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I  BOHN'S  STANDARD  LIBRARY. 


34. 
35. 
36. 
37. 
38. 

39. 
40. 
41. 
42. 


SHERIDAN'S  DRAMATIC  WORKS  AND  LIFE.     Portrait. 

COXES  MEMOIRS  OF  MARLBOROUGH.    VOL.  2.    Porlrait  of  Ike  Duchess. 

GOETHE'S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY,  13  BOOKS.     PORTRAIT. 

RANKE'S    HISTORY  OF    THE    POPES.     VOL.2.      \ruk  Indix,  and  Portrait 
of  Innocent  X. 

LAMARTINES  HISTORY  OF  THE  GIRONDISTS.     VOL.  3.     With  a  Memoir 
of  Lamartine,  and  a  Sketch  of  the  hist  llcvolution. 

COXES  MEMOIRS  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  MARLBOROUGH.    VOL.  3. 

WHEATLEY  ON  THE  COMMON  PRAYER.     FRONTISPIECE. 

RAN  KES   POPES.     VOL.3.    Porlrait  of  Clement  FH. 

MILTON'S  PROSE  WORKS.     VOL.1.    Portrait. 

MENZELS  HISTORY  OF  GERMANY.     COMPLETE  IN  3  VOLS.     VOL.  1 

Portrait  of  Charlemagne. 

MILTON'S  PROSE  WORKS.     VOL.  2.    Frontispiece. 
MILTON  S  PROSE  WORKS.    VOL.3.    Portrait  of  UmL 
MENZELS  HISTORY  OF  GERMANY.   VOL.  2.    Porlrait  of  Charles  V. 

SCHLEGEL'S /ESTHETIC  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  WORKS,  CONTAINING 

Letters  on  Christian  Art,  Essay  on  Gothic  .Architecture,  Keniarks  on  the  Komance- 
Poetry  of  the  Middle  Ages,  on  Shakspeare,  the  Limits  of  tlie  Beautiful,  aud  on  the 
Language  and  Wisdom  of  the  Indians. 

GOETHE'S  WORKS.  VOL.  2,  containing  the  remainder  of  his  Autobiography, 
together  with  his  Travels  in  Italy,  France,  and  Switzerland. 

SCHILLER'S  WORKS.  VOL.4,  CONTAINING  "THE  ROBBERS,"  "FIESKO," 

"Love  and  Intrigue,"  and  "The  Ghost-Seer,"  translated  by  IIk.nki  G.  Bou:(. 

MENZEL'S  GERMANY.     VOL.  3.    Porlrait  of  Prince  MeUemick. 

SCHLEGEL'S  LECTURES  ON  MODERN  HISTORY. 

LAMARTINES  HISTORY  OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  18-18. 
inth  Frontispiece,  containing  6  Portraits. 

JUNIUS'S  LETTERS,  WITH  ALL  THE  NOTES  OF  WOODFALL'S  EDITION, 

and  important  additions.    2  vols.     Vol.  1,  containing  all  the  Original  Leltcn. 

VASARIS  LIVES  OF  THE  MOST  CELEBRATED  PAINTERS,  SCULPTORS, 
AND  ARCHITECl'S.    Translated  by  Mrs.  Foster.    Vol.  I.    Portrait. 

JUNIUSS  LETTERS.  VOL.  2,  containing  the  Private  and  MisceUaneons 
Letters,  au  Essay  disclosing  the  Authorship,  and  a  very  elaborate  Index. 

TAYLORS  (JEREMY)  HOLY  LIVING  AND  DYING.    Portrait. 

GOETHE'S  WORKS.  VOL.  3,  CONTAINING  "FAUST,"  "  IPHIGENIA." 
"TORQUATO  TASSO,"  and  "EGMO.MV  Translated  l.v  Miss  SwA.NwicK 
With  "  GOETZ  VON  BERLICniXGEN,"  by  Sir  Waltzk'Scott. 

NEANDERS  CHURCH  HISTORY,  THE  TRANSLATION  CAREFULLY 
Revised  by  the  Rev.  A.  J.  W.  .Moebisox.    Vol.  I. 

NEANDERS  LIFE  OF  CHRIST.     COMPLETE  IN   1   VOL. 

VASARIS  LIVES,  BY  MRS.  FOSTER.     VOL.  2. 

NEANDERS  CHURCH  HISTORY.    VOL.  2. 


Uniform  vith  his  Staxdaid  Libkabt, /inc*  3^.  6<1., 

~   BOHN'S  EXTRA  VOLUMES. 

1.  GRAMMONT'S  MEMOIRS   OF  THE    COURT   OF   CHARLES   U.      With 
Boscobel  Narratives.     Portrait  of  lieli  Gtcywie. 

2&3.  RABELAIS'  WORKS.     COMPLETE  IN  2  VOLS: 

4.  COUNT  HAMILTONS  FAIRY  TALES.     PORTRAIT. 


•y^ 


ERAL  BISTORT 


CHRISTIM  RELIGION  AND  CHURCH: 


TBAKSLATED   FBOM   THE   GERMAN   OF 

DR.    AUGUSTUS    NEAI^I^^B, 

BY 

JOSEPH  TORKEY, 

niOr<SS03  OF  UCRAI.  ?HII.0SCPET  is  xas  TTSITIRSITT  Cr  TCBMOBT. 


SBW  EDITION,  CAREFCIXV  BEriSED. 


'  I  am  come  to  send  fire  oa  the  earth." — TTordi  of  our  Lord. 

'  And  the  fire  shall  try  every  man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is."    '"  Bat  other  foandation 
can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Christ  Jesus." — St.  PcmI. 


VOLUME    SEVENTH.    V^ 


LONDON: 

HENRY  G     >OHN,  YORK  STREET,  CO  VENT  GARDEN. 
1852. 


LOXOOJ)  :    PRINTED  BY  W.  CI/OWE8  AND  SONS,  STAMFORD  STREET. 


(    iii    ) 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE. 


These  volumes  (vii.  and  viii.)  complete  the  translation  of 
the  General  History  of  the  Christian  religion  and  church,  as  far 
as  the  work  had  been  published  when  its  lamented  author  was 
called  away  from  the  scene  of  his  earthly  labours.  Another 
volume,  as  he  himself  intimates  in  the  Preface  to  his  Tenth 
Part,  was  to  have  brought  the  history  of  the  church  down 
to  the  times  of  the  Reformation.  What  progress  had  been 
made  by  the  author  in  preparing  this  interesting  portion 
of  his  work  for  the  press,  I  do  not  certainly  know,  though 
I  feel  strongly  confident  it  must  have  been  such  that  the  last 
labours  of  the  eminent  historian  Avill  not  long  be  withheld 
fix)m  the  public.  In  a  letter  to  the  publisher  dated  April  9, 
1848,  Dr.  Neander  wnites  that  he  was  then  occupied  with  this 
promised  volume  ;  and  it  is  well  knowrn,  that  one  of  the  last 
acts  of  his  life  was  to  dictate  a  sentence  of  it  to  his  amanuensis. 
As  he  had  therefore  been  employed  upon  it  for  as  long  a  time, 
to  say  the  least,  as  had  ever  intervened  between  the  dates  of 
his  earlier  volumes,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  conjecture  that 
the  volume  was  left  by  him  in  a  sufficient  state  of  forwardness 
to  admit  of  being  finished  without  much  labour.  That  it  may 
be  so  finished,  aud  the  whole  work  brought  down  to  the  epoch 
to  which  the  author  in  his  later  volumes  was  evidently  looking 
forward  as  a  resting-place,  must  appear  highly  desirable  to 
every  one  who  is  capable  of  appreciating  the  minute  and  com- 
prehensive learning,  the  scrupulous  fidelity,  the  unexampled 
candour  and  simplicity  of  spirit,  the  unobtrusive  but  per\'ading 
glow  of  Christian  piety,  which  have  thus  so  &r  eminently 
characterized  every  portion  of  this  great  work. 

If  such  a  volume  should  soon  be  given  to  the  world,  the 
publisher  of  the  present  translation  will  take  measures  to 
have  it  converted  into  English. 

J.  TORREY, 

July  31,  1851. 

a  2 


(     iv     ) 


DEDICATION 

OF  THE  FIRST  PART  OF  THE  FIFTH  VOLUME. 


TO  MY  DEAH  AND  HONOURED  FRIEND 

DR.  RITSCHL 

BISHOP      IN      STETTIN. 

Ever  since  I  had  the  happiness  to  be  thrown  by  official  relations, 
when  you  were  still  amongst  us,  into  closer  contact  with  you,  and 
through  your  examinations  over  the  department  of  practical  the- 
ology, as  well  as  by  cordial  intercourse  to  become  more  accurately 
acquainted  with  your  peculiar  spirit,  your  way  of  interpreting  the 
signs  of  these  times,  labouring  with  the  birth-throes  of  a  new  age  of 
the  world,  and  your  judgment  as  to  what  the  church  in  these  times 
needs  before  all  things  else,  I  felt  myself  related  to  you,  not  by  the 
common  tie  of  Christian  fellowship  alone,  but  also  by  a  special  sym- 
pathy of  spirit.  And  when  you  left  us,  called  by  the  Lord  to  act 
in  another  great  sphere  for  the  advancement  of  his  kingdom,  your 
dear  image  still  remained  deeply  engi-aven  on  my  heart.  In  your 
beautiful  pastoral  letters  I  recognized  again  the  same  doctrines  of 
Christian  wisdom,  drawn  from  the  study  of  the  Divine  Word  and 
of  history,  to  which  I  had  often  heard  you  bear  testimony  before ; 
and  when  I  had  the  pleasure  of  once  more  seeing  you  face  to  face, 
it  served  to  revive  the  ancient  fellowship.  Often  has  the  wish 
come  over  my  mind  of  giving  you  some  public  expression  of  my 
cordial  regard.  To  the  bishop  who  in  his  first  pastoral  letters  so 
beautifully  refers  the  servants  of  the  church  to  that  which  is  only 
to  be  learned  in  the  school  of  life,  in  History,  I  dedicated  part  of 
the  present  work,  devoted  to  the  history  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
And  I  feel  myself  constrained  to  dedicate  to  the  bishop  of  the 
dear  Pommeranian  church,  that  volume  of  my  work  in  particular 
which  describes  the  active  operations  of  its  original  founder.  That 
kindred  spirit,  even  in  its  errors,  you  will  greet  with  your  wonted 
benevolence. 

May  the  Lord  long  preserve  you  by  his  grace  for  his  church  on 
earth,  and  bless  your  work  ! 

These  times,  torn  by  the  most  direct  contrarieties,  vacillating  be- 


DEDICATION  OF  FIRST  PART  OF  FIFTH  VOLUME.  V 

tween  licentiousness  and  servility,  between  the  bold  denial  of  God 
and  tbe  deification  of  the  letter,  needs  such  men,  who  recognize 
the  necessary  unity  and  the  necessary  manifoldness,  and  who 
understand  how  to  guide  free  minds  with  love  and  wisdom,  being 
themselves  disciples  of  eternal  love  and  wisdom.  May  all  leam 
from  you  not  to  himt  after  new  things  which  are  not  also  old, 
nor  to  cling  to  old  things  which  will  not  become  new ;  but,  as  you 
advise  in  your  first  pastoral  letter,  to  form  themselves  into  such 
scribes  as  know  how  to  bring  out  of  their  good  treasures  things 
both  old  and  new,  just  as  the  truth  which  they  serve  is  an  old 
truth,  and  at  the  same  time  always  new. 

With  my  whole  heart,  yours, 

A.  Neakdeb. 
Berlin,  March  5,  184], 


(     vi     ) 


AUTHOR'S  PEEFACE 

TO  THE  FIKST  PART  OF  THE  FIFTH  VOLUME. 

I  HEBE  present  to  the  public  the  first  part  of  the  history  of  that 
important  period,  so  rich  in  materials,  the  flourishing  times  of  the 
Middle  Ages ;  thanking  God  that  he  has  enabled  me  to  bring  this 
laborious  work  to  an  end,  while  engaged  in  discharging  the  duties 
of  a  difficult  calling. 

I  must  beg  the  learned  reader  would  have  the  goodness  to  sus- 
pend his  judgment  respecting  the  arrangement  and  distribution  of 
the  matter  till  the  whole  shall  be  completed.     Notwithstanding 

that  M.  H ,  in  his  recension  of  the  two  preceding  volumes, 

in  the  literary  leaves  of  the  Darmstadt  Church  Gazette,  has  ex- 
pressed himself  so  strongly,  I  have  still  thought  proper  in  this 
volume  also,  to  incorporate  the  history  of  Monachism  with  that  of 

the  church  constitution.     No  one,  doubtless,  except  M.  H — ■ , 

will  believe  me  to  be  so  childish  or  so  stupid  as  to  have  done  this 
merely  because  it  is  customary  to  speak  also  of  a  constitution  of 
Monachism.  The  reasons  which  have  induced  me  to  adopt  the 
plan  I  have  chosen,  will  readily  present  themselves  to  the  attentive 
reader ;  though  I  am  free  to  confess  that  another  arrangement  is 
possible,  and  that  the  reference  to  a  Christian  life  is  made  promi- 
nent by  me  in  the  second  section  also,  as  belongs,  indeed,  to  the 
special  point  of  view  from  which  I  write  my  Church  History.  I 
should  have  many  things  to  answer  to  the  above-mentioned  re- 
viewer, if  the  judgment  of  a  reviewer  were  really  anything  more 
than  the  judgment  of  any  other  reader  or  nonreader.  That  the 
remark  concerning  Claudius  of  Turin  was  neither  unimportant  nor 
superfluous,  every  one  may  easily  convince  himself,  who  takes  the 
least  interest  in  a  thorough  scientific  understanding  of  the  history 
of  doctrines.  As  to  my  theological  position,  I  demand  for  that  the 
condescending  tolerance  of  no  man  ;  but  shall  know  very  well  how 
to  defend  it  on  scientific  grounds, 

I  regret  that  the  second  volume  of  Barthold's  History  of 
Pommerania  did  not  reach  me  till  after  the  printed  sheets  of  the 
whole  section  were  already  lying  before  me. 

I  must  direct  the  attention  of  the  readers  of  my  Church  History 
to  the  Atlas  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  soon  to  be  given  to  the  world 
by  Candidate  Wiltsch,  of  Wittenberg,  which  will  prove  a  welcome 
present  to  every  friend  of  the  history  of  the  church. 


author's  preface  to  second  part  of  fifth  volume,      vii 

In  conclusion,  I  thank  my  worthy  friend,  the  preacher  elect, 
Selbach,  for  the  fidelity  and  care  with  which  he  has  assisted  me 
during  the  transit  of  my  work  through  the  press,  and  wish  him  the 
richest  blessing  in  his  new  sphere  of  labour  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

A.  Neaitdeb. 
Berlin,  March  5, 1J44. 


AUTHOK'S  PKEFACE 
TO  THE  SECOND  PART  OF  THE  FIFTH  VOLUME. 

I  BEJOICE  that  I  am  here  able  at  length  to  present  to  the  public  the 
fruits  of  my  favourite  studies  for  many  years — an  exhibition  of 
the  Christian  life,  of  the  development  of  the  theology  and  of  the 
history  of  the  sect  during  the  flourishing  times  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Would  that  the  many  new  facts  which  ever  and  anon  have  pre- 
sented themselves  as  the  result  of  my  inquiries,  may  serve  as  some 
of  my  earlier  labours  have  done,  to  call  forth  new  investigations, 
which  might  tend  to  promote  the  cause  of  science  by  confirming 
that  which  I  have  advanced,  filling  up  what  I  have  left  defective, 
or  stating  the  other  side  of  facts  where  I  have  stated  but  one  side. 
I  regret  that  my  attention  was  drawn  too  late  to  Dr.  Gieseler's  Pro- 
gramme on  the  Summas  of  Eainer,  and  that  I  received  it  too  late 
to  be  able  to  avail  myself  of  it  in  treating  the  history  of  the  sects. 
I  regret  it  the  more,  as  I  am  aware  how  much  the  labours  of  this 
distinguished  inquirer  have  aided  me  in  other  investigations  where 
our  studies  have  happened  to  be  directed  to  the  same  subjects.     It 
is  a  great  pity  that,  by  this  custom  of  academical  programmes, 
many  an  important  scientific  essay,  which,  published  by  itself  or 
inserted  in  some  journal,  might  soon  be  generally  dispersed  abroad, 
is  to  many  entirely  lost  or  at  least  escajjes  their  notice  at  the  par- 
ticular moment  when  they  could  have  derived  the  most  benefit 
from  it.     The  latest  volume  of  Bitter  on  Christian  philosophy  is 
a  work  also  to  which  I  could  not  of  course  have  any  regard.    Also 
the  Essay  of  Dr.  Pianck,  in  the  Studien  imd  Rritiken,  J.  1844, 
4tes  Heft,  on  a  tract  cited  in  my  work,  the  Contra  qxiatuor  Galliae 
Labyrinthos  of  Walter  of  Mauretania,  is  a  production  to  which  I 
must  refer  my  readers,  as  having  appeared  too  late  for  my  purpose. 
I  have  to  lament,  that  of  the  ten  volumes  of  the  works  of  Eay- 
mund  Lull,  there  are  two  which  I  have  not  been  able  to  consult,  as 
they  are  nowhere  to  be  met  Mith.    If  it  be  the  fact  that  these  two 


Vm       AUTHOR  S  PREFACE  TO  SECOND  PART  OF  FIFTH  VOLUME. 

missing  volumes  caunot  be  restored,  it  is  certainly  desirable  that 
some  individual  would  do  himself  the  honour  of  completing  the 
edition  from  the  manuscripts  in  the  Eoyal  Library  of  Munich. 

I  have  not  compared  my  earlier  labours  on  the  subject  of  Abe- 
lard  with  this  new  representation  of  the  man.  By  those  writings 
of  which  Dr.  Eheinwald  *  and  Cousin  have  first  presented  to  the 
world,  an  impulse  has  been  given  to  many  a  new  inquiry  and  new 
mode  of  apprehending  the  character  of  that  celebrated  individual. 

In  continuation  of  the  present  work  there  will  follow,  if  God 
permit,  an  account  of  the  times  down  to  the  period  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, in  one  volume. 

I  heartily  thank  Professor  Schonemann,  for  the  extraordinary 
kindness  with  which,  as  Superintendent  of  the  Ducal  Library  at 
"Wolfenbiittel,  he  has  communicated  its  treasures  for  my  use,  with- 
out which  it  would  have  been  out  of  my  power  to  complete  many 
an  investigation  of  which  the  results  are  to  be  found  in  this  volume. 
And  in  conclusion,  I  thank  my  dear  young  friend,  H.  Rossel,  not 
only  for  the  care  he  has  bestowed  on  the  correction  of  the  press, 
but  also  for  the  pains  and  skill  with  which  he  has  drawn  up  the 
Table  of  Contents,  and  the  Register. 

A.  Neandeb. 
Berlin,  Dec.  3,  1844. 

♦  The  Archivarius  not  barely  of  '  Modern  Church  History,'  to  whom  I 
wish  the  most  abundant  support  of  all  kinds  in  the  very  important  under- 
takings in  behalf  of  literature  in  which  he  is  engaged,  an  edition  of  the  col- 
lected writings  of  Valentine  Andreas,  one  of  the  great  prophetic  men  of 
Germany ;  the  Acta  of  the  council  of  Basle,  after  the  plan  of  the  one  which 
Hermann  of  Hardt  has  furnished  of  the  council  of  Costnitz ;  and  the  Con- 
tinuation of  his  Acta  Historico-Ecclesiastica,  a  work  which  must  prove  so 
important  for  the  present  and  for  future  times. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 


FIFTH  PERIOD  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN CHURCH. 

FROM  GREGORY  THE  SEVENTH  TO  BONIFACE  THE 
EIGHTH.    FROM  A.D.  1073  TO  A.D.  1294. 


[First  Divisios.] 
SECTION    FIRST. 

EXTEXSIOS    AND    LIMITS    OF    THE    CHKISTIAX    CHURCH. 

1.  Among  the  Heathen,  1 — 79. 

A.    EUKOPE. 


Pape 


Pommerania.    Unsaccessful   missionary  labours  of  partially 

converted  Poles,  and  of  the  Spanish  monk  Bernard     .     .  1 

Early  life  of  Otto ;  his  activity  as  Bishop  of  Bamberg ;  his 

call  to  be  an  apostle  among  the  Pommeranians      ...  4 

Otto's  journey  through  Poland ;  his  reception  by  the  Dukes  of 

Poland  and  Pommerania *  8 

The  first  baptized  converts  in  Pommerania.  Pagan  festival  at 
Py  ritz ;  preparatory  instruction  and  baptism  of  seven  thou- 
sand !  farewell  exhortations 11 

Favourable  disposition  of  Wartislav  and  his  wife.  Snccessfnl 
operations  and  planting  of  the  first  church  in  Kammin. 
Supposed  divine  judgment  on  account  of  breaking  the 
Sabbath 12 

Otto,  and  his  timid  companions,  in  the  free  city  of  Julin.  Fury 
of  the  pagans ;  secret  Christians  there.  Citizens  agree  to 
follow  the  example  of  Stettin 1 

Arrival  at  Stettin.  Religious  condition  of  the  pagan  inhabitants. 
Embassy   to  Poland.      Otto's  influence  ;   upheld  by  a 

Christian  family 13 

Boleslav's  letter.     Otto's  method  in  destroying  the  monuments 

of  Idolatry.    Death  of  a  heathen  priest 19 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 


Page 


Otto  in  Garz,  Lebbehn.  Julin  converted,  and  destined  for  a 
bishoprick.  Success  in  Clonoda  (GoUnow),  Nangard, 
Colberg,  and  Belgrade 20 

Visitation-tour,  and  return  of  Otto  to  Bamberg       ....  21 

Reaction  of  Paganism  in  Pommerania.  Otto's  second  missi- 
onary journey.  His  influence  upon  Wartislav  in  Demmin. 
Speech  of  the  latter  at  the  diet  in  Usedom  .....  23 

Influence  of  a  pagan  priest  in  Wolgast.  Course  of  events  there 

till  Christianity  triumphs 26 

Otto's  successful  labours  in  Gutzhow ;  his  discourse  at  the  de- 
dication of  a  church.     Salutary  example  of  Mizlav    .     .  28 

Boleslav's  military  expedition  renounced.  Otto's  interview 
with  Wartislav.  Otto's  strong  desire  to  visit  Riigen.  At- 
tempts of  Ulric  to  visit  that  island  defeated.  Otto's  treat- 
ment of  his  clergy 32 

Stettin,  a  town  partly  pagan,  partly  Christian.  Witstack's 
conversion.  His  support  of  Otto.  Otto's  calmness  amidst 
the  infuriated  pagans.  Adoption  of  Christianity  resolved 
upon  in  an  assembly  of  the  people.  Otto's  treatment  of 
children.     Dangers  to  which  he  exposed  himself  .     .     •  34 

Successful  operations  in  Julin,  Otto's  return  to  Bamberg ;  he 
continues  to  be  interested  in  behalf  of  the  Pommeranians. 
German  clergy  and  colonists  in  Pommerania  .      .      -      .  41 

Eiigen  conquered  by  the  Danes.     Planting  of  the  Christian 

church  there  by  Absalom 42 

Wendish  kingdom  of  Gottschalk,  under  his  successors.    Spread 

of  Christianity  there 43 

Vicelins  earlier  life.  His  zealous  and  painful  labours,  in  con- 
nection with  Dittmar,  among  the  Slaves.  Religious  soci- 
ties  and  missionary  schools '^^ 

Lie/land.  Planting  of  the  Christian  church  there.  Mission- 
ary operations  of  Meinhard  (first  church  in  Yxkiill). 
Crusades  of  Theodoric  and  Berthold  against  the  Lieflan- 
ders.  Albert  of  Appeldern.  Riga  made  a  bishoprick. 
Brethren  of  the  Sword.  Esthland,  Semgallen,  Curland, 
christianized 49 

Spiritual  dramas.  Theological  lectures  of  Andrew  of  Lund. 
Sigfrid  in  Holm.  Frederic  of  Celle  martyred  in  Fried- 
land.  John  Strick's  behaviour  during  an  attack  from  the 
Letti.  Impression  produced  by  a  spiritual  song.  Converts 
to  Christianity  come  to  a  consciousness  of  their  equal 
rights  and  dignity  as  men.  Change  in  the  character  of 
the  laws.     Exhortations  of  William  of  Modena     ...  .52 

Prussia.  Missionary  labours  of  Adalbert  of  Prague,  and 
Bruno  Boniface,  till  their  martyrdom.  Gottfried  of  Lu- 
cina,  and  monk  Philip.  Christian's  labours,  sustained  by 
Innocent  the  Third  (through  his  letters  and  briefs).  Com- 
pletion of  the  works  by  the  German  knights  and  brethren 
of  the  sword.     Four  bishoprics 55 

Finland  converted  to  Christianity 61 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VU.  SI 


B.  Asia. 


Pag€ 


Tartary.  Activity  of  the  Nestorians  in  spreading  Christianity. 
Legend  of  the  Christian  kingdom  in  Kerait,  under  the 
priest- kings  John.     Historical  basis  of  this  story  .     .     .  62 

Mongols.   Empire  of  Dschingiskhan.   Religions  condition  of  the  64 

Mongols.   Unsuccessful  embassies  of  Innocent  the  Fourth 

Influence  of  the  Crusades.  Embassy  of  Louis  the  Ninth. 
Statements  of  William  of  Rubruquis.  His  conversation 
and  participation  in  the  religious  conference  betwixt  the 
different  parties 69 

The  Mongol  empire  in  Persia 75 

Lamaism  in  the  main  empire  of  China.     Report  of  Marco 

Polo,  who  enjoyed  the  protection  of  Koblaikhan   ...  76 

Missionary  activity  of  John  de  Monte  Corvino  in  Persia,  India, 
China.  His  snccessfiil  labours  in  Cambalu  (Pekin).  The 
Nestoriau  prince  George  becomes  Catholic;  reaction  of 
Nestorianism  after  his  death 77 

2.  Among  the  Mohammedans  in  Africa,  80 — 96. 

Relation  of  the  Mohammedans  to  Christianity  during  the  Cru- 
sades. Francis  of  Assisi  in  Egypt.  Different  accounts  of 
him.     Report  of  Jacob  of  Vitry 80 

Science  as  an  instrument  for  the  spread  of  Christianity.  Say- 
mund  Lull's  earlier  life.  His  conversion,  and  his  plan  of 
labour.  His  Ars  generalis  opposed  to  two  parties.  Rela- 
tiou  of  faith  to  knowledge.  Linguistic  missionary  schools 
at  Majorca.  Lull's  voyage  to  Tunis  and  its  result.  His 
Tabular  generalis  and  Necessaria  demonstratio.  His 
labours  in  Europe,  and  second  journey  to  North  Afinca 
(Bugia).  His  banishment;  shipwreck  near  Pisa.  His 
labours  as  a  teacher  in  Paris ;  his  threefold  plan.  Dies  a 
martyr  in  Bugia 82 

3.  Eelation  of  the  Christian  Church  to  the  Jews,  97 — 110. 

The  monk  Hermann  on  the  treatment  of  the  Jews.  False  re- 
ports concerning  them  ;  fanatical  behaviour  towards  them. 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux  defends  them,  and  puts  down  Ru- 
dolph.  Peter  of  Cluny  hostile  to  the  Jews  .     ....  79 

The  popes  their  protectors.    Innocent  the  Second  and  the  Third. 

Briefs  of  Gregory  the  Ninth  and  of  Innocent  the  Fourth  .  102 

Points  of  dispute  with  the  Christians.     Objections  stated  I     a 

Jew.  and  their  refutation  by  Gislebert 104 

Doubts  and  conflicts  of  the  convert  Hermann 107 


Page 


3U1  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 

SECTION  SECOND. 

HISTORY    OF    THE    CHURCH    CONSTITUTION, 

1.  Papacy  and  the  Popes,  111 — 273. 

Corruption  of  the  church,  and  reformatory  reaction ;  Hilde- 
brand's  idea  of  the  church  as  designed  to  govern  the  world 

His  course  of  development  as  conditioned  by  the  times  in  which 
he  lived.  Gregory  the  Seventh  (1073) ;  complaints  in  the 
first  years  of  his  reign 112 

Principles  of  his  conduct ;  Old  Testament  position  in  which  he 
stood.  Predilection  for  judgments  of  God.  Veneration 
of  Mary.  Papal  and  royal  authority.  Monarchical  consti- 
tution of  the  church.  Gregory  and  the  laws.  His  legates. 
Annual  synods.  Care  for  the  particular  nations.  Gre- 
gory's incorruptible  integrity.  Persecution  of  witches 
orbidden,  Gregory's  views  of  penance,  of  monachism, 
asceticism.     His  liberality 117 

Different  expectations  from  Gregory's  government.  Thfe  story 
concerning  Henry  the  Fourth.  Protests  against  his  elec- 
tion. Letters  missive  for  a  reformatory  Fast-synod  (1074). 
Opposition  to  the  law  of  celibacy.  Gregory's  firmness  to 
his  principles  in  the  case  of  the  opposition  at  Mayence, 
etc.  His  union  with  the  laity  and  monks.  His  opponents. 
Letter  to  Cuuibert  of  Turin.  Separatist-heretical  move- 
ments.   Complaints  against  Gregory 124 

Lay  investiture  forbidden.     Gregory's  proceedings  towards 

Philip  the  First  and  Hermann  of  Bamberg   *.     .     .     .  138 

Henry  the  Fourth  obeys  the  pope  in  respect  to  simony.  Idea 
of  a  crusade.  Henry  violates  the  peace.  Gregory's  letter 
of  admonition  and  embassy.  Gregory  impeached  by  Hugo 
Blancus.  Gregory  deposed  at  the  council  of  Worms 
(1076).  Henry's  letter  to  Rome.  Gregory's  imprisonment 
by  Cintius,  and  liberation.  Ban  pronounced  on  Henry. 
Impression  produced  on  different  parties.  Gregory's 
justification  of  himself  refuted  by  Waltram.  Diet' at 
Tribur 141 

Henry's  journey  to  Rome  (1076-77).  Gregory's  journey  to 
Germany  prevented.  His  relations  with  Mathilda.  The 
penitents  at  Canossa.  The  host  used  as  an  ordeal.  The 
judgment  to  be  formed  respecting  Gregory's  reconciliation 
with  Henry l-,4 

Henry  violates  the  peace.  Rudolph  of  Suabia  elected  (1077). 
Gregory's  ambiguous  mode  of  proceeding.  New  ban  pro- 
nounced on  Henry  (1080).  Gregory  deposed  and  Clement 
the  Third  elected.  Henry  in  Italy  prepared  for  peace. 
Gregory's  firmness ;  his  death  (1085)  ;  h\&  Uictates  .      ,  160 

Continuance  of  the  contest  after  Gregory.    Victor  the  Third. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII.  xill 

Page 
Urban  the  Second.     Philip  the  First's  controTcrsies  con- 
cerning his  marriage.     Firm  and  bold  stand  of  Yves  of 
Chartres,  and  his  fate.     Ban  pronomiced  on  Philip     .      .  165 

Occasion  of  the  Crusades.     Peter  the  Hermit.     Ecclesiastical 

assemblies  at  Placenza  and  Clermont 169 

Speech  of  Urban  the  Second.  Enthusiasm  called  forth.  Dif- 
ferent motives  of  the  crusaders.  Spiritual  orders  of 
knights.    Pious  frauds,  together  with  examples  of  faith  .  172 

Papal  authority  increased  by  the  Crusades.  Change  effected 
in  Urban's  situation  till  his  death.  Death  of  the  anti-pope 
Clement  the  Third 177 

Continued  contests  of  Henry  the  Fifth.  Robert  of  Flanders 
stirred  up  by  Paschalis  the  Second.  Bold  letter  of  the 
clergy  of  Liege  (by  Singibert  of  Gemblours)  to  Paschalis  1 79 

Disputes  with  Henry  the  Fifth  about  Investiture.  Compact  at 
Sutri,  A.D.  1110.  New  compact,  a.d.  1112.  Reproaches 
brought  against  Paschalis  the  Second.  Gottfried  of  Ven- 
dome  representative  of  the  sterner  party.  Milder  judg- 
ment of  Hildebert  of  Mans  and  Yves  of  Chartres.  John 
of  Lyons.  The  tract  of  Placidus  of  Nonantula.  Pascha- 
lis before  the  Lateran  council.  New  disputes  about  inves- 
titure      184 

Gelasius  the  Second,  and  the  imperial  pope  Gregory  the  Eight. 
Attempt  to  restore  peace  by  the  monk  Hugo.  Neutral 
stand  taken  by  Gottfried  of  Vendome.  Concordat  of 
Worms  between  Calixtus  the  Second  and  Henry  the  Fifth, 
A.i>.  1122 .  194 

The  anti-popes.  Innocent  the  Second  and  Auaclete  the  Second. 
Innocent  in  France,  supported  by  Bernard ;  healing  of  a 
schism  in  the  church  by  the  latter  ;  his  conduct  towards 
William  of  Aquitania.     Innocent  triumphant  in  Rome    .  198 

Opposition  to  the  laity  of  the  secularized  clergy.    Influence  of 

the  disputes  about  investure 201 

Arnold  of  Brescia ;  his  education,  particularly  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Abelard ;  his  asceticism,  and  fierce  invectives 
against  the  clergy ;  his  life  in  exile 203 

Arnold's  principles  in  Rome.  His  return  under  Celistin  the 
Second.  Lucius  the  Second.  Anti-papal  letter  of  the 
Romans  to  Conrad  the  Third 206 

Eugene  the  Third.  Bernard's  letter  to  him.  Eugene  in 
France  supported  by  Bernard.  Great  success  attending 
his  preaching  of  the  crusades.  His  moderated  enthusiasm. 
The  awakening  called  forth.  Twofold  influence  of  Ber- 
nard. Opinions  respecting  the  issue  of  the  second  cru- 
sade        210 

Eugene's  return  to  Rome.     Bernard's  four  books.     De  consi- 

deratione,  addressed  to  him 217 

Continuation  of  the  quarrels  under  Adrian  the  Fourth.  Letter 
of  the  Roman  Nobles  to  Frederic  the  First  Fall  of  Ar 
nold's  party.   Arnold's  death  excused  by  the  Roman  court  222 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 


Page 


Arnold's  ideas  continue  to  work.  Conflict  of  the  Hohenstaufens 
with  the  hierarchy.  First  expedition  of  Frederic  the  First 
against  Rome.  Adrian's  letter  to  Frederic  respecting  the 
term  beneficium.  Step  taken  by  Frederic  on  the  other  sidef 
Reconciliation  of  the  two  parties  in  1 158.  New  difficulties. 
Correspondence  between  the  parties.     Adrian  dies  1159  .  224 

Alexander  the  Third,  and  the  imperial  pope  Victor  the  Fourth. 
The  council  of  Paris  in  favour  of  the  latter  in  1160. 
Victor's  fuccessors.  Frederic  the  First's  reconciliation 
with  Alexander,  1177.  The  Lateran  council  in  1179  de- 
termines the  order  of  papal  elections 231 

Thomas  Beckett  made  archbishop  of  Canterbury  1162;  his 
difficulties  with  Henry  the  Second ;  his  repentance  at 
having  signed  the  articles  at  Clarendon;  his  quarrel  and 
reconciliation  with  Henry  the  Second ;  his  assassination. 
Impression  produced  by  what  happened  at  his  tomb. 
Henry's  penance .  234 

Arnold's  principles  propagated  by  the  Hohenstaufens.    Henry 

the  Sixth,  and  Celestin  the  "Third 238 

Government  of  Innocent  the  Third  ^n  epoch  in  the  history  of 
the  papacy,  1198-1216.  Motives  to  his  great  activity. 
Successful  contest  with  John  of  England,  1208-13.  Voices 
against  him 239 

Innocent  in  favour  of  Otho  the  Fourth ;  opposite  to  the  party 

of  Philip ;  afterwards  in  favour  of  Frederic  the  Second   .  243 

Honorins  the  Tliird.  Gregory  the  JViiUh.  Frederic's  crusade. 
Compact  -vfrith  Gregory,  and  the  issue  of  a  new  ban. 
Frederic's  circular  letter.  Gregory's  accusations.  Frede- 
ric's ideas  of  reform,  or  rather  his  sceptical  bent  of 
mind.     Contest  till  the  death  of  Gregory,  1241     .     .     .  245 

Celestin  the  Fourth.  Frederic  the  Second's  contests,  till  his 
death,  with  Innocent  the  Fourth.  His  circular-letter  after 
the  ban  passed  upon  him  at  Lyons 253 

Robert  Grosshead's  discourse  before  the  papal  court  at  Lyons. 
His  labours  in  England,  and  his  unchecked  boldness 
towards  Rome 256 

Legend  concerning  the  death  of  Innocent  the  Fourth.  Alex- 
ander the  Fourth.  Gregory  the  Tenth.  Want  of  zeal  for 
the  crusades  at  Lyons,  in  1274.  Abbot  Joachim  opposed 
to  them.  Arguments  against  the  crusades  combated  by 
Humbert  de  Romanis 259 

Raymund  Lull's  threefold  plan  in  his  Dispittatio.   His  view  of 

tlie  crusades,  and  mode  of  procedure  with  infidels      .      .  263 

Determinations  with  regard  to  papal  elections  by  John  the 
Twenty-first  revoked.     Celistin  the  Fifth,  as  pope.    His 

abdication 26C 

Result  of  the  history  of  the  papacy  under  Gregory  the  Seventh. 
Unsuccessful  efforts  against  the  mischievous  papal  abso- 
lutism  (interview  of  John  of  Salisbury  with  Adrian  the 
Fourth).  Bribery  at  the  Roman  court    Eugene  the  Third  268 


oojrrENTS  OF  VOL.  vn.  xr 


2.  Distinct  Brcmches  of  the  Papal  Government  of  the  Church, 
273-283. 

Vaee 

Persoual  labours  of  the  popes.  DifFerent  modes  of  condact 
pursued  by  their  legates.  The  Roman  curia,  as  the  high- 
est tribunal.  Capricious  appeals  to  Borne  limited  by  in- 
nocent the  Third 2:3 

Relative  dependence  of  the  bishops.  The  form  of  oath  taken 
by  them.  Influence  of  the  popes  in  appointments  to  bene- 
fices. Complaints  about  exemption  from  the  authority  of 
the  bishops.    Pragmatic  sanction  of  Louis  the  Ninth  .     .  276 

CoUection  of  ecclesiastical  laws.  Study  of  the  dril  law  at 
Bologna.  The  Decretum  Gratiani.  Ancient  and  more 
modem  ecclesiastical  law  enriched  by  the  decisions  of  the 
pope.     Interpolated  bulls.    Saymund's  decretals  ...  281 

3.  Other  Partt  of  the  Church  Constitution,  284—298. 

Consequences  of  the  Hildebrandian  epoch  of  Reform  Its 
slight  moral  influence  upon  the  clergy  Abuses  in  eccle- 
siastical preferments  combated  in  vain 2S4 

Reformation  of  the  clergy.  Norberfs  congregation,  Gerhoh's 
Clerisi  regulares.  Difference  amongst  the  secular  clei^. 
The  latter  as  preachers  of  repentance 2S7 

Fulco  of  Neuilly  ;  his  education  and  influence  as  a  preacher  of 
repentance ;  his  influence  upcn  the  clergy ;  his  preaching 
of  the  crusades.  Peter  de  Rusia,  a  preacher  of  repentance 
in  opposition  to  the  system  of  the  church 289 

Archdeacons.  Officiates  in  the  more  general  and  in  the  more 
restricted  sense.  The  bishops.  Valuable  labours  of  Peter 
of  Moustier.  Gerhoh  opposed  to  the  secular  sword  in  the 
hands  of  bishops  and  popes.    Titular  bishops  ....  292 

4.  Prophetic  Warnings  against  the  Secularization  of  the  Church, 
298—322. 

Possession  of  Property  injurious  to  the  church.  Prophetic  ele- 
ment in  the  development  of  the  church 29S 

flildetfard.  Great  reverence  with  which  she  was  regarded. 
Her  admonitions  and  counsels ;  her  invectives  against  the 
clergy,  and  her  prophesies 300 

Abbot  Joachim.  His  active  labours  ;  his  ideas ;  his  genuine 
writings,  and  the  spurious  ones  attributed  to  hun ;  his 
invectives  against  the  corrupt  court  of  Rome;  against 
Paschalis  the  Second,  and  his  successors.  Worldly  goods 
and  secular  supports  injurious  to  the  church.  Inward 
Christianity.  God  and  ihe  apostolic  church.  The  anti- 
christ (^Pataranes),  the  destined  instrument  of  punishment. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 


Page 


The  Holienstaufens.  The  three  periods  of  revelation,  and 
the  three  apostles  representing  them.  Joachim's  view  of 
historical  Christianity.    Form  and  essence  of  Christianity  304 

5.  History  of  Monasticism,  322 — 405. 

Monachism,  and  the  tendency  of  the  times.  Pious  mothers, 
and  other  influences  which  served  to  promote  it.  Worldly 
temper  in  the  monasteries  brought  about  especially  by  the 
oblati.  Salutary  examples  of  such  men  as  Ebrard  and 
Simon.  Motives  of  those  who  embraced  monachism. 
Pardoned  criminals  gained,  and  other  moral  influences  of 
the  monks 322 

Anselm  on  monachism  and  the  worldly  life.  Early  vows 
renounced.  Various  influence  of  the  monks.  Their 
sermons  on  repentance.  Religious  aberrations  and  con- 
flicts.    Admonitions  of  Anselm  and  Bernard    ....  328 

Yves  of  Chartres,  Eaymund  Lull,  and  Peter  of  Cluny  on  the 
eremite  life.  Preachers  of  repentance.  Worldly  and 
hypocritical  monks    .      .     • 334 

Norhert,  founder  of  the  Premonstratensians.  His  miracles. 
Education  and  labours  of  Robert  of  Arbrissel.  The  Pan- 
peris  Christi,  and  the  nuns  at  Fons  Ebraldi.  Robert's 
invectives  against  the  clergy.     Opinions  respecting  him  .  339 

Cluniacensians.    Predecessors  of  Mauritius.    His  exhortations 

against  extravagant  asceticism.     His  letters     ....  345 

Robert,  founder  of  the  Cistercians.  His  successors.  Bernard 
led  to  monachism.  His  rigid  asceticism.  His  influential 
labours  in  Clairvaux.  His  relation  to  the  popes.  His 
miracles,  judged  by  himself  and  by  others.  His  exhorta- 
tion to  the  Templars.  His  theology  of  the  heart.  On 
love,  and  its  several  stages.  Constant  reference  to  Christ. 
Diff'erent  positions  in  Christianity.  The  spirit  of  calumny 
and  self-knowledge 348 

Differences  betwixt  the  Cluniacensians  and  Cistercians.  Ber- 
nard's Apologia.     Spiritual  worship  of  the  monks      .     .  3C5 

Bruno  ,  founder  of  the  order  of  the  Carthusians.  Their  occu- 
pations and  strict  mode  of  life.  Carmelites,  founded  by 
Berthold 367 

Societies  formed  to  take  charge  of  the  leprous  and  other  sick 
persons.  Abuse  of  Christian  charity.  Order  of  the  Tri- 
nitarians      369 

Law  against  new  foundations.  Mendicant  monks,  in  their 
relation  to  the  church.  Didacus  and  Dominick  in  contest 
with  the  heretics  of  South  France.  Order  of  the  Domini- 
cans confirmed 371 

Conversion  of  Francis.  His  religious  bent.  Idea  of  the  evan- 
gelical poverty  ;  his  reception  with  the  pope  and  cardi- 
nals ;  his  mortifications ;  sayings  concerning  asceticism, 
prayer,  preaching.    Mystical,  sensuous  element  in  his 


OOXTEJfTS  OF  VOL.  VU.  XMl 

Page 
character.    His  love  of  nature.    Marks  of  the  voonds. 
Minorites.    Order  of  CTora.  Tertiaries 75 

Laborioos  and  influential  activity  in  the  mendicants.  Their 
relation  to  the  clergy ;  their  degeneracy ;  their  influence 
on  the  youth,  on  the  learned,  and  on  men  of  rank.  Louis 
the  Ninth 333 

Influence  ol  the  mendicant  friars  in  the  University  of  Paris. 
Checked  by  Innocent  the  Fourth  (his  death) ;  favoured 
by  Alexander  the  Fourth ;  attacked  by  William  of  St. 
Amour,  nrho  complains  of  the  influence  on  Louis  the 
Kinth.    Papellards  and  Beguins 392 

i)efence  of  the  mendicant  monks  by  Bonaventura  and  Thomas. 
Fate  of  William  of  St.  Amour.  Bdnaventura  as  a  censor 
of  his  order.  The  stricter  and  laxer  Franciscans.  Joa- 
chim's ideas  as  embraced  by  this  order  .  ....  397 


[Secoxd  Divisios.] 

SECTION    THIRD. 

Christian  Life  and  Christian  Worship,  406 — 492. 

General  description  of  Christian  life 406 

Individual  traits  of  Christian  life.     Ambrose  of  Siena.  Ray- 

mund  Palmaris.     Louis  the  Ninth.    Elizabeth  of  Hessia  409 

Kesistance  to  the  secularization  of  the  religious  life.  Pious  so- 
cieties of  the  Beghards,  Papelards,  Boni  homines,  Boni 
valeti 420 

Subjective  view  of  the  order  of  salvation.  Justification  as  the 
interior  work  of  making  just.  Fides  formata.  Twofold 
error  resulting  from  this  view ;  one-sided  extemalization, 
or  spiritualization,  of  religion.  Voices  of  the  church- 
teachers  with  regard  to  both  errors.  Marks  of  a  truly 
Christian  spirit 421 

Shape  given  to  preaching  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. Preaching  in  the  spoken  languages.  Preachers  of 
repentance.  Discourse  of  the  abbot  Guibert,  of  Novigen- 
tum,  on  the  right  method  of  preaching.  Work  of  Hum- 
bert de  Romanis,  general  of  the  Dominicans,  on  the 
education  of  preachers.  Example  of  pope  Innocent  the 
Third.  Berthold  the  Franciscan,  a  preacher  of  repent- 
ance, at  Regenburg  and  Augsburg 434 

Attempts  to  translate  the  Bible  in  Germany  and  France.  Hible- 
reading  society  at  Metz;  dissolution  of  it.  The  Bible 
prohibited  at  the  synod  of  Toulouse,  1229 444 

Traces  of  infidelity,  proceeding  pardy  from  rudeness  of  man- 
ners, partly  from  the  revival  of  speculative  culture,  and 
especially  from  the  influence  of  the  Arabian  philosophy. 
VOL.  VII.  b 


XVIU  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 


Page 


Frederick  the  Second.  John  Sans  Terre.  John  Count  of 
Soissons.  Tract  of  the  abbot  Guibert  of  Nogent  sous  Coucy 
against  the  latter.  Temptations  occasioned  by  religious 
doubt.     Examples  of  such  conflicts 450 

Dead,  worldly  faith.  Hugo  a  St.  Victore  against  it.  Fanaticism 
and  Superstition.  Superstitious  veneration  of  saints.  Elfeg 
of  Canterbury.  Abuse  of  relics.  Work  of  Guibert  of 
Nogent  sous  Coucy,  De  pignori bus  Sanctorum  .     ...  454 

Worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  Doctrine  of  the  immaculate 
conception.  Festival  of  the  conception.  Bernard  of  Clair- 
Taux  against  it.  Pothos  a  monk  of  Prum,  attacks  this 
festival  in  his  work,  "On  the  State  of  God's  House." 
Epistolary  dispute  on  this  subject  betwixt  the  abbot  De 
la  Celle  and  the  English  monk  Nicholas.  Thomas  Aqui- 
nas, opponent  of  the  exaggerated  veneration  of  Mary. 
Itaymund  Lull's  defence  of  the  vporship  of  Mary.  Fes- 
tival of  the  Holy  Trinity.  Abuses  in  the  observance  of 
festivals.     Festum  fatuorum,  follorum 459 

The  seven  sacraments  ;  first  mentioned  by  Otto  of  Bamberg, 
1124.  Exposition  of  the  seven  sacraments.  Doctrine  of 
the  eucharist.  Confirmation  of  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation  at  the  Lateran  council,  a.d.  1215.  Distinction 
of  the  accidents  remaining  behind  from  the  changing  sub- 
stance. Completion  of  the  cultus  and  entire  Catholicism  in 
this  doctrine.  Struggles  against  it  in  opinions  and  doubts  of 
the  sectaries.  Secret  adherents  of  Berengar.  Older  inter- 
mediate view,  taking  its  departure  from  the  relation  of  the 
two  natures 465 

Extreme  point  of  realistic  externalization.  Thomas  Aquinas. 
Inquiries  of  Innocent  the  Third  in  his  treatise  De  mj'ste- 
riis  missae  ;  his  and  Bonaventura's  hypothesis  of  a  retro- 
transubstantiation.  Keply  of  the  University  of  Paris,  on 
the  doctrine  of  the  eucharist,  to  Clement  the  Fourth,  a.d. 
1264.  The  Dominican  John  of  Paris's  revival  of  the 
older  dogma  lying  at  the  bottom  of  the  relation  of  the  two 
natures.    His  deposition  from  his  office 470 

Corpus-Christi  day ;  originated  at  Liege ;  instituted  first  in 
1264,  by  Urban  the  Fourth  ;  again  by  Clement  the  Fifth, 
in  1311.  Introduction  of  the  bowing  of  the  knee  before 
the  host,  under  Innocent  the  Third;  made  a  law  in  1217, 
by  Honorius  the  Third.  Abolition  of  the  communion  of 
infants.  Distribution  of  the  eucharist  under  one  form, 
occasioned  by  the  dread  of  spilling  the  blood  of  Christ ; 
promoted  by  the  idea  of  the  priesthood.  Doctrine  of  con- 
comitance. Contest  against  the  division  of  the  Lord's 
Supper ;  division  reprobated  by  Paschalis  the  Second. 
Provost  Folmar  of  Traufenstein  against  concomitance. 
Neglect  of  the  Lord's  Supper  by  the  laity.  Ordinance  of 
the  Lateran  council  of  1215  with  regard  to  this  point. 
Encroaching  corruption  in  the  celebration  of  mass     .     .  47-1 


CONTESTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 


Page 


Doctrine  of  penance ;  necessity  of  separating  the  theological 
doctrine  from  the  notions  of  the  people.  Distinctions  of 
the  theologians  between  church  absolution  and  the  divine 
forgiveness  of  sii-s ;  subjection  of  this  correct  sentiment 
under  the  principles  of  the  church.  The  three  parts  of 
penitence,  first  defined  by  the  Lombards :  Compnnctio 
cordis  ;  confessio  oris  ;  satisfactio  opens.  Extension  of 
satisfaction  to  the  future  life.  Gregory  the  Seventh. 
Urban  the  Second  against  the  externals  of  penitence.  In- 
dulgence. Origin  of  general  indulgences,  by  Victor  the 
Third,  by  occasion  of  a  crusade  against  the  Saracens 
in  Africa.  Repeated  preaching  of  indulgences  during  the 
crusades  to  the  holy  sepulchre.  The  council  of  Clermont 
under  Urban  the  Second.  Indulgences  placed  on  a  theo- 
retical basis  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Defence  of  thera 
on  the  ground  of  a  Thesaurus  maritorum  and  of  a  supere- 
rogatory perfection  of  the  saints.  Distortion  of  the  ori- 
ginal opinion  by  the  sellers  of  indulgences.  Confession  oi 
William  of  Auxerre.  Thomas  Aquinas,  Abelard,  Stephen 
of  Obaize,  Berthold  the  Franciscan,  partly  against  indul- 
gences in  general,  partly  against  the  abuse  of  them. 
Papal  remissions,  and  canon  of  the  council  of  Beziers 
against  the  latter.  Ordinance  of  oral  confessicm  by  Inno- 
cent the  Third,  at  the  fourth  Lateran  council  ....  482 


CHURCH     HISTORY. 


flFTH  PERIOD.  FROM  GREGORY  THE  SEVENTH  TO  BONI- 
FACE THE  EIGHTH.  FROM  THE  YEAR  1073  TO  THE 
YEAR  1294. 


SECTION  FIRST. 

EXTENSION  AND  LIMITATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN 

CHURCH.  * 

Already,  in  the  preceding  period,  we  took  notice  of  the  re- 
peated but  unsuccessful  attempts  to  convert  the  Slavonian 
tribes  living  within  and  on  the  borders  of  Germany.  Such 
undertakings,  which,  without  respecting  the  peculiarities  of 
national  character,  aimed  to  force  upon  the  necks  of  these 
tribes  the  yoke  of  a  foreign  domination,  along  with  that  of  the 
hierarchy,  would  necessarily  prove  either  a  total  failure  or 
barren  of  all  salutary  influences.  The  people  would  struggle, 
of  course,  against  what  was  thus  imposed  on  them.  Of  this 
sort,  were  the  undertakinjre  of  the  dukes  of  Poland  to  bring: 
the  Pommeranians,  a  nation  dwelling  on  tb'^ir  borders,  under 
their  dominion  and  into  subjection  to  the  Christian  church. 
The  Poles  themselves,  as  we  observed  in  the  preceding  period, 
had  been  but  imperfectly  converted,  and  the  consequences  of 
this  still  continued  to  be  observable  in  the  religious  condition 
of  that  people ;  it  was  the  last  quarter,  therefore,  from  which 
to  expect  any  right  measures  to  proceed  for  effecting  the  con- 
version of  a  pagan  nation.  Back-Pommerania  having  been 
already,  a  hundred  years  before,  reduced  to  a  condition  of  de- 
pendence on  the  Poles,  Boleslav  the  Third  (Krzivousti)  duke 
of  Poland,  in  the  year  1121,  succeeded  in  compelling  West 
Pommerania  also,  and  its  regent,  duke  "Wartislav,  to  acknow- 

VOL.  VII.  B 


2  POLISH  MISSIONARIES 

ledge  his  supremacy.  Eight  thousand  Pommeranians  were  re- 
moved by  him  to  a  district  bordering  immediately  on  his  own 
dominions,  in  order  that  they  might  there  learn  to  forget  their 
ancient  customs,  their  love  of  freedom,  and  their  old  religion, 
and  be  induced  at  length  to  embrace  Christianity.  But  the 
Polish  bishops  were  neither  inclined  nor  fitted  to  operate  as 
missionaries  in  Pommerania  ;  it  was  much  easier,  in  this 
period,  to  find  among  the  monks  men  who  shrunk  from  no 
difficulties  or  dangers,  but  were  prepared  to  consecrate  them- 
selves, with  cheerful  alacrity,  to  any  enterprise  undertaken  in 
the  service  of  the  church,  and  for  the  good  of  mankind.  The 
zeal  of  these  good  men,  however,  was  not  always  accompanied 
with  correct  views  or  sound  discretion.  Often  too  contracted 
in  their  notions  to  be  able  to  enter  into  the  views  and  feelings 
of  rude  tribes  with  customs  differing  widely  from  their  own, 
they  were  least  of  all  fitted  to  introduce  Christianity  for  the 
first  time  among  a  people  like  the  Pommeranians, — a  merry, 
well-conditioned,  life-enjoying  race,  abundantly  furnished  by 
nature  with  every  means  of  a  comfortable  subsistence,  so  that 
a  poor  man  or  a  beggar  was  not  to  be  seen  amongst  them. 
Having  had  no  experience  of  those  feelings  which  gave  birth 
to  monachism,  they  could  not  understand  that  peculiar  mode 
of  life.  The  monks,  in  their  squalid  raiment,  appeared  to 
them  a  mean,  despicable  set  of  men,  roving  about  in  search  of  ■ 
a  livelihood.  Poverty  was  here  regarded  as  altogether  un- 
worthy of  the  priesthood  ;  for  the  people  Avere  accustomed  to 
see  their  own  priests  appear  in  wealth  and  splendour.  Hence 
the  monks  were  spurned  with  scorn  and  contempt.  Such 
especially  was  the  treatment  experienced  by  a  missionary  who 
came  to  these  parts  from  the  distant  country  of  Spain, — the 
bishop  Bernard.*      Being  a  native  of  Spain,  he  was  unfitted 

♦  This  fact  is  not  stated,  it  is  true,  in  the  most  trustworthy  account  we 
have  of  this  mission,  which  is  contained  in  the  work  of  an  unknown 
contemporary  writer  of  the  life  of  bishop  Otto  of  Bamberg,  published  by 
Canisius,  in  his  Lectiones  antiquae,  t.  iii.  p.  ii. ;  but  it  is  reported  by  the 
Bambergian  abbot  Andreas,  who  wrote  in  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  latter,  however,  iu  giving  this  account,  appeals  to  the 
testimony  of  Ulric,  a  priest  in  immediate  attendance  on  bishop  Otto  him- 
self; and  what  we  have  said  with  regard  to  the  missionary  efforts  of  the 
monks  generally,  is  confirmed  at  least  by  the  more  certain  authority  of 
the  anonymous  writer  just  mentioned.  Speaking  of  bishop  Otto,  hi  says  : 
"  Quia  terram  Pommeranorum  opulentam  audiverat  et  egenos  siye  men- 


DXSUCCiSSFUL  KT  POMMEEANU.  3 

already,  by  national  temperament,  to  act -as  a  missionary 
among  these  people  of  the  north,  whose  very  language  it  must 
have  been  difficult  for  him  to  understand.  Originally  an  an- 
choret, he  had  lived  a  strictly  ascetic  life,  when,  at  the 
instance  of  pope  Paschalis  the  Second,  he  took  upon  himself  a 
bishopric  made  vacant  by  the  removal  of  its  former  occupant  ;* 
but  finding  it  impossible  to  gain  the  love  of  his  community,  a 
portion  of  whom  still  continued  to  adhere  to  his  predecessor, 
he  abandonerl  the  post  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  disputes,  to 
which  his  fondness  for  peace  and  quiet  was  most  strongly  re- 
pugnant, choosing  rather  to  avail  himself  of  his  episcopal 
dignity  to  go  and  found  a  new  church  among  the  Pomme- 
ranians.  Accompanied  by  his  chaplain,  he  repaired  to  that 
country :  but  with  a  bent  of  mind  so  strongly  given  to  asceti- 
cism, he  wanted  the  necessary  prudence  for  such  an  under- 
taking. He  went  about  barefoot,  clad  in  the  garments  he  was 
used  to  wear  as  an  anchoret.  He  imj^ned  that,  in  order  to 
do  the  work  of  a  missionary  in  the  sense  of  Christ,  and  accord- 
ing to  the  example  of  the  Apostles,  he  must  strictly  follow  the 
directions  which  Christ  gave  to  them,  Matth.  x.  9,  10, 
without  considering  that  Christ  gave  his  directions  in  this  par- 
ticular form  wth  reference  to  a  particular  and  transient  period 
of  time,  and  a  peculiar  condition  of  things,  entirely  different 
from  the  circumstances  of  his  own  field  of  labour  ;  and  so,  for 
the  reasons  we  have  alluded  to,  he  very  soon  began  to  be  re- 
garded by  the  Pommeranians  with  contempt.  They  refrained, 
however,  from  doing  him  the  least  injury ;  till,  prompted  by 
a  fanatical  longing  after  martyrdom,  he  destroyed  a  sacred 
image  in  Julin,  a  town  situated  on  the  island  of  "Wollin, — a  deed 
which,  as  it  neither  contributed  to  remove  idolatry  from  the 
hearts  of  men,  nor  to  implant  the  true  faith  in  its  stead,  could 
only  serve,  without  answering  a  single  good  purpose,  to  irritate 
the  minds  of  the  people.    The  Pommeranians  would  no  longer 

dicos  penitas  non  habere,  sed  vehementer  aspemari,  et  jamdndam  quos- 
dam  servos  Dei  praedicatores  egenos  propter  inopiam  eontemsisse,  quasi 
nou  pro  salute  hominam,  sed  pro  sua  necessitate  relevanda,  officio  insis- 
terent  praedicandi." 

*  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  schism  -which  grew  out  of  the  quarrel 
betwixt  the  emperor  Henry  the  Fourth  and  pope  Gregory  the  Seventh  ; 
in  which  dispute,  this  deposed  bishop  may,  perhaps,  have  taken  an  active 
p;irt  as  an  opponent  of  the  papal  svstem. 

B  2 


4  OTTO  AS  A  TEACHER  IN  POLAR-D. 

suffer  him,  it  is  true,  to  remain  amongst  them ;  but  whether  it 
was  that  they  were  a  people  less  addicted  to  religious  fanaticism 
than  other  pagan  nations  within  our  knowledge,  and  Bernard's 
appearance  served  rather  to  move  their  pity  than  to  excite  their 
hatred  and  stir  them  up  to  persecution  ;  or  whether  it  was  that 
they  dreaded  the  vengeance  of  duke  Boleslav ;  the  fact  was, 
they  still  abstained  from  all  violence  to  his  person,  but  con- 
tented themselves  with  putting  him  on  board  a  ship,  and  sending 
him  out  of  their  country. 

Thus,  by  his  own  imprudent  conduct,  bishop  Bernard  de- 
feated the  object  of  his  enterprise ;  still,  however,  he  contributed 
indirectly  to  the  founding  of  a  permanent  mission  in  this  coun- 
try ;  and  the  experience  which  he  had  gone  through  would, 
moreover,  serve  as  a  profitable  lesson  to  the  man  who  might 
come  after  him.  He  betook  himself  to  Bamberg,  where  the 
severe  austerity  of  his  life,  as  well  as  his  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  ecclesiastical  reckoning  of  time,  would  doubtless  give 
him  a  high  place  in  the  estimation  of  the  clergy.  And  here 
he  found  in  bishop  Otto  a  man  that  took  a  deep  interest  in 
pious  enterprises,  and  one  also  peculiarly  well  fitted,  and  pre- 
pared by  many  of  the  previous  circumstances  of  his  life,  for 
just  such  a  mission. 

Otto  was  decended  from  a  noble,  but  as  it.  would  seem  not 
wealthy  Suabian  family.  He  received  a  learned  education, 
according  to  the  fashion  of  those  times ;  but,  being  a  younger 
son,  he  could  not  obtain  the  requisite  means  for  prosecuting 
his  scientific  studies  to  the  extent  he  desired,  and  especially  for 
visiting  the  then  fiourishing  University  of  Paris,  but  was 
obliged  to  expend  all  his  energies,  in  the  early  part  of  his  life, 
in  gaining  a  livelihood.  As  Poland,  at  this  time,  stood  greatly 
in  need  of  an  educated  clergy,  and  he  hoped  that  he  should  be 
able  to  turn  his  knowledge  to  the  best  account  in  a  country 
that  still  remained  so  far  behind  others  in  Christian  culture,  he 
directed  his  steps  to  that  quarter,  with  the  intention  of  setting 
up  a  school  there.  In  this  employment  he  soon  rose  to  con- 
sideration and  influence ;  and  the  more  readily,  inasmuch  as 
there  were  very  few  at  that  time  in  Poland  who  were  capable 
of  teaching  all  the  branches  reckoned  in  this  period  as  be- 
longing to  a  scholastic  education.  Children  were  put  under 
his  care  from  many  distinguished  families,  and  in  this  way  he 
came  into  contact  with  the  principal  men  of  the  land.     His 


HIS  GREAT  FAVOUR  WITH  THE  EMPEROR.  5 

knowledge  and  his  gifts  were  frequently  called  into  requisition 
by  them  for  various  other  purposes.  Thus  he  became  known 
to  the  duke  "Wartislav  Hermann,  who  in^-ited  him  to  his  court, 
and  made  him  his  chaplain.*  "When  that  duke,  after  having 
lost  his  first  wife,  Judith,  b^an  to  think  of  contracting  a 
second  marriage,  his  attention  was  directed,  by  means  of  Otto, 
to  Sophia,  sister  of  the  emperor  Henry  the  Fourth  ;  and  Otto 
was  one  of  the  commissioners  sent,  in  the  year  1088,  to  the 
emperor's  court,  to  demand  the  hand  of  the  princess.  The 
mission  was  successful,  and  the  marriage  took  place.  Otto  was 
one  of  the  persons  who  accompanied  the  princess  to  Poland ; 
and  he  thus  rose  to  higher  consideration  at  the  Polish  court. 
He  was  frequently  sent  on  embassies  to  Germany,  and  in  this 
way  he  became  better  known  to  the  emperor,  Henry  the  Fourth. 
That  monarch  finally  drew  him  to  his  own  court,  where  he 
made  him  one  of  his  chaplains,  and  employed  him  as  his  se- 
cretary. Otto  got  into  great  favour  \*-ith  the  emperor. f  He 
appointed  him  his  chancellor,  and  when  the  bishopric  of 
Bamberg,  in  the  year  1 102,  fell  vacant,  placed  him  over  that 
diocese.  Now  it  would  be  very  natural  to  expect  that  a  fa- 
vourite of  the  emperor  Hearj'  the  Fourth,  who  had  obtained 
through  his  influence  an  important  bishopric,  would  therefore 
be  inclined,  in  the  contests  between  that  monarch  and  pope 

*  We  follow  here  the  more  trustworthy  accoont  of  the  anonvmoas 
contemporary.  The  case  is  stated  diflFerently  by  the  abbot  Andreas. 
According  to  the  latter.  Otto  made  his  first  visit  to  Poland  in  company 
with  the  sister  of  the  emperor  Heary  the  Fourth.  He  calls  her  Jadith, 
and  says  that  Otto  was  her  chaplain.  After  her  death,  according  to  the 
same  writer,  Otto  was  taken  into  the  service  of  a  certain  'abbess,  at 
Regensburg,  where  the  emperor  became  better  acquainted  with  him,  and 
took  him  into  his  employment.  But  Andreas  himself  confirms  the  state- 
ment of  the  facts  by  the  anonymous  writer,  when,  after  speaking  of  Otto's 
appointment  to  be  court-chaplain,  he  adds  :  •'  Nobiles  quique  et  potentes 
illius  terras  certatim  ei  filios  suos  ad  erudiendum  offerebant"  Accord- 
ingly, the  account  given  by  this  writer  also  presupposes  that  Otto  had 
been  master  of  a  school  in  Poland  ;  and  how  he  came  to  be  so  is  best  ex- 
plained by  the  statement  of  the  matter  in  the  anonymous  writer,  only  the 
later  author  has  fallen  into  a  wrong  arrangement  of  dates. 

t  Because,  as  the  story  went,  he  was  careful  to  have  the  psalter  always 
ready  for  the  emperor,  who  was  a  great  admirer  of  the  Psalms ;  because 
he  had  an  extraordinary  facility  of  repeating  psalms  Irom  memory ;  and, 
more  than  all.  because  he  once  presented  the  emperor  with  his  own  cast- 
off  psalter,  having  first  caused  it  to  be  repaired,  and  set  off  with  a  very 
gorgeous  binding. 


6  otto's  rising  favour  with 

Gregory  the  Seventh,  to  espouse  the  interests  of  the  imperial 
party  ;  but  Otto  was  a  man  too  strict  and  conscientious  in  his 
religion  to  allow  himself  to  be  governed  in  ecclesiastical  mat- 
ters by  such  considerations.  Like  the  majority  of  the  more 
seriously  disposed  clergy,  he  was  inclined  to  favour  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Gregorian  church  government.  His  love  of  peace 
and  his  prudent  management  enabled  him,  however,  for  a  while, 
to  preserve  a  good  understanding  with  both  the  emperor  and 
the  pope  ;  though  at  a  later  period  he  allowed  himself  to  be- 
come so  entangled  in  the  hierarchical  interest  as  to  be  betrayed 
into  ingratitude  and  disloyalty  towards  his  prince  and  old 
benefactor.* 

As  a  bishop,  Otto  was  distinguished  for  the  zeal  and  interest 
which  he  took  in  promoting  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
people  in  their  own  spoken  language,  and  for  his  gift  of  clear 
and  intelligible  preaching.t  He  was  accustomed  to  moderate, 
with  the  severity  of  a  monk,  his  bodily  wants ;  and  by  this 
course,  as  well  as  by  his  frugality  generally,  was  able  to  save 
so  much  the  more  out  of  the  ample  revenues  of  his  bishopric 
for  carrying  forward  the  great  enterprises  which  he  undertook 
in  the  service  of  the  church  and  of  religion.  He  loved  to  take 
from  himself  to  give  to  the  poor ;  and  all  the  presents  he  re- 
ceived from  princes  and  noblemen,  far  and  near,  he  devoted  to 
the  same  object.  Once,  during  the  season  of  Lent,  when  fish 
were  very  dear,  a  large  one,  of  great  price,  was  placed  on  the 
table  before  him.  Turning  to  his  steward,  said  he,  "  God  for- 
bid that  I,  the  poor  unworthy  Otto,  should  alone  swallow, 
to-day,  such  a  sum  of  money.  Take  this  costly  fish  to  my 
Clirist,  who  should  be  dearer  to  me  than  I  am  to  myself. 
Take  it  away  to  him,  wherever  thou  canst  find  one,  lying  on 
the  sick-bed.  For  me,  a  healthy  man,  my  bread  is  enough." 
A  valuable  fur  was  once  sent  to  him  as  a  present,  with  the  re- 
quest that  he  would  wear  it  in  remembrance  of  the  giver. 
"  Yes,"  said  he,  alluding  to  the  well-known  words  of  our  Lord, 
"  I  will  preserve  the  precious  gift  so  carefully,  that  neither 

*  See  farther  on,  under  thf  history  of  tlie  church  constitution. 

t  The  anonymous  biographer  says:  "Huic  ab  omnibus  sui  temporis 
pontificibus  in  docendo  populum  natural!  sermone  principatus  minime 
negabatur ;  quia  disertus  et  naturali  pollens  eloquio,  usu  et  frequentia  in 
dicendo  facilis  erat,  quid  locoj  quid  tempori,  quid  personis  competeret 
observans." 


WARTISLAV  AND  HEXRY  THE  FOURTH.  7 

moths  shall  corrupt  nor  thieves  break  through  and  steal  it," — 
so  saying,  he  gave  the  fur  to  a  poor  lame  man,  then  suffering 
also  under  various  other  troubles,*  He  distinguished  himself 
by  the  active  solicitude,  shrinking  from  no  sacrifice,  with  vrhich 
he  exerted  himself  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  the  needy  and  dis- 
tressed, during  a  great  famine,  which  swept  off  large  numbers 
of  the  people.  He  kept  by  him  an  exact  list  of  all  the  sick 
in  the  city  where  he  lived,  accompanied  with  a  record  of  their 
sevei-al  complaints,  and  of  the  other  circumstances  of  their  con- 
dition, so  as  to  be  able  to-  provide  suitably  for  the  wants  and 
necessities  of  each  individual."!"  He  caused  many  churches, 
and  other  edifices,  to  be  constructed  for  the  embellishment,  or 
the  greater  security,  of  his  diocese.  He  especially  took  plea- 
sure in  founding  new  monasteries  ;  for  in  common  with  many 
of  the  more  seriously  disposed  in  his  times,  he  cherished  a 
strong  predilection  for  the  monastic  life. J  Governed  by  the 
mistaiien  notion,  so  common  among  his  contemporaries,  that  a 
peculiar  sanctity  attached  itself  to  the  monastic  profession,  he 
expressed  a  wish,  when  attacked  by  an  illness  that  threatened 
to  prove  fatal,  to  die  in  the  monkish  habit ;  and,  on  his  re- 
covery, intended  actually  to  fulfil  the  monkish  vow  which  he 
had  already  made  in  his  heart.  It  was  only  through  the 
influence  of  his  friends,  who  represented  to  him  the  great  im- 
portance of  his  continuing  to  labour  for  the  good  of  the  church, 
that  he  was  deterred  from  executing  this  purpose. 

Such  was  the  man,  whom  bishop  Bernard,  on  his  return 
from  Pommerania,  sought  to  inflame  with  a  desire  of  pro- 
secuting the  mission  which  he  himself  had  unsuccessfully 
begun ;  and  he  drew  arguments  from  his  own  experience  to. 
convince  him  that  he  might  confidently  hope,  if  he  appeared 
among  the  Pommeranians  ^-ith  pomp  and  splendour,  and  em- 
ployed his  ample  means  in  the  ser\-ice  of  the  mission,  to 
see  his  labours  crowned  very  soon  with  the  happiest  results. 

*  See  Lect.  antiq.  1.  c.  fol.  90. 

t  The  unknown  writer  says :  "  Habebat  cognitos  et  ex  nominibos  pro- 
priis  notatos  omnes  paralyticos,  languidos,  cancerosos,  sive  leprosos  <le 
civitate  sua,  modum,  tempos,  et  quantitatem  langnoris  eomm  per  se 
investigaiis  congruaque  subsidia  omnibus  providebat  et  per  procnra- 
tores." 

J  For  his  views  concerning  the  relation  of  monasteries  to  the  world, 
see  farther  on. 


8  BOLESLAV'S  LETTER  AXD  OTTO's  DEPARTURE. 

Otto's  pious  zeal  could  easily  be  enkindled  in  favour  of  such 
an  object.  At  this  juncture,  moreover,  came  a  letter  from 
duke  Boleslav  of  Poland,  inviting  him  in  the  most  urgent 
terms  to  engage  in  the  enterprise ;  whether  it  was  that  the 
duke  had  been  informed  how  Otto  had  been  led,  through 
Bernard's  influence,  to  entertain  the  idea  of  such  a  mission 
among  the  Pommeranians,  and  now  wrote  him  in  hopes  of 
bringing  him  to  a  decision — or  that  this  prince,  a  son  of 
Wartislav  by  his  first  marriage,  remembering  the  impression 
that  Otto  had  made  on  him  when  he  knew  him  at  the  court  of 
his  father,  felt  satisfied  that  he  was  the  very  man  to  be 
employed  among  such  a  people,  the  duke  earnestly  besought 
him  to  come  to  Pommerania.  He  reminded  him  of  their 
former  connection,  whilst  he  himself  was  yet  a  youth,  at  the 
court  of  his  father.*  He  complained  that,  with  all  the  pains 
he  had  taken  for  three  years,  he  had  been  unable  to  find  a  per- 
son suited  for  this  work  among  his  own  bishops  and  clergy. f 
He  promised  that  he  would  defray  all  the  expenses  of  the 
undertaking,  provide  him  with  an  escort,  with  interpreters, 
and  assistant  priests,  and  whatever  else  might  be  necessary  for 
the  accomplishment  of  the  object. 

Having  obtained  the  blessing  of  pope  Honorius  the  Second 
on  this  work,  Otto  began  his  journey  on  the  24th  of  April, 
1124.  Fondly  attached  as  he  was  to  monkish  ways,  the  expe- 
rience of  his  predecessor  in  this  missionary  field  taught  him  to 
avoid  every  appearance  of  that  sort,  and  rather  to  present  him- 
self in  the  full  splendour  of  his  episcopal  dignity.  He  not 
only  provided  himself  in  the  most  ample  manner  wth  every- 
thing that  was  required  for  his  own  support  and  that  of 
his  attendants  in  Pommerania,  but  also  took  with  him  costly 
raiment  and  other  articles  to  be  used  as  presents  to  the  chiefs 
of  the  people ;  likewise  all  the  necessary  church  utensils 
by  which  he  could  make  it  visibly  manifest  to  the  Pomme- 
ranians that  he  did  not  visit  them  from  interested  motives, 
but  was  ready  to  devote  his  own  property  to  the  object  of 
imparting  to  them  a  blessing  which  he  regarded  as  the  very 
highest. 

*  "  Quia  in  diebus  juventutis  tuee  apud  patrem  meum  decentissima  te 
honestate  conversatum  raemini." 

t  "  Ecce  per  trieunium  laboro,  quod  nullum  episcoporom  vel  sacerdotum 
idoneorum  mibive  affinium  ad  hoc  opus  inducere  queo." 


HIS  KECEPTION  IN  GNISEN.  » 

Travelling  through  a  part  of  Bohemia  and  Silesia,  he  made 
a  visit  to  duke  Boleslav  in  Poland.  In  the  city  of  Gnesen,  he 
met  with  a  kind  and  honourable  reception  from  that  prince. 
The  duke  gave  him  a  great  number  of  waggons  for  conveying 
the  means  of  subsistence  which  he  took  along  with  him, 
as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  baggage;  a  sum  of  money  of 
the  currency  of  the  country  to  defray  a  part  of  the  expenses ; 
people  who  spoke  German  and  Slavic  to  act  as  his  servants ; 
three  of  his  own  chaplains  to  assist  him  in  his  labours ;  and, 
finally,  in  the  capacity  of  a  protector,  the  commandant 
Paulitzky  (Paulicius),  a  man  ardently  devoted  to  the  cause. 
This  commandant,  or  colonel,  knew  how  to  deal  with  the  rude 
people ;  and  he  was  instructed  to  employ  the  authority  of  the 
duke  for  the  purpose  of  disposing  the  Pommeranians  to  a 
readier  reception  of  Christianity.  Having  traversed  the  vast 
forest  which  at  that  time  separated  Poland  from  Pommerania, 
they  came  to  the  banks  of  the  river  Netze,  which  diAdded  the 
two  districts.*  Here  duke  Wartislav,  who  had  been  apprised  of 
their  arrival,  came  to  meet  them  with  a  train  of  five  hundred 
armed  men.  The  duke  pitched  his  camp  on  the  farther  side 
of  the  river,  and  then  with  a  few  attendants  crossed  over  to  the 
bishop.  The  latter  first  had  a  private  inteniew  with  the  duke 
and  the  Polish  colonel.  As  Otto  did  not  possess  a  ready 
command  of  the  Slavic  language,  though  he  had  learned  it  in 
his  youth,  the  colonel  ser\-ed  as  his  interpreter.  They  ccm- 
ferred  with  each  other  about  the  course  to  be  observed  in  the 
conduct  of  the  mission.  Meantime,  the  ecclesiastics  remained 
alone  with  the  Pommeranian  soldiers,  and  probably  their 
courage  was  hardly  equal  to  the  undertaking  before  them. 
The  way  through  the  dismal  forest  had  already  somewhat  inti- 
midated them  ;  added  to  which  was  now  the  unusual  sight  of 
these  rude  soldiers,  clad  and  equipped  after  the  manner  of 
their  country,  with  whom  they  were  left  alone,  in  a  wild  unin- 
habited region,  amid  the  frightful  gloom  of  approaching  night. 
The  alarm  which  they  betrayed  provoked  the  Ponmieranians, 
who,  though  they  had  been  baptized,  were  perhaps  Christians 
but  in  name,  to  work  still  farther  on  their  fears.  Pretending 
to  be  pagans,  they  pointed  their  swords  at  them,  threatened  to 

*  According  to  the  statement  of  Andreas,  the  frontier  castle  where  they 
pat  up  was  Uzda,  at  present  Uscz 


10  otto's  meeting  with  wartislav. 

stab  them,  to  flay  them  alive,  to  bury  them  to  their  shoulders 
in  the  earth,  and  then  deprive  them  of  their  tonsure.  But 
they  were  soon  relieved  from  their  great  terror  by  the  re- 
appearance of  their  bishop  in  company  with  the  duke,  whom, 
by  timely  presents,  he  had  wrought  to  a  still  more  friendly 
disposition.  The  example  of  the  duke,  who  accosted  the 
ecclesiastics  in  a  courteous  and  friendly  manner,  was  followed 
by  his  attendants.  They  now  confessed  that  they  were 
Christians,  and  that  by  their  threats  they  had  only  intended  to 
put  the  courage  of  the  ecclesiastics  to  the  test.  Ihe  duke 
left  behind  him  servants  and  guides ;  he  gave  the  missionaries 
full  liberty  to  teach  and  baptize  throughout  his  whole  terri- 
tory, and  he  commanded  that  they  should  be  everywhere 
received  in  an  hospitable  manner. 

On  the  next  morning  they  crossed  the  borders,  and  directed 
their  steps  to  the  town  of  Pyritz.  They  passed  through  a 
district  wliich  had  suffered  greatly  in  the  war  with'  Poland, 
and  was  but  just  recovering  from  the  terrors  of  it.  The  much- 
troubled  people  were  the  more  inclined  therefore  to  yield  in 
all  things  to  the  authority  of  the  bishop,  who  was  enabled,  in 
passing,  to  administer  baptism  to  thirty  in  this  sparsely-peopled 
region. 

It  was  eleven  of  the  clock  at  night  when  they  arrived  at 
Pyritz.  They  found  the  whole  town  awake,  for  it  was  a  great 
pagan  festival,  celebrated  with  feasting,  drinking,  song,  and 
revelry  ;  and  four  thousand  men,  from  the  whole  surrounding 
country,  were  assembled  here  on  this  occasion.  Under  these 
circumstances,  the  bishop  did  not  think  it  proper  to  enter  the 
town.  They  pitched  their  tents  at  some  distance  without 
the  walls,  and  avoided  everything  that  might  attract  the 
attention  of  the  intoxicated  and  excited  multitude.  They 
kept  as  quiet  as  possible,  not  venturing  even  to  kindle  a  lire. 
On  the  next  morning,  Paulitzky,  with  the  other  envoys  of  the 
two  dukes,  entered  the  town,  and  called  a  meeting  of  the  most 
influential  citizens.  The  authority  of  the  two  dukes  was  here 
employed  to  induce  the  people  to  compliance.  They  were 
reminded  of  the  promise  whicli  vuider  compulsion  they  had 
before  given  to  the  Polish  duke,  that  they  would  become 
Christians,  No  delay  was  allowed  for  a  more  full  delibera- 
tion on  the  subject,  as  they  were  informed  that  the  bisliop,  who 
had  forsaken  all  in  order  to  come  and  help  them,  and  iii  the 


BAPTISM  OF  SEVEN  THOUSAND.      PARTING  DISCODRSE.         1 1 

most  disinterested  manner  devoted  himself  to  their  senice, 
was  near  at  hand  ;  so  they  yielded,  for  they  supposed  their  gods 
liad  shown  themselves  unable  to  help  them.  When  the  bishop, 
with  all  his  wag-gons  and  his  numerous  train,  now  entered  into 
the  town,  terror  in  the  first  place  seized  upon  all,  for  they 
thouglit  it  some  new  hostile  attack  ;  but  having  convinced 
themselves  of  tlie  peaceful  intentions  of  the  strangers,  they 
receivetl  them  with  more  confidence.  Seven  days  were  spent 
bv  the  bishop  in  giving  instruction ;  three  days  were  ap- 
pointetl  for  spiritual  and  bodily  preparation  to  receive  the 
onli nance  of  baptism.  They  held  a  fast  and  bathed  them- 
selves, tliat  they  miglit  with  cleanliness  and  decency  submit 
to  the  holy  transaction.  Large  vessels  filled  with  water  were 
sunk  in  the  ground  and  surrounded  with  curtains ;  behind 
these  baptism  was  administered,  in  the  form  customary  at  that 
period,  by  immersion.  During  their  twenty  days'  residence  in 
tliis  town,  seven  thousand  were  baptized  ;  and  the  persons  bap- 
tize<l  were  instructed  on  the  matters  contained  in  the  confession 
of  faith,  and  respecting  the  most  important  acts  of  worship. 
Before  taking  his  leave  of  them,  the  bishop,  with  the  aid  of  an 
interpreter,  addressed  a  discourse  to  the  newly  baptized  from 
an  elevated  spot.  He  reminded  them  of  the  vow  of  fidelity 
which  tliey  had  made  to  God  at  baptism ;  he  warned  them 
against  relapsing  into  idolatry  ;  he  explained  to  them  that  the 
Christian  life  is  a  continual  warfare,  and  then  expounded 
to  tliem  the  doctrine  of  the  seven  sacraments,  since  by  these 
were  designated  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  were  the 
appointed  means  of  upholding  and  strengthening  the  faithful 
in  this  warfare.  When  he  spoke  of  the  sacrament  of  marriage, 
he  explained  that  those  who  had  hitherto  possessed  several 
wives  ought  from  that  time  to  retain  but  one  as  the  lawful 
wife.  He  testified  his  abhorrence  of  the  unnatural  custom, 
which  prevailed  among  the  women,  of  destroying  at  their  birth 
children  of  the  female  sex,  when  their  number  appeared  too 
large.  As  it  is  evident,  however,  from  the  whole  history  of 
the  affair,  that  the  reception  of  Christianity  was  in  this  case 
brought  about  chiefly  through  the  fear  of  the  duke  of  Poland, 
— a  vast  number  had  submitted  to  baptism  within  a  very 
short  time,  a  time  altogether  insufficient  to  afford  oppor- 
tunity for  communicating  the  needful  instruction  to  such  a 
multitude, — so  it  was  impossible  that  what  was   here   done 


12  FIRST  CHURCH  IN  KAMMIN.      REMARKABLE  EVENTS. 

should  as  yet  be  attended  with  any  deep-working  or  permanent 
eHects. 

From  this  place  they  proceeded  to  the  town  of  Kammin. 
Here  resided  that  wife  of  duke  Wartislav  whom  he  distin- 
guished above  all  the  rest,  and  whom  he  regarded  as  his 
legitimate  consort.  She  was  more  devoted  to  Christianity  than 
she  ventured  to  confess  in  the  midst  of  a  pagan  population. 
Encouraged  by  what  she  had  heard  about  the  labours  of  Otto 
in  Pyritz,  she  declared  herself  already,  before  his  arrival,  more 
Openly  and  decidedly  a  friend  of  Christianity.  The  bishop, 
therefore,  found  the  popular  mind  in  a  favourable  state  of 
preparation  ;  many  were  anxiously  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
the  ecclesiastics,  from  whom  they  desired  to  receive  baptism. 
During  the  forty  days  which  they  spent  in  this  place,  their 
strength  was  hardly  sufficient  to  administer  baptism  to  as  many 
as  demanded  it.  Meantime,  duke  Wartislav  also  arrived  at 
Kammin.  He  expressed  great  love  for  the  bishop,  and 
greater  zeal  in  favour  of  Christianity  than  he  had  done 
before.  In  obedience  to  the  Christian  law  of  marriage,  he 
took  an  oath,  before  the  bishop  and  the  assembled  people,  to 
remain  true  to  his  lawful  wife  alone,  and  to  dismiss  four-and- 
twenty  others  whom  he  had  kept  as  concubines.  This  act  of 
the  prince  had  a  salutary  intluence  on  the  rest  of  the  people,  who 
followed  his  example.  Here  Otto  founded  the  first  church 
for  the  Pommeranians,  over  which  he  appointed  one  of  his 
clergy  as  priest,  and  left  him  behind  for  the  instruction  of  the 
people.  A  remarkable  concurrence  of  circumstances  on  one 
occasion  produced  a  great  impression  both  on  the  pagans  and 
the  new  converts.  A  woman  of  property,  zealously  devoted 
to  the  old  pagan  religion,  stood  forth  as  a  violent  opponent  of 
the  Christians.  She  held  that  the  prosperity  of  the  country 
and  its  people  furnished  evidence  enough  of  the  power  of 
their  ancient  deities.  On  Sunday,  when  all  rested  from  their 
labours  and  repaired  to  church,  this  woman  required  her 
people,  in  defiance  of  the  strange  god,  to  work  at  gathering  in 
the  harvest ;  and,  to  set  the  example,  went  herself  into  the 
field  and  grasped  the  sickle,  but  at  the  first  stroke  she  wounded 
herself  with  the  instrument.  This  occurrence  was  looked  upon 
as  a  manifest  judgment  of  God — evidence  of  the  power  of  the 
God  of  the  Christians. 

After  having  resided  here  in  this  manner  forty  days,  the 


ASYLUM  IS  JULIN.  13 

bishop  determined  to  push  his  missionary  journey  still  on- 
wards ;  and  two  citizens  of  Pyritz,  Domislav,  father  and  son, 
accompanied  them  as  guides.  They  directed  their  stejs  to  one 
of  the  principal  places  of  the  country,  the  island  of  Wollin ; 
but  here,  on  account  of  the  warlike,  spiteful  character  of  the 
inhabitants — a  people  strongly  attached  to  their  ancient  cus- 
toms,— they  had  reason  to  expect  more  determined  opposition. 
The  two  guides,  as  they  approached  the  city  of  Julin,  were 
struck  with  fear;  and  the  ecclesiastics,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
fer  from  being  stout  hearted  men.  But  bishop  Otto  himself, 
amidst  such  companions,  could  not  catch  the  contagion  of  fear. 
There  was  nothing  to  disturb  him  in  the  threatening  prospect 
of  death.  Inclined  to  err  at  the  opposite  extreme,  earnestly 
longing  to  give  up  his  life  in  his  Saviour's  cause,  he  held 
danger  too  much  in  contempt.  It  required  more  self-denial, 
more  self-control  on  his  part,  not  to  throw  himself  into  the 
midst  of  the  pagan  populace,  but  to  try  to  avert,  by  wise  and 
prudent  measures,  the  threatening  storm.  What  Otto  had 
done  in  Pyritz  must  have  been  already  known  in  the  city,  and 
the  zealous  devotees  to  the  old  Slavic  religion  could  therefore 
only  look  upon  him  as  an  enemy  of  their  gods.  From  the 
fury  of  the  pagan  populace,  the  rude  masses  of  a  seafaring 
people,  the  worst  was  to  be  apprehended.  The  guides  ad- 
vised that  they  should  remain  awhile  concealed  on  the  banks 
of  the  river,  and  endeavour  to  enter  the  town  unperceived  by 
night.  In  this  town,  as  in  the  other  cities,  there  was  a  castle 
belonging  to  the  duke,  attached  to  which  was  a  strongly-built 
inclosure,  serving  as  a  place  of  refuge  for  such  as  might  repair 
to  it.  To  this  place  it  was  proposed  that  they  should  remove, 
with  all  their  goods  ;  thus  would  they  be  protected  against  the 
first  attacks  of  the  infuriate  multitude,  and,  waiting  in  their 
place  of  security  until  the  fury  of  the  people  had  time  to  cool, 
might  then  come  to  terms  with  them.  The  plan  seemed  a  wise 
one,  and  was  adopted ;  but  perhaps  the  peculiar  character  of 
the  people  had  not  been  sufficiently  weighed.  This  plan  of 
stealthily  creeping  in  by  night,  which  betrayed  timidity  and  a 
want  of  confidence,  might  easily  lead  to  serious  mischiefe ; 
whereas,  had  they  come  forward  openly,  they  might  reckon  on 
the  effect  which  the  bishop,  appearing  in  all  the  pomp  of  his 
office,  would  be  likely  to  produce  on  the  respect  of  the  people 
for  the  authority  of  the  PoEsh  duke,  and  on  the  g^dually- 


14  FEARLESSNESS  OF  OTTO. 

increasing  influence  of  a  secret  Christian  party  ;  for  there  was 
always  to  be  found  in  this  important  seaport  and  commercial 
mart,  a  respectable  number  of  Christian  merchants  from 
abroad,  by  intercourse  with  whom,  as  well  as  with  such 
Christian  nations  as  they  visited  for  the  purpose  of  trade,  some 
few  had  already,  as  it  seems,  been  gained  over  to  Christianity. 

On  the  following  morning,  as  soon  as  they  were  observed  bj'- 
the  people,  stormy  movements  began ;  even  the  asylum  was 
not  respected,  a  furious  attack  of  the  populace  compelled  them 
to  abandon  it.  The  Polish  colonel  addressed  the  people,  but 
his  words  had  no  effect  on  the  excited  multitude.  Surrounded 
by  his  trembling  companions.  Otto,  undaunted,  cheerful,  and 
ready  for  martyrdom,  walked  through  an  angry  croAvd  that 
threatened  death  to  him  in  particular,  and  he  received  sevei-al 
blows.  Knocked  down  in  the  press,  amid  the  jostling  on  all 
sides,  he  fell  into  the  mire.  Paulitzky,  a  man  of  courage  and 
great  physical  strength,  covered  him  with  his  own  body,  and, 
warding  off"  the  blows  aimed  at  his  life,  helped  him  to  regain 
his  feet.  Thus  they  finally  made  out  to  escape  unharmed  from 
the  city ;  but,  instead  of  immediately  abandoning  this  part  of 
the  country,  they  waited  five  days  longer  for  tlie  people  to 
come  to  their  senses.  The  secret  Christians  in  the  mean  time 
paid  a  visit  to  the  bishop ;  the  more  respectable  citizens  also 
waited  on  him,  to  apologise  for  what  had  happened,  which  they 
said  they  could  not  hinder,  laying  all  the  blame  on  the  popu- 
lace. Otto  required  them  to  become  Christians.  Taking 
advantage  of  these  events  to  work  upon  their  fears,  he  threat- 
ened them  with  the  vengeance  of  the  Polisli  duke,  whose 
anger  they  had  good  reason  to  dread,  after  having  offered 
such  an  insult  to  his  messengers.  He  informed  them  that 
the  only  step  by  which  they  could  hope  to  pacify  the  duke,  and 
to  ward  oft'  the  danger  which  threatened  them,  was  to  em- 
brace Christianity.  After  consulting  together,  they  finally 
declared  that  they  must  be  governed  by  the  course  taken  by 
their  capital  town,  Stettin,  and  to  this  place  they  advised  the 
bishop  to  repair  first.     This  advice  he  followed. 

At  Stettin,  the  reception  lie  met  with  was  at  first  unfavour- 
able. When  he  proposed  to  the  chief  men  of  the  city  that 
they  should  put  away  their  old  religion  and  adopt  Christianity, 
they  repelled  the  proposition  very  decidedly.  The  life  and 
manners  of  the  nations  that  professed  Christianity  had'brought 


OPPOSITION  ENCOUNTERED  AT  STETTIN.  15 

it  here,  as  often  happens,  into  discredit.  The  Pommei-anians 
were  now  at  precisely  that  point  of  culture  which  the  apostle 
Paul,  in  the  seventh  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  describes 
as  a  life  without  the  law.  Possessing  the  simplicity,  open- 
ness, and  innocence  of  primitive  manners,  and  enjoying  a 
degree  of  temporal  pra^perity  which  was  the  natural  result  of 
a  favourable  climate,*  soil,  and  location,  they  were  as  yet  igno- 
rant of  the  conflicts  between  law  and  lust,  and  of  the  strifes  of 
contrary  interests,  and  hence  exempt  from  the  evils  that  grow 
out  of  them,  as  well  as  unconscious  of  many  wants  difficult 
to  be  satisfied,  but  very  sure  to  be  called  forth  in  a  people 
making  the  transition  from  a  state  of  nature  to  civilization. 
Fraud  and  theft  were  crimes  unknown  among  them  ;  nothing 
was  kept  under  lock  and  key.t  The  hospitality  which  usually 
distinguishes  a  people  at  this  stage  of  culture  existed  among 
them  to  an  eminent  degree.  Every  head  of  a  family  had 
a  room  especially  consecrated  to  the  reception  of  guests, 
in  which  was  kept  a  table  constantly  spread  for  their  entertain- 
ment. Thus  the  evils  were  here  absent,  by  which  man  is  made 
conscious  of  the  sin  lurking  in  his  nature,  and  thereby  brought  to 
feel  his  need  of  redemption.  If  physical  well-being  were  man's 
highest  end,  they  had  the  best  reason  for  rejecting  that  which 
would  tear  them  away  from  this  happy  state  of  nature.  Now 
when,  from  this  point  of  view,  they  compared  their  own  con- 
dition Avith  that  of  the  Christian  nations  of  Germany,  and  made 
up  their  judgment  from  the  facts  which  were  first  presented  to 
them,  as  they  could  see  nothing  to  envy  in  the  condition  of 
the  latter,  so  they  saw  nothing  in  the  religion  to  which  they 
attributed  this  condition  that  could  recommend  it  to  their 
acceptance.  Amongst  the  Christians,  said  the  more  respect- 
able citizens  of  Stettin,  are  to  be  found  thieves  and  pirates. 
Some  people  have  to  lose  their  feet,  others  their  eyes ;  every 
species  of  crime  and  of  punishment  abounds  amongst  them ; 

*  The  unknown  author  of  the  Life  of  Otto,  after  mentioning  the  plenty 
of  game,  the  numerous  herds  of  cattle,  the  abundance  of  wheat  and  of 
honey,  remarks :  "  Si  vitem  et  oleum  et  ficum  haberet,  terram  putares 
esse  repromissionis  propter  copiam  fructiferorum." 

t  "  Tanta  fides  et  societas  est  inter  eos,  ut  furtorum  et  fraudum  penitus 
inexperti,  cistas  aut  scrinia  non  habeant  serata.  Nam  seram  vel  clavem 
ibi  non  viderunt,  sed  ipsi  admodum  mirati  sunt,  quod  clitellas  et  scrinia 
episcopi  serata  viderunt." 


16  BAPTISM  OF  TWO  BROTHERS  BY  OTTO. 

Christian  abhors  Christian :  far  from  us  be  such  a  religion. 
Still  Otto,  with  his  companions,  tarried  more  than  two  months 
in  Stettin,  patiently  expecting  some  change  in  their  determina- 
tion. As  this,  however,  did  not  take  place,  it  was  concluded 
to  send  a  message  to  duke  Boleslav  of  Poland,  with  a  detailed 
report  of  the  ill  success  attending  the  mission.  The  citizens  of 
Stettin,  when  they  heard  of  this,  were  alarmed.  They  now 
declared  that  it  was  their  intention  to  send  with  these  dele- 
gates an  embassy  of  their  own  to  Poland,  and,  in  case  they 
could  obtain  a  solid  and  permanent  peace,  together  with  a 
diminution  of  tribute,  tliey  were  willing  on  such  conditions  to 
embrace  Christianity. 

In  the  mean  time  bishop  Otto  was  not  idle.  On  the  market- 
days,  which  occurred  twice  a  week,  when  numbers  of  country- 
people  came  into  the  town,  he  appeared  in  public,  dressed  in 
his  episcopal  robes,  with  the  crosier  borne  before  him,  and 
harangued  the  assembled  multitude  on  the  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  faith.  The  pomp  in  wiiich  he  appeared,  and  curi- 
osity to  hear  what  he  had  to  say,  drew  many  around  him  ;  but 
the  faith  gained  no  admittance.  He  strove  first  of  all,  by  his 
own  example,  the  example  of  a  life  actuated  by  the  spirit  of 
Christian  love,  to  do  away  the  impression  which  the  citizens  of 
Stettin  had  received  of  the  Christian  faith  from  looking  at  the 
life  of  the  great  mass  of  Christians  ;  to  make  it  by  this  means 
practically  evident  to  them,  that  there  was  a  still  higher  prin- 
ciple of  life  than  any  which  man  knows  while  living  in  a  state 
of  nature,  however  felicitous  in  other  respects.  With  his  own 
money  he  redeemed  many  captives,  and,  having  provided  them 
with  clothes  and  the  means  of  subsistence,  sent  them  home  to 
their  friends.  One  event,  however,  contributed  in  an  espe» 
cial  manner  to  make  the  pious,  benevolent  life  of  the  bishop 
generally  known,  and  to  attract  towards  him  the  minds  of  tlie 
youth. 

Many  secret  Christians  were  living  even  in  this  part  of 
Pommerania,  and  among  the  number  of  these  was  a  woman 
belonging  to  one  of  the  first  families  in  Stettin.  Having  been 
carried  away  captive  in  her  youth  from  a  Christian  land,  she 
had  married  a  man  of  wealth  and  consideration,  by  whom  she 
had  two  sons.  Although  remaining  true  to  her  laith,  yet  she 
did  not  venture,  in  the  midst  of  a  pagan  people,  to  appear  openly 
aa  a  Christian.    None  fhe  less  sincere  on  that  account  was  her 


BAPTISM  OF  TWO  BROTHERS  BT  OTTO.  17 

joy,  when  bishop  Otto  came  to  the  city  where  she  lived  :  these 
feelings,  however,  she  dared  not  express  aloud,  nor  to  go  over 
to  him  before  the  face  of  the  world.  Perhaps  it  was  not 
without  the  exertion  of  some  influence  on  her  part  that  her 
two  sons  were  led  to  pay  frequent  visits  to  the  ^Tergy,  and  to 
make  inquiries  of  them  respecting  the  Christian  faith.  The 
bishop  did  not  fail  to  make  the  most  of  this  opportunity, 
by  instructing  them,  step  by  step,  in  all  the  leading  doctrines 
of  Christianity.  He  found  the  young  men  had  susceptible 
minds.  They  declared  themselves  convinced,  and  requested 
that  they  might  be  prepared  for  baptism.  This  ^ras  done ;  and 
the  bishop  agreed  upon  a  day,  with  them,  when  they  should 
return  and  receive  baptism.  They  were  baptized,  with  all  the 
accustomed  ceremonial  of  the  church,  without  any  knowledge 
of  the  transaction  on  the  part  of  their  parents.  After  this 
they  remained  eight  days  in  the  bishop's  house,  in  order  to  ob- 
serve, with  due  solemnity,  their  octave  as  neophytes.  Their 
mother,  in  the  mean  while,  got  notice  of  what  had  been  done 
before  the  whole  time  of  the  octave  had  expired.  Full  of  joy, 
she  sent  a  message  to  the  bishop,  requesting  to  see  her  sons. 
He  received  her,  seated  in  the  open  air  on  a  bank  of  turf,  sur- 
rounded by  his  clergy,  the  young  men  at  his  feet  clothed  in 
their  white  robes.  The  latter,  on  beholding  their  mother  at 
a  distance,  started  up,  and  bowing  to  the  bishop,  as  if  to  ask 
his  permission,  hastened  to  meet  her.  At  the  sight  of  her  sons 
in  their  white  robes  of  baptism,  the  mother,  who  had  kept  her 
Christianity  concealed  for  so  many  years,  overcome  by  her 
feelings,  sunk  weeping  to  tlie  ground.  The  bishop  and  his 
clergy  hurried  to  her  in  alarm  :  raising  the  woman  from  the 
earth,  they  strove  to  quiet  her  mind,  supposing  she  had  fainted 
from  the  violence  of  her  grief.  But  as  soon  as  she  could 
command  herself,  and  find  language  to  express  her  feeJ'ngs, 
they  were  undeceived.  "  I  praise  thee,"  were  her  first  words, 
"  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  thou  source  of  all  hope  and  of  all  conso- 
lation, that  I  behold  my  sons  initiated  into  thy  sacraments, 
enlightened  by  the  faith  in  thy  divine  truth."  Then,  kissing 
and  embracing  her  sons,  she  added  :  "For  thou  knowest,  my 
Lord  .Jesus  Christ,  that  for  many  years  I  have  not  ceased,  in 
the  secret  recesses  of  my  heart,  to  recommend  these  youths  to 
thy  compassion,  beseeching  thee  to  do  in  them  that  which 
thou  now  hast  done."     Next,  turning  to  the  bishop,  she  thus 

VOL.  VII.  ^  c 


18  INFLUENCE  OF  THIS  CHRISTIAN  FAMILY. 

addressed  him : — "  Blessed  be  the  day  of  your  coming  to  this, 
city,  for,  if  you  will  but  persevere,  a  great  church  shall  here 
be  gathered  to  the  Lord.  Do  not  allow  yourselves  to  grow 
impatient  by  any  delay.  Behold !  I  myself,  who  stand  here 
before  you,  do,  by  the  aid  of  Almighty  God,  encouraged  by 
your  presence,  reverend  father,  but  also  throwing  myself  on 
the  help  of  these  my  children,  confess  that  I  am  a  Christian, 
a  truth  which  till  now  I  dared  not  openly  acknowledge." 
She  then  proceeded  to  relate  her  whole  story.  The  bishop 
thanked  God  for  the  wonderful  leadings  of  his  grace ;  he 
assured  the  woman  of  his  hearty  sympathy,  said  many  things 
to  strengthen  and  encourage  her  in  the  faith,  and  presented  her 
with  a  costly  robe  of  fur.  At  the  expiration  of  the  eight  days, 
when  the  newly -baptized  laid  aside  their  white  robes,  he  made 
them  a  valuable  present  of  fine  raiment,  and,  having  given  them 
the  Holy  Supper,  dismissed  them  to  go  home. 

This  remarkable  occurrence  was  immediately  attended  with 
many  important  consequences.  That  Christian  woman,  who 
had  hitherto  kept  her  religion  a  secret,  now  that  she  had  taken 
the  first  step  and  gathered  courage,  freely  and  openly  avowed 
her  faith,  and  became  herself  a  preacher  of  the  gospel.  Through 
her  influence,  her  domestics,  also  her  neighbours  and  friends, 
and  her  entire  family,  were  induced  to  receive  baptism.  The 
two  young  men  became  preachers  to  the  youth.  First,  they 
spoke  of  the  bishop's  disinterested  love,  ever  active  in  pro- 
moting the  good  of  mankind ;  then  of  the  new,  comforting, 
bliss-conferring  truths  which  they  had  heard  from  his  lips. 
The  youth  flocked  to  the  bishop ;  many  were  instructed  and 
baptized  by  him.  The  young  became  teachers  of  the  old  ;  and 
numbers  every  day  presented  themselves  openly  for  baptism. 
But  when  the  father  of  the  two  young  men  who  were  first  bap- 
tized came  to  be  informed  that  his  whole  family  had  become 
Christians,  he  was  exceedingly  troubled  and  indignant  at 
hearing  it.  The  prudent  wife,  finding  that  he  was  returning 
home  in  this  state  of  feeling,  despatched  some  of  his  kinsmen 
and  friends  to  meet  him  with  comforting  and  soothing  words, 
while  she  herself  prayed  incessantly  for  his  conversion ;  and 
when  he  got  home,  and  saw  so  many  of  his  fellow- citizens  and 
neighbours  already  living  as  Christians,  his  opposition  gradually 
gave  way,  till  finally  he  consented  to  be  baptized  himself. 

When  thus,  by  influences  purely  spiritual,  the  way  had  heeit 


BOLESLAV  S  LETTER  TO  THE  STETTIXERS.         19 

prepared  for  the  triumph  of  Christianity  and  the  downfall  of 
paganism  in  Stettin,  the  messengers  sent  to  the  Polish  duke 
came  back,  announcing  that  they  had  accomplished  the  object 
of  their  mission.  The  duke,  in  the  very  beginning  of  his  letter, 
proclaimed  himself  an  enemy  to  all  pagans ;  at  the  same  time 
he  assured  them  that,  if  they  would  abide  faithfully  by  their 
promise,  and  embrace  Christianity,  they  might  look  for  peace 
and  amity  on  a  solid  foundation  ;  otherwise  they  must  expect 
to  see  their  territory  laid  waste  by  fire  and  sword,  and  to  ex- 
perience his  eternal  enmity.  He  first  reproached  them  for  the 
jrude  behaviour  which  they  had  shown  at  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel ;  but  declared  that,  notwithstanding  all  this,  yielding  to 
the  earnest  desires  of  the  ambassador,  and  especially  of  bishop 
Otto,  he  was  determined  to  forgive  them,  and  to  grant  them 
peace  on  more  favourable  terms  than  ever,  provided  that  hence- 
forth they  would  faithfully  observe  the  conditions  they  had 
themselves  proposed,  and  show  docility  to  their  religious 
teachers.  The  favourable  impression  produced  by  this  reply 
was  improved  to  the  utmost  by  the  bishop.  He  proposed  at 
once  to  the  assembled  people  that,  inasmuch  as  the  worship  of 
the  true  God  was  incapable  of  being  united  with  the  worship 
of  idols,  in  order  to  prepare  a  dwelling  henceforth  for  the  liv- 
ing God,  all  the  monuments  of  idolatry  should  be  destroyed ; 
but  as  they  still  clung  to  their  belief  in  the  reality  and  power 
of  tliese  gods,  and  dreaded  their  vengeance,  he  with  his  clergy 
proposed  to  go  forward  and  set  them  the  example.  Signing 
themselves  with  the  cross,  the  tnie  preservative  fix)m  all  evil, 
and  armed  with  hatchets  and  pickaxes,  they  would  proceed  to 
demolish  all  those  monuments  of  idolatry ;  and  if  they  re- 
mained unharmed,  it  should  be  a  token  to  all  that  they  had 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  gods,  but  might  safely  follow  the 
example  he  had  given  them. 

This  was  done.  The  first  monument  destroyed  was  a  temple 
dedicated  to  the  Slavic  god  Triglav,  containing  an  image 
of  that  divinity,  and  decorated  on  its  inner  walls  with  various 
works  of  sculpture  and  paintings  in  oil.  In  this  temple  were 
many  precious  articles ;  for  the  tenth  part  of  all  the  spoils 
obtained  in  war  was  consecrated  to  this  deity,  and  deposited 
here.  Abundance  of  costly  offerings  were  here  to  be  found  ; 
goblets  of  horn  ornamented  with  precious  stones,  golden  bowls, 
knives,  and  poniards  of  beautiful  workmanship.  All  these  articlej* 

c  2 


20  otto's  prudent  accommodation. 

it  was  proposed  to  give  to  the  bishop ;  but  he  declined  receiving 
them.  "  God  forbid,"  said  he,  "  that  we  should  think  of  en- 
riching ourselves  out  of  what  belongs  to  you.  Such  things  as 
these,  and  still  more  beautiful,  we  have  already  at  home." 
Then,  after  having  sprinkled  them  with  holy  water  and  signed 
them  with  the  cross,  he  caused  them  to  be  distributed  among 
the  people.  With  this  proof  of  a  disinterested  love,  that 
avoided  the  very  appearance  of  selfishness,  bishop  Otto  mani- 
fested also  a  singular  liberality  of  Christian  spirit,  in  refusing 
to  give  up  to  destruction  that  which,  innocent  in  itself,  might 
be  devoted  to  better  uses  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  The 
only  gift  he  consented  to  receive  was  the  image  of  Triglav  ;  of 
which,  causing  the  rest  of  the  body  to  be  destroyed,  he  pre- 
served the  triple  head  as  a  trophy  of  the  victory  obtained  over 
idolatry.  This  he  afterwards  sent  to  Rome,  in  evidence  of 
what  he  had  done  as  a  missionary  of  the  Roman  Church,  for 
the  destruction  of  paganism.  Three  other  buildings  were  next 
demolished,  temples*  erected  to  idols  where  the  people  were 
accustomed  to  meet  for  their  sports  and  carousals,  as  well  as 
for  deliberation  on  more  serious  matters.  In  destroying  or  re- 
moving the  monuments  of  the  old  idolatry,  and  everything 
connected  with  it.  Otto  did  not,  with  heedless  fanaticism,  treat 
all  cases  alike,  but  was  governed  in  his  mode  of  procedure  by 
a  prudent  regard  to  circumstances.  It  was  an  important  point 
to  distinguish  between  those  objects  which,  by  constantly  fur- 
nishing some  point  of  attachment  for  the  old  pagan  bent,  would 
serve  to  keep  it  alive,  and  others  where  nothing  of  this  kind 
was  to  be  feared.  In  the  vicinity  of  each  of  those  buildings 
dedicated  to  the  gods  was  to  be  found  one  of  those  ancient  oaks, 
regarded  everywhere  in  Germany  with  religious  veneration, 
and  beside  it  a  fountain.  The  citizens  besought  the  bishop 
that  these  oaks  might  be  spared.  They  promised  to  withhold 
from  them  all  associations  of  a  religious  character.  They  sim- 
ply wished  to  enjoy  the  pleasant  shade  and  other  amenities  of 
these  chosen  spots ;  which  indeed  was  no  sin,  and  he  complied 
with  their  request.  Among  other  objects,  however,  there  was 
a  horse  considered  sacred,  which  in  times  of  war  was  employed 
for  purposes  of  divination. t     In  demanding  the  removal  of  all 

*  Concince. 

t  Nine  javelins,  each  an  ell  long,  were  placed  in  a  row.     The  horse 
was  then  led  over  them,  and  if  he  passed  without  touching  one  of  them, 


JXJLIK  THE  SEAT  OF  A  BISHOPRIC.  21 

such  objects,  Otto  was  inexorably  severe  ;  he  would  not  allow 
one  of  them  to  remain,  since  he  was  aware  of  the  influence 
which  these  superstitions  were  still  wont  to  exert  even  long  after 
the  destruction  of  paganism.  He  insisted,  therefore,  that  the 
sacred  horse  should  be  sent  into  another  country  and  sold. 
Notwithstanding  these  decided  measures  for  the  extirpation  of 
paganism,  not  a  man  had  the  boldness  to  stand  forth  in  its 
detfence,  except  the  priest  whose  business  it  was  to  tend  and 
manage  the  sacred  horse ;  but  the  sudden  death  of  this  man,  who 
had  stood  up  alone  for  the  honour  of  the  gods,  was  &vourably 
construed  as  a  divine  judgment.  After  the  temples  had  been 
destroyed,  the  people  were  admitted  to  baptism ;  and  the  same 
order  was  obser\'ed  here  as  at  Pyritz,  numbers  presenting 
themselves  at  a  time,  and  receiving  the  ordinance,  after  a  dis- 
course had  been  preached  to  them  on  the  doctrines  of  faith. 
Having  tarried  here  five  months  in  the  whole.  Otto  departed 
from  Stettin,  leaving  behind  him  a  church  with  a  priest. 

From  Stettin,  he  iisited  a  few  of  the  places  belonging  to  the 
territory  of  that  city,*  He  then  went  by  water  down  the  Oder, 
and  across  the  Baltic  sea,  to  Julin.  The  inhabitants  of  this 
town  having  agreed  with  the  bishop  that  they  would  follow 
the  example  of  the  capital  city,  haJd  already  sent  persons  to 
Stettin,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  exact  information  respect- 
ing the  manner  in  which  the  gospel  was  there  received.  The 
news  they  obtained  could  not  fail  to  make  the  most  favourable 
impression  ;  and  Otto  was  received  in  Julin  with  demonstra- 
tions of  joy  and  respect.  The  activity  of  the  clergy  during  the 
two  months  which  they  spent  in  this  place,  scarcely  sufficed  to 
baptize  all  who  offered  themselves.  After  the  Christian  church 
had  thus  been  planted  in  the  two  chief  cities  of  Pommerania, 
the  question  rose  where  should  the  first  bishopric  be  founded. 
Otto  and  duke  Wartislav  agreed  that  Julin  was  the  most  suit- 
able place  to  be  made  the  first  seat  of  a  bishopric  for  Pomme- 
rania ;  partly  because  this  city  was  so  situated  as  to  form  a 
convenient  central  point,  and  partly  because  the  rude  people 

this  was  considered  a  favourable  omen.  Horses  -were  held  sacred  also 
amongst  the  ancient  Germans,  especially  for  the  purpose  of  prophecy. 
Vid.  Tacit.  German.,  c.  x. ;  Grimm's  Deutsche  Mytholog  ,  s.  878,  u.  d.  f. 
*  The  unknown  author  mentions  two  castles,  Graticia  and  Lubi- 
nuro,  the  first  Garz.  the  second  Lebbehn,  according  to  the  probable 
conjecture  of  Kanngiesser.     See  his  Geschichte  von  Pommern,  p.  660. 


22  otto's  visitation  tour. 

here,  inclined  by  nature  to  be  refractory  and  insolent,  and  pe- 
culiarly exposed  to  the  infection  of  paganism,  especially  needed 
the  constant  presence  and  oversight  of  a  bishop.  *  Two  churches 
were  here  begun.  From  this  place  Otto  went  to  a  city  called 
Clonoda,  or  Clodona,fwhere,  taking  advantage  of  the  abundance 
of  wood,  he  erected  a  church  ;|  next,  he  proceeded  to  a  city 
which  had  suffered  extremely  by  the  ravages  attending  the  war 
with  Poland  ;§  and  from  thence  to  Colberg.  Many  of  the  in- 
habitants of  this  place  were  now  absent  on  voyages  of  traffic  to 
the  coasts  of  the  Baltic  sea,  and  those  that  remained  at  home 
were  unwilling  to  make  a  decision  till  a  general  assembly  could 
be  holden  of  all  the  people ;  the  bishop,  however,  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  them  to  receive  baptism.  The  city  of 
Belgrade  v/as  the  extreme  point  of  his  missionary  tour.  It  be- 
came necessary  for  him  to  reserve  the  extending  of  the  mission 
to  the  remaining  parts  of  Pommeraiiia  for  a  future  day,  as  the 
affairs  of  his  own  diocese  now  called  him  home  ;  but  first,  he 
felt  bound  to  make  a  visitation-tour  to  the  communities  already 
founded  by  him,  and  bestow  confirmation  on  those  who  had  be- 
fore been  baptized.  Many  whom  he  had  not  met  with  on  his 
first  visit,  being  then  absent  on  voyages  j3f  trade,  now  presented 
themselves  for  baptism.  The  churches,  whose  foundations  he 
had  laid  during  his  first  residence  in  these  districts,  had  in  the 
mean  time  been  completed,  and  he  was  enabled  to  consecrate 
them.  The  Christian  Pommeranians  now  besought  him,  the 
beloved  founder  of  their  churches,  to  remain  with  them  himself, 
and  be  their  bishop ;  but  he  could  not  consent.  Having  spent 
a  year  lacking  five  weeks  in  Pommerania,  he  hastened  back, 
that  he  might  be  with  his  flock  at  the  celebration  of  Palm- 
Sunday.  He  directed  his  course  once  more  through  Poland, 
where  he  met  duke  Boleslav,  and  reported  to  him  the  success- 
ful issue  of  his  enterprise.  As  Otto  could  not  hold  the  first 
bishopric  himself,  Boleslav  nominated  to  this  post  Adalbert, 
one  of  his  chaplains,  who  by  his  directions  had  accompanied 

*  "  Ut  gens  aspera  ex  jugi  doctoris  pra;sentia  mansuesceret,"  says  Otto's 
companion. 

t  According  to  Kanngiesser's  interpretation,  Gollnow. 

%  "  Quia  locus  nemorosus  erat  et  amcenus  et  ligua  ad  aedificandum  sup- 
petebant." 

§  Kanngiesser  makes  it  probable,  from  the  name  and  situation,  that  this 
place  was  Naugard. 


STATE  OF  THE  MISSION  DURIXG  OTTO  S  ABSENCE.  2S 

bishop  Otto  as  an  assistant.  Otto  himself  left  several  priests 
in  Pommerania  to  prosecute  the  work  which  had  been  com- 
menced, but  they  were  too  few  in  number  to  complete  the 
establishment  of  the  Christian  church  ;  nor  was  it  likely  that 
any  of  them  would  possess  the  ardour  and  courage  of  their 
leader.  As  the  time  he  was  able  to  pass  in  the  several  places 
was  comparatively  so  short ;  as  he  was  obliged  to  employ  an 
interpreter  in  his  intercourse  with  the  people;  as  political 
motives  had  co-operated,  at  least  in  the  case  of  many,  to  procure 
their  conversion ;  so  it  may  readily  be  conceived  that  this  con- 
version of  great  masses  was  very  far  from  being  a  permanent 
and  thorough  work. 

The  Christian  worship  of  God  having  now  been  introduced 
into  one  half  of  Pommerania,  whilst  paganism  reigned  in 
,the  other,  the  necessary  result  was,  that  a  striking  contrast  pre- 
sented itself  between  the  two  portions ;  and  the  example  of 
ancient  customs,  of  the  popular  festivals  of  paganism,  its 
amusements  and  its  carousals  among  the  pagans,  might  easily 
entice  back  the  others  again  into  their  former  habits.  They 
would  yearn  after  their  old  unconstrained,  national  mode  of 
life.  The  restrictions  under  which  Christianity  and  the  church, 
with  its  laws  concerning  fastings,  laid  their  untutored  nature, 
might  be  felt  by  them  as  an  intolerable  yoke,  which  they  longed 
to  exchange  for  the  enjoyment  of  their  ancient  freedom  ;  and 
thus  it  might  happen  that,  in  the  districts  where  Otto  had  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  Christian  church,  the  pagan  party  would 
again  lift  up  its  head,  and  paganism  begin  once  more  to  extend 
its  empire.  Such  fluctuations  in  the  conflict  between  Christi- 
anity and  paganism — as  in  the  early  history  of  Christianity, 
which,  having  made  rapid  progress  at  first,  immediately  en- 
countered a  strong  reaction  of  paganism — are  often  found 
recurring  in  the  history  of  missions.  We  may  mention,  as  an 
example  furnished  by  the  modem  history  of  missions,  the  mis- 
sion among  the  Society  Islands  of  Australia. 

Gladly  would  Otto  have  gone  earlier  to  the  help  of  the  new 
church  in  its  distress  ;  but  various  public  misfortunes,  and  the 
political  affairs  in  which  he  became  involved  as  an  estate 
of  the  German  empire,  prevented  him,  for  full  three  years, 
from  fulfilling  his  ■wish.  It  was  not  till  the  spring  of  the 
year  1128,  that  he  could  visit  the  field  in  person;  but  to 
avoid  laying  any  further  burden  on  the  dukes  of  Poland  and 


24  Otto's  second  visit  to  pommerakia. 

TBohemia,  he  now  chose  another  route,  which  had  been  made 
practicable  by  the  subjugation  of  the  Slavic  populations,  in 
those   districts.     He   directed  his  journey  through  Saxony, 
Priegnitz,  and  the  territories  which  were  reckoned  as  belong- 
ing to  Leuticia,  to  the  adjacent  parts  of  Pommerania.     He 
determined  also,  in  this  second  mission,  to  defray  all  his  per- 
sonal expenses,  and  those  of  his  attendants,  out  of  his  own 
purse,  and   to  take  with   him  a  large  number  of  valuable 
presents.     To  this  end  he  purchased,  in  Halle,  a  quantity  of 
grain  and  other  merchandise,  intended  for  presents,  all  of 
which  he  placed  on  board  vessels,  to  be  conveyed  by  the  Saale 
to  the  Elbe  and  Havel,  after  which  the  lading  was  conveyed  on- 
ward by  fifty  waggons.  He  arrived  first  at  a  part  of  Pommerania 
where  the  gospel  had  not  yet  been  preached,  and  entering  the 
city  of  Demmin,  found  but  one  old  acquaintance  in  the  person 
of  the  governor.    Here,  on  the  next  day,  he  met  his  old  friend, 
duke  Wartislav,  The  duke  was  on  his  return,  laden  with  spoils, 
from   a   successful   war   with   the   neighbouring   Leuticians. 
Many  sigiits  were  here  presented  to  the  eyes  of  Otto,  which 
could   not    fail   to   make   a  very  painful   impression  on  his 
benevolent  heart.     The  army  of  the  duke  had  brought  away 
a  number  of  captives ;  these  were  to  be  divided  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  booty.     Among  them  were  to  be  found 
many  persons  of  weak  and  delicate  constitutions.     Husbands 
were  to  be  separated  from  their  wives,  wives  from  their  hus- 
bands, parents  from  their  sons.     The  bishop  interceded  with 
the  duke  in  their  behalf,  and  persuaded  him  to  liberate  the 
weakest,  and  not  to  separate  near  kinsmen  and  relatives  from 
each  other  ;  but,  not  satisfied  with  this,  he  paid  from  his  own 
funds  the  ransom-money  for   many  who  were   still   pagans. 
These  he  instructed  in  Christianity,  baptized,  and  then  sent 
back  to  their  homes.     Otto  and  the  duke  showed  every  kind- 
ness to  each  other,  and  exchanged  presents.     They  agreed 
that,  on  Whitsuntide,  now  close  at  hand,  a  diet  should  be  held 
at  Usedom,  with  a  view  to  induce  the  several  states  to  consent 
to,  and  take  an  active  part  in,  the  establishment  of  the  Christian 
church.     In  the  letter-missive,  it  was  expressly  announced, 
that  the  errand  of  bishop  Otto  was  to  preach  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, and  that  this  was  the  subject  to  be  brought  before  the 
diet.     Otto  next  laded  a  vessel  on  the  river  Peene,  with  all 
his  goods,  w  hich  thus  after  three  days  arrived  at  Usedom.     He 


DIET  IX  USEDOM.      WAKTESLAv's  SPEECH.  25 

himself,  however,  with  a  few  attendants,  proceeded  leisurely 
along  the  banks  of  the  Peene  to  that  city,  taking  advantage  of 
this  jaunt  to  prepare  the  way,  wherever  he  went,  for  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel. 

In  Usedom  he  found  there  were  already  some  scattered 
seeds  of  Christianity,  conveyed  there  by  the  priests  he  had  left 
behind  him.  Still  more  was  done  by  himself.  At  this  place 
the  deputies  of  the  States,  in  obedience  to  the  summons  of  the 
duke,  now  came  together,  composed  partly  of  such  as  had 
always  remained  pagans  and  partly  of  those  who  had  been 
previously  converted,  but  during  Otto's  absence  had  relapsed 
into  paganit^m.  The  duke  presented  to  them  the  bishop, — a 
man  whose  whole  appearance  commanded  respect.  In  an  im- 
pressive discourse,  in  which  he  invited  them  to  set  their  people 
the  example  of  embracing  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  he 
bade  them  remark  that  the  excuse  they  had  always  oiFered 
would  no  longer  avail  them,  namely,  that  the  preachers  of 
this  religion  were  a  needy,  contemptible  set  of  men,  in  whom 
no  confidence  could  be  placed,  and  who  pursued  this  business 
merely  to  get  a  living.  Here  they  beheld  one  of  the  highest 
dignitaries  of  the  German  empire,  who  at  home  possessed 
every  thing  in  abundance, — gold,  silver,  precious  stones ;  a 
man  on  whom  no  one  could  fix  a  suspicion  that  he  sought 
anything  for  himself ;  who,  on  the  contrary,  had  relinquished 
a  life  of  honour  and  of  ease,  and  applied  his  own  property  to 
the  object  of  communicating  to  them  that  treasure  which  he 
prized  as  the  highest  good.  These  words  had  their  effect ;  and 
the  whole  assembly  declared  themselves  ready  to  pursue  any 
course  which  the  bishop  might  propose  to  them.  The  latter 
now  began  ;  and,  taking  occasion  from  the  festival  of  Whit- 
suntide, spoke  of  the  grace  and  goodness  of  God,  of  the  for- 
giveness of  sin,  and  of  the  communication  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  his  gifts.  His  words  made  a  profound  impression  ;  the 
apostates  professed  repentance,  and  the  bishop  reconciled  them 
with  the  church.  Those  who  had  always  been  pagans,  suffered 
themselves  to  be  instructed  in  Christianity,  and  submitted  to 
baptism.  A  decree  of  the  diet  permitted  the  free  preaching 
of  the  gospel  in  all  places.  Otto  was  occupied  here  a  whole 
week.  He  then  concluded  to  extend  Iiis  labours  still  farther, 
and  asked  the  advice  of  the  duke.  The  latter  declared  that, 
by  virtue  of  the  decree  of  the  diet,  the  whole  country  stood  open 


26  OPI'OSITION  IN  WOLGAST. 

to  him.  The  bishop  now  commenced  sending  his  clergy,  two 
by  two,  into  all  the  towns  and  villages,  intending  to  follow 
them  himself. 

But  although  the  decree  of  the  diet  possessed  the  validity 
of  a  law,  yet  such  was  not  the  character  and  spirit  of  the  people 
that  obedience  would  necessarily  follow  in  all  cases.  There 
were  important  old  cities  who  maintained  a  certain  indepen- 
dence ;  and  in  many  districts  the  ancient  popular  religion  had 
a  powerful  party  in  its  favour,  who  were  dissatisfied  with  this 
decree.  Among  these  cities  was  the  town  of  Wolgast,  a  place 
to  which  bishop  Otto  had  determined  to  go  first.  A  priest 
lived  here  who  for  a  year  had  made  it  his  business  to  resist 
the  spread  of  Christianity,  to  excite  against  it  the  hatred  of 
the  people,  and  to  enkindle  their  zeal  for  the  honour  of  their 
ancient  deities  ;  though  he  had  been  unable  as  yet  to  procu.re 
the  passage  of  a  public  decree  in  reference  to  these  matters. 
But  now,  when  the  diet  had  passed  a  decree  so  favourable  for 
the  diffusion  of  Christianity,  this  priest  thought  himself  bound 
to  make  a  final  effort  to  carry  out  by  fraud  and  cunning  what 
he  could  not  accomplish  by  persuasion.  Eepairing  by  night, 
in  his  sacerdotal  robes,  to  a  neighbouring  forest,  he  concealed 
himself  on  a  hill,  in  the  midst  of  a  thicket  of  brush-wood. 
Early  the  next  morning,  a  peasant  passing  along  the  road  on 
his  way  to  the  city,  heard  a  voice  call  out  to  him  from  the 
dark  forest,  and  bid  him  stop  and  listen.  Already  terrified  at 
the  voice,  he  was  still  more  amazed  at  beholding  a  figure 
clothed  in  white.  The  priest,  following  up  the  impression, 
represented  himself  as  the  highest  of  the  national  gods,  who 
had  chosen  here  to  make  his  appearance.  He  signified  his 
anger  at  the  reception  which  the  worship  of  the  strange  God 
had  met  with  in  the  country,  and  bade  the  man  say  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  city,  that  the  man  must  not  be  allowed  to  live 
who  should  attempt  to  introduce  among  them  the  worship  of 
that  strange  God.  When  the  credulous  peasant  came  to  tell 
his  story  in  the  city,  the  priest  who  had  played  this  trick  first 
put  on  the  air  of  a  sceptic,  with  a  view  to  draw  out  the  peasant 
into  a  new  and  more  detailed  accoimt  of  what  he  had  seen  and 
heard,  so  as  to  avail  himself  of  the  fresh  impression  of  thestoiy. 
Such  was  the  effect  produced  by  it  on  the  popular  mind,  that 
the  citizens  passed  a  decree,  ordaining  that  if  the  bishop  or  any 
of  his  associates  entered  the  city,  they  should  instantly  be  put 


OTTO  AND  THE  DUKE  PROCEED  TO  WOLGAST.  27 

to  death,  and  that  any  citizen  who  harboured  them  in  his  hoiise 
should  suffer  the  like  punishment. 

These  events  had  transpired,  and  such  was  the  tone  of  the 
popular  feeling,  when  the  two  missionaries  sent  before  him  by 
the  bishop,  Ulric  and  Albin, — the  latter  of  whom,  possessing 
a  ready  knowledge  of  the  Slavic  language,  was  commonly  em- 
ployed by  him  as  an  interpreter, — arrived  at  "Wolgast,  without 
dreaming  of  the  danger  to  which  they  exposed  themselves. 
Conformably  to  the  Pommeranian  manners,  they  met  with  an 
hospitable  reception  from  the  wife  of  the  Burgomaster,  a  ' 
woman  who,  though  not  a  Christian,  was  distinguished  for  a 
reverence  quite  free  from  fanaticism  towards  the  unknown 
God,  as  well  as  for  her  active  philanthropy.  But  when,  after 
being  entertained  by  the  woman,  they  proceeded  to  explain 
who  they  were,  and  the  object  of  their  visit,  she  was  struck 
mth  consternation,  and  informed  them  of  the  danger  to  which 
they  were  exposed ;  still,  she  was  determined  to  observe 
faithfully  the  laws  of  hospitality.  She  pointed  the  strangers 
to  a  place  of  concealment  in  an  upper  part  of  her  house,  and 
caused  their  baggage  to  be  quickly  conveyed  to  a  place  of 
safety,  beyond  the  walls  of  the  city.  It  is  true,  the  arrival  of 
the  strangers  whom  she  entertained  soon  awakened  suspicion 
among  the  excited  multitude  ;  but  as  the  practice  of  hospitality 
to  strangers  was  so  common  a  thing  in  Pommerania,  she  found 
no  difficulty  in  evading  the  questions  of  the  curious,  declaring 
that  strangers  were  indeed  entertained  by  her,  as  oftentimes 
before,  but  that,  after  taking  their  repast,  they  had  left  her  ; 
and  as  the  persons  who  inquired  saw  no  signs  of  their  being 
still  in  the  house,  they  gave  up  their  suspicions. 

The  account  of  these  movements  had  already  reached 
Usedom,  and  the  duke,  therefore,  thought  it  advisable  to  ac- 
company the  bishop  to  Wolgast  with  a  large  band  of  followers, 
among  whom  were  some  of  the  members  of  the  diet,  and  several 
armed  soldiers.  Three  days  had  been  spent  by  the  two  eccle- 
siastics in  their  place  of  concealment,  when  by  the  arrival  of 
so  powerful  a  protector  they  felt  themselves  perfectly  safe,  and 
at  liberty  to  emerge  from  their  retreat.  The  bishop,  thus 
sustained,  was  enabled  to  commence  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 
But  when  the  authority  of  the  duke  had  restored  quiet  in  the 
city,  and  the  pagan  party  was  forced  to  keep  still,  a  feeling  of 
security  took  possession  of  some  of  the  ecclesiastics.     They 


28  PAGAN  DISTURBANCES  AT  WOLGAST. 

ridiculed  the  two  priests,  when  they  spoke  of  their  narrow 
escape.  They  separated  from  the  bishop  and  the  rest  of  the 
company,  despising  prudence  as  no  better  than  cowardice. 
Mingling  fearlessly  among  the  people,  they  attempted  to  slip 
into  the  temple.  By  this  act,  however,  the  fury  of  the  pagans 
was  stirred  up  afresh  ;  especially  as  the  suspicion  got  abroad 
that  they  were  seeking  an  opportunity  to  set  fire  to  the  temple. 
Troops  of  armed  people  began  to  assemble.  The  priest  Ulric, 
perceiving  these  signs  of  an  impending  tumult,  said  :  "  I 
•  shall  not  consent  to  tempt  my  God  so  often,"  and  returning 
back  to  the  bishop,  he  was  followed  by  all  the  others  except 
one  ecclesiastic,  named  Encodric,  who  had  advanced  too  far, 
and  already  had  his  hand  on  the  door  of  the  temple.  The 
pagans  now  rushed  upon  him  in  a  body,  intending  to  make 
him  the  victim  of  their  common  vengeance  against  the  whole 
party.  Seeing  no  other  place  of  refuge,  urged  by  the  fear  of 
immediate  death,  he  penetrated  into  the  inmost  parts  of  the 
temple ;  and  this  desperate  movement  is  said  to  have  saved  him. 
Suspended  in  this  temple  was  a  shield,  wrought  Mdth  great  art 
and  embossed  with  gold,  dedicated  to  Gerovit,  the  god  of  war, 
which  was  regarded  as  inviolably  sacred,  and  supposed  to  ren- 
der the  person  of  him  who  bore  it  also  inviolable.  As  the  eccle- 
siastic, flying  for  his  life,  ran  round  the  temple  looking  for  a 
weapon  of  defence  or  a  place  of  concealment,  he  descried  this 
shield,  and  seizing  it,  sprang  into  the  midst  of  the  furious  crowd. 
Everybody  now  fled  before  him  ;  not  a  man  dared  lay  hands 
on  him  ;  and  thus,  running  for  his  life,  he  got  safely  back  to 
his  companions.  The  bishop  took  occasion  from  this  incident 
to  exhort  his  clergy  to  greater  caution.  He  continued  his 
labours  in  this  place  until  the  people  had  demolished  all  their 
temples,  and  the  foundation  was  laid  of  a  church,  over  which 
he  set  one  of  his  clergy  as  the  priest. 

Without  being  accompanied  by  the  duke,  who  probably 
had  hastened  to  his  assistance  solely  on  account  of  the  occur- 
rences at  Wolgast,  Otto  proceeded  to  Giitzkow.  It  agreed 
alike  with  his  temperament  and  his  principles  to  accomplish 
the  whole  work  before  him  by  no  other  power  than  that  of 
love,  which  wins  the  heart.  He  never  made  any  use  of  his 
political  connections  except  for  the  purpose  of  securing  himself, 
in  the  first  place,  against  the  fury  of  the  pagans.  It  was  cer- 
tainly most  gratifying  to  him  whenever  he  found  he  could 


CHURCH  FOUKDED  THERE.  29 

dispense  with  the  ann  of  secular  power.  Having  left  the 
duke  free  to  attend  to  his  own  affairs,  he  felt  more  at  liberty 
to  decline  the  proposition  of  his  old  friend  the  Margrave 
Albert  of  Baren,  afterwards  founder  of  Mark  Brandenbui^, 
who,  on  being  informed  of  the  popular  movements  at  Wolgast, 
offered  by  his  envoys,  that  met  the  bishop  at  Giitzkow,  to  assist 
him  against  the  obstinate  pagans.  In  Giitzkow,  Otto  would 
have  found  easier  access  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  had  he 
consented  to  spare  a  new  and  magnificent  temple,  which,  consi- 
dered as  a  work  of  art,  was  reckoned  a  great  ornament  to  the 
city.  Magnificent  presents  were  offered  to  him,  if  he  would 
yield.  Finally,  he  was  entreated  to  convert  this  temple  into  a 
Christian  church,  as  liad  been  done  aforetime  ;  but  the  bishop, 
who,  not  ^A-ithout  reason,  feared  the  consequences  which  would 
result  from  any  mixture  of  CRristianity  with  paganism,  be- 
lieved it  inexpedient,  indulgent  as  he  was  in  other  respects,  to 
give  way  in  this  instance ;  and  by  a  comparison  drawn  from 
the  parables  of  our  Lord,  he  endeavoured  to  make  the  people 
understand  that  he  could  not,  in  consistency  with  their  own 
good,  comply  with  their  wishes.  "  Would  you  think,"  said 
he  to  the  petitioners,  "  of  sowing  grain  among  thorns  and 
thistles  ?  No  ;  you  would  first  pluck  up  the  weeds,  that  the 
seed  of  the  wheat  might  have  room  to  grow.  So  I  must  first 
remove  from  the  midst  of  you  everything  that  belongs  to  the 
seed  of  idolatry,  those  thorns  to  my  preaching,  in  order  that 
the  good  seed  of  the  gospel  may  bring  forth  fruit  in  your 
hearts  to  the  everlasting  life."  And  by  such  representations, 
daily  repeated,  he  finally  overcame  the  resistance  of  these, 
people,  so  that  wth  their  own  hands  they  destroyed  the  temple 
and  its  idols.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  to  indemnify  the  people 
for  the  loss  of  their  magnificent  building,  he  zealously  pushed 
forward  the  erection  of  a  stately  church ;  and  as  soon  as  the 
sanctuary  x^-ith  the  altar  was  finished,  seized  upon  this  occasion, 
since  he  could  not  remain  among  them  till  the  entire  structure 
was  finished,  of  appointing  a  splendid  festival  for  its  dedi- 
cation ;  one  which  should  outshine  all  their  previous  pagan 
celebrations,  and  be  a  true  national  festival.  When  nobles 
and  commoners  were  all  assembled  at  this  celebration,  and  the 
whole  ceremonial  of  the  church,  customary  on  such  occasions, 
had  been  solemnly  observed,  he  proceeded  to  explain  to  the 
assembled  multitude  the  symbolical  meaning  of  these  observ- 


30  TRIUMPH  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  GUTZKOW. 

ances,  and,  directing  their  attention  from  the  outward  signs 
to  the  inner  substance,  warned  them  against  the  delusive 
supposition  that  the  requisitions  of  Christianity  coyld  be  satis- 
factorily met  by  mere  outward  forms.  He  laboured  to  make 
it  plain  to  them  that  the  highest  meaning  of  the  consecration 
of  a  church  had  reference  to  the  consecration  of  God's  temple 
in  the  soul  of  every  believer,  since  Christ  dwells,  by  faith,  in 
the  hearts  of  the  faithful;  and  after  having  thus  interpreted 
the  several  observances,  he  turned  to  one  of  the  duke's  vassals, 
Mizlav,  the  governor  of  this  district,  who  had  been  a  member 
of  the  assembly  of  the  states  lately  holden  at  Usedom,  had 
then  been  baptized  by  him,  and,  as  the  sequel  shows,  made  an 
honest  profession  of  Christianity.  For  the  purpose  of  bringing 
out  in  him  the  truth  which  each  man  was  to  apply  to  himself, 
said  he,  "Thou  art  the  true  house  of  God,  my  beloved  son. 
Thou  shalt  this  day  be  consecrated  and  dedicated — consecrated 
to  God,  thy  Almighty  Creator ;  so  that,  separated  from  every 
foreign  master,  thou  mayest  be  exclusively  his  dwelling  and 
his  possession :  therefore,  my  beloved  son,  do  not  hinder  this 
consecration.  For  little  avails  it  to  have  outwardly  conse- 
crated the  house  thou  seest  before  thee,  if  a  like  consecration 
be  not  made  in  thy  own  soul  also."  The  bishop  here  paused, 
or  perhaps  Mizlav  interrupted  him.*  At  any  rate  Mizlav, 
who  felt  these  woids,  of  which  he  well  understood  the  import, 
enter  like  a  goad  into  his  soul,  demanded  what  then  was 
required  on  his  part  in  order  to  such  a  consecration  of  God's 
temple  within  him.  The  bishop,  plainly  perceiving  by  this 
question  that  the  man's  heart  was  touched  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  resolved  to  profit  by  so  favourable  an  indication ; 
and,  to  follow  up  the  leadings  of  the  divine  prompter,  re- 
plied :  t  "  In  part  thou  liast  begun  already,  my  son,  to  be  a 
house  of  God.  See  that  thou  art  wholly  so.  For  thou  hast 
already  exchanged  idolatry  for  faith  by  attaining  to  the  grace 
of  baptism.  It  remains  that  thou  shouldst  adorn  faith  by 
works  of  piety."  And  he  required,  in  particular,  that  he 
should  renounce  and  abandon  all  deeds  of  violence,  all  rapa- 

*  In  the  MSS.,  1.  c.  iii.  c.  9.  f.  79,  Canis.  Lect.  antiq.  ed.  Basnage,  iii.  2, 
there  is  to  be  found  iu  this  place  a  slight  duficieucy  which  leaves  the 
meaning  uncertain. 

t  This  is  what  the  biographer  doubtless  intended  to  denote  by  tlie 
words,  "  lutelligeus  adesse  Spiritum  Sanctum." 


TEMPLE  OF  GOD  IN  THE  BELIEVER'S  SOUL.  31 

citj-,  oppressiou,  fraud,  and  shedding  of  blood.  He  exhorted 
him  to  adopt  the  words  of  our  Lord  as  his  rule,  never  to  do 
unto  others  otherwise  than  he  would  be  done  by.  And  that 
he  might  cany  out  tliis  rule  into  immediate  practice,  he  called 
upon  him  to  set  at  liberty  those  persons  whom  he  had  confined 
for  debt,  and  who  were  now  pining  in  prison,  or  at  least  such 
of  them  as  were  of  the  same  household  of  faith.  To  this 
Mizlav  replied  :  "  AYhat  you  require  of  me  is  extremely  hard, 
for  many  of  those  persons  are  owing  me  large  sums  of  money." 
Upon  this,  the  bishop  reminded  him  of  the  petition  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  "  Forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our 
debtors."  Only  then  would  he  be  certain  of  receiving  the  for- 
giveness of  his  sins  from  the  Lord,  when  he  felt  ready,  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  to  release  all  his  debtors.  "  Well,  then," 
said  Mizlav,  deeply  sighing,  "  I  do  here,  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  give  them  all  their  liberty  ;  that  so,  according  to 
your  words,  my  sins  may  be  forgiven,  and  the  consecration  of 
which  j-ou  spoke  may  be  perfected  in  me  this  day."  This  act 
of  Mizlav  spread  joy  all  around,  and  an  additional  interest 
was  thus  given  to  the  festival.  There  was  one  prisoner,  how- 
ever, of  Mhom  Mizlav  had  said  nothing.  A  nobleman  of 
Denmark,  owing  him  five  hundred  pounds  of  gold,  had  given 
his  son  as  a  security ;  and  this  yoimg  man,  bovmd  in  fetters, 
lay  pining  in  a  subterranean  cell.  A  mere  accident  led 
to  the  discovery  of  him— the  only  individual  who  had  not  been 
set  free.  One  of  the  vessels  needed  for  the  consecration  of 
the  church  was  missing,  and  the  ecclesiastics,  while  searching 
for  it  in  one  corner  and  another,  at  length  came  upon  the  cell 
where  this  youth  lay  confined.  He  implored  them  tc  help 
him ;  but  as  Mizlav  had  already  done  so  much,  the  bishop 
felt  unwilling  to  demand  of  him  this  final  sacrifice.  Still  it 
distressed  him  to  think  that  so  joyful  a  festival  should  be  sad- 
dened by  the  sufferings  of  one  unfortunate  being.  He  first 
resorted  to  prayer,  and  fervently  besought  the  Almighty  tliat, 
to  crown  the  joy  of  this  blessed  festival,  he  would  have  com- 
passion on  the  case  of  this  only  unhappy  individual.  Then, 
setting  before  his  clergy  how  he  had  already  obtained  so  many 
self-denying  acts  from  Mizlav  that  he  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
press  him  any  farther,  he  proposed  that  they  should  speak  to 
him ;  and,  after  assuring  him  that  the  bishop  knew  how  to 
appreciate  the  sacrifices  he  had  already  made,  introduce  the 


82  ANIMOSITV  OF  THE  PAGAXS  OF  RUGEN. 

subject  with  all  possible  gentleness.  This  was  done ;  and 
Mizlav  finally  declared  that  he  was  ready  to  offer  this  last  and 
most  difficult  sacrifice,  "  Nay,"  said  he  to  the  bishop,  "  I  am 
ready,  if  required,  to  give  up  my  person,  and  all  that  I 
call  mine,  for  the  name  of  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  The 
example  of  the  principal  man  of  the  district  had  its  effect 
on  many  others,  wiio  strove,  according  to  their  means,  to 
evince  in  like  manner  the  genuineness  of  the  change  they  had 
experienced. 

Subsequent  to  these  events,  bishop  Otto  endeared  himself  to 
the  Pommeranians  by  his  exertions  to  save  them  from  a  great 
public  calamity  ;  for  it  was  by  his  intervention  that  a  military 
expedition,  threatened  by  duke  Boleslav  of  Poland,  who  had 
become  irritated  by  the  apostacy  of  a  part  of  the  Pom- 
meranians from  Christianity,  and  by  their  neglect  to  fulfil 
certain  articles  of  an  old  treaty,  was  prevented.  Soon  after, 
he  had  a  conference  with  duke  Wartislav  at  Usedom,  pro- 
bably for  the  purpose  of  reporting  his  transactions  with  the 
duke  of  Poland,  and  also  of  advising  with  liim  about  the  po- 
licy of  extending  the  missionary  operations  and  establishing 
some  new  stations.  In  regard  to  this  matter,  however, 
animated  as  he  certainly  was  by  an  ardent  zeal  for  the  cause 
of  Christ,  he  still  failed  to  act  with  apostolic  prudence :  for 
notwithstanding  that  the  work  in  Pommerania  went  on  at 
present  so  prosperously,  and  everything  depended  on  taking 
advantage  of  favourable  circumstances  ;  and  notwithstanding 
so  much  still  remained  for  him  to  do  here,  he  thought  of 
abandoning  the  field  before  he  had  fully  taken  possession  of  it, 
or  provided  for  its  permanent  occupation,  to  go  in  quest  of 
another,  which  promised  less  success,  and  which  might  easily 
prove  the  means  of  bringing  all  his  earthly  labours  to  a  sud- 
den termination.  His  eye  had  fixed  itself  eagerly  on  the 
island  of  Riigen,  about  a  day's  journey  distant ;  and  an 
earnest  longing  beset  him  to  appear  amongst  the  inhabitants 
of  that  island,  a  small  warlike  tribe  zealously  devoted  to 
heathenism,  and  preach  to  them  the  gospel.  The  spread  of 
Christianity  among  their  neighbours,  the  Pommeranians,  had 
roused  the  animosity  of  the  pagan  people  on  the  island  of 
Riigen  to  a  more  extravagant  pitch,  and  they  threatened 
death  to  the  bishop  if  he  ventured  to  approach  them.  Otto 
was    not   to  be  deterred,   however,   by   such   tlneats   from 


ANIMOSITY  OF  THE  PAGANS  OF  EflGEN.  33 

attempting  the  expedition  ;  on  the  contrary,  his  zeal  was 
inflamed  to  exhibit  the  power  of  faith  in  overcoming  such  dif- 
ficulties, and  even  to  offer  up  his  life  for  the  gospel.  In  vain 
did  the  duke  and  his  own  friends  declare  themselves  opposed 
to  the  scheme,  assuring  him  that  he  would,  by  attempting  it, 
sacrifice  his  life  for  nothing — a  life  he  was  bound  to  preserve 
for  labours  that  promised  more  success.  Otto  gave  way,  in 
this  instance,  to  the  impulse  of  his  feelings,  instead  of  listening 
to  the  voice  of  reason ;  but  in  his  own  opinion  he  reasoned 
more  correctly  than  his  friends,  whom  he  rebuked  for  their  want 
of  faith.  "  It  is  a  much  greater  thing,"  said  he,  "  to  preach  by 
actions  than  by  words.  And  suppose  we  were  all  to  give  up 
our  lives  for  the  faith,  yet  even  our  death  would  not  be  use- 
less ;  by  so  dying  we  should  set  our  seal  to  the  faith  which  we 
preach,  and  that  faith  would  spread  with  the  greater  power." 
While  his  friends  strove  to  prevent  Otto  from  crossing  over  to 
Rugen,  he  himself  was  occupied  in  devising  some  way  of 
getting  to  the  island  unobserved.  It  was  necessary,  therefore, 
to  watch  him  closely.  But  whilst  the  rest  of  the  clergy 
blamed  the  rash  zeal  of  their  bishop,  the  priest  Ulric  felt  him- 
self impelled  to  realize  the  darling  thought  of  his  superior. 
Having  first  begged  and  received  his  blessing  on  the  under- 
taking, Ulric  went  on  board  a  ferry-boat,  taking  with  him 
such  articles  as  were  necessary  for  the  celebration  of  the  mass. 
But  wind  and  weather  were  obstinately  against  him — three 
several  times  he  was  beaten  back  by  the  storm  ;  yet  no  sooner 
did  it  remit  its  violence  than  he  again  attempted  to  get  over 
to  the  island.  Thus  he  struggled  with  the  Avinds  and  waves 
for  seven  days,  many  times  hovering  between  life  and  death  ; 
but  the  weather  constantly  proving  unfavourable,  and  Ulric's 
boat  getting  to  be  leaky,  the  bishop  at  length  began  to  regard 
these  unpropitious  events  as  indications  of  the  divine  will,  and 
forbade  his  beloved  priest  from  making  any  farther  attempts. 
The  dangers  he  had  run  now  became  the  subject  of  remark. 
Said  one,  "  Suppose  Ulric  had  perished,  who  would  have  been 
to  blame  for  it  ?  "  Here  the  priest  Adalbert  spoke  out,  plainly 
criminating  the  bishop  himself.  "  Would  not  the  blame," 
said  he,  "justly  fall  on  him  who  exposed  him  to  such  dan- 
gers ?  " — showing  not  only  his  own  independent  spirit,  but 
also  the  gentleness  of  the  bishop,  which  would  allow  one 
of  his  clergy  to  speak  so  frankly  about  him  in  his  own  pre- 

VOL.  VII.  '  D 


34  otto's  treatment  of  his  clergy. 

sence.  Otto,  instead  of  taking  the  remark  unkindly,  endea- 
voured to  refute  the  implied  charge  by  arguing  that  he  had 
done  rightly,  though  on  such  grounds  as  he  would  not  have 
offei'ed  except  under  the  influence  of  his  present  feelings.  Said 
he,  "  If  Christ  sent  the  apostles  as  sheep  among  wolves,  was 
Christ  to  be  blamed  if  the  wolves  devoured  the  sheep  ?  " 

That  he  might,  in  the  shortest  time,  extend  out  his  labours 
in  all  directions,  so  as  to  fill  up  and  complete  the  whole  work 
begun  during  his  first  residence  in  Pommerania,  Otto  deter- 
mined to  alter  his  plan ;  and,  instead  of  keeping  all  his 
clergy  about  him,  as  at  first,  and  labouring  in  common  with 
them  from  a  single  point,  to  divide  the  field  between  them  and 
himself  by  sending  them  to  different  stations.  Some  he  sent  to 
Demmin  ;  he  himself  went  to  Stettin,  to  combat  the  paganism 
which  had  again  lifted  up  its  head  there.  But  his  clergy 
neither  entered  heartily  into  his  plan  nor  partook  of  his  cou- 
rageous faith :  they  trembled  at  the  fury  of  the  pagan  people 
in  that  place,  and  were  not  willing  to  expose  their  lives.  The 
bishop,  however,  since  he  could  not  overcome  their  opposition 
by  expostulation,  resolved  to  proceed  on  the  journey  alone. 
Having  spent  a  day  in  solitude  and  prayer,  to  prepare  himself 
for  the  undertaking,  he  stole  away  in  the  evening,  as  soon  as 
it  grew  dark,  taking  with  him  his  mass-book  and  the  sacra- 
mental cup.  The  clergy  knew  nothing  about  it  till  they  sent 
to  call  him  to  matins  (the  mattdina).  Finding  that  he  was 
gone,  they  were  struck  with  shame,  and  began  to  grow 
alarmed  lor  their  beloved  spiritual  father.  They  hurried 
away  after  him,  and  compelled  him  to  return  back.  On  the 
next  morning  they  set  out  in  company  with  him,  and  crossed 
over  by  ship  to  Stettin. 

In  Stettin  Otto's  earlier  labours  had  proved  by  no  means 
fruitless.  This  appeared  evident  from  the  events  which  fol- 
lowed. A  reaction  of  those  Christian  convictions  which  had 
already  been  deeply  implanted  in  the  minds  of  many,  led, 
under  a  variety  of  peculiar  circumstances  and  favourable  coin- 
cidences, to  a  new  triumph  of  Christianity  over  paganism. 
Christianity,  as  it  seems,  had  gained  entrance  especially  among 
the  higher  and  more  cultivated  class  of  the  people,*  and  in 

*  The  Sapientiores,  as  distin^ished  from  the  people,  a  class  frequently 
alluded  to  by  the  unknown  writer  of  Otto's  life. 


ZEAL  OF  A  CONVERTED  CITIZEN  OF  STETTIN.  35 

their  case  paganism  found,  at  its  revival,  but  little  matter  to 
work  upon.  The  priests,  however,  who  had  submitted  to 
baptism  were  still  pagans  at  heart,  and  they  lost  too  much  by 
the  change  of  religion  to  get  easily  over  the  pain  and  vexation 
which  that  loss  occasioned  :  they  readily  found  means  of  ope- 
rating on  the  rude  masses  of  the  people,  in  whom,  during  so 
short  a  period,  Christianity  had  not  yet  struck  its  roots  deep. 
A  famine,  extending  to  men  and  cattle,  accompanied  with 
unusual  mortality,  was  interpreted  by  them  as  a  sign  of 
the  anger  of  the  deities — a  thing  easily  made  evident  to 
the  people.  They  managed,  such  was  their  influence,  to 
carry  the  matter  so  far  that  a  mob  assembled  to  destroy 
a  Christian  church.  Yet  there  were  some  who  had  felt 
the  power  of  Christianity,  though  they  had  not  entirely 
loosened  their  hold  of  paganism.  In  this  class  there  was 
a  struggle  between  the  old  and  the  new,  or  a  commingling 
of  both. 

Before  the  time  of  Otto's  second  visit  to  Stettin,  there  was 
residing  in  that  town  a  person  of  some  note,  who,  after  having 
experienced  various  remarkable  providences  in  the  course  of 
his  life,  stood  forth  as  a  zealous  witness  for  Christianity,  thus 
preparing  the  way  by  his  influence  for  a  better  state  of  things. 
Witstack  was  one  of  those  belonging  to  the  more  consequen- 
tial class  of  citizens  who  had  been  converted  and  baptized  by 
Otto  ;  and  although  Christianity  was  by  no  means  apprehended 
by  him  according  to  its  pure  spirit,  yet-,he  had  within  him  the 
germ  of  a  strong  and  vigorous  faith.  >  The  image  of  bishop 
Otto,  the  man  whom  he  had  seen  labouring  with  such  self- 
den  jdng  love,  such  unshaken  confidence  in  God,  this  image 
seems  especially  to  have  become  deeply  "stamped  on  his  mind. 
Since  his  conversion,  he  had  uniformly  Refused  to  take  part 
in  any  warlike  undertaking,  except  against- pagans.  Fighting 
against  these  was  one  way,  as  he  thought,"  by  which  he  could 
show  his  zeal  for  Christianity.  He  joined  a  piratical  expedi- 
tion, probably  against  the  Rugians  ;  experiencing  a  defeat,  he, 
mth  others,  was  taken  captive  and  throwni-in  chains.  During 
his  confinement,  he  resorted  for  consolation  and  support  to 
prayer.  Once,  after  long-continued,  earnest  prayer,  falling 
asleep,  he  dreamed  that  bishop  Otto  appeared  to  him,  and  pro- 
mised that  he  should  be  assisted;  soon  after  which,  by  a 
remarkable  turn  of  Providence,  he  found  meaas  of  escaping 


36  AX  INCIDENT  REGARDED  AS  A  MIRACLE. 

from  his  confinement.*  Hastening  to  the  sea-shore,  he  found 
a  boat,  leaping  on  which  he  committed  himself  to  the  waves, 
and,  favoured  by  the  wind,  in  a  short  time  got  safely  back  to 
Stettin.  He  looked  upon  his  deliverance  as  a  miracle:  it 
seemed  to  him  a  direct  testimony  to  Otto's  holiness — a  proof 
that  Christianity  was  the  cause  of  God.  He  regarded  it  as  a 
divine  call,  inviting  him  to  appear  as  a  witness  among  his 
countrymen  for  the  Being  who  had  miraculously  saved  him, 
and  to  labour  for  the  extension  of  his  worship  among  them.f 
After  his  return,  he  caused  the  boat  to  be  hung  up  at 
the  city  gates,  as  a  lasting  memorial  of  his  deliverance  and 
testimony  in  favour  of  the  Being  to  whom  he  owed  it.  With 
great  zeal  he  bore  witness  among  his  countrymen  of  the  God 
whom  bishop  Otto  had  taught  him  to  pray  to,  and  whose 
almighty  power  had  been  so  clearly  exhibited  in  his  own  case : 
he  announced  to  the  fallen  the  divine  judgments,  which  would 
surely  overtake  them  unless  they  repented  and  returned  back 
to  the  faith. 

Still  another  fact,  which  was  likewise  regarded  as  a  miracle, 
had  made  a  favourable  impression.  In  a  popular  tumult,  got 
up  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  churcli  which  had  been 
erected  in  that  town,  it  so  happened  that  one  of  the  persons 
actively  engaged  in  the  affair,  when  about  to  strike  a  blow 
with  his  hammer,  was  seized  with  a  sudden  palsy ;  his  hand 

*  The  account  by  the  unknown  writer,  whom  we  follow  here  also,  is 
certainly  deserving  of  credit  in  its  main  points.  We  find,  for  the  most 
part,  in  it  that  graphical  mode  of  description  which  bespeaks  an  eye- 
witness, a  simplicity  quite  remote  from  the  exaggerated  style  of  Andreas, 
few  miraculous  stories,  and  these,  for  the  most  part,  of  such  a  character 
that  the  facts  at  bottom  may  be  easily  separated  from  the  mode  of  appre- 
hending and  representing  them  as  miracles,  or  that  they  may  be  easily 
reduced  to  a  natural  connection  of  events  of  the  higher  sort.  But,  in  this 
case,  the  report  refers  back  to  the  saying  of  Witstack.  In  this  report, 
drawn  up  from  recollection  long  after  the  events,  everything,  in  the 
lively  feeling  of  gratitude  to  God,  might  receive  a  colouring  of  the 
wonderful.  But  we  are  by  no  means  authorised  to  measure  all  extraor- 
dinary psychological  phenomena  by  the  standard  of  ordinary  experience, 
and  the  objective  fact  as  it  actually  occurred  ever  lies  at  bottom  of  the 
representation. 

t  The  historian  already  mentioned  records  the  f(fllowing  words  of 
Witstack  to  the  bishop,  in  reference  to  the  boat  which  was  the  means  of 
his  salvation:  "Haic  cimba  testimonium  sanctitatis  tuse,  firmamentum 
tidei  mese,  argumentum  legationis  mea:  ad  populum  istum." 


otto's  coxDUcr  rsf  stettik.  37 

stiffening,  let  the  hammer  drop,  and  he  himself  fell  from  the 
ladder.  It  seems  that  he  was  one  of  the  relapsed  Christians. 
Perhaps  a  reaction  of  the  faith,  not  yet  by  any  means  wholly 
extinguished  in  his  soul,  once  more  came  over  him  ;  hence  an 
inward  struggle,  a  sudden  access  of  fear,  which  palsied  his  arm, 
as  he  was  about  to  join  with  the  rest  in  destroying  a  temple 
consecrated  to  the  God  of  the  Christians.  Paganism,  it  is 
true,  still  maintained  a  place  in  his  soul ;  he  could  not  wholly 
renounce  the  worship  of  the  ancient  gods  ;  but  still,  the  God 
of  the  Christians,  whose  temple  was  being  destroyed,  appeared 
to  him  as  one  against  whom  no  human  power  could  prevail, 
as  was  manifest  in  his  own  case.  He  therefore  ad^'ised  that, 
in  order  to  preser\  e  friendship  with  all  the  gods,  they  should 
erect  by  the  side  of  this  church  an  altar  to  the  national  divi- 
nities. Now,  even  this  was  something  gained  ;  it  was  a  point 
in  advance,  that  the  God  of  the  Christians  should  be  recognized 
by  pagans  themselves  as  a  mighty  being  beside  the  ancient 
gods. 

Thus,  after  such  preparatory  events,  Otto's  arrival  at  Stettin 
fell  at  the  right  moment  to  bring  the  contest  between  Chris- 
tianity and  paganism,  aroused  by  the  influence  of  Witstack,  to 
a  more  open  outbreak  and  final  decision.  However  great  his 
danger  might  seem,  when  men  contemplated  fit)m  without  the 
rage  of  the  pagan  mass  of  the  population,  yet  it  would  appear 
by  no  means  so  great  to  him  who  could  more  closely  examine, 
on  the  very  scene  of  events,  the  circumstances  of  the  case ;  for 
although  the  pagan  party,  which  was  made  up,  for  the  most 
part,  of  people  of  the  lower  class,  were  loud  in  their  vocifera- 
tions, and  violent  in  their  gestures,  yet  the  Christian  party, 
with  whom  the  better  class  of  citizens  seem  to  have  tacitly  ar- 
ranged themselves,  was  really  the  most  powerful ;  nor  were 
they  destitute  of  the  means  of  restoring  quiet,  provided  only 
the  first  gust  of  anger,  in  which  there  was  more  noise  than 
efliciency,  was  suffered  to  pass  by.  Besides,  the  pagan  party 
had  no  leader  combining  superior  intelligence  with  hot-headed 
zeal ;  and  the  large  number  of  those  who,  though  they  now 
took  the  side  of  the  zealots  for  the  restoration  of  paganism, 
had  yet  received  some  impression  from  Christianity,  might, 
under  a  slight  turn  of  circumstances,  be  easily  led  to  take 
another  step  towards  the  Christian  faith.  But  to  bishop  Otto 
this  favourable  preparation  of  the  popular  mind  was  wholly 


88  OTTO  ASSISTED  BY  WITSTACK. 

unknown.  He  was  expecting  the  worst  from  the  tumultuous 
frenzy  of  the  pagans  ;  and  placing  no  reliance  whatever  on 
human  means,  or  any  concurrence  of  natural  causes  ;  trusting 
in  God  alone,  and  resigned  to  his  will,  he  went  boldly  forward 
to  meet  the  threatening  danger,  prepared  with  a  cheerful  heart 
to  die  the  death  of  a  martyr.  He  at  first  found  a  place  of 
refuge,  for  himself  and  his  companions,  in  a  church  that  stood 
before  the  city.  As  soon  as  this  became  known  in  the  town, 
a  band  of  armed  men,  led  on  by  priests,  collected  around  this 
spot,  threatening  destruction  to  the  church,  and  death  to  those 
that  occupied  it.  Had  the  bishop  given  way  to  fear,  or  be- 
trayed the  least  alarm,  the  furious  mob  would,  perhaps,  have 
proceeded  to  fulfil  their  threats ;  but  the  courage  and  presence 
of  mind  displayed  by  the  bishop  put  a  damper  on  the  fury  of 
the  threatening  mob.  Having  commended  himself  and  his 
friends  to  God  in  prayer,  he  walked  forth,  dressed  in  his  epis- 
copal robes,  and  surrounded  by  his  clergy,  bearing  before  him 
the  cross  and  relics,  and  chanting  psalms  and  hymns.  The 
calmness  with  which  this  was  done,  the  awe-inspiring  character 
of  the  whole  proceeding,  confounded  the  multitude.  All  re- 
mained quiet  and  silent.  The  more  prudent,  or  the  more 
favourably  disposed  to  Christianity,  took  advantage  of  this  to 
put  down  the  excitement.  The  priests  were  told  that  they  should 
defend  their  cause,  not  with  violence,  but  with  arguments ; 
and  one  after  another  the  crowd  dispersed.  Tfiis  occurred  on 
Friday,  and  the  Saturday  following  was  spent  by  Otto  in  pre- 
paring himself,  by  prayer  and  fasting,  for  the  approaching 
crisis. 

In  the  mean  time,  Witstack,  stimulated  by  the  bishop's 
arrival,  went  forth  among  the  people,  testifying,  with  more 
boldness  than  ever,  in  favour  of  Christianity  and  against  pa- 
ganism. He  brought  his  friends  and  kinsmen  to  the  bishop  ; 
he  exhorted  him  not  to  give  up  the  contest,  promised  him 
victory,  and  advised  with  him  as  to  the  steps  which  should 
next  be  taken.  On  Sunday,  after  performing  mass.  Otto  suf- 
fered himself  to  be  led  by  Witstack  to  the  market-place. 
Mounting  the  steps,  from  whence  the  herald  and  magistrates 
were  accustomed  to  address  the  people,  after  Witstack  by  signs 
and  words  had  enjoined  silence,  Otto  began  to  speak,  and  the 
major  part  listened  silently  and  with  attention  to  what  he  said, 
as  it  was  translated  by  the  interpreter,  already  mentioned,  into 


CHRISTIAXITT  VICTORIOUS  IX  STETTIIT.  39 

the  language  of  the  country ;  but  now  a  tall,  well-habited 
priest,  of  great  bodily  strength,  pressing  forward,  drowned  the 
words  of  both  with  his  shouts,  at  the  same  time  endeavouring 
to  stir  up  the  anger  of  the  pagans  against  the  enemy  of  their 
gods.  He  called  on  them  to  seize  upon  this  opportunity  of 
avenging  their  deities.  Lances  were  poised  ;  but  still  no  one 
dared  attempt  any  injury  to  the  bishop.  Well  might  the  con- 
fident faith  and  the  courage  that  flowed  from  it,  the  perfect 
composure  manifested  by  the  bishop  amid  this  tumultuous 
scene,  the  imposing  and  dignified  gravity  of  his  whole  demean- 
our, make  a  great  impression  on  the  multitude,  particularly  on 
those  who  had  previously  been  in  any  way  affected  by  the  in- 
fluence of  Christianity,  and  had  not  as  yet  succeeded  in  wholly 
obliterating  the  impression.  Such  a  fact,  in  which  we  must 
certainly  recognize  the  power  of  the  godlike,  might  in  such  a 
period  soon  come  to  be  conceived  and  represented  more  under 
the  colour  of  the  miraculous,  and  this  representation  would 
contribute  again  to  promote  the  belief  in  men's  minds  of  the 
divine  power  of  Christianity.  Otto  immediately  took  advan- 
tage of  the  favourable  impression  thus  produced.  Proceeding 
with  the  crowd  of  believers  that  now  surrounded  him,  to  the 
church  by  which  the  pagan  altar  had  recently  been  erected,  he 
consecrated  it  anew,  and  caused  the  injuries  it  had  received  to 
be  repaired  at  his  own  expense. 

On  the  next  day,  the  people  assembled  to  decide  what  course 
ought  to  be  taken  with  regard  to  the  matter  of  religion.  They 
remained  together  from  early  in  the  morning  until  midnight. 
Individuals  appeared  who  represented  all  that  had  occurred  on 
the  day  before  as  miraculous,  bearing  testimony  with  enthusiasm 
to  the  active,  self-sacrificing  love  of  the  bishop  ;  foremost 
among  these  was  that  zealous  Christian  and  admirer  of  Otto, 
Witstack.  A  decree  was  passed  accordingly,  that  Christianity 
should  be  introduced,  and  everything  that  pertained  to  idolatry 
destroyed.  Witstack  hastened  the  same  night  to  inform  the 
bishop  of  all  that  had  transpired.  The  latter  rose  early  the 
next  morning  to  render  thanks  to  God,  at  the  celebration  of 
the  mass.  Afler  this  he  called  a  meeting  of  the  citizens,  where 
he  spoke  to  them  words  of  encouragement,  which  were  received 
in  the  manner  to  be  expected  after  such  a  decree  of  the  popu- 
lar assembly.  Many  Avho  had  apostatized  requested  to  be 
received  back  into  the  community  of  the  faithful. 


40  otto's  imprudent  zeal  and  dangers. 

The  winning  kindness  of  Otto's  manners,  as  well  as  his 
readiness  to  take  advantage  of  the  most  trifling  circumstances 
which  could  be  turned  to  account  in  his  labours,  is  illustrated 
by  the  following  incident.  One  day,  on  his  way  to  church,  he 
saw  a  troop  of  boys  in  the  street  at  play, — kindly  saluting 
them  in  the  language  of  the  country,  he  retorted  their  jokes, 
and  having  signed  the  cross  over  them,  and  given  them  his 
blessing,  left  them.  After  he  had  proceeded  along  a  few 
steps,  looking  behind,  he  observed  that  the  children,  attracted 
by  the  strange  act,  followed  after  him.  He  stopped  ;  and  call- 
ing the  little  ones  around  him,  inquired  who  of  them  had  been 
baptized  ?  These  he  exhorted  to  remain  steadfast  to  their  bap- 
tismal vow,  and  to  avoid  the  society  of  the  unbaptized.  They 
took  him  at  his  word,  and  even  in  the  midst  of  their  play  lis- 
tened attentively  to  his  discourse.*  Still,  the  zeal  of  bishop 
Otto  was  not  always  accompanied  with  befitting  prudence ; 
hence  he  often  exposed  himself  to  great  peril.  While  busied 
in  destroying  all  the  pagan  temples  and  monuments  of  super- 
stition, resolved  to  let  nothing  remain  which  was  in  anywise 
adapted  so  to  impress  the  senses  as  to  promote  idolatry,  he  came 
across  a  magnificent  nut-tree,  whose  refreshing  shade  was 
enjoyed  by  many,  and  which  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood 
earnestly  besought  him  to  spare.  But  as  it  was  consecrated  to 
a  deity,  the  bishop  was  too  fearful  of  the  dangerous  sensuous 
impression  to  yield  to  their  wishes.  Most  indignant  of  all  was 
the  owner  of  the  estate  on  which  the  tree  stood.  After  he  had 
stormed  about  in  a  frenzy  of  passion,  his  anger  seemed  at 
length  to  have  spent  itself.  Suddenly,  however,  raising  his 
axe  behind  the  back  of  the  bishop,  he  would  have  dealt  him  a 
fatal  blow,  had  not  the  latter,  at  the  same  moment,  inclined 
himself  a  little  on  the  other  side.  All  now  fell  upon  the  man, 
and  it  was  the  bishop  who  rescued  him  out  of  their  hands. 
Again,  during  his  passage  from  Stettin,  he  was  threatened  by 

*  The  unknown  biographer  introduces  this  anecdote,  1.  III.  p.  85, 
before  that  popular  assembly  which  decided  the  question  with  regard  to 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Pommerania ;  but  it  is  plain  from 
the  connection  of  his  own  account,  that  it  occurred  sometime  afterwards. 
From  this  account,  it  appears  also  to  have  been  by  no  means  the  fact,  as 
might  be  inferred  from  what  he  says  respecting  the  effect  and  consequences 
of  Otto's  discourse,  held  after  the  above  assembly,  that  all  directly  sub- 
mitted to  baptism. 


WANT  OF  CLERGY  SKILLED  IN  THE  SLAVIC  LANGUAGE.        41 

an  attack  of  the  pagan  party,  which,  as  it  diminished  in  num- 
bers, grew  more  violent  in  rancour ;  but  he  fortimately  escaped. 
Accompanied  by  his  clergy,  and  a  number  of  the  more  re- 
spectable citizens  of  Stettin,  he  proceeded  to  Julin,  where  also, 
after  such  an  example  had  been  set  them  by  the  capital,  he 
laboured  with  good  success.  Gladly,  and  without  slunnking 
fix)m  a  martyr's  death,  he  would  have  extended  his  labours  also 
to  the  island  of  Riigen,  had  he  not  been  obKged,  in  the  year 
1128,  by  his  engagements  as  a  member  of  the  imperial  diet,  to 
return  to  Germany  ;  so,  after  paying  another  visit  to  the  new 
communities,  he  shaped  his  course  homeward.  But,  even 
amidst  the  manifold  cares  of  his  civil  and  spiritual  relations,  he 
did  not  lose  sight  of  the  Pommeranians.  On  learning  that 
certain  Pommeranian  Christians  had  been  conveyed  into  cap- 
tivity among  pagan  hordes,  he  determined  to  procure  their 
release.  He  ordered  a  large  quantity  of  valuable  cloth  to  be 
purchased  in  Halle,  and  sending  the  whole  to  Pommerania, 
where  these  goods  stood  in  high  demand,  appropriated  a  part 
as  presents  to  the  nobles,  with  a  view  to  secure  their  kind  feel- 
ings toward  the  infant  church  ;  and  ordered  the  remainder  to 
be  sold  and  converted  into  ransom-money  for  those  captives. 

But  in  pushing  forward  with  so  much  zeal  and  resolution 
the  mission  among  the  Pommeranians,  Otto  neglected  one 
thing,  which  was  of  the  utmost  consequence  in  order  to  a  settled, 
enduring  foundation  of  Christian  culture  among  the  people ; 
and  this  was,  to  make  provision  for  the  imparting  of  Christian 
instruction  in  the  language  of  the  country.  There  was  a  want 
of  German  clergy,  well  skilled  in  the  Slavic  language ;  there  . 
was  a  want  of  institutions  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  native 
inhabitants  an  education  suited  to  the  spiritual  calling.  No 
doubt,  both  these,  owing  to  the  short  time  employed  in  the 
conversion  of  the  people,  were  wants  the  supply  of  which  would 
be  attended  vnth  great  difficulties  ;  but  the  consequence  of  it 
was,  that  ecclesiastics  had  to  be  called  out  of  Germany,  who 
always  remained,  in  national  peculiarities,  language,  and  cus- 
toms, too  foreign  from  these  Wends,  and  had  but  little  true 
love  for  them.  What  contributed  to  the  same  evil  was,  that 
German  colonists,  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  were  called  in 
to  replenish  the  territories  which  had  been  laid  waste,  and  the 
cities  which  had  been  desolated,  by  the  preceding  wars.  These 
foreigners  met  the  Wends  with  a  sort  of  contempt.     A  feud 


42        BISHOP  Absalom's  efforts  in  behalf  of  rOgen. 

sprung  up  between  the  new  and  the  old  inhabitants  of  the  land, 
and  the  latter  were  induced  to  withdraw  themselves  into  the 
back  parts  of  the  country.*  The  same  injustice  was  here  done 
to  the  aboriginals  by  the  new  race  of  foreigners  who  settled 
down  in  the  land,  as  has  often  been  done  over  again  in  later 
times  and  in  other  quarters  of  the  world. 

Christianity  had  not  as  yet  found  admittance  into  the  island 
of  Riigen,  but  its  inhabitants  still  maintained  their  freedom, 
and  held  fast  to  their  ancient  sacred  customs.  Thus  the  bond 
of  union  was  severed  between  these  islanders  and  the  Christian 
Pommeranians.  It  was  not  until  after  repeated  battles,  that 
"Waldemar  king  of  Denmark  at  last  succeeded,  in  the  year 
1 168,  to  subjugate  the  island  ;  and  then  the  destruction  of 
paganism  and  the  founding  of  the  Christian  church  first  became 
practicable.  The  inspiring  soul  of  this  enterprise  was  bishop 
Absalom,  of  Roeskilde,  a  man  who  conceived  it  possible  to 
unite  in  himself  the  statesman,  the  warrior,  and  the  bishop  ;t 
and  who  was  therefore  the  least  fitted  of  all  men  to  bring 
about  the  conversion  of  a  people  in  the  proper  sense.  Through 
his  mediation,  a  compact  was  formed  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  capital  town  Arcona,  which  compact  laid  the  foundation  for 
the  subjection  of  the  entire  island.  They  obliged  themselves 
by  this  agreement  to  renounce  paganism,  and  to  introduce 
among  them  Christianity,  according  to  the  usages  of  the 
Danish  church.  The  landed  estates  of  the  temples  were  to 
devolve  on  the  clergy.  When  the  monstrous  idol  of  Svantovit 
was  to  be  removed  from  the  city,  not  a  single  native-born 
individual  dared  lay  hands  on  it,  so  dreaded  by  all  was  the 
vengeance  of  the  deity ;  but  when  the  idol  had  been  dragged 
off  to  the  camp  of  the  Danes,  without  any  of  the  anticipated 
dreadful  consequences,  some  complained  of  the  wrong  done  to 
their  god,  while  others  considered  the  ancient  faith  as  already 

*  Thomas  Kantzow's  Chronicle  of  Pommerania,  published  by  W. 
Bohmer,  p.  35. 

t  His  ardent  friend  and  eulogist,  the  famous  Danish  historian  Saxo- 
Grammaticus,  Provost  of  Roeskilde,  who,  on  his  recommendation,  under- 
took his  work  of  history,  calls  him  "  militise  et  religionis  sociato  fulgore 
conspicuus ;"  this  historian  and  ecclesiastic  finding  nothing  offensive  in 
such  a  combination.  War  with  pagans  for  the  good  of  the  churcn, 
seemed  to  him  not  a  whit  foreign  to  the  character  of  a  bishop.  "  Neque 
enim  minus  sacrorum  attinet  cultui,  publico  religionis  hostes  repellere, 
quam  cseremoniarum  tutela:  vacare."     Lib.  XIV.,  p.  440,  cd.  Klotz. 


CHKISTIAXITY  AMONG  THE  WENDS.  43 

overturned  by  this  experiment,  and  now  ridiculed  the  monster 
they  had  before  adored.  Still  more  must  this  impression  have 
been  strengthened  in  their  minds,  when  they  saw  the  idol  hewn 
m  pieces,  and  the  firagments  of  wood  used  in  the  camp  for 
cooking  provisions.  The  clergy  living  in  the  service  of  the 
nobles  were  sent  into  the  town  to  instruct  and  baptize  the 
people  according  to  the  notions  of  that  period ;  but  among 
such  a  clergy,  who  at  the  same  time  served  as  secretaries  to  the 
nobles,  it  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  much  Christian  know- 
ledge was  to  be  found.  The  great  temple  was  burnt,  and  the 
foundations  laid  for  a  Christian  church.  The  same  course  was 
pursued  in  other  parts  of  the  island.  The  work  was  prosecuted 
by  priests,  whom  bishop  Absalom  sent  over  from  Denmark, 
after  the  recall  of  those  ecclesiastics  who  were  only  intended 
to  supply  the  immediate  want.  He  provided  the  means  for 
their  subsistence,  so  that  they  might  not  be  felt  as  a  burden  on 
the  people.  IVIany  incidents  occurred  here  also  by  which 
people  were  led  to  ascribe  the  cure  of  various  diseases  to  the 
prayers  of  the  priests  ;  but  the  historian  of  this  period,  though 
lie  reports  them  as  miracles,  does  not  profess  to  consider  them 
as  proving  the  holiness  of  these  ecclesiastics,  but  only  as  works 
of  divine  grace  to  facilitate  the  conversion  of  that  people.* 

We  noticed,  in  the  preceding  period,  the  founding  of  a  great 
Christian  empire  of  the  Wends  by  Gottschalk.  This  empire 
perished,  however,  with  its  founder,  when  he  was  assassinated ; 
and  paganism  had  revived  again  under  Cruko,  a  prince  very 
hostilely  disposed  towards  Christianity.  Yet  Gottschalk's  son, 
Henry,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  Denmark,  succeeded,  with 
the  help  of  Christian  princes,  in  putting  down  the  opposition  of 
the  pagan  Wends,  and  by  his  means,  in  1 105,  the  Wendish 
kingdom  was  restored.  He  endeavoured  also  to  re-establish 
Christianity;  but  when  he  died,  in  the  year  1126,  his  two 
sons,  Canute  and  Zwentipolk,  fell  into  a  quarrel  with  each 
other,  which  could  not  fail  to  operate  disastrously  on  the 
interests  of  the  Wendish  people,  both  in  a  political  and  in  an 
ecclesiastical  point  of  view.  With  these  two  sons,  the  family 
of  Gottschalk  became  extinct ;  and  the  people,  who  along  with 
their  liberties  defended  also  their  ancient  sacred  customs,  saw 

*  Saxo:  "Quod  potios  lacrandte  gentis  respectiii,  qnam  sacerdotam 
sanctitati  divinitus  concessum  videri  potest." 


44  VICELIN'S  IJFE  till  he  became  a  MISSIONAKY, 

themselves  abandoned  without  mercy  to  the  power  of  the 
Christian  princes  of  Germany.  It  was  not  till  after  the  mar- 
grave Albert  the  Bear,  and  duke  Henry  the  Lion,  had  wholly 
subdued  the  Wends,  that  the  Christian  church  could  establish 
itself  in  this  part  of  Germany  on  a  solid  foundation,  and  that 
the  bishoprics  previously  founded  could  be  restored.  But  the 
war-wasted  districts  were  peopled  by  foreign  Christian  colonists 
from  other  quarters  of  Germany  ;  and  what  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity required,  namely,  that  the  national  individuality  should 
be  preserved  inviolate,  and,  ennobled  by  true  religion,  should 
be  unfolded  to  a  higher  order  of  perfection,  was  left  unaccom- 
plished. It  would  be  remote  from  the  present  design  to  give 
an  account  of  wars,  which  could  be  of  no  real  service  in  ex- 
tending the  kingdom  of  Christ  among  these  tribes. 

We  pass  on  to  mention  one  individual,  who,  in  the  midst  of 
disorder  and  destruction,  endeavoured,  with  self-denying  love, 
to  labour  for  the  saving  good  of  the  nations.  This  was  Vicelin. 
Sprung  from  a  family  of  the  middle  class  at  Quernheim,  a  village 
on  the  banks  of  the  Weser,  and  early  deprived  of  his  parents, 
he  found  pity  vnih.  a  woman  of  noble  birth,  who  took  him  to 
her  castle,  Everstein,  where  she  suflPered  him  to  want  for 
nothing.  A  question  put  to  him  by  the  envious  priest  of  the 
village,  with  a  view  to  embarrass  and  shame  him,  brought  him 
tx)  the  consciousness  and  confession  of  his  ignorance ;  but  this 
incident,  which  he  himself  regarded  as  a  gracious  act  of  Divine 
Providence,*  turned  out  to  him  a  salutary  incentive,  and  gave 
a  new  direction  to  his  life.  Filled  with  shame,  he  immediately 
left  the  castle,  and  betaking  himself  to  the  then  flourishing 
school  at  Paderborn,  applied  himself  to  study  with  so  much 
diligence  and  application,  that  Hartmann,  the  master  of  that 
school,  had  little  else  to  do  than  to  check  and  moderate  his 
zeal.  In  a  short  time,  he  made  such  progress  in  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge  that  his  master  made  him  an  assistant  in  the 
school.  Somewhat  later,  he  was  called  himself  to  take  the 
superintendence  of  a  school  in  Bremen.  After  presiding  over 
this  institution  for  a  few  years  with  great  zeal,  his  earnest 
longing  after  a  more  complete  education  impelled  him  to  visit 
that  far-famed  seat  of  science,  then  filled  with  lovers  of  learning 

•  Helmold,  vide  vol.  iv.  p.  105,  whose  report  we  here  follow,  says  of 
him,  i.  142  :  "  Audivi  eum  saepenumero  diceiitem,  quia  ad  verbum  illius 
sacerdotis  respexerit  eum  misericordia  divina." 


vicelin's  life  till  he  became  a  missionary.  45 

from  all  parts  of  Europe,  the  Parisian  University.  Here,  it 
was  not  the  predominant  dialectic  tendency,  for  which  the 
University  of  Paris  was  especially  famous,  but  the  simple 
biblical  tendency,  by  which  he  felt  himself  to  be  most  strongly 
attracted.  After  having  spent  three  years  at  this  University 
(a.  d.  1125),  he  tliought  he  might  venture  on  a  step  from 
which  distrust  in  his  youth,  still  exposed  to  temptations,  had 
hitherto  deterred  him,  and  to  receive  the  priestly  consecration. 
Presently,  he  was  seized  also  with  a  desire  to  convey  the 
blessing  of  the  gospel  to  those  parts  where  it  was  most  greatly 
needed.  The  report  of  what  the  Wendish  king  Henry  was 
doing  for  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  church  among  his 
people,  drew  him  to  that  quarter.  Archbishop  Adalbert  of 
Bremen  gave  him  a  commission  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
Slavonians.  Two  other  ecclesiastics,  Rudolph,  a  priest  from 
Hildesheim,  and  Ludolf,  a  canonical  from  Verden,  joined  him 
as  fellow-labourers  in  the  sacred  enterprise.  King  Henry,  to 
whom  they  offered  their  services,  received  them  readily,  show- 
ing them  great  respect,  and  assigning  to  them  a  church  in 
Lubec,  where  he  himself  usually  resided,  as  the  seat  of  their 
labours.  Before  they  could  commence  them,  however,  the 
king  died  ;  and  the  ensuing  wars  between  his  sons  rendered  it 
impossible  for  them  to  effect  anything  in  that  district.  Vicelin 
now  returned  back  to  archbishop  Adalbert  of  Bremen,  whom 
he  attended  on  his  tour  of  visitation  in  a  diocese,  the  borders 
of  which  were  inhabited  by  Slavic  tribes.  It  so  happened 
that,  in  the  year  1126,  when  Vicelin  was  accompanying  the 
archbishop  on  such  a  tour  of  visitation,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
border-town  Faldera,*  applied  to  the  latter  for  a  priest  to 
reside  amongst  them.  A  convenient  centre  was  here  presented 
to  Vicelin  for  his  labours  among  the  Slavonians,  and  he  gladly 
accepted  the  call.  He  found  here  a  poor,  uncultivated  country, 
rendered  desolate  by  many  wars,  numbers  who  were  Christians 
only  in  name,  manifold  remains  of  idolatry,  groves  and  fountains 
consecrated  to  the  deities.  He  preached  with  energy  and  effect ; 
the  truths,  which  were  as  yet  wholly  new  to  the  rude  multitude, 
found  ready  entrance  into  their  minds.  He  destroyed  the  re- 
maining objects  of  idolatrous  worship,  travelled  about  in  the 

*  As  it  was  named  by  the  "Wends;  otherwise,  Wippendorf ;  at  a  later 
period,  Neomiinster. 


46  VIGELIN's  labours  among  the  SLAVONIANS. 

northern  districts  of  the  Elbe,  and  made  it  the  aim  of  his 
preaching  not  to  convert  the  people  into  nominal  Christians 
merely,  but  to  lead  them  to  repentance  and  to  a  genuine 
Christian  temper  of  mind.  His  pious,  indefatigable  activity 
stimulated  others  to  imitate  his  example.  A  free  society  was 
instituted  of  unmarried  laymen  and  ecclesiastics,  who,  under 
his  guidance,  entered  into  a  mutual  agreement  to  devote  them- 
selves to  a  life  of  prayer,  charity,  and  self-mortification ;  to 
visit  the  sick,  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  to  labour  for 
their  own  salvation  and  that  of  others,  and  especially  to  pray 
and  labour  for  the  conversion  of  the  Slavonians.  A  spiritual 
society  of  this  sort  being  one  of  the  wants  of  the  time, 
belonging  to  that  peculiar  spirit  of  fraternization  with  wliich 
the  awakening  religious  life  readily  united  itself,  gave  birth  to 
many  others,  like  those  religious  associations  called  the  apos- 
tolical. When  the  emperor  Lothaire  the  Second,  in  the  year 
1134,  visited  the  province  of  Holstein,  Vicelin  found  that  he 
took  a  warm  interest  in  his  plan  for  the  establishment  of  the 
Christian  church  among  the  Slavonians.  By  Vicelin's  advice, 
the  emperor  built  a  fortress  at  Segeberg,  to  protect  the  country 
against  the  Slavonians  ;  a  proceeding  which,  it  must  be  allowed, 
was  hardly  calculated  to  make  a  favourable  impression  on  that 
people ;  for  the  Slaves  looked  upon  it  as  a  new  mode  of  in- 
fringing upon  their  liberties.  Here  it  was  now  proposed  to 
erect  a  new  church,  which  was  to  be  committed  to  the  care  of 
Vicelin.  To  him,  the  emperor  intrusted  also  the  care  of  the 
church  in  Lubec  ;  and  consequently,  the  entire  direction  of  the 
mission  among  the  Slavonians  was  placed  in  his  hands.  At 
Segeberg  and  Lubec  he  could  now  proceed  to  establish  a 
seminary  for  missionaries  among  that  people ;  but  by  the 
political  quarrels  and  disturbances,  which  followed  the  death  of 
LotJiaire,  in  1137,  his  labours  here  were  again  interrupted. 
Those  districts  once  more  fell  a  prey  to  the  fury  of  the  Slavo- 
nians ;  the  Christian  foundations  were  destroyed,  the  clergy 
obliged  to  flee,  and  the  labours  of  Vicelin  were  again  confined 
to  Faldera  alone.  But  even  this  spot  was  not  long  spared 
from  the  ravages  of  the  Slavonians.  Vicelin  took  occasion, 
from  these  calamities,  to  direct  the  attention  of  men  from 
perishable  things  to  eternal,  teaching  them  to  find  in  the 
gospel  the  true  source  of  trust  and  consolation  in  God.  After 
having  passed  several  years  imder  these  distressing  circum- 


vicelin's  farther  labours,    priest  dittmar.        47 

stances,  his  outward  situation  was  again  changed  for  the  better 
by  the  establishment  of  the  authority  of  duke  Adolph  of 
Holstein  in  these  districts,  after  the  subjugation  of  the  Slaves. 
This  new  sovereign  carried  out  the  plans  already  contemplated 
by  the  emperor  Lothaire,  in  jfavour  of  Vicelin,  not  only  restoring 
the  church  at  Segeberg,  but  also  giving  back  the  landed  estates 
which  had  been  presented  to  it  by  the  emperor.  But  to  avoid 
the  bustle  and  confusion  of  the  fortress,  Vicelin  removed  the 
monastery  to  the  neighbouring  city  of  Hogelsdorf,  a  place 
more  favourably  situated  to  secure  the  quiet  necessary  for  the 
spiritual  life.  When,  at  a  later  period,  the  war  broke  out 
afresh  with  the  Slavonians,  and  in  consequence  of  it  a  famine 
arose  in  those  districts,  Vicelin,  by  his  exhortations  and  example, 
stirred  up  the  spirit  of  benevolence.  Large  bodies  of  poor 
people  daily  presented  themselves  before  the  gates  of  the 
monastery  at  Hogelsdorf.  Presiding  over  the  monastery  was 
a  scholar  of  Vicelin's,  the  priest  Dittmar,  a  man  of  similar 
spirit,  who  had  relinquished  a  canonicate  at  Bremen  for  the 
purpose  of  joining  the  pious  society.  Dittmar  exhausted  all 
his  resources  in  endeavouring  to  alleviate  the  prevailing  dis- 
tress. Meanwhile,  these  Slavic  tribes  were  completely  subdued 
by  duke  Henry  the  Lion  ;  and  archbishop  Hartwig  of  Bremen, 
having  it  now  in  his  power  to  restore  the  ruined  bishoprics, 
consecrated  Vicelin,  in  the  year  1148,  as  bishop  of  Oldenburg. 
But  the  man  who,  during  this  long  series  of  years,  had  freely 
laboured,  according  to  his  own  principles,  serving  only  the 
pure  interests  of  Christianity,  instead  of  finding  himself  now, 
in  his  old  age,  enabled  to  act  more  independently  in  this  higher 
dignity,  saw  himself  cramped  and  confined  in  various  ways 
by  a  foreign  spirit,  and  by  other  interests.*  As  the  duke  had 
already  been  vexed  because  the  archbishop  had  renewed  those 
bishoprics  without  his  advice  and  concurrence,  and  nominated 
Vicelin  bishop  of  a  city  in  his  own  territory,  so  he  thought 
he  might  at  least  demand  that  the  latter  ^oiild  receive  from 
him  the  investiture.  Vicelin,  who,  by  virtue  of  the  genuine 
Christian  spirit  which  actuated  him,  rose  superior  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  hierarchy  and  of  the  episcopal  prerogative,  would 
gladly  have  yielded  the  point  at  once,  in  order  to  preserve  a 

*  His  friend  Helmold  says:  "Videres  virum  antea  magni  Dominis, 
possessorem  libertatis  et  compotem  suimet  post  acceptum  episcopale 
nomen,  qaasi  innodatum  vincalis  qoibusdam  et  supplicem  omniiim." 


48  SUFFERINGS  AND  DEATH  OF  VICELIN. 

good  understanding  with  the  duke,  and  to  avoid  being  disturbed 
in  his  spiritual  labours  ;  but  the  archbishop  of  Bremen  and  his 
clergy   positively  forbade  it,   since   they   looked  upon  it  as 
a  pitiable  disgrace  to  the  church  that  the  bishop  should  receive 
the  investiture  from  any  other  hands  than  those  of  the  emperor.* 
He  was  now  exposed,  therefore,  to  suffer  many  vexations  and 
embarrassments  from  the  duke.     He  could  not  get  hold  of  the 
revenues  which  belonged  to  him.    Meanwhile,  he  did  what  he 
could,  and  in  particular  took  great  pains  to  perform  the  tours 
of  visitation  in  his  diocese.    He  laboured  earnestly  in  preaching 
the  gospel  to  the  Slavonians,  yet  he  met  with  but  little  success 
among  them.     Finding  himself  so  much  embarrassed  in  the 
discharge  of  his  official  duties  by  his  misunderstanding  with 
the  duke,  he  finally  resolved  to  sacrifice  the  respect  due  to  his 
ecclesiastical  superiors  to  the  higher  interest  of  the  welfare  of 
souls.     Therefore,  he  said  to  the  duke,  "  For  the  sake  of  him 
who  humbled  himself  on  our  account,  I  am  ready  to  do  homage 
to  each  one  of  your  vassals,  to  say  nothing  of  yourself,  a  prince 
exalted  to  so  high  a  station  by  the  Lord."   By  this  concession, 
he  involved  himself  in  unpleasant  relations  with  his  archbishop. 
At  last,  he  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  the  faithful  friend  who 
laboured  on  in  the  same  spirit  as  himself,  the  priest  Dittmar. 
During  the  last  two  years  and  a  half  of  his  life,  he  saw  himself 
completely  shut  out  from  all  official  labours ;  for  he  was  so 
severely  affected  by  repeated  shocks  of  apoplexy,  that  he  could 
neither  move  nor  even  control  his  organs  of  speech.      All 
that  remained  in  his  power  was  to  exert  himself  for  the  edifi- 
cation of  others  by   the   tranquillity  and  patience  which  he 
manifested  under  the  severest  sufferings.     Like  the  apostle 
John,  and   Gregory  of  Utrecht,  he  had  to  be  borne  to  the 
church  on  the  shoulders  of  his  disciples.     He  died  on  the  13th 
of  December,  11 54. 

The  Christian  church  was  again  planted  during  tliis  period 
among  the  Slavic  populations  in  the  countries  on  the  coasts  of 
the  Baltic  sea.  This  work  we  will  now  contemplate  more  in 
detail.  The  attempts  made  by  the  Danish  kings  to  convert 
men  by  force,  had,  in  this  region  also,  only  served  to  diffuse 

*  Helmold  says  of  these  clergymen  :  "  Nam  et  ipsi  vaniglorii  et  divitiis 
adultsD  ecclesice  saturi,  honori  suo  hoc  iu  facto  derogari  putabant.  nee 
maguopere  fructum,  sed  numerum  suffraganearum  sedium  curabant." 


CHRISTIANITY  IX  LIEFLAND.      MEIXHARD.  49 

more  widely  the  hatred  against  Christianity  and  the  Christians. 
It  was  by  means  of  commerce  that  more  peaceful  relations 
came  finally  to  be  established  between  the  Liejlanders  and 
Christian  nations.  This  was  an  important  preparation  for  the 
work  of  missions,  by  which  more  could  be  effected  for  the 
introduction  of  Christianity,  and  the  well-being  of  the  nations, 
than  by  any  of  the  attempts  to  combine  the  chivalric  spirit 
with  Christian  zeal.  In  the  year  1158,  merchants  of  Bremen 
began  to  form  commercial  connections  with  the  Lieflanders 
and  the  bordering  tribes.  Their  ships  often  visited  the  Duna, 
where  they  established  settlements  for  trade.  The  priest 
Meinhard,  from  the  already-mentioned  monastery  of  Segeberg 
in  Holstein,  a  venerable  old  man,  was  moved  by  a  pious  zeal, 
even  in  his  old  age,  to  embark  in  one  of  the  enterprises  of 
these  merchants,  with  a  view  to  convey  the  message  of  salva- 
tion to  the  pagan  people.  In  the  year  11 86,  he  arrived  on  the 
spot.  He  got  permission  from  the  Russian  prince  Wladimir, 
of  Plozk,  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  Lieflanders  ;  and  at 
Yxkiill,  beyond  Riga,  where  the  merchants  had  already  built  a 
fortress  for  the  security  of  trade,  he  founded  the  first  church. 
A  number  of  the  first  men  of  the  nation  consented  to  receive 
baptism  from  him.  On  a  certain  occasion,  when  the  Lieflanders 
were  attacked  by  pagan  tribes  from  Lithuania,  Meinhard  di- 
rected the  measures  for  defence,  and  under  his  guidance  the 
invaders  were  repelled.  By  this  transaction,  he  won  their 
confidence  still  more.  He  taught  them,  moreover,  how  to 
guard  against  such  attacks  for  the  future,  instructing  them  in 
the  art  of  fortification,  of  which  they  were  entirely  ignorant. 
On  their  promising  to  submit  to  baptism,  he  sent  to  Gothland 
for  workmen  and  building  materials,  and  erected  two  fortresses, 
at  Yxkiill  and  Holm,  for  the  protection  of  the  people ;  but 
more  than  once  he  was  compelled  by  bitter  experience  to  find 
that  those  who  had  suffered  themselves  to  be  baptized  only  to 
obtain  his  assistance  in  their  bodily  necessities,  when  they  had 
secured  their  object,  relapsed  into  paganism,  and  sought  to 
wash  away  their  baptism  in  the  waters  of  the  Diina.  Meinhard, 
in  the  meanwhile,  was  on  a  journey  to  Bremen,  where  he  went 
to  make  a  report  of  the  success  he  had  met  with  to  his  arch- 
bishop and  to  the  pope.  Archbishop  Hartwig  of  Bremen, 
ordained  him  bishop  over  the  new  church ;  but  very  much  still 
needed  to  be  done  before  he  could  discharge  the  functions  of 

VOL.  VII.  E 


:oO  CHRISTIANITY  IN  LIEFLAND.      THEODORIC. 

the  episcopal  office.  After  his  return,  he  found  how  grossly 
he  had  been  deceived  by  those  Lieflanders  who  had  needed  his 
assistance  in  temporal  things. 

To  aid  in  sustaining  this  work,  Theodoric,  a  Cistercian 
monk,  had  come  upon  the  ground,  and  settled  down  at  Threida 
(Thoreida)  ;  but  the  pagans  took  a  dislike  to  him,  for  the 
superior  condition  of  his  fields  had  aroused  their  jealousy. 
Already  they  thought  of  sacrificing  him  to  their  deities. 
Whilst  they  were  deliberating  on  the  matter,  he  called  upon 
God  in  prayer.  The  omen  which,  according  to  Slavic  cus- 
tom, they  took  from  the  steppings  of  a  horse  which  they  kept 
for  divination,*  turned  out  favourably  for  him,  and  his  life 
was  spared.  At  another  time  he  was  brought  into  great  peril 
by  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  the  people  attributing  this  terror- 
spreading  phenomenon  to  his  magical  arts.  The  rude  pagans 
were  easy  to  believe  that  one  so  superior  to  themselves  in 
knowledge  and  culture  was  able  to  do  anything,  so  a  wounded 
man  once  applied  to  him  to  be  healed,  promising  that,  if  he 
obtained  relief,  he  would  be  baptized.  Theodoric  had  no 
knowledge  of  medicine,  but  trusting  in  God,  whose  assistance 
he  invoked,  he  composed  a  mixture  of  crushed  herbs,  and,  as 
the  remedy  was  followed  by  a  cure,  the  patient,  one  of  the 
principal  men  of  the  nation,  submitted  to  baptism.  This 
example  had  its  effect  upon  others  ;  but  it  was  with  manifold 
vexations,  anxieties,  and  dangers  that  Meinhard  had  to 
struggle  to  the  last.  Sometimes  the  Lieflanders,  when  they 
had  an  object  to  gain  by  it,  or  when  they  felt  afraid  that  an 
armed  force  might  be  coming  to  his  assistance,  were  ready  to 
promise  anything  ;  and  when  he  was  on  the  point  of  leaving 
them,  strove  to  retain  him  in  their  country — at  other  times 
they  only  mocked  him.  Already  he  had  applied  to  the  pope 
to  assist  him  in  this  enterprise,  and  the  latter  had  promised 
to  do  so,  when,  in  the  year  1196,  he  died  alone  at  YxkiiU,  but 
not  till  he  had  obtained  a  promise  from  the  Lieflanders 
that  they  would  consent  to  receive  another  bishop.  Berthold, 
abbot  of  the  Cistercian  monastery  at  Lockum,  Avas  appointed 
his  successor,  and  consecrated  as  a  bishop  over  the  new  church. 
It  was  his  intention,  at  first,  not  to  resort  to  the  sword,  but  to 
gain  over  the  minds  of  the  Lieflanders  by  the  power  of  the 

*  See  ante,  p.  20. 


CRUSADE  AXD  DEATH  OF  BERTHOLD.  51 

truth  and  of  love  ;  he  only  failed  to  persevere  in  this  good  re- 
solution. He  came  to  Liefland  without  an  armed  force,  called 
togetlier,  near  the  church  at  Yxkiill,  the  better  disposed 
amongst  the  Christians  and  pagans,  supplied  them  bountifully 
with  food  and  drink,  distributed  presents  among  fhem,  and 
then  said  that,  called  by  themselves,  he  came  there  to  supply 
the  place  of  their  departed  bishop.  At  first  they  received  him 
in  a  friendly  manner,  but  soon  he  had  to  hear  of  plots  among 
the  pagans,  who  were  resolved  to  put  him  to  death.  The  con- 
sequence of  this  was,  an  armed  crusjide,  at  the  head  of  which 
the  new  bishop  returned  back  to  Liefland.  He  himself,  it  is 
true,  fell  in  battle,  but  the  army  was  victorious.  The  Lief- 
landers  sued  for  peace  :  they  declared  themselves  willing  to  re- 
ceive clergymen,  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  people  already 
consented  to  receive  baptism.  The  army  of  crusaders  was 
thus  induced  to  leave  the  country ;  but  nothing  better  was  to 
be  expected  than  that  the  Lieflanders,  when  no  longer  re- 
strained by  fear,  would  soon  return  to  their  old  practices. 
Scarcely  had  the  army  of  the  Germans  lefl  their  shores  than 
they  again  renounced  Christianity  :  two  hundred  Christians 
were  put  to  death,  the  clei^  barely  made  out  to  save  them- 
selves by  flight,  and  the  Christian  merchants  themselves  could 
only  purchase  security  for  their  lives  by  presents  to  the  prin- 
cipal men.  The  canonical  priest,  Albert  von  Apeldern  of 
Bremen,  was  appointed  bishop  of  the  new  church,  and  a  fresh 
army  accompanied  him,  in  the  year  1199,  to  Liefland.  After 
the  successful  termination  of  the  new  campaign,  in  order  to  fix 
a  stable  seat  for  the  Christian  church  on  a  spot  more  secure 
and  better  situated  for  intercourse  with  the  Christian  world, 
the  town  of  Riga  was  built,  in  the  year  1200,  and  the  bishopric 
of  Yxkull  translated  to  this  place ;  but  it  was  necessary  that 
an  armed  force  should  be  kept  always  at  hand  here,  not  only 
to  maintain  possession  of  the  place,  and  to  secure  the  Christian 
foundations,  in  a  constant  struggle  with  the  pagan  inhabitants 
of  the  country,  but  also  to  ward  ofi"  the  destructive  inroads  of 
other  pagan  tribes  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  to  resist  the 
Russian  princes  on  the  border,  who  were  impatient  of  any  fo- 
reign dominion  in  these  parts.  To  this  end,  a  standing  order 
of  spiritual  knights,  formed  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of 
these  times,  by  a  union  of  knighthood  with  the  clerical  voca- 
tion, the  ordo  fratrum  militice  Christi,  was  instituted,  which 

£  2 


52  ESTHLAND.      SPIRITUAL  COMEDIES. 

chose  the  Virgin  Mary,  to  whom  the  new  bishopric  had  been 
dedicated,  as  its  patroness. 

Not  till  after  a  war  of  twenty  years  was  tranquillity 
secured.  From  this  point  the  church  was  planted  in  Esthland 
and  Semgallen  ;  and  at  length  Curland  also,  in  the  year  1230, 
submitted  to  her  sway,  not  compelled  by  outward  force,  but 
yet  driven  by  fear. 

It  would  be  foreign  from  our  purpose  to  enter  farther  into 
the  history  of  these  warlike  enterprises.  We  will  simply 
notice  in  these  movements,  so  alien  from  Christianity,  such 
particulars  as  present  to  our  observation  the  least  trace  of  the 
Christian  spirit.  In  the  midst  of  these  wars  men  did  not  en- 
tirely neglect  to  employ  the  method  of  persuasion,  and  to 
diffuse  Christian  knowledge,  though  they  did  not  adopt  the 
most  suitable  means  for  this  purpose.  Among  these  means 
belonged  the  spiritual  plays  which  came  into  vogue  in  this  pe- 
riod, and  were  designed  to  represent  historical  scenes  from  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  Thus,  during  an  interim  of  peace, 
in  the  year  1204,  the  opportunity  was  taken  advantage  of  to 
exhibit,  in  the  recently  built  city  of  Riga,  a  prophetical  play, 
designed  to  combine  entertainment  and  instruction  for  the  new 
Christians  and  the  pagans,  and  to  fix,  by  sensuous  impressions, 
the  sacred  stories  and  doctrines  more  deeply  on  their  minds.* 
By  means  of  interpreters  the  subjects  of  these  dramatical 
representations  were  more  clearly  explained  to  them.  When 
Gideon's  troop  attacked  the  Philistines,  great  terror  fell  on 
the  pagan  spectators,  as  they  supposed  it  applied  to  themselves. 
They  betook  themselves  to  flight,  and  it  was  only  after  much 
persuasion  that  their  confidence  could  be  restored.f  When 
again,  after  a  bloody  war  and  deliverance  from  great  dangers, 
a  time  of  peace  once  more  returned,  archbishop  Andreas  of 

*  Thus  a  man  who  was  in  part  an  eye-witness  of  these  events,  the 
priest  Heinrich  der  Lette,  in  the  Chronicon  Livonicum,  f.  34,  published  by 
Gruber,  says :  "  Ut  fidei  Christianse  rudimenta  gentilitas  fide  etiam  dis- 
ceret  oculata." 

\  The  Priest  Heinrich  expresses  more  truth  than  he  seems  himself  t^ 
be  conscious  of,  when  he  considers  this  dramatical  exhibition  as  a  fore- 
token of  the  calamities  of  the  following  years :  "  In  eodem  ludo  erant 
bella,  utpote  David,  Gideonis,  Herodis.  Erat  et  doctrina  veteris  et  novi 
testamenti,  quia  nimirum  per  bella  plurima,  quoe  sequuntur,  convertenda 
erat  gentilitas,  et  per  doctriuam  veteris  et  novi  testamenti  erat  instruenda, 
qualiter  ad  verum  pacificum  et  ad  vitam  perveuiat  sempiternam." 


FREDERIC  OF  CELLE.      LNFLUEXCE  OF  1SACRED  MUSIC.         53 

Lund,  who  came  in  company  with  the  allied  Danes,  as- 
sembled, in  the  winter  of  1205,  all  the  clergy  in  Riga,  and 
during  the  whole  season  gave  them  theological  discourses  on 
the  Psalter.*  Many  amongst  the  clergy,  for  which  order  men 
were  fond  of  selecting  monks,  devoted  themselves  in  good 
earnest  to  the  work  of  promoting  the  salvation  of  the  Lief- 
landers.  One  of  these  was  monk  Sigfrid,  who  presided  as 
priest  and  pastor  over  the  church  at  Holm,  and  by  his  life  of 
piety  and  devotion  left  a  deep  impression  on  the  minds  of  the 
people.  At  his  death,  in  the  year  1202,  the  new  converts 
zealously  went  to  work  and  made  him  a  beautiftil  coffin,  in 
which  they  bore  him,  weeping,  to  the  place  of  burial.f 

Over  the  church  connected  with  the  recently  buUt  fortress, 
Friedland,  was  placed  a  priest  of  the  Cistercian  order,  Frederic 
of  Celle.    On  Palm-Sunday  of  the  year  1213  he  had  cele- 
brated mass  with  great  devotion,  and  then  preached  with  much 
fervour  on  the  passion  of  Christ,  closing  his  discourse  with 
touching  words  of  exhortation  addressed  to  the  new  Christians. 
After  having  here  celebrated  also  the  Easter  festival,  he  was 
intending  to  cross  over  with  his  assistants  and  a  few  of  his 
new  Christians  to  Riga ;  but  on  the  passage  they  were  sur- 
prised by  a  vessel  fully  manned  with  ferocious  pagans  from 
the  island  of  Correzar  (OzUia),  a  haunt  of  pirates,  which  had 
offered  the  stoutest   and  longest  resistance  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  Christianity.     Under  the  cruel  tortures  with  which  the 
exasperated  pagans  sought  to  put  him  to  a  lingering  death,  he 
lifted  his  eyes  to  heaven,  and  with  his  disciples  thanked  God 
that  he  had  counted  him  worthy  of  martyrdom.  |     In  the  year 
1206,  the  Letti  made  a  desolating  irruption  into  Liefland,  and 
a  village  near  Threida  was  suddenly  attacked  by  them,  whilst 
the  community  were  assembled  in  the  church.     When  this 
became  known,  the  Lieflanders,  in  great  consternation,  rushed 
from  the  church.    Some  succeeded  in  finding  places  of  conceal- 
ment in  the  neighbouring  forest,  others,  who  hurried  to  their 
dwellings,  were  taken  captive  on  the  way,  and  some  of  them 
put   to   death ;    but  the   priest,    John   Strick,   supported   by 
another  priest  and   by  his  servants,  would  not  be  disturbed 
in  his  devotions  at  the  celebration  of  the  mass,  but,  conse- 

*  The  words  of  the  above  mentioned  priest :  "  Et  legendo  in  Psalterio 
totam  hiemem  in  divina  contemplatione  deducuntur."     L.  c.  f.  43. 
t  L.  c.  f.  26.  X  L.  c.  f.  97. 


54  INFLUENCE  OF  SACRED  MUSIC. 

crating  himself  to  God  as  an  offering,  committed  his  life  into 
the  hands  of  his  Master,  resigned  to  suffer  whatever  he  should 
appoint ;  and  after  they  had  finished  the  mass,  placing  the 
several  articles  which  belonged  to  the  celebration  of  the  office 
in  a  heap  together  at  one  corner  of  the  sacristy,  they  con- 
cealed themselves  in  the  same  spot.  Three  several  times  the 
troops  of  the  Letti  broke  into  the  sanctuary,  but  seeing  the 
altar  stripped  of  its  furniture,  they  gave  up  the  hope  of  finding 
the  plunder  they  were  in  search  of,  that  which  was  concealed 
escaping  their  notice.  When  all  had  gone  off,  the  priests 
thanked  God  for  their  deliverance :  in  the  evening  they  for- 
sook the  church  and  fled  into  the  forest,  where,  for  three  days, 
they  subsisted  on  the  bread  they  took  with  them.  On  the 
fourth  day  they  arrived  at  Riga.* 

In  a  fight  between  the  converted  Letti  and  the  pagans  of 
Esthland,  which  took  place  in  the  year  1207,  a  Lettian  priest 
mounted  a  redoubt,  and  sang  a  sacred  hymn  to  the  praise  of 
God,  accompanying  his  voice  with  an  instrument.  The  rude 
pagans,  on  hearing  the  soft  melody  of  the  song  and  its  accom- 
paniment, a  thing  altogether  new  to  them,  for  a  time  left  off 
fighting,  and  demanded  what  the  occasion  was  for  such  expres- 
sions of  joy.  "  We  rejoice,"  said  the  Letti,  "  and  we  praise 
God,  because  but  a  short  time  ago  we  received  baptism,  and 
now  see  that  God  defends  us."  t 

Amongst  these  people  the  influence  of  Christianity  was  ma- 
nifest again  in  the  fact,  that  it  brought  them  to  a  conscious 
sense  of  the  equal  dignity  of  all  men,  doing  away  amongst 
them  the  arbitrary  and  false  distinction  of  higher  and  lower 
races.  The  Letti  had,  in  fact,  been  hitherto  regarded  and 
treated  as  an  inferior  race  of  men,  but  through  Christianity 
they  attained  to  the  consciousness  of  possessing  equal  worth 
and  equal  rights  with  all ;  the  priests,  therefore,  to  whom  they 
were  indebted  for  so  great  an  improvement  in  their  condition, 
were  received  by  them  with  joy.  ij:  The  only  law  that  had 
hitherto  been  in  force  amongst  the  Lieflanders  was  club-law. 

*  L.  c.  f.  49.  t  L.  c.  f.  57. 

J  The  words  of  the  priest  Heinrich :  "  Erant  enim  Letthi  ante  fidem 
susceptam  humiles  et  despecti,  et  multas  injurias  sustinentes  a  Livonibus 
et  F.stonibus,  unde  ipsi  magis  gaudebant  de  adventu  sacerdotum,  eo  quod 
post  baptismum  eodem  jure  et  eadem  pace  omnes  gauderunt."  L.  c. 
f.  56. 


EXHORTATIOXS  OF  WILLIAM  OF  MODEXA.  55 

By  means  of  Christianity  they  were  first  made  conscious  of  the 
need  of  a  settled  system  of  justice.  The  inhabitants  or 
Threida  made  a  petition  to  their  priest  Hildebrand,  that  the 
civil  as  well  as  the  ecclesiastical  law  might  be  introduced 
amongst  them,  and  that  their  disputes  might  be  settled 
by  it.* 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  in  1224,  pope  Honorius  the  Third, 
in  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  bishop  of  Riga,  sent 
"VVUliam,  bishop  of  Modena,  the  papal  chancellor,  as  a  legate 
to  Liefland.  This  prelate  spared  no  pains  in  dispensing 
amongst  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  country  and  their  con- 
querors such  exhortations  as  their  respective  circumstances  re- 
quired. The  Germans  he  exhorted  to  mildness  in  their  beha- 
viour to  the  new  converts,  charging  them  to  lay  on  their 
shoulders  no  intolerable  burdens,  but  only  the  light  and  easy 
yoke,  and  to  instruct  them  constantly  in  the  sacred  truths.f 
He  cautioned  those  who  bore  the  sword  against  being  too  hard 
on  the  Esthlanders  in  the  collection  of  tithes  and  imposts,  lest 
they  should  be  driven  to  relapse  into  idolatry.  J  These  exhort- 
ations to  a  mild,  indulgent  treatment  of  the  natives  he  repeated, 
on  various  occasions,  amongst  the  different  classes. 

Witli  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  church  in  these 
lands  was  closely  connected  its  establishment  also  amongst 
another  Slavic  people,  the  Prussians ;  for  that  same  order  of 
spiritual  knights  which  had  been  founded  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  stability  to  the  Christian  foundations  in  Liefland, 
formed  a  union  with  another  order  for  the  accomplishment  of 
this  work.  We  must  now  revert  to  many  things  strictly 
belonging  to  the  preceding  period,  but  which,  for  the  sake  of 
preserving  the  connection  of  events,  we  reserved  to  the  present 
occasion. 

Adalbert  of  Prague,  the  archbishop  who  had  to  endure  so 
many  hard  conflicts  with  the  rudeness  of  his  people,  betook 

*  L.  c.  f.  46.  The  priest  Heinrich  says  that  the  Lieflanders  were  at 
first  very  well  satisfied  with  their  judges,  or  so-called  advocates ;  namely, 
so  loug  as  pious  men,  who  were  governed  only  by  Christian  motives,  ad- 
ministered this  office.  But  it  turned  out  otherwise  when  laymen,  who 
sought  only  how  they  might  enrich  themselves,  obtained  these  posts. 

t  "  Ne  Teutonic!  gravaminis  aliquod  jugum  importabile  neophytorum 
humeris  imponerent,  sed  jugum  Domini  leve  ac  suave,  fideique  semper 
docerent  sacramenta." 

1  L.  c.  f.  173. 


56  ADALBERT  OF  PRAGUE. 

himself,  after  he  had  abandoned  his  bishopric  for  the  third 
time,  to  Boleslav  the  first,  duke  of  Poland,  expecting  to  find 
amongst  the  pagans  in  this  quarter  a  field  of  activity  suited  to 
the  glowing  ardour  of  his  zeal.  He  finally  determined  to  go 
amongst  the  Pnissians.  The  duke  gave  him  a  vessel,  and 
thirty  soldiers  to  protect  him.  Thus  attended,  he  sailed  to 
Dantzic,*  as  this  was  the  frontier-place  between  Prussia  ana 
Poland.  Here  he  first  made  his  appearance  as  a  preacher  of 
the  gospel,  and  he  succeeded  in  baptizing  numbers.  Then, 
sailing  from  this  place  and  landing  on  the  opposite  coast,  he 
sent  back  the  ship  and  her  crew.  He  desired  to  commit  him- 
self, as  a  messenger  of  peace,  wholly  to  God's  protection.  He 
did  not  choose  to  appear  standing  under  the  protection  of  any 
human  power,  but  would  avoid  everything  which  might  awaken 
suspicion  amongst  the  pagans.  The  only  persons  he  kept  with 
him  were  the  priest  Benedict  and  his  own  pupil  Gaudentius. 
It  was  an  open  beach  where  they  were  set  down,  and,  taking 
a  small  boat,  they  rowed  to  an  island  formed  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river  Pregel  ;t  but  the  owners  of  the  lands  approached 
with  cudgels  to  drive  them  away,  and  one  dealt  him  so  severe 
a  blow  with  an  oar,  that  the  psalter,  from  which  he  was 
singing,  dropped  from  his  hand,  and  he  fell  to  the  ground.  As 
soon  as  he  had  recovered  himself  he  said,  "  I  thank  thee. 
Lord,  for  the  privilege  thou  hast  bestowed  on  me  of  suffering 
even  a  blow  for  ray  crucified  saviour."  On  Saturday  they 
rowed  to  the  other  shore  of  the  Pregel,  on  the  coast  of  Sam- 
land.  The  lord  of  the  domain,  whom  they  happened  to  meet, 
conducted  them  to  his  village.  A  large  body  of  people  col- 
lected together.  When  Adalbert  had  given  an  account  of 
himself,  of  the  country  he  came  from,  and  of  his  errand,  the 
people  told  him  they  wanted  to  hear  nothing  about  a  foreign 
law,  and  threatened  them  all  with  death  unless  they  sailed  off 
the  same  night.  Compelled  to  leave  these  coasts,  they  turned 
back  again,  tarrying  five  days  in  a  village  where  they  brought 

*  Gedania. 

t  As  may  be  gathered  from  the  -words  of  the  ancient  account  of  his 
life,  Mens.  April.  T.  III.  c.  vi.  fol.  180  :  "  Intrant  parvam  insulam,  quae 
curvo  amne  circumjecta  formam  circuli  adeuntibus  monstrat."  See 
Voigt's  remarks,  respecting  these  specified  marks  in  relation  to  the  geo 
graphical  situation  of  places,  in  his  Geschichte  von  Preussen,  Bd.  I.  s. 
2C7. 


HIS  MARTYRDOM. 


57 


up.  Here,  on  the  night  of  Thursday,  the  brother  Gaudentius 
had  a  dream,  which  next  morning  he  related  to  the  bishop. 
He  saw  standing  on  the  middle  of  the  altar  a  golden  chalice 
half  filled  with  wine.  He  asked  permission  to  drink  from  it, 
but  the  servant  of  the  altar  forbade  him.  Neither  he  nor  any- 
other  person  could  be  allowed  to  drink  from  it,  said  he.  It 
was  reserved  against  the  morrow,  for  the  bishop,  to  give  him 
spiritual  strength.  "  May  the  Lord's  blessing,"  said  Adalbert, 
on  hearing  this,  "  bring  to  pass  what  this  vision  promises  ;  but 
we  should  place  no  confidence  in  a  deceitful  dream."  At  the 
break  of  day,  they  proceeded  on  their  journey,  cheerily  making 
their  way  through  the  pathless  woods,  shortening  the  distance 
with  spiritual  songs.  About  noon  they  came  to  some  open 
fields.  Here  Gaudentius  celebrated  the  mass :  Adalbert  re- 
ceived the  cup,  then  took  some  refreshment,  and  after  they 
had  proceeded  a  few  steps  farther,  the  three  seated  themselves 
upon  the  grass.  "Wearied  with  travel,  they  all  fell  into  a  pro- 
found sleep,  which  lasted  till  they  were  awakened  by  the  noise 
of  a  tumultuous  band  of  pagans,  who  seized  and  bound  them 
in  chains.  Said  Adalbert  to  his  companions,  "  Be  not  troubled, 
my  brethren ;  we  know,  indeed,  for  whose  name  we  suffer. 
What  is  there  more  glorious  than  to  give  up  life  for  our  pre- 
cious Jesus  ?  "  Upon  this,  Siggo,  a  priest,  plunged  a  lance 
through  his  body;  the  others  then  vented  their  rage  upon 
him.  Adalbert,  streaming  with  blood,  kept  his  head  erect  and 
his  eyes  fixed  on  heaven.  This  happened  on  the  23rd  of  April, 
997.* 

The  second  person  who  attempted  to  convert  the  Prussians 
was  Bruno,  surnamed  Bonifacius."]"  He  was  descended  from 
a  family  of  note  in  Querfurt,  and  became  court-chaplain  of  the 
emperor  Otto  the  Third,  who  valued  him  highly  on  account  of 
his  spiritual  attainments.     This  monarch  took  him  along  with 

*  We  certainly  cannot  doubt  that  the  circumstantial  and  simple  narra- 
tive came  from  the  mouth  of  one  of  Adalbert's  companions,  who  probably 
were  redeemed  from  their  captivity  among  the  Prussians  by  Duke 
Boleslav;  for  the  author  of  the  second  account  of  Adalbert's  life  states, 
that  the  Prussians  preserved  his  body  with  a  view  of  afterwards  disposing 
of  it  for  a  large  ransom  to  Duke  Boleslav. 

t  This  surname  was  the  occasion  of  a  mistake,  two  different  persons 
having  been  made  out  of  these  two  names,  and  a  missionary  Boniface  was 
invented,  who  is  to  be  wholly  stricken  out  of  the  list  of  historical  per- 
sons. 


58  chuistian's  success  in  Prussia. 

him  in  a  journey  to  Rome,  where  perhaps  it  was  the  sight  of  a 
picture  of  Boniface,  the  apostle  to  the  Germans,  which  led  him 
to  resolve  on  withdrawing  from  court,  becoming  a  monk,  and 
conveying  the  message  of  salvation  to  the  heathen  nations. 
Carrying  this  resolution  into  effect,  he  became  a  monk  of  the 
order  of  St,  Benedict.  He  procured  from  Sylvester  the 
Second  full  powers  to  engage  in  a  mission  to  the  heathen. 
This  pope  conferred  on  him,  for  the  same  end,  episcopal  ordi- 
nation, and  the  pall  of  an  archbishop.  With  eighteen  com- 
panions he  repaired,  in  1007,  to  Prussia  ;  but  all  perished  by 
martyrdom  on  the  J4th  of  February,  1008. 

From  this  time  two  centuries  elapsed,  during  which,  so  far 
as  we  know,  nothing  farther  was  done  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Prussians.  It  was  not  until  1207  that  any  new  attempt  was 
made  for  this  purpose  ;  at  that  time,  Gottfried,  a  Polish  abbot, 
from  the  monastery  of  Lukina,  sailed  down  the  Weichsel,  in 
company  with  Philip,  a  monk,  and  they  succeeded  in  gaining 
the  confidence  of  the  heads  of  the  people.  Two  of  these,  Pha- 
let  and  his  brother  Sodrach,  embraced  Christianity  and  received 
baptism.  At  this  point  the  work  was  interrupted,  indeed,  by 
the  assassination  of  monk  Philip ;  but  some  years  later  another 
man  appeared,  who  was  far  better  calculated  for  such  an  en- 
terprise, and  who  began  his  work  with  more  promising  results. 
Christian,  a  native  of  Freienwalde,  in  Pommerania,  went  forth 
at  that  time  from  the  monastery  of  Oliva,  near  Dantzic,  where, 
perhaps,  the  reports  he  heard  concerning  the  Prussians,  and  the 
first  attempts  which  were  made  to  convert  them,  had  served  to 
call  forth  in  him  the  desire  of  conveying  to  them  the  message 
of  salvation.  With  several  other  monks,  among  whom  one  in 
particular  is  mentioned,  named  Philip,  he  repaired,  after  hav- 
ing first  obtained  ample  authority  for  this  work  from  pope 
Innocent  the  Third,*  to  the  adjacent  province  of  Prussia.     The 

*  As  pope  Innocent  the  Third,  in  his  letter  to  the  archbishop  Gnesen, 
epp.  1.  XIII.  ep.  128,  says,  expressly,  concerning  Christian  and  his  com- 
panions :  "  Ad  partes  Prussiae  de  nostra  licentia  accesserunt ;"  and  in  the 
letter  to  the  Cistercian  abbots,  1.  XV.  ep.  147  :  "Olim  de  nostra  licentia 
inceperunt  seminare  in  partibus  Prussiae  verbum  Dei,"  it  is  impossible  to 
doubt  that  the  monks,  at  the  very  beginning,  either  orally  or  by  letter, 
reported  their  project  to  the  pope,  and  received  from  him  ample  powers 
for  such  an  enterprise.  From  this  particular  point  of  time  it  was  also  the 
first  in  which  resort  was  had  in  such  an  enterprise  to  the  head  of  the 
church. 


LETTER  OF  POPE  INNOCENT  THE  THIRD.  59 

happy  results  of  his  labours  in  Prussia  induced  him,  perhaps  in 
accordance  with  some  agreement  between  him  and  the  pope,  in 
the  years  1209  and  1210,  to  make  a  journey  to  Rome.  Inno- 
cent the  Third  espoused  this  cause  with  that  active  zeal  and 
prudent  forethought,  embracing  the  interests  of  the  whole 
church,  for  which  he  was  distinguished.  He  committed  to  the 
archbishop  of  Gnesen  the  pastoral  care  over  this  mission  and 
the  new  converts,  till  their  number  should  be  such  as  to  require 
the  labours  of  a  special  bishop  of  their  own.  In  his  letter,  ad- 
dressed to  this  archbishop,*  he  says,  "  Through  the  grace  of 
him  who  calls  into  being  that  which  is  not,  and  who  out  of 
stones  raises  up  sons  to  Abraham,  a  few  of  the  nobles  and  some 
others  in  that  region  have  received  baptism ;  and  would  that 
they  might  daily  make  progress  in  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
faith  !  "  Christian  and  his  companions  returned  and  prosecuted 
their  labours  with  good  success  ;  but  from  one  quarter,  where 
they  had  every  reason  to  expect  countenance  and  support,  they 
experienced  hindrances  of  all  sorts  in  the  prosecution  of  their 
work.  The  Cistercian  abbots  grew  jealous  of  the  independent 
activity  of  these  men ;  they  put  them  in  the  same  class  with 
those  vagabond  monks,  who  had  broken  loose  from  all 
discipline  and  order ;  they  refused  to  acknowledge  them  as 
brethren  of  their  order ;  and  denied  them  those  kindly  offices 
which  in  all  other  cases  the  members  of  the  order  were  wont 
to  show  to  each  other.  Therefore  the  pop^  issued  in  behalf  of 
this  mission,  in  the  year  1213,  a  letter  addressed  to  the  abbots 
of  the  Cistercian  chapter.j  With  the  cautious  wisdom  mani- 
fested by  this  pope  on  other  occasions,  he  intended,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  restrain  those  monks  who  merely  wished  to  throw  off 
the  forms  of  legitimate  dependence,  from  roving  about,  un- 
called, as  missionaries  ;  and,  on  the  other,  to  provide  that  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  should  not  be  hindered  xmder  the  pre- 
text of  checking  such  disorders.  To  secure  these  ends,  the 
whole  matter  was  placed  under  the  general  oversight  of  the 
archbishop  of  Gnesen.  He  was  to  apply  the  right  rules  for  the 
trying  of  the  spirits,  and  to  furnish  those  whom  he  found 
qualified  to  preach  and  influenced  by  the  spirit  of  love,  with 
testimonials  of  good  standing  and  letters  of  recommendation. 
The  pope  commanded  the  Cistercian  abbots  to  forbear  from 

♦  L.  c  1.  XIII.  ep.  128.  t  L-  c.  1.  XV.  ep.  147. 


60  LETTER  OF  POPE  INNOCENT  THE  THIRD. 

hindering  in  their  work  such  persons  as  were  thus  accredited. 
Furthermore,  the  pope  had  heard  complaints  that  the  dukes  of 
Pommerania  and  of  Poland  turned  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity into  a  means  of  oppressing  the  Prussians  ;  that  they  laid 
on  the  Christians  heavier  burdens  than  they  had  previously 
borne ;  which,  as  had  often  been  shown  in  the  case  of  the  Slavic 
tribes,  might  end  in  making  Christianity  hateful  to  the  people, 
whose  burdens  it  only  served  to  increase,  and  to  bring  about  the 
ruin  of  the  whole  mission.*  He  therefore  sent  to  these  princes 
a  letter,  couched  in  firm  and  decided  language,  setting  before 
them  the  unchristian  character  of  such  proceedings.  "  Altliough, 
in  the  words  of  the  apostle,  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please 
God,  still,  faith  alone  is  not  sufficient  for  this  purpose ;  but  love 
is,  in  an  especial  manner,  also  necessary.  As  the  apostle  says  : 
though  one  may  have  faith  so  as  to  be  able  to  remove  moun- 
tains, and  though  one  may  speak  with  the  tongues  of  angels 
and  of  men,  and  though  one  give  his  whole  substance  to  feed 
the  poor,  and  have  not  charity,  it  profiteth  him  nothing.  Now 
if,  according  to  the  law  of  Christ,  this  love  is  to  be  extended 
even  to  our  enemies,  how  much  more  is  it  incumbent  on  all  to 
practise  it  towards  the  newly  converted,  inasmuch  as  they,  if 
hardly  dealt  with,  may  easily  be  led  into  apostasy."  "  We 
therefore  beseech  and  exhort  you,"  continues  the  pope,  "  for 
the  sake  of  him  who  came  to  save  the  lost,  and  to  give  his  life 
a  ransom  for  many,  do  not  oppress  the  sons  of  this  new  plan- 
tation, but  treat  them  with  the  more  gentleness,  as  they  are  liable 
to  be  misled,  and  to  relapse  into  paganism  ;  since  the  old  bottles 
can  scarcely  hold  the  new  wine."  We  find  from  this  letter, 
that  Innocent  had  empowered  the  archbishop  of  Gnesen  to 
pronounce  the  bann  on  the  oppressors  of  the  new  converts  in 
Prussia,  if  they  would  not  listen  to  reason. 

So  the  monk  Christian  succeeded  in  overcoming  these 
difficulties,  and  his  work  for  the  first  time  went  prosperously 
onward.  Two  princes  whom  he  had  converted  made  over  to 
him  their  territory,  as  a  possession  for  the  new  church.     He 

*  ♦'  Quidam  vestrum,"  says  the  pope,  in  his  letter  to  them,  1.  XV.  ep.  148, 
"  mini  me  attendentes,  et  qusereiites,  quae  sua  sunt,  non  qua?  Christi,  quam 
cite  intelligunt  aliquos  e  gentilibus  per  Prussiam  constitutis  novae  regene- 
rationis  gratiam  suscepisse,  statim  oneribus  eos  servilibus  aggravant  et 
venientes  ad  Christianaj  fidei  libertatem  deterioris  conditionis  efficiunt 
quam  essent,  dum  sub  jugo  servitutis  pristinse  permanserint." 


CHRISTIANITY  IN  FINLAND.  61 

travelled  with  them  to  Rome ;  they  were  there  baptized,  and 
Christian  was  now  consecrated  to  the  office  of  bishop.  But 
after  his  return,  a  stormy  insurrection  arose  on  the  part  of  his 
pagan  people,  provoked  perhaps,  in  part,  by  the  conduct  of  the 
above-mentioned  Christian  princes.  Then  similar  enterprises 
followed  to  those  which  had  taken  place  in  Liefland.  The 
order  of  German  knights,  founded  during  the  crusades  in  the 
twelfth  century,  joined  themselves  for  the  purpose  of  engaging 
in  them  with  the  order  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Sword ;  and  it 
was  not  till  after  a  long  series  of  years,  in  the  year  1283, 
that  the  work  was  completed  ;  four  bishoprics  having  been  pre- 
viously, in  the  year  1243,  founded  for  the  Prussians ; — Kulm, 
Pomesanien,  Ermeland,  and  Sameland. 

Nearly  after  the  same  manner  was  the  church  planted 
amongst  the  Finns.  King  Eric,  of  Sweden,  whose  zeal  for  the 
church  caused  him  to  be  venerated  as  a  saint,  undertook  for 
this  purpose — inasmuch  as  the  Finns  could  not  be  induced  to 
submit  in  a  peaceable  manner — a  crusade,  in  which  he  was 
accompanied  by  bishop  Heinrich,  of  Upsala.  A  characteristic 
trait,  indicating  the  point  of  religious  development  at  which  he 
stood,  and  the  strong  inclination  of  his  times  to  cling  to  exter- 
nal things,  is  related  of  him.  Kneeling  down  to  thank  God, 
after  having  won  a  battle,  he  was  observed  to  be  profusely 
weeping :  and  being  asked  the  reason,  confessed  that  it  was  for 
pity  and  commiseration  at  the  fate  of  so  many  who  had  fallen 
in  the  fight  without  being  baptized,  and  were  consequently 
lost,  when  they  might  have  been  saved  by  the  holy  sacrament.* 

Let  us  now  throw  a  glance  at  the  spread  of  Christianity  in 
Asia.  It  lay  in  the  power  of  the  NestorioTis  to  do  the  most 
for  this  object,  for  their  communities  were  widely  scattered 
over  eastern  Asia ;  they  were  more  favoured  by  the  Moham- 
medan princes  than  any  of  the  other  Christian  sects ;  t  and 
were  the  most  familiarly  acquainted  with  the  languages  and 
customs  of  the  Asiatic  nations.  Till  within  the  ninth  century, 
the  Nestorian  churchf  still  maintained  flourishing  schools  for 
the  education  of  their  clergy  ;  but  after  that  time  these  schools 
seem  to  have  declined.     What  we  learn  concerning  the  Nes- 


♦  See  the  vita  s.  Erici.  Mens.  Maj.  d.  18,  c.  i. 

t  See,  on  this  point,  the  extracts  from  oriental  sources  in  Assemani 
Bibliotheca  orientalis,  T.  III.  f.  9S.  etc. 


62  NEST0RIAN3  IN  ASIA. 

torian  ecclesiastics  who  roved  about  Asia,  proves  that  they 
were  often  greatly  wanting  in  theological  culture,  Christian 
knowledge,  and  sedateness  of  Christian  character.  It  is  true, 
they  were  animated  by  a  zeal  for  making  proselytes  ;  but  they 
were  also  too  often  satisfied  if  people  did  but  profess  Chris- 
tianity outwardly,  and  observe  a  certain  set  of  Christian  or 
ecclesiastical  usages.  We  should  be  the  more  cautious,  there- 
fore, in  receiving  those  reports  which  Nestorians,  inclined  to 
speak  extravagantly  concerning  the  merits  of  their  sect,  and 
habituated  to  the  language  of  Oriental  exaggeration,  have 
made  respecting  their  labours  for  the  conversion  of  pagan 
tribes.  They  spread  themselves  over  those  districts  of  Asia 
in  which  a  certain  inclination  to  the  mixing  together  of  dif- 
ferent religions  always  existed.  A  way  was  easily  found  of 
introducing  many  things  from  Christianity  into  this  medley, 
and  the  Nestorians  might  represent  this  as  conversion  to  Chris- 
tianity. 

Thus,  for  example,  we  find,  some  time  after  the  twelfth  cen 
tury,  a  legend  current  in  the  Western  church,  respecting  a 
powerful  Christian  empire  in  Asia,  whose  Christian  kings,  it 
was  said,  were  at  the  same  time  priests,  and  bore  the  name  of 
John.  By  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all  the  accounts  from 
Oriental  sources*  and  Western  travellers  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, it  is  evident,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  the  kingdom  of  Kerait 
in  Tartary,  lying  north  of  Sina  (China),  whose  residential  ca- 
pital was  the  city  of  Caracorum,  was  here  meant.  It  may  be 
more  doubtful  what  opinion  should  be  formed  respecting  the 
Christianity  of  this  people  and  of  its  princes,  respecting  the 
union  of  the  sacerdotal  and  kingly  offices  in  the  persons  of  the 
latter,  and  respecting  the  name  of  John. 

The  Nestorian  metropolitan  Ebedjesu,  bishop  of  Maru  in 
Chorasan,  in  Persia,  relates,  in  a  letter  to  his  patriarch  Maris,"!" 
that  a  king  of  Kerait,  in  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century, 
had  been  converted  to  Christianity  by  means  of  Christian 
merchants,    certainly  Nestorians.  |      The   prince,   it  is  said, 

*  See  extracts  in  Assemani,  1.  e.  f.  486.  Ssanang  Ssetsen's  Geschichte 
der  Ostmongolen,  translated  from  the  Mongol  language  by  Schmidt,  p.  87. 
Petersburg,  1829. 

+  See  Assemani's  Bibliothek,  1.  c.  p.  484. 

X  This  is  ascribed  to  the  apparition  of  a  saint,  who  pointed  out  the 
right  path  to  the  prince,  when  he  had  lost  his  way  in  a  chase  ;  whether 


LEGEND  COKCERNIXG  A  KINGDOM  OF  PRIESTS.  63 

thereupon  sent  a  request  to  the  metropolitan,  that  he  would 
either  come  to  him  personally,  or  else  send  a  priest  to  baptize 
him.  The  patriarch,  to  whom  Ebedjesu  reported  this,  is  said 
to  have  empowered  him  to  send  to  that  country  two  priests,  to- 
gether with  deacons  and  ecclesiastical  vessels.  Two  hundred 
thousand  people  of  this  nation  are  said  to  have  embraced 
Christianity  ;  the  priest  above  mentioned,  and  his  descendants, 
were  known  henceforth  in  the  East  by  the  name  of  the  priest- 
kings,  John  (Prester  John).  Various  exaggerated  stories  con- 
cerning the  power  of  these  princes,  and  the  extent  of  their 
empire,  were  spread  abroad  by  monks  in  the  West.  Envoys  from 
them  appeared  in  Rome,  sent  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
connections  between  these  pretended  great  monarchs  and  the 
West,  through  the  mediation  of  the  pope.  Not  oqly  have  we 
every  reason  to  doubt  the  truth  of  these  reports,  but  it  is  also 
quite  questionable  whether  the  persons  who  represented  them- 
selves as  envoys,  were  really  authorized  to  appear  in  that 
character ;  whether,  in  fact,  the  whole  is  not  to  be  regarded  as 
a  work  of  fraud ;  especially  since  we  know,  that  when  the  cru- 
sades had  laid  open  a  more  free  communication  betwixt  the 
East  and  the  West,  the  credulity  of  the  West  was  often  im- 
posed upon  by  such  fraudulent  pretensions.  Still,  we  should 
not  be  authorized  on  these  grounds  to  call  in  question  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  line  of  sacerdotal  kings  passing  under  the  com- 
mon name  of  John.  It  is  possible  that  Nestorians  baptized 
the  king,  and  then  gave  him  priestly  consecration  ;  and  that  at 
baptism  he  received  the  name  John, — particularly  because 
this  was  the  name  of  the  Nestorian  patriarch  at  that  time. 
Both  name  and  office  may  then  have  passed  down  to  his  suc- 
cessors. Occasion  may  have  been  given  for  associating  the 
sacerdotal  and  kingly  offices  together  in  one  man  by  ideas  and 
tendencies  already  existing  in  those  districts  at  an  earlier 
period — ideas  and  tendencies  wluch  afterwards  reappeared 
among  this  people  under  another  form,  in  Lamaism.  In 
recent  times,  however,  a  more  careful  examination  into  the 
history  and  the  relations  of  the  Chinese  empire  has  led  to  a 
different  interpretation  of  this  story.*     The  kings  of  Kerait 

the  truth  is,  that  some  actual  occurrence  lies  at  bottom  of  the  story,  or 
that  this  account  is  a  mere  imitation  of  other  similar  ones,  as  that  respect- 
iag  the  conversion  of  the  Iberians,  see  vol.  II. 

*  Schlosser's  Weltgeschichte,  iii.  ii.  1.  s.  269.   Hitter's  Geographic  ii.  ii. 


64  ^  EXAGGERATED  ACCOUNTS  OF  THIS  KINGDOM. 

were  vassals  of  the  vast  Chinese  empire,  and  as  such  they 
bore,  in  addition  to  their  proper  names,  the  character  and  title 
of  "  Vara,"  or  "  Vang,"  Now  this  latter  title,  joined  with  the 
Tartaric  "  Khan,"  gave  origin  to  the  name  "  Vam-Khan,"  or 
*'  Ung-Khan."  It  is  supposed,  then,  that  the  legend  respect- 
ing tiiese  kings,  who  all  call  themselves  John,  proceeded  from 
a  misconception,  or  mutilation,  of  that  twofold  title  ;  while  the 
legend  respecting  their  uniting  the  offices  of  priest  and  king 
may  have  originated  in  a  transfer  of  religious  notions,  already 
current  among  these  nations  at  an  earlier  period,  into  a  Chris- 
tian form.  Thus  we  might  be  led  to  regard  the  whole  story 
concerning  the  conversion  of  the  princes  of  Kerait  and  their 
.subjects  as  a  legend  which  originated  in  misconception  and 
exaggeration,  without  the  least  foundation  of  historical  truth. 
But  as  the  report  in  the  above-mentioned  letter  of  the  Nes- 
torian  metropolitan,  respecting  the  conversion  of  that  Tartarian 
prince,  is  confirmed  in  all  essential  points  by  the  narratives  of 
Western  missionaries  and  travellers  belonging  to  the  thirteenth 
century,  who  had,  some  of  them,  long  resided  in  those  dis- 
tricts, and  were  not  accustomed  to  exaggerate ;  so  we  regard 
the  statement  that  princes  of  Kerait  were  converted  by  Nes- 
torians  to  Christianity,  that  is,  led  to  the  outward  profession  of 
it,  and  to  the  adoption  of  Christian  usages,  and  that  such  a 
Christianity  was  transmitted  in  their  families,  as  a  fact  suffi- 
ciently well  established,  however  uncertain  may  be  the  rest  of 
the  story. 

At  all  events,  an  end  was  put  to  the  empire  of  these  so-called 
sacerdotal  kings,  probably  under  the  fourth  of  the  dynasty,  by 
the  great  revolution  in  1202,  which,  somewhat  later,  shook 
not  only  Asia  but  Europe.  The  head  of  one  of  the  subordinate 
tribes  under  this  empire,  khan  Temudschin,  revolted.  The 
king  of  Kerait  lost,  in  the  struggle  which  ensued,  his  kingdom 
and  his  life,  and  Temudschin  became,  under  the  name  of 
Dschingiskhan,  founder  of  the  great  Mongolian  empire.  It  is 
said,  however,  that  he  married  the  daughter  of  the  slain  priest- 

Bd.  1.  s.  257.  Schmidt,  in  the  note  contained  in  the  above-mentioned 
Geschichte  der  Ostmongolen,  s.  283.  Gieseler  who  adopts  this  view  has 
endeavoured  to  make  this  derivation  probable,  by  supposing  that  the 
Nestorians  confounded  the  foreign  Tartarian  words  with  others  of  like 
sound  in  the  Semitic  dialects,  Jochanan  and  Chohen;  see  Studien  a. 
Kritiken,  1837,  2h.  s.  354. 


HISTORICAL  FOUNDATION  OP  THE  WHOLE  LEGEND.  65 

king ;  and  that  Rabbanta,*  a  Nestorian  monk,  rose  to  great 
authority  and  influence ;  but  we  ought  not  to  attribute  too 
much  importance  to  statements  like  these.  The  religious  in- 
terest, as  a  general  thing,  was  amongst  the  Mongols  an 
altogether  subordinate  concern  ;  their  only  article  of  feith  was 
the  recognition  of  one  Almighty  God,  the  Creator  of  the 
world,  and  of  the  great  khan,  his  son,  whom  he  sent  over  aU 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  whom  aU  must  obey.  This 
one  fundamental  article  left  room,  indeed,  for  a  great  deal 
besides,  which  might  be  taken  from  other  quarters,  and  incor- 
porated with  it.  The  religion  of  these  tribes  was  a  rude 
monotheism,  which  took  but  a  slight  hold  on  the  religious 
interest ;  the  belief  in  one  God,  who  was  held  off  at  an  immense 
distance, — a  belief  affording  but  little  to  occupy  the  thoughts 
or  feelings  of  the  human  mind  ;  and  into  the  void  thereby  left 
for  the  religious  nature,  an  entrance  was  left  open  for  all 
manner  of  superstition.  The  religious  need  would  necessarily 
strive  to  fill  up  the  chasm  between  that  sublime  and  distant 
Deity,  floating  before  the  mind  in  dim  presentiment,  and  the 
life  of  man  in  all  its  contraction  and  feebleness ;  and  it  was 
precisely  here  that  all  forms  of  superstition  were  enabled  to  find 
a  foothold.  Idols  and  amulets,  fabricated  by  their  own  hands, 
laid  stronger  hold  on  the  affections  and  the  imaginations  of  the 
people,  than  that  vague  belief  in  one  God,  the  creator  of  the 
universe.  In  this  manner,  it  was  possible  that,  vmder  the 
above-mentioned  single  article  of  feuth,  different  religions,! 
that  is,  their  forms  and  usages,  with  which  a  superstitious 
sort  of  coquetry  was  practised,  might  subsist  side  by  side. 
Indeed,  a  frequent  change  of  religious  usages  was  particularly 
agreeable  to  the  taste  of  these  tribes  of  men ;  and  thus  it 
happened  that  Christian,  Mohammedan,  and  Buddhist  rites 
and  usages  were  afterwards  admitted  amongst  them,  and 
tolerated  together.  Nestorian  priests  long  wandered  about 
among  these  nations ;  and  these  people  required  nothing  more 

*  Certainly  not  a  proper  name,  but  a  mixture  of  two  titles  of  honour 
from  different  languages,  viz. :  the  Syrian  Kabban,  and  the  Turkish  Atta, 
fether.  See  Abel-Re'musat  in  the  Memoires  de  I'Academie  des  Inscrip- 
tions, T.  VI.  an.  1822,  p.  413. 

t  The  J.  de  Piano  Carpini,  shortly  to  be  mentioned,  makes,  concerning 
the  Mongols,  the  correct  remark :  "  Quia  de  cultn  Dei  nuUam  legem 
observant,  neminem  adhuc,  quod  intelleximus,  coegerunt  suam  fidem  vel 
legem  negare." 

VOL.  VU.  F 

J 


66  THE  MONGOLS.      ENVOYS  OF  THE  POPE. 

than  such  an  adoption  of  Christian  forms,  which  they  repre- 
sented as  an  embracing  of  Christianity.  At  the  same  time 
the  ]\[ongolian  pnnces,  induced  by  motives  of  political  interest, 
and  seeking  to  form  alliances  with  Christian  nations  against 
the  Mohammedans, — often  represented  themselves  as  more 
inclined  to  Christianity  than  they  really  were ;  or  else,  with  a 
view  to  flatter  the  Christian  princes  of  the  East,  who  in  a 
certain  sense  did  them  homage,  accommodated  themselves,  in 
the  expression  of  their  religious  opinions,  to  the  views  of 
those  whom  they  addressed. 

Under  Oktaikhan,  the  successor  of  Dschingiskhan,  the  ar- 
mies of  the  Mongols  threatened  to  deluge  Europe,  through 
Russia,  Poland,  Bohemia,  and  Silesia;  while  the  Christian 
nations  were  prevented  from  adopting  common  measures  of 
defence  by  the  quarrels  between  the  pope  and  the  emperor 
Frederick  the  Second.  This  led  pope  Innocent  the  Fourth  to 
send  two  embassies  to  the  Mongols,  one  to  charge  them,  in  his 
name,  to  desist  from  their  warlike  expeditions  against  the 
Christian  nations,  and  the  other  to  make  an  attempt  to  convert 
them  to  Christianity.  Both  were  ill-judged  ;  for  of  what  avail 
was  such  an  injunction,  backed  up  by  nothing  else  ?  What 
signified  the  word  of  a  pope  amongst  Mongols  ?  And  as  to  the 
other  object — of  gaining  them  over  to  Christianity,  a  single 
embassy  could  do  nothing  towards  its  accomplisliment ;  while 
the  instruments  chosen  by  the  pope  for  this  business  possessed 
neither  the  character  nor  the  information  necessary  for  per- 
forming the  task  imposed  on  them.  In  the  year  1245,  four 
Dominicans  are  said  to  have  visited  the  commander-in-chief  of 
the  Mongols  in  Persia,  and  three  Franciscans  to  have  repaired 
to  the  gi-eat  khan  himself.  The  former,*  at  whose  head  stood 
the  monk  Ascelin,  were  altogether  unfitted  for  the  business 
they  undertook,  being  utterly  ignorant  both  of  the  manners 
and  of  the  language  of  these  nations,  as  well  as  utterly  destitute 
of  the  versatility  of  mind  necessary  for  acquiring  such  know- 
ledge. Offence  was  taken,  in  the  first  place,  because  they  had 
not,  according  to  the  Oriental  custom,  brought  presents  with 
them.  Then,  to  obtain  an  audience  from  the  commander-in- 
chief,  it  was  made  a  condition  that  they  should  pay  obeisance 
to  him  by  three  several  prostrations.     The  scruple  which  they 

*  The  report  of  their  mission  by  one  of  the  party.  Simon  of  St.  Quintin, 
get  forth  in  Viucentius  de  Bauvais.  Speculum  historiale,  1.  XXXI.  c.  40. 


THREE  FRANCISCANS  VISIT  THE  GREAT  KHAN.  67 

3raised,  that  this  would  be  a  mark  of  idolatrous  homage,  was 
removed,  it  is  true,  by  Guiscard  of  Cremona,  a  monk  femiliar 
with  the  manners  of  the  East,  whom  they  met  with  at  Tiflis  ;  and 
who  explained  to  them  that  nothing  of  this  kind  was  associated 
with  the  act  in  the  customs  of  these  nations.  But  when  he 
informed  them,  at  the  same  time,  that  it  would  be  a  mark  of 
homage  paid  by  the  pope  and  the  church  of  Rome  to  the 
great  khan,  they  declared  themselves  resolved  to  die  rather 
than  subject  the  church  of  Rome  and  Christendom  to  such  a 
disgrace  in  the  sight  of  the  nations  of  the  East.  The  Tartars 
looked  upon  it  as  exceedingly  strange,  that,  adoring  as  they 
did  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  wood  and  stone,  they  could  pay  no 
such  mark  of  respect  to  the  great  commander,  whom  the  khan 
would  not  hesitate  to  honour  as  he  did  himself.  They  looked 
upon  this  refusal  as  a  serious  insult  to  the  dignity  of  the  khan, 
in  his  representative ;  and  it  was  only  by  a  fortunate  turn  of 
circumstances  that  the  monks  escaped  being  put  to  death. 
Finally,  they  were  required  to  go  and  meet  the  great  khan 
himself,  to  place  in  his  hands  the  pope's  letter,  convince  them- 
selves, by  their  own  obser\"ation,  of  his  unlimited  power  and 
matchless  glory,  and  draw  up  a  report  of  the  same  to  the  pope. 
To  this  Ascelin  replied,  that  as  his  lord  the  pope  knew  nothing 
about  the  name  of  the  khan,  and  had  not  commanded  him  to 
inquire  after  that  personage,  but  to  accost  the  first  army  of  the 
Tartars  whom  he  should  meet,  so  he  was  not  bound,  and 
neither  was  he  inclined,  to  make  a  journey  to  the  khan.  This 
style  of  expressing  himself  with  regard  to  the  relation  of  the 
pope  to  the  Tartarian  monarch,  provoked  afresh  the  displea- 
sure of  the  Tartars.  "  Has  the  pope,  then,"  said  they,  "  sub- 
dued as  many  kingdoms  and  vast  empires  as  the  great  khan, 
the  son  of  God  ?  Has  the  name  of  the  pope  spread  as  widely 
as  that  of  the  great  khan,  who  is  feared  from  the  East  to  the 
"West  ?  "  Upon  this,  Ascelin  explained  to  them  that  the  pope, 
as  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  to  whom  Christ  had  intrusted  the 
government  of  the  entire  church,  possessed  the  highest  autho- 
rity among  men  ;  but  of  such  an  authority  the  Tartars  could 
form  no  conception,  and  in  vain  did  Ascelin  resort  to  various 
illustrations  and  examples  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  thing 
plain  to  them.* 

*  Ascf  lino  multis  modis  et  exemplis  explanante,  illi  tanquam  brutales 
homines  nullatenus  iutelligere  valuerunt  plenarie. 

r  2 


68  THREE  FRANCISCANS  VISIT  THE  GREAT  KHAN. 

The  letter  of  the  pope  was  then  translated  first  into  Persian, 
thence  into  the  Tartarian  language,  and  placed  before  the  com- 
mander-in-ehief;  and  the  monks,  after  being  detained  for 
several  months,  finally  obtained  permission  to  go  home,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  brief,  haughty  reply  to  the  pope's  letter  was 
placed  in  their  hands.  It  ran  thus  : — "  Whereas,  it  is  God's 
immutable  decree,  that  all  who  come  personally  to  show  their 
submission  to  the  great  khan,  whom  God  has  made  lord  over 
the  whole  world,  should  remain  on  their  own  soil  and  territory, 
but  the  rest  be  destroyed ;  therefore  let  the  pope  take  care  to 
inform  himself  of  this,  if  he  wishes  to  retain  his  country." 
The  Franciscans,  with  whom  went  Johannes  de  Piano  Carpini, 
an  Italian,*  directed  their  course  to  Tartary  and  the  great 
khan  through  Russia ;  and  their  journey  lying  through  deso- 
late regions  and  steppes,  which  they  had  to  traverse  on  horse- 
back, often  at  the  greatest  speed  and  without  halting,  was  one 
attended  with  the  severest  deprivations  and  hardships.  These 
monks  seemed  to  be  better  qualified  for  their  business  than  the 
first ;  Johannes  de  Piano  Carpini,  in  particular,  by  his  exten- 
sive earlier  travels,  by  the  important  offices  which  he  had 
filled  in  his  order,  and  the  superior  tact  he  had  thereby 
acquired,  seemed  much  better  prepared  for  it.  Less  stiff  in 
their  prejudices,  they  could  more  easily  enter  into  foreign  cus- 
toms and  modes  of  thinking,  and  hence  showed  themselves 
quite  ready  to  make  presents,  after  the  Oriental  fashion,  of  the 
few  articles  they  brought  with  them ;  nor  did  they  hesitate  to 
go  through  the  ceremony  of  thrice  bowing  the  knee,  as  a  cus- 
tomary mark  of  respect  to  those  in  power.  When  they  arrived 
at  the  khan's  court,  Oktaikhan  had  died,  and  they  were  present 
at  the  coronation  of  his  successor,  Gaiuk.  They  also  found 
here  Nestorian  priests,  who  were  maintained  by  the  khan, 
and  who  performed  their  worship  before  his  tents ;  but 
assuredly  it  was  an  exaggeration,  intended  or  unintended,  on 
the  part  of  the  Christians  in  immediate  attendance  on  the 
khan,  when  they  told  the  monks  that  he  himself  would  soon 
embrace  Christianity  .f     Besides  giving  them  a  letter  to  the 

*  Extracts  from  bis  report  in  Vincentius  de  Beauvais,  lib.  XXXI.  Tbe 
same  was  first  publisbed  complete  by  D'Avezac.    Paris,  1838. 

f  The  -words  of  J.  de  Piano  Carpini,  in  the  complete  edition  of  his 
report,  mentioned  in  the  previous  note  §  xii.  p.  370 :  '•  Dicebant  etiam 
nobis  Christiani,  qui  erant  de  familia  ejus,  quod  credebaut  firmiter,  quod 


WILLIAM  DE  RUBBUQinS  AMBASSADOR  TO  TABTARY.  69 

pope,  he  proposed  to  send  back  with  them  envoys  of  his  own  ; 
a  proposal  wliich,  for  various  prudential  reasons,  they  thought 
proper  to  decline.  In  other  respects  this  embassy  proved  as 
fruitless  as  the  former. 

The  crusades,  in  various  ways,  brought  the  Christians  of 
the  West  into  contact  with  the  Mongok.*  The  leaders  of  the 
Mongols  were  sometimes  induced  by  motives  of  policy  to  court 
the  alliance  of  the  Western  princes  against  their  common 
enemy  the  Mohammedans ;  or  they  ambitiously  affected  the 
distinction  of  being  acknowledged,  even  by  those  princes,  as 
their  li^e  lords  and  masters.  There  were,  however,  ro\Tng 
about  in  the  East  many  deceivers,  who  represented  themselves 
as  envoys  firom  the  Mongols,  as  weU  as  from  others ;  and  in 
their  names  expressed  opinions,  and  made  treati^,  such  as  had 
never  been  dreamed  of  by  those  rulers.  At  the  same  time, 
however,  the  Mongol  princes  themselves,  doubtless,  contrived 
that  many  things  should  be  said  in  their  name  which  they 
afterwards  refused  to  acknowledge  as  having  ever  proceeded 
from  them.  Thus  that  pious  king,  Louis  the  Ninth  of  France, 
while  residing,  in  the  time  of  his  crusade,  on  the  isle  of  Cyprus, 
heard  many  exaggerated  stories  about  the  inclination  of  the 
Mongolian  princes  to  feivour  Christianity,  which  induced  him 
to  send  them  ambassadors  with  presents. 

Among  these  ambassadors,  the  most  distinguished  was  the 
Franciscan  AVilliam  de  Rubruquis,  who  undertook  a  journey  of 
this  sort  in  the  year  1253.  He  ^Tsited  the  Mongol  general 
and  prince  Sartach,  his  £ither  Batu,  and  the  great  khan  of  the 
Mongols  himself,  the  Mangukhan.  He  penetrated  as  far  as 
Caracorum,  the  renowned  capital  of  this  empire,  the  ancient 
residential  city  of  the  above-mentioned  priest-kings.  From  his 
report  of  this  journey  we  discover  that  he  was  a  man  less 
prone  to  credulity  than  other  monks  of  his  time,  more  in- 
clined and  better  qualified  to  examine  into  &cts;  and  it  is 

debet  fieri  Christianas  et  de  hoc  hahent  signum  apertum,  qaoniam  ipse 
tenet  clericos  Christianos  et  dat  eis  expensas,  Christianomm  etiam  capel- 
lam  semper  habet  ante  majus  tentorium  ejus,  et  cantant  puhlice  et  aperte, 
et  pulsant  ad  boras  secundum  morem  Grscorum,  ut  alii  Cbristiani, 
qnantacunque  sit  ibi  moltitudo  Tatarorom  vel  etiam  bominom  alionun, 
quod  non  f^ciunt  alii  duces." 

*  See  the  Essay  of  Abel-R^mnsat :  "  Rapports  des  princes  Chretiens 
avec  le  grand  empire  des  Mongols,"  in  the  Me'moires  de  I'Acad^mie  des 
Inscriptions,  T.  VI.  p.  398,  1822. 


70       MIXTURE  OF  VARIOUS  RELIGIONS  AMONG  THE  MONGOLS. 

through  him  we  receive  the  first  certain  and  accurate  infonna- 
tion  respecting  the  religious  condition  of  these  nations,  and 
respecting  their  relation  to  Christianity.  In  piety  and  Chris- 
tian knowledge  he  was  far  superior  to  the  Oriental  monks  and 
ecclesiastics  who  wandered  about  among  these  tribes  ;  and  his 
piety,  his  intrepidity,  and  hiy  insight  into  the  essence  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  viewed  from  the  position  held  by  his  own  church, 
fitted  him  beyond  others  to  act  as  a  missionary  among  these 
nations.  When  he  came  into  those  districts,  where  the  king- 
dom of  Prester  John  once  had  its  seat,  he  perceived  how 
exaggerated  had  been  the  accounts  given  of  that  kingdom  by 
the  Nestorians.*  He  says  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
Nestorians,  there  was  nobody  who  knew  anything  about 
Prester  John.  He  found  the  Nestorians  widely  dispersed  in 
these  regions,  and  filling  important  posts  in  the  Tartarian 
court  ;f  but  of  the  Nestoriau  clergy  he  gives  a  very  sad  ac- 
count. "  They  are,"  he  observes,  "  thoroughly  ignorant ;  and 
though  they  repeat  the  liturgical  forms,  and  possess  the  sacred 
books  in  the  Syriac  language,  they  understand  nothing  about 
them.  They  sing  like  illiterate  monks  that  have  no  under- 
standing of  Latin  ;  hence  they  are  all  corrupt  in  their  morals 
and  wicked  in  their  lives,  great  usurers  and  drunken  sots. 
Some  of  them,  who  live  among  the  Tartars,  keep,  like  the 
latter,  several  wives."J  It  was  quite  enough  for  such  people, 
if  they  could  make  their  mechanical  prayers  and  ceremonies 
pass  current  at  the  Tartarian  court,  so  as  to  procure  for  them- 
selves presents,  the  means  of  living,  and  influence.  The  khan 
Mangu  was  accustomed  to  avail  himself  of  the  opportunity  fur- 
nished by  the  Christian,  Mohammedan,  and  pagan  festivals,  to 
give  entertainments.  On  these  occasions  the  Nestorian  priests 
first  presented  themselves  in  their  clerical  robes,  offered  up 
prayers  for  the  khan,  and  pronounced  a  blessing  over  his  cups ; 

*  He  says  of  Prester  John,  out  of  whom  he  makes  a  Nestorian  priest, 
-who  had  raised  himself  to  be  king :  "  Les  Nestoriens  disaient  de  lui 
choses  merveilleuses,  mais  beaucoup  plus  qu'il  n'y  avait  en  efl'et,  car  c'est 
la  coutume  des  Nestoriens  de  ces  pays  Ik,  de  faire  un  grand  bruit  de  peu 
de  chose,  ainsi  qu'ils  ont  fait  courir  partout  le  bruit,  que  Sartach  ^tait 
Chretien,  aussi  bien  que  Mangu-Cham  et  Ken-Cham,  k  cause  seulement, 
qu'ils  font  plus  d'honneur  aux  chr^tiens,  qu'k  tous  les  autres,  toutefois  il 
est  tres-certain,  qu'ils  ne  sont  pas  chr^tieps,"  See  his  report  in  the  col- 
lection of  Bergeron,  T-  I-  c.  19. 

t  L.  c.  p.  31,  60,  67,  X  L.C.  C.  28,  p.  60. 


RUBRUQUIS  IN  CONVEESATION  WITH  THE  MOX«JOLS.  71 

next,  the  Mohammedan  priests  did  the  same ;  last  of  all  came 
the  pagans,*  by  which,  perhaps,  we  are  to  understand  the 
Buddhist  priests,  for  there  are  many  indications  that  Buddhism 
had  already  spread  into  these  r^ons — a  thing,  indeed,  which 
might  have  taken  place,  even  at  a  much  earlier  period,  through 
missions  and  pilgrimages  of  the  Buddhists,  who  were  quite 
zealous  in  sprea^ng  the  doctrines  of  their  religion,  j"  At  this 
court  he  met  with  a  poor  weaver  from  Armenia,  who  called 
himself  a  monk,|  and  pretended  before  the  people  that  he 
came  from  Palestine,  in  obedience  to  a  special  divine  revela- 
tion. §  By  his  sanctimonious  airs,  his  quackery,  and  boasted 
wonder-working  medicines,  this  person  had  contrived  to  ac- 
quire considerable  influence  and  property  at  the  court  of  the 
khan,  especially  among  the  women,  [j  In  the  city  of  Caraco- 
rum  he  saw  twelve  idol-temples  belonging  to  different  nations, 
two  masques  for  Mohammedans,  and  one  church.  In  this 
Mongol  capital  he  distributed  the  sacrament  of  the  Supper,  oa 
Easter-Day,  to  a  large  number  of  Christians,  who  had  met  to- 
gether here  from  various  countries,  and  were  eager  to  enjoy 
fiiat  means  of  grace  of  which  they  had  long  been  deprived. 
To  more  than  sixty  persons,  moreover,  he  administered  bap- 
tism.^ After  having  resided  for  some  time  at  the  court,  he 
requested  of  the  great  khan  a  decisive  answer  to  the  question, 
whether  he  might  be  permitted  to  remain  in  the  country  as  a 
missionary,  or  whether  he  must  return  home.  In  consequence 
of  this,  on  the  Sunday  before  Whitsuntide  of  the  year  1253, 
he  was,  in  the  name  of  the  khan,  closely  questioned  respecting 
the  object  for  which  he  had  come,  by  certain  officers  of  the 
khan's  court,  among  whom  were  to  be  found  a  few  Saracens. 
After  he  had  explained  the  reasons  which  had  led  him  to 
extend  his  journey  so  far,  he  declared  that  the  only  object  he 

*  Rubruqais  writes,  c.  36,  p.  78 :  "  Tant  les  nns  que  les  aatres  suivent 
sa  cour,  comme  les  mouches  a  miel  font  les  fleurs,  car  il  donne  a  tous  et 
chacan  lui  desire  toutes  sortes  de  biens  et  de  prospentes,  croyant  etre  de 
ses  plus  particuliers  amis." 

t  Rubruquis  says,  c.  28,  p.  60  :  "  Les  pretres  idolatres  de  ce  pays  14 
portent  de  grands  chapeaux  ou  coqueluchons  jaunes  et  il  y  a  entre  eux 
aussi,  ainsi  que  j"ai  oui  dire,  certains  hermites  ou  anachoretes,  qui  viv  ■ 
dans  les  forets  et  les  moutagnes,  menant  une  vie  tres-surprenante  et  austere." 
In  ■which  characters  we  cannot  fail  to  recognize  a  Buddhist  element. 

t  L.  c.  c.  38.  ^  L.  c.  c.  48,  p.  133. 

i  L.  c.  p.  102,  133.  \  L.  c.  c.  42,  p.  102. 


72  EUBRUQUIS  IN  CONVERSATION  WITH  THE  MONGOLS. 

had  in  view  was  to  preach  the  word  of  God  to  the  Mongols,  if 
they  were  willing  to  hear  it.  He  was  asked  what  word  of  God 
he  proposed  to  preach  to  them  ;  for  they  supposed  that  by  the 
word  of  God  he  meant  certain  predictions  of  good  fortune, 
somewhat  of  the  same  sort  with  those  with  which  many  of  the 
wandering  ecclesiastics  and  priests  were  accustomed  to  flatter 
them.  But  he  told  them,  "  The  word  of  God  is  this  (Luke 
xii.  48),  '  Unto  whomsoever  God  has  given  much,  of  him 
shall  much  be  required ;  and  unto  whomsoever  God  has 
intrusted  less,  of  him  less  shall  be  required ;  and  he  to  whom 
most  is  intrusted,  is  also  loved  most.'  Now,  on  the  khan  God 
had  bestowed  the  most  ample  abundance  of  good  things ;  for 
of  all  that  greatness  and  might  of  which  he  was  possessed,  he 
was  indebted  for  nothing  to  idols  ;  but  for  all  to  God,  the 
creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  who  has  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  in  his  hands,  and,  on  account  of  men's  sins,  suffers  them 
to  pass  over  from  one  nation  to  another.  Therefore,  if  the  khan 
loved  God,  nothing  would  be  wanting  to  him ;  but,  if  he  con- 
ducted himself  otherwise,  he  might  be  sure  that  God  would  call 
him  to  a  strict  account  for  everything,  even  to  the  last  penny." 
Here  one  of  the  Saracens  asked,  "  Whether  there  was  a  man 
in  the  world  who  did  not  love  God  ?  "  "  He  who  loves  God," 
replied  Rubruquis,  "  keeps  his  commandments  ;  and  he  who  does 
not  keep  his  commandments,  does  not  love  him."  Upon  this 
they  asked  him,  "  Whether  he  had  ever  been  in  heaven,  so  as 
to  know  what  God's  commandments  are?"  "No,"  said  he, 
"  but  God  has  communicated  them  from  heaven  to  men,  who 
sought  after  that  which  is  good  ;  and  he  himself  came  down 
from  heaven  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  them  to  all  men.  In 
the  sacred  Scriptures  we  have  all  his  words,  and  we  find  out 
by  men's  works  whether  they  observe  them  or  not."  Upon 
this  they  put  him  the  ensnaring  question,  "  Whether  he  thought 
that  Mangukhan  kept  God's  commandments,  or  not  ?  "  But 
he  adroitly  evaded  the  dilemma,  contriving,  while  he  said 
nothing  but  the  truth,  to  avoid  uttering  a  word  which  could 
be  interpreted  to  the  khan's  disadvantage.  "  He  wished,"  he 
said,  "  to  lay  before  the  khan  himself,  if  he  pleased,  all  the 
commandments  of  God  ;  and  then  he  could  judge  for  himself 
whether  he  kept  them  or  not."  The  next  dcay  the  khan  de- 
clared that,  whereas  there  were  scattered  among  his  subjects, 
Christians,  Mohammedans,  and  worshippers  of  idols,  and  each 


DISPUTATION  BET>VEEN  THE  REUGIOUS  PARTIES.  73 

•party  held  their  own  law  to  be  the  best ;  therefore  it  was  his 
pleasure  that  the  advocates  of  the  three  religions  should  appear 
before  him,  and  each  hand  in  a  written  account  of  his  law  ;  so 
that,  by  comparing  them  together,  it  might  be  determined 
which  vras  the  best.  "  I  thanked  God,"  says  Rubruquis,*  "  that 
it  had  pleased  him  to  touch  the  khan's  heart,  and  bring  him 
to  this  good  decision.  And,  since  it  is  written  that  a  servant  of 
the  Lord  should  be  no  brawler,  but  gentle,  showing  meekness 
to  all  men,  and  apt  to  teach ;  therefore  I  replied,  that  I  was 
ready  to  give  an  account  of  my  Christian  faith  to  any  man  who 
required  it  of  me."  In  the  religious  conference  which  followed, 
Rubruquis  showed  immediately  his  great  superiority  to  the 
Nestorians.  The  Nestorians  proposed  that  they  should  com- 
mence the  disputation  with  the  ]Mohammedans  ;  but  Rubruquis 
thought  it  would  be  much  better  to  begin  with  the  idolaters, 
inasmuch  as  the  Christians  agreed  with  the  Mohammedans  in 
the  faith  in  one  God,  and  could  therefore,  on  this  point,  make 
common  cause  with  them  against  the  idolaters.  Furthermore, 
it  was  the  intention  of  the  Nestorians  to  prove  the  doctrine 
of  one  God,  against  the  idolaters,  from  Holy  Writ ;  but 
Rubruquis  explained  to  them  the  impossibility  of  effecting 
anything  in  that  way,  for  their  opponents  would  deny  the 
authority  of  the  Scriptures,  and  would  oppose  to  their  testi- 
mony otlier  authorities.  As  they  had  shown  themselves  so 
inexpert  in  these  preliminary  matters,  it  was  agreed  that  he 
should  speak  first,  and  in  case  he  were  foiled  in  the  argument, 
they  should  follow  him  up  and  endeavour  to  better  it.  On 
holy  eve  before  Whitsuntide  the  disputation  was  held.  The 
khan  had  previously  caused  it  to  be  announced,  that,  on  pe- 
nalty of  death  to  the  transgressor,  neither  party  should  dare  to 
injure  the  other,  or  to  excite  disturbances.  Three  secretaries 
of  the  khan,  a  Christian,  a  Mohammedan,  and  an  idolater, 
were  to  preside  as  umpires  over  the  debate. 

Rubruquis  endeavoured  to  prove,  in  opposition  to  the  ido- 
laters, the  necessity  of  recognizing  one  AJmighty  God,  the 
creator  of  all  things.  They,  on  the  other  hand,  being  ad- 
dicted to  a  certain  dualism,  wished  to  have  the  difficulty  solved, 
how  evil  could  possibly  proceed  from  this  one  God.  Ru- 
bruquis, however,  refiised  to  be  drawn  into  that  question; 

♦  L.  c.  c.  45. 


74  INTERVIEW  BETWEEN  KUBRUQUIS  AND  THE  KHAN. 

"for,"  said  he,  "  before  men  can  enter  into  any  discussion 
respecting  the  origin  of  evil,  it  would  be  necessary  first  to 
settle  the  question,  What  is  evil  ?"  Thus  he  compelled  them 
to  return  to  the  main  point.  As  to  the  Mohammedans,  they 
evaded  the  discussion,  declaring  that  they  held  the  law  of  the 
Christians,  and  all  that  the  gospel  teaches,  to  be  true ;  and  as 
they  acknowledged  also  one  God,  whom,  in  all  their  prayers, 
they  besought  to  give  them  grace  to  die  like  the  Christians,  so 
they  were  not  inclined  to  enter  into  any  dispute  with  them. 
Perhaps  the  Mohammedans  merely  wished  that  it  should  not 
appear  before  the  idolaters  as  if  there  were  any  dispute  be- 
tween the  worshippers  of  one  God,  and  hence  chose  on  the 
present  occasion  to  lay  stress  on  that  alone  which  they  held  in 
common  with  the  Christians.  Perhaps  Rubruquis  put  more 
into  their  reply  than  it  really  contained. 

He  had  already  heard  that  the  khan  had  determined  to  dis- 
miss him  ;  and  in  a  second  audience,  on  the  festival  of  Whit- 
suntide, the  decision  was  announced  to  him: — '"We,  Mon- 
gols," said  the  khan  to  him  at  this  interview,  "  believe  there  is 
but  one  God,  by  whom  we  live  and  die,  and  to  whom  our 
hearts  are  wholly  directed."  "  God  give  you  grace  to  do  so," 
said  Rubruquis,  "  for,  without  his  grace,  it  cannot  be  done." 
When,  by  means  of  his  interpreter,  the  khan  gathered  the 
sense  of  these  words,  as  well  as  the  former  could  express  it, 
said  he,  "As  God  has  given  many  fingers  to  the  hand,  so  he 
has  appointed  different  ways  of  salvation  for  man.  To  the 
Christians  he  has  given  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  they  do  not 
strictly  observe  what  is  prescribed  therein ;  nor  can  they  find 
it  written  there  that  one  class  should  censure  others."  He  asked 
Rubruquis  whether  he  found  that  in  the  Scriptures.  He  said 
"  No  ;"  and  then  added — "  but  I  also  told  you,  from  tlie  first, 
that  I  would  enter  into  controversy  with  no  man."  The  khan 
then  proceeded  : — "  I  say,  God  gave  you  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
whose  commandments  you  do  not  keep ;  but  to  us  he  has 
given  our  soothsayers  :*  we  do  whatsoever  they  prescribe  to  us, 
and  live  in  peace  with  one  another."  The  khan  was  careful 
to  avoid  entering  into  any  farther  conversation  with  Rubruquis, 
as  the  latter  wished,  on  religion ;  but  simply  made  known  to 

*  A  sort  of  people,  who  pretended  to  understand  soothsaying,  astrologj-, 
and  magic,  who  were  consulted  on  all  aflairs  of  state,  and  directed  all  re- 
ligious lustrations 


TWO  MONO  OL  EMPIRES  IN  PERSIA  AND  CHINA,  75 

hnn  his  command  that  he  should  now  leave  the  country,  for 
the  purpose  of  conveying  his  answer  to  the  letter  of  king  Louis 
the  Ninth.  Rubruquis  declared  his  readines  to  obey  ;  but  at 
the  same  time  be^ed  that  he  might  be  permitted,  after 
having  delivered  the  letters,  to  return ;  especially,  as  in  the 
city  of  Bolak  there  were  many  of  his  subjects  and  servants 
who  spoke  the  French  language,  and  who  were  in  want  of 
priests  to  preach  to  them,  and  also  to  impart  to  them  and  to 
their  children  the  sacraments  according  to  the  principles  of 
their  religion,  and  he  would  be  glad  to  settle  among  them. 
The  khan,  avoiding  a  direct  reply  to  this  request,  proposed  a 
querj'.  He  asked  Rubruquis  if  he  felt  certain  then  that  his 
king  intended  to  send  him  back  again.  To  this  Rubruquis 
replied,  that  he  did  not  know  what  the  king's  will  might  be ; 
but  he  had  perfect  liberty  from  him  to  go  wherever  he  thought 
it  necessary  to  preach  the  word  of  God,  and  it  seemed  to  him 
there  was  an  urgent  need  of  his  labours  in  these  countries. 
The  khan  dismissed  him,  however,  without  a  definite  answer 
to  his  request,  and  silence  here  was  tantamount  to  a  refusal. 
Rubruquis  concludes  his  account  of  this  final  interview  with 
the  remark,  '•  I  thought  that,  had  my  God  bestowed  on  me 
the  gift  to  work  such  miracles  as  Moses  did,  I  might  perhaps 
have  converted  the  great  khan." 

By  these  Mongols  two  great  empires  were  founded,  where 
their  government  must  have  had  an  important  influence  on  the 
situation  of  the  Christian  church.  One  was  the  empire  founded 
by  the  khan's  brother,  Hulagu,  after  the  year  1258,  in  Persia ; 
the  other,  the  principal  Mongol  empire  in  China.  Within 
the  former,  indeed,  was  the  original  seat  of  the  Nestorian 
church,  where  it  had  already  been  feivoured  by  the  Moham- 
medans. The  new  conqueror  was  induced  by  his  wife,  a 
Nestorian  Christian,  to  favour  Christianity  still  more.  Besides, 
there  were  matrimonial  alliances  of  the  succeeding  princes, 
with  the  families  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  and  political 
interests  which  brought  them  into  relation  witli  the  European 
princes  ;  and  they  were  sometimes  led  thereby  to  represent 
themselves  as  still  more  inclined  to  Christianity  than  was  reaUy 
the  case.  The  popes,  down  to  the  close  of  the  present  period, 
availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  famished  by  these  rela- 
tions to  send  monks  as  missionaries  to  Persia ;  but  the  favour 
thus  shown  to  Christianity  excited  a  jealousy  so  much  the 


76  TWO  MONGOL  EMPIRES  IN  PERSIA  AlTD  CHINA, 

more  violent  on  the  part  of  the  Mohammedan  class  of  tlie 
people,  and  a  contest  arose  between  them  and  the  Christian 
party  which  terminated  in  a  complete  victory  on  the  side  of 
the  former,  and  violent  persecutions  of  Christianity. 

As  it  regards  the  principal  empire  of  the  Mongols  in  China, 
it  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  religion  of  this  people  here  ob- 
tained for  the  first  time  a  determinate  shaping,  in  the  form  of 
Lamaism,  the  creation  of  a  hierarchy  which  sprang  out  of 
Buddhism.  The  Mongols  could  not  withstand  the  influence 
of  the  elements  of  culture  already  existing  in  that  country. 
Koblaikhan,  the  founder  of  this  empire,  distinguished  himself 
above  the  earlier  Mongol  princes  as  a  friend  of  education.  In 
religion,  he  seems  to  have  fallen  in  with  a  certain  eclectic 
tendency.  He  had  a  respect  for  all  religious  institutions,  and 
especially  for  Christianity,  though  he  was  very  far  from  being 
himself  a  Christian. 

His  court  was  visited  by  two  merchants  belonging  to  the 
Venetian  family  of  the  Poll :  they  were  favourably  received, 
and  resided  with  him  for  some  time.  He  finally  sent  them 
back  to  Europe,  in  company  with  a  man  of  his  own  court, 
with  a  commission  to  procure  for  him,  from  the  pope,  a  hun- 
dred learned  men,  who  should  be  well  instructed  in  Christi- 
anity ;  but  their  return  from  Rome  was  delayed  by  the  two 
years'  vacancy  which  befel  the  papal  chair  in  1272.  Gre- 
gory the  Tenth  having  been  elected  pope  in  1274,  sent 
them  back  to  China  with  two  learned  Dominicans ;  and  one 
of  the  two  Venetians  took  with  him  his  son  Marcus,  then  fif- 
teen years  old.  The  young  man  made  himself  accurately 
acquainted  with  the  languages  and  customs  of  those  nations : 
he  gained  the  particular  favour  of  Koblaikhan,  was  employed 
by  him  on  various  occasions,  and,  after  his  return  in  1295,* 
composed  his  account  of  these  regions,  from  which  we  obtain 
our  best  knowledge  respecting  the  state  of  Christianity  in  the 
same.  A  person  who  professed  to  be  a  Christian  (probably 
after  the  Nestorian  fashion)  had  rebelled  against  Koblaikhan. 
He  mounted  the  cross  on  his  banner,  and  moreover  employed 
several  Christians  in  his  service.  The  Jews  and  Saracens  in 
the  army  of  Koblaikhan  took  occasion  from  this,  after  that 
rebel  had  been  conquered,  to  attack  Christianity.     "Here," 

♦  De  regionibus  orientalibus,  libri  III. 


MOKTE  CORVINO  A  MISSIONARY  IN  THE  EAST.  77 

said  they,  "is  seen  the  weakness  of  Christ:  he  could  not 
procure  his  friends  the  victory."  But  Koblaikhan,  when  the 
Christians  complained  to  him  of  these  reflections,  took  their 
part.  "It  is  true,"  said  he,  "  the  rebel  did  look  for  aid  to 
the  Christian's  God;  but  He,  being  a  good  and  righteous 
God,  would  not  uphold  wickedness."  And  he  forbade,  for 
the  future,  all  such  calumnious  remarks  on  the  God  of  the 
Christians,  and  on  the  cross.* 

At  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  in  the  b^inning 
of  the  fourteenth,  a  man  laboured  in  these  districts,  in  whom 
we  recognize  the  pattern  of  a  true  missionary, — the  Francis- 
can John  de  Monte  Corvino.  He  seems  to  have  appeared 
first  in  Persia,  in  the  city  of  Tauris  (Tabris).  From  Persia 
he  travelled,  in  the  year  1291,  to  Indiaf  where  he  remained 
thirteen  months.  He  was  accompanied  by  the  Dominican 
Nicholas  de  Pistorio,  who  died  there.  In  different  districts 
he  succeeded  in  baptizing  a  hundred  persons ;  and  in  the 
second  letter  which  he  wrote  to  Europe,  he  declared  it  as  his 
belief,  that  "  great  results  might  be  expected  to  follow  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  in  those  regions,  if  substantial  men  of 
the  order  of  the  Dominicans  or  Franciscans  would  come  there." 
From  India  he  travelled  to  China ;  and  at  length  settled  down 
in  the  capital  and  residence  of  the  great  khan,  the  city  of 
Cambalu  (Pekin).  In  two  letters,  written  in  the  years  1305 
and  1306,  he  drew  up,  for  the  members  of  his  order,  a  brief 
report  of  his  adventures  and  labours. J  During  eleven  years 
he  had  laboured  entirely  alone,  when  he  was  joined,  in  the 
year  1303,  by  Arnold,  a  Franciscan  from  Cologne.  In  addi- 
tion to  other  obstacles,  he  had  to  encounter  much  opposition 
from  the  Nestorians,  who  would  not  suffer  any  man  to  move 
a  step  if  he  refused  to  join  their  party.  They  invented  many 
false  charges  against  him,  which  were  often  the  means  of 
bringing  him  into  great  peril.  He  was  frequently  obliged  to 
defend  himself  before  the  courts,  till  at  length  by  one  confes- 
sion, his  innocence  was  clearly  proved;  and  the  khan  (Kob- 
lai's  successor,  Timur-khan),   provoked  at  his  felse  accusers, 

•  See  Marco  Polo,  lib.  II.  c,  6. 

t  Regiones  sunt  pulcherrimap,  plenae  aromatibos  et  lapidibos  pretiosls, 
sed  de  fructibus  nostris  parum  habent. 

X  First  published  in  Wadding's  Annali,  T.  VI. ;  then  in  Mosbcim's 
Historia  eccles.  Tartaror 


78       MOXTE  CORVINO'S  MODE  OF  CONDUCTING  THE  MISSION. 

punished  them  with  banishment.  He  found  that  it  was  not  in 
his  power,  indeed,  to  convert  the  Chinese  emperor,  to  whom 
he  brought  a  letter  from  the  pope  ;  but  still  that  potentate 
treated  him  with  favour,  and  did  the  Christians  many  acts  of 
kindness.* 

This  distinguished  man,  displaying  the  wisdom  of  a  genuine 
missionary,  spared  no  pains  in  giving  the  people  the  word  of 
God  in  their  own  language,  and  in  encouraging  the  education 
of  the  children,  as  well  as  training  up  missionaries  from  among 
the  people  themselves.  He  translated  the  New  Testament 
and  the  Psalms  into  the  Tartar  language,  had  these  transla- 
tions copied  in  the  most  beautiful  style,  and  made  use  of  them 
in  preaching.f  He  purchased,  one  at  a  time,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  boys,  under  the  ages  of  seven  and  eleven,  who  were  as 
yet  utterly  ignorant  of  any  religion ;  baptized  them,  gave 
them  a  Christian  education,  and  taught  them  Latin,  Greek, 
and  psalmody.  Already  during  the  first  years  of  his  residence 
in  Cambalu,  he  was  enabled  to  build  a  church,  in  which,  with 
the  assistance  of  those  boys  who  had  been  trained  up  by  him- 
self, he  recited  the  liturgy,  so  that  he  could  truly  say,  "I 
hold  divine  service  with  a  troop  of  babes  and  sucklings."|  In 
this  church  he  set  up  six  pictures,  representing  stories  from 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  together  with  explanatory  re- 
marks in  the  Latin,  Persian,  and  Tartar  languages,  for  the 
instruction  of  the  uneducated  people.§  It  gave  him  great 
satisfaction  when  he  found  it  in  his  power  to  erect  a  second 
church  in  the  vicinity  of  the  emperor's  palace.  A  rich  and 
pious  Christian  merchant,  whose  acquaintance  he  had  formed 
in  Persia,  Peter  de  Lucalongo,  purchasedapieceof  property  on 
this  site,  and  made  him  a  present  of  it.  This  church,  which  he 
built  in  the  year  1305,  stood  so  near  the  walls  of  the  palace,  j] 
that  the  emperor  in  his  private  cabinet  could  hear  the  church 

♦  Qui  tamen  nimis  inveteratus  est  idolatria,  sed  malta  beneficia  praestat 
Christianis. 

■j-  Quae  feci  scribi  in  pulcherrima  litera  eorum,  et  scribo  et  lego  et 
praedico  in  patenti  et  manifesto  testimonium  legis  Christi. 

I  Cum  conventu  infantium  et  lactentium  divinum  officium  facio. 
Practice  had  to  supply  the  place  of  a  breviary  provided  with  notes.  Et 
secundum  usum  cantamus,  quia  notatum  officium  non  babemus. 

§  Ad  doctrinam  rudium,  ut  omnes  linguae  legere  valeant. 
I  Inter  curiam  et  locum  nostrum  via  sola  est,  distans  per  jactum  lapidis 
a  porta  Domini  Chamis. 


MOVTE  CORVINO'S  MODE   OF  CONDUCTING  THE  MISSION.        79 

psalmody ;  *  and  the  emperor  took  great  delight  in  the  singing 
of  children.  Monte  Corvino  now  divided  the  boys  between 
the  two  churches.  He  had  during  his  residence  in  this  place 
baptized  from  five  to  six  thousand  ;  and  he  believed  that,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  many  plots  laid  against  him  by  the  Nesto- 
rians,  he  would  have  succeeded  in  baptizing  above  thirty  thou- 
sand. In  the  first  years  of  his  residence  in  that  place,  he 
met  with  a  certain  prince,  George,  a  descendant  of  the  priest- 
kings.  This  person  was  persuaded  by  him  to  pass  over 
from  the  Nestorian  to  the  Catholic  church.  He  conferred  on 
him  the  inferior  ecclesiastical  consecration ;  after  which  the 
prince  assisted  him,  dressed  in  his  royal  robes,  in  performing 
divine  worship.  This  prince  had  induced  a  large  portion  of 
his  people  to  embrace  the  faith  of  the  Catholic  church,  had 
buUt  a  magnificent  church,  and  caused  it  to  be  called  after  a 
Roman  nanie.  It  had  also  been  his  intention  to  translate  the 
whole  Roman  liturgy  into  the  language  of  his  people,  and 
introduce  it  into  his  church  ;  but  he  died  in  the  year  1299, 
too  early  to  accomplish  his  design.  He  left  behind  him  a  son, 
still  lying  in  the  cradle.  This  son  was  baptized  by  Monte 
Corvino,  who,  as  his  god-father,  called  him  after  his  own 
name,  John. 

But  the  Nestorians  now  succeeded  in  once  more  obtaining 
the  mastery  in  this  coimtry  ;  and  all  that  had  been  done  by 
Monte  Corvino  in  the  interest  of  the  Catholic  church  fell  to 
the  ground.  "  Being  alone,"  he  wrote,  "  and  not  permitted 
to  leave  the  emperor,  it  was  out  of  my  power  to  ^^sit  churches 
situated  at  a  distance  of  twenty-days  journey  ;  nevertheless,  if 
a  few  good  helpers  and  fellow-labourers  should  come,  I  hope 
in  God  that  all  our  hopes  Avill  be  made  good,  for  I  still  retain 
the  privilegium  given  me  by  the  deceased  king  George."  For 
two  years  he  had  access  to  the  emperor's  court,  and,  as  papal 
legate,  was  more  honoured  by  him  than  any  other  ecclesiastic."!' 
He  was  con\Tnced,  that  with  two  or  three  more  assistants  to 
stand  by  him,  he  might  have  succeeded  in  baptizing  tlie  em- 

*  In  camera  sna  potest  andire  voces  nostras,  et  hoc  mirabile  factum 
longe  lateqac  divulgatnm  est  inter  gentes  et  pro  magno  erit,  sicut  disponet 
et  adimpleoit  divina  dementia. 

t  Ego  habeo  in  curia  sua  locum  et  viam  ordinariam  intrandi  et  sedendi 
sicnt  tegatos  Domini  Papae,  et  honorat  me  super  omnes  alios  prslatos, 
qnoconqoe  nomine  censeatur." 


80  INFLUENCE  OP  THE  CRDSADES.     FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI, 

peror  himself.  In  his  two  letters  he  urgently  begged  for  such 
assistants,  but  they  should  be  brethren,  who  would  seek  to 
stand  forth  as  examples,  and  not  to  make  broad  their  phylac- 
teries. Matthew  xxiii.  5.  "  I  am  already  become  old,", 
says  he  in  one  of  those  letters,  "  but  I  have  grown  grey  by 
labours  and  hardships,  rather  than  by  the  number  of  my  years, 
for  I  have  lived  but  fifty-eight  years."  The  pope  made  this 
excellent  man  archbishop  of  Cambalu,  and  sent  seven  other 
Franciscans  to  assist  him  in  his  labours. 

The  crusades  promoted  intercourse  between  the  East  and 
the  West,  but  the  connection  thus  brought  about  between  the 
Mohammedan  and  Christian  races  was  not  of  such  a  kind  as 
to  prepare  the  way  for  the  exertion  of  any  religious  influence 
on  the  former ;  although  that  which  Mohammedanism  had 
already  borrowed  from  Judaism  and  Christianity,  as  well  as 
the  intrinsic  contradictions  contained  within  itself,  might  have 
furnished  the  means  and  occasions  for  such  an  influence.  More- 
over, the  vicious  lives  of  a  large  portion  of  those  who  were  led 
to  the  East  by  the  crusades,  were  but  poorly  calculated  to  pro- 
duce on  Mohammedans  a  favourable  impression  of  the  religion 
which  these  men  professed.  But  it  is  apparent  from  indi- 
vidual examples,  how  much  might  have  been  effected  here  by 
the  gospel,  if  it  had  been  preached  with  Christian  enthusiasm, 
and  illustrated  by  holy  living.  When  a  Christian  army,  in 
the  year  1219,  was  besieging  the  city  of  Damietta  (not  far 
from  the  present  Damietta),*  in  Egypt,  Francis  of  Assisif 
stood  forth  in  that  army  as  a  preacher  of  repentance,  and  from 
thence  he  was  impelled  by  his  burning  zeal  to  go  over  to  the 
Mohammedan  army,  which  had  arrived  for  the  relief  of  the 
city.  He  was  dragged  as  a  captive  before  Malek  al  Kamel, 
the  sultan  of  Egypt.  The  sultan,  however,  received  him 
with  respect,  allowed  him  to  preach  several  successive  days 
before  himself  and  his  officers,  and  heard  him  with  great  at- 
tention. He  then  sent  him  back,  in  the  most  honourable 
manner,  to  the  camp  of  the  Franks,  saying  to  him,  as  he  took 
leave,  "  Pray  for  me,  that  God  may  enlighten  me,  and  enable 
me  to  hold  firmly  to  that  religion  which  is  most  pleasing  to 
him,"      This  story   we  have  from    an   eye-witness,    Jacob 

♦  See  Wilken's  Geschichte  der  Kreuzztige,  Bd,  vi.  p.  186. 
f  Of  whom  we  shall  speak  more  at  large  farther  on. 


STORIES  TOLD  OF  FRAXCIS  B?  JACOB  DE  VITRY.  81 

de  Vitr)',*  bishop  of  Acco  (Ptolemais,  St.  Jean  d'Acre),  in 
Palestine  afterwards  cardinal,  who  was  then  present  in  the 
army  there  assembled."!"  In  a  letter  written  immediately  after 
the  capture  of  Damietta,  in  which  he  drew  up  for  the  regular 
canonicals  of  Liege,  to  which  order  he  once  belonged,  a  report 
of  that  important  event,  he  gives  at  the  same  time  this  account 

*  a  Vitriaca 

■j-  See  his  Historia  occidentalis,  c  32.  Bonaventara,  in  his  life  of  St 
Francis,  relates  that,  in  the  thirteenth  year  after  his  conversion,  which 
■would  coincide  very  nearly  with  the  time  mentioned  in  the  text,  Francis 
went  to  Syria,  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  the  sultan  or  Babylon,  not  fear- 
ing the  danger,  although  at  that  time  the  price  of  a  gold  Byzantine  was 
set  upon  the  head  of  every  Christian.  When  he  was  led  before  the 
sultan,  be  spoke  with  such  power,  that  the  sultan  was  carried  completely 
away  by  him,  heard  him  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  and  requested  him  to 
remain  longer  with  him.  Thereupon,  Francis  send  to  him,  that  if  he  and 
his  people  would  embrace  Christianity,  he  would  gladly  consent,  from 
love  of  the  Saviour  his  Master,  to  remain  with  him ;  but  if  he  could  not 
consent  to  this,  then  he  might  order  a  large  fire  to  be  kindled ;  into  this 
he  (Francis)  would  enter,  along  with  the  Mohammedan  priests ;  and  so 
it  would  be  determined  by  a  judgment  of  God  on  which  side  the  true 
faith  wa«  to  be  found.  The  sultan  objected  that  none  of  Aig  priests  would 
be  ready  for  that.  Whereupon,  Francis  declared,  if  the  sultan  would 
promise  him  that  he  with  his  people  would  embrace  Christianity  in  case 
he  should  come  forth  unharmed  from  the  flames,  he  would  enter  the  fire 
alone,  though,  should  he  be  devoured  by  them,  it  must  be  ascribed  to  his 
sins ;  but  if  the  power  of  God  delivered  him,  then  they  most  recognize 
Christ  as  their  Grod  and  Saviour.  The  saltan  declared  he  could  not 
venture  to  accept  such  a  proposal  for  fear  of  an  uproar  amongst  the 
people.  He  offered  Francis,  however,  many  presents,  and  upon  his 
declining  to  receive  them,  requested  him  to  distribute  them,  for  the 
salvation  of  the  donor's  soul,  amongst  the  Christian  poor  and  the 
churches ;  but  he  refused  to  take  them  even  for  this  purpose.  Something 
similar  is  related  also  by  the  disciple  of  Francis,  Thomas  de  Celano,  in 
his  Life  of  St  Francis,  s.  57.  Acta  Sanctor.  Mens.  Octob.  T.  II.  f.  699. 
It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted,  that  the  same  event  is  here  alluded  to  which 
Jacob  de  Vitry  relates,  the  scene  only  being  transferred  from  Egypt  to 
Syria,  and  in  place  of  the  sultan  of  Egypt  the  Sultan  of  Babylon  intro- 
duced, by  which  doubtless  is  meant  the  saltan  of  Damascus,  Malek  al 
Moaddhem  Isa,  a  fierce  enemy  of  the  Christians ;  which  substitution  of 
persons  might  the  more  easily  occur,  because  that  sultan  also  had  been  to 
Egypt  The  more  simple  and  exact  account  of  the  eye-witness  is  cer- 
tainly the  most  trustworthy.  The  two  others,  enthusiastic  admirers  of 
St  Francis,  followed  more  exaggerated  and  inaccurate  legends.  The 
appeal  to  a  judgment  of  God  is  undoubtedly  in  the  spirit  of  Francis,  and 
the  sultan  might  perhaps  have  returned  such  an  answer  to  it.  At  all 
events,  the  agreement  of  the  three  accounts  in  the  essential  point,  vouches 
for  the  truth  of  the  feet  lying  at  bottom. 

VOX..  VII.  O 


82  STORIES  TOLD  OF  FRANCIS  BY  JACOB  DE  VITRY. 

of  the  labours  of  Francis.*  He  also  states,  as  an  eye-witness, 
that  the  Mohammedans  gladly  listened  to  missionaries  of  the 
Franciscan  order,  when  they  spoke  of  the  Christian  faith,  as 
long  as  they  refrained  from  reviling  Mohammed  as  a  false  pro- 
phet. But  no  sooner  did  they  fall  into  such  abuse  than  they 
exposed  themselves  to  be  severely  treated,  and  even  to  lose 
their  lives,  and  were  driven  away.j  Had  they,  then,  united  to 
their  glowing  zeal  a  prudent  spirit ;  had  they  been  able  to  ab- 
stain awhile  longer  from  rash  polemical  disputes ;  their  preach- 
ing would  perhaps  have  been  followed  with  happier  results. 

Among  the  rare  phenomena  in  the  history  of  missions,  may 
be  reckoned  the  combination  of  a  scientific  spirit  with  earnest 
zeal  for  the  cause  of  Christ ;  the  appropriation  of  science  as  a 
means  for  promoting  the  spread  of  the  gospel,  as  an  instrument 
for  attacking,  on  its  own  chosen  grounds,  some  other  form  of 
culture  standing  in  hostility  to  Christianity.  The  example  of 
the  great  Alexandrian  church-teachers,  who  had  in  this  way 
done  so  much  for  the  overthrow  of  that  Hellenic  culture  which 
furnished  a  prop  for  paganism,  was  forgotten  or  remained 
imnoticed ;  nor  was  there  any  call  for  this  method  among 
rude  tribes,  where  it  could  find  no  application.  But  there 
could  be  no  question  about  the  advantage  of  employing  it  for 
the  promotion  of  missions  in  those  parts  where  Christianity,  in 
order  to  find  entrance  into  the  minds  of  a  people,  must  first 
enter  into  the  contest  with  some  existing  culture  closely  in- 
woven with  a  hostile  system  of  religion.  We  close  this  history 
of  missions  with  an  account  of  the  labour  of  an  extraordinary 
individual  who,  by  employing  a  method  of  this  kind,  takes  a 
prominent  and  peculiar  place  among  the  missionaries  of  this 

*  Epistola  Jacobi  Acconensis  episcopi  missa  ad  religiosos,  familiares  et 
notQs  suos  in  Lotharingia  existentes,  de  captione  Damiatse.  Here  he  at 
last  says  of  Francis :  "  Cum  venisset  ad  exercitiim  nostrum,  zelo  fidei 
accensus,  ad  exercitum  hostium  nostrorum  ire  non  timuit  et  cum  multis 
diebus  Saracenis  verbum  Domini  prasdicasset,  et  cum  parum  profecisset, 
tunc  Soldanus  Rex  Mgypti  ab  eo  in  secreto  petiit,  ut  pro  se  Domino  sup- 
plicaret,  quatenus  religioni,  qua3  magis  Deo  placeret,  divinitus  inspiratus 
adhcDreret."     Vid.  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  ed.  Bongars.     T.  II.  f.  1149. 

t  The  words  of  J.  de  Vitry  in  the  Hist.  Occident.  I.e.:  "  Saraceni  autem 
omnes  fratres  minores  tarn  diu  de  Christi  fide  et  evangelica  doctrina  prse- 
dicantes  libenter  audiunt,  quousque  Mahometo,tanquam  mendacietperfido, 
praidicatione  sua  manifeste  contradicunt.  Ex  tunc  autem  eos  impie 
verberantes,  et  nisi  Dens  mirabiliter  protegeret  psene  trucidantes,  de  civi- 
tatibos  suis  expellunt." 


RAYMOND  lull:   HIS  OONYEESIOX.  8S 

period,  and  constitutes  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  missions 
generally,^ — a  man  distinguished  for  combining,  though  he 
may  not  have  conciliated  into  harmonious  union,  moral  and 
intellectual  traits  very  different  in  their  kind,  and  seldom 
meeting  together  in  the  same  person ;  we  mean  Eaj-mund 
Lull,  who  was  born  in  the  island  of  Majorca  in  1236. 

Until  the  age  of  thirty,  he  had  lived  wholly  to  the  world. 
A  stranger  to  all  higher  aspirations,  he  resided  at  the  court  of 
the  king  of  the  Balearian  islands,  where  he  occupied  the  post 
of  seneschal.  Even  after  his  marriage  he  continued  to  pursue 
pleasures  not  altogether  consistent  vnth  conjugal  fidelity ;  and 
the  theme  of  his  poetical  compositions  was  sensual  love.  But 
that  feeling  of  Christian  piety  which,  as  it  moved  his  age  and 
the  people  among  whom  he  lived,  had  been  instilled  also  by 
education  into  his  early  affections,  and  that  not  without  suc- 
cess, brought  on  a  reaction  against  the  hitherto-governing 
principle  of  his  life.  One  night,  whilst  sitting  by  his  bed, 
occupied  in  composing  a  love-sonnet,  the  image  of  Christ  on 
the  cross  all  at  once  presented  itself  before  his  eyes.  It  made 
so  powerful  an  impression  on  him,  that  he  could  write  no 
farther.  At  another  time,  when  he  attempted  to  resume  his 
pen,  the  same  image  reappeared,  and  he  was  obliged  to  desist, 
as  before.*  Day  and  night  this  image  floated  before  his  fancy ; 
nor  could  he  find  any  means  of  resisting  the  impression  it 
made  on  him.  Finally,  he  looked  upon  these  ^^sions  as  sent 
for  the  purpose  of  warning  him  to  retire  from  the  world,  and 
to  consecrate  himself  wholly  to  the  service  of  Christ ;  but 
now  the  question  occurred  to  him,  "  How  can  I  possibly  make 
the  change  from  the  impure  life  I  have  led  to  so  holy  a 
calling  ?"     This  thought  kept  him  awake  whole  nights.     At 

*  We  here  follow  the  treatise  relating  to  a  portion  of  the  Life  of  Ray 
mand  Lull,  which  was  composed  while  Lull  was  still  liTing.  by  a  man 
who,  as  it  seems,  was  accurately  acquainted  with  his  subject,  perhaps  the 
companion  of  his  missionary  journeys,  published  in  the  Actis  Sanctorum, 
at  the  31st  of  June ;  Mens.  Jun.  T.  V.  f.  661.  More  recent  accounts  (see 
Wadding's  Annales  Franciscan.  T.  IV.  an.  1275.  §  4)  state,  that  an  unfor- 
tunate love-afiFair  with  a  lady  who  was  married,  and  suffering  under  a 
cancerous  afl'ection,  was  the  first  occasion  of  the  change  in  his  religions 
feelings.  As,  however,  the  trustworthy  narrative  of  the  unknown  writ» 
just  referred  to  mentions  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  vre  do  not  know  from 
what  source  this  account  was  derived,  it  remains,  to  say  the  least 
doubtfiiL 

g3 


84  RAYMOND  LULL  :    HIS  MISSIONARY  PLANS. 

last,  said  he  to  himself,  "  Christ  is  so  gentle,  so  patient,  so 
compassionate ; — he  invites  all  sinners  to  himself;  therefore 
he  will  not  reject  me,  notwithstanding  all  my  sins."  Thus  he 
became  convinced  it  was  God's  will  that  he  should  forsake 
the  world  and  consecrate  himself,  with  his  whole  heart,  to  the 
service  of  Christ.  When  this  new  life,  this  life  animated  by 
the  love  of  God  and  the  Saviour,  began  to  dawn  within  him, 
from  that  moment  he  was  conscious,  for  the  first  time,  of  a 
new  elevation  imparted  to  his  whole  being.  The  latent  powers 
of  this  extraordinary  mind,  now  first  stirred  in  its  depths,  powers 
which  had  hitherto  lain  dormant,  began  to  discover  themselves. 
The  man  of  warm  and  excitable  feelings,  of  quick  and  lively 
imagination,  could  now  find  pleasure  in  the  dry  forms  of  logic ; 
but  we  must  allow  that  this  fertile  imagination  could  bring  so 
much  the  more  meaning  into  those  empty  logical  forms.  And 
all,  in  his  case,  proceeded  from  that  one  religious  idea,  which 
from  this  time  forward  actuated  his  whole  life,  gave  direction 
to  all  his  plans,  and  by  which  the  most  heterogeneous  aims 
and  endeavours  were  united  together. 

Being  now  resolved  to  consecrate  himself  entirely  to  the 
service  of  the  Lord,  he  next  pondered  upon  the  best  method  of 
carrying  this  resolution  into  effect ;  and  he  came  to  a  settled 
conviction  that  to  the  Lord  Christ  no  work  of  his  could  be 
more  acceptable  than  that  of  devoting  himself  to  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel ;  in  doing  which  his  thoughts  were  directed 
particularly  to  the  Saracens,  whom  the  crusaders  had  attempted 
in  vain  to  subdue  by  the  sword.  But  now  a  great  difficulty 
arose :  how  could  he,  an  ignorant  layman,  be  fit  for  such  a 
work  ?  While  perplexed  in  labouring  to  resolve  this  difficulty, 
the  thought  suddenly  occurred  to  him,  that  he  might  write  a 
book  serving  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  Christianity  in  op- 
position to  all  the  errors  of  the  infidels ;  and  with  this  thought 
was  afterwards  connected  the  idea  of  a  universal  system  of 
science.  The  whole  suggestion  rose  up  with  such  strength  in 
his  soul  that  he  felt  constrained  to  recognize  it  as  a  divine  call. 
Nevertheless,  he  reasoned  with  himself,  even  supposing  he 
were  able  to  write  such  a  book,  of  what  use  would  it  be  to  the 
Saracens,  who  understood  nothing  but  Arabic?  Thus  the 
project  began  already  to  unfold  itself  in  his  mind,  of  applying 
to  the  pope  and  to  the  monarchs  of  Christendom,  calling  upon 
them  to  establish  in  certain  monasteries  foundations  for  study- 


HIS  SCIKNTIFIC  DEFEKCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  85 

ing  and  acquiring  the  Arabic  tongue,  as  well  as  other  languages, 
spoken  amongst  infidel  nations.  From  such  establishments 
missionaries  might  go  forth  to  all  regions.  Thus  he  came 
upon  the  idea  of  founding  linguistic  schools  for  missionary- 
purposes.  The  day  after  these  thoughts  occurred  to  him,  and 
took  so  deep  hold  of  his  mind,  he  repaired  to  a  neighbouring 
church,  where  with  warm  tears  he  besought  the  Lord,  that  he, 
who  by  his  own  Spirit  had  inspired  these  three  thoughts  within 
him,  would  now  lead  him  on  to  the  execution  of  the  contem- 
plated work  in  defence  of  Christianity,  to  the  establishing  of 
those  schools  for  missions  and  the  study  of  the  languages,  and 
finally  to  the  entire  dedication  of  his  life  to  the  cause  of  the 
Lord.  This  took  place  in  the  beginning  of  the  month  of  July ; 
but  it  was  not  all  at  once  that  this  new  and  higher  direction  of 
life  could  gain  the  absolute  ascendancy  in  his  soul.  Old  habits 
were  still  too  strong ;  and  so  it  happened  that,  during  the 
space  of  three  months,  Raymund  Lull  ceased  to  occupy  him- 
self any  longer  with  these  thoughts,  upon  which  he  had  so 
eagerly  seized  at  first.  Then  came  the  fourth  of  October, 
dedicated  to  the  memory  of  St.  Francis  ;  and  in  the  Franciscan 
church  at  Majorca  he  heard  a  bishop  preach  on  St.  Francis's 
renunciation  of  the  world.  By  this  sermon  his  holy  resolutions 
were  again  called  to  mind.  He  resolved  to  follow  at  once  the 
example  of  St.  Francis.  Selling  his  property,  of  which  he 
retained  only  as  much  as  sufficed  for  the  support  of  his  wife 
and  children,  he  gave  himself  up  wholly  to  the  Lord  Christ, 
and  left  his  home  with  the  intention  of  never  returning  back 
to  it.  His  next  step  was  to  make  pilgrimages  to  several  • 
churches  then  standing  in  high  consideration,  for  the  purpose 
of  imploring  God's  blessing,  and  the  intercession  of  the  saints, 
that  he  might  be  enabled  to  carry  out  the  three  thoughts 
which  had  been  suggested  to  him  in  so  remarkable  a  manner. 

He  now  proposed  going  to  Paris,  for  the  purpose  of 
qualifying  himself  by  a  course  of  scientific  studies  for  the 
accomplishment  of  his  plans  ;  but  through  the  influence  of  his 
kinsmen  and  friends,  particularly  of  that  fiimous  canonist,  the 
Dominican  Raymund  de  Pennaforte,  he  was  dissuaded  from 
this  project.  Remaining  therefore  in  Majorca,  he  there  b^au 
his  studies,  having  first  exchanged  the  rich  attire  belonging  to 
his  former  station  in  life,  for  a  coarser  dress.  Purchasing  a 
Saracen  slave,  he  made  him  his  instructor  in  Arabic ;  and  we 


86  lull's  scientific  defence  of  CHRISTIANITY. 

cannot  but  admire  the  energy  and  resolution  of  the  man,  who, 
after  having  spent  so  many  years  of  his  life  in  society  and 
pursuits  of  so  entirely  diiferent  a  nature,  and  certainly  never 
applied  the  powers  of  his  mind  to  severe  thought,  could  throw 
himself,  at  so  late  a  period,  into  the  midst  of  the  driest  dialec- 
tical studies,  and  even  take  delight  in  them. 

At  first,  Raymund  Lull  diligently  employed  himself  in 
tracing  the  leading  outlines  of  a  universal  formal  science. 
This  was  his  Ars  major,  or  generalis,  designed  as  the  pre- 
paratory work  to  a  strictly  scientific  demonstration  of  all  the 
truths  of  Christianity.  We  perceive  in  it,  how  the  religious, 
and  especially  the  apologetical,  interest  gave  direction  to  all 
his  thoughts,  and  how  closely  he  kept  his  eye  fixed  on  this  one 
object,  even  when  moving  in  the  driest  tracts  of  formalism. 
He  was  for  founding  a  science,  by  means  of  which  Christianity 
might  be  demonstrated  with  strict  necessity,  so  that  every 
reasonable  mind  would  be  forced  to  admit  its  truth.  Perhaps 
he  might  be  flattering  himself  that  a  certain  means  would  thus 
be  secured  for  converting  all  unbelievers,  particularly  those 
whom  he  chiefly  had  in  view,  the  Mohammedans,  who  were 
wrapped  up  in  the  prejudices  of  their  Arabian  philosophy. 
"  If  he  but  succeeded,"  he  thought,  "  in  refuting  all  their 
objections  to  Christianity,  then,  since  they  would  not  be  able 
to  refute  the  arguments  which  he  could  bring  in  defence  of 
Christian  truth,  their  learned  men  and  sages  must  of  necessity 
embrace  Christianity."* 

There  were  two  parties,  against  whom,  from  the  vantage- 
ground  of  his  much-promising  science,  he  zealously  contended  : 
on  the  one  side,  against  those  who  looked  upon  such  a  science  as 
derogatory  to  faith,  which  by  the  very  act  of  renouncing  every 
attempt  to  comprehend,  preserved  its  self-denying  character 
and  had  its  merit  ;|  on  the  other,  against  those  who,  perverted 

*  In  the  Introductio  to  the  Necessaria  demonstratio  articulorum  fidei, 
he  says  :  "  Rogat  Raymundus  religiosos  et  scculares  sapientes,  ut  videant, 
si  rationes,  quas  ipse  facit  contra  Saracenos  approbaudo  fidem  Catholicam 
habeant  veritatem,  quia  si  forte  aliquis  solveret  rationes,  qu!E  per  Sarace- 
nos contra  fidem  Catholicam  opponuntur,  cum  tameu  ipsi  rationes,  quse 
fiunt  pro  eadem,  solvere  non  valerent,  fortificati  Saraceni  valde  literati  et 
sapifntes  se  facerent  Christianos." 

f  Dicunt,  quod  fides  non  habet  meritum,  cnjus  humana  ratio  prsbet 
experimentum  et  ideo  dicunt,  quod  non  est  bonum,  probare  fidem,  ut  non 
amittatur  meritum.    Asserentes  autera  ista  et  dogmatizantcs,  quauquam 


RELATIONS  OF  FAITH  AND  KNOWLEDGE.  87 

by  the  influence  of  a  sceptically  inclined  Arabian  philosophy, 
took  advantage  of  the  supposed  opposition  between  philoso- 
phical and  theological  truth,  and  while  they  hypocritically 
pretended  that  reason  was  led  captive  to  obedience  of  the  faith, 
propagated  their  dogmas,  which  were  opposed  to  Christianity 
and  to  the  doctrine  of  the  church,  as  philosophical  truth.  He 
maintained  against  such,  that  although  faith  proceeded  first 
from  a  practical  root,  firom  the  bent  of  will  towards  the  things 
of  God,  and  although  what  was  thus  appropriated  became  a 
source  of  nourishment  and  strength  to  the  heart  ;*  yet,  having 
this  &ith.  Christians  were  then  required  to  soar  by  means  of 
it  to  a  loftier  position,  so  as  to  attain  a  knowledge  of  the  solid 
groundwork,  the  necessary  truths,  upon  which  faith  reposes ; 
so  that,  what  had  been  at  first  only  a  source  of  nourishment 
to  the  heart,  would  then  prove  a  source  of  nourishment  also  to 
the  inteUect.f  The  intellect  would  always  be  accompanied  in 
its  investigations  by  faith ;  strengthened  by  that,  and  em- 
boldened to  attempt  higher  flights,  it  would  continually  mount 
upward,  while  faith  would  keep  equal  step,  and  ever  make 
increase  with  the  advance  of  knowledge.}  It  is  remarkable 
that  two  men  of  so  different  a  stamp,  and  both  so  original, 
Abelard,§  the  man  of  sober  miderstanding  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, and  Raymund  Lull,  who  combined  logical  acumen  with 
a  profound  mysticism  and  the  warm  glow  of  religious  sentiment, 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  should  in  like  manner  defend  the 
position  of  science  over  against  that  of  faith  standing  alone. 
In  LuU,  however,  it  was  the  enthusiastic  hope  of  finding  a 
method  of  argumentation  suited  to  convince  all  unbelievers  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity,  which  constituted  the  moving  spring 
of  his  philosophical  inquiries. 

As  he  believed  it  was  by  a  divine  suggestion  he  was  first 

magnog  se  reputent,  et  quod  pejus  est  ab  aliis  reputentur,  ostendant  se 
manifestisfiime  ignorantes. 

*  Ipsa  fides,  quae  volontatis  firmiter  earn  credentium  erat  pabulum  et 
fomentum. 

+  Fides  fundameuta,  quibns  innititur,  necessarias  scilicet  rationes, 
ministrabit  iisdem,  ut  sint  eorum  pabulum  intellectus. 

X  Ipsa  fides  intellectum  in  se  ipsa  fundans  eumqne  investigando  continue 
concomitans  et  eonfortans  supra  intellectus  vires  et  potentiam  excaudescit, 
quia  fatigari  nesciens  semper  nititur  intensins  et  altins  ad  credendum, 
propter  quod  fides  in  altios  erigitur  et  meritum  credentium  ampliator. 

§  See  regarding  him  on  a  future  page. 


•88  RAYMUND  EMBARKS  FOR  NORTH  AFRICA. 

impelled  to  search  after  a  method  capable  of  guiding  all  to"  a 
conviction  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  ;  so  it  was  in  the 
solemn  hour  of  devotion  that  the  light  first  burst  in  upon  him, 
and  disclosed  the  way  in  which  he  might  conduct  his  search 
with  success.  He  had  retired,  for  eight  days,  to  a  mountain, 
in  order  that  he  might  there  devote  himself  without  disturbance 
to  prayer  and  meditation.  While  he  was  in  this  solitude,  the 
idea  of  the  above-mentioned  Ars  generalis  burst  all  at  once  in 
a  clear  light  upon  his  soul.  Leaving  the  mountain,  he  repaired 
to  another  spot,  and  drew  out  a  sketch  of  the  work  according 
to  that  idea,  which  he  looked  upon  as  a  divine  revelation. 
After  this,  he  returned  to  the  mountain ;  and  on  the  spot 
where  the  light  first  broke  in  upon  his  mind,  settled  himself 
down  as  an  anchorite,  spending  about  four  months  there, 
praying  to  God  night  and  day,  that  he  would  employ  him, 
together  with  the  Ars  generalis  which  had  there  been  revealed 
to  him,  for  his  own  glory  and  for  the  advancement  of  his 
kingdom.  He  published  his  discovery  at  Montpelier  and  at 
Paris ;  he  delivered  lectures  on  the  Ars  generalis ;  he  trans- 
lated the  work  himself  into  Arabic.  His  labours  in  this  way 
extended  through  a  period  of  nine  years.  Next,  in  the  year 
1275,  he  prevailed  on  Jacob,  king  of  the  islands  Majorca  and 
Minorca,  to  found  on  the  former  of  these  islands  a  monastery 
for  the  express  purpose  of  constantly  supporting  in  it  thirteen 
Franciscan  monks  who  were  to  be  instructed  in  the  Arabic 
language,  with  a  view  to  labour  as  missionaries  amongst  the 
Saracens.  In  1286  he  went  to  Rome,  for  the  purpose  of  per- 
suading pope  Honorius  the  Fourth  to  approve  his  plan  of 
establishing  such  missionary  schools  in  the  monasteries  every- 
where ;  but  when  he  arrived,  that  pope  was  no  longer  living, 
and  the  papal  chair  was  vacant.  A  second  visit  to  Rome  on 
the  same  errand  was  attended  with  no  better  success. 

Finding  that  he  could  not  establish,  as  he  wished,  a  plan  of 
united  effort  for  the  promotion  of  this  holy  enterprise,  he  now 
felt  constrained  to  embark  in  it  by  himself,  and  proceed  wholly 
alone,  as  a  missionary  among  the  infidels.  .  For  this  purpose 
he  repaired,  in  the  year  1287,  to  Genoa,  and  engaged  his  pas- 
sage in  a  ship  bound  to  North  Africa.  As  a  great  deal  had 
already  been  heard  about  the  remarkable  change  which  Ray- 
mund  Lull  had  experienced,  about  his  ardent  zeal  to  effect  the 
conversion  of  the  infidels,  and  about  the  new  method  of  con- 


IK  TUNIS,  AMONG  THE  MOHAMMEDANS.  89 

version  \»hich,  in  his  own  opinion,  promised  such  magnificent 
results ;    so  his  project,  when  it  became  known  in  Genoa, 
excited  g^eat  expectations.     The  ship  in  which  Raymund  was 
to  embark,  lay  ready  for  the  voyage,  and  his  books  had  been 
conveyed  on  board,  when  his  glowing  imagination  pictured 
before  him,  in  such  lively  and  terrible  colours,  the  fete  which 
awaited  him  among  the  Mohammedans,  whether  it  was  to  be 
death  by  torture  or  life-long  imprisonment,  that  he  could  not 
summon  courage  enough  to  go  on  board.     But  no  sooner  had 
this  passed  over,  than  he  was  visited  with  remorseful  pangs  of 
concience,  to  think  that  he  should  prove  recreant  to  the  holy 
purpose  with  which  God  had  inspired  him,  and  occasion  such 
scandal  to  believers  in  Genoa;  and  a  severe  fit  of  fever  was 
the  consequence  of  these  inward  conflicts.    While  in  this  state 
of  bodily  and  mental  suffering,  he  happened  to  hear  of  a  ship 
lying  in  port,  which  was  on  the  point  of  starting  on  a  voyage 
to  Tunis ;  and  though  in  a  condition  seemingly  nearer  to  death 
than  to  Ufe,  he  caused  himself  to  be  conveyed  on  board  with 
his  books.     His  friends,    however,    believing   he   could   not 
possibly  stand  out  the  voyage  in  such  a  condition,  and  fuU  of 
anxiety,  insisted  on  his  being  brought  back ;  but  he  grew  no 
better,  for  the  cause  of  his  Ulness  was  mentcd.     Some  time 
afterwards,  hearing  of  another  ship  bound  to  Tunis,  nothing 
could  hinder  him  now  from  taking  measures  to  be  conveyed  on 
board ;  and  no  sooner  had  the  ship  got  to  sea,  than  he  felt 
himself  relieved  of  the  heavy  burden  which  oppressed  his  con- 
science ;  the  peace  he  formerly  enjoyed  once  more  returned  ;* 
for  he  found  himself  in  his  proper  element.     He  was  engaged 
in  fulfilling  the  duty,  which  he  recognized  as  obligatory  on 
him  by  the  divine  calling.     "With  the  health  of  his  soul,  that 
of  the  body  was  soon  restored  ;  and  to  the  astonishment  of  all 
his  fellow-passengers,  he  felt  himself,  after  a  few  days,  as  well 
as  he  had  ever  been  in  any  former  part  of  his  life. 

Eaymund  arrived  at  Tunis  near  the  close  of  the  year  1291 
or  the  beginning  of  the  year  1292,  and  immediately  inviting 
together  the  learned  scholars  among  the  Mohammedans,  ex- 
plained to  them  how  he  had  come  for  the  purpose  of  instituting 

*  The  uukuown  author  of  Lis  Life  finely  remarks  :  "  Sospitatem  con- 
scientiae,  quam  sub  nubilatione  supradicta  se  crediderat  amisisse,  subito 
Isetus  in  Domino  Saneti  Spiritus  illnstratione  misericordi  recuperavit  niii> 
cam  sui  corporis  langoidi  so^pitate." 


90  RAYMUND  IS  TUNIS. 

a  comparison  between  Christianity,  of  which  he  possessed  an 
accurate  knowledge,  as  well  as  of  all  the  arguments  employed  to 
defend  it,  and  Mohammedanism ;  and  if  he  found  the  reasons 
to  be  stronger  on  the  side  of  the  doctrines  of  Mohammed,  he 
was  ready  to  embrace  them.  The  learned  Mohammedans  now 
came  around  him  in  constantly  increasing  numbers,  hoping 
that  they  should  be  able  to  convert  him  to  Mohammedanism. 
After  he  had  endeavoured  to  refute  the  arguments  which  they 
brought  forward  in  defence  of  their  religion,  said  he  to  them, 
"  Every  wise  man  must  acknowledge  that  to  be  the  true  reli- 
gion which  ascribes  to  God  the  greatest  perfection,  which 
gives  the  most  befitting  conception  of  each  single  divine  attri- 
bute, and  which  most  fully  demonstrates  the  equality  and 
harmony  subsisting  among  them  all."  He  then  sought  to 
prove  that  without  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity,  and  of  the  incar- 
nation of  the  Son  of  God,  men  cannot  understand  the  per- 
fection of  God,  and  the  harmony  between  his  attributes.* 
Thus  he  would  prove  to  them  that  Christianity  is  the  only 
religion  conformable  to  reason. 

One  of  the  learned  Saracens,  more  fanatically  disposed  than 
the  rest,  directed  the  attention  of  the  king  to  the  danger  threat- 
ened to  the  Mohammedan  faith  by  Raymund's  zeal  for  making 
converts  ;  and  proposed  that  he  should  be  punished  with  death. 
Raymund  was  thrown  into  prison ;  and  already  it  was  deter- 
mined that  he  should  be  put  to  death,  when  one  of  their  learned 
men,  possessed  of  fewer  prejudices  and  more  wisdom  than  the 
others,  interceded  in  his  behalf.  Ht  'ooke  of  the  respect  due 
to  the  intellectual  ability  of  the  stranger,  and  remarked,  that 
"  as  they  would  praise  the  zeal  of  a  Mohammedan  who  should 
go  among  the  Christians  for  the  purpose  of  converting  them  to 
the  true  faith  ;  so  they  could  not  but  honour  in  a  Christian,  the 
same  zeal  for  the  spread  of  that  religion  which  appeared  to 
him  to  be  the  true  one."  These  representations  had  their 
effect  so  far  as  to  save  Raymund's  life ;  and  he  was  only  con- 
demned to  banishment  from  the  country.  On  leaving  the 
prison,  he  was  obliged  to  endure  many  insults  from  the  fanati- 
cal populace.  He  was  then  placed  on  board  the  same  Genoese 
vessel  in  which  he  had  arrived,  and  which  was  now  about  tc 

*  The  arguments  by  which  he  supposed  that  he  had  demonstrated  this, 
■we  cannot  stop  to  explain  till  we  come  to  the  section  which  treats  of 
doctrines. 


COSCLUDIXG  WORDS  OF  HIS  DEMOXSTRATIOX.  91 

depart ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  was  informed,  that  if  he  ever 
let  himself  be  seen  again  in  the  territory  of  Tunis,  he  should 
be  stoned  to  death.  As  he  hoped,  however,  by  persevering 
efforts  to  succeed  in  converting  many  of  the  learned  Saracens 
with  whom  he  had  disputed  ;  he  could  not  prevail  upon  himself, 
with  the  earnest  desire  he  felt  for  their  salvation,  to  abandon 
this  hope  quite  so  soon.  Life  was  not  too  dear  to  him  to  be  sa- 
crificed for  such  an  object.  Letting  the  vessel  on  board  which 
he  had  been  placed  sail  off  without  him,  he  transferred  himself 
to  another,  finom  which  he  sought  a  chance  of  getting  into 
Tunis  again  imobserved.  While  remaining  in  this  dangerous 
concealment  in  the  harbour  of  Tunis,  he  enjoyed  sufficient 
composure  to  labour  on  a  work  connected  with  his  system 
of  the  Universal  Science.*  Having  tarried  here  three  months 
without  effecting  his  main  object,  he  finally  sailed  off  with 
the  vessel,  and  proceeded  to  Naples.  Here  he  , loitered 
several  years,  delivering  lectures  on  his  new  system ;  till  the 
feme  of  the  pious  anchorite,  who  had  lately  become  pope  un- 
der the  name  of  Ccelestin  the  Fifth,  inspired  in  him  the  hope  of 
being  able  at  length  to  carry  into  effect  the  plan  for  promoting 
missionary  enterprises,  on  which  his  heart  had  so  long  been 
set.  But  Ccelestin's  reign  was  too  short  to  permit  this ;  and 
his  successor,  Bonifece  the  Eighth,  possessed  but  little  suscepti- 
bility to  religious  ideas  and  interests. 

During  his  residence  at  that  time  in  Rome,  in  the  year  1296, 
he  composed  the  work  previously  mentioned,  on  page  86,  in 
which  he  sought  to  show,  how  aU  the  truths  of  the  Christian 
feith  could  be  proved  by  incontestable  arguments.  In  the  con- 
cluding sentences  of  this  work  he  expresses  that  enthusiastic 
zeal  for  the  spread  of  the  Christian  £uth,  which  had  moved 
him  to  compose  it.  "  Let  Christians,"  says  he,  "  consumed 
with  a  burning  love  for  the  cause  of  &ith,  but  consider  that, 
since  nothing  has  power  to  withstand  the  truth,  which  by 
the  strength  of  arguments  is  mighty  over  all  things,  they  can, 
w  ith  God's  help  and  by  his  might,  bring  back  the  infidels  to 
tJhe  way  of  fiuth  ;  so  that  the  precious  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus, 
which  is  in  most  regions  of  the  world  still  unknown  to  the 

•  In  the  month  of  September,  1292,  he  commenced  writing,  in  the 
port  of  Tmiis,  his  Tabula  generalis  ad  omnes  scientias  appUcabilis,  as  he 
himself  states.  See  the  Commentaiius  prsevius  to  his  life,  in  the  Actis 
Sanct  Mens.  Jun.  T.  V.  £  645 


92  ratmund's  labours  in  Europe. 

majority  of  men,  may  be  proclaimed  and  adored ;  and  this  way 
of  converting  infidels  is  easier  than  all  others.  For,  to  the 
infidels,  it  seems  a  difficult  and  dangerous  thing  to  abandon 
their  own  belief  for  the  sake  of  another ;  but  it  will  be  im- 
possible for  them  not  to  abandon  the  faith  which  is  proved  to 
them  to  be  false  and  self-contradictory,  for  the  sake  of  that 
which  is  true  and  necessary."  And  he  concludes  with  these 
words  of  exhortation  :  "  With  bowed  knee  and  in  all  humility, 
we  pray  that  all  may  be  induced  to  adopt  this  method  ;  since 
of  all  methods  for  the  conversion  of  infidels,  and  the  recovery 
of  the  promised  land,  this  is  the  easiest  and  the  one  most  in 
accordance  with  Christian  charity.  As  the  weapons  of  the 
Spirit  are  far  mightier  than  carnal  weapons,  so  is  this 
method  of  conversion  far  mightier  than  all  others."  It  was  on 
the  holy  eve  before  the  festival  of  John  the  Baptist,  that  he 
wrote  tlje  above ;  and  hence  he  added :  "  As  my  book  was 
finished  on  the  vigils  of  John  the  Baptist,  who  was  the  herald 
of  the  light,  and  with  his  finger  pointed  to  him  who  is  the  true 
light ;  so  may  it  please  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  kindle  a  new 
light  of  the  world,  which  may  guide  unbelievers  to  their  con- 
version ;  that  they  with  us  may  go  forth  to  meet  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  to  whom  be  honour  and  praise,  world  without  end." 

Being  repulsed  at  Rome,  he  endeavoured,  for  a  series  of 
years,  to  labour  wherever  an  opportunity  offered  itself.  He 
sought  by  arguments  to  convince  the  Saracens  and  Jews  on 
the  island  of  Majorca.  He  went  to  the  isle  of  Cyprus,  and 
from  thence  to  Armenia,  exerting  himself  to  bring  back  the 
diff'erent  schismatic  parties  of  the  Oriental  church  to  ortho- 
doxy. All  this  he  undertook  by  himself,  attended  only  by  a 
single  companion,  without  ever  being  able  to  obtain  the  wished 
for  support  from  the  more  powerful  and  influential  men  of  the 
church.  In  the  intervals,  he  delivered  lectures  on  his  system 
in  Italian  and  French  universities,  and  composed  many  new 
treatises.* 

Between  the  years  1306  and  1307,  he  made  another  journey 
to  North  Africa,  where  he  visited  the  city  of  Bugia,  which 
was  then  the  seat  of  the  Mohammedan  empire.  He  stood 
forth  publicly,  and  proclaimed  in  the  Arabic  language,  "  that 

*  U  is  to  be  regretted  that  only  a  small  portion  of  his  works  has  ever 
been  published,  and  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  much  of  what  is  published. 


HIS  DEFENCE  OF  HIMSELF  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  93 

Christianity  is  the  only  true  reli^on ;  the  doctrine  of  Moham- 
med, on  the  contrary,  feilse :   and  this,  he  was  ready  to  prove 
to  every  one."     A  vast  concourse  of  people  collected  around 
him,  and  he  addressed  the  multitude  in  an  exhortatory  dis- 
course.    Already  many  were  about   to   lay  hands   on   him, 
intending  to  stone  him  to  death  ;  when  the  mufti,  who  heard  of 
it,  caused  him  to  be  torn  away  fix)m  the  multitude,  and  brought 
into  his  presence.     The  mufti  asked  him,  how  he  could  act  so 
madly,  as  to  stand  forth  publicly  in  opposition  to  the  doctrines 
of  Mohammed  ;  whether  he  was  not  aware  that,  by  the  laws  of 
the  land,  he  deserved  the  punishment  of  death  ?    Raymund  re- 
plied :    "A  true  servant  of  Christ,  who  has  experienced  the 
truth  of  the  Catholic  faith,  ought  not  to  be  appalled  by  the 
fear  of  death,  when  he  may  lead  souls  to  salvation."     The 
mufti,  who  was  a  man  well  versed  in  the  Arabian  philosophy, 
then  challenged  him  to  produce  liis  proofs  of  Christianity  as 
opposed   to   Mohammedanism.      Then  Raymund   sought   to 
convince  him  that,  without  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity,  the  self- 
sufficiency,  the  goodness  and  love  of  God,  could  not  be  rightly 
understood  ;  that  if  that  doctrine  be  excluded,  the  Divine  per- 
fections must  be  made  to  depend  on  that  creation  which  had  a 
beginning  in  time.    The  goodness  of  God  caimot  be  conceived 
as  inactive,  said  he ;  but  if  you  do  not  adopt  the  doctrine  of 
the  trinity  you  must  say,  that  till  the  beginning  of  the  creation 
God's  goodness  was  inactive,  and  consequently  was  not  so 
perfect.*     To  the  essence  of  the  highest  good  belongs  self- 
communication  ;  but  this  can  be  understood  as  a  perfect  and 
eternal  act  only  in  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity.     Upon  this,  he 
was  thrown  into  a  narrow  dungeon  ;   the  intercession  of  mer- 
chants from  Genoa  and  Spain  procured  for  him,  it  is  true, 
some  alleviation  of  his  condition ;    yet  he  remained  a  close 
prisoner  for  half  a  year.     IMeanwhile,  many  attempts  were 
made  to  convert  him  to  Moslemism.     The  highest  honours 
and  g^eat  riches  were  promised  him,  on  condition  that  he 
would  change  his  religion ;  but   to  all  these  advances  he  re- 
plie«i :    "  And  I  promise  you,  if  you  will  forsake  this   false 
religion,  and  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  greatest  riches  and 
everlasting  life."     It  was  finally  agreed,  at  the  proposal  of 

*  Ta  dicis,  quod  Dens  est  perfecte  boons  ab  sterno  et  in  stemam,  ergo 
non  indiget  mendicare  et  fecere  bouum  extra  se. 


94  raymund's  arrival  ix  pisa. 

Raymund,  that  a  book  should  be  written  on  both  sides,  in 
proof  of  the  religion  which  each  party  professed,  when  it  would 
appear  evident,  from  the  arguments  adduced,  which  had  gained 
the  victory.  While  Eaymund  was  busily  employed  in  com- 
posing such  a  work,  a  command  was  issued  by  the  king,  that 
he  should  be  put  on  board  a  ship  and  sent  out  of  the  country.* 
The  ship  in  which  he  sailed  was  cast  away,  in  a  violent 
storm,  on  the  coast,  not  far  from  Pisa.  Part  of  those  on  board 
jDerished  in  the  waves ;  Raymund,  with  his  companion,  was 
saved.  He  was  received  at  Pisa  with  great  honours,  and, 
after  having  passed  through  so  many  hardships,  he  still  conti- 
nued, although  far  advanced  in  years,  to  prosecute  his  literary 
labours  with  unremitted  zeal.  At  the  age  of  sixty,  he  toiled 
on  with  the  enthusiasm  of  youth  to  secure  the  one  object  which, 
ever  since  his  conversion,  had  formed  the  central  aim  of  his 
whole  life.  He  says  of  himself: — "  I  had  a  wife  and  children  ; 
I  was  tolerably  rich  ;  I  led  a  secular  life.  All  these  things  I 
cheerfully  resigned  for  the  sake  of  promoting  the  common 
good  and  diffusing  abroad  the  holy  faith.     I  learned  Arabic ; 

*  We  have  from  Raymund  himself  a  brief  notice  of  these  occurrences 
in  the  Liber,  qui  est  disputatio  Eaymundi  Christian!  et  Hamar  Saraceni ; 
at  the  end  of  which  book  it  is  stated  that  it  was  finished  at  Pisa,  in  tlie 
monastery  of  St.  Dominick,  in  April,  a.d.  1308.  It  was  the  Saracen 
Hamar,  who,  with  several  others,  visited  him  in  the  dungeon  at  Bugia, 
and  disputed  with  him  concerning  the  advantages  of  Christianity  and 
Mohammedanism.  He  says,  near  the  close  of  this  work,  "  Postquam 
Hamar  Saracenus  recesserat,  Raymundus  Christianus  posuit  in  Arabico 
pnedictas  rationes,  et  facto  libro,  misit  episcopo  Bugise  (the  person  at  tlie 
head  of  the  Mohammedan  cultus)  rogando,  ut  sui  sapientes  viderent  hunc 
librum,  et  ei  responderent.  Sed  post  paucos  dies  episcopus  praecepit, 
quod  praidictus  Christianus  ejiceretur  e  terra  Bugia  et  in  continenti  Sara- 
ceni miserunt  ipsum  in  quandam  navem,  tendentem  Genuam,  quae  navis 
cum  magna  fortuna  venit  ante  portum  Pisauum  et  prope  ipsum  per  decern 
milliaria  fuit  fracta  et  Christianus  vix  quasi  nudus  evasit  et  amisit  omues 
suos  libroset  sua  bona  et  ille  existens  Pisis  recordatus  fuit  pradictarum 
rationum,  quas  habuit  cum  supradicto  Saraceno  et  ex  illis  composuit  hunc 
librum."  He  sent  this  book  to  the  pope  and  the  cardinals,  that  they  might 
learn  what  arguments  the  Mohammedans  employed  to  draw  away  Chris- 
tians from  their  faith.  He  laments  to  say,  that  by  such  arguments,  and 
by  the  promise  of  riches  and  women,  they  win  many  to  their  religion. 
"  Et  quia  Christian!  uon  eurant  nee  volunt  auxilium  dare  Saracenis,  qui 
se  faciunt  Christianos,  inde  est  quod  si  unus  Saracenus  fit  Christianus, 
decern  Christian!  et  plures  fiant  Saraceni  et  de  hoc  habemus  experimentum 
in  regno  jEgypti,  de  quo  dicitur,  quod  tertia  pars  militia;  Soldani  fuerit 
Christiana." 


HIS  THKEEFOLD  PLAIT.  95 

I  have  several  times  gone  abroad  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
Saracens ;  I  have,  for  the  sake  of  the  faith,  been  cast  into 
prison  and  scourged ;  I  have  laboured  forty-five  years  to  gain 
over  the  shepherds  of  the  church  and  the  princes  of  Europe  to 
the  common  good  of  Christendom.  Now  I  am  old  and  poor, 
but  still  I  am  intent  on  the  same  object.  I  \vill  persevere  in 
it  till  death,  if  the  Lord  himself  permits  it."  He  sought  to 
found,  in  Pisa  and  Genoa,  a  new  order  of  spiritual  knights, 
who  should  be  ready,  at  a  moment's  warning,  to  go  to  war 
with  the  Saracens,  and  for  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
He  succeeded  in  exciting  an  interest  in  favour  of  his  plan, 
and  in  obtaining  letters  to  pope  Clement  the  Fifth,  in  which 
this  matter  was  reconunended  to  the  head  of  the  church. 
Pious  women  and  noblemen  in  Genoa  offered  to  contribute  the 
sum  of  thirty  thousand  guilders  for  this  object.  He  proceeded 
with  these  letters  to  visit  pope  Clement  v-*-.  Fifth  at  Avignon  ; 
but  his  plan  met  with  no  encouragement  from  that  pontiff. 
He  next  appeared  as  a  teacher  at  Paris,  and  attacked  with 
great  zeal  the  principles  of  the  philosophy  of  Averroes,  and 
the  doctrine  it  taught  respecting  the  opposition  between  theo- 
logical and  philosophical  truth.*  Meanwhile,  the  time  having 
arrived  for  the  assembling  of  the  general  council  of  Vienne, 
A.D.  1311,  he  hoped  there  to  find  a  favourable  opportunity  for 
carrying  into  effect  the  plan  which  for  so  long  a  time  had  oc- 
cupied his  thoughts.  Pie  was  intent  on  accomplishing  three 
objects :  first,  the  institution  of  those  linguistic  missionary 
schools,  of  which  we  have  spoken  on  a  former  page ;  secondly, 
the  union  of  the  several  orders  of  spiritual  knights  in  a  single 
one,  which  would  not  rest  till  the  promised  land  was  reco- 
\  ered ;  thirdly,  a  speedy  adoption  of  successful  measures  for 
checking  the  progress  of  the  principles  of  Averroes.  To 
secure  this  latter  object,  men  of  suitable  intellectual  qualifica- 
tions should  be  invited  to  combat  those  principles,  and  he 
himself  composed  a  new  work  for  this  purpose.  The  first  he 
actually  obtained  from  the  poi)e.  An  ordinance  was  passed 
for  the  establishment  of  professorships  of  the  Oriental  lan- 
guages ;  advising  that,  in  order  to  promote  the  conversion  of 

•  His  Lainentario  sea  expostalatio  philosophia;  s.  duodecim  principia 
philosophise,  dedicated  to  the  king  of  France,  which  he  composed  at  Paris, 
in  1310,  is  directed  against  the  Averroists. 


96  RAYMUND'S  return  to  AFRICA,  AND  DEATH. 

the  Jews  and  the  Saracens,  professional  chairs  should  be 
established  for  the  Arabic,  Chaldee,  and  Hebrew  languages  in 
all  cities  where  the  papal  court  resided,  and  also  at  the  uni- 
versities of  Paris,  Oxford,  and  Salamanca.  He  now  could  not 
bear  the  thought  of  spending  the  close  of  his  life  at  ease  in  his 
native  land,  to  which  he  had  returned  for  the  last  time.  He 
desired  nothing  more  than  to  offer  up  his  life  in  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  faith.  Having  spoken,  in  one  of  his  works,  of 
natural  death,  which  he  ascribed  to  the  diminution  of  animal 
warmth,  says  he,  "  Thy  servant  would  choose,  if  it  please 
thee,  not  to  die  such  a  death :  lie  would  prefer  that  his  life 
should  end  in  the  glow  of  love,  as  thou  didst,  in  love, 
offer  up  thy  life  for  us."*  "Thy  servant,"  says  he,  "is 
ready  to  offer  up  himself,  and  to  pour  out  his  blood  for  thee. 
May  it  please  thee,  therefore,  ere  he  comes  to  die,  so  to 
unite  him  to  thyself  that  he,  by  meditation  and  love,  may 
never  be  separated  from  thee."  On  the  14th  of  August, 
1314,  he  crossed  over,  once  more,  to  Africa.  Proceeding  to 
Bugia,  he  laboured  there,  at  first,  secretly,  in  the  small  circle 
of  those  whom,  during  his  last  visit  to  that  place,  he  had  won 
over  to  Christianity.  He  sought  to  confirm  their  faith,  and  to 
advance  them  still  farther  in  Christian  knowledge.  In  this 
way  he  might  no  doubt  have  continued  to  labour  quietly  for 
some  time,  but  he  could  not  resist  the  longing  after  martyr- 
dom. He  stood  forth  publicly,  and  declared  that  he  was  the 
same  person  whom  they  had  once  banished  from  the  country, 
and  exhorted  the  people,  threatening  them  with  divine  judg- 
ments if  they  refused,  to  abjure  Mohammedanism.  He  was 
fallen  upon  by  the  Saracens  with  the  utmost  fury.  After 
having  been  severely  handled,  he  was  dragged  out  of  the  city, 
and,  by  the  orders  of  the  king,  stoned  to  death.  Merchants 
from  Majorca  obtained  permission  to  extricate  the  body  of 
their  countryman  from  the  heaps  of  stones  under  which  it  lay 
buried,  and  they  conveyed  it  back,  by  ship,  to  their  native 
land.   The  .30th  of  June,  1315,  was  the  day  of  his  martyrdom.f 

*  The  words  of  Eaymund,  in  his  work  De  Contemplatione,  c.  cxxx. 
Distinct.  27,  f.  299  :  "  Homines  morientes  praj  senectute  moriuntur  per 
defectum  caloris  naturalis  et  per  excessum  fripoiis  et  ideo  tuus  servus  et 
tuus  subditus,  si  tibi  placeret,  non  vellet  mori  tali  mortc,  imo  vcUet  mori 
prse  amoris  ardore,  quia  tu  voluisti  mori  tali  moite." 

f  We  cannot  in  this  place  go  back  to  the  reports  ot  conieftiporaries, 


EELATION  OF  THE  JEWS  TO  CHBISTIAJWTY.  97 

We  must  now  cast  a  glance  at  the  relation  of  the  dispersed 
Jews  to  the  Christian  church. 

As  it  r^ards  the  Jews,  who  were  scattered  in  great  num- 
bers in  the  West,  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  frequent 
oppressions,  injuries,  and  persecutions  which  they  had  to  suffer 
from  the  fanaticism  and  cupidity  of  so-called  Christians,  were 
not  well  calculated  to  op«i  their  minds  to  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel ;  though,  through  fear,  and  to  escape  the  sufferings  or 
the  death  with  which  they  were  threatened,  they  might  be 
induced  to  submit  to  the  form  of  baptism,  and  to  put  on  the 
profession  of  Christianity.*  Hermann,  a  monk  of  the  twelfth 
century,  from  the  monastery  of  Kappenberg,  in  "Westphalia, 
who  himself  had  been  converted  from  Judaism  to  Christianity, 
speaking,  in  the  history  which  he  has  given  of  his  own  conver- 
sion, of  the  praiseworthy  conduct  of  an  ecclesiastic,  from 
whom,  when  a  Jew,  he  had  met  with  kindly  treatment,  goes  on 
to  say — "  Let  those  who  read  my  account  imitate  this  illus- 
trious example  of  love,  and  instead  of  despising  and  abhorring 
the  Jews,  as  some  are  wont  to  do,  let  them,  like  genuine 
Christians,  that  is,  followers  of  him  who  prayed  for  those 
that  crucified  him,  go  forth  and  meet  them  with  brotherly 
love.  For  since,  as  our  Saviour  says,  '  salvation  cometh  of 
the  Jews '  (John  iv.  22),  and  as  the  apostle  Paul  testifies, 
'through  their  fall  salvation  is  come  unto  the  Gentiles' 
(Romans  xi.  11),  it  is  a  worthy  return,  and  well  pleasing  to 
God,  when  Christians  labour,  so  &r  as  it  lies  in  their  power, 
for  the  salvation  of  those  from  whom  they  have  received  the 
author  of  their  salvation,  Jesus  Christ.  And  if  they  are  bound 
to  extend  their  love  even  to  those  from  whom  they  suffer 
wrong,  how  much  more  bound  are  they  to  show  it  to  those 
through  whom  the  greatest  of  all  blessings  has  been  derived 
to  them  ?     Let  them,  therefore,  so  fer  as  they  can,  cherish 

but  in  the  latpr  accounts  are  to  be  fonnd  difFerences.  According  to  one 
of  them,  he  met  his  death  in  Tunis ;  according  to  another,  he  first  •went 
to  Tunis,  and  afterwards  proceeded  to  Bugia.  If  we  may  believe  one 
account,  the  merchants,  after  having  uncovered  him  from  the  heap  of 
stones,  fonnd  a  spark  of  life  still  remaining ;  they  succeeded  in  fanning 
this  slumbering  spark  to  the  point  of  reanimation,  but  he  died  on  board 
ship,  when  in  sight  of  his  native  land. 

*  In  the  first  crusade,  the  Jews  in  Rouen  were,  without  distinction  of 
sex  or  age,  barred  up  in  a  church,  and  all  who  refused  to  receive  baptism 
murdered.     See  Guibert.  Novigentens.  de  vita  sua,  1.  II.  c.  v. 
VOL.    VII.  T, 


98  SPREAD  OF  FALSE  REPORTS  ABOUT  THE  JEWS. 

their  love  for  this  people,  helping  them  in  their  distresses,  and 
setting  them  an  example  of  all  well-doing,  so  as  to  win  by  their 
example  those  whom  they  cannot  persuade  by  their  words,  for 
example  is  really  more  etfectual  than  words  in  producing  con- 
viction. Let  them,  also,  send  up  fervent  prayers  to  the  Father 
of  mercies,  if  peradventure  God  may  one  day  give  that 
people  repentance  to  the  acknowledging  of  the  truth,  2 
Timothy  ii.  25."  By  means  of  the  only  business  allowed  to 
them,  in  their  state  of  oppression,  traffic  and  usury,  they 
acquired  great  wealth ;  thereby  sometimes  attaining  to  great 
influence,  even  with  monarchs ;  but  this  wealth  also  excited 
the  cupidity  of  the  great,  and  exposed  them  to  be  still  more 
hated  and  persecuted.*  The  fanaticism  awakened  by  the  cru- 
sades was  often  directed  against  the  Jews,  as  the  domestic 
enemies  of  the  Cross ;  and  hundreds,  nay  thousands,  fell  vic- 
tims to  such  animosity.  Rumours  became  current  against  the 
Jews,  of  the  same  description  as  have  prevailed  at  all  times 
against  religious  sects  persecuted  by  popular  hatred ;  as,  for 
example,  against  the  first  Christians,  who  were  charged  with 
such  crimes  as  flattered  the  credulous  fanaticism  of  the  popu- 
lace. It  was  said  that  they  stole  Christian  children  for  their 
passover  festival,  and,  after  having  crucified  them  with  all 
imaginable  tortures,  used  their  entrails  for  magical  purposes.f 
If  a  boy,  especially  near  the  time  of  the  feast  of  Passover, 
was  missed  by  his  friends,  or  if  the  corpse  of  a  boy,  concerning 
whose  death  nothing  certain  was  known,  happened  to  be  found, 
suspicion  lighted  at  once  upon  the  Jews  of  the  district  where 
the  accident  had  occurred.  Men  could  easily  discover  what 
they  were  intent  on  finding — marks  of  tlie  tortures  which 
had  been  inflicted  on  the  sufferers.  It  might  doubtless  hap- 
pen, too,  that  enemies  of  the  Jews,  or  those  who  gloated  on 
their  wealth,  would  disfigure  the  discovered  bodies,  in  order  to 

*  The  Jew  introduced  in  Abelard's  dialogue  concerning  tJie  supreme 
good,  inter  philosophum,  Judajum,  et  Christianum,  observes,  in  drawing  a 
lively  picture  of  the  wretched  situation  of  the  Jews :  "  Unde  nobis  proe- 
cipue  superest  lucrum,  ut  alienigenis  foenerantes,  hinc  miseram  susten- 
temus  vitam,  quod  nos  quidem  maxime  ipsis  efBcit  invidiosos,  qui  se  in 
hoc  plurimum  arbitrantur  gravatos."  See  this  tract,  published  by  Prof. 
Rheinwald,  p.  11. 

t  In  the  historical  work  of  Matthew  of  Paris  are  to  be  found  many 
stories  relating  to  persecutions  of  the  Jews,  which  had  been  provoked  by 
the  circulation  of  such  fables. 


SPREAD  OF  FALSE  REPORTS  ABOUT  THE  JEWS.  99 

lend  the  more  plausibility  to  the  accusations  brought  against 
Jews.  Hence  a  boy  so  found  might  sometimes  be  honoured 
by  the  people  as  a  martyr,  and  become  the  hero  of  a  won- 
derful story.*  The  mast  extravagant  of  such  tales  might 
find  credence  in  the  existing  tone  of  public  sentiment,  and 
seem  to  be  confirmed  by  an  investigation  begun  with  prejudice 
and  conducted  in  a  tumultuary  manner.  If,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  such  movements,  wealthy  Jews  betook  themselves  to 
flight,  when  they  foresaw,  as  they  must  have  foreseen,  the 
disastrous  issue  to  themselves,  this  passed  for  evidence  of  their 
guilt  and  of  the  tnith  of  the  rumours.f  If  twenty -five  knights 
aflirmed,  on  their  oath,  that  the  arrested  Jews  were  guilty  of 
the  abominable  crime,  this  sufficed  to  set  the  matter  beyond 
all  doubt,  and  to  authorize  the  sentence  of  death. J  Whoever 
interceded  in  behalf  of  the  unfortunate  victims,  exposed  him- 
self by  so  doing  to  the  popular  hatred,  which  looked  upon  all 
such  pity  as  suspicious.  Thus,  in  the  year  1256,  pious  Fran- 
ciscans in  England,  who  were  not  to  be  deterred  by  the  force  of 
the  prevailing  delusion,  ventured  to  take  the  part  of  certain  Jews, 
accused  of  some  such  abominable  crime,  that  were  languishing 
in  prison,  and  they  succeeded  in  procuring  their  release  and 
saving  their  lives  ;  but  now  these  monks,  who  had  acted  in 
the  spirit  of  Christian  benevolence,  were  accused  of  having 
allowetl  themselves  to  be  bribed  by  money.§  Thus  they  lost 
the  good  opinion  of  the  lower  class  of  people,  who  ever  after 
refuseil  to  give  them  alms.|| 

Tliese  pious  monks,  and  also  the  most  influential  men  of 
the  church,  protested  against  such  unchristian  fanaticism. . 
"When  the  abbot  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  was  rousing  up  the 

♦  See  Matth.  of  Paris,  at  the  year  1244.  Ed.  London,  1686,  £  567. 
In  the  case  here  in  question,  men  were  forced  to  allow,  that  five  wounds 
could  in  nowise  be  made  out  in  the  corpse  discovered. 

t  See  1.  c. 

X  See  the  account  given  by  the  above-cited  historian,  at  the  year  1256, 
f.  792. 

§  The  above  historian,  Matthew  of  Paris,  otherwise  a  violent  enemy 
of  the  mendicant  monks,  says,  however,  of  this  accusation :  ••  Ut  perhibet 
mnndus,  si  mundo  io  tali  casu  credendum  est."  He  himself  only  finds 
fault  with  the  interposition  of  those  Franciscans,  since  it  is  his  opinion 
that  those  Jews  had  deserved  death ;  but  he  honours  in  the  Franciscans 
their  compassion,  and  their  charitable  hope  that  these  Jews  might  still, 
sometime  or  other,  be  converted.  ||  a.d.  1256,  f.  792. 

H    2 


100  THE  JEWS  DEFENDED  BY  BERNARD. 

spirit  of  the  nations  to  embark  in  the  second  crusade,  and 
issued  for  this  purpose,  in  the  year  1146,  his  letter  to  the  Ger- 
mans (East  Franks),  he  at  the  same  time  warned  them  against 
the  influence  of  those  enthusiasts  who  called  themselves  mes- 
sengers of  the  Lord,  and  strove  to  inflame  the  fanaticism  of 
the  people.  He  called  upon  the  Germans  to  follow  the  direc- 
tion of  the  apostle  Paul,  and  not  believe  every  spirit.  He 
declaimed  against  the  false  zeal,  without  knowledge,  which 
impelled  them  to  murder  the  Jews,  a  people  who  ought  not 
even  to  be  banished  from  the  country.  He  acknowledges 
their  zeal  for  the  cause  of  God ;  but  requires  that  it  should 
ever  be  accompanied  with  correct  knowledge.*  "  The  Jews," 
says  he,  "  are  scattered  among  all  nations  as  living  memorials 
of  Christ's  passion,  and  of  the  divine  judgment ;  but  there  is 
a  promise  iaf  their  future  universal  restoration,  Rom.  xi.  26. 
Even  where  no  Jews  are  to  be  found,  usurious  Christians,  if 
such  men  deserve  to  be  called  Christians,  and  not  rather  bap- 
tized Jews,  are  a  worse  kind  of  Jews.  How  could  the  pro- 
mise concerning  the  future  conversion  of  the  Jews  ever  be 
fulfilled,  if  they  were  utterly  exterminated  ? "  The  same 
reasons,  we  must  allow,  ought  to  have  persuaded  men  rather 
to  send  missionaries  to  the  Mohammedan  nations  than  to 
attack  them  with  the  sword ;  and  perhaps  it  may  have 
occurred  to  Bernard  himself,  that  this  principle  might  be 
applied  to  the  very  crusade  which  he  preached.  To  guard 
against  any  such  application,  he  adds :  "  If  the  same  thing 
could  be  expected  also  of  other  infidels,  we  ought  certainly  to 
bear  with  them,  rather  than  to  persecute  them  with  the  sword  ; 
but  as  they  were  the  fii'st  to  begin  the  M'ork  of  violence,  so  it 
becomes  those  who,  not  without  cause,  have  taken  up  the 
sword,  to  repel  force  with  force.  But  at  the  same  time  it  be- 
fits Christian  piety,  while  it  strikes  down  the  proud,  to  spare 
the  humble  (debellare  superbos,  parcere  victis)."  Such  repre- 
sentations were  especially  needed  in  this  excitable  period  ;  but 
these  words,  written  in  the  Latin  language,  could  never  reach 
the  overheated  popular  mind.  In  these  times  there  had  started 
up,  in  the  districts  on  the  Rhine,  a  ferocious  enthusiast,  the 
monk  Radulf  (Rudolph),  who,  representing  himself  as  a  called 

*  Ep.  363.    Audivimus  et  gaudemus,  utinvobis  ferveat  zelus  Dei, 
sed  oportet  omnino  temperamentum  scientise  non  deesse. 


Rudolph's  fanaticism  put  down  by  Bernard.        101 

prophet  of  the  Lord,  preached,  along  with  the  Cross,  death 
to  the  Jews.  Thousands  from  Cologne,  Mentz,  "^Vorms, 
Speiers,  Strasburg,  who  had  collected  together  for  the  cru- 
sades, turne«l  their  swords,  in  the  first  place,  against  the  de- 
fenceless Jews,  and  a  great  deal  of  blood  was  shed.*  Rudolph 
would  not  be  held  back  from  obeying  his  imagined  divine  call 
by  any  authority  of  his  ecclesiastical  superior,  f  The  arch- 
bishop Henry  of  Mentz,  who  could  do  nothing  himself  to 
counteract  the  influence  of  the  enthusiast,  applied  for  help  to 
the  French  abbot,  whose  wonderful  power  over  the  minds  of 
men  was  not  unknown  to  him.  Berjiard,  in  his  answer,^  took 
very  decided  gp-ounds  against  that  monk.  He  found  feult 
with  his  conduct  in  three  respects :  that  he  had  taken  it  upon 
liim  to  preach  without  being  called,  that  he  set  at  naught  the 
authoritj^  of  the  bishops,  and  that  he  justified  murder.  This 
he  called  a  doctrine  of  devils.  "  Does  not  the  church,"  said 
he,  '  obtain  a  richer  victory  over  the  Jews,  by  daily  bringing 
them  over  from  their  errors  and  converting  them,  than  if  by 
the  sword  she  had  destroyed  them  all  at  a  blow  ?  "  He 
appeals  to  the  prayer  of  the  universal  church  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Jews,  with  which  such  proceedings  stood  directly 
at  variance.  But  it  was  not  till  Bernard  went  himself  to  Ger- 
many, and  used  his  personal  influence,  which  was  irresistible, 
that  he  could  succeed  in  quelling  the  spirit  of  £inaticism.  The 
people  attached  themselves  to  that  enthusiast  with  so  blind  a 
devotion,  that  nothing  but  the  veneration  in  which  Bernard 
was  held  could  restrain  them  from  disturbances,  when  that 
leader  was  taken  away  from  them.  At  Mentz,  Bernard  had 
a  meeting  with  the  monk  Rudolph,  and  produced  such  an 
effect  on  him —  which  was  indeed  a  marvel — by  his  expostu- 

*  The  sufferings  of  the  Jews  have  been  depicted,  after  the  accoont  of  a 
German  Jew,  who,  being  then  a  lad  of  thirteen,  was  a  witness  of  this 
bloody  massacre  of  his  countrymen  and  fellow-believers,  in  a  Jewish 
chronicle,  in  the  Hebrew  language,  by  Jehoschua  Ben  Meir,  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  See  Wilken's  Geschichte  der  Kreuiziige,  dritter  Theil, 
erste  Abtheil,  Beilage  i.  In  this  account,  too,  Bernard  is  honourably 
mentioned  as  deliverer  of  the  Jews,  without  whose  interposition  not  one 
in  these  districts  would  have  escaped ;  and  he  says  in  his  praise,  he  "  took 
no  ransom-money  from  the  Jews,  for  he  from  his  heart  spoke  good  con- 
cerning Israel." 

t  See  Otto  Prising,  hist  Frederic  the  First,  I.  II.  c.  37. 

X  Ep.  365. 


102  RELATION  OF  THE  POPES  TO  THE  JEWS. 

lations,  that  the  man  acknowledged  he  had  done  wrong,  and 
promised  for  the  future  to  confine  himself  obediently  to  his 
convent.  The  celebrated  abbot  Peter  of  Cluny,  who  was  dis- 
tinguished for  a  mildness  of  disposition  springing  out  of  the 
spirit  of  Christian  love,  even  beyond  Bernard  himself, — who 
shQ,wed  so  liberal  and  so  kindly  a  spirit  in  judging  the  differ- 
ent spiritual  tendencies  among  Christians, — even  he  can  only 
look  upon  the  Jews  as  a  race  descended  from  the  murderers 
of  Christ,  and  filled  with  hatred  to  him.  "  If  the  Saracens, 
who  in  respect  to  the  faith  in  Christ  have  so  much  in  com- 
mon with  us,  are  still  to  be  abominated,"  he  writes  in  his 
letter  to  king  Louis  the  Seventh  of  France,*  "  how  much 
more  should  we  detest  the  Jews,  who  blaspheme  and  ridicule 
Christ,  and  the  whole  Christian  faith."  It  is  true,  he  declares 
himself  opposed  to  the  practice  of  massacring  the  Jews : 
"  We  should  let  them  live,  like  the  fratricide  Cain,  to  their 
greater  shame  and  torment,"  says  he  ;  but  he  calls  upon  the 
king  to  deprive  them  of  their  wealth,  which  they  had  acquired 
unrighteously  and  at  the  expense  of  Christians,  f  and  to  devote 
the  money  justly  extorted  from  them  to  the  service  of  the  holy 
cause  which  they  hated. 

In  particular,  it  was  a  ruling  principle  with  the  popes,  after 
the  example  of  their  predecessor,  Gregory  the  Great,  to  pro- 
tect the  Jews  in  the  rights  which  had  been  conceded  to  them. 
When  the  banished  popes  of  the  twelfth  century  returned  to 
Rome,  the  Jews  in  their  holiday  garments  went  forth  with  the 
rest  in  procession,  to  meet  them,  bearing  before  them  the 
thora ;  and  Innocent  the  Second,  on  an  occasion  of  this  sort, 
prayed  for  them,  that  God  would  remove  the  veil  from  their 
hearts.  Pope  Innocent  the  Third,  in  the  year  1199,  pub- 
lished an  ordinance,  taking  the  Jews  under  his  own  protection 
against  oppressions.  "  Much  as  the  unbelief  of  the  Jews  is 
to  be  censured,"  he  wrote,  *'  yet,  inasmuch  as  the  Christian 
faith  is  really  confirmed  by  them,  they  must  suffer  no  hard 
oppression  from  the  faithful."  He  appeals  here  to  the  example 

*  Lib.  iv,  c.  36. 

f  Non  enim  de  simplici  agricultura,  non  delegali  militia,  non  de  quo- 
libet  honesto  et  utili  oflBcio  horrea  sua  frugibus,  cellaria  vino,  marsupia 
nummis,  areas  auro  sive  argento  cumulant,  quautum  de  his,  quae  Christico- 
lis  dolose  subtrahunt,  de  bis  quae  furtim  a  furibus  empta,  vili  pretio  res 
carissimas  comparant. 


PAPAL  BBIKFS  JS  FAVOUR  OF  THE  JEWS.  103 

of  his  predecessors,  which  he  followed :  "  No  one  should 
compel  them  by  force  to  submit  to  baptism ;  but  in  case  a 
Jew  makes  it  known,  that  of  his  own  free  choice  he  has  be- 
come a  Christian,  then  no  hindrances  whatsoever  shall  be 
thrown  in  his  way  to  prevent  him  from  recei\'ing  baptism  ;  for 
he  who  comes  to  the  ordinance  of  Christian  baptism  through 
constraint,  cannot  be  a  true  believer.  No  one  should  molest 
them  in  the  possession  of  their  property,  or  in  the  observance 
of  their  customs.  In  the  celebration  of  their  festivals  they 
should  not  be  disturbed  by  tumultuary  proceedings."  *  This 
jjope  was  at  much  pains  to  pro\'ide  for  the  maintenance  of 
Jews  who  embraced  Christianity,  and  who  by  so  doing  lost 
the  means  of  living  which  they  before  enjoyed.'j'  It  might 
doubtless  happen,  however,  that  the  pope,  when  applied  to  for 
relief  by  converted  Jews  from  distant  parts,  would  sometimes 
be  deceived  by  false  reports,  stories  of  miracles  by  which 
tiiese  persons  pretended  to  have  been  converted ;  still  he  did 
not  lend  implicit  confidence  to  such  reports,  but  caused  more 
exact  inquiries  to  be  made  respecting  their  truth  in  the  coim- 
tries  where  such  events  were  said  to  have  occiirred.| 

When  the  Jews  in  France,  in  the  year  1236,  saw  them- 
selves abandoned  to  the  ferocious  cruelty  of  the  crusaders,  they, 
too,  applied  for  help  to  the  pope,  then  Gregory  the  Ninth. 
He  in  consequence  sent  a  letter  to  France,  expressing  in  the 
most  emphatic  language  his  indignation  at  such  barbarity.  The 
crusaders,  instead  of  arming  themselves,  body  and  soul,  for  a 
war  which  was  to  be  carried  on  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  in- 
stead of  manifesting  in  their  behaviour  so  much  the  more  fear 
of  God,  and  love  to  God,  as  they  were  to  fight  in  the  cause 

*  Lib.  II.  ep.  302. 

t  E.  g.  1.  II.  ep.  234.  Atteuta  est  sollicitadine  providendum,  ne  inter 
alios  Christ!  fideles  inedia  deprimantar,  cum  plerique  horum  pro  indi- 
genda  necessariaram  remm  post  receptam  baptismum  in  confiisionem 
non  modicam  indacantnr,  ita  at  plemmqne  faciente  illomm  avaritia,  qui 
cum  ipsi  abondent,  Christum  pauperem  respicere  dedignantur,  retro  co- 
gantur  abire. 

X  Like  that  extravagant  tale  of  a  Jew,  who  found  in  a  chest  of  gold, 
in  -which  a  stolen  consecrated  host  had  been  deposited,  the  gold  pieces 
converted  into  holy  -wafers.  The  pope  directed  ihe  bishop  in  the  place 
"where  this  Jew  lived,  at  the  same  time  that  he  recommended  him  and 
his  family  to  his  care,  to  make  a  full  and  careful  examination  with  regard 
to  the  truth  of  that  story,  and  return  him  a  feithful  report.  Innocent.  1. 
XIV.  ep.  84. 


104  PAPAL  BRIEFS  IN  FAVOUR  OF  THE  JEWS. 

of  the  Lord,  had  executed  godless  counsels  against  the  Jews  ; 
but,  in  so  doing,  they  had  not  considered  that  Christians  must 
derive  the  evidences  of  their  faith  from  the  archives  of  the 
.lews,  and  that  the  Lord  would  not  reject  his  people  for  ever, 
but  a  remnant  of  them  should  be  saved.  Not  considering 
this,  they  had  acted  as  if  they  meant  to  exterminate  them  from 
the  earth,  and  with  unheard  of  cruelty  had  butchered  two 
thousand  and  five  hundred  persons  of  all  ages  and  sexes.  And 
in  extenuation  of  this  atrocious  crime  they  affirmed  they 
had  done  so,  and  threatened  to  do  worse,  because  the  Jews 
would  not  be  baptized.  "  They  did  not  consider,"  writes  the 
pope,  "  that  while  Christ  excludes  no  nation  and  no  race  from 
the  salvation  which  he  came  to  bring  to  all  mankind  ;  still, 
as  everything  depends  on  the  inward  operation  of  divine 
grace,  as  the  Lord  has  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy, 
no  man  should  be  forced  to  receive  baptism  ;  for  as  man  fell 
by  his  own  free  will,  yielding  to  the  temptation  to  sin,  so  with 
his  own  free  will  he  must  follow  the  call  of  divine  grace,  in 
order  to  be  recovered  from  his  fall."  *  Pope  Innocent  the 
Fourth,  to  whom  the  Jews  of  Germany  complained,  on  ac- 
count of  the  oppressions  and  persecutions  which  they  had  to 
suffer  from  secular  and  spiritual  lords,  issued  a  brief,  in  the 
year  1248,  for  their  protection.  In  this  brief  he  declared 
the  story  about  the  Christian  boy  murdered  for  the  celebration 
of  the  Jewish  passover  a  pure  fiction,  invented  solely  for  the 
purpose  of  hiding  cupidity  and  cruelty,  and  of  getting  Jews 
condemned  without  the  formality  of  a  trial.  Wherever  a 
dead  body  happened  to  be  found,  it  was  maliciously  made  use 
use  of  as  a  means  of  criminating  the  Jews.j" 

Again,  the  Jews  would  unavoidably  be  shocked  and  repelled 
by  those  peculiarities  in  the  shaping  of  the  church  at  this  time, 
which,  though  grounded  in  an  original  Christian  feeling,  yet  in 
their  extravagance  bordered  upon  the  pagan  ;  as,  for  example, 

*  See  Raynaldi  Annales  ad  A.  1236,  s.  48. 

f  Scriptura  divina  inter  alia  mandata  legis  dicente :  non  occides,  ac 
prohibeiite  illos  in  soUennitate  paschali  quicquam  morticinum  contingere, 
falsa  imponuut  iisdem,  quod  in  ipsa  soUennitate  se  corde  pueri  communi- 
cant interfecti,  credendo  id  ipsam  legem  prtecipere,  cum  sit  legi  contrarium 
manifeste,  ac  eis  malitiose  objiciunt  hominis  cadaver  mortui,  si  contigerit 
illud  alicubi  reperiri.  Et  per  hoc  et  alia  quamplurima  figmenta  saevientes 
in  ipsis  eos  super  his  non  accusatos,  nee  convictos  gpoliant  contra  Deum 
et  justitiam  omnibus  suis,  etc.    Raynaldi  Annales  ad  A.  1248,  8.  84. 


ponrrs  of  dispdtatiok  with  the  jews.  105 

the  worship  of  saints  and  images.  Pious  ecclesiastics  and 
monks  were  always  ready  to  enter  into  controversial  discussions 
with  Jews,  in  the  hope  of  convincing  them  by  arguments; 
although  laymen,  in  the  zeal  for  their  religious  creed,  were 
dissatisfied  with  a  mode  of  procedure  which  allowed  the  Jews 
so  peacefully  to  state  all  their  objections  to  the  Christian  £dth, 
and  required  others  so  patiently  to  listen  to  them.  They,  on 
the  contrary,  were  for  deciding  the  matter  at  once,  and  punish- 
ing the  unbelief  of  the  Jews  with  the  sword.*  In  such  deputes, 
the  Jews  levelled  their  objections  not  only  against  the  fiinda- 
mental  position  of  the  Christian  system  in  itself  considered, 
which  to  the  fleshly  Jewish  mode  of  thought  clinging  to  the 
letter  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  to  sensual  expectations,  must 
at  all  times  be  alike  offensive ;  but  also  against  those  excrescent 
growths  so  foreign  to  primitive  Christianity.  And  although 
Christian  theologians,  in  the  confidence  and  in  the  light  of 
Christian  faith,  could  say  many  excellent  things  about  the 
relation  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  of  their 
different  comparative  positions,  still,  they  were  no  match  for 
the  Jews  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  their 
arbitrary  allegorizing  explications  could  not  remove  any  of  the 
difficulties  by  which  the  Jews  were  stumbled  in  comparing  the 

•  JoinTiUe  narrates,  in  the  Memoirs  of  Louis  the  Ninth :  Once  a  great 
controversial  discussion  started  up  in  the  monastery  of  Clnny,  between 
the  ecclesiastics  and  Jews,  when  au  old  knight  rose  up  and  demanded  that 
the  most  distinguished  among  the  ecclesiastics  and  the  most  learned 
among  the  Jews  should  come  forward.  Then  he  asked  the  Jew,  whether 
he  believed  that  Christ  was  bom  of  a  virgin  ?  When  the  Jew  replied  in 
the  negative,  said  the  knight  to  him.  You  behave,  then,  very  foolishly  and 
presomptaoosly,  in  daring  to  come  into  a  house  consecrated  to  Mary — the 
convent.  He  dealt  the  Jew  so  violent  a  blow,  that  he  sunk  to  the  ground, 
and  the  rest  fled  for  their  lives.  The  abbot  of  Cluny  now  said  to  the 
knight:  ''  Vous  avez  feit  folic,  de  ce  que  vons  avez  ainsi  frappe."  The 
knight,  however,  would  not  acknowledge  this,  but  rejoined :  "  Vons  avea 
^t  encore  plus  grande  folie,  d'avoir  ainsi  assemble  les  Juife  et  souflFert 
telles  disputations  d'erreurs;"  for  many  good  Christians  had  thereby 
been  misled  into  infidelity.  So  thought,  too,  king  Louis  the  Ninth  of 
France.  None  but  learned  theologians  should  dispute  with  the  Jews ;  nor 
should  the  laity  ever  listen  to  such  blasphemies,  but  punish  them  at  cmce 
with  the  sword.  "  Que  nul,  si  n'est  grand  clerc  et  theologien  par&it,  ne 
doit  disputer  aux  Jmh.  Mais  doit  I'homme  lay,  quant  il  oy  raesdire  la 
foi  Chretienne,  defendre  la  chose  non  pas  seulement  des  paroles,  mais  a 
bonne  epee  tranchante  et  en  frapper  les  mesdisans  a  travers  da  corps, 
taut  qu'elle  y  pourra  entrer." 


106  REPLY  TO  JEWISH  OBJECTIONS. 

Old  Testament  with  the  New,  nor  lead  them  away  from  the 
letter  to  the  spirit.  A  narrow  slavery  to  the  letter,  and  an 
arbitrary  spiritualization,  here  stood  confronted.*  We  hear  a 
Jew,  for  example,  appealing  to  the  eternal  validity  of  the  law. 
"  A  curse  is  pronounced  upon  every  man  that  observes  not 
the  whole  law,"  says  he  ;  "  What  right  or  authority  have  you 
Christians  to  make  here  an  arbitrary  distinction,  to  explain  that 
some  things  are  to  be  observed  while  others  are  done  away 
with  ?  How  is  this  to  be  reconciled  with  the  immutability  of 
God's  word  ?"  He  finds  in  the  Old  Testament  the  prediction 
of  a  Messiah,  but  nothing  concerning  a  God-man.  The  doctrine 
concerning  such  a  being  appeared  to  him  a  disparagement  of 
God's  glory.  The  promises  relating  to  the  times  of  the 
Messiah  seem  to  him  not  yet  fulfilled.  "  If  it  be  true  that 
the  Messiah  is  already  come,  how  are  we  to  reconcile  it  with 
the  fact  that  nowhere,  except  among  the  poor  people  of  the 
Jews,  is  it  said,  '  Come,  let  us  go  up  to  the  house  of  the  God 
of  Jacob  ?'  Some  of  you  say,  let  us  go  to  the  house  of  Peter ; 
others,  let  us  go  to  the  house  of  Martin.  Where  is  it  that 
swords  are  turned  into  pruning-hooks  ?  Smiths  enough  can 
hardly  be  found  to  convert  steel  into  weapons  of  war.  One 
nation  oppresses,  cuts  in  pieces  another;  and  every  boy  is 
trained  up  to  the  use  of  weapons."  The  Christian  theologian, 
abbot  Gislebert,  replies  to  the  last  objection:  "Neither  to 
Peter  nor  Paul  do  we  build  a  house ;  but  in  honour  and  in 
memory  of  Peter  or  Paul  we  build  a  house  to  God.  Nor  can 
any  bishop,  in  dedicating  a  church,  say,  '  To  thee,  Peter  or 
Paul,  we  dedicate  this  house,  or  this  altar ;'  but  only,  *  To  thee, 
0  God,  we  dedicate  this  house,  or  this  altar,  for  the  glory  of 
God.' "  Next,  he  insists  on  it  that  those  promises  concerning 
the  times  of  the  Messiah  have  been  spiritually  fulfilled.  "  The 
law  pronounces  sentence  of  condemnation  on  every  man  who 
kills,  or  rather,  as  Christ  has  added,  on  every  man  who  is 
angry  with  his  brother  ;  he,  then,  who  is  transported  with 
the  passions  of  anger  and  hatred,  cannot  lawfully  use  the 
sword  and  lance.     Far  easier  is  it  to  turn  the  sword  into  a 

*  In  the  Disputatio  Judsei  cum  Christiano  de  fide  Christiana  by 
the  abbot  Gislebert  (Gilbert)  of  Westminster,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century,  which  is  founded  on  a  dispute  actually  held  vith  a 
Jew,  in  Anselmi  Cant.  opp.  ed.  Gerberon,  f.  512. 


CHRISTIAN  IMPRESSIONS  MADE  UPON  HERMANN.  107 

ploughshare,  the  spear  into  a  pruning-hook,  than  to  turn  from 
a  proud  man  into  a  humble  one,  from  a  freeman  to  a  servant ; 
to  give  up  wife,  children,  house  and  court,  arms,  all  earthly- 
goods,  and  very  self.  This,  however,  is  a  thing  that  you  may 
often  see  done ;  for  many  who  once  lived  in  the  world,  proud 
and  mighty  men,  constantly  buckled  for  war,  greedy  after 
other  men's  possessions,  have  for  God's  sake  renounced  all 
worldly  glory,  go  in  voluntary  poverty  on  pilgrimages  to 
different  holy  places,  seek  the  intercession  of  the  saints,  or 
immure  themselves  in  a  convent.  And,  in  such  a  community 
of  the  servants  of  God,  is  fulfilled  that  which  God  promised 
by  the  prophets  concerning  the  peaceful  living  together  of  the 
lion  and  the  lamb,  &c. ;  for,  to  the  shepherd  of  such  a  flock 
obedience  is  alike  paid  by  high  and  low,  by  the  mighty  and 
the  powerful,  the  strong  and  the  weak." 

An  example,  showing  how  the  power  of  Christianity  was 
still  present,  even  amid  the  foreign  rubbish  with  which  it  was 
encumbered,  and  could  make  itself  be  felt  in  the  minds  of  the 
Jews,  is  seen  in  the  remarkable  case  of  Hermann,  afterwards 
a  Premonstratensian  monk,  whose  conversion,  which  he  has 
given  an  account  of  himself,*  was  brought  about  by  a  singular 
train  of  providential  occurrences. 

He  was  bom  at  Cologne,  and  strictly  educated  as  a  Jew. 
When  a  young  man  he  made  a  journey  to  Mentz,  on  com- 
mercial business.  It  happened  at  the  same  time  that  Egbert, 
bishop  of  Munster,f  who  had  himself  at  some  earlier  period 
been  dean  of  the  cathedral  at  Cologne,  was  there  with  the 
emperor's  court-camp.  Being  in  want  of  money,  the  bishop 
negotiated  a  loan  with  this  Jew ;  but  the  latter  took  no 
security  from  him,  which  was  quite  contrary  to  the  practice 
of  his  people,  who  were  accustomed  to  require  a  pledge  to 
the  amount  of  double  the  sum  lent.  When  he  returned  home, 
his  friends  reproached  him  for  such  folly,  and  urged  him  to 
seek  another  interview  with  the  bishop.  Fearing,  however, 
the  influence  of  the  Christians  on  the  young  man,  they  com- 
missioned an  old  Jew,  Baruch,  to  act  as  his  overseer.  Thus 
he  travelled  back  to  Miinster ;  and  here,  as  the  bisiiop  could 
not  immediately  refund  the  money,  he  was  obliged  to  tarry 

*  Published  by  Carpzov,  after  Raymund  Martini's  Pugio  fideL 
t  Bishop  of  Miinster  from  1127  to  1132. 


108        Hermann's  strivings  after  christian  faith. 

five  months.  The  young  man,  having  no  particular  business 
on  his  hands,  could  not  resist  the  curiosity  he  felt  to  visit  the 
churches,  which  he  had  hitherto  detested  as  temples  of  idols. 
He  here  heard  the  bishop  preach.  Many  things  in  the  dis- 
course attracted  him,  and  he  repeated  his  visits.  Thus  he 
received  his  first  Christian  impressions.  Christians,  observing 
how  attentively  he  listened,  asked  him,  how  he  liked  what  he 
heard :  he  replied,  "  Many  things  pleased  me,  others  not." 
They  spoke  to  him  kindly  :  "  Our  Jesus,"  said  they,  "  is  full 
of  compassion,  and,  as  he  himself  declares,  'No  man  that 
Cometh  unto  me  shall  be  cast  out.' "  They  held  up  to  him 
the  example  of  the  apostle  Paul,  who  from  a  violent  perse- 
cutor of  Christianity  became  a  zealous  preacher  of  it ;  but 
the  Jew  saw  pictures  of  Christ  in  the  churches,  and  as  this 
appeared  to  him  like  idolatry,  he  was  filled  with  abhorrence. 
Thus  different  impressions  struggled  together  in  his  soul.  It 
so  happened,  that  the  universally  revered  abbot  Rupert  of 
Deutz  (Rupertus  Tuitiensis,  the  author  of  a  tract  against  the 
Jews)  came  to  Miinster,  and  to  him  Hermann  ventured  to 
disclose  his  doubts.  The  abbot  received  him  in  a  friendly 
manner,  and  sought  to  convince  him  that  the  Christians 
were  very  far  from  paying  an  idolatrous  worship  to  images. 
"  Images,"  said  he,  "are  designed  solely  to  supply  the  place 
of  Scripture  for  the  rude  people." 

The  bishop  employed  as  the  steward  of  his  house  a  pious 
ecclesiastic  named  Richmar,  a  man  of  strictly  ascetic  habits, 
who  by  his  kindly  manners  had  won  his  way  to  the  young 
man's  heart.  Once  the  bishop  sent  a  choice  dish  from  liis  own 
table  to  this  churchman ;  but  he  immediately  gave  it  to  the 
young  Hermann,  who  sat  by  his  side,  while  he  himself  took 
nothing  but  bread  and  water.  This  made  a  great  impression 
on  the  youth.  As  this  pious  man,  in  many  conversations  with 
Hermann,  had  sought  in  vain  to  convince  him  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  he  finally  conceived  the  hope  that  by  the  evidence 
of  some  miracle,  a  judgment  of  God,  the  ordeal  of  the  red-hot 
iron,  he  might  be  able  to  conquer  the  unbelief  of  the  sign- 
seeldng  Jew  ;  but  the  bishop,  his  superior  in  Christian  know- 
ledge and  wisdom,  would  allow  of  no  such  experiment.  Said 
he  to  his  steward,  "  True,  thy  zeal  is  praiseworthy,  but  it  is 
not  accompanied  with  knowledge.  AVe  should  not  presume 
t(>  tempt  God  in  this  way ;  but  we  should  pray  to  him,  that 


hkrmann's  strivings  after  christian  faith.        109 

he,  who  wills  that  all  men  should  be  saved  and  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  would  be  pleased,  in  his  own  time 
and  way,  by  his  grace  to  break  the  fetters  of  unbelief  in 
which  this  young  man  is  bound  captive,  and  set  him  free ;  but 
it  was  not  proper  to  require  God  to  work  a  miracle  for  this  pur- 
pose, nor  even  to  be  particularly  anxious  that  he  would  ;  since 
it  was  perfectly  easy  for  the  Almighty,  even  without  a  miracle, 
by  the  secret  operation  of  his  grace,  to  convert  whomsoever 
he  pleased ;  and  since,  too,  the  outward  miracle  would  be 
unavailing  unless  he  wrought  after  an  invisible  manner  by 
his  grace  in  the  heart  of  the  man.  Many  had  been  converted 
without  miracles ;  multitudes  had  remained  unbelievers  even 
after  miracles  had  been  wrought  before  their  eyes.  The  iaith 
induced  by  miracles  had  little  or  no  merit  in  the  sight  of  God  ; 
but  the  faith  which  came  fi"om  a  simple  pious  sense  had  the 
greatest,"  which  he  sought  to  prove  by  examples  from  gospel 
history,  and  from  the  words  of  Christ  himself. 

When  Hermann  afterwards  had  an  opportunity  of  visiting 
the  newly  founded  Premonstratensian  convent  at  Kappeuberg 
in  Westphalia,  and  here  saw  men  of  the  highest  and  lowest 
ranks  unite  together  in  practising  the  same  self-denials,  it 
appeared  to  him  a  very  strange  sight ;  as  yet  he  knew  not 
what  to  make  of  it.  Thus  he  was  tossed  one  way  and  another 
by  his  feelings,  till  his  mind  became  completely  unsettled. 
He  prayed  to  God,  with  warm  tears,  that  if  the  Christian 
feith  came  from  him,  he  would,  either  by  inward  inspiration 
or  by  vision,  or — which  then  appeared  to  him  the  most  effective 
means — by  some  visible  miraculous  sign,  con\'ince  him  of  it. 
He  who  was  said  to  have  led  a  Paul,  even  when  he  proudly 
resisted,  to  the  faith,  would  assuredly,  if  this  were  true,  hear 
him,  so  humble  a  supplicant ! 

After  his  return  home  he  spent  three  days,  strictly  festing, 
in  prayer  to  the  Almighty,  and  waiting  in  expectation  of  a 
vision  for  the  clearing  up  of  his  doubts  ;  when,  exhaiisted  by 
festing  and  by  his  inward  conflicts,  he  retired  to  rest ;  but  the 
vision  which  he  sought  was  not  vouchsafed  to  him.  He 
applied  to  book-learned  churchmen,  and  disputed  with  them ; 
yet  to  all  the  arguments  which  they  could  bring  his  doubts 
were  invincible,  although  many  of  the  remarks  which  fell 
from  them  left  a  sting  behind  in  his  heart. 

Meanwhile  the  Jews  had  long  eyed  him  with  suspicion ; 


110  Hermann's  baptism  and  ordination. 

and  they  employed  every  means  to  deter  him  from  embracing 
Christianity.  They  prevailed  upon  him  to  marry,  and  by  the 
wedding-feast  and  the  dissipations  connected  with  his  new 
relation,  he  was,  in  fact,  diverted  for  a  while  from  the  subject 
which  had  so  long  occupied  and  tormented  him ;  but  after 
passing  three  months  in  a  state  of  dreamy  torpor,  his  old 
inward  conflicts  returned  again.  He  once  more  sought  the 
society  of  Christian  theologians,  with  whom  he  had  many 
disputes.  Once,  after  he  had  long  contended  with  one  of  these 
theologians  in  an  assembly  of  clergymen,  said  one  of  the 
number  to  the  theologian  who  had  sought  in  vain  to  convince 
him :  "  Why  spend  your  strength  to  no  purpose?  Surely  you 
know  that,  as  the  apostle  Paul  declares,  even  to  this  day, 
when  to  the  Jews  Moses  is  read,  a  covering  hangs  before 
their  hearts."  This  remark  again  made  a  deep  impression  on 
Hermann's  mind.  "  Is  my  heart,"  thought  he,  "  really  pre- 
vented by  such  a  covering  from  penetrating  to  the  spirit  of 
the  Old  Testament  ?"  Again,  therefore,  he  had  recourse  to 
prayer,  and  with  many  tears  besought  the  Almighty  that,  if 
this  were  so,  he  would  himself  remove  the  covering  from  his 
heart,  that  he  might  with  open  eyes  behold  the  clear  light  of 
truth  ;  and  recollecting  what  Christians  had  said  to  him  about 
the  power  of  intercessions,  he  commended  himself  to  the 
prayers  of  two  nuns  who  stood  in  high  veneration  among  all 
the  Christians  in  Cologne.  They  promised  him  that  they 
would  not  cease  praying  until  the  comfort  of  divine  grace 
should  be  given  to  him.  Becoming  soon  afterwards  more 
clear  in  his  views  and  feelings,  he  believed  himself  to  be 
especially  indebted  for  this  change  to  the  intercessions  of 
these  two  pious  nuns.*  He  continued  diligently  to  attend  on 
the  preached  word,  putting  aside  everything  else,  and  making 
the  search  after  truth  the  great  object  of  his  life.  His 
inquiries  and  prayers  conducted  him  at  length  to  a  settled 
conviction.  He  submitted  to  baptism,  entered  the  monastery 
of  Kappenberg,  which  on  his  first  visit  had  made  so  singular  an 
impression  on  his  mind,  where  he  studied  the  Latin  language, 
and  was  consecrated  a  priest. 

*  He  says :  "  Ecce  me,  quern  ad  fidem  Christi  nee  reddita  mihi  a  multis 
de  ea  ratio,  nee  magnorum  potuit  clericorum  convertere  disputatio, 
devota  simplicium  femiuarum  oratio  attraxit." 


POPES  AND  PAPACY.  Ill 


SECTION  SECOND. 

HISTOBY  OF  THE  CHURCH  CONSTITUTION. 

L  Popes  and  Papacy. 

We  commence  this  period  in  the  history  of  the  papacy,  with  a 
crisis  of  world-historical  interest.  The  great  question  was 
now  up,  to  be  answered  by  the  course  of  events :  tVhether  the 
system  of  the  church  theocracy,  the  spiritual  universal  mon- 
archy, should  come  ofiF  victorious  in  the  contest  with  a  rude 
secular  power,  or  should  be  laid  prostrate  under  its  feet  ?  The 
key  to  the  right  imderstanding  of  this  new  epoch  is  furnished 
us  by  the  epoch  with  which  the  preceding  period  closed. 
One  continuous  thread  of.  historical  evolution,  a  closely  con- 
nected series  of  causes  and  effects,  proceeds  onward  firom  the 
last  times  of  the  preceding  period  into  the  beginning  of  the 
present.  The  corruption  of  the  church,  threatening  its  utter 
secularization,  had  now  reached  its  highest  pitch ;  and  that 
very  circumstance  had  called  forth  a  reformatory  reaction  on 
the  part  of  the  church.  Such  a  reaction  could,  however,  under 
the  existing  conditions,  only  proceed  firom  the  side  of  this 
church  theocracy ;  since  those  who  were  most  zealous  against 
the  abuses  that  had  crept  in,  were  governed  by  this  spiritual 
tendency.  The  man  of  this  party,  he  who  was  in  fiict  the 
guiding  and  animating  soul  of  the  reformatory  reaction  in  the 
last  times  of  the  preceding  period,  was  that  Hildebrand  who 
now,  as  pope  Gregory  the  Seventh,  had  become  in  name,  as 
he  had  long  been  secretly  in  feet,  the  ruling  head  of  the 
Western  church.  As  this  world-historical  personage  was,  from 
the  firs>i,  the  object  of  extravagant  veneration  with  some,  and 
of  equally  extravagant  hatred  with  others,  so  the  same  con- 
trariety of  opinion  with  r^ard  to  him  continued  to  prevail  in 
the  succeeding  centuries. 

Gr^ory  was  certainly  inspired  with  some  higher  motive 


112       THE  FUNDAMENTAL  IDEA  OF  THE  PAPACY. 

than  selfish  ambition,  a  selfish  love  of  domination.  One  pre- 
dominating idea  inspired  him ;  and  to  this  he  sacrificed  all 
other  interests,  the  idea  of  the  independence  of  the  church,  and 
of  the  control  to  be  exercised  by  her  over  all  other  human  re- 
lations, the  idea  of  a  religious,  moral  dominion  over  the  world, 
to  be  administered  by  the  papacy.  This  was  not,  indeed,  the 
purely  Christian  idea  of  dominion  over  the  world,  but  a  recast- 
ing of  it  under  an  Old  Testament  form  altogether  foreign  to 
Christianity ;  and  that,  too,  not  without  some  mixture  of  the 
idea  of  Rome's  ancient  imperial  sovereignty.  This  idea,  how- 
ever, was  no  invention  of  Gregory's  ;  but  having  sprung,  as  we 
have  shown,  out  of  the  course  of  development  which  the  church 
had  taken,  it  had  acquired,  by  the  reaction  in  favour  of  reform 
since  the  time  of  Leo  the  Ninth,  a  new  force  over  the  minds  of 
the  better-disposed.  There  were  men,  extremely  prejudiced, 
it  is  true,  yet  animated  by  a  warm  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  the 
church  and  against  the  deep-rooted  abuses  of  the  times,  who 
expected,  from  this  imperial  sovereignty  of  the  church,  wielded 
by  the  popes,  the  correction  of  all  evils.  To  them  the  church 
appeared  as  the  representative  of  the  divine  jurisdiction,  by 
which  all  social  relations  were  to  be  regulated,  all  abuses  to  be 
removed.  The  church  must  by  her  equitable  decisions  prevent 
wars ;  or,  if  she  could  not  effect  this,  bestow  communion  and 
absolution  on  the  party  in  the  right,  while  she  excluded  the 
one  in  the  wrong  from  the  fellowship  of  the  church,  and  re- 
fused it  the  privilege  of  ecclesiastical  burial  to  the  dead.* 

*  This  idea  is  unfolded  by  that  rigid  censor  of  the  clergy,  a  contem- 
porary of  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  the  sincerely  pious  provost  Gerhoh 
(Geroch)  of  Reichersberg  in  Bavaria,  particularly  in  his  commentary  on 
the  64th  Psalm,  or  his  tract  De  corrupto  ecclesia;  statu,  where  he  sets  it 
over  against  the  then  corrupt  condition  of  the  church,  which  should  be 
restored  and  improved  according  to  this  standard,  published  by  Baluz  in 
the  fifth  volume  of  his  Miscellanea.  The  same  tract  of  Geroch  is  to  be 
found  abbreviated  in  his  commentary  on  the  Psalms ;  an  important  work 
on  account  of  the  information  it  gives  us  of  the  condition  of  the  church 
in  these  times,  published  by  Pez  in  the  Thesaurus  anecdotorum  novissimiis. 
t.  T.  He  looks  upon  it  as  a  strange  and  unheard  of  thing,  that  both  the 
contending  parties  in  a  war  should  receive  the  communion,  when  in 
truth  justice  could  only  be  on  one  side,  and  the  tribunal  of  the  church 
therefore  could  decide  in  favour  of  but  one  party.  In  omni  raiUtum  vel 
civium  guerra  et  discordia  vel  pars  altera  justa  et  altera  Jnjusta,  vel 
utraque  invenitur  injusta,  cujus  rei  veritatem  patefacere  deberet  sacer- 
dotalis  doctrina,  sine  cujus  censura  nulla  bella  sunt  movenda.    Sic  ergo 


THE  FUSDAMESTAL  IDEA  OF  THE  PAPACY.  113 

The  monk  Hildebrand  had  certainly  been  seized  with  this  idea, 
and  active  in  endeavouring'  to  realize  it,  before  he  could  have 
entertained  any  thought  of  being  elevated  himself  to  the  papal 
throne.  Educated  as  a  monk  at  Kome,  it  was  natural  that,  iu 
a  man  of  his  serious  disjxisition,  and  situated  as  he  was,  the 
idea  of  such  a  jurisdiction  to  be  exercised  by  the  churcli  should 
be  awakened  iii  the  fullest  force.*  Well  might  his  disgust  at  the 
prevailing  corruption  in  Rome  and  Italy  have  moved  Hilde- 
brand the  monk  to  retreat  with  his  friend,  the  deposed  pope 
Gregory  the  Sixth,  to  the  countries  beyond  the  Alps ;  and  well 
might  he  again,  in  the  hope  of  being  able,  by  virtue  of  his 
connection  with  the  popes,  to  counteract  this  corruption,  have 
resolved  to  return  back  to  Rome,  as  he  says  in  a  remarkable 
letter  to  his  friend,  the  abbot  Hugo  of  Cluny  :\  '•'  Were  it  not 
that  I  hoped  to  attain  to  a  yet  better  life,  and  to  serve  the 
cause  of  the  church,  nothing  would  induce  me  to  stay  here  in 
Rome,  where,  not  by  my  own  choice,  as  God  is  my  witness,  I 
have  already  been  compelled  to  live  through  a  period  of  twenty 


manitestata  jastitia  pars  jasta  sacerdotalibns  tnbis  animanda  et  etiam  com- 
manione  dominici  corporis  ante  bellum  et  ad  bellam  roboranda  est,  quia 
panLs  iste  cor  hominis  confirmat,  quando  pro  defensione  jastitiae  vel 
ecclesis  aliquis  ad  pngnam  se  pra;parat,  cui  pars  iniqaa  resistens  et  pacto 
justae  pacis  acquiescere  nolens  auathematizanda  et  etiam  negata  sibi 
sepaltura  Christiana  humilianda  est.  Bnt  how  is  it  at  present,  when — 
one  prince  or  one  people  waging  an  nnjnst  war  against  another — the 
Lord's  body  is  given  to  both  parties  without  examination  of  the  merits  of 
the  case  ?  Tanqoam  divisus  sit  Christus  et  possit  esse  in  tam  contrariis 
partibus.  How  easily,  he  exclaims,  by  the  united  agreement  of  the 
bishops  in  one  judgment,  could  the  madness  of  those  princes  and  knights 
who  make  confusion  in  the  Roman  empire,  and  spread  devastation  through 
the  church,  be  curbed  and  restrjuned  ?  If  he,  then,  who  has  been  plaopd 
over  the  whole,  in  order  to  preserve  unity  and  to  strengthen  his  brethren, 
Luke  xxii.  32,  should  in  every  just  judgment  anticipate  the  bishops  by  a 
circular  letter  addressed  to  them — what  monarch  would  dare  to  set  him- 
self up  in  opposition  to  such  a  decision  ?  Cum  sit  velut  alter  Jeremias, 
constitutus  non  solum  super  ecclesias,  sed  etiam  super  regna,  ut  evellat  et 
destruat,  aedificet  et  plantet     See  1.  c.  in  Pez.  f.  1183. 

*  Where  he  speaks  of  his  obligations  to  the  apostle  Peter,  in  a  letter  to 
king  William  of  England,  1.  VIL  ep.  23.  Quia  S.  Petnis  a  puero  me  in 
domo  sua  dnlciter  nutrierat 

t  L.  c.  1.  n.  ep.  49.  -Gregory  himself  says  to  the  Romans :  "  Vos  seitis, 
quod  ad  sacros  ordiues  non  Ubenter  accessi.  sed  magis  inritus  cum  Domino 
Leone  Papa  ad  vestram  specialem  ecclesiam  redii,  in  qua  utcunque  vobis 
senrivL"    Eccard,  Scriptores  rer.  Genu.  ep.  150. 

VOL.   VII.  I 


114  HILDEBRAND's  EARLY  TRAINING. 

years."  "God,"  he  remarks,  "had  brought  him  back  to 
Rome  against  his  wilJ,  and  bound  him  there  with  his  own  fet- 
ters."* In  passing  judgment  on  this  great  man,  we  should 
not  try  him  by  the  standard  of  a  pure  evangelical  knowledge, 
to  which  he  could  not  possibly  have  attained  by  his  course  of 
training.  Seized  and  carried  away  by  the  above-mentioned 
dominant  idea,  he  interpreted  by  that  the  testimonies  of  the 
Bible  and  of  History,  and  these  would  all  seem  to  confirm  the 
same ;  but  he  who  surrenders  himself  so  entirely  to  one  idea, 
seen  in  one  aspect,  as  to  let  it  swallow  up  all  other  human  inter- 
ests, and  all  the  feelings  implanted  in  man's  nature,  must  be- 
come a  slave  to  it.  He  who  allows  the  zeal  for  such  an  idea  to 
usurp  the  place  of  a  zeal  for  truth  and  justice,  will  soon  have 
formed  within  himself  a.  particular  conscience  also,  which  may 
sanction  many  things,  tending  to  tlie  advantage  of  his  party- 
bent,  that  a  true  conscience  and  the  divine  law  would  condemn. 
He  who  believes  himself  the  vicegerent  of  the  divine  will  in 
the  government  of  mankind,  will  easily  be  misled,  to  set  up 
his  own  will  in  place  of  the  divine,  and  then  think  himself  en- 
titled to  take  many  liberties  for  the  realization  of  that  divine 
will.  With  his  fanatical  self-devotion  to  this  one  tendency, 
this  energetic  man  united  a  calculating  prudence  not  always 
coupled  with  truth ;  as  we  have  had  occasion  to  see  already  in 
his  treatment  of  that  upright  follower  of  the  interests  of  truth 
alone,  Berengarius. 

It  is  certain  that  Hildebrand's  power  in  Rome  had  become 
so  great,  he  had  so  considerable  a  party  in  his  favour,  that  no 
intrigues  were  needed  on  his  part  to  secure  for  him  the  papal 
dignity,  an  eminence  which  he  might  have  reached  sooner, 
perhaps,  if  he  had  desired  it ;  for,  as  it  was  justly  remarked  of 
him  in  his  own  time,  "  after  having  prepared  everything  to 
suit  his  wishes,  he  stepped  into  the  papal  chair  the  moment  he 
was  ready."f     The  less  to  be  credited,  therefore,  are  the  ac- 

*  Si  non  sperarem  ad  meliorem  vitain  et  utilitatem  sanctae  ecclesise 
venire,  nullo  modo  Eoma;,  iu  qua  coactus,  Deo  teste,  jam  a  viginti  anuis 
inhabitavi,  remanerem;  and  afterwards,  eum,  qui  me  suis  alliguvit  vincu- 
lis  et  Romam  invitura  reduxit 

t  Prajparatis  ex  sententia,  quae  voluit,  Cathedram  quaudo  voluit 
ascendit.  So  speak  Gregory's  opponents  in  the  noticeable  tract  of  Dieteric, 
bishop  of  Verdun,  a.d.  1080,  in  Martene  et  Durand  thesaur.  nov.  anecdo- 
torum,  T.  V.  f  21 7.  Cited  in  the  same  place  are  opposite  views  respecting 
Gregory's  previous  conduct,  and  his  election  to  the  papacy.    One  party 


ELECTED  POPE.      MANSER  OF  HIS  ELECTION.  115 

cusations  which  his  opponents,  even  in  published  writings,  had 
the  boldness  to  bring  against  him.*  Still,  some  occasion  was 
given  for  these  accusations  by  the  mode  in  which  Gregory's 
election  was  conducted. 

The  death  of  pope  Alexander  was  not  followed  by  the  dis- 
turbances so  common  on  such  occasions  among  the  Roman 
people,  who  were  accustomed  to  manifest  very  soon  their  pre- 
dilection for  this  or  that  cardinal  whom  they  chose  to  have 
pope.  The  college  of  cardinals,  therefore,  supposed  they  had 
no  interruption  to  fear  in  their  preparatory  proceedings  to  the 
choice  of  a  new  pope,  and  they  ordered  that,  before  they  met 
to  make  arrangements  for  the  new  election,  prayers  for  illumi- 
nation and  guidance  should  be  addressed  to  the  Almighty  in 
connection  with  processions  and  fasting  during  three  days."]" 
Yet  at  the  burial  of  Alexander,  the  people  loudly  demanded 
that  Hildebrand  should  be  made  pope.  J  Although  the  legal 
form,  therefore,  was  afterwards  observed,  and  a  protocol 
adopted,  certifying  to  Hildebrand's  election,  yet  it  is  manifest 
that  the  choice  had  already  been  made.     Gr^oiy  declares,  in 


says  of  him :  Decedentibas  patribns  tctpe  electum  et  accitum,  semper  qnidem 
ammi,  aliquando  etiam  corporis  fuga  dignitatis  locum  declinasse ;  at  length 
he  recognised  in  the  universal  voice  the  will  of  God,  Others,  Gregorjr's 
ferocious  enemies,  say  many  things  hardly  consistent  \rith  one  another, 
and  even  self-contradictory,  respecting  the  manner  in  -which  he  attained 
to  the  papal  throne.  The  truth  perhaps  is  contained  in  their  single 
remark,  "  quando  voluit :"  but  this  circumstance  is  easily  to  be  accoimted 
for  by  his  previous  activity,  and  makes  all  the  other  explanations  of  his 
papal  election  superfluous. 

*  Cardinal  Benno,  in  his  invective  against  Gregory,  says,  that  when 
pope  Alexander,  sub  miserabili  jugo  Hildebrandi,  died  one  evening,  Hil- 
debrand was  placed  by  his  partisans  at  once,  and  without  the  concurrence 
of  the  clergy  and  the  community,  upon  the  papal  throne,  because  it  was 
feared  that,  if  there  were  any  delay,  some  other  person  would  be  elected ; 
not  one  of  the  cardinals  subscribed  to  it  (All  which,  however,  is  refuted 
by  the  published  protocol  certifying  his  election.)  To  the  abbot  of  Monte 
Cassino,  who  arrived  after  the  election  was  over,  Gregory  is  said  to  have 
remarked :  "  Frater,  nimium  tardasti,"  to  which  the  abbot  replied :  "  Et 
to,  Hildebrande,  nimium  festinasti,  qui  nondum  sepulto  domino  tuo  papa, 
sedem  apostolicam  contra  canones  nsurpasti." 

t  As  Gregory  himself  declares,  in  the  letters  in  which  he  made  known 
his  election. 

I  He  himself  says:  "Subito  ortus  est  magnus  tumultus  popnli  et 
fremitus,  et  in  me  quasi  vesani  insurrexemnt,  nU  dicendi,  nil  consnlendi 
fitcoltatis  aut  spatii  relinqnentes." 

i2 


116  Gregory's  complaint. 

the  letters  issued  soon  after  his  election,  and  later,  that  he  had 
been  elevated  to  the  papal  dignity  against  liis  will,  {ind  not 
without  strenuous  opposition  on  his  part.    Still,  the  sincerity 
of  such  professions  is  always  more  or  less  liable  to  suspicion. 
Even  though  it  was  Gregory's  determination,  after  he  had 
thus  far  ruled  by  means  of  others,  now  to  take  the  government 
of  the  church  into  his  own  hands,  yet  we  may  at  all  events 
believe  that  he  must  have  foreseen  the  difficult  contests  into 
which  he  would  be  thrown  ;  and  that,  undertaking  to  exercise 
such  a  trust,  would  turn  out  to  him  no  idle  affair ;  and  amid 
the  multiplied  troubles  and  vexations  of  his  later  reign,  he 
might  well  sigh  after  the  tranquil  seclusion  of  the  monastic 
life.     In  a  letter  to  duke  Gottfried,  who  had  congratulated 
him  on  his  election,*  he  complains  of  the  secret  cares  and 
anxieties  which  oppressed  him.     "  Nearly  the  whole  world  is 
lying  in  such  wickedness,  that  all,  and  the  bishops  in  parti- 
cular, seem  emulous  to  destroy  rather  than  to  defend  or  to 
adorn  the  church.     Striving  only  after  gain  and  honour,  they 
stand  opposed  to  everything  which  serves  to  promote  religion 
and  the  cause  of  God."     In  the  second  year  of  his  reign,  he 
presented  a  picture  of  his  troubles  and  conflicts,  in  a  letter,  to 
his  intimate  friend,  the  abbot  Hugo  of  Cluny.f    "  Often  have 
I  prayed  God,  either  to  release  me  from  the  present  life,  or 
through  me  to  benefit  our  common  mother  ;  yet  he  has  not  de- 
livered me  from  my  great  sufferings ;  nor  has  my  life,  as  I 
wished,  profited  the  mother  with  whom  he  has  connected  me." 
He  then  describes  the  lamentable  condition  of  the  church : 
"  The  Oriental  church  fallen  from  the  faith,  and  attacked  from 
without,  by  the  infidels.     Casting  your  eye  over  the  West, 
South,  or  North,  you  find  scarcely  anywhere  bishops  who  have 
obtained  their  office  regularly,  or  whose  life  and  conversation 
correspond  to  its  requirements,  and  who  are  actuated  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duties  by  the  love  of  Christ  and  not  by 
worldly  ambition ;  |  nowhere,   princes  who  prefer  God's  ho- 
nour to  their  own,  and  justice  before  gain."   "  The  men  among 
whom  he  lived,"  he  said,  "  Romans,   Longobards,  Normans, 
were,  as  he  often  told  them,  worse  than  Jews  and  pagans." 

*  Ep.  9.  t  Lib.  II.  ep.  49. 

X  Vix  legales  episcopos  introitu  et  \ita,  qui  Christianum  populum 
Christi  amore  et  non  seculari  ambitione,  regant. 


HIS  PRINCIPLES  OF  ACTION.  1 17 

"And  when  I  look  at  myself,"  he  adds,  "T  find  myself 
oppressed  by  such  a  burden  of  sin,  that  no  other  hope  of  salva- 
tion is  left  me  but  iu  the  mercy  of  Christ  alone."  And, 
indeed  it  is  a  true  picture  which  Gregory  here  draws  of  his 
'  mes. 

Before  we  follow  out  the  acts  of  Gr^ory  in  detail,  let  us 
east  a  glance  at  the  principles  of  his  conduct  generally,  as 
they  are  exhibited  to  us  in  his  letters.  Those  persons  assuredly 
mistake  him,  who  are  willing  to  recognize  nothing  else,  as  his 
governing  principle,  than  prudence.  Though  it  is,  indeed, 
true,  that  prudence  formed  one  of  his  most  distinguishing 
characteristics ;  yet,  believing  as  he  did,  that  he  acted  in  vir- 
tue of  a  trust  committed  to  him  by  God,  it  was  a  higher 
confidence  which  sustained  and  kept  him  erect  through  all  his 
conflicts.  It  was  in  perfect  consistency  with  those  views 
which  he  had  derived  firom  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, respecting  the  theocracy,  that  he  should  so  readily  allow 
himself  to  be  guided  by  supernatural  signs,  and  judgments  of 
God.  He  placed  great  reliance  on  his  intimate  connections 
with  St.  Peter  and  the  Virgin  Mary.*  Among  his  confidential 
agents  he  had  a  monk,  who  boasted  of  a  peculiar  intimacy 
with  the  Virgin  Mary ;  and  to  this  person  he  applied,  in  aU 
doubtful  cases,  bidding  him  seek,  with  prayer  and  fasting,  for 
some  special  revelation,  by  vision,  respecting  the  matter  in 
question.|  To  his  fineud  the  Margravine  Mathilda,  who 
honoured  and  loved  him  as  a  spiritual  fether,  he  earnestly  re- 

*  Bv  this  pope,  a  special  office  of  devotion,  addressed  to  the  Virgin 
Mary,  was  introduced  into  the  monasteries.  See  the  above-mentioned 
work  of  Geroch,  on  the  Psalms,  1.  c.  fol.  794 :  "  Et  in  c(£nobiis  canticam 
novum  celebratur,  ciun  a  tempore  Gregorii  septi  cursns  Beatae  Mariae 
frequentatur."  Also,  in  the  above-cited  letter  of  Dieteric  of  Verdun, 
mention  is  made  of  divine  visions  which  were  attributed  to  Gregory ;  and  it 
is  said  of  him,  "Juxta  quod  boni  et  fide  digni  homines  attestantur, 
emn  non  parvam  in  oculis  Dei  familiaritatis  gratiam  assecutum  esse." 

+  A  writer  of  this  time,  the  abbot  Haymo,  relates  in  his  life  of 
William,  abbot  of  Hirschau,  that  Gregory,  being  uncertain  which  of  two 
candidates  proposed  to  him  ^hoald  be  selected  for  a  bishopric,  directed 
a  monk  to  pray  that  it  might  be  revealed  to  him,  by  the  mediation  of  tlie 
Virgin  Mary,  which  would  be  the  best  choice.  See  his  life,  s.  22,  in  Ma- 
billon's  Acta  Sanct.  O.  B.  T.  VI.  p.  ii.  f.  732.  As  this  anecdote  wholly 
agrees  with  what  we  have  already  quoted,  from  the  mouth  of  Berengar, 
we  are  the  less  warranted  to  entertain  any  doubt  respecting  this  charac- 
teristic trait  in  the  life  of  Gr^ory. 


118       GREGORY'S  VIKWS  OF  PRIESTLY  AND  ROYAL  POWER. 

commended,*  as  a  means  of  defence  against  the  princes  of  the 
world,  that  she  should  frequently  partake  of  the  Holy  supper, 
and  commit  herself  to  the  special  protection  of  the  Virgin 
Mary.  The  peculiar  bent  of  his  own  devotion,  here  expresses 
itself:  "  I,  myself,"  he  writes,  "  have  expressly  commended  thee 
to  her,  and  will  not  cease  commending  thee  to  her  till  we  shall 
behold  her,  as  we  long  to  do — she,  whom  heaven  and  earth 
cease  not  to  praise,  though  they  cannot  do  it  as  she  deserves. 
But  of  this  be  firmly  persuaded,  that  as  she  is  exalted,  good, 
and  holy  above  every  mother,  so  too,  and  in  the  same  pro- 
portion, is  she  more  gracious  and  gentle  towards  converted 
sinful  men  and  women.  Put  away,  then,  the  disposition  to  sin, 
pour  out  thy  tears  before  her,  prostrating  thyself  before  her 
with  an  humble  and  contrite  heart ;  and  I  promise  it  with  cer- 
tainty, thou  shalt  find,  by  experience,  how  much  more  full  of 
love  and  kindness  she  will  be  to  thee  than  thine  own  mother 
according  to  the  flesh."f 

Gregory  decidedly  avows  the  principle,  that  God  had  con- 
ferred on  Peter  and  his  successors,  not  only  the  guidance  of 
the  whole  church  in  respect  to  spiritual  affairs,  but  also  a 
moral  superintendence  over  all  nations.  To  the  spiritual,  he 
maintains,  everything  else  should  be  subordinated,  AH  worldly 
interests  are  vastly  inferior  to  the  spiritual.  How,  then,  should 
not  the  juridical  authority  of  the  pope  extend  over  them  ?  | 
We  find  Gregory  entertaining  an  idea,  which  is  expressed  also 
in  other  writings  of  this  party,  according  to  which,  the  priestly 

*  Lib.  I.  ep.  47. 

t  Cui  te  priucipaliter  commisi  et  committo  et  nuuqnam  committer^ 
quousque  illam  videamus,  ut  cupimus,  omittam,  quid  tibi  dicam,  quam 
coelum  et  terra  laudare,  licet  ut  meretur  nequeant,  non  cessant?  Hoc 
tamen  procul  dubio  teneas,  quia  quanto  altior  et  melior  ac  sanctior  est 
omni  matre,  tanto  clementior  et  dulcior  circa  conversos  peccatores  et 
peccatrices.  Pone  itaque  finem  in  voluntate  peccandi  et  prostrata  coram 
ilia  ex  corde  contrito  et  humiliato  lacrimas  effunde.  Invenies  illam,  in- 
dubitanter  promitto,  promptiorem  carnali  matre  ac  mitiorem  in  tui  dilec- 
tione. 

X  Lib.  I.  ep.  63.  Petrus  apostolus,  quem  Dominus  Jesus  Christus  rex 
gloria  principem  super  regua  mundi  constituit.  Lib.  VIL  ep.  6, concerning 
Peter:  Cui  omnes  principatus  et  potestates  orbis  terrarum  subjiciens 
(Deus)  jus  ligandi  atque  solvendi  in  coelo  et  in  terra  tradidit.  In  a  letter 
to  king  William  of  England,  in  which  the  pope  certainly  was  inclined  to 
lower  Hither  than  to  elevate  his  tone :  Ut  cura  et  dispeusatione  apostolics 
dignitatis  post  Deum  gubernetur  regia. 


Gregory's  views  of  priestly  and  royal  power.     119 

authority  would  appear  to  be  the  only  one  truly  ordained  of 
God, — the  authority  by  which  everything  was  finally  to  be 
brought  back  into  the  right  train ;  for  the  authority  of  princes 
grew  originally  out  of  sinful  self-will,  the  primitive  equality 
of  mankind  having  been  broken  up  by  the  violence  of  those 
who,  by  rapine,  murder,  and  every  other  species  of  atrocity, 
elevated  themselves  above  their  equals  ;* — a  view  which  might 
be  confirmed,  in  the  minds  of  some,  on  contemplating  the  then 
rude  condition  of  civil  society.  Yet,  in  other  places,  when 
not  pushed  by  opposition  to  this  extreme,  he  recognizes  the 
kingly  authority  as  also  ordained  of  God  ;  only  maintaining, 
that  it  should  confine  itself  within  its  own  proper  limits,  remain- 
ing subordinate  to  the  papal  power,  which  is  sovereign  over  all. 
He  says  that  the  two  authorities  stand  related  to  each  other 
as  sun  and  moon,  and  compares  them  with  the  two  eyes  of  the 
body.f 

We  see  by  single  examples  how  welcome  it  would  have 
been  to  the  pope  if  all  monarchs  had  been  disposed  to  receive 
their  kingdoms  as  feofs  of  the  apostle  Peter,  Thus  he  would 
have  converted  the  sovereignty  of  Peter  into  an  altogether 
secular  empire ;  and  he  looked  upon  it  as  an  insult  to  that 
sovereignty  that  a  king  of  Hungary,  who  ought  to  have  re- 
garded himself  as  a  king  dependent  on  St.  Peter,  should  place 
himself  in  a  relation  of  dependence  on  the  German  empire. 
He  considered  it  deserving  of  reproach,  that  he  should  be  wHl- 
iug  to  undergo  the  shame  of  making  himself  a  dependent 

*  In  the  famous  letter  to  bishop  Hermann  of  Mentz,  1.  VIII.  ep.  21  : 
Qais  nesciat  reges  et  duces  ab  iis  habuisse  principium,  qui  Deum  igno- 
rantes,  snperbia,  rapinis,  perfidia,  homicidiis,  postremo  universis  pane 
sceleribus,  mundi  principe  diabolo  videlicet  agitante,  super  pares,  scilicet 
homines,  dominari  caeca  cupiditate  et  intolerabili  praesumtione  afifecta- 
verunt? 

t  Lib.  I.  ep.  19.  Nam  sicnt  duobus  oculis  humanam  corpus  temporal! 
lumine  regitur,  ita  his  duabus  dignitatibus  in  pura  religione  concordanti- 
bus  corpus  ecclesiae  spirituali  lumine  regi  et  illuminari  probatur.  Lib. 
VII.  ep.  25  to  king  William  of  England:  Sicut  ad  mundi  pulchritudinem 
oculis  cameis  diversis  temporibus  repraesentandam  solem  et  lunam  omnibus 
aliis  eminentiora  disposuit  luminaria,  sic  ne  creatura,  quam  sui  benignitas 
ad  imaginem  suam  in  hoc  mundo  creaverat,  in  errorem  et  mortifera  trahe- 
retur  pericula,  providit  in  apostolica  et  regia  dignitate,  per  diversa 
regeretnr  oflScia.  Qua  tamen  majoritatis  et  minoritatis  distantia  religio 
sic  se  movet  Christiana,  ut  cura  et  dispensatione  apostolicae  dignitatis  post 
Deara  gubernetur  regia. 


120  THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  POPE. 

regulus  on  German  kings,  rather  than  to  enjoy  the  honour  of 
being  dependent  alone  on  the  first  of  the  apostles.*  And  to 
this  he  referred  the  promise  of  Christ  regarding-  the  Rock, 
against  which  the  powers  of  hell  should  never  prevail ;  that 
whoever  would  wrest  his  kingdom  out  of  this  relation  of  de- 
pendence to  the  church  of  Rome,  must  experience,  by  the  loss 
of  his  inherited  kingdom,  the  punishment  due  to  his  sacrilege, 
in  his  own  person.  So  Spain  was  held  to  have  been  from  the 
earliest  times  a  feof  of  the  Romish  Church. f  From  the  Romish 
church  it  was  maintained,  indeed,  that  all  other  spiritual 
authority  was  derived,  and  all  ecclesiastical  authorities  should 
appear  Jis  organs  of  the  pope ;  yet  among  these  authorities 
there  should  subsist  a  regular  subordination,  and  all,  through 
a  certain  series  of  gradations,  return  back  to  the  one  common 
head. J  Gregory  professed,  it  is  true,  in  continuing  the  con- 
test begun  by  the  popes  at  the  close  of  the  preceding  period, 
that  he  acted  as  defender  of  the  ancient  ecclesiastical  laws ; 
yet,  at  the  same  time  also,  he  expressly  declared,  that  it  stood 
in  his  power  to  enact  new  laws  against  new  abuses,  which, 
when  enacted,  imposed  an  obligation  of  universal  obedience.§ 
As  he  frequently  made  use  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, which,  by  reason  of  his  peculiar  mode  of  apprehending 
the  theocracy,  would  be  particularly  acceptable  to  him,  so  his 
favourite  motto,  whenever  he  spoke  of  maintaining,  in  spite  of 
all  opposition,  the  validity  of  the  church  laws,  and  of  punish- 
ing abuses,  was,  "  Cursed  be  he  that  keepeth  back  his  sword 
from  blood,"  Jeremiah  xlviii.  10. || 

*  Lib.  II.  ep.  70,  to  king  Seusa  of  Hungary:  Ubi  contempto  noblli 
dominio  Petri,  apostolorum  principis,  rex  subdidit  se  Teutonico  regi,  et 
reguli  nomen  obtinait,  et  ita  si  quid  in  obtinendo  regno  juris  prius  habuit, 
eo  se  sacrilega  usurpatioue  privavit.  Petrus  a  firma  petra  dicitur,  quae 
portas  inferi  confringit  atque  adamantino  rigore  destruit  et  dissipat  quid- 
quid  obsistit.  t  Lib.  I.  ep.  7.  %  ^■■^^;  VI.  ep.  35. 

§  Lib.  II.  ep.  67.  Huie  sanct£E  Romanse  ecclesise  semper  licuit  semper- 
que  licebit,  contra  noviter  increscentes  excessus  nova  quoque  decreta  atque 
remedia  procurare,  quae  rationiset  auctoritatis  edita  judicio  nulli  honiinum 
sit  fas  ut  irrita  refutare.  And  ep.  68 :  Non  nostra  decreta,  quanquam 
licenter  si  opus  esset  possumus,  vobis  proponimus. 

II  Lib.  I.  ep.  15 :  In  eo  loco  positi  sumus,  ut  velimus  nolimus  omnibus 
gentibus,  maxime  Christianis,  veritatem  et  justitiam  annuntiare  compel- 
lamnr;  and  now  the  passage:  maledictus  homo,  qui  probibet  gladium 
suum  a  sanguine,  which  he  explains  thus  :  verbum  prsedicationis  a  car- 
nalium  increpatione. 


OFFICE  OF  THE  LEGATES.  121 

As  the  organs  by  which  to  extend  and  maintain  his  over- 
sight over  all  the  churches,  and  to  exercise  everyAvhere  his 
juridical  authority,  he  determined  to  make  use  of  the  institution 
of  legates,  which  had  been  made  a  \'ital  part  of  the  papacy 
during  the  epoch  of  reform,  in  the  time  of  Henry  the  Third. 
Since  he  could  not  be  in  all  places  at  once,  these  legates  were 
to  act  as  his  representatives  and  vicegerents,  in  upbuilding 
and  destroying  among  the  distant  nations  ;  and  the  bishops  were 
to  pay  the  same  obedience  to  such  legates  as  to  the  pope  him- 
self, and  to  stand  by  them  in  all  cases ;  and  he  had  tlie  pre- 
sumption to  apply  to  this  relation  the  words  of  our  Lord  to 
his  apostles,  declaring,  that  in  them  he  himself  was  honoured 
or  despised.*  At  the  same  time,  however,  he  did  not  allow 
these  legates  to  act  according  to  their  own  pleasure,  but  exer- 
cised a  strict  control  over  all  their  proceedings.  He  censured 
them,  in  right  good  earnest,  if  they  &iled  to  make  an  exact 
report  of  every  matter  to  himself.  He  was  a  despot,  deter- 
mined to  rule  everywhere  himself.f  The  gold  which  legates 
sent  him,  expecting  by  this  means  to  pacify  him,  could  not 
move  him  to  release  them  from  obligation  to  give  in  an  exact 
account  of  all  their  transactions.  To  a  certain  legate,  who 
contemplated  something  of  this  sort,  he  writes  :  "  The  fact  that 
he  had  not  personally  brought  in  a  report  of  all  his  proceed- 
ings admitted  of  no  excuse,  unless  he  was  hindered  by  sick- 
ness, or  had  no  possible  means  of  returning."  He  reminded 
him  of  the  fact,  that  he  must  have  long  since  found  out  how 
small  store  he  (the  pope)    set    by    money,    separate  from 

•  Lib.  V.  ep.  2,  regarding  such  a  legate,  whom  he  sent  to  Corsica :  Ut 
ea,  quae  ad  ordinem  sacrae  religionis  pertinent,  rite  exequens  juxta  pro- 
phetse  dictam  evellat  et  destruat,  sedificet  et  plantet.  When  in  Bohemia, 
the  authority  of  these  legates  was  disputed  as  an  innovation.  Gregory 
promptly  gave  them  his  support.  He  thus  writes  on  this  snbject  to  the 
Bohemian  bishops,  1.  I.  ep.  17:  Quidam  vestrorum  hoc  quasi  novum 
aliquid  existimautes  et  non  considerantes  sententiam  Domini  dicentis: 
"  qui  Tos  recipit,  me  recipit,  et  qui  vos  spemit,  me  spemit."  Legates 
nostros  contemptui  habent  ac  proinde  dum  nullam  debitam  reverentiam 
exhibent,  non  eos,  sed  ipsam  veritatis  sententiam  spemnut. 

t  Thus  he  took  to  task  a  legate  whom  he  had  sent  to  Spain,  and  who 
held  a  council  there,  l>ecause  he  had  not,  either  in  person  or  by  one  of  his 
associates,  made  report  to  the  pope  (i.  I.  ep.  16):  Quatenus  perspectis 
omnibus  confirmanda  confirmaremos  et  si  qua  mutanda  viderentnr,  discreta 
ratione  mutaremos. 


122  gregoey's  fekedom  from  bribery. 

the  recognition  of  his  authority.*  Furthermore,  the  annual 
synods,  during  the  fasts  preceding  Easter,  which  were  attended 
by  bisliops  from  all  parts  of  the  Western  church, |  were  to  serve 
as  a  means  of  making  the  pope  acquainted  with  the  condition 
of  all  the  churches,  and  of  helping  him  to  maintam  an  over- 
sight of  their  affairs.  It  is  plain  from  many  examples,  how 
important  he  considered  it  to  keep  himself  informed  of  the 
peculiarities,  the  particular  condition  and  wants,  even  of 
the  most  most  distant  nations,  in  order  to  meet  their  several 
necessities.  Thus,  for  instance,  he  wrote  to  the  king  of 
Sweden,  requesting  him  to  send  a  bishop,  or  some  ecclesiastic 
of  suitable  qualifications,  to  Rome,  who  could  exactly  inform 
him  respecting  the  character  of  the  country  and  the  manners 
of  the  people,  and  who,  after  being  fully  instructed,  could 
more  safely  convey  back  the  papal  ordinances  to  his  native 
land.  I  To  king  Olov,  of  Norway,  he  wrote,  §  "  that  it  would 
give  him  great  pleasure,  were  it  in  his  power  to  send  him 
qualified  ecclesiastics  for  the  instruction  of  his  people  ;  but  as 
the  remoteness  of  the  country,  and  especially  the  want  of  a 
knowledge  of  the  spoken  language,  rendered  it  extremely 
diflricult  to  do  this,  he  therefore  requested  him,  as  he  had 
already  done  the  king  of  Denmark,  to  send  a  few  young  people 
of  the  higher  class  to  Rome,  for  the  purpose  of  being  accu- 
rately instructed  there,  under  the  protection  of  the  apostles 
Peter  and  Paul,  in  the  laws  of  God,  so  that  they  might  convey 
back  to  their  people  the  ordinances  of  the  apostolical  chair,  and 
teach  all  they  had  learned  to  their  countrymen,  in  their  own 
language."  On  many  occasions  he  showed  how  little  he  was 
to  be  influenced  in  the  transaction  of  business,  by  money.  A 
certain  count  of  Angers  maintained  an  unlawful  connection 
M'ith  a  woman,  and  had  for  this  reason  been  excommunicated  by 
his  bishop,  whom  he  therefore  persecuted  ;  at  the  same  time, 
however,  he  sent  presents  to  the  pope,  hoping,  doubtless,  that 
by  this  course  he  should  be  able  to  conciliate  his  favour.     The 

*  Nam  pecunias  sine  honore  quant'i  pretii  habeam.ta  ipse  optime  dudam 
potuisti  perpendere.     Lib.  VII.  ep.  1. 

f  Two  at  least  from  each  bishopric  should  take  part  therein.  Lib.  VII 
ep.  1. 

J  Lib.  VIII.  ep.  1.  Qui  et  terns  vestra;  habitudines  gentisque  mores 
nobis  suggerere  et  apostolica  mandata  de  cunctis  pleniter  instructus  acl  vos 
certias  queat  referre  §  Lib.  VI.  ep.  13. 


HIS  \riEWS  OF  PENANCE.  123 

pope  sent  them  all  back ;  and  wrote  to  the  count  that,  until  he 
had  put  away  his  sin,  the  head  of  the  church  could  receive  no 
presents  from  him,  though  he  would  not  cease  praying  God  to 
have  mercy  upon  him.*  The  pious  queen  Matilda  of  Eng- 
land wrote  to  him,  that  anything  of  hers  which  he  might  wish, 
she  was  ready  to  give  him.  The  pope  answered  her  :  "j"  "  What 
gold,  what  jewels,  what  precious  objects  of  this  world  ought  I 
to  prefer  to  have  from  thee,  rather  than  a  chaste  life,  benefi- 
cence to  the  poor,  love  to  God,  and  to  thy  neighbour  ?  "  In 
a  letter  to  the  king  of  Denmark,  the  pope,  with  other  exhor- 
tations, urgently  ^lled  upon  him  to  put  a  stop  to  that  abuse, 
in  his  country,  by  which  during  bad  seasons  and  droughts, 
innocent  women  were  persecuted  as  ^vitches  who  had  brought 
about  these  calamities. }  We  have  seen  how  a  pope,  by 
whom  the  papal  authority  was  greatly  increased,  was  the  first 
to  declare  himself  opposed  to  the  employment  of  torture.§ 
We  see  in  the  present  case  how  the  individual  by  whose 
means  the  papal  monarchy  was  advanced  to  a  still  greater 
height  than  ever,  declared  himself  opposed  to  a  superstition 
to  which,  in  later  times,  by  the  trials  for  witchcraft,  thousands 
must  fell  victims  !  ||  In  taking  the  preparatory  steps  for  a 
synod  of  reform,  to  be  held  under  the  presidency  of  lus  legate 
in  England,  against  certain  abuses  which  had  crept  in,  he 
called  upon  the  bishops  %  to  direct  their  attention  and  care 
particularly  against  the  abuses  of  penance,  and  false  confi- 
dence in  priestly  absolution :  "  For  if  one  who  had  been 
guilty  of  munler,  perjury,  adultery,  or  any  of  the  like  crimes 
persisted  in  such  sins,  or  made  traffic  of  them,  which  could 

*  Lib.  IX.  ep.  22.  Monera  tua  ideo  recipienda  non  esse  arbitrati  somas 
quia  divinis  oculis  oblatio  non  acceptabilis  esse  probator,  qoamdiu  a  peo- 
cato  isto  umnanem  te  non  reddideris  et  ad  gratiam  omuipotentis  Dei  non 
redieris.  t  Lib.  VII.  ep.  26. 

X  Lib.  VII.  ep.  21.  In  mnlieres  ob  eandem  causam  simili  immanitate 
barbari  ritos  damnatas  qoidqaam  impietatis  faciendi  vobis  fas  esse  nolite 
patare,  sed  potios  discite,  divinx  oltionis  sententiam  digne  pcenitendo 
avertere,  qaam  in  ilias  insontes  finostra  feraliter  ssviendo  iram  Domini 
molto  magis  provocare. 

§  Nicholas  the  First  in  his  letter  to  the  Bulgarian  princes. 

I  We  find  also  in  Germany,  even  at  this  early  period,  the  beginnings 
of  the  same  mischief.  In  the  year  1074,  at  Cologne,  a  woman  whom 
people  suspected  to  be  a  witch,  was  precipitated  from  the  city  wall,  and 
killed.    See  Lambert  of  Aschaffenburg,  at  this  year;  ed.  Erause,  p.  136. 

1  Lib.  VII.  ep.  10. 


124  Gregory's  approval  of  monasticism. 

harldly  be  done  without  sin,  or  bore  weapons  (except  for  tlie 
protection  of  his  rights,  or  of  his  lord  or  friend,  or  of  the 
poor,  or  for  the  defence  of  the  church)  ;  or  if  one  in  so  doing 
remained  in  possession  of  another's  property,  or  harboured 
hatred  of  his  neighbour ;  the  penitence  of  such  a  perron 
should  in  nowise  be  considered  as  real  and  sincere.  That  was 
to  be  called  a  repentance  without  fruits,  where  one  persisted  in 
the  same  sin,  or  in  a  similar  and  worse  one,  or  a  tritiingly  less 
one.  True  repentance  consisted  in  a  man's  so  turning  back  as  to 
feel  himself  obliged  to  the  faithful  observance  of  his  baptismal 
vow.  Any  other  was  sheer  hypocrisy  ;  and  on  none  but  him 
who  did  penance  in  the  former  of  these  ways,  could  he  by 
virtue  of  his  apostolical  authority,  bestow  absolution." 

Highly,  again,  as  Gregory  prized  monasticism  and  the 
ascetical  renunciation  of  the  world ;  yet  his  predilection  for 
this  mode  of  life  never  moved  him,  in  the  case  of  such  as 
could  be  more  useful  in  the  discharge  of  their  functions  in 
the  position  where  God  had  placed  them,  and  whose  places 
could  not  easily  be  supplied,  to  approve  the  choice  of  this 
mode  of  life.  The  standard  of  love  he  designated  as  the 
standard  by  which  everything  relating  to  this  matter  should  be 
estimated.  Accordingly,  he  wrote  to  the  Margravine  Beatrice 
and  her  daughter  Mathilda  :  *  "  From  love  to  God,  to  show 
love  to  our  neighbour ;  to  aid  the  unfortunate  and  the  op- 
pressed ;  this  I  consider  more  than  prayer,  festing,  vigils,  and 
other  good  works,  be  they  ever  so  many ;  for  true  love  is 
more  than  the  other  virtues."  "  For,"  he  adds,  "  if  this 
mother  of  all  the  virtues,  which  moved  God  to  come  down 
from  heaven  to  earth  to  bear  our  sorrows,  were  not  my  teacher ; 
and  if  there  were  any  one  who  would  come  forward  in  your 
place  to  help  the  oppressed  churches,  and  serve  tlie  church 
universal ;  then  would  I  exhort  you  to  forsake  the  world  with 
all  its  cares."  In  the  same  temper  he  rebuked  abbot  Hugo 
of  Cluny  f  for  receivmg  a  pious  prince  to  his  order  of  monks. 
"  Why  do  not  you  bethink  yourself,"  he  wrote,  "  of  the 
great  peril  in  which  the  church  now  stands  ?  Where  are 
they  who,  from  love  to  God,  are  bold  enough  to  stand  firm 
against  the  impious,  and  to  give  up  their  lives  for  truth  and 
justice?     Behold  !  even  such  as  seem  to  fear  or  to  love  God, 

*  Lib.  I.  ep.  50.  t  Lib.  VI.  ep.  7, 


IMPRESSION  MADE  BY  GREGORY'S  ELECTION.  125 

flee  from  the  battle  of  Christ,  negfect  the  salvation  of  their 
brethren,  and,  loving  themselves  only,  seek  repose."  A 
hundred  thousand  Christians  are  robbed  of  their  protection. 
Here  and  there,  no  doubt,  God-fearing  monks  and  priests  are 
to  be  found  ;  but  a  good  prince  is  scarcely  to  be  found  any- 
where. He  admonishes  him,  therefore,  to  be  more  prudent  for 
the  future,  and  to  esteem  the  love  of  God  and  of  one's  neigh- 
bour above  all  other  virtues.  The  superior  liberality  of  his 
views  is  shown  by  Gregory,*  in  the  judgment  he  passed  on  the 
controversy  between  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  concerning  the 
use  of  leavened  or  unleavened  bread  in  the  Lord's  Supper. 
True,  it  is  his  \n\l  that  the  Latins  should  hold  fast  to  their 
usage :  yet  he  condemns  not  the  Greeks,  but  applies  in  thig 
case  the  words  of  Paul,  "  To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure."  "j" 
As  Gregory  had  already,  when  a  cardinal,  made  himself  well 
known  by  principles  so  sharply  defined,  and  so  energetically 
carried  out,  |  so  the  commencement  of  his  papal  administra- 
tion would  make  a  very  different  impression  according  to  the 
relation  in  which  the  two  opposite  parties  stood  to  each  other. 
One  of  these  parties  expected  from  him  the  long-desired 
reformation  of  the  church ;  the  other  dreaded  the  severe 
judge  and  punisher  of  the  abuses  which  had  crept  in  ;  bishops 
and  monarchs  might  well  tremble.§     If  the  nmnerous  party 

*  We  will,  by  way  of  addition,  state  this  fact,  also :  The  abbot  Hugo  of 
Cluny  had  inquired  of  the  pope  concerning  Berengar.  The  answer  could 
not  perhaps  be  so  easily  and  briefly  given,  as  it  would  have  been  in  case 
he  could  have  declared  him  at  once  a  h.\se  teacher :  "  De  Berengario," 
he  wrote,  in  reply  to  abbot  Hugo,  "unde  nobis  scripsistis,  quid  nobis 
videatur,  vel  quid  disposaerimns,  fratres,  quos  tibi  remittimus  cum  prse- 
dicto  cardinali  nostro,  nuntiabunt."     Epp.  Gregor.  1.  V.  ep.  21. 

f  Ipsorum  fermentatum  nee  -iituperamus  nee  reprobamus,  sequentes 
apostolum  dicentem  muxidis  esse  omnia  munda.     Lib.  VII.  ep.  1. 

J  His  name,  Gregory  VII.,  while  it  contains  an  expression  of  his  enduring 
friendship,  implies  also  a  protestation  against  the  iiiterference  of  the  em- 
peror in  the  affairs  of  the  papacy. 

§  How  he  appeared  to  the  pious  men  of  his  dmes,  even  such  as  did  not 
belong  to  the  zealots  of  the  papal  party,  we  may  see  from  the  judgment 
that  Odericus  Vitalis,  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Evreul  in  Normandy,  passes 
upon  him :  he  says  of  him,  cd.  Du  Chesne,  f  6.39 :  A  puero  monachus 
omnique  vita  sua  sapieutiae  et  religion!  admodum  studuit  assiduumque 
certamen  contra  peccaium  cxcrcuit.  Lambert  of  Aschaffenbnrg  men- 
tions him  while  he  was  yet  a  cardinal :  Abbas  de  sancto  Faulo,  vir  et 
eloqnentia  et  sacrarum  literanmi  eruditione  valde  admirandus  and  page 
89,  in  tota  ecclesia  omni  virtutum  genere  celeberrimum. 


126  IMPRESSION  MADE  BY  GREGORY'S  ELECTION. 

of  bishops  who  were  interested  in  the  maintaining  of  old 
abuses,  had  had  time  for  that  purpose,  doubtless  they  would 
have  opposed  the  election  of  Hildebrand  at  every  step,  sucli 
reactions  having  already  proceeded  from  that  party  at  the 
end  of  the  preceding  period.*     Gregory  fulfilled  these  ex- 

*  Worthy  of  notice  is  the  account  of  Lambert  of  Aschaffenburg,  p.  89. 
Gregory  having  become  well  known  on  account  of  his  ardent  zeal  for  the 
cause  of  God  (zelo  Dei  ferventissimus),  the  French  bishops  were  filled 
with  great  anxiety,  ne  vir  veheraentis  ingenii  et  acris  erga  Deum  fidei, 
districtius  eos  pro  negligentiis  suis  quandoque  discuteret,  and  they  had 
therefore  been  very  importunate  with  king  Henry  the  Fourth,  that  he 
should  declare  the  election  which  had  taken  place  without  his  concurrence 
to  be  null  and  void ;  for  unless  he  anticipated  the  attack  of  the  pope,  the 
latter  would  come  down  upon  no  one  with  more  severity  than  himself. 
Henry,  therefore,  immediately  sent  count  Eberhard  to  Rome,  with  instruc- 
tions to  bring  the  Roman  nobles  to  account  for  having,  in  contrariety  to 
ancient  usage,  set  up  a  pope  without  the  concurrence  of  the  king;  and,  in 
case  it  happened  that  Gregory  would  not  give  the  proper  satisfaction,  to 
insist  upon  his  abdication.  The  pope  received  him  kindly,  and  called 
God  to  witness,  that  this  dignity  was  forced  upon  him  by  the  Romans ;  at 
the  same  time,  however,  his  ordination  was  put  off  till  he  should  learn 
of  the  concurrence  of  the  king  and  of  the  German  princes.  With  this  ex- 
planation the  king  was  satisfied,  and  so  Gregory's  consecration  took  place. 
Were  we  warranted  to  give  any  credit  to  this  account,  then  Gregory's 
adroitness,  in  suiting  his  conduct  to  the  circumstances,  would  have 
descended  in  this  case  to  actual  dishonesty;  the  end  must  have  been 
thought  by  him  to  sanctify  the  means ;  for  assuredly,  according  to  Hil- 
debrand's  principles,  the  validity  of  a  papal  election  could  not  be  dependent 
on  any  such  circumstances.  Certain  it  is,  that  he  was,  from  the  first, 
determined  to  dispute  such  a  position  most  decidedly.  He  must  have 
yielded  only  for  the  moment,  because  he  did  not  believe  himself,  as  yet, 
strong  enough  to  maintain  his  ground  in  a  quarrel  with  the  imperial 
party,  or  wished  at  least  to  guard  against  a  dangerous  schism.  We  must 
admit  it  to  be  not  at  all  improbable,  that  such  attempts  might  be  made  on 
Henry  the  Fourth  by  the  anti-Hildebrandian  party ;  but  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  believe  that  Gregory,  after  having  under  the  preceding  reign 
so  decidedly  repelled  any  such  concession,  should  have  yielded  so  much 
as  is  here  stated :  for  the  consequences  which  might  be  drawn  from  his 
conduct  in  such  a  case  could  be  plainly  foreseen.  Moreover,  the  silence 
observed  in  the  writings  of  the  opposite  party,  which  would  not  have 
failed  to  produce  this  fact  against  Gregory  if  there  had  been  any  trutli 
in  it,  bears  testimony  against  the  credibility  of  the  story.  Bishop  Henry 
of  Speier,  who  in  his  ferocious  letter  against  Gregory  the  Seventh  (in 
Eccard.  Scriptores  rer.  Germ.  T.  II.  f.  762),  would  scarcely  have  omitted 
to  make  use  of  this  along  with  his  other  charges  against  him,  brings  it 
against  him  simply  that  when  a  cardinal  he  had  bound  himself  by  oath 
to  the  emperor,  Henry  the  Third,  never  to  accept  the  papal  dignity, 
during  his  own  or  his  son's  lifetime,  without  his  consent,  nor  to  suffer  that 
auy  other  person  should  become  pope  without  the  same. 


niS  LETTERS  MISSIVE  FOR  A  SYNOD  AT  ROME.  127 

pectations.  He  convoked  a  synod  to  meet  at  Rome  on  the 
first  fast-week  of  the  year,  whose  business  it  should  be  to  vin- 
dicate the  freedom  of  the  church,  to  promote  the  interests  of 
religion,  and  to  prevent  an  irremediable  corruption  which  was 
coming  upon  the  church.  In  the  letters  missive  for  this  coun- 
cil,* he  depicts  in  glaring  colours,  but  in  a  way  certainly  not 
differing  from  the  truth,  the  then  corrupt  condition  of  the 
church :  that  the  princes  serving  only  their  own  selfish  inter- 
ests, setting  all  reverence  aside,  oppressed  the  church  as  a 
poor  miserable  handmaiden,  and  sacrificed  her  to  the  indul- 
gence of  their  own  desires.  But  the  priests  had  entirely  for- 
gotten the  obligations  under  which  they  were  laid,  by  their 
holy  vocation,  to  God,  and  to  the  sheep  intrusted  to  their 
care  ;  by  their  spiritual  dignities,  they  only  sought  to  attain 
to  honour  in  the  world  ;  and  the  property  which  was  designed 
to  subserve  the  benefit  of  many,  was  squandered  away  by 
them  on  idle  state  and  in  superfluous  expenditures.  And  as 
the  communities  thus  suffered  mider  an  entire  want  of  instruc- 
tion and  guidance  in  righteousness ;  as,  instead  thereof,  they 
could  only  learn  fit)m  the  example  of  those  set  over  them 
what  was  contrary  to  Christianity,  so  they  too  gave  them- 
selves up  to  all  wickedness ;  and  not  only  the  practical  living 
out,  but  well-nigh  all  knowl^^  even,  of  the  doctrines  of  faith 
was  wanting. 

At  this  fast-synod,  in  the  year  1074,  the  principles  were 
carried  out  by  which  it  had  been  already  attempted,  under 
the  reigns  of  the  recent  popes,  to  improve  the  condition  of 
the  church,  which  had  sunk  so  low.  The  repeated  papal 
ordinances  would  still  seem,  however,  to  have  accomplished 
nothing  ;  in  many  countries  they  seem  to  have  been  as  good 
as  not  known,  as  apf>ears  evident  from  the  reception  which 
the  newly  inculcated  laws  met  with.  Gregory  not  only 
repeated,  at  this  synod,  the  ordinances  against  simony  in  the 
bestowment  of  benefices  and  against  matrimonial  connections 
of  the  clergy,  which  he  plainly  designates  as  "  fornication  ;  " 
he  declared  not  only  that  those  ecclesiastics  who  had  obtained 
their  offices  in  the  way  just  mentioned,  and  those  who  lived  in 
such  unlawful  connections,  were  incapable  henceforth  of 
administering  the   functions   of  their  oflRce ;  "j"  but    he   also 

•  Lib.  I.  ep.  42. 

t  Si  qui  sunt  presbyteri  vel  diaconi  vel  sobdiaconi,  qui  in  crimine  for- 


128  UESISTANCK  TO  GREGORY'S  LAW  OF  CELIBACY. 

addressed  himself  anew  to  the  laity,  with  a  view  to  stir  them 
up  against  the  clergy  who  would  not  obey.  "  If,  however, 
they  resolve  to  persist  in  their  sins,"  says  he  of  those  clergy, 
"  then  let  no  one  of  you  allow  himself  to  hear  mass  from 
them  ;  for  their  blessing  will  be  converted  into  a  curse,  their 
prayer  into  sin,  as  the  prophet  speaks :  '  I  will  curse  your 
blessings,'  "  Malach.  ii.  12.*  It  was  the  pope's  design,  as  he 
himself  even  avowed,  to  compel  those  ecclesiastics  who  would 
not  obey  from  a  sense  of  duty,  to  do  so  by  exposing  them  to 
the  detestation  of  the  people.f  Gregory,  however,  did  not 
rest  satisfied  with  merely  having  these  laws  published  at  the 
Roman  synod ;  he  also  transmitted  them  to  those  bishops 
who  had  not  been  present  at  the  synod,  making  it,  at  the  same 
time,  imperative  on  them  to  see  that  they  were  put  in  force  : 
and  the  legates,  whom  he  sent  forth  in  all  directions,  served  as 
his  agents  to  promulgate  thom  everywhere,  and  to  take  care 
that  they  should  be  obeyed. 

But  the  most  violent  commotions  broke  out  in  France  and 
Germany  on  the  publication  of  the  law  against  the  marriage 
of  the  clergy.  In  this  instance  was  displayed  the  resistance 
of  the  German  spirit,  some  symptoms  of  which  had  already 
been  manifested  at  the  time  of  the  planting  of  the  German 
church  by  Boniface,  against  this  attempt  to  curtail  man  of  his 
humanity.  It  was  as  if  an  entirely  new  and  unheard  of  law 
was  promulgated ;  and  the  German  spirit  was  prepared,  even 
now,  to  feel  the  contradiction  between  this  law  and  original 
Christianity — to  contrast  the  declarations  of  Christ  and  the 
apostles  with  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  pope.  Such  remon- 
strances as  the  following  were  uttered  against  the  pope,  in 
Germany :  | — "  Forgetting  the  word  of  the  Lord  (Matt.  xix. 

uicationis  jaceant,  interdicimus  iis  ex  parte  Dei  omnipotentis  et  S.  Petri 
auctoritate  ecclesiaj  introitum,  usque  dum  pcEiiiteant  et  emendent. 

*  This  ordinance  is  cited  in  this  form  by  Geroch  of  Reichersberg,  in 
Ps.  X.  Pez.  1.  c.  t.  V.  f.  157.     Mansi  Concil.  xx.  f.  434. 

t  As  he  himself  says,  in  his  letter  to  bishop  Otto  of  Constance :  Utqui 
pro  amore  Dei  et  officii  dignitate  non  corriguntur,  verecundia  seculi  et 
objurgatione  populi  resipiscant. 

I  Lambert  of  Aschaffenburg.  who  did  not  himself  belong  to  this  anti- 
Hildebrandian  party,  in  his  History  of  Germany  (at  the  year  1074), 
expresses  himself  in  the  following  strong  language:  Adversus  hoc  decre- 
tum  protinus  vehementer  iufrenmit  tota  factio  clericorum,  homiuem  plane 
..hscreticum  et  vcsani  dogmatis  esse  clamitans. 


LETTER  OF  ABCHBISHOP  SIGFBID  TO  THE  POPE.  129 

11),  as  well  as  that  of  the  apostle  Paul  (1  Corinth,  vii.  9), 
he  would  force  men,  by  tjTannical  compulsion,  to  live  as  the 
angels ;  and,  by  seeking  to  suppress  the  very  dictates  of 
nature,  he  was  throwing  open  a  wide  door  for  all  impurity  of 
manners.  Unless  he  withdrew  these  decrees,  they  would  pre- 
fer rather  to  renounce  the  priesthood  than  their  marriage 
covenant ;  and  then  he,  for  whom  men  were  not  good  enough, 
might  look  about  for  angels  to  preside  over  the  churches." 

The  archbishop  Sigfrid  of  Mentz  wished  to  prepare  his 
clergy  by  one  step  at  a  time.  He  allowed  them  half  a  year 
for  consideration,  exhorting  them,  however,  to  undertake  vo- 
luntarily that  which  they  must  otherwise  do  by  constraint, 
and  imploring  them  not  to  put  him  and  the  pope  under  the 
necessity  of  resorting  to  severer  measures  against  them.* 
This  indulgence,  however,  did  not  help  the  matter,  for  when 
the  archbishop,  at  a  synod  held  in  Erfurt  in  the  month  of 
October,  required  of  the  clergy  that  they  should  either  sepa- 
rate from  their  wives  or  resign  their  places,  he  met  with  the 
most  violent  resistance.  In  vain  he  declared  to  them  that  he 
did  not  act  according  to  his  own  inclination,  but  was  obliged 
to  yield  to  the  authority  of  the  pope ;  they  threatened  him 
with  deposition  and  death  if  he  persisted  in  carrying  this 
measure  through.  He  saw  himself  forced  to  let  the  matter 
rest  for  the  present,  and  promised  that  he  would  make  a 
report  to  the  pope,  and  try  what  could  be  done.  Accordingly, 
he  wrote  to  the  pope,  excusing  himself  on  the  ground  of  the 
impossibility,  under  the  unfavourable  circumstances,  of  show- 
ing obedience,  as  he  wished,  in  all  that  the  pope  required.  In 
this  letter  he  says — "  In  regard  to  the  chastity  of  the  clergy 
and  the  crime  of  heresy,  as  well  as  everything  else  which  you 
propose  to  me,  I  shall  ever,  so  far  as  God  gives  me  the 
ability,  obey  him  and  you.  It  would,  however,  correspond 
to  apostolical  gentleness  and  fatherly  love,  so  to  modify  your 
ecclesiastical  ordinances,  as  that  some  regard  misrht  be  had  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  time  and  to  that  which  is  practicable 
in  individual  cases ;  so  that,  while  there  shall  be  no  lack  of 
strict  discipline  towards  transgressors,  there  shall  neither  be 
any  want  of  a  charitable  compassion  towards  those  who  are 
sick  and  need  a  physician  ;  and  that  the  measure  of  justice 

♦  See  Lambert,  p.  146. 
VOL.  VU.  K 


130  THE  POPES'S  ANSWER  TO  THE  ARCHBISHOP. 

may  not  exceed  the  limits  of  apostolical  prudence  and  paternal 
love."  *  But  no  excuses  were  availing  with  the  pope.  In  an 
answer  to  two  letters,  |  he  replied  to  him  |  that,  "  no 
doubt,  according  to  man's  judgment,  he  had  adduced  weighty 
grounds  of  excuse  ;  but  nothing  of  all  this  could  excuse  him, 
however,  before  the  Divine  tribunal,  for  neglecting  that 
which  was  requisite  for  the  salvation  of  the  souls  committed  to 
his  care — no  loss  of  goods,  no  hatred  of  the  wicked,  no  wrath 
of  the  powerful,  no  peril  even  of  his  life ;  for  to  be  ready  to 
make  all  these  sacrifices  was  the  very  thing  that  distinguished 
the  shepherd  from  the  hireling."  "It  is  a  fact  that  must 
redound  greatly  to  our  shame,"  said  the  pope,  in  conclusion, 
"  that  the  warriors  of  this  world  take  their  posts  every  day  in 
the  line  of  battle  for  their  earthly  sovereigns,  and  scarcely  feel 
a  fear  of  exposing  their  lives  to  hazard  ;  and  should  not  we, 
who  are  called  priests  of  the  Lord,  fight  for  our  king,  who 
created  all  things  from  nothing,  who  cheerfully  laid  down  his 
life  for  us,  and  who  promises  us  eternal  felicity  ?  "  And  he 
persisted  in  requiring  that  the  laws  which  had  been  passed 
respecting  simony  and  the  marriage  of  tlie  clergy  should 
at  any  rate  be  carried  into  effect,  rejecting  every  modification 
on  these  points.  §  A  second  synod  was  held  at  Erfurt,  at 
which  a  papal  legate  was  present  to  enforce  obedience ;  but 
he,  too,  came  near  losing  his  life  in  the  tumult  which  ensued, 
and  could  accomplish  nothing.  The  archbishop  contented 
himself  with  ordering  that,  in  future,  none  but  unmarried  per- 
sons should  be  elected  to  spiritual  offices,  and  that  at  ordina- 

*  Erit  autem  apostolicae  mansuetudinis  et  patemte  dilectionis,  sic  ad 
fratres  maudata  dirigere  ecclesiastica,  ut  et  temporum  opportunitates  et 
singulorum  possibilitatem  digneraini  inspicere,  ut  et  deviantibus  et  disco- 
lis  adhibeatur  disciplina,  quae  debetur,  et  infirmis  et  opus  habentibus 
medico  compassio  caritatis  non  negetur :  saipeque  examinatis  negotiorum 
causis  adhibeatur  judieii  censura,  ut  apostolicise  discretionis  et  paternse 
pietatis  modum  non  excedat  justitia:  mensura.  Mansi  Consil.  XX.  £ 
434. 

•j-  In  the  second,  he  had  excused  himself  on  the  ground  that,  under  the 
existing  circumstances,  and  on  account  of  civil  disputes  and  disturbances, 
he  could  not  hold  the  required  council  of  reform. 

+  Lib.  III.  ep.  4. 

§  Hoc  autem  tuse  fraternitati  injungimus,  quatenus  de  simoniaca  hroresi 
ac  fornicatione  clericorum,  sicut  ab  apostolica  sede  accepisti,  studiose 
perquiras  et  quidquid  retroactum  inveneris,  legaliter  punias  et  fuuditus 
reseces :  ac  ne  quidquid  ulterias  fiat,  peaitus  interdicas. 


Gregory's  views  supported  by  the  people.         131 

tion  every  candidate  should  obligate  himself  to  observe  the  law 
of  celibacy. 

The  pope,  who  was  soon  informed  of  everything  that  trans- 
pired, by  the  multitudes  who  came  from  different  regions 
to  Rome,*  learned  that  G^ebhard,  archbishop  of  Salzburg, 
although  he  had  himself  been  present  at  the  synod,  yet  let  his 
clergy  go  on  in  the  old  way  :  for  this  the  p>ope  addressed  him 
a  letter  of  sharp  remonstrance. f  In  like  manner  he  testified 
his  displeasure  to  bishop  Otto  of  Costnitz,  about  whom  he 
had  heard  similar  reports.  "  How  should  an  ecclesiastic, 
li^dng  in  concubinage,"  he  asks,  "  be  competent  to  administer 
the  sacraments,  when,  in  fact,  such  a  person  is  not  even 
worthy  of  receiving  them ;  when  the  most  humble  layman 
li\'ing  in  such  imlawful  connection  would  certainly  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  church-commimion  ?  "  |  He  constantly 
assumed  that  marriage  contracted  by  a  clergyman  in  defi- 
ance of  the  ecclesiastical  laws  was  nothing  better  than 
concubinage. 

Gregory  reckoned  upon  being  upheld  by  the  people ;  and 
he  might,  without  advancing  another  step,  simply  leave  his 
ordinances  to  operate  among  the  people — here  he  would  have 
found  the  most  powerful  support.  As  it  had  happened 
already,  at  the  close  of  the  preceding  period,  the  cause  of  the 
papacy  against  a  corrupted  clergy  had  now  become  the  cause 
Of  the  people.  Gregory  had,  in  fact,  already  appealed  to  the 
people,  when  he  called  on  them  not  to  accept  the  sacerdotal 
acts  from  ecclesiastics  living  in  unlawful  connections,  while 
he  at  the  same  time  exhibited  their  character  in  so  hateful  a 
light.  He  moreover  made  a  direct  call  upon  powerful  lay- 
men for  their  active  co-operation  in  enforcing  the  obedience 
which  should  be  rendered  to  those  laws.  Thus  he  wrote 
to  those  princes  on  whose  submission  and  interest,  in  behalf 

*  Lib.  IX.ep.  1.  Ab  ipsis  mundi  finibus  etiam  gentes  noviter  ad  fidem 
converssE  student  annue  tam  mulieres  quam  viri  ad  eum  (S.  Petrum) 
Tenire. 

t  Ut  clericos,  qui  turpiter  conversantar,  pastoral!  vigore  coerceas.  Lib. 
I.  ep.  30. 

X  Nos  si  vel  extremum  laVcnm  peJlicatui  adhaerentem  aliquando  cog- 
noverimos,  hunc  velat  praecisum  a  dominico  corpore  membniin,  donee 
poeniteat,  condigneasacramento  altaris  arcemus,  quomodo  ergo  sacramen- 
torum  distributor  vel  minister  ecclesiae  debet  esse,  qui  nulla  ratione  debet 
esse  particeps?    Eccard,  Scriptores  rer.  Gemianicar.  II.  ep.  142. 

k2 


132         Gregory's  views  supported  by  the  people. 

of  the  cause  of  piety,  he  thought  he  might  safely  rely.*  He  ex- 
horted them,  in  the  most  urgent  manner,  to  refuse  accepting 
any  priestly  performance  at  the  hands  of  clergy  who  had 
obtained  their  places  by  simony,  or  who  lived  in  unchastity.'j' 
They  were  requested  to  publish  these  laws  everywhere ;  and, 
if  it  should  be  necessary,  hinder  even  by  force  such  eccle- 
siastics from  administering  the  sacraments :  |  they  were  not 
to  be  put  at  fault,  if  the  bishops  neglected  their  duty  and 
kept  silent,  or  even  spoke  against  them.§  If  it  should  be 
objected  to  them,  that  this  did  not  belong  to  their  calling, 
^siill  they  should  not  desist  from  labouring  for  their  own  and 
the  people's  salvation ;  they  should,  on  the  contrary,  appeal 
to  the  pope,  who  had  laid  upon  them  this  charge.  |1  He 
himself  says — "  Since,  by  so  many  ordinances,  from  the  time  , 
of  Leo  the  Ninth,  nothing  has  been  effected,^  it  is  far  better  I 
to  strike  out  a  new  path  than  to  let  the  laws  sleep  and  the 
souLs  of  men  perish  also."  **  He  had  allied  himself  with 
the  pious  laity  against  the  corrupted  clergy,  he  expresses  his 
joy  that  he  had  done  so,  and  thanks  God  that  men  and 
women  of  the  lay  order,  notwithstanding  the  bad  example  of 
the  clergy,  were  ready  to  give  themselves  up  to  the  interests 
of  piety.     He  calls  upon  such  not  to  suffer  themselves  to  be 

*  Lib.  II.  ep.  45. 

t  Vos  officium  coram,  quos  aut  simoniace  promotes  et  ordinatos  aut  in 
crimine  fomicationis  jacentes  cognoveritis,  nullatenus  recipiatis. 

I  Et  haec  eadem  adstricti  per  obedientiam  tam  in  curia  regis  quam  per 
alia  loca  et  conventus  regni  notificantes  ac  persuadentes,  quantum  potestis, 
tales  sacrosanctis  deservire  mysteriis,  etiam  vi,  si  oportuerit,  prohi- 
beatis. 

§  Quidquid  episcopi  dehinc  loquantur  aut  taceant. 

d  Si  qui  autem  contra  vos  quasi  istud  oflScii  vestri  ngn  esse,  aliquid 
garrire  incipiant,  hoc  illis  respondete :  ut  vestram  et  populi  salutem 
non  impedientes,  de  injuncta  vobis  obedientia  ad  nos  nobiscum  disputaturi 
veniant. 

^  Concerning  those  laws :  Quae  cum  sancta  et  apostolica  mater  ecclesia 
jam  a  tempore  b.  Leonis  papae  ssepe  in  conciliis  turn  per  legates  turn  per 
epistolas  in  se  et  commissas  sibi  plebes,  utpote  ab  antiquioribus  neglecta, 
renovare  et  observare  commonuerit,  rogaverit  et  accepta  per  Petrura 
auctoritate  jusserit,  adhuc  inobedientes,  exceptis  perpaucis,  tam  execran- 
dam  consuetudinem  nulla  studuerunt  prohibitione  decidere,  nulla  dis- 
trictione  punire. 

**  Multo  enim  melius  nobis  videtur,  justitiam  Dei  vel  novis  reacdi- 
ficare  consiliis,  quam  animas  hominum  una  cum  legibus  deperire  neg- 
lectis. 


THE  MONKS  TAKE  THE  SIDE  OF  THE  POPE.  133 

alarmed  by  the  cry  of  the  latter,  who  thought  themselves 
entitled  to  despise  such  laymen  as  ignorant  persons.* 

Again,  Gregory  found  a  peculiar  kind  of  support  in  those 
monks  who  travelled  about  as  preachers  of  repentance,  had 
the  greatest  influence  among  the  people,  and  sided  with 
the  popes  in  combating  the  prevailing  corruption  of  manners 
and  the  vicious  clergy.  There  were  some  among  these 
inflamed  by  the  ardour  of  genuine  piety,  but  there  were  others 
inspired  only  by  fanaticism  or  ambition  ;f  hence  the  monks 
drew  upon  themselves,  as  a  class,  the  hatred  of  the  anti- 
Hildebrandian  party.  They  were  represented  by  the  men 
wiio  stood  at  the  head  of  that  party  as  pharisees,  promoters  of 
spiritual  darkness,  and  zealots  for  human  ordinances.^    In  the 

*  Lib.  II.  ep.  11.     Qnapropter  qaidqoid  illi  contra  yos  imo  contra 

jostitiam  garriant  et  pro  defendenda  nequitia  saa  robis,  qui  iltiterati  estis, 
objiciant,  vos  in  puritate  et  constantia  fidei  vestrse  permanentes,  quae  de 
episcopis  et  sacerdotibus  simoDiacis  aut  in  fornicatione  jacientibos  ab 
apostolica  sede  accepistis,  firmiter  credite  et  tenete.  In  a  letter  which  is 
addressed  to  the  bishop  and  the  commnnities  at  the  same  time,  he  calls 
upon  both  to  labour  together  for  the  same  object.    Lib.  II.  ep.  55. 

t  When  the  decrees  of  that  Roman  council  were  made  known  at  a 
synod  held  in  Paris,  nearly  all  the  bishops,  abbots,  and  clergy  protested 
against  them,  declaring  importabilia  esse  praecepta  ideoque  irrationabilia. 
Walter,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Martin,  near  Pontisara(Pontoise), 
the  fierce  antagonist  of  simony,  who  fearlessly  told  the  truth  to  king 
Philip  the  First,  was  the  only  one  who  stood  up  for  these  laws,  on  the 
principle  of  the  respect  which  in  every  case  was  due  to  superiors.  Church- 
men and  people  of  the  court  attacked  him  on  all  sides ;  but  he  was  not  to 
be  moved  by  any  authority  nor  by  any  threats.  See  his  Life,  written  by 
one  of  his  disciples :  c.  ii.  s.  10,  t.  1.  Mens.  April,  f.  760.  Even  down  to 
the  early  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  to  the  time  of  pope  Paschalis  the 
Second,  the  papal  laws  of  celibacy  were  so  little  observed  in  Normandy, 
that  priests  celebrated  their  weddings  openly,  passed  their  livings  to  their 
sons  by  inheritance,  or  gave  them  as  a  dowry  to  their  daughters,  if  they 
had  no  other  property.  Their  wives,  before  they  married,  took  an  oath 
before  their  parents,  that  they  would  never  forsake  their  husbands. 
When,  however,  the  monk  Bernard  (abbot  of  Tira  in  the  diocese  of 
Chartres),  itinerated  at  that  time  in  Normandy  as  a  preacher  of  repentance, 
being  a  man  of  true  piety,  who  had  great  influence  on  the  people,  he  stood 
forth  in  opposition  to  such  ecclesiastics,  and  sharply  rebuked  them  in  his 
discourses.  Some  gave  heed  to  his  exhortations,  but  the  greater  number 
continued  to  pursue  their  old  course  of  life.  The  wives  of  the  priests 
with  their  whole  retinue,  and  the  clergy  themselves,  persecuted  him. 
They  tried  to  bring  it  about  that  he  should  be  forbidden  to  preach.  See 
the  Life  of  this  man,  at  April  U,  c.  vi.  s.  51,  t.  II.  f.  234. 

X  The  fierce  opponent  of  the  Hildebrandian  party,  and  zealous  champion 


134         CHARACTER  OF  THE  ANTI-HILDIBRANDIAN  PARTY. 

anti-Hildebrandian  party  we  must  distinguish  two  classes — 
those  who,  contending  only  for  their  own  personal  advantage 
and  the  maintenance  of  old  abuses,  were  farthest  removed 
from  the  interest  of  culture ;  and  those  who  strove  for 
the  .-ause  of  a  well-grounded  conviction — representatives  of  a 
freer  spirit,*  which  they  had  contracted  from  the  study  of  the 
Bible  and  of  the  older  church-teachers,  and  which  would 
incite  them  to  push  their  studies  still  farther  in  the  same 
direction.  To  such,  the  monks  contending  for  the  Hilde- 
brandian  system  might  well  appear  to  be  no  better  than 
Obscura7itists. 

Thus  Gregory  must  unite  himself  with  the  monks  against 
the  bishops  as  well  as  against  the  princes.  We  see  how 
he  takes  the  part  of  the  former  against  that  free-minded 
bishop,  Cunibert  of  Turin ;  and  it  may  be  a  question  on 
which  side  the  right  was  in  this  dispute,  whether  the  quarrel 
was  not  connected  with  the  universal  contest  about  principles 
which  agitated  these  times.  Remarkable  is  the  language  which 
Gregory,  in  a  threatening  tone,  addresses  to  this  bishop,  that 
' '  the  earlier  popes  had  made  pious  monasteries  free  from  all 
relations  of  dependence  on  the  bishops,  and  bishoprics  free 
from  the  oversight  of  the  metropolitans,  in  order  to  protect 

for  the  cause  of  the  emperor  Henry  the  Fourth,  bishop  Waltram  of 
Naumburg,  attacked  the  monks  as  pharisees  (  Obscurantes),  who  zealously 
contended  for  human  traditions,  prevented  instruction  in  their  monaste- 
ries, and  sought  to  keep  the  youth,  from  the  first,  in  ignorance  and 
stupidity.  Mirandum  est  valde,  quod  nolunt  aliqui,  prsecipue  autem 
monachi,  quae  praiclara  sunt  discere,  qui  ne  pueros  quidem  vel  adoles- 
centes  permittunt  in  monasteriis  habere  studium  salutaris  scientiae,  ut 
scilicet  rude  ingenium  nutriatur  siliquis  dsemoniorum,  quae  sunt  consue- 
tudines  humanarum  traditionum,  ut  ejusmodi  spurcitiis  assuefacti  non 
possint  gustare,  quam  suavis  est  Dominus,  qui  dicit  in  evangelio  de 
talibus :  vse  vobis  scriba  et  pharissei  hypocritae,  vos  enim  non  intratis, 
nee  sinitis  introeuntes  intrare.  Apolog.  Lib.  II.  p.  170,  in  Goldast.  Apol. 
pro  Henrico  Quarto.  Hanoviae,  1611. 

*  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg  complains  of  the  wresting  of  the  Scriptures 
■which  the  defender  of  Simony  and  of  Nicolaitism  (as  the  defence  of  the 
marriage  of  priests  was  termed)  resorted  to :  Ipsi  Simoniaci  et  Nicolaitao 
obtinuerunt  divitias  corporales  et  spirituales,  nam  possident  ecclesias  et 
sciunt  scripturas  et  ideo  de  ipsis  scripturis  et  nuvi  testamenti  intenderunt 
arcum  ad  se  detorquendo  et  ilectendo  sensum  eorum  juxta  errorem  suum. 
It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  educated  men  of  the  anti-Hildebrandian  party 
took  pains  to  study  the  bible ;  and  -what  Gerhoh  calls  wresting  of  the 
Scriptures,  was  sometimes  the  right  interpretation  of  the  bible. 


FAXATICISM  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  135 

them  against  the  enmity  of  their  superiors,  so  that  they 
misht  ever  stand  free  and  immediately  connected,  as  more 
illustrious  members,  with  the  head,  the  apostolical  see.* 
Here  we  discern  that  tendency  of  papal  absolutism  which  was 
seeking  to  dissolve  the  existing  legitimate  gradation  of  the 
church-organism,  and  to  procure  organs  everywhere  which 
should  be  immediately  dependent  on  and  serviceable  to  itself. 
It  was  made  therefore  a  special  matter  of  reproach  against 
Gregory  the  Seventh,  by  the  defenders  of  the  opposite  system, 
that  he  paid  no  regard  whatever  to  the  specific  rights  of  any 
ecclesiastical  authority,  f 

But  the  passions  of  the  people  having  once  been  excited 
against  the  clergy,  there  arose,  to  a  still  greater  extent  than 
we  observe  on  the  like  occasion  in  any  former  period,  separa- 
tist movements,  and  the  passions  of  the  people  went  beyond 
the  limits  fixed  by  the  popes.  Laymen  stood  forth  who, 
while  they  declared  the  sacraments  administered  by  the 
corrupted  clergy  to  be  without  validity,  took  the  liberty 
themselves  to  baptize.  We  may  well  believe,  too,  the  remark 
of  a  historian  of  this  period,  J  hostilely  disposed  to  this  pope, 
that,  in  a  state  of  the  nations  which  still  continued  to  be  so 
rude,  the  fanaticism  excited  by  the  pope  against  the  married 
clerg^',  manifested  itself  in  the  wildest  outbreaks,  and  even 
led  to  a  profanation  of  the  sacraments.  Heretical  tendencies 
might  easily  spring  up  out  of  this  insurrection  against  the 
corrupted  clergy  and  this  separatism,  or  find  in  them  a  point 
of  attachment.  It  was  an  easy  thing  for  all  who  understood 
how  to  take  advantage  of  the  excited  feelings  of  the  people, 
to  use  them  for  their  own  ends,  and  as  a  means  to  obtain 
followers.  Certain  it  is,  that  the  heretical  sects,  which  in  the 
twelfth  century  spread  with  so  much  power,  especially  in 
Italy,  were  by  this  ferment  not  a  little  promot€d,§  as  the 

*  Lib.  II.  ep.  69.  Perpetiia  libertate  donantes  apostolicae  sedi  velut 
principalia  capiti  suo  membra  adhaerere  sanxerant 

t  See  the  letter  of  the  bishop  of  Speier  against  Gregory :  Sublata  quan- 
tnm  in  te  fuit,  omni  potestate  episcopis,  quae  eis  divinitus  per  gratiam 
Spiritus  sancti  collata  esse  dinoscitur,  dam  nemo  jam  alicui  episcopus  ant 
presbyter  est,  nisi  qui  hoc  indignisslma  assentatione  a  fastu  tuo  emendi- 
carit.    See  Eccard,  1.  c.  ii.  f.  762. 

X  See  the  remarks  of  Sigebert  of  Gemblours,  cited  below. 

§  This  may  be  gathered  even  from  the  remarkable  account  of  the 
historian  Sigebert  of  Gemblours.    Continentiam  paucis  teneutibus,  ali- 


1 36  FANATICISM  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

sectarian  name  of  the  Patarenes  itself  indicates.  The  de- 
magogical tendency  was  especially  objected  to  the  pope  by 
his  adversaries ;  and  it  was  said,  that  he  made  use  of  the 
popular  fury  as  a  means  of  procuring  obedience  to  his  laws.* 
How  easily  the  people,  in  a  time  of  barbarism,  might  pass 
over  from  a  superstitious  veneration  of  the  clergy  to  a  fanatical 
detestation  of  them,  may  be  seen  from  the  example  in  Den- 
mark, which  perhaps  was  connected  with  these  movements 
excited  by  the  pope  himself.  The  people,  on  occasions  of 
public  calamity,  a  bad  atmosphere,  droughts,  failure  of  crops, 
were  wont  to  complain  of  the  clergy,  and  to  rage  against 
them ;  hence,  the  pope  himself  was  under  the  necessity  of 
exhorting  them  to  show  a  becoming  reverence  to  the  priests.f 
All  this  now  furnished  grounds  for  various  complaints 
against  the  pope.  Even  those  who  approved  the  laws  respect- 
ing celibacy,  in  themselves  considered,  still  could  not  approve 

qaibus  earn  modo  causa  quaestus  ac  jactantiaj  simulantibus,  multis  incon- 
tinentiam  perjuro  (since  they  put  themselves  under  an  obligation,  at  their 
ordination,  to  observe  the  law  of  celibacy,  and  yet  were  not  enabled  to 
keep  it),  cumulantibus  ad  hoc  hac  opportunitate  laicis  insurgentibus 
contra  sacros  ordines,  et  se  abomni  ecclesiastica  subjectione  excuticntibus, 
laici  sacra  mysteria  temerant  et  de  his  disputant,  infantes  baptizant,  sor- 
dido  humore  aurium  pro  sacro  oleo  et  chrismate  utentes,  in  extremo  vitse 
viaticum  dorainicum  et  usitatum  ecclesise  obsequium  sepultursB  a  presby- 
teris  conjugatis  accipere  parvi  penduut,  decimas  presbyteris  deputatas 
igni  cremant,  et  ut  in  uno  caetera  perpendas,  laici  corpus  Domini  a  pres- 
byteris conjugatis  consecratum,  sa;pe  pedibus  conculcaverunt  et  sanguinem 
Domini  voluntarie  eifuderunt,  et  multa  alia  contra  jus  et  fas  in  ecclesia 
gesta  sunt,  et  hac  occasione  multi  pseudomagistri  exurgentes  in  ecclesia, 
profanis  novitatihus  plebem  ah  ecclesiastica  disciplina  avertunt.  Although 
this  account,  as  proceeding  from  an  opponent  of  the  Hildebrandian  party, 
might  excite  suspicion,  yet  certainly  in  all  essential  points  it  is  in  confor- 
mity with  the  truth. 

*  In  the  letter  of  Theodoric  of  Verdun  :  Legem  de  clericorum  incon- 
tinentia per  laicorum  insanias  cohibenda,  legem  ad  scandalum  in  ecclesia 
mittendum  tartaro  vomente  prolatam.  Martene  et  Durand,  thes.  nov. 
anecdoto.  T.  I.  f.  218.  And  Henry,  bishop  of  Speier,  says,  in  the  letter 
above  cited  :  Omnis  rerum  ecclesiasticarum  administratio  plebejo  furori 
per  te  attributa. 

•)■  His  way  of  doing  this  discovers,  in  a  characteristic  manner,  the  more 
Jewish  than  Christian  position  on  which  he  stood.  Quod  quam  grave 
peccatum  sit,  ex  eo  liquid©  potestis  advertere,  quod  Judaeis  etiam  sacer- 
dotibus  ipse  salvator  noster  lepra  purgatos  eis  mittendo  honorem  exhi- 
buerit  ca3terisque  servandum  esse  qua?  illi  dixissent,  prsecepit,  qunm 
profecto  vestri  qualescunque  habeantur,  tamen  illis  longe  sint  meliores. 
Lib.  VII.  ep.  21. 


OOMPLADITS  AGADfST  THE  POPE.  1 37 

tho  means  which  he  employed  to  enforce  obedience  to  them ; 
and  they  thought  he  ought  to  have  been  content  to  establish 
these  laws  on  a  firm  foundation  for  the  future,  and  to  enforce 
obedience  to  them  in  all  following  time.  But  they  found  fault 
with  him  because  he  showed  no  indulgence  to  those  clergy- 
men who  were  already  bound  by  the  ties  of  wedlock. ;  because 
he  was  for  having  everything  done  at  once,  and  paid  no  regard 
to  the  weakness  of  mankind ;  because  he  did  not  copy  the  ex- 
ample of  Christ,  in  bearing  with  the  infirmities  of  his  disciples ; 
because  he  was  for  pouring  the  new  wine  into  old  bottles,  and 
stirring  up  the  people  so  cruelly  against  the  clergy.  By  all  the 
laws  in  the  world,  said  they,  that  cannot  possibly  be  brought 
about  by  force  which  grace  alone  can  effect  by  working  from 
within.  Hence  every  good  man  should  be  more  ready  to  pray 
for  the  weak  than  to  involve  them  in  such  persecutions.* 

Furthermore,  the  manner  in  which  Gregory  had  expressed 
himself  respecting  the  sacramental  acts  performed  by  unworthy 
ecclesiastics,  gave  occasion  to  the  charge,  that  he  made  the 
validity  and  force  of  the  sacraments  depend  on  the  subjective 
character  of  the  priest :  which  stood  at  variance  with  the 
doctrine  concerning  the  objective  validity  of  the  sacraments 
recognized  ever  since  the  controversies  between  Cyprian  and 
the  church  of  Rome.f 

*  The  words  of  priest  AlboiD,  in  his  second  letter  against  priest 
Bemold  of  Constance :  Nonne  etiam  ipse  sommns  pontifex,  qui  cobIos 
penetravit,  non  omnes  hoc  verbum  castitatis  capere,  neque  etiam  novum 
mustum  in  veteres  uteres  fundi  convenire,  insnper  rudes  discipulos, 
quamdiu  cum  illis  sponsus  est,  non  jejunare  profitetnr,  infirmitatibus 
nostris  misericorditer  compati  non  dedignatur.  As  Christ,  the  great  phy- 
sician, received  publicans  and  sinners  among  his  table  companions.  Bat 
one  will  say :  Yes,  after  they  maniYested  repentance.  Well,  but  who 
brought  them  to  repentance?  Assuredly,  Christ  alone.  Profecto  filius 
hominis,  qui  de  coelo  descendit,  Zachaeo  sui  occulta  inspiratione  adscen- 
sionem  arboris  persuasit.  Sic  etiam  nunc,  nisi  ille  omnia  trahens  ad  se 
oceuUo  sua  gratuB  metu  nos  miseros  trahat,  procul  dubio  nostri  Papa 
auctoritas  vacillat.  Agnum  cum  lupo  vesci  confitetnr  dextera  excelsi. 
Proinde  quemque  piorum  magis  deceret  pro  infirmis  orare,  qnam  in 
istis  malis  diebus  tot  persecutorum  super  eos  jugum  ducere.  Ed.  Goldast. 
1.  c.  pag.  42. 

t  See  Waltram  of  Naumburg,  1.  III.  c.  3.  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg 
takes  great  pains  to  defend  the  pope  against  the  accusation  of  those  who 
said :  Non  potest  pollui  verbum  Dei,  non  potest  impediri  gratia  Dei,  quin 
suos  eflfectns  operetur,  etiam  per  ministros,  Judse  traditori  similes.  He 
grants  this  to  be  true  in  reference  to  those  whose  vices  are  not  yet  openly 


138  EIGHT  OF  INVESTITURE  DENIED  TQ  THE  LAITY. 

Although  those  first  ordinances  of  the  pope  had  already 
excited  so  violent  a  ferment,  he  yet,  unmoved  by  that  cir- 
cumstance, proceeded  to  take  another  step.  In  order  to  cut 
off  entirely  the  fountain-head  of  simony,  and  to  deprive  the 
secular  power  of  all  influence  in  the  appointments  to  spiritual 
offices,  the  right  of  investiture,  by  virtue  of  which  the  laity 
might  always  exercise  a  certain  influence  of  this  sort,  was  to 
be  wholly  denied  them.  At  a  second  fast-synod  of  reform, 
held  at  Rome  the  year  1075,  he  issued  the  ordinance :  "  If 
any  person  in  future  accepts  a  bishopric  or  an  abbacy  from 
the  hands  of  a  layman,  such  person  shall  not  be  regarded  as  a 
bishop  or  an  abbot,  nor  shall  he  enter  a  church,  till  he  has 
given  up  the  place  thus  illegally  obtained.  The  same  thing 
should  hold  good  also  of  the  lower  church  offices ;  and  every 
individual,  be  he  emperor  or  king,  who  bestows  investiture  in 
connection  with  such  an  office,  should  be  excluded  from 
church-communion."*  Gregory  and  his  party  maintained 
that  on  this  point  also  they  only  restored  to  the  ancient 
ecclesiastical  laws  the  authority  which  belonged  to  them ; 
that  being  reduced  to  practice,  which  these  laws  had  deter- 
mined with  regard  to  the  freedom  of  church  elections.  He 
was  praised  as  the  restorer  of  free  church  elections ;  and  men 
were  indebted  to  him  for  the  rescue  of  the  church  from  utter 
ruin,  which  venality,  and  hence  bad  appointments  to  all 
offices,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  must  have  for  their  con- 
sequence, f     By  the  other  party,  however,  it  was  made  out,  in 

known;  but  the  case  is  different,  he  maintains,  after  such  worthless 
clergymen  have  been  deposed  by  the  pope ;  just  as  Judas,  after  he  had 
become  exposed,  and  had  left  the  ranks  of  the  disciples,  no  longer  took 
part  with  them  in  any  religious  act.  See  I.  c.  pag.  154  seq.  We  see  from 
what  he  says,  how  much  talk  there  was  at  that  time  on  this  subject  on 
both  sides.  In  a  much  more  able  manner  than  Gerhoh,  Anselm  of  Can- 
terbury defends,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  the  objective  validity  of  the 
sacraments  and  the  papal  law,  the  sense  of  which  was  not,  quo  quis  ea, 
qua;  tractant,  contemnenda,  sed  tractandos  execrandos  existimet,  ut  qui 
Dei  et  Angelorum  prsesentiam  uon  revereutur,  vel  hominum  detestatione 
repulsi,  sacra  contaminare  desistant.     Lib.  I.  ep.  56. 

♦  See  this  decree  in  the  work  which  that  zealous  defender  of  Gregory's 
course,  Anselm,  bishop  of  Lucca,  wrote  against  his  adversary  Guibert. 
T.  in.  p.  i.  lib.  II.  f.  383.     Canis  lect.  anUq.  cd.  Basnage. 

t  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg,  who  wrote  after  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century,  reckons  the  restoration  of  free  ecelesiastical  elections  among  the 
works  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  his  times.    Ilajc  sunt  pia  de  spiritu  pietatis 


RIGHT  OF  DnrESTlTURE  DENIED  TO  THE  LAITY.  139 

defence  of  the  rights  of  monarchs,  that  if  the  bishops  and  abbots 
Mere  willing  to  receive  from  them  civil  immunities  and  pos- 
sessions, thev  must  also  bind  themselves  to  the  fulfilment  of 
the  duties  therewith  connected.  This  was  the  beginning  of 
a  long-continued  contest  between  the  papacy  and  the  secular 
power. 

The  above-mentioned  decrees  the  pope  now  sought  to  cany 
into  execution  against  princes  and  prelates.  He  threatened 
the  young  Philip  the  First  of  France  with  excommunication, 
the  interdict,  and  deposition,  if  he  refused  to  reform.  In  a 
letter  to  the  French  bishops,*  he  describes  the  sad  condition 
of  France,  where  no  rights,  human  or  divine,  were  respected, 
where  rapine  and  adultery  reigned  with  impuuity.f  He  made 
it  a  matter  of  severest  reproach  to  the  bishops,  that  they  did 
not  restrain  the  king  from  such  acts.  They  had  not  a  shadow 
of  excuse  to  plead.  They  were  much  mistaken  if  they  sup- 
posed that  they  acted  against  the  oath  of  fidelity  which  they 
had  taken,  when  they  prevented  him  from  sinning ;  for  it  was 
a  far  greater  act  of  fidelity  to  rescue  another  against  his  own 
will  from  making  shipwTeck  of  his  soul,  than  by  an  injurious 
acquiescence  to  allow  him  to  perish  in  the  vortex  of  his  guilt. 
The  plea  of  fear  could  not  excuse  them  in  the  least ;  for  if 
they  were  imited  in  each  other  in  defending  justice  and  right, 
they  Avould  have  such  power,  that  without  any  danger  what- 
soever, they  might  draw  him  from  all  his  accustomed  vices, 
and  at  the  same  time  deliver  their  own  souls ;  although,  to 
say  truth,  not  even  the  fear  of  death  should  hinder  them  from 
discharging  the  duties  of  their  priestly  vocation.     If  the  king 

provenientia  spectacula,  cujas  operationi  et  hoc  assignamns,  qaod  in  diebus 
istis  magna  est  libertas  canonicis  electionibus  episcoporum,  abbatum, 
prajpositorum,  et  aliarum  ecclesiasticarum  personamm  provehendarum 
m  dignitatibus,  qnas  per  multos  annos  paine  a  temporibns  Ottonis  primi, 
imperatoris  usque  ad  imperatorem  Henricum  quartum,  vendere  solebant 
ipsi  reges  vel  imperatores  regnante  ubique  simonia,  dum  per  simoniacos 
episcopos  in  cathedra  pestilentiae  positos  mortifera  ilia  pestis  dilata  est 
usque  ad  infimos  plebauos  et  capellanos,  per  quos  valde  multiplicatos, 
ecclesia  pane  tola  fcedabatur,  usque  ad  Gregorium  septimum,  qui  se 
opposuit  mnrum  pro  domo  Israel,  reparaudo  in  ecclesia  canonicas  electiones 
juxta  pristinas  canonum  saactioncs.     In  Ps.  xxxix.  1.  c.  f.  793. 

*  Lib.  TI.  ep.  5. 

t  Quod  niisquam  terrarnm  est,  ciyes,  propinqui,  fratres  etiam  alii  alios 
proper  cupiditattm  capiunt  et  omnia  bona  eorum  ab  illis  extorquentes, 
vitam  in  extrema  miseria  finire  faciont 


140  PROCEEDINGS  AGAINST  HERMANJT  OF  BAMBERG. 

would  not  listen  to  their  representations,  they  should  then 
renounce  all  fellowship  with  him,  and  impose  the  interdict  on 
all  France.  And  at  the  same  time,  Gregory  declared  :  "  Let 
every  man  know  that,  should  the  king  even  then  show  no  signs 
of  repentance,  he  would,  with  God's  help,  take  every  measure 
within  his  reach  to  wrest  the  kingdom  of  France  from  his 
hands."* 

Hermann,  bishop  of  Bamberg  (a  man  who  lacked  every 
other  qualification  as  well  as  the  knowledge  required  by  his 
office),!  formerly  vice-dominus  at  Mentz,  had  in  the  year 
1065,  with  a  large  sum  of  money,  procured  for  himself  the 
episcopal  dignity  in  Bamberg. |  In  vain  did  this  man  try  to 
deceive  the  pope  by  professions  of  repentance.  In  vain  did 
his  friend,  archbishop  Sigfrid  of  Mentz,  go  in  person  to  Rome, 
and  use  all  his  influence  to  soften  the  feelings  of  the  pope 
towards  him.  He  had  to  be  content  that  no  worse  punishment 
befel  himself;  that  he  was  not  himself  put  out  of  his  office, 
because  he  had  ordained  that  bishop.  The  pope  commanded 
him  to  withdraw  himself  from  all  fellowship  with  the  bishop 
of  Bamberg,  to  publish  the  papal  sentence  of  excommunication 
against  him  in  all  Germany,  and  to  see  to  it,  that  another 
should  be  elected  as  soon  as  possible.  No  other  hope  now 
remaining  to  bishop  Hermann,  he  proceeded  himself,  with 
advocates  to  defend  his  cause,  to  Rome,  intending  to  effect  his 
object  by  intrigue  and  bribery ;  but  he  dared  not  appear 
personally  before  the  pope.§  He  endeavoured  to  carry  on  his 
cause  in  Rome  simply  by  his  money  and  his  lawyers ;  but  he 
foxmd  himself  disappointed  in  his  expectations.     Gregory  was 

*  Nulli  clam  aut  dubiura  esse  volumus,  quin  modis  omnibus  regnum 
Francise  de  ejus  occupatione,  adjuvante  Deo,  tentemus  eripere. 

t  A  remarkable  illustration  af  his  ignorance  is  a  case  cited  by  Lambert 
of  Aschaffenburg,  a.d.  1075,  p.  154.  When  the  cleras  of  Bamberg, 
taking  advantage  of  the  authority  of  the  papal  legate,  rose  in  resistance 
against  their  bishop,  a  young  clergyman  stood  forth  and  declared  that, 
if  the  bishop  showed  himself  able  to  translate,  word  for  word,  a  single 
Terse  from  the  Psalter,  they  would  acknowledge  him  as  bishop  on  the 
spot.  I  See  Lambert,  1.  c.  p,  44. 

§  From  Lambert's  words,  1.  c.  p.  156,  we  should  infer,  it  is  tnie,  that 
he  himself  had  come  to  Kome  ;  but  it  is  evident  from  a  letter  of  popo 
Gregory,  that  he  did  not  execute  this  resolution.  In  the  letter  to  king 
Henry,  lib.  IIL  ep.  3:  Simoniacus  ille  Herimannus  dictus  episcopus  hoc 
anno  ad  synodum  Homam  vocatus  venire  contemsit ;  sed  cum  propius 
Komam  accessisset,  in  itinere  substitit. 


henky's  recosceliation  with  the  pope.  141 

inaccessible  to  such  influences  ;  and  it  is  a  proof  of  the  power 
which  he  exercised  over  all  that  were  about  him  that,  even  at 
the  Roman  court,  arts  of  bribery,  which  at  other  times  had  been 
so  common  and  so  successful  here,  could  now  effect  nothing.* 
No  other  way,  therefore,  remained  for  him,  but  unconditional 
submission  to  the  irrevocable  judgment  of  the  pope.  He 
obtained  only  the  assurance  of  the  papal  absolution,  on  pro- 
mising that,  after  his  return,  he  would  retire  to  a  monastery, 
for  the  purpose  of  there  doing  penance.  But  when  he  came 
back,  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been  treated  by  the  pope 
excited  great  indignation  in  the  knights  who  espoused  his 
cause;  they  called  it  an  unheard-of  thing,  that  the  pope, 
without  any  regular  trial,  should  presume  to  depose  a  high 
spiritual  dignitar}'  of  the  empire.  The  bishop  now  threw 
himself  upon  these  knights,  who  were  his  only  reliance,  and 
treated  the  papal  excommunication  as  null ;  yet  all  others 
avoided  intercourse  with  him  as  an  excommunicated  person. 
None  would  receive  from  him  any  sacerdotal  act,  and  he  could 
only  decide  on  questions  of  secular  property.  The  pope  pro- 
nounced on  him  the  anathema ;  and  as  he  finally  succeeded  in 
having  another  bishop  appointed,  Hermann  was  obliged  to 
yield.  The  deposed  bishop,  driven  by  necessity,  retired  to 
the  monastery  of  Schwartzach,  in  the  territory  of  Wiirzburg, 
and  then  went  with  the  abbot  of  this  convent  to  Rome.  Now, 
for  the  first  time,  the  pope  bestowed  upon  him  absolution,  and 
gave  him  permission  to  perform  sacerdotal  functions,  with  the 
understood  condition,  however,  that  he  was  ever  to  remain 
excluded  from  the  episcopal  dignity. 

King  Henry,  who  most  favoured  tlie  abuses  attacked  by  the 
pope  by  an  administration  wholly  surrendered  to  arbitrary  will, 
was  induced,  on  account  of  his  then  political  situation,  to  yield 
compliance.  Through  the  mediation  of  his  pious  mother 
Agnes,  a  reconciliation  took  place  between  him  and  the  pope ; 
he  dismissed  the  ministers  on  whom,  because  they  encouraged 

•  Lambert  of  Aschaffenburg  says  rightly :  Sed  Komani  pontificis  con- 
stantia  et  invictus  adversus  avaritiam  animus  omnia  excludebat  argnmenta 
homanae  fallacise,  ■which  is  confirmed  by  Gregory's  way  of  expressing 
himself  on  the  subject :  Praemittens  nnntios  suos  cum  copiosis  muneribns 
noto  sibi  artificio  innocentiam  nostram  et  confratrum  nostrorum  integri- 
tatem  pactione  pecuniae  attentare  atque,  si  fieri  posset,  corrumpere  molitus 
est.     Quod  ubi  pncter  spem  evenit,  etc. 


i42  CHANGE  IN  henry's  DISPOSITION. 

simony,  excommunication  had  been  pronounced,  and  expressed 
a  willingness  to  obey  the  pope  in  all  things,  so  that  the  latter 
signified  his  entire  satisfaction  with  him,  and  the  best  hopes 
for  the  future.  Already  Gregory  was  employed,  during  this 
momentary  interval  of  peace,  in  sketching  the  outlines  of  a 
great  plan,  for  the  execution  of  which  he  invited  the  co-ope- 
ration of  king  Henry.  The  idea  of  a  crusade,  first  broached 
by  Sylvester  the  Second,  was  now  taken  up  again  by  him. 
We  have  observed  how  Gregory  lamented  over  the  separation 
of  the  Western  from  the  Eastern  church,  and  the  sad  condition 
of  Oriental  Christendom,  overrun  by  the  Saracens.  He  had 
been  invited  from  the  East  to  procure  the  assistance  of  the 
West  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed  Christian  brethren  of  the 
East.  The  hope  was  opened  out  to  him,  of  liberating  the  holy 
places  from  the  yoke  of  the  infidels,  of  once  more  uniting  to- 
gether the  East  and  the  West  in  one  community  of  faith  and 
church-fellowship,  and  of  thus  -extending  his  spiritual  pre- 
rogative over  the  former  as  well  as  the  latter.  Fifty  thousand 
men  were  already  prepared  to  march  under  his  priestly  di- 
rection to  the  East.*  "  Since  our  fathers,"  he  wrote,  "have, 
for  the  confirmation  of  the  Catholic  faith,  often  trod  those 
countries,  so  will  we,  sustained  by  the  prayers  of  all  Christians, 
if  under  the  leading  of  Christ  the  way  shall  be  opened  to  us, — 
for  it  is  not  in  man  that  walketh  to  direct  his  steps,  but  the 
ordering  of  our  ways  is  of  the  Lord, — for  the  sake  of  the  same 
faith  and  for  the  defence  of  Christians  go  thither  also."  And 
in  communicating  this  purpose  to  king  Henry,  he  asked  his 
counsels  and  support ;  he  would  during  his  absence  commend 
the  Roman  church  to  his  protection.  But  soon  Gregory  be- 
came involved  in  violent  disputes,  which  no  longer  permitted 
him  to  think  of  executing  so  vast  a  plan. 

The  young  king  Henry,  following  his  own  inclinations, 
would  be  more  ready  to  agree  with  the  opponents  of  the 
Hildebrandian  system  than  with  its  adherents,  for  Gregory's 
severity  could  not  possibly  be  agreeable  to  him ;  and  men 
were  not  wanting  who  wished  to  make  use  of  him  as  a  bulwark 
against  the  rigid,  inflexible  pope,  and  these  invited  him  to 

*  Lib.  II.  ep.  31.  Jam  ultra  quinquaginta  millia  ad  hoc  se  praparant, 
ut  si  me  possunt  in  expeditione  pro  duce  ac  pontifice  habere,  armata 
manu  contra  inimicos  Dei  volunt  insurgere,  et  usque  ad  sepulchrum 
Domini  ipso  ducente  pervenire. 


THE  pope's  LBTTEB  TO  HENET,  AND  ITS  EFFECT.  14^ 

assert  against  the  latter  his  sovereign  power.  His  uncertain 
political  situation  had  procured  admission  for  the  remonstrances 
of  his  mother  and  other  mediators,  but  after  he  had  con- 
quered Saxony  these  restraints  vanished  away.  The  pope 
heard  that  the  emperor  continued,  in  an  arbitrary  manner,  to 
fill  vacant  bishoprics  in  Italy  and  Germany,  and  that  he  had 
again  drawn  around  him  the  excommunicated  ministers.  After 
Gregory  found  that  he  had  been  deceived  by  many  of  Henrj''s 
specious  words,  he  wrote  him  in  the  year  1075,  as  the  last 
trial  of  kindness,  a  threatening  letter,  couched  in  language  of 
paternal  severity,  but  at  the  same  time  tempered  with  gentle- 
ness. The  spirit  in  which  he  wrote  was  expressed  already  in 
the  superscription  :*  "  Gregory  to  king  Henry,  health  and 
apostolical  blessing ;  that  is,  in  case  he  obeys  the  apostolical 
see,  as  becomes  a  Christian  prince."  With  such  a  proviso — 
the  letter  began — had  he  bestowed  on  him  the  apostolical 
blessing,  because  the  report  was  abroad  that  he  knowingly 
held  fellowship  with  persons  excommunicated.  If  this  were 
the  case,  he  himself  must  perceive  that  he  could  not  otherwise 
expect  to  share  the  di\'ine  and  apostolical  blessing  than  that 
he  separated  himself  from  the  excommunicated,  inciting  them 
to  repentance,  and  rendered  himself  worthy  of  absolution  by 
affording  the  satisfaction  tliat  was  due.  If,  therefore,  he  felt 
himself  to  be  guilty  in  this  matter,  he  should  quickly  apply 
for  advice  to  some  pious  bishop,  confess  his  fault  to  him ;  and 
the  bishop,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  pope,  could  impose  a 
suitable  penance,  and  bestow  absolution  on  him.")"  He  next 
complains  of  the  contradiction  between  his  fair  professions 
and  his  actions.  In  reference  to  the  law  against  investiture, 
concerning  which  the  pope  had  been  informed  that  the 
king  had  many  difficulties,  J  he  declared,  it  is  true,  once  more, 
that  he  had  merely  restored  the  old  ecclesiastical  laws  to  their 
rights ;  yet  he  professed  himself  ready  to  enter  into  negotiations 
on  that  subject,  through  pious  men,  with  the  king,  and  §  to 

*  Lib.  III.  ep.  10. 

t  Qui  cum  nostra  licentia  congruam  tibi  pro  hac  culpa  iojungens 
p<Enitentiam  te  absolvat,  ut  nobis  tuo  consensu  modum  poenitentia:  tuae 
per  epistolam  suam  veraciter  intimare  audeat. 

X  Decretum,  quod  qnidam  dicont  importabile  pondos  et  immensam 
gravitudinem. 

§  Ne  pravae  consuetudinis  mutatio  te  commoTeret 


144  henry's  breach  with  Gregory. 

mitigate  so  far  the  severity  of  the  law  in  compliance  with  their 
advice,  as  could  be  done  consistently  with  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  spiritual  safety  of  the  king. 

The  pope  had  said  nothing  in  this  letter,  which,  according 
to  his  mode  of  looking  at  things,  could  offend  the  king's  dig- 
nity. He  looked  upon  it  as  a  principle  universally  valid,  that 
high  and  low  should  in  like  manner  be  subject  to  his  spiritual 
jurisdiction.  He  could  not  foresee  that  Henry,  after  having 
so  shortly  before,  at  least  in  his  professions,  acknowledged  so 
entire  a  submission  to  the  papal  see,  would  receive  such  a 
letter,  in  which  he  himself  held  out  his  hand  for  peace,  with 
such  violent  indignation.*     But  as  appears  evident  from  tlie 

*  According  to  the  account  of  the  German  historian,  Lambert  of 
Aschaff'enburg,  there  was,  to  be  sure,  something  else  of  a  special  charac- 
ter, which  so  exasperated  the  feelings  of  the  king  towards  the  pope,  and 
which  had  in  some  sense  compelled  him,  unless  he  was  willing  to  be 
completely  humbled  before  the  pope,  to  anticipate  the  blow  which  he  was 
to  receive  from  Rome.    The  pope  had  sent  an  embassy  to  him,  through 
which  he  cited  him  to  appear  before  the  Roman  synod  of  Lent,  on  the 
Monday  of  the  second  week  of  Lent,  a.d.  1076,  where  he  was  to  clear 
himself  of  the  charges  which  had  been  brought  against  him,  with  the 
threat  that,  if  he  did  not  comply,  the  ban  would  be  pronounced  on  him 
the  same  day.    The  above-mentioned  letter  of  the  pope,  however,  contra- 
dicts the  supposition  of  any  such  embassy.     Some  important  occurrence 
must  have  intervened,  which  led  the  pope  to  deviate  so  far  from  the 
paternal  tone  which  he  had  expressed  in  this  letter.    The  thing,  after 
all,  remains  quite  improbable.     We  may  perhaps  consider  the  embassy 
mentioned  by  this  historian  as  the  same  with  that  which  was  the  bearer 
of  the  above-mentioned  letter ;  and  in  this  case,  we  must  explain  the  con- 
tents of  the  message  delivered  by  this  embassy  in  accordance  with  the 
letter  itself.     From  the  letter  it  follows,  to  be  sure,  that  if  Henry  did  not 
act  in  the  way  required  of  him  by  the  pope,  he  had  to  expect  excommu- 
nication ;  and  from  this  the  story  just  related  may  have  grown.  Were  the 
statement,  as  we  find  it  given  by  this  historian,  the  correct  one,  the 
defenders  of  Gregory  could  never  have  appealed  to  the  fact,  that  Henry 
had  attacked  the  pope  without  any  previous  provocation,  and  that  this 
first  violent  step  was  the  source  of  all  the  ensuing  evil.    Thus,  the  lan- 
guage of  Gebhard,  bishop  of  Salzburg,  to  Hermann,  bishop  of  Metz,  is : 
"  The  adherents  of  Henry  could  not  excuse  themselves  on  the  ground 
that  they  at  first  had  only  adopted  measures  of  defence  against  the  pope." 
Nam  apostolica:  animadversionis,  qua  se  injuriatos  causantur,  ipsi  potius 
causa  extiterunt,  et  unde  se  accensos  conqueruntur,  hoc  ipsi  potius  incen- 
derunt  ideoque  injurias  non  tam  retulerunt  quam  intulerunt.    Cum  enim 
primum  ad  initiandam  hanc  rem  Wormatiie  confluxissent,  ubi  omnis^ 
quam  patimur,  calamitas  exordium  sumsit,  nuUam  adhuc  Dominus  Papa 
excommunicationis  vel  anathematis  sententiam  destinavit,  sed  ipsi,  pri- 
mitise  discordiarum,  ipso  ignorante  et  nihil  minus  putante,  prselatio.ni  sua 


HEXRY'3  breach  with  GREGORY.  145 

letter  of  the  pope  addressed  to  the  Germans  themselves,*  he 
afterwards  sent  to  him  three  men,  natives  of  countries  subject 
to  the  emperor,  who  were  directed  privately  to  reprove  him 
for  his  transgressions,  exhort  him  to  repentance,  and  represent 
to  him,  that  if  he  did  not  reform,  and  shun  all  intercourse 
with  the  excommunicated,  he  might  expect  excommunication  ; 
and  that  then,  as  a  thing  which,  according  to  the  Hilde- 
brandian  notions  of  ecclesiastical  law,  followed  necessarily 
upon  excommunication,  he  would  no  longer  be  competent  to 
administer  the  government.  Henry,  in  his  existing  state  of 
mind,  was  little  capable  of  enduring  such  a  mode  of  treatment 
as  this.  He  dismissed  the  envoys  in  an  insulting  manner ;  and 
an  accidental  circumstance  contributed  perhaps  to  induce  him 
to  venture  on  a  step  which  was  by  no  means  justified  in  the 
then  existing  forms  of  law,  but  by  which  he  hoped  he  might 
be  able  to  rid  himself  at  once  of  so  annoying  an  overseer.  A 
certain  cardinal,  Hugo  Blancus,  whom  pope  Alexander  the 
Second,  and  indeed  Gr^ory  himself,  had  employed  on  em- 
bassies, but  who  for  reasons  unknown  had  become  the  pope's 
most  bitter  enemy,  and  whom  Hildebrand  had  deposed, |  came 
to  the  emperor,  and  handed  over  to  him  a  violent  complaint 
against  the  pope.  The  king  now  issued  letters  missive  for  an 
assembly  of  his  spiritual  and  secular  dignitaries,  to  be  held  at 
"Worms  on  the  Sunday  of  Septuagesima,  a.d,  1076.  These 
letters  invited  them  to  come  to  the  rescue,  not  merely  of  his 
own  insulted  dignity,  but  also  of  the  interest  of  all  the  bishops, 
the  interests  of  the  whole  oppressed  church.  In  this  writing 
he  even  accuses  the  pope,  probably  on  the  ground  of  the 


superba  et  repentina  temeritate  abrenantiaverunt  Gebhard  then  seeks  to 
prove  this  by  the  chronology  of  events.  When  Henry  celebrated  the 
festival  of  St  Andrew  in  Bamberg,  shortly  before  Christmas,  there  was 
still  so  good  an  understanding  between  the  emperor  and  the  pope,  that 
the  former  acted  entirely  according  to  the  determinations  of  the  latter  in 
displacing  the  bishop  of  Bamberg.  Quid  ergo  tam  cito  intercidere  potuit, 
ut  ille,  qui  in  proximo  ante  nativitatem  Domini  tantae  in  ecclesia  magni- 
ficentiaj  fiiit,  ut  ad  nutnm  illius  dignitatum  mutationes  fiereut,  idem  paucis 
post  nativitatem  diebns  inconventus,  inanditus  totius  etiam  ignaros  dis- 
sensionis  proscriberetur  ?    Ed.  Tengnagel,  pp.  28, 29. 

*  Praeterea  misimus  ad  eum  tres  religiosos  viros,  suos  ntique  fideles, 
per  quos  eum  secret©  monuimus,  ut  poenitentiam  ageret  de  sais  sceleribus. 

t  Lambert  says :  Quem  ante  paucos  dies  propter  ineptiam  et  mores 
inconditos  papa  de  statione  sua  amoverat. 

VOL.  VII.  I. 


146  GREGORY  DEPOSED  BY  THE  COUNCIL  AT  WORMS. 

above-mentioned  rumour,  of  having  obtained  possession  of  the 
papal  dignity  in  an  unlawful  manner.*  He  requires  of  the 
bishops,  that  they  should  stand  by  him  in  a  distress,  which  was 
not  his  alone,  but  the  common  distress  of  all  the  bishops,  and 
of  the  whole  oppressed  church.  It  was  the  common  interest  of 
the  empire  and  of  the  priesthood ;  for  the  pope  had,  notwith- 
standing Christ's  direction  that  the  two  swords,  the  spiritual 
and  the  secular,  the  two  powers,f  should  be  separated  from  each 
other,  sought  to  usurp  both  for  himself.  He  meant  to  let  no 
man  be  a  priest  who  did  not  sue  for  it  at  his  own  footstool ; 
and  because  the  king  regarded  his  royal  power  as  received 
solely  from  God,  and  not  from  the  pope,  he  had  threatened  (o 
deprive  him  of  his  government  and  of  his  soul's  salvation. 

The  council,  which  met  on  the  Sunday  of  Septuagesima, 
January  24,  1076,  on  the  ground  of  the  charges  brought 
against  the  pope  by  the  cardinal  Hugo  Blancus,  pronounced 
sentence  of  deposition  upon  Gregory ;  and,  which  shows  to 
what  extent  these  bishops  and  abbots  were  willing  to  be  em- 
ployed as  the  blind  tools  of  power,  and  how  much  they  needed 
a  severe  regent  at  the  head  of  the  church,  notwithstanding  the 
irregular  procedure  of  this  assembly,  notwithstanding  the 
scruples  which,  according  to  the  ecclesiastical  views  of  that 
period,  must  have  arisen  against  it  in  the  minds  of  the  clergy, 
not  a  man  amongst  them  all  uttered  a  word  against  it.  Two 
only,  Adalbero  bishop  of  Wiirzburg,  and  Hermann  bishop  of 
Metz,  protested  against  the  irregularity  of  tlds  proceeding. 
They  objected  to  it,  in  the  first  place,  on  the  general  principle, 
that  no  bishop,  without  a  previous  regular  trial,  without  the 
proper  accusers  and  witnesses,  and  without  proof  of  the  charges 
brought  against  him,  could  be  deposed ;  and  least  of  all  could 
this  be  done  in  the  case  of  the  pope,  against  whom  no  bishop 
or  archbishop  could  appear  as  an  accuser. 

It  was  considered  a  duty  of  loyalty  to  the  king  to  acquiesce 
in  this  decjsion.  In  order  to  bind  the  members  of  the  assembly, 
Henry  caused  a  written  oath  to  be  taken  by  each,  that  he  would 

*  Invasoris  violentia. 

t  Concerning  the  spiritual  sword,  it  is  said  that,  by  means  of  it.  men 
^ere  to  be  compelled  to  obey  the  king  next  to  God.  The  pope,  therefore, 
ought  to  unite  with  the  king  in  punishing  those  who  disobeyed  the  latter. 
Videlicet  sacerdotali  gladio  ad  obedientiam  regis  post  Dominum  homines 
coDstriDgendos. 


CONSPIRACY    OF  CINTIUS.  147 

no  longer  recognize  Gregory  as  pope.  This  judgment  having 
been  passed,  Henry  announced  it  to  the  pope  in  a  letter, 
addressed  as  follows  :  "  Henry,  king  by  the  grace  of  God  and 
not  by  the  will  of  man,  to  HUdebrand,  no  longer  apostolical, 
but  a  false  monk  :  "  and  the  letter  concluded  with  the  words — 
"  this  sentence  of  condemnation  having  been  pronounced  upon 
you  by  us  and  all  our  bishops,  descend  from  the  apostolical 
chair  you  have  usurped  ;  let  another  mount  the  chair  of  Peter, 
who  will  not  cloak  deeds  of  violence  under  religion,  but  set 
forth  the  sound  doctrines  of  St.  Peter.  I,  Henry,  and  all  our 
bishops,  bid  you  come  down,  come  down,"  Moreover,  in  this 
letter,  it  was  alleged  against  the  pope,  that  he  had  attacked 
the  divine  right  by  which  kings  are  appointed,  and  that  he 
sought  to  degrade  all  prelates  to  the  position  of  his  servants, 
and  stirred  up  the  people  against  the  clergy*  At  the  same 
time,  Henry  addressed  a  letter  to  the  cardinals  and  to  the 
Roman  people,  calling  upon  them  to  acquiesce  in  this  sentence, 
and  to  sustain  the  election  of  a  new  pope.  An  ecclesiastic  of 
Parma,  by  the  name  of  Roland,  f  was  selected  to  convey  these 
letters  to  Rome,  and  to  announce  to  the  pope  the  judgment 
passed  upon  him. 

Shortly  before  this  storm  came  upon  the  pope,  he  had  been 
delivered  from  a  gjeat  danger,  which  gave  him  another  oppor- 
tunity of  showing  his  imconquerable  fortitude.  It  was  an 
after-effect  of  that  wild,  lawless  condition  which  had  prevailed 
at  Rome  in  the  eleventh  century  (and  to  which  an  end  was  put 
by  the  popes  who  ruled  in  the  spirit  of  Hildebrand),  that  Cin- 
tius,  a  Roman  nobleman  of  licentious  morals,  one  who  indulged 
himself  in  the  most  extravagant  actions  and  patronized  the 
lowest  crimes,  was  permitted  to  occupy  a  strong  citadel  built 
in  the  heart  of  the  city,  thus  exercising  a  lordship  of  the  very 
worst  character.  As  Gregory  would  not  tolerate  such  a  per- 
son, and  his  firm  will  threatened  to  ruin  this  man's  power,  the 
latter  determined  to  get  rid  of  him  by  a  conspiracy  which  he 
formed  with  Gregory's  numerous  enemies.     The  vigils  in  the 

*  Rectores  ecclesiae  sicut  servos  sub  pedibns  tuis  calcasti,  in  quomm 

conculcatione  tibi  favorem  ab  ore  vulgi  comparasti.    Laicis  ministeriam 
super  sacerdotes  usurpasti,  ut  ipsi  deponant  vel  contemnant,  quos  ipsi 
a  manu  Dei  per  impositionem  manuum  episcopalium  docendi  aocepe- 
rant. 
t  By  others  called  Eberhard, 

L  2 


148  Gregory's  calmness. 

night  before  Christmas,  a.  d,  1075,  was  the  time  selected  for 
the  deed.  At  the  public  service,  Gregory  was  fallen  upon  and 
hurried  away,  wounded,  to  a  tower  in  Cintius's  castle.  He  re- 
mained calm  and  firm  in  the  midst  of  all  these  insults,  and  in 
the  face  of  danger ;  not  a  word  of  complaint  or  of  supplication 
fell  from  his  lips.  There  was  displayed  on  this  occasion,  too, 
a  beautiful  proof  of  the  enthusiastic  regard  which  Gregory 
had  inspired  towards  himself  in  the  more  serious  minds.  A 
man  and  a  woman,  both  of  high  rank,  insisted  on  attending 
the  pope  in  his  confinement ;  the  man  endeavoured  to  keep 
him  warm  with  furs  during  the  cold  winter  night;  the  woman 
bound  up  his  wound.  When,  however,  the  next  morning, 
Gregory's  absence  was  observed,  the  most  violent  commotions 
broke  out  among  the  people.  The  citadel  of  Cintius  was 
stormed ;  he  saw  himself  compelled  to  give  the  pope  his  free- 
dom, and  it  was  by  means  of  the  latter  alone,  his  life  was 
saved  from  the  furj'  of  the  people. 

As  Gregory  was  about  to  open  the  Lent-synod,  in  the  year 
1076,  the  above-mentioned  Roland  appeared,  and,  in  the  name 
of  king  Henry  and  the  synod  of  Worms,  announced  the  judg- 
ment which  had  there  been  passed.  There  arose  a  common 
feeling  of  bitter  indignation,  to  which  he  would  have  fallen  a 
victim,  had  not  Gregorj^  interposed  and  saved  him.*  The 
pope  calmly  heard  all :  without  betraying  the  least  agitation, 
he  held  a  discourse,  in  which  he  distinctly  set  forth  that  men 
ought  not  to  be  surprised  at  these  contests,  foretold  by  Christ ; 
he  declared  himself  resolved  to  sulFer  anything  for  the  cause  of 
God,  and  exhorted  the  cardinals  to  do  the  same.  Then  he 
pronounced,  in  the  name  of  the  apostle,  the  ban  on  king  Henry : 
declared  him  (which  was  the  natural  consequence  of  this  act, 
according  to  his  theory  of  ecclesiastical  law)  incompetent  to 
reign  any  longer,  and  forbade  his  subjects  to  obey  him  for  the 

*  We  doubtless  have  the  words  of  an  eye-witness  in  the  chronicle  of 
Bernold  of  Constance :  Quid  ibi  tumultus  et  conclamationis  et  in  legates 
illos  non  ordinatai  incursionis  excreverit,  noverint  illi,  quipncsto  fuerunt. 
Hoc  unum  sit  nostrum  inde  dixisse,  dominum  apostolicum  non  sine  sui 
ipsius  corporis  magno  satis  periculo,  quanquam  vix,  eos  Romanorum 
manibus  semivivos  eripuisse.  Monumenta  res  Allemannicas  illustrantia 
ed.  S.  Bias.  a.  1792,  T.  II.  p.  30.  That  violent  enemy  of  the  pope's,  the 
princess  Anna  Comnena,  unjustly  accuses  Gregory  himself  of  having 
treated  the  ambassadors  in  a  shameful  and  abusive  manner.  In  Alexias, 
1.13. 


IMPRESSION  MADE  BY  THE  PAPAL  BAK.  149 

future.  He  pronounced,  also,  sentence  of  excommunication 
on  the  bishops  from  whom  everything  had  proceeded  in  that 
assembly  at  Worms.  He  aimounced  the  same  punishment  as 
awaiting  the  archbishop  Sigfrid  of  Mentz,  William  of  Utrecht, 
and  Rupert  of  Bamberg,  unless  they  should  come  to  Rome  and 
justify  their  conduct. 

This  sentence  pronounced  by  the  pope  was  the  signal  for 
a  violent  and  long-continued  contest  between  the  two  parties, 
who  fought  each  other  both  with  the  sword  and  Avith  argu- 
ments. The  men  who  were  zealous  for  the  cause  of  Henry 
insisted  on  the  sacredness  of  the  oath,  whose  binding  force  no 
authority  could  destroy.  They  called  it,  therefore,  an  act  of 
consummate  wickedness,  that  a  pope,  setting  himself  above  all 
laws,  human  and  divine,  should  have  presumed  to  discharge 
subjects  from  their  sworn  obligations  towards  their  princes. 
They  also  considered  the  power  of  princes  as  one  founded  in 
a  divine  order,  and  subsisting  independently  by  itself ;  they 
appealed  to  the  duties  inculcated  in  the  New  Testament,  of 
obedience  to  those  in  authority,  and  would  concede  to  no 
power  on  earth  the  right  of  annulling  this  obligation.  They 
appealed  to  the  fact,  that  the  apostles  had  shown  obedience 
even  to  pagan  magistrates,  and  recommended  such  obedience : 
that  the  more  ancient  bishops  and  popes  had  never  enter- 
tained a  thought  of  deposing  even  idolatrous  and  heretical 
princes.*     The  fulmination  of  the  papal  ban,  it  was  said,  does 

*  So  said  the  scholastic  -writer  Guenrich,  standing  at  this  point  of  view, 
in  the  name  of  bishop  Theodoric  of  Verdun,  when  these  disputes  had 
already  lasted  for  some  time.  Martene  et  Durand  thesaurus  novus  anec- 
dotorum,  T.  I.  Non  est  novum,  homines  seculares  seculariter  sapere  et 
agere,  novum  est  autem  et  omnibus  retro  seculis  inauditum,  pontifices 
regna  gentium  tam  facile  velle  dividere.  Nomen  regum  inter  ipsa  mundi 
initia  repertum  adeo  postea  stabilitum  repentina  factione  elidere,  Christos 
Dei,  quoties  libuerit  plebejos  sorte  sicuti  villicos  mutare,  regno  patrum 
suorum  decedere  jussos,  nisi  confestim  acquieverint,  anathemati  damnare. 
The  author  of  this  letter  appeals  to  the  precepts  of  the  apostle  Paul  con- 
cerning duties  to  magistrates :  Porro  de  ordinatis  a  Deo  potestatibus 
omni  studio  suscipiendis,  omni  amore  diligendis,  omni  honore  reverendis, 
omni  patientia  tolerandis  tanta  ubique  sapientia  disputat.  Concerning 
the  indissoluble  obligation  of  an  oath,  it  is  here  said:  Sanctam  et  omnibus 
retro  seculis  apud  omnium  gentium  nationes  inviolatam  jurisjurandi 
religionem  facillima,  inquiunt,  domini  paps  rescindit  absolutio,  et  quod 
tantum  est,  ut  illud  omnis  controversiae  finem  apostolus  nominaret,  Hebr. 
▼i.  16,  modo  unius  cartulse  per  quemlibet  bajulatorem  porrectae  levissijna 
infringere  juberctur  lectione. 


150  IMPRKSSION  MADE  BY  THE  PAPAL  BAN. 

not  carry  with  it  so  much  danger  as  it  does  fright.  Human 
affairs  would  be  in  truly  a  sad  condition  if  the  wrath  of  God 
followed  every  ebullition  of  human  passion.*  An  unjust  ban 
fell  back  upon  the  head  of  its  author.  The  other  party 
agreed,  it  is  true,  with  all  that  was  said  with  regard  to  the 
sanctity  of  an  oath  ;  but  they  maintained  that  an  oath  taken 
in  reference  to  anything  at  variance  with  the  divine  law  could 
have  no  binding  force.  No  oath  given  to  the  prince,  there- 
fore, could  obligate  subjects  to  obey  him  in  setting  himself  up 
against  the  one  to  whom  is  committed,  by  God,  the  guidance 
of  entire  Christendom. f  If  he  who  has  been  expelled  from 
the  fellowship  of  the  church  became,  by  that  very  circum- 
stance, incapable  of  administering  any  civil  office,  and  if  any 
man  who  continued  to  have  fellowship  with  him  thereby  pro- 
cured his  own  expulsion  from  the  church-community  ;  if  the 
pope,  as  the  director  of  entire  Christendom,  might  call  to  ac- 
count all  the  rulers  of  the  earth  in  case  they  abused  their  au- 
thority, might  bring  them  to  punishment,  and  depose  them  from 
office,  J  then  it  followed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  to  the 
king,  on  whom  the  pope  had  passed  such  a  judgment,  lawful 
obedience  could  no  longer  be  rendered.  The  oath,  moreover, 
by  which  the  bishops  bound  themselves,  before  their  consecra- 
tion, to  obey  the  pope,  was  contrary  to  the  oath  of  homage 
given  to  the  prince. §     And  when  some  appealed  to   the  in- 

*  In  the  letter  already  cited :  Hoc  tonitruum  non  tantum  portendit 
periculum,  quantum  intendit  terroris.  Male  profecto  rebus  hunianis 
consultum  esset,  si  ad  qualescunque  animi  concitati  niotus  divina  seque- 
retur  damnatio,  sicut  illi  uuiuscujusque  iracundia  dictate  vellet,  qui 
omnia  dispeusat,  in  mensura,  et  |X)ndere  et  numero. 

f  Thus  archbishop  Gebhard  of  Salzburg,  in  his  letter  written  to  bishop 
Hermann  of  Metz,  in  defence  of  the  cause  of  Gregory  the  Seventh.  It 
is  here  objected  to  the  opposite  party,  that  they  brought  forward  such 
remarks  as  the  following  :  ad  percutiendam  simpliciorum  fratrum  infir- 
mam  conscientiam,  quatenus  eis  sub  specie  pietatis  laqueum  injiciant  et 
quasi  vera  dicendo  fallant,  diligentius  autem  intuentibus  ad  nostrae  con- 
troversiam  causae  nihil  pertinere  videntur.  Nam  quis  sanse  mentis  per- 
jurium  grave  peccatum  esse  dubitet?  But  from  this,  he  says,  it  does  not 
follow,  ut  quicquid  quisque  juret,  indifferenter  et  sine  retractatione  ser- 
vandum  sit. 

J  Thus,  too,  writes  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg :  Ordo  clericalis  cujus 
nimirum  est  officium,  non  solum  plebejos,  sed  etiam  reges  increpare 
atque  regibus  aliis  descendentibus,  alios  ordinare.  L.  c.  in  Ps.  xxix. 
f.  6.-36. 

§  Credimos  enim,  memorise  illoram  non  excidisse,  quod  in  sacro  illo 


6Bon:n)6  of  defence,  asd  grbgoby's  eei>ly.         151 

violable  divine  right  of  kings,  the  other  party  maintained,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  it  was  necessary  to  distinguish  bebveen 
the  rightfiil  authority  of  princes  and  the  abuse  of  arbitrary 
will,  between  kings  and  tyrants.  Princes  deprived  them- 
selves of  their  own  authority  by  abusing  it.* 

No  impression  could  be  made  on  pope  Gregory  by  the 
doubts  expressed  respecting  the  lawfulness  of  his  conduct  by 
Hermann,  bishop  of  Metz.-f  In  the  light  of  the  principles 
which  he  maintained,  it  appeared  to  him  a  thing  absolutely 
settled  that  the  pope  might  excommunicate  a  king,  like  any 
other  mortal ;  and  any  doubt  expressed  on  this  point  he  could 
only  look  upon  as  a  mark  of  incredible  fatuity.  %  He  ap- 
pealed to  the  example  of  pope  Zacharias,  who  pronounced  sen- 
tence of  deposition  upon  the  last  of  the  Merovingians,  and  ab- 
solved the  Franks  from  their  oath  of  all^iance  to  him ;  to  the 
example  of  bishop  Ambrose  of  Milan,  who  in  feet  excommu- 
nicated an  emperor.  He  asked  whether  Christ,  when  he  com- 
mitted to  Peter  the  feeding  of  his  sheep,  the  power  to  bind  and 
to  loose,  made  any  exception  in  favour  of  princes.  If  kings 
could  not  be  excommxmicated  by  the  church,  it  would  follow, 
that  neither  could  they  receive  absolution  firom  the  church. 
But  to  this  bishop  Waltrara  of  Naumburg,  not  without  reason, 
replied,  that  Ambrose  had,  it  is  true,  once  excluded  the  em- 
peror Theodosius  from  the  communion  of  the  church,  which 
was  attended  with  the  most  salutary  consequences  both  to  that 
emperor  and  to  the  common  weal ;  but  he  had  not  the  remotest 
intention  or  wish  to  disturb  thereby  the  relation  subsisting 
between  the  emperor  and  his  subjects.  He  had  rendered  to 
(lod  the  things  that  are  God's,  and  to  Caesar  the  tilings  that 
were  Caesar's.  Even  towards  Valentinian  the  Second  and  his 
mother  Justina,  Ambrose  had  never,  in  all  the  disputes  with 

episcopomm  et  cleri  conventa  ad  promerendam  promotionem  saam  beato 
Petro  suisque  vicariis  et  successoribus  fidem  et  subjectionem  se  servaturos 
promiserant  Quomodo  ergo  hoc  pluris  faciunt,  qaod  in  eubicnlo  sive 
in  aula  regis  inter  Palatines  strepitus  conspiraverunt,  qnam  illud,  qnod 
coram  sacro  altari  sanctisque  sanctomm  reliquiis  sub  testimonia  Christi 
et  ecclesiae  professi  sunt  ? 

*  So  says  Bemold  of  Constance,  1.  c.  p.  57 :  Recte  faciendo  somen 
regis  tenetar,  alioquin  amittitur,  unde  est  hoc  vetus  elogium  ;  rex  eris, 
si  recte  facis,  si  non  facis,  nou  eris. 

t  See  Gregory's  letters.  1.  IV.  ep.  2. 

i  Licet  pro  magna  fatoitate  nee  etiam  lis  respondere  debeamus. 


152  DIFFERENT  IMPRESSIONS  MADE  BY  THE  BAN. 

them,  taken  any  such  liberties.*  His  reasoning  is  not  so 
strong  with  regard  to  the  other  example,  of  pope  Zacharias. 
He  says,  the  pope  did  not  by  any  means  depose  Childeric,  nor 
absolve  his  subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance  to  him ;  for 
Childeric  merely  bore  the  name  of  king,  without  possessing 
the  kingly  power.  Of  the  latter,  therefore,  he  did  not  need 
to  be  deprived. f 

Yet  the  ban  pronounced  by  the  pope  produced  a  great 
effect  in  Germany,  which  was  increased  by  the  prevailing  dis- 
satisfaction with  Henry's  government.  The  bishop  Udo  of 
Triers,  after  his  return  from  Rome,  avoided  all  intercourse 
with  the  spiritual  and  secular  counsellors  of  the  emperor  who 
had  been  excommunicated  by  the  pope.  He  declared,  that 
by  holding  fellowship  with  the  excommunicated  king,  one 
became  involved  in  the  same  condition ;  that  only  at  his 
special  request  permission  had  been  granted  him  by  the  pope 
of  conversing  with  the  king ;  yet  even  to  him  the  communion 
of  prayer  and  of  the  Lord's  table  with  that  monarch  had  been 
forbidden.  By  the  example  and  the  representations  of  Udo, 
many  were  induced  to  draw  away  from  the  king.  But  the  men 
of  the  other  party  sought  by  the  arguments  above  mentioned 
to  confirm  the  king  in  his  resistance  to  the  pope  ;  they  main- 
tained tliat  an  arbitrary  unjust  ban  ought  not  to  be  feared ; 
that  in  sucli  a  case  refigion  was  only  employed  as  a  pretext 
to  cover  private  passions  and  private  ends.  They  called  upon 
him  to  use  the  sword  which  God  had  intrusted  to  him,  as  the 
legitimate  sovereign,  for  the  punishment  of  evil  doers  against 
the  enemies  of  the  empire.  Such  language  found  a  ready  ear 
on  the  part  of  the  king.  He  was  inclined  already  to  bid 
defiance  to  the  papal  ban,  and  to  threaten  with  his  kinglj 
authority  those  who  sided  with  the  pope's  party  ;  but  as  tiie 

*  See  Waltram  Naumburgens.  de  unitate  eccles.  et  imperii,  L.  I.  p.  66. 
Sed  ipse  quoque  sanctus  Ambrosius  ecclesiam  non  divisit,  sed  ea,  qua; 
Cffisaris  sunt,  Caisari  et  quae  Dei,  Deo  reddenda  esse  docuit,  qui  Theodo- 
sium  ecclesiastica  coercuit  disciplina,  etc.  Ecce  ilia  excommunicatio 
quam  utilis  erat  ecclesia;  pariter  atque  ipsi  imperatori  Theodosio,  quae 
nunc  prodendi  schismatis  ponitur  exemplo,  quo  separentur  principes,  vel 
milites  reipublicae  ab  imperatoris  sui  consortio  simul  et  obsequio ! 

t  Lib.  I.  p.  17.  Quandoquidem  ille  Hilderichus  nihil  omuino  regiae 
potestatis  vel  dignitatis  habuisse  describatur,  atque  ideo  comprobatur, 
quod  non  fuerit  dominus  aliquorum  sive  rector,  quoniam  rex  a  regendo 
dicitur. 


DECISION  AT  TKIBim.  153 

number  of  those  who  went  over  to  that  party  was  constantly 
increasing,  and  he  wanted  power  to  carry  his  threats  into  exe- 
cution, he  suddenly  adopted  quite  another  tone.  He  sought 
to  bend  the  minds  of  his  opponents  by  negotiations,  but  this 
also  proved  fruitless,  and  they  were  already  on  the  point  of 
proceeding  to  the  extremest  measures. 

In  the  year  1076  the  Suabian  and  Saxon  princes  assembled 
at  Tribur.  Before  this  assembly  appeared,  as  papal  legates, 
the  patriarch  Sighard  of  Aquileia,  and  the  bishop  Altmann  of 
Passau,  a  man  eminently  distinguished  for  his  strict  piety. 
And  here  we  may  notice  how  large  a  party  stood  up  for  the 
pope  from  among  those  who  felt  a  serious  regard  for  religion. 
Several  laymen,  who  had  renounced  important  stations  and 
great  wealth  for  the  purpose  of  devoting  themselves  to  a 
strictly  ascetic  life,  now  appeared  publicly  as  advocates  of  the 
papal  principles.  These  refused  to  hold  communion  with  any 
one  who  maintained  familiar  intercourse  with  king  Henry, 
after  his  excommunication,  till  each  had  personally  obtained 
absolution  from  bishop  Altmann,  the  prelate  empowered  by 
the  pope  to  bestow  it.  After  a  deliberation  of  seven  days,  it 
was  resolved  to  proceed  to  the  election  of  a  new  king.  Henry, 
after  a  variety  of  fruitless  n^otiations  with  the  opposite  party, 
among  whom  partly  the  political  partly  the  religious  interest 
predominated,  determined  to  give  way.  An  agreement  was 
entered  into,  to  the  effect  that  the  pope  should  be  invited  to 
visit  Augsburg  on  the  festival  of  the  purification  of  Mary ; 
there,  in  a  numerous  assembly  of  the  princes,  all  accusations 
against  the  king  should  be  presented,  and  then,  after  the  pope 
had  heard  what  both  parties  had  to  say,  the  decision  should 
be  left  with  him.  If  the  king,  by  any  fault  of  his  own, 
remained  excommunicated  a  year,  he  should  be  considered  for 
ever  incapable  of  holding  the  government :  in  the  mean  time 
he  should  abstain  fix)m  all  intercourse  with  the  excommuni- 
cated, and  live  in  Speier  as  a  private  man.  Henry  the  Fourth 
agreed  to  all  the  conditions  proposed  to  him,  severe  as  they 
were ;  and  as  everything  was  now  depending  on  his  being  ab- 
solved from  the  papal  ban,  in  order  that  he  might  be  able  to 
negotiate  on  equal  footing  with  the  princes,  so  he  determined 
to  pay  a  >'isit  to  the  pope  himself,  in  Italy,  before  the  latter 
could  come  to  Germany.  He  was  willing  to  risk  everything 
to  obtain  absolution. 


154  henry's  journey  to  rome. 

A  few  days  previous  to  Christmas,  in  the  unusually  cold 
winter  of  1076-77,  he  crossed  the  Alps  •with  liis  wife  and 
little  son,  attended  only  by  one  individual,  of  no  rank.  Mean- 
time the  ambassadors  of  the  German  princes  had  come  to  the 
pope,  and,  in  compliance  with  their  invitation,  the  latter  set 
out  on  his  journey,  expecting  to  reach  Augsburg  at  the  ap- 
pointed time,  on  the  2nd  of  February,  1077,*  although  his 
friends  advised  him  not  to  undertake  this  journey,  probably 
because  they  feared  the  power  of  Gregory's  enemies  in  Italy. 
It  had  been  agreed  upon  that,  at  a  particular  point  of  time, 
delegates  from  the  princes  should  meet  him  on  the  borders 
of  Italy,  for  the  purpose  of  escorting  him  to  Augsburg. 
Twenty  days  before  the  time  appointed,  the  pope  set  out  on 
his  journey.  Meanwhile  came  also  the  messengers  of  king 
Henry,  through  whom  the  latter  promised  him  every  satisfac- 
tion and  amendment,  and  urgently  begged  for  absolution. 
Gregory,  however,  would  not  meddle  with  the  matter ;  he  only 
loaded  him  with  severe  reproaches  for  his  transgressions."]" 

If,  viewing  the  matter  in  the  light  of  the  pope's  rigidly  con- 
sistent system,  we  might  perhaps  approve  of  Gregory's  conduct 
towards  the  insolent  Henry,  yet  we  cannot  fail  to  miss,  in  his 
conduct  towards  the  humbled  man,  that  spirit  of  love  which 
proceeds  from  a  pure  gospel ;  w6  perceive  in  it  nothing  but 
the  stiff  firmness  of  a  self-will,  which,  spurning  all  human 
feelings,  goes  straight  onward  to  the  mark  on  which  it  has 
once  fixed. 

The  promised  escort  from  Germany  found  it  impossible,  on 
account  of  the  many  difficulties  they  met  with,  to  make  their 
appearance  at  the  time  appointed ;  and  Gregory's  journey  to 
Germany  was  hindered  by  various  circumstances.  Meanwhile 
Henry  arrived  in  Italy,  and  the  reception  he  there  met  with 
stood  in  melancholy  contrast  with  liis  actual  situation.  A 
large  party  exulted  at  his  appearance ;  the  numerous  oppo- 

*  It  is  evident  from  the  words  of  Gregory  himself,  in  his  letter  to  the 
Germans,  Mansi.  XX.  f.  386,  that  this  was  the  reason  of  his  undertaking 
the  journey  to  Lombardy.  The  account  given  by  Domnizo,  in  his  Life  of 
Mathilda,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  book,  is  false  therefore ;  namely, 
that  Gregory  came  to  Lombardy  at  the  request  of  the  latter,  who  stood 
forth  as  mediator  between  the  king  and  the  pope. 

t  Gregory  himself  says:  "  Acriter  ettm  de  suis  excessibus  per  omnes, 
qui  intercurrebant,  nuncios  redarguimus." 


HENEY  IS  ITALY,      GEEGOBY  AND  MATHILDA.  155 

nents  of  Gregory,  among  the  bishops  and  nobles,  hoped  to 
gain  in  the  king  a  head  to  their  party,  and  they  were  ready  to 
do  anytldng  in  his  service.  Gregory,  being  fiilly  aware  of  the 
fickle-mindedness  of  the  young  king,  felt  uncertain  whether 
such  a  reception  would  not  produce  a  change  in  his  disposition 
and  his  mode  of  procedure.  In  this  uncertainty  with  regard 
to  his  own  situation,  he  betook  himself  for  a  while  to  the 
castle  of  his  enthusiastically  devoted  firiend,  the  powerfiil 
Margravine  MathUda  of  Tuscany.* 

But  Henry,  for  the  present,  had  no  other  object  in  view 
than  to  get  himself  absolved  from  the  ban.     Before  him  went 

*  The  connection  of  the  pope  with  this  lady  was  certainly  of  the 
purest  character;  and  so  it  appears  in  his  correspondence  with  her. 
The  enthusiastic  devotedness  of  the  most  strict  and  pious  persons  of  the 
age  testifies  in  favour  of  Gregory.  The  accusations  of  his  most  violent 
enemies,  who  brought  so  many  absurd  charges  against  him,  certainly 
cannot  be  regarded  as  trustworthy  evidence.  It  was  natural  that  they 
should  avail  themselves  of  this  connection  of  Gregory,  for  the  purpose  of 
throwing  suspicion  on  the  character  of  this  severe  censor  of  the  morals 
of  the  clergy  with  regard  to  this  very  point,  and  thereby  to  place  his 
real  for  the  laws  of  the  celibacy  of  priests  in  an  imfavourable  point 
of  light.  That  fierce  opponent  of  the  Hildebrandian  party,  bishop  Wal- 
tram  of  Naumburg.  intimates  this  suspicion  against  the  pope,  however, 
in  such  a  way,  that  it  is  easy  to  see  how  little  reason  he  himself  had  for 
regarding  it  as  well-grounded.  Apolog.  1.  II.  c,  36.  Mathilda  ilia  post 
octavum  qnoque  annum,  quo  defunctus  est  HUdebrand  familiaris  ejvs, 
defendit  promptissime  contra  sedem  apostolicam  (Guibert's  party)  et  con- 
tra imperatorem  partem  ipsius,  qui  propter  frequens  cum  ea  et  familiare 
colloquium  generavit  plurimis  scaevse  suspicionis  scandalum.  Henry, 
bishop  of  Speier,  expresses  himself  in  stronger  terms,  in  his  invective 
against  Gregory,  Eccard.  T.  II.  in  the  collection  of  letters  of  the  Cod. 
Bamberg,  ep.  162  :  Qui  etiam  quasi  fcstore  quodam  gravissimi  scandal! 
totam  ecclesiam  replesti  de  convictu  et  cohiabitatione  aliense  mulieris 
familiariori,  quam  necesse  sit.  In  qua  re  verecundia  nostra  magis  quam 
causa  laborat,  quum  haec  generalis  querela  unicuique  personnerit,  omnia 
jadicia,  omnia  decreta  per  feminas  in  sede  apostolica  actitari.  denique  per 
feminas  totum  orbem  ecclesiae  administrari.  The  impartial  Lambert  of 
Aschaffenburg  remarks,  concerning  the  relation  of  Mathilda  to  the  pope: 
Tanquam  patri  vel  domino  sedulum  exhibebat  officium.  He  then  refere 
to  the  misinterpretations  put  on  this  relation,  which  proceeded  fixtm  the 
friends  of  Henry,  and  particularly  from  the  opponents  of  the  laws  of 
celibacy  among  the  clergy,  and  says  of  these :  Sed  apud  omnes  sannm 
aliquid  sapientes  luce  clarius  constabat,  falsa  esse,  quae  dicebantur.  Nam 
et  papa  tam  eximie  tamque  apostolice  vitam  instituebat,  ut  nee  minimam 
sinistri  rumoris  maculam  couTcrsationis  ejus  sublimitas  admitteret  et  ilia 
in  urbe  celeberrima  atque  in  tanta  obsequentium  frequentia,  obscoenom 
aliqoid  perpetrans  latere  neqoaquam  potuisset, 


156  henry's  penance  at  canossa. 

the  excommunicated  bishops  and  nobles  of  Germany,  in  the 
habit  of  penitents,  barefoot  and  in  woollen  garments,  to  beg 
absolution  from  the  pope.  The  latter  listened,  it  is  true,  to 
their  petition,  but  he  required  of  them  such  proofs  of  their 
repentance  as  would  be  calculated  to  leave  a  right  lasting 
impression  on  men  so  inured  to  luxury.  Each  of  the  bishops 
was  obliged  to  remain  from  morn  to  evening  shut  up  in  a 
solitary  cell,  in  his  penitential  raiment,  partaking  only  of  the 
most  meagre  diet.  Then  he  allowed  them  to  come  before  him 
and  gave  them  absolution,  after  mildly  reproving  them  for 
their  transgressions,  and  exhorting  them  to  guard  against  such 
conduct  for  the  future.  When  they  took  their  leave  of  him,  he 
strictly  charged  them  to  abstain  from  all  fellowship  with  king 
Henry  till  he  had  become  reconciled  with  the  church ;  only 
for  the  purpose  of  exhorting  him  to  repentance,  they  might  be 
allowed  to  converse  with  him. 

But  Gregory  proceeded  more  harshly  with  the  young  king 
himself.  First  he  repelled  the  urgent  entreaties  of  that  prince, 
and  the  intercessions  of  Mathildis,  of  the  abbot  Hugo  of  Cluny 
(who  was  the  king's  godfather),  and  of  many  others  who  im- 
plored his  compassion  on  the  young  monarch.  He  says  him- 
self, in  his  letter  to  the  Germans : — "  All  were  surprised  at 
his  unusual  severity,  and  many  imagined  they  perceived  in  it 
a  tyrannical  cruelty."  *  He  persisted  in  requiring  that  every- 
thing should  be  referred  over  to  the  trial  which  was  to  be 
instituted  at  the  appointed  convention  in  Germany.  At 
length  he  yielded  to  the  entreaties  and  intercessions  poured  in 
upon  him,  but  required  of  king  Henry  still  severer  proofs  of 
his  repentance  than  he  had  demanded  from  those  bishops.  The 
king,  after  having  laid  aside  all  the  insignia  of  his  imperial 
rank,  and  clothed  himself  in  the  garb  of  a  penitent,  was  ad- 
mitted into  the  sacred  inclosure  of  the  castle  of  Canossa,  where 
he  waited  fasting,  during  three  days,  in  the  rough  winter  at 
the  commencement  of  the  year  1077,  till  at  length,  on  the 
fourth  day,  the  pope  admitted  him  to  his  presence.  He  gave 
him  absolution  under  the  condition  that  he  should  appear  be- 


*  Ut  pro  eo  multis  precibus  et  lacrimis  intercedentibus,  omnes  quidem 
insolitam  mentis  nostrae  duritiam  inirarentur,  nonnulli  vero  in  nobis  non 
apostolicffi  severitatis  gravitatem,  sed  quasi  tyranuiciE  feritatis  crudelita- 
tem  esse  clamarent. 


GREGORY  RECEIVES  THE  HOST.  157 

fore  the  proposed  general  assembly  in  Gennany,  where  the 
pope  would  listen  to  the  accusations  of  his  adversaries,  and  to 
what  he  had  to  say  in  defence  of  himself,  and  give  his  decision 
accordingly.  Till  then  he  should  utterly  renounce  the  govern- 
ment, and,  if  he  obtained  it  again,  bind  himself  to  support  the 
pope  in  everything  requisite  for  the  maintenance  of  the  eccle- 
siastical laws.  If  he  failed  to  observe  this  condition,  he  should 
again  fall  under  the  ban.*  And  the  abbot  Hugo  of  Cluny, 
and  several  persons  present,  of  the  spiritual  and  secular  orders, 
pledged  themselves  that  tlie  king  would  fulfil  the  conditions  of 
the  comjKict.  The  pope  then  celebrated  the  mass  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  king  and  of  a  nmnerous  multitude.  When  he  had 
consecrated  the  host,  he  observed,  while  taking  a  portion  of  it, 
that  he  had  been  accused  by  his  enemies  in  Germany  of  many 
offences.  True,  he  could  bring  forward  many  witnesses  of  his 
innocence,  but  he  chose  rather  to  appeal  to  the  testimony  of 
God  than  to  that  of  man  ;  and  for  the  purpose  of  refixting,  in 
the  shortest  way,  all  those  charges,  he  here  called  on  God 
himself  to  witness  his  innocence,  while  he  now  took,  in 
averring  it,  the  body  of  the  Lord.  Let  Almighty  God  now 
declare  him  free,  if  he  was  innocent,  or  cause  the  partaking  of 
the  body  of  Christ  to  prove  his  immediate  destruction,  if  he 
w^as  guilty.  Gregory  regarded  this,  like  his  contemporaries, 
as  a  judgment  of  God  ;  and  such  an  appeal  to  the  divine  deci- 
sion by  a  miracle  was  in  perfect  harmony  with  his  whole  mode 
of  thinking.  With  the  greatest  composure  he  partook  of  the 
holy  supper,  which  to  him — since,  according  to  his  own  reli- 
gious conviction,  this  was  really  subjecting  himself  to  a 
judgment  of  God — would  have  been  impossible,  if  in  his  con- 
science he  had  felt  that  he  was  guilty.  In  very  deed,  there- 
fore, it  was  the  testimony  of  a  tranquil  conscience,  and  on  the 
assembled  multitude  (to  whom  this  appeared  as  such  a 
triumph  of  innocence  as  if  the  voice  of  God  had  spoken 
directly  from  heaven)  it  must  have  made  a  most  powerful 
impression.    With  a  loud  shout  of  approbation  it  was  accepted 

•  In  his  letter  to  the  Germans,  Gregory  appeals  also  to  the  fact  that 

everything  -was  still  undecided ;  that  he  -was  boimd  by  no  obligation  to 
the  king:  adhuc  totius  negotii  causa suspensa  est.  Sciatis  nos  non  aliter 
regi  obligates  esse,  nisi  quod  puro  sermone  sicut  nobis  mos  est  ea  diximus, 
quibus  eum  ad  salutem  et  hoiiorem  suum  aut  cum  justitia  aut  cum  mise- 
xicordia  sine  nostrs  aut  illius  animse  periculo  adjavare  possimus. 


158  henry's  promises,    sincerity  of 

by  the  whole  assembly  ;  and  praise  to  the  God,  who  had  so 
glorified  innocence,  rung  out  from  every  mouth.  Wlien  the 
shouts  of  the  multitude  had  somewhat  abated,  the  pope  turned 
with  the  remainder  of  the  host  to  the  young  king,  and  invited 
him  to  attest  his  innocence  of  all  the  charges  brought  against 
him  from  Germany,  by  doing  the  same.  Then  there  would  be 
no  occasion  for  the  trial  which  it  had  been  proposed  to  hold  in 
Germany,  for  all  human  judicatories  M'ere  liable  to  error,  and 
then  he  himself  would,  from  that  moment,  stand  forth  as 
Henry's  defender.  But  Henry  was  neither  sufficiently  sure  of 
his  own  innocence,  nor  sufficiently  hardened  against  religious 
impressions,  to  subject  himself,  uncertain  of  the  result,  to  such 
an  ordeal.  He  turned  pale  at  the  proposal,  whispered  with 
his  attendants,  sought  evasions,  and  finally  requested  the  pope 
to  leave  everything  to  be  decided  by  the  trial  to  be  had  in 
Germany.  He  pledged  himself,  by  oath,  to  refer  the  settle- 
ment of  the  disputes  in  Germany  to  the  pope's  decision,  and  to 
insure  his  safety,  so  far  as  it  depended  on  himself,  inhis  jour- 
ney to  Germany.  At  the  close  of  the  service,  Gregory 
invited  him  to  a  repast,  conversed  with  him  in  a  friendly 
manner,  and  then  dismissed  him  with  serious  admonitions. 

The  question  here  arises,  whether  the  pope  was  perfectly 
sincere  in  eftecting  this  reconciliation  with  king  Henry.  The 
enemies  of  Gregory  charge  him  *  with  having  persecuted  him 
from  the  beginning,  on  a  calculated  plan  of  bringing  about  his 
utter  ruin,  and  of  using  everything  as  a  means  to  accomplish 
this  end.  If  Henry  obeyed,  and  refmined  entirely  from  exer- 
cising his  kingly  authority  till  that  assembly  could  meet  in 
Germany,  then  he  would,  by  that  very  act,  render  himself 
contemptible ;  while  the  power  of  the  anti-emperor,  about 
whose  election  men  were  already  busying  themselves,  would 
become  more  and  more  confirmed ;  or  if  he  did  not  fulfil  the 
condition,  an  opportunity  would  be  given  the  pope  to  accuse 
him  of  violating  the  agreement,  and  again  to  pronounce  the 
ban  upon  him.  In  what  light  would  Gregory,  with  this  fine- 
spun plan  of  revenge,  requiring  him  to  turn  the  most  sacred 
acts  into  a  means  of  deception,  have  to  be  regarded  ?  If,  after 
having  granted  king  Henry  absolution,  he  had  still  been  able 

»  So  bishop  Waltram  of  Naumburg,  in  his  work  De  unitate  ecclcsisB 
et  imperii,  L.  I.  c  vi. 


gregoby's  reconciliation  with  henry.  159 

to  say  to  the  enemies  of  that  monarch,  who  were  dissatisfied 
with  this  step,  as  he  is  represented  to  have  said  in  a  letter,  that 
"  they  should  give  themselves  no  trouble  about  what  he  had 
done,  he  was  only  going  to  send  them  back  Henry  loaded  with 
deeper  guilt,"*  what  diabolical  malice  and  hypocrisy  !  Well 
might  Waltram  of  Naumburg  say,  "  He  dismissal  him  in 
peace,  but  peace  such  as  Judas  pretended,  not  such  as  Christ 
bestowed."  f  "With  perfect  justice  might  he  exclaim,  in  view 
of  such  an  act  of  duplicity,  "  This  is  not  acting  like  a  suc- 
cessor of  Peter  ;  this  is  not  feeding  Christ's  sheep,  to  send  one 
away  loaded  with  still  hea\'ier  guilt,  and  one  too  who  repented 
of  his  fault ;  this  was  not  acting  like  a  priest  of  our  Lord, 
who  himself  says  in  the  gospel,  that  in  heaven  there  is  more 
joy  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth,  than  over  ninety  and  nine 
just  men  that  need  no  repentance."  j 

But  we  are  listening  to  the  words  of  a  passionate  antagtMilst. 
The  language  of  party-passion,  on  either  side,  is  to  be  heard 
with  distrust.  "Who  could  penetrate  into  Gregory's  heart,  so 
as  to  be  sure  of  the  disposition  in  which  he  acted  ?  The  rea- 
soning from  an  actual  result  to  a  deliberate  purpose  Is  always 
most  unsafe.  Even  though  Gregory  had  said  what  is  laid  to 
his  charge,  or  something  like  it,  still  a  great  deal  depends  on 
tJie  question,  in  what  connection  he  said  it,  and  whether  with 
some  condition  or  in  an  imconditioned  manner.  The  dignity 
and  self-respect  which  Gregory  ever  exhibits  in  his  public 
communications,  render  it  extremely  unlikely  that  he  would 
suffer  himself  to  be  hurried  by  passion  to  utter  words  so  much 
in  contradiction  with  those  qualities.  In  granting  king  Henry 
absolution,  Gregory  assuredly  said  nothing  to  him  which 
could  have  been  designed  to  deceive  him  ;  he  gave  him  plainly 
enough  to  understand  that  all  was  depending  on  his  future  be- 
haviour :  he  even  persisted  in  declaring  that  the  whole  matter 

*  Ne  sitis  solliciti,  qaoniatn  culpabiliorem  eum  reddo  vobis. 

t  Concerning  Henry :  Dimissas  est  Id  pace,  qoalem  scilicet  pacem 
Jndas  simulavit ;  non  qnalem  Christns  reliquit. 

X  His  words :  Certe  culpabiliorem  facere  aliquem,  pra?cipne  aatem 
regem,  quern  pra;cipit  Petrus  apostolus  honorificare,  hoc  non  est  oves 
Christi  pascere.  Culpabiliorem,  inquam,  facere,  prsecipne  eum,  qnem 
poeniteat  culpabilem  existere,  hoc  non  est,  sacerdotem  Domini  esse,  cum 
ipse  in  eyangelio  Dominus  dicat,  gaudium  fieri  in  coelo  super  uno  pecca- 
tore  poenitentiam  agente,  quam  super  nonaginta  novem  justis,  qui  non 
indigent  poenitentia. 


160  henry's  breach  with  GREGORY. 

was  reserved  for  the  trial  which  was  to  take  place  under  his 
presidency  in  Germany — earlier  than  this,  nothing  was  to  be 
determined  in  relation  to  the  settlement  of  the  government.* 
By  his  own  judicial  decision  everything  should  be  set  to  rights 
in  Germany,  and  only  in  case  he  submitted  wholly  to  this 
could  Henry  calculate  on  a  lasting  peace  with  the  pope.  As 
to  the  fact,  tiierefore,  the  remarks  of  Waltram  with  regard  to 
the  precarious  position  of  the  emperor,  however  he  might  act, 
were  correct ;  though  it  cannot  be  said  of  the  pope  that,  from 
the  first,  he  only  became  reconciled  to  Henry  in  appearance, 
and  had  nothing,  else  in  view  than  his  utter  destruction.  He 
acted  thus,  impelled  by  that  reckless  and  persevering  resolu- 
tion with  which  he  followed  out  false  principles :  he  sacrificed 
to  his  consistency  the  true  interests  of  the  misled  king  and  the 
well-being  of  the  German  people.  It  must  be  owned,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  Henry  who,  hurried  on  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances, ^r*<  broke  the  terms  of  the  treaty. 

When  he  returned  back  to  his  friends,  and  with  them 
repaired  to  the  states  of  Lombardy,  he  found  the  tone  of 
feeling  there  very  much  altered.  Men  were  highly  indignant 
at  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been  made  to  humble  himself 
before  the  detested  Gregory.  They  were  upon  the  point  of 
renouncing  him ;  they  were  for  nominating  his  son  emperor, 
and  with  the  latter  marching  straight  to  Rome.  As  then 
Henry  had  so  many  enemies  in  Germany,  as  he  could  not 
place  any  great  reliance  on  the  pope,  and  as  he  here  found  a 
considerable  party  who  were  willing  to  do  anything  for  him 
if  he  would  place  himself  in  their  hands,  he  now  went  over 
wholly  to  this  side.  He  allied  himself  once  more  with 
Gregory's  enemies,  acted  once  more  as  monarch,  and  resumed 
once  more  the  counsellors  whom  the  pope  had  excommuni- 
cated. As  the  earlier-appointed  assembly  in  Germany  covdd 
not  be  holden,  the  states,  dissatisfied  with  king  Henry,  appointed 
another  assembly,  to  meet  in  the  beginning  of  March,  1077, 
and  invited  the  pope  to  be  present  for  the  purpose  of  restoring 
order  and  tranquillity  to  Germany  ;  but  this  also  was  prevented 

*  As  he  says  in  his  letter,  in  which  he  reported  to  the  Germans  his 
transactions  with  Henry,  ep.  iv.  12.  Ita  adhuc  totius  negotii  causa 
suspcnsa  est,  ut  et  adventus  noster  et  consiliorum  vestrorum  unaiiimitas 
permaxime  necessaria  esse  videantur.  Comp.  the  remarks  already  quoted, 
p.  157,  in  the  note. 


EUDOLPH  OF  SUABIA.  161 

by  Gregorj-'s  detention  in  Italy.  Gregory  sent  to  Germany 
two  legates,  who  reported  to  the  assembly  what  causes  had 
hindered  him  from  coming  to  Germany,  and  left  it  to  them 
to  provide,  as  they  deemed  best,  for  the  necessities  of  the 
empire.  At  this  assembly  Rudolph  duke  of  Suabia  was 
elected  ting  in  Henry's  place.  Although  the  pope  was 
doubtless  already  resolved  to  renew  the  ban  against  Henry  if 
the  latter  did  not  alter  his  conduct,  yet  he  still  passed  no 
definitive  sentence.  He  declared  himself  at  first  neutral 
between  the  two  parties,  and  named  both  the  princes  kings  in 
his  letters,  and  reserved  it  to  himself,  when  he  should  \'isit 
Germany,  to  decide  which  party  had  the  right.  Meanwhile, 
in  Germany,  much  blood  was  shed  on  both  sides ;  the  two 
parties  persecuted  each  other  with  unrelenting  ferocity.  State 
and  church  were  rent  in  pieces  by  these  quarrels,  while 
Gregory  quietly  looked  on,  and  by  his  ambiguous  declarations 
and  acts  kept  up  the  contest.  He  expressed  his  pain*  at 
seeing  so  many  thousand  Christians  fall  victims  to  temporal 
and  eternal  death  through  the  pride  of  one  man ;  at  seeing 
the  Christian  religion  and  the  Roman  church  thereby  pros- 
trated to  the  ground.  He  did  not  declare,  however,  whom 
he  meant  by  this  individual ;  he  only  called  upon  the  Germans 
to  renounce  obedience  to  the  proud  man,  who  hindered  him 
from  coming  to  Germany ;  on  the  other  hand  to  obey  him 
who  showed  himself  devoted  to  the  apostolical  see.  The 
partisans  of  Rudolph  fiercely  reproached  him  with  hindering, 
by  this  ambiguous  conduct,  the  decision  of  a  quarrel,  into 
which  they  at  least  had  suffered  themselves  to  be  drawn  in 
obedience  to  the  papal  see,  when  on  the  other  hand,  by  a 
distinct  declaration,  he  could  bring  the  matter  to  an  end ;  but 
Gregory  was  not  moved  by  this  language  to  depart  from  his 
plan.  He  exhorted  the  Germans  to  fidelity,  and  testified  his 
firmness  by  declaring  himself  resolved  to  abide  unswervingly 
by  the  principles  on  which  he  had  always  acted,  without 
regarding  the  voice  of  the  multitude,  by  which  king  Henry 
was  defended  and  he  himself  accused  of  harshness  towards 
that  prince.f    When,  however,  in  the  year  1080,  the  weapons 

*  Ep.  149,  in  Cod.  Babenberg.  Eccard.  T.  II.  f.  151. 

t  Mansi  Concil.  VII.  3.  Quotquot  Latini  sunt,  omnes  cansam  Henrici 
praeter  admodum  paucos  laudant  ac  defendant  et  pernimiae  duritise  ac 
impietatis  circa  eum  me  redargnont. 

VOL.  VII.  M 


162       NEW  BAN  ON  HENRY.   GREGORY  DEPOSED. 

of  Rudolph  met  with  continual  success,  the  pope  finally,  at  a 
Roman  synod,  passed  the  definitive  sentence.  He  pronounced 
anew  the  ban  on  king  Henry,  because  by  his  means  the 
assembly  in  Germany  had  been  prevented  from  meeting,  and 
he  recognized  Rudolph  as  emperor,  sending  him  a  crown, 
inscribed  with  a  motto  in  correspondence  with  the  principles 
of  his  consistent  theocratical  system,  claiming  to  himself,  as 
Peter's  successor,  full  power  and  authority  to  decide  the 
contest  concerning  the  election  of  an  emperor  in  Germany;* 
but  at  the  same  time  he  gave  him  also  to  understand  that  he 
should  not  yield  an  iota  of  the  law  against  investiture. 

It  was  now  however,  for  the  first  time,  that  Gregory's  firm- 
ness was  really  to  be  put  to  the  test ;  for  as,  in  this  same  year, 
duke  Rudolph  lost  his  life  in  a  battle  on  the  Elster,  although 
again  victorious,  so  Henry  saw  himself  no  longer  prevented 
from  directing  his  course  again  to  Italy.  After  sentence  of 
deposition  had  already  been  passed,  at  a  previous  council  of 
Mentz,  by  a  small  number  of  bishops  of  Henry's  party,  on 
Gregory  the  Seventh,  the  same  thing  was  repeated  by  a  more 
numerous  assembly,  held  at  Brixen,  of  those  dissatisfied  with 
the  Hildebrandian  principles  of  government  from  Italy  and 
Germany.  Characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  this  assembly  are 
some  of  the  charges  brought  against  Gregory :  that  he  boasted 
of  being  favoured  with  divine  revelations ;  of  possessing  the 
gift  of  prophecy  ;  that  he  was  given  to  the  interpretation  of 
dreams  ;  that  he  was  a  disciple  of  Berengar.f  One  of  Gregory's 
opponents,  Guibert  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  was  chosen  pope, 
under  the  name  of  Clement  the  Third ;  but  this  arbitrary 
proceeding  appeared  too  much  like  a  political  movement  to 
have  the  least  influence  on  men's  religious  convictions.  The 
free-minded  bishop  Dieteric  of  Verdun,  rendered  famous  by 

*  Inscription :  "  Petra  dedit  Petro,  Petrus  diadema  Pndolpho."  Plank, 
in  his  history  of  the  papacy  (II.  1,  p.  198),  says,  certainly  with  injustice: 
"  The  pope,  in  this  inscription,  probably  did  not  have  half  so  much  in  his 
thoughts  as  was  attributed  to  him  in  the  issue."  What  we  have  said 
above  concerning  the  principles  of  this  pope,  as  they  are  made  known  to 
us  in  his  letters,  as  well  as  what  we  know  concerning  the  system  of  the 
entire  party,  proves  beyond  question  that  Gregory  had  actually  in  his 
mind  all  that  these  words  literally  contain. 

t  Catholicam  atque  apostolicam  fidem  de  corpore  et  sanguine  in 
qusestionem  ponentem,  ha;retici  Berengarii  antiquum  discipulum,  divina- 
tionum  et  somniorum  cultorem. 


gregoey's  cojtduct  aftee  the  death  of  budolph.     163 

his  fidelity  to  king  Henry,  had  been  induced  to  take  a  part  in 
these  proceedings  of  the  above-mentioned  assembly  at  Mentz  ; 
but  he  soon  repented  of  it,  his  conscience  reproaching  him  for 
this  step.  He  suddenly,  and  in  a  secret  manner,  forsook  the 
assembly,  and  felt  impelled  to  seek  absolution  from  Gr^ory 
the  Seventh,  whom  he  recognized  as  the  lawful  pope.* 

King  Henry  himself  felt  a  want  of  confidence  in  his  cause. 
He  gladly  offered  his  hand  for  peace,  and  declared  himself  ready, 
before  penetrating  farther  with  his  army  into  Italy,  to  enter  into 
negotiations  for  that  purpose  with  the  pope;  but  the  latter  showed 
no  disposition  to  yield  anything,  though  his  friends  represented 
to  him  that  all  would  go  over  to  the  side  of  the  king  in  Italy, 
and  that  no  help  was  to  be  expected  from  Germany.  He 
replied  that,  for  himself,  it  was  not  so  very  great  a  thing  to  be 
left  destitute  of  all  help  from  men.!  He  exhorted  the  Ger- 
mans not  to  be  in  haste  about  the  election  of  a  new  emperor 
after  the  death  of  Rudolph.  He  prescribed  to  the  new  king, 
without  taking  any  notice  of  his  own  perilous  situation,  in  an 
imperative  tone,  a  form  of  oath  drawn  up  in  accordance  with 
his  theocratic  system,  whereby  the  king  was  to  promise  that 
he  would  faithfully  observe,  as  became  a  genuine  Christian, 
all  that  the  pope  should  command  in  the  name  of  true 
obedience,!  and  consecrate  himself,  as  soon  as  he  should  have 
an  opportunity  of  meeting  him  in  person,  a  miles  sancti  Petri 
et  illius. 

It  is  deserving  of  notice  that  the  pope,  who  had  shown  so 
much  strictness  in  his  judicial  sentences  against  married  priests, 
now  yielded  on  this  point,  for  the  moment,  to  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstances ;  that  because  Henry's  party  gained  an  advantage 
from  the  prevailing  dissatisfaction  with  the  laws  respecting 

*  He  writes  about  his  participation  in  the  above-mentioned  convention : 
Mnltipliciter  coactus  sum  ibi  agere  contra  ordinem,  contra  salntem  meam, 
imo  contra  dignitatem  ecclesiasticam,  abrenuntiavi  sedenti  in  sede  apos- 
tolica,  et  hoc  sine  ratione  aliqaa.  cum  prjesens  non  audiretur,  auditos 
discuteretur,  discussus  convinceretur.  Abrenuntiavi  11  li,  cui  in  examine 
mese  ordinationis  professus  fueram  obedientiam,  cui  subjeciionem  polli- 
citus  eram,  cui  post  b.  Petrum  suscepto  regimine  mihi  commissae  eccle- 
siae  commissus  fueram. 

t  Quod  (auxilium)  si  nobis,  qui  illius  superbiam  parvi  pendimos, 
defi^iat,  non  adeo  grave  videtur.     Mansi  Concil.  IX.  3. 

I  Quodcunque  mihi  ipse  papa  prseceperit,  sub  bis  videlicet  verbis,  per 
veram  obedientiam,  fideliter,  sicut  oportet  Christiannm,  observabo. 

M  2 


164  LAST  DAYS  OF  GREGORY'S  LIFE, 

celibacy,  and  because  the  deficiency  of  ecclesiastics  who  would 
have  been  competent,  according  to  the  rigid  construction  of 
those  earlier  laws  respecting  celibacy,  to  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, was  too  great,  he  deemed  it  best  to  recommend  to  his 
legates  the  exercise  of  indulgence  in  this  matter  till  mpre 
quiet  times.* 

The  same  inflexibility  which  Gregory  opposed  to  king 
Henry,  when  that  monarch  was  pressing  towards  Rome,  he 
still  maintained,  when  besieged  during  two  years  in  Rome 
itself.  No  force  could  move  him  to  enter  into  negotiations 
with  the  king,  with  whom,  if  he  had  been  willing  to  crown 
him  emperor,  he  might  have  concluded  an  advantageous 
peace.  He  despised  the  threats  of  the  Romans.  He  chose 
rather,  as  he  declared,  to  die  as  a  martyr,  than  to  swerve  in 
the  least  from  the  strict  line  of  justice.^ 

At  length,  in  the  year  1084,  the  Romans,  tired  of  the 
siege,  and  discontented  with  the  defiance  of  the  pope,  opened 
their  gates  to  king  Henry,  and  received  him  with  demon- 
strations of  joy,  which  he  announced  to  his  friends  in  Germany 
as  a  triumph  bestowed  by  God  himself  J  Gregory  was  obliged 
to  retreat  into  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  (domum  Crescentii). 
The  emperor  gave  orders  for  convoking  a  numerous  public 
assembly,  in  which  the  sentence  of  deposition  on  Gregory  and 
the  election  of  Clement  were  confirmed, §     At  the  Easter 


♦  Lib.  IX.  ep.  3.  Quod  vero  de  sacerdotibus  interrogastis,  placet  nobis, 
ut  in  prscsentianim  turn  propter  populorum  turbationes,  turn  etiam  propter 
bonorum  inopiam,  scilicet  quia  paucissimi  sunt,  qui  fidelibus  officia 
religiouis  persolvant,  pro  tempore  rigorem  canonicum  temperando  de- 
beatis  sufferre. 

t  Lib.  IX.  ep.  11, 

%  Thus  the  emperor  writes  from  Rome  to  Dieteric,  bishop  of  Verdun : 
Incredibile  videtur,  quod  verissimum  probatur,  quod  factum  est  in  Roma, 
ut  ita  dicam,  cum  decem  hominibus  in  nobis  operatus  est  Dominus,  quod 
antecessores  nostri  si  fecissent  cum  decem  millibus,  miraculum  esset 
omnibus. 

§  The  emperor  writes,  in  the  above-cited  letter,  after  his  departure 
from  Rome :  (Romani)  summo  triumpho  et  fide  prosequuti  sunt  nos,  in 
tantum  ut  in  Domino  fiducialiter  dican)us,  quia  tota  Roma  in  manu  nos- 
tra est,  excepto  illo  castello,  in  quo  conclusus  est  Hildebrand,  scilicet  in 
domo  Crescentii.  Quem  Hildebraudura  legali  omnium  cardinalium 
(•which  certainly  is  exaggerated)  ac  totius  populi  Romani  judicio  scias 
abjectum  et  electum  papam  nostrum  Clementem  in  sede  apostolica  subli- 
matum  omnium  Romanorum  acclamatioue,  nosque  a  papa  Clemente 


HIS   DEATH.  "  165 

festival,  the  new  pope,  Clement,  consecrated  Henry  emperor, 
and  the  latter  soon  departed  from  Rome.  By  the  Norman 
duke,  Robert  Guiscard,  Gregory  was  at  length  liberated  from 
his  confinement,  and  repaired  to  Cremona,  where  he  soon  after 
died,  on  the  2oth  of  May,  1085.  His  last  words  are  supposed 
to  fiimish  evidence  of  his  own  conviction  of  the  goodness  of 
his  cause  ;  they  were  as  follows  :  "  I  have  loved  righteousness, 
and  hated  iniquity ;  therefore  I  die  in  exile."*  These  words 
harmonize  at  least  with  the  conviction  which  Gregory,  in  his 
letters,  to  the  last  moment  of  his  life,  expresses  in  tlie 
strongest  language  ;  and  it  will  be  much  sooner  believed  tliat 
he  sealed  the  consistency  of  his  life  with  such  words  than  that 
he  testified  on  his  death-bed,  as  another  account  reports, f  his 
repentance  at  the  controversy  which  he  had  excited,  and 
recalled  the  sentence  he  had  pronounced  on  his  adversaries. 
At  all  events,  we  recognize  in  these  two  opposite  accounts 
the  mode  of  thinking  which  prevailed  in  the  two  hostile 
parties. 

Under  the  name  of  this  pope  we  have  a  number  of  brief 
maxims  relating  to  the  laws  and  government  of  the  church, 
called  his  dictates  (dictatus).  Although  these  maxims  did  not 
by  any  means  proceed  from  himself,  still,  they  contain  the 
principles  which  he  sought  to  realize  in  his  government  of  the 
church,  the  principles  of  papal  absolutism, — signalizing  that 
new  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  papacy  which  is  to  be 
attributed  to  him  as  the  author,  wliereby  everytlung  was 
made  to  depend  on  the  decision  of  the  pope,  and  the  juris- 
diction over  emperors  and  kings,  as  over  all  the  presiding 
officers  of  the  church,  was  placed  in  his  hands.  Most  of 
these  maxims  may  be  confirmed  by  passages  from  his  letters. 

A  contest  like  that  between  the  emperor  Henry  and  Gregory 
the  Seventh  could  not  be  brought  to  a  termination  by  the 
death  of  the  latter ;  for  although  the  quarrel  had  at  length 
become  a  personal  one,  still  there  ever  lay  at  bottom  withal  a 
conflict  of  opposite  party  tendencies  and  interests.     Gregory 


ordinatum  et  consensu  omniam  Romanomm  consecratum  in  die  s. 
Paschae  in  imperatorem  totius  populi  Romani.  Gesta  Trevirorum,  ed. 
Wyttenbach  et  Mueller.     Vol.  I.  p.  164,  1836. 

*  Dilexi  justitiam  et  odl  iniqnitatem,  propterea  morior  in  exilic. 

t  By  Sigebert  of  Gembloars,  ad  h.  a. 


166  PHILIP  THE  FIRST  REPUDIATES  HIS  QUEEN. 

was  the  hero  and  the  saint  of  the  party  zealous  for  the  system 
of  the  church  theocracy.  His  death  in  misfortune  appeared 
to  that  party  a  martyrdom  for  the  holy  cause.*  He  had, 
moreover,  for  his  successors,  men  whom  he  himself  would 
have  selected  as  like-minded  with  himself,  and  as  persons  of 
ability.  After  the  first  of  these,  Victor  the  Third  (Gregory's 
enthusiastic  admirer,  the  abbot  Desiderius  of  Monte  Cassino), 
had  died,  a.  d.  1087,  Otto,  bishop  of  Ostia,  was  chosen  pope 
linder  tha  name  of  Urban  the  Second. 

Though  Urban  was  obliged  to  yield  to  the  imperial  party, 
which  made  their  own  pope,  Clement,  sovereign  in  Rome ; 
still,  events  by  which  public  opinion  was  gradually  gained 
over  to  his  side,  were  in  his  favour,  so  that,  even  when 
banished  from  the  seat  of  the  papacy,  he  was  still  enabled  to 
exercise  the  most  powerful  influence.  He  could  resume  the 
position  of  a  judge  over  princes ;  and  the  cause  in  which  he 
did  so  was  one  where  the  pope  could  not  fail  to  appear  as  the 
upholder  of  the  authority  of  the  divine  law,  and  of  the 
sacredness  of  the  marriage  covenant ;  and  the  light  in  which 
he  here  exhibited  himself  was  necessarily  reflected,  greatly  to 
his  own  advantage,  on  the  whole  relation  in  which  he  stood 
to  his  age.  Philip,  king  of  France,  a  prince  accustomed  to 
give  free  indulgence  to  his  passions,  in  the  year  1092, 
repudiated  his  lawful  wife,  Bertha,  with  the  intention  of  mar- 
rying another,  Berthrade,  who  had  left  her  lawful  husband, 
the  count  of  Anjou.  He  found  bishops  cowardly  and  mean 
enough  to  serve  as  the  instruments  of  his  will :  but  the  truly 
pious  bishop  Yves  of  Chartres,  a  prelate  distinguished  for  the 
conscientious  administration  of  his  pastoral  oflnice,  accustomed 
boldly  to  speak  the  truth  to  princes  and  popes,  and  zealous  in 
contending  for  the  purity  of  morals  as  well  as  the  sacred 
tenure  of  the  marriage  covenant,!  was  of  another  mind. 
When  invited  to  attend  the  king's  wedding,  he  declared  he 
could  not  consent  to  do  so  until,  by  a  general  assembly  of  the 
French  church,  the  lawfulness  of  his  separation  from  his  first 
wife,  and  of  the  new  marriage,  had  undergone  a  fair  investiga- 

*  Thus  the  abbot  and  cardinal  Gottfried  of  Vendome,  in  speaking  ot 
the  opposition  to  lay  investiture,  says  of  Gregory  the  Seventh :  "  Qui  pro 
defeusione  hujus  fidei  mortuus  est  in  exilio."     Ep.  7, 

t  See  e,  g.  his  letters,  ed.  Paris,  1610,  ep.  5. 


PHILIP  THE  FIRST  REPUDIATES  HIS  QUEEX.  1 67 

tion.  "  "Whereas,  I  am  formally  smmnoned  to  Pam  with  your 
wife,  concerning  whom  I  know  not  whether  she  may  be  your 
wife,"  *  he  wrote  to  the  king,  "  therefore  be  assured,  that  for 
conscience'  sake,  which  I  must  preserve  pure  iu  the  sight  of 
God,  and  for  the  sake  of  my  good  name,  which  the  priest  of 
Christ  is  bound  to  preserve  towards  those  who  are  without,  I 
would  rather  be  sunk  with  a  millstone  in  the  depths  of  the 
sea  than  to  be  the  means  of  giving  offence  to  the  souls  of  the 
weak.  Nor  does  this  stand  in  the  least  contradiction  with  the 
fidelity  which  I  have  vowed  to  you  ;  but  I  believe  I  shall  best 
maintain  that  fidelity  by  speaking  to  you  as  I  do,  since  I  am 
convinced  that  for  you  to  do  as  you  propose,  will  bring  great 
injury  upon  your  soul,  and  great  peril  to  your  crown."  Neither 
by  threats  and  violence,  nor  by  promises,  could  the  pious  man 
be  turned  in  the  least  from  the  course  which  he  considered 
right.  He  vehemently  reproached  those  bishops  who  neglected 
their  dut)\  The  king's  anger  against  him  had  for  its  conse- 
quence, that,  by  one  of  the  nobles  his  property  was  confis- 
cated, and  he  himself  put  under  confinement.  The  first  men 
of  the  city  of  Chartres  now  combined  to  procure  the  release 
of  their  bishop  by  force  ;  but  he  remonstrated  in  the  strongest 
language  against  such  a  proceeding. I  "  By  laying  houses  in 
ashes,  and  plundering  the  poor,"  he  wrote  to  them,  "  ye  can- 
not propitiate  God's  fiivour,  but  will  only  provoke  his  ven- 
geance ;  and  without  his  favour  neither  can  ye  nor  any  man 
deliver  me.  I  would  not,  therefore,  that  on  my  account  ye 
should  make  the  cry  of  the  poor  and  the  complaint  of  widows 
go  up  to  God's  ear.  For  neither  is  it  befitting  that  I,  who 
did  not  attain  to  the  bishopric  by  warlike  weapons,  should 
recover  it  again  by  such  means,  which  would  not  be  the  act 
of  a  shepherd,  but  of  a  robber.  If  the  arm  of  the  Lord  has 
stricken  me,  and  is  still  stretched  out  over  me,  then  let  me 
alone  to  bear  my  sorrow  and  the  anger  of  the  Lord,  till  he 
vindicates  my  cause  ;  and  wish  not  to  augment  my  misery  by 
making  others  wretched,  lor  I  am  determined  not  only  to 
suffer  incarceration  or  the  deprivation  of  my  ecclesiastical 
rank,  but  even  to  die,  rather  than  that  on  my  account  one 
drop  of  blood  should  be  spilt."  He  called  upon  laity  and 
clergy,  insteao  of  attempting  to  effect  his  liberation  by  such 

♦  Ep.  15.  t  Ep.  20. 


168         YVES  OF  CHARTEES  IMPRISONED,      HIS  FIRMNESS. 

means,  simply  to  pray  for  him,  for  prayer  had  procured  the 
deliverance  of  Peter,  Acts  xii.  The  king  caused  bishop  Yves 
to  be  informed  that  he  would  forbear  doing  him  a  great  harm, 
and  on  the  other  hand  bestow  on  him  great  favours,  if,  by  his 
intercession,  he  would  obtain  leave  for  him  to  retain  Berthrade 
a  short  time  longer ;  but  Yves  repelled  the  proposition  with 
horror,  saying,  that  neither  bribes  nor  deception  could  blot 
out  any  man's  sin,  while  he  resolved  to  persist  in  it.*  He  who 
resolved  to  persist  in  sin,  could  not  redeem  himself  from  its 
guilt  by  alms  or  gifts.f  There  was  no  help  for  the  king, 
except  by  abstaining  from  his  sin,  and  submitting  himself  by 
repentance  to  the  yoke  of  Christ ;  for  God  did  not  require 
men's  possessions,  but  themselves,  as  an  ofiering  in  order  to 
their  salvation.  J  "While  Yves  rejected  all  forcible,  he  em- 
ployed every  lawful  means  which  the  existing  constitution 
of  the  church  put  into  his  hands,  to  procure  victory  to  the 
side  of  the  righteous  cause.  He  applied  to  pope  Urban  the 
Second,  and  was  strongly  supported  by  him.  This  pontitf 
addressed  a  severe  letter  of  reproof  to  the  French  bishops 
who  had  suffered  themselves  to  be  used  as  mere  instruments 
of  the  king's  pleasure,  and  threatened  the  king  with  the  ban 
if  he  did  not  separate  from  Berthrade.  He  demanded,  under 
the  same  threat,  the  liberation  of  Yves.  This  demand  was 
complied  with  ;  but  the  might  of  papal  authority  still  could 
not  do  the  work  thoroughly.  A  council,  which  assembled  at 
Rheims  in  1094,  once  more  allowed  itself  to  be  determined 
by  its  dependence  on  the  king  and  cited  bishop  Yves,  who 
was  animated  by  a  different  spirit,  before  its  tribunal,  to  an- 
swer to  the  charge  of  high  treason  and  of  violating  his  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  king.  Yves  protested  against  the  com- 
petency of  this  tribunal,  and  appealed  to  the  pope  ;  and  in  a 
letter  relating  to  this  matter,§  he  said,  "  The  charge  of  high- 
treason  fell  with  more  justice  upon  those  who  by  their  treach- 


*  Ep.  47. 

t  He  writes  to  the  Marshal  of  the  royal  court  (Dapifer) :  Ex  auctoritate 
diviria  hoc  caritati  tuse  rescribo,  quia  nulla  redemptionevel  commutatioue 
quis  peccatum  suum  poterit  abolere,  quaradiu  vult  in  eo  permanere. 
Nemo  in  peccato  suo  perdurare  volens  peccatum  suum  poterit  aliqua 
eleemosyna  vel  oblatione  redimere. 

X  Cum  Deus  non  nostra,  sed  nos  ad  salutem  nostram  requirat. 

§  Ep.  35. 


BAK  ON  PHILIP  THE  FIBST.  169 

erous  compliance  had  done  the  king  most  harm,  who  had 
shrunk  from  applying  sharper  remedies  for  healing  the  wound, 
when  milder  ones  were  unavailing."  *  •'  If  you  had,  with  me, 
held  fast  to  this  principle,"  he  writes  to  them,  "  you  would 
have  already  restored  our  patient  to  health.  Consider  whether, 
so  long  as  you  neglect  to  do  this,  you  CNnnce  that  perfect 
fidelity  to  the  king  which  you  are  bound  to  show ;  whether 
you  rightly  discharge  the  duty  of  your  calling.  Let  the  king 
then,"  concluded  this  pious  man,  in  a  truly  apostolical  spirit. 
"  do  towards  me  what,  under  God's  permission,  he  may  please 
and  be  able  to  do.  Let  him  shut  me  up,  or  shut  me  out, 
and  deprive  me  of  the  protection  of  the  law.  By  the  inspira- 
tion and  under  the  guidance  of  the  grace  of  God,  have  I 
resolved  to  suffer  for  the  law  of  my  God  ;  and  no  consideration 
shall  induce  me  to  participate  in  the  guilt  of  those  in  whose 
punishment  I  would  not  share  also."  In  the  very  same  year 
the  pope's  threat  was  executed  on  the  king.  At  a  council  in 
Autun,  A.  D.  1094,  the  archbishop  Hugo  of  Lyons,  as  papal 
legate,  actually  pronoimced  the  ban  on  the  king,  and  not  till 
the  latter  submitted  and  made  professions  of  amendment  f  did 
the  pope  remove  the  ban,  which,  however,  on  finding  that  he 
had  been  deceived,  he  pronounced  anew,  at  the  councU  of 
Clermont. 

Meantime  there  had  been  developing  itself  among  the 
Western  nations  a  great  movement,  which,  beyond  every 
other,  could  not  fail  so  to  operate  as  to  increase  the  authority 
of  the  pope  and  exalt  his  dignity ;  for  he  was  called  to  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  a  vast  undertaking  which  grew  out  of 
and  was  consecrated  to  the  religious  interest,  which  was 
seized  with  mighty  enthusiasm  by  the  nations,  and  for  which 
vast  forces  were  leagued  together.     This  was  an  event  upon 

*  Quod,  ut  pace  vestra  dicam,  recti  us  in  eos  retoiqaeri  potest,  qai 
vulnus  fomentis  incurabile,  tanquam  pii  medici  cauteriis  competentibus 
dissimulant  urere  vel  medicinali  ferro  praecidere. 

t  Yves  warned  the  pope  (ep.  46)  not  to  let  himself  be  deceived  by  the 
envoys  of  the  king,  and  induced  to  grant  him  absolution.  It  was 
intended  to  alarm  the  pope  by  the  threat  that  the  king,  if  he  were  not 
pronounced  free  from  the  ban,  would  go  over  to  the  pope  of  the  imperial 
party.  Yves  wrote  him :  What  hope  of  sinning  with  impunity  will  be» 
given  hereafter  to  transgressors,  if  forgiveness  is  granted  to  the  impenitent, 
is  a  point  on  which  I  need  not  detain  your  wisdom,  since  it  is  especially 
your  business  not  to  protect  sinners  but  to  punish  them. 


170  CAUSES  OF  THE  FIRST  CRUSADE. 

which  Urban  could  not  have  made  any  previous  calculation- — 
a  long-prepared  event,  arid  hastened  to  its  crisis  by  a  circum- 
stance in  itself  insignificant.  Already  had  Silvester  the 
Second  and  Gregory  the  Seventh  broached  the  idea  of  an 
expedition  of  Western  Christendom  for  the  liberation  of  their 
fellow-believers  in  the  East,  and  for  the  recovery  of  the  holy 
places ;  but  the  minds  of  men  were  not  as  yet  quite  ripe  for 
such  a  thought :  there  was  need,  in  the  first  place,  of  a 
gradual  preparation.  Pope  Victor  the  Third  issued,  in  the 
year  1086,  an  invitation  for  a  crusade,  to  be  undertaken  under 
the  banner  of  St.  Peter,  against  the  Saracens  in  North  Africa, 
and  promised  to  all  wiio  sliould  take  part  in  it  a  plenary 
indulgence.  After  this  came  pilgrims  from  the  East,  with 
most  distressing  accounts  of  the  insults  and  ill  treatment  which 
Christians  had  to  suffer  from  the  rude  Mohammedans,  and  of 
the  manifold  profanations  of  the  holy  places.  Among  these 
pilgrims  one  deserves  particularly  to  be  mentioned,  the  hermit 
Peter  of  Amiens  (Ambianensis).  This  individual  believed 
himself  divinely  called,  by  visions  in  which  Christ  appeared  to 
him,  to  invoke  the  assistance  of  Western  Christians  in  reco- 
vering the  holy  places  and  the  original  seats  of  Christianity  ; 
and  he  brought  with  him  a  letter  of  complaint,  calling  for 
help,  written  by  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem.  He  first  sought 
an  interview  with  pope  Urban ;  and  that  pope  was  himself 
deeply  affected,  as  well  by  the  personal  narrative  of  the  monk 
as  by  the  letter  of  which  he  was  the  bearer.  He  commis- 
sioned monk  Peter  to  travel  through  the  countries,  and, 
testifying  before  high  and  low  to  the  scenes  he  had  wit- 
nessed, call  upon  them  to  go  to  the  rescue  of  the  East,  now 
groaning  under  so  heavy  a  yoke,  and  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
Peter  the  Hermit  was  a  person  of  small  stature  and  ungainly 
shape ;  but  the  fire  of  his  eloquence,  the  strong  faith,  and  the 
enthusiasm  which  furnished  him  with  a  copious  flow  of  lan- 
guage, made  a  greater  impression  in  proportion  to  the  weak- 
ness of  the  instrument.  It  is  to  be  remarked,  as  a  peculiar 
trait  in  the  life  of  these  times,  that  men  of  mean  outward  ap- 
pearance, and  with  bodily  frames  worn  down  by  deprivation, 
were  enabled  by  a  fiery  energy  of  discourse  to  produce  the 
greatest  effects.  In  a  monkish  cowl,  and  a  woollen  gown  or 
cloak  over  it,  this  Peter  itinerated  the  countries,  barefoot,  and 
riding  on  a  mule.     Immense  crowds  of  people  gathered  round 


URBAN  nrVTTES  MFN  TO  JOIN  THE  CRUSADE.  17 1 

hiiii :  he  was  loaded  with  presents,  and  from  these  he  bounti- 
fully distributed  to  the  poor  ;  his  words  were  received  as  the 
utterances  of  an  oracle,  and  he  made  many  a  good  use  of  the 
high  influence  he  enjoyed  ;  by  his  exhortations  he  wrought  a 
change  of  character  in  abandoned  women,  for  whom  he  pro- 
cured husbands,  and  then  bestowed  on  them  a  dowry ;  he 
reconciled  contending  parties  to  one  another ;  he  was  vene- 
rated as  a  saint ;  men  were  eager  to  obtain  from  him  some- 
thing in  the  shape  of  a  relic,  were  it  but  a  hair  from  his  mule. 
A  contemporary  and  eye-witness  who  relates  this,  the  abbot 
Guibert  of  Nc^ent  sous  Coucy  (Guibertus  Novigentensis),* 
says  that  he  does  not  remember  having  ever  witnessed  the  like 
veneration  paid  to  any  man  ;  but  he  looks  upon  it  as  the  effect 
which  the  charm  of  novelty  exercises  on  the  minds  of  the 
multitude.!  Thus,  by  the  labours  of  this  individual,  were  the 
minds  of  men  already  prepared,  when  Urban,  in  the  year 
1095,  held  the  church  assembly  at  Placenza,  at  which  he  first 
brought  this  matter  forward.  The  assembly  was  so  numerous 
that  no  church  could  contain  it,  and  they  were  obliged  to 
hold  their  sessions  in  the  open  air.J  At  Clermont,  in  Au- 
vergne,  an  assembly  of  men,  of  both  the  spiritual  and  secular 
order,  was  afterwards  holden,  which  was  composed  of  still 
greater  numbers,  because  it  was  known  beforehand  that  this 
matter,  which  took  such  hold  on  the  universal  interest  and 
sympathy,  was  to  be  the  subject  of  discussion.  The  pope,  in  a 
fiery  discourse,  described  the  importance  of  the  city  of  Jeru- 
salem in  its  bearing  on  the  Christian  &ith,  the  insults  and 
abuse  which  the  residents  of  the  place  and  the  Christians 
sojourning  there  as  pilgrims  were  obliged  to  suffer.  Next,  he 
invited  the  assembly  to  be  zealous  for  the  law  and  glory  of 

*  In  his  Historia  Hierosoljmitana  apud  Boogars,  Gesta  Dei  per 
Francos,  f.  482. 

t  Quod  nos  non  ad  veritatem,  sed  vnlgo  referimns  amanti  novitatem. 

X  Bemold  of  Constance,  who  relates  this  in  his  Chronicle,  endeavours 
to  show  by  examples  that  this  was  nothing  unbecoming :  Hoc  tamen  non 
absque  probabilis  exempli  anctoritate,  nam  primus  legislator  Moses  po- 
palum  Dei  in  campestribus  legalibus  prseceptis  Deo  jabente  institnit,  et 
ipse  Dominus  non  in  domibus,  sed  in  monte  et  in  campestribus  discipulos 
suos  evangelicis  institutis  informavit.  Missas  quoque  nonnunquam  extra 
ecclesiam  satis  probabiliter,  necessitate  quidem  cogente,  ceJebramus 
quamvis  ecclesias  earum  celebrationi  special  iter  deputatas  non  igno- 
ramus. 


172  URBAX  INVITES  MEN  TO  JOIN  THE  CRUSADE. 

God  ;  and,  impelled  by  the  love  of  Christ,  to  grasp  the  sword, 
and  turn  the  weapons  which  they  had  hitherto  borne  against 
Christians,  and  which  they  had  stained  with  Christian  blood, 
against  the  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith.  The  time  was  now 
come  when,  by  participating  in  this  holy  work,  they  might 
atone  for  so  many  sins,  robbery,  and  murder,  and  obtain -for- 
giveness of  all.*  He  announced  the  fullest  indulgence  to  all 
who,  in  the  temper  of  true  repentance  and  devotion,  would 
take  part  in  this  expedition.  He  promised  forgiveness  of 
sin  and  eternal  salvation  to  all  who  should  die  in  Palestine  in 
true  penitence,  and  he  took  all  participators  in  this  expedition 
under  his  own  papal  protection.  This  discourse  of  the  pope 
produced  a  great  effect  on  the  already  excited  minds  of  men  ; 
and,  after  the  example  of  Ademar,  bishop  of  Puy,  to  whom 
the  pope  gave  the  guidance  of  the  whole,  many  on  the  spot 
marked  their  right  shoulder  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  as  the 
symbol  of  the  holy  expedition,  indicating  their  readiness  to 
take  upon  them  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  follow  him. 

From  this  council,  and  from  the  impression  which  the 
itinerant  monk  Peter  made  on  the  multitude,  proceeded  an 
uninterruptedly  progressive  enthusiasm  of  the  nations.  It  was 
like  a  voice  of  God  to  a  generation  given  up  to  unrestrained 
passion  and  wild  desires,  amidst  the  mutual  feuds  and  violent 
deeds  of  princes  and  knights,  amidst  the  corruption  which  was 
only  increased  by  that  quarrel  between  pope  and  emperor — a 
mighty  religious  shock, — a  new  direction  given  to  the  imagi- 
nation and  to  the  feelings  of  men.  So  this  fire  poured  out  upon 
the  nations,  with  which  was  mingled  some  portion  at  least  of 
a  holier  flame,  became  one  which,  as  it  tended  to  counteract 
the  hitherto  prevailing  rudeness  of  the  fleshly  sense,  was  consi- 
dered, even  by  the  pious  and  intelligent  men  of  this  age,  a 
refining  fire.|     It  needed  no  exhortations  from  the  clergy  ; 

*  It  is  a  -well-known  fact  that  we  have  several  recensions  of  this  dis- 
course, and  no  verbally  accurate  record  of  it,  so  that  we  can  only  give 
with  certainty  the  general  thoughts, 

f  So  says  Guibert  of  Novigento,  L.  I.  init. :  Quoniara  omnium  animis 
pia  desinit  intentio  et  habendi  cunctorum  pervasit  corda  libido,  instituit 
nostro  tempore  proelia  sancta  Deus,  ut  ordo  equestris  et  vulgus  oberrans, 
qui  vetusta)  paganitatis  exemplo  in  mutuas  versabantur  ca;des,  novum 
reperirent  salutis  promerenda;  genus. — And  William  of  Tyre  :  Necessa- 
rius  erat  hie  ignis  purgatorius,  quo  prtcterita,  quae  niniia  eraut,  diluerentur 
commissa  et  occupatio  ista  utilis,  qua  declinarentur  futura. 


URBAN  IXTlTiS  MEN  TO  JOIX  THE  CRUSADE.  173 

men  mutually  stimulated  one  another ;  there  was  a  mutual 
emulation.  People  of  every  class,  of  all  ages,  from  nations 
the  most  diverse,  hastened  to  the  appointed  spot.  Everything 
required  for  the  journey  was  quickly  collected  together ; 
though,  owing  to  bad  seasons,  provisions  had  become  dear,  yet 
of  a  sudden  there  was  a  fall  in  the  market  because  all  vied 
with  each  other  in  contributing,  as  they  were  able,  to  promote 
the  holy  enterprise,  as  they  also  recognized  in  the  abundance 
of  the  follo^ving  year  a  special  providence  of  Gk)d  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  crusade.*  Thus  the  extraordinary  movement  of 
mind  produced  by  the  preaching  of  the  crusade,  owing  to 
which  that  which  seemed  impossible  was  made  possible,  ap- 
peared to  contemporaries  as  a  work  of  God  not  to  be  mistaken. "j" 
Yet  the  unprejudiced,  even  amongst  them,  were  obliged  to 
confess,  that  it  was  by  no  means  the  pure  enthusiasm  for  a 
work  undertaken  in  the  interest  of  Christian  feith,  which  hur- 
ried all  to  take  part  in  it,  but  that  a  great  variety  of  motives 
mixed  in  with  this.  Some  had  been  awakened,  by  this  call, 
out  of  a  life  stained  with  vices,  to  repentance,  and  sought  by 
joining  the  crusade  to  obtain  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins ; 
while  many,  at  other  times,  were  led  by  a  sudden  awakening 
to  repentance  from  a  life  of  crime  to  embrace  monasticism, 
there  was  now  opened  to  them,  in  this  enterprise,  a  more  con- 
venient way,  and  one  more  flattering  to  their  inclinations. 
They  might  continue  their  accustomed  mode  of  life  as  knights, 
and  still  obtain  indulgence  or  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  Others 
meditated  escaping  in  this  way  the  civil  punishments  which 
threatened  them,  or  delivering  themselves  from  the  oppressive 
burden  of  debt.  Others  were  hurried  along  by  the  force  of 
example  and  of  the  fashion.  J 

*  Falcher  of  Chartres,  on  the  year  -which  followed  upon  the  council 
of  Clermont :  Quo  anno  pax  et  ingens  abandantia  frumenti  et  vini  per 
cuncta  terrarum  climata  exuberavit,  disponente  Deo,  ne  panis  inopia  in 
via  deficerent,  qui  cum  crucibus  suis  juxta  ejusdem  praecepta  eum  seqoi 
elegerant.     lu  Bongars,  1.  c.  f.  384. 

t  The  men  who  looked  upon  this  great  movement  of  the  nations  as  a 
•work  of  God,  still  do  not  fail  to  mark  the  disturbing  elements  of  vanity, 
self-deception,  or  intentional  fraud.  Thus  the  abbot  Balderic,  afterwards 
bishop  of  Dole,  after  having  cited  examples  of  this  st)rt  in  his  Historia 
Hierosolymitana,  adds :  "  Haec  idcirco  instruimus,  ne  vel  aliquid  prse- 
teriisse  videamur,  vel  nostratibus  in  vanitatibus  suis  pepercisse  redargua- 
mur."     Bongars,  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  T.  I.  f.  89. 

J  William  of  Tyre  says,  in  Bongars,  f.  641 :  Nee  tamen  apud  omnes 


171      AMALGAMATIOIf  OF  MOXASTICISM  AND  KNIGHTHOOD. 

If  the  religious  awakening  produced  by  the  preaching  of 
the  crusades  took  such  a  turn  with  many  as  that,  to  speak  in 
the  language  of  those  times,  they  preferred  the  pilgrimage  to 
the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  through  the  contemplative  life  of 
monasticism,  to  the  pilgrimage  to  the  earthly  Jerusalem,  the 
spiritual  contest  beneath  the  banner  of  the  cross,  to  the  bodily  ; 
others,  on  the  contrary,  rejoiced  at  the  opportunity  thus 
afforded  them  of  forsaking,  to  follow  a  holy  vocation,  the 
quiet  and  solitude  of  monasticism  which  had  become  irksome 
to  them ;  and  even  monks  believed  themselves  warranted  to 
break  away  from  their  confinement  and  grasp  the  sword  ;* 
till  at  length,  from  a  necessity  grounded  in  the  life  of  the 
times,  a  blending  together  of  monasticism  and  knighthood 
afterwards  shaped  itself  into  the  spiritual  order  of  knights. 
Under  this  prevailing  tone  of  excited  feeling  men  were  easily 
disposed  to  fancy  they  saw  miracles,  and  stories  of  miraculous 
works,  wrought  for  the  furtherance  of  the  holy  object,  easily 
found  credence,  and  were  made  the  most  of  to  promote  the 
same,  on  the  principle  of  the  so-called  pious  fraud. |  Men 
and  women  stood  forth  from  among  the  people  and  pretended 
that  a  cross  had  been  miraculously  stamped  on  their  bodies  :| 
many  branded  this  sign  upon  their  persons  with  a  hot  iron, 
whether  from  zeal  for  the  holy    cause  or  purely  out  of 


in  causa  erat  Dominus,  sed  quidam,  ne  amicos  desererent,  quidam  ne 
desides  haberentur,  quidam  sola  levitatis  causa  aut  ut  creditores  suos, 
quibus  multorum  debitorum  pondere  tenebantur  obligati,  declinantes 
eluderent,  aliis  se  adjungebaut. 

*  Bernold  of  Constance  attributes  to  this  cause  the  misfortunes  of  a 
body  of  the  first  crusaders :  Non  erat  autem  mirum,  quod  propositum 
iter  ad  Hierosolymam  explere  non  potuerunt,  quia  non  tali  humilitate  et 
devotione,  ut  deberent,  illud  iter  adorti  sint.  Nam  etplures  apostatas  in 
coraitatu  suo  habuerunt,  qui  abjecto  religionis  habitu,  cum  illis  militare 
proposuerunt.  L.  c.  p.  171. — And  another  contemporary,  Balderic, 
states,  in  his  Historia  Hierosolymitaua:  Multi  eremita;  et  reclusi  et 
monachi,  domiciliis  suis  non  satis  sapienter  relictis,  ire  viam  perrexerunt, 
quidam  autem  orationis  gratia  ab  abbatibus  suis  accepta  licentia  profecti 
sunt,  plures  autem  fugiendo  se  subduxerunt.  Bongars,  Gesta  Dei  per 
Francos,  T.  I.  f.  89. 

t  In  the  appendix  to  Balderic's  Chronicle,  ed.  Le  Glay,  p.  373  :  Por- 
tenta  et  signa  in  coelo  se  videre  multi  asserebant. 

t  Multi  de  gente  plebeja  crucem  sibi  divinitus  innatam  jactandoosten- 
tabant,  quod  et  idem  quaidam  ex  mulierculis  pnnsumserunt,  hoc  enim 
falsum  deprehensum  est  omnino.    Baldric.  Histor.  Hiuros.  1.  c. 


PRETE!n»2)  VISACLES  AND  PIOUS  FRAUDS,  175 

vanity.*  In  the  beginning  of  these  movements  an  abbot  was 
living:  in  France  who  found  himself  unable,  for  want  of  means,  * 
to  jom  the  expedition.  To  obtain  these,  instead  of  mounting 
the  cross  in  the  usual  manner,  he  made  one,  by  some  artificial 
process  or  other,  on  his  forehead,  and  then  proclaimed  among 
the  people  that  this  mark  came  from  an  angel  who  had 
appeared  to  him  in  a  vision.  This  story  was  easily  believed 
by  the  people,  f  Many  rich  presents  were  bestowed  on 
him ;  he  was  enabled  to  accomplish  his  purpose,  and  after- 
wards became  archbishop  of  Csesarea,  in  Palestine.  In  the 
latter  part  of  his  life  he  confessed  the  fraud,  which  was 
forgiven  him  on  account  of  his  pious  motives,  though  doubt- 
less there  were  some  few  who  disapproved  of  this  dishonesty.  J 
It  is  no  matter  of  wonder  that  many  who,  in  consequence  of 
a  momentary  paroxysm  of  contrition,  engaged  in  this  expedi- 
tion, hoping  to  find  in  it  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  should 
sufier  themselves  to  be  so  far  misled  by  their  &ilse  confidence 
as  to  let  down  the  watch  over  themselves,  and  thus  to  be 
drawn  into  various  excesses,  for  which  the  expedition  and  the 
climate  furnished  but  too  strong  temptations.§  But  there  were 
also  to  be  found  examples  of  genuine  Christian  iaith — captives 
who  gave  up  their  lives  rather  than  deny  their  faith.  A  knight 
who  had  been  distinguished  from  his  youth  for  a  life  of  piety, 
strict  morality,  and  active  benevolence,  was  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Saracens,  and  his  life  spared  on  condition  of  abjuring 
the  faith.  He  begged  that  he  might  be  allowed  time  for 
reflection  till  the  next  Friday.  When  Friday  came,  he 
declared  that  far  from  him  was  the  desire  of  gaining  a  few 
days*  respite  for  his  earthly  life,  he  had  only  wished  to  give  it 
up  on  that  day  when  his  Saviour  had  offered  his  for  the  salva- 
tion of  all.  II 


*  The  Balderic,  just  before  mentioned,  who  relates  this,  says:  Vel 
peste  jactantiae  vel  bonae  suae  voluntatis  ostentatione. 

t  Indocile  et  novarum  rerum  cupidum  vulgus,  says  Guibert,  L.  c.  t. 
507. 

X  Guibert  calls  it  an  semulatio  Dei,  sed  non  secundum  scientiam. 

5  Bemold  says,  in  the  place  before  cited :  Sed  et  innumerabiles  femi- 
nas  secum  habere  non  timuerunt,  qua;  natnralem  habitum  in  virilem 
nefarie  mutaverunt,  cum  quibus  fomicati  sunt,  in  quo  Deum  mirabiliter, 
sicat  Israeliticns  populus  quondam,  offenderunt. 

H  See  Guibert,  1.  c.  f.  508. 


176  urban's  confined  position  in  eome. 

The  spirit  which  gave  birth  to  these  popular  expeditions  in 
the  name  of  the  Christian  faith  was  no  other  than  that  which 
had  stamped  itself  in  the  system  of  the  papal  theocracy,  and 
hence  the  enthusiasm  attending  the  former  would  necessarily 
give  a  stronger  impulse  to  this  spiritual  tendency ;  and  the 
light  in  which  Urban  appeared  as  the  leader  of  a  popular  en- 
terprise generally  regarded  as  the  work  of  God,  could  have  no 
other  effect  than  to  establish  his  papal  authority.  What  was 
it  iji  the  power  of  Guibert  to  do,  who,  supported  by  the  forces 
of  the  emperor,  ruled  in  Rome,  in  opposition  to  such  a  moral 
force  of  public  sentiment  as  Urban  had  on  his  side  ?  It  was 
not  till  near  the  close  of  the  year  1093  that  the  latter  re- 
turned to  Rome.  The  papal  palace  (the  Lateran)  and  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo  were  still  in  the  hands  of  the  other  party, 
and  Urban  was  obliged  to  take  shelter  in  the  castle  of 
Frangipani,  a  Roman  devoted  to  his  service.  His  party  did 
not  venture  as  yet  to  come  forth  openly  in  Rome,  and  his 
friends  from  a  distance  visited  him  clandestinely.  The  abbot 
Gottfried,  of  Vendome,  a  man  ardently  devoted  to  the  Hilde- 
brandian  principles,  who  had  just  entered  upon  his  office, 
found  the  pope  in  circumstances  of  great  distress  and  over- 
whelmed with  debt.  The  governor  of  the  Lateran  palace, 
who  served  the  party  of  Guibert,  offered,  it  is  true,  for  a 
stipulated  sum  of  money,  to  give  up  the  palace  ;  but  Urban, 
with  his  cardinals  and  bishops,  was  unable  to  raise  the  amount. 
The  zealous  Gottfried  of  Vendome  staked  all  his  possessions  to 
procure  the  sum  required,  and  thus  Urban  was  finally  enabled 
to  take  possession  of  the  palace  which  had  so  long  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  other  party.* 

*  This  abbot  notices  his  services  in  the  cause,  in  a  letter  to  the  succes- 
sor of  this  pope,  I.  8.  Quasi  aher  Nicodemus  in  domum  praDdicti  Joanuis 
(Fricapauis)  nocte  veni :  ubi  eum  pane  omnibus  temporalibus  bonis 
nudatum  et  alieno  asre  nimis  oppressum  inveni.  Ibi  per  qnadragesimara 
mansi  cum  illo,  ejus  onera,  quantum  potui,  caritatis  humeris  supportavi. 
Quindecim  vero  diebus  ante  Pascha  Ferruchius,  quern  Lateranensis 
Palatii  custodem  Guibertus  fecerat,  per  internuncios  locutus  est  cum 
Domino  Papa,  qna;rens  ab  eo  pecuniam,  et  ipse  redderet  illi  tuiTim  et 
domum  illam.  Unde  Dominus  Papa  cum  Episcopis  et  Cardinalibus,  qui 
secum  erant,  locutus,  ab  ipsis  pecuniam  quKsivit,  sed  modicum  quidapud 
ipsos,  quoniam  persecutione  et  paupertate  simul  premebantur,  invenire 
potuit.  Queni  ego  quum  non  solum  tristem,  verum  etiam  pra;  nimia 
angustia  lacrimantem  conspexissem,  coepi  et  ipse  flere  et  flens  access!  ad 


DEATH  OF  CLEMENT.      TRIUMPH  OF  HENRY.  117 

Having  accomplished  such  great  things  during  his  absence 
from  the  city,  Urban,  in  the  year  1096,*  marched  in  a  sort  of 
triumph  to  Italy  and  Rome,  escorted  by  troops  of  crusaders, 
fuU  of  enthusiasm  for  their  cause,  who  had  him  pronoimce 
a  blessing  on  their  undertaking.  Thus  he  obtained  the 
victory  over  the  party  of  Guibert,  though  in  Rome  it  still 
continued  to  maintain  its  authority  ;|  and  the  pope,  before  so 
poor,  now  possessed  wealth  enough  to  wrest  from  the  party  of 
Guibert  their  last  prop  in  Rome,  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  He 
died  in  possession  of  the  uncontested  supremacy  in  the  year 
1099,  after  he  had  pronounced  in  a  council  the  ban  on  his  ad- 
versaries. In  the  following  year  died  Clement,  and  it  deserves 
to  be  noticed  that  his  adherents  resorted  to  the  common  expe- 
dient of  miraculous  stories,  hoping  by  their  means  to  uphold 
his  authority,  and  to  procure  a  saint  for  the  party  of  Henry.J 
Henry  the  Fourth,  epradually  sobered  by  his  misfortunes,  per- 
severed until  his  death  in  maintaining  the  quarrel  with  the 
pope,  and  the  latter  might  naturally  enough  be  disposed 
to  sanction  any  means  to  bring  about  his  destruction, — even 
encourage  the  rebellion  of  the  sons  against  their  father,§  pro- 

eum  dicens,  ut  secure  iniret  pactum  ;  ibi  aurum  et  argentum,  nummos, 
mulos  et  equos  expendi,  et  sic  Lateranense  habuimos  et  intravimua 
palatium.  Ubi  ego  primus  osculatus  sum  Domini  Papae  pedem,  in  sede 
videlicet  apostolica,  ubi  longe  ante  cathohcus  noa  sederat  Papa. 

*  In  Longobardiam  cum  magno  triumpho  et  gloria  repedavit,  says 
Bemold. 

t  Otto  of  Freisingen,  in  his  work  of  Universal  History,  L.  VIII.  c. 
6,  says :  "  Auxilio  eorum,  quos  ad  Hierosolymitanum  iter  accenderat, 
Guibertum  ab  urbe  excepto  castro  Crescentii  ejecit"  Fulcher  of  Char- 
tres,  who  was  himself  among  these  crusaders,  who  then  came  to  Rome, 
relates  how  they  were  disturbed  in  their  "devotional  exercises,  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  by  the  violent  acts  of  Guibert's  partisans ;  and  it 
may  easily  be  conceived,  that  retaliation  would  be  provoked  on  the  other 
side,  and  bloody  scenes  ensue,  in  which  the  crusaders  must  have  con- 
quered, being  the  majority.  Yet  from  Fulcher's  expressions  it  is  not  to 
be  inferred  that  Guibert's  party  was  destroyed  or  driven  away  by  the 
sword  of  the  crusaders,  but  rather  the  contrary,  for  he  says :  "  Satis 
proinde  doluimus,  cum  tantam  nequitiam  ibi  fieri  vidimus,  sed  nil  aliud 
facere  potuimus,  nisi  quod  a  Domino  vindictam  inde  fieri  optavimus." 

t  See  a  report  of  this  sort,  Ck)d.  Bamb.  in  Eccard.  Script,  rer.  Germ. 
II.  c.  173.  f.  194. 

§  Those  who  were  blinded  by  the  hierarchical  spirit,  looked  upon  the 
rebellion  of  the  sons  against  their  father  as  a  punishment  brought  on 
him  for  having  rebelled  against  his  spiritual  father, 

VOL.  vir.  N 


178  CRUSADERS  IN  FAVOUR  OF  THE  PAPAL  INTEREST. 

voke  the  shedding  of  blood,  and  palliate  assassination.*  The 
popes,  who  were  ready  to  oppose  the  fanaticism  of  the 
crusaders  when  it  would  vent  itself  on  the  defenceless  Jews, 
with  admonitions  in  a  genuinely  Christian  spirit,  felt  no 
scruples,  when  blinded  themselves  by  a  fanatical  party- 
interest,  in  employing  the  same  instrument  against  the  ene- 
mies of  their  papal  authority,  who  appeared  to  them  as  rebels 
against  the  church  and  enemies  of  God.  When  the  emperor 
Henry,  forsaken  on  all  other  sides,  still  had  faithful  adherents 
in  the  dioceses  of  Liege  and  Cambray,  pope  Paschalis  the 
Second  turned  against  them  the  zeal  of  count  Robert  of  Flan- 
ders, who,  in  the  year  1099,  returned  from  the  first  crusade, 
in  which  he  had  acted  a  prominent  part.  He  exhorted  him 
to  persecute  Henry,  that  head  of  the  heretics,  and  all  his 
friends,  to  the  utmost  extent  of  his  power.  He  did  not  shrink 
from  so  abusing  the  name  of  God,  as  to  write  to  him,  that  he 
could  not  offer  to  God  a  more  acceptable  sacrifice  than  that  of 
carrying  war  against  him  who  had  rebelled  against  God,  and 
sought  to  rob  the  church  of  its  sovereignty.  "  By  such 
battles,"  said  he,  in  laying  down  to  Robert  and  his  knights 
the  mode  of  obtaining  forgiveness  of  sin,  "  they  should 
obtain  a  place  in  the  heavenly  .Jerusalem."  But  while  even 
bishops  of  true  piety,  as  bishop  Otto  of  Bamberg,  the  apostle 
of  the  Pommeranians,  through  their  entanglement  in  a  false 
system,  so  disregarded  all  other  human  feelings  and  duties, 
could  let  themselves  be  so  far  misled  as  to  deny  their  obliga- 
tions of  fidelity  and  gratitude  to  the  emperor  Henry,  and  to 
sanction  wickedness,  still  the  Christian  sense  of  truth  asserted 

*  Men  did  not  venture,  it  is  true,  to  pronounce  free  from  all  blame 
those  who  were  moved  by  their  fanaticism  to  slied  the  blood  of  persons 
excommunicated.  They  were  to  submit  to  a  church  penance ;  still, 
however,  their  crime  was  not  looked  upon  as  properly  murder.  It  is 
singular  to  observe  the  self-contradictory  manner  in  which  pope  Urban 
the  Second  expresses  himself  on  a  case  of  this  sort,  when  calling  upon 
bishop  Gottfried,  of  Lucca,  to  require  of  the  assassins  of  the  excommu- 
nicated, according  to  the  custom  of  the  Romish  church,  suitable  satisfac- 
tion. Non  enim  eos  homicidas  arbitramur,  quos  adversus  excommunicatos 
zelo  catholicse  matris  ardentes  eorum  quoslibet  trucidasse  contigerit.  Yet, 
in  order  to  preserve  the  purity  of  church  discipline,  a  suitable  penance 
should  be  prescribed  for  them :  qua  divinac  simplicitatis  oculos  adversus 
se  complacere  valent,  si  forte  quid  duplicitatis  pro  humana  fragilitatc  in 
eodem  Jlagitio  contraxerunt.     Mansi  Concil.  XX.  f.  713. 


CKUSA.DEES  IN  FAVOUR  OF  THE  PAPAL  IXTEREST.         179 

its  rights  in  opposition  to  the  clamours  of  fanaticism  and 
party-passion.  This  was  seen  in  the  vote  of  the  church  of 
Liege,*  whose  organ  was  the  free-minded,  erudite  monk 
Sigebert  of  Gemblours,  who,  in  his  Chronicle,  where  he 
refutes  the  letter  addressed  by  pope  Gregory  the  Seventh  to 
Herman  bis  1 1  op  of  Metz,  stood  forth  as  a  bold  and  energetic 
opponent  of  the  Hildebrandian  system.f 

The  clergy  of  Liege  objected  to  the  pope,  that  he  had  ex- 
changed the  spiritual  for  the  secular  sword.  "  If  our  respect 
for  the  apostolical  dignity  may  allow  us  to  say  it,"  they  wrote 
to  him,  "  we  would  say,  the  pope  was  asleep,  and  his  council- 
lors were  asleep,  when  they  suffered  the  publication  of  such  a 
mandate  for  the  devastation  of  the  communities  of  God.  We 
pray  him  to  consider  whether  he  leads  a  beloved  son  in  the 
right  way,  when  he  promises  him  an  entrance  into  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem  by  attacking  and  desolating  the  church  of  Grod. 
"Whence  this  new  example,  that  he  who  is  called  to  be  a  mes- 
senger of  peace  should  by  his  own  mouth,  and  another'' s  hand, 
declare  war  against  the  church  ?  The  laws  of  the  church 
allow  even  clergymen  to  take  up  arms  in  defence  of  the  city 
and  church  against  barbarians  and  God's  enemies ;  but  no- 
where do  we  read  that,  by  any  ecclesiastical  authority,  war 
has  been  proclaimed  against  the  church.  Jesus,  the  apostles, 
and  the  apostolical  men  proclaim  peace ;  they  punished  the 
erring  with  all  patience  and  admonition.  The  disobedient, 
Paul  bids  us  punish  severely.  And  how  this  should  be. done, 
Christ  tells  us,  '  Let  him  be  to  thee  as  an  heathen  man  and  a 
publican  ; '  and  this  is  a  worse  evil  than  if  he  should  be  struck 
by  the  sword,  consumed  by  the  flames,  or  thrown  before  wild 
beasts.  He  is  thus  more  severely  punished  when  he  is  left 
unpunished.  "Who,  now,  would  superadd  to  God's  punishment 
that  of  man  ?  But  why  should  these  clergymen  be  excommu- 
nicated ?  Is  it,  perhaps,  because  they  are  devoted  to  their 
bishop,  and  the  latter  to  the  party  of  his  lord  the  emperor  ? 

*  See  the  Epistola  Leodiensiam  adversns  Pasch.  in  Hardnin.  Cone.  T. 
VI.  p.  ii.  f.  1770. 

t  See  concerning  this  person,  the  Commentatio  recently  composed  by 
a  promising  young  historian,  Dr.  Hirsch.  Sigebert  designates  himself 
as  the  author  of  that  remarkable  letter  near  the  close  of  his  tract,  De 
scriptoribus  ecclesiasticis.  where  he  speaks  of  himself.  See  Bibliotheca 
ecclesiastica,  ed.  Fabric,  f.  114. 

K  2 


180  LETTER  OF  THE  CLERGY  OF  LIEGE  TO  PASCHALIS. 

This  is  the  very  beginning  of  all  evil,  that  Satan  should  have 
succeeded  to  sow  discord  between  the  church  and  the  empire." 
They  would  not  presume  to  antedate  the  Lord's  judgment,  by 
which  the  good  fruit  and  the  tares  were  finally  to  be  separated 
from  each  other.  How  much  of  the  good  fruit  might  he  pluck 
away,  who  would  cull  out  the  tares  before  the  harvest  ?  A 
gentle  hint  to  the  pope,  not  to  condemn  prematurely.  "  And 
who  can  rightly  censure  the  bishop  that  holds  sacred  the  oath 
of  allegiance  he  has  sworn  to  his  sovereign  ?  How  grievous  a 
sin  perjury  is,  those  very  persons  know  who  have  brought 
about  the  recent  breach  betwixt  the  empire  and  the  church  ; 
since  they  promise  by  their  new  maxims  dispensation  from  the 
guilt  of  perjury  to  those  who  have  violated  the  oath  of  fidelity 
to  their  sovereign  !  "  They  object  to  the  pope,  the  unapostolic 
harshness  with  which  he  treated  them.*  They  maintained, 
indeed,  that  princes  might  be  respectfully  admonished  and 
corrected,  but  that  they  could  not  be  deposed  by  the  popes.f 
They  doubted,  in  fact,  the  right  of  the  popes  to  pronounce  the 
ban  on  princes.  The  jurisdiction  over  them,  the  King  of  kings, 
who  appointed  them  his  vicegerents  on  earth,  had  reserved  in 
his  own  hands ;  a  position  inconsistent,  to  be  sure,  with  the 
position  maintained  by  the  spirit  of  this  age,  and  one  by  which 
the  theocratical  jurisdiction  of  the  church,  restricted  by  arbi- 
trary limitations,  would  have  wholly  lost  its  importance ;  so 
that,  in  the  end,  it  could  only  have  reached  the  weak,  while 

*  They  speak  thus  strongly :  Eructavit  cor  David  regis  verbam 
bonum,  evomuit  cor  Domini  Paschasii  vile  convicium,  prout  vetulse  et 
textrices  faciunt.  Petrus  apostolus  docet :  non  dominantes  in  clero,  sed 
forma  facti  gregis.  Paulus  apostolus  ad  Galatas  delinquentes  ait: 
Filioli,  quos  iterum  parturio  in  Domino.  Hos  igitur  attendat  Dominus 
Paschasius  pios  admonitores,  non  impios  conviciatores. 

f  Concerning  the  papal  ban  against  princes :  Maledictum  excommn- 
nicationis,  quod  ex  novella  traditione  Hildebrandus,  Odardus  (Urbanus 
Secundus)  et  iste  tertius  indiscrete  protulerunt,omnino  abjicimus  et  priores 
sanctos  patres  usque  nunc  veneramur  et  tenemus,  qui  dictante  Spirita 
sancto,  non  animi  motu  in  majoribus  et  minoribus  potestatibus  graviter 
delinquentibus  quEcdam  dissimulaverunt,  quajdam  correxerunt,  quaedam 
toleraverunt,  ....  Si  quis  denique  respectu  sancti  Spiritus  vetus  et 
novum  testamentum  gestaque  resolverit,  patenter  inveuiet,  quod  aut 
minime  aut  difficile  possunt  reges  aut  imperatores  excommunicari  et  adhuc 
sub  judice  lis  est.  Admoneri  quidem  possunt,  increpari,  argui  a  timo- 
ratis,  et  discretis  viris,  quia  quos  Christus  in  terris  rex  regum  vice  sua 
coustituit,  damnandos  et  salvandos  suo  judicio  reliquit. 


LETTER  OF  THE  CLERGY  OF  LIEGE  TO  PASCHALIS.  181 

the  powerful,  the  very  ones  on  whom  it  might  prove  most  sa- 
lutary, would  have  remained  wholly  untouched.  They  defend, 
against  the  principles  established  by  the  popes  of  these  times, 
the  old  ecclesiastical  law,  and  the  authority  of  bishops,  arch- 
bishops, and  provincial  synods  ;  they  maintain  that  only  on 
graver  matters  (graviora  negotia)  a  report  was  to  be  made  out 
to  Rome.  But  they  declared  strongly  against  the  papal  legates 
a  latere,  who  did  nothing  but  travel  up  and  down  to  enrich 
themselves  ;  from  which  no  amendment  of  life  proceeded,  but 
assassination  and  spoliation  of  the  church.*  They  maintained, 
tlierefore,  that  they  did  not  deserve  the  reproaches  of  the  pope, 
since  they  had  only  acted  according  to  their  duty.  They  took 
no  part  in  politics.  They  never  attended  the  assemblies  of  the 
princes,  but  left  the  decision  of  political  questions  to  their 
superiors,  to  whose  province  it  belonged.  The  reproach  fell 
with  more  justice  on  popes  who  were  actuated  by  mere  worldly 
pride.  Tliat  from  the  time  of  pope  Silvester  to  Hildebrand  false 
popes  had  been  judged  by  emperors,  the  imperial  authority 
was  of  greater  force  than  the  papal  ban.f  Our  Lord  says : 
If  I  have  spoken  evil,  show  it  me.  Paul  boldly  witlistood 
Peter.  "  Wherefore,  then,  should  the  Roman  bishops  not  be 
reproved  for  manifest  error  ?  He  who  is  not  willing  to  be  set 
right,  is  a  false  bishop.''^  They  would  not  enter  at  present 
into  any  defence  of  their  sovereign.  "  But  even  were  he  such 
as  the  pope  represents,  still  would  we  let  him  rule  over  ub, 
since  we  should  regard  it  as  a  judgment  of  God  hung  over  us 
on  account  of  our  sins.  Still,  we  should  not  be  authorized  to 
lift  up  the  sword  against  him  ;  but  prayer  would  be  our  only . 


*  Illos  vero  legates  a  latere  Romani  episcopi  exeuntes  et  additanda 
marsapia  discurreates,  omnino  refutamus,  sicut  temporibus  Zosimt, 
Coelestini,  Bonifacii  concilia  Africana  probaverunt.  Etenim  ut  a  fructi- 
bus  eorum  cognoscamas  eos,  non  morum  correctio,  non  vitae  emendatio, 
sed  inde  hominum  caedes  et  ecclesiarum  Dei  proveniuut  depraedationes. 

t  Potius  deposita  spiritu  praesumptionis  cum  suis  consiliariis  sollerter 
recoUigat,  quomodo  a  beato  Silvestro  usque  ad  Hildebrandum  sedem 
Romanam  obtiuuerint,  et  quot  et  quanta  inaudita  ex  illius  sedis  ambitione 
perpetrata  sint,  et  quomodo  per  reges  et  imperatores  definita  sint,  et 
pseudopapae  damnati  et  abdicati  sint  et  ibi  plus  valuit  virtus  imperialis, 
quam  excommunicatio  Hildebrandi,  Odardi,  Faschasii. 

X  Ergo  remoto  Romauae  ambitionis  tvpho,  cur  de  gravibus  et  mani- 
festis  nou  reprehendantur  et  corrigantur  Komani  episcopi  ?  Qui  repre- 
hendi  et  corrigi  non  vult,  pseudo  est  sive  episcopus  sive  clericus. 


182  CHARACTER  OF  PA3CHALIS  THE  SECOND. 

refuge.  Why  do  the  popes  hand  down  to  each  other  as  an 
inheritance,  the  war  against  king  Henry,  whom  they  persecute 
with  unjust  excommunications,  when  they  are  bound  to  obey 
him  as  their  rightful  sovereign?  To  be  sore,  he  who  is  ex- 
communicated by  the  judgment  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  to  be 
repelled  from  the  house  of  God  ;  but  who  would  say  that 
when  one  has  been  excommunicated  with  injustice,  in  respect 
to  his  cause  or  in  respect  to  his  person,  that  such  an  one  has 
been  excommunicated  by  the  judgment  of  the  Ploly  Ghost  ? 
Gregory  the  Seventh  expressed  the  principle,  and  applied  it  in 
practice,  that  the  bishop  of  Rome  can  absolve  one  unjustly 
excommunicated  by  another.  And  if  the  bishop  of  Rome  can 
do  this,  why  should  not  God  be  able  to  absolve  one  unjustly 
excommunicated  by  the  pope  ?  For  to  no  one  can  any  real 
injury  be  done  by  another,  if  he  has  not  first  injured  himself." 
Finally,  they  speak  with  the  greatest  abhorrence  of  the  fact, 
that  the  pope  had  promised  the  count  forgiveness  of  sins  on 
such  conditions.  "  What  new  authority  is  this,  by  which  im- 
punity for  sins  committed,  and  freedom  for  such  as  are  to  be 
committed  hereafter,  is  promised  to  the  guilty  without  coii- 
fession  and  penance  ?  How  wide  hast  thou  thus  thrown  open 
the  doors  for  all  iniquity  ?  *  Thee,  O  mother,  may  God 
deliver  from  all  iniquity.  May  Jesus  be  thy  door,  and  open 
to  thee  that  door.  No  one  enters  unless  he  opens.  Thee,  and 
those  who  are  set  over  thee,  may  God  deliver  from  such  as 
betray  the  people."  (Micah  i.) 

Urban's  successor,  Paschalis  the  Second,  also  followed,  il  is 
true,  the  Hildebrandian  system,  like  his  predecessors  :  but  he 
wanted  Gregory's  spirit,  firmness,  and  energy.^  He  reaped 
the  reward  of  his  own  iniquity  in  countenancing  the  inconsider- 
ate rebellion  of  Henry  the  Fifth  against  his  father ;  for  that 
prince  showed  himself  obedient  to  the  pope  only  so  long  as  he 
stood  in  need  of  him  for  the  attainment  of  his  ends.  But  no 
sooner  was  he  in  possession  of  the  power,  than  he  revived  the 

*  Unde  ergo  hsec  nova  auctoritas,  per  quam  reis  sine  confessione 
et  poeniteutia  affertur  praiteritorum  peccatorum  impunitas  et  futurorum 
libertas  ?     Quantam  fenestram  malitia;  per  hoc  patefecisti  hominibus? 

t  Guibert  of  Novigentum  represents  him  as  being  a  vreak  and  imper- 
fectly educated  man,  m  the  third  book  of  his  autobiography.  He  says  of 
him :  "  Erat  minus,  quam  suo  competeret  ofBcio,  literatus."  De  vita  sua, 
L.  III.  c.  4. 


TREATY  BETWEEN  THE  POPE  AND  THE  EMPEROR.  183 

old  quarrel  respecting  the  investiture,  and,  after  threatening 
at  a  distance,  in  the  year  1110  entered  Italy  with  an  army. 
At  Sutri,  a  treaty  was  concluded  between  the  pope  and  the 
emperor,  by  which  treaty  the  contest  which  had  continued  so 
long  was  finally  to  be  settled.  The  imperial  party  had,  in 
fact,  in  this  contest,  always  insisted  on  the  principle,  that  to 
Caesar  must  be  rendered  the  things  of  Caesar,  as  well  as  to  God 
the  things  that  are  God's  ;  that  if  the  bishops  would  retain  the 
possessions  and  privileges  they  had  received  from  the  empire, 
they  should  fulfil  the  obligations  due  to  the  empire  for  them. 
If  they  refused  coming  to  any  such  understanding,  they  should 
restore  back  what  they  had  received  from  the  empire,  and  be 
content  with  that  which  the  church  originally  possessed.  It 
might  -with  justice  be  said,  that  the  church,  by  usurping  a 
pro\Tnce  not  her  own,  but  belonging  to  the  secular  power,  made 
herself  dependent  on  that  power  ;  that  the  bishops  and  abbots 
had  been  misled  thereby  to  lose  sight  of  their  spiritual  duties 
in  attending  to  secular  business.  The  pope,  in  his  letter  to 
the  emperor  Henry  the  Fifth,  might  not  without  reason  com- 
plain of  it  as  an  evil,  that  the  sonants  of  the  altar  had  become 
servants  of  the  curia ;  that  they  had  received  from  the  princes 
mints,  castles,  and  cities ;  whereby  they  were  obliged  to  appear 
at  court,  to  take  part  in  wars  and  in  many  other  affairs,  incom- 
patible with  their  vocation.*  Accordingly,  those  possessions 
and  privileges  which,  vmder  Charlemagne,  Louis  the  Pious, 
and  the  Othos,  had  been  bestowed  on  churches,  should  now  be 
restored  back  to  the  empire,  in  order  that  the  bishops  might, 
with  less  distraction,  attend  to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  their 
communities.!     Upon  this  condition,  Henry  the  Fifth  might 

*  Ep.  22.  In  vestri  regni  partibos  episcopi  vel  abbates  adeo  cnris 
ssecularibos  occnpantur,  nt  comitatum  assidae  frequentare,  et  militiam 
exercere  cogantur,  qujE  nimirum  aut  vix  aut  nullo  modo  sine  rapinis, 
sacrilegiis,  incendiis  aut  homicidiis  exhibentur.  Ministri  vero  altaris 
ministri  curiae  facti  sunt,  quia  civitates,  ducatus,  marchionatus,  mone- 
tas,  turres  et  caetera  ad  regni  servitium  pertinentia  a  regibus  acceperunt. 
Unde  etiam  mos  ecclesiae  inolevit,  ut  electi  episcopi  nullo  modo  conse- 
crationem  acciperent,  nisi  per  manum  regiam  investirentur.  Also  Gerhoh 
of  Reichersberg  remarks,  in  opposition  to  that  mixing  together  of  spiri- 
tual and  secular  concerns :  Ducatus,  comitatus,  telonia,  moneta  pertinent 
ad  saculnm.  See  his  work,  De  aedificio  Dei,  c.  x.  in  Fez  Uiesaums 
anecdot.  T.  II.  p.  ii.  f.  281. 

t  Oportet  enim  episcopos  curis  saecularibus  expedites  curam  Euorum 
agere  populorum  nee  ecclesiis  suis  abesse  diutius. 


184  THE  RIGHT  OF  LAY  INVESTITDRE  CONCEDED. 

be  willing  to  renounce  the  right  of  investiture  ;  and  Paschalis, 
when  he  had  done  so,  could  bestow  on  him  the  coronation  in 
Rome.  A  treaty  of  this  sort  was  concluded  at  Sutri.  But  at 
that  time  things  spiritual  and  secular  in  Germany  had  become 
so  jumbled  together,  that  a  sudden  separation  of  this  sort 
could  not  be  carried  into  effect ;  and  men  were  not  wanting, 
who  called  it  sacrilege  to  think  of  depriving  the  church  of  that 
which  belonged  to  her  by  long  years  of  possession.*  The 
emperor  may  perhaps  already  have  foreseen,f  that  the  German 
bishops  would  not  be  inclined  to  let  secular  matters  alone ; 
and  may  have  drawn  up  his  plan  with  reference  to  the 
expected  issue.  But  Paschalis  shows  himself,  in  all  these 
transactions,  a  weak  man,  governed  by  the  influences  of  pass- 
ing events  and  the  force  of  circumstances ;  and  in  the  present 
case  he  acted  without  any  calculation  either  of  the  conse- 
quences or  the  practicability  of  the  treaty.  Accordingly,  when 
the  emperor  and  the  pope  came  together  at  Rome,  A.  d.  1111, 
and  the  treaty  was  made  known  to  the  German  prelates,  they 
declined  giving  up  the  regalia.  The  emperor  now,  on  his 
part,  would  not  consent  to  renounce  the  investiture,  which  he 
had  promised  to  do  only  under  this  condition,  and  yet  he  de- 
manded of  the  pope,  since  he  had  performed  his  part  of  the 
treaty,  the  imperial  coronation.  As  the  pope  declined,  and 
refused  to  recall  the  old  veto  against  the  investiture,  he  with 
his  cardinals  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  ;  and,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  obtaining  his  liberty  again,  he  concluded,  in  the  year 
1112,  a  treaty  with  the  emperor,  by  virtue  of  which  he  con- 
ceded to  him  the  right  of  bestowing,  by  staff  and  ring,  the 
investiture  on  bishops  and  abbots  elected  freely  and  without 


*  When  Gerhoh  spoke  in  opposition  to  that  mixing  together  of  spiritual 
and  secular  concerns  by  the  German  prelates,  he  was  in  fear  that  he 
should  give  ofiFence  to  those  -who  said:  Tales  semel  ecclesiis  donata 
quacunque  occasione  ab  illis  auferentes  sacrilegium  committere,  quouiam 
ecclesia  rem  semel  acceptamet  dintina  possessione  mancipatam  non  potest 
amittere.     In  the  work  already  cited,  De  sedificio  Dei.     L.  c. 

t  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg,  in  his  book  De  statu  ecclesiae,  c.  xxi. 
Gretser  opp.  T.  VI.  f.  251,  says  of  the  emperor:  Ha;c  sane  promittens 
sciebat,'non  consensum  iri  ab  episcopis  praccipue  Germaiiite  et  Gallise 
atque  Saxonise,  sed  per  promissa  speciem  quandam  pietatis  habentia  ad 
perceptionem  imperialis  coronas  per  benedictionem  Komani  pontificis 
imponendse  nitebatur. 


FAULT  FOUND  WITH  PASCHALIS  FOR  YIELDING.  185 

simony.*  Had  the  pope  held  out  firmly  in  the  contest  with 
the  emperor,  he  might  have  reckoned  upon  the  force  of  public 
opinion,which  must  have  protested  strongly  against  such  violence 
done  to  the  person  of  the  head  of  the  church.  It  is  evident  from 
the  expressions  of  Hildebert  of  Mans,  who  was  by  no  means  a 
zealot,  how  enormous  a  crime  this  appeared. f  He  would  have 
been  venerated  as  a  martyr ;  but  the  man  who  had  hitherto  so 
zealously  served  the  cause  of  the  papacy,  for  that  very  reason 
lost  so  much  the  more  by  yielding.  Great  must  have  been  the 
impression  made  upon  his  age,  when  it  was  found  that  the 
pope,  from  motives  of  fear,  proved  unfaithful  to  the  system 
which  he  had  before  so  earnestly  defended,  and  for  which 
Gregory  the  Seventh  had  perseveringly  fought,  at  the  cost  of 
everything,  till  his  death.  The  name  of  Paschalis,  as  the  man 
who  had  cowardly  betrayed  the  liberties  of  the  church,  and 
made  her  dependent  on  the  emperors,  was  handed  down  from 
one  generation  to  another  through  the  twelfth  century.  Thus, 
for  example,  in  the  prophecies  of  the  abbot  Joachim  of  Cala- 
bria, towards  the  close  of  this  century,  where  he  describes  the 
growing  corruption  of  the  church,  Paschalis  holds  a  prominent 
place  in  the  picture.  J     The  abbot   Gottfried  of  Veudome 


*  Ut  regni  tui  episcopis  vel  abbatibus  libere  praeter  violentiam  vel 
simoniam  electis  investituram  virgse  et  annuli  conferas,  post  investitionem 
vero  canonice  consecrationera  accipiant  ab  episcopo,  ad  quern  perti- 
nuerit. 

t  See  his  L.  II.  ep.  21.  The  same  writer  objects  to  Henry  his  double 
crime  against  his  real  and  against  his  spiritual  father.  Quis  enim  potest 
praeter  eum  inveniri,  qui  patres  suos,  spiritualem  pariter  et  carnalem 
subdola  ceperit  factione  ?  Iste  est,  qui  prajceptis  Dominicis  in  utraque 
tabula  contradicit.  Nam,  ut  de  his,  quae  actu  priora  sunt,  prius  dicam, 
patrem  camis  sxiae  non  honoravit,  sed  captivavit  prius  et  deinceps 
expulit  fraudulenter  et  in  Deum  postmodum  et  ejus  ecclesiam  insurrexit 
et  de  Sede  Petri  vicarium  usque  in  vincula  perturbavit. 

X  Although  he  calls  him  Paschasius  the  Third,  and  says  many  things 
which  do  not  agree  with  an  exact  knowledge  of  history,  yet  we  can  con- 
ceive of  no  other  Paschalis  that  can  be  meant.  In  the  Commentary  on 
the  prophet  Jeremiah,  we  read :  Libertas  ecclesiae  ancillanda  est  et  sta- 
tuenda  sub  tributo  a  papa  Paschasio  tertio.  Non  est  plangendus,  quia 
etsi  captiyus  a  duce  Normannico  (which  title  here  is  not  correct),  ponere 
debuit  animam  pro  justitia  ecclesiae  et  non  infringere  libertatem  ejus  et 
tradere  servituti,  de  qua  collum  non  excutiet  sic  de  levi.  See  the  edition 
of  Cologne,  1577,  p.  312;  and  in  another  place:  The  servitude  of  the 
popes  began  in  pope  Paschalis,  quern  dux  Normannicus  ccepit  et  contra 


186  FAULT  FOUifD  WITH  PASCHALIS  FOR  YIELDING. 

loaded  hira  with  the  severest  reproaches,*  and  expressed  a  de- 
termination to  renounce  obedience  to  him  if  he  remained 
faithful  to  that  treaty.  He  held  up  before  him  the  example  of 
the  old  martyrs,  as  well  as  that  of  the  two  apostles  who  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  Roman  church.  If  the  successor  of 
sudi  men,  sitting  on  their  seat,  by  acting  contrary  to  their  ex- 
ample, has  robbed  iiimself  of  their  glorious  lot,  then,  said  he 
in  his  letter  to  the  pope,  he  ought  himself  to  annul  what  he 
has  done,  and,  as  a  second  Peter,  expiate  the  fault  by  tears  of 
repentance.  If,  through  weakness  of  the  flesh,  he  had  from  the 
fear  of  death  wavered  for  a  moment,  the  spirit  should  keep  itself 
pure  by  reforming  the  works  of  the  flesh  ;  nor  should  he  him- 
self wish  to  excuse  by  pleading  the  latter,  which  at  any  rate 
must  die,  an  act  which  he  might  have  avoided,  and  so  gained 
a  glorious  immortality.  Nor  could  he  excuse  himself  by 
pleading  anxiety  for  the  lives  of  his  sons  the  cardinals  ;  for  he 
ought  to  have  been  much  more  concerned  for  the  everlasting 
than  for  the  temporal  welfare  of  his  sons  ;  and  instead  of  eking 
out  a  brief  life  to  them,  by  exposing  the  church  to  ruin  and 
their  souls  to  injury,  he  should  by  his  own  example  have  fired 
them  on  to  meet  a  glorious  martyrdom  ;  for  the  object,  as  it 
seemed  to  him,  was  worthy  of  such  a  sacrifice.  The  lay-inves- 
titure, whereby  the  power  was  conceded  to  laymen  of  convey- 
ing a  spiritual  possession,  appeared  to  him  as  a  denial  of  the 
faith  and  of  the  freedom  of  the  church, — as  a  veritable  heresy. 
He  begged  the  pope  not  to  add  to  his  fault  by  trying  to  excuse 
it,  but  rather  to  amend  it.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  him  that, 
although  even  a  vicious  pope  must  be  tolerated,  yet  the  case 
stood  quite  otherwise  witli  an  heretical  one.  Against  such  a 
pope,  any  man,  who  did  but  remain  true  to  the  faith  himself, 
might  stand  forth  as  an  accuser,  f 

There  were,  among  the  adherents  of  the  church  theocratical 
system,  two  parties ;  one  rigid  and  stiff",  the  other  milder.   The 

libertatem  ecclesise  privilegia  fecit  et  indulsit  invltus,  quae  postea  libe- 
ratus  fregit.     P.  259  *  Ep.  7. 

t  When,  in  another  legal  affair,  he  invited  his  assistance,  he  wrote  to 
him  (ep.  6) :  Non  vos  ultra  modum  aiBciat,  si  qua  fuit  sinistra  operatic, 
non  perturbet  oculum  mentis  vestrje  regis  exactio,  sed  quanto  fortius 
potestis,  jura  justitisc  in  rebus  aliis  teneatis  nunc  ex  deliberatione,  ut  quod 
regi  fecit  vestra  humanitas,  fecisse  credatur  pro  vita  fihorum  paterna 
compassione. 


YVES  OF  CHA.RTRES  EXCUSES  PASCHALIS.  187 

former,  of  which  we  may  consider  the  abbot  Gottfried  of  Ven- 
dome,  in  his  then  position,  a  representative,  declared,  without 
reserve,  that  maintaining  the  right  of  lay-investiture  was  a 
heresy,  because  thereby  the  right  was  attributed  to  laymen  of 
conveying  a  spiritual  possession  ;  and  according  to  the  judg- 
ment of  this  party,  the  pope,  if  he  did  not  revoke  that  which 
he  had  done  through  weakness,  made  himself  liable  to  con- 
demnation, and  men  were  authorized  and  bound  to  renounce 
obedience  to  him  as  a  promoter  of  heresy.  Others  judged  the 
conduct  and  the  person  of  the  pope  more  mildly,  though  they 
considered  the  lay-investiture  as  unjustifiable.  To  this  party 
belonged  two  other  distinguished  men  of  the  French  church, 
Hildebert,  bishop  of  Mans,  and  Yves,  bishop  of  Chartres.  The 
former  was  not  only  ready  to  excuse  the  pope's  conduct,  but 
even  represented  it  as  exemplary.  "  The  pope,"  says  he, 
"has  ventured  his  life  for  the  church,  and  yielded  only  for 
a  moment  to  put  a  stop  to  the  effusion  of  blood,  and  to 
desolation.  Another  cannot  so  transport  himself  into  the 
critical  and  perilous  situation  of  the  head  of  the  church  as  to 
be  entitled  to  judge  him.  It  behoves  not  the  man  living 
in  comfortable  ease  to  accuse  the  bleeding  warrior  of  fear.* 
The  pope,"  he  thought,  "  was  obliged  to  accommodate  himself 
to  circumstances.  The  oftentimes  misinterpreted  and  mis- 
applied example  of  the  apostle  Paul  Mas  employed,  to  the 
great  wrong  of  truth,  in  palliation  of  crooked  courses. 
Where  we  cannot  know  the  heart,  we  ought  to  presume  the 
best  motives  ;  and  no  man  should  set  himself  up  as  judge  over 
the  pope,  who,  as  universal  bishop,  is  empowered  to  alter  and 
rescind  aJl  laws."! 

Yves  of  Chartres  declared  himself,  it  is  true,  in  favour  of 
the  principles  promulgated  by  Gregory  the  Seventh  and  Urban 
the  Second  against  lay-investitiu-e,  but  he  also  excused  the 
forced  compliance  of  Paschalis.  His  advice  was,  that  confi- 
dential, affectionate  letters  should  be  addressed  to  the  pope, 
■exhorting  him  to  condemn  himself  or  to  retract  what  had  been 
done.|     If  he  did  so,  men  would  thank  God,  and  the  whole 

*  Ep.  22.  Delibutns  ungnentis  cruentam  militem  fonnidinis  non 
accasat 

t  QiMPcanque  nescimus  quo  animo  fiant,  interpretemur  in  melios. 
Universalis  episcopus  omnium  habet  leges  et  jura  rescindere. 

X  Ep.  233.    Quia  verendo  patris  debemos  potios  velare  qoam  nodare, 


188  YVES  AND  JOHN  OF  LYONS  ON  LAY-INVESTITURE. 

church  rejoice  over  the  recovery  of  their  head  ;*  but  if  the 
pope  proved  incurable,  still  it  did  not  belong-  to  others  to  pass 
judgment  on  him.  The  archbishop  John  of  Lyons,  having 
called  together  a  council,  at  which  the  subject  of  lay-investi- 
ture, as  an  affair  concerning  the  faith,  and  the  treaty  between 
the  pope  and  the  emperor,  were  to  be  brought  into  discussion, 
Yves  wrote  to  this  archbishop  a  letter,|  warning  him  against 
taking  any  irrevocable  steps  in  this  matter,  and  recommending 
moderation.  He  sought  to  excuse  the  pope,  who  had  yielded 
only  to  force,  and  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  a  greater  evil,  by 
holding  up  the  examples  of  Moses  and  of  Paul,  showing  how 
the  latter  had  allowed  Timothy  to  be  circumcised,  in  order  by 
this  accommodation  to  gain  the  Jews  "God  has  permittoi 
the  greatest  and  holiest  men,  when  they  have  given  way  to  a 
necessity  which  seemed  to  exculpate  them,  or  have  descended 
to  a  prudent  accommodation,  to  fall  into  such  weaknesses,  in 
order  that  they  might  thereby  be  led  to  a  knowledge  of  their 
own  hearts,  learn  to  ascribe  their  weaknesses  to  themselves, 
and  to  feel  their  indebtedness  to  the  grace  of  God  for  all  the 
good  that  is  in  them."  He  refused  to  assist  in  any  council 
met  to  deliberate  on  this  affair,  since  it  was  out  of  the  power 
of  any  to  judge  the  party  against  whom  they  would  have  to 
proceed ;  for  the  pope  was  amenable  to  the  judgment  of  no 
man.  Although  he  declared  himself  opposed  to  lay-investi- 
ture, still  he  would  not  concede  to  those  who  drove  the 
matter  to  an  extreme,  and  drew  rash  conclusions,  that  the 
maintaining  of  lay-investiture  was  a  heresy,  a  sin  against  the 
Holy  Ghost.  "For  heresy,"  he  thought,  "had  reference  to 
the  faith,  and  faith  had  its  seat  within  ;  but  investiture  was  an 
external  thing.  |  Whatever  is  founded  on  eternal  law  could, 
indeed,  never  be  altered  ;  but  in  that  which  proceeded  from  no 
such  law,  but  was  ordered  and  arranged  with  reference  to  cer- 
tain necessities  of  the  times,  for  the  honour  and  advantage  of 

familiaribus  et  caritatem  redolentibus  Uteris  admonendus  mihi  videtnr, 
ut  se  judicet  aut  factum  suura  retractet.  '^ 

*  Omnis  ecclesia,  quae  graviter  languet,  dum  caput  ejus  laborat  tanta 
debilitatum  molestia. 

f  There  were  several  eminent  French  bishops,  in  whose  name  this  ■was 
■written.     Ep.  23fi. 

I  Fides  et  error  ex  corde  procedunt,  investifrura  vero  ilia,  de  qua 
tantus  est  motus,  in  solis  est  manibus  dantis  et  accipientis,  qua;  bona  et 
mala  agere  possunt,  credere  vel  errare  in  fide  non  possunt. 


YTES  AXD  JOHN  OF  LYONS  ON  LAY-rSYESTITURE.  189 

the   church,  something  doubtless  might  be  remitted  for  the 
moment,  out  of  regard  to  changing  circumstances.*     But  if  a 
layman  claimed  the  power  of  bestowing,  with  the  investiture, 
a  sacrament,  or   a   rem   sacramenti,   such    a  person   would 
be  a  heretic,  not  on  account  of  the  investiture  in  itself,  but  on 
account  of  the  usurpation  connected  with  it.     The  lay-investi- 
ture, as  the  wresting  to  one's  self  of  a  right  belonging  to 
another,  ought  assuredly,  for  the  sake  of  the  honour  and  free- 
dom of  the  church,  to  be  wholly  abolished,  if  it  could  be  done 
wathout  disturbing  the  peace ;  but  where  this  could  not  be 
done  without  danger  of  a  schism,  it  must  be  suffered  to  remain 
for  a  whUe  under  a  discreet  protest."    The  archbishop  John  of 
Lyons,  however,  in  his  reply,  expressed  his  regret  to  find  that 
the   pope  would   not   allow  the  weak   spots   which   he   had 
exposed  to  be  covered. f     To  the  remarks  of  Yves  with,  regard 
to  the  mitigation  of  the  judgment  concerning  lay -investiture, 
he  replied — "  It  is  true,  faith  and  heresies  have  their  seat  ia 
the  heart :  but  as  the  believing  man  is  known  by  his  works,  so 
also  is  the  heretic  by  his.     Although  the  outward  act,  as  such, 
is  not  heretical,  still  it  may  be  of  such  a  kind  that  something 
heretical  lies  at  the  bottom  of  it.     If,  therefore,  the  outward 
act  of  investiture  by  laymen  is  in  itself  nothing  heretical,  still 
the  maintaining  and  defending  it  proceeds  fiom  heretical  prin- 
ciples." 

Deserving  of  notice  is  the  book  which,  amid  these  move- 
ments, the  prior  Placidus  of  Nonantula  wrote  in  defence  of  the 
honour  of  the  church, |  as  it  is  especially  calculated  to  convey 
a  knowledge  of  the  relation  in  which  the  different  parties  stood 
to  each  other.  This  book  is  directed  partly  against  those  who 
defended  the  lay-investiture  with  a  view  to  the  interests  of 
the  state  ;  partly  against  those  who,  from  the  position  of  papal 
absolutism,  maintained  that  no  one  could  set  himself  up  as 
judge  over  the  decision  of  the  pope.     The  former  were  led  by 

*  Cum  ergo  ea,  quae  setema  lege  sancita  non  sunt,  sed  pro  honestate 
et  utilitate  ecclesiae  instituta  vel  prohibita,  pro  eadem  occasione  ad 
tempus  remittuntur  pro  qua  inventa  sunt,  non  est  institutorum  damnosa 
praevaricatio,  sed  laudabilis  et  saluberrima  dispensatio. 

t  U tinam  ipse  pater  pudenda  (_ut  dicis)  ista  pro  voluntate  nostra  contegi 
pateretur. 

X  Liber  de  honore  ecclesise.  Pez  thesaoros  anecdotorum  novissimas, 
T.  II.  p.  ii.  f.  75. 


190  REFUTATION  OF  REASONS  FOR  LAY-INVESTITURE. 

the  reaction  against  the  theocracy,  which  subordinated  every- 
thing secular  to  itself,  to  give  prominence  to  the  purely 
spiritual  idea  of  the  church.  "  The  church,"  said  they,  "is 
a  thing  purely  spiritual ;  hence,  of  earthly  matters,  nothing 
belongs  to  it  but  the  place  in  which  the  faithful  are  assembled, 
and  which  is  denominated  a  church.*  The  servants  of  the 
church  can,  according  to  her  laws,  lay  claim  to  no  earthly 
possession  ;  nothing  is  due  to  them  but  the  tithes,  firstlings, 
and  oblations  of  the  altar ;  whatsoever  more  they  desire 
to  have,  they  can  only  receive  from  the  monarch.  The  church 
and  its  precincts  consecrated  to  God  belong,  it  is  allowed,  to 
none  but  God  and  his  priests  ;  but  what  the  church  now  glo- 
rified throughout  the  whole  world  possesses — cities,  castles, 
public  mints,  &c.'\ — all  this  belongs  to  the  emperor,  and  this 
the  shepherds  of  the  church  cannot  possess,  unless  it  be  con- 
stantly bestowed  on  them,  over  and  over  again,  by  the 
emperor.  How  should  not  the  churches  be  subject,  on  account 
of  their  earthly  possessions,  to  him  to  whom  the  whole  land  is 
subject  ?  I  If,  in  order  to  the  choice  of  a  shepherd,  the  agree- 
ment of  the  whole  community  is  required,  how  much  more 
must  this  be  the  case  in  regard  to  emperors  or  princes  ? " 
This  party,  in  order  to  defend  lay-investiture,  appealed  to  the 
fact,  that  even  the  emperor  was  the  Lord's  anointed,  by  vir- 
tue of  the  anointing  with  holy  oil  which  was  bestowed  on 
him.  To  these  arguments  Placidus  replied:' — "To  be  sure 
the  church  is  a  spiritual  society,  the  community  of  believers, 

*  Ecclesia  spiritualis  est  et  ideo  nihil  ei  terrenarum  rerum  pertinet, 
nisi  locus  tantum,  qui  consueto  nomine  ecclesia  dicitur. 

t  Dacatus,  marcliiae,  coniitatus,  advocatiae,  monetae  publicse,  civitates 
et  castra. 

J  A  comparison  of  our  citations  from  this  book  with  what  Gerhoh  of 
Reichersberg,  in  his  work,  De  statu  ecclesise,  sub  Henrico  Quarto  et  Quinto 
imperatoribus  et  Gregorio  Septo,  nonnullisque  cconsequentibus  Romanis 
Pontificibus,  published  by  the  Jesuit  Gretser,  (T.  VI.  opp.)  puts  in  the 
mouth  of  the  defenders  of  the  cause  of  Henry  (qui  pro  parte  erant  regis 
ajebant),  serves  also  to  show  that  from  these  communications  of  Placidus 
we  may  learn  what  were  the  principles  maintained  by  a  whole  party ; 
and  we  see  of  how  much  importance  this  dispute  about  principles  was. 
According  to  the  quotation  of  Gerhoh,  the  imperial  party  said :  "  If  the 
bishops  wished  to  remain  heads  of  the  empire,  then  they  must  consent 
to  be  invested,  like  all  others,  by  the  emperor,  with  the  concurrence  of 
the  other  members  of  the  imperial  diet."  Non  imperio  condecet,  ut 
aliquis  in  principem,  nisi  ab  ipso  imperatore  ex  consilio  aliorum  princi- 
pum  assumatur.    L.  c.  f.  259. 


PLACroUS  ON  THE  OATH  TAKEN  BY  PASCHALIS.  191 

which  has  been  adorned  with  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  but 
she  should  also  be  honoured  by  her  consecrated  earthly  gifts,  and 
what  has  once  been  given  to  her  cannot  again  be  wrested  fi"om 
her  without  sacrilege.  Just  so  the  worship  of  God  ;  though  it 
has  its  seat  in  the  heart,  yet  must  appear  outwardly  and  pre- 
sent itself  in  a  visible  manner,  and  visible  temples  must  be 
erected  to  his  honour.  According  to  the  promises  of  the  pro- 
phets, the  once  persecuted  church  should  at  length  be  out- 
wardly glorified.  As  the  soul  cannot,  in  this  present  life,  subsist 
without  the  body,  so  neither  can  the  spiritual  subsist  \vithout 
the  corporeal,  and  the  latter  is  sanctified  through  its  con- 
nection with  the  former."  Many,  whom  Placidus  calls 
"simplices,"  said,  "  If  things  go  on  in  this  way,  the  church 
will  in  the  end  absorb  all  earthly  interests  into  itself."  He 
replies,  by  quoting  the  words  of  Christ,  "  AU  men  cannot 
receive  this  saying  (t.  e.  few  are  so  far  advanced  in  the 
spiritual  direction  as  to  perceive  how  everything  earthly  should, 
in  fact,  be  consecrated  to  the  church);  for  when  would  all 
give  their  possessions  to  the  church,  if  now  they  seek  to  de- 
prive her  even  of  that  which  has  been  her  property  for  ages  ? 
The  plenty  which  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  church,  belongs 
to  her  no  less  than  the  little  did  which  she  once  possessed. 
Both  belong  to  her  for  the  same  reason,  because  it  is  property 
consecrated  to  God.  The  same  Being  who  once  formed  her  by 
want,  has  now  enriched  and  glorified  her.  What  would  be  said 
of  the  man  who  should  maintain  that  the  emperor  has  no  right 
indeed  to  a  house  that  belongs  to  one  of  his  subjects  ;  yet  the 
possessions  of  the  house  belong  to  the  emperor  in  the  sense 
that  no  one  has  a  right  to  dispose  of  them  unless  he  receive  it 
from  the  emperor  ?  Princes  should  by  no  means  be  excluded 
from  participating  in  the  election  of  bishops  ;  but  they  should 
do  so  as  members  of  the  community — as  sons,  not  as  lords  of 
the  church.  They  should  not  by  their  own  authority  give 
shepherds  to  the  church,  whether  by  investiture  or  by  any  other 
exercise  of  their  sovereignty ;  but  bishops  should  be  appointed 
by  the  common  choice  of  the  clergy  and  the  concurrence  of 
the  communities,  of  the  high  and  the  low,  among  whom  princes 
also  belong.  The  emperor  is  anointed,  not  that  he  may 
rule  the  church,  but  that  he  may  faithfully  govern  the  em- 
pire." 

He  next  proceeds  to  combat  those  who  argued  that  the  pope 


192  REPENTANCE  OF  PASCHALIS. 

could  not  take  back  his  oath  to  the  emperor,  by  which  he  con- 
ceded to  him  the  right  of  investiture ;  those  who  held  that  no 
man  could  exalt  himself  over  the  pope,  the  supreme  lawgiver 
of  the  church ;  that  the  laws  enacted  by  him,  although  new, 
still  carried  with  them  the  obligation  of  obedience.  He  says, 
on  the  other  hand,  pope  Paschalis,  Avith  the  cardinals,  had 
been  induced  by  compassion  to  grant  the  emperor  Henry  the 
Fifth  a  privilege  incompatible  with  the  grace  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  with  the  ecclesiastical  laws.  The  pope  was  not 
bound  to  abide  by  this  compact ;  but  was  bound  to  correct  the 
mistake  with  all  zeal,  following  the  example  of  the  apostle 
Peter,  who,  after  having  denied  the  Lord  through  fear, 
sought  to  make  up  the  injury  by  greater  love.  An  oath, 
whereby  one  promises  to  do  a  wicked  thing,  cannot  be  binding ; 
on  the  contrary,  the  promiser  should  repent  for  having  taken 
the  name  of  the  Lord  in  vain,  by  promising  to  do  what  he 
ought  not  to  do  either  with  or  without  an  oath.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  the  pope  may  enact  new  laws,  but  only  respecting 
matters  on  which  the  holy  fathers  have  determined  nothing, 
and  especially  on  which  nothing  has  been  settled  in  the  sacred 
Scriptures  ;  but  wherever  our  Lord  or  his  apostles,  and  the 
holy  fathers  succeeding  them,  had  manifestly  determined  any- 
thing, there  the  pope  can  give  no  new  law,  but  is  bound 
rather  to  defend  that  which  has  been  once  settled,  until  he 
dies.  Accordingly,  this  Placidus  calls  upon  every  man  to 
follow  the  example  of  all  who  have  fought  for  the  kingdom  of 
God,  from  the  apostles  to  Gregory  the  Seventh  and  Urban 
the  Second,*  and  to  give  up  everything,  even  life  itself,  for 
the  cause  of  righteousness. 

It  appears  evident,  from  these  signs  of  the  times,  that  if 
Paschalis  had  been  disposed  to  abide  faithfully  by  the  treaty 
which  had  been  concluded,  still  he  could  not  have  carried  it 
out  in  opposition  to  the  superior  power  of  the  Hildebrandian 
party  in  the  church.     A  new  schism  in  the  church  would,  in 

*  Concerning  Gregory  the  Seventh,  he  says :  Pro  honore  sanctsc  eccJe- 
sise  dimicans,  multas  et  varias  tempestates  sustinuit,  sed  flecti  non  potuit, 
quia  fundatus  erat  supra  firmam  petram.  Concerning  Urban  the  Second, 
•who  at  first  could  find  no  spot  in  the  city  of  Rome  where  he  could 
remain  :  Qui  tamen  non  cessit,  sed  patienter  ferens  Christo  pro  se  obti- 
nente,  omnis  hsereticorum  vis  dcstructa  et  ipse  sanctaj  ecclesiaj  redditus 
apud  beatum  Petrum  in  sua  sede  beato  fine  quievit. 


REPEXTANCE  OF  PASCHALIS.  193 

all  probability,  have  been  the  consequence  of  such  an  attempt.* 
If  the  most  zealous  defenders  of  the  church  theocratical  system 
had  hitherto  been  zealous  also  for  papal  absolutism,  they  might 
now  take  another  turn,  and  be  led  by  zeal  for  their  principles 
to  stand  up  against  the  person  of  the  pope ;  so  that  from  a 
party,  of  which  under  other  circumstances  such  a  thing  was 
least  to  be  expected,  might  proceed  a  freer  reaction  against  the 
arbitrary  will  of  the  individual  who  stood  at  the  head  of  the 
church  government. 

But  not  only  was  Paschalis  too  weak  to  undertake  to  main- 
tain, against  the  force  of  such  a  spirit,  the  step  he  had  taken, 
he  was  also,  at  heart,  too  much  affected  by  the  same  spirit 
himself  to  form  any  such  resolution.  Without  doubt  he  had 
only  been  induced  to  give  way  by  a  momentary  impulse  of 
fear  and  weakness,  and  he  soon  began  to  reproach  himself  for 
what  he  had  done,  as  in  fact  he  expressed  his  regret  at  the 
transaction  in  his  letters  to  foreign  bishops.j  He  was  de- 
sirous of  retiring  to  private  life,  and  of  leaving  it  to  the 
church  to  judge  respecting  what  had  been  done.  He  deserted 
the  papal  palace,  and  retired  to  an  island  in  the  Tiber,  and 
could  only  be  persuaded  to  jeturn  by  the  entreaties  of  the  car- 
dinals and  of  the  Roman  people.J    It  might  be  easier  for  the 

*  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg  relates,  that  nearly  cdl  the  French  bishops 
(which  doubtless  is  exaggerated)  had  formed  the  resolution  together  to 
excommunicate  the  pope  himself,  if  he  would  not  revoke  what  he  had 
conceded  to  the  emperor  Henry  the  Fifth.  Universi  paene  Francise  epis 
copi  consilium  inierant,  quatenus  excommunicarent  Paschalem,  tanqnam 
ecclesiae  hostem  et  destructorem,  nisi  privilegium  idem  ipse,  qui  dedit, 
damnavisset.  See  the  above-cited  tract,  De  statu  ecclesise,  chap.  xxii.  in 
Gretser,  opp.  Tome  VI.  f.  257. 

t  Yves  of  Chartres  says  (ep.  233  and  236")  of  the  pope :  Postquam 
evasit  periculum,  sicut  ipse  quibusdam  nostrum  scripsit,  quod  jusserat, 
jussit,  quod  prohibuerat,  prohibuit,  quamvis  quibusdam  ne&ndis  quaedam 
uefanda  scripta  permiserit. 

+  So  Hildebert,  at  least,  relates,  in  the  above-cited  letter,  following  a 
rumour :  Renuncians  domo,  patrite,  rebus,  officio,  mortificandus  in  came, 
Pontianam  insulam  commigravit.  Populi  vocibus,  et  cardinalinm  lacri- 
mis  revocatus  in  cathedram.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  account  of  a 
trustworthy  historian  among  his  contemporaries,  the  abbot  Suger  of  St. 
Denis,  in  his  account  of  the  life  of  the  French  king  Louis  the  Sixth. 
Vita  Ludovici  Grossi,  where  he  says  of  the  pope  :  Ad  eremum  solitudi- 
nis  confugit  moramque  ibidem  perpetuam  fecisset,  si  universalis  ecclesia 
et  Romanorum  violentia  coactum  non  reduxisset.  See  Duchesne,  Scnp- 
tores  rer.  Franc.  T.  IV.  f.  291. 

yoi«  VII.  o 


194  EEPENTANCE  OF  PASCHALIS. 

pope  to  reconcile  to  his  conscience  the  non-observance  of  his 
oath  than  the  surrendering  of  any  right  belonging  to  the 
church.  In  the  year  1112  he  declared,  before  a  council 
assembled  in  the  Lateran,  that  he  had  been  forced  to  make 
that  treaty  in  order  to  save  the  cardinals  and  the  city  of 
Rome;  abiding  by  his  oath,  he  would  himself  personally 
undertake  nothing  against  the  emperor  Henry,  but  it  was  be- 
yond his  power  to  surrender  any  of  the  liberties  and  rights  of 
the  church.  He  left  it  to  the  assembly  to  examine  the  treaty, 
and  that  body  unanimously  declared  that  it  was  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  the  church  and  to  divine  right,  and  therefore  null.  The 
pope  wished,  by  an  ambiguous  mode  of  procedure,  to  save  his 
conscience  and  his  honour  at  the  same  time  ;  and  while  he  for- 
bore personally  and  directly  to  pronounce  the  ban  on  Henry 
the  Fifth,  still  permitted  this  to  be  done  by  his  legates. 
Thus  the  contest  respecting  investiture  broke  out  anew,  and 
with  it  was  again  connected,  we  must  admit,  the  corrupt  exer- 
cise of  an  arbitrary  will  in  the  filling  up  of  spiritual  offices  by 
the  court.*  The  emperor  had  it  in  his  power  to  expel  the 
popes  from  Kome,  and  to  set  up  against  Paschalis's  successor 
Gelasius  the  Second,  another,  chosen  by  his  own  party,  the 
archbishop  Burdinus  of  Braga,  Gregory  the  Eighth. 

The  mischievous  consequences  of  this  schism  in  the  churches, 
in  which  both  parties  combated  each  other  with  ferocious  ani- 
mosity, could  not  fail  to  call  forth  the  more  strongly,  in  all 
who  had  at  heart  the  welfare  of  Christendom,  the  wish  for  a 
restoration  of  the  peace  of  the  church  ;  these,  accordingly,  set 
themselves  to  devising  means  for  bringing  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion of  conflicting  interests  and  principles.  Between  the  stiff 
Hildebrandian  party  and  those  who  defended  lay-investiture 
there  gradually  rose  up  a  third  intermediate  party.  These  con- 
troversies led  to  some  important  consequences.  Various  more 
profound  investigations  were  thereby  occasioned,  into  the  rela- 
tion of  the  church  to  the  state,  of  ecclesiastical  matters  to 

♦  In  the  life  of  the  archbishop  Conrad  the  First,  of  Salzburg,  it  is 
related  how  pious  ladies,  at  the  emperor's  court,  had  the  greatest  influ- 
ence in  the  distribution  of  ecclesiastical  preferments.  See  Pez  thesaur. 
anecdot.  nov.  T.  II.  p.  3,  f.  204 ;  and  Gerhoh  says,  in  the  above-cited 
tract,  De  statu  ecclesiae,  c.  22 :  Spretis  electionibus  is  apud  eum  dignior 
caeteris  episcopatus  honore  habitus  est,  qui  ei  vel  familiarior  extitisset  vel 
plus  obsequii  aut  pecuuiee  obtulisset. 


ATTEMPTS  AT  MEDIATION  BY  MONK  HUGO.  195 

political,  of  spiritual  matters  to  secular.  Men  of  sobriety  and 
moderation  stood  forth,  who  endeavoured  to  soften  the  extra- 
vagant excesses  of  the  Hildebrandian  zealots,  in  their  fanatical 
deprecation  of  the  civil  power,  and  who,  instead  of  continu- 
ally harping  against  lay-investiture,  sought  to  bring  about  an 
understanding  on  the  question,  as  to  what  was  essential  and 
what  unessential  in  the  points  of  dispute  ;  as  to  what  should 
be  held  fast  in  order  to  secure  the  freedom  of  the  church, 
and  what  might  be  conceded  to  the  state  in  order  to  the  con- 
servation of  its  rights.  We  have  already  noticed,  on  a  former 
page,  the  milder  views  on  this  subject  expressed  by  HUdebert 
of  Mans,  and  Yves  of  Chartres. 

By  occasion  of  the  disputes  between  tlie  Norman  princes  of 
England  and  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury,  the  monk  Hugo, 
belonging  to  the  monastery  of  Fleury,  wrote  his  work  for  the 
reconciliation  of  church  and  state,  of  the  royalty  and  the  priest- 
hood.* He  combated  the  Gregorian  position,  that  monarchy 
was  not,  like  the  priesthood,  founded  on  a  divine  order,  but 
that  the  former  sprang  from  man's  will,  and  hiunan  pride ;  and 
in  opposition  to  those  who  maintained  this,  he  held  up  the 
apostle  Paul's  declaration  concerning  the  divine  institution  of 
magistrates.!  He  affirmed,  that  the  relations  among  men 
were,  from  the  first,  founded  upon  such  a  subordination.  He 
attacked  the  exaggerations  on  both  sides,  and,  in  opposition  to 
them,  held  fast  to  the  principle  that  to  God  must  be  rendered 
tliat  which  is  God's,  and  to  Caesar  that  which  is  Caesar's. 
The  king  should  lay  no  restraint  on  the  election  of  a  bishop 
by  the  clergy  and  the  community,  to  be  held  according  to  the 
ecclesiastical  laws  ;  and  should  give  his  concurrence  to  the 
choice  when  made.  To  the  person  elected,  the  king  ought 
not  to  give  the  investiture  with  staff  and  ring,  which,  as  sym- 
bols of  spiritual  things,  belong  to  the  archbishop  ;  but  should 
bestow  the  feoflftnent  with  secular  appurtenances,  and  accord- 

*  De  regia  potestate  et  sacerdotali  dignitate ;   in  Balnz.  Miscellan. 

t  Scio  quosdam  nostris  temporibus,  qui  reges  autamaiit,  non  a  Deo, 
sed  ab  his  habuisse  principium,  qui  Deum  ignorantes  superbia,  rapiuis, 
homicidiis  et  postremo  psene  uuiversis  sceleribus  in  mundi  principio  dia- 
bolo  agitante  supra  pares  homines  dominari  cceca  cupiditate  affectaveruat 
Quorum  sententia  quam  sit  frivola  liquet  apostolico  docamento :  Non  est 
potestas  nisi  a  Deo,  etc. 

o  2 


196  MEDIATORY  VIEWS  OF  GOTTFRIED. 

ingly  select  for  this  some  other  symbol.*  The  cardinal  abbot 
Gottfried  of  Vendome,  as  we  have  seen  above,  had  declared 
himself  so  strongly  against  the  concessions  of  pope  Paschalis 
in  the  dispute  concerning  the  investiture  as  to  pronounce  the 
maintaining  of  the  investiture  by  laymen  a  heresy  ;  but  he 
extricated  himself  from  these  wearisome  and  ruinous  con- 
troversies, and,  by  certain  notional  distinctions,  found  a  way 
of  reconciling  the  antagonism  between  the  church  and  the 
secular  power,"]"  He  distinguished  between  that  investiture 
which  makes  the  bishop  a  bishop  and  that  which  has  refer- 
ence to  his  temporal  support ;  |  between  that  which  pertains  to 
human  and  that  which  pertains  to  divine  right.  The  church 
held  her  possessions  by  human  right,  the  right  which  defines 
generally  the  mine  and  thine.  Divine  right  we  have  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures  (the  ecclesiastical  laws  being  reckoned  there- 
to) :  human  right  in  the  laws  of  princes.  Property,  which 
belongs  to  human  right,  God  has  given  to  the  church  through 
the  emperors  and  kings  of  the  world.  He  protested  against 
that  stern  hierarchical  bent  which  would  not  allow  princes 
to  possess  what  was  their  own.  "  If  thou  sayest,"  he  remarks 
to  the  bishop,  "  what  have  I  to  do  with  the  king  ;  then  call 
not  the  possessions  thine ;  for  thou  hast  renounced  the  only 
right  by  which  thou  canst  call  them  thine."  §  While  now,  in 
accordance  with  this  distinction,  he  still  declared  the  investi- 
ture by  staff  and  ring,  practised  by  laymen  and  referring  to 
spiritual  matters,  a  heresy,  he  still  found  nothing  offensive  in 
the  fact  that  kings,  after  the  completion  of  a  free  canonical 
election,  and  after  the  episcopal  consecration,  should,  by  the 
royal  investiture,  convey  over  the  secular  possessions  and  their 

*  Lib.  I.  c.  5.  Post  electionem  autem  non  anulum  aut  baculum  a 
manu  regia,  sed  investituram  rerum  seculariura  electus  antistes  debet  sus- 
cipere  et  in  suis  ordinibus  per  auulum  aut  baculum  animarum  curam  ab 
archiepiscopo  suo. 

t  Opusc.  III.  to  pope  Calixtus,  and  his  Tractatus  de  ordinatione  epis- 
coporum  et  de  investitura  Laicorum,  addressed  to  cardinal  Peter  Leouis. 

X  Alia  est  investitura,  quae  episcopum  perficit,  alia  vero,  quse  episcopura 
pascit. 

§  Si  vero  dixeris :  Quid  mihi  et  regi,  noli  jam  dicere  possessiones 
tuas,  quia  ad  ipsa  jura,  quibus  possessiones  possidentur,  renuntiasti. 
Unde  (juisque  possidet,  quod  possidet  ?  Noune  jure  humano  ?  Nam  jure 
divino  Domini  est  terra  et  plenitude  ejus.  Pauperes  et  divites  Deus  de 
uno  luto  fecit,  et  divites  et  pauperes  una  terra  supporut. 


CONCORDAT  OF  WORMS,  A.D.  1122.  197 

own  protection  along  with  them,*  and  by  what  sign  this 
might  be  done,  was,  he  declared,  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
the  Catholic  faith.|  Chidst  intended  that  the  spiritual  and  the 
secular  sword  should  serve  for  the  defence  of  the  church ;  but 
if  one  of  the  two  beats  back  the  other,  this  happens  contrary 
to  his  will.  Thus  arise  bitter  feelings  and  schisms  ;  thus 
arises  corruption  of  the  body  and  of  the  soul.  And  when 
empire  and  priesthood  contend  one  against  the  other,  both 
are  in  danger.  The  church  ought  to  assert  her  freedom,  but 
she  ought  also  to  guard  against  disorganizing  excesses. |  He 
calls  it  a  work  of  Satan,  when,  under  the  show  of  right,  men 
cause  the  destruction  of  an  individual,  who  might  have  been 
won  by  indulgence.  § 

The  way  having  been  prepared  by  investigations  of  this 
sort,  a  treaty  was  brought  about,  after  repeated  negotiations, 
in  the  year  1122,  between  pope  Calixtus  the  Second  and  the 
emperor  Henry  the  Fifth,  which,  concluded  at  "Worms,  after- 
wards confirmed  at  the  Lateran  Council  in  1123,  was  desig- 
nated by  the  title  of  the  Concordat  of  Worms.  The  pope 
conceded  to  the  emperor  the  right  to  bestow  on  bishops  and 
abbots,  chosen  in  his  presence,  without  violence  or  simony, 
the  investiture  with  regalia  per  sceptrum. 

When  by  this  concordat  the  reconciliation  between  church 
and  state,  after  a  conflict  ruinous  to  both,  which  had  lasted 
for  more  than  forty  years,  was  finally  effected,  it  was  received 
with  universal  joy,  even  by  those  who  in  other  respects  were 
devoted  to  the  Hildebrandian  principles.  ||     There  were,  it  is 

*  Possunt  itaque  sine  offensione  reges  post  electionem  canonicam  et 
liberam  consecrationem  per  investituram  regalem  in  ecclesiasticis  posses- 
sionibas  concessionem,  aoxihum  et  defensionem  episcopo  dare. 

t  Quod  quolibet  signo  factum  extiterit,  regi  vel  pontifici  sen  catho- 
licae  fidei  non  nocebit. 

X  Habeat  ecclesia  suam  libertatem,  sed  summopere  caveat,  ne  dnm  nimis 
emunxerit,  eliciat  sanguinem  et  dum  rubiginem  de  vase  conatur  eradere, 
vas  ipsom  frangatur. 

§  Tunc  enim  a  satana  qais  circumvenitur,  quando  sub  specie  jnstitiae 
ilium  per  nimiam  tristitiam  perire  contingit,  qui  potuit  liberari  per  indul- 
gentiam. 

II  Among  whom  belongs  the  so  often  mentioned  Geroch,  or  Grerhoh,  of 
Keichersberg.  He  was  Canonicus  at  Augsburg,  and  master  of  the  cathe- 
dral school.  Being  a  zealous  adherent  of  the  papal  party,  he  fell  into  a 
quarrel  with  his  bishop,  Hermann  of  Augsburg,  who  defended  the  impe- 
rial interest.   He  was  obliged  to  remove  from  this  city,  and  to  retire  into 


198  INXOCENT  THE  SECOND  DEFENDED   BY  BERNAUD. 

true,  some  stiff  zealots  who  were  not  satisfied  even  with  this 
treaty  ;  who  saw  a  humiliation  of  the  priesthood  in  the  re- 
quirement that  a  bishop  should  do  homage  to  a  layman.* 
Moreover,  the  Hildebrandian  system  had  for  its  very  object 
to  effect  the  complete  subjection  of  the  state  under  the  theo- 
cratical  power  represented  by  the  church :  in  this  effort  of 
the  church,  and  the  natural  counteraction  of  the  state, 
asserting  its  independence,  was  contained  the  germ  of  divisions 
continually  breaking  out  afresh. 

The  history  of  the  papacy  in  the  next  following  times  leads 
us  to  take  notice  of  a  quarrel  connected  with  the  election  of  a 
pope,  which  was  attended  with  consequences  more  lasting  and 
more  important  than  usual ;  differing  from  all  events  of  this 
kind  heretofore  related,  in  that  the  schism  in  this  case  did  not 
proceed  from  the  influence  of  opposite  church-political  parties, 
nor  were  opposite  principles  of  church  government  maintained 
by  the  two  competitors  for  the  papal  dignity.  A  schism  of 
this  sort  might  have  served,  by  the  uncertainty  touching  the 
question  as  to  who  was  pope,  to  unsettle  all  faith  in  the  papacy 
itself.  Yet  the  most  influential  voices  decided  too  quickly  in 
favour  of  one  of  the  two  popes,  to  permit  of  any  such  result ; 
and  by  the  way  in  which  the  greatest  men  of  the  church 
laboured  for  the  cause  of  this  pope,  the  papacy  could  only 
receive  an  accession  of  glory.  It  was  in  the  year  1130  that  by 
a  considerable  party  the  Roman  cardinal  Gregory  was  chosen 
pope,  who  assumed  the  name  of  Innocent  the  Second  ;  but 
the  cardinal  Peter  Leonis  had  also  a  large  number  of  adherents. 
The  latter  was  grandson  of  a  very  rich  Jewish  banker,  who 
had  embraced  Christianity  ;  and  his  ancestors,  during  the  con- 
tests of  the  popes  with  the  emperors,  had  been  enabled  to  per- 
fox-m  important  services  for  the  former  by  means  of  their  great 
wealth,  with  which  they  supported  them  through  their  difficul- 


a  monastery.  He  testifies  his  joy  over  the  Concordat  of  Worms,  whereby 
it  was  made  possible  for  him  to  become  reconciled  with  his  bishop.  He 
says  :  Cessante  ilia  commotione,  in  qua  non  erat  Dominus,  venit  sibi- 
lus  aura;  lenis,  in  quo  erat  Dominus,  faciens  utraque  unum,  concordia 
reparata  inter  sacerdotium  et  imperium.     In  Ps.  cxxxiii.  L.  c.  f.  2039. 

*  As  the  archbishop  Conrad  of  Salzburg  says :  it  is  nefas  and  instar 
sacrilegii,  nianus  chrismatis  unctione  consecratas  sanguineis  manibos 
subjici  et  homagii  exhibitione  pollui.  See  his  life  in  Pez  thesaurus.  L.  c 
f.  228. 


ILLUSTRATIOX  OF  BERNARD  S  POWER.  199 

ties.  By  his  money  he  had  himself  also  at  that  time  acquired 
^eat  influence  in  Rome.  He  called  himself,  as  pope,  Anaclete 
the  Second.  Innocent  was  compelled  to  yield  to  his  power  in 
Rome ;  nor  was  there  any  safety  for  him,  even  in  Italy ;  for 
Anaclete  possessed  a  powerful  ally  in  Roger  king  of  Sicily. 
He  took  refuge  in  France,  and  in  that  country  he  acquired 
greater  power  than  he  could  have  acquired  in  Rome ;  for  the 
two  heads  of  monasticism,  who  had  the  greatest  influence  on 
the  public  sentiment  among  the  nations,  the  abbot  Peter  of 
Cluny  and  the  abbot  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  espoused  his 
interests  with  great  zeal.  More  than  all,  he  was  assisted  by 
the  moral  power  of  the  abbot  Bernard.  This  man  stood  then 
in  the  highest  authority  with  the  French  church.  In  all 
great  ecclesiastical  and  political  affairs  his  voice  was  listened 
to ;  and  it  went  for  much  with  the  most  considerable  men  of 
church  and  state.  In  a  body  enfeebled  by  the  ascetical  efforts 
of  his  earlier  youth,  the  force  of  his  superior  intellect  triumph- 
ing over  the  frailty  of  its  physical  organ,  was  but  the  more 
sure  to  accomplish  whatever  he  undertook.  The  enei^  of 
religious  enthusiasm,  contrasted  with  the  pale,  meagre,  attenu- 
ated body,  made  so  much  the  greater  impression  ;  and  people 
of  all  ranks,  high  and  low,  were  hurried  along  by  it  in  despite 
of  themselves.*  Whatever  cause  he  laid  hold  of,  he  espoused 
with  his  whole  soul,  and  spared  no  efforts  in  carrying  it. 
Fondly  as  he  was  attached  to  the  quiet  life  of  contemplation, 
he  itinerated  about,  notwithstanding,  amidst  the  tumults  of 
the  nations  ;  appeared  before  synods  and  in  the  assemblies  of 
the  nobles,  and  expended  his  fiery  eloquence  in  support  of  the 
cause  which  he  found  to  be  righteous.  This  energetic  man 
now  became  a  hearty  champion  for  the  cause  of  Innocent ; 
for  him  he  set  everything  in  motion,  in  and  without  France. 

After  Louis  the  Sixth,  king  of  France,  and  the  French 
church,  had  already  been  induced,  through  the  influence  of 
Bernard,  to  recognise  Innocent  as  pope,  the  bishop  Gerhard  of 

*  How  Bernard  appeared,  and  what  effect  he  produced  as  an  orator,  is 
graphically  described  by  an  eye-witaess,  the  abbot  Wibald  of  Stavelo : 
Vir  ille  bonus  longo  eremi  squalore  et  jejuniis  ac  pallore  confectus  et  in 
quandam  spiritualis  formae  tenuitatem  redactns,  prins  persuadet  visus 
quam  auditus.  Optima  ei  a  Deo  concessa  est  natura,  eruditio  summa, 
exercitium  ingens,  pronuntiatio  aperta,  gestus  corporis  ad  omnem  dicendi 
modum  accommodatus.  See  his  ep.  147.  Marteue  et  Darand,  Collectio 
amplissima,  T.  II.  f.  339. 


200  ILLUSTRATIOX  OF  BERNARD'S  POWER, 

Angouleme,  who  stood  up  as  legate  for  the  cause  of  Anaclete, 
prolonged  the  contention,  and  by  his  means  one  of  the  mighty 
nobles,  count  William  of  Aquitaine,  was  gained  over  to  the 
same.  The  latter  sought  by  forcible  measures  to  make  the 
party  dominant  in  whose  favour  he  had  declared,  and  perse- 
cuted all  its  opponents.  He  expelled  the  adherents  of  Inno- 
cent among  the  bishops  from  their  offices.  A  characteristic 
illustration  of  the  power  which  the  abbot  Bernard  could  exer- 
cise over  the  minds  of  men,  as  well  as  of  the  religious  spirit 
of  his  times,  is  presented  in  the  mode  by  which  he  finally 
succeeded  in  putting  an  end  to  the  schism  that  had  now  lasted 
five  years.  Already  had  he  brought  the  count  to  acknow- 
ledge that  Innocent  was  pope  ;  and  that  nobleman  was  now 
only  resisting  the  demand,  that  tlie  bishops  should  be  restored 
to  their  places.  After  Bernard,  in  an  interview  with  the  count 
at  Partheney,  had  tried  in  vain  every  method  to  bring  about 
the  object  last  mentioned,  he  repaired  to  the  church  to  hold 
mass,  and  the  count  remained  standing  by  the  door.  Then 
Bernard,  filled  with  the  consciousness  of  the  greatest  of  all 
miracles  which  he,  as  an  instrument  of  God's  grace,  was  privi- 
leged by  his  priestly  office  to  perform,  elevated  in  the  feeling 
of  the  godlike  above  all  earthly  considerations,*  holding  in 
his  hand  the  plate  with  the  host — in  which  he  saw  under 
the  figure  of  the  bread  only  the  veUed  body  of  the  Lord, — 
with  Hashing  eye,  not  beseeching  but  commanding,  stepped 
before  the  count,  and  said  to  him :  "  We  have  entreated  thee, 
and  thou  hast  spurned  us  ;  the  united  band  of  God's  servants 
have  besought  thee,  and  thou  hast  spurned  them.  Beliold, 
here  comes  the  Head  and  Lord  of  the  Church  which  thou  per- 
secutest.  Here  is  thy  judge,  at  whose  name  every  knee  sliall 
bow.  Wilt  thou  spurn  him,  as  thou  hast  done  his  servants  ?  " 
All  that  looked  on  were  seized  with  a  shuddering  awe,  and 
bowing  their  heads  in  prayer,  waited  in  expectation  of  an  imme- 
diate judgment  from  heaven.  All  wept.  The  count  himself 
could  not  withstand  the  impression.  Trembling,  and  as  if  de- 
prived of  speech,  he  fell  to  the  earth.  He  was  lifted  up  by  his 
attendants,  and  again  fell,  foaming  at  the  mouth,  to  the 
ground.     Bernard  himself  now  approached  him,  reached  out 

*  As  an  eye-witness,  the  abbot  Bernald,  in  the  account  of  Bernard's 
life,  VI.  38,  in  his  opp.  ed.  Mabillon  the  Second,  f.  1107,  characteristi- 
cally says  :  Vir  Dei  jam  non  se  agens  ut  hominem. 


VOICES  OF  THE  LAITY  AGAINST  THE  CLERGY.  201 

his  hand  for  him  to  rise,  and  bid  the  humbled  man  submit 
to  pope  Innocent,  and  become  reconciled  vrith  the  deposed 
bbhops.  The  count  dared  not  contradict.  He  embraced  the 
bishop  of  Poitiers,  who  was  presented  to  him,  one  of  those  to 
whom  he  had  before  been  most  inimical ;  and  Bernard,  upon 
this,  conversed  with  him  familiarly,  exhorting  him,  as  a 
father,  never  again  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  church,  and 
thus  this  schism  was  ended. 

TAvice  was  Bernard  called  to  Italy.  Here  also  he  exerted 
a  great  and  powerful  influence  on  the  minds  of  the  nations :  a 
great  deal  was  said  of  his  miracles.  He  reduced  under  the 
pope  the  restless  Lombard  cities,  and  helped  on  the  triumph 
of  Innocent,  at  a  synod  in  Pisa,  in  1134.  In  the  year  1136 
the  latter  was  enabled  to  march  triumphantly  to  Rome  with 
the  emperor  Lothaire  the  Second.  Bernard  also  came  there, 
and  sought  to  destroy  the  remains  of  the  schism,  of  which 
king  Roger  in  particular  still  continued  to  be  the  support ; 
but  he  did  not  as  yet  succeed.  After  Anaclete's  death,  in  the 
year  1138,  his  party  chose,  it  is  true,  a  successor;  but  yet  it 
was  not  ^vith  any  view  of  defending  longer  his  claims  to  the 
papal  throne,  but  only  in  order  to  secure  a  treaty  on  more 
advantageous  terms  with  the  other  party ;  and  in  the  year 
1139  Innocent  was  at  liberty  to  hold  a  Lateran  council  for  the 
purpose  of  sealing  the  peace  of  the  church. 

Yet  precisely  at  this  time  a  furious  storm  broke  out,  by 
which  the  last  years  of  the  rule  of  Innocent  and  the  reigns  of 
the  next  succeeding  popes  were  disquieted  ;  events  which 
were  important  on  accoimt  of  their  immediate  consequences, 
and  as  symptoms  of  a  more  deep-grounded  reaction  against 
the  dominant  church-system,  for  which  the  way  was  now 
preparing. 

In  order  to  find  the  origin  of  these  commotions,  we  must 
glance  back  and  trace  the  consequences  of  earlier  events.  "We 
saw  how  the  popes,  ever  since  the  time  of  Leo  the  Ninth,  had 
placed  themselves  at  the  head  of  a  movement  of  reform,  in 
opposition  to  the  corruption  of  the  clergy  ;  how,  by  this  move- 
ment, individual  ecclesiastics  and  monks  of  more  serious  minds 
had  been  incited  to  stand  forth  as  castigatory  preachers  against 
the  secularized  clergy.*     Not  only  such  preachers,  but  the 

*  Of  sach,  Gerboh  of  Reichersberg,  in  his  book :  De  corrupto  eccle- 
sisB  statu,  in  Baloz.  Miscellan.  T.  V.  p.  205,  where  he  places  the  con- 


202  VOICES  OF  THE  LAITY  AGAINST  THE  CLERGY 

popes  themselves,  as  for  example  pope  Gregory  the  Seventh^ 
had  also  stirred  up  the  people  against  the  corrupt  clergy.* 
Thus  there  rose  up  from  amongst  the  laity  severe  censors 
of  the  corrupt  clergy.  Doubtless  many,  who  had  ever  con- 
templated the  lives  of  these  men  with  indignation  and  abhor- 
rence, rejoiced  at  now  having  it  in  their  power,  under  the 
papal  authority,  of  giving  vent  to  their  long  repressed  anger ; 
and  even  those,  who  themselves  led  an  immoral  life,  made  a 
merit  of  standing  forth  against  the  unchaste  ecclesiastics,  and 
driving  them  off  from  their  benefices,  j  From  this  insurrec- 
tion of  the  laity  against  the  secularized  clergy,  proceeded  also 
separatist  movements,  which  did  not  restrict  themselves  to  the 
limits  set  up  by  the  popes.  In  addition  to  this,  came  now  the 
important  and  lasting  controversies  concerning  the  investiture, 
by  means  of  which  more  liberal  investigations  had  been  called 
forth  respecting  the  boundaries  between  church  and  state,  and 
their  respective  rights.  Pope  Paschalis  the  Second  had  in 
fact  himself  publicly  avowed,  that  the  regalia  were  to  the 
church  a  foreign  possession,  whereby  its  officers  were  drawn 
aside  from  their  appropriate  spiritual  duties,  and  betrayed  into 
a  dependence  on  the  secular  power.  And  there  existed,  as 
we  have  already  remarked,  an  entire  party  who  held  this 
opinion ;  who  demanded  that  the  bishops  and  abbots,  in  order 
to  be  excused  from  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  princes, 

flicts  which  these  men  had  to  sustain  on  a  parallel  with  the  earlier  ones 
of  the  martyrs  with  pagan  tyrants,  remarks  :  Novissime  diebus  istis  viri 
religiosi  contra  simoniacos,  conducticios  (the  itinerant  clergy  hired  to 
perform  mechanically  the  priestly  functions,  who  were  ready  to  strike  a 
bargain  with  any  body)  incestuosos,  dissolutos  aut,  quod  pejus  est,  irregu- 
lariter  congregates  clericos  prcelium  grande  tempore  Gregorii  Septi, 
habuenint  et  adhuc  habent. 

*  In  addition  to  the  citations  made  before,  we  may  notice  what  the 
abbot  Guibert,  in  his  life  written  by  himself,  relates  concerning  the  effects 
of  the  Hildebrandian  laws  of  celibacy :  Erat  ea  tempestate  nova  super 
uxoratis  presbyteris  apostolicse  sedis  invectio,  unde  et  vulgi  clericos 
zelantis  tanta  adversus  eos  rabies  testuabat,  ut  eos  ecclesiastico  privari 
beneficio  vel  abstineri  sacerdotio  infesto  spiritu  conclamarent  Lib.  I. 
c.  7.  f.  462. 

■j-  Something  of  the  same  kind  is  related  by  Guibert  (1.  c.)  concerning 
a  nobleman  of  his  district,  who  gave  himself  up  to  all  manner  of  lust ; 
Tanta  in  clerum  super  prsefato  canone  (the  law  concerning  celibacy)  ba- 
chabatur  instantia,  ac  si  eum  singularis  ad  detestationem  talium  pulsaret 
pudicitia. 


PEIXCIPLES  AT  THE  TIME  OF  ARNOLD  OF  BRESCIA.  203 

should  surrender  back  to  them  the  regalia,  restoring  to  Caesar 
the  things  that  are  Caesar's ;  in  accordance  with  that  pre- 
cept of  the  apostle  Paul  which  required  the  clergy  not  to 
meddle  with  secular  business.  In  opposition  to  the  practice 
of  mixing  up  together  things  spiritual  and  secular,  and  in  jus- 
tification of  the  oath  of  allegiance  sworn  by  the  bishops  to 
the  emperors,  propositions  like  the  following  were  already 
advanced  :  If  the  clergy  would  be  entirely  independent  of  the 
secular  power,  let  them,  like  the  clergy  of  the  primitive 
church,  be  content  with  the  tithes  and  the  free  gifts  of  the 
communities.* 

It  was  a  young  clergyman  of  Brescia,  by  the  name  of 
Arnold,  who  gave  the  first  impulse  to  this  new  reaction  against 
the  secularization  of  the  church,  and  against  the  power  of  the 
pope  in  temporal  things.  From  what  we  have  said  concerning 
the  conflict  of  spiritual  tendencies  in  this  age,  and  particularly 
concerning  the  causes  and  consequences  of  the  controversies 
about  investiture,  it  is  easy  to  explain  how  a  young  man  of  a 
serious  and  ardent  temperament,  brought  up  in  the  midst  of 
such  events  and  circumstances,  might  be  carried  away  by  this 
tendency,  nor  should  we  need  to  trace  the  matter  to  any  other 
origin  ;  but  the  account  of  a  contemporary,  which  lets  us  into 
the  knowledge  of  another  circumstance  that  had  an  important 
influence  on  the  development  of  Arnold's  mind,  is  by  no  means 
improbable."]"  When  the  great  teacher  Abelard  assembled 
around  him,  in  a  lonely  region  near  Troyes,  the  youth  that 
poured  in  upon  him  from  all  quarters,  and  by  his  lectures  fired 
them  with  his  own  enthusiasm,  Arnold,  who  in  his  early  youth 
had  been  a  reader  in  the  church  at  Brescia,  was  one  of  the  many 

*  Gerhoh,  in  his  book,  De  statu  ecclesiae,  published  by  Gretser,  says 
expressly :  Qui  pro  parte  regis  erant  sufficere  ajebant  ecclesiasticis  de- 
bere  decimas  et  oblationes  Uberas  id  est  nullo  regalivel  imperiali  servitio 
obnoxias. — Satis,  inquit,  apparet,  sacerdotes  regibus  se  per  hominia  obli- 
gantes  Deo  pro  sui  oflScii  gradu  sufficienter  placere  non  posse.  Unde, 
ut  ei  placeant,  cui  se  probaverunt,  militiam  et  caetera,  pro  quibns  hominia 
regibus  debentur,  regno  libera  relinquant  et  ipsi  vacent  orationibns 
ovibusque  Christi  pascendis  invigilent,  ad  quid  instituti  sunt.  Gretser, 
opp.  T.  VI.  f.  258.  Here  we  have  the  principles  set  forth  by  Arnold,  as 
they  naturally  shaped  themselves  out  of  the  reaction,  partly  of  the  state 
interest,  partly  of  the  purer  Christian  spirit,  against  the  secularization  of 
the  clergy,  and  not  as  they  were  first  excogitated  by  Arnold. 

t  Otto  of  Freisingen,  in  the  2nd  book  of  his  History  of  Frederic  the 
First,  c.  20 :  Petrum  Abailarduai  olim  prseceptorem  habuerat. 


204  Arnold's  leading  idea. 

that  did  not  shrink  from  the  meagre  fare  and  various  depriva- 
tions necessary  to  be  undergone  in  order  to  enjoy  the  privilege 
of  listening  to  the  voice  of  that  great  master.*  The  specu- 
lative vein  in  Abelard's  style  and  teachings  did  not,  it  is  true, 
fall  in  with  the  peculiar  bent  of  Arnold's  mind ;  and  perliaps 
even  an  Abelard  would  have  found  it  impossible  to  produce 
any  essential  change  in  a  native  tendency  which,  as  in  the 
case  of  Arnold,  was  so  much  more  practical  than  speculative. 
But  Abelard  possessed  a  versatility  of  intellect  which  enabled 
him  to  arouse  minds  of  very  different  structure  on  different, 
sides.  From  such  of  his  writings  as  have  been  preserved  to 
us,  we  may  gather  that,  among  other  qualities,  an  important 
practical  element  entered  also  into  his  discourses ;  that  he 
spoke  sharply  against  the  worldly  temper  in  ecclesiastics  and 
monks,  and  contrasted  their  condition  as  it  actually  was  with 
what  it  ought  to  he.  It  was  the  religious,  ethical  element  in 
Abelard's  discourses  which  left  the  deepest  impression  on  the 
warm  and  earnest  heart  of  the  young  man,!  and,  inflamed  with 
a  holy  ardour,  he  returned  home  to  his  native  city. 

*  In  harmony  with  this  is  what  Giinther  Ligurinus,  in  his  poem  on 
the  deeds  of  Frederic  the  First,  says  concerning  Arnold  :  Tenui  nutrivit 
Gallia  sumptu  edocuitque  diu.  These  words,  it  is  true,  might,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  relation  of  this  historian  to  Otto  of  Freisingen,  appear  to 
be  a  mere  repetition  of  the  report  given  by  the  latter ;  but  the  phrase, 
"  teuui  nutrivit  sumptu,"  may  doubtless  point  to  some  other  source  ;  they 
agree  very  well  with  the  time  of  his  connection  with  Abelard. 

t  This  connection  between  Abelard  and  Arnold  has  been  doubted  in 
these  modern  times.  We  allow,  an  authority  so  important  as  that  of  the 
abbot  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  seems  to  be  against  the  correctness  of  this 
account ;  for  this  abbot  expresses  himself  as  if  he  had  first  made  his  ap- 
pearance in  a  way  altogether  independent  of  Abelard,  and  had  not  till 
later,  when  banished  from  Italy  he  came  to  France,  espoused  the  cause  of 
that  persecuted  man.  See  Bernard,  in  his  189th  letter  to  pope  Innocent, 
s.  3 :  Sibilavit  apis,  quse  erat  in  Francia,  api  de  Italia  et  venerunt  in 
unum  adversus  Dominum ;  and  ep.  195 :  Exsecratus  a  Petro  apostolo 
adhffiserat  Petro  Abajlardo.  We  must  suppose,  then,  that  Otto  of  Frei- 
singen had  been  led,  by  what  he  had  heard  concerning  the  later  connection 
between  Arnold  and  Abelard,  into  the  mistake  of  representing  the  former 
as  a  pupil  of  the  latter.  Upon  this  hypothesis  we  must  suppose  that 
Arnold  had  been  led,  only  at  some  later  period,  by  the  common  interest 
of  opposition  to  the  dominant  church-system,  to  take  sides  with  Abelard. 
The  testimony,  however,  of  Otto  of  Freisingen,  who  had  himself  pur- 
sued his  studies  in  France,  is  of  importance ;  and  we  are  by  no  means 
warranted  to  accuse  him  of  an  anachronism  in  his  account  of  a  fact  not 
in  itself  improbable.    The  less  inward  relationship  there  appears  at  first 


HIS  ATTACKS  OX  THE  CLERGY.  205 

It  was  observed  that  he  had  undergone  a  change, — a 
thing  not  uncommon  among  the  yoimg  secular  clergy,  who, 
awakened  by  some  remarkable  providence  to  a  more  serious 
religious  turn  of  mind,  altered  their  dress  and  their  entire  mode 
of  life,  appeared  as  regular  canonicals,  or  monks,  and  now 
stood  forth  the  bold  and  open  chastisers  of  worldly  ecclesi- 
astics.* The  inspiring  idea  of  his  movements  was  that  of  a 
holy  and  pure  church — a  renovation  of  the  spiritual  order  after 
the  pattern  of  the  apostolic  church.  His  life  corresponded 
with  his  doctrine.  Zealously  opposing  the  corruption  of  the 
worldly-minded  clergy  and  monks,  and  requiring  that  clei^- 
men  and  monks  should  follow  the  steps  of  the  apostles  in  evan- 
gelical poverty  and  chastity,  he  set  the  example  himself  by 
his  dress,  his  entire  mode  of  living,  and  the  ascetical  severity 
with  which  he  treated  his  own  person — a  fact  which  even  his 
most  violent  adversaries  could  not  but  acknowledge.!  He 
required  that  the  bishops  and  abbots,  in  conformity  with 
the  teachings  of  Holy  Scripture,  should  wholly  renounce  their 
worldly  possessions  and  privileges,  as  well  as  all  secular  busi- 
ness, and  give  all  these  things  back  to  the  princes.  The  clergy 
should  be  content  with  whatever  the  love  of  the  communities 
might  bestow  on  them  for  their  support — the  oblations,  the 
firstlings,  and  tithes.  The  incontinent  clergy,  living  in  luxury 
and  debauchery,  were  no  longer,  he  declared,  true  ecclesiastics 
— they   were   unfit  to   discharge  the  priestly   ftinctions ;   in 

glance  to  have  been  between  the  teachings  of  Abelard  and  those  of 
Arnold,  the  less  reason  have  we  to  call  in  doubt  an  account  which  repre- 
sents Arnold  as  having  been  a  pupil  of  Abelard.  The  narrative  of 
Giinther,  mentioned  in  the  previous  note,  which  enters  into  particulars, 
agrees  with  the  above.  How  easily  might  it  have  escaped  the  notice  of 
Bernard,  however,  who  would  have  taken  but  little  interest  in  the  early 
life  of  Arnold,  that,  of  the  great  crowd  of  young  men  who  flocked  to 
hear  Abelard,  Arnold  was  one ! 

*  The  provost  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg  would  be  inclined,  with  the 
views  he  entertained,  to  judge  more  mildly  concerning  the  man  who 
agreed  with  him  in  his  attacks  on  the  secularized  clergy,  but  did  not 
restrain  himself  within  the  same  limits.  He  says  of  his  teaching :  Quae 
etsi  zelo  forte  bono,  sed  minori  scientia  prolata  est.  Which  words 
Gretser  cites,  in  a  fragment  from  the  first  book  of  the  work  written  by 
Gerhoh :  De  investigatione  Antichristi,  in  the  prolegomena  to  his  edition 
of  the  Scriptores  contra  sectam  Waldensium,  in  his  opp.  T.  XII.  f.  12. 

t  Bernard  says  of  him,  ep.  195.  Homo  est  neque  manducans  neque 
bibens,  qui  utinam  tarn  sanae  esset  doctrinae,  quam  districtae  est  vita;. 


206  ARNOLD'S  DISCOURSES.      HIS  BANISHMENT. 

maintaining  which  position,  he  might  perhaps  expect  to  attach 
to  his  side  the  Hildebrandian  zealots.  The  corrupt  bishops 
and  priests  were  no  longer  bishops  and  priests  ;  the  secularized 
church  was  no  longer  the  house  of  God.*  It  does  not  appear 
that  his  opposition  to  the  corrupt  church  had  ever  led  him  to 
advance  any  such  remarks  as  could  be  interpreted  into  heresy ; 
for,  had  he  done  so,  men  would  from  the  first  have  proceeded 
against  him  more  sharply,  and  his  opponents,  who  spared  no 
pains  in  hunting  up  everything  which  could  serve  to  place  him 
in  an  unfavourable  light,  would  certainly  never  have  allowed 
such  heretical  statements  of  Arnold  to  pass  unnoticed. |  But 
we  must  allow  that  the  way  in  which  Arnold  stood  forth 
against  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  and  especially  his  incli- 
nation to  make  the  objective  in  the  instituted  order,  and  in  the 
transactions  of  the  church,  depend  on  the  subjective  character 
of  the  men,  might  easily  lead  to  still  greater  aberrations. 

Arnold's  discourses  were  directly  calculated  by  their  ten- 
dency to  find  ready  entrance  into  the  minds  of  the  laity,  before 
whose  eyes  the  worldly  lives  of  the  ecclesiastics  and  monks 
were  constantly  present,  |  and  to  create  a  faction  in  deadly  hos- 
tility to  the  clergy.  Superadded  to  this  was  the  inflammable 
matter  already  prepared  by  the  collision  of  the  spirit  of  political 
freedom  with  the  power  of  the  higher  clergy. 

Thus  Arnold's  addresses  produced  in  the  minds  of  the  Italian 
people,  quite  susceptible  to  such  excitements,  a  prodigious 
effect,  which  threatened  to  spread  more  widely,  and  pope 
Innocent  felt  himself  called  upon  to  take  preventive  mea- 
sures against  it.  At  the  already-mentioned  Lateran  council, 
in  the  year  1139,  he  declared  against  Arnold's  proceedings, 
and  commanded  him  to  quit  Italy — tlie  scene  of  the  disturb- 

*  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg  cites  from  him,  in  the  work  mentioned  in 
the  preceding  note,  an  assertion  like  the  following  :  Ut  domus  Dei  taliter 
ordinata  domus  Dei  non  sit  vel  prgesules  eorum  non  sint  episcopi,  quem- 
admodum  quidam  nostro  tempore  Arnoldus  dogniatizare  ausus  est,  plebes 
a  talium  episcoporum  obedientia  dehortatus. 

•(■  Only  Otto  of  Freisingen,  after  having  noticed  that  in  which  all 
■were  agreed,  adds :  PriEter  hsec  de  Sacramento  altaris,  baptismo  parvu- 
lorum  non  sane  dicitur  sensisse.  But  this  account  is  too  vague  to  be 
safely  relied  on. 

I  Gunther  Ligurinos  says  of  Arnold — 

Veraque  multa  qiiidem,  nisi  tempora  nostra  fideles 
Respuereiit  monitus,  falsis  admixta  munebat. 


EXTENT  OF  HIS  UfFLUEXCE.  207 

ances  thus  fer — altogether ;  and  not  to  return  again  without 
express  permission  from  the  pope.  Arnold,  moreover,  is  said 
to  have  bound  himself  by  an  oath  to  obey  this  injunction, 
which  probably  was  expressed  in  such  terms  as  to  leave  him 
free  to  interpret  it  as  referring  exclusively  to  the  person  of 
pope  Innocent.*  If  the  oath  was  not  so  expressed,  he  might 
aftersvards  have  been  accused  of  violating  that  oath.  It  is  to 
be  regretted  that  the  form  in  which  the  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced against  Arnold  has  not  come  down  to  us ;  but  from 
its  very  character  it  is  evident  that  he  could  not  have  been 
convicted  of  any  false  doctrine,  since  otherwise  the  pope  would 
certainly  not  have  treated  him  so  mildly — would  not  have 
been  contented  with  merely  banishing  him  from  Italy,  since 
teachers  of  false  doctrine  would  be  dangerous  to  the  church 
everywhere.  Bernard,  moreover,  in  his  letter  directed  against 
Arnold,  states  that  he  was  accused  before  the  pope  of  being 
the  author  of  a  very  bad  schism.  Arnold  now  betook  himself 
to  France,  and  here  he  became  entangled  in  the  quarrels  with 
his  old  teacher  Abelard,  to  whom  he  was  indebted  for  the  first 
impulse  of  his  mind  towards  thb  more  serious  and  free  bent 
of  the  religious  spirit.  Expelled  from  France,  he  directed  his 
steps  to  Switzerland,  and  sojourned  in  Zurich.  The  abbot 
Bernard  thought  it  necessary  to  caution  the  bishop  of  Con- 
stance against  him  ;  but  the  man  who  had  been  condemned  by 
the  pope  found  protection  there  from  the  papal  legate,  cardinal 
Guido,  who,  indeed,  made  him  a  member  of  his  household  and 
companion  of  his  table.  The  abbot  Bernard  severely  censured 
that  prelate,  on  the  ground  that  Arnold's  connection  with  him 
would  contribute,  without  fail,  to  give  importance  and  influ- 
ence to  that  dangerous  man.  This  deserv^es  to  be  noticed  on 
two  accounts,  for  it  makes  it  evident  what  power  he  could 
exercise  over  men's  minds,  and  that  no  false  doctrines  could  be 
charged  to  his  account. 

But  independent  of  Arnold's  personal  presence,  the  impulse 
which  he  had  given  continued  to  operate  in  Italy,  and  the  effects 
of  it  extended  even  to  Rome.  By  the  papal  condemnation, 
public  attention  was  only  more  strongly  drawn  to  the  subject. 

*  Bernard's  words,  ep.  1 95 :  Accasatus  apud  Dominam  Papam  schis- 
mate  pessimo,  natali  solo  pulsus  est,  etiam  et  abjurare  compulsus  reversi- 
onem,  nisi  ad  ipsius  apostolici  permissionem. 


208     LETTER  OF  THE  ROMANS  TO  CONRAD  THE  THIRD. 

The  Romans  certainly  felt  no  great  sympathy  for  the  religious 
element  in  that  serious  spirit  of  reform  which  animated  Arnold  ; 
but  the  political  movements,  which  had  sprung  out  of  his 
reforming  tendency,  found  a  point  of  attachment  in  their  love 
of  liberty,  and  their  dreams  of  the  ancient  dominion  of  Home 
over  the  world.  The  idea  of  emancipating  themselves  from 
the  yoke  of  the  pope,  and  of  re-establishing  the  old  republic, 
flattered  their  Koman  pride.  Espousing  the  principles  of 
Arnold,  they  required  that  the  pope,  as  spiritual  head  of  the 
church,  should  confine  himself  to  the  administration  of  spiritual 
affairs  ;  and  they  committed  to  a  senate,  whom  they  established 
on  the  capitol,*  the  supreme  direction  of  civil  aifairs.  Innocent 
could  do  nothing  to  stem  such  a  violent  current ;  and  he  died, 
in  the  midst  of  these  disturbances,  in  the  year  1 143.  The  mild 
cardinal  Guido,  the  friend  of  Abelard  and  Arnold,  became  his 
successor,  and  called  himself,  when  pope,  Celestin  the  Second. 
By  his  gentleness,  quiet  was  restored  for  a  short  time.  Per- 
haps it  was  the  news  of  the  elevation  of  this  friendly  man  to 
the  papal  throne  that  encouraged  Arnold  himself  to  come  to 
Rome.f  But  Celestin  died  after  six  months,  and  Lucius  the 
Second  was  his  successor.  Under  his  reign  the  Romans 
renewed  the  former  agitations  with  more  violence :  they  ut- 
terly renounced  obedience  to  the  pope,  whom  they  recognized 
only  in  his  priestly  character,  and  the  restored  Roman  republic 
sought  to  strike  a  league  in  opposition  to  the  pope  and  to 
papacy  with  the  new  emperor,  Conrad  the  Third.  In  the 
name  of  the  "  Senate  and  Roman  people,"  a  pompous  letter 
was  addressed  to  Conrad.  The  emperor  was  invited  to  come 
to  Rome,  that  from  thence,  like  Justinian  and  Constantine,  in 
former  days,  he  might  give  laws  to  the  world.     Caesar  should 

*  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg  says  :  ^Edes  Capitolina  olim  diruta  et  nunc 
resedificata  contra  domum  Dei.  See  his  Commentary  in  Ps.  Ixiv.  ed.  Pez. 
L.  c.  f.  1182. 

t  Otto  of  Freisingen  expresses  himself,  indeed,  as  if  Arnold  had  first 
come  to  Rome  in  the  time  of  Eugenius ;  but  here  he  is  hardly  exact  in 
his  chronology.  He  only  gathers  this  from  the  disturbances  which  broke 
out  in  Rome  in  the  time  of  Eugenius ;  and  the  letters  of  the  Romans  to 
the  pope,  which  in  truth  may  have  been  written  already  in  the  time  of 
Innocent,  he  places  too  late.  The  disturbances  in  Rome  may  themselves 
furnish  evidence  of  an  earlier  visit  of  Arnold,  though  we  cannot  attribute 
everything  which  the  Romans  undertook,  after  the  impulse  had  beeu 
given  to  them  by  Arnold,  to  his  mode  of  thinking. 


LETTER  OF  THE  ROMANS  TO  CONRAD  THE  THIRD.  209 

have  the  things  that  are  Caesar's ;  the  priest  the  things  that 
are  the  priest's,  as  Christ  ordained  when  Peter  paid  the  tribute- 
money.*  Long  did  the  tendency  awakened  by  Arnold's  prin- 
ciples continue  to  agitate  Rome.  In  the  letters  written  amidst 
these  commotions,  by  individual  noblemen  of  Rome  to  the 
emperor,  we  perceive  a  singular  mixing  together  of  the 
Arnoldian  spirit  with  the  dreams  of  Roman  vanity — a  radical 
tendency  to  the  separation  of  secular  from  spiritual  things, 
which,  if  it  had  been  capable  enough  in  itself,  and  if  it  could 
have  foimd  more  points  of  attachment  in  the  age,  would  have 
brought  destruction  on  the  old  theocratical  system  of  the 
church.  They  said  that  the  pope  could  claim  no  political 
sovereignty  in  Rome  ;  he  could  not  even  be  consecrated  ^^^th- 
out  the  consent  of  the  emperor — a  rule  which  had  in  fiict  been 
observed  till  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Seventh.  Men  com- 
plained of  the  worldliness  of  the  clergy,  of  their  bad  lives,  of 
the  contradiction  between  their  conduct  and  the  teachings  of 
Scripture.  The  popes  were  accused  as  the  instigators  of  the 
wars.  "The  popes,"  it  was  said,  "should  no  longer  unite 
the  cup  of  the  eucharist  with  the  sword  :  it  was  their  vocation 
to  preach,  and  to  confirm  what  they  preached  by  good  works."]" 
How  could  those  who  eagerly  grasped  at  all  the  wealth  of  this 
world,  and  corrupted  the  true  riches  of  the  church,  the  doc- 
trine of  salvation  obtained  by  Christ,  by  their  false  doctrines 
and  their  luxurious  living,  receive  that  word  of  our  Lord — 
Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit — when  they  were  poor  them- 
selves neither  in  fact  nor  in  disposition."  Even  the  donative 
of  Constantine  to  the  Roman  bishop  SUvester,  was  declared  to 
be  a  pitiable  fiction.  This  lie  haid  been  so  clearly  exposed, 
that  it  was  obvious  to  the  very  day-labourers  and  to  women, 
and  that  these  could  put  to  silence  the  most  learned  men  if 
they  ventured  to  defend  the  genuineness  of  this  donative  ;  so 
that  the  pope,  with  his  cardinals,  no  longer  dared  to  appear 
in  public.  J     But  Arnold  was  perhaps  the  only  individual  in 

*  Caesaris  accipiat  Caesar,  quae  sunt  sua  prsesnl, 
Ut  Christus  jussit  Petra  solvente  tribatum. 
t  See  Martene  et  Durand,  CoUectio  amplissima,  T.  II.  ep.  213,  f.  399. 
Non  eis  licet  ferre  gladium  et  calicem,  sed  praedicare,  praedicationem  vero 
bonis  operibus  confirmare. 

1  Mendacinm  vero  illud  et  fabala  haeretica,  in  qua  refertur  Constand- 
VOL.    VII.  P 


210        EUGENE  THE  THIRD.       BERNARD'S  LETTER  TO  HIM. 

whose  case  such  a  tendency  was  deeply  rooted  in  religious 
conviction  ;  with  many  it  was  but  a  transitory  intoxication, 
in  which  their  political  interests  had  become  merged  for  the 
moment. 

The  pope  Lucius  the  Second  was  killed  as  early  as  1145,  in 
the  attack  on  the  capitol.  A  scholar  of  the  great  abbot  Ber- 
nard, the  abbot  Peter  Bernard  of  Pisa,  now  mounted  the  papal 
chair,  under  the  name  of  Eugene  the  Third.  As  Eugene 
honoured  and  loved  the  abbot  Bernard  as  his  spiritual  father 
and  old  preceptor,  so  the  latter  took  advantage  of  his  relation 
to  the  pope,  to  speak  the  truth  to  him  with  a  plainness  which 
no  other  man  would  easily  have  ventured  to  use.  In  con- 
gratulating him  upon  his  elevation  to  the  papal  dignity,  he 
took  occasion  to  exhort  him  to  do  away  the  many  abuses  which 
had  become  so  vvddely  spread  in  the  church  by  worldly  influ- 
ences. "  Who  will  give  me  the  satisfaction,"  said  he  in  his 
letter,*  "of  beholding  the  church  of  God,  before  I  die,  in  a 
condition  like  that  in  which  it  was  in  ancient  days,  when  the 
apostles  threw  out  their  nets,  not  for  silver  and  gold,  but  for 
souls.  How  fervently  I  wish  thou  mightest  inherit  the  word 
of  that  apostle  whose  episcopal  seat  thou  hast  acquired,  of  him 
who  said,  '  Thy  gold  perish  with  thee,'  Acts  viii.  20.  O  that 
all  the  enemies  of  Zion  might  tremble  before  this  dreadful 
word,  and  shrink  back  abashed !  This,  thy  mother  indeed 
expects  and  requires  of  thee.  For  this,  long  and  sigh  the  sons  of 
thy  mother,  small  and  great,  that  every  plant  which  our  Father  in 
heaven  has  not  planted,  may  be  rooted  up  by  thy  hands."  He 
then  alluded  to  the  sudden  deaths  of  the  last  predecessors  of  the 
pope,  exhorting  him  to  humility,  and  reminding  him  of  his 
responsibility.  "In  all  thy  works,"  he  wrote,  "remember 
that  thou  art  a  man  ;  and  let  the  fear  of  Him  who  taketh  away 
the  breath  of  rulers,  be  ever  before  thine  eyes."  Eugene  was 
soon  forced  to  yield,  it  is  true,  to  the  superior  force  of  the 
insurrectionary  spirit  in  Rome,  and  in  1146  to  take  refuge  in 
France :  but,  like  Urban  and  Innocent,  he  too,  from  this 
country,  attained  to  the  highest  triumph  of  the  papal  power. 

num  Silvestro  imperialia  simoniace  concessisse,  in  urbe  ita  detecta  est,  ut 
etiam  mercenarii  et  muliercula;  qnoslibet  etiam  doctissimos  super  hoc 
concludant  et  dictus  apostolicus  cum  suis  cardinalibus  in  civiiate  pra;  pu- 
dore  apparere  non  audeant.     Ep.  384,  f.  556.  L.  c. 
*  Ep.  238. 


BERNARD  PROMOTES  THE  SECOND  CRUSADE.       211 

Like  Innocent,  he  found  there,  in  the  abbot  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux,  a  mightier  instrument  for  operating  on  the  minds  of  the 
age  than  he  could  have  found  in  any  other  country ;  and  like 
Urban,  when  banished  from  the  ancient  seat  of  the  papacy,  he 
was  enabled  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  a  crusade  pro- 
claimed in  his  name,  and  undertaken  with  great  enthusiasm  ; 
an  enterprise  from  which  a  new  impression  of  sacredness  would 
be  reflected  back  upon  his  own  person.  The  news  of  the 
success  which  had  attended  the  arms  of  the  Saracens  in  Syria, 
the  defeat  of  the  Christians,  the  conquest  of  the  ancient 
Christian  territory  of  Edessa,*  the  danger  which  threatened 
the  new  Christian  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  holy  city, 
had  spread  alarm  among  the  Western  nations,  and  the  pope 
considered  himself  bound  to  summon  the  Christians  of  the 
West  to  the  assistance  of  their  hard-pressed  brethren  in  the 
faith,  and  to  the  recovery  of  the  holy  places.  By  a  letter 
directed  to  the  abbot  Bernard,  he  commissioned  him  to  exhort 
the  Western  Christians  in  his  name,  that,  for  penance  and 
forgiveness  of  sins,  they  should  march  to  the  East,  to  deliver 
their  brethren,  or  to  give  up  their  lives  for  them.f  Enthu- 
siastic for  the  cause  himself,  Bernard  communicated,  through 
the  power  of  the  living  word  and  by  letters,  his  enthusiasm  to 
the  nations.  He  represented  the  new  crusade  as  a  means 
furnished  by  God  to  the  multitudes  sunk  in  sin,  of  calling 
them  to  repentance,  and  of  paving  the  way,  by  devout  partici- 
pation in  a  pious  work,  for  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins.  Thus, 
in  his  letter  to  the  clergy  and  people  in  East  Frankland 
(Germany),;}:  he  exhorts  them  eagerly  to  lay  hold  on  this 
opportunity  :  he  declares  that  the  Almighty  condescended  to 
invite  murderers,  robbers,  adulterers,  perjurers,  and  those 
Slink  in  other  crimes,  into  his  ser\'ice,  as  well  as  the  righteous. 
He  calls  upon  them  to  make  an  end  of  waging  war  with  one 
another,  and  to  seek  an  object  for  their  warlike  prowess  in  this 
holy  contest.     "Here,   brave  warrior,"   he  exclaims,   "thou 

*  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg  writes,  in  the  year  1148:  A.  1145,  a  Pa- 
ganis  capta  civitate  Edessa  ploratus  et  ululatus  multus  auditus  est  et 
exauditus  in  excelsis.     In  Ps.  xxxix.  ed.  Pez.     L.  c.  f.  794. 

t  In  Bernard's  life  of  his  disciple,  the  abbot  Gottfried  ;  the  third  Life 
in  the  edition  of  Mabillon,  T.  II.  c.  4,  f.  1120.  It  is  here  said  that  he 
■was  to  present  the  matter  before  the  princes  and  nations  as  the  Romanse 
ecclesise  lingua.  +  Ep.  363. 

p2 


212  Bernard's  exihusiasm  axd  prudence. 

hast  a  field  where  thou  mayest  fight  without  danger,  where 
victory  is  glory,  and  death  is  gain.  Take  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  and  thou  shalt  obtain  the  forgiveness  of  all  the  sin? 
which  thou  hast  never  confessed  with  a  contrite  heart,"  By 
Bernard's  fiery  discourses,  men  of  all  ranks  were  carried 
away.*  In  France  and  Germany  he  travelled  about,  con- 
quering by  an  eflfort  his  great  bodily  infirmities,  and  the  living 
word  from  his  lips  produced  even  mightier  eflTects  than  his 
letters.!  A  peculiar  charm,  and  a  peculiar  power  of  moving 
men's  minds,  must  have  existed  in  the  tones  of  his  voice ;  to 
this  must  be  added  the  awe-inspiring  effect  of  his  whole 
appearance,  the  way  in  which  his  whole  being  and  the  motions 
of  his  bodily  frame  joined  in  testifying  of  that  which  seized 
and  inspired  him.  Thus  it  admits  of  being  explained  how,  in 
Germany,  even  those  who  understood  but  little  or  in  fact 
nothing  of  what  he  said,  could  be  so  moved  as  to  shed  tears 
and  smite  their  breasts  ;  could,  by  his  own  speeches  in  a  foreign 
language,  be  more  strongly  affected  and  agitated  than  by  the 
immediate  interpretation  of  his  words  by  another.  |  From  aU 
quarters  sick  persons  were  conveyed  to  him  by  the  friends 
who  sought  from  him  a  cure ;  and  the  power  of  his  faith,  the 
confidence  he  inspired  in  the  minds  of  men,  might  sometimes 
produce  remarkable  eflrects.§  With  this  enthusiasm,  however, 
Bernard  united  a  degree  of  prudence  and  a  discernment  of 
character  such  as  few  of  that  age  possessed,  and  such  qualities 
were  required  to  counteract  the  multiform  excitements  of  the 
wild  spirit  of  fanaticism  which  mixed  in  with  this  great  ferment 
of  minds.     Thus,  he  warned  the  Germans  not  to  suffer  them- 

*  Gerhoh  of  "Reichersberg  writes,  a  year  after  this :  Certatim  curritur 
ad  bellum  sanctum  cum  jubilantibus  tubis  argenteis,  Papa  Eugenio 
Tertio,  et  ejus  Nuntiis,  quorum  prsecipuus  est  Abbas  Clarevallensis, 
quorum  praidicationibus  coutouantibus  et  miraculis  nonnulUs  pariter  cc>- 
ruscantibus  terrae  motus  factus  est  magnus.  In  Ps.  xxxix.  ed.  Pez.  L.  c. 
f.  792. 

t  How  great  was  the  force  of  his  eloquence,  says  the  abbott  Gottfried, 
1.  c.  c.  4,  f.  1119 :  Nosse  poterunt  aliquatenus,  qui  ipsius  legerint  scripta, 
etsi  longe  minus  ab  eis,  qui  verba  ejus  saipius  audierunt.  Siquidem  dif- 
fusa erat  gratia  in  labiis  ejus  et  ijfnitum  eloquium  ejus  vehementer,  ut 
non  posset  ue  ipsius  quidem  stilus,  licet  eximius,  totam  illam  dulcedinem, 
totum  retinere  fervorem. 

X  Verborum  ejus  magis  sentire  virtutem,  says  the  biographer  named  in 
the  preceding  note. 

§  Of  which  we  shall  say  more  farther  on. 


berxard's  ixfluence  ox  the  mixds  of  mex.         213 

selves  to  be  misled  so  far  as  to  follow  certain  independent 
enthusiasts,  ignorant  of  war,  who  were  bent  on  moving  forward 
the  bodies  of  the  crusaders  prematurely.  He  held  up  as  a 
warning  the  example  of  Peter  the  Hermit,  and  declared  himself 
very  decidedly  opposed  to  the  proposition  of  an  abbot  who  was 
disposed  to  march  with  a  number  of  monks  to  Jerusalem ; 
"For,"  said  he,  "fighting  warriors  are  more  needed  there 
than  singing  monks."*  At  an  assembly  held  at  Chartres,  it 
was  proposed  that  he  himself  should  take  the  lead  of  the  expe- 
dition ;  but  he  rejected  the  proposition  at  once,  declaring  that 
it  was  beyond  his  power,  and  contrary  to  his  calling. |  Having, 
perhaps,  reason  to  fear  that  the  pope  might  be  hurried  on,  by 
the  shouts  of  the  many,  to  lay  upon  him  some  chaise  to  which 
he  did  not  feel  himself  called,  he  besought  the  pope  that  he 
would  not  make  him  a  victim  to  men's  arbitrary  will,  but  that 
he  would  inquire,  as  it  was  his  duty  to  do,  how  God  had  deter- 
mined to  dispose  of  him.J  We  have  already  narrated,  on  a 
former  page,  how  Bernard  succeeded  in  assuaging  the  popular 
fury  against  the  Jews. 

With  the  preaching  of  this  second  crusade,  as  with  the  invi- 
tation to  the  first,  was  connected  an  extraordinary  awakening. 
Many  who  had  hitherto  given  themselves  up  to  their  unre- 
strained passions  and  desires,  and  become  strangers  to  all 
higher  feelings,  were  seized  mth  compunction.  Bernard's  call 
to  repentance  penetrated  many  a  heart :  people  who  had  lived 
in  all  manner  of  crime,  were  seen  following  this  voice,  and 
flocking  together  in  troops  to  receive  the  badge  of  the  cross. 
Bishop  Otto  of  Freisingeu,  the  historian,  who  himself  took  the 
cross  at  that  time,  expresses  it  as  his  opinion,  "  That  every 
man  of  sound  understanding  would  be  forced  to  acknowledge 
so  sudden  and  uncommon  a  change  could  have  been  produced 
in  no  other  way  than  by  the  right  hand  of  the  Lord."§     The 


*  Plus  illic  milites  pugnantes,  quam  mouachos  cantantes  necessaries 
esse.     Ep.  359. 

+  Ep.  256,  to  pope  Eugene  the  Third :  Quis  sum  ego,  nt  disponam  cas- 
trorum  acies,  nt  egrediar  ante  facies  armatorum  ?  Aut  quid  tam  remo- 
tum  a  professione  mea,  etiam  si  vires  suppeterent,  etiam  si  peritia  non 
deesset. 

X  Ne  me  humanis  voluntatibus  exponatis,  sed,  sicut  singulariter  vobis 
incumbit,  divinum  consilium  perquiratis. 

§  De  gestis  Frederici  I.  c.  40 :  Tanta,  mirum  dictu,  prsedonum  et 


214        Bernard's  influence  on  the  minds  of  men. 

provost  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg,  who  wrote  in  the  midst  of 
these  movements,  was  persuaded  that  he  saw  here  a  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  designed  to  counteract  the  vices  and  cor- 
ruptions which  had  got  the  upper  hand  in  the  church.*  Many 
who  had  been  awakened  to  repentance,  confessed  what  they 
had  taken  from  others  by  robbery  or  fraud,  and  hastened, 
before  they  went  to  the  holy  war,  to  seek  reconciliation  with 
their  enemies.|  The  Christian  enthusiasm  of  the  German 
people  found  utterance  in  songs  in  the  German  tongue ;  and 
even  now  the  peculiar  adaptation  of  this  language  to  sacred 
poetry  began  to  be  remarked.  Indecent  songs  could  no  longer 
venture  to  appear  abroad  4 

While  some  were  awakened  by  Bernard's  preaching  from  a 
life  of  crime  to  repentance,  and  by  taking  part  in  the  holy  war 
strove  to  obtain  the  remission  of  their  sins  ;  others,  again,  who 
though  hitherto  borne  along  in  the  current  of  ordinary  worldly 
pursuits,  yet  had  not  given  themselves  up  to  vice,  were  filled 
by  Bernard's  words  with  loathing  of  the  worldly  life,  inflamed 
with  a  vehement  longing  after  a  higher  stage  of  Christian 
perfection,  after  a  life  of  entire  consecration  to  God.  They 
longed  rather  to  enter  upon  the  pilgrimage  to  the  heavenly, 
than  to  an  earthly  Jerusalem  ;  they  resolved  to  become  monks, 
and  would  fain  have  the  man  of  God  himself,  whose  words  had 
made  so  deep  an  impression  on  tlieir  hearts,  as  their  guide  in 


latronum  advolabat  multitudo,  ut  nullus  sani  capitis  hanc  tam  subitam, 
quam  insolitam  mutationem  ex  dextera  excelsi  pervenire  non  cogno- 
sceret. 

*  His  remarkable  words  are :  Post  ha;c  invalescente  multimoda  impie- 
tate  ac  multiplicatis  in  ecclesia  vel  mundo  fornicatoribus,  raptoribus, 
homicidis,  perjuris,  incendiariis  non  solum  in  skcuIo,  sed  itiam  in  domo 
Dei,  quam  fecerunt  speluncam  latronum,  ego  ecclesia  (personification  of 
the  church)  expectavi  Dominum  et  intendit  mihi  et  exaudivit  preces 
meas,  quia  ecce  dam  ha3C  scribimus,  contra  nequitias  et  impietates  mani- 
festum  spiritus  pietatis  opus  in  ecclesia  Dei  videmus.  In  Ps.  xxxix.  L.  c. 
f.  792. 

t  Multi  ex  iis  primitus  ablata  seu  fraudata  restituunt  et,  quod  majus 
est,  exemplo  Christi  suis  inimicis  osculum  pacis  offeruut,  injuries  ig- 
noscunt.     L.  c. 

+  Gerhoh 's  noticeable  words:  In  ore  Christo  militantium  Laicorum 
laus  Dei  crebrescit,  quia  non  est  in  toto  regno  Christiano,  qui  turpes 
cantilenas  cantare  in  publico  audeat,  sed  tota  terra  jubilat  in  Christi  lau- 
dibus,  etiam  per  cantilenas  linguaj  vulgaris,  maxime  in  Teutonicis,  quo- 
rum lingua  niagis  apta  est  conciunis  canticis.     L.  c.  f.  794. 


ISSUE  OF  THE  SECOND  CRUSADE.  215 

the  spiritual  life,  and  commit  themselves  to  his  directions,  in 
the  monastery  of  Clairvaux.  But  here  Bernard  showed  his 
prudence  and  knowledge  of  mankind  ;  he  did  not  aUow  all  to 
become  monks  who  wished  to  do  so.  Many  he  rejected 
because  he  perceived  they  were  not  fitted  for  the  quiet  of  the 
contemplative  life,  but  needed  to  be  disciplined  by  the  conflicts 
and  cares  of  a  life  of  action.* 

But  we  here  have  occasion  to  repeat  the  same  remark  which 
we  made  in  speaking  of  the  first  crusade.  As  contemporaries 
themselves  acknowledge,  these  first  impressions  in  the  case  of 
many  who  went  to  the  crusades,  were  of  no  permanent  duration, 
and  their  old  nature  broke  forth  again  the  more  strongly  under 
the  manifold  temptations  to  which  they  were  exposed,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  facility  with  which,  through  the  confidence  they 
reposed  in  a  plenary  indulgence,  without  really  laying  to  heart 
the  condition  upon  which  it  was  bestowed,  they  could  flatter 
themselves  with  security  in  their  sins.  Gerhoh  of  Reichersber^, 
in  describing  the  blessed  effects  of  that  awakening  which 
accompanied  the  preaching  of  the  crusader,  yet  says,  "We 
doubt  not  that  among  so  vast  a  multitude,  some  became  in  the 
true  sense  and  in  all  sincerity  soldiers  of  Christ.  Some, 
however,  were  led  to  embark  in  the  enterprise  by  various  other 
occasions,  concerning  whom  it  does  not  belong  to  us  to  judge, 
but  only  to  Him  who  alone  knows  the  hearts  of  those  who 
marched  to  the  contest  either  in  the  right  or  not  in  the  right 
spirit.  Yet  this  we  do  confidently  affirm,  that  to  this  crusade 
many  were  called,  but  few  were  chosen." f     And  it  was  said 

*  The  monk  Cesarius,  of  the  monastery  of  Heisterbach,  near  Cologne, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  relates  this  in  his  dialogues, 
which,  amidst  much  that  is  fabulous,  contains  a  rich  store  of  facts 
relating  to  the  history  of  Christian  life  in  this  period,  I.  c.  vi.  for  instance, 
concerning  the  effects  of  the  preaching  of  the  crusades  in  Liege.  When 
Bernard  preached  a  crusading  sermon  at  Costnitz,  his  words  made  such 
an  impression  on  Henry,  a  very  wealthy  and  powerful  knight,  the  owner 
of  several  castles,  that  he  wished  to  become  a  monk,  and  he  was  encou- 
raged in  this  by  Bernard.  He  at  once  became  the  latter's  companion, 
and,  as  he  understood  both  the  French  and  the  German  languages,  acted 
as  his  interpreter.  But  when  one  of  the  soldiers  in  the  service  of  the 
said  knight  proposed  also  to  become  a  monk,  Bernard  declined  to  receive 
him,  and  exhorted  him  rather  to  take  part  in  the  crusade.     L.  c 

t  Et  quidem  non  dubitamus  in  tauta  multitudine  quosdam  vere  a-* 
sincere  Christo  militare,  quosdam  vero  per  occasiones  varias,  quos  diju- 
dicare  non  est  nostrum,  sed  ipsios,  qui  eoIos  noiit  corda  hominum  sive 


216  ISSUE  OF  THE  SECOND  CRUSADE. 

that  many  returned  from  this  expedition  not  better  but  worse 
than  they  went.*  Therefore  the  monk  Cesarius  of  Heisterbach, 
who  states  this,  adds  :  "  All  depends  on  bearing  the  yoke  of 
Christ  not  one  year  or  two  years,  but  daily, — if  a  man  is  really 
ntent  on  doing  it  in  truth,  and  in  that  sense  in  which  our  Lord 
requires  it  to  be  done,  and  as  it  must  be  done,  in  order  to 
follow  him." 

When  it  turned  out,  however,  that  the  event  did  not  answer 
the  expectations  excited  by  Bernard's  enthusiastic  confidence, 
but  the  crusade  came  to  that  unfortunate  issue  which  was 
brought  about  especially  by  the  treachery  of  the  princes  and 
nobles  of  the  Christian  kingdom  in  Syria,  this  was  a  source  of 
great  chagrin  to  Bernard,  who  had  been  so  active  in  setting  it 
in  motion,  and  who  had  inspired  such  confident  hopes  by  his 
promises.  He  appeared  now  in  the  light  of  a  bad  prophet,  and 
he  was  reproached  by  many  with  having  incited  men  to  engage 
in  an  enterprise  which  had  cost  so  much  blood  to  no  purpose  ;f 
but  Bernard's  friends  alleged,  in  his  defence,  that  he  had  not 
excited  such  a  popular  movement  single-handed,  but  as  the 
organ  of  the  pope,  in  whose  name  he  acted  ;  and  they  appealed 
to  the  facts  by  which  his  preaching  of  the  cross  was  proved  to 
be  a  work  of  God, — to  the  wonders  which  attended  it.  J  Or 
they  ascribed  the  failure  of  the  undertaking  to  the  bad  conduct 
of  the  crusaders  themselves,  to  the  unchristian  mode  of  life 
which  many  of  them  led,  as  one  of  these  friends  maintained,  in 
a  consoling  letter  to  Bernard  himself, §  adding,  "God,  however, 
has  turned  it  into  good.     Numbers  who,  if  they  had  returned 


recte  sive  non  recte  militantium.  Hoc  tamen  constanter  affirmamus.  quod 
multi  ad  hauc  militiam  vocati,  pauci  vero  electi  sunt.     L.  c.  f.  793. 

*  Multi  post  peregrinationes  deteriores  fiunt  et  pristinis  vitiis  amplius 
se  involvunt.     Cesar.  Heisterb.  I.  c.  6. 

f  Gottfried,  in  his  life  of  Bernard,  says  (c.  4) :  Nee  tacendum,  quod  ex 
praedicatione  itineris  Hierosolymitani  grave  contra  eum  quorundam  ho- 
minum  vel  simplicitas  vel  malignitas  scandalum  sumsit,  cum  tristior 
sequeretur  effectus. 

X  Evidenter  enim  verbum  hoc  pncdicavit.  Domino  cooperante  et  ser- 
monem  confirmante  sequentibus  signis  ;  so  says  the  biographer  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  note. 

§  See  ep.  386.  The  abbot,  who  was  the  writer  of  this  letter,  relates 
that  many  who  had  returned  from  Palestine  stated,  quod  vidissent  multos 
ibi  morientes,  qui  libenter  se  mori  dicebant  neque  velle  reverti,  ne  am- 
plius in  peccatis  reciderent. 


j 


Eugene's  return  to  rome.  217 

home,  would  have  continued  to  live  a  life  of  crime,  disciplined 
and  purified  by  many  suffering's,  have  passed  into  the  life 
eternal."  But  Bernard  himself  could  not  be  staggered  in 
his  faith  by  this  event.  In  writing  to  pope  Eugene  on  this 
subject,*  he  refers  to  the  incomprehensibleness  of  the  divine 
ways  and  judgments  ;  to  the  example  of  Moses,  who,  although 
his  work  carried  on  its  face  incontestable  evidence  of  being  a 
work  of  God,  yet  was  not  permitted  himself  to  conduct  the 
Jews  into  the  promised  land.  As  this  was  owing  to  the  fault 
of  the  Jews  themselves,  so  too  the  crusaders  had  none  to  blame 
but  themselves  for  the  failure  of  the  divine  work  ;f  "But," 
says  he,  "  it  ^vill  be  said,  perhaps,  How  do  we  know  that  this 
Mork  came  from  the  Lord  ?  What  miracle  dost  thou  work  that 
we  should  believe  thee?  To  this  question  I  need  not  give  an 
answer ;  it  is  a  point  on  which  my  modesty  asks  to  be  excused 
from  speaking.  Do  you  answer,"  says  he  to  the  pope,  "for 
me  and  for  yourself,  according  to  that  which  you  have  seen 
and  heard  ;"  so  firmly  was  Bernard  convinced  that  God  had 
sustained  his  labours  by  miracles. 

Eugene  was  at  length  enabled,  in  the  year  1149,  after 
having  for  a  long  time  excited  against  himself  the  indignation 
of  the  cardinals  by  his  dependence  on  the  French  abbot,  with 
the  assistance  of  Roger  king  of  the  Sicilies,  to  return  to  Rome  ; 
where,  however,  he  still  had  to  maintain  a  struggle  with  the 
party  of  Arnold.  The  provost  Gerhoh  finds  something  to 
complain  of,  in  the  fact  that  the  church  of  St.  Peter  wore  so 
warlike  an  aspect  that  men  beheld  the  tomb  of  the  apostle 
surrounded  with  bastions  and  the  implements  of  war!  § 

As  Bernard  was  no  longer  sufficiently  near  the  pope  to  exert 
on  him  the  same  immediate  personal  influence  as  in  tunes  past, 
he  addressed  to  him  a  voice  of  admonition  and  warning,  such 

*  CoDsiderat.  L.  II.  in  the  beginning. 

t  Quod  si  illi  (Judaei)  ceciderunt  et  perierunt  propter  iniquitatem 
suam,  miramur  istos  eadem  facientes  eadem  passos? 

X  Responde  tu  pro  me  et  pro  te  ipso,  secundum  ea  quae  audisti  et 
vidisti. 

§  Non  immerito  dolemus,  quod  adhuc  in  domo  b.  Petri  desolationis 
abominationem  stare  videmus,  positis  etiam  propugnacuiis  et  aliis  bello- 
rum  instrumentis  in  altitudiue  sauctuarii  supra  corpus  b.  Petri.  Quod 
licet  non  audeamusjudicare  malum  esse  tamen  sine  dubio  judicamus  esse 
a  malo,  eorum  videlicet,  qui  suae  rebellionis  malitia  coarunt  fieri  talia.  In 
Ps.  Ixiv.  f.  1181. 


218  BERNARDS  VIEWS  OF  THE  POPE's  SITUATION. 

as  the  mighty  of  the  earth  seldom  enjoy  the  privilege  of  hearing. 
With  the  frankness  of  a  love,  which,  as  he  himself  expresses  it, 
knew  not  the  master,  but  recognized  the  son,  even  under  the 
pontifical  robes,*  he  set  before  him,  in  his  four  books  f  "  On 
Meditation  "  (De  Consideratione),  which  he  sent  to  him  singly 
at  different  times,  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  the  faults 
against  which,  in  order  to  fulfil  these  duties,  he  needed  espe- 
cially to  guard.  Bernard  was  penetrated  with  a  conviction 
that  to  the  pope,  as  St.  Peter's  successor,  was  committed  by 
God  a  sovereign  power  of  church-government  over  all,  and 
responsible  to  no  other  tribunal ;  that  to  this  church  theocracy, 
guided  by  the  pope,  the  administration  even  of  the  secular 
power,  though  independent  within  its  own  peculiar  sphere, 
should  be  subjected,  for  the  service  of  the  kingdom  of  God ; 
but  he  also  perceived,  with  the  deepest  pain,  how  very  far 
the  papacy  was  from  corresponding  to  this  its  idea  and  destina- 
tion ;  what  prodigious  corruption  had  sprung  and  continued  to 
spring  from  the  abuse  of  papal  authority ;  he  perceived  already, 
with  prophetic  eye,  that  this  very  abuse  of  arbitrary  will 
must  eventually  bring  about  the  destruction  of  this  power.  He 
desired  that  the  pope  should  disentangle  himself  from  the 
secular  part  of  his  office,  and  reduce  that  office  within  the 
purely  spiritual  domain ;  and  that,  above  all,  he  should  learn  to 
govern  and  restrict  himself.  "  From  neither  poison  nor  sword," 
wrote  he  to  him,  "  do  I  so  much  dread  danger  to  thee,  as  from 
the  love  of  rule."|  He  reminded  him  of  the  shameful,  spirit- 
depressing  slavery  which  he  endured  from  all  quarters  under 
the  show  of  rule, — he  must  be  servant,  not  of  an  individual, 
but  of  all.  Nor  could  he  rightly  appeal  to  that  saying  of  the 
apostle  Paul,  that  he  made  himself  the  servant  of  all  men, 
while  the  ambitious,  the  seekers  of  gain,  the  practisers  of 
simony,  the  incontinent,  and  such  like  monsters,  from  the 
whole  world,  flocked  to  the  pope,  seeking  to  acquire  or 
to  preserve,  by  his  apostolical  authority,  the  places  of  honour 
in  the  church.  That  apostle,  to  whom  to  live  was  Christ,  and 
to  die  was  gain,  made  himself  a  servant  to  men,  in  order  that 

•  His  words  in  the  prologue  to  the  work :  De  consideratione :  Amor 

Dominum  nescit,  agnoscit  filium  et  in  infulis. 

t  Of  the  fifth,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  hereafter, 

I  Nullum  tibi  venenum,  nullum  gladium  plus  formido,  quam  libidi- 

ucm  domiuandi.    Lib.  III.  c.  I. 


Bernard's  admonitions  to  eugene  the  third.      219 

iie  might  win  more  souls  to  Christ,  not  in  order  to  increase  the 
emoluments  of  cupidity.  Much  rather  should  he  ponder  that 
saying  of  the  same  apostle :  Ye  are  bought  with  a  price,  be 
not  the  servants  of  men.  "  What  is  more  a  ser\-itude,  what  is 
more  unworthy  a  pope,  than  that  thou  shouldst  busy  thyself 
almost  every  hour  with  such  things  and  for  the  advantage  of 
such  men  ?  Finally,  when  is  there  time  for  prayer,  to  instruct 
the  congregation,  to  edify  the  church,  to  meditate  on  the 
di\'ine  law  ?  And  yet  we  must  admit  that  the  laws  do  daily 
make  themselves  to  be  heard  in  the  papal  palace ;  but  what 
laws  ?  the  laws  of  Justinian,  not  those  of  the  Lord."  Gladly 
would  he  in\'ite  him,  according  to  2  Timothy  ii.  4,  to  put  fer 
from  him  all  these  secular  affairs,  so  alien  from  his  spiritual 
office,  but  he  is  very  sensible  that  the  times  were  not  capable 
of  receiving  such  truths.  "  Believest  thou  that  these  times 
would  bear  it,  if  thou  shouldst  repel  those  people  who  are  con- 
tending about  an  earthly  inheritance,  and  seek  a  decision  from 
thee,  with  the  words  of  thy  Master :  Man,  who  has  made  me 
a  judge  over  you  ?  How  instantly  would  they  accuse  thee  of 
dishonouring  thy  primacy,  and  surrendering  somewhat  of  the 
apostolical  dignity  ;  and  yet  it  is  my  opinion,  that  those  who 
so  speak  cannot  mention  the  place  where  any  one  of  the 
apostles  ever  held  a  trial,  decided  disputes  about  boundaries, 
or  portioned  out  lands.  I  read,  indeed,  that  the  apostles  stood 
before  judgment-seats,  but  not  that  they  sat  upon  them." 
This,  he  said,  was  not  belittling  the  papal  dignity  or  authority ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  held  it  to  be  so  exalted  as  to  be  able  to 
dispense  with  managing  such  worldly  aflSdrs.  "  Your  authority 
has  reference  to  sins,  not  to  earthly  possessions.  On  account 
of  the  former,  not  the  latter,  have  you  received  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  with  power  to  exclude  men  from  it  on 
account  of  their  sins,  not  on  account  of  their  possessions. 
These  earthly  things  have  also  their  judges,  the  kings  and 
princes  of  the  world.  "Why  intrude  into  another's  province  ?"* 
He  laments  that  the  pope's  appearance,  mode  of  living,  and 
occupations,  so  little  comported  with  the  office  of  spiritual 
shepherd.    He  laments  the  arrogance  and  superior  airs  affected 

*  Habent  hsec  infima  et  terrena  judices  suos,  reges  et  principes  terrae. 
Quid  fines  alieuos  invaditis  ?  Quid  falcem  vestram  in  alienam  messem 
extenditis? 


220       Bernard's  admonitions  to  eugene  the  third. 

by  his  attendants.*  He  labours  to  impress  him,  above  all, 
with  the  duty  of  exercising  his  spiritual  office  as  amongst  that 
intractable,  corrupt  people,  the  Romans,  who  stood  in  especial 
need  of  it ;  at  least  to  make  the  experiment,  whether  something 
could  not  be  done  for  their  conversion,  and  these  wolves  turned 
into  lambs.  "  Here,"  said  he,  "  I  do  not  spare  thee,  in  order 
that  God  may  spare  thee.  Deny  that  thou  art  the  pastor,  the 
shepherd  of  this  people,  or  prove  thyself  to  be  such.  Thou 
wilt  not  deny  it,  lest  he  whose  episcopal  seat  thou  possessest, 
deny  thee  as  his  heir.  It  is  that  Peter,  of  whom  it  is  not 
known  that  he  was  ever  loaded  with  precious  stones  or  silks, 
conveyed  about  covered  with  gold  on  a  white  horse,  surrounded 
by  soldiers  and  bustling  servants.  In  these  things  thou  hast 
not  followed  Peter,  but  Constantino."  He  advises  him,  if  he 
must  endure  such  marks  of  honour  for  a  short  time,  yet  to  put 
in  no  claim  to  them,  but  rather  seek  to  fulfil  the  duties 
belonging  to  his  vocation.  "  Though  thou  walkest  abroad 
clad  in  purple  and  gold,  yet  as  thou  art  heir  of  the  shepherd, 
shrink  not  from  the  shepherd's  toils  and  cares  ;  thou  hast  no 
reason  to  be  ashamed  of  the  gospel."  Not  the  earthly  sword, 
but  the  sword  of  the  word  should  be  used  by  him  against  the 
unruly  Romans.  "  Why  dost  thou  again  unsheath  the  sword 
which  the  Lord  has  bid  thee  put  up  in  its  sheath  ?  True,  it  is 
evident  from  this  command,  that  it  is  thi/  sword  still ;  but  one 
which  is  to  be  drawn  at  thy  bidding  only,  not  by  thy  hand. 
Else,  when  Peter  said.  Here  are  two  swords,  our  Lord  would 
not  have  answered.  It  is  enough :  but  there  are  too  many ; 
therefore  both  swords,  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal,  are 
to  serve  the  church  ;  but  the  first  is  for  the  church ;  the 
second  also,  from  the  church  :  the  first  is  wielded  by  the  hand 
of  the  priest ;  the  second,  in  the  hand  of  the  soldier,  at  the 
beck  of  the  pope,  by  the  command  of  the  emperor."  It  was 
then  Bernard's  idea  that,  although  the  pope  busies  himself 
directly  only  with  spiritual  matters,  yet  he  should  exercise  a 
sort  of  superintendence  also  over  the  administration  of  the 
secular  authority. 

But  while  he  recognizes  the  church  government  of  the  pope 
as  one  to  which  all  others,  without  exception,  are  subjected, 

*  Ita  omne  humile  probro  ducitur  inter  Palatines,  ut  facilius  qvu  esse, 
quam  qui  apparere  humilis  velit,  invenias. 


BERNARD'S  FOUR  BOOKS,  DE  COSSIDERATIOXE.  221 

he  advises  that  he  should  restrict  himself;  that  he  should 
respect  the  other  authorities  existing  in  the  church,  and 
not  usurp  the  whole  to  him.«elf.  He  presents  before  him  the 
great  evil  which  must  necessarily  result  from  multiplied  and 
arbitrary  exemptions  ;  the  murmurings  and  complaints  of  the 
churches,  which  sighed  over  their  mutilations ;  hence  so  much 
squandering  of  church  property,  destruction  of  church  order, 
and  so  many  schisms.  If  his  authority  was  the  highest 
ordained  of  God,  yet  he  should  not  for  that  reason  suppose  it 
the  only  one  ordained  of  God.  The  text,  Rom.  xiii.  1, 
which  was  often  misinterpreted  and  abused  by  the  defenders  of 
absolute  arbitrarj'  will,  Bernard  turns  against  them.  '•  Though 
the  passage,  '  Whosoever  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the 
ordinance  of  God,'  serves  thy  purpose  especially,  yet  it  does 
not  serve  it  exclusively.  The  same  apostle  says :  '  Let  every 
soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers ;'  he  speaks  not  of  one, 
but  of  several.  It  is  not  thy  authority  alone,  therefore,  that  is 
from  the  Lord,  but  this  is  true  also  of  the  intermediate,  of  the 
lower  powers.  And,  since  what  God  has  put  together,  man 
should  not  put  asunder ;  so  neither  should  man  level  down 
what  God  has  put  in  a  relation  of  supra-ordination  and 
subordination.  Thou  produces!  a  monster,  if  thou  disseverest 
the  finger  from  the  hand,  and  makest  it  hang  directly  from  the 
head.  So  is  it,  too,  if  thou  arrangest  the  members  in  the  body 
of  Christ  in  a  different  order  from  that  in  which  he  himself 
has  placed  them."  He  refers  to  the  order  instituted  by  Christ 
himself,  1  Corinth,  xii.  28 ;  Ephes.  iv.  16.  He  refers  to  the 
system  of  appeals,  so  ruinous  to  the  condition  of  the  church,  as 
an  example  suited  to  show  the  direct  tendency  of  the  abuse  of 
the  papal  authority  to  bring  it  into  contempt,  and  also  that  the 
pope  would  take  the  best  and  surest  means  of  meeting  the 
latter  evil  by  checking  the  former.*  He  warns  the  pope,  by 
pointing  him  to  Grod's  judgments  in  history :  "  Once  make  the 
trial  of  uniting  both  together ;  try  to  be  ruler  and  at  the  same 
time  successor  of  the  apostle,  or  to  be  the  apostle's  successor 

*  Lib.  III.  cap.  ii.  s.  12.  Videris  tu,  quid  sibi  Tclit,  quod  zelos  vester 
assidue  paene  viudicat  ilium  (comemptum),  istam  (usurpationem)  dissi- 
mulat.  Vis  perfectius  coercere  contemptum  ?  Cura  in  ipso  utero  pessi- 
mal matris  praefocari  germen  nequam,  quod  ita  fiet,  si  usurpatio  digna 
animadversione  mulctetur.  Tolle  usurpationem.  et  contemptus  excosa- 
tionem  non  habet. 


222  Bernard's  four  books,  de  consideratioxe. 

and  at  the  same  time  ruler.  You  must  let  go  of  one  or  the 
other.  If  you  attempt  to  secure  both  at  once,  you  will  lose 
both."  He  commends  to  his  consideration  the  threatening  lan- 
guage of  the  prophet,  Hosea  viii.  4.* 

But  to  the  close  of  his  life,  in  the  year  1153,  pope  Eugene 
had  to  contend  with  the  turbulent  spirit  of  the  Romans  and  the 
influences  of  the  principles  disseminated  by  Arnold ;  and  this 
contest  was  prolonged  into  the  reign  of  his  second  successor, 
Adrian  the  fourth.  Among  the  people  and  among  the  nobles, 
a  considerable  party  had  arisen,  who  would  concede  to  the  pope 
no  kind  of  secular  dominion.  And  there  seems  to  have  been 
a  shade  of  difference  among  the  members  of  this  party.  A  mob 
of  the  people!  is  said  to  have  gone  to  such  an  extreme  of 
arrogance  as  to  propose  the  choosing  of  a  new  emperor  from 
amongst  the  Romans  themselves,  the  restoration  of  a  Roman 
empire  independent  of  the  pope.  The  other  party,  to  which 
belonged  the  nobles,  were  for  placing  the  emperor  Frederic 
the  First  at  the  head  of  the  Roman  republic,  and  uniting 
themselves  with  him  in  a  common  interest  against  the  pope. 
They  invited  himj  to  receive  the  imperial  crown,  in  the  ancient 
manner,  from  the  "  Senate  and  Roman  people,"  and  not  from 
the  heretical  and  recreant  clergy,  and  the  false  monks,  who 
acted  in  contradiction  to  their  calling,  exercising  lordship 
despite  of  the  evangelical  and  apostolical  doctrine ;  and  in 
contempt  of  all  laws,  divine  and  human,  brought  the  church  of 
God  and  the  kingdom  of  the  world  into  confusion.  Those  who 
pretend  that  they  are  the  representatives  of  Peter,  it  was  said, 
in  a  letter  addressed  in  the  spirit  of  this  party  to  the  emperor 
Frederic  the  First,  "  act  in  contradiction  to  the  doctrines 
which  that  apostle  teaches  in  bis  epistles.  How  can  they  say 
with  the  apostle  Peter,  '  Lo,  we  have  left  all  and  followed 
thee,'  and,  'Silver  and  gold  have  I  none?'     How  can  our 

*  Lib.  II.  c.  vi.  s.  11.  I  ergo  tu  et  tibi  usurpare  aude  aut  dominans 
apostolatum  aut  apostolicus  domiuatum.  Plane  ab  alterutro  prohiberis. 
Si  utrumque  simul  habere  voles,  perdes  utrumque.  Alioquin  non  te 
exceptum  illoruin  numero  putes,  de  quibus  queritur  Deus.     Osea  viii.  4. 

t  Rusticaua  quicdam  turba  absque  nobilium  et  majorum  scientia.  as 
pope  Eugenius  himself  writes.  Martene  et  Duraud,  CoUectio  amplis- 
sima,  T.  II.  f.  554. 

X  See  the  letter  written  in  the  name  of  this  party,  and  expressing  its 
views,  by  a  certain  Wezel,  to  the  emperor  Frederic  the  First,  in  the,  year 
1152,  in  the  collection  mentioned  in  the  note  preceding,  T.  II.  f.  554. 


DESTKUCTIOX  OF  THE  ARNOLD  PARTY.  223 

Lord  say  to  such,  '  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world,'  *  the  salt  of 
the  earth  ? '  Much  rather  is  to  be  applied  to  them  what  our 
Lord  says  of  the  salt  that  has  lost  its  savour.  Eager  after 
earthly  riches,  they  spoil  the  true  riches,  from  which  the 
salvation  of  the  world  has  proceeded.  How  can  the  saying  be 
applied  to  the.ii,  '  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit ;'  for  they  are 
neither  poor  in  spirit  nor  in  feet  ?  " 

Pope  Adrian  the  Fourth  was  first  enabled,  under  more 
favourable  circumstances,  and  assisted  by  the  emperor  Frederic 
the  First,*  to  deprive  the  Arnold  party  of  its  leader,  and  then 
to  suppress  it  entirely.  It  so  happened  that,  in  the  first  year  of 
Adrian's  reign,  1155,  a  cardinal,  on  his  way  to  visit  the  pope, 
was  attacked  and  wounded  by  followers  of  Arnold.  This 
induced  the  pope  to  put  aU  Rome  under  the  interdict,  T^-ith 
a  view  to  force  the  expulsion  of  Arnold  and  his  party.  This 
means  did  not  fail  of  its  effect.  The  people,  who  could  not 
bear  the  suspension  of  divine  worship,  now  themselves  com- 
pelled the  nobles  to  bring  about  the  ejection  of  Arnold  and  his 
friends.  Arnold,  on  leaving  Rome,  found  protection  from 
Italian  nobles.  By  the  order,  however,  of  the  emperor  Fre- 
deric, who  had  come  into  Italy,  he  was  torn  from  his  protectors, 
and  surrendered  up  to  the  papal  authority.  The  prefect  of 
Rome  then  took  possession  of  lus  person,  and  caused  him  to  be 
hung.  His  body  was  burned,  and  its  ashes  thrown'  into  the 
Tiber,  lest  his  bones  might  be  preserved  as  the  relics  of  a 
martyr  by  the  Romans,  who  were  enthusiastically  devoted  to 
him.j  Worthy  men,  who  were  in  other  respects  zealous 
defend^rg  of  the  church  orthodoxy  and  of  the  hierarchy,  as,  for 
example,  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg,  expressed  their  disappro- 
bation, first,  that  Arnold  should  be  punished  with  death  on 
account  of  the  errors  which  he  disseminated ;  secondly,  that  the 
sentence  of  death  should  proceed  from  a  ^iritucd  tribunal,  or 


*  Pope  Eugene  had  taken  advantage  of  the  above-mentioned  plan  of 
one  portion  of  Arnold's  party  to  represent  that  party  to  the  emperor  as 
detrimental  even  to  the  imperial  interests.  The  words  of  Eugene,  in 
the  letter  already  mentioned  in  a  preceding  note  addressed  to  the  em- 
peror's envoy,  the  abbot  Wibald,  are :  Quod  quia  contra  coronam  regni 
et  carissimi  filii  nostri,  Friderici  Romanorum  regis,  honorem  attentare 
praesumunt,  eidem  volumus  per  te  secretins  nrmtiari. 

t  See  Acta  Vaticana,  in  Baronius,  annal.  ad  a.  1155,  No.  I.  et  IV^  and 
Otto  of  Freisingen  de  gestis,  f.  1,  *  ii.  c  xx. 


224  GERHOH  ON  Arnold's  death. 

that  such  a  tribunal  should  at  least  have  subjected  itself  to  that 
bad  appearance.  But  on  the  part  of  the  Roman  court  it  was 
alleged,  in  defence  of  this  proceeding,  that  "  it  was  done  without 
the  knowledge  and  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  Eoman  curia." 
*'  The  prefect  of  Rome  had  forcibly  removed  Arnold  from  the 
prison  where  he  was  kept,  and  his  servants  had  put  him  to  death 
in  revenge  for  injuries  they  had  suffered  from  Arnold's  party. 
Arnold,  therefore,  was  executed,  not  on  account  of  his  doc-> 
trines,  but  in  consequence  of  tumults  excited  by  himself."  It 
may  be  a  question  whether  this  was  said  with  sincerity,  or 
whether,  according  to  the  proverb,  a  confession  of  guilt  is  not 
implied  in  the  excuse.  But  Gerhoh  was  of  the  opinion  that 
in  this  case  they  should  at  least  have  done  as  David  did,  in  the 
case  of  Abner's  death  (2  Sam.  iii.),  and,  by  allowing  Arnold 
to  be  buried,  and  his  death  to  be  mourned  over,  instead  of  caus- 
ing his  body  to  be  burned,  and  the  remains  thrown  into  the 
Tiber,  washed  their  hands  of  the  whole  transaction.* 

But  the  idea  for  which  Arnold  had  contended,  and  for  which 
he  died,  continued  to  work  in  various  forms,  even  after  his 
death, — the  idea  of  a  purification  of  the  church  from  the 
foreign  worldly  elements  with  which  it  had  become  vitiated,  of 
its  restoration  to  its  original  spiritual  character.  Even  the 
person  who  had  given  over  Arnold  to  the  power  of  his  enemies, 
must  afterwards  attach  himself — though  induced  by  motives  of 

*  Gerhoh's  noticeable  words  concerning  Arnold  :  Quem  ego  vellem 
pro  tali  doctrina  sua,  quamvis  prava,  vel  exilio  vel  carcere  aut  alia  pcena 
prajter  mortem  punitum  esse  vel  saltern  taliter  occisum,  ut  Komana 
ecclesia  sen  curia  ejus  necis  qucestione  careret.  Nam,  sicut  ajunt,  absque 
ipsorum  scientia  et  consensu  a  praifecto  urbis  Romse  de  sub  eorum  cus- 
todia,  in  qua  tenebatur,  ereptus  ac  pro  speciali  causa  occisus  ab  ejus 
servis  est ;  maximam  siquidem  cladem  ex  occasione  ejusdem  doctrina) 
(in  -which,  therefore,  it  seems  to  be  implied,  that  Arnold's  principles  had 
only  given  occasion  to  the  tumult,  not  that  he  himself  had  created  it), 
idem  prfefectus  a  Romanis  civibus  perpessus  fuerat ;  quare  non  saltern 
ab  occisi  crematione  ac  submersione  ejus  occisores  metuerunt?  Quatenus 
a  domo  sacerdotali  sanguinis  quasstio  reniota  esset,  sicut  David  quondam 
honestas  Abner  exequias  providit  atque  ante  ipsas  flevit,  ut  sanguinem 
fraudulenter  eifusum  a  domo  ac  throno  suo  removeret.  Sed  de  his  ipsi 
viderint.  Nihil  enim  super  his  nostra  interest,  nisi  cupere  matri  nostrse, 
sancta)  Romans  ecclesiae  id  quod  bonum  jtistum  et  honestum  est.  It 
■was  important  for  him  to  make  this  declaration  :  ne  videatur  neci  ejus 
perperam  actae  assensum  prabere.  See  Gretsers  Werke,  T.  XII.  in  the 
prolegomena  to  the  writings  against  the  Waldenses,  f.  12. 


MABCH  OF  FREDERIC  THE  FIRST  TO  ITALY.  225 

a  different  kind,  by  the  interests  of  politics — to  a  tendency  of 
this  sort.  With  this  emperor  begins  a  new  epoch  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  papacy, — the  hundred  years  controversy  of  the 
popes  with  the  emperors  of  the  Hohenstaufen  fiimily.  It  was 
not,  as  formerly,  the  contests  of  the  pope  with  princes  who 
stood  singly  opposed  to  him,  and  acted  rather  by  momentary 
interests  than  according  to  a  fixed  plan  ;  but  a  contest,  which 
was  perseveringly  maintained  by  three  princes,  follo^ving  one 
after  the  other  in  immediate  succession,  with  all  the  power, 
energy,  and  craft  of  a  consistent  plan, —  which,  after  every  mo- 
mentary pause  occasioned  by  particular  circumstances,  was 
resumed  with  the  same  vigour  as  before.  Here  it  was  to  be 
decided  whether  the  papacy  could  be  overturned  by  any  force 
from  without,  or  must  only  come  forth  triumphant  out  of  such 
a  conflict. 

"When  Frederic  came  into  Italy  for  the  first  time,  and  Rome 
was  already  filled  with  alarm,  the  issue  showed  that  these  fears 
were  groundless.  The  emperor  sought  to  maintain  a  good  un- 
derstanding with  the  pope,— whether  it  was  that  he  had  it  in 
view  to  establish  his  power  on  a  firm  footing  in  Italy,  before 
he  embarked  in  this  dangerous  contest,  or  that  he  was  disposed 
to  try  whether  he  might  not  obtain  the  pope's  co-operation  in 
accomplishing  his  objects.*  If  the  latter  was  his  plan,  he  must 
at  least  have  soon  convinced  himself  that  this  thing  was  impos- 
sible. The  churchly  theocratical  system  could  tolerate  no  power 
beside  itself;  but  it  required  of  every  other  unconditional  sub- 
jection. Its  unyielding  pretensions  Frederic  soon  came  to  find 
out,  in  disputing  the  question  whether  he  was  bound  to  hold 
the  stirrup  for  the  pope,f  and  in  beholding  those  pictures  and 

*  The  remarkable  words  of  John  of  Salisbury,  who  to  be  sure  was 
very  hostilely  disposed  towards  the  imperial  interest,  are  (ep.  59):  Scio 
quid  Teutonicos  moliatur.  Eram  enim  Romae  praesidente  b.  Eugenio, 
quando  prima  legatione  missa  in  regni  sui  initio,  tanti  ausi  impudentiam, 
tamor  intolerabilis,  lingua  incauta  detexit  Promittebat  enim,  se  totius 
orbis  reformaturum  imperium,  urbi  subjiciendum  orbem,  eventuque 
facili  omnia  subactnrum,  si  ei  ad  hoc  solius  Romani  pontificis  favor 
adesset.  Id  enim  agebat,  ut  in  qnemcunque  demutatis  inimicitiis  mate- 
rialem  gladium  imperator,  in  eundem  Bomanus  pontifex  spiritualem 
gladium  exereret  Therefore,  the  idea  of  universal  politico-spiritual 
monarchy. 

+  The  fabulous  story  was  handed  round  that  the  emperor  Constantine 
had  done  this  act  of  homage  to  pope  Silvester,  and  good  use  was  made 
of  it  in  an  uncritical  age.     We  take  this  from  Gerhoh's  words,  in  his 

VOL.  VII.  Q 


226  Adrian's  letter  to  frederic. 

inscriptions  iu  the  papal  palaces,  which  represented  the  pope  as 
liege-lord  of  the  empire.* 

The  resolution  was  now  matured  in  the  emperor's  mind  that 
he  would  take  advantage  of  the  first  opportunity  to  resist  these 
papal  pretensions.  Such  an  opportunity  was  soon  furnished, 
perhaps  undesignedly,  by  the  pope  himself,  A  bishop  of  Lund, 
in  Sweden,  when  returning  from  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  was 
robbed  and  taken  captive  by  certain  German  knights.  The 
pope  complained  to  the  emperor  in  a  letter,  of  the  year  1157, 
that  he  had  let  this  offence  go  unpunished,  and  had  not  taken 
the  side  of  the  bishop.  He  reminded  him  of  the  gratitude 
which  he  owed  to  the  papal  chair,  of  the  services  which  that 
chair  had  rendered  him  during  his  stay  at  Rome,  and  men- 
tioned, among  other  particulars,  the  bestowment  of  the  im- 
perial crown,  as  if  this  depended  on  the  pope's  determination.! 
Still,  he  added,  the  pope  would  not  have  regretted  it,  had  he 
received,  if  that  were  possible,  still  greater  benefits  from  him.  J 

Syntagma  de  statu  ecclesiiE,  c.  xxiv.  Gretser,  T.  VI.  fol.  258 :  Cui  ad 
honoris  cumulum  et  ipse  Constantinus  tenens  frenum  per  civitatem  stra- 
toris  officium  exhibuit.  In  another  place,  Gerhoh  extols  this  triumph 
of  the  hierarchy  in  the  following  noticeable  words:  Regnis  idololatris, 
schismaticis  atque  indisciplinatis  usque  ad  sui  fastus  defectum  curvatis 
amplius  glorificanda  et  coronanda  erat  sacerdotalis  dignitas,  ita  ut  stra- 
toris  quoque  officium  pontifici  Romano  a  regibus  et  imperatoribns  exhi- 
bendum  sit.  In  him  we  have  a  strikingly  characteristic  representative 
of  the  spirit  of  this  party,  when  intoxicated  by  his  enthusiasm  for  the 
universally  triumphant  priesthood  he  sees  in  the  future  a  goal  to  be 
reached,  where  small  princes  of  inferior  name  should  arise  in  place  of 
the  imperial  dignity ;  princes  who  could  undertake  nothing  in  opposition 
to  the  church.  Haec  nimirum  spectacula  (says  he,  after  the  passage  just 
cited),  nunc  regibus  partim  ablatis,  partim  diminuto  eorum  regno  humi- 
litatis,  et  exaltato  sacerdotio  delectant  spectatorem  benevolum,  torquent 
invidum,  qui  ut  amplius  crucietur  et  plus  oculus  magis  jucundetur,  etc., 
succedci  in  sscculari  dignitate  minoris  nominis  potestas  diminutis  regnis 
magnis  in  tretrarchias  aut  minores  etiam  particulas.  ne  premere  valeant 
ecclesias  et  ecclesiasticas  personas.     In  Ps.  Ixiv.  1.  c.  f.  11 90. 

*  To  paintings  which  symbolically  represented  the  principles  of  the 
papal  system,  John  of  Salisbury  also  alludes,  in  the  letter  already  referred 
to ;  Sic  ad  gloriam  patrum  teste  Lateranensi  palatio,  ubi  hoc  invisibili- 
bus  picturis  et  laici  legunt,  ad  gloriam  patrum  schismatici,  quos  ssecu- 
laris  potestas  intrusit,  dantur  pontificibus  pro  scabello. 

f  Quantam  tibi  (Romana  ecclesiaj  dignitatis  plenitudinem  contulerit 
et  honoris  et  qualiter  imperialis  insigne  coronse  libentissime  conferens. 

X  Si  majora  beneficia  excellentia  tua  de  manu  nostra  suscepisset,  si 
fieri  posset. 


IMPRESSION  PBODUCED  BY  IT.  227 

"When  this  was  read  before  the  emperor,  in  the  diet  held  at 
Besangon,  it  produced  a  strong  and  universal  movement  of  sur- 
prise. Not  without  reason  might  offence  be  taken  at  the  language 
in  which  the  pope  spoke  of  the  bestowment  of  the  imperial  crown ; 
and — by  putting  this  in  conjunction  with  what  was  said  about 
benefits,  the  emperor  recollecting  all  the  while  those  pictures 
and  inscriptions  which  he  had  seen  at  Rome,*  the  worst  con- 
struction which  could  be  put  on  the  word  "  beneficium, " 
according  to  the  use  of  language  in  that  period,  as  designating 
a  feofiage,  was  put  upoij  the  pope's  language,  though  the  con- 
nection was  decidedly  against  any  such  construction.  The 
papal  legates,  who  hjid  brought  the  letter,  were  little  fitted  by 
their  temper  to  quiet  the  excited  feelings  of  the  assembly. 
One  of  them.  Cardinal  Roland  of  Siena,  chancellor  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  on  offence  being  taken  at  those  words  of  the  papal 
letter,  had  the  boldness  to  ask,  "  From  whom  then  did  the  em- 
peror obtain  the  government,  if  not  fit)m  the  pope  ?  "  These 
words  produced  such  an  outburst  of  anger,  that  a  terrible  ven- 
geance would  have  lighted  on  the  head  of  the  speaker,  if  he 
had  not  been  protected  by  the  emperor.  The  l^ates  were 
dismissed  with  disgrace ;  they  were  commanded  to  return  im- 
mediately to  Rome,  and  to  visit  no  bishop  or  abbot  by  the 
way,  lest,  in  travelling  about  the  empire,  they  might  find 
opportunity  of  creating  disturbances,  or  of  exacting  contribu- 
tions, "f     For  the  same  reason,  the  emperor  laid  a  restriction 

*  The  pietare  of  the  emperor  Lothaire  the  Second,  on  whom  the  pope 
bestows  the  imperial  crown,  with  the  inscription : — 

Rex  venit  ante  fores,  jonns  prius  oibis  honores 
Host  homo  fit  Paps,  samit  qao  dante  eoronam. 

According  to  the  account  of  the  historian  Radwic  (i.  10),  the  pope  had 
promised,  in  reply  to  the  friendly  remonstrances  of  the  emperor,  that 
this  picture  should  be  removed. 

t  The  words  in  the  emperor's  letter,  in  which  he  notict«  this,  and 
explains  his  motives :  Porro  quia  multa  paria  literamm  apnd  eos  reperta 
sunt  et  schedulae  sigillatae  ad  arbitrium  eomm  adhuc  scribendae  (namely, 
blank  leaves  to  which  the  pope's  seal  had  been  affixed,  which  they  were 
to  fill  up  according  to  circumstances;  so  great  was  the  power  intrusted 
to  them),  quibus  sicut  hactenus  consuetudinis  eorum  fuit,  per  singulas 
ecclesias  Teutonici  regni  conceptum  iniquitatis  suae  virus  respergere, 
altana  denudare.  vasa  domus  Dei  apportare.  cires  excoriare  nitebantur. 
A  description  of  the  exactions  made  by  the  papal  legates,  which  we 
assuredly  cannot  regard  as  exaggerated,  judging  firom  a  comparison  with 
other  accounts  of  these  times. 

<l2 


228  Frederic's  declaration  against  Adrian. 

upon  that  constant  and  lively  intercourse  which  had  been 
hitherto  kept  up  between  Germany  and  Rome,  by  means  of 
pilgrimages  and  appeals.  He  endeavoured  to  provide  that 
his  conduct  towards  the  pope  should  everywhere  be  seen  in  a 
favourable  point  of  light.  He  therefore  caused  to  be  published 
throughout  the  whole  empire,  a  document  setting  forth  what 
had  been  done,  and  the  reasons  which  made  it  necessary  to 
take  such  a  course.  In  this  paper  he  styled  himself,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  papal  pretensions,  "  the  Lord's  anointed,"  who 
had  obtained  the  government  from  that  almighty  power  from 
which  proceeds  all  authority  in  heaven*  and  on  earth.  "  Since 
our  government,"  he  declared,  "  proceeds,  through  the  choice 
of  the  princes,  from  God  alone  ;  since  our  Lord,  at  his  passion, 
committed  the  government  of  the  world  to  two  swords,  and 
since  the  apostle  Peter  gave  to  the  world  this  precept,  '  Fear 
God,  and  honour  the  king,'  it  is  evident,  that  whoever  says, 
*  we  received  the  imperial  crown  as  a  beneficium  from  the  pope,' 
contradicts  the  divine  order  and  the  doctrine  of  Peter,  and 
makes  himself  guilty  of  a  lie."  The  pope,  first  in  a  letter 
issued  to  the  German  bishops,  complained  bitterly  of  this  pro- 
cedure on  the  part  of  the  emperor,  and  called  upon  them  to  use 
the  influence  they  had  with  him,  to  bring  him  to  his  senses. 
But  the  bishops  were  here  of  one  and  the  same  mind  with  the 
emperor ;  they  handed  over  this  letter  to  him,  and  he  com- 
municated to  them  the  draft  of  a  reply  which  he  intended  for 
the  pope.  In  this,  he  declared  that  he  was  ready  to  pay  all 
due  respect  to  the  head  of  the  church  ;  but  he  was  also  resolved 
to  maintain  the  independence  of  his  imperial  throne.  "  It  was 
by  no  means,"  he  said,  "  his  design  to  hinder  those  who  wished, 
from  making  the  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  or  from  visiting  that 
city  for  any  other  good  reasons ;  but  he  only  intended  to  resist 
those  abuses  of  which  he  could  justly  say,  that  all  the  churches 
of  his  empire  were  burdened  with  them,  and  all  tlie  discipline 
of  the  monasteries  destroyed  by  them."*  "  In  the  head  city 
of  the  world,"  he  writes,  "  God  exalted  the  church  by  means 
of  the  empire ;  in  the  head  city  of  the  world,  the  church  now 
seeks,  not  through  God,  as  we  think,  to  destroy  the  empire. 

*  nils  abusiouibus,  quibus  omnes  ecclesiae  regni  nostri  gravatao  et 
attentatae  sunt  et  omnes  paene  claustrales  discipline  emortua)  et  sepultac, 
obviare  inteudimus. 


OORRESPOXDENCE  BETWEEN  THE  POPE  AHD  THE  EXPEROB.   229 

She  began  with  pictures;  firom  pictures  she  proceeded  to 
writings ;  these  writings  would  procure  for  themselves  the 
authority  of  the  law.  Sooner  will  we  lay  down  our  crown, 
than  suffer  it,  together  with  ourselves,  to  be  so  degraded.  The 
pictures  must  be  destroyed ;  the  writings  must  be  revoked,  so 
that  the  monuments  of  ^e  controversy  between  the  empire  and 
the  priesthood  may  not  last  for  ever."*  The  bishops,  in 
transmitting  this  declaration  of  the  emperor  to  the  pope, 
assured  him  that  those  words  of  his  own  letter  had  excited  the 
g^reatest  displeasure  amongst  all  tiie  German  princes,  as  well 
as  in  the  emperor ;  that  they  themselves  could  not  defend  those 
words  because  of  their  ambiguity.  They  represented  to  him 
the  great  danger  which  might  grow  out  of  this  dispute,  and 
besought  him  earnestly,  that  he  would  seek  to  pacify  the  em- 
peror by  a  conciliatory  letter. 

As  the  emperor  now  marched  into  Italy  with  an  army,  fear 
added  weight,  in  the  pope's  mind,  to  the  representations  of  the 
bishops.  He  sent  a  second  legation  to  the  emperor,  for  which 
he  selected  two  cardinals  who  were  firee  from  that  hierarchical 
obstinacy,  and  adroit  men  of  the  world.  These  envoys  handed 
over  to  the  emperor  another  letter,  which,  by  a  milder  explana- 
tion of  those  words  which  had  given  offence,  was  designed  to 
pacify  him.  Against  the  construction  which  the  emperor  had 
put  on  the  word  beneficium,  he  could  easily  defend  himself, 
by  an  appeal  to  etymology,  to  the  common  Latin  usug  lo- 
quendi,  and  at  the  same  time  to  the  Bible-f  In  respect  also 
to  the  other  difficulty,  he  maintained  that  this  language  had 
been  misconstrued,  but  without  entering  into  more  distinct 
explanations-! 

Thus,  for  the  present,  the  good  understanding  between  the 
emperor  and  the  pope  was  again  restored ;  stUl,  however,  in  a 
case  where  interests  and  principles  were  so  directly  opposed, 
this  could  not  last  long ;  and  the  sojourn  of  the  emperor  in 
Italy,  in  the  year  1158,  where  with  good  success  he  was  seek- 
ing to  establish  his  power  on  a  firm  foundation,  could  not  fidl 

♦  Picturae  deleantur,  scriptone  retractputor,  ut  inter  regnom  et  sacer* 
dotinm  seteme  inimicitiamm  monomenta  non  remaneant. 

t  Hoc  nomen  ex  bono  et  facto  est  editom  et  dicitar  beneficiom  apnd 
no6  non  fendum.  sed  bonnm  factnm. 

t  Per  hoc  vocabalnm  (the  offensive  word  "  contnlimos  "\  nihil  alind 
iotelleximns,  nisi  quod  superios  dictom  est  imposoimas. 


'230  CORRESPONDENCE  BETWEEN  THE  POPE  AND  THE  EMPEROR. 

to  produce  many  a  collision  between  the  two.  The  pope  could 
not  pardon  it  in  the  emperor,  that  he  insisted  on  his  right  of 
sovereignty  over  the  city  of  Rome,  caused  the  bishops  to  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance,  placed  a  limit  on  appeals  to  Rome,  and 
sought  to  check  the  influence  of  the  papal  legates  in  Germany. 
In  this  uneasy  state  of  feeling,  he  wrote  to  the  emperor  a 
short  letter,  complaining  of  his  want  of  respect  to  the  apostle 
Peter  and  to  the  church  of  Rome.  What  arrogance  was  it, 
tliat  in  his  letter  to  the  pope,  he  should  place  his  own  name 
before  that  of  the  pope.  How  grossly  he  violated  the  fidelity 
vowed  to  St.  Peter,  when  he  required  of  those  who  are  all 
gods  and  sons  of  the  Highest,  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  took 
their  holy  hands  into  his.  He  reproached  him  with  having 
shut  out  the  churches  and  states  of  his  empire  from  the  papal 
legates.  He  exhorted  him  to  repentance.  In  the  reply  to 
this  letter  a  mode  of  thinking  expressed  itself,  which  required 
the  separation  of  spiritual  things  from  secular,  in  the  case  of 
the  church  of  Rome  as  well  as  of  other  churches.  The  very- 
superscription  itself  plainly  indicated  the  emperor's  views,  in 
•  the  wish  there  expressed  that  he  might  remain  faithful  and 
true  to  all  that  Jesus  had  taught  by  word  and  deed.  He 
denied  that  the  popes  held  worldly  possessions  by  divine  riglit ; 
they  were  indebted  for  all  they  possessed  to  the  donations  of 
monarchs,  as  Sylvester  first  had  received  all  he  possessed  from 
the  emperor  Constantine.  It  was  by  ancient  right  that,  in  his 
letters  to  the  pope,  he  placed  his  own  name  first ;  and  the 
pope  was  free  to  do  the  same  thing  in  writing  to  the  emperor. 
He  acknowledged  the  higher  consecrated  character  of  the 
bishops ;  but  it  seemed  to  him  not  in  the  least  incompatible 
with  this,  that  he  should  require  them  to  take  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance ;  and  he  appeals  to  the  pattern  of  Christ :  "  Whereas 
your  Master  and  mine,  who  needed  not  that  anything  should 
be  given  him  by  a  king  who  was  a  man,  but  bestows  every 
good  upon  all,  paid  for  himself  and  Peter  the  tribute-money 
to  Caesar,  and  also  set  the  example  of  so  acting,  when  he  said, 
'  Learn  of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  of  heart,'  so  you 
therefore  should  leave  to  us  the  regalia, — or,  if  you  expect 
to  derive  advantage  from  it,  you  should  'render  to  God 
the  things  that  are  God's,  and  to  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's.'  "  The  churches  and  countries  he  had  shut  out  from 
the  cardinals  because  they  did  not  come  to  preach,  to  make 


ALEXA!!n>EB  THE  THIRD  AHD  VICTOR  THE  FOURTH.        231 

and  to  establish  peace,  but  to  plunder,  and  to  gratify  their 
insatiable  cupidity.  Should  such  men  come,  however,  as  the 
good  of  the  church  required  that  bishops  should  be,  he  would 
not  delay  providing  them  with  everything  needful.  The  em- 
peror asked  the  pope  to  consider  how  incongruous  it  was  with 
the  humility  and  meekness  of  which,  as  Christ's  vicegerent,  he 
should  set  the  example,  for  him  to  excite  disputes  about  such 
things ;  and  in  what  an  unfavourable  light  he  must  place 
himself  thereby  before  the  eyes  of  the  world !  After  long- 
continued  negotiations,  the  dispute  between  the  pope  and  the 
emperor  was  as  far  from  being  settled  as  ever.  Already  wag 
Adrian  on  the  point  of  proceeding  to  more  violent  measures 
against  that  monarch,  when,  precisely  at  this  critical  moment) 
in  the  year  1159,  he  died. 

The  death  of  Adrian  at  this  point  of  time  was  necessarily 
followed  by  a  schism  in  the  choice  ^f  a  pope  ;  for  there  were, 
as  usual,  two  parties  among  the  cardinals ;  one,  who  were 
determined  to  maintain,  at  all  hazards,  the  pretensions  of 
the  hierarchical  system,  and  to  employ  for  this  purpose  the 
strongest  and  most  violent  measures ;  the  other,  who  were 
inclined  to  more  moderate  proceedings.  The  former,  at  whose 
head  stood  the  deceased  pope  himself,  were  for  uniting  them- 
selves with  the  enemies  of  the  emperor  in  Italy  and  Sicily, 
and  pronouncing  the  ban  upon  him  ;  the  other,  to  which  those 
cardinals  belonged  who  already  under  the  preceding  reign 
had  pushed  forward  the  negotiations  with  the  emperor,  wished 
for  a  peaceable  termination  of  the  difficulties.  The  first  party 
chose  as  pope  the  cardinal  Roland,  of  Siena,  and  he  assumed 
the  name  of  Alexander  the  Third ;  the  second  party  chose  the 
cardinal  Octavian,  who  gave  himself  the  name  of  Victor  the 
Fourth.  The  emperor  could  not  doubt  for  a  moment  which 
of  these  two  parties  was  the  most  favourably  disposed  to  his 
own  interest ;  as  the  popes  themselves  plainly  expressed  their 
different  principles  by  the  different  tone  in  which  they  ad- 
dressed him.  But  he  was  very  far  from  being  disposed  to 
intermeddle  with  the  inner  affairs  of  the  church;  he  only 
meant  to  take  advantage  of  this  strife  so  as  to  be  able,  after  the 
example  of  the  Othos  and  of  Henry  the  Third,  to  hit  upon 
the  legitimate  measures  for  the  removal  of  the  present  schism, 
and  the  establishment  of  a  universally  recognized  pope.  He 
announced  a  church  assembly  to  meet  in  the  year  1160  at 


232       ALEXANDER  THE  THIRD  AND  VICTOR  THE  FOURTH. 

Pavia,  before  which  the  two  competitors  should  appear,  in 
order  that  their  respective  claims  to  the  papal  dignity  might 
then  be  scrutinized.  But  Alexander,  without  regard  to  any 
further  scrutiny,  considered  himself  as  the  onlj.  regular  pope, 
and  declared  it  to  be  an  unheard-of  pretension,  that  a  layman 
should  presume  to  set  himself  up  as  judge  over  such  an  affair. 
He  looked  upon  the  council  at  Pavia  as  an  altogether  dis- 
orderly assembly.  Victor,  on  the  other  hand,  recognized  this 
tribunal.  When  the  council  had  assembled,  the  emperor  de- 
clared he  had  now  done  all  that  belonged  to  his  vocation ; 
nothing  else  remained  for  him  than  to  await  the  decision  of 
God,  through  those  whom  he  had  appointed  the  judges  in  this 
matter ;  whereupon  he  withdrew  from  the  transactions.  The 
council  reci)gnized  Victor  as  the  regular  pope,  and  Frederic 
sought  to  promote  his  authority  by  every  means  of  power  and 
influence  within  his  comijiand.  But  although  Alexander  was 
compelled  to  yield  to  the  authority  of  the  emperor,  and  in 
the  year  1162  to  seek  a  refuge  in  France,  yet  he  con- 
tinually gained  more  and  more  on  his  side  the  public 
opinion  in  the  church ;  the  heads  of  the  clerical  and  of  the 
monastic  orders  stood  up  for  him  or  demanded  a  true  general 
council,  as  alone  competent  to  decide  this  controversy.* 
All  who  were  devoted  to  the  church  theocratical  system 
saw  in  Alexander  the  champion  of  a  holy  cause,  and  in 
Victor  a  tool  of  the  imperial  power.|     Alexander  too,  like 

*  So  the  provost  Gerhoh,  who  calls  the  assembly  at  Pavia  only  a 
"  curia  Papiensis,"'  in  Ps.  cxxxiii.  f.  1042. 

t  So  Thomas  Becket,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  or  John  of  Salisbury, 
in  his  name  (ep.  48,  in  the  letter  of  J.  of  Salisbury),  in  a  letter  to  king 
Henry  the  Second,  of  England,  whom  the  emperor  was  seeking  to  gain 
over  to  Victor :  Absit,  ut  in  tanto  periculo  ecclesia;  pro  aniore  et  honore 
hominis  faciatis,  nisi  quod  crederetis  Domino  placiturum,  nee  decet 
majestatem  vestram.  si  placet,  ut  in  tota  ecclesia  regni  vestri  superpo- 
natis  hominem,  qui  sine  electione,  ut  publice  dicitur,  sine  gratia  Domini 
per  favorem  unius  imperatoris  tantum  honorem  aiisus  est  orcupare. 
Nam  tota  fere  ecclesia  Romana  in  parte  Alexandri  est.  Incredibile  au- 
tcm  est,  quod  pars  ilia  possit  obtinere,  prsevalere  per  hominem,  cui 
justitia  deest,  cui  Doniinus  adversatur.  He  then  cites  the  example  of 
the  popes,  sinc^  the  time  of  Urban  the  Second,  who  began  in  weakness, 
and,  after  having  been  acknowledged  in  France,  triumphed  over  their 
opponents.  John  of  Salisbury  declares,  very  strongly,  his  opposition  to 
the  council  of  Pavia:  Universalem  ecclesiam  quis  partieularis  ecclesiae 
subjecit  judicio  ?     Quis  Teutonicos  coustituit  judices  nationum  ?     Quis 


Frederic's  peace  with  Alexander.  233 

his  predecessors,  was  ^eatly  indebted  to  the  influence  of  the 
monks.* 

Still  less  authority  than  Victor's  was  enjoyed  by  his  suc- 
cessors nominated  by  the  imperial  party,  Paschalis  the 
Third  ril64),  and  Calixtus  the  Third  (11G8).  The  tyranny 
which  the  emperor  exercised  in  Italy,  the  struggle  of  the 
Longobard  states  for  their  freedom,  procured  allies  for  the 
pope  with  whom  he  could  constantly  fortify  himself  more 
strongly  against  the  emperor ;  and  after  the  unfortunate  cam- 
paign in  Italy,  in  1176,  Frederic  was  induced  to  conclude 
at  Venice  a  peace  with  the  pope,  upon  conditions  prescribed 
by  the  latter.  This  victory  was  interpreted  by  the  adherents 
of  the  church  theocratical  system  as  a  judgment  of  God  in 
favour  of  the  papacy,  "f  The  seal  was  set  to  this  victory  by 
the  Lateran  council,  which  Alexander,  as  universally  acknow- 
ledged pope,  held  in  the  year  1179,  and  by  which  an  ordi- 
nance was  passed  in  relation  to  papal  elections,  in  order  to 
prevent  similar  schisms  to  those  that  had  recently  occurred. 
It  was  thereby  determined,  J  that  the  individual  chosen  by  the 
votes  of  two-thirds  of  the  cardinals  should  be  lawful  pope ; 
and  in  case  the  person  chosen  by  the  minority,  consisting  of 
the  other  third,  should  set  himself  up  as  pope  in  opposition, 
he  and  his  adherents  should  be  liable  to  excommunication. 

hanc  bmtis,  impetaosis  hominibus  aactoritatem  contulit,  at  pro  arbitrio 
priucipem  stataant  super  capita  filiorum  homiuum  ? 

*  In  the  life  of  bishop  Anthelm,  by  Bellay,  in  the  Actis  Sanctor.  Jon. 
T.  V.  c.  iii.  f.  232,  it  is  stated  that  quum  universa  psene  anceps  ecclesia 
vacillaret,  the  Carthusian  order,  at  first,  used  their  influence  in  favour 
of  Alexander:  Praecedentibus  itaque  Cartusiensibus et  Cisterciensibus 
Alexander  papa  ecclesiarum  in  partibus  Galhae,  Britannise,  atque  His- 
paniae,  cito  meruit  obedientiam  habere. 

t  Thus  wrote  John  of  Salisbury,  who  from  this  result  entertained 
the  hope  that  the  contest  for  the  interest  of  the  church  in  England  would 
have  a  like  issue  (ep.  254) :  Nam  quse  capiti  schismatis  confurebant 
membra  cointereunt  eoque  succiso  corpus  totnm  necesse  est  interire. 
Vidimus,  vidimus  hominem,  qui  consueverat  esse  sicuti  leo  in  domo  sua, 
domesticos  evertens  et  opprimens  subjectos  sibi,  latebras  quserere  et  tanto 
terrore  concuti,  ut  vix  tutus  esset  in  angulosis  abditis  suis.  Ilium,  ilium 
imperatorem,  qui  totsus  orbis  terror  fuerat,  utinam  vidissetis  ab  Italia 
fugieutem  cum  ignominia  sempiterna,  ut  his  cautelam  procuret  ant 
ruiuain,  qui  catholicorum  laboribus  insultabant  ex  successibus  et  furore 
ejus.  Ergo  conceptam  laudt- m  Dei  silere  quis  poterit  ?  Ipse  eoim  est, 
qui  facit  mirabilia  magna  solus. 

t  Can.  I. 


234  HENRY  THE  SECOND  AND  THOMAS  BECKET. 

Still  stronger  did  the  power  of  the  papacy  exhibit  itself  in 
another  contest,  between  the  secular  power  and  the  church, 
which  arose  in  another  quarter,  namely  England.  Thomas 
Becket  had  come  as  archdeacon  to  the  court  of  king  Henry 
the  Second  of  England,  and,  getting  more  and  more  into  the 
confidence  of  that  monarch,  was  finally  appointed  chancellor, 
ill  which  post  his  word  became  law.  Without  doubt,  the 
king  supposed  that  he  should  most  certainly  promote  his  own 
interest  if,  availing  himself  of  the  vacancy  of  the  archbishopric 
of  Canterbury,  in  the  year  1162,  he  proceeded  to  make  his 
favourite,  the  man  hitherto  so  devoted  to  him,  primate  of  the 
English  church,  while  at  the  same  time  he  allowed  him  to 
continue  in  the  same  relations  to  himself,  as  his  chancellor. 
But  he  found  himself  altogether  deceived  in  his  expectations  ; 
for  Thomas  Becket  from  that  moment  changed  entirely  the 
whole  mode  of  his  life,*  and  with  still  greater  zeal  served  the 
interest  of  the  hierarchy  than  he  had  before  served  the  in- 
terests of  the  king.  It  was  to  him  an  affair  of  conscience,  not 
to  surrender  a  tittle  of  anything  pertaining  to  the  cause  of 
the  church,  and  to  the  dignity  of  the  priesthood,  contemplated 
from  the  hierarchical  point  of  view  which  was  common  at  that 
time,  f  When  he  resigned  his  post  as  chancellor,  king 
Henry  regarded  it  as  an  indication  of  his  change  of  views  on 
political  and  ecclesiastical  interests,  and  was  by  this  circum- 
stance first  prejudiced  against  him ;  and  his  previous  incliua- 

*  Still,  owing  to  his  ascetic  zeal,  he  could  not  be  induced  to  make  any 
such  alterations  in  his  diet  as  were  too  much  at  variance  with  his  previous 
habits:  and  when  once  at  the  common  table  of  the  clergy,  a  pheasant 
was  placed  before  him,  said  he  to  one  of  his  companions  at  the  table, 
who  took  offence  at  it :  "  Truly,  my  brother,  if  I  do  not  mistake,  thou 
eatest  thy  beans  with  more  relish  than  I  do  the  pheasant  set  before  me." 
See  his  life  by  Heribert  of  Boseham  (ed,  sup.),  with  the  letters  of 
Thomas,  in  the  collection  of  the  four  lives,  p.  iib. 

t  The  bishop's  zealous  friend,  John  of  Salisbury,  expresses  himself 
somewhat  dissatisfied  with  his  rough  and  stern  proceedings  at  the  outset : 
Novit  cordium  inspector,  et  verborum  judex  et  operum,  quod  ssepius  et 
asperius,  quam  aliquis  mortalium  corripuerim  archiepiscopum  de  his,  in 
quibus  ab  initio  dominum  regem  et  suos  zelo  quodam  inconsultius  visus 
est  ad  amaritudinem  provocasse,  cum  pro  loco  et  tempore  et  personis  multa 
fuerint  dispensanda.  By  his  opponents  he  was  accused  of  covetousness 
and  nepotism,  in  procuring  preferments  for  his  relatives.  The  latter 
certainly  not  without  good  grounds,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  way  in 
which  his  zealous  friend  Peter  de  Blois  defends  him  (in  ep.  38). 


PARLIAMENT  AT  CLARENDON,  1164.  235 

tion  in  his  favour  must  have  gone  on  continually  changing 
into  greater  aversion,  when  he  saw  in  the  man  whom  he  had 
hoped  to  find  a  grateful  and  zealous  servant,  his  most  resolute 
adversary.  One  fact,  which  proves  what  an  injury  great 
external  privileges  were  to  the  true  interests  of  the  spiritual 
order  is  this ;  there  were  to  be  found  among  the  clergy  of 
England  men  who,  by  the  commission  of  the  worst  crimes, 
had  fallen  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  tribunals.  The 
king  demanded  that  such  persons,  after  having  been  divested 
in  the  usual  form  of  their  spiritual  character,  should  be  given 
over  to  the  common  tribunal,  and  suffer  the  punishment  ap- 
pointed by  the  laws.  He  alleged,  in  support  of  this,  that  the 
loss  of  the  clerical  dignity  was  to  such  people  no  punishment 
at  all ;  that  the  more  they  dishonoured  by  their  crimes  the 
clerical  profession,  the  severer  ought  to  be  their  punishment. 
By  being  suffered  to  go  impimished,  such  crimes  spread  with 
fearful  rapidity.*  Yet  the  archbishop,  carried  away  by  his 
hierarchical  delusion,  thought  himself  bound  to  insist  tbat, 
even  in  these  imworthy  subjects,  the  clerical  character  and  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  church  should  be  respected.  In  the  year 
1164  the  king  caused  sixteen  resolutions  to  be  laid  before  an 
assembly  composed  of  spiritual  and  lay  orders,  at  Clarendon, 
which  related  to  the  securing  of  the  civil  power  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  hierarchy.  They  were  adopted,  under 
oath,  by  all ;  and  even  Thomas  Becket  yielded  to  the  prevailing 
spirit.  But  soon  his  hierarchical  conscience  loaded  him  with 
the  severest  reproaches  ;  he  put  on  the  dress  of  a  penitent ; 
he  proposed  to  resign  his  bishopric,  of  which  he  had  showed 
himself  so  unworthy ;  to  withdraw  into  solitude  and  do  pe- 
nance, both  on  account  of  the  transgressions  of  his  earlier  life 
at  court,  and  on  account  of  this  last  infidelity  to  the  interests 
of  the  church.  He  drew  up  a  report  to  the  pope  of  what  had 
transpired,  and  left  the  whole  to  be  disposed  of  by  his  decision. 
The  pope  confirmed  him  in  his  resistance  to   those  sixteen 

*  Which  the  king  says :  Per  hnjosmodi  castigationes  talium  clericomm 
imo  verius  coronatonim  daemonum  flagitia  non  reprimi,  sed  potius  in 
dies  reguum  detenus  fieri.  Ad  nocendum  fore  promptiores,  nisi  post 
pceuam  spiritualem  corporali  poenae  subdantur.  Et  poenam  parum  cnrare 
de  ordinis  amissione,  qui  ordinis  contemplatione  a  tam  enonnibns  manus 
continere  non  verentur  et  tanto  deteriores  esse  in  scelere,  quanto  sont 
caeterls  ordinis  privilegio  digniores.    Heribert.  p.  33. 


236       becket's  death,    enthusiasm  of  his  party. 

articles,  and  absolved  him  from  his  obligation  of  his  unlawfiilly 
given  oath ;  but  encouraged  him  to  continue  the  administra- 
tion of  the  archbishopric  for  the  good  of  the  church.     This 
was  the  signal  for  a  fierce  and  wearisome  contest  between  the 
archbishop  and  the  king.    Becket  sought  refuge  in  France, 
where  he  spent  nearly  seven  years  in  exile.    From  both  sides, 
delegates  were  sent  to  the  pope  ;  Becket  visited  him  in  person. 
Bat  the  affair  lingered  along,  since  the  king  and  his  money 
had  their  influence  also  at  the  papal  court ;  *  since,  on  the 
one  hand,  there  was  an  unwillingness  to  make  a  victim  of 
the  bishop,  who  stood  up  so  firmly  and  staked  his  all  for  the 
interest  of  the  hierarchy :  but  on  the  other  hand,  too,  there 
was  great  reason  to  fear  lest,  in  the  contest  then  going  on 
with  the  emperor  Frederic,  the  latter,   and  his  pope,  should 
procure  an  important  ally  in  the  king  of  England,  if  he  should 
be  driven  to  an  extreme.     At  length,  however,  a  treaty  of 
peace  seemed  to  have  been  brought  about ;   and  Becket,  in 
1170,    returned  back  to  England.      But  the    reconciliation 
was  but  transitory ;  and  as  the  archbishop  pursued  the  same 
principles  with  inflexible  consistency,  the  quarrel  could  not 
fail  to  break  out  anew.     Becket  was  received  by  one  party 
with  enthusiastic  admiration,  by  the  other  with  abhorrence ; 
since  they  looked  upon  him  as  nothing  better  than  a  traitor  to 
his  king  and  country.     Four  knights  considered  some  remark 
which  escaped  the  king  in  a  moment  of  violent  anger,  as  an 
invitation  to  revenge  him  on  the  archbishop,  and  the  latter 
was  murdered  by  them  in  the  church.     Yet,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, his  death  could  not  but  serve  directly  to  procure 
the  most  brilliant  victory  for  the  cause  for  which  he  contended. 
He  appeared  to  the  people  as  a  martyr  for  the  cause  of  God  ; 
as  a  saint ;  crowds  flocked  to  pray  before  his  tomb  ;  and  soon 
divers  stories  got  abroad  about  the  wonderful  cures  performed 
there.    Men  of  all  ranks  bore  testimony  to  their  truth.    John 
of  Salisbury,  a  man  of  spirit  and  intelligence,  but  we  must 
add,  too,  the  archbishop's  enthusiastic  friend  as  well  as  fellow- 
sufferer,  having  served  him  in  the  capacity  of  archdeacon  and 

*  Metuebat  (Romanus  pontifex),  quod  si  ita  omnino  rex  pateretur 
repulsam,  majus  in  ecclesia  schisma  faceret,  quod  et  ipsi,  qui  iiiissi  fue- 
rant  et  prscsertim  laid  minabantur.  In  favour  of  the  king  was  a  ma- 
jority of  the  cardinals,  quibus  ut  principibus  et  magnatibus  placeaut,  stu- 
dere  nios  est,  aliis  vero  renitentibus.     Heribert.  p.  75 


ENTHUSIASM   OF  BECKET's  PARTY.  237 

secretary,  even  he  speaks  of  them  with  astonishment  as  an 
eye-witness ;  so  that  striking  appearances,  produced  either  by 
the  ecstatic  flights  of  a  strong  faith  or  by  an  excited  fency, 
must  certainly  have  occurred  there.*  It  was  in  vain  that 
Becket's  opponents  sought  to  suppress  this  enthusiasm  by  out- 
ward force ;  it  only  burst  forth  with  the  more  violence.^  In 
these  facts,  men  saw  a  testimony  from  God  mightier  than  the 
decisions  of  the  pope.  Instead  of  Becket's  needing  any  testi- 
mony from  the  pope,  thought  his  party,  these  miracles  wrought 
at  his  tomb  were  much  rather  a  testimony  for  the  cause  of  pope 
Alexander  himself  against  his  adversaries ;  for  Becket  had  in 
truth  been  a  zealous  adherent  of  the  latter.  He  must  have 
been  a  schismatic,  if  it  were  not  right  to  consider  this  person 
the  lawful  pope  ;  and  a  schismatic,  God  would  not  honour  by 
miracles.  J  King  Henry  was  deeply  affected  when  he  heard 
of  Becket's  death.  He  did  penance,  because  his  words,  though 
without  intention  on  his  part,  had  given  occasion  for  such  a 
deed.  He  made  every  effort  to  justify  himself  before  the  pope 
and  procure  his  absolution.  He  acquiesced  in  all  the  con- 
ditions prescribed,  and  yielded  more  than  Thomas  Becket  had 

*  Malta  et  magna  miracnla  fiunt,  catervatim  confluentibiis  praelatis,  at 
videant  in  aliis  et  s«ntiant  in  se  potentiam  et  clementiam  ejus,  qui 
semper  in  Sanctis  suis  mirabilis  et  gloriosus  est.  Nam  et  in  loco  passionis 
ejus  et  ubi  ante  majus  altare  pemoctavit  humandus  et  ubi  tandem  sepul- 
tus  est,  paralytic!  curantur,  ccEci  vident,  surdi  audiunt,  loquuntur  mutl, 
claudi  ambulant,  evadunt  febricitantes,  arrepti  a  daemonic  liberantur  et  a 
variis  morbis  sanantur  aegroti,  blaspbemi  a  daemonio  arrepti  confunduntur 
— Qua;  profecto  nulla  ratione  scribere  praesumsissem,  nisi  me  super  his 
fides  oculata  certissimum  reddidisset.     Ep.  286. 

t  John  of  Salisbury  says :  Inhibuerunt  nomine  publicae  potestatis,  ne 
miracttla,  quae  fiebant,  quisquam  publicare  praesumeret.  Caetemm  frustra 
quis  obnubilare  desiderat,  quod  Deus  clarificare  disponit.  Eo  enim 
amplius  percrebuere  miracula,  quo  videbantur  impiis  studiosius  occul- 
tanda. 

J  John  of  Salisbury,  ep.  287.  Dubitatur  a  plurimis,  an  pars  domini  papee, 
in  qua  stamus,  de  justitia  niteretnr.  sed  earn  a  crimine  schismatis  gloriosus 
martyr  ateolvit,  qui  si  fantor  esset  schismatis  nequaquam  tantis  mira- 
culis  coruscaret.  He  thinks  he  should  have  been  very  much  surprised 
that  the  pope  did  not  at  once  pronounce  Thomas  Becket  a  saint,  unless 
he  had  remembered  what  was  done  in  the  Koman  senate  on  the  report  of 
Pilate,  ne  deltas  Christi,  cujus  nomen  erat  Judaeis  et  gentibus  praedican- 
dum,  terrenae  potestati  videretur  obnoxia  et  emendicatam  dicerent  infi- 
deles. — Sic  ergo  nutu  divine  arbitror  evenisse,  ut  martyris  hujos  gloria 
nee  decreto  pontificis  nee  edicto  principis  attollatur,  sed  Christo  praecipae 
aactore  invalescat. 


238  Arnold's  opinions  propagated. 

ever  been  able  to  gain  during  his  lifetime.  The  king  himself 
made  a  pilgrimage  to  his  tomb,  and  there  submitted  to  exercises 
of  penance. 

Through  the  yielding  of  the  emperor  Frederic,  to  which  he 
had  been  moved  by  the  force  of  circumstances  and  by  con- 
siderations of  prudence,  nothing  in  the  relation  of  the  two 
parties, — of  which  one  defended  a  papal  absolutism,  requiring 
entire  subjection  of  the  states  and  churches ;  the  other,  the 
rights  of  independent  state  authority, — nothing  of  all  this  had 
been  changed.    The  principles  which  had  come  under  discussion 
in  the  controversies  about  investiture,  which  had  been  placed 
in  a  still  clearer  light  and  more  widely  diffused  through  the 
influence  of  Arnold  of  Brescia,  and  to  the  promotion  of  which 
the  study  of  the  Roman  law,  begun  with  so  much  zeal  at  the 
university  of  Bologna,  had  contributed,  — these  principles  we 
find   expressed  in   the   acts   and   public  declarations   of  the 
Hohenstaufen  emperors.    Gottfried  of  Viterbo,  who  was  secre- 
tary and  chaplain  to  the  emperors  Conrad  the  Third,  Frederic 
the  First,  and  Henry  the  Sixth,  and  had  opportunities  enough 
to  hear  what  was  said  at  the  imperial  court ; — this  writer,  in 
speaking   of  the  controversy   between  the  imperial  and  the 
papal  parties,  in  his  Chronicle,  or  Pantheon,*  quotes  these 
declarations  from  the  lips  of  the  former.     The  emperor  Con- 
stantine,  to  whose  donation  to  the  Roman  bishop  Silvester, 
men  were  in  the  habit  of  appealing,  had  by  no  means  conceded 
to  the  popes  an  authority  of  lordship  in  Italy,  but  chosen  them, 
as  priests  of  the  Supreme  God,  for  his  spiritual  fathers,  and 
sought   blessing  and   intercassion   at   their  hands.      Had  he 
actually  conceded  to  the  pope  a  right  of  sovereignty  over  Italy, 
he  could  not  have  left  the  Western  empire,  of  which  Italy  was 
a  part,  to  one  of  his  sons ;  and  so,  too,  Rome  went  along  with 
the  Western   empire   to   the   succeeding   emperors.      As  he 
affirms,  men  appealed  to  the  words  of  Christ:  "Render  to 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  to  God  the  tilings  that 
are  God's  ;"  to  the  fact  that  Christ  paid  the  tribute-money  for 
himself  and  for  Peter ;  to  the  declaration  of  St.  Paul  con- 
cerning the  respect  due  to  those  in  authority ;  and  yet,  they 
added,  this  declaration  had  immediate  reference  to  a  Nero. 
We   here    listen    to   well-known   voices,    which   we   already 

*  P.  16.    Muratori,  Scriptores  rerum  Italicarum,  T.  VII.  f.  360. 


INXOCEUT  THE  THIRD.      HIS  GREAT  ACTIVITY.  239 

heard  speaking  in  the  controversies  which  preceded,  and 
which  are  again  re-echoed  ia  the  letters  of  Frederic  the 
Second, 

Hot  had  the  emperor  Frederic  the  First  by  any  means 
given  up  the  plan  which  he  had  hitherto  followed  in  the  con- 
test with  the  pope,  but  was  making  new  preparations  to 
prosecute  it.  He  had  been  at  work  to  establish  anew  his 
authority  in  Italy.  He  sought,  by  uniting  the  kingdom  of  the 
Sicilies  with  the  imperial  crown,  to  oppose  a  twofold  power 
against  the  popes,  in  their  own  vicinity.  This  was  accom- 
plished by  his  son  Henry  the  Sixth,  who  was  animated  by 
the  same  spirit  with  his  iather.  The  most  difficult  and  unequal 
contest  seemed  to  stand  before  the  papal  power ;  on  one  side, 
the  emperor  Henry  the  Sixth,  in  the  vigour  of  manhood,  and 
at  the  sununit  of  his  power ;  on  the  other,  the  feeble  old  man 
Celestin  the  Third,  now  past  his  eightieth  year ;  but,  by  cir- 
cumstances not  entering  into  the  calculations  of  human  wisdom, 
in  which  oftentimes  the  sudden  turn  of  important  events  com- 
pels us  to  recognize  the  guidance  of  an  in>isible  hand,  a  change 
was  suddenly  brought  about  of  an  altogether  opposite  kind. 
The  emperor  Henry  died  in  the  year  1197 :  in  the  following 
year  died  the  pope  ;  and  his  successor  was  the  cardinal  Lothario, 
of  Anagni,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  men  who  were  ever 
invested  with  the  papal  dignity,  and  now  not  over  forty  years 
old.*  Innocent  the  Third  united  in  himself  the  three  parts 
which  Alexander  the  Third  had  required  as  necessary  to  the 
right  administration  of  the  papal  office :  zeal  in  preaching, 
ability  in  church-governance,  and  skill  in  the  management  of 
penance."!"  He  was,  so  far  as  the  power  of  a  correct  judgment 
was  possible  at  his  own  point  of  view,  well  acquainted  with 
the  relations  and  wants  of  the  church  in  his  time,  and  had  been 
educated  according  to  the  system  of  theology  taught  in  the 
universities  of  that  period,  for  he  had  studied  at  the  university 
of  Paris,  a  fact  of  which  he  speaks  with  particular  pleasure 

*  Hencfl  the  remark  of  the  German  poet  Walter  von  der  Vogelweide : 
"  O  we  der  babst  ist  ze  jnnc,  hilf  Herre  diner  Kristenheit"  P.  9,  in 
Lachmann's  Ausgabe,  v.  35. 

t  When  some  person  had  said  to  Alexander  the  Third :  Domine,  bonus 
papa  es,  quidquid  facis  papale  est ;  he  replied  :  Si  scirem  bien  i  (n)  viar 
e  bien  predicar  e  penitense  douar,  io  seroie  boene  pape.  See  Petri  Can- 
toris verbom  abbreviatum,  pag.  171. 


240  ACTIVITY  OF  INNOCENT  THE  THIRD. 

and  gratitude.*  He  was  entirely  filled  with  the  idea  of  the 
papal  monarchy  over  the  world,  and  contrived  to  make  use  of 
the  conjunction  of  many  favourable  circumstances  with  skill 
and  energy  for  the  realization  of  that  idea.  His  activity 
extended  over  a  field  of  enormous  extent,  f — it  reached  to  every 
quarter  of  the  world.  His  watchful  eye  observed  everything 
that  transpired  in  churches  and  states.  By  his  legates,  he 
would  make  his  presence  everywhere  felt,  and  enforce  obe- 
dience.|  Over  bishops  and  monarchs,  in  affairs  ecclesiastical 
and  political,  which  latter  he  believed  he  could  bring  before 
his  tribunal,  in  so  far  as  they  should  be  decided  on  religious  or 
moral  principles,  he  asserted  his  supreme  juridical  authority 
with  energy  and  firmness.§  His  numerous  letters,  the  records 
of  his  active  guidance  of  the  church,  certainly  evince  that  he 
was  animated,  not  solely  by  a  zeal  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
papal  authority  and  dominion,  but  also  by  a  zeal  for  the  true 
well-being  of  the  church ;  but  devoted  to  that  system  of  a 
spiritual  monarchy  over  the  world,  in  which  secular  and 
spiritual  matters  were  already  so  confounded  together,  as  a 
system  founded  in  divine  right ;  and  feeling  himself  bound  to 
defend  this  system  as  well  against  reactions  proceeding  from  a 

*  In  a  letter  to  the  king  of  France :  Tibi  et  regno  tuo  specialiter  nos 
fatemur  teneri,  in  quo  nos  recolimus  in  studiis  literarum  setatem  transe- 
gisse  miuorem  ac  divino  munere  quanta;cunque  scientise  donum  adeptos, 
beneficiorum  impensam  multiplicem  suscepisse.    See  epp.  lib.  i.  ep.  171. 

t  In  a  letter  in  which,  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  diflSculties  and  the 
responsibleness  of  his  office,  he  implores  an  interest  in  the  prayers  of  the 
abbots  of  the  Cistercian  chapter,  he  notices  the  many  kinds  of  business 
devolving  on  him,  yet  doubtless  without  naming  them  all.  as  follows : — 
Nunc  ambigua  quajstionum  elucidans  et  certo  in  ambiguis  usns  responso, 
nunc  difficiles  nodes  causarum  justae  diffinitionis  manu  dissolvens,  nunc 
malignorum  incursus  refrsenans,  nunc  humilibus  clypeum  apostolicae  pro- 
tectionis  indulgens.     Lib.  I.  ep.  358. 

J  His  words :  "  If  the  omnipresent  God  still  makes  angels  his  ministers, 
how  should  the  pope,  who  is  a  limited  man,  be  able  to  extend  his  activity 
to  all  countries  in  any  other  way  than  by  legates?"  Si  ergo  nos,  quos 
humana  conditio  simul  in  diversis  locis  corporaliter  esse  non  patitur, 
hujusmodi  naturae  defectum  per  angelos  nostros  redimere  nequiverimus, 
quomodo  judicium  et  justitiam  et  alia,  quai  ad  summi  pontificis  officium 
pertinent,  in  gentibus  longe  positis  faciemus?     Lib.  XVI.  ep.  12. 

§  Ep.  lib.  I.  ep.  324.  Decision  on  the  right  of  property  in  a  lot  of 
land.  Lib.  I.  ep.  249,  that  his  legate  should  force  the  kings  of  Portugal 
and  Castile,  by  ban  and  interdict,  to  remain  faithful  to  the  league  they 
Lad  sworn  to  each  other. 


JOHK  OF  ENGLAjn)  AND  WNOCENT  THE  THIED.  241 

good,  as  those  proceeding  from  a  bad  spirit,  he  was  betrayed 
by  his  bad  cause  into  the  use  of  bad  means. 

A  proof  of  this  is  the  history  of  his  controversies  with 
England.  King  John,  with  wnom  he  there  had  to  contend, 
was  a  man  utterly  destitute  of  moral  worth,  accustomed  to 
follow  all  his  lusts  and  passions  without  restraint,  and  to  yield 
himself  to  every  caprice.  Fear  alone  could  restrain  him. 
Even  to  the  religious  impressions,  which  had  so  much  power 
in  his  times,  his  inherent  sensual  barbarity  was  imsusceptible. 
He  wavered  betwixt  a  brutal  infidelity  and  a  servile  super- 
stition. A  dispute  concerning  the  filling  up  of  a  vacancy  left 
by  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  gave  the  pope  opportimity 
to  guide  the  choice  after  his  own  will,  and  he  fixed  upon 
an  Englishman,  cardinal  Stephen  Langton,  to  occupy  this  post. 
The  king  thought  he  might  complain  that  his  wishes  had  not 
been  duly  consulted  in  this  affair,  and  perhaps  too  he  was 
averse  to  the  man,  who  may  have  been  one  of  the  worthier 
sort.  At  first  he  repelled  with  blind  defiance  all  the  repre- 
sentations and  threats  of  the  pope.  The  interdict  under  which 
England  was  laid  in  1208  could  not  break  down  his  stubborn 
self-will,  great  as  was  the  terror  which  elsewhere  such  a  mea- 
sure at  that  time  spread  all  around  ;  for  the  entire  people, 
innocent  and  guilty,  must  suffer,  because  the  king  would  not 
obey  the  pontiff" ;  all  must  be  deprived  of  the  blessing  of  the 
church.  Of  the  sacraments,  none  but  extreme  unction,  the 
baptism  of  children,  and  confession  were  permitted.  The 
bodies  of  the  dead  were  borne  forth  and  buried  mthout  prayer 
or  the  attendance  of  priests. 

There  was  one  individual,  however,  who  encouraged  the 
king  to  despise  the  interdict  which  filled  so  many  minds  with 
uneasiness.  The  man  who  possessed  this  influence  with  the 
king,  a  theologian  named  Alexander,  had  not  adopted  this 
policy  through  any  interest  for  the  truth,  but  solely  induced 
by  the  most  sordid  motives  of  gain.  He  courted  the  king's 
favour  to  promote  his  own  advantage,  acting  as  the  tool  of  his 
despotism  in  the  contest  with  papal  absolutism.  "  This  cala- 
mity," said  he  to  the  poor,  miserable  monarch,  "  had  not  come 
upon  England  by  the  king's  fault,  but  on  account  of  the  vices 
of  his  subjects."  The  king  himself  was  the  scourge  of  the 
Lord,  and  ordained  of  God  to  rule  the  people  with  a  rod 
of  iron.     As  often  happens,  the  same  was  said  here  to  uphold 

VOL.  VII.  R 


242        CENSURES  ON  INNOCENT  THE  THIRD  IN  ENGLAND. 

the  interest  of  political  despotism  as  had  been  said  by  others 
to  defend  the  interests  of  truth  and  piety :  that  over  the  pos- 
sessions of  princes  and  potentates,  and  over  civil  governments, 
the  pope  had  no  jurisdiction  whatever ;  for,  to  the  first  of  the 
apostles,  to  Peter,  was  committed  by  our  Lord  only  a  purely 
spiritual  authority.  This  worthless  individual  was  overloaded 
by  the  king  with  benefices ;  but  he  afterwards  experienced  the 
just  reward  of  his  baseness,  for  the  very  king  whom  he  had 
served  afterwards  gave  him  up  to  the  pope ;  and,  stripped  of 
all  his  prebends,  he  saw  himself  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a 
beggar.* 

The  circumstance  which  at  last,  after  a  resistance  of  five 
years,  bowed  the  stubborn  will  of  the  king  to  submission,  was 
not  the  might  of  the  spiritual  weapons  of  the  pope,  but  fear  of 
a  foreign  power  which  the  pope  managed  to  raise  up  against 
him,  under  the  fonn  of  a  crusade.  King  Philip  Augustus  of 
France  welcomed  the  opportunity  which  gave  him  a  chance  in 
executing  on  king  John  the  papal  sentence  of  deposition,  of 
making  himself  master  of  the  English  crown.  As  the  latter 
had  the  more  occasion  to  dread  such  a  war  because  he  had 
exasperated  his  subjects  and  excited  discontent  amongst  his 
nobles ;  so,  in  the  year  1213,  he  humbled  his  tone  from  that 
of  insolent  defiance  to  an  equally  slavish  submission.  He 
acknowledged  the  pope  as  his  liege  lord,  received  the  crown 
from  his  hands,  swore  subjection  to  him  like  a  vassal,  and 
bound  himself  to  assist  in  a  crusade  which  Innocent  was  then 
labouring  with  great  zeal  to  set  on  foot.  The  pope  now 
became  his  protector,  and  adopted  him  as  a  penitent  prodigal. 
When  the  nobles  of  England,  dissatisfied  with  the  self-degra- 
dation of  their  king,  and  with  his  many  arbitrary  acts,  sought 
to  revive  the  old  liberties  of  the  realm,  and  to  oppose  a  firm 
check  to  despotism,  it  was  the  pope  who  now  turned  his 
spiritual  arms  to  fight  the  battles  of  such  a  king.  But  if  the 
popes,  when  they  appeared  as  defenders  of  justice  and  of  sacred 
institutions  and  customs,  as  protectors  of  oppressed  innocence, 
could  not  fail  thereby  to  present  the  pontifical  dignity  in  a 
more  advantageous  light  to  the  nations,  a  proceeding  of  this 
sort,  where  it  was  so  plainly  evinced  that  they  were  ready  to 
sacrifice  everything  else   to   their  personal  aggrandizement, 

»  See  Matthew  of  Paris,  at  the  year  1209,  f.  192. 


INNOCEXT  IS  FAVODB  OF  OTHO  THE  FOURTH,  243 

could  only  produce  an  impression  injurious  to  their  reputation 
on  the  public  conscience.  In  England,  it  was  already  mur- 
mured :  "  Thou,  who,  as  holy  father,  as  the  pattern  of  piety 
and  the  protector  of  justice  and  truth,  oughtest  to  let  thy  light 
shine  before  the  whole  world,  dost  thou  enter  into  concord 
with  such  a  WTetch — praise  and  protect  such  a  monster  ?  But 
tliou  defendest  the  tyrant  who  cringes  before  thee,  that  thou 
mayest  draw  everything  into  the  whirlpool  of  Roman  cupidity  ; 
yet  such  a  motive  directly  charges  thee  as  guilty  before  God."* 
The  city  of  London  despised  the  ban  and  the  interdict  whereby 
the  pope  sought  to  compel  obedience  to  the  king.  The  papal 
bull  was  declared  null ;  for  such  things  did  not  depend  on  the 
pope's  decision,  since  the  authority  bestowed  on  the  apostle 
Peter  by  our  Lord  related  solely  to  the  church,  "  Why 
does  the  insatiable  avarice  of  Rome,"  it  was  said,  "  stretch 
itself  out  to  us  ?  What  concern  have  the  apostoliod  bishops 
with  our  domestic  quarrels?  They  want  to  be  successors 
of  Constantine,  not  of  Peter.  If  they  do  not  foUow  Peter 
in  his  works,  they  cannot  partake  of  his  authority ;  for  God 
treats  men  according  to  their  true  deserts.  Shameful !  to  see 
these  miserable  usurers  and  promoters  of  simony  ainung 
already,  by  means  of  their  ban,  to  rule  over  the  whole  world. 
How  very  different  jfrom  Peter,  the  men  who  claim  to  possess 
his  authority !  "f  And,  in  despite  of  the  interdict,  public 
worship  still  continued  to  be  kept  up  in  London, 

The  present  relations  of  the  papal  dominion  to  the  German 
empire  were  also  favourable  to  it.  The  young  prince  Frederic 
the  Second,  a  child  only  a  few  years  old,  left  beliind  him  by 
the  emperor  Henry  the  Sixth,  had  been  recommended  by  his 

*  The  free-spirited  English  historian,  Matthew  of  Paris,  quotes  such 
words  (f.  224))  ftx)m  the  lips  of  the  English  barons.  It  certainly  appears, 
comparing  it  with  other  expressions  of  his,  that  he  cannot  seriously  mean 
what  he  himself  says  against  this :  Et  sic  barones  lacrimantes  et  lamen- 
tantes  regem  et  papam  maledixerunt,  imprecantes  inexpiabiliter,  cum 
scriptum  sit :  principi  non  maledices,  et  pietatem  et  reverentiam  trans- 
gredientur,  cum  illustrem  Joannem  regem  Anglise  servum  asseruerunt, 
cum  Deo  servire  regnare  sit. 

t  Matthew  of  Paris,  who  cites  such  voices,  adds,  to  be  sure,  what 
hardly  could  be  his  honest  opinion :  Sic  igitur  blasphemantes,  ponentes  os 
in  c<Elum  ad  iuterdicti  vel  excommunicationis  sententiam  nullum  penitus 
habentes  respectnm,  per  totam  civitatem  celebrarout  divisa  signa,  pul- 
santes  et  vocibus  altisonis  modulautes. 

k2 


244  INNOCENT  IN  FAVOUR  OF  OTHO  THE  FOURTH. 

mother  Constantia,  on  her  deathbed,  to  the  guardianship  of  the 
pope.  Frederic,  it  is  true,  was  already  elected  king  of  Rome, 
but  there  appeared  to  be  no  possibility  of  making  his  claims 
valid.  His  uncle,  Philip,  duke  of  Suabia,  and  the  duke  Otho 
of  Saxony,  were  contending  with  one  another  for  the  imperial 
dignity,  and  this  furnished  the  pope  with  another  welcome 
opportunity  of  placing  the  papal  power  high  above  every  other 
subsisting  among  men  ;  to  appropriate  to  himself  the  supreme 
direction  of  all  hunian  affairs,  the  right  of  deciding  as  to  the 
disposition  of  the  contested  imperial  crown.  Innocent,  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  decision  of  this  dispute,  drew  up 
^  writing,*  in  which,  making  use  of  various  passages  of 
Scripture,  particularly  from  the  Old  Testament,  he  brings 
together,  in  the  usual  scholastic  form  of  that  lime,  the  argu- 
ments for  and  against  the  choice  of  all  three, — Frederic, 
Philip,  and  Otho.  Against  Philip  he  objected,  that  he  was 
descended  of  a  race  hostile  to  the  church ;  that  the  sins  of  the 
fathers  would  be  visited  upon  the  children  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generations,  if  they  followed  their  father's  example.  In 
favour  of  Otho,  it  was  alleged,  on  the  other  hand,  that  he  had 
sprung  from  a  race  constantly  devoted  to  the  church ;  and  the 
pope  concluded,  after  examining  all  the  arguments  on  both 
sides,  that,  if  the  German  princes,  when  he  had  waited  a 
sufficient  length  of  time,  could  not  unite  in  the  choice  of  any 
one,  he  should  give  his  voice  for  Otho.  When,  in  pursuance 
of  this  resolution,  he,  in  the  year  1201,  caused  duke  Otho  to 
be  recognized  by  his  legates  as  king  of  Rome,  and  pronounced 
excommunication  on  all  his  opponents,  he  met  with  determined 
resistance  from  Philip's  party,  which  constituted  the  majority. 
A  portion  of  it,  including  several  bishops,  issued  a  letter  to 
the  pope,t  in  which  they  very  strongly  expressed  their  sur- 
prise at  the  conduct  of  his  legate.  "  Where  had  it  ever 
occurred  in  the  case  of  any  of  his  predecessor,  that  they 
so  interfered  in  the  election  of  an  emperor  as  to  represent 
themselves  either  as  electors  or  as  umpires  over  the  election  ? 
Originally,  no  papal  election  could  be  valid  without  the  con- 
currence of  the  emperor ;  but  the  magnanimity  of  the  emperors 
had  led  them  to  renounce  this  right.  If,  now,  the  simplicity 
of  laymen  had  given  up,  from  a  feeling  of  reverence  to  the 

*  Registr.  ed.  Baluz.  i.  f.  697.  f  L.  c  f.  715. 


HONOBIUS  THE  THIKD.  245 

church,  a  right  previously  exercised  by  them,  how  should  the 
sacredness  of  the  papacy  presume  to  usurp  to  itself  a  right 
which  it  never  possess©!?"  Innocent  replied  to  this  pro- 
testation in  a  letter  to  the  duke  of  Zahringen  :  "  Far  was  it 
firom  him,"  he  wrote,  "  to  take  away  from  the  princes  the  right 
of  election,  which  belonged  to  them  by  ancient  custom,  espe- 
cially since  it  was  by  the  apostolical  see  itself,  which  had 
transferred  this  right  from  the  Greeks  to  the  Germans,  that 
the  same  had  been  given  them ;  but  the  princes  should  also 
understand  that  to  the  pope  belonged  the  right  of  trying 
the  person  elected  king,  and  of  promoting  him  to  the  empire, 
since  it  is  the  pope  who  has  to  anoint,  to  consecrate,  and 
to  crown  him.  Suppose  then,  even  by  a  unanimous  vote  of 
the  princes,  the  choice  should  fiJl  on  an  exconununicated  per- 
son, on  a  tyrant,  on  a  madman,  or  on  a  heretic,  or  heathen, — 
is  the  pope  to  be  forced  to  anoint,  consecrate,  and  crown  such 
a  person?"  After  the  assassination  of  duke  Philip,  in  the 
year  1208,  no  power  remained  to  oppose  king  Otho;  and  he 
continued  to  maintain  a  good  understanding  with  the  pope  till 
he  obtained  from  him  the  imperial  crown.  But  as  he  defended, 
against  him,  the  rights  of  the  empire,  so  he  soon  fell  into 
a  quarrel  with  him  ;  which  was  finally  carried  to  such  a  length, 
that  the  pope  pronoimced  the  ban  upon  him.  And  now  his 
choice  fell  on  the  prince  whom  he  had  at  first  endeavoured  to 
place  at  the  farthest  distance  from  the  imperial  throne,  the 
young  prince,  Frederic  the  Second.  It  was  not  till  the  pope 
had  examined  the  choice  of  the  princes  at  the  Lateran  council, 
in  1215,  that  he  ratified  it. 

The  emperor  Frederic  might  well  adopt,  from  the  first,  the 
spirit  which  animated  his  ancestry  in  their  contests  with  the 
popes ;  nor  were  the  teachings  of  his  own  experience,  from 
his  earliest  childhood,*  calculated  to  inspire  lum  with  much 
love  for  them.  Still,  his  natural  prudence  forbade  him, 
in  the  outset,  to  let  his  designs  be  known  publicly.  As 
the  getting  up  of  a  new  crusade  was  a  feivourite  thought  of 
Innocent's  successor,  Honorius  the  Third,  which  lay  nearer  to 
his  heart  than  the  interest  of  the  papal  hierarchy,  so  Frederic 

*  Frederic  complains,  L.  I.  ep.  20,  de  Vineis,  of  the  bad  treatment  he 
had  already  received  from  pope  Innocent  the  Third,  to  whose  guardian* 
ship  he  had  been  committed  by  his  dying  mother. 


246  HONORIUS  THE  THIRD. 

could  take  advantage  of  this  humour  of  the  pope,  and,  by  fall- 
ing in  with  it,  carry  out  many  objects  of  his  own,  which  under 
other  circumstances  would  not  have  been  possible.  He  amused 
the  pope,  however,  by  putting  off,  from  one  time  to  another, 
the  fulfilment  of  his  promise  to  undertake  a  crusade.  When 
the  last  term  had  arrived,  in  which  Frederic  had  bound  himself, 
under  penalty  of  the  ban,  actually  to  engage  in  his  crusade, 
Honorius  died.  This  was  in  the  year  1227.  His  successor, 
Gregory  the  Ninth,  though  now  seventy-seven  years  old,  was 
still  full  of  energy,  and  as  the  papal  hierarchy  was  with  him 
a  more  important  object  than  the  cause  of  the  crusades,  the 
emperor  found  it  more  difficult  to  satisfy  him.  Frederic 
seemed  disposed  really  to  fulfil  the  promise  given  two  years 
before.  A  great  array  assembled  near  Brindisi,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  passing  by  sea  to  the  East.  The  emperor  had  already 
embarked ;  when  compelled,  as  he  said,  by  illness,  he  turned 
back,  and  the  whole  expedition  was  broken  up.  The  pope  looked 
upon  this  as  a  mere  pretext ;  and  at  the  Anglo-Roman  Synod 
of  Easter  he  pronounced  the  ban  on  the  emperor,  and  absolved 
his  subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance.  In  a  letter  to  the 
king  of  England,*  the  emperor  complained  of  the  wrong  done 
him  by  the  pope ;  he  solemnly  avowed  his  innocence,  and  de- 
clared it  to  be  his  determination  to  fulfil  his  vow  as  soon  as  it 
was  possible.  He  sought  to  show,  that  cupidity  and  ambition  lay 
at  the  bottom  of  all  the  machinations  of  the  Roman  court.f 
"  The  primitive  church,  founded  in  poverty  and  simplicity,  had 
been  fruitful  of  holy  men ;  but  through  superabundance  of 
earthly  goods  she  had  been  corrupted."  He  drew  a  picture  of 
the  extortions,  which,  to  the  great  injury  of  Christendom,  pro- 
ceeded from  Rome ;  he  pointed  to  the  history  of  England  in 
the  times  of  Innocent  the  Third,  as  a  warning  against  papal 
ambition,  which  sought  to  make  all  empires  dependent  on 
itself;  and  he  called  upon  the  princes  to  take  a  lesson  from  his 
own  example,  and,  according  to  the  ancient  proverb,  "  Look 
out  for  themselves,  when  their  neighbour's  house  was  on  fire."J 

*  Matthew  of  Paris,  at  the  year  1228,  fol.  293. 

f  Curia  Romana  omnium  malorum  radix  et  origo,  non  matemos,  sed 
actos  exercens  noVercales,  ex  cognitis  fructibus  suis  certum  faciens  argu- 
uentum. 

I  In  the  words  of  Virgil :  Tunc  tua  res  a^tur,  paries  quum  proximus 
ardet. 


FREDERIC  THE  SECOXD'S  CRUSADE.  247 

Still  the  emperor,  doubtless,  understood  that  he  should 
always  have  the  public  voice  against  him  tUl  he  had  refuted, 
by  his  own  action,  the  reproachful  charges  of  the  pope.*  In 
the  year  1228  he  undertook  an  expedition  to  Palestine.  This, 
however,  would  in  the  eyes  of  the  pope  only  make  the  matter 
worse  ;  for  it  appeared  an  unheard-of  contempt  of  the  authroity 
of  the  church,  that  Frederic  should  venture  so  to  despise  the 
ban  pronounced  on  him  as  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  so  holy 
an  enterprise.  He  issued  the  command  to  Palestine,  that  no 
one  should  obey  the  emperor,  since  he  was  an  excommimicated 
person.  He  sought  to  stir  up  enemies  against  him  on  aU  sides, 
and  his  states  were  threatened.  The  emperor  managed  to  ren- 
der all  these  attempts  abortive.  He  hit  upon  the  expedient  of 
issuing  his  orders  to  the  army,  not  in  his  own  name,  but  in  tJie 
name  of  God  and  of  Christendom.  Through  favourable  politi- 
cal circumstances,  he  succeeded  in  concluding  a  peace  of  ten 
years  with  the  Sultan  of  I^ypt;  whereby,  to  be  sure,  the 
wishes  of  those  who  felt  a  deeper  interest  than  the  emperor  for 
the  cause  of  Christianity  in  the  East  were  by  no  means  satis- 
fied. At  the  holy  sepulchre,  he  placed  upon  his  head  the 
crown  of  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  and,  in  his  letters  written 
to  Europe,  boasted,  with  a  tone  of  triumph,  of  the  great  things 
he  had  been  able  to  accomplish  in  so  short  a  time.  "  The 
finger  of  Grod,"  he  declared,  "  was  manifestly  in  it."  Then,  in 
the  year  1229,  he  hastened  back  to  Europe,  to  the  relief  of  his 
hardly-pressed  states.  Here  he  found  very  many  enemies  to 
contend  with  ;  and  the  pope  endeavoured  to  get  up  a  general 
crusade  against  him.  The  emperor  easily  got  the  victory ;  yet 
lie  understood  too  well  the  spirit  of  his  age,  to  be  disposed  to 
push  things  to  an  extreme.  He  concluded,  in  1230,  a  treaty 
with  the  pope,  which  was  to  the  latter's  advantage.  He  pro- 
mised to  obey  the  commands  of  the  church,  on  all  the  points 
with  reference  to  which  he  had  been  excommunicated.  Yet, 
as  both  remained  true  to  their  principles,  this  peace  could  not 
be  of  very  long  duration  ;   and  though  they  were  apparently 

•  It  was  the  emperor's  true  mode  of  thinking  whicli  he  expressed 
when  he  declared  among  the  Mohammedans  that  he  had  undertaken  this 
expedition,  and  was  obliged  to  acquire  something  by  means  of  it,  in 
order  to  restore  his  good  fiime  in  the  West.  See  Extraits  des  historieus 
Arabes  relatifs  aux  guerres  des  Croisades,  par  M.  Beinauld,  1829, 
pag.  429. 


248      CHARGES  AGAINST  FREDEEIC  BY  GREGORY  THE  NINTH. 

united,  yet  in  secret  they  worked  in  opposition  to  each  other. 
When  Frederic  sought  to  subject  the  cities  of  Lombardy,  to 
extend  and  confirm  his  power  in  Italy,  but  refused  to  accept 
the  offered  mediation  of  the  pope,  which  would  go  against  his 
interests,  the  latter  became  still  more  alienated  from  him.  He 
united  himself  with  the  liberty-loving  cities  of  Lombardy, 
which  the  emperor  had  exasperated  by  his  despotic  conduct ; 
and,  in  the  year  1239,  he  pronounced  the  ban  on  him  anew, 
because  he  had  stripped  the  church  of  many  of  her  possessions, 
and  because  of  the  oppressive  measures  with  which  he  had  bur- 
dened her.  At  the  same  time,  he  threw  in  an  accusation, 
which,  in  this  age,  must  have  made  a  greater  impression  than 
all  the  rest,  that,  "  on  account  of  his  words  and  deeds,  which 
were  known  through  the  whole  world,  he  was  strongly  suspected 
of  not  thinking  rightly  about  the  Catholic  faith."  The 
emperor  thereupon  issued  a  circular  letter  to  the  Christian 
princes  and  cardinals,  in  which  he  was  careful  to  distinguish 
the  pope  from  the  Roman  church  and  the  papal  see.  While 
he  testified  his  reverence  for  the  apostolical  see,  he  declared 
Gregory  only  to  be  unworthy  of  his  office.  He  could  not 
recognize  as  his  judge  a  man  who,  from  the  first,  had  shown 
himself  to  be  his  bitterest  enemy.  The  moving  spring  of  his 
actions  was  nothing  but  a  selfishnesss,  which  could  not  forgive 
the  emperor  for  being  unwilling  to  leave  in  his  (the  pope's) 
hands  the  management  of  Italian  affairs.  He  appealed  to  the 
decision  of  a  general  council.  To  wipe  away  the  impression 
which  this  declaration  might  create,  the  pope  now  came  forth 
more  openly  with  the  charge,  which  before  he  had  but  hinted 
at.  He  issued  a  bull,  in  which  he  portrayed  the  emperor  in 
the  blackest  colours  as  an  infidel.  He  accused  him  of  having 
asserted  that  the  whole  world  had  been  deceived  by  three  im- 
postors,— Moses,  Jesus,  and  Mohammed  ;  that  men  should 
believe  nothing  but  that  which  could  be  made  out  on  rational 
grounds,  and  explained  from  tiie  forces  of  nature.  It  was 
impossible  to  believe  that  God  was  born  of  a  virgin. 

The  question  here  arises,  whether  these  complaints  against 
the  religious  opinions  of  the  emperor  Frederic  rest  on  any  basis 
of  truth.  Assuredly,  the  testimony  of  the  pope  against  him 
cannot  be  received  as  trustworthy.  Respecting  a  prince,  who 
contended  so  powerfully  against  the  hierarchy,  and  thus  became 
iuvolved  in  contentions  with  the  monks,  who  served  as  its  in- 


Frederic's  ideas  of  reform.  249 

struments  ;  a  prince  who  rose  above  many  of  the  prejudices  of 
his  times,  and  who  lived  on  very  free  terras  with  the  Saracens, 
it  was  easy  to  set  afloat  disreputable  stoiies  of  this  sort.  A 
pope  so  passionately  prejudiced  against  the  emperor  was,  doubt- 
less, inclined  to  believe  everything  bad  of  him ;  and  as  the 
emperor  called  him  the  protector  of  the  heretics  in  Milan,  so 
he  would  be  glad  of  an  opportunitj'  to  retort  the  accusation 
more  severely  in  another  fonn.  Even  the  historian  Matthew 
of  Paris  notices  the  contradictions  in  which  men  involved 
themselves  by  these  charges  against  the  emperor.  Sometimes 
he  was  accused  of  having  declared  all  the  three  founders  of 
religion  to  be  impostors ;  sometimes  of  having  placed  Moham- 
med above  Christ.  We  might  conceive  that  Frederic  was  led 
by  his  contest  with  the  hierarchy,  and  by  the  clearer  discern- 
ment of  his  less  prejudiced  understanding,  to  detect  the  felsifi- 
cations  of  original  Christianity,  and  the  corruption  of  the 
church  which  sprung  from  the  mixing  up  of  spiritual  and 
secular  things.  Judging  from  the  public  imperial  declarations 
compiled  by  the  chancellor  Peter  de  Vineis,  it  might  appear, 
we  admit,  that  Frederic  the  Second  aimed  at  a  purification  of 
the  clmrch  on  this  particular  side ;  as,  in  a  circular  letter  to  the 
princes,  appealing  to  the  testimony  of  his  conscience,  and 
to  God,  he  declares :  *'  It  had  ever  been  his  purpose  to  bring 
back  all  the  clergy,  and  especially  the  higher  order,  to  the 
standard  of  the  apostolical  church,  when  they  led  an  apostoli- 
cal life,  and  imitated  the  humility  of  our  Lord.  For  such 
clergymen  are  used  to  behold  the  visions  of  angels,  to  shine  by 
miracles,  to  heal  the  sick,  to  raise  the  dead,  and  to  subject 
princes  to  themselves,  not  by  arms,  but  by  the  power  of  a  holy 
life."  "  But  the  clergy  at  present,"  he  then  adds,  "  devoted 
to  the  world  and  to  drunkenness,  are  lovers  of  pleasure  more 
than  lovers  of  God.  In  their  case,  religion  is  choked  by  the 
superfluity  of  riches.  To  deprive  them  of  those  hurtful  riches, 
with  which  they  are  damnably  burdened,  is  a  work  of  charity. 
He  would  invite  all  the  princes  to  co-operate  with  him  in  this 
work,  in  order  that  the  clergy,  relieved  of  all  their  superfluities, 
may  serve  God,  contented  with  a  little."*  The  emperor  here 
expresses  a  conviction,  which  we  find  expressed  in  many  a  re- 
action of  the  Christian  spirit  against  the  secularization  of  the 

♦l!^2. 


250  EVIDENCES  OF  FREDERIc's  INFIDELITY. 

church,  since  the  time  of  Arnold  of  Brescia ;  in  the  prophecies 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries ;  in  the  songs  of  the 
German  national  poets  ;  and  in  the  phenomena  of  the  history  of 
sects.  But  the  public  declarations  of  a  monarch  can  hardly  be 
taken  as  trustworthy  sources  from  which  to  form  a  judgment 
of  his  religious  opinions  ;  and  the  rest  of  the  emperor's  conduct 
by  no  means  evinces  that  he  was  governed  by  any  such  plan  of 
impoverishing  the  clergy.  He  appears  in  his  laws  to  have 
been  a  violent  persecutor  of  the  sects  to  the  advantage  of  the 
hierarchy,  although  in  many  of  them  he  must  have  observed  a 
like  religious  interest  directed  against  the  secularization  of  the 
church. 

As  to  the  remarks  ascribed  to  Frederic  the  Second,  by 
which  he  is  alleged  to  have  placed  the  Jewish,  Christian,  and 
Mohammedan  religions  on  one  and  the  same  level,  such 
remarks*  may,  perhaps,  have  only  been  a  current  form  among 
the  people  for  expressing  a  naturalistic  mode  of  thinking.  But 
although  expressions, — actually  made  by  no  one, — but  which 
had  become  stamped  as  the  current  phrase,  to  denote  a  deistic, 
naturalistic  mode  of  thinking,  may  have  been  wrongfully  attri- 
buted to  the  emperor  Frederic, — yet  it  may  be  true,  after  all, 
that,  from  other  indications,  men  had  reason  to  conclude  that 
he  was  really  given  to  such  a  mode  of  thinking.  Several  otiier 
remarks,  said  to  have  been  uttered  by  him,  and  supposed  to 
indicate  a  decided  infidelity,  were  circulated  about ;  as,  for 
example,  that  once,  on  seeing  the  Host  carried  by,  he  observed, 
"  How  long  shall  this  imposture  go  on  ?"■]■  It  is  remarkable 
that,  among  the  Mohammedans,  the  emperor  left  the  im- 
pression, during  his  stay  in  the  East,  that  he  was  anythign  but 
a  believing  Christian.|     It  may  be  easily  explained  how, — 

*  See  farther  on,  in  the  history  of  the  scholastic  theology. 

t  See  Matthew  of  Paris,  at  the  year  1439,  f.  408 ;  and  something  more 
definite  by  the  contemporary  Alberic,  as  Leibnitz  (Access.  Hist.  T.  II. 
568)  relates.  The  emperor's  words,  as  the  pyx  was  being  carried  by  to 
a  sick  person,  were — "  Heu  me  I  quamdiu  durabit  truflFa  ista  ?  " 

X  Abulfeda  repeats,  from  the  mouth  of  a  Mohammedan  scholar, 
Gemel-ed-din,  who  stood  high  in  the  estimation  of  Frederic's  sons,  an 
account  of  Frederic's  inclination  in  favour  of  the  followers  of  Islam, 
which  descended  from  him  to  his  sons ;  with  which,  to  be  sure,  the  false 
story  is  joined,  that,  for  this  reason,  Frederic  was  excommunicated  by  tha 
pope,  Tom.  V.  pp.  145,  146.  When  the  words  of  the  Koran  against 
Christianity  were  proclaimed  from  the  minaret  of  Omar's  mosque  in  Je- 


rBEDEKIC*S  CONTEST  WITH  GREGORY  THE  NDTTH.  251 

hj  his  passionate  contests  with  the  popes,  from  whom  he  had 
experienced,  ever  since  his  earliest  childhood,  in  the  name  of 
religion  and  the  church,  so  much  evil ;  by  his  opposition  to 
the  acknowledged  corruption  of  the  church  ;  by  the  incon- 
gruities between  the  reigning  church  doctrine  and  his  clear 
tmderstanding,  Frederic  might  be  impelled  to  reject  the  whole 
at  once,  destitute  as  he  was  of  the  religious  sense  which 
would  have  enabled  him  to  separate  and  distinguish  the 
original  faith  and  the  foreign  elements  with  which  it  had 
become  encimibered.  The  influence  of  the  learned  Moham- 
medans, with  whom  he  was  on  terms  of  intimacy,  might  also 
have  contributed  to  promote  such  a  tendency  in  him.  "We 
cannot  be  surprised  that  Frederic's  one-sided  intellectual 
training,  in  which  sincerity  and  warmth  of  religious  feeling 
had  no  part,  should  have  led  him  to  an  infidelity,  which  was 
called  forth  in  occasional  paroxysms,  at  least,  by  mere  brutal 
rudeness,  in  the  case  of  king  John  of  England.  We  might 
indeed  say,  T^ith  the  historian  Matthew  of  Paris,  that  the 
religious  opinions  of  this  emperor,  concerning  which  we  can 
judge  but  from  what  others  report,  are  certainly  known  only 
to  the  Omniscient  :*  but  if  we  compare  all  the  accounts 
diflPused  among  Christians  and  Mohammedans,  we  must  still 
be  inclined  to  consider  him  as  having  been,  to  say  the  least,  a 
denier  of  revealed  religion.  The  circxunstance  that  the  pope 
did  not  make  any  further  use  of  these  criminations,  by  no 
means  makes  it  clear  that  they  were  all  a  febrication ;  for 
naturally,  it  would  have  been  found  diflBcult,  if  not  impos- 
sible, to  establish  these  charges  on  such  grounds  of  evidence 
as  were  required,  in  order  to  bring  a  process  against  him. 

msalem,  the  cadi,  with  whom  the  emperor  resided,  -was  greatly  annoyed. 
He  contrived  to  have  it  stopped,  lest  the  emperor  might  be  offended.  The 
latter,  surprised  at  no  longer  hearing  the  accnstomed  cry  from  the  mi- 
naret, asked  the  cadi  the  reason  of  it,  and  the  cadi  explained  the  whole 
matter.  "  You  have  done  wrong,"  said  the  emperor ;  "  why  should  yon, 
on  my  account,  be  wanting  to  yonr  duty,  to  your  law,  to  your  religion  ?  " 
See  the  book  of  Reinauld,  already  referred  to,  p«  432.  An  official,  at- 
tached to  the  mosque  of  Ooiar,  who  conducted  him  about,  related  that  the 
emperor's  conversation  showed  sufficiently  that  he  believed  nothing 
about  Christianity ;  wheu  he  spoke  of  it,  it  was  only  to  ridicule  it.  IZ 
c  p.  431. 

♦  Matthew  of  Paris  says,  concerning  Frederic's  accusers  on  the  point 
of  his  orthodoxy :  Si  peccabant,  vel  non,  novit  ipse,  qui  nihil  ignorat. 
L.  c  f.  527. 


252      Frederic's  contest  with  Gregory  the  ninth. 

A  conflict  arose  between  Gregory  the  Ninth  and  the  emperor 
Frederic,  for  life  or  for  death ;  the  old  Gregory  brought 
secular  and  spiritual  weapons  to  bear  against  the  emperor ; 
he  allied  himself  with  the  cities  of  Lombardy,  which  were 
battling  for  their  freedom,  and  from  all  quarters  sought  to 
collect  money  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  war,  whence 
various  complaints  about  the  corruption  of  the  Roman  court, 
and  many  a  free  speech  in  opposition  to  it,  would  naturally  be 
provoked.*  The  emperor  cleared  himself  publicly  from  the 
aspersions  thrown  upon  him  by  the  pope,  by  a  full  profession 
of  orthodoxy ;  he  contrived  to  prevent  the  introduction  into 
his  states  of  papal  bulls,  which  were  averse  to  his  interests ; 
and  carried  his  point,  in  forbjdding  the  pope's  interdict  to  be 
observed.  P>en  at  Pisa,  mass  was  celebrated  in  his  presence. 
The  monks  and  clergy  who  consented  to  be  used  as  the  pope's 
instruments,  and  refused  to  hold  public  worship,  were  removed 
from  his  states.  His  weapons  also  were  successful.  In  the 
year  1239,  his  troops  stood  victorious  before  the  gates  of 
Rome.  The  pope  meanwhile  sent  letters  missive  for  a  general 
council,  to  meet  in  1241,  and  proposed  to  the  emperor  a  sus- 
pension of  arms,  in  order  that  the  meeting  might  be  held. 
Frederic,  it  is  true,  was  inclined  to  peace ;  but  he  well  under- 
stood the  hostile  intentions  of  the  pope,  who  only  wanted  to 
use  tlie  council  as  an  instrument  against  him  ;  and  he  would 
not  be  hindered  by  it  in  prosecuting  his  designs  against  the 
Lombardian  states.  He  therefore  accepted  the  proposal  of  a 
cessation  of  hostilities,  but  on  the  condition  that  the  Lom- 
bardian states,  the  allies  of  the  pope,  should  have  no  share  in 
it,  and  that  no  council  should  be  assembled.  The  pope  would 
not  listen  to  this,  nor  yet  would  he  suffer  himself  to  be  pre- 
vented from  holding  a  council.  He  contrived  so  to  arrange 
it,  that  a  Genoese  fleet  should  be  at  hand  for  the  protection  of 
the  prelates  who  might  attend  the  council.  In  vain  were  all 
the  warnings  given  out  by  the  emperor.  The  Genoese  fleet, 
however,  was  beaten  by  that  of  the  emperor,  and  many 
prelates  fell  into  his  hands  as  prisoners.     Yet  the  pope,  ad- 

*  Matthew  of  Paris  says :  Adeo  invaluit  Romanse  ecclesisc  insatiabilis 
cnpiditas.  confundens  fas  nefasque,  quod  deposito  ruborevehit  nieretrix 
vulgaris  et  effrons  omnibus  venalis  et  exposita,  usuraui  pro  parvo, 
simoniam  pro  nullo  inconvenienti  reputavit.     L.  c.  f.  493. 


CONTEST  OF  INNOCtXT  TUE  FOCRTH  WITH  FKEDEKIC.      253 

vanced  as  he  was  in  years,  did  not  suffer  nimself  to  be  moved 
by  this  untoward  event.  He  required  of  the  emperor,  to  the 
last,  undualified  submission.  Frederic  now  saw  his  predictions 
verified,  and  he  took  no  pains  to  conceal  his  joy  at  having 
p^^netrated  into  the  pope's  designs.  He  also  shut  his  eyes  to 
all  forbearance  towards  the  pope.  In  liis  proclamations  he 
dwelt  on  the  contrast  between  such  a  pope  and  the  apostle 
Peter,  of  whom  he  pretended  to  be  the  vicegerent.  "  When 
the  pope  is  in  drink,"  said  he,  "  he  fancies  himself  able 
to  control  the  emperor  and  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world."* 
Tlie  aged  pope  died,  while  thus  hardly  pressed,  in  the  year 
1241. 

After  the  sudden  demise  of  Celestin  the  Fourth,  who  was 
chosen  next,  followed  a  two  years'  vacancy  of  the  papal  chair ; 
and  the  cardinals,  by  the  tardiness  of  the  election,  which  many 
ascribed  to  their  worldly  views,  to  the  ambition  and  the  thirst 
for  power  of  individuals,  drew  upon  themselves  violent  re- 
proaches.|  Compelled  by  the  emperor  to  hasten  the  election, 
they  finsjly  made  choice  of  cardinal  Sinibald  of  Anagni, 
Innocent  the  Fourth.  The  new  government  opened  mth 
peaceful  prospects ;  for  a  treaty  was  set  on  foot  between  the 
emperor  and  the  pope,  and  such  an  one  as  would  redound  to 
the  advantage  of  the  latter ;  but  when  the  two  principal  par- 
ties came  to  meet  for  the  purpose  of  ratifying  it,  they  showed 
a  mutual  distrust  in  each  other's  proceedings,  and  the  affair 
was  spun  out  in  length.  Meantime  Innocent,  who  had  no 
intention  to  deal  honestly  with  the  emperor,  escaped  by  flight 
from  a  situation  in  which,  besieged  by  the  weapons  of  Fre- 
deric, he  could  not  act  freely.  According  to  a  preconcerted 
plan,  he  was  conveyed  by  a  Genoese  fleet  to  Lyons.     There 

•  Ep.  1,  Tn  ad  hoc  vivis  ut  concedas,  in  cujus  Tasis  et  sryphis  aureis 
scriptum  est:  bibo,  bibis.  Cujns  verbi  praeteritum  sic  frequenter  in 
mensa  repetis  et  post  cibum,  qood  quasi  raptus  usque  ad  tertinm  cceluic, 
Hebraice  et  Grsece  loqueris  et  Latine. 

t  So  the  emperor  writes  to  them  (ep.  14) :  Sedentes  ut  colubri  non 
quae  sursum  sunt,  sapitis ;  sed  quae  ante  oculos  sita  sunt,  mundaua,  non 
spiritualia  intueutibus  providetis.  Sitit  enim  qnaelibet  praesulatum  et  p»- 
palem  csurit  apicem.  And  in  a  letter  of  the  king  of  France  (ep.  35) : 
Ecce  nobilis  urbs  Komana  sine  capite  vivit,  quae  caput  est  alianun. 
Quare?  Certe  propter  discordiam  Romanomm;  sed  quid  eos  ad 
discurdiam  provocavit  ?  Auri  cupiditas  et  ambitio  diguitatum.  He  re- 
proaches them  on  account  of  their  fear  of  the  emperor- 


254  CIRCULAR  LETTER  OF  FREDERIC  THE  SECOND. 

he  placed  the  emperor  once  more  under  the  ban.  Next,  he 
sent  letters  missive  for  a  general  council  to  meet  at  Lyons  in 
the  year  1245,  where,  also,  Frederic  was  cited  to  appear  and 
defend  himself.*  The  pope  presented  before  this  council 
many  and  violent  charges  against  the  emperor ;  and  among 
these  were  charges  of  heresy  and  of  suspicious  connections 
with  the  Saracens.  The  imperial  statesman,  Thaddeus  de 
Suessa,  who  attended  the  council  as  Frederic's  envoy,  the  only 
individual  who  stood  forth  in  his  defence,  replied  to  these 
charges  with  a  satirical  allusion  to  the  Roman  court.  One 
thing,  at  least,  spoke  in  the  emperor's  favour,  said  he ;  in  his 
states  he  tolerated  no  usurer.f  He  at  the  same  time  declared, 
however,  that  to  the  most  serious  charge,  that  of  heresy,  the 
emperor  himself  alone  must  answer  in  person  ;  and  he  there- 
fore solicited  a  longer  delay  for  him.  With  difficulty  the 
pope  was  prevailed  upon  to  grant  a  respite  of  two  weeks.  But 
Frederic  declined  appearing  before  a  council  got  up  by  a  pope 
in  open  hostility  to  him,  as  a  thing  beneath  his  own  dignity 
and  that  of  the  empire.  The  pope  now  proceeded  in  the  most 
solemn  manner  to  pronounce  tlie  ban  and  the  sentence  of 
deposition  on  the  emperor.  Thaddeus  himself  was  struck  with 
awe  and  dismay ;  on  the  emperor  alone  it  failed  of  making  the 
least  impression.  On  hearing  of  what  had  been  done,  he  sent 
for  the  imperial  crown,  and,  placing  it  on  his  head,  said  :  "  I 
still  possess  this  crown ;  and  without  a  bloody  struggle  I  shall 
not  let  it  be  plucked  away  from  me  by  the  attack  of  any  pope 
or  council."  He  drew  up  a  circular  letter,  addressed  to  all 
the  princes,  in  which  he  expressed  himself  in  much  too  strong 

*  A  remarkable  sign  of  the  freer  public  sentiment,  on  which  aiready 
the  word  of  popes,  so  manifestly  governed  by  worldly  passions  and 
worldly  interests,  no  longer  had  its  former  power,  is  the  anecdote  told  by 
Matthew  of  Paris :  A  priest  in  Paris  was  obliged,  in  conformity  with  a 
command  addressed  to  all,  to  publish  the  ban  which  had  been  pronounced 
against  Frederic.  In  doing  this,  he  declared  that  he  had  received  it  in 
charge  to  announce  the  ban  with  tapers  burning  and  the  ringing  of  the 
bells.  He  knew  of  the  violent  contention,  and  the  inextinguishable 
hatred  between  them  both  ;  but  as  to  the  cause  of  it  he  knew  nothing. 
He  was  aware,  too,  that  one  of  the  two  was  to  blame  and  wronged  the 
other  ;  but  which  one  it  was,  he  did  not  know.  But  he  pronounced  the 
ban  on  that  one,  whichever  it  was,  who  wronged  the  other,  and  he  pro- 
nounced those  free  who  suffered  the  wrong  which  was  so  injurious  to 
entire  Christendom.     See  Matth.  of  Paris,  f.  575. 

t  Matthew  of  Paris,  f.  585. 


CIBCULAB  LETTER  OF  FREDERIC  THE  SECOKD.  255 

and  free  a  manner  *  for  the  spirit  of  the  times,  against  the 
proceedings  of  the  pope."j"  "  Would  that  we  had  learned  a 
lesson,"  said  he,  "  from  the  example  of  the  monarchs  before 
us,  instead  of  finding  ourselves  compelled  to  serve,  by  what 
we  must  suffer,  as  examples  for  those  who  come  after  us ! 
The  sons  of  our  own  subjects  forget  the  condition  of  their 
fathers,  and  honour  neither  king  nor  emperor  the  moment 
they  are  consecrated  as  apostolical  fethers.  What  have  not 
all  the  princes  to  fear  from  this  prince  of  the  priests,  if  one  of 
them  takes  such  liberties  with  the  emperor !  The  princes 
have  none  to  blame  but  themselves ;  they  have  brought  the 
mischief  on  their  own  heads  by  their  submissive  obedience  to 
these  pretended  saints,  whose  ambition  is  large  enough  to 
swallow  up  the  whole  world."  "  O,  if  your  simple  credulity 
would  only  beware  of  this  leaven  of  the  scribes  and  pharisees, 
which,  accordiug  to  the  words  of  our  Saviour,  is  hypocrisy, 
how  many  scandals  of  that  Roman  court  you  would  learn 
to  execrate,  which  are  so  infiimous  that  decency  forbids  us 
to  name  them."J  The  numberless  sources  of  revenue  by 
which  they  would  enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of  many 
an  impoverished  state,  made  them  crazy,  as  the  princes  them- 
selves must  be  well  aware.  He  call^  upon  them  to  unite 
with  him  in  wresting  from  the  clergy  this  abundance  of  earthly 
goods,  which  was  only  a  source  of  corruption  to  them  and  to 
the  church. 

The  fierce  contest  began  anew  ;  and  in  vain  did  the  emperor 
at  length,  moved  by  an  unfortimate  turn  of  civil  afllairs,  offer 
his  hand  for  peace.  Innocent  continued  implacably  to  carrj* 
on  the  war  tiU  the  death  of  the  emperor,  in  1250 ;  and  the 
popes  never  ceased  to  persecute  the  descendants  of  the  house 
of  Hohenstaufen.    Thus  the  papal  power  came  forth  victorious, 

*  Matthew  of  Paris  says,  concerning  the  impression  which  this  letter 
made :  Fridericus  libertatem  ac  nobilitatem  ecclesiae,  qoam  ipse  nunqoam 
auxit,  sed  magnifici  antecessores  ejus  malo  grato  suo  stabilierunt,  toto 
conamine  studuit  annullare  et  de  hseresi  per  id  ipsum  se  reddens  suspec^ 
turn,  merito  omnem,  qaem  hactenos  in  omni  populo  ignicolum  famse  pro- 
*  priae  prudentise  et  sapientiae  habuit,  impudenter  et  imprudenter  exstinxit 
atque  delevit.  f  Ep.  2. 

J  0  si  vestrae  credulitatis  simplicitas  a  scribarum  et  pharisseomm  fer- 
mento,  quod  est  hypo<rrisis,  juxta  sententiam  salvatoris  sibi  curaret  at- 
tendere,  quot  illius  curiae  turpimdines  execrari  possetis,  quas  honestas  et 
pudor  prohibet  nos  efifari. 


256      fiROSSHEAD's  DISCOURSE  BEFORE  THE  PAPAL  COURT. 

as  to  outward  success,  from  these  last  violent  contests;  but 
this  very  victory  was  destined  to  prove  its  ruin.  The  power 
which  could  not  be  overthrown  by  outward  force,  must, 
as  Bernard  had  foretold,  prepare  the  way  for  its  own  de- 
struction, by  being  abused.  This  very  age  furnished  an 
example  to  show  how  a  man,  with  no  other  weapons  than  those 
of  piety  and  truth,  might  venture  with  impunity  to  resist  the 
abuse  of  that  power  which  could  humble  mighty  monarchs. 

This  man  was  Robert  Grosshead  (Capito),  bishop  of 
Lincoln ;  a  man  who  held  also  an  important  place  among  the 
learned  theologians  of  his  age.  He  was  induced,  by  reason  of 
a  dispute  with  the  worldly-minded  canonicals  of  his  cathedral, 
to  make  a  journey  to  the  Roman  court,  and  thus  he  had  an 
opportunity  of  learning,  by  personal  observation,  the  whole  ex- 
tent of  the  corruption  which  prevailed  at,  and  proceeded  from, 
that  court.  In  the  year  1250  he  delivered  before  the  papal 
court  at  Lyons  a  strikingly  bold  discourse,  in  which  he  por- 
trayed at  large  the  faults  of  the  church,  and  pointed  out  how 
far  they  were  chargeable  to  the  Roman  court.*  "The  bad 
shepherds,"  he  says,  "are  the  cause  of  the  infidelity,  schisms, 
false  doctrines,  and  bad  conduct  throughout  the  whole  world. f 
As  the  great  work  of  Christ,  for  which  he  came  into  the  world, 
was  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  the  great  work  of  Satan  is  their 
destruction  ;  so  the  shepherds,  who  as  shepherds  take  the  place 
of  Jesus  Christ,  if  they  preach  not  the  word  of  God, — even 
though  they  should  not  lead  vicious  lives, — are  anti-Christ, 
and  Satan,  clothing  himself  as  an  angel  of  light."  He  then 
goes  on  to  describe  the  additional  evil  of  a  bad  life  in  the 
clergy.  "  And  the  guilt  of  the  whole,"  says  he,  "  lies  at  the 
door  of  the  Roman  court,  not  simply  because  it  does  not  root 
out  this  evil, — when  it  alone  is  both  able  and  bound  to  do  so, — 
but  still  more,  because  itself,  by  its  dispensations,  provisions, 
and  collation,  appoints  such  shepherds ;  and  thus,  in  order  to 
provide  for  the  temporal  life  of  an  individual,  expose  to  eternal 
death  thousands  of  souls,  for  the  salvation  of  every  one  of 
whom  Christ  died.     To  be  sure,  the  pope,  being  the  vice- 

♦  This  discourse,  with  other  ■writings  of  Robert,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Appendix  to  the  Fasciculus  rerum  expetendarum  fugiendarumque,  by 
Ortuinus  Gratius,  ed.  Brown,  in  the  App.  fol.  251. 

+  Mali  pastores  causa  infidelitatis,  schismatis,  hjercticsD  prayitatis  et 
vitiosffi  conversationis  per  orbem  universum. 


GBOSSHEAd's  firmness  IX  THE  CONTEST  WITH  EOJIE.      257 

gerent  of  Christ,  must  be  obeyed.  But  when  a  pope  allows 
himself  to  be  moved  by  motives  of  consanguinity,  or  any  other 
secular  interest,  to  do  anything  contrary  to  the  precepts  and 
will  of  Christ,  then  he  who  obeys  him  manifestly  separates 
himself  from  Christ  and  his  body,  the  church,  and  from  him 
who  fills  the  apostolical  chair,  as  the  representative  of  Christ. 
But  whenever  a  universal  obedience  is  paid  him  in  such 
things,  then  comes  the  true  and  complete  apostasy — the  time 
of  anti- Christy  He  unconsciously  predicts  the  Reformation, 
when  he  says,  "  God  forbid  that  this  chair  should  at  some 
future  day,  when  true  Christians  refuse  to  obey  it  in  such 
things,  attempt  to  compel  obedience,  and  thus  become  the  cause 
of  apostasy,  and  open  schism."*  In  opposition  to  the  pope's 
practice  of  carrjdng  on  war  witli  worldly  weapons,  he  says : 
"  Those  who  are  anxious  for  the  safety  of  this  chair  are  mucli 
afraid  that  the  threatening  words  of  our  Lord  ^\'ill  be  fulfilled 
on  it,  '  He  who  takes  the  sword,  shall  perish  with  the  sword.'  " 
This  bishop,  after  his  return  to  England,  committed  the 
whole  charge  of  managing  the  external  affairs  of  his  office  to 
the  hands  of  another  person,  reserving  to  himself  the  purely 
spiritual  duties,  which  he  could  thus  discharge  to  much  greater 
advantage.  He  entered  heartily  into  the  business  of  visiting 
the  different  parts  of  his  diocese,  and  laid  himself  out  especially 
to  preach  the  gospel  everywhere.  Preaching,  he  looked  upon, 
in  general,  as  one  of  the  most  important  parts  of  his  pastoral 
office,  and  took  every  pains  to  stir  up  the  zeal  of  his  clergy  in 
it.  No  consideration  would  prevail  upon  him  to  induct  clergy- 
men whom  he  did  not  think  qualified  for  the  performance  of 
this  duty.  An  attempt  was  made  from  Rome,  to  compel  this 
excellent  man  to  confer  a  benefice  within  his  foundation  on  a 
mere  boy, — one  of  those  papal  favourites,  who,  besides  being 
destitute  of  every  spiritual  qualification,  could  speak  nothing 
but  Italian.  But  he  was  steadfast  in  refusing  to  obey  a 
mandatum  apostolicum  of  this  sort,  declaring,  "  he  was  ready 
to  pay  filial  obedience  to  the  apostolical  mandates,  as  also,  lie 
contended  against  everything  which  was  at  variance  with  the 
apostolical  mandates  ;   to  both  he  was  obligated  by  the  divine 

_  *  Absit  et  qaod  existentibus  aliquibus  aliquando  veraciter  Christo  cog- 
nitis  non  volentibus  quocunque  modo  voluntati  ejus  contraire  haec  sedes  et 
in  ea  prjEsidentes  praecipiendo  talibus  Christi  voluntate  oppositum  causa 
sint  discessionis  aut  schismatis  apparentis. 

VOL.  VII.  S 


258      GROSSHEAD  S  FIRMNESS  IN  THE  CONTEST  WITH  ROME. 

law,  for  an  apostolical  mandate  was  only  one  which  as^reed 
with  the  doctrine  of  the  apostles  and  of  onr  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
whose  place  was  especially  filled  by  the  pope  in  the  church  ;  for 
Christ  himself  says,  '  whosoever  is  not  with  me  is  against  me.' 
But  the  above  document  stood  in  no  sort  of  conformity  with 
the  holiness  of  the  apostolical  chair ;  for  by  such  papal  ordi- 
nances, Avhich,  by  the  phrase  '  non  obstante,'  superseded  all 
existing  rules,  the  most  shameless  effrontery  in  lying  and 
deceiving  was  encouraged,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  Christian 
life  and  of  social  order,  and  all  mutual  confidence  destroyed. 
Then  again,  after  the  sin  of  Satan  and  of  anti-Christ,  there  was 
none  more  abominable  than  that  of  plunging  souls  to  destruc- 
tion by  an  unfaithful  discharge  of  the  pastoral  ofllice.  The 
apostolical  chair,  on  which  was  conferred  by  our  Lord  all 
power  for  building  up,  and  not  for  pulling  down,  neither  ought, 
therefore,  nor  could  possibly  ordain  any  thing,  which  would 
lead  to  such  a  sin  ;  and  no  man,  who  was  truly  obedient  to  that 
sacred  chair,  and  had  not  cut  himself  oft"  from  the  body  of 
Jesus  Christ,  could  obey  such  commands ;  but,  even  though 
they  should  proceed  from  the  highest  class  of  angels,  must  re- 
sist them  with  all  his  might."  He  repeated  it  at  the  close  of 
his  letter :  "  The  fullness  of  power  means  solely  the  power  of 
doing  everything  for  the  edification  of  the  church  ;  by  no  means 
that  which  tends  to  her  destruction.  Those  papal  provisions 
tended  not  to  edification,  but  most  evidently  to  destruction. 
The  apostolical  chair  could  not  therefore  approve  of  such  pro- 
visions ;  for  flesh  and  blood,  which  cannot  be  partakers  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  have  revealed  this ;  not  the  Father  of  Jesus 
Christ  which  is  in  heaven."*  Amidst  positions  and  maxims  of 
church  doctrine,  the  principle  forces  its  way  through,  in  this 
witness  of  the  truth,  that  faith  clings  only  to  Christ,  and  must 
examine  and  prove  everything  by  its  relation  to  him,  to  his  spirit 
and  laws.  Zealous  as  this  bishop  was  in  defence  of  the  papal 
authority,  he  himself  maintaining  in  the  contest  with  the  king  of 
England  that  the  pope  must  be  supported  with  money  during  his 
exile  in  France,  still,  his  whole  mode  of  action  proceeds  from  the 
principle,  as  its  starting-point,  that  men  are  bound  to  obey  the 
pope  only  so  far  as  they  actually  recognize  in  him  the  organ  of 
Christ;  so  far  as  his  commands  harmonize  with  Christ's  doctrines. 

*  See  Matthew  of  Paris^  f.  570. 


LEGEND  COSCERNIKG  BISHOP  GEOSSHEAD.  259 

The  pope,  who  was  accustomed  to  triumph  over  the  might- 
iest princes,  was  greatly  exasperated  at  this  boldness  of  an 
English  bishop,  and  would  have  gladly  made  him  feel  at  once 
the  absoluteness  of  his  papal  power.  But  some  cardinals  kept 
him  back  ;  for  their  bad  consciences  made  them  dread  the  force 
of  the  public  discontent,  provoked  by  so  many  abuses  proceed- 
ing from  and  promoted  by  the  Roman  court,  and  the  voice  of 
truth,  supported  by  the  personal  authority  of  the  worthy  bishop. 
They  held  that  it  would  be  better  to  keep  still,  and  so  prevent 
the  sensation  which  the  affair  might  create.* 

A  legend  recorded  by  Matthew  of  Paris,  in  his  historical 
work,  deserves  to  be  noticed  as  characteristic  of  the  times,  and 
showing  the  influence  which  the  corruption  of  the  Roman  court 
had  on  the  public  judgment.  The  pope  is  said  to  have  in- 
tended to  avenge  himself  on  the  pious  and  free-spirited  bishop 
after  his  death,  which  shortly  occurred,  by  causing  his  bones 
to  be  disinterred ;  but  one  night  the  bishop  appeared  to  him, 
and,  fixing  on  him  a  stem  and  threatening  look,  struck  him 
upon  the  side  with  his  crosier.  This  made  so  profound  an  im- 
pression on  the  pope  that,  from  that  day  onward,  pursued  by 
one  divine  judgment  after  another,  he  had  not  a  moment's 
repose.f  So  in  the  descriptions  generally,  which  the  English 
historian,  Matthew  of  Paris,  gives  of  the  later  popes  of  this 
century,  and  in  the  legends  recorded  by  him  of  their  reappear- 
ance after  death,  we  see  what  an  unfavourable  influence 
the  abuse  of  the  papal  power  must  have  had  on  the  tone 
of  public  feeling ;  and  the  indignation  of  the  German  people 
against  the  popes  already  expressed  itself  strongly  in  the  songs 
and  ballads  of  the  thirteenth  century.  J 

"When  pope  Alexander  the  Fourth  commenced  his  adminis- 
tration with  requesting  that  all  Christians  would  pray  for  him, 

*  Deserving  of  notice  is  the  presentiment  of  a  fall  of  the  Eomish 
chnrcb,  to  be  brought  about  by  this  corruption  proceeding  from  Rome, 
•which  expresses  itself  in  the  way  in  which  Matthew  of  Paris  accounts  for 
the  concern  expressed  by  many  cardinals :  Maxime  propter  hoc,  quia 
scitnr,  quod  qnandoque  discessio  est  ventura. 

t  Matthew  of  Paris,  f.  760  :  Et  qui  vivum  nolnerat  andire  corripientem, 
senserat  mortuum  impingentem.  Nee  unquam  postea  ipse  papa  unum 
bonum  diem  vel  prosperum  continuavit  usque  ad  noctem  vel  noctem 
usque  ad  diem,  sed  insomnem  vel  molestam. 

X  See  passages  of  this  sort  collected  in  St'andlin's  Archiv  fiir  alte  imd 
neu  Kirchengeschichte,  IV.  3tes  St.  s.  549. 

S  2 


260  ZEAL  FOR  CRUSADES  EXTINGUISHED. 

it  was  hoped  that  this  pontiff  would  distinguish  himself  advan- 
tageously from  his  predecessors  ;  but  his  subsequent  conduct, 
the  course  he  pursued  in  exacting  contributions  from  the 
churches,  contradicted  these  hopes,  and  his  earlier  professions 
appeared  to  be  mere  hypocrisy,  and  a  mask  to  cover  a  worldly 
spirit.* 

The  factions  among  the  worldly-minded  cardinals  made  it 
possible  to  keep  the  papal  chair  vacant  during  a  space  of  three 
years  from  the  year  1269.  At  length,  in  1271,  they  agreed 
in  the  choice  of  an  ecclesiastic  from  Liege,  then  absent  at 
Ptolemais  on  a  crusade  under  prince  Edward  of  England.  He 
took  the  name  of  Gregory  the  Tenth. 

This  pope  had  already  bound  himself  to  the  cause  of  the 
crusades,  while  in  the  East.  He  therefore  felt  called  upon  to 
make  the  preparation  of  another  a  special  object  of  attention  ; 
and  this  was  one  of  the  objects  for  which  he  called  to- 
gether the  general  council  at  Lyons,  in  the  year  1274,  the 
most  important  transaction  of  his  administration.  But,  in  this 
century,  the  public  sentiment  had  already  undergone  a  great 
change  on  the  subject  of  crusades  ;  after  so  many  unsuccessful 
efforts,  the  zeal  once  so  easily  enlisted  in  tliese  undertakings 
had  abated.  The  popes  of  this  century,  when  they  raised  their 
voice  and  fired  the  people  to  embark  in  such  wars,  could  no 
longer  rely  on  the  universal  confidence,  which  met  their  pre- 
decessors half-way  in  the  twelfth  century.  The  exactions 
which  they  were  in  the  habit  of  making,  under  pretext  of  the 
crusades,  had  greatly  injured  these  in  the  public  opinion.^ 
The  repeated  failures  of  the  crusades  led  many  to  doubt  the 
goodness  of  the  cause ;  and  the  feith  of  those  who  were  ac- 

*  Matthew  of  Paris,  f.  795  :  Hypocrisin  reputant  et  sacularitatis  pal- 
liationem  quamplurimi.  Spes  prscconcepta  de  sanctitate  papae  prorsus 
evanuit  exsufflata.  In  excuse  of  the  pope  he  says  afterwards,  that  many 
things  were  done  in  his  name,  and  by  deceiving  him,  of  which  he  was  en- 
tirely innocent :  Veruntamen  multorum  auribus  veraciter  instillatum  est, 
quod  de  bulla  decepto  papafraus  committitur  multiformis  ;  but  he  adds 
immediately,  that  the  pope  could  not  be  excused  on  this  ground :  Sed  ha;c 
ratio,  si  tamen  ratio  est,  papam  non  excusat. 

t  Matthew  of  Paris  says  expressly,  that  the  exactions  of  Gregory  the 
Ninth  did  permanent  injury  to  the  cause  of  the  crusades  in  Pingland. 
Quod  fidelium  circa  negotium  crucis  tepuit,  imo  potius  caritas  rcfriguit 
generalis.  Unde  negotium  terraj  sancta;  nunquam  felix  super  hoc  sus- 
cepit  incrementum.     At  the  year  1234,  f.  340. 


REASONS  URGED  AGAINST  THE  CRUSADES.        261 

customed  to  make  up  their  judgments  according  to  the  dictates 
of  a  sensuous  religion,  received  a  violent  shock  from  the  unfor- 
tunate issue  of  the  cause  which  they  had  regarded  as  a  divine 
one.  from  the  victory  of  Mohammedan  arms  over  the  banner 
of  the  cross.*  Others,  who  had  attained  to  a  higher  position  of 
Christian  fiiith  and  knowledge,  were  either  led  by  the  issue  of 
the  crusades,  or  eke  availed  themselves  of  it,  to  express  the 
conviction  openly,  that  men  must  attack  unbelievers  with  other 
weapons  than  these,  and  employ  the  forces  of  Christendom  for 
other  objects  than  these. 

As  early  as  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  abbot 
Joachim,  of  Calabria,  a  man  earnestly  desirous  for  a  better 
slate  of  the  church,  had  spoken  with  remarkable  freedom 
against  the  zeal  for  the  crusades.  "  How  many  are  there  at 
the  present  time,"  said  he,")"  "  soliciting  the  pope  that  he  would 
cause  the  badge  of  the  cross  to  be  marked  on  the  shoulders  of 
Christians,  and  reaUy  intending,  under  the  pretext  of  going  to 
the  rescue  of  a  desolate  and  rejected  Jerusalem,  to  draw  gain 
and  temporal  advantage  to  themselves  out  of  piety.  They  con- 
sider not  how  bad  it  is  for  men  to  oppose  the  di\Tne  coimsels  ;  as 
when  the  restoration  of  the  walls  of  Jericho  was  forbidden  with 
a  curse — 1  Kings  xvi.  34 ;  Joshua  vi.  26."  He  represents, 
therefore,  the  restoration  of  Jerusalem  as  a  project  opposed  to 
the  declarations  of  Christ  concerning  the  destruction  of  that 
city.  He  then  adds :  "  Let  the  popes  see  to  it,  and  mourn 
over  their  own  Jerusalem,  that  is,  the  universal  church,  not 
built  by  the  hands  of  men,  which  God  has  redeemed  with  his 
own  blood  ;  and  not  over  the  fallen  Jerusalem.  But  if  the 
nations  fight  for  the  glorious  sepulchre  of  our  Lord,  let  them 
understand  that  it  is  not  this  which  the  Lord  will  raise  to 
heaven,  but  rather  the  holy  souls  in  whom  the  Lord,  daily 
buried,  by  the  mysterj"  of  piety,  reposes  and  dwells,  till  he 
shall  exalt  them  to  the  kingdom  of  his  everlasting  glory  ."J 

•  Matthew  of  Paris  remarks,  at  the  year  1 250,  f.  672  :  Coeperunt 
mnlti,  quos  firma  fides  non  roboraverat,  desperatione  contabescere.  Et 
fides  heu  !  heu !  multomm  coepit  vacillare,  dicentium  ad  invicem :  Ut 
quid  dereliquit  nos  Christus,  pro  quo  et  cui  hactenns  militavimos  ? 

t  Commentar.  in  Jeremiam,  p.  284. 

X  Videant  summi  pontifices  et  doleant  de  sua  Hiemsalem,  id  est,  ee- 
desia  generali  non  mann  facta,  quam  Deus  redemit  sanguine  suo,  et  non 
de  ilia,  quae  eecidit  desistantqne  ulterius  illius  mures  erigere,  quae  quoti- 
die  morte  fidelinm  ruii.     Ac  si  pro  sepulcro  glorioso  de  gentibns  conten- 


262  REFUTATIOX  OF  THE  REASONS, 

And,  in  another  place,  he  complains  of  the  popes  that,  by  their 
means,  the  nations  and  resources  of  Christendom  are  exhausted 
among  barbarous  tribes,  whither  they  are  sent  under  the  spe- 
cious pretexts  of  salvation  and  the  cross.* 

The  objections  urged  against  the  crusades  by  a  party  who 
were  opposed  to  them  at  the  time  of  the  council  of  Lyons,  are 
known  from  the  manner  in  which  Humbert  de  Romanis, 
general  of  the  Dominican  order,  whom  the  pope  had  commis- 
sioned to  draw  up  a  schedule  of  the  matters  to  be  handled  at 
that  council,  sought  to  refute  them.f  They  were  such  as 
follows :  That  it  was  contrary  to  the  examples  of  Christ  and 
the  apostles,  to  uphold  religion  with  the  sword,  and  to  shed 
the  blood  of  unbelievers.  It  was  tempting  God  ;  because  the 
Saracens  were  in  all  respects,  in  numbers,  in  knowledge  of  the 
country,  in  being  accustomed  to  the  climate,  in  means  of  sub- 
sistence, superior  to  the  Christians.  Though  Christians  might 
be  allowed  to  fight  in  self-defence,  yet  it  did  not  follow  from 
this  that  they  might  attack  the  infidels  in  their  own  countries. 
It  was  no  more  right  to  persecute  those  Saracens,  than  it  was 
to  persecute  the  Jews,  the  idolaters,  the  subjugated  Saracens 
in  Europe.  These  wars  brought  neither  spiritual  nor  temporal 
advantage.  The  Saracens  were  provoked  by  them  to  blaspheme 
the  Christian  faith,  instead  of  being  converted  to  that  faith ; 
but  all  of  them  that  fell  in  battle  sank  to  perdition.  Nor  was 
any  temporal  advantage  gained  from  them  ;  for  it  was  impos- 
sible to  retain  possession  of  the  conquered  territories.  The 
unhappy  reverses  which  had  been  experienced,  proved  that 
these  undertakings  were  not  in  accordance  with  the  divine 
will.  Particularly  deserving  of  notice  is  what  Humbert  says 
in  refutation  of  the  first  of  these  reasons,   "  That  which  was 

ditur,  non  est  ipsum  dominus  translaturus  in  coelum ;  sed  potius  sanctas 
animas,  in  quibus  dominus  quotidie  per  pietatis  mysterium  sepelitur, 
quiescit  et  manet,  donee  eas  transferat  et  resurgant  in  regno  claritatis 
setemsE. 

*  Romani  pontifices  dissipant  sepem  imperii,  imminuendis  populis 
christianis  et  viribus  et  mittendis  ad  barbaras  uationes  sub  specie  salutis 
et  crucis.    P.  292. 

t  Humbertus  de  Romanis  de  his  qua;  tractanda  videbantur  in  Concilio 
generali.  The  first  part,  -which  consists  of  27  chapters,  de  negotio  eccle- 
siaj  contra  Saracenos.  Extracts  in  Mansi,  T.  XXVI.  f.  109.  More  full 
in  the  first  part  of  the  Opusculum  tripartitum,  published  by  Brovn,  in 
the  Appendix  to  the  Fasciculus  rerum  expetendarum  et  fugiendarum,  f. 
185,  seqq. 


BY  HUMBERT  DE  ROMAKIS.  263 

right  aud  proper  at  the  time  of  the  first  planting  of  the  church 
is  one  thing ;  that  which  is  required  in  order  to  preserve  the 
church  is  another.  To  preserve  the  church,  to  defend  it 
against  those  who  would  utterly  destroy  it,  the  sword  is 
required.  The  condition  of  the  first  Christian  Communities, 
when  as  yet  they  had  no  power,  but  could  only  propagate 
themselves  by  humility,  is  quite  different  from  the  present 
condition  of  things,  when  the  Christian  people  are  become 
mighty,  and  not  without  good  reason  bear  the  sword.  In 
earlier  times,  the  church  was  defended  by  the  gift  of  miracles ; 
at  present,  when  miracles  faU,  she  must  have  recourse  to  arms. 
What  is  said  against  the  employment  of  weapons,  has  reference 
not  to  the  outward  act,  but  to  the  temper,  with  which  they 
should  be  used."*  While,  in  former  times,  the  crusades  had 
been  extolled  as  a  means  whereby  the  vicious  who  embarked 
in  them  might  obtain  the  pardon  of  their  sins,  Humbert,  on 
the  other  hand,  represented  it  as  a  main  cause  of  the  want  of 
success,  that  precisely  this  class  of  persons  had  been  employed ; 
and  he  proposed  that  a  competent  number  of  pious  warriors 
should  be  constantly  maintained  in  the  East  as  a  bulwark 
against  the  Saracens.f 

We  have  already,  on  a  former  page, J  described  the  glowing 
zeal  of  that  extraordinary  man,  Eaymund  Lull,  for  the  con- 
version of  the  infidels  and  the  extension  of  the  Christian 
church.  The  aim  of  his  fiist  efforts  was  to  bring  it  about, 
that  missions  and  arms  should  be  conjoined  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  these  objects.  In  a  work  which  he  composed  at 
Pisa,  soon  after  his  return  in  April,  a.d.  1308,  from  Is'orth 
Africa,§  he  recommended  three  things :  first,  that  four  or  five 
monasteries  should  be  founded,  in  which  learned  and  pious  monks 
and  secular  clergymen  might  study  the  language  of  the  infidels, 

*  Ad  prseparationem  animi,  non  ad  executionem  gladii. 

t  Ad  quod  eligerentur  non  homicidae  aut  pessimi  sicut  hactenos,  sed 
homines  a  peccatis  abstinentes,  quia  nescit  justitia  Dei  patrocinari  crimi- 
nosis,  f.  119. 

X  See  ante,  pp.  82-96.  I  could  not  then  as  yet  avail  myself  of  the 
jrreat  collected  edition  of  the  works  of  Raymand  Lull,  which  appeared  at 
Mayence.  After  the  printing  of  this  section  was  finished,  I  first  had  the 
1,-ood  fortune,  during  a  residence  in  Munich,  of  being  able  to  study  this 
work  also,  among  the  numerous  and  rare  treasures  of  the  Royal  library 
in  that  city. 

§  Disputatio  Raymundi  Christiani  et  Hamar  Saraceoi. 


264  RAYMUXD  lull's  VIEW  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 

and  thus  prepare  themselves  for  preaching  the  gospel  in  tlie 
whole  world.  Secondly,  that  out  of  all  the  orders  of  spiritual 
knights  not  a  single  one  should  be  formed  for  fighting  against 
the  Saracens.  But  this  order  of  knights  should  not  embark  at 
once,  as  had  been  done  before,  in  distant  enterprises,  but 
should  first  attack  the  empire  of  the  Saracens  in  Granada,  and 
take  possession  of  their  treasures;  next,  proceed  to  Korth 
Africa,  and,  last  of  all,  buckle  on  their  armour  for  the 
conquest  of  the  Holy  Land.  Thirdly,  the  tenths  from  all  the 
churches  should  be  applied  to  this  object  until  the  holy 
sepulchre  should  be  recovered.  In  another  work,*  he  intro- 
duces two  ecclesiastics  disputing  on  the  question,  whether 
it  were  better  that  some  mighty  prince  should  be  commissioned 
to  bring  about  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  by  force,  or 
whether  men  should  labour  for  the  spread  of  the  faith  by 
means  of  persuasion,  and  by  offering  up  their  lives,  according 
to  the  example  of  Christ  and  of  the  martyrs.  Even  at  this 
period,  he  declared  in  favour  of  the  latter  plan ;  and  to  the 
close  of  his  life  he  felt  more  and  more  convinced  that  this  was 
the  only  Christian  mode  of  procedure,  the  only  one  which  any 
Christian  could  expect  would  be  crowned  with  a  blessing.  In 
his  great  work,  on  the  Contemplation  of  God,-]-  where  he 
makes  all  the  ranks  and  callings  of  Christendom  pass  in  re- 
view, and  seeks  to  point  out  the  defects  in  each,  J  he  remarks 
in  the  section  concerning  knights  :§  "I  see  many  knights 
going  to  the  Holy  Land,  in  the  expectation  of  conquering 

*  Liber  super  Psalmum  "  quicunque  vult." 

t  T.  IX.  opp.  ed.  Mogunt.  1722,  fol. 

X  To  finish  which  work,  that  he  might  then  go  to  meet  martyrdom, 
was  his  most  ardent  wish;  as  he  remarks,  c.  cxxxi.  f.  301  :  "Asa 
.hungry  man  makes  despatch,  and  takes  large  morsels,  on  account  of  his 
great  hunger,  so  thy  servant  feels  a  great  desire  to  die,  that  he  may  glo- 
rify thee.  He  hurries  day  and  night  to  complete  this  work,  in  order 
that,  after  it  is  finished,  he  may  give  up  his  blood  and  his  tears  to  be  shed 
for  thee,  in  the  Holy  Land  where  thou  didst  pour  out  thy  precious  blood 
and  thy  compassionate  tears.  O  Lord,  my  help,  till  this  work  is  com- 
pleted, thy  servant  cannot  go  to  the  land  of  the  Saracens,  to  glorify  thy 
glorious  name,  for  I  am  so  occupied  with  this  work,  which  I  undertake 
for  thine  honour,  that  I  can  think  of  nothing  else.  For  this  reason,  I 
beseech  thee  for  that  grace  that  thou  wouldst  stand  by  me,  that  I  may 
soon  finish  it  and  speedily  depart  to  die  the  death  of  a  martyr  out  of  love 
to  thee,  if  it  shall  please  thee  to  count  me  worthy  of  it." 

§  Chap.  cxii.  f.  250. 


RAYMOKD  lull's  VUEW  OF  m£  CRUSADES.  265 

it  by  force  of  arms  ;  but  instead  of  accomplishing  their  object, 
they  are  in  the  end  all  swept  off  themselves.  Therefore," 
says  he,  addressing  Christ,  "  it  is  my  belief  that  the  conquest 
of  the  Holy  Land  should  be  attempted  in  no  other  way  than  as 
thou  and  thy  apostles  undertook  to  accomplish  it, — by  love, 
by  prayer,  by  tears,  and  the  offering  up  of  our  own  lives.  As 
it  seems  that  the  possession  of  the  holy  sepulchre  and  of  the 
Holy  Land  can  be  better  secured  by  the  force  of  preaching 
than  the  force  of  arms,  therefore  let  the  monks  march  forth, 
as  holy  knights,  glittering  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  replenished 
with  the  grace  of  the  holy  spirit,  and  proclaim  to  the  infidek 
the  truth  of  thy  passion  ;  let  them  fiom  love  to  thee  exhaust  the 
whole  fountain  of  their  eyes,  and  pour  out  all  the  blood  of 
their  bodies,  as  thou  hast  done  ftom  love  to  them  !  Many  are 
the  knights  and  noble  princes  that  have  gone  to  the  promised 
land  with  a  view  to  conquer  it ;  but  if  this  mode  had  be«i 
pleasing  to  thee,  O  Lord,  they  would  assuredly  have  wrested 
it  from  the  Saracens  who  possess  it  against  our  will.  Thus  is 
it  made  manifest  to  the  pious  monks  thaf  thou  art  daily 
waiting  for  them,  expecting  them  to  do,  firom  love  to  thee, 
what  thou  hast  done  from  love  to  them.  And  they  may  be 
certain  that,  if  from  love  to  thee,  they  expose  themselves  to 
martyrdom,  thou  wilt  hear  their  prayers  in  respect  to  all  that 
which  they  desire  to  see  accomplished  in  this  world  for  the 
promotion  of  thy  glory."  And,  in  another  passage  of  this 
work,*  he  seeks  to  show,  first,  that  the  schism  of  souls,  the 
religious  strife  between  Saracens  and  Christians,  was  the 
cause  of  the  outward  war  and  of  the  many  evils  therewith  con- 
nected ;j"  that  by  this  war  Christians  were  hindered  fit)m 
preaching  the  truth  to  the  Saracens,  whereby  they  might 
perhaps  succeed  to  convince  them,  and  then,  through  the 
spiritual  communion  of  one  faith,  bring  them  back  to  outward 
peace  also.  He  then  concludes  with  the  foUoAving  prayer: 
"  Lord  of  heaven.  Father  of  all  times,  when  thou  didst  send 

*  T.  IX.  L.  III.  Distinct.  29,  c.  cciv.  f.  512. 

t  Quia  Christiani  et  Saraceni  pugnant  intellectualiter  in  hoc,  quod 
discordent  et  contrarientur  in  fide,  propterea  pngnant  sensualiter  et  rati- 
one  hujus  pagnae  molti  vulnerantur  et  captivantur  et  moriontur  et 
destmuntur,  per  quam  destructionem  devastantur  et  destruuntnr  multi 
principatus  et  multa?  divitise  et  multae  terrse  et  impediuntur  multa  boua, 
qus  fierent,  si  non  esset  talis  pugna. 


266  coxclave  of  caedikals. 

thy  son  to  take  upon  him  human  nature,  he  and  his  apostles 
lived  in  outward  peace  with  Jews,  Pharisees,  and  other  men  ; 
for  never,  by  outward  violence,  did  they  capture  or  slay  any  of 
the  unbelievers,  or  of  those  who  persecuted  them.  Of  this 
outward  peace  they  availed  themselves  to  bring  the  erring  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  to  a  communion  of  spirit  with 
themselves.  And  so,  after  thy  example,  should  Christians  con- 
duct themselves  towards  the  Saracens ;  but  since  that  ardour 
of  devotion  which  glowed  in  apostles  and  holy  men  of  old 
no  longer  inspires  us,  love  and  devotion  through  almost 
the  whole  world  have  grown  cold ;  therefore  do  Christians 
expend  their  efforts  far  more  in  the  outward  than  in  the 
spiritual  conflict." 

At  the  above-mentioned  council  of  Lyons,  Gregory  again 
introduced  a  new  regulation  with  regard  to  papal  elections, 
designed  to  prevent  such  delay  which  had  preceded  his  own 
appointment.  The  cardinals  should  at  least  be  compelled  by 
hunger  to  agree  in  a  choice.  Each  having  his  own  particular 
cell,  should  remain  there  without  liberty  of  leaving  it  until 
they  were  prepared  to  proceed  to  the  election.  After  three* 
days  the  quantity  of  food  and  drink  should  be  diminished ; 
and  if  at  the  expiration  of  eight  days  they  had  not  yet  agreed 
in  their  choice  of  a  pope,  they  should  be  allowed  nothing  but 
bread,  wine,  and  water.  This  ordinance,  after  great  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  cardinals,  was  adopted ;  and  as  it  was 
exceedingly  annoying  to  them,  they  made  the  greater  despatch, 
such  persons  being  selected  as  were  not  expected  to  live  long, 
and  in  whose  choice  it  was  the  most  easy  to  unite.  In  the 
single  year  1276,  three  popes  followed  in  quick  succession  one 
after  the  other.  The  third  of  these,  John  the  Twenty-First, 
was,  by  the  influence  of  the  cardinals,  induced  to  suspend  an 
arrangement  of  the  conclave  which  they  felt  to  be  so  incon- 
venient. The  consequence  was,  that  in  the  year  1292  the 
election  of  a  pope  was  delayed  by  parties  among  the  cardinals 
two  years  and  a  quarter.  At  length,  compelled  by  the 
influence  of  Charles  the  Second,  king  of  Naples,  and  to  get  rid 
of  a  disgraceful  dependence  on  him,  in  which  they  found  them- 
selves placed,  they  resolved  to  choose  somebody,  and,  as  they 
could  agree  on  no  one  else,  their  choice  fell  on  a  man,  Avho 
under  any  other  circumstances  they  would  hardly  have  thought 
of,  and  M'ho  loriucu  a  diiect  contrast  to  his  predecessor.     I'his 


THE  HERMIT  POPE,  CELESTIX  THE  FIFTH,  267 

was  Peter  of  Morone,  a  pious  anchorite,  who  lived  not  £ir 
from  Suhnone,  in  the  Neapolitan  territory-, — an  old  man,  who 
from  his  twentieth  year  had  led  a  solitary  life,  devoted  to 
prayer  and  religious  contemplation,*  and  had  composed  a  few 
small  tracts  on  ascetical  subjects  and  on  ecclesiastical  law.f 
Against  his  wishes  he  was  obliged  to  exchange  the  tranquillity 
of  the  contemplative  life  for  a  sphere  of  action  of  the  most 
enormous  extent  and  full  of  unrest.  He  called  himself  Celestin 
the  Fifth.  Even  when  pope,  he  still  wore  his  monkish  dress 
under  the  papal  insignia.  His  appearance  and  deportment, 
forming  so  striking  a  contrast  with  that  of  the  other  popes  of 
this  time,  procured  for  him  the  more  respect  and  veneration. 
Seated  upon  an  ass,  which  the  kings  of  SicUy  and  Hungary  led 
by  the  bridle,  he  made  his  entry  into  the  city  of  Aquila. 
Thousands  flocked  about  him,  not  as  they  did  aroimd  other  new 
popes,  to  obtain  rich  benefices,  but  to  receive  his  blessing. 
The  shouts  of  the  multitudes,  who  gathered  from  city  and 
country,  compelled  him  to  show  himself  frequently  at  the 
window  and  bestow  his  blessing.j  But  when  Celestin,  the 
feeble  old  man,  came  to  be  placed  in  circumstances  so  little 
conformable  to  his  habits  and  temperament ;  when  he  was  set 
down  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  circle  of  business  with  which 
he  was  entirely  imacquainted ;  he  soon  brought  affairs  into  the 
most  vexatious  perplexity.  Always  following  the  direction  of 
the  papal  officials,  he  subscribed  and  affixed  the  papal  seal  to 
rolls  of  parchment,  negligently  read  or  even  not  written  on, 
which  could  be  filled  up  at  pleasure  ;  he  made  himself  de- 
pendent on  king  Charles  the  Second,  who  persuaded  him  to  fix 
his  seat  in  his  own  residential  city.  The  cardinals  grew  tired 
of  him ;  it  was  easy  for  them  to  excite  scruples  of  conscience 
in  his  mind;  and,  besides,  he  longed  to  be  restored  to  his 

*  He  himself  wrote  an  account  of  his  yoath,  his  inward  conflicts  and 
visions,  in  the  commencement  of  his  spiritual  career :  See  Acta  Sanctor. 
Maj.  T.  IV.  f.  422. 

t  These  writings,  which  are  of  no  particular  importance,  are  published 
in  the  Bibl.  patr.  Lugdunens.  T.  XXV. 

X  Benedict  Cajetan  relates  this  in  his  life  of  Celestin :  Tantus  fdit 
ooncursus  ad  ipsum  de  villis  et  castris,  quod  stupor  erat  videre,  quia 
magis  veniebant  ad  suam  obtinendam  benedictionem,  quam  pro  praeben- 
dffi  acquisitione,  nnde  oportebat  eum  saepius  ad  fenestram  accedere,  ad 
benedicendum  populum  victus  ipsorum  clamoribus,  quod  et  ego  vidi  et 
prsesens  fui  tjuando  ista  fiebant.    See  Acta  Sanctor.  Maj.  T.  IV.  f.  427. 


268  VOICES  OPPOSED  TO  PAPAL  ABSOLUTISM. 

former  quiet.  Gladly  would  he  have  resigned  his  seat ;  but 
on  the  principles  of  the  church  constitution  and  of  the  eccle- 
siastical laws  as  then  understood,  it  was  very  difficult  to  see 
how  the  pope,  who  was  invested  with  the  highest  dignity  on 
earth,  could  be  divested  of  his  office,  or  could  voluntarily 
resign  it.  Yet  cardinal  Benedict  Cajetan,  than  whom  no  one 
could  be  more  unlike  this  pope  in  temper  and  disposition,  and 
who  himself  aspired  to  the  papal  dignity,  strengthened  him  in 
his  inclination  ;  so,  after  having  published  by  the  advice  of  the 
latter,  an  ordinance,  purporting  that  it  was  allowable  for  a  pope 
to  abdicate  his  office,  he  laid  down  his  own  in  the  year  1294, 
and  returned  to  his  former  mode  of  life. 

It  will  be  evident  from  this  history  of  the  papacy  that,  from 
the  time  of  Gregory  the  Seventh,  it  had  come  into  a  new  re- 
lation with  the  rest  of  the  church.  Not  only  was  it  assumed, 
as  it  had  been  already  in  the  Pseudo-Isidorian  decretals,  that 
the  form  of  the  government  of  the  church  is  monarchical ;  but 
the  government  became  an  unlimited  monarchy ; — the  triumph 
of  papal  absolutism  was  complete.  All  other  ecclesiastical 
authority  was  but  the  pope's  organ,  was  valid  only  to  the  ex- 
tent he  might  choose.  No  longer  tied  by  the  old  ecclesiastical 
laws,  he  could  render  them  powerless  by  dispensations, 
explanations,  and  laws  newly  enacted.  There  were,  indeed, 
distinguished  men,  and  zealous  for  the  well-being  of  the  church, 
who — much  as  they  were  devoted  in  other  respects  to  the  in- 
terest of  the  papacy,  or  rather  because  they  were  so — often 
took  pains  to  remind  the  popes  that  they  must  fix  limits  to 
their  own  authority,  which  had  not  been  limited  from  without, 
by  reason  of  the  end  for  which  such  authority  had  been  con- 
ferred. Thus,  for  example,  bishop  Yves  of  Chartres,  declared, 
"  That  the  Roman  church  had  received  no  authority  from  God 
for  injustice, — no  authority  to  take  away  from  any  man  his 
guilt,  but  only  to  bind  what  ought  to  be  bound,  and  to  loose 
what  ought  to  be  loosed."*  The  abbot  Gottfried  of  Vendome, 
also,  against  whom  Yves  had  cited  this  principle,  because  in  a 
particular  case  he  would  acknowledge  dependende  only  on  the 
Moman  Church, — admitted  the  same  as  an  undeniable  truth.t 

*  Nullam  injustam  potestatem,  fidem  violandi  videlicet  debita  sua  cui- 
que  Don  reddendi ;  sed  tantum,  quae  sunt  liganda  ligandi  et  qu8B  sunt 
solv?nda  solvendi.     See  ep.  195. 

t  Quia  enim  insanus  credere  vel  cogitare  audeat,  bouum  Deum  aliquid 


MISCHIJIVOUS  INFLUENCES  OF  PAPAL  ABSOLUTISM.         269 

"  One  thing-  only,"  he  said,  "  might  be  disputed,  namely, 
whether,  in  the  particular  ease  in  question,  the  pope  had  made 
such  arbitrary  use  of  his  authority."  The  abbot  Peter  of 
Cluny  reminded  pope  Innocent  the  Second,*  that  if  he  ruled 
over  all,  it  should  be  his  glory  to  be  ruled  himself  only  by 
reason. f  We  have  already  quoted  the  sayings  of  abbot  Bernard 
of  Clairvaux  on  this  subject,  namely,  tliat  popes  were  created 
not  to  dissolve  the  ecclesiastical  laws,  but  to  see  that  they 
were  executed.  John  of  Salisbury',  that  zealous  champion  of 
the  hierarchy,  wrote  thus  to  pope  Alexander  the  Third,  in  the 
name  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury :  J  "  Undoubtedly,  to 
the  pope,  all  things  are  allowable ;  that  is,  all  things  that  be- 
long by  divine  right  to  ecclesiastical  authority.  He  is  free  to 
make  new  laws  and  to  do  away  the  old  ones ;  only  it  is  not  in 
his  power  to  change  anything  which,  by  the  word  of  God,  has 
eternal  validity.  I  might  venture  to  assert  that  not  even 
Peter  himself  can  absolve  any  one  from  his  guilt  who  perse- 
veres in  sin  or  in  the  will  to  sin ;  that  even  he  has  received  no 
such  key  as  gives  him  power  to  open  the  door  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  for  an  impenitent  person." 

Still,  in  such  voices,  it  was  but  a  force  of  moral  sentiment 
that  opposed  itself  to  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  pope.  There 
was  no  higher  authority,  which  the  popes  were  obliged  to 
respect,  which  presented  to  them  checks  from  without,  and 
could  have  jurisdiction  over  them.  The  general  covmcils, 
which  constituted  the  highest  tribunal  and  the  highest  legisla- 
tive authority  in  the  ancient  church,  had  themselves  become 
converted  into  blind  tools  of  the  popes.  Such  authority  in  the 
hands  of  a  single  man,  standing  at  the  head  of  the  whole 
Western  church,  m^ht  undoubtedly,  in  the  then  rude  con- 
dition of  the  nations,  be  productive  of  much  good,  as  a  check 
on  the  trifling  caprices  of  secular  rulers,  and  as  a  terror  to  the 
vast  multitude  of  negligent  bishops ;  but  even  in  the  best  use 
of  that  authority  the  free  original  development  could  not  fail 
to  suffer  a  check.  This  check,  in  the  best  use  of  the  papal 
power,  would  of  necessity  become  the  stronger,  inasmuch  as,  in 

unquam  injoste  dedisse  aut  ejns  sanctam  ecclesiam  quicquam  ab  eo  in- 
juste  accepisse.     Epp.  1.  ii.  11.  *  Ep.  ii.  28. 

t  Cum  jure  majestas  apostolica  omnibus  dominetur,  soli  tantum  rationi 
subjici  gloriatur.  ;  Ep.  193. 


270         MISCHIEVOUS  INFLUENCES  OF  PAPAL  ABSOLUTISM. 

such  a  case,  the  reaction  favourable  to  the  upward  struggle  of 
freedom  would  be  less  powerfully  called  forth.  Naturally, 
however,  such  power  in  the  hands  of  an  individual  was  liable 
to  manifold  abuses.  In  order  that  the  papacy  might  ever  sub- 
serve the  end  for  which  it  was  designed,  an  harmonious  com- 
bination of  the  highest  mental  and  moral  powers,  purity  of 
heart  united  with  great  intellectual  superiority,  was  absolutely 
required  ;  and  such  a  combination  could  not  often  occur.  Add 
to  this  tl.at  already,  in  the  twelfth  century,  a  too-powerful 
secular  tendency  had  grown  up  within  the  pale  of  the  papacy, 
which  threatened  to  swallow  up  the  spiritual  interest.  Already 
must  the  provost  Gerhoh  of  Keichersberg  complain,  that  the 
ecclesia  Itomana  had  become  a  curia  Romana,*  and  we  have 
already  heard  the  complaints  of  the  abbot  Bernard  on  the  se- 
cularization of  the  papacy.  Every  corrupt  practice,  which  was 
accustomed  to  prevail  in  courts,  reigned  at  the  Koman  court  -f^ 

*  The  provost  Gerhoh  of  Keichersberg  had,  as  he  says,  laid  at  the  feet 
of  pope  Eugene  the  Third,  his  Essay  on  the  Confusion  between  Babylon 
and  Jerusalem,  from,  which  grew  afterwards  his  work  so  often  cited : 
"  Decorrupto  ecclesise  statu,"  or,  "expositio  in  Ps.  Ixiv."  in  Baluz,  Miscel- 
lan.  T.  V.  Hac  intentione,  ut  curia  ilia  semetipsam  attenderet  seseque 
pariter  et  ecclesiam  totam,  quam  regere  debet,  a  confusione  Babylonica 
distinctam  exhibere  satageret  sine  macula  et  ruga  neque  eiiim  vel  hoc  ip- 
sum  carere  macula  videtur,  quod  nunc  dicitur  curia  Komana,  quaj  antehac 
dicebatur  ecclesia  Romana,  c.  Ixiii. 

t  John  of  Salisbury,  who  stood  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  pope  Adrian 
the  Fourth,  relates  a  remarkable  conversation  which  he  once  had  with 
that  pope.  The  pontiff  inquired  of  him  respecting  the  general  tone  of 
feeling  towards  the  Romish  church,  and  towards  himself;  and  he  frankly 
stated  to  him  the  complaints  concerning  the  exactions  that  proceeded  from 
the  church  of  Rome.  Sicut  enim  dicebatur  a  multis  Romana  ecclesia,  qua; 
mater  omnium  ecclesiarum  est,  se  non  tam  matrem  exhibet  aliis,  quam  uo- 
vercam.  Sedent  in  ea  ScribsB  et  Pharissei,  pcnentes  onera  importabilia  ia 
humeris  hominum,  quae  digito  non  contingunt.  Concutiuut  ecclesias,  lites 
excitaat,  collidunt  clerum  et  populum,  laboribuset  miseriis  afHictorum  ne- 
quaquam  compatiuutur,  ecclesiarum  laetantur  spoliis  et  quastum  omnera 
reputant  pietatem.  Omnia  cum  pretio  hodie,  sed  nee  eras  aliquid  sine  pretio 
obtinebis.  Nocent  sscpius  et  in  eo  dajmones  imitantur,  quod  tunc  prodesse 
putantur,  cum  nocere  desistunt  exceptis  paucis,  qui  nomen  et  officium  pasto- 
ris  implent.  The  pope  calmly  listened  to  all  he  had  to  say,  and  thanked  him 
for  his  frankness ;  and  after  having  conceded  some  things  and  justified 
others,  concluded  with  an  apology  like  the  following  :  All  the  members 
of  the  body  complained  of  the  stomach,  that  whilst  they  were  all  obliged 
to  labour  for  that,  the  stomach  was  idle,  and  did  nothing  but  consume 
what  was  furnished  to  it  by  the  labour  of  all  the  other  members.  They 
declared  it  the  enemy  of  all,  and  determined  to  punish  it,  to  rest  from 


BKIBEUY  PRACTISED  AXD  TOLERATED  AT  ROME.  271 

and  if  the  Hildebrandian  tendency  of  reform  had  aimed  to  bring 
back  the  church  to  its  purely  spiritual  character,  to  deliver 
it  from  the  yoke  of  secularization,  yet  this  secularization  sprung 
up  again  in  another  form,  from  the  mixing  up  together  of  court 
and  church  in  Rome.  The  complaints  about  the  corruptibility 
of  the  Roman  court,  of  the  officials  by  whom  the  judgment  of 
the  pope  was  influenced  or  determined, — these  complaints,  which 
we  have  already  noticed  as  existing  in  the  preceding  periods,  only 
went  on  multiplying  with  the  increased  influence  of  the  papacy. 
It  must  have  appeared  strange,  that  on  the  very  spot  where 
simony,  as  practised  by  the  princes  and  bishops,  was  so  ■vigor- 
oasly  combated,  the  same  thing,  though  under  more  specious 
names,  should  prevail  to  no  less  an  extent.  When  the  odious 
charge  was  issued  fix>m  Rome  against  bishop  Yves  of  Chartres, 
that  simony  reigned  openly  in  his  church,  he  replied :  "  He 
had  not  as  yet  been  able  to  do  anything  towards  suppressing 
the  ancient  custom  by  which  the  candidates  for  a  canonry  must 
pay  something  to  the  deans  and  the  cantor ;  for  men  appealed 
to  the  example  of  the  Romish  church  itself,  where  the  cubieu- 
larii  and  ministri  sacri  palatii  demanded  no  small  sum  of 
money  for  the  consecration  of  bishops  and  abbots,  imder  the 
specious  names  of  an  ablatio  or  a  benedictio*  Not  the  stroke 
of  a  pen,  not  a  sheet  of  paper,  was  to  be  had  for  nothing.  He 
knew  not  how  to  answer  those  who  brought  this  matter  against 
him,  except  in  the  words  of  Christ :  "  All  whatsoever  they  bid 
you  observe,  that  observe  and  do ;  but  do  not  ye  after  their 

their  labours  and  starve  it  out.  Thus  passed  several  days,  till  all  the 
members  had  become  quite  feint,  and  were  no  longer  able  to  perform 
their  appropriate  functions.  They  were  now  under  the  necessity  of  hold- 
iug  another  consultation ;  they  found  out  that,  in  consequence  of  with- 
holding everjthing  from  the  stomach,  that  organ  had  been  unable  to 
supply  them  any  longer  with  what  was  requisite  to  give  them  strength 
and  vigour.  They  found  themselves  compelled,  therefore,  to  restore 
back  to  it  all  they  had  withheld,  and  now  the  members  were  strong  and 
vigorous  again,  and  peace  was  restored  to  the  whole.  So  it  was  with 
those  who  ruled  in  the  church  or  in  the  state.  Although  they  re- 
quired much,  yet  it  was  not  for  their  own  advantage,  but  for  the  good  of 
the  whole.  It"  they  were  not  rich  and  mighty  themselves,  they  could  not 
help  the  members.  Noli  ergo  neqne  nostrum  neque  saecularium  principum 
duritiam  metiri,  sed  omnium  ntilitatem  attende.  See  Job.  Saresberiensis 
Policraticus  sive  de  nugis  curialium  et  vestigiis  philosophorum,  L.  VI, 
c.  xxiv. 

*  Qua;  oblationis  vel  benedictionis  nomine  palliantur.     Ep.  133. 


272  BRIBERY  PRACTISED  AND  TOLERATED  AT  ROME. 

works."  Matth.  xxiii.  3.  Disputes  about  election  in  churches 
and  covenants  carried  up  to  Rome  for  decision,  were  welcomed 
there  by  those  whose  only  object  was  money,  because  the  con- 
tending parties  nmst  resort  to  gold  in  order  to  effect  their 
object ;  *  the  officers  of  the  papal  court  were  bribed  by 
presents  or  promises,  and  then  sought  to  mislead  the  judgment 
of  the  pope.  This  was  the  ordinary  way  of  gaining  a  bad 
cause.f  Surrounded  by  such  a  swarm  of  corrupt  courtiers,  it 
was  not  enough,  therefore,  that  the  individual  who  stood  at 
the  head  should  be  rigidly  incorruptible  and  disinterested. 
Eugene  the  Third  is  extolled  as  a  model  in  this  respect  ;J  but 
he  should  also  possess  the  power  of  control  over  the  corrupt 
creatures  around  him,  and  wisdom  to  detect  the  fraudulent 
acts  by  which  truth  was  kept  back  from  him.  Bernard  had 
good  reason,  therefore,  for  remarking  to  this  very  Eugene-: 
"  Of  what  avail  is  the  good  disposition  of  the  individual,  when 
still  the  bad  disposition  of  others  predominates !" 

*  We  present  a  few  examples.  Near  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century 
Peter  de  Blois  complains  of  the  fact  that  a  homo  illiteratus  et  laicus,  sed 
in  emendis  honoribus  circumspectus,  was  endeavouring  by  means  of  his 
gold  to  establish  in  Home  his  illegal  claims  to  an  abbot's  place  in  Can- 
terbury. He  was  there  received  in  a  friendly  manner  by  those,  qui 
sicut  scitis  gratius  acceptant  hominum  munera,  quam  merita  personarum. 
Sperabant  enim,  quod  promotio  ejus  esset  rixse  materia  et  majoris  emolu- 
menti  occasio.  His  party  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  make 
themselves  friends  of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness  at  the  Roman 
court,  and  thereby  to  nullify  the  just  charges  brought  against  this  man 
(opinionis  et  infamise  vulneribus  vinum  et  oleum  iufundere).  Exhaustis 
itaque  Flandriaj  mercatoribus  in  argento,  a  Romauis  tandem  inlinitam 
multitudinem  auri  mutuavit.  Ep.  158.  The  abbot  Guibert,  of  Novi- 
gentum,  says,  in  his  autobiography,  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
c«ntury,  L.  III.  c.  iv.  f.  498,  concerning  the  palatinis  Papa;;  Quibus 
moris  est,  ut  audito  auri  nomine  mausuescant.  A  bishop  who  was  sus- 
pected, on  good  reasons,  of  having  committed  a  murder  for  the  sake  of 
revenge,  found  means  to  clear  himtelf,  adulatione  donorum.  at  the 
Roman  court,  under  pope  Paschalis  the  Second. 

t  Ep.  87.  Of  bishop  Yves  of  Chartres,  John  of  Salisbury  writes  (ep. 
222) :  Romanos  amicis  verba  dare  jam  nemo  miratur,  quia  percelebre 
est,  et  innotuit  universis,  quod  apud  eos,  quantum  quisque  numraorum 
habet  in  area,  tantum  habet  et  fidei,  et  plerumque  obliquata  mente  legum 
et  cancnum,  qui  munere  potior  est,  potentior  est  jure. 

+  A  prior,  whose  case  he  had  not  yet  examined,  once  pressed  him  to 
accept  from  him  a  mark  of  gold,  as  a  testimony  of  regard ;  but  he  de- 
clined, saying,  "  Thou  hast  not  as  yet  stepped  into  the  house,  and  already 
wouldst  thou  bribe  the  master  ?  "    Joli.  Saresb.  Policrat.  L.  V.  cxv. 


ACTIVITY  OF  THE  PAPAL  LEGATES.  273 

"We  shall  now  proceed  to  consider  the  several  branches  of 
the  papal  authority,  as  they  were  separately  exercised  by  them- 
selves. 

II.  Distinct  Branches  of  the  Papal  Church 
Government. 

Important  effects  iindoubtedly  resulted  from  the  feet  that 
the  popes  visited  particular  countries  in  person,  and  spent 
some  time  in  them.*  We  have  seen  how  the  events  which 
compelled  them  to  take  refuge  in  France  operated  in  giving  a 
new  spring  to  their  authority;  still,  the  cases  were  quite  rare 
in  which  they  could  obtain,  by  their  personal  presence,  a 
knowledge  of  the  condition  of  particular  nations  and  churches, 
counteract  abuses  which  had  crept  in,  and  lend  force  to  their 
laws.  There  was  need  of  a  permanent  and  general  order  of 
men,  to  serve  as  a  substitute  for  the  immediate  personal  pre- 
sence of  the  pope.  To  this  end  served  the  cardinals,  or  other 
persons  from  the  clergy,  clothed  with  plenary  powers,  who, 
imder  the  name  of  legates,  were  sent  to  all  quarters  of  the 
world.  To  be  sure,  a  legate  whose  knowledge  of  the  country 
was  only  such  as  could  be  derived  from  a  transient  residence 
in  it,  and  from  superficial  observation,  might  easily  be  deceived 
by  appearances ;  for  which  reason,  Yves  of  Chartres  wished 
that  the  popes  would,  as  was  sometimes  done  indeed,  appoint 
as  their  legates  the  bishops  in  the  countries  themselves,  who 
would  be  accurately  acquainted  with  the  region  and  its  rela- 
tions.f  Against  this  well-meant  proposal,  however,  it  might 
be  objected,  that  native  legates  were  more  exposed  than 
foreign  ones  to  the  influence  of  impure  motives  and  considera- 
tions,— which  difficulty  might  be  illustrated  by  examples. 

Much  could  be  effected  in  these  times  by  a  legate  who,  as 

*  This  subject,  the  influence  which  proceeded  from  the  joumeyings  of 
the  popes  in  the  Middle  Ages,  deserved  certainly  to  be  more  accurately 
investigated  in  a  fuller  Monograohy  than  Johann  von  Miiller's  Essay, 
Von  den  Keisen  der  Papste. 

t  Cum  enim  a  latere  vestro  mittitis  ad  nos  cardinales  vestros,  quia  in 
transitu  apud  nos  sunt,  non  tantum  non  possunt  curanda  curare,  sed 
iiec  curanda  prospicere ;  hence,  ut  alicui  transalpino  legationem  sedis 
apostolicae  injungatis,  qui  et  vicmius  subrepentia  mala  cognoscat  et  ea  vel 
per  se  vel  per  relationem  ad  sedem  apostolicam  maturius  curare  praeva- 
leat.     Vol.  VIII.     Ep.  109. 

VOL.  VII.  X 


274  DIFFERENT  MODES  OF  ACTION  OF  THE  LEGATES. 

Bernard  required,  should  interest  himself  for  the  people  and 
the  poor  in  their  spiritual  and  bodily  necessities,  steadfastly 
oppose  himself  to  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  mighty,  and  every- 
where promote  the  supremacy  of  order  and  of  law.*  Bernard 
cites  examples  of  such  legates,  who  avoided  the  very  appear- 
ance of  self-interest.  A  certain  cardinal,  Martin,  returned 
back  from  a  very  distant  country  to  Italy  so  poor  that,  in 
Florence,  he  found  himself  without  money  or  means  to  continue 
his  journey  except  on  foot ;  whereupon  the  bishop  of  Florence 
made  him  a  present  of  a  horse.  He  next  met  with  this  bishop 
in  Pisa,  where  the  papal  court  then  resided  ;  and  here,  being 
told  that  the  bishop  had  a  process  going  on  and  was  depending 
upon  his  vote,  he  gave  the  horse  back  to  him  on  the  spot.  Bishop 
Gottfried  of  Chartres  refused  to  accept  from  a  priest  the  present 
of  a  costly  fish,  except  on  condition  that  he  might  be  allowed 
to  pay  the  price  of  it.  But  Bernard,  in  relating  these  factt, 
could  not  help  exclaiming,  "  Does  it  not  seem  like  a  story  of 
some  other  world,  that  a  legate  should  return  with  his  purse 
empty  of  gold,  from  the  very  land  of  gold?"  He  had  himself 
to  complain  of  a  legate,  who,  in  Germany  and  France,  left 
everywhere  behind  him  the  marks  of  his  wickedness,  "j"  every- 
where sought  to  place  beautiful  boys  in  high  offices  in  the 
church,  and  everywhere  made  such  exactions,  that  many  pre- 
ferred purchasing  a  release  from  him.,  that  he  might  not  near 
them.  Bishop  Yves  of  Chartres  invites  pope  Urban  the  Second 
to  send  on  a  legate,  because  there  was  special  need  of  a  person 
clothed  with  such  authority,  when  arbitrary  will  everywhere 
ruled  supreme  ;  when  there  was  nothing  which  any  man  might 
not  dare  to  do,  and  dare  with  impunity  ;  but,  at  the  same  time, 
he  asked  for  a  legate  of  good  name  and  reputation,  wiio  would 
seek  not  his  own,  but  the  things  of  Jesus  Christ.  J  The  same 
bishop  wrote  to  a  legate  a  beautiful  ]etter,§  reproving  him  for 
his  inconsistency  in  zealously  contending  against  lay-investiture, 
while  he  did  not  give  himself  the  least  concern  with  many 

*  Qui  vulgus  non  spernant,  sed  doceant,  divites  non  palpent,  sed  ter- 
reant,  minas  principum  non  paveant,  sed  contemnant,  gloriantes,  non 
quod  curiosa  seu  pretiosa  qua;que  in  terram  attulerint,  sed  quod  relique- 
rint  pacem  regnis,  legem  barbaris,  quietem  monasteriis,  ecclesiis  ordinem, 
clericis  disciplinam.     De  considerat.  L.  IV.  c.  iv. 

t  Vir  apostolicus  replevit  omnia  non  evangelic,  sed  sacrilegio.  Ep- 
290.  X  Ep.  12.  §  Ep.  60. 


MISCHIEFS  OF  INDISCEIMDJATE  APPEALS  TO  ROME.  275 

openly  prevailing  vices.  "  He  wished,"  he  said,  "  with  many 
pious  men,  that  the  servants  of  the  Romish  church  would,  like 
experienced  physicians,  seek  first  to  heal  the  greater  disorders, 
and  not  give  occasion  for  their  banterers  to  say  that  they 
strained  at  gnats  and  swallowed  camels. 

Under  this  head  belongs,  again,  the  authority  exercised  by 
the  Roman  curia,  as  the  highest  tribunal ;  a  tribunal,  to  which 
appeal  could  be  made  from  the  whole  of  Western  Christen- 
dom, in  all  matters  that  stood  in  any  relation  whatsoever  to 
the  church.  Salutary  as  this  branch  of  the  papal  authority, 
rightly  used,  might  have  proved,  it  would  in  the  same  pro- 
portion turn  out  hurtful  when  every  appeal  was  received 
without  discrimination  at  Rome,  and  corruption  by  bribes, 
partiality,  zeal — not  for  justice  and  law — but  only  for  am- 
bitious projects  and  the  dignity  of  the  church  of  Rome,  pre- 
vailed there ;  when,  as  men  were  forced  to  complain  was 
really  the  case,  he  who  appealed  to  the  ecclesiastical  laws, 
instead  of  leaving  everything  to  depend  solely  on  the  plenary 
power  of  the  pope,  was  already  put  down  as  an  enemy  of  that 
church.*  In  this  way  appeals  would  necessarily  result  in 
effects  directly  contrary  to  the  end  for  which  they  were  insti- 
tuted. They  no  longer  served  the  purpose  of  procuring  pro- 
tection for  the  weak  and  oppressed  against  the  will  of  the 
mighty,  but  much  more  of  securing  for  arbitrary  power  a 
convenient  handle  by  which  to  thwart  the  execution  of  the  laws 
and  defeat  the  ends  of  justice.  Every  sentence,  however  just 
and  lawful,  could,  by  an  arbitrary  appeal  on  the  part  of  him 
whose  selfish  interests  it  opposed,  or  whose  sole  object  it  was 
to  revenge  himself  on  an  enemy,  be  either  reversed,  or  at 
least  seriously  retarded  in  its  execution.  As  early  as  the  year 
1129,  Hildebert,  bishop  of  Mans,  found  cause  for  declaring, 
in  a  free-spirited  letter  to  the  pope  Honorius  the  Second,  that 
all  church  discipline  would  come  to  an  end,  all  vices  must 
get  the  upper  hand,  if,  as  the  case  had  hitherto  been,  every 
appeal  should  without  distinction  be  admitted  at  Rome ;  he 
calls  upon  him  to  provide  that  appeals,  without  good  reasons 

*  Yves  of  Chartres,  ep.  67.  Peter  of  Blois,  ep.  158  :  Leges  et  canones 
et  quicquid  de  sacro  eloquio  ad  nostrae  partis  assertionem  poteramas  iiido- 
cere,  funestum  et  sacrilegum  reputabaut  nosqae  hostes  Romance  ecclesiae 
publice  judicabant.  Men  were  not  to  cite  any  canones,  or  leges,  but 
only  (papal)  privilegia. 

t2 


276  OATHS  BY  BISHOPS. 

assigned,  and  that  aimed  only  to  procure  delay  of  justice, 
should  be  wholly  rejected.*  Bernard  advised  pope  Eugene 
the  Third  not  to  listen  to  every  man's  story,  but  sometimes 
to  strike  in  with  the  rod.f  Men  came  at  length  to  perceive, 
therefore,  in  Rome  itself,  the  necessity  of  setting  limits  to 
arbitrary  appeals.  The  eminent  wisdom  of  Innocent  the 
Third  as  a  ruler  was  shown  in  tliis  matter  as  well  as  in 
others  ;  while  at  the  same  time,  however,  his  ordinances 
testify  of  the  enormous  abuses  which  were  practised  in  the- 
matter  of  appeals.^  He  directed,  at  the  fourth  Lateran  coun- 
cil, A.D.  1215,  that  bishops  should  not  be  hindered  by  any 
appeal  from  punishing  the  transgression  of  their  subjects,  and 
from  the  reformation  of  their  dioceses,  unless  they  had  vio- 
lated the  legal  forms. § 

As  by  the  Hildebrandian  system  the  whole  government  of 
the  church  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  pope,  and  the 
bishops  were  to  exercise  some  part  of  it  only  as  his  instru- 
ments ;  so  it  was  but  a  consistent  application  of  the  principles 
contained  in  that  system  when  bishops,  by  the  act  of  their 
institution,  by  the  predicate  they  bestowed  on  themselves, 
came  to  be  placed  more  and  more  in  a  relation  of  dependence 
on  these  unlimited  rulers  of  the  church.  Had  it  not  been  for 
the  reaction  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  laws,  which  were  still  valid 
in  church  practice,  the  consequences  flowing  out  of  that  sys  • 
tern  would  have  been  realized  much  earlier  than  they  were. 
That  no  choice  of  a  bishop  could  be  valid  without  the  pope's 
confirmation  was,  properly,  but  a  necessary  deduction  from 
that  system ;  still,  however,  it  came  to  be  so  considered  only 
by  slow  degrees.  Disputes  on  the  choice  of  bishops  furnished 
occasion,  for  the  most  part,  for  the  practice  of  the  individuals 
elected  going  themselves  to  Rome  to  secure  the  confirmation 

*  Moratorias  appellatioues  et  superfiuas  omnino  a  vestra  elongendas 
esse  audientia.     Ep.  41. 

t  Non  semper  pra^bere  aurem,  qua  audiat,  sed  aliquando  et  flagellum 
quod  feriat. 

%  E.  g.  epp.  ii.  13.  Benignitate  juris  plurimi  hodie  abutentes  in  sui 
erroris  defensionem  assumuut,  quod  in  gravaminum  fuerat  revelationem 
iuventum,  et  ut  suorura  superiorum  correctionem  eludant,  sine  causa  fre- 
quenter ad  apostolicam  sedem  appellant,  cf.  i.  237  ;  ii.  99  ;  v,  23. 

6  Ut  correctionis  et  reformationis  officium  libere  valeant  exercere,  de- 
cernimus,  ut  exsecutionem  ipsorum  nulla  appellatio  valeat  impedire,  nisi 
fbniiam  excesseriut  in  talibus  observandam,  c.  vii. 


FILLIXG  OF  CHURCH  OFFICES.  '  277 

of  their  election  ;  and  thus  this  papal  confirmation  came  more 
and  more  into  use  in  the  course  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  fonnular}'^  which  designated  bishops  as  appointed  by  the 
grace  of  God,  was  increased  by  adding,  "  and  by  the  grace 
of  the  apostolical  chair."  At  length,  they  were  bound  by- 
oath  to  such  obedience  to  the  popes  as  vassals  paid  to  their 
liege  lords.  This  oath  was  similar  to  the  one  which  Boniface 
first  took  to  tlie  pope.  From  the  time  of  Gregory-  the 
Seventh,  the  Italian  metropolitans  immediately  subordinate  to 
the  church  of  Rome  placed  themselves  under  such  an  oath  ; 
next,  it  was  required  of  all  metropolitans  that  received  the 
pall  from  Rome ;  finally,  of  all  bishops  whatsoever.  They 
bound  themselves  thereby  to  appear  at  every  synod  when  cited 
by  the  popes ;  to  keep  secret  whatever  might  be  communicated 
to  them  either  orally  or  in  writing,  by  the  popes ;  to  treat  the 
Roman  legates  with  honour  and  respect ;  to  provide  them 
with  everything  they  needed  ;  and  in  all  cases  of  necessity  to 
stand  by  the  popes  with  force  of  arms. 

The  popes,  who  at  first  contended  against  arbitrary  appoint- 
ments to  church  oflBces  by  princes,  afterwards  became  charge- 
able themselves  with  the  same  arbitrary  mode  of  procedure,  to 
the  great  injury  of  the  churches.  It  was  first,  in  the  twelfth 
century,  that  they  recommended,  by  way  of  petition,  to  vacant 
benefices  individuals  who  had  done  eminent  service  for  the 
Romish  church.  (Their  recommendations  still  appear  under 
the  modest  name  of  preces  ;  hence  the  persons  recommended, 
are  called  precistce.)  But  in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century  these />rece*  were  changed  into  mandata;  and,  finally, 
the  popes  of  this  century  took  the  liberty  to  supersede  all  other 
rights  (by  the  formula  "  non  obstante"),  and  to  promote  their 
favourites  to  vacant  benefices  in  whatsoever  countr}'  they 
might  be  found ;  insisting,  with  a  threat  of  the  ban,  that  their 
commands  should  be  obeyed,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case 
of  Robert,  bishop  of  Lincoln.  Thus  could  the  most  unfit  and 
the  most  imworthy  men  be  promoted  to  such  offices ;  boys 
under  age,  or  at  least  such  as  were  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
language  and  manners  of  the  people  where  their  field  of 
action  was  assigned ;  men  who  carried  with  them,  wherever 
they  went,  all  the  Roman  corruption  of  morals  ;  or  who,  if  they 
preferred  to  enjoy  as  absentee  >  the  revenues  of  the  benefices, 
hired  underlings  who  performed  the  spiritual  fiinctions  in  an 


278  PRIVILEGES  OF  EXEMPTION. 

altogether  mechanical  manner.  The  best  use  which  the  popes 
made  of  this  authority  was  when  they  provided  in  this  way 
for  men  who  had  done  good  service  in  the  cultivation  of 
letters,  an  appointment  free  from  cares,  which  they  could  not 
otherwise  have  obtained. 

We  have  seen  already,  in  the  preceding  period,  how  the 
papal  power  was  advanced  by  the  selfish  interests  of  subordi- 
nate ecclesiastical  authorities,  who  sought  to  make  themselves 
independent  of  their  immediate  superiors ;  but  when  the 
popes,  instead  of  keeping  every  other  authority  confined  within 
its  appropriate  limits,  and  placing  themselves  in  opposition  to 
all  arbitrary  procedures,  now  sought  to  grasp  all  other  power 
for  themselves  ;  when,  to  secure  this  end,  they  eagerly  com- 
plied with  the  demands  of  those  who  wished  to  be  freed  from 
the  troublesome  oversight  of  their  immediate  superiors,  the 
inevitable  result  was,  the  destruction  of  all  ecclesiastical  order, 
and  the  promotion  of  all  licentiousness.  Thus  abbots  pro- 
cured for  themselves  the  insignia  of  the  episcopal  office — 
sandals,  mitre,  and  crosier  ;  and  privileges  of  exemption  in 
respect  to  the  diocesan  authority  of  the  bishops.  Thus  was 
taken  away  from  the  bishops  the  means  of  watching  over  all 
that  transpired  in  their  dioceses,  and  of  punishing  everything 
bad  in  them.  "VVe  have  seen  on  a  former  page  how  Ber- 
nard warned  the  pope  against  this  arbitrary  extension  of  his 
authority ;  and  many  other  influential  voices  were  heard  in 
like  manner  to  protest  agamst  these  exemption-privileges. 
Thus  Yves,  bishop  of  Chartres,*  complains  to  pope  Urban 
the  Second  of  a  monastery  which  sought  to  free  itself  by  such 
an  exemption  from  the  diocesan  oversight  of  the  bishop  of 
Paris,  in  order  that  it  might  suffer  no  disturbance  in  its  licen- 
tious doings. "j*  Richard,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  a  letter 
filled  with  similar  complaints,  addressed  to  Pope  Alexander 
the  Third,!  quotes  the  language  of  one  of  these  abbots  who 

*  Ep.  65, 

t  Latiniacensis  abbas  et  monachi  ejus,  qui  nescio  qua  nova  libertate 
suos  excessus  tuentur,  et  subjectionem  Parisiensi  ecclesiae  debitam  et 
Lactenus  exhibitam  contra  canonicam  institutionem  de  cervice  sua  excu- 
tere  moliuntur.  Hsb  autem  personse  hujus  modi  sunt,  quibus  magis 
uecessaria  est  subjectio  quam  libertas,  qui  libertate  in  occasioucm  carnis 
abutuntur,  quibus  si  decern  millia  psedagogorum  in  Cbristo  ad  custodiam 
deputarcntur,  vix  tamen  sic  regularis  continentise  legibus  ligarentur. 

X  Ep.  68.    Among  the  letters  of  Peter  of  Blois. 


COMPLAINTS  OOSCERNIKG  EXEMPTION.  279 

was  striving'  to  throw  off  the  regular  dependence  on  his  bishop. 
He  said :  **  The  abbots  who  do  not  annihilate  the  authority 
of  the  bishops  are  poor  creatures ;  for,  by  the  annual  pay- 
ment at  Rome  of  an  ounce  of  gold  they  might  obtain  exemp- 
tion." "  The  abbots,"  says  that  archbishop,  "  exalt  them- 
selves above  their  primates  and  bishops ;  and  not  a  man  of 
them  is  Aiilling  to  pay  due  regard  to  his  superior.  Thus 
abbots  and  monks  would  abandon  themselves  to  all  their  lusts, 
with  none  to  remind  them  of  their  duty,  and  every  species  of 
disorder  would  spread  through  the  monasteries.*  If  a  speedy 
remedy  were  not  applied  to  this  e\nl,  it  was  to  be  feared  that, 
as  tlie  abbots  were  exempted  from  the  oversight  of  the 
bishops,  so  the  bishops  would  be  exempted  from  that  of  the 
archbishops,  and  the  deans  and  archdeacons  from  that  of  their 
superiors."  "  To  express  our  own  opinion  freely,"  says  he, 
"  it  does  little  honour  to  the  pope's  justice,  for  him  to  confer 
a  benefit  on  one  person  at  the  cost  of  another ;  to  take  what  is 
mine,  and  render  himself  chargeable  with  doing  iu  ecclesias- 
tical affairs  that  which  no  secular  power  would  take  the 
liberty  of  doing  in  secular  affairs."  He  reminds  him,  as 
Bermird  had  reminded  pope  Eugene,  of  the  precept  of  the 
apostle  Paul  (Rom.  xiii.  1),  that  every  man  should  be  subject 
to  the  powers  that  be.  '*  In  the  human  body,  one  member 
does  not  decline  sen-ing  another.  Among  the  angels  one 
desired  exemption  from  the  divine  authority,  and,  from  an 
angel,  he  become  a  devil."  He  acknowledges,  that  such  ex- 
emptions had  been  originally  granted  to  the  monasteries  to 
secure  quiet  for  them,  to  protect  them  against  the  tyranny  of 
bishops ;  but  the  matter  had  now  taken  an  opposite  turn. 
Many  were  at  the  present  time  brought  to  ruin  by  these  extra- 
ordinarj'  liberties.  To  be  sure,  one  who  so  firmly  resisted  the 
arbitrary  proceedings  of  Rome  would  necessarily  draw  upon 
himself  the  charge  of  presumption,  for  daring  to  attack  the 
sacred  authority  of  the  pope.f     Peter  of  Blois  congratulates 

*  Abbates  exterius  curam  rarnis  in  desideriis  agunt,  non  curautes, 
dnmmodo  laate  erhibeantur,  f\  fiat  pax  in  diebiis,  eomm  claostralt*  vero 
tanquam  acephali  otio  vacant  et  vaniloqaio,  nee  enim  prsesidem  habeut, 
qui  eos  ad  fragem  vitae  melioris  inclinet.  Qnodsi  tumultuosas  eomm 
contentiones  audiretis,  claustrum  non  multum  dififerre  pataretis  a  foro. 

+  De  facto  spinmi  pontificis  disputasse  et  sacrilegitun  commisisse  dice- 
mur;  veramtamen  non  est  seqoa  dispatatio,  ubi  sostinenti  respondere  noa 
licet. 


280  COMPLAINTS  CONCERNING  EXEMPTION. 

his  brother,  an  abbot,  who  had  received  from  the  pope  those 
badges  of  the  episcopal  dignity,  together  with  the  exemption, 
on  the  promotion  he  had  obtained  ;  but  at  the  same  time  ex- 
presses his  dissatisfaction  that  he  should  consent  to  wear  the 
signs  of  a  dignity  which  belonged  only  to  the  bishop,  and  which, 
on  another  iixnctionary,  savoured  of  vanityand  arrogance.*  He 
tells  him  that  disobedience  to  his  lawful  superior  was  not  to 
be  excused  even  by  the  papal  privilegium ;  for  a  privilege  be- 
stowed by  a  man  could  avail  nothing  against  the  divine  order.")" 
That  pious  theologian  of  Paris,  who  was  so  zealous  in  oppos- 
ing the  abuses  of  the  church  near  the  close  of  the  twelfth 
century,  Peter  Cantor,  expresses  a  fear  that  such  partial 
exemption  and  partitions  would  pave  the  way  for  the  universal 
downfal  of  the  spiritual  empire  of  Eome,  which  was  to  take 
place  in  the  last  times. |  It  is  singular,  however,  at  the  same 
time,  to  observe  how  this  man,  otherwise  so  liberal-minded, 
— in  intimating,  that  by  such  a  mode  of  procedure  the  whole 
ancient  constitution  of  the  church  was  overthrown,  and  every- 
thing made  solely  and  directly  dependent  on  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  pope, — yet,  at  the  same  time,  feels  con- 
strained to  defend  hmself  against  the  charge  of  violating  the 
papal  majesty ;  declaring  that,  beyond  a  doubt,  no  person  was 
competent  to  judge  over  the  pope,  and  that  the  apostolical 
chair,  which  could  not  err,  may  perhaps  have  acted  in  such 
things  by  a  particular  illumination.  "We  might  be  almost 
tempted  to  regard  such  declarations  as  irony,  if  the  whole 
tone  of  the  work,  and  of  the  passage  in  question,  did  not  con- 
tradict such  a  supposition.  § 

*  Insignia  episcopalis  eminentiae  in  abbate  nee  approbo  nee  accepto. 
Mitra  enim  et  annulus  atque  sandalia  in  alio  quam  in  episeopo  quaedam 
superba  elatio  est  et  prassumtuosa  ostentatio  libertatis.     Ep.  90. 

t  Nee  blandiatur  sibi  aliquis,  quod  per  privilegium  Romance  ecelesise 
ab  inobedientia  excusetur.  Si  enim  praeipit  Deus  et  aliud  indulget  et 
praecipit  homo,  obediendum  est  Deo  potius  quam  homini. 

J  Verendum  est,  ne  ha3  exemptiones  et  divisiones  particulares  univer- 
salem  faciant  divisionem  a  Romano  regno  spirituali,  quae  facta  est  jam  ex 
parte  a  Romano  regno  materiali.  2  Thess.  ii.  3.  See  Petri  Cantoris 
verbum  abbreviatum.     Montibus,  1G39,  p.  114. 

§  Sed  dicetur  mihi,  Ps.  Ixii.  Os  tuum  pouis  in  ccBlum,  Respondeo:  non. 
Hoc  autem  non  asserendo,  scd  opponendo  induce.  Non  enim  licet  mihi 
dieere  domino  papae  :  Cur  ita  facis  ?  Sacrilegium  enim  est,  opera  ejus 
redarguere  et  vituperare.  Verumtamen  horum  solutionem  vel  qua  ratione 
iis  obvietur,  non  video.    Scio  autem,  quia  auetoritate  canonis  veteris  vel 


ECCLESIASTICAL  LAW.      STUDY  OF  LAW  BY  IRXERICS.     281 

In  France,  some  after-effects  of  that  spirit  of  church  free- 
dom, which  we  observed  there  in  the  earlier  centuries,  still 
manifested  themselves  in  the  way  in  which  the  church  of  this 
country  sought  to  preserve  itself  by  the  so-called  pragmatic 
sanction,  enacted  by  king  Louis  the  Ninth,  in  the  year  1268, 
against  several  of  the  oppressive  and  restrictive  measures  which 
have  just  been  mentioned. 

The  change  which  had  taken  place  in  the  supreme  govern- 
ment of  the  church  necessarily  brought  along  with  it  a  change 
also  in  many  thmgs  connected  with  legislation,  in  all  parts  of 
the  church  ;  and  hence,  the  old  collections  of  ecclesiastical  laws 
no  longer  met  the  existing  wants.  Ever  since  the  pseudo- 
Isidorian  decretals  began  to  be  received  as  valid,  men  would 
already  come  to  be  sensible  of  this.  The  collision  between  the 
old  and  the  new  church  l^islation  would  occasion  considerable 
embarrassment.  Since  the  establishment  of  the  validity  of 
those  decretals,  several  new  collections  of  ecclesiastical  laws 
had,  it  is  true,  been  formed ;  as,  for  example,  that  of  Regino, 
abbot  of  Priim,  in  the  tenth,  and  that  of  Burkhard,  bishop 
of  Worms,  and  that  of  Yves,  bishop  of  Ohartres,  in  the  eleventh 
century ;  but  still,  these  collections  did  not  prove  adequate  to 
do  away  that  contrariety.  Add  to  this,  that  the  new  papal 
church  system  needed  some  counterpoise  against  a  tendency 
which  threatened  to  become  dangerous  to  it.  In  the  twelfth 
century,  great  enthusiasm  was  excited  for  the  renewed  study 
of  the  Roman  law,  by  the  famous  Imerius  (Guarnerius),  at 
the  university  of  Bologna ;  and  this  study  led  to  investigations 
and  doctrines  which  were  quite  unfavourable  to  the  interests 
of  the  papacy.  Even  Imerius  stood  forth  as  an  ally  of  the 
imperial  power,  in  the  contest  with  the  papacy,*  and  it  was,  in 
fact,  the  famous  teachers  of  law  at  that  university  who  were 
employed  by  the  emperor  Frederic  the  First  to  investigate  and 
defend  his  rights  at  the  diet  of  Roncala.     The  more  eager, 

novi  non  fit  hujasmodi  divisio  et  exemptio  in  ecclesia  sed  special! 
auctoritate  sedis  apostolica»,  quam  non  patitur  Dominus  errare.  Forte 
3niin  instinctu  et  familiari  consilio  Spiritiis  Sancti  legeque  privata  dacta 
hoc  facit,  sicut  Samson  se  cum  hostibus  occidit,  sed  sic  sublati  sunt  con- 
sales  et  proconsoles  de  medio,  ut  panca  vel  nulla  imperent  et  omnia 
Caesar  sit,  qui  omnia  sicut  omnibus  imperet. 

♦  Laudulph.  Junior,  hist.  Mediolan.  c.  xxx.  Muratori,  Scriptor.  rer. 
Italicar.  T.  V.  f.  502. 


282  OLD  AJTD  NEW  ECCLESIASTICAL  LAW. 

therefore,  would  be  the  hierarchical  party  to  oppose  that 
hostile  tendency,  by  setting  up  another,  in  defence  of  their 
own  interests  and  principles,  through  the  study  of  ecclesiastial 
law  from  an  opposite  point  of  view.  Thus  it  came  about  that 
— at  the  famous  seat  itself  of  the  study  of  the  Roman  law  —at 
Bologna,  about  the  year  1151,  a  Benedictine,  or,  according  to 
another  account,  a  Camaldulensian  monk,  Gratian,  arranged  a 
new  collection  of  ecclesiastical  laws,  better  suited  to  the  wants 
of  the  church  and  to  the  scientific  taste  of  these  times.  As 
the  title  itself  indicates,  "  Concordia  discordantium  canonum" 
old  and  new  ecclesiastical  laws  were  here  brought  together, 
their  differences  discussed,  and  tlieir  reconciliation  attempted 
— a  method  similar  to  that  employed  by  Peter  Lombard  m 
handling  the  doctrines  of  faith.  This  logical  arrangement 
and  method  of  reconciliation  supplied  a  welcome  nutriment  to 
the  prevailing  scientific  spirit.  From  that  time  the  study  also 
of  canon  law  was  pursued  with  great  zeal,  and  the  two  parties 
called  the  Legists  and  the  Decretists  arose — Gratian's  col- 
lections of  laws  being  denominated  simply  the  '•'•  Decretwm 
Gratiani"  Tlie  zeal  with  which  the  study  of  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  law  was  pursued  had  however  this  injurious 
effect,  that  the  clergy  were  thereby  drawn  away  from  the 
study  of  the  Bible,  and  from  the  higher,  directly  theological 
interest,  and  their  whole  life  devoted  solely  to  these  pursuits.* 
But  still  the  contrariety  between  the  old  and  the  new  eccle- 
siastical laws  could  not  be  got  rid  of  by  this  attempt  at 
reconciliation.  Many  doubts  and  difficulties  arose  from  this 
cause ;  and  the  popes  were  applied  to  for  a  decision  of  the 
contested  questions  which  resulted  therefrom.  In  the  laws 
enacted  by  them,  the  ecclesiastical  laws  received  great  addi- 
tions ;  as,  for  example,  in  the  decisions  of  Innocent  the  Third, 
in  particular,  which  formed  a  rich  storehouse  for  that  code ; 
but  a  twofold  injury  resulted.  An  intermediate  authority  was 
wanting  to  introduce  the  new  papal  laws  at  once  into  the 
practice  of  the  church ;  and  in  the  twelfth  century  many 
bulls  were  interpolated,  under  the  name  of  the  popes,  to  sub- 
serve particular  interests.    People  returning  from  a  pilgrimage 

*  Peter  Cantor  complains,  in  his  Verbum  abbreviatum,  c.  li. :  Omissis 
urtibus  liberalibus  coelestibusque  disciplinis  omnos  codicem  legunt  et 
forensia  qusDrunt,  ut  gloriam  et  lucrum  mendicent.  Compare,  in  the 
letters  of  Peter  de  Blois,  epistles  76  and  140. 


FORGED  BULLS.  283 

to  Rome,  brought  with  them  interpolated  bulls,  dud  put  them 
in  circulation.*  In  the  time  of  Innocent  the  Third,  a  forger 
of  tliis  sort  had  the  boldness  to  appear  in  Sweden,  in  the 
cliaracter  of  a  papal  legate.f  There  were  ecclesiastics  who 
had  acquired  a  peculiar  knack  in  imitating  papal  bulls,  and 
pushed  a  lucrative  business  in  that  line.|  Thus  many  bad 
things  could  be  done  in  the  names  of  the  popes  for  which  they 
were  not  in  the  least  responsible, — an  evil  of  which  Innocent 
the  Third  felt  it  necessary  to  complain.§  In  England,  near 
the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  ban  was  for  this  reason 
publicly  pronounced  on  falsifiers  of  the  bulls.  |  In  order  to 
suppress  these  pernicious  acts  of  imposture,  Innocent  the  Third 
enacted  laws  whereby  such  impostors  were  condemned  to 
severe  punishments,  and  the  marks  of  distinction  between 
genuine  and  ungenuine  bulls  accurately  defined.^  Hence,  the 
still  greater  need  of  a  new  and  duly  accredited  collection  for 
ecclesiastical  law,  in  which  the  genuine  laws  might  be  found 
brought  together.  After  many  previous  attempts  to  supply 
tills  want,  pope  Gregory  the  Ninth,  in  the  year  1234,  caused 

•  Innocent  the  Third,  epp.  L.  II.  ep.  29.        f  L-  C.  L.  VI.  ep.  10. 

X  Jacob  of  Vitry  (see  ante)  names  among  the  bad  monks  and  clergy, 
who  took  all  sorts  of  liberty  to  gratify  their  cupidity,  those  qui  falsario- 
rum  crimen  pessimum  incurrentes,  falsis  Uteris  et  bnllis  furtivis  in  per- 
ditionem  uti  non  verentur.     Hist,  occidental,  c.  xxix. 

§  Innocent  III.(L.  I.  ep.  235)  says :  Dura  saepe  mandata  et  institutiones 
interdum  iniquas  a  sede  apostolica  emanare  multi  argnnnt  et  mirautur  et 
in  hoc  ei  culpam  imponnnt,  in  quo  sinceritas  ejus  culpae  prorsoa  ignara 
per  innocentiam  excusatnr. 

II  Letters  of  Peter  de  Blois,  ep.  53.  It  is  here  said,  in  an  ordinance 
issued  by  Richard,  archbishop  of  Canterbury  :  Quoniam  in  his  partibus 
publica  falsariornm  pestis  obrepsit,  qui  bullis  adulterinis  et  Uteris  calum- 
nias  innocentibns  movent  et  statum  juste  possidentium  subvertere  moli- 
tintur.  And  ep.  68  :  Falsariornm  prajstigiosa  malitia  ita  in  episcoporum 
coutumeliam  se  armavit,  ut  falsitas  in  omnium  fere  monasteriorum  ex- 
emptione  prsevalcat.  In  the  letters  of  John  of  Salisbury,  ep.  83  :  Hujus 
sigilli  corruptio  universalis  ecclesijE  periculum  est,  cum  ad  unius  sigua- 
culi  notam  solvi  et  claudi  possint  qnorumlibet  ora  pontificum  et  culpa 
qnaelibet  impunita  pertranseat  et  innocentia  condemnetur.  Unde  in  eos, 
qui  hoc  attentare  prsesamimt,  animadvertendum  est  sicut  in  hostes  publi- 
cos  et  totius  ecclesise,  quantum  in  ipsis  est,  subversores.  On  the  traffic 
pursued  with  these  forgeries,  see,  further  on,  the  letter  of  Stephen  of 
Tournay,  ep.  221. 

%  Epp.  L.  I.  ep.  235  and  349,  and  the  other  epistles  of  this  pope 
already  referred  to. 


284  CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  HILDEBKANDIAN  REFORM. 

such  a  digest  to  be  formed  by  the  general  of  the  Dominicans, 
Eaymund  a  Pennaforte.* 

in.  KEMAINING  PARTS  OF  THE  CHURCH  CONSTITUTION. 

It  was  by  the  degeneracy  of  the  clergy  and  the  confusion 
existing  in  all  parts  of  the  church-constitution,  that  the 
reforming  tendencies  of  the  Hildebrandian  epoch  had  been 
called  forth.  A  part  of  the  abuses  which  had  crept  in,  those 
which  the  rude  arbitrary  proceedings  of  monarchs  had  intro- 
duced, were  thoroughly  counteracted  by  the  triumph  of  the 
Hildebrandian  system ;  a  great  zeal  for  the  reformation  of  the 
clergy  and  of  the  church  life,  after  the  pattern  of  the  primitive 
apostolical  church,  as  it  presented  itself  to  the  imagination  of 
the  men  of  this  period,  commenced  from  this  epoch.  A  bond 
of  union  was  here  presented  between  all  the  opponents  of  the 
reigning  corruption,  all  men  in  all  the  churches  who  were 
zealous  for  a  strict  severity  of  morals  among  the  clergy,  and 
the  worthy  celebration  of  the  offices  of  worship.  The  provost 
Gerhoh  of  Keichersberg  represents,  as  a  work  of  the  same  spirit, 
the  enthusiasm  for  the  crusades ;  the  zeal  of  monasticism  now 
carried  to  an  unusual  height,  and  for  the  renovated  canonical 
mode  of  living  together  ;  the  multitudes  who  contended  with 
secular,  and  the  other  multitudes  who  contended  with  spiritual 
weapons  for  the  same  holy  object.f  From  this  epoch  began 
a  fierce  struggle  between  the  smaller  number  of  the  more  strict 
ecclesiatfics,  who  were  disposed  to  favour  reform,  and  the  gi'eat 
majority  who  followed  only  their  pleasures. 

But  the  measures  applied  by  Gregory  the  Seventh  and  his 
successors  were  by  no  means  calculated  to  produce  a  lasting 
effect  on  the  vast  multitude  who  were  not  themselves  affected 
by  this  spirit  of  reform.  By  laws  of  celibacy,  chastity  and 
purity  of  manners  could  not  be  forced  on  the  clergy :  men 

*  Decretalium,  Libri  V ;  the  Decretals,  simply  so  called. 

t  He  says :  Est  grande  spectaculum,  videre  hinc  milites  in  campo  l 
pugnantes  duce  Josua,  hinc  vero  beatum  Augustinum  quasi  alteram  AronJ 
stipatum  Levitis  et  sanctum  Benedictum  quasi  Hur,  Exod.  xvii.  12,  stij 
turn  religiosis  monachis  orantes ; — and  again  :  Hinc  post  longam  simon 
hiemem  vemali  suavitate  spirante  rcflorcscit  vinea  Dominica,  constit 
untur  coenobia  et  xenodochia  et  nova  crebrescunt  laudum  cantica. 
Ps,  xxxix.  Pez,  Thesaurus  anecdotor.  novissimus,  T.  V.  f.  794. 


FATE  OF  THE  WELL-DISPOSED  CLERGY.  285 

contented  themselves  with  a  seeming  obedience,  and  those  to 
whom  a  regular  marriage  was  not  allowed,  abandoned  them- 
selves, in  private,  to  excesses  so  much  the  worse, — sought  in 
gorgeous  apparel,  outward  splendour,*  revelry,  and  noisy 
amusements,  an  indemnification  for  the  enjoyments  of  domestic 
life,  which  were  forbidden  them.  The  dissolution  of  the 
canonical  life  continually  went  on  increasing.  The  prebends 
were  by  many  considered  as  only  a  means  of  good  living,  and 
they  either  did  not  concern  themselves  at  all  about  the  eccle- 
siastical functions  incumbent  on  them,  or  performed  them  in  a 
mechanical  way,  without  devotion  or  dignity,  or  else  got  them 
performed  by  hireling^  job-working  substitutes.'^  Those  who 
would  not  follow  the  example  of  the  rest,  who  exhibited  in 
their  whole  manner  of  life  a  seriousness  corresponding  to  their 
vocation,  who  dared  to  converse  about  spiritual  things,  were 
decried  by  the  latter  as  singular  fellows  and  pietists  ;§  or,  if 
they  ventured  to  stand  forth  as  censors,  exf)osed  themselves  to 
hatred  and  persecution ;  for  men  dreaded  a  spirit  of  reform 
supported  by  popes  and  monarchs  which  might  bring  down  a 
severe  chastisement  on  the  heads  of  the  corrupt  clergy. 
"  Behold,"  said  the  others,  "  how  this  man  departs  from  our 
customs ;  he  wants  to  convert  us  into  monks.  We  must  at 
once  take  our  stand  against  him.  If  we  do  not,  it  will  go  with 
us  as  it  has  done  with  others  before  us.  The  pope  and  the 
king  will  unite  against  us,  they  ^ill  deprive  us  of  our  livings. 


*  In  opposition  to  these,  see,  e.  g.,  the  abbot  Bernard  of  Clairvanx,  ep. 
- .  s.  11:  Conceditur  tibi,  ut  si  bene  deservis,  de  altario  vivis,  non  autem, 
■-t  de  altario  luxurieris,  ut  de  altario  sni)erbias,  ut  iude  compares  tibi 
frena  aurea,  sellas  depictas,  calcaria  deargentata,  varia  griseaque  pellicea 
a  collo  et  manibus  omatu  purpureo  diversificata. 

t  We  have  an  example  in  a  church  at  Gubbio  in  the  twelfth  century, 
in  the  account  of  the  life  of  bishop  Ubald,  written  by  his  successor 
Tebald :  Nulla  tunc  temporis  ordinis  observantia,  nulla  prorsus  religionis 
colebatur  memoria.  Mercede  annua  erat  conductus,  qui  campanas  pnl- 
saret  in  hora  officiorum  et  quia  clericorum  unusquisque  in  domo  propria 
epulabatur  et  dormiebat,  tota  fere  observantia  ecclesiastici  cultus  custo- 
diebatur  in  pulsu  nolarum.— See  Acta  Sactor.  Mens.  Maj.  T.  III.  f.  631. 

I  Clerici  conductores  and  conductitii,  as  Gerhoh  says  in  his  Dialog. 
De  diflFerentia  clerici  ssecularis  et  reerilaris,  Pez,  Thes.  anecd.  noviss.  T. 
II.  f.  482. 

§  Si  non  facio,  quod  caeteri,  de  singularitate  notabor,  Bernard,  ep. 
2,8.  11. 


286  LAWS  AGAINST  ABUSES  OF  NO  EFFECT. 

and  other  fashions  will  be  introduced  here.     "We  shall  become 
a  laughing-stock  to  all  the  people."* 

When  the  popes  had  succeeded  in  banishing  the  direct  and 
arbitrary  influence  of  the  princes  on  ecclesiastical  appointments, 
another  not  less  pernicious  mode  of  arbitrary  proceeding  often 
took  the  place  of  that  which  had  been  suppressed.  The 
bishops  and  chapters  of  the  cathedral  often  suffered  themselves 
to  be  determined  by  fatnily  interests  and  worldly  considerations 
more  than  by  any  concern  for  the  good  of  the  church.  The 
older  ecclesiastical  laws  respecting  the  canonical  age  were 
neglected,  and  boys  under  age  promoted  to  the  first  offices  of 
the  church. I  Canonical  priests  made  it  a  rule  amongst  them- 
selves, that  none  but  persons  of  noble  birth  should  join  their 
class,!  and  so  the  ostentatious  display  and  luxurious  modes  of 
living  practised  in  the  higher  ranks  were  introduced  amongst 
the  clergy.  Nepotism,  and  the  spirit  of  gain,  led  to  the 
accumulation  of  several  benefices,  often  involving  the  duties  of 
incompatible  callings,  on  one  person.  Respecting  the  so-called 
plurality  of  benefices,  and  the  non-residence  of  clergymen 
near  the  church  with  which  their  official  duties  were  connected, 
various  complaints  were  offered.  Peter  Cantor,  in  the  work 
wherein  he  combats  the  ecclesiastical  abuses  of  his  times, § 
resents  it  that,  in  a  respectable  church,  the  five  offices  of 
greatest  income  had  been  given  to  absentees,  [j     The  popes 

*  See  Life  of  the  abbot  William  Roskild,  who  belonged  to  the  times  of 
pope  Innocent  the  Third,  in  the  Actis  Sanctor.  M.  April.  T.  I.  f.  625 ;  and 
■what  .lacob  of  Vitry  says  of  those  corrupt  ecclesiastics :  Hi  autem,  qui 
inter  eos  viri  justi  et  timorati  super  abominationibus  eorum  lugent  et  con- 
tristantur,  ab  iis  irridentur.  Hypocritas  et  superstitiosos  dicunt,  repu- 
tantes  pro  magno  crimine,  quod  divinaj  scripturie  verbum  vel  ipsum  Dei 
nomen  inter  eos  ausi  sunt  nominare.     Hist,  occidental,  c.  xxx, 

t  The  words  of  Bernard,  in  his  tract,  De  officio  episcoporum,  c.  vii. : 
Scholares  pueri  et  impuberes  adolescentes  ob  sanguinis  dignitatem  pro- 
moventur  ad  ecclesiasticas  diguitates  et  de  sub  ferula  transferuntur  ad 
priucipandum  presbyteris,  latiores  interim,  quod  virgas  evaserint  quam 
quod  meruerint  principatum.  The  complaints  in  Peter  de  Blois,  ep.  60  : 
Episcoporum  nequitia,  qui  circa  parentum  promotionem  sunt  adeo  singu- 
lariter  occupati,  ut  nihil  aliud  affectent  aut  somnient,  atque  indigentiara 
scholarium  vel  in  modicu  visitatione  non  relevent.  Purpurata  incendit 
parentela  pciitificum  et  elata  de  patrimonio  crucifix!  iu  superbia  et  in 
abusione  ad  omues  vitae  saecularis  illecebras  se  efi'undit. 

X  See,  e.  g.,  Yves'  letters,  ep.  126. 

§  The  Verbum  Abbreviatum,  already  several  times  referred  to. 

II  Pro  quibus  (reditibus)  perceptis  in  ea  nee  per  vicarium  nee  per  alium 


LAWS  AGAINST  ABUSES  OF  NO  EFFECTT.  287 

Alexander  the  Third  and  Innocent  the  Third  passed  laws  at 
the  Lateran  general  councils,  in  the  years  1179  and  1215,  for 
the  suppression  of  the  above-mentioned  abuses ;  but,  by  all 
the  outward  measures  that  were  applied,  little  could  be  effected 
so  long  as  the  sources  of  the  evil  were  still  left  behind  ;  and 
the  bad  example  which  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  succeeding 
popes  presented  would  only  contribute  to  promote  such  abuses. 
Bishops  who  had  the  good  of  their  communities  at  heart,  as, 
for  example,  Robert  Grosshead,  we  hear  complaining  bitterly 
on  this  subject.* 

In  the  contest  with  the  great  mass  of  the  secularized  clergy 
stood  forth,  in  the  twelfth  century,  men  who  sought  to  bring 
back  the  old  canonical  life  to  a  still  greater  d^ree  of  strict- 
ness, to  reform  the  clerical  body  still  more  according  to  the 
pattern  of  the  monastic  life.  Such  a  man  was  Norbert,  the 
founder  of  a  new  and  peculiar  congregation,  which  became  a 
place  of  refuge  for  many  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  then 
existing  condition  of  the  clergy.  Of  him  we  shall  have 
to  speak  more  at  large  in  the  history  of  monasticism.  But 
there  were  also  other  men  of  the  more  rigid  tendency,  who 
professed  no  wish  of  founding  a  new  institution,  but  only 
desired  to  bring  back  the  clergy  to  a  mode  of  life  and  of  associ- 
ation corresponding  to  their  original  destination.  Among 
these,  the  individual  of  whom  we  have  so  often  spoken  as  an 
enthusiastic  champion  of  the  Hildebrandian  system,  the  pro- 
vost Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg,  deserves  particularly  to  be  men- 
tioned.    The  greatest  part  of  his  life  was  spent  in  struggling 


servitur.  Non  dico,  non  cantator,  non  legitar  tantnin,  sed  nee  etiam 
consiliis  ejns  assissitur,  qaippe  nalla  personanun  qoinqae  semel  in  anno 
praesens  in  ea  invenitur.  L.  C.  c.  xxxiv. 

*  Set  his  letter  to  his  archdeacon,  ep.  107,  in  Brown,  in  which  he  calls 
npon  him  to  exercise  severity  towards  the  clergy  who  neglected  their 
duty,  and  complains  of  their  incontinent  lives,  their  worldly  pursuits,  and 
their  trifling  amusements :  Ex  relatu  fide  digno  andivimns,  quod  plnrimi 
sacerdotes  archidiaconatus  vestri  boras  canonicas  aut  non  dicnnt  aut  cor- 
rupte  dicunt,  et  id  quod  dicunt  sine  omni  devotione  aut  devotionis  signo, 
imo  magis  cum  evidenti  ostensione  animi  indevoti  dicunt  nee  horam  ob- 
Bervant  in  dicendo,  quae  commodior  sit  parochianis  ad  audiendum  divina 
sed  quse  eorum  plus  consonat  libidinosae  desidise.  Habent  insuper  suas 
fov-arias,  quod  etsi  nos  et  nostros  lateat  cum  inquisitiones  super  ejusmodi 
fieri  fecimus,  his  per  quos  fiunt  inquisitiones  perjuria  non  timentibus,  non 
debet  tamen  yos  sic  latere. 


288  CLERICI  REGULARES  AND  S^CULARES. 

for  the  reformation  of  the  clerus,*  and  the  storms  which  agi- 
tated that  body  proceeded  from  this  very  cause — he  is  in  this 
respect  to  be  compared  with  Ratherius.  The  apostolical  com- 
munity of  goods,  as  men  conceived  it,  was  to  him  the  type  of 
tlie  vmion  which  ought  to  exist  amongst  the  clergy.  The  rule 
ascribed  to  Augustin,  he  represented  as  the  law  for  the  com- 
munity of  the  clergy ;  they  should  own  no  sort  of  property  ; 
strangers  to  all  luxury  and  splendour,  they  should  be  con- 
tented with  the  simple  necessaries  of  life :  it  was  what  Arnold 
of  Brescia  wanted  to  bring  about,  only  in  a  more  liberal  spirit. 
To  tlie  clerical  rule  drawn  up  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Gerhoh 
referred  back,  as  a  lax  rule,  originating  in  the  court  of  a 
prince,  not  in  the  church.f  Considered  from  this  point  of 
view,  those  ecclesiastics  alone  who  subjected  themselves  to 
this  stricter  rule,  were  recognized  as  genuine  canonicals,  as 
cleriei  regulares  ;  all  the  rest  were  placed  in  the  class  of  irre- 
gulares  sceculares — secular  clergymen ;  but  among  the  latter, 
too,  there  Avas  a  great  diversity  as  to  their  habits  of  living. 
This,  even  the  zealous  advocate  of  the  stricter  rule,  the  pro- 
vost Gerhoh,  little  as  he  was  inclined  to  do  them  justice,  was 
forced  to  acknowledge. |  There  were,  amongst  the  secular 
clergy,  men  of  spiritual  feelings ;  and  a  distinction  is  to  be 
made  between  those  whom  the  love  of  freedom  and  those 
whom  an  inclination  to  licentiousness  led  to  choose  this  mode  of 
life  ;  of  which  latter  Jacob  of  Vitry  says,  that  they  were  very 
properly  called  canonici  sceculares  because  they  belonged 
entirely  to  the  scBculum — to  the  world ;  but  that  they  were 
incorrectly  styled  canonici,  for  they  led  a  life  altogether  with- 
out rule  or  law.§ 

It  so  happened,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  that, 

*  He  has  himself  related  the  history  of  his  contests  with  bishops, 
canonicals,  and  princes,  in  his  Commentary  on  the  Psalms.  See  Pez, 
Thes.  anecd.  noviss.  T.  V.  f.  2039. 

t  Illam  clericorum  regulam.  non  in  ecclesia,  sed  in  aula  regis  dictatam. 
In  Ps.  Ixviii.     Pez,  Thes.  T.  V.  f.  1352. 

X  He  says:  Non  eos  omnes  damnaums,  cum  ex  ipsis  agnoscamus  ali- 
quos,  licet  paucos,  esse  ita  disciplinatos,  ut  licet  habeant  propria,  quasi 
lion  habentes,  habeant  ea  et  studeant  in  sectanda  morum  disciplina.  In 
Ps.  Ixvii.  1.  c.  f.  1353. 

§  From  that  better  class  he  distingnishes  these  :  Multi  autem  tcm- 
poribus  istis  reperiuntur  canonici  vero  nomine  saeculares,  quorum  rcgula 
est,  irregulariter  vivere.    c.  xxx. 


FULCO'S  EDUCATION.      HIS  PREACHUfG.  289 

fix>m  the  body  of  these  secular  clergymen  came  individmLls 
awakened  to  repentance  by  peculiar  impressions  upon  their 
minds  ;  filled  with  abhorrence  of  the  worldly  pursuits  of  the 
clergy,  they  turned  all  at  once  to  an  entirely  diflFerent  mode 
of  life.  The  duties  of  the  spiritual  calling,  their  guilt  in 
having  hitherto  so  neglected  them,  pressed  with  their  whole 
weight  upon  their  consciences :  they  felt  constrained  to  exert 
themselves  the  more  earnestly  to  make  good  their  own  defi- 
ciencies, and  to  exhort  clergy  and  laity  to  repentance,  and  to 
a  serious  Christian  deportment.  They  travelled  round  as 
preachers  of  repentance ;  by  their  words  of  exhortation,  com- 
ing warm  firom  the  heart,  many  were  moved,  awakened  to 
remorse  for  their  sins,  and  to  resolutions  of  amendment ;  though 
the  powerful  impressions  of  the  moment  did  not  always  en- 
dure. A  circle  of  young  men  was  formed  around  them,  and 
they  became  the  objects  of  enthusiastic  veneration  ;  by  which, 
however,  such  of  them  as  lacked  firmness  of  Christian  cha- 
racter might  easily  be  intoxicated,  and,  quitting  the  paths  of 
humility  and  discretion,  be  led  into  dangerous  self-delusions  ; 
so  that  what  had  begun  in  a  holy  enthusiasm  might  gradually 
become  vitiated  by  the  intrusion  of  impure  motives. 

Near  the  close  of  the  twelfth  centiiry,  a  great  stir  was  pro- 
duced in  France  by  a  person  named  Fulco.  He  was  one  of 
the  ordinary,  ignorant,  worldly-minded  ecclesiastics,  the  priest 
and  parson  of  a  coxmtry  town  not  far  firom  Paris ;  afterwards 
he  experienced  a  change  of  the  nature  we  have  described,  and, 
as  he  had  before  neglected  his  flock,  and  injured  them  by  his 
bad  example,  so  now  he  sought  to  build  them  up  by  his  teach- 
ing and  example.  But  he  soon  became  painfully  sensible  of 
his  want  of  riiat  knowledge  which  he  had  taken  no  pains  to 
acquire,  but  which  was  now  indisj)ensable  to  him  in  order  to 
instruct  his  community.  In  order  to  supply  as  £0*  as  possible 
this  deficiency,  he  went  on  week-days  to  Paris,  and  attended 
the  lectures  of  Peter  Cantor,  a  theologian  distinguished  for  his 
peculiar  scriptural  bent,  and  his  tendency  to  practical  reform ; 
and  of  the  knowledge  here  acquired  he  availed  himself,  by 
elaborating  it  into  sermons,  which  he  preached  on  Sundays  to 
his  flock.  These  sermons  were  not  so  much  distinguished  for 
profoundness  of  thought  as  for  their  adaptation  to  the  common 
understanding,  and  to  the  occasions  of  practical  life.  He  was 
a  man  of  the  people,  and  the  way  in  which  he  spoke  made  what 

VOL.    VII.  u 


290  FULCO'S  PREACHING. 

he  said  still  more  impressive  than  it  would  otherM'ise  have 
been  ;  hence,  when  others  delivered  his  copied  discourses  over 
again,  they  failed  of  producing  the  same  effects.*  At  first, 
neighbouring  clergymen  invited  him  to  preach  before  their 
congregations  ;  next,  he  was  called  to  Paris,  and  he  preached 
not  only  in  churches,  but  also  in  the  public  places.  Pro- 
fessors, students,  people  of  ail  ranks  and  classes,  flocked  to  hear 
him.  In  a  coarse  cowl,  girt  about  with  a  thong  of  leather,  he 
itinerated  as  a  preacher  of  repentance  through  France,  and 
fearlessly  denounced  the  reigning  vices  of  learned  and  un- 
learned, high  and  low.  His  words  often  wrought  such  deep 
compunction,  that  people  scourged  themselves,  threw  them- 
selves on  the  ground  before  him,  confessed  their  sins  before 
all,  and  declared  themselves  ready  to  do  anything  he  might 
direct  in  order  to  reform  their  lives,  and  to  redress  the  wrongs 
which  they  had  done.  Usurers  restored  back  the  interest 
they  had  taken  ;  those  who,  in  times  of  scarcity,  had  stored 
up  large  quantities  of  grain,  to  sell  again  at  a  greatly  advanced 
price,  threw  open  their  granaries.  In  such  times  he  fre- 
quently exclaimed :  "  Give  food  to  him  who  is  perishing  with 
hunger,  or  else  thou  perishest  thyself."  He  announced  to  the 
corn-dealers,  that  before  the  coming  harvest  they  would  be 
forced  to  sell  cheap  their  stored-up  grain  ;  and  cheap  it  soon 
became,  in  consequence  of  his  own  annunciation.  Multitudes 
of  abandoned  women,  who  lived  on  the  wages  of  sin,  were 
converted  by  him  ;  for  some  he  obtained  husbands,  for  others 
he  founded  a  nunnery.  He  exposed  the  impure  morals  of  the 
clergy  ;  and  the  latter,  seeing  the  finger  of  every  man  pointed 
against  them,  were  obliged  to  separate  from  their  concubines. 
A  curse,  that  fell  from  his  lips,  spread  alarm  like  a  thunder- 
bolt. People  whom  he  so  addressed  were  seen  to  fall  like  epi- 
leptics, foaming  at  the  mouth  and  distorted  vith  convulsions. 
Such  appearances  promoted  the  faith  in  the  sivpernatural  power 
of  his  words.  Sick  persons  were  brought  to  him  from  all 
quarters,  who  expected  to  be  healed  by  his  touch,  by  his  bless- 
ing, and  wonderful  stories  were  told  of  the  miracles  thus 
wrought.-j-     Men  were  so  eager  to  obtain  a  fragment  of  liis 

*  See  the  words  of  Jacob  of  Vitry :  Quee  tamen  non  ita  sapiebant 
in  alterius  ore  nee  tantum  fructificabant  ab  aliis  prajdicata.  Hist,  occi- 
dental, p.  287. 

t  Deserving  of  notice  are  the  words  of  Jacob  of  Vitry :  Tanta  infir- 


HIS  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  CLERGY.  291 

elothing,  in  order  to  preserve  it  as  a  miracle-working  relic, 
that  the  very  garments  he  wore  on  his  person  were  often  rent 
in  pieces  by  the  multitude.  It  required  strong  qualities  of 
mind  for  a  man  not  to  be  hurried,  by  such  extravagant  venera- 
tion paid  to  himself,  into  self-forgetfiilness  and  spiritual  pride. 
Pressed  by  the  multitude,  in  danger  of  being  crushed,  Fulco 
would  swing  his  staflPwith  such  violence  around  him  as  to  wound 
many  within  its  sweep ;  but  the  wounded  never  uttered  a 
murmuring  word,  they  kissed  the  blood  as  it  streamed  forth 
under  the  blow  as  if  they  had  been  healed  by  the  rough  touch 
of  the  holy  man.  A  person  having  once  rent  a  fragment 
from  his  garment,  said  he  to  the  multitude,  "  Tear  not  my 
apparel,  which  has  not  been  blessed,"  and,  signing  the  cross, 
he  prouoimced  a  blessing  on  the  raiment  of  the  individual  who 
had  torn  the  fragment  from  his  own,  and  this  was  now  imme- 
diately divided  up  into  small  pieces,  which  were  looked  upon 
as  relics.  At  length  he  stood  forth  as  a  preacher  of  the  cru- 
sades. A  great  deal  of  money  was  sent  to  hira,  which  he 
divided  amongst  the  crusaders ;  yet  the  vast  collections  which 
he  made  injured  his  reputation.* 

The  personal  influence  of  this  man,  who  stood  prominent 
neither  by  his  talents  nor  his  official  station,  gave  birth  to  a 
new  life  of  the  clergy,  a  greater  zeal  in  discharging  the  duties 
of  the  predicatorial  office  and  of  the  cure  of  souls,  both  in 
France  and  in  England.  Young  men,  who,  in  the  study  of  a 
dialectic  theology  at  the  University  of  Paris,  had  forgotten 
the  obligation  to  care  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  were  touched 
by  the  discourses  of  this  unlearned  itinerant,  and  trained  by 
his  instrumentality  into  zealous  preachers.  He  formed,  and 
left  behind  him,  a  peculiar  school ;  he  sent  his  disciples  over 
to  England,  and  his  example  had  a  stimulating  effect  even  on 
such  as  had  never  come  into  personal  contact  with  him. 
"  Many,"  says  Jacob  of  Vitry,-}-  '•  inflamed  with  the  fire  of 
love,  and   incited   by  his   example,  b^an  to   teach  and  to 

morum  et  eomm,  qui  eos  afferebant,  erat  fides  et  devotio,  quod  non  solum 
servi  Dei  meritis,  sed./ervore  spiritus  et  Jidei  non  hasitantis  mcu/nitudine 
plures  sanarentur. 

*  Jacobus  de  Vitriaco,  Histoccideutal.  c.  vi.  etc. :  where  we  find  the 
story  related  in  full.  Rigord,  De  gestis  Philippi  Augusti,  at  the  year 
1195,  and  the  following.     Matthew  of  Paris,  year  1197,  £  160. 

+  Hist,  occidental,  c.  ix. 

u2 


292  PETER  DE  BUSIA. 

preach,  and  to  lead  not  a  few  to  repentance,  and  to  snatch  the 
►souls  of  sinners  from  destruction." 

One  man  of  learning,  in  particular,  belonging  to  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris,  the  magister  Peter  de  Rusia  (or  de  Rossiaco), 
attached  himself,  as  a  preacher  of  repentance,  to  Fulco,  and 
produced  great  effects :  but  although  his  preaching  procured 
for  him  rich  presents  and  great  marks  of  honour,  he  proved 
unfaithful  to  his  missionary  calling  by  accepting  a  place  as 
canonical  priest  and  chancellor  of  the  church  at  Chartres. 
Such  a  change  in  this  man  made  an  unfavourable  impression 
on  those  who  were  accustomed  to  reverence  in  Fulco's  dis- 
ciples only  preachers  glowing  with  love  for  the  salvation  of 
the  souls  of  their  brethren.  An  historian  of  these  times 
remarks,  in  speaking  of  the  great  activity  of  the  above-men- 
tioned preacher,  '*  He  who  would  know  in  what  temper  each 
man  preached,  must  look  to  the  end,  for  the  end  most  clearly 
reveals  the  disposition  of  the  man."* 

These  preachers  of  repentance  and  reform,  who  came  forth 
from  the  very  body  of  the  clergy,  might  be  led  on  by  their  pious 
zeal  to  examine  into  the  grounds  and  causes  of  the  corruption 
vhich  they  attacked,  and  to  inquire  more  profoundly  into  the 
gospel-truth  which  was  opposed  to  it.  In  this  way  a  class  of 
nen  might  be  raised  up  who  would  attack  the  reigning  church- 
lystem,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  fourth  section,  relating  to  the 
history  of  sects. 

We  must  here  repeat  what  we  have  already  said  in  an 
earlier  period,  concerning  the  exactions  and  tyranny  of  the 
archdeacons,  who  endeavoured  to  build  up  an  authority  inde- 
pendent of  the  bishops  ;|  although  there  were  those,  too,  who 
distinguished  themselves  by  self-denying  love  in  a  devotional 
and  assiduous  discharge  of  the  duties  of  their  calling,  by  un- 
wearied zeal  and  disinterestedness  in  making  their  tours  of 


*  Sed  qui  scire  desiderat,  qua  intentione  quisque  prsedicavit,  finem 
attendat,  quia  finis  intentionem  hominum  manifestissime  declarat.  Ri- 
gord,  De  gestis  Philippi,  ad  a.  1198. 

t  E.  g.,  John  of  Salisbury,  ep.  80,  concerning  the  rabies  archidiaco- 
norum  :  Aliorum  tristitia  in  eorum  gaudium  cedit,  in  quorum  manibus 
iniquitates  sunt,  et  sinistra  eorum  aut  repleta  est  muneribus  aut  inhiat. 
Hsec  enim  hominum  moustra  dextras  non  habent.  Sicut  enim  quidam 
in  virtutis  exercitio  ambidextri  sunt,  sic  isti  ambila;vi  convincuntur  ab 
4iTaritia  et  rapina. 


CONDUCT  OF  ARCHDEACOKS.  293 

visitation  amongst  the  communities  intrusted  to  their  care; 
men  who  expended  their  regular  incomes  in  works  of  benefi- 
cence, and  who  remained  poor  in  very  profitable  offices  ;  men 
who,  staff  in  hand,  travelled  over  their  dioceses  on  foot, 
preaching  the  word  in  every  place.*  To  oppose,  however, 
the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  those  archbishops  who  abused 
their  authority,  the  bishops,  in  the  course  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, employed  other  proxies  in  the  administration  of  their 
jurisdictions,  under  the  name  of  officiales.  This  title  was  ap- 
plied at  first,  in  a  more  general  sense,  to  denote  those  who, 
under  various  relations,  ser\'ed  as  deputies  and  agents  of  the 
bishops,  and  had  to  manage  f  various  kinds  of  business  in  their 
names.}  Somewhat  later,  those  who  served  as  deputies  of 
the  bishops  in  the  care  of  souls,  §  and  in  the  proper  spi- 
ritual jurisdiction  (such  officers  as  Innocent  the  Third,  at  the 
fourth  Lateran  council,  in  1215,  ordered  to  be  appointed 
for  the  benefit  of  the  larger  dioceses  neglected  by  the  worldly- 
minded  bishops  II),  were  distinguislied  imder  the  name  of 
vicarii,  from  the  officiales,  so  called  in  the  narrower  sense,  to 
whom  was  intrusted  a  coercive  jurisdiction.  But  though  a 
check  was  thus  placed  on  the  arbitrary  authority  which  the 
hdeacons  had  arrogated  to  themselves,  and  the  authority  of 
e  bishops  preserved  against  encroachments,  yet  the  commu- 
ities  gained  nothing  thereby.     In  place  of  the  exactions, 


*  As  is  related  of  an  archdeacon,  Maaritias,  in  the  diocese  of  Troyes, 
tiear  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  by  Thomas  Cantipratenos, 
in  his  Bonum  Universale,  c.  i.  p.  6. 

t  As  appertaining  to  the  officium  episcopi. 

X  On  this  point,  a  passage  in  the  Verbum  Abbreviatnm  of  Peter  Can- 
tor is  particularly  weighty,  c.  xxiv.  He  distinguishes  tria  genera  offici- 
alinm :  1.  confessor  cui  episcopus  vices  suas  in  spiritualibns,  in  audiendis 
coufessionibus  et  curandls  animabus  committit ;  2.  quaestor  palatii  sni, 
decanus,  archipresbyter  et  hujusmodi,  qui  incrementis  et  profectibus 
causarum  et  negotiorum  episcopi  per  fas  etnefas  invigilant ;  3.  prsepositus 
ruralis  primus.  He  designates  as  qua;stor  and  prsespositus  such  as  had 
to  administer  the  coercive  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop,  and  who  were  after- 
wards called  officiales  in  the  stricter  sense  of  the  word. 

§  Those  whom  Peter  Cantor  designates  with  the  title  of  con/essores. 

y  Praecipimus  tam  in  cathedralibus,  quam  in  aliis  conventualibus 
ecclesiis  viros  idoneos  ordinari,  quos  episcopi  possint  coadjutores  et  co- 
operatores  habere,  non  solum  in  praedicationis  officio,  verum  etiam  in 
audiendis  confessionibus  et  poenitentiis  injungendis  ac  caeteris,  quae  ad 
ealatem  pertinent  animarum.  ex. 


294  EXTORTIONS  PRACTISED  BY  THE  OFFICIALS. 

which  the  archdeacons  had  taken  the  liberty  to  make  on  their 
own  score,  came  others  of  a  different  sort,  which  were  prac- 
tised by  the  officials,  as  the  organs  of  the  bishops,  for  the 
enriching  of  themselves ;  so  that  Peter  of  Blois,  in  the  last 
times  of  the  twelfth  century,  could  call  these  officials  by  no 
better  name  than  bishops'  bloodsuckers;*  and  Peter  Cantor 
complains  that  the  bishops  gave  themselves  but  little  concern 
about  the  men  to  whom  they  committed  the  care  of  souls,  but 
looked  more  sharply  after  those  officials  in  the  more  limited 
sense  of  the  word,  by  whom  their  coffers  were  filled.  From 
this  it  was  quite  evident  how  little  they  loved  the  souls  of  men, 
and  their  Saviour  and  upper  Shepherd  ;  how  much,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  loved  money. f  He  pronounces  it  an  abomi- 
nable thing,  tiiat  the  places  of  such  officials  should  be  farmed 
out  by  the  bishops  for  a  stipulated  sum  of  money,  for  these 
people  practised  every  species  of  extortion  in  order  to  indem- 
nify themselves  for  the  sums  they  had  advanced. ;}: 

The  bishops,  with   the  great  poM-^ers  bestowed   on  them, 


*  Tota  officialis  intentio  est,  ut  ad  opus  episcopi  suae  jurisdiction! 
commissas  miserrimas  oves  quasi  vice  illius  tondeat,  emungat,  excoriet. 
Isti  sunt  episcoporum  sanguisugse,     Ep.  25. 

f  I  will,  for  the  benefit  of  the  learned  reader,  place  here  the  entire 
passage  which  is  so  important  a  source  for  the  history  of  these  rela- 
tions :  Praepositus  ruralis  primus,  licet  Deo  dignior,  episcopo  tamen  est 
vilior.  Cum  isto  ei  est  rarus  sermo,  rara  consultatio  super  reddenda 
ratione  villicationis  suae,  super  regimine  animarum,  in  quo  patet,  quan- 
tum amabat  eas  et  redemptorem  et  summum  pastorem  earum.  Cum 
tortore  autem  et  praeposito  freouens  ei  est  sermo,  ratiocinatio  et  con- 
sultatio. In  quo  patet,  quantum  dilexerit  pecuniam.  Sed  et,  quod 
detestabilius  est,  primum  mittit  ad  oflScii  sui  executionem  sine  magna 
fidelitatis  ejus  exauiinatioue  praehabita,  sine  sacrameuto  jurisjurandi  de 
fidelitate  ei  servanda  in  regimine  animarum  interposito.  Secundum 
autem  et  tertium  discutit  usque  ad  unguem,  si  bene  noverint  bursas 
pauperum  emungere  et  cum  aspoitato  lucro  ad  Domiuos  suos  redire, 
quibus  tutelam  pecuniae  sine  jurauiento  interposito  non  committit. 
Horum  autem  duorum,  scilicet  qu»storis  et  prsepositi,  violentior  est 
quaestor.  Praepositus  enim  saepius  poena  certa  et  defiiiita  reum  punit. 
Quaestor  veto  incerta  et  voluutaria,  pro  raodica  culpa  maximam  poe- 
nam  infligens. 

X  Quod  mirabilius  est  et  execrabilius,  illis  quacsturam,  torturam  et 
exactionem  et  praelaturam  vendit,  ad  pretium  certum  committit.  Qui 
ne  damnum  et  detrimentum  propria)  pecunisB  incurraut,  per  omne  nefas 
exactionum,  calumniarum,  rapinarum  laxant  retia  sua  in  capturam 
pecuniarum,  praedones  effect!  potius  quam  officiales. 


ACTr7ITT  OF  THE  BISHOPS.      PETER  OF  SAVOY.  293 

mig'ht  be  instruments  of  much  good,  or  they  might  occasion 
a  great  deal  of  mischief.  We  find  examples  of  both  kinds ; 
for  along  with  the  great  majority  of  bad  bishops,  there  was  a 
choice  set  of  very  good  ones,  men  profoimdly  penetrated  with 
the  spirit  of  genuine  piety,  and  ready  to  offer  themselves  up 
in  every  way  for  the  good  of  their  communities.  Among  the 
qualities  belonging  to  the  exemplary  discharge  of  the  bishop's 
calling,  were  reckoned  zeal  in  preaching,  in  caring  for  souls, 
and  in  making  church-visitations  ;  impartiality ;  the  union  of 
severity  and  gentleness  in  the  trials  conducted  by  him ;  in- 
flexibility to  the  threats  of  power  in  administering  punishment 
to  the  bad  ;*  activity  in  providing  for  the  poor  and  sick ; 
burial  of  the  poor ;  restoration  of  peace  among  contending 
parties.  Peter,  bishop  of  Moustier  en  Tarantaise,  in  Savoy, 
who  administered  this  office  from  the  year  1142  to  1175,  per- 
formed all  these  duties  with  great  diligence  in  a  poor  and 
mountainous  diocese.  He  sought  to  bring  it  about  that  each 
church  of  his  diocese  might  possess  a  silver  cup  for  the  com- 
munion. Where  other  means  fiiiled,  he  got  an  e^  to  be 
offered  weekly  from  each  house ;  these  eggs  he  caused  to  be 
collected  together  and  sold,  till  finally  the  necessary  sum  was 
obtained  for  purchasing  a  cup  for  the  church  where  this  was 
done.  On  his  tours  of  visitation,  he  took  but  few  companions 
with  him,  and  those  only  such  as,  like  himself,  would  seek  to 
be  as  little  burdensome  as  possible  to  the  communities.  He 
begged  those  who  entertained  him  and  his  companions  to 
give  all  which  they  left  untouched  to  his  brethren  the  poor. 
His  house  always  resembled  a  poorhouse, — as  his  biographer 
relates, — especially  during  the  three  months  before  harvest, 
when,  amonsrst  those  barren  rocks,  the  means  of  subsistence 
were  most  difficult  to  be  obtained.  A  multitude  flocked  in 
daily,  whom  he  supplied  with  bread  and  herbs,  and  every  year 
he  made  a  grand  and  general  love-feast.  He  took  pains  to 
search  out  those  who  were  too  infirm  to  labour,  those  who 
were  suffering  under  incurable  disorders  throughout  his  whole 
diocese, — or  to  cause  them  to  be  sought  out  by  others  whom 
he  could  trust,— and  provided  them  with  food  and  raiment. 

*  Accordingly,  it  was  said  of  sucli  an  one :  Nihil  ea  in  re  nee  minis 
principium  nee  tyrannomm  ssevitia  absterritus.  See,  e.  g.,  the  life  of 
William  archbishop  of  Bourges,  in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, in  the  Actis  Sanct.  Mens.  Januar.  T.  I.  c.  ii.  and  iii.  f.  629. 


296         GERHOH  AGAINST  THE  SECULAR  SWORD  OF  BISHOPS. 

Those  who  had  no  dwellings,  no  relatives  to  care  for  them, 
he  took  care  to  place  under  the  guardianship  of  faithful  and 
pious  persons,  with  whom  they  found  everything  necessary  for 
their  comfort.  When,  in  rough  winter  weather,  poor  people 
met  him  on  the  mountains,  destitute  of  suitable  clothing  to 
protect  them  from  the  cold,  he  shared  with  them,  in  case  of 
necessity,  the  raiment  he  wore  on  his  own  body.  In  those 
Alpine  regions,  where  there  were  no  houses  to  receive  wan- 
dering travellers,  as,  for  example,  on  Mount  St.  Bernard,  on 
the  Jura,  and  on  a  third  mountain,  unnamed,  he  caused  such 
shelters  to  be  erected  at  his  own  expense,  and  took  care 
that  every  pains  should  be  taken  to  make  them  solid  and 
durable.  Wherever  it  was  necessary  to  preach  before  the 
better-educated,  he  turned  the  duty  on  others;, but  he  made 
it  a  special  object  of  attention  himself  to  preach  intelligibly 
to  the  common  people.  He  was  wont  to  apply  to  himself  the 
words  of  the  apostle  Paul,  1  Cor.  xiv.  19, — "I  had  rather 
speak  five  words  with  my  understanding,  that  I  might  teach 
others  also,  than  ten  thousand  words  in  an  unknown  tongue." 
Being  a  zealous  adherent  of  Alexander  the  Third,  he  liad  to 
oppose  the  emperor  Frederick  the  First,  in  the  contested 
papal  election  ;  yet  this  monarch,  who  looked  with  contempt 
on  the  clergy  that  were  surrounded  with  worldly  pomp  and 
splendour,  felt  constrained  to  honour  and  spare  a  spiritual 
shepherd  like  him.* 

We  have  already,  on  several  occasions,  remarked  of  the 
German  bishops,  that  by  their  political  position,  as  important 
members  of  the  empire,  they  became  entangled  in  a  great  deal 
of  business  foreign  to  their  spiritual  office  as  shepherds,  so  as 
to  be  drawn  off  by  secular  affairs  from  the  proper  duties  of 
their  calling.f  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg  looked  upon  it  as  a 
grave  violation  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws,  that  bishops  should 
plan  campaigns,— deliberate  with  monarchs  on  worldly  affairs  ; 
especially,  that  they  should  assist  at  capital  trials.     He  called 

*  Acta  Sanctor.  Mens.  Maj.  T.  II.  f.  324. 

t  The  words  of  a  Parisian  ecclesiastic  :  "  I  can  believe  almost  any- 
thing; but  I  can  hardly  believe  that  a  German  bishop  will  be  saved." 
The  reason  stated  is,  that  German  bishops,  almost  without  exception, 
bear  the  secular  along  with  the  spiritual  sword ;  hold  bloody  courts  • 
wage  war,  and  feel  more  solicitude  about  the  pay  of  their  troops  than 
the  salvation  of  souls.  See  Cesar.  Hebterbac.  Dial.distiuct.  II.  c.  xxvi. 
Bibl.  Cisterc.  T.  II.  f.  44. 


COMPLAINTS  OF  THE  WORLDLY  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH.   297 

it  a  wretched  hypocrisy  in  these  bishops  when,  in  order  to 
show  an  apparent  respect  for  the  ecclesiastical  laws,  they 
absented  themselves  a  short  time  before  the  close  of  those 
bloody  trials,  after  every  arrangement  had  already  been  made 
for  the  sentence  which  was  to  be  passed.  "  They  do  like  the 
Jews,"  says  he,  "  who  declared  before  Pilate, '  It  is  not  lawful 
for  us  to  put  any  man  to  death,' "  John  xviii.  31, — meaning 
that  the  Roman  soldiers  should  crucify  Christ.*  According 
to  his  view  of  the  church  theocracy,  the  church  should  ex- 
ercise only  a  moral  oversight  over  secular  affairs,  contend 
only  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit ;  and  she  would  be  irresis- 
tible, as  he  supposed,  if  she  made  use  of  this  weapon  alone. 
She  enfeebled  herself  and  her  authority  when  she  laid  aside 
the  spiritual  sword  for  the  secular.  Nor  did  he  even  spare 
the  popes,  whose  example  might  be  appealed  to  in  justification 
of  the  bishops.  Happening  to  meet  pope  Eugene  the  Third, 
who  had  returned  for  the  last  time  to  Rome,  at  Viterbo, — 
when  that  pope  complained  to  him  of  the  unfavourable  treaty 
of  peace,  which,  after  a  large  expenditure  of  money,  he  had 
been  obliged  to  conclude  with  the  Romans, — he  remarked 
to  him,  that  "  even  such  a  peace  was  better  than  the  war 
carried  on  by  him ;  for,"  said  he,  "  when  the  pope  prepares 
to  make  war  with  the  aid  of  hireling  soldiers,  I  seem  to  see 
Peter  before  me,  drawing  his  sword  fi"om  its  sheath.  But 
when  he  comes  off"  the  worst  in  such  a  contest,  I  think  I  hear 
the  voice  of  Christ,  saying  to  Peter,  '  Put  up  thy  sword  in 
its  sheath.'  "f 

As  those  German  bishops  must  have  felt  themselves  bur- 
dened by  the  duties  of  their  double  sphere  of  action,  as  their 
dioceses  were  of  vast  extent,  and  as  secular  business  often 
occupied  more  of  their  time  and  thoughts  than  spiritual,  so 
they  would  naturally  welcome  any  opportunity  that  might 
offier  itself  of  procuring  such  assistants  as  had  received  epis- 
copal ordination,  and  were  therefore  in  a  condition  to  act  as 
their  substitutes  in  the  performance  of  episcopal  functions. 
This  opportunity  was  presented  to  them  by  a  peculiar  train  of 
events  in  the  thirteenth  century.     When  the  successfiil  issue 

*  De  aedificio,  c.  xxxv.  Pez.  T.  II.  p.  ii.  f.  359. 
t  See  Gerhoh's  letter  to  pope  Alexander  the  Third,  pablished  by 
Pez.  Thes,  aneodot  noviss.  T.  V.  f.  540. 


298  PROPHETIC  ELEMENT  IN  THE 

of  the  first  crusades,  and  the  conquest  of  Constantinople,  had 
extended  the  empire  of  the  Western  church  in  the  East,  the 
popes  proceeded  to  erect  bishoprics  in  those  countries;  but 
with  the  loss  of  those  possessions,  the  bishoprics  also  had  to 
be  abandoned.  Yet  the  popes  would  not  relinquish  their 
claims  to  them ;  but  still  continued  to  appoint  and  consecrate 
bishops  for  those  lost  churches ;  though  in  reality  they  were 
bishops  only  in  name  {episcopi  in  partibus  infidelium).  Now, 
in  these  titular  bishops,  the  German  prelates  found  the  very 
kind  of  help  which  they  wanted.  These  ecclesiastics  were 
sent  to  them  as  coadjutores,  suffragan  bishops  {suffraganei)  ; 
and  as  pious  men  were  frequently  appointed  to  those  places 
from  the  Dominican  and  Franciscan  orders,  so  the  arrange- 
ment operated  advantageously  for  the  cause  of  religious  instruc- 
tion and  the  care  of  souls  in  those  German  dioceses. 


IV.  PaoPHETic  Warnings  against  the  Seculabization 
OF  THE  Church. 

The  church  having  arrived  at  the  summit  of  power,  the 
conviction  continually  gained  force  on  the  minds  of  men,  that 
the  superfluity  of  earthly  goods  would  work  ruin  to  the  church 
itself;  that  through  this  secularizing  spirit  she  was  becoming 
estranged  from  her  true  calling.  The  complaints  of  the 
Hohenstaufen  emperors,  and  of  an  entire  party  which  attached 
itself  to  them  ;*  the  voices  of  the  German  national  bards,f 
and  of  the  prophets  that  rose  up  to  oppose  the  coriuption  of 
the  church,  as  well  as  of  the  sects  that  contended  against  her ; 

*  The  Gottfried  of  Viterbo,  mentioned  on  page  238,  speaking  of  Con- 
stantine's  donation  to  Silvester,  says :  Ego  autem,  ut  de  sensu  meo  lo- 
quar,  utrum  Deo  magis  placeat  gloria  et  exaltatio  ecclesise,  quae  hoc 
tempore  est,  aut  humilitatio,  quae  primitus  fuerat,  confiteor  me  ignorare. 
Videtur  multis  quidem  primus  ille  status  sanctiar,  iste  felicior.  He  does 
not  venture  to  decide  on  the  point,  since  Christ  promised  the  church  free- 
dom from  error.  Castera  super  his  qusestionibus,  majoribus  nostris 
solvenda  relinquimus.  Pantheon,  p.  xvi.,  in  Muratori,  Script,  rerum 
Italiear.  f.  361. 

t  E.  g.  in  Walter  von  der  Vogelweide,  the  legend  of  the  threefold 
■woe,  which  the  angels  had  announced  at  the  donation  made  by  Constan- 
tine  to  Sivester  :  "  Once,  Christianity  was  beautiful ;  a  poison  has  now 
fallen  on  it;  its  honey  has  been  turned  to  gall ;  great  sorrow  will  come 
from  this  upon  the  world."     Edition  of  Lachraann,  p,  25. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

all  were  agreed  in  attributing  her  deg-eneracy  to  the  riches 
that  had  been  lavished  on  her.  A  certain  faculty  of  prophecy 
seems  implanted  in  the  spirit  of  humanity  ;  the  longing  heart 
goes  forth  to  meet  beforehand  great  and  new  creations,  which 
it  needs  in  order  to  the  attainment  of  its  objects ;  undefined 
presentiments  hasten  to  anticipate  the  mighty  future.  Espe- 
cially does  the  kingdom  of  God,  in  the  course  of  its  develop- 
ment from  beginning  to  end,  form  a  connected  whole,  and  it 
strives  towards  its  completion  according  to  sure  and  certain 
laws.  The  germ  of  the  unknown  future  is  already  contained 
in  the  past.  The  spirit  of  the  kingdom  of  God  begets,  there- 
fore, in  those  who  are  filled  with  it,  a  prophetic  consciousness, 
— presentiments  in  reference  to  the  grand  whole  of  the  evolu- 
tion, which  are  different  from  the  prediction  of  individual 
events,  not  necessarily  connected  with  that  whole.  Although 
tfie  appearance  of  Christ,  as  the  great  turning  point  in  man's 
history,  would  above  all  be  necessarily  preceded  by  prophecy 
and  anticipation,  yet,  to  the  still  further  evolution  of  the 
Jdngdom  of  God,  even  after  it  has  left  its  first  envelopment, 
and  come  forth  to  the  open  light,  belongs  also  a  prophetic 
element ;  as  many  an  important  epoch  and  turning-point  still 
remains  to  be  unfolded  in  its  history,  till  it  arrives  at  the 
ultimate  goal.  Out  of  the  consciousness  of  the  corruption  of 
the  church  sprang  the  presentiment  of  a  future  regeneration, 
for  which  the  way  must  be  prepared  by  some  violent  process 
of  purification.  To  longing  hearts,  a  contemplation  of  the  ' 
corruption  of  the  secularized  church  served  as  a  sort  of  foil, 
enabling  them  to  picture  forth,  by  the  rule  of  contraries,  the 
image  of  the  better  future.  Accordingly,  we  may  recognize 
in  phenomena  of  this  kind,  belonging  to  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries,  foretokens — premonitions,  of  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  and  perhaps,  also,  of  epochs  of  development  lying  still 
more  remote.  Not  the  Christian  spirit  alone,  however,  but 
the  antichristian  also,  has  its  divination.  We  see  already 
budding  forth,  in  antagonism  with  the  false  objectivity  and 
externalization  of  the  church,  the  tendency  to  a  false  inward- 
ness and  subjectivity ;  a  tendency  which  aimed  at,  and  pre- 
dicted, the  dissolution  of  everything  positive  in  religion,  and, 
consequently,  the  dissolution  of  Christianity  itself;  premo- 
nitions of  a  spiritual  bent,  which,  after  mining  for  centuries 
in  the  heart  of  European  civilization,   was  destined   finally 


300  THE  ABBESS  HILDEGARD. 

to  burst  through  all  the  established  boundaries  of  its  social 
order. 

As  representatives  of  the  first-described  direction  of  the 
prophetical  spirit,  we  may  mention  the  abbess  Hildegard  and 
the  abbot  Joachim.  The  predictions  of  the  latter,  however, 
were  afterwards  taken  up  by  the  second  of  the  above-men- 
tioned directions,  and  interpreted  in  accordance  with  its  own 
sense.  We  will  now  proceed  to  take  a  nearer  view  of  these 
two  important  personages. 

Hildegard,  who  was  born  in  1098,  and  died  in  1197,* 
founded,  and  presided  as  abbess  over,  the  Rupert  convent 
near  Bingen.  Her  visions,  which  were  held  to  be  super- 
natural,— the  revelations  which  she  claimed  herself  to  have 
received  from  Heaven, — her  plain,  frank,  and  moving  exhor- 
tations, made  her  an  object  of  great  veneration.  Especially 
after  the  abbot  Bernard  of  Clairvaux, — while  sojourning  in 
Germany  on  the  business  of  preaching  the  crusade, — and  pope 
Eugene  the  Third,  had  both  recognized  the  divinity  of  her 
mission,  did  she  attain  the  highest  summit  of  her  reputation. 
Persons  of  all  ranks  applied  to  her  for  advice,  for  the  dis- 
closing of  future  events,  for  the  decision  of  disputed  questions, 
for  her  intercessions,  and  her  spiritual  consolations.  Amongst 
those  who  consulted  her  were  to  be  reckoned  abbots  and 
bishops,  popes,  kings,  and  emperors.  If  many  complained  of 
the  obscurity  of  her  sayings,"]"  others  might  suppose  they  found 
a  deeper  wisdom  in  the  darkness  of  the  response.  Parents 
longing  to  obtain  children  had  recourse  to  the  intercessions 
of  Hildegard  ;  and  to  such  applications  she  replied  :  ' '  This 
depends  on  the  power  and  will  of  God,  who  alone  knows 
to  whom  he  grants  children,  and  from  whom  he  takes  them 
away  ;  for  his  judgment  is  not  according  to  man's  liking,  but 
according  to  his  own  wisdom.  Because  you  have  besought 
me,  I  will  beseech  God  for  you ;  but  let  him  do  what,  accord- 
ing to   his   grace  and  mercy,  he  has  determined  to  do."J 

*  The  collections  on  the  history  of  their  lives,  in  the  Actis  Sanctorum, 
17th  Sept. 

t  Thus  we  hear  of  an  Abbot  Berthold  :  Licet  consolationibus  verbo- 
rum  vestrorum  factus  sum  sacpe  loetior,  obscuritatibus  tamen  eornm  eo 
quod  non  plene  iiitellectui  meo  paterent,  factus  sum  tristior.  Martene 
et  Durand,  Collectio  amplissima,  T.  II.  f.  1017. 

X  Martene  et  Durand,  Collectio  ampl.  T.  II.  f.  1029.     Ep.  11. 


HEB  CHRISTIAN  EXHORTATIONS.  tOl 

Many  of  her  exhortations  and  responses  betoken,  on  the 
whole,  a  Christian  wisdom  superior  to  the  prejudices  of  her 
times.  Pointing  to  the  inward  temper  alone,  as  the  important 
thing  in  Christian  life,  she  declared  herself  opposed  to  all 
over-estimation  of  outward  works,  and  all  excessive  asceticism. 
To  an  abbess  she  wrote,  cautioning  her  against  such  delusion  : 
"  I  have  often  observed  that,  when  a  man  mortifies  his  body 
by  extreme  abstinence,  a  sort  of  disgust  steals  over  him,  and 
from  this  disgust  he  is  more  apt  to  plunge  into  vice  than  if  he 
had  allowed  due  nourishment  to  his  body."*  In  the  name  of 
God,  she  gave  to  another  this  response :  "  What  I  have  given 
man  to  eat,  I  do  not  take  from  him ;  but  food  that  excites 
disgust  I  know  not,  for  vanity  goes  with  it.  Believe  not  that 
by  immoderate  abstinence  any  soul  can  fly  to  me ;  but  avoid- 
ing all  extremes,  let  the  man  devote  himself  to  me,  and  I 
will  receive  him."!  To  another  much  respected  nun  of  this 
period,  Elizabeth  of  Schonau,  who  also  supposed  herself 
favoured  with  heavenly  visions,  she  gave  the  following  exhor- 
tation :  "  Let  those  who  would  do  the  work  of  God  be  ever 
mindful  that  they  are  earthen  vessels — that  they  are  men. 
Let  them  ever  keep  before  their  eyes  what  they  now  are,  and 
what  they  shall  be  ;  and  let  them  commit  heavenly  things  to 
him  who  is  in  heaven,  for  they  are  themselves  at  a  far  distance 
from  their  home,  and  know  not  the  things  of  heaven."  J  To 
an  abbess,  who  b^ged  an  explanation  of  some  anxiety  by 
which  she  was  troubled,  she  replied :  "  Thou  shouldst  hold 
fast  to  the  sacred  Scriptures,  in  which  we  come  to  the  know- 
ledge of  God  by  faith.  We  should  not  tempt  God,  but 
reverentially  adore  him.  Oftentimes,  man  impatiently  desires 
from  God  a  solution  of  some  difficulty  which  it  is  not  granted  him 
to  understand,  and  is  thereby  misled  to  forsake  God's  service. 
Give  thyself  no  concern  about  thoughts  rising  up  involuntarily 
in  thy  soul.  Satan  often  shoots  such  arrows  into  man's  heart, 
in  order  to  create  distrust  of  God.  This  should  serve  as  an 
exercise  for  self-denial ;  everything  depends  on  not  giving  way 
to  such  thoughts.     Blessed  is  the  man  who  by  so  doing  /ire*, 

*  Saepe  video,  quando  homo  per  nimietatem  abstinentise  corpus  saam 
affligit,  quod  taedium  iu  illo  surgit,  et  taedio  vido  se  implicat,  plus  qaam 
si  illud  juste  pasceret    L.  c.  f.  1068. 

t  L.  c.  f.  1060. 

X  Hildegard.  epistolae,  p.  115.  0)1od.  1566. 


302        THE  abbess's  bold  language  to  the  clergy. 

though  constantly  girt  around,  as  it  were,  by  the  pains  cf 
death."*  To  an  abbot,  harassed  by  many  inward  conflicts, 
who  applied  to  her  for  comfort  and  for  her  intercessions,  she 
replied :  "  There  is  in  thee  a  breath  of  God,  to  which  God  has 
communicated  an  endless  life,  and  to  which  he  has  given  the 
wings  of  reason ;  rise,  therefore,  with  them,  through  faith 
and  pious  aspirations,  to  God.  Know  him  as  thy  God  who 
knew  thee  first,  and  from  whom  thy  being  proceeds  ;  therefore, 
beseech  him  that,  by  the  breath  of  his  Spirit,  he  would  teach 
thee  what  is  good,  and  deliver  thee  from  evil.  Trust  in  him, 
that  thou  mayest  not  be  ashamed  to  appear  before  him  with 
all  thy  works  ;  and  pray  to  him,  as  a  son  does  to  a  father,  when 
punished  by  him  because  he  has  erred,  that  he  would  remem- 
ber his  own  child,  in  thee."f  In  the  time  of  the  schism 
between  pope  Alexander  the  Third  and  Victor  the  Fourth,  a 
certain  abbot  applied,  among  others,  to  Hildegard,  to  inform 
him  what  he  ought  to  do,  so  long  as  it  remained  doubtful 
which  was  to  be  considered  the  true  pope  ?  J  She  advised  him 
to  say  in  his  heart  to  God,  "Lord,  thou,  who  knowest  all 
things,  in  my  superiors  I  will  obey  thee,  so  long  as  they 
oblige  me  to  do  nothing  contrary  to  the  Catholic  faith."  He 
should  place  his  hope  in  God  alone,  who  would  never  forsake 
his  church. §  To  an  abbess  who  applied  to  her  for  comfort, 
and  for  her  intercessions,  she  wTote :  "  Abide  in  communion 
with  Christ ;  seek  all  good  in  him ;  to  him  reveal  thy  works, 
and  he  will  bestow  on  thee  salvation  ;  for  without  him  salvation 
is  sought  in  vain  from  man ;  for  grace  and  salvation  are 
attained,  not  through  any  man,  but  through  God."  She 
boldly  stood  forth  against  the  arbitrary  will  of  an  ambitious 

*  Beatus  homo,  qui  ea  nee  facere  \ult,  nee  eis  consentit,  sed  sicut  cum 
passione  mortis  in  eis  vivit.  Martene  et  Durand,  Collectio  ampl.  T.  II. 
f.  1075. 

■)•  Martene  et  Durand,  CoUectio  ampl.  T.  II.  f.  1053. 

X  The  abbot,  speaking  of  the  pernicious  consequences  of  a  schism  of 
this  sort,  which  every  man  would  take  advantage  of  as  a  pretext  for 
disobedience,  had  said :  Quoniam  ecclesia,  ad  quod  caput  suum  respi- 
ciat,  veraciter  iguorat,  quia  quisque  vagus  inde  exemplum  sumens  reli- 
gionem  bonsE  conversationis  abhorret,  hiqui  spiritu  Dei  aguntur,  nou 
minime  soUicitantur,  qui  finis  eorum  in  voluntate  Dei  esse  debeat.  L. 
c.  f.  1055. 

§  Tu  ergo  ?pe  tua  ad  unum  Deum  tende,  quia  ipse  ecclesiam  suam  noa 
dereliiiquet. 


THE  abbess's  bold  LANGUAGE  TO  THE  CLERGY.  303 

clergy.  In  the  cemetery  of  her  convent  one  was  buried  who, 
it  was  said,  had  been  excommunicated ;  but  those  who  per- 
formed the  obsequies  maintained  that  he  had  obtained  absolu- 
tion. The  spiritual  authorities  of  ^layence  caused  the  body  to 
be  dug  up,  and  laid  the  convent  under  an  interdict  because 
ecclesiastical  burial  had  been  granted  to  an  excommimicated 
person.  Hildegard  thereupon  issued  a  letter,  addressed  to 
the  clergy  of  Mayence,*  in  which  she  represented  to  them 
how  grievously  they  had  sinned  by  such  an  arbitrary  proceed- 
ing. "  All  prelates  were  bound  to  avoid  taking  a  step,  except 
after  the  most  careful  examination  of  reasons,  which  would 
prevent  any  community,  by  their  sentence,  from  singing  God's 
praise  or  administering  and  receiving  the  sacraments.  They 
should  be  very  certain,  that  they  were  moved  to  such  a  step 
only  by  zeal  for  God's  justice,  and  not  by  anger  or  revenge." 
She  assured  them  that  she  had  heard  a  divine  voice  saying : 
"Who  created  heaven? — God,  "Who  opens  heaven  to  the 
faithful  ? — God.     Who  is  like  unto  him  ? — No  man."f 

The  clergy,  generally,  she  severely  rebuked  on  account  of 
their  corrupt  morals ;  their  ambition  and  thirst  for  lucre ; 
their  unholy  traffic  with  sacred  things ;  their  occupations, 
which  were  so  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  spiritual  calling, 
— such  as  bearing  arms,  singing  ludicrous  songs.J  She  re- 
proaches them  for  neglecting,  in  their  devotion  to  worldly 
pursuits,  the  peculiar  duties  of  their  calling, — the  instruction 
of  the  people  in  God's  law,  offering  the  idle  excuse  that  it 
costs  too  much  labour.§  They  rendered  themselves  chargeable, 
by  this  n^lect  and  by  their  bad  example,  with  the  guilt  of 
ruininu:  the  laity,  who  lived  according  to  their  lusts ;  before 
whom  they  ought  rather  to  shine  as  pillars  of  light.  She 
announced  to  the  clergy  a  divine  judgment,  which  would 
deprive  them  of  the  riches  that  served  to  corrupt  them ;  a 
judgment  from  which  the  clergy  was  to  come  forth  tried  and 
refined.     The  then  spreading  sects  of  the  Catharists  and  the 

*  Martene  et  Durand,  CoUectio  ampl.  T.  II.  f.  1058. 

t  Hildegard.  epistolae,  p.  121. 

X  L.  c.  p.  160,  to  the  clergy  in  Cologne :  Interdum  milites,  interdnm 
servi,  interdum  ladificantfs  cantores  existitis;  sed  per  fabulosa  officia 
vestra  masc.as  in  aestate  aliqaando  abigitis. 

§  Nee  subditos  doctrinam  a  vobis  quaerere  permitdtis,  dicentes ;  omnia 
elaborare  non  possumus. 


304  HILDEGARd'S  prophecies,      abbot  JOACHIM. 

Apostolici*  appeared  to  her  the  antetype  of  a  party  whieh 
would  be  used  by  the  Almighty  as  an  instrument  of  this 
judgment  for  the  purification  of  the  church. f  "  A  troop  led 
astray,  and  commissioned  by  Satan,  shall  come,  with  pale 
countenances  and  all  appearance  of  sanctity ;  and  they  shall 
combine  with  the  mightier  princes  of  the  world.  In  mean  ap- 
parel shall  they  go ;  full  of  meekness  and  composure  of  mind 
shall  they  appear  ;  by  simulating  the  strictest  abstinence  and 
chastity  shall  they  draw  after  them  a  numerous  train  of 
followers  ;  and  to  the  princes  shall  they  say,  concerning  you, 
Why  tolerate  these  people  among  you  who  pollute  the  whole 
earth  with  their  sins  ?  They  live  in  drunkenness  and  revelling, 
and  unless  you  drive  them  forth  the  whole  church  will  go  to 
destruction.  These  people  shall  be  the  rod  which  God  will 
make  use  of  to  chastise  you,  and  they  shall  continue  to  per- 
secute you  until  you  are  purified  from  your  sins.  When  this  is 
done,  then  shall  the  princes  discover  the  hypocritical  character 
of  these  persecutors  of  the  clergy,  and  fall  upon  them.  Then 
shall  the  morning  dawn  of  righteousness  arise,  and  the  clergy, 
purified  by  affliction,  shine  as  the  finest  gold."  J 

The  predictions  of  Hildegard  were  widely  diffused,  and  much 
read  ;  and  they  gave  matter  for  reflection  on  the  nature  of  that 
process  of  purification  which  awaited  a  corrupted  church.  New 
prophetic  visions  were  called  forth  by  them. 

Far  more  graphically  depicted  did  the  image  of  the  future 
present  itself  in  the  soul  of  the  abbot  Joachim,  who,  at  first, 
presided  over  the  monastery  at  Corace  (Curatium)  in  Calabria, 
at  length  founded  the  monastery  of  Floris,  and  a  peculiar 
congregation  of  monks,  and  died  between  the  years  1201 
and  1202.  He  was  reverenced  in  his  time  as  a  prophet,  and 
stood  in  high  consideration  with  popes  and  princes.§  He 
was  an  enthusiastic  friend  of  monasticisra  and  of  the   con- 

*  Of  whom  we  shall  speak  in  the  fourth  section. 

t  Per  quendain  errantem  populum,  pejorem  erranti  populo,  qui  nunc 
est,  super  vos  prEevaricatores  ruina  cadet,  qui  ubique  vos  persequetur  et 
qui  opera  vestra  non  celabit,  sed  ea  denudabit.     L.  c.  p.  160, 

J  Hildegard.  epistolse,  p.  169. 

§  See  the  records  and  collections  on  the  history  of  his  life  in  the  Actis 
Sanctor.  29th  of  May.  Comp.  Dr.  Engelhardt's  Essay,  on  the  Abbot 
Joachim  and  the  Everlasting  Gospel,  p.  32,  in  his  Kirchengeschichtlichen 
Abhandlungen. 


HIS  GENUnre  AND  SPUEIOUS  WEITING3.  305 

teraplative  life,  from  which  he  looked  for  the  regeneration 
of  the  secularized  church.  He  opposed  the  mystical  to  the 
scholastico-dialectic  theology.  As  the  reigning  corruption 
seemed  to  him  to  spring  from  secularization,  and  the  fondness 
for  dry  and  meagre  conceptions  of  the  understanding,  so  he 
expected  from  religious  societies,  who  should  renounce  all 
earthly  goods,  and  live  only  in  pious  contemplation,  a  new 
and  more  glorious  epoch  of  the  church  in  the  latter  days.  We 
must  transport  ourselves  back  to  the  times  in  which  he  lived. 
It  was  near  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century ;  the  papacy  had 
been  seen  to  come  forth  victoriously  out  of  the  contest  with 
the  emperor  Frederic  the  First ;  but  new  and  violent  storms 
might  still  be  expected  to  burst  from  the  side  of  that  powerful 
house.  The  Calabrian  regarded  Germany  with  detestation  ; 
and  he  was  inclined  to  look  upon  the  imperial  power  of 
Germany  as  the  one  to  be  employed  In  executing  judgment 
on  a  corrupted  church  ;  but  neither  could  he  forgive  it  in 
the  popes  that  they  had  taken  refuge  in  France.  Grief  over 
the  corruption  of  the  church,  longing  desire  for  better  times, 
profound  Christian  feeling,  a  meditative  mind,  and  a  glowing 
imagination,  such  are  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  his  spirit 
and  of  his  writings.  His  ideas  were  presented  for  the  most  part 
in  the  form  of  comments  and  meditations  on  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  but  the  language  of  the  Bible  furnished  him  only  with 
such  hints  as  might  turn  up  for  the  matter  which  he  laid  into 
them  by  his  allegorizing  mode  of  interpretation  ;  although  the 
types,  which  he  supposed  he  found  presented  in  the  Scriptures, 
reacted  in  giving  shape  to  his  intuitions.  As  his  writings  and 
ideas  found  great  acceptance,  in  this  age,  among  those  who 
were  dissatisfied  with  the  present,  and  who  were  longing  after 
a  different  condition  of  the  church  ;  and  the  Franciscans,  who 
might  easily  fency  they  discovered,  even  in  that  which  is  cer- 
tainly genuine  in  Joachim's  writings,  a  prophecy  referring  to 
their  order,  so  a  strong  temptation  arose  to  the  forging  of 
works  under  his  name,  or  the  interpolating  those  which  really 
proceeded  from  him.  The  loose  connection  of  the  matter  in 
liis  works,  made  it  easy  to  insert  passages  from  other  hands ; 
and  this  character  of  the  style  renders  a  critical  sifting  of 
them  difficult.* 

*  The  three  works  referred  to  by  himself  in  the  prolc^oe  to  his  Com- 
mentary on  the  Apocalypse,  namely  :  This  Commentary,  the  Concordiae 
VOL.  VII.  X 


306         Joachim's  genuine  and  spurious  writings. 

Let  us  now  consider,  more  in  detail,  what  is  expressed  in 
these  remarkable  writings  concerning  the  present  and  the 
future. 


Veteris  ac  Novi  Testamenti,  and  the  Psalterium  decern  Chordarum,  are 
certainly  genuine.  In  reference,  however,  to  the  Commentary  on  Jere- 
miah and  Isaiah,  my  own  opinion  would  be  confirmatory  of  the  sus- 
picions expressed  by  Engelhardt.  These  books  are  not  cited  in  the  list 
given  by  Joachim  himself,  although  the  Commentary  on  Jeremiah  pur- 
ports to  have  been  written  in  the  year  1197,  and  the  Commentary  on  the 
Apocalypse,  to  which  the  above-mentioned  prologue  belongs,  was  com- 
posed in  the  year  1 200.  Moreover,  in  the  preface  to  his  Psalterium 
decem  Chordarum,  he  mentions  only  those  three  works  as  belonging  to 
one  whole.  The  prediction  of  two  new  orders  of  monks,  who  should 
appear  for  the  glorification  of  the  church  in  the  last  times,  and  which 
were  supposed  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  Dominican  and  Franciscan  orders, 
certainly  does  not  warrant  us  to  entertain  the  suspicion,  at  once,  that 
they  were  of  later  origin  :  for  the  contemplative  life  of  monasticism  was 
assuredly  regarded  by  the  abbot  Joachim  as  the  highest  of  all ;  and 
a  renovation  of  that  mode  of  life  could  not  but  appear  to  him  as  one  of 
the  essential  marks  of  the  glory  of  the  last  age  of  the  church.  But  then 
^gain,  the  idea  of  a  double  order  of  monks  presented  itself  to  him  of  its 
own  accord, — of  an  order,  whose  labours  in  the  way  of  preaching  was  to 
bring  about  the  last  general  conversion  of  the  nations ;  an  order  which 
should  represent  the  highest  Johannean  stage  of  the  contemplative  life. 
Thus,  no  doubt,  it  may  be  explained  that,  even  without  being  a  prophet, 
he  might  hit  on  the  thought  of  sketching  forth  a  picture  of  two  such 
orders ;  since  we  find  something  like  this  in  the  writings  which  un- 
doubtedly belong  to  him.  But  still,  many  descriptions  of  the  Franciscans 
are  too  striking  not  to  excite  the  suspicion  that  they  have  been  foisted  in 
by  some  Franciscan ;  as,  for  example,  Commentar.  in  Jerem.,  p.  81,  the 
pradicatores  and  the  ordo  myivrum ;  and  the  way  in  which  the  author 
expresses  himself  in  this  place,  makes  it  certainly  more  probable  that  the 
title  minores,  already  existing,  led  him  to  the  explications  which  there 
occur,  than  that  he  had  been  led  by  those  explications  so  to  designate 
this  order  of  contemplatives.  Next  occur,  particularly  in  the  Commen- 
tary on  Isaiah,  as  they  do  not  in  Joachim's  undoubtedly  genuine  works, 
certain  prophecies,  which  seem  to  have  arisen  post  factum.  Page  seventh 
contains  the  remarkable  passage  concerning  Almaric  of  Bena,  Revela- 
tion ix.  2,  thus  interpreted  :  Sive  Almericus  sive  aliquis  alius  in  Liguria 
doctor  magnus  fuerit,  qui  detexerit  profundum  scientise  ssecularis,  cum 
regio  ilia  adeo  infecerit  erroribus  circumpositas  regiones,  ut  de  hujus- 
modi  locustis  et  lamiis  ipsa  mater  ecclesia  tabescat.  Page  28,  col,  2,  the 
predictions  concerning  the  power  of  the  Mongols ;  how  the  Tartars 
would  turn  their  arms  against  the  Mohammedans.  To  be  sure,  the 
spurious  character  of  such  single  passages  is  no  evidence  of  the  spurious- 
ness  of  the  entire  work,  in  which  moreover,  the  current  ideas  of  Joa- 
chim may  easily  be  discerned :  and  in  the  Commentary  on  Jeremiah 
we  also  find  many  single  passages  which  do  not  favour  the  hypothesis 


ON  THE  EXACTIONS  OF  THE  ROMAN  CHURCH.  307 

In  his  commentary  on  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  Joachim 
complains  of  the  exactions  of  the  Roman  church :  "  The 
whole  world  is  polluted  with  this  evil.  There  is  no  city  nor 
village  where  the  church  does  not  push  her  benefices,  collect 
her  revenues.  Everywhere  she  will  have  prebends,  endless  in- 
comes. O  God  !  how  long  dost  thou  delay  to  avenge  the  blood 
of  the  innocent,  which  cries  to  thee  firom  beneath  the  altar  of 
the  Capitol  ?  "*  He  calls  the  church  of  Rome  the  house  of  the 
courtezan,  where  all  practise  simony,  all  are  stained  and  pol- 
luted ;  where  the  door  b  thrown  open  to  every  one  who 
knocks.  He  speaks  against  the  legates,  who  travel  about  the 
provinces,  impudently  preach,  acquire  benefices  and  prebends, 
snatch  to  themselves  the  dignity  of  the  prelates.  He  com- 
plains of  the  deification  of  the  Rioman  chiu^h.  "  Some  have  so 
exalted  the  church  in  Rome,"  says  he,  "  that  a  man  was  held 
up  as  a  heretic  who  did  not  visit  the  threshold  of  Peter. 
Their  guilty  mistake  lay  in  this,  that  they  bid  men  visit  the 
holy  material  temple,  wlien  the  truth  is,  that  in  every  place 
every  Christian  is  a  temple  of  God,  if  he  leads  a  good  lifcf 
He  speaks  against  indulgences  dispensed  from  Rome  :  "  Many 
place  so  much  confidence  in  the  absolution  of  the  church,  as 
never  once  to  think  that  they  need  to  leave  oflf  sinning !  but 
sink  deeper  and  deeper  in  all  manner  of  wickedness."  He  is 
full  of  zeal  against  the  proud  and  fleshly  living  cardinals  and 


of  its  having  been  composed  at  some  later  period.  Woald  a  Franciscan, 
instead  of  referring  all  to  the  two  mendicant  orders,  have  so  expressed 
himself  as  on  page  85 :  In  tertio  vero  statu  retorqnendnm  est  totmn  ad 
Cisterciences  et  alios  futoros  religiosos,  qui  post  antichrist!  minam 
multiplicandi  sunt  ?  Page  151,  the  successor  of  Celestin  is  compared 
with  Herod  the  Great,  and  a  persecution  of  the  spiritualis  intelligentia, 
proceeding  from  him,  is  predicted  :  Designat  Herodes  summum  pontifi- 
cem  post  Ccelestinum  fotumm,  quicunque  sit  ille.  It  is  easy  to  see  how 
Joachim,  writing  near  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Celestin,  might  have  been 
led  by  his  typical  exposition,  flights  of  imagination,  and  his  tone  of  cha- 
racter, to  predict  such  things  of  Celestin's  successor ;  but  it  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  a  man  belonging  to  one  of  the  two  monkish  orders,  after- 
wards Innocent  the  Third,  would  be  so  designated. 

*  A  play  on  words :  O  Dens,  quousque  non  vindicas  sanguinem  inno- 
centum,  sub  altari  clamantium  Romani  Capituli,  immo  Capitolii? 

t  Quia  invitabant  ad  templam  sanctum  materiale  arguuntur,  quia  in 
loco  omni  quilibet  Christianas  templam  Dei  est,  dammo<io  bonas  faciat 
vias  suas. 

X  2 


308  PROGRESS  OP  THE  POPES  TO  ABSOLUTE  POWER. 

prelates.*  He  predicts  a  divine  judgment  on  the  Roman 
curia,  because  litigious  processes  and  exactions  were  worse  in 
that  court  than  in  all  other  judicatories,  t  He  announces  that 
Christ  is  about  to  grasp  the  scourge,  and  drive  sellers  and 
buyers  out  of  the  temple.  He  does  not  stop  with  accusations 
against  the  church  of  Rome,  but  attacks  also  the  prevailing 
corruption  in  all  other  parts  of  the  church.  "  The  church  of 
Peter,"  says  he,  "  the  church  of  Christ,  which  was  once  full, 
is  now  empty :  for,  although  she  now  seems  full  of  people, 
yet  they  are  not  lier  people,  but  strangers.  They  are  not 
her  sons,  the  citizens  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  but  the  sons 
of  Babylon.  What  profits  the  name  of  Christ,  where  the 
power  is  wanting  ?  The  church  is,  as  it  were,  widowed  : 
there  are  but  few  or  no  bishops,  who,  to  save  their  flocks, 
expose  themselves  a  prey  to  the  wolves.  Every  man  seeks  his 
own,  and  not  the  things  of  Jesus  Christ."J  "  Where,"  says 
he,§  "  is  there  more  contention,  more  fraud,  more  vice  and 
ambition,  than  among  the  clergy  of  our  Lord  ?  Therefore 
must  judgment  begin  from  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
fire  go  forth  from  his  sanctuary,  to  consume  it,  in  order  that 
tlie  others  may  perceive  what  will  be  done  with  them  when 
he  spares  not  even  his  sinning  children."  Of  the  Romish 
church,  to  which  he  frequently  applies  the  name  Babylon, 
he  says,  "  She  should  not  plume  herself  upon  her  laith, 
when  she  denies  the  Lord  by  her  works."  ||  He  is  fond  of 
marking  the  course  of  history  ;  particularly  the  history  of  the 
papacy.  He  describes  pope  Leo  the  Ninth  as  the  representa- 
tive of  a  reforming  tendency  in  the  church.^  Pope  Paschalis 
the  Second  he  represents  as  the  traitor  of  the  church,  who 
had  reduced  her  to  servitude.**  He  accuses  the  popes  of  con- 
niving at  wickedness  in  order  to  gain  temporal  advantages 

*  Prselatos  et  cardinales  superbe  camaliterque  viventes.  Comment, 
in  Jerem.  p.  262. 

f  Transcendit  papale  praetorium  cunctas  curias  in  calumniosis  litibus 
et  quaestibus  extorquendis.     Comment,  in  Esaiam,  p.  39. 

X  De  Concordia  novi  et  veteris  testamenti,  p.  54  ;  therefore  in  a-vrriting 
undoubtedly  genuine. 

§  L.  c.  p.  53.  II    In  .Terem.  p.  65. 

If  Ut  ambularent  in  novitate  spiritus  in  came  viventes. 

**  See  above,  p.  2,  f.  Compare  also  the  commentary  on  the  apoca- 
lypse, p.  7 :  In  tempore  ecclesioe  quiuto  et  maxime  a  diebus  Henrici 
primi  imperatoris  Alamauuorum  muudani  principes,  qui  Christiani  di- 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  POPES  TO  ABSOLUTE  POWER.  309 

fiom  princes,  and  of  having  made  themselves  slaves  to  princes 
l)ecause  they  wished  to  rule  by  secular  power.  "  After  the 
^mpes  began  to  contend  with  worldly  princes,  and  to  be  intent 
on  reigning  over  them  by  worldly  pride,  they  have  been 
obliged  ever  since  the  time  of  Pope  Paschalis  to  fall  beneath 
them.  Their  successors  down  to  the  present  time  have  sacri- 
ficed the  liberties  of  the  church  to  the  German  monarchs ; 
and,  for  the  sake  of  temporal  things,  have  tolerated  many  an 
offence  in  the  church  of  God.  Because  they  perceived  that 
the  temporal  things  after  which  they  lusted  belonged  to  the 
Roman  empire,  they  were  willing  rather  to  do  homage  for 
a  v/hile  to  secular  princes,  than  to  go  against  the  stream."  * 
"  Although,"  says  he,|  "  the  secular  princes  have  wrested 
many  things  by  violence  from  the  church,  as,  for  example,  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Sicilies ;  and,  although  they  hinder  the 
freedom  of  the  church,  yet  even  the  popes  themselves  have 
wrested  many  things  from  the  princes,  which  they  never 
should  have  longed  after  nor  taken.  And  as  every  man  seeks 
his  own,  force  is  met  by  force ;  the  church  attacks  the  state, 
the  greedy  prelates  receive  not  the  word  of  Christ,  '  Render 
unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's  ; '  thus  the  old  bottles 
will  burst,  and  the  pope  will  not  only  long  after  temporal 
things,  as  belonging  to  him,  but  also  after  spiritual  things 
which  do  not  belong  to  him,  (the  sense  is,  he  will  arrogate  to 
himself  all  spiritual  authority,  even  that  which  does  not  be- 
long to  him).  Thus  will  it  come  to  pass,  that  he  will  seat 
himself  in  the  temple  of  God,  and,  as  a  god,  exalt  himself 
above  all  that  is  called  God,  that  is,  above  the  authority  of 
all  prelates."  }  In  the  commentary  on  Isaiah,  he  remarks : 
■•'  When  the  chair  of  Peter  drew  the  temporal  sword  in  com- 
pliance with  a  forbidden  ambition,  and  his  sons,  like  cattle 
for  the  slaughter,  exposed  themselves  to  doubtful  chances,  he 
considered  not  what  the  Scriptures  say,  '  He  that  takes  the 

cuntur,  qui  primo  videbantur  venerari  clenim,  deterius  prae  gentibns 
quaesierunt  libertatem  ecclesiae,  et  quantum  ad  eos  pertinet,  abstulisse 
noscuntur.  It  is  noticeable  that  Henry  the  Fifth  is  referred  to  as  primus  ; 
and  so  he  is  always  designated  in  the  commentary  on  Jeremiah;  as 
Henry  the  Sixth  is  there  called  secundus. 

*  In  Jeremiah,  p.  330.  j  Ibid.  p.  310. 

X  Non  tantum  sua  Romanus  prseses  exiget  quasi  temporalia  (it  should 
doubtless  read :  temporalia  quasi  sua),  sed  etiam  spiritualia  quae  non  sua. 
L.  c.  p.  310. 


310  PHOGRESS  OF  THE  POPES  TO  ABSOLUTE  POWER. 

sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword.'  *  It  is  the  incredulity  of 
liuman  weakness,"  says  he,|  "  which  leads  the  popes  to  place 
more  confidence  in  men  than  in  God ;  and  hence  it  happens, 
by  a  just  judgment,  that  destruction  comes  from  tlie  very 
quarter  where  they  looked  for  help.  Surely,  when  we  turn 
our  eye  to  the  root  of  this  evil,  it  must  be  plain  to  us  that  the 
church,  founded  upon  the  lowly  Christ,  ought  to  keep  far 
from  pride ;  and  she  has  reason  to  fear,  that  if  she  strives 
after  earthly  riches,  these  will  finally  be  driven  away  like 
chaff  before  the  wind.  The  church  ought,  in  these  times, 
when  she  is  oppressed  by  those  of  her  own  household,  to 
place  her  confidence  not  in  worldly  goods,  but  in  the  power 
of  God.  If  believing  princes  have  offered  some  gifts  to  the 
poor  Christ,  still,  the  spiritual  order,  waxen  fat  with  abun- 
dance, must  not  give  themselves  up  to  pride  ;  but  rather  dis- 
tribute their  superfluous  wealth  to  the  poor,  and  not  to  the 
giants  who  have  helped  to  build  the  tower  of  Babel  (the  high 
prelates,  by  whom  the  secularization  of  the  church  is  pro- 
moted). Gold  was  brought  to  Christ,  that  he  might  have  the 
means  of  fleeing  into  Egypt ;  myrrh  was  offered  him,  as  if  in 
allusion  to  his  death ;  incense  that  he  might  praise  God,  not 
that  he  might  rise  up  against  Herod,  or  fall  as  a  burden  upon 
Pharaoh ;  not  that  he  might  give  himself  up  to  sensual  de- 
lights, or  reward  benefits  received  with  ingratitude.  The  vice- 
gerents of  Christ,  in  these  latter  times,  care  nothing  for  the 
incense,  they  seek  only  the  gold ;  in  order  that,  with  great 
Babylon,  they  may  mingle  the  golden  goblets,  and  pollute 
their  followers  with  their  own  uncleanliness."  "  Because  the 
cardinals,  priests,  and  different  orders  of  the  clergy,  who  at 
present  are  very  seldom  followers  of  the  lowly  Christ,  use  the 
goods  of  the  churches  in  the  service  of  their  lusts  ;  therefore 
the  princes  of  the  world,  who  behold  the  disgrace  of  the  sanc- 
tuary, stretch  out  their  hands  to  the  property  of  the  church, 
believing  that  by  so  doing  they  render  a  service  to  the  Most 
High."  f  "  The  church,"  says  he,§  "  can  and  could  retire 
into  solitude,  lead  a  spiritual  life,  abide  iji  communion  with 

*  Ubi  pro  terrenis  ambitionibus  sibi  prohibitis  temporalem  gladium 
exemit,  et  filios  suos  eventibus  dubiis,  vf  lut  oves  occisionis  exponit,  non 
revolvens  animo  quod  scriptura  prseloquitur,  p.  7. 

f  lu  Jerem.  p.  370.  J  In  Esaiara,  p,  28.        §  In  Jerem.  p.  56. 


OONFIDENCE  OF  THB  CHURCH  IN  WORLDLY  SUPPORTS.      311 

Christ,  her  bridegroom ;  and  through  her  love  to  him  she 
would  become  mistress  of  the  world,  and  perhaps  no  longer  b« 
subject  to  pay  quit-rent.  But  alas  !  in  loving  the  friendship 
of  secular  princes,  and  grasping  without  shame  after  earthly 
incomes,  she  is  humiliated  in  the  same  proportion  as  she 
lowered  herself  down  to  such  femiliarity  and  concupiscence." 
As  Joachim  believed  the  popes  were  pa\'ing  the  way  for  the 
overthrow  of  their  own  power  by  seeking  to  hold  it  up  by 
worldly  props,  instead  of  confiding  solely  on  the  power  of 
God,  so  he  looked  upon  it  as  one  evidence  of  the  weakness 
they  had  brought  upon  themselves,  that  they  must  in  the  twelfth 
centurj'  so  often  seek  a  refiige  in  France.  He  warns  them 
"  to  see  to  it,  lest  that  French  power  might  prove  to  them  a 
broken  reed." 

Joachim  was  fiiU  of  zeal  for  the  essential  matter  of  an 
inward,  living  Christianity ;  and  hence  he  decried  that  confi- 
dence in  externals  which  tended  to  render  men  secure  in  their 
sins,  and  to  draw  them  away  from  true  penitence.  "  Many  of 
the  laity, "  says  he,*  "  expect  to  be  saved  by  the  offerings 
of  the  priests  and  the  prayers  of  the  regular  clergy,  even  while 
they  give  themselves  up  to  sin.  But  in  vain  look  they  to  such 
gods  for  help  ;  their  incense  is  an  abomination  to  God."  f 
"  That  which  is  represented  outwardly  in  the  sacraments," 
says  he,  "  can  be  of  no  saving  benefit  whatever  to  a  man  if  in 
his  daily  actions  he  does  not  strive  to  live  conformably  to  what 
is  thus  outwardly  represented.  "  For  why  wast  thou  baptized 
unto  Christ  if  thou  wilt  not  be  pure  ?  "Why  art  thou  buried  in 
baptism  if  thou  wUt  continue  to  live  in  sin  ?  Why  dost  thou 
partake  of  the  body  of  Christ,  that  was  offered  for  thee,  if  thou 
art  not  willing  to  die  for  Christ  if  it  be  necessary  ?  J  The 
sacraments,  then,  do  nothing  for  those  that  abuse  them  ;  th^ 
benefit  those  only  who  so  live  as  the  sacraments  signify."  § 

*  L.  c  p.  104. 

t  Nutandum  est,  qaod  laici  qoidam  pntant  se  saaari  victimis  sacer- 
dotum  et  orationibus  regalariam,  cum  ipsi  mala  committant.  Sed  frostra 
tales  dii  eos  adjuvant,  nam  incensum  abominatio  est  mihi,  holocausto* 
mata  uiliilominus  reproba  esse  demonstrant. 

X  In  Apocalyps.  p.  91. 

§  Licet  tuec  omnia  in  sacramento  fidelibos  data  sint,  non  potest  tamen 
tenere  ilia,  nisi  id  explere  studeat  moribus,  quod  sacramenti  similitudo 
docet  esse  tenendum.  Non  igitur  sacramenta  conferunt  aliquid  aba- 
tentibus  eis,  sed  his,  qui  ita  vivuiit,  quo  modo  sacramenta  significant 


312        JUDGMENT  ON  THE  CORRUPTED  CHURCH. 

Against  sanctimonious  monks  he  says,*  '•  They  pas?  current 
for  living  men  with  those  who  are  carnal  and  carnally  minded, 
those  who  loolc  merely  on  the  outside,  the  visible  appearance, 
and  cannot  see  the  idols  within.  Thus,  they  allow  themselves 
to  be  deceived,  praise  and  extol  these  miserable  creatures, 
in  whom  there  is  nothing  to  praise,  and  hope  for  the  forgive- 
ness of  their  sins  through  the  merits  of  those  whose  souls  at 
the  end  of  the  present  life  sink  to  perdition."  Concernuig 
fleshly  representations  of  the  divine  Being,  he  says ;  -  A  God 
like  this  is  not  the  God  of  believers,  but  of  unbelievers,  an 
idolatrous  image  of  the  human  mind  and  not  God."  "j"  The 
jealousies  subsisting  between  the  different  ranks  in  the  church 
and  the  different  orders  of  monks  seemed  to  him  most  directly 
at  variance  with  that  pattern  of  the  apostolic  church,  which 
\yas  constantly  present  to  his  mind.  "  In  those  times,"  says 
he,  "  there  were  manifold  forms  of  life  corresponding  to  differ- 
ent gradations  of  the  development  of  the  Christian  life ;  but 
all  were  united  together  in  the  organism  of  the  body  of  Christ, 
as  harmonizing  parts  of  one  whole."  J 

Joachim  agreed  with  Hildegard  in  announcing  a  terrible 
judgment  that  was  coming  upon  the  corrupted  church,  from 
which,  however,  she  was  to  emerge  purified  and  refined.  It 
was  also  a  characteristic  point  in  the  prophetical  picture  which 
floated  before  his  imagination,  that  the  secular  power  was  to 
combine  with  the  heretical  sects  in  combating  the  church.  As 
in  Italy  and  Sicily,  the  name  "  Patarenes"§  was  a  popular 
and  current  name  applied  to  sects,  so  the  Patarenes,  according 
to  him,  were  to  be  the  instrument  for  the  execution  of  the 
divine  judgment, — forerunners  of  the  antichrist,  from  whom 
the  latter  himself  was  to  proceed  ; — a  king,  and  probably,  in 

*  L.  c.  p.  78. 

t  Deus,  qui  talis  est,  non  est  Deus  fidelium,  sed  infidelinm,  idolum 
animarum  et  non  Deus.  P.  101,  in  the  Tractatus  de  ,'oncordia  veteris 
et  novi  testament!. 

X  Quam  vero  longe  sit  omnis  moderna  religio  a  forma  ecclesia;  primi- 
tivae,  eo  ipso  intelligi  potest,  quod  ilia  apostolos  et  evangelistas,  doctores 
et  virgines,  et  zelantes  vitam  continentera  et  conjugates  veluti  unus  cor- 
tex mail  Punici  divisis  tamen  cellulis  niausionum  cotijungebat  in  unum 
et  conjunctis  membrorum  speciebus  efficiebat  ex  omnibus  unum  corpus. 
Nunc  autem  alibi  corpus  et  membra,  singula  pro  seipsis,  non  pro  aliis 
sunt  sollicita.     L.  c.  p.  71. 

§  See  above,  p.  136,  and  the  passages  there  cited. 


Joachim's  pbopiiecies  coxcerkixg  henkt  vi.        313 

conjunction  with  him,  a  felse  pope  also.  A  pope,  springing  up 
from  among  the  Patarenes,  and  armed  with  a  seeming  power 
of  working  miracles,  would  league  himself  with  the  antichrist 
of  the  secular  power  in  the  attack  on  the  church,  and  stir  up 
the  latter  against  the  feithful,  as  Simon  Magus  is  said  to  have 
incited  Nero  to  the  persecution  of  the  Christians.*  He  was 
inclined  to  represent  the  antichrist  as  an  incarnation  of  Satan, 
through  whom  the  great  enemy  of  all  good  would  seek  to 
accomplish  against  the  church  what  he  had  hitherto  attempted 
in  vain.  All  the  previous  machinations  of  Satan  against  the 
church  were  but  a  preparation  for  this  final  attack,  in  which 
aU  preceding  wickedness  was  to  be  concentrated ;  in  which 
Satan,  foreseeing  the  last  judgment  near  at  hand,  would  expend 
his  rage  in  a  last  desperate  effort.'}' 

The  house  of  Hohenstaufen  hold  a  prominent  place  in  his 
description  of  the  judgment  that  was  to  come  upon  the  secular- 
ized church.  In  the  details,  we  meet  with  a  great  deal  which 
is  vague  and  self-contradictory ;  moreover,  it  admits  of  a  ques- 
tion whether  his  predictions  at  this  point  may  not  have  been 
interpolated,  so  as  to  agree  with  the  issue  of  events.  J  "When, 
in  the  year  1197, §  at  the  particular  invitation  of  the  emperor 
Henry  the  Sixth,  he  wrote  his  commentary  on  the  prophet 
Jeremiah,  he  expresses  himself  in  one  place  j]  as  uncertain 
whether  or  not  another  emperor  would  yet  intervene  between 
him  and  his  heirs.^  Such  an  intervening  emperor  did  in  feet 
come  in,   after  the  death  of  Henry,  in  the  same  year.     He 

*  In  Jerem.  p.  123.  The  secta  falsorum  christianornm  et  lia;reti- 
comm,  quorum  caput  erit  antichristus,  et  forsitan  pseudopapa  erit  adja- 
toset  fultus  antichristo  reipublicae;  and  p.  143,  we  find,  as  the  seventh 
and  Irst  persecutor  of  the  church,  the  antichristus,  rex  Patareuorum. 

t  Et  sciendum,  quod  in  primis  temporibns  proeliatns  est  diabolus  in 
membris  suis,  in  extremis  vero  temporibns  prceliabitnr  in  illo,  qui  erit 
capnt  et  primus  omnium  reproborum,  in  quo  et  habitabit  specialins  ac  si 
in  vase  proprio  per  seipsum,  ut  malum,  quod  princeps  dsemonum  nequi- 
vit  explere,  ipse  quasi  magnus  et  potens  expleat  in  furore  fortitndinis 
suae.     In  the  concordia  130,  2. 

X  In  the  commentary  on  Isaiah,  p.  4,  is  cited  a  vaticinium  Silvestri 
de  Frederico  Secundo,  et  ejus  |X)steris :  Erit  in  insidiis  sponsse  agni, 
quam  praesules  dilaniant  et  absorbent 

§  Commentar.  in  Jerem.  p.  33, 

jl  L.  c.  p.  86.  He  says  to  him :  Et  jngum  patris  tni  vix  pontifices 
potnerunt  portare  et  minimus  digitus  tnus  lumbis  est  grossior  patris  toL 

^  Utrum  inter  Heuricum  hnnc  et  haeredem  alios  surgat,  illi  videbont, 
qui  snperemnt    L.  c.  p.  86. 


314  PERIODS  OF  REVELATION. 

foretold,  though  without  intimating  that  the  event  was  so  near 
at  hand,  that  Frederic  the  Second  would  remain  under  the  tu- 
telage of  his  mother  Constantia,  and  that  — if  the  Roman  see 
did  not  care  to  preserve  for  him  the  empire  which  another* 
would  make  himself  master  of — ho,  would  stand  forth  as  ruler 
and  pour  out  upon  the  church  a  mortal  poison. |  Sometimes 
the  year  1200,  sometimes  1260,  is  mentioned  as  one  which 
would  constitute  an  epoch  in  history. 

Joachim,  as  we  have  said,  was  an  opponent  of  the  prevailing 
dialectic  tendency  in  theology.  Hence  the  latter  days  of  the 
church,  when  it  should  have  come  forth  glorified  out  of  the 
refining  process,  appeared  to  him  as  a  time  of  all-satisfying 
contemplation,  taking  the  place  of  that  learning  which  dwells 
on  the  letter  and  finite  conceptions  of  the  understanding, 
when  the  inspiration  of  love,  that  meditation  on  divine  things 
which  can  solve  all  problems,  would  follow  an  imperfect, 
fragmentary,  conceptual  knowledge.  Connected  with  this  is 
a  division  of  the  different  periods  of  revelation  and  of  history, 
which  from  this  time  onward  recurs  repeatedly  under  various 
phases, — a  division  conformable  to  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity. 
Although,  by  virtue  of  their  essential  unity,  all  the  three 
persons  ever  work  together,  and  somewhat  belonging  properly 
to  each  person  is  to  be  found  in  every  period,  yet,  at  the 
same  time,  in  relation  to  the  distinction  of  persons,  the  pre- 
dominant activity  of  some  one  amongst  the  three  is  to  be 
distinguished  according  to  the  measure  of  three  principal 
periods.  The  times  of  the  Old  Testament  belong  especially 
to  God  the  Father;  in  it,  God  revealed  himself  as  the 
Almighty,  by  signs  and  wonders ;  next,  followed  the  times 
of  the  New  Testament,  in  which  God,  as  the  Word,  revealed 
himself  in  his  wisdom,  where  the  striving  after  a  compre- 
liensible  knowledge  of  mysteries  predominates ;  the  last  tmies 

*  Otho  the  Fourth. 

t  L.  c.  p.  299.  Sub  nomine  viduse  tangit  consortem  tuam  Constan- 
tiam,  cujus  pupillus  filius  erit.  Puto  quoque,  si  Romana  sedes  post  te 
de  manu  calumniatoris  posita  accessoris  regnum  liberare  neglexerit, 
versa  vice  pupillus  mutatus  in  regulum  super  earn  mortalia  veneua  dif- 
fundet.  He  says  that,  under  him,  the  fastigium  imperiale  would  decline, 
protendetur  vita  ejus,  quasi  vita  regis  in  60  annis.  He  announces,  in  the 
year  1197,  the  persecution  proceeding  from  the  Hoheustaufeu  house 
against  the  Romish  church,  in  64  annos  deteriores  prioribus.  L.  c. 
p.  331. 


PETER,  PAUL,  AND  JOHX.  315 

belong  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  when  the  fire  of  love  in  con- 
templation will  predominate.*  As  the  letter  of  the  Old 
Testament  answers  to  God  the  Father,  the  letter  of  the  New 
Testament  more  especially  to  the  Sou,  so  the  spiritual  under- 
standing, which  proceeds  from  both,  answers  to  the  Holy 
Spirit.f  As  all  things  were  created  by  the  Father  through 
the  Son ;  so  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  love,  all  were  to  find  their 
completion.^  To  the  working  of  the  Father, — power,  fear, 
fiiith,  more  especially  correspond  ;  to  the  working  of  the  Son, 
— humility,  truth,  and  wisdom ;  to  the  working  of  the  Holy 
Spirit, — love,  joy,  and  freedom.§  In  connection  with  this 
must  be  considered  the  way  in  which  he  contemplates  the  three 
apostles — Peter,  Paul,  and  John — as  representatives  of  the 
three  periods  in  the  process  of  the  development  of  the  church, 
John  represents  the  contemplative  bent,  and  as  he  laboured 
where  Peter  and  Paul  had  already  laid  the  foundation,  and 
survived  the  other  apostles,  so  the  Johannean  contemplative 
period  would  be  the  last  times  of  the  church,  corresponding  to 
the  age  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  As  the  Father  revealed  himself 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  Son,  after  the  completion  of  the 
Old,  introduced  the  New  ;  so  this  relation  corresponds  to  that 
of  Paul  to  Peter ;  since  Paul  did  not  labour  on  the  foundation 
which  Peter  had  laid,  but  opened  for  himself  an  independent 
field  of  action ;  and  as  then  the  completion  was  given  to  the 

•  The  \rords  in  John  v.  17,  according  to  the  Vulgate  :  "  Pater  mens 
usqae  modo  operatur,  et  ego  operor,"  he  explains  as  follows :  "  Till  now 
the  Father  has  worked ;  from  henceforth  1  work."  When  accused  of 
Tritheism  on  this  account,  he  retaliated  by  accusing  his  opponents  of 
Sabellianism :  Non  attendentes,  quod  sicut  vere  in  personis  proprieta* 
est  et  in  essentia  unitas,  ita  qusedam  sint,  quae  propter  proprietateni 
personarum  proprie  adscribantur  patri,  qusedam,  qua  propria  adscriban- 
tur  filio,  qua;dam,  quae  proprie  spiritui  sancto,  et  quae  propter  imitatem 
esseutiae  ipsamet  commnniter  referantur  ad  omnes.  Introdact.  in  Apo- 
calyps.  p.  13. 

t  Ut  litera  testament!  prioris  proprietate  quadam  similitudinis  vide- 
tur  pertinere  ad  patrem,  litera  testamenti  novi  pertinere  ad  filium,  ita 
spiritalis  iutelligeutia,  qose  procedit  ex  ntraque,  ad  spiritum  sanetiun. 
L.  c.  p.  5. 

X  Quoniam  sicut  a  patre  omnia  sunt  et  per  filium  omnia,  ita  et  in 
spiritu  sancto,  qui  est  caritas  Dei,  consummanda  stmt  uniTcrsa.  In 
Apocalyps.  p.  84. 

§  Nonnulla  specialius  attribuuntur  patri,  sicuti  potentia,  timor  et  fides, 
nonuulla  filio,  nt  humilitas,  Veritas  et  sapientia,  nonnulla  spiritui  sancto, 
at  caritas,  gaudium  et  Ubertas.     L.  c.  p.  48. 


816  PRACTICAL  AGE  (OF  PETEr). 

whole  by  John,  so  in  the  last  Johnnean  period,  that  which 
the  Son  began  will  be  carried  to  its  completion  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.*     Then  will  the  promise  of  the  Lord  be  fulfilled  ;  that 
he  had  yet  many  things  to  say  which  his  disciples  could  not 
then  bear ;  that  this  Spirit  should  guide  into  all  truth.    In  the 
words  spoken  by  Christ  to  John  (John  xxi.  23),    "  If  I  will 
that  he  tarry  till  I  come,  what  is  that  to  thee  ? "    he  finds  an 
intimation  of  the  fact  that  the  Johannean  period  would  be  the 
last.f     He  says  of  John,  "  What  he  himself  had  drunk  out  of 
the  heart  of  Christ,  that  he  has  given  the  chosen  to  drink — the 
living  water,  which  he  had  drunk  from  the  fountain  of  life  ;  for 
the  living  water  is  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  their  spiritual  sense, 
which  was  not  written  with  ink,  pen,  and  paper,  but  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  book  of  man's  heart."|    John 
is  the  representative  of  the  contemplative,  as  Peter,  of  the 
practical  tendency ;  the  latter  prefigures  the  clerical,  the  for- 
mer the  monastic,  order.    When  Peter  (John  xxi.  21)  supposes 
that  John  also  M'as  to  be  a  martyr,  by  this  is  signified  the 
jealousy  of  the  practical  class  towards  the  contemplative  :  they 
reproach  the  latter  with  leading  so  easy  and  quiet  a  life,  and 
taking  no  share  in  their  toils :  they  do  not  consider  that  it  costs 
quite  as  much  self-denial  to  human  nature,  patiently  to  wait 
the  revelation  of  God,  and  to  give  one's  self  up  entirely  to  the 
contemplation  of  divine  things,  as  to  pursue  bodily  labour ;  to 
sit  in  one  spot,  as  to  be  driven  about  in  a  multiplicity  of 
employments.     As  after  the  martyrdom  of  Peter,  John  alone 
remained,  so  when  the  order  of  the  clergy  shall  have  perished 
in  martyrdom,  following  Christ,  in  the  last  conflict  with  anti- 
christ, the  order  of  the  contemplative,  genuine  monks  shall 
alone  remain,  and  the  entire  succession  of  St.  Peter  pass  over 
into  that.§    The  order  of  genuine  contemplatives  and  spiritales, 

*  Et  illud  diligenter  observa,  quod  qnando  inter  Petrum  et  Joannem 
interponitur  Paulus,  tunc  Petrus  designat  personam  patris,  Paulus  filii, 
Joannes  spiritus  sancti,  et  quia  Paulus  non  supersedificavit  a  priucipio 
in  his,  quae  Petrus  fundavit,  fundavit  autem  ipse  per  se  (et  supersedifi- 
cavit Joannes),  unigenitum  Dei  patris  in  hoc  ipso  designat,  qui  consum- 
mato  veteri  testamento,  quod  specialius  pertinebat  ad  patrem,  inchoavit 
testamentura  novum,  quod  specialius  pertinetadseipsum,  superveniet  au- 
tem spiritus  sanctus,  consummaturus,  quae  inchoata  sunt  et  fundata  a  filio. 

t  Significat  electos  tertii  status.     In  Apocaljps.  p.  84. 

X  lu  Apocalyps.  p.  3. 

§  Uelinquatur  pars  ilia   electorum,  qusp  designata  est  in  Joanne,  ad 


COirrEMPLATIVE  AGE  (OF  JOH>).  317 

prefigured  by  Jesus  himself,  might  perhaps — he  supposes,  in 
his  Commentaiy  on  the  Apocalypse — be  already  existing 
in  the  germ ;  but  as  yet  it  could  not  be  observed,  because  the 
beginnings  of  a  new  creation  are  ever  wont  to  be  obscure  and 
contemptible*  The  abbot  Joachim  was  filled  with  that  same 
idea, — an  idea  called  forth  by  the  antagonism  to  the  secular- 
ization of  the  church, — which  had  seized  many  serious  minds 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  and  which  gave  birth 
to  the  first  societies  of  the  "Waldenses,  as  well  as  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans. Accordingly,  he  must  be  a  prophet  for  all  appearances 
of  a  kindred  character. 

Each  of  the  three  great  apostles  had  his  peculiar  gift  of 
grace,  conformable  to  the  peculiar  position  which  he  took  in 
the  process  of  the  development  of  the  church.  And,  as  this 
process  was  thereby  prefigured,  so  each  period  in  the  history 
of  the  church  has  its  peculiar  gift  of  grace,  belonging  to  this 
peculiar  position.  We  should  not  expect  to  find  everything, 
therefore,  in  every  age.  Peter  represents  the  power  of  feith 
which  works  miracles  ;  Paul,  knowledge  ;  and  John,  contem- 
plation.f 

In  these  last  times  was  to  be  concentrated  every  divine  element 
from  the  earlier  periods.  The  planting  and  sowing  of  many 
years  would  be  collected  together  at  one  point, — a  period, 
though  short  in  compass,  yet  greatest  in  intrinsic  importance  in 
reference  to  the  fulness  of  grace  there  accumulated.^     In  the 

qaam  oportet  transire  totam  Petri  saccessionem,  deficiente  parte  ilia 
laboriosa,  qnai  designata  est  in  Petro,  data  ubique  tranquillitjite  ama- 
toribus  Christi.  In  tempore  nempe  illo  erit  Dominns  unns  et  nomen 
ejus  nnum.     L.  c.  p.  77. 

*  Qui  videlicet  ordo  prae  multis  aliis,  qui  prsecessemnt  enm,  amabilis 
et  prsEclarus  infra  limitera  quidem  secundi  status  initiandus  est,  si  tamea 
usque  adhue  non  est  in  aliquibus  initiandus,  quod  tamen  mihi  adhac  non 
constat,  quia  initia  semper  obscura  et  contemptibilia  sunt.  In  Apocaljps. 
p.  83,  c.  2. 

t  Etsi  Petro,  apostolomm  primo,  data  est  praerogativa  fidei  ad  faci- 
enda  signa  in  typo  eorum,  qui  dati  sunt  in  fundamentis  ecclesiae,  non 
ideo  tamen  parvi  pendenda  est  cla-vis  scientise,  quse  data  est  Paulo,  apos- 
tolorum  novissimo,  baud  dubiuni  quin  in  typo  eorum.  qui  dandi  erant  in 
fine  ad  supersedificandam  ecclesiam.  Novit  nempe  ille,  qui  pro  tempo- 
rum  varietate  dona  distribuenda  partitur,  quid  illis  afqne  illis  expediat, 
ita  ut  pro  tempore  existimandum  sit,  quid  cui  praeferatur,  et  illud  pro  tem- 
pore magis  eorum  quod  utile  et  non  quod  sublimius  judicandnm.  L.  c.p.  88. 

X  Etsi  spatium  illius  temporis  breve  erit,  gratiarum  tamen  copiosios 


318  THE  THREE  PERIODS  OF  REVELATIOK. 

first  period,  the  fathers  laid  themselves  out  in  announcing 
God's  great  woi'k  of  the  creation;  in  the  second,  it  was  the 
eflRort  of  the  Son  to  lay  the  foundation  of  hidden  wisdom. 
When  man,  by  means  of  the  two  Testaments,  had  now  come 
to  know  how  God  had  finished  all  things  in  wisdom,  what  still 
remains  (for  the  third  age)  except  to  praise  God,  whose  works 
are  so  great.  The  Father  comes,  as  it  were,  when  from  the 
things  that  are  made  we  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Maker, 
when  in  the  contemplation  of  his  almighty  power  we  are  filled 
with  reverence  ;  the  Son  comes  to  us,  when  we  explore  into  the 
depths  of  doctrine  in  the  discourses  of  him  who  is  the  Father's 
wisdom.  The  Holy  Ghost  comes  and  reposes  in  our  hearts, 
when  we  taste  the  sweetness  of  his  love,  so  that  we  break 
forth  into  songs  of  praise  to  God  rather  than  keep  silence.* 
Then  will  ensue  the  time  of  an  Easter  jubilee,  in  which  all 
mysteries  will  be  laid  open,  the  earth  will  be  full  of  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Lord,  and  it  will  be  scarcely  possible  any  longer 
to  find  a  man  who  will  dare  deny  that  Christ  is  the  Son  of 
God.|  The  Spirit  will  stand  forth  free  from  the  veil  of  the 
letter.  It  is  the  gospel  of  the  Spirit,  the  everlasting  gospel  ; 
for  the  gospel  of  the  letter  is  but  temporary.  J 

It  was  this  doctrine  of  the  abbot  Joachim  which  was  after- 
wards apprehended  and  applied  in  so  many  diflerent  ways ; 
which  in  fact,  at  a  later  period,  came  to  be  so  interpreted,  by 
a  one-sided  rational istico-pantheistic  party,  as  to  make  Chris- 
tianity itself,  which  was  considered  but  a  transient  form  of 
religious  development,  cease,  and  give  place  to  a  higher 
position,  a  purely  inward  religion  of  the  Spirit,  consisting  of 
some  intuition  of  God  that  no  longer  needed  an  intermediate 
organ.  Joachim  was  very  far  from  holding  Christianity  in  it- 
self to  be  a  transient  form  of  the  manifestation  of  religion. 
The  knowledge,  transcending  all  doubt,  of  Jesus  as  the  Son  of 
God,  he  considered  indeed,  as  we  have  seen,  as  something  dis- 
tinguishing those  last  times  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  he  taught 

cseteris,  ut  multorum  annorum  segetes  congregentur  in  uno.  In  Apoca- 
lyps.  p.  84. 

*  Spiritus  sanctus  ad  corda  nostra  venire  et  requiescere  dicitur,  cum 
dulcedo  amoris  ejus  quam  suavis  sit  degu.stamus,  ita  ut  psallere  magis 
libeat,  quam  a  Dei  laude  tacere,     L.  c.  p.  85.  f  L.  c.  p.  9. 

X  Evangelium  a;ternum,  quod  est  in  spiritu,  quoniam  utique  evan- 
gelium,  quod  est  in  litera,  temporale  est,  uon  aiternum.    In  Apoc.  p.  95. 


Joachim's  apparent  idealism.  319 

expressly*  that  two  Testaments  only  were  to  be  received  ;  for 
the  last  revelation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  in  fact  to  serve  no 
other  purpose  than  to  make  men  conscious  of  the  hidden 
spiritual  meaning  of  both  Testaments,  and  to  let  the  spirit  un- 
fold itself  out  of  the  covering  of  the  letter.  Yet  at  the  same 
time  we  must  admit  that  the  ideal,  pantheistic  interpretation 
above  mentioned,  found  a  point  to  fix  upon  in  several  of 
Joachim's  expressions ;  for  instance,  when  he  described  the 
humility  of  self-debasement  in  the  form  of  a  servant  as  the 
peculiarity  of  the  Son,  the  abiding  in  his  spiritual  exaltation, 
the  purely  spiritual  revelation,  as  the  peculiarity  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  hence  assigned  the  advanced  position  of  perfect  free- 
dom to  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ;f  when  he  represented 
that  position  as  a  subordinate  one,  to  which  the  divine  must 
be  brought  nigh,  by  the  revelation  of  God  to  sense  in  the  in- 
carnation of  the  Son,  and  by  the  instrumentalities  corresponding 
thereto ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  that  of  the  spiritales,  who 
needed  no  such  sensible  medium,  as  the  highest,  "  Say  not, 
I  have  no  teacher  to  explain  to  me  in  detail  what  I  read. 
Where  the  Spirit  is  the  teacher,  a  little  spark,  increases  to  an 
immeasurable  flame ;  and  because  the  Word  became  flesh  and 
dwelt  amongst  us,  and  he  who  by  reason  of  the  simplicity  of 
his  essence  was  invisible,  dignified  man's  nature  by  appearing 
visibly  in  it,  so  he  would  be  preached  by  visible  men  under 
the  veil  of  the  Word,  that  they  who  were  unable  by  contem- 
plation to  penetrate  into  the  mysteries  of  the  divine  essence, 
might  through  visible  emblems  soar  upward  to  the  exalted. 
But  with  spiritual  men  it  is  not  so  :  but  the  purer  their  hearts 
are,  the  more  do  they  by  God's  invisible  operations,  which 
are  nearer  to  them,  stretch  the  vision  of  their  spiritual  eyes  to 
the  Creator  of  all  ."J     But  such  language  merely  expresses, 

*  HiEC  est  causa,  pro  qua  non  tria  testamenta,  sed  duo  esse  scribuntur, 
quorum  concordia  iiianet  iutegra.     L.  c  p.  13. 

t  His  words :  Et  quia  aquse  natura  gravis  est  et  humilia  petit,  ignis 
pro  levitate  sua  ad  superiora  recurrit,  quid  est,  quod  frequentius  filius 
assimilatur  aquae,  spiritus  vero  sanctus  crebrius  igni,  nisi  quia,  quod 
non  fecit  spiritus  sanctus,  filius  semetipsum  exinanivit,  formam  servi 
accipiens,  spriritus  autem  sanctus,  de  quo  dicitur :  ubi  spiritus,  ibi 
libertas,  nequaquam  eo  modo,  quo  filius  humiliatus  est,  sed  in  majestate 
gloriae  suse,  non  assumta  carne  permansit.     In  Apocalyps   p.  55. 

♦.  Qui  erat  invisibilis  pro  sua?  simplicitate  naturae,  per  humanaj  as- 
somtionem  substantiae  visibilis  fieri  dignatos  est,  voluit  per  visibiies. 


320     HARMONY  BETWEEN  THE  OLD  AND  NEW  TESTAMENTS. 

though  in  an  original  and  forcible  manner,  the  chosen  position 
of  mysticism,  which  gives  special  prominence  to  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  men's  hearts  ;  and  such  passages  can  by  no 
means  furnish  any  foundation  for  the  charge,  that  he  would 
speak  disparagingly  of  historical  Christianity.  Yet  we  must 
allow  that  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  mode  of  intuition 
set  forth  in  his  works,  lies  the  thought,  that  the  entire  re- 
velation of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  contains,  indeed, 
immutable  truth,  and  that  Christianity  is  in  itself  a  complete 
and  immutable  thing  ;  but  yet,  at  the  same  time,  this  does  not 
hold  good  of  the  different  forms  of  its  manifestation.  The 
overthrow  of  the  particular  ecclesiastical  form  then  existing, 
and  a  new,  more  complete  development  of  Christianity  in  the 
consciousness  of  mankind,  in  which  the  inner  revelation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  will  take  the  place  of  outward  authority,  is 
predicted  by  him.  This  is  in  fact  already  implied  in  what  he 
says,  in  his  own  way,  concerning  the  transition  of  the  Petrine 
position  into  that  of  John,  the  dissolution  of  the  clerical 
governance  of  the  church  and  its  rehabilitation  in  the  com- 
munity of  the  contemplative  life.  Doubtless  he  supposes,  as 
the  peculiarity  of  those  last  times,  a  direct  and  unmediated 
reference  of  the  religious  consciousness  of  all  men,  to  God 
manifested  in  Christ,  so  that  there  would  be  no  more  need  of 
an  order  of  teachers.*  Then  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah,  that 
God  himself  would  be  the  teacher  of  men,  and  would  write 
his  law  in  the  hearts  of  all,  would  meet  with  its  fulfihnent ; 
but  as  all  earthly  greatness  must  come  to  shame,  when  the 
sublimity  of  things  heavenly  revealed  itself,  so  it  was  only  by 
humbling  himself  tiiat  man  could  become  capable  of  beholding 
such  divine  glory. f 

homines  vocis  mysteria  personari,  ut  hi  qui  arcana  divinitatis  penetrare 
contemplando  non  poterant,  visibilibus  ad  sublimia  raperentur  exemplis. 
Non  sic  autem  spiritales,  non  sic,  sed  quo  illorum  corda  mundiora  sunt, 
eo  per  invisibiha  Dei  opera,  quae  sibi  ■viciniorasunt,  in  ipsum,  qui  crea- 
tor est  omnium,  spiritalium  oculorum  aciem  intellectualiter  flgunt.  In 
Apocalyps.  p.  49. 

*  Quasi  per  alios  pascuntur  eves,  cum  ad  docendas  subditorum  eccle- 
fiias  pastores  in  populis  eliguntur,  cum  autem  veritatem  evangelicam 
clarificat  per  spiritum  suum  ad  complendam  prophetiam  Jerem.  xxxi.  33, 
34;  quasi  jam  non  per  alios  Dominus,  sed  ipse  per  semetipsum  requiret 
oves  suas,  sicut  visitat  pastor  gregem  suum  in  die,  quando  fuerit  in  medio 
oviura  suarum  dissipatarum. 

t  Et  quia  mirabilis  est  Deus  in  Sanctis  suis  et  longe  mirabilior  in 


THE  OLD  AND  NEW  TESTAMENTS.  321 

Especially  deserving  of  notice  are  the  following  words  in 
the  book  written  by  abbot  Joachim,  on  "  The  Harmony 
between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,"  (Concordise  Veteris 
ac  Novi  Testament ;)  in  which,  speaking  of  the  relation  of 
cliangeable  fonns  to  the  unchangeable  essence  in  the  reve- 
lation of  di\dne  things,  he  thus  expresses  himself:*  "  The 
Holy  Spirit  is  the  fire  which  consumes  all  this.  Why? 
Because  there  is  nothing  durable  on  earth  ;  for  so  long  as  we 
see  through  a  glass  darkly,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  cling  to 
those  symbols,  and  so  long  are  we  unable  to  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  that  truth  which  is  represented  in  symbols; 
but  when  the  Spirit  of  truth  shall  come  and  teach  us  all 
truth,  what  further  need  shall  we  then  have  of  symbols  ?""j" 
For  as  with  the  communion  of  the  body  of  Christ  the  par- 
taking of  the  paschal  lamb  was  done  away,  so  when  the  Holy 
Ghost  shall  reveal  himself  in  his  glory,  the  obser^•ation  of 
symbols  will  cease  ;  men  will  no  longer  follow  figures,  but  the 
truth, — which  is  the  simplest,  and  which  is  symbolized  by  fire, 
— as  the  Lord  says,  "  God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship 
him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  Dust  and  water, 
such  is  the  historical  letter  of  the  two  Testaments, — which 
letter  was  given  by  the  Holy  Spirit  for  the  purpose  of  pointing 
thereby  to  something  else,  rather  than  for  the  sake  of  the 
literal  historical  sense  itself ;  that  is,  that  thereby  the  spiritual 
understanding,  which  is  the  divine  fire,  by  virtue  of  which 
the  spiritual  man  judges  all  men  and  is  judged  by  none,  might 
be  presented  to  us ;  for  neither  the  partaking  of  bread  and 
meat,  nor  the  drinking  of  wine  and  water,  nor  the  anointing 
with  oil,  is  anything  eternal,  but  that  is  eternal  which  is 
signified  by  these  acts.  If,  then,  the  things  themselves  and 
their  use  are  perishable,  but  that  which  is  represented  by 
them,  the  thing  which  endures  for  evermore  ;  then  with  good 
right  is  the  former  consmned  by  the  fire,  whUe  the  fire  itself 
lives  alone,  without  depending  on  anything  sensible  in  the 
hearts  of  the  faithful,  and  abides  for  ever.  And  although 
there  are  many  visible  things  which  will  eternally  remain,  as 

majestate  spa,  necesse  est,  ut  semetipsum  dejiciat,  qui  videre  tantam 
gloriam  existimatur  dignus,  quia  nimirum  terrena  altitudo  confiiaditur, 
cum  celsitudo  coelestium  aperitur.     In  Apocalyps.  p.  45. 

»  L.  c.p.  103.  i-       Ji~  1- 

t  Quid  nobis  tdterius  de  figuris? 

VOL.  VII.  Y 


322  RELATION  OF  FORM  AND  ESSENCE. 

they  are  revealed  to  us  in  the  letter  of  the  two  Testaments, 
yet  they  will  not  remain  for  ever  in  the  same  form,  but  rather 
in  the  form  appointed  for  the  future.  For,  amongst  the  rest, 
that  which  according  to  the  Catholic  faith  shall  remain  for 
ever,  the  body  of  Christ, — which  shall  ever  remain  as  it  is 
taken  up  into  unity  with  his  person,— is  to  us  especially  an 
object  of  veneration.  And  yet  our  Lord  himself  declared  the 
spirit  maketh  alive,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing.  Hence  the 
apostle  Paul  also  says,  the  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit  maketh 
alive.  But  if,  in  reference  to  the  body  of  Christ  himself,  the 
letter  is  consumed  by  the  spirit,  how  much  more  will  this  be 
the  case  with  other  things.  Far  be  it  from  us,  then,  to  say 
that  the  things  themselves  will  be  consumed  as  to  their  whole 
essence ;  but  we  say  that  they  themselves,  that  is,  their 
symbols,  must  pass  over  to  represent  something  spiritual,  in 
order  that  we  may  elevate  ourselves,  through  the  scripture  of 
visible  things,  as  through  a  glass,  to  the  intuition  of  invisible 
things." 

V. — History  of  Monasticism. 

The  reaction  of  this  prophetic  spirit  against  the  seculari- 
zation of  the  church  proceeded  from  monasticism,  as  did  many 
an  appearance  of  the  same  kind  down  to  the  time  of  Luther ; 
nor  was  this  an  accidental  thing,  but  connected  with  the 
essential  character  of  monasticism  itself;  for  we  may  regard 
it  generally  as  a  reaction,  though  one-sided,  of  the  Christian 
spirit,  against  the  secularization  of  the  church  and  of  the 
Christian  life.  It  is  true,  monasticism  was  itself  seized  and 
borne  along  by  the  current  of  secularization  ;  but  even  then, 
it  ever  gave  birth  to  new  reactions  of  reform  against  the 
encroaching  tide  of  corruption.  This  form  of  the  manifestation 
of  Christian  life  and  of  Christian  society  belongs  among  the 
most  significant  and  the  most  influential  facts  of  these  periods, 
in  which  the  very  good  and  the  very  bad  are  found  so  often 
meeting  together. 

Monasticism  stood  forth  against  the  wild  life  of  the  knights, 
and  the  corruption  of  a  degenerate  clergy ;  and  many  were 
impelled  to  fly  for  refuge  from  the  latter  to  the  former.  The 
Hildebrandian  epoch  of  reform,  near  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
century,  was  accompanied  with  the  outpouring  of  a  spirit  of 


DIFFERENT  CAUSES  LEADEJG  TO  M03TASTICISM.  323 

compunction  and  repentance  on  the  Western  nations.  It  was 
the  same  spirit  which,  in  different  directions,  promoted  the 
crusades,  monasticism,  and  the  spread  of  sects  that  contended 
against  the  hierarchy.  By  the  political  storms  which  broke 
up  the  interior  organization  of  the  nations,  by  the  ruinous 
contests  of  this  age  between  church  and  state,  many  were 
impelled  to  seek  in  the  monasteries  a  quiet  retreat  for  the 
cultivation  of  the  Christian  life.  Thus  it  happened  in  Ger- 
many, amidst  the  ferocious  contests  between  the  party  of 
Henry  the  Fourth  and  that  of  Gregory  the  Seventh.  An 
extraordinary  multitude  of  men  of  the  first  rank  retired  from 
the  world ;  and  the  three  monasteries,  in  which  the  greater 
number  congregated,  St,  Blasen  in  the  Black  Forest,  Hirsau, 
and  the  convent  of  St.  Salvator  in  Schafihausen,  had  not 
room  enough  to  contain  them  all,  so  that  it  was  necessary  to 
make  great  additions  to  the  old  structtires.  Men  of  the  first 
rank  were  here  to  be  seen  among  the  monks,  selecting  from 
preference  and  engaging  with  delight  in  the  most  menial 
employments,  and  serving  as  cooks,  bakers,  or  shepherds.* 
The  impulse  to  community — the  characteristic  of  energetic, 
creative  times,  belongs  among  the  peculiar  features  of  this 
time,  and  such  commimities  easily  formed  themselves  around 
any  man  that  showed  an  enthusiasm  for  religion,  that  spoke 
and  acted  in  the  power  of  faith,  and  in  love  ;  and  then  took 
the  form  of  monasticism. 

But  the  causes  differed  widely  in  their  nature  which  led 
men  to  choose  this  mode  of  life ;  and  for  this  very  reason 
the  directions  of  life  in  monasticism  would  also  be  different. 
Oftentimes  the  deep  piety  of  mothers,  patterns  of  Christian 
virtue  in  the  family  circle,  stood  out  in  striking  contrast  with 
the  mere  worldly  pursuits  of  their  husbands  in  the  knightly 
order,  or  in  the  life  at  court.  When  such  mothers  looked 
forward  to  the  birth  of  their  first  child,  or  when  they  had 
much  to  suffer,  and  great  peril  was  before  them,  they  would 
vow  before  the  altar  to  devote  the  chUd,  in  case  it  should  be 

*  Berthold.  Coustant,  Chronicon,  at  the  year  1083,  in  Monumenta 
les  Alemannonim  illustrantia,  T.  II.  p.  120.  Quanto  nobiliores  erant  in 
CiECulo,  tanto  se  contemtibilioribus  officiis  occupari  desiderant,  ut  qui 
quondam  erant  comites  vel  marchiones  in  sseculo  nunc  in  coquina  vel 
pistrino  fratribus  servire  vel  porcos  eorum  in  campo  pascere  pro  snminis 
delicijs  conputent. 

Y   2 


324  WORLDLINESS  OF  THE  MONASTERIES. 

a  male,  wholly  to  the  service  of  God ;  that  is,  to  destine  him 
for  the  spiritual  or  the  monastic  order, — as  we  see  in  the 
examples  of  the  mother  of  the  abbot  Guibert  of  Nogent  sous 
Coucy,  near  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,*  and  of 
the  mother  of  the  abbot  Bernard  of  Clairvaux.  The  boys 
were  trained  up  under  the  influence  of  these  sincerely  pious 
mothers,  in  the  society  of  devout  clergymen  and  monks ;  the 
love  for  a  life  consecrated  to  God  was  instilled  into  their 
youthful  minds :  and  although  they  might  afterwards,  in  the 
age  of  youth,  be  drawn  aside  by  a  different  sort  of  society,  by 
the  wild  spirit  of  the  times,  or  by  the  prevailing  enthusiasm 
for  the  new  paths  struck  out  in  science, — from  the  inclination 
excited  in  them  in  the  years  of  childhood, — still,  the  deep 
impression  would  subsequently  be  revived  again  with  new 
force,  and  so,  under  peculiar  circumstances,  recalling  the 
feelings  and  purposes  of  former  days,  the  resolution  of  de- 
voting themselves  wholly  to  monasticism  would  ripen  to 
maturity  in  them.  Thus  were  formed  the  great  men  of  the 
monastic  life.  But  it  so  happened,  too,  that  children, — either 
on  occasions  like  those  just  mentioned,  or  else  to  lighten  the 
expense  of  a  numerous  family,  were  delivered  over  to  convents 
as  oblati ;  and  by  such  persons,  who  had  not  chosen  this  mode 
of  life  of  their  own  impulse,  or  from  their  own  disgust  with  a 
world  lying  in  wickedness,  it  was  followed  only  because  it 
favoured  idleness  and  easy  living.  The  abbot  Guibert  com- 
plains that,  towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century,  worldly 
living  had,  through  the  multitude  of  such  oblati,  got  the 
upperhand  in  the  monasteries,  whose  possessions  were  waste- 
fully  squandered  by  these  monks.|     When  persons  who  had 

*  See  his  Life,  c.  iii.  When  death  threatened  her  and  her  children, 
initur  ex  necessitate  consilium  et  ad  dominicse  matris  altare  concurritur, 
et  ad  earn,  quee  sola  sive  etiam  virgo  semper  futura  pepererat,  hujusmodi 
vota  promuntur,  ac  oblationis  vice  araj  imponitur,  quod  videlicet  si 
partus  ille  cecisset  jn  masculum,  Deo  et  sibi  obsecuturus  clericatui  tra- 
deretur. 

t  Nostris  monasteria  vetustissima  numero  extenuata  temporibus, 
rerum  antiquitus  datarum  exuberante  copia,  parvis  erant  contenta  con- 
ventibus,  in  quibus  perpauci  reperiri  poterant,  qui  peccati  fastidio  saicu- 
lum  respuissent,  sed  ab  illis  potissimum  detinebantur  ecclesia;,  qui  in 
eisdem  parentum  devotione  contraditi,  ab  ineunte  nutriebantur  setate. 
Qui  quantum  minorem  super  suis,  qu£E  nulla  sibi  videbantur  egisse,  malis 
metum  habebaut,  tanto  intra  coenobionim  septa  remissiore  studio  victi- 
tabant.    See  his  Life,  c.  viii. 


MOTITES  OF  THE  MONKS.  325 

lived  from  their  childhood  in  absolute  dependence  and  com- 
plete retirement  from  the  world,  were  sent  away  by  their 
abbots  on  foreign  business,  they  were  the  more  inclined  to 
abuse  a  liberty  which  they  now  enjoyed  for  the  first  time.* 
It  was  a  matter  of  general  remark,  that  young  men  who 
turned  monks  out  of  penitence  for  their  sins,  became  after- 
wards the  most  distinguished  for  zeal  in  their  profession ; 
while  others,  who  had  not  been  impelled  to  the  choice  of  this 
life  by  any  such  powerful  inward  impulse,  and  any  such  deep- 
felt  need,  either  failed  altogether  of  possessing  the  right  zeal, 
or  else  lost  what  they  once  had.|  Men  of  the  first  rank, 
struck  by  the  force  of  momentary'  impressions,  or  by  sudden 
reverses  of  fortvme,  reminded  of  the  uncertain  nature  of 
earthly  goods,  the  nearness  of  death,  the  vanity  of  all  worldly 
glory,  retired  to  solitude  as  anchorets,  or  entered  a  monastery ; 
and  a  single  example  of  this  sort  would  be  followed  by  mul- 
titudes. This  effect  was  produced  by  the  example  of  a  certain 
count  Ebrard  (Everard)  of  Breteul,  in  Picardy,  near  the  end 
of  the  eleventh  century.  He  was  a  young  man  of  noble 
parentage,  and  possessed  of  an  ample  fortune,  who,  struck 
with  a  sense  of  the  emptiness  of  all  his  pleasures,  and  seized 
with  the  craving  after  some  higher  good,  forsook  all,  and  joined 
himself  with  a  number  of  others  who  travelled  about  as 
itinerant  charcoal-burners,  thus  earning  their  daily  bread. 
''  In  this  poverty,"  says  the  writer  of  the  narrative,  "  he 
believed  that  he  first  found  the  true  riches."  Somewhat  later 
he  retired  with  his  companions  to  a  convent,  haWng  become 
sensible  of  the  dangers  which  beset  the  Christian  life  in  the 
anchorite  condition  :|  one  of  his  contemporaries,  Simon,  also 
descended  fi"om  a  very  rich  and  powerful  femily,  was  so  struck 

*  Qui  administrationes  ac  ofiBcia  forastica  cum  pro  abbatum  aut 
necessitate  aut  libitu  sortirentur,  utpote  voluntatis  propriae  avidi  eate 
rioresque  licentias  minus  experti,  ecclesiasticas  occasione  facili  dilapi- 
dare  pecunias. 

The  words  of  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach.  Distinct.  I.  c.  iv :  Earum 
esse,  quod  pueri  vel  juvenes  ad  ordinem  venientes,  quorum  conscientias 
pondus  peccati  non  gravat,  ferventes  sint,  vel  in  ordine  tepide  et  minus 
bene  vivunt  vel  ab  ordine  prorsus  recedunt. 

X  How  the  monastic  life  was  introduced  by  him  from  France,  and 
brought  into  a  flourishing  state  in  these  districts,  is  related  by  the  abbot 
Guibert,  Vita,  c.  ix :  Cum  ad  eos  (the  monks)  pretii  vix  ullus  accederet, 
ad  excitandas  plurimorum  mentes  emersit. 


826  INFLUENCE  OF  MONASTERIES  AND  THE  MONKS 

at  beholding  his  father's  corpse, — a  man  who  but  just  before 
held  a  high  place  in  the  world, — as  to  conceive  a  disgust  of 
all  earthly  glorj'.  He  at  once  left  his  family,  and  became  a 
monk  in  some  foreign  country.  When  he  returned  afterwards 
to  his  native  district,  his  appearance  and  words  made  so  strong 
an  impression  on  men  and  women,  that  numbers  followed  his 
example.  The  Cistercian  monk,  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  in 
the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century,  sets  forth,  in  a  way 
that  deserves  to  be  noticed,  the  different  causes  which  led 
people  to  embrace  the  monastic  life.  What  he  felt  con  trained, 
in  the  case  of  some,  to  attribute  to  an  awakening  by  divine 
grace,  he  found  reason  in  the  case  of  others  to  ascribe  to  the 
instigation  of  an  evil  spirit ;  while  in  still  others,  he  traced  it 
to  fickleness  of  temper ;  as,  for  example,  in  the  case  of  those 
who,  following  the  impulse  of  a  momentary  and  transient 
interest,  mistook  their  own  nature,  and  neglected  to  consider 
whether  it  was  the  fear  of  hell  or  the  longing  after  a  heavenly 
home  that  operated  upon  their  feelings.  Countless  numbers 
were  driven  to  this  step  by  circumstances  of  distress  ;  sickness, 
poverty,  imprisonment,  shame,  remorse  following  the  com- 
mission of  crime,  and  the  present  fear  of  death.*  When 
attacked  by  fatal  diseases,  many  put  themselves  under  a  vow 
that,  in  case  they  recovered,  they  v/ould  become  monks ;  or 
they  enshrouded  themselves  at  once  in  monkish  robes,  per- 
suaded that  by  so  doing  they  would  be  more  likely  to  obtain 
salvation.  And  such  persons,  if  they  recovered,  actually 
became  monks.l  Those  who  had  been  driven  to  this  step  by 
the  fear  of  death,  did  not  always,  however,  remain  true  to  a 
purpose  thus  conceived ;  and  there  were  complaints  that  in 
changing  their  garb  they  had  not  altered  their  manners.^  It 
happened  not  unfrequently  that  criminals  on  whom  sentence 
of  death  had  been   passed  M^ere,  through   the  influence  of 

*  Distinct.  I.  c.  v.  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach  cites  individual  examples 
to  show  how  a  canonicus  became  a  monk,  because  he  had  played  away 
his  clothes.  I.  9,  c.  xii.  A  young  man  belonging  to  a  wealthy  family 
thought  of  turning  monk,  without  the  knowledge  of  his  parents,  because 
he  had  gambled  away  a  large  sum  of  money  ;  but  he  gave  up  the  notion 
when  a  friend  came  forward  and  paid  up  his  debts,  c.  xxviii. 

t  L.  c  c.  XXV. 

X  Orderic  Vital,  hist.  L.  III.  468,  says  of  a  priest,  who  had  led  a 
trifling  life,  and  in  sickness  had  put  on  the  monkish  garb,  but  afterwards 
relapsed  into  his  former  vicious  habits  :  Habitum,  non  mores  mutavit 


UPON  THE  MORALS  OP  THE  PEOPLE.  327 

venerated  abbots  who  condescended  to  intercede  for  them,  first 
pardoned,  and  then  committed  to  the  care  of  their  deliverers, 
with  a  ^-iew  to  try  what  could  be  done  for  them  under  the 
discipline  of  the  monastery  ;  and  as  in  these  times  many 
were  hurried  into  crimes  by  the  impulses  of  a  sensuous  and 
passionate  nature,  which  had  never  felt  the  wholesome  re- 
straints of  education  and  religious  instruction,  it  was  possible 
that  such,  by  judicious  teaching,  by  the  force  of  religious 
impressions,  and  the  severe  discipline  to  which  they  were 
subjected  in  a  cloister,  under  the  direction  of  some  wise  abbot, 
might  be  really  reformed, — as  examples,  in  fact,  show  that 
they  sometimes  were.*  When  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  was 
once  going  to  pay  a  visit  to  his  fiiend,  the  pious  count  Theo- 
bald of  Champagne,  he  was  met  by  a  crowd  of  men  conducting 
to  the  place  of  execution  a  robber,  who,  after  committing 
many  crimes,  had  been  condemned  to  the  gallows.  He  begged 
it  as  a  fevour  of  the  count  that  the  criminal  might  be  given 
up  to  him.  He  took  the  man  along  with  him  to  Clairvaux, 
and  there  succeeded  in  transforming  him  into  a  pious  man. 
This  reformed  criminal  died  in  peace,  after  having  spent 
thirty  years  in  the  cloister  as  a  monk.|  Thus  the  monasteries 
proved  in  some  instances  to  be  houses  of  correction  for  aban- 
doned criminals  ;  and  the  spirit  of  Christian  charity,  which 
proceeded  from  pious  monks,  first  strove  to  abolish  the  punish- 
ment of  death.  Another  monk,  Bernard,  founder  of  the  con- 
gregation of  the  monks  of  Tiron,  in  the  diocese  of  Chartres, 
A.  D.  1113,  had  settled  himself  down  near  the  close  of  the 
eleventh  century  as  a  hermit,  on  the  island  of  Causeum 
(Chaussey),  between  the  island  of  Jersey  and  St.  Malo.  It 
so  happened,  while  he  was  there,  that  pirates  landed  on  the 
beach  with  a  merchant-vessel  which  they  had  captured. 
Bernard  laboured  earnestly,  but  in  vain,  for  the  conversion  of 
these  barbarians ;  in  vain  did  he  strive  to  move  their  pity  for 
the  crew,  whom  they  had  taken  and  boimd  in  chains ;  but 

*  An  example  of  this  sort  is  stated  by  Csesarins,  c.  xxxi.  of  a  preda- 
torj-  knight,  who,  after  having  been  condemned  to  death,  and  reprieved 
at  the  request  of  the  abbot  I^iel  of  Schonau,  was  permitted  to  enter 
the  Cistercian  order  to  do  penance  for  his  sins ;  and  he  adds :  Frequenter 
huic  similia  audivi,  scilicet  ut  homines  flagitiosi  pro  suis  criminibus 
vanis  suppliciis  deputati,  beneficio  ordinis  sint  liberati.  * 

t  Vitae,  L.  VII.  c.  xv.  ed.  MabiUon,  T.  II.  f.  1204. 


328  MONASTICISM  IN  RELATION  TO  WORLDLY  LIFE. 

when  they  left  the  shore,  he  still  did  not  cease  praying  both 
for  pirates  and  prisoners.  Soon  after  there  came  up  a  great 
storm ;  the  pirates  saw  nothing  before  them  but  shipwreck 
and  death.  Struck  with  alarm  and  remorse  of  conscience, 
they  set  free  the  captives,  mutually  confessed  to  each  other 
their  sins,  and  vowed,  if  they  should  be  saved,  to  amend 
their  lives,  and  go  on  pilgrimages  to  various  shrines.  But 
one  of  them,  on  whose  heart  the  words  of  Bernard  had  made 
an  indelible  impression,  reminded  the  others  of  this  holy  man : 
"  They  should  only  vow,"  said  he  to  them,  "  that  if  the  Lord 
would  conduct  them  to  the  good  hermit,  they  would  implicitly 
follow  his  direction,  and  by  his  mediation  they  might  be  saved 
from  death."  All  united  in  taking  the  vow.  Four  of  the 
ships  were  foundered  ;  the  fifth  got  safely  to  the  island.  The 
pirates,  awakened  to  repentance,  fell  down  before  monk 
Bernard,  and  besought  him  to  listen  to  the  confession  of  their 
sins,  and  to  impose  on  them  such  penance  as  he  thought  fit. 
Some  he  bade  perform  their  vow  of  a  pilgrimage  ;  others 
continued  to  remain  under  his  spiritual  direction  on  the 
island.* 

In  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  the  enthusiasm 
for  the  new  dialectic  inquiries  in  France  had  seized  hold  on 
numbers, — and,  among  the  rest,  of  such  as  merely  followed 
the  current  without  any  call  or  talent  for  such  studies,  many 
of  these  soon  became  disgusted  with  the  idle  pursuit,  and  by 
this  very  disgust  were  led  to  take  a  serious  spiritual  direction 
in  monasticism.-j-  How  monasticism  was  regarded,  in  its 
relation  to  the  worldly  life,  we  find  expressed  in  the  following 
remarks  of  Anselm  of  Canterbury,  where  he  is  exhorting  one 
of  his  friends  to  become  a  monk  :|  "  Whatever  glory  of  this 
world  it  may  be  which  thou  wouldst  aspire  after,  yet  remember 
its  end,  and  the  fruit  at  the  end ;  and  then  consider,  on  the 
other  hand,  what  the  expectations  of  those  are  who  despise  all 
the  glory  of  this  world.  Dost  thou  say,  it  is  not  monks  only 
who  are  saved  ?     I  admit  it ;  but  who  attains  to  salvation  in 

*  See  the  account  of  the  Life  of  Bernard  of  Tiron,  by  one  of  hig 
scholars,  c.  iv.  Mens.  April.  T.  II.  f.  229. 

t  Deprehendentes  in  se  et  aliis  praedicantes,  quia  quicquid  didicerant, 
vanitas  vanitatum  est  et  super  omnia  vanitas.  Metalog.  L.  I.  c.  iv.  of 
John  of  Salisbury. 

I  Lib.  II.  ep.  29. 


MONASTICISM  IS  RELATION  TO  WORLDLY  LIFE.  329 

the  most  certain,  who  in  the  most  noble  way — the  man  who  seeks 
to  love  God  alone,  or  he  who  seeks  to  unite  the  love  of  God 
with  the  love  of  the  world?  But  perhaps  it  wiU  be  said, 
even  in  monasticism  there  is  danger !  O,  why  does  not  he 
who  says  this,  consider  what  he  says  ?  Is  it  rational,  when 
danger  is  on  every  side,  to  choose  to  remain  where  it  is 
greatest  ?  And  if  he  who  seeks  to  love  God  alone  perseveres 
to  the  end,  liis  salvation  is  secure  ;  but  if  he  who  is  determined 
to  love  the  world,  does  not  alter  his  plan  of  living  before  the 
end,  there  remains  for  him  either  no  salvation  at  all,  or  else  a 
doubtful  or  a  less  one."  Yet  here  it  is  all  along  presupposed 
that  an  objective  contrariety  exists  between  the  inclination  to 
the  world  and  the  inclination  to  God  ;  and  not  that  all  activity 
in  relation  to  the  world  should  be  taken  up  and  absorbed  in 
the  inclination  to  God,  and  animated  by  that  tendency.  Men 
compared  monasticism  with  baptism,  as  a  purification  from  sin, 
a  renunciation  of  the  world,  and  regeneration  to  a  new  and 
higher  life.  It  was  a  prevailing  opinion  that,  by  entering 
upon  the  i^9nastic  life,  one  was  released  from  the  obligation 
to  make  a  pilgrimage,  or  to  go  on  a  crusade,  or  to  perform 
any  other  vow,  —  an  opinion  grounded  at  bottom  on  the 
Christian  view,  that  the  ruling  bent  of  the  heart,  submission 
to  God's  wiE,  was  more  than  external  and  isolated  acts. 
"  Whoever  vows,  when  living  in  the  world,  to  make  a 
pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  or  to  Rome,  and  after  this  becomes  a 
monk,"  says  Anselm  of  Canterbury,*  "  has  performed  all  his 
vows  at  once ;  for  single  vows  signify  only  a  partial  submission 
to  God,  with  respect  to  a  single  matter;  but  monasticism 
embraces  the  whole.  After  a  man  has  thus  embraced  the 
whole,  he  wtII  not  restrict  himself  again  to  individual  parts."! 
An  Englishman  who  had  set  ont  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem 
came  to  Clairvaux,  and,  attracted  by  the  spiritual  society 
which  he  there  met  with,  turned  monk,  and  gave  up  his 
pilgrimage.  The  abbot  justified  this  step,  in  opposition  to  his 
bishop,  declaring  that  to  ^^ persevere  in  a  bent  of  the  heart 
towards  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  was  more  than  to  take  one 

*  Lib.  III.  ep.  116. 

t  Qui  voverunt  se  ituros  Romam  vel  Hierusalem  in  sseciilo,  si  ad  ordi- 
pern  nostnun  venerint,  omnia  Tota  sua  compleverunt.  Quippe  qui  se 
in  partem  Dei  per  vota  tradiderant,  postquam  se  Deo  totos  tradiderint, 
totiun  in  partem  postmodum  non  habeut  redigere.  Compl.  L.  III.  ep.  33. 


330  SALUTARY  INFLUENCE  OF  MONASTICISM. 

hasty  and  transient  glance  of  the  earthly  Jerasalem."*  The 
abbot  Peter  of  Cluny  wrote  to  a  knight  who  had  promised 
to  become  a  monk  in  Cluny,  but  afterwards  determined  to  go 
on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem :  "It  is  greater  to  serve  the 
true  God  in  humility  and  poverty,  than  to  travel  in  a  showy 
and  luxurious  manner  to  Jerusalem.  If  there  is  something 
good  in  visiting  Jerusalem,  where  the  feet  of  our  Lord  have 
trod,  still  it  is  a  far  better  thing  to  strive  after  that  heaven 
where  we  shall  see  the  Lord  himself  face  to  face."! 

The  influence  of  monasticism  was  various  and  widely 
extended.  Venerated  monks  were  called  upon  to  give  their 
advice  with  regard  to  the  most  weighty  affairs.  Persons  of 
the  highest  standing,  both  of  the  secular  and  spiritual  orders, 
noblemen  and  princes,  got  themselves  enrolled  as  members  of 
monasteries  and  monkish  orders,  for  the  purpose  of  sharing  in 
the  privileges  of  prayer  and  good  works  (fratres  adscripti  or 
conscripti)  ;  by  which  means  these  societies  were  brought  into 
various  influential  connections.  Any  recluse  who  had  become 
known  for  his  pious  and  strict  mode  of  life  was  soon  looked 
up  to  by  men  of  all  ranks,  from  far  and  near,  and  was  enabled 
by  his  counsels  and  exhortations  to  make  himself  widely  useful. 
Such  a  recluse  was  Aybert  in  Hennegau,  who  lived  near  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century.  So  great  was  the  number 
of  people  continually  flocking  to  him  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
fessing their  sins,  that  he  had  scarcely  a  moment's  rest.  He 
gave  them  spiritual  counsel,  but  not  till  after  they  had  promised 
to  lay  their  confession  before  their  ordinary  ecclesiastical  supe- 
riors :  only  if  they  declared  themselves  resolved  not  to  open 
their  breasts  to  any  other  confessor  he  yielded  to  their  impor- 
tunity, lest  they  might  be  driven  to  despair.  At  length  he 
received  orders  from  the  pope  to  hear  the  confessions  of  all, 
and  prescribe  to  them  the  appropriate  penance.  Whoever 
could  get  near  enough  to  his  person  tried  to  tear  off  a  piece  of 
his  dress  and  bear  it  away  as  a  relic,  whilst  he,  resisting, 
exclaimed  :  "  I  am  a  poor  sinner,  and  by  no  means  what  you 
think  me  to  be."|  Monks  travelled  about  as  preachers  of 
repentance,  and  often  collected  great  crowds  around  them, 
who,  awakened  to  repentance  by  their  impressive  words  and 

*  Ep.  64.  t    Lib.  II.  ep.  15. 

X  Acta  Sanctorum,  M.  April.  T.  I.  f.  678. 


MOXKS  A>T)  NUNS  STBUGGUUTG  WITH  RELIGIOUS  DOUBTS —    331 

their  severely  strict  mode  of  living,  confessed  their  sins  to 
them,  and  avowed  their  readiness  to  do  anything  they  might 
prescribe  for  the  reformation  of  their  lives.  They  stood  to 
the  people  in  place  of  the  worldly-minded  clergy  who  neglected 
their  duties.  They  restored  peace  between  contending  parties, 
reconciled  enemies,  and  made  collections  for  the  poor.  The 
monasteries  were  seats  for  the  promotion  of  various  trades, 
arts,  and  sciences.  The  gains  accruing  from  the  union  of  the 
labours  of  many  were  often  employed  for  alleviating  the  dis- 
tresses of  many.  In  great  famines,  thousands  obtained  fit)m 
monasteries  of  note  the  means  of  support,  and  were  rescued 
from  threatening  starvation.* 

Those,  however,  who  took  refuge  in  the  monastery,  or  even 
in  the  retreat  of  the  anchoret,  from  the  temptations  of  the 
outward  world,  were  still  threatened  by  dangerous  temptations 
of  another  kind,  when,  impelled  by  the  first  glow  of  their  zeal 
they  engaged  in  extravagant  self-mortifications.  Changes  in 
the  tone  of  feeling  would  still  occur,  even  after  some  con- 
siderable time  had  been  spent  in  this  mode  of  life.  Too  deeply 
absorbed  in  their  subjective  feelings,  they  would  waste  them- 
selves away  in  reflecting  on  these  changeable  moods.  They 
felt  dearth,  emptiness,  in  their  inward  being ;  they  feUed  of 
experiencing  delight,  animation  in  prayer.  Evil  thoughts 
gained  the  advantage  in  proportion  as  they  allowed  themselves 
to  be  troubled  with  them,  instead  of  forgetting  themselves  in 
some  nobler  enjoyment  which  would  tax  all  the  energies  of 
the  soul.  Thus  such  men,  becoming  their  own  tormentors, 
fell  into  despair,  and  unless  better  directed  by  prudent  and 
experienced  abbots,  might  even  be  tempted  to  commit  suicide  ; 
or  moments  of  uncommon  religious  enthusiasm  and  fervour 
would  be  followed  by  a  reaction  of  the  natural  man,  hankering 
after  the  things  of  sense  or  of  the  imderstanding,  limited  to 
the  consciousness  of  this  world ;  and  hence  arose  moods  of 
scepticism  and  unbelief.f     There  was  much  need,  therefore, 

*  In  the  year  1117,  when  there  -was  a  great  famine,  by  which  many 
died  of  hunger,  the  monastery  of  Heisterbach,  near  Cologne,  distributed 
in  one  day  fifteen  hundred  alms.  Meat,  herbs,  and  bread  were  dis- 
tributed amongst  the  poor. 

t  We  will  illustrate  this  by  a  few  examples  related  by  Csesarins, 
in  his  Dialogues.  A  young  female,  belonging  to  a  wealthy  and  re- 
putable family,  had  become  a  recluse  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  her 


332  ILLUSTRATED  BY  EXAMPLES. 

in  the  men  who  "presided  over  these  communities  of  a  peculiar 
love  and  wisdom,  in  order  to  exert  a  salutary  control  over 
these  monks,  to  manage  them  according  to  their  different 
temperatures  and  states  of  feeling,  and  to  protect  them  from 
the  dangers  to  which  they  were  exposed  ;  but  when  so  quali- 
fied, these  superiors,  in  exercising  such  a  watch  over  the 
welfare  of  souls,  might  obtain  a  rich  harvest  of  Christian 
experience.  They  would  have  first  to  become  acquainted,  by 
their  own  interior  religious  experience,  with  the  truths  which 
they  afterwards  used  for  the  benefit  of  others.     Such  wisdom 


friends.  But  she  had  been  deceived  -with  regard  to  herself;  she  fell  into 
a  state  of  great  depression,  and  doubted  of  everything  which  before  had 
been  certain  to  her.  When  the  abbot  to  -whose  care  her  spiritual  con- 
cern had  been  intrusted  by  the  bishop,  -visited  her,  and  asked  her  how 
she  did  ?  she  answered,  "  Not  well ; "  and  when  he  inquired  of  her  the 
reason,  she  said, "  She  did  not  know  herself,  why  she  was  shut  up  there." 
When  he  told  her  that  it  was  for  the  sake  of  God  and  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven ;  she  replied :  "  Who  knows  whether  there  is  a  God,  whether 
there  are  angels,  whether  there  are  immoi-tal  souls,  and  a  kingdom  of 
heaven  ?  Who  has  seen  them ;  who  has  come  from  the  other  side  and 
told  us  about  them  ?  "  In  vain  were  all  the  conversations  of  the  abbot : 
she  only  begged  that  shg  might  be  released,  since  she  could  en- 
dure no  longer  this  life  of  a  recluse.  But  the  abbot  exhorted  her  to 
remain  faithful  to  her  purpose,  and  at  least  wait  seven  days  longer,  at 
the  end  of  which  period  he  would  visit  har  again.  Certainly  a  very 
hazardous  step  to  be  taken  with  a  person  in  her  condition,  which  might 
easily  have  been  followed  with  the  most  melancholy  consequences,  as 
appears  evident  from  other  examples.  But,  in  this  instance,  the  effect 
was  favourable ;  and  when  the  abbot,  who  in  the  mean  time  had  caused 
many  prayers  to  be  offered  in  her  behalf,  again  visited  her  at  the  time 
appointed,  he  found  the  tone  of  her  feelings  entirely  changed.  An  extra- 
ordinary elevation  had  followed  that  season  of  depression.  In  a  vision, 
which  she  saw  while  in  a  state  of  religious  excitement,  all  her  doubts 
had  vanished  away. — Another  aged  nun,  who  had  previously  been  dis- 
tingTiished  for  her  pious  walk  and  conversation,  doubted  of  everything 
she  had  believed  from  the  time  of  her  childhood.  She  would  not  be 
spoken  to ;  she  maintained  that  she  could  not  believe,  since  she  belonged 
among  the  reprobates.  She  could  not  be  induced  to  take  part  in  the 
holy  communion.  The  prior  was  indiscreet  enough  to  say,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  exciting  her  fears,  that  if  she  did  not  desist  from  her  unbelief,  he 
would  after  her  death  cause  her  to  be  buried  in  the  fields.  To  escape 
this  lot  she  threw^'herself  into  the  Moselle,  but  was  taken  out  before  she 
perished. — Another  person,  who  had  from  his  youth  up  led  an  unblam- 
able life,  fell  into  absolute  despair,  utterly  doubting  that  his  sins  were 
forgiven,  since  he  could  not  pray  as  he  had  been  wont  to  do  :  he  finally 
threw  himself  into  a  pond,  and  was  drowned.     L.  c.  f.  94,  etc.  100. 


axselm's  and  berkard's  exhortatioks.  333 

derived  from  experience  we  discern  in  an  Anselm  of  Canter- 
bury. To  certain  persons  who  had  requested  of  him  a 
directory  to  the  spiritual  life,  he  thus  writes :  '*  On  one 
point,  namely,  how  you  may  be  able  to  get  rid  of  an  evil  will 
or  evil  thoughts,  take  from  me  this  little  piece  of  advice  :  Do 
not  contend  with  the  evil  thoughts  or  inclinations  of  the  will, 
but  get  yourselves  right  earnestly  engaged  mth  a  good 
thought  or  purpose,  till  those  evil  thoughts  vanish  ;  for  never 
will  a  thought  or  volition  be  banished  out  of  the  heart  unless 
it  be  by  one  of  an  opposite  character.*  Manage  yourselves, 
therefore,  with  reference  to  unprofitable  thoughts,  so  as  to 
turn  your  minds  with  all  your  power  of  control  over  them  to 
the  good,  so  as  not  to  pay  the  least  attention  to  the  others ; 
but  if  you  would  pray,  or  occupy  yourselves  with  a  pious 
meditation,  and  then  such  thoughts  become  troublesome  to 
you,  still  by  no  means  desist  from  your  pious  occupation,  but 
vanquish  them  in  the  way  described,  by  contempt.  And,  as 
long  as  you  can  thus  despise  them,  let  them  not  trouble  you, 
lest  by  occasion  of  this  anxiety  they  come  up  again  and  torment 
you  anew  ;  for  such  is  the  nature  of  the  human  soul,  that  it 
more  often  recalls  what  has  given  it  joy  or  pain  than  what  it 
judges  to  be  unworthy  of  its  attention.^  Kor  should  you 
fear  that  such  motions  or  thoughts  will  be  imputed  to  you 
as  sins,  proWded  your  will  does  not  go  with  them  ;  for  there 
is  no  condemnation  in  them  to  those  who  are  in  Christ  Jesus, 
who  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit."  Against  a 
mistake  of  this  sort  Bernard  also  strove  to  put  his  monks  on 
their  guard.  "  I  exhort  you,  my  friends,"  says  he  to  them,  J  "  to 
exalt  yourselves  sometimes  above  an  anxious  remembrance  of 
your  past  conduct  to  a  contemplation  of  the  divine  goodness,  that 
you,  who  are  abashed  by  the  contemplation  of  yourselves,  may 
breathe  again  by  looking  away  to  God.  True,  pain  about  sin 
is  necessary ;  but  it  should  not  be  a  pain  that  lasts  for  ever. 

*  Nunquam  enim  expellitnr  de  corde,  nisi  alia  cogitatione  et  alia 
voluntate,  qua;  illis  non  concordat. 

t  Similiter  se  debet  habere  persona  in  sancto  proposito  stndiosa,  in 
quoiibet  motu  indecente  in  corpore  vel  anima,  sicuti  est  stimulus  carais 
ant  irae,  aat  invidiae  aut  inanis  gloria.  Tunc  enim  facillime  extinguuntur, 
cum  et  illos  velle  sentire,  aut  de  illis  cogitare,  aut  aliquid  illonim  sna- 
sione  facere  dedignamur. 

J  See  xi.  on  Solomon's  Song,  II.  f.  1296. 


334  YVES  OF  CHARTEES  ON  THE  ANCHORITE  LIFE. 

Let  it  be  interrupted  by  the  more  joyful  remembrance  of 
divine  grace,  that  the  heart  may  not  become  hardened  by  grief 
or  wither  in  despair.  The  grace  of  God  abounds  over  every 
sin.  Hence  the  righteous  man  is  not  a  self-accuser  to  the  end, 
but  only  at  the  beginning  of  prayer  ;  but  he  ends  by  ascribing 
praise  to  God."  Accordingly,  he  exhorted  his  monks,  from 
his  own  experience,  not  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  kept  from 
prayer  by  any  momentary  feeling  of  spiritual  barrenness. 
"  Often  we  come  to  the  altar  with  lukewarm,  barren  hearts, 
and  address  ourselves  to  prayer  ;  but  if  we  persevere,  grace  is 
suddenly  poured  in  upon  us,  the  heart  becomes  full,  and  a 
current  of  devotional  feelings  flows  through  the  soul."*  So 
he  warns  beginners  especially  against  the  excesses  of  asceticism. 
"  It  is,"  says  he  to  them,  "  your  self-will  which  teaches  you 
not  to  spare  nature,  not  to  listen  to  reason,  not  to  follow  the 
counsel  or  example  of  your  superiors.  You  had  a  good  spirit, 
but  you  do  not  use  it  rightly.  I  fear  that  you  have  received 
another  instead,  which,  under  the  appearance  of  the  good,  will 
deceive  you,  and  that  you  who  began  in  the  Spirit  will  end  in 
the  flesh.  Know  you  not  that  a  messenger  of  Satan  often 
clothes  himself  as  an  angel  of  light  ?  God  is  wisdom,  and  he 
requires  a  love  which,  instead  of  surrendering  itself  merely  to 
pleasant  feelings,  unites  itself  also  with  wisdom ;  hence  the 
apostle,  Rom.  xii.  1,  speaks  of  a  service  of  God  which  is 
reasonable.  If  you  neglect  knowledge,  the  spirit  of  eiTor  will 
very  easily  lead  your  zeal  into  wrong  directions ;  and  the 
cunning  enemy  has  no  surer  means  of  banishing  love  from  the 
heart  than  when  he  can  get  men  to  walk  in  it  improvidently 
and  not  according  to  reason."f 

Those  dangers  of  the  interior  life  would  especially  beset  the 
anchorets  who  were  left  to  their  own  feelings,  who  could  find 
neither  counsel  nor  encouragement  in  society,  and  could  not 
be  led  back  from  their  wanderings  to  the  right  path  by  the 
guidance  of  an  experienced  mind.  Hence  it  was  thought 
necessary  to  warn  men  of  the  dangers  to  which  this  kind  of 
life  was  peculiarly  exposed.  Thus  Yves,  bishop  of  Chartres^| 
took  ground  against  those  who,  puffed  up  by  the  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees,  boasted  of  their  spare  diet  and  bodily  mortifications, 

*  In  Cantica  canticorum,  s.  x.  s.  7.  -f  L.  c.  s.  xx.  s.  7. 

X  Ep.  192. 


TVES  OF  CHAETBES  ON  THE  ANCHORITE  LIFE.  335 

whereas,  according  to  the  declarations  of  the  apostle,  1  Timoth. 
iv.  8,  bodily  exercise  profiteth  little,  and  the  kingdom  of  God, 
Eom.  xiv.  17,  consisteth  not  in  meat  and  drink,  but  in 
righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  solitude 
of  groves  and  of  moimtains  cannot  make  a  man  blessed  unless 
he  brings  with  him  that  solitude  of  the  soul,  that  sabbath  of 
the  heart,  that  elevation  of  the  spirit,  without  which  idleness 
and  storms  of  dangerous  temj^tation  attend  every  "solitude,  and 
the  soul  never  finds  rest  mjless  God  hush  to  silence  these 
storms  of  temptation.  "  But  if  you  have  his  grace  with  you," 
he  writes,  "  be  assured  of  blessedness  in  whatever  place  you 
may  be ;  in  whatever  order,  in  whatever  garb,  you  may  serve 
God."*  A  certain  monk  proposed  to  exchange  the  life  of  the 
convent  for  that  of  solitude ;  but  he  warned  him  not  to  do  so.f 
He  bid  him  remember  that  Christ  left  the  wilderness  to  engage 
in  public  labours ;  hence  he  declared  the  life  of  the  anchoret 
inferior  to  that  of  the  monaster)-,  because  in  the  former  the 
man  is  abandoned  to  his  self-wdl  and  his  own  troublesome 
thoughts,  which  disturb  the  quiet  of  the  soul.  This  he  had 
learned  from  the  experience  of  many  who  had  before  led  a 
blameless  life,  but  after  becoming  anchorets,  fell  into  lamentable 
aberrations.  That  warm  and  hearty  devotee  to  the  work  of 
missions,  Raymund  Lull,  complains  of  it  as  a  great  evU  that 
pious  monks  retired  into  solitudes,  instead  of  giving  up  their 
lives  for  their  brethren,  and  in  preaching  the  gospel  among 
the  infidels.  "I  behold  the  monks,"  says. he,  "dwelling  in 
the  country  and  in  deserts,  in  order  to  avoid  the  occasions 
of  sin  amongst  us  ;  I  see  them  ploughing  and  cultivating  the 
soil,  in  order  to  provide  the  means  of  support  for  themselves, 
and  to  supply  the  necessities  of  the  poor ;  but  far  as  I  can 
stretch  my  eyes  and  look,  I  can  scarcely  see  an  individual  who 
from  love  to  thee  goes  forth  to  meet  the  death  of  the  martyr, 
as  thou  didst  from  love  to  us."  He  longs  for  the  time,  which 
he  describes  as  a  glorious  day,  when  pious  monks,  skUled  in 
languages  of  foreign  nations,  shall  follow  the  example  of  the 
apostles,  and,  betaking  themselves  amongst  the  infidels,  stand 
ready  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  preaching  the  faith.  Thus 
would  the  holy  zeal  of  the  apostles  retum.|     The  abbot  Peter 

*  L.  c.  I  Ep.  256. 

X  0  gloriose  Domine,  quando  erit  ilia  benedicta  Dies,  in  qua  videam, 
quod  sancti  religiosi  velint  te  adeo  laudare,  quod  eant  in  terras  exteras 


336  PETER  OF  CLUNY  ON  THE  LIFE  OF  A  RECLUSE. 

of  Cluny  writes  to  a  recluse,*  that  "  his  outward  separation 
from  the  world  would  avail  him  nothing  if  he  was  destitute  of 
the  only  firm  bulwark  against  besetting  sins  within  the  soul 
itself.  This  bulwark  is  the  Saviour.  By  union  with  him,  and 
by  following  him  in  his  sufferings,  he  would  be  safe  against 
the  attacks  of  all  enemies,  or  able  to  repel  them.  Without 
this  protection  it  was  not  of  the  least  use  for  one  to  shut 
himself  up  in  solitude,  mortify  the  body,  or  travel  to  foreign 
lands ;  but  he  would  only  expose  himself  thereby  to  more 
grievous  temptations.  Every  mode  of  life,  that  of  laymen,  of 
clergymen,  of  monks,  and  particularly  that  of  anchorets  and 
recluses,  has  its  peculiar  temptations.  First  of  all,  the  temp- 
tations of  pride  and  of  vanity.  The  anchoret  takes  delight  in 
picturing  to  his  fancy  what  he  is  by  this  mode  of  life  more  than 
others.  The  solitary,  uniform  life,  in  inactive  repose,  he 
cannot  bear,  and  yet  he  is  ashamed  to  abandon  a  mode  of 
living  which  he  has  once  chosen  ;|  the  repressed  impulses  seek 
room  for  play,  therefore,  in  some  artificial  manner.  Thousands 
flock  to  consult  him  as  an  oracle,  and  to  ask  his  advice  about 
everything.  They  make  confession  of  their  sins  to  him,  and 
implore  his  spiritual  counsel.  They  invite  him  to  aid  them  by 
his  intercessions  in  a  great  variety  of  matters,  and  ofier  him 
presents.  Thus  both  his  ambition  and  his  avarice  are  gratified  : 
while  he  exhorts  people  to  give  to  the  poor,  he  may  amass 
great  treasures  for  himself."  After  the  manner  here  described, 
persons  who  had  begun  as  strict  anchorets,  might  soon,  through 
the  excessive  veneration  which  was  shown  them  and  the  nu- 
merous presents  which  they  received,  be  turned  away  from 
the  course  which  they  had  chosen.  Many  monkish  institutions, 
governed  by  the  strictest  rule,  degenerated  in  this  way ;  im- 
postors, too,  would  sometimes  take  advantage  of  the  popular 

ad  daudam  laudem  de  tua  sancta  trinitate  et  de  tua  sancta  unitate  et  de 
tua  benedicta  incarnatioiie  et  de  tua  gravi  passione  ?  Ilia  dies  esset  dies 
gloriosa,  et  dies,  in  qua  rediret  devotio,  quam  sancti  apostoli  habebant  in 
moriendo  pro  suo  Domino  Jesu  Christo.  In  the  magnus  liber  contem- 
plationis  in  Deum,  opp.  T.  IX.  f.  246. 

*  Lib.  I.  ep.  20. 

•t  Prae  ta;dio  dormitando,  ipsius  miserabilis  ta;dii  non  in  Deo,  sed  in 
mundo,  non  in  se,  sed  extra  se  quserit  remediuin.  Nam  quia  seniel 
assumptum  propositum  eremitam  deserere  pudet,  quaritur  occasio  fre- 
quentis  alieni  coUoquii,  ut  qui  multa  de  se  taceus  tormenta  patitur,  alio- 
rum  saltern  confabulationibus  relevetur. 


ABELARD  OX  THE  WOBLDLT  SPIRIT  OF  THE  MONKS.        337 

credulity,  contrive  to  render  themselves  famous  as  strict 
anchorets,  and  thus  make  themselves  rich.*  The  monks, 
who  roved  about  as  preachers  of  repentance,  might  produce 
great  effects  amongst  the  imeducated  and  neglected  people ; 
but  when  powerfiil  compunctions,  showing  themselves  out- 
wardly by  sensible  signs,  resulted  firom  these  impressions,  and 
an  excitement  of  this  kind,  accompanied  with  strong  sensuous 
elements,  seized  irresistibly  on  the  multitude,  it  required  con- 
smnmate  wisdom  to  give  the  right  direction  to  such  a  movement 
of  the  affections,  so  that  nothing  impure  might  intermingle,  so 
that  the  sensuous  element  might  not  prevail  over  the  spiritual, 
and  give  birth  to  a  fanaticism  which  would  even  nm  into 
immorality,  as  it  was  said  to  have  done  in  the  case  of  a  certain 
Robert  of  Arbrissel.f  Amongst  the  vast  multitude  of  monks 
there  were  many  who  embraced  this  mode  of  life  only  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  consideration  and  an  easy  living,  while 
they  spent  their  time  in  idleness ;  and  if,  on  the  one  hand,  there 
were  pious  monk^  who  exerted  a  powerful  and  wholesome 
influence  on  the  religious  feelings  and  the  religious  education 
of  multitudes ;  so  there  proceeded,  on  the  other  hand,  firom  the 
ranks  of  the  uneducated  or  hypocritical  monks  active  dissemi- 

tors  of  every  kind  of  superstition.  Abelard  was  one  who 
'  forth  as  a  stem  reprover  of  this  class  of  monks.  He 
ribes  how  those  who  had  retired  from  the  world  became 

rrupted  by  the  veneration  in  which   they  were  held,  fell 

,ck  again  into  the  world,  paid  court  to  the  rich,  and,  insteaa 
speaking  to  their  consciences,  lulled  them  to  security  in 

eir  sins  by  teaching  them  to  depend  on  their  intercessions.! 

•  Thus,  it  is  related  in  the  life  of  the  abbot  Stephen,  of  Obaize,  in  the 
province  of  Limousin,  in  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  that  a  per- 
son had  settled  down  there  as  an  anchoret,  and  built  himself  an  oratory. 
He  gladly  received  whatever  the  people  brought  him,  and  what  he  could 
make  no  use  of  himself  he  converted  into  money.  Once  he  appointed  a 
day  on  which  they  were  to  assemble  there  together  to  hear  a  mass.  Many 
came  in  the  morning,  but  found  him  no  longer  there.  He  had  absconded 
■with  all  he  possessed.  Hence  there  was  a  want  of  confidence  in  that 
district  towards  all  who  represented  themselves  as  anchorets.  See  L.  I. 
e.  iv.  in  Baluz.  Miscellan.  T.  IV.  p.  78. 

t  See  farther  onward. 

X  Sint,  qui  longa  eremi  conversatione  et  abstinentia  tantnm  religionis 
Domen  adepti  sunt,  ut  a  potentioribus  saeculi  vel  siecularibus  viris  snb 
aliqna  pietatis  occaaone  saepins  invitentur  et  sic  diabolic©  cribro  more 

VOL.  VII.  Z 


338  JOACHIM  ON  WICKED  MONKS. 

He  applies  to  such  the  words  in  Ezek.  xiii.  18:"  "Woe  to  you 
that  sew  pillows  to  all  armholes,  and  make  kerchiefs  upon  the 
heads  of  young  and  old,  to  catch  souls !"  "  What  other 
meaning  has  this,  than  that  we  pacify  the  consciences  of 
worldly  people  by  our  sweet  words,  instead  of  improving  their 
lives  by  our  honest  reproofs?"*  In  like  manner  Hildebert  of 
Mans  boldly  unmasked  the  hypocritical  monks.  "  Let  his 
pale,  haggard  countenance,"  says  he,  "  excite  reverence  ;  let 
him  stand  forth,  in  coarse  and  squalid  raiment,  the  stem  censor 
of  manners  ;  yet  for  all  this  he  is  far  astray  from  the  path  that 
leads  to  life."t  Raymund  Lull,  in  one  of  his  books,  where  he 
relates  the  wanderings  of  a  friend  of  that  true  wisdom  which 
begins  in  the  love  of  God  (philosophia  amoris),  describes  J 
how,  in  his  search  after  this  true  love,  he  comes  to  k  monastery 
that  stood  in  the  highest  reputation  for  piety.  Rejoiced  at 
beholding  so  many  united  together  in  offering  praise  to  God, 
he  thinks  he  has  at  last  found  the  dwelling  of  true  love. 
Soon,  however,  he  observes  a  monk  with  a  patched  cowl,  but 
he  was  a  hypocrite ;  for  though  he  fasted,  preached,  laboured, 
and  prayed  abundantly,  yet  he  did  it  only  for  the  sake  of 
being  regarded  as  a  saint  by  the  others.  Beside  him  stood 
another,  who  fasted  and  prayed  still  more.  He  did  so,  how- 
ever, because  he  supposed  that  God  would  certainly  make  him 
«o  holy  that  he  might  be  able  to  work  miracles,  and  so  be 
venerated  as  a  saint  after  his  death.§  Here  the  joy  of  the 
lover  of  true  wisdom  vanished ;  for  he  could  nor  help  seeing 
how  much  he  was  dishonoured  by  such  conduct,  who  alone 


paleae  ventilati,  de  eremo  remoreantur  in  sseculo.  Qui  multis  adulationum 
favoribus  dona  divitum  venantes  tam  suam,  quam  illorum  jugulant  ani- 
nias. 

*  Quid  est  autem  pulvillos  cubitis  vel  cervicalia  capitibus  supponere, 
nisi  saecularium  hominum  vitam  blandis  sermonibus  demulcere,  quam 
uos  magis  asperis  increpationibus  oportebat  corrigere.  Quorum  dona 
quum  sustulenmus,  eos  utiqiie  de  sutfragio  nostrarum  orationum  confi- 
dantes, in  suis  iniquitatibus  relinquimus  securiores.  De  Joanne  baptista 
sermo,  opp.  Abaslardi,  p.  954. 

t  Ut  in  60  adoretur  osseus  et  exanguis  vultus,  ut  sermo  censorius  ei 
Bit  et  cultus  incultior,  extra  viam  est,  quae  ducit  ad  vitam.    Ep.  11. 

1  In  his  Arbor  philosophiae  amoris,  opp.  T.  VI.  f.  56. 

§  Hoc  faciebat  ideo,  quia  habebat  opinionem,  quod  Deum  ipsnm  deberet 
facere  tam  sanctum,  quod  etiam  posset  facere  miracula,  et  cum  esset 
mortuus,  quod  de  ipso  singulis  annis  fieret  soUenne  festum. 


soebert's  cosvebsion.  339 

should  command  the  love  of  all.  Even  that  enthusiastic 
friend  of  the  contemplative  life  of  the  monk,  abbot  Joachim, 
declared,  that  while  a  monk  who  stands  firm  under  temptations 
attains  to  the  highest  degree  of  the  spiritual  life,  so  one  that 
yields  to  them  becomes  the  worst  of  men.  "  Let  a  monk  once 
become  wicked,"  said  he,  "  and  there  is  not  a  more  covetous 
and  ambitious  creature  than  he  is."* 

Casting  a  glance  at  the  various  monastic  societies,  which 
sprang  up  wittiin  this  period,  we  notice,  in  the  first  place, 
those  which  derived  their  origin  from  efforts  of  reform  amongst 
the  clergy ;  and  which  may,  therefore,  be  r^arded  as  a 
medium  of  transition  from  the  clerus  to  the  body  of  monks. 
Among  these  belongs  the  order  of  Praemonstrauts,  whose 
founder,  Norbert,  was  bom  in  the  city  of  Xantes,  in  the  duke- 
dom of  Cleves,  between  a.  d.  1080-1085.  Descended  from  a 
fiimily  of  note,  he  lived  at  first  after  the  manner  of  the  ordi- 
nary secular  clergy,  sometimes  at  the  court  of  the  archbishop 
Frederick  the  First  of  Cologne,  sometimes  at  that  of  the 
emperor  Henry  the  Fifth.  But  in  the  year  1114,  being 
caught  by  a  storm,  while  riding  out  for  his  pleasure,  a  flash  of 
lightning  struck  near  him  and  prostrated  him  to  the  earth. 
On  recovering  his  breath  and  coming  to  his  senses,  he  felt 
admonished  by  the  thought  of  the  sudden  death  from  which  he 
had  been  saved  as  by  a  miracle,  and  resolved  to  begin  a  more 
serious  course  of  life.  From  this  incident  he  was  led  to 
compare  the  history  of  his  own  conversion  with  tliat  of  the 
apo»:tle  Paul,  and  to  represent  it  as  partaking  of  the  miraculous. 
He  laid  aside  his  sumptuous  apparel  for  a  humbler  dress,  and, 
after  a  season  of  earnest  spiritual  preparation,  entered  the 
order  of  priests.  In  Germany  and  in  France  he  itinerated  as 
a  preacher  of  repentance,  and  by  his  admonitions  and  reproofe 
restored  peace  between  contending  parties.  He  rebuked  the 
worldly-minded  clergy,  and  the  degenerate  canonical  priests. 
By  this  course,  however,  he  made  himself  many  enemies,  and 
was  accused  of  preaching  where  he  had  no  call  to  preach, 
lie  found  a  protector  in  pope  Gelasius  the  Second,  who  gave 
him  full  power  to  preach  wherever  he  chose.     He  was  every- 

*  Nee  putes  ambitione  monacham  non  esse  tentandam,  quia  mortans 
est  mundo,  quia  nihil,  si  mains  est,  ambitiosios  monacho,  nihil  avarixis 
invenitur.    In  the  Concordia  veteris  et  Xovi  Testamenti,  c.  ii.  p.  109. 

z  2 


340  THE  PKEMONSTRATENSIAXS. 

where  received  with  great  respect.  Whenever  he  entered  the 
vicinity  of  villages  or  castles,  and  the  herdsmen  saw  him,  they 
left  their  cottages  and  ran  to  announce  his  arrival.  As  he 
proceeded  onward  the  bells  rang ;  young  and  old,  men  and 
women,  hastened  to  church,  where,  after  performing  mass,  he 
spoke  the  word  of  exhortation  to  the  assembled  people.  After 
sermon  he  conversed  with  individuals  on  the  concerns  of  the 
soul.  Towards  evening  he  was  conducted  to  his  lodgings,  all 
were  emulous  of  the  honour  and  blessing  of  entertaining  him 
as  a  guest.  He  did  not  take  up  his  residence,  as  was 
customary  with  itinerant  ecclesiastics  and  monks,  in  the  church 
or  in  a  monastery,  but  in  the  midst  of  the  town,  or  in  the 
castle,  where  he  could  speak  to  all,  and  bestow  on  such  as 
needed  the  benefit  of  his  spiritual  advice.  Thus  he  made 
himself  greatly  beloved  among  the  people.  In  the  year  1119 
he  visited  pope  Calixtus  the  Second,  in  Rheims,  where  that 
pope  had  assembled  a  council.  This  pope  confirmed  the  full 
powers  bestowed  on  him  by  his  predecessor,  and  recommended 
him  to  the  protection  of  the  bishop  of  Laon.  The  latter 
wished  to  employ  him  as  an  instrument  for  bringing  back  his 
canonical  priests  to  a  life  corresponding  to  their  rule ;  but 
meeting  here  with  too  violent  an  opposition,  Norbert  withdrew 
from  the  field ;  as  the  bishop,  however,  wished  to  retain  him 
in  his  diocese,  Norbert  chose  a  desert  region  in  it,  the  wild 
valley  of  Premonstre  (^Prcemonstratum  Pratum  monstratum) 
in  the  forest  of  Coucy,  as  a  suitable  spot  for  a  retreat.  Such 
was  the  first  foundation  of  a  new  spiritual  society,  which, 
attaching  itself  to  the  so-called  rule  of  Augustin,  aimed  to 
unite  preaching  and  the  cure  of  souls  with  the  monastic  life. 
From  this  spot  he  travelled  in  every  direction  to  preach, — to 
France,  to  Flanders,  and  to  Germany,  at  the  invitation  of 
ecclesiastics,  communities,  and  noblemen.  The  pious  count 
Theobald  of  Champagne  proposed  uniting  himself,  and  all  he 
possessed,  with  the  new  spiritual  foundation;  but  Norbert 
dissuaded  him  from  his  purpose  by  showing  him  how  much 
good,  of  which  he  might  be  the  instrument  as  a  prince,  would 
thus  be  prevented.  "  Far  be  it  from  me,"  said  he  to  the 
count,  "  to  harbour  a  wish  of  disturbing  the  work  which  God 
is  doing  through  you."  When,  finally,  he  became  archbishop 
of  Magdeburg  (1126),  he  sought,  but  not  without  violent 
opposition,  to  introduce  his  order  there.     He  died  a.d.  1134. 


USEFUL  LABOURS  OF  ROBERT  OF  ARBRISSEL.       341 

Norbert  was  one  of  the  number  also,  about  whom  mar- 
vellous stories  were  circulated.  But  if  the  veneration  of  the 
multitude,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  some  of  his  disciples,  at- 
tributed miracles  to  him,  yet,  the  more  critically  examining-, 
and  we  must  add,  inimically  disposed  Abelard,  accuses  him  of 
ambitiously  seeking  after  this  reputation,  of  obtaining-  it  by 
deceptive  arts ;  and  when  his  promises  were  not  fulfilled,  of 
ascribing  the  failure  to  the  unbelief  of  others.* 

"We  should  here  mention  also,  as  belonging  to  the  same  age, 
Robert  of  Arbrissel.  He  had  been  carried  away  in  his  youth 
by  both  tendencies  of  the  enthusiasm  of  his  times,  the  scientific 
and  the  religious.  After  having  pursued  his  studies  with 
great  zeal  at  Paris,  he  gained  considerable  celebrity  by  his 
attainments  in  science,  and  also  by  his  strictly  ascetic  and 
pious  life.  The  bishop  of  Rennes,  who  was  possessed  of  a 
zeal  for  reform, — induced  by  the  high  reputation  of  the  young 
man,  drew  him  to  his  church,  where  he  laboured  four  years  as 
priest.  He  attached  himself  to  the  Hildebrandian  movement 
for  the  reformation  of  the  church,  and  was  zealous  in  opposing 
the  corruption  of  morals  in  the  clergy,  and  in  upholding  the 
severity  of  the  laws  of  celibacy,  and  against  simony.  He  was 
a  forcible  preacher,  and  his  discourses  produced  many  of  those 
effects  M-hich  we  have  already  noticed  as  attending  the  in- 
fluential preachers  of  these  times.  After  the  death  of  his 
bishop  he  betook  himself  to  the  solitarj'  life.  His  reputation 
attracted  to  him  numbers  of  both  sexes,  who  wished  to  train 
themselves  under  his  direction  in  the  way  of  spiritual  living. 

*  Thus,  when  others  told  of  Norbert,  that,  not  long  before  his  death 
he  called  the  dead  to  life,  Abelard  ridiculed  his  vain  attempts  to  raise  the 
dead.  Ad  majora  ilia  veniam  et  summa  ilia  miracula  de  resuscitandis 
quoque  mortuis  inaniter  tentata.  Quod  quidem  nuper  praesumsisse  Nor- 
bertum  et  coapostolum  ejus  Farsitum  mirati  fuimus  et  risimus.  Qui  diu 
pariter  in  oratione  coram  populo  prostrati  et  de  sua  prsesumtione  frustrati, 
cum  a  proposito  confusi  deciderent,  objurgare  populum,  impudenter  cce- 
perunt,  quod  devotion!  suae  et  constanti  fidei  fidelitas  eomm  obsisteret. 
Sermo  de  Joanne  baptista,  p.  967.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  that  the  Prse- 
monstrant,  who  wrote  Norbert's  life,  makes  no  mention  of  his  having 
raised  the  dead,  and  that  in  his  prologue  he  declares :  Many  things  must 
be  passed  over  on  account  of  the  infidel es  et  impii,  qui  quidquid  legunt 
et  audiunt,  quod  ab  eorura  studiis  et  conversationibus  sit  alienum,  falsum 
continuum  et  confictum  esse  judicare  non  metuunt,  ea  duntaxat  brevitcr 
attingens,  quje  omnibus  nota  sunt  neque  ipsi  ulla  improbitate  audeant 
diffiteri.    Acta  Sanctor.  Mens.  Jun.  T.  I.  f.  819. 


342  PAUPERES  CHPJSTI. 

Pope  Urban  the  Second  conferred  op  him  the  dignity  of 
apostolic  preacher,  by  virtue  of  which  he  might  travel  about 
everywhere,  and  call  sinners  to  repentance,  and  restore  peace 
between  contending  parties.  He  exercised  an  astonishing 
power  over  men  and  women.  Vicious  persons  were  so  in- 
fluenced by  it  as  to  make  full  confession  of  their  sins  to  him, 
and  promise  amendment.  Others,  who  had  led  an  upright 
life  in  the  world,  were  persuaded  wholly  to  forsake  it.  Such, 
for  example,  was  the  effect  produced  by  the  society  of  this  man 
on  the  mother  of  the  famous  abbot  Peter  of  Cluny,  who  enter- 
tained him  for  a  while  in  her  house.  She  secretly  vowed  that  she 
would  become  a  nun,  and  resolved  to  execute  her  vow  as  soon 
as  her  husband  died,  or  would  permit  her  to  do  so.*  It  was 
said  of  his  sermons,  that  every  individual  who  heard  them  felt 
the  words  to  be  aimed  at  himself  as  much  as  if  they  were 
addressed  to  him  personally  and  with  design. f  There  was 
formed  under  his  direction  a  religious  society  composed  of 
persons  of  both  sexes,  and  of  ecclesiastics  and  laymen,  whom 
he  denominated  the  Pauperes  Christi.  His  admirers  were 
disposed  to  regard  the  moral  effects  that  resulted  from  his 
labours  as  something  beyond  miracles  ;  and  it  deserves  notice 
that,  although  he  produced  such  powerful  impressions  by  his 
preaching,  yet  during  his  lifetime  not  a  single  miracle  was 
ascribed  to  him, — the  reason  of  which  may  doubtless  be  found 
in  the  peculiar  spirit  of  his  labours ;  for  on  this  point,  the 
enthusiastic  admirer  who  wrote  his  life,  says,  that  miracles 
wrought  within  men's  souls  are  more  than  those  performed  on 
their  bodies4     The  enduring  monument  of  his  activity  was 

*  Words  of  the  abbot  Peter  of  Cluny,  concerning  his  mother :  Famoso 
illi  Roberto  de  Brussello  ad  se  venienti  et  secum  aliquamdiu  moranti  im- 
pulsa  violento  acstu  animi  se  in  monacham  ignorante  viro  redderet,  ut  eo 
defuncto  vel  concedente  statim  ad  fontem  Ebraudi,  si  viveret,  demigraret. 
Epp.  L.  II.  ep.  17. 

f  Bishop  Baldric,  in  the  account  of  his  life,  at  the  25th  of  February, 
c.  iv,  s.  23 :  Tantam  praedicationis  gratiam  ei  Dominus  donaverat,  ut  cum 
communem  sermocinationem  populo  faceret,  unusquisque  quod  sibi  con- 
veniebat,  acciperet. 

X  This  is  evident,  from  the  beautiful  -words  in  the  account  of  his  life, 
c.  iv.  s.  23 :  Ego  audenter  dico,  Robertum  iu  miraculis  copiosum,  super 
dsemones  imperiosum,  super  principes  gloriosum.  Quis  enim  nostri 
temporis  tot  languidos  curavit,  tot  leprosos  mundavit,  tot  mortuos  susci- 
tavit?  Qui  de  terra  est,  de  terra  loquitur  et  miracula  in  corpori''HS 
admiratur.     Qui  autem  spiritualis  est,  languidos  et  leprosos,  mortuos 


NUNS  OF  FOKS  EBRALDI.  343 

the  order  of  nuns  at  Fontevraud  (Fons  Ebraldi),  a  convent 
not  far  from  the  town  of  Candes  in  Poitou.  It  is  impossible 
to  mistake  the  marks  which  show  that  this  man  was  actuatai 
by  a  glowing  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  souls ;  though  we  must 
confess  that,  as  in  the  case  of  many  powerful  preachers  of 
times  so  given  to  the  eccentric,  his  zeal  may  not  have  been 
accompanied  with  a  spirit  of  prudence,  nor  exempt  from 
fanatical  excesses ;  and  some  of  the  bad  effects  which  attached 
themselves  to  the  great  results  of  his  labours  may  doubtless 
have  proceeded  from  these  causes.  His  enthusiastic  admirers 
will  not  allow  us,  it  is  true,  to  perceive  any  mixture  of  lights 
and  shades  in  the  picture  they  have  drawn  of  him ;  but  the 
way  in  which  the  abbot  Gottfried  of  Vendome,  and  bishop 
Hildebert  of  Mans,  or  Marbod  of  Rennes,  describe  his  labours, 
contain  features  too  characteristic  to  leave  it  possible  for  us  to 
conceive  that  they  should  have  been  pure  inventions,  and  they 
moreover  agree  with  other  kindred  examples  of  these  times.* 
If  the  squalid  raiment  in  which  he  travelled  about  as  a 
preacher  of  repentance  contributed  to  procure  for  him  the 
reverence  of  the  multitude, — and  he  is  said  to  have  given  it 
himself  as  a  reason  for  wearing  tliem,  that  they  drew  more 
veneration  from  the  simple ;  yet  there  were  others  who  blamed 
him  for  attempting  to  distinguish  himself  in  this  way,  and 
complained  that  he  did  not  dress  according  to  his  station,  as  a 
canonical  ecclesiastic  and  priest.  They  styled  it  only  a  species 
of  vanity,  and  assured  him  that  to  reasonable  people  he  must 
appear  like  a  crazy  man.f     By  censuring  the  worldly-minded 

qnoqne  convaluisse  testator,  qnando  qoilibet  animabus  langoidis  et  lepro- 
sis  suscitandis  consulit  et  medetur. 

*  Even  if  the  persons  mentioned  -were  not  the  anthors  of  these  letters, 
if  one  or  the  other  of  them  was  written  by  Roscelin,  a  truth  of  this  kind 
may  have  been  lying  at  bottom.  This  Koscelin,  when  a  canonical  priest, 
was  an  adversary  of  Robert  Arbrissel,  who  seemed  desirous  of  transform- 
ing the  regular  clergy  into  monks.  Abelard  says  of  him  (ep.  21):  Hie 
contra  egregium  ilium  praeconem  Christi  Robertum  de  Arbrosello  con- 
tomacem  ansus  est  epistolam  confingere. 

t  Ep.  Marbod,  among  the  letters  of  Hildebert,  f.  1408 :  De  pannosi 
habitus  insolentia  plurimi  te  redarguendum  putant,  qnoniam  nee  canonics 
profession!,  sub  qua  militare  ccepisti,  nee  sacerdotali  ordini,  in  qnem 
promotus  es,  convenire  videtur.  Est  enim  singulis  quibusque  professi- 
unibus  sive  ordinibos  apta  qusedam  et  congrua  distinctio  habenda,  quae  si 
permatetur,  publicum  ofFendit  judicium.  Videamus  ergo,  ne  ista,  per 
quae  admirationem  parare  volumus,  ridicola  et  odiosa  sint.   That  he  went 


344    Robert's  character,  as  judged  by  his  oppoxents. 

clergy  in  which  he  followed  altogether  the  spirit  of  the  Hil- 
debrandian  party,  he  drew  after  him  the  multitude,  who 
delighted  in  such  things.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  said,  in  the 
letter  above  noticed,  "  of  what  use  is  it  to  censure  the  absent  ? 
So  far  from  being  of  any  use,  it  must  seem  to  his  ignorant 
hearers,  as  if  he  gave  them  liberty  thereby  to  sin, — holding 
up  to  them,  as  he  does,  the  example  of  their  superiors,  whose 
authority  they  might  plead.  By  such  censures  the  absent 
would  rather  be  excited  to  indignation  than  persuaded  to 
amendment.  Of  some  advantage,  however,  it  was  perhaps  to 
himself  to  make  every  other  order  of  the  church  contemptible 
in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude,  so  that  he  and  his  followers 
might  stand  alone  in  their  esteem.  Such  cunning,  however, 
savours  of  the  old  man ;  it  is  something  diabolical.  It  accords 
not  with  his  calling,  with  his  itinerant  wanderings,  with  the 
squalid  dress  he  wears.  The  congregations  leave  their  priests, 
whom  they  are  taught  to  look  upon  as  worthless  ;  they  despise 
their  intercessions,  and  will  no  longer  submit  to  church  penance 
from  them ;  will  no  longer  pay  them  tithes  and  firstlings. 
To  him  and  his  followers  they  flock  in  crowds ;  and  to  him 
and  his,  pay  the  honour  which  they  owe  to  their  own  priests. 
Yet  these  poor  people  are  not  influenced  by  the  love  of  re- 
ligion, but  manifestly  by  that  love  of  novelty  which  is  ever  a 
ruling  passion  with  the  multitude;*  for  nobody  can  perceive 
any  amendment  in  their  lives."  It  was  now  objected  to  him 
generally,  that  he  placed  too  much  reliance  on  momentary 
feelings  of  compunction,  and  made  no  further  inquiry  into  the 
temper  of  those  on  whom  his  discourses  had  produced  an 
effiBct.  He  was  accused  of  saying,  that  he  was  satisfied  could 
he  prevent  a  man  from  sinning,  even  for  a  single  niglit.  He 
was  accused  of  accepting  at  once  every  man,  who,  after  some 
such  superficial  impression,  expressed  a  wish  to  retire  from 
the  world.  Hence,  people  of  this  class  fell  afterwards  into  a 
worse  state  than  ever.  He  was  accused  of  a  pharisaical  zeal 
to  make  proselytes.     "  So  great  is   the   number  of  his  dis- 

about  in  a  cowl  full  of  holes,  barefoot,  and  ■with  a  long  beard,  as  a  novel 
sight  for  all,  ut  ad  ornatuni  lunatici  solam  tibi  jam  clavam  deesse  loquan- 
tur.  Hsec  tibi  uon  tam  apud  simplices,  ut  dicere  soles,  auctoritatem, 
quam  apud  sapientes  furoris  suspicionem  comparant. 

*  Quos  tamen,  ut  manifestum  est,  non  religionis  amor,  sed  ea,  quro 
semper  vulgo  familiaris  est,  curiositas  et  novorum  cupiditas  ducit 


PETER  MAURITIUS  OPPOSED  TO  EXCESSIVE  ASCETICISM.      345 

ciples."  said  these  adversaries,  "  that  they  may  be  seen  with 
their  long  beards  and  their  black  dresses  running  in  troops 
through  the  provinces ;  wearing  shoes  in  the  countrj-,  going 
barefbot  in  the  towns  and  villages.  And  if  these  people  are 
asked  why  they  do  so,  the  only  reply  they  have  to  make  is, 
'  They  are  the  people  of  the  Master.' "  Especially  was  he 
censured  for  his  manner  of  operating  upon  the  female  sex  ;  for 
his  too  free  intercourse  with  them,  and  for  his  renovation  of 
the  dangerous  fanaticism  of  the  subintrodiictce.*  He  is  said 
to  have  allowed  himself  to  be  influenced  in  his  conduct  towards 
the  female  sex  too  much  by  whim  and  caprice ;  to  some,  being 
too  lenient;  to  others,  too  severe;  imposing  on  them  too 
harsh  modes  of  penance.  Gottfried  of  Vendome, — who  in- 
timates, however,  that  this  charge  against  Robert  of  Arbrissel 
came  by  no  means  from  credible  sources,  "j" — represents  to  him 
how  tenderly  the  weaker  sex  should  be  dealt  with ;  how  easily 
many  might  by  his  mode  of  treatment  be  reduced  to  despair.| 
We  noticed,  at  the  close  of  the  preceding  period,  the  origin 
of  the  order  of  Cluny ;  and  we  have  described  the  high  con- 
sideration it  attained  through  the  merits  of  the  men  who  stood 
at  its  head.  In  the  beginning  of  this  period  the  friend  of 
Gregory  the  Seventh,  abbot  Hugo,  joined  himself  to  it ;  but 
so  much  the  more  mischievous  in  its  influence  on  the  order 
was  the  bad  administration  of  his  successor,  Pontius,  who  was 
finally  obliged,  in  the  year  1122,  to  resign  his  post.  Soon 
afterwards  the  place  was  fiUed  by  one  who  is  to  be  numbered 
among  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  church  in  his  times, 
the  abbot  Peter  Mauritius,  to  whom  even  his  contemporaries 
gave  the  title  of  Venerable.  By  him,  the  order  was  once 
more  raised  to  distinction.  He  was  desc«ided  from  a  family 
of  consideration  in  Auvergne,  and  is  to  be  reckoned  among 
the  many  great  men  of  the  church  on  whose  development  the 
influence  of  Christian  training  by  pious  mothers  had  a  lasting 
effect.  The  character  of  his  mother,  who  later  in  life  became 
a  nun,  was  delineated  by  his  own  pen  with  filial  affection, 

*  2u«i»-a«T9j,  Tol.  I.  277,  and  vol.  II.  149. 

t   Quod  si  ita  est.  IV.  46. 

X  Fragilis  est  multum  et  delicatns  scxns  femineus  et  idcirco  necesse  est, 
ut  pietatis  dulcedine  potius  quam  nimia  severitate  regatar,  ne  forte  abun- 
dantiori  tristitia  absorbeatur,  et  qui  earn  regere  debet,  sic  a  satana  cir- 
caiQveniatar. 


346  MAURITIUS  ON  TRUE  SOLITUDE. 

soon  after  her  death.*  Under  him  the  order  took  a  different 
direction  from  that  in  which  it  had  originated.  As  this  man, 
distinguished  for  his  amiable  and  gentle  spirit,  strongly  sym- 
pathized with  everything  purely  human,  so,  under  his  guid- 
ance, the  monastery,  before  consecrated  alone  to  rigid  asceti- 
cism, became  a  seat  also  of  the  arts  and  sciences.^  A  Christian 
delicacy  of  feeling,  far  removed  from  the  sternness  and  excess 
which  we  elsewhere  find  in  moneisticism,  forms  a  characteristic 
trait  in  the  character  of  this  individual.  To  a  prior,  who  was 
not  disposed  to  relax  in  the  least  from  the  zeal  of  an  over- 
rigid  asceticism,  he  wrote  :  "God  accepts  no  sacrifices  which 
are  offered  to  him  contrary  to  his  own  appointed  order,"  He 
held  up  to  him  the  example  of  Christ:  "  The  devil  invited 
Christ  to  cast  himself  down  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple ; 
but  he  who  came  to  give  his  life  for  the  salvation  of  the 
world  refused  to  end  it  by  a  suicidal  act — thereby  setting  an 
example  which  admonishes  us  that  we  are  not  to  push  the 
mortification  of  the  body  to  self-destruction.  J  So  Paul, 
also  (1  Timothy  v.  23),  following  the  example  of  Christ, 
exhorts  his  disciple,  that  he  should  provide  for  his  body  with 
moderation,  not  that  he  should  destroy  it."  He  blames  him  for 
not  heeding  the  affectionate  remonstrances  of  the  pious  bre- 
thren amongst  his  inferiors.  "  When  a  man  pays  no  regard 
to  those  who  speak  such  words  of  love,  he  despises  the  love 
itself  which  prompted  such  words  ;  and  he  who  despises  love, 
can  have  none  himself.  But  of  what  avail  is  all  the  fasting  in 
the  world,  and  all  the  mortification  of  the  flesh,  to  him  who 
has  no  love?  (1  Cor.  xiii.)  Abstain,  then,  from  flesh  anf\ 
from  fish  ;  push  thy  abstinence  as  far  as  thou  wilt ;  torture  thy 
body,  allow  no  sleep  to  thine  eyes ;  spend  the  night  in  vigils, 
thy  day  in  toils  ;  still,  whether  willing  or  unwilling,  thou  must 
hear  the  apostle :  '  Even  if  thou  givest  thy  body  to  be  burned, 
it  profits  thee  nothing,'  "  Far  removed  from  this  monkish 
estrangement  from  humanity,  he  was  aware  that  the  suppres- 
sion of  man's  natural  feeling  stood  at  variance  with  the  essence 

*  Lib.  II,  ep,  17. 

t  Lib.  III.  ep.  7.  He  praises  a  monk  who  diligently  devoted  himself 
to  scientific  studies:  Monachum  longe  melius  Cluniaci,  quam  quemlibet 
philosophum  in  academia  philosophantem  stupeo. 

X  Ut  doceret,  utiliter  quidem  carnem  esse  mortificandam,  sed  non 
more  homicidarum  crudeliter  perimendam. 


MAUBITIUS'S  LETTERS.  S4U 

of  Christianity;  on  which  point  he  thus  expresses  himself 
in  a  beautiful  letter  to  his  brother,  on  the  occasion  of  their 
mother's  death :  '*  The  feelings  of  nature,  sanctified  by  Chris- 
tianity, should  be  allowed  their  rights  in  the  free  shedding  of 
tears.  Paul  (1  Thess.  iv.  13)  does  not  object  to  sorrow  gene- 
rally, but  only  to  the  sorrow  of  unbelief,  the  sorrow  which  con- 
tends against  Christian  hope."  *  To  a  monk  who  thought  him- 
self bound  to  keep  away  from  his  native  coimtry,  lest  he  should 
be  attracted  by  some  earthly  tie,  he  wrote :  I  "If  pious  men 
must  abhor  their  country.  Job  would  not  have  remained  in 
his ;  the  devout  Magians  would  not  have  returned  to  theirs ; 
our  Lord  himself  would  not  have  rendered  his  own  illustrious 
by  his  miracles.  The  pious  then  are  not  obliged  to  fly  from  their 
country,  but  only  from  its  customs  if  they  are  bad.  Neither 
ought  the  good  man  to  fly  from  his  relations  and  friends,  from 
fear  of  the  contamination  of  wickedness ;  rather  he  should  en- 
deavour to  win  them  to  salvation  by  wholesome  admonitions  ; 
he  should  not  be  afraid  of  their  earthly  affections,  but  rather 
seek  to  communicate  to  them  his  own  heavenly  affections.  "  I 
myself,"  said  he,  "  would  gladly  retire  into  solitude ;  but,  if  it 
is  not  granted  me,  or  until  it  is  granted  me,  let  us  follow  the 
example  of  him  who,  amidst  the  crowd  in  royal  banquets  and 
surrounded  by  gilded  walls,  would  say  he  dwelt  in  solitude  (Ps. 
Iv.  8,  according  to  the  Vulgate).  And  such  a  solitude  we  can 
construct  in  the  recesses  of  the  heart,  where  alone  the  true 
solitude  is  found  by  true  despisers  of  the  world, — whe?e  no 
stranger  finds  admittance ;  where,  without  bodily  utterance,  is 
heard  in  gentle  murmurs  the  voice  of  our  discoursing  Master. 
In  this  solitude,  let  us,  my  dearest  son,  so  long  as  we  are  in  the 
body,  and  dwell  as  strangers  on  the  earth, — even  in  the  midst 
of  tumults, — take  refuge ;  and  what  we  would  seek  in  distant 
eoutries,  find  in  ourselves ;  for  the  kingdom  of  God  is  indeed 
in  us."  His  letters  evidence  the  intimate  communion  of  spirit 
which  he  cherished  with  those  of  kindred  disposition  among 
the  monks.  Thus  he  writes  to  one  of  them :  "  "When  I  would 
search  with  thee  into  the  mysteries  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
thou  didst  always  come  and  join  with  me  with  the  greatest 

*  Non  noster  talis  dolor,  quem  generat  non  fidei  defectus,  sed  nulla 
lege  prohibitus  mutuae  germanitatis  afiFectus.  Non  noster  talis  fletus, 
quem  fundimus,  non  futurorum  desperatione,  sed  naturae  compassione. 

t  Lib.  II.  ep.  22. 


348  MAURITIUS'S  FREEDOM  WITH  THE  POPES. 

<lelight.  When  I  would  converse  with  thee  on  matters  of 
worldly  science,  though  still  under  the  guidance  of  divine 
grace,  I  found  in  thee  a  ready  mind  and  an  acute  discernment. 
O,  how  often,  with  the  doors  shut,  and  him  alone  for  our  wit- 
ness who  is  never  absent  where  thought  and  discourse  dwell 
on  him,  has  awful  converse  been  held  by  us,  on  the  blindness 
and  hardness  of  man's  heart ;  on  the  various  entanglements  of 
sin,  and  of  the  manifold  snares  of  wicked  spirits  ;  on  the  abyss  of 
the  divine  judgments  ;  how  have  we,  with  fear  and  trembling, 
adored  him  in  his  counsels  respecting  the  children  of  men — when 
we  considered  that  he  has  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy, 
and  hardens  whom  he  will ;  and  that  no  man  knows  whether 
he  deserves  love  or  hatred  ;  on  the  uncertainty  of  our  calling  ;* 
when  we  meditated  on  the  economy  of  salvation,  by  the  incar- 
nation and  sufferings  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  on  the  dreadful  day 
of  the  last  judgment !  "  f  With  great  boldness  he  told  even 
the  popes  their  faults.  Thus  he  wrote  to  Eugene  the  Third  :} 
"  Though  you  have  been  set  by  God  over  the  nations,  in  order 
to  root  out  and  to  pull  down,  to  build  and  to  plant  (Jerem.  i. 
10) ;  still,  because  you  are  neither  God  nor  the  prophet  to 
whom  this  was  said,  you  may  be  deceived,  betrayed,  by  those 
who  see  only  their  own.  For  this  reason,  a  faithful  son,  who 
would  put  you  on  your  guard  against  such  dangei"s,  is  bound 
to  make  known  to  you  what  has  been  made  known  to  him,  and 
what  you  perhaps  may  still  remain  ignorant  of." 

When  the  Cluniacensian  order  had  thus  departed  fiom  its 
ancient  austerity,  and  when  milder  principles  prevailed  in  the 
Benedictine  monasticism  generally,  there  sprung  up,  out  of  a 
certain  tendency  to  reform,  an  enterprise  by  which  the  strict- 
ness of  the  older  models  was  to  be  again  revoked  to  life. 
Robert,  who  came  from  a  noble  family  in  Champagne,  had,  in 
his  childhood,  been  presented  by  his  parents  as  an  ohlatits  to 
a  monastery  ;  but  as  monasticism  nowhere  came  up  to  his 
high  requisitions,  he  joined  himself  to  a  society  of  anchorets, 
who  led  a  strict  life  in  the  forest  of  Moslesme.  The  high  con- 
sideration which  this  society  attained  to,  by  its  strict  mode  of 
living,  procured  for  it  unsought  rich  gifts  ;  and  the  increase  of 
earthly  goods  was  followed  as  usual  by  relaxation.     Hence 

*  We  perceive  here  the  influence  of  the  Augustinian  doctrine. 
t  Lib.  II.  ep.  22.  %  Lib.  VI.  ep.  12. 


BERNARD  OF  CLAIRVAUX.  349 

Robert,  together  with  twenty  of  the  most  zealous  of  these  re- 
chises,  was  induced  to  separate  from  the  rest.  With  his  com- 
panions he  retired  to  a  lonely  district,  called  Citeaux  (Cister- 
cium),  in  the  bishopric  of  Chalons,  not  far  from  Dijon.  Here 
was  formed,  sometime  after  the  year  1098,  a  society  of  monks, 
over  which  Robert  presided.  But  he  could  not  carry  his  work 
here  to  its  Ml  completion,  for  the  monks  of  Moslesme  contrived 
to  obtain  an  order  from  pope  Urban  the  Second,  by  \'irtue  of 
which  the  abbot  Robert  was  obliged  to  return,  and  assume  the 
direction  of  that  monastery.  He  left  his  disciple  Alberic  at  the 
head  of  the  new  establishment.  Pope  Paschalis  the  Second 
confirmed  the  rule  of  the  new  monastic  order,  which  had  been 
drawn  up  after  the  benedictine  rule,  but  with  greater  severity. 
The  new  monasteries  presented  a  picture  of  the  extremest 
poverty,  and  in  this  respect  stood  in  striking  contrast  with  the 
monasteries  of  Cluny,  which  in  some  cases  were  distinguished 
for  the  embellishment  of  art.  The  defenders  of  the  hitherto 
current  fonn  of  the  Benedictine  monasticism  objected,  however, 
to  the  abbot  Robert,  that  he  clung  tenaciously  to  the  letter  of 
the  Benedictine  rule,  as  the  Jews  to  the  letter  of  the  law ;  * 
and  they  maintained,  in  opposition  to  him,  that  the  strictness 
of  ancient  monasticism  had  been  properly  modified,  with  a  due 
reference  to  the  difference  of  climate.|  Under  the  third 
abbot  of  Citeaux,  Stephen  Harding,  this  new  order  of  monks 
had  but  few  members  left,  its  excessive  severity  having  fright- 
ened numbers  away.  It  was  first  by  means  of  an  extraordinary 
man,  who  belonged  amongst  the  most  influential  of  his  times, 
that  this  order  attained  to  higher  consideration,  and  became 
more  widely  spread.  This  was  the  abbot  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux,  whose  spirit,  life,  and  labours  we  must  here  consider 
more  in  detail. 

Bernard  was  bom  in  the  year  1091,  at  Fontaines,  in  Bur- 
gimdy,  not  far  from  Dijon.  His  father  was  a  respectable 
knight ;  and  on  his  education,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  a 
pious  mother,  Aleth,  exerted  the  greatest  influence.  All  her 
seven  children,  six  sons  and  a  daughter,  she  brought,  as  soon 

♦  See  the  words  of  the  worthy  English  Benedictine,  Odericus  Vitalis, 
Hist,  eccles.  L.  VIII.  f.  713,  where,  speaking  of  those  who  retired  with 
Robert  to  Cistercinm,  he  says :  Qui  sancti  decreverant  regulam  Benedicti, 
Eicut  Judiei  legem  Mosis  ad  literam  servare  penitus. 

t  Orderic.  Vital.,  Hist  eccles.  L.  VIII.  f.  712. 


350  Bernard's  earlier  life. 

as  they  saw  the  light,  to  the  altar  and  consecrated  to  God. 
The  third  of  these  sons,  Bernard,  already  exhibited,  while  a 
child,  a  predominant  religious  bent,  which  under  the  influence 
of  such  a  mother  developed  itself  at  a  very  early  period.* 
After  the  death  of  his  mother,  the  young  man  fell  into  a  kind 
of  society  by  which  he  was  drawn  away  from  that  earlier  bent. 
Yet  this  had  been  too  deeply  ingrained  into  his  disposition  not 
to  put  forth  in  the  end  a  mightier  reaction  against  all  the 
impressions  made  on  him  at  a  later  period,  and  he  determined 
to  break  loose  from  all  worldly  ties  and  become  a  monk.  His 
brothers,  not  pleased  with  this  design,  tried  to  dissuade  him 
from  it,  and  to  counteract  the  love  of  monasticism  by  another 
of  the  nobler  tendencies  of  these  times,  the  enthusiasm  for 
science,  which  now  began  to  manifest  itself,  especially  in 
France.  This  attempt  was  not  altogether  unsuccessful ;  but 
the  memory  of  his  mother  revived  in  him  the  impressions  of  his 
childhood  ;  he  often  saw  in  fancy  her  image  before  him,  and 
heard  her  admonishing  voice.  Once,  when  on  his  way  to  pay 
a  visit  to  his  brother,  who  was  a  knight,  and  then  engaged  in 
beleaguering  a  castle, — he  was  so  overwhelmed  with  these 
recollections  as  to  feel  constrained  to  enter  a  church  on  the 
road,  where,  with  a  flood  of  tears,  he  poured  out  his  heart 
before  God,  and,  solemnly  consecrating  himself  to  his  service, 
resolved  to  execute  the  above-mentioned  plan  of  life.  And  it 
is  characteristic  of  the  man,  that  he  chose  at  once  as  his 
ideal  the  strictest  monasticism  of  this  period,  by  which  so 
many  others  were  frightened  away  from  it.  By  the  invincible 
fervour  of  his  zeal,  which  expressed  itself  in  the  force  of  his 
language  and  in  his  whole  demeanour,  several  of  his  relatives 
and  friends,  and  all  his  brothers  except  the  youngest,  who  was 
still  a  child,f  were  immediately  carried  away,  and  induced  to 

*  Suffering,  when  a  lad,  under  severe  headaches,  a  woman  came  to  him 
and  promised  to  cure  him  by  incantations  and  amulets ;  but  he  repelled 
her  proposals  with  great  indignation.  Once,  on  Christmas-eve,  he  was 
at  church,  and  having  waited  longer  than  usual  for  the  commencement  of 
service,  fell  asleep,  and  had  a  vision  of  Christ,  who  appeared  to  him  as  a 
child.  See  the  account  of  Bernard's  life  by  one  of  his  disciples,  the  abbot 
William,  in  Mabillon,  L.  I.  c.  ii.  s.  4. 

t  The  following  incident  illustrates  one  characteristic  feature  in  the 
life  of  this  period.  The  eldest  of  these  brothers,  Guido,  happening  to 
see  the  youngest,  Nivard,  playing  with  other  boys  in  the  street,  called  out 
to  him,  and  said :  ♦*  You  are  now  owner  of  all  our  property."    To  which 


Bernard's  earlier  ufe.  351 

join  him  in  his  resolution.  In  the  year  1113,  he  entered, 
with  thirty  companions,  into  the  monastery  of  Citeaux. 

He  was  a  monk  with  his  whole  soul.  In  bodily  labours,  as 
well  as  in  spiritual  exercises,  he  sought  to  come  fully  up  to 
the  ideal  of  the  monastic  life.  He  himself  was  compelled 
afterwards  to  lament  that,  in  the  first  years  of  his  life  as  a 
monk,  he  had  so  enfeebled  his  body  by  excessive  asceticism,  as 
to  find  himself  afterwards  disqualified  from  completely  fill- 
filling  the  duties  of  his  station.*  But  his  wide  and  diversified 
labours  show  to  what  extent  the  energy  of  a  mind  actuated  by 
a  sense  of  the  highest  interests,  could  find  ways  of  making 
even  so  frail  a  vessel  ser\-iceable,  and  of  overcoming  the  obsta- 
cles of  a  sickly  constitution,"]"  And  in  these  times  his  very 
looks,  which  bore  the  marks  of  this  rigid  self-discipline,  only 
created  for  him  the  greater  respect.  The  fiery  energy  with 
which  he  spoke  and  acted,  contrasted  with  the  weakness  of  his 
bodily  frame,  only  produced  so  much  the  mightier  efFects.if 

In  the  three  years  during  which  he  remained  at  Citeaux,  he 
gained  in  this  way  so  high  a  reputation,  that  at  the  early  age  of 
five  and  twenty  he  was  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  monas- 
tery. In  a  desert  and  wild  valley  inclosed  by  moimtains,  lying 
within  the  bishopric  of  Langres,  which  in  earlier  times,  hav- 
ing been  a  nest  of  robbers,  was  called  the  Valley  of  Worm- 
wood ( Vallis  absinthialis),  and  afterwards  when  cleared  of 


the  lad  replied,  "  What !  you  have  heaven,  and  /  the  earth  ?  That  is  no 
equitable  division." 

•  In  the  account  of  his  life  already  cited  (c.  viii.  s.  4 1) ,  it  is  said  of  him, 
Non  confunditur  usque  hodie  se  accusare,  sacrilegii  arguens  semetipsnm, 
quod  servitio  Dei  et  fratrum  abstulerit  corpus  snom,  dum  indiscreto  ferrore 
imbecille  illud  reddiderit  ac  psene  inutile. 

t  When,  during  the  schism  under  pope  Innocent  the  Third,  he  was 
under  the  necessity  of  journeying  to  Italy:  Instantissima  postulatione 
imperatoris  apHKtoficoque  mandato  nee  non  ecclesise  ac  principum  preci- 
bus  flexi  dolentes  ac  nolentes.  debiles  atque  infirmi,  et,'  ut  verum  fateor, 
pavidse  mortis  pallidam  circumferentes  imaginem  trahimur  in  Apnliam. 
Epp.  144,  s.  4. 

+  In  the  first  account  of  his  life,  L.  c. :  Quis  nostra  setate,  quantumvis 
robusti  corporis  et  accuratae  valetudinis  tanta  aliquando  fecit,  quanta  iste 
fecit  et  fecit  moribundus  et  languidus  ad  honorem  Dei  et  sanctse  ecclesiae 
utilitatem  ?  And  from  immediate  observation,  his  biographer  could  say : 
Virtus  Dei  vehementius  in  infirniitate  ejus  refulgens  extunc  usque  hodie 
digniorem  qtiandam  apud  homines  ei  efficit  reverentiam  et  in  reverenlia 
auctoritatem  et  in  aactoritate  obedientiam. 


352  MONASTERY  OF  CLAIRVAUX. 

them,  Clear  Valley  {Clara  vallis),  it  was  proposed  to  found 
a  new  monastery  of  Cistercians  ;  and  this,  from  its  location, 
received  the  name  of  Claravallis,  or  Clairvaux.  Bernard  was 
made  abbot  of  it  in  the  year  1115,  and  this  monastery  became 
thenceforth  the  seat  of  his  multifarious  labours,  which  ex- 
tended abroad  from  this  point  through  the  whole  of  Europe. 
From  that  time,  men  of  all  ranks  and  stations,  knights  and 
scholars,  were  attracted  to  the  Cistercian  order.  The  strict- 
ness which  had  hitherto  kept  back  so  many,  now  acted  as  a 
charm  on  others.  Monasteries  after  the  pattern  of  Clairvaux 
sprang  up  in  the  deserts,  whose  very  names  were  intended  to 
denote  what  the  interior  life  could  gain  in  them.*  Within 
thirty-seven  years  the  number  of  convents  subordinate  to  the 
abbot  of  Citeaux  was  increased  to  sixty-seven. 

Under  Bernard's  direction,  the  above-named  monastery, 
situated  in  an  uncultivated  region,  earned  so  much  by  the  hard 
labour  of  the  monks,  that  during  a  severe  famine  in  Burgundy, 
when  crowds  of  famisldng  poor  poured  in  from  all  quarters  to 
the  gates  of  the  convent,  two  thousand,  selected  from  the  mul- 
titude and  marked  by  a  peculiar  badge  attached  to  their  per- 
sons, were  supplied  for  several  months  with  all  they  needed  for 
their  sustenance,  while  others  at  the  same  time  received  indis- 
criminate alms.f  The  monastery  of  Clairvaux  became  the 
model  of  monasticism ;  and  colonies  from  it,  to  found  other 
establishments  after  the  same  pattern,  were  demanded  from  all 
quarters ;  so  that  the  abbot  Bernard  sometimes  found  himself 
unable  to  comply  with  all  the  invitations  that  were  sent  to 
him.  To  all  parts  of  France,  Italy,  Spain,  Switzerland, 
Germany,  England,  Ireland,  Denmark,  and  Sweden,  monks 
must  be  sent  from  Clairvaux  for  the  purpose  of  founding  new 


*  Ordericus  Vitalis,  the  friend  of  the  old  man  says :  Multi  nobiles 
athletae  et  profundi  sophista  ad  illos  pro  novitate  singularitatis  concurre- 
runt  et  inusitatam  districtionem  ultro  complexantes  in  via  recta  laeti 
Christo  hymnos  lastitise  modulati  fuerunt.  In  desertis  atque  silvestribns 
locis  monasteria  proprio  labore  coiididerunt  et  sacra  illis  nomina  solenti 
provisione  imposuerunt,  ut  est  Domus  Dei,  Claravallis,  Bonus  mons,  et 
eleemosynaetaliaplura  hujusmodi,  quibus  auditores  solo  nominis  nectare 
invitantur  festiiianter  experiri,  quanta  sit  ibi  beatitudo,  qua)  tarn  speciali 
denotetur  vocabulo.     Hist,  eccles.  L.  VIII.  f.  714. 

t  See  the  account  of  the  life  of  John  Eremita  the  Second,  6,  in  his 
works,  ed.  Mabillon,  f.  1287. 


Bernard's  influence  is  other  couxtries.  353 

monasteries  or  of  reforming  old  ones ;  *  and  thus  Bernard,  at 
his  death,  in  1153,  Ifeft  behind  him  one  hundred  and  sixty 
monasteries,  which  had  been  formed  under  his  influence. 
Hence  he  had  connections  and  correspondents  with  all  these 
countries ;  and  the  establishments  which  had  thus  arisen  ever 
regarded  him  as  their  father  and  teacher.  Hence  his  letters 
and  his  influence  would  be  widely  diffused  through  all  these 
lands.  He  was  the  counsellor  of  noblemen,  bishops,  princes, 
and  popes.  As  we  have  seen,  he  was  often  summoned  to  their 
assistance,  to  settle  disputes,  to  quiet  disturbances  ;  insomuch 
that  he  was  constrained  to  lament  over  the  little  opportunity 
that  was  left  him,  in  the  multiplicity  of  external  business,  to 
lead  the  kind  of  life  which  became  a  monk.|  The  general 
enthusiasm  demanded  him  for  bishop  in  many  of  the  more  im- 
portant cities, — such  as  Langres,  Chalons  sur  Mame,  Rheims, 
Genoa,  and  Milan ;  but  he  declined  every  such  invitation. J 
Before  princes  and  nobles  he  stood  up  as  an  advocate  for  the 
unfortunate,  and  for  the  victims  of  injustice ;  he  stimulated 
those  who  attached  themselves  to  his  person,  to  benevolent 
enterprises,  and  directed  them  in  such  undertakings  by  his 
counsel.  Amongst  the  tetter  belonged  particularly  the  count 
Theobald  of  Champagne.  He  directed  that  nobleman  in 
establishing  a  fund  for  the  support  of  poor  people,  the  interest 
of  which  should  go  on  continually  increasing,  and  thus  secure 
a  permanent  and  accumulating  capital  for  relieving  the  wants 
of  the  needy.§  Although  a  religious  interest,  based  on  his 
view  of  the  church  theocracy,  as  we  have  unfolded  it  on  a  for- 
mer page,  induced  him  to  enter  the  lists  in  defence  of  the 
papal  authority  ;  and,  although  he  was  a  zealotis  instrument  in 
promoting  the  higher  objects  of  the  popes ;  yet  he  was  no 
advocate  of  a  blind  obedience  to  them,  and  boldly  exposed  to 
them  the  wicked  acts  perpetrated  in  their  name ;  so  that  his 
interference  in  public  aJSairs  was  sometimes  extremely  irksome 

•  See  the  second  account  of  his  life  by  Bemald,  iv.  26  ;  and  the  third, 
▼ii.  22. 

t  Amici,  qui  me  quotidie  de  claustro  ad  civitates  pertrahere  moliantor. 
Ep.  21. 

X  See  the  second  account  of  his  life  by  Bernald,  iv.  26. 

§  L.  c.  viii.  52.  Eleemosynas  ea  sagacitate  disponere,  ut  semper  fruc- 
tificantes  redivivis  et  renascentibus  accessiouibns  novas  semper  eleemosy- 
nas parturirent 

VOL.  VII.  2  A 


354        BERNARD  ON  OBEDIENCE  TO  THOSE  IN  AUTHORITY. 

to  the  more  important  personages  near  the  papal  court. 
Strongly  as  he  recommended  in  general;  as  a  monk,  obedience 
to  superiors,  yet  he  also  declared  himself  opposed  to  too  broad 
an  interpretation  of  this  duty.  "  Were  a  blind  and  implicit 
obedience,  submitted  to  without  examination,  to  become  the 
general  rule,"  says  he,  "  the  words  we  hear  read  at  church  : 
'  Prove  all  things,  hold  fast  that  which  is  good,'  would  be 
without  meaning.  We  should  have  to  expunge  from  the  gos- 
pel the  words :  '  be  wise  as  serpents,'  and  retain  only,  '  be 
harmless  as  doves.'  True,  I  do  not  say  that  the  commands  of 
superiors  ought  to  be  examined  by  subordinates,  where  nothing 
is  commanded  which  is  contrary  to  the  divine  law ;  but  I 
affirm  that  wisdom  is  also  necessary  to  detect  whatever  may 
be  commanded  contrary  to  those  laws  ;  axiA  freedom  to  regard 
every  such  command  with  contempt.*  Say,  suppose  one 
should  place  a  sword  in  your  hand,  and  bid  you  point  it  against 
his  own  throat,  would  you  obey  him  ?  Or,  if  he  bid  you  plunge 
into  the  flames  or  into  the  flood,  would  you  not  be  yourself 
a  partaker  of  the  crime,  were  it  in  your  power  to  prevent 
another  from  so  doing  and  you  failed  to  exert  it  ?  "f  This 
principle,  he  applies,  in  the  letter  where  it  is  expressed,  to  the 
relation  of  men  to  the  pope ;  and  he  sels  the  command  of 
Christ,  the  high-priest  of  all,  over  against  such  a  supposed 
command  of  the  pope.  His  own  conduct  was  ever  in  accord- 
ance with  this  principle.  He  shrunk  not  from  writing  to 
Innocent  the  Second,  that  the  popes  themselves  had  contributed 
most  to  injure  their  own  authority,  by  abusing  it.t  "  It  was  the 
unanimous  voice  of  all  who  presided  over  the  communities 
with  a  sincere  regard  for  their  well-being,  that  justice  in  the 
church  was  falling  to  decay ;  the  power  of  the  keys  reduced  to 
nothing ;  the  episcopal  authority  losing  all  respect ; — since  no 
bishop  was  allowed  to  punish  wickedness  in  his  own  diocese, 
and  this,  owing  to  the  action  of  the  pope  and  the  Roman 
court ;  for  men  said,  whatever  good  thing  the  bishop  may  de- 
vise, it  is  sure  to  be  frustrated  there  ;  whatever  evil  they  have 
rightly  removed,  is  sure  to  be  again  introduced.     All  the 

*  Nee  dieo,  a  subditis  mandata  prffipositorum  esse  dijudicanda,  ubi  nihil 
juberi  deprehenditur  divinis  coutrarium  institutis,  sed  necessariam  assero 
et  prudeiitiam,  qua  advertatur,  si  quid  adversatur  et  libertatem,  qua  et 
ingenue  contemnatur.  +  Ep.  7,  s.  12. 

X  Quid  vobis  vires  minuitis?  Quid  robur  vestrum  deprimitis?  Ep.  178. 


STORIES  OF  HIS  MIRACULOUS  CURES.  355 

vicious,  the  quarrelsome,  who  have  been  expelled  by  them 
from  the  communities,  from  the  body  of  the  clergy,  or  of  the 
the  monks,  run  up  to  Rome,  and  boast  of  the  protection  which 
they  there  find."* 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  great  power  exercised  by 
Bernard  over  the  minds  of  men,  when,  in  the  name  of  pope 
Eugene,  he  preached  up  the  crusade  in  France  and  Germany. 
Though  at  that  time  many  deceptions,  whether  intentional  or 
undesigned,  were  mixed  in,!  under  the  name  of  miraculous 
cures,  yet  we  cannot  suppose  the  former  in  the  case  of  such  a 
man  as  Bernard ;  and  unintentional  deception  would  not  suf- 
fice to  explain  the  general  belief  of  Bernard's  miraculous 
powers,  nor  the  several  stories  so  circumstantially  narrated.^ 

*  Qaique  flagitiosi  et  contentiosi  de  populo,  sive  de  ckro  ant  ex  mo- 

nasteriis  pulsati  currant  ad  vcs,  redeuntes  jactant  et  gestiant,se  obdnuisse 
tutores,  quos  magis  ultoros  sensisse  debuerant. 

t  Abelard,  who  with  critical  understanding  examined  into  the  tales  of 
miraculous  cures  in  his  times,  speaks  of  it:  Non  ignoramus  astutias  talium, 
qui  cum  febricitantes  a  lenibus  morbis  curare  prsesumont,  pluribus  aliqua 
vel  in  cibo  vel  in  potu  tribuunt,  ut  curent,  vel  benedictiones  vel  orationes 
faciunt.  Hoc  utique  cogitant,  nt  si  qnoquomodo  curatio  sequatur,  sanc- 
titati  eorum  imputetur.  Sin  vero  minime,  infidelitati  eorum  (i.  e.  of 
those  on  whom  the  cure  had  been  performed)  vel  desperationi  adscribatnr. 
De  Joanne  baptista,  opp.  p.  967. 

X  Concerning  a  boy  born  blind,  to  whom  he  restored  sight,  in  tl»e 
district  of  Liege,  we  find  the  following  account  by  the  monk  Gottfried,  of 
Clairvaux,  in  L.  IV.  vi.  34.  Transported  at  the  first  ray  of  light  to  him 
before  wholly  unknown,  the  boy  cried  out  "  I  see  day,  I  see  everybody.  I 
8ee  people  with  hair !"  and  clapping  his  hands  for  joy,  he  exclaimed,  "  My 
God !  now  I  shall  no  more  dash  my  feet  against  the  stones !"  In  Cambray, 
he  cured  a  deaf  and  dumb  boy  ;  and,  as  soon  as  he  could  speak,  the  mul- 
titude set  him  on  a  wooden  bench,  that  he  might  salute  the  people  with 
his  new  gift  of  speech,  and  his  first  words  were  received  with  a  shout  of 
joy.  This  monk  relates  still  another  case  of  which  he  was  an  eye-witness, 
L.  c.  s.  39  (e  plurimis  sane,  qua  in  ejusdem  apostolici  viri  facta  sunt 
comitatn,  duo  scribimus,  quae  nos  oblivisci  ipsa,quam  vidimus  magnitude 
laetitiae  non  permittit).  At  Charlerie,  a  country  town  not  far  from  the 
city  of  Provins,  a  boy  ten  years  old,  who  had  been  for  a  year  so  lame  in 
all  his  limbs  as  to  be  unable  to  move  a  single  member,  not  even  his  head, 
was  presented  to  him,  as  he  passed  along  the  street,  by  the  lad's  parents 
and  other  relations.  Bernard  touched  him,  and  signed  the  cross  over 
him :  when,  at  his  bidding,  he  rose  up  and  walked.  The  lad  was  now 
unwilling  to  leave  his  benefactor,  who  had  given  him  the  use  of  his  limbs, 
till  Bernard  obliged  him  to  do  so.  His  younger  brother  embraced  him, 
as  if  he  had  been  restored  from  the  dead,  and  many  were  moved  to  tears. 
Four  years  afterwards,  his  mother  brought  him  again  to  Bernard,  as  he 

2  A   2 


356  Bernard's  miracles. 

Whether  it  was  that  the  confident  faith  excited  by  the  strong 
impression  which  this  extraordinary  man  everywhere  made, 
produced  so  great  effects,  and  the  religious  susceptibility  of 
the  times,  in  which  the  element  of  a  critical  understanding  was 
so  repressed  by  that  of  immediate  religious  feeling,  came  to 
his  assistance ;  or,  whether  he  possessed  some  natural,  magnetic 
power  of  healing  (a  supposition  which  I  see  no  reasons  for 
adopting)  ;  the  fact  was,  Bernard  himself  avowed  the  convic- 
tion, that  God  did  perform  miracles  by  him ;  as,  for  example, 
in  that  letter  to  pope  Eugene  the  Second,  already  quoted, 
where  he  refers  to  what  he  had  accomplished  in  rousing  up 
Europe  to  engage  in  the  crusade.*  So,  after  fighting  down 
the  heretics  in  the  south  of  France,  he  appeals,  in  a  letter  to 
the  citizens  of  Toulouse,  to  the  fact,!  that  he  had  revealed 
among  them  the  truth,  not  merely  by  word,  but  also  by  power.;f 
As  solitary  workings  of  that  higher  power  of  life  which  Christ 
introduced  into  human  nature,  these  facts  might  perhaps 
be  properly  regarded,  wherever  they  appeared  in  connection 
with  a  genuinely  Christian  temper,  actuated  by  the  spirit  of 
love.  Evidence,  for  this  reason,  in  favour  of  the  entire  truth  of 
the  doctrines  promulgated,  they  at  the  same  time  certainly 
were  not ;  for  that  higher  power  of  life,  whose  fountain-head  is 
union  with  Christ,  does  not  necessarily  exclude  errors ;  and 
moreover,  the  supposed  miracles  may  have  belonged  to  the 
Old  Testament  position  of  this  period. 

Still  there  were,  even  then,  persons  who,  in  the  conflict  with 
the  prevaling  spiritual  tendencies  of  their  times,  doubted  or 
denied  the  truth  of  those  miraculous  stories ;  persons,  to  be 
sure,  who  cannot  be  regarded  as  unprejudiced  witnesses, — who 
were  not  at  all  less  biassed  than  his  enthusiastic  admirers, 
though  on  a  different  side, — the  representatives  of  that  critical 
bent  of  the  understanding  which  was  most  directly  opposed  to 
the  spirit  of  Bernard, — Abelard  and  his  disciples.  These  seem 
not  to  have  acknowledged  Bernard's  miraculous  gifts.  Abe- 
lard, it  is  true,  in  a  passage  already  quoted,§  does  not  speak  of 


happened  to  be  passing  through  the  town  a  second  time ;  and  she  bade 
her  son  kiss  his  feet,  saying  to  him,  "  This  is  the  man  who  restored  life 
to  you  and  you  to  me."  *  Page  210.  t_Ep.  242. 

X  Veritate  nimirum  per  nos  mauifestata  non  solum  in  sermone,  sed 
eliam  in  virtute.  §  Page  355. 


HIS  PARTICIPATION  IN  THE  CBUSADE.  357 

his  miracles,  precisely  after  the  same  manner  in  which  he  does 
of  the  miracles  of  others,  which  he  directly  pronounces  a  de- 
lusion ;  nor  does  he  mention  him  by  name.  But  proceeding  as 
he  does  on  the  general  assumption,  that  miracles  were  no 
longer  wrought  in  his  age,  he  seems  to  make  no  exception  of 
the  case  of  Bernard  ;  and  the  way  in  which  Abelard's  talented 
but  haughty  disciple,  Berengar,  expresses  himself,  would  lead 
us  to  infer  from  the  whole  tone  of  his  remarks,  though  he  no- 
where'disputes  the  truth  of  those  miraculous  stories,  yet  his 
owTi  incredulity  with  regard  to  them.* 

He  himself,  for  that  matter,  was  far  from  over-estimating 
the  value  of  such  miraculous  gifts,  which  he  describes  as 
something  rare  in  this  time,  and  difficult  of  attainment.  He 
advises  that  men  should  rather  bend  all  their  efforts  in  striving 
after  those  Christian  virtues  without  which  the  church  can- 
not exist,  and,  above  all,  charity,  than  to  be  very  anxious  after 
these  things, — which  served  only  as  an  ornament  to  the  church, 
— which  were  not  necessary  to  salvation,  and  which  were 
attended  with  many  dangers. f 

Connected  with  Bernard's  participation  in  the  crusades,  was 
the  part  he  took  also  in  an  imdertaking  designed  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  same  object,  the  order  of  Knight  Templars. 
This  order  of  spiritual  knights  had  been  already  founded  nine 
years,  but  consisted  of  only  eighteen  members  ;  wJjen,  through 
Bernard's  co-operation,  it  received  a  newly  modified  rule,  at 
the  council  of  Troyes,  in  1127,  and  Bernard's  participation  in 
it  gave  the  whole  affair  a  new  impulse.  In  compliance  with 
the  wish  of  its  first  master,  Hugo  de  Paganis,  he  wrote  a  dis- 
course of  exhortation  and  encouragement  for  the  use  of  the 

*  He  says,  manifestly  with  sarcasm,  Jamdudum  sanctitudinis  tuae 
odorem  ales  per  orbem  fama  dispersit,  prseconizavit  merita,  miracula 
declamavit.  Felicia  jactabamus  moderna  ssecala  tam  corusci  sideris 
venustata  nitore  munduraque  jam  debitum  pterditioni  tuis  meritis  subsistere 
patabamus.  Sperabamus  in  linguae  tuse  arbitrio  coeli  sitam  clemeutiam, 
aiiris  temperiem,  ubertatem  terrae,  fruetuum  benedictionem.  Sic  dia 
vixisti,  ut  ad  semicinctia  tua  rugire  dsemones  autumaremus  et  beatulos 
DOS  tantulo  gloriaremur  patrono. 

t  Istiusmodi  ligna  in  opus  laqnearium  ad  decorem  Domns  Dei  Cqnie 
magis  noscuntur  apta  ornatai,  quam  necessaria  fore  salati),  quoniam 
istiusmodi  ligna  constat  et  laboriose  quaeri  et  difficile  inveniri  et  pericu- 
lose  elaborari  (nam  et  rara  ea  pra;sertim  his  temporibus  terra  oostra 
producere  reperitur).    Sermo  xlvi.  in  Cantica  canticor.  s.  8. 


358        INTERNAL  EXPERIENCE  A  SOURCE  OF  KNOWLEDGE. 

members :  "  Exhortatio  ad  milites  templi."  He  extols  this 
order  as  a  combination  of  monasticism  and  knighthood,  con- 
trasting it  with  the  common  knighthood,  which  was  only  sub- 
servient to  wicked  ends,  and  inspired  by  sinful  desires  and 
passions.  He  describes  the  design  of  it  as  being  to  give  the 
military  order  and  the  knighthood  a  serious  Christian  direction, 
and  to  convert  war  into  something  which  God  might  approve. 
"  Even  infidels,"  says  he,  "should  not  be  put  to  death,  if  in 
any  other  way  they  could  be  prevented  from  persecuting  and 
oppressing  Christians  ;"*  and,  as  in  favour  of  the  crusades 
generally,  so  also  in  favour  of  this  order  of  knights  devoted  to 
the  same  object,  he  makes  it  a  prominent  argument,  that 
Christendom  would  thereby  be  relieved  from  a  multitude  of 
mischievous  men,  that  these  men  would  be  called  to  repentance, 
and  rendered  serviceable  to  the  church. •]• 

What  pre-eminently  distinguished  this  great  man  was,  that  to 
a  bent  of  mind  profoundly  contemplative,  a  rich  inward  experi- 
ence, he  united  such  a  many-sided  activity  directed  on  the  out- 
ward world.  As  in  his  own  case  religious  knowledge  proceeded 
from  interior  experience,  so  he  endeavoured  to  guide  his 
disciples  and  contemporaries  to  this  fountain-head  of  the  know- 
ledge of  divine  things,  as  opposed  to  a  predominantly  scientific 
direction  of  the  Christian  mind.|  Monasticism  was  so  highly 
valued  by  him,  because  he  considered  it  a  school  for  this 
theology  of  the  heart.  Thus  he  wrote  to  a  scholastic  theolo- 
gian, whom  he  invited  to  become  a  monk.§  "  Thou,  who 
busiest  thyself  with  the  study  of  the  prophets,  understandest 
thou  what  thou  readest?  If  thou  dost  understand  it,  then 
thou  knowest  that  the  sense  of  the  prophets  is  Christ ;  and, 
if  thou  wouldst  have  him,  know  that  thou  wilt  succeed  far 
better  by  following  him  than  by  reading.    Why  seekest  thou 


*  Non  quidem  vel  pagani  necandi  essent,  si  quo  modo  aliter  possent  a 
nimia  infestatione  seu  oppressione  fideliura  cohiberi.  11.  4. 

t  Quodque  cernitmr  jucundius  et  agitur  commodius,  paucos  admodum 
in  tarita  multitudine  hominuin  illo  conflare  videas,  nisi  utique  sceleratos 
et  impios,  raptores  et  sacrilegos,  homicidas,  perjuros,  et  adulteros.  Sic 
Christus,  sic  novit  ulcisci  in  hostem  suos,  ut  non  solum  de  ipsis,  sed  per 
ipsos  quoque  frequenter  soleat  tanto  gloriosius,  quanto  et  potentius  triuni- 
phare,  s.  10. 

I  Which  we  shall  describe  more  exactly  in  the  fourth  section. 

§  Ep.  106. 


PRIITCIPLE  OF  LOVE  OB  CHARITY.  359 

in  the  word  that  Word,  which  stands  already  before  thine  eyes 
as  the  "Word  become  flesh  ?  He  who  has  ears  to  hear,  let  him 
hear  him  crying  in  the  temple  :  '  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him 
come  unto  me  and  drink  ;'  and,  '  Come  imto  me,  all  ye  that 
are  weary  and  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.'  O,  if 
you  had  but  a  taste  of  the  rich  marrow  of  the  grain  with  which 
the  heavenly  Jerusalem  is  satisfied,  how  gladly  wouldst  thou 
leave  those  Jewish  scribes  to  nibble  their  crusts  of  bread." 
Then,  he  adds,  "  Believe  one  who  has  experi«ice,  thou  wilt 
find  more  in  the  forests  than  in  books.  Woods  and  stones  will 
teach  thee  what  thou  canst  not  learn  from  the  masters."*  It 
was  one  of  Bernard's  inspiring  thoughts,  that  the  right  know- 
ledge of  divine  things  was  only  such  a  knowledge  as  proceeds 
from  the  interior  life,  from  the  impress  of  the  divine  upon  the 
disposition.  Planting  himself  upon  the  words,  "  The  fear  of  the 
Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom,"  he  says :  "  Knowledge  makes 
men  learned,  the  disposition  makes  them  wise."')'  "  The  sun 
does  not  tearm  all  upon  whom  it  shines ;  so  wisdom  does  not 
inflame  all  whom  she  teaches  what  to  do,  with  the  desire  to  do 
it.  It  is  one  thing  to  know  about  many  treasures,  another  to 
possess  them ;  and  it  is  not  the  knowledge,  but  the  passession, 
that  makes  one  rich.  So  it  is  one  thing  to  know  God,  and 
another  to  fear  him ;  and  it  is  not  the  mere  knowledge,  but 
the  fear  of  God,  which  moves  the  heart,  makes  one  wise." 
Blnowledge  is  to  him  but  a  preparation  for  true  Mosdom.  It 
leads  to  the  latter  only  when  that  which  is  known  is  takm  up 
into  the  heart,  and  the  heart  is  moved  by  it.  "  Yet  pride,"  he 
imagines,  "  is  very  apt  to  proceed  from  mere  knowledge  where 
the  fear  of  God  does  not  present  a  counterpoise." 

But  it  was  especially  the  principle  of  a  love  exalted  above 
fear  and  the  desire  of  reward,  which  he  was  accustomed  to 
regard,  and  to  recommend  to  his  monks,  as  the  soul  of  Christian 
perfection.  Hence  pre-eminently  above  every  other  p\pus 
man  of  his  times,  he  was  called  the  man  of  love  ;j  though,  in 
a  practical  view,  Peter  of  Climy  might  imdoubtedly  claim  this 

*  Experto  crede,  aliquid  amplius  invenies  in  silvis,  qoam  in  libris. 
Ligna  et  lapides  docebant,  qaod  a  magistris  aadire  non  possis. 

t  Instructio  doctos  reddit,  affectio  sapientes.  S.  xxiii.  in  Candca 
canticor.  s.  14. 

J  Acta  Sanctor.  M.  Jan.  T.  I.  f.  826. 


360  FOUR  STAGES  IN  THE 

title  in  preference  to  all  others.  When  he  was  called  to  Italy, 
in  the  contest  for  the  cause  of  the  pope,  and  was  compelled  to 
travel  far  and  undergo  much  fatigue,  he  wrote  to  his  monks,* 
that,  amid  all  his  toils,  he  found  the  greatest  consolation  in 
reflecting  that  he  laboured  and  suffered  in  his  cause  for  whom  all 
things  live.  "  I  must,  whether  willing  or  unwilling,  live  for  him 
who  has  acquired  a  property  in  my  life,  by  giving  up  his  own 
for  me."  To  have  their  lives  also  consecrated  solely  to  him 
was  his  exhortation  to  his  monks. "j"  "To  whom,"  he  wrote, 
"am  I  more  bound  to  live  than  I  am  to  him  whose  death  is 
the  cause  of  my  living  ?  To  whom  can  I  devote  my  life  with 
greater  advantage  than  to  him  who  promises  me  the  life 
eternal  ?  To  whom  with  greater  necessity,  than  to  him  who 
threatens  the  everlasting  fire  ?  But  I  serve  him  with  freedom, 
since  love  brings  freedom. |  To  this,  dear  brethren,  I  invite 
you :  serve  in  that  love  which  casteth  out  fear,  feels  no  toils, 
thinks  of  no  merit,  asks  no  reward,  and  yet  carries  with  it 
a  mightier  constraint  than  all  things  else.  No  terror  so  spurs 
one  on,  no  reward  so  strongly  attracts,  no  demand  of  a  due  so 
pressingly  urges.  Tiiis  love  binds  you  inseparably  with  me, 
this  love  makes  me  ever  present  with  you,  especially  in  the 
hours  when  I  pray."  Touching  the  essence  of  disinterested 
love,  Bernard  says  :§  "Not  without  reward  is  God  loved, 
though  he  should  be  loved  without  respect  to  a  reward.  True 
love  possesses  enough  in  itself,  it  has  a  reward ;  but  it  is 
nothing  other  than  the  very  object  that  is  loved."  He  distin- 
guishes, however,  four  stages  in  the  progressive  development 
of  love.  The  lowest  stage  is  where  a  man  is  drawn  away  from 
selfish  interests,  by  means  of  self-love,  to  the  love  of  God. 
Sufferings  are  ordained  to  the  end  that  man  may  be  awakened 
to  the  consciousness  of  dependence  on  God,  and,  by  seeking 
after  help  in  distress,  be  led  away  to  God ;  but  must  not  his 
heart  be  harder  than  iron  or  stone,  who,  after  having  often 
turned  to  God  in  distress  and  found  help  from  him,  does  net 
become  so  softened  that  he  must  begin  to  love  him  for  his  own 
sake?  Thus  he  attains  to  the  second  stage,  where  God  is 
loved  no  longer  merely  as  a  helper  in  distress,  but  on  account 

*  Ep,  144.  s.  3.  t  Ep.  148. 

I  Sed  servio  voluntarie,  quia  caritas  libertatem  donat. 
j  De  diligendo  Deo,  c.  vii. 


PROGRESSIVE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LOVE.  361 

of  the  experience  which  has  been  had  of  the  blessed  effects  of 
communion  with  himself.  As  those  Samaritans  said  to  the 
woman  who  had  informed  them  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  : 
'•  Now  we  believe,  not  because  of  thy  saying,  for  we  have 
heard  him  ourselves,  and  know  that  this  is  indeed  the  Christ, 
the  Saviour  of  the  world ;"  so  we  too  may  rightly  say  to 
the  flesh  :  '•  Now  we  love  God,  not  on  account  of  thy  distress, 
but  because  we  ourselves  have  experienced  and  know  that  the 
Xrord  is  gracious.  Thus,  by  degrees,  we  attain  to  the  third 
stage,  which  is,  to  love  God  not  only  on  account  of  the  way 
in  which  he  has  manifested  lumself  to  ourselves,  but  for  his 
own  sake,  to  love  him  as  we  are  loved ;  we,  too,  seeking  not 
our  own  but  the  things  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  he  sought  our  good, 
or  rather  us,  and  not  his  own.  From  this  is  developed,  finally, 
the  fourth  and  highest  degree  of  love,  where  self-love  passes 
wholly  up  into  the  love  of  God,  and  the  man  loves  even 
himself  only  for  God's  sake,"  Bernard  finds  this  stage  of  love 
described  in  Ps.  Ixxiii.  26  :  "  My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth  ; 
but  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart  and  my  portion  for  ever." 
'•  Blessed  and  holy,"  says  he,  "  would  I  call  him  to  whom  it  is 
granted  in  this  mortal  life  rarely,  occasionally,  or  even  but  , 
once,  and  that  only  for  a  moment,  to  experience  something  of 
this  kind  ;  for  so  to  lose  thyself  thine  /,  so  to  renounce 
thyself,  this  is  heavenly  converse,  and  not  feeling,  after 
the  ordinary  manner  of  man.  As  the  glory  of  God  is  the  end 
of  all  creation,  so  the  point  towards  which  all  progress  in 
religion  strives  is,  to  do  all  things  only  for  God's  sake.  This 
ground-tone  of  the  soul  is,  properly  speaking,  transformation 
into  the  image  of  God  ;  but  here  below  man  can  sustain 
himself  but  for  a  few  moments  in  these  heights."  "  I  know 
not,"  says  Bernard,  "  whether  by  any  mortal  this  fourth 
attainment  has  been  completely  realized  in  the  present  life. 
Let  them  maintain  that  it  has  who  have  experienced  it :  to  me 
it  seems  impossible.  Without  doubt,  however,  it  is  then  to  be 
realized  when  the  good  and  faithful  servant  shall  enter  into 
the  joy  of  his  Lord." 

It  is  everywhere  apparent  that  the  reference  to  Christ  con- 
stituted with  him  the  soul  of  the  Christian  life.  "  Thus,"  he 
says,*  "  dry  is  all  nutriment  of  the  soul,  if  it  be  not  anointed 

*  S.  XT.  in  Cantica  canticor.  s.  6. 


362  DIFFERENT  STAGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

with  this  oil.  When  thou  writest,  nothing  touches  me  if  I 
cannot  read  Jesus  there ;  when  thou  conversest  with  me  on 
religious  subjects,  nothing  touches  me  unless  Jesus  chimes  in  ; 
but  he  is  also  the  only  true  remedy.  Is  any  one  among  you 
troubled  ?  Let  Jesus  enter  into  his  heart,  and  lo !  at  the 
rising  light  of  his  name,  every  cloud  is  dispersed  and  serenity 
returns.  Here  is  a  man  full  of  despondency,  running  to 
entangle  himself  in  the  snares  of  death  ;  let  him  but  call  on 
the  name  of  life,  and  will  he  not  at  once  recover  the  breath  of 
life  ?  Where  did  ever  hardness  of  heart,  indolence,  or  ill-Mill 
abide  the  presence  of  this  holy  name  ?  In  whom  does  not  the 
fountain  of  tears  begin  at  once  to  flow  more  copiously  when 
Jesus  is  named?  ]n  what  man  that  trembled  at  danger  does 
not  the  invocation  of  his  name  of  power  at  once  infuse  con- 
fidence? In  what  man  that  wavered  in  doubt  does  not  the 
light  of  certainty  beam  forth  at  the  invoking  his  glorious 
name?  In  whom  that  grew  faint-hearted  in  misfortune,  was 
there  ever  lack  of  fortitude  when  that  name  whispered,  I  am 
with  thee  ?  Certainly,  these  are  but  diseases  of  the  soul,  but 
this  is  the  remedy.  If,  for  example,  I  name  Jesus  as  man,  I 
present  to  myself  the  meek  and  lowly  of  heart ;  the  man 
radiant  with  all  virtue  and  holiness  ;  the  same  who  is  also 
Almighty  God ;  who  can  heal  me  by  his  example,  and 
strengthen  me  by  his  grace.  Of  all  this  the  name  of  Jesus 
at  once  reminds  me.  From  the  man  I  take  my  example ; 
from  him  who  is  mighty  my  help  ;  and  of  both  I  com- 
pound a  remedy  for  my  case  such  as  no  physician  could 
provide  for  me." 

But  as  the  discrimination  of  the  different  stages  of  religious 
progress,  suggested  by  his  own  rich  spiritual  experience  and 
by  observation  derived  from  watching  over  the  souls  of  others, 
distinguished  Bernard,  so  he  went  on  to  mark  differences  of 
degree  in  the  love  to  Christ,  as  he  had  done  before  in  the  love 
to  God.  At  one  stage  he  placed  the  love  possessed  by  such 
as  are  still  governed  by  the  outward  senses, — love  excited  by 
sensible  impressions ;  at  another,  the  love  of  those  who  are 
capable  of  rising  above  the  appearance  in  the  flesh  to  the 
divine  in  itself,  and  live  in  that.  "  Remark,"  says  he,*  "  that 
this  love  of  the  heart  is  still  in  some  measure  a  fleshly  one, 

*  S.  XX.  in  Cantica  canticcr.  s.  6. 


ox  CALUMNY.      ON  SELF-KNOWLEDGE.  363 

when  it  is  moved  chiefly  by  a  regard  to  Christ  manifest  in  the 
flesh,  to  what  he  did  and  commanded  in  the  flesh.  He  who  is 
full  of  this  love  is  easily  bowed  down  with  contrition  at  the 
mention  of  Christ.  When  he  prays,  the  holy  image  of  the 
God-man  stands  before  him, — born,  teaching,  dying,  rising 
again,  or  ascending  up  to  heaven ;  and  whatsoever  of  this  sort 
may  present  itself  to  his  soul  must  either  enkindle  the  soul  to 
the  love  of  the  virtues,  or  expel  the  vices  of  the  flesh,  and  quell 
its  impulses.  I  think  this  especially  to  have  been  the  reason 
why  the  invisible  God  was  pleased  to  manifest  himself  in  the 
flesh,  and  to  hold  intercourse  with  man  as  man  ;  it  was  that  he 
might  first  draw  all  the  inclinations  of  the  carnal  men,  who 
can  love  only  carnal  things,  to  the  soul-saving  love  of  his  own 
flesh,  and  thus  to  elevate  them  by  degrees  to  a  spiritxial  love. 
At  this  stage  were  still  to  be  found  those  who  said  '  Lo,  we 
have  left  all  and  followed  thee,'  Luke  xviii.  28.  Assuredly,  it 
was  love  of  his  bodily  presence  alone  which  had  induced  them 
to  leave  all ;  and  hence  they  could  not  patiently  hear  the 
aimouncement  of  his  approaching  sufferings  which  were  to 
bring  salvation  ;  but  Christ  pointed  them  to  a  higher  stage  of 
love  when  he  said,  '  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth,  the  flesh 
profiteth  nothing/  To  this  higher  state  he  doubtless  had 
already  attained  who  said,  '  Though  we  have  known  Christ 
after  the  flesh,  yet  now  henceforth  know  we  him  no  more.'  " 
Bernard  marks  the  difference  between  a  Christian  who  Is 
easily  touched  by  the  remembrance  of  Christ's  sufferings — 
and,  by  the  blessed  experience  of  these  pious  feelings,  is 
incited  to  aspire  after  all  goodness — and  the  Christian  who, 
more  and  more  purified  and  ennobled  by  such  feelings,  has 
finally  attained  to  a  steadfast  zeal  for  righteousness  and 
truth, — who,  becoming  a  stranger  to  all  vain  glory,  abhors 
caliminy,  knows  nothing  about  envj,  despises  all  human  glory, 
avoids,  as  it  were  instinctively,  all  sin,  and  embraces  everything 
good. 

True  humility  in  judging  of  one's  self,  he  declared  to  be 
more  than  prolonged  fastings,  late  vigils,  and  any  bodily 
exercise,  —  the  true  godliness  which  is  profitable  unto  all 
things,  1  Tim.  iv.  8.*  As  it  turned  out  with  many  who 
embraced   the   monastic   life,  that  their  corrupt  inclinations 

•  Ep.  142. 


364  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEX  THE 

broke  out  with  the  more  force  in  proportion  to  the  narrower 
room  left  for  the  indulgence  of  them,— so  Bernard  found  it 
necessary  to  rebuke  the  odious  practice  of  slandering'  the 
character  of  others  under  some  hypocritical  form  of  piety. 
In  what  he  says  he  discovers  his  profound  knowledge  of 
mankind:  "First  we  hear,  as  the  premonitory  sign,  a  deep 
sigh ;  then,  with  a  certain  dignity,  with  a  certain  hesitation, 
with  a  sorrowful  look,  with  a  lamenting  tone — behold !  the 
calumny  is  uttered,  and  the  word  spoken  gains  the  more 
power  of  begetting  conviction  because  the  hearers  believe  it 
has  been  uttered  unwillingly,  and  more  out  of  pity  and 
sympathy  than  out  of  malice.  '  It  gives  me  great  pain,'  says 
one,  '  for  I  love  the  man  sincerely,  and  never  could  cure  him 
of  this  fault.'  Says  another,  '  I  knew  that  of  him  very  well, 
yet  by  me  it  was  never  divulged  to  any  one,  but  now  it  has 
been  told  by  somebody  else,  I  cannot  deny  its  truth ;  with 
pain  I  say  it,  the  fact  is  really  so.'  And  he  adds,  '  a  great 
pity,  for  in  most  other  respects  he  is  without  a  fault,  but  on 
this  point,  to  confess  the  truth,  he  is  altogether  inexcusable.'  "* 
*'  The  first  thing  for  every  man,"  says  Bernard,  "  is  self- 
knowledge  ;  the^V*^,  because  every  man  is  his  own  neighbour  ; 
the  most  profitable,  hecaMsa  such  knowledge  does  not  puff  up, 
but  humbles,  and  prepares  the  way  for  edification,— for  the 
spiritual  building  cannot  stand  firm  unless  it  rests  on  the  solid 
foundation  of  humility  ;  but  nothing  is  better  calculated  to  lead 
the  soul  to  humility  than  a  knowledge  of  itself  as  it  is."f 
"  If  a  soul,"  says  he  in  another  place,|  "  has  once  learned  and 
obtained  from  the  Lord  the  power  of  turning  inward  upon 
itself,  of  panting  in  its  inmost  depths  after  God's  presence,  of 
continually  seeking  the  light  of  his  countenance, — I  know  not 
whether  such  a  soul  would  consider  the  suffering  of  hell  itself 
for  a  season  as  a  greater  punishment  than, — after  having  once 
tasted  the  bliss  of  this  spiritual  direction,  to  be  turned  back 
again  to  the  allurements, — say,  rather,  to  the  hardships  of  the 
flesh." 

*  XXIV.  in  Cantica  canticor,  s.  4.  It  is  the  same  thing  as  was  ob- 
jected by  Berengar,  Abelard's  disciple,  to  the  Carthusians:  Quid  prodest, 
fratres,  exire  in  eremum  et  in  eremo  habere  cor  ^Egyptium  ?  Quid  pro- 
dest, iEgypti  ranas  vitare  et  obscoenis  detraction) bus  concrepare?  0pp. 
Abcclard.  p.  326. 

f  S.  xxxvi.  in  Cantica  cantico.  s.  5.  t  L.  c.  s.  xxxv.  s.  1. 


i 


CISTERCIAXS  AND  CLUSIACESSIANS.  365 

As  the  Cistercian  order  gave  a  new  impulse  to  strict  mo- 
naslicism,  so  it  rapidly  extended  itself, — thus  exciting  the 
jealousy  of  the  older  monkish  societies,  over  which  it  threatened 
to  elevate  itself.*  Hard  feelings  grew  up,  especially  between 
the  old  order  of  the  Cluniacensians  and  the  new  one  of  the 
Cistercians.  The  Cistercians  were  distinguished  already  by 
their  white  cowls  from  the  Cluniacensians,  who  still  retained 
their  black  ones.  The  Cistercians  stood  pre-eminent  for  the 
severity  of  their  asceticism,  while  it  was  undoubtedly  the 
case  that  into  the  Cluniacensian  order  there  had  been  intro- 
duced, under  the  former  administration,  a  sort  of  luxury  which 
was  very  much  disapproved  of  by  the  abbot  Peter  himself, 
and  which  he  held  it  necessary  to  keep  in  check. "j"  The 
two  heads  of  these  monkish  orders,  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  and 
the  abbot  Peter,  were  strangers  to  those  little  jealousies  of  the 
monks  which  kept  them  in  a  state  of  mutual  hostility.  The 
complaints  of  the  Cluniacensian  abbot  William,  led  Bernard 
to  compose  a  tract  J  on  the  relation  in  which  these  two  orders 
of  monks  stood  to  each  other.  He  laid  it  down,  in  the  first 
place,  that  the  unity  of  the  church  must  present  itself  under 
manifold  forms  of  life  and  of  institutions.  But,  through  love, 
everything  becomes,  in  a  sense,  common  to  all ;  each  appro- 
priating all  to  himself  that  proceeds  fix>m  the  same  spirit.§ 
As  to  outward  labours,  he  belonged,  it  is  true,  to  but  one 
order ;  but  by  love  he  felt  united  to  all.  Nay,  by  love  one 
possesses  more  than  he  does  that  performs  the  verj-  work,  if  it 
be  not  done  in  the  spirit  of  love.  Then  he  severely  censures 
the  Cistercian  monks,  who  set  up  themselves  as  judges  over 
another  man's  servants ;  who  discerned  the  mote  in  another's 
eye,  but  saw  not  the  beam  in  their  own  eyes ;  who,  in  the 
matter  of  external  obser*  ances,  accused  others  of  violating  the 
Benedictine  rule,  while  they  did  not  hesitate  to  violate  that 

*  Thus  says  Ordericus  Vitalis,  f  714 :  Novae  institutionis  semalatores 
dispersi  sunt  in  Aquitania,  Britannia,  Gasconia,  et  Hibemia-  Mixti 
bonis  hypocritse  procedunt,  candidis  seu  variis  indnmentis  amicti 
homines  illudunt  et  popalis  ingens  spectacnlum  eflSciunt.  Veris  Dei 
cultoribtis  schemata,  non  virtute,  assimilari  plerique  gestinnt  suique 
multitudine  intuentibus  fastidium  ingerunt  et  probates  coenobitas,  quan 
turn  ad  fallaces  hominum  obtutus  despicabiliores  faciunt 

t  L.  VI.  ep.  15. 

X  The  Apologia  ad  Gnlielmum  Abbatcm. 

§  The  ploralis  onitas  and  una  pluralitas  of  the  ecclesia  militans. 


366  SPIRITUAL  WORSHIP  CALLED  FOR  IN  MONKS. 

rule  themselves  in  regard  to  the  more  essential  matters  be- 
longing to  the  spiritual  life ;  for  the  kingdom  of  God  is  one 
within  us,  consisting  not  in  meat  and  drink,  but  in  righteous- 
ness, peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,— not  in  word,  but  in 
power.  Why  should  they  concern  themselves  so  much  about 
the  external  matter  of  the  monkish  dress  ?  Why  neglect  the 
weightier  matter,— the  soul's  interior  dress,  piety  and  humi- 
lity ?  Those  outward  observances  ought  not  by  any  means, 
indeed,  to  be  lightly  esteemed ;  to  him  they  appeared  to  be 
the  necessary  means  of  training  for  the  spiritual  life.  Yet  the 
mere  form,  without  the  animating  spirit  just  spoken  of,  was 
unmeaning.*  Next  he  censures  the  misgrowths  of  monastic 
life,  to  be  found  in  many  branches  of  the  Cluniacensians  that 
nad  degenerated  into  luxury  ;  the  pomp  and  state  affected  by 
many  abbots ;  the  splendour  and  excessively  gorgeous  art  in 
the  churches,  chapels,  and  monasteries ;  the  pictures,  which 
fastened  the  eyes  of  the  worshippers,  calling  forth  the  admi'^ 
ration  of  art  and  repressing  the  feelings  of  devotion. -j-  He 
sees  something  Jewish  in  this, — something  derogatory,  there- 
fore, to  the  peculiar  essence  of  that  purely  spiritual  worship  of 
God  which  Christianity  brings  with  it.f  He  looks  upon  it  as 
a  masterly  device  of  cupidity ;  for  by  the  admiration  of  pic- 
tures, in  the  loftier  style  of  art,  and  in  great  variety,  men 
were  very  easily  drawn  to  make  donations.  Men  flock  in 
crowds  to  kiss  the  decorated  images  of  saints,  and  they  are 
enchained  by  their  admiration  of  the  beautiful  more  than  by 
reverence  for  the  saints. §  The  bishops  were  obliged  to  let 
themselves  down  to  the  different  degrees  of  culture  among  the 
men  whom  they  had  to  deal  with ;  to  them,  therefore,  he  con- 
ceded the  right  of  employing  such  sensuous  means,  to  excite 
the  devotion  of  the  sensuous  multitude.  *  But  it  was  otherwise 
with  the  monks,  who,  dead  to  the  sensible  world,  ought  no 

*  Neque  hsec  dico,  quia  hacc  exteriora  negligenda  sunt,  cum  potius 
spiritualia,  quanquam  meliora,  nisi  per  ista  aut  vix  aut  nullatenus  vel 
acquirantur  vel  obtineantur,  sicut  scriptum  est,  non  prius  quod  spiri- 
tuale,  sed  quod  animate,  deinde  quod  spirituale. 

t  Quae  dum  orantium  iu  se  retorquent  adspectum,  impediunt  et 
aflFectum. 

X  Mihi  quodammodo  reprsesentant  antiquum  ritum  Juda?orum. 

§  Ostenditur  pulcherrima  forma  sancti  vel  sanctae  alicujus  et  eo  cre- 
ditur  sanctior,  quo  coloratior.  Currunt  homines  ad  osculandum,  invitan- 
tur  ad  donandum  et  magis  mirantur  pulchra  quam  venerantur  sacra. 


CARTHUSUX  ORDER.  367 

longer  to  need  such  outward  means  of  excitement,  but  should 
strive  rather  to  reach  the  ideal  of  the  purely  spiritual  worship 
of  God.  Thus  Bernard  recognizes  in  the  rest  of  the  church 
a  still  predominating  element  of  Jewish  sensualism ;  and  he 
represents  monasticism  as  destined  to  prove  the  chief  means  of 
emancipating  the  Christian  life  from  this  contamination,  and 
of  presenting  Christianity  in  its  pure  spirituality.  The  abbot 
of  Cluny  also  holds  to  the  position,  that  the  church  cannot 
exist  without  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  manifoldness  of 
customs  and  regulations ;  and  that  love  should  reconcile  all 
differences, — love,  without  which  all  mortification  of  the  flesh 
is  a  thing  of  naught.* 

Among  the  societies  of  anchorets,  the  order  of  Carthusians 
deserves  particularly  to  be  noticed.  Its  founder  was  Bruno,  a 
pious  ecclesiastic  of  Cologne,!  distinguished  as  a  scholar ; 
afterwards  master  of  the  cathedral  school  at  Rheims.  Over  this 
church  presided  at  that  time  one  of  those  worldly-minded  men, 
who  valued  the  spiritual  office  only  as  a  means  of  gain,  and  of 
gratifying  their  love  of  pomp  and  luxurj*.  This  was  the  arch- 
bishop Manasseh,  a  man  whose  character  is  aptly  set  forth  by 
one  of  his  own  remarks :  *'  The  archbishopric  of  Rheims 
would  be  a  fine  thing  were  it  not  necessary  to  hold  mass  in 
order  to  enjoy  its  revenues."^  It  was  the  impression  which 
this  profanation  of  holy  things,  and  a  mode  of  life  so  utterly 
at  variance  with  the  spiritual  calling,  made  on  the  more  serious 
minds,  that  induced  Bruno,  along  with  several  others  like- 
minded,  to  seek  after  a  strictly  ascetic  life  in  solitude.  In  the 
wild  valley  of  Chartreux  (Cartusium),  not  far  from  Grenoble, 
he  settled  himself  down,  about  the  year  1084,  with  twelve 
companions.§  They  built  a  monastery,  indeed,  in  which  they 
held  their  meetings  ;  but  instead  of  taking  up  their  residence 
in  it,  they  lived  in  separate  cells  by  the  side  of  it,  where  each 
individual  spent  the  whole  day  by  himself  in  silence,  occupied 
with  devotional  exercises,  spiritual  studies,  or  corporeal  labour. 
They  despised  all  pomp  and  ornaments,  even  in  what  belonged 
to  the  service  of  the  church.     They  refused  to  accept  of  gold 

•  IV.  17  ;  VI.  3.  t  Bom  in  the  year  1040. 

X  Bonus  esset  Remensis  archiepiscopatus,  si  non  missas  inde  cantari 
oporteret.     Guibert.  Novig.  de  vita  sna,  L.  I.  c.  xi. 

§  We  follow  here  the  credible  narratives  of  the  contemporary  Guibert, 
without  paying  any  regard  to  legends  of  much  later  origio. 


o68  STRICT  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  CARTHUSIANS. 

or  silver  ;  only  the  communion-cup  mig-ht  be  of  silver.  The 
abbot  Guibert  of  Nogent  sous  Coucy,  gives  a  remarkable 
example,  showing  how  tenaciously  they  clung  to  these  prin- 
ciples. A  pious  count,  attracted  by  the  fame  of  their  strict 
mode  of  life,  once  paid  them  a  visit,  and  earnestly  exhorted 
them  to  abide  faithfully  by  their  principles.  He  warned  them 
of  the  degeneracy  which  usually  followed  the  first  strict  life 
of  the  monks,  when  the  fame  of  their  strictness  had  brought 
them  into  the  possession  of  property.  The  impression  left  on 
him,  however,  by  observing  their  singular  mode  of  life,  in- 
duced him  afterwards  to  expose  them  to  a  temptation  quite 
inconsistent  with  his  own  exhortations.  He  sent  them  a  costly 
vase  and  cups  of  silver.  The  monks  immediately  sent  them 
back,  declaring  that  "  they  wanted  gold  and  silver  neither  to 
give  away,  nor  to  decorate  their  church  ;  to  what  use  could 
they  put  it  then  ?"  The  count,  upon  this,  sent  them  bales  of 
parchment,  which  they  needed  much  ;  for  as  other  occupations 
did  not  comport  with  tlieir  quiet,  solitary  mode  of  life,  they 
preferred  to  employ  their  leisure  hours  in  transcribing  books  ; 
and  they  made  themselves  useful  by  multiplying  copies  of  the 
Bible,  and  old  theological  works.  The  greatest  treasure 
which  they  possessed  was  their  library  ;  and  the  Carthusians 
distinguished  themselves  above  all  the  other  monastic  orders 
in  that  they  continued  to  maintain  unaltered  their  strict  mode 
of  living  and  their  contemplative  habits,  when  their  order 
came  to  be  more  generally  respected,  and  their  monasteries 
more  splendidly  endowed.* 

♦  The  (perhaps  German)  monk  Nigellus  Witeker,  who,  in  a  satirical 
■work,  directed  against  the  follies  of  all  classes  in  his  times,  and  entitled 
Brunellus,  or  Speculum  Stultorum  (a  work  composed  in  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  which  did  not  spare  even  the  monks),  cannot 
reproach  the  Carthusians,  as  he  does  the  others,  with  hypocrisy  and  effe- 
minacy. Speaking  of  a  visit  which  he  proposed  making  to  the  order,  he 
says — 

Cella  mihi  daWtur,  quam  solam  solus  liabebo, 

Nemo  mihi  socius,  nnmo  minister  erit. 
Solus  enim  psallam  solusque  cibaria  sumara  S 

Kt  sine  luce  meum  sf>lus  adibo  thorum. 
Carnis  in  letemum  cuncti  prr)hil>entur  al)  esu 

Hrieter  eum,  si  quem  labida  lepra  tenet. 
Ad  foranoii  veniiint:  quo  litem  scire  resolvant : 

Nee  populi  vanum  depopnlantur  ave. 
Hospiiis  iidventu  ^audent  mutantque  dite'am. 
Dant  quod  habent  hilari  pectore,  voce,  minu. 

Which  passage,  besides  being  found  in  the  complete  edition  of  this  poem 


MONKrSH  SOCIETIES  FOR  HOSPITALS.  369 

There  was  another  order  of  anchorets,  who  came  from  the 
East,  and  obtained  from  their  original  seat  the  name  of  Car- 
melites. Mount  Carmel,  in  Palestine,  had  from  the  earliest 
times  been  an  object  of  peculiar  veneration  and  worship  on 
account  of  its  connection  with  the  prophets  Elijah  and  Elisha 
(1  Bangs  xviii.  19;  2  Kings  ii.  25;  iv.  25).  The  cave 
where,  according  to  tradition,  the  prophet  Elijah  had  lived, 
was  visited  by  many,  and  anchorets  settled  down  upon  spots  in 
the  vicinity.  "When,  in  the  year  1185,  the  Greek  monk  and 
priest  Johannes  Phocas  visited  these  regions,*  he  found  there 
the  ruins  of  an  old  and  extensive  monastery ;  and  he  reports 
that,  a  short  time  before,  an  old  monk  and  priest  from  Calabria 
had,  in  consequence  of  a  vision  of  the  prophet  Elijah,  chosen 
this  spot,  erected  upon  it  a  tower  and  a  small  church,  which 
he  occupied  with  about  ten  companions.  This  person  from 
Calabria  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  certain  Berthold.'j'  From 
these  small  beginnings  rose  up  the  order  of  the  Carmelites, 
who,  near  the  commencement  of  the  thirteenth  century^,  ob- 
tained a  rule  from  the  Latin  patriarch,  Albert  of  Jerusalem. 
This  rule,  transplanted  to  the  West,  would  necessarily  be 
subjected  to  many  alterations. 

The  Christian  love  which  led  men  to  undergo  every  self- 
denying  sacrifice  with  cheerfulness  and  joy,  and  which  over- 
came every  feeling  of  disgust,  gave  birth  to  many  societies  of 
monks,  having  it  for  their  object  to  provide  physical  and 
spiritual  relief  for  the  unfortunate,  and  those  who  were  cast  oft" 
by  all  the  world.  Among  the  dreadful  plagues  of  the  Middle 
Ages  belonged  especially  the  sacred  fire,  or  St.  Anthony's 
fire,  a  disorder  which,  after  inflicting  the  most  painful  suf- 
ferings, carried  ofl^  multitudes,  or  else  left  them  to  wear  out 
the  remainder  of  their  days  with  a  body  rendered  helpless  by 
distortion  or  incurable  lameness ;  another  was  leprosy.  The 
first-mentioned  fearful  disorder  raged  especially  in  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries.^     During  the  time  when  this  plague 

is  printed  also  in  the  Extracts  by  Martene  and  Dnrand :  Amplissima 
collecrio,  T.  VI.  f.  7. 

*  As  he  states,  in  bis  report  concerning  the  holy  places,  published  by 
Leo  AUatius,  in  the  Ck>llectioa  of  Symmicta. 

+  See  the  accounts  collected  in  the  Actis  Sanctorum,  at  the  8th  April. 

\  Sigebert  of  Gemblours,  an.  1089  :  Annus  pestilens  maxime  in  occi- 
dental!  parte  Lotharingiae,  ubi  multi  sacro  igne  interiora  consumente 

VOL.    VII.  2  B 


370  HOSPITALS  FOR  LEPROSY. 

was  making  its  most  extensive  ravages,  Gaston,  descended 
from  a  family  of  consideration  amongst  the  French  nobility, 
in  gratitude  for  his  own  recovery  and  that  of  his  son,  which 
he  attributed  to  the  mediation  of  St.  Anthony,  founded  and 
consecrated  to  that  saint  a  society,  of  which  the  express  object 
was  to  furnish  nurses  for  persons  sick  with  that  disorder.* 
Societies  were  formed  of  laymen  and  ecclesiastics,  who,  fol- 
lowing the  so-called  rule  of  Augustin,  under  the  direction  of  a 
superior  {magister),  spent  their  time  in  taking  care  of  the 
sick  in  hospitals  ;  and  still  other  societies  of  men,  who  devoted 
themselves  more  especially  to  taking  care  of  the  leprous,  and 
founded  large  establishments  for  the  express  purpose  of 
receiving  and  nursing  them.  The  ecclesiastics  in  such 
societies  attended  to  the  religious  wants  of  patients ;  preached 
to  them,  gave  them  the  benefit  of  their  pastoral  care,  and  the 
sacraments.  The  laymen  undertook  to  do  everything  ne- 
cessary for  their  bodily  relief  and  comfort ;  also  to  provide 
for  the  decent  burial  of  the  dead,  according  to  the  usual 
forms.  The  Dominican  Humbert  de  Romanis,  who  lived  near 
the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  remarks,  with  regard  to 
the  care  of  the  leprous,  that,  "  owing  to  the  danger  of  in- 
fection, the  impatience  and  the  ingratitude  of  the  victims  of 
this  disease,  it  was  one  of  the  most  forbidding  labours  to  wait 
upon  them.  Amongst  thousands  but  very  few  were  to  be 
found  who  could  be  induced  to  live  with  them  ;  for  with 
many,  nature  itself  revolts  at  it.  And  had  there  not  been 
some  who,  for  God's  sake,  fought  down  the  repugnance  of 
nature,  they  would  have  been  left  absolutely  deprived  of  all 
human  assistance."!  Jacob  of  Vitry  |  says,  concerning  the 
persons  who  devoted  their  lives  to  this  arduous  work  of 
Christian  charity :  "  For  Christ's  sake  they  bring  themselves 
to  endure,  amidst  filth  and  disgusting  scents, — by  driving 
themselves  up  to  it, — such  intolerable  hardships,  that  it  would 
seem  as  if  no  sort  of  penitential  exercise  which  man  imposes 

computrescentes  exesis  membris  instar  carbonum  nigrescentibus  aut 
miserabi liter  moriuntur  aut  manihus  ac  pedibus  putrefactis  truncati 
miserabiliori  vitaj  reservantur,  multi  nervorum  contractione  distort! 
tormentantur. 

»  See  the  Collections,  at  the  17th  January,  in  the  Actis  Sanctorum. 

t  See  the  work  of  Humbertus  de  Romanis  de  eruditione  prajdicatorum, 
0.  xli.  Bibl.  patr.  Lugd.  T'  XXV.  f.  47fi.  See  p.  81. 


IMPOSTORS. — ORDER  OF  TRINITARIANS.  371 

on  himself  desen'ed  a  moment  to  be  compared  with  this  holy 
martyrdom, — holy  and  precious  in  the  sight  of  God."*  Female 
societies,  having  the  same  object  in  view,  were  also  formed. 

But  that  which  began  in  the  spirit  of  a  Christian  charity  that 
shrunk  from  no  sacrifice,  was,  like  so  many  other  noble  under- 
takings, imitated  and  abused  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  a 
worldly  spirit  that  masked  itself  under  the  seemly  guise  of 
religion.  Jacob  of  Vitry  was  forced  to  make  the  bitter  com- 
plaint that  many  who  pretended  to  devote  their  lives  to  this 
nursing  of  the  sick,  only  used  it  as  a  cover  under  which  to 
exact,  by  various  and  deceptive  tricks  from  the  abused  sympa- 
thies of  Christians,  large  sums  of  money,  of  which  but  a  trifling 
]K)rtion  was  expended  on  the  objects  for  which  it  had  been 
bestowed.!  Pope  Innocent  the  Second  passed  an  ordinance 
against  such  fraudulent  collectors  of  alms  for  Spitals.  J 

Among  the  foundations  for  benevolent  purposes  is  to  be 
reckoned  the  order  of  Trinitarians.  John  of  Matha,  a 
Parisian  theologian,  but  a  native  of  Provence,  and  Felix  de 
Valois,  after  li\-ing  for  some  time  as  anchorets  at  Certroy,  in 
the  province  of  Meaux,  joined  together  and  founded  a  society 
of  monks,  the  principal  object  of  which  was  to  procure  the 
redemption  of  Christians  who  had  fallen  captive  to  the  infidels.§ 
In  the  year  1198  they  submitted  their  plan  to  pope  Innocent 
the  Third,  who  ratified  it.  The  society  subsisting  under 
one  superior  {generalis  minister)  was  to  be  consecrated  to 
the  Trinity  {Fratres  domus  sanctce  trinitatis),  and  a  third 
part  of  their  revenues  was  to  be  appropriated  to  the  redemption 
of  Christians  held  in  bondage  amongst  infidels  on  account  of 
their  faith'.  || 

Down  to  the  thirteenth  century  the  different  orders  of  monks 
had  multiplied  to  such  an  extent  that  pope  Innocent  the  Third 
was  induced,  at  the  Lateran  council  in  1215,  to  enact  a  law  to 
the  following  effect :  "  Whereas  the  excessive  diversity  of 
these  institutions  begets  confusion,  no  new  foundations  of  this 
sort  must  be  formed  for  the  ftiture ;  but  whoever  wishes  to 
become  a  monk  must  attach  himself  to  some  one  of  the  already 

•  See  Hist  occidental,  p.  338.    t  L.  c.  p.  339.    J  See  epp.  Lib.  I.  ep.  450. 

§  The  accounts  collected  in  Da  Boulay,  Hist  onivers.  Paris,  T.  II. 
f.  524. 

II  Ad  redemptionem  captivorum,  qui  sunt  incarcerati  pro  fide  Christi 
a  paganis.  Epp.  Lib.  I.  ep.  481. 

2  B  2 


372  RELATION  OF  FRIARS  TO  THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

existing  rules."*  And  yet  it  was  but  shortly  after  tliis  time 
that  the  two  monastic  orders  were  constituted  which  exercised 
by  fe.r  the  most  powerful  and  most  widely  diffused  influence ; 
to  wit,  the  two  mendicant  orders  of  the  Dominicans  and  the 
Franciscans.  In  these  two  foundations,  especially  in  the  latter, 
we  may  observe  the  renascent  power  of  that  idea  of  following 
Christ  and  the  apostles  in  evangelical  poverty,  and  the  absolute 
renunciation  of  all  earthly  goods,  which  from  the  times  of  the 
twelfth  century  we  saw  coming  up  under  various  shapes,  in 
the  doctrine  of  Arnold  of  Brescia,  in  the  prophecies  of  the 
abbot  Joachim.  It  could  easily  come  about,  indeed,  that  from 
this  idea  a  tendency  might  spring  up  hostile  to  the  dominant 
church,  but  it  might  also  give  rise  to  such  spiritual  societies 
as  would  devote  themselves  to  the  service  of  the  church ;  for, 
according  to  the  idea  of  the  Catholic  church  at  its  present 
stage,  points  of  view  and  modes  of  life  in  the  greatest  variety, 
and  even  opposed  to  one  another,  might  subsist  together,  one 
supplying  the  other's  defects,  and  the  church  unite  all  these 
antagonisms  together  in  a  higher  unity ;  they  would  become 
heretical  only  then,  when  one  of  these  tendencies  came  to 
exclude  all  the  others,  and  to  set  up  itself  as  the  only  right  one. 
Thus,  after  the  same  manner  as  the  married  life,  the  family, 
subsisted  side  by  side  with  the  unmarried  life  as  a  higher 
stage  of  Christian  perfection,  those  religious  societies  that 
renounced  all  worldly  possessions  and  property  might  be 
tolerated  and  favoured  beside  the  splendour  of  the  papacy 
and  of  the  hierarchy.  The  founder  of  the  order  of  Dominicans 
was  born  in  the  year  1170,  at  Calarugna,  a  village  in  the 
diocese  of  Osma  in  Castile.  Even  wliile  a  young  man, 
pursuing  his  studies  at  the  Spanish  university  in  Palenza,  he 
was  distinguished  for  his  self-sacrificing  Christian  love.  In  a 
time  of  great  famine,  ne  sold  his  books  and  furniture,  in  order 
to  provide  himself  with  the  means  of  mitigating  the  sufferings 
of  the  poor,  and  by  his  example  he  excited  many  to  do  the 
same.  Didacus,  bishop  of  Osma,  was  a  man  of  severe  character, 
and  ardently  devoted  to  the  good  of  the  church.     He  sought 

*  In  the  thirteenth  canon  of  the  fourth  Lateran  council  of  the  year 
1215:  Ne  nimia  religionum  diversitas  gravem  in  ecclesia  Dei  coufusi- 
onem  inducat,  firmiter  prohibemus,  ne  quis  de  caetero  novani  religionem 
inveniat,  sed  quicunque  voluerit  ad  religionem  converti,  unam  de  appro- 
latis  assumat. 


SECTS  IX  THE  SOUTH  OF  FRAXCE. DIDACUS.  373 

to  bring  back  his  canonical  cleray  to  the  strictness  of  the 
ancient  rule,  and  similarity  of  disposition  united  him  with 
Dominick,  whom  he  received  into  this  body.  A  journey 
which  he  made  with  him  in  the  service  of  his  king  to  the 
south  of  France,  gave  both  an  opportunity  of  observing  the 
great  danger  which  there  threatened  the  church  from  those 
heretical  sects  which  were  spreading  with  great  rapidity,  and 
they  were  excited  by  what  they  saw  to  direct  all  their  attention 
and  their  energies  to  this  one  point.  In  the  year  1208  they 
came,  for  the  second  time,  into  these  regions,  after  pope 
Innocent  the  Third  had  despatched  twelve  Cistercian  abbots, 
under  the  direction  of  the  papal  legate,  to  put  down  the  sects. 
A  council  was  held  at  Montpellier,  to  deliberate  on  this 
matter,  and  bishop  Didacus  was  invited  to  assist  at  it.  When 
the  latter  observed  the  great  state  affected  by  the  pagal  legate, 
and  others  who  had  been  sent  on  this  errand,  he  told  them 
they  could  hardly  succeed  in  this  way  to  oppose  any  etfectual 
check  to  the  heretics ;  they  would  come  off  still  more  tri- 
umphantly m  their  attacks  on  the  church,  and  point  to  all  this 
pomp  as  evidence  of  the  truth  of  what  they  had  said  about  the 
worldly  lives  of  the  clergy ;  they  M'ould  compare  their  own 
strict  and  abstemious  mode  of  living  in  utter  poverty,  as  the 
true  followers  of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  with  the  splendour 
and  luxury  that  surrounded  those  who  stood  up  for  the  interests 
of  the  dominant  church,  and  thus  gain  the  popular  feeling  over 
to  their  side.  He  invited  them  to  take  the  opposite  course,  to 
renounce  all  state,  and  by  a  strict  and  needy  life  place  them- 
selves on  an  equality  with  the  persons  extolled  in  those  sects ; 
thus  would  they  accomplish  more  by  their  living  than  they 
could  do  by  their  words.  His  advice  was  adopted,  and  every- 
thing that  could  be  spared  sent  away.  Bishop  Didacus  was 
intrusted  with  the  direction  of  the  whole  movement,  and 
travelling  on  foot  in  voluntary  poverty,  they  went  from  place 
to  place  preaching  and  disputing  with  the  sects.  After  having 
laboured  in  this  way  for  three  years,  this  bishop  set  out  on 
his  return  to  Spain.  It  was  his  intention  to  recommend  to  the 
pope  the  appointment  of  a  certain  number  of  men  who  should 
labour  for  the  conversion  of  the  sects ;  but  his  death,  which 
took  place  on  his  journey  homeward,  in  the  year  1206  or  1207,* 

*  The  death  of  bishop  Didacus,  according  to  the  life  of  Dominicus,  hy 
his  disciple  Jordanus,  the  second  general  of  this  order  (the  authority 


374  DEATH  OF  DIDACUS. — ORDER  OF  DOMINICANS. 

prevented  him  from  carrying  his  plan  into  execution, 
and  it  remained  for  Dominick,  to  whom  no  doubt  the  expe- 
rience which  he  gained  in  these  tours  had  suggested  the  idea 
of  his  order,  to  realize  the  project  which  had  been  conceived 
by  his  bishop.  The  latter,  on  leaving  the  south  of  France, 
had  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  whole  spiritual  undertaking. 
After  the  death  of  the  bishop,  however,  he  retained  btit  few  of 
his  companions.  When  armed  troops  were  called  in  to  follow 
up  the  work  of  preaching  and  disputing,  and,  in  the  year 
1209  the  horrible  crusade  against  the  Albigenses  was  com- 
menced, Dominick  still  went  on  with  his  labours,  and  the 
cruelties  resorted  to  for  the  extirpation  of  heresy  were  approved 
and  promoted  by  him, — a  bad  precedent,  foretokening  already 
the  history  of  an  order  which  in  after  times  was  to  exercise 
such  cruel  despotism  under  the  name  of  charity.  He  found  a 
few  still  remaining  here  like-minded  with  himself,  who  joined 
with  him  in  forming  a  society  consecrated  to  the  defence  of  the 
church.  Several  pious  men  in  Toulouse  entered  heart  and 
hand  into  his  scheme,  and  placed  their  property  in  his  hands, 
to  purchase  books  for  the  society  and  provide  them  with 
what  they  needed.  Fulco  himself,  the  bishop  of  Toulouse, 
favoured  the  undertaking,  and  in  the  year  1215  went  in  com- 
pany with  Dominick  to  Home,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
the  sanction  of  pope  Innocent  the  Third  to  a  spiritual  society 
devoted  to  the  office  of  preaching.  True,  the  canon  enacted 
this  very  year  by  the  Lateran  council,  forbidding  the  institu- 
tion of  any  new  order  of  monks,*  stood  in  the  way  of  a 
compliance  with  this  demand,  but  at  the  same  council  t  it  had 
also  been  expressed,  as  an  urgent  need  of  the  church,  that  the 
bishops  should  procure  able  men  to  assist  them  in  the  office  of 
preaching  and  in  their  pastoral  labours.  Now  the  supply  of 
this  want — a  want  so  sensibly  felt  on  account  of  the  great 

■which  we  here  follow),  took  place  ten  years  before  the  Lateran  coancfl 
under  Innocent  the  Third,  s.  30,  Mens.  August.  T.  I.  f.  549.  A  tempore 
obitus  episcopi  Oxoniensis  usque  ad  Lateranense  consilium  anni  fluxere 
ferme  decern.  If  we  take  this  strictly,  it  would  be  in  the  year  1205;  but 
this  supposition  is  attended  with  other  chronological  difficulties,  and  the 
ferme  still  renders  the  calculation  inexact.  It  is  very  difficult  to  fix  here 
the  exact  determination  of  time.  See  the  chronological  inquiries  in  the 
preliminary  remarks  to  the  Life  of  Dominicus,  at  the  4th  August. 
•  See  above,  p.  371.  t  See  p.  293. 


FRANCIS  OF  ASSIST.  375 

number  of  ignorant  and  worldly-minded  clergymen — was  the 
very  purpose  and  aim  of  the  scheme  submitted  by  Dominick  to 
the  pope.  Innocent,  therefore,  accepted  the  proposition,  making 
only  one  condition,  that  Dominick  should  attach  himself  to 
some  one  of  the  orders  of  monks  already  existing.  Dominick 
selected  the  so-called  rule  of  Augustin,  with  a  few  modifications 
aiming  at  greater  strictness.  The  order  was  to  accept  of  no 
property  that  needed  to  be  managed,  but  only  the  incomes 
from  the  same,  lest  it  might  be  diverted  by  the  cares  of 
secular  business  from  its  spiritual  vocation.  Pope  Honorius 
the  Third  confinned  the  establishment  of  the  order  in  1216, 
and  it  was  styled,  in  accordance  with  the  object  to  which 
it  was  especially  consecrated,  Ordo  predicatorum.  In  the 
first  chapter  of  its  articles,  it  was  settled  that  it  should  hold 
neither  property  in  funds  nor  income.*  It  is  evident  from 
many  examples,!  that  great  efforts  were  made  to  enlarge  and 
extend  the  society  by  energetic  preachers  amongst  its  earliest 
members.  Many  young  men  at  the  universities  and  in  other 
cities  were  carried  away  by  the  fervent  appeals  of  the  preaching 
friars,  and  finally  devoted  themselves  to  this  foundation. 

The  founder  of  the  second  order,  Francis,  was  born  at 
Assisi,  in  the  year  1182.  His  father,  called  Peter  of  Ber- 
nardone,  was  a  merchant  of  some  consideration  in  the  above- 
mentioned  city.  Devoted  to  mercantile  pursuits,  Francis  lived 
at  first  after  the  ordinary  manner  of  the  world,  though  even  at 
this  time  he  was  remarkable  for  his  susceptibility  to  religious 
impressions,  and  for  his  benevolent  disposition.  A  severe  fit  of 
sickness,  which  befell  him  when  he  was  about  the  age  of 
twentj^-four,  is  said  to  have  left  on  him  a  decided  impression, 
which  eventuated  in  an  entirely  new  turn  of  life.  It  would  be 
a  matter  of  some  importance  could  we  be  more  exactly  informed 
M'ith  regard  to  the  nature  of  his  disease,  and  the  way  in  which 
it  affected  his  physical  and  mental  constitution.  Perhaps  it 
might  assist  us  to  a  more  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 
eccentric  vein  in  his  life,  that  singular  mixture  of  religious 
enthusiasm  with  a  fanaticism  bordering  on  insanity ;  but  we 
are  here   left  wholly   in   the   dark.      After   his   health  was 

*  See  c.  iii.  s.  63. 

t  Which  are  cited  in  the  Life  of  Dominicns,  already  mentioued,  c.  li. 
and  Iv. 


S  1 6  HIS  RELIGIOUS  DIRECTION. 

restored  he  felt  more  and  more  drawn  away  from  earthly 
things  and  impelled  by  an  indescribable  craving  after  a  divine 
life.  He  thought  himself  admonished  by  Christ  in  dreams 
and  visions,  and  in  accordance  with  his  habit  at  that  time,  of 
referring  everything  to  sense,  he  was  inclined  to  interpret  his 
visions  after  a  sensuous  manner,  until  he  was  afterwards  taught 
to  understand  them  spiritually.  On  one  occasion,  he  beheld  in 
a  vision  or  dream  a  vast  palace  full  of  weapons,  each  having 
on  it  a  sign  of  the  cross,  and  inquiring  to  whom  they  all 
belonged,  he  was  answered,  "  To  thee  and  thy  soldiers." 
Taking  this  literally,  he  was  already  preparing  to  go  and  offer 
his  services  to  a  certain  noble  count,  with  the  expectation  of 
rising  to  the  highest  honours  in  the  profession  of  arms,  when 
another  vision  held  him  back.  Once,  after  long  roaming 
about  and  meditating  in  the  fields,  he  stepped  into  an  old 
church  falling  to  ruins,  for  the  purpose  of  prayer.  He  prostrated 
himself  in  deep  devotion  before  a  crucifix,  and  as  he  looked  up  to 
it  with  eyes  full  of  tears,  he  thought  he  heard  thrice  coming 
from  it  the  following  words,  addressed  to  himself:  "  Go, 
rebuild  my  house,  which,  as  thou  seest,  is  falling  to  ruins." 
These  words  he  understood  at  first  as  referring  to  the  restora- 
tion of  the  ruined  building  where  he  was,  and  he  set  about 
procuring  money  to  repair  it,  though  long  afterwards  they 
were  intfirpreted  by  himself  and  his  followers  as  referring  to 
the  spiritual  renovation  of  the  church.*  The  change  which 
he  had  experienced  and  the  extravagant  austerities  to  which 
he  subjected  himself,  caused  him  at  first  to  be  ridiculed  as  a 
madman  ;  but  as  he  could  not  be  induced  to  swerve  from  his 
purpose,  or  alter  his  mode  of  life  by  any  ridicule  or  any  insult, 
as  in  truth  there  was  something  in  him  too  exalted  for  ridicule, 
and  capable  of  attracting  more  profound  and  earnest  minds,  so 
it  was  certain  that  he  must  come  off  victorious  in  the  end.  It 
was  an  age  in  which  the  exaggerated  and  caricature-like,  if  it 
only  had  at  bottom  some  profound  idea  harmonizing  with  the 
lone  of  many  minds,  would  be  more  certain  to  further  than  to 
check  the  influence  of  the  individual  who  possessed  it.  Like 
many  of  his  times,  he  united  with  a  deep  mystical  element  a 

*  Bonaventura,  in  his  Life  of  St.  Francis,  c.  ii. :  Licet  principalior 
intentio  verbi  ad  earn  ferretur  (ecclesiain),  quam  Christus  sanguine  suo 
acquisivit,  sicut  eum  Spiritus  sanctus  edocuit  et  ipse  postmodum  fratribus 
revelavit. 


RULE  OF  FBANCIS  ADMITTED  BY  POPES  AXD  CAEDIXALS.    377 

religious  tendency  that  clung:  to  the  outward,  for  which 
tendency  this  outward  itself  became  ti-ansformed  through 
reference  to  this  mystical  element  just  spoken  of  into  something 
that  savoured  of  the  magical.  Thus,  for  example,  he  regarded 
churches  with  a  peculiar  sort  of  veneration,  and  exerted  all  the 
powers  of  his  heart-stirring  eloquence  in  making  collections 
for  the  purpose  of  rebuilding  such  as  were  falling  to  decay. 
Among  these  churches  may  be  noticed  particularly  the  church 
dedicated  to  Mary,  at  Portiuncula.  This  was  his  favourite 
place  of  abode,  where  he  loved  to  give  himself  up  to  prayer 
and  religious  contemplation,  and  it  afterwards  arose  to  great 
consequence  among  this  order.  Once,  while  attending  mass, 
he  heard  recited  the  words  of  Christ  to  the  apostles,  when  he 
first  sent  them  forth  :  "  Provide  neither  gold  nor  silver,"  «&;c., 
Matth.  X.  9,  10.  He  took  it  as  a  voice  from  heaven  addressed 
to  himself.  This  was  the  idea  of  evangelical  poverty  which 
had  already  vaguely  floated  before  his  mind ;  and,  assuming 
the  dress  described  in  Christ's  direction,  he  from  that  moment 
travelled  about  preaching  repentance,  and  one  by  one  gathered 
around  him  several  followers. 

When  Francis,  in  the  year  1210,  first  presented  himself 
before  pope  Innocent  the  Third,  for  the  purpose  of  sub- 
mitting to  him  his  rule,  drawn,  as  he  thought,  after  the  pattern 
of  the  apostolic  mode  of  life,  he  is  said  to  have  met  with  an 
unfavourable  reception.  The  pope,  who  was  walking  in  his 
palace,  plunged  in  thought,  regarding  him  as  unworthy  of 
notice,  motioned  him  away  with  contempt ;  but  he  was  led, 
as  it  is  said,  by  a  vision  which  he  had  at  night,  to  entertain  a 
different  opinion  of  the  man.  We  know  not  what  foundation 
of  truth  there  may  be  for  this  story.  Even  if  it  were  true 
that  Innocent  paid  him  but  little  notice  at  first,  troubled  as  he 
no  doubt  too  often  was  by  the  rude  importunity  of  many  of 
similar  pretensions,  still,  the  penetrating  glance  of  this  great 
man  would  not  be  long  in  discovering  of  itself  to  what  valuable 
purpose  such  an  enthusiasm  might  be  turned,  if  taken  into  the 
service  of  the  church,  so  hard  pressed  in  these  times  by  the 
sects.  Such  an  idea, — the  idea  of  a  society  of  spiritual  paupers, 
placed  alongside  that  of  a  church  doing  homage  to  worldly 
power  and  glory, — might  command  respect,  even  from  him ; 
and  he  was  taught  by  the  example  of  the  Waldenses,*  how 

*  Of  whom  we  shall  speak  in  the  4th  sect. 


378  FRANCIS  ON  ASCETICISM.      HIS  SERMONS. 

easily  the  enthusiasm  for  such  an  idea,  if  it  did  not  attach 
itself  to  the  church,  might  give  birth  to  a  tendency  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  church.  It  admits  of  a  question,  too,  whether 
the  report  is  a  true  one,  that  the  rule  of  Francis  met  at  the 
beginning  with  much  opposition  from  several  of  the  cardinals, 
on  the  ground  that  it  seemed  an  unheard-of  thing,  a  project 
surpassing  the  powers  of  man ;  till  another  cardinal  observed, 
If  the  observance  of  evangelical  perfection  is  held  to  be  a 
thing  unheard  of,  impracticable,  and  unreasonable,  such  an 
opinion  is  a  calumny  against  the  gospel  and  the  author  of  it, 
Christ  himself  We  may  understand,  at  least  from  the  lan- 
guage attributed  to  this  cardinal,  in  what  way  this  age  repre- 
sented to  itself  the  ideal  of  following  after  Christ. 

The  zealous  striving  after  perfect  purity  of  heart,*  impelled 
Francis,  impatient  at  every  motion  of  sinful  lust  which  he 
discerned  in  himself,  to  every  sort  of  mortification  by  which 
he  could  hope  to  subject  the  body  entirely  to  his  higher  aspi- 
rations. The  meditation  on  every  such  stirring  of  ungodly 
impulses,  brought  him  perhaps  into  contact  with  various 
temptations  ;  and  his  imagination  pictured  it  out  into  a  con- 
flict with  evil  spirits.  It  is  singular  to  observe  how  the  power 
of  truth  in  his  own  consciousness  testified  against  himself. 
Once,  wlien  engaged  at  night  in  prayer,  he  thought  he  heard 
a  voice  saying  to  him — "  There  is  not  a  sinner  in  the  world 
whom  God  would  not  forgive,  if  he  turned  to  him ;  but  he 
who  destroys  himself  by  severe  exercises  of  penance,  will  never 
find  mercy."t  This  was  an  admonition  of  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
just  as  when,  once,  he  was  thinking  over  with  pain  some  of 
the  scenes  of  his  earlier  life,  the  assurance  of  the  forgiveness 
of  all  his  sins  was  given  him,  and  joy  filled  his  heart,  so  that, 
resigning  himself  to  the  objective  grace,  |  he  is  said  to  have 
desisted  from  further  self-mortification.  i3ut  now  the  voice  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  appeared  to  him  as  a  voice  of  some  wicked 
spirit.  Yet,  in  the  labour  and  constant  activity  which  he 
recommended  to   his  disciples,  he  recognized  an  important 


*  As  it  is  expressed  in  the  words  of  Francis  :  Tolerabilius  viro  spiri- 
tuali  fore,  magnum  sustinere  frigus  in  came,  quam  ardorem  carnalis 
libidinis  vel  modicum  sentire  in  mente. 

t  Bonaventura,  c.  v. 

1  L.  c.  c.  iiL 


FRANCIS  ON  PREACHING.  379 

means  for  preventing  inward  temptations,  and  likewise  the 
waste  of  time  in  unprofitable  talk.* 

He  himself,  however,  at  a  later  period  of  life,  attributed  no 
value  to  self-mortification,  in  itself  considered,  but  regarded  it 
solely  as  a  means  for  overcoming  sensual  desires,  and  for  pro- 
moting purity  of  heart.  Love  appeared  to  him  to  be  the  soul 
of  all.  Once,  when  one  of  the  monks  who  had  carried  his 
fasting  to  excess,  was  deprived  by  it  of  his  sleep,  and  Francis 
perceived  it,  he  brought  him  bread  with  his  own  hands,  and 
exhorted  him  to  eat ;  and  as  the  monk  still  shrunk  from 
touching  it,  he  set  him  the  example  and  ate  first.  On  the 
next  morning,  when  he  assembled  his  monks,  he  told  them 
what  he  had  done,  and  added — "  Take  not  the  eating,  but  the 
love,  my  brethren,  for  your  example."  Later  in  life,  he  did 
not  shrink  from  preaching  before  the  pope  and  the  cardinals. 
"  His  words,"  says  Bonaventura,  "  penetrated  like  glowing 
fire  to  the  inmost  depths  of  the  heart,"  Once,  when  he  was 
to  preach  before  the  Roman  court,  for  which  occasion  he  had 
committed  to  memory  a  carefully  written  discourse,  he  felt  all 
of  a  sudden  as  if  he  had  forgotten  the  whole,  so  that  he  had 
not  a  word  to  say.  But  after  he  had  openly  avowed  what  had 
occurred  to  him,  and  invoked  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  he 
found  utterance  for  words  full  of  power,  which  produced  a 
wonderful  effect  on  all  present.^  Zeal  to  promulgate  the 
gospel,  perhaps  also  a  fanatical  striving  after  martyrdom, 
prompted  him  to  resolve  on  making  a  voyage  to  Morocco; 
but  he  was  prevented  from  executing  this  purpose  by  sickness. 
Respecting  his  missionary  efforts  amongst  the  Saracens,  we 
have  already  spoken  on  a  former  page.J 

The  spirit  which,  in  spite  of  all  his  fanaticism,  animated 
and  inspired  this  man,  which  enabled  him  to  exert  so  profound 
an  influence  on  so  many  minds,  and  to  attract  to  him  men  of 
such  importance  as  Bonaventura, — this  spirit  discovers  itself 
to  us  in  many  of  his  sayings.  He  constantly  taught  that  a 
heart  fixed  on  God  is  all  that  gives  actions  their  real  import- 
ance. In  showing  how  men  ought  to  despise  the  outside  show 
of  holiness,  said  he,  "  A  man  is  just  so  much  and  no  more,  as 

*  His  words :  Volo  fratres  meos  laborare  et  exercitari,  ne  otio  dediti 
per  illicita  corde  aut  lingua  vagentur.     L.  c.  c.  v. 

t  Bonaventara,  f.  294.  J  See  p.  80. 


380  MYSTICAL  AND  SENSUOUS  ELEMENT 

he  is  in  the  sight  of  God."*  "  No  one,"  he  often  repeated  to 
his  monks,  "  should  value  himself  for  that  which  the  sinner 
can  do  as  well.  The  sinner  can  fast,  pray,  weep,  and  chastise 
his  body ;  but  there  is  one  thing  he  cannot  do,  he  cannot  be 
faithful  to  his  Lord.  This  alone,  then,  is  our  true  glory,  when 
we  give  to  the  Lord  his  glory ;  when  we  serve  him  faithfully, 
and  ascribe  all  to  him  which  he  bestows  on  us."-}"  He  was 
in  some  sort  at  strife  with  himself,  as  he  told  his  monks,  on 
the  question  whether  he  ought  to  devote  himself  to  prayer 
alone,  or  also  to  busy  himself  with  preaching.  He  thought 
that  as  he  was  a  simple,  uneducated  man,  he  had  received  a 
greater  gift  of  prayer  than  of  preaching.  "  By  prayer,"  said 
he,  "  one  improves  himself  in  gifts  of  grace ;  by  preaching, 
one  communicates  the  heavenly  gifts  received  to  others. 
Prayer  tends  to  purify  the  affections  of  the  heart,  and  to 
produce  a  union  with  the  true  and  highest  good,  and  an 
increase  of  moral  strength;  but  preaching  leads  to  a  dissi- 
pation of  the  thoughts  on  outward  things.  Finally,  in  prayer 
we  discourse  with  God,  and  hear  his  voice,  and,  as  companions 
of  the  angels,  live  an  angel-like  life ;  in  preaching,  we  must 
let  ourselves  down  a  good  deal  to  men,  live  among  them  like 
men, — think,  see,  discourse,  and  hear  like  men.  But  one 
consideration  seemed  to  him  to  outweigh  all  the  rest,  and  to 
turn  the  scale ;  and  this  was,  that  the  Son  of  God  came  down 
from  heaven  in  order  to  form,  by  his  example,  the  men  whom 
he  would  redeem,  and  to  preach  to  them  the  word  of  salvation, 
reserving  nothing  to  himself  which  he  was  not  ready  to  give 
up  for  our  salvation.  And  as  we  should  copy  his  example  in 
all  things,  so  it  seems  more  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God 
that  we  should  renounce  rest,  and  go  forth  to  work. "J  Ac- 
cordingly, he  declares  the  activity  expended  in  seeking  to  win 
souls  to  God  more  precious  to  him,  if  it  proceeds  from  true 
love,  than  any  offering.  But  that  preacher  is  to  be  pitied  who 
seeks  not  the  salvation  of  souls,  but  his  own  glory  ;  or  who 
destroys  by  a  wicked  life  what  he  builds  up  by  the  setting 
forth  of  pure  doctrine.  To  such  a  person  the  simple  Christian 
is  greatly  to  be  preferred  who  lacks  the  gifl  of  discourse,  and 

*  Quantum  homo  est  in  oculis  Dei,  tantum  est  et  non  plus.    Bona- 
ventura,  c.  vi. 

t  L.  c.  f.  283.  X  Bonaventura,  c.  xii. 


I 


IN  THE  CHABACTEE  OF  FRANCIS.  381 

yet,  by  his  own  good  example,  promotes  the  cause  of  good- 
ness.* He  warned  his  monks  against  overvaluing  their  own 
powers  when  they  thought  they  saw  great  success  attending 
their  preaching.  He  spoke  of  those  wlio,  when  they  saw 
that  some  had  been  edified  or  awakened  to  repentance  by 
their  discourses,  prided  themselves  upon  it  as  their  own  M'ork, 
when  perhaps  they  were  only  instrunlents  of  others,  living 
in  secret,  who  had  wrought  these  effects  by  their  prayers."!" 
"Blessed,"  said  he,  "is  that  servant  who  no  more  values 
himself  on  that  which  God  speaks  or  works  through  him,  than 
he  does  on  that  which  God  speaks  or  works  through  another.''^ 
To  the  vicar  of  his  order,  Elias,  he  wrote : — "  There  is  only 
one  mark  by  which  I  can  know  whether  thou  art  a  servant  of 
God ;  namely,  if  thou  compassionately  bringest  back  wander- 
ing brethren  to  God,  and  never  ceasest  to  love  those  who 
grievously  err."§  He  particularly  recommended  to  his 
brethren  itinerating  through  the  world  not  to  contend  ;  not  to 
judge  others  ;  to  be  meek,  peace-loving,  and  humble. |j  He 
admonished  them  not  to  despise  others  who  lived  in  better 
style,  and  went  better  dressed.  '•  Our  God,"  said  he,  "is 
aLo  their  blaster,  and  he  is  able  to  call  them  to  himself  and 
to  justify  them."^  Moreover,  he  warned  his  monks  against 
excessive  asceticism.  "  Each  should  consider  his  own  nature  ; 
and  if  one  required  a  less  quantity  of  food,  another,  who  re- 
quired more,  ought  not  to  imitate  him  in  that ;  but,  having 
regard  to  his  own  nature,  he  should  give  his  body  just 
what  it  needed.  For,  as  we  ought  to  be  on  our  guard  against 
a  superfluity  which  is  injurious  both  to  soul  and  body,  so,  and 
still  more,  ought  we  to  be  cautious  of  excessive  abstinence, 
since  God  will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice."**  "  We  are 
called  to  this,"  said  he  to  his  monks,  "  that  we  should  heal 
the  wounded  and  reclaim  the  wandering,  for  many  who  seem 
to  you  members  of  the  devil  will  still  be  disciples  of  Christ.""|'t 
A  characteristic  trait  in  Francis,  growing  out  of  that  blending 
of  the  mystical  element  with  the  sensuous,  of  which  we  have 
spoken,  was   his   reverence   for   every   outward    thing   that 


*  L.  c.  c.  viii.  f.  286.  f  L.  c  c.  xvi.  f.  325. 

X  Opusc  ed  Wadding.  T.  I.  c.  xvii.  p.  77.  §  L.  c.  T.  I.  p.  20. 

B  L.  c.  T.  II.  p.  172.  1  L.  c.  T.  III.  p.  288. 

•*  L.  c  p.  306.  ft  L.  c.  p.  341. 


382      MYSTICAL  AND  SENSUOUS  ELEMENT  IN  HIS  CHARACTER. 

struck  him  as  ennobled  by  its  reference  to  religion ;  for  the 
clergy,  for  churches,  and  especially  for  the  consecrated  bread 
and  wine  of  the  holy  supper.*  It  was  to  him  a  matter  of  import- 
ance to  be  scrupulously  careful  that  not  a  leaf  on  which  the  name 
of  our  Lord  was  written  should  be  suffered  to  remain  and  be  pro- 
faned in  any  unclean  place,  but  that  every  such  scrap  should 
receive  the  due  mark  of  homage.  Again,  as  the  ascetic  bent 
admits  of  being  easily  converted  into  a  contempt  of  nature,  so 
we  cannot  but  regard  as  the  more  remarkable  that  love, 
pushed  even  to  enthusiasm,  with  which  Francis  embraced  all 
nature  as  the  creation  of  God ;  that  sympathy  and  feeling  of 
relationship  with  all  nature,  by  virtue  of  its  common  derivation 
from  God  as  Creator,  which  seems  to  bear  more  nearly  the 
impress  of  the  Hindoo  than  of  the  Christian  religion,  leading 
him  to  address  not  only  the  brutes  but  even  inanimate  creatures 
as  brothers  and  sisters. t  He  had  a  compassion  for  brute 
animals,  especially  such  as  are  employed  in  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures as  symbols  of  Christ.  This  bent  of  fanatical  sympathy 
with  nature  furnished  perhaps  a  point  of  entrance  for  the 
pantheistic  element,  which  in  later  times  found  admission  with 
a  party  among  the  Franciscans.  As  in  general  the  culminating 
point  of  the  form  of  Catholicism  in  that  day  exhibited  itself  in 
this  order  on  a  certain  side,  so  from  many  other  of  the  peculiar 
ideas  which  inspired  Francis,  as  the  following  after  Christ, 
evangelical  poverty, — tendencies  might  proceed  forth  which 
were  at  variance  with  the  church  system.  Seized  and  embla- 
zoned in  the  colours  of  a  sensuous  fancy,  that  profoundly 
Christian  idea  of  following  after  Christ  gave  birth  to  the  story 
of  the  five  wounds, |  said  to  have  been  imprinted  on  Francis, 
after  Christ  had  appeared  to  him  in  a  miraculous  vision,  two 
years  before  his  death  in  1226.  Eye-witnesses  are  appealed 
to  who  saw  these  mariis  at  the  time.  A  story,  which  assuredly 
did  not  proceed  at  first  from  any  intention  to  deceive, — but 
only  from  the  je//'-deception  of  a  fanatical  bent  of  the  imagi- 
nation, and  from  fancied  exaggeration  ;  and  a  story  with  regard 
to  which  it  still  needs  and  deserves  inquiry  to  what  extent,  in 
certain  eccentric  states  of  the  system,  a  morbidly  over-excited 

*  His  words  in  the  Opusculis,  p.  360:  Sublimitas  humilis,  quod 
Dominus  universitatis,  Deus  et  Dei  filius  sic  se  humiliat,  nt  pro  nostra 
salute  sub  modica  panis  formula  se  abscondat. 

f  E.g.,  Mi  frater  ignis.  +  Quinque  stigmata  Christi. 


ORDER  OF  CLARA.      MESDICA2JT  FRIARS.  383 

fency  might  react  on  the  bodily  organism.  It  cannot  be 
doubted,  however,  that  this  story  has  contributed  much  to 
promote  a  fenatical  and  excessive  reverence  of  Francis,  highly 
derogatory  to  the  honour  which  is  due  to  Christ  alone. 

Three  spiritual  orders  were  founded  by  him.  The  one 
already  mentioned,  and  which  was  the  first,  avoiding  each 
proud  name,  called  itself  the  society  of  minor  brothers  (JFra- 
tres  minores,  Minorites),  and  its  rule,  revised,  was  confirmed 
by  pope  Honorius  the  Third.  The  second  was  an  order  of 
nuns.  This  started  with  a  young  woman  in  Assisi, — Clara, 
whom  a  kindred  bent  of  Christian  feeling,  early  communicated 
to  her  by  education,*  conducted  to  Francis ;  and  she  was  the 
first  superintendent  of  the  order  called  after  herself,  the  order 
of  St.  Clara  (at  first,  Ordo  dominarum  pauperum).  Next 
came  the  third  order  {Fratres  ordinis  tertii,  tertiarii),  by  the 
founding  of  which,  in  the  year  1221,  Francis  furnished  an 
opportunity  for  pious  laymen,  who  would  not  or  could  not  re- 
nounce the  family-life,  to  live  together  in  a  sort  of  spiritual 
union,  after  one  rule,  and  under  a  superior.  They  were  also 
called  Fratres  Pcenitentice,  inasmuch  as  this  monk-like  mode 
of  life  was  regarded  as  a  life  devoted  to  penance.  Many  pious 
societies,  which  had  proceeded  from  tlie  order  of  laymen, 
might  here  find  a  place  of  refuge  and  a  common  bond  of 
union. 

The  peculiar  regulation  that  distinguished  the  orders  of  the 
so-called  mendicants  (  Fratres  mendicantes)  from  other  orders, 
would  serve  in  a  special  manner  to  promote  their  more  exten- 
sive spread  and  more  general  influence.  In  order  to  their 
establishment  in  any  place,  no  endowed  monasteries  were  re- 
quired. Every  cormtry,  every  village,  stood  open  to  them ; 
and  they  were  contented  with  whatever  indifferent  food  might 
be  offered  them.  The  way  in  which  they  subsisted  brought 
them  into  the  closest  relations  with  the  lower  class  of  people. 
As  religious  instruction  and  the  pastoral  care  were  for  the 
reasons  already  given  most  neglected  in  their  case,  so  the 
monks  who  interested  themselves  -svith  self-denying  love  in 
their  spiritual  wants,  were  received  with  the  more  hearty  wel- 

*  See  the  accoant  of  her  life  by  a  contemporary,  at  the  12th  Angnst. 
Her  mother  had  distinguished  herself  by  the  zeal  with  which  she  made 
pilgrimages ;  she,  in  fact,  undertook  a  journey  to  the  holy  sepulchre,  and 
made  it  a  point  to  visit  all  the  holy  places  in  Syria. 


384  HARDSHIPS  AND  DEPEIVATIONS. 

come  ;  and,  provided  only  pious  men,  well-instructed  in  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  were  selected  for  that  purpose,  much 
good  might  be  done  by  their  means.  The  men,  animated  by 
pious  zeal,  who  first,  with  a  sort  of  enthusiastic  love,  seized 
upon  this  mode  of  life,  subjected  themselves  to  sacrifices  and 
deprivations  truly  great,  when  in  all  weathers,  defying  the 
fiercest  cold  in  the  north,  the  fiercest  heat  in  the  south,  they 
itinerated  through  the  countries,  entering  the  meanest  hovels, 
and  cheerfully  putting  np  with  any  fare  which  the  poor  occu- 
pants set  before  them  to  satisfy  the  most  pressing  momentary 
wants,  and  at  the  same  time  sustained  all  the  toil  of  preaching 
and  fatigue  of  pastoral  labours.  Nor  did  they  suffer  themselves 
to  be  driven  off  by  insults  and  ridicule,  whether  from  laymen, 
whose  utter  barbarity  of  manners  and  the  want  of  religious 
instruction  made  them  regard  these  men  as  unwelcome  guests, 
or  from  jealous  ecclesiastics.  The  Belgian  Dominican,  Thomas 
de  Cantinpre,  who  lived  in  the  thirteenth  century,  relating  his 
own  experience  in  this  way,*  describes  how  he  and  his  com- 
panions, so  wearied  out  by  a  long  journey  which  they  had 
made  on  foot  as  to  be  ready  to  sink  to  the  earth,  arrived  at  a 
certain  village.  They  went  to  the  house  of  a  parish  priest ; 
but  he  refused  to  give  them  even  a  morsel  of  the  black  bread 
on  which  he  supported  himself  and  his  domestics.  After  they 
had  wandered  over  the  whole  village,  and  applied  in  vain  at 
every  door,  they  came  finally,  near  the  end  of  it,  to  a  poor 
hut,  where  they  were  offered  a  crust  of  bran-bread, — a  very 
acceptable  alms  to  persons  in  their  condition.  They  sat  down 
under  the  sky  and  regaled  themselves  on  this  fare  ;  and  never 
had  food  tasted  so  pleasant  to  them  before  as  this  bran- bread 

*  See  the  words  of  Thomas  Cantipratenus,  in  his  Bonum  universale 
de  apibus,  L.  II.  ex.:  Numquid  prime  vides  iu  praedicatorum  ordine 
fratres,  qui  etsi  studiis  continuis  et  vigiliis  macerati,  non  habentes  in 
zona  a;s,  per  lutosa  et  lubrica  pedibus  gradientes  terras  pra^dicationibus 
circuire,  imparata  frequenter  hospitia,  cibos  crudos,  et  duros,  et  super 
omnia  ingratitudiuem  hominum  sustinere  ?  He  relates  in  the  same 
chapter,  p.  164,  an  example  from  his  own  experience:  Veni  pedes  in 
villam  ignotam  mihi,  longo  itinere  fatigatus  in  tantum,  ut  prse  debilitate 
nimia  corde  me  deficere  mox  putarem.  Ingressi  fratres  domum  presby- 
teri  nee  saltem  frustum  panis  nigerrimi,  quo  familia  vescebatur,  potueruut 
obtinere.  Inde  digressi  late  per  villam  nihil  prorsus,  nisi  in  fine  villis  a 
quadam  paupercula  fragmen  panis  furfurei  habuerunt,  donum  satis 
magnum. 


OF  THE  FEAXCISCANS.  385 

mixed  with  straw.  '•'  And  not  without  deep  pain,"  says  this 
man,  who,  from  being  a  canonical  priest  at  Cantinpre,  had 
turned  Dominican,  ''  did  I  compare  myself,  who  was  not  able 
to  undergo  so  much  at  once  in  a  single  day,  with  those  de- 
servedly-called blessed  men  who,  in  many  places,  and  in  much 
worse  circumstances,  are  obliged  to  endure  greater  hardships 
than  these." 

With  good  reason,  if  we  compare  such  men  with  other 
monks,  might  it  be  said  of  them,  that  although  they  pursued 
no  bodily  occupation  to  obtain  a  subsistence,  yet  they  endured 
for  other  purposes  fer  greater  labours  and  deprivations.*  The 
Benedictine  Matthew  of  Paris,  who,  being  an  antagonist  to 
both  orders,  is  certainly  an  unexceptionable  witness,  relates 
how  the  Franciscans,  directly  after  the  establishment  of  theii* 
order,  were  favoured  by  pope  Innocent  the  Third ;  how  they 
settled  themselves  down  in  societies  of  ten  or  seven  in  the 
towns  and  vUlages ;  how  on  Sundays  and  festival  days  they 
came  forth  from  their  seclusion,  and  preached  in  the  parish 
churches ;  how  they  were  contented  with  anything  that  was 
offered  to  them  for  the  satisfying  of  their  bodily  wants  ;  and 
how  they  set  before  all  men  an  example  of  humility,  f  By 
their  strict  mode  of  living,  their  deprivations,  their  disinte- 
rested, indefetigable  labours  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  these 
monks  would  gain  the  love  and  respect  of  their  contemporaries, 
and  so  much  the  more  as  they  were  distinguished  thereby  fit)m 
the  other  worldly  and  degenerate  monks  of  older  foundations, 
who  sutfered  themselves  to  be  carried  away  by  the  tide  of  cor- 
ruption. |     Certainly,  their  efficiency  as  preachers  and  pastors 

*  See  L.  c. 

_t  At  the  year  1207 :  Sub  his  diebus  praedicatores,  qui  appellati  siint 
nunores,  favente  papa  Innocentio,  subito  emergentes  terram  repleverunt, 
habitantes  in  arbibus  et  civitatibus  deni  et  septeni,  nihil  omnino  possi- 
dentes,  in  victu  et  vestita  paupertatem  nimiam  praeferentes,  nudis  pedi- 
hm  incedentes,  maximum  humilitatis  exemplum  omnibus  prsebuerunt. 
Diebus  autem  dominicis  et  festivis,  de  suis  habitaculis  exeuntes,  prsedi- 
caverunt  in  ecclesiis  parochialibus  evangelium  verbi,  edentes  et  bibentes 
<inae  apud  illos  erant,  quibus  oflScium  praedicationis  impendebant.  Qui 
in  rerum  coelestium  contemplatione  tanto  perspicaciores  sunt  inventi, 
quanto  a  rebus  praesentis  sseculi  et  camalibus  deliciis  comprobantur 
Alieni. 

X  Complaints  of  the  licentious  manners  and  rude  worldly  lives  of 
many  among  the  Benedictines  may  be  found  in  a  letter  of  Robert  of 
voii.  VII.  2  c 


386  THE  MENDICANT  FRIARS  AND  THE  CLERGY. 

for  the  common  people  had  a  great  influence,  and  was  attended 
with  the  happiest  results,  so  long  as  due  care  was  taken  to 
select  the  right  sort  of  men  for  the  performance  of  these  duties. 
It  was  through  the  powerful  preaching  of  one  of  these  Fran- 
ciscans, Dodo  of  Friesland,  who  flourished  in  the  first  half 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  that  a  stop  was  finally  put  to  the 
practice  of  taking  revenge  for  bloodshed,  which  had  continued 
to  prevail  in  that  country  down  to  his  own  times.*  Pious 
bishops,  who  were  anxious  for  the  salvation  of  their  flocks, 
sent  of  their  own  accord  to  procure  men  from  these  two 
monkish  orders,  to  take  the  place  of  the  vicious  and  ignorant 
clergy,  in  the  oflSce  of  preaching  and  the  performance  of 
pastoral  duties ;  but  the  latter  finding  that  their  shameful 
deficiencies  were  exposed  by  these  monks,  and  that  the  people 
ran  after  the  new  preachers  and  confessors,  became  their 
bitterest  enemies.  Robert  Grosshead,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  for 
example,  a  prelate  sincerely  anxious  for  the  spiritual  prosperity 
of  his  extensive  diocese,  Avas  inclined  to  encourage  in  every 
way  the  labours  of  the  mendicant  friars  among  his  people. 
He  was  obliged  to  complain  that  his  clergyf  resorted  to  vari- 
ous bad  arts,  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  away  the  people  from 
the  new  preachers  and  confessors  belonging  to  the  two  mendi- 
cant orders ;  whilst  others,  whose  influence  M-as  most  injurious 
to  piety,  but  whose  spiritual  quackery  brought  gain  to  their 
employers,  were  welcomed  into  the  field. |  He  bade  the  priests 
of  his  diocese  take  every  pains  to  persuade  the  people  to  attend 
diligently  on  the  preaching  of  the  monks,  and  to  confess  to 
them,  but  to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  those  quacks^ — 
those  quaestuarii,  or  penny-preachers,  as  the  same  class  of 
people  were  called  in  the  sermons  of  the  pious  Franciscan, 

Lincoln,  in  the  collection  already  cited  on  p.  200,  ep.  53,  p.  343,  and  ep. 
108,  p.  382. 

*  Thomas  Cantipraten.  T.  I.  c.  i.  p.  120. 

t  On  whom  first  he  had  to  make  requisitions  of  this  sort,  ut  sciat 
unusquisque  saltem  simpliciter  articulos  fidei  et  decern  mandata.  See  his 
address  to  his  clergy,  1.  c.  p.  260. 

I  Sunt  quidam  rectores  et  vicarii  et  sacerdotes,  qui  non  solum  audire 
fastidiunt  prjedicationes  utriusque  ordinis,  sed  sicut  possunt,  ne  audiat 
eos  populus  prajdicantes  aut  iis  confitentur,  malitiose  pra;pediunt,  admit- 
tunt  etiam,  ut  dicitur,  pra;dicatores  qua;stuarios  ad  pncdicaudum,  qui 
solum  talia  preedicant,  qualia  nummum  melius  extrahunt.  See  ep.  107. 
to  his  archdeacon. 


THE  FRIARS  DEGENERATE.  38 T 

Berthold,  in  the  last  times  of  the  thirteenth  century.*  He  re- 
quested the  general  of  the  Dominicans  to  send  him  an  assistant"]" 
from  his  order ;  J  since  he  stood  in  great  need  of  help,  his  dio- 
cese being  large,  and  more  populous  than  any  other  in  England. 
It  was  his  desire  that  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  might 
have  men  around  him  that  were  not  only  versed  in  the  civil 
and  canon  laws,  but  that  had  also  studied  divine  wisdom  in  the 
sacred  oracles,  and  received  it  not  merely  into  their  minds,  but 
also  into  their  hearts,  and  bore  testimony  of  it  by  their  daily 
walk  ;  but  such  men  were  to  be  found  only  in  the  two  orders.§ 
So  agreeable  to  his  views  were  the  renunciation  of  everything 
earthly,  and  the  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  souls  in  those  two 
orders ;  so  much  did  he  hope  from  them  as  a  means  of  good  to 
the  church,  that  he  is  said  to  have  seriously  entertained  the  idea 
of  entering  into  one  of  the  orders  himself.  At  a  synod  held  at 
Cologne,  under  the  papal  l^ate,  Conrad,  a  paiish  priest  com- 
plained of  the  encroachments  of  the  Dominicans,  who,  under  the 

*  In  the  letter  just  referred  to.  Among  the  treasures  of  the  catheral 
library  of  Prague,  a  rich  and  important  collection  for  everything  pertain- 
ing to  church  history,  are  to  be  found  many  other  manuscript  letters  of 
the  bishop  of  Lincoln,  serving  to  illustrate  this  point,  which  are  not  con- 
tained in  the  collection  published  by  Brown.  In  a  letter  to  the  pope,  in 
which  he  laments  over  the  corruption  of  the  church  and  the  great  want 
of  religious  instruction,  he  mentions  the  Dominicans  as  shining  conspi- 
cuously above  all  others  throughout  the  whole  land,  luce  prwdicationis. 
Ep.  6.  In  a  letter  to  the  cardinal  de  Ostia  (ep.  7),  he  says :  Fratres 
Minoritse  per  Angliam  constituti  sua  salubri  prsedicatione  populum  eflS- 
caciter  illuminant  ad  veritatem.  In  a  letter  to  a  bishop,  in  which  he 
advocates  the  cause  of  the  injured  mendicant  friars,  he  says  of  them : 
Verbo  prsedicationis  et  exemplo  populum  illuminant  et  supplent  in  hac 
parte  defectum  praelatorum.  During  a  short  residence  in  Prague,  in  the 
year  181",  when,  by  the  distinguished  kindness  and  liberality  of  a  very 
worthy  man,  whom  I  hold  in  grateful  remembrance,  the  late  archdeacon 
Pallas,  I  was  allowed  the  privilege  of  consulting  these  treasures  with  the 
utmost  freedom,  I  took  these  notes.  May  the  example  of  that  excellent 
person,  in  allowing  men  of  letters  the  freest  access  to  those  valuable  trea- 
sures, shine  forth  as  a  light  to  all  that  come  after  him. 

t  See  above,  p.  287. 

X  Ideo  nos  pluri  et  efficaciore  indigemus  auxilio  in  verbi  Dei  praedica- 
tione,  confessionum  auditione,  pcEnitentiarum  injunctione,  prudentiori 
quoque  consilio  in  variorum  et  novorum  casuum  quotidie  emergeutium 
secundum  scripturarum  iutelligentiam  sana  et  salubri  determinatione  nee 
novimus  tam  eflScacem  in  hac  parte  coadjutorem  quam  fratrem,  etc. 
Ep.  40,  p.  334. 

§  See  ep.  114,  p.  388,  and  Matthew  of  Paris,  at  the  year  1247.  f.  630, 

2  C  2 


388  THE  POPE  AND  THE  FRIARS. 

characters  of  confessors,  had  contrived  to  win  the  favour  of  tlie 
people,  and  to  monopolize  everything  to  themselves.  The  le- 
gate upon  this  asked  him  how  large  his  congregation  was ; 
and  being  told  that  it  consisted  of  nine  thousand  souls,  he 
severely  rebuked  the  man  who  was  willing  to  undertake  alone 
the  responsibility  of  caring  for  so  many  souls,  and  did  not 
rather  rejoice  to  find  men  who  were  willing  to  assist  him 
gratuitously  in  his  formidable  work.* 

But  the  greater  the  influence  exercised  by  the  mendicant 
friars,  as  preachers  and  confessors,  and  as  persons  who  mixed 
familiarly  with  all  classes,  upon  the  people,  so  much  the  more 
pernicious  would  it  prove  when  it  came  to  be  abused  by  igno- 
rant and  badly  disposed  men  ;  and  of  such  there  would  be  no 
want  as  the  branches  of  these  orders  extended  and  multiplied. 
The  causes  that  had  introduced  corruption  amongst  the  other 
monkish  societies,  as  socJn  as  they  attained  to  eminence,  were 
not  inactive  in  the  case  of  these ;  and  soon  many  evils  began 
to  intermingle  with  the  benefits  which  flowed  from  them.  As 
they  enjoyed  the  special  favour  of  the  popes,  and,  through 
their  respective  generals  in  Rome,  stood  in  close  relations  with 
the  popes,  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  employed  by  the 
latter  as  instruments  for  exacting  money,  and  for  other  bad 
purposes.  The  historian  Matthew  of  Paris,  who  had  himself 
perceived  and  extolled  the  good  influences  of  these  foundations 
at  the  time  of  their  first  appearance,  complains  of  the  change 
which  had  taken  place  in  the  .'ame  monks  after  the  lapse  of  a 
few  years  ;  how  they  erected  sumptuous  buildings,  and  though 
it  was  against  their  wishes,  yet  consented  to  be  employed  by 
the  popes  for  exacting  contributions.^  If  we  may  credit  him, 
Robert,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  who  had  hoped  so  much  good  from 
them,  denounced  them  shortly  before  his  death,  because  his 
expectations  had  in  so  many  respects  been  disappointed. |  Men 
had  occasion  to  complain  of  the  obtrusiveness  of  these  monks, 
of  the  tricks  to  which  they  resorted  in  order  to  slip  into 
monasteries,  and  there  fix  tliemselves,  after  they  had  once  been 
voluntarily  received  as  guests.     It  was  said  that  they  souglit 

*  See  Thomas  Cantipraten.  L.  I.  c.  ix.  p.  39. 

t  Papa  de  ipsis,  licet  invitis,  suos  fecit  telonarios  et  multifonms 
pecuniarum  exactores.  At  the  year  1250,  f.  696;  comp.  the  year  12o: 
f.  339. 

I  See  Matthew  of  Paris,  year  1253,  f.  752. 


THEIR  IXFLUEXCE  ON  THE  YOUTH.  389 

to  elevate  themselves  at  the  expense  of  all  other  monks  and 
ecclesiastics ;  that  they  took  pains  to  represent  their  order  as. 
the  only  holy  one  ;  that  they  bound  the  people  exclusively  to 
themselves;  and  endeavoured  to  instil  into  them  distrust  of 
their  clergy,  who,  to  be  sure,  often  furnished  occasion  enough 
for  it.  Easily  might  the  people  be  carried  so  fer  as  to  regard 
nil  other  confessors — and  among  the  clergy  there  were  but  too 
many  whose  lives  were  altogether  scandalous — as  worthless, 
and  to  run  after  these  monks  alone.*  The  enormous  influence 
of  these  orders  threatened  to  overun  the  whole  previous  con- 
stitution of  the  church,  and  to  do  away  the  various  gradations 
and  intermediate  links  between  the  pope  and  the  other  parts  of 
which  the  church  was  composed. f 

Partly  by  the  force  of  the  idea  lying  at  the  bottom  of  these 
two  orders,  and  having  its  deeper  ground  in  the  pious  spirit  of 
the  age, — partly  by  the  authority  which  individual  preachers 
exercised  over  the  minds  of  men,  the  minds  of  the  youth  were 
especially  carried  away.  Young  men  of  every  rank  entered, 
sometimes, — as  in  the  case  of  the  far-famed  Tiiomas  Aquinas, 
contrary  to  the  will  of  their  parents,  into  one  of  these  orders. 
Such  as  had  been  brought  up  in  a  luxurious  manner  were,  by 
enthusiasm  for  the  church  and  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  ren- 
dered capable  of  enduring  the  greatest  hardships.  J  This 
influence  on  the  youth  threatened  to  spread  still  more  widely ; 
even  at  the  universities  it  seemed  to  be  constantly  on  the 
increase.  One  of  the  main  directions  of  spirit  in  the  thirteenth 
century — the  scientific  speculative  spirit,  penetrated  and  im- 
bued with  religious  feeling — was  powerfully  influenced  by  tlie 

*  See  Matthe-n-  of  Paris,  year  1236,  f.  354. 

t  Words  of  Matthew  of  Paris,  year  1246,  f.  608 :  Malti  pnecipue 
nobiles  et  nobiljum  uxores,  sprefis  propriis  sacerdotibus  et  prselatis,  ipsis 
prsedicatoribus  confitebantur,  unde  noa  mediocriter  viluit  ordinariorom 
dignitas  et  conditio  et  de  tanto  sui  contempta  non  sine  magna  confusione 
doluerunt  nee  sine  evidenti  causa,  videbant  ordinem  ecclesiae  jam  enor- 
miter  perturbari.  Comp.  the  documents  of  evidence  furnished  by  Dr. 
Gieseler,  in  the  Studieu  und  Kritiken,  »  1,  an.  1828,  s.  809,  and 
onward. 

X  Thomas  Cantiprat.  L.  TI.  c.  x.  p.  171  :  Vidimus  maxima  in  initio 
ordiuis  praedicatorum,  vidimus  et  nunc  juvenes  inexpertos,  delicatos, 
recenter  a  sseculo  venientes,  circuire  terras  socialiter  combinatos  inter  no- 
centes  innocentes,  simplices  sicut  columbas  inter  astntissime  malignantes, 
prudenter  tamen  sicut  serpentes  in  sui  custodia  ambulantes. 


390      THEIR  INFLUENCK  AMONG  THE  LEARNED  AND  NOBLE, 

idea  of  these  two  orders.  Men  of  great  acuteness  and  pro- 
■fundity, — destined  to  be  the  teachers  of  their  times  and  of 
succeeding  centuries,  proceeded  from  these  orders.  By  their 
means,  too,  a  ready  entrance  was  procured  for  them  into  the 
universities  ;  and  it  was  to  be  feared  that  they  would  become 
masters  ol  all  the  influence  in  these  establishments  ;  that  these 
great  institutions  would  have  to  lose  their  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence. To  be  sure,  the  defenders  of  these  orders  could 
appeal  to  the  fact,  that  the  teachers  whom  they  sent  out  had 
attained  to  such  eminence  by  their  superior  diligence  and  zeal, 
— since  they  were  never  drawn  aside  from  their  work  by 
worldly  amusements, — while  the  professors  from  the  order  of 
the  secular  clergy  were  wont  to  indulge  in  various  dissipations, 
and  bestowed  much  less  care  on  their  lectures.* 

Moreover,  these  monks  contrived,  by  fair  means  or  foul,  to 
establish  their  authority  in  the  families  of  noblemen  and  princes, 
as  confessors  and  pastoral  labourers,  f  Possessing  so  much  influ- 
ence with  the  popes — who  often  chose  their  secretaries  from 
these  orders — and  with  the  potentates  of  the  world, — whom 
men  from  the  same  order  frequently  served  as  counsellors  and 
agents, — they  were  regarded  by  the  other  monks  and  by  the 
clergy  with  fear,  and  men  took  care  how  they  got  into  quarrel 
with  them. I  King  Louis  the  ninth  of  France, — whose  piety, 
though  it  had  a  monk-like  taint,  yet  was  something  more  than 
bare  superstition  and  ceremonial  observance, — a  piety  truly 

*  Thomas  Cantipratenus,  who,  we  admit,  wrote  in  the  interest  of  his 
party,  but  still  could  hardly  be  supposed  to  manufacture  what  he  said 
out  of  whole  cloth,  reports,  L.  IT.  c.  x.  p.  281 :  Videbant  scholares,  quod 
magistri  saeculares  sicut  viri  divitiarum  dormierunt  somnum  suum,  duce- 
bantque  in  bonis  dies  suos,  et  quum  vespere  multiplicitate  ferculorum 
obruerentur  et  potuum  et  postea  vigilare  non  possent,  nee  studere,  et  per 
hoc  nihil  invenire  in  manibus,  quod  proferrent,  sequent!  mane  solennem 
diem  constituebant,  auditoribus  condensis,  et  sic  per  ineptas  vacationes, 
quibus  sua  clerici  expendere  se  dolebant,  optato  privabantur  studio. 

■f  Bishop  Robert  of  Lincoln  is  said  before  his  death  to  have  objected  to 
them  that,  independent  of  ajl  worldly  considerations  as  they  had  become, 
by  their  renunciation  of  the  world,  and  therefore  in  a  condition  to  rebuke 
wickedness  in  the  mighty  ones  of  the  earth,  they  yet  neglected  to  do  so. 
See  Matthew  of  Paris,  at  the  year  1253,  f.  752. 

X  Matthew  of  Paris,  year  1236,  f.  354:  In  multis  cedebant  iis  reli* 
giosi,  propter  potentum  offendiculum.  Erant  enim  magnatum  consi- 
liatores  et  nuncii,  etiam  domini  papa:  secretarii,  nimis  in  hoc  gratiam  sibi 
saecularum  comparantes. 


THE  PABISIAX  UNIVERSITY.  391 

penetrated  by  vital  Christianity,  by  the  spirit  of  Christian  love, 
— promoted,  from  religious  motives,  with  peculiar  zeal,  the 
interests  of  these  two  orders  of  monks.  Wherever  he  heard  of 
zealoxis  preachers,  he  sent  for  them  to  come  to  liim.  "WhUe 
residing  at  Yeres  in  Provence,  he  invited  to  his  court  a 
preacher  of  this  class,  the  Franciscan  Hugo,  who  was  creating 
a  great  censation  in  those  parts.*  He  must  also  preach  before 
the  king ;  he  did  so ;  and  told  the  king  that,  if  he  wanted  to 
enjoy  a  long  life  and  happy  reign,  he  must  practise  justice ;  by 
the  contrary  course  empires  had  sunk  to  ruin,  among  believers 
and  unbelievers.  The  king  invited  him  repeatedly  to  stay  with 
him  as  long  as  he  remained  in  Provence  ;  but  the  pious  monk 
did  not  wish  to  be  interrupted  in  his  labours  amongst  the 
people;  he  excused  himself,  and  spent  only  a  day  at  the 
court,  f 

The  two  orders  of  monks,  countenanced  and  supported  by 
such  mighty  powers,  met  with  the  most  violent  opposition 
from  the  university  of  Paris,  which  vindicated  against  them  its 
ancient  freedom.  This  university  formed  a  society  distinguished 
by  its  independent  spirit,  a  society  which  boldly  maintained  its 
rights  in  the  contest  with  popes  and  monarchs.  When  she 
believed  these  were  encroached  upon,  her  teachers  were  accus- 
tomed to  suspend  their  lectures  and  sermons,  and  shut  them- 
selves up  in  retirement,  which,  by  reason  of  the  great  influence 
this  university  exercised  on  the  scientific  culture  of  the  times, 
— when  the  youth  resorted  to  it  from  all  quarters  of  the  world, 
made  no  small  impression.  This  means  of  defence  was  also 
employed  by  it  during  the  present  contests.  It  seemed  at  first 
that  the  cause  of  the  two  orders  must  succumb ;    for  pope 

*  The  following  words  of  his  last  will,  addressed  to  his  son,  character- 
ise the  man  : — '•  The  first  thing  I  recommend  and  prescribe  to  thee  is, 
that  thou  shouldst  love  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  above  all  things,  for 
without  this  no  man  can  be  blessed.  Aiid  take  good  heed  that  thou  doest 
nothing  which  may  be  displeasing  to  God  ;  that  is,  that  thou  committest 
no  sin,  for  sooner  oughtest  thou  to  be  willing  to  suffer  any  torture  than 
to  allow  thyself  to  be  hurried  into  any  mortal  sin.  If  God  sendest  upon 
thee  misfortune,  accept  it  cheerfully,  and  thank  him  for  it ;  consider  that 
thou  hast  well  deserved  it,  and  that  everything  shall  work  together  to 
thee  for  good.  If  he  bestows  on  thee  prosperity,  thank  him  with  sjl 
humility,  and  take  care  that  thou  dost  not  from  pride,  or  in  any  other 
way,  becomes  the  worse  for  it." 

t  This  is  stated  by  Joinvilie,  in  the  Memoires,  ed.  Petitot,  T.  IL 
p,  384. 


392  WILLIAM  DE  ST.  AMOUR 

Innocent  the  Fourth,  moved  by  the  complaints  that  came  to 
him  from  all  sides  of  the  progress  of  the  mendicants  at  the 
expense  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  order,  of  the  infringements 
on  the  rights  of  bishops  and  parish  priests  and  the  interruption 
of  their  labours,  issued  a  bull,  in  the  year  1254,  designed  to 
protect  the  latter  in  their  rights,  and  to  set  limits  to  the  all- 
absorbing  influence  of  the  mendicant  friars.  He  thereby  drew 
upon  himself  the  hatred  of  the  latter,  who  interpreted  his 
death,*  which  followed  shortly  afterwards,  as  a  divine  punish- 
ment, and  who  felt  strong  because  they  could  rely  upon  the 
help  of  more  than  one  monarch,  f  So  much  the  more  favour- 
able to  the  mendicant  friars  was  Innocent's  successor,  Alexander 
the  Fourth,  who  issued  several  bulls,  deciding  in  their  favour 
against  the  Parisian  university,  where  they  continually  sought 
to  extend  their  influence  and  to  monopolize  more  places.  The 
rights  of  this  university  were  at  that  time  defended  by  a  man 
of  great  firmness  and  resolution,  possessed  of  a  strongly  marked 
individuality  of  character,  and  a  clear  understanding, — the 
Parisian  Canonicus  and  Doctor  of  Theology,  William  of  St. 
Amour  (Gulielmus  de  Sancto  Amore).J  In  direct  opposition 
to  the  mystico-speculative  tendency,  represented  by  the  more 
important  theologians  of  the  two  orders  of  monks,  clearness  of 
understanding  constituted  with  him  the  predominant  quality. 
In  a  writing  composed  a.d.  1255,  '■^ De  periculis  novissimorum 
temporum,"  he  described  those  monks,  without  naming  them, 

*  Thomas  Cantipratenus  characteristically  remarks :  Eadem  die  para- 
lyse percussus  obmutuit  nee  iinquam  postea  invaluit  aut  surrexit.  Qui 
etiam  a  quodam  sanctissimo  viro  extra  muros  orbis  Komse  manifestissime 
visus  est  mortuus  dari  Sanctis  Dei  Francisco  atque  Dominico  judicandus. 
L.  c.  L.  II.  c.  X.  s.  21,  p.  174.  Compare  the  altogether  different  manner 
in  -which  the  free-spirited  English  Benedictine,  Matthew  of  Paris,  judged 
concerning  the  death  of  this  pope.    See  page  259. 

■j-  Thomas  Cantipratenus  says  :  "The  princes,  -when  they  heard  of  a 
hostile  bull  which  was  about  to  be  fulminated  by  this  pope  against  these 
tw  o  orders,  swore  that  they  would  seize  the  possessions  and  revenues  of 
the  secular  clergy  if  the  pope  meant  to  destroy  the  two  orders :  '  for,' 
said  they,  *  these  orders  have  been  given  as  a  special  blessing  to  the  world, 
by  virtue  of  the  instruction  they  communicate  and  the  example  they 
furnish  to  it,'"  c.  x.  p.  174.  The  zealous  defender  and  the  fiercest 
opponent  of  the  two  monastic  orders  agree  together,  when  William  de 
St.  Amour  says  of  the  Benedictines :  Principes  illis  favorabil lores  provo- 
cant  contra  illos,  qui  eos  non  recipiunt  aut  quos  odiunt. 

X  So  called  from  his  native  city,  then  belonging  to  Burgundy. 


AGAINST   THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS.  393 

as  the  precursors  of  antichrist,  as  mock -saints  and  hypocrites, 
who,  by  various  wicked  arts,  sought  to  bring  all  influence  in 
the  church  under  their  own  control.  What  is  said  in  the 
gospels  concerning  the  pharisees,  and  in  the  pastoral  epistles 
concerning  the  false  teachers  of  the  last  times,  he  applies  to 
them.  The  same  points  he  set  forth  in  his  preaching ;  and 
courageously  defended,  in  conversation  and  in  letters,  what  he 
had  asserted  in  that  book. 

The  entire  mode  of  life  followed  by  these  monks,  he  repre- 
sented as  one  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  essence  of  Christianity. 
He  brought  against  them  the  precept  given  by  the  apostle 
Paul,  in  the  first  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  that  every  man 
should  support  himself  by  the  labour  of  his  own  hands.  He 
who  would  gain  his  livelihood  by  begging,  is  beguiled  thereby 
into  flattering,  calumniating,  and  lying.  When  the  mendicant 
friars  maintained  that,  in  following  Christ,  they  strove  to 
reach  the  highest  perfection,  he  replied :  "  It  is  a  work  of  per- 
fection, for  Christ's  sake,  to  leave  all  and  follow  him,  in  the 
sense  of  imitating  him  in  good  works.  Christ  invited  men, 
Luke  xviii.  22  (the  passage  usually  quoted  in  support  of  the 
consilium  erangelicum  of  poverty),  to  follow  him  in  doing 
that  which  is  good,  not  by  begging,  for  this  is  a  thing  for- 
bidden by  the  apostle  Paul.  He  who  has  renounced  all  earthly 
goods  in  order  to  strive  after  perfection,  must  either  support 
himself  by  the  labour  of  his  own  hands  or  seek  his  mainte- 
nance in  a  monastery.  Christ  and  his  apostles  never  begged ; 
Christ  carried  about  a  purse  with  him ;  he  and  his  apostles  had 
women  with  them,  who  provided  for  their  bodily  wants.  The 
apostles  gained  their  subsistence  by  working  at  their  trades, 
and  received  freewill  offerings  only  from  those  to  whom  they 
preached  the  gospel."  He  does  not  hesitate  to  declare,  that 
although  this  mode  of  life,  which  was  really  at  variance  with 
the  gospel,  had  been  erroneously  confirmed  by  the  church, 
yet  this  judgment  of  the  church  should  be  revoked  after  the 
truth  became  known,  for  even  the  judgment  of  the  Eomish 
church  was  liable  to  correction.*  He  appeals  to  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Lateran  councU  of  1215,  and  to  its  interdict  against 
the  multiplication  of  monkish  orders,  quoted  on  a  former 
page.f     "  Yet  why,  after  the  promulgation  of  this  law,  have 

♦  Cap.  xii.  f  Page  396. 


394  WILLIAM  DE  ST.  AMOUR 

SO  many  new  foundations  of  this  kind  sprung  up,  unless — 
which  far  be  it  from  us  to  say — this  council  erred  in  enacting 
snch  a  law  ?  "  *  He  not  obscurely  charges  those  monks  with 
Pharisaical  arrogance,  when  they  appropriated  the  name  reli- 
gio,  a  name  which  it  was  customary  in  the  thirteenth  century 
to  give  to  monasticism,  to  their  mode  of  life  ;  and  he  applies  to 
them  the  saying  of  Christ  (Matthew  xxiii.  15),  with  regard  to 
the  proselyting  spirit  of  the  pharisees ;  objecting  to  them,  that 
persons,  Avho  before  had  lived  in  simplicity,  if  they  were  per- 
suaded to  embrace  their  so-called  religion,  turned  at  once  into 
arrant  hypocrites.  Among  the  artifices  by  which  they  sought 
to  increase  their  influence,  he  reckons  those  in  particular  by 
which  they  endeavoured  to  draw  over  to  their  side  young  men 
of  fine  parts  at  the  universities.f  As  they  exercised  so  great  an 
influence  by  their  preaching,  he  attacked  them  also  on  that 
score,  accusing  them  of  having  obtruded  themselves  uninvited 
into  the  calling  of  preachers  and  pastors ;  of  seeking  only  to 
make  a  display  of  their  eloquence,  their  penetration,  and  their 
learning,  but  caring  little  about  that  which  might  minister  to 
salvation. I  He  objected  to  them,  that  after  having  procured 
canonization  for  men  belonging  to  their  order,  they  resorted  to 
all  possible  means  of  glorifying  their  festivals,  extolled  their  mi- 
racles above  those  of  the  ancient  martyrs  and  of  the  apostles, 
and  even  boasted  of  spurious  miracles ;  that  they  contrived, 
by  auricular  confession,  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with  all 
the  particular  and  personal  relations  of  individuals,  and  then 
availed  themselves  of  this  knowledge  to  sway  the  minds  of  men, 
and  to  draw  them  off"  from  their  ecclesiastical  superiors. § 

It  deserves  to  be  noticed,  that  he  hints  at  the  possibility  of 
a  schism  of  the  church,  to  be  brought  about  by  their  means. 
If  once  the  prelates  should  perceive  it  to  be  necessary  to  resist 
their  encroachments  and  their  overgrown  authority,  they 
might  easily  be  tempted  to  go  to  the  length  of  renouncing 

*  Secta  sua,  quam  religionem  appellant,  c.  xiv. 

■f  Plerumque  circumeunt  universitates,  in  quibus  juvenes  ingeniosi  et 
subtiles  valeant  inveniri,  quibus  inventis  circumeunt  illos  verbis  compo- 
sitis,  commendantes  suum  statum  et  suas  traditiones,  1.  319. 

%  Non  ea  quserentes  quaj  ad  salutem  suam  et  alioruvn  proficiant,  sed 
ex  quibus  singulariter  eruditi  apparent,  p.  395. 

§  Cujuslibet  proprietates  per  confessiones  rimando  et  sic  populum  mul- 
tipliciter  sibi  alliciendo  et  a  suorum  prajlatorum  et  doctorum  veracium 
doctriua  et  consiliis  avertendo,  p.  208. 


AGAINST  THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS.  395 

obedience  to  them ;  aiid  the  consequence  would  be,  that  men 
would  also  renounce  obedience  to  the  Roman  see,  and  the 
unity  of  the  church  being  thus  broken  up,  the  way  would  be 
prepared  for  the  coming  of  antichrist.*  It  is  worthy  of  notice 
again,  that  he  foretells  how,  as  opponents  of  the  secularization 
of  the  clei^y,  as  defenders  of  humility  in  the  appearance  of 
the  church,  they  would  incite  the  monarchs  to  deprive  the 
church  of  all  her  secular  possessions,  on  the  ground  that  no- 
thing but  a  purely  spriritual  juristliction  belonged  to  her.| 
He  spoke  against  a  certain  pietistic  bent,  promoted  by  the  influ- 
ence of  these  monks,  which  led  men  to  look  upon  a  coarse  and 
squalid  dress  as  a  mark  of  humility.  He  maintained,  on  the 
contrary,  that  one  might  wear  even  sumptuous  apparel,  were 
It  but  appropriate  to  the  station  of  the  individual  and  to  the 
customs  of  the  land,  and  not  subservient  to  pride ;  ^  and  that 
pride  may  go  in  the  dress  of  a  beggar  as  well  as  in  costly 
robes.  Pride  in  a  beggarly  garb  was  so  much  the  worse,  be- 
cause it  carried  hypocrisy  along  with  it,  which  he  proved  by 
quoting  Matthew  vi.  16.§  Nor  did  he  hesitate  to  attack  the 
direction  which  had  been  given  by  the  influence  of  the  mendi- 
cant friars  to  the  piety  of  king  Louis  the  Ninth.  He  said, 
among  other  things,  in  one  of  his  sermons,  that  it  behoved 
kings  II  to  clothe  themselves  in  a  manner  corresponding  to 
their  exalted  station,  since  this  was  requisite  in  order  to  maia- 

*  Page  289. 

t  Sub  eo  etiam  prsetextu,  quod  sint  humilitatis  ecclesiae  zelatores 
landant  et  jostificant  principes  sa?culares,  temporalem  ecclesia;  jurisdic- 
tionem  coarctantes,  diccntes  scilicet  ac  persuadentes  dictis  principibus, 
qnod  ecclesiae  non  debet  habere  jnrisdictionem  temporalem,  ut  sic  ad  eos 
fecilius  recursum  habeant  in  snis  negotiis,  p.  -119. 

X  He  was  charged  with  asserting,  Quod  pretiositas  vestiom  non  nocet 
vel  javat  ad  saeculum.  But  he  declared  that  he  had  expressed  himself  as 
follows  :  Quod  licet  uti  veste  pretiosa,  dum  tamen  non  excedat  homo  vel 
mulier  modulum  personae  suae  vel  mores  provincial,  vel  non  hoc  faciat 
causa  movendse  concupiscentiae.  §  Page  125. 

II  King  Louis  the  Ninth  declared  himself  oppposed  to  superfluity  of 
ornament  in  dress,  and  said  that  the  money  expended  in  this  way  had 
better  be  given  to  the  poor.  See  his  life  by  Gottfried  of  Beaulieu,  in  Da 
Chesne,  Script,  hist.  France,  T.  V.  f.  447.  It  was  his  wish  to  wear  on 
Friday  and  several  other  days,  for  penance,  a  hair  shirt  {cilicium),  next 
his  body ;  but  his  own  confessor  told  him  that  such  penance  was  not  befit- 
ting a  person  in  his  station ;  he  ought  rather  to  be  bountiful  in  bestowing 
alms,  and  to  be  strict  in  administering  justice  to  his  subjects.  L,  c. 
f.  451.    Yet  Joinville,  in  his  Memoirs,  cites  a  principle  set  forth  by  this  • 


396       WILLIAM  DE  ST.  AMOUR  AGAINST  THE  PAPELLARDI. 

tain  their  royal  dignity.  It  was  not  required  of  them  that 
they  should  hear  many  masses  every  day,*  or  that  they  should 
attend  early  mass  ;  but  that  they  should  dispense  justice,  and 
faithfully  fulfil  their  calling.  To  put  down  the  party  of  the 
Papellardi,f  (a  term  equivalent  to  canters,  pietists,  in  later 
times,)  among  whom  Louis  the  Ninth  was  reckoned  by 
worldly-minded  people  and  the  opponents  of  monkish  piety,  f 
he  employed  the  following  singular  argument :  "  Were  it  a 
sin  to  wear,  under  befitting  circumstances,  a  costly  garment, 
Ciirist  would  not  have  worn  that  seamless  coat  (John  xix. 
23),  which  in  relation  to  his  poverty  must  have  been  costly 
enough."  §  Accordingly  he  warned  men  against  that  false 
humility  which  is  assumed  for  appearance  sake ;  and  is  said 
to  have  remarked  in  one  of  his  sermons,  |1  "  Were  one  now 
to  put  on  so  costly  a  garment,  the  Papellardi  would  spit  at 
him,  as  the  Pharisees  spat  in  the  face  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  when  so  clad."  And  since  the  idea  which  lay  at 
bottom  of  the  orders  of  the  mendicant  friars  was  an  idea 
widely  prevailing ;  since  there  were,  indeed,  a  number  of 
societies  of  laymen,  men  and  women,  who  had  associated 
for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  a  similar  mode  of  life ;   and 

monarch  :  Que  Ton  se  doit  vestir  en  telle  maniere  et  porter  selon  son 
estat,  que  les  prudes  du  monde  ne  puissent  dire :  vous  en  faites  trop, 
n'aussi  les  jeunes  gens  :  vous  en  fates  peu.     Ed.  Petitot,  p.  175, 

*  King  Louis  heard  daily  two,  frequently  three  or  four  masses.  To 
the  nobles,  who  murmured  at  this,  he  said,  "  If  he  only  would  spend  the 
same  amount  of  time  in  throwing  dice  or  in  hunting  in  the  forest,  nobody 
would  have  a  word  to  object.  See  Gottfried  de  Beaulieu,  1.  c.  f.  456. 
William  de  St.  Amour  is  doubtless  referred  to  in  what  Thomas  Cantipra- 
tenus  says  (see  page  385),  in  his  Bonum  Universale,  L.  II.  c.  Ivii.  s.  64, 
p.  588 :  Erubescebat  theologiccc  cathedra;  vilis  ille  prscsumptor,  qui  prse- 
dicavit,  ipsum,  de  quo  scripsimus  regem,  non  debere  communibus  uti 
vestibus  sed  semper  purpuratum  incedere,  nee  plures  missas  audire,  quam 
unam.  Mortaliter  autera  peccare  dicebat  omnes  illos,  qui  dictum  regem 
inducerent  ad  hujusmodi  devotiouis  et  humilitatis  exemplum. 

t  The  name  denotes,  etymologically,  a  person  wholly  devoted  to  the 
popes,  the  parsons,  the  clergy.  The  Papellardi  were,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  most  directly  opposed  to  the  people  of  the  world,  Mundanis. 

t  Hex  papellardus.  Vid.  Thomas  Cantipraten.  L.  c.  s.  63.  It  is 
related  that  the  Dominicans  almost  persuaded  the  king  to  consent  to  be 
admitted  into  their  order;  vid.  Richerii  Chronicon  Senonense,  L.  IV. 
c.  xxxvii.     D'Achery,  Spicileg.  T.  II.  f.  645.  §  Page  132. 

II  Yet  it  is  not  afiBrmed  that  he  expressed  himself  in  precisely  these 
%vords. 


FPJARS  DEFENDED   BY  BONAVEXTURA  AND  THOMAS.        397 

since  it  was  the  custom  to  call  the  persons  thus  associated, 
praying  brethren  (beghardi)  and  praying  sisters  {beguitUF, 
beguttce),  William  of  St.  Amour  could  say,  in  defence  of 
himself,  that  '''  the  mendicant  friars  had  no  right  to  regard  his 
strictures  on  the  pietistic  bent  that  belonged  amongst  the 
dangers  of  the  last  times,  as  an  attack  upon  their  particular 
mode  of  life, — which  had  been  approved  by  the  apostolic  see ; 
for  in  truth  all  his  remarks  applied  to  those  pious  associations 
which  rested  upon  no  such  high  authority,  but  had  been 
attacked  from  various  quarters.  'He  referred  particularly  to 
those  young  men  and  maidens  itinerating  about  in  France, 
who,  xmder  pretence  of  living  only  for  prayer,*  had  really  no 
other  object  in  view  than  to  get  rid  of  work,  and  live  on  the 
alms  of  the  pious. f  As  he  had  attacked  none  of  those  orders 
by  name  which  subsisted  by  authority  of  the  Roman  church, 
so,  whoever  felt  himself  hit  by  what  he  had  remarked  in  a 
very  general  way  about  uncalled  preachers,  canters,  beggars, 
and  vagabonds,  would  find  that  he  was  accused  by  nobody  but 
hunself."  + 

The  cause  of  these  monastic  orders  was  defended  with  spirit 
and  ingenuity  by  distinguished  men  of  their  own  body ;  such 
as  Bonaventura,  Albertus  Magnus,  and  Thomas  Aquinas ; 
but  yet,  not  without  a  due  share  of  that  sophistry  of  party 
feeling,  which  may  be  discerned  on  both  sides.  Their  state- 
ments do,  on  the  one  hand,  really  expose  the  injustice  and 
extravagance  of  many  things  said  by  their  antagonists  ;  but,  on 
the  other,  they  are  obliged  to  testily,  in  spite  of  themselves,  to 
truth,  which  bore  unfavourably  on  their  own  interests. 

With  the  greatest  justice  the  defenders  of  the  mendicant 
friars  could  affirm  that  the  bad  state  of  the  clergy  rendered, 
such  kind  of  assistance  as  that  which  was  furnished  to  the 

*  Like  those  more  ancient  Eachites. 

t  Propter  quosdam  juvenes,  quos  appellant  bones  valetos  et  propter 
quasdam  mulieres  juvenes,  quas  appellant  begninas  per  totum  regnum 
jam  diffusas,  qui  omnes,  cum  sint  validi  ad  operandum,  parum  certe  aut 
nihil  volent  operari,  sed  vivere  volunt  de  eleemosynis  in  otio  corporali 
sub  prsEtextu  orandi,  cum  nullius  sint  religionis  per  sedem  apostolicam 
approbatae,  p.  91. 

X  Si  qui  ergo  pra;dicatores  contra  se  specialiter  dicta  ex  more  suspi- 
centur,  et  asserant  et  ideo  ea  ferre  non  possint,  sed  contra  ilia  quasi  ad 
soam  defensionem  se  praeparent  et  coram  praedicatores  impugnent,  viden- 
tor  esse  tales,  qoales  supra  dictum  est,  p.  440. 


398         BOX  A  VENTURA  AND  THOMAS  AQUINAS 

church  by  their  orders,  a  matter  of  necessity,     Bonaventura 
maintained,  that  "  because  sins  within  the  church  were  con- 
tinually on  the  increase,  and  the  bishops,  occupied  with  exter- 
nal things,  could  not  turn  their  attention  to  spiritual  affairs ; 
because  few  shepherds  resided  with  their  churches,  but  the 
majority  committed  the  guidance  of  souls  to  hireling  vicars, 
who  were  for  the  most  part  ignorant,  negligent,  and  impure  in 
their  lives, — therefore  the  pope,  on  whom  devolves  the  care  of 
the  whole  chruch,  has  called  us  to  the  assistance  of  the  clergy 
and   the   communities."*     How  very  necessary  it  was    that 
preaching  and  pastoral  duties  should  be  intrusted  to  others 
besides  the  parish  priests,  Thomas  Aquinas  proves,  by  referring 
to  the  incompetency  of  many  priests,  who  in  a  large  number 
of  districts  were  so  ignorant  as  not  even  to  understand  the 
Latin  language,     "Very  few  indeed,"  he  said,   "had  made 
themselves  acquainted  with  the   Holy  Scriptures,  though  a 
preacher  of  the  divine  word  should  be  well  instructed  in  them." 
Again,  many  communities  were  so  large  that  a  single  parish 
priest,  who  did  nothing  else  in  his  whole  life,  would  find  it 
impossible  to  hear  carefully  the  confessions  of  all.     Experience 
teaches,  too,  that  if  they  had  none  to  confess  to  but  their  own 
parish  priests,  many  would  wholly  omit  it,  either  from  an 
unwillingness  to  confess  their  sins  to  those  with  whom  they 
daily  associated,  or  because  they  looked  upon  them  as  their 
enemies,  or  for  various  other  reasons.     They  whose  business 
it  was  to  care  for  the  salvation  of  souls  should  be  distinguished 
for  their  knowledge   and   their  holy  lives ;  and  a  sufficient 
number  of  men  of  this  sort  could  not  be  found  to  provide  for 
the  want  of  the  parish  priests  throughout  the  entire  world ; 
since  indeed  it  was  on  account  of  the  want  of  well-informed 
men  that  the  ordinance  of  the  Lateran  council,  of  the  year 
1215,  that,  in  all  the  metropolitan  churches,  men  should  be 
appointed  capable  of  teaching  theology,  could  not  be  carried 
into  effect  by  the  secular  clergy.     But  by  these  monks  the 
want  was  supplied  to  a  much  greater  extent  than   had  been 
required  by  that  council ;  so  that,  in  the  words  of  Isaiah,  the 
land  was  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the   Lord,     Experience 
plainly  showed  how  much  had  been  accomplished  by  these 

*  See  Determinationes  circa  regalam   S.  Francisci  opp,  T,  VII,  ed. 
Lugd.  f,  330. 


DEFEND  THE  MEKDICANT  FEIAKS.  399 

orders,  founded  for  the  support  of  the  priests  who  could  not 
satisfy  all  demands.  In  many  coimtries  heresy  had  by  their 
means  been  extirpated  ;  many  infidels  reclaimed  to  the  faith  ; 
many  persons  in  various  parts  of  the  world  instructed  in  the 
law  of  God ;  very  many  awakened  to  repentance ;  so  tliat  if 
any  one  ventured  to  pronounce  such  establishments  unprofitable, 
it  could  be  clearly  made  out  against  him  that  he  envied  them 
on  account  of  the  grace  which  wrought  through  them,  and 
made  himself  guilty  of  sinning  against  the  Holy  Ghost.* 

It  might  now  be  argued  again,  in  defence  of  these  orders, 
that  if  they  were  designed  for  the  purposes  above  described, 
then  it  became  necessary  for  the  members  to  pursue  those  stu- 
dies which  were  requisite  to  qualify  them  for  their  office ;  that, 
in  order  to  get  this  education,  and  fit  themselves  for  discharg- 
ing the  duties  of  this  vocation,  they  must  not  be  required  to 
support  themselves  by  the  labour  of  their  own  hands.  This, 
Bonaventura  sets  forth  as  follows  : — "  No  one  amongst  us," 
says  he,  "  is  allowed  to  be  idle,  but  the  sick.  Some  busy  them- 
selves with  study,  in  order  to  qualify  themselves  for  the  business 
of  instructing  the  faithful ;  others,  with  the  performance  of  divine 
worship ;  others,  with  the  collecting  of  alms  for  the  support  of 
the  community ;  others  bestow  their  services,  with  which  they 
are  specially  charged,  on  the  sick  and  the  healthy ;  those  who 
have  learned  trades  work  at  them  for  the  benefit  of  the 
brethren  and  of  strangers ;  others,  who  are  so  directed,  itine- 
rate in  different  countries, — since  we  have  nobody  else  to  em- 
ploy on  such  missions."  f  The  defenders  of  these  orders 
concede  to  William  of  St.  Amour,  that  many  of  the  bad 
things  censured  by  him  were  really  to  be  found  in  individuals 
amongst  them  ;  but  they  complained  of  the  injustice  he  had 
done  them  in  accusing  the  whole  for  what  was  the  fault  only 
of  a  few.  J  "  That  M-hich  is  bad,"  says  Bonaventura,  '•  swims 
on  the  surface,  and  is  easily  noticed  by  every  one.  True  holi- 
ness is  a  hidden  thing,  and  is  to  be  found  out  only  by  certain 

*  CJontra  impugnantes  religionem  opnsc.  x^d.  ed,  Venet,  T.  XIX. 
page  341,  et  seqq. 

t  L.  c.f.  333. 

X  Ut  videlicet,  quod  ab  nno  vel  duobus  geritur,  toti  religioni  imponere 
prsesumant,  sicut  cum  dicunt,  quod  non  sunt  cibis  sibi  appositis  contenti, 
lautiora  quaerentes,  et  multa  hujusmodi,  quae  etiam  si  ab  aliquibus  ali- 
quando  fiant,  nuUatenus  sunt  totali  collegio  imponenda.  Thomas  Aqui- 
nas, opusc.  xvi.  p.  410. 


400  BONA  VENTURA  AS  THEIR  DEFENDER. 

marks."  *  Thomas  Aquinas  objects  to  their  opponents,  that 
they  took  it  upon  them  to  judge  over  the  conscience,  over  the 
hidden  things  of  the  heart,  when  they  accused  the  monks  of 
seeking  after  the  favour  of  the  world  — after  their  own  glory, 
and  not  the  glory  of  Christ ;  and  of  many  such-like  things.  It 
was  only  presumption  or  envy  to  judge  thus  :  it  was  the  com- 
mon resort  of  such  as  were  disposed  to  decry  and  to  censure 
rather  than  to  correct,  f 

Yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  these  distinguished  men  be- 
trayed the  too  strong  bias  of  a  predilection  for  their  order 
when  they  laboured  so  much  to  exteimate  grievous  faults,  of 
which  the  members  of  their  order  were  clearly  convicted ; 
arguing  that  no  man  in  this  world  can  live  without  sin, 
1  John  i.  8. 1  If  the  monks  were  eager  to  be  received  by  the 
rich  ;  if  they  intermeddled  with  matters  which  did  not  concern 
them,  in  order  to  secure  for  themselves  a  comfortable  main- 
tenance ;  if  they  sought  temporal  gain  among  those  for  whom 
they  preached, — these  were  to  be  regarded  as  slight  failings, 
for  which  they  ought  not  to  be  called  sinners,  much  less  false 
apostles.  §  Bonaventura,  |j  in  defending  these  orders  against 
the  reproach  that  they  fawned  on  tlie  rich,  says  :  "  We  ought, 
certainly,  to  love  all,  in  the  Lord ;  to  long  after  the  salvation 
of  the  poor  as  well  as  of  the  rich,  and  seek  to  promote  it  to 
the  utmost  of  our  ability,  and  in  the  way  most  profitable  for 
both.  Therefore,  if  a  poor  man  is  better  than  a  rich  man,  we 
should  love  him  more ;  but  we  must  honour  the  rich  man 
most,  notwithstanding ;  and  this  for  four  reasons : — First,  be- 
cause in  this  world  God  has  placed  the  rich  and  mighty  above 
the  poor  in  respect  to  their  worldly  circumstances ;  so  that,  in 

*  L.  .  f.  336. 

t  Quod  maxime  faciunt,  qui  magis  amant  clamare  et  vituperare,  quam 
corrigere  et  emendare.     Opusc.  xvi.  p.  411. 

X  When  Thomas  Aquinas  brings  it  as  a  charge  against  his  opponents, 
that  they  peccata  levia,  quiE  etiam  in  quibuscunque  perfectis  inveniuntur, 
quasi  gravia  exaggerant,  he  reckons  among  them,  quod  quaerant  opulen- 
tiora  hospitia,  in  quibus  melius  procurentur,  quod  procurent  aliena 
negotia,  ut  sic  mereantur  hospitia,  quod  rapiant  bona  temporalia  illonim, 
quibus  praedicant  et  alia. 

§  Quae  etsi  in  vitium  sonent,  non  tamen  sunt  tam  gravia,  ut  pro  eis 
dici  possint  peccatores,  qui  hsec  committunt,  nedum  ut  pro  iis  posshit 
dici  pseudapostoli. 

II  L.  c.  f.  338. 


FATE  OF  WILLIAM  DE  ST.  AMOUR.  401 

honouring  the  rich,  we  concur  with  the  divine  order.  Secondly, 
on  account  of  the  weakness  of  the  rich,  who  would  be  angry 
and  siii  if  we  refused  to  pay  them  such  honour — they  would 
oppress  us,  and  other  poor  people.  Thirdly,  because  more 
good  results  from  the  conversion  of  a  rich  man  than  from  that 
<jf  many  poor  men — for  the  converted  rich  man  edifies  many 
by  his  example  ;  and  through  him  much  good  may  be  done 
and  much  evil  prevented."  *  Justifications  of  this  character 
serve,  perhaps,  rather  to  confirm  than  to  refute  many  of  the 
objections  brought  by  the  Parisian  theologian  against  these 
two  orders. 

The  unflinching  advocate  of  the  university  of  Paris,  who 
had  long  defended  its  rights  against  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  the  mendicant  orders  before  the  court  of  Rome, 
William  of  St.  Amour,  finally  had  to  succumb  to  the  united 
spiritual  and  secular  powers,  which  acted  under  the  influence 
of  these  monks.  His  book,  '  De  periculis  novissimorum  tem- 
porum,'  which,  on  account  of  the  many  remarks  it  contained, 
cautiously  and  forbearingly,  indeed,  yet  freely  expressed, 
against  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the  popes,  could  not  make 
a  very  favourable  impression  at  the  Roman  court,  was  con- 
demned in  the  year  1255,  by  pope  Alexander  the  Fourth.  He 
had  to  resign  his  post,  and  was  banished  from  France.f  He 
retired  to  Burgundy,  his  native  countr}-^.  With  the  successor 
of  pope  Alexander,  Clement  the  Fourth,  he  found  means  of 
becoming  reconciled.  He  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  latter  a 
revised  copy  of  the  work  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  his 
treatise  '  On  the  Dangers  of  the  Last  Times,'  and  consisted  of 
a  collection  of  proof-texts  from  Scripture  relating  to  this  sub- 
ject. He  lived  beyond  the  year  1270.+  Although  these 
contests  died  away,  yet  the  same  spirit  of  freedom  was  main- 
tained in  the  University  of  Paris,  which  had  offered  so  deter- 
mined an  opposition  to  the  mendicant  friars. 

The  effect  of  these  fierce  assaults  on  the  mendicant  orders  of 
monks  would  be  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  well-disposed  in 
*  L.  c.  f.  338. 

+  In  a  poem  belonging  to  these  times,  the  so-called  Roman  de  la  Rose, 
it  is  said  of  him: — 

Estre  bany  de  ce  royanme, 

A  tort,  comme  fiit  Maitre  Gnilleaume 

De  St.  Amour,  qu'  hypocrisie 

Fit  exiler  par  grand'  ennuie. 
j  Du  Bonlay,  Hist,  miivers.  Paris,  T.  III.  f.  68G. 
VOL.  VII.  2  D 


402     BOXA VENTURA  AS  THE  REPROVER  OF  HIS  ORDER. 

them  to  the  points  in  which  they  had  degenerated,  and  to  call 
forth  efforts  for  reform.  Although  the  pious  Bonaventura, 
when  he  had  to  defend  his  order  against  its  antagonists,  was 
too  inclined  to  play  the  part  of  an  advocate  in  palliating  many 
of  the  abuses,  yet  he  expressed  himself  in  an  altogether  dif- 
ferent manner  when  he  addressed  the  superiors  of  the  order 
themselves.  He  now  exhibits  himself  as  the  rigid  censor,  and 
by  his  own  strictures  shows  that  there  was  foundation  for  many 
of  the  above-stated  charges.  When,  in  the  year  1256,  he 
was  appointed  general  of  his  order,  he  issued  a  circular  letter* 
to  the  presiding  officers  of  the  same  in  the  several  provinces, 
calling  upon  them  in  the  most  urgent  manner  to  do  their 
utmost  to  remove  the  abuses  which  had  crept  in.  "  The 
danger  of  the  times,"  he  writes  to  them ;  "  the  violation  of 
our  own  consciences  ;  the  scandal  of  worldly  people,  to  whom 
the  order,  which  should  be  to  them  a  mirror  of  holiness,  has 
become  an  object  of  contempt  and  abhorrence ; — all  urge  us 
to  action."  He  declares  to  them,  that  he  had  examined  into 
the  causes  by  which  the  splendour  of  the  order  had  become 
dimmed,  and  had  found  that  it  was  to  be  traced  to  the  fault  of 
some  of  its  own  members.  He  then  proceeds  to  enumerate 
several  particulars,  which  had  brought  the  order  into  bad 
repute.  Cupidity,  than  which  nothing  could  more  directly  be 
opposed  to  the  poverty  for  which  the  order  had  been  founded  ; 
costly  and  sumptuous  buildings ;  the  monopolizing  of  funerals 
and  of  the  drawing  up  of  wills,"]"  a  thing  which  could  not  fail 
to  create  great  dissatisfaction  amongst  the  clergy,  and  particu- 
larly the  priests.  To  this  list  he  added  the  enormous  expense 
occasioned  by  the  itinerant  brethren.  "  For,  as  they  cannot 
be  satisfied  with  a  little,"  says  he,  "  and,  as  the  love  of  men 
has  waxen  cold,  we  have  all  become  burdensome,  and  we 
shall  come  to  be  still  more  so,  if  some  remedy  be  not  soon 

*  Epistola  ad  ministros  provinciales  et  custodes,  opp.  T.  VII.  ed.  Lug- 
dunens.  f.  433, 

t  See,  on  this  point,  the  treatise  of  Gieseler,  referred  to  on  page  389. 
The  superstitious  considered  it  a  great  privilege  to  be  buried  among  the 
monks,  in  some  one  of  their  churchyards,  a  circumstance  ■which  the  latter 
knew  how  to  turn  to  their  own  advantage.  The  Benedictine  Richer  says, 
in  the  Chronicle  of  the  Dominicans,  already  noticed :  Illos,  qui  eis  talia 
dona  conferebant,  quod  Papa  facere  non  potest,  a  peccatis  rapinarum  et 
usurarum  absolvebant  et  mortuos  in  coemeteriis  suis  solenniter  sepeliebant. 
Chronicon  Senoneuse,  L.  IV.  c.  xvi.  L.  C.  f.  634. 


THE  MILDER  AND  MOBE  RIGID  FRANCISCANS.  403 

applied.  Though  there  are  very  many  whom  such  accusations 
do  not  touch,  still  the  disgrace  will  come  upon  all,  if  the  inno- 
cent have  not  courage  enough  to  resist  the  guilty.  So  let  the 
ardour  of  your  zeal  bum  forth  ;  and  after  you  have  purified 
the  house  of  our  Fatlier  in  heaven  from  those  who  make  it  a 
house  of  merchandise,  let  it  kindle  in  all  the  brethren  the  fire 
of  prayer  and  devotion."  He  recommends  it  to  them  espe- 
cially, in  accordance  with  the  rule  of  Francis,  to  proceed  more 
cautiously  in  admitting  members  into  the  order,  and  to  limit 
the  number  of  those  to  be  received.  They  should  allow  no 
man  to  become  a  preacher  or  confessor  without  a  previous  rigid 
examination.*  After  the  same  manner  he  expresses  himself  in 
a  special  letter  to  one  of  the  provincial  superiors.  "  In  former 
times,  the  observance  of  the  evangelical  perfection  made  us 
universally  respected  and  beloved ;  but  at  present,  when 
the  multitude  give  themselves  up  to  their  bad  passions,  and 
superiors  cease  to  enforce  the  necessary  strictness,  it  seems  that 
many  -vdces  are  stealing  among  us  which  make  this  venerable 
society  burdensome  and  contemptible  to  the  people."  He 
expresses  great  dissatisfaction  with  those  who,  contrary  to  the 
rule  of  Francis,  assault  the  clergy  in  their  sermons  before  the 
laity,  and  only  sow  scandal,  strife,  and  hatred ;  with  those 
who  injure  the  pastors  by  monopolizing  to  themselves  the 
burial  of  the  dead  and  the  drawing  up  of  wills,  and  who 
had  thereby  made  the  whole  order  detested  by  the  clergy.f 
"It  is  an  abominable  falsehood,"  he  declares,  "for  a  man  to 
profess  the  voluntary  adoption  of  the  most  extreme  poverty, 
while  he  is  unwilling  to  suflFer  want  in  anything  ;  for  a  man 
to  be  rich  inside  of  the  monastery,  while  outside  of  it  he  begs 
like  a  pauper.  All  the  brethren  should  be  directed  to  be  care- 
ful, and  avoid  every  occasion  of  giving  just  cause  of  complaint 
to  the  clergj'.  It  should  appear  manifest  to  the  whole  world, 
that  they  were  not  seeking  their  own  advantage,  but  simply 
the  winning  of  souls  to  Christ." 

But  even  before  the  death  of  Francis,  there  was  formed 
within  the  order  the  germ  of  an  inward  schism  leading  to  im- 
portant consequences — the  strife  between  a  party  who  were 

*  Officia  prsbdicationis  et  confessionis  cum  multo  examine  imponatis. 

t  Sepalturarum  ac  testamentomm  litigiosa  et  avida  qusedam  invasio 
cnm  exclusione  illorum,  ad  quos  aDimanim  cura  spectare  dinoscitar,  non 
modicum  nos  clero  toti  fecit  exosos. 

2d2 


404  ABBOT  Joachim's  ideas 

zealous  for  the  literal  observance  of  the  so-called  evangelical 
poverty ;  and  another,  who  retained  only  the  appearance  of  it, 
but  in  the  splendour  of  monasteries  and  churches,  as  well  as  in 
other  respects,  allowed  themselves  to  depart,  in  manifold  ways, 
from  that  original  principle.  The  brother  Elias,  a  disciple 
of  Francis  himself,  who  occasioned  great  disturbances  in  the 
order,  stood  at  the  head  of  this  laxer  party.  In  opposition  to 
him  stood  forth  other  important  men,  and  in  particular  the 
influential  Anthony  of  Padua.  Sometimes  general  of  the 
order,  Elias  fell  and  rose  by  turns,  till  finally  he  was  cast 
aside  entirely,  and  turned  out  of  it ;  but  the  quarrel  between 
the  two  parties  in  the  order  still  went  on.  The  question  was, 
how  to  unite  any  possession  whatsoever,  necessary  for  this  life, 
with  evangelical  poverty.  Men  resorted  to  a  distinction,  by 
which  greater  latitude  of  interpretation  could  be  given  to  this 
term.  They  distinguished  between  a  right  of  property,  and 
the  simple  use  of  another's  2)roperty  for  the  satisfaction  of  the 
necessary  wants  of  life.  As  property,  the  Franciscans  should 
possess  nothing ;  but  the  right  of  property  in  all  goods  admi- 
nistered by  them  should  be  given  to  the  pope.*  Thus  arose 
the  two  parties  of  the  more  strict  (Zela)ites,  Spiritales) 
and  the  more  mild  Franciscans.  The  popes,  by  their  expla- 
nations of  the  Franciscan  rule,  especially  Nicholas  the  Third, 
by  his  bull  issued  in  1297  (called,  from  its  commencing  words, 
^^JExiit  qui  seminat"),  favoured  the  principles  of  the  milder 
party,  and  expressly  confirmed  the  distinction  above  slated. 
So  the  fanatical  zeal  of  the  Zelantes  was  fanned  into  a  conflict 
with  the  dominant  church  itself.  Add  to  this,  that,  as  the 
writings  of  abbot  Joachim  had  found  great  acceptance  with 
this  order  generally,  which  believed  that  itself  had  been  pre- 
dicted in  them,  so  the  more  zealous  party  in  particular  busied 
themselves  a  good  deal  with  those  writings,  and  the  more,  in 
proportion  as  they  became  dissatisfied  with  the  existing  state 


*  See  Bonaventura  in  the  Deteminationes  qncestionum  circa  regulam 
Francisci,  Qu.  XXIV. :  Pracsul  sedis  apostolicae,  qui  est  generalis  omnium 
pauperum  ecclesioD  provisor,  specialiter  nostri  ordinis  curam  habet,  om- 
nium mobilium,  quaj  ordini  conferuntur,  proprietatem  sibi  assumsit, 
exceptis  his,  quorum  dominium  sibi  confereutes  retiuuerunt  et  nobis 
nsum  earundem  rerum  solum  concedif,  ut  semper  alieno  victu  et  vestitu 
ac  tecto  et  aliis  utensilibus  absque  proprietatis  jure,  ex  ipsius  concessione 
utamur. 


CARRIED  OUT  BY  THE  FRANCISCAXS.  405 

of  things,  and  as  their  fanatical  enthusiasm  was  excited  by- 
opposition.  The  idea  of  an  ultimate  perfection  of  religious 
life,  of  the  last  times  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  of  the  age  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  of  the  everlasting  gospel,  was  pushed  by  them 
to  still  further  extremes ;  and  their  extravagant  notion  of  the 
perfection  of  a  life  without  property,  consecrated  to  contem- 
plation alone,  would  lead  them  into  the  mistake  of  regarding 
the  whole  appearance  and  evolution  of  Christianity,  thus  far, 
as  only  a  subordinate  thing  in  comparison  with  that  highest 
stage  of  spiritual  perfection,  for  which  they  were  to  prepare 
the  way.  A  spiritual  pride  of  mysticism  would  be  ready  to 
exalt  itself  above  everything  positive  and  objective  in  religion ; 
and  we  have  already  pointed  out,  on  a  former  page,  the  point 
of  support  which  such  a  tendency  might  find,  in  several  expres- 
sions of  the  abbot  Joachim.  Many  fanatical  tendencies,  which 
appropriated  to  themselves  these  ideas,  were  diffused  by  the 
different  kinds  of  Beghards,  who  foimd  refuge  in  the  third 
order  Avithin  the  general  order  of  Francis. 

But  here  we  stop,  intending  to  reserve  the  more  detailed 
exhibition  of  the  remarkable  facts,  which  are  here  merely 
hinted  at,  for  the  Fourth  Section  of  the  present  history'. 


406 


SECTION  THIRD. 

CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP. 

To  the  epochs  that  mark  the  commencement  of  a  new  out- 
pouring of  the  Holy  Spirit,  may  be  reckoned  the  opening  of 
the  twelfth  century ;  and  the  after  effects  of  the  religious 
awakening  which  then  began  among  the  Christian  nations  of 
the  West,  extend  far  into  the  period  now  before  us.  As  we 
observed  in  individual  examples,  imder  the  preceding  sec- 
tion, the  religious  life  was  continually  receiving  a  fresh  impulse 
from  influences  of  various  kinds  :  from  the  vigorous  measures 
of  Gregory  the  Seventh  to  promote  a  reform  in  the  whole 
church ;  from  the  impressions  produced  on  the  multitude  by 
the  preaching  of  the  crusades ;  from  the  effects  wrought  by 
distinguished  preachers  of  the  clerical,  and  more  especially  of 
the  monastic  order,  who  itinerated  through  the  countries, 
exhorting  men  to  repentance ;  from  the  founding  of  the  two 
orders  of  mendicant  friars.  Great  susceptibility  to  religious 
impressions,  as  well  as  great  depth  and  power  of  religious 
feeling,  manifested  themselves  by  various  signs  of  the  times : 
by  the  quick  and  general  participation  in  important  enterprises 
undertaken  in  the  name  of  religion  ;  by  the  formation  of  soci- 
eties in  which  the  energies  of  many  could  be  speedily  united 
for  accomplishing  great  works  consecrated  to  religion,  such  as 
the  erection  of  magnificent  churches  ;*  by  the  mighty  influ- 

*  The  zeal  with  which  men  of  all  ranks  and  ages  could  unite  together 
in  building  a  church  is  illustrated  by  an  example  belonging  to  the  year 
1156,  -which  may  be  found  in  the  life  of  the  abbot  Stephen  of  Obaize,  L. 
II.  c.  xviii :  Aderat  hujus  tantae  sedificationis  initiis  inaestimabilis  homi- 
num  multitudo  diversi  generis  atque  aitatis  cum  multo  coetu  nobilium, 
quorum  alii  potentiores  auxilium  et  protectionem,  divites  pecuniam  o£Fe- 
rebant,  pauperes,  quod  rebus  non  poterant,  votis  supplebant  protensis  in 
coelum  manibus.  The  foundation-stone  was  laid  with  great  solemnity, 
a  circumstance  to  which  the  author  attributes  special  importance,  because 
this  represented  the  foundation-stone  on  which  the  entire  church  reposes, 
and  other  than  which  can  no  man  lay.  See  Baluz.  Miscellan.  T.  I V.  p. 
130. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP.  40/ 

ence  which  men  who  could  exert  an  influence  on  the  religious 
life  soon  acquired  ;  by  the  rapid  spread  of  religious  societies, 
whether  connected  with  the  church  or  with  the  sects  that  were 
opposed  to  it. 

Over  against  religion  stood  the  rude  power  of  unsubdued 
sensuousness,  of  fierce  and  eager  passions,  that  announced 
themselves  by  rude  outbreaks  of  crime,  and  either  with  brutal 
obstinacy  maintained  their  ground,  or  finally  yielded  to  the 
mightier  force  of  religious  impressions.  "  How  many  do  we 
see  every  day,"  says  the  pious  mystic,  Richard  a  St.  Victore,* 
"  who,  amid  the  crimes  which  they  are  constantly  committing, 
never  abandon  the  hope  and  purpose  of  repentance ;  and  who 
not  only  mean  to  leave  off  sinning,  but  to  renounce  every 
worldly  possession,  and  join  themselves  to  some  order  of 
monks ;  and  so,  if  God,  in  his  sovereign  mercy,  have  compas- 
sion on  them,  they  become  reformed :  but  others,  when  ex- 
horted to  repentance,  swear  they  never  could  prevail  upon 
themselves  to  give  up  the  world  or  abandon  their  lusts."  "j" 

Sudden  transitions  from  the  most  violent  outbreaks  of  sen- 
sual rudeness  to  emotions  no  less  violently  expressed,  of  a 
more  or  less  enduring  contrition,  were  of  no  rare  occurrence. 
The  awe-inspiring  appearance  and  words  of  pious  monks  had  a 
power,  especially  when  strengthened  by  the  impression  of  some 
remarkable  incident,  to  produce  great  changes  in  minds  whose 
religious  susceptibilities  had,  as  yet,  been  only  kept  back  by 
the  force  of  barbarism,  as  we  have  already  seen  illustrated  J 
in  the  remarkable  effect  produced  by  the  monk  Bernard  of 
Tiron  on  a  crew  of  barbarian  pirates. 

Active  benevolence,  hospitality,  sympathy  with  the  sick 
and  suffering,  kindness  and  respect  shown  to  pious  ecclesias- 
tics and  monks,  devout  participation  in  prayer  and  in  all  the 
ordinances  considered  as  belonging  to  the  church  life,  zeal  in 


*  De  eruditione  interioris  hominis,  L.  II.  c.  xxv. 

t  His  •words  :  Quam  multos  quotidie  ridemus,  qui  inter  flagitia,  qnse 
assidne  committunt,  sptem  et  propositum  resipiscendi  non  amittnnt  et  non 
solum  peccata  dimittere,  imo  etiam  omnia  quaj  mundi  sunt,  relinquere  et 
ad  ordinem  et  religionem  venire  proponunt.  Alii  autem,  cum  de  con- 
versione  admonentur,  nun  quam  se  ad  ordinem  vel  religionem  venire 
etiam  cum  juramento  affirmant  et  cum  de  peccatis  corripiuntur  se  a  suis 
voluptatibus  non  posse  exhibere  cum  sacramento  asseverant. 

J  See  above,  p.  327. 


408  CHAEACTEU  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  AT  THIS  PERIOD. 

the  Christian  education  of  children,  rigid  abstinence, — such 
were  the  signs  under  which  genuine  piety  exhibited  itself  even 
among  the  laity.  A  biographical  sketch  belonging  to  the 
twelfth  century  presents  us  with  a  picture  of  the  piety  of  these 
times  in  the  account  of  a  married  couple,  who  are  held  up  as 
patterns.  They  owned  and  resided  on  an  estate  in  the  diocese 
of  Vienne.  They  supported  themselves  by  honest  labour, 
lived  with  great  frugality,  gave  liberally  to  the  poor,  and 
sympathised  with  them  in  their  sufferings.  They  were  full  of 
respect  and  love  to  pious  monks ;  and  took  great  pains  in 
bringing  up  their  children  to  faith  and  good  works.  To 
neither  of  their  sons,  whom  they  destined  for  the  spiritual 
profession,  would  they  allow  a  benefice  to  be  given  in  advance. 
After  they  had  done  educating  their  children,  they  practised 
a  rigid  abstinence,  living  like  anchorets  in  the  midst  of  the 
world,  and  devoting  themselves  with  still  more  zeal  than  ever 
to  the  work  of  almsgiving.  Sleeping  themselves  on  straw, 
they  gave  up  the  better  beds  for  the  use  of  the  poor ;  and 
while  the  whole  of  their  house  was  ever  open  to  the  needy 
and  the  wayfaring,  they  set  apart  one  chamber  expressly  for 
their  use.  As  to  the  monks,  they  were  not  only  ready  to 
receive  them,  but  took  pains  to  fetch  them  in.  They  drew 
instruction  from  them  about  the  way  of  salvation,  not  merely 
for  their  own  benefit,  but  that  they  might  be  able  to  impart 
it  to  others.  They  exerted  themselves  to  restore  peace  be- 
tween parties  at  strife ;  to  aid  the  injured,  and  to  bring  those 
who  wronged  others  to  a  sense  of  their  injustice.*  In  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twelfth  century,  we  find  a  person  in  Brittany, 
by  the  name  of  Goisfred,  who  in  his  younger  days  had  lived  by 
robbery,  but  by  the  admonitions  of  his  pious  wife  had  been 
led  to  change  the  whole  course  of  his  life.  He  now  lived  by 
the  labour  of  his  own  hands,  and,  reserving  from  his  earnings 
barely  enough  to  support  himself  and  his  family,  distributed 
the  rest  in  alms.  During  a  violent  snow-storm  in  mid-winter, 
he  drove  to  a  monastery  with  great  difficulty  a  waggon  laden 
with  bread  for  the  celebration  of  some  saint-day.  j  In  a  bio- 
graphical  account  of  certain    pious   country-people,   in   the 

*  Vita  Patri  Archiep.  Tarantas :  see  above,  p.  C31.  Acta  Sanct.  Jlens. 
Maj.  T.  II.  c.  i.  f.  324  et  325. 

t  Orderic.  Vital.  Hist.  L.  VI.  f.  628. 


AMBROSE  OF  SIEXA.  409 

twelfth  century,  the  following  points  are  cited  as  characteristic 
marks  of  the  Christian  life  :  both  husband  and  wife  showed 
by  the  best  evidence — the  fruits  of  their  good  works — that 
they  were  true  Christians ;  for  they  were  zealous  in  bestowing 
alms,  in  giving  food  to  the  hungry,  in  clothing  the  naked,  and 
in  performing  other  pious  deeds  of  charity.*  Of  the  mother 
of  archbishop  Eberhard  of  Salzburg  it  is  related,  that  she  was 
almost  constantly  engaged  in  almsgiving,  prayer,  and  fasting ; 
and  that  she  seldom  ate  anything  but  vegetables.  She  caused 
a  church  to  be  erected  on  her  estate,  and  conveyed  the  stones 
for  it  two  miles  barefoot  on  her  own  shoulders ;  many  other 
women  followed  her  example.f  It  is  recorded  of  a  pious 
smith,  in  this  century,  that  he  daily  lodged  poor  people  in  his 
own  house,  first  washing  their  feet,  and  then  providing  beds 
for  them.J  The  father  of  a  family,  whenever  he  went  to 
church,  took  provisions  ^vith  him  for  the  poor  people  who  lived 
in  the  neighbourhood. §  Ambrose  of  Siena,  a  much-venerated 
Dominican,  who  lived  near  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
was  descended  from  a  respectable  and  wealthy  family  in  that 
city.  He  was,  while  a  youth  and  still  living  under  the  pater- 
nal roof,  particularly  distinguished  for  a  spirit  of  active  bene- 
volence. 

So  it  is  said  in  the  account  of  his  life.]]  The  law  of  Christ 
is  founded  for  the  most  part  in  love ;  this  grace,  therefore, 
predominated  in  him.  He  obtained  leave  from  his  wealthy 
father  to  lake  home  with  him  every  Saturday  five  strangers, 
to  entertain  them  and  present  to  each  of  them  a  certain  sum 
of  money.  On  every  Saturday  evening  he  placed  himself 
near  that  gate  of  Siena  which  was  the  thoroughfare  of  those 
strangers  who  came  from  beyond  the  Alps.  Choosing  five 
from  the  whole,  and  conducting  them  to  his  own  house,  he 
showed  them  to  a  room  set  apart  expressly  for  their  service. 
He  himself  provided  them  with  everything  necessary  to  supply 
their  bodily  wants,  till  he  had  waited  upon  them  to  their  beds. 
The  next  morning  he  accompanied  them  to  mass,  and  then 
led  them  round  to  the  principal  churches  of  the  city.  Return- 
ing with  them  to  his  house,  he  gave  them  a  breakfast,  be- 

*  Acta  S.  Mens.  Jannar.  T.  II.  f,  795. 

t  L.  c.  Mens.  Jun.  T.  IV.  J  L.  c.  Mens,  Jun.  T.  V.  f.  115. 

§  See  life  of  the  abbot  Stephen  of  Obaize,  L.  I.  c.  iv. 

y  AcU  S.  Mens.  Mart.  T.  IlL  c.  ii.  f.  183. 


410       ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THIS  PERIOD. 

stowed  on  them  an  alms  besides,  and  dismissed  them,  after 
recommending  himself  to  their  prayers.  But  he  took,  a 
special  interest  in  the  condition  of  those  who  languished  in 
confinement.  He  was  accustomed,  on  every  Friday,  to  visit 
the  public  prisons ;  and,  if  he  found  any  poor  people  there 
who  were  unable  to  provide  for  their  own  support,  he  took 
care  to  send  them  privately,  one  day  in  tlie  week,  a  certain 
allowance  of  food  and  money.  Every  Sunday  he  visited  the 
hospital  of  the  city  at  meal-time,  and  assisted  those  who  took 
care  of  the  sick  in  distributing  among  the  patients  their  allotted 
portions  of  food.  He  strove  also  to  comfort  them.  He  entered 
the  houses  of  the  poor  ;  and,  if  he  found  any  sick  and  wanting 
the  necessaries  of  life,  he  begged  of  his  parents  that  their 
wants  might  be  relieved,  and  was  himself  the  bearer  of  the 
charities  bestowed  on  them.  He  declined  all  invitations  to 
social  parties  and  weddings ;  and  already  was  he  beginning 
to  show  symptoms  not  only  of  an  inclination  to  withdraw  from 
the  world,  but  of  a  tendency  to  the  monastic  life,  when,  like 
St.  Francis,*  he  experienced  a  remarkable  reaction  of  the 
freer  Christian  spirit.  It  so  happened,  that  he  was  invited  to 
attend  a  wedding-feast  at  the  house  of  a  relative.  He  declined 
the  invitation,  and  in  the  mean  time  turned  his  steps  to  a 
Cistercian  monastery  beyond  the  walls  of  the  city.  While  on 
the  way,  he  was  accosted  by  an  old  man,  in  the  Dominican 
habit,  who  begged  of  him  an  alms,  taking  occasion  at  the 
same  time  of  entering  into  conversation  with  him.  He  said : 
"  Thou  thinkest  of  gaining  merit  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  of 
better  providing  for  thy  soul's  salvation,  by  shunning  the 
society  of  thy  relatives  and  associates,  and  declining  to  take 
any  part  in  the  celebration  of  a  holy  marriage  ;  but  I  tell  thee, 
thou  wilt  obtain  more  favour  and  merit  in  the  sight  of  God 
if  thou  disdainest  not  to  mingle  in  the  society  of  thy  associates  ; 
for  it  is  far  more  praiseworthy  in  his  sight  to  battle  with  the 
temptations  and  dangers  of  the  soul,  than  to  lead  the  secure 
life  which  thou  proposest  to  do.  Wilt  thou  not  fall  into  the 
sin  of  pride,  or  give  others  occasion  to  accuse  thee  of  it,  if 
thou  disdainest  the  society  of  those  who  would  honour  thee  ? 
And  how  wilt  thou  secure  thy  soul's  salvation,  if,  without  the 
marriage  estate,  which  God  has  ordained,  thou  art  unable  to 

*  See  above  p  376. 


RAYMUSD  PALMARIS.  411 

conquer  the  temptations  of  the  flesh  ?  It  is  the  free  gift  of 
God  which  bestows  on  some  the  ability  of  leading  a  chaste 
life  apart  from  marriage ;  but  it  is  pride  which  leads  thee 
to  imagine  thyself  able  to  do  this  out  of  thy  self-will,  and  by 
thine  own  efforts."  The  appearance  of  this  free-minded  sage 
was  transformed  by  the  people  of  those  times  into  an  appear- 
ance of  Satan,  disguised  as  a  monk,  for  the  purpose  of 
deceiving  the  young  man. 

We  read  of  an  English  nobleman,  near  the  close  of  the 
eleventh  century,  who,  finding  himself  shut  up  for  a  year  in 
close  confinement  on  account  of  some  political  change,  gave 
himself  wholly  to  exercises  of  penitence  and  devotion.  The 
effects  of  the  change  which  he  underwent  manifested  them- 
selves in  the  resignation  and  composure  with  which  he  met 
the  death  to  which  he  was  condemned.  He  walked  to  the 
scaffold  clad  in  the  costly  robes  which  belonged  to  his  rank 
and  office  ;  but  on  arriving  there  distributed  them  among  the 
poor  that  stood  around  as  spectators.  Falling  upon  his  knees, 
he  prayed  for  some  time,  weeping.  When  the  executioner, 
who  had  been  ordered  to  hasten  the  execution  of  the  sentence, 
urged  him  to  stand  up,  he  said  :  "  Suffer  me,  in  Giod's  name, 
to  repeat  one  more  pater-noster  for  myself  and  for  you ;" 
and,  again  kneeling,  he  prayed  with  hands  and  eyes  uplifted 
to  heaven.  But  when  he  came  to  the  words,  "  Lead  us  not 
into  temptation,"  the  tide  of  his  inward  feelings  gushed  forth 
in  a  flood  of  tears,  and  choked  all  further  utterance.* 

An  example  of  sincere  and  active  piety  from  the  class 
of  common  artisans  is  presented  in  the  case  of  a  certain 
Eayraund  Palmaris,  at  Placenza.  Born  in  this  city,  in  the 
year  1140,  and  descended  from  a  pious  family  of  the  middle 
class,  at  twelve  years  of  age  he  was  apprenticed  to  an  artisan ; 
the  occupation,  however,  did  not  suit  a  mind  striving  after 
higher  things.  Having  lost  his  father  while  young,  and  being 
no  longer  obliged  to  follow  the  trade  for  which  the  father 
had  destined  him,  he  was  seized  with  an  earnest  desire  to 
quicken  and  nourish  his  devotion  by  a  visit  to  the  sacred  spots 
in  Palestine.  Having  made  up  his  mind,  he  informed  his 
pious  mother  of  it,  and  she  resolved  to  undertake  the  pilgrim- 
age with  him.     After  they  had  with  great  devotion  visited 

♦  Orderic.  Vital,  f.  536. 


412  RAYMUKD  PALMARIS. 

all  the  spots  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  our  Saviour,  they 
returned  home  to  their  country.  Raymund,  soon  afterwards, 
lost  his  mother,  upon  which  he  married,  and  resumed  his 
former  occupation.  He  had  five  sons ;  each  of  whom,  when 
they  received  baptism,  he  was  accustomed  to  dedicate  to  God 
with  the  following  prayer :  "  Here  is  a  being  who  wears 
thine  image ;  to  thee  I  dedicate  him,  as  thy  creature ;  life 
and  death  are  in  thy  hands."  The  five  children  were  all, 
one  after  another,  removed  from  him  in  early  life.  He 
resigned  himself  to  the  will  of  God,  and  it  was  a  comfort  and 
joy  to  him  that  the  Lord  had  called  them,  in  the  robes  of 
innocence,  out  of  this  life  of  temptation,  to  himself.  He 
looked  upon  it  as  an  admonition,  warning  him  thenceforth  to 
live  with  his  wife  as  if  they  were  unmarried ;  which  he  pro- 
posed to  her,  having  too  conscientious  a  regard  for  duty  to 
carry  this  plan  into  effect  without  the  consent  of  his  com- 
panion. Another  son  was  born  to  him,  and  in  the  absence 
of  his  wife  he  took  the  child  from  its  cradle,  carried  it  to 
the  church,  threw  himself  down  with  it  before  a  crucifix  and 
prayed :  "  My  Lord  and  Saviour,  who  stretchest  out  thine 
arms  to  receive  all  who  come  to  thee,  as  thou  hast  taken  to 
thyself  my  five  children,  in  their  tender  age,  and  made  them 
fellow-heirs  of  eternal  bliss,  I  beseech  thee  vouchsafe  to 
receive  also  to  thyself  this  my  little  son,  whom  thou  hast 
bestowed  on  me,  beyond  all  my  hopes.  But,  if  thou  hast 
destined  him  for  a  longer  life,  preserve  him  chaste  and  pure 
for  the  holy  order  of  monks,  to  which  I  now  consecrate  him." 
Even  at  this  time,  while  he  was  still  an  artisan,  and  had  the 
care  of  a  family,  he  improved  every  hour  which  he  could 
spare  from  the  business  of  his  trade,  and  also  the  holidays, 
to  obtain  from  pious  and  well-informed  ecclesiastics  and 
monks  a  more  exact  knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  and  of  the  doctrines  of  religion.  The  knowledge 
thus  acquired,  he  intended  to  use  in  promoting  the  salvation 
of  his  fellow-men.  On  Sundays  and  festivals  he  collected 
together  in  a  workshop  the  people  of  his  own  class,  and  par- 
ticularly such  as  followed  the  same  trade  with  himself,  and 
whom  he  could  persuade  to  forego  their  customary  amusements 
at  those  times,  and  addressed  them  on  matters  of  practical 
Christianity.  These  addresses  met  with  so  much  favour,  that 
multitudes  soon  flocked  together  from  all  quarters  to  hear 


RAYMUXD  PALMARIS.  413 

him.  Many  invited  hinfi  to  preach  in  the  public  streets,  and 
on  the  market-place ;  but  this  he  refused,  saying  that  it 
belons^ed  to  none  but  priests  and  the  learned  to  do  this  ;  an 
uneducated  man  like  himself  might  by  this  course  easily  fall 
into  mistakes.  He  contented  himself  ^vith  simple  practical 
exhortations,  designed  for  his  fellow-craftsmen ;  these  consi- 
dered him  as  their  spiritual  father,  and  lived  as  a  pious 
community  under  his  guidance.  After  the  death  of  his  wife, 
he  resolved  to  carry  out  a  purpose  which  he  had  long  had  in 
contemplation,  and  wholly  Avithdraw  himself  from  all  secular 
business.  He  committed  his  little  son  to  the  care  of  his 
maternal  grandparents,  that  he  might  be  trained  up  to  tlie 
profession  of  a  pious  monk.  He  surrendered  into  their  hands 
all  his  property,  to  be  managed  and  used  for  the  benefit  of  this 
son.  He  now  prepared  to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  to  all  the  holy 
places,  intending  finally  to  settle  down  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
holy  sepulchre,  and  there  end  his  days.  He  had  already 
completed  the  pilgrimage  to  St.  Jago  di  Compostella  in  Spain, 
and  other  holy  places,  and  had  at  length  repaired  to  Rome, 
and  was  on  the  point  of  setting  out  for  Jerusalem,  but  by  the 
spirit  of  Christ  he  was  taught  a  better  course.  The  voice  of 
that  spirit,  in  the  inmost  recesses  of  a  heart  so  warm  with 
true  piety,  would  doubtless  often  be  heard  remonstrating 
against  the  mistaken  tendency  into  which  the  undue  influence 
of  religious  feeling  alone,  in  the  absence  of  better  knowledge, 
had  hurried  him.  Such  reaction  of  the  genuine  Christian 
spirit  gave  birth  to  a  dream  which  befel  him  in  one  of  the 
porches  of  St.  Peter's  church,  where  he  once  happened  to  lay 
himself  down  to  sleep  in  his  pilgrim-garb.  Christ  appeared 
to  him,  and  told  him  that  he  was  by  no  means  pleased  with 
his  plan  of  making  a  pilgrimage  to  the  holy  sepulchre. 
"  Thou  oughtest,"  the  voice  seemed  to  say,  "  to  employ  thy- 
self on  things  more  acceptable  to  me  and  more  profitable  to 
thyself,  on  works  of  mercy.  Believe  not  that,  in  the  last 
day,  I  shall  inquire  particularly  concerning  pilgrimages  and 
such  pious  acts,  when  I  shall  say,  '  I  was  hungry,  and  ye 
gave  me  food,'  &;c.  (Matt,  xxiv.)  Thou  oughtest  no  longer  to 
roam  about  thus  in  the  world ;  but  go  back  to  thy  native 
town,  Placenza,  where  there  are  so  many  poor,  so  many  for- 
saken widows ;  so  many  sick,  who  implore  my  compassion, 
and  none  to  receive  them.     Go  thither,  and  I  mil  be  with 


414  EAYMUND  PALMARIS. 

thee,  and  give  thee  grace  by  which  thou  shalt  be  enabled  to 
stir  up  the  rich  to  benevolent  action,  to  restore  the  contentious 
to  peace,  the  wandering  to  the  good  way."  In  obedience  to 
this  admonition  he  returned,  in  1178,  to  Placenza ;  and  the 
bishop,  to  whom  he  made  the  matter  known,  felt  bound  to 
recognize  it  as  a  divine  call.  He  was  furnished  with  a  house 
for  the  purpose  he  had  in  view  by  the  canonical  priests  of  the 
collegiate  church.  He  sought  out  all  the  diffident  poor,  and 
such  as  were  prevented  by  sickness  from  begging,  collected 
alms  for  them,  and  took  care  of  them.  All  who  were  helpless 
found  welcome  admittance  and  relief  from  him.  His  example 
operated  upon  others ;  many  of  the  citizens  associated  them- 
selves with  him,  to  share,  under  his  direction,  the  task  of 
supporting  and  nursing  tlie  poor  and  the  sick.  He  appro- 
priated a  separate  dwelling  for  the  sick  and  poor  of  the  female 
sex ;  here  also  he  received  such  as  he  succeeded  in  calling 
from  a  life  of  unchastity  to  repentance,  and  the  direction  of 
them  he  intrusted  to  pious,  well-tried  women.  After  they 
had  lived  some  time  in  this  manner,  he  left  them  free  to  choose 
the  mode  of  life  which  would  be  most  agreeable  to  them.  If 
they  preferred  to  marry,  he  endeavoured  to  assist  them  in  this 
matter,  and  to  procure  for  them  a  dowry  from  his  pious 
friends.  Those  who  showed  an  inclination  for  the  monastic 
life  he  contrived  to  get  admitted  into  monasteries.  He 
diligently  visited  the  prisons,  distributed  temporal  relief 
among  the  prisoners,  and  by  his  exhortations  and  admonitions 
endeavoured  to  promote  the  salvation  of  their  souls.  In 
behalf  of  such  as  seemed  to  him  to  give  proof  of  sincere 
penitence,  he  interceded  \vith  the  magistrates,  and  became 
security  for  them  that  they  would  pursue  a  different  course  of 
life  and  prove  useful  to  the  state.  Many  of  these,  in  order  to 
escape  temptations,  withdrew  to  the  monastic  life,  and  distin- 
guished themselves  afterwards  by  the  piety  and  integrity  of 
their  lives.  He  sought  after  outcast  children,  gently  took 
them  up  in  his  arms,  carried  them  home,  and  saw  that  they 
were  taken  care  of.  Oftentimes,  he  would  take  on  his 
shoulders  some  sick  person,  whom  he  found  lying  in  the  street, 
and  convey  him  home  to  the  above-mentioned  dwelling. 
Widows  and  orphans,  and  all  who  suffered  wrong  treatment, 
found  in  him  a  protector.  Bearing  his  cross  before  him,  and 
relying  on  him  whom  it  symbolized,  he  feared  nothing ;  to 


LOUIS  THE  XIXTH  OF  FRANCE.  415 

that  love  which  led  Christ  to  give  up  his  life  for  the  salvation 
of  mankind,  he  appealed,  to  exorcise  passion.  Thus  he  re- 
conciled those  who  were  at  variance  ;  thus  he  sought  to  hush 
the  strifes  of  fiercely  contending  factions  amid  tlie  civil  broils 
of  Italy.  When  the  citizens  of  Placenza  and  of  Cremona 
were  at  war  with  each  other,  he  threw  himself  between  the 
two  armies,  and  succeeded  in  persuading  his  coimtrymen  to 
peace;  but  the  people  of  Cremona,  indignant  because  he 
threatened  them  with  divine  judgments,  hurried  him  away  as 
a  prisoner.  Yet  the  spirit  of  love  still  continued  to  inspire 
him,  and  wrought  so  strongly  on  their  feelings,  that  they 
soon  let  him  go,  repenting  of  their  having  so  treated  one 
whom  they  felt  constrained  to  reverence  as  a  saint.  After 
having  laboured  in  this  manner  for  twenty-two  years,  he 
cheerfully  looked  forward  to  death.  Conmiending  to  his 
associates  the  prosecution  of  his  work,  and  exhorting  them  to 
take  care  of  the  poor  whom  he  left  behind,  he  thanked  the 
Saviour  that  he  had  brought  his  earthly  career  to  the  long- 
desired  goal ;  he  sent  for  his  only  remaining  son,  warned  him 
against  loving  the  empty  goods  of  this  world  and  yielding  to 
its  temptations,  advised  him  to  confirm  the  dedication  that 
had  been  made  of  him  when  a  child,  and  take  refuge  in  the 
monastic  life.  He  testified  that  he  put  no  tnist  in  his  own 
merits,  but  confided  solely  in  the  mercy  of  Christ ;  looking 
serenely  on  the  cross,  which  had  ever  accompanied  him  in  his 
consecrated  labours,  he  said,  "  In  thy  arms,  in  thy  name  and 
thy  strength,  I  depart  from  this  world  to  my  Saviour  and 
Creator."     These  were  his  last  words.* 

This  particular  shaping  of  the  Christian  life  presents  itself 
to  us  in  a  multitude  of  examples  among  all  ranks  of  society. 
From  the  Christian  artisan,  let  us  now  turn  to  the  Christian 
prince.  In  king  Louis  the  Ninth  of  France  we  see  the  piety 
of  these  times  represented  to  us  in  all  its  noble  traits,  inter- 
mingled with  those  one-sided  extravagances  which  called 
forth  the  covert  censure  of  the  free-spirited  William  of  St 

*  The  source  of  this  narrative  is  a  Life,  in  the  Latin  language,  ■which 
certainly  proceeded  from  a  contemporary.  We  have  it  to  regret,  how- 
ever, that  this  was  lost,  and  only  the  Italian  translation  preserved,  which 
was  retranslated  into  Latin.  It  is  to  be  found  at  the  28th  July.  Mens 
Jul.  T.  VL 


416  LOUIS  THE  NINTH  OF  FRANCE. 

Amour.*  On  him,  too,  the  training  of  a  pious  mother 
(Blanche),  had  exerted  a  decided  influence,  as  he  informs 
us  himself.  She  surrounded  him  with  pious  monks ;  and  on 
Sundays  and  festivals  had  him  always  attend  the  sermon. 
Having-  once  heard  it  falsely  reported  of  her  son  that  he  lived 
an  unchaste  life,  she  exhibited  the  utmost  concern,  and  re- 
marked that  if  her  son,  whom  she  loved  more  than  any  other 
creature,  had  fallen  sick  with  a  fatal  disease,  and  she  was 
assured  that  he  might  be  restored  by  a  single  act  of  unchastity, 
she  would  prefer  that  he  should  die,  rather  than  offend  his 
Creator  by  a  mortal  sin.  This  remark  left  a  deep  impression 
on  the  mind  of  Louis,  and  he  often  repeated  it,  in  expressing 
his  abiiorrence  of  that  sin.  "  There  was  no  leprosy  so  hateful," 
he  was  accustomed  to  say,  "as  a  mortal  sin  is  to  the  soul." 
He  once  remarked  at  his  table,  that  "  the  devil  took  a  very 
cunning  course  in  seducing  usurers  and  robbers,  and  then 
moving  them  to  give  what  they  had  got  by  usury  and  robbery, 
for  God's  sake,  to  the  church ;  when  they  knew  to  whom  tliey 
must  give  it  back  at  last."  So,  with  reference  to  a  similar 
case,  he  warned  his  son-in-law,  Thiebault  the  Second,  to  take 
care  lest  he  might  bring  his  soul  into  jeopardy,  if  he  supposed 
he  could  atone  for  all  his  sins  by  the  bountiful  alms  which  he 
bestowed  on  a  Dominican  monastery.  Being  threatened  with 
shipwreck  near  the  island  of  Cyprus,  when  on  the  voyage  to 
make  his  crusade  in  the  Holy  Land,  he  sprang  from  his  bed, 
and  threw  himself  before  a  crucifix  ;  and  when  the  danger  was 
over,  he  remarked,  that  "this  threatening  display  of  God's 
Almighty  power  ought  to  be  regarded  as  an  admonition  calling 
upon  them  to  make  haste  to  purify  themselves  from  all  evil, 
and  engage  earnestly  in  every  good  work."  Mindful  of  the 
temptations  that  constantly  beset  men,  he  considered  steadfast- 
ness of  faith  as  the  greatest  of  all  goods ;  and  he  exhorted  all 
to  strive  after  it  in  due  season,  that  they  might  be  well  armed 
in  the  final  hour,  when  Satan  would  seek  to  awaken  in  them 
all  manner  of  doubts.  "  We  should  aim  to  possess  it  in  such 
measure  as  to  be  able  to  say  to  him,  '  Away  hence,  thou  enemy 
of  human  nature ;  thou  shalt  not  prevail  to  draw  me  off  from 
that  which  I  firmly  believe.'  Gladly  would  I  suffer  every  limb 
to  be  severed  from  my  body  if  I  can  only  die  in  this  faith." 

*  See  ante,  page  399. 


LOUIS  THE  NINTH.  417 

When  he  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Turks,  and,  to  obtain  his 
liberty  and  save  his  life,  was  required  to  promise  something  on 
his  oath  which  he  believed  he  would  never  be  able  to  accom- 
plish, he  peremptorily  refused,  saying,  if  he  should  not  fulfil 
what  he  had  promised,  he  would  be  like  a  Christian  that  denied 
his  God,  the  law  of  his  God,  and  his  baptism.  He  would 
rather  die  like  a  Christian,  than  live  under  God's  anger.  When 
he  was  informed  of  the  death  of  his  beloved  mother,  prostrating 
himself  before  the  altar  in  his  court-chapel  he  said :  '•  My  God, 
I  thank  thee  that  thou  didst  send  my  dearest  mother  to  me.  so 
long  as  it  pleased  thy  goodness,  and  that  thou  hast  now,  after 
thine  own  good  pleasure,  taken  her  to  thyself.  It  is  true  that 
I  loved  her  as  she  deserved  to  be  loved, — more  than  every 
other  creature ;  but  since  it  has  so  pleased  thee,  let  thy  name 
be  eternally  praised  !"  He  set  a  high  value  on  good  sermons, 
and  was  in  the  habit  of  repeating  them  over  with  delight  to 
others.  Being  detained  ten  weeks  at  sea  on  his  return  from 
the  East,  he  caused  three  sermons  weekly  to  be  preached  on 
board  his  ship.  When  the  sea  was  calm  and  the  mariners  had 
little  to  do,  considering  how  few  opportunities  they  enjoyed  of 
hearing  the  word  of  God,  he  ordered  that  a  sermon  should  be 
preached  expressly  for  them,  on  some  subject  appropriate  to 
their  condition,  on  the  articles  of  faith,  or  the  practical  life  of 
a  Christian. 

Reminding  them  of  the  dangers  to  which  their  lives  were 
constantly  exposed,  he  exhorted  them  to  confess  to  priests  of 
their  own  choice ;  and  if,  while  they  were  confessing,  a  rope 
was  to  be  pulled,  or  anything  else  needed  to  be  done  on  board 
the  ship,  that  required  their  help,  he  chose  rather  to  lend  a 
hand  himself  than  suffer  them  to  be  interrupted  when  attending 
to  the  concerns  of  their  salvation.  By  this  means  many  were 
induced  to  confess  who  had  not  done  so  for  years.  Being  in- 
formed that  a  Turkish  Sultan  had  taken  pains  to  collect,  and 
to  have  transcribed,  books  of  every  kind  that  could  be  procured, 
for  the  use  of  the  learned,  he  remarked  that  the  children  of 
darkness  were  -wiser  in  their  generation  than  the  children  of  the 
light ;  and  on  his  return  to  France  he  directed  copies  of  the 
church-lathers,  from  all  the  monasteries,  to  be  transcribed  for 
himself  and  others.  He  preferred  to  have  them  copied  rather 
than  to  purchase  them,  in  order  that  the  copies  might  be  mul- 
tiplied.    He  habitually  refrained  from   every  form  of  the 

VOL.  VII.  2   E 


418  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  CHRISTIAN  LIFE. 

profane  language  which  wa^  everywhere  so  prevalent  in  those 
times.  To  avoid  every  sort  of  protestation,  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  substituting,  in  lieu  of  every  other,  the  phraise,  "  In 
my  own  name  ;"  but  on  hearing  that  this  practice  was  censured 
by  some  monk,  he  ever  afterwards  contented  himself  with  a 
simple  yea  or  nay.  As  in  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  avoided 
all  expensive  raiment,*  thus  occasioning  a  loss  to  the  poor,  on 
whom  the  garments  he  left  off  were  usually  bestowed  as 
presents,  he  felt  himself  bound  to  make  up  the  deficiency  by 
adding  to  the  sum  which  he  yearly  appropriated  for  alms. 
To  the  last  days  of  his  life  he  busied  himself  with  the  thought 
of  a  mission  to  Tunis.  He  died  praying,  with  his  eyes  directed 
to  heaven. 

In  addition  to  what  we  have  cited  on  a  former  page,|  from 
the  last  testament  of  Louis  to  his  son,  we  may  mention  the 
following  particulars  as  characteristic  of  the  man :  "I  ad- 
monish thee  to  confess  often,  and  to  choose  for  thy  confessors 
discreet  and  honest  men,  able  to  teach  thee  what  thou  hast  to 
to  shun  and  what  to  do.  And  demean  thyself  so  modestly 
towards  thy  confessors  that  they  may  venture  kindly  and  boldly 
to  reprove  thee ;  conduct  thyself  so  uprightly  towards  thy 
subjects,  as  ever  to  maintain  the  straightforward  course,  devi- 
ating neither  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left,  inclining  rather 
to  the  side  of  the  poor  than  of  the  rich,  till  thou  art  fully 
certain  of  the  truth ;  but  when  one  has  a  complaint  against 
thyself,  adopt  thine  adversary's  side  till  thou  hast  ascertained 
the  truth ;  thus  will  thy  counsellors  more  readily  declare 
themselves  on  the  side  of  justice."  The  testament  closes  with 
these  words  :  "  In  conclusion,  I  bestow  on  thee  every  blessing 
that  a  loving  father  can  bestow  on  his  son.  May  the  whole 
Trinity  and  all  the  saints  preserve  thee  from  everything  evil ; 
and  may  God  give  thee  grace  so  to  do  his  will,  that  by  thee 
he  may  be  honoured ;  that  so,  after  this  life,  we  may  together 
behold,  love,  and  praise  him  without  end."| 

From  the  female  sex  we  may  cite,  in  the  same  century,  the 
landgravine  Elizabeth  of  Hessia,  St.  Elizabeth,  who  after  the 

*  Of  which  William  of  St  Amour  takes  notice.    See  ante,  page  395, 

t  Page  391. 

X  The  sources,  we  have  cited  on  page  395.  All  may  be  found  collected 
in  the  Actis  Sanctorum,  fifth  volume,  mouth  of  August,  under  the  25th 
of  the  month. 


EUZABETH  OF  HESSIA.  419 

death  of  her  husband,  retired  wholly  from  the  world.  In  the 
absence  of  the  latter,  she  led  a  strictly  ascetic  life ;  but  when- 
ever she  heard  of  his  speedy  return,  she  performed  what  to  her 
must  have  been  a  still  greater  piece  of  self-denial,  attiring  her- 
self in  all  her  princely  array ;  which  she  did,  as  she  said,  only 
from  love  to  Christ,  that  her  husband  might  not  conceive  dislike 
to  her  and  be  tempted  to  sin,  but  ever  retain  towards  her  true 
conjugal  love,  in  the  Lord.* 

The  Christian  life  generally  moved  betwixt  the  two  extremes 
of  an  excessive  devotion  to,  and  an  undue  estrangement  from, 
the  world.  The  first-mentioned  tendency  we  find  to  have  been 
that  of  the  great  mass,  who  supposed  that,  by  a  number  of 
outward  religious  acts,  in  which  they  formally  participated ;  by 
the  repetition  of  certain  prayers ;  by  going  to  church ;  by  making 
donations  to  churches  and  monasteries ;  by  almsgiving,  they 
satisfied  every  demand  of  Christianity, — while,  at  the  same 
time,  they  abandoned  themselves  to  their  pleasures,  till,  im- 
pressed by  some  preacher  of  repentance,  or  surprised  by  some 
sudden  calamity,  they  were  led  to  perceive  the  vanity  of  their 
dead  faith  and  of  their  mere  outward  Christianity,  and  excited 
to  strive  after  the  true  essence  of  piety.  In  opposition  to  this 
worldly  Christianity  rose  up,  next,  a  much  smaller  number, 
with  whom  piety  was  really  a  matter  of  earnest  and  sincere 
concern  ;  who  were  deeply  imbued  with  the  peculiar  Cluistian 
spirit,  but  who,  by  reason  of  this  opposition,  were  forced  into 
an  ascetic  monk-like  direction.  Thus,  there  proceeded  from 
the  very  midst  of  the  laity  pious  societies,  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  a  spiritual,  contemplative  life,  or  for  pious  objects 
of  a  more  practical  character ;  the  members  of  which  commonly 
passed  imder  the  name  of  Beghards  ;  a  freer  imitation  of  mo- 
nasticism.  "We  recognize  in  them  that  strong  inclination  to 
social  union,  quickened  by  religion,  which  distinguished  the 
twelfth  century, — the  mighty  energy  of  that  idea  of  evangelical 
poverty  which  set  itself  in  opposition  to  the  secularization  of 
the  church.  Among  the  quite  diversified  shapings  which  main- 
tained a  connection  with,  or  stood  out  in  opposition  to,  the 
church,  we  notice  such  pious  societies  as  the  one  formed  by 
Vicelin,"|-    and    those   foundetl   by   Raymund    Palmaris,    by 

*  See  her  life,  by  the  Dominican  Theodoric  of  Thuringia,  Lab.  II.  c 
T.  Canisii,  Lect.  antiq.  ed.  Basnage,  T.  IV.  f.  124. 
f  See  ante,  page  46. 

2£2 


420         SOCIETIES  FORMED  IN   OPPOSITION  TO  THE  WORLD. 

the  Apostolicians,  the  "Waldenses, — at  their  first  commence- 
ment, —of  which  we  shall  speak  on  a  future  page.  When  the 
minds  of  men  were  excited  by  the  contests  between  Henry  the 
Fourth  and  Gregory  the  Seventh,  in  Germany,  such  pious 
societies  began  to  be  formed  also  among  the  country  people ; 
by  men  and  women,  married  and  unmarried ;  who  committed 
themselves  to  the  guidance  of  ecclesiastics  or  monks.* 

Now  when  such  names  were  once  invented  to  designate  that 
tendency  of  piety  opposed  to  the  world, — just  as  the  term 
"  Pietists  "  came  to  be  employed  in  later  times, — Beghardi, 
Papelardi,^  Boni  homines,  Boni  valeti,^  i't  came  about  that 
these  names,  used  in  different  senses  to  denote  different  sets  of 
religious  opinions,  were  laid  hold  of  by  men  of  a  more  liberal 
Christian  spirit — like  the  above-mentioned  William  of  St. 
Amour — as  a  sort  of  nickname  for  some  caricature  of  piety, — 
though  such  caricatures  were  certainly  in  these  days  extremely 
rare, — as  also  by  the  mass  of  common  worldlings,  who  con- 
tented themselves  with  a  mere  formal  and  outward  Christi- 
anity, for  the  purpose  of  begetting  mistrust  in  every  form  of 
uncommon  seriousness  in  the  Christian  life,  which  they  were 
unable  to  discriminate  from  the  monk-like  tendency. 

A  Parisian  theologian  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Robert  de 
Sorbonne,  founder  of  the  famous  college  that  went  by  his 
name,  says,  in  his  work  on  Conscience, — where  he  exhorts  to 
rigid  self-examination :  "The  Beguins,  whether  they  are  to 
be  found  in  the  world,  or  in  the  monkish  orders,  are  wiser  in 
this  book  (of  Conscience),  because  they  more  frequently  con- 
fess ;  for  this  reason  they  are  denominated  papelardi  (pope- 

*  Berthold  of  Constance,  at  the  year  1091 :  Nou  solum  autem  viroruni 
et  feminarum  innumerabilis  multitudo  his  temporibus  se  ad  hujusmodi 
vitam  contulerunt,  ut  sub  obedientia  clericorum  sive  monachorum  com- 
muniter  viverent  eisque  more  ancillarum  quotidian!  servitii  peusum 
devotissime  persolverent,  in  ipsis  quoque  villis  filia;  rusticorum  innumerae 
conjugio  et  seculo  abrenuntiare  et  sub  alicujus  sacerdotis  obedientia 
vivere  studuerunt,  sed  etiam  ipsaj  conjugate  nihilominus  religiose  vivere 
et  religiosis  cum  summa  devotione  non  cessaverunt  obedire.  He  imme- 
diately adds :  Multae  villse  ex  integro  se  religioni  contradiderunt  seque 
invicem  sanctitate  morum  prsevenire  incessabiliter  studuerimt.  Monu- 
menta  res  Alemannicas  illustrantia,  T.  II.  p.  148. 

t  See  ante,  page  395. 

X  See  William  of  St.  Amour,  responsiones  ad  objecta,  p.  92 :  Propter 
beguinas,  bonos  valetos,  dicentes,  quod  vestis  pretiosa  portari  non  potest 
sine  magQO  periculo. 


SUBJECTIVE  VIEW  OF  JUSTIFICATION.  421 

servants)."*  He  declaims  against  those  who,  when  amongst 
worldly  people,  dressed  and  lived  like  them,  and  spoke  ill  of 
the  devout ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  amongst  the  latter  they 
dressed  in  their  feshion  and  begged  for  their  intercessions.! 
'•  Such  persons,  who  can  trim  their  sails  to  every  breeze  that 
blows,"  says  he,  '*  the  world  pronounces  wise  and  liberal."^ 
Those  of  the  laity  who  led  a  stricter  life,  looked  pale,  and 
made  it  a  point  to  swear  no  oath, —  because  they  considered 
the  words  of  Christ  thus  literally  understood,  if  not  as  a  com- 
mandment, yet  as  a  consilium  evangelicum, — were  called  by 
the  sectarian  name  Catharians.§  Peter  Cantor  opposes  to  the 
severity  \n\ii.  which  men  pronounced  on  the  orthodoxy  of 
others,  their  own  extreme  negligence  with  regard  to  morals. 
He  says :  "If  we  call  every  man  who  wanders  ever  so  little 
from  the  faith  a  heretic, — why  do  we  not,  in  like  manner, 
complain  of  him  who  departs  from  the  light  of  the  moral  law ; 
why  do  we  not  say  of  him,  that  he  walks  not  in  the  light,  but 
in  darkness  ?  "||  He  complains  of  those  who,  by  their  quib- 
bling glosses,  let  down  the  requisitions  of  the  Christian  moral 
law,  as  propounded  in  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  and  would 
convert  the  strait  gate  of  salvation  into  a  wide  one.^ 

In  order  rightly  to  understand  the  shaping  of  the  Christian 
life,  and  its  extravagances  in  this  period,  we  must  present 

*  Bibliotheca  patmm  Lugd.  T.  XXV.  f.  350. 

t  L.  c.  f.  348 :  Tales  homines  cum  sint  cum  papelardis  viris  et  reli- 
giosis,  dicunt :  orate  pro  me,  et  fiiciunt  Magdalenam,  et  quando  sunt 
cum  mnndaois,  faciant  sicut  mondani,  vel  pejus  et  detrectant  de  peregrinis 
et  religiosis  viris  et  derident,  ut  habeant  benevolentiam  mundanomm. 

X  De  talibus  dicit  mundos,  quod  sapientes  simt  et  liberales,  quia  optime 
sciont  se  habere  cum  omni  genere  hominum  et  quod  bonum  est  tales 
promovere. 

§  Peter  Cantor's  words,  Verbum  Abbreviatum,  c.  cxxvii.  p.  291 :  Si 
omnes  alias  perfectiones  evangelicas  ex  voto  possum  suscipere  et  implere, 
quare  et  non  similiter  hoc  consilium  perfectionis  ?  Vel  cur  hoc  obser- 
vantem  statim  proclamamus  Catharum  ?  Concerning  a  person,  who  quia 
pauper  et  pallidus,  was  held  to  be  a  Catharist,  1.  c.  p.  201. 

II  Si  pamm  deviantem  a  fide  vocamns  haereticum  et  increpamus,  di- 
centes  eum  non  esse  in  via,  sed  extra,  quare  et  similiter  recedentem  in 
modico  a  luce  moralinm  prseceptorum  non  arguimus,  objicientes  ei, 
quod  jam  non  sit  in  luce,  sed  tenebris.  Verbum  abbrev.  c.  Wtt-  *>, 
213. 

IF  Superflua  expositione  potins  qnam  amore  hanc  portam  adeo  dilata- 
vimns,  quod  jam  angustias  non  habeat,  ut  sic  intremns  per  latam  portam, 
non  per  angustam.    L.  c.  p.  211.  et  seqq. 


422  SUBJECTIVE  VIEW  OF  JUSTIFICATION. 

distinctly  before  our  minds  the  peculiar  mode  of  apprehending 
the  order  of  salvation ;  for  this  will  furnish  a  ground  of  ex- 
planation, or  a  point  of  attachment,  for  many  things  otherwise 
obscure.  The  tendency  to  the  subjective — as  we  shall  have  to 
explain  more  at  large  in  the  section  treating  of  doctrines — here 
predominated.  Thus,  for  example,  by  justification, — which 
men  considered  as  the  necessary  condition  to  the  obtaining 
of  salvation,  as  the  sign  of  the  elect, — was  understood  the 
internal  work  of  making  just, — sanctification  through  divine 
grace,  which  should  manifest  itself  by  good  works  proceeding 
from  faith,  and  working  by  love  (the  Jides  formata).  While 
now  man's  confidence,  with  reference  to  his  salvation,  was  thus 
made  to  depend  on  something  unsettled,  subjected,  and  inca- 
pable of  being  defined  by  an  infallible  mark,  the  consequence 
was — according  to  the  different  characters  and  temperaments 
of  men — either  a  one-sided  spiritualization,  or  a  one-sided 
externalization,  of  religion  ;  either  a  reflection  upon  one's  self, 
absorbing  the  whole  man,  till  he  was  led  to  doubt  of  his  salva- 
tion ;  or  spiritual  pride  and  work-holiness  ; — except  where  these 
evil  results  were  prevented  by  the  predominant  reference  which,  . 
in  spite  of  the  subjective  element  of  the  church  doctrine,  still 
prevailed  in  the  religious  life  to  the  objective  side  of  redemp- 
tion. One  class  cast  themselves  upon  externals,  sought  the 
warrant  of  their  justification  in  the  works  of  mortifying  the 
flesh,  of  benevolence,  donations  to  the  church,  in  the  frequent 
use  of  the  sacraments ;  another  class,  consisting  of  persons  of 
deeper  feeling,  looked  within,  and  would  attain  to  this  assur- 
ance by  watching  the  frames  of  their  own  mind,  and  thus, 
depending  for  their  joy  and  their  confidence  on  the  changeful 
states  of  feelings  oftentimes  grounded  in  human  weakness,  they 
not  seldom  sought,  by  supernatural  means,  by  visions,  by 
special  and  extraordinary  revelations,  to  obtain  for  themselves  • 
the  assurance  they  were  in  quest  of;  easily  falling  a  prey  to 
fanaticism  or  to  absolute  despair,  whereby  many,  especially  of 
those  who  were  beginners  in  the  spiritual  life,  would  be  led, 
after  seeing  the  fruitlessness  of  their  eftbrts,  to  give  themselves 
up  again  wholly  to  the  world.  The  experienced  spiritual 
guides  of  these  centuries  often  speak  of  these  several  dangers, 
and  seek  to  guard  men  against  them.  Thus,  for  example, 
Richard  a  S.  Victore  warns  against  spiritual  pride,  against 
work-holiness,  as  well  as  against  moral  despondency.     In  re- 


JUSTIFICATIOX.  423 

ference  to  the  first  he  says :  "  We  know  that  those  good  works 
which  nourish  the  other  virtues  almost  always  undermine 
humility.  The  works  of  abstinence  and  of  patience,  which 
excite  the  wonder  of  mankind,  are  wont  to  render  those  who 
perform  them  proud  instead  of  humble."*  In  reference  to  the 
second  he  says ;  '•  When  the  soul,  which  has  once  despaired 
of  its  salvation,  and  is  wholly  deserted  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
feels  that  it  has  no  power  to  resist  firmly-rooted  habits,  nor  to 
restrain  itself  from  the  sin  which  cleaves  to  it,  it  is  very  apt  to 
excuse  itself,  and  to  cast  the  blame  upon  its  Maker.  Men  say, 
Everjrthing  must  turn  out  as  it  has  be«i  foreordained.  Who 
can  resist  the  will  of  God  ?  Can  we  create  our  own  merits 
ourselves  ?  In  truth,  nothing  depends  on  our  own  willing  or 
our  own  running,  but  everything  upon  the  divine  mercy. 
Why,  then,  does  he  not  have  mercy  on  us  ?  Why  does  not  he 
who  works  all  in  all,  according  to  his  will,  work  in  us  what  is 
well-pleasing  to  himself?  ""j" 

By  making  their  subjective  feelings  the  ground  of  their 
assurance,  men  were  the  more  troubled  by  those  internal 
experiences  which  those  who  find  not  their  home  in  the  pre- 
sent world,  but  labour  after  a  secret  divine  life,  must  at  all 
times  have  ; — that  interchange  in  the  life  of  the  soul  between 
light  and  darkness,  a  lively  feeling  of  grace  and  inward  deso- 
lation. The  lives  of  the  pious  men  of  this  period,  and  of  the 
mystics,  are  ftJl  of  these  experiences,  f  Richard  a  Sancto 
Victore  calls  this  "the  necessary  darkness,  the  necessary 
vicissitude  of  this  present  earthly  life,  where  it  cannot 
always  be  day,  as  it  is  in  heaven,  but  the  sun  rises  and  sets."§ 

*  De  prseparatione  animi  ad  contemplationem,  c.  xxx. 

+  De  eruditione  interiorig,  p.  i.  L  iiL  c.  xviii.  Csesarins,  in  his  Nar- 
rations, Distinct,  c.  xxvii.  cites  the  instance  of  a  prince  Trho,  upon 
every  exhortation  to  repentance,  replied  that,  if  he  belonged  to  the  elect, 
he  should  be  saved  at  all  events ;  and  if  he  did  not,  all  the  efforts  he 
might  make  -would  avail  nothing.    See  above,  p.  332. 

X  See  History  of  Monachism,  p.  239. 

§  Qnare  ergo  omne  cor  mceret,  nisi  quia  nullum  cor  perpetuum  diem 
hie  habet,  quia  lumen  coeli  semper  pnesens  habere  uon  valet.  Oritur 
enim  sol  et  occidit  et  ad  locum  suum  revertitur.  Quid  ergo  mirum,  si 
omne  cor  mceret,  quamdiu  necessarias  tenebras  hujusmodi  altemantinm 
vicissitudinum  sustinet  ?  Quamdiu  in  terra  vivimus,  quamdiu  in  terra 
sumus,  has  temporum  vicissitudines  necessario  sustinemus.  In  ccelo  dies 
sine  nocte.    De  statu  interioris  hominis,  Tract.  I.  p.  i.  c  xxvii. 


424  RESISTANCE  OFFERED  TO 

The  heavily-oppressed  spirits  often  felt  themselves  relieved, 
as  by  a  gift  from  Heaven,  when  the  deep,  dull  pain  of  the 
soul,  thirsting  after  the  fountain  of  its  life  and  longing  after 
its  home,  could  find  vent  in  tears,  that  "  donum  lachry- 
marum,"  of  which  so  much  is  said  in  the  testimonies  con- 
cerning the  internal  life  of  this  period.  There  was  no  want 
of  important  voices  which  expressed  themselves  emphatically 
against  that  externalization  of  religion  in  isolated  good  works, 
and  which  pointed  those  whose  minds  were  solely  directed  to 
things  outward  and  individual,  to  that  which  is  required  in 
order  to  true  piety.  In  a  sermon  on  Luke  xi.  41,  pope  In- 
nocent the  Third  extols,  above  all  other  good  works,  that  of 
almsgiving.  He  says :  "  Almsgiving  is  more  than  fasting ; 
since  what  the  man  denies  to  himself  he  gives  to  others.  It 
is  more  than  prayer,  because  it  is  better  to  pray  with  deeds 
than  with  words."  At  the  same  time,  however,  he  guards 
against  a  misapprehension  of  those  words  of  Christ  which  he 
took  for  his  text,  by  the  remark—"  But  if  the  pov/er  of  alms- 
giving is  so  great,  men  may  do  what  they  please,  provided 
only  they  diligently  bestow  alms,  secure  in  their  reliance  on 
those  words  of  our  Lord.  Will,  then,  all  things  be  pure  to 
them  that  give  alms,  even  to  drunkards,  to  adulterers,  to 
murderers,  and  to  those  who  are  stained  with  all  the  other 
pollutions  of  crime?  May  they,  then,  securely  abandon 
themselves  to  all  their  pleasures,  because  alms  suffice  to 
redeem  them  from  all  sins  ?  Far  from  it ;  since,  as  holy 
writ  declares.  Lev.  xv.,  Whatever  is  touched  by  the  unclean, 
becomes  unclean.  God  looks  rather  upon  Jiow  a  thing  is 
done  than  upon  ivhat  is  done."*  And  he  quotes,  in  oppo- 
sition to  this  false  view  of  alms,  the  words  of  the  apostle 
Paul — "  Though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and 
have  not  charity,"  etc.  True  almsgiving  proceeds,  then, 
from  love  unfeigned.  He  raises  the  objection :  "  But  I  am 
poor ;  I  have  no  bread,  no  clothing,  no  alms  to  bestow ; 
nothing  that  I  can  give  to  others."  And  he  answers:  "  But 
recollect  that  with  God  the  good  will  sufficeth,  where  the 
opportunity  is  wanting."     And,  "  God  regards,  in  the  gift, 


*  Deus  magis  attendit  modum  in  facto,  qnam  factum  in  modo,  id  est 
quo  modo  aliquid  fiat,  quam  quid  aliquo  modo  fiat.  De  eleemosyna,  c. 
iii.  f.  201 


THE  EXTERNALIZING  OF  WORKS.  425 

not  SO  much  its  magnitude  as  the  measure  of  piety  in  the  act 
of  bestowing  it"*  Bishop  Hildebert  of  Mans  v/rote  to  a 
certain  count  of  Angers,  who  was  about  starting  on  a  pil- 
grimage to  St.  Jago  di  Compostella,f — '*  "NYe  deny  not  that 
this  is  a  good  thing,  but  he  who  undertakes  a  calling  is  ob- 
ligated to  obedience ;  and  he  sins  if  he  forsake  it  without 
being  called  to  something  greater  and  more  usefiil.  Where- 
fore, look  forward  to  thy  great  guilt,  thou  who  preferrest  that 
which  is  not  necessary  to  the  necessary ;  repose  to  activity 
in  thy  calling.  Among  the  talents  which  the  Master  of  the 
house  gave  to  his  senants  to  administer,  no  teacher  nor  pas- 
sage of  the  Holy  Scriptures  mentions  roving  about  in  the 
world.  But  perhaps  it  will  be  said,  the  man  is  bound  by  a 
vow  ;  recollect  that  thou  hast  bound  thyself  by  thy  vow,  but 
God  has  bound  thee  by  the  duties  of  thy  calling."  And  he 
then  goes  on  to  explain  more  at  large  how,  with  self-renun- 
ciation, he  ought  to  fulfil  his  duties  as  a  ruler,  govern  himself 
by  the  laws,  his  subordinates  with  love  ;J  not  stroll  about  to 
the  churches  of  the  saints,  but  beair  within  him  the  lively 
remembrance  of  their  virtues."§  Concerning  pilgrimages, 
Raymund  Lull,  in  his  work  on  Contemplation,  expresses 
himself  as  follows :  he  first  compares  the  procession  of  the 
pilgrims  with  the  entry  of  Christ  into  Jerusalem,]! — the  pil- 
grims riding  at  their  ease,  living  comfortably,  and  bearing 
the  cross  only  on  their  cloaks ;  he  contrasts  what  Christ  did 
to  seek  men,  with  what  they  do  to  seek  him :  *•  We  see  the 
pUgrims  travelling  away  into  distant  lands  to  seek  thee,  whilst 
thou  art  so  near  that  every  man,  if  he  would,  might  find  thee 
in  his  own  house  and  chamber.  Why  are  multitudes  so 
ignorant  as  to  travel  away  into  distant  lands  to  seek  thee, 
carrying  evil  spirits  with  them,  if  they  depart  laden  with  sin? 
The  pilgrims  are  so  deceived  by  felse  men,  whom  they  meet 
in  taverns  and  churches,  that  many  of  them,  when  they  return 
home,  show  themselves  to  be  far  worse  than  they  were  when 
they  set  out  on  their  pilgrimage.     He  who  would  find  thee, 

*  Nee  tarn  attendit  in  mxmere  quantitatem,  quam  devotionem  in  opere, 
penssans  magis  ex  qaanto,  quam  quantum. 

t  Ep.  15. 

i  Te  ipsum  legibns,  amore  subjectos  rege. 

§  Nee  circumferri  per  memorias  lapidum,  sed  circnmferre  memoriam 
virtutum.  [j  Cap.  cxiii,  f.  252. 


426  PILGRIMAGES. 

0  Lord,  let  him  go  forth  to  seek  thee  in  love,  loyalty,  de 
votion,  faith,  hope,  justice,  mercy,  and  truth  ;  for  in  every 
place  where  these  are,  there  art  thou.  Blessed,  then,  are  all 
they  who  seek  thee  in  such  things.  The  things  which  a  man 
would  find  he  should  seek  earnestly ;  and  he  must  seek  in  the 
place  where  they  are  to  be  found.  If,  then,  the  pilgrims 
would  find  thee,  they  must  carefully  seek  thee  ;  and  they 
must  not  seek  thee  in  the  images  and  paintings  of  churches, 
but  in  the  hearts  of  holy  men,  in  which  thou  dwellest  day  and. 
night.  The  mode  and  the  way  to  find  thee  stands  within  the 
power  of  man ;  for  to  remember  thee,  to  love  thee,  to  honour, 
to  serve  thee,  to  think  of  thine  exalted  dignity  and  on  our  own 
great  wants, — this  is  the  occasion  and  the  way  to  find  thee  if  we 
seek  thee.  Often  have  I  sought  thee  on  the  cross,  and  my 
bodily  eyes  have  not  been  able  to  find  thee,  although  they  have 
found  thine  image  there,  and  a  representation  of  thy  death.  And 
when  I  could  not  find  thee  with  my  bodily  eyes,  I  have  sought 
thee  with  the  eye  of  my  soul ;  and,  thinking  on  thee,  my  soul 
found  thee ;  and  when  it  found  thee,  my  heart  began  imme- 
diately to  warm  with  the  glow  of  love,  my  eyes  to  weep,  my 
mouth  to  praise  thee.  How  little  profits  it  the  pilgrims  to 
roam  through  the  world  in  quest  of  thee,  if,  when  they  have 
come  back  from  their  pilgrimage,  they  return  again  to  sin  and 
folly."  Bishop  William  of  Paris,  another  distinguished  man 
among  the  scholastic  theologians  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
says,  in  one  of  his  sermons :  "  The  true  pilgrimage  is  this, — 
to  travel,  by  penitence,  to  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.  This 
pilgrimage  is  more  glorious  than  all  others,  for  the  reason  that 
the  others  are  performed  for  the  sake  of  this  ;  and,  where  this 
is  wanting,  the  others  are  useless."  The  same  bishop  remarks, 
in  another  sermon — "  They  present  their  bodies,  not  as  a 
living  but  as  a  dead  sacrifice,  who  say,  I  will  cause  myself  to 
be  buried  and  remain,  after  my  death,  in  this  or  that  order, 
while  they  continue  to  live  on  in  their  sins."  The  abbot 
Bernard  of  Tiron,*  said  to  the  monks  assembled  around  his 
dying  bed :  "  All  virtue,  besides  love,  is  perishable ;  in  this 
consists  the  essence  of  all  God's  commandments ;  by  this 
alone  the  disciples  of  Christ  are  distinguished  from  the  ser- 
vants of  antichrist.     By  this  alone  will  men  recognize  them 

♦  See  above,  p.  327. 


RESISTANCE  TO  EXTERN  A  T  JZ  ATlOy  OF  WORKS.  427 

as  Christ's  disciples,  not  by  the  circumstance  that  they 
observed  superstitious  ordinances ;  these  promoted  sin  fiu" 
more  than  edification,"  He  lamented  that  he  had  been  so 
long  a  slave  to  such  outward  ordinances,  and  had  iaid  sucli  a 
yoke  upon  others.* 

Many  bright  testimonies  of  this  ■  Christian  spirit,  that 
pointed  a  way  from  the  outward  to  the  inward,  we  find  in 
the  works  of  Raymund  Lull.  We  will  cite  a  few  of  then^. 
"  The  figure  of  the  holy  cross,"  says  he,  "  laments  over  those 
hypocrites  who  simulate  the  poverty  and  suffering  represented 
by  it,  with  a  view  to  appear  as  saints  to  the  people,  and  who 
are  unwilling  to  follow  after  it  by  the  performance  of  real 
good  works."!"  We  see  the  holy  cross  honoured  with  gold, 
silver,  precious  stones,  silks,  and  paintings  of  various  colours, 
but  we  see  it  little  honoured  by  love,  tears,  contrition,  devo- 
tion, and  holy  thoughts ;  and  yet  the  wooden  cross,  before 
which  a  sinner  weeps,  receives  more  honour  than  the  cross  of 
gold,  before  which  a  sinner  stands  thinking  of  the  vanities  of 
the  world4  The  image  of  the  crucified  Christ  is  found  much 
rather  in  men  who  imitate  him  in  their  daily  walk  than  in  a 
crucifix  made  of  wood."§  All  the  Christian  virtues  he  repre- 
sents as  signs  of  that  constitution  of  soul  which  is  requisite  in 
order  to  salvation  ;|1  "  but  from  these  signs,"  says  he,  "it  is 
still  impossible  to  know  whether  one  is  in  the  way  of  salvation; 
because  that  which  shows  itself  in  outward  appearance  is  no 
certain  expression  of  the  disposition  within,  on  which  alone 
everything  depends ;  for  those  persons  who  fast,  give  alms, 

*  In  hoc  solo  cognoscent  homines,  quia  Christ!  sitis  discipuli,  non  si 
snperstitiosaruia  observatores  tradirionum  extiteritis,  sed  si  dilectionem 
ad  invicem  habneritis.  Concerning  the  former  he  says,  quibus  non  parvo 
tempore  ipse  subjacueram,  qnasque  aliis  per  nonnulla  annoram  cunicola 
instiinter  ferendas  imposueram.     Acta  S.  Mens.  April,  T.  II.  f.  249. 

t  Conqaeritnr,  quia  ipsi  earn  in  se  fingunt,  at  videantur  a  gentibos  in 
similitndinem  bonorum  hominom,  et  nolant  ipsam  imitari  faciendo  vera 
esse  opera. 

X  r^Iajorem  honorationem  recipit  crux  lignea,  coram  qna  peccator  plo- 
rat,  quam  crux  anrea,  coram  qua  peccator  stat  memorando  vanitates  hujos 
mondi. 

§  Quoniam  figara,  quam  videmus  in  cmce,  est  pictura  in  ligno,  sed 
beatns  religiosus  est  illins  speciei,  cujus  est  tna  gloriosa  hnmanitas. 
LJber  contemplationis,  vol.  II.  Distinct  23,  c.  cxxiii.  T.  I.  f.  280. 

II  Omnes  virtutes  signa  et  significationes  et  demonstrationes  salva- 
tionis. 


428  EXTERNAL  WORKS. 

and  speak  words  of  humility,  clothe  themselves  in  rags,  and 
subject  themselves  to  many  self-denials,  may  yet,  with  all  this 
unite  a  false  bent  of  the  inward  temper  ;*  and  others  may  eat 
and  sleep  well  and  wear  comfortable  garments  who  do  this 
Avith  a  good  intention,  and  to  avoid  making  a  parade  of  their 
piety. "f  "  The  poor  man,  when  he  gives  a  small  portion  of 
bread  in  true  piety  and  contrition,  to  another  poor  man,  is 
more  benefited  than  the  rich  man,  who  gives  the  poor  bread 
and  meat  from  vanity  and  in  a  false  intention."|  "  A  small 
piece  of  money  which  the  poor  man  gives  out  of  love  to  God, 
is  more  than  a  large  sum  which  the  rich  man  bestows  in  such 
intention ;  and  the  rich  man  is  more  acceptable  before  God 
when,  from  love  to  God  he  is  humble,  simple,  and  courteous, 
than  the  poor  man  who,  from  love  to  God,  is  the  same."§ 
Prayer  he  describes  as  the  soul  of  the  Christian  life.  "  It  is 
ordained  of  God  as  the  ladder  by  which  man  mounts  from  this 
dark  place  to  the  eternal  glory.  As  often  as  man  begins  to 
pray,  while  praising  and  loving  God,  testifying  of  his  goodness 
and  acknowledging  his  own  wretchedness,  so  often  he  begins 
to  mount  upward  to  God.  Prayer  converts  the  proud  man 
into  an  humble  one,  the  disdainful  man  into  a  simple  and 
courteous  one."|l  "A  man  better  defends  himself  against 
temptation  with  prayer  than  with  fasting."^  "  Devotion  in 
prayer  is  so  good  a  thing,  that  the  prayer  of  uneducated  men 
or  women,  who  pray  in  rude  language  but  with  great  devotion, 
is  far  more  acceptable  than  the  prayer  of  the  great  and 
learned,  and  of  prelates,  who  pray  with  fine  words  but  without 
devotion,  since  they  have  their  hearts  and  their  imaginations 
set  on  other  things  quite  at  variance  with  those  denoted  by 
tlieir  words."**  He  called  that  acceptable  prayer  to  God 
which  aims  at  obtaining  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  iiuraility, 
wisdom,  love.  "  But  many,"  says  he,  "  pray  daily  for  the 
glory  of  paradise,  and  yet  in  their  hearts  love  the  joys  of  this 
world  more  than  the  glory  they  pray  for ;  and  as  they  love  the 
g6ods  of  this  world  more  than  those  of  the  other,  they  are  not 

*  Possunt  habere  in  istis  rebus  falsam  et  inordinatam  intentionem. 
t  L.  c.  f.  461.  X  L.  c.  f.  184. 

§  L.  c.  f.  162.  II  L.  c.  f.  125. 

11  Homo  melius  se  defendit  a  tentatione  cum  oratione  quam  cum  jejunio. 
De  centum  nominibus  Dei,  c.  ii.  T.  VI.  f.  23. 

*♦  De  contemplatione  Dei,  Vol.  II.  L.  III.  Dist.  29,  c.  cc.  f.  498. 


ox  LOVE.  429 

worthy  of  attaining  to  the  celestial  goods."*  He  distinguishes 
three  kinds  of  prayer, — prayer  in  words  (the  oratio  sensualis), 
the  internal  prayer  of  the  spirit  {oratio  intellectualis),  and 
that  embracing  the  whole  life.  "He  who  is  just,  com- 
passionate, humble,  patient,  prays,  although  he  is  not  con- 
sciously thinking  of  God.  To  this  act  belong  all  works  which 
pious  men  perform.  Whatsoever  such  a  person  may  do, 
whether  he  eat,  or  drink,  or  sleep,  buy  or  sell,  dig  or 
plough,  he  prays  to  God  and  praises  God."f  The  temper 
which  should  be  the  soul  of  the  Christian  life  he  represents  as 
love,  concerning  whose  holy  fervour  he  could  testify  more 
fully  than  any  other  individual.  "As  the  needle,"  says 
he,  "  when  touched  by  the  magnet,  points  naturally  to  the 
north,  so  must  thy  servant  turn  thither  to  love  and  praise 
God  his  Lord,  and  to  serte  him,  since  from  love  to  him  the 
Lord  has  been  willing  to  endure  heavy  pains  and  sufferings  ia 
this  world."! 

Among  his  spirited  aphorisms  we  find  the  following,  which 
belong  here.  "He  who  bestows  on  his  friend  his  love, 
bestows  on  him  more  than  if  he  gave  him  treasures  of  gold ; 
he  who  gives  God,  can  give  nothing  more"§  (alluding  to  the 
words  of  the  apostle  John,  that  God  is  love).  With  this 
saying  we  may  compare  what  Richard  a  Sancto  Victore 
remarks,  on  the  other  hand,  concerning  those  who  sow  con- 
tentions. "  He  treats  you  in  a  godless  manner  who  robs  you 
of  your  money,  but  how  is  it  with  him  who  deprives  you  of 
love  ?  Does  he  treat  you  cruelly  who  robs  you  of  your  gar- 
ment ?  how  much  more  then  he  who  deprives  you  of  love  ;  for 
if  it  is  cruel  to  rob  a  man  of  his  outward  and  perishable  goods, 
it  must  be  still  more  so  to  deprive  him  of  the  internal  ever- 
abiding  goods,  for  charity  never  ceases.    Of  a  truth,  whoever 

*  L,  c.  f.  499. 

+  L.  c.  Vol.  III.  L.  V,  Dist.  40,  c.  cccxt.  T.  X.  £  339. 

X  Sicnt  acos  per  nataram  vertitur  ad  septentrionem,  dnm  sit  tacta  a 
magnete,  ita  oportet,  quod  tuns  servos  se  vertat  ad  amandum  et  laudandum 
suum  pominum  Deum,  et  ad  serviendum  ei,  quoniam  pro  suo  amore 
Toluit  in  hoc  mnndo  sustinere  graves  dolores  et  graves  passiones.  De 
contemplatione  Dei,  Vol.  II.  L.  III.  Dist.  27,  c.  cxxx  T  IX 
£296.  ■ 

§  Qui  dat  bonum  amare  sno  amico,  illi  plus  dat,  qnam  si  illi  daret 
omne  aumm ;  qui  dat  Deum,  non  potest  plus  dare.  De  centum  nominibus 
Dei,  c.  xxxi.  T.  \  I.  f.  15. 


430  RAYMUND  lull's  "  CONTEMPLATION  IN  GOD." 

deprives  a  man  of  love  deprives  him  also  of  G<xl,  for  God  is 
love."*  Again  says  Raymond  Lull;  "He  who  loves  not, 
lives  not.""!'  "  The  spirit  longs  after  nothing  as  it  does  after 
God.  No  gold  is  worth  so  much  as  a  sigh  of  holy  longing. 
The  more  of  this  longing  one  has,  the  more  of  life  he  has. 
The  want  of  this  longing  is  death.  Have  this  longing,  and 
thou  shalt  live.  He  is  not  poor  who  possesses  this  ;  unhappy 
the  man  who  lives  without  it."J  ''Were  there  no  sin,"  says 
he,  "all  temporal  goods  would  be  held  in  common  by  all," 
The  activity  of  love  in  almsgiving  he  considered  as  that 
whereby  all  those  distinctions  which  had  proceeded  from  sin 
were  to  be  again  done  away.§ 

Although  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  monasticism,  yet  Ray- 
mund  Lull  objected  to  an  excessive  asceticism,  or  one  that 
does  not  spring  out  of  the  temper  of  love,  and  places  the  love 
that  unites  together  the  practical  and  contemplative  life,  and 
is  active  in  promoting  the  salvation  of  others,  above  everything 
else.  "  The  body  which  has  been  too  much  mortified,"  says 
he,  "  is  suited  for  neither  the  active  nor  the  contemplative 
life.  Thou  wilt  be  a  murderer,  if  thou  destroyest  thyself 
slowly  as  much  as  if  thou  doest  it  at  once.  God  does  not 
bestow  earthly  blessings  on  men  for  nothing  ;  as  thou  must 
eat  in  order  to  live,  so  thou  must  not  fast  in  order  to  die. 
Hypocrisy  steals  upon  those  who  impose  on  themselves  exces- 
sive mortification." II  "  No  hermit  does  so  much  good  as  a 
good  preacher,  who  has  the  contemplative  life  in  Iiimself,  and 
shows  the  practical  in  his  preaching.  Better  is  a  life  spent  in 
instructing  others  than  one  spent  in  fasting."ir 

In  his  great  work  concerning  Contemplation  in  God,  Ray- 

*  De  eruditione  interioris  hominis,  p.  i.  L.  III.  c.  iv.  f.  107. 

•j-  Qui  non  amat,  non  vivit.    Liber  proverbionim,  c.  xvii.  T.  VI.  f.  10. 

X  Qui  plus  desiderat,  plus  scit  de  vivere.  Privatio  desiderii  est  mori, 
Desidera  et  vives.  Non  est  pauper,  qui  desiderat.  Tristis  vivit,  qui  non 
desiderat.  De  centum  nominibus  Dei,  c.  xc.  Lib.  Proverbionim,  p.  i. 
T.  VI.  f.  38. 

§  Si  peccatum  non  esset,  omnia  tempoi'alia  bona  essent  communis. 
Eleemosyna  est  figura  communis  boni.  Prov.  moral,  c.  Ixx.  T.  VI.  f 
119. 

II  Proverb,  moral,  c.  Ixix.  f.  119. 

IT  Nullus  eremita  facit  tantum  bonum,  sieut  bonus  praidicator,  qui  habet 
vitam  contemplativam  in  se  ipso  et  activam  in  prsedicando.  Vita  est 
melior  per  doctrinam,  quam  per  jejunium.     L.  c.  p.  iii,  c.  11.  f.  110. 


SAYINGS  OF  ^GroiUS  or  ASSISI.  431 

mund  Lull  exhibits,  in  all  the  ranks  and  professions  o£ 
Christendom,  the  contrast  between  what  they  are  and  what 
they  ought  to  be,*  and  points  away  from  the  corruption  of  all 
to  Christ.  While  he  thus  treats  of  princes  and  nobles,  and 
complains  that  no  access  is  to  be  found  to  them,  when  it  is 
needed,  in  reference  to  the  matters  for  which  they  are  placed 
over  others, — for  the  gates  of  the  palaces  are  shut,  and  the 
porters  threaten  those  who  would  enter  them ;  he  thereupon 
betakes  himself  to  God,  and  says,  "  Praised  then  be  thou,  that 
the  case  is  not  so  with  thee, — for  as  often  as  man  would  see 
thee,  contemplate  thee,  address  thee,  he  can  do  so,  and  the 
door  is  never  shut/'f 

We  will  quote,  in  addition,  a  few  things  fixan  the  sayings  of 
the  Franciscan,  -^gidius  of  Assisi,  a  friend  of  Francis  of 
Assisi,  as  testimonies  of  the  internal  Christian  experience  of 
these  times :  ••  One  grace  draws  after  it  another,  and  one 
crime  draws  after  it  another."^  "  Grace  cannot  bear  to  be 
praised,  nor  crime  to  be  despised.  Purity  of  heart  sees  God, 
devotion  enjoys  him.  While  a  man  lives,  he  must  not  despair  of 
Grod's  mercy ;  for  there  is  no  tree  so  distorted  that  human  art 

*  As  this  \rork  ^11  be  accessible  to  bat  few  of  my  readers,  I  have 
thought  it  might  be  agreeable  to  them  if  I  should  quote  a  few  passages 
from  Raymxmd  Lull  on  this  point  He  speaks  earnestly  against  the 
manner  in  which  princes,  abasing  their  power,  acted  in  contradiction  to 
their  high  calling,  ut  teneant  pacem  in  terra  et  ut  gentes  secure  possint 
ire  per  vias  et  secure  manere  in  suis  domibus.  He  says  of  them,  quod 
totum  muudum  teneant  in  bello  et  labore.  And  he  expresses  his  surprise, 
quod  tam  pauci  homines  teneant  in  labore  tot  gentes,  quot  sunt  in  hoc 
mundo.  He  says  that  the  majority  of  them  ipsi  se  faciant  servos  vilium 
hominum.  He  speaks  of  their  love  of  the  chase ;  he  describes  how  they 
excnsed  themselves  on  the  plea  that  this  was  their  relaxation ;  and  thus 
pretending  that  by  such  pursuits  they  avoided  sin ;  sed  non  attendunt  ad 
malos  procura tores,  quos  relinquunt  loco  sui  et  qui  sunt  populo  sicut  lupi 
voraces  et  dum  ipsi  venantur  et  se  recreant,  lupi  comedunt  oves  sibi  com- 
missas.  In  complaining  of  the  cupidity,  the  ambition,  and  the  ignorance 
of  physicians  (quia  operantur  in  infirmis  plus  casualiter,  quam  certa 
scientia,  ideo  plures  homines  occiduntur  quam  sanantur  a  medicisj,  he 
recommends,  as  the  best  practice  of  mechdne,  that  the  patient  should 
study  his  own  case,  find  out  what  ails  him,  et  caveat,  ne  utatur  rebus 
oontrariis  et  sinat  operari  in  se  cursum  naturae. 

t  Igitur  benedictus  sis,  quia  nou  est  ita  de  te,  quoniam  quotiescunque 
homovelit  videre  te  et  contemplando  loqui  tecum,  semper  potest,  nunqoam 
januae  sunt  clausae,  Vol.  II.  L.  III.  Distinct.  23,  c.  cxi.  T.  IX.  f.  247. 

X  Gratia  attrahit  gratiam  et  ununi  vitium  ti'ahit  ad  aliud. 


432  THE  SEEKING  AFTER  MIRACLES  CENSURED. 

cannot  make  it  straight  again ; — a  fortiori^  there  is  no  person 
in  the  world  whose  sins  are  so  grievous  that  God  cannot  adorn 
him  with  grace  and  virtues.  All  love  of  the  creature  is  no- 
thing in  comparison  with  love  of  the  Creator.  Only  through 
humility  can  man  attain  to  the  knowledge  of  God  ;  the  path 
upward  begins  downward.*  It  is  better  to  suffer  a  heavy 
wrong  without  murmuring,  out  of  love  to  God,  than  to  feed 
daily  a  hundred  poor,  and  to  fast  many  days  far  into  the  night. 
"What  does  it  profit  a  man  to  despise  himself  and  to  mortify 
his  body  with  fasting,  prayer,  vigils,  and  self-scourging,  if  he 
is  not  able  to  endure  a  wrong  from  his  neighbour,  which  would 
bring  him  greater  reward  than  all  the  mortifications  he  im- 
poses on  himself?  Should  the  Lord  rain  stones  from  heaven, 
they  would  not  harm  us,  if  we  were  what  we  ought  to  be.  If 
a  man  were  what  he  ought  to  be,  evil  would  for  him  transform 
itself  into  good ;  for  all  great  good,  and  all  great  evil,  are 
within  the  man,  where  none  can  see  them.  It  is  a  great  virtue 
to  conquer  one's  self;  if  thou  conquerest  thyself,  thou  wilt 
conquer  all  thine  enemies.  Every  man  has  just  so  much 
knowledge  and  wisdom  as  he  performs  good  deeds,"  When 
^gidius  came  in  contact  with  persons  who  dreaded  imder- 
tak  ng  any  good  thing,  for  fear  that  vanity  might  mix  in 
and  spoil  the  whole,  said  he,  "  Be  not  withheld  by  this  from 
doing  good.  If  the  husbandman,  when  about  to  scatter  his 
seed  on  the  earth,  should  say  within  himself,  '  I  will  not  sow 
this  year,  for  fear  the  birds  may  come  and  devour  the  seed,' 
he  would  afterwards  find  himself  in  want  of  food  to  supply  his 
wants  ;  but  if  he  sow,  and  it  should  really  happen  that  some 
of  his  seed  perishes,  yet  the  greatest  portion  will  remain  to 
him.  So  it  is  with  him  who  is  tempted  with  the  love  of  fame 
and  fights  against  it."  Speaking  of  the  inexhaustible  store  of 
the  knowledge  of  God  yet  in  reserve  for  man,  he  said :  "  The 
entire  Holy  Scriptures  speak  to  us  as  it  were  with  a  lisping 
tongue,  as  a  mother  talks  to  her  little  child ;  because,  other- 
wise, it  would  be  unable  to  understand  her  words."f 

It  is  true,  the  love  of  the  wonderful  prevailed  very  generally, 
and  the  lives  of  the  saints,  in  order  to  be  popular  with  the 

*  Via  eimdi  snrsum  est  ire  deorsum. 

t  Tota  sacra  scriptura  loquitur  nobis  tanquam  balbutiendo,  sicut  mater 
balbutiens  cum  filio  suo  parvulo,  qui  aliter  non  potest  intelligere  verba 
ejus.    Acta  Sanct.  Mens.  April.  T.  III.  f.  227,  seqq. 


THE  SEEKING  AFTER  MIRACLES  CENSURED.  433 

multitude,  must  ueeds  say  a  good  deal  about  their  miracles.*^ 
But  neither  were  there  wanting  those  who  combated  this  ten- 
dency ;  and  from  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  onwards^^ 
a  series  of  testimonies  might  be  cited  on  the  true  import  and 
significance  of  the  miracle,  in  its  relation  to  the  divine  life ; 
and  against  the  overvaluation  of  the  externally  wonderful — 
thoughts  which  are  not  barely  the  property  of  a  few  enlight- 
ened individuals  elevated  above  their  times,  but  which  may  be 
considered  as  expressing  the  common  Christian  consciousness 
of  these  centuries.|  The  monk  Stephen,  who  in  the  twelfth 
century  described  the  life  of  his  master,  the  abbot  Stephen 
of  Obaize,  a  man  distinguished  for  his  pious  £ind  influential 
activity,  adduces  no  miracle  of  his ;  but  asserts  that,  for  this 
■eason,  he  stands  not  inferior  to  that  active  wonder-worker, 
Meirtin  of  Tours ;  for,  to  awaken  so  many  men  and  women, 
who  were  sunk  in  all  manner  of  vice,  by  repentance,  to  eternal 
life,  was  a  far  greater  work  than  if  he  had  awakened  them 
from  natural  death,  if  The  author  of  the  life  of  the  abbot 
Bernard  of  Tiron  says,  in  his  preface  to  that  work :  "  If  any,- 
foUowing  the  pattern  of  Jewish  unbelief,  seek  after  miracles, 
jmd  would  estimate  the  character  of  the  saints  solely  according 
to  the  number  of  these,  what  would  he  say  of  Mary,  or  of 
John  the  Baptist  ?  But  in  the  day  of  judgment  many  who 
\\TOught  miracles  will  be  rejected,  and  those  alone  attain  to 
salvation  who  have  striven  after  works  of  righteousness.  We 
praise  then  our  father  Bernard,  not  for  the  reason  that  he 
v.Tought  miracles  (although  these  were  not  wholly  wanting), 
— but  we  set  him  forth  as  one  who  meekly,  humbly,  and  from 
Ids  heart  followed  in  the  steps  of  our  Lord  Christ."§  "  Visible 
miracles,"  says  the  author  of  the  life  of  Norbert,  "  may  properly 
excite  the  wonder  of  the  simple  and  ignorant ;  but  the  patient 
enduirance  and  virtues  of  the  saints  are  worthy  of  the  admira- 

*  Quod  maxime  nunc  exigitur  ab  his,  qui  sanctorum  vitas  describere 
volunt.  The  preface  to  the  life  of  the  abbot  Stephen  of  Obaize,  -which 
was  composed  by  his  disciple,  Stephen.     Baluz.  Miscellan.  iv.  p.  69. 

t  Comp.  the  passages  already  cited,  p.  424. 

X  After  having  spoken  of  the  great  numbers  of  unchaste  women  con- 
verted by  him  he  says:  Qui  ergo  de  talibus  pcenitentiae  remedio  et 
prsevenientis  gratiae  dono  castas  atque  mundissimas  Christo  sponsas  exhi- 
buit,  non  dubito  majoris  hoc  fuisse  virtutis,  quam  si  eas  corpora  mortuas 
suscitasset.    IV.  f.  106. 

§  Acta  Sanct.  Mens.  April  T.  II.  f.  223. 

VOJU  VII.  2   F 


434  GUIBERT  OF  ^'OVIGEXTUJI  ON  WIEACHIXG. 

tiou,  and  of  the  imitation,  of  those  who  would  be  soldiers  of 
Christ."* 

From  the  time  of  this  new  excitement  of  the  religious  life 
in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  want  of  preaching 
in  the  native  languages  of  the  difterent  countries  became 
deeply  felt,  and  the  more  complete  formation  of  these  lan- 
guages was  brought  about  at  the  time  most  convenient  to  meet 
this  want ;  as  the  German  language  had  already  been  found 
peculiarly  well  adapted  to  sacred  poetry.f  It  is  very  evident 
how  fervently  the  people  greeted  those  ecclesiastics  and  monks 
who  travelled  about  as  preachers  of  repentance  ;  and  it  was 
the  same  state  of  feeling,  moreover,  that  procured  such  a  rush 
of  hearers  for  those  who  used  their  influence  with  the  people 
in  combating  the  doctrines  of  the  church  and  diifusing  here- 
lical  principles.  The  church  would  be  compelled,  therefore, 
by  the  interest  of  self-preservation,  to  bestow  more  attention 
on  the  management  of  the  predicatorial  office.  Several  writ- 
ings appeared,  which  treated  of  this  subject.  We  may  first 
mention  here  the  work  of  the  abbot  Guibert,  of  Novigentum, 
on  the  right  method  of  preaching. |  •  He  declared  it  to  be  the 
general  duty  of  Christians,  and  not  confined  solely  to  bishops, 
to  labour  for  the  advancement  of  the  Christian  life  in  others, 
according  to  the  proportion  of  eacli  man's  knowledge  and  gifts. 
"  Suppose  one  be  neither  a  bishop  nor  an  abbot,  still,  he  is  a 
Christian.  If  he  would  live  a  Christian  life  he  must  honour 
the  Christian  name,  as  in  himself  so  also  in  others."  He 
requires  of  the  preacher  that  he  should  have  respect  to  the 
wants  of  the  simple  and  uneducated  as  well  as  the  better  in- 
formed ;  that  he  should  endeavour  to  unite  depth  with  lucidity 
and  plainness  of  meaning.  §  "  Let  the  sermon,"  says  he,  "  be 
preceded  by  prayer ;  so  that  the  soul,  fired  with  divine  love, 
may  utter  forth  what  it  feels  of  God,  with  glowing  words  ;  so 
that  the  preacher,  as  he  burns  in  his  own  heart,  may  enkindle 

*  Visibilia  miracula  simplicibus  et  idiotis  stupenda  sunt,  patientia  vero 
et  virtutes  sanctorum  his,  qui  ad  Christi  militiam  se  accingunt,  admi- 
randae  sunt  et  imitandse.    Mens.  Jun.  T.  I.  f.  824. 

t  Tota  terra  jubilat  in  Christi  laudibus  etiam  per  cantilenas  liiipi  a; 
Tulgaris,  maxime  in  Teutonicis,  quorum  lingua  magis  apta  est  co  ciun.f; 
canticis.    Sec  the  words  of  Gerhoh  of  Keichersberg,  quoted  on  p.  214 

X  Quo  ordine  sermo  fieri  debeat. 

^  Ut  idiotis  ac  simplicibus  perspicuum,  quod  dicitur,  esse  queat. 


HUMBERT  DE  ROM  AXIS  ON  PEEACHIXG.  435 

a  flame  also  in  the  hearts  of  his  hearers."  He  required  espe- 
cially, that  the  sermon  should  contain  ethical  matter.  "  The 
preuciier  should  treat  concerning  the  motions  of  the  inner  man. 
ThJs  was  a  thing  so  common  to  the  experience  of  all  men,  that 
such  a  sermon  could  be  obscure  to  none.  Every  man  could 
read  in  his  own  heart,  written  as  it  were  in  a  book,  what  he 
heard  said  of  the  various  kinds  of  temptation.*  No  sermon 
was  more  useful  than  that  which  showed  men  to  themselves, 
and  led  back  those  who,  by  the  distraction  of  outward  things, 
had  become  estranged  from  themselves  to  the  secret  recesses 
of  their  hearts ;  presenting  them,  as  if  reflected  from  a  mirror, 
before  their  own  eyes."  f  "  But  as,  in  describing  a  battle  in 
the  field,  he  who  took  part  in  the  fight  will  be  able  to  give  an 
entirely  different  accovmt  of  it  fit)m  one  who  knows  nothing 
about  it  except  from  the  report  of  others,  so  is  it  with  the 
spiritual  warfare.  He  whose  own  conscience  bears  witness  to  that 
which  he  expresses  in  words,  vnll  treat  of  spiritual  conflicts  with 
an  altogether  different  sort  of  authority,  and  be  able  to  point 
as  it  were  with  his  finger  to  all  the  particulars."  J 

"We  ought  especially  to  mention  here  a  work  abounding  in 
good  matter,  and  worthy  of  the  special  consideration  of  those 
times  in  which,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  Hiunbert  de  Ro- 
manis,§  general  of  the  order  of  Dominicans,  endeavoured  to 
set  forth  to  the  members  of  his  order  the  obligation  incvun- 
bent  on  them  of  preaching  the  gospel ;  the  gravity  and  dig- 
nity of  this  vocation ;  and  the  qualifications  requisite  for  the 
right  discharge  of  it.  ||     Of  all  the  spiritual  exercises  in  which 

*  Pnesertim  cam  annsqiusqae  intra  seipsnm  quasi  in  libro  scripiiun 
attendat,  quicquid  de  diversis  tentationibus  prsedicatorls  lingua  retractat. 

f  Nulla  enirn  prsedicatio  salubrior  mihi  videtur,  quam  ilia,  quze  homi- 
nem  sibimet  ostendat  et  foras  extra  se  sparsnm  in  interiori  suo  restituat 
atque  eum  coarguens  qnodammodo  depictum  ante  feciem  snam  statnat. 

X  This  tract  of  Guibert  forms  the  introduction  to  his  work  on  the  ex- 
position of  Genesis,  in  ten  books,  in  which  he  aims  to  show  how  every- 
thing in  holy  Scripture  may  be  applied  to  a  moral  end,  and  so  made  use 
of  for  preaching.  He  was  induced  to  undertake  this  work  by  a  prior, 
who  heard  a  sermon  of  his,  and  requested  him  to  compose  a  work  for 
himself,  from  which  he  might  learn  how  to  work  everything  into  matter 
for  preaching  (ut  id  sibi  scriberem,  in  quo  materiam  sumendi  cujnscanqae 
sermonis  acciperet).    See  his  Tract,  De  vita  sua.  Lib.  I- 1  477. 

§  So  named  from  his  native  town,  Romans,  in  Burgundy. 

II  His  work,  De  eruditione  praedicatorum,  in  two  books,  published  ia 
the  twenty-fifth  volume  of  the  Bibliotheca  patrum,  Lugd. 

2  F  2 


436  HUMBERT  Da  EOMANIS  ON  PEEACHIKG. 

the  monks  employed  themselves,  he  describes  preaching  as  the 
most  excellent ;  and  declares  that  whoever  possessed  the  talent 
for  it,  was  bound  to  cultivate  it  most  assiduously.*  It  was 
more  than  all  fasting  and  all  mortification  of  the  body ;  for 
all  these  bodily  exercises,  according  to  1  Timothy  iv.,  profit  but 
little  ;  but  preaching  eflfected  much  good.  Besides,  an  indi- 
gent preacher,  truly  zealous  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  had 
more  to  suffer  than  all  those  mortifications  could  amount  to 
Avhich  a  man  imposes  on  himself.  He  cites,  in  confirmation 
of  this,  the  remark  of  a  man  that  had  passed  over  from 
the  Cistercian  to  the  Dominican  order,  and  aflSrmed,  that  he 
"  had  had  more  to  suffer  in  a  few  days,  when  he  itinerated  as 
a  preacher,  than  during  the  whole  time  he  had  spent  in  his 
old  order.  Other  monks  busied  themselves  with  works  of 
charity  pertaining  to  the  body ;  but  preaching  was  as  much 
above  these  as  the  soul  is  more  than  the  body."  He  refers 
to  the  words  of  Christ,  Luke  ix.  60,  "  Let  the  dead  bury 
their  dead,  but  go  thou  and  preach  the  kingdom  of  God." 
He  sets  preaching  above  prayer ;  above  the  study  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  if  they  are  not  studied  as  a  help  to 
preaching ;  above  the  celebration  of  the  mass,  and  the  litur- 
gical acts  of  worship  ;  "for  the  Latin  liturgy  the  laity 
understand  nothing ;  but  they  can  understand  the  sermon  ; 
and  hence,  by  preaching  God  is  glorified  in  a  clearer  and 
more  open  manner  than  by  other  acts  of  worship."  f  Fur- 
thermore, he  appeals  to  the  example  of  Christ ;  "  Christ  cele- 
brated the  mass  but  once ;  heard  no  confessions ;  seldom 
administered  the  sacraments  ;  did  not  employ  himself  much  in 
the  liturgical  adoration  of  God  ;  but  he  was  constantly  engaged 
in  prayer  and  preaching.  Indeed,  after  he  had  once  com- 
menced preaching,  he  spent  his  whole  life  in  that  employment, 
much  more  than  in  prayer."  He  dwells  on  the  great  eflfects 
which  sermons  might  produce  in  his  own  times ;  describes 
how  the  multitude  ran  after  them.|  He  relates  that  certain 
ecclesiastics  had  discussed  together,  before  an  eminent  arch- 
bishop, the  question  what  good  has  been  effected  by  the  mul- 

*  Lib.  I.  c.  XX. 

t  In  priEdicatione  intelligunt,  qua3  dicuntur,  et  ideo  per  praedicationem 
clarius  et  apertius  laudatur  Deus. 

X  Interdum  ista  devotio  facit  mnltos  sequi  prccdicatorem,  sicut  visum 
est  in  diebus  nostris  frequenter.    Lib.  L  c.  iv. 


HUMBERT  DE  EOMANIS  ON  PEEACHIXG.  437 

titude  of  sermons  preached  by  the  new  order  of  monks,  since 
vice  and  crime  prevail  in  the  world  to  as  great  a  d^ree  as 
ever?  Upon  this  the  archbishop  remarked,  "As  there  is 
still  so  much  vice,  and  those  good  men  have  been  the  means 
of  extirpating  so  much  by  their  preaching,  what  would  the 
case  have  been  if  such  preachers  had  never  appeared  ?"* 
Humbert  examines  into  the  hindrances  by  which  many  were 
prevented  from  preaching,  with  a  view  of  depriving  those 
whom  he  would  urge  to  engage  in  it  of  all  grounds  of  excuse. 
"  Thus,  some,"  he  said,  "  were  kept  back  by  the  love  of  con- 
templative quiet ;  such  had  the  more  to  answer  for,  in  pro- 
portion to  tiie  good  they  might  have  done  by  public  activity. 
Others  were  hindered  through  dread  of  the  temptations  to  sin." 
He  meets  the  case  of  such  by  saying,  "  It  is  sometimes  better 
for  men  to  toil,  even  though  bj  toiling  they  may  cover  them- 
selves with  dust,  than  to  sit  always  in  perfect  tidyness  at 
home.  Others  deferred  the  work  too  long,  from  the  desire  of 
attaining  to  a  certain  degree  of  perfection,  which  j)erhaps 
they  would  never  reach. "I  He  says  to  them  :  "  The  friends 
sleep,  and  meantime  the  house  is  on  fire ;  an  enemy  breaks 
in,  and  yet  they  cannot  aroase  themselves.  Others  were  de- 
terred by  dread  of  the  want  to  which  they  must  expose  them- 
selves in  preaching  the  gospel."  Before  such  he  holds  up 
the  poverty  of  Christ,  and  asks,  "  What  preacher,  of  the 
present  age,  would  have  to  suffer  want  to  that  degree  as  not 
to  be  able  to  find,  at  least  in  populous  cities,  the  necessary 
means  for  the  support  of  life?  Others  were  intimidated  by 
the  per\'erseness  of  many  of  the  prelates,  who  sought  to 
hinder  the  preaching  which  it  was  much  more  their  duty  to 
encourage ;  as  the  scribes  and  pharisees  had  done  among  the 
Jews,  and  the  priests  among  the  pagans."J  He  calls  upon 
the  preacher  to  go  about  every  where  ;  and  to  labour  where- 
ever  there  was  need  of  it.  "  AVhat  sort  of  preachers  are 
those  who  would  always  remain  inactive  at  home  ?"§     We 

*  Lib.  I.  c.  ii. 

■f-  Pncparatio  nimis  morosa  ad  hoc  officiom. 

X  Lib.  I.  c.  xvi.  to  xxi.  Sunt  multi  praelati,  qui  non  solnm  non  prac- 
dicant,  sed  etiam  ne  alii,  qui  hoc  laudabiliter  possont  facere,  &ciant  pro- 
liibent 

§  Qoales  ergo  praedicatores  sunt,  qui  semper  quiescere  volnnt  in  domi- 
bus  vel  in  castris  suis.    L.  c  c.  xxi. 


438  HUMBERT  DE  EOMANIS  OX  PREACHING. 

may  observe  how  the  zeal  with  wliich  the  heretics,  that 
appeared  in  opposition  to  the  church,  laboured  to  propagate 
their  doctrines  served  to  call  forth  a  reaction  on  the  part  of 
those  who  were  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  church.  He 
holds  up  the  example  of  the  former  as  worthy  of  imitation ; 
describing  their  incessant  activity  in  running  about  to  houses 
and  villages,  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  for  the  purpose  of 
leading  souls  astray.*  But  at  the  same  time,  he  warns 
against  the  false  zeal  of  an  indiscreet  obtrusiveness,  iidvising 
his  monks  not  to  appear  in  improper  places ;  not  to  hold 
forth,  as  many  did,  at  markets  and  fairs ;  since  in  these  places 
men  were  wholly  engrossed  in  worldly  affairs,  and  reverence 
for  the  divine  word  could  not  fail  to  suffer  injury  ;  but  to 
choose  befitting  spots,  as  Paul  preached  in  the  synagogues 
and  our  Lord  in  the  temple,  or  even  in  the  open  fields,  where 
the  attention  of  men  was  not  liable  to  be  diverted  by  worldly 
occupations.^ 

He  furthermore  gives  many  admonitions  and  warnings  to 
preachers  with  regard  to  the  right  method  of  preaching : — 
"  Though  the  talent  for  preaching,"  he  says,  "  is  obtained 
through  the  special  gift  of  God,  yet  the  wise  preacher  will  do 
his  own  part  of  the  work,  and  diligently  study,  in  order  that 
he  may  preach  correctly."  But  he  warns  against  a  mistake 
committed  by  many,  who  were  for  making  a  display  of  their 
own  ingenuity  and  eloquence,  and,  as  the  people  of  Athens 
required,  were  ever  on  the  search  for  something  new  to  say.  J 
Thus  he  unites  in  the  same  censure  which  the  opponent  of  his 
order,  William  of  St.  Amour,  pronounces  against  the  preachers 
of  the  two  mendicant  orders, — that  they  lacked  the  simplicity 
of  the  gospel,  and  affected  to  exhibit  themselves  as  philoso- 
phers.§     "  But   the  good  preacher,"   said  he,    "  would   aim 

*  Haeretici  cum  periculo  corporis  non  cessant  per  domes  et  villas  dis- 
currere,.ut  pervertant  animas.    L.  c.  c.  xxxi. 

t  L.  c.  c.  xvii. 

X  Sunt  quidam  prffidicatores,  qui  cum  student  ad  pradicandum,  inter- 
dum  applicant  studium  suum  circa  subtilia,  Tolentes  plectere  et  texere 
subtilia  circa  nova,  more  Atheniensium  vocantes  ad  dicendum  nova,  inter- 
dum  circa  sophismata,  linguam  suam  volentes  magnificare.     Lib.  I.e.  vi. 

§  De  periculis  novissimorum  temporum,  L.  c.  p.  71.  Quod  veri 
Apostoli  non  intendunt  nee  innituntur  rationibus  logicisautphilosophicis. 
nil  ergo  prsedicatores,  qui  hujusmodi  rationibus  innituntur,  non  sunt 
veri  Apostoli,  sed  pseudo. 


HUMBERT  DE  BOMASIS  ON  PREACHIXG.  439 

rather  at  that  which  might  prove  useful, — which  might  serve 
to  promote  devotion."  He  declaims  against  excessive  pro- 
lixity and  frequent  repetitions  in  sermons, — against  those  who 
were  for  displaying  their  ingenuity  in  deriving  the  theme  of 
their  discourse  from  a  text  altogether  foreign  from  the  matter 
in  hand.*  Such  tricks  would  rather  excite  derision  than 
promote  edification."!"  He  speaks  against  those  who  looked 
more  to  fine  words  than  to  the  thoughts ;  comparing  them 
with  people  who  took  more  pains  to  make  a  display  of 
beautiful  dishes  than  of  good  food  upon  them.  J 

With  regard  to  the  effects  produced  by  preaching,  he 
says.§ — "  Many  hear  the  word  of  God  with  great  delight ; 
but  it  is  the  same  as  if  they  were  listening  to  a  beautiful  song. 
Others  experience  a  great  effect  on  their  feelings  for  the 
moment,  but  it  is  of  no  benefit  to  them,  because,  af^er  the 
sermon,  they  become  immediately  cold  again."  He  applies 
to  them  1  Kings  xix.  11,  "The  Lord  ^vas  not  in  the  whirl- 
wind." "  Others,"  says  he,  "  are  good  judges  of  preaching, 
— he  has  spoken  -well  or  badly,  say  they  ;  the  sermon  was  too 
long,  too  short,  too  abstruse,  too  trivial, — but  they  never 
think  of  applying  what  b  said  to  their  own  lives." 

He  takes  particular  notice,  also,  of  the  different  ranks  and 
occupations  of  men,  and  hints  at  the  kind  of  instruction 
suited  to  each.  Of  the  great,  as  well  as  of  the  poor,  he  says,  that 
they  seldom  >"isited  the  churches,  which  were  mostly  frequented 
therefore  by  persons  of  the  middle  class,  and  hence,  the 
opportunity  of  addressing  them  ought  to  be  the  more  carefully 
improved.  As  it  was  but  seldom  they  heard  sermons,  it  was 
a  work  of  love  for  the  preacher,  whenever  he  could  find  them 
together  and  have  access  to  them,  to  address  them  the  word  of 
exhortation,  for  they  greatly  needed  it.||  And  he  exhorts  the 
preacher  to  set  home  upon  the  great,  the  duties  which  they 
owed  to  their  inferiors.  "  The  poor,"  says  he,"  come  seldom 
to  church, — seldom  to  hear  preaching, — for  this  reason  they 

*  Thus,  one  who  would  treat  concerning  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul, 
took  for  Ms  text  Numbers  iii.  20. 

t  Solet  autem  accidere  frequenter,  qnod  hujusmodi  themata  extranea 
non  possnnt  aptari,  nisi  cum  magna  et  incongrua  extorsione  sententisB  et 
ideo  potius  inducunt  derisionem  quam  sedificationem. 

J  L.  I.  c  vi.  §  L.  c.  c.  xxvi.  ||  L.  II.  c.  Ixxxiii. 


440  IXNOCLXT  THE  THIRD  AS  A  PKEACHER. 

know  little  about  things  that  minister  to  salvation ;  and  hence, 
if  they  are  ever  found  collected  at  church,  or  elsewhere,  they 
should  be  instructed  in  that  which  it  concerns  all  Christians  to 
know.*  He  instances  the  case  where  numbers  come  together 
in  large  ships,  thus  furnishing  an  opportunity  for  any  who  may 
be  disposed  to  preach  to  them.f  The  sensuous  bent  of  devo- 
tion paid  but  little  regard  to  preaching,  and  hence  Humbert 
laments  over  the  case  of  the  poor  women  who  knew  no  better 
than  to  neglect  the  preached  word,  busying  themselves,  while 
it  was  delivering,  either  in  repeatmg  their  prayers,  in  kneeling 
before  the  images,  or  in  taking  the  holy  water.J  When  it  was 
seen  that  a  pope,  like  Innocent  the  Third,  would  not  allow 
himself  to  be  deterred,  by  the  enormous  pressure  of  his  affairs, 
from  the  zealous  preaching  of  the  word,§ — this  fact  would 
doubtless  serve  to  beget  in  many  a  high  sense  of  the  importance 
of  the  predicatorial  office  in  its  bearing  on  church  life.  We 
hear  this  pope  liimself  lamenting  in  his  sermons  that,  by  the 
great  multitude  of  affairs  which  demanded  his  attention,  he 
was  prevented  from  bestowing  the  care  which  he  wished 
to  expend  on  the  composition  and  deliverj'^  of  his  discourses. 
Yet  he  was  unwilling  to  remain  wholly  silent  on  festival  occa- 
sions, though  he  could  not  accomplish  what  he  would  have 
been  glad  to  do.||  His  sermons  bear  witness  to  his  earnest 
zeal  for  the  advancement  of  practical  Christianity,  in  opposition 
to  a  certain  superstition  which  resisted  it ;  and  of  this  we  have 
already  cited  some  examples.  He  protested  strongly,  amongst 
other  things,  against  a  superstitious  and  excessive  image- 
worship,  which  he  calls  a  species  of  idolatry.^  Concerning 
the  greatest  teacher  of  scientific  theology  of  his  age,  Thomas 

*  L.  II.  c.  xxvi.  t  Ij-  c.  c.  xci.  J  L.  c.  c.  ci. 

§  Humbert  dc  Romanis  relates  that,  on  a  certain  high  festival,  he 
elivered  before  the  people  a  homily,  written  by  Gregory  the  Great  on 
this  festival,  and  translated  into  the  vernacular  tongue.  L.  c.  Lib.  I. 
c.  vi. 

II  S.  i.  Qtiadrages :  Saepe  necessitas  impedit,  quod  requirit  utilitas, 
quod  ipse  nunc  experiri  compellor.  Requirit  enim  utilitas,  ut  his  sacris 
diebus  frequeutius  solito  per  exhortationes  sermonum  debeam  populos 
admonere,  sed  impedit  hoc  necessitas,  quia  praeter  solitum  imo  plus  solito 
multis  et  magnis  sum  occupatus  negotiis,  ut  nullum  mihi  sit  otium  otio- 
sum.    0pp.  f.  40. 

*|f  Quid  est,  quod  quidam  sub  practextu  pietatis  et  obtentu  religionis,  ut 
csetera  taccam,  diversas  adorant  imagines,  tanquam  liceat  manufactum 
aliquid  adorare  ?     In  Dedicat.  templi,  s.  iii.  f.  75. 


PREACHING  OF  THE  FRAXCISCAK  BERTHOLD.  441 

Aquinas,  it  is  related  that  he  took  the  utmost  pains  to  preach 
plainly,  in  the  Italian  language,  and  to  abstain  from  all 
matters  which  would  not  contribute  to  the  edification  of  the 
people,  bv  whom  be  was  listened  to  with  great  reverence.* 

From  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  to  the  year  1272, 
in  which  he  died,  the  Franciscan  Berthold  held  the  first  rank 
as  a  preacher  of  repentance  in  the  cities  of  Eegensburg  and 
Augsburg.  His  labours  were  extended  from  Bavaria  to 
Thuringia,  and  far  into  Switzerland.  He  was  invited  to 
preach  first  in  one  city  and  then  in  another.  No  church  was 
large  enough  to  hold  the  multitudes  that  came  to  hear  him. 
He  often  preached  in  the  open  fields,  where  a  pulpit  had  been 
erected  for  him,  with  more  than  sixty  thousand  people  assem- 
bled around  him.  He  fearlessly  rebuked  the  vices  of  all  ranks 
of  society,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor.  Many  were  converted 
under  his  preaching,  and  freely  confessed  their  sins  to  him. 
Among  this  number  were  women  of  very  immodest  habits  of 
life,  who  immediately  abandoned  their  dishonest  calling,  and 
Mere  married  by  him  to  husbands,  after  he  had  collected  from 
the  crowds  that  hung  upon  his  lips  the  amount  of  alms  required 
for  their  dowrj-.  He  was  revered  as  a  prophet  and  a  worker 
of  miracles.f 

His  sermons,  couched  in  nervous  and  pithy  German,  breathe 
a  genuine  spirit  of  practical  Christianity,  which,  although  still 
cramped  and  confined  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  church 

*  Praedicationes  suas,  qaibns  plac«ret  Deo,  prodesset  popnlo,  sic  for- 
mabat,  ut  non  esset  in  curiosis  humanae  sapientiae  verbis,  sed  in  spiritu  et 
virtute  sermonis,  qui  evitatis,  qu£E  curiositati  potins  quam  ntilitati  deser- 
viunt,  in  illo  suo  volgari  natalis  soli  proponebat  et  prosequebatur  utilia  po- 
pnlo, subtilitates  quaestionnm  scholasticae  disputatione  relinqnens.  See 
tlie  already-cited  life,  c.  viii.  s.  48.     Mens.  Mart.  T.  I.  f.  674. 

t  See  the  accounts  in  Wadding's  Annalen  des  Franciskanerordens, 
T.  IV.,  at  the  year  1272 ;  and  in  the  Chronicle  of  the  Swiss  Johann  von 
Wintherthur.  The  latter  writes  concerning  him,  under  the  year  1340: 
Hie  ab  hominibus  adhuc  prsesenti  tempore  extantibus,  qui  saepe  suis  ser- 
monibus  interfuerant,  mihi  et  aliis  hoc  narrantibus,  asseritur,  habuisse 
spiritum  prophetiae,  nam  multa  et  diversa  praedixerat,  quae  nostris  sunt 
temporibus  adimpleta.  This  chronicler  states  that  Berthold,  who  preached 
in  several  other  Swiss  cities,  constantly  declined  complying  with  the 
requests  of  the  citizens  of  Wintherthur,  that  he  would  also  come  to  them, 
because  they  refused  to  do  away  an  impost  which  was  oppressive  to  the 
poor.  Vid.  Joannis  Vitodurani  Chronicon,  f.  vi,  et  seqq.  in  the  Thesaurus 
historise  Helveticae.    Tiguri,  1 735. 


442  PREACHING  OF  BERTHOLD. 

doctrine,  yet  stood  forth  in  zealous  opposition  to  all  the  super- 
stition and  outside  Christianity  which  merely  served  as  a  prop 
to  sin,  foretokening  the  great  reformatory  tendency  which  was 
destined  to  proceed  forth  at  a  future  day  from  German  monas- 
ticism.*  We  will  here  cite  a  few  of  his  sayings,  in  illustration 
of  these  remarks.  Speaking  of  the  worth  of  virtue,  he  says: 
"While  God  Almighty  created  all  things  for  our  use,  yet 
there  is  one  which,  in  value  and  profit,  far  exceeds  all  the  rest. 
And  therefore  you  should  use  all  diligence  to  make  sure  of 
this ;  for  he  who  is  without  it,  never  beholds  God  and  his  holy 
angels  in  their  joys  and  in  their  glory ;  and  that  you  may  love 
it  as  long  as  you  live,  I  will  name  it  to  you :  it  is  called 
Virtue ;  for  the  Almighty  God  is  all  virtue  ;  and  he  created 
men  and  angels  for  no  other  purpose  than  that  we  might 
become  partakers  of  his  joys  and  of  his  glory.  By  this  virtue, 
God  created  angels  and  men  ;  and  as  he  himself  can  be  nothing 
other  than  absolute  virtue  and  pure  virtue,  so  it  is  his  will  that 
angels  and  men  should  also  be  virtuous.  But  then,"  says  he, 
"  virtue  is  something  other  than  what  the  world  commonly 
calls  by  that  name,  applying  it  to  him  who  can  gracefully 
convey  a  message,  carry  a  dish,  or  present  a  cup,  and  hold  or 
dispose  of  his  hands  in  a  well-bred  fashion.  Behold !  such 
virtue  is  mockery  in  God's  sight ;  for  even  a  dog  may  be 
taught  to  hold  up  his  fore-paws,  and  to  demean  himself  with  a 
becoming  grace."f  "  Had  not  our  Lady  been  virtuous,"  says 
he  soon  afterwards. |  "the  Holy  Ghost  would  not  have  come 
upon  her.  Could  I  but  be  certain,  in  this  earthly  state,  that 
I  should  never  lose  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  I  would  rather  be 
a  virtuous  man  upon  earth  than  a  saint  in  heaven,  for  then  I 
would  become  progressively  holier  from  day  to  day  and  from 
year  to  year."  He  warns  his  hearers  against  supposing  that  a 
man,  by  possessing  this  or  that  particular  virtue,  though  he 
may  be  destitute  of  the  other  principal  ones,  and  live  in  the 
practice  of  great  sins,  is  still  sure  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

*  Professor  F.  K.  Grieshaber  of  Rastadt  has  published  German 
sermons  of  an  unknown  person  belonging  to  the  thirteenth  century* 
■which  in  language  bear  considerable  resemblance  to  Berthold's,  but  in 
■which  the  moral  element  is  still  more  predominant.  They  are  marked 
by  a  gentle  and  earnest  spirit  of  sincerity,  but  -want  the  depth  of 
Berthold. 

t  In  the  edition  of  Kling,  p.  186,  &c.  %  P.  188. 


PfiEACHIX'i  OF  BERTHOLD.  443 

"  True,  one  man  may  possess  this,  and  another  that  virtue,  in  a 
higher  degree ;  but  at  the  same  time,  all  these  virtues  must  be 
together ;  for  no  man  can  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  if  he 
has  not  possessed,  and  does  not  still  possess,  all  these  virtue. 
Flatter  not  yourselves  on  possessing  one  virtue,  or  two,  or 
three,  or  many.  Hast  thou  but  a  single  vice,  which  is  called 
a  capital  sin,  that  settles  the  question  for  thee  (so  wird  deiner 
nimmer  Rath)."*  He  gives  prominence  to  purity  of  heart, 
as  the  main  thing  on  which  everything  depends.  '•  He  who 
looks  upon  a  woman,"  says  he,'\  "and  thinks  that  he  would 
gladly  commit  sin  with  her,  has,  in  God's  sight,  already  done 
the  deed."  Here,  as  frequently  in  his  sermons,  he  interrupts 
himself  with  the  exclamation  :  "  What !  brotlier  Berthold  ! 
how  many  would  then  be  lost !"  To  which  he  replies : 
"  Well,  suppose  thou  shouldst  find,  in  thy  cellar,  a  man  that 
has  broken  open  thy  chest — though  as  yet  he  has  purloined 
nothing  from  it ;  what  wouldst  thou  take  him  to  be  ?  Surely, 
thou  wouldst  take  him  to  be  a  thief,  and  send  him  to  the  gal- 
lows. Just  so  God  holds  thee  to  be  an  actual  adulterer ;  for 
that  thou  art  not  so  is  no  fault  of  thine.  Thou  art  far  more, 
on  thy  part,  God's  thief."J  He  ever  sets  forth  love  as  consti- 
tuting the  essence  of  the  Christian  temper.  Love  (die  Minne) 
is  one  of  the  most  exalted  virtues  the  world  ever  won ;  and 
hence  the  Almighty  God  so  dearly  prizes  love,  that  he  has 
made  it  the  chief  ornament  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  It  is 
the  noble  food  with  which  Almighty  God  will  feed  us ;  and 
therefore  should  we,  on  the  earth,  possess  the  true  love,  that  we 
may  ever  be  fed  with  it  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  for  there 
is  love  beyond  love."§  Having  spoken  of  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law  as  consisting  in  supreme  love  to  God,  and  in  loving  our 
neighbours  as  ourselves,  he  says  of  him  who  fulfils  this  law : 
"  I  will  venture  a  great  word — he  has  everything  that  God 
himself  has.|l  True  love  to  God  consists  in  this,  that  thou 
avoidest  all  mortal  sins,  through  the  regard  thou  hast  to  Gkxl, 
therefore  sincerely,  as  if  there  were  neither  hell  nor  devil ;  and 
not  so  much  through  the  fear  of  hell  as  through  the  love  thou 
hast  to  God."f  "Love  is  like  fire,"  says  he;  "  whatever  is 
placed  in  the  fire,  becomes  fire.    So  is  it  with  love.**    All  that 

§  P.  247, 


*  p.  140. 

t  P.  93, 

J  P.  94. 

U  p.  4. 

5  P.  178. 

*♦  P.  156. 

44-4  HEADING  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

can  befal  a  man  who  possesses  true  love  is  itself  converted  into 
a  love.  Has  he  to  encounter  great  toils?  It  becomes  a 
pleasure  of  love  to  him.  Has  he  great  poverty  ?  It  is  the 
same.*  It  seems  to  many  people  as  if  they  loved  Grod,  while 
yet  they  love  him  not  in  the  way  he  has  bidden.  It  is  a  small 
thing  to  love  God  with  something  else, — with  a  paternoster, 
an  alms,  with  a  visit  to  a  church,  or  with  a  bow  towards  the 
altar,  or  to  a  picture.  Others,  who  can  discourse  largely  of 
Christ's  sufferings,  of  God's  love  and  mercy,  are  wanting  in 
true  love."!*  Learn  not  even  to  be  an  enemy  to  thine  enemies ; 
for  it  is  an  eminent  sign  that  one  is  a  child  of  our  heavenly 
Father,  and  a  pupil  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  a  dwelling 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  if  he  has  learned  of  him  to  love  his  enemies, 
and  to  carry  a  gentle  heart  towards  them  that  have  done  him 
ill,  and  to  be  peaceful  with  them  that  hate  peace.  What  joy 
has  the  Holy  Ghost  over  the  heart  where  he  finds  such  constant 
quiet  within.  Such  sweetness,  however,  is  now  rare  on  the 
earth  ;  for  such  meekness  we  find  not  in  all  the  world ;  seldom 
even  with  the  clergy."  In  pointing  out  the  distinction  between 
true  and  false  humility,  he  says :  "  We  may  be  humble  in  ap- 
parel, in  behaviour,  in  gesture,  in  words ;  all  this,  without 
possessing  humility  of  heart,  as  the  case  is  with  dissemblers ; 
but  the  internal  humility  of  the  heart  cannot  remain  concealed. 
It  shows  itself  outwardly  in  everything  ;  since  it  cannot  appear 
otherwise  than  it  is.  Where  it  does  not  appear,  there  it  does 
not  exist  in  strength."  True  humility,  he  said,  might  be 
known  by  this,  that  they  who  possess  it  are  willing  to  hear  the 
same  judgment  passed  upon  them  which  they  pass  upon  them- 
selves. They  are  willing  to  be  considered  as  nothing  ;  to  be 
thought  sinners  ;  and  whatsoever  good  maybe  in  them,  to  have 
God  praised  for  it,  from  whom  it  has  all  proceeded.  "  It  is 
better,"  says  he,$  to  devour  half  an  ox  on  Good  Friday,  than 
to  bewray  a  soul  by  falsehood. "§ 

The  deep-felt  religious  need,  in  connection  with  the  com- 
plete formation  of  the  vernacular  tongues,  had  for  its  result 
that,  in  Germany,  and  in  South  France,  in  the  Provencal 
language,  various  attempts  were  made  to  translate  the  Bible. 

*  P.  149.  f  P.  106.  t  P-  89. 

§  [It  is  impossible  to  give  these  sayings  the  quaint  simplicity  in  which 
they  appear  in  the  old  German. — Tr.] 


EEUGIOUS  SOCIETIES  AT  METZ.  445 

The  effect  which,  in  all  times,  has  accompanied  the  diffusion 
of  the  Scriptures  among  the  people,  was  observed  also  in  the 
present  case ;  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  much  might  have  been 
done  for  the  religious  awakening  and  enlightenment  of  the 
people,  if  such  efforts,  growing  out  of  the  national  life  and 
the  religious  need,  had  been  taken  advantage  of  by  the  church 
authorities.  The  word  of  God  was  received  with  great  eager- 
ness by  the  laity ;  and  from  it  proceeded  a  mighty  influence 
on  the  minds  of  men.  Although  the  spread  of  translations  of 
the  Bible  in  the  vernacular  tongue  was  certainly  not  opposed, 
as  yet,  by  any  law  ;  yet  the  whole  church  spirit,  and  the  exist- 
ing relations  between  priests  and  laity,  could  not  possibly  be 
inclined  to  favour  the  more  general  circulation  of  such 
versions.  By  the  universal  use  of  the  Bible,  the  religious 
consciousness  of  the  laity  would  have  been  withdrawn  from  its 
dependence  on  the  tutelage  of  the  church  and  of  the  priest- 
hood ;  and  the  way  would  necessarily  be  prepared  thereby  for 
a  new  evolution.  A  struggle  could  not  fail  to  arise,  therefore, 
between  the  church  system  and  the  universal  reading  of  the 
Scriptures ;  and  even  though  the  persons  of  highest  station  in 
the  government  of  the  church  by  no  means  entertained  at  first 
any  intention  of  limiting  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  by  the 
laity,  yet  they  would  be  actually  driven  to  this  course  by  the 
interest  and  logical  coherence  of  the  system  which  they  wished 
to  maintain.  In  addition  to  this,  it  was  especially  by  means 
of  the  sects  who  stood  forth  in  opposition  to  the  dominant 
church  system  that  the  Bible  was  once  more  spread  among 
the  laity,  whence,  with  the  diligent  reading  of  it,  was 
connected,  from  the  first,  a  tendency  unfavourable  to  the 
hierarchy.  It  is  remarkable,  that  pope  Irmocent  the  Third  was 
originally  inclined  rather  to  encourage  than  to  suppress  the 
reading  of  the  Bible  by  the  laity,  till,  influenced  by  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  church  theocracy,  of  which  he  was  the  represen- 
tative, he  was  led,  by  the  consequences  growing  out  of  that 
tendency,  to  contend  against  it. 

By  Waldenses,  who  came  from  Montpelier,*  translations 
of  the  Psalter,  of  Job,  of  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  of 
several  other  books  of  the  Bible,  in  the  Provencal  language, 
were  spread  in  the  diocese  of  Metz,  and  they  were  eagerly 

*  See  Cscsarius  of  Heisterbacb,  Distinct.  5.  c.  xx.  f.  135. 


446  READING  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

caught  up  and  read  by  men  and  women.  The  light  of  a  re- 
ligious knowledge,  to  which  their  ignorant  clergy  would  have 
been  unable  to  lead  them,  here  rose  upon  them.  Societies 
were  formed,  of  men  and  women,  who  read  the  Bible  to  one 
another,  and  were  edified  thereby :  but,  as  was  reported  to 
pope  Innocent  the  Third,*  a  certain  spiritual  pride  infected 
the  members  of  these  associations,  insomuch  that  they  believed 
themselves  to  be  the  only  true  Christians,  and  felt  inclined  to 
despise  all  who  took  no  part  in  their  assemblies.  It  is,  how- 
ever, quite  possible,  also,  that  this  charge  was  brought  against 
them  by  their  adversaries,  simply  because  they  maintained,  as 
they  might  rightly  do,  that  they  had  a  better  knowledge  of 
the  essence  of  Christianity  than  others ;  and,  by  their  manner 
of  life,  ordered  according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  distin- 
guished themselves  from  the  multitude.  The  priest  and  parish 
clergy,  it  is  true,  could  as  yet  detect  nothing  that  savoured  of 
heresy  in  these  people ;  but  still  they  could  not  be  pleased 
with  their  effort  to  make  themselves  independent  of  them  ;  and 
they  endeavoured  to  put  a  stop  to  these  private  meetings. 
The  members  of  them  then  met  the  priests  with  arguments 
from  the  Bible,  to  show  they  needed  not  allow  themselves  to 
be  forbidden  these  private  means  of  edification.  And  several 
of  them  assured  the  ignorant  clergy  that,  in  their  books,  they 
had  what  was  better  than  anything  they  could  give  them. 
The  bishop  of  Metz  dew  up  a  report  of  these  movements, 
within  his  community,  for  the  pope ;  but  the  latter  was  far 
from  wishing  to  suppress  the  whole  thing,  at  once,  by  violent 
measures.  He  had  undoubtedly  learned,  from  the  experience 
of  his  predecessors,!  how  easily  such  efforts,  capable,  without 
doubt,  of  being  made  to  work  in  harmony  with  the  church 
life,  and  under  the  supervision  of  the  general  church  guidance, 
of  proving  eminently  beneficial,  might,  by  the  ecclesiastical 
despotism  which  would  check  every  freer  movement  of  the 
religious  spirit,  be  pushed  to  an  heretical  opposition.  This 
pope  was  well  aware,  too,  that  the  study  of  the  Bible  was 
better  suited  than  anything  else  to  beget  and  foster  a  spiri- 
tual bent  of  piety ;  he  recognized  the  Bible  as  furnishing  the 

*  Lib.  II.  ep.  141 :  Qui  etiam  aspemantur  eorum  consortium,  qui  se 
similibus  non  immiscent,  et  a  se  reputant  alienos,  qui  aures  et  animos 
talibus  non  apponunt. 

t  See  further  on. 


REUGIOUS  SOCIETIES  AT  METZ.  447 

best  means  of  nourishment  for  the  soul,  and  the  surest  remedy 
for  all  the  disorders  of  the  soul ;  only  he  supposed  that  but  fe»" 
could  elevate  themselves  to  this  lofty  stage ;  that  the  majority 
must  content  themselves  with  that  union  to  Christ  vthich 
came  through  the  medium  of  sensible  things ;  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  the  holy  eucharist,  a  medium  instituted,  indeed, 
by  Christ  liimself,  for  the  use  of  alL*  He  might,  therefore, 
be  rather  surprisal  and  rejoiced,  than  otherwise,  to  learn  that 
the  Bible  had,  in  spite  of  his  doubts,  found  its  way  among  the 
laity,  and  that  they  derived  from  it  nourishment  for  their 
piety,  provided  nothing  was  connected  therewith  which 
appeared  to  him  fanatical,  or  calculated  to  disturb  th§  order  of 
the  church.  He  therefore  issued  to  the  bishop  and  chapter 
of  the  cathedral  at  Metz  a  letter,  to  the  following  import.| 
"  While  it  is  the  duty  of  prelates  to  keep  a  carefiil  watch  that 
the  heretics  may  not  succeed  in  laying  waste  the  Lord's  heri- 
tage, they  should  also  be  extremely  cautious  how  they  attempt 
to  gather  up  the  tares  before  the  time  of  the  harvest,  lest,  per- 
chance, the  good  fruit  may  be  plucked  away  also.  While  no 
tolerance  should  be  shown  to  heresy,  it  was  important,  also,  that 
no  harm  should  be  done  to  a  pious  simplicity,  lest  the  simple 
might  be  converted  into  heretics."^  He  called  upon  them 
to  admonish  these  people,  and  persuade  them  with  arguments, 
that  they  should  abstain  horn  everything  that  deser\'ed  cen- 

*  We  gather  this  fhjm  the  -words  of  Innocent,  in  the  fourth  book  of 
his  -work,  De  mysteriis  missx,  c.  xliv.  T.  I.  f.  395.  After  having  men- 
tioned the  words  at  the  institution  of  the  sacrament,  he  says :  Non  enim 
solam  scripturarum  commemorationem  ad  hoc  sufficere  judicabat,  qui 
lethargicum  venerat  aegrotum  sanare.  Quota  namque  pars  nostri  capit 
illnd,  quod  in  evangelio  optimis  nnguentis  fragrat,  antidotimi,  verbnm 
quod  erat  in  principio  apud  Deum,  per  quern  omnia  &cta  stmt  quodque 
caro  fectum  est  habitavit  in  nobis  ?  Nam  illud  quidem  ruminare,  medela 
salubris  est,  super  mel  et  fiivum,  dulcis  faucibus  animie  dUigentis.  Sed 
tamen  cibus  valde  paucorum  est  et  solius  mentis  pabulum ;  quo  tunc 
anima  plenissime  satiabitnr,  cum  verbum  ipsum  in  sterna  felicitate  gus- 
tabit.  On  the  other  hand,  concerning  ^e  institution  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  he  says :  Quibus  lethargicam  mentem  aegroti  renovata  quotidie 
sua;  salutis  commemoratione  percelleret  et  edentulam,  id  est  sine  dentibns 
plebem,  quae  verbnm  antiquum  et  setemum  principium  quasi  solidum 
cibum  ruminare  non  poterat,  hoc  dnlcissuno  confecto  liqnamine  in  panis 
et  vini  sacrament©  consuefaceret  sorbillare. 

t  Lib.  II.  ep.  142. 

X  Ne  in  hareticos  de  simplicibus  commutentur. 


448  KEADING  OF  THE  BICLE. 

feure,  and  not  intrude  into  matters  foreign  from  their  calling. 
And  he  required,  also,  before  he  proceeded  to  any  further 
decision   on   the   matter,  a  more   exact   report  from   them, 
based   on  careful  inquiry,  as  to  the  question,  who  was  the 
author  of  the  translation  referred  to ;  by  what  motives  he 
was  led  to  prepare  it ;    what  was  the  character  of  the  faith 
of  those  who  used  this  translation ;  what   had   led   them  to 
set  up  themselves  as  teachers  ?  The  pope,  by  his  own  conduct, 
set  an  example  to  those  who  were  placed  over  the  communities, 
teaching  them  how  they  ought  to  proceed  with  such  people  ; 
how  they  ought  to  place  themselves  in  their  point  of  view,  and 
use  passages  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  themselves,  for  the 
purpose  of  opening  their  eyes  to  what  was  censurable  in  their 
conduct,  and  of  leading  them  away  from  it.*    A  letter,  which 
he  himself  wrote  to  these  people,  was  to  serve  as  a  pattern  for 
the  clergy.j     After  having  explained  to  them,  in  detail,  what 
had  been  reported  of  them,  he  declared :    "  Although  tlie  de- 
sire of  learning  how  to  understand  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
of  using  them  for  mutual  edification,  was  not  to  be  found 
fault  with,  but  rather  deserved  commendation ;    yet  it  "was 
a  thing  not  to  be  approved  of,  that  they  should  hold  their 
meetings  in  private ;   that  they  should  take  upon  themselves 
the  office  of  preaching ;  ridicule  the  simplicity  of  the  priests, 
and  avoid  the  society  of  those  who  would  take  no  part  in  their 
meetings ;  for  that  God,  who  is  the  true  light  that  enlight- 
eneth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world,  so  abhors  the 
works  of  darkness,   that  he  gave  express  command  to  the 
apostles,  when  he  sent  them  forth  to  preach  the  gospel  to  all 
the  world :  '  What  I  tell  you  in  darkness,  that  speak  ye  m 
light ;  and  what  ye  hear  in  the  ear,  that  preach  ye  upon  fhe 
housetops,'  Matt.  x.  27,  whereby  he  manifestly  gives  it  to  be 
understood  that  the  gospel  should  be  preached,  not  in  secret 
conventicles,  as  it  is  by  the  heretics,  but  after  the  Catholic 
manner,    publicly   in   the   churches."     He   then,    seemingly 
without  design,  as  though  he  had  no  particular  reference  to 
them,  proceeded  to  say,  "  that  a  special  preparatory  training 
was  requisite  in  order  to  penetrate  into  the  deep  things  of 
the  sacred  Scriptures.    For  this  reason,  a  particular  order  had 

*  As  he  himself  says:  Revocandi  et  convincendi  secundum  scripturas 
super  his,  quiE  reprehensibilia  denotavimus.  f  I^P-  l-^l- 


RELIGIOUS  SOCIETIES  AT  METZ.  449 

been  instituted  in  the  church ;  and  since  this  had  been  done, 
it  was  not  for  every  one,  indiscriminately,  to  arrogate  to  him- 
self the  office  of  teacher,  but  it  depended  on  the  fact,  wliether 
a  man  was  intrusted  with  it  by  the  Lord.  Should  it  be 
affirmed,  however,  by  any  one,  that  God  had  commissioned 
him  to  undertake  such  a  calling  in  some  invisible  way,  and 
that  such  an  immediate  divine  call  was  superior  to  any  human 
call,  to  this  person  it  should  be  replied  :  '  As  this  is  a  hidden 
thing,  it  is  not  sufficient  barely  to  affirm  it,  which  indeed  any 
feJse  teacher  might  do  concerning  himself,  but  he  must  prove 
it,  either  by  a  miracle  or  by  some  express  testimony  of  Holy 
Scripture.'  No  doubt,"  he  says  again,  '■  knowledge  is  pre- 
eminently necessary  for  priests,  in  order  that  they  may  be 
enabled  rightly  to  discharge  the  office  of  teachers ;  yet  the 
more  learned  ought  not  to  under\-alue  the  less  highly  educated 
priests,  but  always  honour  in  them  the  priestly  vocation." 
He  warned  them,  moreover,  against  the  pharisaical  pride 
which  they  would  inevitably  betray  if  they  looked  upon 
themselves  as  alone  correct,  and  despised  all  who  did  not  join 
their  party.  Finally,  he  threatened  them  with  the  severity  of 
the  church  if  they  would  not  listen  to  his  paternal  admonitions. 
The  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  however,  had  already  led  these 
truth-seeking  laymen  to  the  knowledge  of  many  errors  in  the 
church  doctrines.  They  continued  to  hold  their  meetings,  in 
spite  of  the  episcopal  prohibition  ;  they  refused  to  give  up  their 
traaslation  of  the  Bible  ;  they  declared  they  would  not  obey 
the  pope  himself,  if  he  should  undertake  to  suppress  it.  Al- 
ready several  among  them  avowed,  more  or  less  openly,  that 
it  was  right  to  obey  God  rather  than  men.  "When  this  was 
reported  to  the  pope,  by  the  bishop  of  Metz,  he  believed  it  to 
be  now  necessary  for  him  to  act  with  more  severity.  StUl, 
however,  he  was  imwUling  to  proceed  at  once  to  extreme 
measures,  but  preferred,  m  the  first  place,  to  obtain  more' 
exact  information  of  the  case,  and  to  try  milder  remedies. 
Thinking,  perhaps,  that  he  could  not  place  entire  confidence 
in  the  bishop,  he  commissioned  the  abbot  of  Cistercium  and 
three  other  abbots,  in  conjunction  with  the  bishop,  to  investi- 
gate the  affair,  and  to  examine  those  people  who  were  to  be 
brought  up  for  trial ;  a  report  of  all  which  was  to  be  drawn  up 
and  laid  before  the  pope.*  As  the  result  of  this  examination, 
*  Lib.  II.  ep.  235. 
VOL.  VII.  2  O 


450  TRACES  OF  INFIDELITY. 

it  was  found  that  those  separatists  professed  doctrines  which, 
considered  from  the  position  of  the  church-system,  could  not 
appear  otherwise  than  as  heresies.  A  connection  was  found 
to  exist  between  them  and  the  sect  of  the  Waldenses,  who  had 
long  before  incurred  the  condemning  sentence  of  the  church. 
Their  assemblies  were  broken  up,  and  their  Bibles  committed 
to  the  flames.  Thus  the  contest  for  the  dominant  church- 
system,  with  the  sects  that  fought  against  it,  led  to  the  for- 
cible suppression  of  the  reading  of  the  Bible  among  the  laity  ; 
although  no  such  result  was  intended  at  the  beginning.  A 
synod  at  Toulouse,  in  the  year  1229,  issued  a  prohibition  of 
this  sort,  directed  against  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the 
spoken  language,  and  the  reading  of  any  such  translation  by 
laymen.* 

Although  religious  feeling  predominated  beyond  any  other 
spiritual  power  in  these  times,  and  the  supernaturalistic  element 
had  diffused  itself  through  the  whole  spiritual  atmosphere,  yet, 
even  in  this  period  of  a  predominating  religious  tendency,  the 
reactions,  which  have  their  ground  in  the  essence  of  the 
natural  man,  and  are  directed  against  the  principle  of  faith  and 
the  recognition  of  the  supernatural  generally,  could  not  be 
wholly  wanting.  Even  in  this  period  we  observe  many  indi- 
cations of  this  reaction  that  runs  through  tlie  entire  history  of 
humanity  ;  partly  in  a  distinctly  avowed  infidelity,  and  partly  in 
transitory  agitations  coming  up  in  the  form  of  temptations, 
and  overcome  by  the  power  of  a  triumphant  faith.  This 
reaction  proceeded  from  different  points ;  sometimes  it  was 
from  that  tendency  of  rude  sensuousness  which  elsewhere, 
restrained  by  the  superior  might  of  the  religious  principle,  is 
wont,  when  it  intermingles  with  the  religious  feeling  itself,  to 
beget  superstition  ;  and  then,  rebelling  against  this,  its  anta- 
,  gonist  force  leads  to  the  infidelity  of  brutal  natures ;  at 
others  it  was  the  worldly  culture  which  began  to  flourish 
from  the  times  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  particularly  the 
speculative  bent  which  set  itself  in  hostility  against  the  faith. 
Added   to   this   were  those  influences  from  without,  which 


*  C.  xiv. :  Prohibemus,  ne  libros  veteris  testamenti  aut  novi  laici 
permittantur  habere,  nisi  forte  psalterium  vel  breviarium  pro  divinis 
officiis  aut  horas  beata;  Marise  aliquis  ex  devotione  habere  velit.  Sed  ue 
prsemissos  libros  habeant  in  vulgari  translatos,  arctissime  iuhibemus. 


TRACES  OF  INFroELTTY.  451 

tended  to  call  forth  or  to  promote  such  reactions — the  influence 
of  the  Arabian  philosophy  from  Spain,  and  of  intercourse  with 
the  Jews,  now  widely  dispersed  among  the  Christian  nations. 
The  emperor  Frederic  the  Second,  and  king  John  Sansterre  of 
England,  are  to  be  considered  in  this  re^rd,  not  merely  as 
solitary  appearances,  but  as  the  signs  of  such  tendencies  that 
presented  a  hostile  aspect  to  the  religious  principle  of  the 
times  ;  tendencies  which  recur  also  under  other  forms.  Thus 
we  find,  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  a  certain  count 
John  of  Soissons,  who  attacked  with  rude  insolence  the  power 
of  the  clergy  ;  fiivoured  Jews  and  heretics  ;  borrowed  weapons 
from  the  Jews  to  combat  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith, 
which  he  joined  >^ith  them  in  ridiculing;  and  yet,  whether  it 
resulted  from  hypocrisy  and  a  respect  for  outward  consider- 
ations, or  from  the  momentary  influence  of  that  religious 
feeling  which  was  so  exceedingly  dominant  in  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  attended  church  and  took  part  in  the  acts  of  worship. 
"  Ou  the  Christmas  and  Easter  festivals,"  says  the  abbot 
Guibert  of  Nogent  sous  Coucy,  "  he  made  his  appearance  at 
church  with  such  humility,  that  one  could  scarcely  look  upon 
him  as  an  unbeliever ;  and  yet  he  did  not  hesitate  to  declare 
everything  that  was  preached  concerning  Christ's  passion  and 
resurrection  a  mere  farce."*  The  abbot  Guibert,  who  had  a 
great  deal  to  suffer  from  this  individual,  expresses  no  surprise 
that  a  man  who  called  himself  a  Christian,  and  who  sometimes, 
though  in  a  mean  and  stealthy  way,  visited  the  churches ; 
sometimes  manifested  respect  to  the  altars  and  priests  ;  parti- 
cipated in  the  communion  of  the  faithful  and  in  confession ; 
adored  the  crucifix,  and  sometimes  even  brought  himself  to 
give  an  alms  ; — that  such  a  person  should  utter  blasphemies 
which  the  very  Jews  themselves  dared  not  openly  express.  A 
Jewess,  with  whom  the  abbot  Guibert  once  spoke  concerning 
him,  called  it  pure  insanity  that  he  should  first  prostrate 
himself  before  an  image  of  the  Saviour,  and  then  go  away  and 
blaspheme  him.  I  This  abbot  composed  a  book  in  defence  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  of  the  deity,  in  answer  to 
objections  borrowed  from  the  Jews  and  circulated  abroad  by 
tlie    above-mentioned   count.     The  pious  bishop   Moritz  of 

*  De  vita  sua.  Lib.  III.  c  xv. 

t  Tractat.  de  incamatioDe  contra  Jadseos,  c.  i. 

2  G  2 


452  TRACES  OF  INFIDELITY. 

Paris,  well  known  as  a  benefactor  of  the  poor  and  of  orphans, 
desired  at  his  death,  which  happened  in  1196,  to  testify  his 
faith  in  a  future  resurrection,  and  by  his  example  to  confirm 
in  their  faith  many  educated  persons,  of  whom  he  had  been  told 
that  they  doubted  concerning  this  doctrine.*  For  this  reason 
he  left  it  in  charge  to  his  friends,  that,  when  his  body  Mas 
exposed  to  the  public  view,  a  card  should  be  laid  on  his 
breast,  containing  the  words,  ''  I  believe  that  my  Redeemer 
liveth,  and  that  on  the  last  day  I  shall  arise,  and,  fti  my  body, 
behold  my  Saviour.  This  testimony  of  my  hope  has  been  laid 
upon  iny  breast."f  This  was  designed  for  the  learned,  who 
should  meet  together  on  the  day  of  his  burial.  Among  the 
internal  conflicts  of  the  faithful,  mention  is  also  made  of  con- 
flicts with  the  scepticism  of  the  understanding.  We  have 
already  cited  several  examples  of  this  kind,  in  the  history  of 
monasticism.  In  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  a 
young  man  of  a  quick  and  active  mind,  named  Rainer,  who 
had  entered  the  Dominican  order,  while  diligently  busying 
himself,  in  his  monastery  of  Bruges,  in  the  study  of  the 
scholastic  theology,  and  comparing  the  arguments  wliich 
might  be  alleged  for  and  against  Christianity,  was  assailed  by 
a  host  of  doubts.  He  conversed  with  Jews,  for  the  purpose 
of  ascertaining  what  they  could  say  at  the  position  which  they 
occupied,  and  his  douljts  grew  stronger  than  ever.  His 
superiors,  on  observing  this,  kept  him  from  frequenting  the 
society  in  which  he  found  nourishment  for  his  doubts  ;  but  the 
forbidden  intercourse  only  became  so  much  the  more  attractive ; 
the  fire  which  his  friends  sought  to  smother  burst  forth  with 
more  violence,|  and  at  midnight  he  fled  from  the  monastery.§ 

*  Quia  resurrectlonem  corporum,  de  qua  multos  peritos  tempore  suo 
liEDsitantes  audierat,  lirmissime  credebat,  cupiens  illos  ab  incredulitate 
sua  etiam  moriens  revocare. — Rigord.  de  gestis  Philippi,  at  this  year, 
p.  40. 

t  Credo,  quod  red  emptor  meus  vivit  etin  novissimo  die  de  terra  resur- 
recturus  sum  et  in  came  mea  videbo  salvatorem  meum,  quem  visurus  sum 
ego  et  non  alius  et  oculi  mei  conspecturi  sunt.  Eeposita  est  hEec  spes 
inea  in  siuu  meo. 

:;  The  Dominican  and  suffragan  bishop  of  Cambray,  Thomas  de 
Caiitiprat,  who  relates  this  in  his  Bonum  universale,  or  his  book  De 
apibus,  L.  II.  c.  x.  says  in  this  connexion ;  quoniam  arctatus  ignis  acrior 
consurgit. 

§  According  to  the  report  of  Thomas  Cantiprat,  he  was  quieted  by  a 


TRACES  OF  IXnDELITY.  453 

He  aftervrards  vanquished  his  doubts,  and  became  still  firmer 
in  I  lis  faith  than  ever.  Tiiat  sincerely  pious  monarch,  Louis 
the  Ninth,  was  no  stranger  to  such  assaults  of  temptation. 
He  exhorted  all*  to  struggle  against  them  betimes,  to  attain 
to  steadfastness  of  faith,  in  order  to  be  prepared  against  the 
final  hour,  when  Satan  tries  his  best  to  entangle  men  in 
scepticism.  "  We  should  not  rest  satisfied,"  said  he,  '•  until 
we  can  say  to  the  devil,  Away,  thou  enemy  of  human  nature ; 
tliou  shalt  not  be  able  to  deprive  me  of  my  settled  faith : 
rather  Mould  I  consent  to  part  with  every  limb  of  my  body 
than  to  renounce  this  faith,  in  which  I  intend  to  live  and  to 
die.  He  who  does  this,"  he  adds,  "  will  foil  the  enemy  at  his 
own  weapons."!  -^^  ^'^  therefore  the  opinion  of  the  pious 
monarch, — an  opinion  which  he  shared  also  with  the  men  of 
these  times,  rich  in  Christian  experience  with  regard  to  all 
templing  tlioughts, — that  no  admission  should  be  allowed  to 
such  thoughts,  when  they  arose  involuntarily ;  but  the  soul 
should  surrender  itself  more  entirely  to  the  feith,  and,  in  the 
assurance  of  this,  despise  them.  To  confirm  this  advice,  the 
king  quoted  a  saying  which  he  had  heard  from  the  lips  of  one 
of  the  distinguished  theologians  of  this  period,  bishop  William 
of  Paris  (or  of  Auvergne).  A  respectable  teacher  of  theology 
once  came  to  him  in  quest  of  spiritual  counsel ;  but  before  he 
could  state  his  case,  he  fell  into  a  violent  fit  of  weeping.  The 
bishop  then  bespoke  him  in  words  of  comfort,  and  said,  "Despair 
not,  for  no  man  can  be  so  great  a  sinner  as  to  exceed  God's 
ability  to  forgive  him  his  sins."  Whereupon  the  man  laid  open  his 
doubts  respecting  the  doctrine  of  the  eucharist,  which  he  con- 
sidered a  temptation  of  Satan.  The  bishop  asked  him  whether 
he  found  pleasure  in  these  doubts  ?  and  when  the  man  who 
Avas  troubled  with  them  assiu"ed  him  that  his  faith  was  more 
precious  to  him  than  all  the  wealth  in  the  world,  and  that  he 
would  rather  suffer  one  limb  after  another  to  be  severed  from 
his  living  body  than  to  deny  the  least  article  in  it, — the  bishop 

vision  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  induced  to  return  back  to  his  monastery. 
Some  occurrence  of  a  psychological  nature  may,  perhaps,  lie  at  the  bot- 
tom of  this  story,  but  what  it  was  it  is  impossible  to  make  out  from  the 
isolated  &cts  reported  to  us. 

•  See  Joinville,  L.  c.  p.  177. 

t  Qui  ainsi  le  fait,  il  vaiuqt  I'ennemy  dn  baton  dont  I'ennemy  le  voa- 
loit  occire. 


454  DEAD,  WORLDLY  FAITH. 

proposed  to  him  the  following  question  :  "  Suppose  our  king 
to  be  at  Avar  with  the  king  of  England,  and  that  he  had 
intrusted  to  each  of  us  two  the  defence  of  a  citadel ;  to  you, 
one  situated  on  the  frontier,  and  exposed  to  the  greatest 
danger ;  to  me,  one  in  the  centre  of  the  country,  —  to 
which  of  us  would  he  feel  the  most  thankful  ?  "  And  the 
theologian  being  obliged  to  reply,  *'  To  the  former," — the 
bishop  resumed  :  "  My  mind,  disturbed  by  no  doubts,  is  to  be 
compared  with  that  second  citadel ;  yours,  which  amid  so 
many  conflicts  remains  true  to  the  faith,  is  like  the  first. 
Surely  then,  your  condition  is  of  greater  account  in  the  eye  of 
God  than  mine ;  only  trust  in  him,  and  be  assured  that, 
wherever  it  is  needful,  he  will  help  you." 

There  was  a  dead  faith  of  the  worldly  heart,  which  had 
adopted  a  form,  to  the  power  of  which  it  was  a  stranger,  as  a 
mere  matter  of  tradition  ;  and  which  was  preserved  free  from 
all  doubts,  simply  by  reason  of  its  indifference  to  all  the  objects 
of  faith.  To  persons  of  this  stamp  it  could  hardly  fail  to 
happen,  that,  with  an  awakening  interest  in  these  objects, 
doubts  also  would  start  into  being ;  and  these  doubts  might 
sometimes  prove  a  necessary  point  of  transition  to  true  faith. 
A  tendency  of  this  sort  is  described  by  that  profound  observer 
of  the  secret  workings  of  the  soul,  Hugo  a  Sancto  Victore, 
where  he  is  describing  a  class  of  men*  whose  faith  consisted 
in  nothing  else  than  merely  taking  care  not  to  contradict  the 
faith  ;  men  who  were  called  believers,  rather  from  the  custom 
of  a  life  passing  under  the  outward  guise  of  Christianity,  than 
from  any  power  of  faith  :f  "  for  with  their  eyes  ever  fixed  on 
the  perishable,  they  never  elevate  their  souls  to  that  degree 
as  to  think  on  futurity ;  and  though  they  unite  with  other 
believers,  in  partaking  of  the  sacraments  of  the  Christian 
faith,  still  they  never  ask  themselves  why  a  man  is  a  Chris- 
tian, or  what  is  the  hope  of  future  good  among  Christian  men. 
Although  such  persons  pass  under  the  name  of  believers,  yet, 
in  reality  and  truth,  they  are  at  a  great  distance  from  faith,"! 

*  De  sacramentis  fidei,  p.  x.  Lib.  I.  c.  iv.  ed.  Venet.  1588,  T.  II. 
f.  257. 

t  Quibus  credere  est  solum  fidei  non  contradicere,  qui  consuetudine 
Vivendi  magis  quam  virtute  credendi  fideles  uominantur. 

X  lie  et  veritate  longe  sunt  a  fide. 


FA>-ATICAL  SUPEBSTITIOS.  455 

or,  as  he  remarks  in  another  place  :  *  "  Men  who  live  as  they 
have  been  born  would,  had  they  been  born  elsewhere,  be  no 
believers  at  all."  f  And  ^vith  such,  he  believed  it  a  sign  of 
the  first  visitation  of  divine  grace,  when  they  were  aroused  to 
consider  for  what  man  was  bom ;  whether  another  life  fol- 
lowed the  present ;  and  whether  there  M'ere  rewards  for  the 
good  and  punishments  for  the  wicked.  Thus,  it  was  only  the 
doubts  that  filled  their  consciences  with  alarm,  when  they 
contemplated  the  uncertainty  of  human  life,  that  awakened  in 
them,  according  to  Hugo,  the  longiug  after  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth.  The  abbot  Peter  of  Cluny  heard  that  a  great 
number — as  he  liad  reason  to  suspect,  of  the  monks  aroimd 
him — had  expressed  doubts  whether  Christ  had  anywhere  in 
the  gospels  called  himself  God.  They  had,  therefore,  care- 
fully examined  them,  and  could  arrive  at  no  satisfectory  con- 
clusion. The  abbot  Peter  did  not  ask  after  their  names ;  nor 
did  he  allow  himself  to  draw  any  hasty  inferences  fi"om  the 
doubts  which  they  expressed.  He  took  it  for  granted  they 
Lad  not  fallen  away  fi-om  their  faith,  but  were  only  inquiring 
after  the  truth,  and  seeking  instruction.  Lest,  however,  this 
suspense  and  hesitation  should  lead  to  scepticism  with  r^aid 
to  the  doctrine  itself, — of  Christ's  divinity, — he  composed  a 
tract,  the  object  of  which  was  to  prove  that  Christ  bore 
witness  to  his  own  divinity,  by  the  manner  in  which  he  spoke 
of  himself. 

The  religious  feelings  of  the  multitude,  lively  in  their  cha- 
racter, but  quite  exposed  to  be  alloyed  by  a  rude  sensuous- 
ness,  easily  betrayed  them  into  fanatical  extravagances  ;  and 
although,  as  we  have  seen,  voices  of  commanding  influence 
were  not  wanting  to  guide  to  the  spiritual  apprehension  of 
di>'ine  things,  and  to  warn  against  everything  fanatical  and 
superstitious,  yet,  the  men  of  this  spirit  were  too  few  to  exert 
a  sufficient  degree  of  influence  on  the  masses,  and  the  greater 
number  of  incompetent  or  badly  disposed  eclesiastics  and 
monks  contributed  by  their  influence  to  promote  the  evils 
which  they  ought  to  have  averted.  Hence,  the  wide  and 
rapid  spread  of  so   many   excrescent  g^owtlis  of  fanaticisoi 

*  Miscellan.  Lib.  I.  tit.  xviii.  f.  47. 

t  Qui  ita  vivunt,  at  nati  sunt,  qui  si  in  alio  nati  essent,  fideles  non 
essent. 


456  SDPEKSTITIOUS  VENERATION  OF  SAINTS. 

and  superstition, —  one  case  of  which  we  have  in  saint-worship. 
Men  Avho,  by  their  lives,  by  their  deeds  and  words,  had 
made  a  powerful  impression  on  the  religious  feelings  of  the 
people,  were  easily  made  the  objects  of  an  extravagant  vene- 
ration ;  and  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  be  at  every  pains  to 
put  a  check  to  it,  lest  it  might  reach  the  point  of  idolatry.  At 
the  tomb  of  some  such  individual  vast  numbers  would  soon 
be  found  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  prayer ;  the  heightened 
devotion,  the  excited  state  of  the  imagination,  Mere  capable  of 
producing  remarkable  effects  on  soul  and  body ;  exaggerating 
report  magnified  the  facts,  and  thus  stories  of  the  miraculous 
cures  that  had  been  performed  at  such  tombs  spread  far  and 
wide  ;  and  an  ever-increasing  multitude  of  people,  moved  by 
devotion,  curiosity,  or  the  hope  of  succour,  were  attracted  to 
the  spot.  While  some,  carried  away  by  this  general  enthusiasm 
for  the  memory  of  the  departed  saint,  gave  countenance  to  such 
movements  among  the  people,  many  sensible  bishops  and  abbots 
thought  it  necest-ary  to  adopt  precautionary  measures,  lest 
fanaticism  or  fraud  should  take  advantage  of  these  tumultuous 
exhibitions  of  religious  feeling;  in  doing  which,  however, 
they  were  always  liable  to  injure  the  reputation  of  their  piety.* 
The  attempt  forcibly  to  suppress  such  exhibitions  by  outward 
measures,  instead  of  accomplishing  its  object,  was  apt  to  lead 
to  exactly  the  contrary  result.  Many  tombs  became  cele- 
brated for  the  miraculous  cures  which  were  performed  at 
them,  through  reports,  the  foundation  of  which  could  never 
be  ascertained  ;  and  thus  many  a  dead  man,  probably,  attained 
to  the  honour  of  a  saint  who  was  far  from  deserving  it. 
Ignorance,  credulity,  and  fraud  would  contribute,  in  some 
degree,  to  multiply  the  inimber  of  saints.  When  Lanfranc 
was  created  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  he  was  surprised  to 
find  that  many  were  honoured  as  saints,  in  England,  re- 
specting whom  no  reason  could  be  given  why  they  deserved 

*  After  the  death  of  the  abbot  Walter  of  Melrose,  in  Scotland  (a.d, 
1160),  his  successor,  William,  published  an  order  forbidding  the  sick  to 
flock  to  his  tomb ;  but  he  exposed  himself  thereby  to  the  reproach  of 
envy  or  of  arroj^auce,  as  if  he  had  presumed  to  set  limits  to  the  divine 
grace.  The  author  of  the  life  of  the  former  abbot  observes  :  Videtnr 
pluribus  hujusmodi  prohibitionem  prscsumptuosam  nimis  esse,  ut  homo 
luteo  tabemaculo  circumdatus  misericordiaj  fontem  audeat  obstruere,  et 
gloria  coelesti  clarificatum  mundoque  miraculis  manifestatum  sub  cespite 
silentii  prsesumat  obruere.    Mens.  August,  T.  I.  f.  274. 


SUPEESTITIOXJS  VENERATION  OF  SADTTS.  457 

that  honour.  To  the  number  of  these  belonged,  in  particular, 
Elfe^  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  slain  by  the  Normans  in 
1012,  who  was  worshipped  as  a  saint  and  a  martjrr.  Lanfranc 
did  not  think  he  ought  to  be  regarded  as  a  martyr, — for  he 
had  not  died  in  confessing  the  Christian  feith, — but  had  been 
slain,  when  a  prisoner  among  the  Normans,  simply  because  he 
refused  to  pay  the  sum  demanded  for  his  ransom.  Having 
stated  the  case  to  Anselm,  while  the  latter  was  on  a  visit  to 
him  in  England,  Anselm  endeavoured  to  show  that  the  afore- 
said archbishop  deserved  beyond  question  to  be  regarded  as  a 
martyr  ;  "  for,"  said  he,  "  a  man  who  chooses  rather  to  die 
than  to  dishonour  God  by  the  slightest  sin  would  surely 
hesitate  still  less  to  sacrifice  his  life  rather  than  provoke  the 
divine  displeasure  by  a  more  grievous  transgression.  And  so 
tliat  archbishop  Elfeg,  who  chose  rather  to  die  than  to  redeem 
his  life  at  the  expense  of  his  community,  would  assuredly  not 
have  shrunk  from  death  if  he  had  been  commanded  to  deny 
Christ.  And  besides,  what  else  was  meant  by  dying  for 
justice  or  for  truth,  than  dying  for  Christ,  who  is  justice  and 
truth  ?"*  Anselm  himself  was  afterwards  obliged,  however, 
to  declare  against  a  saint-worship  of  this  sort,  for  which  no 
due  reasons  were  assigned."]"  How  easily  the  reputation  of  a 
saint  might  be  acquired  among  the  people,  appears  from  an 
example  cited  by  the  abbot  Guibert.  It  was  quite  sufficient 
for  this  purpose,  among  the  country-people  of  France,  that  the 
squire  of  a  knight  should  have  died  on  Good  Friday.  The 
peasants  of  the  district,  eager  after  novelties,  brought  gifts 
and  wax-tapers  to  his  tomb  ;  a  house  was  erected  over  it,  and 
oovmtry-pilgrims  flocked  to  it  from  afar.  "Wonderful  stories 
were  spread  abroad,  and  mixed  with  the  rest  was  a  plentifiil 
share  of  impostiore.  Avarice,  taking  advantage  of  the  cre- 
dulity of  the  people,  led  people  first  to  feign  themselves  sick, 
and  then  to  be  healed  by  the  pretended  saint.  |     The  abbot  of 

*  See  the  life  of  Lanfiranc,  by  his  disciple,  Milo-Crispin,  in  the  Actis 
Sanctorum,  Ord.  Benedicti  of  Mabillon,  s.  37,  saec.  vi.  p.  ii.  f.  654. 

t  He  threatened  an  abbess,  who  favoored  such  worship,  with  suspen- 
sion.    See  his  letter,  L.  IV.  ep.  10. 

X  The  abbot  Guibert,  De  pignoribus  sanctorum.  Lib.  I.  c.  ii.  s.  5 :  In 
profani  vulgi  avaris  pectoribus  capi  potuerunt  fictitise  surditates,  afFec- 
tatse  vesanise,  digiti  studio  reciprocati  ad  volam,  vestigia  contoria  sub 
clnnibus. 


458  SUPERSTITIOUS  VENERATION  OF 

the  monastery  within  whose  territory  was  the  spot  where  these 
things  transpired  was  forgetful  enough  of  his  duty  to  connive 
at  these  impostures  for  the  sake  of  the  gain.*  Unprincipled 
monks  pushed  a  lucrative  trade  with  fictitious  relics,  in  ex- 
tolling the  virtues  of  which  they  spai'ed  no  lies.f  Processions 
with  relics  were  got  up  with  a  view  to  collect  money  for 
the  rebuilding  of  a  church ;  and  the  clergy,  who  cried  up,  in 
mountebank-fashion,  their  various  virtues,  pretended,  without 
blushing,  to  show  in  a  casket  the  bread  which  our  Lord 
himself  had  touched  with  his  teeth.  Every  village  M^as 
anxious  to  have  its  own  guardian  saints.  Thus  false  legends 
of  saints  sprang  up  among  the  people.  The  clergy  tolerated 
this ;  and  so  these  legends,  passing  from  mouth  to  mouth, 
continually  gained  credence ;  and  among  the  populace,  who- 
ever presumed  to  lisp  a  syllable  against  them  was  accounted 
an  enemy  of  i)iety,  and  provoked  against  himself  the  popular 
fury.;]:  In  opposition  to  these  abuses  of  the  worship  of  saints 
and  relics,  the  abbot  Guibert  of  Nogent  sous  Coucy  A^'rote 
his  work  De  Pignoribus  Sanctorum,  in  four  books.  He 
called  it  a  grievous  sin  that  men  should  think  of  glorifying 
God  by  falsehoods.  He  accused  those  who  spread  abroad 
stories  of  miracles,  of  making  God  a  liar.§  He  detected  one 
source  of  the  abuse  in  what  he  considered  the  unnatural 
practice  of  removing  the  bodies  of  holy  men  from  the  earth 
in  which  they  reposed,  and  of  distributing  and  carrying  about 
their  separated  members  in  costly  settings,  ||  He  declared  it 
unbeseeming  that  the  body  of  the  disciple  should  be  honoured 
above  that  of  the  Master;  that  while  Christ  was  buried 
beneath  the  stone,  the  members  of  his  disciples  should  be 

*  As  Guibert  says :  Munerum  coraportatorum  blandiente  frequentia 
infecta  miracula  fieri  supportabat 

t  The  work  above  cited,  L.  c.  s.  6. 

%  Guibert,  Lib.  I.  c.  iii.  s.  1.  After  having  spoken  of  the  ancient,  ap- 
proved saints,  he  adds  :  Cum  enim  alii  alios  sunimos  conspicerent  habere 
patronos,  voluerunt  et  ipsi  quales  potueruut  facere  suos.  Tacente  clero 
anus  et  muliercularum  vilium  greges  tahum  patronorum  commeutatas 
historias  post  insubulos  et  litiatoria  cautitant,  et  si  quis  earum  dicta  refel- 
lat,  pro  defensione  ipsorum  non  modo  couvitiis,  sed  telorum  radiis 
instant. 

§  Lib.  I.  c.  ii.  s.  5  :  Qui  Deo  quod  nequidem  cogitavit  adscribit,  quan- 
tum, in  se  est,  Deum  mentiri  cogit. 

II  Cap.  iv.  s.  1  :  Certe  si  sanctorum  corpora  sua  juxta  iiaturse  debitum 
loca,  i.  e.  sepulchra  servassent,  hujusmodi  errores  vacassent. 


SADTTS  ASD  BEUCS.  469 

denied  the  earth  from  which  they  originally  came,  to  be 
preserved  in  gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  and  silks.*  He 
protested  especially  against  the  carrying  about  the  so-called 
relics  of  the  body  of  Christ.  It  was  only  by  spiritual  com- 
munion that  men  should  now  rise  upward  to  Christ.  Christ 
communicated  himself  under  the  figure  of  the  bread  and  wine 
in  the  supper,  in  order  that  the  faithful  might  have  their 
minds  withdrawn  from  the  things  of  sense.  He  refers  to 
Christ's  words,  addressed  to  his  disciples  (John  xvi.  7),  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  would  not  come  to  them  till  he  was  no  longer 
sensibly  present  before  their  eyes.  "  Those  who  pretend  to 
show  such  relics,"  says  he,  "  contradict  this  word  of  truth. 
For  what  does  Christ  say  ?  The  Holy  Spirit  will  not  come  if  his 
own  bodily  presence  be  not  first  withdrawn  from  men,  because, 
unless  the  sight  of  everything  bodily  be  witlidrawn,  the  soul 
will  not  rise  to  the  faith  of  contemplation.  For  the  exercise 
and  trial  of  our  faith,  our  Lord  would  lead  us  away  from  his 
proper  to  his  mystical  body  ;  and  thus  should  we  progressively 
mount  upward  to  the  spiritual  contemplation  of  the  divine 
essence."! 

Particularly  did  that  tendency  of  devotion  which  manifested 
itself  in  paying  honours  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  in  whom  men 
adored  the  mother  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  ideal  of  the  virgin- 
life,  rise  continually  to  a  higher  pitch,  and  lead  onward  to 
wilder  extravagances.  For  a  long  time,  already,  the  opinion 
had  gained  curiency  that  she  ought  to  be  excepted  from  the 
number  of  human  beings  under  the  taint  of  corruption  ;  that 
by  a  special  operation  of  grace  she  had  been  preserved  imma- 
culate from  all  sin.  But  now,  many  were  led,  on  the  same 
principle,  to  take  still  another  step,  and  to  maintain  that  the 
Virgin  Mary  came  into  the  world  wholly  free  from  original 
sin.  Therefore,  many  b^an  already  to  set  apart  for  this  glo- 
rification of  the  Virgin  Mary  a  particular  festival, — the  festi- 

*  Ut  discipulns  prseponatur  magistro  ?  Ille  lapidi  intrudatnr,  hie  auro 
claadatur  ?  Ille  nee  plene  sindone  subtili  involvatur,  hie  palliis  aut  sen- 
ds aurove  textili  succingatur  ? 

f  Lib.  II.  c.  vL  s.  4 :  Nisi,  quieqnid  eorporeum  ipsius  est,  a  memoria 
abiDgetur,  ad  contemplandi  animus  fidem  nullatenos  suJblevatur.  Ad 
exercitationem  fidei  nostrse,  a  principali  eorpore  ad  mysticum  Dominos 
noster  nos  voluit  traducere,  et  exinde  quasi  ouibusdam  gradibus  ad 
divinae  sabtilitatis  intelligentiam  erudire. 


460  THE  DOCTRIXE  OF 

val  of  the  Immaculate  Conception.  But  voices  of  influence 
and  authority  protested  against  such  an  innovation,  and  the 
dogma  lying  at  the  bottom  of  it.  Canonicals  of  the  church  at 
Lyons  having  introduced  such  a  festival,  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux  declared  himself  decidedly  opposed  to  it.*  "  On  the 
same  principle,"  he  wrote  to  them,  "you  would  be  obliged  to 
hold  that  the  conception  of  her  ancestors,  in  an  ascending  line, 
was  also  a  holy  one ;  since  otherwise  she  could  not  have  de- 
scended from  them  after  a  worthy  manner, — and  there  would 
be  festivals  without  number."]"  But  such  a  frequent  celebra- 
tion of  festivals  was  appropriate  only  to  our  final  home  in 
heaven ;  it  was  unsuitable  to  a  life,  far  from  our  true  home, 
like  this  upon  the  earth.  We  ought  not  to  attribute  to  Mary 
that  which  belongs  to  one  Being  alone, — to  him  who  can 
make  all  holy, — and,  being  himself  free  from  sin,  jjurify 
others  from  it.  Besides  him,  all  who  have  descended  from 
Adam  must  say  of  themselves  that  which  one  of  them  says  in 
the  name  of  all  (Psalm  li.  5) — '  In  sin  did  my  mother  conceive 
me.'  "  The  controversy  concerning  the  festival  of  the  luima- 
culate  Conception,  and  the  dogma  therewith  connected,  spread 
also  through  England  and  Germany.  It  was  the  monks  who 
contended  for  it ;  but  there  were  monks  also  who  combated  it. 
Potho,  a  monk  and  priest  in  the  monastery  of  Priim  in  the 
province  of  Triers,  who  wrote,  after  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century,  a  work  '  On  the  Condition  of  the  House  of  God, 'J 
combated,  among  many  other  innovations  iatroduced  by  the 
monks,  this  festival  as  the  most  absurd  of  all.§  In  evidence 
of  the  continued  controversy  on  this  subject,  we  have  the 
letters  relating  to  it  which  passed,  in  the  latter  times  of  the 
twelfth  century,  between  the  abbot  de  la  Celle,  afterwards 
bishop  of  Chartres,  and  Nicholas,  an  English  monk.  The 
former  maintained,  as  Bernard  had  done,  that  Mary  was  bora 
with  the  tinder,  the  inflammable  material,  of  sin, — lust, 
warring  against  reason  ;  but  that  she  was  preserved,  through 
the  power  of  grace,  from  all  the  excitements  of  temptation, 
till  at  length,  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  she  attained  to  a  per- 

*  Ep.  173. 

t  De  avis  et  proavis  id  ipsuin  posset  pro  simili  causa  quilibet  flagitare 
et  sic  tenderetur  in  infinitum  et  festorum  non  esset  numerus. 
J  111  the  Bibl.  pair.  Lugd.  T.  XXI. 
§  Quod  magis  absurdum  vjdetur,  at  the  end  of  the  third  book. 


THE  IMMACULATE  CONCEPTION.  461 

feet  exemption  from  the  same.*  He  inveighed  against  the 
chimeras  of  the  English,  f  But  the  monk  Jsicholas  looked 
upon  that  which  the  abbot  de  la  Celle  had  said  concerning  the 
conflict  which  lasted  in  Marj'  until  the  conception,  as  a  dispa- 
ragement of  her  dignity,  and  felt  himself  bound  to  stand  forth 
in  its  defence.  Although  he  honoured  Bernard  as  a  saint, 
yet  he  believed  that  even  he,  like  other  holy  men,  might  err 
on  such  a  single  point.  He  appealed,  in  proof  of  this,  to  the 
legend  concerning  an  appearance  of  Bernard  after  his  death.J 
Such  visions,  often  susceptible  of  a  very  easy  explanation, 
were,  as  it  seems,  at  this  period  sometimes  resorted  to  as  a 
divine  testimony  to  the  truth ;  and  Humbert  de  Romanis,  ge- 
neral of  the  Dominicans,  in  his  work  above  cited,§  denounces 
those  who,  instead  of  adducing  texts  of  Scripture  and  pas- 
sages from  the  iathers,  appealed  to  uncertain  dreams  and 
visions  for  the  purpose  of  defending  innovations,  to  whom  he 
applied  the  saying  of  the  prophet  Hosea  (chapter  xiii.).  ||  In 
like  manner,  Peter  de  la  Celle  declared,  in  this  particular 
case  :  I  believe,  respecting  her,  the  gospel,  and  not  dreams ; 
and  if  I  am  in  any  way  •wTong,  God  will  reveal  this  also, 
in  the  time  and  way  he  pleases."  ^     The  monk  Nicholas  ap- 

*  Lib.  VI.  ep.  23 :  Quod  sseva  libidinis  incentiva  Deo  prseoperante 
nuuquara  senserit  vel  ad  modicum.  Csetera  vero  impedimenta  bumanse 
fragilitatis,  quje  natnrali  origiue  de  natura  procedunt,  ante  divinani 
conceptiouem  sentire  potuit,  sed  nullatenos  consensit.  Prajveniente 
siquidem  gratia  fomes  peccati  anhelando  supremum  spiritum  duxit,  until 
Ihisfomes  was  wholly  destroyed  through  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
at  the  conception. 

t  Nee  indignetur  Anglia  levitas,  si  ea  solidior  sit  Gallica  maturitas. 
Certe  expertus  sum,  somniatores  plus  esse  Anglicos  quam  Gallos. 

t  See  his  letter,  L.  IX.  ep.  9  :  In  Claravallensi  coUegio  quidam  con- 
yersus  bene  religiosus  in  visa  noctis  vidit  Abbatem  Bernardum  niveis 
indatum  vestibus  quasi  ad  mamillam  pectoris  furvam  habere  maculam. 
And  when  he  was  asked,  why  ? — he  replied :  Quia  de  Dominaj  nostrae 
conceptione  scripsi  nou  scribenda,  signum  purgationis  meae  maculam  in 
pectore  porto.  The  vision  was  committed  to  writing,  and  the  document 
laid  before  the  chapter- general,  but  it  was  burnt,  maluitque  Abbatum 
nuiversitas  -virginis  periclitari  gloriam  S.  Bernardi  opinione. 

§  De  eniditione  prsedicatoram,  Lib.  II.  in  the  section  concerning 
councils. 

Ij  Alii  sunt,  qui  innitentes  quibnsdam  visionibus  et  somniis  incertis 
intendunt  propter  ilia  aliquid  ordinare,  cum  tamen  sensus  et  intentio 
sanctorum  ac  tantorum  virorum  sint  hujosmodi  phantasiis  omniuo 
prjeponenda. 

^  Lib.  IX.  ep.  10:  Evangelio  non  somniis  de  ilia  credo,  et  si  aliter 


462  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

pealed,  moreover,  to  the  fact  of  a  progressive  development 
of  the  church,  which  may  even  introduce  innovations  for  the 
necessities  of  devotion.*  But  the  abbot  de  la  Celle  main- 
tained that  any  such  new  institution  should  proceed  regularly 
from  the  church  of  Rome  and  a  general  council.  He  pro- 
tested against  the  innovating  caprice  of  individuals.  This 
controversy  was  continued  into  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
passed  into  the  following  periods.  The  antagonists  of  this 
extravagant  veneration  of  Mary  gained  a  very  important  voice 
on  their  side,  when  Thomas  Aquinas  stood  forth  as  an  oppo- 
nent of  that  opinion,  offering,  as  an  argument  against  it,  that 
the  honour  due  to  Christ  alone  would  thereby  suffer  injury, 
inasmuch  as  he  must  be  acknowledged  to  be  the  Saviour  of  all 
men,  whom  all  needed  in  order  to  be  freed  from  original  sin.| 
As  he  saw  very  clearly  that  nothing  could  be  adduced  from 
Holy  Scripture  concerning  the  conception  and  birth  of  Mary, 
he  was  of  the  opinion  that  no  decision  was  to  be  arrived 
at  here,  except  on  grounds  of  reason  and  analogy.  From 
these,  then,  it  might  be  argued  that  since  on  Mary,  as  the 
mother  of  Christ,  was  conferred  greater  favour  than  on  any 
other  human  being, — and  since  a  Jeremiah,  a  John  the  Baptist, 
enjoyed  the  peculiar  privilege  of  being  sanctified  from  the  womb, 
a  like  privilege  must  be  attributed  also  to  her.  Hence,  it 
might  be,  that,  although  original  sin  existed  in  her,  as  a  nature,  J 
yet,  through  the  grace  imparted  to  her  before  her  birth,  and 
through  the  divine  providence  which  accompanied  her  after- 
wards through  her  entire  life,  this  inherited  nature  was  so  re- 
strained, that  no  motion  contrary  to  reason  could  proceed 
therefrom.  Thus  might  that,  which  was  potentially  present 
in  her,  be,  notwithstanding,  always  restrained  from  any  actual 
putting  forth,  and  thereupon,  after  the  conception  of  Christ, 
might  follow  a  perfect  exemption,  in  her  case,  from  all  ori- 
ginal sin,  even  in  its  potential  being ;  which  exemption  was 

sapio,  et  hoc  ipsum  revelabit  Deus,  quando  voluerit  et  quomodo  vo- 
luerit. 

*  Nonne  eodem  spiritu  potantur  moderni,  quo  et  antiqui  ?  Non  erat 
ab  initio  nativitas  virginis  in  ecclesia  solennis,  sed  crescente  Cdelinm 
devotione  addita  est  prseclaris  ecclesise  solennitatibus.  Quare  igitur  non 
similiter  et  diem  conceptionis  obtineat  sedulitas  Christianae  devotionis  ? 

t  Hoc  derogaret  dignitati  Christi,  secundum  quam  est  universalis 
omnium  Salvator.  f  The  fomes  peccati. 


THE  IMMACDliATE  CONCEPTION.  463 

transferred  to  her  from  her  Son,  as  the  universal  Redeemer.* 
This  cautious  reserve  of  the  considerate  Thomas  Aquinas,  a 
man  who  was  in  the  habit  of  relying  more  on  the  declarations 
of  Scripture  than  on  human  conjectures,  was  a  quality  of  which 
liavmund  Lull,  with  his  bold  flights  of  fancy  and  speculation, 
wa.T  altogether  incapable.  Among  the  necessary  prerequi- 
sites, in  order  to  Mary's  becoming  the  organ  for  the  incarna- 
tion of  the  Son  of  God,  he  reckoned  this,  that  she  should  be 
exempt  not  only  from  all  actual,  but  also  from  all  original 
sin :  for  God  and  sin  could  not  come  together  in  the  same 
subject. I  The  Holy  Spirit  had  so  wrought  within  her  to  pre- 
pare the  way  by  her  sanctification  for  the  incarnation  of  the 
Son  of  God,  as  the  sun  by  the  dawn  prepares  the  May  for  the 
day.J 

As  the  festival  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the  Virgin 
grew  out  of  that  peculiar  turn  of  devotion  that  originated  in 
the  monasteries,  the  same  was  the  case  likewise  ^ith  another 
festival,  which  afterwards  canie  to  be  very  generally  observed. 
It  may  easily  be  conceived  that  the  mystical,  contemplative 
bent  of  the  monkish  spirit  would  first  lead  to  the  creation  of  a 
festival  distinguished  from  other  Christian  festivals  by  the  ab- 
sence of  all  reference  to  historical  facts  ;  and  such  was  that  of 
the  Trinity.§  Yet,  if  there  was  something  in  the  Christian 
consciousness  that  resisted  the  introduction  of  a  festival  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception  of  IVIary,  there  was,  on  the  other 
hand,  an  appropriateness  in  a  festival  of  the  Trinity,  consti- 
tuting, as  it  were,  a  sort  of  terminus  to  the  entire  cycle  of 
festivals  in  the  year,  which  would  recommend  it  to  general 
acceptance,    and   gradually  overcome   the   objections  which 

*  Credendum  est,  quod  ex  prole  redundaveril  in  matrem  totaliter 
fomite  subtracto. 

f  Nisi  beata  virgo  fuisset  dispcsita,  qaod  filins  Dei  de  ipsa  assumeret 
carnem,  scilicet  quod  non  esset  corrupta  nee  in  aliqno  peccato  sive  actual! 
sive  originali,  filius  Dei  non  potuisset  ab  ipsa  assumere  carnem,  cum 
Dens  et  peccatum  non  possunt  concordari  in  aliqno  subjecto. 

X  Sic  praeparavit  viam  incamationis  per  sanctificationem,  sicut  sol- 
diem  per  auroram.     In  Lib.  II.  sent.  Qujest.  96,  T.  IV.  opp.  f.  84. 

§  The  monk  Potho  of  Priim,  near  the  end  of  the  third  book  of  his 
■work  De  statu  domus  Dei,  mentions  the  introducing  of  this  festival  also 
among  the  repentinis  novitatibus  in  ecclesiasticis  officiis.  which  innova- 
tions he  traces  to  the  juvenilis  levitas,  by  vhich  the  vita  monastica  bad 
iillowed  itself  to  be  vitiated. 


464  FESTIVAL  OF  THE  TRINITY. 

might  be  raised  on  the  ground  of  innovation.  For  it  corre- 
sponded with  the  relation  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  to  the 
sum  total  of  Christian  consciousness,  that,  as  this  doctrine  has 
for  its  presupposition  the  full  development  of  all  that  is  con- 
tained in  this  consciousness,  and  the  Christian  consciousness 
of  God  arrives,  therein,  at  a  statement  that  exhausts  the  whole 
subject-matter ;  so  a  festival  having  reference  to  this  doctrine 
would  form  the  terminus  of  the  cycle  of  festivals,  commencing 
with  Christ's  nativity ;  and  if  this  festival  grew,  in  the  first 
place,  out  of  the  significance  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
had  gained  for  the  speculative  and  mystical  theology  of  these 
times,  yet  this  solemnity  obtained  a  position,  in  the  entire 
cycle  of  church  festivals,  which  was  calculated  to  direct 
attention  to  the  original  and  essential  significance  of  this 
doctrine. 

As  the  customs  and  amusements  usually  connected  with  the 
pagan  festivals  of  December  and  January  had,  in  spite  of 
every  attempt  to  suppress  them,  still  continued  to  be  observed 
among  Christians,  both  in  the  East  and  the  West,*  and  had 
attached  themselves  to  the  celebration  of  the  Christian  festi- 
vals in  these  months, — as,  for  example,  to  the  festival  of  Christ's 
circumcision,  which  was  directly  opposed  to  the  pagan  cele- 
bration of  January, —  so,  in  many  districts,  these  customs 
gradually  led  to  the  practice  of  sportively  travestying  the 
offices  and  rites  of  the  church, — a  natural  accompaniment  of 
sensuous  devotion, — as  in  the  festum  fatuorum,  follorum, 
hjpocUaconorum  ;  abuses  which,  notwithstanding  the  various 
ordinances  made  in  order  to  suppress  them,  continued  after- 
wards to  spread  even  more  widely. f 

We  have,  in  the  preceding  periods,  seen  how  it  came  to 
pass  tliat  the  idea  of  the  sacraments,  understood  at  first 
so  indefinitely  as  holy  symbols,  came  to  be  restricted  to  a 
certain  series  of  ecclesiastical  transactions ;  and  the  practice 
of  the  church  had  already  given  sanction  to  the  hypothesis 
that  these  sacraments  were  all  comprised  under  the  sacred 

♦  Forbidden  by  the  sixty-second  canon  of  the  second  Trullan  council, 
A.D.  691,  directed  against  maskings  and  comical  processions:  MjiSiva 
aiiS^ci   yvtctixiicif  (rroXh*  iySiduffxuriai  >i   yvvaixa   toI;   av^pdnv  apfioSiov'   u.\K» 

+  Whoever  would  like  to  know  more  on  this  subject  may  consult 
Gieseler's  Manual  of  Church  History,  Vol.  II.  s.  ii.  p.  43G,  and  ff.  2nd  ed. 


IRAXSUBSTAXTIATIOX  MORE  CLEARLY  DEFIXED.  465 

number  seven.  It  only  remained  that  various  other  holy- 
signs,  to  which  it  had  also  been  customary  to  apply  the 
name  of  sacraments,*  should  be  excluded,  and  the  number 
seven  more  distinctly  fixed.  This  was  done  in  the  present 
period,  when  the  idea  of  the  sacrament  came  to  be  more 
exactly  and  sharply  defined  by  scientific  theology.  In  the  in- 
structions given,  by  bishop  Otto  of  Bamberg,  to  persons  newly 
baptized,  in  the  year  1124,'|"  the  determinate  number  of  seven 
sacraments  is  mentioned  for  the  first  time.  He  wished  to  leave 
behind  him,  he  said,  for  the  new  converts,  from  whom  he 
was  about  to  separate,  these  seven  sacraments  as  the  pledge, 
given  by  our  Lord,  of  his  fellowship  with  the  church,  in  order 
that,  amid  the  labours  and  conflicts  of  the  present  life,  they 
might  not  faint  and  be  discouraged, |  The  scientific  theology 
of  this  century  now  sought  to  prove  the  internal  necessity  of 
this  determinate  number  of  the  sacraments.  It  was  customary 
to  ascribe  to  them  a  twofold  efficiency,— one  positive,  to  pre- 
pare men  for  tiie  whole  duty  of  the  Christian  worship  of  God  ; 
the  other  negative,  to  meet  and  oppose  the  reactions  of  sin. 
At  bottom  lay  the  Christian  idea,  that  the  present  earthly  life 
should,  in  all  its  relations,  be  consecrated  and  sanctified  by 
religion  ;  and  that  the  spiritual,  in  like  manner  with  the  boilily 
life,  should  have  its  own  proper  stages  of  development. §  The 
peculiar  form  of  the  religious  spirit,  in  these  times,  craved, 
however,  for  everything,  some  medium  of  sensuous  represen- 
tation ;  and  this  was  not  to  be  a  mere  symbol,  but  must  be 
objectively  manifested,  as  the  actual  bearer  of  divine  powers. 
Thus,  in  the  first  place,  the  birth  to  a  spiritual  life  is  repre- 
sented by  baptism ;  next,  growth  to  maturity,  by  confirmation ; 
finally,  nutriment,  in  order  to  the  preservation  of  the  life  and 
strength,  by  the  Lord's  supper.  This  would  suffice,  were  not 
man  subject,  in  his  bodily  and  spiritual  life,  to  manifold  defects 
and  disturbances.    Diseases  require  their  appropriate  remedies. 

*  Thus  we  fiud  the  number  twelve  mentioned  by  Damiani. 

t  See  section  i.  p.  8. 

X  Septeni  sacramenta  ecclesiae,  quasi  septem  significativa  dona  Spiritus 
sancti,  quibus  intendendo  in  laboribus  et  certamine  hujus  vitse  non  defi- 
cere.  Canisii  lect.  antiq.,  ed.  Basnage,  T.  III.  p.  ii.  f.  62.  To  be  sure, 
the  chronological  date  of  the  first  mention  of  this  number  seven  is  uncer- 
tain ;  as  we  cannot  vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  the  report. 

§  See,  for  example,  the  unfolding  of  this  view  by  Thomas  Aquinas. 

vol,.  VII.  2   H 


466  TRANSUBSTANTIATIOK 

Answering  to  the  recovery  of  health,  is  penance  ;  to  the  pro- 
motion of  reconvalescence,  by  means  of  appropriate  diet  and 
exercise,  the  extreme  unction.  Furthermore,  as  man  belongs, 
both  in  a  physical  and  spiritual  sense,  to  some  society,  so  the 
efficiency  of  the  sacraments  must  extend,  also,  to  this  relation : 
thus  ordination  and  marriage  obtain  their  appropriate  place. 
We  have  seen  how  the  consciousness  of  a  real  communion 
with  Christ  in  the  Lord's  supper  assumed,  in  the  all-absorbing 
supernaturalist  element  of  this  age,  the  form  of  a  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation ;  and  how  this  notion,  so  firmly  established 
in  the  whole  mode  of  intuition  peculiar  to  these  centuries, 
could  not  fail  to  obtain  the  victory  for  it,  over  the  modes 
of  apprehension  belonging  to  other  habits  and  bents  of  mind. 
Accordingly,  this  doctrine  was  definitively  settled  for  the 
church,  at  the  Lateran  council,  in  1215.*  The  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  being  definitively  settled,  it  must  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  determination  that,  after  the  miracle  produced  by 
the  consecration,  the  "accidents"  of  bread  and  wine,  without 
the  subject,  still  remained  ;  and  a  determination  of  this  sort, 
though  involving  a  contradiction  in  language,  was  still  the  best 
suited,  at  this  particular  point  of  view,  to  avoid  such  expressions 
of  a  gross  and  fleshly  materialism  as  we  saw  employed  by  the 
zealots  opposed  to  Berengar,  as  well  as  the  fantastical  Docetic 
notion,  that  everything  of  a  sensuous  nature  which  took  place  at 
the  Lord's  supper  was  only  an  appearance  without  reality.  In 
fact,  the  particular  mode,  after  which  the  matter  then  presented 
itself  to  religious  intuition,  is,  in  this  form,  simply  objectized: 
for  this  mode  of  religious  intuition,  everything  sensible  was 
purely  an  accident;  the  essential  thing  for  it  was,  simply  the 
body  of  Christ,  veiled  under  this  figure.  In  this  mode  of  in- 
tuition, the  whole  theocratico-ecclesiastical  point  of  view,  the 
whole  mediaeval  form  of  apprehending  Christianity,  was  brought 
to  a  completion.  The  miracle  of  transubstantiation  appeared 
as  the  ever-repeated  miracle  of  all  miracles,  the  act  of  the 
greatest  self-humiliation  of  the  deity.|      It  was   the  very 

*  Transsubstantiatur  panis  in  corpus  Christi  potestate  diviiia. 

t  As  Raymund  Lull,  for  example,  in  his  glowing  style  of  devotion, 
expresses  it :  Fuit  unquam  uUum  mirabile  vel  uUa  humilitas,  qusc  cum 
ipso  possit  comparari,  quod  panis  et  vinum  deveniant  in  tuam  sanctam 
humanitatem,  qua:  est  unita  cum  deitate  et  quod  tuum  corpus  adeo  nobile 
se  permittat  manducari  et  tractari  ab  horaine  peccatore  misero  ? 


MORE  CIJLAHLY  DEFDfED.  467 

Christ,  who,  under  this  sensible  veil,  presented  himself  to 
belie^^ng  devotion ;  and  the  lively  faith  excited  by  the  view  of 
that  Host,  which  was  only  the  veil  of  Christ,  might  produce 
powerful  effects.*  Here  was  shown  the  high  dignity  of  the 
Christian  priesthood,  that  constantly  served  as  the  organ  of 
this  miracle  of  miracles,  by  means  of  which  this  utmost  reali- 
zation of  the  union  of  heaven  and  earth  could  be  brought 
about,  the  very  end  and  aim  of  all  worship ;  but  precisely  for 
the  reason  that  this  dogma  constituted  the  central  and  the 
highest  point  of  the  whole  mode  of  intuition  that  governed 
the  religious  consciousness  of  these  centuries,  those  who,  in 
their  modes  of  thinking,  were  opposed  to  the  Catholic  view, 
manifested  a  peculiar  hostility  to  it,  as  we  may  perceive  in  the 
attacks  against  the  church  doctrines  by  the  sects,  and  in  the 
doubts  and  temptations  with  which  ecclesiastics  had  to  con- 
tend ;|  and  contemplating  such  phenomena  ii^  their  connection 
with  the  times,  we  may  doubtless  affirm  that  to  many,  who, 
with  their  religious  life,  belonged  wholly  to  this  standing  point 
of  intuition,  and  who  were  incapable  of  apprehending  Christi- 
anity in  any  other  form,  it  was  in  fact  a  trial  under  which 
their  feith  in  the  supernatural  must  either  be  able  to  preser^'e 
itself,  or  else  must  succumb  to  that  reaction  of  the  mere 
understanding  that  discards  everything  supernatural.  With 
others,  it  was,  no  doubt,  the  reaction  of  a  freer  and  purer 
evangelical  bent  of  the  spirit ;  and  this  would,  in  the  case 
of  some,  \-ield  to  the  superior  power  of  the  dominant  church 
spirit,  while  in  others  it  proceeded  to  the  point  of  an  actual 
breach. 

*  This  mav  be  illustrated  by  the  case  of  William  archbishop  of 
Bourges,  ^«^ho,  in  the  last  struggles  of  death,  seeing  the  Host  approach, 
raised  himself  from  his  couch,  and,  filled  with  awe  and  enthusiastic  ^tb, 
advanced  with  a  firm  and  vigorous  step  to  meet  his  Lord,  and  prostrated 
himself,  with  tears,  before  him.  The  incident  is  thus  related  in  the 
languaae  of  the  times :  Ut  autem  Dominum  creatorem  suom  ad  se  venisse 
cognovit,  illico  resumptis  viribns,  de  strato  prosiliens,  tanquam  febris 
omnis  abscessisset,  non  sine  stapore  circumstautium,  maxime  quod  jam 
fere  in  supremo  spiritu  positus  videretur,  et  vix  aliquid  liquoris  posset  in 
OS  admittere,  concito  gradu  procedit,  vires  certe  subministrante  caritate 
flexisque  genibus,  totus  lacrimis  diffluens,  ilium  adorat  See  the  above- 
cited  life,  c.  viii.  s,  29.    Mens.  Januar.  T.  I.  f.  6M. 

t  To  the  same  cause  may  be  referred,  also,  the  doubts  by  which  an 
ecclesiastic  was  annoyed,  who  complained  of  his  distress  to  bishon 
William  of  Paris.     See  above,  p.  452. 

2h  2 


468  TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

The  latter  may  have  been  the  case  with  that  ecclesiastic  of 
whom  St,  Bernard  speaks,  in  his  life  of  the  archbishop  Mala- 
chias  of  Armagh.*  There  was  a  certain  man  of  good  intel- 
lectual endowments,  Avho  refused  to  recognize  in  the  eucharist 
the  true  body  of  Christ,  but  looked  upon  it  as  only  a  means  of 
spiritual  communion  with  Christ,  whereby  one  is  advanced  in 
holiness.^  The  bishop,  after  having  tried  in  vain  by  private 
conversations  to  convince  him  of  his  error,  called  together  a 
meeting  of  the  clergy,  before  which  the  denier  of  the  doctrine 
of  transubstantiation  was  summoned  to  appear.  The  matter 
was  here  discussed  with  him,  and  the  judgment  of  all  present 
went  against  him.  He  still  persisted,  however,  in  his  opinion, 
affirming  that  he  was  not  overcome  by  arguments,  but  put 
down  by  the  authority  of  the  bishop.  Eespect  to  the  person  of 
no  man,  he  said,  should  prevail  upon  him  to  forsake  the  truth. 
It  is  then  stated  that,  soon  afterwards  falling  into  a  mortal 
sickness,  he  was  led  to  seek  reconciliation  with  the  church. 
The  report  which  has  come  down  to  us  respecting  this  matter 
is  not,  however,  sufficiently  exact  to  enable  us  to  determine 
from  it  what  were  the  actual  facts.  Abelard  intimates  that 
the  question  concerning  the  Lord's  supper  belonged,  in  his  day, 
ainong  those  which  were  yet  sub  lite.\  We  learn  from  another 
report, §  that  there  were  still  in  the  twelfth  century  many  who 
condemned  Berengar,  Avithout  being  at  a  very  wide  remove 
from  his  doctrines.  They  supposed  that,  by  a  metonomy,  con- 
formable to  the  biblical  usage  of  language, — by  which  the 
name  of  a  thing  was  transferred  to  what  represented  it, — the 
consecrated  bread  might  be  denominated  the  body  of  Christ ; 
and  they  pronounced  Berengar  to  be  wrong  only  in  tliat  he 
had  so  openly  expressed  an  opposite  view  to  the  common 
church  representation,  and  thus  given  occasion  of  offence  to 

*  Cap.  26, 

■f  Sacrameutum  et  non  rem  sacramenti,  id  est  solam  sanctificationein 
et  non  corporis  veritatem. 

X  Sed  nee  adhuc  illam  suraraam  controversiam  de  Sacramento  altarig, 
utrum  videlicet  panis  ille,  qui  videtur,  figura  tantum  sit  domiuici  cor- 
poris, an  etiam  Veritas  substantiae  ipsius  dominica;  carnis,  fiuem  accepisse, 
certum  est.  Theol.  Christian.  L.  IV.  Martene  et  Durand.  thesaur. 
anecdotor.  T,  V,  f,  1315. 

§  That  of  Zacharias  bishop  of  Chrysopolis  (Scutari),  in  his  Commen- 
tary on  the  four  gospels,  L.  IV.  c.  clvi.  Bibl.  patr.  Lugd.  T.  XIX. 
t  916. 


MORE  CLEARLY  DEFINED.  469 

many.*  As  the  free  spirit  of  inquiry,  encouraged  by  the 
dialectic  theology,  called  forth  many  antagonisms,  so,  among 
the  rest,  there  seem  to  have  been  some  who|  appealed  to  the 
sayings  of  the  old  church-fathers,  particularly  of  Augustm,  m 
defence  of  a  similar  opinion  to  that  of  Berengar.|  And  that 
mystic  himself,  who  with  so  much  warmth  and  earnestness 
defended  the  faith  in  the  true  reality  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  in  the  eucharist,  still, — when  he  wished  to  say  that  the 
miracle  here  wrought  by  the  Holy  Ghost  was  one  which 
remained  hidden  from  the  perception  of  the  senses,  and  pro- 
duced no  alteration  in  the  sensuous  emblems, — was  driven  to 
make  an  assertion  at  variance  with  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation,  namely,  the  following :  that  it  was  the  manner 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  not  to  destroy  the  nature  of  a  thing,  but  to 
appropriate  it  as  the  beafer  of  higher  powers, — not  to  remove 
the  existing  substance,  but  to  raise  it  to  a  higher  potence.§ 
Were  one  to  apply  a  principle  of  this  sort  with  logical  consis- 
tency to  the  doctrine  in  question,  he  would  be  carried  back — 
as  Rupert,  using  the  same  comparison  also  observes — to  the 
older  hypothesis,  that  the  imion  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  with  the  bread  and  wine  was  to  be  conceived  as  similar 
to  the  union  of  the  two  natures  in  Christ ;  and  among  the 
different  views  which  at  that  time  were  still  held  forth  respect- 
ing the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper,  one  of  this  sort  actually 
made  its  appearance.  [[     As  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation 

*  Sunt  nonnnlli,  imo  forsan  malti,  sed  vix  notari  posstint  (they  cannot 
easily  be  noticed,  because  they  conceal  their  real  opinions),  qui  cum 
damnaio  Berengario  idem  sentiunt,  et  tamen  eundem  cum  ecclesia  dam- 
nant  In  hoc  videlicet  damnant  eum,  quia  formam  verborum  ecclesiae 
abjiciens,  uuditate  sermonis  scandalum  movebat.  Non  sequebatur,  ut 
dicunt,  asum  scripturarum,  qua?,  passim  res  siguificantes  tanquam  signifi- 
catas  appellant. 

t  Rupert  of  Deutz  says  of  them  :  Quid  dicemus  magnis  et  magnificis 
parvulorum  magistris,  quibas  interdum  snavius  redolet  Platonis  aca- 
demia,  quam  hiec  vivifica  Domini  mensa?  Conunentar.  in  Joann.  L. 
VI.  T.  II.  f.  308.  Ed.  Paris,  1638. 

X  He  says  of  them :  Ubi  totius  viribus  intenti  ad  expugnandam  rerita- 
tem  dominici  corporis  et  sanguinis  magnorum  sententias  doctorum 
attulerint 

§  Spiritus  sancti  afiTectus  non  est,  destmere  vel  corrumpere  substantiam, 
qnamcunque  suos  in  usus  assumit,  sed  substantia:  bono  pennanenti  quod 
crat,  invisibiliter  adjicere,  quod  nou  erat.  Conunentar.  in  Exod.  L.  II. 
ex.  T.I.  f.  171. 

jl  Among  these  different  opinions  -which  the  scholastic  writer,  Alger 


470  TEANSUBSTANTIATION  MORE  CLEARLY  DEFINED. 

had   proceeded  from   the   one-sided   supernaturalist   element 
which  governed  the  minds  of  that  period,  so  it  operated  back 
again  also,  in  promoting  and  encouragiug  the  same  particular 
bent.     Hence,  the  deification  of  outward  symbols  which  now 
prevailed ;  these  symbols  being  made, — even  independent  of 
the  whole  sacred  rite,  and  of  the  end  which  it  was  designed  to 
subserve, — objects  of  superstitious  veneration ;  which,  to  be 
sure,  was  not  first  called  forth  by  this  article  of  doctrine,  but 
had  its  foundation  laid  long  before  in  that  externalization  of 
the  religious  feelings,  which  led  to  the  supposition  of  a  super- 
natural power  adhering  to  the  sensuous  element.     In  order 
consistently  to  maintain  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  and 
to  give  up  nothing  on  the  side  of  the  objective,  it  was  assumed, 
that,  so  long  as  the  emblems  of  the  bread  and  wine— perceivable 
to  the  senses — were  present,  so  long,  in  the  same  manner,  as 
the  substance  of  both  was  before  contained  under  these  em- 
blems, the  Body  of  Christ  was  now  present,  veiled  under  the 
same  ;*  and  accordingly,  it  was  necessary  to  infer  that,  if  a 
mouse  or  a  dog  should  nibble  the  consecrated  host,  the  sub- 
stance of  Christ's  body  still  did  not,  on  that  account,  cease 
to  be  there.     Thomas  Aquinas  was  of  the  opinion  that  this  by 
no  means  tended  to  lower  the  dignity  of  Christ's  body ;  since, 
in  fact,  he  had,  without  any  lowering  of  his  dignity,  suffered 
himself  to  be  crucified  by  sinners ;  especially,  considering  it 
was  not  the  body  of  Christ,  according  to  its  proper  essence, 
but  only  in  respect  to  these  outward  emblems,  under  Mhich 
it  was  veiled  in  the  sacrament,  that  was  thereby  affected. f 
We  see  here  the  most  extreme  point  of  realistic  externalization 
to  which  the  interest  to  retain  the  objective  side  unimpaired 
could  bear  to  be  pushed ;  and  that  which  was  expounded  by 
Ihtmas   Aquinas   with   a    refined    and   cautious   species    of 

of  Liege,  cites  in  the  preface  to  his  book  written  in  defence  of  the  doc- 
trine of  transubstantiation,  De  sacramento  corporis  et  sanguinis  Domi- 
nici,  -we  find  also  this:  In  pane  Christum  quasi  imparatnm,  sicut 
Deum  in  came  personaliter  incarnatum.  Bibl.  patr.  Ludg.  T.  XXI. 
f.251. 

*  Quod  defertur  corpus  Christi,  quousque  species  defertur. 

f  Nee  hoc  vergit  in  detrimentum  dignitatis  corporis  Christi,  qui  vohiit 
a  peccatoribus  crucifigi  absque  diminntione  suae  dignitatis,  prscsertim, 
cum  mus  aut  cauis  non  tangat  ipsum  corpus  Christi  secundum  propriam 
speciem,  sed  solum  secundum  species  sacramentales, — non  sacramen- 
taliter,  sed  per  accidens  corpus  Christi  manducat. 


INNOCENT  III.  ON  TRANSCBSTANTIATION.  471 

dialectics,  was  expressed  by  others  in  a  still  crasser  form : 
yet  the  pious  delicacy  of  many  resisted  a  tendency  which  was 
driven,  purely  out  of  a  dread  of  the  subjective  element,  to  a 
profanation  of  the  holy  essence ;  and  voices  of  commandinfj 
influence  declared  themselves  opposed  to  such  a  conclusion. 
Among  these  we  may  place  even  the  word  of  a  pope,  that  of 
Innocent  the  Third,  who,  in  his  work  De  Mysteriis  Missae, 
entered  minutely  into  the  examination  of  everything  per- 
taining to  this  sacrament ;  and  in  fact,  we  recognize  in  this 
performance  the  work  of  a  man  thoroughly  fitted  for  the 
supreme  guidance  of  the  church, — of  one  who  distinguished 
himself  by  a  certain  sound  practical  sense  in  the  handling  of 
doctrinal  matters,  by  a  certain  delicate  tact  which  led  him  to 
avoid  everything  which  was  really  offensive.  In  replying  to  the 
question,*  Into  what  is  the  body  of  Christ  converted  after  it  has 
been  eaten  ?  he  says  :  "So  uneasy  are  the  thoughts  of  mortals, 
that  they  will  never  leave  exploring,  and  especially  into  those 
things  respecting  which  man  ought  not  to  inquire  at  all.  If 
we  seek  after  the  bodily  presence  of  Christ,  we  must  look  for 
it  in  heaven,  where  he  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Only 
for  a  certain  time  he  exhibited  his  bodily  presence,  in  order  to 
invite  to  the  spiritual.  As  long  as  the  sacrament  is  held  in 
the  hand  and  eaten,  Christ  is  bodily  present  with  that  which 
is  seen,  felt,  and  tasted ;  but  when  the  bodily  senses  discern 
nothing  more,  the  bodily  presence  must  no  fiirther  be  sought 
after,  but  we  must  hold  ourselves  only  to  the  spiritual.  After 
the  administration  of  the  sacrament  is  finished,  Christ  passes 
from  the  mouth  into  the  heart ;  he  is  not  food  for  the  body, 
but  for  the  soul."  He  then  adds :  "  As  it  regards  the  relation 
to  ourselves  (to  our  perceptions),  he  preser\'es  throughout  the 
resemblance  to  perishable  food ;  but  as  it  regards  himself,  he 
loses  not  the  truth  of  the  (unchangeable)  body.  That  which 
outwardly  appears  (the  species)  is  sometimes  nibbled  or 
stained,  but  no  such  affection  can  reach  the  true  body  of 
Christ.  But  if  the  question  is  asked,  whether  Christ  spa- 
ciously descends  from  or  ascends  to  heaven,  when  he  offers  or 
wthdraws  his  bodily  presence,  or  whether  it  is  after  some 
other  manner  that  he  begins  or  ceases  to  be  present,  under  the 
species  of  the  sacrament  ?  I  answer,  that  in  such  matters  we 

*  Lib.  IV.  c.  XV. 


472  BONAVENTURA  OX  TRANSUBSTAXTIATIOX. 

ouglit  not  to  be  too  curious,  lest  we  arrogate  to  ourselves  more 
than  belongs  to  us.  I  know  not  how  Christ  comes,  but 
neither  do  I  know  how  he  departs ;  He  knows,  from  whom 
nothing  is  hidden."  To  escape  the  conclusion  that  the  body 
of  Christ  may  be  nibbled  by  mice,  burned  by  fire,  etc.,  he 
preferred  rather  to  resort  to  a  twofold  miracle, — that,  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  substance  of  the  bread  had  been  converted 
into  the  body  of  Christ,  so,  afterwards,  in  place  of  it,  the  sub- 
stance of  the  bread  is  created  anew,  of  which  substance  the 
accidents  only  had  remained.*  In  favour  of  this  view  Bona- 
ventura  also  declared  himself,  the  thought  undoubtedly  floating 
before  his  mind  that  such  things  belonged  to  a  higher  province 
of  the  intuition  of  faith,  and  ought  not  to  be  brought  down  to 
this  sensuous  and  conceptual  mode  of  contemplation. "j"  With 
regard  to  that  other  mode  of  apprehension,  he  observes,  "  that, 
however  much  might  be  said  in  proof  of  this  opinion,  it  will 
never  be  so  proved  that  pious  ears  must  not  be  shocked  at  it."  J 
He  was  inclined  to  admit,  with  pope  Innocent  the  Third,  in 
order  to  unite  the  hypothesis  that  the  body  of  Christ  in  the 
eucharist  was  present  only  for  the  use  of  man,§  with  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  that  the  above  -  mentioned 
double  miracle  took  place.  The  dread  of  such  conclusions, 
and  dissatisfaction  with  those  forced  resolutions  of  the  diffi- 
culty whereby  men  sought  to  guard  against  such  conclusions, 
would  lead  many  reflecting  minds  to  entertain  doubts  with 
regard  to  the  premises  themselves  from  which  such  con- 
clusions were  derived.  A  master  in  the  university  of  Paris 
wrote,  in  the  year  1264,  a  letter ||  to  pope  Clement  the  Fourth, 
in  which  he  defended  that  scientific  institution  against  a  charge 
which  was  said  to  have  proceeded  from  the  pope  himself,  that 
the  opinion  prevailed  there  that  the  eucharist  stood  no  other- 

*  Sicut  miraculose  substantia  panis  convertitur  in  corpus  dominicura, 
cum  iucipit  esse  sub  sacramento,  sic  quodammodo  miraculose  revertitur, 
cum  ipsum  ibi  desinit  esse,  non  quod  ilia  panis  substantia  revertatur,  qua 
transivit  in  camem,  sed  quod  ejus  loco  alius  miraculose  creatus. 

t  His  words :  Caveat  tamen  quisque  qualiter  intelligit,  quia  in  hoc 
secretum  fidei  latet. 

X  Quantumcunque  ha;c  opinio  muniatur,  nunquam  tamen  adeo  munitur, 
quando  aures  pia2  hoc  abhorreant  audire. 

§  Quia  Christus  non  est  sub  illo  sacramento,  nisi  eatenus,  quod  ordiua- 
bile  est  ad  usum  humanum,  scilicet  ad  manducationem. 

II  SecBouleei  hist,  imivers.  Parisiens,  T.  III.  f.  374. 


JOHN  OF  PARIS  OX  TRAXSUBSTAIfTIATION  4T3 

Wise  related  to  Chnst  than  as  the  symbol  stands  related  to  the 
thing  signified  by  it.*  Such  an  accusation,  against  which  the 
university  had  occasion  to  defend  itself,  may  not  perhaps  have 
been  altogether  without  foundation,  though  it  did  not  contain 
one  word  of  literal  truth.  Accordingly,  there  stood  forth 
among  the  members  of  this  imiversity,  towards  the  close  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  an  independent  thinker, — well  known 
on  account  of  his  skill  in  dispute, — the  Dominican  John  of 
Paris,t  who  endeavoured  to  avoid  the  above-mentioned  con- 
clusions by  calling  up  once  more  J  that  opinion  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  not  yet  been  lost  sight  of  in  the  twelfth 
century, — the  opinion  that  the  body  of  Christ,  abiding  in  its 
proper  essence,  was  united  with  the  substance  of  the  bread  and 
wine  abiding  in  their  proper  essence,  after  the  same  manner 
as  the  divine  nature  is  united  with  the  human  in  Christ. 
According  to  this  view,  a  mutual  transfer  and  interchange 
of  predicates  might  find  place,  as  in  the  case  of  the  two 
natures  of  Christ ;  and  so  these  offensive  conclusions  might  be 
avoided.  He  supposed  that,  as  the  orthodox  faith  in  this  doctrine 
consisted  simply  in  maintaining  the  real  and  veritable  pre- 
sence of  the  body  of  Christ,  so  a  determinate  representation  of 
the  manner  in  which  this  came  to  pass  could  not — while  still 
other  representations  were  also  possible — obtain  the  authority 
of  an  article  of  faith.  He  believed,  moreover,  that  he  might 
affirm  the  words  of  the  institution  were  more  favourable  to  his 
own  view  than  to  the  opposite  one.§  He  was  not  in  favour  of 
directly  condemning  the  common  representation,  but  only  con- 
tended against  its  being  held  as  the  alone  valid  one,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  avowed  submission  to  the  authority  of  the 
pope  and  of  the  church :  yet  he  was  prohibited  in  1304  from 
reading  and  disputing.  He  appealed  to  the  pope,  but  died  at 
Eome  while  the  matter  was  still  under  discussion.  The 
transmutation  of  bread  and  wine  into  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ  being  regarded  as  the  highest  miracle,  and  one  daily 
repeated,  and  this  highest  pitch  of  the  miraculous,  and  of  the 

*  Esse  sicuti  signatum  sub  signo. 

t  Johannes  pungens  asinos,  Pique  d'ane,  so  called,  because  his  dispu- 
tations left  no  quiet  to  indolent  minds. 

X  His  Determinatio,  published  by  Peter  Allix,  London,  16S6. 

§  Quod  ista  opinio  evidentius  sal  vat  veritatem  hujus  propositionis ; 
lioc  est  corpus  meum,  et  quod  in  altari  sit  corous  Christi,  quam  alia. 


474  FESTIVAL  OF  CORPUS  CHRISTI. 

self-communication  of  God,  being  a  matter  which  particu- 
larly busied  the  religious  feelings  and  the  imaginations  of  men, 
it  is  no  wonder  that  visions  should  grow  out  of  it ;  and  such 
visions  may  have  been  the  occasion  which  led  to  the  founding 
of  a  festival  extremely  agreeable  to  this  bent  of  devotion,  and 
consecrated  to  the  remembrance  of  this  abiding  miracle, — the 
festum  Corporis  Domini,  or  Corpus-  Christi  day,  Avhich,  after 
it  had  first  arisen — as  it  is  said  in  the  diocese  of  Liege — was 
established  in  1264,  by  a  bull  of  pope  Urban  the  Fourth, 
although,  as  this  pope  soon  afterwards  died,  the  ordinance  did 
not  at  first  pass  generally  into  effect,  but  had  afterwards,  in 
1311,  to  be  renewed  by  Clement  tlie  Fifth. 

It  was  in  correspondence  with  these  views,  that,  as  Christ, 
veiled  beneath  these  external  signs,  was  contemplated  as 
actually  present  and  inseparably  connected  with  them,  so  the 
worship  due  to  him  was  transferred  to  them.  And  accord- 
ingly it  had  been  the  custom,  even  before  these  views  had 
reached  their  extreme  point  in  the  doctrine  of  transubstantia- 
tion,  for  the  community,  at  the  elevation  of  the  consecrated 
emblems,  to  kneel  to  the  ground ;  and,  in  general,  Christ 
himself  Avas  worshipped  in  them,  as  appears  from  many  indi- 
cations, especially  in  the  East,  where,  as  a  common  thing,  the 
feelings  were  more  strongly  expressed.  This  was  a  neces- 
sary expression  of  those  modes  of  intuition  which,  after  they 
had  reached  their  highest  point  in  the  doctrine  of  transubstan- 
tiation,  would,  of  course,  be  still  further  promoted.  The 
papal  legate,  cardinal  Guido,  whom  pope  Innocent  the  Third 
sent  to  Cologne,  is  said  to  have  first  introduced  the  custom, 
already  practised  in  Italy,  of  kneeling  before  the  host,  elevated 
after  the  consecration,  and  when  borne  in  procession  to  the 
sick,  into  those  districts  of  Germany,*  and  pope  Honorius 
the  Third,  by  a  constitution  enacted  in  1217,  made  this  a  law 
for  the  whole  church.  From  this  reverence  for  the  external 
signs  in  the  eucharist,  this  anxious  dread  of  spilling  a  drop  of 
the  blood  of  Christ,  proceeded,  however,  at  the  same  time, 
one  salutary  change,  which  may  have  been  already  introduced 
of  itself,  through  the  better  understanding  of  the  relation  of 
the  eucharist  to  baptism^  as  it  certainly  found  therein  a  basis 
of  support.     We  have  already  seen,  in  the  earlier  periods, 

*  See  Caesar.  Heisterbac  Dial.  Dist.  IX.  c.  li. 


ABOLITION   OF  COMMUXION  OF  INFA^VTS.  475 

how  the  communion  of  infants  spread  abroad  in  connection 
with  infant  baptism,  while  men  were  unconscious  of  the  real 
difference  between  the  two  sacraments,  and,  from  a  false  con- 
struction put  upon  what  Christ  says,  in  the  sixth  chapter  of 
the  gospel  according  to  John,  respecting  the  eating  of  his 
flesh  and  blood,  drew  the  conclusion  that,  Avithout  partaking 
of  the  holy  supper,  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  eternal  life. 
In  such  cases,  it  was  customary  to  let  infants,  who  were  in- 
capable as  yet  of  eating  anything  solid,  merely  sip  a  portion 
of  the  consecrated  wine.*  But  inasmuch  as  it  was  now  feared 
lest  the  blood  of  Christ  might  thus  be  profaned,  while  yet 
men  were  not  bold  enough  to  abandon  at  once  the  ancient 
custom,  it  came  about  that,  in  preference  to  dropping  the 
practice  altogether,  it  was  preferred  to  take  up  ^vith  an  un- 
meaning ceremonj"-,  and  give  to  infants  unconsecrated  wine.t 
This  practice  Hugo  a  S.  Victore  justly  declared  to  be  alto- 
gether superfluous  ;  and  wished  rather  that  the  whole  ceremony 
might  be  dispensed  with,  if  it  could  be  done  without  giving 
scandal  to  the  simple-minded  ;}  and  he  expressed  it  as  his 
opinion  that,  if  danger  was  to  be  apprehended  in  preserving 
the  blood  of  Christ,  or  in  ofiering  the  same  to  infants,  it  were 
better  that  the  whole  ceremony  should  be  omitted,  inasmuch 
as  infants  belonged  already  to  the  body  of  Christ  by  baptism, 
and  were  thereby  secured  in  possession  of  all  the  benefits 
which  flow  from  union  with  him ;  in  favour  of  which  view  he 
quoted  a  saying  of  Augustin,  to  whose  authority  it  was  the 
custom  to  appeal  in  support  of  the  communion  of  infants. 
From  these  words  of  Hugo,  it  is  manifest  that,  besides  the 
above-mentioned  anxiety,  the  consciousness  of  the  difference 
between  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  as  that  whereby  the  sub- 
ject was  supposed  to  be,  once  for  all,  incorporated  into  fellow- 
ship with  Christ  and  entitled  to  participate  in  all  the  benefits 
grounded  therein,  and  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper  as 

*  Hugo  a  S.  V.  de  caeremoniis,  sacramentis,  officiis  et  observationibus 
ecclesiasticis,  Lib.  I.  c.  xx. :  Pueris  recens  natis  idem  sacramentum  in 
specie  sanguinis  est  ministrandum  digito  sacerdotis,  quia  tales  naturaliter 
sugere  possunt. 

+  L.  c.  Ignorantia  presbyterorom  adhnc  fonnam  retinens,  sed  non  rem, 
dat  eis  loco  sanguuiis  vinum. 

X  Quod  penitus  supervacuum  arbitrares,  si  sine  scandalo  simpliciom 
dimitti  posset. 


476  ADJIIXISTRATIOX  OF 

that  which  referred  to  the  continued,  conscious,  and  self- 
active  appropriation  of  this  fellowship,  the  consciousness  of 
such  a  difference  between  the  two  sacraments,  contributed 
some  share  towards  promoting  the  abandonment  of  infant 
communion.*  Already,  in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  communion  of  infants  was  considered  to  be  a 
thing  altogether  inadmissible.  As  piety  in  children,  more  or 
less  pure  or  mingled  with  fanaticism,!  belonged  among  the 
peculiar  features  of  this  age,  so  an  example  of  this  sort  oc- 
curred in  the  year  1220,  at  Thoroult  in  Flanders.  A  boy, 
on  whose  tender  mind  religion  had  made  a  powerful  impres- 
sion, and  who  was  looked  upon  as  a  prodigy  of  youthful 
piety,  died  before  he  had  completed  his  seventh  year.  Before 
his  deat'n,  he  expressed  an  earnest  desire  to  partake  of  the 
holy  eucharist.  It  being  supposed,  however,  that,  according 
to  the  then  existing  laws  of  the  church, |  this  privilege  could 
not  be  granted  him,  when  he  found  that  he  was  about  to  die, 
stretching  forth  his  hands  to  heaven,  he  exclaimed,  "  Thou, 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  knowest  that  my  greatest  desire  is  to  have 
thee  ;  I  have  longed  after  thee,  and  done  all  in  my  povver  to 
obtain  thee ;  and  I  coniidently  hope  that  I  am  now  going  to 
behold  thee." 

The  consideration,  however,  which,  in  the  manner  above 
described,  was  the  occasion  of  introducing  a  change  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  corresponding  to  its  idea,  con- 
tributed to  promote  the  extensive  spread  of  another  innova- 
tion, directly  at  variance  with  this  idea.  In  the  earlier  cen- 
turies  it    was   held    indispensably   necessary  that  the  holy 

*  In  the  fifth  canon  of  the  council  of  Bordeaux  (concilium  Burdega- 
lense),  in  1255,  it  is  already  presupposed  that  children  belonged  to  the 
class  of  the  prohibiti  communicare  ;  and  it  is  only  specially  decreed  that  the 
priests  should  not,  on  the  Easter  festival,  give  them  the  consecrated  host 
instead  of  the  communion.  Only  common  consecrated  bread  {panis  bene- 
dictiis  communis)— still  a  remnant,  therefore,  of  the  ancient  usage — 
should  be  given  them.     Harduin.  Concil.  T.  VII.  f.  471. 

t  Thus,  for  example,  in  1213,  a  summons  issued  by  a  youth  led  to  a 
fanatical  excitement  that  hurried  away  a  vast  multitude  of  boys  to  a  cru- 
sade, who  could  not  be  kept  back  by  any  of  the  means  employed,  gentle 
or  severe.  See  Thorn.  Cantiprateni  Bonum  universale,  Lib..  II.  c.  iii. 
s.  14;  and  Matth.  Paris,  hist.  Angl.  An.  1251,  f.  710.  Ed.  Lond.  1686. 

X  Thomas  Cantiprat,  in  relating  this  story,  Lib.  II.  c.  xxyiii.  s.  7, 
speaks  of  an  ordinance  passed  by  a  general  council  prohibiting  this: 
but  no  such  canon  of  a  general  council  is  known  to  me. 


THE  LORD*S  SUPPER  UlfDEB  ONE  SPIXHES.  477 

supper,  in  conformity  with  its  institution,  should  be  distri- 
buted fully,  in  both  kinds,  to  all  without  distinction,  and 
should  be  partaken  of  by  all.  The  only  exception  was  Mhen, 
as  in  the  North  African  church,  a  portion  of  the  consecrated 
bread  was  kept  at  hand,  as  a  means  of  constantly  maintaining 
communion  with  Christ,  and  as  a  supernatural  preservative 
against  all  manner  of  evil ;  and  when  the  wine  alone  was 
used  for  the  commimion  of  infants ;  which  customs  already 
implied,  and  indeed  were  based  on,  the  opinion  that,  in.  cases 
of  necessity,  the  communion  in  one  kind  might  be  substituted 
in  place  of  the  whole.  Now  the  fear  we  have  already  men- 
tioned, of  spilling  the  least  particle  of  Christ's  blood,  led,  in 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  especially  in  England,  to 
the  custom  of  presenting,  in  the  communion  of  infants,  only  a 
portion  of  bread  dipped  in  the  consecrated  wine.  And  as  this 
was  a  proceeding  already  at  variance  with  the  words  of  the 
institution  and  the  nature  of  the  sacrament,  both  as  to  form 
and  matter,*  so  it  formed  a  medium  of  transition  to  the  prac- 
tice of  distributing  the  sacrament  to  the  sick  under  the  single 
species  of  the  consecrated  bread. f  The  same  anxiety  was  the 
occasion  also  tliat,  in  here  and  there  an  instance,  this  custom 
should  be  extended  still  further,  and  that  partaking  of  the 
blood  of  Christ  should  be  A^ithheld  altogether  from  the  laity. 
That  idea  of  the  priesthood,  which  placed  the  laity  at  such  a 
distant  remove  from  the  clergy,  would  fvimish  ground  for  the 
opinion  that  it  was  enough  if  they,  by  whose  instrumentality 
this  greatest  of  miracles  was  accomplished,  and  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ  continually  offered  anew,  enjoyed  the  holy  supper  in 
its  complete  form,  as  it  had  been  instituted  by  our  Saviour ;  J 

*  Hildebert  of  Mans  says,  concerning  a  custom  of  this  sort  (ep.  15)  : 
Quod  nee  ex  dominica  institutione  nee  ex  sanctionibus  autheutieis  repe- 
ritur  assnmptum. 

t  The  -words  of  the  abbot  Rodulph  of  Liege,  which  Bona  has  given  in 
his  work  De  rebus  litargicis : — 

Hinc  et  ibi  caateU  Get, 

Ne  presbyter  sgrU  et  sanis 

Tribaat  Ujcis  de  sanguino  Christi,  nam  fnndi  posset  levitei 

Siinplexque  putaiet,  quod  oon  sub  specie  sit  totus  Jesus  utraqoe. 

X  As  Thomas  Aquinas  says :  Quod  perfectio  hujns  sacrament!  non  est 
in  usu  fidelium,  sed  in  consecratione  materise.  Et  idee  nihil  derogat 
perfection!  hujus  sacramenti,  si  populus  sumat  corpus  sine  sanguine, 
dommodo  sacerdoe  consecrans  sumat  utrumque. 


478  THE  lord's  supper  uxder  one  species. 

since  in  fact  the  priests  offered  for  all,  and  acted  in  the  name 
of  all  who  Avere  united  with  them  by  fellowship  of  spirit.* 
Thus,  then,  a  full  and  perfect  observance  was  to  be  paid  by 
the  priests  to  all  that  the  institution  of  Christ  required.  On 
the  part  of  the  laity,  reverence  towards  the  sacrament  was  to 
be  the  most  prominent  thing  ;  and  in  accordance  with  this 
reverence  they  should  abstain  from  the  blood,  that  none  of  it 
might  be  spilled  and  profaned. f  This  was  the  acme  of  that 
spiritual  aristocracy  which  stood  in  such  contradiction  to  the 
idea  of  the  Christian  church  ;  and  it  needed  but  one  step  more 
to  proclaim,  '•'  it  was  sufficient  for  the  priests  to  celebrate  the 
communion  in  behalf  of  the  entire  community."  There  was 
still  another  element,  belonging  to  the  Christian  mode  of 
thinking  in  this  age,  that  contributed  to  encourage  and  uphold 
this  change,  namely,  the  power  attributed  to  the  church,  by 
virtue  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  guided  it,  of  introducing 
changes  in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  according  to 
the  necessities  of  the  times  ;  and  the  power  was  stretched  to 
this  extent.}  The  principle,  right  in  itself,  of  distinguishing 
between  the  mutable  and  the  immutable  in  the  celebration  of 
the  sacraments,  was,  by  reason    of  those  false  assumptions. 

*  Conformably  to  that  -which  Tliomas  Aquinas  says :  Quia  sacerdos 
in  persona  omnium  sanguinem  offert  et  sumit.  _       j 

t  As  Thomas  says :  Ex  parte  sumentium  requiritar  summa  reverentia     f 
ct  cautela,  ne  aliquid  accidat,  quod  vergat  ad  injuriam  tanti  mysterii.         J 

+  Thus  already  in  the  letter  of  Emulph  bishop  of  Rochester,  near 
the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  in  -which,  in  replying  to  the 
doubts  proposed  to  him  by  a  certain  Lambert,  he  states  how  the  Ho-i 
dierna  ecclesiiE  consuetudo  of  distributing  the  hostia  sanguine  intincta, 
alio  et  pscne  contrario  ritu,  quam  a  Domino  distributum  might  be  justi- 
fied. He  supposes  that  everything  ordained  by  Christ  for  man's  salva- 
tion ought  to  be  observed,  indeed,  as  a  matter  of  unconditional  necessity ; 
but  that  changes  might  be  made  in  the  form  of  administration,  respects 
ing  which  Christ  had  established  nothing  definite.  "  Quae  praecepta, 
sunt,  non  fieri  non  licere,  pro  ratione  vero  necessitatis  vel  honestatis  alio 
et  alio  modo  fieri  licere."  And  he  could  cite  other  changes  in  proof  of  ■ 
this,  changes  which  the  church  had  introduced  on  grounds  of  reason. 
"  Unde  nonnulla  Christiana;  religionis  instituta  eum  in  ecclesise  nasccntis 
initio  modum  originis  accepere,  quern  in  progressu  ejusdera  crescentis 
propter  quasdam  rationabiles  causas  non  diu  tenuere." — See  D'Achery ; 
Spieileg.  T.  III.  f.  470.  We  must  allow,  however,  that  when  the  mutable.] 
and  the  immutable,  in  respect  to  matter  and  form,  were  distinguished, 
by  such  inexact  limits,  a  wide  field  would  be  opened  for  arbitrary] 
procedures. 


FOLMAK  OF  TRAUFEXSTEUT  OPPOSED  TO  IT.  479 

felsely  applied.  Furthermore,  this  change  foiind  another 
ground  of  support  in  the  doctrine  of  concomitance,  so  called  ; 
which,  however,  was  neither  devised  nor  got  up  for  this  pur- 
pose, but  had  been  first  evolved  independently  thereof,*  and 
was  first  employed  by  the  schoolmen  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury,! ^^  defence  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  cup, — the  doctrine 
that,  under  each  species,  the  whole  of  Christ  was  contained, 
per  concomitantiam,  therefore,  under  the  body,  the  blood ;  so 
that  he  who  partook  of  but  one  species  lost  nothing. 

It  was  above  a  century,  however,  before  the  scruples  against 
a  deviation  from  the  uistitution  of  Christ  and  the  ancient  and 
universal  custom  of  the  church  could  be  wholly  overcome. 
Not  only  was  this  change  not  approved  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, except  in  single  portions  of  the  church,  but  even  a 
pope,  Paschalis  the  Second,  declared  himself  decidedly  op- 
posed to  it.  In  a  letter  to  Poutius  abbot  of  Cluny,  he  wrote 
that  no  arbitrary  will  of  man,  nor  innovating  spirit,  ought  to 
be  allowed  to  deviate  from  the  course  that  Christ  had  ordained. 
As  Christ  communicated  bread  and  wine,  each  by  itself,  and 
it  ever  had  been  so  observed  in  the  church,  it  ever  should  be 
so  done  in  the  future,  save  in  the  case  of  in&nts  and  of  the 
sick,  who,  as  a  general  thing,  could  not  eat  bread. "|  Yet 
the  withdrawal  of  the  cup,  favoured  by  the  highest  authorities 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  first  theologians  of  both  the 
orders  of  meudicants,  among  whom  Albert  the  Great  consti- 
tutes the  only  exception,  constantly  advanced  to  more  general 
recognition.  Near  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  pro- 
vost Folmar  of  Traufenstein,  in  France,  took  ground  against 
the  doctrine  of  concomitance  employed  to  defend  the  with- 
drawal of  the  cup ;  and  he  seems  by  this  opposition  to  have 
been  driven  to  a  view  of  the  Lord's  Supper  deviating  from 
the  church  doctrine,  although  he  was  too  much  confined  by 
his  dependence  on  the  authority  of  the  church  to  be  able  to 
make  that  which  he  wanted  wholly  clear  to  himself,  and  to 
carry  it  out  in  a  consistent  manner.  He  agreed,  it  is  true, 
that  the  true  body  of  Christ  was  in  the  eucharist ;  but  he 
supposed  not  wholly,  with  all  its  members,  as  Christ  liad  lived 

*  For  example,  by  Anselm  of  Canterbury, 
t  After  the  precedent  of  bishop  Emulph. 
X  Harduin,  Concil.  T.  VI.  p.  ii.  f.  1796. 


480  FOLMAR  OF  TEAUFEXSTEIN 

on  earth ;  that  the  whole  Christ  was,  by  virtue  of  the  union 
of  the  two  natures,  in  each  species,  but  not  the  whole,  com- 
pletely, in  all  its  parts.  In  each  species,  he  would  probably 
say,  he  is  present  only  in  one  particular  form.*  As  he  main- 
tained that,  even  by  Christ's  glorification,  the  difference  of 
the  predicates,  applied  to  the  two  natures,  was  not  annulled, 
so  he  contended  against  the  supposition  of  an  ubiquity  ;  and 
held,  on  the  contrary,  that  Christ,  till  the  time  of  his  second 
advent,  abode,  with  his  glorified  body,  only  in  heaven.  When 
his  opponents  brought  up  against  him  the  stories  which  had 
gone  abroad  since  the  time  of  Paschasius  Eadbert,  about 
actual  manifestations  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  he 
declared  such  stories  to  be  false :  he  looked  upon  them  as 
mere  fables,  that  harmonized  in  no  sort  with  the  doctrine  of 
Holy  Scripture.  The  sources  from  which  these  legends  had 
been  derived  he  considered  as  not  entitled  to  the  least 
credit. f  Thus  we  perceive  that,  at  bottom,  he  possessed  an 
original  and  independent  bent  of  spirit,  directly  at  variance 
with  that  of  the  church.  But  before  he  could  come  to  the 
point  of  expressing  it,  in  a  clear  and  consistent  manner,  he 
was  induced  to  recant.  J 

That  view  of  the  Lord's  supper  which  represented  the 
miracle  performed  by  the  priests  as  the  principle  thing  did 

*  Totus,  sed  lion  totum  et  non  totaliter. 

f  Gerhoh  of  Reichersberg  says,  in  the  work  directed  against  him,  and 
intituled  De  gloria  et  honore  filii  hominis,  c.  xiii.  in  Pez  thesaurus  anec- 
dotorum  novissimus,  T.  I.  p.  ii.  f.  221 :  Folmar  had  asserted,  dictis  et 
scriptis,  corpus  Domini,  ex  quo  ascendit,  nunquam  fuisse  sub  coelo.  Cui 
cum  nos  inter  ciEtera  objiceremus,  quod  multi  sanctorum  viderint  eum 
corporaliter,  postquam  ascendit  in  coelum,  sicut  corporaliter  visus  est 
Petro,  dixit  hoc  totum  esse  fabulosum.  Neque  canonicis  fultum  scrip- 
turis. — Gerhoh  now  argues  that,  according  to  the  position  of  his  antago- 
nist, the  account  given  by  Luke  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  of  Christ's 
appearance  to  Paul,  should  be  regarded  as  fabulous  and  uncanonical. 
But  it  was  certainly  very  far  from  the  intention  of  his  opponent  to  affirm 
anything  like  this.  If  the  latter  really  expressed  the  opinion,  thus 
broadly,  that  Christ  could  not,  after  his  ascension,  again  appear  on  earth, 
he  must  have  explained  this  appearance  as  being  a  supernatural  vision, 
■whicli,  however,  it  is  hardly  credible  that  he  did.  Probably  he  only  spoke 
of  those  tales,  altogether  fabulous  both  in  matter  and  form,  which  were 
commonly  made  use  of  in  defence  of  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation. 

J  The  sources  are  to  be  found  in  the  above-cited  volume  of  the  coUec-    i 
tion  by  Pez,  and  in  the  25th  volume  of  the  Bibl.  patr.  Lugd.     It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  we  possess  but  a  few  fragments  of  Folmar  himself. 


NEGLECT  OF  THE  LORD'S  SUPPEK.  481 

not  serve  to  promote  the  participation  of  the  laity  in  the 
sacrament.  One  evidence  that  shows  how  far  this  was  from 
being  the  case  is,  the  twenty-first  canon  of  the  Lateran 
council  in  1215,  whereby  it  is  ordained  that  ever}'  one  should 
partake  of  the  holy  supper  at  least  once  a  year,  on  the  Easter 
festival.  Whoever  failed  of  so  doing  was  to  be  excluded 
from  church  fellowship,  and,  at  his  death,  to  be  refused  burial 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  church.  »So  much  the  greater 
reliance  was  placed  on  the  priestly  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  and 
the  vast  multitude  of  unworthy  ecclesiastics  turned  it  into 
a  means  of  gain.  Such  persons  undertook,  for  the  sake  of 
the  profit,  to  hold  more  masses  than  they  could  themselves 
perform.  They  entered  into  contracts  to  perform  a  certain 
number  of  masses,  which  they  obligated  themselves  to  hold 
for  twenty  or  thirty  years ;  and  when  they  had  undertaken 
more  than  they  were  able  to  perform,  hired  assistants,  who 
went  through  with  a  mechanical  performance  of  the  liturgical 
acts  in  their  stead.*  Pious  individuals  contended  against  this 
abuse  as  a  most  abominable  species  of  simony,  Chrst  himself 
being  here  held  up  for  sale,  as  he  was  by  Judas.  The  free- 
spirited  Abelard  declaimed  against  the  cupidity  of  the  priests, 
by  whom  many,  even  when  dying,  were  deceived  with  the 
idle  promise  of  salvation,  if  they  sliould  secure  a  sufficient 
number  of  masses,  which  however  could  not  be  had  without 
pay.  "  They  advise  these  dying  men,"  says  he,  "  not  to 
restore  what  they  have  robbed  from  others,  but  to  offer  it  for 
the  sacrifice  of  the  mass."f  The  ecclesiastical  assemblies. at 
length  considered  it  necessary  to  enact  laws  against  such 
abuses.^     These  abuses  were  not  necessarily  connected,  we 

*  As,  for  instance,  Petrus  Cantor,  verbum  abbreviatum,  c.  xxvii.  et 
xxviii. 

t  Multos  morientium  sedacit  cuptditas  sacerdotam,  vanam  eis  securi- 
tatera  promittentium,  si  quae  habent,  sacrificiis  obtulcrint,  et  missas  emant, 
quas  nequaqnam  gratis  haberent.  In  quo  quidem  mercimonio  pnefixum 
apud  eos  pretium  constat  esse,  pro  una  scilicet  missa  unum  denarium,  et 
pro  uuo  annuali  quadraginta.  In  his  Ethics  or  his  Scito  te  ipsum,  c. 
xviii.  in  Fez  thesaurus  anecdotorum  novissimus,  p.  ii.  f.  666. 

X  See  the  Council  of  Paris,  of  the  year  1212  :  Ne  pro  annalibus  vel 
triennalibus  vel  septennalibus  missarum  faciendis  laici  vel  alii  dare 
aliquid  vel  legare  cogantur  in  testamento,  et  ne  super  his  aliqua  pactio 
vel  exactio  vel  sub  aliqua  alia  specie  palliata  a  sacerdotibus  vel  aliis 
luediatoribus  fiat,  et  ne  superllua  multitudine  talium  annalium  se  onereut 

VOL.  VII.  2    I 


482  SACRAMENT  OP  PENANCE. 

admit,  with  that  particular  mode  of  intuition  of  which  we 
Jiave  been  speaking  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  loftiness  of  the 
transaction,  as  an  oflTering  of  Christ,  was  appealed  to  in  order 
to  expose  the  detestable  character  of  this  traffic  :*  but  the 
whole  of  this  externalizing,  magic-seeking  bent,  furnished,  to 
say  the  least,  a  foothold  for  such  superstition  and  such  pro- 
fanation. 

In  the  administration  of  the  sacrament  of  penance  the  mis- 
chief-working abuses  of  the  church  stand  forth  with  particular 
prominence ;  but  on  this  point  we  must  take  care  to  distinguish 
the  false  representations  of  the  church-doctrine,  which  were 
encouraged  by  ignorant  and  badly-disposed  preachers,  from 
that  doctrine  as  it  was  taught  in  the  schools  of  theology. 
Men  were  aware  of  the  distinction  between  the  divine  for- 
giveness of  sin  and  church  absolution.  It  was  acknowledged 
that  the  former  could  be  obtained  only  by  the  inward  con- 
fession of  sin,  and  that  true  repentance  which  springs  from 
love.  "When  a  priest  inquired  of  Yves  bishop  of  Chartres, 
how  the  practice  of  the  church — to  exclude  those  who  con- 
fessed their  sins  for  a  season  from  partaking  of  the  eucharist — 
was  to  be  reconciled  with  the  words  of  the  prophet  Ezekiel, — 
that  the  sinner  shall  live  if  he  but  sighs  to  God,  and  returns 
from  his  evil  ways, — the  bishop  replied  :  "  To  that  judge  who 
looks  upon  the  heart,  inward  conversion,  and  the  contrition  of 
the  heart,  sufficeth  ;  and  the  forgiveness  of  sin  is  immediately 
bestowed  by  him  to  whom  this  inward  conversion  is  manifest; 
but  the  church  requires  a  public  satisfaction,  because  she 
cannot  know  the  secrets  of  the  heart."!  Peter  Lombard 
declared,  that  the  power  to  bind  and  to  loose  bestowed  on  the 
priest  did  not  consist  in  this,  that  he  actually  had  it  in  his 
power  to  forgive  sins  and  confer  justification,  which  was 
the  work  of  God  alone.  The  priest  could  only  declare  the 
judgment  of  God,|  and  the  priestly  sentence  was  valid  only 
when  it  agreed  with  the  divine.  He  distinguished,  therefore, 
between  absolution  in  the  sight  of  God  and  in  the  view  of  the 

sacerdotes,  ad  quae  supplenda  sufficere  honeste  uon  possint  et  propter  qusa 
ipsos  oporteat  habere  conductitios  sacerdotes. 

*  The  greater  guilt  incurred  in  the  profanation  of  this  sacrament  by 
simony,  Petr.  Cant.  c.  xxvii :  Totus  enim  Christus  ibi  sumitur  fons  et 
origo  omnium  gratiarum.  t  See  ep.  228. 

X  Osteudere  hominem  ligatum  vel  solutum. 


THE  THREE  PARTS  OF  PENANCE.  483 

church  ;*  but  in  holding  fast  to  the  inward  requisites, — neces- 
sary  in  order  to  the  obtaining  of  the  di^ine  forgiveness  of  sin, 
— men  were  at  the  same  time  at  no  loss  for  reasons  to  justify 
everything  that  prevailed  in  the  practice  of  the  church.     That 
interior  state  of  the  soul, — genuine  contrition  of  heart, — must 
necessarily  express  itself  by  some  outward  and  corresponding 
sign.     Inward  humiliation  before  God  must  exhibit  itself  by 
the   outward   self-humiliation  of  penance   before  the  priest. 
The  inward  confession  of  sins  must  be  accompanied  >vith  an 
outward   confession ;  the   inward   self-castigation   for  sin,  in 
contrition,  by  penitential  exercbes,  voluntarily  undertaken  ac- 
cording to  the  direction  of  the  priest.     So  the  three  following 
parts  of  penance,  as  determined  by  Peter  of  Lombardy,  ever 
continued  to  be  held  fast :  the  compunctio  cordis,  the  confessio 
oris,  and  the  satisfactio  operis.     In  the  doctrine,  that  for  sins 
conunitted   subsequently  to   baptism  it  was  required  that  a 
peculiar  species  of  satisfaction  should  be  paid  to  di\'ine  justice, 
the  necessity  of  church  penance  found  its  substantial  basis ; 
and  the  effects  of  it  might,  in  the  next  place,   extend  even 
beyond  the  bounds  of  the  present  life ;   for  after  it  had  once 
been   determined   that   such   a   species   of   justification   was 
necessary,  it  was  easy  to  infer  from  it,  that  whosoever  neg- 
lected to  pay  such  satisfaction  in  the  present  life  would  have 
to  suffer  hereafler,  for  the  purpose  of  expiation  and  purifi- 
cation, so  much  the  severer  pains  in  the  fires  of  purgatory. 
At  the  same  time,  however,  it  was  supposed  that  the  above- 
mentioned  inward  self-punishment  might  be  of  suflScient  force 
to  be  substituted  in  place  of  all  other  satisfactions ;  so  that  the 
individual  thus  circumstanced  stood  exempted  from  the  neces- 
sity of  enduring  the  fires  of  purgatory.     At  all  events,  the 
church  doctrine  and  scientific  theology  were  very  far  from 
attributing  any  important  influence  to  the  external  act  separated 
from  the  internal  disposition.     The  temper  of  the  heart  was 
ever  held  up  to  view  as  that  from  which  everything  must 
proceed ;  but  the  blame  lies  with  the  ordinary  priests,  that 
this  connection  between  the  inward  temper  and  outward  act, 
in  the  religious  sense  of  the  multitude,  was  obscured,  and  that 
tlie  people  were  confirmed  in  the  delusive  notion  that  for- 
giveness of  sin  could  be  obtained  by  outward  works,  and  in 

*  Solatio  apud  Deam  et  in  &cie  ecclesis. 

"  I  2 


484  GENERAL  ABSOLUTION. 

their  mistaken  confidence  on  priestly  absolution,  which  was 
often  but  too  easily  bestowed.  The  laws  enacted  by  the  first 
popes  of  this  period  had  for  their  object  to  counteract  such 
abuses.  Thus  it  undoubtedly  belonged  to  the  essence  of  the 
Hildebrandian  reform  of  the  church,  that  on  this  point  also  the 
ancient  order  of  the  church  should  be  restored.  We  have 
noticed  already,  on  a  former  page,*  the  interest  taken  in  this 
matter  by  Gregory  the  Seventh.  Pope  Urban  the  Second 
declared,!  that  "  Whereas  false  penance  belongs  especially 
among  the  causes  which  disturb  the  peace  of  the  church, 
therefore  we  admonish  the  bishops  and  priests  against  de- 
ceiving the  souls  of  the  laity  by  false  penance,  and  thus 
causing  them  to  be  hurried  to  perdition.  But  false  penance 
is,  where  penance  is  done  on  account  of  one  sin  to  the  over- 
looking of  many  others."  In  confutation  of  this  error,  which 
led  men  to  suppose  that  they  had  done  enough  by  leaving 
off  one  class  of  sins,  while  they  still  indulged  themselves  in 
others,  the  pope  quotes  James  ii.  10  :  "  It  is  also  denominated 
false  penance  for  one  not  to  abandon  the  business  of  an  ordinary 
calling  which  he  cannot  pursue  without  sin,  or  to  harbour 
liatred  in  his  heart ;  or  to  refuse  satisfaction  to  one  whom  he 
has  wronged,  or  forgiveness  for  wrongs  he  has  himself  received, 
or  to  bear  arms  against  a  righteous  cause."  Yet  the  authorities 
at  Rome  did  not  remain  true  to  these  principles  of  ecclesias- 
tical legislation,  when  they  too  easily  granted  absolution  to 
those  who  from  other  lands  resorted  to  the  highest  tribunal, 
and  a  mischief-working  change,  in  the  matter  of  absolution, 
proceeded  from  tliat  very  quarter. 

In  the  first  place,  by  virtue  of  the  monarchical  ecclesiastical 
power  of  the  popes,  it  was  possible  to  introduce,  instead  of 
the  absolutions  hitherto  dispensed  by  the  bishops  in  behalf 
of  their  respective  dioceses,  a  more  general  absolution,  valid 
for  the  whole  churcii ;  and  while  it  was  the  case  hitlierto  that 
absolution  was  only  limited  and  partial  in  its  extent,  another 
kind  now  appeared  in  its  stead,  of  wider  grasp,  w  hich  tended 
to  the  dispensing  with  all  church  penance.  The  crusades 
furnished  the  first  occasion  for  this.  Pope  Victor  tlie  Second, 
when  preaching  a  crusade  against  the  infidels  in  North  Africa, 
having  first  set  a  precedent  of  this  sort,  it  was  often  followed 

*  Page  111.       t  Concilium  Melfitanum,  c.  xvi,   Harduin,  vii.  f.  168". 


GROUND  OF  ABSOLUTION.  485 

on  occasion  of  the  crusades  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  when  it 
was  held  that  tlie  participation  in  so  holy  an  enterprise  ought 
to  be  considered  a  valid  substitute  for  all  other  penance ;  and 
so  a  full  and  unconditional  absolution  came  to  be  coiuiected 
therewith.  Yet  it  must  be  allowed  that  true  devotion  and 
penitence  were  still  appended  as  a  condition.  Thus,  for  ex- 
ample, Urban  the  Second,  at  the  council  of  Clermont,  in 
1095,  extended  this  indulgence  expressly  to  those  alone  who, 
from  motives  of  simple  piety,  and  not  for  the  sake  of  honour 
or  of  money,  embarked  in  the  expedition  to  liberate  the  church 
at  Jerusalem.  But  the  crimes  to  which  the  crusaders  aban- 
doned themselves  testify  of  the  immense  injury  that  grew  out 
of  the  confidence  in  the  power  of  absolution. 

Absolution  received  a  theoretical  support  fix»m  the  theo- 
logians of  the  thirteenth  century.  They  were  directed  thereto 
by  that  idea  of  Christian  fellowship, — though  conceived  after 
a  false  and  external  manner, — which  generally  exercised  so 
vast  a  power  over  the  religious  life  of  these  times, — the  sense 
of  that  fellowship  of  divine  life  by  which  everything  was 
upborne  that  proceeded  from  the  Christian  spirit, — the  con- 
Wction  that  each  one,  through  the  fellowship  of  the  same 
spirit, — which  works  everything  in  all  its  organs, — shared  in 
all  the  benefits  accruing  from  that  spirit, — the  invisible  bond 
that  knit  together  all  Christians,  however  separated  by  time 
and  space.  Hence  the  notion  of  a  treasury  of  merits,  be- 
longing to  the  whole  church.  In  addition  to  this  came  now 
that  representation,  which  in  earlier  periods  we  saw  already 
existing  in  the  bud,  and  which  had  its  ground  in  a  false 
apprehension  of  tlie  idea  of  the  law, — the  representation, 
namely,  that  the  saints  possessed  a  superlegal  perfection,* — 
had  performed  more  than  justice  required  in  satisfaction  for 
their  own  sins ;  where,  to  be  sure,  the  treasure  of  Christ's 
merits  was  assumed  as  the  foundation  of  the  whole,  without 
which   it  was  vain  to   talk  of  himian   merit.|     Christ  was 

*  Thus  Thomas  of  Aquino  says  (Supplement,  tertia;  partis  summas 
theol.  Qu.  xiii.  Art  i.) :  Est  quaedam  mensura  homini  adhibita,  quae  ab 
eo  requiritur,  scilicet  impletio  mandatoram  Dei,  et  superea  potest  aliqoid 
erogare,  ut  satisfaciat. 

■|-  IJobert  PuUein  still  speaks  only  of  a  treasure  of  the  merits  of  Christ : 
cujus  merita  pnEcedentium  patrum  insnfficientiam  supplerent,  ut  merita 
antiquorum  per  Christum  accepta  Deo  digna  fiant  munerari  coelo. 


486  DOCTRINE  OF  INDULGENCES. 

pointed  to  as  the  primal  source  of  all  sanctification.*  Thus 
arose  the  doctrine  of  a  thesaurus  meritorum  supererogationiSf 
from  which  the  church,  and  especially  its  visible  head,  could, 
for  reasonable  causes, — as,  for  example,  for  the  advancement 
of  a  holy  work  of  general  importance, — appropriate  to  indi- 
viduals whatever  might  be  requisite,  as  a  satisfaction  for  their 
own  sins.  It  was  at  the  same  time  held  fast,  we  allow,  that 
the  indulgence  so  bestowed  was  not  forgiveness  of  sin,  but 
only  a  remission  of  the  church- penance,  which  would  other- 
wise have  to  be  fulfilled  by  each.  Yet,  as  this  was  to  take  the 
place  of  the  punishment  which  must  otherwise  be  suffered  in 
purgatory,  it  followed  that  the  effects  of  this  indulgence  might 
bear  indirectly  even  upon  the  forgiveness  of  sin.|  Beyond 
question,  it  was  still  presupposed  that  they  who  received  the 
indulgence  were  in  a  state  of  true  penitence,  and  by  faith 
and  love  united  to  the  saints,  whose  merits  were  placed  over  to 
their  account.  Had  the  doctrine  of  indulgence  always  been 
taught  and  received  with  these  limitations,  it  might  not  have 
been  so  injurious  to  morality  as  it  in  fact  proved  to  be ;  but 
the  unspiritual  men,  who  were  determined  to  gain  the  utmost 
which  they  possibly  could  from  an  indulgence  granted  for  the 
building  of  a  church,  for  the  visitation  of  the  same,  etc., 
sought  only  to  fix  a  high  value  on  their  spiritual  merchandise, 
and  were  extremely  careful  how  they  added  anything  in  the 
M'ay  of  limitation.  William  of  Auxerre,J  a  scholastic  theolo- 
gian of  the  thirteenth  century,  after  having  laid  down  six 
propositions  necessary  for  the  understanding  of  the  doctrine  of 
indulgence,  very  naively  observes :  "  If  we  should  state  all 
these  explanations  in  preaching  the  doctrine  of  indulgences, 


*  Thus  pope  Innocent  the  Third,  in  his  exposition  of  the  second  peni- 
tential psalm,  says :  Satis  enim  apparet,  quis  orat,  quoniam  omnis  sanctus, 
videlicet  servus  sanctificatus,  et  ad  quern  orat,  quoniam  ad  te,  videlicet 
Doniinum  sanctificantem,  et  quare  orat,  quia  pro  hac,  id  est,  pro  impie- 
tatis  remissione,  qua;  sanctificationis  est  causa,  f.  241. 

t  There  were  those  who  considered  absolution  as  referring  simply  to 
the  penalties  incurred  at  the  tribunal  of  the  church ;  but  Thomas  Aquinas 
combats  this  opinion,  as,  in  fact,  he  was  obliged  to  do  by  the  connection 
of  ideas  in  the  church  doctrine ;  for  the  remissio,  quae  fit  quantum  ad 
forum  ecclesia),  valet  etiara  quantum  ad  forum  Dei  et  prscterea  ecclesiaj 
hujusmodi  indulgentias  faciens  magis  damnificaret  quam  adjuvaret,  quia 
remitteret  ad  graviores  poenas  scilicet  purgatorii, 

X  Gulielmus  Antissiodorensis. 


DOCTRINE  OF  INDULGENCES.  487 

the  latter  would  not  find  so  many  purchasers ;  just  as  the  laity, 
if  they  should  understand  that  one  good  work  is  worth  as  much 
as  a  hundred  others,  performed  with  only  the  same  amount  of 
love,  would  not  be  inclined  to  do  so  many  good  works.*  Still, 
however,  the  church  does  not  deceive  the  faithful ;  for  she 
teaches  nothing  false,  but  only  conceals  certain  truths.""}" 
Also,  Thomas  Aquinas  cites  the  opinion  of  some,  who  believed 
that  the  benefit  of  indulgences  M'as,  in  the  case  of  each  indi- 
vidual, according  to  the  measure  of  his  faith  and  piety  ;  J — yet 
this  dependence  of  indulgences  on  the  personal  character  of  the 
subject  was  not  expressed  in  the  preaching  of  them  ;  for  the 
church  incited  men  to  good  works  by  means  of  a  pious  fraud, 
like  the  mother  who  holds  out  an  apple  to  her  child  to  induce 
it  to  walk.  Yet  he  himself  repelled  such  a  doctrine  with 
abhorrence,  declaring  it  to  be  fraught  with  danger,  since 
thereby  all  confidence  in  the  affirmations  of  the  church  would 
necessarily  be  weakened. 

The  enormous  abuses  which  came  to  be  connected  with  the 
matter  of  indulgences  called  forth  against  it  many  important 
voices  in  the  church  ;  some  attacking  nothing  but  that  which 
was  not  grounded  in  the  church  doctrine,  but  was  solely  to  be 
attributed  to  the  corruption  of  the  clergy  ;  and  some  making 
war  against  the  whole  system  of  indulgences,  Abelard  com- 
plains of  the  priests  that  betrayed  the  souls  committed  to  their 
spiritual  oversight,  not  so  much  through  ignorance  as  cupi- 
dity, the  love  of  money  availing  more  with  them  than  the 
will  of  their  Master,§  Even  the  bishops  were  fiercely  attacked 
by  him.  He  reproached  them  on  account  of  the  lavish  man- 
ner in  which  they  dispensed  indulgences  at  the  dedication  of 

*  His  words :  Qnia  si  detenninarentnr,  non  essent  fideles  ita  proni  ad 
dandtim,  sicut  si  praedicaretur  laicis,  quod  quantum  valet  unum  opus 
meritorium  ad  vitaui  aeternam,  tantum  et  mille  facta  ex  tanta  caritate, 
non  essent  ita  proni  ad  faciendum  bona  opera. 

t  Ecclesia  decipit  fideles,  tamen  non  mentitnr.  See  the  summa  in  iv. 
libb.  sententiar,  1.  iv,  of  the  chapter,  de  relaxationibus,  quae  fiunt  per 
claves. 

X  Quod  indulgentiae  non  tantum  valent,  quantum  praedicantur,  sed 
unicuique  tantum  valent,  quantum  fides  et  devotio  sua  exigit. 

§  Ut  pro  nummorum  oblatione  satisfactionis  injunctae  pcenas  condonent 
vel  relaxent,  non  tarn  attendentes,  quid  velit  Dominus,  qnam  quid  valeat 
nummus. 


488  STEPHEN  OF  OBAIZE  AGAINST  INDULGENCES. 

churches  and  altars,  at  the  consecration  of  burial-places,  and 
on  other  occasions  of  popular  festivity  ;  under  the  show,  in- 
deed, of  love,  but  really  impelled  by  the  grossest  cupidity.* 
True  love  for  their  flocks,  he  suspected,  would  be  shown  by 
their  bestowing  these  indulgences  for  nothing.  If  it  lay 
within  their  power  to  open  and  shut  heaven,  they  ought  not 
to  suffer  an  individual  of  their  flocks  to  perish.  But  they 
might  well  be  congratulated  if  they  were  able  to  open  heaven 
even  for  themselves  ;•{■  he  declared  it  impossible  that  the 
arbitrary  will  of  bishops  should  bring  anything  to  pass  against 
the  justice  of  the  divine  tribunal,  or  that  any  unjust  sentence 
should  be  confirmed  by  the  Almighty.  With  Origen,  whose 
words  he  cites,  he  maintained  that  the  power  conferred  on  the 
apostles  to  bind  and  to  loose  had  not  been  communicated  to 
the  bishops  as  the  apostles'  successors  in  office,  but  only  to 
those  among  them  who  were  the  apostles'  successors  in  temper 
of  mind;  just  as  the  words,  "  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth," 
applied  only  to  such. J 

When  a  bountiful  indulgence  was  offered  to  the  abbot 
Stephen  of  Obaize,  to  assist  in  the  erection  of  a  church  which 
he  had  much  at  heart,  he  declined  accepting  it,  saying,  "  We 
have  no  wish  to  introduce  a  custom  whereby  we  should  pre- 
pare a  scandal  for  the  communities,  and  shame  for  ourselves, 
in  assuming  to  give  an  indulgence  which  God  alone  can 
bestow."§  And  when,  in  despite  of  this,  he  once  allowed 
himself  to  be  persuaded  to  receive  a  letter  of  indulgence  in 
behalf  of  certain  persons  about  to  form  a  fraternity  for  the 
purpose  of  erecting  a  new  church,  and  he  was  asked,  while 
the  letter  was  being  drawn  up,  how  far  he  would  have  the 
indulgence  extend,  his  ancient  scruples  were  revived,  and  he 

*  Sub  quadam  scilicet  specie  caritatls,  sed  in  veritate  summa;  cupidi- 
tatis. 

t  Quod  quidem  si  uon  possunt,  vel  nesciunt,  certe  illud  poeticum,  in 
quantum  arbitror,  incurrunt : — 

Nee  prosunt  domino,  quae  prosunt  omnibus,  artes 

I  See  Abelard's  Ethics,  c.  xxvi.     Pez.  L.  c.  f.  682. 

§  Nos  taleni  consuetudiuem  introducere  nolumus,  et  populis  scaudalum 
et  nobis  ignorainiam  acquiramus  circumeundo  ecclesias,  ostendendo  beue- 
ficia,  iudulgentias  largiendo,  quas  dare  non  poterit  nisi  solus  Deus. 


BERTUOLD  AGAIXST  IKUULGEXCES.  489 

said  :  "  Our  own  sins  still  weigh  heavy  on  us,  and  we  cannot 
make  light  of  those  of  others."* 

Tlie  Franciscan  Berthold  constantly  declaims  with  the 
greatest  vehemence  against  the  preachers  of  indulgences,  whom 
he  was  accustomed  to  call  penny-preachers,  and  whom  he 
describes  as  the  deadliest  traitors  to  souls,  the  murderers  of 
true  penitence :  "  These  penny-preachers,  who  discourse  so 
finely  before  the  people  concerning  God,  in  order  that  they 
may  strip  them  of  their  money ;  so  they  leave  off  confession, 
and  comfort  themselves  with  their  indulgences.  Because  such 
an  one  (such  a  preacher  of  indulgences)  can  discourse  so  very 
eloquently  about  God,  they  fancy  he  is  a  saint.  He  is  as  really 
the  devil's  as  he  stands  there  and  cheats  Christendom.  He  is 
as  much  the  de^  il's  as  any  robber  in  the  forest.  And  had  I  to 
choose,  I  would  rather,  an'  there  were  no  help  for  it,  my  soul 
should  pass  out  of  the  mouth  of  a  robber  than  out  of  the 
mouth  of  a  penny-preacher  ;  for  the  former  ruins  but  his  ovru 
soul,  while  the  penny-preacher  ruins  many  thousands  besides. 
For  all  who  are  lost  by  means  of  his  false  indulgences  are 
cast  to  the  bottom  of  hell,  while  he  must  suffer  all  their  tor- 
ments as  his  own.  As  Judas  sold  his  Lord,  so  thou  sellest 
away  from  him  many  thousand  souk,  beyond  all  hope  of 
retrieve."  |  '•  Fie  !  on  thee,  penny-preacher,  miuxierer  of  the 
whole  world  !  How  many  souls  dost  thou,  for  the  sake  of  thy 
false  gain,  seduce  from  true  repentance,  and  cast  to  the  bottom 
of  hell,  beyond  all  reach  of  help  ?  Thou  promisest  a  large 
indulgence  for  a  pemiy  or  a  farthing  ;  so  that  many  thousands 
foolishly  imagine  they  have  expiated  all  their  sins  witli  their 
penny,  or  their  farthing,  as  thou  snufflest  out  to  them.  So 
they  leave  off  confessing  themselves ;  and  thus  go  on  to 
perdition,  vrith  none  to  tell  them  better.  And  for  this  thou 
shalt  be  cast  to  the  bottom  of  hell,  and  all  these  shall  be 
cast  upon  thee,  thou  who  hast  seduced  and  sold  them  away 
from  Almighty  God !  Yes,  souls !  for  a  penny,  or  a  far- 
tliing !  Thou  murderer  of  true  penitence,  thou  hast  de- 
stroyed for  us  true  penitence.  This  the  penny-preachers 
have  so  utterly  destroyed  for  us,  that  there  is  now  scarcely  an 

*  Nos  nostra  adhac  premunt  peccata  nee  possomus  levare  aliens. 
Lib.  II.  c.  xviii. 
t  In  the  edition  cited  above,  on  page  207. 


490  PAPAL  REMISSIONS. 

individual  who  is  willing  to  confess  his  sins."  *  He  describes 
these  preachers  as  being  the  vilest  of  hypocrites,  who  pre- 
tended to  great  piety,  and  understood  how  to  set  forth  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  and  of  the  martyrs  in  a  touching  manner, 
so  as  to  induce  the  common  people  to  purchase  their  indul- 
gences :  "  He  dwells  so  much,  and  in  so  many  ways,  on  our 
Lord's  sufferings,  that  they  imagine  he  is  a  true  messenger  of 
God  ;  then  he  weeps,  and  practises  all  sorts  of  tricks,  that  he 
may  get  their  pennies,  and  their  souls  to  boot.  Oftentimes 
the  Netherlander  affects  the  speech  of  the  Highlander ;  •\ 
for  example,  the  dissembler  and  penny-preacher,  who  dis- 
courses so  much  about  God  and  his  mother,  and  his  saints  and 
their  sufferings, — and  weeps  into  the  bargain, — so  that  one 
might  swear  he  was  a  true  Highlander.  By  his  dress,  also, 
such  a  person  may  deceive,  but  not  for  any  long  time  by  his 
manners."  J  The  popes  thought  it  necessary  to  enact  several 
laws  against  the  too  wide  extension  of  indulgences  ;  and  these 
laws  bear  testimony  also  to  the  great  mischief  occasioned  by 
them :  "  Whereas,  through  the  indefinite  and  superfluous 
indulgences  which  many  prelates  boldly  take  it  upon  them 
so  ordain,  the  keys  of  the  church  fall  into  contempt,  and 
penance  loses  its  virtue ;  therefore,  be  it  decreed  that,  at 
the  consecration  of  a  church,  whether  performed  by  one 
bishop  or  by  several,  indulgence  shall  not  be  extended  to 
any  term  beyond  a  year,"  etc.  The  pope  —  who,  though 
possessed  of  plenary  power,  was  still  used  to  set  these  limits 
to  himself — was  held  out  to  them  as  a  pattern. §  At  a 
council  held  at  Beziers  in  South  France,  ||  which  especially  set 
itself  to  oppose  the  sects  that  were  now  spreading  with  such 
mighty  power  in  those  districts,  a  canon  was  also  drawn  up 
against  abuses  in  the  granting  of  indulgences, — a  step  un- 
doubtedly connected  with  the  same  object ;  since  the  mischiefs 
occasioned  by  the  preachers  of  indulgences  assuredly  supplied 
those  sects  with  a  great  abundance  of  reasons  for  attacking  the 
dominant  church.  It  was  decreed  that  "none  but  suitable 
persons,  furnished  with  testimonies  from  their  superiors,  should 

*  Page  402. 

t  Highland,  symbol  of  heaven ;  Lowland,  of  hell. 

X  See  page  438.  §  Concil.  Lat.  iv.  1215,  c.  Ixii. 

II  Concilium  Biterrense. 


ORAL  COXFESSIOJf.  491 

be  tolerated  as  preachers  of  indulgences ;  since  it  was  certain 
tliat  hireling  preachers  of  indulgences,  and  those  who  used  them 
as  hirelings,  had,  no  less  by  their  wicked  lives  than  by  their 
erroneous  preaching,  caused  great  scandal  by  promising,  for  a 
small  sum  of  monev,  to  procure  deliverance  for  the  condemned 
in  hell."* 

Finally,  an  ordinance  was  passed  by  Pope  Innocent  the 
Third,  which  was  expressly  designed  to  coimteract  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  discipline  of  penance.  Confession  of  sins  to  the 
priest  had,  indeed,  until  now,  been  reconmiended,  and  consi- 
dered as  belonging  to  the  self-humiliation  of  the  delinquent ; 
but  it  was  only  in  case  of  mortal  sins,  involving  the  exclusion 
of  the  subject  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  that  such  confession 
was  held  to  be  indispensably  necessary  ;  since,  in  this  case,  the 
three  parts  of  penance  distinguished  by  Peter  of  Lombardy 
must  all  come  together.  That  which  had  hitherto  been  left 
an  optional  matter  was  by  Innocent  the  Third  prescribed  as 
settled  law.  He  directed,  in  the  twenty-first  canon  of  the 
fourth  Lateran  council,  in  1215,  that  each  individual  of  the 
male  and  female  sex  should,  after  having  arrived  at  the  years 
of  discretion,  truly  and  faithfully  confess,  for  himself  alone,  all 
his  sins,  at  least  once  a  year,  to  his  own  priest,  and  strive  to 
perform  according  to  his  ability  the  penance  imposed  upon 
him ;  and  at  least  once  a  year,  on  the  Easter  festival,  partake 
of  the  holy  eucharist ;  imless,  after  hearing  the  advice  of  his 
own  priest,  he  thought  himself,  for  good  reasons,  bound  to 
abstain  from  it  for  a  season.  But  if,  for  good  and  valid 
I'easons,  any  one  should  choose  to  confess  his  sins  to  a  foreign 
priest,  he  must  first  ask  and  obtain  permission  so  to  do  from 
his  own  priest ;  otherwise  the  foreign  priest  could  not  exercise 
the  power  to  bind  and  to  loose.  It  was  especially  enjoined  on 
the  priest  to  exercise  prudence  and  wisdom  in  the  care  of  souls. 
He  was  directed  to  inform  himself  exactly  with  regard  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  sinner  and  of  his  sin,  in  order  that  from 
these  data  he  might  be  able  skilfully  to  determine  what  counsel 
to  give,  and  what  remedies  to  apply.  The  strictest  confidence 
•with  regard  to  the  matters  confessed  was  enjoined  on  the  priest, 
with  severe  penalties  in  case  of  transgression.     By  means  of 

•  V.  Harduin.  ConciL  T.  VIII.  t  409. 


492  ORAL  CONFESSION. 

this  introduction  of  oral  confession  into  the  laws  of  the  church, 
it  was  intended  to  put  a  check  on  the  loose  administration  of 
tlie  penitential  system  generally ;  to  compel  the  priest  to  a 
more  strict  moral  oversight  over  his  community,  and  to  pre- 
vent tlie  laity  from  withdrawing  themselves  from  it.  A  stricter 
discharge  of  the  pastoral  duties  was  thus  secured,  and  the  tie 
more  closely  knit  betwixt  the  priest  and  his  people.  Such  a 
regulation  corresponded  with  the  spirit  of  the  church,  which 
would  preserve  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  laity  in  a 
state  of  entire  dependence  on  the  priest. 


i-ND    OP    VOL.   VII. 


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I.  HERODOTU 

Cam,  MJl 

2  &  3.  THUCYC 

4.  PLATO  S  WO 

crates,  Crit( 

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6.  PLATOS  WC 

Cr:tias,  will 

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Kiaminatio 

II.  UlVrS  HiST 

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Wilh  Note* 

U.  EURIPIDES. 

15.  HORACE.     I 

WiOi  >"otea 

16.  ARISTOTLE 

fessor  of  K. 

17.  CICEROS  C 

duxes,  kc 

18.  PLATOS  W 

containiug  t 
Cratjius,  ai 

19.  LIVY^  HIST 

20.  OtSAR.    CC 

Spanish  V\"a ' 

21.  HOMERS  IL 

2«.  HOMERS  O 
«nd  Mice,  ii 


1  to  8.  LODGE  S 

Biitaio,  8  y 

9.  CRUIXSHANI 

ttitk  iU  Hit 

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11.  KITTOS  SO 

or  Coloured 

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13.  RICHARDSC 

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