Great, in 590, ascended the pontifical throne. He was too devout a
churchman and too sagacious a statesman not to appreciate thoroughly
the importance of the canon in all its various aspects—not only as
necessary to ecclesiastical purity according to the ideas of the
age, but also as a prime element in the influence of the church over
the minds of the people, as well as an essential aid in extending
ecclesiastical power, and in retaining undiminished the enormous
possessions acquired by the church through the munificence of the
pious. The prevailing laxity, indeed, was already threatening
serious dilapidation of the ecclesiastical estates and foundations.
How clearly this was understood is shown by Pelagius I. in 557, when
he refused for a year to permit the consecration of a bishop elected
by the Syracusans. On their persisting in their choice he wrote to
the Patrician Cethegus, giving as the reason for his opposition the
prelate’s wife and children, by whom, if they survive, the substance of
the church is wont to be jeopardized;[262] and his consent was finally
given only on the condition that the bishop elect should provide
competent security against any conversion of the estate of the diocese
for the benefit of his family, a detailed statement of the property
being made out in advance to guard against attempted infractions of
the agreement. That this was not a merely local abuse is evident
from a law of the Wisigoths, which provides that on the accession of
any bishop, priest, or deacon, an accurate inventory of all church
possessions under his control shall be made by five freemen, and that
after his death an inquest shall be held for the purpose of making good
any deficiencies out of the estate of the decedent, and forcing the
restoration of anything that might have been alienated.[263]
There evidently was ample motive for a thorough reformation, and
Gregory accordingly addressed himself energetically to the work of
enforcing the canons. In his decretals there are numerous references
to the subject, showing that he lost no opportunity of reviving the
neglected rules of discipline regarding the ordination of digami,[264]
the residence of women, and abstinence from all intercourse with
the sex.[265] In his zeal he even went so far as to decree that any
one guilty of even a single lapse from virtue should be forever
debarred from the ministry of the altar[266]—a law nullified by its
own severity, which rendered its observance impossible. In 587, his
predecessor Pelagius had ordered that in Sicily the Roman rule should
be followed of separating subdeacons from their wives, but it appeared
cruel to Gregory that this should be enforced on those who had no
warning of such rigor when accepting the subdiaconate, and one of the
earliest acts of his pontificate was to allow them to resume relations
with their wives; but he ordered that they should abstain from all
service of the altar, and that in future no one should be admitted to
that grade who would not formally take a vow of continence.[267] There
is not much trace in contemporary history of any improvement resulting
from these efforts, and towards the very close of his pontificate,
in 602, we find him entreating Queen Brunhilda to exercise her power
in restraining the still unbridled license of the Frankish clergy—a
task which he assures her is essential if she desires to transmit
her possessions in peace to her posterity.[268] He also endeavored
to reform the perennial abuse of the residence of women, a reform
which the church has been vainly attempting ever since the canon of
Nicæa.[269] That Gregory’s zeal, however, exercised some influence is
manifested by the fact that tradition in the Middle Ages occasionally
associated his name with the introduction of celibacy in the church.
The impression which he produced is shown by the wild legend which
relates that, soon after issuing and strictly enforcing a decretal on
the subject, he happened to have his fishponds drawn off, when the
heads of no less than six thousand infants were found in them—the
offspring of ecclesiastics, destroyed to avoid detection—which filled
him with so much horror that he abandoned the vain attempt.[270] Yet in
Italy the residence of wives was still permitted to those in orders,
under the restriction that they should be treated as sisters;[271]
and Gregory relates as worthy of all imitation the case of a holy
priest of Nursia who, following the example of the saints in depriving
himself of even lawful indulgences, had persistently relegated his
wife to a distance. When at length he lay on his death-bed, to all
appearance inanimate, the wife came to bid him a last farewell, and
placed a mirror to his lips, to see whether life was yet extinct. Her
kindly ministrations roused the dominant asceticism in his expiring
soul, and he gathered strength enough to exclaim, “Woman, depart!
Take away the straw, for there is yet fire here”—which supreme effort
of self-immolation procured him on the instant a beatific vision of
St. Peter and St. Paul, during which he lapsed ecstatically into
eternity.[272]
In considering so thoroughly artificial a system of morality, it is
perhaps scarcely worth while to inquire into the value of a virtue
which could only be preserved by shunning temptation with so scrupulous
a care.
IX.
THE CARLOVINGIANS.
Even the energy and authority of Gregory the Great were powerless to
restore order in the chaos of an utterly demoralized society. In Spain,
the languishing empire of the Wisigoths was fast sinking under the
imbecility which invited the easy conquest of the Saracens. In France,
Brunhilda and Fredegonda were inflaming the fierce contentions which
eventually destroyed the Merovingian dynasty, and which abandoned the
kingdom at once to the vices of civilization and the savage atrocities
of barbarism.[273] In Italy, the Lombards, more detested than any of
their predecessors, by their ceaseless ravages made the Ostrogothic
rule regretted, and gleaned with their swords such scanty remnants of
plunder as had escaped the hordes which had successively swept from the
gloomy forests of the North across the rich valleys and fertile plains
of the mistress of the world. Anarchy and confusion everywhere scarce
offered a field for the exercise of the humbler virtues, nor could the
church expect to escape the corruption which infected every class from
which she could draw her recruits. Still, amid the crowd of turbulent
and worldly ecclesiastics, whose only aim was the gratification of the
senses or the success of criminal ambition, some holy men were to be
found who sought the mountain and forest as a refuge from the ceaseless
and all-pervading disorder around them. St. Gall and St. Columba,
Willibrod and Boniface, were types of these. Devoted to the severest
asceticism, burying themselves in the wilderness and subsisting on such
simple fare as the labor of their hands could wring from a savage land,
the selfishness of the anchorite did not extinguish in them the larger
aims of the Christian, and by their civilizing labors among the heathen
they proved themselves worthy disciples of the Apostles.
Thicker grew the darkness as Tarik drove the Gothic fugitives before
him on the plains of Xeres, and as the house of Pepin d’Heristel
gradually supplanted the long-haired descendants of Clovis. The
Austrasian Mayors of the Palace had scanty reverence for mitre and
crozier, and it is a proof how little hold the clergy had earned upon
the respect and affection of the people, when the usurpers in that long
revolution did not find it necessary to conciliate their support. In
fact, the policy of those shrewd and able men was rather to oppress
the church and to parcel out its wealth and dignities among their
warriors, who made no pretence of piety nor deigned to undertake the
mockery of religious duties. Rome could interpose no resistance to
these abuses, for, involved alternately in strife with the Lombards and
the Iconoclastic Emperors, the Popes implored the aid of the oppressor
himself, and were in no position to protest against the aggressions
which he might commit at home.
In Italy, the condition of discipline may be inferred from the fact
that, in 721, Gregory II. considered it necessary to call a synod for
the special purpose of condemning incestuous unions and the marriages
of nuns, which he declared were openly practised,[274] and the canons
then promulgated received so little attention that they had to be
repeated by another synod in 732.[275] In fact, the vow of chastity was
frequently taken by widows that they might escape a second marriage
and thus be able to live in shameless license without being subject
to the watchful control of a husband, and an edict of Arechis Duke of
Beneventum about the year 774 orders that all such godless women shall
be seized and shut up in convents.[276] That the secular clergy should
consider ordination no bar to matrimony need therefore excite little
surprise. There is extant a charter of Talesperianus, Bishop of Lucca,
in 725, by which he confirms a little monastery and hospital to Romuald
the priest and his wife—“presbiteria sua.” The document recites that
this couple had come on a pilgrimage from beyond the Po; that they had
settled in the lands of the Convent of St. Peter and St. Martin in the
diocese of Lucca, where they had bought land and built the institution
which the good bishop thus confirms to them with certain privileges.
He evidently felt that there was nothing irregular in their maintaining
the connection, and he lays upon them no conditions of separation.[277]
In France, it may be readily believed that discipline was even more
neglected. For eighty years scarce a council was held; no attempts were
made to renew or enforce the rules of discipline, and the observances
of religion were at length well-nigh forgotten. In 726, Boniface even
felt scruples as to associating in ordinary intercourse with men so
licentious and depraved as the Frankish bishops and priests, and he
applied to Gregory II. for the solution of his doubts. Gregory, in
reply, ordered him to employ argument in endeavoring to convince
them of their errors, and by no means to withdraw himself from their
society,[278] a politic toleration of vice contrasting strangely with
his fierce defiance of the iconoclastic heresy of Leo the Isaurian,
when he risked the papacy itself in his eagerness to preserve his
beloved images.
When, however, the new dynasty began to assume a permanent position,
it sought to strengthen itself by the influence of the church. Like
the modern Charlemagne, it saw in a restoration of religion a means
of assuring its stability by linking its fortunes with those of the
hierarchy. A radical in opposition becomes of necessity a conservative
in power; and the arts which had served to supplant the hereditary
occupants of the throne were no longer advisable after success had
indicated a new line of policy. As Clovis embraced Christianity in
order to consolidate his conquests into an empire, so Carloman and
Pepin-le-Bref sought the sanction of religion to consecrate their power
to their descendants, and the Carlovingian system thenceforth became
that of law and order, organizing a firm and settled government out of
the anarchical chaos of social elements.
It was the pious Carloman who first saw clearly how necessary was
the aid of the church in any attempt to introduce civilization and
subordination among his turbulent subjects. Immediately on his
accession, he called upon St. Boniface to assist him in the work, and
the Apostle of Germany undertook the arduous task. How arduous it
was may be conceived from his description of the utterly demoralized
condition of the clergy, when he appealed to Pope Zachary for advice
and authority to assist in eradicating the frightful promiscuous
licentiousness which was displayed with careless cynicism throughout
all grades of the ecclesiastical body.[279] The details are too
disgusting for translation, but the statement can readily be believed
when we see what manner of men filled the controlling positions in the
hierarchy.
Charles Martel had driven out St. Rigobert, Archbishop of Rheims,
and had bestowed that primatial see on one of his warriors named
Milo, who soon succeeded in likewise obtaining possession of the
equally important archiepiscopate of Trèves.[280] Milo was himself
an indication of the prevailing laxity of discipline, for he was
the son of Basinus his predecessor in the see of Trèves.[281] He is
described as being a clerk in tonsure, but in every other respect an
irreligious laic, yet Boniface, with all the aid of his royal patrons,
was unable to oust him from his inappropriate dignities, and in 752,
ten years after the commencement of his reforms, we find Pope Zachary,
in response to an appeal for advice, counselling him to leave Milo and
other similar wolves in sheep’s clothing to the divine vengeance.[282]
Boniface, apparently, found it requisite to follow this advice and the
divine vengeance did not come until Milo had enjoyed his incongruous
dignities for forty years, when at length he was removed by an
appropriate death, received from a wild boar in hunting.[283] He was
only a type of many others who openly defied all attempts to remove
them. One, who is described as “pugnator et fornicator,” gave up, it
is true, the spiritualities of his see, but held to the temporalities
with a gripe that nothing could loosen; another utterly disregarded
the excommunications launched at his head, and Zachary and Boniface
at last were fain to abandon him to his evil courses.[284] Somewhat
more success, indeed, he had with Gervilius, son and successor to
Geroldus, Bishop of Mainz. The latter, accompanying Carloman in an
expedition against the Saxons, was killed in battle. Bishop Gervilius,
in another foray, recognized his father’s slayer, invited him to a
friendly interview, and treacherously stabbed him, exclaiming, in the
rude poetry of the chronicler, “Accipe jam ferrum quo patrem vindico
carum.” This act of filial piety was not looked upon as unclerical,
until Boniface took it up; Gervilius was finally forced to abandon the
see of Mainz, and it was given to Boniface himself.[285] When such were
the prelates, it is not to be supposed that rules of abstinence and
asceticism received much attention from their subordinates. Boniface
admits, in an epistle to King Ecgberht, that, in consequence of the
universal licentiousness, he was compelled to restore the guilty
to their functions after penitence, as the canonical punishment of
dismissal would leave none to perform the sacred offices.[286] What
the church, however, could not prevent on earth, it at least had the
satisfaction of seeing punished in the future life. It was principally
for the support given to Milo of Rheims among his many other similar
misdeeds, that Charles Martel was condemned to eternal torture, which
was, as a wholesome example, made manifest to the most incredulous. St.
Eucherius, in a vision, saw him plunged into the depths of hell, and on
consulting St. Boniface and Fulrad Abbot of St. Denis, it was resolved
to open Charles’s tomb. The only tenant of the sepulchre was found to
be a serpent, and the walls were blackened as though by fire, thus
proving the truth of the revelation, and holding out an awful warning
to future wrongdoers.[287]
How much of the license complained of was indiscriminate concubinage,
and how much was merely intercourse with legitimate wives, we have no
means of ascertaining. The latter Boniface succeeded in suppressing,
for the church could control her sacraments.[288] The former was beyond
his power.
Armed with full authority from Pope Zachary, Carloman and Boniface
commenced the labor of reducing to order this chaos of passion and
license. Under their auspices a synod was held, April 23, 742, in
which all unchaste priests and deacons were declared incapable of
holding benefices, were degraded and forced to do penance. Bishops were
required to have a witness to testify to the purity of their lives and
doctrines, before they could perform their episcopal functions. For
all future lapses from virtue, priests were to be severely whipped and
imprisoned for two years on bread and water, with prolongation of the
punishment at the discretion of their bishops. Other ecclesiastics,
monks, and nuns were to be whipped thrice and similarly imprisoned
for one year, besides the stigma of having the head shaved. All
monasteries, moreover, were to adopt and follow rigidly the rule of St.
Benedict.[289]
The stringency of these measures shows not only the extent of the
evil requiring such means of cure, but the fixed determination of
the authorities to effect their purpose. The clergy, however, did
not submit without resistance. It is probable that they stirred up
the people, and that signs of general disapprobation were manifested
at a rigor so extreme in punishing faults which for more than two
generations had passed wholly unnoticed, for during the same year
Zachary addressed an epistle to the Franks with the object of enlisting
them in the cause. The ill-success of their arms against the Pagans
he attributes to the vices of their clergy, and he promises them
that if they show themselves obedient to Boniface, and if they can
enjoy the prayers of pure and holy priests, they shall in future have
an easy triumph over their heathen foes.[290] Yet many adulterous
priests and bishops, noted for the infamy of their lives, pretended
that they had received from Rome itself dispensations to continue in
their ministry—an allegation which Zachary of course repelled with
indignation.[291]
Carloman, however, pursued his self-imposed task without flinching. On
March 1st, 743, he held another synod at Leptines, where the clergy
promised to observe the ancient canons, and to restore the discipline
of the church. The statutes enacted the previous year were again
declared to be in full vigor for future offences, while for previous
ones penitence and degradation were once more decreed.[292]
These regulations affected only Austrasia, the German portion of the
Frankish empire, ruled by Carloman. His brother, Pepin-le-Bref, who
governed Neustria, or France, was less pious, and had not apparently
as yet recognized the policy of reforming out of their possessions
the warrior vassals whom his father had gratified with ecclesiastical
benefices. At length, however, he was induced to lend his aid, and in
744 he assembled a synod at Soissons for the purpose. So completely
had the discipline of the church been neglected and forgotten, that
Pepin was obliged to appeal to Pope Zachary for an authoritative
declaration as to the grades in which marriage was prohibited.[293]
Yet his measures were but lukewarm, for he contented himself with
simply forbidding unchastity in priests, the marriage of nuns, and the
residence of stranger women with clerks, no special punishment being
threatened, beyond a general allusion to existing laws.[294]
Thus assailed by both the supreme ecclesiastical and temporal
authorities, the clergy still were stubborn. Some defended themselves
as being legitimately entitled to have a concubine—or rather, we may
presume, a wife. Among these we find a certain Bishop Clement described
as a pestilent heresiarch, with followers who maintained that his
two children, born during his prelacy, did not unfit him for his
episcopal functions; and a synod held in Rome, October 31st, 745, was
required for his condemnation, the local authorities apparently proving
powerless. Even this was not sufficient, for in January, 747, we find
Zachary directing Boniface to bring him before a local council, and if
he still proved contumacious, to refer the matter again to Rome.[295]
Others, again, unwilling to forego their secular mode of existence, or
to abandon the livelihood afforded by the church, were numerous and
hardy enough to ask Pepin and Carloman to set apart for them churches
and monasteries in which they could live as they were accustomed to
do. So nearly did they succeed in this attempt, that Boniface found it
necessary to appeal to Zachary to prevent so flagrant an infraction of
the canons, and Zachary wrote to the princes with instructions as to
the mode of answering the petition.[296] Others, still more audacious,
assailed Boniface in every way, endeavored to weary him out, and
even, rightly regarding him as the cause of their persecution and
tribulations, made attempts upon his life.[297]
That he should have escaped, indeed, is surprising, when the character
of the age is considered, and the nature of the evils inflicted on
those who must have regarded the reform as a wanton outrage on their
rights. As late as 748, Boniface describes the false bishops and
priests, sacrilegious and wandering hypocrites and adulterers, as much
more numerous than those who as yet had been forced to compliance with
the rules. Driven from the churches, but supported by the sympathizing
people, they performed their ministry among the fields and in the
cabins of the peasants, who concealed them from the ecclesiastical
authorities.[298] This is not a description of mere sensual worldlings,
and it is probable that by this time persecution had ranged the
evil-disposed on the winning side. Those who thus exercised their
ministry in secret and in wretchedness, retaining the veneration of
the people, were therefore men who believed themselves honorably and
legitimately married, and who were incapable of sacrificing wife and
children for worldly advantage or in blind obedience to a rule which to
them was novel, unnatural, and indefensible.
Boniface escaped from the vengeful efforts of those who suffered from
his zeal, to fall, in 755, under the sword of the equally ungrateful
Frisians. It is probable that up to the time of his death he was
occupied with the reformation of the clergy in conjunction with his
missionary labors, for in 752 we find him still engaged in the hopeless
endeavor to eject the unclerical prelates, who even yet held over from
the iron age of Charles Martel. His disappearance from the scene,
however, made but little change in the movement which had owed so much
to his zeal.
* * * * *
In 747 Carloman’s pious aspirations had led him from a throne to
a cloister, and the monastery of Monte Casino welcomed its most
illustrious inmate. Pepin received the whole vast kingdom, and
his ambitious designs drew him daily closer to the church, the
importance of whose support he commenced to appreciate. His policy,
in consolidating the power of his house and in founding a new
dynasty, led him necessarily to reorganize the anarchical elements
of society. As an acknowledged monarch, a regularly constituted
hierarchy and recognized subordination to the laws, both civil and
ecclesiastical, were requisite to the success of his government and to
the establishment of his race. Accordingly, we find him carrying out
systematically the work commenced by Carloman and Boniface, to which at
first his support had been rather negative than positive.
Six weeks after the martyrdom of Boniface, Pepin held a synod in his
royal palace of Verneuil, in which this tendency is very apparent. Full
power was given to the bishops in their respective dioceses to enforce
the canons of the church on the clergy, the monks, and the laity. The
monasteries were especially intrusted to the episcopal care, and means
were provided for reducing the refractory to submission. The rule of
Benedict was proclaimed as in force in all conventual establishments,
and cloistered residence was strictly enjoined. All ecclesiastics
were ordered to pay implicit obedience to their bishops, and this was
secured by the power of excommunication, which was no longer, as in
earlier ages, the simple suspension from religious privileges, but was
a ban which deprived the offender of all association with his fellows,
and exposed him, if contumacious, to exile by the secular power. By
the appointment of metropolitans, a tribunal of higher resort was
instituted, while two synods to be held each year gave the opportunity
both of legislation and of final judgment. Submission to their
decisions was insured by threatening stripes to all who should appeal
from them to the royal court.[299]