One way in which Gregory tried to increase his power was by forcing the

clergy to live unmarried, or, if they were married already, to put away

their wives. This was a thing which had not been required either in the

New Testament or by the Church in early times. But by degrees a notion

had grown up that single life was holier than married life; and many

canons (or laws of the Church) had been made against the marriage of the

clergy. But Gregory carried this further than any one before him,

because he saw that to make the clergy different from other men, and to

cut them off from wife and children and the usual connexions of family,

was a way to unite them more closely into a body by themselves. He saw

that it would bind them more firmly to Rome; that it would teach them to

look to the pope, rather than to their national sovereign, as their

chief; and that he might count on such clergy as sure tools, ready to be

at the pope's service in any quarrel with princes. He therefore sent out

his orders, forbidding the marriage of the clergy, and he set the people

against their spiritual pastors by telling them to have nothing to do

with the married clergy, and not to receive the sacraments of the Church

from them. The effects of these commands were terrible: the married

clergy were insulted in all possible ways, many of them were driven by

violence from their parishes, and their unfortunate wives were made

objects of scorn for all mankind. So great and scandalous were the

disorders which arose, that many persons, in disgust at the evils which

distracted the Church, and at the fury with which parties fought within

it, forsook it and joined some of the sects which were always on the

outlook for converts from it.

Another thing on which Gregory set his heart, as a means of increasing

the power of the popes, was to do away with what was called

_Investiture_. This was the name of the form by which princes gave

bishops possession of the estates and other property belonging to their

sees. The custom had been that princes should put the pastoral staff

into the hands of a new bishop, and should place a ring on one of his

fingers; but now fault was found with these acts, because the staff

meant that the bishop had the charge of his people as a shepherd has of

his flock, and the ring meant that he was joined to his Church as a

husband is joined to his wife in marriage. For now it was said to be

wrong to use things which are signs of spiritual power, when that which

the prince gives is not spiritual power, but only a right to the earthly

possessions of the see. Gregory, therefore, ordered that no bishop

should take investiture from any sovereign, and that no sovereign should

give investiture; and out of this grew a quarrel which lasted fifty

years, and was the cause of grievous troubles in the Church.

Gregory had also quarrels with enemies at home. One of these, a rough

and lawless man named Cencius, went so far as to seize him when he was

at a service about midnight on Christmas Eve, and carried him off to a

tower, where the pope was exposed all night to the insults of a gang of

ruffians, and of Cencius himself, who even held a sword to his naked

throat, in the hope of frightening him into the payment of a large sum

as ransom. But Gregory was not a man to be terrified by any violence,

and held out firmly. A woman who took pity on him bathed his wounds, and

a man gave him some furs to protect him against the cold; and in the

morning he was delivered by a party of his friends, by whom Cencius and

his ruffians were overpowered, and frightened into giving up their

prisoner.

PART IV.

In Germany many of the princes and people threw off their obedience to

Henry. They destroyed his castles and reduced him to great distress;

they held meetings against him, and were strong enough to make him give

up his power of government for a time, and leave all questions between

him and his subjects to be settled by the pope. Henry was so much afraid

of losing his kingdom altogether, that, in order to beg the pope's

mercy, he crossed the Alps, with his queen and a few others, in the

midst of a very hard winter, running great risks among the snow and ice

which covered the lofty mountains over which his road lay. In the hope

of getting the pope's forgiveness, he hastened to Canossa, a castle

among the Apennines, at which Gregory then was; but Gregory kept the

emperor standing three days outside the gate, dressed as a penitent, and

pierced through and through by the bitter cold of that terrible winter,

before he would allow himself to be seen. When at last Henry was

admitted, the pope treated him very hardly; some say that he even tried

to make him take the holy sacrament of our Lord's body, by way of

proving whether he were innocent or guilty of the charges which his

enemies brought against him. And, after all that Henry had gone through,

no peace was made between him and his enemies. The troubles of Germany

continued: the other party set up against Henry a king of their own

choosing, named Rudolf; and Henry, in return for this, set up another

pope in opposition to Gregory.

After a time, Henry was able to put down his enemies in Germany, and he

led a large army into Italy, where he got almost all Rome into his

hands; and on Easter Day, 1084, he was crowned as emperor, in St.

Peter's Church, by Clement III., the pope of his party. Gregory

entreated the help of Robert Guiscard, the chief of some Normans who had

got possession of the south of Italy; and Guiscard, who was glad to have

such an opportunity for interfering, speedily came to his relief and

delivered him. But in fighting with the Romans in the streets, these

Normans set the city on fire, and a great part of it was destroyed, so

that within the walls of Rome there are even in our own day large spaces

which were once covered with buildings, but are now given up to

cornfields or vineyards. Gregory felt himself unable to bear the sight

of his ruined city, and, when the Normans withdrew, he went with them to

Salerno, where he died on the 25th of May, 1085. It is said that his

last words were, "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity;

therefore I die in exile;" and the meaning seems to be, that by these

words he wished to claim the benefit of our Lord's saying, "Blessed are

they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the

kingdom of heaven."

Of all the popes, Gregory VII. was the one who did most to increase the

power of the papacy. No doubt he was honest in his intentions, and

thought that to carry them out would be the best thing for the whole

Church, as well as for the bishops of Rome. But he did not care whether

the means which he used were fair or foul; and if his plans had

succeeded, they would have brought all mankind into slavery to Rome.

CHAPTER IX.

THE FIRST CRUSADE.

A.D. 1095-1099.

PART I.

The popes who came next after Gregory VII. carried things with a high

hand, following the example which he had set them. They got the better

of Henry IV., but in a way which did them no credit. For when Henry had

returned from Italy to his own country, and had done his best, by many

years of good government, to heal the effects of the long troubles of

Germany, the popes encouraged his son Conrad, and after Conrad's death,

his younger son Henry, to rebel against him. The younger Henry behaved

very treacherously to his father, whom he forced to give up his crown;

and, at last, Henry IV. died broken-hearted in 1106. When Henry was thus

out of the way, his son, Henry V., who, until then, had seemed to be a

tool of the pope and the clergy, showed what sort of man he really was

by imprisoning Pope Paschal II. and his cardinals for nine weeks, until

he made the pope grant all that he wanted. But at length this emperor

was able to settle for a time the great quarrel of investitures, by an

agreement made at the city of Worms, on the Rhine, in 1123.

But before this time, and while Henry IV. was still emperor, the popes

had got a great addition to their power and importance by the

_Crusades_,--a word which means wars undertaken for the sake of the

Cross. I have told you already, how, from the fourth century, it became

the fashion for Christians to flock from all countries into the Holy

Land, that they might warm their faith (as they thought) by the sight of

the places where our Blessed Lord had been born, and lived, and died,

and where most of the other things written in the Scripture history had

taken place.[71] Very often, indeed, this pilgrimage was found to do

more harm than good to those who went on it; for many of them had their

minds taken up with anything rather than the pious thoughts which they

professed: but the fashion of pilgrimage grew more and more, whether the

pilgrims were the better or the worse for it.

[71] Part I., p. 91.

When the Holy Land had fallen into the hands of the Mahometans, as I

have mentioned,[72] these often treated the Christian pilgrims very

badly, behaving cruelly to them, insulting them, and making them pay

enormously for leave to visit the holy places. And when Palestine was

conquered by the Turks, who had taken up the Mahometan religion lately,

and were full of their new zeal for it (A.D. 1076), the condition of the

Christians there became worse than ever. There had often been thoughts

among the Christians of the West as to making an attempt to get back the

Holy Land from the unbelievers; but now the matter was to be taken up

with a zeal which had never before been felt.

[72] Page 169.

A pilgrim from the north of France, called Peter the Hermit, on

returning from Jerusalem, carried to Pope Urban II. a fearful tale of

the tyranny with which the Mahometans there treated both the Christian

inhabitants and the pilgrims; and the pope gave him leave to try what he

could do to stir up the Christians of the West for the deliverance of

their brethren. Peter was a small, lean, dark man, but with an eye of

fire, and with a power of fiery speech; and wherever he went, he found

that people of all classes eagerly thronged to hear him; they even

gathered up the hairs which fell from the mule on which he rode, and

treasured them up as precious relics. On his bringing back to the pope a

report of the success which he had thus far met, Urban himself resolved

to proclaim the crusade, and went into France, as being the country

where it was most likely to be welcomed. There, in a great meeting at

Clermont, A.D. 1095, where such vast numbers attended that most of them

were forced to lodge in tents, because the town itself could not hold

them, the pope, in stirring words, set forth the reasons of the holy

war, and invited his hearers to take part in it. While he was speaking,

the people broke in on him with shouts of "God wills it!"--words which

from that time became the cry of the Crusaders; and when he had done,

thousands enlisted for the crusade by fixing little crosses on their

dress.

All over Europe everything was set into motion; almost every one,

whether old or young, strong or feeble, was eager to join; women urged

their husbands or their sons to take the cross, and any one who refused

was despised by all. Many of those who enlisted would not wait for the

time which had been fixed for starting. A large body set out under Peter

the Hermit and two knights, of whom one was called Walter the Pennyless.

Other crowds followed, which were made up, not of fighting men only, but

of poor, broken-down old men, of women and children who had no notion

how very far off Jerusalem was, or what dangers lay in the way to it.

There were many simple country folks, who set out with their families in

carts drawn by oxen; and whenever they came to any town, their children

asked, "Is this Jerusalem?" And besides these poor creatures, there were

many bad people, who plundered as they went on, so as to make the

crusade hated even by the Christian inhabitants of the countries through

which they passed.

These first swarms took the way through Hungary to Constantinople, and

then across the Bosphorus into Asia Minor. Walter the Pennyless, who,

although his pockets were empty, seems to have been a brave and good

soldier, was killed in battle near Nicaea, the place where the first

general council had been held,[73] but which had now become the capital

of the Turks; and the bones of his followers who fell with him were

gathered into a great heap, which stood as a monument of their rashness.

It is said that more than a hundred thousand human beings had already

perished in these ill-managed attempts before the main forces of the

Crusaders began to move.

[73] Part I., p. 45.

PART II.

When the regular armies started at length, A.D. 1096, part of them

marched through Hungary, while others went through Italy, and there took

ship for Constantinople. The chief of their leaders was Godfrey of

Bouillon, a brave and pious knight; and among the other commanders was

Robert, duke of Normandy, whom we read of in English history as the

eldest son of William the Conqueror, and brother of William Rufus. When

they reached Constantinople, they found that the Greek emperor, Alexius,

looked on them with distrust and dislike rather than with kindness; and

he was glad to get rid of them by helping them across the strait to

Asia.

In passing through Asia Minor, the Crusaders had to fight often, and to

struggle with many other difficulties. The sight of the hill of bones

near Nicaea roused them to fury; and, in order to avenge Walter the

Pennyless and his companions, they laid siege to the city, which they

took at the end of six weeks. After resting there for a time, they went

on again and reached Antioch, which they besieged for eight months

(Oct., 1097-June, 1098). During this siege they suffered terribly. Their

tents were blown to shreds by the winds, or were rotted by the heavy

rains which turned the ground into a swamp; and, as they had wasted

their provisions in the beginning of the siege (not expecting that it

would last so long), they found themselves in great distress for food,

so that they were obliged to eat the flesh of horses and camels, of dogs

and mice, with grass and thistles, leather, and the bark of trees. Their

horses had almost all sunk under the hardships of the siege, and the men

were thinned by disease and by the assaults of their enemies.

At length Antioch was betrayed to them; but they made a bad use of their

success. They slew all of the inhabitants who refused to become

Christians. They wasted the provisions which they found in the city, or

which were brought to them from other quarters; and when a fresh

Mahometan force appeared, which was vastly greater than their own, they

found themselves shut in between it and the garrison of the castle,

which they had not been able to take when they took the city.

Their distress was now greater than before, and their case seemed to be

almost hopeless, when their spirits were revived by the discovery of

something which was supposed to be the lance by which our blessed Lord's

side was pierced on the cross. They rushed, with full confidence, to

attack the enemy on the outside; and the victory which they gained over

these was soon followed by the surrender of the castle. But a plague

which broke out among them obliged them to remain nearly nine months

longer at Antioch.

Having recruited their health, they moved on towards Jerusalem, although

their numbers were now much less than when they had reached Antioch.

When at length they came in sight of the holy city, a cry of "Jerusalem!

Jerusalem! God wills it!" ran through the army, although many were so

moved that they were unable to speak, and could only find vent for their

feelings in tears and sighs. All threw themselves on their knees and

kissed the sacred ground (June, 1099). The siege of Jerusalem lasted

forty days, during which the Crusaders suffered much from hunger, and

still more from thirst: for it was the height of summer, when all the

brooks of that hot country are dried up; the wells, about which we read

so much in holy Scripture, were purposely choked with rubbish, and the

cisterns were destroyed or poisoned. Water had to be fetched from a

distance of six miles, and was sold very dear; but it was so filthy that

many died after drinking it. The besiegers found much difficulty in

getting wood to make the engines which were then used in attacking the

walls of cities; and when they had at length been able to build such

machines as they wanted, the defenders tried to upset them, and threw at

them showers of burning pitch or oil, and what was called the Greek

fire, in the hope that they might set the engines themselves in flames,

or at least might scald or wound the people in them. We are even told

that two old women, who were supposed to be witches, were set to utter

spells and curses from the walls; but a stone from an engine crushed the

poor old wretches, and their bodies tumbled down into the ditch which

surrounded the city. The Crusaders were driven back in one assault, and

were all but giving way in the second; but Godfrey of Bouillon thought

that he saw in the sky a bright figure of a warrior beckoning him

onwards; and the Crusaders pressed forward with renewed courage until

they found themselves masters of the holy city (July 15, 1099). It was

noted that this was at three o'clock on a Friday afternoon,--the same

day of the week, and the same hour of the day, when our Blessed Lord was

crucified.

I shall not tell you of the butchery and of the other shocking things

which the Crusaders were guilty of when they got possession of

Jerusalem. They were, indeed, wrought up to such a state that they were

not masters of themselves. At one moment they were throwing themselves

on their knees with tears of repentance and joy; and then again they

would start up and break lose into some frightful acts of cruelty and

plunder against the conquered enemy, sparing neither old man, nor woman,

nor child.

PART III.

Eight days after the taking of Jerusalem, the Crusaders met to choose a

king. Robert of Normandy was one of those who were proposed; but the

choice fell on Godfrey of Bouillon. But the pious Godfrey said that he

would not wear a crown of gold when the King of kings had been crowned

with thorns; and he refused to take any higher title than that of

Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre.

Godfrey did not live long to enjoy his honours, and his brother,

Baldwin, was chosen in his room. The kingdom of Jerusalem was

established, and pilgrims soon began to stream afresh towards the sacred

places. But, although we might have expected to find that this recovery

of the Holy Land from the Mahometans by the Christians of the West would

have led to union of the Greek and Latin Churches, it unhappily turned

out quite otherwise. The popes set up a Latin patriarch, with Latin

bishops and clergy, against the Greeks, and the two Churches were on

worse terms than ever.

This crusade was followed by others, as we shall see by and by; but

meanwhile, I may say that, although the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was

never strong, and soon showed signs of decay, these crusades brought the

nations of the West, which fought side by side in them, to know more of

each other; that they served to increase trade with the East, and so to

bring the produce of the Eastern countries within the reach of

Europeans; and, as I have said already,[74] they greatly helped to

increase the power of the popes, who had seen their way to take the

direction of them, and thus get a stronger hold than before on the

princes and people of Western Christendom.

[74] Page 199.

CHAPTER X.

NEW ORDERS OF MONKS.--MILITARY ORDERS.

In the times of which I have lately been speaking, the monks did much

valuable service to the Church and to the world in general. It was

mostly through their labours that heathen nations were converted to the

Gospel, that their barbarous roughness was tamed, and that learning,

although it had greatly decayed, was not altogether lost. Often, where

monks had built their houses in lonely places, little clusters of huts

grew up round them, and in time these clusters of huts became large and

important towns. Monks were very highly thought of, and sometimes it was

seen that kings and queens would leave all their worldly grandeur, and

would withdraw to spend their last years under the quiet roof of a

monastery. But it was found, at the same time, that monks were apt to

fall away from the strict rules by which they were bound, so that

reforms were continually needed among them.

As the popes became more powerful, they found the monks valuable friends

and allies, and they gave _exemptions_ to many monasteries; that is to

say, they took it on themselves to set those monasteries free from the

control which the bishops had held over them, so that the monks of these

exempt places did not own any bishop at all, and would not allow that

any one but the pope was over them.

I have already told you of the rule which was drawn up for monks by St.

Benedict of Nursia.[75] Some other rules were afterwards made, such as

that of Columban, an Irish abbot, who for many years (A.D. 589-615)

laboured in France, Switzerland, and the north of Italy. Columban went

more into little matters than Benedict had done, and laid down exact

directions in cases where Benedict had left the abbots of monasteries to

settle things as they should think fit. Thus Columban's rule laid down

that any monk who should call anything his own should receive six

strokes, and appointed the same punishment for every one who should omit

to say _Amen_ after the abbot's blessing, or to make the sign of the

cross over his spoon or his candle; for every one who should talk at

meals, or should cough at the beginning of a psalm. There were ten

strokes for striking the table with a knife, or for spilling beer on it;

and for heavier offences the punishment sometimes rose as high as two

hundred: besides that, other punishments were used, such as fasting on

bread and water, psalm-singing, humble postures, and long times of

silence.

[75] Part I., p. 150.

Still, however, Benedict's rule was that by which the greater part of

the Western monks were governed. But, although they were under the same

rule, they had no other connexion with each other; each company of monks

stood by itself, having no tie outside its own walls. There was not as

yet, in the West, anything like the society which St. Pachomius had long

before established in Egypt,[76] where all the monasteries were supposed

to be as so many sisters, and all owned the mother-monastery as their

head. It was not until the tenth century that anything of this kind was

set on foot in the Western Church.

[76] See Part I., p. 62.

(1.) In the year 912, an abbot named Berno founded a new society at

Cluny, in Burgundy. He began with only twelve monks; but by degrees the

fame of Cluny spread, and the pattern which had been set there was

copied far and wide, until at length more than two thousand monasteries

were reckoned as belonging to the "Congregation" (as it was called), or

Order of Cluny; and all these looked up to the great abbot of the

mother-monastery as their chief. The early abbots of Cluny were very

remarkable men, and took a great part in the affairs both of the Church

and of kingdoms: some of them even refused the popedom; and bishops

placed themselves under them, as simple monks of Cluny, for the sake of

their advice and teaching.

The founders of the Cluniac order added many precepts to the rule of St.

Benedict. Thus the monks were required to swallow all the crumbs of

their bread at the end of every meal; and when some of them showed a

wish to escape this duty, they were frightened into obedience by an

awful tale that a monk, when dying, saw at the end of his bed a great

sack of the crumbs which he had left on the table rising up as a witness

against him. The monks were bound to keep silence at times; and we are

told that, rather than break this rule, one of them allowed his horse to

be stolen, and another let himself be carried off as a prisoner by the

Northmen. During these times of silence they made use of a set of signs,

by which they were able to let each other know what they wanted.

This congregation of Cluny, then, was the first great monkish order in

the West, and others soon followed it. They were mostly very strict at

first--some of them so strict that they not only forbade all luxury in

the monks, but would not allow any fine buildings, or any handsome

furniture in their churches. But in general the monks soon got over this

by saying that, as their buildings and their services were not for

themselves, but for God, their duty was to honour Him by giving Him of

the best that they could.

These orders were known from each other by the difference of their

dress: thus the Benedictines were called Black Monks, the Cistercians

were called White Monks, and at a later time we find mention of Black

Friars, White Friars, Grey Friars, and so forth.

(2.) About the time of Gregory VII., several new orders were founded;

and of these the most famous were the Carthusians and the Cistercians.

As to the beginning of the Carthusian order, a strange story is told.

The founder, Bruno, is said to have been studying at Paris, when a

famous teacher, who had been greatly respected for his piety, died. As

his funeral was on its way to the grave, the corpse suddenly raised

itself from the bier, and uttered the words, "By God's righteous

judgment I am accused!" All who were around were struck with horror, and

the burial was put off until the next day. But then, as the mourners

were again moving towards the grave, the dead man rose up a second time,

and groaned out, "By God's righteous judgment I am judged!" Again the

service was put off; but on the third day, the general awe was raised to

a height by his lifting up his head and saying, "By God's righteous

judgment I am condemned!" And it is said that on this discovery as to

the real state of a man who had been so highly honoured for his supposed

goodness, Bruno was so struck by a feeling of the hollowness of all

earthly judgment that he resolved to hide himself in a desert.

I have given this story as a sample of the strange tales which have been

told and believed; but not a word of it is really true, and Bruno's

reasons for withdrawing from the world were of quite a different kind.

It is, however, true that he did withdraw into a wild and lonely place,

which is now known as the Great Chartreuse, among rough and awful rocks,

near Grenoble; and there an extremely severe rule was laid down for the

monks of his order (A.D. 1084). They were to wear goatskins next to the

flesh, and their dress was altogether to be of the coarsest and roughest

sort. On three days of each week their food was bread and water; on the

other days they were allowed some vegetables; but even their highest

fare on holidays was cheese and fish, and they never tasted meat at all.

Once a week they submitted to be flogged, after confessing their sins.

They spoke on Sundays and festivals only, and were not allowed to use

signs like the Cluniacs. It is to be said, to the credit of the

Carthusians, that, although their order grew rich and built splendid

monasteries and churches, they always kept to their hard way of living,

more faithfully, perhaps, than any other order.

(3.) The Cistercian order, which I have mentioned, was founded by Robert

of Moleme (A.D. 1098), and took its name from its chief monastery,

Citeaux, or, in Latin, _Cistercium_. The rule was very strict. From the

middle of September to Easter they were to eat but one meal daily.

Their monasteries were not to be built in towns, but in lonely places.

They were to shun pomp and pride in all things. Their services were to

be plain and simple, without any fine music. Their vestments and all the

furniture of their churches were to be coarse and without ornament. No

paintings, nor sculptures, nor stained glass were allowed. The ordinary

dress of the monks was to be white.

At first it seemed as if the hardness of the Cistercian rule prevented

people from joining. But the third abbot of Citeaux, an Englishman,

named Stephen Harding, when he was distressed at the slow progress of

the order, was comforted by a vision in which he saw a multitude washing

their white robes in a fountain; and very soon the vision seemed to be

fulfilled. In 1113 Bernard (of whom we shall hear more presently)

entered the monastery of Citeaux, and by and by the order spread so

wonderfully that it equalled the Cluniac congregation in the number of

houses belonging to it. These were not only connected together like the

Cluniac monasteries, but had a new kind of tie in the general chapters,

which were held every year. For these general chapters every abbot of

the order was required to appear at Citeaux, to which they all looked up

as their mother. Those who were in the nearer countries were bound to

attend every year; those who were further off, once in three, or five,

or seven years, according to distance. Thus the smaller houses were

allowed to have a share in the management of the whole; and the plan was

afterwards imitated by Carthusians and other orders.

(4.) I need not mention any more of the societies of monks which began

about the same time; but I must not omit to say that the Crusades gave

rise to what are called _military orders_, of which the first and most

famous were the Templars and the Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John.

These orders were governed by rules which were much like those of the

monks; but the members of them were knights, who undertook to defend the

Holy Land against the unbelievers. The Hospitallers were at first

connected with a hospital which had been founded at Jerusalem for the

benefit of pilgrims by some Italian merchants, and took its name from

St. John, an archbishop of Alexandria, who was called the Almsgiver.

They had a black dress, with a white cross on the breast, and, from

having been at first employed in nursing the sick and relieving the

poor, they became warriors who fought against the Mussulmans.

The Templars, who wore a white dress, with a red cross on the breast,

were even more famous as soldiers than the Hospitallers. The knights of

both these orders were bound by their rules to remain unmarried, to be

regular and frequent in their religious exercises, to live plainly, to

devote themselves to the defence of the Christian faith and of the Holy

Land; and for the sake of this work emperors, kings, and other wealthy

persons bestowed lands and other gifts on them, so that they had large

estates in all the countries of Europe. But as they grew rich, they

forgot their vows of poverty and humility, and, although they kept up

their character for bravery, they were generally disliked for their

pride and insolence.

We shall see by and by how it was that the order of the Temple came to

ruin. But the Hospitallers lasted longer. When the Christians were

driven out of the Holy Land, the knights of this order removed first to

Cyprus, then to Rhodes, and, last of all, to Malta, where they continued

even until quite late times.

Other military orders were founded after the pattern of the Templars and

the Hospitallers. The most famous of them were the Teutonic (or German)

knights, who fought the heathens on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and

got possession of a large country, which afterwards became the kingdom

of Prussia; and the order of St. James, which belonged to Spain, and

there carried on a continual war with the Mahometan Moors, whose

settlement in that country has already been mentioned.[77]

[77] Page 170.

CHAPTER XI.

ST. BERNARD.

A.D. 1091-1153.

PART I.

St. Bernard was mentioned a little way back,[78] when we were speaking

of the Cistercian order. But I must now tell you something more

specially about him; for Bernard was not only famous for his piety and

for his eloquent speech, but by means of these he gained such power and

influence that he was able to direct the course of things in the Church

in such a way as no other man ever did.

[78] Page 209.

Bernard, then, was born near Dijon, in Burgundy, in the year 1091. His

father was a knight; his mother, Aletha, was a very religious woman, who

watched carefully over his childhood, and prayed earnestly and often

that he might be kept from the dangers of an evil world. As Bernard was

passing from boyhood to youth, the good Aletha died. We are told that

even to her last breath she joined in the prayers and psalm-singing of

the clergy who stood round her bed; and he afterwards fancied that she

appeared to him in visions, warning him lest he should run off in

pursuit of worldly learning so as to forget the importance of religion

above all things.

After a time, Bernard was led to resolve on becoming a monk. But before

doing so he contrived to bring his father, his uncle, his five brothers,

and his sister to the same mind; and when he asked leave to enter the

Cistercian order, it was at the head of a party of more than thirty. It

is said that, as they were setting out, the eldest brother saw the

youngest at play, and told him that all the family property would now

fall to him. "Is it heaven for you, and earth for me?" said the boy;

"that is not a fair division;" and he followed Bernard with the rest.

We have seen that, although the Cistercian order had been founded some

years, people were afraid to join it because the rule was so strict.[79]

But the example of Bernard and his companions had a great effect, and so

many others were thus led to enter the order, that the mother-monastery

was far too small to hold them. Bernard was chosen to be head of one of

the swarms which went forth from Citeaux. The name of his new monastery

was Clairvaux, which means _The Bright Valley_. When he and his party

first settled there, they had to bear terrible hardships. They suffered

from cold and from want of clothing. For a time they had to feed on

porridge made of beech-leaves; and even when the worst distress was

over, the plainness and poverty of their way of living astonished all

who saw it.

[79] Page 209.

Bernard himself went so far in mortification that he made himself very

ill, and would most likely have died, if a bishop, who was his friend,

had not stepped in and taken care of him for a time. Bernard afterwards

understood that he had been wrong in carrying things so far; but the

people who saw how he had worn himself down by fasting and frequent

prayer, were willing to let themselves be led to anything that so

saintly a man might recommend to them. It was even believed that he had

the gift of doing miracles; and this added much to the admiration which

he raised wherever he went.

Perhaps there never was a man who had greater influence than Bernard;

for, although he did not rise to be anything more than Abbot of

Clairvaux, and refused all higher offices, he was able, by the power of

his speech, and by the fame of his saintliness, to turn kings and

princes, popes and emperors, and even whole assemblies of men, in any

way that he pleased. When two popes had been chosen in opposition to

each other, Bernard was able to draw all the chief princes of

Christendom into siding with that pope whose cause he had taken up; and

when the other pope's successor had been brought so low that he could

carry on his claims no longer, he went to Bernard, entreating him to

plead for him with the successful pope, Innocent II., and was led by the

abbot to throw himself humbly as a penitent at Innocent's feet.

Some years after this, one of Bernard's old pupils was chosen as pope,

and took the name of Eugenius III. Eugenius was much under the direction

of his old master, and Bernard, like a true friend, wrote a book "On

Consideration," which he sent to Eugenius, showing him the chief faults

which were in the Roman Church, and earnestly exhorting the pope to

reform them.

PART II.

Bernard was even the chief means of getting up a new crusade. When

tidings came from the East that the Christians in those parts had

suffered heavy losses (A.D. 1145), he travelled over great part of

France and along the river Rhine in order to enlist people for the holy

war. He gathered meetings, at which he spoke in such a way as to move

all hearts, and stirred up his hearers to such an eagerness for

crusading that they even tore the clothes off his back in order to

divide them into little bits, which might serve as crusaders' badges.

And he drew in the emperor Conrad and king Lewis VII. of France, besides

a number of smaller princes, to join the expedition, although it was so

hard to persuade Conrad, that, when at last he was brought over, it was

regarded as a miracle.

It had been found, at the time of the first crusade, that many people

were disposed to fall on the Jews of their own neighbourhood, as being

enemies of Christ no less than the Mahometans of the Holy Land, and the

same was repeated now. But Bernard strongly set his face against this

kind of cruelty, and was not only the means of saving the lives of many

Jews, but brought the chief preacher of the persecution to own with

sorrow and shame that he had been utterly wrong.

Although, however, a vast army was raised for the recovery of the Holy

Land, and although both the emperor and the French king went at the head

of it, nothing came of the crusade except that vast numbers of lives

were sacrificed without any gain; and even Bernard's great fame as a

saint was not enough to protect him from blame on account of the part

which he had taken in getting up this unfortunate attempt.

These were some of the most remarkable things in which Bernard's command

over men's minds was shown; and he was able also to get the better of

some persons who taught wrong or doubtful opinions, even although they

may have been men of sharper wits and of greater learning than himself.

In short, Bernard was the leading man of his age. No doubt he believed

many things which we should think superstitious or altogether wrong; and

in his conduct we cannot help noticing some tokens of human

frailty--especially a jealous love of the power and influence which he

had gained. But, although he was not without his defects, we cannot fail

to see in him an honest, hearty, and laborious servant of God, and we

shall not wish to grudge him the title of _saint_, which was granted to

him by a pope in 1173, and has ever since been commonly attached to his

name. Bernard died in 1153.

CHAPTER XII.

ADRIAN IV.--ALEXANDER III.--BECKET.--THE THIRD CRUSADE.

A.D. 1153-1192.

In the year of Bernard's death Adrian IV. was chosen pope; and he is

especially to be noted by us because he was the only Englishman who ever

held the papacy. His name at first was Nicolas Breakspeare; and he was

born near St. Albans, where, in his youth, he asked to be received into

the famous abbey as a monk. But the monks of St. Albans refused him; and

he then went to seek his fortune abroad, where he rose step by step,

until at length the poor Hertfordshire lad, who would have had no chance

of any great place in his own country (for he was of Saxon family, and

the Normans, after the Conquest, kept all the good places for

themselves), was chosen to be the head of Christendom (A.D. 1154).

Adrian had a high notion of the greatness and dignity of his office.

When the emperor Frederick I. (who is called _Barbarossa_, or

_Redbeard_) went from Germany into Italy, and was visited in his camp by

the pope, Adrian required that the emperor should hold his stirrup as he

mounted his horse, and said that such had been the custom from the time

of the great Constantine. Frederick had never heard of such a thing

before, and was not willing to submit; but on inquiry he found that a

late emperor, Lothair III., had held a pope's stirrup, and then he

agreed to do the like. But he took care to do it so awkwardly that every

one who saw it began to laugh; and thus he made his submission appear

like a joke.

Frederick Redbeard carried on a long struggle with the popes. When, at

Adrian's death, two rival popes had been chosen (A.D. 1159), the emperor

required them to let him judge between their claims; and, as one of

them, Alexander III., refused to admit any earthly judge, Frederick took

part with the other, who called himself Victor IV. And when Victor was

dead, Frederick set up three more anti-popes, one after another, to

oppose Alexander.

But Alexander had the kings of France and England on his side, and at

last he not only got himself firmly settled, but brought Frederick to

entreat for peace with him, and with some cities of North Italy, which

had formed themselves into what was called the Lombard League (A.D.

1177). But we must not believe a story that, when this treaty was

concluded in the great church of St. Mark at Venice, the pope put his

foot on the emperor's neck, and the choir chanted the words of the 91st

Psalm, "Thou shalt go upon the lion and the adder:" for this story was

not made up until long after, and has no truth at all in it.

It was in Alexander III.'s time that the great quarrel between Henry II.

of England and Archbishop Thomas Becket took place. Becket had been

raised by the king's favour to be his chancellor, and afterwards to be

archbishop of Canterbury and head of all the English clergy (A.D. 1162).

But, although until then he had done everything just as the king wished,

no sooner had he become archbishop than he turned round on Henry. He

claimed that any clergyman who might be guilty of crimes should not be

tried by the king's judges, but only in the Church's courts. He was

willing to allow that, if a clergyman were found guilty of a great crime

in these courts, he might be degraded,--that is to say, that he should

be turned out of the ranks of the clergy,--and that, when he had thus

become like other men, he might be tried like any other man for any

fresh offences which he might commit. But for the first crime Becket

would allow no other punishment than degradation at the utmost. The king

said that in such matters clergy and laity ought to be alike; and about

this chiefly the two quarrelled, although there were also other matters

which helped to stir up the strife.

In order to get out of the king's way, the archbishop secretly left

England (A.D. 1164), and for six years he lived in France, where king

Lewis treated him with much kindness, partly because this seemed a good

way to annoy the king of England. But at length peace was made, and

Becket had returned to England, when some new acts of his provoked the

king to utter some hasty words against him; whereupon four knights, who

thought to do Henry a service, took occasion to try to seize the

archbishop, and, as he refused to go with them, murdered him in his own

cathedral (A.D. 1170). But as you must have read the story of Becket in

the history of England, I need not spend much time in repeating it.

In 1185, when Urban III. was pope, tidings reached Europe that

Jerusalem had been taken by the great Mussulman hero and conqueror,

Saladin; and at once all Western Christendom was stirred up to make a

grand attempt for the recovery of the Holy City. The lion-hearted

Richard of England, Philip Augustus of France, and the emperor Frederick

Redbeard, who had lately made his peace with the pope, were all to take

part; but very little came of it. Frederick, after having successfully

made his way by Constantinople into Asia Minor, was drowned in the river

Cydnus, in Cilicia. Richard, Philip, and other leaders, after reaching

the Holy Land, quarrelled among themselves; and the Crusaders, after a

vast sacrifice of life, returned home without having effected the

deliverance of Jerusalem. You will remember how Richard, in taking his

way through Austria, fell into the hands of the emperor Henry VI., the

son of Frederick Redbeard, and was imprisoned in Germany until his

subjects were able to raise the large sum which was demanded for his

ransom.

CHAPTER XIII.

INNOCENT THE THIRD.

A.D. 1198-1216.

PART I.

The popes were continually increasing their power in many ways, although

they were often unable to hold their ground in their own city, but were

driven out by the Romans, so that they were obliged to seek a refuge in

France, or to fix their court for a time in some little Italian town.

They claimed the right of setting up and plucking down emperors and

kings. Instead of asking the emperor to confirm their own election to

the papacy, as in former times, they declared that no one could be

emperor without their consent. They said that they were the chief lords

over kingdoms; they required the emperors to hold their stirrup as they

mounted on horseback, and the rein of their bridle as they rode. And

while such was their treatment of earthly princes, they also steadily

tried to get into their own hands the powers which properly belonged to

bishops, so that the bishops should seem to have no rights of their own,

but to hold their office and to do whatever they did only through the

pope's leave and as his servants. They contrived that, whenever any

difference arose in the Church of any country, instead of being settled

on the spot, it should be carried by an appeal to Rome, that the pope

might judge it. They declared themselves to be above any councils of

bishops, and claimed the power of assembling general councils, although

in earlier times this power had belonged to the emperors, as was seen in

the case of the first great council of Nicaea. They interfered with the

election of bishops, and with the appointment of clergy to offices, in

every country; and they sent into every country their ambassadors, or

_legates_ (as they were called), whom they charged people to respect and

obey as they would respect and obey the pope himself. These legates

usually made themselves hated by their pride and greediness; for they

set themselves up far above the archbishops and bishops of any country

that they might be sent into, and they squeezed out from the clergy of

each country which they visited the means of keeping up their pomp and

splendour.

The popes who followed Gregory VII. all endeavoured to act in his

spirit, and to push the claims of their see further and further. And of

these popes, by far the strongest and most successful was Innocent III.,

who was only thirty-seven years old when he was elected in 1198. I have

told you how Gregory said that the papacy was as much greater than any

earthly power as the sun is than the moon. And now Innocent carried out

this further by saying that, as the lesser light (the moon) borrows of

the greater light (the sun), so the royal power is borrowed from the

priestly power.

Innocent pretended to a right of judging between the princes who

claimed the empire and the kingdom of Germany, and of making an emperor

by his own choice. He forced the king of France, Philip Augustus, to do

justice to a virtuous Danish princess, whom he had married and had

afterwards put away. And he forced John of England to accept Stephen

Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, although Langton was appointed by

the pope without any regard to the rights of the clergy or of the

sovereign of England. Both in France and in England Innocent made use of

what was called an _interdict_ to make people submit to his will. By

this sentence (which had first come into use about three hundred years

before), a whole country was punished at once, the bad and the good

alike; all the churches were closed, all the bells were silenced, all

the outward signs of religion were taken away. There was no blessing for

marriage, there were no prayers at the burial of the dead; the baptism

of children and the office for the dying were the only services of the

Church which were allowed while the interdict lasted. And it was

commonly found, that, although a king might not himself care for any

spiritual threats or sentences which the pope might utter, he was unable

to hold out against the general feeling of his people, who could not

bear to be without the rites of religion, and cried out that the

innocent thousands were punished for the sake of one guilty person.

John was completely subdued to the papacy, and agreed to give up his

crown to the pope's commissioner, Pandulf; after which he received it

again from Pandulf's hands, and promised to hold the kingdoms of England

and Ireland under the condition of paying a yearly tribute as an

acknowledgment that the pope was his lord.

Archbishop Langton, although he had been forced on the English Church by

the pope, yet afterwards took a different line from what might have been

expected. For when John, by his tyranny, provoked his barons to rise

against him, the archbishop was at the head of those who wrung from the

king the Great Charter as a security for English liberty; and, although

the pope was violently angry, and threatened to punish the archbishop

and the barons severely, Langton stood firmly by the cause which he had

taken up.

PART II.

While Innocent was thus carrying things with a high hand among the

Christians of the West, he could not but feel distress about the state

of affairs in the East. There, countries which had once been Christian,

and among them the Holy Land, where the Saviour had lived and died, had

fallen into the hands of unbelievers, and all the efforts which had been

made to recover them had hitherto been vain. The pope's mind was set on

a new crusade, and in order to raise money for it he gave much out of

his own purse, stinted himself as to his manner of living, obliged the

cardinals and others around him to do the like, and caused collections

to be gathered throughout Western Christendom. Eloquent preachers were

sent about to stir people up to the great work, and the chief beginning

was made at a place called Ecry, in the north of France. It so happened

that the most famous of the preachers, whose name was Fulk, arrived

there just as a number of nobles and knights were met for a tournament

(which was the name given to the fights of knights on horseback, which

were regarded as sport, but very often ended in sad earnest). Fulk, by

the power of his speech, persuaded most of these gallant knights at Ecry

to take the cross; and, as the number of Crusaders grew, some of them

were sent to Venice, to provide means for their being carried by sea to

Egypt, which was the country in which it was thought that the Mahometans

might be attacked with the best hope of success.

When these envoys reached Venice, which was then the chief trading city

of Europe, they found the Venetians very willing to supply what they

wanted. It was agreed that for a certain sum of money the Venetians

should prepare ships and provisions for the number of Crusaders which

was expected; and they did so accordingly. But when the Crusaders came,

it was found that their numbers fell short of what had been reckoned on;

for many had chosen other ways of going to the East; and, as the

Venetians would take nothing less than the sum which they had bargained

for, the Crusaders, with their lessened numbers, found themselves unable

to pay. In this difficulty, the Venetians proposed that, instead of the

money which could not be raised, the Crusaders should give them their

help against the city of Zara, in Dalmatia, with which Venice had a

quarrel. The Crusaders were very unwilling to do this; because the pope,

in giving his consent to their enterprise, had forbidden them to turn

their arms against any Christians. But they contrived to persuade

themselves that the pope's words were not to be understood too exactly;

and at a meeting in the great church of St. Mark, Henry Dandolo, the

doge or duke of Venice, took the cross, and declared to the vast

multitude of citizens and Crusaders who crowded the church that,

although he was ninety-four years of age, and almost or altogether

blind, he himself would be the leader.

A fleet of nearly five hundred vessels sailed from Venice accordingly

(Oct., 1202), and Zara was taken after a siege of six days, although the

inhabitants tried to soften the feelings of the besiegers by displaying

crosses and sacred pictures from the walls, as tokens of their

brotherhood in Christ. After this success, the Crusaders were bound by

their engagement to go on to Egypt or the Holy Land; but a young Greek

prince, named Alexius, entreated them to restore his father, who had

been dethroned by a usurper, to the empire of the East; and, although

the French were unwilling to undertake any work that might interfere

with the recovery of the Holy Land, the Venetians, who cared little for

anything but their own gain, persuaded them to turn aside to

Constantinople.

When the Crusaders came in sight of the city, they were so astonished at

the beauty of its lofty walls and towers, of its palaces and its many

churches, that (as we are told) the hearts of the boldest among them

beat with a feeling which could not be kept down, and many of them even

burst into tears. They found the harbour protected by a great chain

which was drawn across the mouth of it; but this chain was broken by the

force of a ship which was driven against it with the sails swollen by a

strong wind. The blind old doge, Henry Dandolo, stood in the prow of the

foremost ship, and was the first to land in the face of the Greeks who

stood ready to defend the ground. Constantinople was soon won, and the

emperor, who had been deposed and blinded by the usurper, was brought

from his dungeon, and was enthroned in the great church of St. Sophia,

while his son Alexius was anointed and crowned as a partner in the

empire.

But quarrels soon arose between the Greeks and the Latins. Alexius was

murdered by a new usurper; his father died of grief: and the Crusaders

found themselves drawn on to conquer the city afresh for themselves.

This conquest was disgraced by much cruelty and unchecked plunder; and

the religion of the Greeks was outraged by the Latin victors as much as

it could have been by heathen barbarians.

The Crusaders set up an emperor and a patriarch of their own, and the

Greek clergy were forced to give way to Latins. The pope, although he

was much disappointed at finding that his plan for the recovery of the

Holy Land had come to nothing, was yet persuaded by the greatness of the

conquest to give a kind of approval to it. But the Latin empire of the

East was never strong; and after about seventy years it was overthrown

by the Greeks, who drove out the Latins and restored their own form of

Christian religion.

Innocent did not give up the notion of a crusade, and at a later time he

sent about preachers to stir up the people of the West afresh; but

nothing had come of this when the pope died. I must, however, mention a

strange thing which arose out of this attempt at a crusade.

A shepherd boy, named Stephen, who lived near Vendome, in the province

of Orleans, gave out that he had seen a vision of the Saviour, and had

been charged by Him to preach the cross. By this tale Stephen gathered

some children about him, and they set off for the crusade, displaying

crosses and banners, and chanting in every town or village through which

they passed, "O Lord, help us to recover Thy true and holy cross!" When

they reached Paris, there were no less than 15,000 of them, and as they

went along their numbers became greater and greater. If any parents

tried to keep back their children from joining them, it was of no use;

even if they shut them up, it was believed that the children were able

to break through bars and locks in order to follow Stephen and his

companions. Ignorant people fancied that Stephen could work miracles,

and treasured up threads of his dress as precious relics. At length the

company, whose numbers had reached 30,000, arrived at Marseilles, where

Stephen entered the city in a triumphal car, surrounded on all sides by

guards. Some shipowners undertook to convey the child-crusaders to Egypt

and Africa for nothing; but these were wretches who meant to sell them

as slaves to the Mahometans; and this was the fate of such of the

children as reached the African coast, after many of them had been lost

by shipwreck on the way.

Innocent, although he had nothing to do with this crusade, or with one

of the same kind which was got up in Germany, declared that the zeal of

the children put to shame the coldness of their elders, whom he was

still labouring, with little success, to enlist in the cause of the Holy

Land.

PART III.

A war of a different kind, but which was also styled a crusade, was

carried on in the south of France while Innocent was pope. In that

country there were great numbers of persons who did not agree with the

Roman Church, and who are known by the names of Waldenses and

Albigenses. The opinions of these two parties differed greatly from each

other. The Waldenses, whose name was given to them from Peter Waldo, of

Lyons, who founded the party about the year 1170, were a quiet set of

people, something like the Quakers of our own time. They dressed and

lived plainly, they were mild in their manners, and used some rather

affected ways of speech; they thought all war and all oaths wrong, they

did not acknowledge the claims of the clergy, and, although they

attended the services of the Church, it is said that they secretly

mocked at them. They were fond of reading the Holy Scripture in their

own language, while the Roman Church would only allow it to be read in

Latin, which was understood by few except the clergy, and not by all of

_them_. And so eager were the Waldenses to bring people to their own way

of thinking, that we are told of one of them, a poor man, who, after his

day's work, used to swim across a river in wintry nights, that he might

reach a person whom he wished to convert.

The Albigenses, on whom the persecution chiefly fell, held something

like the doctrines of Manes, whom I mentioned a long way back,[80] so

that they could not properly be considered as Christians at all. But,

although we cannot think well of their doctrines, the treatment of these

people was so cruel and so treacherous as to raise the strongest

feelings of anger and horror in all who read the accounts of it. Tens of

thousands were slain, and their rich and beautiful country was turned

into a desert.

[80] Part I., p. 110.

The chief leader of the crusade in the south of France was Simon de

Montfort, father of that Earl Simon who is famous in the history of

England. Innocent, although he seems to have been much deceived by those

who reported matters to him, was grievously to blame for having given

too much countenance to the cruelties and injustice which were practised

against the unhappy Albigenses.

Among the clergy who accompanied the Crusaders into southern France and

tried to bring over the Albigenses and Waldenses to the Roman Church was

a Spaniard named Dominic, who afterwards became famous as the founder

of an order of mendicant friars (that is to say, _begging brothers_). He

also founded the Inquisition, which was a body intended to search out

and to put down all opinions differing from the doctrines of the Roman

Church. But the cruelty, darkness, and treachery of its proceedings were

so shocking, that, although Dominic was certainly its founder, we need

not suppose that he would have approved of all its doings.

The Waldenses and Albigenses had been used to reproach the clergy of the

Church for their habits of pomp and luxury; and Dominic had done what he

could to meet these charges by the plainness and hardness of the life

which he and his companions led while labouring in the south of France.

And when he resolved to found a new order of monks, he carried the

notion of poverty to an extreme. His followers were to be not only poor,

but beggars. They were to live on alms, and from day to day, refusing

any gifts of money so large as to give the notion of a settled provision

for their needs.

PART IV.

About the same time another great begging order was founded by Francis,

who was born in 1182 at Assisi, a town in the Italian duchy of Spoleto.

The stories as to his early days are very strange; indeed, it would seem

that, when he was struck with a religious idea, he could not carry it

out without such oddities of behaviour as in most people would look like

signs of a mind not altogether right. When Francis heard in church our

Lord's charge to His apostles, that they should go forth without money

in their purses, or a staff, or scrip, or shoes, or changes of raiment

(_St. Matt._ x. 9, 10), he went before the bishop of Assisi, and,

stripping off all his other clothes, he set forth to preach repentance

without having anything on him but a rough gray woollen frock, with a

rope tied round his waist. He fancied that he was called by a vision to

repair a certain church; and he set about gathering the money for this

purpose by singing and begging in the streets. He felt an especial

charity for lepers, who, on account of their loathsome disease, were

shut out from the company of men, and were subject to miseries of many

kinds; and, although many hospitals had already been founded in various

countries for these unfortunate people, the kindness which Francis

showed to them had a great effect in lightening their lot, so far as

human fellow-feeling could do so.

Francis wished his followers to study humility in all ways. They were to

seek to be despised, and were told to be uneasy if they met with usage

of any other kind. They were not to let themselves be called _brethren_

but _little brethren_; they must try to be reckoned as less than any

other persons. They were especially to be on their guard against the

pride of learning; and, in order to preserve them from the danger of

this, Francis would hardly allow them even a book of the Psalms. But, in

truth, all these things might really be turned the opposite way, and in

making such studied shows of humility it was quite possible that the

Franciscans might fall under the temptations of pride.

Francis was very fond of animals, which he treated as reasonable

creatures, speaking to them by the names of brothers and sisters. He

used to call his own body _brother ass_, on account of the heavy burdens

and the hard usage which it had to bear. He kept a sheep in church, and

it is said that the creature, without any training, used to take part in

the services by kneeling and bleating at proper times. He preached to

flocks of birds on the duty of thanking their Maker for His goodness to

them; nay, he preached to fishes, to worms, and even to flowers.

Perhaps the oddest story of this kind is one about his dealing with a

wolf which infested the neighbourhood of Gubbio. Finding that every one

in the place was overcome by fear of this fierce beast, Francis went out

boldly to the forest where the wolf lived, and, meeting him, began to

talk to him about the wickedness of killing, not only brute animals,

but men; and he promised that, if the wolf would give up such evil ways,

the citizens of Gubbio would maintain him. He then held out his right

hand; whereupon the wolf put his paw into it as a sign of agreement, and

allowed the saint to lead him into the town. The people of Gubbio were

only too glad to fulfil the promise which Francis had made for them; and

they kept the wolf handsomely, giving him his meals by turns, until he

died of old age, and in such general respect that he was lamented by all

Gubbio.

There is a strange story that Francis, towards the end of his life,

received in his body what are called the _stigmata_ (that is to say, the

marks of the wounds which were made in our Lord's body at the

crucifixion). And a great number of other superstitious tales became

connected with his name; but with such things we need not here trouble

ourselves.

* * * * *

When Dominic and Francis each applied to Pope Innocent for his approval

of their designs to found new orders, he was not forward to give it;

but, on thinking the matter over, he granted them what they asked. Each

of them soon gathered followers, who spread into all lands. The

Franciscans, especially, made converts from heathenism by missions; and

these orders, by their rough and plain habits of life, made their way to

the hearts of the poorest classes in a degree which had never been known

before. And the influence which they thus gained was all used for the

papacy, which found them the most active and useful of all its servants.

In the year 1215, Innocent held a great council at Rome, what is known

as the fourth Lateran Council, and is to be remembered for two of its

canons; by one of which the false doctrine of the Roman Church as to the

sacrament of the Lord's Supper was, for the first time, established; and

by the other, it was made the duty of every one in the Roman Church to

confess to the priest of his parish at least once a year.

CHAPTER XIV.

FREDERICK II.--ST. LEWIS OF FRANCE.

A.D. 1220-1270.

PART I.

The popes still tried to stir up the Christians of the West for the

recovery of the Holy Land; and there were crusading attempts from time

to time, although without much effect. One of these crusades was

undertaken in 1228 by Frederick II., an emperor who was all his life

engaged in struggles against one pope after another. Frederick had taken

the cross when he was very young; but when once any one had done so, the

popes thought that they were entitled to call on him to fulfil his

promise at any time they pleased, no matter what other business he might

have on his hands. He was expected to set off on a crusade whenever the

pope might bid him, although it might be ruinous to him to be called

away from his own affairs at that time.

In this way, then, the popes had got a hold on Frederick, and when he

answered their summons by saying that his affairs at home would not just

then allow him to go on a crusade, they treated this excuse as if he had

refused altogether to go; they held him up to the world as a faithless

man, and threatened to put his lands under an interdict,[81] and to take

away his crown. And when at last Frederick found himself able to go to

the Holy Land, the pope and his friends set themselves against him with

all their might, saying that he was not hearty in the cause, and even

that he was not a Christian at all. So that, although Frederick made a

treaty with the Mahometans by which a great deal was gained for the

Christians, it came to little or nothing, because the popes would not

confirm it.

[81] See page 219.

I need not say much more about Frederick II. There was very much in him

that we cannot approve of or excuse; but he met with hard usage from the

popes, and after his death (A.D. 1250) they pursued his family with

constant hatred, until the last heir, a spirited young prince named

Conradin, who boldly attempted to recover the dominions of his family in

Southern Italy, was made prisoner and executed at Naples in 1268.

PART II.

At the same time with Frederick lived a sovereign of a very different

kind, Lewis IX. of France, who is commonly called St. Lewis, and

deserves the name of _saint_ better than very many persons to whom it is

given. There was a great deal in the religion of Lewis that we should

call superstition; but he laboured very earnestly to live up to the

notions of Christian religion which were commonly held in his time. He

attended several services in church every day, and when he was told that

his nobles found fault with this, he answered, that no one would have

blamed him if he had spent twice as much time in hunting or in playing

at dice. He was diligent in all other religious exercises, he refrained

from all worldly sports and pastimes, and, as far as could be, he

shunned the pomp of royalty. He was very careful never to use any words

but such as were fit for a Christian. He paid great respect to clergy

and monks, and said that if he could divide himself into two, he would

give one half to the Dominicans and the other half to the Franciscans.

It is even said that at one time he would himself have turned friar, if

his queen had not persuaded him that he would do better by remaining a

king and studying to govern well and to benefit the Church.

But with all this, Lewis took care that the popes should not get more

power over the French Church than he thought due to them. And if any

bishop had tried to play the same part in France which Becket played in

English history, we may be sure that St. Lewis would have set himself

steadily against him.

In 1244 Jerusalem was taken by the Mongols, a barbarous heathen people,

who had none of that respect which the Mahometans had shown for the holy

places of the Jewish and Christian religions; thus these holy places

were now profaned in a way which had not been known before, and stories

of outrages done by the new conquerors, with cries for help from the

Christians of the Holy Land, reached the West.

Soon after this King Lewis had a dangerous illness, in which his life

was given over. He had been for some time speechless, and was even

supposed to be dead, when he asked that the cross might be given to him;

and as soon as he had thus engaged himself to the crusade he began to

recover. His wife, his mother, and others tried to persuade him that he

was not bound by his promise, because it had been made at a time when he

was not master of himself; but Lewis would not listen to such excuses,

and resolved to carry it out faithfully. The way which he took to enlist

companions was very curious. On the morning of Christmas day, when a

very solemn service was to be held in the chapel of his palace (a chapel

which is still to be seen, and is among the most beautiful buildings in

Paris), he caused dresses to be given to the nobles as they were going

in; for this was then a common practice with kings at the great

festivals of the Church. But when the French lords, after having

received their new robes in a place which was nearly dark, went on into

the chapel, which was bright with hundreds of lights, each of them found

that his dress was marked with a cross, so that, according to the

notions of the time, he was bound to go to the holy war.

PART III.

The king did what he could to raise troops, and appointed his mother,

Queen Blanche, to govern the kingdom during his absence; and, after

having passed a winter in the island of Cyprus, he reached Damietta, in

Egypt, on the 5th of June, 1249. For a time all went well with the

Crusaders; but soon a change took place, and everything seemed to turn

against them. They lost some of their best leaders; a plague broke out

and carried off many of them; they suffered from famine, so that they

were even obliged to eat their horses; and the enemy, by opening the

sluices of the Nile, let loose on them the waters of the river, which

carried away a multitude. Lewis himself was very ill, and at length he

was obliged to surrender to the enemy, and to make peace on terms far

worse than those which he had before refused.

But even although he was a prisoner, his saintly life made the

Mahometans look on him with reverence; so that when the Sultan to whom

he had become prisoner was murdered by his own people, they thought of

choosing the captive Christian king for their chief. Lewis refused to

make any treaty for his deliverance unless all his companions might have

a share in it; and, although he might have been earlier set free, he

refused to leave his captivity until all the money was made up for the

ransom of himself and his followers. On being at length free to leave

Egypt, he went into the Holy Land, where he visited Nazareth with deep

devotion. But, although he eagerly desired to see Jerusalem, he denied

himself this pleasure, from a fear that the crusading spirit might die

out if the first of Christian kings should consent to visit the holy

city without delivering it from the unbelievers.

After an absence of six years, Lewis was called back to France by

tidings that his mother, whom he had left as regent of the kingdom, was

dead (A.D. 1254). But he did not think that his crusading vow was yet

fulfilled; and sixteen years later he set out on a second attempt, which

was still more unfortunate than the former. On landing at Tunis, he

found that the Arabs, instead of joining him, as he had expected,

attacked his force; but these were not his worst enemies. At setting

out, the king had been too weak to bear armour or to sit on horseback;

and after landing he found that the bad climate, with the want of water

and of wholesome food, spread death among his troops. One of his own

sons, Tristan, who had been born during the king's captivity in Egypt,

fell sick and died. Lewis himself, whose weak state made him an easy

victim to disease, died on the 25th of August, 1270, after having shown

in his last hours the piety which had throughout marked his life. And,

although his eldest son, Philip, recovered from an attack which had

seemed likely to be fatal, the Crusaders were obliged to leave that

deadly coast with their number fearfully lessened, and without having

gained any success. Philip, on his return to France, had to carry with

him the remains of his father, of his brother, of one of his own

children, and of his brother-in-law, the king of Navarre. Such was the

sad end of an expedition undertaken by a saintly king for a noble

purpose, but without heeding those rules of prudence which, if they

could not have secured success, might at least have taught him to

provide against some of the dangers which were fatal to him.

CHAPTER XV.

PETER OF MURRONE.

A.D. 1294.

In that age the papacy was sometimes long vacant, because the cardinals,

who were the highest in rank of the Roman clergy, and to whom the choice

of a pope belonged, could not agree. In order to get over this

difficulty, rules were made for the purpose of forcing the cardinals to

make a speedy choice. Thus, at a council which was held by Pope Gregory

X. at Lyons, in 1274 (chiefly for the sake of restoring peace and

fellowship between the Greek and Latin Churches), a canon was made for

the election of popes. This canon directed that the cardinals should

meet for the choice of a new pope within ten days after the last pope's

death; that they should all be shut up in a large room, which, from

their being locked in together, was called the _conclave_;[82] that they

should have no means of speaking or writing to any person outside, or of

receiving any letters; that their food should be supplied through a

window; that, if they did not make their choice within three days, their

provisions should be stinted, and if they delayed five days more,

nothing should be given them but bread and water. By such means it was

thought that the cardinals might be brought to settle the election of a

pope as quickly as possible.

[82] _Con_ meaning _together_, and _clavis_ meaning _a key_.

We can well believe that the cardinals did not like to be put under such

rules. They contrived that later popes should make some changes in them,

and tried to go on as before, putting off the election so long as seemed

desirable for the sake of their own selfish objects. At one time, when

there had been no pope for six months, the people of Viterbo confined

the cardinals in the public hall of their city until an election should

be made. At another time, the cardinals were shut up in a Roman

monastery, where six of them died of the bad air. But one cardinal, who

was more knowing than the rest, drove off the effect of the air by

keeping up fires in all his rooms, even through the hottest weather; and

at length he was chosen pope.

On the death of this pope, Nicolas IV. (A.D. 1292), his office was

vacant for two years and a quarter; and when the cardinals then met, it

seemed as if they could not fix on any successor. But one day one of

them told the rest that a holy man had had a vision, threatening heavy

judgments unless a pope were chosen within a certain time; and he gave

such an account of this holy man that all the cardinals were struck at

once with the idea of choosing _him_ for pope. His name was Peter of

Murrone. He lived as a hermit in a narrow cell on a mountain; and there

he was found by certain bishops who were sent by the cardinals to tell

him of his election. He was seventy-two years of age; roughly dressed,

with a long white beard, and thin from fasting and hard living. He could

speak no other tongue than the common language of the country-folks

around, and he was quite unused to business of any kind, so that he

allowed himself to be led by any one who would take the trouble. The

fame of Peter's holiness had been widely spread, and he was even

supposed to do miracles; so that his election was welcomed by

multitudes. Two hundred thousand persons flocked to see his coronation,

where the old man appeared in the procession riding on an ass, with his

reins held by the king of Naples on one side and by the king's son on

the other (A.D. 1294).

This king of Naples, Charles II., got the poor old pope completely into

his power. He made him take up his abode at Naples, where Celestine V.

(as he was now called) tried to carry on his old way of life by getting

a cell built in his palace, just like his old dwelling on the rock of

Fumone; and into this little place he would withdraw for days, leaving

all the work of his office to be done by some cardinals whom he trusted.

Other stories are told which show that Celestine was quite unfit for his

office. The cardinals soon came to think that they had made a great

mistake in choosing him; and at length the poor old man came to think so

too. One of the cardinals, Benedict Gaetani, who had gained a great

influence over his mind, persuaded him that the best thing he could do

was to resign; and, after having been pope about five months, Celestine

called the cardinals together, and read to them a paper, in which he

said that he was too old and too weak to bear the burden of his office;

that he wished to return to his former life of quiet and contemplation.

He then put off his robes, took once more the rough dress which he had

worn as a hermit, and withdrew to his old abode. But the jealousy of his

successor did not allow him to remain there in peace. It was feared that

the reverence in which the old hermit was held by the common people

might lead to some disturbance; and to prevent this he was shut up in

close confinement, where he lived only about ten months. The poorer

people had all manner of strange notions about his holiness and his

supposed miracles; and about twenty years after his death, he was

admitted into the Roman list of saints.

CHAPTER XVI.

BONIFACE VIII.

A.D. 1294-1303.

PART I.

In Celestine's place was chosen Benedict Gaetani, who, although even

older than the worn-out and doting late pope, was still full of

strength, both in body and in mind. Benedict (who took the name of

Boniface VIII.) is said to have been very learned, especially in matters

of law; but his pride and ambition led him into attempts which ended in

his own ruin, and did serious harm to the papacy.

In the year 1300 Boniface set on foot what was called the Jubilee. You

will remember the Jubilee which God in the Law of Moses commanded the

Israelites to keep (Leviticus xxv.). But this new Jubilee had nothing to

do with the law of Moses, and was more like some games which were

celebrated every hundredth year by the ancient Romans. Nothing of the

sort had ever before been known among Christians; but when the end of

the thirteenth century was at hand, it was found that people's minds

were full of a fancy that the year 1300 ought to be a time of some great

celebration. Nay, they were even made to believe that such a way of

keeping every hundredth year had been usual from the beginning of the

Church, although (as I have said) there was no ground whatever for this

notion; and one or two lying old men were brought forward to pretend

that when children they had attended a former jubilee a hundred years

before!

How the expectation of the jubilee was got up we do not know. Most

likely Boniface had something to do with it; at all events, he took it

up and reaped the profits of it. He sent forth letters offering

extraordinary spiritual benefits to all who should visit Rome and the

tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul during the coming year; and immense

numbers of people flocked together from all parts of Europe. It is said

that all through the year there were two hundred thousand strangers in

Rome; for as some went away, others came to fill up their places. The

crowd is described to us as if, in the streets and on the bridge leading

to the great church of St. Peter's, an army were marching each way.

It is said that Boniface appeared one day in the robes of a pope, and

next day in those of an emperor, with a sword in his hand, and that he

declared to some ambassadors that he was both pope and emperor. And

after all this display of his pride and grandeur, he found himself much

enriched by the offerings which the pilgrims had made; for these were so

large, that in one church alone (as we are told) two of the clergy were

employed day and night in gathering them in with long rakes. If this be

anything like the truth, the whole amount collected from the pilgrims at

the jubilee must have been very large indeed.

PART II.

Boniface got into serious quarrels with princes and others; but the most

serious of them all was a quarrel with Philip IV. of France, who is

called _The Fair_ on account of his good looks--not that there was any

fairness in his character, for it would not be easy to name any one more

utterly _un_fair. If Boniface wished to exalt himself above princes,

Philip, who was a thoroughly hard, cold, selfish man, was no less

desirous to get the mastery over the clergy; and it was natural that

between two such persons unpleasant differences should arise. I need

not mention the particulars, except that Boniface wrote letters which

seemed to forbid the clergy of any kingdom to pay taxes and such-like

dues to their sovereign, and to claim for the pope a right to dispose of

the kingdoms of the earth. Philip, provoked by this, held meetings of

what were called the _estates_ of France,--clergy, nobles, and

commons,--and charged the pope with all sorts of vices and crimes, even

with disbelief of the Christian faith. The estates declared against the

pope's claims; and when Boniface summoned a council of bishops from all

countries to meet at Rome, Philip forbade the French bishops to obey,

and all but a few stayed away. One of the pope's letters to the king was

cut in pieces and thrown into the fire, and the burning was proclaimed

through the streets of Paris with the sound of the trumpet.

The pope was greatly enraged by Philip's conduct. He prepared a bull by

which the king was declared to be excommunicated and to be deprived of

his crown; and it was intended to publish this bull on the 8th of

September, 1303, at Anagni, Boniface's native place, where he was

spending the summer months. But on the day before something took place

which hindered the carrying out of the pope's design.

Early in his reign Boniface had been engaged in a quarrel with the

Colonnas, one of the most powerful among the great princely families of

Rome. He had persecuted them bitterly, had deprived them of their

estates and honours, and, after having got possession of a fortress

belonging to them by treachery, he had caused it to be utterly

destroyed, and the ground on which it stood to be ploughed up and sown

with salt. The Colonnas were scattered in all quarters, and it is said

that one of them, named James, who was a very rough and violent man, had

been for a time in captivity among pirates, and was delivered from this

condition by the money of the French king, who wished to make use of

him.

On the 7th of September, 1303, this James Colonna, with other persons

in King Philip's service, appeared at Anagni with an armed force, and

made their way to the pope's palace. Boniface sent to ask what they

wanted; and in answer they required that he should give up his office,

should restore the Colonnas to all that they had lost, and should put

himself into the hands of James Colonna. On his refusal, they set fire

to the doors of a church which adjoined the palace, and rushed in

through the flames. Boniface heard the forcing of the doors which were

between them and the room in which he was; and as one door after another

gave way with a crash, he declared himself resolved to die as became a

pope. He put on the mantle of his office, with the imperial crown which

bore the name of Constantine; he grasped his pastoral staff in one hand

and the keys of St. Peter in the other, and, taking his seat on his

throne, he awaited the approach of his enemies. On entering the room,

even these rude and furious men were awed for a moment by his venerable

and dauntless look; but James Colonna, quickly overcoming this feeling,

required him to resign the papacy. "Behold my neck and my head,"

answered Boniface: "if I have been betrayed like Christ, I am ready to

die like Christ's vicar." Colonna savagely dragged him from the throne,

and is said to have struck him on the face with his mailed hand, so as

to draw blood. Others of the party poured forth torrents of reproaches.

The pope was hurried into the streets, was paraded about the town on a

vicious horse, with his face toward the tail, and was then thrown into

prison, while the ruffians plundered the palaces and churches of Anagni.

The citizens, in their surprise and alarm, had allowed these things to

pass without any check. But two days later they took heart, and with the

help of some neighbours got the better of the pope's enemies and

delivered him from prison. He was brought out on a balcony in the

market-place, where his appearance raised the pity of all, for he had

tasted nothing since his arrest. The old man begged that some good woman

would save him from dying by hunger. On this the crowd burst out into

cries of, "Life to you, holy father!" and immediately people hurried

away in all directions, and came back with abundance of food and drink

for his relief. The pope spoke kindly to all who were near him, and

pronounced forgiveness of all but those who had plundered the Church.

Boniface was soon afterwards removed to Rome. But the sufferings which

he had gone through had been too much for a man almost ninety years old

to bear. His mind seems to have given way; and there are terrible

stories (although we cannot be sure that they are true) about the manner

of his death, which took place within a few days after he reached the

city (Nov. 22, 1303). It was said of him, "He entered like a fox, he

reigned like a lion, he went out like a dog;" and although this saying

was, no doubt, made up after his end, it was commonly believed to have

been a prophecy uttered by old Pope Celestine, to whom he had behaved so

treacherously and so harshly.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE POPES AT AVIGNON.--THE RUIN OF THE TEMPLARS.

A.D. 1303-1312.

PART I.

The next pope, Benedict XI., wished to do away with the effects of

Boniface's pride and ambition, and especially to soothe the king of

France, whom Boniface had so greatly provoked. But Benedict died within

about seven months (June 27, 1304) after his election, and it was not

easy to fill up his place. At last, about a year after Benedict's death

(June 5, 1305), Bertrand du Got, archbishop of Bordeaux, was chosen. It

was said that he had held a secret meeting with King Philip in the

depths of a forest, and that, in order to get the king's help towards

his election, he bound himself to do five things which Philip named,

and also a sixth thing, which was not to be spoken of until the time

should come for performing it. But this story seems to have been made up

because the pope was seen to follow Philip's wishes in a way that people

could not understand, except by supposing that he had bound himself by

some special bargain.

For some years Clement V. (as he was called) lived at the cost of French

cathedrals and monasteries, which he visited one after another; and then

(A.D. 1310) he settled at Avignon, a city on the Rhone, where he and his

successors lived for seventy years--about the same length of time that

the Jews spent as captives in Babylon. Hence this stay of the popes at

Avignon has sometimes been spoken of as the "Babylonian Captivity" of

the Church. Although there were some good popes in the course of those

seventy years, the court of Avignon was usually full of luxury and vice,

and the government of the Church grew more and more corrupt.

Philip the Fair was not content with having brought Boniface to his end,

but wished to persecute and disgrace his memory. He caused all sorts of

shocking charges to be brought against the dead pope, and demanded that

he should be condemned as a heretic, and that his body should be taken

up and burnt. By these demands Pope Clement was thrown into great

distress. He was afraid to offend Philip, and at the same time he wished

to save the memory of Boniface; for if a pope were to be condemned in

the way in which Philip wished, it must tell against the papacy

altogether. And besides this, if Boniface had not been a lawful pope (as

Philip and his party said), the cardinals whom he had appointed were not

lawful cardinals, and Clement, who had been partly chosen by their

votes, could have no right to the popedom. He was therefore willing to

do much in order to clear Boniface's memory; and Philip craftily managed

to get the pope's help in another matter on condition that the charges

against Boniface should not be pressed. This is supposed to have been

the secret article which we have heard of in the story of the meeting

in the forest.

PART II.

I have already mentioned the order of Knights Templars, which was formed

in the Holy Land soon after the first crusade.[83] These soldiers of the

cross showed at all times a courage worthy of their profession; but they

also showed faults which were beyond all question. As they grew rich,

they grew proud, and, from having at first been very strict in their way

of living, it was believed that they had fallen into habits of luxury.

They despised all men outside of their own order; they showed no respect

for the kings of Jerusalem, or for the patriarchs, and were, indeed,

continually quarrelling with them.

[83] Page 210.

At this time the number of the Templar Knights was about fifteen

thousand--the finest soldiers in the world; and the whole number of

persons attached to the order was not less than a hundred thousand.

About half of these were Frenchmen, and all the masters or heads of the

order had been French.