But, although the charges which I have mentioned were enough to make the

Templars generally disliked, they were not the worst charges against

them. It was said that during the latter part of their time in the Holy

Land they had grown friendly with the unbelievers, whom they were bound

to oppose in arms to the uttermost; that from such company they had

taken up opinions contrary to the Christian faith, and vices which were

altogether against their duty as soldiers of the Cross, or as Christians

at all; that they practised magic and unholy rites; that when any one

was admitted into the order, he was required to deny Christ, to spit on

the cross and trample on it, and to worship an idol called Baphomet (a

name which seems to have meant the false prophet Mahomet).

Philip the Fair was always in need of money for carrying on his

schemes, and at one time, when some tricks which, he had played on the

coin of his kingdom had provoked the people of Paris to rise against

him, he took refuge in the house of the Templars there. This house

covered a vast space of ground with its buildings, and was finer and

stronger than the royal palace; and it was perhaps the sight which

Philip then got of the wealth and power of the Templars that led him to

attack them, in the hope of getting their property into his own hands.

Philip set about this design very craftily. He invited the masters of

the Templars and of the Hospitallers (whom you will remember as the

other great military order)[84] into France, as if he wished to consult

them about a crusade. The master of the Hospital was unable to obey the

summons; but the master of the Temple, James de Molay, who had been in

the order more than forty years, appeared with a train so splendid that

Philip's greed was still more whetted by the sight of it. The master was

received with great honour; but, in the meantime, orders were secretly

sent to the king's officers all over the kingdom, who were forbidden to

open them before a certain day; and when these orders were opened, they

were found to require that the Templars should everywhere be seized and

imprisoned without delay. Accordingly, at the dawn of the following day,

the Templars all over France, who had had no warning and felt no

suspicion, were suddenly made prisoners, without being able to resist.

[84] See page 209.

Next day, which was Sunday, Philip set friars and others to preach

against the Templars in all the churches of Paris; and inquiries were

afterwards carried on by bishops and other judges as to the truth of the

charges against them. While the trials were going on, the Templars were

very hardly used. All that they had was taken away from them, so that

they were in grievous distress. They were kept in dungeons, were loaded

with chains, ill fed and ill cared for in all ways. They were examined

by tortures, which were so severe that many of them were brought, by

the very pain, to confess everything that they were charged with,

although they afterwards said that they had been driven by their

sufferings to own things of which they were not at all guilty. Many were

burnt in companies from time to time; at one time no fewer than

fifty-four were burnt together at Paris; and such cruelties struck

terror into the rest.

Some of the Templars on their trials told strange stories. They said,

for instance, that some men on being admitted to the order were suddenly

changed, as if they had been made to share in some fearful secrets;

that, from having been jovial and full of life, delighting in horses and

hounds and hawks, they seemed to be weighed down by a deep sadness,

under which they pined away. It is not easy to say what is to be made of

all these stories. As to the ceremonies used at admitting members, it

seems likely enough that the Templars may have used some things which

looked strange and shocking, but which really meant no harm, and were

properly to be understood as figures or acted parables.

The pope seems, too, not to have known what to make of the case; but, as

we have seen, he had bound himself to serve King Philip in the matter of

the Templars, in order that Pope Boniface's memory might be spared. At a

great council held under Clement, at Vienne, in 1312, it was decreed

that the order of the Temple should be dissolved; yet it was not said

that the Templars had been found guilty of the charges against them, and

the question of their guilt or innocence remains to puzzle us as it

puzzled the Council of Vienne.

The master of the Temple, James de Molay, was kept in prison six years

and a half, and was often examined. At last, he and three other great

officers of the order were condemned to imprisonment for life, and were

brought forward on a platform set up in front of the cathedral of Paris

that their sentence might be published. A cardinal began to read out

their confessions; but Molay broke in, denying and disavowing what he

had formerly said, and declaring himself worthy to die for having made

false confessions through fear of death and in order to please the king.

One of his companions took part with him in this; but the other two,

broken down in body and in spirit by their long confinement, had not the

courage to join them. Philip, on hearing what had taken place, gave

orders that James de Molay and the other who took part with him should

be burnt without delay; and on the same day they were led forth to death

on a little island in the river Seine (which runs through Paris), while

Philip from the bank watched their sufferings. Molay begged that his

hands might be unbound; and, as the flames rose around him and his

companion, they firmly declared the soundness of their faith, and the

innocence of the order.

Within nine months after this, Philip died at the age of forty-six (A.D.

1314); and within a few years his three sons, of whom each had in turn

been king of France, were all dead. Philip's family was at an end, and

the crown passed to one of his nephews. And while the clergy supposed

those misfortunes to be the punishment of Philip's doings against Pope

Boniface, the people in general regarded them as brought on by his

persecution of the Templars. It is not for us to pass such judgments at

all; but I mention these things in order to show the feelings with which

Philip's actions and his calamities were viewed by the people of his own

time.

In other countries, such as England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and

Spain, the Templars were arrested and brought to trial; and, rightly or

wrongly, the order was dissolved. Its members were left to find some

other kind of life; and its property was made over to the order of the

Hospital, or to some other military order. In France, however, Philip

contrived to lay his hands on so much that the Hospitallers for a time

were rather made poorer than richer by this addition to their

possessions.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE POPES AT AVIGNON (_continued_).

A.D. 1314-1352.

Pope Clement V. died a few months before Philip (April, 1314), and was

succeeded by John XXII., a Frenchman, who was seventy years old at the

time of his election, and lived to ninety. The most remarkable thing in

John's papacy was his quarrel with Lewis of Bavaria, who had been chosen

emperor by some of the electors, while others voted for Frederick of

Austria. For the choice of an emperor (or rather of a king of the

Romans) had by this time fallen into the hands of seven German princes,

of whom four were laymen and three were the archbishops of Mentz,

Cologne, and Treves. And hence it is that at a later time we find that

some German princes had _elector_ for their title, as the electors of

Hanover and the electors of Brandenburg; and even that the three

clerical electors were more commonly called electors than archbishops.

It is not exactly known when this way of choosing the kings of the

Romans came in; but, as I have said, it was quite settled before the

time of which we are now speaking.

There was, then, a disputed election between Lewis of Bavaria and

Frederick of Austria; and Pope John was well pleased to stand by and

watch their quarrel, so long as they only weakened each other without

coming to any settlement of the question. But when Lewis had got the

better of Frederick, then John stepped in and told him that it was for

the pope to judge in such a case which of the two ought to be king of

the Romans. And he forbade all people to obey Lewis as king, and

declared that whatever he might have done as king should be of no

effect. But people had become used to such sentences, so that they would

not mind them unless they thought them just; and thus Pope John's

thunder was very little heeded. Although he excommunicated Lewis, the

sentence had no effect; and by this and other things (especially a

quarrel which John had with a part of the Franciscan order) people were

set on inquiring into the rights of the papacy in a way which was quite

new, so that their thoughts took a direction which was very dangerous to

the power of the popes.

Lewis answered the pope by setting up an antipope against him. But this

was a thing which had never succeeded; and so it was that John's rival

was obliged to submit, and, in token of the humblest repentance,

appeared with a rope round his neck at Avignon, where the rest of his

life was spent in confinement.

The pope on his part set up a rival emperor, Charles of Moravia, son of

that blind King John of Bohemia whose death at the battle of Cressy is

known to us from the history of England. But Charles found little

support in Germany so long as Lewis was alive.

The next pope, Benedict XII. (A.D. 1334-1342), although of himself he

would have wished to make peace with Lewis, found himself prevented from

doing so by the king of France; and his successor, Clement VI. (A.D.

1342-1352), who had once been tutor to Charles of Moravia, strongly

supported his old pupil. Lewis died excommunicate in 1347, and was the

last emperor who had to bear that sentence. But, although he suffered

much on account of it, he had yet kept his title of emperor as long as

he lived; and he left a strong party of supporters, who were able to

make good terms for themselves before Charles was allowed to take

peaceable possession of the empire.

CHAPTER XIX.

RELIGIOUS SECTS AND PARTIES.

While the popes were thus trying to lord it over all men, from the

emperor downwards, there were many who hated their doctrines and would

not allow their authority. The Albigenses and Waldenses, although

persecuted as we have seen, still remained in great numbers, and held

the opinions which had drawn so much suffering on them. The Albigenses,

indeed, were but a part of a greater body, the _Cathari_, who were

spread through many countries, and had an understanding and fellowship

with each other which were kept up by secret means. And there were other

sects, of which it need only be said here that in general their opinions

were very wild and strange, and very unlike, not only to the papal

doctrines, but to the Christianity of the Bible and of the early Church.

Whenever any of the clergy, from the pope downwards, gave an occasion by

pride or ambition, or worldly living, or neglect of duty, or any other

fault, these sects took care to speak of the whole Church as having

fallen from the faith, and to gain converts for themselves by pointing

out the blemishes which were allowed in it.

On the other hand, as I have mentioned,[85] the Inquisition was set on

foot for the discovery and punishment of such doctrines as the Roman

Church condemned; and it was worked with a secrecy, an injustice, and a

cruelty which made men quake with fear wherever it was established. It

is a comfort to know that in the British islands this hateful kind of

tyranny never found a footing.

[85] Page 225.

There were large numbers of persons called Mystics, who thought to draw

near to God, and to give up their own will to His will, in a way beyond

what ordinary believers could understand. Among these was a society

which called itself the _Friends of God_; and these friends belonged to

the Church at the same time that they had this closer and more secret

tie of union among themselves. There is a very curious story how John

Tauler, a Dominican friar of Strasburg, was converted by the chief of

this party, Nicolas of Basel. Tauler had gained great fame as a

preacher, and had reached the age of fifty-two, when Nicolas, who had

been one of his hearers, visited him, and convinced him that he was

nothing better than a Pharisee. In obedience to the direction of

Nicolas, Tauler shut himself up for two years, without preaching or

doing any other work as a clergyman, and even without studying. When, at

the end of that time, he came forth again to the world, and first tried

to preach, he burst into tears and quite broke down; but on a second

trial, it was found that he preached in a new style, and with vastly

more of warmth and of effect than he had ever done before. Tauler was

born in 1294, and died in 1361.

In these times many were very fond of trying to make out things to come

from the prophecies of the Old Testament and of the Revelation, and some

people of both sexes supposed themselves to have the gift of prophecy.

And in seasons of great public distress, multitudes would break out into

some wild sort of religious display, which for a time carried everything

before it, and seemed to do a great deal of good, although the wiser

people looked on it with distrust; but after a while it passed away,

leaving those who had taken part in it rather worse than better than

before. Among the outbreaks of this kind was that of the _Flagellants_,

which showed itself several times in various places. The first

appearance of it was in 1260, when it began at Perugia, in the middle of

Italy, and spread both southwards to Rome and northwards to France,

Hungary, and Poland. In every city, large companies of men, women, and

children moved about the streets, with their faces covered, but their

bodies naked down to the waist. They tossed their limbs wildly, they

dashed themselves down on the ground in mud or snow, and cruelly

_flagellated_ (or flogged) themselves with whips, while they shouted out

shrieks and prayers for mercy and pardon.

Again, after a terrible plague called the Black Death, which raged from

Sicily to Greenland about 1349,[86] parties of flagellants went about

half-naked, singing and scourging themselves. Whenever the Saviour's

sufferings were mentioned in their hymns, they threw themselves on the

ground like logs of wood, with their arms stretched out in the shape of

a cross, and remained prostrate in prayer until a signal was given them

to rise.

[86] See page 191.

These movements seemed to do good at first by reconciling enemies and by

forcing the thoughts of death and judgment on ungodly or careless

people. But after a time they commonly took the line of throwing

contempt on the clergy and on the sacraments and other usual means of

grace. And when the stir caused by them was over, the good which they

had appeared to do proved not to be lasting.

CHAPTER XX.

JOHN WYCLIF.

(BORN ABOUT 1324. DIED 1384.)

At this time arose a reformer of a different kind from any of those who

had gone before him. He was a Yorkshireman, named John Wyclif, who had

been educated at Oxford, and had become famous there as a teacher of

philosophy before he began to show any difference of opinions from those

which were common in the Church. Ever since the time when King John

disgusted his people by his shameful submission to the pope,[87] there

had been a strong feeling against the papacy in England; and it had been

provoked more and more, partly because the popes were always drawing

money from this country, and thrusting foreigners into the richer

places of the English Church. These foreigners squeezed all that they

could out of their parishes or offices in England; but they never went

near them, and would have been unable to do much good if they had gone,

because they did not understand the English language. And another

complaint was, that, while the popes lived at Avignon, they were so much

in the hands of their neighbours, the kings of France, that the English

had no chance of fair play if any question arose between the two

nations, and the pope could make himself the judge. And thus the English

had been made ready enough to give a hearing to any one who might teach

them that the popes had no right to the power which they claimed.

[87] Page 219.

There had always been a great unwillingness to pay the tribute which

King John had promised to the Roman see. If the king was weak, he paid

it; if he was strong, he was more likely to refuse it. And thus it was

that the money had been refused by Edward I., paid by Edward II., and

again refused by Edward III., whom Pope Urban V., in 1366, asked to pay

up for thirty-three years at once. In this case, Wyclif took the side of

his king, and maintained that the tribute was not rightly due to the

pope. And from this he went on to attack the corruptions of the Church

in general. He set himself against the begging friars, who had come to

great power, worming themselves in everywhere, so that they had brought

most of the poorer people to look only to them as spiritual guides, and

to think nothing of the parish clergy. In order to oppose the friars,

Wyclif sent about the country a set of men whom he called _poor

priests_. These were very like the friars in their rough dress and

simple manner of living, but taught more according to a plain

understanding of the Scriptures than to the doctrines of the Roman

Church. It is said that once, when Wyclif was very ill, and was supposed

to be dying, some friars went to him in the hope of getting him to

confess that he repented of what he had spoken and written and done

against them. But Wyclif, gathering all his strength, rose up in his

bed, and said, in words which were partly taken from the 118th Psalm, "I

shall not die but live, and declare the evil deeds of the friars." He

was several times brought before assemblies of bishops and clergy, to

answer for his opinions; but he found powerful friends to protect him,

and always came off without hurt.

It was in Wyclif's time that the rebellion of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw

broke out, as we read in the history of England (A.D. 1381); but,

although Wyclif's enemies would have been very glad to lay some of the

blame of it at his door, it is quite certain that he had nothing to do

with it in any way.

In those days almost all books were written in Latin, so that none but

learned people could read them. But Wyclif, although he wrote some books

in Latin for the learned, took to writing other books in good, plain

English, such as every one could understand; and thus his opinions

became known to people of all classes. But the greatest thing that he

did was the translation of the Bible into English. The Roman Church

would not allow the Scriptures to be turned into the language of the

country, but wished to keep the knowledge of it for those who could read

Latin, and expected the common people to content themselves with what

the Church taught. But Wyclif, with others who worked under him,

translated the whole Bible into English, so that all might understand

it. We must remember, however, that there was no such thing as printing

in his days, so that every single book had to be written with the pen,

and of course books were still very dear, and could not be at all

common.

It is said that Pope Urban V. summoned Wyclif to appear before him at

Rome; but Wyclif, who was old, and had been very ill, excused himself

from going; and soon after this he died, on the last day of the year

1384.

Wyclif had many notions which we cannot agree with; and we have reason

to thank God's good providence that the reform of the Church was not

carried out by him, but at a later time and in a more moderate and

sounder way than he would have chosen. But we must honour him as one

who saw the crying evils of the Roman Church and honestly tried to cure

them.

Wyclif's followers were called _Lollards_, I believe from their habit of

_lulling_ or chanting to themselves. After his death they went much

farther than he had done, and some of them grew very wild in their

opinions, so that they would not only have made strange changes in

religious doctrine, but would have upset the government of kingdoms.

Against them a law was made by which persons who differed from the

doctrines of the Roman Church were sentenced to be burnt, under the name

of heretics, and many Lollards suffered in consequence. The most famous

of these was Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, a brave but rather

hot-headed and violent soldier, who was suspected of meaning to get up a

rebellion. For this and his religious opinions together he was burnt in

Smithfield, which was then just outside London (A.D. 1417); the same

place where, at a later time, many suffered for their religion in the

reigns of Henry VIII. and Mary.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE POPES RETURN TO ROME.

A.D. 1367-1377.

While the popes lived at Avignon, Rome suffered very much from their

absence. There was nothing like a regular government. The great Roman

families (such as the Colonnas, whom I have mentioned in speaking of

Boniface VIII.) carried on their quarrels with each other, and no one

attempted or was strong enough to check them. Murders, robberies, and

violences of all sorts were common. The vast and noble buildings which

had remained from ancient times were neglected; the churches and

palaces fell to decay; even the manners of the Romans became rough and

rude, from the want of anybody to teach them better and to show them an

example.

And not only Rome, but all Italy missed the pope's presence. The princes

carried on their wars by means of hired bands of soldiers, who were

mostly strangers from beyond the Alps. These bands hired out their

services to any one who would pay enough, and, although they were

faithful to each employer for the time that was agreed on, they were

ready at the end of that time to engage themselves for money to one who

might be their late master's enemy. The most famous captain of such

hireling soldiers was Sir John Hawkwood, an Englishman, who is commonly

said to have been a tailor in London before he took to arms; but this I

believe to be a mistake. He fought for many years in Italy, and a

picture of him on horseback, which serves for his monument, is still to

be seen in Florence Cathedral.

The Romans again and again entreated the popes to come back to their

city. The chief poet and writer of the age, Petrarch, urged them both in

verse and in prose to return. But the cardinals, who at this time were

mostly Frenchmen, had grown so used to the pleasures of Avignon that

they did all they could to keep the popes there. At length, in 1367,

Urban V. made his way back to Rome, where the emperors both of the East

and of the West met to do him honour; but after a short stay in Italy he

returned to Avignon, where he soon after died (A.D. 1370). His

successor, Gregory XI., however, was more resolute, and removed the

papacy to Rome in 1377; and this was the end of what was styled the

seventy years' captivity in Babylon.[88]

[88] See page 240.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE GREAT SCHISM.

A.D. 1378-1410.

Gregory XI. died in 1378, and the choice of a successor to him was no

easy matter. The Romans were bent on having a countryman of their own,

that they might be sure of his continuing to live among them. They

guarded the gates, they brought into the city a number of rough and

half-savage people from the hills around, to terrify the cardinals; and,

when these were shut up for the election, the mob surrounded the palace

in which they were, with cries of "We will have a Roman, or at least an

Italian!" Day and night their shouts were kept up, with a frightful din

of other kinds. They broke into the pope's cellars, got drunk on the

wine, and were thus made more furious than before. At length, the

cardinals, driven to extreme terror, made choice of Bartholomew

Prignano, archbishop of Bari, in south Italy, who was not one of their

own number. It is certain that he was not chosen freely, but under fear

of the noise and threats of the Roman mob; but all the forms which

follow after the election of a pope, such as that of coronation, were

regularly gone through, and the cardinals seem to have given their

approval of the choice in such a way that they could not well draw back

afterwards.

But Urban VI. (as the new pope called himself), although he had until

then been much esteemed as a pious and modest man, seems to have lost

his head on being raised to his new office. He held himself vastly above

the cardinals, wishing to reform them violently, and to lord it over

them in a style which they had not been used to. By such conduct he

provoked them to oppose him. They objected that he had not been freely

chosen, and also that he was not in his right mind; and a party of them

met at Fondi, and chose another pope, Clement VII., a Frenchman, who

settled at Avignon.

Thus began what is called the Great Schism of the West. There were now

two rival popes--one of them having his court at Rome, and the other at

Avignon; and the kingdoms of Europe were divided between the two. The

cost of keeping up two courts weighed heavily on the Christians of the

West; and all sorts of tricks were used to squeeze out fees and money on

all possible occasions. As an instance of this, I may mention that

Boniface IX., one of the Roman line of popes, celebrated two jubilees,

with only ten years between them, although in Boniface VIII.'s time it

had been supposed that the jubilee was to come only once in a hundred

years.

The princes of Europe were scandalized by this division, and often tried

to heal it, but in vain; for the popes, although they professed to

desire such a thing, were generally far from hearty in saying so. At

length it seemed as if the breach were to be healed by a council held at

Pisa in 1409, which set aside both the rivals, and elected a new pope,

Alexander V. But it was found that the two old claimants would not give

way; and thus the council of Pisa, in trying to cure the evil of having

two popes, had saddled the Church with a third.

Alexander did not hold the papacy quite eleven months (June, 1409, to

May, 1410). He had fallen wholly under the power of a cardinal named

Balthasar Cossa; and this cardinal was chosen to succeed him, under the

name of John XXIII. John was one of the worst men who ever held the

papacy. It is said that he had been a pirate, and that from this he had

got the habit of waking all night and sleeping by day. He had been

governor of Bologna, where he had indulged himself to the full in

cruelty, greed, and other vices. He was even suspected of having

poisoned Alexander; and, although he must no doubt have been a very

clever man, it is not easy to understand how the other cardinals can

have chosen one who was so notoriously wicked to the papacy.

CHAPTER XXIII.

JOHN HUSS.

A.D. 1369-1414.

It would seem that after a time Wyclif's opinions almost died out in

England. But meanwhile they, or opinions very like them, were eagerly

taken up in Bohemia. If we look at the map of Europe, we might think

that no country was less likely than Bohemia to have anything to do with

England; for it lies in the midst of other countries, far away from all

seas, and with no harbours to which English ships could make their way.

And besides this, the people are of a different race from any that have

ever settled in this country, or have helped to make the English nation,

and their language has no likeness to ours. But it so happened that

Richard II. of England married the Princess Anne, granddaughter of the

blind king who fell at Cressy, and daughter of the emperor Charles IV.,

who usually lived in Bohemia. And when Queen Anne of England died, and

the Bohemian ladies and servants of her court went back to their own

country, they took with them some of Wyclif's writings, which were

readily welcomed there; for some of the Bohemian clergy had already

begun a reform in the Church, and Wyclif's name was well known on

account of his writings of another kind.

Among those who thus became acquainted with Wyclif's opinions was a

young man named John Huss. He had been an admirer of Wyclif's

philosophical works; but when he first met with his reforming books, he

was so little taken with them that he wished they were thrown into the

Moldau, the river which runs through Prague, the chief city of Bohemia.

But Huss soon came to think differently, and heartily took up almost all

Wyclif's doctrines.

Huss made many enemies among the clergy by attacking their faults from

the pulpit of a chapel called Bethlehem, where he was preacher. He was,

however, still so far in favour with the archbishop of Prague, that he

was employed by him, together with some others, to inquire into a

pretended miracle, which drew crowds of pilgrims to seek for cures at a

place called Wilsnack, in the north of Germany. But he afterwards fell

out of favour with the archbishop who had appointed him to this work,

and he was still less liked by later archbishops.

From time to time some doctrines which were said to be Wyclif's were

condemned at Prague. Huss usually declared that Wyclif had been wrongly

understood, and that his real meaning was true and innocent. But at

length a decree was passed that all Wyclif's books should be burnt (A.D.

1410), and thereupon a grand bonfire was made in the courtyard of the

archbishop's palace, while all the church bells of the city were tolled

as at a funeral. But as some copies of the books escaped the flames, it

was easy to make new copies from these.

Huss was excommunicated, but he still went on teaching. In 1412, Pope

John XXIII. proclaimed a crusade against Ladislaus, king of Naples, with

whom he had quarrelled, and ordered that it should be preached, and that

money should be collected for it all through Latin Christendom. Huss and

his chief friend, whose name was Jerome, set themselves against this

with all their might. They declared it to be unchristian that a crusade

should be proclaimed against a Christian prince, and that the favours of

the Church should be held out as a reward for paying money or for

shedding of blood. One day, as a preacher was inviting people to buy his

indulgences (as they were called) for the forgiveness of sins, he was

interrupted by three young men, who told him that what he said was

untrue, and that Master Huss had taught them better. The three were

seized, and were condemned to die; and, although it would seem that a

promise was afterwards given that their lives should be spared, the

sentence of death was carried into effect. The people were greatly

provoked by this, and when the executioner, after having cut off the

heads of the three, proclaimed (as was usual), "Whosoever shall do the

like, let him look for the like!" a cry burst forth from the multitude

around, "We are ready to do and to suffer the like." Women dipped their

handkerchiefs in the blood of the victims, and treasured it up as a

precious relic. Some of the crowd even licked the blood. The bodies were

carried off by the people, and were buried in Bethlehem chapel; and Huss

and others spoke of the three as martyrs.

By this affair his enemies were greatly provoked. Fresh orders were sent

from Rome for the destruction of Wyclif's books, and for uttering all

the heaviest sentences of the Church against Huss himself. He therefore

left Prague for a time, and lived chiefly in the castles of Bohemian

noblemen who were friendly to him, writing busily as well as preaching

against what he supposed to be the errors of the Roman Church.

We shall hear more of Huss by-and-by.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.

A.D. 1414-1418.

PART I.

The division of the Church between three popes cried aloud for

settlement in some way; and besides this there were general complaints

as to the need of reform in the Church. The emperor Sigismund urged Pope

John to call a general council for the consideration of these subjects;

and, although John hated the notion of such a meeting, he could not help

consenting. He wished that the council should be held in Italy, as he

might hope to manage it more easily there than in any country north of

the Alps; and he was very angry when Constance, a town on a large lake

in Switzerland, was chosen as the place. It seemed like a token of bad

luck when, as he was passing over a mountain on his way to the council,

his carriage was upset, and he lay for a while in the snow, using bad

words as to his folly in undertaking the journey; and when he came in

sight of Constance at the foot of the hill, he said that it looked like

a trap for foxes. In that trap Pope John was caught.

The other popes, Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., did not attend,

although both had been invited; but some time after the opening of the

council (which was on the 5th of November, 1414), the emperor Sigismund

arrived. He reached Constance in a boat which had brought him across the

lake very early on Christmas morning, and at the first service of the

festival, which was held before daybreak, he read the Gospel which tells

of the decree of Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. For

it was considered that the emperor was entitled to take this part in the

Christmas service of the Church.

It was proposed that all the three popes should resign, and that a new

pope should be chosen. In answer to this, John said that he was ready to

resign if the others would do the same; but it soon became clear that he

did not mean to keep his promise honestly. He tried by all manner of

tricks to ward off the dangers which surrounded him; and, after he had

more than once tried in vain to get away from Constance, he was able to

escape one day when the members of the council were amusing themselves

at a tournament given by a prince whom John had persuaded to take off

their attention in this way. The council, however, in his absence went

on to examine the charges against him, many of which were so shocking

that they were kept secret, out of regard for his office. John, by

letters and messengers, asked for delay, and did all that he could for

that purpose; but, notwithstanding all his arts, he was sentenced to be

deposed from the papacy for simony (that is, for trafficking in holy

things),[89] and for other offences. On being informed of this, he at

once put off his papal robes, saying, that since he had put them on he

had never enjoyed a quiet day (May 31, 1415).

[89] See page 185.

PART II.

John Huss, the Bohemian reformer, had been summoned to Constance, that

he might give an account of himself, and had been furnished with a

safe-conduct (as it was called), in which the emperor assured him of

protection on his way to the council and back. But, although at first he

was treated as if he were free, it was pretended, soon after his

arrival, that he wished to run away; and under this pretence he was shut

up in a dark and filthy prison. Huss had no friends in the council; for

the reforming part of the members would have nothing to do with him,

lest it should be thought that they agreed with him in all his notions.

And when he was at length brought out from prison, where his health had

suffered much, and when he was required to answer for himself, without

having been allowed the use of books to prepare himself, all the parties

in the council turned on him at once. His trial lasted three days. The

charges against him were mostly about Wyclif's doctrines, which had been

often condemned by councils at Rome and elsewhere, but which Huss was

supposed to hold; and when he tried to explain that in some things he

did not agree with Wyclif, nobody would believe him. Some of his

bitterest persecutors were men who had once been his friends, and had

gone with him in his reforming opinions.

After his trial, Huss was sent back to prison for a month, and all kinds

of ways were tried to persuade him to give up the opinions which were

blamed in him; but he stood firm in what he believed to be the truth. At

length he was brought out to hear his sentence. He claimed the

protection of the emperor, whose safe-conduct he had received (as we

have seen). But Sigismund had been hard pressed by Huss's enemies, who

told him that a promise made to one who is wrong in the faith is not to

be kept; and the emperor had weakly and treacherously yielded, so that

he could only blush for shame when Huss reminded him of the

safe-conduct.

Huss was condemned to death, and was _degraded_ from his orders, as the

custom was; that is to say, they first put into his hands the vessels

used at the consecration of the Lord's Supper, which were the signs of

his being a priest; and by taking away these from him, they reduced him

from a priest to a deacon. Then they took away the tokens of his being a

deacon, and so they stripped him of his other orders, one after another;

and when at last they had turned him back into a layman, they led him

away to be burnt. It is said that, as he saw an old woman carrying a

faggot to the pile which was to burn him, he smiled and said, "O holy

simplicity!" meaning that her intention was good, although the poor old

creature was ignorant and misled. He bore his death with great patience

and courage; and then his ashes and such scorched bits of his dress as

remained were thrown into the Rhine, lest his followers should treasure

them up as relics (July 6, 1415).

About ten months after the death of Huss, his old friend and companion,

Jerome of Prague, was condemned by the council to be burnt, and suffered

with a firmness which even those who were most strongly against him

could not but admire (May 30, 1416).

PART III.

When Pope John had been got rid of, Gregory XII., the most respectable

of the three rival popes, agreed to resign his claims. But the third

pope, Benedict XIII., would hear of no proposals for his resignation,

and shut himself up in a castle on the coast of Spain, where he not only

continued to call himself pope, but after his death two popes of his

line were set up in succession. The council of Constance, however,

finding Benedict obstinate, did not trouble itself further about him,

and went on to treat the papacy as vacant.

There was a great dispute whether the reform of the Church (which people

had long asked for), or the choice of a new pope, should be first taken

in hand; and at length it was resolved to elect a pope without further

delay. The choice was to be made by the cardinals and some others who

were joined with them; and these electors were all shut up in the

Exchange of Constance--a building which is still to be seen there. While

the election was going on, multitudes of all ranks, and even the emperor

himself among them, went from time to time in slow procession round the

Exchange, chanting in a low tone litanies, in which they prayed that the

choice of the electors might be guided for the good of the Church. And

when at last an opening was made in the wall from within, and through it

a voice proclaimed, "We have a pope: Lord Otho of Colonna!" the news

spread at once through all Constance. The people seemed to be wild with

joy that the division of the Church, which had lasted so long, was now

healed. All the bells of the town pealed forth joyfully, and it is said

that a crowd of not less than 80,000 people hurried at once to the

Exchange. The emperor in his delight threw himself at the new pope's

feet; and for hours together vast numbers thronged the cathedral, where

the pope was placed on the high altar, and gave them his blessing. It

was on St. Martin's day, the 11th of November, 1417, that this election

took place; and from this the pope styled himself Martin V. But the joy

which had been shown at his election was more than the effect warranted.

The council had chosen a pope before taking up the reform of the Church;

and the new pope was no friend to reform. During the rest of the time

that the council was assembled, he did all that he could to thwart

attempts at reform; and when, at the end of it, he rode away from

Constance, with the emperor holding his bridle on one side and one of

the chief German princes on the other, while a crowd of princes, nobles,

clergy, and others, as many as 40,000, accompanied him, it seemed as if

the pope had got above all the sovereigns of the world.

The great thing done by the council of Constance was, that it declared a

general council to be above the pope, and entitled to depose popes if

the good of the Church should require it.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE HUSSITES.

A.D. 1418-1431.

The news of Huss's death naturally raised a general feeling of anger in

Bohemia, where his followers treated his memory as that of a saint, and

kept a festival in his honour. And when the emperor Sigismund, in 1419,

succeeded his brother Wenceslaus in the kingdom of Bohemia, he found

that he was hated by his new subjects on account of his share in the

death of Huss.

But, although most of the Bohemians might now be called Hussites, there

were great divisions among the Hussites themselves. Some had lately

begun to insist that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper both the

bread and the wine should be given to all the people, according to our

Lord's own example, instead of allowing no one but the priest to receive

the wine, according to the Roman practice. These people who insisted on

the sacramental cup were called _Calixtines_, from the Latin _calix_,

which means a _cup_ or _chalice_. But among those who agreed in this

opinion there were serious differences as to some other points.

In the summer of 1419, the first public communion was celebrated at a

place where the town of Tabor was afterwards built. It was a very

different kind of ceremony from what had been usual. There were three

hundred altars, but they were without any covering; the chalices were

of wood, the clergy wore only their every-day dress; and a love-feast

followed, at which the rich shared with their poorer brethren. The

wilder party among the Hussites were called _Taborites_, from Tabor,

which became the chief abode of this party. They now took to putting

their opinions into practice. They declared churches and their

ornaments, pictures, images, organs, and the like, to be abominable; and

they went about in bands, destroying everything that they thought

superstitious. And thus Bohemia, which had been famous for the size and

beauty of its churches, was so desolated that hardly a church was left

in it; and those which are now standing have almost all been built since

the time when the Hussites destroyed the older churches.

The chief leader of the Taborites was John Ziska, whose name is said by

some to mean _one-eyed_; and at least he had lost an eye in early life.

Ziska had such a talent for war, that, although his men were only rough

peasants, armed with nothing better than clubs, flails, and such like

tools, which they had been accustomed to use in husbandry, he trained

them to encounter regular armies, and always came off with victory. He

taught his soldiers to make their flails very dangerous weapons by

tipping them with iron; and to place their waggons together in such a

way that each block of waggons made a sort of little fortress, against

which the force of the enemy dashed in vain. But Ziska's bravery and

skill were disgraced by his savage fierceness. He never spared an enemy;

he took delight in putting clergy and monks to the sword, or in burning

them in pitch, and in burning and pulling down churches and monasteries.

In the course of the war he lost his remaining eye; but he still

continued to act as general with the same skill and success as before.

His cruelty became greater continually, and the last year of his life

was the bloodiest.

Ziska died in October, 1424. It is said that he directed that his skin

should be taken off his body, and made into the covering of a drum, at

the sound of which he expected all enemies to flee in terror; but the

story is probably not true. At his death, a part of his old companions

called themselves _orphans_, as if they had lost their father, and could

never find another. But other generals arose to carry on the same kind

of war, while their wild followers were wrought up to a sort of fury

which nothing could withstand.

On the side of the Church a holy war was proclaimed, and vast armies,

made up from all nations of Europe, were gathered for the invasion of

Bohemia. One of these crusades was led by Cardinal Beaufort, bishop of

Winchester, and great-uncle of King Henry VI. of England; another, by a

famous Italian cardinal, Julian Cesarini. But the courage and fury of

the Bohemians, with their savage appearance and their strange manner of

fighting, drove back all assaults, with immense loss, in one campaign

after another; until Cesarini, the leader in the last crusade, was

convinced that there was no hope of putting the Bohemians down by force,

and that some other means must be tried.

CHAPTER XXVI.

COUNCILS OF BASEL AND FLORENCE.

A.D. 1431-9.

It had been settled at the council of Constance that regularly from time

to time there should be held a general council, by which name was then

meant a council gathered from the whole of the Western Church, but

without any representatives of the Eastern Churches; and according to

this decree a council was to meet at Basel, on the Rhine, in the year

1431. It was just before the time of its opening that Cardinal Cesarini

was defeated by the Hussites of Bohemia, as we have seen. Being

convinced that some gentler means ought to be tried with them, he begged

the pope to allow them a hearing; and he invited them to send deputies

to the council of Basel, of which he was president.

The Bohemians did as they were asked to do, and thirty of them appeared

before the council,--rough, wild-looking men for the most part, headed

by Procopius, who was at once a priest and a warrior, and was called the

great, in order to distinguish him from another of the same name. A

dispute, which lasted many weeks, was carried on between the leaders of

these Bohemians and some members of the council; and, at length, four

points were agreed on. The chief of these was, that the chalice at the

Holy Communion should not be confined to the priest alone, but might be

given to such grown-up persons as should desire it. This was one of the

things which had been most desired by the Bohemian reformers. We need

not go further into the history of the Hussites and of the parties into

which they were divided; but it is worth while to remember that the use

of the sacramental cup was allowed in Bohemia for two hundred years,

while in all other churches under the Roman authority it was forbidden.

Soon after the meeting of the council of Basel, the pope, whose name was

Eugenius IV., grew jealous lest it should get too much power, and sent

orders that it should break up. But the members were not disposed to

bear this. They declared that the council was the highest authority in

the Church, and superior to the pope; and they asked Eugenius to join

them at Basel, and threatened him in case of his refusal. Just at that

time Eugenius was driven from Rome by his people, and therefore he found

it convenient to try to smooth over differences, and to keep good terms

with the council; but after a while the disagreement broke out again.

The pope had called a council to meet at Ferrara, in Italy, in order to

consult with some Greeks (at the head of whom were the emperor and the

patriarch of Constantinople) as to the union of the Greek and Latin

Churches; and he desired the members of the Basel council to remove to

Ferrara, that they might take part in the new assembly. But only a few

obeyed; and those who remained at Basel were resolved to carry on their

quarrel to the uttermost. First, they allowed Eugenius a certain time,

within which they required him either to appear at Basel or to send some

one in his stead; then, they lengthened out this time somewhat; and as

he still did not appear, they first suspended him from his office, then

declared him to be deposed, and at length went on to choose another pope

in his stead (Nov. 17, 1439).

The person thus chosen was Amadeus, who for nearly thirty years had been

duke of Savoy, but had lately given over his dukedom to his son, and had

put himself at the head of twelve old knights, who had formed themselves

into an order of hermits at Ripaille, near the lake of Geneva. The new

pope bargained that he should not be required to part with the long

white beard which he had worn as a hermit; but after a while, finding

that it looked strange among the smooth chins of those around him, he,

of his own accord, allowed it to be shaved off. But this attempt to set

up an antipope came to very little. Felix V. (as the old duke called

himself on being elected) was obliged to submit to Eugenius; and the

council of Basel, after dwindling away by degrees, and being removed

from one place to another, died out so obscurely that its end was

unnoticed by any one.

Eugenius held his council at Ferrara, and afterwards removed it to

Florence (A.D. 1438-9); and it seemed as if by his management the

Greeks, who were very poor, and were greatly in need of help against the

Turks, were brought to an agreement with the Latins as to the questions

which had been so long disputed between the Churches. The union of the

Churches was celebrated by a grand service in the cathedral of Florence.

But, as in former times,[90] the Greeks found, on their return home,

that their countrymen would not agree to what had been done; and thus

the breach between the two Churches continued, until a few years later

Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and so the Greek Empire came to

an end.

[90] See page 232.

CHAPTER XXVII.

NICOLAS V. AND PIUS II.

A.D. 1447-1464.

The next pope, Nicolas V., was a man who had raised himself from a

humble station by his learning, ability, and good character. He was

chiefly remarkable for his love of learning, and for the bounty which he

spent on learned men. For learning had come to be regarded with very

high honour, and those who were famous for it found themselves persons

of great importance, who were welcome at the courts of princes, from the

Emperor of the West down to the little dukes and lords of Italy. But we

must not fancy that these learned men were all that they ought to have

been. They were too commonly selfish and jealous, vain, greedy,

quarrelsome, unthrifty; they flattered the great, however unworthy these

might be; and in religion many of them were more like the old heathen

Greeks than Christians.

In the time of Nicolas, a terrible calamity fell on Christendom by the

loss of Constantinople. The Turks, a barbarous and Mahometan people, had

long been pressing on the Eastern empire, and swallowing up more and

more of it. It was the fear of these advancing enemies that led the

Greeks repeatedly to seek for union with the Latin Church, in the hope

that they might thus get help from the West for the defence of what

remained of their empire. But these reconciliations never lasted long,

more especially as the Greeks did not gain that aid from their Western

brethren for the sake of which they had yielded in matters of religion.

One more attempt of this kind was made after the council of Florence;

but it was vain, and in 1453 the Turks, under Sultan Mahomet II., became

masters of Constantinople.

A great number of learned Greeks, who were scattered by this conquest,

found their way into the West, bringing with them their knowledge and

many Greek manuscripts; and such scholars were gladly welcomed by Pope

Nicolas and others. Not only were their books bought up, but the pope

sent persons to search for manuscripts all over Greece, in order to

rescue as much as possible from destruction by the barbarians. Nicolas

founded the famous Vatican library in the papal palace at Rome, and

presented a vast number of manuscripts to it. For it was not until this

very time that printing was invented, and formerly all books were

written by hand, which is a slow and costly kind of work, as compared

with printing. For in writing out books, the whole labour has to be done

for every single copy; but when a printer has once set up his types, he

can print any number of copies without any other trouble than that of

inking the types and pressing them on the paper, by means of a machine,

for each copy that is wanted. The art of printing was brought from

Germany to Rome under Nicolas V., and he encouraged it, like everything

else which was connected with learning.

Nicolas also had a plan for rebuilding Rome in a very grand style, and

began with the Church of St. Peter; which he intended to surround with

palaces, gardens, terraces, libraries, and smaller churches. But he did

not live to carry this work far.

One effect of the new encouragement of learning was, that scholars began

to inquire into the truth of some things which had long been allowed to

pass without question. And thus in no long time the story of

Constantine's donation and the false Decretals[91] were shown to be

forged and worthless.

[91] See page 192.

The shock of the loss of Constantinople was felt all through

Christendom, and Nicholas attempted to get up a crusade, but died before

much came of it. When, however, the Turks, in the pride of victory,

advanced further into Europe, and laid siege to Belgrade on the Danube,

they were driven back with great loss by the skill of John Huniades, a

general, and by the courage which John of Capistrano, a Franciscan

friar, was able by his exhortations and his prayers to rouse in the

hearts of the besieged.

Nicolas died in 1455, and his successor, Calixtus III., in 1458. The

next pope, AEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who took the name of Pius II., was

a very remarkable man. He had taken a strong part against Pope Eugenius

at Basel, and had even been secretary to the old duke-antipope Felix.

But he afterwards made his peace by doing great services to Eugenius,

and then he rose step by step, until at the death of Calixtus he was

elected pope. Pius was a man of very great ability in many ways; but his

health was so much shaken before he became pope, that he was not able to

do all that he might have done if he had been in the fulness of his

strength. He took up the crusade with great zeal, but found no hearty

support from others. A meeting which he held at Mantua for the purpose

had little effect. At last, although suffering from gout and fever, the

pope made his way from Rome to Ancona, on the Adriatic, where he

expected to find both land and sea forces ready for the crusade. But on

the way he fell in with some of the troops which had been collected for

the purpose, and they turned out to be such wretched creatures, and so

utterly unfit for the hardships of war, that he could only give them his

blessing and tell them to go back to their homes. And, although, after

reaching Ancona, he had the pleasure of seeing twenty-four Venetian

ships enter the harbour for his service, he was so worn out by sickness

that he died on the next day but one (Aug. 14, 1464). And after his

death the crusade, on which he had so much set his heart, came to

nothing.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

JEROME SAVONAROLA.

A.D. 1452-1498.

PART I.

There is not much to tell about the popes after Pius II. until we come

to Alexander VI., who was a Spaniard named Roderick Borgia, and was pope

from 1492 to 1503. And the story of Alexander is too shocking to be told

here; for there is hardly anything in all history so bad as the accounts

which we have of him and of his family. He is supposed to have died of

drinking, by mistake, some poison which he had prepared for a rich

cardinal whose wealth he wished to get into his hands.

Instead, therefore, of telling you about the popes of this time, I shall

give some account of a man who became very famous as a preacher--Jerome

Savonarola.

Savonarola was born in 1452 at Ferrara, where his grandfather had been

physician to the duke; and his family wished him to follow the same

profession. But Jerome was set on becoming a monk, and from this nothing

could move him. He therefore joined the Dominican friars, and after a

while he was removed to St. Mark's, at Florence, a famous convent of his

order. He found things in a bad state there; but he was chosen prior (or

head) of the convent, and reformed it, so that it rose in character, and

the number of the monks was much increased. He also became a great

preacher, so that even the vast cathedral of Florence could not hold the

crowds which flocked to hear him. He was especially fond of preaching on

the dark prophecies of the Revelation, and of declaring that the

judgments of God were about to come on Florence and on all Italy because

of sin; and he sometimes fancied that he not only gathered such things

from Scripture, but that they were revealed to him by visions from

heaven.

At this time a family named Medici had got the chief power in Florence

into their hands; and Savonarola always opposed them, because he thought

that they had no right to such power in a city which ought to be free.

But when Lorenzo, the head of the family, was dying (A.D. 1492), he sent

for Savonarola, because he thought him the only one of the clergy who

would be likely to speak honestly to him of his sins, and to show him

the way of seeking forgiveness. Savonarola did his part firmly, and

pointed out some of Lorenzo's acts as being those of which he was

especially bound to repent. But when he desired him to restore the

liberties of Florence, it was more than the dying man could make up his

mind to; and Savonarola, thinking that his repentance could not be

sincere if he refused this, left him without giving him the Church's

absolution.

But, although Savonarola was a very sincere and pious man, he did not

always show good judgment. For instance, when he wished to get rid of

the disorderly way in which the young people of Florence used to behave

at the beginning of Lent, he sent a number of boys about the city (A.D.

1497), where they entered into houses, and asked the inhabitants to give

up to them any _vanities_ which they might have. Then these vanities (as

they were called) were all gathered together, and were built up into a

pile fifteen stories high. There were among them cards and dice,

fineries of women's dress, looking-glasses, bad books, musical

instruments, pictures, and statues. The whole heap was of great value,

and a merchant from Venice offered a large sum for it. But the money was

refused, and he was forced to throw in his own picture as an addition to

the other vanities. When night came, a long procession under

Savonarola's orders passed through the streets, and then the pile was

set on fire, amidst the sound of bells, drums, and trumpets, and the

shouts of the multitude, who had been worked up to a share of

Savonarola's zeal.

But the wiser people were distressed by the mistakes of judgment which

he had shown in setting children to search out the faults of their

elders, and in mixing up harmless things in the same destruction with

those which were connected with deep sinfulness and vice. And this want

of judgment was still more shown a year later, when, after having

repeated the bonfire of vanities, Savonarola's followers danced wildly

in three circles around a cross set up in front of St. Mark's, as if

they had been so many crazy dervishes of the East.

PART II.

Savonarola had raised up a host of enemies, and some of them were

eagerly looking for an opportunity of doing him some mischief. At length

one Francis of Apulia, a Franciscan friar, challenged him to what was

called the _ordeal_ (or judgment) of fire, as a trial of the truth of

his doctrine; and after much trouble it was settled that a friend of

each should pass through this trial, which was supposed to be a way of

finding out God's judgment as to the truth of the matter in dispute. Two

great heaps of fuel were piled up in a public place at Florence. They

were each forty yards long and two yards and a half high, with an

opening of a yard's width between them; and it was intended that these

heaps should be set on fire, and that the champions should try to pass

between the two, as a famous monk had done at Florence in Hildebrand's

time, hundreds of years before. But when a vast crowd had been brought

to see the ordeal, they were much disappointed at finding that it was

delayed, because Savonarola's enemies fancied that he might perhaps make

use of some magical charms against the flames. There was a long dispute

about this, and, while the parties were still wrangling, a heavy shower

came down on the crowd. The magistrates then forbade the trial; the

people, tired and hungry from waiting, drenched by the rain, provoked by

the wearisome squabble which had caused the delay, and after all balked

of the expected sight, broke out against Savonarola; and he had great

difficulty in reaching St. Mark's under the protection of some friends,

who closed around him and kept off the angry multitude. Two days later,

the convent was besieged; and when the defenders were obliged to

surrender it, Savonarola and the friar who was to have undergone the

ordeal on his side were sent to prison.

Savonarola had a long trial, during which he was often tortured; but

whatever might be wrung from him in this way, he afterwards declared

that it was not to be believed, because the weakness of his body could

not bear the pain of torture, and he confessed whatever might be asked

of him. This trial was carried on under the authority of the wicked Pope

Alexander VI.

Although no charge of error as to the faith could be made out against

Savonarola, his enemies were bent on his death; and he and two of his

companions were sentenced to be hanged and burnt. Like Huss, they had to

go through the form of being degraded from their orders; and at the end

of this it was a bishop's part to say to each, "I separate thee from the

Church militant" (that is, from the Church which is carrying on its

warfare here on earth). But the bishop, who had once been one of

Savonarola's friars at St. Mark's, was very uneasy, and said in his

confusion, "I separate thee from the Church triumphant" (that is, from

the Church when its warfare has ended in victory and triumph).

Savonarola saw the mistake, and corrected it by saying, "from the

militant, not from the triumphant; for _that_ is not thine to do."

Savonarola's party did not die out with him, but long continued to

cherish his memory. Among those who were most earnest in this was the

great artist, Michael Angelo Buonarotti, who had been one of his hearers

in youth, and even to his latest days used to read his works with

interest, and to speak of him with reverence.

CHAPTER XXIX.

JULIUS II. AND LEO X.

A.D. 1503-1521.

Alexander VI. was succeeded by a pope who took the title of Pius III.,

and lived only six and twenty days after his election. And after Pius

came Julius II., who was pope from 1503 to 1513, and Leo X., who lived

to the year 1521.

Julius, who owed his rise in life to the favour of his uncle Sixtus IV.

(one of the popes who had come between Pius II. and Alexander VI.), was

desirous to gain for the Roman see all that it had lost or had ever

claimed. He was not a man of religious character, but plunged deeply

into politics, and even acted as a soldier in war. Thus, at the siege of

Mirandola, in the winter of 1511, he lived for weeks in a little hut,

regardless of the frost and snow, of the roughness and scantiness of his

food; and when most of those around him were frightened away by the

cannon-balls which came from the walls of the fortress, the stout old

pope kept his place, and directed the pointing of his own cannon against

the town.

His successor, Leo, who was of the Florentine family of Medici,[92] was

fond of elegant pleasures and of hunting. His tastes were costly, and

continually brought him into difficulties as to money. The manner of

life in Leo's court was gay, luxurious, and far from strict. He had

comedies acted before him, which were hardly fit for the amusement of

the chief bishop of Christendom. He is famous for his encouragement of

the arts; and it was in his time that the art of painting reached its

highest perfection through the genius of Michael Angelo Buonarotti (who

has been already mentioned as a disciple of Savonarola)[93] and of

Raphael Sanzio. In the art of architecture a great change took place

about this time. For some hundreds of years it had been usual to build

in what is called the _Gothic_ style, of which the chief mark is the use

of pointed arches. Not that there was no change during all that time;

for there are great differences between the earlier and the later kinds

of Gothic, and these have since been so carefully studied that skilful

people can tell from the look of a building the time at which every part

of it was erected. But a little before the year 1500, the Gothic gave

way to another style, and one of the greatest works ever done in this

new style was the vast church of St. Peter, at Rome. I have mentioned

that Nicolas V. thought of rebuilding the ancient church, which had

stood since the time of Constantine the Great, and that he had even

begun the work.[94] But now both the old basilica[95] and the beginning

of a new church which Nicolas had made were swept away, and something

far grander was designed. There were several architects who carried on

the building of this great church, one after another; but the grand dome

of St. Peter's, which rises into the air over the whole city, was the

work of Michael Angelo, who was not only a painter, but an architect and

a sculptor. It was by offering indulgences (or spiritual favours,

forgiveness of sins, and the like) as a reward for gifts towards the new

St. Peter's, that Julius raised the anger and disgust of the German

reformer, Martin Luther. And thus it was the building of the most

magnificent of Roman churches that led to the revolt which took away

from the popes a great part of their spiritual dominion.

[92] See page 272.

[93] Page 274.

[94] See p. 269.

[95] See Part I., p. 85.

CHAPTER XXX.

MISSIONS.--THE INQUISITION.

All through the times of which I had been speaking, missions to the

heathen were actively carried on. Much of this kind was done in Asia,

and, indeed, the heart of Asia seems to have been more open and better

known to Europeans during some part of the middle ages than it has ever

been since. But as those parts were so far off, and so hard to get at,

it often happened that dishonest people, for their own purposes, brought

to Europe wonderful tales of the conversion of Eastern nations, or of

their readiness to be converted, which had no real ground. And sometimes

the crafty Asiatic princes themselves made a pretence of willingness to

receive the Gospel when all that they really wanted was to get some

advantages of other kinds from the pope and the Christians of the West.

A great deal was heard in Europe of a person who was called Prester

(that is to say, _presbyter_ or _priest_) John. He was believed to live

in the far East, and to be both a king and a Christian priest. And there

really was at one time a line of Christian princes in Asia, between lake

Baikal and the northern border of China, whose capital was Karakorum;

but in 1202 their kingdom was overthrown by the Tartar conqueror,

Genghis-khan; although the belief in Prester John, which had always been

mixed with a good deal of fable, continued long after to float in the

minds of the Western Christians.

The mendicant orders, which (as we have seen) were founded in the time

of Innocent III.,[96] took up the work of missions with great zeal; and

some of the Franciscan missionaries especially, by undergoing martyrdom,

gained great credit for their order in its early days. There were also

travellers who made their way into the East from curiosity or some

other such reason, and brought home accounts of what they had seen. The

most famous of these travellers was Marco Polo, a Venetian of a trading

family, who lived many years in China, and found his way back to Europe

by India and Ceylon. Some of these travellers report that they found the

Nestorian[97] clergy enjoying great influence at the courts of Asiatic

sovereigns; for the Nestorians had been very active in missions at an

earlier time, and had made many converts in Asia; but the travellers,

who saw them only after they had been long settled there, describe them

very unfavourably in all ways. John of Monte Corvino, an Italian, was

established by Pope Clement V. as Archbishop of Cambalu (or Pekin), with

seven bishops under him; and Christianity seemed thus far to be

flourishing in that region (A.D. 1307).

[96] Pages 225-227.

[97] Part I, p. 146.

In the meantime the people of countries bordering on the Baltic Sea were

converted, although not without much trouble. Sometimes they would

profess to welcome the Gospel; but as soon as the preachers had left

them they disowned it, and washed themselves, as if by doing so they

might get rid of their Christian baptism. And the missionaries often

found themselves at a loss how to deal with the ignorant superstition of

these people. Thus a missionary in Livonia, named Dietrich, was

threatened with death because an eclipse had taken place during his

visit to their country, and they fancied that he had swallowed the sun!

At another time his life was in danger because the natives saw that his

fields were in better condition than theirs, and, instead of

understanding that this was the effect of his greater skill and care,

they charged him with having brought it about by magical arts. They

therefore resolved to settle his fate by bringing forward a horse who

was regarded as sacred to their gods, and observing how the beast

behaved. At first the horse put forward his right foot, which would have

saved the missionary's life; but the heathen diviners said that the God

of Christians was sitting on the horse's back, and directing him; and

they insisted that the back should be rubbed, in order to get rid of

such influence. But after this had been done, the horse again put

forward the same foot, and, much against the will of the Livonians,

Dietrich was allowed to go free.

Sometimes the missionaries tried other things to help the effect of

their preaching. Thus, a later missionary in Livonia, Albert of

Apeldern, in order to give the people some knowledge of Scripture

history, got up what was called a prophetical play, in which Gideon,

David, and Herod were to appear. But when Gideon and his men began to

fight the Midianites on the stage, the heathens took alarm lest some

treacherous trick should be practised on them, and they all ran away in

affright.

Albert of Apeldern founded a military order, somewhat on the plan of the

Templars, for the conversion of the heathen on the Baltic; and it was

afterwards joined with another order. The Teutonic (or German) order,

which was thus formed, became very famous. By subduing the nations of

the Baltic coasts, it forced them to receive Christianity, got

possession of their lands, and laid the foundation of a power which has

grown by degrees into the great Prussian (or German) empire.

The work of missions was carried on also in Russia, Lithuania, and other

northern countries, so that by the time which we have now reached it

might be said that all Europe was in some way or other converted to

profess the Gospel.

About the end of the fifteenth century the discoveries of the Portuguese

in Africa and the East, and those of the Spaniards in the great Western

continent, opened new fields for missionary labour; but of this we need

not now speak more particularly.

Unhappily the Church was not content with trying to convince people of

the truth of its doctrine by gentle means, but disgraced itself by

persecution. We have already noticed the horrible wars against the

Albigenses in the south of France;[98] and cruel persecutions were

carried on in Spain against Jews, Mahometans, and persons suspected of

heresy, or such like offences. The conduct of these persecutions was in

the hands of the Inquisition, which did its work without any regard to

the rules of Justice, and was made more terrible by the darkness and

mystery of its proceedings. It kept spies to pry into all men's concerns

and to give secret information against them; even the nearest relatives

were not safe from each other under this dreadful system. Multitudes

were put to death, and others were glad to escape with such punishments

as entire loss of their property, or imprisonment, which was in many

cases for life.

[98] See p. 223.

* * * * *

In the course of all these hundreds of years, Christian religion had

been much corrupted from its first purity. The power of the clergy over

the ignorant people had become far greater than it ought to have been;

and too commonly it was kept up by the encouragement of superstitions

and abuses. The popes claimed supreme power on earth. They claimed the

right of setting up and plucking down emperors and kings. They meddled

with appointments to sees, parishes, and all manner of offices in the

Church, throughout all Western Europe. They wished to make it appear as

if bishops had no authority except what they held through the grant of

the pope. There were general complaints against the faults of the

clergy, and among the mass of men religion had become in great part

little better than an affair of forms. From all quarters cries for

reform were raised, and a reform was speedily to come, by which, among

other things, our own country was set free from the power of the popes,

and the doctrine of our Church was brought back to an agreement with

Holy Scripture and with the Christianity of early times.

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