ordine removemus, officio atque beneficio ecclesiæ carere decernimus.
Quod si ab episcopo commoniti non se correxerint, principibus
licentiam indulgemus ut eorum feminas mancipent servituti. Si vero
episcopi consenserint eorum pravitatibus, ipsi officii interdictione
mulctentur.—Synod. Melfit. ann. 1089, can. 12.
The second canon of the same council—“Sacrorum canonum instituta
renovantes, præcipimus ut a tempore subdiaconatus nulli liceat carnale
commercium exercere. Quod si deprehensus fuerit, ordinis sui periculum
sustinebit”—shows how much more venial was the offence of promiscuous
licentiousness than the heresy of marriage.
[570] Urbani II. Epist. 24.
[571] Gratian. Dist. XXVII. c. 8.
[572] Decret. Comit. Constant. c. 2 (Goldast. I. 246).
[573] Et quia hospes est, plus ecclesiæ prodest: non eum parentela
exhauriet, non _liberorum cura_ aggravabit, non cognatorum turba
despoliet—Cosmæ Pragens. Chron. Lib. III. ann. 1098.—It should,
however, be borne in mind that Bohemia had been Christianized in 871
by Cyrillus and Methodius, missionaries from Constantinople, and the
national Slavonic worship, founded on the Greek faith, after many
struggles, was not abolished until 1094 (see Krasinski’s Reformation
in Poland, London, 1838, I. 13). The attachment of the race to their
ancestral rites explains the proneness of the Bohemians and Poles to
fall away into heresy.
[574] Höfler, Concilia Pragensia p. xiii. (Prag, 1862.)
[575] Annalista Saxo, ann. 1105.
[576] Nycholaitarum quoque fornicaria commixtio ibidem est ab omnibus
abdicata.—Chron. Reg. S. Pantaleon. ann. 1105. Cf. Annal. Saxo, ann.
1105.
[577] Compare Bernaldi Constant. de Reordinatione vitanda etc.
[578] Quod cum dolore dicimus, vix pauci sacerdotes aut clerici
Catholici in tanta terrarum latitudine reperiantur.—Annal. Saxo, ann.
1106.
[579] Concil. Trecens. ann. 1107 c. 2 (Pertz, Legum T. II. P. ii. p.
181).
[580] Cosmæ Pragensis Chron. Lib. III. ann. 1118, 1123.
Rerum cunctarum comes indimota mearum
Bis Februi quinis obiit Boseteha kalendis.
[581] Ibid. Lib. III. ann. 1125 (Mencken. Script. Rer. German. III.
1799).
[582] Dubravii Hist. Bohem. Lib. XIV. (Ed. 1687, pp. 380-1.)
[583] Statuitur et hoc semper memorabile, secundum decreta canonum,
presbyteros parochianos castos et sine uxoribus esse debere: uxorati
vero presbyteri missam a nemine audiendam esse.—Annal. Bosoviens. ann.
1131.
Statuitur quoque ab omnibus, secundum decreta canonum, illud antiquum,
quod semper erit innovandum, presbyteros castos et sine uxoribus
esse, missam autem uxorati presbyteri neminem audire debere.—Chron.
Sanpetrin. Erfurt. ann. 1131.
Statuitur etiam hoc semper memorabile, per decreta canonum presbyteros
parrochianos castos et sine uxoribus esse debere, uxorati vero
presbyteri missam a nemine audiendam esse.—Chron. Pegaviens. Continuat.
ann. 1131.
[584] Ruperti Tuitens. Comment. in Apocalyps. Lib. II. cap. ii.
[585] Hist. Monast. S. Laurent. Leodiens. Lib. V. c. 39 (Martene
Ampliss. Collect. IV. 1005).
[586] Henrici Salisburg. Archidiac. de Calam. Eccles. Salisburg. cap.
ix.
[587] “Deinde dum nimio zelo rectitudinis de incontinentia clericorum
multa sæve disponeret, sine condimento discrecionis, magnam sibi
comparavit invidiam, et quam nec dici fas est, acquisivit infamiam.”—He
went to Italy, seeking aid from Honorius II., but was captured by
Conrad the Swabian, the rival of the Emperor Lothair, and died of
affliction in his prison at Parma, October 1st, 1130. (Gest. Trevirorum
Continuat. c. 27, 28.)
[588] Anon. Zwetlensis Hist. Roman. Pontif. No. CLXI. (Pez, T. I. P.
iii. p. 385.)
[589] Concil. Ratisbonens. sæc. XIII. c. v. (Printed by Schneller,
Straubing, 1785.)
[590] Presbyteris autem qui prima et legitima duxere conjugia,
indulgentia ad tempus datur, propter vinculum pacis et unitatem
Spiritus Sancti, quousque nobis in hoc Domini Apostolici paternitas
consilietur.—Synod. Zabolcs ann. 1092 c. 3, or Decret. St. Ladisl. Lib.
I. c. 3. (Batthyani, I. 434-5.)
[591] Synod. Zabolcs c. 1, 2.—Any prelate assenting to such illicit
unions, and not insisting on immediate separation, was punishable to a
reasonable extent (Ibid. c. 4).
[592] Synod. Strigonens. II. (Batthyani, II. 121-8). Peterffy’s
emendation of “voluerint” for “noluerint,” in the clause respecting
_digami_, can hardly be questioned.
[593] Decret. Coloman. cap. 41, 42, Comp. cap. 27 and 37.
[594] Synod. Vencellina, circa 1109.
[595] Batthyani, I. 431.
[596] Epist. Urbani apud Batthyani, II. 274.
[597] Synod. Dalmatiæ ann. 1199 (Batthyani, II. 289-90).
[598] Concil. Vienn. ann. 1267 (Batthyani, II. 415-17).
[599] Complures ea tempestate sacerdotes uxoribus velut jure legitimo
utebantur.—Dlugosz, ad ann. 1197 (apud Krasinski, I. 52).
[600] Staravolsc. Concil. Epit. ap. Harduin. T. VI. P. II. p. 1937.
[601] Innocent. PP. III. Regest. Lib. IX. Epist. 235.
[602] Concil. Vratislaviens. ann. 1279, c. iii. (Hartzheim III. 808).
[603] Saxo. Grammat. Hist. Dan. Lib. XV. (Ed. 1576, p. 327).
[604] Innocent. PP. III. Regest. VI. 198.
[605] Innocent. III. Regest. XVI. 118.
[606] Prima intentio et cura Cardinalis Sabinensis in hoc concilio erat
revocare Suecos et Gothos a schismate Græcorum, in quo presbyteri et
sacerdotes, ductis publicis uxoribus consensisse videbantur.—Harduin.
VII. 423.
[607] Jaffé, Regesta, p. 515-6.—Paschal. II. Epist. 497.
[608] Concil. Bremens. ann. 1266 (Hartzheim IV. 580).
[609] Emonis Chron. ann. 1219.
[610] “Eodem tempore defunctus est præfatus decanus (Herbrandus)
possessor ecclesiæ in Husquert, tertius heres illius nominis, relicto
parvulo ejusdem nominis.” (Emonis Chron. ann. 1231.)—and Emo alludes to
him as “honesto viro Herbrando.”
“Obiit Geyco decanus in Firmetium vir per omnia sæcularibus artibus
idoneus, et bene religiosus et obsequiosus. Successit ei Sicco, quartus
a proavo Sigrepo.”—Ibid. ann. 1233.
[611] Menconis Chron. Werens. ann. 1271.
[612] Concil. Tolosan. ann. 1056 can. vii.
[613] Concil. Turon. ann. 1060 c. 6.
[614] Ceterum, quod excommunicavit diaconum suum propter ductam uxorem,
contra canones fecisse videtur mihi, nisi forte cogente pertinacia
ipsius.—Epist. Berengar. Turon. (Martene Thesaur. I. 195-6). It must
be borne in mind that the persecution of Berenger arose solely from
his theological subtleties, and that objections to celibacy formed no
portion of his errors.
[615] Art de Vérifier les Dates, s. v.
[616] Concil. Pictaviens. ann. 1078 can. 9.
[617] Concil. Rotomag. ann. 1072 can. 16 “de clericis uxoratis.”
[618] Orderic. Vital. P. II. Lib. iv. c. 2.
[619] Concil. Juliobonens. ann. 1080 can. 3, 5 (Orderic. Vital. P. II.
Lib. V. c. 6.—Harduin. Concil. T. VI. P. I. p. 1599).—Propter eorum
feminas nulla pecuniæ emendatio exigatur.
[620] Pauli Carnot. Vet. Agano. Lib. VIII. c. 11.
[621] Gregor. VII. Regist. Lib. IX. Epist. 5.
[622] Gaufridi Grossi Vit. Bernardi Tironens. c. 6 §§ 51-54.
[623] Gregor. VII. Epist. Extrav. 29.—Epist. in Martene Thesaur. III.
871-6.
[624] Roujoux, Hist, de Bretagne, II. 98-99. The independence affected
by the Breton church is well shown in a singularly impertinent letter
addressed to Leo IX. by the clergy of Nantes, refusing to receive a
bishop appointed by him, after the degradation for simony of Prodicus
by the council of Rheims in 1050 (Martene Thesaur. I. 172-3).
[625] Martene Thesaur. III. 882.—Haddan and Stubbs II. 96.
[626] Gregor. VII. Regist. Lib. IV. Epistt. 10, 11.
[627] Ebrardi Chron. Watinens. cap. 22-3. Ebrard was a contemporary, a
disciple of Otfrid, and therefore his statement of the motives of the
persecution is entitled to credence.
[628] “Addens malos sacerdotes sacerdotes non esse, acsi peccator homo
non esset homo.” From the tenor of Robert’s defence it is evident that
it was the children of the clerks whom he disinherited. The documents
are in Warnkönig, Hist. de Flandre, I. 330-3 (Bruxelles, 1835).
[629] Urbani PP. II. Epist. 70.
[630] Lambert. Atrebat. Epist. 60.
[631] Lambert. Atrebat. Epist. 84—Paschalis PP. II. Epist.
134.—Lambert. Epist. apud Baluz. et Mansi II. 150.
[632] Paschalis PP. II. Epist. 415.
[633] Guibert. Noviogent. de Vita Sua Lib. I. cap. vii.
[634] Concil. Claromont. can. 9, 10, 25.
In Lent of the following year (1096) Urban caused these canons to
be received by a provincial council held under his auspices at
Tours.—Bernald. Constant. ann. 1096.
[635] Ivon. Carnot. Epist. 218.
[636] Ivon. Decret. P. VI. c. 50 sqq.—Panorm. Lib. III. c. 84 sqq.
[637] Ivon. Epist. 200.
[638] Quod ultra modum laxaveris frena pudicitiæ, in tantum ut post
acceptum archidiaconatum, accubante lateribus tuis plebe muliercularum,
multam genueris plebem puerorum et puellarum.—Ibid. Epist. 277.
[639] Est etiam eis publica et inexpugnabilis cum mulieribus
familiaritas, quibus illæ, promissis et præmissis obligatæ munusculis,
dies iniquitatis et noctes infamiæ vindicare comprobantur.—Hildebert.
Cenoman. Epist. 38 (Lib. II. Epist. 25).
[640] Hist. Episc. Verdunens. (D’Achery Spicileg. II. 254).
[641] Audivi turpissimam famam de monasterio Sanctæ Faræ, quod jam
non locus sanctimonialium sed mulierum dæmonialium prostibulum
dicendum est, corpora sua ad turpes usus omni generi hominum
prostituentium.—Ivon. Epist. 70.
[642] Martene Thesaur. T. V. p. 1142-3.—Honorii PP. II. Epist.
91.—Guill. Nangis ann. 1123, 1124.
[643] P. Abælardi Sermo XXIX.
[644] Bull. Pontif. No. XXIII. ap. Hahnii Collect. Monument. Vet. I.
147. As to the reformation of the nuns of Laon, see Guill. de Nangis
ann. 1128.
[645] Roberti de Monte Chron. ann. 1143.
[646] Nonne qui nocentes deberemus absolvere, eis malo exemplo
nocemus? Nonne qui deberemus pollutos lavare, vitiorum nostrorum
contagione alios polluimus?—— Sed nos, hodie indigni sacerdotes quid
dicemus qui cæteris hominibus non majores sed deteriores sumus? Qui
cum in conspectu hominum gradu sacerdotalis ordinis celsiores cæteris
videamur, tamen cæteris inferiores vita moribusque jacemus? Radulph.
Ardent. T. II. P. ii. Homil. 25.—See also Homil. 21.
[647] Nihil enim est quo magis lædatur Ecclesia quam quod laicos videt
esse meliores clericis.—Pet. Cant. Verb. Abbreviat. cap. lvii.
[648] Hoc totum factum est rogatu Germani presbyteri, filiorumque ejus,
qui post inde noster effectus est monachus.—Chron. Besuens. Chart. de
tenement. German. presbyt.
[649] Innocent. PP. III. Regest. v. 67.
[650] Petri Venerab. de Mirac. Lib. I. c. 25.—Chron. Episc. Mindens. c.
26.
[651] S. Bernardi Vitæ Primæ Lib. VII. cap. xxi.
[652] Concil. Remens. ann. 1119 can. 4, 5.—“Nullus episcopus, nullus
presbyter, nullus omnino de clero ecclesiasticas dignitates vel
beneficia cuilibet, quasi hereditario jure, derelinquat.” Calixtus had
already caused this provision to be adopted by the council of Toulouse,
held in the previous June (Concil. Tolosan. ann. 1119 can. 8).
[653] Cujas quotes these verses as still current in his day, and
attributes to the efforts of Calixtus the suppression of sacerdotal
marriage in France. (Giannone, Apologia, c. xiv.)
[654] Orderic. Vital. P. III. Lib. xii. c. 13.
[655] Arnulf. Lexoviens. de Schismate cap. I. II. (D’Achery I. 153).
[656] Vit. S. Bertrandi Convenar. No. 13, 14 (Martene Ampliss. Collect.
VI. 1028).
[657] Ut clerici ejusdem ecclesiæ sicut usque modo vixerunt permaneant;
hoc tamen præcipimus ut presbyteri, diaconi, subdiaconi nullatenus
deinceps uxores concubinas habeant; cæteri vero cujuscumque ordinis
clerici propter fornicationem, licentiam habeant ducendi uxores.—Du
Cange, s. v. _Concubina_.
[658] Epist. Alex. PP. III. in Martene Ampliss. Collect. II. 794.
[659] Concil. Paris, ann. 1212 can. xvi., xviii. (Ibid. VII. 99).
[660] Gregor. VII. Regist. Lib. IX. Epist. 5.
[661] Roger of Hoveden. ann. 1070.—Baron. Annal. ann. 1070 No. 26.
[662] Lanfranci Epist. XXI.
[663] Alexand. II. Epist. 83.
[664] Wilkins Concil. Mag. Britan. I. 363.
[665] Camden’s Britannia, Tit. Shroppshire.
[666] Decretumque est ut nullus canonicus uxorem habeat. Sacerdotes
vero in castellis vel in vicis habitantes, habentes uxores non cogantur
ut dimittant; non habentes interdicantur ut habeant; et deinceps
caventur episcopi ut sacerdotes vel diaconos non præsumant ordinare,
nisi prius profiteantur ut uxores non habeant.—Wilkins I. 367.
Polydor Virgil describes a council of London held by Lanfranc in 1078,
in which—“Ante omnia mores sacerdotum parum puri quamproxime potuit, ad
priscorum patrum regulam revocati sunt, estque illis in posterum tempus
recte vivendi modus præscriptus” (Angl. Hist. Lib. IX.); but he has
evidently mixed together the proceedings of various synods.
[667] Henric. Huntingdon. Lib. VII.—Matt. Paris ann. 1102.—Henry of
Huntingdon, though an archdeacon, was himself the son of a priest,
and therefore was not disposed to regard with complacency the stigma
attached to his birth by the new order of things.
[668] Concil. Londin. ann. 1102.—Wilkins. I. 382 (Eadmer. Hist. Novor.
Lib. III. ann. 1102).
[669] Anselmi Lib. III. Epist. 62.
[670] D’Achery Spicileg. III. 434.
[671] Paschalis PP. II. Epist. lxxiv.—Anselmi Lib. IV. Epist. 41.
[672] Simeon Dunelmens. _ap._ Pagi IV. 348.
[673] See the confirmation of excommunication in which St. Anselm
exhaled his fiery indignation at those who continued with “bestiali
insania” to defy the authorities of the church. (Anselmi Lib. III.
Epist. 112.)
Anselm was not entirely without assistance in his efforts. One of
his monks, Reginald, of the great monastery of Canterbury, wrote a
fearfully diffuse paraphrase, in Leonine verse, of the life of St.
Malchus. It was an evil-minded generation, indeed, that could resist
such a denunciation of marriage as that pronounced by the saint—
Plenum sorde thorum subeam plenumque dolorum?
Plenus, ait, tenebris thalamus sordet muliebris.
Displicet amplexus, horror mihi copula, sexus.
Conjugium vile, vilescit sponsa, cubile.
Nolo thorum talem, desidero spiritualem.
(Croke’s Rhyming Latin Verse, p. 67.)
[674] Eadmer. Hist. Novor. Lib. IV.—Anselmi Lib. III. Epist. 109.
[675] Wilkins, I. 378-80.—Paschalis II. Epist. 221.
[676] D’Achery Spicileg. III. 448.
[677] Eadmeri Hist. Novor. Lib. IV.
[678] Eadmeri Hist. Novor. Lib. IV.
[679] Eadmeri Hist. Novor. Lib. IV.
[680] Messenii Chron. Episcoporum per Sueciam etc. p. 76 (Stockholmiæ,
1611).
[681] Concil. Londiniens. ann. 1126 c. 13 (Wilkins, I. 408).
[682] Henric. Huntingd. Lib. VII.—Matt. Paris ann. 1125.—Baronius (ann.
1125, No. 12) endeavors to disprove the story, but is only able to
offer general negative allegations, of but little weight when opposed
to the testimony of a contemporary like Henry of Huntingdon, who speaks
of it as a matter of public notoriety, which covered the cardinal with
disgrace and drove him from England.
Such conduct was a favorite theme of objurgation with the ascetics of
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—
Certe tu qui missam dicis
Post amplexum meretricis,
Potaberis ab inimicis
Liquore sulphuris et picis.
(Du Méril, Poésies Latines, p. 133.)
So also, among the poems which pass under the name of Golias Episcopus
is one of fierce invective directed against the priests, in which this
is one of the principal accusations—
O sacerdos, hæc responde,
Qui frequenter et jocunde
Cum uxore dormis, unde
Mane surgens, missam dicis,
Corpus Christi benedicis,
Post amplexus meretricis
Minus quam tu peccatricis.
* * * * *
Plenus sorde, plenus mendis,
Ad autorem manus tendis,
Quem contempnis, quem offendis,
Meretrici dum ascendis.
* * * * *
Quali corde, quali ore
Corpus Christi, cum cruore,
Tractas, surgens de fœtore,
Dignus plagis et tortore.
Mapes’s Poems (Camd. Soc. Ed. pp. 49-50).
[683] Concil. Westmonast. ann. 1127 c. 5, 6, 7 (Wilkins, I. 410).
[684] Henric. Huntingd. Lib. VII.—Anglo Saxon Chron. ann. 1129.—Matt.
Paris ann. 1129.
[685] Concil. Westmonast. ann. 1138 c. 8 (Wilkins, I. 415).
[686] Rymer, Fœdera Tom. I. ann. 1144.—Post. Concil. Lateran, P. XIX.
passim.—Lib. I. Tit. 17 Extra.
[687] Orderic Vital. P. III. Lib. xiii. c. 20.
[688] Fluit semine et hinnit in feminas, adeo impudens ut libidinem,
nisi quam publicaverit, voluptuosam esse non reputet.... Fornicationis
abusum comparat necessitati. Proletarius est adeo quod paucis annis
ei soboles tanta succrevit ut patriarcharum seriem antecedat.—Joann.
Saresberiens. Epist. 310. Well might Alexander, in ordering his
ejection, say “ipsum invenerint tot excessibus et criminibus publicis
irretitum, quod per eorum nobis litteras recitata auribus nostris
nimium præstiterunt tædium et dolorem.”—Elmham Hist. Monast. August, p.
413.
[689]
Crescit malorum cumulus,
Est sacerdos ut populus,
Currunt ad illicitum,
Uterque juxta libitum
Audax et imperterritus.
(Wright, Polit. Songs of England, p. 9.) And another indignant
churchman exclaims:—
Qui sunt qui ecclesias vendunt et mercantur?
Qui sunt fornicarii? Qui sunt qui mœchantur?
Qui naturam transvolant et abominantur?
Qui? clerici; a nobis non longe extra petantur.
Mapes’s Poems, pp. 156-7.
[690] A woman applied to Bishop Hugh for advice “super impotentia
mariti, quia debitum ei reddere non poterat,” when the prelate gravely
replied, “Faciamus ergo si vis eum sacerdotem, et statim illo in
opere, reddita sibi facultate, proculdubio potens efficietur.”—Girald.
Cambrens. Gemm. Eccles. Dist. II. c. xviii.
[691] Benedicti Abbatis Gesta Regis Henr. II. T. I. pp. 135-6; T. II.
p. xxx. (M. R. Series.)
[692] Chron. Monast. de Bello, London, 1846, pp. 142-3.
[693] Haddan & Stubbs’s Councils of Great Britain I. 423-4.
[694] Matt. Paris ann. 1208.
Perhaps it is to John’s experience in this matter that may be
attributed the fact that when, in 1214, he entered into a league
with his knight-errant nephew, the Emperor Otho IV., against Philip
Augustus, they also declared war against Innocent III., and proposed
to carry out a gigantic scheme of spoliation by enriching, from
ecclesiastical property, all who might rally to their standard. They
proclaimed their intention of humbling the church, reducing the
numbers of the clergy, stripping those who were left of all their
temporalities, and leaving them only moderate stipends. Both John and
Otho had been under excommunication, and could speak feelingly of
the overweening power and abuses of the church, whose members they
characterize as “genus hoc pigrum et fruges consumere natum, quod otia
ducit, quodque sub tecto marcet et umbra, qui frustra vivunt, quorum
omnis labor in hoc est, ut Baccho Venerique vacent, quibus crapula
obesis poris colla inflat, ventresque abdomine onerat.” (Lünig. Cod.
Diplom. Italiæ I. 34). A few weeks later the Bridge of Bouvines put a
sudden end to this prosperous plan of reformation.
[695] Du Méril, Poésies Pop. Latines, p. 179.
[696] Mapes’s Poems, p. 10.
[697] Du Méril, op. cit. p. 171.
[698] Filius autem, more sacerdotum parochialium Angliæ fere cunctorum,
damnabili quidem et detestabili, publicam secum habebat comitem
individuam, et in foco focariam et in cubiculo concubinam.—Girald.
Cambrens. Specul. Eccles. Dist. iii. c. 8. (Girald. Opp. III. 129.)
However Giraldus and the severer churchmen might stigmatize these
companions as concubines, they were evidently united in the bonds
of matrimony. He says himself, respecting Wales, “Nosse te novi ...
canonicos Menevenses fere cunctos, maxime vero Walensicos, publicos
fornicarios et concubinarios esse, sub alis ecclesiæ cathedralis et
tanquam in ipso ejusdem gremio focarias suas cum obstetricibus et
nutricibus atque cunabulis in laribus et penetralibus exhibentes....
Adeo quidem ut sicut patres eorum ipsos ibi genuerunt et promoverunt,
sic et ipsi more consimili prolem ibidem suscitant, tam in vitiis sibi
quam beneficiis succedaneam. Filiis namque suis statim cum adulti
fuerint et plene pubertatis annos excesserint, concanonicorum suorum
filias, ut sic firmiori fœdere sanguinis scilicet et affinitatis jure
jungantur, _quasi maritali copula dari procurant_. Postmodum autem ...
canonicas suas filiis suis conferri per cessionem non inefficaciter
elaborant.” (De Jure et Statu Menev. Eccles. Dist. i.) That this
condition of affairs was not confined to the canons of cathedral
churches is evident from his general remarks in the Gemm. Eccles. Dist.
II. cap. xxiii.
His treatise De Statu Menevens. Eccles. was written after 1215, and
therefore subsequent to the death of Innocent III.
[699] Innocent. PP. III. Regest. V. 66; VIII. 147.
[700] De presbytero et logico. Mapes’s Poems, p. 256.
[701] Hali Meidenhad, p. 7. (Early English Text Society, 1866.)
[702] Innocent. PP. III. Regest. VI. 103.
[703] Mapes’s Poems, pp. 171-2. This well-known poem has been
attributed to the Venerable Hildebert, Bishop of Le Mans, as written on
the occasion of the reformation of the French clergy by Calixtus II.
(Croke, Rhyming Latin Verse, p. 85), but the character of that reverend
prelate forbids such an assumption, even if the allusion to Innocent
did not assign to it a later period.
[704] Concil. Eboracens. ann. 1195 c. 17.—Concil. Londiniens. ann.
1200 c. 10.—Concil. Dunelmens. ann. 1220.—Concil. Oxoniens. ann.
1222 c. 28.—Constit. Archiep. Cantuar. ann. 1225 (Matt. Paris ann.
1225).—Constit. Episc. Lincoln. ann. 1230 (Wilkins, I. 627).—Constit.
Provin. Cantuar. ann. 1236 c. 3, 4, 30.—Constit. Coventriens. ann. 1237
(Wilkins, I. 641), &c.
[705] Matt. Paris ann. 1237.
[706] Wilkins, I. 672-3.
[707] De Convocatione Sacerdotum (Mapes’s Poems, pp. 180-2).
[708] Mapes’s Poems, pp. 176-9.—All the poetasters of the period,
however, were not enlisted on one side. There is extant an exhortation
against marriage, addressed to the clergy, which consists of a violent
invective against the sex, recapitulating the customary accusations
against women with all the brutal coarseness of the age:—
Hæc est iniquitas omnis adulteræ
Qui virum proprium vellet non vivere,
Ut det adultero non cessat rapere—
Desistat igitur clerus nunc nubere.
Du Méril, op. cit. p. 184.
The “Confessio Goliæ” feelingly bewails the difficulty of rendering
obedience to the new regulations:—
Res est arduissima vincere naturam,
In aspectu virginum mentem ferre puram;
Juvenes non possumus legem sequi duram,
Leviumque corporum non habere curam.
Quis in igne positus igne non uratur?
Quis in mundo demorans castus habeatur?
Ubi Venus digito juvenes venatur
Oculis illaqueat, facie prædatur?
Mapes’s Poems, p. 72.
[709] Matt. Paris ann. 1250.
This Boniface was brother of the Duke of Savoy, and was one of the
Italian prelates whose intrusion into the choice places of the Anglican
church was a source of intense irritation. The career of another
brother, Philip, is an instructive illustration of the ecclesiastical
manners of the age. He was in deacon’s orders, and yet, as a leader
of condottieri, he was a strenuous supporter of Innocent IV. in his
quarrel with Frederic II. He was created Archbishop of Lyons, Bishop
of Valence, Provost of Bruges, and Dean of Vienne, and, after enjoying
these miscellaneous dignities for some twenty years, when at length
Clement IV. insisted on his ordination and consecration, he threw off
his episcopal robe, married first the heiress of Franche-Comté and then
a niece of Innocent IV.—dying at last as Duke of Savoy (Milman, Latin
Christ. IV. 326).
The indignation felt at the standing grievance of foreign prelates is
quaintly expressed a century later by Langlande—
And a peril to the pope
And prelates that he maketh,
That bere bisshopes names
Of Bethleem and Babiloigne,
That huppe aboute in Engelond
To halwe mennes auteres,
And crepe amonges curatours,
And confessen ageyn the lawe.
Piers Ploughman, Wright’s Edition,
l. 10695-702.