countenance was mild and beautiful; he was tall of stature, had a
prominent nose, slightly aquiline. He generally amused himself, not
incessantly, but occasionally, with hawks, falcons, hunting dogs, or
chess. His house and table were open to every rank. He never dined without
the society of earls and barons whom he had invited. He ordered the hall
to be strewn every day with fresh straw and hay in winter, and with green
leaves in summer, that the numerous knights, for whom the benches were
insufficient, might find the floor clean and neat for them to sit down on,
and that their rich clothes and beautiful tunics might not be soiled and
injured. His board shone with vessels of gold and silver, and abounded
with costly dishes and precious beverages, so that whatever objects of
food and drink were recommended by their rarity were purchased by his
officers at exorbitant prices. But amid all this he was himself singularly
frugal. When the King and he one day met a beggar, the King proposed to
take Thomas's warm cloak and give to the poor man, while Thomas objected,
and suggested the King should give something of his own, and they had a
sharp struggle for the cloak, each holding and pulling it till a button
gave way and remained in the King's hands. The King gave the button to the
beggar, then told the story to his attendants, who burst into loud
laughter, to the annoyance of the grave Thomas. When Thomas's dead body
after the murder was stripped by the monks, they were not a little curious
to discover whether he was really a monk. They found under his outer
garments a hair shirt, and then they were half convinced he must have been
a godly man. But when they found also hair drawers, and examined these
garments, and saw their dirty state, surpassing belief, they were in
raptures, and were then wholly convinced that Thomas was a true saint and
worthy of unbounded veneration in all ages.
A KING'S PENANCE AT ST. THOMAS'S TOMB (A.D. 1174).
In 1174, when Henry II. crossed from France to visit the tomb of St.
Thomas à Becket, he reached Southampton after a rough passage. Roger of
Wendover says that the King then fasted on bread and water, and would not
enter any city until he had fulfilled the vow which he had made to pray
at the tomb of St. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury and glorious martyr.
When he came near Canterbury he dismounted from his horse, and laying
aside all emblems of royalty, with naked feet, and in the form of a
penitent and supplicating pilgrim, arrived at the cathedral, and, like
Hezekiah, with tears and sighs sought the tomb of the glorious martyr,
where, prostrate on the floor and with his hands stretched to heaven, he
continued long in prayer. Meanwhile, the Bishop of London was commanded by
the King to declare in his sermon that he neither commanded, nor wished,
nor by any device contrived the death of the martyr, which had been
perpetrated in consequence of his murderers having misinterpreted the
words which the King had hastily pronounced; wherefore he requested
absolution from the bishops present, and, baring his back, received from
three to five lashes from every one of the numerous body of ecclesiastics
there assembled. The King then made costly offerings to the martyr, spent
the remainder of the day in grief and bitterness of mind, for three days
took no sustenance, giving himself up to prayer, vigils, and fasting--by
which means the favour of the blessed martyr was secured, and God
delivered into his hands William, King of Scots, who was forthwith
confined in Richmond Castle.
A MONK DESCRIBES A PAPAL INTERDICT (A.D. 1137).
About 1137 Orderic says that "in the diocese of Séez, in Normandy, a Papal
interdict was put in force over all the territories of William Zalvas. The
sweet chants of Divine worship, sounds which calm and gladden the hearts
of the faithful, suddenly ceased; the laity were prohibited from entering
the churches for the service of God, and the doors were kept locked; the
bells were no longer rung; the bodies of the dead lay in corruption
without burial, striking the beholders with fear and horror; the pleasures
of marriage were forbidden to those who sought them; and the solemn joys
of the ecclesiastical ceremonies vanished in the general humiliation. The
same rigorous discipline was extended to the diocese of Evreux, and
enforced through all the lands of Roger de Toeni, in order to terrify and
restrain the perverse and disorderly inhabitants. Meanwhile Roger himself
lies fettered in close confinement, weeping and groaning for the loss of
his liberty of action, and cursed by the Church for the use he insolently
made of that liberty, when he had it, in the profanation of sacred things;
and all his lands lie under a terrible interdict. Thus proud and desperate
rebels are doubly crushed; but the hard hearts of those who witness such
spectacles, alas! are not changed nor converted to amendment of their
perverse designs."
THE POPE'S MODE OF PUNISHING KINGS AND KINGDOMS (A.D. 1199).
Pope Innocent III. in 1199 ordered Philip Augustus, King of France, to
take back a discarded wife, which the King would not do. An interdict was
then pronounced against France. At midnight, each priest holding a torch,
the clergy of France chanted the _Miserere_ and the prayers for the dead,
the last prayers which were to be uttered by them during the interdict.
The cross on which the Saviour hung was veiled with black crape; the
relics replaced within the tombs; the Host was consumed. The cardinal in
his mourning stole of violet pronounced the territories of the King of
France under the ban. All religious offices from that time ceased; there
was no access to heaven by prayer or offering. The sobs of the aged, of
the women and children, alone broke the silence. So, for the injustice of
the King towards his Queen, the whole kingdom of France, thousands of
immortal souls, were cut off from those means of grace which, if not
absolutely necessary (the scanty mercy of the Church allowed the baptism
of infants and the extreme unction to the dying), were so powerfully
conducive to eternal salvation. For the King's personal sin a whole nation
at least thought itself in danger of eternal damnation. The doors of the
churches were watched, and the Christians driven away from them like dogs;
all Divine offices ceased; the Sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord
was not offered; no gathering together of the people at the festivals of
saints; the bodies of the dead not admitted to Christian burial, but their
stench infecting the air. There was a deep sadness over the whole realm,
while the organs and the voices of those who chanted God's praises were
everywhere mute. The King had to yield, or at least pretend to yield,
within the space of a year. In like manner Pope Innocent III. ordered King
John of England to accept Stephen Langton as archbishop, and for his
refusal an interdict was levelled at England. From Berwick to the British
Channel, from the Land's End to Dover, the churches were closed, the bells
silent, the dead were buried like dogs in ditches or dung-heaps without
prayer, without a tolling bell; yet King John, weak, tyrannical, and
contemptible as he was, held out for four years. Had he been a popular
king the barons and people would have stood by him. One consequence of the
interdict and excommunication was, that his kingdom was declared to be
forfeited, and any one might seize it, and Philip Augustus of France
thought of attempting it. But before any regular encounter John made peace
with the Pope, and received Stephen Langton as archbishop. And Stephen
afterwards became a leader of the barons, and on June 15th, 1215, extorted
Magna Charta at Runnymede, which became the great title deed of the
British Constitution for all time thereafter. John complained to the Pope
that the charter had been forced from him unreasonably, and the Pope
professed to agree, and even ordered the rebellious barons to be
excommunicated. While John was in despair and defending himself against
the expected invasion of Philip, King of France, whose design was favoured
by the barons, he was marching northward, and his carriages were cast away
in crossing the river Ouse. This misfortune happened through the ignorance
of the guides and the tide coming too fast upon them. And thus the
regalia, the King's plate, and all his treasure were lost. This loss
weighed heavily upon the King's spirits, and threw him into a fever, of
which he died at Newark Castle a few days after. Some little time before
he expired, forty of the barons sent him assurances of their submission,
but he was in no condition to receive that satisfaction. The young King
Henry III., aged ten, was crowned on October 28th, 1216.
A CANDID FRIEND TO THE POPE (A.D. 1200).
When John of Salisbury, the friend of Thomas à Becket, was sent by Henry
II. to Pope Adrian in 1200, they had a confidential conversation, and the
Pope said he wished he had never left the obscure retreat of the cloister
for the Papal chair, as it was beset with thorns, and he asked John what
people were saying of him and the Church of Rome. John says he answered
thus: "What I have heard in many countries I will freely tell you. They
say the Church of Rome shows herself not so much the mother of other
Churches as their stepmother. Scribes and Pharisees have their seats in
her, who lay grievous burdens on the shoulders of men, which themselves
will not touch with one of their fingers. They domineer over the clergy
without being an example to the flock; they heap together rich furniture
and load their tables with gold and silver, whilst their hands are kept
shut by avarice. The poor rarely find access to them unless when vanity
may introduce them. They raise contributions on the Churches, and excite
litigations, promote disputes between pastor and people, deeming it the
best religion to procure wealth. With them everything is venal, and they
may be said to imitate the devils, who, where they cease to do mischief,
glory in their beneficence. From this charge a small number of exceptions
may exist. The Pope himself is a burden to Christendom which is scarcely
to be borne. The complaint is, that while the churches which the piety of
our fathers erected are in ruins, and their altars neglected, he builds
palaces and exhibits his person clothed not only in purple, but
resplendent with gold. These things and more than these the people are
heard to utter." The Pope listened patiently. "And what is your own
opinion?" asked Adrian. "Your question distresses me," said John; "I wish
neither to be a flatterer nor to give offence. I cannot presume to
contradict a cardinal of your Church who says that the real source of all
the evils is the fund of duplicity and avarice of its officers, and yet I
know many living examples to the contrary. I will only say that your
precept is better than your practice." Adrian smiled, and observed that it
was like the old apologue of the stomach and the limbs.
HOW A MONK PUBLISHED THE EXCOMMUNICATION OF AN EMPEROR (A.D. 1238).
When the Emperor Frederick II., in his quarrels with the Pope, was
excommunicated in 1238, and sentence was ordered to be published in all
Christian countries, such was the impression of the power of the Emperor
that no priest in Germany had the courage to declare it. At last a
Jacobite Friar was discovered who ventured to make it known in the
disguise of the following fable. "Sire," said the friar, "there was once a
lion so fierce and strong that no beast durst attack him; but one hot
summer day a fly placed itself between his two eyes and bit him severely.
'Who art thou,' said the lion, 'who darest to bite me?' 'I am a fly,' said
the other. 'A fly,' said the lion, 'the most insignificant of beasts! bite
on. If thou wert not so insignificant a beast, those shoulders would
answer for it, but I disdain to revenge myself on thee.' And, sire," added
the friar, "I compare your Majesty to the lion, and myself in my little
condition to the fly, who pronounces upon you from our Holy Father the
Apostle the sentence which you have incurred by your rebellion against the
Holy Church." "Well," said the Emperor, "'tis true if it were not for your
poor station you should certainly be made to repent this." It was also
noticed that when, in the following year, 1239, the Emperor went to Padua,
he was handsomely entertained for several months by the abbot of the
monastery of St. Justina; and in spite of the thunders of the Vatican
hurled at the Emperor, the latter was treated with becoming courtesy, was
provided with a throne and a footstool, and all the necessary
appurtenances of the most exalted rank.
THE EMPEROR RETALIATING ON THE POPE (A.D. 1239).
When Pope Gregory IX. in 1239 excommunicated the Emperor, the latter sent
a circular letter to the King of England and his brother, beginning with
the words, "Attend, ye sons of men; understand, ye nations;" and it
contained these scornful sentences: "Moreover, we think him (the Pope)
unworthy to be considered a vicar of Christ, a successor of Peter and
regulator of the souls of Christians. We grieve at his sin and
prevarication in the fact that, not content with spending money in order
to gain over the nobles and chiefs of Romania to become his followers and
adherents, he wasted the possessions of the Roman Church. Condole
therefore, my good friend, with us as well as those dear to thee, and not
only with us, but the Church which is the congregation of all faithful
Christians; for its head is sick, its prince is in the midst like a
roaring lion, its prophet mad and faithless, its priest polluting its
sanctuary and unjustly acting against the law. We earnestly beg of you to
consider the contumely heaped on us as your own injury, and to hasten to
your own house with water when the fire is raging in the neighbouring
houses. Without waiting for our decision or for our taking counsel of our
advisers, he vomited forth against us the poison he had conceived. We for
our own sake adjure you and ask your aid, and that of all of you, the
magnates and princes of the whole world, not because our own strength is
not sufficient to avert such injuries from ourselves, but that the whole
world may know that the honour of all secular princes is touched when the
person of one is offended." The Pope replied thus: "There has risen from
the sea a beast full of words of blasphemy which, formed with the feet of
a bear and the mouth of a raging lion, opens its mouth in blasphemies
against God's name, and continually attacks His tabernacle and the saints
who dwell in heaven," etc., etc.
HOW THE POPE'S CLERKS EXTORTED MONEY (A.D. 1241).
During 1241 Matthew Paris says the avarice of the Romans still continued
unsatiated; for after the legate's departure two of the Pope's clerks
remained in England, as if to fulfil the duty of the legate. These two
were Peter, surnamed Le Rouge, and Peter de Supino--two indefatigable
extortioners, who held a Papal warrant for exacting procurations,
imposing interdicts, excommunicating, and extorting money by divers
methods from the wretched English Church, as they stated, that the Roman
Church, which was injured in manifold ways, might again breathe freely.
The aforesaid Peter Le Rouge, who placed himself above the other one,
conducted himself after the manner of the legate, wrote his letters to
this and that abbot and prior, and the letter always ran thus: "Master
Peter Le Rouge, familiar and relative of his Holiness the Pope, greeting,"
etc. On such authority he continued to exact and extort procurations and
various other collections. His colleague, Peter de Supino, by permission
of the King, went to Ireland on the part of the Pope, and bearing a
warrant from him whereby he was assisted by secular power, he with great
tyranny extorted money from all the prelates of that island. This Peter in
the ensuing autumn took his way to Rome, carrying with him 1,500 marks
(£1,000), and having his saddle-bags well filled.
HOW THE POPE'S EXTORTIONERS WERE PURSUED (A.D. 1241).
Matthew Paris says that these two clerks, Peter de Supino and Peter Le
Rouge, with their saddle-bags thus well filled, proceeded under the escort
of the monks of Canterbury to Dover, and suddenly and secretly set sail,
for they had heard that the Pope was not expected to live. They therefore
suddenly and clandestinely took flight with their booty, lest the King
should hear of the Pope's death and confiscate it. Scarcely had they
entered France, when lo! Master Walter de Oera, a messenger of the
Emperor, arrived in all haste, with letters of credence from the Emperor
and a message from the King to detain the booty as well as the robbers if
to be found in England. The messenger was indignant at not having caught
them, but followed their steps, carefully watching the meanderings of the
foxes, in order to report the result to the Emperor. Meanwhile the Pope's
agents, hearing that they were watched, spared not their horses, and
secretly stowed away their money with relatives in secret places. The
Emperor, however, ordered them and the relatives to be arrested and
imprisoned, and to render a strict account of the money collected, which
was committed to writing and circulated among the merchants of the chief
cities and ultimately distributed. Thus these wretched ecclesiastics, who
ought to have been protected under the wings of the Pope, were utterly
despoiled, and the enemies of the Church more daringly oppressed them.
AERIAL MUSIC AT A BISHOP'S DEATH (A.D. 1253).
Matthew Paris says that Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, died in 1253 at
Buckdon, in the night of St. Denis's day. During his life he had openly
rebuked the Pope and the King; had corrected the prelates and reformed the
monks; in him the priests lost a director, clerks an instructor, scholars
a supporter. He had shown himself a persecutor of the incontinent, a
careful examiner of the Scriptures, a despiser of the Romans. In the
discharge of his Pontifical duties he was attentive, indefatigable, and
worthy of veneration. That same night Faulkes, Bishop of London, then
staying not far off, heard in the air above a wonderful and most agreeable
kind of sound, the melody of which refreshed his ears and his heart and
fixed his attention. It was a supernatural sound, like that of a great
convent bell ringing a delightful tune in the air above. It at once struck
the listener that his beloved and venerable brother of Lincoln was passing
from this world to take his place in the kingdom of heaven, and this noise
was a warning, for there was no convent near in which there was a bell of
that sort and so loud. The Bishop of London inquired, and found out that
at that very time the Bishop of Lincoln had departed from this world. This
wonderful circumstance was told as a fact to Matthew Paris by Master John
Cratchale, a confidential clerk to the bishop. On the same night also some
brethren of the order of Minorites, in passing through the forest of
Vauberge, having lost their way and wandering about, heard in the air
sounds as of the ringing of bells, amongst which they clearly
distinguished one bell of a most sweet tune, unlike anything they had ever
heard before. This circumstance greatly excited their wonder, for they
knew that there was no church of note near. Next morning at dawn, being
directed by the foresters to the right road to Buckdon, and inquiring as
they went about the reason of the solemn ringing of bells that had filled
the air the night before, they were informed that at that very hour the
Bishop of Lincoln had breathed forth his happy spirit.
A FOOL POSING THE THEOLOGIANS (A.D. 1284).
John of Peckham, about 1284, says that a fool was once in company with
some theologians at Paris, and he asked them which was better--to do what
a man knows, or to learn what he does not know. Thereupon the doctors
argued together for and against, and the fool, listening to their
altercations, looked on, waiting for their conclusion. At last their
deliverance was, that it was better to do what a man already knows than to
learn what he does not know, because, as says the apostle to the Romans,
"For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the
law shall be justified." And Isidorus in _De Summo Bono_ says, "A zealous
student will be more prompt to perform what he reads than to know, for it
is a less sin not to know what you desire to know than not to perform what
you do know." Then said the fool, "You are all mad, for you are working
day and night only to learn what you do not know, and you do not care to
act up to anything you do know."
A HERMIT FOR A POPE (A.D. 1294).
In 1294, after the cardinals had tried in vain for a year and a half to
agree upon a Pope, and no one would give way to another, a sudden solution
was found by their choosing a solitary monk named Peter of Morone, in the
Neapolitan territory, then distinguished in the wilderness for his
austerities. He seemed to outdo the famous anchorites of old. He wore
haircloth with an iron cuirass, lived on bread and water and herbs. At the
age of twenty, when he became an earnest monk, one day the Virgin and St.
John both stood before him and chanted portions of the Psalter, and every
night a celestial bell with sweetest tones aroused him to prayer. Angels
often visited him, and showered roses on his head. God pointed out a great
stone, under which he dug a hole in which he could neither stand nor
stretch, but only crouch behind a grating, and the place abounded with
lizards, serpents, and toads. Yet crowds came to see him, and hailed him
as a kind of leader of a new brotherhood. Somehow a voice from heaven
pointed out to the perplexed cardinals that here was a Pope ready to their
hands, and he was fixed upon unanimously. A deputation went to his cell.
They found he was an old man, with a long shaggy beard, sunken eyes, heavy
brow, pale cheeks, and meagre limbs. But they fell on their knees before
him. He thought it must be a dream. He protested he was unworthy and
unfit. But the news spread, and the crowd increased and urged him on, and
he could not but accept. He at first refused to put on the gorgeous
Pontifical robes, but had to consent. He then went with them, riding on an
ass, with a king on each side holding the bridle. Never was an election
more popular, and he took the title of Celestine V. Two hundred thousand
people crowded the streets as he approached, and he had to show himself
now and then on a balcony and give his benediction. After a few months
the cardinals, kings, and nobles began to think that this Pope was not to
be a success. He was incapable of business. He lavished his dignities and
offices, and was easily duped. He became weary of his burden. He contrived
to make a cell in the palace, which shut out the sky. But this was not
enough. He wanted to abdicate. This at first was thought impossible and
illegal. But he did abdicate, and at once went off to his old hermitage.
It was the first instance of an abdication, and all agreed that nothing
became him so well as the leaving of the high office a few months after
having entered upon it. All the other hermits praised this last act as one
of transcendent humility enhancing his glory.
PHILIP THE FAIR RETALIATING ON THE POPE (A.D. 1303).
When Philip IV. of France offended the Pope, the latter harangued his
council and boasted that, as his predecessors had already deposed three
kings of France, he would depose Philip like a groom. The act was done in
1303. Two supporters of the King, William of Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna,
with three hundred horsemen and infantry, made their way to Anagni, where
Pope Boniface VIII. then was, and beset his palace, and after a short
truce set fire to the doors of the church adjacent and made their way
through the flames; and the crash so alarmed the Pope that he felt his
hour was come, and resolved that he would die with dignity. He put on the
Papal mantle and the imperial crown of Constantine, and sat on the throne
with the pastoral cross in one hand and with the keys of St. Peter in the
other. The assailants, though at first awed at this sight, dragged him
from the throne, struck him on the face, and forced him to parade through
the town on a vicious horse, with his face to the tail. A rescue party,
however, surprised the guard, and carried the Pope to the market-place,
where, famishing with hunger, his wants were supplied by willing hands,
and he was sufficiently restored to pronounce absolution on all but the
plunderers of the church. He was then conveyed by his friends to Rome,
where a frenzy fever overcame him, and he was put under restraint, dying
very soon at the age of eighty-two. Some say he was poisoned; others that
he refused food, and like a mad dog bit his own flesh; others that he was
found with the bedclothes stuffed in his throat, and his staff lying as if
it had been gnawed by him in his rage. The saying was that "he entered
like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog."
A POPE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY (A.D. 1300).
Boniface VIII., at the beginning of the fourteenth century, carried Papal
absolution and worldliness to its highest point. After procuring his
predecessor Celestine V. to abdicate and be imprisoned and then taken off
by poison, he saw a great advantage in the ushering in of 1300 as a means
of satisfying his cupidity. He circulated an address that all persons
visiting St. Peter's on January 1st, 1300, would obtain an extraordinary
indulgence. Crowds flocked and left their offerings. Then he issued a bull
offering the fullest indulgence to all who visited the cathedral at
Easter, on the condition that they truly repented and confessed their
sins. Attracted by his bull, multitudes repented and were allowed to see
the handkerchief of St. Veronica, as many as two hundred thousand a day.
The gain to the Church was vast. This Pope persecuted his enemies with
uncommon zeal. He managed to ruin the powerful family of Colonna, which
had opposed his election, demolishing their castles and confiscating their
estates. Philip the Fair, King of France, his equal in avarice and
ambition, had taxed the clergy, and a bull was issued excommunicating all
princes and nobles who dared to demand tribute from the clergy, to which
Philip replied with defiance, and sent a troop to arrest the Pope, which
was done, as already narrated. The mob, after a few days, at last pitied
his Holiness, and turned against the French, who retired. The excitement,
however, threw him into a fever, and then into insanity, in which state he
died. The Florentine historian recognised the judgments of God in thus
punishing a Pope who was so worldly, and further in punishing such a king
as was the instrument in the hands of Providence. King Philip made a tool
of his own the next Pope, and kept him in France, and in 1309 began the
seventy years' residence of the Popes in Avignon, while they lived in a
state of servility to France.
WICLIFF THE REFORMER (A.D. 1324-1384).
Wicliff having been early disgusted at the worthless creatures who filled
all the high offices of the Church, and joined some friends in trying to
restore the simplicity and self-denying zeal of Apostolic times, was soon
marked out as a heretic to be watched. Pope Gregory XI., in 1377, was
advised to condemn Wicliff's doctrines, and directed that he should be
imprisoned; but John of Gaunt and other powerful friends were resolved
that at least a semblance of a hearing should be given to him first; and
he managed without recanting anything to say nothing which his enemies
could lay hold of. He published in 1380 his translation of the Scriptures
into English. Wicliff was a determined enemy of the Mendicant Friars, as
disturbing the parish priests in their more useful labours. Wicliff was
cited by the Archbishop of Canterbury before a council, but an earthquake
occurred at the time to interrupt this inquisition. He used to look on
this earthquake council, as he called it, as a judgment of God in his
favour.
THE TWO JOHN WICLIFFS (A.D. 1324-1384).
It has been recently discovered, as is said by Mr. Hill in his "English
Monasticism," that there were two John Wicliffs contemporaneous and both
members of Oxford University, and that the biographers of the important
John Wicliff have confounded these two and their performances. The
Reformer was master of Balliol College in 1361, and the other John Wicliff
was a fellow of Merton in 1356 and warden of Canterbury Hall. The Reformer
was born at Hipswell, one mile from Richmond in Yorkshire. In 1361 he was
appointed to the rectory of Fylingham, and in 1375 to that of Lutterworth,
and resigned the mastership of Balliol. His first public appearance was
his reading lectures at Oxford, in which he castigated the corruptions of
the Friars Mendicants of his day. He was cited before the judges for
heresy, one of the judges being William of Wykeham; and John of Gaunt
attended with Wicliff and somewhat resented the want of fair play towards
his friend; but the proceedings were not carried out, owing to the
interference of the Princess of Wales. The great work of Wicliff's life
was the first translation of the Scriptures into English. This work he
lived to finish, though in all probability he was assisted in it by
others. In 1384, during the celebration of Mass in his parish church at
Lutterworth, Wicliff was seized with paralysis, and died on December 31st.
The adherents of his opinions were known as the Lollards. In 1401 the
Franciscans attacked his Bible, and persecution was carried out against
the Lollards. In 1428 Wicliff's bones, or supposed bones, were dug up and
cast into the river Severn, under the vain delusion that he and his doings
would never more be heard of.
THE SEVENTY YEARS' RESIDENCE OF POPES AT AVIGNON (A.D. 1309-1379).
After the death of the ambitious Pope Boniface VIII., whose contests with
Philip the Fair of France killed him in 1303, and after the death of the
next Pope in eight months, the election of the next Pope again was so
skilfully brought about by the leader of the French party, Cardinal Du
Prat, that one was chosen who made a bargain with the French King to meet
his views if elected. He was elected, and took the name of Clement V. He
disappointed his Italian supporters by refusing to leave France, and in
1309 he settled at Avignon, where the Popes remained for seventy years.
During all that period the Popes were noted for their servility to the
French kings. Corruption grew more and more to be a second nature in all
the branches of Papal government. The most worthless creatures purchased
their way to the highest spiritual dignities. Extortion in collecting
money, extravagant expenditure when it was collected, simony, nepotism,
and debauchery ran through all the ramifications of clerical life. The
disgrace reflected by this scandal made laymen and learned men question
the foundations of the Popish system of government. A general murmur arose
from the universities as to the degraded position in which the Popes must
ever remain unless and until they should bring back the seat of government
to Rome. Petrarch, then employed on Papal embassies, strongly urged this
view. The leading men advocated the calling of a general council to
overrule the Pope and compel him to act for the sole good of the Church. A
schism then prevailed, which led to two sets of Popes being elected, who
continued for forty years to keep up their intestine conflicts.
THE RIVAL POPES (A.D. 1378).
The line of Popes, as already stated, continued unbroken till 1305, when,
owing to their constant interference in the politics of Europe, Clement V.
submitted to the King of France, and fixed his chair within the
jurisdiction of a Papal vassal, Robert of Anjou, at Avignon. For seventy
years this captivity lasted, and the effect was to weaken greatly the
power and influence of the Church. In 1376 Catherine of Siena, then an
influential saint, advised Pope Gregory XI. to return to Rome, his old
metropolis. Soon a fresh difficulty arose at his death in 1378, owing to a
feud between the cardinals. The majority of them being at that time
French, the Roman mob burst into the palace and demanded that the new Pope
should be an Italian. The cardinals yielded and elected Urban VI.; but six
months later they repented and wished to substitute a Frenchman, and
crowned Clement VII. There being thus two Popes in the field, the chief
kingdoms were almost equally divided as to recognising the one or the
other as the real Pope. The quarrel lasted forty years, the two lines
being continued for that period. At last a general council, that of Pisa
in 1409, met and summoned both Popes before it, and dismissed both for
contumacy. The cardinals then elected Alexander V. And there were then
three Popes, each claiming exclusive authority. A second council met at
Constance in 1414, and claimed to be superior to the Pope. Another
election took place, and Martin V. was elected in 1417; and the line of
Popes was resumed as before, but a continual pressure from without
weakened the authority of the successors. The council of Basle in 1431
showed an antipapal spirit, and set up a higher power in synods and
councils, thereby lowering the other power in proportion.
THE THREE POPES AT ONE TIME (A.D. 1394).
When Clement VII. was told that the leading men and the University of
Paris had resolved that both Popes should abdicate in order to put an end
to the absurdity of the dual election, he was thrown into a fever of
agitation, and died in 1394. Each cardinal then took an oath that if
elected he would resign if necessary, to put an end to the schism.
Benedict XIII. was elected; but no sooner was this appointment made than
he gave evasive answers to all who reminded him of this condition. Another
assembly of bishops by a majority of four to one resolved that both Popes
should resign. But Benedict conscientiously opposed their view, and said
he would rather be flayed alive than resign. In 1402 Benedict sent a
mission to his rival Boniface IX., asking for a conference. But Boniface
treated him as an antipope, and himself as the only Pope. Boniface,
however, was so frightened at the aspect of affairs, that he contracted an
illness and died in 1404. The cardinals were then implored not to proceed
to another election, but they treated this advice as a jest, and elected
Innocent VII. Innocent, though an old man, and though he had bound himself
if elected to resign if necessary, yielded to the greed and scheming of
his relatives, and put off the evil day; but he died in 1406. The
cardinals were again urged not to appoint another Pope, but they said they
would choose one who would resign if his rivals would resign, and they
chose Gregory XII. Though Gregory was the most active in getting all the
cardinals to pledge themselves to resign if chosen, he soon showed himself
a mere dissembler; for though he professed to be willing to resign, his
relatives, who saw the loss of many good appointments, compelled him to
keep possession. These two Popes, Benedict and Gregory, kept up
appearances of meeting in conference and settling a plan of mutual and
simultaneous resignations, but they both showed extraordinary ingenuity in
discovering perpetual obstacles to this desired consummation, and for
blaming each other for every delay. At last the Council of Pisa deposed
both Popes, and the cardinals then elected Alexander V. in 1409. Both the
deposed Popes claimed to be still Popes. And Alexander V., instead of
carrying out the reforms that were expected, made lavish appointments to
vacant offices, saying to all who complained that he was rich as a bishop,
poor as a cardinal, but a beggar as Pope. He was carried off by poison in
1410.
FURTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE THREE POPES AT ONE TIME (A.D. 1406-1417).
The continuance of two rival Popes in 1406 was felt to be so great a
scandal that the rival sets of cardinals were bent on finding a way of
reuniting the Papacy in one person. They chose Gregory XII., then eighty
years of age, as a likely person to facilitate this object with the other
Pope, Boniface; for they thought a person on the verge of the grave might
be relied upon to consider the peace and unity of the Church his sole
object. He professed well at first, and his supporters brought him to the
point of trying to arrange some common plan of action, by which the rival
Popes might mutually surrender in favour of a third person who should
supersede both. The two rival Popes, however, were evidently averse to
strip themselves of power. They played against each a series of perpetual
evasions, postponements, and cross-purposes. Their progress to a common
ground where they might meet and settle their affairs was a mere game of
subterfuges, both the actors being over seventy years of age, and yet
exhausting every artifice to ward off the final surrender, each blaming
the other and both acting as consummate hypocrites. Their friends called
for a general council to meet at Pisa and solve the problem. At this
council a leading cardinal (afterwards himself a Pope) thus described the
position of the two Popes: "You know how these two wretched men calumniate
one another and disgrace themselves by invectives full of rant and fury.
Each calls the other antipope, obstructionist, antichrist." The council at
last deposed both, and declared the Papal chair vacant. The cardinals
bound themselves so that whichever of them should be elected Pope should
keep the council open till all schism was healed. They elected Alexander
V., but he proved useless, and dying in 1410, a most dissolute monster of
depravity, John XXIII. succeeded, who turned into ridicule and defeated
all the schemes of reform then put forward by the best men of the time.
The leaders of reform were disgusted, and desired that all the three Popes
should resign, and an upright man be chosen in their place. At last the
council deposed John also in 1415, and in 1417 Martin V. was elected.
THE DEPOSED POPE, JOHN XXIII. (A.D. 1410).
Pope John XXIII., whose name was Cossa, was all his life a scandalous
character, and more fit to be a roystering and swearing trooper than a
priest. It was said that he in early life entered the service as a pirate,
when Naples and Hungary were at war, and he then contracted the habit of
sleeping by day and doing his work by night. He was daring and ingenious
in every kind of corruption, buying and selling clerical offices, vending
indulgences, imposing hateful taxes, and brutal and licentious in
gratifying his lusts. His conduct was deemed so disgraceful that a general
demand arose for the Council of Constance to settle the question whether a
Pope or a general council be the highest authority in the Church. A
meeting of eighteen thousand ecclesiastics met, and charges against John
were formulated, and at last this crafty Pope agreed to the proposal that
he would resign, if the other two rival Popes would resign. This
resolution caused general satisfaction, though at first he refused to act
on it. It was at this council that Huss was brought to his mock trial.
John was charged with seventy-two offences, including nearly all the
vices. He was styled a poisoner, a murderer; he had intended to sell the
head of John the Baptist from the church of St. Sylvester to some
Florentines for 50,000 ducats. John was at length deposed. He was stripped
of the insignia of his office on May 31st, 1415, and at the same time
confessed that he had never passed a day in comfort since he had put them
on. He was kept in prison at Heidelberg till he made submission to a new
Pope, who, out of pity, gave him the dignity of a cardinal bishop, but he
died at Florence before he took possession of his see.
AN OWL ATTENDING A CHURCH COUNCIL (A.D. 1412).
After John XXIII. in 1410 mounted the Papal throne through all the grades
of bribery and corruption, he convoked in 1412 what he was pleased to call
a reformatory council at Rome; but only a few Italian prelates attended
and disposed of some trifling matters, besides a condemnation of Wicliff's
writings. What was chiefly remarkable was the advent of a congenial
visitor. At the celebration of the _Missa Spiritus Sancti_, previous to
the opening of the council, when the _Veni Creator Spiritus_ was sung
according to custom, an owl flew up suddenly, screaming with a startling
hoot, into the middle of the church, and perching itself upon a beam
opposite to the Pope, whence it stared him sedately in the face. The
cardinals ironically whispered to each other, "Only look; can that be the
Holy Ghost in the shape of an owl?" His Holiness was greatly annoyed, and
turned pale, then red, and in an awkward and abrupt fashion dissolved the
meeting. All who were present were, however, singularly impressed, and
never forgot what was viewed by each as an evil omen. But at the next
session, says Fleury, the owl took up his position again, fixing his eyes
on John, who was more dismayed than before, and ordered them to drive away
the bird. A singular scene then ensued, the prelates hunting the bird,
which insisted on remaining, and flinging their canes at it. At last they
succeeded in killing the owl as an incorrigible heretic.
THE SALE OF INDULGENCES (A.D. 1411).
About 1411, after John Huss had published his disputation on indulgences,
some priests were engaged in selling these to the highest bidders, when
three young men of the artisan class came up and called out to the priest,
"Thou liest! Master Huss has taught us better than that. We know that it
is all false." This impious taunt was at once followed up with
imprisonment and a summary sentence of death. Huss, on hearing of the
matter, used great exertions to save the men, and two thousand students
attended him to hear him address the council in mitigation of the
sentence. He took on himself the blame, if any there was. He obtained a
promise that no blood should be shed, but a few hours later much of the
excitement of the mob was over, and the sentence was executed. This
created a still greater excitement, and as the men were viewed as martyrs,
handkerchiefs were dipped in their blood and cherished as precious relics.
A woman present offered white linen as a shroud for the dead bodies; and
these were carried to Huss's chapel, as those of saints, with chanted
hymns through the streets, and great solemnities. The chapel was
thereafter named the chapel of the Three Saints. The part taken on this
popular demonstration was afterwards used as a handle by Huss's enemies
before the council at Constance, which condemned him to be burned alive,
after which his ashes were cast into the Rhine, so that nothing might
remain of him to pollute the earth.
A BISHOP INVITING HIS OLD MASTER (A.D. 1420).
Master Alan, the celebrated doctor, but still poor, was invited to dinner
by a former disciple already a bishop, who, seeing his poverty, said,
"Master, I marvel not a little that your scholars are already become great
men: one is an abbot, another is a bishop, another an archbishop, and you
are left in ridiculous poverty." Alan, indeed, thinking otherwise--for he
had a true and right judgment as to the gradations of merit--is said to
have answered thus: "You do not know," quoth he, "what is the height of
the most perfect dignity, and the true greatness of man? It is not to be a
great bishop, but a good clerk. Everybody knows that by the voice of three
rascally canons, to whom is given the power of election, a bishop is made;
but if all the saints in Paradise and all the sensible men in the world
said together in one voice before God, 'Martin is a good clergyman,'
Martin would not on that account be a good clergyman if he remained an
ignoramus."
A SULTAN WHO ABDICATED TWICE (A.D. 1451).
Sultan Amurath II., who died in 1451, was the only sultan who has twice
abdicated, being a great warrior as well as learned, merciful, religious,
charitable, and a patron of merit. He was a zealous Mussulman; and though
the scimitar was their usual instrument of converting unbelievers, his
moderation was attested by the Christians. His most striking
characteristic was that, in the plenitude of his power at the age of
forty, he discerned the vanity of human greatness, resigned the crown, and
retired to join a society of saints and hermits in Magnesia. He there
submitted to fast and pray and rotate with the dervishes. In two years,
owing to a sudden invasion of Hungarians, his son and successor, as well
as his former subjects, implored him to return and take command of his
janizaries; and, after fighting and conquering, he a second time resigned
the crown and resumed his monkish life. A second time he was recalled by
another danger of the State, and again resumed the crown. He had not
another opportunity of becoming a dancing dervish, as he died as Sultan at
the age of forty-nine.
POPE NICHOLAS V. A GREAT COLLECTOR OF MANUSCRIPTS (A.D. 1447).
When Pope Nicholas V. was elected in 1447, he had had a reputation for
universal knowledge, and within the short period of eighteen months
became bishop, cardinal, and Pope. A little spare man, with a keen eye and
overweening self-confidence, he soon made up his mind to proclaim a
crusade against the antipope, and authorised the French King to seize his
territories, though this became unnecessary, owing to the antipope's
resignation. This Pope lived in an age of great intellectual progress, and
he took pleasure in inviting men of letters and scholars. He soon
gratified a long-standing desire to collect manuscripts, and caused many
monastic libraries to be ransacked for treasures. He added in eight years
five thousand manuscripts to the Vatican library, and kept a staff of
copyists and translators, and even carried out in part a new translation
of the Bible. It was under his patronage that Laurence Valla, the eminent
scholar, produced a treatise on the donation of Constantine, exposing the
impudent forgery which had so long been palmed off by preceding Popes for
the foundation of their jurisdiction over the world in general. The
author, however, was astute enough to withdraw from Rome before the effect
of his researches became known, for he was soon arrested by the
Inquisition, and would have been burned but for the intercession of King
Alfonso. The literary men whom Nicholas encouraged were given to quarrels
and jealousies, and even tended towards too great an admiration of
Paganism. Nicholas was also bent on rebuilding the Vatican quarter of
Rome, and proceeded to act on a design of a new structure in the form of a
Greek cross with a cupola; but the execution of the work had only risen a
few feet above ground when the Pope died, and a yet more magnificent
structure was carried out in the following century. Though these great
palatial schemes were not executed, he gave his contemporaries a taste for
magnificence of every kind in the services of the Church, and for mitres,
vestments, altar-coverings, and gold inwoven curtains. He patronised the
saintly painter Angelico, and sculptors and architects. He also had a most
successful jubilee in 1450, which recouped his great expenditure, though
the occurrence of a plague acted adversely. It happened that
Constantinople fell a prey in Nicholas's time to the Mohammedans, who
despoiled and profaned the churches and dispersed the treasures of Greek
literature. This disaster, which happened in 1453, caused much sympathy;
for the Emperor Frederick was said to weep at the news and express a vague
wish for a crusade, though he took no active step. At a great festival at
Lille, a lady representing the Church appeared before the Duke of Burgundy
seated on an elephant led by a giant, and in a versified speech invoked
assistance, which led the Duke to register a vow to succour the Church;
but the enthusiasm soon died away. The Pope, however, consoled the chiefs
of Christendom by issuing a bull, in which he declared the founder of
Islam to be the great red dragon of the Apocalypse, and invited the
princes to buy indulgences in order to raise a fund to exterminate the
infidels. It was maliciously insinuated, however, that the money thus
raised only went to pay for needless fortifications at Rome, and nowise to
influence affairs in the East. The Pope died in 1455 before any of these
great enterprises were begun. It was said that Pope Nicholas's example
stirred up the Florentine merchant Cosmo de Medicis to carry on similar
researches for old manuscripts, and his grandson Lorenzo de Medicis
procured from the East a further treasure of two hundred writings. The
Greek language came to be publicly taught in the University of Oxford
towards the end of the fifteenth century.
A FOP ELECTED POPE PAUL II. (A.D. 1464).
In 1464 the choice of the cardinals for a new Pope fell on Peter Barbo, a
Venetian of high descent. He had been made a cardinal at twenty-two by his
uncle, and had always been noted for his elegant and foppish manners. The
previous Pope, Pius II., used to call him _Maria pientissima_, on account
of his soft and affected manner, coupled with a faculty of shedding tears
at will when urging any request. He was so vain of his handsome appearance
that he proposed to assume the name of Formosus, till some cardinals
laughed him out of it. His love of display and theatrical show led him to
spend large sums on jewels, precious stones, and millinery; and to provide
means for this great end of his being, he took care to keep in his hands
the income of vacant offices, and postpone the appointments. He not only
clothed himself in gorgeous attire, but to heighten the dramatic effect he
painted his face. One peculiarity of his was to transact all his business
by night, probably owing to the artificial manner in which he presented
himself, and to prevent cracks in his enamel being detected. He is said to
have given an impulse to the festivities of the Roman carnival, and used
to watch with congenial interest and enthusiasm the frolics of old and
young during the races on the Corso, where Jews, horses, asses, and
buffaloes were the performers. The cardinals, on appointing this Pope,
bound him over to many urgent duties and stipulations, but he threw off
these incumbrances as he would put off his cloak. He spent most of his
energies in seeking and buying alliances in Germany and in selling
offices. He also entertained the Emperor on a visit of seventeen days,
and showed him all the jewels. One day Paul II. was found dead in his bed
in 1471, the popular belief being that he had been killed by a devil,
which he was said to carry locked up in a signet ring; and this solution
was entirely satisfactory.
HOW POPE LEO X. WAS ELECTED (A.D. 1513).
John de Medicis was elected Pope in 1513, and took the title of Leo X. He
had been made cardinal at fourteen. He had been dissipated in his youth,
and had undergone a serious surgical operation at the time of his
predecessor's death, and was carried in a horse litter to join the
conclave of cardinals who were busy in measures for the election. The
Cardinal de Medicis made himself so busy in canvassing that his ulcer
broke, causing a noisome smell in all the cells he visited. While the
cardinals obstinately supported the opposing candidates, and there
appeared no hope of agreement, they were yet all satisfied that poor de
Medicis had not a month to live. So it occurred to several of them that it
would be as well to select him for the present, so as to stave off the
discords raging, and give them a few weeks longer to complete their own
arrangements and arrive at unanimity. This view led to John de Medicis
being at once elected Pope, though only thirty-six years old. He soon
recovered his health, and lived eight years longer, so that the old
cardinals had occasion to repent of their credulity. The young Pope
celebrated his coronation by lavish expenses. He insisted on being crowned
on the same day that he lost the battle of Ravenna and was taken prisoner,
and rode the same Turkish horse that bore him on that day. This horse was
greatly valued, and carefully kept and pampered to an extreme old age. Leo
X.'s head was full of the magnificence of ancient Rome, which he sought to
perpetuate. His life was voluptuous; he gloried in the pleasures of the
chase. He protected men of wit and learning, and kept a poet laureate to
make verses and act as buffoon at the revels constantly going on. While he
thundered anathemas against Luther, he did not cease in private to
ridicule the whole Christian doctrine as a mere fable. It is said he died
in a fit of extravagant merrymaking when he heard the news that the
Emperor had defeated the French at Milan. Leo X. kept a table of
extraordinary luxury. He tried experiments on the cookery of monkeys and
crows and peacock sausages. He kept poets and comedians to enliven the
diversions. Card-playing for heavy stakes followed the banquet. He used to
scatter gold among the spectators of a game.
THE POPE TURNING PAGAN INTO CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS (A.D. 1585).
Pope Sixtus V., elected in 1585, had a genius for architectural projects,
and seemed anxious to make the Rome of his time rival the ancient city. He
had a rage for destroying as well as for rebuilding. He was bent on
turning Pagan into Christian monuments. He allowed a statue of Minerva to
stand, but took away the spear of the goddess, and put a huge cross in her
hand. He dedicated the column of Trajan to St. Peter, and the column of
Antoninus to St. Paul. He set his heart also on erecting the obelisk
before St. Peter's, the more because he wished to see the monuments of
infidelity subjected to the cross on the very spot where the Christians
once suffered crucifixion. The architect, Fontana, thought it impossible;
but the Pope would not listen to objections. It was an extremely difficult
task to upheave the obelisk from its basis by the sacristy of the old
church of St. Peter, to let it down again, transport it to another site,
and there finally set it up again. It was an attempt to earn renown
throughout all ages. The workmen, nine hundred in number, began by hearing
Mass, confessing, and receiving the Communion. The obelisk was sheathed in
straw mats and planks riveted with iron rings. There were thirty-five
windlasses, each worked by two horses and ten men. The signal was given by
sound of trumpet. The obelisk was raised from the site on which it had
stood fifteen hundred years. A salvo was fired from the castle of St.
Angelo; all the bells of the city pealed; and the workmen carried their
architect in triumph round the barrier with never-ending hurrahs. Seven
days afterwards the obelisk was let down with no less dexterity, and then
it was conveyed on rollers to its new site, and some months elapsed before
its re-erection. A force of one hundred and forty horses was used to
elevate it. At three great efforts the obelisk was moved, and it sank on
the backs of the four bronze lions that served to support it. The people
exulted. The Pope was immensely satisfied, and set it down in his diary
that he had achieved the most difficult work which the human mind could
conceive. He erected a cross upon the obelisk, in which was enclosed a
piece of the supposed real cross. Sixtus V. also wanted to complete the
cupola of St. Peter's, which, it was estimated, would take ten years to
do; and his eyes were never wearied in watching its progress. He set six
hundred men to work at once night and day, and in twenty-two months the
cupola was completed. He did not, it was true, live to see the leaden
casing placed on the roof. This Pope kept a memorandum book in which
every detail of his daily life was recorded; and on succeeding to the
Papal throne it was noticed that his skill in finance was displayed in a
profusion of complexities. He amassed great sums, and also spent great
sums. One of the great sources of his profit was the sale of offices. He
created offices, and then sold the nominations at a great price. He also
imposed new taxes on the most laborious callings, such as those on the men
who towed vessels on the river; and he taxed heavily the necessaries of
life, such as wine and firewood.
THE INQUISITION AS AN INSTITUTION (A.D. 1232).
Pope Gregory IX., on the plea that the bishops were overtasked,
transferred in 1232 the duty of inquiring into heretics to officers
specially appointed by himself. In the rules by which these inquisitors
should be guided every principle of natural equity was outraged. The
accused were not to be confronted with the accusers--were not even to know
their names. Persons of infamous character might be received as witnesses
against them. Elaborate schemes for the treacherous entrapping of victims
were part of the instructions with which an inquisitor was furnished. A
large share of the goods of the condemned went to the judges who condemned
them; the remainder, if sometimes to the Papal Exchequer, very often went
to the temporal princes who should carry out the Church's sentence, whose
cupidity it was thus sought to stimulate, and whose co-operation was thus
rewarded. The guiltless children of the condemned were beggared. They
could hold no office; the brand of lifelong dishonour clung to them. Even
the very bones of the dead were burnt to dust and dispersed to the winds
or the waves. In the latter half of the fifteenth century the Inquisition
found its main occupation in the burning of Jews. Torquemada, in Spain,
alone sent to the stake some eight or nine thousand.
SENTENCE OF EXECUTION BY THE INQUISITION.
Owing to the mode of execution under a sentence of the Inquisition, the
populace were gratified with a view of the last agonies of the martyrs for
heresy. The culprit was not, as in the later Spanish Inquisition,
strangled before the lighting of the fagots, nor had the invention of
gunpowder suggested the expedient of hanging a bag of that explosive
around his neck to shorten his torture. An eyewitness thus describes the
execution of John Huss at Constance in 1415: "He was made to stand upon a
couple of fagots, and tightly bound to a thick post with ropes around the
ankles, below the knee, above the knee, at the groin, the waist, and under
the arms. A chain was also secured around the neck. Then it was observed
that he faced the east, which was not fitting for a heretic, and he was
shifted to the west. Fagots mixed with straw were piled around him to the
chin. Then the Count Palatine Louis, who superintended the execution,
approached with the Marshal of Constance, and asked him for the last time
to recant. On his refusal they withdrew and clapped their hands, which was
the signal for the executioners to light the pile. After it had burned
away there followed the revolting process of utterly destroying the
half-burned body, separating it in pieces, breaking up the bones, and
throwing the fragments and the viscera on a fresh fire of logs." When, as
in the case of Arnold of Brescia, some of the spiritual Franciscans, Huss,
Savonarola, and others, it was feared that relics of the martyr would be
preserved, especial care was taken after the fire to gather the ashes and
cast them into a running stream.
THE PLEASURE OF BURNING HERETICS (A.D. 1239).
When the Inquisition was becoming popular, it was commonly taught that
compassion for the sufferings of a heretic was not only a weakness but a
sin. As well might one sympathise with Satan and his demons writhing in
the endless torment of hell. The stern moralists of the age held it to be
a Christian duty to find pleasure in contemplating the anguish of the
sinner. Gregory the Great, five centuries before, had argued that the
bliss of the elect in heaven would not be perfect unless they were able to
look across the abyss and enjoy the agonies of their brethren in eternal
fire. Peter Lombard, the Master of Sentences, quotes St. Gregory with
approbation, and enlarges upon the satisfaction which the just will feel
in the ineffable misery of the damned. Even the mystic tenderness of
Bonaventura does not prevent him from echoing the same terrible
exultation. The schoolmen easily proved to their own satisfaction that
persecution was a work of charity for the benefit of the persecuted. By a
series of edicts from 1220 to 1239 a complete code of persecution was
enacted. Heretics and favourers of heretics were outlawed; their property
was confiscated, their heirs disinherited. Their houses were to be
destroyed, never to be rebuilt. All rulers and magistrates were required
to swear that they would exterminate all whom the Church might designate
as heretics, under pain of forfeiture of office. All this fiendish
legislation was hailed by the Church with acclamation. The Inquisition
has sometimes been said to have been founded in 1233.
THE SPANISH INQUISITION AT WORK (A.D. 1481).
In 1481 two Dominican monks were appointed to proceed to Seville and carry
on the work of the Inquisition, and the Jews were hunted up with vigour
and burnt in the _autos-da-fé_ of that city. In 1483 the brutal
Inquisitor-General Thomas de Torquemada added further horrors. The details
of these brutalities are now of no interest; but Prescott, the historian,
thus sums up the situation. The proceedings of the tribunal were plainly
characterised throughout by the most flagrant injustice and inhumanity to
the accused. Instead of presuming his innocence until his guilt had been
established, it acted on exactly the opposite principle. Instead of
affording him the protection accorded by every other judicature, and
especially demanded in his forlorn situation, it used the most insidious
arts to circumvent and crush him. He had no remedy against malice or
misapprehension on the part of his accusers or the witnesses against him,
who might be his bitterest enemies, since they were never revealed to nor
confronted with the prisoner, nor subjected to a cross-examination which
can best expose error or wilful collusion in the evidence. Even the poor
forms of justice recognised in this court might be readily dispensed with,
as its proceedings were impenetrably shrouded from the public eye by the
appalling oath of secrecy imposed on all, whether functionaries,
witnesses, or prisoners, who entered within its precincts. The last and
not the least odious feature of the whole was the connection established
between the condemnation of the accused and the interests of his judges,
since the confiscations which were the uniform penalties of heresy were
not permitted to flow into the royal exchequer until they had first
discharged the expenses, whether in the shape of salaries or otherwise,
incident to the Holy Office.
TORQUEMADA'S WORK AS INQUISITOR (A.D. 1483).
Torquemada, while at the head of the Inquisition in Spain, is said to have
convicted about six thousand persons annually. The Roman See during his
ministration made a painful traffic by the sale of dispensations, which
those rich enough were willing to obtain. This monster, the author of
incalculable miseries, was permitted to reach a very old age and to die
quietly in his bed. Yet he lived in such constant apprehension of
assassination that he is said to have kept a reputed unicorn's horn
always on his table, which was imagined to have the power of detecting and
neutralising poisons, while for the more complete protection of his person
he was allowed an escort of fifty horse and two hundred foot in his
progresses through the kingdom. Prescott says that this man's zeal was of
such an extravagant character that it may almost shelter itself under the
name of insanity. He waged war on freedom of thought in every form. In
1490 he caused several Hebrew Bibles to be publicly burnt, and some time
after more than six thousand volumes of Oriental learning, on the
imputation of Judaism, sorcery, or heresy, at the _autos-da-fé_ of
Salamanca, the very nursery of science.
AN "AUTO-DA-FÉ" IN SPAIN (A.D. 1483).
The last scene in the dismal tragedy of a so-called trial before the
Inquisition, says Prescott, was the Act of Faith (_auto-da-fé_)--the most
imposing spectacle, probably, which has been witnessed since the ancient
Roman triumph, and which was intended, somewhat profanely, to represent
the terrors of the Day of Judgment. The proudest grandees of the land, on
this occasion, putting on the sable livery of familiars of the Holy Office
and bearing aloft its banners, condescended to act as the escort of the
ministers, while the ceremony was not unfrequently countenanced by the
royal presence. It should be stated, however, that neither of these acts
of condescension, or more properly humiliation, was witnessed until a
period posterior to the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The effect was
further heightened by the concourse of ecclesiastics in their sacerdotal
robes, and the pompous ceremonial which the Church of Rome knows so well
how to display on fitting occasions, and which was intended to consecrate,
as it were, this bloody sacrifice. The most important actors in the scene
were the unfortunate convicts, disgorged for the first time from the
dungeons of the tribunal.
ASSASSINATION OF A SPANISH INQUISITOR (A.D. 1486).
When Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1486, introduced the Inquisition into
Arragon, the higher orders and the Cortes were greatly opposed to it, and
sent a deputation to the Court of Rome and to Ferdinand to suspend an
institution so hateful and oppressive. Both Pope and King paid no regard
to the remonstrance. The Arragonese thereupon, in self-defence, formed a
conspiracy for the assassination of Arbues, and subscribed a large sum to
defray the expenses. Arbues, being conscious of his unpopularity, wore
under his monastic robes a suit of mail and a helmet under his hood, and
his sleeping apartment was well guarded. But the conspirators managed to
surprise him while at his devotions. Near midnight Arbues was on his knees
before the great altar of the cathedral at Saragossa. They suddenly
surrounded him; one of them wounded him in the arm with a dagger, while
another dealt a fatal blow in the back of his neck. The priests, who were
preparing to celebrate matins in the choir, hastened to the spot, but too
late. They carried the bleeding body of the inquisitor to his apartment,
but he survived only two days, and it is said he blessed the Lord that he
had been permitted to seal so good a cause with his blood. This murder was
soon avenged, and the bloodhounds of the tribunal tracked the murderers,
after hundreds of victims were sacrificed, cut off their right hands, and
hanged them; and Arbues was even honoured as a martyr, and after two
centuries was, in 1664, canonised as a saint.
CARDINAL XIMENES AND QUEEN ISABELLA (A.D. 1495).
Cardinal Ximenes, who had acquired great reputation for the austere life
he had led, was appointed confessor to Queen Isabella in 1492, and in 1495
was appointed by her Archbishop of Toledo. He maintained all his
austerities in the new situation. Under his robes of silk or fur he wore
the coarse frock of St. Francis, which he used to mend with his own hands.
He used no linen about his person or his bed, and slept on a miserable
pallet, which was concealed under a luxurious couch. He was a rigorous
reformer of the monkish fraternities, and this excited violent complaints.
The general of the Franciscans, full of rage, demanded an audience of the
Queen; and when challenged by her for his rudeness and for forgetting to
whom he was speaking, he petulantly replied, "Yes; I know well whom I am
speaking to--the Queen of Castile, a mere handful of dust, like myself!"
The Queen was not moved by this insolence, but supported Ximenes in his
trenchant reforms. Ximenes vehemently urged the King and Queen in 1499 to
extirpate the Mohammedan religion, and he did not scruple to bribe the
Moors to accept baptism, and it was said he baptised three thousand in one
day. In 1502 he procured a decree enforcing baptism or exile on all Moors
above fourteen. Ximenes founded the University of Alcala, which was opened
in 1508. He also carried out a scheme for publishing a Bible, being the
first successful attempt at a polyglot version of the Scriptures. This
took fifteen years to prepare, and it was completed in 1517. Charles V.
wrote a cold-blooded letter, dispensing with Ximenes's services, and it so
excited the cardinal that he was seized with fever and died at the age of
eighty-one.
SOME SO-CALLED IRREPRESSIBLE HERETICS (A.D. 1080).
Among all the sects of the Middle Ages, by far the most important in
numbers and radical antagonism to the Church were the Cathari or the Pure,
as with characteristic sectarian satisfaction they styled themselves.
Albigenses they were called in Languedoc, Patarenes in North Italy, Good
Men by themselves. Stretching through Central Europe to Thrace and
Bulgaria, they joined hands with the Paulicians of the East, and shared in
their views, which have been variously represented, and were somewhat
mystical. It is difficult to understand the mighty attraction which these
doctrines--partly Gnostic, partly Manichean--exercised for so long a time
on the minds and hearts of many. Baxter's estimate of the Albigenses
was--Manichees with some better persons mixed. First attracting notice in
the latter half of the eleventh century, the Cathari multiplied with
extraordinary rapidity, so that in many districts they were during the
next century more numerous than the Catholics. St. Bernard, who undertook
a mission among them in 1147, describes the churches of the Catholics as
without people, and the people without priests. The Cathari disappeared at
the close of the thirteenth century, and then the Beghards and Beguins
become prominent, who were pietists associated for works of Christian
beneficence. Then some extreme Franciscans were mixed up with them, and
called themselves Zealots, or Little Brethren, or Spirituals. These
remonstrants drifted by degrees into open antagonists of the Church, and
talked of the Pope as the mystical antichrist. Other less commendable
mediæval sects were the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit. About
this time all countries were hotbeds of various sects. Pope Innocent III.
tried to let loose a crusading army, under Simon de Montfort, against the
Cathari, and great brutalities were perpetrated, and at length the still
more brutal Inquisition carried on the purposeless warfare.
WALDENSES SEEKING THE SCRIPTURES (A.D. 1179).
The Waldenses may be described as representing the general craving of the
better class of Christians of their time for a fuller acquaintance with
the Scriptures. Peter Waldo, a rich citizen of Lyons, obtained from two
friends in the priesthood a copy of the Gospels and a collection of the
sayings of the Fathers. He sold all his goods and associated himself with
others in search of a higher standard of living than was then met with.
They were called the Poor Men of Lyons on one side of the Alps, the Poor
Men of Lombardy on the other side. They began on the stock of their
acquired knowledge of the Scriptures to preach in the streets, thus
diffusing this precious knowledge. They had no intention of opposing the
Church; but the bishops of the day foresaw that dangerous knowledge was
likely to spread and cause trouble. In 1178 the Archbishop of Lyons
forbade their preaching. They tried to get the Pope's sanction to
circulate a translation of the Scriptures. The Pope, after due inquiry,
dismissed the deputation and condemned them to absolute silence. This
sentence did not convince. There were German and Swiss reformers then
rising up, seeking similar ends. The authorities, however, rather hunted
them, sometimes as wild beasts, and always subjected them to persecution
and outrage, both in France and Savoy. They retired into mountain
fastnesses from their persecutors. Milton's sonnet well immortalises and
avenges "these slaughtered saints, whose bones lie scattered on the Alpine
mountains cold."
A LAWYER FOR A POPE (A.D. 1605).
Pope Paul V. was elected in 1605. He had been a lawyer, and excelled in
that profession, and then rose successively through all the grades of
ecclesiastical dignity. It was noticed how skilfully he avoided making
enemies, and this characteristic marked him out for the supreme dignity.
He was chosen Pope unexpectedly, but this only caused him to attribute his
good fortune to a direct interposition of the Holy Ghost. He became at
once exalted in his own estimation above himself and all his
contemporaries as a heaven-born Vicar of Christ. He soon resolved to
introduce into ecclesiastical polity the rigour, exactitude, and severity
of the civil code. Other Popes signalised their elevation by some act of
clemency or grace. He began by striking terror into the bystanders by a
severe sentence. A poor author had written a Life of a prior Pope, and
compared him to the Emperor Tiberius; but the work was unpublished, and
lay only as a manuscript in the author's desk. The matter came to the ears
of this Pope, who, notwithstanding the intercession of ambassadors and
princes, ordered the writer to be beheaded one morning on the bridge of
St. Angelo, the crime being treated as treason. The same Pope treated as a
mortal sin the practice of non-residence in a bishop. He treated decretals
as laws of God, and all who disobeyed them as blasphemers.
Excommunication was freely launched against petty misdemeanants. He
claimed rights of sovereignty over Venice, which for centuries had been in
abeyance. He asserted indeed a universal sovereignty, and treated all
mankind as sheep who had no business to criticise or question their
shepherd. It has been said his overweening arrogance only made the
Protestant reaction, then beginning, more prompt and decisive.