, who
condemns the guiltless and sells believers for filthy lucre.
There were seventy-four cloisters of the order spread over
all Europe. Her successor as abbess of the parent abbey was
her daughter, St. Catherine of Sweden, who died in A.D. 1381.
5. The French =Annunciate Order= was founded in A.D. 1501 by
Joanna of Valois, the divorced wife of Louis XII., and when
abolished by the French Revolution it numbered forty-five
nunneries.
§ 112.9. =The Brothers of the Common Life=, a society of pious
priests, gave themselves to the devotional study of Scripture,
the exercise of contemplative mysticism, and practical imitation
of the lowly life of Christ with voluntary observance of the
three monkish vows, and residing, without any lifelong obligation,
in unions where things were administered in common. Pious laymen
were not excluded from their association, and institutions for
sisters were soon reared alongside of those for the brothers. The
founder of this organization was Gerhard Groot, _Gerardus magnus_,
of Deventer in the Netherlands, a favourite pupil of the mystic
John of Ruysbroek (§ 114, 7). Dying a victim to his benevolence
during a season of pestilence in A.D. 1384, a year or two after
the founding of the first union institute, he was succeeded by
his able pupil and assistant Florentius Radewins, who zealously
carried on the work he had begun. The house of the brothers at
Deventer soon became the centre of numerous other houses from
the Scheld to the Wesel. Florentius added a cloister for regular
canons at Windesheim, from which went forth the famous cloister
reformer Burch. The most important of the later foundations of
this kind was the cloister built on Mount St. Agnes near Zwoll.
The famous Thomas à Kempis (§ 114, 7) was trained here, and
wrote the life of Groot and his fellow labourers. Each house was
presided over by a rector, each sister house by a matron, who was
called Martha. The brothers supported themselves by transcribing
spiritual books, the lay brothers by some handicraft; the sisters
by sewing, spinning, and weaving. Begging was strictly forbidden.
Besides caring for their own souls’ salvation, the brothers
sought to benefit the people by preaching, pastoral visitation,
and instructing the youth. They had as many as 1,200 scholars
under their care. Hated by the mendicant friars, they were
accused by a Dominican to the Bishop of Utrecht. This dignitary
favoured the brothers, and when the Dominican appealed to the
pope, he applied to the Constance Council of A.D. 1418, where
Gerson and d’Ailly vigorously supported them. Their accuser was
compelled to retract, and Martin V. confirmed the brotherhood.
Though heartily attached to the doctrines of the Catholic Church,
their biblical and evangelical tendencies formed an unconscious
preparation for the Reformation (§ 119, 10). A great number
of the brothers joined the party of the reformers. In the
17th century the last remnant of them disappeared.[331]