had been promoted to the priesthood in 1099, chronicles, in 1118, the
death of Boseteha, his wife, in terms which show that no separation
had ever occurred between them; and five years later he alludes to
his son Henry in a manner to indicate that there was no irregularity
in such relationship, nor aught that would cause him to forfeit the
respect of his contemporaries in acknowledging it.[580] Even more
to the point is the case of a pious priest, his friend, who, on the
death of his wife (“presbytera”), made a vow that he would have no
further intercourse with women. Cosmo relates that the unaccustomed
deprivation proved harder than he had expected, and that for some
years he was tortured with burning temptation. Finding at length that
his resolution was giving way, he resolved to imitate St. Benedict
in conquering the flesh; and having no suitable solitude for the
execution of his purpose, he took a handful of nettles to his chamber,
where, casting off his garments, he thrashed himself so unmercifully
that for three days he lay moribund. Then he hung the nettles in a
conspicuous position on his wall, that he might always have before his
eyes so significant a memento and warning.[581] Cosmo’s admiration for
this, as a rare and almost incredible exhibition of priestly virtue
and fortitude, shows how few were capable of even remaining widowers,
while the whole story proves that not only the clergy were free to
marry, but also that it was only the voluntary vow that prevented
a second marriage. At the close of the century Pietro, Cardinal of
Santa Maria in Via Lata, sent as Legate to Bohemia by Celestin III.,
was much scandalized at this state of affairs; and when a number of
postulants for holy orders were assembled in the church of St. Vitus
at Prague, before ordaining them he pronounced a discourse on the
subject of celibacy and demanded that they should all swear to preserve
continence. Thereupon all the priests who were present rushed forward
and urged them not to assume an obligation hitherto unknown, and when
the Cardinal ordered the Archdeacon to repress their somewhat active
demonstrations, they proceeded to pummel that unhappy official and the
tumult was with difficulty repressed by the soldiery who were summoned.
The legate sentenced some of the rioters to be starved to death in
prison and the rest to be exiled—a wholesome severity which broke
the spirit of the Bohemian priesthood and led to the introduction of
celibacy.[582]
That this state of things was not confined to the wild Bohemian
Marches, but obtained throughout Germany in general, is sufficiently
attested by the fact that when Innocent II. was driven out of Rome by
the anti-pope Anaclet, and was wandering throughout Europe begging
recognition, he held, in conjunction with the Emperor Lothair, in
1131, a council at Liége, where he procured the adoption of a canon
prohibiting priestly marriage or attendance on the mass of married
priests. Not only does the necessity of this fresh legislation show
that previous enactments had become obsolete, but the manner in which
these proceedings are referred to by the chroniclers plainly indicates
that it took the Teutonic mind somewhat by surprise, and that the
efforts of Gregory and Urban had not only remained without result, but
had become absolutely forgotten.[583]
If these proceedings of Innocent had any effect, it was only to
make matters worse. The pious Rupert, Abbot of Duits, writing a few
years later, deplores the immorality of the priesthood, who not only
entered into forbidden marriages, but, knowing them to be illegal,
had no scruple in multiplying the tie, considering it to be, at their
pleasure, devoid of all binding force.[584] And in Liége itself,
where Innocent had held his council, Bishop Albero, whose episcopate
commenced in 1135, permitted his priests to celebrate their marriages
openly, so that, as we are told, the citizens rather preferred to give
their daughters in marriage to them than to laymen; and the naïve
remark of the chronicler that the clergy gave up keeping concubines
in secret and took wives openly would seem to show that the cause of
morality had not gained during the temporary restriction imposed by
Innocent.[585] It was not to much purpose that Albero was deprived of
his see for this laxity, for the same state of things continued. No
province of Germany was more orthodox than Salzburg, yet the archdeacon
of the archiepiscopal church there, writing in 1175, bewails the
complete demoralization of his clergy, whom he was utterly unable
to reform. Priests who were content with their own wives and did
not take those of other men were reputed virtuous and holy; and he
complains that in his own archidiaconate he was powerless to prevent
the ordination and ministry of the sons of priests, even while they
were living in open adultery with women whom they had taken from their
husbands.[586] How little sympathy, indeed, all efforts to enforce the
rule called forth is instructively shown by the wondering contempt
with which a writer, strictly papalist in his tendencies, comments
upon the indiscreet reformatory zeal of Meinhard, Archbishop of
Trèves. Elevated to this lofty dignity in 1128, he at once undertook
to force his clergy to obey the rule by the most stringent measures,
and speedily became so odious that he was obliged to leave his
bishopric within the year; and the chronicler who tells the story
has only words of reprobation for the unfortunate prelate.[587]
Even as late as the end of the twelfth century, a chronicler of the
popes, writing in southern Germany, calls Gregory VII. an enforcer of
impossibilities—“præceptor impossibilium”—because he had endeavored
to make good the rule of celibacy;[588] and a council of Ratisbon, in
the thirteenth century, while lamenting the fact that there were few
priests who did not openly keep their concubines and children in their
houses, quotes the canon of Hildebrand forbidding the laity to attend
at the ministrations of such persons, but without venturing to hint at
its enforcement.[589]
* * * * *
Hungary had been Christianized at a time when the obligation
of celibacy was but lightly regarded, though it had not as yet
become obsolete. In reducing the dreaded and barbarous Majjars to
civilization, the managers of the movement might well smooth the path
and interpose as few obstacles as possible to the attainment of so
desirable a consummation. It is probable, therefore, that restrictions
on marriage, as applied to the priesthood, were lightly passed over,
and, not being insisted on, were disregarded by all parties. Even
the decretals of Nicholas II. and the fulminations of Gregory VII.
appear to have never penetrated into the kingdom of St. Stephen, for
sacerdotal celibacy seems to have been unknown among the Hungarians
until the close of the century. The first allusion to it occurs in the
synod of Zabolcs, held in 1092, under the auspices of St. Ladislas
II., and is of a nature to show not only that it was an innovation on
established usages, but also that the subject required tender handling
to reconcile it to the weakness of undisciplined human nature. After
the bitter denunciations and cruelly harsh measures which the popes
had been promulgating for nearly half a century, there is an impressive
contrast in the mildness with which the Hungarian church offered
indulgence to those legitimately united to a first wife, until the
Holy See could be consulted for a definitive decision;[590] and though
marriages with second wives, widows, or divorced women were pronounced
null and void, the disposition to evade a direct meeting of the
question is manifested in a regulation which provided that if a priest
united himself to his female slave “uxoris in locum,” the woman should
be sold; but if he refused to part with her, he was simply to pay
her price to the bishop.[591] Whether or not the pope’s decision was
actually sought, we have no means of knowing; if it was, his inevitable
verdict received little respect, for the Synod of Gran, held about the
year 1099 by the Primate Seraphin of Gran, only ventured to recommend
moderation to married priests, while its endeavor to enforce the rule
prohibiting marriage after the assumption of orders shows how utterly
the recognized discipline of the church was neglected. The consent of
wives was also required before married priests could be elevated to the
episcopate, and after consecration separation was strictly enjoined,
affording still further evidence of the laxity allowed to the other
grades. The iteration of the rules respecting _digami_ and marriage
with widows also indicates how difficult was the effort to resuscitate
those well-known regulations, although they were universally admitted
to be binding on all ecclesiastics.[592]
King Coloman, whose reign extended from 1095 to 1114, has the credit
of being the first who definitely enjoined immaculate purity on the
Hungarian priesthood. His laws, as collected by Alberic, have no
dates, and therefore we are unable to affix precise epochs to them;
but his legislation on the subject appears to have been progressive,
for we find edicts containing injunctions respecting _digami_ and
irregular unions in terms which indicate that single marriages were
not interfered with; and these may reasonably be deemed earlier than
other laws which formally prohibit the elevation to the diaconate of an
unmarried man without exacting from him a vow of continence, or of a
married man without the consent of his wife. The import of this latter
condition is explained by another law, which provided that no married
man should officiate at the altar unless his wife professed continence,
and was furnished by her husband with the means of dwelling apart from
him.[593] As these stringent regulations form part of the canons of a
council held by Archbishop Seraphin about the year 1109,[594] they were
probably borrowed from that council by Coloman, and incorporated into
his laws at a period somewhat later.
I have not met with any indications of the results of the legislation
which thus combined the influence of the temporal and ecclesiastical
authorities. That it effected little, however, is apparent from the
evidence afforded by Dalmatia, at that time a province of Hungary.
Shortly before it lost its independence, its duke, Dimitri, resolved
to assume the crown of royalty, and purchased the assent of Gregory
VII. at the price of acknowledging him as feudal superior. Gregory took
advantage of Dimitri’s aspirations to further the plans of reform, of
which he never lost sight; for, in the coronation oath taken in 1076
before Gebizo, the papal legate, the new king swore that he would take
such measures as would insure the chastity of all ecclesiastics, from
the bishop to the subdeacon.[595] The new dynasty did not last long,
for before the end of the century St. Ladislas united the province of
Dalmatia to the kingdom of Hungary; but neither the oath of Dimitri,
the laws of Coloman, nor the canons of the national councils succeeded
in eradicating the custom of priestly marriage. When we find, in 1185,
Urban III. in approving the acts of the synod of Spalatro, graciously
expressing his approbation of its prohibiting the marriage of priests,
and desiring that the injunction should be extended so as to include
the diaconate,[596] we see that marriage must have been openly enjoyed
by all ranks, that the synod had not ventured to include in the
restriction any but the highest order, and that Urban himself did not
undertake to apply the rule to subdeacons, although they had been
specially included in Dimitri’s oath. Yet still pope and synod labored
in vain, for fourteen years later, in 1199, another national council
complained that priests kept both wives and benefices. It therefore
commanded that those who indulged in this species of adultery should
either dismiss their partners in guilt, and undergo due penance,
or else should give up their churches; while no married man should
be admitted to the diaconate, unless his wife would take a vow of
continence before the bishop.[597] Even yet, however, the subdiaconate
is not alluded to, although the legates who presided over the council
were those of Innocent III.
Of how little avail were these efforts is shown by the national council
held at Vienna as late as 1267, by Cardinal Guido, legate of Clement
IV. It was still found necessary to order the deprivation of priests
and deacons who persisted in retaining their wives; while the special
clauses respecting those who married after taking orders prove that
such unions were frequent enough to require tender consideration in
removing the evil. The subdiaconate, also, was declared liable to the
same regulations, but the resistance of the members of that order was
probably stubborn, for the canons were suspended in their favor until
further instructions should be received from the pope.[598]
* * * * *
Poland was equally remiss in enforcing the canons on her clergy. The
leaning of the Slavonic races towards the Greek church rendered them,
in fact, peculiarly intractable, and marriage was commonly practised
by the clergy at least until the close of the twelfth century.[599] At
length the efforts of Rome were extended to that distant region, and
in 1197 the papal legate, Cardinal Peter of Capua, held the synod of
Lanciski, when the priests were peremptorily ordered to dismiss their
wives and concubines, who, in the words of the historian, were at that
time universally and openly kept.[600] The result of this seems to have
amounted to little, for in 1207 we find Innocent III. sharply reproving
the bishops of the province of Gnesen because married men were publicly
admitted to ecclesiastical dignities, and canons took no shame in the
families growing up around them. The children of priests were brought
up to the sacred profession of their fathers, assisted them in their
ministrations, and succeeded to their benefices. Whether or not the
other disorders which Innocent designated as infecting the churches
were the result of the carnal affections which thus superseded the
spiritual we may fairly doubt, in view of the abuses still prevailing
in more favored regions.[601] The effort was continued, and was
apparently at length successful, at least in the western portions of
the Polish church, for at the council of Breslau, held in 1279, there
is no mention of wives, and the constitution of Guido, legate of
Clement IV., is quoted, depriving of benefices those who openly kept
concubines.[602]
* * * * *
The church of Sweden was no purer than its neighbors. That the rule
was recognized there at a tolerably early period is shown by the fact
that when the people of Scania, about the year 1180, revolted against
the exactions of Waldemar I. of Denmark, they demanded to be released
from the oppression of tithes and that the clergy should be married.
Singularly enough, the clerks stood by their bishop, Absalom, when he
laid an interdict on the province, and the arms of Waldemar speedily
subdued the revolt.[603] Not much, however, was gained for church
discipline by this. In 1204, the Archbishop of Lunden reported to
Innocent III. that he had used every endeavor to enforce the canons
and had brought many of his priests to observe chastity, but that
there still were many who persisted in retaining their women, whom
they treated as though they were legitimate wives, with fidelity and
conjugal affection. To this Innocent replied that the recalcitrants
must be coerced by suspension, and, if necessary, by deprivation of
benefice.[604] How little result this achieved is evident when we find
the archbishop again writing to Innocent III. complaining that the
Swedish priests persisted in living with their wives, and that they
moreover claimed to have a papal dispensation permitting it. Innocent,
in reply, cautiously abstained from pronouncing an opinion as to the
validity of these pretensions until he should have an opportunity of
examining the document to which they appealed.[605] The efforts at
this time were fruitless, for, in 1248, we find the Cardinal of St.
Sabina as legate of Innocent IV. holding a council at Schening, of
which the principal object was to reform these abuses, and so firmly
were they established, that the Swedes were considered as schismatics
of the Greek church, in consequence of the marriage of their priests.
The council supported by the royal power, succeeded in forcing the
Swedish ecclesiastics to give up their wives, by a liberal use of all
the punishments then in vogue, together with the significant threat of
abandoning them to the tender mercies of the secular tribunals.[606]
* * * * *
In Denmark and along the northern coasts of Germany, there was equal
delay in enforcing the canon of celibacy. It is suggestive of some
powerful intercession in favor of the married clergy when we see
Paschal II., in 1117, writing to the King of Denmark that the rule
was imperative, and that he could admit of no exceptions to it.[607]
His insistence, however, was of little avail. In 1266, Cardinal
Guido, legate of Clement IV., held a council at Bremen, where he was
obliged to take rigorous measures to put an end to this Nicolitan
heresy. All married priests, deacons, and subdeacons were pronounced
incapable of holding any ecclesiastical office whatever. Children born
of such unions were declared infamous, and incapable of inheritance,
and any property received by gift or otherwise from their fathers
was confiscated. Those who permitted their daughters, sisters, or
other female relatives to contract such marriages, or gave them up in
concubinage to priests, were excluded from the church. That a previous
struggle had taken place on the subject is evident from the penalties
threatened against the prelates who were in the habit of deriving
a revenue from the protection of these irregularities, and from an
allusion to the armed resistance, made by the married and concubinary
priests with their friends, to all efforts to check their scandalous
conduct.[608]
In Friesland, too, the efforts of the sacerdotalists were long set at
naught. In 1219 Emo, Abbot of Wittewerum, describing the disastrous
inundations which afflicted his country, considers them as a punishment
sent to chastise the vices of the land, and among the disorders which
were peculiarly obnoxious to the wrath of God he enumerates the public
marriage of the priests, the hereditary transmission of benefices, and
the testamentary provision made by ecclesiastics for their children
out of the property which should accrue to the church; while his
references to the canon law inhibiting these practices, show that these
transgressions were not excusable through ignorance.[609] The warning
was unheeded, for Abbot Emo alludes incidentally, on various subsequent
occasions, to the hereditary transmission of several deaneries as a
matter of course.[610] The deans in Friesland were ecclesiastics of
high position, each having six or more parishes under his jurisdiction,
which he governed under legatine power from the Bishop of Munster.
When, in 1271, the people rose against them, exasperated by their
intolerable exactions, in some temporary truce the deans gave their
_children_ as hostages; and when, after their expulsion, Gerard of
Munster came to their assistance by excommunicating the rebels, the
latter defended the movement by the argument that the deans had
violated the laws of the church by handing down their positions from
father to son, and that each generation imitated the incontinence of
its predecessor.[611] Hildebrand might have applauded this reasoning,
but his days were past. The church by this time had gained the position
to which it had aspired, and no longer invoked secular assistance to
enforce its laws. Even Abbot Menco, while admitting the validity of the
popular argument, claimed that such questions were reserved for the
decision of the church alone, and that the people must not interfere.
* * * * *
After thus marking the slow progress of the Hildebrandine movement
in these frontier lands of Christendom, let us see what efforts were
required to establish the reform in regions less remote.
XVI.
FRANCE.
Gregory VII. had not been so engrossed in his quarrels with the Empire
as to neglect the prosecution of his favorite schemes of reform
elsewhere. If he displayed somewhat less of energy and zeal in dealing
with the ecclesiastical foibles of other countries, it was perhaps
because the political complications which gave a special zest to his
efforts in Germany were wanting, and because there was no organized
resistance supported by the temporal authorities. Yet the inertia of
passive non-compliance long rendered his endeavors and those of his
successors equally nugatory.
As early as 1056 we find Victor II., by means of his vicars at the
council of Toulouse, enjoining on the priesthood separation from their
wives, under penalty of excommunication and deprivation of function
and benefice.[612] This was followed up in 1060 by Nicholas II., who
sought through his envoys to enforce the observance of his decretals on
celibacy in France, and under the presidency of his legate the council
of Tours in that year adopted a canon of the most decided character.
All who, since the promulgation of the decretal of 1060, had continued
in the performance of their sacred functions while still preserving
relations with their wives and concubines were deprived of their grades
without hope of restoration; and the same irrevocable penalty was
denounced against those who in the future should endeavor to combine
the incompatible duties of husband and minister of Christ.[613]
In what spirit these threats and injunctions were likely to be
received may be gathered from an incident which occurred, probably
about this time. A French bishop, as in duty bound, excommunicated
one of his deacons for marrying. The clergy of the diocese, keen
to appreciate the prospect of future trouble, rallied around their
persecuted brother, and rose in open rebellion against the prelate.
The latter, apparently, was unable to maintain his position, and the
matter was referred for adjudication to the celebrated Berenger of
Tours. Although, in view of the papal jurisprudence of the period,
the bishop would seem to have acted with leniency, yet Berenger
blamed both parties for their precipitancy and quarrelsome humor, and
decided that the excommunication of a deacon for marrying was contrary
to the canons, unless rendered unavoidable by the contumacy of the
offender.[614]
Even more significant was the scene which occurred in 1074 in the
council of Paris, where the holy St. Gauthier, Abbot of Ponthoise,
undertook to sustain the decretal by which Gregory VII. prohibited
attendance on the masses of married and concubinary priests. The
assembly manifested its disapprobation of the measure in a manner so
energetic that its unlucky advocate, after being furiously berated and
soundly pummelled, was glad to escape with his life from the hands of
his indignant brethren.[615]