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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Shelf.. 


BR  162  .M64  1883   v 
Milman,  Henry  Hart, 

1868. 
History  of  Latin 

Christianity 


7 
1791 


HISTORY 


OP 


LATIN    CHRISTIANITY; 


INCLUDING   THAT  OF 


THE  POPES  TO  THE  PONIIFICATE  OF  NICOLAS  V. 


By  henry   HAET   MILMAN,   D.D., 

DEAN  OF  ST.  PAULS, 


m  NI.YE    VOLUMES.— Vol.  VIL 


FOURTH  EDITION, 


LONDON: 
JOHN   MUKRAY,   ALBEMARLE    STREET. 

1883. 


LONDON : 
PKZNTED  BY  WILLIAM  CLOWES  ANI>  SONS,   UMITEft 

«TAUSiu£D  ST£££T  AND  0HABIN6  CBOuS. 


CONTENTS 


OP 


THE    SEVENTH    VOLUME. 


BOOK  XL— continued. 

CHAPTER   VII. 

Boniface  VIIT. 

A.D.  PAGB 

1294  Election  of  Boniface 7 

1295  Boniface  at  Rome — Inauguration      8 

Persecution  of  Ccelestine 9 

Death  and  Canonization 11 

Early  Career  of  Boniface 12 

l295-1302  Affairs  of  Sicily  and  Naples       16 

1297  TheColonnas       24 

Boniface  and  Italy       32 

1292     Adolph  of  Nassau  Emperor        33 

1298  Death  of  Adolph— Albert  of  Austria        ..      ..  37 


CHAPTEE    VIII. 

Boniface  YIII.  —  England  axd  Fbance. 

England — Development  of  Constitution       ..      ..  39 

France — The  Lawyers 41 

Edward  I.  and  the  Clergy       45 

1294    Quarrel  between  France  and  England 46 

Pope  commands  a  Truce         49 

Taxation  of  Clergy  in  England      50 

Statute  of  Mortmain       51 

France — Philip  taxes  the  Clergy 59 

a  2 


IV  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 

A.D.  PAGE 

1296  The  Bull  "ClericisLaicos" CO 

England — Parliament  at  Bury       61 

C  :uncil  in  St.  Paul's       ..      .. ib. 

Confirmation  of  the  Charters         64 

Philip's  Edict 66 

The  Bull— Ineffabilis      68 

The  King's  reply 71 

1297  Pope's  Prudence      74 

1298  Arbitration  of  Boniface— Peace      78 

1299  Scotland — Interference  of  Boniface        79 

1300  Jubilee 83 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Boniface  VIII.  —  His  Fall. 

Boniface  %t  the  height  of  his  power      87 

Dangers — The  Franciscans 88 

The  Fraticelli 91 

Charles  of  Valois 93 

1301     England — Parliament  of  Lincoln 94 

Claims  of  England  and  Scotland 96 

Quarrel  of  Boniface  and  Philip  of  France     ..      ..  99 

Philip's  Alliance  with  the  Empire        103 

Eumours  about  Boniface        104 

1301  Bishop  of  Pamiers -      ..  105 

Court-plenary  at  Senlis  .. 107 

Peter  Flotte 109 

The  Lesser  Bull ..      ..  112 

Bull,  Ausculta  fill 115 

1302  Bull  burned 117 

States  General — Addresses  to  the  Pope        ..      ..  ib. 

Consistory  at  Rome         123 

Bull,  Unam  Sanctam      325 

Battle  of  Courtrai 126 

Philip  condemns  the  Inquisition 127 

Meeting  at  the  Louvre — Twelve  Articles      ..      ..  131 

The  King's  answer 132 

1303  Parliament  at  the  Louvre       134 

William  of  Nogaret        135 

Papal  despatches  sei;5ed 138 


CONTEXTS  OF  VOL.  YIl.  V 

AJ)  PAGB 

Second  Parliament — Charges  against  Boniface     ..  139 

The  King's  Appeal 143 

General  adhesion  of  the  kingdom 145 

Boniface  at  Anagni ih. 

Excommunication 147 

Attack  on  the  Pope        149 

Rescue  of  the  Pope 152 

Death  of  Boniface 154 


CHAPTER  X. 
Benedict  XI. 

Election  of  Benedict  XI 157 

Measures  of  Benedict      159 

Bull  of  Benedict      163 

Death  of  Benedict 165 


BOOK  XII. 

THE  POPES  IX  AVIGNON. 

CHAPTER   I. 

Clement  V. 

1304-5     Conclave 170 

1305     Bernard  de  Goth      ..      ..      , 171 

Election — Coronation  of  Clement  V 173 

His  first  acts 174 

William  of  Nogaret         175 

1307     Meeting  at  Poitiers 178 

The  Templars 181 

Du  Molay  at  Poitiers      192 

Accusations  against  the  Order       194 

Arrest  of  the  Templars 195 

Specific  charges        198 


?1 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 


A-D 


PAGE 

Tortures 200 

Interrogations — Confessions 201 

The  Pope 206 

Templars  in  England      209 

1308     Death  of  the   Emperor  —  Henry  of  Luxemburg 

Emperor       210 

Parliament  of  Tours        212 


CHAPTEK   IL 

1309  Process  of  the  Templars         220 

Commission  oiDened  at  Paris 221 

Du  Molay        224 

1310  Others  brought  to  Paris 228 

Defenders — Proctors  chosen 232 

Witnesses         237 

Confessions       239 

Archbishop  of  Sens 240 

Burning  of  the  relapsed  . . 243 

Templars  in  England      252 

Hearings  in  London         254 

Templars  in  Scotland  and  Ireland 264 

in  Italy 265 

in  Spain 267 

Difiiculty  of  the  question       269 

Historians        *  274 

Abolition  of  the  Order 276 


CHAPTEK  IIL 

Arbaignment  of  Boniface  —  Council  of  Vienne. 

1310  Persecution  of  memory  of  Pope  Boniface       ..       ..  279 

Pope  Clement  at  Avignon      280 

Consistory — Charges       285 

Witnesses         287 

Summary  of  evidence      294 

Papal  judgment       295 

1311  Council  of  Yienne 298 


A.D. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII.  ni 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Heney  of  Luxemburg.  —  Italy. 


PAGt 


The  Pope gj" 

Afifairs  of  Italy        **      *[  g^-. 

Henry  of  Luxemburg  in  Italy       **  qqq 

1311     Crowned  at  Milan "  -j 

Advance  from  Genoa  to  Eome       313 

Coronation       -7 

Death  of  Henry       '*  014 

Dante  de  Monarchia       ^      **  3^5 


1310 
1311 
1312 

1313 


CHAPTER  V. 

End  of  Du  Molay  — of  Pope  Clement  — of  King  Phiijp. 

Burning  of  Du  Molay     32i 

Death  of  Clement **      "  003 

Death  of  Philip  IV ,[      **      [[      ['  327 

Teutonic  Order        **      "  328 

CHAPTER   VI. 

Pope  John  XXII. 

1313    Conclave  at  Carpentras      334 

1315    Pope  John  XXII **      ''  337 

Fall  of  Royal  House  of  France *  349 

Persecutions  for  Witchcraft        ]]  342 

Spiritual  Franciscans ]'  345 

The  Abbot  Joachim 347 

The  Everlasting  Gospel      349 

John  Peter  Oliva         ..      ..  351 

L281-1301  Wilhelmina .'."      '.'      *.'      **  353 

1280-86  Gerard  Sagarelli  of  Parma  ..      .*.      ..      ['.      **  355 

Dolcino  of  Novara       359 

War      3g4 

1304    Death  of  Margarita  and  of  Dolcino 367 

Pope  John  claims  treasures  of  Clement     ..      ..  369 

Persecutes  the  Spirituals 373 


Vlll  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII. 

AD  -  PAGl 

William  of  Ockham 377 

Controversy  on  Papal  power       378 

1320  Insurrection  of  the  Peasantry 381 

1321  The  Lepers 383 

CHAPTER   YII. 

John  XXII.  —  Lours  of  Bavabta. 

Louis  of  Bavaria  Emperor      385 

1317     Affairs  of  Italy        388 

Excommunication  of  Visconti       391 

1322     Battle  of  Muhldorf 392 

Process  against  Louis  of  Bavaria 393 

Excommunication 395 

German  proclamation     397 

1325    Treaty  of  Louis  and  Frederick       402 

Marsilio  of  Padua 406 

William  of  Ockham        410 

1327    Louis  descends  into  Italy       411 

At  Pisa — Florence — Cecco  d' Ascoli     413 

Coronation       415 

The  Antipope — Nicolas  Y 419 

Louis  abandons  Rome      422 

Defection  of  Italy 425 

Fate  of  the  Antipope      426 

1330    Pope  refuses  all  accommodation 428 

Heresy  of  Pope  John  XXII 429 

1334     Philip  of  Valois,  King  of  France 430 

Eecantation — ^DeathofJohn 433 

CHAPTER   VIIL 

Benedict  XII. 

Election 437 

i335-6     Character — Decides  the  question  of  Beatific  Vi£ion  438 

King  Philip  at  Avignon 440 

1338     Weakness  of  Louis  of  Bavaria       441 

Embassy  to  Avignon      443 

Meeting  of  Louis  and  Edward  of  England    . .      . .  446 

1342    Death  of  Benedict  XII 448 


A.D. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  VII.  IX 

CHAPTEK  IX. 

Clement  VI. 

PAGE 

His  acts — his  court         450 

Clement  and  Louis  of  Bavaria        454 

1344    Degrading  terms  accepted  by  Louis      456 

1346  New  Excommunication 459 

1347  Queen  Joanna  of  Naples         462 

CHAPTER   X. 

ElENZI. 

Eienzi — parentage 468 

1343-4     Rienzi  at  Avignon 469 

Rienzi  in  Rome        471 

1347     Rising  in  Rome        475 

Power  of  Rienzi       482 

Procession  of  Aug.  1       484 

Coronation       485 

Insurrection  of  the  nobles       489 

1348-9     Fall  and  retreat  of  Rienzi       496 

1351  Rienzi  at  Prague 499 

1352  Surrendered  to  the  Pope  in  Avicrnon — Petrarch   ..  506 


VOL.  VII. 


HISTORY 


OP 


LATIN     CHRISTIANITY. 


BOOK  XI. — continued. 
CHAPTER   VIL 

Bonitace  VIII. 

The  Conclave  might  seem  determined  to  retrieve  theii 
former  error  in  placing  the  devout  but  unworldly  Coeles- 
tine  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  by  raising  to  the  Pon- 
tificate a  prelate  of  the  most  opposite  character.  Human 
nature  could  hardly  offer  a  stronger  contrast  than  Bene- 
detto Gaetani  and  Peter  Morrone,  Boniface  VIII.  and 
Coelestine  Y.  Of  all  the  Eoman  Pontiffs,  Boniface  has 
left  the  darkest  name  for  craft,  arrogance,  ambition, 
even  for  avarice  and  cruelty.  Against  the  memory  of 
Boniface  were  joined  in  fatal  conspiracy,  the  passions, 
interests,  undying  hostilities,  the  conscientious  partisan- 
ship, the  not  ungrounded  oppugnancies,  not  of  indi- 
vidual foes  alone,  but  of  houses,  of  factions,  of  orders,  of 
classes,  of  professions,  it  may  be  said  of  kingdoms.  His 
own  acts  laid  the  foundation  of  this  sempiternal  hatred. 
In  his  own  day  his  harsh  treatment  of  Coelestine  and 
the  Coelestinians  (afterwards  mingled  up  or  confounded 
with  the  wide-spread  Fraticelli,  the  extreme  and  demo- 
cratic Franciscans)  laid  up  a  deep  store  of  aversion  in 
the  popular  mind.     So  in  the  higher  orders,  his  terrible 

VOL.  VII.  B 


2  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

determinatiou  to  crush  the  old  and  powerful  family  of 
the  Colonnas,  and  the  stern  hand  with  which  he  re- 
pressed others  of  the  Italian  nobles  :  his  resolute  Guelf- 
ism,  his  invitation  of  Charles  of  Valois  into  Italy,  in- 
volved him  in  the  hatefulness  of  all  Charles's  tyranny 
and  oppression.  This,  with  his  own  exile,  goaded  the 
Guelf-born  Dante  into  a  relentless  Ghibelline,  and 
doomed  Pope  Boniface  to  an  earthly  immortality  of 
shame  and  torment  in  the  Hell  of  the  poet.  The  quarrel 
with  the  King  of  France,  Philip  the  Fair,  brought  him 
during  his  lifetime  into  formidable  collision  with  a  new 
power,  the  strength  of  which  was  yet  unsuspected  in 
Christendom,  that  of  the  lawyers,  his  fatal  foes;  and 
bequeathed  him  in  later  times  throughout  the  writings 
of  the  French  historians,  and  even  divines  (French 
national  pride  triumphing  over  the  zeal  of  the  Church- 
man), as  an  object  of  hostility  during  two  centuries  of 
the  most  profound  Roman  Catholic  learning,  and  most 
perfect  Roman  Catholic  eloquence.  The  revolt  against 
the  Papal  power  at  the  Reformation  seized  with  avidity 
the  memory  of  one,  thus  consigned  in  his  own  day,  in 
life  and  after  death,  to  the  blackest  obloquy,  abandoned 
by  most  of  his  natural  supporters,  and  from  whose  broad 
and  undisguised  assertions  of  Papal  power  later  Popes 
had  shrunk  and  attempted  to  efface  them  from  their 
records.  Thus  Boniface  VIII.  has  not  merely  been 
handed  down,  and  justly,  as  the  Pontiff  of  the  loftiest 
spiritual  pretensions,  pretensions  which,  in  their  lan- 
guage at  least,  might  have  appalled  Hildebrand  or  In- 
nocent HI.,  but  almost  all  contemporary  history  as  well 
as  poetry,  from  the  sublime  verse  of  Dante  to  the  vulgar 
but  vigorous  rhapsodies  of  Jacopone  da  Todi,  are  full  of 
those  striking  and  unforgotten  touches  of  haughtiness 
and  rapacity,  many  of  which  cannot  be  true,  many  n-c 


Chap.  VII.  THE  CONCLAVE.  3 

doubt  invented  by  his  enemies,  many  others  are  sus- 
picious, yet  all  show  the  height  of  detestation  whicl], 
either  by  adherence  to  principles  grown  unpopular,  oi 
by  his  own  arrogance  and  violence,  he  had  raised  in 
great  part  of  Chi'istendom.  Boniface  was  hardly  dead, 
when  the  epitaph,  which  no  time  can  erase,  from  the 
impression  of  which  the  most  candid  mind  strives  witli 
difficulty  to  emancipate  itself,  was  proclaimed  to  the 
unprotesting  Christian  world  :  "  He  came  in  like  a  fox, 
he  ruled  like  a  lion,  he  died  like  a  dog."  Yet  calmer 
justice,  as  well  as  the  a\\ful  reverence  for  all  successors 
of  St.  Peter,  and  the  ardent  corporate  zeal  which  urges 
Koman  Catholic  writers  on  the  forlorn  hope  of  vindi- 
cating every  act  and  every  edict  of  every  Koman 
Pontiff,  have  not  left  Boniface  VIII.  without  defence ; 
some,  indeed,  have  ventured  to  appeal  to  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  posterity.* 

The  abdication  of  Ccelestine  took  place  on  the  feast 
of  St.  Lucia.  The  law  of  Gregory  X.,  which  d^^.  13. 
secluded  the  Conclave  in  unapproachable  sepa-  ^'^"<^''*^«- 
ration  from  the  world,  had  been  re-enacted,  but  was  not 
enforced  to  its  utmost  rigour.  Latino  Malebranca,  the 
Cardinal  who  had  exercised  so  much  influence  in  the 
election  of  Ccelestine  V.,  had  been  some  months  dead. 
The  old  Italian  interest  was  represented  by  the  Car- 
dinals of  the  two  great  houses,  long  opposed  in  their 
fierce  hereditary  hostility,  Guelf  and  Ghibelline,  Matteo 


'  Cardina]  Wiseman  has  embarked 
in  this  desperate  cause  with  consider- 
able learning  and  more  ingenuity.  Hi-s 
article  in  the  "  Dublin  Review,"  now 
reprinted  in  his  Essays,  was  answered 
at  the  time  bj  a  clever  paper  in  th« 
'  British    and     Foreign    Review,"    in    ject. 

B    2 


which  may  be  traced  an  Itahan  hand. 
Since  that  time  have  appeared  Tosti's 
panegyrical,  but  not  very  successful 
biography ;  and  a  fairer,  more  im- 
partial Life  by  Drumann  ;  not,  how- 
ever in  my  opinion  equal  to  the  suU 


i  LATIN  CHRISTIAXITY.  Book  XI. 

Kosso  and  Napoleon  tlie  Orsinis,  and  the  two  Colonnas, 
of  whom  the  elder,  Peter,  was  a  man  of  bold  and  unscru- 
pulous ambition.  But  the  preponderance  of  numbers 
was  with  the  new  Cardinals  appointed  by  Coelestine  at 
the  dictation  of  Charles  of  Naples.  Of  these  thirteen, 
seven  (one  was  dead)  were  Frenchmen :  it  might  seem 
that  the  election  must  absolutely  depend  on  the  will 
of  Charles.  Benedetto  Gaetani  stood  alone ;  he  was 
recommended  by  his  consummate  ability  ;  but  on  that 
account,  too,  he  was  feared,  perhaps  suspected,  by  all 
who  wished  to  rule,  and  few  were  there  in  the  Con- 
clave without  that  wish.  The  strong  reaction  might 
dispose  the  Cardinals  to  elect  a  Pope  of  the  loftiest 
spiritual  views,  who  might  be  expected  to  rescue  the 
Popedom  from  its  present  state  of  impotency  and 
contempt:  but  that  reaction  would  hardly  counter- 
poise the  rival  ambition  of  the  Orsinis  and  Colonnas, 
and  the  sworn  subserviency  of  so  many  to  the  King  of 
Naples. 

The  Cardinal  Benedetto  Gaetani  was  of  a  noble  family 
Benedetto  ^^  Auagni,  wliicli  city  from  its  patriciate  had 
Gaetani.  already  given  two  of  its  greatest  Popes  to  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter.  He  was  of  blameless  morals,  and 
unrivalled  in  his  knowledge  of  the  Canon  law,  equally 
unrivalled  in  experience  and  the  despatch  of  business. 
He  had  been  in  almost  every  kingdom  of  Western 
Christendom,  England,  France,  Portugal,  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Pope  ;  was  personally  known  to  most 
of  the  monarchs,  and  acquainted  with  the  politics  and 
churches  of  most  of  the  realms  in  Europe.  It  had  been 
at  first  supposed  that  Benedetto  Gaetani,  who  had  in- 
sulted King  Charles  at  Perugia,  and  had  haughtily 
rebuked  him  for  his  interference  with  the  Conclave, 
would  not  venture  to  Naples.     He  had  come  the  last, 


Chap.  VII. 


BENEDETTO  GAETANI. 


and  with  reluctance :  ^  but  his  knowledge  of  affairs,  and 
the  superiority  of  his  abilities,  soon  made  him  master  in 
the  deliberations  of  the  Conclave.  The  abdication  of 
Coelestine  had  been,  if  not  at  his  suggestion,  urged  on 
the  irresolute  and  vacillating  Pope  by  his  command- 
ing mind ;  even  if  the  vulgar  artifices  of  frightening 
him  into  the  determination  were  unnecessary,  and  be- 
neath the  severe  character  of  Gaetani.  The  Conclave 
Bat,  in  the  Castel  Nuovo  at  Naples,  for  ten  days  ;  at  the 
close,  Benedetto  Gaetani,  as  it  seemed,  by  unanimous 
consent,  was  declared  Pope.  The  secrets  of  the  inter- 
mediate proceedings  might  undoubtedly  transpire  ;  the 
hostility,  which  almost  immediately  broke  out  among 
all  parties,  would  not  scruple  to  reveal  the  darkest  in- 
trigues ;  those  intrigues  would  even  take  the  most 
naked  and  distinct  form.  Private  mutual  understand- 
ings would  become  direct  covenants ;  promises  made 
with  reserve  and  caution,  undisguised  declarations.  The 
vulgar  rumours,  therefore,  would  contain  the  truth,  but 
more  than  the  truth.  It  was  no  sudden  acclamation, 
no  deference  at  once  to  the  superiority  of  Gaetani.  The 
long  delay  shows  a  balance  and  strife  of  parties;  the 
conqueror  betrays  by  his  success  that  he  conducted  most 
subtly,  or  adroitly,  the  game  of  conquest.  Gaetani,  it 
is  said,  not  only  availed  himself  of  the  irreconcileable 
hostility  between  the  Orsinis  and  Colonnas,  but  played 
each  against  the  other  with  exquisite  dexterity.  Each 
at  length  consented  to  leave  the  nomination  to  him, 
each  expecting  to  be  named.  Gaetani  named  himself; 
the  Orsini,  Matteo  Eosso,  submitted ;  the  Colonnas  be- 


*»  See  quotation  above  from  Ptolem. 
Luc.  "  Venit  igitur  ultimus,  et  sic 
scivit  deducere  sua  negotia,  quod  factus 


quasi  Dominus  Curiae. 
Ptolemy  was  present  du" '■ 
these  proceedings. 


-c.  xxii, 
ins:  mo.st  erf 


6  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

trayed  their  indignation ;  and  this,  if  not  the  first,  was 
the  deepest  cause  of  the  mutual  unforgiving  hatred.* 
From  that  time  (it  may  however  be  remembered  that 
the  Colonnas  were  Ghibelline)  was  implacable  feud 
between  the  Pope  and  that  house.  But  the  Italian 
interest,  represented  by  the  Orsinis  and  Colonnas,  no 
longer  ruled  the  Conclave.  Charles  of  Naples  must  be 
propitiated,  for  he  held  perhaps  twelve  suffrages.  Gae- 
tani  suggested,  it  was  said,  at  a  midnight  interview 
with  Charles,  that  a  weak  Pontiff  could  not  befriend 
the  King  with  half  the  power  which  might  be  wielded 
bv  a  strong  one.  "  King  Charles,  your  Pope  Coelestine 
liad  the  will  and  the  power  to  aid  you,  but  knew  not 
how  ;  influence  the  Cardinals,  your  friends,  in  my  fa- 
vour, I  shall  have  not  only  the  will  and  the  power,  but 
the  knowledge  also  to  serve  you."*^  Charles's  obse- 
quious Cardinals  gave  their  vote  for  Gaetani,  it  may 
be  presumed  with  the  consent  or  cognisance  at  least 
of  Charles.  Nor  in  justice  can  it  be  denied  that  if  he 
pledged  himself  to  use  every  effort  for  the  reconquest 
of  Sicily,  he  did  more  than  adhere  with  unshaken 
fidelity  to  his  engagements,  even  when  it  had  been 
perhaps  the  better  Papal  policy  to  have  abandoned 
the  cause.  It  was  unquestionably  through  the  Pope's 
consummate  ability,  rather  than  by  favouring  circum- 
stances or  the  popularity  of  his  character,  that  Charles 
afterwards   maintained   the  contest  for  that  kingdom. 


•=  Ferretus  Vicentinus  apud  Mura- 
tori,  S.  R.  T.  t.  ix.  Ferretus,  though 
a  c»ntemporary,  is  by  no  means  an 
accurate  v/riter :  he  has  made  some 
singular  mistakes,  and  he  wrote  at 
Vicenza.  Before  it  reached  him,  any 
privarte  and  doubtful  negotiation,  which 


would  become   positive   and  determi- 
nate. 

*  "  Re  Carlo,  il  tuo  Papa  Celestino 
t'  ha  voluto  e  potuto  servire,  ma  non 
ha  saputo :  onde  se  tu  adoperi  co'  tuoi 
amici  Cardinal!  ch6  io  sia  eletto  Papa, 
io   sapr5  e  verro  e  potro." — Villani, 


hardly  question    took    place,    viii.  6. 


Chap.  VII. 


ELECTION  OF  BONIFACE  VIII. 


Guelfism,  too,  brought  Charles  and  Benedetto  Gaetani 
into  one  common  interest. 

Benedetto  Gaetani  was  chosen  Pope  with  all  apparent 
unanimity  on  the  23rd  of  December ;  no  doubt  it  was 
truly  said,  not  to  his  own  dissatisfaction.^  He  took  the 
name  of  Boniface  ;  it  was  reported  that  he  intimated  by 
that  name  that  he  was  to  be  known  by  deeds  rather 
than  by  words.  The  abdication,  the  negotiation  with 
the  conflicting  Cardinals,  with  Charles  of  Naples,  was 
the  work  of  ten  days,  implying  by  its  duration  strife  and 
resistance  ;  by  its  rapidity,  despatch,  and  boldness  in  re- 
conciling strife  and  surmounting  difficulty. 

But  no  sooner  was  Gaetani  Pope  than  he  yearned  for 
the  independence,  the  sole  supremacy,  of  Eome  or  the 
Eoman  dominions ;  he  would  not  be  a  Pope,  the  instru- 
ment of,  and  in  tlirall  to,  a  King  at  Naples.  The  most 
pressing  invitations,  the  most  urgent  remonstrances., 
would  not  induce  him  to  delay ;  he  hurried  on  by  Capua, 
Monte  Casino,  Anagni.  In  his  native  city  he  was  wel- 
comed with  festive  dances;  everywhere  received  with 
humble  deference,  deference  which  he  enforced  by  his 
lofty  demeanour.  At  the  gates  of  Rome  he  was  met  by 
the  militia,  by  the  knighthood,  by  the  clergy  of  Eome, 
chanting  in  triumph,  as  though  the  Pope  had  escaped 
from  prison.  Italy,  Christendom  were  to  know  that  a 
true  Pope  had  ascended  the  throne. 

The  inauguration  of  Boniface  was  the  most  magnifi- 
cent which  Eome  had  ever  beheld.^    In  his  procession 


«  "  Electus  est  ipse  non  invitus,  non 
gemens." — Pepin.  Chron.  apud  Mura- 
tori,  c.  xli.  Dante  suggests  the  fraudu- 
lent means  of  success : — 

"  Sei  tu  si  tosto  de  quel  haver  sazio, 
Per  lo  qual  non  tem(  sti  torre  a  inganno 
La  bella  Donna,  o  di  poi  fame  straziu. " 
Ivfano,  xix.  55. 


'  There  is  a  very  odd  account  of  the 
difference  of  the  voices  of  the  Italian 
and  French  clergy  during  this  cere- 
mony : — 

"  lUe  tonum  Romanus  avet  clarum  dlapente, 
lUe  canit,  ferit  ille  gravem  quartam  dia- 

tesron  : 
Lubricus  in  vocem  nescit  conaisterc  pernu 

lUlDS, 


8  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

to  St.  Peter's  and  back  to  the  Lateran  palace,  where 
Inauguration  ho  was  entertamed,  he  rode  not  a  humble 
jan.T6?i295.  ass,  but  a  noble  white  horse,  richly  capari- 
soned :  he  had  a  crown  on  his  head ;  the  King  of  Naples 
held  the  bridle  on  one  side,  his  son,  the  Eang  of  Hun- 
gary, on  the  other.  The  nobility  of  Kome,  the  Orsinis, 
the  Colonnas,  the  Savellis,  the  Stefaneschi,  the  Anni- 
baldi,  who  had  not  only  welcomed  him  to  Eome,  but 
conferred  on  him  the  Senatorial  dignity,  followed  in  a 
body :  the  procession  could  hardly  force  its  way  through 
the  masses  of  the  kneeling  people.  In  the  midst,  a 
furious  hurricane  burst  over  the  city,  and  extinguished 
every  lamp  and  torch  in  the  church.  A  darker  omen 
followed :  a  riot  broke  out  among  the  populace,  in  which 
forty  lives  were  lost.  The  day  after,  the  Pope  dined  in 
public  in  the  Lateran ;  the  two  Kings  waited  behind  his 
chair.  Before  his  coronation,  Boniface  took  a  sulemn 
oath  of  fidelity  to  St.  Peter  and  to  the  Church,  to  main- 
tain the  great  mysteries  of  the  faith,  the  decrees  of  the 
eight  General  Councils,  the  ritual  and  Order  of  the 
Church,  not  to  alienate  the  possessions  of  the  Church, 
and  to  restore  discipline.  This  oath  was  unusual  (at 
least  in  its  length),  it  was  attested  by  a  notary,  and  laid 
up  in  the  Pontifical  archives.^ 

Immediately  after  the  consecration,  a  Manifesto  pro- 
claimed to  Christendom  the  voluntary  abdication  of 
Coelestine,  on  account  of  his  acknowledged   inexperi- 


Italus,  ipse  notas  refricans,  ceu  nubila 

guttas. 
At  flatu  meli(  t  vox  Gallica  lege  morosum 
PrjiRcinit,  et  guerble*  geminans  retinacula 

puticti 
Instar  habet  dure  percussi  incudibus  asris." 
Cardin.  St.  George. 


K  Pagi  and  others  have  shown  that 
the  profession  of  faith  attached  to  this 
oath  cannot  be  genuine.  Qu.  ?  forged 
when  Boniface  was  afterwards  acci'sed 
of  heresy  ? 


Wirbel,  Germ.;  warble,  Engl. 


Chap.  VII. 


CCELESTINE  PERSECUTED. 


ence,  incapacity,  ignorance  of  secular  affairs,  love  of 
devout  solitude ;  and  the  elevation  of  Boniface,  who  had 
been  compelled  to  accept  the  throne.  But  serious  and 
dangerous  doubts  were  still  entertained,  or  might  be 
made  the  specious  pretext  of  rebellion  against  the  au- 
thority of  the  Pope.  Did  the  omnipotence  of  the  Pope 
extend  to  the  resignation  of  the  office  ?  His  Bull,  em- 
powering himself  to  abdicate,  and  his  abdicatiou,  were 
without  precedent,  and  contrary  to  some  canonical  prin- 
ciples. Already,  if  not  openly  uttered,  might  be  heard 
by  the  quick  and  jealous  ears  of  Boniface  some  murmurs 
even  among  his  Cardinals.  No  one  knew  better  the 
versatility  of  Eome  and  of  her  nobles.  Boniface  was 
not  the  man  to  allow  advantage  to  his  adversaries,  and 
adversaries  he  knew  well  that  he  had,  and  would  have 
more,  and  those  more  formidable,  if  they  should  gain 
possession  of  the  person  of  Coelestine,  and  use  his  name 
for  their  own  anarchical  purposes.^  Coelestine  had  aban- 
doned the  pomp  and  authority,  he  could  not  shake  off 
the  dangers  and  troubles,  the  jealousies  and 
apprehensions  which  belonged  to  his  former 
state.  The  solitude,  in  which  he  hoped  to  live  and  die 
in  peace,  was  closely  watched ;  he  was  agitated  by  no 
groundless  fears,  probably  by  intimations,  that  it  might 
be  necessary  to  invite  him  to  Eome.  Once  he  escaped, 
and  hid  himself  among  some  other  hermits  in  a  wood. 
But  he  could  not  elude  the  emissaries  of  Boniface.  He 
received  a  more  alarming  warning  of  his  danger,  and 


•»  Angelario,  the  Coelestinian  Abbot 
of  Monte  Casino,  was  imprisoned  in 
the  terrible  dungeon  of  the  Lake  of 
Bolsena,  where  the  clergy  were  sent 
to  expiate  the  worst  crimes  ;  he  sur- 
vived but  few  days,  eating  the  bread 
01  tribulation,  drinking  the  water  of 


bitterness.  According  to  Benedetto  da 
Imola,  his  crime  was  having  favoured 
the  escape  of  Ccelestine.  Tosti  sug- 
gests as  more  probable,  that  with  his 
brother  Ccelestinians  he  had  dissuaded 
Coelestine  from  the  gran  rifiuto. — Tosti, 
Monte  Casino,  iii.  n.  41. 


TO  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

fled  to  the  sea-coast,  in  order  to  take  refuge  in  the  un- 
trodden forests  of  Dalmatia.  His  little  vessel  was  cast 
back  by  contrary  winds ; .  he  was  seized  by  the  Governor 
of  lapygia,  in  the  district  of  the  Capitanata.  He  was 
sent,  according  to  the  order  of  Boniface,  to  Anagni.  All 
along  the  road,  for  above  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
the  people,  deeply  impressed  with  the  sanctity  of  Coeles- 
tine,  crowded  around  him  with  perilous  homage.  They 
plucked  the  hairs  of  the  ass  on  which  he  rode,  and  cut 
oft  pieces  of  his  garments  to  keep  as  reliques.  They 
watched  him  at  night  till  he  went  to  rest ;  they  were 
ready  by  thousands  in  the  early  morning  to  see  him  set 
forth  upon  his  journey.  Some  of  the  more  zealous  en- 
treated him  to  resume  the  Pontificate.  The  humility  of 
Ccelestine  did  not  forsake  him  for  an  instant ;  every- 
where he  protested  that  his  resignation  was  voluntary. 
He  was  brought  into  the  presence  of  Boniface.  Like 
the  meanest  son  of  the  Church,  he  fell  down  at  the  feet 
of  the  Pope ;  his  only  prayer,  a  prayer  urged  with  tears, 
was  that  he  might  be  permitted  to  return  to  his  desert 
im  rison-  hermitage.  Boniface  addressed  him  in  severe 
"i<^"^-  language.  He  was  committed  to  safe  custody 
in  the  castle  of  Fumone,  watched  day  and  night  by 
soldiers,  like  a  prisoner  of  state.  His  treatment  is  de- 
scribed as  more  or  less  harsh,  according  as  the  writer  is 
more  or  less  favourable  to  Boniface.^  By  one  account, 
his  cell  was  so  narrow  that  he  had  not  room  to  move ; 
where  his  feet  stood  when  he  celebrated  mass  by  day, 
there  his  head  reposed  at  night.  He  obtained  with  dif- 
ficulty permission  for  two  of  his  brethren  to  be  with 
him  ;  but  so  unwholesome  was  the  place,  that  they  were 
obliged  to  resign  their  charitable  office.     According  to 

»  I'tolem.  Luc.  Stefoneschi.  Vit.  Celest.  apud  Bollandistafi,  with  other  Lives. 


Chap.  VII.  DEATH  OF  CffiLESTINE.  11 

another  statement,  the  narrowness  of  his  cell  was  hia 
own  choice :  he  was  permitted  to  indulge  in  this  merito- 
rious misery ;  his  brethren  were  allowed  free  access  to 
him  ;  he  suffered  no  insult,  but  was  treated  with  the 
utmost  humanity  and  respect.  Death  released  him 
before  long  from  his  spontaneous  or  enforced  wretched- 
ness. He  was  seized  with  a  fever,  generated  perhaps 
by  the  unhealthy  confinement,  accustomed  as 
lie  had  been  to  the  free  mountain  air.  He  died 
May  19,  1296,  was  buried  with  ostentatious  publicity, 
that  the  world  might  know  that  Boniface  now  reigned 
without  rival,  in  the  church  of  Ferentino.  The  Cardinal 
Thomas,  his  own  Cardinal,  and  Theodoric,  the  Pope's 
Chamberlain,  conducted  the  ceremonial,  to  which  all 
the  prelates  and  clergy  in  the  neighbourhood  were  sum- 
moned.'' Countless  miracles  were  told  of  his  death :  a 
golden  cross  appeared  to  the  soldiers,  shining  above  the 
door  of  his  cell :  his  soul  was  seen  by  a  faithful  disciple 
visibly  ascending  to  heaven.  His  body  became  the  cause 
of  a  fierce  quarrel,  and  of  a  pious  crime.  It  was  stolen 
from  the  grave  at  Ferentino,  and  carried  to  Aquila. 
An  insurrection  of  the  people  of  Ferentino  was  hardly 
quelled  by  the  Bishop;  on  the  assurance,  after  the 
visitation  of  the  tomb,  that  the  heart  of  the  Saint  had 
been  fortunately  left  behind,  they  consented  to  abandon 
their  design  of  vengeance.  Immediately  on  the  death 
of  Boniface  the  canonisation  of  Coelestine  was  urgently 
demanded,  especially  by  the  enemies  of  that  canonisation. 
Pope.  It  was  granted  by  Clement  V.  The  ^•^-  ''^'^^ 
monks  of  the  Coelestinian  brotherhood  (self-incorporated, 
self-organised)  grew  and  flourished ;  they  built  convents 
in   many   parts   of  Italy,  even   in   France.      But  the 


^  Supplementum  Yit.  S.  Celestin.  apud  Bol  landistas. 


12  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

memory  of  the  Pope,  who  had  disdained  and  thrown 
aside  the  Papal  diadem,  dwelt  with  no  less  venera- 
tion among  the  Praticelli,  the  only  true  followers,  as 
they  averred,  and  in  one  respect  justly  averred,  of  St. 
Francis.  The  Coelestinians  were  not,  strictly  speaking, 
Franciscans ;  they  were  a  separate  Order ;  owed  their 
foundation,  as  they  said,  to  the  sainted  Pope ;  but  held 
the  same  opinions,  sprang  from  the  same  class,  seem  at 
length  to  have  merged  into  and  mingled  with  the  lower 
and  more  fanatic  of  the  Minorites.  Of  them,  and  of 
the  place  a-ssigned  to  Coelestine  in  the  visions  of  the 
Abbot  Joachim,  the  Book  of  the  Everlasting  Gospel, 
and  in  all  the  prophecies  spread  abroad  by  these  wild 
sects  more  hereafter. 

Boniface  surveyed  Christendom  with  the  haughty 
glance  of  a  master,  but  not  altogether  with  the  cool  and 
penetrating  wisdom  of  a  statesman.  Noble  visions  of 
universal  pacification,  of  new  crusades,  of  that  glorious 
but  impracticable  scheme  of  uniting  Europe  in  one  vast 
confederacy  against  Saracenic  sway,  swept  before  his 
thoughts.  To  a  mind  hke  his,  which  held  it  to  be  sacri- 
lege or  impiety  to  recede  from  any  claim  once  made  by 
the  See  of  Piome,  and  acknowledged  by  the  ignorance, 
interests,  or  weakness  of  the  temporal  sovereign,  the 
Papacy  was  a  perilous  height  on  which  the  steadiest 
head  might  become  dizzy  and  lose  its  self-command. 
From  Naples  to  Scotland  the  Papal  supremacy  was  in 
possession  of  full,  established,  and  acknowledged  power, 
which  took  cognisance  of  the  moral  acts  of  sovereigns, 
their  private  life,  their  justice,  humanity,  respect  for  the 
rights  of  their  subjects.  It  was  thus  absolutely  illimit- 
able. Besides  this,  the  Popes  held  an  actual  feudal 
suzerainty  over  some  of  the  smaller  kingdoms,  admitted 
by  their  kings  in  times  of  weakness,  or  in  order  to 


Jhap.  VII.        EARLY  CAREER  OF  BONIFACE  VIII.  13 

legalise  the  usurpation  of  the  throne  by  some  new 
dynasty.  For  this  power  they  could  cite  precedent, 
more  or  less  venerable,  recognised,  uncontested ;  and 
precedent  was  universally  held  the  great  foundation  of 
such  tenure.  It  was  an  axiom  of  the  Papal  policy  that 
rights,  superiorities,  sovereignties,  once  claimed  by  the 
Pope,  belonged  to  the  Pope:  he  claimed  Corsica  and 
Sardinia,  partly  as  islands,  partly  as  said  to  have  formed 
a  portion  of  the  domains  of  the  Countess  Matilda,  and 
then  granted  Corsica  and  Sardinia  as  his  own  inalien- 
able, incontestable  property.  Not  only  Naples  and 
Sicily,  Arragon,  Portugal,  Hungary,  Bohemia,  Scotland, 
England — it  was  averred,  though  the  indignant  nation 
still  repudiated,  or  but  reluctantly  acknowledged,  the 
submission  of  John,  and,  still  while  it  paid  irregularly, 
murmured  against  the  tribute — had  been  ceded  as  iiefs, 
or  were  claimed  as  omng  that  kind  of  allegiance.  Over 
the  Empire  the  Pope  still  asserted  the  privilege  of  the 
Pope's  at  least  ratifying  the  election,  of  deposing  the 
Emperor  who  might  invade  or  violate  the  rights  of  the 
Roman  See,  rights  indefinite  and  interpreted  by  his  sole 
authority,  against  w^hich  lay  no  appeal.  Even  in  France 
the  ruling  dynasty  was  liable  to  be  reminded  that  the 
throne  had  been  conferred  by  Pope  Zacharias  on  Pepin 
the  father  of  Charlemagne ;  so  too  on  the  Papal  sanc- 
tion rested  its  later  transference  to  the  House  of  Capet. 
Throughout  Christendom  the  Pope  had  a  kingdom  of 
his  own  within  every  kingdom.  The  clergy,  possessing 
a  vast  portion,  in  some  countries  more  than  half  the 
land  and  wealth,  and  of  unbounded  influence,  owed  to 
him  their  first  allegiance.  They  were  assessable  and  to 
be  taxed  only  for  him  or  by  his  authority ;  and,  though 
occasionally  refractory,  occasionally  more  true  to  theii 
national  descent  and  their  national  pride  than  to  theii 


14 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XL 


sacerdotal  interests,  and  sometimes  standing  strongly 
on  their  separate  hierarchical  independence;  yet,  as  they 
held  their  independence  of  the  civil  power,  their  immu- 
nities from  taxation,  their  distinct  sacred  character, 
chiefly  from  the  Pope,  and  looked  to  his  spiritual  arms 
for  their  security  and  protection,  they  were  everywhere 
his  subjects  in  the  first  instance.  And  besides  the 
clergy,  and  compelling  the  clergy  themselves  to  more 
unlimited  Papal  obedience,  the  monastic  orders,  more 
especially  the  Friars,  were  his  great  standing  army,  his 
garrison  throughout  the  Christian  world. 

Boniface  had  visited  many  countries  in  Europe.  It  is 
Boniface  as  ^ssertcd  that  iu  his  youth  he  studied  law  in 
Papal  agent  p^ris,  and  cvcn  that  he  had  been  canon  in 

and  as  Car-  '  t  r^ 

^i"*i-  that  church."'     He  had  accompanied  the  Car- 

dinal Ottobuoni  to  England,  when  sent  by  Alexander  IV. 
to  offer  the  crown  of  Sicily  to  the  Prince  Edmund.  He 
had  been  joined  in  a  mission  with  Matteo,  Cardinal 
of  Acqua  Sparta,  to  adjust  the  conflicting  claims  of 
Charles  of  Anjou  and  Sicily,  and  of  Kodolph,  King  of 
the  Komans,  to  the  inheritance  of  Provence.  The  treaty, 
which  he  drew,  placed  the  Pope  in  the  high  office  of 
arbiter  in  temporal  as  in  spiritual  matters.  In  any  dis- 
pute as  to  the  fulfilment  or  interpretation  of  the  treaty, 
the  two  Kings  submitted  themselves  absolutely  to  the 
judgement  of  the  Pope."  For  his  success  in  this  lega- 
tion Gaetani  had  been  rewarded  with  the  Cardinalate. 
Gaetani  had  been  employed  to  dissuade  Charles  of 
Anjou  from  his  duel  at  Bordeaux  with  the  King  of 
Arragon.  He  had  sat  in  Rome  in  a  commission  upon 
the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  Portugal.     The  student  of 


"  Du  Boulay,  Hist,  Univeis.  Paris. 
Tosti,  Storia  di  Bonifazio  VIII.  to  p. 
31.    He  was  canon  also  of  Anagni,  of 


Todi,  of  Lyons,  of  St.  Peter  in  Home 
He  was  also  Apostolic  Notary. 
■  Kayuald.  sub  an.  1280. 


CHAP.  VII.     BONIFACE  AND  CHARLES  OF  NAPLES.  15 

law  in  the  University  of  Paris  returned  to  that  city 
as  Papal  Legate  (with  the  Cardinal  of  Parma)  from 
Nicolas  ly.  They  had  the  difficult  commission  to  de- 
mand the  refunding  the  tenths  raised  by  Philip  the 
Bold  for  a  Crusade  to  the  Holy  Land,  from  his  son 
Philip  the  Fair.  He  had  thus  experience  of  the  stern 
rapacity  of  Philip  the  Fair,  his  defiance  of  all  authority, 
even  that  of  the  Pope,  in  affairs  of  money.  He  had  to 
allay  the  other  most  intense  and  dominant  passion  of 
the  same  Philip  the  Fair,  hatred  and  jealousy  of  Ed- 
ward L,  King  of  England.  On  the  first  question  he 
presided  in  a  synod  held  in  the  church  of  St.  Genevieve, 
a  synod  which  ended  in  nothing.  On  the  second  point 
Philip  was  equally  impracticable ;  he  coldly  repelled 
the  advice  which  would  reconcile  him  with  his  detested 
rival.  The  same  Legates  at  Tarascon  had  ^eb.  is, 
been  instructed  to  arrange  the  treaty  between  ^^^^• 
France,  Charles  of  Naples,  and  Alfonso  of  Arragon. 
The  peace  had  been  settled,  but  broken  off  by  the 
death  of  King  Alfonso. 

But  in  all  his  travels  and  his  intercourse  with  these 
sovereigns,  Boniface  had  not  discerned,  or  his  haughty 
hierarchical  spirit  had  refused  to  see,  the  revolution 
which  had  been  slowly  working  throughout  Christen- 
dom :  in  France  the  growth  of  the  royal  power ;  in 
England  the  aspirations  after  religious  as  well  as  civil 
freedom ;  the  advance  of  the  Universities ;  the  rise  of 
the  civil  lawyers,  who  were  to  meet  the  clergy  on  their 
own  ground,  and  wrest  from  them  the  supremacy,  or  at 
least  to  confront  them  on  equal  terms  in  the  field  of 
jm-isprudence — a  lettered  order,  bound  together  by  as 
strong  a  corporate  spirit,  and  often  hostile  to  the  eccle- 
siastical canonists.  Boniface  had  not  discovered  that 
tlie  Papal  power  had  reached,  had  passed  its  zenith ; 


16  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Xi 

that  his  attempt  to  raise  it  even  higher,  to  exhibit  it 
in  a  more  naked  and  undisguised  form  than  had  been 
dared  by  Gregory  VII.  or  Innocent  III.,  would  shake  it 
to  its  base. 

Boniface  was  bound  by  gratitude  to  Charles,  King 
Boniface  and   of  Naples,  claimant   of  Sicily,  perhaps  bv  a 

Caiarles  of  i  •     i      ^  i  i  ^  -,        .  ,    . 

Naples.  plighted  or  understood  covenant  durmg  his 
election.  His  first  act  was  one  of  haughty  leniency: 
he  granted  a  remission  of  any  forfeiture  of  the  fief  of 
Naples  which  might  have  been  incurred  by  his  father, 
Charles  of  Anjou,  or  by  Charles  himself,  for  not  having 
fulfilled  the  conditions  of  his  vassalage.  If  either  should 
have  become  liable,  not  merely  to  forfeiture,  but  to 
excommunication,  as  having  violated  any  one  of  the 
covenants  imposed  by  his  liege  lord  the  Church,  had 
neglected  or  refused  to  pay  the  stipulated  tribute,  and 
thereby  incurred  deprivation,  the  Pope  condescended  to 
gi'ant  absolution  on  the  condition  of  full  satisfaction 
to  the  Church."  On  the  sudden  death  of  Charles  of 
Hungary,  during  the  absence  of  King  Charles  of  Naples, 
the  Pope  acted  at  once  as  Liege  Lord  of  Hungary,  ap- 
pointed his  Legate  Landulph,  and  afterwards,  yielding 
to  the  petitions  of  the  people,  the  Queen  Maria  as 
Regent  of  the  realm. 

The  interests  of  the  Papal  See,  no  less  than  his  alli- 
ance with  Charles  of  Naples,  bound  Pope  Boniface  to 
reconcile,  if  possible,  the  conflicting  pretensions  of  the 
Houses  of  Anjou  and  Arragon.  The  Arragonese,  not- 
withstanding the  reiterated  grants  of  the  kingdom  of 
Sicily  to  the  Angevine,  notwithstanding  the  most  solemn 
excommunications,  and  the  most  strenuous  warfare  of 
the  combined  Papal   and  Angevine  armies,   had  still 


*  Bull  apud  Raynaldum, 


Chap.  VII.        AFFAIRS  OF  SICILY  AND  J^APLES.  17 

obstinately  maintained  their  title  by  descent,  election  of 
the  people,  actual  possession.  The  throne  of  Sicily  had 
successively  passed  down  the  whole  line  of  brotliers, 
from  Peter  to  Alfonso,  from  Alfonso  to  James,  from 
James  it  had  devolved,  in  fact,  if  not  by  any  regulai' 
grant  or  title,  through  assent  or  connivance,  on  the 
more  active  and  ambitious  Frederick. 

During  the  reign  of  the  more  peaceful  James  a  treaty 
had  been  agreed  to.  Two  marriages,  to  which  Pope 
Coelestine  removed  the  canonical  impediments,  ratified 
the  peace.  James  of  Arragon  was  espoused  to  Blanche, 
the  daughter  of  Charles ;  Eobert,  son  of  Charles,  to 
lolante,  the  sister  of  James.^  Throughout  this  whole 
transaction  the  Pope  (now  Boniface)  assumed,  and  it 
should  seem  without  protest,  the  power  to  grant  the 
kingdoms  of  Arragon  and  Valencia.  In  the  surrender 
of  those  kingdoms  by  Charles  of  Valois,  he  insisted  on 
the  full  recognition  that  he  had  held  them  by  grant  of 
the  Pope.  They  were  regranted  to  James  of  Arragon, 
who  on  this  tenm-e  did  not  scruple  to  accept,  as  the  suc- 
cessor of  his  brother  Alfonso,  the  hereditary  june24, 
dominions  of  his  house.  All  who  presumed  to  ^^^^" 
impede  or  to  disturb  this  peace  were  solemnly  excom- 
municated at  Anagni  on  St.  John  the  Baptist's  day. 

But  the  younger  branches  of  the  house  of  Arragon 
had  not  been  so  easily  overawed  by  the  terrors  of  the 
Church  to  abandon  the  rich  inheritance  of  Sicily,  nor 
was  Sicily,  yet  reeking  with  the  blood  shed  at  the 
Vespers,  prepared  to  submit  to  the  vengeance  of  the 
house  of  Anjou.  The  deep,  inextinguishable  hatred  of 
the  French  was  in  the  hearts  of  all  orders ;  it  was  nursed 
by  the  remembrance  of  their  merciless  oppressions ;  by 


P  Briefs  in  Raynaldus,  1294. 
VOL.  VII. 


18  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

the  satisfaction  of  revenge  once  glutted,  and  the  fear 
that  the  revolt,  the  Yesper  massacre,  and  the  years  of 
war,  would  be  even  more  terribly  atoned  fcr.  Boniface 
knew  the  bold  and  ambitious  character  of  Frederick, 
the  younger  son  of  the  house  of  Arragon.  He  had  a 
splendid  lure  for  him — no  less  than  the  Empire  of  Con- 
stantinople. The  Pope  invited  him  to  a  conference. 
Frederick  appeared  on  the  coast  of  Italy  with  a  power- 
ful and  well-appointed  fleet,  accompanied  by  John  of 
Procida  and  the  gTeat  Admiral  Koger  Loria,  near  Yelletri. 
The  Pope  offered  him  the  hand  of  Catherine  Courtenay, 
the  daughter  of  Phihp,  titular  Latin  Emperor  of  the 
East :  all  the  powers  of  the  West  were  to  confederate 
and  place  her,  with  her  young  and  valiant  husband,  on 
the  Byzantine  throne.  To  her  likewise  he  had  written, 
under  the  magnificent  title  of  Empress  of  Constantinople, 
in  a  tone  of  parental  persuasion  and  spiritual  authority, 
urging  her  to  give  her  hand  to  the  brave  Prince  of 
Arragon.'^  By  so  doing  she  would  show  herself  a  worthy 
descendant  of  her  grandfather  Baldwin  and  her  father 
Philip,  a  dutiful  daughter  of  the  Church ;  she  would  not 
merely  gain  the  glorious  crown  of  her  ancestors,  but 
restore  the  erring  and  schismatical  Greeks  to  their  obe- 
dience to  the  Holy  See.'' 

A  treaty  was  formed  on  the  following  tenns.  Charles 
of  Valois  fully  surrendered  his  empty  title  to  Arragon, 
and  acquired  a  title  (as  empty  it  proved)  to  the  throne 
of  Corsica  and  Sardinia,  with  large  subsidies  in  money. 
James  of  Arragon  had  the  full  recognition  of  his  right 
to  the  throne  of  Arragon,  which  he  already  possessed, 


I  Nicol.  Sv^ecial.  ii.  21.     Compare  Amari,  p.  363,  ch,  xiv. 
'  Brief  of  the  Pope  to  Catherine  of  Couitenay,  liaynald,  sub  ann.   129f 
(27th  Juut). 


Chap.  VII.  KINGDOM  OF  SICILY.  19 

peace,  and  the  shame  of  having  abandoned  his  brother 
and  the  claim  of  the  house  of  Arragon  to  the  throne  of 
Sicily.  The  Pope  secured,  as  he  fondly  hoped  through- 
out, the  lasting  gratitude  of  Charles  of  Valois,  the  glory 
of  having  commanded  peace,  and  the  vain  hope  that  he 
had  deluded  Frederick  to  surrender  the  actual  posses- 
sion of  the  throne  of  Sicily  for  a  visionary  empire  in 
the  East,  which  the  Pope  assumed  the  power,  not  of 
granting,  but  of  having  bestowed  with  the  hand  of  the 
heiress  to  that  barren  title,  Catherine  of  Courtenay. 
"  A  princess  without  a  foot  of  land  must  not  wed  a 
prince  without  a  foot  of  land  ;  she  was  to  bring  her  im- 
perial dowry."® 

But  the  youthful  Prince  Frederick  of  Arragon  was 
not  so  easily  tempted  by  the  astute  Pontiff.  He  re- 
quired time  for  consideration,  and  returned  with  his 
fleet  to  Sicily.  Nor  was  James  of  Arragon  so  absolutely 
in  earnest,  nor  so  determined  on  the  surrender  of  Ins 
hereditary  claims  on  Sicily.  In  public  he  dared  not 
own  the  treaty.  Envoys  were  sent  from  Palermo  to 
demand  whether  he  had  actually  ceded  the  island  to  the 
Pope  and  the  King  of  Naples.  King  James  was  forced 
to  acknowledge  that  he  had  done  so.  On  the  publica- 
tion of  his  answer,  there  was  a  cry  in  the  streets  of 
Palermo,  "  What  soitow  is  like  unto  our  sorrow  ? " 
But  in  secret,  it  was  said.  King  James  had  more  than 
suggested  resistance.  He  was  asked,  "  How,  then,  shall 
Prince  Frederick  act  ? "  "  He  is  a  soldier,  and  knows 
his  duty;  ye,  too,  know  your  duty."  John  of  Cala- 
mandra  was  sent  by  the  Pope  to  Messina  to  offer  a  blank 
parchment  to  the  Sicilians,  on  which  they  were  to  in- 
scribe whatever  exemptions,  immunities,  or  secirities. 


•  Brief  of  Pope  Boniface,  Raynald,  1296,  c.  9. 

c  2 


20  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

might  tempt  the  nation  to  acknowledge  the  treaty.  A 
noble,  Peter  de  Ansalo,  drew  his  sword,  "It  is  by  the 
sword,  not  by  parchments,  that  Sicily  will  win  peace." 
The  Papal  Envoy  left  the  island  with  all  the  haste  of 
terror.*^ 

Frederick  was  crowned  in  the  Cathedral  of  Palermo, 
March  21,  ^^  Easter  Day,  with  the  acclamation  of  all 
^^^®'  Sicily,  determined  to  resist  to  the  utmost  the 
abhorred  dominion  of  the  French.  He  sailed  instantly 
with  a  powerful  fleet,  subjected  Reggio  and  the  country 
around,  and  threatened  the  whole  kingdom  of  Naples. 
On  Ascension  Day  the  Pope  condemned  Frederick  and 
the  Sicilians  by  a  bull,  couched,  if  possible,  in  more 
than  ordinarily  terrific  phrases.  He  heaped  up  charges 
of  perfidy,  usurpation,  impiety,  contempt  of  God  and  of 
his  Church ;  he  annulled  absolutely  and  entirely  the 
election  of  Frederick  as  King  of  Sicily ;  he  threatened 
with  excommunication,  with  the  extremest  spiritual  and 
temporal  penalties,  all  who  should  not  instantly  abandon 
his  cause ;  he  forbade  all  who  owned  spiritual  allegiance 
to  Rome  to  enter  into  treaty  with  him ;  and  he  revoked 
all  indulgencies,  privileges,  or  immunities,  granted  at 
any  time  to  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  more  especially  all 
granted  to  those  concerned  in  the  consecration  or  rather 
execration  of  the  usurping  King.  The  Sicilians,  strong 
in  their  patriotism  and  their  hatred  of  the  French  domi- 
nion, despised  these  idle  fulminations.  Charles  must 
prepare  for  war,  or  rather  the  Pope  in  the  name  of 
Charles.  But  the  resources  of  Naples  were  altogether 
exhausted ;  King  Charles  had  paid  a  large  sum  to  James 
of  Arragon  for  the  renunciation  of  his  rights,  and  bor- 
rowed more  of  the  Pope.     Boniface  was  at  once  rapa 


Montaner,  Nic.  Special,  h,  22, 


Chap.  VII. 


THE  WAR  OF  SICILY. 


21 


cioiis  and  liberal.  He  put  off  the  day  for  the  discharge 
of  the  first  debt,  and  furnished  five  thousand  ounces  of 
gold.  Charles  was  empowered  to  tax  the  Church  pro- 
perty in  his  realm  for  this  pious  war,  waged  to  maintain 
the  rights  of  the  Church. 

The  war  of  Sicily  continued  almost  to  the  close  of  the 
Pontificate  of  Boniface  Vlll.     King  James  of  Arragon 
was  summoned  by  the  inflexible  Pope  to  assist  in  wrest- 
ing the  kingdom  from  his  brother ;  he  received  the  title 
of  standard-bearer  of  the  Church.     James  obeyed  with 
enforced  but  ostentatious  obsequiousness.     Yet  he  was 
suspected,  perhaps  not  without  reason,  of  a  traitorous 
reluctance  to  conquer."     The  war  dragged  on,  aggTCS- 
sive  on  the  side  of  Frederick  against  Naples,  rather 
than   endangering   Sicily.      Koger   de  Loria, 
affronted  by  an  untimely  suspicion  of  perfidy, 
yielded  to  the  temptation  of  the  principality,  over  two 
barren  islands  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  conquered  from 
the   Moors.      The   revolted   Sicilian  Admiral     juiy4, 
inflicted  a  terrible  discomfiture  on  the  fleet  of     ^^^^' 
his  former  sovereign,  Frederick.     But  in  the  same  year 
Frederick  revenged  himself  by  the  total  defeat  of  the 
army  of  Charles  of  Naples  on  the  plains  of  Formicaria, 
and  the  capture  of  his  son,  Philip  of  Tarento.     In  the 
next  year  another  naval  victory   raised  still 
higher  the  fame  of  Koger  Loria,  who  seemed 
to  carry  with  him,  whichever  cause  he  espoused,  the 
dominion  of  the  sea.     But  the  invasion  of  Sicily  was 
baffled  by  the  prudence  and  Fabian  policy  of  King  Fre- 


"  "  Quod  si  saeer  Princeps  Ecclesiae 
ipsum  ad  hscc  per  edicta  verenda  pror- 
sus  imp(!llat,  se  licet  invitum,  Dei 
magis  quam  hominum  offensam  me- 
tuentem,  necesse  quidem  esse   favora- 


bilitei'  obsequi,  Cupiebat  enira  fratris 
ruinam,  sed  ut  omnis  objectio  legiti- 
ma  causa  vestiretur,  compelli  voluit.'' 
— Ferret.  Vicentin.  apud  Mvu-avcA-i,  S 
R.  T.  xi.  p.  959. 


22 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


BvjOK  XI. 


derick.  The  Pope,  at  length  weary  of  the  expenditure, 
suspecting  the  lukewarm  aid  of  James  of  Arragon,  and 
not  yet  in  open  breach  with  Philip  King  of  France, 
summoned  Philip's  brother,  Charles  of  Valois,  whose 
successes  in  Flanders  had  obtained  for  him  the  fame  of 
a  great  general,  to  aid  the  final  conquest  of  Sicily. 
Perhaps  he  meditated  the  transference  of  the  crown  of 
Naples  and  Sicily  from  the  feeble  descendants  of  the 
Affairs  of  house  of  Anjou  to  the  more  powerful  Charles 
Sicily.  q£  Yalois.  The  summons  to  Charles  of  Valois 
was,  as  the  invitation  to  French  princes  by  the  Pope  to 
take  part  in  Italian  affairs  has  ever  been,  fatal  to  the 
liberties  and  welfare  of  Italy,  ruinous  to  the  Popes 
themselves.  He  did  but  crush  the  liberties  of  Florence, 
and  left  the  excommunicated  Frederick  on  the  throne 
of  Sicily.""  "He  came,"  says  the  historian,  "to  bring 
peace  to  Florence,  and  brought  war ;  to  wage  war 
against  Sicily,  and  concluded  an  ignominious  peace." 
His  invasion  of  Sicily  with  an  overwhelming  force  only 
made  more  obstinate  the  resistance  of  the  Sicilians: 
they  met  him  not  in  the  field ;  they  allowed  him  to 
wear  away  his  army  in  vain  successes.^  Boniface  heard 
before  his  death  that  a  treaty  of  peace  had  been  sealed, 
leaving  Frederick  in  peaceable  possession  of  the  whole 
island  for  his  lifetime,  under  the  title  of  King  of  Trina- 
cria.  The  only  price  which  he  paid  was  the  acceptance 
as  his  wife  of  a  daughter  of  tlie  house  of  Anjou.  Fre- 
derick of  Arragon,  notwithstanding  the  terms  of  the 
treaty,  by  which  on  his  death  the  crown  of  Sicily  was 


Tempo  vegg'  io  non  molto  doppo  ancoi 
Che  tragge  un  altro  Carlo  fuor  di 

Francia, 
Per  far  conoscer  meglio  e  se,  e'  i  suoi; 
Senz'  arme  n'  esce,  e  solo  con  la  lancia 
Con  la  qual  giostrb  Giuda ;  e  quella 
punta 


Si,  cli'   a  Fiorenza  fa   scoppiar   la 
pa.Kia."  Purgat.xx.    70. 

y  The  war  may  be  read  fully 
and  well  told  in  the  lat.t  cliapler  of 
Amari. 


Chap.  VII. 


BONIFACE  A  GUELF. 


2;i 


to  revert  to  the  King  of  Naples,  handed  it  quietly  down 
to  his  own  posterity.  But  we  must  return  hereafter  to 
Charles  of  Valois. 

Boniface  aspu-ed  to  be  the  pacificator  of  Italy,  but  it 
was  not  by  a  lofty  superiority  to  the  passions  Boniface  a 
of  the  times,  by  tempering  the  ferocity  of  the  ^^^'*- 
conflicting  factions,  and  with  a  stern  but  impartial 
justice  repressing  Guelf  and  Ghibelline ;  it  was  rather 
by  avowedly  proclaiming  himself  the  head  of  the  G  uelfic 
interest,  seizing  the  opportunity  of  the  feebleness  of  the 
Empire  to  crush  all  the  Imperialist  faction,  and  to 
annul  all  the  Imperial  rights  in  Italy.  Anagni  had 
been  a  Ghibelline  city ;  the  Gaetani  a  Ghibelline 
family.  But  in  Boniface  the  Churchman  had  long 
struggled  triumphantly  against  the  Ghibelline;  the 
Papacy  wrought  him  at  once  into  a  determined  Guelf. 
Even  before  his  pontificate  he  had  connected  himself 
with  the  Orsini,  the  enemies  of  his  enemies,  the  Cu- 
lonnas.  The  Ghibellines  spread  stories  about  Pope 
Boniface ;  true  or  false,  naked  or  exaggerated  truth, 
they  found  ready  credence.  The  Ghibellines  were 
masters,  through  the  Orsis  and  Spinolas,  of  Genoa ;  the 
Archbishop  Stephen  Porchetto  was  of  that  tamily.  In 
the  solemn  service  of  the  Church,  when  the  Pope  strews 
ashes  on  the  heads  of  all,  to  admonish  them  of  the 
nothingness  of  man,  instead  of  the  usual  words,  Boniface 
broke  out,  "Ghibelline,  remember  that  thou  art  dust, 
and  with  all  other  Ghibellines  to  dust  thou  shalt 
return."  ^ 

The   Colojmas    centered    in   themselves   everything 


■  This,  according  to  Muratori,  if 
ever  said,  must  have  been  said  to 
Archbishop  Porchetto,  who  succeeded 


Jacob  a  Voragine  (author  of  tht 
Legenda  Aurea). — Muratori,  S,  R.  I.  ix 
Note  on  Jacob  a  Voragine,  p.  10. 


24  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

which  could  keep  alive  the  well-grounded  fear,  the 
jealousy,  the  vindictiveness  of  the  Pope,  as  well  as  to 
justify  his  desire  of  order,  of  law,  and  of  peace.  They 
had  Ghibellinism,  power,  wealth,  lawlessness,  ill-con- 
cealed doubts  of  his  title  to  the  Papacy,  no  doubt 
ambition  to  transfer  the  Papacy  to  themselves.  Under 
Nicolas  lY.  they  had  ruled  supreme  over  the  Pope; 
under  Gaetani,  would  they  endure  to  be  nothing  ?  All 
the  Papacy  could  give  or  add  to  their  vast  possessions, 
titles,  ranks,  were  theirs,  or  had  been  theirs  but  a  few 
years  ago.  They  had  long  been  the  great  Ghibelhne 
house.  In  Eome,  still  more  in  the  Roraagna,  they  had 
fortresses  held  to  be  impregnable — Palestrina,  Nepi, 
Zagaruola,  Colonna;  and  these  gave  them,  if  not  the 
absolute  command  of  the  region,  the  power  of  plunder- 
ing and  tyrannising  with  impunity.  Nor  was  that  power 
under  any  constraint  of  respect  for  sacred  things,  of 
humanity,  or  of  justice.  They  might  become  what  the 
Counts  and  Nobles  of  former  centuries  had  been,  mas- 
ters of  the  Papal  territories,  of  the  Papacy  itself. 

The  Colonnas  were  strong,  as  has  been  seen,  even  in 
the  conclave,  in  which  sat  two  Cardinals  of  that  house. 
The  death  of  Coelestine  had  not  removed  all  doubt  as  to 
the  validity  of  the  election  of  Boniface.  No  one  knew 
better  than  Boniface  how  the  Colonnas  had  been  de- 
ceived into  giving  their  favourable  suffrages,  how 
deeply,  if  silently,  they  already  repented  of  their  weak- 
ness ;  how  ready  they  would  be  to  fall  back  on  the  ille- 
gality of  the  whole  affair.  There  can  be  little  question 
that  they  were  watching  the  opportunity  of  revolt  as 
eagerly  as  Boniface  that  of  crushing  the  detested  house 
of  Colonna.  It  concerned  his  own  security  not  less  than 
that  of  the  Papacy ;  the  uncontested  sovereignty  of  the 
Pope  over  his  own  dominions ;  the  permanent  rescue  oi 


Chap.  VII.    PAPAL  BULL  AGAINST  THE  COLONNAS. 


25 


the  throne  of  St.  Peter  from  the  tyranny  of  a  fierce  and 
unscrupulous  host  of  bandit  chieftains,  and  from  Ghibel- 
lines  at  the  gates  of  Rome,  and  even  in  Rome.^ 

The  Colonnas  were  so  ill-advised,  or  so  unable  to 
restrain  each  other,  as  to  give  a  plausible  reason,  and 
more  than  one  reason,  for  the  Pope  to  break  out  in  just 
it  seemed,  if  implacable,  resentment.  The  Colonna, 
who  held  the  city  of  Palestrina,  surprised  and  carried 
off  on  the  road  to  Anagni  a  rich  caravan  of  furniture 
belonging  to  the  Pope.  The  crime  of  one  was  the 
crime  of  all.  But  heavier  charges  were  not  wanting 
which  involved  the  whole  house.  They  were  accused 
of  conspiracy,  as  doubtless  they  had  conspired  in  their 
wishes  if  not  in  overt  acts,  with  Frederick  of  Arragon 
and  the  Sicilians.  It  was  said  that  they  had  openly 
received  in  Palestrina  Francis  Crescentio  and  Nicolas 
Pazzi,  citizens  of  Rome,  envoys  from  Frederick  of 
Arragon.^  There  is  a  dark  indication  that  already 
France  was  tampering  in  the  opposition  to  Boniface.^ 

A  Bull  came  forth  denouncing  the  whole  family, 
their  ancestors,  as  well  as  the  present  race,  PapaiBuii 
with  indiscriminate  condemnation,  but  con-  coionnas.^ 
centering  all  the  penalty  on  the  two  Cardinals.*^ 
"Having  taken  into  consideration  the  wicked  acts  of 
the  Colonnas  in  former  times,  their  present  manifest 
relapse  into  their  hereditary  guiltiness,  and  our  just 


■  Compare  Raynaldus,  sub  ann. 
1297,  p.  233. 

fc  Muratori  doubts  this  (p.  256)  ;  it 
is  not  brought  forward  as  a  specific 
charge  by  the  Pope,  but  for  this  the 
Pope  might  have  his  reasons.  It  is 
asserted  by  Villpni,  viii.  21 ;  Ptolem. 
Lucen.  in  Annal.  Chronicon  Foroli- 
vieus.  S.  H.  T,  xxii.     Tosti  has  rather 


ostentatiously  brought  forward  a  new 
cause  of  hostility.  Cardinal  James 
Colonna  was  trustee  for  his  three 
brothers,  and  robbed  them  of  their 
property.  They  appealed  to  the  Pope. 
From  Patrini,  Memorie  Penestrine. 
Rome,  1795. 

«  See  note  next  page. 

^  The  Bull  in  Raynaldus,  a.d.  1297 


26  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

fears  of  their  former  misdeeds,  it  is  clear  as  daylight 
that  this  odious  house  of  Colonna,  cruel  to  its  subjects, 
troublesome  to  its  neighbours,  the  enemy  of  the  Eoman 
Eepublic,  rebellious  against  the  Holy  Eoman  Church, 
the  disturber  of  the  public  peace  in  the  city  and  in  the 
territory  of  Kome,  impatient  of  equals,  ungrateful  for 
benefits,  stranger  to  humility,  and  possessed  by  mad- 
ness, having  neither  fear  nor  respect  for  man,  and  an 
insatiable  lust  to  tln^ovv  the  city  and  the  whole  world 
into  confusion,  has  endeavoured  (here  follow  the  specific 
charges)  to  instigate  our  dear  sons  James  of  Arragon 
dnd  the  noble  youth  Frederick  to  rebellion."  The  Pope 
then  avows  that  he  had  summoned  the  Colonnas  to  sur- 
render their  castles  of  Palfestrina,  Colonna,  and  Zaga- 
ruola,  into  his  hands.  Their  refusal  to  obey  this  impe- 
rious demand  was  at  once  the  proof  and  the  aggravation 
of  their  disloyalty.  "  Believing,  then,"  he  proceeds. 
"  the  rank  of  Cardinal  held  by  these  stubborn  and 
intractable  men  to  be  a  scandal  to  the  faithful,  we  have 
determined,  after  trying  those  milder  measures  (the 
demand  of  the  unconditional  surrender  of  their  castles), 
in  the  strength  of  the  power  of  the  Most  High,  to 
subdue  the  pride  of  the  aforesaid  James  and  Peter, 
to  crush  their  arrogance,  to  cast  them  forth  as  diseased 
sheep  from  the  fold,  to  depose  them  for  ever  from  their 
high  station."  He  goes  on  to  deprive  them  of  all  their 
ecclesiastical  rank  and  revenues,  to  declare  them  excom- 
municate, and  to  threaten  with  the  severest  censures  of 
the  Church  all  who  should  thenceforth  treat  them  as 
Cardinals,  or  in  any  way  befriend  their  cause.  Such 
partisans  were  to  be  considered  in  heresy,  schism,  and 
rebellion,  to  lose  all  ecclesiastical  rank,  dignity,  or 
bishopric,  and  to  forfeit  their  estates.  The  descendants 
of  one  braach  were  declared  incapable,  to  the  fourth 


Chap.  VII. 


REPLY  OF  THE  COLONI^AS. 


27 


generation,  of  entering  into  holy  orders.     Biich  was  the 
attainder  for  their  spiritual  treason. 

The  Colonnas  had  offered,  on  the  mediation  of  the 
Senator  and  the  Commonalty  of  Eome,  to  Reply  of  the 
submit  themselves  in  the  fullest  manner  to  ^^i^^^^*- 
the  Pope.«  But  the  Pope  would  be  satisfied  with 
nothing  less  than  the  surrender  of  all  their  great 
castles.  Therefore,  when  they  could  no  longer  avoid 
it,  they  accepted  the  defiance  to  internecine  war. 
They  answered  by  a  proclamation  of  great  length, 
hardly  inferior  in  violence,  more  desperately  daring 
than  that  of  the  Pope.  They  repudiated  altogether 
the  right  of  Boniface  to  the  Pontificate;  they  denied 
the  power  of  Coelestine  to  resign.  They  accused  Boni- 
face of  obtaining  the  abdication  of  CcBlestine  by  frau- 
dulent means,  by  conditions  and  secret  understandings, 
by  stratagems  and  machinations  ;  ^  they  appealed  to  a 
General  Council,  that  significant  menace,  in  later  times 


*  The  senators  and  commonalty  of 
Rome  had  persuaded  the  Colonnas  to 
this  course.  "  Suaserunt,  induxerunt 
quod  ad  pedes  nostros  reverenter  veni- 
rent,  nostra  et  ipsius  Romanse  Ecclesiae 
absolute  ac  libere  mandata  facturi ;  ad 
quae  pra^fati  schismatic!  et  rebelles 
ipsis  ambasciatoribus  responderunt,  se 
venturos  ad  pedes  nostros  ac  nostra  et 
pr^efatai  Ecclesiae  mandata  facturos." 
— Epist.  Bonifac.  ad  Pandect.  SaveUi, 
Orvieto,  29  th  Sept. 

'  These  words  are  remarkable : — 
"  Quod  in  renuntiatione  ipsius  multae 
fraudes  et  doli,  conditiones  et  intendi- 
menta  et  machinamenta,  et  tales  et 
talia  intervenisse  multipliciter  asserim- 
tur,  quod  esto,  quod  posset  fieri  renun- 
tiatio,  de  quo  merito  dubitatur,  ipsam 
vitiarent  et  redderent  illegitimam,  in- 


efficacem,  et  nullam." — Apud  Ray- 
nald.  sub  ann.  1297,  No.  34.  But 
the  most  lemarkable  fact  regarding 
this  document  is  that  it  was  attested 
in  the  Castle  of  Loughezza  by  Jive  dig- 
nitaries of  the  Church  of  France,  the 
Provost  of  Rheims,  the  Archdeacon  of 
Rouen,  three  canons,  of  Chartres,  of 
Evreux,  and  of  Senlis ;  and  by  three 
Franciscan  friars,  of  whom  one  was  the 
famous  poet  Jacopone  da  Todi,  after- 
wards persecuted  by  Boniface.  This 
is  of  great  importance.  The  quarrel 
with  Philip  the  Fair  had  already  begun 
in  the  year  before  ;  the  Bull  "  Clericis 
Laicos  "  had  been  issued  ;  and  here  is  a 
confederacy  of  the  Colonnas,  the  agents 
ot  the  King  of  France,  and  the  Coelestw 
uian  Franciscans.  It  bears  date  May  10, 
1297.— Dupuy,  Preuves  du  Difleend. 


28  LATIN  CnmSTIANITY.  booK  XI 

of  such  fearful  power.  This  long  argumeutative  decla- 
ration of  the  Colonna  Cardinals  was  promulgated  in  all 
quarters,  affixed  to  the  doors  of  churches,  and  placed 
on  the  very  altar  of  St.  Peter.  But  the  Colonnas  stood 
alone;  none  other  of  the  Conclave  joined  them;  no 
popular  tumult  broke  out  on  their  side.  Then-  allies, 
and  allies  they  doubtless  had,  were  beyond  the  Faro ; 
witliin  the  Alps,  Ghibellinism  Vv^as  overawed,  and  aban- 
doned its  champions,  notwithstanding  their  purple,  to 
the  unresisted  Pontiff.  Boniface  proceeded  to  pass  his 
public  sentence  against  his  contumacious  spiritual  vas- 
Papaisen-  sals.  The  sentcnco  was  a  concentration  of  all 
Dec.  1*297.  tho  malcdictory  language  of  ecclesiastical 
wrath.  No  instrument,  after  a  trial  for  capital  treason, 
in  any  period,  was  drawn  with  more  careful  and  vindic- 
tive particularity.  It  was  not  content  with  treating  the 
appeal  as  heietical,  blasphemous,  and  schismatical,  but 
as  an  act  of  insanity.  The  Pope  had  an  unanswerable 
argument  against  their  denial  of  tlie  validity  of  his 
election,  their  undisturbed,  unprotesting  allegiance 
during  three  years,  their  recognition  of  the  Pope  by 
assisting  him  in  all  his  papal  functions.  The  Bull 
denounced  their  audacity  in  presuming,  after  their 
deposition,  to  assume  the  names  and  to  wear  the  dress 
and  insignia  of  Cardinals.  The  penalty  was  not  merely 
perpetual  degradation,  but  excommunication  in  its 
severest  form  ;  the  absolute  confiscation  of  the  entire 
estates,  not  only  of  the  Cardinals,  but  of  the  whole 
Colonna  family.  It  included,  by  name,  John  di  San 
Vito,  and  Otho,  the  son  of  John,  the  brother  of  the  Car- 
dinal James  and  the  father  of  Cardinal  Peter,  Agapeto, 
Stephen,  and  James  Sciarra,  sons  of  the  same  John, 
with  all  their  kindred  and  relatives,  and  their  descend- 
ants for  ever.     It  absolutely  incapacitated  them  from 


Chap.  VII. 


PAPAL  SENTENCE. 


29 


Holding  rank,  office,  function,  or  property.  All  towns, 
castles,  or  places  which  harboured  any  of  their  persons 
fell  under  interdict ;  and  the  faithful  were  commanded 
to  deliver  them  up  wherever  they  might  be  found. 

This  proscription,  this  determination  to  extinguish 
one  of  the  most  ancient  and  powerful  families  of  Italy, 
with  the  degradation  of  two  Cardinals,  was  an  act  of 
rigour  and  severity  beyond  all  precedent.  Nor  was  it 
a  loud  and  furious  but  idle  menace.  Boniface  had  not 
miscalculated  his  strength.  The  Orsiui  lent  all  their 
forces  to  humble  the  rival  Colonnas,  and  a  Crusade  was 
proclaimed,  a  Crusade  against  two  Cardinals  of  the 
Church,  a  Crusade  at  the  gates  of  Eome.^  jan.  toSept. 
The  same  indulgences  were  granted  to  those  ^^^^' 
who  should  take  up  arms  against  the  Cardinals  and 
their  family  which  were  offered  to  those  who  warred  on 
the  unbelievers  in  the  Holy  Land.  The  Cardinal  of 
Porto,  Matthew  Acquasparta,  Bishop  of  S.  Sabina,  com- 
manded the  army  of  the  Pope  in  this  sacred  war. 
Stronghold  after  stronghold  was  stormed;  castle  after 
castle  fell.^  Palestrina  alone  held  out  with  intrepid 
obstinacy.  Almost  the  whole  Colonna  house  sought 
their  last  refuge  in  the  walls  of  this  redoubted  fortress, 
wliich  defied  the  siege,  and  wearied  out  the  assailing 
forces.  Guido  di  Montefeltro,  a  famous  Ghibelline 
chieftain,  had  led  a  life  of  bloody  and  remorseless  war- 
fare, in  wliich  he  was  even  more  distinguished  by  craft 
than  by  valour.  He  had  treated  with  contemptuous 
defiance  all  the  papal  censures  wliich  rebuked  and  would 


if  Raynaldus,  sub  ann.  1298.  Dante 
puts  these  words  in  the  mouth  of 
Guido  di  Montefeltro  : — 

*  Lo  prinripe  de  nuovi  Farisei, 

Havendo  guerra  presso  a  Laterano, 


E  non  con  Saracin  ne  con  Giudei ; 

Che  ciascun  sue  nimico  era  Christiano ; 

E  nesauno  era  state  a  vincere  Acri, 

Ne  mercataiite  in  terra  di  Soldano." 

Inferno,  c.  xxvii.  86 

>»  Ptolem.  Lucen.  p.  1219. 


30 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI. 


avenge  his  discomfiture  of  many  papal  generals  and 
the  depression  of  the  Guelfs.  In  an  access  of  devotion, 
now  grown  old,  he  had  taken  the  habit  and  the  vows  of 
St.  Francis,  divorced  his  wife,  given  up  his  wealth,  ob- 
tained remission  of  his  sins,  first  from  Coelestine,  after- 
wards from  Boniface,  and  was  living  in  quiet  in  a 
convent  at  Ancona.^  He  was  summoned  from  his  cell 
on  his  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  and  with  plenary  absolu- 
tion for  his  broken  vows,  commanded  to  inspect  the 
walls,  and  give  his  counsel  on  the  best  means  of  re- 
ducing the  stubborn  citadel.  The  old  soldier  surveyed 
the  impregnable  defences,  and  then,  requiring  still  fur- 
ther absolution  for  any  crime  of  which  he  might  be 
guilty,  uttered  his  memorable  oracle,  "  Promise  largely ; 
keep  little  of  your  promises."  ^  The  large  promises 
were  made  ;  the  Colonnas  opened  their  gates ;  within 
the  prescribed  three  days  appeared  the  two  Cardinals, 
with  others  of  the  house,  Agapeto  and  Sciarra,  not  on 
horseback,  but  more  humbly,  on  foot,  before  the  Pope 
Surrender  of  ^^  Kieti.  They  were  received  with  outward 
Piiestrina.  blanducss,  and  admitted  to  absolution.  They 
afterwards  averred™  that  they  had  been  tempted  to 
surrender  with  the  understanding  that  the  Papal  ban- 
ners were  to  be  displayed  on  the  walls  of  Palestrina ; 


'  Tosti,  the  apologetic  biographer  of 
Boniface  VIII.,  endeavours  to  raise 
some  chronological  difficulties,  which 
amount  to  this,  that  Palestrina  sur- 
rendered in  the  month  of  September, 
and  that  Guido  di  Montefeltro  died  at 
Assisi  (it  might  be  suddenly,  he  was 
an  old  woin-out  man)  on  the  23rd  or 
29th  of  tliat  month, 

^  "  Lunga  promessa,  con  attender 
corto." — Inferno,  xx.  Comment,  di 
Benvenuto  da  Imola  (apud  Murator.\ 


Ferret.  Vicent,  Papinus  (ibid.).  These 
are  Ghibelline  writers ;  this  alone 
throws  suspicion  on  their  authority. 
But  Dante  writes  as  of  a  notorious 
fact.  Tosti's  argument,  which  infers 
from  the  Colonnas'  act  of  humiliation, 
of  which  he  adduces  good  evidence, 
that  the  surrender  was  unconditional, 
is  more  remarkable  for  its  zeal  than  its 
logic. 

"'   In  the  proceedings  before  Clement 
V.  apud  Dupuy. 


Ohap,  VII. 


FLIGHT  OF  THE  COLOXNAS. 


31 


but  that  the  Papal  lionour  once  satisfied,  perhaps  the 
fortifications  dismantled,  the  city  was  to  be  restored  to 
its  lords.  Not  such  was  the  design  of  Boniface.  He 
determined  to  make  the  rebellious  city  an  example  of 
righteous  pontifical  rigour.  He  first  condemned  it  to 
be  no  longer  the  seat  of  a  Bishop ;  then  commanded,  as 
elder  Rome  her  rival  Carthage,  that  it  should  be  utterly 
razed  to  the  ground,  passed  over  by  the  plough,  and 
sown  with  salt,  so  as  never  again  to  be  the  habitation  of 
man."  A  new  city,  to  be  called  the  Papal  city,  was  to 
be  built  in  the  neighbourhood. 

The  Colonnas  found  that  they  had  nothing  to  hope, 
much  to  fear  from  the  Pope,  who  was  thus  destroying, 
as  it  were,  the  lair  of  these  wild  beasts,  whom  he  might 
seem  determined  to  extirpate,  rather  than  permit  to 
resume  any  fragment  of  their  dangerous  power.  Though 
themselves  depressed,  humbled,  they  were  still  formid- 
able by  their  connexions.  The  Pope  accused  them, 
justly  it  might  be  such  desperate  men,  of  meditating 
new  schemes  of  revolt.  The  Annibaleschi,  their  rela- 
tives, a  powerful  family,  had  raised  or  threatened  to 
raise  the  Maremma.  Boniface  seized  John  of  Ceccano 
of  that  house,  cast  him  into  prison,  and  confiscated  all 
his  lands.  The  Colonnas  fled ;  some  found  Flight  of  the 
refuge  in  Sicily;  Stephen  was  received  with  C'^^'*"'^*^- 
honour  in  France.  The  Cardinals  retired  into  obscurity. 
In  France,  too,  after  having  been  taken  by  corsairs, 
arrived  Sciarra  Colonna,  hereafter  to  wreak  the  terrible 
vengeance  of  his  house  upon  the  implacable  Pope. 

Throughout  Italy  Boniface  had  assumed  the   same 


■  "  Ipsamque  aratro  subjici  et  ve- 
neris instar  Carthaginis  Africanae,  ac 
salem  in  cum  et  feci m us  et  mandavi- 


mus  seminari,  ut  nee  rem,  nee  nomen, 
nee  titulum  haberet  eivitatis." — S« 
the  edict  in  Puiynaldus. 


32  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

imperious  dictatorship.  His  aim,  the  suppression  of  the 
interminable  wars  which  arrayed  city  against 
city,  order  against  order,  family  against  family, 
was  not  unbecoming  his  holy  office  ;  but  it  was  in  the 
tone  of  a  master  that  he  commanded  the  world  to 
peace,  a  tone  which  provoked  resistance.  It  was  not 
by  persuasive  influence,  which  might  lull  the  conflicting 
passions  of  men,  and  enlighten  them  as  to  their  real 
interests.  Nor  was  his  arbitration  so  serenely  superior 
to  the  disturbing  impulse  of  Guelfic  and  Papal  am- 
bition as  to  be  accepted  as  an  impartial  award.  The 
depression  of  Ghibellinism,  not  Christian  peace,  might 
seem  liis  ultimate  aim. 

Italy,  however,  was  but  a  narrow  part  of  the  great 
spiritual  realm  over  which  Boniface  aspired  to  maintain 
an  authority  surpassing,  at  least  in  the  plain  boldness 
of  its  pretensions,  that  of  his  most  lofty  predecessors. 
Boniface  did  not  abandon  the  principle  upon  which  the 
Popes  had  originally  assumed  the  right  of  interposing  in 
the  quarrels  of  kings,  their  paramount  duty  to  obey  his 
summons  as  soldiers  of  the  Cross,  and  to  confederate  for 
the  reconquest  of  the  Holy  Land.  But  this  object  had 
shrunk  into  the  background ;  even  among  the  religious, 
the  crusading  passion,  by  being  diverted  to  less  holy 
purposes,  was  wellnigh  extinguished;  it  had  begun 
even  to  revolt  more  than  stir  popular  feehng.  But 
Boniface  rather  rested  his  mandates  on  the  universal, 
and,  as  he  declared,  the  unlimited  supremacy  of  the 
Roman  See. 

The  great  antagonistic  power  wliich  had  so  long 
The  Empire,   wrcstlcd  witli   tlic  Papacv  had  indeed  fallen 

Adolph  of  .  .  .  ^  ^"^  rm        -T-,  • 

Nassau.  mto  comparativc  msignincance.  The  Empire, 
under  Adolph  of  Nassau  (though  acknowledged  as  King 
of  the  Romans  he  had  not  yet  received  the  Imperial 


i^HAP.  VIL  ADOLPH  OF  NASSAU  EMPEBOR,  33 

crown),  had  sunk  from  a  formidable  rival  into  an  object 
of  disdainful  protection  to  the  Pope. 

On  the  deatli  of  Eodolph  of  Hapsbm-g  the  Princes  of 
Germany  dreaded  the  perpetuation  of  the  Empire  in 
that  house,  which  had  united  to  its  Swabian 
possessions  the  great  inheritance  of  Austria. 
Albert  of  Austria,  the  son  of  Eodolph,  was  feared  and 
hated ;  feared  for  his  unmeasured  ambition,  extensive 
dominions,  and  the  stern  determination  with  which  he 
had  put  down  the  continual  insurrections  in  Austria  and 
Styria  ;  hated  for  his  haughty  and  overbearing  manners, 
and  the  undisguised  despotism  of  his  character.  Wenzel, 
King  of  Bohemia,  Albert,  Elector  of  Saxony,  Otho  the 
Long,  Margrave  of  Brandenburg,  were  drawn  together 
by  their  common  apprehensions  and  jealousy  of  the 
Austrian.  The  ecclesiastical  Electors  were  equally 
averse  to  a  hereditary  Emperor,  and  to  one  of  com- 
manding power,  ability,  and  resolution.  But  it  was  not 
easy  to  find  a  rival  to  oppose  to  the  redoubted  Albert, 
who  reckoned  almost  in  careless  security  on  the  suc- 
cession to  the  Empire,  and  had  already  seized 

Mav  1292 

the  regalia  in  the  Castle  of  Trefels.  Siegfried, 
Archbishop  of  Cologne,  suggested  the  name  of  Adolph 
of  Nassau,  a  prince  with  no  qualification  but  intrepid 
valour  and  the  fame  of  some  military  skill,  but  with 
neither  wealth,  territory,  nor  influence.  Gerhard,  the 
subtle  Archbishop  of  Mentz,  seized  the  opportunity  of 
making  an  Emperor  who  should  not  merely  be  the 
vassal  of  the  Church  of  Eome,  but  even  of  the  Church 
in  Germany.  It  was  said  that  he  threatened  severally 
each  elector  that,  if  he  refused  his  vote  for  Adolph,  the 
Archbishop  would  bring  forward  that  Prince  who  would 
be  most  obnoxious  to  each  one  of  them.  Adolph  of 
Nassau  was  chosen  King  of  the  Eomans,  but  he  wa.s 

VOL.  VII.  D 


S4  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

too  poor  to  defray  tlie  cost  of  his  own  coronation :  the 
magistrates  of  Frankfort  opposed  a  tax  which  the  Arch- 
bishop threatened  to  extort  from  the  Jews  of  that  city. 
The  Archbishop  of  Mentz  raised  20,000  marks  of  silver 
on  the  lands  of  his  See  ;  and  so  the  coronation  of 
June  24,  Adolpli  took  placo  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  But 
^^^^-  there  was  no  disinterestedness  in  this  act  of 
the  Archbishop.  The  elevation  of  Adolph  of  Nassau, 
if  it  did  not  begin,  was  the  first  flagrant  example  of  the 
purchase  of  the  Imperial  crown  by  the  sacrifice  of  its 
rights.  The  capitulations  °  show  the  times.  The  King 
of  the  Romans  was  to  compel  the  burghers  of  Mentz  to 
Terras  ex-  pay  a  fiuo  of  6000  marks  of  silver,  imposed 
ArchbiJhop^  upon  them  by  the  Emperor  Rodolph,  for  some 
July  1.  '  act  of  disobedience  to  their  Prelate ;  he  was 
neither  in  act  nor  in  counsel  to  aid  the  burghers  against 
that  Prelate ;  never  to  take  Ulric  of  Hanau  or  Master 
Henry  of  Klingenberg  into  his  counsels,  or  to  show  them 
any  favour,  but  always  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Arch- 
bishop and  of  the  Church  against  these  troublesome 
neighbours :  he  was  to  grant  to  the  Archbishop  certain 
villages  and  districts,  with  the  privilege  of  a  free  city  : 
to  grant  certain  privileges  and  possessions  to  certain 
relatives  of  the  Archbishop ;  to  protect  him  by  his  royal 
favour  against  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  and  all  his 
enemies;  to  grant  the  toll  at  Boppard  on  the  Rhine 
in  perpetuity  to  the  Church  of  Mentz ;  to  pay  all  the 
debts  due  from  the  Archbishop  to  the  Coui-t  of  Rome, 
and  to  hold  the  Archbishop  harmless  from  all  processes 
in  respect  of  such  debts  ;  to  repay  all  charges  incurred 
on  account  of  his  coronation  ;  to  grant  to  the  Archbishop 
the  Imperial  cities  of  Muhlhausen  and  Nordhausen,  and 


o  Wurdtwein.  Diplom.  Moguntiaca,  i.  28. 


Chaf.  VII.  ARCHBISHOP  OF  MENTZ.  35 

to  compel  the  biirgliers  to  take  the  oath  of  fealty  to 
him.  Nor  was  this  all.  Among  the  further  stipulations, 
the  Emperor  was  to  make  over  the  Jews  of  Mentz  (the 
Jews  of  the  Empire  were  now  the  men  of  the  Emperor) 
to  the  Archbishop;  this  superiority  had  been  usurped 
by  the  burghei's  of  Mentz.  The  Emperor  was  not  to 
intermeddle  with  causes  which  belonged  to  the  spiritual 
Courts ;  not  to  allow  them  to  be  brought  before  tem- 
poral tribunals ;  to  leave  the  Archbishop  and  his  clergy, 
and  also  all  his  suffragan  bishops,  in  full  possession 
of  their  immunities  and  rights,  castles,  fortresses,  and 
goods.  One  article  alone  concerned  the  whole  prince- 
dom of  the  Empire.  No  prince  was  to  be  summoned 
to  the  Imperial  presence  without  the  notice  of  fifteen 
weeks,  prescribed  by  ancient  usage.  The  other  eccle- 
siastical electors  were  not  quite  so  grasping  in  their 
demands:  Cologne  and  Treves  were  content  with  the 
cession  of  certain  towns  and  possessions.  Adolph  sub- 
mitted to  all  these  terms,  which,  if  he  had  the  will,  he 
had  hardly  the  power  to  fulfil.^ 

The  Emperor,  who  was  thus  subservient  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Mentz,  was  not  likely  to  offer  any  dangerous 
resistance  to  the  pretensions  of  the  Pope ;  and  to  him 
Pope  Boniface  issued  his  mandates  and  his  inhibitions 
as  to  a  subject.  Adolph  might  at  first  have  held  the 
balance  between  the  conflicting  Kings  of  France  and 
England ;  his  inclinations  or  his  necessities  drove  him 
into  the  partv  of  Eno^land.     He  sent  a  cartel 

A.D.  1294. 

of  defiance  to  the  King  of  France,  to  which 
King  Philip  rejoined,  if  not  insultingly,  with  the  lan- 
guage of  an  equal.     But  the  subtle  as  well  as  haughty 
Philip  revenged  himself  on  the  hostile  Empire  by  taking 


Compare  throughout  Schmidt,  Geschichte  der  Deutscher,  viii.  p.  115,  et  seqq 

D   2 


86 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI. 


more  serious  advantage  of  its  weakness.  The  last  wreck 
of  the  kingdom  of  Aries,  Provence,  became  part  of 
the  kingdom  of  France ;  the  old  county  of  Burgundy, 
Franche  Comte,  by  skilful  negotiations,  was  severed 
from  the  Empire. "^  These  hostile  measures,  and  the 
subsidies  of  England,  were  irresistible  to  the  indigent 
yet  w^arlike  Adolph.  He  declared  himself  the  ally  of 
Edward;  and  when  Boniface  sent  two  Cardinals  to 
command  France  and  England  to  make  peace,  at  the 
same  time  the  Bishops  of  Keggio  and  Sienna  had  in- 
structions to  warn  the  Emperor,  under  the  terror  of 
ecclesiastical  censures,  not  to  presume  to  interfere  in 
the  quarrel.  The  Pope's  remonstrance  was  a  bitter 
insult:  "  Becomes  it  so  great  and  powerful  a 
Prince  to  serve  as  a  common  soldier  for  hire 
in  the  armies  of  England?"'"  But  English  gold  out- 
weighed Apostolic  censure  and  scorn.  In  the  campaign 
in  Flanders  the  Emperor  Adolph  had  2000  knights  in 
arms  on  the  side  and  in  the  pay  of  England.  The  rapid 
successes,  however,  of  the  King  of  France  enabled 
Adolph  at  once  to  fulfil  his  engagements  with  England 
without  much  risk  to  his  subsidiary  troops.  The  Em- 
peror was  included  in  the  peace  to  which  the  two  monarchs 
were  reduced  under  the  arbitration  of  Boniface.^ 

The  reign  of  Adolph  of  Nassau  was  not  long.  Boni- 
face may  have  contributed  unintentionally  to  its  early 
and  fatal  close  by  exacting  the  payment  of  the  debt  due 
from  Gerhard  of  Mentz  to  the  See  of  Rome,  which 
Adolph  was  under  covenant  to  discharge,  but  wanted 
the  will  or  the  power,  or  both.     He  would  not  apply 


1  Leibnitz,  Cod.  G.  Diplom.  x.  No. 
18,  p.  3:^ 

»  Apud  Kaynald.  1295,  No.  45. 
•  'i'be   dociunents  may  be   read  iu 


Kaynaldus  and  in  Rymer,  sub  annis 
Schmidt,  Geschichte  der  Deutscheu, 
viii.  p.  130,  et  seqq. 


Chap.  VII.         DEATH  OF  ADOLPH  OF  NASSAU.  3? 

the  subsidies  of  England  to  this  object.    There  was  deep 
and  sullen  discontent  throughout  Germany. 

At  the  coronation  of  Wenzel  as  King  of  Bohemia, 
Gerhard  of  Mentz  performed  the  solemn  office ;  j^^^  ^ 
thirty-eight  Princes  of  the  Empire  were  pre-  "^^^' 
sent.  Albert  of  Austria  was  lavish  of  his  wealth  and 
of  his  promises.*'  Gerhard  was  to  receive  15,000  marks 
of  silver.  Count  Hageloch  was  sent  to  Eome  to  pur- 
chase the  assent  of  the  Pope  to  the  deposition  of 
Adolph,  and  a  new  election  to  the  Empire.  Boniface 
refused  all  hearing  to  the  offer.  But  Albert  of  Austria 
trusted  to  himself,  his  own  arms,  and  to  the  League, 
which  now  embraced  almost  all  tlie  temporal  and  eccle- 
siastical Princes,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  the  young 
Margrave  of  Brandenburg,  Herman  the  Tall,  the  Am- 
bassadors of  Bohemia  and  Cologne.  Adolph  was  de- 
clared deposed ;  Albert  of  Austria  elected  King  of  the 
Eomans.  The  crimes  alleged  against  Adolph  were  that 
he  had  plundered  churches,  debauched  maidens,  received 
pay  from  his  inferior  the  King  of  England.  He  was 
also  accused  of  having  broken  the  seals  of  letters, 
administered  justice  for  bribes,  neither  maintained  the 
peace  of  the  Empire,  nor  the  security  of  the  public 
roads.  Thrice  was  he  summoned  to  answer,  and  then 
condemned  as  contumacious.  The  one  great  quality  of 
Adolph  of  Nassau,  liis  personal  bravery,  was  his  ruin ; 
he  hastened  to  meet  his  rival  in  battle  near  Worms, 
plunged  fiercely  into  the  fray,  and  was  slain. 

The  crime  of  Adolph's  death  (for  a  crime  it  was  de- 
clared, an  act  of  rebellion,  treason,  and  murder,    j^^y  ^^ 
against   the   anointed   head   of   the   Empire)    ^^^^• 
placed  Albert  of  Austria   at  the  mercy  of  the  Popa 


Schmidt,  p.  137. 


38  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY  Book  XL 

The  sentence  of  excommunication  was  passed,  which 
none  but  the  Pope  could  annul,  and  which,  suspended 
over  the  head  of  the  King  elect  of  the  Romans,  made 
him  dependent,  to  a  certain  degree,  on  the  Pope,  for 
the  validity  of  his  unratified  election,  the  security  of  his 
unconfirmed  throne.  And  so  affairs  stood  till  the  last 
fatal  quarrel  of  Boniface  with  the  King  of  France  made 
the  alliance  of  the  Emperor  not  merely  of  high  advan- 
tage, but  almost  of  necessity.  Albert's  sins  suddenly 
disappeared.  The  perjured  usurper  of  the  Empire,  the 
murderer  of  his  blameless  predecessor,  became  without 
difficulty  the  legitimate  King  of  the  Romans,  the  uncon-' 
tested  Sovereign  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 


Chap.  VUL  DEYELOPMEi^T  OF  ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION.    39 


CHAPTER  VITI. 

Boniface  VIII.     England  and  France. 

If  the  Empire  had  sunk  to  impotence,  almost  to  con- 
tempt, the  kingdoms  of  France  and  England  were  rising 
towards  the  dawn  of  their  future  greatness.  Each  too 
had  begun  to  develope  itself  towards  that  state  wliich  it 
fully  attained  only  after  some  centuries,  England  that 
of  a  balanced  constitutional  realm,  France  that  of  an 
absolute  monarchy.  In  England  the  kingly  England. 
power  was  growing  into  strength  in  the  hands  ofconTtuu^* 
of  the  able  and  vigorous  Edward  I.  ;  but  "°"- 
around  it  were  rising  likewise  those  free  institutions 
which  were  hereafter  to  limit  and  to  strengthen  the 
royal  authority.  The  national  representation  began  to 
assume  a  more  regular  and  extended  form ;  the  Parlia- 
ments were  more  frequent;  the  boroughs  were  con- 
firmed in  their  right  of  choosing  representatives ;  the 
commons  were  taking  their  place  as  at  once  an  acknow- 
ledged and  an  influential  Estate  of  the  realm ;  the  King 
had  been  compelled  more  than  once,  though  reluctantly 
and  evasively,  to  renew  the  gi-eat  charters.'^  The  law 
became  more  distinct  and  authoritative,  but  it  was  not 
the  Roman  law,  but  the  old  common  law  descended 
from  the  Saxon  times,  and  guaranteed  by  the  charters 
wrested  from  the  Norman  kings.  It  grew  up  beside 
the  canon  law  of  the  clergy,  each  rather  avoiding  the 


»  Throughout  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  u.  160,  166. 


40  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

other's  ground,  than  rigidly  defining  its  own  province. 
Edward  was  called  the  Justinian  of  England,  but  it  was 
not  by  enacting  a  new  code,  but  as  framing  statutes 
which  embodied  some  of  the  principles  of  the  common 
law  of  the  kingdom.  The  clergy  were  still  a  separate 
caste,  ruled  by  their  own  law,  amenable  almost  exclu- 
sively to  their  own  superiors ;  but  they  had  gradually 
receded  or  been  quietly  repelled  from  their  co-ordinate 
administration  of  the  affairs  and  the  justice  of  the  realm. 
They  were  one  Estate,  but  in  the  civil  wars  they  had 
been  divided :  some  were  for  the  King,  some  boldly  and 
freely  sided  with  the  Barons ;  and  the  Barons  had  be- 
come a  great  distinct  aristocracy,  whom  the  King  was 
disposed  to  balance,  not  by  the  clergy,  but  by  the 
commons.  The  King's  justices  had  long  begun  to  super- 
sede the  mingled  court  composed  of  the  bishops  and  the 
barons:  some  bishops  sat  as  barons,  not  as  bishops. 
The  civil  courts  were  still  wresting  some  privilege  or 
power  from  the  ecclesiastical.  The  clergy  contended 
obstinately,  but  not  always  successfully,  for  exclusive 
jurisdiction  in  all  causes  relating  to  Church  property, 
or  property  to  which  the  Church  advanced  a  claim,  as 
to  tithes.  There  was  a  slow,  persevering  determination, 
notwithstanding  the  triumph  of  Becket,  to  bring  the 
clergy  accused  of  civil  offences  under  the  judgement  of 
the  King's  courts,  thus  infringing  or  rather  abrogating 
the  sole  cognisance  of  the  Church  over  Churchmen.*' 
It  was  enacted  that  the  clerk  might  be  arraigned  in  the 
King's  court,  and  not  surrendered  to  the  ordinary  till 
the  full  inquest  in  the  matter  of  accusation  had  been 
carried  out.  On  that  the  wliole  estate,  real  and  per- 
sonal, of  the  felon  clerk  might  be  seized.    The  ordinar/ 


*>  See  the  whole  course  of  this  silent  change  in  Hallaui,  ii.  pp.  20-23 


Chap.  VIII. 


FRANCE.- TEE  LAWYERS. 


41 


thus  became  either  the  mere  executioner,  according  to 
the  Church's  milder  form  of  punishment,  of  a  sentence 
passed  by  the  civil  court,  or  became  obnoxious  to  the 
charge  of  protecting,  or  unjustly  acquitting  a  convicted 
felon.  If,  while  the  property  was  thus  boldly  escheated, 
there  was  still  some  reverence  for  the  sacred  person  of 
the  "  anointed  of  the  Lord,"  "^  even  archbishops  will  be 
seen,  before  two  reigns  are  passed,  bowing  their  necks 
to  the  block  (for  treason),  without  any  severe  shock  to 
public  feeling,  or  any  potent  remonstrance  from  the 
hierarchy.  On  the  other  hand,  the  singular  usage,  the 
benefit  of  clergy,  by  expanding  that  benefit  over  other 
classes,  tended  to  mitigate  the  rigour  of  the  penal  law, 
with  but  rare  infi'ingements  of  substantial  justice.'^ 

In  France  the  royal  power  had  grown  up,  checked  by 
no  great  league  of  the  feudal  aristocracy,  limited 
by  no  charter.    The  strong  and  remorseless  rule 
of  Philip  Augustus,  the  popular  virtues  of  Saint  Louis, 
had  lent  lustre,  and  so  brought  power  to  the  throne, 
which  in  England  had  been  degraded  by  the  tyi'annical 
and    pusillanimous  John,  and    enfeebled  by  the    long, 
inglorious  reign  of  Henry  III.    In  France  the  power  of 
the  clergy  might  have  been  a  sufficient,  as  it  was  almost 
the  only  organised  counterpoise  to  the  kingly  preroga- 
tive ;  but  there  had  gradually  risen,  chiefly  in  the  Uni- 
versities, a  new  power,  that  of  the  Lawyers :  r^j^g  La^. 
they  had  begun  to  attain  that  ascendancy  in  y^"^^- 
the  Parliaments  which  grew  into  absolute  dominion  over 
those  assemblies.     But  the  law  which  these  men  ex- 
pounded was  not  like  the  common  law  of  England,  the 


«  The  alleged  Scriptural  groundwork 
of  this  immunity,  "  Touch  not  mine 
anointed,  and  do  my  prophets  no  harm  " 
'Ps.  cv.  15),  was  enshrined  in  the  De- 


cretals as  an  eternal,  irrefragable  axiom. 
^  On  beaefit  of  clergy  read  the  note 
in  Serjeant  Stephen's  Blackstone,  v,  ir, 
p.  466. 


42  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XL 

growth  of  the  foiests  of  Germany,  the  old  free  Teutonic 
usages  of  the  Franks,  but  the  Koman  imperial  law,  of 
which  the  Sovereign  was  the  fountain  and  supreme 
head.  The  clergy  had  allowed  this  important  study  to 
escape  out  of  their  exclusive  possession.  It  had  been 
widely  cultivated  at  Bologna,  Paris,  Auxerre,  and  other 
universities.  The  clergy  had  retired  to  their  own  strong- 
hold of  the  canon  law,  while  they  seemed  not  aware  of 
the  dangerous  rivals  which  were  rising  up  against  them. 
The  Lawyers  became  thus,  as  it  were,  a  new  estate : 
they  lent  themselves,  partly  in  opposition  to  the  clergy, 
partly  from  the  tendency  of  the  Roman  law,  to  the 
assertion  and  extension  of  the  royal  prerogative.  The 
hierarchy  found,  almost  suddenly,  instead  of  a  cowering 
superstitious  people,  awed  by  their  superior  learning, 
trembling  at  the  fulminations  of  their  authority,  a  grave 
intellectual  aristocracy,  equal  to  themselves  in  profound 
erudition,  resting  on  ancient  written  authority,  appeal- 
ing to  the  vast  body  of  the  unabrogated  civil  law,  of 
which  they  were  perfect  masters,  opposing  to  the  canons 
of  the  Church  canons  at  least  of  greater  antiquity.  The 
King  was  to  the  lawyers  what  Csesar  had  been  to  the 
Roman  Empire,  what  the  Pope  was  to  the  Churchmen. 
Caesar  was  undisputed  lord  in  his  own  realm,  as  Christ 
in  his.  The  Pandects,  it  has  been  said,  were  the  gospel 
of  the  lawyers.® 

On  the  thrones  of  these  two  kingdoms,  France  and 
Edward  and     Euo'laud,  sat  two  kiuffs  witli  some  resemblance, 

Philip  the  Fair  .  n  ?     i  •       xi.     • 

before  the  yet  With  somc  marKed  oppugnancy  in  tneir 
Boniface  VIII.  cliaractcrs.  Edward  I.  and  Philip  the  Fair 
were  both  men  of  unmeasured  ambition,  strong  detex- 


•  Compare  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Fran9ais,  vii.  6,  10,  and  the  eloquent  bt    sa 
usual  rather  overwrought  passage  in  Michelet, 


Chap.  VIII.       EDWARD  1.  AJN^D  PHILIP  THE  FAIR.  43 

mination  of  will,  with  mucli  of  the  ferocity  and  the  craft 
of  barbarism  ;  neither  of  them  scrupulous  of  bloodshed 
to  attain  his  ends,  neither  disdainful  of  dark  and  crooked 
policy.  There  was  more  frank  force  in  Edward  ;  he  was 
by  nature  and  habit  a  warlike  prince ;  the  irresistible 
temptation  of  the  crown  of  Scotland  alone  betrayed  him 
into  ungenerous  and  fraudulent  proceedings.  In  Philip 
tlie  Fair  the  gallantry  of  the  French  temperament 
broke  out  on  rare  occasions :  his  first  Flemish  campaigns 
were  conducted  with  bravery  and  skill,  but  Philip  ever 
preferred  the  subtle  negotiation,  the  slow  and  wily  en- 
croachment ;  till  his  enemies  were,  if  not  in  his  power, 
at  least  at  great  disadvantage,  he  did  not  venture  on 
the  usurpation  or  invasion.  In  the  slow  systematic  pur- 
suit of  his  object  he  was  utterly  without  scruple,  without 
remorse.  He  was  not  so  much  cruel  as  altogether  obtuse 
to  human  suffering,  if  necessary  to  the  prosecution  of 
his  schemes ;  not  so  much  rapacious  as,  finding  money 
indispensable  to  his  aggrandisement,  seeking  money  by 
means  of  which  he  hardly  seemed  to  discern  the  in- 
justice or  the  folly.  Never  was  man  or  monarch  so 
intensely  selfish  as  Philip  the  Fair :  his  own  power  was 
his  ultimate  scope ;  he  extended  so  enormously  the  royal 
prerogative,  the  influence  of  France,  because  he  was 
King  of  France.  His  rapacity,  wliich  persecuted  the 
Templars,  his  vindictiveness,  which  warred  on  Boniface 
after  death  as  through  Kfe,  was  this  selfishness  in  other 
forms. 

Edward  of  England  was  considerably  the  older  of  the 
two  Kings.  As  Prince  of  Wales  he  had  shown  great 
ability  and  vigour  in  the  suppression  of  the  Barons' 
wars ;  he  had  rescued  the  endangered  throne.  He  had 
been  engaged  in  the  Crusades ;  his  was  the  last  gleam 
of  romantic  valour  and  enterprise  in  the  Holy  Land, 


44 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI. 


even  if  the  fine  story  of  his  wife  Eleanora  sucking  the 
poison  from  his  wound  was  the  poetry  of  a  later  time. 
On  his  return  from  the  East  he  heard  of  his  father's 
death;  his  journey  through  Sicily  and  Italy  was  the 
triumphant  procession  of  a  champion  of  the  Church; 
the  great  cities  vied  with  each  other  in  the  magnificence 
of  his  reception.  He  had  obtained  satisfaction  for  the 
barbarous  and  sacrilegious  murder  of  his  kinsman,  Henry 
of  Almain,  son  of  Kichard  of  Cornwall,  in  the  cathedral 
of  Viterbo  during  the  elevation  of  the  Host,  by  Guy  de 
Montfort  with  his  brother  Simon.  The  murderer  (Simon 
had  died)  had  been  subjected  to  the  most  rigorous  and 
humiliating  penance.^ 

Since  his  accession  Edward  had  deliberately  adhered 
to  his  great  aim,  the  consolidation  of  the  whole 
British  islands  under  his  sovereignty,  to  the 
comparative  neglect  of  his  continental  possessions.  He 
aspired  to  be  the  King  of  Great  Britain  rather  than  the 
vassal  rival  of  France.  He  had  subdued  Wales ;  he  had 
established  his  suzerainty  over  Scotland ;  he  had  awarded 
the  throne  of  Scotland  to  John  Baliol,  whom  he  was 
almost  goading  to  rebellion,  in  order  to  find  a  pretext 
for  the  subjugation  of  that  kingdom.  Edward,  in  the 
early  part  of  his  reign,  was  on  the  best  terms  with  the 
clergy:  he  respected  them,  and  they  respected  him. 
The  clergy  under  Henry  III.  would  have  ruled  the 
superstitious  King  with  unbounded  authority  had  they 


Nov,  1271. 


'  The  documents  relating  to  this 
strange  murder  are  most  of  them  in 
Rymer  and  in  the  MS.,  B.  M.  Sec 
especially  letter  of  Gregory  X.,  Nov. 
29,  1273.  Guy  sought  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  this  Pope's  pi^sence  at 
Florence:    he   with    his    acco3iplices 


followed  the  Pope  two  miles  out  of  the 
city,  without  shoes,  without  clothes, 
exce[)t  theii-  shirts  and  breeches.  Guy 
threw  himself  at  the  Pope's  feet,  wept 
and  howled,  "  alt  et  bas  sine  tenore." 
On  the  subsequent  fate  of  Guy  of  Mont* 
ort  see  Dr.  Lingard,  vol.  iii.  p.  18(5, 


Chap.  VTII.  EDWARD  I.  A^B  THE  CLERGY.  45 

not  been  involved  in  silent  stubborn  resistance  to  tbe 
See  of  Kome.  Henry,  as  has  been  seen,  heaped  on  them 
wealth  and  honours ;  but  he  offered  no  opposition  to,  he 
shared  in,  their  immoderate  taxation  by  Eome ;  he  did 
not  resist  the  possession  of  some  of  the  richest  benefices 
and  bishoprics  by  foreigners.  If  his  fear  of  the  clergy 
was  strong,  his  fear  of  the  Pope  was  stronger ;  he  was 
only  prevented  from  being  the  slave  of  his  own  eccle- 
siastics because  he  preferred  the  remote  and  no  less 
onerous  servitude  to  Kome.^  But  this  quarrel  of  the 
English  clergy  with  Rome  was  somewhat  reconciled: 
the  short  lives  of  the  later  Popes,  the  vacancy  in  the 
See,  the  brief  Papacy  of  Coelestine,  had  relaxed,  to  some 
extent,  the  demands  of  tenths  and  subsidies.  Edward 
therefore  found  the  hierarchy  ready  to  support  him  in 
his  plans  of  insular  conquest.  John  Peckham,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  accompanied  him  to  Wales,  and 
pronounced  an  excommunication  against  the  rebellious 
princes :  no  voice  was  raised  against  the  cruel  and  igno- 
minious executions  with  which  Edward  secured  and 
sullied  his  conquest.^  Against  the  massacre  of  the 
bards,  perhaps  esteemed  by  the  English  clergy  mere 
barbarians,  if  not  heathens,  there  was  no  remonstrance. 
Among  the  hundred  and  four  judges  appointed  to  ex- 
amine into  the  claims  of  the  competitors  for  the  Scottish 
throne,  Edward  named  twenty-four.  Of  these  were  four 
bishops,  two  deans,  one  archdeacon,  and  some  other 
clergy.  The  Scots  named  eight  bishops  and  several 
abbots.  Edward's  great  financial  measure,  the  remorse- 
less plunder  and  cruel  expatriation  of  the  Jews,  was 
beheld  by  the  clergy  as  a  noble  act  of  Christian  vigour. 


«  We  must  not  forget  his  difficulties  about  Prince  Edmund's  claim  to  Sicily, 
*  Collier,  i.  p.  484. 


46  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

Among  the  cancelled  debts  were  vast  numbers  of  theirs ; 
among  the  plunder  no  inconsiderable  portion  had  been 
Church  property,  pawned  or  sold  by  necessitous  or  irre- 
ligious ecclesiastics.  The  great  wealth  obtained  for  the 
instant  by  the  King  might  stave  off,  they  would  fondly 
hope,  for  some  time,  all  demands  on  the  Church.^ 

If  Edward  of  England  meditated  the  reduction  of  the 
whole  British  islands  under  one  monarchy,  and  had  pur- 
sued this  end  since  his  accession  with  unswerving  deter- 
mination, Philip  the  Fair  coveted  with  no  less  eager 
ambition  the  continental  territories  of  England.  He 
too  aspired  to  be  King  of  all  France,  not  mere  feudal 
sovereign  over  almost  independent  vassals,  but  actual 
ruling  monarch.  He  had  succeeded  in  incorporating 
the  wreck  of  the  kingdom  of  Aries  with  his  own  realm. 
He  had  laid  the  train  for  the  annexation  of  Burgundy : 
his  son  was  affianced  to  the  dauohter  and  heiress  of 
Otho  V.  Edward,  however,  had  given  no  cause  for 
aggression ;  he  had  performed  with  scrupulous  puncti- 
liousness all  the  acts  of  homage  and  fealty  which  the 
King  of  France  could  command  for  the  lands  of  Gascony, 
Guienne,  and  the  other  hereditary  possessions  of  the 
Kings  of  England. 

There  had  been  peace  between  France  and  England 
Long  peace,  ^^r  the  uuusual  pcriod  of  thirty-five  years,  but 
1259  to  1294.  already  misunderstanding  and  jealousies  had 
begun.  Peace  between  two  such  Kings,  in  such  rela- 
tion to  each  other,  in  such  an  age,  could  hardly  be 
permanent.  The  successes  of  Edward  in  his  own 
realm  stimulated  rather  than  a23palled  the  unscrupulous 


i  Hist,  of  Jews,  iii.  258-262.  The 
documents  may  be  read  in  Anglia 
Judaica.  Tovey  says  (p.  244)  whole 
rolls  of  patents  relating  to  their  estates* 


are  still  lemainiiig  in  the  Tower.  Have 
we  not  any  Jewish  antiquaries  to  ex» 
pjore  this  liine  ? 


Chap.  VIII.      QUARREL  OF  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.  41 

ambition  of  Philip.  An  accidental  quarrel  among  the 
mariners  of  the  two  nations  was  the  signal  for  the  ex- 
plosion of  these  smouldering  hostilities.  The  quarrel 
led  to  piratical  warfare,  waged  with  the  utmost  cruelty 
along  the  whole  British  Channel  and  the  western  coast 
of  France.  The  King  of  France  was  only  too  ready  to 
demand  satisfaction.  Edward  of  England,  though  re- 
luctant to  engage  in  continental  warfare,  could  not 
abandon  his  own  subjects ;  yet  so  absorbed  was  Edward 
in  his  own  affairs  that  he  became  the  victim  of  the 
grossest  artifice.  The  first  offenders  in  the  quarrel  had 
been  sailors  of  Edward's  port  of  Bayonne.  It  was  indis- 
pensable for  the  honom-  of  France  that  they  should 
suffer  condign  punishment.  Guienne  must  be  sur- 
rendered for  a  time  to  the  Suzerain,  the  Kino-  of  France, 
that  he  might  exercise  his  unresisted  jurisdiction  over 
the  criminals.  Philip  was  permitted  to  march  into 
Guienne,  and  to  occupy  with  force  some  of  the  strongest 
castles.  On  the  demand  of  restitution  he  laughed  tc 
scorn  the  deluded  Edward ;  negotiations,  remonstrances, 
were  equally  unavailuig.  The  affront  was  too  flagrant 
and  humiliating,  the  loss  too  precious ;  war  seemed  in- 
evitable. Edward,  by  his  heralds,  renounced  his  alle- 
giance ;  he  would  no  longer  be  the  man,  the  vassal,  of 
a  King  who  violated  all  treaties  sworn  to  by  their  com- 
mon ancestors.  But  the  Barons  and  the  Churchmen  of 
England  were  now  averse  to  foreign  wars:  their  sub- 
sidies, their  aids,  their  musters,  were  slow,  reluctant, 
alaiost  refused.  Each  Sovereign  strengthened  himself 
vdth  foreign  allies :  Edward,  as  has  been  said,  sub- 
sidised the  Emperor  Adolph  of  Nassau,  and  entered 
into  a  league  with  the  Counts  of  Flanders  and  of  Bar, 
who  were  prepared  to  raise  tlie  standard  of  revolt 
against   the    Suzerain,    the   King   of  France.      Philip 


48  LATIN  CnRISTIANITT.  Book  Xl 

entered  into  hardly  less  dangerous  correspondence  v/ith 
the  opponents  of  Edward's  power  in  Scotland.'' 

So  stood  affairs  between  the  kingdoms  of  France  and 

Accession  of  England  at  the  accession  of  Boniface  VIII. 

Dec.  1294.  Philip  had  now  overrun  the  whole  of  Gascony, 
and  Edward  had  renounced  all  allegiance,  and  declared 
that  he  would  hold  his  Aquitanian  possessions  without 
fealty  to  the  King  of  France ;  but  the  Seneschal  of 
Gascony  had  been  defeated  and  was  a  prisoner.™  Duke 
John  of  Brabant  had  risen  in  rebellion  against  the  King 
of  France  ;  he  had  been  compelled  to  humiliating  sub- 
mission by  Charles  of  Valois.  Almost  the  first  act  of 
Boniface  was  to  command  peace.  Berard,  Cardinal 
Bishop  of  Alba,  and  Simon,  Cardinal  Bishop  of  Pales- 
trina,  were  sent  as  Legates,  armed  with  the  power  of 
releasing  from  all  oaths  or  obligations  which  might 
stand  in  the  way  of  pacification,  and  of  inflicting  eccle- 
siastical censures,  without  appeal,  upon  all,  of  whatso- 
ever degree,  rank,  or  condition,  who  should  rebel  against 
their  authority."  The  Cardinals  crossed  to  England; 
they  were  received  in  a  full  Parliament  at  Westminster. 
The  King  of  England  ordered  his  brother  Edmund  and 
John  de  Lacy  to  explain  the  causes  of  the  war,  his 
grievances  and  insults  endured  from  the  King  of  France. 
The  Cardinals  peremptorily  insisted  on  peace.  Edward 
replied  that  he  could  not  make  peace  without  the  con- 
currence of  his  ally  the  King  of  the  Komans.  The  Car- 
dinals urged  a  truce ;  this  Edward  rejected  with  equal 
determination.  They  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  sailing 
of  Edward's  fleet,  already  assembled  in  the  ports  of  the 


•»  Documents  in  l.'ymer,  sub  ann.  1294.    Walsingham,  61.     Huidb,  Edwanl  1 
■»  Joidiiiius  apui  Raynald.     Matt.  Westmonast.  sub  aon. 
"  Instruct  ions  in  liaynald.  sub  ann.  7295. 


CHAP.  VIII  BONIFACE  COMMANDS  A  TEUCE.  49 

island.  Edward  steadily  refused  even  that  concession. 
But  Boniface  was  not  so  to  be  silenced ;  he  declared  all 
existing  treaties  of  alliance  null  and  void,  and  peremp- 
torily enjoined  a  truce  from  St.  John  Baptist's  June  24, 
day  until  the  same  festival  in  the  ensuing  1296!  '^ 
year.^  To  Edward  he  wrote  expressing  his  surprise  and 
grief  that  he,  who  in  his  youth  had  waged  only  holy 
wars  against  unbelievers,  sliould  fall  off  in  his  mature 
age  into  a  disturber  of  the  peace  of  Christendom,  and 
feel  no  compunction  at  the  slaughter  of  Christians  by 
each  other.  He  wrote,  as  has  been  told,  in  more 
haughty  and  almost  contemptuous  language  to  the 
King  of  the  Eomans;  he  reproached  him  for  serving 
as  a  base  mercenary  of  the  King  of  England:  the 
King  of  the  Komans,  if  disobedient,  could  have  uq 
hope  or  claim  to  the  Imperial  Crown ;  obedient,  hp 
might  merit  not  only  the  praise  of  man,  but  the 
favour  and  patronage  of  the  Apostolic  See.  The 
Archbishop  of  Mentz  was  commanded  to  give  no  aid 
whatever  to  the  King  of  the  Komans  in  this  unholy 
war ;  on  Adolph  too  was  imperatively  urged  the  truce 
for  a  year.P 

The  Cardinal  Legates,  Alba  and  Palestrina,  discou- 
raged by  their  reception  in  England,  did  not  venture 
to  appear  before  the  more  haughty  and  irascible  Philip 
of  France  with  the  Pope's  imperious  mandate  ;  they 
assumed  that  the  truce  for  a  year,  enjoined  by  the  Pope, 
would  find  obsequious  observance.  Boniface  did  not 
think  fit  to  rebuke  their  judicious  prudence ;  but  of  his 
own  supreme  power  ordered  that  on  the  expiration  of 


o  Raynald.  sub  ann.  1296. 
^  Letters  apud  Riyuald.  1295.    The 
Nuncios  in  Germany,  the  Bishops  of 


Iieggio  and  Sienna,  had  full  powers  to 
release  from  all  oaths  and  treaties.  See 
above,  p.  36. 


VOL.  VIT  E 


50  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  15ook  XI. 

the  first  year  the  truce  should  be  continued  for  two 
years  longer /i 

The  blessings  of  peace,  the  league  of  all  Christian 
princes  against  the  Infidel,  might  be  the  remote  and 
splendid  end  which  Boniface  either  had  or  thought  he 
had  in  view  in  his  confident  assertion  of  his  inhibitory 
powers,  and  his  right  of  interposing  in  the  quarrels  of 
Christian  princes.     But  there  was  one  immediate  and 
pressing  evil  which  could  not  well  escape  his  sagacity. 
Such  wars  could  no  longer  be  carried  on  without  the 
Taxation  of   taxatiou  of  tliG  clcrgy.     Not  merely  was  the 
the  clergy.     Pope  the  suprcme  guardian  of  this  inestimable 
reSof^     immunity,  freedom  from  civil  assessments,  but 
war.  1^  ^g^g  impossible  that  the  clergy  either  could 

or  would  endure  the  double  burthens  imposed  on  them 
by  their  own  Sovereigns  and  by  the  See  of  Rome.  All 
the  subjects  of  the  Roman  See,  as  they  owed,  if  not  ex- 
clusive, yet  superior  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  so  their 
vast  possessions  must  be  tributary  to  him  alone,  at  least 
his  permission  must  be  obtained  for  contributions  to 
secular  purposes.  Wars,  even  if  conducted  on  the  per- 
fect feudal  principle  (each  Lord,  at  the  summons  of  the 
Crown,  levying,  arming,  bringing  into  the  field,  and 
maintaining  his  vassals  at  his  own  cost),  w^ere  neces- 
sarily conducted  with  much  growing  expense  for  muni- 
tions of  war,  military  engines,  commissariat  however 
imperfect,  vessels  for  freight,  if  in  foreign  lands.  But 
the  principle  of  feudalism  had  been  weakened ;  war 
ceased  to  be  the  one  noble,  the  one  not  ignominious 
calling,  the  duty  and  privilege  of  the  aristocracy  at  the 
head  of  their  retainers.      No  sooner   had  agriculture, 


1  The  Bull  in  Raynalius  (1296,  No.  19),  addressed  to  Adolph,  King  of  the 
Komaiis^ 


Chap.  VIII.  STATUTE  OF  MORTMAIN.  51 

commerce,  manufactures,  become  respectable  and  lucra- 
tive ;  no  sooner  must  armies  be  raised  and  retained  on 
service,  even  in  part,  by  regular  pay,  than  the  cost  of 
keeping  such  armies  on  foot  began  to  augment  beyond 
all  proportion.  The  ecclesiastics  wlio  held  Knights' 
Fees  were  bound  to  furnish  their  quota  of  vassals ;  they 
did  often  fm-nish  them  with  tolerable  regularity ;  they 
had  even  appeared  often,  and  still  appeared,  at  the 
head  of  their  contingent;  yet  there  must  have  been 
more  difficulty,  more  frequent  evasion,  more  dispute  as 
to  liability  of  service,  as  the  land  of  the  realm  fell  more 
and  more  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy.  Though  the 
great  Statute  of  Mortmain,  enacted  by  succes-  statute  of 
sive  Kings,  the  first  bold  limitary  law  to  the  ^o'"^"^^'«- 
all-absorbing  acquisition  of  land  by  the  clergy,  may 
have  been  at  first  more  directly  aimed  at  other  losses 
sustained  by  the  Crown,  when  estates  were  held  by 
ecclesiastic  or  monastic  bodies,  such  as  reliefs  upon  suc- 
cession, upon  alienation,  upon  wardships  and  marriages, 
which  could  not  arise  out  of  lands  held  by  perpetual 
corporations  and  corporations  perpetuated  by  ecclesi- 
astical descent ;  yet  among  the  objects  sought  by  that 
Statute  must  have  been  that  the  Crown  should  be  less 
dependent  on  ecclesiastical  retainers  in  time  of  war. 

The  Mortmain  Statute,^  of  which  the  principle  was 
established  by  the  Great  Charter,  only  applied  to  reli- 
gious houses.  The  second  great  Charter  of  Henry  III. 
comprehended  the  whole  Hierarchy,  Bishops,  Chapters, 
and  Beneficiaries.  The  Statute  of  Edward  endeavoured 
to  strike  at  the  root  of  the  evil,  and  prohibited  the  re- 
ceiving land  in  mortmain,  whether  by  gift,  bequest,  on 
any  other  mode ;  the  penalty  was  the  forfeiture  of  thi* 


'  7th  Edward  I.     Compare  Hallam,  ii.  p    24. 


62  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XL 

land  to  the  Lord,  in  default  of  the  Lord  to  the  King, 
But  the  law,  or  the  interpretation  of  the  law,  was  still 
in  the  hands  or  at  the  command  of  the  clergy,  who  were 
the  only  learned  body  in  the  realm.  Ingenious  devices 
were  framed,  fictitious  titles  to  the  original  fief,  fraudu- 
lent or  collusive  acknowledgements,  refusal  or  neglect 
to  plead  on  the  part  of  the  tenant,  and  so  recoveries  of 
the  land  by  the  Church,  as  originally  and  indefeasibly 
its  own ;  afterwards  grants  to  feofiees  in  perpetuity,  or 
for  long  terms  of  years,  for  the  use  of  religious  houses 
or  ecclesiastics.  It  required  two  later  Statutes,  that  of 
Westmmster  under  Edward  I.  (in  his  eighteenth  year), 
finally  that  of  Richard  II.  (in  his  fifteenth  year),  before 
the  skill  and  ingenuity  of  this  hierarchical  invasion 
of  property  was  finally  baffled,  and  an  end  put  to  the 
all-absorbing  aggression  of  the  Church  on  the  land  of 
England.^ 

The  Popes  themselves  had,  to  a  certain  extent,  given 
tlie  authority  and  the  precedent  in  the  direct  taxation 
of  the  clergy  for  purposes  of  war ;  but  these  were  for 
holy  wars.  Sovereigns,  themselves  engaged  in  crusades, 
or  who  allowed  crusades  to  be  preached  and  troops 
raised  and  armed  in  their  dominions  for  that  sacred 
object,  occasionally  received  grants  of  twentieths,  tenths, 
or  more,  on  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  for  this  religious 
use.  In  many  instances  the  Sovereigns,  following  the 
examples,  as  was  believed,  of  the  Popes  themselves,  had 
raised  the  money  under  this  pretext  and  applied  it  to 
their  own  more  profane  purposes,  and  thus  had  learned 
to  look  on  ecclesiastical  property  as  by  no  means  so 
sacred,  to  hold  the  violation  of  its  peculiar  exemptions 
very  far  from  the  impious  sacrilege  which  it  had  been 

>  Blackstone,  ii.  cL.  18. 


Chap.  VIII.        INEVITABLE  RESULTS  OF  WAR.  53 

asserted  and  believed  to  be  in  more  superstitious  times. 
But  all  subsidies,  wliich  in  latter  years  had  begun  to  be 
granted  in  England,  at  least  throughout  the  reign  of 
Henry  III.,  had  been  held  to  be  free  gifts,  voted  by  the 
clergy  themselves  in  their  own  special  Synods  or  Con- 
vocations. Now,  however,  these  voluntary  subsidies, 
suggested  by  the  King's  friends  among  the  clergy,  but 
liable  to  absolute  refusal,  had  grown  into  imperative  ex- 
actions. Edward,  as  his  necessities  became  more  urgent, 
from  his  conquests,  his  intrigues,  his  now  open  invasion 
of  Scotland,  and  the  impending  war  with  France,  could 
not,  if  he  hoped  for  success,  and  was  not  disposed  from 
any  overweening  terror  of  the  spiritual  power,  to  permit 
one-third  or  one-half*  (if  we  are  to  believe  some  state- 
ments), at  all  events  a  very  large  portion  of  the  realm, 
to  withhold  its  contribution  to  the  public  service.  The 
wealth  of  tlie  clergy,  the  facility  with  which,  if  he  once 
got  over  his  religious  fear  and  scruples,  such  taxes  could 
be  levied  ;  the  natural  desire  of  forestalling  the  demands 
of  Kome,  which  so  fatally,  according  to  the  economic 
views  of  the  time,  drained  the  land  of  a  large  portion  of 
its  wealth ;  perhaps  his  own  mistaken  policy  in  expelling 
the  Jews,  and  so  inflicting  at  once  a  heavy  blow  on  the 
trade  of  the  country,  and  depriving  him  of  a  wealthy 
class  whom  he  might  have  plundered  in  a  more  slow 
and  productive  manner  without  remorse,  resistance,  or 
remonstrance  ;  all  conspired  to  urge  the  King  on  his 
course.  Certainly,  whatever  his  motives,  his  wants,  or 
his  designs,  Edward  had  already  asserted,  in  various 
ways  and  in  the  boldest  manner,  his  right  to  tax  the 
clergy,  had  raised  the  tax  to  an  unprecedented  amount, 


*  See  the  passage  in  Turnei-'s  Hist,  of  England,  in  a  future  Xote.    This  s'jbject 
^ill  be  discussed  hereafter. 


54 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XJ.. 


and  showed  that  lie  would  hesitate  at  no  means  to 
enforce  his  demands.  He  had  obtained  from  Pope 
Nicolas  IV.  (about  1291)  a  grant  of  the  tenth  of  the 
whole  ecclesiastical  property,  under  the  pretext  of  an 
expedition  to  the  Holy  Land,  a  pretext  which  the  Pope 
would  more  easily  admit  from  a  Prince  who  had  already 
displayed  his  zeal  and  valour  in  a  Crusade,  and  of  which 
Edward  himself,  after  the  subjugation  of  Wales  and 
Scotland  and  the  security  of  his  French  dominions, 
might  remotely  contemplate  the  fulfilment.  This  grant 
was  assessed  on  a  new  valuation,"  enforced  on  oath,  and 
which  probably  raised  to  a  great  amount  the  value  of 
the  Church  property,  and  so  increased  the  demands  of 
the  King,  and  aggravated  the  burthens  of  the  clergy .'^ 
By  another  more  arbitrary  act,  before  his  war  in 
Guienne,  Edward  had  appointed  Commissioners  to 
make  inquisition  into  the  treasuries  of  all  the  religious 
houses  and  chapters  in  the  realm.     Not  only  were  these 


"  This  valuation  was  maintained,  as 
that  on  which  all  ecclesiastical  pro- 
perty was  assessed,  till  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII.  It  was  published  in  1802 
by  the  Record  Commission,  folio. 

»  In  the  MS.,  B.  M.,  sub  ann.  1278, 
vol.  xiii.,  is  an  account  of  the  "Socie- 
tas "  of  the  Ricardi  of  Florence,  for 
tenths  collected  in  England.  The 
total  sum  (the  details  of  each  diocese 
are  given,  but  some,  as  Canterbury  and 
London,  do  not  appear)  is  11,035/., 
xiv.  solidi,  3  denarii.  The  bankers 
undertake  to  deliver  the  same  in  Lon- 
don or  any  place,  "  ultra  et  citra 
mare."  They  take  upon  themselves 
all  risks  of  pillage,  theft,  violence,  fire, 
or  shipwreck.  Whence  their  profits 
do  not  appear.  "  E  io  Rainieri  sopra- 
dito  con  U  mia  mano  abo  inscrito  quie 


di  sotto,  e  messo  lo  mio  sugello,  con 
quelo  dela  compagnia."  Other  signa- 
tures follow.  In  a  later  account,  after 
the  valuation  of  Nicolas  IV.,  dated 
Aug.  30,  vol.  XV.,  the  whole  property, 
with  the  exception  of  the  goods  of  the 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Lincoln, 
and  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  is  set 
at  204,143/.  19s.  2d.  et  oboli ;  the 
tenth,  20,404/.  19s.  2d.  et  oboli. 
Wintou  and  Lincoln,  3977/.  15s.  7d. 
&c. ;  tenth,  397/.  15s.  Sd.  10  oboli. 
Christ  Church,  355/.  9s.  2d. ;  tenth, 
35/.  10s.  lid.  Special  tax  on  plurali- 
ties, 73/.  19s.  lid.  I.  Totiil  collected, 
20,855/.  7s.  3c?.  In  another  place, 
the  Dean  of  St  Paul's  as  treasurer 
(vol.  xiii.  p.  110),  accounts  for  the 
sum  of  3135/.  7s.  3c?.  1,  arrears  fot 
three  yeari. 


Chap.  VIII.  EDWARD'S  NECESSITIES.  65 

religious  houses  in  possession  of  considerable  accumula- 
tions of  wealth,  but  they  were  the  only  banks  of  deposit 
in  which  others  could  lay  up  their  riches  in  security. 
All  these  sums  were  enrolled  in  the  Exchequer,  and, 
under  the  specious  name  of  loans,  carried  off  for  the 
King's  use. 

But  with  the  King's  necessities,  the  King's  demands 
grew  in  urgency,  frequency,  imperiousness. 
It  was  during  the  brief  Pontificate  of  Coeles- 
tine  v.,  when  Kobert  of  Winchelsea,  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  was  at  Kome  to  receive  his  pall  from  the 
hands  of  the  Pope,  that  the  King  in  a  Parliament  at 
Westminster  demanded  of  the  clergy  a  subsidy  of  half 
of  their  annual  revenue.  The  clergy  were  confounded ; 
they  entreated  permission  to  retire  and  consult  on  the 
grave  question.  William  Montfort,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
was  chosen  to  persuade  the  King  to  desist  from,  or  at 
least  to  reduce  his  demand  to  some  less  exorbitant 
amount.  The  Dean  had  hardly  begun  his  ^^^ 
speech,  when  he  fell  dead  at  the  feet  of  the 
King.  Edward  was  unmoved;  he  might  perhaps  turn 
the  natural  argument  of  the  clergy  on  themselves,  and 
treat  the  death  of  Montfort  as  a  judgement  of  God  upon 
a  refractory  subject.  He  sent  Sir  John  Havering  to 
the  Prelates,  who  were  still  shut  up  in  the  royal  palace  at 
Westminster.  The  Knight  was  to  proclaim  that  who- 
ever opposed  the  King's  will  was  to  come  forth  and  dis- 
cover himself;  and  that  the  King  would  at  once  proceed 
against  him  as  a  disturber  of  the  public  peace.  The 
spirit  of  Becket  prevailed  not  among  the  Prelates  ;  no 
one  would  venture  to  put  to  the  test  the  stern  and 
determined  Edward.  They  submitted  with  ungracious 
reluctance,  in  hopes  no  doubt  that  their  Primate  would 
soon  appear  among  them ;  and  that  he,  braced,  as  h 


56 


LATIN  CHUISTIANITl.:. 


Book  XI. 


were,  by  the  air  of  Home,  would  bear  the  bruut  of  o^Dpo- 
sition  to  the  King  J 

If  the  necessities  of  Edward  drove  him  to  these  strong 
measures  against  the  clergy  of  England,  the  French 
hierarchy  had  still  more  to  dread  from  the  insatiable 
rapacity  and  wants  of  Philip  the  Fair.  That  rapacity, 
the  remorseless  oppression  of  the  whole  people  by  the 
despotic  monarch,  and  his  loss  of  their  loyal  affection, 
was  now  so  notorious  that  the  Pope,  in  one  of  his  letters 
to  the  King,  speaks  of  it  as  an  admitted  fact/  Philip 
had  as  yet  been  engaged  in  no  expensive  wars ;  his 
court  might  indulge  in  some  coarse  pomp  and  luxury ; 
yet  trade  might  have  flourished,  even  arts  and  manufac- 
tures might  have  been  introduced  from  Flanders  and 
Italy,  but  for  the  stern  and  exterminating  measures  of 
his  rude  finance.  His  coffers  were  always  filling,  never 
full ;  and  he  knew  no  way  of  raising  a  revenue  but 
by  direct  and  cruel  extortion,  exercised  by  himself,  or 
by  his  farmers  of  the  taxes  under  his  seal  and  authority. 
Two  Italian  bankers,  the  brothers  Biccio  and  Musciatto 
dei  Francesi,  possessed  his  entire  confidence,  and  were 
armed  with  his  unlimited  powers.  But  the  taxes  wrung 
from  the  tenants  of  the  crown,  from  the  peasants  to 
whom  they  left  not  the  seed  for  the  future  harvest,  were 
soon  exhausted,  and  of  course  diminished  with  every 
year  of  intolerable  burthen:  other  sources  of  wealth 
must  be  discovered. 

The  Jews  were  the  first ;  their  strange  obstinacy  in 
money-making  made  them  his  perpetual  victims.   Philip 


y  Compare  Collier,  Ecc.  Hist.  i.  p. 
493,  folio  edit. 

*  "  Ipsi  quidem  subditi  adoo  sunt 
diversis  oneribus  aggvavati,  quod  co- 
rum  ad  te  solita  et  subjecta  multum 


putatur  infriguisse  devotio,  et  quanto 
amplius  aggravantur,  tanto  potius  in 
posterum  refrigescat."  —  Ad  Philip. 
Reg.     Dupuy,  p.  16. 


Chap.  VIII. 


RAPACITY  OF  PHILIP. 


57 


might  seem  to  feed  them  up  by  his  favour  to  become 
a  richer  sacrifice :  *  he  sold  to  particular  per- 

„  .  T  -,    -,  The  Jews. 

sons  acts  oi  security ;  he  exacted  large  sums 
as  though  he  would  protect  them  in  fair  trade  from 
their  communities.     At  length  after  some  years  of  this 
plundering  and   pacifying,  came  the  fatal  blow,  their 
expulsion  from  the  realm   with   every  aggravation  of 
cruelty,  the  seizure  and  confiscation  of  their  property.^ 
What   is  more   strange,   the   persecuted   and 
exiled  Jews  were  in  five  years  rich  and  nume- 
rous   enough  to    tempt  a  second  expulsion,  a  second 
confiscation. 

But  in  France  the  Jews  had  formidable  commercial 
rivals  in  the  Italian  bankers.  Philip  respected  wealthy 
Christians  no  more  than  wealthy  misbelievers.  The 
whole  of  these  peaceful  and  opulent  men  Mayi, 
were  seized  and  imprisoned  on  the  charge  ^^^^' 
of  violating  the  laws  against  usury ;  and  to  warn  them 
from  that  unchristian  practice,  they  were  mercifully 
threatened  wdth  the  severest  tortures,  to  be  escaped 
only  on  the  payment  of  enormous  mulcts.*'  Some  re- 
sisted ;  but  the  gaolers  had  their  orders  to  urge  upon 
the  weary  prisoners  the  inflexible  determination  of  the 
King.  Most  of  them  yielded  ;  but  they  fled  the  inhos- 
pitable realm ;  and  if  they  left  behind  much  of  their 
actual  wealth,  they  carried  with  them  their  enterprise 
and  industry.*^  The  Francesis,  Philip's  odious  financiers, 
derived  a  double  advantage  from  their  departm-e,  the 


■  In  1288  he  forbade  the  arbitraiy 
imprisonment  of  the  Jews  at  the  desire 
of  any  monk.  This  seems  to  have 
been  a  common  practice. 

b  Hist,  of  Jews,  iii.  p.  206-7. 

•  Villani,  vii.  c.  146. 


^  Villani  (vii.  146).  The  commer- 
cial Florentine  sees  the  niin  of  France 
in  this  ill  usage  of  the  Italian  bankers. 
"  Onde  fu  multo  ripresso,  e  d'  allora 
innanzi  lo  reame  di  Francin  sempre 
ando  abbassando." 


58  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  SI 

plunder  of  their  riches  and  the  monopoly  of  all  the 
internal  trade,  which  had  been  carried  on  by  their 
exiled  countrymen,  with  the  sole  liberty  no  doubt  of 
violating  with  impunity  the  awful  laws  against  usury. 
Philip  even  had  strength  and  daring  to  plunder  his 
Nobles.  Under  the  pretext  of  a  sumptuary 
law,  which  limited  the  possession  of  such 
pompous  indulgences  to  those  few  who  possessed  more 
than  six  thousand  livres  tournois^  of  annual  revenue, 
he  demanded  the  surrender  of  all  their  gold  and  silver 
plate,  it  was  averred,  only  for  safe  custody;  but  that 
which  reached  the  royal  treasury  only  came  out  in  the 
shape  of  stamped  coin.  This  stamped  coin  was  greatly 
inferior,  in  weight  and  from  its  alloy,  to  the  current 
money.  The  King  could  not  deny  or  dissemble  the 
iniquity  of  this  transaction  ;  he  excused  it  from  the 
urgent  necessities  of  the  kingdom  ;  promised  that  the 
treasury  would  reimburse  the  loss ;  that  the  royal  ex- 
chequer would  receive  the  coin  at  its  nominal  value; 
and  even  promised  to  pledge  the  royal  domains  as 
security.  But  Philip's  promises  in  affairs  of  money 
were  but  specious  evasions.^ 

As  an  order,  the  clergy  of  France  had  not  been  sub- 
jected to  any  direct  or  special  taxation  under 
the  name  of  voluntary  subsidy ;  but  Philip  had 
shown  on  many  occasions  no  pious  respect  for  the  goods 
of  the  Church  ;  he  had  long  retained  the  estates  of 
vacant  bishoprics.  Their  time  could  not  but  come. 
Philip  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign  had  struck  a  fatal 
blow  against  the  clergy,  of  which  the  clergy  itself,  not 
then  ruled  by  Boniface,  perhaps  hardly  discerned  the 


«  Equal,  it  is  calculated,  to  72,000  francs,  irobably  much  more. 
*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  May,  1295. 


Chap.  VIII.    EXPULSIONS'  OF  CLERGY  FROM  THE  COURTS.      59 

bearings  even  on  the  future  inevitable  question  of  their 
taxation  by  the  state.  He  banished  the  clergy  from  the 
whole  administration  of  the  law  :  expelled  them  from 
the  courts,  from  that  time  forth  to  be  the  special  and 
undisputed  domain  of  their  rivals  and  future  foes,  the 
civil  lawyers.  An  Ordinance  commanded  all  dukes, 
counts,  barons,  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots,  chapters, 
who  had  jurisdiction,  to  commit  the  exercise  of  that 
jurisdiction  to  bailiffs,  provosts,  and  assessors,  not  eccle- 
siastics. The  pretext  was  specious,  that  if  such  men 
abused  their  power,  they  could  be  punished  for  the 
abuse.  It  was  also  forbidden  to  all  chapters  and  monas- 
teries to  employ  an  ecclesiastic  as  proctor.  Another 
Ordinance  deprived  the  clergy  of  the  right  of  being 
elected  as  provost,  mayor,  sheriff  (echevin),  or  municipal 
councillor.  Bishops  could  only  sit  in  the  Eoyal  Parlia- 
ment by  permission  of  the  President.^ 

Still  up  to  this  time  the  clergy  had  not  been  subjected 
to  the  common  assessments.  The  first  taxa-  Taxation  of 
tion,  which  bore  the  odious  name  of  the  mal-  ^^^'^^^' 
tote  (the  ill  assessed  and  ill  levied),  respected  them.^ 
It  had  fallen  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively,  on  the  traders. 
But  whether  emboldened  by  the  success  of  his  rival 
Edward  in  England,  or  knowing  that,  if  Edward  wielded 
the  wealth  of  the  English  clergy,  he  must  wield  that  of 
France,  in  the  now  extraordinary  impost  the  impartial 
assessment  comprehended  ecclesiastics  as  well  as  the 
laity. 

Boniface  YIII.,  with  all  his  ability  and  sagacity,  was 
possessed  even  to  infatuation  with  the  conviction  of 
the  unlimited,  irresistible  powder  of  the  Papacy.  He 
determined,  once  for  all,  on  the  broadest,  boldest,  most 


«  Oidonnances  des  Rois,  1287-1289.  ^  Sub  anu.  1292. 


60  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

uncontestable  ground  to  bring  to  issue  this  inevitable 
question  ;  to  sever  the  property  of  the  Church  from  all 
secular  obligations  ;  to  declare  himself  the  one  exclusive 
trustee  of  all  the  lands,  goods,  and  properties,  held 
throughout  Christendom  by  the  clergy,  by  monastic 
bodies,  even  by  the  universities :  and  that,  without  his 
consent,  no  aid,  benevolence,  grant,  or  subsidy  could  be 
raised  on  their  estates  or  possessions  by  any  temporal 
sovereign  in  the  world.  Such  is  the  full  and  distinct 
The  Bull  sense  of  the  famous  Bull  issued  by  Boniface 
LaicoT"  at  the  commencement  of  the  second  year  of 
his  Pontificate.  "  The  laity,  such  is  the  witness  of  all 
antiquity,  have  been  ever  hostile  to  the  clergy :  recent 
experience  sadly  confirms  this  truth.  They  are  igno- 
rant that  over  ecclesiastical  persons,  over  ecclesiastical 
property,  they  have  no  power  whatever.  But  they  have 
dared  to  exact  both  from  the  secular  and  the  regular 
clergy  a  twentieth,  a  tenth,  half  of  their  revenue,'  and 
applied  the  money  to  their  own  secular  uses.  Some 
base  and  time-serving  prelates  have  been  so  dastardly 
as  to  submit  to  these  wicked  exactions."  The  prohi- 
bition of  the  Pope  was  as  particular  and  explicit  as 
could  be  framed  in  words :  "On  no  title,  on  no  plea, 
under  no  name,  was  any  tax  to  be  levied  on  any  pro- 
perty of  the  Church,  without  the  distinct  permission  of 
the  Pope.  Every  layman  of  whatever  rank,  emperor, 
king,  prince,  duke,  or  their  officers,  who  received  such 
money,  was  at  once  and  absolutely  under  excommuni- 
cation ;  they  could  only  be  absolved,  under  competent 
authority,  at  the  hour  of  death.     Every  ecclesiastic  who 


>  This  seems  aimed  directly  at  Edward  I.  It  was  believed  in  England  that 
the  bull  was  obtained  by  the  influence  of  the  English  primate,  Robert  of  Win- 
Chelsea,  then  at  Rome. 


Chap  YIU.  PAELIAMEXT  AT  BUEY.  61 

submitted  to  such  taxation  was  at  once  deposed,  and 
incapable  of  holding  any  benefice.  The  Universities 
wliich  should  so  offend  were  under  interdict."^ 

But  the  Kings  of  France  and  England  were  not  so 
easily  appalled  into  acquiescence  in  a  claim  England. 
v/hich  either  smote  their  exchequer  with  bar-  ^•^-  ^^^^• 
renness,  or  reduced  them  to  dependence  not  only  on 
their  own  subjects,  but  also  on  the  Pope.     It  gave  to 
the  Pontiff  of  Kome  the  ultimate  judgement  on  war  and 
peace  between  nations.     Edward  had  gone  too  far :  he 
had  derived  too  much  advantage  from  the  subsidies  of 
the  clergy  to  abandon  that  fruitful  source  of  revenue. 
The  year  after  the  levy  of  one-half  of  the  income  of  the 
clergy,  a  Parliament  met  at  St.  Edmondsbury.  parliament 
The    laity   granted    a   subsidy;    the   clergy,  ^'^^^''y- 
pleading  their  inability,  as  drained  by  the  payment  of 
the  last  year,  or  emboldened  by  the  presence  of  the 
Primate  Eobert  of  Winchelsea,  refused  all  further  grant. 
The  King   allowed  time   for   deliberation,  but  in   the 
mean  time  with  significant  precaution  ordered  locks  to 
be  placed  on  all  their  barns,  and  that  they  should  be 
sealed  with  the  King's  seal.    The  Archbishop  at  once  com- 
manded the  Bull  of  Pope  Boniface  to  be  read  publicly  in 
all  the   cathedral  churches  of  the  realm ;  but  the  barns 
did  not  fly  open  at  the  bidding  of  the  great  enchanter. 
The  Primate   summoned  a  provincial  Synod  coundiat 
or  Convocation  of  the  Clergy,  to  meet  in  St.  ^^-  •^^'^^'^• 
Paul's,  London.     The  King  sent  an  order  warning  the 
Synod   against  making   any  constitution  which  might 
infringe   on   his   prerogative,  or  which  might  turn  to 
"  the  disadvantage  of  us,  our  ministers,  or  any  of  our 


^  The  bull  "  Clericis  Laicos,"  apud  Dupuy,  Preuves,  p.  14,      In  Raynaldus, 
sub  ann.  1296,  January,  and  Rynier,  ii.  706. 


62  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

faithful  subjects."™  The  majority  of  the  Synod  peremp- 
torily refused  all  grant  or  concession.  Upon  this  King 
Edward  took  the  bold  yet  tenable  ground,  that  those 
who  would  not  contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
temporal  power  should  not  enjoy  its  protection  ;  if  they 
refused  the  obligations,  they  must  abandon  the  rights  of 
subjects.  The  whole  clergy  of  the  realm  were  declared 
by  the  Chief  Justice  on  the  Bench  to  be  in  a  state  of 
outlawry :  they  had  no  resort  to  the  King's  justice. 
Nor  was  this  an  idle  menace.  Officers  were  ordered 
to  seize  the  best  horses  both  of  the  secular  and  regular 
clergy :  if  they  sought  redress,  the  lawyers  were  for- 
bidden to  plead  on  their  behalf:  the  King's  courts  w^ere 
closed  against  them.  They  were  now  in  a  perilous  and 
perplexing  condition  ;  they  must  either  resist  the  King 
or  the  Pope.  They  felt  the  King's  hand  ;  the  demand 
took  the  form  not  merely  of  a  subsidy,  but  of  a  fine  for 
the  contumacious  resistance  to  the  King's  authority. 
Yet  the  terrible  anathemas  of  the  Pope's  Bull  had  hardly 
died  away  in  their  cathedrals.  There  was  division 
among  themselves.  A  great  part  of  the  clergy  leaned 
towards  the  more  prudent  course,  and  empowered  the 
Archbishop  of  York,  the  Bishops  of  Durham,  Salisbury, 
and  Ely  to  endeavour  to  effect  a  compromise. 
^^^^  '  A  fifth  part  of  their  revenue  from  estates  and 
goods  was  set  apart  in  some  sanctuary  or  privileged 
place,  to  be  drawn  forth  when  required  by  the  neces- 
sities of  the  Church  or  the  kingdom.  The  Papal 
prohibition  was  thus,  it  was  thought,  eluded :  the  King, 
remaining  judge  of  the  necessity,  cared  not,  provided 
he  obtained  the  money."     The  Primate,  as  though  tho 

™  Spelman,  Concilia,  sub  ann. 

«»  Hemiiigtbrd,  107,  108.    Brady,  Appendix,  19,  23.    Westminster,  ad  aiia 
1296.     Collier,  i.  491,  &c. 


Chap,  VIII.  THE  KING  EELENTS.  63 

shrine  of  Thomas  a  Becket  spoke  warning  and  encon- 
ragement  (he  knew,  too,  what  Pope  was  on  Archbishop 
the  throne),  refused  all  submission,  but  he  ^^^^^*^- 
stood  alone,  and  alone  bore  the  penalty.  His  whole 
estate  was  seized  to  the  King's  use.  The  Archbishop 
had  but  the  barren  consolation  of  declaring  the  rest 
of  the  clergy  to  have  incurred  the  Papal  sentence  of 
excommunication.  He  left  the  Synod  with  a  solemn 
admonition  to  the  other  Prelates  and  clergy  lest  they 
should  imperil  their  souls  by  criminal  concession.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  preaching  Friars  of  the  Order  of 
St.  Dominic,  usually  the  unscrupulous  assertors  of  the 
Papal  power,  appeared  in  St.  Paul's,  and  offered  pub- 
licly to  maintain  the  doctrine,  that  in  time  of  war  it 
was  lawful  for  the  clergy  to  contribute  to  the  necessities 
of  the  sovereign.  Notwithstanding  the  Papal  prohi- 
bition, the  clergy  at  length  yielded,  and  gi-anted  a 
fourth  of  their  revenue.  The  Archbishop  alone  stood 
firm;  but  his  lands  were  in  the  hands  of  the  King's 
officers;  himself  an  exile  from  the  court.  He  retu'ed 
with  a  single  chaplain  to  a  country  parsonage,  dis- 
charged the  humble  duties  of  a  priest,  and  lived  on  the 
alms  of  his  flock.  Lincoln  alone  followed  his  conscien- 
tious example  ;  Becket  and  Grostete  had  met  together. 
But  Lincoln  had  generously  officious  friends,  who  bought 
the  King's  pardon. 

The  war  had  now  broken  out;  the  King  was  about 
to  leave  the  realm,  and  to  embark  for  Flanders.  The  King 
It  had  been  dangerous,  if  Edward  should  en-  ''^^^°'^- 
counter  any  of  the  accidents  of  war,  or  be  compelled  to 
protracted  absence,  to  leave  his  young  son  in  the  midst 
of  a  hostile  clergy,  and  a  people  embittered  by  heavy 
exactions.  Edward  restored  his  barony  to  the  Arch- 
bishop, and  summoned  him  to  attend  a  Parliament  at 


64  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Bo(«  XI. 

Westminster ;  the  Archbisliop  stood  by  the  side  of  the 
young  Prince  of  Wales.  The  prudent  King  conde- 
scended to  an  apologetic  tone:  he  lamented  that  the 
aggressions  of  his  enemies  in  France  and  Scotland  had 
compelled  him  reluctantly  to  lay  these  onerous  burthens 
on  his  subjects.  He  was  about  to  expose  his  life  to  the 
chances  of  war ;  if  God  should  bless  his  arms  with  suc- 
cess, he  promised  to  restore  to  his  people  the  taxes 
which  he  had  levied :  if  he  should  fall,  he  commended 
his  young  son  and  heh  to  their  loyal  love.*^  The  whole 
assembly  was  moved ;  the  Archbishop  melted  into  tears. 
Yet  these  soft  emotions  by  no  means  blinded  them  to 
the  advantage,  offered  by  the  occasion,  of  wresting  from 
the  King  some  further  security  for  their  liberties.  The 
two  charters,  the  Gi-eat  Charter,  and  that  of  the  Forests, 
were  confirmed,  and  with  them  more  specific  guarantees 
obtained.  All  judgements  given  by  the  King's  justices 
or  ministers  of  the  crown,  contrary  to  the  provisions  of 
the  charters,  were  declared  null  and  void.^  The  King 
commanded  that  the  charters  under  his  seal  should  be 
sent  to  all  the  cathedral  churches  in  the  realm,  to  be 
there  kept  and  read  in  the  hearing  of  the  people  twice 
every  year.  The  Archbishops  and  Prelates  at  each 
reading  were  to  declare  all  who  violated  these  great 
national  statutes  by  word,  deed,  or  counsel,  under  actual 
sentence  of  excommunication.  The  Archbishops  were 
to  compel  by  distraint  or  otherwise  the  suffragan  Pre- 
lates who  should  be  remiss  in  the  reiteration  of  the 
grave  anathemas.*^ 


•  Westminster,  si;b  ann.  1297.    He-    here   acted   under   the  authority  ana 

mingford,     Knighton.  I  command     of    the    temporal     power. 

P  The  Acts  in  Ryraer.  I  High    Churchmen,   lil^e    Collier,    in- 

1  The    civil    lawyei-s,    as    Sir    Ed-    sist     that     the    bishops     were     con- 

wai-d  Coke,  maintain  that  the  clergy  ]  senting    to    the    measure  ;     that     it 


Chap,  VIII.   RECEPTION  OF  THE  BULL  IN  FRANCE.  65 

Tlius  the  clergy  of  England,  abandoning  their  own 
ground  of  ecclesiastical  immunities,  took  shelter  under 
the  liberties  of  the  realm.  Of  these  liberties  they 
constituted  themselves  the  guardians ;  and  so  shrouded 
their  own  exemptions  under  the  general  right,  now 
acknowledged,  that  the  subject  could  not  be  taxed  with- 
out his  own  consent.  The  Archbishop  during  the  next 
year  published  an  excommunication  in  which  the  rights 
of  the  clergy  and  of  the  people  were  blended  with  con- 
summate skill.  It  condemned  the  King's  ojBScers  who 
had  seized  the  goods  and  imprisoned  the  persons  of  the 
clergy  (perhaps  for  the  arrears  of  the  subsidy),  and  at 
the  same  time  all  who  should  have  violated  the  charter. 
It  re-asserted  the  immunity  of  all  the  King's  subjects 
from  taxation  to  which  they  had  not  given  their  assent. 
He  thus  obeyed  the  royal  mandate,  aimed  a  blow  at  the 
royal  power,  and  asserted  the  special  exemptions  of 
the  clergy.' 

The  famous  Bull  was  received  in  France  by  the  more 
violent  and  haughty  Philip  with  still  greater  guii  in 
indignation ;  it  struck  at  once  at  his  pride,  ^'"'^"'^• 
his  power,  and  his  cupidity.  Philip,  in  his  imperious 
taxation,  had  been  embarrassed  by  none  of  the  slow 
forms,  the  semblance  at  least  of  voluntary  grant,  to 
the  observance  of  which  the  Great  Charter,  and  now 
usage,  had  bound  the  King  of  England;  and  which, 
joined  with  their  own  peculiar  exemptions,  made  it 
necessary  that  the  contributions  of  the  clergy  should  be 
voted  as  an  aid,  benevolence,  or  subsidy.  Philip,  of  his 
sole  will,  had  imposed  the  tax  for  the  second  time  (the 


was  according  to  deci-ees  of  several 
provincial  councils ;  that  the  penal- 
ties on  refractory  prelates  were  left 
to    the    spiritual    authority    of    the 


archbishops.      Compare  Collier,   i.   p. 
494. 

'  Westra.  sub  anu.  1298.     Collier, 
i.  p.  495.     Spelman,  Concilia, 


VOL.  VII.  F 


66 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI. 


first  was  a  hundredth  of  actual  property,  now  a  fiftieth), 
which  passed  under  the  detested  name  of  maltote :  the 
harslmess  and  extortion  of  his  officers^  who  levied  this 
charge,  increased  its  unpopularity.  At  first  it  had  been 
demanded  of  the  merchants,  then  of  all  citizens,  last  of 
the  clergy.  But  if  the  wrath  of  Philip  was  more  vehe- 
ment, his  revenge  was  more  cool  and  deliberate  ;  it  was 
a  retaliation  which  bore  the  appearance  of  moderation, 
but  struck  the  Popedom  deep  in  the  most  vital  and 
sensitive  part.  If  the  clergy  might  not  be  taxed  for  the 
exigencies  of  France,  nor  might  in  any  way  be  tributary 
to  the  King,  France  would  no  longer  be  tributary  to  the 
Pope.  From  all  the  kingdoms  of  Western  Christendom 
vast  wealth  was  constantly  flowing  to  Kome;  every 
great  promotion  had  to  pay  its  fees,  no  cause  could  be 
evoked  to  Kome  witliout  large  expenditure  in  Kome : 
no  pilgrim  visited  the  Eternal  City  unladen  with  pre- 
cious gifts  and  offerings :  the  Pope  claimed  and  not 
seldom  had  exercised  the  power  of  assessing  the  clergy, 
not  merely  for  ordinary  purposes,  but  for  extraordinary 
exigencies  which  concerned  the  safety  or  the  grandeur 
of  the  Pontificate.  Pliilip  issued  an  Ordinance,^  pro- 
hibiting in  the  most  rigid  and  precise  terms  the  export- 
ation of  gold  or  silver,  either  in  ingots  or  in  plate,  of 
precious  stones,  of  provisions,  arms,  horses,  or  munitions 
of  war,  of  any  article,  indeed,  of  current  value,  without 
special  permission  sealed  and  delivered  by  the  crown.* 


8  I'his  edict,  passed  by  the  King  in 
Parliament,  had  been  preceded  and  was 
accompanied  by  another,  prohibiting 
the  entrance  of  all  foreign  merchants 
into  the  realm,  under  the  strange  plea 
that  the  internal  trade  of  the  country 
was  carried  on  with  sufficient  activity 
by  the  natives   of  France.      So  well 


indeed  had  Philip  been  served  by  his 
agents  in  Rome,  that  these  prohibitory 
edicts  almost,  if  not  quite,  anticipated 
the  formal  publication  of  the  Papal 
bull  in  France. 

t  The  edict,  Aug.  17,  1296.  Sis- 
mondi  has  mistaken  the  republication 
of  ths  bull  "  Cliiricis  Laicos,"  A.ug.  18 


Chap.  VIII.  PHILIP'S  EDICT.  67 

Thus,  at  one  blow,  Kome  was  deprived  of  all  her 
supplies  from  France.  The  other  Edict,  which  pro- 
hibited foreign  trading  in  the  land,  proscribed  the 
agents,  the  bankers,  who  transmitted  in  other  ways 
the  Papal  revenues  to  Home.  Boniface  had  gone  too 
far :  but  it  was  neither  in  his  character,  his  station,  nor 
in  the  interest  of  the  hierarchy,  to  retract.  Yet,  he  was 
8till  true  to  the  old  Guelfic  policy,  close  alliauce  with 
France.  He  had  espoused  the  cause  of  the  French 
house  of  Anjou  in  Naples  with  ardour.  As  Pope,  he 
no  doubt  contemplated  with  admiration  that  model  of  a 
Christian  King,  whom  he  was  called  upon  by  the  almost 
adoring  voice  of  Christendom  to  canonise,  Saint  Louis. 
The  Empire,  though  now  abased,  might  rally  again,  and 
resume  its  hostility ;  the  Colonnas  were  not  yet  crushed; 
Ghibellinism  not  absolutely  under  his  feet.  He  had, 
indeed,  under  the  lofty  character  which  he  assumed  of 
arbiter  of  the  world,  as  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  to  whom 
lay  resort  against  all  Christian  vassals  as  well  as  Sove- 
reigns, received  the  appeal  of  the  Count  of  Flanders 
against  his  liege  Lord,  Philip  of  France.  Philip,  jealous 
of  the  design  of  the  Count  of  Flanders  to  marry  his 
daughter  to  the  heir  of  England,  had  summoned  the 
Count  and  Countess  with  their  daughter  to  Paris.  Tliey 
had  been  treacherously  seized ;  the  Count  and  Countess 
had  escaped,  or  had  been  dismissed,  but  the  daughter 
was  kept  as  a  hostage  in  the  power  of  Philip,  who  bred 
her  up  with  his  own  family.  The  Count  of  Flanders 
complained  to  the  Pope  of  this  injustice.  The  Poi3e 
had  sent  his  Legate,  the  Bishop  of  Meaux,  to  demand 


in  France,  for  the  original  promulga- 
tion in  January  (Hist,  des  Fran^ais, 
viii.  516).  Piaynaldus  and  Dupuy 
place  it  in  January.     It  was  known  I  nance. 

F    2 


in  England  early  in  the  year.  The 
Pope  refers  to  it  in  his  answer,  as 
the  cause  of  the  King's  hostile  ordi- 


68  LATIN  CHRISTIANlTlf.  Book  XI. 

her  liberation.  The  only  answer  was  a  lofty  rebuke  to 
the  Pope  for  presuming  to  intermeddle  with  temporal 
affairs  beyond  his  jurisdiction." 

Under  these  conflicting  circumstances,  Boniface  issued 
his  second  Manifesto.  Never  was  promulgated  by  the 
Papal  court  a  Bull  at  once  so  inflexibly  imperious,  yet 
so  bland ;  so  disguising  the  haughtiness,  the  arrogance 
of  a  master,  under  the  smooth  and  gentle  language  of 
a  parent;  so  manifestly  anxious  to  conciliate,  yet  so 
almost  contemptuously  offensive.  Crimination,  expos- 
tulation, menace,  flattery,  explanation  bordering  on 
apology,  almost  on  concession,  display  the  Pope  as  the 
proudest  of  mankind,  yet  for  a  moment  conscious  that 
he  is  addressing  a  monarch  as  proud  as  himself;  de- 
termined to  assert  to  the  uttermost  his  immeasurable 
superiority,  and  yet  modifying,  tempering  his  demands : 
as  the  head  of  the  Guelfs,  reluctant  to  alienate  the  pro- 
tector of  the  Guelfic  interest.  And  he  is  still  the  head 
of  the  great  Sacerdotal  caste,  determined  to  maintain 
that  caste  in  its  inviolable  sanctity  and  power,  and  to 
yield  up  no  letter  of  the  pretensions  of  his  haughtiest 
ancestors.  All  the  acts  of  Kings,  as  moral  acts,  were 
under  the  immediate,  indefeasible  jurisdiction  of  the 
The  Bull.  Pope.  "  The  Church,  by  the  ineffable  love  of 
Sept.  1296.  i^gj.  gpQ^ge^  Christ,  has  received  the  dowry 
of  many  precious  gifts,  especially  that  great  gift  of 
liberty.  Who  shall  presume  against  God  and  the  Lord 
to  infringe  her  liberty,  and  not  be  beaten  down  by  the 
hammer  of  supreme  power  to  dust  and  ashes  ?  My 
son !  turn  not  away  thine  ears  from  the  voice  of  thy 
father  ;  his  parental  language  flows  from  the  tenderness 
of  his  heart,  though  with  some  of  the  bitterness  of  past 


"  Compare  Dupuy  and  Baillet. 


Chap.  VIU.  PAPAL  BULL.  69 

injuries."  The  Pope  throws  the  whole  blame  on  the 
King's  evil  counsellors.  "  Let  him  not  permit  them  to 
change  the  throne  of  liis  glory  into  a  seat  of  pestilence." 
"  The  King's  Ordinance  to  forbid  foreigners  all  traffic 
in  the  land,  is  not  less  impolitic  than  unjust.  His  sub- 
jects are  oppressed  with  intolerable  burthens;  already 
their  alienated  loyalty  has  begun  to  decay,  it  will  soon 
be  altogether  estranged ;  it  is  a  grievous  loss  for  a  King 
to  forfeit  the  love  of  his  subjects."  The  Pope  will  not 
believe  that  the  general  prohibition  against  all  persons 
quitting  the  realm,  or  exporting  money  or  goods,  can 
be  intended  to  apply  to  ecclesiastics;  this  would  be 
worse  than  impolitic,  it  would  be  insane.  "Neither 
thou  nor  any  secular  prince  hast  the  power  to  do  this  : 
by  the  very  prohibition  is  incurred  a  sentence  of  excom- 
munication." The  Pope  reminds  the  King  of  the  intense 
anxiety  with  which  he  has  devoted  long  days  and  sleep- 
less nights  to  his  interests;  how  he  has  laboured  to 
preserve  peace,  sent  his  Cardinals  to  mediate.  "  Is  this 
the  return  for  the  inestimable  favours  shown  by  the 
Church  to  you  and  your  ancestors  ? "  From  the  appeal 
to  Phihp's  gratitude  he  passes  to  an  appeal  to  Philip's 
fears.  "  Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  around  :  the  pow- 
erful Kings  of  the  Eomans,  of  England,  of  Spain  are  in 
league  against  you.  Is  this  a  time  to  add  the  Holy  See 
to  your  enemies  ?  Let  not  your  insolent  counsellors 
drive  you  to  this  fatal  precipice !  Call  to  mind  the 
goodness  of  the  Holy  See,  which  you  may  thus  compel 
to  abandon  you  without  succour.  Call  to  mind  the 
canonisation  of  your  ancestor,  Louis,  whose  miracles  the 
Holy  See  has  examined  with  assiduous  care.  Instead 
of  securing,  like  him,  her  love,  deserve  not  her  indigna- 
tion. What  is  the  cause  of  all  this  ?  Our  Constitution 
in  defence  of  ecclesiastical  liberty?     That  Constitution 


70  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

asserted  only  the  principles  maintained  by  Popes  and 
Councils ;  it  added  the  awful  penalties  of  excommuni- 
cation, because  men  are  more  affected  by  the  dread  of 
punishment  than  by  the  love  of  virtue.  Nor  did  we  by 
that  Constitution  precisely  ordain  that  the  Prelates  and 
clergy  were  not  to  contribute  to  the  necessities  of  the 
King:  but  we  declared  that  this  was  not  to  be  done 
vvithout  our  special  permission,  bearing  in  mind  the 
insupportable  exactions  sometimes  wrung  from  eccle- 
siastics by  the  King's  officers  under  his  authority.  Not 
only  do  all  divine  and  human  laws,  even  judgements, 
attest  the  abuse  of  such  authority,  but  the  authority 
itself  is  absolutely  interdicted ;  and  this  we  have  inti- 
mated for  the  perpetual  memory  of  the  truth.  If  you 
object  that  such  permission  has  been  petitioned  for  from 
the  Holy  See,  and  the  petition  has  not  been  granted," 
if  the  realm  were  in  danger,  urgent  and  admitted,  the 
Pope  pledges  himself  to  permit  not  only  tlie  levying 
of  taxes,  "  but  the  crosses  of  gold  and  silver,  even  the 
consecrated  vessels  and  furniture  of  the  chm-ches  should 
be  sacrificed,  before  a  kingdom,  so  dear  to  the  Apostolic 
8ee,  should  be  exposed  to  peril."  **  The  Constitution 
did  not  absolutely  prohibit  the  King  from  exercising 
his  rights  over  ecclesiastics  who  held  fiefs  of  the  crown, 
according  to  the  laws  and  usages  of  the  realm ;  but  for 
himself,  Boniface  was  prepared  to  lay  down  all,  even  his 
life,  in  defence  of  the  liberties  and  immunities  of  the 
Church  against  all  usurpers  whatsoever."  He  charged 
the  whole  guilt  of  the  war  on  the  King  of  France ;  it 
arose  from  his  unjust  occupation  of  Burgundy,  an  un- 
doubted fief  of  the  Empire,  and  of  Gascony,  the  inherit- 
ance of  Edward  of  England,  as  Duke  of  Cuienne.  Ou 
the  evils  of  war  he  enlarged  :  peril  to  the  souls  of  men, 
the  slaughter,  the  bottomless  gulf  of  expenditure*  the 


Chap.  Vm.  THE  KING'S  REPLY.  71 

damage,  arising  from  the  usuipations  suggested  by  his 
evil  counsellors.  Those  wrongs  against  the  Kings  of 
the  Eomans  and  of  England  were  sins,  therefore,  un- 
doubtedly under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope ;  ^  in  such 
aggressions  the  Pope  had  full  power  of  judgement.  It 
was  shameful  for  Philip  to  refuse  the  mediation,  which 
had  been  accepted  by  the  King  of  the  Eomans  and  the 
King  of  England.  The  Pope  would  not  proceed  at  once 
to  the  last  extremity ;  he  would  first  attempt  the  ways 
of  remonstrance  and  gentleness;  and  for  this  end  he 
had  sent  the  Bishop  of  Viviers  to  explain  more  fully 
his  determination.^ 

The  King  of  France  promulgated  an  answer,  full,  not 
too  long,  but  in  language  well  considered,  and  Answer  of 
of  singular  force  and  strength.  This  document  ^^^  ^'°^- 
showed  the  progress  of  the  human  mind,  and  manifestly 
divulged  the  new  power,  that  of  the  civil  lawyers,  whose 
style  and  phrases  appear  throughout.  It  began  with 
the  bold  historic  assertion,  not  only  of  the  superior  an- 
tiquity of  the  temporal  to  the  spiritual  power  in  Europe ; 
but  that  before  there  were  ecclesiastics  in  the  world  the 
Kings  of  France  had  the  supreme  guardianship  of  the 
realm,  with  full  authority  to  enact  all  such  ordinances 
as  might  be  for  the  public  weal.  "  The  King,  therefore, 
had  prohibited  the  exportation  of  arms,  provisions,  and 
other  things  which  might  be  turned  to  the  advantage  of 
his  enemies."  But  this  prohibition  was  not  absolute  (he 
turned  the  Pope's  evasions  on  the  Pope),  "  it  requii-ed 
for  such  exportation  the  special  licence  of  the  King. 
Such  licence  would  not  have  been  refused  to  ecclesi- 
astics, if  they  gave  assurance  that  what  they  exported  was 


«  "Dumque  uj  eos  super  us  joeccare  te  asserunt,  ae  hoc  judicium  ad  Se'em 
eandem  uon  est  dubium  pertmere.**  >  The  document  in  Dupuy,  &c. 


72  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

their  owti  property,  and  could  not  be  applied  to  the 
damage  of  the  realm."  The  King  glanced  with  covert 
sarcasm  at  the  partiality  of  the  Pope.  "  That  othei 
most  dear  son  of  the  Church  (the  King  of  England)  had 
been  allowed  to  seize  the  goods  of  the  clergy,  to  im- 
prison the  clergy,  and  yet  no  excommunication  hac* 
been  pronounced  against  him."  The  proclamation  pro- 
ceeded daringly  to  grapple  with  the  vital  question.  It 
denied  the  right  of  the  clergy  to  the  exclusive  appel- 
lation of  "  the  Church."  The  laity  were  as  much  mem- 
bers of  Christ's  mystical  body  as  the  clergy.  The  clergy 
had  no  special  liberty  ;  this  was  an  usurpation  on  the 
common  rights  of  all  the  faithful.  The  liberty  which 
Christ  had  obtained  belonged  to  the  layman  as  well  as 
to  the  ecclesiastic.  "Did  Christ  die  and  rise  again 
for  the  clergy  alone?"  There  were,  indeed,  peculiar 
liberties,  according  to  the  Statutes  of  the  Eoman  Pon- 
tiffs, but  these  had  been  granted  or  permitted  by  the 
Koman  Emperors.  "  Such  liberties,  so  granted  or  per- 
mitted, cannot  take  away  the  rights  of  Kings  to  provide, 
with  the  advice  of  their  Parliament,  all  things  necessary 
for  the  defence  of  the  realm,  according  to  the  eternal 
rule:  Kender  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's. 
All  alike,  clerks  and  laymen,  nobles  and  subjects,  are 
bound  to  the  common  defence.  Such  charges  are  not 
to  be  called  exactions,  extortions,  burthens.  They  are 
subsidies  to  the  Sovereign  for  the  general  protection. 
The  property  of  the  Church  in  time  of  war  is  exposed 
to  more  than  ordinary  dangers.  To  refuse  to  contribute 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  war,  is  to  refuse  due  payment 
to  your  protectors." 

"  What  wise  and  intelligent  man  is  not  in  utter  amaze- 
ment when  he  hears  the  Vicar  of  Clirist  prohibiting  and 
fulminatino:  his  anathema  a^^ainst  contributions  foi  the 


Chap.  VIII.         REMONSTRANCE  OF  THE  KING.  73 

defence  of  the  realm,  according  to  a  fair  equal  rate,  for 
the  defence  of  the  clergy  themselves  ?  They  may  give 
to  stage-players ;  they  have  full  and  unbounded  licence 
to  lavish  any  expenditure,  to  the  neglect  of  their 
churches,  on  their  dress,  their  horses,  their  assemblies, 
their  banquets,  and  all  other  secular  pomps  and  plea- 
sures. What  sane  men  would  forbid,  under  the  sen- 
tence of  anathema,  that  the  clergy,  crammed,  fattened, 
swollen  by  the  devotion  of  Princes,  should  assist  the 
same  Princes  by  aids  and  subsidies  against  the  perse- 
cutions of  their  foes  ?  Have  they  not  the  discernment 
to  see  that  this  inhibition,  this  refusal  is  little  less  than 
high  treason,  condemned  by  the  laws  of  God  and  man  ? 
It  is  aiding  and  abetting  the  King's  enemies,  it  is 
treachery  to  the  defenders  of  the  common  weal.  We, 
like  our  forefathers,  have  ever  paid  due  reverence  to 
God,  to  his  Catholic  Church,  and  his  ministers,  but  we 
fear  not  the  unjust  and  immeasurable  threats  of  men." 
He  proceeds  to  justify  the  war.  "  The  King  of  England 
had  refused  allegiance  for  his  fiefs  held  of  the  crown  of 
France.  Ample  satisfaction,  and  fair  terms  of  peace, 
had  been  offered  to  the  King  of  the  liomans."  The 
county  of  Burgundy  the  King  of  France  held  by  right 
of  conquest  in  open  war,  after  defiance  and  proclama- 
tion of  hostilities  by  the  King  of  the  Komans  himself. 
"  We  therefore  ought  no  longer  to  be  provoked  by 
insults,  but,  as  dutiful  sons  of  the  Church,  to  be  looked 
upon  with  favour,  and  consoled  in  our  dangers  and 
distresses."  ^ 

The  Pope  thought  it  not  prudent  to  contest  these 
broad  and  bold  principles  of  temporal  supremacy ;  he 
was  now  involved  in  the  internecine  strife  with  the  Co 


Document  in  Dupuy. 


74  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XL 

loimas.  An  address  in  a  milder  tone,  in  which  protesta- 
ppb  ^^  tions  of  regard  and  esteem  predominated  over 
1297.  ^^Q  -pQ^y  lingering  words  of  menace,  declared 
that  a  more  harsh,  strict,  and  rigorons  meaning  than  he 
had  designed  had  been  attributed  by  the  malignity  and 
cunning  of  evil  counsellors  to  the  Papal  Bull.  The 
Cardinal  Legates,  however,  were  commanded  to  raise 
all  monies  due  to  the  Pope ;  and  if  the  King's  officers 
should  interfere  with  their  transmission,  they  were 
without  hesitation  or  delay  to  pronounce  sentence  o'- 
Conduct  of  excommunication  against  those  officers.*  The 
clergy.  Popo  fouud  himsclf  deserted  in  France  by  his 
natural  allies.  In  the  Galilean  Church,  either  national 
pride  triumphed  over  the  hierarchical  spirit,  or  the 
clergy  feared  the  King  more  than  the  Pope.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Eheims,  with  nothing  of  the  stubborn  boldness 
of  Becket,  or  even  the  passive  courage  of  Eobert  of 
Winchelsea,  sent  a  strong  though  humble  address  to 
the  Pope,  expressing  profound  gratitude  for  his  care  of 
the  ecclesiastical  liberties,  but  acknowledging  their 
obligations,  both  as  feudatories  of  the  King  and  as 
subjects,  and  their  duty,  in  self-defence,  to  conti'ibute 
to  the  public  service :  they  deprecated  the  Pope's  pro- 
ceedings as  disturbing  the  peace  which  happily  pre- 
vailed between  the  Church  of  France  and  the  King  and 
Parliament  of  France.^ 

For  once  the  haughty  Boniface  listened  to  the  admo- 
Prudence  of  nitious  of  prudcncc.  The  King  of  France,  by 
Boniface.  suspending  for  a  time  the  operations  of  his 
hostile  ordinance,  gave  the  Pope  an  opportunity  of 
withdrawing  with  less  loss  of  dignity  from  his  dangerous 
position.     Another  Bull   appeared.      "  The  author,"  it 

b  Dupuy,  p.  26. 


Chap.  VIII.  THE  POPE'S  PRUDENCE.  75 

declared,  "  of  every  law  is  the  sole  interpreter  of  that 
law ;"  and  the  interpretation  Avhich  it  now  pleased  Pope 
Boniface  to  give  to  his  famous  Bull,  virtually  abrogated 
it  as  regarded  the  kingdom  of  France.  The  King  had 
full  right  to  command  the  service  of  all  his  feudatories, 
whether  holding  secular  or  ecclesiastical  fiefs :  aids, 
benevolences,  or  loans  might  be  granted,  provided  there 
was  no  exaction,  only  a  friendly  and  gentle  requisition 
from  the  King's  courts.  If  the  realm  was  in  danger, 
equal  taxes  might  be  assessed  on  all  alike ;  it  was  left 
to  the  conscience  of  the  King,  if  of  full  age,  during 
the  King's  nonage  to  the  prelates,  princes,  dukes,  and 
counts  of  the  realm,  to  decide  when  the  state  w^as  in 
danger.*" 

The  successes  of  Philip  the  Fair  in  negotiation  as 
well  as  in  war,  no  doubt,  if  they  did  not  awe  The  war. 
the  Pope,  showed  the  danger  as  well  as  the  ^^^^'  ^^^^' 
impolicy  of  alienating  the  old  true  ally  of  the  Pope- 
dom, now  rising  to  increased  power  and  influence.  For 
his  dictatorial  injunctions  to  make  peace  had  been 
utterly  disregarded  by  all  parties ;  the  truce,  which  he 
had  ordered  for  two  years,  had  not  been  observed  for  as 
many  months. 

It  was  a  powerful  league  which  had  been  organised 
by  the  lavish  subsidies  of  England.  It  comprehended 
the  King  of  the  Komans,  Guy  Dampierre,  Count  of 
Flanders,  who  hoped  to  compel  the  King  of  France  to 
release  his  daughter,  the  Count  of  Bar,  the  Duke  of 
Brabant,  the  Counts  of  Hainault  and  Gueldres,  the 
Bishops  of  Liege  and  Utrecht,  the  Archbishop  of 
Colog-ne.  The  Counts  of  Auxerre,  Montbelliard,  and 
other  nobles  of  that  province  engaged,  on  the  receipt  of 


Apud  Dupuy,  p.  39. 


76  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

thirty  thousand  livros,  to  make  a  revolt  in  Burgundy. 
The  more  remote  Counts  of  Savoy  and  Grandson  were 
pledged  to  encourage  and  maintain  this  revolt.  So 
utterly  and  almost  contumeliously  were  the  pacific 
views  of  the  Pope  disregarded  in  all  quarters.  But 
in  the  mean  time  Philip  had  won  over  the  Duke  of 
Bretagne  from  the  English  league.  In  all  parts  his 
subsidies  counteracted  those  of  England ;  subsidies  on 
both  sides  largely  drawn  from  the  ecclesiastical  reve- 
nues. He  had  entered  Flanders.  Charles  of  Valois 
had  inflicted  a  severe  defeat  on  the  rebels,  so  the 
Flemings  in  the  army  of  the  Count  Dampierre  were 
called.  The  rich  manufacturing  cities,  indignant  at 
former  attempts  of  their  liege  Lord,  the  Count  of 
Flanders,  to  infringe  their  privileges,  opened  their 
gates  to  Philip  as  their  Suzerain.  The  Count  in 
vain  attempted  to  retrace  his  steps  ;  they  would  not 
trust  him,  and  were  at  least  indifferent  to  their  change 
of  masters. 

Edward  had  at  length  disembarked  to  the  relief  of 
his  overwhelmed  ally.*^  But  the  forces  of  the  King  of 
England  were  unequal  to  the  contest.  The  war  in  de- 
fence of  his  foreign  dominions  had  been  unpopular  in 
England.  The  English  nobles,  become  more  inflexibly 
insular  in  their  feelings,  had  more  than  once  refused  to 
follow  their  monarch  for  the  defence  or  reconquest  of 
Gascony.  In  small  numbers  and  Avith  reluctance  they 
had  accompanied  him  to  the  Flemish  shores.  Edward's 
own  military  skill  and  vigour  seemed  to  have  deserted 
him :  he  was  forced  to  abandon  Bruges,  which  opened 
its  gates  to  the  conqueror.     Ghent  was  hardly  safe.® 


*  He  embarked  at  Winchelsea,  Aug.  22  ;  landed  at  Sluys,  27,  1297.    Rymer. 

•  The  war  in  the  Engli^  and  French  historians  ;  plainly  and  briefly  in  Rapio. 


Chap.  VIII.  UlSPOrilTlON  TO  PEACE.  77 

These  unusual  efforts  had  exhausted  the  resources  of 
both  kingdoms.  The  means  of  prosecutiug  the  war 
could  only  be  wrung  by  force  from  murmuring  and  re- 
fractory subjects,  the  clergy  as  well  as  the  laity.  There 
was  a  limit  not  only  to  the  endurance,  but  to  the  possi- 
bility of  raising  new  taxes,  and  that  limit  had  been 
reached  both  in  England  and  France. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  the  Kings  consented  to  a 
short  truce.  News  from  England,  during  the 
suspension  of  arms,  disconcerted  the  plans  of  "  ' 
Edward  for  the  reorganisation  in  greater  strength  and 
activity  of  his  wide-spread  league.  All  Scotland  was  in 
revolt.  Wallace,  from  a  wild  adventurer,  at  the  head 
of  a  loose  band  of  moss-troopers,  had  assumed,  in  a  Par- 
Kament  at  Perth,  the  title  of  guardian  of  the  realm  and 
general  of  the  armies  of  Scotland.  Warenne,  Earl  of 
Surrey,  Edward's  Lieutenant,  had  been  reduced  to  act 
on  the  defensive.  The  Scots  were  ravaging  Cumberland 
and  Westmoreland. 

Boniface  found  these  two  haughty  monarchs,  who  had 
so  short  a  time  before  contemptuously  spurned  his  medi- 
ation, one  of  them,  if  not  imploring,  making  direct  over- 
tures in  the  most  submissive  terms  for  his  interposition ; 
the  other  accepting  it  with  undisguised  satisfaction. 
Edward  despatched  his  ambassadors  to  Eome,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  the  Count  of 
Savoy,  Sir  Otho  Grandison,  Sir  Hugh  de  Vere  (the 
Bishop  of  Winchester  was  then  at  Rome),  to  request 
the  arbitration  of  his  Hohness.^  The  King  of  France 
was  not  averse  to  peace.  He  had  gained  fame,  terri- 
tory, power,  and  vengeance  against  some  of  his  more 
dangerous  and  disaffected  vassals.     The  Pope  had  aL 


'  New  Rynier,  p.  808.     See  the  Submissio  Specialis,  p.  30i). 


78 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY 


Book  XI, 


ready,  by  abrogating  or  mitigating  his  obnoxious  Bull 
as  regarded  France,  by  the  solemn  act  of  the  canonisa- 
tion of  St.  Louis,  shown  his  disposition  to  return  to  the 
old  Papal  policy,  close  alliance  with  France.  Philip 
acceded  to  the  arbitration  not  of  the  Pope  (for  both 
monarchs  endeavoured  to  save  their  honour  and  the  in- 
•  Boniface  dependence  of  their  realms,  and  to  preclude  a 
arbiter.  daugcrous  precedent),  but  of  Boniface  in  his 
private  character.^  Benedetto  Gaetani  was  the  ap- 
pointed arbiter.  This  subtle  distinction  Boniface  was 
wise  enough  to  permit  and  to  despise :  the  world  saw 
the  two  great  Kings  at  his  feet,  awaiting  his  award,  and 
in  that  award  the  full  virtual  recognition  of  the  Papal 
arbitration.  The  contested  territories  could  be  seques- 
tered, as  they  were  for  a  time,  only  into  the  hands  of 
the  Pope's  ofiicers,  not  those  of  Benedetto  Gaetani. 
The  extraordinary  despatch  with  which  this  important 
treaty  was  framed,  the  equity  of  its  provisions, 
the  unreserved,  if  on  one  side  angry  and  re- 
luctant, assent  of  the  contending  parties,^  could  not  but 
raise  the  general  opinion  of  the  Papal  authority.  Ere 
long  the  King  of  France  had  acquiesced  in  the  decree.' 
The  treaty  seemed  to  aim  at  the  establishment  of  lasting 
peace  between  the  two  rival  powers  by  a  double  mar- 


The  treaty. 


K  A3  regards  Fr.ance,  this  condition 
may  appear  the  subtle  and  provident 
invention  of  the  lawyers.  They  would 
not  admit,  even  in  terms,  that  supe- 
riority which  the  See  of  Rome  grounded 
on  precedents  as  feudal  lord  of  England, 
Scotland,  Sicily,  AiTagon,  Hungary;  nor 
even  that  more  vague  supei'ioiity  over 
the  King  of  Germany,  as  King  of  the 
Romans  and  claimant  of  the  empire. 

^  The  agreement  was  signed  at  Rome, 
Juae  14,   1298.     The  instrument  in 


Rymer  is  dated  June  27.  The  tone  of 
the  King  of  England  is  far  more  sub- 
missive than  that  of  the  King  of  France. 
Compare  the  two  documents  in  Rymer. 
The  nobles  of  Burgundy,  the  allies  of 
Edward,  Montbolliard,  D'Arlay,  Mont- 
faucon,  sent  ambassadors  to  represent 
them  in  the  tieaty.  The  Count  of 
Flanders  and  Edward's  other  conti- 
nental allies  acceded  to  the  arbitration 
of  Benedetto  Gaetani. 
*  See  p.  101, 


Chap.  VIII.  THE  TREATY.  79 

riage  between  the  houses,  that  of  Edward  himself  with 
Margaret  the  sister,  of  the  younger  Edward  with  Isa^ 
bella,  daughter  of  the  King  of  France.'^  But  so  com- 
pletely was  the  Pope  inseparable  from  Benedetto 
Gaetani,  that  the  penalty  imposed,  in  case  either 
monarch  should  not  fulfil  the  terms  of  these  marriage 
contracts,  was  an  Interdict  to  be  laid  on  their  terri- 
tories. Kestitution  was  to  be  made  on  either  side  of  all 
lands,  vessels,  merchandise,  or  goods,  still  subsisting ; 
compensation  according  to  the  same  arbitration  for 
those  destroyed  or  damaged  during  the  war.  Edward 
was  to  receive  back,  if  not  wholly,  in  great  part, 
his  fiefs  in  France,  on  condition  of  homage  and 
fealty  to  his  liege  Lord  ;  and  the  Pope  became  security 
against  his  future  rebellion.  In  the  mean  time  till  the 
boundaries  could  be  settled,  and  all  questions  of  juris- 
diction brought  to  issue,  those  territories  were  to  be 
surrendered  to  the  Pope's  officers,  to  be  held  by  the 
Pope  until  the  final  termination  of  all  differences.  The 
arbitration  of  Benedetto  Gaetani  was  pronounced  in 
full  Synod  at  Rome  in  the  presence  of  the  Cardinals, 
the  Apostolic  Notaries,  and  all  the  functionaries  of  the 
Papal  Court.  According  to  the  terms  of  the  arbitra- 
tion, the  Bishop  of  Yicenza  took  possession  in  the  Pope's 
name  of  the  province  of  Guienne. 

This  was  not  the  only  quarrel  in  which  the  Pope  was 
invited  to  take  the  part  of  arbiter.  The  insurgent  Scots 
had  recourse  to  the  protection  of  the  Papal  See  against 
the  tyrannous  usurpation  of  Edward.  Their  claim  to 
this  protection  rested  not  on  the  general  function  and 


*  The  Pope  annulled  all  the  engagements,  obligations,  and  oaths  entered  int« 
by  Edward  to  marry  his  son  to  the  daughter  of  the  Count  of  Flanders. — Rymw 
p.  188. 


80 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI. 


duty  of  the  Head  of  tlie  Christian  Church  to  interpose 
his  good  offices  in  defence  of  the  oppressed,  for  the 
maintenance  of  justice,  and  the  preservation  of  Chris- 
tian peace.  They  appealed  to  the  Pope  as  their 
acknowledged  liege  Lord.  Scotland,  they  said,  was  a 
fief  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  had  a  right  to 
demand  aid  against  the  invader  not  only  of  their 
liberties,  but  of  the  Pope's  rights.  The  origiu  of  this 
claim  is  obscure,  but  it  was  not  now  heard  for  the  first 
time.  Nor  did  it  seem  to  rest  on  the  vague  and 
general  pretensions  of  the  Pope  to  the  sovereignty  over 
all  islands."" 

Already,  before  this  appeal  had  been  publicly  re- 
ceived at  Rome,  Boniface,  in  the  character  which  he 
assumed  of  Pacificator  of  Christendom,  and  on  the 
strength  of  the  treaty  concluded  under  his  arbitration 
between  France  and  England,  had  admonished  King 
Edward  not  to  prosecute  the  war  against  the  Scots. 
Edward  took  no  notice  of  this  admonition.  His  first 
campaign  at  the  head  of  the  knighthood  of  England  had 
ended  with  the  total  defeat  of  Wallace,  who  became 
again  a  wandering  and  almost  solitary  adventurer.  But 
though  he  could  vanquish,  the  King  of  England  could 
not  keep  possession  of  the  poor  territory ;  and  at  the  close 
of  the  campaign  most  of  his  forces  dispersed  and  returned 
to  their  English  homes.  A  new  government  had  been 
formed.  William  Lamberton,  Bishop  of  St.  Andrew's, 
Robert  Bruce,  and  John  Comyn  proclaimed  themselves 


"»  Compare  Lingard's  note,  vol.  iii. 
c.  3,  in  which  he  clearly  shows  that  it 
had  been  asserted  on  more  than  one 
occasion.  In  the  MS.,  B.  M.,  appears 
this  singular  ground  for  the  title: 
"Praeterea  nosse   potest  Regia  Celsi- 


tudo,  qualiter  regnum  ipsum  per  beati 
Andrese  Apostoli  venerandas  reliquias, 
non  sine  superni  Dei  dono,  acquisitura 
et  conversum  extitit  ad  fidei  Catholicae 
unitatem." — Vol.  xiv.  p.  53,  June  37| 
1299. 


ZlHAP.  VIII.  SCOTLAND.  81 

a  liegency  in  the  name  of  John  Baliol,  who,  though  in 
an  English  prison,  was  still  held  to  be  the  rightful  sove- 
reign. Edward's  marriage  with  Margaret  of  France, 
the  time  necessary  to  reorganise  his  army,  the  refusal 
of  the  English  barons  to  invade  Scotland  during  the 
winter,  gave  the  Kegency  so  much  leisure  to  recover 
their  strength,  that  they  ventured  to  lay  siege  to  the 
castle  of  Stirling.  But  their  main  hope  was  in  the  in- 
tervention of  the  Pope  ;  and  the  Pope  appeared  to  take 
up  their  cause  with  a  vigour,  as  it  were,  flushed  by 
the  recent  submission  of  Edward.  His  Bull  j^^^  27, 
addressed  to  the  King  of  England  spoke  almost  ^^^^' 
the  words  of  the  Ambassador  of  Scotland.  It  declared 
that  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  had  belonged  in  full  rigl  t 
to  the  Church  of  Rome:  that  it  neither  \\as  nor  ever 
had  been  a  fief  of  the  King  of  England,  or  of  his  an- 
cestors. It  discussed  and  disdainfully  threw  aside  all 
the  pretensions  of  feudal  suzerainty  adduced  by  the 
King  of  England.  It  commanded  him  instantly  to  re- 
lease the  Bishop  of  Glasgow,  the  Bishop  of  Sodor,  and 
other  Scottish  ecclesiastics  whom  he  kept  in  prison ;  to 
surrender  the  castles,  and  still  more  the  monasteries 
and  religious  houses,  which  he  presumed  to  hold  to 
their  damage,  in  some  places  to  their  utter  ruin,  in  the 
realm  of  Scotland ;  to  send  his  Ambassadors  within  six 
months  to  Home  to  receive  the  Pope's  determination 
on  all  differences  between  himself  and  the  kingdom  ot 
Scotland. 

Edward  was  compelled  for  a  time  to  dissemble  his 
indignation  at  this  imperious  summons.  The  Bull,  to 
ensure  its  service  upon  the  King,  had  been  committed 
to  Winchelsea,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  Primate 
was  commanded,  in  virtue  of  his  obedience  to  the  Pope, 
svithout  delay  to  present  this  mandate  to  the  King,  and 

\0L.  YII.  Q 


82  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Xl. 

use  all  his  authority  to  induce  the  King  to  immediate 
and  unreserved  compliance." 

At  this  time  all  civil  and  religious  affairs  were  sus- 
pended ;  all  thoughts  swallowed  up,  by  the  great  reli- 
gious movement  which,  at  the  close  of  the  century, 
began  in  Italy  and  rapidly  drew  all  Western  Chris- 
tendom within  its  whirlpool,  a  vast  peaceful  Crusade, 
to  Rome  not  to  Jerusalem,  by  which  the  spiritual 
advantages  of  that  remote  and  armed  and  perilous 
pilgrimage  were  to  be  attained  at  much  less  cost, 
exertion,  and  danger.  To  the  calm  and  philosophic 
mind  the  termination  of  a  centenary  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  man  is  an  epoch  which  cannot  be  contemplated 
without  awe  and  seriousness ;  in  those  ages  awe  and 
seriousness  were  inseparable  from  profound,  if  passionate 
and  unreasoning  religion.  It  is  impossible  to  determine 
whether  a  skilful  impulse  from  Rome  and  from  the 
clergy  first  kindled  this  access  of  fervent  devotion.  At 
this  period,  when  Christendom  was  either  seized  or 
inspired  with  this  paroxysm  of  faith,  Palestine  ^^  as  irre- 
coverably lost :  the  unbelievers  were  in  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  the  sepulchre  of  Christ.  But  the  tombs  of 
the  Apostles,  of  Peter  and  of  Paul,  next  to  that  of  the 
Redeemer,   the   most   sacred,    and  hallowed   by   their 


■  There  is  great  difficulty  about  i  haps  suppose  that  the  jubilee,  in  its 
the  dates  in  this  atiair.  The  bull  and  preparations,  and  in  the  necessary 
tlie  letter  to  Winchelsea  are  dated  June,  [  arrangements,  absorbed  all  the  time  of 


1299.  The  Parliament  of  Lincoln  was 
summoned  Sept.  27,  1300  ;  met  in 
1301.  Lingard  supposes  that  the  bull, 
which  was  only  delivered  by  Winchel- 
sea to  the  King  in  Aug.  1300,  had 
been  withlield  by  some  unaccountable 
delay  from  reaching  Winchelsea  till 
towards  June  1300.     We  might  per- 


the  Koman  court,  and  altogether  pre- 
occupying the  public  mind,  superseded 
all  other  business.  But,  from  the 
haughty  tone  and  almost  menace  of 
the  Papal  letters  to  Winchelsea  (MS., 
B.  M.),  there  seems  to  have  been  some 
timid  reluctance  or  delay  on  the  part 
of  the  primate. 


Chap.  VIII.  JUBILEE.  83 

venerable  and  unquestioned  reliques,  were  accessible  to 
all  the  West.  The  plenary  Indulgences,  which  had 
been  so  lavishly  bestowed  in  the  early  period  of  the 
Crusades,  and  might,  even  in  the  decay  of  the  Crusading 
passion,  be  obtained  by  the  desperate  and  world-weary 
votary,  were  not  now  coveted  with  less  ardour.  Would 
the  Church  withhold  on  more  easy  terms  those  precious 
and  consolatory  privileges  for  which  the  world  was 
t-ontent  to  pay  by  such  prodigal  oblations,  and  which 
were  thus  the  source  of  inexhaustible  power  and  wealth 
to  the  clergy  ?  Christendom  was  now  almost  at  peace  ; 
the  Pope's  treaty  had  been  respected  by  France  and 
England,  and  by  their  respective  allies.  Germany 
reposed  under  the  doubtful  supremacy  of  Albert  of 
Austria.  The  north  of  Italy  was  in  outward  at  least 
and  unwonted  peace :  the  industrious  and  flourishing 
republics,  the  commercial  and  maritime  cities  were 
overflowing  with  riches,  and  ready  with  their  lavish 
tribute. 

Already  on  the  first  of  January  of  the  great  centenary 
year,  even  before,  on  the  Nativity  (1299),  the  Churches 
of  Eome,  it  might  seem,  from  a  natural,  spontaneous, 
unsuggested,  and  therefore  heaven-inspired  thought 
(the  movement  was  the  stronger  because  no  one  knew 
how  and  where  it  began),  were  thronged  with  thousands 
supplicating,  almost  imperiously  demanding,  what  they 
had  been  taught  or  believed  to  be  the  customary  Indulg- 
ences of  the  season.  The  most  humbly-religious  Pope 
might  have  rejoiced  at  that  august  spectacle  of  Chris- 
tendom thus  crowding  to  offer  its  homage  on  the  tombs 
or  the  Apostles,  acknowledging  Rome  as  the  religious 
centre  of  the  world,  and  coming  under  the  personal 
benediction  of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  The  venerable  image 
of  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  thus  planted  in  the  h.caj'ts 

Q  2 


84  LATI^^  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

of  SO  many,  who  would  return  home  not  passive  shaves 
only  but  ardent  assertors  of  the  Papal  supremacy,  not 
subjects  only  but  worshippers ;  the  tribute  lavished  upon 
the  altars — these  might  be  but  secondary  considerations. 
Ambition,  pride,  and  avarice  might  stand  rebuked  before 
nobler,  more  holy  sentiments.  Which  predominated  in 
the  heart  of  Boniface  VIII.,  shaU  history,  written  by 
human  hand,  presume  to  say?  If  both  or  either  in- 
truded on  his  serene  contemplation  of  this  triumph  of 
the  religious  element  in  man,  was  it  the  more  high  and 
generous,  or  the  more  low  and  sordid  ?  was  it  haughtiness 
or  rapacity  ?  Assuredly  the  sagacity  of  Boniface  could 
not  refuse  to  discern  the  immediate,  and  to  foresee  the 
remoter  consequences  of  this  ceremony:  he  could  not 
close  his  eyes  on  the  myriads  at  his  feet :  he  could  not 
refuse  to  hear  the  amount  of  the  treasures  which  loaded 
the  altars. 

The  court  of  Rome,  in  its  solemn  respect  for  precedent, 
affected  to  require  the  sanction  of  ancient  usage  for  the 
institution  of  the  Holy  year.  The  Mosaic  Law  offered 
its  Jubilee,  the  tradition  of  the  secular  games  at  Kome 
might  lurk  to  this  time,  at  least  among  the  learned,  very 
probably  in  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  people.  The 
Church  had  never  disdained,  rather  had  avowed,  the  policy 
of  turning  to  her  own  good  ends  the  old  Pagan  usages. 
Grave  inquiry  was  instituted.  The  Cardinal  Stefaneschi, 
the  poet-historian,  was  employed  to  search  the  archives : 
the  College  of  Cardinals  was  duly  consulted.  At  length 
the  Pope  himself  ascended  the  pulpit  in  St.  Peter's. 
The  chmx'h  was  splendidly  hung  with  rich  tapestries ;  it 
was  crowded  with  eager  votaries.  After  his  sermon  the 
Pope  unfolded  the  Bull,  which  proclaimed  the 

The  Bull.  r  Til  1     T         .  1        I 

welcome   Indulgences,   sealed  with  the   pon- 
tifical seal.     The  Bull  was  immediately  promulgated : 


Chap.  \III.  PILGRIMS  JlSD  OFFERIXGS.  85 

it  asserted  the  ancient  usage  of  Indulgences  to  all  who 
should  make  pilgrimage  to  the  tomb  of  the  "  Chief  of 
the  Apostles."  The  Pope,  in  his  solicitude  for  the  souls 
of  men,  by  his  plenary  power,  gave  to  all  who  during 
the  year  should  visit  once  a  day  the  Churches  of  the 
Apostles,  the  Romans  for  thirty  days,  strangers  for 
fifteen,  and  should  have  repented  and  confessed,  full 
absolution  of  all  their  sins. 

All  Europe  was  in  a  phrensy  of  religious  zeal. 
Throughout  the  year  the  roads  in  the  re- 
motest parts  of  Germany,  Hungary,  Britain, 
were  crowded  with  pilgiims  of  all  ages,  of  both  sexes. 
A  Savoyard  above  one  hundred  years  old  determined  to 
see  the  tombs  of  the  Apostles  before  he  died.  There 
were  at  times  two  hundred  thousand  strangers  at  Rome. 
During  the  year  (no  doubt  the  calculations  were  loose 
and  vague)  the  city  was  visited  by  millions  of  pilgrims. 
At  one  time,  so  vast  was  the  press  both  within  and 
without  the  walls,  that  openings  were  broken  for  ingress 
and  egress.  Many  people  were  trampled  down,  and 
perished  by  suffocation.  The  Papal  authorities  had 
taken  the  wisest  and  most  effective  measures  against 
famine  for  such  accumulating  multitudes.  It  was  a 
year  of  abundant  harvest ;  the  territories  of  Rome  and 
Naples  furnished  large  supplies.  Lodgings  were  ex- 
orbitantly dear,  forage  scarce ;  but  the  ordinary  food  of 
man,  bread,  meat,  wine,  and  fish,  was  sold  in  great 
plenty  and  at  moderate  prices.  The  oblations  were 
beyond  calculation.  It  is  reported  by  an  eye-witness 
that  two  priests  stood  with  rakes  in  their  hands  sweeping 
the  uncounted  gold  and  silver  from  the  altars.  Nor 
was  this  tribute,  like  offerings  or  subsidies  for  Crusades, 
to  be  devoted  to  special  uses,  the  accoutrements,  provi- 
sions, freight  of  armies.     It  was  entirely  at  the  free  ancj 


m 


LATIN  CHEISTIANITY. 


Book  XI 


irresponsible  disposal  of  the  Pope.  Christendom  of  ita 
own  accord  was  heaping  at  the  Pope's  feet  this  extra- 
ordinary custom  :  ^  and  receiving  back  the  gift  of  pardon 
and  everlasting  life. 

But  from  this  great  act  of  amnesty  to  the  whole  of 
Christendom  were  sternly  excluded  the  enemies  of 
Boniface — the  rebels,  as  they  were  proclaimed,  against 
the  See  of  Rome — Frederick  of  Arragon  and  the  Sici- 
lians, the  Colonnas,  and  all  who  harboured  them. 


"  Stefaneschi,  Villani,  Istovie  Fiorent. 
viii.  36.  Ventura.  After  all,  this  mode 
of  collecting  does  not,  with  the  explana- 
tion of  the  Cardinal-poet,  necessarily 
imply  a  contribution  so  very  enormous. 
The  text  of  Stefaneschi  is  unfortunately 
imi)erfect.  He  seems  to  say  that  the 
usual  annual  offerings  on  the  tombs 
of  the  Apostles  amounted  to  30,000 
florins  ;  this  year  to  50,000  more, 
chiefly  in  small  coins  of  ail  countries. 
Many  were  too  poor  to  make  any 
offering.  The  Cardinal  contrasts  the 
conduct  of  these  humble  votaries  with 
that  of  the  kings,  who,  unlike  the 
Three  of  old,  so  munificent  at  the  feet 
of  the  infant  Jesus,  were  parsimonious 
hi  their  offerings  to  Jesus  at  the  right 
liOud  of  the  Father.     "  Instead  of  this. 


they  seize  the  tithes  of  the  ch-urches 
bestowed  by  their  generous  ancestoi-s, 
whose  glory  becomes  their  shame." 
Villani;,  himself  a  pilgrim  (did  the 
rich  Florentines  pay  handsomely?), 
notes  the  vast  wealth  gained  by  the 
Romans  as  well  as  by  the  Church , 
according  to  his  strong  expression, 
almost  all  Christendom  went.  Vil- 
lani drew  his  historic  inspiration  from 
his  pilgrimage.  His  admiration  of  the 
great  and  ancient  monuments  of  Rome, 
recorded  by  Virgil,  Sallust,  Lucan, 
Titus  Livius,  Valerius,  and  Orosius, 
led  him,  an  unworthy  disciple,  t« 
attempt  to  write  history  in  their  style. 
Villani  is  far  from  Livy,  or  even 
Sallust;  but  he  might  hold  hia  owi? 
before  Valeriufl  ejnd  Oyosius, 


eiiAP.  IX.    ZEXITH  OF  THE  POWER  OF  BONIFACE.  87 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

Boniface  VIII.     His  Fall. 

This  centenary  year,  illustrated  by  the  splendid  festival 
of  the  Jubilee,  and  this  homage  and  tribute  Boniface  at 
paid  by  several  millions  of  worshippers  to  the  his  power.*' 
representative  of  St.  Peter,  was  the  zenith  of  the  fame 
and  power  of  Boniface  VTII.,  perhaps  of  the  Eoman 
Pontificate.  So  far  his  immeasurable  pretensions,  if 
they  had  encountered  resistance,  had  suffered  no  humi- 
liating rebuke.  Christendom  might  seem,  by  its  sub- 
mission, as  if  conspiring  to  intoxicate  all  his  ruling 
passions,  to  tempt  his  ambition,  to  swell  his  pride,  to 
glut  his  rapacity.  The  Colonnas,  his  redoubted  enemies, 
were  crushed ;  they  were  exiles  in  distant  lands ;  it 
might  seem  superfluous  hatred  to  confer  on  them  the 
distinction  of  exclusion  from  the  benefits  of  the  Jubilee. 
Sicily,  he  might  hope,  would  not  long  continue  her  anfilial 
rebellion.  Eoger  Loria,  now  on  the  Angevine  side,  had 
gained  one  of  his  famous  victories  over  the  Arragonese 
fleet.  Already  Boniface  had  determined  in  his  mind 
that  great,  though  eventually  fatal  scheme  by  which 
Charles  of  Valois,  who  in  the  plains  of  Flanders  had 
gained  distinguished  repute  in  arms,  should  descend  the 
Alps  as  the  soldier  of  the  Pope,  and  terminate  at  once 
the  obstinate  war.  Sicily  reduced,  Charles  of  Yalois, 
married  to  the  heiress  of  the  Latin  Emperor  Baldwin, 
was  to  win  back  the  imperial  throne  of  Constantinople 
to  the  dominion  of  the  West,  and  to  its  spiritual  alle* 


S8  LATi:S  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XL 

giance  under  the  Roman  See.  Boniface  had  interposed 
to  regulate  the  succession  to  the  crown  of  Hungary: 
Hungary  had  received  a  king  at  his  bidding.*  The 
King  of  the  Romans,  Albert  of  Austria,  Avas  under  his 
ban  as  a  rebel,  and  even  as  the  murderer,  so  he  was 
denounced,  of  his  sovereign,  Adolj)!!  of  Nassau.  Abso- 
lution for  these  crimes  could  only  be  given  by  the  Pope 
himself,  and  Albert  would  doubtless  purchase  at  any 
price  that  spiritual  pardon  without  which  his  throne 
trembled  under  him.  The  two  mighty  Kings  of  France 
and  England,  who  once  spurned,  had  now  been  reduced 
to  accept  his  mediation.  He  held,  as  arbiter,  the  pro- 
vince of  Guienne.  Scotland,  to  escape  English  rule, 
had  declared  herself  a  fief  of  the  Apostolic  See.  Edward 
had  not  yet  ventured  to  treat  with  scorn  the  strange 
demand  of  implicit  submission,  in  all  differences  between 
himself  and  the  Scots,  to  the  Papal  judgement.  The 
embers  of  that  fatal  controversy  between  the  King  of 
France  and  Boniface,  which  were  hereafter  to  blaze 
out  into  such  ruinous  conflagration,  were  smouldering 
unregarded,  and  to  all  seeming  entirely  extinguished. 
Philip,  the  brother  of  Charles  of  Valois,  miglit  appear 
the  dearest  and  most  obedient  son  of  the  Church. 

But  even  at  this  time,  in  the  depths  and  on  the 
heights  of  the  Christian  world,  influences  were  at  work 
not  only  about  to  become  fatal  to  the  worldly  grandeur 
of  Boniface  and  to  his  life,  but  to  his  fame  to  the  latest 
ages.  Boniface  was  hated  with  a  sincerity  and  intensity 
of  hatred  which,  if  it  darkened,  cannot  be  rejected  as 
a  witness  against  his  vices,  his  overweening  arrogance, 
his  treachery,  his  avidity. 

The  Franciscans  throughout  Christendom,  more  espe- 


Mailath,  Geschichte  der  Magyaren,  ii.  p.  5,  et  scqq. 


Chap.  IX.  AVIDITY  OF  THE  FRANCISCANS.  89 

cially  in  Italy,  bad  tlie  strongest  hold  on  the  popular 
mind  Their  brotherhood  was  vigorous  enough  not  to 
be  weakened  by  the  great  internal  schism  whieli  had 
begun  to  manifest  itself  from  their  foundation.^  But  to 
both  the  factions  in  this  powerful  order,  up  to  near  this 
time  among  the  vehement  and  passionate  teachers  of 
the  humblest  submission  to  the  Papacy,  the  present 
Pontiff  w^as  equally  odious.  In  all  lands  the  Franciscans 
were  followed  and  embarrassed  by  the  insoluble  inter- 
minable question,  the  possession  of  property,  a  question 
hereafter  to  be  even  more  fiercely  agitated.  How  could 
the  Franciscans  not  yield  to  the  temptation  of  the  w^ealth 
which,  as  formerly  with  other  Orders,  the  devotion  of 
mankind  now  cast  at  their  feet  ?  The  inveterate  feeling 
of  the  possibility  of  propitiating  the  Deity  by  munificent 
gifts,  of  atoning  for  a  life  of  violence  and  guilt  by  the 
lavish  donation  or  bequest,  made  it  difficult  for  those 
who  held  dominion  over  men's  minds  as  spiritual  coun- 
sellors, to  refuse  to  accept  as  stew^ards,  to  be  the 
receivers,  as  it  were,  for  God,  of  those  oblations,  ever 
more  frequent  and  splendid  according  to  the  depth  and 
energy  of  the  religious  impressions  w^hich  they  had 
awakened.  From  stewards  to  become  owners ;  from 
dispensers  or  trustees,  and  sometimes  vendors  of  lands 
or  goods  bequeathed  to  pious  uses,  in  order  to  distribute 
the  proceeds  among  the  poor  or  on  religious  edifices,  to 
be  the  lords,  and  so,  as  they  might  fondly  delude  them- 
selves, the  more  prudent  and  economic  managers  of  such 
estates,  w^as  but  an  easy  and  unperceived  transition. 
Hence,  if  not  from  more  sordid  causes,  in  defiance  of  the 
vow  of  absolute  poveily,  the  primal  law  of  the  society. 


•>  See  back  the  succession  of  Generals,  Elias,  Crescentius,   John  of  P'.irna 
Bonaventuia,  vol.  vi.  p.  350, 


90  LATIN  CHRISTIANITT.  Book  XI 

the  Franciscans  now  vied  in  wealth  with  the  older  and 
^ess  rigorous  orders.*"  Mendicancy,  their  vital  principle, 
had  long  ceased  to  be  content  with  the  scanty  boon  of 
hard  fare  and  coarse  clothing ;  it  grasped  at  lands  and 
the  cost  at  least  of  splendid  buildings.  But  the  stern 
and  inflexible  statute  of  the  order  stood  in  their  way ; 
the  Pope  alone  could  annul  that  primary  disqualification 
to  hold  lands  and  other  property.  To  abrogate  this 
inconvenient  rule,  to  enlarge  the  narrow  vow,  had  now 
become  the  aim  of  the  most  powerful,  and,  because  most 
powerful,  most  Avealthy  Minorites.  But  Boniface  was 
inexorable.  On  the  Franciscans  of  England  he  prac- 
tised a  most  unworthy  fraud ;  and,  bound  together  as  the 
Order  was  throughout  Christendom,  such  an  act  would 
produce  its  effect  throughout  the  whole  republic  of  the 
Minorites.  The  crafty  avarice  of  the  Pope  was  too  much 
for  the  simple  avarice  of  the  Order.  They  offered  to 
deposit  forty  thousand  ducats  with  certain  bankers,  as 
the  price  of  the  Papal  permission  to  hold  lands.  The 
Pope  appeared  to  listen  favourably  till  the  money  was 
in  the  bankers'  hands.  He  then  discovered  that  the 
concession  was  in  direct  opposition  to  the  fundamental 
laws  of  the  Order,  and  to  the  will  of  the  seraphic 
Francis ;  but  as  they  could  not  hold  property,  the  pro- 
perty in  the  bankers'  hands  could  not  be  theirs.  He 
absolved  tlie  bankers  from  their  obligation  to  repay  the 
Franciscans,  and  seized  for  his  proper  use  the  unowaed 
treasures.  It  was  a  bold  and  desperate  measure,  even 
in  a  Pope,  a  Pope  with  the  power  and  authority  of 
Boniface,  to  estrange  the  loyalty  of  the  Minorites,  dis- 
persed, but  in  strict  union,  throughout  the  world,  and 


e  Westminster  says  that  it  was  rumoured  that  the  Statute  of  Mortmain  waj 
::hiefl7  aimed  at  i-estraining  the  avidity  of  the  Franciscans. — v.  p.  (95. 


Chap.  LX.  THE  FRATICELLI.  91 

now  in  command  not  merely  of  the  popular  mind,  but 
of  the  profoundest  theology  of  the  age. 

But  if  the  higher  Franciscans  might  thus  be  disposed 
to  taunt  the  rapacity  of  Boniface,  which  had  baffled 
their  own,  and  throughout  the  Order  might  prevail  a 
brooding  and  unavowed  hostility  to  the  intractable 
Pontiff;  it  was  worse  among  the  lo\Aer  Franciscans, 
who  had  begun  to  draw  off  into  a  separate  and  inimical 
community.  These  were  already  under  dark  suspicions 
of  heresy,  and  of  belief  in  prophecies  (hereafter  to  be 
more  fully  shov/n'^),  no  less  hostile  to  the  whole  hier- 
archical system  than  the  tenets  of  the  Albigensians,  or 
of  the  followers  of  Peter  Waldo.  To  them  Boniface 
was,  if  not  the  Antichrist,  hardly  less  an  object  of  devout 
abhorrence.  To  the  Fraticelli,  Coelestine  was  ever  the 
model  Pope.  The  Coelestinians  had  either  blended  with 
the  Fraticelli,  or  were  bound  to  them  by  the  closest 
sympathies.  With  them,  Boniface  was  still  an  usurper 
who  disgraced  the  throne  which  he  had  obtained 
through  lawless  craft  and  violence,  by  the  maintenance 
of  an  iniquitous,  unchristian  system,  a  system  im- 
placably irreconcileable  with  Apostolic  poverty,  and 
tlierefore  with  Apostolic  faith.  The  Fraticelli,  or 
Coelestinians,  as  has  been  seen,  had  their  poet ;  and 
perhaps  the  rude  rhymes  of  Jacopone  da  Todi,  to  the 
tunes  and  in  the  rhythm  of  much  of  the  popular  hymn- 
ology,  sounded  more  powerfully  in  the  ears  of  men, 
stirred  with  no  less  fire  the  hearts  of  his  simpler 
hearers,  than  in  later  days  the  sublime  terzains  of 
Dante.  Jacopone  da  Todi  was  a  lawyer,  of  a  gay  and 
jovial  life.     His  wife,  of  exquisite  beauty  and  of  noble 


«•  We  must  awiiit  the  pontificate  of  John  XXU,  for  the  full  development  of 
their  tenets. 


92 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI, 


birth,  was  deeply  religious.  During  a  solemn  festival 
in  the  church,  she  fell  on  the  pavement  from  a  scaffold. 
Jacopone  rushed  to  loosen  her  dress ;  the  dying  woman 
struggled  with  more  than  feminine  modesty ;  she  was 
found  swathed  in  the  coarsest  sackcloth.  Jacopone  at 
ouce  renounced  the  world,  and  became  a  Franciscan 
tertiary ;  in  the  rigour  of  his  asceticism,  in  the  stern- 
ness of  his  opinions,  a  true  brother  of  the  most  extreme 
of  the  Fraticelli.  We  have  heard  Jacopone  admonish 
Coelestine:  his  rude  verse  was  no  less  bold  against 
Boniface.^ 

Boniface  pursued  the  Fraticelli,  whose  dangerous  doc- 
trines his  well-informed  sagacity  could  not  but  follow 
out  to  their  inevitable  conclusions,^  even  if  they  had 
not  yet  announced  that  coming  reign  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
which  was  to  supersede  and  sweep  away  all  the  hier- 
archy. He  could  hardly  be  ignorant  of  their  menacing 
prophecies.  He  cut  oif  at  once  this  rebellious  branch 
from  the  body  of  the  faithful,  and  denounced  them  as 
obstinate  irreclaimable  heretics.^  Jacopone,  not  without 
cause  (he  had  been  the  secretary  in  that  league  of  the 
Colonnas  and  the  ecclesiastics  of  France),  became  an 
object  of  persecution ;  that  persecution,  as  usual,  only 
gave   him  the   honour   and   increasing   influence   of  a 


*  A  poem  has  disajjpeared  from  the 

latei*  editions : — 

•'  0  Papa  Bonifazio 
Molto  bai  giocato  al  mondo, 
Penso  che  giocondo 
Nod  te  parria  partire." 

This  is  genuine  Jacopone.  Two  stan- 
zas, alluding  to  the  scene  at  Anagni, 
seem  of  a  more  doubtful  hand. — Note 
to  tlie  German  translation  of  Ozanam 
on  the  Religious  Poets  of  Italy,  by 
Di-.  Julius,  p.  188. 


'  Compare  Ferretus  Vicentinus,  end 
of  second  book,  character  of  Boniface, 

«  On  the  Fraticelli,  Raynaldus,  p. 
240.  In  the  bull  of  Boniface  against 
them,  he  is  extremely  indignant  at 
their  apostacy.  They  averred  "  quod 
tempore  interdict!  noelius  quam  alio 
tempore  sit  eisdem,  et  quod  propter 
excornmunicationem  cibus  non  minua 
sapidus  sit  temporalis,  rsc  minus  bene 
dormiunt  propterea. ' — p.  242. 


Chap.  IX. 


CI3ARLES  OF  VALOIS. 


93 


martyr ;  his  verses  were  hardly  less  bold,  and  were  mor*^ 
endeared  to  the  passions,  and  sunk  deeper  into  the 
hearts  of  men.^ 

A  Pope  of  a  Ghibelline  family,  an  apostate,  as  he  was 
justly  or  unjustly  thought,  who  had  carried  Guelfism  to 
an  unprecedented  height  of  arrogance,  and  enforced  its 
triumph  with  remorseless  severity,  centred  of  course  on 
himself  the  detestation  of  all  true  Ghibellines.  He  had 
trampled  down,  but  not  exterminated,  the  Colonnas ; 
their  dispersion,  if  less  dangerous  to  his  power,  was 
more  dangerous  to  his  fame.  Wherever  they  went  they 
spread  the  most  hateful  stories  of  his  pride,  perfidy, 
cruelty,  avarice,  so  that  even  now  we  cannot  discri- 
minate darkened  truth  from  baseless  calumny.  The 
greedy  ears  of  the  Ghibellines  throughout  Italy,  of  his 
enemies  throughout  Christendom,  drank  in  and  gave 
further  currency  to  these  sinister  and  rankling  an- 
tipathies. 

But  the  measure  by  which  Boniface  hoped  almost  to 
exterminate  Ghibellinism,  by  placing  on  the  throne  of 
Naples  a  powerful  monarch,  instead  of  the  feeble  re- 
presentative of  the  old  Angevine  line,  thus  wresting 
Sicily  for  ever  from  the  house  of  Arragon,  and  so 
putting  an  end  to  the  war,  was  most  disastrous  to  his 
peace  and  to  his  fame.  The  invitation  of  Charles  of 
Valois  to  be  the  soldier,  protector,  ally  of  the  charies  of 
i^ope,  ended  in  revolting  half  Italy,  w^hile  it  ^'^^'"^■ 
had  not  the  slightest  effect  in  mitigating  the  subsequent 
fatal  collision  wath  i'rance.  Had  Charles  of  Valois 
never   trampled   on   the   liberties  of  Florence,    Dante 


^  There  is  to  my  ear  a  bitter  and 
insulting  tone  in  the  two  satires  written 
from  his  prison,  in  which  he  seems  to 
aipplicate,  and  at   the  same  time  to 


treat  the  Papal  absolution  as  indifferent 
to  one  so  full  as  he  was  of  hatred  of 
himself  and  love  of  Christ. —  Satire 
xvii.  xix. 


94  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Xi 

miglit  never  have  fallen  off  to  Ghibellinism ;  he  might 
have  been  silent  of  the  fate  of  Boniface  in  hell.  Hardly- 
had  Charles  of  Valois  descended  into  Italy,  when  Boni- 
face could  not  disguise  to  himself  that  he  had  intro- 
duced a  master  instead  of  a  vassal.  The  haughty 
Frenchman  paid  as  little  respect,  in  his  inordinate  am- 
bition, to  the  counsels,  admonitions,  remonstrances  of 
the  Pope,  as  to  the  liberties  of  the  Italian  people,  or  the 
laws  of  justice,  humanity,  or  good  faith.  The  summary 
of  Charles  of  Valois'  expedition  into  Italy,  the  expedi- 
tion of  the  lieutenant  and  peacemaker  of  the  Pope,  was 
contained  in  that  sarcastic  sentence  alluded  to  above, 
"  He  came  to  establish  peace  in  Tuscany,  and  left  war ; 
he  went  to  Sicily  to  wage  war,  and  made  a  disgraceful 
peace."  Through  Charles  of  Valois  the  Pope  became 
an  object  of  execration  in  Florence,  of  mistrust  and 
hatred  throughout  Italy ;  the  anathematised  Frederick 
obtained  full  possession  of  Sicily  for  his  life,  and  as 
much  longer  as  his  descendants  could  hold  it.'  It  were 
perhaps  hard  to  determine  which  of  the  two  brothers 
shook  the  power,  and  made  the  name  of  Boniface  more 
odious  to  mankind,  his  friend  and  ally  Charles  of  Valois, 
or  his  foe  Philip  the  Fair. 

The  arrogant  interposition  of  the  Pope  in  the  affaii-s 
Eugiand.  of  Scotland  was  rejected,  not  only  by  the  King 
Parliament  but  bv  the  Euolish  uatiou.     The  Parliament 

of  Lincoln.  •^  " 

Aj).  1301.  met  at  Lincoln.  There  assembled  one  hun- 
dred and  four  of  the  greatest  barons  of  the  realm, 
among  the  first,  Bohun,  Earl  of  Hereford,  and  Bigod, 
Earl  of  Norfolk,^  whose  bold  opposition  had  compelled 


*  See  before,  p.  22. 
■*  It    WHS    Bigod    who    refused   to 
ittend  the  King  as   i^'.arl   Marshal    to 


said  Edward,  "  Sir  Earl,  you  shall  go 
or  hang."  "  By  the  everlasting  God," 
answered   Bigod,    "1   will  nether  go 


?ianders.     '•  By  the  everlasting  God,"  |  nor  hang.' 


Chap.  IX.  TARLIAMEXT  OF  LINCOLN  liS 

the  King  to  sign  the  two  charters,  with  additional 
securities  fo  •  the  protection  of  the  subject  against  the 
power  of  the  Crown ;  they  had  joined  wdth  the  xlrch- 
bishop  to  resist  the  exactions  of  tiie  King.  The  Uni- 
versities sent  their  most  distinguished  doctors  of  civil 
law;  the  monasteries  had  been  ordered  to  furnish  all 
documents  which  could  throw  light  on  the  controversy. 
The  answer  to  the  Pope's  Bull,  agreed  on  after  some 
discussion,  was  signed  by  all  the  Nobles.  It  expressed 
the  amazement  of  the  Lords  in  Parliament  at  the 
unheard-of  pretensions  advanced  in  the  Papal  Bull, 
asserted  the  immemorial  supremacy  of  the  King  of 
England  over  the  King  of  Scotland  in  the  times  of  the 
Britons  and  of  the  Saxons.  Scotland  had  never  paid 
feudal  allegiance  to  the  Church.  The  King  of  England 
is  in  no  way  accountable  or  amenable  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Pope  for  his  rights  over  the  kingdom  of  Scotland ; 
he  must  not  permit  those  rights  to  be  called  in  question. 
It  would  be  a  disinheritance  of  the  crown  of  England 
and  of  the  royal  dignity,  a  subversion  of  the  state  of 
England,  if  the  King  should  appear  by  his  proctors  or 
ambassadors  to  plead  on  those  rights  in  the  Court  of 
Home  ;  an  infringement  of  the  ancient  liberties,  customs, 
and  laws  of  the  realm,  "  to  the  maintenance  of  w^iich  we 
are  bound  by  a  solemn  oath,  and  which  by  God's  grace 
we  will  maintain  to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  and  with 
our  whole  strength.  We  neither  permit,  nor  \\ill  we 
permit  (we  have  neither  the  will  nor  the  power  to  do 
so)  om*  Lord  the  King,  even  if  he  should  so  design,  to 
comply,  or  attempt  compliance,  w4th  demands  so  un- 
])recedented,  so  unlawful,  so  prejudicial,  so  unheard  of. 
Wherefore  we  humbly  and  earnestly  beseech  your 
Holiness  to  leave  our  King,  a  true  Catholic,  and  devo- 
tedly attached   to   the   Church  of  Eome,  in   peaceful 


96  LATIN  CHRISTIAXITV  Book  XL 

and  undisturbed  possession  of  all  his  rights,  liberties, 
customs,  and  laws."  ^ 

King  Edward,  however,  to  quiet  the  conscience  of  the 
Pope,  not,  as  he  distinctly  declared,  as  submitting  to  his 
judgement,  condescended  to  make  a  full  and  elaborate 
statement  of  his  title  to  the  homage  of  Scotland,  in  a 
document  which  seemed  to  presume  on  the  ignorance  or 
credulity  of  his  Holiness  as  to  the  history  of  England 
and  of  the  world,  with  boldness  only  equalled  by  the 
counter-statements  of  the  Scottish  Regency.  It  is  a 
singular  illustration  of  the  state  of  human  knowledge 
when  poetry  and  history  are  one,  when  the  mythic  and 
historic  have  the  same  authority  even  as  to  grave  legal 
claims,  and  questions  affecting  the  destinies  of  nations. 
The  origin  of  the  King  of  England's  supremacy  over 
Claims  of  Scotland  mounts  almost  to  immemorial  an- 
Engiand.  tiquity.  Brute,  the  Trojan,  in  the  days  of  Eli 
and  Samuel,  conquered  the  island  of  Albion  from  the 
Giants.  He  divided  it  among  his  three  sons,  Locrine, 
Albanact,  and  Camber.  Albanact  was  slain  in  battle 
by  a  foreign  invader,  Humber.  Locrine  avenged  his 
death,  slew  the  usurper,  who  was  drowned  in  the  river 
which  took  his  name,  and  subjected  the  realm  of 
Albanact  (Scotland)  to  that  of  Britain.  Of  the  two 
sons  of  Dunwallo,  King  of  Britain,  Belinus  and  Brenniis, 
Belinus  received  the  kingdom  of  Britain,  Brennus  that 
of  Scotland,  under  his  brother,  according  to  the  Trojan 
law  of  primogeniture.  King  Artliur  bestowed  the  king- 
dom of  Scotland  on  Angusil,  who  bore  Arthur's  sword 
before  him  in  sign  of  fealty.  So,  throughout  the  Saxon 
race,  almost  every  famous  King,  from  Atholstan  to 
Edward  the  Confessor,  had  either  appointed  Kings  oi 


Rjmer,  dated  Feb.  12,  1301. 


Chap.  IX.    CLAIMS  OF  EiVGLAND  AND  SCOTLAJ^D.  97 

Scotland  or  received  homage  from  them.  The  Normans 
exercised  the  same  supremacy,  from  William  the  Con- 
queror to  King  Edward's  father,  Henry  III.  The  King 
dauntlessly  relates  acts  of  submission  and  fealty  from 
all  the  Scottish  Kings.  He  concludes  this  long  and 
laboured  manifesto  with  the  assertion  of  his  full,  abso- 
lute, indefeasible  title  to  the  kingdom  of  Scotland,  as 
well  in  right  of  property  as  of  possession  ;  and  that  he 
mil  neither  do  any  act,  nor  give  any  security,  which 
will  in  the  least  derogate  from  that  right  and  that  pos- 
session. 

The  Pope  received  this  extraordinary  statement  with 
consummate  solemnity.  He  handed  it  over  to  Answer  of 
Baldred  Basset,  the  Envoy  of  the  Scottish  *'^^^^^^- 
Regency.  In  due  time  appeared  the  answer,  which, 
with  the  same  grave  unsuspiciousness,  meets  the  King 
on  his  own  ground.  The  Scots  had  their  legend,  which 
for  this  purpose  becomes  equally  authentic  history. 
They  deny  not  Brute  or  his  conquest ;  but  they  hold 
their  independent  descent  from  Scota,  the  daughter  of 
Pharaoh,  King  of  Egypt,  who  sojourned  at  Athens  and 
subdued  Ireland.  Her  sons  conquered  Scotland  from 
the  degenerate  race  of  Brute.  The  Saxon  supremacy, 
if  there  w^ere  such  supremacy,  is  no  precedent  for 
Edward,  a  descendant  of  Norman  kings.  No  act  of 
homage  was  ever  performed  to  them  by  any  King 
of  Scotland,  but  by  William  the  Lion,  and  that  for 
lands  held  within  the  Idngdom  of  England.  They 
assert  the  absolute  jurisdiction  of  the  court  of  Kome. 
Edward,  did  he  not  mistrust  his  cause,  could  not 
decline  that  just  and  infallible  tribunal.  Scotland  is, 
and  ever  has  been,  an  allodial  tief,  an  inalienable 
possession  of  the  Church  of  Eome.  It  was  contained 
in   the   uni'ersal  grant  of  Constantine  the  Emperor, 

VOL.  VII.  H 


98  LATIN  CHEISllANITl.  Book  XI. 

of  all  islands  in  tbo  ocean  to  the  successors  of  St 
Peter." 

But  tliese  more  remote  controversies  were  now  to  be 
Quarrel  with  <ii"owned  iu  the  din  of  that  absorbing  strife, 
France.  ^j^  wliicli  Christendom  gazed  in  silent  amaze- 
ment, the  quarrel  between  the  Pope  and  the  King  of 
France.  Boniface  must  descend  from  his  tranquil  emi- 
nence, as  dictator  of  peace,  as  arbiter  between  contend- 
ing Kings,  to  a  long  furious  altercation  of  royal  Edicts 
and  Papal  Bulls,  in  which,  if  not  all  respect  for  the 
Roman  See,  at  least  for  himself,  was  thrown  aside ;  in 
which,  if  not  his  life,  his  power  and  his  personal 
liberty  were  openly  menaced;  in  which  on  his  side 
he  threatened  to  excommunicate,  to  depose  by  some 
powerful  league  the  greatest  monarch  in  Europe,  and 
was  himself  summoned  to  appear  before  a  General 
Council  to  answer  for  the  most  monstrous  crimes.  The 
strife  closed  with  his  seizure  in  his  own  palace,  and  in 
his  hastened  death. 

As  tliis  strife  with  France  became  more  violent,  the 
The  Pope  and  King  of  England,  whom  each  party  would  fear 
IblildoJf  to  offend,  calmly  pursued  his  plans  of  security 
their  ally.  ^^^  aggrandisement.  The  rights  of  the  Roman 
See  to  the  fief  of  Scotland  quietly  sunk  into  oblivion ; 
the  liberties  of  the  oppressed  Scots  ceased  to  awaken 
the  sympathies  of  their  spiritual  vindicator.  The  change 
in  the  views  of  the  Pope  was  complete  ;  his  inactivity  in 
the  cause  of  the  Scots  grew  into  indirect  support  of  the 
King  of  England.  In  an  extant  Bull  he  reproves  the 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow  and  other  Prelates  of  Scotland, 
for  their  obstinate  maintenance  of  an  unnatural  re- 
})ellion:  he  treats  them  as  acting  unworthily  of  their 


■  Rymer.     On  the  Scotch  plea,  compare  Fordun,  Stoti  Chionicoa. 


Chap.  IX.      QUARREL  OF  THE  POPE  AND  PHILIP.  99 

holy  calling,  and  threatens  them  with  condign  censure 
those  very  Prelates  for  whose  imprisonment  he  had  con- 
demned the  King  of  England.^ 

Nor  was  Philip  less  disposed  to  abandon  the  Scottish 
insurgents  to  their  fate.  After  obtaining  for  them  the 
short  truce  of  Angers,  he  no  longer  interposed  in  their 
behalf.  There  might  almost  seem  a  tacit  understanding 
between  the  Kings.  Edward,  in  like  manner,  forgot  his 
faithful  ally  the  Count  of  Elanders,  who  was  confined  in 
a  French  prison  as  a  rebellious  vassal.  He  did  not  insist 
on  his  liberation,  it  does  not  appear  that  he  even  re- 
monstrated against  this  humiliating  wrong. 

The  quarrel  between  Boniface  VIII.  and  Philip  the 
Fair  is  one  of  the  great  epochs  in  the  Papal  history, 
the  turning  point  after  which,  for  a  time  at  least,  the 
Papacy  sank  with  a  swift  and  precipitate  descent,  and 
from  which  it  never  rose  again  to  the  same  commanding 
height.  This  quarrel  led  rapidly,  if  not  directly  and 
immediately,  to  that  debasing  period  which  has  been 
called  the  Babylonian  captivity  of  the  Popes  in  Avignon, 
during  which  they  became  not  much  more  than  the 
slaves  of  the  Kings  of  France.  It  was  the  strife  of 
the  two  proudest,  hardest,  and  least  conciliatory  of  men, 
in  defence  of  the  two  most  stubbornly  irreconcileable 
principles  which  could  be  brought  into  collision,  with 
everything  to  exasperate,  nothing  to  avert,  to  break, 
or  to  mitigate  the  shock. 

The  causes  which  led  more  immediately  to  tliis  dis- 
astrous discord  seem  petty  and  insignificant ;  but  when 
two  violent,  ambitious,  and  unyielding  men  are  opposed, 
each  strenuous  in  the  assertion  of  incompatible  claims, 
small  causes  provoke  and  irritate  the  feud,  more  perhapi-- 

«  Rymer. 


100  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

than  some  one  great  object  of  contest.  The  clergy  of 
France  had  many  grievances,  complained  of  many 
usurpations  on  the  part  of  Philip,  his  family,  and  his 
officers,  which  were  duly  brought  before  the  Papal 
court.  The  Bishop  of  Laon  had  been  suspended  from 
his  spiritual  functions  by  the  Pope ;  he  was  cited  to 
Kome.  The  King  sequestered  and  took  possession  of 
the  lands  and  goods  as  of  a  vacant  See.  John,  Cardinal 
of  S.  Cecih'a,  had  devised  certain  estates  which  he  held 
in  France  for  the  endowment  of  a  college  for  poor  clerks 
in  Paris.  Philip,  it  is  not  known  on  what  plea,  seized 
the  lands,  and  refused  to  restore  them,  though  admo- 
nished by  the  Pope.  Eobert  of  Artois,  the  King's 
brother,  claimed  against  the  Bishop  part  of  the  city  of 
Cambray :  he  continued  to  hold  it  in  defiance  of  the 
Papal  censure.  The  Archbishop  of  Eheims  complained 
that  his  estates,  sequestered  by  the  King  for  his  own 
use  during  the  vacancy  of  the  See,  had  not  been  fully 
restored  to  the  Archiepiseopate.  The  Archbishop  of 
Narbonne  was  involved  in  two  disputes,  one  with  the 
Viscount  of  that  city,  who  claimed  to  hold  his  castle  in 
Narbonne  of  the  King,  not  of  the  Archbishop,  who  had 
received,  as  was  asserted  on  the  other  hand,  the  homage 
and  fealty  of  his  father.  A  Council  was  held  at  Beziers 
on  the  subject:  and  an  appeal  made  to  Paris.  The 
second  feud  related  to  the  district  of  Maguelone,  which 
the  officers  of  St.  Louis  had  usurped  from  the  See  of 
Narbonne;  but  on  an  appeal  to  Clement  IV.,  it  had 
been  ceded  back  to  the  Church.  The  officers  of  Philip 
were  again  in  possession  of  Maguelone.  On  tliis  subject 
came  a  strong,  but  not  intemperate  remonstrance  from 
the  Pope,  yet  in  which  might  be  heard  the  first  faint 
murmurs  of  the  brooding  storm.  The  Pope  naturally 
set  before  the  King  the  example  of  his  pious  and  sainted 


Chap.  IX.  DISSATISFACTION  OF  PHILIP.  101 

grandsire  Louis.  That  canonisation  is  always  repre- 
sented as  an  act  of  condescending  favour,  not  as  a  right 
extorted  by  the  unquestioned  virtues  and  acknowledged 
miracles  of  St.  Louis ;  and  as  binding  the  kingdom  of 
France,  especially  his  descendants  on  the  throne,  in  an 
irredeemable  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  Holy  See.  "  The 
Pope  cannot  overlook  such  aggressions  as  tliose  of  the 
King  on  the  rights  of  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne  with- 
out incurring  the  blame  of  dumb  dogs,  who  dare  not 
bark;"  he  warns  the  King  against  the  false  prophets 
with  honeyed  lips,  the  evil  counsellors,  the  extent  of 
whose  fatal  influence  he  already,  no  doubt,  dimly  fore- 
saw, the  lawyers,  on  whom  the  King  depended  in  all  his 
acts,  whether  for  the  maintenance  of  his  own  rights,  or 
the  usurpation  of  those  of  others. 

As  yet  there  was  no  open  breach.  No  doubt  the 
recollection  of  the  former  feud  rankled  in  the  hearts 
of  both.  The  unmeasured  pretensions  of  the  Pope  in 
the  Bull  which  exempted  the  clergy  altogether  from 
taxation  for  tlie  state  had  not  been  rescinded,  only 
mitigated  as  regarded  France.  All  these  smaller 
vexatious  acts  of  rapacity  showed  that  the  King  was 
actuated  by  the  same  spirit,  which  would  proceed  to 
any  extremity  rather  than  yield  this  prerogative  of 
his  crown. 

The  dissatisfaction  of  Philip  with  the  arbitration  of 
Boniface  between  France  and  England  ;  his  indignation 
that  the  arbitrement,  which  had  been  referred  to  Bene- 
detto Gaetani,  not  to  Pope  Boniface,  had  been  published 
in  the  form  of  a  Bull;  the  fury  into  which  the  King 
and  the  nobles  were  betrayed  by  the  articles  concerning 
the  Count  of  Flanders,  rest  on  no  extant  contemporary 
authority  ;  yet  are  so  particular  and  so  characteristic  that 
it  is  difficult  to  ascribe  them  to  the  invention  of  the 


102 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI. 


French  historians.^  It  is  said  that  the  Bull,  which  had 
been  ostentatiously  read  before  a  great  public  assembly 
in  the  Vatican,  was  presented  to  the  King  of  France  by 
an  English  prelate,  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  as  Papal 
Legate  for  that  purpose,  as  well  as  ambassador  of  Eng- 
land ;  that  besides  the  articles  of  peace  between  France 
and  England,  it  ordered  the  King  to  surrender  to  the 
Count  of  Flanders  all  the  cities  which  he  had  taken 
during  the  war,  to  deliver  up  his  daughter,  who  had  been 
a  prisoner  in  France  during  two  years,  and  to  allow  the 
Count  of  Flanders  to  marry  her  according  to  his  own 
choice ;  ^  and  also  commanded  Philip  himself  to  take  up 
the  Cross  for  the  Holy  Land.  The  King  could  not  restrain 
his  wrath.  Count  Kobert  of  Artois  seized  the  insolent 
parchment:  "Such  dishonour  shall  never  fall  on  the 
kingdom  of  France."  He  threw  it  into  the  fire.^  Some 
trembled,  some  highly  lauded  this  contempt  of  the  Pope. 


P  The  bull  as  published  in  Rymer 
contains  no  article  relating  to  the 
Count  of  Flanders ;  it  is  entirely  con- 
fined to  the  dispute  between  France 
and  England,  and  the  affairs  of  Gas- 
cony.  That  article,  if  there  were 
such,  must  have  been  sepaiate  and 
distinct.  The  English  ambassadors, 
according  to  another  document  (New 
Rymer),  refused  to  enter  into  the 
negotiation  without  the  consent  of  the 
Counts  of  Flanders  and  Bar,  The  two 
counts  submitted,  like  the  two  kings, 
to  the  Papal  aibitration. 

1  I  have  quoted  above  the  bull  annul- 
ling the  marriage  contract  of  young  Ed- 
ward of  England  with  this  piincess,p.  79. 

'  Dupuy,  Mezeray,  and  Velly  relate 
all  this  without  hesitation.  Sismondi 
rejects  it  altogether.  Dupuy  refers  to 
Villani,  where  there  is  not  a  word 
about  it,  and  to  the  Flemish  historian 


Oudegherst,  qui  (rArchevesque  de 
Rains)  "depuis  les  presente  au  Roy 
Philippe  le  Bel,  en  la  presence  de  plu- 
sieurs  Princes  du  Royaulrae,  et  entre 
autres  de  Robert  Conte  d'Artoys, 
lequel  s'apparchevant  d'une  inusitee 
melancholia  et  tristesse  que  ladicte 
sentence  avoit  cause'  au  cceur  d'iceluy, 
Roy  Philippe,  print  lesdictes  bulles  des 
mains  de  I'Archevesque,  lesquelles  il 
deschira  et  jecta  au  feu,  disant  que  tel 
deshonneur  n'aviendroit  jamais  k  un 
Roy  de  France.  Dont  aucuns  des 
Assistans  le  lou6rent  grandement,  les 
autres  le  blasmerent."  Oudegherst, 
p.  222.  It  is  singular  that  there  is 
the  same  obscurity  about  the  demand 
made,  it  is  said,  by  the  Eishop  of 
Pamiers  for  the  liberation  of  the  Count 
of  Flanders— one  of  the  causes  which 
exasperated  Philip  most  violently 
against  that  prelate. 


Chap.  IX.  ALLIANCE  WITH  THE  EMPIRE.  103 

It  is  quite  certain  that  Philip  took  a  step  of  more 
decided  disdain  and  hostility  to  the  Pope,  in  entering 
into  an  open  alliance  and  connexion  by  marriage  with 
the  excommunicated  Albert  of  Austria.  The  King  of 
the  Komans  and  the  King  of  France  met  in  great  pomp 
between  Toul  and  Vaucouleurs,  on  the  confines  of  their 
kingdoms.  Blanche,  the  sister  of  Philip^  was  solemnly 
espoused  to  Kodolph,  son  of  Albert  of  Austria.  This 
step  implied  more  than  mistrust,  total  disbelief  in  the 
promises  held  out  by  Pope  Boniface  to  Charles  of  Valois, 
that  not  merely  he  should  be  placed,  as  the  reward  of 
his  Italian  conquests,  on  the  throne  of  the  Eastern 
Empire,  but  that  the  Pope  would  ensure  his  succession 
to  the  Empire  of  the  West,  held  to  be  vacant  by  the 
death  of  Adolph  of  Nassau.  These  magnificent  hopes 
the  Pope  had  not  the  power,  Philip  manifestly  believed 
that  he  had  not  the  will,  to  accomplish.^  Albert  of  Austria 
was  yet  under  the  Papal  ban  as  the  murderer  of  his 
Sovereign.  Boniface  had  exhorted  the  ecclesiastical 
electors  to  resist  his  usurpation,  as  he  esteemed  it,  to 
the  utmost.  Neither  the  Archbishops  of  Mentz  nor  of 
Cologne  were  present  at  the  meeting.  Albert  of  Austria 
communicated  this  treaty  of  marriage  with  the  royal 
house  of  France  to  the  Pope ;  and  no  doubt  hoped  to 
advance  at  least  the  recognition  of  his  title  as  King  o 
the  Romans.  Boniface  refused  to  admit  the  ambassadors 
of  the  vassal  wdio  had  slain  his  lord,  of  a  Prince  who, 
without  the  Papal  sanction,  dared  to  assume  the  title  of 
King  of  the  Romans.' 

Rumours  of  more  ostentatious  contemptuousness  were 
widely  disseminated  in  Transalpine  Christendom,  and 


'  Hisloria  Australis,  apud  Freher,  i.  417,  sub  ann.  1299.     Leibnitz,  Cod 
Diplom.  i.  25.  »  Raynald,  sub  ann.  1300. 


104  LATm  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XL 

among  the  Gbibellines  of  Northern  Italy.  Boniface 
Rumours  had  appeared  in  warlike  attire,  and  declared 
face.  that  himself,  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  was 

the  only  Csesar.  During  the  Jubilee  he  had  displayed 
himself  alternately  in  the  splendid  habiliments  of  the 
Pope  and  those  of  the  Emperor,  with  the  crown  on  his 
head,  the  sceptre  in  his  hand,  and  the  Imperial  sandals 
on  his  feet ;  he  had  two  swords  borne  before  him,  and 
thus  openly  assumed  the  full  temporal  as  well  as  spi- 
ritual supremacy  over  mankind.  These  reports,  whether 
grounded  on  some  misunderstanding  of  acts  or  words, 
or  on  the  general  haughty  demeanour  of  the  Pope, 
whether  gross  exaggeration  or  absolute  invention,  were 
no  doubt  spread  by  the  industrious  vindictiveness  of  the 
Pontiff's  enemies."  It  was  no  augury  of  peace  that 
some  of  the  Colonnas  were  openly  received  at  the  court 
The  Co-  of  France :  Stephen,  the  nephew  of  the  two 
lonnas.  Cardiuals  (they  remained  at  Genoa),  Sciarra,  a 
name  afterwards  more  fatal  to  the  Pope,  redeemed  by  the 
liberality  of  the  King  from  the  corsairs  who  had  taken  him 
on  the  high  seas.  It  is  far  from  improbable  that  from  the 
Colonnas  and  their  partisans,  not  only  such  statements  as 
these  had  their  source  or  their  blacker  colouring,  but  even 
darker  and  more  heinous  charges.  These  were  all  seized 
by  the  lawyers,  Peter  Flotte  and  William  of  Nogaret. 
Italian  revenge,  brooding  over  cruel  and  unforgiven  in- 
juries, degradation,  impoverishment,  exile ;  Ghibelline 
hatred,  with  the  discomfiture  of  ecclesiastical  ambition 
in  the  Churchmen,  would  be  little  scrupulous  as  to  the 
weapons  which  it  would  employ.  Boniface,  if  not  the 
victim  of  his  overweening  arrogance,  may  have  beer 
the  victim  of  his  own  violence  and  implacability. 


Of  one  thing  only  I  am  confident,  that  they  are  not  l.-itr-i-  inventions. 


Chap.  IX.  BISHOP  OF  PAMIERS.  105 

The  unfortunate,  if  not  insulting,  choice  of  his  Legate 
at  this  peculiar  crisis  precipitated  the  rupture.  Instead 
of  one  of  the  grave,  smooth,  distinguished,  if  inflexible, 
Cardinals  of  his  own  court,  Boniface  entrusted  with  this 
difQcult  mission  a  man  turbulent,  intriguing,  odious  to 
Philip ;  with  notions  of  sacerdotal  power  as  stern  and 
unbending  as  his  own ;  a  subject  of  the  King  of  France, 
yet  in  a  part  of  the  kingdom  in  which  that  subjection 
was  recent  and  doubtful.  Bernard  Saisset  had  saisset 
been  Abbot  of  St.  Antonine's  in  Pamiers,  a  Pamiers, 
city  of  Languedoc.  The  Counts  of  Foix  had  a  joint 
jurisdiction  with  the  Abbot  over  that  city  and  over  the 
domains  of  the  convent.  But  the  house  of  Foix  during 
the  Albigensian  war  had  lost  all  its  power ;  these  rights 
passed  first  to  Simon  de  Montfort,  then  to  the  King  of 
France.  But  the  King  of  France,  Philip  the  Hardy, 
had  rewarded  Eoger  Bernard,  Count  of  Foix,  for  his 
services  in  the  war  of  Catalonia,  with  the  grant  of  all 
his  rights  over  Pamiers,  except  the  absolute  suzerainty. 
The  Abbots  resisted  the  grant,  and  refused  all  accom- 
modation. The  King  commanded  the  Viscount  of 
Bigorre,  who  held  the  castle,  to  put  it  into  the  hands 
of  the  Count  of  Foix.  The  Abbot  appealed  to  ^  „  1295, 
Rome.  Roger  Bernard  was  excommunicated ;  ^^^^" 
his  lands  placed  under  interdict.  The  Pope  erected  tho 
city  of  Pamiers  into  a  Bishopric ;  Bernard  Saisset 
became  Bishop,  and  condescended  to  receive  a  large 
sum  from  the  Count  of  Foix,  with  a  fixed  rent  on  the 
estates.     The  Count  of  Foix  did  homaire  at  the  feet  of 

o 

the  Bishop. 

Such  was  the  man  chosen  by  Boniface  as  Legate  to 
the  proud  and  irascible  Philip  the  Fair.  There  is  no 
record  of  the  special  object  of  his  mission  or  of  his 
instructions.     It  is  said  that  he  held  the  loftiest  and 


106  LATIN  CHRISTIAN  ITT.  Book  XJ. 

most  contemptuous  language  concerning  the  illimitable 
power  of  the  Church  over  all  temporal  sovereigns ; 
that  his  arrogant  demeanour  rendered  his  demands 
still  more  insulting;  that  he  peremptorily  insisted  on 
the  liberation  of  the  Count  of  Flanders  and  his 
daughter.  Philip,  after  the  proclamation  of  his  truce 
with  England,  had  again  sent  a  powerful  army  into 
Flanders:  the  Count  was  abandoned  by  the  King  of 
England,  abandoned  by  his  own  subjects.  Guy  of 
Dampierre  (we  have  before  alluded  to  his  fate)  had 
been  compelled  to  surrender  with  his  family,  and 
was  now  a  prisoner  in  France.  Philip  had  the  most 
deep-rooted  hatred  of  the  Count  of  Flanders,  as  a  rebel- 
lious vassal,  and  as  one  whom  he  had  cruelly  injured. 
Some  passion  as  profound  as  this,  or  his  most  sensitive 
pride,  must  have  been  galled  by  the  Bishop  of  Pamiers, 
or  even  Philip  the  Fair  would  hardly  have  been  goaded 
to  measures  of  such  vindictive  violence.  Philip  was 
surrounded  by  his  great  lawyers,  his  Chancellor  Peter 
Flotte,  his  confidential  advisers,  Enguerrand  de  Marigny, 
William  de  Plasian,  and  William  of  Nogaret,  honest 
counsellors  as  far  as  the  advancement  of  the  royal 
power,  the  independence  of  the  temporal  on  the  spiritual 
sovereignty,  and  the  administration  of  justice  by  learned 
and  able  men,  according  to  fixed  principles  of  law, 
instead  of  the  wild  and  uncertain  judgements  of  the 
petty  feudal  lords,  lay  or  ecclesiastic ;  dangerous  coun- 
sellors, as  servile  instruments  of  royal  encroachment, 
oppression,  and  exaction ;  everywhere  straining  the  law, 
the  old  Koman  law,  in  favour  of  the  kingly  prerogative, 
beyond  its  proper  despotism.  Philip,  by  their  advice, 
determined  to  arraign  the  Papal  Legate,  as  a  subject 
guilty  at  least  of  spoken  treason.  He  allowed  tlie 
Bishop  tc  depart,  but  Saisset  was  followed  or  preceded 


Chap.  IX.  CHARGES  AGAINST  THE  BISHOP.  107 

by  a  commission  sent  to  Toulouse,  the  Archdeacon  of 
Augers  and  the  Vidame  of  Amiens,  to  collect 
secret  information  as  to  his  conduct  and  lan- 
guage. So  soon  as  tlie  Legate  Bishop  arrived  in  his 
diocese,  he  found  a  formidable  array  of  charges  prepared 
against  him.  Twenty-four  witnesses  had  been  examined ; 
the  Counts  of  Foix  and  Comminges,  the  Bishop  of  Tou- 
louse, Beziers,  and  Maguelone,  the  Abbot  of  St.  Pepoul. 
He  was  accused  of  simony,  of  heresy,  principally  as 
regarded  confession.^  The  Bishop  would  have  fled  at 
once  to  Home ;  but  this  flight  without  the  leave  of  the 
King  or  his  metropolitan  had  incurred  the  forfeiture  of 
his  temporalities.  He  sent  the  Abbot  of  Mas  d'Asil 
humbly  to  entreat  permission  to  retire.  But  the  King's 
commissioners  were  on  the  watch.  The  Vidame  of 
Amiens  stood  by  night  at  the  gates  of  the  Episcopal 
Palace,  summoned  the  Bishop  to  appear  before  the 
King,  searched  all  his  chambers,  set  the  royal  seal  on 
all  his  books,  papers,  money,  plate,  on  his  episcopal 
ornaments.  It  is  even  said  that  his  domestics  were  put 
to  the  torture  to  obtain  evidence  against  him.  After 
some  delay,  the  Prelate  set  out  from  Toulouse, 
accompanied  by  the  captain  of  the  crossbow- 
men  and  his  troop,  the  Seneschal  of  Toulouse,  and  two 
royal  sergeants — ostensibly  to  do  him  honour;  in  fact, 
as  a  guard  upon  the  prisoner. 

The  King  was  holding  his  Court-plenary,  a  Parlia- 
ment of  the  whole  realm  at  Senlis.   The  Bishop 
appeared  before  him,  as  he  sat  surrounded  by 
the  princes,  prelates,  knights,  and  ecclesiastics.     Peter 
Flotte,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  rose  and  arraigned  the 


«  Dupuy,  Preuves,  p.   626.      There  may  be  read  the  cepositions  of  th( 
witnesses. 


108  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

Bisliop  as  having  uttered  many  contemptuous  and  trea- 
charges  souable  words  against  the  King's  Majesty.  He 
saisset.  offered  to  substantiate  these  grave  charges  by 
unexceptionable  witnesses.  Then  Bishop  Bernard  was 
accused  of  having  repeated  a  prediction  of  Saint  Louis, 
that  in  the  third  generation,  under  a  weak  prince,  the 
kingdom  of  France  w^ould  pass  for  ever  from  his  line 
into  that  of  strangers ;  of  having  said  that  Philip  was 
in  every  way  unworthy  of  the  crown ;  that  he  was  not 
of  the  pure  race  of  Charlemagne,  but  of  a  bastard 
branch;  that  he  was  no  true  King,  but  a  handsome 
image,  who  thought  of  nothing  but  being  looked  upon 
with  admiration  by  the  world ;  that  he  deserved  no 
name  but  that  of  issuer  of  base  money ;  ^  that  his  court 
was  treacherous,  corrupt,  and  unbelieving  as  himself; 
that  he  had  grievously  oppressed  by  tyranny  and  ex- 
tortion all  who  spoke  the  language  of  Toulouse ;  that 
he  had  no  authority  over  Pamiers,  which  was  neither 
within  the  realm  nor  held  of  the  kingdom  of  France. 
There  were  other  charges  of  acts,  not  of  words  ;  secret 
overtures  to  England  ;  attempts  to  alienate  the  loyalty 
of  the  Counts  of  Comminges,  and  to  induce  the  province 
of  Languedoc  to  revolt,  and  set  up  her  old  independent 
Counts.^  The  Chancellor  concluded  by  addressing  the 
metropolitan,  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne,  summoning 
him  in  the  King's  name  to  seize  and  secure  the  person 
thus  accused  by  the  King  of  leze  majeste ;  if  the  Arch- 
bishop refused,  the  King  must  take  his  own  course. 
The  Archbishop  was  in  the  utmost  consternation  and 
difficulty.  He  dared  not  absolutely  refuse  obedience  to 
the  King.  The  life  of  the  Bishop  was  threatened  by 
some  of  the  more  lawless  of  the  court.     He  was  with* 


f  Faux  monnayeur.  ^  The  charges  are  in  Dupuy,  p.  633,  et  seqq. 


Jhap.  IX. 


PETER  FLOTTE. 


109 


drawn,  as  if  for  protection ;  the  King's  guards  slept  in 
his  chamler.  The  Archbishop  remonstrated  against  this 
insult  towards  a  spiritual  person.  The  King  demanded 
whether  he  would  be  answerable  for  the  safe  custody  of 
the  prisoner.  The  Archbishop  was  bound  not  only  by 
awe,  but  by  gratitude  to  the  Pope.  One  of  the  causes 
of  the  quarrel  between  Boniface  and  the  King  was  the 
zealous  assertion  of  the  Archbishop's  rights  to  the  Count- 
ship  of  Maguelone.  He  consulted  the  Archbishop  of 
Auch  and  the  other  bishops.  It  was  agreed  that  the 
Bishop  of  Senlis  should  make  over  for  a  certain  time 
a  portion  of  his  territory  to  the  Archbishop.  Within 
that  ceded  territory  the  Bishop  should  be  kept,  but  not 
in  close  custody ;  his  own  chamberlain  alone  was  to 
sleep  in  his  chamber,  but  the  King  might  appoint  a 
faithful  knight  to  keep  guard.  He  was  to  have  his 
chaplains ;  permission  to  write  to  Kome,  his  letters 
being  first  examined ;  lest  his  diocese  should  suffer 
damage,  his  seal  was  to  be  locked  up  in  a  strong  chest 
under  two  keys,  of  which  he  retained  one. 

King  Philip  could  not  commit  this  bold  act  of  the 
seizure  and  imprisonment  of  a  bishop,  a  Papal  Nuncio, 
without  communicating  his  proceedings  to  the  Pope. 
This  communication  was  made,  either  accompanied  or 
followed  by  a  solemn  embassage.  But  if  the  Legate 
appointed  by  the  Pope  was  the  most  obnoxious  ecclesi- 
astic whom  he  could  have  chosen,  the  chief  ambassador 
designated  by  the  King,  who  proceeded  to  Piome,  and 
affronted  the  Pope  by  his  dauntless  language,  was  the 
Keeper  of  the  Seals,  Peter  Flotte.^     If  the  King  and 


»  After  careful  examination  of  the 
evidence,  I  think  there  is  no  doubt 
of  this  mission  of  Peter  Flotte.  It 
cannot  be  pure  invention.     See  i\Iatt, 


Westm.  in  he.  Walsingham.  Spon 
danus,  sub  ann.  1301.  Raynald 
ibid.     Baillet,  Demdc's,  p.  113,  &c. 


110  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  XL 

his  counsellors  had  desired  to  show  the  malice  and  false- 
hood or  gross  exaggeration  of  the  treasonable  charges 
brought  against  the  Bishop  of  Pamiers.  they  could  not 
have  done  it  more  effectually  than  by  the  monstrous 
language  which  they  accused  him  of  having  used  against 
the  Pope  himself, — the  Pope,  whom  he  represented  as 
Legate  or  Nuncio  at  the  court  of  France,  the  object 
of  his  devout  reverence  as  a  High  Churchman,  to  whom 
he  had  applied  for  protection,  at  whose  feet  he  sought 
for  refuge.  The  Bishop  of  Pamiers  (so  averred  the 
King  of  France  in  a  public  despatch)  was  not  only, 
according  to  the  usual  charges  against  all  delinquent 
prelates,  guilty  of  heresy,  simony,  and  unbelief;  of 
having  declared  the  sacrament  of  penance  a  human 
invention,  fornication  not  forbidden  to  the  clergy:  in 
accumulation  of  these  offences,  he  had  called  Boniface 
the  Supreme  Pontiff,  in  the  hearing  of  many  credible 
witnesses,  the  devil  incarnate ;  he  had  asserted  "  that 
the  Pope  had  impiously  canonised  St.  Louis,  who  was 
in  hell."  *'  No  wonder  that  this  man  had  not  hesitated 
to  utter  the  foulest  treasons  against  his  temporal  sove- 
reign, when  he  had  thus  blasphemed  against  God  and 
the  Church."  "  All  this  the  inquisitors  had  gathered 
from  the  attestations  of  bishops,  abbots,  and  religious 
men,  as  well  as  counts,  knights,  and  burghers."  The 
King  demanded  the  degradation  and  tlie  condemnation 
of  the  Bishop  by  spiritual  censures,  and  permission  to 
make  "a  sacrifice  to  God  by  the  hands  of  justice." 
Peter  Flotte  is  declared,  even  in  the  presence  of  the 
Pope,  to  have  maintained  his  unawed  intrepidity.  To 
the  Pope's  absolute  assertion  of  his  superiority  over  the 
secular  power,  the  Chancellor  replied  with  sarcastic 
significance,  "  Your  power  in  temporal  affairs  is  a  powei 
in  word,  that  of  the  King  my  master  in  deed." 


CuAP.  IX.  FATAL  BULLS.  Ill 

Such  negotiations,  with  such  a  negotiator,  were  not 
likely  to  lead  to  peace.  Bull  after  Bull  came  p^pai  buUs. 
forth ;  several  of  the  earlier  ones  bore  the  ^^^'  ^• 
same  date.  The  first  was  addressed  to  the  King.  It 
declared  m  the  strongest  terms  that  the  temporal  sove- 
reign had  no  authority  whatever  over  the  person  of  an 
ecclesiastic.  "The  Pope  had  heard  with  deep  sorrow 
that  the  King  of  France  had  caused  the  Bishop  of 
Pamiers  to  be  brought  before  him  (Boniface  trusted 
not  against  his  will),^  and  had  committed  him  to  the 
custody  of  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne.  The  Pope 
exhorted,  he  commanded  the  King  immediately  to  re- 
lease the  prelate,  to  permit  him  to  proceed  to  Kome, 
and  to  restore  all  his  goods  and  chattels.  Unless  he 
did  this  instantly,  he  would  incur  canonical  censure  for 
laying  his  profane  and  sacrilegious  hands  on  a  bishop." 
A  second  Bull  commanded  the  Archbishop  of  De^.  4, 
Narbonne  to  consider  the  Bishop  as  under  the  ^^^^' 
special  protection  of  the  Pope ;  to  send  him,  with  all 
the  documents  produced  upon  the  trial,  to  Eome  ;  and 
to  inhibit  all  further  proceedings  of  the  King.  A 
third  Bull  annulled  the  special  suspension,  as  regarded 
France,  of  the  famous  Papal  statute  that  clerks  should 
make  no  payments  whatever  to  the  laity ;  °  "  the  King 
was  to  learn  that  by  his  disobedient  conduct  he  haa 
forfeited  all  peculiar  and  distinctive  favour  from  the 
Holy  See."  The  fourth  was  even  a  stronger  and  more 
irrevocable  act  of  hostility.  This  Bull  was  addressed 
to  all  the  archbishops  and  prelates,  to  the  cathedral 
chapters,  and  the  doctors  of  the  canon  and  tlie  civil  law. 
It  cited  them  to  appear  in  person,  or  by  their  repre- 


•>  "Utinam  non  invitum." — Raynald.  Ann.  1301,  c.  xxviii. 
«  *'  Clericis  Laicos." 


112  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

sentatives,  at  Rome  on  tlie  1st  November  of  the  ensu- 
ing year,  to  take  counsel  concerning  all  the 
excesses,  crimes,  acts  of  insolence,  injury,  or 
exaction,  committed  by  the  King  of  France  or  his 
officers  against  the  churches,  the  secular  and  regular 
clergy  of  his  kingdom.  This  was  to  set  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  league  or  conspiracy  of  the  whole  clergy  of 
France  against  their  King,  it  was  a  levy  in  mass  of  the 
hierarchy  in  full  revolt.  The  Pope  had  already  con- 
descendingly informed  the  King  of  his  intention,  and 
3ntreated  him  not  to  be  disturbed  by  these  proceedings, 
but  to  place  full  reliance  on  the  equity  and  indulgence 
of  the  Supreme  Pontiff. 

So  closed  the  first  year  of  this  century.  Early  in  the 
The  Lesser  foUowiug  year  was  published,  or  at  least 
Bull.  widely  bruited  abroad,  a  Bull  bearing  the 
Pope's  signature,  brief,  sharp,  sententious.  It  had  none 
of  that  grave  solemnity,  that  unctuous  ostentation  of 
pious  and  paternal  tenderness,  that  prodigality  of  Scrip- 
tural and  sacred  allusion,  which  usually  sheathed  the 
severest  admonitions  of  the  Holy  See.  "Boniface  the 
Pope  to  the  King  of  France.  We  would  have  you  to 
know  that  you  are  subordinate  in  temporals  as  in  spi- 
rituals. The  collation  to  benefices  and  prebends  in  no 
wise  belongs  to  you :  if  you  have  any  guardianship  of 
vacant  benefices,  it  is  only  to  receive  the  fruits  for  the 
successors.  Whatever  collations  you  have  made,  we 
declare  null ;  whatever  have  been  carried  into  effect, 
we  revoke.  All  who  believe  not  this  are  guilty  of 
heresy."  The  Pope,  in  his  subsequent  Bulls,  openly 
accuses  certain  persons  of  having  issued  false  writings 
in  his  name  ;  he  intimates,  if  he  does  not  directly  charge 
Peter  Flotte  as  guilty  of  the  fraud.  That  this  is  the 
document,  or  one  of  the   documents,  thus  disclaimed 


Chap.  IX.  THE  LESSER  BULL.  113 

there  can  be  no  doubt.  Was  it,  then,  a  bold  and 
groundless  forgery,  or  a  summary  of  the  Pope's  pre- 
tensions, stripped  of  all  stately  circumlocution,  and 
presented  in  their  odious  and  offensive  plainness,  with 
a  view  to  enable  the  world,  or  at  least  France,  to  judge 
on  the  points  at  issue  ?  It  might  seem  absolutely  in- 
credible that  the  Chancellor  of  France  should  have  the 
audacity  to  promulgate  writings  in  the  name  of  the  Pope, 
altogether  fictitious,  which  the  Pope  would  instantly 
disown ;  if  the  monstrous  cliarges  adduced  against  the 
Bishop  of  Pamiers,  and  afterwards  in  open  court  against 
the  Pope  himself,  did  not  display  an  utter  contempt  for 
truth,  a  confidence  in  the  credulity  of  mankind,  at  least 
as  inconceivable  in  later  times.  Our  doubts  of  the  sheer 
invention  are  rather  as  to  the  impolicy  than  the  men- 
dacity of  the  act.  The  answer  in  the  name  of  the  King 
of  France  (and  this  answer,  undoubtedly  authentic, 
proves  irrefragably  the  publication  and  wide  dissemina- 
tion of  the  Lesser  Bull  of  the  Pope)  with  its  ostentation 
not  only  of  discourteous  but  of  vulgar  contempt,  ob- 
tained the  same  publicity.  "  Philip,  by  the  grace  of 
God  King  of  France,  to  Boniface,  who  assumes  to  be 
the  Chief  Pontiff,  little  or  no  greeting.*^  Let  your 
fatuity  know,  that  in  temporals  we  are  subordinate  to 
none.  The  collation  to  vacant  benefices  and  prebends 
belongs  to .  us  by  royal  right ;  the  fruits  are  ours.  We 
will  maintain  all  collations  made  and  to  be  made  by  us, 
and  their  possessors.  All  who  believe  otherwise  we  hold 
to  be  fools  and  madmen."® 


^  "  Salutem  modicam  aut  nullam." 
*  The  weight  of  evidence  that  these 
two  extraordinary  documents  were  ex- 
tant and  published  at  the  time  seems 
to   me   irresistible.      They    were   not 


contested  for  300  years  ;  they  are 
adduced  by  most  of  the  writers  of  the 
time ;  they  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Gloss  on  the  Decretals  of  Boniface, 
published    40   years    after    by   John 


VOL.  VII.  r 


114  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XL 

The  more  full  and  acknowledged  Bull  might  indeed 
be  almost  fairly  reduced  to  the  coarse  and  rude  sum- 
mary of  the  Lesser/  It  contained  undeniably,  under 
its  veil  of  specious  and  moderate  language,  every  one 
of  those  hardy  and  unmeasured  doctrines.  But  the 
language  is  part  of  the  spirit  of  such  documents ;  the 
mitigating  and  explanatory  phrase  is  not  necessarily  de- 
ceptive or  hypocritical :  though  in  truth  each  party  was 
determined  to  misunderstand  the  other.  Neither  was 
prepared  to  follow  out  his  doctrines  to  their  legitimate 
conclusion;  neither  could  acknowledge  the  impossi- 
bility of  fixing  the  bounds  of  spiritual  and  of  temporal 
authority.  The  Pope's  notion  of  spiritual  supremacy 
necessarily  comprehended  the  whole  range  of  human 
action  :  the  King  represented  the  Pope  as  claiming  a 
feudal  supremacy,  as  though  he  asserted  the  kingdom 
of  France  to  be  held  of  him.  And  this  was  the  intelli- 
gible sovereignty  which  roused  the  indignation  of  feudal 
France,  indignation  justified  by  the  actual  claim  of  such 
sovereignty  over  other  kingdoms.  Each  therefore  stood 
on  an  impregnable  theoretic  ground ;  bat  each  theory, 
when  they  attempted  to  carry  it  into  practice,  clashed 
with  insurmountable  difficulties. 

The  greater  Bull,  of  which  the  authenticity  is  unques- 

Andrew  of  Bologna.  See  all  the  very  But  of  the  answers  of  the  three  Orders, 
curious  deliberation  of  Peter  de  Bosco  two  are  extant,  and  in  a  very  different 
on  this  very  Bull,  published  in  Dupuy,  \  tone  from  the  brief  one  ascribed  to  the 

King.  It  seems  to  me  rather  to  have 
been  intended  as  an  appeal  to  popular 
feeling  than  to  that  of  a  regular  as- 
sembly. Such  substitution  is  hardly 
conceivable  in  an  assembly  at  which 
all  the  prelates  and  great  abbots  of 
the  kingdom  were  present.  Nor  does 
this  notion  account  for  the  King'« 
reply. 


Preuves,  p.  45.     It  is  called  in  general 
the  Lesser  Bull, 

f  Sismondi  supposes  that  the  Lesser 
Bull  was  framed  by  Peter  Flotte,  to 
be  laid  before  the  States-General,  on 
iccount  of  the  great  length  of  the 
genuine  Bull  ;  that  having  so  pre- 
sented it,  and  seen  its  effect,  he  was 
nnable  and  unwilling  to  withdraw  it. 


Chap.  IX.  THE  GREATER  BULL.  115 

tioned,  rau  in  these  terms : — It  began  with  the  accus- 
tomed protestation  of  parental  tenderness,  which  buh. 
demanded  more  than  filial  obedience,  obedience  mi." 
to  the  Pope  as  to  God.  "  Hearken,  my  most  dear  son, 
to  the  precepts  of  thy  father ;  open  the  ears  of  thine 
heart  to  the  instruction  of  thy  master,  the  vicegerent 
of  Him  who  is  the  one  Master  and  Lord.  Keceive 
willingly,  be  careful  to  fulfil  to  the  utmost,  the  admo- 
nitions of  thy  mother,  the  Church.  Eetm^n  to  God  with 
a  contrite  heart,  from  whom,  by  sloth  or  through  evil 
counsels,  thou  hast  departed,  and  devoutly  conform  to 
His  decrees  and  ours."  The  Pope  then  shadows  forth 
the  plenary  and  tremendous  power  of  Kome  in  the 
vague  and  awful  words  of  the  Old  Testament.  "  See, 
I  have  this  day  set  thee  over  the  nations  and  over 
the  kingdoms,  to  root  out  and  to  pull  down,  and 
to  destroy  and  to  overthrow,  to  build  and  to  plant."  ^ 
This  was  no  new  Papal  phrase;  it  had  been  used 
with  the  same  boldness  of  misappropriation  by  the 
Gregories  and  Innocents  of  old.  It  might  mean  only 
spiritual  censures  ;  it  was  softened  off  in  the  next  clause 
into  such  meaning.^  Yet  it  might  also  signify  the 
annulling  the  subjects'  oaths  of  allegiance,  the  over- 
throw by  any  means  of  the  temporal  throne,  the  trans- 
ference of  the  crown  from  one  head  to  another.  This 
sentence,  which  in  former  times  had  been  awful,  was 
now  presumptuous,  offensive,  odious.  It  was  that  which 
the  King,  at  a  later  period,  insisted  most  strenuously  on 
erasing  from  the  Bull.  "  Let  no  one  persuade  you  that 
you  are  not  subject  to  the  Hierarch  of  the  Celestial 
Hierarchy."     The  Bull  proceeds  to  rebuke,  in  firm,  but 


t  Jeremiah  i.  10. 

*'  Ut  gregem  pascentes   Dominicuir   ,  .  .  alligemus  fracta,  et  reduaunus 
abjecta,  vinumque  infundamus,"  &c. 

I  2 


116  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

neither  absolutely  ungentle  nor  discourteous  terms,  the 
oppressions  of  the  King  over  his  subjects  (the  most 
galling  sentences  were  those  which  alluded  to  his  tam- 
})ering  with  the  coin,  "  his  acts  as  money-changer  "), 
not  only  the  oppressions  of  Ecclesiastics,  but  of  Peers, 
Counts,  Barons,  the  Universities,  and  the  people,  all 
of  whom  the  Pope  thus  takes  under  his  protection.  The 
King's  right  to  the  collation  of  benefices  he  denies  in 
the  most  peremptory  terms ;  he  brands  his  presumption 
in  bringing  ecclesiastics  under  the  temporal  jurisdiction, 
his  levying  taxes  on  the  clergy  who  did  not  hold  fiefs 
of  the  Crown,  "although  no  layman  has  any  power 
whatever  over  an  ecclesiastic:"  he  censures  especially 
the  King's  usurpations  on  the  church  of  Lyons,  a 
church  beyond  the  limits  of  his  realm,  and  independent 
of  his  authority;  his  abuse  of  the  custody  of  vacant 
bishoprics.  "  The  voice  of  the  Pope  was  hoarse  in 
remonstrating  against  these  acts  of  miquity,  to  w^hich 
the  King  turned  the  ear  of  the  deaf  adder."  Though 
the  Pope  would  be  justified  in  taking  arms  against  the 
King,  his  bow  and  quiver  (what  bow  and  quiver  he 
leaves  in  significant  obscurity),  he  had  determined  to 
make  this  last  appeal  to  Philip's  conscience.  He  had 
summoned  the  clergy  of  France  to  Kome  to  take  cogni- 
sance of  all  these  things.  He  solemnly  warned  the 
King  against  the  evil  counsellors  by  whom  he  w^as  en- 
vironed ;  and  concluded  with  the  old  and  somewhat 
obsolete  termination  of  all  such  addresses  to  Christian 
Kings,  an  admonition  to  consider  the  state  of  the  Holy 
Land,  the  all-absorbing  duty  of  recovering  the  sepulchre 
of  Christ. 

The  King  in  all  this  grave,  as  it  bore  upon  its  face, 
paternal  expostulation,  saw  only,  or  chose  to  see,  or  was 
permitted  by  liis  loyal  counsellors,  who  by  their  servile 


Chap.  IX.  STATES  GENERAL.  Ill 

adulation  of  his  passions  absolutely  ruled  his  mind, 
to  see  only  the  few  plain  and  arrogant  demands  con- 
centered in  the  Lesser  Bull,  with  the  allusions  to  his 
oppressions  and  exactions,  not  less  insulting  from  their 
truth.  His  conscience  as  a  Christian  was  untouched  by 
religious  awe ;  his  pride  as  a  King  provoked  to  fury. 
The  Archdeacon  of  Narbonne,  the  bearer  of  the  Papal 
Bull,  was  ignominiously  refused  admittance  to  the  royal 
presence.  In  the  midst  of  his  court,  more  than  ordi- 
narily thronged  with  nobles,  Philip  solemnly  declared 
that  he  would  disinherit  all  his  sons  if  they  consented 
to  hold  the  Idngdom  of  France  of  any  one  but  of  God. 
Fifteen  days  after,  the  Bull  of  the  Pope  was  jan.  26, 
publicly  burned  in  Paris  in  the  King's  pre-  ^^^^' 
sence,  and  this  act  proclaimed  throughout  the  city  by 
the  sound  of  the  trumpet.^  Paris  knew  no  more  of  the 
ground  of  the  quarrel,  or  of  the  Papal  pretensions,  than 
may  have  been  communicated  in  the  Lesser  Bull ;  it 
heard  in  respectful  silence,  if  not  with  acclamation,  the 
King's  defiance  of  the  Pope,  at  which  a  century  before 
it  would  have  trembled  and  wailed,  as  inevitably  to  be 
followed  by  all  the  gloom,  terror,  spiritual  privations  of 
an  Interdict. 

All  France  seemed  prepared  to  espouse  the  quarrel 
of  the  King.  Philip,  or  Philip's  counsellors,  had  such 
confidence  in  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  which  them- 
selves had  so  skilfully  wrought  up,  as  boldly  to  appeal 
to  the  whole  nation.  The  States-General  were  states- 
summoned  for  the  first  time,  not  only  the  two  Apriiio,'i302. 
orders,  the  Nobles  and  the  Clergy,  but  the  commonalty 
also,  the  burghers  of  the  towns  and  cities,  now  rising 
into  notice  and  wealth.     The  States-General  met  in  the 


'  Dupuy,  p.  59, 


J 18  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

church  of  Notre  Dame  at  Paris.  The  Ckanoellor,  Peter 
Flotte,  submitted,  and  put  his  own  construction  on  the 
several  Bulls  issued  by  the  Pope  on  the  5th  of  De- 
cember, which  withdrew  the  privileges  conceded  by 
himself  to  the  realm  of  France,  summoned  all  the 
Bishops  and  Doctors  of  Theology  and  Law  in  France  to 
Borne,  as  his  subjects  and  spiritual  vassals,  and  (this 
was  the  vital  question)  asserted  that  the  King  held  the 
realm  of  France,  not  of  God,  but  of  the  Pope.  This 
feudal  suzerainty,  the  only  suzerainty  the  Nobles  com- 
prehended, and  which  was  declared  by  the  Chancellor 
to  be  claimed  by  the  Pope,  was  hardly  less  odious  to 
them  than  to  the  King.  The  clergy  were  embarrassed ; 
some,  no  doubt,  felt  strongly  the  national  pride  of  inde- 
pendence, though  they  owed  unlimited  allegiance  to  the 
Pope.  They  held,  too,  fiefs  of  the  Crown ;  and  the  col- 
lation of  benefices  by  the  Crown  secured  them  from  that 
of  which  they  were  especially  jealous,  the  intrusion  ot 
foreigners  into  the  preferments  which  they  esteemed 
their  own  right.  There  had  been,  from  the  days  of 
Hincmar  of  Bheims  at  least,  a  vague  notion  of  some 
special  and  distinctive  liberties  belonging  to  the  Galilean 
Church.  The  Commons,  or  the  Third  Estate,  would 
hardly  have  been  summoned  by  Philip  and  his  subtle 
advisers,  if  their  support  to  the  royal  cause  had  not 
been  sure.  The  pride  of  their  new  political  importance, 
their  recognition  as  part  of  the  nation,  if  not  their  in- 
telligence, would  maintain  their  loyalty  to  the  Crown, 
undisturbed  by  any  superstitious  veneration  for  the 
Hierarchy. 

Each  order  drew  up  its  separate  address  to  the  Papal 
Address  of  Coiirt ;  that  of  the  ruder  Nobles  was  in  French, 
the  Cardinals;  not  to  tlio  Popo,  but  to  tlic  Cardiuals ;  that  of 
the  clergy  in  Latin,  to  tlie  Pope.    These  two  are  extant ; 


Chap.  IX.  ADDEESS  OF  THE  NOBLES.  119 

the  third,  of  the  Commons,  which  would  no  doubt  have 
been  the  most  curious,  is  lost.  The  Nobles  dwell  on  tlie 
long  and  immemorial  and  harmonious  amity  between 
the  Church  of  Rome  and  the  realm  of  France  ;  that 
amity  was  disturbed  by  the  extortionate  and  unbridled 
acts  of  him  who  now  governed  the  Church.  They,  the 
Nobles  and  People  of  France,  would  never,  under  the 
worst  extremities,  endure  the  wicked  and  outrageous 
innovations  of  the  Pope,  his  claim  of  the  temporal  sub- 
jection of  the  King  and  the  kingdom  to  Eome,  his  sum- 
moning the  prelates  and  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  of  the 
realm  for  the  redress  of  alleged  grievances  and  oppres- 
sions before  Boniface  at  Rome.  "  We,  the  people  of 
France,  neither  desire  nor  will  receive  the  redress  of 
such  grievances  by  his  authority  or  his  power,  but  only 
from  that  of  our  Lord  the  King."  They  vindicate  the 
King's  determination  not  to  allow  the  wealth  of  the 
realm,  especially  arms,  to  be  exported  from  France. 
They  accuse  the  Pope  of  having  usurped  the  collation 
of  benefices,  and  of  having  bestowed  them  for  money  on 
unknown  strangers.  By  this  and  his  other  exactions, 
the  Church  was  so  impoverished  and  discredited  that 
the  bishops  could  not  find  men  of  noble  descent,  of  good 
birth,  or  of  letters,  to  accept  benefices.  *'  These  things, 
hateful  to  God  and  displeasing  to  good  men,  had  never 
been  seen,  and  were  not  expected  to  be  seen,  before  the 
time  of  Antichrist."  They  call  on  the  Cardinals  to 
arrest  the  Pope  in  his  dangerous  courses,  to  chastise 
him  for  his  excesses,  that  Christendom  may  return  to 
peace,  and  good  Christians  be  able  to  devote  themselves 
to  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Land.  Tliis  letter  was 
signed  by  Louis,  Count  of  Evreux,  the  King's  brother ; 
by  Robert,  Count  of  Artois ;  by  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy, 
Bretagne,  Lorraine ;  the  Counts  of  Dreux,  St.  Pol,  de  la 


120  LATIX  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

Marclie,  Boulogne,  Comminges,  Albemarle,  Forez,  Eu, 
Xevres,  Anxerre,  Perigord,  Joigny,  Yalentinois,  Poitiers, 
^lontbeliard,  Sancerre,  even  by  the  Flemish  Counts  of 
Hainault  and  Luxemburg,  the  Lords  of  Couci  and 
Beaujeu,  the  Viscount  of  Xarbonne,  and  some  others.'' 
The  address  of  the  Prelates  to  the  Pope  was  more  re- 
of  the  Clergy  spcctful,  if  uot,  as  usual,  supplicatorj.  They 
to  the  Pope.  ^QQ  treat  a^  dangerous  novelties,  now  first  ex- 
pressed in  the  Papal  Bulls,  the  assertion  that  the  King 
holds  his  realm  of  the  Pope,  the  right  of  the  Pope  to 
summon  the  subjects  of  the  King,  high  ecclesiastics,  to 
Pome,  for  the  general  redress  of  grievances,  wrongs, 
and  injuries  committed  by  the  King,  his  bailiffs  or 
oflScers.  They  too  urge  the  collation  to  benefices  of 
persons  unknown,  strangers,  and  not  above  suspicion, 
who  never  reside  on  their  benefices ;  the  unpopularity 
and  impoverishment  of  the  Church  ;  the  constant  drain 
on  the  wealth  of  the  realm  by  direct  exactions  and  per- 
petual appeals  to  Piome.  The  King  had  called  on  them 
and  on  the  Barons  of  France  to  consult  with  him  on  the 
maintenance  of  the  ancient  liberties,  honour,  and  state 
of  the  kingdom.  The  Barons  had  withdrawn,  and  de- 
termined to  support  the  King.  They  too  had  retired, 
but  had  demanded  longer  delay,  lest  they  should  in- 
frino-e  on  their  obedience  to  the  Pope.  They  had  at 
leno-th  replied  that  they  held  themselves  bound  to  the 
preservation  of  the  person  and  of  the  authority  of  the 
King,  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  kingdom.  But,  as 
thev  were  also  under  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  they  had 
humbly  craved  permission  to  go  to  Pome  to  represent 
the  whole  case.  To  this  the  King  and  the  Barons  had 
answered  bv  a  stem  refusal  to  permit  them  to  quit  the 


•^  Pieuves,  p.  61,  62. 


JHAP.  IX  ANSWER  OF  THE  CARDINALS.  121 

realm,  on  the  penalty  of  the  seizure  and  seq  aestration 
of  all  their  lands  and  goods.  "  So  gi-eat  and  imminent 
was  the  peril  as  to  threaten  an  absolute  dissolution  of 
the  Church  and  State  ;  the  clergy  were  so  odious  to  the 
people  that  they  avoided  all  intercourse  with  them ; 
tongue  could  not  tell  the  dangers  to  which  they  were 
exposed."  ^ 

The  Cardinals  replied  to  the  Dukes,  Counts,  and 
Barons  of  France  with  dignity  and  modera-  Answer  of  the 
tion.  They  assured  the  Xobles  of  their  earnest  ^^^^^i^- 
desire,  and  that  of  the  Pope,  to  maintain  the  friendly 
relations  between  the  Church  of  Eome  and  the  kingdom 
of  France.  He  was  an  enemy  to  the  man  (designating 
clearly,  but  not  naming  the  Chancellor)  who  had  sowed 
the  tares  of  discord.  The  Pope  had  never  written  to 
the  King  claiming  the  temporal  sovereignty.  The 
Archdeacon  of  Narbonne,  as  liimself  deposes,  had  not 
advanced  such  claim.  The  whole  argument,  therefore, 
of  the  Chancellor  was  built  on  sand.  They  insisted  on 
the  right  of  the  Pope  to  hold  Councils,  and  to  summon 
to  such  Councils  all  the  Prelates  of  Christendom.  In 
their  turn  they  eluded  the  charge  that  this  Council  was 
to  take  cognisance  of  w^hat  were  undeniably  the  tem- 
poral affairs  of  France.  "  If  all  the  letters  of  the  Pope 
had  been  laid  before  the  Prelates  and  Barons,  and  their 
tenor  explained  by  the  Pope's  Nuncio,  they  would  have 
been  found  full  of  love  and  pious  solicitude."  They 
then  dwell  on  the  manifest  favours  of  the  Papal  See  to 
France.  They  deny  that  the  Pope  had  appointed  any 
foreign  bishops,  but  to  the  sees  of  Bourges  and  of  Arras. 


»  "  Cum  jam  abhorreant  laici  et  I  tionibns  abdicaiido  ...  in  grave  pen 
prorsus  efFugiant  consortia  clericorum,  '  culum  animarum  et  varia  et  diveraa 
eos  a  suis  omnino  consiliis  et  alocu-    pericula." — Preuves,  p.  70  et  seq. 


122  LAXm  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

In  all  other  cases  he  had  nominated  subjects  of  the 
realm,  men  known  in  the  Court,  familiar  with  the 
King,  and  of  good  repute.™  The  answer  of  the  Car- 
dinals to  the  Mayors,  Sheriffs,  Jurors  of  the  cities  and 
towns,  was  in  the  same  grave  tone,  denying  the  claim  of 
temporal  sovereignty,  and  alleging  the  same  acts. 

The  Pope,  in  his  answer  to  the  Prelates  and  Clergy, 

Answer  of     did  uot  maintain  the  same  decorous  majesty. 

the  Bishops.  His  wrath  was  excited  by  what  he  deemed  the 
timorous  apostasy  of  Churchmen  from  the  cause  of  the 
Church.  "  Under  the  hypocritical  veil  of  consolation, 
the  beloved  daughter,  the  Church  of  Prance,  had  heaped 
reproach  on  her  spotless  mother,  the  Church  of  Kome. 
The  Prelates  had  stooped  to  be  mendicants  for  the  suf- 
frages of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  and  alleged  the  loss 
of  their  property,  and  the  danger  of  their  persons,  if 
they  should  set  out  for  Eome.  That  son  of  Belial,  Peter 
Flotte,  whose  bodily  sight  was  so  feeble,  who  was  stone- 
blind  in  soul,  had  been  permitted,  and  others  who 
thirsted  for  Christian  blood  had  been  permitted,  to  lead 
astray  our  dear  son,  Philip  of  France."  "  And  to  this 
ye  listened,  who  ought  to  have  poured  scathing  con- 
tempt upon  them  all.  Ye  did  this  from  base  timidity, 
from  baser  worldliness.  But  they  labour  in  vain.  He 
that  sitteth  in  the  north  shall  not  long  lift  himself  up 
against  the  Vicar  of  Christ  Jesus,  to  whom  there  has 
not  yet  been  a  second:  he  shall  fall  with  all  his  fol- 
lowers. Do  not  they  who  deny  the  subjection  of  the 
temporal  to  the  spiritual  power  assert  the  two  prin- 
ciples?"'^ This  was  a  subtle  blow.  Manicheism  was 
the  most  hated  heresy  to  all  who  knew,  and  all  who  did 
uot  know,  its  meaning. 


^  June  26.     Preuves,  p.  63.  ■  Preuves,  p.  66. 


Chap.  IX.  CONSISTOEY  AT  ROME.  123 

At  Eome,  about  the  same  time,  was  held  a  Con- 
sistory, in  which  the  differences  with  France  were  sub- 
mitted to  solemn  deliberation.  Matthew  Acqua  June  25. 
Sparta,  the  Franciscan,  Cardinal  of  Porto,  as  Rome. 
representing  the  sense  of  the  Cardinals,  delivered  a  long 
address,  half  sermon  and  half  speech.  He  took  for  his 
text,  from  the  epistle  of  the  day  before,  the  speech  of 
Feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  the  passage  of  Porto. 
Jeremiah  concerning  the  universal  power  to  pluck  up, 
root  out,  destroy,  and  plant.  He  applied  it  directly  to 
John  the  Baptist,  by  clear  inference  to  the  Pope.  He 
lamented  the  difference  with  the  King  of  France,  which 
had  arisen  from  so  light  a  cause ;  asserted  perfect  liar- 
mony  to  exist  between  the  Pope  and  the  Sacred  Col- 
lege. He  declared  the  real  letter  sent  by  the  Pope  to 
have  been  full  of  gentleness  and  love ;  the  false  letter 
had  neither  been  sent  nor  authorised  by  the  Pope. 
*'Had  not  the  King  of  France  a  confessor?  Did  he 
not  receive  absolution  ?  It  is  as  partaking  of  sin  that 
the  Pope  takes  cognisance  of  all  temporal  acts."  He 
appeals  to  the  famous  similitude  of  the  two  luminaries, 
of  which  the  temporal  power  was  the  lesser;  but  he 
draws  a  distinction  between  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Pope  and  his  right  to  carry  it  into  execution.  "  The 
Vicar  of  Christ  has  unbounded  jurisdiction,  for  he  is 
even  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead ;  but  he  is  not 
competent  to  the  use,  he  is  not  the  executive  of  the 
temporal  power,  for  *  the  Lord  said,  put  up  thy  sword 
(the  temporal  sword)  into  its  scabbard.' " 

The  Pope  followed  the  Cardinal  of  Porto  in  a  more 
strange  line  of  argument.     His  text  was,  "  Whom  God 
has  joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder."   ^^^^^^  ^^ 
This  sentence,  applied,  he  says,  by  God  to  our  *^®  ^''p^- 
first  parents,  applies  also  to  the  Churct  and  the  Kings 


124  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY,  Book  XI 

of  France.  On  the  first  baptism  of  the  King  of  France 
by  S.  Remigius,  the  Archbishop  said,  "  Hold  thee  to 
the  Church:  so  long  as  thou  boldest  to  the  Church, 
thou  and  thy  kingdom  shall  prosper :  so  soon  as  thou 
departest  from  it,  thou  and  thy  kingdom  shall  perish. 
What  gifts  and  blessings*'  does  not  the  King  of  France 
receive  from  the  Church !  even  at  the  present  day,  hy 
our  grants  and  dispensations,  forty  thousand  livres. 
'  Let  no  man  put  asunder.'  Who  is  the  man  ?  The 
word  man  is  sometimes  used  for  God,  Christ,  the  Holy 
Spirit,  sometimes  for  the  devil.  Here  it  means  that 
diabolical  man,  that  Antichrist,  blind  in  bodily  eye- 
sight, more  blind  of  soul,  Peter  Flotte.  The  satellites 
of  that  Ahitophel  are  Robert  Count  of  Artois  and  the 
Count  St.  Pol.  It  is  he  that  falsified  our  letter ;  it  is  he 
that  made  us  say  to  the  King  that  he  held  his  realm 
of  us.  For  forty  years  we  have  been  trained  in  the 
science  of  law ;  we  know  that  there  are  two  powers ; 
how  could  such  a  folly  enter  our  head?  We  say,  as 
our  brother  the  Cardinal  of  Porto  has  said,  that  in 
nothing  would  we  usurp  the  royal  power ;  but  the  King 
cannot  deny  that  he  is  subject  to  us  in  regard  to  his 
sins."  The  Pope  then  enters  on  the  collation  to  bene- 
fices, on  which  point  he  is  prepared,  of  his  free  grace,  to 
make  large  but  special  concessions  to  the  King.  After 
some  expressions  of  regard,  he  reassumes  the  language 
of  reproach  and  of  menace.  "But  for  us,  the  King 
would  not  have  a  foot  in  the  stirrup.  When  the  Eng- 
lish, the  Germans,  all  his  more  powerful  vassals  and 
neighbours,  rose  up  against  him  in  one  league,  to  whom 
but  to  us  did  he  owe  his  triumph  ?  Our  predecessors 
have  deposed  three  Kings  of  France.  These  things  are 
written  in  their  annals  as  in  ours ;  and  this  King,  guilty 

0  Fomenta, 


Chap  IX. 


A  SECOND  BULL. 


125 


of  so  much  more  heinous  offences,  we  could  depose  as 
we  could  discharge  a  groom,P  though  we  should  do  it 
with  sorrow.  As  for  the  citation  of  Bishops,  we  could 
call  the  whole  world  to  our  presence,  weak  and  aged  as 
we  are.  If  they  come  not  at  our  command,  let  them 
know  that  they  are  hereby  deprived  and  deposed." 

From  this  Consistory  emanated  a  second  Bull,  which 
deliberately  and  fully  defined  the  powers  assumed  by 
the  Pope.     It  asserted  the  eternal  unity  of  the  Catholic 
Church   under  St.  Peter  and  his  successors.  TheBuu 
Whosoever,  as  the  Greeks,  denied  that  sub-  sanctam." 
ordination,   denied    that    themselves   were    of    Christ. 
"  There  are  two  swords,  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal : 
our  Lord  said  not  of  these  two  swords,  *  it  is  too  much, 
but   'it  is   enough.'     Both   are   in   the   power  of  the 
Church :    the   one   the    spiritual,    to   be   used   hy   the 
Church,  the  other  the  material,  jor  the  Church;  the 
former  that  of  priests,  the  latter  that  of  kings  and  sol- 
diers, to  be  wielded  at  the  command  and  by  the  suffer- 
ance of  the   priest.'i     One   sword  must  be  under  the 

other,  the  temporal  under  the  spiritual The 

spiritual  instituted  the  temporal  power,  and  judges 
whether  that  power  is  well  exercised."  The  eternal 
verse  of  Jeremiah  is  adduced.  "  If  the  temporal  power 
errs,  it  is  judged  by  the  spiritual.  To  deny  this,  is  to 
assert,  with  the  heretical  Manicheans,  two  co-equal 
principles.  We  therefore  assert,  define,  and  pronounce 
that  it  is  necessary  to  salvation  to  believe  that  every 
human  being  is  subject  to  the  Pontiff  of  Eome."  ^ 


P  "  Nos  deponeremus  Regem,  sicut 
unum  garcionem."  See  the  whole 
speech  in  Raynald.  sub  ann. 

1  "  Ad  nutum  et  patientiam  sacei-- 
dotis." 


'  "  Porro  subesse  Romano  Ponti- 
fici  omni  humanae  creatura)  declara- 
mus,  dicimus,  et  diffinimus  omuino 
esse  de  necessitate  fidei."  —  Preuves, 
p.  54. 


126 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI. 


The  insurrection  in  Flanders  diverted  the  minds  of 
July  11,  ^^^^  foi'  some  short  time  from  this  quarrel 
1302.  which  appalled  Christendom.  The  free  and 
industrious  Fleming  manufacturing  burghers  found  the 
rule  of  the  King  of  France  more  intolerable  than  that 
of  their  former  lords.  Their  victory  at  Courtrai,  fore- 
told by  a  comet,  the  most  bloody  and  humiliating  defeat 
which  for  years  had  been  suffered  by  the  arms  of 
France,  was  not  likely  to  soothe  the  haughty  temper 
of  Philip.  The  loftier  Churchmen,  in  the  death  of 
Kobert  of  Artois  on  that  fatal  field,  saw  the  judgement 
of  God  on  him,  who  was  said  to  have  trodden  under 
foot  the  Pope's  Bull  of  arbitration,  whose  seal  was  the 
first  affixed  to  the  remonstrance  of  the  Nobles  in  the 
Parliament  of  Paris.®  Among  those  that  fell  was  a 
more  dire  enemy  of  the  Pope,  the  Chancellor  Peter 
Flotte. 

Hence,  perhaps,  in  the  mean  time  attempts  had  been 
made  to  obtain  the  mediation  of  some  of  the  greater 
vassals  of  the  Crown,  the  Dukes  of  Bretagne  and  of 
Burgundy.  The  Pope  had  intimated  that  they  would 
be  more  fitting  and  acceptable  ambassadors  than  the 
King's  insolent  legal  counsellors.  Those  powerful  and 
almost  independent  sovereigns  had  commissioned  Hugh,  a 
brother  of  the  Order  of  Knights  Templars,  to  express  their 
earnest  desire  for  the  reconciliation  of  the  King  with  the 
Pope.  From  Anagni  the  Cardinal  of  Porto 
^ '  '  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Bretagne,  the  Cardinals  of 
San  Pudenziana  and  S.  Maria  Nuova  to  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, representing  the  insult  offered  to  the  Pope  in 


•  Ck)ntinuat.  Nangis,  Bouquet,  p. 
585.  Chroniques  de  St.  Denys,  p. 
670.  Villani  (viii  55)  antedates  the 
battle  March    21.      He    is   especially 


indignant  that  the  nobles  of  France 
were  defeated  by  base  artisans,  "  tes* 
serandoli  e  fulloni."  This  is  curious 
in  the  mercantile  Florentine. 


Chap.  IX.     PHILIP  CONDEMNS  THE  INQUISITION.  127 

publicly  burning  his  Bull  (an  act  which  neither  heretic, 
pagan,  nor  tyrant  would  have  done),  and  the  friendly 
and  patient  tone  of  the  Pope's  genuine  letters.  They 
explained  the  reason  why  the  Pope  could  not  write  to 
one  actually  in  a  state  of  excommunication.  They 
exhorted  the  princes  to  induce  the  King  to  humble 
himself  before  his  spiritual  father. 

The  Prelates  of  France  had  been  summoned  to  appear 
in  Eome  at  the  beginning  of  November.  It  Prelates  who 
was  to  be  seen  how  many  would  dare  to  defy  ^^  ^  ^"™^- 
the  resentment  of  the  King,  and  resolutely  obey  their 
spiritual  sovereign.  There  were  only  four  Archbishops, 
thirty-five  Bishops,  six  of  the  great  Abbots.  Of  these 
by  far  the  larger  number  were  the  Bishops  of  Bretagne, 
Burgundy,  and  Languedoc.  The  Archbishop  of  Tours 
headed  eight  of  his  Breton  suffragans ;  the  Archbishop 
of  Auch  fifteen  Proven9als,  including  the  Bishop  of 
Pamiers.  The  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux  was  a  subject 
of  the  King  of  England,  as'Duke  of  Aquitaine.  The 
Archbishop  of  Bourges  was  one  of  the  Italians  promoted 
by  the  Pope ;  with  him  went  one  or  two  of  his  suffra- 
gans. Philip,  it  might  seem,  knew  from  what  quar- 
ters he  might  expect  this  defection.  The  Seneschal 
of  Toulouse  received  orders  to  publish  the  royal  prohi- 
bition to  all  Barons,  Knights,  Primates,  Bishops,  or 
Abbots  against  quitting  the  realm ;  or,  if  they  should 
have  quitted  it,  to  command  their  instant  return,  on 
pain  of  corporal  punishment  and  confiscation  of  all 
their  temporal  goods.  These  southern  pro-  Phmp  con- 
vinces he  watched  with  peculiar  jealousy,  and,  Jnquisition. 
as  if  determined  to  shake  the  ecclesiastical  ^'^^•^^• 
dominion,    he    published   an    Edict,*^   denouncing    the 


*  Ordonnances  des  Rois. 


128  LATIN  CHJllSTIAI^ITY.  Book  XI. 

cruelties  and  tyranny  of  tlie  Inquisition,  and  of  Fulk 
of  St.  George,  the  head  of  that  awful  tribunal.  This 
arraignment,  while  it  appeared  to  strike  at  the  abuses, 
condemned  the  Office  itself.  "  Complaints  have  reached 
ui=  from  all  quarters,  from  Prelates  and  Barons,  that 
Brother  Fulk,  the  Inquisitor  of  heretical  offences,  has 
encouraged  those  errors  and  crimes  which  it  is  his  func- 
tion to  extirpate.  Under  the  pretext  of  law  he  has 
violated  all  law ;  under  the  semblance  of  piety,  com- 
mitted acts  of  the  grossest  impiety  and  inhumanity ; 
under  the  plea  of  defending  the  Catholic  faith,  done 
deeds  at  which  the  minds  of  men  revolt  with  horror. 
There  is  no  bound  to  his  exactions,  oppressions,  and 
charges  against  our  faithful  subjects.  In  defiance  of 
the  canonical  rules,  he  begins  his  processes  by  arrest 
and  torture,  by  torture  new  and  unheard  of.  Those 
whom,  according  to  his  caprice,  he  accuses  of  having 
denied  Christ  or  attacked  the  foundations  of  the  faith, 
he  compels  by  these  tortures  to  make  false  admissions 
of  guilt ;  if  he  cannot  compel  their  inflexible  innocence 
to  confess  guilt,  he  suborns  false  witnesses  against 
them.""  This  was  the  Ordinance  of  the  King  who 
cruelly  seized  and  tortured  the  Templars ! 

The  winter  passed  in  vain  overtures  for  reconcilia- 
tion. Each  sought  to  strengthen  himself  by  new 
alliances;  Philip  by  concessions  to  his  people,  ex- 
torted partly  by  the  unprosperous  state  of  affairs  in 
Flanders,  and  from  the  desire  to  make  his  personal 
quarrel  with  the  Pope  a  national  affair.^  As  the  year 
advanced,  Philip  pressed  the  conclusion  of  the  peace 
with  England;   it    was   ratified   at   Paris.     Philip   re- 


«  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  i.  340.   Hist,  de  Languedoc.   Preuves,  No.  54,  p.  1  IS, 
*  Sismoiidi,  Hist,  des  Fian9ais,  ix.  104. 


20, 
1303. 


Chap.  IX.         ALBERT'S  FEALTY  TO  THE  POPE.  129 

signed  Aquitaiiie  on  the  due  performance  of  homage 
by  England,  The  Pope  suddenly  forgot  all  the  crimes 
and  contumacy  of  Albert  of  xlustria.  The  May 
murderer  of  his  predecessor,  he,  against  whom 
Boniface  himself  had  excited  the  ecclesiastical  electors 
to  rebellion,  became  a  devout  and  prudent  son,  who  had 
humbly  submitted,  not  to  the  judgement,  but  to  the 
clemency  of  his  father,  and  had  offered  to  prove  himself 
innocent  of  the  misdeed  imputed  to  him,  and  to  undergo 
such  penance  as  should  be  imposed  upon  him  by  the 
Holy  See.  The  Pope  wrote  to  the  Princes  of  the 
Empire,  commanding  them  to  render  their  allegiance 
to  Albert ;  and  it  suited  the  present  policy  of  Albert  to 
obtain  the  Empire  on  any  terms.  At  Nurem-  j^^y  ^^^ 
berg  he  promulgated  a  golden  Bull,  sealed  ^^*^^- 
with  the  Imperial  seal,  in  which  he  acknowledged,  in 
terms  as  full  as  ever  had  been  extorted  from  the  most 
humiliated  of  his  predecessors,  that  the  Eoman  Empire 
had  been  granted  to  Charlemagne  by  the  Apostolic 
See ;  that  though  the  King  of  the  Eomans  was  chosen 
by  certain  temporal  and  ecclesiastical  Electors,  the 
temporal  sword  derived  all  its  authority  from  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  Pope.  The  protection  of  the 
Church  was  the  first  and  paramount  duty  of  the  Em- 
peror. He  sw^ore  to  guard  the  Pope  against  any  injury 
to  life  or  limb  ;  and  though  it  was  the  customary  23hrase, 
yet  it  is  curious  that  he  swore  also,  as  if  the  scene  at 
Anagni  might  be  foreseen  distinctly,  to  guard  from  cap- 
ture and  imprisonment.^  He  swore  too  that  the  Pope's 
enemies  should  be  his  enemies,  of  w^hatever  rank  or 
dignity,  Kings  or  Emperors.  The  eagerness  wuth  which 
Albert  of  Austria  detached  himself  from  the  alhance  of 


T  "Capi  mala  captiritate."     Compaie  Kavnald.  sub  ann.  1303. 
VOL.  VII.  K 


130  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  book  Xi 

the  King  of  France,  though  cemented  by  marriage,  the 
profound  humility  of  his  language,  was  not  calculated 
to  diminish  the  haughty  confidence  of  Boniface  in  the 
awe  still  inspired  by  the  Papal  power. ^  Boniface  had 
the  prudence  to  secure  himself  against  the  French  inte- 
rest in  Italy :  he  consented  at  length  to  permit  the 
King  of  Naples  to  rest  content  with  the  throne  of  that 
kingdom,  and  to  acknowledge  Frederick  of  Arragon  as 
King:  of  Trinacria.  Charles  of  Valois  had  returned  to 
France  to  assist  his  brother  in  the  wars  of  Flanders. 

Philip,  on  his  side,  was  preparing  certain  popular 
acts,  which  were  to  be  proclaimed  at  the  same  great 
assembly  in  the  Louvre  before  which  he  had  deter- 
mined to  appeal  to  his  subjects  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  Pope.  Yet  for  a  time  he  had  been  even 
more  deeply  wounded  by  his  unavenged  discomfiture  by 
the  Flemings,  and  he  had  not  therefore  altogether  aban- 
doned the  thought  of  pacification  with  the  Pope.  It 
can  hardly  have  been  unauthorised  by  the  King,  that 
the  Count  of  Alen9on  and  the  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  one 
of  the  Prelates  who  had  obeyed  the  citation  to  Eome, 
had  held  out  hopes  that  the  King  was  not  averse  to 
an  amicable  settlement.  Accordingly  John  Le  Moine, 
The  Papal  Cardinal  of  S.  Marcellinus  and  S.  Peter,  a 
Paris.  native  of  Picardy,  appeared  in  the  Court  at 
Paris.  But  the  mission  of  the  Legate  was  not  one  of 
peace.  Boniface  must  have  miscalculated  most  griev- 
ously both  the  blow  inflicted  by  the  Flemings  on  the 
power  of  Philip,  and  the  strength  derived  by  himself 
from  his  Ghibelline  alliance  with  the  Emperor.     The 


■  Velly,  Coxe,  and  others  write  confidently  of  the  offer  of  the  French  crowh 
to  Albert ;  with  Sismondi,  I  can  disoorer  no  trace  of  this  in  the  contemporarj 
documents. 


Chap.  IX  CARDINAL  LE  MOIXE  AT  PARIS,  131 

Legate  was  instructed  first  to  summon  those  Prelates, 
the  King's  partisans,  who  had  not  made  their  appear- 
ance at  Kome,  to  obey  the  Pope  without  delay,  and 
hasten  to  tne  feet  of  his  Holiness,  under  the  penalty  of 
immediate  deposition.  These  Prelates  were  the  xVrch- 
bishops  of  Sens  and  Narbonne,  the  Bishops  of  Soissons, 
Beauvais,  and  Meaux,  with  the  Abbot  of  St.  Denis. 
The  Archbishop  of  Eouen,  the  Bishops  of  Paris,  Amiens, 
Langres,  Poitiers,  and  Bayeux  had  alleged  their  age 
and  infirmity.  The  Pope  condescended  to  admit  their 
excuse.  So  too  were  excused  the  Italian  Bishop  of 
Arras,  who  was  of  such  tried  loyalty  to  the  Pope  (was 
he  employed  in  keeping  up  the  correspondence  of  which 
Boniface  was  accused  with  the  revolted  Flemings?), 
and  the  Bishop  and  Chapter  of  Laon,  on  account  of 
some  heavy  charges  which  they  had  borne. 

The  Legate  had  twelve  Articles  which  he  was  to  offer 
to  the  King  for  his  immediate  and  peremptory  Twelve 
assent;  articles  of  absolute  and  humiliating  ^'^"'^^es. 
concession  on  his  part,  on  that  of  the  Pope  of  unyield- 
ing rigour,  if  not  of  insulting  menace  or  more  insultino- 
clemency.  I.  The  revocation  of  the  King's  inhibitory 
Edict  against  the  ecclesiastics  who  had  gone  to  Kome 
in  obedience  to  the  Papal  citation,  full  satisfaction  to 
all  who  had  undergone  penalties,  the  abrogation  of  all 
processes  instituted  against  them  in  the  King's  Courts. 
IL  The  Pope  asserted  his  inherent  right  to  collate  to 
all  benefices ;  no  layman  could  collate  without  autho- 
rity from  the  Apostolic  See.  III.  The  Pope  had  full 
right  to  send  Legates  to  any  part  of  Christendom. 
IV.  The  administration  and  distribution  of  all  eccle- 
siastical property  and  revenue  is  in  the  Pope  alone, 
not  in  any  other  person,  ecclesiastic  or  lay.  The  Pope 
has  power,  without  asking  the  assent  of  any  one  to,  lay 

K  2 


132  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY  Book  XI. 

on  them  any  charge  he  may  please.  V.  No  King  oi 
Prince  can  seize  the  goods  of  any  ecclesiastic,  nor  com- 
pel any  ecclesiastic  to  appear  in  the  King's  Courts  to 
answer  to  any  personal  action  or  for  any  property  not 
held  as  a  fief  of  the  Crown.  YI.  The  King  was  to  give 
satisfaction  for  his  contumelious  act  in  burning  the 
Papal  Bull  to  which  were  appended  the  images  of  the 
Apostles  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  VII.  The  King  is 
not  to  abuse  what  is  called  the  Kegale,  the  custody  and 
guardianship  of  vacant  benefices.  VIII.  The  spiritual 
sword  (judicature)  is  to  be  restored  to  the  Prelates  and 
other  ecclesiastics.  IX.  The  King  is  no  longer  to 
blind  himself  to  the  iniquity  of  the  debasement  of  the 
coin,  and  the  damage  thus  wrought  on  the  Prelates, 
Barons,  and  Clergy  of  the  realm.  X.  The  King  is  to 
call  to  mind  the  misdeeds  and  excesses  charged  upon 
him  in  our  private  letters  by  our  notary.*  XI.  The 
city  of  Lyons  is  entirely  independent  of  the  King  of 
France.  XII.  The  Pope,  unless  the  King  amended 
and  corrected  all  these  misdoings,  would  at  once  proceed 
against  him  spiritually  and  temporally. 

The  King  answered  each  separate  Article :  and  his 
The  King's  auswcrs  sccm  to  imply  some  apprehension  that 
answer.  j^jg  pQ^ygp  ^^s  shakcu,  somo  disinclination  to 
proceed  to  extremities.  He  stooped  to  evasion,  perhaps 
more  than  evasion.  I.  The  King  denied  that  the  inhi- 
bition to  his  subjects  to  quit  the  realm  was  aimed  at 
the  Prelates  summoned  to  Kome.  It  was  a  general 
precautionary  inhibition  to  prevent  the  exportation  of 
the  riches  and  produce  of  the  realm  during  the  war 
and  the  revolt  of  his  Flemish  vassals.     11.  The  King 


•  Litera  Clausa.     James  the  notary  was,  I  presume,  the  Archdeacon  of 
Nai  bonne. 


Chap.  IX.       THE  KING'S  ANSWER  TO  THE  POPE.  133 

demanded  no  more,  with  regard  to  the  collation  of 
benefices,  than  had  been  enjoyed  by  St.  Louis  and  his 
other  royal  predecessors.  III.  The  King  had  no  wish 
to  prohibit  the  reception  of  the  Papal  Legates,  unless 
suspected  persons  and  on  just  grounds.  IV.  The  King 
had  no  design  to  interfere  with  the  administration  of 
the  property  of  the  Church,  except  so  far  as  was  war- 
ranted by  his  rights  and  by  ancient  custom.  V.  and 
VIII.  So  as  to  the  seizure  of  the  goods  of  the  Church. 
The  King  intends  nothing  beyond  law  and  usage.  He 
is  fully  prepared  to  give  the  Church  the  free  use  of  the 
spiritual  sword  in  all  cases  where  the  Church  has  com- 
petent jurisdiction.  To  the  YI^^  xlrticle,  the  burning  of 
the  Bull,  the  answer  is  most  extraordinary.  The  King 
affects  to  suppose  that  the  Pope  alludes  not  to  the  Bull 
publicly  burned  at  Paris  with  sound  of  trumpet,  but  to 
tliat  of  a  Bull  relating  to  the  Chapter  of  Laon,  burned 
on  account  of  its  invalidity.  VII.  The  King  denies  the 
abuse  of  the  Eegale.  IX.  The  debasement  of  the  coin 
took  place  on  account  of  the  exigencies  of  the  State.  It 
was  a  prerogative  exercised  by  all  Kings  of  France,  and 
the  King  was  engaged  in  devising  a  remedy  for  the  evil. 
XL  The  King  had  interfered  in  the  affairs  of  Lyons,  on 
account  of  a  dangerous  feud  between  the  Archbishop 
and  the  people.  The  Archbishop,  he  averred,  owed  to 
him  an  oath  of  fealty,  which  had  been  refused,  never- 
theless he  was  prepared  to  continue  his  good  offices. 
XII.  The  King  earnestly  desired  that  the  unity  and 
peace  which  had  so  long  subsisted  between  the  kingdom 
of  France  and  the  Koman  See  should  be  restored :  he 
was  prepared  to  act  by  the  counsel  of  the  Dukes  of 
Bretagne  and  Burgundy.  To  these  the  Pope  himself 
had  proposed  to  submit  all  their  differences. 

With  these  answers  of  the  King  the  Pope  declared 


»34  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

fiimself  utterly  dissatisjSed.      Some   were   in   absolute 

defiance  of  truth,  none  consonant  with  justice. 

He   would    endure    martyrdom    rather    than 

submit  to  such  degi*ading   conditions.     But  the   same 

messengers  which  bore  the  Pope's   instructions  to  the 

Cardinal  of  S.  Marcellinus  to  appeal  again  to  the  King's 

Council  were  the  bearers  of  another  Brief.     That  Brief 

The  King    dcclarcd  that  Philip,  Kin^  of  France,  notwith- 

excommu-  t         i   •  i    i  •        •  i  •   i  t 

nicated.  standing  his  royal  dignity,  and  notwithstanding 
any  privilege  or  indulgence,  had  actually  incurred  the 
penalties  of  the  general  Excommunication  published  by 
the  Pope ;  that  he  was  excommunicate  for  having  pro- 
hibited the  Bishops  of  France  from  attending,  according 
to  the  Pope's  command,  at  Bome.  All  ecclesiastics,  of 
whatever  rank,  even  Bishops  or  Archbishops,  who  should 
presume  to  celebrate  mass  before  the  King,  preach, 
administer  any  of  the  sacraments,  or  hear  confession, 
were  likewise  excommunicate.  This  sentence  was  to  be 
proclaimed  in  all  convenient  places  within  the  realm. 
The  King's  confessor,  Nicolas,  a  Friar  Preacher,  had 
orders  to  fix  a  peremptory  term  of  three 
months  for  the  King's  submission,  for  his  per- 
sonal appearance  at  Eome,  to  be  dealt  with  according  to 
his  deserts,  and,  if  he  were  able,  to  prove  his  innocence. 
But  already,  above  a  month  before  the  date  of  these 
Parliament  at  Bi'lcfs,  the  King  had  held  his  Parliament  at 
March  12.  '  the  Louvrc  in  Paris.  The  Prelates  and  Barons 
had  been  summoned  to  take  counsel  on  affairs  touching 
the  welfare  of  the  realm.  Only  two  Archbishops,  Sens 
and  Narbonne,  three  Bishops,  Meaux,  Nevei-s,  and 
Angers,^  obeyed  the  royal  summons;  but  the  Barons 
made  up  an  imposing  assemblage.     Before  this  audi- 

•>  So  writes  Sismondi,     It  is  Antessiodoi*  in  the  documeut ;  tut  the  BisKoj 
of  Aiuerre  was  possibly  still  in  Roixie. 


Chap.  IX.  WILLIAM  OF  NOGARET.  135 

ence  appeared  William  of  Nogaret,  one  of  the  great 
lawyers,  most  eminent  in  the  King's  favour.  Nogaret 
was  born  in  the  diocese  of  Toulouse,  of  a  race  whose 
blood  had  been  shed  by  the  Inquisition.^  The  Nemesis 
of  that  awful  persecution  was  about  to  wreak  itself  on 
the  Papacy.  Nogaret  had  become  a  most  distinguished 
Professor  of  Civil  Law  and  Judge  of  Beaucaire :  he  had 
been  ennobled  by  Philip  the  Fair.  It  is  dangerous  to 
crush  hereditary  religion  out  of  men's  hearts.  Law  and 
the  most  profound  devotion  to  the  King  had  become 
the  religion  of  Nogaret.  He  was  a  man  without  fear, 
without  scruple;  perhaps  thought  that  he  was  only 
inflicting  just  retribution  on  the  persecutors  of  his 
ancestors.  According  to  the  accustomed  form,  William 
of  Nogaret  began  his  address  to  the  Assembly  with  a 
text  of  Scripture.  "  There  were  false  prophets  among 
the  people,  so  among  you  are  masters  of  lies."  '^  These 
are  the  words  of  Saint  Peter,  and  in  the  chair  of  Saint 
Peter  sits  the  master  of  lies,  ill-named  the  doer  of  good 
(Boniface),  but  rather  the  doer  of  evil.®  Boniface  (he 
went  on)  had  usurped  the  Holy  See ;  he  had  wedded 
the  Eoman  Church,  while  her  lawful  husband,  Coeles- 
tine,  was  alive ;  him  he  had  compelled  to  an  unlawful 
abdication  by  fraud  and  violence.  Nogaret  laid  down, 
in  strict  legal  phrase,  four  propositions: — I.  That  the 
Pope  was  not  the  true  Pope.  II.  That  he  was  a  heretic  . 
III.  Was  a  notorious  Simoniac :  IV.  A  man  weighed 
down  with  crimes — pride,  iniquity,  treachery,  rapacity 
— an  insupportable  load  and  burthen  to  the  Church, 
He  appealed  to  a  General  Council :  he  declared  it  to 
be  the  office  and  function  of  the  King  of  France  to 
summon  such  Council.     "  Before  that  Council  he  was 


c  Philip's  edict  agaiust  the  Inquisition    was  probably  suggested  by  Nogaret. 
«*  S.  Peter,  Epist.  ii.  21  «  Maleficus. 


136  LATIN  CHRTSTIANITT.  Book  XI 

prepared  to  appear  and  to  substantiate  all  these  charges.*' 
The  public  notaries  made  record  of  these  accxisations, 
advanced  in  the  presence  of  the  two  Archbishops  and 
the  three  Bishops,  of  many  princes  and  nobles,  whose 
names  were  recited  in  the  decree  of  record. 

Philip,  to  attach  all  orders  of  his  subjects  to  the 
Ordinance  of  tlironc  duriug  this  imminent  crisis,  and  perhaps 
Keformatiun.  ^^  cUvort  the  miuds  of  mcu  from  the  daring 
blow,  the  arraignment  of  a  Pope  before  a  General 
Council,  had  prepared  his  great  Ordinance  for  the 
reformation  of  the  realm.  The  Ordinance  was  mani- 
festly designed  for  the  especial  conciliation  of  the  clergy. 
All  churches  and  monasteries,  all  prelates  and  ecclesi- 
astics, were  to  be  held  in  the  grace  and  favour  of  the 
King,  as  of  his  religious  ancestors :  their  immunities 
and  privileges  were  to  be  respected,  as  in  the  time  of 
St.  Louis:  all  good  and  ancient  customs  were  to  be 
maintained ;  all  new  and  bad  ones  annulled.  The  right 
of  the  King  to  seize  or  confiscate  the  goods  of  the 
clergy  was  indeed  asserted,  but  in  guarded  and  tem- 
perate terms.  The  Regale  was  not  to  be  abused,  and 
(a  curious  illustration  of  the  mode  of  life)  the  fishponds 
of  the  ecclesiastics  were  not  to  be  drained  during  the 
time  of  vacancy.  Ecclesiastics  coming  to  the  King's 
Court  were  to  be  immediately  heard,  that  they  might 
return  to  their  sacred  charge.  No  fees  were  to  be  re- 
ceived by  the  King's  officers  from  ecclesiastics.^ 

The  Ordinance  for  the  reformation  of  the  realm  was 
skilfully  designed  to  cover  the  extension  of  the  royal 
power  by  the  extension  of  the  royal  jurisdiction :  yet  it 
professed  to  respect  all  separate  jurisdictions  of  Prelates 
and  Barons ;  it  was  content  to  supersede  them  without 


Ordounances  des  Rois  de  France,  vol.  i.  sub  anno. 


Chap.  IX. 


ORDINANCE  OF  RE  FORMATION. 


137 


violence.  Two  Parliaments  were  to  be  held  yearly 
at  Paris,  two  Exchequer  Courts  at  Eouen,  two  Days 
at  Troyes,  one  Parliament  at  Toulouse.  No  doubt 
Philip's  jurists  intended  thus,  without  alarming  the 
feudal  Lords,  quietly  to  draw  withm  their  own  sphere 
almost  the  whole  business  of  the  realm.  Their  more 
profound  science,  the  more  authoritative  power  of  exe- 
cuting their  sentences,  the  greater  regularity  of  their 
proceedings,  would  give  to  the  King's  Courts  and  to 
those  of  the  Parliaments  every  advantage  over  that  of 
the  Bishop  or  of  the  Baron.  As  though  the  King  were 
disposed  to  win  the  affections  of  every  class  of  his  people, 
there  are  in  the  Ordinance  special  instructions  to  the 
royal  officers  to  execute  their  functions  with  moderation 
and  gentleness.^  The  Crown  was  absolutely  compelled 
to  the  harsh  and  unwelcome  duty  of  levying  taxes  by 
the  disloyalty  and  rebellion  of  some  of  its  subjects.  Not 
only  were  the  King's  bailiffs  and  seneschals  to  be  thus 
courteous  and  forbearing,  even  the  Serjeants  were  to  be 
mild  and  soft-spoken.^ 

The  Pope  had  either  not  heard,  or  disdained  to  re- 
gard, what  he  might  yet  esteem  the  impotent  audacity 
of  William  of  Nogaret,  and  the  audience  given  to  his 
unprecedented  requisition  by  the  Parliament  held  in 
the  Louvre.  In  his  letter,  dated  one  month  after,  to 
the  Cardinal  of  S.  Marcellinus,  in  which  he  rejected  the 
rej^lies  of  Philip  to  his  demands,  there  is  no  allusion  to 
this  glaring  insult.  But  the  King  of  France  had  early 
intimation  of  the  contents  of  the  Papal  letters,  which 
commanded  the  Cardinal  of  S.  Marcellinus  to  declare 


»  *■  C'est  assavoir  que  vous  devez  etre 
avisez  de  parler  au  peuple  par  douces 
paroles,  et  demonstrer  les  grans  de'sobe- 
issances,  rebellions,  et  domages." — Ibid. 


^  "  Et  vous  avisez  de  mettrc  Ser- 
gens  de'bonnaires  et  tradables  poui 
faire  vos  executions,  si  que  il  n'aient 
cause  de  eux  doloir." — Ordonuance. 


138 


LATIN  CHPJSTIAXITY. 


Book  XL 


him  actually  excommunicate.^  The  bearers  of  these 
letters  were  the  Archdeacon  of  Coutances  and  Nicolas 
Benefracto,  a  servant  of  the  Cardinal.  It  is  said  that, 
in  the  pride  of  being  employed  on  such  important 
services,  they  betrayed  the  secret  of  their  despatches* 
"  They  bore  that  which  would  make  the  King  tremble 
on  his  throne."  Orders  were  given  to  the  King's  officers 
to  arrest  them :  they  were  seized  and  thrown  into  prison 
at  Troyes.  Certain  other  priests  boasted  that  they  had 
been  permitted  to  take  copies  of  these  Briefs,  and  were 
promulgating  them  in  order  to  stir  up  the  people  to 
insurrection.  The  Cardinal  protested,  and  imperiously 
demanded  the  delivery  of  the  Briefs  into  his  hands. 
The  Edict  confiscating  the  goods  of  the  Bishops  whe 
had  attended  the  Synod  at  Kome  was  renewed,  if  not 
put  in  execution.  The  Order  which  convoked  again  the 
States-General,  to  take  counsel  on  the  crimes  and  dis- 
abilities of  his  master  the  Pope,  was  fixed  on  the  walls 
of  the  Monastery  of  St.  Martin  at  Tours,  where  the 
Legate  was  lodged.  All  his  movements  were  watched ; 
he  could  neither  receive  a  visit  nor  a  single  paper  without 
the  King's  knowledge.  He  determined  to  return  to 
Eome,  mortified  and  humbled  by  the  total  failure  of  his 
mission,  which  he  had  been  instructed  to  carry  out  with 
such  imposing  haughtiness.  No  doubt  he  had  acted  up 
to  those  instructions. 

The  States-General  held  their  second  meeting  in  the 


*  The  succession  of  events,  on  which 
much  depends,  is  by  no  means  clear. 
Velly  places  the  mission  of  Cardinal 
Le  Moine,  the  articles  offered  by  him, 
the  elaborate  answer  of  the  King,  after 
the  Parliament  in  the  Louvre,  in  which 
William  of  Nogaret  appeared  (March 
1*2).  The  Pope's  letter  to  the  Car- 
dinal expressing  his  dissatisfaction   at 


Philip's  answers,  as  contained  in  the 
Cardinal's  to  Rome  which  he  had  then 
received,  is  dated  April  13.  The 
mission,  the  reception  by  Philip,  the 
offer  of  the  articles,  the  time  for  the  de- 
liberate reply,  the  communication  of 
the  result  to  Rome,  the  Pope's  letter, 
could  not  possibly  have  been  concluded 
in  a  month. 


Chap.  IX.       CHAEGES  AGAINST  POPE  BONIFACE.  139 

Louvre  on  the  13th  of  June.  Louis  Count  of  Evreux, 
Guy  Count  of  St.  Pol,  John  Count  of  Dreux,  sp^^^d  Par- 
WiUiam  of  Plasian,  Knight  and  Lord  of  Veze-  IrS^. 
noble  (Peter  Flotte,  the'Chancellor,  had  fallen  '^^^^  '^^ 
at  Courtrai,  William  of  Nogaret  was  elsewhere),  presented 
themselves  before  the  Assembly,  and  declared  that 
Christendom  was  in  the  utmost  danger  and  misery 
through  the  misrule  of  Boniface;  that  a  lawful  Pope 
was  necessary  for  her  salvation ;  that  Boniface  was 
laden  with  crimes.  William  of  Plasian  swore  upon  the 
Gospels  that  these  charges  were  true ;  that  he  was  pre- 
pared to  prove  them  before  a  General  Council ;  that 
the  King,  as  champion  of  the  faith,  was  compelled  to 
summon  such  Council.  It  was  no  less  the  duty  of  the 
Prelates  and  Nobles  to  concur  in  this  measure.  The 
Prelates  observed  that  it  was  an  affair  of  the  gravest 
import,  and  required  mature  deliberation.  The  next 
day  William  of  Plasian  produced  his  charges,  charges 
of  the  most  monstrous  heresy,  infidehty,  and,  what  was 
perhaps  worse,  wizardry,  and  dealing  with  evil  spirits ; 
charges  against  a  Pope  who  for  nearly  nine  years  had 
exercised  the  full  authority  of  St.  Peter's  successor ;  a 
man  now  in  extreme  old  age,  wliose  life  and  stern  in- 
flexible orthodoxy  had  been  till  now  above  question ;  who 
had  been  the  chosen  arbiter  of  Kings  in  their  quarrels; 
who  had  been  almost  adored  at  the  Jubilee  by  assenting 
Christendom  ;  who  was  even  at  this  time  bestowing  the 
Imperial  crown,  accepted  by  Albert  of  Austria  with  the 
humblest  gratitude.  These  charges  were  advanced  with 
a  solemn  appeal  to  the  Holy  Gospels,  before  the  King 
and  the  nobility  of  France,  before  a  great  body  of  eccle- 
siastics, who,  so  far  from  repudiating  them  at  once  with 
indignant  impatience,  admitted  them  as  the  groundwork 
of  a  process  to  be  submitted  to  a  General  Council  of  all 


140 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XL 


Christendom:  this  Council  there  seems  no  reasonable 
doubt  was  in  the  actual  contemplation,  and  was  delibe- 
rately determined  on  by  Philip  and  his  advisers.     The 
The  articles  of  accusation  cannot  be  judged  with- 

charges.  ^^^^  ^|^q  examination  of  their  startling,  repul- 
sive, even  loathsome  detail :  they  must  be  seen  too  in 
their  strange  confusion.  The  Pope  neither  believed  the 
immortality  nor  the  incorruptibility  of  the  human  soul, 
it  perished  with  the  body.  He  did  not  believe  in  eternal 
life  ;  he  had  averred  that  it  was  no  sin  to  indulge  the 
body  in  all  pleasures ;  he  had  publicly  declared  and 
preached  that  he  had  rather  be  a  dog,  an  ass,  or  any 
brute  beast,  than  a  Frenchman;  that  no  Frenchman 
had  a  soul  which  could  deserve  everlasting  happiness : 
this  he  had  taught  to  persons  on  their  deathbeds.  He 
did  not  believe  in  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Eucharist. 
He  was  reputed  (all  these  things  were  advanced  as 
matters  of  public  fame  and  scandal)  to  have  averred 
that  fornication  and  other  obscene  practices  were  no 
sin.  He  had  often  said  that  to  depress  the  King  of 
France  and  the  French  he  would  devote  himself,  the 
world,  and  tlie  Church  to  ruin.  "  Perish  the  French, 
come  what  may."  He  had  approved  a  book  written  by 
a  physician,  Arnold  of  Yilleneuve,  which  had  been  con- 
demned by  the  Bishop  and  the  Masters  of  Theology  in 
Paris  as  heretical  He  had  caused,  to  perpetuate  his 
damnable  memory,  silver  images  of  himself  to  be  set 
up  in  the  churches,  to  which  the  people  were  tempted 
to  pay  idolatrous  worship.  "  He  has  a  special  familiar 
de\dl,  whose  counsels  he  follows  in  all  things."^    He  is 


*  This  afterwards  grew  into  a  mi- 
nute detail  of  all  the  famous  wizards 
and  sorcerers  fiom  whom  he  had  ob- 
tained  many  ditlerent   familiar  *ipirits 


with  whom  he  dealt  :  one  wj«  in  a  ring 
which  he  always  wore,  but  offered  t« 
the  King  of  Naples,  ^ho  rejected  tlifl 
gift  with  pious  abhor-  ence. 


Chap.  IX.  ACCUSATIONS  OF  PROFLIGACY.  141 

a  sortilege,  and  consults  di^dners  and  fortune-tellers.  He 
has  declared  that  Popes  cannot  commit  simon}^,  which 
declaration  is  heresy.  He  keeps  a  market  by  one 
Simon,  an  usurer,  of  ecclesiastical  dignities  and  benefices. 
Contrary  to  Christ's  charge  to  his  Apostles,  "  My  peace 
J  leave  with  you,"  he  has  constantly  stirred  up  and 
fomented  discords  and  wars.  On  one  occasion,  when 
two  parties  had  agreed  to  terms  of  peace,  Boniface 
inhibited  them  and  said,  "  If  the  Son  of  God  or  Peter 
the  Apostle  had  descended  upon  earth  and  given  such 
precept,  I  would  have  replied,  *I  believe  you  not.'  " 
Like  certain  heretics  who  assert  themselves  to  be  the 
only  true  Christians,  he  called  all  others,  especially  that 
most  Christian  people  the  French,  Paterins.  He  was  a 
notorious  sodomite.  He  had  caused  the  murder  of  many 
clerks  in  his  own  presence,  and  urged  his  officers  to 
their  bloody  work,  saying,  "  Strike  home !  strike  home ! " 
He  had  refused  the  Eucharist,  as  unnecessary,  to  a 
nobleman  in  prison  in  his  last  agony.  He  had  com- 
pelled priests  to  reveal  confessions.  He  did  not  observe 
the  Fasts  of  the  Church,  not  even  Lent.  He  depresses 
and  always  has  depressed  the  whole  Order  of  Cardinals, 
the  Black  and  the  White  Monks,  the  Franciscan  and 
Preaching  Friars:  he  calls  them  all  h}^ocrites.  He 
never  utters  a  good  word,  but  words  of  scorn,  lying 
reproach,  and  detraction  against  every  bishop,  monk, 
or  ecclesiastic.  He  has  conceived  an  old  and  impla- 
cable hatred  against  the  King  of  France,  and  o^\^led 
that  he  would  subvert  Christianity  if  he  might  humble 
what  he  calls  the  pride  of  the  French.  He  has  granted 
the  tenths  of  his  realm  to  the  King  of  England,  on  con- 
dition of  his  waging  war  on  France;  he  has  leagued 
with  Frederick  of  Arragon  against  the  French  King  of 
Naples  ;  he  has  gi-anted  the  Empire  to  Albert  of  Austria, 


142  LATIN  CHRISTIAI^ITY.  Book  XI 

whom  he  had  so  long  treated  as  unduly  elected,  as  a 
traitoi  and  as  a  murderer,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 
employing  him  to  crush  the  pride  of  the  French.  The 
Holv  Land  is  lost  through  his  fault ;  he  has  diverted 
the  subsidies  raised  for  the  Christians  of  the  Holy  Land 
to  enrich  his  kindred.  He  is  the  fountain  and  ground 
of  all  simony ;  he  has  reduced  all  prelates  and  eccle- 
siastics to  servitude,  and  loaded  them  with  taxation; 
the  wealth  he  has  extorted  from  Christendom  he  has 
lavished  on  his  own  family,  whom  he  has  raised  to  the 
rank  of  counts  and  barons,  and  in  building  fortresses 
on  the  lands  of  Roman  nobles,  whom  he  has  cruelly 
oppressed  and  driven  into  exile.  He  has  dissolved 
many  lawful  marriages ;  he  has  promoted  his  nephew, 
a  man  of  notoriously  profligate  life,  to  the  Cardinalate, 
forced  that  nephew's  wife  to  take  a  vow  of  chastity, 
and  himself  begotten  upon  her  two  bastard  sons.  He 
treated  his  holy  predecessor  Coelestine  with  the  utmost 
inhumanity,  and  caused  his  death.  He  has  privately 
made  away  in  prison  with  many  others  who  denied  his 
lawful  election  to  the  Papacy.  To  the  public  scandal 
he  has  allowed  many  nuns  to  return  to  a  worldly  life. 
He  has  also  said  that  in  a  short  time  he  would  make 
all  the  French  martyrs  or  apostates.  Lastly,  he  seeks 
not  the  salvation,  but  the  perdition  of  souls.™ 

Each  of  these  separate  articles  was  declared  to  rest 
on  public  fame  and  notoriety,  and  so  the  accuser  might 
seem  in  some  degree  to  guard  himself  against  personal 
responsibility  for  their  truth.  Still  it  is  almost  incon- 
ceivable how  even  such  bold  men,  so  fully  possessed  of 
the  royal  favour,  could  venture  on  some  of  these  charges, 
so   flagi'antly  false.     The   Colomias,   no   doubt,  whose 


Compare  for  all  this  Dupuy,  Preuves. 


Chap.  IX.  KING  PHILIP'S  APPEAL.  143 

wrongs  were  not  forgotten,  some  of  whom  will  soon  be 
discovered  in  active  league  with  Philip's  Jurists,  had 
disseminated  these  rumours  of  the  Pope's  tyrannies  and 
cruel  misdeeds  in  Italy,  not  improbably  the  enormities 
charged  on  his  private  life.  The  coarse  artifice  (skill  it 
cannot  be  called)  with  which  the  vanity  of  the  French 
nation  is  constantly  appealed  to ;  the  accumulation  on 
one  man  of  all  the  accusations  which  could  be  imagined 
as  most  odious  to  mankind ;  were  not  merely  ominous 
of  danger  to  Boniface  himself,  but  signs  of  the  declining 
awe  of  the  Popedom  beyond  the  walls  of  Rome,  beyond 
the  confines  of  Italy.  William  of  Plasian  solemnly  pro- 
tested that  he  was  actuated  by  no  hatred  or  passion ;  in 
the  most  formal  manner  he  declared  his  adhesion  to  the 
appeal  before  made  by  William  of  Nogaret% 

The  King  commanded  his  own  appeal  to  be  read. 
"  We,  Philip,  King  of  France,  having  heard  j^j^g  p^iiip-g 
the  charges  now  alleged  by  W^illiam  of  Plasian,  ^^^^^ 
as  heretofore  by  William  of  Nogaret,  against  Boniface, 
now  presiding  over  the  Roman  Church ;  though  we  had 
rather  cover  the  shame  of  our  father  with  our  garment, 
yet  in  the  fervour  of  our  Catholic  faith,  and  our  devo- 
tion to  the  Holy  See,  and  to  our  Mother  the  Church,  for 
which  our  ancestors  have  not  hesitated  to  risk  their 
lives,  we  cannot  but  assent  to  these  requisitions;  we 
will  use  our  utmost  power  for  the  convocation  of  a 
General  Council,  in  order  to  remove  these  scandals 
from  the  Church ;  and  we  call  upon  and  entreat,  in  the 
bowels  of  mercy  in  Jesus  Christ,  all  you  archbishops, 
bishops,  and  prelates,  to  join  us  in  promoting  this 
General  Council ;  and  lest  the  aforesaid  Boniface  should 
utter  sentences  of  excommunication  or  interdict,  or  any 
act  of  spiritual  violence  against  us,  our  realm,  our 
churches,  our  prelates,  our  barons,  or  our  vassals,  we 


U4 


LATIN  CHEISTIANITY. 


BO<.)K  XI. 


appeal   to   this   Great   Council,    and    to   a   legitimate 
Pope." 

No  Churcliman  uttered  one  word  of  remonstrance. 
It  might  have  been  difficult  to  treat  with  scorn,  or  repel 
with  indignation,  an  arraignment  made  with  such  formal 
solemnity ;  accusations  openly  recognised  by  the  King 
as  grave  and  serious  subjects  of  inquiry.  The  Jurists 
had  taken  care  that  all  was  conducted  according  to 
unexceptionable  rules  of  procedure.  The  prelates  veiled 
their  weak  compliance  with  the  King's  wishes,  their 
assent  to  the  unusual  act  of  permitting  a  Pope  to  be 
arraigned  as  a  criminal  for  the  most  hateful  and  loath- 
some offences  and  denounced  before  a  General  Council, 
under  the  specious  plea  of  the  necessity  of  investigation 
into  such  fearful  scandals,  and  the  pious  hope  that  the 
innocence  of  Boniface  would  appear.  To  this  assent 
were  signed  the  names  of  five  archbishops — Nicosia  (in 
Cyprus),  a  Frenchman  by  birth,  Rheims,  Sens,  Nar- 
boune,  Tours ;  of  twenty -one  bishops — Laon,  Beauvais, 
Chalons-sur-Marne,  Auxerre,  Meaux,  Nevers,  Chartres, 
Orleans,  Amiens,  Terouanne,  Senlis,  Angers,  Avranches, 
Coutances,  Evreux,  Lisieux,  Seez,  Clermont,  Limoges, 
Puy,  Macon  (afterwards  St.  Omer,  Boulogne,  Ypres) ; 
eleven  of  the  great  abbots — Clugny,  Premontr^,  Mar- 
moutier,  Citeaux,  St.  Denis,  Compiegne,  St.  Victor,  St. 
Genevieve,  St.  Martin  de  Laon,  Figeac,  Beaulieu  ;  the 
Visitors  of  the  Orders  of  the  Temple  and  of  St.  John." 


"  Dupuy,  Preuves.  Baillet  pub- 
lished f  special  appeal  of  the  Arch- 
bishop ui  Narbonne  containing  ten 
charges  against  the  Pope,  in  substance 
much  the  same  with  those  of  De 
Plasian,  but  darkening  the  charge  of 
immorality  into  his  having  seduced 
two  of  his  married  nieces,  by  whom 


he  had  many  children.  "  0  patrem 
faecundum  I "  It  is  said  that  this 
appeal  was  made  in  the  States-General 
at  the  Louvre.  Baillet  found  it  among 
the  Brienne  papers  ;  but  what  proof 
is  there  of  its  authenticity?  Baillet, 
Ddmeles,  Additions  des  Preuves,  p, 
29. 


Chap.  IX.  BONIFACE  AT  AXAG>'I.  145 

The  King  was  not  content  with  this  general  suffrage 
of  the  States-General,  nor  even  with  the  mutual  gua- 
rantee entered  into  between  himself,  the  ecclesiastics, 
and  the  barons  of  France,  to  stand  by  each  other  and 
co-operate  in  holding  the  General  Comicil ;  in  per- 
mitting no  excommunication  or  interdict  to  be  published 
within  the  realm,  and  to  pay  no  regard  to  any  mandate 
or  Bull  of  the  Pope.  He  appealed  severally  to  all  the 
ecclesiastical  and  monastic  bodies  of  the  realm.  General  ad- 
He  obtained  seven  hundred  acts  of  adhesion  kingdom. 
from  bishops,  chapters,  conventual  bodies,  and  the  Orders 
of  friars.  Of  the  numerous  houses  of  the  Clugniacs,  seven 
only  refused,  eleven  sent  evasive  answers.  All  who  had 
hitherto  been  the  most  ardent  and  servile  partisans  of 
the  Popedom,  the  Preachers  the  Sons  of  St.  Dominic, 
the  Minorites  the  Sons  of  St.  Francis,  the  Templars  and 
Hospitallers,  were  for  the  King.  The  University  of 
Paris  gave  in  its  unqualified  concurrence  to  the  royal 
demands.  Philip  sent  his  appeal  into  some  of  the 
neighbouring  kingdoms.  All  these  gave  at  least  their 
tacit  assent  to  the  arraignment  of  the  Pope  before  a 
General  Council ;  some,  no  doubt,  reconciled  it  to  their 
conscience  by  doubts  as  to  the  validity  of  the  election 
of  Boniface,  and  his  title  to  be  considered  a  lawful  Pope  : 
all  were  careful  that  the  appeal  lay  not  merely  to  the 
Council,  but  to  a  future  lawful  Pope ;  all  protested  their 
fervent  reverence  and  attachment  to  the  Church,  their 
loyalty  to  the  See  of  Rome. 

The  Pope  had  retired,  as  usual,  from  the  summer 
heats,  perhaps   not   without   mistrust  of  the  Bomfaceat 
Eomans,  to  his  native  city,  Anagni.     There,  in  consistory. 
a  public  consistory,  he  purged  liimself  by  oath  Aug.  is. 
of  the  charge  of  heresy ;  the  more  scandalous  accusations 
against  his  life  and  morals  he  disdained  to  noti^ie.     In 

VOL.  VII.  L 


146  LATIN  CIIEISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

the  Bull  issued  from  that  consistory,  he  declared  that  he 
had  received  intelligence  of  the  proceedings  of  the  King 
and  the  Barons  in  the  Louvre,  of  their  appeal  to  a 
General  Council,  to  a  future  lawful  Pope,  of  their  pro- 
clamation that  they  would  receive  neither  legate  nor 
letter  from  him,  and  their  renunciation  of  all  obedience. 
"  With  what  sincerity,  with  what  charity,  with  what 
zeal,  this  conventicle  had  acted,  might  be  understood, 
by  all  who  value  truth,  from  the  blasphemies  which 
they  had  poured  forth  against  him,  and  the  open  recep- 
tion of  his  deadly  enemy,  Stephen  Colonna."  "  They 
have  lyingly  blasphemed  us  with  lying  blasphemies, 
charging  us  with  heresy,  and  with  other  monstrous 
criminalities  over  wliich  they  have  affected  to  weep. 
Who  in  all  the  world  has  heard  that  we  have  been 
suspected  of  the  taint  of  heresy  ?  Which  of  our  race, 
who  in  all  Campania,  has  been  branded  with  such  a 
name?  We  were  sound  Catholics  when  He  received 
favours  from  us.  Valentinian  the  Emperor  humbled 
himself  before  the  Bishop  of  Milan :  the  King  of  France 
is  as  much  below  the  Emperor  as  we  are  above  the 
Bishop  of  Milan.  The  state  of  the  Church  will  be 
utterly  subverted,  the  power  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  anni- 
hilated, if  such  kings  and  princes,  when  the  Roman 
Pontiff  shall  think  it  right  to  inflict  correction  upon 
them,  shall  presume  to  call  him  a  heretic  or  of  noto- 
riously scandalous  life,  and  so  escape  censure.  This 
pernicious  example  must  be  cut  up  by  the  roots.  With- 
out us  no  General  Council  can  be  held.  Henceforth  no 
king,  no  prince,  or  other  magnate  of  France  shall  dare, 
by  the  example  of  the  King,  to  break  out  in  words  of 
blasphemy,  and  thus  hope  to  elude  due  correction.  Not 
to  name  the  King  of  France  deposed  by  Pope  Zacharias, 
did   Theodosius    the   Great,    excommunicated    by   St 


Chap.  IX.  EXCOMMUNICATION.  147 

Ambrose,  kindle  into  wrath  ?  Did  the  glorious  Lothair 
lift  up  his  heel  against  Pope  Nicolas?  or  Frederick 
against  Innocent  ?  "  In  proper  time  and  place  he,  Boni- 
face, would  proceed  to  the  extreme  censure,  unless  full 
satisfaction  should  be  offered,  lest  the  blood  of  Philip 
should  be  required  at  his  hands." 

The  stress  laid  upon  the  reception  of  Stephen  Colonna 
shows  that  Boniface  knew  whence  sprung  much  of  the 
most  desperate  hostility  to  his  fame  and  authority.  He 
was  peculiarly  indignant  at  the  presumption  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Nicosia,  whom  he  had  ordered,  and  again 
ordered  in  a  separate  Bull,  to  return  to  his  diocese,  and 
not  to  presume  to  meddle  in  the  affairs  of  France.  A 
third  Bull,  to  punish  the  prelates  who  had  been  seduced 
into  rebellion  by  the  King,  suspended  in  all  the  eccle- 
siastical corporations  the  right  of  election,  declared  all 
vacant  benefices  at  the  sole  disposal  of  the  Pope,  annulled 
all  elections  made  during  this  suspension,  and  until  the 
King  should  have  returned  to  his  obedience.  A  fourth 
deprived  the  Universities  of  the  right  of  teaching,  of 
granting  any  degree  in  theology,  canon  or  civil  law. 
This  privilege  the  Pope  declared  to  be  derived  entirely 
from  the  Apostolic  See,  and  to  have  been  forfeited  by 
their  rebellious  adhesion  to  the  cause  of  the  King.^ 

Boniface  seemed,  as  it  were,  to  pause,  to  be  gathering 
up  his  strength  to  launch  the  last  crushing  Excommu- 
thunders  upon  the  head  of  the  contumacious  "i^^'^^'°°- 
King.  The  sentence  of  excommunication  had  been 
prepared;  it  had  received  the  Papal  Seal.  It  began 
with  more  than  the  usual  solemnity  and  haughtiness. 
"  We  who  sit  on  the  high  throne  of  St.  Peter,  the  vice- 
gerent of  Him  to  whom  the  Father  said,  '  Thou  art  m\ 


The  Bull  in  Dupuy  and  Raynaldus,  sub  aim.  p  Preuves.     Raynaldus 

L   2 


148  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Duok  XI. 

Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee,'  *'  Ask  of  me,  I  will 
^ive  Thee  the  nations  as  Thine  inheritance,  and  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  as  Thy  possession:  to 
bruise  kings  with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  to  break  them  in 
pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel.'  An  awful  admonition  to 
kings !  But  the  unlimited  ^^ower  of  St.  Peter  has  ever 
been  exercised  with  serene  lenity."  The  Bull  then 
recapitulates  all  the  chief  causes  of  the  quarrel :  tlie 
prohibition  of  the  bishops  to  attend  the  Papal  summons 
to  Kome ;  the  missions  of  James  de  Normannis  Arch- 
deacon of  Narbonne,  and  of  the  Cardinal  of  St.  Mar- 
cellinus  rejected  with  scorn  (it  is  silent  as  to  the  burning 
of  the  Bull),  the  seizure  and  imprisonment  of  Nicolas 
de  Benefracto,  the  bearer  of  the  Papal  letters;  the 
entertainment  of  Stephen  Colonna  at  the  Court  in  Paris. 
The  King  of  France  was  declared  excommunicate  ;  his 
subjects  released  from  their  allegiance,  or  rather  peremp- 
torily inhibited  from  paying  him  any  acts  of  obedience ; 
all  the  clergy  were  forbidden,  under  pain  of  perpetual 
disability,  to  hold  preferment,  from  receiving  benefices 
at  his  hands  ;  all  such  appointments  were  void,  all 
leagues  were  annulled,  all  oaths  abrogated,  "and  this 
our  Bull  is  ordered  to  be  suspended  in  the  porch  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Anagni."  The  8th  of  September  was 
the  fatal  day.*^ 

Boniface,  infatuated  by  the  sense  of  his  unapproach- 
wiiuam  of  able  majesty,  and  of  the  sanctity  of  his  office, 
sdfnt  ^'^^  ^^^  taken  no  precautions  for  the  safeguard  of 
ccionna.  j^|g  persou.  Hc  could  not  but  know  that  his 
two  deadhest  enemies,  William  of  Nogaret,  the  most 
darino-  of  Philip's  legal  counsellors,  and  Sciarra  Colonna, 
the  most  fierce  and  desperate  of  the  house  which  he  had 


1  Preuves,  p.  182. 


Chap.  IX.  ATTACK  0^^  THE  POPE.  149 

driven  to  desperation,  had  been  for  several  months  in 
Italy,  on  the  Tuscan  borders  at  no  great  distance  from 
Rome.  They  were  accompanied  by  Musciatto  dei  Fran- 
cesi,  in  whose  castle  of  Staggia,  not  far  from  Sienna, 
they  had  taken  up  their  abode.  They  liad  unlimited 
power  to  draw  on  the  Panizzi,  the  merchant  bankers  of 
the  King  of  France  at  Florence.  To  the  simple  pea^ 
santry  they  held  out  that  their  mission  was  to  reconcile 
the  Pope  with  the  King  of  France ;  others  supposed 
that  they  were  delegated  to  serve  upon  the  Pope  the 
citation  to  appear  before  the  General  Council.  They 
bought  wdth  their  gold  many  of  the  petty  barons  of 
Romagna.  They  hired  to  be  at  their  command  a  band 
of  the  lawless  soldiery  who  had  been  employed  in  the 
late  wars.  They  had  their  emissaries  in  Anagni ;  some 
even  of  the  Cardinals  had  not  been  inaccessible  to  their 
dark  intrigues. 

On  a  sudden,  on  the  7th  September  (the  8th  was  the 
day  for  the  publication  of  the  Bull),  the  peaceful  streets 
of  Anagni  were  disturbed.  The  Pope  and  the  Cardinals, 
who  were  all  assembled  around  him,  were  startled  with 
the  trampling  of  armed  horse,  and  the  terrible  cry, 
which  ran  like  wildfire  through  the  city,  **  Death  to 
Pope  Boniface !  Long  live  the  King  of  France ! " 
Sciarra  Colonna,  at  the  head  of  three  hundred  horsemen, 
the  Barons  of  Cercano  and  Supino,  and  some  others, 
the  sons  of  Master  Massio  of  Anagni,  were  marching  in 
furious  haste,  with  the  banner  of  the  King  of  France 
displayed.  The  ungrateful  citizens  of  Anagni,  forgetful 
of  their  pride  in  their  holy  compatriot,  of  the  honour 
and  advantage  to  their  town  from  the  splendour  and 
wealth  of  the  Papal  residence,  received  them  with  rebel- 
lious and  acclaiming  shouts. 

The  bell  of  the  oity,  indeed,  had  tolled  at  the  first 


150  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI 

alarm  ;  the  burghers  had  assembled ;  they  had  choseD 
their  commander;  but  that  commander,  whom  they 
ignorantly  or  treacherously  chose,  was  Arnulf,  a  deadly 
enemy  of  the  Pope.  The  banner  of  the  Church  was 
unfolded  against  the  Pope  by  the  captain  of  the  people 
of  Anagni/  The  first  attack  was  on  the  palace  of  the 
Pope,  on  that  of  the  Marquis  Gaetani,  his  nephew,  and 
those  of  three  Cardinals,  the  special  partisans  of  Boni- 
face. The  houses  of  the  Pope  and  of  his  nephew  made 
some  resistance.  The  doors  of  those  of  the  Cardinals 
were  beaten  down,  the  treasures  ransacked  and  carried 
off ;  the  Cardinals  themselves  fled  from  the  backs  of  the 
houses  through  the  common  sewer.  Then  arrived,  but 
not  to  the  rescue,  Arnulf,  the  Captain  of  the  People ;  he 
had  perhaps  been  suborned  by  Reginald  of  Supino. 
With  him  were  the  sons  of  Chiton,  whose  father  was 
pining  in  the  dungeons  of  Boniface.^  Instead  of  resist- 
ing, they  joined  the  attack  on  the  Palace  of  the  Pope's 
nephew  and  his  own.  The  Pope  and  his  nephew  im- 
plored a  truce;  it  was  granted  for  eight  hours.  This 
time  the  Pope  employed  in  endeavouring  to  stu*  up  the 
people  to  his  defence :  the  people  coldly  answered  that 
they  were  under  the  command  of  their  Captain.  The 
Pope  demanded  the  terms  of  the  conspirators.  "  If  the 
Pope  would  save  his  life,  let  him  instantly  restore 
the  Colonna  Cardinals  to  their  dignity,  and  reinstate 
the  whole  house  in  their  honours  and  possessions ;  after 
this  restoration  the  Pope  must  abdicate,  and  leave  his 
body  at  the  disposal  of  Sciarra."  The  Pope  groaned  in 
the  depths  of  his  heart.  "  The  word  is  spoken."  Again 
the  assailants  thundered  at  the  gates  of  the  palace; 


'  statement  of  William  of  Nogaret.  Dupuy,  p.  247.   1  see  no  reason  to  doubt  this 
•  The  Chiton  of  Walsingham  is  probably  the  Massio  of  Villain. 


Chap.  IX.  THE  POPE'S  FIRMNESS.  151 

still  there  was  obstinate  resistance.  The  principal 
church  of  Anagni,  that  of  Santa  Maria,  protected  the 
Pope's  palace.  Sciarra  Colonna's  lawless  band  set  fire 
to  the  gates ;  the  church  was  crowded  with  clergy  and 
laity  and  traders  who  had  brought  their  precious  wares 
into  the  sacred  building.  They  w^ere  plundered  with 
such,  rapacity  that  not  a  man  escaped  with  a  farthing. 

The  Marquis  found  himself  compelled  to  surrender, 
on  the  condition  that  his  own  life,  those  of  his  family 
and  of  his  servants,  should  be  spared.  At  these  sad 
tidings  the  Pope  wept  bitterly.  The  Pope  was  alone ; 
from  the  first  the  Cardinals,  some  from  treachery,  some 
from  cowardice,  had  fled  on  all  sides,  even  his  most 
familiar  friends :  they  had  crept  into  the  most  ignoble 
hiding-places.  The  aged  Pontiff  alone  lost  not  his  self- 
command.  He  had  declared  himself  ready  to  perish  in 
his  glorious  cause  ;  he  determined  to  fall  with  dignity. 
*'  If  I  am  betrayed  like  Christ,  I  am  ready  to  die  like 
Christ."  He  put  on  the  stole  of  St.  Peter,  the  imperial 
crown  was  on  his  head,  the  keys  of  St.  Peter  in  one 
hand  and  the  cross  in  the  other:  he  took  his  seat  on 
the  Papal  throne,  and,  like  the  Eoman  Senators  of  old, 
awaited  the  approach  of  the  Gaul.* 

But  the  pride  and  cruelty  of  Boniface  had  raised 
and  infixed  deep  in  the  hearts  of  men  passions  which 
acknowledged  no  awe  of  age,  of  intrepidity,  or  religious 
majesty.  In  William  of  Nogaret  the  blood  of  his  Tolosan 
ancestors,  in  Colonna  the  wrongs,  the  degradation,  the 
beggary,  the  exile  of  all  his  house,  had  extinguished  every 
feeling  but  revenge.  They  insulted  him  with  contu- 
melious reproaches ;  they  menaced  his  life.  The  Pope 
answered  not  a  word      They  insisted  that  he  should  at 


*  Villani.  in  ioc. 


152  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI, 

once  abdicate  the  Papacy.  "Behold  my  neck,  behold 
my  head,"  was  the  only  reply.  But  fiercer  words  passed 
between  the  Pope  and  William  of  Nogaret.  Nogaret 
threatened  to  drag  him  before  the  Council  of  Lyons, 
where  he  should  be  deposed  from  the  Papacy.  '  Shall 
I  suffer  myself  to  be  degraded  and  deposed  by  Paterins 
like  thee,  whose  fathers  were  righteously  burned  as 
Paterins?"  William  turned  fiery  red,  with  shame 
thought  the  partisans  of  Boniface,  more  likely  with 
wrath.  Sciarra,  it  was  said,  would  have  slain  him  out- 
right: he  was  prevented  by  some  of  his  own  followers 
even  by  Nogaret.  "  Wretched  Pope,  even  at  this 
distance  the  goodness  of  my  Lord  the  King  guards 
thy  life."" 

He  was  placed  under  close  custody,  not  one  of  his 
own  attendants  permitted  to  approach  him.  Worse 
indignities  awaited  him.  He  was  set  on  a  vicious  horse, 
with  his  face  to  the  tail,  and  so  led  through  the  town  to 
his  place  of  imprisonment.  The  palaces  of  the  Pope 
and  of  his  nephew  were  plundered  ;  so  vast  was  the 
wealth,  that  the  annual  revenues  of  all  the  kings  in 
the  world  would  not  have  been  equal  to  the  treasures 
found  and  carried  off  by  Sciarra's  freebooting  soldiers. 
His  very  private  chamber  was  ransacked ;  nothing  left 
but  bare  walls. 

At  length  the  people  of  Anagni  could  no  longer  bear 
the  insult  and  the  sufferings  heaped  upon  their  illus- 
trious and  holy  fellow-citizen.  They  rose  in  u^resistible 
insurrection,  drove  out  the  soldiers  by  whom  they  had 
been  overawed,  now  gorged  with  plunder,  and  doubtless 
not  unwilling  to  withdraw.  The  Pope  was  rescued,  and 
led  out  into  the  street,  where  the  old  man  addressed  a 


«  Chroniijues  de  St.  Denys. 


'JHAP.  IX. 


RETURN  TO  ROME. 


153 


few  words  to  the  people  :  "  Good  men  and  women,  ye 
see  how  mine  enemies  have  come  upon  me,  and  phm- 
dered  my  goods,  those  of  the  Church  and  of  the  poor. 
Not  a  morsel  of  bread  have  I  eaten,  not  a  drop  have 
I  drunk  since  my  capture.  I  am  almost  dead  with 
hunger."  If  any  good  woman  will  give  me  a  piece  of 
bread  and  a  cup  of  wine,  if  she  has  no  wine,  a  little 
water,  I  will  absolve  her,  and  any  one  who  will  give  me 
their  alms,  from  all  their  sins."  The  compassionate 
rabble  burst  into  a  cry,  "  Long  life  to  the  Pope ! "  They 
carried  him  back  to  his  naked  palace.  They  crowded, 
the  women  especially,  with  provisions,  bread,  meat, 
water,  and  wine.  They  could  not  find  a  single  vessel : 
they  poured  a  supply  of  water  into  a  chest.  The  Pope 
proclaimed  a  general  absolution  to  all  except  the  plun- 
derers of  his  palace.  He  even  declared  that  he  wished 
to  be  at  peace  with  the  Colonnas  and  all  his  enemies. 
This  perhaps  was  to  disguise  his  intention  of  retiring, 
as  soon  as  he  could,  to  Kome.^ 

The  Romans  had  heard  with  indignation  the  sacri- 
legious attack  on  the  person  of  the  Supreme  Return  to 
Pontiff.  Four  hundred  horse  under  Matteo  ^°"^^" 
and  Gaetano  Orsini  were  sent  to  conduct  him  to  the 
city.  He  entered  it  almost  in  triumph ;  the  populace 
welcomed  him  with  every  demonstration  of  joy.  But 
the  awe  of  his  greatness  was  gone ;  the  spell  of  his 
dominion  over  the  minds  of  men  was  broken.    His  over- 


*  According  to  S.  Antoninus,  his  as- 
sailants treated  him  with  respect,  and 
only  kept  him  in  safe  custody. 

y  I  have  drawn  this  account  from 
the  various  authorities,  the  historians 
Villani,  Walsingham,  the  Chroniques 
de  St.  Denys,  and  others,  with  the  de- 
clarations of  Nogar^t  and  his  partisans, 


according  to  my  own  view  of  the  trust- 
worthiness of  the  statements,  and  the 
probability  of  the  incidents.  The  re- 
ference to  each  special  authority  would 
have  been  almost  endless  and  perplexing. 
The  reader  may  compare  Drumann, 
whose  conscientious  German  industry 
is  more  particular. — P.  128  et  seqq. 


154 


LATIN  CHRISTIAN  riT. 


Book  XI 


weening  haughtiness  and  domination  had  made  him 
many  enemies  in  the  Sacred  College,  the  gold  of  France 
had  made  him  more.  This  general  revolt  is  his  severest 
condemnation.  Among  his  first  enemies  was  the  Car- 
dinal Napoleon  Orsini.  Orsini  had  followed  the  triumphal 
entrance  of  the  Pope.  Boniface,  to  show  that  he  desired 
to  reconcile  himself  with  all,  courteously  invited  him  to 
his  table.  The  Orsini  coldly  answered  "  that  he  must 
receive  the  Colonna  Cardinals  into  his  favour ;  he  must 
not  now  disown  what  had  been  wrung  from  him  by 
compulsion."  "I  will  pardon  them,"  said  Boniface, 
"  but  the  mercy  of  the  Pope  is  not  to  be  from  com- 
pulsion."    He  found  himself  again  a  prisoner. 

This  last  mortification  crushed  the  bodily,  if  not  the 
mental  strength  of  the  Pope.  Among  the  Ghibellines 
terrible  stories  were  bruited  abroad  of  his  death.  In  an 
access  of  fury,  either  from  poison  or  wounded  pride,  he 
sat  gnawing  the  top  of  his  staff,  and  at  length  either 
Death  of  beat  out  his  own  brains  against  the  wall,  or 
o^t'i^^isos.  smothered  himself  (a  strange  notion!)  with 
his  own  pillows.^  More  friendly,  probably  more  trustr 
worthy,  accounts  describe  him  as  sadly  but  quietly 
breathing  his  last,  surrounded  by  eight  Cardinals, 
having  confessed  the  faith  and  received  the  consoling 
offices  of  the  Church.  The  Cardinal-Poet  anticipates 
his  mild  sentence  from  the  Divine  Judge.* 

The  religious  mind  of  Christendom  was  at  once  per- 
plexed and  horror-stricken  by  this  act  of  sacrilegious 


«  FeiTetus  Vicentinus,  apud  Mura- 

tori,  a  fierce  Ghibelline. 

*  "  Leto  prostratus,  anhelus 

Procubuit,  fassusque   fidem,  curamque 

professus 
Romanae  Ecclesije,  Christo  tunc  redditur 

almus 
Splritus,  et  sjevi  nescit  jam  judicis  iram 


Sed  mitem  placidumque  patris,  ceu  cr^ 
dere  fas  est." 

Apud  Muratori,  S.  R.  I. 

See  in  Tosti's  Life  the  account  of  the 
exhumation  of  Boniface.  His  body  is 
said  to  have  appeared,  after  302  years, 
wlole  and  with  no  ixarks  of  violence. 


Chap.  IX. 


DEATH  OF  BONIFACE. 


ni 


violence  on  the  person  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff:  it 
shocked  some  even  of  the  sternest  Ghibel lines.  Dante, 
who  brands  the  pride,  the  avarice,  the  treachery  of 
Boniface  in  his  most  terrible  words,  and  has  consigned 
him  to  the  direst  doom  (though  it  is  true  that  his 
alliance  with  the  French,  with  Charles  of  Valois,  by 
whom  the  poet  had  been  driven  into  exile,  was  among 
the  deepest  causes  of  his  hatred  to  Boniface),  neverthe- 
less expresses  the  almost  universal  feeling.  Christen- 
dom "  shuddered  to  behold  the  Fleur-de-Ks  enter  into 
Anagni,  and  Christ  again  captive  in  his  Yicar,  the 
mockery,  the  gall  and  vinegar,  the  crucifixion  between 
living  robbers,  the  insolent  and  sacrilegious  cruelty  of 
the  second  Pilate."  ^ 


*»  Purgatorio,  xx.  89  : — 

"  Veggio  in  Alagna  entrar  lo  fior  d'  aliso, 

E  nel  vicario  suo  Christo  esser  catto ; 

Veggiolo  un  altra  volta  esser  deriso, 
Veggio  rinnovellar  1'  aceto  e  1'  fele, 

E  tra  vivi  ladronl  essere  anciso. 
Veggio  11  nuovo  Pilato  si  crudele, 

Che  cio  nol  sazla." 

Strange  !  to  find  poetry  ascribed  to 
Boniface  VIII.  and  in  that  poetry  (an 
Address  to  the  Virgin)  these  lines: — 


"  Vedea  V  aceto  ch'  era  col  fiel  misto 
Dato  a  bevere  al  dolce  Jesu  Cristo, 
E  an  gran  coltello  11  cor  le  trapassava." 

The  poem  was  found  in  a  MS.  in  the 

Vatican  by  Amati ;  it  was  said  in  the 

MS.   that  it  was  legible  in  the  15tb 

century  on  the  walls  of  S.  Paolo  fuon 

delle  mure.     It  was  given  by  Amatj 

to  Perticari,  who  published  it  in  bis 

Essay  in  Monti's  Proposta,  p.  244. 


15G  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY  iiooK  XI 


CHAPTEE    X. 

Benedict  XI. 

Never  did  the  Church  of  Kome  want  a  calmei*,  more 
sagacious,  or  a  firmer  head :  never  was  a  time  in  which 
the  boldest  intellect  might  stand  appalled,  or  the  pro- 
foundest  piety  shrink  from  the  hopeless  office  of  restor- 
ing peace  between  the  temporal  and  the  spiritual  power. 
How  could  the  Papacy  maintain  its  ground  with  safety, 
or  recede  with  dignity?  There  seemed  this  fearful 
alternative,  either  to  continue  the  strife  with  the  King 
of  France,  with  the  nation,  with  the  clergy  of  France ; 
with  the  King  of  France,  who  had  not  respected  the 
sacred  person  of  the  Pope,  against  whose  gold  and 
against  whose  emissaries  in  Italy  no  Pope  was  secure : 
with  the  nation,  now  one  with  the  King;  with  the 
clergy  of  France,  who  had  acknowledged  the  right  of 
bringing  the  Pope  before  a  General  Council,  a  Council 
not  to  be  held  in  Kome  or  in  Italy,  but  in  Lyons,  if  not 
in  the  dominions,  under  the  control,  of  the  King  of 
France ;  among  whom  it  could  not  be  unknown,  that 
new  and  extreme  doctrines  had  been  propagated,  unre- 
buked,  and  with  general  acceptance.^     Or,  on  the  other 


*  Two  remarkable  writings  will  be    in  temporal  things ;   one  by  ^Egidius, 


found  in  Goldastus,  De  Monarcliia,  ii., 
which  endeavoured  to  define  the  limits 
of  the  tempoial  and  spiritual  powers, 
as.'^erting  the  entire  independence  and 


Archbishop  of  Bourges ;  one  by  John 
of  Paris.  There  is  an  excellent  sum- 
mary of  both  in  the  posthumous 
volume    of    Neander's    history,    pp 


6.,periority  of  the  temporal  sovereign     24-35, 


Chap.  X.  BENEDICT  XL  Ib't 

hand,  to  disown  the  arrogance,  the  offensive  language 
the  naked  and  unmeasured  assertion  of  principles  which 
the  Pontificate  was  not  prepared  to  abandon ;  to  sacri- 
fice the  memory,  to  leave  unreproved,  unpunished,  the 
outrage  on  the  person  of  Boniface.  Were  the  Colonnas 
to  be  admitted  to  all  the  honours  and  privileges  of  the 
Cardinalate  ?  the  dreadful  days  at  Anagni,  the  violence 
against  Boniface,  the  plunder  of  the  Papal  treasures  to 
be  left  (dire  precedent ! )  in  impunity  ?  Were  William 
of  Nogaret,  and  Sciarra  Colonna,  and  Keginald  de 
Supino,  and  the  other  rebellious  Barons  to  triuniDh 
in  their  unhallowed  misdeeds,  to  revel  in  their  impious 
plunder  ?  Yet  how  to  strike  the  accomplices  and  leave 
the  author  of  the  crime  unscathed  ?  Would  the  proud 
King  of  France  abandon  his  loyal  and  devoted  subjects 
to  the  Papal  wrath  ? 

Yet  the  Conclave,^  as  though  the  rival  factions  had 
not  time  to  array  themselves  in  their  natural  hostility, 
or  to  provoke  each  other  to  mutual  recriminations,  in 
but  a  few  days  came,  it  should  seem,  to  an 
unanimous  suffrage.  Nicolas  Boccasini,  Bishop 
of  Ostia,  was  raised  to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter.  He  was 
a  man  of  humble  race,  born  at  Treviso,  educated  at 
Venice,  of  the  Order  of  St.  Dominic.  He  was  of 
blameless  morals  and  gentle  manners.  He  had  been 
employed  to  settle  the  affairs  of  Hungary  during  the 
contested  succession  for  the  crown :  he  had  conducted 
himself  with  moderation  and  ability.  He  had  been  one 
of  the  Cardinals  who  adhered  with  mishaken  fidelity  to 
Boniface;  he  had  witnessed,  perhaps  suffered  in,  the 


*»  According  to  Ciacconius  there  were  eighteen  Cardinals  hAring  at  the  time 
of  the  death  of  Boniface.  See  the  list,  not  of  course  including  the  Coloncias. 
There  were  two  Orsinis,  two  Gaetanis. 


158  Li  TIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

deplorable  outrage  at  Anagni.     He  took  the  name  of 
Benedict  XI. 

Benedict  began  his  reign  with  consummate  prudence, 
yet  not  without  the  lofty  assertion  of  the  Papal  power 
He  issued  a  Bull  to  rebuke  Frederick  of  Arragon,  the 
King  of  Trinacria,  for  presuming  to  date  the  acts  of  hia 
reio:n  from  the  time  at  which  he  had  assumed  the  crown 
of  Sicily,  not  that  of  the  treaty  in  which  the  Pope 
acknowledged  his  title.  The  Arragonese  prince  was 
reminded  that  he  held  the  crown  but  for  his  life,  that 
it  then  passed  back  to  the  Angevine  line,  the  French 
house  of  Naples."" 

The  only  act  which  before  the  close  of  the  year  took 
cognisance  of  the  affair  of  Anagni,  was  a  Bull  of  excom- 
munication not  against  the  assailants  of  the  Pope's  per- 
son, but  against  the  plunderers  of  the  Papal  treasures. 
The  Archdeacon  of  Xaintonge  was  armed  with  full 
powers  to  persuade  or  to  enforce  their  restitution.  A 
fond  hope !  as  if  such  treasures  were  likely  to  be  either 
won  or  extorted  from  such  hands.  The  rest  of  the  year 
and  the  commencement  of  the  next  were  occupied  with 
remote  negotiations — which,  in  however  perilous  state 
stood  the  Papacy,  were  never  neglected  by  the  Pope — 
the  affairs  of  Norway  and  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  in 
the  East. 

Philip  had  no  sooner  heard  of  the  death  of  Boniface 
Feb.  25,  ^^^  t^®  accession  of  Benedict  than  he  named 
1304.  jjjg  ambassadors  to  offer  his  congratulations, 
worded  in  the  most  flattering  terms,  on  the  elevation  of 
Benedict.  They  were  Berard,  Lord  of  Marcueil,  Peter 
de  Belleperche  a  Canon  of  Chartres,  a  profound  jurist, 
ttud,  it  might  seem  as  a  warning  to  the  Pope  that  he 


«  Bull  in  Raynaldus,  sub  ann. 


Chap.  X. 


MEASURES  OF  BENEDICT. 


159 


was  determined  to  retract  nothing,  "William  de  Plasian 
But  already  Benedict,  in  his  wisdom,  had,  un-    His  con- 
compelled,  out  of  his  own  generous  will,  made    measures. 
all  the  concessions  to  which  he  was  disposed,  or  wliich 
his  dignity  would  endure.     Already  in  Paris  the  King, 
the  Prelates,  the  Barons,  and   people  of  France  had 
been    declared    absolved    from    the    excommunication 
under   which  they  lay.'^      During  that  excommunica- 
tion the  Pope  could  hold  no  intercourse  with  the  King 
of  the  realm ;   he  could  receive  no  ambassadors  from 
the  Court. 

The  envoys  of  the  King  were  received  with  civility. 
In  the  spring  a  succession  of  concihatory  April  2, 
edicts  seemed  framed  in  order  to  heal  the  ^^°*- 
threatened  breach  between  the  Papacy  and  its  ancient 
ally,  the  King  of  France.  There  was  nothing  to  offend 
in  a  kind  of  pardonable  ostentation  of  condescension, 
kept  up  by  the  Pope,  a  paternal  superiority  which  he 
still  maintained;  the  King  of  France  was  to  be  the 
pious  Joash,  to  Ksten  to  the  counsels  of  the  High  Priest, 
Jehoiada.  The  censures  against  the  prelates  for  con- 
tumacy in  not  obeying  the  citation  to  Eome  were  re- 
scinded ;  the  right  of  giving  instruction  in  the  civil  and 
canon  law  restored  to  the  universities.  Even  the  affairs 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne  and  the  Bishop  of 
Pamiers,  the  first  causes  of  the  dispute,  were  brought  to 
an  amicable  conclusion.  All  the  special  privileges  of 
the  Kings  of  France  in  spiritual  matters  were  given 
back  in  the  amplest  and  most  gracious  manner.  The 
tenths  on  the  clergy  were  granted  for  two  years  on 


*  This  was  granted  *'  absente  et 
non  petente,"  —Benedict's  letter  in 
Dupuy,  p.  207  This  is  confirmed  by 
the  continuator  of  Nangis.     Compare 


Mansi's  note  in  l\aynaldus,  ad  ann. 
1304.  The  Anagni  excommunicat'or 
had  not  been  promulgated. 


ICO  LATIN  CHEISTIANITI  Book  2.1. 

account  of  the  war  in  Flanders;  the  famous  Bui) 
"  Clericis  Laicos "  was  mitigated  so  as  to  depriye  it  of 
its  injurious  and  offensive  sj^irit.  It  permitted  all  volun- 
tary subsidies,  leaving  the  King  and  the  clergy  to  deter- 
mine what  degree  of  compulsion  was  consistent  with 
free-will  offerings. 

The  Colonnas  found  a  hearing  with  this  calm  and 
The  Colon-  ^isc  Pope.  They  had  entreated  the  inter- 
nas.  ference  of  the  King  of  France  in  their  cause  ; 

they  asserted  that  the  Pope  had  no  power  to  degrade 
Cardinals ;  that  they  had  been  deposed,  despoiled, 
banished  by  the  mere  arbitrary  mandate  of  Boniface, 
without  citation,  without  trial,  without  hearing :  and 
this  by  a  Pope  of  questionable  legitimacy.  Their  re- 
storation by  Benedict  is  described  by  himself  as  an  act 
of  becoming  mercy :  he  eludes  all  discussion  on  the 
justice  of  the  sentence,  or  the  conduct  of  his  prede- 
cessor. But  their  rehabilitation  was  full  and  complete, 
with  some  slight  limitations.  The  sentence  of  depo- 
sition from  the  Cardinalate,  the  privation  of  benefices, 
the  disabihty  to  obtain  the  Papacy,  the  attainder  of 
the  family  both  in  the  male  and  female  line,  were 
absolutely  revoked.  The  restitution  of  the  confiscated 
property  was  reserved  for  future  arrangement  with  the 
actual  possessors.  Palestrina  alone  was  not  to  be 
rebuilt  or  fortified ;  it  was  to  remain  a  devoted  place, 
and  not  again  to  become  the  seat  of  a  Bisliop.  Even 
the  name  of  Sciarra  Colonna  appears  in  this  act  of  cle- 
mency.^ William  of  Nogaret  was  the  only  Frenchman 
excepted  from  this  comprehensive  amnesty :  even  he 
was  not  inflexibly  excluded  from  all  hope  of  absolution. 
But  the  act  of  pardon  for  so  heinous  an  offence  as  his 


Rayuald.  sub  anu.  i;-'04. 


Chap.  X.   PERSECUTION  OF  MEMORY  OF  BOXIFACE.         161 

was  reserved  for  the  special  wisdom  and  mercy  of  the 
Pope  himself.  In  another  document  ^  Sciarra  Colonna 
is  joined  with  William  of  Nogaret  as  the  yet  unforgiven 
offenders. 

Peace  might  seem  at  hand.  The  King  of  France, 
with  every  one  of  the  great  causes  of  quarrel  thus  gene- 
rously removed,  with  such  sacrifices  to  his  wounded 
pride,  w^ould  resume  his  old  position  as  the  favourite 
son,  the  close  ally,  the  loyal  protector  of  the  Papacy. 
If,  with  a  fidelity  unusual  in  kings,  in  kings  like  Philip, 
he  should  scruple  to  abandon  his  faithful  instruments, 
men  who  had  not  shrunk  from  sacrilege,  hardly  from 
murder,  in  his  cause,  yet  the  Pope  did  not  seem  dis- 
posed to  treat  even  them  with  immitigable  severity. 
The  Pope,  though  honour,  justice,  the  sanctity  of  the 
person  of  the  Pontiff,  might  require  that  some  signal 
mark  of  retribution  should  separate  from  all  other  cri- 
minals William  of  Nogaret  and  Sciarra  Colonna,  per- 
haps too  his  own  rebellious  barons  and  the  inhabitants 
of  Anagni,  who  rose  against  Boniface ;  yet  would  hardly 
think  it  necessary  to  drive  such  desperate  men  to  worse 
desperation.  But  the  profound  personal  hatred  of  Philip 
the  Fair  to  Boniface  VIII,,  or  his  determination  still 
further  to  humiliate  that  power  which  could  presume  to 
interfere  with  his  hard  despotism,  was  not  The  King  de- 
satiated  with  the  death ;  he  would  pursue  the  persecute  tte 
memory  of  Boniface,  and  so  far  justify  his  own  Boniface. 
cruel  and  insulting  acts  by  obtaining  from  a  General 
Council  the  solemn  confirmation  of  those  strange  charges 
on  which  Boniface  had  been  arraigned  by  Nogaret  and 
De  Plasian. 

Another  embassy  from  France  appeared  at  Eome, 


*  Seen  by  Raynaldus.     See  in  loco. 
VOL.  VII.  M 


162  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XI. 

but  not  addressed  to  the  Pope — Walter  de  Chatenay 
and  Peter  de  Celle,  with  a  notary,  Peter  de  Piperno. 
According  to  their  instructions,  they  visited  singly  and 
severally  each  of  the  Cardinals  then  resident  in  Kome. 
"  The  King  of  France,"  they  said,  "  in  the  full  ParKa- 
ment  af  all  his  Prelates  and  Barons,  from  his  zealous 
reverence  for  the  Church  and  the  throne  of  St.  Peter, 
had  determined  that  the  Church  should  be  ruled  by 
a  legitimate  Pontiff,  and  not  by  one  who  so  grossly 
abused  his  power  as  Boniface  VIII.  They  had  resolved 
to  summon  a  General  Council,  in  order  that  Boniface 
might  prove  his  innocence  (they  had  the  effrontery  to 
say,  as  they  devoutly  hoped !)  of  the  accusations  urged 
against  him ;  and  not  only  for  that  purpose,  but  for  the 
good  of  Christendom,  and  (of  course)  for  the  war  in 
the  Holy  Land."^  To  each  of  the  Cardinals  was  put 
the  plain  question  whether  he  would  concur  in  the  con- 
vocation of  this  General  Council,  and  promote  it  by  his 
aid  and  countenance.  Five  made  the  cautious  answer 
that  they  would  deliberate  with  the  Pope  in  his  Consis- 
tory on  this  weighty  matter.  Five  gave  in  their  adhe- 
sion to  the  King  of  France.  The  same  proceeding  took 
place  with  six  Cardinals  at  Yiterbo.  Of  these  four 
took  the  more  prudent  course ;  two  gave  theii-  suffrage 
for  the  General  Council. 

Benedict  XI.  might  think  that  he  had  carried  con- 
cession far  enough.  He  had  shown  his  placability,  he 
had  now  to  show  his  firmness.  The  obstinacy  of  the 
King  of  France  in  persecuting  the  memory  of  Boniface, 
in  pressing  forward  the  General  Council ;  the  profound 
degradation  of  the  Papacy,  if  a  General  Council  should 


e  April  8, 1304.    The  King  could  not  have  received  the  Papal  edicts,  but  he 
must  have  knowu  the  mild  disposition  of  Benedict. 


Chap.  X.     ACTOES  IN  THE  TEAGEDT  OF  ANAGXI.  163 

be  permitted  to  sit  in  judgement  even  on  a  dead  Pope ; 
the  desecration  of  the  Papal  Holiness  if  any  part  of 
these  foul  charges  should  be  even  apparently  proved ; 
the  injustice,  the  cowardliness  of  leaving  the  body  of 
his  predecessor  to  be  thus  torn  in  pieces  by  his  rabid 
enemies  ;  the  well-grounded  mistrust  of  a  tribunal  thus 
convoked,  thus  constituted,  thus  controlled;  all  these 
motives  arrested  the  Pontiff  in  his  conciliatory  course, 
and  unhappily  disturbed  the  dispassionate  dignity  which 
he  had  hitherto  maintained. 

A  Bull  came  forth  against  the  actors  in  the  tragedy 
of  Anagni.  Language  seemed  labouring  to  ju„et, 
express  tlie  horror  and  detestation  of  the  Pope  ^^°''- 
at  this  "flagitious  wickedness  and  wicked  flagitious- 
ness."  Fifteen  persons  were  named  —  William  of 
Nogaret,  Eeginald  de  Supino  and  his  son,  the  two  sons 
of  the  man  whom  Boniface  held  in  prison,  Sciarra 
Colonna,  the  Anagnese  who  had  aided  them.  It  de- 
nounced their  cruelty,  their  blasphemy  against  the 
Pope,  their  plunder  of  the  sacred  treasures.  These 
acts  had  been  done  publicly,  openly,  notoriously,  in  the 
sight  of  Benedict  himself — acts  of  capital  treason,  of 
rebelhon,  of  sacrilege;  crimes  against  the  Julian  law 
of  public  violence,  the  Cornelian  against  assassinations ; 
acts  of  lawless  imprisonment,  plunder,  robbery,  crimes 
and  felonies  which  struck  men  dumb  with  amazement. 
"  Who  is  so  cruel  as  to  refrain  from  tears  ?  who  so  hate- 
ful as  to  refuse  compassion  ?  What  indolent  and  remiss 
judge  will  not  rise  up  to  punish  ?  Who  is  safe,  when  in 
his  native  city  no  longer  is  security,  his  house  is  no 
longer  his  refuge?  The  Pontiff  himself  is  thus  dis- 
honoured, and  the  Chm-ch  thus  brought  into  captivity 
with  her  Lord.  0  inexpiable  guilt!  0  miserable 
Anagni,  who  hast  endured  such  things !     May  the  rain 

M  2 


IC4  LATIN  CHRISTIANITYc  Book  XI. 

and  tlie  dew  never  fall  upon  thee!  0  most  unhappy 
perpetrators  of  a  crime,  so  adverse  to  the  spirit  of  King 
David,  vfho  kept  untouched  the  Lord's  anointed  though 
his  foe,  and  avenged  his  death."  The  Bull  declares 
excommunicate  all  the  above-named,  who  in  their 
proper  persons  were  guilty  of  the  crime  at  Anagni,  and 
all  who  had  aided  and  abetted  them  by  succour,  counsel, 
or  favour.  Philip  himself  could  hardly  stand  beyond 
this  sweeping  anathema.  The  Pope  cited  these  persons 
to  appear  before  him  on  the  Feast  of  St.  Peter  and 
St.  Paul,  there  to  receive  their  sentence.  The 
citation  was  fixed  on  the  gates  of  the  cathedral 
of  Perugia.  The  Bull  ^  was  promulgated  on  the  7th  of 
June  ;  on  the  27th  of  July  Benedict  was  dead. 

The  Pope  had  retired  to  Perugia  from  Eome — per- 
haps to  avoid  the  summer  heats,  but  no  doubt  also  for 
greater  security  than  he  could  command  in  Kome,  where 
the  Colonnas  were  strong,  and  the  French  party  power- 
ful through  their  gold.  There  he  meditated  and  aimed 
this  blow,  which,  by  appalling  the  more  rancorous  foes 
of  Boniface,  might  scare  them  from  preying  on  his  re- 
mains, and  thus  reinvest  the  Papacy,  which  had  conde- 
scended far  below  its  wont,  in  awe  and  majesty.  Many 
of  the  Cardinals  had  remonstrated  against  the  departure 
of  the  Pope  from  Kome,  which  was  almost  by  stealth ;  it 
was  rumoured  that  he  thought  of  fixing  the  Papal  resi- 
dence in  one  of  the  Lombard  cities.  They  had  refused 
to  accompany  him.  But  Perugia  was  not  more  safe  than 
Home.  It  is  said  that  while  the  Pope  was  at  dinner,  a 
young  female  veiled  and  in  the  dress  of  a  novice  of  St. 
Petronilla  in  Perugia,  offered  him  in  a  silver  basin  some 
beautiful  fresh  figs,  of  which  he  was  very  fond,  as  from 


>•  The  Bull  in  Raynaldus,  snb  ann. 


Chap.  X.  DEATH  OF  BENEDICT  XI.  ]<3o 

the  abbess  of  tbat  conveut.  The  Pope,  not  suspecting  a 
gift  from  such  a  hand,  ate  them  eagerly,  and  witliout 
having  them  previously  tasted.^  That  he  died  of  poison 
few  in  that  age  would  venture  to  doubt.  William  of 
Nogaret,  Sciarra  Colonna,  Musciatto  de'  Francesi,  the 
Cardinal  Napoleon  Orsini,  were  each  silently  arraigned 
as  guilty  of  this  new  crime.  One  GhibeUine  writer, 
hostile  to  Benedict,  names  the  King  of  France  as  having 
suborned  the  butler  of  the  Pope  to  perpetrate  this  fear- 
ful deed.  Yet  the  disorder  was  a  dysentery,  which 
lasted  seven  or  eight  days,  not  an  unusual  effect  of  the 
immoderate  use  of  rich  fruit.  No  one  thought  that  a 
death  so  seasonable  to  one  party,  so  unseasonable  to 
another,  could  be  in  the  course  of  nature. 

Fifteen  years  afterwards  a  Franciscan  friar  of  Tou- 
louse, named  Bernard,  was  accused  at  Carcassonne  as 
concerned,  by  magic  and  other  black  arts,  in  the  poison- 
ing of  Benedict  XI.  This  was  not  his  only  crime.  He 
was  charged  with  having  excited  the  poj3ulace  against 
the  rival  Order  of  the  Friar  Preachers  and  the  In 
quisition,  of  having  broken  open  the  prisons  of  the 
Inquisition,  and  set  free  the  prisoners :  he  was  charged 
with  magic  and  divination,  and  with  believing  in  the 
visions  of  the  Abbot  Joachim.  He  was  one  of  the 
fanatic  I'raticelli,  seemingly  a  man  of  great  daring  and 
energy.  The  Ecclesiastical  Judges  declared  that  they 
could  find  no  proof,  either  from  his  own  mouth  or  from 
other  evidence,  of  his  concern  in  the  poisoning  of  Bene- 
dict. He  was  condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonment  in 
irons.     The  King's  advocates  impeached  the  sentence, 


'  "  Le  mangiava  volentieri  e  senza  fame  fare  saggio." — Villaui.  This  simple 
sentence  of  wonder,  that  the  Pope  would  eat  anything  untasted,  is  frightful]| 
expressive,     viii.  c.  80. 


166  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XL 

lenewed  the  charge  of  his  being  an  accomplice  in  the 
poisoning  of  the  Pope,  and  demanded  that  he  should  be 
delivered  to  the  secular  arm.  The  Pope  (John  XXII.) 
aggravated  the  severity  of  his  sentence  by  prohibiting 
any  mitigation  of  his  penance ;  but  spoke  very  gene- 
rally of  his  enormous  crimes.^ 


^  -See  the  very  curious  documents  in  Baluzius. — Vit«  Papar    Ayiuioopa 
vol.  ii.  No.  Uii. 


BOOK    XII. 

CONTEMPORARY  CHROXOLOGY. 


A.D.  A.D. 

1305  QementV.    1314 


1318  Joha  cm.    1S34 


13^  Benedict  Xn.  1342 
1342  Clement  VI.  1352 


1352  Innocent  VI.  1362 
1362  Urban  V.        1370 


1370  Gregory  XI.   1378 


A.D.  A.D. 

1298  Albert    of 

Austria      1307 

1303  Vacant. 

1304  HenrvofLttx- 

emburg     1313 

1314  Louis  of  Ba- 
varia        1347 


(Fre<lerick  of 
Austria.) 


1347  Charles  IV.  of 

Lmemburg  1378 


KINGS  OF  FRANCE. 


Philip    the 
Fair  1314 

1314  Louis  le 

Hutiu 

1315  Jolin  I. 

1316  PhiUp  the 

Long  1321 


1321  Charles  IV. 

the  Fair     1328 


1328  Philip  of  Va- 

lois  1351 


1351  John  II.        1364 
1364  Charles  IV.  1380 


KINGS  OF  ENGLAND. 


Edward  I.      1307 
1307  Edward  II.     1327 


1327  Edward  m.  1377 


Archbishops  of 
Canterbury. 

1294  Robert  of  Wm- 

chelsey  1313 
1313  Walter  KeynoUls. 
1327  Simon  Mepham. 
1333  John  Stratford. 

1348  Thomas  Brad- 

wardine. 

1349  Simon  Islip. 

1366  Simon  Lan?ham. 

1367  William  WhitUe- 

sey. 
1375  Simon  Sudbury. 


KIXGS  OF  SCOTLAND. 


1306  Robert  I. 

(Bruce)      1329 


1329  Lavid  H. 


1370  Robert  U. 


KINGS  OF  SPAIN, 


A.D.  A.D. 

Castile, 

Ferdinand  rV.  1312 
1312  Alfonso  xn.  1350 

1350  Peter  the  CrueL 

1369  Henry  the  Bastard 


Arragon. 


ames  the 
Just  1327 


1327  AlphansoIV.1336 
1336  Peter  IV.       1380 


KnsGS  OF  PORTUGAL. 


A.D.  A.D. 

Dionysius      1325 

1325  Alfonso  IV.    1357 


1357  Peter   the 

Cruel          1367 


1367  Ferdinflnd  I. 


KINGS  OF  SWEDEN. 


A.D.  A.D. 

Berger  II.      1326 

1326  Magnus  UL 

1364  Albert. 


KINGS  OP  DENHAEK. 


ErickVni.  1321 
1321  Christopher  1333 
1333  Waldemar. 


KINGS  OF  POLAND. 


1305  Ladislaus  IV. 


1333  Casimir  the 
Great. 


1370  Louis  of  Hun- 
."^ary. 


EASTERN  EMPERORS. 


Andronicus  Pa- 
teologus    1320 


1320  Andronicus  n. 

Patoologus   1341 


1341  John  V.  Pa- 


(     168     )  BookXU. 


BOOK   XII. 

THE  POPES  IN  AVIGNON. 
CHAPTER   I. 

Clement  V. 

The  period  in  the  Papal  history  has  arrived  which  in 
the  Italian  writers  is  called  the  Babylonish  captivity :  it 
lasted  more  than  seventy  years.*  Eome  is  no  longer 
tlie  Metropolis  of  Christendom ;  the  Pope  is  a  French 
Prelate.  The  successor  of  St.  Peter  is  not  on  St.  Peter's 
throne ;  he  is  environed  with  none  of  the  traditionary 
majesty  or  traditionary  sanctity  of  the  Eternal  City; 
he  has  abandoned  the  holy  bodies  of  the  Apostles,  the 
churches  of  the  Apostles.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  mar- 
vellous part  of  its  history,  that  the  Papacy,  having  sunk 
so  low,  sank  no  lower ;  that  it  recovered  its  degradation  ; 
that,  from  a  satellite,  almost  a  slave,  of  the  King  of  France, 
the  Pontiff  ever  emerged  again  to  be  an  independent 
potentate;  and,  although  the  great  line  of  mediaeval 
Popes,  of  Gregory,  of  Alexander  III.,  and  the  Innocents, 
expired  in  Boniface  VIII.,  that  he  could  resume  even  his 
modified  supremacy.  There  is  no  proof  so  strong  of  the 
vitality  of  the  Papacy  as  that  it  could  establish  the  law 
that  wherever  the  Pope  is,  there  is  the  throne  of  St.  Peter; 
that  he  could  cease  to  be  Bishop  of  Rome  in  all  but  in 
name,  and  then  take  back  again  the  abdicated  Bishopric. 


From  1305  to  137G. 


Chap.  I.  THE  POPES  IN  AVIGNON.  169 

Never  was  revolution  more  sudden,  more  total,  it 
might  seem  more  enduring  in  its  consequences.  The 
close  of  the  last  century  had  seen  Boniface  VIII.  ad- 
vancing higher  pretensions,  if  not  wielding  more  actual 
power,  than  any  former  Pontiff;  the  acknowledged 
pacificator  of  the  world,  the  arbiter  between  the  Kings 
of  France  and  England,  claiming  and  exercising  feudal 
as  well  as  spiritual  supremacy  over  many  kingdoms, 
bestowing  crowns  as  in  Hungary,  awarding  the  Empire ; 
with,  millions  of  pilgrims  at  the  Jubilee  in  Rome,  still 
the  centre  of  Christendom,  paying  him  homage  which 
bordered  on  adoration,  and  pouring  the  riches  of  the 
world  at  his  feet.  The  first  decade  of  the  new  century 
is  not  more  than  half  passed;  Pope  Clement  V.  is  a 
voluntary  prisoner,  but  not  the  less  a  prisoner,  in 
the  realm,  or  almost  within  the  precincts  of  France ; 
struggling  in  vain  to  escape  from  the  tyranny  of  his 
inexorable  master,  and  to  break  or  elude  the  fetters 
wound  around  him  by  his  own  solemn  engagements. 
He  is  almost  forced  to  condemn  his  predecessor  for 
crimes  of  which  he  could  hardly  believe  him  guilty ;  to 
accept  a  niggardly,  and  perhaps  never-fulfilled,  penance 
from  men  almost  murderers  of  a  Pope ;  to  sacrifice,  on 
evidence  which  he  himself  manifestly  mistrusted,  one 
of  the  great  military  orders  of  Christendom  to  the 
hatred  or  avarice  of  Piiilip.  The  Pope,  from  Lord 
over  the  freedom  of  the  world,  had  ceased  to  be  a  free 
agent. 

The  short  Pontificate  of  Benedict  XI.  had  exaspe- 
rated, rather  than  allayed,  the  divisions  in  the  Conclave.^ 


**  There  were  now  nineteen  Car-  j  Benedict  had  named  two,  the  Cardinal 
dinals,  according  to  Ciacconius,  exclu-  of  Prate  (Ostia  and  Velleti'i),  and  an 
sive  of  the  Colonnas.  One  of  the  Englishman,  Walter  Winterburn  of 
former    Conclave    had    died.      Pope  I  Salisbury. 


170 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


The  terrible  fate  of  the  two  last  Popes  had  not  cooled 
down  the  eager  competition  for  the  perilous 
dignity.  The  Cardinals  assembled  at  Peru- 
gia. The  two  factions,  the  French  and  thafc  of  the 
partisans  and  kindred  of  Boniface  VIII.,  were  headed, 
the  latter  by  Matteo  Orsini  and  Francesco  Gaetani, 
brother  of  the  late  Pope,  the  former  by  Napoleon  Orsini 
and  the  Cardinal  da  Prato.*=  The  Colonna  Cardinals 
had  not  yet  been  permitted  to  resume  their  place  in  the 
Conclave.  The  elder,  James  Colonna,  had  lived  in 
seclusion,  if  not  in  concealment,  at  Perugia.  He  came 
forth  from  his  hiding-place ;  he  summoned  liis  nephew, 
who  had  found  an  asylum  at  Padua,  to  his  aid.  They 
had  an  unlimited  command  of  French  money.  But 
this  money  could  hold,  it  could  not  turn,  the  balance 
between  the  two  Orsini,  each  of  whom  aspired  to  be,  or 
to  create  the  Pope.  The  Conclave  met,  it  separated, 
it  met  again ;  they  WTangled,  intrigued ;  each  faction 
strove,  but  in  vain,  to  win  the  preponderance  by  stub- 
bornness or  by  artifice,  by  bribery  in  act  or  promise.*^ 
Months  wore  away.  At  length  the  people  of  Perugia 
grew  weary  of  the  delay:  they  surrounded  the  Con- 
clave; threatened  to  keep  the  Cardinals  as  prisoners; 
demanded  with  loud  outcries  a  Pope;  any  hour  they 
might  proceed  to  worse  violence :  by  one  account  they 
unroofed  the  house  in  which  the  Cardinals  sat,  and  cut 
off  their  provisions.**  One  day  the  Cardinal  da  Prato 
accosted  Francesco  Gaetani,  *'  We  are  doing  sore  wrong : 
it  is  an  evil  and  a  scandal  to  Christendom  to  deprive  it 
so  long  of  its  Chief  Pastor."     "  It  rests  not  with  us," 


«  Ferretus  Vicentinus,  Murat.  R.  I. 
S.     p.  1014. 

<*  "  Ut    multum   valet    aurea   per- 


suasio,  quseqiii   constat  in  donis  i*x 
pectata  fiducia." — Ferret.  Vicent. 
e  Ibid.  p.  4015. 


Chap.  1.        MEETING  OF  KING  AND  AECH  BISHOP.  171 

replied  Gaetani.  "  Will  you  accede  to  any  reasonable 
scheme  which  may  reconcile  our  differences?" 
The  Cardinal  da  Prato  then  proposed  that  ™^^ 
one  party  should  name  three  Ultramontane  (Northern) 
Prelates,  not  of  the  Sacred  College,  on  one  of  whom  the 
adverse  party  should  pledge  itself  to  unite  its  suffrages. 
Gaetani  consented,  on  condition  that  the  Bonifacians 
should  name  the  three  Prelates.  They  were  named; 
among  the  three  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux. 

Bernard  de  Goth  had  been  raised  by  Boniface  YIII. 
from  the  small  bishopric  of  Comminges  to  the  archi- 
episcopal  seat  of  Bordeaux.  As  a  subject  of  the  King 
of  England,  he  owed  only  a  more  remote  allegiance  to 
his  suzerain,  the  King  of  France.^  He  was  committed 
in  some  personal  hostility  with  Charles  of  Valois. 
Throughout  the  strife  between  the  Pope  and  the  King 
he  had  been  on  the  Pope's  side.  He  had  withdrawn  in 
disguise  from  the  Coui't  in  order  to  obey  the  Pope's 
summons  to  Rome  :  he  was  among  the  Prelates  assem- 
bled in  November  at  Rome.  If  there  was  any  Trans- 
alpine Prelate  whom  the  kindred  and  friends  of  Boniface 
might  suppose  secure  to  their  party,  from  his  inclina- 
tions, his  gTatitude,  his  animosities,  his  former  conduct, 
it  was  Bernard  de  Goth.  But  the  sagacious  Cardinal 
da  Prato  knew  the  man ;  he  knew  the  Gascon  cha- 
racter. Forty  days  were  to  elapse  before  the  election. 
In  eleven  days  a  courier  was  in  Paris.  In  six  interview  of 
days  more  the  King  and  the  Archbishop  of  Archbishop. 
Bordeaux,  each  with  a  few  chosen  attendants,  met  in  a 
forest  belonging  to  the  Monastery  of  St.  Jean  d'Angely. 
The  secrets  of  that  interview  are  related,  perhaps  with 


'  Yet  it  is  said,  "  Licet  in  Anglica  regione  prasul  esset,   tamen  Philippe 
gratissimus,  quod  a  juventute  familiaris  extitisset."- ►Ferret.  Vicent. 


172  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

suspicious  particularity.  Yet  the  King,  having  achieved 
his  purpose,  was  not  likely  to  conceal  his  part  in  the 
treaty,  especially  from  his  secret  counsellors,  who  had 
possibly  some  interest  to  divulge,  none  to  conceal,  the 
whole  affair.  The  King  began  by  requesting  the  re- 
conciliation of  the  Archbishop  with  Charles  of  Valois. 
He  then  opened  the  great  subject  of  the  interview.  He 
showed  to  the  dazzled  eyes  of  the  Prelate  the  despatch 
of  the  Cardinal  da  Prato.  "  One  word  from  me,  and 
you  are  Pope."  But  the  King  insisted  on  six  condi- 
tions : — I.  His  own  full  and  complete  reconciliation  with 
the  Church.  II.  The  absolution  of  all  persons  whom  he 
had  employed  in  his  strife  with  Boniface.  III.  The 
tenths  for  five   years  from  the   clergy  of  the   realm. 

IV.  The  condemnation   of  the   memory  of  Boniface. 

V.  The  reinvestment  of  the  Colonnas  in  the  rank  and 
honours  of  the  Cardinalate.  The  VT^  and  last  was  a 
profound  secret,  which  he  reserved  for  himself  to  claim 
when  the  time  of  its  fulfilment  should  be  come.  That 
secret  has  never  been  fully  revealed.  Some  have 
thought,  and  not  without  strong  ground,  that  Philip 
already  meditated  the  suppression  of  the  Templars. 
The  cautious  King  was  not  content  with  the  acqui- 
escence, or  with  the  oath,  of  the  Archbishop,  an  oath 
from  which,  as  Pope,  he  might  release  himself.  De  Goth 
was  solemnly  sworn  upon  the  Host :    he  gave  up  his 

brother  and  two  nephews  as  hostages.  Before 
1305!  '  thirty-five  days  had  passed,  the  Cardinal  da 
Prato  had  secret  intelligence  of  the  compact.  They 
proceeded  to  the  ballot ;  Bernard  de  Goth  was  unani- 
mously chosen  Pope.  In  the  Cathedral  of  Bordeaux  he 
took  the  name  of  Clement  V. 

The  first  ominous  warning  to  the  Italian  Prelates  was 
a  summons  to  attend  the  coronation  of  the  new  Pope, 


<:nAi'.  i.  CORONATION  AT  LYONS.  173 

not  at  Rome  or  in  Italy,  but  at  Lyons.  The  Cardinal 
Matteo  Orsini  is  said  to  have  uttered  a  sad  vaticination : 
"  It  will  be  long  before  we  behold  the  face  of  another 
Pope."^  Clement  began  his  slow  progress  towards 
Lyons  at  the  end  of  August.  He  passed  through  Agen, 
Toulouse,  Beziers,  Montpellier,  and  Nismes.  The 
monasteries  which  were  compelled  to  lodge  and  enter- 
tain the  Pope  and  all  his  retinue  murmured  at  the 
pomp  and  luxury  of  his  train:  many  of  them  were 
heavily  impoverished  by  this  enforced  hospitality.  At 
Montpellier  he  received  the  homage  of  the  Kings  of 
Majorca  and  Arragon  :  he  confirmed  the  King  of  Arragon 
in  the  possession  of  the  islands  of  Corsica  and 

-.-r        Oct.  1 

Sardinia,  and  received  his  oath  of  fealty.  He 
had  invited  to  his  coronation  his  two  sovereigns,  the 
Kings  of  France  and  England.  The  King  of  England 
alleged  important  affairs  in  Scotland  as  an  excuse  for 
not  doing  honom-  to  his  former  vassal.  The  Kings  of 
France  and  Majorca  were  present.  On  the  Cardinal 
Matteo  Orsini,  Italian,  Roman,  to  the  heart,  devolved 
tlie  office  of  crowninsr  the  Gascon  Pope,  whose  Nov.  i4. 

T      1        1  n    1  mi         -r»  Coronation 

aversion  to  Italy  he  well  knew.  The  Pope  at  Lyons. 
rode  in  solemn  state  from  the  Church  of  St.  Just  in  the 
royal  castle  of  Lyons  to  the  palace  prepared  for  hinu 
The  King  of  France  at  first  held  his  bridle,  and  then 
yielded  the  post  of  humble  honour  to  his  brothers, 
Charles  of  Valois,  and  Louis  of  Evreux,  and  to  the 
Duke  of  Bretagne.  The  pomp  was  interrupted  by 
a  dire  and  ominous  calamity.  An  old  wall  fell  as 
they  passed.  The  Pope  w^as  thrown  from  his  horse, 
but  escaped  unhurt:  his  gorgeous  crown  rolled  in 
the   mire.      The   Duke  of  Bretagne,   with   eleven   or 


s  VI.  Vit.  Clement,  apud  Baluz, 


174  LATIN  CHUISTIANITY.  Book  Xll. 

twelve  others,  was  killed :    Charles  of  Valois  seriously 
hurt. 

Clement  Y.  hastened  to  fulfil  the  first  of  his  engage- 
Tbe  Pope    meuts  to  the  King  of  France,  perhaps  design- 
vows,         ing  by  this  ready  zeal  to  avert,  elude,  or  delay 
the  accomplishment  of  those  which  were  more  difficult 
or  more  humiliating.     The  King  of  France  had  plenary 
absolution :  he  was  received  as  again  the  favoured  son 
and  protector  of  the  Church.    To  the  King  were  granted 
the  tenths  on  all  the  revenues  of  the  Church  of  France 
for  five  years.      The   Colonnas  were  restored  to  their 
dignity ;  they  resumed  the  state,  dress,  and  symbols  of 
the  Cardinalate,   and  took  their  place   in  the  Sacred 
College.     A  promotion  of  ten  Cardinals  showed  what 
New  car-    interest  was  hereafter  to  prevail  in  the  Con- 
dinais.       clave.     Amoug  the  ten  were  the  Bishops  of 
Toulouse  and  Beziers,  the  Archbishop  (Elect)  of  Bor- 
deaux and  the  nephew  of  the  Pope,  the  King's  Con- 
fessor Nicolas   de  Francavilla,   the  King's  Chancellor 
Stephen,  Archdeacon  of  Bruges.     A  French  Pope  was 
to  be  surrounded  by  a  French  Court. 

Measure  followed  measure  to  propitiate  the  Pope's 
master.  Of  the  two  famous  Bulls,  that  denominated 
"  Clericis  Laicos  "  was  altogether  abrogated,  as  having 
been  the  cause  of  grievous  scandals,  dangers,  and  incon- 
veniences. The  old  decrees  of  the  Lateran  and  other 
Councils  concerning  the  taxation  of  the  clergy  were  de- 
clared to  be  the  law  of  the  Cliurch.  As  to  the  other,  the 
"  Unam  Sanctam,"  the  dearest  beloved  son  Philip  of 
France,  for  his  loyal  attachment  to  the  Church  of  Kome, 
had  deserved  that  the  Pope  should  declare  this  statute  to 
contain  nothing  to  his  prejudice  ;  that  he,  his  realm,  and 
his  people,  were  exactly  in  the  same  state,  as  regarded  the 
See  of  Rome,  as  before  the  promulgation  of  that  Bull. 


Chap.  I.  WITiLIAM  OF  NOGARET.  175 

But  there  were  two  articles  of  the  compactj  besides 
the  secret  one,  yet  unaccomplished,  the  complete  abso- 
lution of  all  the  King's  agents  in  the  quarrel  with  the 
Pope,  and  the  condemnation  of  the  memory  of  Boniface. 
The  Pope  writhed  and  struggled  in  vain  in  the  folds  of 
his  deathly  embarrassment.  The  King  of  France  could 
not  in  honour,  he  was  not  disposed  by  temper  to  abandon 
the  faithful  executioners  of  his  mandates :  he  might 
want  them  for  other  remorseless  services.  He  could 
not  retreat  or  let  fall  the  accusations  against  the  de- 
ceased Pope.  Philip  was  compelled,  like  other  perse- 
cutors, to  go  on  in  his  persecution.  This  immitigable, 
seemingly  vindictive,  hostility  to  the  fame  of  Boniface 
was  his  only  justification.  If  those  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanours  of  which  the  Pope  had  been  arraigned, 
those  heresies,  immoralities,  cruelties,  enormities,  were, 
admitted  to  be  groundless,  or  dropped  as  not  thought 
worthy  of  proof,  the  seizure  of  Anagni  became  a  bar- 
barous, cowardly,  and  unnecessary  outrage  on  a  defence  • 
less  old  man,  an  impious  sacrilege :  William  of  Nogaret 
and  his  accomplices  were  base  and  cruel  assassins. 

Already,  before  the  death  of  Benedict,  William  of 
Nogaret  had  issued  one  strong  protest  against  wiinam  of 
his  condemnation.  During  the  vacancy  he  ^°saret. 
allowed  no  repose  to  the  memory  of  Boniface,  and 
justified  himself  against  the  terrible  anathema  of  Bene- 
dict. He  appeared  before  the  official  of  his  diocesan, 
the  Bishop  of  Paris,  and  claimed  absolution  from  a 
censure  issued  by  the  Pope  under  false  information. 
He  promulgated  two  memorials :  in  the  first  he  adduced 
sixty  heads  of  accusation  against  Boniface ;  in  the 
second  he  protested  at  great  length  against  the  rash 
proceedings  of  Pope  Benedict.  The  Bull  of  Benedict 
had  cited  him  to  appear  at  Rome  on  the  Festival  of 


176  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  He  excused  his  contumacy  in  not 
appearing :  he  was  in  France,  the  citation  had  not  been 
served  upon  him ;  and  also  by  reason  of  the  death  of 
the  Pope,  as  well  as  on  account  of  his  powerful  enemies 
in  Italy.  Nogaret  entered  into  an  elaborate  account  of 
his  own  intercourse  with  Pope  Boniface.  Five  years 
before,  he  had  been  the  King's  ambassador  to  announce 
the  treaty  of  Philip  with  Albert,  King  of  the  Komans. 
The  Pope  demanded  Tuscany  as  the  price  of  his  consent 
to  that  alliance.  It  was  then  that  William  of  Nogaret 
heard  at  Kome  the  vices  and  misdeeds  of  the  Pope,  of 
which  he  was  afterwards  arraigned,  and  had  humbly 
implored  the  Pope  to  desist  from  his  simonies  and  ex- 
tortions. The  Pope  had  demanded  whether  he  spoke 
in  his  own  name  or  in  that  of  the  King.  Nogaret  had 
replied,  in  his  own,  out  of  his  great  zeal  for  the  Church. 
The  Pope  had  roared  with  passion,  like  a  madman,  and 
had  heaped  on  him  menaces,  insults,  and  blasphemies.*' 
Nogaret  treats  the  refusal  of  Boniface  to  appear  before 
the  Council  when  first  summoned  at  Anagni  as  an  act 
of  contumacy ;  he  therefore  (Nogaret)  was  justified  in 
using  force  towards  a  contumacious  criminal.  He  as- 
serts that  he  saved  the  life  of  Boniface  when  others 
would  have  killed  him ;  that  he  tried  to  protect  the 
treasure,  of  which  he  had  not  touched  a  penny ;  he  had 
kept  the  Pope  with  a  decent  attendance,  and  supplied 
him  with  food  and  drink.  Had  he  slain  the  wicked 
usurper  he  had  been  justified,  as  Phineas  who  pleased 
the  Lord,  as  Abraham  who  slew  the  Kings,  Moses  the 
Egyptian,  the  Maccabees  the  enemies  of  God.  Pope 
Benedict  had  complained  of  the  loss  of  his  treasure,  he 
ought  rather  to  have  complained  that  sc  vast  a  treasure 


Preuves.  p.  252. 


Chap.  I.  THE  KING'S  DISTRESSES.  IV  7 

had  been  wrung  by  cruel  exactions  from  the  impove- 
rished churches.  He  asserts  that  for  all  his  acts  he  had 
received  absolution  from  Boniface  himself.  For  all  these 
reasons  he  appealed  to  a  General  Council  in  the  vacancy 
of  the  Pontificate,  and  demanded  absolution  from  the 
unjust  censures  of  the  misinformed  Pope  Benedict. 

William  of  Nogaret  was  necessary,  as  other  men  of 
his  stamp,  for  meditated  acts  of  the  King,  not  less  cruel 
or  less  daring  than  the  surprisal  at  Anagni  and  the 
abasement  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff.  The  King  ^^^g,^  ^jg. 
of  France,  ever  rapacious,  yet  ever  necessitous,  ^^''^'"^^^ 
who  must  maintain  his  schemes,  his  ambition,  his  wars 
in  Flanders,  at  lavish  cost,  but  with  hardly  any  certain 
income  but  that  of  the  royal  domains,  had  again  taken 
to  that  coai'se  expedient  of  barbarous  finance,  the  de- 
basement of  the  coin.  There  were  now  two  standards  : 
in  the  higher  the  King  and  the  Nobles  exacted  the 
payments  of  their  subjects  and  vassals ;  the  lower  the 
subjects  and  vassals  were  obliged  to  receive  as  current 
money.  Everywhere  was  secret  or  clamorous  discon- 
tent, aggravated  by  famine ; '  discontent  in  Paris  and 
Orleans  rose  to  insurrection,  which  endangered  the 
King's  government,  even  his  person,  and  was  only  put 
down  by  extreme  measures  of  cruelty.  The  King  was 
compelled  to  make  concessions,  to  consent  himself  to 
be  paid  in  the  lower  coin.  But  some  time  had  elapsed 
since  the  usual  financial  resource  in  times  of  difficulty 
had  been  put  in  force.  The  Jews  had  had  jewspiun- 
leisure  to  become  again  alluringly  rich.  Wil-  ^^^^^' 
liam  of  Nogaret  proceeded  with  his  usual  rapid  reso- 
lution. In  one  day  all  the  Jews  were  seized,  their 
property  confiscated  to  the  Crown,  the  race  expelled 


'  During  the  winter  1304-5. 

VOL  vii.  a 


17b  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

the  realm.  The  ch^.rgy,  in  their  zeal  for  the  faith,  and 
the  hope  that  theii*  own  burthens  might  be  lightened, 
approved  this  pious  robbery,  and  rejoiced  that  France 
was  delivered  from  the  presence  of  this  usurious  and 
miscreant  race.  William  of  Nogaret  had  atoned  for 
some  at  least  of  his  sins.''  But  even  this  was  not  his 
last  service. 

Pope  Clement,  in  the  mean  time,  hastened  to  return 
to  Bordeaux.  He  passed  by  a  different  road,  through 
Macon,  Clugny,  Nevers,  Bourges,  Limoges,  again  se- 
verely taxing  by  the  honour  of  his  entertainment  all 
the  great  monasteries  and  chapters  on  his  way.  The 
Archbishop  of  Bourges  was  so  reduced  as  to  accept  the 
The  Pope  at  pittaucc  of  a  Cauon.  At  Bordeaux  the  Pope 
Bordeaux.  ^^^g  jj^  ^]^g  dominious  of  England,  and  to  Ed- 
ward of  England  he  showed  himself  even  a  more  ob- 
sequious vassal  than  to  the  King  of  France.  He  could 
perhaps  secure  Edward's  protection  if  too  hardly  pressed 
by  his  inexorable  master,  the  King  of  France. 

°^  ^"  ■  He  gave  to  Edward  plenary  absolution  from 
all  his  oaths  to  maintain  the  Charters  (the  Great  Charter 
and  the  Charter  of  Forests)  extorted  from  him,  as  was 
asserted,  by  his  disloyal  subjects.""  Afterwards,  casting 
aside  all  the  haughty  pretensions  of  Pope  Boniface,  he 
excommunicated  Kobert  Bruce,  now  engaged  in  his 
gallant  strife  for  the  crown  of  Scotland.'" 

But  the  Pope  coidd  not  decline  the  commanding  in- 
vitation of  King  Philip  to  an  interview  within 
June.  1307.   ^^^  ^^^^^  ^^  Frauco,  at  Poitiers.     To  that  city 

he  went,  but  soon  repented  of  having  placed  himself  so 
completely  within  the  King's  power.     He  attempted  to 


«  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  i.  443,  447.     Vita  dementis.    Coutinuatov.  Nangis, 
p.  594.     Raynald.  sub  ami.  1306,  c.  29.  '"  Kymer.  •»  Ibid. 


Chap.  I.      THE  POPE'S  INTERVIEW  WITH  PHILIP.  179 

make  an  honourable  retreat;  lie  was  retained  with 
courteous  force,  and  overwhelmed  with  specious  honour 
and  reverence. 

A  Congress  of  Princes  might  seem  assembled  to  show 
their  flattering  respect  to  the  Pontiff: — Philip,  -svith  his 
tln-ee  sons,  his  brothers  Charles  of  Yalois  and  Louis 
Count  of  Evreux,  Kobert  Count  of  Flanders,  Charles 
King  of  Naples,  the  ambassadors  of  Edward  King  of 
England.  Clement,  by  the  prodigality  of  his  conces- 
sions, endeavoured  to  avert  the  fatal  question,  the  con- 
demnation of  Boniface.  He  was  seized  with  a  sudden 
ardour  to  place  Charles  of  Yalois  on  the  throne  of  Con- 
stantinople, in  right  of  his  wife,  Isabella  of  Courtenay. 
He  declared  himself  tho  head  of  a  new  Crusade,  ad- 
dressed Bulls  to  all  Christendom,  in  order  to  expel  the 
feeble  iVndronicus  from  the  throne,  which  must  fall 
under  the  power  of  the  Turks  and  Saracens,  unless  filled 
by  a  powerful  Christian  Emperor.  He  pronounced  his 
anathema  against  Andronicus.  He  awarded  the  king- 
dom of  Hungary  to  Charobert,  grandson  of  the  King  of 
Naples.  He  took  the  first  steps  for  the  canonisation 
of  Louis,  the  second  son  of  Charles,  wlio  had  died  Arch- 
bishop of  Toulouse  in  the  odour  of  sanctity.  He  re- 
mitted the  vast  debt  owed  by  the  King  of  Naples  to  the 
Papal  See,  which  amounted  to  360,000  ounces  of  gokl  ; 
a  third  was  absolutely  annulled,  the  rest  assigned  to  tlie 
Crusade  of  Charles  of  Valois.'^ 

But  the  inflexible  Philip  was  neither  to  be  diverted 
nor  dissuaded  from  exacting  the  full  terms  of  his  bond. 
He  offered  to  prove  forty- three  articles  of  heresy  against 
Boniface;  he  demanded  that  the  body  of  the  Pope 
should  be  disinterred  and  burned,  the  ignominious  fate 


Acta  apud  Baluzium,  nxv. 

N  2 


T80  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XH, 

of  heretics,  wliicli  he  had  undeservedly  escaped  during 
life.  Even  the  French  Cardinals  saw  and  deprecated 
the  fatal  consequences  of  such  a  proceeding  to  the 
Church.  All  the  acts  of  Boniface,  his  bulls,  decrees, 
promotions,  became  questionable.  The  College  of  Car- 
dinals was  dissolved,  at  least  the  nomination  of  almost 
all  became  precarious.  The  title  of  Clement  himself 
was  doubtful.  The  effects  of  breaking  the  chain  of 
traditional  authority  were  incalculable,  interminable. 
The  Supplement  to  the  Canon  Law,  the  Sixth  Book 
of  Decretals,  at  once  the  most  unanswerable  proof  of 
the  orthodoxy  of  Boniface  and  the  most  full  assertion 
of  the  rights  of  the  Church,  fell  to  the  ground.  The 
foundations  of  the  Papal  power  were  shaken  to  the  base. 
By  the  wise  advice  of  the  Cardinal  da  Prato,  Clement 
determined  to  dissemble  and  so  gain  time.  Philip  him- 
self had  demanded  a  General  Council  of  all  Christendom. 
A  General  Council  alone  of  all  Christendom  could  give 
Council  of  dignity  and  authority  to  a  decree  so  weighty 
terminedon.  and  Unprecedented  as  the  condemnation  of  a 
Pope.  They  only  could  investigate  such  judgement. 
In  such  an  assembly  the  Prelates  of  the  Christian  world, 
French,  English,  Germans,  Italians,  Spaniards,  might 
meet;  and  the  Church,  in  her  full  liberty,  and  with 
irrefragable  solemnity,  decide  the  awful  cause.  He 
named  the  city  of  Vienne  in  Dauphiny  as  the  seat  of 
this  Great  Council.  In  the  mean  time  he  strove  to 
conciliate  the  counsellors  who  ruled  the  mind  of  Philip,  i 
Absolution  William  of  Nogaret  and  his  accomplices  re-  i 
garel  °'  ccivcd  full  absolutiou  for  all  their  acts  in  I 
the  seizure  of  Boniface  and  the  plunder  of  the  Papal  I 
treasures,  on  condition  of  certain  penances  to  be  as-| 
signed  by  some  of  the  Cardinals.  William  of  Ncgaret  1 
was  to  take  arms  in  the  East  against  the  Saracens,  and 


Chap.  I. 


THE  TEMPLARS. 


181 


not  to  return  witliout  permission  of  the  Holy  See  ;  but 
he  was  allowed  five  years'  delay  before  he  was  called  on 
to  fulfil  this  penitential  Crusade.^ 

The  Pope  could  breathe  more  freely  :  he  had  gained 
time,  and  time  was  inestimable.  Who  could  know  what  it 
might  bring  forth?  Even  the  stubborn  hatred  of  Philip 
might  be,  if  not  mitigated,  distracted  to  some  other 
object.  That  object  seemed  to  arise  at  once,  great,  of 
absorbing  public  interest,  ministering  excitement  to  all 
Philip's  dominant  passions,  a  religious  object  of  the 
most  surprising,  unprecedented,  almost  appalling  nature, 
and  of  the  most  dubious  justice  and  policy,  the  abolition 
of  the  great  Order  of  the  Knights  Templars.  The  secret 
of  the  last  stipulation  in  the  covenant  between  the  King 
and  the  Pope  remained  with  themselves  ;  what  it  was, 
and  whether  it  was  really  demanded,  was  not  per- 
mitted to  transpire.  Was  it  this  destruction  of  the 
Templars  ?  No  one  knew :  yet  all  had  their  conjec- 
ture. Or  was  it  some  yet  remoter  scheme,  the  eleva- 
tion of  his  brother  or  himself  to  the  Imperial  throne  ? 
It  was  still  a  dark,  profound,  and  so  more  stimulating 
mystery. 

The  famous  Order  of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem  had 
sprung,  like  all  the  other  great  religious  insti-  a.d.  ms. 
tutions  of  the  middle  ages,  from  the  humblest  5J'e^?n?ghtf 
origin.  Their  ancestors  were  a  small  band  of  't^^p'^^s. 
nine  French  Knights,^  engaged  on  a  chivalrous  adven- 
ture, sworn  to  an  especial  service,  the  protection  of  the 
Christian  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre  tlu'ough  the 


P  Raynaldus,  sub  ann.  1307,  c.  xi. 

<»  A.D.  1118,  Hugo  de  Payens, 
Godfrey  de  St.  Omer,  Raoul,  Godfrey 
Bisol,  Pagans  de  Montdidier,  Archem- 


bold  de  St.  Aman,  Andrew,  Gundomar, 
Hugh  Count  cf  Provence. — Wilcke, 
Geschichte  des  Tempelherren  Ordena, 
p.  9 


182  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  'Book  XII. 

dangerous  passes  between  Jerusalem  and  the  Jordan, 
that  they  might  bathe,  unmolested  by  the  marauding 
Moslemin,  in  the  holy  waters.  The  Templars  had  be- 
come, in  almost  every  kingdom  of  the  West,  a  powerful, 
wealthy,  and  formidable  republic,  governed  by  their 
own  laws,  animated  by  the  closest  corporate  spirit,  under 
the  severest  internal  discipline  and  an  all-pervading 
orgEinisation ;  independent  alike  of  the  civil  power  and 
of  the  spiritual  hierarchy.  It  was  a  half-military,  half- 
monastic  community.  The  three  great  monastic  vows, 
implicit  obedience  to  their  superiors,  chastity,  the  aban- 
donment of  all  personal  property,  were  the  fundamental 
statutes  of  the  Order :  wliile,  instead  of  the  peaceful  and 
secluded  monastery,  the  contemplative,  devotional,  or 
studious  life,  their  convents  were  strong  castles,  their 
life  that  of  the  camp  or  the  battle-field,  their  occupation 
chivalrous  exercises  or  adventures,  war  in  preparation, 
or  war  in  all  its  fierceness  and  activity.  The  nine 
brethren  in  arms  were  now  fifteen  thousand  of  the 
bravest,  best-trained,  most  experienced  soldiers  in  the 
world;  armed,  horsed,  accoutered  in  the  most  perfect 
and  splendid  fashion  of  the  times ;  isolated  from  all  ties 
or  interests  with  the  rest  of  mankind ;  ready  at  the 
summons  of  the  Grand  Master  to  embark  on  any  service ; 
the  one  aim  the  power,  aggrandisement,  enrichment  of 
the  Order. 

St.  Bernard,  in  his  devout  enthusiasm,  had  beheld  in 
the  rise  of  the  Templars  a  permanent  and  invincible 
Crusade.  The  Order  (with  its  rival  brotherhood,  the 
Knights  of  the  Hospital  or  of  St.  John)  was  in  his  view 
a  perpetual  sacred  militia,  which  would  conquer  and 
maintain  the  sepulchre  of  the  Lord,  become  the  body- 
guard of  the  Christian  Kings  of  Jerusalem,  the  standing 
army  on  the  outposts  of  Christendom.     His  eloquent 


Chap.  I. 


THEIE  PRIVILEGES. 


183 


address  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Temple^  was  at  once  the 
law  and  the  vivid  expression  of  the  dominant  sentiments 
of  his  time ;  here,  as  in  all  things,  his  age  spake  in  St. 
Bernard.  From  that  time  the  devout  admiration  of 
Western  Christendom  in  heaping  the  most  splendid 
endowments  of  lands,  castles,  riches  of  all  kinds,  on  the 
Knights  of  the  Temple  and  of  the  Hospital,  supposed 
that  it  was  contributing  in  the  most  efficient  manner  to 
the  Holy  Wars.  Successive  Popes,  the  most  renowned 
and  wise,  especially  Innocent  III.,  notwithstanding  occa- 
sional signs  of  mistrust  and  jealousy  of  their  augment- 
ing power,  had  vied  with  each  other  in  enlarging  the 
privileges  and  raising  the  fame  of  the  Knights  of 
the  TerojQleA  Eugenius  III.,  under  the  influence  of  St. 
iBernard,  first  issued  a  Bull  in  their  favour ;  but  their 
ereat  Charter,  which  invested  them  in  their 
most  valuable  rights  and  privileges,^  was  issued 
by  Alexander  III.  They  had  already  ceased  to  be  a 
lay  community,  and  therefore  under  spiritual  subjection 
to  the  clergy.  The  clergy  had  been  admitted  in  con- 
siderable numbers  into  the  Order,  and  so  their  own 
body  administered  within  themselves  all  the  rites  and 
sacraments  of  religion.  Innocent  III.  released  the  clergy 
in  the  Order  of  the  Templars  from  their  oath  of  fidelity 
and  obedience  to  their  Bishop;  henceforth  they  owed 
allegiance  to  the  Pope  alone."^  Honorius  III.  prohibited 
all  Bishops  from  excommunicating  any  Knight  Templar, 


»  Refer  back  to  vol.  iv.  394. 
Sermo  ad  Milites  Templi,  Opera,  p. 
830. 

•  The  Bull,  Omne  datum  optimum. 
Compare  Wilcke,  p.  77.  It  is  trans- 
lated by  Mr.  Addison,  the  Knights 
Templars,  p.  70. 


Innocent  III.,  Epist.  i.  508,  ii. 
35,  84,  257,  259.  To  the  Bishops, 
"  Quatenus  a  capellanis  ecclesiarum, 
quae  pleno  jure  jam  dictis  fratribus 
sunt  concessaj,  nee  fidelitatem,  neo 
obedientiam  exigatis,  quia  Roman* 
tantum  Pontifici  sunt  subjecti." 


184 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XIL 


or  laying  an  interdict  on  their  churches  or  h:)use3. 
Gregory  IX.,  Innocent  lY.,  Alexander  III.,  Clement  lY. 
maintained  their  absolute  exemption  from  episcopal 
authority.  The  Grand  Master  and  the  brotherhood  of 
the  Temple  were  subordinate  only  to  the  supreme  head 
of  Christendom.  Gregory  X.  crowned  their  privileges 
with  an  exemption  from  all  contributions  to  the  Iloly 
War,  and  from  the  tenths  paid  by  the  rest  of  Christen- 
dom for  this  sacred  purpose.  The  pretence  was  that 
their  whole  lands  and  wealth  were  held  on  that  tenure.^ 
Nearly  two  hundred  years  ^  had  elapsed  since  the 
foundation  of  the  Order,  two  hundred  years  of  slow, 
imperceptible,  but  inevitable  change.  The  Knights 
Templars  fought  in  the  Holy  Land  with  consummate 
valour,  discipline,  activity,  and  zeal ;  but  they  fought 
for  themselves,  not  for  the  common  cause  of  Christianity. 
They  were  an  independent  army,  owing  no  subordi- 
nation to  the  King  or  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  or  to  any 
of  the  Sovereigns  who  placed  themselves  at  the  head 
of  a  Crusade.  They  supported  or  thwarted,  according 
to  their  own  views,  the  plans  of  campaigns,  joined 
vigorously  in  the  enterprise,  or  stood  aloof  in  suUen 
disapprobation :  they  made  or  broke  treaties.  Thus  for- 
midable to  the  enemies  of  the  faith,  they  were  not  less 
so  to  its  champions.  There  was  a  constant  rivalry  with 
the  Knights  of  St.  John,  not  of  generous  emulation,  but 
of  power  and  even  of  sordid  gain.     During  the  expe- 


«  "Cum  T06  ad  hoc  principa.iter 
laboratis,  ut  vos  pariter  et  omnia  quae 
habetis  pro  ipsius  terrse  sanctae  defen- 
sione,  ac  Christianae  fidei  exponatis, 
vos  eximere  a  prsestatione  hujusmodi 
(decimae  pro  "terra  sancta)  de  benigui- 
tate  Apostolica  curaremus." — Compa 


Wilcke,  ii.  p.  195. 

*  1118—1307.  As  early  as  the 
Crusade  of  the  Emperor  Conrad  (1 147), 
Conrad  would  have  taken  Damascus, 
"  nisi  avaritia,  dolus  et  invidia  Templa* 
riorum  obstitisset." — Annal.  Herbip. 
Pertz.  xvi.  p.  7. 


Chap.  I.      CHAHACTER  OF  THE  WAR  IN  THE  EAST.  185 

dition  of  Frederick  II.  the  Master  of  the  Templars  and 
the  whole  Order  had  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Pope. 
To  theu*  stubborn  opposition  was  attributed,  no  doubt 
with  much  justice,  the  failure  or  rather  the  imperfect 
success  of  that  Crusade. 

The  character  of  the  war  in  the  East  had  also 
changed,  unnoticed,  unobserved.  There  was  no  longer 
the  implacable  mutual  aversion,  or  rather  abhorrence, 
with  which  the  Christian  met  the  Saracen,  the  Saracen 
the  Christian ;  from  which  the  Christian  thought  that 
by  slaying  the  Saracen  he  was  avenging  the  cause  of  his 
Kedeemer,  and  washing,  off  his  own  sins;  the  Saracen  that 
in  massacring  the  Christian,  or  trampling  on  the  Cluistian 
dog,  he  was  acting  according  to  the  first  principles  of  his 
faith,  and  winning  Paradise.  This  traditionary,  almost 
inborn,  antipathy  had  worn  away  by  long  intermingling, 
and  given  place  to  the  courtesies  and  mutual  respect 
of  a  more  chivalrous  warfare.  The  brave  and  generous 
Knight  could  not  but  admire  bravery  and  generosity  iu 
his  antagonist.  The  accidents  of  war  led  to  more  inti' 
mate  acquaintance,  acquaintance  to  hospitable  even  to 
social  intercoiu'se,  social  intercourse  to  a  fairer  estimation 
of  the  better  qualities  on  both  sides.  The  prisoner  was 
not  always  reduced  to  a  cruel  and  debasing  servitude, 
or  shut  up  in  a  squalid  dungeon.  He  became  the  guest, 
the  companion,  of  his  high-minded  captor.  A  character 
like  that  of  Saladin,  which  his  fiercest  enemies  could 
not  behold  without  awe  and  admu'ing  wonder,  must 
have  softened  the  detestation  with  which  it  was  once 
the  duty  of  the  Christian  to  look  on  the  Unbeliever. 
The  lofty  toleration  of  Frederick  II.  might  offend  the 
more  zealous  by  its  approximation  to  indifference,  but 
was  not  altogether  uncongenial  to  the  dominant  feeling. 
How  far   had  that   indifference,  which  was  so  hardly 


186  LATIN  CHRISTIA?^ITY.  «ook  xii. 

reproached  against  Frederick,  crept  into  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  Frederick's  most  deadly  enemies  ?  How  far 
had  Mohammedanism  lost  its  odious  and  repulsive  cha- 
racter to  the  Templars,  and  begun  to  appear  not  as  a 
monstrous  and  wicked  idolatry  to  be  refuted  only  with 
the  good  sword,  but  as  a  sublime  and  hardly  irrational 
Theism  ?  How  far  had  Oriental  superstitions,  belief  in 
magic,  in  the  power  of  amulets  and  talismans,  divina- 
tion, mystic  signs  and  characters,  dealings  with  genii  or 
evil  spirits,  seized  on  the  excited  imaginations  of  those 
adventurous  but  rude  warriors  of  the  West,  and  mingled 
with  that  secret  ceremonial  wliich  was  designed  to 
impress  upon  the  initiated  the  inflexible  discipline  of 
Oriental  ^he  Order  ?  How  far  were  the  Templars  ori- 
manners.  eutaliscd  by  their  domiciliation  in  the  East  ? 
Had  their  morals  escaped  the  taint  of  Oriental  hcence  ? 
Vows  of  chastity  were  very  different  to  men  of  hot 
blood,  inflamed  by  the  sun  of  the  East,  in  the  freedom 
of  the  camp  or  the  marauding  expedition,  provoked  by 
the  sack  and  plunder  of  towns,  the  irruption  into  the 
luxurious  hareems  of  their  foes ;  and  to  monks  in  close- 
watched  seclusion,  occupied  every  hour  of  the  day  and 
night  with  religious  services,  emaciated  by  the  fast  and 
scourge,  and  become,  as  it  were,  the  shadows  of  men. 
If  even  Western  devotees  were  so  apt,  as  was  ever  the 
case,  to  degenerate  into  debauchery,  the  individual  Tem- 
plar at  least  would  hardly  maintain  his  austere  and 
impeccable  virtue.  Those  unnatural  vices,  which  it 
ofi'ends  Christian  purity  even  to  allude  to,  but  which 
are  looked  upon  if  not  with  indulgence,  at  least  without 
the  same  disgust  in  the  East,  were  chiefly  charged  upon 
the  Templars.  Yet  after  all,  it  was  the  pride  rather 
than  the  sensuality  of  the  Order  wliich  was  their  charac- 
teristic and  proverbial  crime.      Richard  I.,  who  must 


CHAP.  1.  LOSS  OF  PALESTINE.  187 

have  known  them  well  in  the  East,  bequeathed  not  his 
avarice,  or  his  lust,  but  his  pride,  to  the  Knights  of  the 
Temple. 

But  the  Templars  were  not  a  great  colony  of  wamors 
transplanted  and  settled  in  the  East  as  their  permanent 
abode,  having  broken  off  all  connexion  with  their  native 
West.  They  were  powerful  feudal  lords,  lords  of  cas 
ties  and  domains  and  estates,  a  self-governed  community 
in  all  the  kingdoms  of  Europe.  Hence  their  Loss  of 
total  expulsion,  with  the  rest  of  the  Christian  ^^^stine. 
establishments,  from  Palestine,  left  them  not,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  without  home,  without  possessions, 
discharged,  as  it  were,  from  their  mission  by  its  melan- 
choly and  ignominious  failure.  The  loss  of  the  Temple, 
the  irretrievable  loss,  might  seem  to  imply  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  defenders  of  the  Temple :  it  might  be 
thought  to  disband  and  disclaim  them  as  useless  and 
worn-out  veterans.  The  bitter  disappointment  of  the 
Christian  world  at  that  loss  would  attribute  the  shame, 
the  guilt,  to  those  whose  especial  duty  it  was,  the  very 
charter  of  their  foundation,  to  protect  it.  That  guilt 
was  unanswerably  shown  by  God's  visible  wrath.  His 
abandonment  of  the  tomb  of  his  Blessed  Son  was  a 
proof  which  could  not  be  gainsaid,  that  the  Christians, 
those  especially  designated  for  the  glorious  service,  were 
unworthy  of  that  honour.  Any  charge  of  wickedness 
so  denounced,  it  might  seem,  by  God  himself,  would 
find  ready  hearing. 

The  Knights  of  the  Hospital,  more  fortunate  or  more 
sagacious,  had  found  an  occupation  for  their  conquest  of 
arms,  of  which   perhaps   themselves   did  not  iS?gMs^(ff 
appreciate  the  full  importance,  the  conquest  '^*-'^°^- 
of  Rhodes.     Their  establishment  in  that  island  became 
the  bulwark,  long  the  imconquerable  outpost  of  Christen- 


188 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI 


dom  in  the  East.  The  Templars,  if  they  did  not  alto- 
gether stand  aloof  from  that  enterprise,  disdained  to 
act  a  secondary  part,  and  to  aid  in  subduing  for  their 
rivals  that  in  which  those  rivals  would  claim  exclusive 
dominion/ 

Clement  V.,  soon  after  his  accession,  had  summoned 
the  Grand  Masters  of  the  two  Orders  to  Europe,  under 
the  pretext  of  consulting  them  on  the  affairs  of  the 
East,  on  succours  to  be  afforded  to  the  King  of  Armenia, 
and  on  plans  which  had  been  already  formed  for  the 
union  of  the  two  Orders.  It  does  not  appear  whether, 
either  with  a  secret  understanding  with  the  King  of 
France,  or  of  his  own  accord,  he  as  yet  contemplated 
hostile  measures  against  the  Order.  He  declares  him- 
self, that  while  at  Lyons  he  had  heard  reports  unfavour- 
able both  to  the  faith  and  to  the  conduct  of  the  Tem- 
plars :  but  he  had  rejected  with  disdain  all  impeachment 
against  an  Order  which  had  warred  so  valiantly  and 
shed  so  much  noble  blood  in  defence  of  the  Sepulchre 
of  the  Lord.  His  invitation  was  couched  in  the 
smoothest  terms  of  religious  adulation.^ 

Du  Molay,^  Grand  Master  of  the  Order,  manifestly 
altogether  unsuspecting,  obeyed  the  Papal  in- 
°^^^'  vitation.  The  Grand  Master  of  the  Hospital- 
lers alleged  his  engagement  in  the  siege  of  Khodes. 
But  if  Du  Molay  had  designed  to  precipitate  the  fall  of 
his  Order,  he  could  not  have  followed  a  more  fatal 
course  of  policy.  His  return  to  Europe  was  not  that  of 
the  head  of  an  institution  whose  occupation  and  special 


J  Raynald.  sub  ann.  1306. 

«  "  De  quorum  circumspecta  pro- 
bitate,  et  probata  circumspectione 
ac  vulgata  fidelitate  fiduciajn  tene- 
mus."     So   wrote   Clemeut  V.     The 


letter  is  in  Rayualdus,  date  June  6, 
1306. 

*  See  in  Raynouard,  Monuments. 
Historiques,  p.  15  et  seqq.,  the  lift 
and  services  of  Du  Molay. 


Chap.  I. 


DU  MOLAT. 


189 


function  was  in  the  East,  and  who  held  all  they  pos- 
sessed on  the  tenure  of  war  against  the  Moslemin.  He 
might  rather  seem  an  independent  Prince,  intending  to 
take  up  his  permanent  abode  and  live  in  dignity  and 
wealth  on  their  ample  domains,  or  rather  territories,  in 
Europe.  He  might  seem  almost  wantonly  to  alarm  the 
jealous  apprehensions,  and  stimulate  the  insatiable  ra- 
pacity of  Phihp  the  Fair.  He  assembled  around  him  in 
Cyprus  a  retinue  of  sixty,  the  most  distinguished  Knights 
of  the  Order,  collected  a  great  mass  of  treasure,  and 
left  the  Marshal  of  the  Order  as  Kegent  in  that  island. 
In  this  state,  having  landed  in  the  south,  and  made  his 
slow  progress  through  France,  he  entered  the  capital, 
and  proceeded  to  the  mansion  of  the  Order,  in  Entry  into 
Paris  as  well  as  in  London  perhaps  the  most  ^^"^' 
spacious,  the  strongest,  and  even  most  magnificent 
edifice  in  the  city.  The  treasure  which  Du  Molay 
brought  was  reported  to  amount  to  the  enormous  sum 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  golden  florins  and  a 
vast  quantity  of  silver.  The  populace  wondered  at  the 
long  train  of  sumpter  horses,^  as  they  moved  through 
the  narrow  streets  to  the  Temple  citadel,  wliich  con- 
fronted the  Louvre  in  its  height  and  strength.  Du 
Molay  was  received  with  ostentatious  courtesy  by  the 
King.  Everything  flattered  his  pride  and  security; 
there  was  no  sign,  no  omen  of  the  danger  which 
lowered  around  him. 

Yet  Du  Molay,  if  of  less  generous  and  unsuspicious 
nature,  should  have  known  the  character  of  Philip,  and 


^  R'\ynouard  says,  p.  17,  "Outre 
I'immense  tre'sor  que  I'Oi'dre  conser- 
vait  dans  le  palais  du  Temple  a  Paris, 
le  chef  apparta  de  )  "Orient  cent  dn- 


quante  mille  Horins  d'or,  et  une  grand* 
quantite  de  gros  tournois  d'argent,  quj 
formaient  la  charge  de  douze  chevaux 
sommes  considerables  potu*  le  temps." 


190  LATIN  CHKISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

that  every  motive  which  actuated  that  UDscrupulous 
Ejng  was  concentred  in  its  utmost  intensity  against  his 
Order.  Philip's  manifest  policy  was  the  submission  of 
the  whole  realm  to  his  despotic  power ;  the  elevation 
of  the  kingly  authority  above  all  feudal  check,  or  eccle- 
siastical control.  Would  he  endure  an  armed  brother- 
hood, a  brotherhood  so  completely  organised,  in  itself 
more  formidable  than  any  army  he  could  bring  into  the 
field,  to  occupy  a  fortress  in  his  capital  and  other  strong- 
holds throughout  the  kingdom?  It  was  no  less  his 
policy  to  establish  an  uniform  taxation,  a  heavy  and 
grinding  taxation,  on  all  classes,  on  the  Church  as  on 
the  laity.  The  Templars  had  stubbornly  refused  to 
pay  the  tenths  which  he  had  levied  everywhere  else 
almost  without  resistance.*^  There  were  strong  sus- 
picions that  during  the  strife  with  the  King,  Boniface 
had  reckoned  on  the  secret  if  not  active  support  of  the 
Templars,  who,  as  highly  favoured  by  the  Pope,  had 
almost  always  been  high  PapaKsts."^  If  they  had  not 
held  a  congregation  in  defence  of  Boniface,  such  con- 
gregation might  have  been  held.®  For  this  reason  no 
doubt,  if  not  for  a  darker  one — some  concern  in  the 
burning  of  his  father — William  of  Nogaret  hated  the 
Templars  with  all  the  hatred  which  he  had  not  ex- 
hausted on  Pope  Boniface.^ 


•=  They  were  exempt  by  the  Papal  i  bebat,  eo  quod  ausi  fuerant  stare  contra 
privilege.     These  tenths  were  still  in  |  ipsum  ex  sententi^  excommunicationis, 


theory  permitted  by  the  Pope,  as 
though  for  holy  uses — the  recovery  of 
Palestine. 

o  "  In  diebus  suis  admii-abilis  novi- 
tas  et  persequutio  facta  est  super  Or- 
dinem  Templariorum,  quod  pi-ocessit 
ex  invidia  et  cupiditate  Philippi  Fran- 


data  per  dictum  Bonifacium  contra 
dictum  Regem."  —  Chronic.  Astens, 
Murator.  xi.  p,  193. 

8  One  writer  says,  "Quia  contra 
Regem  congregationem  fecerunt." 

^  "  Gulielmus  de  Nogaret,  Regis 
Francis  auctor  fuit  pro   posse   ruinas 


c»rum  reg^,s,  qui  odio  Templar)")8  ha-  ;  ordinis  Templariorum,  eo  quod  patreir 


Chap.  1. 


PHILIP'S  EXTORTIONS. 


191 


Philip  knew  well  not  only  the  strength  but  the  wealth 
of  the  Order.  He  knew  their  strength,  for  dm-ing  the 
insurrections  at  Paris  on  account  of  the  debasement  of 
the  coin,  he  had  fled  from  his  oayu  insecure  Louvre,  and 
taken  refuge  in  the  Temple.  From  tliat  impregnable 
fortress  he  had  defied  his  rebellious  subjects,  and  after- 
wards having  gathered  some  troops,  perhaps  with  the 
aid  of  the  Templars  themselves,  suppressed  the  mutiny 
(which  the  Templars  nevertheless  were  accused  of  having 
instigated),  and  had  hanged  the  insurgents  ^  on  the  trees 
around  the  city.  Philip  knew  too  their  wealth.''  From 
their  treasures  alone  he  had  been  able  to  borrow  the 
dowry  of  his  daughter  Isabella,  on  her  marriage  with 
Prince  Edward  of  England.  Debtors  love  not  their 
creditors.  Du  Molay  is  said  to  have  made  importunate 
and  unwelcome  demands  for  repayment.^  Every  race 
or  community  possessed  of  dangerous  riches  had  in 
turn  suffered  the  extortionate  persecutions  of  Philip. 
Would  his  avarice,  w^hich  had  drained  the  Jews,  the 
Lombards,  and  laid  his  sacrilegious  hands  on  the 
Church,  so  tempted,  respect  the  Templars,  even  if  he 
had  no  excuse  of  religious  zeal  or  regard  for  morals  to 
justify  his  confiscation  of  then*  riches  ? 


ejus  tanquam  haereticum  comburi  fece- 
runt."  This  can  hardly  be  literally- 
true.  But  see  further  the  striking 
speech  of  a  Templar  going  to  the  stalje, 
and  (what  cannot  be  true)  the  death  of 
Nogaret. — Chron.  Astens.  ut  supra. 

'^  Continuator  Nangis  apud  Bouquet, 
p.  594. 

^  Of  their  wealth  : 
"  Li  frere,  il  meslre  au  Temple 
Qu'ee'"iient  rempli  et  ample 
D'or,  d'argent  et  de  richesse, 
Et  qui  menoient  tel  noblesse  .  .  . 
Tozjors  achetuient  sans  vendre." 
Chronique  quoted  by  Raynouard,  p.  7. 


According  to  Paris,  "  Habent  Tern- 
plarii  in  Christianitate  novem  millia 
maneriorum." — p.  417. 

*  "  Quia  is  magistrum  ordinis  exo- 
sum  habuit,  propter  importunam  pe- 
cuniae exactionem,  quaiu  in  nuptiis 
filiae  suae  Isabellae  ei  mutuum  de- 
derat.  inhiabat  pra?terea  pradiis  rni- 
litum  et  possessionibus." — Thorn,  de 
la  I\Ioor,  Vit.  Edward  II.,  quoted 
in  note  to  Baluzius.  Pap.  Avionen., 
p.  589. 


192  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

Du  Molay,  in  his  lofty  security,  proceeded  to  the 
Du  Molay  at  g^eat  meeting  at  Poitiers,  to  pay  his  allegiance 
Poitiers.  wHYi  the  Princcs  and  Sovereigns,  and  to  give 
counsel  to  the  Pope  on  the  affairs  of  the  East  and  those 
of  the  Military  Orders.  Du  Molay's  advice  as  to  the 
future  Crusade,  however  wise  and  well-grounded,  might 
seem  a  death-blow  to  all  hopes  of  success.  There  could 
be  no  reliance  on  the  King  of  Armenia ;  to  reconquer 
the  Holy  Land  would  demand  the  league  and  co-opera- 
tion of  all  the  Kings  of  Christendom.  Their  united 
forces,  conveyed  by  the  united  fleets  of  Genoa,  Venice, 
and  other  maritime  cities,  should  land  at  Cyprus ;  and 
from  Cyprus  carry  on  a  regular  and  aggressive  war. 
The  proposal  for  the  fusion  of  the  Knights  of  the 
Temple  and  of  St.  John,  a  scheme  proposed  by 
Gregory  X.  and  by  St.  Louis,  he  coldly  rejected  as 
impracticable.  "  That  which  is  new  is  not  always  the 
best.  The  Orders,  in  their  separate  corporations,  had 
done  great  things ;  it  was  doubtful  how,  if  united,  they 
would  act  together.  Both  were  spiritual  as  well  as 
secular  institutions :  neither  could,  with  safe  conscience, 
give  up  the  statutes  to  which  they  had  sworn,  to  adopt 
those  of  the  other.  There  would  rise  inextinguishable 
discord  concerning  their  estates  and  possessions.  The 
Templars  were  lavish  of  their  wealth,  the  Hospitallers 
only  intent  on  amassing  wealth :  on  this  head  there 
must  be  endless  strife.  The  Templars  were  in  better 
fame,  more  richly  endowed  by  the  laity.  The  Templars 
would  lose  their  popularity,  or  excite  the  envy  of  the 
Hospitallers.  There  would  be  eternal  contests  between 
the  heads  of  the  Orders,  as  to  the  conferring  dignities 
and  offices  of  trust.  The  united  Order  might  be  more 
strong  and  formidable,  and  yet  many  ancient  establish- 
ment's fall  to  the  ground ;  and  so  the  collective  wealtli 


Chap.  I.         ACCUSATIONS  AGAINST  THE  ORDER.  193 

and   power   might    be    diminished    rather    than   aug» 
mented."  ^ 

Yet  even  now  that  Du  Molay  was  holding  this  almost 
supercilious  language,  the  mine  was  under  his  feet  rooriy 
to  burst  and  explode.  Du  Molay  could  ixot  be  abso- 
lutely ignorant  of  the  sinister  rumours  which  had  long- 
been  spread  abroad  concerning  the  faith,  the  morals, 
the  secret  mysteries  of  his  Order ;  he  could  not  be  igno- 
rant that  they  had  been  repeatedly  urged  upon  the  Pope 
by  the  King  himself,  by  his  counsellors,  by  the  Prior  of 
the  new  convent  in  Poitiers."^  But  he  maintained,  both 
he  and  the  other  Preceptors  of  the  Order,  the  same 
haughty  demeanour.  They  demanded  again  and  again, 
and  in  the  most  urgent  terms,  rigid  investigation,  so 
that,  if  blameless,  as  they  asserted,  they  might  receive 
public  absolution ;  if  guilty,  might  suffer  condemnation.*^ 
Content  with  this  defiance  of  their  enemies,  Du  Molay 
and  the  other  Preceptors  returned  quietly  to  Paris.° 

There  was  a  certain  Squino  di  Florian,  Prior  of  Mont- 
falcon,  in  the  county  of  Toulouse,   who  had  squinodi 
been  condemned,  as  a  heretic  and  a  man  of  evil  f^»"'^°- 
life,  to  perpetual  imprisonment  in  the  dungeons  of  one 
of  the  royal  castles.     There  he  met  one  Koffo,  a  Flo- 


•*  See    the   Document   in    Baluzius,  '.  cum  eodem,  audito,  ut  dixerunt,  quid 


vol.  ii.  p.  174. 

"  Letter  of  Clement  to  Philip,  Ba- 
luzius, ii.  p.  74.  This  letter  is  mis- 
dated by  Baluzius.  Wilcke  has  re- 
tained the  error.  The  letter  mentions 
the  death  of  Edward  I.,  which  took 
place  July  7,  1307.  It  was  written 
when  Clement  was  at  or  near  Poitiers, 
The  King  had  left  the  city. 

«  "  Quia    vero     magister     militise 


tam  erga  nos  te  quam  eiga  aliquos  alios 
domiuos  temporales  super  prsedicto 
facto  multipliciter  eoj-um  opinio  graA'a- 
batur,  a  nobis,  nedum  semel,  sed  pluries 
cum  magna  instantia  petierunt  quod 
nos  super  illis  eis  falso  impositis,  ut 
dicebant,  vellemus  inquirere  veritatem, 
ac  eos,  si  reperirentur,  ut  asserebant 
inculpabiles,  absolvere,  vel  ipsos  si  re- 
perirentur culpabiles,  quod  nulktenu5 


Templi  ac  multi  prseceptores,  tam  de  '  credebant,  condemnare  vellemus.'  — Ex 
•egno  tuo  quam  aliis  ejusdem   ordinis    Epist.  ut  supra.      »  Raynouard,  r.  18, 

VOL.  VII.  O 


194 


LATIN  CHKISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


rentine,  an  apostate  Templar,  perhaps  some  others :  he 
contrived  to  communicate  to  the  King's  officers  that  he 
could  reveal  foul  and  monstrous  secrets  of  the  Order. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  royal  presence;  and  on  his 
attestation  the  vague  and  terrible  charges,  which  had 
been  floating  about  as  rumours,  grew  into  distinct  and 
awful  articles  of  accusation.^ 

Christendom  heard  with  amazement  and  horror  that 
Charges  this  uoblo,  proud,  and  austere  Order,  which 
Order.  had  wagcd  irreconcileable  war  wdth  the  Sara- 
cens, poured  its  best  blood,  like  water,  for  two  hundred 
years  on  the  soil  of  Palestine,  sworn  to  the  severest 
chastity  as  to  the  most  rigorous  discipline,  was  charged 
and  publicly  charged  by  the  King  of  France  with  the 
most  deliberate  infidelity,  with  the  most  revolting  lust, 
with  the  most  subtle  treason  to  Christendom .  The  sum 
of  these  charges,  as  appeared  from  the  examinations, 
was, — that  at  the  secret  initiation  into  the  Order,  each 
novice  was  compelled  to  deny  Christ,  and  to  spit  upon 
the  Cross ;  that  obscene  kisses  were  given  and  received 
by  the  candidate ;  that  an  idol,  the  head  either  of  a 
cat,  with  two  human  faces,  or  that  of  one  of  the  eleven 
thousand  virgins,  or  of  some  other  monstrous  form,  was 
the  object  of  their  secret  worship  ;  that  they  wore  a 
cord  which  had  acquired  a  magical  or  talismanic  power 
by  contact  with  this  idol ;  that  full  licence  was  granted 


P  Baluzii  Vit.  VI.  Villani,  viii.  92. 
This  was  the  current  history  of  the 
time.  The  historian  expresses,  too, 
the  prevailing  opinion  out  of  France. 
"Ma  pill  si  dice,  che  fu  per  trarre 
di  loro  molta  moneta,  e  per  isdegno 
preso  col  maestro  del  tempio,  e  colla 
magione.  II  Papa  pfr  levarsi  da  dosso 
jl  Re  di  Francia  per  la  j-ichiesta  del 


condennare  Papa  Bomfazio  ...  per 
piacere  al  Re  li  assenti  di  cio  fare.** 
Dupuy  observes  (De  la  Condemnation 
des  Templiers,  p.  8),  that  all  the 
historians  of  the  times  agree  in  this. 
He  refers  to  them.  Compare  also 
Note,  p.  193,  in  Haveman,  Geschicht« 
des  Ausgangs  des  TempelheiTen  Or- 
dens.     Stutgard,  1843. 


Chap.  I.  ARREST  OF  THE  TEMPLARS.  195 

for  the  indulgence  of  unnatural  lusts ;  that  parts  of  the 
canon  of  the  mass  were  omitted  in  their  churches  ;  that 
the  Grand  Master  and  other  great  officers,  even  when 
not  in  holy  orders,  claimed  the  power  of  granting  abso- 
lution ;  that  they  were  in  secret  league  with  the  Moham- 
medans, and  had  constantly  betrayed  the  Christian 
cause,  especially  that  of  St.  Louis  at  Mansura.  These 
were  the  formal  legal  charges,  of  which  the  accusers 
offered  to  furnish  proof,  or  to  wring  confession  by  tor- 
ture from  the  criminals  themselves.  Popular  credulity, 
terror,  hatred,  envy,  either  by  the  usual  inventiveness 
of  common  rumour,  or  by  the  industrious  malice  of  the 
King  and  his  counsellors,  darkened  even  these  crimes 
into  more  appalling  and  loathsome  acts.  If  a  Templar 
refused  to  continue  to  his  death  in  his  wickedness,  he 
was  burned  and  his  ashes  given  to  be  drank  by  the 
younger  Templars.  A  child  begotten  on  a  virgin  was 
cooked  and  roasted,  and  the  idol  anointed  with  its  fat."^ 

Philip  did  not  await  the  tardy  decision  of  the  Pop^. 
A  slower  process  might  have  banded  together  ^^rest  of  the 
this  formidable  body,  thus  driven  to  despair,  '^^■^p^^'^^. 
in  resistance  if  not  in  rebelKon.  On  the  14  th  of  Sep- 
tember, the  Feast  of  the  Elevation  of  the  Cross,  sealed 
instructions  were  issued  to  all  the  seneschals  and  other 
high  officers  of  the  crown  throughout  the  realm,  to 
summon  each  a  powerful  armed  force,  on  the  night  of 
the  12th  of  October :  then  and  not  before,  under  pain  of 
death,  to  open  those  close  instructions.^     The  instruc- 


1  See  the  eleven  articles  in  the 
Chronique  de  Saint  Denys,  Bouquet, 
p.  686.  Observe  among  the  more 
heinous  charges  is  one  that  they  refused 


avoir  donne',  qui  au  noi  avoient  fait 
contrarie'te',  laquelle  chose  e'toit  moult 
domageable  au  Ptoyaume." — Art.  vi. 
'  In  Dupuy,  i.  p.  311.     There  is  a 


to  pay  taxes  to  the  king.    "  Que  eux  re-  [  copy   of  the    orders   addressed    to   th» 
tonnureut  du  Tre'sor  du  Roi  a  aucuns    Vidame  and  the  Bailiff  of  Amiens.     It 

o  2 


196  LATIN  CHEISTIA]N-1TY.  Book  XII. 

tions  ran,  that  according  to  secret  counsels  taken  with 
the  Holy  Father  the  Pope,  with  his  cognisance  if  not 
his  sanction,  the  King  gave  command  to  arrest  on  one 
and  the  same  day  all  the  Knights  Templars  within  the 
kingdom ;  to  commit  them  to  safe  custody,  and  to  set 
the  royal  seal  on  all  their  goods,  to  make  a  careful 
inventory  thereof,  and  to  retain  them  in  the  name  of 
the  King.  Philip's  officers  were  trained  to  execute 
these  rapid  and  simultaneous  movements  for  the  appre- 
hension and  spoliation  of  some  devoted  class  of  his  sub- 
jects. That  which  had  succeeded  so  well  with  the 
defenceless  Lombards  and  Jews,  was  executed  with 
equal  promptitude  and  precision  against  the  warhke 
Templars.  In  one  day  (Friday,  October  13th),  at  tlie 
dawn  of  one  day,  with  no  single  act  of  resistance,  with 
no  single  attempt  at  flight,  as  if  not  the  slightest  inti- 
mation of  measures  which  had  been  a  month  in  pre- 
paration had  reached  their  ears ;  or  as  if,  presuming  on 
their  innocence,  numbers,  or  popularity,  they  had  not 
deigned  to  take  alarm :  the  whole  Order,  every  one  of 
these  highborn  and  vahant  warriors,  found  the  houses 
of  the  Order  surrounded  by  the  King's  soldiers,  and 
was  dragged  forth  to  prison.  The  inventory  of  the 
whole  property  was  made,  and  was  in  the  King's  power. 
In  Paris,  William  of  Nogaret  and  Reginald  de  Roye, 


is  dated  Pontisera  ("  Pontoise  ").  tio,  res  penitns  ymo  ab  o.mni  humani- 
But  the  fullest  "  instructions  "  are  tate  seposita,  dudum  fide  dignorum 
those  from  the  archives  of  Nismes,  ;  relacione  multorum  .  .  .  ."  Those 
published  by  Menard,  "  Histoire  de  employed  "  saizare  "  must  be  well 
Nismes,"  Preuves,  p.  195.  They  armed,  "in  manu  forti  ne  poisit  per 
begin  with  these  inflaming  words :  illos  fratres  et  eorum  familias  resist!." 
"  lies  amara,  res  flebilis,  res  quidem  Inquisition  was  to  be  made  "  particu- 
cogitatu  horribilis,  auditu  terribilis,  !  lariter  et  diversim  omnimodo  quo 
detestabilis  crimine,  execrabilis  sceleie,  \  poterunt,  etiam  ubi  faciendum  vide- 
Jibhominabilis  opere,  detestanda   flagi-    riut,  per  tormcnta." — p.  197. 


Chap.  I. 


FURTHER  PROCEEDINGS. 


197 


tit  executioners  of  such  a  mandate,  were  intrusted  with 
the  arrest  of  the  Grand  Master  and  the  Knights  in 
Paris.  Jacques  du  Molay  but  the  day  before  had  held 
the  pall  at  the  funeral  of  the  King's  sister.^  They  were 
confined  in  separate  dungeons.  The  royal  officers  took 
possession  of  the  strong  and  stately  mansion  which  had 
given  refuge  to  the  King.  Everywhere  throughout 
France  there  was  the  same  suddenness,  the  same 
despatch,  the  same  success.  Every  Templar  in  the 
realm  was  a  prisoner.* 

The  secrecy,  the  celerity,  the  punctuality  with  which 
those   orders  were  executed   throus^hout   the  r,  ,, 

~  rurtner  pro- 

realm,  could  not  but  excite,  even  had  they  feedings. 
been  employed  on  an  affair  of  less  moment,  amazement 
and  admhation  bordering  on  terror.  The  Templars 
were  wealthy,  powerful,  had  connexions  at  once  among 
the  highest  and  the  hmnblest  families.  They  had  been 
haughty,  insolent,  but  many  at  least  lavish  in  alms- 
giving. They  partook  of  the  sanctity  which  invested 
all  religious  bodies ;  they  were  or  had  been  the  defenders 
of  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ;  they  had  fought,  knelt, 
worshipped  in  the  Holy  Land.  It  was  prudent,  if  not 
necessary,  to  crush  at  once  all  popular  sympathy ;  to 
leave  no  doubt  of  the  King's  justice,  or  suspicion  of  his 
motives  in  seizing  such  rich  and  tempting  endowments. 
The  very  day  after  the  apprehension  of  the  Knights, 
the  Canons  of  Notre  Dame  and  the  Masters  of  the 
University  of  Paris  were  assembled  in  the  Chapter- 
house  of   that   church.      The   Chancellor   William   of 


^  "  Poele,"  Baluz.,  Vit.  I.  Michelet, 
Hist,  des  Fran^ais,  vol.  iv.  ch.  iii. 

*  Neither  the  names  nor  the  num- 
bers of  the  pi-isoners  in  other  senes- 
chalties     are     known.       Sixty    were 


anested  at  Beaucaire  :  forty- five  of 
these  incarcerated  at  Aigiies  Mortes, 
fifteen  at  Nismes.  Thirty-three  were 
committed  to  the  royal  castle  oi 
Alais. 


198 


LATIN  CHRISTIAmTY. 


BOOK  XII, 


Nogaret,  tLe  Provost  of  Paris,  and  others  of  the  King's 
ministers,  with  William  Imbert,  the  King's  Confessor 
and  Grand  Inquisitor  of  the  realm,  to  whose  jurisdiction 
the  whole  affair  was  committed,  made  their  appearance, 
and  arraigned  the  Order  on  five  enormous 
charges.*"  I.  The  denial  of  Christ  and  the 
insult  to  the  Cross ;  II.  The  adoration  of  an  idolatrous 
head ;  III.  The  kisses  at  their  reception ;  IV.  The 
omission  of  the  words  of  consecration  in  the  mass; 
V.  Unnatural  crimes.  On  the  same  day  (Saturday)  the 
theological  faculty  of  Paris  was  summoned  to  give  judge- 
ment whether  the  King  could  proceed  against  a  reli- 
gious Order  on  his  own  authority.  They  took  time  for 
their  deliberation:  their  formal  sentence  was  not  pro- 
mulgated till  some  months  after;  its  substance  was 
probably  declared  or  anticipated.  A  temporal  judge 
cannot  pass  sentence  in  case  of  heresy,  unless  summoned 
thereto  by  the  Church,  and  where  the  heretics  have 
been  made  over  to  the  secular  arm.  But  in  case  of 
necessity  he  may  apprehend  and  imprison  a  heretic, 
with  the  intent  to  deliver  him  over  to  the  Church.'' 
The  next  day  (Sunday)  the  whole  clergy  and 
the  people  from  all  the  parishes  of  the  city 
were  gathered  together  in  the  gardens  of  the  royaj 
palace.  Sermons  were  delivered  by  the  most  popular 
preachers,  the  Friars  ;  addresses  were  made  to  the  mul- 
titude by  the  King's  ministers,  denouncing,  blackening, 
aggravating  the  crimes  of  the  Templars.  No  means 
were  spared  to  allay  any  possible  movement  of  interest 


Preachings. 


"  "  Casus  enormissimos."  Baluzii 
Vit.  I.  The  first  of  these  Lives  (of  Cle- 
ment V.)  was  written  by  John,  Canon 
of  St.  Victov  in  Paris,  and  therefore  is 


the  best  authority  for  the  events  ir 
Paris. 

'^  Crevier,  ii.  p.  207.     Wilcke,  i.  p. 
284. 


Chap.  1  THE  TRIBUN-Al..  199 

in  their  favom\  Blow  followed  blow  without  pause  or 
delay ;  every  rebellious  impulse  of  sympathy,  every 
feeling  of  compunction,  respect,  gratitude,  pity,  must 
be  crushed  by  terror  out  of  the  hearts  of  men.^  The 
Grand  Inquisitor  opened  his  Court,  with  the  Chancellor, 
and  as  many  of  the  King's  ministers  as  were  present. 
The  apprehension  of  the  Templars,  in  order  to  their 
safe  custody,  and  with  the  intent  to  deliver  them  over 
to  the  Church,  was  assumed,  or  declared  to  be  within 
the  province  of  the  temporal  power.  The  final  judge- 
ment was  reserved  for  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops : 
but  the  Head  of  the  Inquisition,  the  Dominican  William 
Imbert,  thus  lent  the  terrors  of  his  presence  to  the 
King's  commission. 

The  tribunal  sat  from  day  to  day,  endeavouring  to 
extort  confession  from  the  one  hundred  and  xhetribu- 
forty  prisoners,  who  were  separately  examined.  "*^- 
These  men,  some  brave  and  well-born,  but  mostly  rude 
and  illiterate  soldiers,  some  humble  servitors  of  the 
Order,  were  brought  up  from  their  dungeons  without 
counsel,  mutual  communication,  or  legal  advice,  and 
submitted  to  every  trial  which  subtlety  or  cruelty  could 
invent,  or  which  could  work  on  the  feebler  or  the  firmer 
mind, — shame,  terror,  pain,  the  hope  of  impunity,  of 
reward.  Confession  was  bribed  out  of  some  by  offers 
of  indulgence,  wrung  from  others  by  the  dread  of 
torture,  by  actual  torture, — torture,  with  the  various 
ways  of  which  our  hearts  must  be  shocked,  that  we  may 
judge  more  fairly  on  their  effects.  These  Avere  among 
the  forms  of  procedure  by  torture  in  those  times,  with- 
out doubt  mercilessly  employed  in  the  dungeons  which 


y  "  Ne  populus  scaiidalizaretur  de  eorum  tam  subitanea  captioue.     trau! 
quippe  potentissimi  divitiis  et  honore." — Vit.  I,  p.  9 


200  LATIX  CHRISTIAXITY.  Book  XII. 

confined  the  Templars.     The  criminal  was  stripped,  his 
hands  tied  behind  him  :  the  cord  which  lashed 

Tortui-es.      n   .       -,  t       ^  ^^  1      '    1 

his  hands  hung  upon  a  pulley  at  some  height 
above.  At  the  sign  of  the  judge  he  Avas  hauled  up  with 
a  frightful  wrench,  and  then  violently  let  fall  to  the 
ground.  This  was  called  in  tlie  common  phrase,  hoisting. 
It  was  the  most  usual,  perhaps  the  mildest  form  of 
torture.  After  that  the  feet  of  the  criminal  were  fixed 
in  a  kind  of  stocks,  rubbed  with  oil,  and  fire  applied  to 
the  soles.  If  he  showed  a  disposition  to  confess,  a  board 
was  driven  between  his  feet  and  the  fire  ;  if  he  gave  no 
further  hopes,  it  was  withdrawn  again.  Then  iron  boots 
were  fitted  to  the  naked  heels,  and  contracted  either  by 
wedges  or  in  some  other  manner.  Splinters  of  wood 
were  driven  up  the  nails  into  the  finger-joints;  teeth 
were  wrenched  out ;  heavy  weights  hung  on  the  most 
sensitive  parts  of  the  body,  even  on  the  genitals.  And 
these  excruciating  agonies  were  inflicted  by  the  basest 
executioners,  on  proud  men,  suddenly  degraded  into 
criminals,  their  spirits  shattered  either  by  the  sudden 
withdrawal  from  the  light  of  day,  from  the  pride,  pomp, 
it  might  be  the  luxury  of  life  into  foul,  narrow,  sunless 
dungeons  ;  or  more  slowly  broken  by  long  incarceration 
in  these  clammy,  noisome  holes :  some  almost  starved. 
The  effect  upon  their  minds  will  appear  hereafter  from 
the  horror  and  shuddering  agony  with  which  they  are 
reverted  to  by  the  bravest  Knights.  If  their  hard 
frames,  inured  to  endurance  in  adventure  and  war, 
might  feel  less  acutely  the  bodily  sufferings,  their  lofty 
and  generous  minds  would  be  more  sensitive  to  the 
shame  and  degradation.  Knights  were  racked  like  the 
basest  slaves ;  and  there  was  nothing  to  awaken,  every- 
thing to  repress,  the  pride  of  endurance ;  no  publicity, 
nothing  of  the  stern  consolation  of  defying,  or  bearing 


ClIAP.  1. 


CONFESSIONS. 


201 


bravely  or  contemptuously  before  the  eyes  of  men  the 
f  ruel  agony.  It  was  all  secret,  all  in  the  depths  of  the 
gloomy  dungeon,  where  human  sympathy  and  human 
admu-ation  could  not  find  their  way.  And  according 
to  the  rigour  and  the  secrecy  of  the  torture  was  the 
terrible  temptation  of  the  weak  or  fearful,  of  those 
whose  patience  gave  way  with  the  first  wrench  of  the 
rack,  to  purchase  impunity  by  acknowledging  whatever 
the  accuser  might  suggest :  to  despair  of  themselves,  of 
the  Order,  whose  doom  might  seem  irretrievably,  irrevoc- 
ably sealed.  Their  very  vices  (and  no  doubt  many  had 
vices),  the  unmeasured  haughtiness  of  most,  the  licen- 
tious self-indulgence  of  some,  would  aggravate  the 
trial ;  utter  prostration  would  follow  overweening  pride, 
softness,  luxury. 

Some  accordingly  admitted  at  once  or  slowly,  and 
with  bitter  tears,  a  part  or  the  whole  of  the 
charges ;  some  as  it  seemed,  touched  with 
repentance,  some  at  the  threats,  at  the  sight  of  the 
instruments  of  torture ;  some  not  till  after  long  actual 
suffering ;  some  beguiled  by  bland  promises ;  some 
subdued  by  starvation  in  prison.  Many,  hoAvever,  per- 
severed to  the  end  in  calm  and  steadfast  denial,  more 
retracted  their  confessions,  and  expired  upon  the  rack.^ 
The  King  himself,  by  one  account,  was  present  at  the 
examination  of  the  Grand  Master :  the  awe  of  the  royal 
presence  wrought  some  to  confession.     But  Philip  with- 


*  "  Factumque  est  ut  corum  non- 
nuUi  sponte  qua-dara  prsemissorum  vel 
omnia  lacrymabiliter  sunt  confessi. 
Alii  quidem,  ut  videbatur,  poenitentia 
ducti,  alii  autem  diversis  tormentis 
quaestionati,vel  comminatione  vel  eorum 
aspectu  perterriti ;  alii  blandis  tracti 
promissionibus  et  illecti  ;  alii  carceris 


inedia  cruciati  vel  coacti  multiplici* 
terque  compulsi.  .  .  .  Multi  tamen 
penitus  omnia  negaverunt,  et  plures 
qui  confessi  primo  fuerunt  ad  nega- 
tionem  postea  reversi  sunt,  in  ea  for- 
titer  peiseverantes,  quorum  nonnulli 
inter  ipsa  supplicia  perierunt," — Con* 
tinuat.  Nangis. 


202 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


drew,  it  should  seem,  when  tortures  were  actually 
applied,  under  which,  it  is  said,  in  the  unintentional 
irony  of  the  historian,  some  willingly  confessed,  though 
others  died  without  confession.  To  those  who  confessed 
the  King  seemed  disposed  to  hold  out  the  possibility  of 
mercy.* 

After  some  interval  the  University  of  Paris  was  sum- 
Confession  moucd  to  tlic  Temple  to  hear  nothing  less  than 
Master.  the  confcssiou  of  the  Grand  Master  himself. 
How  Du  Molay  was  wrought  to  confession,  by  what 
persuasion  or  what  violence,  remained  among  the  secrets 
of  his  dungeon ;  it  is  equally  uncertain  what  were  the 
articles  which  he  confessed.  Some  at  this  trial  asserted 
that  the  accursed  form  of  initiation  had  been  unknown 
in  the  Order  till  within  the  last  forty  years.  But  this 
was  not  enough ;  they  must  be  won  or  compelled,  to 
more  full  acknowledgement.  At  a  second  session  before 
the  University  the  Master  and  the  rest  pleaded  guilty, 
and  in  the  name  of  the  whole  Order,  to  all  the  charges.^ 
The  King's  Almoner,  the  Treasurer  of  the  Temple  at 
Paris,  made  the  same  confession.  But  this  confession 
of  the  Grand  Master,  however  industriously  bruited 
abroad,  in  whatever  form  it  might  seem  fit  to  the  enemies 
of  the  Order,  though  no  doubt  it  had  a  powerful  effect 


•  "  Magister  militias  Templariorum 
cum  multis  militibus,  et  viris  magnis 
sui  Ordinis  captus  apud  Parisios  coram 
Rege  productus  fuisset.  Tunc  quidam 
ipsorum  propter  verecundiam  verita- 
tem  de  prasmissis  denegaverunt,  et 
quidam  alii  ipsam  sibi  confessi  fue- 
runt.  Sed  postea  illi  qui  denegabant 
cum  tormentis  ipsam  tunc  libenter 
confitebantur,  et  aliqui  ipsorum  in 
tormentis    »ine   confessione   morieban- 


tur,  vel  comburebantur  (the  burning 
was  later).  Et  tunc  de  confitentibus 
ultra  (ultro?)  veritatem  ipse  mitius 
se  habebat." — Vit.  VI.  apud  Baluz. 
p.  101. 

^  They  were  not  content  to  admi* 
*'  quosdam  articulorum."  ■'  Item  in 
alia  coiigregatione  coram  Universitatt 
Magister  et  alii  plures  simplioiter  sun/ 
confessi,  et  Magister  pro  toto  Ordine.*' 
—Vit.  I.  p.  10. 


CiiAP.  I.      INTERROGATORIES  IN  THE  PROVINCES.  203 

upon  tlie  weaker  brethren  who  sought  a  precedent  for 
their  weakness,  and  with  those  w^ho  might  think  a  cause 
abandoned  by  the  Grand  Master  utterly  desperate,  by 
no  means  produced  complete  submission.  Still  a  great 
number  of  the  Knights  repudiated  the  base  example, 
disbelieved  its  authenticity,  or  excused  it,  as  wrung 
from  him  by  intolerable  tortures ;  they  sternly  adhered 
to  their  denial.  One  brave  old  Knight  in  the  South 
declared  that  "  if  the  Grand  Master  had  uttered  such 
things,  he  had  lied  in  his  throat." 

The  interrogatory  had  done  its  w^ork.  The  prisoners 
were  carried  back  to  their  dungeons,  some  in  the 
Temple,  some  in  the  Louvre,  and  in  other  prisons.  The 
Grand  Master  with  the  three  Preceptors  of  the  Order 
were  transferred  to  the  royal  castle  of  Corbeil;  the 
Treasurers  to  Moret.  In  these  prisons  many  died  of 
hunger,  of  remorse,  and  anguish  of  mind ;  some  hung 
themselves  in  despair.^ 

With  no  less  awful  despatch  proceeded  the  interro- 
gatories in  other  parts  of  France.  Everywhere  torture 
was  prodigally  used ;  everywhere  was  the  same  result, 
some  free  confessions,  some  retractations  of  confessions ; 
some  bold  and  inflexible  denials  of  the  whole;  some 
equivocations,  some  submissions  manifestly  racked  out 
of  unwilling  witnesses  by  imprisonment,  exhaustion, 
and  agony. 

The    Grand    Inquisitor   proceeded   on   a   circuit   t<: 
Bayeux :  in  the  other  northern  cities  he  dele-  jnterrogato- 
gated  his  work  usually  to  Dominican  Friars,  ^pfovin^t 
Thirteen  were   examined   at  Caen,    seven  of  «<=*•  ^s.  i307. 
them   had   been   previously   interrogated   at   Pont   de 


c  "  Ubi  fama  referebat,  plures  mortuos  fuisse  inedia,  vel  cordis  tristiti^  vd 
ex  desperatione  snspendio  periise." — Vit.  I. 


204 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII 


I'Arclie.  Twelve  made  confession  after  torture,  on  the 
promise  of  absolution  from  the  Church,  and  securit} 
against  secular  punishment.  Ten  others  were  examined 
at  Pont  de  I'Arche.  In  the  south,  of  seven  at  Cahors, 
two  recanted  their  confession.  At  Clermont  twentv- 
nine  obstinately  denied  the  charges,  forty  admitted  their 
truth.  Two  German  Templars,  returning  from  Paris, 
were  arrested  at  Chaumont,  in  Lorraine ;  they  stead- 
fastly denied  the  whole.  In  the  seneschalty  of  Beaucaire 
and  Nismes"^  sixty-six  Templars  had  been  arrested  by 
Edward  de  Maubrisson  and  William  de  St.  Just,  the 
Lieutenant  of  the  Seneschal,  Bertrand  Jourdain  de 
risle.  They  had  been  committed  to  different  prisons. 
Edward  de  Maubrisson  held  his  first  sitting  at  Aigues 
Mortes  upon  forty-five  who  were  in  the  dungeons  of 
that  city.  The  King's  Advocate,  the  King's  Justice, 
and  two  other  nobles  were  present,  but  no  ecclesiastic 
either  during  this  or  any  of  the  subsequent  sessions. 
According  to  the  precise  instructions  the  following 
questions  were  put  to  the  criminals,  but  cautiously  and 
carefully,^  and  at  first  only  in  general  terms,  in  order  to 
elicit  free  confession.  Where  it  was  necessary  torture  was 
to  be  applied.  I.  That  on  the  reception  the  postulant 
was  led  into  a  sacristy  behind  the  altar,  commanded 
thrice  to  deny  Christ,  and  to  spit  on  the  crucifix.  Then, 
11.  When  he  was  unclothed,  the  Liitiator  kissed  him 
on  the  navel,  the  spine,  and  the  mouth.  III.  He  was 
granted  full  licence  for  the  indulgence  of  unnatural 
lusts.     IV.   Girt  with  a  cord  which  had   been  drawn 


•*  In  this  seneschalty  lay  the  great 
estate  of  William  of  Nogavet.  There  are 
several  royal  grants  in  the  documents  at 
liie  end  of  Menard,  Histoire  de  Nismes, 


vol.  i.,  which  show  that  Nogaret  was 
not  sparingly  rewarded,   even   by  hi* 
parsimonious  king,  for  his  services 
*  "  Caute  et  diligenter." 


Chap.  I  CO^"F£Sf5tO^^S.  20S 

across  the  iclol-liead.  In  the  provincial  chapters  an  idol, 
a  human  head  was  worshipped.  V.  The  clerical  brethren 
were  alone  to  be  pressed  on  the  omission  of  the  words 
in  the  mass. 

Eight  servitors  were  first  introduced.  They  confessed 
the  whole  of  the  first  charges ;  they  declared  ^^^^  g, 
that  they  had  denied  Christ  in  fear  of  impri-  ^^'^^• 
sonment,  even  of  death ;  but  they  had  denied  him  with 
the  lips,  not  the  heart ;  they  swore  that  they  had  never 
committed  unnatural  crimes;  of  the  idol  and  the  omis- 
sion of  the  words  in  the  mass  they  knew  nothing.  On 
the  following  day  thirty-five  more  were  examined,  all 
servitors  except  one  clerk  and  three  Knights,  Pons 
Seguin,  Bertrand  de  Silva,  Bertrand  de  Salgues.  The 
same  confession,  word  for  word,  the  same  reservation : 
the  priest  alone  acknowledged  that  he  had  administered 
an  unconsecrated  Host,  omitting  the  words  of  consecra- 
tion ;  but  in  his  heart  he  had  never  neglected  to  utter 
them.  There  is  tliroughout  the  same  determination  to 
limit  the  confession  to  the  narrowest  bounds,  to  keep 
to  the  words  of  the  charges,  absolutely  to  exculpate 
themselves,  and  to  criminate  the  Order,  from  which 
some  might  rejoice  to  be  released,  others  think  irre- 
vocably doomed.  They  were  all  afterwards  summoned, 
in  the  presence  of  two  monks  in  the  Dominican  cloistei 
at  Nismes,  to  whom  tlie  Grand  Inquisitor  had  given 
power  to  act  for  the  Holy  Office,  to  repeat  their 
confession,  and  admonished  wdthin  eight  days  stili 
further  to  confess  any  heresies  of  which  they  might 
have  been  guilty.  Maubrisson  also  passed  to  Nismes; 
fifteen  servitors  were  interrogated ;  there  were  the 
game  confessions,  the  same  denials.  At  Carcassonne 
the  Preceptor  of  the  wealthy  house  of  Yilledieu,  Cas- 
saignes,   with   four   others,   was   examined   before   the 


206 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  Xlt 


Poitiers. 
Oct,  27. 


Bishop,  Peter  de  Kochefort:    they  admitted  all,  even 
the  idol/ 

The  Pope  was  no  less  astounded  than  the  rest  of 
Conduct  of  Christendom  by  this  sudden  and  rapid  measure, 
the  Pope.  gQ  opposite  to  the  tardy  and  formal  procedures 
of  the  Boman  Court.  It  was  a  flagrant  and  insulting 
invasion  of  the  Papal  rights,  the  arrest  of  a  whole 
religious  Order,  under  the  special  and  peculiar  pro- 
tection of  the  Pope,  and  the  seizure  of  all  their  estates 
and  goods,  so  far  as  yet  appeared,  for  the  royal  use. 
It  looked  at  first  like  a  studied  exclusion  of  all  spiritual 
persons  even  from  the  interrogatory.  Clement 
could  not  suppress  his  indignation :  he  broke 
out  into  angry  expressions  against  the  King ;  he  issued 
a  Bull,  in  which  he  declared  it  an  unheard-of  measure 
that  the  secular  power  should  presume  to  judge  religious 
persons ;  to  the  Pope  alone  belonged  the  jurisdiction  over 
the  Knights  Templars.  He  deposed  William  Imbert  from 
the  office  of  Grand  Inquisitor,  as  having  presumptuously 
overstepped  his  powers.  He  sent  two  Legates,  the  Cardi- 
nal Berenger  of  Fredeol  and  Stephen  of  Suza,  to  demand 
the  surrender  of  the  prisoners  and  of  their  estates  to  the 
Pope.  In  a  letter  to  the  Archbishops  of  Eheims,  Bourges 
and  Tours,  he  declared  that  he  had  been  utterly  amazed 
at  the  arrest  of  the  Templars,  and  the  hasty  proceedings 
of  the  Grand  Inquisitor,  who,  though  he  lived  in  his  im- 
mediate neighbourhood,  had  given  him  no  intimation  of 
the  King's  design.  He  had  his  own  views  on  the  subject ; 
his  mind  could  not  be  induced  to  believe  the  charges." 


^  The  report,  the  fullest  and  most 
minute  of  all,  as  to  the  interrogatories 
at  Nismes,  is  dated  1310.  But  it 
contains  the  earlier  proceedings  from 
the  beginning  of  the  prosecution  out 


of  the  Authentic  Acts.     I  have  there- 
fore dwelt  upon  it  more  at  length.— 
Menard,    Hist,    de   Nismes,    p.    44^ 
Preuves,  p.  195. 

•f  Dachery,  Spicilegium,  x.  366. 


Chap.  I.  MESSAGE  TO  EXGLATn^D.  207 

But,  when  the  fii'st  impulse  of  his  wrath  was  over,  the 
Pope  felt  his  own  impotence ;  he  was  in  the  toils,  in 
the  power,  now  imprudently  within  the  dominions,  of  the 
relentless  Philip  ;  his  resentment  speedily  cooled  down. 
The  great  prelates  of  France  arrayed  themselves  on  the 
side  of  the  King.  The  King  held  secret  councils  at 
Melun,  and  at  other  places,  with  the  Princes  and  Bishops 
of  the  realm,  meditating,  it  might  be,  strong  measures 
against  the  Pope.  Somewhat  later,  the  Archbishop  of 
Rheims  announced  to  the  King  that  himself,  with  his 
Suffragans  and  Chapter,  had  met  at  Senlis,  and  were 
prepared  to  aid  the  King  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
Templars.^ 

The  King  of  France  had  laid  down  a  wide  scheme  for 
the  suppression  of  the  Templars,  not  in  his  own  domi- 
nions alone,  but  throughout  Christendom.  Abolished 
on  account  of  their  presumed  irregularities  in  France, 
they  could  not  be  permitted,  as  involved  in  the  same 
guilt,  to  subsist  in  the  English  dominions  in  France,  in 
Provence,  or  even  in  England.  Already,  on  Messages 
the  issuing  the  instructions  for  their  arrest,  ^"s^^^**- 
Philip  had  despatched  an  ecclesiastic,  Bernard  Pelet,  to 
his  son-in-law,  Edward  II.  of  England,  to  inform  him  of 
their  guilt  and  heresy,  and  to  urge  him  to  take  the 
same  measures  for  their  apprehension.  Edward  and 
his  Barons  declared  themselves  utterly  amazed  at  the 
demand.^  Neither  he  nor  his  Prelates  and  Barons  could 
at  first  credit  the  abominable  and  execrable  charges; 
but  before  the  end  of  the  year,  the  Pope  himself,  as 


•  "  Ad  vestram  presenciam  duximus 
destinandum  (episcopum)  ad  assentien- 
dum    secundum    Deum    et    justitiam 


vestrae    majestatk" — Archives    Admi-  [  Rymer,  iii.  ad  ann.  1307. 


nistrat.  de  Rheims,  Collect.  Documenti 
Ine'dits,  ii.  65. 

'  22nd  Sept.,  Edwardus  Philippo.— 


208 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XIL 


if  unwilling  that  Edward,  as  Philip  had  done,  should 
take  the  affair  into  his  own  hands  and  proceed  without 
Papal  authority,  hastened  to  issue  a  Bull,  in  which  he 
commanded  the  King  to  arrest  all  the  Templars  in  his 
dominions,  and  to  sequester  their  lands  and  property. 
The  Bull,  however,  seemed  studiously  to  limit  the  guilt 
to  individual  members  of  the  Order>  The  goods  were 
to  be  retained  for  the  service  of  the  Holy  Land,  if  the 
Order  should  be  condemned,  otherwise  to  be  preserved 
for  the  Order.  It  referred  to  the  confession  of  the 
Grand  Master  at  Paris,  that  this  abuse  had  crept  in  at 
the  instigation  of  Satan,  contrary  to  the  Institutes  of 
the  Order.  The  Pope  declares  that  one  brother  of  the 
Order,  a  man  of  high  birth  and  rank,  had  made  full 
confession  to  himself  of  his  crime  ;  that  in  the  kingdom 
of  Cyprus  a  noble  knight  had  made  his  abnegation  of 
Cln-ist  at  the  command  of  the  Grand  Master  in  the 
presence  of  a  hundred  knights. 

King  Edward  had  hesitated.  On  the  4th  December, 
as  though  under  the  influence  of  the  Templars  them- 
selves, he  wrote  to  the  Kings  of  Portugal,  Castile,  Sicily, 
and  Arragon.  He  expressed  strong  suspicion  of  Bernard 
Pelet,  who  had  presumed  to  make  some  horrid  and  de- 
testable accusations  against  the  Order,  and  endeavoured 
by  letters  of  certain  persons,  which  he  had  produced 
(those  of  the  King  of  France),  but  had  procured,  as 
Edward  believed,  by  undue  means,  to  induce  the  King 
to  imprison  all  the  brethren  of  the  Temple  in  his  do- 
minions. He  urged  those  Kings  to  avert  their  ears 
from  the  calumniators  of  the  Order,  to  join  him  in  pro 


^  "  Quod  singuli  fratres  dicti  or- 
iinis  in  sua  professione  .  .  .  expressis 
raibis  abne^ant  Jes.  Christum.  .   .   ." 


See  the  Bull,  "  Pastoralis  prseeminen- 
tice  solio." — Raynaldus  sub  ann.  Nov. 
22,  Ryraer. 


Chap.  I.  KING  OF  NAPLES.  209 

tecting  the  Knights  from  the  avarice  and  jealousy  of 
their  enemies.™  Still  later,  King  Edward,  in  a  letter  to 
the  Pope,  asserts  the  pure  faith  and  lofty  morals  of  the 
Order,  and  speaks  of  the  detractions  and  calumnies  of 
a  few  persons  jealous  of  their  greatness,  and  convicted 
of  ill  will  to  tlie  Order." 

The  Papal  Bull  either  appalled  or  convinced  the 
King  of  England.  Only  five  days  after  his 
letter  (the  Bull  having  arrived  in  the  interim), 
orders  were  issued  to  the  sheriffs  for  the  general  arrest 
of  the  Templars  throughout  England.  The  persons  of 
the  Knights  were  to  be  treated  with  respect,  the  in- 
ventory of  their  names  and  effects   returned 

Dec  20 

into  the  Exchequer  at  Westminster.  The 
same  instructions  were  sent  to  Wales,  Ireland,  and 
Scotland.  On  the  28th  December  the  King  informed 
the  Pope  that  he  would  speedily  carry  his  commands 
into  execution.  On  the  Wednesday  after  Epiphany  the 
arrest  took  place  with  the  same  simultaneous  prompti- 
tude as  in  France,  and  without  resistance. 

The  King  of  Naples,  as  Count  of  Provence,  followed 
exactly  the  plan  of  the  King  of  France.  He  King  of 
transmitted  sealed  instructions  to  all  the  ^^^^^^ 
officers  of  the  Crown,  which  were  to  be  opened  on  the 
24th  January.  On  the  25th  all  the  Templars  in  Pro- 
vence and  Forcalquier  were  committed  to  the  prisons  of 
Aix  and  Pertuis ;  those  of  the  counties  of  Nice,  Grafe. 
St.  Maurice,  and  the  houses  in  Avignon  and  Aries,  to 
the  Castle  of  Meirargues. 

Just  at  this  juncture  an  appalling  event  took  place. 


™  "  Aures  vestras  a  pevversorum  de- 
tractionibus,  qui,  ut  credimus,  non  zelo 
-ectitudinis  sed  cupiditntis  et  invidi 


spiritibus  excitantur,  avertere  velitis 
— Redyng.  Dec.  4,  Rymer  sub  ann. 
°  R/mer,  Dec.  10, 


VOL.  VII.  ^ 


210 


Latin  crkistianity. 


BooKxa 


whicli  in  some  degree  distracted  the  attention  of  Chris- 
Death  of  the  tendom  from  the  rapidly  unfolding  tragedy 
Emperor.  ^^  ^]^q  Tomplars,  and  had  perhaps  no  incon- 
siderable though  remote  influence  on  their  doom.  The 
Emperor  Albert  was  murdered  at  Konigstein  by  his  own 
nephew,  John,  in  the  full  view  of  their  ancestral  house.** 
The  King  of  France  was  known  to  aspire  to  the  impe- 
rial crown,  if  not  for  himself,  for  his  brother  Charles  of 
Charles  of  Valois.  He  instautlv  despatched  ambassadors 
the  Empire,  to  sccurc  tlio  support  of  the  Popo  for  Charles 
of  Valois — Charles,  the  old  enemy  of  Clement,  to  whom 
he  had  been  reconciled  only  on  compulsion.  It  is  even 
asserted  that  he  demanded  this  as  the  last,  the  secret 
stipulation,  sworn  to  by  the  Pope  when  he  sold  himself 
to  the  King  for  the  tiara.^     But  the  accumulation  of 


*»  Coxe  has  told  coldly  the  terrible 
vengeance  of  the  Empress  Agnes.  She 
witnessed  the  execution  of  sixty-three 
of  the  retainers  of  the  Lord  of  Balm, 
the  accomplice  of  John  of  Hapsburg. 
•'  Now,"  she  said,  as  the  blood  flowed, 
"I  bathe  in  honey  dew,"  She  founded 
the  magnificent  convent  of  Konigstein, 
of  which  fine  ruins  remain.  Chris- 
tianity still  finds  a  voice  in  the  wildest 
and  worst  times.  The  rebuke  of  the 
hermit  to  the  vengeful  Empi-ess  must 
be  heard :  "  God  is  not  served  by 
shedding  innocent  blood,  and  by  build- 
ing convents  from  the  plunder  of 
families,  but  by  confession  and  for- 
giveness of  injuries." — Compare  Coxe's 
Austria,  ch.  vi. 

P  "  Rex  autem  Frnnciaj  Philippus, 
audita  vacatione  imperii,  cogitavit 
facile  posse  imperium  redire  ad  Fran- 
cos, ratione  sext^e  promissiouis  factae 
sibi  a  Papa,  si  operam  daiet  ut  papa 
crearetur,  sicut  factum  est.    Nam  cum 


explicasset  jam  eam,  videlicet  in  de- 
lendo  quicquid  gestum  fuit  per  Boni- 
facium  et  memoriam  ejus,  ad  quod 
Papa  se  difficultahat,  et  in  posterum 
hoc  offerebat  agendum,  arbitratus  est 
Rex  commutari  faceiequod  fuerat  pos- 
tulatum  ab  eo  in  sibi  utilius  et  honors 
bilius  negotium,  ut  videlicet  loco  prae- 
dictae  petitionis  hoc  concederetur,  ut 
Dominus  Carolus  Valisiensis,  frater 
ejus  eligeretur  in  Imperatorem.  Quod 
satis  a?quam  et  exiguibile  vidobatur, 
cum  Bonifacius  Papa  hoc  ei  promissis' 
set,  et  ad  hoc  multa  fecerat  pro  ecclesia. 
Sed  et  olim  imperium  fuerat  apud  Fran- 
cos tempore  Caroli  magni,  translatum 
a  Grascis  ad  eos,  sic  possit  transire  de 
Teutonicis  ad  Francos," — S.  Antonini 
Chronicon,  iii.  p.  276.  This  Chronicle 
is  a  compilation  in  the  words  of  other 
writers,  but  shows  what  writers  were 
held  in  best  esteem,  when  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Florence  (afterwards  canon 
ised)  wiote  during  the  next  century. 


Ghap.  I.  HENRY  OF  LUXEMBURG.  211 

crowns  on  the  heads  of  the  princes  of  France  was  not 
more  formidable  to  the  liberties  of  Europe  than  to  the 
Pope,  who  must  inevitably  sink  even  into  more  ignoble 
vassalage.  A  Valois  ruled  in  France  and  in  Naples. 
A  daughter  of  the  King  of  France  w^as  on  the  throne 
Df  England :  it  might  be  hoped,  or  foreseen,  that  the 
^oung,  beautiful,  and  ambitious  bride  might  wean  her 
feeble  husband  from  the  disgraceful  thraldom  of  his 
minions,  and  govern  him  who  could  not  govern  himself. 
If  Charles  were  Emperor,  what  power  in  Europe  could 
then  resist  or  control  this  omnipotent  house  of  Valois  ? 

Philip  had  already  bought  the  vote  and  support  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  ;  he  anticipated  the  tame 
acquiescence  of  the  Pope.  Charles  of  Valois  visited  the 
Pope  with  the  ostentation  of  respect,  but  at  the  head  of 
six  thousand  men-at-arms. 

But  the  sagacious  Cardinal  da  Prato  was  at  hand  to 
keep  alive  the  fears  and  to  guide  the  actions  of  Clement. 
The  Pope  had  no  resource  but  profound  dissimulation, 
or  rather  consummate  falsehood.  He  wrote  publicly  to 
recommend  Charles  of  Valois  to  the  electors  ;  his  secret 
agents  urged  them  to  secure  their  own  liberties  and  the 
independence  of  the  Church  by  any  other  choice.**  The 
election  dra2:2:ed  on  for  some  months  of  doubt,  Henry  of 

1     •         •  *        1  1      Tx  Luxemburg 

vacillation,  and  intrigue.  At  length  Henry  Emperor. 
of  Luxemburg  was  named  King  of  the  Romans/ 
Clement  pretended  to  submit  to  the  hard  necessity  of 
consenting  to  a  choice  in  which  six  of  the  electors  had 
concurred;  he  could  no  longer  in  decency  assert  the 
claims  of  Charles  of  Valois.  Philip  suppressed  but  did 
not  the  less  brood  over  his  disappointment  and  wrath. 


<i  "  Sed  omnipotens  Deus  (writes  S. 
Antoninus)  qui  dissipat  cousilia  prin- 
cipum  .  .  .  non  permisit   rem  ipsam 


suum  habere  effectum,  ne  ecclesia  regnc 
Francise  subjiceretur." — Ibid. 
'  At  Frankfort,  Nov.  27,  1308 

p  2 


212  LATIN  CHRISTIANITV.  13ook  XII. 

Thus  all  this  time,  if  Clement  had  any  lingering 
desire  to  show  favour  or  justice  to  the  Templars,  or  to 
maintain  the  Order,  it  had  sunk  into  an  object  not  only 
secondary  to  that  which  he  thought  his  paramount  duty 
and  the  chief  interest  of  the  Papacy,  to  avert  the  con- 
demnation from  the  memory  of  Boniface ;  but  also  to 
that  of  rescuing  the  imperial  crown  from  the  grasp  of 
France.  To  contest  a  third,  a  more  doubtful  issue  with 
King  Philip,  was  in  his  situation,  and  with  his  pliant 
character,  with  his  fatal  engagements,  and  his  want  of 
vigour  and  moral  dignity,  beyond  his  powers. 

The  King  neglected  no  means  to  overawe  the  Pope. 
Parliament  ^0  had  succccded  in  making  his  quarrel  with 
(.f  Tours.  pQpg  Boniface  a  national  question.  For  the 
first  time  the  Commons  of  France  had  been  summoned 
formally  and  distinctly  to  the  Parliament,  which  had 
given  weight  and  dignity  to  the  King's  proceedings 
against  Pope  Boniface.^  The  States-General,  the 
burghers  and  citizens,  as  well  as  the  nobles  and  pre- 
lates, the  whole  French  nation,  were  now  again  sum- 
moned to  a  Parliament  at  Tours  on  May  1.  Philip 
knew  that  by  this  time  he  had  penetrated  the  whole 
realm  with  his  hatred  of  the  Templars.  The  Order 
had  been  long  odious  to  the  clergy,  as  interfering  with 
their  proceedings,  and  exercising  spiritual  functions  at 
least  within  their  own  precincts.  The  Knights  sat 
proudly  aloof  in  their  own  fastnesses,  and  despised  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  or  the  Metropolitan.  The 
excommunication,  the  interdict,  which  smote  or  silenced 
the  clergy,  had  no  effect  within  the  walls  of  the  Temple 
I'heir  bells  tolled,  their  masses  were  chanted,  when  all 
the  rest  of  the  kingdom  was  in  silence  and  sorrow ;  men 


»  See  above,  p.  117. 


Chap. 


PARLIAMENT  OF  TOURS. 


213 


fled  to  them  to  find  the  consolations  forbidden  else- 
where. Their  ample  and  growing  estates  refused  to 
pay  tithe  to  the  clergy ;  their  exemption  rested  on 
Papal  authority.  It  was  one  of  tlie  charges  which  in 
enormity  seemed  to  be  not  less  hateful  than  the  most 
awful  blasphemy  or  the  fonlest  indulgences,  that  the 
great  officers,  the  Grand  Master,  though  not  in  orders, 
dared  to  pronounce  the  absolution.  The  Nobles  w^ero 
jealous  of  a  privileged  Order,  and  no  doubt  with  the 
commonalty  looked  to  some  lightening  of  their  own 
burthens  from  the  confiscation,  to  which  they  would 
willingly  give  then'  suffrage,  of  the  estates  of  the 
Templars ;  nor  did  these  proud  feudal  lords  like  men 
prouder  than  themselves.*  Among  the  commonalty 
the  dark  rumours  so  industriously  disseminated,  the 
reports  of  full  and  revolting  confessions,  had  now  been 
long  working  ;  the  popular  mind  was  fully  possessed 
with  horror  at  these  impious,  execrable  practices.  At 
particular  periods,  free  institutions  are  the  most  ready 
and  obsequious  instruments  of  tyranny  :  the  popular 
Parliament  of  Philip  the  Fair  sanctioned,  by  their  ac- 
clamation, his  worst  iniquities  ;"  and  the  politic  Philip, 
before  this  appeal  to  the  people,  knew  well  to  what 
effect  the  popular  voice  would  speak.  The  Parliament 
of  Tours,  with  hardly  a  dissentient  vote,  declared  the 
Templars  worthy  of  death.^  The  University  of  Paris 
gave  the  weight  of  their  judgement  as  to  the  fulness 
and  authenticity  of  the  confessions ;  at  the  same  time 
they  reasserted  the  sole  right  of  the  Roman  Court  to 
pass  the  final  sentence. 


'  Eight  of  the  nobility  of  Languedoc, 
at  the  Parliament  of  Tours,  entrusted 
their  powers  to  William  of  Nogaret. — 
Hist,  de  Languedoc,  iv.  146. 

"  ''  Intendebat  enim   Rex  sapienter 


agere.    Et  ideo  volebat  hominem  cujus- 
libet  cnnditionis  regni  sui  habere  judi- 
cium vel  assensum,  ne  possit  in  aliquc 
reprehendi." — Wt.  i.  p.  12. 
»  Vit.  i.  ibid. 


214  LATIN  CHRISTIANIT'y.  Bock  XII. 

From  Tours,  the  King,  with  his  sods,  brothers,  and 
chief  counsellors,  proceeded  at  Whitsuntide  to  the  Pope 
at  Poitiers.  He  came  armed  with  the  Acts  of  the 
General  Estates  of  the  realm.  They  were  laid  before 
the  Pope  by  William  de  Plasian.  The  Pope  was  sum- 
moned to  proceed  against  the  Order  for  confessed  and 
notorious  heresy. 

This  appeal  to  his  tribunal  seemed  to  awaken  Clement 
to  tlie  consciousness  of  his  strength.  For  the  temporal 
power  to  assume  the  right,  even  now  when  the  Pope 
was  in  the  King's  realm,  of  adjudging  in  causes  of 
heresy,  was  too  flagrant  an  invasion  on  the  spiritual 
power.  The  fate  of  the  Order  too  must  depend  on  the 
Pope.  The  King  might  seize,  imprison,  interrogate, 
even  put  to  the  torture,  individual  Templars,  his  sub- 
jects ;  but  the  dissolution  of  the  Order,  founded  under 
the  Papal  sanction,  guaranteed  by  so  many  Papal 
Bulls,  could  not  be  commanded  by  any  other  authority. 
Clement  entrenched  himself  behind  the  yet  lingering 
awe,  the  yet  unquestioned  dignity  of  the  Papal  See. 
"  The  charges  were  heavy,  but  they  had  been  pressed 
on  with  indecent  haste,  without  consulting  the  successor 
of  St.  Peter;  the  Grand  Inquisitor  had  exceeded  his 
powers ;  the  Pope  demanded  that  all  the  prisoners 
should  be  made  over  to  himself,  the  sole  judge  in  such 
high  matters."  Long  and  sullen  discussions  took  place 
between  the  Cardinals  and  the  Counsellors  of  the  King.^ 

The  King  (the  affair  of  the  Empire  was  not  settled, 
that  was  the  secret  of  Clement's  power)  was  unwilling 
to  drive  the  Pope  to  exti-emities.     He  ordered  copies  of 


y  "  Fuitque    ibi    pietactum    nego- I  replicatioiiibus  multis  utrinque  coram 
tium  factis,    allegationibus   et  ration- ]  cardinalibus   cleioque    et    ca^teris   qui 
ibus,    pro     parte     Papae    et     respon-    adej ant  ?«orose  discussum." — Vit.  i. 
wcnibus   pro    Kege,   rutionibusque    et  | 


Chap.  I. 


NEW  EXAMINATION. 


215 


all  the  proceedings  against  the  Knights,  and  the  in- 
ventories of  their  goods,  to  be  furnished  to  the  Pontiff'. 
This  Clement  took  in  good  part.  The  custody  of  the 
estates  and  property  of  the  Order  had  given  a  perilous 
advantage  to  the  King.  The  Pope  now  issued  a  circular 
Bull  to  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  France  to  take 
upon  themselves  the  administration  of  all  the  seques- 
tered goods  ;  and  to  them  was  to  be  consigned,  to  each 
within  his  own  diocese,  the  final  examination  and  judge- 
ment.^ The  Templars  caught  at  the  faint  gleam  of 
hope  that  the  Church  would  assume  the  judgement; 
they  were  i'ondly  possessed  with  a  notion  of  the  justice, 
the  Inimanity  of  the  Church.  Some  instantly  recanted 
their  confessions.  The  King  broke  out  into  a  passion  of 
wrath.  He  publicly  proclaimed,  that  while  he  faithfully 
discharged  the  duties  of  a  Christian  king  and  a  servant 
of  the  Lord,  the  lukewarm  Vicegerent  of  Christ  was 
tampering  with  heresy,  and  must  answer  before  God 
for  his  guilt.  The  Pope  took  alarm.  At  length  it  was 
agreed  that  the  custody  both  of  the  persons  and  the 
goods  should  remain  with  the  King ;  that  the  Knights 
should  be  maintained  in  prison,  where  they  were  to  lie, 
out  of  the  revenues  of  their  estates ;  that  no  personal 
punishment  should  be  inflicted  without  the  consent  of 
the  Pope ;  that  the  fate  of  the  Order  should  be  deter- 
mined at  the  great  Council  of  Vienne,  summoned  for 
October  10,  1310.^     Clement  reserved  for  himself  the 


«  Clemens  Philippe. — Baluz.  ii.  98. 
The  date  is  erroneous ;  it  should  be 
July  3,  1308. 

•  "  Tandem  conventum  est  inter 
eos,  quod  Rex  bona  eoium  omnia 
levaret,  sen  levari  taceret  Hdeliter  per 
minist]-os,  et  servare  ea  usquequo  Papa 
cum  ipso  Eege  delibei asset  quid   regi 


expediret,  sed  punitionem  coi-porum  non 
faceret ;  corpora  tamen  eorum  servari 
taceret,  sicut  t'ecerat,  et  de  proveiitibus 
domorum  Tenipli  siistentari  usque  ad 
concilium  generale  futurum  :  corpoia 
autem  ex  tunc  ponebat  Papa  in  manu 
sua."  This  left,  as  we  shall  see,  all  future 
public  trial  to  the  Church  — Vit.i.p.  13, 


216  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII 

sentence  on  the  Grand  Master  and  other  chief  officers 
of  the  Temple. 

Yet  before  Philip  left  Poitiers,  seventy-two  Templars 
were  brought  from  different  prisons  (with  the  King  and 
the  King's  Counsellors  rested  the  selection) :  they  were 
interrogated  before  the  Pope  and  the  Cardinals.  All  con- 
fessed the  whole  :  they  were  remanded.  In  a  few  days 
after,  their  confessions  were  read  to  them  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  in  the  Consistory ;  all  adhered  to  their  truth. 

But  the  Grand  Master  and  some  of  the  principal  pre- 
ceptors of  the  Order — those  of  Normandy,  Aquitaine, 
and  Poitou — were  now  in  confinement  in  the  castle  of 
Chinon.  Some  of  them  could  not  mount  on  horseback, 
some  were  so  weak  that  they  could  not  be  conveyed  to 
Poitiers :  ^  the  torture  and  the  dungeon  had  done  their 
work.  Three  Cardinals  (Berenger  of  S.  Nireus  and 
Achilleus,  Stephen  of  S.  Cyriac,  Landolph  of  S.  Angelo) 
were  commissioned  to  go  and  receive  their  depositions. 
The  Cardinals  reported  that  all  those  Knights,  in  the 
presence  of  public  notaries  and  other  good  men,  had 
«worn  on  the  Gospels,  without  compulsion  or  fear,  to 
the  denial  of  Christ,  and  the  insult  to  the  cross  on 
initiation ;  some  others  to  foul  and  horrible  offences, 
not  to  be  named.  Du  Molay  had  confessed  the  denial ; 
he  had  empowered  a  servitor  of  the  Order  to  make  the 
rest  of  his  confession.*^  The  Cardinals,  having  regard 
to  their  penitence,  had  pronounced  the  absolution  of  the 
Church,  and  recommended  them  to  the  royal  mercy .*^ 

The  Pope  pretended  that  conviction  had  been  forced 
upon  him  by  these  dreadful  revelations.    He  now  issued 


•>  '*  Sed  quoniam  quidam  ex  eis  sic 
infirmabantur  tunc  temporis,  quod 
equitare  non  poterant,  nee  ad  nostrarr 
presenciam     quoquomodo    adduci."— 


The  Pope's  own   words  in  the   B"H 
"  Faciens  misericordiam  "  I ! 

*  See  on  p.  160.         ^  Epistol,  Caidi- 
nahum. — Baluz.  ii.  121. 


Chap.  I. 


POPE  CLEMENT  LEAVES  POITIERS. 


217 


a  Bull,  addressed  to  all  Christendom,  in  which  he  de- 
clared how  slowly  and  with  difficulty  he  had  been 
compelled  to  believe  the  infamy,  the  apostasy  of  the 
noble  and  valiant  Order.  His  beloved  son,  the  Kins:  of 
France,  not  urged  by  avarice,®  for  he  had  not  intended 
to  confiscate  or  appropriate  to  his  own  use  the  goods  of 
the  Templars  (he  that  excuses  sometimes  accuses !),  but 
actuated  solely  by  zeal  for  the  faith,  had  laid  informa- 
tion before  him  which  he  could  not  but  receive.  One 
Knight  of  noble  race,  and  of  no  light  esteem  (could 
this  be  Squino  de  Florian,  the  Prior  of  Montfalcon  ?), 
had  deposed  in  secret,  and  upon  his  oath,  to  these 
things.  It  had  now  been  confirmed  by  seventy-two, 
who  had  confessed  the  guilt  of  the  Order  to  him ; 
tlie  Grand  Master  and  the  others  to  the  Cardinals. 
Throughout  the  world  therefore,  he  commanded,  by  this 
Apostolic  Bull,  that  proceedings  should  be  instituted 
against  the  Knights  of  the  Temple,  against  the  Pre- 
ceptor of  the  Order  in  Germany.  The  result  was  to  be 
transmitted,  under  seal,  to  the  Pope.  The  secular  arm 
might  be  called  in  to  compel  witnesses  who  were  con- 
temptuous of  Church  censures  to  bear  their  testimony.*' 
Pope  Clement,  when  this  conference  was  over, 
hastened  to  leave  his  honourable  imprisonment  at 
Poitiers.  He  passed  some  months  at  Bordeaux,  the 
Cardinals  in  the  neighbourhood.  After  the  winter  he 
retired  to  Avignon,  hereafter  to  be  the  residence  of  the 
Transalpine  Popes.^     As  he  passed  through  Toulouse 


«  Is  it  charity  in  the  Pope  to  excul- 
pate the  king  of  avai'ice?  "  Non  gippo 
avaiitise,  cum  de  bonis  Templariorum 
nihil  sibi  vendicare  vel  appropriare 
mtendat,"  or  adroitness  to  clench  his 
concession  ?  See  the  secret  compact 
about    the   custody   of  the   goods. — 


Dupuy,  Condemnation,  p.  107. 

'  The  Bull,  "Faciens  misencor- 
diam,"  dated  Aug.  12,  1308. 

s  Baluz.  ii.  p.  134.  He  wa;i  at  Nar- 
bonne,  April  5,  1309,  then  at  Montpel- 
lier  and  Nismes  ;  he  arrived  at  Avignon 
at  the  end  of  April.— Menard,  p.  456 


•2(8 


LATIN  CHRISTIAiS-ITY. 


Book  XII. 


l:e  addressed  a  circular  'etter  to  the  King  of  France,  in 
which,  having  declared  the  unanswerable  evidence  of 
the  heresy  and  the  guilt  of  the  Templars,  he  prohibited 
all  men  from  aiding,  counselling,  or  favouring,  from 
luirbouring  or  concealing,  any  member  of  the  proscribed 
Order ;  he  commanded  all  persons  to  seize,  arrest,  and 
commit  them  to  safe  custody.  All  this  under  the  pain 
of  severe  spiritual  censure.  Yet  there  were  many  who 
stole  away  unperceived ;  and  for  concealment  or  from 
want  submitted  to  the  humblest  functions  of  society,  to 
plebeian  services  or  illiberal  arts.  Many  bore  exile, 
degradation,  indigence,  with  noble  magnanimity — all 
asserting,  wherever  it  was  safe  to  assert  it,  as  in  the 
Ghibelline  cities  of  liombardy,  the  enthre  and  irre- 
proachable innocence  of  the  Order.^ 

As  he  passed  through  Nismes,  the  Pope  issued  his 
commission  to  Bertrand,  Bishop  of  that  city,  to  rein- 
vestigate the  guilt  of  the  prisoners.  Bertrand  held  one 
session;  then,  on  account  of  his  age  and  infirmity, 
devolved  the  office  on  William  St.  Lawrence  Cure  of 
Durfort.  Durfort  opened  his  court  first  at  Nismes, 
afterwards  at  Alais.  Thirty-two,  a  few  Knights,  others 
servitors,  the  same  who  had  confessed  before  the  royal 
commissioners — now  that  the  milder  and  more  impartial 
Church  sat  in  judgement — now  that  their  chains  were 


>»  "  Si  qui  autem  ex  Templaviorum 
iXEtu  maiiuniissi  aut  per  fugam  ab- 
stracti  evadeie  potuerunt,  projecto 
Religionis  suae  habitu  ministcriis  ple- 
beiis  ignoti,  aut  artibus  illiberalibus 
se  dederunt.  Noniiulli  autem  ex  cla- 
rissimis  parentibus  orti,  dum  trans- 
fugaj  la.^oribus  multis  et  periculis 
dudum  expositi,  vitas  tajdium  magni- 
ticis    animorum    nobilium     conatibus 


V  lipenderunt,  ultro  se  gentibus  edi- 
d'.re,  adjurantes  se  objecti  ciimiiiis 
prorsus  insontes."  Ferretus  of  Vicenza 
had  before  said  (and  in  Lomlardy  the 
refugees  would  not  fear  to  describe 
their  sufferings)  that  many  had  died 
in  prison,  "  tarn  diu  vinculis  retentos 
psedoris  squallonsque  rigidi  angustia 
percinit." — Apud  Murator.  R.  I.  S.  ix< 
p.  1017. 


Chap.  I.  EXAMINATION  AT  ALAIS.  219 

struck  off,  and  they  felt  their  limbs  free,  and  hoped 
that  they  should  not  return  to  their  fetid  prisons — 
almost  with  one  voice  disclaimed  their  confessions.  One 
only,  manifestly  in  a  paroxysm  of  fright,  and  in  the 
eager  desire  of  obtaining  absolution,  recanted  his  re- 
cantation. Another,  Drohet,  had  abandoned  the  Order ; 
he  confessed,  but  only  from  hearsay,  and  intreated  not 
to  be  sent  back  to  prison  among  men  whose  heresy 
he  detested.  A  third  appeared  to  the  Court  to  have 
concerted  his  evidence,  was  remanded,  made  amends 
by  a  more  ample  confession,  clearly  from  panic  :  he 
had  heard  of  the  cat-idol.  The  rest  firmly,  resolutely 
denied  all.' 


'  The  examination  at  Alais  began  be  added  that  the  recanting  witness, 
June  19,  1310,  ended  July  14.  St.'  Bernard  Arnold,  swore  that  the  pri- 
Lawrence  took  as  his  assessors  two  soners  had  met  to  concert — when  ? 
canons  of  Nismes,  three  Dominicans,;  and  where?  —  "quod  cotidie  tene- 
two  Franciscans  of  Alais  (Me'nard,  p.  i  bant  sua  colloquia  et  suos  tractatus 
260).  Eight  were  brought  from  I  super  hiis;  et  sese  ad  invicem  in- 
Nismes  (of  these  were  three  knights),  :  struunt  qualiter  negent  omnia,  et 
Beventeen  from  Aigues  Mortes,  seven  dicant  dictum  ordinem  bonum  esse  et 
from  the  prisons  in  Alais.     It  should    sanctum," — Preuves,  p.  175. 


22D  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XII 


CHAPTER   11. 

Process  of  the  Templars. 

The  affair  of  the  Templars  slumbered  for  some  months, 
but  it  slumbered  to  awaken  into  terrible  activity.  A 
Papal  Commission*  was  now  opened  to  inquire,  not  into 
the  guilt  of  the  several  members  of  the  Order,  but  of 
the  Order  itself.  The  Order  was  to  be  arraigned  before 
the  Council  of  Yienne,  which  was  to  decide  on  its 
reorganisation  or  its  dissolution.  Tliis  Commission  there- 
fore superseded  all  the  ordinary  jurisdictions  either  of 
the  Bishop  or  of  the  Inquisition,  and,  in  order  to  furnish 
irrefragable  proof  before  the  Council,  summoned  before 
it  for  re-examination  all  who  had  before  made  depo- 
sitions in  those  Courts.  Their  confessions  were  put  in 
as  evidence,  but  they  had  the  opportunity  of  recanting 
or  disclaiming  those  confessions.^ 

At  the  head  of  the  Commission  was  Gilles  d'Aiscelin, 
Archbishop  of  Narbonne,  a  man  of  learning,  but  no 
strength  of  character ;  the  Bishop  of  Mende,  who  owed 
his  advancement  to  King  Philip ;  the  Bishops  of  Bayeux 
and  Limoges;  the  Archdeacons  of  Rouen  (the  Papal 
Notary),  of  Trent,  and  Maguelonne,  and  the  Provost  oi 
Aix.  The  Provost  excused  himself  from  attendance. 
The  Archbishop  and  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux  grew  weary 
and  withdrew  themselves  gradually,  on  various  pretexts, 
from  the  sittings. 


■  Aug.  1309.    The  Corcmission  sat,  with  some  intermission,  to  May,  1311 
''  See  Haveman,  p.  227. 


CiiAP.  n.  COMMISSION  AT  PARIS.  221 

The  Commission  opened  its  Court  in  the  Bishop's 
palace  at  Paris «  August  7th,  1309.  The  Bull  issued  by 
the  Pope  at  Poitiers  was  read."^  Then,  after  other  docu- 
ments, a  citation  of  the  Order  of  Knights  Templars,  and 
all  and  every  one  of  the  Brethren  of  the  said  Order. 
This  citation  was  addressed  to  the  Archbishops  of  the 
nino  Provinces,  Sens,  Rheims,  Rouen,  Tours,  Lyons, 
Bourges,  Bordeaux,  Narbonne,  and  Auch,  and  to  their 
suffragans.  It  was  to  be  suspended  on  the  doors  of  all 
cathedral  and  collegiate  churches,  public  schools,  and 
court-houses,  the  houses  of  the  Templars,  and  the  prisons 
where  the  Templars  were  confined.  Sworn  messengers 
were  despatched  to  promulgate  this  citation  in  the  pro- 
vinces and  dioceses.  The  Templars  were  to  appear  on 
the  day  after  the  Feast  of  St.  Martin. 

On  that  day  not  a  Templar  was  seen.     Whether  the 
Bishops  were  reluctant  to  give  orders,  or  the  Nov.  12. 
keepers  of  the  prisons  to  obey  orders ;  whether  commission 
no  means  of  transport  had  been  provided,  no  ^o  xempiara 
one  knew ;  or,  what  is  far  less  likely,  that  the  ^^p^*""- 
Templars  themselves  shrunk  from  this  new  interroga- 
tory, hardly  hoping  that  it  would  be  conducted  with 
more  mildness,  or  dreading  that  it  might  command  fresh 
tortures.      On   five   successive   days   proclamation  was 
made  by  the  apparitor  of  the  Official  of  Paris,  summon- 
ing the  Knights  to  answer  for  their  Order.     No  voice 
replied.     On  the  Tuesday  inquiry  was   made  into  the 


*^  The  acts  of  this  Commission  are 
the  most  full,  authentic,  and  curious 
documents  in  the  history  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  Templars.  They  were 
published  imperfectly,  or  rather  a 
•ummary  of  them,  by  Moldenhauer, 
Hamburg,  1792.  The  complete  and  these  volumes. 
genuine   proceedings    have     ccw  ap-        •*  "  Faciens  misencordiam 


peared 

the  '  Documents  Ine'dits  sur  I'Histoire 
de  France,'  under  the  caie  of  M, 
Michel et.  The  second  volume  has 
recently  been  added.  My  citations, 
if  not  otherwise  distinguished,  refer  U 


222 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY, 


Book  XII. 


answers  of  the  Bishops  to  the  Court.  Some  were  found 
to  have  published  the  citation,  others  to  have  neglected 
or  disobeyed ;  from  some  had.  come  no  answers ;  to 
them  letters  were  addressed  of  mild  rebuke  or  exhorta- 
tion. The  Templars  were  to  be  informed  that  the 
investigation  was  not  against  individual  members  of  the 
Order,  but  against  the  Order  itself.  No  one  was  to  be 
compelled  to  appear ;  but  all  who  voluntarily  undertook 
the  defence  of  the  Order  had  free  libei'ty  to  go  to  Paris.® 
On  the  22nd  of  November  the  Bishop  of  Paris  ap- 
peared in  Court.  He  declared  that  he  had  himself 
gone  to  the  prison  in  which  the  Grand  Master,  Hugo 
de  Peyraud  the  Visitor  of  the  Order,  and  other  Knights 
were  confined;  that  he  had  caused  the  Apostolic  letter 
to  be  read  in  Latin,  and  explained  in  the  vulgar  tongue ; 
that  the  Knights  had  declared  themselves  ready  to  ap- 
pear before  the  Court ;  some  were  willing  to  defend  the 
Order.  He  had  published  the  citation  in  the  churches 
and  other  public  places,  and  sent  persons  of  trust  to 
make  known  and  to  explain  the  citation  to  all  the 
prisoners  in  the  city  and.  diocese  of  Paris.  Orders  were 
issued  to  Philip  de  Yohet,  Provost  of  the  church  of 
Poitiers,  and  John  de  Jamville,  doorkeeper  to  the  King, 
who  had  the  general  custody  of  the  prisoners,  to  bring 
before  the  Court,  under  a  strong  and  trusty  guard,  the 
Master,  the  Visitor,  and  all  who  would  undertake  the 
defence.  The  Provost  and  De  Jamville  bowed  and 
promised  to  obey.  On  the  same  day  appeared  a  man 
in  a  secular  habit,  who  called  himself  John  de  Melot,  of 


e  "  Nec  volumus  quod  contra  fratres 
singulares  dicti  ordinis,  et  de  hiis  quae 
ipsos  tamquam  singulares  personas  tan- 
gant,  non  intendimus  inquirere  contra 
eos,  sed  duntaxat  contra  ordinem  supra- 


dictum  juxta  traditam  nobis  formani. 
Nec  fuit  nosti-ae  intencionis,  nec  est, 
»|Uod  aliqui  ex  eis  venire  cogantur  vel 
teneantur,  sed  solum  ii  qui  vo1untari<» 
venire  valeant  pro  premissis." — p.  25. 


Chap.  II. 


COMMJSSloN  AT  TARIS. 


223 


the  diocese  of  Besan^on.  He  was  manifestly  a  simple 
and  bewildered  man,  who  had  left  the  Order  or  who  had 
been  dismissed  ten  years  before,  and  seemed  under  the 
influence  of  panic.  "  He  knew  no  harm  of  the  Order, 
did  not  come  to  defend  it,  was  ready  to  do  or  to  suffer 
whatever  the  Court  might  ordain  ;  he  prayed  that  they 
would  furnish  him  with  subsistence,  for  hj  was  very 
poor."  The  Court  saw  that  he  was  half-witted,  and  sent 
him  to  the  Bishop  of  Paris  to  be  taken  care  of.*  Six 
Knights  then  stood  before  the  Court.  Gerald  de  Caus 
was  asked  why  he  appeared.  He  replied,  in  obedience 
to  the  citation :  he  was  prepared  to  answer  any  inter- 
rogatory. The  Court  answered,  that  they  compelled  no 
one  to  come  before  them,  and  asked  whether  he  w^as 
ready  to  defend  the  Order.  After  many  words  he  said 
that  he  was  a  simple  soldier,  without  house,  arms,  or 
land :  he  had  neither  abihty  nor  knowledge  to  defend 
the  Order.  So  said  the  other  five.  Then  appeared 
Hugo  de  Peyraud,  Visitor  of  the  Order,  under  jj^gij  ^e 
the  custody  of  the  Provost  of  Poitiers  and  ^'^''"'■ 
John  de  Jamville.  He  came  in  consequence  of  the 
citation,  made  known  by  the  Bishop  of  Paris,  to  answer 
any  interrogatory.  He  came  further  to  entreat  the 
Pope  and  the  King  not  to  waste  and  dissipate  the  goods 
of  the  Temple,  but  religiously  to  devote  them  to  their 
original  use,  the  cause  of  the  Holy  Land.  He  had 
given  his  answers  to  the  three  Cardinals  at  Chinon,  had 
been  prepared  to  do   the   same  before  the  Pope ;  he 


'  "  Et  quia  fuit  visum  eisdem  do- 
minis  commissariis,  ex  aspectu  et  con- 
sideracione  personae  suae,  actuum, 
gestuum,  et  loquelae,  quod  erat  valde 
simplex  vel  fatuus,  et  non  bene  com- 
pos   mentis    suas,    non    proceKserunt 


ulterius  cum  eodem." — p.  27.  By 
some  strange  mistake  of  his  own  or 
of  his  authorities,  Sismondi  has  attri- 
buted the  speech  and  ci>nduct  of  thk 
pooj  crazy  man  to  Du  Molay. 


224 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


Du  Molay. 


could  only  say  the  same  before  the  Commissioners. 
He  too  deijlined  to  undertake  the  defence,  and  was 
remanded  to  prison.^ 

After  two  days'  adjournment,  on  Wednesday,  No- 
vember 26th,  Du  Molay,  at  his  own  request, 
was  brought  before  the  Court.  He  was  asked 
whether  he  would  defend  the  Order.  "  The  Order  was 
founded,"  he  replied,  "  and  endowed  with  its  privileges 
by  the  Pope.  He  wondered  that  the  Pope  would  pro- 
ceed in  such  haste  to  the  abolition  of  such  an  Order. 
The  sentence  hung  over  Frederick  II.  for  thirty-two 
years.  Himself  was  an  unlearned  man,  unfit,  \vithout 
counsel,  to  defend  the  Temple ;  yet  he  was  prepared  to 
do  it  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  He  should  hold  himself 
a  base  wretch,  he  would  be  justly  held  as  a  base  wretch 
by  others,  if  he  defended  not  an  Order  from  which  he 
had  received  so  much  honour  and  advantage.  Yet  this 
was  a  hard  task  for  one  who  had  been  thrown  into 
prison  by  the  King  and  by  the  Pope,  and  had  but  four 
deniers  in  the  world  to  fee  counsel.  All  he  sought  was 
that  the  truth  might  be  known  concerning  the  Order, 
not  in  France  only,  but  before  the  kings,  princes,  pre- 
lates, and  barons  of  the  world.  By  the  judgement  of 
those  kings,  princes,  prelates,  and  barons  he  would  stand.'' 
The  Court  replied  that  he  should  deliberate  well  on  his 
defence.  The  Master  said,  ''  he  had  but  one  attendant, 
a  poor  servitor  of  the  Order :  he  was  his  cook."     They 


e  The  Court  received  private  in- 
formation that  certain  Templars  had 
arrived  in  Paris,  disguised  in  secular 
Habits,  and  furnished  with  money  to 
provide  counsel  and  legal  aid  to  defend 
the  Order ;  thoy  had  been  arrested  by 
the  king's  officers  ;  the  Provost  of  the 
Ch&telet    was    commanded    to    bring 


them  before  the  Court.  It  was  a  false 
alarm.  One  of  them  only  had  been  a 
servitor  for  those  monks  ;  he  was  poor, 
and  had  come  to  Paris  to  seek  a  liveli- 
hood. They  were  gravely  informed 
that  if  they  designed  to  defend  the 
Order,  the  Court  was  ready  to  hear 
them  ;  they  disclaimed  such  intention. 


Chap.  II.  DU  MOLAY.  225 

reminded  him  significantly  of  his  confessions :  they 
would  have  him  to  know  that,  in  a  case  of  heresy  or 
faith,  the  course  was  direct  and  summary,  without  the 
noise  and  form  of  advocates  and  judicial  procedure. 

They  then,  without  delay,  read  the  Apostolic  letters, 
and  the  confession  which  Du  Molay  was  reported  to 
have  made  before  the  three  Cardinals.  The  Grand 
Master  stood  aghast ;  the  gallant  knight,  the  devout 
Cliristian,  rose  within  him.  Twice  he  signed  himself 
with  the  sign  of  the  cross.  "  If  the  Lords  Commis- 
sioners were  of  other  condition,  he  would  answer  them 
in  another  way."  The  Commissioners  coldly  replied 
"that  they  sat  not  there  to  accept  wager  of  battle." 
Du  Molay  saw  at  once  his  error.  "  I  meant  not  that, 
but  would  to  God  that  the  law  observed  by  the  Saracens 
and  the  Tartars,  as  to  the  forgers  of  false  documents, 
were  in  use  here !  The  Saracens  and  Tartars  strike 
off  the  heads  of  such  traitors,  and  cleave  them  to  the 
middle."  The  Court  only  subjoined,  *'  The  Clmrch 
passes  sentence  on  heretics,  and  delivers  over  the  obsti- 
nate to  the  secular  arm." 

William  de  Plasian,  the  subtlest  of  Philip's  coun- 
sellors, was  at  hand.  He  led  Du  Molay  aside :  he 
protested  that  he  loved  him  as  a  brother-soldier ;  he 
besouglit  him  with  many  words  not  to  rush  upon  his 
ruin.  Du  Molay,  confused,  perplexed,  feared  that  if  he 
acted  further  without  thought  he  might  fall  into  some 
snare.  He  requested  delay.  He  felt  confidence  (fatal  con- 
fidence !)  in  De  Plasian,  for  De  Plasian  w^as  a  knight ! 

The  day  after,  Ponsard  de  Gisi,  Preceptor  of  Payens, 
was  brought  up  with  Raoul  de  Gisi,  Preceptor 
of  Lagny  Sec.     Ponsard  boldly  declared  him- 
self ready  to  undertake  tlie  defence  of  the  Order.     All 
tlie  enormous  charges  against  the  Order  were  utterly, 

VOL.  VIT  Q 


226 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII 


absolutely  false ;  false  were  all  the  confessions,  extorted 
by  terror  and  pain,  from  himself  and  other  brethren 
before  the  Bishop  of  Paris.  Those  tortures  had  beeu 
applied  by  the  sworn  and  deadly  enemies  and  accusers 
of  the  Order,  by  the  Prior  of  Montfalcon,  and  William 
Eoberts,  the  monk.^  He  put  in  a  schedule  : — ''  These 
are  the  traitors  who  have  falsely  and  disloyally  accused 
the  religion  of  the  Temple  :  William  Eoberts  the  monk, 
who  had  them  put  to  the  torture ;  Esquin  de  Florian 
of  Beziers,  Prior  of  Montfalcon  ;  Bernard  Pelet,  Prior  of 
jMaso  (Philip's  Envoy  to  England) ;  and  Gervais  Boy  sol, 
Knight  of  Gisors."^ 

Had  Ponsard  himself  been  tortured  ?  He  had  been 
tortured  before  the  Bishop  of  Paris  three  months  ere  he 
made  confession.  His  hands  had  been  tied  behind  him 
till  the  blood  burst  from  his  nails.  He  had  stood  thus 
in  a  pit  for  the  space  of  an  hour.^  He  protested  that  in 
that  state  of  agony  he  should  confess  or  deny  whatever 
they  would.  He  was  prepared  to  endure  beheading, 
the  stake,  or  the  cauldron,  for  the  honour  of  the  Order ; 
but  these  slow,  excruciating  torments  he  could  not  bear, 
besides  the  horrors  of  his  two  years'  imprisonment.  He 
was  asked  if  he  had  anything  to  allege  wherefore  the 
Court  should  not  proceed.  He  hoped  that  the  cause 
would  be  decided  by  good  men  and  true.'"    The  Provost 


h  li  -pQy.  y[^y^  g^  proptei'  peilculum 
et  timorem,  quia  tovquebantur  a  Flori- 
gerano  de  Biturres,  priori  Montefal- 
conis,  Gulielmo  Roberto  monacho,  ini- 
micis  eorum."  This  is  a  new  and  terrible 
fact,  that  the  accusers,  even  the  Prior 
of  Montfalcon,  were  the  torturers  ! 

*  Moldenhauer  says  that  they  gave 
in  a  paper,  "  Ces  sont  les  treytours, 
iiauel  oat  propose  fausete  et  debauto 


contre  leste  de  la  Religion  deu  Temple, 
Guilialmes  Robers  Moynes,  qui  les 
mitoyet  a  geinas ;  Esquins  de  Flexian 
de  Biterris,  en  Priens  de  Montfaucon, 
Bernard  Peleti  Priens  de  Maso  de 
Genois,  et  Everannes  de  Boxxol,  Echa- 
lier  veucus  a  Gisors"  (sic). — p.  33. 

^  Leuge. 

•»>  See  also  this  in  the  Pro. 6s  and  ic 
IMoldenhauer,  p.  35. 


Chap.  II.  PONSARD.  227 

of  Poitiers  interposed;  he  produced  a  schedule  of 
charges  advanced  by  Ponsard  himself  against  the  Order. 
"  Truth,"  answered  Ponsard,  ''  requires  no  concealment. 
I  own  that,  in  a  fit  of  passion,  on  account  of  some  con- 
tumelious words  with  the  Treasurer  of  the  Temple,  I 
did  draw  up  that  schedule."  Those  charges,  however, 
dark  as  were  some  of  them,  were  totally  unlike  those 
now  brought  against  the  brotherhood.  Before  he  left 
the  Court  Ponsard  expressed  his  hope  that  the  severity 
of  his  imprisonment  might  not  be  aggravated  because 
he  had  undertaken  the  defence  of  the  Order.  The  Court 
gave  instructions  to  the  Provost  of  Poitiers  and  Do 
Jam  villa  that  he  should  not  be  more  harshly  treated. 

On  the  Friday  before  the  Feast  of  St.  AndreA^ 
Dm  Molay  appeared  again.  De  Plasian  had  DuMoiay 
alarmed,  or  persuaded  or  caressed  him  to  a  *^^'°" 
more  calm  and  suppliant  demeanour.  He  thanked  the 
commissioners  for  their  indulgence  in  granting  delay. 
Asked  if  he  would  defend  the  Order,  he  said  that  "  he 
was  an  unlettered  and  a  poor  man.  The  Pope  had 
reserved  for  his  own  decision  the  judgement  on  him- 
self and  other  heads  of  the  Order.  He  prayed  to  be 
brought,  as  speedily  as  might  be  (for  life  was  short), 
into  the  presence  of  the  Pope."  Asked  whether  he 
saw  cause  why  the  Court  should  not  proceed,  not 
against  individual  Knights,  but  against  the  Order,  he 
replied,  "  None ;  but  to  disburthen  his  conscience,  he 
must  aver  three  things :  I.  That  no  religious  edifices 
were  adorned  with  so  much  splendour  and  beauty  as  the 
chapels  of  the  Templars,  nor  the  services,  performed 
with  greater  majesty,   except   in   cathedi-al   churches ; 

II.  That  no  Order  was  more  munificent  in  almsgiving ; 

III.  That  no  Brotherhood  and  no  Christians  had  con- 
fronted   death   more   intrepidly,   or   shed   their   blood 

Q  2 


228  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

more  cheerfully  for  the  cause  of  Christ."  He  especially 
referred  to  the  rescue  of  the  Count  of  Artois.  The 
Court  replied  that  these  things  profited  not  to  salvation, 
where  the  groundwork  of  the  faith  was  wanting.  Du 
Molay  professed  his  full  belief  in  the  Trinity,  and  in  all 
the  articles  of  the  Catholic  faith. 

William  of  Nogaret  came  forw^ard,  and  inquired 
whether  it  was  not  written  in  the  Chronicles  of  St. 
Denys,  that  Saladin  had  publicly  declared,  on  a  certain 
defeat  of  the  Templars,  that  it  was  "  a  judgement  of 
God  for  their  apostasy  from  their  faith,  and  for  their 
unnatural  crimes."  Du  Molay  was  amazed  ;  "  he  had 
never  heard  this  in  the  East."  He  acknowledged  that 
he  and  some  young  Knights,  eager  for  war,  had  mur- 
mured against  the  Grand  Master,  William  de  Beaujeu, 
because  he  kept  peace  with  the  Sultan,  peace  which 
turned  out  to  be  a  wise  measure.  He  entreated  to  be 
allowed  the  mass  and  the  divine  offices,  to  have  his 
chapel  and  his  chaplain.  He  withdrew,  never  to  leave 
his  prison  till  some  years  after  to  be  burned  alive. 

Up  to  this  time  none  but  the  prisoners  confined  in 

Paris  had  been  brought  before  the  Commission.     It  was 

still   found   that  the  citations  had  been  but  partially 

served  in  the  prisons  of  the  other  provinces.     Letters 

Prisoners     wcro   a^aiu  wrlttcu  to   the  Archbishops   and 

from  the        t^.,  ...  ,  -,  ni 

piovinces.  Jiishops,  cujommg  them  to  send  up  all  the 
Templars  who  would  undertake  the  defence  of  the  Order 
to  Paris.  The  King  issued  instructions  to  the  Bailiffs 
and  Seneschals  of  the  realm  to  provide  horses  and  con- 
veyances, and  to  furnish  a  strong  and  sufficient  guard. 
This  was  the  special  office  of  the  Provost  of  Poitiers, 
and  John  de  Jamville,  who  had  the  general  custody 
of  the  captives  in  the  provinces  of  Sens,  Eheims,  and 
Kouen.     The  prisons  of  Orleans  were  crowded.     The^ 


Cjiap.  II. 


»SIS02v^ERS  FROM  THE  PROYIXCES. 


229 


were  compelled  to  disgorge  all  their  inmates.  The 
appointed  day  was  the  morrow  after  the  Purification. 
From  that  day  till  the  end  of  March  the  pri-  February  2, 
soners  came  pouring  in  from  all  parts  of  the  ^^^°' 
kingdom.  Great  numbers  had  died  of  torture,  of 
famine,  of  shame  and  misery  at  their  confinement  in 
fetid  and  unwholesome  dungeons,  men  accustomed  to 
a  free  and  active  life.  The  survivors  came,  broken 
in  spirit  by  torture,  not  perhaps  sure  that  the  Papal 
Commission  would  maintain  its  unusual  humanity  ;  most 
of  them  with  the  burthen  of  extorted  confessions,  which 
they  knew  would  rise  up  against  them.  Perhaps  some 
selection  was  made.  Some,  no  doubt,  the  more  obsti- 
nate, and  the  more  than  obstinate,  those  who  had 
recanted  their  confessions,  were  kept  carefully  away. 
Yet  even  under  these  depressing,  crushing  circum- 
stances their  numbers,  their  mutual  confidence  in  each 
other,  the  glad  open  air,  the  face  of  man,  before  whom 
they  were  now  to  bear  themselves  proudly,  and — vague 
hope ! — some  reliance  on  the  power,  the  justice,  or  the 
mercy  of  the  Pope,  into  whose  hands  they  might  seem 
to  have  passed  from  that  of  the  remorseless  King,  gave 
them  courage.  They  heard  with  undisguised  murmurs 
of  indignation  the  charges  now  publicly  made  against 
the  Order,  against  themselves:  the  blood  boiled  as  of 
old ;  the  soldier  nerved  himself  in  defiance  of  his  foe. 

The  first  interrogatory,  to  which  all  at  the  time  col- 
lectively before  the  Court  "^  were  exposed,  was  whether 


"  See  the  detail — from  Clermont 
34,  from  Sens  6,  from  the  Bishopric 
of  Amiens  12,  from  that  of  Paris 
about  10,  from  Tours  7  or  8  (of  the 
Touraine  Templars,  some  would  de- 
fend themselves,  not  the  Order,  some 
98  far  as  themselves  were  concerned), 


from  St.  Martin  des  Champs  in  Paris 
14,  from  Nismes  7,  from  Monlhery  8, 
from  the  Temple  34,  from  Aris  in  the 
diocese  of  Paris  19,  from  the  Castle  of 
Corbeil  38,  from  St.  Denys  7,  from 
Beauvais  10,  fiom  Chalons  9,  from 
Tyers    in    the    diorese   of   Sens    10 


230  LATIN  CHUISTIANITY.  Book  XII 

they  would  defend  the  Order.  By  far  the  largei 
Asked  if  they  number  engaged  with  unhesitating  intrepidity. 
the  ol-den"^  There  were  some  hundreds.  Dreadful  tales 
^''^'  ^-  transpired  of  their  prison-houses.  Of  those  from 
St.  Denys  John  de  Baro  had  been  three  times  tortured, 
and  kept  twelve  weeks  on  bread  and  water.  Of  those 
from  Tyers  one  declared  that  twenty-five  of  the  Brethren 
had  died  in  prison  of  torture  and  suffering :  he  asserted 
that  if  the  Host  were  administered  to  them,  God  would 
work  a  miracle  to  show  which  spoke  truth,  those  who 
confessed  or  those  who  denied.  Of  the  twenty  who 
arrived  later  from  the  province  of  Sens  one,  John  of 
Cochiac,  produced  a  letter  from  the  Provost  of  Poitiers, 
addressed  to  Laurence  de  Brami,  once  commander  in 
Apulia,  and  to  other  prisoners,  urging  them  to  deny  to 
the  Bishop  of  Orleans  that  they  had  been  tampered 
with,  and  pressed  to  confess  falsehoods  :  to  act  according 
to  the  advice  of  John  Chiapini,  "  the  beloved  clerk ; " 
and  warning  them  that  the  Pope  had  ordered  all  who 
did  not  persevere  in  their  confessions  to  be  burned  at 
once.°  The  Provost,  having  examined  the  document 
with  seeming  care,  said,  that  he  did  not  believe  that  he 
had  written  such  a  letter,  or  that  it  was  sealed  with  his 
seal  :  "  a  certain  clerk  sometimes  kept  his  seal,  but  he 
had  not  urged  the  prisoners  to  speak  anything  but  the 
truth."  One  of  those  from  Toulouse  had  been  so  dread- 
fully tortured  by  fire,  that  some  of  the  bones  of  his  feet 
had  dropped  out ;  he  produced  them  before  the  Court 


fiom    Carcassonne   28.      There   came    from  Moissiac  G,  from  Jamville  (Or« 


from  the  province  of  Sens  20  more  ; 

there  came   from  Sammartine  in   the 

diocese  of  IVIaux  14  ;  from  Auxen-e  4, 

from    Crevecocur    18,    from    Toulouse     2 

S,  from  Poitiers   13,  from   Cressi  6,  |      °  Proems,  p,  75, 


leans)  21,  from  Gisors  58,  from 
Vernon  13,  from  Bourges  diocese 
14,    from    the    archdiocese   of    Lyoni 


I'llAP.  II. 


THE  DEFENCE  UNDEETAKEN. 


231 


These  many  hundred  Knights,  Clerks,  and  Servitors, 
a  great  majority  at  least  of  those  before  the  undertake 
Court,  resolved,  notwithstanding  their  former  t^e  defence, 
sufferings,  to  defend  their  Order.  Some  of  their  answers 
were  striking  from  their  emphatic  boldness.  "To 
death."  "  To  the  end."  "  To  the  peril  of  my  soul." 
"  I  have  never  confessed,  never  will  confess,  those  base 
calumnies."  "  Give  us  the  sacrament  on  the  oaths,  and 
let  God  judge."  "  With  my  body  and  my  soul."  "  Against 
all  men,  against  all  living,  save  the  King  and  the  Pope." 
"I  have  made  some  confession  before  the  Pope,  but 
I  lied.  I  revoke  all,  and  will  stand  to  the  defence 
of  the  Order."  p  Those  who  declined,'^  alleged  different 
excuses,  some  would  defend  themselves,  not  the  Order ; 
some  would  not  undertake  the  defence,  unauthorised  by 
the  Grand  Master ;  some  were  simple  men,  unversed  in 
such  proceedings;  one  with  simplicity,  which  seemed 
like  irony,  "would  not  presume  to  litigate  with  the 
King  and  the  Pope."  Very  few,  indeed,  with  Gerhard 
de  Lorinche,  refused  "because  there  were  many  bad 
points  in  the  Order."  Many  entreated  that  they  might 
be  relieved  from  some  of  the  hardships  of  their  prisons  • 


P  Raynouaid  gives  the  names  (p. 
271),  confirmed  by  the  Proems. 

1  There  seems  to  have  been  less 
boldness  and  resolution  among  the 
great  officers  of  the  Order  ;  perhaps 
they  were  old  and  more  soiely  tried. 
John  de  Tournon,  the  Treasurer  of  the 
Temple  in  Paris,  refused  to  undeitake 
their  defence.  William  of  Arteblay, 
the  king's  almoner,  would  not  offer 
himself  for  that  purpose.  Godfrey  de 
fionaville,  Preceptor  of  Poithou  and 
Aquitaine,   said    that  he  was   a   pri- 


soner, a  rude  unlettered  man :  before 
the  King  and  the  Pope,  whom  he  held 
for  good  lords  and  just  judges,  he 
would  speak  what  was  right,  but  not 
before  the  Commissioners.  The  Com- 
missioners pledged  themselves  for  his 
full  security  and  freedom  of  speech. — 
p.  100.  "  Nee  deberet  timere  de  ali- 
quibus  violenciis  injuriis  vel  tormentis, 
quia  non  inferrent  nee  inferri  permit- 
terent,  immo  impedirent  si  inferri 
deberent." — p.  88.  This  is  note- 
worthy. 


232  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII 

that  they  might  be  admitted  to  the  lioly  offices  of  the 
Church;  some  that  they  might  resume  the  habit  of 
the  Order. 

On  the  25th  of  March  the  Knights,  who  had  under- 
Defenders  taken  the  defence,  were  assembled  in  the 
Court.  garden  of  the  Archbishop's  palace  at  Paris, 
to  the  number  of  five  hundred  and  fifty-six;  their 
names  are  extant  in  full.'  The  Papal  commission, 
and  the  articles  exhibited  against  the  Order,  which 
had  been  drawn  up,  to  the  number  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty-seven,  by  the  King  and  his  counsellors," 
and  which  had  before  been  read*^  and  explained  in 
French  to  about  ninety  persons,  were  now  read  again 
in  Latin  at  full  length.  They  contained,  in  minute 
legal  particularity,  every  charge  which  had  been  adduced 
before.  As  the  Notary  was  proceeding  to  translate  the 
charges,  a  general  outcry  arose  that  they  did  not  need 
to  hear,  that  they  would  not  hear,  such  foul,  false,  and 
unutterable  things  in  the  vulgar  tongue. 

The  Commissioners,  in  order  to  proceed  with  regu- 
larity, commanded  the  prisoners  to  select  from  among 
themselves  six  or  eight  or  ten  proctors  to  conduct  the 
defence :  they  promised  to  these  proctors  full  freedom 
of  speech.  After  some  deliberation  Keginald  de  Pruin, 
Preceptor  of  the  Temple  in  Orleans,  and  Peter  of  Bo- 
logna, Proctor  of  the  Order  in  the  Koman  Court,  both 
lettered  men,  dictated,  in  the  name  of  the  Knights  pre- 
sent, this  representation :  "  It  appeared  hard  to  them 
and  to  the  rest  of  the  Brethren  that  they  had  been 
deprived  of  the  sacraments  of  the  Church,  stripped  ol 
their   religious   habit,  despoiled  of  their  goods,  igno- 


'  In  the  Procfes  ;    Moldenhauer  lias  556,  Haveman  says  544. 
Iiaynouard,  whom  Haveman  quotes   d.  246.  *  March  14- 


Chap.  II.  CHOICE  OF  PROCTORS.  233 

minionsly  imprisoned  and  put  in  cliains.  They  were 
ill  provided  with  all  things :  the  bodies  of  those  who 
had  died  in  prison  had  been  buried  in  unconsecrated 
ground :  in  the  hour  of  death  they  had  been  denied  the 
Sacrament.  No  one  could  act  as  a  proctor  without  the 
consent  of  the  Grand  Master ;  they  were  illiterate  and 
simple,  they  requu-ed  therefore  the  aid  and  advice  of 
learned  Counsel.  Many  Knights  of  high  character  had 
not  been  permitted  to  undertake  the  defence:  they 
named  Reginald  de  Vossiniac  and  Matthew  de  Clichy 
as  eminently  qualified  for  that  high  function." 

There  was  great  difficulty  in  the  choice  of  proctors 
and  in  their  investiture  with  powers  to  act  in  defence  of 
the  Order.  The  public  notaries  went  round  the  prisons 
in  which  the  Templars  were  confined,  to  require  their 
assent,  if  determined  on  the  defence,  to  the  nomination 
of  proctors.  The  Knights  had  taken  new  courage  from 
then-  short  emancipation  from  their  fetters,  from  the 
glimpse  of  the  light  of  day.  About  seventy-seven  in 
the  Temple  dungeons  solemnly  averred  all  the  articles 
to  be  foul,  irrational,  detestable,  horrid,  false  to  the 
blackest  falsehood,  iniquitous,  fabricated,  invented  by 
mendacious  witnesses,  base,  infamous;  that  "the  Tem- 
ple "  is  and  always  was  pure  and  blameless.  If  they 
were  not  permitted  to  appear  in  person  at  the  General 
Council,  they  prayed  that  they  might  appear  by  some 
of  their  Brethren.  They  asserted  all  the  confessions  to 
be  false,  wrung  from  them  by  torture,  or  by  the  fear  of 
torture,  and  therefore  to  be  annulled  and  thrown  aside ; 
that  these  things  were  public,  notorious,  to  be  concealed 
by  no  subterfuge.  Other  prisoners  put  in  other  pleas 
of  defence,  as  strong,  some  of  them  more  convincing 
from  their  rashness  and  simplicity.  A  few  bitterly 
complained  of  the  miserable  allowance  for  their  main  • 


234 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII, 


tenance:  they  had  to  pay  two  sous  for  knocking  off 
their  irons,  when  brought  up  for  hearing,  and  ironing 
them  again." 

The  mass  of  suffrages,  though  others  were  named, 
were  for  Peter  of  Bologna,  Eeginakl  de  Pruin,  priests ; 
William  de  Chambonnet  and  Bertrand  de  Salleges, 
knights,  as  those  in  whom  they  had  greatest  con- 
fidence as  proctors.  Already  on  the  1st  of  April 
these  four  with  Matthew  de  Clichy  and  Kobert  Vigier 
had  given  in  a  written  paper,  stating  that  without  the 
approbation  of  the  Grand  Master  they  could  not  act. 
The  Grand  Master,  the  chief  Preceptors  of  France, 
Guienne,  Cyprus,  and  Normandy,  and  the  other  Breth- 
ren, must  be  withdrawn  from  the  custody  of  the  King's 
officers,  and  delivered  to  that  of  the  Church,  as  it  was 
notorious  that  they  dared  not,  through  fear,  or  through 
seduction  and  false  promises,  consent  to  the  defence  of 
the  Order,  and  that  false  confessions  would  be  adduced 
so  long  as  the  cause  should  last.^  They  demanded  every- 
thing requisite  to  defend  the  cause,  especially  the  counsel 
of  learned  lawyers;  full  security  for  the  proctors  and 
their  counsel :  that  the  apostate  Bretlu-en,  who  had 
tlirow^n  off  the  habit  of  the  Order,  should  be  taken  into 
the  custody  of  the  Church  till  it  should  be  ascertained 
whether  they  had  borne  true  or  false  witness,^  for  it 
was  well  known  that  they  had  been  corrupted  by  soli- 
citations and  bribes  ;  that  the  priests  who  had  heard 
the  dying  confessions  of  the  Templars  should  be  exa- 
mined as  to  those  confessions ;  that  the  accusers  should 


"   Proems,  passim,  at  this  period. 

»  "Quia  scimus  predictos  fratres 
lion  audere  consentire  defensioni  or- 
dinis,  propter  eorum  metum  et  seduc- 
^iouem,  et   falsas   promissiones,    quia 


quamdiu  durabit  causa,  durabit  et  con- 
fessio  falsa."— p.  127. 

y  Tliis  was  probably  aimed  espe- 
cially at  Squino  de  Flarian  and  hii 
colleagues. 


CH4P  P  PE0TE5T  OF  THE  PROCTOES.  235 

appear   before   the   Court,  and    be   liable   to  the  Lex 
Talionis. 

On  the  7th  of  April  they  appeared  again  with  Wil- 
liam de  Montreal,  Matthew  de  Cresson  Essart^  John 
de  St.  Leonard,  and  William  de  Grinsac.  Peter  of 
Bologna  read  the  final  determination  of  the  Brethren : 
— "They  could  not,  without  leave  from  the  Protest  of  the 
Grand  Master,  appoint  proctors,  but  they  were  p™^**^''^- 
content  that  the  four,  the  two  priests,  Peter  of  Bologna 
and  De  Pruin,  the  two  Knights,  De  Chambonnet  and 
Salleges,  should  appear  for  the  defence,  produce  all 
documents,  allege  all  laws,  and  watch  the  whole  pro- 
ceedings in  their  behalf.  They  demanded  that  no 
confession,  extorted  by  solicitation,  reward,  or  fear, 
should  be  adduced  to  their  prejudice ;  that  all  the  false 
Brethren,  who  had  thrown  off  the  habit  of  the  Order, 
should  be  kept  in  safe  custody  by  the  Church  till  found 
true  or  mendacious ;  that  no  layman  should  be  present 
at  tlie  hearing,  no  one  who  might  cause  reasonable 
dread  ;"  for  the  Brethren  were  in  general  so  dow^ncast 
in  mind  from  terror,  that  it  is  less  surprising  that  they 
should  tell  lies  than  speak  truth,  when  they  com- 
pare the  tribulation,  anguish,  insults  endured  by  those 
who  speak  truth,  with  the  advantages,  enjoyments, 
freedom  of  those  who  speak  falsehood.^  "  It  is  amazing 
that  those  should  be  believed  who  are  thus  corrupted  by 
personal  advantage  rather  than  the  martyrs  of  Christ, 
who  endure  the  worst  afflictions :"  "  they  aver  that  no 
Knight  in  all  the  world  out  of  the  realm  of  France  has 
or  would  utter  such  lies :  it  is  manifest  therefore  that 


«  "  Quia  omnes  fratres  generaliter  i  hiis  qui  mentiuntur,  sed  plus  de  hm 
tanto  terrore,  et  timore  perculbi,  quod  I  qui  sustineut  veiitatem." — p.  16*3,  anJ 
DOfl  est  mirandum  quodani  mcdo  ne    in  Moldeuhauer. 


236  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Bot)K  XII 

they  that  do  this  in  France  are  seduced  by  terror,  influ- 
ence, 01  bribery."  ^  They  assert  distinctly,  deliberately, 
withoit  reserve,  the  holiness  of  the  Order;  their  fidelity 
to  their  three  solemn  vows  of  chastity,  obedience, 
poverty ;  their  dedication  to  the  service  of  Christ's 
Sepulchre  ;  they  avouch  the  utter  mendacity  of  the 
articles  exhibited  against  them.  "  Certain  false  Chris- 
tians, or  absolute  heretics,  moved  by  the  zeal  of  covet- 
ousness,  or  the  ardour  of  envy,  have  sought  out  some 
few  apostates  or  renegades  from  the  Order  (diseased 
sheep  cast  out  of  the  fold),  and  with  them  have  invented 
and  forged  all  the  horrid  crimes  and  wickednesses  attri- 
buted to  the  Order.  They  have  poisoned  the  ears  of 
tlie  Pope  and  of  the  King.  The  Pope  and  the  King, 
thus  misled  by  designing  and  crafty  counsellors,  have 
permitted  their  satellites  to  compel  confessions  by  im- 
prisonment, torture,  the  dread  of  death.  Finally,  they 
protested  against  the  form  of  procedure,  as  dnectly  con- 
trary to  law,  an  inquisition  ex  officio,  because  before 
their  arrest  they  were  not  arraigned  by  public  fame, 
because  they  are  not  now  in  a  state  of  freedom  and 
security,  but  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  are  continually 
suggesting  to  the  King  that  he  should  urge  all  who  have 
confessed  by  words,  messages,  or  letters  not  to  retract 
their  false  depositions,  extorted  by  fear ;  for  if  they  re- 
tract them,  they  will  be  burned  alive."  ^ 

William  de  Montreal  presented  another  protest  in 
Provencal  French,  somewhat  different  in  terms,  insist- 
ing on  their  undoubted  privilege  of  being  judged  by  the 
Pope  and  the  Pope  alone. 

These  protests  had  no  greater  effect  than  such  pro- 


•  "Quare  dicta  sunt  in  regno  Fiancise,  quia,  qui  diierunt,  corrupti  timoi* 
piece  vel  jrctio  testificati  sunt  "II  ''P.  140. 


Chap.  11.  T\'ITXESSES.  237 

tests  usually  have  ;  they  were  overruled  by  the  Commis- 
sioners, wh-^  declared  themselves  determined  to  proceed. 
On  April  11th,  on  the  eve  of  Palm  Sunday,  the  wit- 
nesses, how  chosen  is  unknown,  were  brought 
forward :  oaths  of  remarkable  solemnity  were 
administered  in  the  presence  of  the  four  advocates  of 
the  Order.  The  depositions  of  the  first  witnesses  were 
loose  and  unsatisfactory,  resting  on  rumour  and  sus- 
picion. Eaoul  de  Prael  had  some  years  before  heard 
Gervais,  Prior  of  the  Temple  at  Laon,  declare  that  the 
Templars  had  a  great  and  terrible  secret :  he  would 
have  his  head  cut  off  rather  than  betray  it.  Nicolas 
Domizelli,  Provost  of  the  Monastery  of  Fassat,  had 
heard  his  uncle,  who  entered  the  Order  twenty-five 
years  before,  declare  that  the  same  Gervais  had  used 
the  same  language  concerning  the  secret  usages  of  the 
Order.  He  had  himself  wished  to  enter  the  Order,  but, 
though  he  was  very  rich,  Gervais  had  raised  difficulties. 
Some  of  the  Court  adjourned  to  the  deathbed  of  John 
de  S.  Benedict,  Preceptor  of  Isle  Bochard.  John  under- 
went, though  said  to  be  at  the  point  of  death,  a  long  in- 
terrogatory. He  confessed,  as  they  reported,  the  denial 
of  Christ  and  spitting  on  the  Cross  at  his  reception : 
of  the  idol,  or  of  tlie  other  charges  he  knew  nothing. 
Guiscard  de  Marsiac  had  heard  of  the  obscene  kisses. 
His  relative,  Hugh  de  Marchant,  after  he  had  entered 
the  Order,  had  become  profoundly  melancholy;  he 
called  himself  a  lost  man,  had  a  seal  stamped  "  Hugh 
the  Lost."  Hugh,  however,  had  died,  after  confession 
to  a  Friar  Minor  and  having  received  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ment, in  devotion  and  peace.  Then  came  two  servitors, 
under  the  suspicious  character  of  renegades,  having  cast 
off  the  dress  of  the  Order,  John  de  Taillefer,  and  John 
de  Hinquemet,  an  Englishman.     They  deposed  to  the 


238  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

denial  of  Christ,  the  spitting  on  the  Cross,  the  denial 
with  their  lips  not  their  hearts  (as  almost  every  one 
did),  the  spitting  near  not  on  the  Cross. 

The  Court  adjourned  for  the  Festival  of  Easter,  and 
resumed  its  sittino^s  on  the  Thursday  in  Easter 

Easter. 

week.     The  four  defenders  had  become  stiF 

more  emboldened,  perhaps  by  the  meagre  and  incor. 

elusive  evidence.     They  put  in  a  new  protest 

New  protest.  •       ,       ,i  t  t  •    i 

agamst  the  proceedings,  as  hasty,  violent, 
sudden,  iniquitous,  and  without  the  forms  of  law.  The 
Brethren  had  been  led  like  sheep  to  the  slaughter ;  they 
recounted  again  the  imprisonments,  the  tortures,  under 
which  many  had  died,  many  were  maimed  for  life,  by 
which  some  had  been  compelled  to  make  lying  confes- 
sions. Further,  letters  had  been  shown  to  the  Brethren, 
with  the  King's  seal  attached,  promising  them,  if  they 
would  bear  Avitness  against  the  Order,  safety  of  life  and 
limb,  ample  provision  for  life,  and  assuring  them  at  the 
same  time  that  the  Order  was  irrevocably  doomed. 
They  demanded  a  list  of  the  witnesses,  so  that  they 
might  adduce  evidence  as  to  their  credibility ;  that 
those  who  had  given  their  depositions  should  be  sepa- 
rated and  kept  apart  from  those  who  had  not,  so  that 
there  might  be  no  collusion  or  mutual  understanding ; 
that  the  depositions  should  be  kept  secret ;  that  every 
witness  should  be  informed  that  he  might  speak  the 
truth  without  fear,  because  his  deposition  would  not  be 
divulged  till  it  had  been  laid  before  the  Pope.  They 
demanded  that  tlie  laymen  De  Plasian,  De  Nogaret, 
and  others  should  not  be  present  in  the  spiritual  court 
to  overawe  the  judges ;  they  demanded  that  those  who 
had  the  custody  of  the  Templars  should  be  interrogated 
as  to  the  testimony  given  concerning  the  Order  by  the 
dying  in  their  hist  hours. 


CHAP.  II.  EXAMINATIONS  RESUMED.  239 

The  examinations  began  again.  Another  servitor, 
Huguet  de  Buris,  who,  with  a  fourth,  had  Examination. 
shared  the  dungeon  of  Taillefer  and  John  the  '^«'*"'^^^<^- 
Enghshman,  deposed  much  to  the  same  effect.  Gerard 
de  Passages  gave  more  extraordinary  evidence.  Seven- 
teen years  after  his  reception  he  had  abandoned  the 
Order  for  five  years  on  account  of  the  foul  acts  which 
had  taken  place  at  his  reception.  After  the  usual 
rigorous  oaths  had  been  administered,  a  crucifix  of 
wood  was  produced :  he  was  asked  whether  he  believed 
that  cross  to  be  God.  He  replied  that  it  was  the  image 
of  the  Crucified.  It  was  answered,  "  this  is  but  a  piece 
of  wood ;  God  is  in  heaven."  He  was  commanded  to 
spit  upon  and  trample  on  the  Cross.  He  did  this,  not 
compelled,  but  from  his  vow  of  obedience.  He  kissed 
his  Initiator  on  the  spine  of  the  back.  Yet  Gerard  de 
Passages,  though  thus  a  renegade  to  the  Order,  had 
suffered,  he  avers,  the  most  horrible  tortures  before  the 
King's  Bailiff  at  Macon,  weights  tied  to  the  genitals  and 
other  limbs  to  compel  him  to  a  confession  of  the  idol,  of 
which  he  declared  that  he  knew  nothing.  Godfrey  de 
Thatan,  the  fourth  of  the  servitors,  "  had  been  forced  to 
the  denial  of  Christ,  on  his  reception,  by  the  threat  of 
being  shut  up  in  a  place  where  he  could  see  neither  his 
hands  nor  his  feet."  Eaymond  de  Yassiniac  made  an 
admission  for  the  first  time  of  one  of  the  fouler 
charges,  but  denied  the  actual  guilt  of  the 
Order.  Baldwin  de  St.  Just,  Preceptor  of  Ponthieu, 
had  been  twice  examined,  twice  put  to  the  torture,  at 
Amiens  by  the  Friar  Preachers,  at  Paris  before  the 
Bishop.  The  sharper  tortures  at  Amiens  had  compelled 
him  to  confess  more  than  the  less  intolerable  tortures 
at  Paris,  or  than  he  was  disposed  to  avow  before  the 
Commissioners.    "  At  his  own  reception  had  taken  place 


240  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

the  abnegation,  the  insult  to  the  Cross,  the  licence  to 
commit  unnameable  vices.  But  at  the  reception  of  four 
Brothers,  one  his  own  nephew,  at  which  he  had  been 
present,  nothing  of  the  kind."  The  servitor  James  of 
Troves  was  the  most  ready  witness :  he  liad  left  the 
Order  four  years  before  from  love  of  a  woman.  Besides 
the  usual  admissions,  he  had  heard,  he  could  not  say 
from  whom,  that  a  head  was  worshipped  at  the  mid- 
night Chapters.  The  Court  itself  mistrusted  the  ease, 
fluency,  and  contradictions  of  this  witness.*^ 

Still  during  all  these  examinations  new  batches  of 
Knights  were  brought  in,  almost  all  of  them  eager  to 
undertake  the  defence  of  the  Order.  As  yet,  consider- 
ing the  means  unscrupulously  used  to  obtain  evidence, 
the  evidence  had  been  scanty,  suspicious,  resting  chiefly 
on  low  persons  of  doubtful  fidelity  to  their  vows.  Hope, 
even  something  like  triumph,  might  be  rising  in  the 
hearts,  faintly  gleaming  on  the  countenances  of  the 
Templars.  The  Court  itself  might  seem  somewhat 
sliaken :  the  weighty  protests,  unanswered  and  unanswer- 
able, could  hardly  be  without  some  effect.  Who  could 
tell  the  turn  affairs  might  take  ? 

But  now,  at  this  crisis,  terrible  rumours  began  to 
Archbishop  spread  that  the  Archbishop  of  Sens,  in  de- 
ofSens.  fiance  and  in  contempt  of  the  supreme  Papal 
tribunal,  was  proceeding  (as  Metropolitan  of  Paris) 
against  all  who  had  retracted  their  confessions  as 
relapsed  heretics.  These  were  the  first  fruits  of  the 
Archbishop's  gratitude  to  the  King  for  his  promotion 
extorted  from  the  reluctant  Pope :  he  had  not  been  a 
month  enthroned ! 


*  "  Predictus  testis  videbatur  esse  A'alde  facilis  et  procax  ad  loquendum  et  in 
pluribus  dictis  suis  non  esse  stabilis,  sed  quasi  varians  et  vacillans." 


Chap.  II  PHILIP  DE  MARIGNI.  241 

Stephen,  Archbishop  of  Sens,  had  died  about  the 
Easter  of  the  preceding  year.  The  Pope  declared  his 
determination  himself  to  nominate  the  Metropolitan  of 
this  important  See,  of  which  the  Bishop  of  Paris  was  a 
Suffragan.  But  the  King  requested,  he  demanded  the 
See  for  Philip,  the  brother  of  his  faithful  mini-  p^iup  ^g 
ster,  Enguerrand  de  Marigni,  the  author  and  ^^^"^m. 
adviser  of  all  his  policy.  Clement  struggled  with  some 
resolution,  but  gave  way  at  length;  he  acceded  un- 
graciously, reluctantly,  but  still  acceded. 

At    Easter   Philip    de    Marigni    received    his    pall. 
Almost  his  first  act  was  to  summon  a  Pro- 
vmcial  Council   to   sit  m  judgement  on  the 
Templars  who  had   retracted  their  confessions.      The 
rapid  deliberations  of  this  Council  w^ere  known  to  be 
drawing:  to  a  close.     On  Sunday  the  four  de-  Appeal  to 

I*       1  1  11  •    1  J  •  p      1         ^^^^  Commis- 

fenders  demanded  a  special  audience  ot  the  sioners. 
Commissioners.  They  put  in  a  strong  protest  against 
the  acts  of  the  Archbishop ;  they  entreated  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Commissioners  to  arrest  these  iniquitous 
proceedings ;  they  appealed  to  their  authority,  to  their 
justice,  to  their  mercy  for  their  Brethren  now  on  trial 
before  another  Court.  The  Archbishop  of  Narbonne  with- 
drew under  the  pretext  of  hearing  or  celebrating  mass. 
It  was  not  till  the  evening  that  they  obtained  a  cold  reply. 
"  The  proceedings  of  the  Archbishop  related  to  different 
matters  than  those  before  the  Court :  the  trial  of  relapsed 
heretics.  The  Commissioners  had  no  authority  to  inhibit 
the  Archbishop  of  Sens  and  his  Suffragans :  they  would, 
however,  deliberate  further  on  the  subject." 

They  had  no  time  for  deliberation.     The  next  day 
De  Marigni's  Council  closed  its  session.     The  Decision  of 
Archbishop  pronounced  all  who  had  retracted  *^^  ^°"''*'"- 
their  confessions,  and  firmly  adhered  to  their  retracta- 

VOL,  VII.  B 


2-L2  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Bock  XII 

tion,  relapsed  heretics.  It  was  strange,  stern  logic : 
"  You  have  confessed  yourself  to  be  guilty  of  heresy,  on 
that  confession  you  have  received  absolution.  If  you 
retract  your  confessions,  the  Church  treats  you  not  as 
reconciled  sinners,  but  as  relapsed  heretics,  and  as 
heretics  adjudges  you  to  be  burned."  It  was  in  vain 
urged  that  their  heresy  rested  on  their  own  confession  ; 
that  confession  withdrawn,  there  was  no  proof  of  their 
heresy.  Those  who  persisted  in  their  confession  were 
set  at  liberty,  declared  reconciled  to  the  Church,  pro- 
vided for  by  the  King.  Those  who  had  made  no  con- 
fession, and  refused  to  make  one,  were  declared  not 
reconciled  to  the  Church,  and  ordered  to  be  detained 
in  prison,  which  might  be  perpetual.  For  the  relapsed 
there  was  a  darker  destiny. 

On  May  12th  fifty-four  stakes,  encircled  with  dry 
wood,  were  erected  outside  the  Porte  St.  Antoine. 
Fifty-four  Templars  were  led  forth — men,  some  of 
noble  birth,  many  in  the  full  health  and  strength  of 
manhood.*^  The  habits  of  their  Order  were  rent  from 
them  ;  each  was  bound  to  the  stake,  with  an  executioner 
beside  him.  The  herald  proclaimed  for  the  last  time 
that  those  who  would  confess  should  be  set  at  liberty. 
Kindred  and  friends  thronged  around  weeping,  beseech- 
ing, imploring  them  to  submit  to  the  King.  Not  one 
showed  the  least  sign  of  weakness :  they  resolutely 
asserted  the  innocence  of  the  Order,  their  own  faith  as 
Christians.  The  executioners  slowly  lit  the  wood,  which 
began  to  scorch,  to  burn,  to  consume  their  extremities. 
The  flames  rose  higher ;  and  through  the  crackling 
might  be  heard  the  howlings  of  the  dying  men,  their 
agonising  prayers  to  Christ,  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  to 


Eaynouard  (pp.  109-111)  has  recovered  the  uames  of  most  of  the  b4. 


Chap.  II.  TERRIBLE  EXECUTIO:XS.  243 

the  Saints.  Not  one  but  died  an  unshrinking  and  reso- 
lute martyr  to  the  guiltlessness  of  the  Order.  The 
people  looked  on  in  undisguised  sympathy.  "  Their 
souls,"  says  one  chronicler,  "  incurred  deeper  damna- 
tion, for  they  misled  the  people  into  grievcus  error."*" 
Day  after  day  went  on  the  same  sad  spectacle.  On  the 
eve  of  the  Ascension  four  were  burned,  among  them 
the  King's  Almoner.  One  hundred  and  thirteen  vtcre 
burned  in  Paris  alone,  and  not  one  apostate ! 

The  examinations  were  going  on,  meantime,  before 
the  Papal  Commission.  The  day  when  it  was  ExammatiOTa 
well  known  that  the  Archbishop  was  about  to  p™'^'^'^- 
condemn  the  recreants  to  the  flames,  Humphry  de  Puy, 
a  servitor,  gave  the  most  intrepid  denial  to  the  whole  of 
the  charges :  he  had  been  tln-ee  times  tortured,  kept  in 
a  dungeon  on  bread  and  water  for  twenty-six  weeks. 
He  described  his  own  reception  as  solemn,  secret,  and 
austere.  He  had  heard  rumours  of  such  things  as  were 
said  to  have  taken  place  ;  he  did  not  believe  one  word 
of  them.  Throughout,  his  denial  was  plain,  firm,  un- 
shaken. John  Bertaldi  w^as  under  examination  when 
the  tidings  of  the  burnings  at  the  Porte  St.  Antoine  were 
made  known.  The  Commissioners  sent  a  tardy  and 
feeble  petition  at  least  for  delay,  and  to  iiiform  the 
Archbishop  and  the  King's  officers  that  the  Templars 
had  entered  an  appeal  to  the  Council  of  Yienne.  This 
was  all ! 

The  next  day  Aymeric  de  Villars  le  Due  appeared 
before  the  Commissioners,  pale,  bewildered ;  yet  on  his 
oath,  and  at  peril  of  his  soul,  he  imprecated  upon  him- 
self,  if  he  lied,  instant  death,  and  that  he  might  be 


*  Chroiiiques  de   St.   Denys,      The   best   account  is  in  VillarJ 
Zantfleet  Chvcnicon,  apud  Martene,  v.  p,  169. 

11.  2 


244  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  xn. 

plunged  body  and  soul,  in  sight  of  the  Court,  into  hell. 
He  smote  his  breast,  lifted  his  hands  in  solemn  appeal 
to  the  altar,  knelt  down,  and  averred  all  the  crimes  im- 
puted to  the  Order  utterly  false :  though  he  had  been 
tortured  by  G.  de  Maraillac  and  Hugo  de  Celle,  the 
King's  officers,  to  partial  confession.  He  had  seen  the 
waggons  in  which  the  fifty-four  had  been  led  to  be 
burned,  he  had  heard  that  they  had  been  burned.  He 
doubted  whether,  if  he  should  be  burned,  he  would  not 
rhrough  fear  confess  anything,  and  confess  it  on  his 
oath,  even  if  he  were  asked  if  he  had  slain  the  Lord. 
He  entreated  the  Commissioners,  he  even  entreated  the 
notaries  not  to  betray  his  secret  lest  he  should  be  con- 
demned to  the  same  fate  as  his  Brethren. 

The  Commissioners  found  the  witnesses  utterly  para- 
lysed with  dread,  and  only  earnest  that  their  confessions 
or  retractations  of  their  confessions  might  not  be  re- 
vealed ;  above  forty  abandoned  the  defence  in  despair. 
So,  after  some  unmeaning  communications  with  the 
Archbishop  of  Sens,  they  determined  to  adjourn  the 
Court  for  some  months,  till  November  3rd. 

In  the  mean  time  other  Metropolitans  and  Bishops 
followed  the  summary  and  barbarous  proceedings  of 
Philip  Marigni  of  Sens.*  The  Archbishop  of  Kheims 
held  a  Council  at  Senlis ;  nine  Templars  were  burned : 
the  Archbishop  of  Kouen  at  Pont  de  I'Arche ;  the 
number  of  victims  is  not  known,  but  they  were  many.^ 
The  Bishop  of  Carcassonne  held  his  Council:  John 
Cassantras,  Commander  in  Carcassonne,  with  many 
others  perished  in  the  fire.''     Duke  Thiebault  of  Lor- 


f  Continuator     Nangis. — Vit.    Cle-    Rouen,  quoted  by  Raynouard,  p.  120. 
•Dent.  VI.  I      •'  Hist.   Ecclcs.   de   Carcassonne. — 

»    Histoire     des     Archeveques     de  j  Ibid. 


Cn.^p.  II.        COMMISSION  RESUMES  ITS  SITTINGS.  245 

raine,  who  had  seized  the  goods  of  the  Templars,  ordered 
great  numbers  to  execution.  None  retracted  their  re- 
tractation of  their  confession.^ 

On  November  3rd  the  Commission  resumed  its 
sittings,  but  most  of  the  Commissioners  were  weary  or 
disgusted  with  their  work.  Three  only  were  present 
The  Arclibishop  of  Narbonne  and  tlie  Bishop  of  Bayeiix 
were  elsewhere  employed,  it  was  alleged  on  the  King's 
business.  The  Archdeacon  of  Maguelonne  wrote  from 
Montpellier  to  excuse  himself  on  account  of  illness. 
The  Bishop  of  Limoges  withdrew :  a  letter  to  the  King 
had  been  seen,  disapproving  the  reopening  of  the  Com- 
mission till  the  meeting  of  a  Parliament  summoned  for 
the  day  of  St.  Vincent.''  They  adjourned  to  the  17th 
of  December.™  The  Commission  was  then  more  full ; 
the  Archbishop  of  Narbonne  and  four  others  took  their 
seats.  Of  the  four  proctors,  the  Knights  William  de 
Chambonnet  and  Bernard  de  Salleges  alone  appeared. 
Peter  of  Bologna  and  Eeginald  de  Pruin,  it  was  asserted, 
had  renounced  the  defence.  Peter  de  Bologna  was 
heard  of  no  more  ;  he  was  reported  to  have  broken 
prison.  Eeginald  de  Pruin,  as  having  been  degraded 
by  the  Archbishop,  was  deemed  disqualified  to  act  for 
the  Order.  Thus  was  the  defence  crippled.  In  vain 
the  Knights,  unlettered  men,  demanded  counsel  to 
assist  them:  they  too  abandoned  the  desperate  office. 
The  Court,  released  from  their  importunate  presence, 
could  proceed  wdth  greater  despatch.      Lest  any  new 


i  "  Unum    autem    mirandum    fuit,    mentitos,  uullam  super  haec  reddontes 
quod  onmes  et  singuli  sigillatira  con-    causam  nisi  vim  vel  metum  tormen- 


fessiones  suas  qnas  prius  fecerant  in 
judlcio,  et  jurati  confessi  fuerant  dicere 
veritatem,  penitus  retractaverunt,  di- 
centes  se  falso  dixisse  prius  et  se  fuisse 


torum  quod  de  se  talia  faterentur." — 
iv.  Vit.  Clement,  p.  72. 

^  Jan.  22.  ™  By  an  error  in 

the  Document,  Oct.  17. 


-•10  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

hindrance  should  occur,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Narbonne  it  was  determined  that  the  Commis- 
sioners might  sit  by  deputy. 

The  Court  sat  from  the  17th  of  December  to  the 
26th  of  May.  Not  less,  on  the  whole,  than  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-one  witnesses  were  heard.  It  cannot 
now  be  wondered  if  the  confessions  were  more  in 
accordance  with  the  views  of  the  King.  The  most 
intrepid  of  the  Knights  had  died  at  the  stake ;  every 
one  who  retracted  his  confession  must  make  up  his 
mind  to  be  burned.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Order 
seemed  irretrievably  doomed  ;  while  confession  might 
secure  themselves,  the  most  stubborn  assertor  of  the 
blamelessness  of  the  Order  could  not  avert  its  disso- 
lution. A  few  appeared  in  the  habit  of  the  Order,  with 
the  long  beard :  most  had  either  thrown  it  off,  or  it 
had  been  taken  from  them,  they  appeared  shaven. 
This  was  the  case  with  all  who  had  been  absolved  by 
the  Church. 

The  confessions,  upon  strict  examination,  manifestly 
betray  this  predominant  feeling  of  terror  and  despair. 
Some  there  were  who  nobly,  obstinately  denied  the 
whole.  Those  who  confessed,  confessed  as  little  as  they 
could,  enough  to  condemn  the  Order,  yet  not  to  incul- 
pate, or  to  inculpate  as  little  as  possible,  themselves. 
I'he  confessions  are  constantly  clashing  and  contradic- 
tory.'^ Men  present  at  certain  receptions  assert  things 
to  have  taken  place,  which  others,  also  present,  explicitly 
deny.  The  general  conclusion  was  this.  Many  dwelt 
on  the  difficulties  which  were  raised  against  their  admis- 
sion to  the  Order.     They  were  admonished  that  they 


•»  Raynouard  has,  with  much   ingenuity  and  truth,  brought  together  th.e 
iirect  contradictions. — p.  157  et  seqq. 


Chap.  II.  RESULT  OF  CONFESSIONS.  247 

must  not  expect  to  ride  about  in  splendid  attire  on 
stately  horses,  and  to  live  easy  and  luxurious  lives  ; 
tliey  had  to  submit  to  austere  discipline,  stern  self- 
denial,  almost  intolerable  privations  and  hardships. 
When  they  v^ould  wish  to  be  beyond  tlie  sea,  tliey 
would  be  tlivvarted  in  their  wishes ;  when  they  wonld 
sleep,  they  would  be  forced  to  watch ;  when  to  eat,  to 
fast.  They  were  asked  if  they  believed  the  Catholic 
faith  of  the  Church  of  Rome ;  if  they  were  in  Holy 
Orders,  married,  under  the  vows  of  any  other  Brother- 
hood :  whether  they  had  given  bribe  or  promise  to  any 
Knight  Templar  to  obtain  admission  into  the  Order. 
"  Ye  ask  a  great  thing,"  replied  the  Knight  who  admitted 
them  to  their  request. 

The  first  and  public  act  of  reception,^  all  agreed,  was 
most  severe,  solemn,  impressive.  The  three  p.esuitof 
gi'eat  vows  of  obedience,  chastity,  abandon-  ^'^"'^ssions. 
ment  of  property,  were  administered  v/ith  awful  gravity. 
Then  it  was,  according  to  the  confession  of  most  who 
confessed  anything,  that,  after  they  had  been  clothed 
in  the  dress  of  the  Order,  they  were  led  aside  into  some 
private  chamber  or  chapel,  and  compelled,  either  in 
virtue  of  their  vow  of  obedience,  or  in  dread  of  some 
mysterious  punishment,  to  deny  Christ,  to  spit  on  the 
Cross.  Yet,  perhaps  without  exception,  all  swore  that 
they  had  denied  w^th  their  lips,  not  with  their  heart ; 
that  they  spat,  beside,  above,  below,  not  on  the  Cross.^ 
All  declared  that  never  after  had  any  attempt  been 
made  to  confirm  them  in   apostasy  from   Christ:**  all 


•  See  the  most  full  account  of  the  Sicily,  and  doorkeeper  of  Pope  Bene- 

reception  by  Gerard  de  Causse,  p.  179  diet   XI.,    was   told,    when    he  denieo 

ft  seqq.  Christ,  "  that  the  Crucified  was  a  folse 

P  "  Juxta  non  super."  prophet ;   and  that  he  must  net  believe 

H  Albert  de  Canellis,  preceptor    in  or  have  hope  or  trust  in  him." — p.  425^ 


248 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


R)OK  XII, 


declared  that  they  fully  believed  the  whole  creed  of  the 
Church ;  almost  all  that  they  believed  all  their  Brethren 
to  have  j)erfect  faith  in  Christ.  There  were  some 
singular  variations  and  explanations  of  the  denial.  One 
believed  it  to  be  a  mere  test  of  their  absolute  obedience ; 
another  a  probation,  as  to  whether  they  were  of  sufficient 
I'esolution  to  be  sent  to  the  Holy  Land,  where,  in  the 
poAver  of  the  Mohammedans,  they  might  be  compelled 
to  choose  between  death  and  the  abnegation  of  their 
Kedeemer :  ^  some  tliat  it  was  a  mysterious  allusion  to 
the  denial  of  S.  Peter  ;  some  that  it  was  an  idle  jest ; ' 
some  that  it  was  treated  lightly,  ''  Go,  fool,  and  confess." 
Many  had  confessed  the  crime,  most  usually  to  Minorite 
Friars,  and,  though  their  confession  shocked  the  priest, 
they  received,  after  some  penance,  full  absolution.  Most 
of  those  who  acknowledged  the  abnegation  of  Christ, 
admitted  the  obscene  kiss  :  some  that  it  wa«  but  a  bro- 
therly kiss  on  the  mouth ;  some  had  received,  some  had 
been  compelled  to  bestow  this  sign  of  obedience  :  it 
was  sometimes  on  the  navel,  sometimes  between  tho 
shoulders,  sometimes  at  the  bottom  of  the  spine,  some- 
times, very  rarely,  lower :  it  was  sometimes  on  the 
naked  person,  more  often  through  the  clothes.  Here 
st(..pped  the  admissions  of  great  numbers  ;  this  they 
thought  would  suffice  ;  the  whole  of  tlie  rest  they  denied. 
Others  went  further :  some  admitted  the  permission  to 


'  One  had  confessed  it  to  a  Friar 
Minor,  "  et  dixit  ei  dictus  frater  quod 
ipse  in  articulo  mortis  et  aliter  audi- 
verat  confessiones  multorum  fratrum 
dicti  ordinis,  et  nunquam  intellexit 
prtedicta,  sed  credebat  quod  hoc  fecis- 
sent,  ad  temptandam,  si  contingeret 
eum  capi  ultra  mare  a  Saracenis,  an 
%bnegaret  Deum." — p.  405.     Another 


Friar-Preacher  took  the  same  view  of 
the  denials,  and  added,  "  Quia,  si  non 
negasset,  tbrsitan  citius  misissent  eum 
ultra  mare." — p.  525.  Peter  de  Charrat 
said  that  after  his  abnegation,  "  Dictus 
Odo  incepit  subridere,  quasi  dispiciendo 
ipsum  testem." 

•  Truffas.      It   was   done   "  truffa- 
torie." 


Chap.  II.  THE  IDOL.  249 

commit  unnatural  crimes,  tliougli  in  the  charge  on 
reception  the  sin  was  declared  to  be  relentlessly  punished 
by  perpetual  imprisonment ;  but  all  swore  vehemently 
that  they  had  never  committed  such  crimes  ;  had  never 
been  tempted  or  solicited  to  commit  them  ;  offences  of 
this  kind  were  very  rare,  and  punished  by  expulsion 
from  the  Order.  Some  said  that  they  were  told  it  was 
better  to  sin  so  than  with  women  to  deter  from  that  sin  : 
some  took  it  merely  as  an  injunction  hospitably  to  share 
their  bed  wdth  a  Brother :  they  wore  their  dress  niglit 
and  day,  with  a  cord  which  bound  it  close.* 

Of  the  idol  but  few  had  heard ;   still  fewer  seen  it. 
It  was  a  cat ;   it  was  a  human  head  with  tw^o  ^,   ^^ 

The  Idol. 

faces ;  it  was  of  stone  or  metal,  wath  features 
which  might  be  discerned,  or  was  utterly  shapeless ;  it 
was  the  head  of  one  of  the  eleven  thousand  virgins : "  no 
one  idol  could  be  produced,  though  every  mansion  of  the 
Templars,  and  all  their  most  secret  treasures,  were  in  the 
hands  of  their  enemies,  had  been  seized  without  warning 
or  time  for  concealment,  and  searched  with  the  most 
deliberate  scrutiny.  In  the  midst  of  the  examinations 
came,  in  a  Latin  writing  from  Yercelli,  from  Antonio 
Siri,  a  notary,  this  wild  story,  followed  by  another  not 
less  extravagant.  A  renegade  in  Sicily  had  divulged 
the  secret.  A  Lord  of  Sidon  had  loved  a  beautiful 
woman:  he  had  never  enjoyed  her  before  her  death. 
After  her  death  he  disinterred  and  abused  her  body. 
The  fruit  of  this  unholv  and  loathsome  connexion  was 


«  Theobald  of  Tavernay  added  to  his  almoner,  before  his  apprehension,  had 
indignant  denial  of  those  crimes,  "  We  oelieved  it  to  be  the  head  of  one  of  these 
had  always  money  enough  to  purchase  1  Virgins  ;  since,  from  what  he  had  heard 
the  fovours  of  the  most  beautiful  !  in  prison,  suspected  it  was  an  idol,  for 
w  )iren." — p.  326.  i  it  seemed  to  have  two  faces,  was  terrible 

"  William  de  Arreblay,  the  king's  ;  to  see,  and  had  a  silver  beard  ! — p.  502. 


250  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

a  head ;  and  tliis  head,  a  talisman  of  good  fortune,  was 
the  idol  of  the  Templars.'' 

Most  of  the  interrogated  seemed  to  think  that  they 
had  satisfied  all  demands  when  they  had  made  admis- 
sions on  the  first  few  questions :  to  the  rest  they  gave  a 
general  denial,  or  pleaded  total  ignorance.  There  were 
some  vague  answers  about  secret  midnight  chapters,  of 
absolution  spoken  by  the  Grand  Master,  but  rarely, 
except  in  the  absence  of  a  priest,  or  it  was  conditional, 
and  to  be  confirmed  by  a  priest :  very  few  knew  any- 
thing of  the  omission  of  the  words  at  the  consecration 
of  the  host.  But  throughout  they  are  the  confessions 
of  men  under  terror,  some  in  an  agony  of  dread,  others 
from  the  remembrance  or  the  fear  of  torture,  or  of  worse 
than  torture.  John  de  Pollencourt  at  first  protested 
again  and  again  that  he  would  adhere  to  his  confession 
made  before  the  Bishop  of  Amiens  that  he  had  denied 
Christ.  The  Commissioners  saw  that  lie  was  pale  and 
shivering ;  they  exhorted  him  to  speak  the  truth,  for 
neither  they  nor  the  notaries  would  betray  his  secret. 
He  then  solemnly  denied  the  whole  and  every  parti- 
cular; averred  that  he  had  made  his  confession  before 
the  Inquisitors  from  fear  of  death ;  that  Giles  de 
Boutongi,  one  of  the  former  witnesses,  had  urged  on 
him  and  many  others  in  the  prison  of  Montreuil  that 
they  would  lose  their  lives  if  they  did  not  assist  in  the 
dissolution  of  the  Order  by  confessing  the  abnegation  of 
Christ  and  the  spitting  on  the  cross.^  Three  days  after, 
the  same  John  de  Pollencourt  entreats  another  hearing, 
not  only  retracts  his  retractation,  but  adds  to  his  former 
confession,  acknowledging  the  licence  to  commit  name- 
less sins,  but  denies  the  w^orship  of  the  idol-cat.     John 


W.  645-6.  T  l\  368. 


Chap.  II.         COXFESSIOXS  THROUGH  TORTURE.  25: 

de  Cormeli,  Preceptor  of  Moissiac,  at  first  seems  to 
assert  the  perfect  sanctity  of  tlie  initiation.  Being 
pressed  as  to  anything  unseemly  having  taken  place,  he 
hesitates,  entreats  to  speak  with  the  Commissioners  in 
private.  The  Commissioners  decline  this,  but,  seeing 
him  bewildered  with  the  terror  of  torture  (he  had  lost 
four  teeth  by  torture  at  Paris),  allow  him  to  retire  and 
deliberate.  Some  days  after  he  appears  again  with  a 
full  confession.^  John  de  Eumfrey  had  confessed  because 
he  had  been  three  times  tortured.  Eobert  Yigier  denied 
all  the  charges ;  he  had  confessed  on  account  of  the 
violence  of  the  tortures  inflicted  on  him  at  Paris  by 
the  Bishop  of  Nevers :  *  three  of  his  brethren  had  died 
under  the  torture.  Stephen  de  Domant  was  utterly 
bewildered ;  he  confessed  to  the  denial  and  the  spitting 
on  the  cross.  "  Would  he  maintain  this  in  the  face  of 
the  Knight  who  had  received  him,  and  so  give  him  the 
lie  ? "  He  would  not.^  The  Court  saw  that  he  was 
shattered  by  the  tortures  undergone  two  years  before 
under  the  Bishop  of  Paris. 

All  these  depositions,  signed,  sealed,  attested,  authen- 
ticated, were  transmitted  to  the  Pope.*' 


'  p.  506.      «  P.  514.      l»  P.  557. 

«  M.  Michelet  writes  thus  in  the 
Preface  to  the  second  volume  of  the 
Piocfes  des  Templiers,  which,  it  must 
be  admitted,  cont«iins  on  the  whole  a 
startling  mass  of  confessions :  "11 
sufht  de  remarquer,  que  dans  les  in- 
terrog-itoires  que  nous  publions,  les 
de'ne'gations  sont  presque  toutes  iden- 
tiques,  comme  si  elles  e'taient  dicte'es 
d'un  formulaire  convenu,  qu'au  con- 
traire  les   aveux   sont  tons   diffe'rens. 


caract^ie  particulier  de  ve'racite'.  Le 
contraire  doit  avoir  lieu,  si  les  aveux 
avoient  ete'  dicta's  ou  arrache's  par  les 
tortures ;  lis  seraient  a  peu  pr6s  sem- 
blables,  et  la  divei'site  se  trouverait 
plutot  dans  les  de'ne'gations."  I  con- 
fess that  my  impression  of  the  fact  is 
different,  though  I  am  unwilling  to 
set  my  opinion  on  this  point  against 
that  of  the  Editor  of  the  Proceedings. 
But  the  fact  itself,  if  true,  strikes  me 
just  in   the  contrary  way.      The  de- 


varies  de  circonstances  spe'ciales,  sou-  |  negations    were    simple    denials  ;    the 
rent  tres  naives,  qui  leur  donnent  ua  I  avowals,   those   of  persons   who    had 


252 


LATIN  CHEISTIANITl. 


Book  Xll 


It  was  not  in  France  alone  that  tlie  Templars  Avere 
Templars  in  arrested,  interrogated,  in  some  kingdoms,  and 
England.  |^y  ^|-^q  Pope's  Order,  submitted  to  torture.  In 
England,  Edward  II.,  after  the  example  of  his  father-in- 
law,  and  in  obedience  to  the  Pope's  repeated  injunctions, 
and  to  his  peremptory  Bull,  had  seized  with  the  same 
despatch,  and  cast  into  different  prisons,  all  the  Templars 
in  England,  Wales,  and  Ireland ;  Scotland  had  done 
the  same.  The  English  1  emplars  were  under  custody 
in  London,  Lincoln,  and  York.  From  Lincoln,  before 
the  interrogatory,  great  part,  but  not  all,  were  trans- 
ferred to  the  Tower  of  London,  to  the  care  of  John 
Cromwell,  the  Constable.^  The  first  proceeding  was 
before  Ealph  Baldock,  Bishop  of  London.  On  the  21st 
of  October  he  opened  the  inquest  on  forty  Knights, 
including  the  Grand  Master,  William  de  la  More,  in  the 
chapter-house  of  the  monastery  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  in 
the  presence  of  the  Papal  Commissioners,  Deodate, 
Abbot  of  Lagny,  and  Sicard  de  St.  Vaur,  Canon  of 
Narbonne,  Auditor  of  the  Pope.®  The  questions  were 
at  first  far  more  simple,  far  less  elaborately  drawn  out 
than  those  urged  in  France.^     The  chief  points  were 


suffered  or  feared  torture  or  death, 
who  were  bewildered,  desperate  of 
saving  the  Order,  and  spoke  therefore 
whatever  might  please  or  propitiate 
the  judges.  Truth  is  usually  plain, 
simple  ;  falsehood,  desultory,  circum- 
stantial, contradictory.  In  their  con- 
fessions they  were  wildly  bidding  for 
their  lives.  Whatever  you  wish  us  to 
say,  we  will  say  it;  a  few  words 
more  or  less  matter  not;  or  a  few 
more  assenting  answers  to  questions 
which  suggested  those  answers.  25 
examined  at  Elne  in  Rousillon  had  not 


been  toitured  ;  they  denied  calmly, 
consistently,  the  whole. — Tom.  ii.  p. 
421. 

**  "  Ut  commodius  et  efficacius  pro- 
cedi  potest  ad  inquisitionem." — Ryraer, 
1309. 

e  Wilkins,  Concilia  ]\Iagn.  Britann. 
ii.  p.  334. 

'  Concil.  Magn.  Britann.  ii.  347.  I 
shall  be  excused  for  giving  the  English 
examinations  somewhat  more  at  length. 
The  trials  were  here  at  least  ?/M)r« 
fair. 


Chap.  II.  TEMPLARS  IN  ENGLAND.  253 

these :  ^ — Whether  the  chapters  and  the  reception  of 
knights  were  held  in  secret  and  by  niglit;  whether  in 
those  chapters  were  committed  any  offences  against 
Christian  morals  or  the  faith  of  the  Church ;  whether 
they  knew  that  any  individual  brother  had  denied  the 
Redeemer  and  worshipped  idols;  whether  they  them- 
selves held  heretical  opinions  on  any  of  the  sacramtmts. 
The  examination  was  conducted  with  grave  dignity. 
The  warders  of  the  prisons  were  commanded  to  keep  the 
witnesses  separate,  under  pain  of  the  greater  excommuni- 
cation :  to  allow  them  no  intercourse,  to  permit  no  one 
to  have  access  to  them.  The  first  four  witnesses,  William 
Raven,  Hugh  of  Tadcaster,  Thomas  Chamber! eyn,  Ralph 
of  Barton,  were  interrogated  according  to  tlie  simplei 
formulary.  They  described  each  his  reception,  by  whom, 
in  whose  presence  it  took  place;  denied  calmly,  dis- 
tinctly, specifically,  every  one  of  the  charges ;  declared 
that  they  believed  them  to  be  false,  and  had  not  the 
least  suspicion  of  their  truth.  Ralph  of  Barton  was  a 
priest ;  he  was  recalled,  and  then  first  examined,  under 
a  more  rigid  form  of  oath,  on  each  of  the  eighty-seven 
articles  used  in  France,  and  sanctioned  by  the  Pope. 
His  answer  was  a  plain  positive  denial  in  succession  of 
every  criminal  charge.  Forty-seven  witnesses  deposed 
fully  to  the  same  effect.^  From  all  these  knights  had 
been  obtained  not  one  syllable  of  confession.'     It  was 


8  The  charges  were  read  to  them  in 
Latin,  French,  and  English. 

^  Thomas  de  Ludham,  the  thirty- 
first  witness,  sjiid  that  he  had  been 
often  urged  to  leave  the  Order ;  but 
:ia.d  constantly  refused,  though  he  had 


»  The  forty-fourth,  John  of  Stoke, 
Chaplain  of  the  Order,  was  ques- 
tioned as  to  the  death  of  William 
Bachelor,  a  knight.  It  appears  that 
Bachelor  had  been  in  the  prison 
of  the    Templars    eight   weeks,    had 


quite    enough   to   live    upon   had    he  j  died,   had    been    buried,    not    in    thp 
done  so.  '  cemetery,    but    in     the    public   way 


254  LATm  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIl 

determined  to  admit  the  testimony  of  witnesses  not  of 
the  Order.     Seventeen  were  examined,  clero'v, 

Nov.  20.  o^  » 

public  notaries,  and  others.  Most  of  them  knew 
nothing  against  the  Templars ;  the  utmost  was  a  vague 
suspicion  arising  out  of  the  secresy  with  which  they  held 
their  chapters.  One  man  alone  deposed  to  an  overt 
act  of  guilt  against  a  kniglit,  Guy  de  Forest,  who  had 
been  his  enemy. 

From  January  29th  to  February  4th  were  hearings 
before  the  Bishops  of  London  and  Chicliester,  the  Papal 
Commissioners,  and  some  others,  in  St.  Martin's  Lud- 
gate,  and  in  other  churches,  on  twenty-nine  new  articles. 
I.  Whether  they  knew  anything  of  the  infidel  and  foul 
crimes  charged  in  the  Papal  Bull.  II.  Whether  the 
knights  deposed  under  awe  of  the  Great  Preceptor  or 
of  the  Order.  III.  Whether  the  form  of  reception  was 
the  same  throughout  the  world,  &c.  Thirty-four  wit- 
nesses, some  before  examined,  persisted  in  the  same 
absolute  denial.  On  the  8th  of  June  the  Inquest  dwelt 
solely  on  the  absolution  pronounced  by  the  Grand  Pre- 
ceptor. William  de  la  More  deposed  that  when  an 
offender  was  brought  up  before  the  chapter  he  was 
stripped  of  the  dress  of  the  Order,  his  back  exposed, 
and  the  President  struck  three  blows  with  scourges. 
He  then  said,  "  Brother,  pray  to  God  to  remit  thy  sins." 
He  turned  to  those  present,  "Brethren,  pray  to  God 
that  he  remit  our  brother's  sin,  and  repeat  your  Pater 
Noster."  He  swore  that  he  had  never  used  the  form, 
"  I  absolve  thee,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost."     This  was  the  case  with  all  offences,  save 


within  the  Temple,  and  not  in  the  l  Order.  It  was  intimated  that  Ba- 
dress  of  the  Order.  He  had  died  ex-  chelor's  offence  was  appropriating  eome 
communicated    by    the    rules    of  the  |  of  the  gx)ods  of  the  Order. 


Chap.  II.  HEARINGS  IN  LONDON.  255 

those  which  could  not  be  confessed  without  indecency. 
These  he  remitted  as  far  as  he  might  by  the  powers 
granted  to  him  by  God  and  the  Pope,"^  This  was  the 
universal  practice  of  the  Order.  All  the  witnesses 
confirmed  the  testimony  of  William  de  la  More.  Inter- 
rogatories were  also  made  at  different  times  at  June  i,  isio. 
Lincoln  under  the  Papal  Commission,  and  Aprii28. 
before  the  Archbishop  at  York  with  the  two  Papal 
Commissioners."^  All  examined  denied  the  whole  as 
firmly  and  unanimously  as  at  London. 

The  conclusions  to  which  the  chief  Court  arrived, 
after  these  Inquisitions,  were  in  part  a  full  and  absolute 
acquittal  of  the  Order  ;  in  part  were  based  on  a  distorted 
and  unjust  view  of  the  evidence ;  in  part  on  evidence 
almost  acknowledged  to  be  unsatisfactory.  The  form 
of  reception  was  declared  to  be  the  same  throughout  the 
world ;  of  the  criminality  of  that  form,  or  of  any  of  its 
particular  usages,  not  one  word.  Certain  articles  were 
alleged  to  be  proved :  the  absolution  pronounced  by  the 
Grand  Preceptor,  and  by  certain  lay  knights  in  high 
office,  and  by  the  chajDters ;  also  that  the  reception  was 
by  night  and  secret ;  that  they  were  sworn  not  to  reveal 
the  secret  of  their  reception  (proved  by  seven  witnesses), 
were  liable  to  be  punished  for  such  revelation  (by  three 
witnesses) ;  that  it  was  not  lawful  among  themselves  to 
discuss  this  secret  (by  three  witnesses) ;  that  they  were 
sworn  to  increase  the  wealth  of  the  Order,  by  right  or 
wrong ;"  by  four  witnesses  that  they  were  forbidden  to 
confess  except  to  priests  of  their  own  Order.° 


''  "  Sed  alia  peccata,  quse  non  audent 
confiteri  propter  erubescentiam  carnisvel 
timorem  juhtitise  ordiuis,  ipse  ex  pctes- 
tate  sibi  concessa  a  Deo  et  domino  Papa, 


»  Thos.  Stubbs,  Act.  Pontif.  Kbo- 
lac.  apud  T^vy!^den,  p.  1730;  also 
Hfniingford. 

»  "  Per  fas  vel  per  nefas." 


femittitei  in  quantum  potest."— p.  357.  ;       •  Concil.  p.  548. 


^5(3  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Bdok  XII. 

The  testimony  of  certain  hostile  witnesses  was  all 
this  time  kept  separate;  it  was  admitted  that  at  the 
utmost  even  this  was  but  presumptive  against  the 
Order.  The  Court  seemed  to  have  been  ashamed  of  it, 
as  well  they  might.  In  one  place  there  is  a  strong  inti- 
mation that  the  witnesses  had  contradicted  and  forsworn 
themselves.!'  To  what  did  it  amount,  and  what  manner 
of  men  were  the  witnesses  ? 

An  Irish  Brother,  Henry  Tanet,  had  heard,  that  in 
the  East  one  knight  had  apostatised  to  Islam :  he  had 
heard  that  the  Preceptor  of  Mount  Pelerin  in  Syria  had 
received  knights  with  the  denial  of  Christ ;  the  names 
of  the  knights  he  knew  not.  Certain  knights  of  Cyprus 
(unnamed)  were  not  sound  in  faith.  A  certain  Templar 
had  a  brazen  head  which  answered  all  questions.  He 
never  heard  that  any  knight  worshipped  an  idol,  except 
an  apostate  to  Mohammedanism  !  and  the  aforesaid 
Preceptor. 

John  of  Nassingham  had  heard  from  others,  who  said 
that  they  had  been  told,  that  at  a  great  banquet  given 
by  the  Preceptor  at  York  many  brothers  met  in  solemn 
festival  to  worship  a  calf. 

John  de  Eure,  knight  (not  of  the  Order),  had  invited 
William  de  la  Fenne,  Preceptor  of  Wesdall,  to  dinner. 
De  la  Fenne,  after  dinner,  had  produced  a  book,  and 
given  it  to  his  wdfe  to  read,  which  book  denied  the 
virgin  birth  of  the  Saviour,  and  the  Eedemption  :  "  Christ 
was  crucified,  not  for  man's  sins,  but  for  his  own." 
JL)e  la  Fenne  had  confessed  this  before  the  Inquest. 
Himself,  being  a  layman,  could  not  know  the  con- 
tents of  the  book. 


'  "  Suspioio  (quae  loco  testis  21  in  MS.  allegatur)  probave  vid*  tur,  quod  omnes 
examinati  in  aliquo  dejeraverunt,  ut  ex  inspectione  processuunri  apparet." 


CiJKV.  II.  WITNESSES  NOT  OF  THE  OKDEK.  257 

William  de  la  Forde,  Kector  of  Crofton,  had  heard 
from  an  Augustiuian  monk,  now  dead,  that  he  had 
heard  the  confession  of  Patrick  Kippon,  of  the  Order, 
also  dead,  a  confession  of  all  the  crimes  charged  against 
the  Order.  He  had  heard  all  this  after  the  apprehension 
of  the  Templars  at  York. 

Kobert  of  Oteringham,  a  Franciscan,  had  heard  a 
chaplain  of  the  Order  say  to  his  brethren,  "  The  devil 
will  burn  you,"  or  some  such  words.  He  had  seen  a 
Templar  with  his  face  to  the  West,  his  hinder  parts 
towards  the  altar.  Twent}  years  before,  at  Wetherby, 
he  had  looked  through  a  hole  in  the  wall  of  a  chapel 
where  the  Preceptor  was  said  to  be  busy  arranging  the 
reliques  brought  from  the  Holy  Land ;  he  saw  a  very 
bright  light.  Next  day  he  asked  a  Templar  what 
Saint  they  worshipped ;  the  Templar  turned  pale,  and 
entreated  him,  as  he  valued  his  life,  to  speak  no  more 
of  the  matter. 

John  Wederal  sent  in  a  schedule,  in  which  he  testified 
in  writing  that  he  heard  a  Templar,  one  Kobert  Bayser,  as 
he  walked  along  a  meadow,  say,  "  Alas  !  alas  !  that  ever 
I  was  born  !  I  must  deny  Christ  and  hold  to  the  devil !" 

N.  de  Chinon,  a  Franciscan,  had  heard  that  a  certain 
Templar  had  a  son  who  looked  through  a  Avail  and  saw 
the  knights  compelling  a  professing  knight  to  deny 
Christ ;  on  his  refusal  they  killed  him.  The  boy  was 
asked  by  his  father  whether  he  would  be  a  Templar ; 
the  boy  refused,  saying  what  he  had  seen :  on  which  his 
father  killed  him  also. 

Ferins  Mareschal  deposed  that  his  grandfather  entered 
the  Order  in  full  health  and  vigour,  delighting  in  his 
hawks  and  hounds ;  in  three  days  he  was  dead :  the 
witness  suspected  that  he  would  not  consent  to  tht^ 
wickednesses  practised  by  the  Order. 

VOL.  VII.  S 


268  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

Adam  de  Heton  deposed  that  when  he  was  a  boy  it 
was  a  common  cry  among  boys,  "  Beware  of  the  kisses 
of  the  Templars." 

William  de  Berney,  an  Augustinian,  had  heard  that 
a  certain  Templar,  he  did  not  know  his  name,  but  be- 
lieved that  he  was  the  Preceptor  of  Duxworthe  (near 
Cambridge),  had  said  that  man  after  death  had  no  more 
a  living  soul  than  a  dog. 

Koger,  Kector  of  Godmersham,  deposed  that  fifteen 
years  before  he  had  desired  to  enter  the  Order.  Stephen 
Quenteril  had  warned  him,  "  If  you  were  my  father,  and 
mio-ht  become  Grand  Master  of  the  Order,  I  would  not 
have  you  enter  it.  We  have  three  vows,  known  only  to 
God,  the  devil,  and  the  brethren."  What  those  vows 
were  Stephen  would  not  reveal. 

William,  Vicar  of  St.  Clement  in  Sandwich,  had  heard 
fifteen  years  before,  from  a  groom  in  his  service,  that 
the  said  groom  had  heard  from  another  servant,  that 
the  said  servant  at  Dinelee  had  hid  himself  under  a  seat 
in  the  great  hall  where  the  Templars  held  their  mid- 
night chapters.  The  President  preached  to  the  brethren 
how  they  might  get  richer.  All  the  brethren  deposited 
their  girdles  in  a  certain  place  :  one  of  these  girdles  the 
servant  found  and  carried  to  his  master.  The  master 
struck  him  with  his  sword  in  the  presence  of  the  said 
groom.  W^illiam  was  asked  if  the  groom  was  living: 
he  did  not  know. 

Thomas  Tulyet  had  heard  from  the  Vicar  of  Sutton 
that  he  had  heard  a  certain  priest,  who  officiated  among 
the  Templars,  had  been  inhibited  from  using  the  words 
of  consecration  in  the  mass. 

John  de  Gertia,  a  Frenchman,  had  heard  fourteen 
years  before  from  a  woman  named  Cacocaca,  who  lived 
near  some  elms  in  a  street  in  a  suburb  of  London,  lead- 


Chap.  II.  FURTHER  WITNESSES.  259 

ing  to  St.  Giles,  tliat  Exvalet,  Preceptor  of  London,  had 
told  this  woman  that  a  servant  of  certain  Templars  had 
concealed  himself  in  their  chapter-house  at  Dinelee." 
The  Knights  present  had  retired  to  a  house  adjacent 
(how  the  witness  saw  them,  appears  not) ;  there  they 
opened  a  coffer,  produced  a  black  idol  with  shining  eyes, 
performing  certain  disgusting  ceremonies.  One  of  them 
refused  to  do  more  (the  conversation  is  given  word  for 
word),  they  threw  him  into  a  well,  and  then  proceeded 
to  commit  all  kinds  of  abominable  excesses.  He  said 
that  one  Walter  Savage,  who  belonged  to  Earl  Warenne, 
had  entered  the  Order,  and  after  two  years  disappeared. 
Agnes  Lovekote  deposed  to  the  same. 

Brother  John  Wolby  de  Bust  had  heard  from  Brother 
John  of  Dingeston  that  he  believed  that  the  charges 
against  the  Templars  were  not  without  foundation ;  that 
he  had  heard  say  that  the  Court  of  Eome  was  not 
dealing  in  a  straightforward  manner,  and  wished  to  save 
the  Grand  Master.  The  said  Brother  averred  that  he 
knew  the  place  in  London  where  a  gilded  head  was 
kept.  There  were  two  more  in  England,  he  knew  not 
where. 

Kichard  de  Kocfield  had  heard  from  John  of  Barne 
that  William  Bachelor ""  had  said  that  he  had  lost  his 
soul  by  entering  into  the  Order ;  that  there  was  one 
article  in  their  profession  which  might  not  be  revealed. 

Gaspar  (or  Godfrey)  de  Nafferton,  chaplain  of  Kyde, 
was  in  the  service  of  the  Templars,  at  the  admission  of 
William  de  Pocklington.  The  morning  after  his  admis- 
sion William  looked  very  sad.  A  certain  Brother  Eoger 
had  promised  Godfrey  for  two  shillings  to  obtain  his 


*  See  al>ove. 

•■  The  kniglit  whose  mysterious  disappearance  had  been  noticed  before. 

s  2 


260 


LATIN  CHRISTIAN]  TY 


BookXH, 


admission  to  see  the  ceremony.  Eoger  broke  his  word, 
and,  being  reproached  by  Godfrey,  said  "  he  would  not 
have  done  it  for  his  tabard  full  of  money."  "  If  I 
had  known  that,"  said  Godfrey,  "  I  would  have  seen  it 
through  a  hole  in  the  wall."  "  You  would  inevitably 
have  been  put  to  death,  or  forced  to  take  the  habit 
of  the  Order."  He  also  deposed  to  having  seen  a 
Brother  copying  the  secret  statutes. 

John  of  Donyngton,  a  Franciscan,  had  conversed  with 
a  certain  veteran  who  had  left  the  Order.  At  the  Court 
of  Kome  he  had  confessed  to  the  great  Penitentiary  why 
he  left  the  Order ;  that  there  were  four  principal  idols 
in  England ;  that  William  de  la  More,  new  Grand  Pre- 
ceptor, had  introduced  all  these  into  England.  De  la 
More  had  a  great  roll  in  which  were  inscribed  all  these 
wicked  observances.  The  same  John  of  Donyngton  had 
heard  dark  sayings  from  others,  intimating  that  there 
were  profound  and  terrible  secrets  in  the  Order.^ 

Such  was  the  mass  of  strange,  loose,  hearsay,  anti- 
quated evidence,'  much  of  which  had  passed  through 
many  mouths.  This  was  all  which  as  yet  appeared 
against  an  Order,  arrested  and  imprisoned  by  the  King, 
acting  under  the  Pope's  Bull,  an  Order  odious  from 
jealousy  of  its  wealth  and  power,  and  from  its  arrogance 


•  Wilcke  asserts  that  Bishop  Munter 
had  discoveied  at  Rome  the  Report  of 
the  Confessions  of  the  English  Tem- 
plars, which  was  transmitted  to  the  Pope. 
It  is  more  full,  he  says,  than  that  in  the 
Concilia.  I  cannot  see  that  Wilcke  pro- 
duces much  new  matter  from  this  re- 
poi-t.  His  summary  is  very  inaccurate, 
leaving  out  everything  which  throws 
suspicion  on  almost  every  testimony. 

*  Two  Confessiras  made  in  P'rance 


were  put  in,  in  which  Robert  de  St. 
Just  and  Godfrey  de  Gonaville  had 
deposed  to  their  reception  in  England, 
with  all  the  more  appalling  and  loath- 
some ceremonies.  These  confessions 
do  not  appear  in  the  Procfes  (by 
Michelet).  Their  names  occur  more 
than  once.  Gonaville  was  chosen  ly 
some  as  a  defender  of  the  Order.  He 
was  present  at  many  of  the  receptions, 
sworn  to  by  the  witnesses. 


Chap.  II.      TORTURE  AUTHORISED  BY  THE  POPE. 


261 


to  the  clergy  and  to  the  monastic  communities ;  espe- 
cially to  the  clergy  as  claiming  exemption  from  their 
jurisdiction,  and  assuming  some  of  their  powers :  an 
Order  which  possessed  estates  in  every  county  (the  in- 
structions of  the  King  to  the  sheriffs  of  the  counties 
imply  that  they  had  property  everywhere),  at  all  events 
vast  estates,  of  which  there  are  ample  descriptions. 
Against  the  Order  torture  was,  if  not  generally  and 
commonly  applied,  authorised  at  least  by  the  distinct 
injunctions  of  the  King  and  of  the  Pope." 

At  length,  towards  the  end  of  May,  three  witnesses 
were  found,  men  who  had  fled,  and  had  been  Three  wit- 
excommunicated  as  contumacious  on  account  "^^^^^' 
of  their  disobedience  to  the  citation  of  the  Court,  men 
apparently  of  doubtful  character.  Stephen  Staplebridge 
is  described  as  a  runaway  apostate.''  He  had  been  ap- 
prehended by  the  King's  officers  at  Salisbury,  committed 
to  Newgate,  and  thence  brought  up  for  examination 
before  the  Bishops  of  London  and  Chichester.     Stephen, 


*  Was  the  torture  employed  against 
the  Templars  in  England  ?  It  is  as- 
serted by  Raynouard,  p.  132.  Have- 
man  (p.  305)  quotes  these  instruc- 
tions, as  in  Dugdale  (they  are  in  the 
Concilia,  ii.  p.  314),  "  Et  si  per  hujus- 
modi  arctationes  et  separationes  nihil 
aliud  quam  prius  vellent  confiteri, 
quod  exhinc  quasstionarentur,  ita  quod 
qua?stiones  illas  fiant  absque  mutila- 
tione  et  debilitatione  alicujus  membri 
et  sine  violenta  sanguinis  eifusione." 
See  also  in  Rymer,  iii,  p.  228,  the 
royal  order  to  those  who  had  the 
Templars  in  custody,  "Quod  iidem 
Praelati  et  Inquisitores  de  ipsis  Tem- 
jilariis  et  eorum  comparibus,  in  QU^S- 
TiONiBUS  et  aliis  ad  hoc  convenienti- 


bus  ordinent  et  faciant,  quotiens 
voluerint,  id  quod  eis,  secundum 
Legem  Ecclesiasticam,  videbitur  faci- 
endum." Orders  to  the  Mayor  and 
Sheriffs  of  London,  "  Et  corpora  dic- 
torum  Templariorum  in  QCJJESTIONI- 
BUS  et  ad  hoc  convenientibus  ponere." 
—p.  232.  Still  there  is  not  the  heart- 
breaking evidence  or  bitter  complaint 
of  its  actual  application,  as  in  France. 
The  Pope  gave  positive  orders  to  em- 
ploy torture  in  Spain.  "  Ad  haben- 
dam  ab  eis  veritatis  plenitudinem 
promptiorem  tormentis  et  quaestioni- 
bus,  si  sponte  confiteri  noluerint, 
experxi  procuratis." — Raynald.  A.Ej, 
1311,  c.  54. 
*  "  Apostata  fugitivus,** 


262 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY, 


Book  XII. 


boing  sworn,  declared  that  there  were  two  forms  oi 
reception,  one  good  and  lawful,  one  contrary  to  the 
faith :  at  his  admission  at  Dinelee  by  Brian  le  Jay,  late 
Grand  Preceptor  of  England,  he  had  been  compelled 
to  deny  Christ,  which  he  did  with  his  lips,  not  his 
heart ;  to  spit  on  the  Cross — this  he  escaped  by  spitting 
on  his  own  hands.  Brian  le  Jay  had  afterwards  inti- 
mated to  him  that  Christ  was  not  very  God  and  very 
Man.  He  also  averred  that  those  who  refused  to  deny 
Christ  were  made  away  with  beyond  sea  :  that  William 
Bachelor  had  died  in  prison  and  in  torment,  but  not  for 
that  cause.  He  made  other  important  admissions :  after 
his  confession  he  threw  himself  on  the  ground,  with 
tears,  groans,  and  shrieks,  imploring  mercy.y 

Thomas  Thoroldeby  (called  Tocci)  was  said  to  have 
been  present  at  the  reception  of  Staplebridge.^  On  this 
point  lie  somewhat  prevaricated :  all  the  rest  he  reso- 
lutely denied  except  that  there  was  a  suspicion  against 
the  Order  on  account  of  their  secret  chapter.  He  was 
asked  why  he  had  fled.^  "  The  Abbot  of  Lagny  had 
threatened  him  that  he  would  force  him  to  confess 
before  he  was  out  of  their  hands."  Thoroldeby  had 
been  present  when  the  confessions  were  made  before  the 
Pope ;  he  had  seen,  therefore,  the  treatment  of  his 
Brethren  in  France.  Four  days  after  Thoroldeby  was 
brought  np  again  :  what  had  taken  place  in  the  interval 
may  be  conjectured ;  ^  he  now  made  the  most  full  and 


^  This  sounds  as  if  he  had  been 
tortured,  or  feared  to  be. 

'  They  were  examined  first  at  St. 
Martin's  in  the  Vintry ;  Thoroldeby, 
the  second  time,  in  St.  Mary  Overy, 
South  wark. 

•  Walter  Clifton,  examined  in  Scot- 
land,  was  asked  whether  any  of  the 


victims  had  fled,  "  propter  scandalum," 
"  ob  timorem  hujusmodi," — he  namea 
Thomas  Tocci  as  one  who  had  fled. — 
p.  384. 

^  Haveman  says,  "  unstreitig  ge- 
foltert."  It  looks  most  suspicious.— 
p.  315. 


3hap.  n. 


THE  CHAPLAIN'S  EVIDENCE. 


263 


ample  confession.  He  had  been  received  fourteen  or 
fifteen  years  before  by  Guy  Forest.  Adam  Champmesle 
and  three  others  had  stood  over  him  with  drawn  swords, 
and  compelled  him  to  deny  Christ.  Guy  taught  him 
to  believe  only  in  the  Great  God.  He  had  heard  Brian 
le  Jay  say  a  hundred  times  that  Christ  was  not  very 
God  and  very  Man.  Brian  le  Jay  had  said  to  him  that 
the  least  hair  in  a  Saracen's  beard  was  worth  more  than 
his  whole  body.*"  He  told  many  other  irreverent  sayings 
of  Le  Jay :  there  seems  to  have  been  much  ill-blood 
between  them.  He  related  some  adventures  in  the  Holy 
Land,  from  which  he  would  imply  treachery  in  the 
Order  to  the  Christian  cause.  After  his  admission  into 
the  Order,  John  de  Man  had  said  to  him,  "  Are  you  a 
Brother  of  the  Order  ?  If  so,  were  you  seated  in  the 
belfry  of  St.  Paul's,  you  would  not  see  more  misery 
than  will  happen  to  you  before  you  die." 

John  de  Stoke,  Chaplain  of  the  Order,  deposed  to 
Slaving  been  compelled  to  deny  Christ.'* 

On  June  27th  these  three  witnesses,  Staplebridge, 
Thoroldeby,  and  Stoke,  received  public  absolution,  on 
the  performance  of  certain  penances,  from  Eobert  Win- 
chelsea.  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  some  of  his 
suffragans.  Many  other  Knights  were  in  like  manner 
absolved  on  their  humble  confession  that  they  had  been 
under  evil  report,®  and  under  suspicion  of  heresy.     It 


«  "  Quod  minimus  pilus  barbse  unius 
Saraceni,  fuit  majoris  valoris  quam  to- 
tum  corpus istius  qui  loquitur."— p. 386. 

*  These  are  the  only  three  witnesses 
against  the  Order  who  belonged  to  it, 
according  to  the  Concilia.  Wilcke 
asserts  that  in  the  Vatican  Acts,  seen 
by  Bishop  Munter,  there  were  17  wit- 
nesses to  thft  denial  of  Christ,   16   to 


the  spitting  on  the  Cross,  8  on  dis- 
respect to  the  Sacraments,  2  on  the 
omission  of  the  words  of  consecration. 
But  he  does  not  say  whether  these 
witnesses  were  of  the  Order,  and  his 
whole  repi-esentation  of  the  Confessions 
from  the  Concilia  is  that  of  a  man 
who  has  made  up  his  mind. — AVilcke, 
i.  p.  328.  e  "  Dirfamati    ' 


2G4 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


was  hoped  that  the  Great  Preceptor  of  England,  William 
de  la  More,  would  make  his  submission,  and  accept 
absolution  on  the  same  easy  terms.  But  the  high 
spirit  of  De  la  More  revolted  at  the  humiliation.  To 
their  earnest  exhortation  that  he  would  own  at  least 
the  usurpation  of  the  power  of  absolution,  and  seek 
pardon  of  the  Church,  he  replied  that  he  had  never 
been  guilty  of  the  imputed  heresies,  and  would  not 
abjure  crimes  which  he  had  never  committed.  He  was 
remanded  to  the  prison.  The  general  sentence  against 
the  English  Templars  was  perpetual  imprisonment  in 
monasteries.^  They  seem  to  have  been  followed  by 
general  respect. 

In  Scotland  the  Inquisition  was  conducted  by  the 
Scotland.  Bishop  of  St.  Audrcw's  and  John  de  Solerco, 
1309.  '  one  of  the  Pope's  clerks.  The  interrogatories 
of  only  two  Knights  appear :  but  many  monks  and 
clergy  were  examined,  who  seem  to  have  been  extremely 
jealous  of  what  they  branded  as  the  lawless  avarice  and 
boundless  wealth  of  the  Templars.^ 

In  Ireland  thirty  Brothers  of  the  Order  were  interro- 
gated in  the  church  of  St.  Patrick ;  one  only, 
a  chaplain,  admitted  even  suspicions  against 
the  Order.  Other  witnesses  were  then  examined, 
chiefly  Franciscans,  who  in  Ireland  seem  to  have  been 
actuated  by  a  bitter  hatred  of  the  Templars.  All  of 
them  swore  that  they  suspected  and  believed  the  guilt 
of  the  Order,  but  no  one  deposed  to  any  fact,  except 


Ireland. 


'  "  Quod  singuli  in  singulis  monas- 
teiiis  possessionatis  detrudeientur,  pro 
perpetua  pcenitentia  peragenda,  qui 
poftea  in  hujusmodi  monasteriis  bene 
pel  omnia  se  gerebant." — Thos.  Wiil- 
iingharo. 


d  A  monk  of  Newbottle  complains 
of  their  "  conquestus  injustos.  Indif- 
ferenter  sibi  appropriare  cupiunt,  per 
fas  et  nefas,  bona  et  pra^dia  suorunj 
vicinorum,"  Compare  Addison,  p 
486. 


Crap.  II.  TEMPLARS  IN  ITALY.  265 

that  in  the  celebration  of  the  Mass  certain  Templars 
wonld  not  look  up,  but  kept  their  eyes  fixed  on  the 
ground.  Some  two  or  three  discharged  servants  told 
all  sorts  of  rumours  against  the  Order,  "that  refrac- 
tory Brethren  were  sewed  up  in  sacks  and  cast  into  the 
sea."  It  was  often  said  that  whenever  a  Chapter 
was  held,  one  of  the  number  was  always  missing. 
Everything  that  the  Grand  Master  ordered  was  obeyed 
throughout  the  world.^ 

In  Italy,  wherever  the  influence  of  France  and  the 
authority  of  the  Pope  strongly  predominated, 
confessions  were  obtained.  In  Naples,  Charles 
of  Anjou,  Philip's  cousin,  had  already  arrested  the  whole 
Order,  as  in  his  dominions  in  Provence,  Forcalquier,  and 
Piedmont.*  The  house  of  Anjou  had  to  wreak  their 
long-hoarded  vengeance  on  the  Templars  for  the  aid 
they  had  afforded  to  the  Arragonese,  Frederick  of 
Sicily.  The  servitor  Frank  Panyaris  described  an  idol 
kept  in  a  coffer,  and  shown  to  him  by  the  Preceptor 
of  Bari.  Andrew,  a  servitor,  had  been  compelled 
to  deny  Christ,  and  to  other  enormities ;  had  seen 
an  idol  with  three  heads,  which  was  worshipped  as 
their  God  and  their  Kedeemer:  he  it  was  who  be- 
stowed on  them  their  boundless  wealth.  The  Archbishop 
of  Brindisi  heard  from  two  confessions  of  the  denial 
of  Christ.  Six  were  heard  in  Arragonese  Sicily,  who 
made  some  admissions.  Thirty-two  in  Messina  resolutely 
denied  all.'^ 


^  The  report  is  in  Wilkins,  Concilia,  j  himself  had    avowed   his    belief  that 
»  The     proceedings     in    Beaucaire,  |  Jesus  was  not  God,   that  he  suffered 

Alais,  and  Nismes,  are,   according  to  I  not  for  the  redemption   of  man,  but 

Wilcke,   in  the   Vatican  (see   above).!  from  hatred  of  the  Jews. — Wilcke,froin 

At  Lucerne  (?),  a  brother  admitted  in  |  MS.,  p.  337. 

S^iain  boldly  averred    that    the    Pope        ^  Wilcke,  Haveman  (?). 


266 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII 


In  the  Papal  States  the  examinations  lasted  fi'om 
December,  1309,  to  July,  1310,  at  Viterbo,  before  the 
Bishop  of  Sutri.  The  worship  of  idols  was  acknow- 
ledged by  several  witnesses."^  At  Florence,  and  before 
a  Provincial  Council  held  by  the  Archbishop  of  Pisa  and 
the  Bishop  of  Florence,  some  Knights  admitted  the 
guilt  of  the  Order.  But  Keginald,  Archbishop  of  Ea- 
venna,  had  a  commission  of  inquiry  over  Lombardy,  the 
March  of  Ancona,  Tuscany,  and  Dalmatia.  At  Kavenna 
the  Dominicans  proposed  to  apply  torture :  the  majority 
of  the  Council  rejected  the  proposition.  Seven  Tem- 
plars^ maintained  the  innocence  of  the  Order;  they 
were  absolved;  and  in  the  Council  the  Churchmen 
declared  that  those  who  retracted  confessions  made 
under  torture  were  to  be  held  guiltless.*^  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Kavenna  and  the  Bishop  of  Kimini  held  an 
inquest  at  Cesena.  Andrew  of  Sienna  declared  that  he 
had  heard  that  many  Brothers  had  confessed  from  fear 
of  torture.  He  knew  nothing,  had  heard  nothing  of  such 
things;  had  he  known  them,  he  would  have  left  the 
Order,  and  denounced  it  to  the  Bishops  and  Inquisitors. 
*'  I  had  rather  have  been  a  beggar  for  my  bread  than 
remained  with  such  men.  I  had  rather  died,  for  above 
all  things  is  to  be  preferred  the  salvation  of  the  soul." 
From  Lombardy  there  are  no  reports.^  In  the  island 
of  Cyprus  an  inquest  was  held :  ^  one  hundred  and  ten 


The  particulars  in  Raynouard,  p. 


271. 


"  The  names  in  Raynouard,  p.  277, 
<»  "  Communi  sententid  decretum 
est  innocentes  absolvi.  .  .  .  Intelligi 
innocentes  debere  qui,  metu  tormen- 
torum,  confessi  fuissent,  si  deinde  earn 
confessionem  rev^ocassent  ;  aut  revo- 
care,   hujusmodi    tormentorum    metu. 


ne  infeiTentur  nova,  non  fuissent 
ausi,  dum  tamen  id  constaret." — Har- 
duin,  Concil.  7,  p.  1317.  All  this 
implies  the  general  use  of  torture  in 
Italy. 

P  There  were  one  or  two  unim- 
portant inquiries  at  Bologna,  Fano, 
&c. — Raynouard. 

fl  May  and  June,  1311. 


Chap.  II. 


TEMPLARS  IN  SPAl^. 


267 


Spain. 


witnesses  were  heard,  seventy-five  of  the  Order.  They 
had  at  one  time  taken  up  arms  to  defend  themselves, 
but  laid  them  down  in  obedience  to  the  law.  All  main- 
tained the  blamelessness  of  the  Order  with  courage  and 
dignity. 

In  Spain  the  acquittal  of  the  Order  in  each  of  the 
kingdoms  was  solemn,  general,  complete.'  In 
Arragon,  on  the  first  alarm  of  an  arrest  of  the 
Order,  the  Knights  took  to  their  mountain-fortresses, 
manned  them,  and  seemed  determined  to  stand  on  their 
defence.  They  soon  submitted  to  the  King  and  the  laws. 
The  Grand  Inquisitor,  D.  Juan  Lotger,  a  Dominican, 
conducted  the  interrogatories  with  stern  severity ;  the 
torture  was  used.  A  Council  was  assembled  at  Tarra- 
gona, on  which  sat  the  Archbishop,  Guillen  da  Eocca- 
berti,  with  his  suffragans.  The  Templars  were  declared 
innocent ;  above  all  suspicion.^  "  No  one  was  to  dare 
from  that  time  to  defame  them."  Other  interrogatories 
took  place  in  Medina  del  Campo,  Medina  Celi,  and  in 
Lisbon.  The  Council  of  Salamanca,  presided  over  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Santiago,  the  Bishop  of  Lisbon,  and 
some  other  prelates,  having  made  diligent  investigation 
of  the  truth,  declared  the  Templars  of  Castile,  Leon, 
and  Portugal  free  from  all  the  charges  imputed  against 
them,*  reserving  the  final  judgement  for  the  Supreme 
Pontiff. 

In  Germany  Peter  Ashpalter,  Archbishop  of  Mentz, 
summoned  a  Synod  in  obedience  to  the  Pope's  Bull 
issued  to  the  Archbishops  of  Mentz,   Cologne,  Treves, 


'  See  Zurita  Anales,  Campomanes. 

■  '*  Neque  enim  tarn  culpabiles  invent! 
fuerunt,  ac  fama  ferebat,  quamvis  tor- 
mentis  adacti  fuissent  ad  confessionem 
cnminum." — Mansi,  Concil.  sub  ann. 


t  "  Y  si  mando,  qne  nadie  se  atra- 
viasse  a  infamarlos  por  quanto  en  la 
aveviguacion  hecha  por  el  concilio  fue- 
ron  hallados  libros  di  toda  mala  sus- 
puefita." — Campomanes,  Dissert.  viL 


268  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY  Book  XII, 

and  Magdeburg.  The  Council  was  seated,  the  Primate 
and  his  brother  prelates.  Suddenly  Hugh,  Wild 
and  Rheingraf,  the  Preceptor  of  the  Order  at 
Grumbach  near  Meissenheim,  entered  the  hall  with 
his  Knights  in  full  armour  and  in  the  habit  of  the 
Order.  The  Archbishop  calmly  demanded  their  busi- 
ness. In  a  loud  clear  voice  Hugh  replied,  that  he  and 
his  Brethren  understood  that  the  Council  was  assembled, 
under  a  commission  from  the  Roman  Pontiff,  for  the 
abolition  of  the  Order ;  that  enormous  crimes  and  more 
than  heathen  wickednesses  were  charged  against  them ; 
they  had  been  condemned  without  legal  hearing  or  con- 
viction. "  Wherefore  before  the  Holy  Fathers  present 
he  appealed  to  a  future  Pope  and  to  his  whole  clergy ; 
and  entered  his  public  protest  that  those  who  had  been 
delivered  up  and  burned  had  constantly  denied  those 
crimes,  and  on  that  denial  had  suffered  tortures  and 
death:  that  God  had  avouched  their  innocence  by  a 
wonderful  miracle,  their  white  mantles  marked  with 
the  red-cross  had  been  exposed  to  fire  and  would  not 
burn."  "*  The  Archbishop  fearing  lest  a  tumult  should 
arise,  accepted  the  protest,  and  dismissed  them  with 
courtesy.  A  year  afterwards  a  Council  at  Mentz,  hav- 
ing heard  thirty-eight  witnesses,  declared  the  Order 
guiltless.  A  Council  held  by  the  Archbishop  of  Treves 
came  to  the  same  determination.  Burchard,  Archbishop 
of  Magdeburg,  a  violent  and  unjust  man,  attempted  to 
arrest  the  Templars  of  the  North  of  Germany.  He  was 
compelled  to  release  them.  They  defended  the  fortress 
of  Beyer  Naumbourg  against  the  Archbishop.  Public 
favour  appears  to  have  been  on  their  side:  no  con- 
demnation took  place. 


"  Serrai-ius,  Res  Moguntiacae.-  -Mausi,  vol.  xxv.  p.  2D7« 


Chap,  a  DIFFICULTY  OF  THE  aUESTJON.  269 

Christian  history  has  few  problems  more  pei-plexing, 
yet  more  characteristic  of  the  age,  than  the 
guilt  or  innocence  of  the  Templars.  Two  ^^^°  ^^' 
powerful  interests  have  conspired  in  later  times  against 
them.  The  great  legists  of  monarchical  France,  during 
a  period  of  vast  learning,  thought  it  treason 
against  the  monarchy  to  suppose  that,  even  in  ^  '^^^^^''" 
times  so  remote,  an  ancestor  of  Louis  XIY.  could  have 
been  guilty  of  such  atrocious  iniquity  as  the  unjust  con- 
demnation of  the  Templars.  The  whole  archives  were 
entirely  in  the  power  of  these  legists.  The  documents 
were  published  with  laborious  erudition ;  but  through- 
out, both  in  the  affair  of  the  Templars  and  in  the  strife 
with  Boniface  VIIL,  and  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
memoiy,  with  a  manifest,  almost  an  avowed,  bias  to- 
wards the  King  of  France.  The  honour,  too,  of  the 
legal  profession  seemed  involved  in  these  questions.  The 
distinguished  ancestors  of  the  great  modern  lawyers,  the 
De  Flottes,  De  Plasians,  and  the  Nogarets,  who  raised 
the  profession  to  be  the  predominant  power  in  the  state, 
and  set  it  on  equal  terms  with  the  hierarchy — the 
founders  almost  of  the  parliaments  of  France — must 
not  suffer  attainder,  or  be  degraded  into  the  servile 
counsellors  of  proceedings  which  violated  every  prin- 
ciple of  law  and  of  justice. 

On  the  other  hand  the  ecclesiastical  writers,  who 
esteem  every  reproach  against  the  Pope  as  an  The  ecciesi- 
insult  to,  or  a  weakening  of  their  religion,  ^®*^'^^- 
would  rescue  Clement  V.  from  tlie  guilt  of  the  unjust 
persecution,  spoliation,  abolition  of  an  Order  to  which 
Christendom  owed  so  deep  a  debt  of  honour  and  ol 
gratitude.  Papal  infallibility,  to  those  who  hold  it  in 
its  highest  sense,  or  Papal  impeccability,  in  which  they 
would  fondly  array,  as  far  as  possible,  each  hallowed 


270  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

successor  of  St.  Peter,  is  endangered  by  the  weakness^ 
if  not  worse  than  weakness,  of  the  Holy  Father.  But 
the  calmer  survey  of  the  whole  reign  of  Philip  the  Fair, 
of  his  character  and  that  of  his  counsellors — of  his  mea- 
sures and  his  necessities — of  his  unscrupulous  ambition, 
avarice,  fraud,  violence — of  the  other  precedents  of  his 
oppression — at  least  throws  no  improbability  on  the 
most  discreditable  version  of  this  affair.  Clement  V., 
inextricably  fettered  by  the  compact  through  which  he 
bought  the  tiara,  still  in  the  realm  or  within  the  power 
of  Philip,  with  no  religious,  no  moral  strength  in  his 
personal  character,  had,  as  Pope,  at  least  one,  if  not 
more  than  one  object — the  eluding  or  avoiding  the  con- 
demnation of  Pope  Boniface,  to  which  must  be  sacrificed 
every  other  right  or  claim  to  justice.  The  Papal  autho- 
rity was  absolutely  on  the  hazard ;  the  condemnation  of 
Boniface  would  crumble  away  its  very  base.  A  great 
Italian  Pope  might  have  beheld  in  the  military  Orders, 
now  almost  discharged  from  their  functions  in  the  East, 
a  power  which  might  immeasurably  strengthen  the  See 
of  Kome.  They  might  become  a  feudal  militia,  of  vast 
wealth  and  possessions,  holding  directly  of  himself,  if 
skilfully  managed,  at  his  command,  in  every  kingdom 
in  Christendom.  With  this  armed  aristocracy,  with  the 
Friar  Preachers  to  rule  the  middle  or  more  intellectual 
classes,  the  Friar  Minors  to  keep  alive  and  govern  the 
fanaticism  of  the  lowest,  what  could  limit  or  control  his 
puissance  ?  But  a  French  Pope,  a  Pope  in  the  position 
of  Clement,  had  no  such  splendid  visions  of  supremacy ; 
what  he  held,  he  held  almost  on  sufferance ;  he  could 
maintain  himself  by  dexterity  and  address  alone,  not  by 
intrepid  assertion  of  authority.  Nor  was  it  difficult  to 
abuse  himself  into  a  belief  or  a  supposed  belief  in  the 
guilt  of  the  Templars.     He  had  but  to  accept  without 


OiAP.  II.  EVIDENCE.  271 

too  severe  examination  the  evidence  heaped  before  him; 
to  authorise  as  he  did — and  in  so  doing  he  introduced 
nothing  new,  startling,  or  contrary  to  the  usage  of  the 
Church — the  terrible  means,  of  which  few  doubted  the 
justice,  used  to  extort  that  evidence.  The  iniquity,  the 
cruelty  was  all  the  King's ;  his  only  responsible  act  at 
last  was  in  the  mildest  form  the  abolition  of  an  Order 
which  had  ceased  to  fulfil  the  aim  for  which  it  was 
founded ;  and  by  taking  this  upon  himself,  he  retained 
the  power  of  quietly  thwarting  the  avarice  of  the  King, 
and  preventing  the  escheat  of  all  the  possessions  of  the 
Order  to  the  Crown. 

Our  history  has  shown  the  full  value  of  the  evidence 
against  the  Order.  Beyond  the  confessions  of 
the  Templars  themselves  there  was  absolutely 
nothing  but  the  wildest,  most  vague,  most  incredible 
tales  of  superstition  and  hatred.  In  France  alone,  and 
where  French  influence  prevailed,  were  confessions  ob- 
tained. Elsewhere,  in  Spain,  in  Germany,  parts  of 
Italy,  there  was  an  absolute  acquittal;  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland  there  appears  no  evidence  which 
in  the  present  day  would  commit  a  thief,  or  condemn 
him  to  transportation.  In  France  these  confessions 
were  invariably,  without  exception,  crushed  out  of  men 
imprisoned,  starved,  disgraced,  under  the  most  relent- 
less tortures,  or  under  well-grounded  apprehensions  of 
torture,  degradation,  and  misery,  with,  on  the  other 
hand,  promises  of  absolution,  freedom,  pardon,  royal 
favour.  Yet  on  the  instant  that  they  struggle  again 
into  the  light  of  day ;  on  the  first  impulse  of  freedom 
and  hope ;  no  sooner  do  they  see  themselves  for  a 
moment  out  of  the  grasp  of  the  remorseless  King; 
under  the  judgement,  it  might  be,  of  the  less  remorseless 
Church,  than  all  these  confessions  are  for  the  most  part 


272  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

retracted,  retracted  fully,  unequivocally.  This  retracta- 
tion was  held  so  fatal  to  the  cause  of  their  enemies  that 
all  the  bravest  were  burned  and  submitted  to  be  burned 
rather  than  again  admit  their  guilt.  The  only  points 
on  which  there  was  any  great  extent  or  unanimity  of 
confession  were  the  ceremonies  at  the  reception,  the 
abnegation  of  Christ,  the  insult  to  the  Cross,  with  the 
other  profane  or  obscene  circumstances.  These  were 
the  points  on  which  it  was  the  manifest  object  of  the 
prosecutors  to  extort  confessions  which  were  suggested 
by  the  hard,  stern  questions,  the  admission  of  which 
mostly  satisfied  the  Court. 

Admit  to  the  utmost  that  the  devout  and  passionate 
enthusiasm  of  the  Templars  had  died  away,  that  famili- 
arity with  other  forms  of  belief  in  the  East  had  deadened 
the  fanatic  zeal  for  Christ  and  his  Sepulchre ;  that 
Oriental  superstitions,  the  belief  in  magic,  talismans, 
amulets,  had  crept  into  many  minds ;  that  in  not  a  few 
the  austere  morals  had  yielded  to  the  wild  life,  the  fiery 
sun,  the  vices  of  the  East ;  that  the  corporate  spirit  of 
the  Order,  its  power,  its  wealth,  its  pride,  had  absorbed 
the  religious  spirit  of  the  first  Knights :  yet  there  is 
something  utterly  inconceivable  in  the  general,  almost 
universal,  requisition  of  a  naked,  ostentatious,  offensive, 
insulting  renunciation  of  the  Christian  faith,  a  renuncia- 
tion following  immediately  on  the  most  solemn  vow ; 
not  after  a  long,  slow  initiation  into  the  Order,  not  as 
the  secret,  esoteric  doctrine  of  the  chosen  few,  but  on 
the  threshold  of  the  Order,  on  the  very  day  of  reception. 
It  must  be  supposed,  too,  that  this  should  not  have 
transpired;  that  it  should  not  have  been  indignantly 
rejected  by  many  of  noble  birth  and  brave  minds ;  or 
that  all  who  did  dare  to  reject  it  should  have  been 
secretly  made  away  with,  or  overawed  by  the  terror  of 


Chap.  II.  DU  MOLAY  273 

death,  or  the  solemnity  of  their  vow  of  ooedience  ;  that 
there  should  have  been  hardly  any  prudential  attempts 
at  concealment,  full  liberty  of  confession,  actual  con- 
fession, it  should  seem,  to  bishops,  priests,  and  friars ; 
and  yet  that  it  should  not  have  got  abroad,  except  per- 
haps in  loose  rumours,  in  suspicions,  which  may  have 
been  adroitly  instilled  into  the  popular  mind:  that 
nothing  should  have  been  made  known  till  denounced 
by  the  two  or  three  renegades  produced  by  William  of 
Nogaret. 

The  early  confession  of  Du  Molay,  his  retractation  of 
his  retractation,  are  facts  no  doubt  embarrassing,  yet  at 
the  same  time  very  obscure.  But  the  genuine  chival- 
rous tone  of  the  language  in  which  he  asserted  that  the 
confession  had  been  tampered  with,  or  worse ;  the  care 
manifestly  taken  that  his  confession  should  not  be  made 
in  the  presence  of  the  Pope,  the  means  no  doubt  used, 
the  terror  of  torture,  or  actual,  degrading,  agonising 
torture,  to  incapacitate  him  from  appearing  at  Poi- 
tiers :  —  these  and  many  other  considerations  greatly 
lighten  or  remove  this  difficulty.  His  death,  hereafter 
to  be  told,  which  can  hardly  be  attributed  but  to  ven- 
geance for  his  having  arraigned,  or  fear  lest  he  should 
with  too  great  authority  arraign  the  whole  proceedings, 
with  all  the  horrible  circumstances  of  that  death,  con- 
firms this  view. 

Du  Molay  was  a  man  of  brave  and  generous  impulses, 
but  not  of  firm  and  resolute  character  ;  he  was  unsuited 
for  his  post  in  such  perilous  times.  That  post  required 
not  only  the  most  intrepid  mind,  but  a  mind  which 
could  calculate  with  sagacious  discrimination  the  most 
prudent  as  well  as  the  boldest  course.  On  him  rested 
the  fame,  the  fate,  of  his  Order ;  the  freedom,  the  ex- 
emption from    torture  or  from   shame,  oi  each  single 

VOL.  VII.  T 


274 


LATIN  CHEISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


brother,  his  companions  in  arms,  his  familiar  friends. 
And  this  man  was  environed  by  the  subtlest  of  foes. 
When  he  unexpectedly  breaks  out  into  a  bold  and  ap- 
palling disclosure,  De  Plasian  is  at  hand  to  soften  by 
persuasion,  to  perplex  with  argument,  to  bow  by  cruel 
force.  His  generous  nature  may  neither  have  compre- 
hended the  arts  of  his  enemies,  nor  the  full  significance, 
the  sense  which  might  be  drawn  from  his  words.  He 
may  have  been  tempted  to  some  admissions,  in  the  hope 
not  of  saving  himself  but  his  Order ;  he  may  have 
thought  by  some  sacrifice  to  appease  the  King  or  to 
propitiate  the  Pope.  The  secrets  of  his  prison-house 
were  never  known.  All  he  said  was  noted  down  and 
published,  and  reported  to  the  Pope ;  all  he  refused  to 
say  (except  that  one  speech  before  the  Papal  Commis- 
sioners) suppressed.  He  may  have  had  a  vague  trust 
in  the  tardy  justice  of  the  Pope,  v/hen  out  of  the  Bang's 
power,  and  lulled  himself  with  this  precarious  hope. 
Nor  can  we  quite  assume  that  he  was  not  the  victim  of 
absolute  and  groundless  forgery. 

All  contemporary  history,  and  that  history  which  is 
contempo-  ncarcst  the  times,  except  for  the  most  part 
rary  history,  ^^le  Freuch  biographcrs  of  Pope  Clement,  de- 
nounce in  plain  unequivocal  terms  the  avarice  of  Philip 
the  Fair  as  the  sole  cause  of  the  unrighteous  condemna- 
tion of  the  Templars.  Villani  emphatically  pronounces 
that  the  charges  of  heresy  were  advanced  in  order  to 
seize  their  treasures,  and  from  secret  jealousy  of  the 
Grand  Master.  "  The  Pope  abandoned  the  Order  to 
the  King  of  France,  that  he  might  avert,  if  possible, 
the  condemnation  of  Boniface."''     Zantfliet,  Canon  of 


*  "  Mosso  da  avarizia  si  fece  pro- 
niettere  dal  Papa  secretamentc  di  dis- 
f»re  la  detta  Oidine  de  Tenipian  .  .  . 


ma  piii  si  dice  die  fu  per  trarre  di 
loro  molta  moueta,  e  per  isdegno  preso 
col  maestro  del  temjio,  e  colla  ma- 


Chap.  II. 


CONTEMPORARY  HISTORY. 


275 


Liege,  describes  the  noble  martyrdom  of  the  Templars, 
that  of  Du  Molay  from  the  report  of  an  eye-witness: 
"had  not  their  death  tended  to  gratify  his  insatiate 
appetite  for  their  wealth,  their  noble  demeanour  had 
triumphed  over  the  perfidy  of  the  avaricious  King."^ 
The  Cardinal  Antonino  of  Florence,  a  Saint,  though  he 
adopts  in  fact  almost  the  words  of  Villani,  is  even  more 
plain  and  positive : — "  The  whole  was  forged  by  the 
avarice  of  the  King,  that  he  might  despoil  the  Templars 
of  then- wealth."^ 

Yet  the  avarice  of  PhiKp  was  baffled,  at  least  as  to 
the  full  harvest  he  hoped  to  reap.  The  absolute  confis- 
cation of  all  the  estates  of  a  religious  Order  bordered 
too  nearly  on  invasion  of  the  property  of  the  Church ; 
the  lands  and  treasures  were  dedicated  inalienably  to 
pious  uses,  specially  to  the  conquest  of  the  Holy  Land. 
The  King  had  early  been  forced  to  consent  to  make 
over  the  custody  of  the  lands  to  the  Bishops  of  the 
dioceses ;  careful  inventories  too  were  to  be  made  of 
all  their  goods,  for  which  the  King's  ofScers  were  re- 
sponsible. But  of  the  moveables  of  which  the  Iving  had 
taken  possession,  it  may  be  doubted  if  much,  or  any 
part,  was  allowed  to  escape  his  iron  grasp,  or  whether 


gione.  II  Papa  per  levarsi  da  dosso 
il  R6  di  Francia,  per  contentarlo  per 
la  richiesta  di  condennare  Papa  Boni- 
fazio." — 1.  viii.  c.  92. 

y  "  Dicens  eos  tam  perversa  animi 
fortitudine  regis  avari  vicisse  perfi- 
diam,  nisi  moriendo  illuc  letendissent, 
quo  ejus  appetitus  inexplebilis  cupie- 
bat  :  quamquam  non  minor  idcirco 
gloria  fuerit,  si  recto  prseligentes  ju- 
dicio,  inter  tormenta  maluerint  defi- 
oere,  quam  adversus  veritatem  diiisfee 
fiut  famam  jnst6  quaesitam  turpissimi 


sceleris  confessione  maculare."  He 
describes  Du  Molay's  death  (see  further 
on),  "  rege  spectante,"  and  adds, 
'*  qui  hgec  vidit  scriptori  testimonium 
prsebuit." — Zantfliet,  Chronic,  apud 
Martene.  Zantfliet's  Chronicle  was 
continued  to  1460.  —  Collect.  Nov. 
V.  5. 

*  "  Totum  tamen  falsfe  conficturi 
ex  avaritia,  ut  illi  religiosi  Templarjj 
exspoliarentur  bonis  suis." — S.  An- 
tonin.  Archiep.  Florent.  Hist.  He 
wrote  about  a.d.  1450. 

T  2 


276 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XIl 


any  account  was  ever  given  of  the  vast  tieasures  accu- 
mulated in  tlie  vaults,  in  the  chapels,  in  the  armouries, 
in  the  storehouses  of  the  Temple  castles.  The  lands 
indeed,  both  in  England  and  in  France,  were  at  length 
made  over  to  the  Hospitallers ;  yet,  according  to  Villani,* 
they  were  so  burthened  by  the  demands,  dilapidations, 
and  exactions  of  the  King's  ofiScers,  they  had  to  pur- 
chase the  surrender  from  the  King  and  other  princes 
at  such  vast  cost  of  money,  raised  at  such  exorbitant 
interest,  that  the  Order  of  St.  John  was  poorer  rather 
than  richer  from  what  seemed  so  splendid  a  grant.  The 
Crown  claimed  enormous  sums  as  due  on  the  sequestra- 
tion. Some  years  later  Pope  John  XXII.  complains 
that  the  King's  officers  seized  the  estates  of  the  Hos- 
pitallers as  an  indemnity  for  claims  which  had  arisen 
during  the  confiscation.^ 

The  dissolution  of  the  Order  was  finally  determined. 
"  If,"  said  the  Pope,  "  it  cannot  be  destroyed  by  the  way 
of  justice,  let  it  be  destroyed  by  the  way  of  expediency, 
lest  we  offend  our  dear  son  the  King  of  France."  °  The 
Council  of  Yienne  was  to  pronounce  the  solemn  act  of 
dissolution.  Of  the  Templars  the  few  who  had  been 
absolved,  and  had  not  retracted  their  confession,  were 
permitted  to  enter  into  other  orders,  or  to  retire  into 
monasteries.      Many  had  thrown  off  the  habit  of  the 


»  "  Ma  convenneli  lovo  I'icogliere  e 
ricomperare  dal  ilh  di  Francia  e  dalli 
altri  principi  b  Sigaori  con  tanta 
quantity  di  moneta,  che  con  gli  in- 
teressi  corsi  poi,  la  magione  dello 
Spedale  fu  e  6  in  piii  poverta,  che 
prima  avendo  solo  il  sue  proprio." 
Villani  is  good  authority  in  money 
matters. 

•>  Dupuy,  Condemnation. 

•  "  Et  sicut  audivi  ab  uno,  qui  fuit 


examinator  causes  et  testium,  destnic- 
tus  fuit  contra  justitiam,  et  mihi  iiiit, 
quod  ipse  Clemens  protulit  hoc,  '  Et 
si  non  per  viam  justitise  potest  destrui, 
destruatur  tamen  per  viam  expedien- 
tije,  ne  scandalizetur  chains  filius 
noster  Rex  Francise.'  " — Alberici  de 
Rosate  Bergomensis,  Dictionarii>m  Ju- 
ris :  Venetiis,  1579,  folio ;  sub  voce 
Templarii,   quoted    by    Haveman,    p. 


Chap.  II. 


ABOLITION  OF  THE  OEDER 


0.7-: 


Order,  and  in  remote  parts  fell  back  to  secular  employ- 
ments :  many  remained  in  prison.  Du  Molay  and  the 
three  other  heads  of  the  Order  were  reserved  in  close 
custody  for  a  terrible  fate,  hereafter  to  be  told.^  ® 


d  Wilcke  asserts  (p.  342)  that  Mol- 
denhauer's  pubiication  of  the  Proceed- 
ings against  the  Templars  (now  more 
accurately  and  fully  edited  by  M. 
Michelet)  was  bought  up  by  the 
Freemasons  as  injurious  to  the  fame 
of  the  Templars.  If  this  was  so,  the 
Freemasons  committed  an  error :  my 
doubts  of  their  guilt  are  strongly  con- 
finned  by  the  Proems.  Wilcke  makes 
three  regular  gradations  of  initiation  : 
I.  The  denial  of  Christ;  II.  The 
kisses ;  III.  The  worship  of  the  Idol. 
This  is  contrary  to  all  the  evidence; 
the  two  fiist  are  always  described 
as  simultaneous.  Wilcke  has  sup- 
posed that  so  long  as  the  Order  con- 
sisted only  of  knights,  it  was  ortho- 
dox. The  clerks  introduced  into  the 
Order,  chiefly  Friar  Minorites,  brought 
in  learning  and  the  wild  speculative 
opinions.  But  for  this  he  alleges  not 
the  least  proof. 

«  A  modern  school  of  history,  some- 
what too  prone  to  make  or  to  imagine 
discoveries,  has  condemned  the  Tem- 
plars upon  other  grounds.  These 
rierce  unlettered  warriors  hav^e  risen 
into  Oriental  mystics.  Not  merely 
has  their  intercourse  with  the  East 
softened  off  their  abhorrence  of  Mo- 
hammedanism, induced  a  more  liberal 
tone  of  thought,  or  overlaid  their 
Western  superstitions  with  a  layer  of 
Oriental  imagery — they  have  become 
Gnostic  Theists,  have  adopted  many 
of  the  old  Gnostic  charms,  amulets, 
and  allegorical  idols.  Under  these 
influences  they  had   framed   a  secret 


body  of  statutes,  communicated  only 
to  the  initiate,  who  were  slowly  and 
after  long  probation  admitted  into  the 
abstruser  and  more  awful  mysteries. 
Not  only  this,  the  veiy  branch  of  the 
Gnostics  has  been  indicated,  that  of 
the  Ophita;,  of  whom  they  are  de- 
clared to  be  the  legitimate  Western 
descendants.  If  they  have  thus  had 
precursors,  neither  have  they  wanted 
successors.  The  Templars  ai'e  the 
ancestors  (as  Wilcke  thought,  the  ac- 
knowledged ancestors)  of  the  secret 
societies,  which  have  subsisted  by 
regular  tradition  down  to  modern 
times — the  Freemasons,  Uluminati, 
and  many  others.  It  is  surprising  on 
what  loose,  vague  evidence  rests  the 
whole  of  this  theory  :  on  amulet.^ 
rings,  images,  of  which  there  is  n« 
proof  whatever  that  they  belonged  t« 
the  Templars,  or  if  they  did,  that  they 
were  not  accidentally  picked  up  by 
individuals  in  the  East ;  on  casual 
expressions  of  worthless  witnesses, 
e.  g.,  Staplebiidge  the  English  rene- 
gade ;  on  ceitain  vessels,  or  bowls 
converted  into  vessels,  used  in  an 
imaginary  Fire- Baptism,  deduced, 
without  any  regard  to  gaps  of  cen- 
turies in  the  tradition,  from  ancient 
heretics,  and  strangely  mingled  up 
with  the  Sangreal  of  mediaeval  ro- 
mance. M.  von  Hammer  has  brought 
great  Oriental  erudition,  but  I  must 
say,  not  much  Western  logic,  to 
bear  on  the  question ;  he  has  been 
thoroughly  refuted,  as  I  think,  by 
M.   Raynouard  and  others.      Anotbei 


278 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


5ooK  xn. 


cognate  gi-ound  is  the  discovery  of 
certain  symbols,  and  those  symbols 
interpreted  into  obscene  significations, 
en  the  churches  of  ths  Templars.  But 
the  same  authorities  show  that  these 
symbols  were  by  no  means  peculiar 
to  the  Temple  churches.  No  doubt 
among  the  monks  there  were  foul 
imaginations,  and  in  a  coarse  age  archi- 
tects—  many  of  them  monks — grati- 
fied those  foul  imaginations  by  such 
unseemly  ornaments.  But  the  argu- 
ment assumes  the  connexion  or  identi- 
fication of  the  architects  with  the  secret 
guild  of  Freemasonry  (in  which  guild 
I  do  not  believe),  and  also  of  the  Free- 
masons with  the  Templars,  which  is 
totally  destitute  of  proof.  It  appears 
to  me  absolutely  monstrous  to  con- 
clude that  when  all  the  edifices,  the 
churches,  the  mansions,  the  castles, 
the  farms,  the  granaries  of  the  Tem- 
plars in  Fiance  and  England,  in  every 
country  of  Europe,  came  into  the  pos- 
session of  their  sworn  enemies  ;  when 
these  symbols,  in  a  state  far  more 
perfect,  must  have  stared  them  in  the 
face  ;  when  the  lawyers  were  on 
the  track  for  evidence;  when  vague 
rumours  had  set  all  their  persecutors 
on  the  scent ;  when  Philip  and  the 
Pope  would  have  paid  any  price  for 
a  single  idol,  and  not  one  could  be 
produced  :  because  in  our  own  days, 
among  the  thousand  misshapen  and 
grotesque  sculptures,  gurgoyles,  and 
corbels,  here  and  there  may  be  dis- 
f^erned  or  made  out  something  like  a 
black  cat,  or  some  other  shape,  said  to 
have  been  those  of  Tem})lar  idols, — 
theiefore  the  guilt  of  the  Older,  and 
their  lineal  descent  from  ancient  here- 
tics, should  be  assumed  as  history. 
Yet  on  such  grounds  the  Orientalisa- 
iiop  of  the  whole  Order,  not  here  and 


there  of  a  single  renegade,  has  been 
drawn  with  complacent  satisfaction. 
The  great  stress  of  all,  however,  is 
laid  on  the  worship  of  Baphomet. 
The  talismans,  bowls,  symbols,  are 
even  called  Baphometic.  Now,  with 
M.  Raynouard,  1  have  not  the  least 
doubt  that  Baphomet  is  no  more 
than  a  transformation  of  the  name  of 
Mahomet.  Here  is  only  one  passage 
from  the  Proven9al  poetry.  It  is 
from  a  Poem  by  the  Chevalier  du 
Temple,  quoted  Hist.  Litter,  de  la 
Fiance,  xix.  p.  345  : 

"  Quar  Dieux  dorm,  qui  veillar  solea, 
E  Bafomet  obra  de  son  poder, 
E  fai  obra  di  Melicadeser." 

"  God,  who  used  to  watch  (during 
the  Crusades),  now  slumbers,  and 
Bafomet  (Mahomet)  works  as  he  wills 
to  complete  the  triumph  of  the  Sul- 
tan.'' I  am  not  surprised  to  find 
fanciful  writers  like  M.  Michelet,  who 
write  for  effect,  and  whose  positive- 
ness  seems  to  me  not  seldom  in  the 
inverse  ratio  to  the  strength  of  his 
authorities,  adopting  such  wild  no- 
tions; but  even  the  clear  intellect  df 
Mr,  Hallam  appears  to  me  to  attribute 
more  weight  than  I  should  have  ex- 
pected to  this  theory. — Note  to  Mid- 
dle Ages,  vol.  iii.  p.  50.  It  appears 
to  me,  I  confess,  that  so  much  learning 
was  never  wasted  on  a  fantastic  hypo- 
thesis as  by  M.  von  Hammer  in  his 
Mysterium  Baphometis  Revelatum. 
The  statutes  of  the  Order  were  pub- 
lished in  1840  by  M.  Maillard  de 
Chambure.  They  contain  nothing  but 
what  is  pious  and  austere.  This,  as 
Mr.  Hallam  observes,  is  of  course, 
and  proves  nothing.  M.  de  Cham- 
bure says  that  it  is  acknowledged  in 
Germany  that  M.  von  Himraer's 
theory  is  an  idle  chimera. 


Chap.  IIJ.  ARRAIGNMENT  OF  BONIFACE,  279 


CHAPTER   III. 

Arraignment  of  Boniface.     Council  of  Yienne. 

If,  however,  Pope  Clement  hoped  to  appease  or  to  divert 
the  immitigable  hatred  of  Philip  and  his  mini-  Persecution 
sters  from  the  persecution  of  the  memory  of  mV^^oTpope 
Pope  Boniface  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  Templars,  ^^^^f^^- 
or  at  least  to  gain  precious  time  which  might  be  preg- 
nant with  new  events,  he  was  doomed  to  disappoint- 
ment. The  hounds  were  not  thrown  off  their  track,  not 
even  arrested  in  their  com-se,  by  that  alluring  quarry. 
That  dispute  w^as  still  going  on  simultaneously  with  the 
affair  of  the  Templars.  Philip,  at  every  fresh  hesitation 
of  the  Pope,  broke  out  into  more  threatening  indigna- 
tion. Nogaret  ajid  the  lawyers  presented  memorial  on 
memorial,  specifying  with  still  greater  distinctness  and 
particularity  the  offences  w-hich  they  declared  them- 
selves ready  to  prove.  They  complained,  not  without 
justice,  that  the  most  material  witnesses  might  be  cut 
off  by  death ;  that  every  year  of  delay  w^eakened  their 
power  of  producing  attestations  to  the  validity  of  their 
charges.^ 

The  hopes  indeed  held  out  to  the  King's  avarice  and 
revenge  by  the  abandonment  of  the  Templars — hopes,  if 
not  baf33ed,  eluded — were  more  than  counterbalanced 
by  his  failure  in  obtaining  the  Empire  for  Charles  of 
Valois.     An  act  of  enmity  sank  deeper  into  the  proud 


*  All  the  documents  are  in  Dupuy,  Preuves,  p.  367  et  seqq.,  with  Baillet'a 
•Dialler  Tolume. 


280  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIl 

heart  of  Philip  than  an  act  of  favour :  the  favour  had 
been  granted  grudgingly,  reluctantly,  with  difficulty, 
mtli  reservation;  the  enmity  had  been  subtle,  per- 
fidious, under  the  guise  of  friendship. 

Pope  Clement  had  now  secured,  as  he  might  fondly 
suppose,  his  retreat  in  Avignon,  in  some  degree  beyond 
the  King's  power.  In  France  he  dared  not  stay;  to 
Italy  he  could  not  and  would  not  go.  The  King's  mes- 
sengers  were  in  Avignon  to  remind  him  that  he  had 
pledged  himself  to  hear  and  examine  the  witnesses 
Reginald  di  ^gaiust  tlio  memory  of  Boniface.  Not  the 
supino.  King's  messengers  alone.  Eeginald  di  Supino 
had  been  most  deeply  implicated  in  the  affair  of  Anagni. 
He  had  assembled  a  great  body  of  witnesses,  as  he 
averred,  to  undergo  the  expected  examination  before 
the  Pope.  Either  the  Pope  himself,  or  the  friends  of 
Boniface,  who  had  still  great  power,  and  seemed  de- 
termined, from  attachment  to  their  kinsman  or  from 
reverence  for  the  Popedom,  to  hazard  all  in  his  defence, 
dreaded  this  formidable  levy  of  witnesses,  whom  Eegi- 
nald di  Supino  would  hardly  have  headed  unless  in 
arms.  Supino  had  arrived  within  three  leagues  of 
Avignon  when  he  received  intelligence  from  the  King's 
emissaries  of  an  ambuscade  of  the  partisans  of  Boniface, 
stronger  than  his  own  troop :  he  would  not  risk  the 
attack,  but  retired  to  Nismes,  and  there,  in  the  presence 
of  the  municipal  authorities,  entered  a  public  protest 
against  those  who  prevented  him  and  his  witnesses,  by 
the  fear  of  death,  from  approaching  the  presence  of  the 
Pope.  The  Pope  himself  was  not  distinctly  charged 
with,  but  not  acquitted  of  complicity  in  this  deliberate 
plot  to  arrest  the  course  of  justice.^ 

^  "  Recesserunt  prop terei  predict!,  qui  cum  dicto  domino  Raynaldo  vonerant, 
ad  propria  redeuutes,  mortis  merito  periculum  foimidantes." — Preuves,  p.  289 


CiLVP.  III.  DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  POPE.  281 

Clement  was  in  a  strait :  he  was  not  in  the  dominionSj 
but  yet  not  absolutely  safe  from  the  power  Difficulties  oi 
of  Philip.  Charles,  King  of  Naples,  Philip's  *^^^"p^- 
kinsman,  as  Count  of  Provence,  held  the  adjacent 
country.  The  King  of  France  had  demanded  a  Council 
to  decide  this  grave  question.  The  Council  had  been 
summoned  and  adjourned  by  Clement.  But  a  Pope, 
though  a  dead  Pope,  arraigned  before  a  Council,  all 
the  witnesses  examined  publicly,  in  open  Court,  to  pro- 
claim to  Christendom  the  crimes  imputed  to  Boniface  ! 
Where,  if  the  Council  should  assume  the  power  of  con- 
demning a  dead  Pope,  would  be  the  security  of  a  living 
one  ?  Clement  wrote,  not  to  Philip,  but  to  Charles  of 
Valois,  representing  the  toils  and  anxieties  which  he 
was  enduring,  the  laborious  days  and  sleepless  nights, 
in  the  investigation  of  the  affair  of  Boniface.  He  en- 
treated that  the  judgement  might  be  left  altogether  to 
himself  and  the  Church.  He  implored  the  intercession 
of  Charles  with  the  King,  of  Charles  whom  he  had  just 
thwarted  in  his  aspiring  views  on  the  Empire.^  — ^ 

But  the  King  was  not  to  be  deterred  by  soft  words. 
He  wrote  more  peremptorily,  more  imperiously.  "  Some 
witnesses,  men  of  the  highest  weight  and  above  all 
exception,  had  already  died  in  the  Court  of  Eome  and 
elsewhere :  the  Pope  retarded  the  safe-conduct  necessary 
for  the  appearance  of  other  witnesses,  who  had  been 
seized,  tortured,  put  to  death,  by  the  partisans  of  Boni- 
face." The  Pope  replied  in  a  humble  tone  : — "  Never 
was  so  weighty  a  process  so  far  advanced  in  so  short  a 
time.  Only  one  witness  had  died,  and  his  deposition 
had  been  received  on  his  deathbed.  He  denied  the 
seizure,  torture,  death,  of  any  witnesses.     One  of  these 


e  Preuves,  ,i.  290.     May  23,  1309. 


282  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Soos  Xli. 

very  witnesses,  a  monk,  it  was  confidently  reported,  was 
in  France  mth  William  de  Nogaret."  He  complained 
of  certain  letters  forged  in  his  name — a  new  proof  of 
the  daring  extent  to  which  at  this  time  such  forgeries 
were  carried.  In  those  letters  the  names  of  Cardinals, 
both  of  the  King's  party  and  on  that  of  Boniface,  had 
been  audaciously  inserted.  These  letters  had  been  con- 
demned and  burned  in  the  public  consistory.  The  Pope 
turns  to  another  affair.  Philip,  presuming  on  the  ser- 
vility of  the  Pope,  had  introduced  a  clause  into  the 
treaty  v/ith  the  Flemings,  that  if  they  broke  the  treaty 
they  should  be  excommunicated,  and  not  receive  abso- 
lution without  the  consent  of  the  King  or  his  successors. 
The  Pope  replies,  "  that  he  cannot  abdicate  for  himself 
or  future  Popes  the  full  and  sole  power  of  granting 
absolution.  If  the  King,  as  he  asserts,  can  adduce  any 
precedent  for  such  clause,  he  would  consent  to  that, 
or  even  a  stronger  one ;  but  he  has  taken  care  that 
the  Flemings  are  not  apprised  of  his  objection  to  the 
clause."^ 

Clement  was  determined,  as  far  as  a  mind  like  his 
Determina-  was  Capable  of  determination,  to  reserve  the 
ment.         inevitable  judgement  on  the  memory  of  Boni- 
face to  himself  and  his  own  Court,  and  not  to  recognise 
the  dangerous  tribunal  of  a  Council,  fatal  to  living  as  to 
dead  pontiffs.     He  issued  a  Bull,^  summoning   Philip 
King  of  France,   his  three  sons,   with  the   Counts  of 
Evreux,  St.  Pol,  and  Dreux,  and  William  de  Plasian, 
according  to  their  own  petition,  to  prove  their  charges 
against  Pope  Boniface ;  to  appear  before  him 
in  Avignon  on  the  first  court-day  after  the 
Feast  of  the  Purification  of  the  Virgin.     The  Bishop  of 


*  Preuves,  p.  292.  August  23, 1309.         «  Sept.  1 :309.  Kaynaidus  sub  ann.  c.  4 


Chap.  III.      PHILIP  SHEINKS  FEOM  PEOSECUTING.  283 

Paris  was  ordered  to  serve  this  citation  on  the  three 
Counts  and  on  William  de  Plasian.^ 

Philip  seemed  to  be  embarrassed  by  this  measure. 
He  shrunk  or  thought  it  beneath  his  dignity  x^e  King 
for  liimself  or  his  sons  to  stand  as  public  pro-  ^^^^Tas 
secutors  before  the  Papal  Court.  Instead  of  P™««<="tor. 
the  King  appeared  a  haughty  letter.  "  He  had  been 
compelled  reluctantly  to  take  cognisance  of  the  usurp- 
ation and  wicked  life  of  Pope  Boniface.  Public  fame, 
the  representations  of  men  of  high  esteem  in  the  realm, 
nobles,  prelates,  doctors,  had  arraigned  Boniface  as  a 
heretic,  and  an  intruder  into  the  fold  of  the  Lord. 
A  Parliament  of  his  whole  kingdom  had  demanded  that, 
as  the  champion  and  defender  of  the  faith,  he  should 
summon  a  General  Council,  before  which  men  of  the 
highest  character  declared  themselves  ready  to  prove 
these  most  appalling  charges.  William  de  Nogaret  had 
been  sent  to  summon  Pope  Boniface  to  appear  before 
that  Council.  The  Pope's  frantic  resistance  had  led  to 
acts  of  violence,  not  on  the  part  of  Nogaret,  but  of  the 
Pope's  subjects,  by  whom  he  was  universally  hated. 
These  charges  had  been  renewed  after  the  death  of 
Boniface,  before  Benedict  XI.  and  before  the  present 
Pope.  The  Pope,  in  other  affairs,  especially  that  of  the 
Templars,  had  shown  his  regard  for  justice.  All  these 
things  were  to  be  finally  determined  at  the  approaching 
Council.'  But  if  the  Pope,  solicitous  to  avoid  before 
the  Council  the  odious  intricacies  of  charges,  examina- 
tions, investigations,  in  the  affair  of  Boniface,  desired 
to  determine  it  by  the  plenitude  of  the  Apostolic 
authority,  he  left  it  entirely  to  the  judgement  of  the 
Pope,  whether  in  the  Council  or  elsewhere.     He  was 


'  Raynaldus  ut  supra.     Oct.  18. 


284  LATIX  CHRISTIAN  ITY.  Book  XII. 

prepared  to  submit  tlie  whole  to  the  disposition  and  ordi- 
nance of  the  Holy  See."  The  King's  sons,  sum- 
moned in  like  manner  to  undertake  the  office 
of  prosecutors,   declined  to  appear  in  that  somewhat 
humiliating  character.^ 

William  de  Nogaret  and  William  de  Plasian  remained 
DePiasian  the  solc  prosccutors  in  this  great  cause,  and 
Nogaret.  they  entered  upon  it  with  a  profound  and 
accumulated  hatred  to  Boniface  and  to  his  memory  : 
De  Plasian  with  the  desperate  resolution  of  a  man  so 
far  committed  in  the  strife  that  either  Boniface  must  be 
condemned,  or  himself  be  held  an  impious,  false  accuser ; 
Nogaret  with  the  conviction  that  Boniface  must  be  pro- 
nounced a  monster  of  iniquity,  or  himself  hardly  less 
than  a  sacrilegious  assassin.  With  both,  the  dignity 
and  honour  of  their  profession  were  engaged  in  a  bold 
collision  with  the  hierarchical  power  which  had  ruled 
the  human  mind  for  centuries ;  both  had  high,  it  might 
be  conscientious,  notions  of  the  monarchical  authority, 
its  independence,  its  superiority  to  the  sacerdotal ;  both 
were  bound  by  an  avowed  and  resolute  servility,  which 
almost  rose  to  noble  attachment,  to  their  King  and  to 
France.  The  King  of  France,  if  any  Sovereign,  was  to 
be  exempt  from  Papal  tyranny,  and  hatred  to  France 
was  one  of  the  worst  crimes  of  Boniface.  Both,  unless 
Boniface  was  really  the  infidel,  heretic,  abandoned 
profligate,  which  they  represented  him,  were  guilty  of 
using  unscrupulously,  of  forging,  suborning,  a  mass 
of  evidence  and  a  host  of  witnesses,  of  which  they  could 
not  but  know  the  larger  part  to  be  audaciously  and 
absolutely  false. 

On  the  other  side  appeared  the  two  nephews  of  Boni 


K  Preuves,  p.  301. 


Chap.  IIL  CAUSE  OF  BONIFACE  VIII.  285 

face  and  from  six  to  ten  Italian  doctors  of  law,  chosen 
no  doubt  for  their  consummate  science  and  abi- 
lity ;  as  canon  lawyers  confronting  civil  lawyers 
with  professional  rivalry,  and  prepared  to  maintain 
the  most  extravagant  pretensions  of  the  Decretals  as  the 
Statute  Law  of  the  Church.  They  could  not  but  be 
fully  aware  how  much  the  awe,  the  reverence,  and  the 
power  of  the  Papacy  depended  on  the  decision ;  they 
were  men,  it  might  be,  full  of  devout  admiration  even 
of  the  overweening  haughtiness  of  Boniface ;  churchmen, 
in  whom  the  intrepid  maintenance  of  what  were  held 
to  be  Church  principles  more  than  compensated  for  all 
the  lowlier  and  gentler  virtues  of  the  Gospel.^  It  was 
a  strange  trial,  the  arraignment  of  a  dead  Pope,  a 
Ehadamanthine  judgement  on  him  who  was  now  before 
a  higher  tribunal. 

On  the  16th  of  March  the  Pope  solemnly  opened  the 
Consistory  at  Avignon,  in  the  palace  belonging  -jhe  consis- 
to  the  Dominicans,  surrounded  by  his  Car-  t^'^  opened. 
dinals  and  a  great  multitude  of  the  clergy  and  laity. 
The  Pope^s  Bull  was  read,  in  which,  after  great  com- 
mendation of  the  faith  and  zeal  of  the  King  of  France, 
and  high  testimony  to  the  fame  of  Boniface,  he  declared 
that  heresy  was  so  execrable,  so  horrible  an  offence, 
that  he  could  not  permit  such  a  charge  to  rest  unex- 
amined. The  French  la^vyers  were  admitted  as  prose- 
cutors.^   The  Italians  protested  against  their  admission.^ 


•*  "  Gotiiis  de  Arimino  utrinsque 
juris,  Baldredus  Beyeth  Decretorum 
Doctores."  Baldred,  who  took  the 
lead  in  the  defence,  is  described  as 
Glascuensis. 

*  Adam  de  Lombal,  Clerk,  and  Peter 


the  King's  nuncios  (nuntii),  appeared 
with  De  Plasian  and  De  Nogaret. 

^  James  of  Modena  offered  himself 
to  prove  "  quod  prsedicti  opponentes 
ad  opponendum  contra  dictum  domi- 
num    Bonifacium   admitti   non    deW 


de  Galabaud,  and  Peter  de  Bleonasio,     bant." 


286 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


On  Friday  (March  20tli)  the  Court  opened  the  session 
The  prosecutors  put  in  a  protest  of  immeasurable  length, 
declaring  that  they  did  not  appear  in  consequence  of 
the  Pope's  citation  of  the  King  of  France  and  his  sons. 
That  citation  was  informal,  illegal,  based  on  false 
grounds.  They  demanded  that  the  witnesses  who  were 
old  and  sick  should  be  first  heard.  They  challenged 
certain  Cardinals,  the  greater  number  (they  would  not 
name  them  publicly),  as  having  a  direct  interest  in  the 
judgement,  as  attached  by  kindred  or  favour  to  Boniface, 
as  notoriously  hostile,  as  having  entered  into  plots 
against  William  de  Nogaret,  as  having  prejudiced  the 
mind  of  Benedict  XI.  against  him.  Nogaret,  who  always 
reverted  to  the  affair  of  Anagni,  asserted  that  act  to 
have  been  the  act  of  a  true  Catholic,  one  of  devout, 
filial  love,  not  of  hatred,  the  charity  of  one  who  would 
bind  a  maniac  or  rouse  a  man  in  a  lethargy.™  He  had 
made  common  cause  with  the  nobles  of  Anagni,  all  but 
those  who  plundered  the  Papal  treasures. 

On  the  27th  De  Nogaret  appeared  again,  and  entered  a 
protest  against  Baldred  and  the  rest,  as  defenders  of  Pope 
Boniface,  against  eight  Cardinals,  by  name,  as  promoted 
by  Boniface :  these  men  might  not  bear  any  part  in  the 
cause.  Protest  was  met  by  protest :  a  long,  wearisome, 
and  subtle  altercation  ensued.  Each  tried  to  repel  the 
other  party  from  the  Court.  Nothing  could  be  more 
captious  than  the  arguments  of  the  prosecutors,  who 
took  exception  against  any  defence  of  Boniface.  The 
Italians  answered  that  no  one  could  be  brought  into 
Court  but  by  a  lawful  prosecutor,  which  Nogaret  and 


«  *'  Non  fuit  igitur  odium  sed  cari- 
tas,  non  fuit  injuria  sed  pietas,  non 
proditio  sid  Hdelitas,  non  saciilegium 
led    sacri    defensio,   uou    parricidiura 


sed  filialis  devotio  ut  (et?)  fraterna. 
cum  qui  furiosuni  ligat  vel  lethargi- 
cum  excitat." — p.  386. 


CflAP.  III. 


WITNESSES. 


287 


De  Plasian  were  not,  being  notorious  enemies,  assassins, 
defamers  of  the  Pope.  There  was  absohitely  no  cause 
before  the  Court.  The  crimination  and  recrimination 
dragged  on  their  weary  length.  It  was  the  object  of 
De  Nogaret  to  obtain  absolution,  at  least  under  certain 
restrictions.*^  This  personal  affair  began  to  occupy 
almost  as  prominent  a  part  as  the  guilt  of  Boniface. 
Months  passed  in  the  gladiatorial  strife  of  the  lawyers." 
Every  question  was  reopened — the  legality  of  Coelestine's 
abdication,  the  election  of  Boniface,  the  absolute  power 
of  the  King  of  France.  Vast  erudition  was  displayed  on 
both  sides.  Meantime  the  examination  of  the  witnesses 
had  gone  on  in  secret  before  the  Pope  or  his 
Commissioners.  Of  these  examinations  appear 
only  the  reports  of  twenty-three  persons  examined  in  April, 
of  eleven  examined  before  the  two  Cardinals,  Beren- 
gario,  Bishop  of  Tusculum,  and  Nicolas,  of  St.  Eusebio, 
with  Bernard  Guido,  the  Grand  Inquisitor  of  Toulouse. 
Some  of  the  eleven  were  re-examinations  of  those  who 
had  made  their  depositions  in  April.  In  the  latter  case 
the  witnesses  were  submitted  to  what  was  intended  to 
be  severe,  but  does  not  seem  very  skilful,  cross-examin- 
ation. On  these  attestations,  if  these  were  all,  posterity 
is  reduced  to  this  perplexing  alternative  of  belief: — 
Either  there  was  a  vast  systematic  subornation  of  per- 
jury, which  brought  together  before  the  Pope  and  the 


■  In  the  midst  of  these  disputes 
arose  a  curious  question,  whether 
William  de  Nogaret  was  still  under 
excommunication.  It  was  argued 
that  an  excommunicated  person,  if 
merely  saluted  by  the  Pope,  or  if  the 
Pope  knowingly  entered  into  conver- 
sation with  him,  was  thereby  ab- 
solved.     The    Pope    disclaimed    this 


doctrine,  and  declared  that  he  had 
never  by  such  salutation  or  inter- 
course with  De  Nogaret  intended  to 
confer  that  precious  privilege.  This 
was  to  be  the  rule  during  his  pontifi- 
cate. He  would  not,  however,  issu« 
a  Decretal  on  the  subject. — p.  409. 

o  There  is  a  leap  fi'om  May  13  to 
Aucr.  3. 


288  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

Cardinals,  monks,  abbots,  canons,  men  of  dignified 
station,  from  various  parts  of  Italy :  and  all  these  were 
possessed  with  a  depth  of  hatred,  ingrained  into  the 
hearts  of  men  by  the  acts  and  demeanour  of  Boniface, 
and  perhaps  a  religious  horror  of  his  treatment  of  Pope 
Coelestine,  which  seems  to  be  rankling  in  the  hearts  of 
some ;  or  with  a  furiousness  of  Ghibelline  hostility, 
which  would  recoil  from  no  mendacity,  which  would  not 
only  accept  every  rumour,  but  invent  words,  acts,  cir- 
cumstances, with  the  most  minute  particularity  and 
with  perpetual  appeal  to  other  witnesses  present  at  the 
same  transaction.  Nor  were  these  depositions  wrung 
out,  like  those  of  the  Templars,  by  torture ;  they  were 
spontaneous,  or,  if  not  absolutely  spontaneous,  only 
summoned  forth  by  secret  suggestion,  by  undetected 
bribery,  by  untraceable  influence:  they  had  all  the 
outward  semblance  of  honest  and  conscientious  zeal  for 
justice. 

On  the  other  hand,  not  only  must  the  Pope's  guilt  be 
assumed,  but  the  Pope's  utter,  absolute,  ostentatious 
defiance  of  all  prudence,  caution,  dissimulation,  decency. 
Not  only  was  he  a  secret,  hypocritical  unbeliever,  and 
that  not  in  the  mysteries  of  the  faith,  but  in  the  first 
principles  of  all  religion;  he  was  a  contemptuous, 
boastful  scoffer,  and  this  on  the  most  j^ublic  occasions, 
and  on  occasions  where  some  respectful  concealment 
would  not  only  have  been  expedient,  but  of  paramount 
necessity  to  his  interest  or  his  ambition.  The  aspirant 
to  the  Papacy,  the  most  Papal  Pope  who  ever  lived, 
laughed  openly  to  scorn  the  groundwork  of  that  Chris- 
tianity on  which  rested  his  title  to  honour,  obedience, 
power,  worship. 

The  most  remarkable  of  all  these  depositions  is  that 
of  seven  witnesses  in  succession,  an  abbot,  three  canons. 


Chap.  III.  FURTHER  WITNESSES.  289 

two  monks,  and  others,  to  a  discussion  concerning  the 
law  of  Mohammed.  This  was  in  the  year  of  the  ponti- 
ficate of  Coelestine,  when,  if  his  enemies  are  to  be 
believed,  Benedetto  Gaetani  was  deeply  involved  in 
intrigues  to  procure  the  abdication  of  Coelestine,  and 
his  own  elevation  to  the  Papacy.  At  this  time,  even  if 
these  intrigues  were  untrue,  a  man  so  sagacious  and 
ambitious  could  not  but  have  been  looking  forward  to 
his  own  advancement.  "Yet  at  this  very  instant,  it  is 
asseverated,  Gaetani,  in  the  presence  of  at  least  ten  or 
twelve  persons,  abbots,  canons,  monks,  declared  as  his 
doctrine,^  that  no  law  was  divine,  that  all  were  the 
inventions  of  men,  merely  to  keep  the  vulgar  in  awe  by 
the  terrors  of  eternal  punishment.  Every  law,  Chris- 
tianity among  the  rest,  contained  truth  and  falsehood ; 
falsehood,  because  it  asserted  that  God  was  one  and 
three,  which  it  was  fatuous  to  believe  ;  falsehood,  for  it 
is  said  that  a  virgin  had  brought  forth,  which  was 
impossible ;  falsehood,  because  it  avouched  that  the  Son 
of  God  had  taken  the  nature  of  man,  which  was  ridi- 
culous; falsehood,  because  it  averred  that  bread  was 
transubstantiated  into  the  body  of  Christ,  which  was 
untrue.  *'  It  is  false,  because  it  asserts  a  future  life." 
"  Let  God  do  his  worst  with  me  in  another  life,  from 
which  no  one  has  returned  but  to  fantastic  people,  who 
say  that  they  have  seen  and  heard  all  kinds  of  strange 
things,  even  have  heard  angels  singing.  So  I  believe 
and  so  I  hold,  as  doth  every  educated  man.  The  vulgar 
hold  otherwise.  We  must  speak  as  the  vulgar  do ; 
think  and  believe  with  the  few."  Another  added  to  all 
this,  that  when  the  bell  rang  for  the  passing  of  the 
Host,  the  future  Pope  smiled  and  said,  *'  You  had  better 


,    "  Quasi  per  modum  docti-inas. 
VOL,  VII. 


290  LATIN  CHLISTIANITY.  tfooK  XII. 

go  and  see  after  your  own  business,  tlian  after  such 
folly."  1  Tliree  of  these  witnesses  were  reheard  at  the 
second  examination,  minutely  questioned  as  to  the  place 
of  this  discussion,  the  dress,  attitude,  words  of  Gaetani : 
they  adhered,  with  but  slight  deviation  from  each  other, 
to  their  deposition ;  whatever  its  worth,  it  was  unshaken.' 
These  blasphemies,  if  we  are  to  credit  another  witness, 
had  been  his  notorious  habit  from  his  youth.  The  Prior 
of  St.  Giles  at  San  Gemino,  near  Narni,  had  been  at 
school  with  him  at  Todi :  he  was  a  dissolute  youth, 
indulged  in  all  carnal  vices,  in  drink  and  play,  blas- 
pheming God  and  the  Yu-gin.  He  had  heard  Boniface, 
when  a  Cardinal,  disputing  with  certain  masters  from 
Paris  about  the  Kesurrection.  Cardinal  Gaetani  main- 
tained that  neither  soul  nor  body  rose  again.^  To  this 
dispute  a  notary,  Oddarelli  of  Acqua  Sparta,  gave  the 
same  testimony.  The  two  witnesses  declared  that  they 
had  not  come  to  Avignon  for  the  purpose  of  giving  this 
evidence ;  they  had  been  required  to  appear  before  the 
Court  by  Bertrand  de  Eoccanegata  :  they  bore  testimony 
neither  from  persuasion,  nor  for  reward,  neither  from 
favour,  fear,  or  hatred. 

Two  monks  of  St.  Gregory  at  Kome  had  complained 
to  the  Pope  of  their  Abbot,  that  he  held  the  same  loose 
and  infidel  doctrines,  neither  believed  in  the  Kesurrec- 
tion, nor  in  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church ;  and  denied 
that  carnal  sins  were  sins.  They  were  dismissed  con- 
temptuously from  the  presence  of  Boniface.  "  Look  at 
this  froward  race,  that  will  not  believe  as  their  Abbot 
believes."  ^  A  monk  of  St.  Paul  fared  no  better  with 
similar  denunciations  of  his  Abbot." 


1  Ti  ulias.  '  Witnesses  vii.  xiii.  •  Witnesses  irii.  vnii. 

*  Witnesses  i.  ii.  "  Witness  jv. 


Chap.  III.  IMPROBABLE"  CHARGES.  291 

Nicolo  Pagano  of  Sermona,  Primicerio  of  S.  Johii 
Maggiore  at  Naples,  deposed  that  Coelestine,  proposing 
to  go  from  Sermona  to  Naples,  sent  Pagano's  father 
Berard  (the  witness  with  him)  to  invite  the  Cardinal 
Gaetani  to  accompany  him.  Gaetani  contemptuously 
refused.  ''  Go  ye  with  your  Saint,  I  will  be  fooled  no 
more."  *'  If  any  man,"  said  Berard,  "  ought  to  be 
canonised  after  death,  it  is  Coelestine."  Gaetani  replied, 
"  Let  God  give  me  the  good  things  of  this  life :  for  that 
which  is  to  come  I  care  not  a  bean ;  men  have  no  more 
souls  than  beasts."  Berard  looked  aghast.  "  How  many 
have  you  ever  seen  rise  again  ? "  Gaetani  seemed  to 
delight  in  mocking  (such,  at  least,  was  the  testimony, 
intended,  no  doubt,  to  revolt  to  the  utmost  the  public 
feeling  against  him)  the  Blessed  Virgin.  She  is  no 
more  a  virgin  than  my  mother.  I  believe  not  in  your 
"  Mariola,"  "  Mariola."  He  denied  the  presence  of 
Christ  in  the  Host.     " It  is  mere  paste."'' 

Yet  even  this  most  appalling  improbability  was  sur- 
passed by  the  report  of  another  conversation  attested 
by  three  witnesses,  sons  of  knights  of  Lucca.  The 
scene  took  place  at  the  Jubilee,  when  millions  of  persons, 
in  devout  faith  in  the  religion  of  Clirist,  in  fear  of  Hell, 
or  in  hope  of  Paradise,  were  crowding  from  all  parts  of 
Europe,  and  offering  incense  to  the  majesty,  the  riches 
of  the  world  to  the  avarice,  of  the  Pope.  Even  then, 
without  provocation,  in  mere  wantonness  of  unbelief,  he 
had  derided  all  the  truths  of  the  Gospel.  The  ambas- 
sadors of  two  of  the  great  cities  of  Italy — Lucca  and 
Bologna — were  standing  before  him.  The  death  of  a 
Campanian  knight  was  announced.  "He  was  a  bad 
man,"  said  the  pious  chaplain,  '*  yet  may  Jesus  Christ 


*  Witnesses  xvi.  xx.  xxii. 

w  2 


292  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Jit 

receive  his  soul ! "  "  Fool !  to  commend  him  to  Christ ; 
he  could  not  help  himself,  how  can  he  help  others  ?  he 
was  no  Son  of  God,  but  a  wise  man  and  a  great  hypo- 
crite. The  knight  has  had  in  this  life  all  he  will  have. 
Paradise  is  a  joyous  life  in  this  world ;  Hell  a  sad  one." 
*'  Have  we,  then,  nothing  to  do  but  to  enjoy  ourselves 
in  this  world?  Is  it  no  sin  to  lie  with  women?" — 
"  No  greater  sin  than  to  wash  one's  hands."  "  And 
this  was  said  that  all  present  might  hear ;  not  in  jocose- 
ness,  but  in  serious  mood."  To  this  monstrous  scene, 
in  these  words,  three  witnesses  deposed  on  oath,  and 
gave  the  names  of  the  ambassadors — men,  no  doubt,  of 
rank,  and  well  known,  to  whom  they  might  thus  seem 
to  appeal.^ 

The  account  of  a  conversation  with  the  famous  Roger 
de  Loria  was  hardly  less  extraordinary.  Of  the  two 
witnesses,  one  was  a  knight  of  Palermo,  William,  son  of 
Peter  de  Calatagerona.  Roger  de  Loria,  having  revolted 
from  the  house  of  Arragon,  came  to  Rome  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  the  Pope.  Yet  at  that  very  time  the  Pope 
wantonly  mocked  and  insulted  the  devout  seaman,  by 
laughing  to  scorn  that  faith  which  bowed  him  at  his 
own  feet.  De  Loria  had  sent  the  Pope  an  offering  of 
rich  Sicilian  fruits  and  honey.  "  See,"  he  said,  "  what 
a  beautiful  land  I  must  have  left,  abounding  in  such 
fruits,  and  have  exposed  myself  to  so  great  dangers  to 
visit  you.  Had  I  died  on  this  holy  journey,  surely  I 
had  been  saved."  "  It  might  be  so,  or  it  might  not." 
"  Father,  I  trust  that,  if  at  such  a  moment  I  had  died, 
Christ  would  have  had  mercy  on  me."  The  Pope  said, 
"  Christ !  he  was  not  the  Son  of  God :  he  was  a  man 
mating  and  drinking  like  ourselves :  by  his  preaching  he 


T  Witnessas  xii  xiii. 


Chap.  III.  CHARGES  OF  MAGIC.  293 

di-ew  many  towards  him,  and  died,  but  rose  not  again  , 
neither  will  men  rise  again."  *'  I,"  pursued  the  Pope, 
"am  far  mightier  than  Christ.  I  can  raise  up  and 
enrich  the  lowly  and  poor ;  I  can  bestow  kingdoms,  and 
humble  and  beggar  rich  and  powerful  kings."  In  all 
the  material  parts  of  this  conversation  the  two  witnesses 
agreed :  they  were  rigidly  cross-examined  as  to  the  place, 
time,  circumstances,  persons  present,  the  dress,  attitude, 
gestures  of  the  Pope  ;  they  were  asked  whether  the 
Pope  spoke  in  jest  or  earnest.* 

The  same  or  other  witnesses  deposed  to  as  unblushing 
shamelessness  regarding  the  foulest  vices,  as  regarding 
these  awful  blasphemies  —  "What  harm  is  there  in 
simony?  what  harm  in  adultery,  more  than  rubbing 
one's  hands  together?"  This  was  his  favourite  phrase. 
Then  were  brought  forward  men  formerly  belonging  to 
his  household,  to  swear  that  they  had  brought  women — 
one,  first  his  wife,  then  his  daughter — to  his  bed. 
Another  bore  witness  that  from  his  youth  Boniface  had 
been  addicted  to  worse,  to  nameless  vices  —  that  he 
was  notoriously  so ;  one  or  two  loathsome  facts  were 
avouched.  "^N 

Besides  all  this,  there  were  what  in  those  days  would  / 
perhaps  be  heard  with  still  deeper  horror —  charges  of 
magical  rites  and  dealings  with  the  powers  of  ™''^'^* 
darkness.     Many  witnesses  had   heard  that  Benedetto 
Gaetani,  that  Pope  Boniface,  had  a  ring  in  which  he 
kept  an  evil  spirit.     Brother   Berard   of  Soriano  'had 
seen  from  a  window  the  Cardinal  Gaetani,  in  a  garden 
below,  draw  a  magic  circle,  and  immolate  a  cock  over 
a   fire  in   an  earthen  pot.     The  blood  and   the  flame 
mingled ;  a  thick  smoke  arose.     The  Cardinal  sat  read- 


»  Witness  X. 


294  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

ing  spells  from  a  book,  and  conjuring  up  the  devils. 
He  then  heard  a  terrible  noise  and  wild  voices,  "  Give 
us  our  share."  Gaetani  took  up  the  cock  and  threw  it 
over  the  wall — "  Take  your  share."  The  Cardinal  then 
left  the  garden,  and  shut  himself  alone  in  his  most 
secret  chamber,  where  throughout  the  night  he  was 
heard  in  deep  and  earnest  conversation,  and  a  voice, 
the  same  voice,  was  heard  to  answer.  This  witness  de- 
posed likewise  to  having  seen  Gaetani  worshipping  an 
idol,  in  which  dwelt  an  evil  spirit.  This  idol  was  given 
to  him  by  the  famous  magician,  Theodore  of  Bologna, 
and  was  worshipped  as  his  God.^ 

Such  was  the  evidence,  the  whole  evidence  which 
Summary  of  appears  (there  may  have  been  more)  so  revolt- 
evidence.  jj^g  ^^  ^]^g  faith,  SO  polluting  to  the  morals,  so 
repulsive  to  decency,  that  it  cannot  be  plainly  repeated, 
yet  adduced  against  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  the  Vicar 
of  Christ.  What  crimes,  even  for  defamation,  to  charge 
against  a  Pope !  To  all  this  the  Pope  and  the  Con- 
sistory were  compelled  to  listen  in  sullen  patience.  If 
true — if  with  a  shadow  of  truth — how  monstrous  the 
state  of  religion  and  morals  !  If  absolutely  and  utterly 
untrue — if  foul,  false  libels,  bought  by  the  gold  of  the 
King  of  France,  suborned  by  the  unrelenting  hatred, 
and  got  up  by  the  legal  subtlety  of  De  Nogaret  and 
the  rest — what  humiliation  to  the  Court  of  Pome  to 
have  heard,  received,  recorded  such  wicked  aspersions, 
and  to  have  left  them  unresented,  unpunished!  The 
glaring  contradiction  in  the  evidence,  that  Boniface  was 
at  once  an  atheist  and  a  worshipper  of  idols,  an  open 
scoffer  in  public  and  a  superstitious  dealer  in  magic 
in  private,  is  by  no  means  the  greatest  improbability 


•  Witness  xvi. 


Chap.  III.     PB ILIP  ABANDONS  THE  PEOSECUTION  295 

Such  tilings  have  been.  The  direct  and  total  repugnance 
of  such  dauntless,  wanton,  unprovoked  bias-  situation  of 
phemies,  even  with  the  vices  charged  against  ^1^^^°*- 
Boniface,  his  unmeasured  ambition,  consummate  craft, 
indomitable  pride,  is  still  more  astounding,  more  utterly 
bewildering  to  the  belief.  But  whatever  the  secret 
disgust  and  indignation  of  Clement,  it  must  be  sup- 
pressed ;  however  the  Cardinals,  the  most  attached  to 
the  memory  of  Boniface,  might  murmur  and  burn  with 
wrath  in  their  hearts,  they  must  content  themselves 
with  just  eluding,  with  narrowly  averting,  his  con- 
dem,nation. 

Philip  himself,  either  from  weariness,  dissatisfaction 
with  his  own  cause,  caprice,  or  the  diversion  Pbiiipaban- 
of  his  mind   to   other   objects,  consented   to  secution.^ 
abandon  the  prosecution   of  the  memory  of  Boniface, 
and  to  leave  the  judgement  to  the  Pope.     On  ^he  Pope's 
this  the  gratitude  of  Clement  knows  no  bounds ;  ^^"• 
the   adulation  of  his   Bull  on   the   occasion   surpasses 
belief.    Every  act  of  Philip  is  justified ;  he  is  altogether 
acquitted  of  all  hatred  and  injustice ;  his  whole  conduct 
is  attributed  to  pious  zeal.     "  The  worthy  head  of  that 
royal  house,   which  had  been  ever  devoted,  had  ever 
offered  themselves  and  the  realm  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  Holy  Mother  Church  of  Eome,  had  been  com- 
pelled   by   the   reiterated    representations   of  men   of 
character  and  esteem,"  to  investigate  the  reports  un- 
favourable to  the  legitimate  election,  to  the  orthodoxV 
doctrine,  and  to  the  life  of  Pope  Bonifac&r'^  The  Kmg's 
full  Parliament  had  ui'ged  him  with  irresistible  unani- 
mity to  persist  in  this  course.     "  We  therefore,  with 
our  brethren  the  Cardinals,  pronounce  and  decree  that 
the  aforesaid  King,  having  acted,  and  still  acting,  at  the 
frequent  and  repeated  instance  of  these  high  and  grave 


296  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

persons,  has  been  and  is  exempt  from  all  blame,  has  be«n 
incited  by  a  true,  sincere,  and  just  zeal  and  fervour  for  the 
Catholic  faith."  It  was  thus  acknowledged  that  there 
was  a  strong  primary  case  against  Boniface ;  the  appeal 
to  the  Council  was  admitted ;  every  act  of  violence 
justified,  except  the  last  assault  at  Anagni,  as  to  which 
the  Pope  solemnly  acquitted  the  King  of  all  complicity. 
The  condescension  of  the  King,  "  the  son  of  benediction 
and  grace,"  ^  in  at  length  thus  tardily  and  ungraciously 
remitting  the  judgement  to  the  Pope,  is  ascribed  to 
divine  inspiration.*^  Nor  were  wanting  more  substantial 
marks  of  the  Pope's  gratitude.  Every  Bull  prejudicial 
to  the  King,  to  the  nobles,  and  the  realm  of  France  (not 
contained  in  the  sixth  book  of  Decretals),  is  absolutely 
cancelled  and  annulled,  except  the  two  called  "  Unam 
Sanctam"  and  "Eem  non  novam,"  and  these  are  to 
be  understood  in  the  moderated  sense  assigned  by  the 
present  Pontiff.  All  proceedings  for  forfeiture  of  privi- 
leges, suspension,  excommunication,  interdict,  all  de- 
privations or  deposals  against  the  King,  his  brothers,  sub- 
jects, or  kingdom ;  all  proceedings  against  the  accusers, 
prosecutors,  arraigned  in  the  cause ;  against  the  prelates, 
barons,  and  commons,  on  account  of  any  accusation, 
denunciation,  appeal,  or  petition  for  the  convocation  of 
a  General  Council ;  or  for  blasphemy,  insult,  injury  by 
deed  or  word,  against  the  said  Boniface,  even  for  his 
seizure,  the  assault  on  his  house  and  person,  the  plunder 
of  the  treasure,  or  other  acts  at  Anagni ;  for  anything 
done  in  behalf  of  the  King  during  his  contest  with 
Boniface  ;  all  such  proceedings  against  the  living  or  the 


''  "Tanquam  benedictionis  et   gra-    reverentise  filialis   gratitudinem    quna 
.iae  filius."  .  .  .  dicto    Regi    divinitus    credimis 

•^  *'  Nos  itaque  mansuetudinem  re-    inspiratas." 
giara  ac  expeitam  in  iis  devotiouis  et  I 


Jhap.  Ill, 


PrXISHMENT  OF  DE  NOGARET. 


297 


dead,  against  persons  of  all  ranks  —  cardinals,  arch- 
bisliops,  bishops,  emperors,  or  kings,  whether  instituted 
by  Pope  Boniface,  or  by  his  successor  Benedict,  are  pro- 
visionally ^  annulled,  revoked,  cancelled.  "  And  if  any 
aspersion,  shame,  or  blame,  shall  have  occurred  to  any 
one  out  of  these  denunciations,  and  charges  against 
Boniface,  whether  during  his  life  or  after  his  death,  or 
any  prosecution  be  hereafter  instituted  on  that  account, 
these  we  absolutely  abolish  and  declare  null  and  void."® 

In  order  that  the  memory  of  these  things  be  utterly 
extinguished,  the  proceedings  of  every  kind  against 
France  are,  under  pain  of  excommunication,  to  be 
erased  within  four  months  from  the  capitular  books  and 
registers  of  the  Holy  See.^  The  archives  of  the  Papacy 
are  to  retain  no  single  procedure  injurious  to  the  King 
of  France,  or  to  those,  whoever  they  may  be,  who  are 
thus  amply  justified  for  all  their  most  virulent  persecu- 
tion, for  all  their  contumacious  resistance,  for  the  foulest 
charges,  for  charges  of  atheism,  simony,  whoredom,  so- 
domy, witchcraft,  heresy,  against  the  deceased  Pope. 

Fifteen  persons  only  are  exempted  from  this  sweeping 
amnesty,  or  more  than  amnesty  ;  among  them  Punishment 
William  de  Nogaret,  Eeginald  Supino  and  3'eNogarS. 
his  son,  the  other  insurgents  of  Anagni,  and  '^°* 
Sciarra  Colonna.  These  Philip,  no  doubt  by  a  secret 
understanding  with  the  Pope,  surrendered  to  the  mockery 
of  punishment  which  might  or  might  not  be  enforced. 
The  penance  appointed  to  the  rest  does  not  appear ;  but 
even  William  de  Nogaret  obtained  provisional  absolution.^ 


d  "  Ex  cautela." 

e  The  Bull  dated  May,  13J 1.— 
Dupuy,  Preuves. 

'  In  Raynaldus  (sub  ann.)  is  a  full 
account  of  the  Bulls  and  passages  of 
BuUs  entirely  erased  for  the  gratifica- 


tion of  King  Philip  from  the  Papal 
records  ;  of  course  they  were  pre- 
served by  the  pious  care  of  the  parti- 
sans of  Boniface,  See  also  Preuve.'^ 
p.  606. 

»  *'  Absolvimus  ad  cautelam." 


298  ACTS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  Book  XII. 

The  Pope,  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  his  soul,  and 
in  regard  to  the  pressing  supplications  of  the  King, 
imposed  this  penance.  At  the  next  general  Crusade 
Nogaret  should  in  person  set  out  with  arms  and  horses 
for  the  Holy  Land,  there  to  serve  for  life,  unless  his 
term  of  service  should  be  shortened  by  the  mercy  of 
the  Pope  or  his  successor.  In  the  meantime,  till  this 
general  Crusade  (never  to  come  to  pass),  he  was  to 
make  a  pilgrimage  to  certain  shrines  and  holy  places, 
one  at  Boulogne-sur-Mer,  one  at  St.  James  of  Compos- 
tella.^  Such  was  the  sentence  on  the  assailant,  almost 
the  assassin,  of  a  Pope  ;  on  the  persecutor  of  his  memory 
by  the  most  odious  accusations;  if  those  accusations 
were  false,  the  suborner  of  the  most  monstrous  system 
of  falsehood,  calumny,  and  perjury.  The  Pope  received 
one  hundred  thousand  florins  from  the  King's  ambas- 
sador as  a  reward  for  his  labours  in  this  cause.^  This 
Bull  of  Clement  Y.^  broke  for  ever  the  spell  of  the 
Pontifical  autocracy.  A  King  might  appeal  to  a  Council 
against  a  Pope,  violate  his  personal  sanctity,  constitute 
himself  the  public  prosecutor  by  himself  or  by  his  agents 
for  heresy,  for  immorality,  invent  or  accredit  the  most 
hateful  and  loathsome  charges,  all  with  impunity,  all 
even  without  substantial  censure. 

The  Council  of  Vienne  met  at  length ;  the  number 
Oct.  15  to  of  prelates  is  variously  stated  from  three  hun- 
colTnciiof^*  <^i'^d  ^0  one  hundred  and  forty.""  It  is  said 
Vieime.  ^]^g^^  Bishops  wcro  present  from  Spain,  Ger- 
many, Denmark.  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Italy.     It 


^  Ptolemy  of  Lucca  calls  this  "peni- 
tentia  dura." 

'  Ptolem.  Luc.  apud  Baluzium,  p.  40. 
"  Tunc  ambasiatores  Regis  oflerunt  ca- 
merae  Domini  Papae  centum  millia  florr 


tione  laborum  circa  dictam  causam." 

^  I>. ted  May,  1311. 

""  Villani  gives  the  larger  number, 
the  continuator  of  Nangis  the  smaller. 
Has  the  French  writer  given  only  th« 


norum  quasi  pro  quadam  recoiupensa-  |  French  prelates  ? 


Chap.  III. 


COUNCIL  OF  VIENNE. 


299 


assumed  the  dignity  of  an  CEcumenic  Council.  The 
Pope  proposed  three  questions :  I.  The  dissolution  of 
the  Order  of  the  Temple ;  II.  The  recovery  of  the  Holy 
Land  (the  formal  object  of  every  later  Council,  but 
^hich  had  sunk  into  a  form)  ;  III.  The  reformation 
of  manners  and  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  The  affair 
of  the  Templars  was  the  first.  It  might  seem  that  this 
whole  inquiry  had  been  sifted  to  the  bottom.  Yet 
had  the  Pope  made  further  preparation  for  the  strong 
measure  determined  upon.  The  orders  to  the  King  of 
Spain  to  apply  tortures  for  the  extortion  of  confession 
had  been  renewed.'^  The  Templars  tvere  to  be  secure 
in  no  part  of  Christendom.  The  same  terrible  instruc- 
tions had  been  sent  to  the  Latin  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople, to  the  Bishops  of  Negropont,  Famagosta,  and 
Nicosia.*^  Two  thousand  depositions  had  been  accumu- 
lated, perhaps  now  slumber  in  the  Vatican.  But  unex- 
pected difficulties  arose.  On  a  sudden  nine  Templars, 
who  had  lurked  in  safe  concealment,  perhaps  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Jura  or  the  Alps,  appeared  before  the 
Council,  and  demanded  to  be  heard  in  defence  of 
the  Order.  The  Pope  was  not  present.  No  sooner  had 
he  heard  of  this  daring  act  than  he  commanded  the 
nine  intrepid  defenders  of  their  Order  to  be  seized  and 
cast  into  prison.  He  wrote  in  all  haste  to  the  King  to 
acquaint  him  with  this  untoward  interruption.^  But 
embarrassments  increased :  the  acts  were  read  before 


°  '*  Ad  eliciendam  veritatem  reli- 
giose fore  tortori  tradendos." — Letter 
of  Clement  to  King  of  Spain,  quoted 
jy  Raynouard,  p.  166. 

°  •'  Ad  habendam  ab  eis  veritatis 
plenitudinem  promptiorem  tormentis 
et  qusestionibus,  si  sponte  confiteri 
noluerint,  experiri  procuretis." — Apud 


Raynald.  1311,  c.  liii. 

P  The  letter  in  Raynouard,  p.  177. 
Raynouard  is  unfortunately  seized 
with  a  iit  of  eloquence,  and  inserts  a 
long  speech  which  one  of  the  Fathers 
of  the  Council  ought  to  have  spoken, 
The  letter  is  dated  Dec.  11. 


300 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  Xll. 


the  Fathers  of  the  Council ;  all  the  foreign  prelates 
except  one  Italian,  all  the  French  prelates  except  three, 
concurred  in  the  justice  of  admitting  the  Order  to  a 
hearing  and  defence  before  the  Council.  These  three 
were  Peter  of  Courtenay,  Archbishop  of  Kheims,  who 
had  burned  the  Templars  at  Senlis :  Philip  de  Marigny 
of  Sens,  who  had  committed  the  fifty-four  Knights  to 
the  flames  in  Paris ;  the  Archbishop  of  Eouen,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Bertrand  de  Troyes,  who  had  presided  at  Pont 
de  rArche.^i  The  Pope  was  obliged  to  prorogue  the 
Council  for  a  time.  The  winter  w^ore  away  in  private 
discussions.'"  The  awe  of  the  King's  presence  was  neces- 
sary to  strengthen  the  Pope,  and  to  intimidate  the 
Council.  The  King  had  summoned  an  assembly  of  the 
realm  at  Lyons,  now  annexed  to  his  kingdom.  The 
avowed  object  was  to  secure  the  triumph  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  the  Council.^  The  Pope  took  courage  ;  he  sum- 
moned the  prelates  on  whom  he  could  depend  to  a 
secret  consistory  with  the  Cardinals.  He  announced 
that  he  had  determined,  by  way  of  prudent  provision,* 
not  of  condemnation,  to  abolish  the  Order  of  Templars  : 
he  reserved  to  himself  and  to  the  Church  the  disposal 
of  their  persons  and  of  their  estates.  On  April  3  this 
act  of  dissolution  was  published  in  the  full 
Council  on  the  absolute  and  sole  authority 
of  the  Pope.  This  famous  Order  was  declared  to  be 
extinct ;    the  proclamation  was  made  in  the  presence 


A.D.  1312. 


•1  "In  hac  sententist  concordant 
omnes  praelati  Italiae  prseter  unum, 
Hispaniae,  Theutoniae,  Danise,  Angliae, 
Scotiag,  et  Hibernige.  Item  Gallici, 
oraeter  tres  Metropolitanos,  videlicet 
Kemensem,  Senonensem  et  Rothoma- 
geii><em." — Ptolem.   Luc.  Vit.   II.    p. 


43.    Compare  Walsingham.    This  waa 
in  the  beginning  of  December. 

'  Bernard  Guido.     Vit.   III.     Cle- 
ment.    Compare  IV.  et  VI. 

*  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  xxix.  c.  33. 
p.  152. 

*  "  Per  provisione*" 


Chap.  III. 


DEFENDERS  OF  BONIFACK 


30J 


of  the  King"  and  his  brother.  We  have  already  de- 
scribed the  award  of  the  estates  to  the  Knights  of 
St.  John,  the  impoverishment  of  that  Order  ^  by  this 
splendid  boon,  or  traffic,^  as  it  was  called  by  the  enemies 
of  Clement. 

Clement,  perhaps,  had  rejoiced  in  secret  at  the  op- 
position of  the  Council  to  the  condemnation  of  the 
Templars.  It  aided  him  in  extorting  the  price  of 
the  important  concession  from  King  Philip,  the  reser- 
vation to  his  own  judgement  of  the  sacred  and  perilous 
treasure  of  his  predecessor's  memory. 

The  Council,  which  had  now  resumed  its  sittings,  was 
manifestly  disinclined,  not  in  this  point  alone.  Defenders  of 
to  submit  to  the  absolute  control  of  French  before  tL 
influence.  It  asserted  its  independent  dignity  ^o^<^i'- 
in  the  addresses  to  which  it  had  listened  on  the  reform 
of  ecclesiastical  abuses:  it  had  shown  a  strong  hier- 
archical spirit.  No  doubt  beyond  the  sphere  of  Philip's 
power,  beyond  the  pale  of  GrhibeUine  animosity,  beyond 
that  of  the  lower  Franciscans,  whose  fanatical  admira- 
tion of  Coelestine  had  become  implacable  hatred  to 
Boniface,  the  prosecution  of  the  Pope's  memory  was 
odious.  If  it  rested  on  any  just  grounds,  it  was  an 
irreverent  exposure  of  the  nakedness  of  their  common 
father;  if  groundless,  a  wanton  and  wicked  sacrilege. 
When,  therefore,  three  Cardinals,  Richard  of  Sienna, 
master  of  the  civil  law,  John  of  Namur,  as  eminent  in 
theology,  and  Gentili,  the  most  consummate  decretalist, 
appeared  in  the  Council  to  defend  the  orthodoxy  and 


«  "  Cui  negotium  erat  cordi." 
*  "  Unde   depauperata   est    mansio 
.ospitalis,    ques   se    existimabat    inde 
■pulenta  fieri.  ' — S.   Antoninus;    see 
bove. 


y  "Papa  vero  statim  bona  Templi 
infinite  thesauro  Fratribus  vendidii 
hospitalis  S.  Joannis."  —  Hocsemius, 
Gest.  Pontific.  Leoden. 


302 


LATlls  CHRISTIANITY 


Book  XII. 


holy  life  of  Pope  Boniface  ;  when  two  Catalan  Knights 
threw  down  their  gauntlets,  and  declared  themselves 
ready  to  maintain  his  innocence  by  wager  of  battle: 
Clement  interposed  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Templars, 
any  adjournment.  He  regarded  not  the  confusion  of 
the  King  and  his  partisans.  The  King  was  therefore 
obliged  to  submit  to  this  absolute  acquittal,  either  by 
positive  decree  ;  or,  in  default  of  the  appearance  of  any 
accuser,  of  any  opponent  against  the  theologians  or  the 
knights,  to  accept  an  edict  that  no  harm  or  prejudice 
should  accrue  to  himself  or  his  successors  for  the  part 
which  they  had  been  compelled  by  duty  and  by  zeal  to 
take  against  Pope  Boniface.^ 

The  Council  of  Vienne  had  thus  acquiesced  in  the 
Acts  of  the  determination  of  the  first  object  for  which  it 

Council  of^  "^ 

Vienne.  had  bccn  summoued,  the  suppression  oi  the 
Templars.  The  assembly  listened  with  decent  outward 
sympathy  to  the  old  wearisome  account  of  the  captivity 
of  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  progress  of  the  Mohammedan 
arms  in  the  East.  But  the  crusading  fire  was  burnt 
out;   there  was  hardly  a  flash  or  gleam  of  enthusiasm. 


'  The  vindication  of  the  fame  of 
Boniface  by  the  Council  of  Vienne  is 
disputed.  F.  Pagi,  arguing  from  the 
fact  that  the  affair  was  not  incli:ded 
in  the  summons,  or  among  the  three 
subjects  proposed  for  the  consideration 
of  the  Council,  that  it  was  not  brought 
before  them.  Raynaldus  relies  on  the 
passage  of  Villani,  on  which  he  accu- 
mulates much  irrelevant  matter,  with- 
out strengthening  his  cause.  The 
statement  in  the  text  appears  to  me 
to  reconcile  all  difficulties.  It  was, 
throughout,  the  policy  of  the  Pope  to 
keep  this  dangerous  business  entirely 


in  his  own  hands ;  this  he  had  ex- 
torted with  great  dexterity  and  at 
great  sacrifice  from  the  King.  Till 
he  knew  that  he  could  trust  the 
Council,  he  had  no  thought  of  per- 
mitting the  Council  to  interfere  (it 
was  an  unsafe  precedent)  ;  but  when 
sure  of  its  temper,  he  was  glad  to 
take  the  Pielates'  judgement  in  con- 
firmation of  his  own :  he  thus  at  the 
same  time  maintained  his  own  sole 
and  superior  right  of  judgement,  and 
backed  it,  against  the  King,  with  tha 
authority  of  the  Cour.cil. 


Chap.  III.  ACTS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  303 

It  seemed,  however,  disposed  to  enter  with  greater  earn- 
estness on  the  reformation  of  manners  and  discipline, 
and  the  suppression  of  certain  dangerous  dissidents  from 
that  discipline.  On  the  former  subject  the  Fathers 
heard  with  respectful  favour  two  remarkable  addresses. 
The  first  was  from  the  Bishop  of  Mende,  one  of  the 
assessors  at  the  examination  of  the  Templars ;  and  this 
address  raises  the  character  of  that  prelate  so  higlily, 
that  his  testimony  on  their  condemnation  is  perhaps 
the  most  unfavourable  evidence  on  record  against  them. 
The  other  came  from  a  prelate  of  great  gravity,  learn- 
ing, and  piety,  whose  name  has  not  survived.  These 
addresses,  however,  which  led  to  no  immediate  result, 
may  come  before  us  in  a  general  view  of  the  Christianity 
of  this  great  epoch,  the  culmination  of  the  Papal  power 
under  Boniface  YIII.,  its  rapid  decline  under  the  Popes 
at  Avignon.  So,  too,  the  condemnation  of  that  singular 
sect  or  offset  of  the  Franciscans,  the  Fraticelli,  will 
form  part  of  the  history  of  that  body,  which  perhaps  did 
more  than  any  other  sects  in  preparation  of  the  Lol- 
I'ards,  of  WyclifPe,  perhaps  of  the  great  Keformation, 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  throughout  Christendom,  as 
the  disseminators  of  doctrines  essentiaDy.  yitally,  anti- 


304  LATIN  CHUISTIANIT^.  ik)OK  XII 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Henry  of  Luxemburg.     Italy. 

Pope  C  ement — at  the  cost  of  much  of  the  Papal 
dignity;  at  the  cost  of  Christian  mercy,  even  if  the 
Templars,  tortured  and  burned  at  the  stake,  were 
guilty ;  at  the  cost  of  truth  and  justice  if  they  were 
innocent — had  baffled  the  King  of  France,  and  had 
averted  the  fatal  blow,  the  condemnation  of  Pope 
Boniface.  Even  of  the  spoils  of  the  Templars  he  had 
rescued  a  large  part,  the  whole  landed  property,  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  rapacious  King ;  he  had  enriched  him- 
self, his  death  will  hereafter  show  to  what  enormous 
amount.  But  the  subtle  Gascon  had  done  greater  service 
to  Christendom  by  thwarting  the  views  of  the  French 
monarch  upon  a  predominance  in  the  Western  world, 
dangerous  to  her  liberties  and  welfare.  Never  was 
Europe  in  greater  peril  of  falling,  if  not  under  one 
sovereignty,  under  the  dominion,  and  that  the  most 
tyrannical  dominion,  of  one  house.  Philip  was  king 
indeed  in  France  :  in  many  of  his  worst  acts  of  oppres- 
sion the  nation,  the  commonalty  itself,  had  backed  the 
Iving.  Even  the  Church,  so  long  as  he  plundered  and 
trampled  on  others,  was  on  his  side.  The  greater 
Metropolitan  Sees  were  filled  with  his  creatures. 
Princes  of  the  house  of  France  sat  on  the  thrones  of 
Naples  and  Hungary.  The  feeble  Edward  II.  of  Eng- 
land was  his  son-in-law.  The  Empire,  if  obtained  by 
Charles  of  Yalois,  had  involved  not  merely  the  suprercs 


Chap.  IV.  HENRY  OF  LUXEMBURG.  305 

rule  in  Germany,  but  the  mastery  in  Italy  Clement 
would  not  have  dared  to  refuse  the  imperial  crown,  and 
under  such  an  Emperor  where  was  the  independence  of 
the  Italian  cities  ?  The  Papal  territory  would  have 
been  held  at  his  mercy. 

The  election  of  Henry  of  Luxemburg  had  redeemed 
Christendom  from  this  danger.  This  election  Henry  of 
had  been  managed  with  unrivaUed  skill  by  ^^^^^^^^^^^-g- 
Peter  Ashpalter,  Archbishop  of  Mentz.*  This  remark- 
able man  (an  unusual  case)  was  not  of  noble  birth ;  he 
had  been  bred  a  physician  ;  it  was  said  that  he  had  ren- 
dered the  Pope  great  service  by  advice  concerning  his 
health,  and  had  thus  acquired  a  strong  influence  over 
his  mind.  Archbishop  Peter  first  contrived  the  eleva- 
tion of  Henry's  brother  to  the  Electoral  See  of  Treves. 
Two  of  the  lay  electors,  out  of  jealousy  to-  Nov.  27, 
wards  the  other  competitors  for  the  crown,  ^^°^- 
were  won  over.  Henry  of  Luxemburg  was  proclaimed 
at  Frankfort.  The  new  King  of  the  Eomans  was  at 
once  a  just,  a  religious,  and  a  popular  sovereign.^  He 
had  put  down  the  robbers,  and  exercised  rigid  but  im- 
partial justice  in  his  own  small  territory.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  the  most  distinguished  in  arms.  At  the 
tournament  no  knight  in  Europe  could  unhorse  Henry 
of  Luxemburg.  Soon  after  his  elevation  his  indigent 
house  was  enriched  and  strengthened  by  the  marriage 
of  his  son  with  the  heiress  of  Bohemia. 

The  Pope  had  taken  no  ostensible  part  in  the  elec- 
tion.    When  Henry  of  Luxembm-g  sent  an  embassage 


•  This  is  well  told  by  Schmidt— 
Geschichte  der  Deutschen,  vii.  c.  4. 

•»  "  Justus  et  religioeus  et  in  armis 
strenuus  fuit."    Hocsemius,  apud  Cha- 

VOL.  VII. 


peauville,  Hist.  Pontif.  Leoden.  i^Q» 
the  description  of  his  person  in  Albert 
Mussat.  i.  13. 


30t>  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XH. 

of  nobles  and  great  prelates  to  demand  the  imperial 
crown,  Clement  bad  no  pretext,  he  had  indeed  no  dis- 
position, to  refuse  that  which  was  in  the  common  order 
of  things.  Philip  might  brood  in  secret  over  this  politic 
attempt  of  the  Pope  after  emancipation,  yet  had  no 
right  to  take  umbrage. 

In  a  solemn  diet  at  iSpires  Henry,  King  of  the 
Diet  at  Komans,  declared,  amid  universal  ac-clama- 
Aug.21,1309.  tion,  his  resolution  to  descend  into  Italy  to 
assert  the  imperial  rights,  and  to  receive  the  Csesarean 
crown  at  Rome.  Clement  had  never  lost  sight  of  the 
affairs  of  Italy:  he  was  still  Lord  of  Romagna,  and 
drew  his  revenues  from  the  Papal  territory.  But  he 
had  no  Italian  prepossessions.  The  Bishop  of  Rome 
had  probably  determined  never  to  set  his  foot  in  that 
unruly  city.  His  court  was  a  court  of  French  Cardinals, 
increased  at  each  successive  promotion.  He  had  indeed 
interfered  to  save  Pistoia  from  the  cruel  hands  of  Guelfic 
Florence ;  but  Florence  had  treated  his  threatened  ana- 
The  Pope's  thcma  \vith  scorn.  Bologna,  struck  with  inter- 
poiicy.  (jj(3^  i^y  ^i^Q  angry  Legate  for  aiding  Florence, 
had  made  indeed  submission,  but  not  till  she  had  forced 
the  Legate  to  an  ignominious  ilight  to  save  his  life. 
Clement  had  maintained  a  violent  contest  with  Venice 
lor  Ferrara.  Venice  had  struck  a  vigorous  blow  by  the 
seizure  of  Ferrara,  and  the  contemptuous  refusal  to 
acknowledge  the  asserted  rights  of  the  Pope  in  that  city. 
The  Venetians  scorned  the  interdict  thundered  against 
their  whole  territory  by  the  Pope.  Clement  found  a 
foe  against  whom  he  dared  put  forth  all  the  terrors  of 
his  spiritual  power.  He  prohibited  all  religious  rites  in 
Venice,  declared  the  Doge  and  magistrates  infamous, 
commanded  all  ecclesiastics  to  quit  the  territory  except 
a  few  to  baptise   infants,   and  to  administer   extreme 


Chap.  IV.  AFFAIRS  OF  ITALY.  307 

unction  to  tlie  dying.  If  they  persisted  in  their  con- 
tumacy, he  declared  the  Doge  Gradenigo  degraded  fronj 
his  high  office,  and  all  estates  of  Venetians  confiscate  ; 
kings  were  summoned  to  take  up  arms  against  them 
till  they  should  restore  the  rights  of  the  Church.  The 
Venetians  condescended  to  send  an  ambassador ;  but  as 
to  the  restoration  of  Ferrara,  they  made  no  sign  of  con- 
cession. But  Venice  was  vulnerable  through  her  wealth ; 
the  Pope  struck  a  blow  at  her  vital  part.  She  had 
factories,  vast  stores  of  rich  merchandise  in  every  great 
haven,  in  every  distant  land.  The  Pope  issued  a  brief, 
summoning  all  kings,  all  rulers,  all  cities  to  plunder 
the  forfeited  merchandise  of  Venice,  and  to  reduce  the 
Venetians  to  slavery.  The  Pope's  admonitions  to  peace, 
his  warnings  to  kings  and  nations  to  abstain  from  un- 
christian injury  to  each  other,  had  long  lost  their  power. 
But  a  Papal  licence  or  rather  exhortation  to  plunder, 
to  plunder  peaceful  and  defenceless  factories,  was  too 
tempting  an  act  of  obedience.  Everywhere  their  mer- 
chandise was  seized,  their  factories  pillaged,  their  traders 
outraged."^  Venice  quailed ;  yet  it  needed  the  utmost 
activity  in  the  warlike  Legate,  the  Cardinal  Pelagru, 
at  the  head  of  troops  from  all  quarters,  to  reconquer 
Ferrara.     He  slew  six  thousand  men. 

On  a  sudden  Clement  totally  changed  the  imme- 
morial policy  of  the  Popes.  He  did  not  throw  off,  but 
he  quietly  let  fall,  the  French  alliance :  he  was  in  close 
league  with  the  Emperor :  "^  the  Pope  became  a  Ghibel- 
line.    If  the  Papal  and  Imperial  banners  were  not  un- 


<^  "  Qua  de  re  data  pluribus  pro- 
vinclis  ac  Regibus  imperia." —  Ray- 
naldus  sub  ann.,  with  authorities. 

**  See  Clement's  letter  to  Henry  of 


Luxemburg,  July  26,  1309.  Also  the 
Treaty  dated  at  Lausanne  September 
11,  1310. — Monumenta  Germaniae. 
iv.  501. 

X  2 


308  LATIN  CHniSTIAXirY  Book  XII. 

folded  together,  the  Papal  Legate  was  by  the  side  of  the 
Emperor.  The  refractory  cities  were  menaced  with  the 
concurrent  ban  of  the  Empire  and  the  excommunication 
of  the  Church. 

Henry,  rather  more  than  a  year  after  the  Diet  at 
HeniT  in  Spircs,  dcsccndcd  upon  Italy,  but  with  no  con- 
o?t.^23, 1310.  siderable  German  force,^  to  achieve  that  in 
which  had  been  discomfited  the  Othos,  Henrys,  and 
Fredericks.  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines  watched  liis  move- 
nients  with  unquiet  jealousy.  He  assumed  a  lofty  supe- 
riority to  all  factious  views.'  The  cities  Turin,  Asti, 
Vercelli,  Novara,  opened  their  gates.^  Henry  rein- 
stated the  exiled  Guelfs  in  Ghibelline,  the 
Ghibellines  in  Guelfic,  cities.  He  approached 
Milan.  Guido  dell  a  Torre,  the  head  of  the  ruling 
Guelfic  faction,  had  sent  a  message  to  the  King  at 
Spires,  "  he  would  lead  him  with  a  falcon  on  his  wrist, 
as  on  a  pleasure-party,  through  all  Lombardy."  Guido 
Dec.  23,  ^^s  ^*^^  irresolute.  The  Archbishop  of  Milan, 
1310.  ^]-^^  nephew  of  Guido,  but  his  mortal  enemy, 
entreated  the  King's  good  offices  for  the  release  of  three 
of  his  kindred,  imprisoned  by  Delia  Torre.  King  Henry 
issued  his  orders ;  Guido  refused  to  obey.  Yet  Milan 
did  not  close  her  gates  on  the  King.  Guido  occupied 
the  palace  of  the  comm  jnalt}^ ;  he  would  not  dismiss  his 
armed  guard  of  one  thousand  men.  Besides  this,  he 
had  at  his  command  in  one  street  ten  thousand  men, 


^  Ferretus  Vicentinus  gives  6000 
Germans. 

^  "  Cujusquam  cum  subjectis  pac- 
tionis  impatiens,  Gibelenge  Guelfeve 
partium  mentionem  abhoi'vens,  cuncta 
absolute   amj)lectens    im]T€rio." — Alb. 


s  See  Iter  Italicum  by  Henry  ; 
favourite  counsellor.  The  Bishop  of 
Buthronto  gives  a  lively  account  of  all 
his  march,  especially  of  the  Bishop's 
own  personal  adventures.  It  has  been  re- 
printed (aftei-  Reuber  and  Muratori)  by 


Mussat.  i.  13.  Boehraer. — Foutes  Her.  German,  i.  68 


Chap.  IV.  HEXRY  OF  LUXEMBURG  IX  MILAN.  309 

not,  he  averred,  against  the  King,  but  against  his 
enemy,  the  Archbishop.  Henry  lodged  in  the  Arch- 
bishop's palace,  and  there  kept  his  Christmas.  On  the 
day  aftar,  peace  was  sworn  between  Guide 
della  Torre,  his  nephew  the  Archbishop,  and  isii. ' 
Matteo  Yisconti :  they  exchanged  the  kiss  of  peace.'' 
On  the  Epiphany  Henry  was  crowned  with  the  Iron 
Crown  of  Italy,  not  at  Monza,  but  in  the  Ambrosian 
Church  at  Milan ;  the  people  wept  tears  of  joy.  Guido 
gave  up  the  palace  of  the  commonalty  to  the  King.  All 
the  cities  of  Lombardy  were  present  by  their  Syndics ; 
all  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  except  Genoa  and  Yenice, 
who  nevertheless  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the 
King.*  Hemy  calmly  pursued  his  work  of  pacification 
He  placed  Vicars  in  the  cities  from  the  Alps  to  Bologna, 
and  forced  them  to  admit  the  exiles.  Como  received 
the  Guelfs,  the  Ghibellines  entered  Brescia.  ]\Iantua 
admitted  the  Ghibellines,  Piacenza  the  Guelfs.  Verona 
alone  obstinately  refused  to  receive  Count  Boniface  and 
the  Guelfs :  her  strong  walls  defied  the  Emperor.  In 
Milan  the  leaders  of  the  factions  vied  in  their  offerings 
to  Henry.  William  di  Posterla  proposed  a  vote  of  fifty 
thousand  florins,  but  added  a  donative  to  the  Empress 
Guido  della  Torre  outbid  his  rival :  "  We  are  a  great 
and  wealthy  city ;  one  hundred  thousand  is  not  too 
much  for  so  noble  a  sovereign."  The  Germans  were 
alienated  from  the  parsimonious  Viscontis  ;  Guido,  they 
averred,  was  the  Emperor's  friend ;  but  it  was  shrewdly 
suspected   that   the  crafty  leader  foresaw  that  Milan, 


•»  '*  Amicabilitoi,    utinam    fideliter    recollect,  excepting  that  they  (the  Ve- 


osculati.'  — Iter.  Ital. 

'  "  They  said  many  things  to  excuse 
themselves  fi'om  swearing  "  (writes  the 
Bishop  of  Buthronto),  "  which  1  do  not 


netians)  are  a  quintessence,  a)id  will 
belong  neither  to  the  Church  nor  to 
the  P^mperor,  nor  to  the  sea  nor  to  the 
land."— Iter  Italicum,  p.  893. 


310  LATIN  CHRISTlANITi-.  Book  XII. 

when  the  tax  came  to  be  levied,  would  rise  to  shake  off 
the  burthen.  The  Emperor,  to  secure  the  city  in  his 
absence,  demanded  that  fifty  of  the  great  nobles  and 
leaders,  chosen  half  from  the  Guclfs,  half  from  the 
Ghibellines,  should  accompany  him  to  Rome  to  do 
honour  to  his  coronation.  The  Guelfs  were  to  name 
twenty-five  Ghibellines,  the  Ghibellines  twenty-five 
Guelfs.  But  this  mode  of  election  failed ;  neither 
Guide  nor  Visconti  would  quit  the  city.  Guide  alleged 
ill  health ;  the  Kino^'s  phvsician  declared  the 

Feb.  12.  C5        ir    ./ 

excuse  false.  But  the  assessment  of  this  vast 
sum,  though  the  Germans  were  astonished  at  the  ease 
with  which  much  had  been  paid,  inflamed  the  people. 
Insurrection  Erays  broko  out  between  the  Germans  and 
in  Milan.  ^]^g  Milaucse ;  proclamations  were  issued,  for- 
bidding the  Italians  to  bear  aa'ms.  On  a  sudden  a  cry 
was  heard,  "  Death  to  the  Germans !  Peace  between 
the  Lord  Guide  and  the  Lord  Matteo ! "  Visconti  was 
seized,  carried  before  the  King,  and  dismissed  un- 
harmed. The  Germans  rushed  to  arms ;  they  were 
joined  by  Visconti's  faction ;  much  slaughter,  much 
plunder  ensued.'^  Guide  della  Torre  fled;  his  palace 
fortress  was  surprised  and  ransacked :  great  stores  of 
military  weapons  were  found,  arrows  tipped  with  Greek- 
fire,  and  balists. 

No  sooner  was  Milan  heard  to  be  in  insurrection,  than 
Crema,  Cremona,  Lodi,  Brescia,  rose.  The  first  were 
May  19, 1311.  spccdily  subducd  ;  Cremona  severely  punished. 
Siege  of  Brcscia  alone  stood  an  obstinate  siege.  The 
^'''''^-  Emperor's  brother  Waleran  fell  in  the 
trenches :  many  Germans  were  hanged  upon  the  walls. 


^  "  Multi  inortui   et  vulnerati,  si  just^,  Deus  scit,"     So  writes  the  piciis 
Bishop,  who  had  apprehended  and,  as  he  says,  saved  the  life  of,  Viscouti. 


Chap.  IV 


SIEGE  OF  BRESCIA. 


311 


The  new  alliance  between  the  Emperor  and  tlie  Pope 
was  here  ostentatiously  proclaimed.  Two  of  the  car- 
dinals appointed  to  crown  the  Emperor,  the  Bishops 
of  St.  Sabina  and  of  Ostia,  appeared  under  the  walls  of 
Brescia.  The  gates  flew  open  :  they  passed  the  streets 
amid  acclamations — "  Long  live  our  Mother  the  Church; 
long  live  the  Pope  and  the  Holy  Cardinals."  The  Car- 
dinal of  Ostia  addressed  the  commonalty  in  a  lofty 
harangue.  He  sternly  reproved  them  for  not  having 
received  that  blessed  son  of  the  Church,  Henry  King 
of  the  Romans,  who  came  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  : 
"  They  were  in  insurrection  against  the  ordinance  of 
Almighty  God,  against  the  monitions  of  the  Pope  :  they 
must  look  for  no  better  fate  than  befell  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah."  The  Captain  of  the  people  answered  in 
their  name — "  They  were  ready  to  obey  the  Pope  and  a 
lawful  Emperor.  Henry  was  no  emperor,  but  a  spoiler, 
who  expelled  the  Guelfs  from  the  cities,  and  gave  them 
up  to  the  tyranny  of  the  Ghibellines ;  he  was  reviving 
the  schism  of  the  Emperor  Frederick."  The  Cardinals 
withdrew  for  a  time  in  ignominious  silence.  Brescia 
still  held  out :  Henry  urged  the  Cardinals  to  issue  a 
sentence  of  excommunication.  "  For  excommunication," 
was  the  reply,  "  the  Italians  care  nothing.  How  have 
the  Florentines  treated  that  of  the  Cardinal  of  Ostia,  the 
Bolognese  that  of  Cardinal  Napoleon,  those  of  Milan 
that  of  the  Lord  Pelagius?"™  Famine  at  length  re- 
duced the  obstinate  town.  They  consented  to  the 
mediation  of  the  Cardinals,  ajid  Henry  entered  Brescia. 
The  want  of  money  led  him  to  compound  for  the  treason 


"»  Albert  Mussato  apud  Muratori, 
R.  I.  S.  I  have  endeavoured  to  recon- 
cile this  account  with  the  Iter  Itali- 


cum.  I  understand  the  same  fact  to 
be  alluded  to,  page  900  :  "  Domini 
Cardiuales  de  paca  laboraverunt." 


312 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


March  6, 
1312. 


by  a  mulct  of  70,000  florins.  Henry's  poverty  com- 
pelled him  to  other  acts,  ignominious,  even  treacherous, 
as  it  seemed  to  his  most  loyal  counsellors." 

Henry  advanced  to  Genoa :  the  city  submitted  in  the 
amplest    manner.      But   no   sooner   had   the 

oGpt.  18—21*       -_-^  1     /»       T  1  1 

Jiimperor  lett  Lombardy  than  a  new  Guelfic 
league  sprung  up  behind  him.  Throughout  Italy,  the 
Guelfs,  more  Papalist  than  the  Pope,  disclaimed  the 
Emperor,  though  under  the  escort  of  cardinal  legates. 
At  Genoa,  died  his  Queen,  Margarita.  To  Genoa  came 
ambassadors  from  the  head  of  the  Guelfs,  Eobert  King 
of  Naples.  Negotiations  were  commenced  for 
a  marriage  between  the  houses  of  Luxemburg 
and  Naples  ;  but  Kobert  demanded  the  office  of  Senator 
of  Home,  and  before  terms  could  be  concluded,  new^ 
arrived  that  John,  brother  of  King  Kobert,  was  in  Kome 
with  an  armed  force.  Henry  moved  to  Ghibelline  Pisa ; 
he  was  welcomed  with  joy.  In  the  mean  time  Guelfic 
Florence  not  merely  would  not  admit  Pandulph  Savelli, 
the  Pope's  Notary,  and  the  Bishop  of  Buthronto,  Henry's 
ambassadors ;  they  threatened  to  seize  them,  as  loaded 
with  gold  to  bribe  the  Ghibellines  to  insurrection.  The 
ambassadors  had  many  wild  adventures  in  the  Apen- 
nines, were  plundered,  in  joeril  of  captivity.  Some 
Tuscan  cities,  more  Tuscan  lords,  swore  allegiance  to 
the  Emperor,  whether  from  loyalty  or  hatred  of  Flo- 
rence.    The  ambassadors  arrived  before  Konie.^     The 


"  "  I  protested,  but  protested  in 
vain  "  (writes  the  Bishop  of  Buthron- 
to), "  against  five  acts  of  my  mastei-. 
To  the  doubtful  Philip  of  Savoy  he 
granted,  for  a  loan  of  25,000  florins, 
the  lordship  over  Pavia,  Vercelli,  No- 
vara:  to  Matteo  Visconti,  for  50,000, 
that  of  Milan:  to  Gu.!^berto  di  Corre- 


gio,  the  Guelfic  tyrant  of  Parma,  foi 
an  unknown  sum,  that  of  Keggio  :  to 
Can  di  Verona,  who  obstinately  re- 
fused to  admit  a  single  Guelf,  that  of 
Verona:  to  Passerino,  that  of  Mantua." 
— Iter  Italicum,  p.  93. 

0  This  is  the  most  curious  part  o/ 
the  Iter  Italicum. 


Chap.  IV.  ADVANCE  ON  ROME.  313 

city  was  occupied  by  John  of  Naples.  He  was  strong 
enough  to  maintain  himself  in  the  city,  not  strong 
enough  to  keep  down  tlie  Imperialists.  There  was 
parley,  delay,  exchange  of  demands.  John  insisted  on 
fortifying  the  Ponte  Molle.  To  the  demand,  among 
others,  of  co-operation  in  reconciling  the  rival  houses 
of  Orsini  and  Colonna,  he  sternly  answered,  "  The 
Colonnas  are  my  enemies ;  with  them  I  will  have 
neither  truce  nor  treaty."  He  at  leng-th  hurled  defiance 
against  the  Emperor. 

Henry  himself  set  out  from  Pisa,  and  advanced  to- 
wards Eome  at  the  head  of  two  thousand  horse.  Henry  ad- 
With  King  Robert  of  Naples  it  was  neither  Rome, 
peace  nor  war.  Prince  John  still  held  the  Ponte  Molle. 
On  the  appearance  of  King  Henry  he  was  summoned  to 
withdraw  his  troops.  He  withdrew,  he  said,  "  for  liis 
own  ends — not  at  the  Emperor's  command."  The  Ger- 
mans charged  over  the  bridge  ;  a  tower  still  manned  by 
Neapolitans  hurled  down  missiles  ;  it  was  with  difficulty 
stormed.  The  Pope's  Emperor,  with  the  Cardinals  com- 
missioned by  the  Pope  to  crown  him,  entered  Eome :  he 
occupied,  with  the  Ghibellines,  the  city  on  one  side  of 
the  Tiber ;  the  Capitol  was  forced  to  submit.  Beyond 
the  Tiber  were  John  of  Naples  and  the  Guelfic  Orsini. 
Neither  had  strength  to  dispossess  the  other.  But 
St.  Peter's  was  in  the  power  of  the  enemy.  The  mag- 
nificent ceremonial,  which  Pope  Clement  had  drawn 
out  at  great  length  for  the  coronation  of  Henry,  could 
not  take  place.  He  must  submit  to  receive  j^^^^^q, 
the  crown  with  humbler  pomp  in  the  Church  ^^^^• 
of  St.  John  Lateran.  The  inglorious  coronation  took 
place  on  the  festival  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul. 

The  heats  Df  Rome  compelled  the  Emperor  to  retire 
to  Tivoli.     A   year   of  war   ensued:    Florence   placed 


314 


LATIJS^  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  Xll. 


July  20. 


herself  at  the  head  of  the  anti-Imperialist  League. 
Henry,  having  made  a  vain  attempt  to  surprise 
Florence,  retired  to  Pisa.  There  he  pronounced 
the  ban  of  the  Empire  against  Florence  and  the  contu- 
Feb.  12,  macious  cities  ;  and  against  Eobert  of  Naples, 
1313.  whom  he  declared,  as  a  rebellious  vassal,  de- 
posed from  his  throne.  The  ban  of  the  Empire  had  no 
more  terror  than  the  excommunication  of  the  Pope. 
Henry  awaited  forces  from  Germany  to  open  again  the 
campaign :  his  magnanimous  character  struck  even  his 
adversaries.  "  He  was  a  man,"  writes  the  Gruelf  Yillani, 
"  never  depressed  by  adversity,  never  in  prosperity 
elated  with  pride,  or  intoxicated  with  joy." 

But  the  end  of  his  career  drew  on.  He  had  now 
advanced  at  the  head  of  an  army  which  his  enemies 
dared  not  meet  in  the  field,  towards  Sienna.  He  rode 
still,  seemingly  in  full  vigour  and  activity.  But  the 
fatal  air  of  Rome  had  smitten  his  strength.  A  car- 
buncle had  formed  under  his  knee  ;  injudicious  remedies 
inflamed  his  vitiated  blood.  He  died  at  Buonconvento 
Aug.  24,  ii'^  the  midst  of  his  awe-struck  army,  on  the 
1313.  Festival  of  St.  Bartholomew.  Rumours  of 
foul  practice,  of  course,  spread  abroad :  a  Dominican  monk 
w^as  said  to  have  administered  poison  in  the  Sacrament, 
which  he  received  with  profound  devotion.  His  body  was 
carried  in  sad  state,  and  splendidly  interred  at  Pisa. 

Ho  closed  that  empire,  in  which,  if  the  more  factious 
and  vulgar  Ghibellines  beheld  their  restoration  to  their 
native  city,  their  triumph,  their  revenge,  their  sole 
administration  of  public  affairs,  the  noble  Ghibellinism 
of  Dante  ^  foresaw  the  establishment  of  a  great  universal 


P  Read  first  Dante's  rapturous  letter 
(in  Italian)  to  the  princes  and  people 
of  Italy  before  the  descent  of  lleiuy  of 


Luxemburg  (the  Latin  original  is  lost), 
Fraticelli's  edition,  Oper.  Min.  iii.  p 
219.      "Nod   riluce   in   maravigliosi 


Jhap.IV.  DANTE  on  monarchy.  315 

monarchy  necessary  to  the  peace  and  civilisation  of 
mankind.  The  ideal  sovereign  of  Dante's  famous  trea- 
tise on  Monarchy  was  Henry  of  Luxeml/urg.  Neither 
Dante  nor  his  time  can  be  understood  but  ^antede 
through  this  treatise.  The  attempt  of  the  ^^^''^''^'^■ 
Pope  to  raise  himself  to  a  great  Pontifical  monarchy 
had  manifestly,  ignominiously  failed :  the  Ghibelline  is 
neither  amazed  nor  distressed  at  this  event.  It  is  now 
the  turn  of  the  Imperialist  to  unfold  his  noble  vision. 
"  An  universal  monarchy  is  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  welfare  of  the  world ; "  and  this  is  part  of  his 
singular  reasoning —  "  Peace  "  (says  the  weary  exile,  the 
man  worn  out  in  cruel  strife,  the  wanderer  from  city  to 
city,  each  of  those  cities  more  fiercely  torn  by  faction 
than  the  last),  "  universal  peace  is  the  first  blessing  of 
mankind.  The  angels  sang  not  riches  or  pleasures,  but 
peace  on  earth :  peace  the  Lord  bequeathed  to  his  dis- 
ciples. For  peace  One  must  rule.  Mankind  is  most 
like  God  when  at  unity,  for  God  is  One  ;  therefore  under 
a  monarchy.  Where  there  is  parity  there  must  be 
strife;  where  strife,  judgement;  the  judge  must  be  a 
third  party  intervening  with  supreme  autliority."  With- 
out monarchy  can  be  no  justice,  nor  even  liberty :  for 
Dante's"^  monarch  is  no  arbitrary  despot,  but  a  consti- 
tutional sovereign ;  he  is  the  Eoman  law  impersonated 
in  the  Emperor ;  a  monarch  who  should  leave  all  the 
nations,  all  the  free  Italian  cities,  in  possession  of  their 
rights  and  old  municipal  institutions. 


effette     Iddio    avere     predestinato     il  '  letter   to   Henry  himself,    almost   re- 


pi-incipe  ?  "  The  Pope  is 
now  on  the  Imperial  side,  and  Dante 
IS  conciliatory  even  to  an  Avignonese 
Pope.     Nor  omit,  secondly,  the  furious 


proaching    him   with    leaving    wicked 
Florence  unchastised. — Ibid.  p.  230. 

1  "  Et  humanum  genus,  potissimurt 
liberum,  optime  se  habet." 


316 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


But  to  this  monarchy  of  the  world  the  Roman  people 
has  an  mherent,  indefeasible  rig-ht.  The  Saviour  waj 
born  when  the  world  was  at  peace  under  the  Eoman 
sway/  Dante  seizes  and  applies  the  texts,  which  fore- 
show the  peaceful  dominion  of  Christianity,  to  the 
Empire  of  old  Rome.  Rome  assumed  that  empire  of 
right,  not  of  usurpation.  The  Romans  were  the  noblest 
of  people  by  their  descent  from  ^neas,  the  noblest  of 
men.  The  rise  of  the  Republic  was  one  continual 
miracle :  the  Ancile,  the  repulse  of  the  Gauls,  Clelia, 
all  were  miracles  in  the  highest  sense.'  That  holy, 
pious,  and  glorious*  people  sacrificed  its  own  advantage 
to  the  common  good.  It  ruled  the  world  by  its  bene- 
ficence. All  that  the  most  ardent  Christian  could  assert 
of  the  best  of  the  Saints,  Dante  attributes  to  the  older 
Romans.  The  great  examples  of  human  virtue  are 
Cincinnatus,  Fabricius,  Camillus,  Decius,  Cato.  The 
Roman  people  are  by  nature  predestined  to  rule :  he 
cites  the  irrefragable  authority  of  Yirgil.*  There  are  two 
arguments  which  strangely  mingle  with  these.  Rome 
had  w^on  the  empire  of  the  world  by  wager  of  battle. 
God,  in  the  great  ordeal,  had  adjudged  the  triumph  to 
Rome :  he  had  awarded  to  her  the  prize,  universal, 
indefeasible  monarchy."  Still  further^  "  Our  Lord  con- 
descended to  be  put  to  death  under  Pilate,  the  vice- 
gerent of  Tiberius  Caesar ;  by  that  he  acknowledged  the 


'  "  Quare  fremuerunt  gentes,  reges 
adversantur  Domino  suo  et  uncto  sub 
Romano  Principe." 

»  "  Quod  etiam  pro  Romano  Im- 
perio  perticieiido,  miranda  Deus  per- 
tenderet,  illustrium  authorum  testi- 
monio  comprobatur."  The  authors 
ore  Livy  and  Lucan. 


*  "  Tu  regere  imperio  populos,  Romanes 
memento." 

^  "Nulhim  dubium  est  quin  prae- 
valentia  in  athletis  pro  imperio  mundi 
certantibus,  Dei  judicium  est  sequuta. 
Romanus  populus  cunctis  athletizanti- 
bus  pro  imperio  mundi  prsevaluit."— 
p.  100.  "  Quod  per  duellum  acquiri 
tur  jure  acquiritur." 


Chap.  IV 


THE  NOTION  OF  POPES. 


317 


lawfulness  of  the  jurisdiction,  therefore  the  jurisdiction  ia 
of  God."^  But  while  all  this  argument  of  Dante  shows 
the  irresistible  magic  power  still  possessed  over  the  ima- 
gination by  the  mere  name  of  Eome,  how  strongly  does 
it  illustrate  not  only  the  coming  days  of  Kienzi,  but  the 
strength,  too,  which  the  Papal  power  had  derived  from 
this  indelible  awe,  this  unquestioning  admission  that 
the  world  owed  allegiance  to  Eome !  Dante  proceeds 
to  prove  that  the  monarchy,  the  Eoman  monarchy,  is 
held  directly  of  God,  not  of  any  Yicar  or  minister  of 
God.  He  sweeps  away  with  contemptuous  hand  all 
the  later  Decretals.  He  admits  the  Holy  Scripture,  the 
first  Councils,  the  early  Doctors,  and  S.  Augustine.  He 
spurns  the  favourite  texts  of  the  sun  and  moon  as 
typifying  the  Papacy  and  the  Empire,  the  worship  of 
the  Magi,  the  two  swords,  the  donation  of  Constantine. 
He  asserts  Christ  to  be  the  only  Eock  of  the  Church. 
The  examples  of  authority  assumed  by  Popes  over 
Emperors,  he  confronts  with  precedents  of  authority 
used  by  Emperors  over  Popes.  Dante  denies  not,  he 
believes  with  the  fervour  of  a  devout  Catholic,  the 
co-ordinate  supremacy  of  the  Church  and  the  Empire, 
of  the  Pope  and  the  temporal  monarch;  but  like  all 
the  Ghibellines,  like  the  Fraticelli  among  the  lov/er 
orders,  like  many  other  true  believers,  almost  w^or- 
shippers  of  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  he  would  abso- 
lutely, rigidly,  entirely  confine  him  to  his  spiritual 
functions;  with  this  life  the  Pontiff  had  no  concern, 
eternal  life  was  in  his  power  and  arbitration  alone.^ 


*  We  find  even  the  startling  sen- 
tence, *'  Si  Romanum  Imperiura  de 
jure  non  fuit,  peccatum  adeo  in  Christo 
ncn  fuit  punitum," 

T  This  is  the  key  to  Dante's  Impe- 


rialism and  Papalism.  Hence  in  the 
lowest  pit  of  hell,  the  two  traitors  to 
Cffisar  are  on  either  side  of  the  tiviitor 
to  Christ.  "  Bruto,  Iscaiiote,  e  Cas- 
sio."     Hence  both  his  fierce  Gh^boUin* 


318 


LATIN  CHRISTIAXITY. 


Book  XII 


Italy,  at  the  death  of  Henry  of  Luxemburg,  fell  back 
into  her  old  anarchy.  Clement,  it  is  true,  laid  claim 
to  the  Empire  during  the  vacancy,  but  it  was  an  idle 
and  despised  boast.^  The  Transalpine  Clement  was 
succeeded  by  other  Transalpine  Popes ;  but  the  con- 
federacy between  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  broke  up 
for  ever  at  the  death  of  Henry. 


denunciations  of  the  avarice  and  pride 
of  Boniface,  and  his  indignation  at  the 
violation  of  the  sanctity  of  Christ's 
Vicar  at  Anagni.  Throughout,  the 
imperial  authority  is  the  first  neces- 
sity of  Italy — 

"  Ahi  gente,  che  dovresti  esser  devota, 
E  lasciar  seder  Cesar  nella  sella, 
Se  bene  intend!  cib  chh  Dio  ti  nota." 

Furgat.  vi.  91. 

This  is  followed  by  the  magnificent 
apostrophe  to  Albert  of  Austria,  whose 
guilt  in  neglecting  Italy  is  not  only 


avenged  on  his  own  posterity,  but 
on  his  successor,  Henry  of  Luxem- 
burg,— 

"  Vienf  a  veder  la  tua  Roma,  che  piagne 
Vedova,  e  sola,  e  di  e  notte  chiama, 
Cesare  mio,  perche  non  m'accompagne." 

— Compare  Foscolo,  Discorso,  p.  223. 
'  "  Nos  tam  ex  superioritate  quam 
ad  imperium  non  est  dubium  nos  ha- 
bere, quam  ex  potestate,  in  qua,  va- 
cante  Imperio,  Imperatori  succedimus." 
— Clement.  Pastoral.  Muratori,  Ann. 
sub  aun,  1314, 


Jhap.  v.  approach  of  CLEMENT'S  EXD  319 


CHAPTEK    V. 

The  End  o:  Dii  Molay,  of  Pope  Clement,  of  King  Philip. 

The  end  of  Clement  himself  and  of  Clement's  master, 
the  King  of  France,  drew  near.  The  Pope  had  been 
compelled  to  make  still  larger  concessions  to  the  King. 
Philip's  annexation  of  the  Imperial  city,  Lyons,  and  the 
extinction  of  the  rights  or  claims  of  the  Archbishop  to 
an  independent  jurisdiction,  were  vainly  encountered  by 
remonstrance.  From  this  time  Lyons  became  a  city  of 
the  kingdom  of  France. 

But  the  Pope  and  the  King  must  be  preceded  into 
the  realm  of  darkness  and  to  the  judgement  seat  of 
heaven  by  other  victims.  The  tragedy  of  the  Templars 
had  not  yet  drawn  to  its  close.  The  four  great  digni- 
taries of  the  Order,  the  Grand  Master  Du  Molay,  Guy 
the  Commander  of  Normandy,  son  of  the  Dauphin  of 
Auvergne,  the  Commander  of  Aquitaine  Godfrey  de 
Gonaville,  the  great  Visitor  of  France  Hugues  de  Pe- 
raud,  were  still  pining  in  the  royal  dungeons.  It  was 
necessary  to  determine  on  their  fate.  The  King  and 
the  Pope  were  now  equally  interested  in  burying  the 
affair  for  ever  in  silence  and  oblivion.  So  long  as  these 
men  lived,  uncondemned,  undoomed,  the  Order  was  not 
extinct.  A  commission  was  named ;  the  Cardinal  Arch- 
bishop of  Albi,  with  two  other  Cardinals,  two  monks, 
the  Cistercian  Arnold  Novelli,  and  Arnold  de  Fargis, 
nephew  of  Pope  Clement,  the  Dominican  Nicolas  de 
Freveauville,  akin  to  the  house  of  Marigny,  formerly  the 


320  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII 

King's  confessor.     With  these  the  Archbishop  of  Sens 
sat  in  judgement,  on  the  Knights'  own  former  confes 
sions.     The  Glrand.  Master   and   the   rest   were   foun'. 
guilty,  and  were  to  be  sentenced  to  perpetual  imprison- 
ment.* 

A  scaffold  was  erected  before  the  porch  of  Notre 
Dame.  On  one  side  appeared  the  two  Cardinals ;  on 
Prisoners  tlic  othcr  the  four  noble  prisoners,  in  chains, 
for  sentence,  uudor  the  custody  of  the  Provost  of  Paris. 
Six  years  of  dreary  imprisonment  had  passed  over  their 
iieads ;  of  their  valiant  brethren  the  most  valiant  had 
been  burned  alive ;  the  recreants  had  purchased  their 
lives  by  confession :  the  Pope  in  a  full  Council  had  con- 
demned and  dissolved  the  Order.  If  a  human  mind,  a 
mind  like  that  of  Du  Molay,  not  the  most  stubborn, 
could  be  broken  by  suffering  and  humiliation,  it  must 
have  yielded  to  this  long  and  crushing  imprisonment 
The  Cardinal- Archbishop  of  Albi  ascended  a  raised 
platform :  he  read  the  confessions  of  the  Knights,  the 
proceedings  of  the  Court ;  he  enlarged  on  the  criminality 
of  the  Order,  on  the  holy  justice  of  the  Pope,  and  the 
devout,  self-sacrificing  zeal  of  the  King ;  he  was  pro- 
ceeding to  the  final,  the  fatal  sentence.  At  that  instant 
the  Grand  Master  advanced ;  his  gesture  implored  si- 
lence :  judges  and  people  gazed  in  awe-struck  appre- 
hension. In  a  calm,  clear  voice  Du  Molay  spake : 
Speech  of  "  Before  heaven  and  earth,  on  the  verge  of 
Du  Molay.  (Je^th^  whcro  the  least  falsehood  bears  like  an 
intolerable  weight  upon  the  soul,  I  protest  that  we  have 
richly  deserved  death,  not  un  account  of  any  heresy  or 
sin  of  which  ourselves  or  our  Order  have  been  guilty, 
but  because  we  have  yielded,  to  save  our  lives,  to  the 


•  "  Muro  et  cavceri  peipetuo  retrudendi." — Gjnlinuat.  Nangis. 


Chap.  V.  TRAGEDY  OF  THE  TEMPLARS.  321 

seductive  words  of  tlie  Pope  and  of  the  King :  and  so 
by  our  confessions  brought  shame  and  ruin  on  our 
blameless,  holy,  and  orthodox  brotherhood." 

The  Cardinals  stood  confounded;  the  people  could 
not  suppress  their  profound  sympathy.  The  assembly 
was  hastily  broken  up ;  the  Provost  was  commanded  to 
conduct  the  prisoners  back  to  their  dungeons.  "  To- 
morrow we  will  hold  further  counsel." 

But  on  the  moment  that  the  King  heai'd  these  things, 
mthout  a  day's  delay,  without  the  least  con-  Death  of  du 
sultation  with  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  he  ^^°'''^- 
ordered  them  to  death  as  relapsed  heretics.  In  the 
island  on  the  Seine,  where  now  stands  the  statue  of 
Henry  IV.,  between  the  King's  garden  on  one  side  and 
the  convent  of  the  Augustinian  monks  on  the  other,  the 
two  pyres  were  raised  (two  out  of  the  four  had  shrunk 
back  into  their  ignoble  confession).  It  was  the  hour  of 
vespers  when  these  two  aged  and  noble  men  were  led 
out  to  be  burned :  they  were  tied  each  to  the  stake. 
The  flames  kindled  dully  and  heavily  ;  the  wood,  hastily 
piled  up,  was  green  or  wet ;  or,  in  cruel  mercy,  the 
tardiness  was  designed  that  the  victims  might  have 
time,  while  the  fire  was  still  curling  round  their  ex- 
tremities, to  recant  their  bold  recantation.  But  there 
was  no  sign,  no  word  of  weakness.  Du  Molay  implored 
that  the  image  of  the  Mother  of  God  might  be  held  up 
before  him,''  and  his  hands  unchained,  that  he  might 
clasp  them  in  prayer.  Both,  as  the  smoke  rose  to  their 
lips,  as  the  fire  crept  up  to  the  vital  parts,  continued 
solemnly  to  aver  the  innocence,   the  Catholic  faith  of 


Et  je  vous  prie 

Que  de  vers  la  visage  Marie, 

1  )ont  notre  Seignor  Christ  fust  nez, 

Mon  visage  vous  me  tornez." 

Godfrey  de  Faru. 


VOL.  VII. 


822 


LATIN  CHEISTIAXITY. 


Book  XI  i. 


the  Order.  The  King  himself  sat  and  beheld/  it  might 
seem  without  remorse,  this  hideous  spectacle ;  the  words 
of  Du  Molay  might  have  reached  his  ears.  But  the 
people  looked  on  with  far  other  feelings.  Stupor  kindled 
into  admiration ;  the  execution  was  a  martyrdom ;  friara 
gathered  up  their  ashes  and  bones  and  carried  them 
away,  hardly  by  stealth,  to  consecrated  ground  ;  they 
became  holy  reliques.^  The  two  who  wanted  courage  to 
die  pined  away  their  miserable  life  in  prison. 

The  w^onder  and  the  pity  of  the  times  which  imme- 
Du  Molay  a  diatcly  followcd,  arrayed  Du  Molay  not  only 
prophet.  ^^  ^Y\e  robes  of  the  martyr,  but  gave  him  the 
terrible  language  of  a  prophet.  "  Clement,  iniquitous 
and  cruel  judge,  I  summon  thee  within  forty  days  to 
meet  me  before  the  throne  of  the  Most  High."®  Ac- 
cording to  some  accounts  this  fearful  sentence  included 
the  King,  by  whom,  if  uttered,  it  might  have  been 
heard.  The  earliest  allusion  to  this  awful  speech  does 
not  contain  that  striking  particularity,  which,  if  part  of 
it,  would  be  fatal  to  its  credibility,  the  precise  date  of 
Clement's  death.  It  was  not  till  the  year  after  that 
Clement  and  King  Philip  passed  to  their  account.  The 
poetic  relation  of  Godfrey  of  Paris  ^simply  states  that 


^  "  Ambo  rege  spectante,"  Zantifliet. 
He  adds  that  he  had  this  from  an  eye- 
witness — "  qui  haec  vidit  scriptori 
testimonium  praebuit."  The  Canon 
of  Lifege  is  said  to  have  been  born 
towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. Could  he  have  conversed  with 
an  eye-witness  of  this  scene  on  March 
11,  1313  ?  But  many  of  these  chroni- 
cles are  those  of  the  convent  rather 
than  of  the  individual  monks.  This 
was  continued  to  1462.     See  above. 

^  Villani    (S.   Antoninus    as    usual 


copies  Villani),  "  E  nota  che  la  notte 

appresso  che  '1  detto  maestro  e  '1  com- 

pagno   furono  martorizzati,  per   frati 

religiosi  le   loro   corpoia  e  ossa  come 

reliquie  sante  furono  ricolte  e  portate 

via  in  sacri  luogi." 

*  Ferretus  Vicentinus, 

'  "  S'en  vendra  en  brief  temps  meschiQ 
Sur  celz  qui  nouz  dampnent  a  tort 
Dieu  en  vengera  nostre  mort, 
Seignors,  dit  il,  sachiez  sans  tere, 
Que  tous  celz  qui  nous  sont  con 

trere 
Per  Doua  in  uront  a  soupir." 

Godfrey  tic  /  aiis 


Chap.V.  death  of  clement.  •    323 

Du  Molay  declared  that  God  would  revenge  their  death 
on  their  unrighteous  judges.  The  rapid  fate  of  these 
two  men  during  the  next  year  might  naturally  so  appal 
the  popular  imagination,  as  to  approximate  more  closely 
the  prophecy  and  its  accomplishment.  At  all  events 
it  betrayed  the  deep  and  general  feeling  of  the  cruel 
wrong  inflicted  on  the  Order ;  while  the  unlamented 
death  of  the  Pope,  the  disastrous  close  of  Philip's  reign, 
and  the  disgraceful  crimes  which  attainted  the  honour 
of  his  family,  seemed  as  declarations  of  Heaven  as  to 
the  innocence  of  their  noble  victims/ 

The  health  of  Clement  V.  had  been  failing  for  some 
time.     From  his  Court,  which  he  held  at  Car-  Death  of 

.  .  -      Clement. 

pentras,  he  set  out  m  hopes  to  gam  strength  Apni  20,1314 
from  his  native  air  at  Bordeaux.  He  had  hardly  crossed 
tlie  Khone  when  he  was  seized  with  mortal  sickness 
at  Roquemaure.  The  Papal  treasure  was  seized  by 
his  followers,  especially  his  nephew ;  his  remains  were 
treated  with  such  utter  neglect  that  the  torches  set 
fire  to  the  catafalque  under  which  he  lay,  not  in  state. 
His  body,  covered  only  with  a  single  sheet,  all  that  his 
rapacious  retinue  had  left  to  shroud  their  forgotten 
master,  was  half  burned  (not,  like  those  of  the  Templars, 
his  living  body)  before  alarm  was  raised.  His  ashes 
were  borne  back  to  Carpentras  and  solemnly  interred.^ 

Clement  left  behind  him  evil  fame.     He  died  shame- 
fully rich.      To   his   nephew   (nepotism  had  begun  to 


8  Besides  other  evidence,  a  singular 
document  but  recently  brought  to  light 
establishes  the  date  of  the  execution 
of  Du  Molay,  March  11,  1313.  The 
Abbot  and  Convent  of  St.  Germain 
aux  Pr6s  claimed  jurisdiction  over  the 
iiiland  where  the  execution  took  place. 


They  complained  of  the  execution  as 
an  infringement  on  their  rights.  The 
Parliament  of  Paris  decided  in  their 
favour. — Les  Olim,  published  by  M. 
Beugnot,  Documents  Ine'dits,  t.  ii.  p. 
599. 

^  Franciscus  Pepinus  in  Chronico, 
Y    2 


324  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

prevail  in  its  baneful  influence)  he  bequeathed  not  less 
than  300,000  golden  florins,  under  the  pretext 
of  succour  to  the  Holy  Land.  He  had  died 
still  more  wealthy,  but  that  his  wealth  was  drained  by 
more  disgraceful  prodigality.  It  was  generally  believed 
that  the  beautiful  Brunisand  de  Foix,  Countess  of  Tal- 
leyrand Perigord,  was  the  Pope's  mistress:  to  her  he 
was  boundlessly  lavish,  and  her  influence  was  irresistible 
even  in  ecclesiastical  matters.  Kumonr  ran  that  her 
petitions  to  the  lustful  Pontiff  were  placed  upon  her 
otherwise  unveiled  bosom.  Italian  hatred  of  a  Trans- 
alpine Pope,  Guelfic  hatred  of  a  Ghibelline  Pope,  may 
have  lent  too  greedy  ear  to  these  disreputable  reports ; 
but  the  large  mass  of  authorities  is  against  the  Pope ; 
in  his  favour  hardly  more  than  suspicious  silence.^ 

Yet  was  it  the  ambition  of  Clement  to  be  one  of  the 
ecclesiastical  legislators  of  Christendom.  He  had  hoped 
that  his  new  book  of  Decretals  would  have  been  enrolled 
during  his  life  with  those  of  his  predecessors.  It  was 
published  on  the  12th  of  March,  but  the  death  of  Clement 
took  place  before  it  had  assumed  its  authority. 

From  Boniface  VIII.  to  Clement  Y.  was  indeed  a 
precipitous  fall.  After  this  time  subtle  policy  rather  than 
conscious  power  became  the  ruling  influence  of  the  Pope- 
dom. The  Popes  had  ceased  absolutely  to  command, 
but  they  had  not  ceased  to  a  great  extent  to  govern. 
Nor  in  these  new  arts  of  government  was  Clement 
without  considerable  skill  and  address.  Notwithstanding 
his  abandonment  of  Rome,  his  dangerous  neighbourhood 
to  the  King  of  France,  his  general  subserviency  to  his 
hard    master,    his   doubtful,   at   least,   if    not    utterly 


'  Villani,  ix,   58.     The  Guelfic  Villani.     "Contra  cujus  pudicitiam  faina 
laboravit." — Albert  Mussat.  p.  606.     Hist.  Languedoc,  xxix,  85.  138. 


Chap.  V.  SERVICES  OF  CLEMENT.  325 

disreputable  personal  character,  his  looseness  and  his 
rapacity,  he  had  succeeded  in  saving  the  fame  of  his 
predecessor,  in  averting  the  fatal  blow  to  the  Popedom 
of  which  it  had  been  impossible  to  conceive  the  conse- 
quences— he  had  prevented  the  condemnation  of  a  Pope 
as  a  notorious  heretic  and  a  man  of  criminal  life — his 
disinterment,  on  which  Philip  at  one  time  insisted,  and 
the  public  burning  of  his  body.  Clement  succeeded  by 
calm,  stubborn  determination,  by  watching  his  time,  and 
wisely  calculating  the  amount  of  sacrifice  which  would 
content  the  resentful  and  vengeful  King.  His  other 
great  service  to  Christendom  was  the  preservation  of 
Europe  from  the  absolute  domination  of  France^/  If 
indeed  Henry  of  Luxemburg  had  established  the  im- 
perial dominion  in  Italy  in  the  absence  of  the  Pope,  it 
is  difficult  to  speculate  on  the  results.  Clement  himself 
took  alarm  :  he  yielded  promptly  to  the  demands  of  the 
King  of  France,  and  inhibited  the  war  waged  against 
Philip's  kinsman.  King  Kobert  of  Naples,  as  against 
a  vassal  of  the  Church.  He  looked  with  distrust  on 
Henry's  league  with  the  anti-papal  house  of  An-agon, 
with  Frederick  of  Sicily.  The  Pope  might  have  been 
constrained  ere  long  to  become  again  a  Guelf. 

Philip  the  Fair  survived  Pope  Clement  only  a  few 
months.'^  Philip,  at  forty-six,  was  an  old  and  worn-out 
man.  Though  he  had  raised  the  royal  power  to  such 
unprecedented  height ;  though  he  had  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  free  institutions,  not  to  be  developed  to  maturity ; 
though  successful  in  most  of  his  wars ;  though  he  had 
curbed,  at  least,  the  rebellious  Flemings,  and  added 
provinces  to  his  realm,  above  all  the  great  city  of 
Lyons ;   though   in   close   alliance,    by  marriage,   with 


Clement  died  April  20,  Philip  Nov.  29,  1314. 


326  LATIN  CHKISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

England;  though  he  had  crushed  the  Templars,  and 
obtained  much  wealth  from  his  share  of  the  spoil ; 
though  the  Church  of  France  was  filled  in  its  highest 
sees  by  his  creatures  ;  though  the  Pope  was  under  his 
tutelage,  most  of  the  Cardinals  his  subjects :  yet  the 
last  years  of  his  reign  were  years  of  difficulty,  disaster, 
and  ignominy.  His  financial  embarrassments,  notwith- 
standing his  financial  iniquities,  grew  worse  and  worse. 
The  spoils  of  the  Templars  were  soon  dissipated.  His 
tampering  with  the  coin  of  the  kingdom  became  more 
reckless,  more  directly  opposed  to  all  true  economy, 
more  burthensome  and  hateful  to  his  subjects,  less  lucra- 
tive to  the  Crown."^  The  Lombards,  the  Jews,  had  been 
again  admitted  into  the  realm,  again  to  be  plundered, 
Poverty  of  ^gaiu  expellcd.  The  magnificent  festival  at 
Philip.  Paris,  where  he  received  the  King  of  England 
with  unexampled  splendour,  consummated  his  bank- 
ruptcy. 

But  upon  his  house  there  had  fallen  what  wounded 
Disgrace  of  the  haughty,  chivalrous,  and  feudal  feelings 
family.  of  tlic  tiuics  morc  than  did  the  violation  of 
high  Christian  morals.  The  wives  of  his  three  sons,  the 
handsomest  men  of  their  day,  were  at  the  same  time 
accused  of  adultery,  and  with  men  of  low  birth.  The 
paramours  of  Marguerite  and  of  Blanche,  daugliters  of 
Otho  IV.  and  the  wives  of  Louis  and  Charles,  the  elder 
and  younger  sons  of  Philip,  were  two  Norman  gentle- 
men, Philip  and  Walter  de  Launoi.  Confession,  true  or 
false,  was  wrung  from  these  men  by  torture ;  but  con- 
fession only  made  their  doom  more  dreadful.  They 
were  mutilated,  flayed  alive,  hung  up  by  the  most 
sensitive  parts  to  die  a  lingering  death."     Many  persons, 


Compare  Sismondi.        "  Contin.  Nangis,  p.  68.  Chroniq.  de  St.  Denys,  p.  14fi. 


Chap.  V. 


DEATH  OF  PHILIP. 


327 


men  and  women,  of  high  and  low  rank,  were  tortured 
to  admit  criminal  connivance  in  the  crimes  of  the  prin- 
cesses :  some  were  sewed  up  in  sacks  and  thrown  into 
the  river,  some  burned  alive,  some  hanged.  The  atrocity 
of  the  punishments  shows  how  deeply  the  disgrace  sank 
into  the  heart  of  the  King,  himself  too  cold  and  severe 
to  indulge  such  weaknesses.  Marguerite  and  Blanche 
were  shaven  and  shut  up  in  Chateau- Gaillard.  Mar- 
gu  erite  was  afterwards  strangled,  tliat  her  husband 
might  marry  again :  Blanche  divorced  on  the  plea  of 
parentage.  Her  splendid  dowry  alone  saved  the  life, 
if  not  the  honour,  of  Jane  of  Burgundy,  the  wife  of  the 
second  son,  PhiHp  of  Poitiers.  She  had  brought  him 
the  sovereignty  of  Franche  Comte,  which  he  would 
forfeit  by  her  death  or  divorce.  Janf^  was  shut  up  ;  no 
paramour  was  produced :  the  Parliament  of  Paris  de- 
clared her  guiltless,  and  Philip  received  her  again  to  all 
the  dignity  of  her  station. 

In  this  attainder  to  the  honour  of  the  royal  house 
of  France  some  beheld  the  vengeance  of  Heaven  for  the 
sacrilegious  outrage  at  Anagni ;  others  for  the  iniquitous 
persecution  of  the  Templars.^ 

Philip  had  fallen  into  great  languor,  yet  was  able 
to  amuse  himself  with  hunting.  A  wild  boar  Dg^th  of 
ran  under  the  legs  of  his  horse,  and  overthrew  ^'^'^'^' 
him.  He  was  carried  to  Fontainebleau,  and  died  with 
all  outward  demonstrations  of  piety.  The  persecutor  of 
Popes,  the  persecutor  of  the  great  religious  Order  of 
Knighthood,  had  always  shown  the  most  submissive 
reverence  for  the  offices  of  the  Chm-ch:  he  had  been 


®  "  Forse  per  lo  peccato  commeBSo 
per  loro  padre,  nella  presura  di  Papa 
Bonifazio,  come  il  Vescovo  d'  Ansiona 


profettizo,  e  forse  per  quello,  ehe 
adopero  ne'  Templieri,  come  e  dettc 
addietro." — G.  Villaui,  ix.  6 


328 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  xii. 


most  rigid  in  the  proscription  of  heresy  or  oi  suspected 
heresy.  The  fires  had  received  one  more  victim,  Mar- 
guerite de  la  Porette,  who  had  written  a  book  of  too 
ardent  piety  on  the  love  of  God.'  Philip  died,  giving 
the  sagest  advice  to  his  sons  of  moderation,  mercy, 
devotion  to  the  Church ;  lessons  which  he  seemed  to 
lull  himself  to  a  quiet  security  that  he  had  ever  ful- 
filled to  the  utmost.^ 


It  is  singular,  even  in  these  dark  times,  to  see  Chris- 
tianity still  strong  at  her  extremities,  still  making 
conquests  of  Heathenism.  The  Order  of  the  Knights 
Templars  had  come  to  a  disastrous  and  ignominious  end. 
The  Knights  of  St.  John  or  of  the  Hospital,  now  that 
the  Holy  Land  was  irrecoverably  lost,  had  planted 
themselves  in  Khodes,  as  a  strong  outpost  and  bulwark 
of  Christendom,  which  they  held  for  some  centuries 
against  the  Turco-Mohammedan  power ;  and,  when  it 
Teutonic  f^llj  almost  buricd  themselves  in  its  ruins.  At 
Order.  ^^iQ  samo  time,  less  observed,  less  envied,  less 
famous,  the  Teutonic  Order  was  winning  to  itself  from 
heathendom  (more  after  the  example  of  Charlemagne 
than  of  Christ's  Apostles)  a  kingdom,  of  which  the 
Order  was  for  a  time  to  be  the  Sovereign,  and  which 
hereafter,  conjoined  with  one  of  the  great  German 
Principalities,  was  to  become  an  important  state,  the 
kingdom  of  Prussia. 


f  Continuat.  Nangis.  Sismondi, 
Hist,  lies  Fiaii9ais,  ix.  p.  286. 

1  After  the  death  of  Philip's  Queen, 
unless  belied  one  of  the  most  lustful 
of  women,  Guichard  Bishop  of  Troyes 
was  arrested  on  suspicion  of  having 
poisoned  her.  He  was  tried  before 
tlie  Archbishop  of  Sens  and  the  Bishops 


of  Orleans  and  Auxerre.  The  proofs 
failed,  but  the  Bishop  was  kept  in 
prison.  Nor,  though  another  man 
accused  himself  of  the  crime,  was 
the  Bishop  reinstated  in  his  see.— ^ 
Contin.  Nangis,  p.  61.  Compare 
Michelet,  Hist,  des  Fran9ais,  vol.  ir, 
c.  5. 


Chap.  V.  TEUT0:MC  ORDES.  329 

The  Orders  of  the  Temple  and  of  St.  John  owed,  the 
former  their  foundation,  the  latter  their  power  and 
wealth,  to  noble  Knights.  They  were  military  and 
aristocratic  brotherhoods,  which  hardly  deigned  to  re- 
ceive, at  least  in  tlieir  higher  places,  any  but  those  of 
gentle  birth.  The  first  founders  of  the  Teutonic  Order 
were  honest,  decent,  and  charitable  burghers  of  Lubeck 
and  Bremen.  After  the  disasters  which  followed  the 
death  of  Frederick  Barbarossa,  when  the  army  was 
wasting  away  with  disease  and  famine  before  Acre, 
these  merchants  from  the  remote  shores  of  the  Baltic 
ran  up  the  sails  of  their  ships  into  tents  to  receive 
the  sick  and  starving.  They  were  joined  by  the  brethren 
of  a  German  Hospital,  which  had  been  before  founded 
in  Jerusalem,  and  had  been  permitted  by  the  contemp- 
tuous compassion  of  Saladin  to  remain  for  some  time  in 
the  city.  Duke  Frederick  of  Swabia  saw  the  advantage 
of  a  German  Order,  both  to  maintain  the  German  interests 
and  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  German  pilgrims.  Their 
first  house  was  in  Acre.' 

But  it  was  not  till  the  Mastership  of  Herman  of 
Salza  that  the  Teutonic  Order  emerged  into  distinction. 
That  remarkable  man  has  been  seen  adhering  in  un- 
shaken fidelity  to  the  fortunes  of  the  Emperor  Frederick 
II. ;  ^  and  Frederick  no  doubt  more  highly  honoured  the 
Teutonic  Order  because  it  was  commanded  by  Herman 
of  Salza,  and  more  highly  esteemed  Herman  of  Salza 
as  Master  of  an  Order  which  alone  in  Palestine  did  not 
thwart,  oppose,  insult  the  German  Emperor.  It  is  the 
noblest  testimony  to  the  wisdom,  unimpeached  virtue, 
honour,  and  religion  of  Herman  of  Salza,  that  the  sue- 


'  Compare  Voigt,  Geschichte  Preussens,  and  authorit.es. 
•  See  vol.  vi.  p.  269. 


330 


I^TIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


15(X)K  XI I. 


cessive  Popes,  Honorius  III.,  Gregory  IX.,  Innocent 
IV.,  who  agreed  with  Frederick  in  nothing  else,  with 
whom  attachment  to  Frederick  was  enmity  and  treason 
to  the  Church  or  absolute  impiety,  nevertheless  vied 
with  the  Emperor  in  the  honour  and  respect  paid  to  the 
Master  Herman,  and  in  grants  and  privileges  to  his 
Teutonic  Knights. 

The  Order,  now  entirely  withdrawn,  as  become  useless, 
from  the  Holy  Land,  had  found  a  new  sj)here  for  their 
crusading  valour :  the  subjugation  and  conversion  of  the 
heathen  nations  to  the  south-east  and  the  east  of 
the  Baltic*  Theirs  was  a  complete  Mohammedan  inva- 
sion, the  Gospel  or  the  sword.  The  avowed  object  was 
the  subjugation,  the  extermination  if  they  would  not  be 
subjugated,  of  the  Prussian,  Lithuanian,  Esthonian,  and 
other  kindred  or  conterminous  tribes,  because  they  wei*e 
infidels.  They  had  refused  to  listen  to  the  pacific 
preachers  of  the  Gospel,  and  pacific  preachers  had  not 
been  wanting.  Martyrs  to  the  faith  had  fallen  on  the 
dreary  sands  of  Prussia,  in  the  forests  and  morasses  of 
Livonia  and  Esthonia. 

The  Pope  and  the  Emperor  concurred  in  this  alone — 
in  their  right  to  grant  away  all  lands,  it  might  be 
kingdoms,  w^on  from  unbelievers.  The  charter  of  Fre- 
derick II.  runs  in  a  tone  of  as  haughty  supremacy  as 
those  of  Honorius,  Gregory,  or  Innocent  IV.'' 


*  Pomerania  had  been  converted  in  a 
more  Christian  manner  in  the  twelfth 
century,  chiefly  by  the  exertions  of 
Bishop  Otho  of  Bamberg,  whose  ro- 
mantic life,  with  that  of  his  convert, 
Pi'ince  Mitzlav,  has  been  well  wrought 
by  my  nephew,  the  Rev.  R.  Milman, 
into  a  Romance  (I  wish  it  had  been 
Hi&tory,  or  ev  m  Legend).    I  trust  this 


note  is  pardonable  ;iepotisra.  See 
also  Mone,  Nordische  Heidenthum,  or 
Schroeck,  xxv.  p.  221,  &c.,  for  a  more 
historical  view. 

*  "  Auctoritatem  eidem  magistro 
concedimus,  terram  Prussian  cum  viri- 
bus  domfis,  et  totis  conatibus  inva- 
dendi,  concedentes  et  coniirmantes  eideni 
magistro,  successoribus  ejus,  et  domu. 


Chap.  V. 


TEXUEE  OF  THE  ORDER. 


331 


These  tribes  had  each  their  religion,  the  dearer  to 
them  as  the  charter  of  their  liberty.  It  was  wild,  no 
doubt  superstitious  and  sanguinary.'^  They  are  said  tc 
have  immolated  human  victims.^  They  burned  slaves, 
like  other  valuables,  on  the  graves  of  their  departea 
great  men. 

For  very  many  years  the  remorseless  war  went  on. 
The  Prussians  rose  and  rose  again  in  revolt ;  but  the 
inexhaustible  Order  pursued  its  stern  course.  It  became 
the  perpetual  German  Crusade.  Wherever  there  was 
a  martial  and  restless  noble,  who  found  no  adventure, 
or  no  enemy,  in  his  immediate  neighbourhood ;  wherever 
the  indulgences  and  rewards  of  this  religious  act,  the 
fighting  for  tlie  Cross,  were  wanted,  without  the  toil, 
peril,  and  cost  of  a  journey  to  the  Holy  Land,  of  the  old 
but  now  decried,  now  unpopular  Crusade ;  whoever 
desired  more  promptly  and  easily  to  wash  off  his  sins 
in  the  blood  of  the  unbeliever,  rushed  into  the  Order, 
and  either  enrolled  himself  as  a  Knight,  or  served  for 
a  time  under  the  banner.  There  is  hardly  a  princely 
or  a  noble  house  in  Germany  which  did  not  furnish 
some  of  its  illustrious  names  to  the  roll  of  Teutonic 
Knights. 

80  at  length,   by  their  own  good  swords,  and  what 


su3e  in  perpetuum,  tam  prsedictam 
terram  quam  a  prsescripto  duce  reci- 
piat  ut  piomisit,  et  quamcunque  aliam 
dabit.  Necnoa  terram,  quam  in  par- 
tibus  Prussise,  Deo  favente,  conquiiat, 
velut  vetus  et  debitum  jus  Imperii,  in 
montibus,  planicie,  fluminibus,  nemo- 
ribus  et  in  mari,  ut  earn  liberam  sine 
omni  seiTitio  et  exactione  teneant  et 
immunem.  Et  nulli  respondere  proinde 
ter^eantur." — Grant  of  Fi-ederick   II„ 


Voigt,  Geschichte  Preussens,  iii.  p. 
440. 

*  Compare  Mone,  i.  79. 

7  A  burgher  of  Magdeburg  was 
burned  as  a  saciifice  to  their  gods  by 
the  Kantangian  Prussians.  The  lot 
liad  fallen  on  him.  A  Nantangian 
chief  begged  him  off,  as  having  en- 
joyed his  hospitality.  Twice  again  he 
threw,  still  the  lot  was  against  him. 
He  was  immolated. — Voigt,  iii.  206. 


332  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

they  no  doubt  deemed  a  more  irrefragable  title,  the 
Sovereignty  gi'ants  of  Popes  and  Emperors,  the  Order  be- 
of  the  Order,  q^^^-^q  Sovereigns ;  a  singular  sovereignty,  which 
descended,  not  by  hereditary  succession,  but  by  the  in- 
corporation of  new  Knights  into  the  Order.  The  whole 
land  became  the  absolute  property  of  the  Order,  to  be 
granted  out  but  to  Christians  only:  apostasy  forfeited 
all  title  to  land. 

Their  subjects  were  of  two  classes :  I.  The  old  Prus- 
sians converted  to  Christianity  after  the  conquest. 
Baptism  was  the  only  way  to  become  a  freeman,  a  man. 
The  conquered  unbeliever  who  remained  an  unbeliever, 
was  the  slave,  the  property  of  his  master,  as  much  as 
his  horse  or  hound.  The  three  ranks  which  subsisted 
among  the  Prussians,  as  in  most  of  the  Teutonic  and 
kindred  tribes,  remained  under  Christianity  and  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Order.  The  great  landowners,  the 
owners  of  castles  held  immediately  of  the  Order  :  their 
estates  had  descended  from  heathen  times.  These  were, 
1,  the  Withings ;  2,  the  lower  vassals ;  and  3,  those 
which  answered  to  the  Leudes  and  Lita  of  the  Germans, 
retained  their  rank  and  place  in  the  social  scale.  All 
were  bound  to  obey  the  call  to  war,  to  watch  and  ward ; 
to  aid  in  building  and  fortifying  the  castles  and  strong- 
holds of  the  Order. 

II.  The  German  immigrants  or  colonists.  These 
were  all  equally  under  the  feudal  sovereignty  of  the 
Order.  The  cities  and  towns  were  all  German.  The 
Prussian  seems  to  have  disdained  or  to  have  had  no  in- 
clination to  the  burgher  life.  There  were  also  German 
villages,  each  under  its  Schultheiss,  and  with  its  own 
proper  government. 

Thus  was  Christendom  pushing  forward  its  borders. 
These  new  provinces  were  still  added  to  the  dominion 


Uhap.  V.  THEIR  VASSALAGE.  333 

of  Latin  Christianity.  The  Pope  grants,  the  Teutonic 
Order  hold  their  realm  on  the  conjoint  authority  of 
the  successors  of  Caesar  and  of  St.  Peter.  As  a  reli- 
gious Order,  they  are  the  unreluctant  vassals  of  the 
Pope ;  as  Teutons,  owe  some  undefined  subordination 
to  the  Emperor." 


*  Voigt  is  a  sufficient  and  trustworthy  authority  for  this  rapid   sketcii. 
The  Order  has  its  own  historians,  but  neither  is  their  style  nor  their  snbjVtot 

<>ttr.vctive. 


334  LAT1^'  CHRISTIANITY.  Bwk  XII. 


CHAPTER    VL 


Pope  John  XXII. 


Clement  V.  had  expired  near  Carpentras,  a  cil/  about 
Conclave  at  fifteen  miles  from  Avignon,  near  the  foot  of  Mont 
cai-pentras.  Yentoux.  At  Carpontras  the  Conclave  assem- 
bled, according  to  later  usage,  in  the  city  near  the  place 
where  the  Pope  had  died,  to  elect  a  successor  to  the 
Gascon  Pontiff.  Of  twenty-three  Cardinals  six  only 
were  Italians.  With  them  the  primary  object  was  the 
restoration  of  the  Papacy  to  Rome.  The  most  sober 
might  tremble  lest  the  Papal  authority  should  hardly 
endure  the  continued  if  not  perpetual  avulsion  of  the 
Popedom  from  its  proper  seat.  Would  Christendom 
stand  in  awe  of  a  Pope  only  holding  the  Bishopric  of 
Rome  as  a  remote  appanage  to  the  Pontificate,  only 
nominally  seated  on  the  actual  throne  of  St.  Peter,  in  a 
cathedral  unennobled,  unhallowed  by  any  of  the  ancient 
or  sacred  traditions  of  the  Csesarean,  the  Pontifical  city  ? 
Would  it  endure  a  Pope  setting  a  flagrant  example 
of  non-residence  to  the  whole  ecclesiastical  order;  no 
longer  an  independent  sovereign  in  the  capital  of 
the  Christian  world,  amid  the  patrimony  claimed  as  the 
gift  of  Constantino  and  Charlemagne,  but  lurking  in  an 
obscure  city,  in  a  narrow  territory,  and  that  territory 
not  his  own  ?  Avignon  was  in  Provence,  which  Charles 
of  Anjou  had  obtained  in  right  of  his  wife.  The  land 
had  descended  to  his  son  Charles  II.  of  Naples ;  on  the 
death  of  Charles,   to  the  ruling  sovereign,   Robert  oi 


Chap.  VI. 


CONCLAVE. 


335 


Naples.*  The  Neapolitan  Angevine  house  had  still 
maintained  the  community  of  interests  with  the  parent 
monarchy ;  and  this  territory  of  Provence,  Avignon 
itself,  was  environed  nearly  on  all  sides  by  the  realm 
of  France,  that  realm  whose  king,  not  yet  dead,  had 
persecuted  a  Pope  to  death,  persecuted  him  after  death. 
The  Italian,  but  more  especially  the  Roman,  Car- 
dinals contemplated  with  passionate  distress  The  Italian 
Rome  deserted  by  her  spu'itual  sovereign,  and  ^^^^"^^'^• 
deprived  of  the  pomp,  wealth,  business  of  the  Papal 
Court.  The  head  and  representative  of  this  party  was 
the  Cardinal  Napoleon,  of  the  great  Roman  house  of 
the  Orsini.  A  letter  addressed  by  him  to  the  King  of 
France  shows  this  Italian  feeling,  the  hatred  and  con- 
tempt towards  the  memory  of  Clement  Y.  He  bitterly 
deplores,  and  expresses  his  deep  contrition  at  his  own 
weakness,  and  that  of  the  other  Cardinals  at  Perugia, 
in  yielding  to  the  election  of  Clement.  The  Church 
under  liis  rule  had  gone  headlong  to  ruin.  Rome  was 
a  desert ;  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  even  that  of  Christ 
himself,  broken  up ;  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter  held 
rather  than  governed,  by  robbers ;  Italy  neglected  and 
abandoned  to  strife  and  insurrection ;  not  only  cathedral 
churches,  the  meanest  prebends,  had  run  to  waste. ^ 
Of  twenty-fom-  Cardinals  created  by  Pope  Clement  not 
one  was  sufficient  for  the  high  office.^  The  Italian 
Cardinals  had  been  treated  by  him  with  contemptuous 


^  See,  further  on,  the  purchase  of 
Avignon  from  Queen  Joanna  of  Naples 
by  Clement  VI. 

''  "  Quasi  nulla  remansit  Cathedralis 
Ecclesia,  vel  alicujus  ponderis  praben- 
dula,  quae  non  sit  potius  perditioni 
quam  provisioni  exposita." — Baluz. 
Collect.  Act.  No.  XIIII.  p.  289. 


*  Such  seems  the  sense  of  the  (cor- 
rupt ?)  passage. — "  De  XXIV.  Car- 
dinalibus  quos  in  Ecclesia  posuit  nullus 
in  Ecclesia  est  repertus,  quae  cum  ali- 
quando  credita  fuit,  sufficiens  (tes?y 
habere  personas,  sed  per  eum  fuit  hoc." 
The  twenty-four,  I  presume,  include 
all  Clement's  promotions,  some  dearf. 


336 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


The  Gascons. 


disrespect,  never  summoned  but  to  hear  some  hurni* 
liating  or  heart-breaking  communication.  The  Pope 
had  more  than  meditated,  he  had  determined,  the  utter 
ruin  of  the  Church,  the  removal  of  the  Papacy  to  some 
obscure  corner  of  Gascony  :  "  When  I,"  said  the  Orsini, 
"  and  the  Italian  Cardinals  voted  for  the  elevation  of  Pope 
Clement,  it  was  not  to  remove  the  Holy  See  from  Eome, 
and  to  leave  desolate  the  sanctuary  of  the  Apostles." 
The  Italians,  conscious  of  their  weakness,  were  dis- 
posed to  an  honourable  compromise.  They 
put  forward  William  Cardinal  of  Palestrina,  a 
Frenchman  by  birth,  and  of  high  character.  But  in 
the  French  faction  there  was  still  an  inner  faction,  that 
of  the  Gascons.  Clement  had  crowded  his  own  kindred 
and  countrymen  into  the  Conclave.*^  Against  them  the 
French  acted  with  the  Italians.  The  contest  within  the 
Conclave  was  fierce,  and  seemed  interminable.  Provi- 
sions began  to  fail  in  Carpentras.  The  strife  spread 
from  the  Cardinals  within  to  their  partisans  without 
The  Gascons  rose,  attacked  the  houses  of  the  Italian 
Cardinals,  and  plundered  the  traders  and  merchants 
from  the  South.  A  fierce  troop  of  knights  and  a  host 
of  rabble  approached  and  thundered  at  the  gates  of  the 
Conclave  "  Death  to  the  Italian  Cardinals ! "  A  fire  broke 
Conclave  out  during  the  attack  and  pillage  of  the  houses, 
flies.  which  threatened  the  hall  of  Conclave.  The 
Cardinals  burst  through  the  back  wall,  crept  ignobly 
through  the  hole,  fled  and  dispersed  on  all  sides.^ 


*  "  Guasconi  ch'  ei'ano  gran  parte 
del  collegio  voleano  la  elezione  in  loro,  e 
li  Cardinal!  Italiani  e  Franceschi  e  Pro- 
reuzali  non  acconsentivano ;  si  erano 
?tati  gastigati  del  Papa  Guascone." — 
Vil/ani,  ix.  79. 

*  Beinarl   Guido   apud    Baluzium. 


Epist.  Encyc.  Cardinal.  Italorum  de 
iucendio  urbis  Carpenteratensis  apud 
Baluz.  No.  XLII,  Raynald.  sub  ann. 
1314.  TheContinuatorof  Nangis  attri- 
butes the  fire  to  a  nephew  of  Clement  V. 
See  also  the  Constitution  of  John  XXll 
against  the  robbers  and  incendiaries. 


Chap.  VI.  JOHN  XXII.  337 

For  two  years  and  above  three  months  the  Papal  See 
was  vacant/  Impatient  Christendom  began  to  mnrmnr. 
The  King  of  France,  Louis  le  Hntin,  was  called  upon 
to  interpose  both  by  the  general  voice  and  by  his  own 
interests.  The  office  devolved  on  his  brother  Pliilip, 
Count  of  Ponthieu.  By  him  the  reluctant  Cardinals 
were  brought  partly  by  force,  partly  inveigled,  to 
Lyons.  The  pious  fraud  of  Philip  was  highly  conclave  at 
admired.  He  solemnly  promised  that  they  ^^*'^*- 
should  not  be  imprisoned  in  the  Conclave,  but  have  free 
leave  to  depart  wherever  they  would.  Philip  was  sud- 
denly summoned  to  Paris  by  the  death  of  the  King  of 
France,  but  he  left  the  Conclave  under  strict  and  severe 
guard. 

At  length  they  came  to  a  determination.  James, 
Cardinal  of  Porto,  was  proclaimed  Pope,  and 
assumed  the  name  of  John  XXII.  John  was  of  ° 
small,  as  some  describe  him,  of  deformed  stature.  He  was 
born  in  Cahors,  of  the  humblest  parentage,  his  father  a 
cobbler.  This,  if  true,  was  anything  but  dishonourable 
to  the  Pope,  still  less  to  the  Chm-ch.  Dm-ing  an  age 
when  all  without  was  stern  and  inflexible  aristocracy, 
all  functions  and  dignities  held  by  feudal  inheritance, 
in  the  Church  alone  a  man  of  extraordinary  talents 
could  rise  to  eminence ;  and  this  was  the  second  cobbler's 
son  who  had  sat  on  the  throne  of  St.  Peter.^  The 
cobbler's  son  asserted  and  was  believed  by  most  to  have 
a  right  to  decide  conflicting  claims  to  the  Imperial 
Crown,  and  aspired  to  make  an  Emperor  of  his  own.^ 


'  2  yeai-s,  3  months,  17  days. — Ber- 
nard Guido. 

9  See  Life  of  Urban  IV.,  vol.  iv.  p. 
413. 

^  Baluzius  produces  a  passage  from 

VOL.  VII. 


Albertinus  to  make  out  John  XXU 
of  knightly  or  noble  birth.  The  con- 
troversy may  be  seen  in  Baluzius  ani 
in  a  note  to  Raynaldus  sub  ann. 


838  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

James  of  Calioirs  had  followed  in  liis  youth  the  fortunes 
of  an  uncle,  who  had  a  small  trading  capital,  to  Naples. 
He  settled  in  that  brilliant  and  pleasant  city.  He  waa 
encouraged  in  the  earnest  desire  of  study  by  a  Fran- 
ciscan friar,  but  refused  to  enter  the  Order.  The  poor 
scholar  was  recommended  to  the  instructor  of  the  King's 
children.  Though  in  a  menial  office,  he  manifested 
such  surprising  aptitude  both  for  civil  and  canon  law, 
that  he  was  permitted  to  attend  the  lectures  of  the 
teachers.  The  royal  favour  shone  upon  him.  He  was 
employed  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  in  Kome,  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  world ;  took  orders,  received  prefer- 
ment, was  appointed  by  Boniface  Y III.  Bishop  of  Frejus, 
in  the  Provencal  dominions  of  the  King  of  Naples.  But 
he  preferred  to  dwell  on  the  sunny  shores  of  Naples ; 
perhaps  under  the  immediate  sight  of  the  King.  While 
he  was  on  a  mission  to  Clement  Y.  the  great  see  of 
Avignon  fell  vacant.  To  the  astonishment  of  the  King 
of  Naples  it  was  conferi-ed  on  the  obscure  Bishop  of 
Frejus.  The  Pope  explained  that  the  promotion  was 
made  on  account  of  strong  recommendatory  letters  from 
the  King  himself.  The  letters  had  been  written,  and 
the  royal  seal  affixed,  without  the  King's  knowledge. 
But  the  consummate  science  of  the  Bishop  of  Avignon 
in  both  branches  of  the  law  won  the  confidence  and 
favour  of  the  Pope.  He  was  created  Cardinal  for  his 
invaluable  services,  especially  at  the  Council  of  Yienne 
in  the  two  great  causes — the  condemnation  of  the  Tem- 
plars, and  the  prosecution  of  the  memory  of  Boniface. 
All  Europe  watched  the  Conclave  of  Lyons.  Kobert  of 
Naples  thought  of  his  former  subject,  the  companion 
of  his  studies.  A  Pope  attached  to  Naples  would  aid  him 
in  the  reconquest  of  Sicily,  and  in  his  strife  as  head  oi 
the   Guelfs   in   Italy   against  Pisa  and  the  Lombard 


Chap.  VI. 


PROMOTION  OF  CAEDINALS. 


33J 


tyrants.  The  influence,  the  gold  of  Naples  overcame 
the  scruples  of  the  stubborn  Italians ;  Napoleon  Orsini 
yielded ;  the  cobbler's  son  of  Cahors  was  supreme 
Pontiff.^  It  is  said  that  he  made  a  promise  never  to 
mount  horse  or  mule  till  he  should  set  out  on  his  return 
to  Italy.''  He  kept  his  vow ;  after  his  corona- 
tion at  Lyons,  he  dropped  down  the  Rhone 
in  a  boat  to  Avignon,  and  there  fixed  the  seat  of  his 
Pontificate. 

This  establishment  in  Avignon  declared  that  John 
XXII.  was  to  be  a  French  not  an  Italian  jobnat 
Pontiff,  the  successor  of  Clement  V.,  not  of  ^"*°"°°- 
the  long  line  of  his  Eoman  ancestors.  His  first  pro- 
motion of  Cardinals,  followed  by  two  others,  Promotion  of 
at  different  periods  of  his  Pontificate,  spoke  c^'"'^^'^'^^^- 
plainly  to  Christendom  the  same  resolute  purp(;se.  His 
choice  might  seem  even  more  narrow  than  that  of  his 
predecessor,  not  merely  confined  to  French,  or  even  to 
Gascon  prelates,  but  to  men  connected  by  birth  or  office 
with  his  native  town  of  Cahors.  The  College  would  be 
almost  a  Cahorsin  Conclave.  Of  the  first  eight,  one  was 
his  own  nephew,  three  from  the  diocese  of  Cahors,  one 
French  bishop  the  Chancellor  of  the  King  of  France, 
one  Gascon,  only  one  Roman  an  Orsini.  Of  the  next 
seven,  one  was  from  the  city,  three  from  the  diocese  of 
Cahors  (of  these  one  was  Archbishop  of  Salerno,  one 
Archbishop  of  Aix) ;  the  three  others  were  French  or 
Proven9als.     At  a  third  promotion  of  ten  Cardinals,  six 


'  This  circumstantial  account  of  the 
life  of  John  XXII.  in  Ferretus  Vicen- 
tinus  (Muratori,  R.  I.  S.  ix.  1166) 
bears  strong  marks  of  veracity.  By 
another  account,  the  Election  was  by 
compromise.  The  Cardinals  agreed  to 
elect  the  Pope  named  by  the  Cardinal 


of  Porto :  he  named  himself. — See  note 
of  Mansi  on  Raynaldus.  Villani  in 
loc.  cit.  Compare  also  the  close  of 
encyclic  letter  addressed  to  Robert  of 
Naples. 

^  Ptolem.  Luc.  apud  Baluz.  p.  198 
note,  p.  793. 

5  2 


340  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

were  French  prelates ;  three  Eomans,  one  Archbishop 
of  Naples,  one  an  Orsini,  one  a  Colonna ;  one  Spaniard, 
Bishop  of  Cartliagena.™  The  Bishop  alone  of  his  native 
city  of  Cahors,  as  will  soon  appear,  met  with  a  different 
fate  from  the  terrible  justice  or  vengeance  of  the  Pope. 

The  relation  of  John  XXII.  to  the  throne  of  France 
Fall  of  the  was  ffreatlv  chansred  from  that  of  his  prede- 
of  France,  ccssor.  There  was  no  Philip  the  Fair  to 
extort  from  the  reluctant  Pope,  as  the  price  of  his  ad- 
vancement, the  lavish  gratification  of  his  pride,  avarice, 
or  revenge:  no  powerful  King,  backed  by  a  fierce 
nobility,  and  a  people  proud  of  their  dawning  freedom. 
A  rapid  succession  of  feeble  sovereigns  held  in  turn  the 
sceptre  of  France,  and  then  sank  into  obscurity.  The 
house  of  Philip  was  paying  condign  retribution  in  its 
speedy  and  mysterious  extinction.  Divine  Providence 
might  have  looked  with  indifference  (so  Christendom 
was  taught,  and  Christendom  was  prone  enough,  to 
think)  on  all  his  extortions,  cruelties,  and  iniquities 
to  his  subjects,  on  even  his  barbarities;  but  nothing 
less  than  the  shame  of  his  sons,  each  the  husband  of  an 
adulteress,  and  the  utter  failure  of  his  line,  could  atone 
for  his  impious  hostility  to  the  fame,  person,  and 
memory  of  Boniface.  Louis  le  Hutin  (the  disorderly) 
had  died  during  the  Conclave  at  Lyons,  after  a  reign 
of  less  than  two  years."  He  had  caused  his  first 
wife,  accused  of  violating  his  bed,  to  be  strangled  or 
smothered;  and  had  married  Clementine  of  Hungary, 
niece  of  the  King  of  Naples.  He  died  leaving  her 
pregnant.     The  death  of  her  son  soon  after  his  birth,° 


"»  The  promotica';,  Dec.  17,  1316,  I      »  From  Nov.  24,  1314,  to  June  5, 
Dec.     20,     1320,     Dec.     16,     1328.  I  1316. 
—  Bernard    Guido,    pp.    134,     138,  I      »  Born  Nov.   15,  1316,   died   five 

liO.  I  days  after. 


Chap.  VI.  THE  POPE'S  BRIEF.  341 

left  the  tlirone  to  the  second  son  of  Philip  the  Fair. 
Philip  the  Long.  The  accession  of  Philip  (though  his 
brother  left  a  daughter)  asserted  the  authority  and  esta- 
blished for  ever  the  precedent  of  what  was  called  the 
Salic  Law,  which  excluded  females  from  the  succession 
to  the  throne  of  France.^ 

The  Pope  in  all  the  briefs  addi-essed  wath  great  fre- 
quency to  the  King,  divulged  his  knowledge  The  Pope's 
of  the  weakness  of  the  crown.  His  language  ^"^^• 
is  that  of  protecting  and  condescending  interest,  but 
of  a  superior  in  age  and  learning,  as  in  dignity.  He 
first  rebukes  the  King's  habit  of  talking  in  church  on 
subjects  of  business  or  amusement.  He  reproves  the 
national  disrespect  for  Sunday  ;  on  that  day  the  courts 
of  law  were  open,  and  it  was  irreverently  chosen  as 
a  special  day  for  shaving  the  head  and  trimming  the 
beard.  He  assumed  full  authority  on  all  subjects  which 
might  be  brought  under  ecclesiastical  discipline.  01 
his  sole  authority  he  separated  eight  new  suffragau 
bishoprics,  Montauban,  Lombes,  St.  Papoul,  Kieux, 
Lavaur,  Mu-epoix,  Saint  Pons,  and  Alais,  from  the  great 
Archbishopric  of  Toulouse.  He  did  the  same  with  the 
Archbishopric  of  Narbonne.  His  power  and  his  reputa- 
tion for  learning  caused  his  mandates  for  the  reformation 
of  the  Universities  of  Paris,  Orleans,  and  Toulouse  to  be 
received  with  respectful  submission.  His  chief  censm-e 
is  directed  against  the  scholastic  theology,  which  had  in 
some  of  its  distinguished  and  subtile  writers  begun  to 
show  dangerous  signs  of  insubordination  to  the  Church 
of  Rome.  William  of  Ockham  was  deeply  concerned  in 
the  rebellious  movement  of  part,  it  might  at  one  time 
seem  of  the  whole,  of  the  Franciscan  body  :  he  had  pub 


9  Sismouai,  Hist,  des  Frau^ais,  ix.  p.  352. 


342  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  I^ook  XII, 

lished  the  powerful  treatise  in  defence  of  the  Imperial 
against  the  Papal  power. 

But  the  profound  learning  of  John  XXII.,  though 
reputed  to  embrace  not  only  theology,  but  both  branches 
of  the  law,  the  canon  and  civil,  was  but  the  melancholy 
ignorance  of  his  age.  He  gave  the  sanction  of  the  Papal 
authority  and  of  his  own  name  to  the  belief,  to  the 
vulgar  belief,  in  sorcery  and  magic.  He  sadly  showed 
the  sincerity  of  his  own  credulity,  as  well  as  his  relent- 
less disposition,  by  the  terrible  penalties  exacted  upon 
wild  accusations  of  such  crimes.  The  old  poetic  magic 
of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  the  making  an  image  of 
wax  which  melted  away  before  a  slow  fire,  and  with  it 
the  strength  and  life  of  the  sorcerer's  victim,  was  now 
most  in  vogue.  Louis  le  Hutin  was  supposed  to  have 
perished  through  this  damnable  art :  half-melted  images 
of  the  King  and  of  Charles  of  Yalois  had  been  disco- 
Triais  for  vcrcd  or  produccd ;  a  magician  and  a  witch 
magic.  were  executed  for  the  crime.*!  Even  the 
Pope's  life  was  not  secure  either  in  its  own  sanctity,  or 
by  the  virtue  of  a  serpentine  ring  lent  to  John  by  Mar- 
garet Countess  of  Foix.  The  Pope  had  pledged  all  his 
goods,  moveable  and  immoveable,  for  the  safe  restora- 
tion of  this  invaluable  talisman ;  he  had  pronounced  an 
anathema  against  all  who  should  withhold  it  from  its 
rightful  owner.  A  dark  conspiracy  was  formed,  or  sup- 
posed to  be  formed,  in  which  many  of  the  Cardinals 
were  involved,  against  the  life  of  the  Pope.'  Whether 
they  w^ere  jealous  of  his  elevation,  or  resented  his  esta- 
blishment of  the  See  at  Avignon,  appears  not ;  but  the 
Cardinals  made  their  peace.  The  full  vengeance  of  the 
Pope  fell  on  a  victim  of  the  next  rank,  not  only  guilty, 


1  Sismondi,  ix.  358.  '  Raynaldus  sub  aim.  1317, 


Chap.  VI.  TRIALS  FOR  MAGIC.  343 

it  was  averred,  of  meditating  this  impious  deed,  but  of 
compassing  it  by  diabolic  arts.  Gerold,  Bishop  of  the 
Pope's  native  city,  Cahors,  had  been  highly  honoured 
and  trusted  by  Clement  V.  On  this  charge  of  capital 
treason,  he  was  now  degraded,  stripped  of  his  episcopal 
attire,  and  condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonment.  But 
the  wrath  of  the  Pope  was  not  satiated.  He  was  actu- 
ally flayed  alive  and  torn  asunder  by  four  horses.^  There 
is  a  judicial  proceeding  against  another  Bishop  (of  Aix) 
for  professing  and  practising  magical  arts  at  Bologna. 
A  fierce  and  merciless  Inquisition  was  set  up ;  tortures, 
executions  multiplied ;  many  suffered  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  the  fatal  waxen  images,  a  23hysician  and  several 
clerks.  The  Pope  issued  an  edict  of  terrible  condemna- 
tion, thereby  asserting  the  reality  of  countless  forms  oi 
sorcery,  diabolic  arts,  dealing  with  evil  spirits,  shutting 
familiar  devils  in  looking-glasses,  circlets,  and  rings.* 
How  much  human  blood  has  been  shed  by  human  folly ! 
But  if  the  unrelenting  Pope  thus  commanded  the 
sacrifice  of  so  many  pretenders,  if  indeed  they  ^he  Fran- 
were  really  pretenders,  to  secret  dealing  with  '^'^^^'^s. 
supernatural  agencies,  it  was  no  imaginary  danger  to 
the  Papal  power  which  tlu^eatened  it  from  another 
quarter.  During  the  papacy  of  John  XXII.,  that 
fanatic  movement  towards  religious  freedom  which  arose 
in  the  Mendicant  Orders  broke  out,  not  only  into  secret 
murmurs  against  the  wealth  and  tyranny  of  the  Church, 
but  proclaimed  doctrines  absolutely  subversive  of  the 
whole  sacerdotal  system,  and  entered  into  perilous  alli- 
ance with  every  attempt  to  restore  the  Ohibelline  and 
Imperial  interest  in  Italy.    The  Church  itself — the  most 


•  Bernard  Guido,  488,  680.     Kaynaldus,   1317,  liv.     Gallia  Christiana,  i 
p.  loS.  t  Raynaldus,  ibid. 


344 


LATIN  CHEISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


Schism. 


zealous,  obedient,  Papal  part  of  the  Church — gave  birth 
to  these  new  sectaries,  who  professed  never  to  have  left  it, 
and  to  be  themselves  the  Church  within  the  Church. 
The  great  schism  of  the  Franciscan  Order  has  already 
been  traced  in  its  commencement ;  and  in  the 
rise  and  consequences  of  that  inevitable  ques- 
tion, the  possession  of  property.  We  have  seen  the 
worldly  successor  of  the  unworldly  St.  Francis,  Elias, 
ruling,  and  repelled  from  the  Order;  the  succession 
of  alternately  mild  and  severe  generals  till  the  time  of 
John  of  Parma.  We  have  seen  the  vacillating  policy 
of  the  Popes,  unwilling  to  estrange,  unable  to  reconcile 
the  irreconcileable  tenets  of  these  antagonists,  who  had 
sworn  to  the  same  rule,  honoured  the  same  Founder, 
called  themselves  by  the  same  name,  professed  to 
live  the  same  life.  The  mitigation  of  the  rule  by 
Gregory  IX.,  and  what  seemed  the  happy  evasion  of 
Innocent  IV.,  were  equally  repudiated  by  the  more 
severe.  Innocent  would  relieve  them  from  the  treason 
to  tlie  principles  of  their  Master,  and  at  the  same  time 
attach  them  more  closely  to  the  Papal  See,  by  declaring 
all  their  property,  houses,  domains,  church  furniture,  to 
be  vested  in  the  Pope.  The  usufruct  only  was  granted 
by  him  to  the  brethren.  The  Spirituals  disclaimed 
the  worldly  equivocation.  The  famous  constitution  of 
Nicolas  III.  reawakened,  encouraged,  seemed  at  least 
to  invest  with  the  Papal  sanction,  their  austerest  zeal. 
However  indulgent  some  of  its  provisions,  its  assertion 
of  their  tenets  was  almost  beyond  their  hopes.  The 
total  abdication  of  property  was  true  meritorious  holi- 
ness.'^    Christ,  as  an  example  of  perfection,  was  abso- 


*  "  Abdicatio  proprietatis  hujus- 
modi  omniu',n  rerum  non  tam  in 
^peciali     qu'im      etiam    in    communi 


propter  Deum  meritoria  est,  et  sancta, 
quam  et  Christus  viam  perfectioniii 
ostendens.    verbo   docuit,    et   exemplr 


Chap.  VI. 


SPIRITUAL  FRANCISCANS. 


345 


lutely,  entirely  a  Franciscan  Mendicant.  The  use  of 
a  scrip  or  purse  was  only  a  tender  condescension  to 
human  infirmity.'' 

So  grew  this  silent  but  widening  schism.  The  Spi- 
ritualists did  not  secede  from  the  community,  TheFrati- 
but  from  intercourse  with  their  weak  brethren,  spiritualists. 
The  more  rich,  luxurious,  learned,  became  the  higher 
Franciscans ;  the  more  rigid,  sullen,  and  disdainful  be- 
came the  lowest.  While  the  church  in  Assisi  was  risinir 
over  the  ashes  of  St.  Francis  in  unprecedented  splen- 
dour, adorned  with  all  the  gorgeousness  of  young  art, 
the  Spnitualists  denounced  all  this  magnificence  as  of 
this  world ;  the  more  imposing  the  services,  the  more 
sternly  they  retreated  among  the  peaks  and  forests  of 
the  Apennines,  to  enjoy  undisturbed  the  pride  and 
luxury  of  beggary.  The  lofty  and  spacious  convents  w^ere 
their  abomination;''  they  housed  themselves  in  huts  and 
caves ;  there  was  not  a  single  change  in  dress,  in  provi- 
sion for  food,  in  worship,  in  study,  which  they  did  not  de- 
nounce as  a  sin — as  an  act  of  Apostasy.^    Wherever  the 


fii-mavit.  Kec  his  quisquam  potest  ob- 
sistere." — Nicolas  III,  Bulla  Excit.  &c. 

*  "Egit  namque  Christus  et  docuit 
opera  perfectionis ;  egit  etiam  infirma 
sicut  interdum  in  fuga,  patet  et  locu- 
lis." — Ibid.  The  adversaries  of  the 
Spiritualists  objected  that  our  Lord 
and  his  apostles  had  a  purse.  "  Yes," 
they  rejoined,  "  but  it  was  entrusted 
to  Judas:  if  it  had  been  for  our  ex- 
ample, it  would  have  been  given  to 
St.  Peter." 

y  The  Devils  held  a  chapter  (it  was 
i-evealed  to  a  Bi-oth«r)  against  the 
Oidor.  Their  object  was  to  nullify 
the  three  vows.  "  La  Pauviet^,  pq 
enduisant  a  fair*'  des  somptueox  mo- 


nast^res  et  magnifiques  convents ;  la 
Chastity,  alle'chant  les  religieux  k 
la  familiarite  et  frequentation  des 
femmes  ;  TObedience,  en  pourchassant 
I'appuy  et  la  faveur  des  princes  secu- 
liers,  et  par  dissentions  domestiques." 
— Chroniques,  ii.  xxxv. 

*  The  tenets  of  the  Spirituals  are 
summed  up  in  a  citation  from  an 
ancient  Carta  d'Appella  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  author  of  a  "  Vit?  di  S. 
Francesco;  Foligno,  1824."  Hp  calls 
it  a  Philippic  or  Verri-ne  Oration. 
"  Peccato  la  tonaca  perche  ampliata  e 
non  vile  nel  prezzo  e  nel  colore.  Pec- 
cato r  interior  vesta,  perche  non 
accordata  se  non  nel  caso  di  necessita 


346 


LATIN  CHRISTLVNITY. 


Book  XII 


Franciscans  were,  and  tliey  were  everywhere,  the  Spiri- 
tuahsts  were  keeping  up  the  strife,  protesting,  and  putting 
to  shame  these  recreant  sons  of  the  common  father. 

But  tlie  Spiritualists  might  have  kept  up  this  civil 
war  within  the  Order ;  they  might  have  denounced  as 
sin  the  tunic,  if  too  ample,  or  not  coarse  or  dull  enough 
in  colour ;  the  provision  of  corn  in  granaries ;  the  pos- 
session of  money  for  the  purpose  of  exchange ;  the 
receiving  of  money  for  masses  or  funerals  ;  the  accepting 
bequests,  though  not  in  money ;  the  building  splendid 
convents,  wearing  the  costly  priestly  dresses,  and  having 
gold  and  silver  vessels  for  the  altar ;  the  partial  bestowal 
of  absolution  on  benefactors  and  partisans,  from  interest, 
not  from  mei'it ;  they  might  have  stood  aloof  in  perpetual 
bitter  remonstrance  against  the  pride,  wealth,  luxury, 
and  the  ambition  to  rule  in  courts,  prevalent  among  their 
more  fauious  brethren :  all  this  was  without  peril  to  the 
Church  or  to  the  Pope.  It  was  their  revolutionary  doc- 
trine, superadded  to  and  superseding  that  of  the  Church, 
which  made  them  objects  of  terror  and  persecution. 

Like  all  religious  enthusiasts,  the  Spiritual  Fran- 
ciscans were  lovers  of  prophecy.  In  their  desert  her- 
mitages, in  their  barefoot  wanderings  over  the  face  of 


Peccato  la  cei-ca  del  grano,  del  vino  e 
d'altri  generi,  ad  il  fame  la  provisioue 
nelle  cantine,  e  nelle  granai  infino  a 
tutto  r  anno.  Peccato  piii  d'averne 
in  avanzo,  6  venderlo  a  Gimbiate  per 
comprar  robe  per  le  tonace ;  cosi  qua- 
Junque  altra  vendita  di  cera,  di  pen- 
noni,  di  mortori,  &c.,  sebbene  rema- 
nesse  il  denaro  presso  el  Sindaco.  Pec- 
cato 11  ricever  per  mezza  di  questo  il 
danaro  per  le  Messe  ^  Funerali,  o 
spontaneamente  offerta  in  limosine,  o 
questuanto   da    devoti    per   far   festa 


nelle  chiese  dell'  ordine :  e  peccato 
il  servirsene  lo  stesso  de'  legati,  spe- 
cialmente  fissi  col  fondo,  qualunque 
fosse  il  titolo  ed  ancorche  fossino  paga- 
bili  in  roba,  e  non  in  moneta.  Peccato 
le  fabriche  de'  Conventi,  perche  grandi 
e  spaziosi,  e  paramenti  sacri,  perchfe 
de  seta  con  oro  e  argento,  e  per  lo  stesso 
motivo  le  altri  utensili  della  chiesa.  K 
peccato  finalraente  la  assoluzione  che  sj 
danno  nel  Sacramento  della  Penitenzia, 
a  i  Benefattori  e  amorevoli,  perche  dati 
per  interesse  e  contra  il  merito," 


2uAP.  VI. 


THE  ABBOT  JOACHIM. 


347 


the  earth,  amid  the  ravines  of  the  Apennines,  or  the 
volcanic  cliffs  of  Apulia,  in  their  exile  in  foreign  climes, 
in  their  pilgrimages,  and  no  less  in  their  triumphant 
elation  Avhen  Popes  seemed  to  acknowledge  the  severest 
rule  of  St.  Francis  to  be  Christian  perfection,  they 
brooded  over  strange  revelations  of  the  future,  which 
were  current  under  various  names,  either  interpreta- 
tions of  the  Apocalypse,  or  prophecies  of  a  bolder  tone. 
The  Abbot  Joachim,  of  Flora  in  the  kingdom  j^e  Abbot 
of  Naples,  lives  as  a  Saint  in  the  Calendar  Jo^^^'°^ 
of  Eome ;  but  the  Everlasting  Gospel  ascribed  to 
the  Abbot  Joachim  was  to  Christianity,  especially  the 
Christianity  of  the  Latin  Church,  what  Christianity  had 
been  to  Judaism,  at  once  its  completion  and  abolition. 
The  Abbot  Joachim,  indeed,  was  not  only  reverenced 
as  a  Saint,  the  whole  Church  invested  him  in  the  mantle 
of  a  prophet ;  the  Churchmen  themselves  accepted  as 
of  divine  revelation  all  his  wild  ravings  or  terrible 
denunciations  which  could  be  directed  against  her 
enemies.  Frederick  II.  had  been  doomed  to  ruin  in 
the  vaticinations  of  the  Abbot  of  Flora ;  but  the  Church 
discovered  not,  or  refused  to  discover,  what  elsewhere, 
among  the  more  daring  enthusiasts,  passed  for  the  true, 
if  concealed,  doctrines  of  Joachim ;  the  Everlasting 
Gospel.  This  either  lurked  undetected  in  his  acknow- 
ledged writings,  in  the  Concordance  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  and  his  Comment  on  Jeremiah ;  or  at  least 
for  half  a  century  it  awoke  neither  the  blind  zeal  of  its 
believers,  nor  the  indignant  horror  of  the  higher  ranks 
of  the  Church.  So  long  the  Abbot  Joachim  was  an 
orthodox,  or  unsuspected  prophet.^    But  the  holy  horror 


•  The  Abbot  Joachim  was  born  A.D. 
1145,  died  A.D.  1202.  Pope  Honorius 
III.  avouched  hi.s  oithodoxy.    The  Acta 


Sanctorum  (vol.  vii.)  and  the  Annala 
of  the  Cistercian  Order  contain  th< 
Life   of  Joachim,  his   austerities,  his 


348 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


broke  out  at  once  on  the  publication,  at  the  close  of 
Introduction  this  pcriod,  of  the  Introduction  to  the  Ever 
ing  Gospel,  lasting  Gospel.  The  Introduction  placed  what 
was  called  the  "  doctrine  of  Joachim  "  in  a  distinct  and 
glaring  light,  perhaps  first  wrought  it  into  a  system.' 
The  Church  stood  aghast.  The  monks  of  the  older 
Orders,  the  Dominicans,  the  more  lax  and  the  more 
learned  Franciscans,  the  Clergy,  the  Universities,  the 
Pope  himself,  joined  in  the  alarm.  We  have  heard,  in 
Paris,  the  popular  cry,  the  popular  satire  ;  we  have 
heard  the  powerful  voice  of  William  of  St.  Amour 
seizing  this  all-dreaded  writing,  to  crush  both  Orders  of 
Mendicants,  and  expel  them  from  the  University.*^  It 
was  denounced  at  Rome :  the  Pope  Alexander  IV. 
commanded  the  instant  and  total  destruction  of  the 
book.  Excommunication  was  pronounced  against  all 
who  should  possess  the  book,  unless  it  was  brouglit  in 
and  burned  within  a  stated  time.  No  one  would  own 
the  perilous  authorship.  It  was  ascribed  by  tlie  more 
orthodox  Franciscans  to  a  Dominican,  by  the  Domini- 
cans more  justly  to  a  Franciscan.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  it  came  either  from  John  of  Parma,  or  his  school. 

The  proscription  of  the  book  but  endeared  it  to  its 
followers.     The  visions  were  only  the  more  authentic, 


p-eaching,  his  wonders.  The  hetevo- 
dDxy  on  the  Trinity  imputed  to  him 
by  the  fourth  Lateran  Council  was 
probably  founded  on  misapprehension, 
at  all  events  was  fully  recanted.  The 
best  and  most  full  modern  account  of 
this  remarkable  man  is  in  Hahn,  Ge- 
schichte  der  Ketzer  im  Mittelalter,  t. 
iii.  p.  72  et  seqq.  Stuttgard,  1850. 
See  on  his  writings  authentic  and  un- 
authentic, p.  82. 


•>  According  to  Hahn,  there  was  a 
gradual  approximation  to  the  Book, 
through  unauthentic  writings  attri- 
buted to  Abbot  Joachim,  in  which  he 
is  made  more  and  more  furiously  to 
denounce  the  abuses  in  the  Church. 
This  is  the  new  Babylon. — p.  101. 

c  Compare  back,  vol.  vi.  353,  and 
extracts  from  Ront'an  de  la  Rose  and 
Kutebceuf. 


CllAP.  YI. 


THE  EVERLASTING  GOSPEL. 


349 


the  greater  the  terror  they  excited.  With  the  Spiri- 
ualists  the  heresy  of  John  of  Parma^  and  his  xheEveriast. 
concern  with  the  prophecies,  was  among  his  i^s^o^pei. 
chief  titles  to  sanctity ;  on  the  other  hand,  skilfully 
detached  from  these  opinions,  he  became,  like  Joachim 
himself,  a  canonised  saint.'^  The  doctrine  of  the  Intro- 
duction blended  with  and  stimulated  all  the  democracy 
of  rehgion,  which  would  bring  down  the  pomp,  pride, 
wealth  of  the  hierarchy,  and  bow  it  before  the  not  less 
proud  poverty  of  the  Franciscans.  The  enemies  of  the 
Order  proclaimed  it  as  the  uniyersal  doctrine  of  the 
Friar  Minors:  they  would  hear  no  disclaimer.  The 
Spirituals,  the  Fraticelli,  chiefly  the  Tertiaries  of  the 
Order,  disdained  to  disclaim,  they  rather  openly  avowed 
their  belief,  and  scoffed  at  their  more  prudent  or  less 
faithful  brethren.  But  the  Everlasting  Gospel,  as  an- 
nounced in  the  Introduction,  was  the  absolute  abro- 
gation of  the  Christian  faith.  There  were  to  be  three 
estates  of  man,  three  revelations  of  God.  Judaism  was 
that  of  the  Father;  Christianity  that  of  the  Son ;  that 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  to  come,  was  coming,  was  har- 
bingered  by  irrefragable  signs.  At  the  commencement, 
and  in  the  middle  of  the  thu'teenth  century,  its  dawn 
was  more  and  more  anxiously  awaited.  All  ecclesi- 
astical, all  political  events  were  watched  and  inter- 
preted as  its  preparation.  Passages  were  probably 
interpolated  in  Joachim's  real  writings,  announcing  the 
two  great  new  Orders,  more  especially  St.  Francis  and 
his  followers,  as  the  Baptists  of  this  new  Gospel.®  The 
new  Gospel  was  to  throw  into  the  shade  the  four  anti- 


<>  Acta  Sanctorum,  March  xix. 

®  The  Life  of  Christ  by  S.  ^onaven- 
tura,  by  its  close  assimilation  ol  S.  Fran- 
cis to  the  Savioui-  Csingulariy  contrasted 


as  it  is  with  the  genuine  Gospels,  which 
it  might  seem  intended  to  supersede 
among  the  Franciscans),  appears  almost 
designed  to  break  this  hostilf  collision. 


350  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Xll 

quated  Evangelists.  The  Old  Testament  shone  with 
the  brightness  of  the  stars,  the  New  with  that  of  the 
moon,  the  Everlasting  Gospel  with  that  of  the  sun.* 
The  Old  Testament  was  the  outer  Holy  court,  the  New  the 
Holy  place,  the  Everlasting  Gospel  the  Holy  of  Holies. 
No  omens  of  the  coming  of  the  new  kingdom  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  were  so  awful  or  so  undeniable  as  the  cor- 
ruptions of  the  Church :  and  those  corruptions  were 
measured  not  by  a  lofty  moral  standard,  but  by  their 
departure  from  the  perfection,  the  poverty  of  St.  Francis. 
The  Pope,  the  hierarchy,  fell  of  course.  But  who  was 
to  work  the  wonderful  change  ?  Whether  the  temporal 
sovereign,  Frederick  IL,  returned  to  earth,  or  a  prince 
of  the  house  of  Arragon,  Frederick  of  Sicily,  varied 
with  the  circumstances  of  the  times,  and  the  greater 
activity  and  success  of  Ghibellinism.  The  more  reli- 
gious looked  for  an  unworldly  head,  St.  Francis  himself, 
or  some  one  in  the  spirit  of  St.  Francis. 

On  minds  in  this  state  of  expectant  elation,  came,  at 
the  close  of  the  century,  the  sudden  election 
oe  estme  .  ^^  ^^^^  Popedom  of  Coelestine  V.,  one  of  them- 
selves in  lowliness  and  poverty,  a  new  St.  Francis,  to 
the  Spiritualists  a  true  Spiritual.  His  followers  were  by 
no  means  all  believers  in  the  Everlasting  Gospel,  but 
doubtless  many  behevers  in  the  Everlasting  Gospel  were 
among  liis  followers  ;  and  in  him  they  looked  for  the 
dawn  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Many  pro- 
bably of  both  classes  crowded  into  the  Order  sanctioned 
by  the  Pope  ;  the  Coelestinians,  who,  though  suppressed 
by  Boniface  VHI.,  still  maintained  their  profound  reve* 


'  "  Autant  che  per  sa  grant  valeur 
aoit  de  clart^  soit  de  chaleur, 
Surmonte  le  Solcil  la  l^unc, 
C^i  trop  est  plus  trouble  et  trop  brune." 

Roman  dc  la  Uos".  i  2436. 


Chap.  VI.  JOHN  PETER  OLIVA.  351 

fence  for  the  one  genuine  Pope,  were  bound  together  in 
common  brotherhood  by  their  sympathy  with  Ccelestine 
and  their  hatred  of  Boniface  :  they  became  a  wide  if 
not  strictly  organised  sect. 

Dm-ing  the  Papacy  of  Boniface,  perhaps  at  the  height 
of  his  feud  with  King  Philip,  arose  another  JobnPeter 

,  ,         .         .  Oliva. 

prophet,  or  what  was  even  more  authoritative,  a.d.  1297. 
an  interpreter  of  Scriptural  prophecy.  John  Peter  Oliva 
sent  forth  among  the  severe  and  fiery  Franciscans  of 
Provence,  his  Comment  on  the  Apocalypse,  consentient 
with,  or  at  least  sounding  to  most  ears  like,  the  Ever- 
lasting Gospel.^  John  Peter  Oliva  beheld,  in  the  seven 
seals  of  that  mysterious  vision,  seven  states  of  the 
Church  : — I.  That  of  her  foundation  under  the  Apostles. 
II.  The  age  of  the  Martyrs.  III.  The  age  of  the  expo- 
sition of  the  faith,  and  the  confutation  of  insurgent 
heresies.  lY.  That  of  the  Anchorites,  who  fled  into 
the  desert  to  subdue  the  flesh,  enlightening  the  Church 
like  the  sun  and  the  stars.  Y.  That  of  the  monastic 
communities,  both  secular  and  regular,  some  severe, 
some  condescending  to  human  infirmity,  but  liolding 
temporal  possessions.  YI.  The  renovation  of  the  true 
evangelic  life,  the  overthrow  of  Antichrist,  the  final 
conversion  of  the  Jews  and  G-entiles,  the  re-edification 
of  the  primitive  Church.  The  Yllth  was  to  come :  it 
was  to  be  on  earth  a  wonderful  and  quiet  pre-enjoyment 
of  future  glory,  as  though  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  had 
descended  upon  the  earth ;  in  the  other  life,  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead,  the  glorification  of  the  saints,  the 
consummation  of  all  things.^  The  sixth  period  had 
dawned,  the  antiquated  Church  was  to  be  done  away  ; 


»  The  opinions  of  John  Peter  Oliva  but  the  articles  are  cited  in  tho 
are  known  by  the  report  of  an  inqui-  [  worus  of  Oliva's  commentary. —  Ba- 
Bitorial  commission,  on  sixty  articles,  I  luzii  Mia:ell.  i.  *  Article  I. 


352 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


Christ's  law  was  to  be  re-enacted ;  his  life  and  cruci- 
fixion to  be  repeated.  St.  Francis  took  the  place  of 
Christ ;  he  was  the  Angel  of  the  opening  of  the  sixth 
seal ;  he  was  one  with  Christ — he  was  Christ  again 
scourged,  Christ  again  crucified — the  image  and  the  form 
of  Christ.^  He  had  the  same  ineffable  sanctity;  his 
glorious  stigmata  were  the  wounds  of  Christ.''  The  rule 
of  St.  Francis  was  the  true,  proper  evangelic  rule,  ob- 
served by  Christ  himself  and  by  his  Apostles.'"  As 
Christ  rose  again,  so  should  the  perfect  state  of  Francis- 
canism  rise  again.  John  Peter  Oliva  asserted  the  truth 
of  the  visions  of  Abbot  Joachim,  as  interpreted  in  the 
famous  Introduction ;  Oliva's  exposition  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse was  but  in  another  form  the  Everlasting  Gospel. 
The  Father  in  the  Law  had  revealed  himself  in  awe  and 
terror ;  Christ  as  the  Wisdom  of  God  in  the  Gospel. 
In  the  third  age  the  Holy  Ghost  was  to  be  as  a  flame 
and  furnace  of  divine  love ;  there  was  to  be  a  kind  of 
revel  of  delights  and  spiritual  joys,  in  which  there  was 
not  only  to  be  a  simple  intelligence,  but  a  savour  and 
palpable  experience  of  the  truth  of  the  Son — of  the 
power  of  the  Father."     Both  systems  affixed  the  name 


*  "  In  sexto  statu  rejecta  carnali 
Ecclesia  et  vetustate  prioris  saeculi 
renovabitur  Christi  lex  et  vita  et  crux. 
Propter  quod  in  ejus  initio  Franciscus 
apparuit  Christi  plagis  characterizatus, 
et  Chris'to  totus  concrucifixus  et  confi- 
guratus." — IX. 

^  In  its  spirit  and  much  of  its  lan- 
guage, Oliva  anticipated  the  profane 
Liber  Conformitatum. 

™  "  Regulam  Minorum  per  Beatiim 
Franciscum  editam  esse  verb  et  pro- 
pria illam  Evangelicam  quara  Chrlstus 
servavit  et  Apostolis  imposui^." 


S.  Francis,  like  the  Redeemer,  had  his 
twelve  apostles.— A.  XXII.  XXXI. 

"  "  Ergo  in  tertio  tempore  (there 
were  three  Times,  as  in  the  Ever- 
lasting Gospel,  though  seven  Periods) 
Spiritus  Sanctus  exhibebit  se  ut  flam- 
mam  et  fornacem  divini  amoris  .  .  . 
et  ut  tripudium  spiritualium  jubila- 
tionum  et  jucunditatum,  per  quam 
non  solum  simplici  intelligentia,  sed 
etiam  gustativd  et  palpativa  experien- 
tia  videbitur  omnis  Veritas  Sapientiae 
Verbi  Dei  Incarnati  et  potentiae  Dea 
Patris." 


Chap.  VI.  WILHELMJJNA.  363 

of  Babylon,  the  great  harlot,  the  adulteress,  to  the 
dominant  Church — to  that  which  asserted  itself  to  be 
the  one  true  Church.^  Oliva  swept  away  as  corrupt, 
superfluous,  obsolete,  the  whole  sacerdotal  polity —Pope, 
prelates,  hierarchy.  Their  work  was  done,  their  doom 
sealed  :  these  were  old  things  passed  away  ;  new  things, 
the  one  universal  rule  of  St.  Francis,  was  to  be  the  faith 
of  man.  As  Herod  and  Pilate  had  conspired  against 
Christ,  so  the  worldly,  luxurious,  simoniacal  Church 
arrayed  herself  against  St.  Francis.  In  her  drunkenness 
of  wrath,  the  Church  flamed  out  against  spiritual  men, 
but  her  days  were  counted,  her  destiny  at  hand. 

These  wild  doctrines  and  wild  prophecies  mingled  in 
other  quarters  with  other  obnoxious  opinions,  all  equally 
hostile  to  the  great  sacerdotal  monarchy  of  Home,  and 
to  the  ruling  hierarchy.  Of  all  these  kindred  heresi- 
archs  the  strangest  in  her  doctrine  and  in  her  fate  was 
Wilhelmina,  a  Bohemian.  She  appeared  in  Milan,  and 
announced  her  Gosjoel,  a  profane  and  fantastic  parody, 
centering  upon  herself  the  great  tenet  of  the  Fraticelli, 
the  reign  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  her,  the  daughter,  she 
averred,  of  Constance  Queen  of  Bohemia,  the  Holy 
Grhost  was  incarnate.  Her  birth  had  its  annunciation, 
but  the  angel  Kaphael  took  the  place  of  the  angel 
Gabriel.  She  was  very  God  and  very  woman.  She 
came  to  save  Jews,  Saracens,  false  Christians,  as  the 
Saviour  the  true  Christians.  Her  human  nature  was 
to  die  as  that  of  Christ  had  died.  She  was  to  rise  again 
and  ascend  into  heaven.  As  Christ  had  left  his  vicar 
upon  earth,  so  Wilhelmina  left  the  holy  nun,  Mayfreda. 
Mayfreda  was  to  celebrate  the  mass  at  her  sepulchre, 


"The  Inquisitors  drew  this  inference 
and  justified  it  by  these  quotations  : — 
"  In  toto  isto  Tractatu  per  Babylonem 


ipseinteliigitEcclesiamRomanam.  ,  . 
quse  non  est  meretrix  sed  virgo."- 
civ.  Conf.  vii.  xix. 


VOL.  VII.  2   A 


364 


LATIN  CHKISTIANITY. 


Book  XII 


to  preach  her  gospel  in  the  great  church  at  Milan,  after- 
wards at  St.  Peter's  in  Kome.  She  was  to  be  a  female 
Pope,  with  full  papal  power  to  baptise  Jews,  Saracens, 
unbelievers.  The  four  Gospels  were  replaced  by  four 
Wilhelminian  evangelists.  She  was  to  be  seen  by  her 
disciples,  as  Christ  after  his  resurrection.  Plenary  in- 
dulgence was  to  be  granted  to  all  who  visited  the  con- 
vent of  Chiaravalle,  as  to  those  who  visited  the  tomb 
of  our  Lord :  it  was  to  become  the  great  centre  of  pil- 
grimage. Her  apostles  were  to  have  their  Judas,  and 
were  to  be  delivered  by  him  to  the  Inquisition.  But  the 
most  strange  of  all  was  that  Wilhelmina,  whether  her 
doctrines  were  kept  secret  to  the  initiate,^  lived  unper- 
secuted,  and  died  in  peace  and  in  the  odour  of  sanctity. 
She  was  buried  first  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter  in  Orto ; 
her  body  was  afterwards  carried  to  the  convent  of 
Chiaravalle.  Monks  preached  her  funeral  sermon  ;  the 
Saint  wrought  miracles ;  lamps  and  wax  candles  burned 
in  profuse  splendour  at  her  altar ;  she  had  three  annual 

festivals ;  her  Pope,  Mayfreda,  celebrated  mass. 

It  was  not  till  twenty  years  after  that  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  Milanese  clergy  awoke  in  dismay  and 
horror ;  the  wonder-working  bones  of  S.  Wilhelmina 
were  dug  up  and  burned;  Mayfreda  and  one  Andrea 
Saramita  expiated  at  the  stake  the  long  unregarded 
blasphemies  of  their  mistress.*^ 


A.D.  12U  to 
1301. 


JP  Had  the  assimilation  of  S,  Francis 
to  the  Saviour  taken  off  the  startling 
profaneness  of  this  ? 

1  Muratori,  Ant.  Ital.  70,  from  the 
original  records.  The  author  of  the 
Annals  of  Colmar  calls  her  an  English- 
woman of  extraordinary  beauty. — 
Apud  Boehmer,  Pontes,  i.  p.  89.  In 
the  process  there  is  no  charge  of  un- 
chastity.     Corio,  Storia  di  Milano,  p. 


159,  gives  the  popular  view  in  which 
the  sect  is  accused  of  all  the  promis- 
cuous licence  which  is  the  ordinary 
chaige  against  all  secret  religions.  In 
the  same  document,  which  embraces 
the  process  of  Wilhelmina,  is  that  of 
Stephen  of  Corcorezo,  who  was  accused 
of  favouring  heretics,  and  as  concerned 
in  the  murder  of  the  Inquic  tor,  Peter 
Martyr. 


Chap.  VI.  POXGILUPO  OF  FERRARA.  355 

Nor  was  this  wild  woman  the  only  heretic  who 
cheated  the  unsuspecting  wonder  of  the  age  Pongnupo  of 
into  saint  worship ;  there  were  others  whose  ^^"'^^^• 
piety  and  virtues  won  that  homage  which  was  rudely 
stripped  away  from  the  heterodox.  Pongilupo  of  Fer- 
rara  had  embraced  Waldensian,  or  possibly  Albigen- 
sian  opinions:  he  was  of  the  sect  known  in  Bagnola, 
a  Provencal  town.  He  died  at  Ferrara ;  he  was  splen- 
didly buried  in  the  cathedral,  and  left  such  fame  for 
holiness  that  the  people  crowded  round  his  tomb  ;  his 
miracles  seemed  so  authentic  that  the  Canons,  the 
Bishop  himself,  Albert,  a  man  esteemed  almost  a  saint 
at  Ferrara,  solemnly  heard  the  cause,  and  received 
the  deposition  of  the  witnesses.  But  the  stern  Do- 
minican Inquisitors  of  Ferrara  had  a  keener  vision ; 
the  sainted  Pongilupo  was  condenmed  as  an  irreclaim- 
able, a  relapsed  heretic ;  the  Canons  were  reduced 
to  an  humiliating  acknowledgment  of  their  infatua- 
tion.'^ 

Of  far  higher,  and  therefore  more  odious  name,  was 
Dolcino  of  Novara,  who  became  the  fierce  apostle  of  a 
new  sect,  of  kindred  tenets  with  the  Fraticelli  or  spi- 
ritual Franciscans,  with  some  leaven  of  the  old  doctrines 
of  the  Patarines  (the  Puritans)  of  Lombardy.  His  was 
not  a  community  of  meek  and  dreaming  enthusiasts,  or 
at  the  worst  of  stubborn  and  patient  fanatics ;  they 
became  a  tribe,  goaded  by  persecution  to  take  up  arms 
in  their  own  defence,  and  only  to  be  suppressed  by 
arms.  The  patriarch  and  protomartyr  of  this  sect  was 
Gerard  Sagarelli  of  Parma,  then  a  stronghold  of  the 
Spiritualists. 


'  Muratori  adduces  other  instances  of  these  fraudulent  yet  successful  itteaijits 
at  obtiiining  the  honours  of  Saintship.—  Ibid. 

2  i^  2 


356  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

Gerard  Sagarelli  seemed  to  aspire  to  found  a  new 
Order  more  beggarly  than  the  most  beggarly  of  the 
Gerard  Saga-  Franciscans :  he  had  much  of  the  Fraticelli,  but 
''^^"-  either  of  himself  determined  or  was  driven  to 

form  a  separate  community.  Pope  Innocent  had  at  first 
rejected  St.  Frar^-i'^  as  a  simple  half-crazy  enthusiast, 
so  the  Franciscans  drove  Sagarelli  from  their  doors  as 
a  lunatic  idiot.  As  Francis  aspired  to  the  perfect  imi- 
tation of  the  Saviour,  so  Sagarelli  to  that  of  the  Apostles, 
He  still  haunted  the  inhospitable  cloister  and  church  of 
the  Franciscans,  which  would  not  receive  him  as  their 
inmate.  A  lamp  burned  day  and  night  within  the 
precincts,  which  cast  its  mysterious  light  on  a  picture 
and  representation  of  the  Apostles.  Sagarelli  sat  gazing 
on  the  holy  forms,  and  thought  that  the  apostle  rose 
within  his  soul.  He  determined  to  put  on  the  dress  in 
which  the  painter,  according  to  his  fancy  or  according 
to  convention,  had  arrayed  the  holy  twelve.  His  wild 
long  hair  flowed  down  his  shoulders;  his  thick  beard 
fell  over  his  breast ;  he  put  rude  sandals  on  his  bare 
feet ;  he  wore  a  tunic  and  a  cloak  clasped  before,  of  the 
dullest  white  and  of  tlie  coarsest  sackcloth ;  he  had  a 
cord,  like  the  Franciscans,  round  his  waist.  He  had 
some  small  property,  a  house  in  Parma ;  he  sold  it, 
went  out  into  the  market-place  with  his  money  in  a 
leathern  purse,  and,  taking  the  seat  on  w^hich  the 
Podesta  was  accustomed  to  sit,  flung  it  among  the 
scrambling  boys,  to  show  his  contempt  and  utter  aban- 
donment of  the  sordid  dross.  He  w^s  not  content  to 
be  an  apostle ;  he  would  surpass  St.  Francis  himself  in 
imitation  of  their  Master,  not  of  his  death  but  of  his 
infancy.  He  underwent  circumcision ;  he  laid  himself 
in  a  cradle,  was  wrapped  in  swaddling-clothes,  and,  it  is 
said,  even  received  the  breast  from  some  wild  female 


Chap.  VI.  SAGARELLI  OF  PaRMA.  357 

believer.^  In  Parma,  Sagarelli,  though  for  several  years 
he  prayed  and  preached  repentance  and  beggary  in  the 
streets,  had  a  very  few  followers  :  in  the  neighbourhood 
his  loud  shrill  preaching  had  more  success.  At  length 
at  Faenza,  he  who  had  been  beheld  with  contempt  or 
compassion  at  Parma,  became  the  head  of  an  undisci- 
plined yet  organised  sect.  He  found  his  way  back,  if 
not  into  the  city,  into  the  diocese  of  Parma. 

The  utmost  aim  of  Sagarelli  was  the  foundation  of  a 
new  Mendicant  brotherhood  :  for  those  wdio  had  taken 
the  vow  of  poverty  would  not  endure  one  poorer  than 
themselves :  his  followers  called  themselves  the  Apostles, 
or  the  Apostolic  Brethren,  or  the  Perfect.  They  were 
but  Spiritual  Franciscans  under  a  new  name. 

Obizzo  Sanvitale,  the  Bishop  of  Parma,  was  of  the 
Genoese  house  of  Fieschi,  nephew  of  Innocent  IV.' 
This  haughty  and  turbulent  Prelate  permitted  not  the 
Inquisitors  to  lord  it  in  his  city ;  the  Inquisitors  were 
the  victims  of  popular  insurrection.  AYhen  in  the  act 
of  burning  some  hapless  heretics  they  were  attacked, 
dispersed,  driven  from  the  city.  Parma  defied  an  inter- 
dict, and  for  a  time  refused  to  readmit  the  Inquisitors. 

Sagarelli   himself  had   now   been    preaching    above 


•  Read  Mosheim's  account  of  Saga-  picturis  non  spernendis  exornatus  " — 
relli,  Geschichte  des  Apostel-Ordens,  appeared  in  high  honour  the  genuine 
in  his  two  volumes  of  German  Essays.  lilieness  of  S.  Francis.  Obizzo  was  a 
This  Essay  is  a  model  of  the  kind  of  strong  defender  of  ecclesiastical  rights : 
Dissertation  to  which  later  inquirers  he  laid  an  interdict  on  the  Praetor  (the 
have  added  little  or  nothing.  ^losheim  Podesta  ?)  of  Parma.  He  bore  peise- 
doubts,  I  hardly  see  why,  this  last  ,  cutions  with  a  masculine  spirit ;  and 
extravagance.  defended  himself  so  well    against  his 

*  Obizzo  Sanvitale  was  promoted  by  calumniators,  that  he  was  presented  by 
Alexander  IV.,  the  great  patron  of  Boniface  VIIl.  (A. D.  1293)  to  the  archi- 
Franciscanism,  A.D.  1257.  In  the  episcopate  of  Ravenna.  There  he  died, 
Baptistery,  which  he  began  to  build  and  was  buried  in  the  Franciscan  con- 
jif    Parma- -"  mi rabilis    architecturae,  vent. — Ugb  elli,  Italia  Sacra,  ii.  p.  227 


358  LATIN  CHRISTIAI^ITY.  Book  XII 

twenty  years,  either  despised  as  a  fanatic  or  dissembling 
his  more  obnoxious  opinions.     He  was  sum- 
moned before  the  Bishop,  who,  in  compassion  or 
disdain,  not  only  spared  his  life,  but  allowed  the  beggar 
of  beggars  the  crumbs  from  his  lordly  table.     The  sect 
of  Sagarelli  was  no  doubt  among  those  unauthorised 
Orders  ap^ainst  which  Honorius  IV.  issued  his 

A  D    128fi 

Bull.  Sagarelli  was  banished  from  Parma ; 
he  returned  again,  and  was  thrown  into  prison;  some 
of  his  followers  were  burned.  At  length,  under  the 
Pontificate  of  Boniface  VIII.,  in  the  year  of  jubilee, 
when  Christendom  was  under  its  access  of  passionate 
devotion,  the  Inquisition,  the  Dominican  Inquisition, 
resumed  its  full  power  in  Parma.  Sagarelli  was  seized ; 
once  he  abjured,  or  seemed  to  abjure,  but  the  remorseless 
Manfred,  the  Great  Inquisitor,  would  not  lose  his  prey. 
That  abjuration  surrendered  him  as  a  relapsed  heretic 
to  his  irrevocable  doom  :  he  was  condemned  to  the 
flames.  By  one  wild  account  of  this  terrible  scene,  in 
the  midst  of  the  fire  the  voice  of  the  heretic  was  heard? 
"  Help,  Asmodeus."  At  once  the  fire  went  out.  Thrice 
it  was  rekindled,  thrice  at  that  powerful  spell  it  smoul- 
dered into  harmlessness.  Nothing  was  to  be  done  but 
to  appeal  to  a  more  potent  name.  The  Host  was 
brought,  the  heretic  again  bound  on  the  pile,  again  the 
flames  blazed.  "  Help,  Asmodeus,"  again  cried  Saga- 
relli. There  was  a  wailing  in  the  air :  "  One  stronger 
than  ourselves  is  here."  The  fire  did  its  terrible  work 
Such  things  were  believed  in  those  days.  No  one  shud- 
dered with  horror  at  the  body  of  the  merciful  Saviour 
being  employed  on  such  fearful  office." 


*  I  owe  this  refeience  to  Jacob  ab  Aquis,  in  the  recently  pubhshed  Monu« 
oaonta  Hist.  Sabaudiae  to  Sio;n.  Maiiotti,  Dolcino  de  Noivava. 


CiiAP.  VI.  DOLCINO  OF  NOVAEA.  359 

Dolcinc,  born  at  a  village  near  Novara,  either  Prato 
or  Tragantino,  caught  up  the  prophet's  mantle  n„,,5„o  ^f 
at  the  fiery  departure  of  Sagarelli.  The  new  N'^^^''^- 
heresiarch  was  no  humble  follower :  he  had  neither  the 
prudence  nor  the  timidity  of  the  elder  teacher  to  dis- 
guise or  to  dissemble  his  opinions.  He  was  a  man  cast 
in  an  iron  mould ;  not  only  with  that  eloquence  which 
carries  away  a  host  of  hearers  with  an  outburst  of 
passionate  attachment  and  is  gone,  but  that  which  sinks 
deep  into  the  souls  of  men,  and  works  a  stern,  enduring, 
death-defying  fanaticism.  He  must  have  possessed  won- 
derful powers  of  organisation,  and,  as  appeared,  by 
inspiration,  extraordinary  military  skill.  Obscurity  and 
mystery,  perhaps  even  in  his  own  day,  hung  over  the 
youth  and  early  life  of  Dolcino.  He  was  said  to  have 
sprung  from  a  noble  family,  the  Tornielli;  he  was 
not  improbably  the  son  of  a  married  Lombard  priest. 
Either  before  or  immediately  after  the  death  of  Saga- 
relli, he  was  in  the  Tyrol,  and  in  the  diocese  of  Trent, 
where  lurked  no  doubt  many  heirs  of  the  doctrines  of 
Ai'nold  of  Brescia :  it  might  be  too  of  the  Waldensians 
and  other  antisacerdotalists.  The  stern  Franciscan 
Bishop  of  Trent,  BuonAccolti,  drove  him  back  to  the 
southern  side  of  the  Alps.  As  the  acknowledged  head 
of  the  Apostolic  Brethren,  on  the  death  of  Sagarelli  he 
was  expelled  from  Milan,  from  Como,  from  Brescia,  from 
Bergamo.  According  to  one  account  he  took  refuge 
beyond  the  Adriatic  Sea,  among  the  wild  forests  of 
Dalmatia.'^ 

But  he  was  everywhere  present  by  his  doctrines.    His 


*  Mosheim  setms  not  to  doubt  the  residence  in  Dalmatia.  His  reasoning 
is  plausible;  but  on  this  point  alone  that  severe  writer  yields,  it  appears  to 
me,  to  conjecture. 


360 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  Xll. 


His  tenets. 


epistles  became  the  Gospel,  liis  prophecies  the  Koran  of 
the  Order.  Of  his  three  epistles,  which  con* 
tained  the  chief  part  of  his  doctrines,  two  still 
survive.  Like  the  Franciscan  Spiritualists,  the  Apostles 
of  Parma  had  their  periods  and  eras  in  the  history  of 
mankind.  There  were  four  states  of  man : — I.  That  of 
the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  when  not  only  marriage 
but  polygamy  was  lawful  for  the  propagation  of  the 
human  race.''  II.  That  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles ;  who 
had  taught  that  vii-ginity  was  better  than  marriage, 
poverty  than  riches,  to  live  witliout  property  better 
than  to  hold  possessions.  This  period  closed  with  St. 
Silvester.  III.  In  the  thuxl,  the  evil  and  iron  age, 
the  love  of  the  people  began  to  wax  cold  towards  God 
and  their  neighbour :  the  Church  assumed  wealth  and 
temporal  power.  All  Popes,  from  St.  Silvester,  had 
be«en  prevaricators  and  deceivers,  except  Coelestine  V. 
The  >ule  of  St.  Benedict,  the  life  of  the  monks,  had 
been  the  saving  goodness  of  that  age.  When  the  love 
of  the  monks  as  of  the  clergy  grew  cold,  virtue  and 
holiness  iiad  perished;  all  were  evil,  hauglity,  ava- 
ricious, unchaste.  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic  had 
surpassed  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict  and  of  the  monks, 
yet  this  too  was  but  for  a  time.  The  iron  age  was  to 
come  to  a  terrible  end,  which  was  to  sweep  away  Pope, 
prelates,  monks,  friars.  But,  IV.  Gerard  of  Parma 
began  the  fourth,  the  golden  age — that  of  true  Apostolic 
perfection.  The  Dolcirites  too  had  their  Apocalyptic 
interpretations.  The  Seven  Angels  were,  of  Ephesus, 
St.  Benedict ;  of  Pergamus,  Pope  Silvester ;  of  Sardis, 


y  Compare  ]\Iosheim's  very  ingenious 
reading  of  a  passage  in  the  epistle  of 
Dolciuo  :     ''  In   quo    statu    laudabat 


bonum  fuisse  numerum  eum  (uxcrunc 
M.)  causS,  multiplicandi  genus  huma 
num." — Dissert.,  p.  246. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTI-PAPAL  TENETS. 


361 


St.  Francis ;  of  Laodicea,  St.  Dominic ;  of  Smyrna, 
Gerard  of  Parma ;  of  Thyatira,  Dolcino  of  Novara ;  of 
Philadelphia,  the  future  great  and  holy  Pope. 

Against  the  ruling  Popes  they  were  more  fearless  and 
denunciatory.  The  Popedom  was  the  great  Anti-Papai 
harlot  of  the  Eevelation.  In  the  latter  days  ^^"'■*^- 
there  were  to  be  four  Popes,  the  first  and  last  good,  the 
second  and  third  bad.  The  first  good  Pope  was  Coeles- 
tine  v.,  whose  memory  they  reverenced  with  the  zeal  of 
all  the  idolaters  of  poverty.  Tlie  first  of  the  bad  was 
Boniface  YIII.  The  third  they  did  not  name :  no  one 
could  be  at  a  loss  for  their  meaning.*  As  to  the  fourth, 
John  XXII.  had  not  ascended  the  throne  before  Dolcino 
and  most  of  his  partisans  had  perished ;  but  it  would 
have  been  impossible  to  have  conceived  (nor  could  the 
apostles,  the  successors  of  Dolcino,  conceive)  a  Pontiff, 
except  from  his  lowly  birth,  so  opposite  to  the  un- 
worldly, humble,  poverty-loving  ideal  of  a  Pontiff. 
According  to  them,  no  Pope  could  give  absolution 
who  was  not  holy  as  St.  Peter ;  in  poverty  absolutely 
without  property ;  in  lowliness  not  exciting  wars,  per- 
secuting no  one,  allowing  every  one  to  live  in  freedom 
of  conscience.^  They  were  amenable  to  no  Papal 
censure  (from  some  lingering  awe  they  left  to  the 
Pope  the  power  of  issuing  decrees  and  appointing  to 
dignities) ;  but  no  Pope  had  authority  to  command 
them,  by  excommunication,  to  abandon  the  way  of 
perfection,  nor  could  they  be  summoned  before  the 
Inquisition  for  following  after  that  same  perfection." 


«  Benedict  XI 
passed  over. 


seems  to  have  been 


■  "  Non   fovendo  guerras,   nee   ali- 
quem    persequendo,   sed    perraittendo 


vivere  quemlibet  in  suS,  libertate."- 
Additament.,  Hist.  Dolcin.  apud  Mun 
tori. 

b  Hist.  Dolcin.  p.  435. 


362  LATIN  CHRISTIANITTf.  Book  XII 

The  Dolcinites  had  their  strong  but  peculiar  Ghibel- 

linism.     Their  prophetic  hopes  rested  on  the 

Sicilian  House  of  Arragon.     Frederick  of  Ar- 

ragon  was  to  enter  Rome  on  the  Nativity,  in  the  year 

1335   (so   positive  and   particular  were  they  in  their 

vaticinations),  to  become  Emperor,  to  create  nine  Kings 

(or  rather,  according  to  the  Apocalypse,  ten),  to  put  to 

death  the  Pope,  his   prelates,    and   the   monks.     The 

Church  was  to  be  reduced  to  her  primitive  Apostolic 

poverty.     Dolcino  was  to   be  Pope,  if  then  alive,  for 

three  years ;  and  then  came  the  Perfect  Pope,  by  special 

outpouring  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     It  might  be  Dolcino 

himself  holy  as  St.  Peter,  or  Gerard  of  Parma  restored 

to  life.     Then  Antichrist  was   to   come ;    the   Perfect 

Pope  was  to  be  rapt  for  a  time  to  Paradise  with  Enoch 

and  Elias ;  after  the  fall  of  Antichrist  he  was  to  return 

and  convert  the  whole  world  to  the  faith  of  Christ. 

Dolcino  and  his  followers  first  appear  as  an  organised 

A.D.  1304.     community  in  Gattinara  and  the  Yal  Sesia  in 

In  the  Val 

di  Sesia.  Piedmont.  That  beautiful  region  at  the  foot 
of  the  lower  Alps,  with  green  upland  meadows,  shaded 
by  fine  chestnut  groves,  and  watered  by  the  clear  Sesia 
and  the  streams  which  fall  into  it,  had  been  but  recently 
possessed  by  the  great  Ghibelline  family,  the  Blandrate, 
To  this  land  believers  in  these  popular  tenets  flocked 
from  all  quarters,  from  the  Alpine  valleys,  from  beyond 
the  Alps.  They  proclaimed  that  all  duties  were  to 
yield  to  the  way  of  perfection :  the  bishop  might  quit 
his  see,  the  priest  his  parish,  the  monk  his  cloister,  the 
husband  his  wife,  the  wife  her  husband,  to  join  the  one 
true  Church.  Dolcino  in  one  respect  discarded,  or  (it 
is  doubtful  which)  boasted  himself  superior  in  asceticism 
to  the  severity  of  most  of  the  former  sects.  Each,  like 
the  apostle,  had  *'  a  sister : "  with  that  sister  every  one 


Jhap  VI. 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  MARGARITA. 


363 


aspired  to  live  in  the  most  unblemished  chastity.  It  is 
even  said,  but  by  their  enemies,  that  they  delighted  to 
put  that  chastity  to  the  most  perilous  trial.  Dolcino 
had  a  sister  like  the  rest,  the  beautiful  Margarita,  a 
Tyrolese  maiden  of  a  wealthy  family,  of  whom  he  had 
become  enamoured  with  profane  or  holy  love,  when 
beyond  the  Alps.  By  him  she  was  asserted  to  be  a 
model  and  miracle  of  perfect  purity:  his  enemies  of 
course  gave  out  that  she  was  his  mistress.''  At  the 
close  of  their  dark  destiny  she  was  taunted  as  though 
she  were  pregnant.  "  If  so,"  replied  the  confident  fol- 
lowers of  Dolcino,  and  Dolcino  himself,  "  it  must  be  by 
the  Holy  Ghost."  All  this,  however,  is  belied  by  other 
and  not  less  unfriendly  authorities.^  But  these  peaceful 
sectaries  (peaceful,  at  least,  as  far  as  overt  acts,  if  hardly 
so  in  their  all-levelling  doctrines)  could  not  be  long 
left  in  peace.  In  all  respects  but  in  their  denunciation 
against  the  hierarchy  they  were  severely  orthodox :  they 
accepted  the  full  creed  of  the  Church,  and  only  super- 
added that  tenet.  Already,  soon  after  his  accession, 
Clement  V.,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  clergy  and  the 
Guelfs  of  the  neighbourhood,  had  issued  his  Bull  for 
their  total  extirpation.     Already  there  were  menaces. 


*  '•  Secum  ducebat  Amasiam,  nomine 
Margaritam,  quam  dicebat  se  tenere 
more  sororis  in  Christo,  provide  et 
honest^ ;  et  quia  deprehensa  fuit  esse 
gravida,  ipse  et  sui  asseverant  esse 
gravidam  de  Spiritu  Sancto." — Addi- 
tament.,  p.  459. 

^  Moslieim  justly  observes  that  in 
the  authentic  documents  there  is  no 
charge  of  licentiousness  against  the 
earlier  or  later  apostles;  neither  in 
the  bulls  of  Honorius  IV.  or  Nicolas 


IV.,  nor  in  any  reports  of  the  trials, 
more  especially  the  veiy  curious  ex- 
amination at  a  much  later  period  of 
Peter  of  Lugo  at  Toulouse,  iu  Lim- 
borch,  Hist.  Inquisitionis.  "  Allein 
die  Gerichtsregister,  so  wohl  zu  Tho- 
louse,  als  zu  Vercelli  sprechen  sie  von 
dieser  Anklage  los,  well  sie  ihnen 
keine  Unreinigkeit,  keine  Uebertro 
tung  der  Gesetze  von  der  Zucht  und 
Keuscheit  vorwerfeu." — P.  305. 


864  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

signs,  beginnings  of  persecution:  the  Inquisition  was 
in  movement.  Almost  at  once  the  sect  became  an 
army.  On  a  mountain  called  Balnera,  or  Yalnera,  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Sesia,  they  pitched 
their  camp  and  built  their  town.  Dolcino  himself 
found  hosp:ltable  reception  with  a  faithful  disciple,  a 
rich  landowner,  Milano  Sola.  They  gave  out  that  God 
might  be  worshipped  as  well  in  the  deep  forest,  on 
the  snowy  crag,  as  in  the  church. 

The  first  attempt  at  hostility  against  them  ended  in 
shameful  discomfiture.  The  Podesta  of  Yarallo  headed 
an  attack  :  he  was  ignominiously  defeated,  taken,  re- 
deemed at  a  large  ransom.  Dolcino  and  his  followers 
(they  were  now  counted  by  thousands)  were  masters  of 
the  whole  rich  Yal  Sesia.  But  the  thunderclouds  were 
gathering.  No  sooner  was  the  Papal  Bull  proclaimed 
than  the  Guelfic  nobles  met  in  arms :  they  took  a 
solemn  oath  in  the  church  of  Scopa  to  exterminate 
these  proscribed  and  excommunicated  heretics.  This 
formidable  league  wanted  not  a  formidable  captain. 
The  Bishop  Rainieri,  of  the  noble  and  Guelfic  family 
of  the  Avogadri,  now  ruled  in  Vercelli.  He  set  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  crusade.  Dolcino's  followers  had 
become  soldiers,  Dolcino  a  general  of  more  than  com- 
mon sagacity  and  promptitude.  He  made  a  bold  march 
along  the  sharp  mountain-ridge,  and  seized  a  strong 
position,  the  bare  rock,  still  called  Monte  Calvo.  The 
despair  of  fanaticism  is  terrible.  The  conflicts 
became  murderous  on  both  sides.  Thrice  at 
least  the  forces  of  the  Bishop  suffered  disgraceful  defeat. 
The  Bishop  saw  his  whole  diocese  a  desolate  waste: 
even  the  churches  were  sacrilegiously  despoiled,  the 
images  of  the  Madonnas  were  mutilated,  the  holy  vessels 
carried  off.     They  broke  the  bells  and  threw  do\%  n  tlie 


Chap.  VI.  WAE.  365 

oelfries.®  But  the  stronger  the  position  of  Dolcino, 
the  greater  his  weakness.  How  were  thousands  to  find 
food  on  those  bleak  inhospitable  crags  ?  The  aggression 
of  their  persecutors  had  made  them  warriors :  it  now 
made  them  robbers.  Society  had  declared  war  against 
them  :  they  declared  war  against  society.  Famine  knows 
no  laws  :  it  makes  laws  of  its  own.  They  proclaimed 
their  full  right  of  plunder,  for  without  plunder  they 
could  not  live :  all  was  to  them  just,  except  the  de- 
sertion of  their  faith.^  Frightful  tales  are  told  of  their 
cruelty  in  their  last  wild  place  of  refuge ;  for  they  left 
in  the  mountain  hold,  on  the  bare  rock,  the  weak  and 
defenceless  of  their  body ;  set  off  again  with  the  same 
promptitude  and  intelligence,  over  mountain  ridges  and 
deep  snows,  and  seized  a  still  stronger  height,  I^Iount 
Zerbal,  called  after  them  Monte  Gazzaro,  above  Triverio. 
Here  for  some  months  they  defied  all  attack.  The 
Bishop,  grown  wiser  by  perpetual  discomfiture,  was 
content  to  blockade  all  the  passes.  Starvation  grew 
more  intense ;  the  women  and  the  weakly,  who  had 
been  left  on  Monte  Calvo,  found  slowly  their  way  to 
Mount  Zerbal,  and  aggravated  the  distress.  The  women, 
if  they  did  not  join  in  the  w^ar,  urged  on  the  fierce 
irresistible  sallies  from  their  unapproachable  mountain 
hold.  They  burst  at  one  time  on  the  town  of  Triverio, 
and  thoroughly  sacked  it.  It  was  on  the  prisoners  in 
these  expeditions  that  they  wreaked  their  most  merciless 
vengeance,  or  rather  determined  to  turn  them  most 
relentlessly  to  their  advantage.     Gibbets  were  erected 


*  S.  Mariotli  well  observes  that  their  I         "  Item  derobare,  carcerai-e  et  quse- 
hostility  to  the  bells  and  belfries  is  in-  I  cuuque  mala  inferre  Christianis,  potius 


telligible  enough.  They  were  rung  as 
a  tocsin  to  rouse  the  country  in  case  of 
an  attack  by  the  Dolcinites. 


quam  mori  et  destruere  eorum  fidero. 
— Additamenta. 


ti6a  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII, 

upon  tlie  brow  of  the  sheer  precipice,  on  which  the 
inhabitants  from  below  might  behokl  their  husbands, 
brothers,  and  kindred  suspended,  and  slowly  yielding 
up  their  lives.  It  was  made  known  that  they  might 
be  ransomed  for  food,  or  what  would  purchase  food.^ 
Kedemption  at  such  a  price  could  not  be  permitted  by 
the  inflexible  Bishop.  Men  hunted  like  wild  beasts, 
became  wild  beasts  ;  they  were  reduced  to  the  scantiest, 
most  loathsome  food ;  they  ate  everything  indiscrimi- 
nately ;  it  is  said  as  an  aggravation  during  Lent.^  They 
had  passed  the  wild  dreary  winter  on  these  steep, 
dismal,  hungry  peaks.  They  ate  rats,  hares,  dogs, 
chopped  grass,  even  more  horrible  food.  Jerusalem 
or  Numancia  beheld  not  more  frightful  banquets  than 
the  mountain  camp  of  Dolcino,  yet  would  they  not  sur- 
render their  lives  or  their  faith.  Nor  was  their  noble 
resistance  obscure  or  without  its  fame.  It  is  difficult 
not  to  discern  some  Grhibelline  admiration,  perhaps 
sympathy,  in  Dante's  famous  lines,'  though  Dante, 
placing  the  message  to  Dolcino,  "  that  he  provision 
well  his  mountain  fortress,"  in  the  mouth  of  Mahomet, 
may  seem  as  it  were  to  disclaim  all  compassion  for  the 
heresiarch.  "  Unless  Dolcino  did  this  he  might  come 
Capture  of  boforo  his  time  to  his  awful  doom."  Famine 
Gazzaro.  ^^  length  did  its  slow  work.  The  Novarese, 
or  rather  the  Vercellese,  won  at  length  his  dear-bought 


?  "  Clam  multos  alios  viros  suspend- 
erunt,  videntibus  uxoribus  et  parenti- 
bus,  quia  non  volebant  se  redimere  ex 
arbitrio  praedictorum  canum." — Hist. 
Dolcin.  p.  437.  The  ransom  of  tlie 
Podestk  of  Varallo  had  been  exacted  in 
kind,  that  is.  in  means  of  subsistence. 

^  The  preceding  Lent  they  had  fasted 
like  good  churchmen.     They  had  lived 


on  chopped  hay,  moistened  with  some 

kind  of  fat  liquid. 

'  "  Or  di  a  fra  Dolcin',  dunque  che  s' 
arnil, 
Tu  che  forse  vedrai  il  Sole  in  breve, 
S'  egli  lion  vuol  qui  tosto  seguitarml, 
Si  di  vivanda,  che  stretta  di  neve 
Non  rechi  la  vlttoria  al  Noarese, 
Ch'   altrimenti   acquistar  non  saiij 
lieve." 

Inferno,  xxviii.  f 5,  60 


Chap.  VI. 


DEATH  OF  MARGARITA. 


367 


victory.     The  besieged  were  worn  to  tliin,  feeble,  and 
ghostly  shadows.     Mount  Zerbal  was  stormed.  Maundy 
A  thousand  were  massacred,  drowned  in  their  Tiiuisday. 
flight  in  the  rivers,   or  burned.     Of  the  prisoners  not 
one  would  recant :  all  perished  rather  in  the  tlames.^ 

Three — Dolcino,  Longino,  and  Margarita — were  re- 
served for  a  more  awful  public  execution.  The  Pope 
was  consulted  as  to  their  doom.  The  answer  was  cold, 
decisive.  "  Let  them  be  delivered  to  the  secular  arm." 
Vercelli  was  to  behold  the  triumph  of  her  Bishop  and 
the  vengeance  wreaked  on  the  rebels  to  the  Church.  A 
tall  stake  was  raised  on  a  high  and  conspicuous  mound 
Margarita  was  led  forth.  Notwithstanding  her  suffer- 
ings, exposure,  famine,  agony,  incarceration,  such,  it  is 
strangely  said,  was  her  beauty  that  men  of  rank  offered 
her  marriage  if  she  would  renounce  her  errors."*  She 
was  yet  heiress,  too,  of  her  great  estate  in  the  Tyrol 
But  whether  it  was  earthly  or  heavenly  love,  whethei 
the  passionate  attachment  of  the  fond  consort,  or  the 
holy  and  passionless  resolution  of  the  saint,  the  noble 
woman  had  nothing  of  woman's  weakness  ;  she  Death  of 
endured  unfaltering  to  the  end ;  she  endured  ^^^'"s^rita. 
the  being  consumed  by  a  slow  fire  in  the  sight  of 
Dolcino  himself;  his  calm  voice  was  heard  beseeching, 
admonishing  her,  as  she  shivered  in  the  flames,  to  be 
faithful  to  the  close.  Dolcino  was  as  courageous  under 
his  own  even  more  protracted  and  agonising  trial.     He 


•*  "Atque  ipsS,  die  plures  quam 
mille  ex  ipsis,  turn  flamm£B,  turn 
flumini  submersi,  ut  praefatur,  turn 
gladiis  et  morti  crudelissima  dati 
sunt." — Hist.  Dulcini. 

"  "  Illavero  imbuta  doctrina  ipsius 
auiiquam  deseruit  maDdata  illius.  Ideo 


pertinacius  in  eo  fuit  firma,  in  hoc 
errore,  considerata  sexus  infirmitate. 
Nam  cum  mille  nobiles  quaererent  earn 
in  uxorem,  turn  propter  pulchritudinem 
illius,  turn  propter  ejus  pecuniam  mag- 
nam,  nunquam  potuit  flecti," — Benve* 
nut.  Imola.   Muratori,  S.  R.  I.  x.  1 122, 


868 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


?epelled  all  those  who  were  sent  to  disturb  his  last  houi-a 
Of  Longino  with  their  polemic  arguments.  He  and  Lon- 
and  Doicino.  g'^^^  ^^q^q  placod  ou  a  lofty  waggon,  in  which 
were  blazing  pans  of  fire ;  men  with  hot  pincers  tore 
away  their  flesh  by  morsels,  and  cast  them  into  the 
fire ;  then  wrenched  off  their  limbs.  Once,  and  once 
only,  as  the  most  sensitive  part  of  man  was  rent  away, 
he  betrayed  his  anguish  by  the  convulsion  of  his  face. 
At  length,  having  been  thus  paraded  through  the  land, 
both,  Longino  in  Biella,  Doicino  in  Yercelli,  were  re- 
leased from  their  long  death."" 

These  terrible  scenes  took  place  under  the  rule  and 
by  the  authority  of  Clement  V.  Had  John  been  on  the 
Papal  throne  he  would  have  even  more  rudely  clashed 
with  the  spiritual  notion  of  an  unworldly  and  a  poor 
Pope.  Clement  Y.  had  been  accused  of  avarice.  John 
XXII.  was  even  more  heavily  charged  wdth  the  same 
vice ;  and  no  Pope  plunged  more  deeply  into  the  po- 
litical affairs  of  his  time  than  John  XXII.  His  acts 
were  at  once  a  bitter  satire  and  reproach  on  his  pre- 
decessor,  and   an   audacious   proclamation  of  his   own 


•»  The  principal  authority  for  this 
account  is  the  Hist.  Dulcini,  in  the 
ninth  volume  of  Muratori,  S.  R.  I., 
with  the  Additamenta,  the  author 
of  which  professes  to  have  seen 
and  to  cite  two  of  Dolcino's  epis- 
tles. "  But,"  he  says,  "  they  kept 
their  doctrines  secret,  and  held  the 
right  to  deny  them  before  the  Inqui- 
sition.*' Doicino,  he  avers,  had  ab- 
jured three  times.  Some  circumstances 
are  from  Benvenuto  da  Imola's  com- 
mentary on  Dante. — Muratori,  Ant. 
Ital.  V.  6.  This  passage  of  my  history 
wt\s  written  before  the  publication  of 
Sig.  Mariotti's  (?>  "-Dulcino  and  his 


Times."  Sig.  Mariotti  (it  is  not  his 
real  name)  has  the  great  advantage  of 
perfect  local  knowledge  of  the  whole 
scene  of  Dolcino's  career  (I  had  myself, 
before  I  thought  much  of  Doicino, 
travelled  rapidly  through  part  of  the 
district).  The  work  is  one  of  great 
industry  and  accuracy,  marred  some- 
what, to  my  judgement,  by  Italian  pro- 
lixity, and  some  Italian  passion.  I  am 
indebted  to  it  for  some  corrections 
and  additions.  Sig.  Mariotti  has  de- 
molished, it  seems  to  me,  the  religiouit 
romance  of  Professor  Biagiolini,  trans* 
lated  as  history  by  Dr.  Krone,  "  Dul 
ciuo  und  seiue  Zeit."     Leipsic,  1844. 


Chap.  VI.  WEALTH  OF  CLEMENT  V.  369 

rapacity.  Tn  the  fourth  year  of  his  Pontificate,  John  com- 
menced a  process  which  rent  off  the  last  veil  Process  about 
from  the  enormous  wealth  of  Clement,  and  element  v. 
showed  at  the  same  time  that  the  new  Pope  was  as 
keenly  set  on  the  accumulation  of  Papal  treasures. 
Clement,  before  his  death,  had  deposited  a  vast  amount 
in  money,  in  gold  and  silver  vessels,  robes,  books, 
precious  stones  and  other  ornaments,  with  important 
instruments  and  muniments,  in  the  Castle  of  Mouteil, 
in  the  Yenaisin.  The  lord  of  the  castle,  the  Yiscount 
de  Lomenie  and  Altaville,  on  Clement's  death,  seized, 
and,  as  it  was  said,  appropriated  all  this  treasure. 
Besides  this  he  had  received  sums  of  money  due  to 
the  deceased  Pontiff.  The  Viscount  was  summoned 
to  render  an  account.  He  and  all  persons  in  possession 
of  any  part  of  this  property  were  to  pay  it  into  the 
hands  of  the  Pope's  treasurer,  under  pain  of  excona- 
munication,  and,  as  to  the  Viscount,  of  interdict  on  his 
territory.  Those  in  the  Com-t  of  Kome  were  to  pay 
in  twenty  days,  those  in  France  in  two  months,  those 
beyond  the  Alps  in  three.  The  demand  against  the 
Viscount  was  more  specific.  It  amounted,  in  the  whole, 
to  1,774,800  florins  of  gold.  Of  this  300,000  had  been 
destined  by  Pope  Clement  to  the  recovery  of  the  Holy 
Land;  320,000  to  pious  uses;  100,000  was  a  debt 
of  the  King  of  France;  160,000  due  from  the  King  ol 
England.  The  Viscount  was  a  dangerous  man.  No 
one  ventured  to  serve  the  citation :  it  was  fixed  on  the 
doors  of  the  church  at  Avignon.  The  Viscount  at  length 
deigned  or  thought  it  prudent  to  appear  before  the 
Court.  He  acknowledged  the  trust  of  300,000  florins  .♦ 
he  was  prepared  to  pay  it  when  the  crusade  should 
begin.  The  baffled  Pope,  after  much  unseemly  dispute, 
yielded  to  a  compromise.  The  Viscount  was  to  pay 
VOL.  yn,  2  b 


370 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


150,000  :  tlie  other  moiety  was  to  remain  in  bis  hands, 
on  condition  that  he  or  his  heirs  should  furnish  one 
thousand  men-at-arms  whenever  the  King  of  France, 
the  King  of  England,  the  King  of  Castile,  or  the  King 
of  Sicily,  or  the  elder  son  of  either,  should  take  the 
cross.  The  sum  said  to  have  been  devoted  to  pious 
uses  had  dwindled  to  200,000  florins.  The  Yiscount 
declared  that  it  had  been  already  expended,  chiefly  by 
others :  he  was  a  simple  knight,  ignorant  of  money 
matters.  The  Pope  was  manifestly  incredulous :  he 
mistrusted  the  accounts ;  and  no  doubt  only  acquiesced 
in  the  acquittal  of  the  Viscount  from  despair  of  extort- 
ing restitution.  He  had  but  shown  his  own  avarice  and 
his  weakness.^ 

If  the  sect  of  Dolcino  had  been  nearly  extirpated 
before  the  accession  of  Pope  John,  the  Spiritualists  and 
the  Fraticelli,  the  believers  in  the  prophecies  of  the 
The  Frati-  Abbot  Joacliim  and  John  Peter  Oliva,  swarmed 
*^^"^*  not  only  in  Italy,  but  the  latter  especially, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Papal  Court  of  Avignon. 
These  sordid  and  unseemly  squabbles  for  money  would 
not  be  lost  upon  them.  All  these  men  alike  perti- 
naciously held  that  the  sole  perfection  of  Christianity 
was  absolute  poverty,  without  possession,  personal  or  in 
common.  They  wore  a  peculiar  dress,  which  offended 
by  its  strange  uncouthness :  they  cast  aside  the  loose 
long  habit,  appeared  in  short,  tight,  squalid  garments, 
just  sufficient  to  cover  their  nakedness.^  Even  of  their 
dress  and  of  their  food — as  they  immediately  put  it  into 
their  mouths — they  had  only  the  use  :  they  declared  the 


®  Vit.  apud  Baluz. 

P  "  Perfectionem  evangelicorum 
Christi  in  quadem  monstruosa  defor- 
mitate,  et  nihil  in  futurum  reservando 


a  viris  evangelicae  professionis  vitam 
ducentibus,  esse  confingunt." — Baluz. 
Miscell.  ii.  247. 


Chap.  VJ  THE  FRATICELLI.  371 

birds  of  the  air  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  to  be  their 
examples.  Granaries  and  cellars  were  a  wicked  mistrust 
of  God's  providence. 

The  age  was  too  stern  and  serious  to  laugh  to  scorn, 
or  to  treat  these  crazy  tenets  with  compassion ;  and 
they  struck  too  rudely  against  the  power  and  the  in 
terests  of  the  hierarchy,  against  the  Pope  himself,  foi 
contemptuous  indifference.  With  all  this  was  moulded 
up  a  blind  idolatry  of  St.  Francis  and  of  his  rule — hia 
rule,  which  was  superior  in  its  purity  to  the  Four  Gospels 
— and  an  absolute  denial  of  the  Papal  authority  to 
tamper  with  or  relax  that  rule.  "  There  were  two 
Churches :  "^  one  carnal,  overburdened  with  possessions, 
overflowing  with  wealth,  polluted  with  wickedness,  over 
which  ruled  the  Eoman  Pontiff  and  the  inferior  Bishops  : 
one  spiritual,  frugal,  without  uncleanness,  admirable  for 
its  virtue,  with  poverty  for  its  raiment ;  it  contained  only 
the  Spirituals  and  their  associates,  and  was  ruled  by  men 
of  spiritual  life  alone."  They  had  firm  confidence  in 
the  near  approach  of  the  times  foreshown  by  John  Peter 
Oliva,  when  the  Pope,  the  Cardinals,  all  Abbots  and 
Prelates,  should  be  abolished,  perhaps  put  to  the  sword. 
Such  doctrines  were  too  sure  of  popularity,  possibly 
among  some  of  the  higher  orders,  assuredly  General  dis- 
among  the  wretched  serfs,  the  humbler  and  ''^^^''^^^ 
oppressed  vassals,  the  peasantry,  the  artisans  of  the 
towns,  the  mass  of  the  lower  classes.  Multitudes  no 
doubt  took  refuge  from  want,  degradation,  tyranny,  in 
free  and  self-righteous  mendicancy.'  They  were  spread- 
ing everywhere  (the  followers  of  Dolcino  appeared  in 
Poland),  and  everyAvhere  they  spread  they  disseminated 


<i  These  are  the  words  of  the  Bull  of  Pope  John. — Raynald.  sub  arm.  1318. 
'  See,  too,  the  trial  at  Toulouse  of  De  Lupo,  referred  to  above. 

2  B  2 


872 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


their  doctrines  in  new  forms,  each  more  and  more 
formidable  if  not  fatal  to  the  hierarchy,  Fraticel- 
lism,  Beguinism,  Lollardism.  They  first  familiarised 
the  common  mind  with  the  notion  that  Rome  was  the 
Babylon,  the  great  harlot  of  the  Apocalypse. 

John  XXII.  was  too  sagacious  not  to  foresee  the  peril ; 
Alarm  of  too  arrogantly  convinced,  and  too  jealous,  of 
Pope  John.  |-^|g  g|;ipreme  spiritual  authority  not  to  resent ; 
too  merciless  not  to  extirpate  by  the  most  cruel  means 
these  slowly-working  enemies.  Soon  after  his  accession 
Bull  followed  Bull  equally  damnatory.  The  Franciscan 
convents  in  Narbonne  and  in  Beziers  were  in  open 
revolt  from  their  Order:  on  them  the  wrath  of  the 
Pope  first  burst.  The  Inquisition  was  committed  to 
Blichael  di  Cesena,  still  the  faithful  subject  of  the  Pope, 
and  to  seven  others.^  Twenty-five  monks  were  con- 
victed, and  sentenced  first  to  degradation,  then  to 
perpetual  imprisonment.  Some  at  least  still  defied  the 
persecutor:  they  committed  their  defiance  to  writing. 
"  They  had  not  abandoned  the  holy  Order  of  St.  Francis, 
but  the  whited  walls,  its  false  brethren  ;  not  its  habit, 
but  its  robes ;  not  the  faith,  but  the  bark  and  husk  of 
faith :  not  the  Church,  but  the  blind  synagogue  (this 
was  their  constant  and  most  galling  obloquy :  the  cor- 
rupt Church  was  to  the  perfect  one  as  the  Jewish 
Synagogue  to  that  of  Christ) ;  they  had  not  disclaimed 
their  pastor,  but  a  ravening  wolf"  For  this  apostasy, 
as  it  was  declared,  they  were  brought  to  the  stake  and 
burned  at  Marseilles.*  They  were  condemned  for  the 
heresy  of  denying  the  Papal  authority.     As  yet  there 


•  See  the  letter  of  John  XXII.,  de- 
legating the  inquisitorial  power  to 
Michael  di  Ceaena. — Baluzii  Miscel- 
lanea.    Another  document  contains  the 


sentence  of  the  Inquisition,  and  to  this 
is  appended  his  signature. 

*  See,  for  the  frightful  details,  Vai* 
sette.  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  torn.  iv. 


UHAP.  VI.       JOHN  PERSECUTES  THE  SPIRITUALS.  378 

was  no  Papal  censure  of  the  strict  spiritual  interpre- 
tation of  the  Franciscan  rule :  it  was  the  rather  esta- 
blished by  the  Bull  of  Nicolas  lY. 

The  Inquisition  had  begun  its  work:  it  continued 
under  the  ordinary  Dominican  administration,  under 
which  Franciscan  heretics  were  not  likely  to  find  in- 
dulgence. In  Narbonne,  in  Beziers,  in  Capestang,  in 
Lodeve,  in  Lunel,  in  Pezenas,  those  deniers  of  the  Papal 
authority,  and  so  of  the  tenets  of  the  Church  (this  was 
their  declared  crime),  suffered,  as  one  party  thought, 
the  just  doom  of  their  obstinate  heresy  ;  as  they  them- 
selves declared,  glorious  martyrdom.*^  They  were 
mingled  perhaps  (persecution  is  not  nice  in  its  discrimi- 
nation) with  men  of  more  odious  views,  the  secret  sur- 
vivors of  the  old  Albigensian  or  Waldensian  tenets. 
Many  of  them  were  believed  to  be,  some  may  have  been 
really,  infected  with  such  opinions.  But  those  that 
perished  at  the  stake  were  but  few  out  of  the  appalling, 
numbers.  The  prisons  of  Narbonne  and  Carcassonnf 
were  crowded  with  those  who  were  spared  the  last 
penalty.  Among  these  was  the  Friar  Deliciosus  of 
Montpellier,  a  Franciscan,  who  had  boldly  withstood  the 
Inquisition,  and  was  immured  for  life  in  a  dungeon. 
He  it  was  who  declared  that  if  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul 
should  return  to  earth,  the  Inquisition  would  lay  hands 
on  them  as  damnable  heretics.  At  Toulouse  the  public 
sermons  of  the  Inquisition  took  place  at  intervals,  and 
these  sermons  were  rarely  unaccompanied  by  proofs  of 
their  inefficacy.  Men  who  would  not  be  argued  into 
belief  must  be  burned.  The  corollary  of  a  Christian 
sermon  was  a  holocaust  at  the  stake. 


"  Mosheim  had  in  his  possession  a  martyrology  of  113  Spiritual  martyi' 
from  1318  to  the  Papacy  of  Innocent  VI. 


374 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


As  yet  the  great  question,  the  poverty  of  Christ  and 
Absolute  l^is  Apostles,  had  not  been  awakened  from  its 
poverty,  roposo.  The  Bull  of  Nicolas  lY.  was  still  the 
law ;  but  John  XXII.  was  proud  and  confident  in  his 
theological  learning,  and  not  unwilling  to  plunge  into 
the  perilous  controversy.  The  occasion  was  forced  upon 
him,  but  he  disdained  to  elude  it :  he  seized  on  it  with- 
out reluctance,  perhaps  with  avidity.  He  was  eager  to 
crush  at  once  a  doctrine,  the  root  and  groundwork  of 
these  revolutionary  prophecies  of  John  Peter  Oliva, 
ubertinodi  whicli  had  recently  been  asserted,  with  in- 
casaie.  trcpid  courage,  by  an  eloquent  friar,  Ubertino 
di  Casale.  Ubertino  had  not  only  been  persecuted  in 
Provence,  he  had  been  excommunicated,  and  driven  out 
of  Tuscany  and  Parma,  where  the  Spirituals  had  set  up 
a  new  General,  Henry  de  Ceva,  organised  a  new  Order 
under  provincials,  custodes,  and  guardians,  no  doubt 
with  the  hope  that  from  Sicily  was  even  now  to  come 
forth  the  great  king,  the  deliverer,  the  destroyer  of  the 
carnal  and  wealthy  Church — he  under  whom  was  to 
open  the  fourth  age,  and  to  arise  the  poor,  immaculate, 
Spiritual  Pope.'' 

The   Archbishop  of  Narbonne   and   the    Grand  In- 


*  "See  the  Bull  Gloriosam  Eccle- 
siam.  "  Tarn  detestabili  turbse  pr«- 
ficieutes  magis  idolum  quam  prsela- 
tum."  This  remarkable  Bull  recounts 
the  five  errors  of  the  Spiritual  P'ran- 
ciscans  ; — I.  The  assertion  of  the  two 
churches,  "  unam  carnalem,  divitiis 
pressam,  affluentem  divitiis,  sceleribus 
maculatam,  cui  Romanum  Prsesulem, 
caeterosque  inferiores  Praelatos  domi- 
nari  asserunt ;  aliam  spiritualem,  fru- 
galitate  mundam,  vestitu  decoram, 
paupertate  succinctana  "     II.  The  as- 


sertion that  the  acts  and  Saci-aments 
of  the  clergy  of  the  carnal  church 
were  invalid.  III.  The  unlawfulness 
of  oaths.  IV.  That  the  wickedness 
of  the  individual  priest  invalidated  the 
Sacrament.  V.  That  they  alone  ful- 
filled the  Gospel  of  Christ.  There  is 
a  useful  collection  of  all  the  Bulls 
relating  to  this  Inquisition  at  the  end 
of  N.  Eymeric,  Directorium  Inqui- 
sitorum.  See  for  this  Bull  (datfx^ 
Avignon,  23rd  Jan   1316),  p.  38. 


CHkP.  VI.  BULL  OF  NICOLAS  IV.  375 

quisitor,  Jolin  de  Beaune,  were  sitting  in  judgement  on 
a  Beghard.  They  summoned  to  their  council  all  the 
clergy  distinguished  for  their  learning.  One  of  the 
articles  objected  against  the  Beghard  was  his  assertion 
of  the  absolute  poverty  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles.  The 
Court  were  about  to  condemn  the  tenet,  when  Berenger  de 
Berenger  de  Talon,  only  a  reader,  but  a  man  ^^^°^- 
of  character,  stood  up  and  declared  it  sound,  catholic, 
and  orthodox.  He  would  not  be  put  down  by  clamour ; 
he  refused  to  retract ;  he  cited  the  Bull  of  Pope  Nicolas ; 
he  appealed  to  the  Pope  in  Avignon.  Berenger  ap- 
peared before  John  XXII.  and  his  Consistory  of  Car- 
dinals, maintained  his  doctrine,  was  seized  and  put 
under  arrest.  But  as  yet  the  cautious  Court  proceeded 
no  further  than  to  suspend  the  anathema  attached  to 
the  Bull  of  Pope  Nicolas — the  anathema  against  all  who 
should  reopen  the  discussion.^ 

The  Bull  of  Pope  Nicolas  w^as  the  great  charter  of 
Franciscanism.  The  whole  Order  was  in  commotion. 
A  general  Chapter  was  held  at  Perugia.  The  chapter  of 
Chapter  declared  unanimously  that  they  ad-  ^^'^"sia. 
hered  to  the  determination  of  the  Koman  Church,  and 
the  Bull  of  Pope  Nicolas,  that  to  assert  the  absolute 
poverty  of  Christ,  the  perfect  way,  was  not  heretical, 
but  sound,  catholic,  consonant  to  the  faith.  They 
appealed  not  only  to  the  Papal  Bull,  but  to  a  decree  of 
the  Council  of  Yienne.  Michael  di  Cesena,  the  General 
of  the  Order,  joined  in  the  condemnation :  he  had  signed 
the  warrant  making  over  the  contumacious  brethren  to 
the  secular  arm  at  Marseilles  ;  and  now  Michael  di 
Cesena  defied  the  Papal  power,  arrayed  Pope  against 

y  See  the  Bull  De  Verborum  Significatione.  Walsingham  says  of  the  Statutes 
of  Nicolas  IV.,  "qua  fadunt  non  solum  superbire  Minores,  sedetiam  insanire.'' 
—P.  53. 


876  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

Pope,  and  asserted  the  obnoxious  doctrine  in  the 
strongest  terms.  He  stood  not  alone  :  the  admini- 
strators of  the  Order  in  England,  Upper  Germany, 
Aqnitaine,  France,  Castile,  and  six  others,  affixed  their 
seal  to  the  protest.^ 

The  Pope  kept  no  measures :  he  pronounced  the 
Chapter  of  Perugia  guilty  of  heresy ;  he  issued  a  new 
Bull  of  Pope  Bull;  he  exposed  the  legal  fiction,  sanctioned 
John.  ^y  j^^g  predecessors,  by  which  the  property, 

the  lordship  of  all  the  vast  possessions  of  the  Order, 
was  in  the  See  of  Kome ;  he  taunted  them,  not  without 
bitterness,  with  the  enormous  wealth  which  they  had 
obtained  and  actually  enjoyed  under  this  fallacy;  he 
withdrew  from  them  the  privilege  of  holding,  seeking, 
extorting,  defending,  or  administering  goods  in  the 
name  of  the  Eoman  See.  The  perilous  conclusion  fol- 
lowed. It  was  at  least  menacingly  hinted  that  the 
property  was  still  in  the  original  owners :  whatever 
usufruct  the  Order  might  have  was  revocable.  The 
Brother  Bonagratia,  the  fierce  opponent  of  Ubertino  di 
Casale,  who  had  defended  the  visions  of  John  Peter  Oliva, 
appealed  against  the  Bull ;  he  was  thrown  into  prison. 

The  controversy  raged  without  restraint.  The  Car- 
Thecontro-  diuals  scut  iu  elaborate  judgements,  most  of 
^^^^'  them  adverse  to  the  Chapter  of  Perugia,  some 
few  with  a  milder  condemnation,  some  almost  approving 
their  doctrines.  The  Dominicans,  in  the  natural  course 
of  things,  were  strong  on  the  opposite  party ;  it  was  a 
glorious  opportunity  for  the  degradation  of  their  rivals. 
Under  their  influence  the  University  of  Paris  pro- 
nounced a  prolix,  almost  an  interminable,  judgement 
against  the  Franciscans. 


*  Iwiynald.  sub  ann.  1322. 


Chap.  VI. 


MICHAEL  DI  CESENA. 


377 


On  the  other  hand,  the  most  powerful  dialectician  of 
the  age,  William  of  Ockham,  who  had  already  wmiam  of 
laid  at  least  the  foundations  of  his  great  system  *^'=^^^°^- 
of  rationalistic  pliilosophy,  so  adverse  to  the  spirit  of 
the  age ;  and  who  was  about,  by  severe  argument,  to 
assail  and  to  shake  the  whole  fabric  of  the  Papal  do- 
minion, employed  all  his  subtle  skill  in  defence  of  the 
Spirituals.  Michael  di  Cesena,  by  a  strange  Mkhaeidi 
syllogism,  while  he  condescended  to  acknow-  ^^^^°^ 
ledge  the  inferiority  of  St.  Francis  to  the  Eedeemer, 
inferred  his  superiority  to  Christ,  as  Christ  was  under- 
stood and  represented  by  the  Church.^  St.  Francis 
practised  absolute  voluntary  poverty ;  if  Christ  did  not, 
he,  the  type,  was  inferior  to  the  Saint  his  antitype.  It 
could,  not  be  heretical  to  assert  that  St.  Francis  did  not 
surpass  his  Example ;  Christ  therefore  must  have  done 
all  or  more  than  St.  Francis,  and  practised  still  more 
total  poverty.  He  appealed  to  the  Stigmata  as  the  un- 
answerable evidence  to  their  complete  similitude.  All 
the  citations  from  the  Gospels  and  the  Acts,  which 
showed  that  Christ  and  his  Apostles  had  the  scrip,  the 
purse,  the  bag  (held  by  Judas  ^),  the  sword  of  Peter, 
Christ's  raiment  and  undivided  robe,  were  treated  as 
condescensions  to  human  infirmity .°  This  language  had 
been  authorised  by  the  Bull  of  Pope  Nicolas ;  and  on 
that  distinct  irrepealable  authority  they  rested  as  on 
a  rock.  It  was  clear  that  the  Pope  must  rescind  the 
deliberate  decree  of  his  predecessor.     Nor  was  John  the 


»  Raynald.  sub  aim.  1323. 

•>  See  note  above,  p.  345. 

c  "  Sic  Jesus  Christus,  cujus  per- 
fecta  sunt  opera,  in  suis  actibus  viam 
perfectionis  exercuit,  quod  interdum 
unperfectoium    infiimitatibus    conde- 


scendensjut  viam  perfectionis  extolleret, 
et  imperfectorum  infirmas  semitas  non 
damnaret."  This  passage  refers  to 
the  "loculii"  of  Christ.  So  speaks 
the    Bull    •   Excit,"    vi.   Decret.    Iv. 


378  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

pontiff  wlio  would  shrink  from  the  strongest  display  of 
his  authority.  He  published  two  more  Bulls  in  succes- 
sion. On  the  grounds  of  Sacred  Scripture  and  of  good 
sense  his  arguments  were  triumphant,"^  but  all  his  subtle 
ingenuity  could  not  explain  away  or  reconcile  his  con- 
clusions with  the  older  statute.  Nothing  remained  but 
to  declare  his  power  of  annulling  the  acts  of  his  holy 
ancestor.  That  ancestor,  by  his  Bull,  had  annulled 
those  of  Gregory  IX.,  Innocent  IV.,  and  Alexander  IV.^ 
AU  those  who  declared  that  Christ  and  his  Apostles 
had  no  property,  only  the  use  of  things  necessary,  were 
pronounced  guilty  of  damnable  heresy.  The  Fran- 
ciscans retorted  the  charge,  and  publicly  arraigned  of 
heresy  the  Pope  himself. 

This  strange  strife,  which,  if  any  strife,  might  seem 
Effects  of  the  altogether  of  words,  had  a  far  deeper  signifi- 
controversy.  g^nce,  and  led  to  the  gravest  political  and 
religious  consequences.  Very  many  of  the  Franciscans 
in  Italy,  who  swayed  at  their  will  the  popular  mind, 
became  fierce  Ghibellines.  They  took  part,  as  will 
appear,  with  Louis  of  Bavaria  against  the  Pope.  In 
their  ranks  was  found  the  Antipope.  The  religious 
consequences,  if  not  so  immediately  and  fully  traceable, 
were  more  extensive  and  lasting.  The  controversy  com- 
menced by  forcing  on  a  severe  and  intrepid  examina- 
tion of  the  grounds  of  the  Papal  power.  The  Pope 
finally  triumphed,  but  the  victory  shook  his  throne  to 


*i  Perfection  ought  to  be  content 
with  the  use  of  things  necessary  to 
life.  The  Pope  argued  that  the  use 
of  things  necessary,  food  and  clothes, 


soris  nostri  in  qua  se  fundant,  praeci- 
pu6  aliquid  statuere  comraune,  nee 
sibi  licuit  contra  statuta  Gregor., 
Innocent,    et   Alexand.,    prsadictorum, 


implied  possession.  l  statuere  aut  aliquid  declarare." — Eitr, 

«  "  Si  enim  nobis  non  licuit  contra     John.  tit.  xiv. 
aonstitutionem    Nicolai   IV.    predeces- 


ClIAP.  VI. 


THE  CONTROVERSY. 


371* 


the  centre.  In  1328  Michael  di  Cesena  appeared  before 
the  Pontiff  at  Avignon.  He  withstood  him  to  the  face, 
in  his  own  words,  as  Paul  did  Peter.  He  was  placed 
under  arrest  in  the  full  Consistory.  He  fled  to  Pisa : 
there  he  made  a  formal  appeal  to  a  General  Council, 
accused  the  Pope  of  twelve  articles  of  heresy,  published 
a  book  on  the  errors  of  the  Pope,  and  addressed  a  full 
argument  on  those  heresies  to  the  Princes  and  Prelates 
of  Germany.^  Among  other  bold  assertions  he  laid 
down  as  incontestable,  that  a  Pope  who  taught  or  deter- 
mined anything  contrary  to  the  Catholic  faith,  by  that 
act  fell  under  a  sentence  of  excommunication,  con- 
demnation, deprivation.^  He  called  the  Pope  James  of 
Cahors,  as  though  he  were  deposed.  Among  the  articles 
against  John  was  his  assertion  that  Christ,  immedi- 
ately on  his  Conception,  assumed  universal  temporal 
dominion ;  ^  and  so  the  high  question,  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Pope,  became  a  leading  topic  of  the  con- 
troversy. In  a  dialogue  between  one  of  the  Fraticelli 
and  a  Catholic,^  the  Catholic  urges  all  the  countless 
texts  about  the  dominion  of  Christ,  and  declares  that 
they  must  comprehend  temporal  dominion.  His  title  of 
King  were  but  a  mockery,  if  it  were  not  over  earthly 
Kings  and  over  States,  only  over  the  souls  of  men.  If 
the  Popes  did  not  hold  of  right  temporal  possessions, 
they  were  damned  for  holding  them.  He  recounts  the 
most  famous  of  the  Pontiffs:  "Are  these  pious  and 
holy  men  damned?"     The  Fraticelli  urges  the  infinite 


'  Tractatus  contra  errores  Papae  apud 
Goldastum,  ii.  1235  et  seqq. 

g  "  Unde  Papa  contra  doctrinam 
fjdei  Catholicae  docens,  sive  statuens, 
in  sententiam  excommunicationis,  dam- 
uationis,  privanonis  mcidit  ipso  facto." 


^  He  quotes  against  this  the  hymn 
of  S    Ambrose — 


"  Non  accipit  mortalia. 
Qui  regDa  dat  ccelestia.' 


*    Apud 
t.  2. 


Baluzium,     MisrelLiiica, 


580 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


scandal  of  the  wars  and  dissensions  excited  by  the  Pre* 
lates  of  the  Church  for  worldly  power.  "It  is  mar- 
vellous that  ye  are  willing  in  arms,  and,  in  defence  of 
temporalities,  to  slay  men  for  whom  Christ  died  on  the 
Cross."  "  The  Prelates,"  rejoins  the  Catholic,  "  intend 
not  to  slay  men  (far  be  it  from  them !),  but  to  defend 
the  faith  against  heretics,  and  their  temporalities  against 
tyrants."  The  Catholic  quotes  one  of  the  late  Papal 
edicts.  "  He  (the  Pope)  alone  promulgates  law ;  he 
alone  is  absolved  from  all  law.  He  sits  alone  in  the 
chair  of  the  blessed  St.  Peter,  not  as  mere  man,  but  as 

man  and  God His  will  is  law ;  what  he  pleases 

has  the  force  of  law."^ 

Such  avowed  principles  are  those  rather  of  desperate 
defence  than  of  calmly  conscious  power ;  yet  to  outward 
show  John  XXII.  retained  aU  his  unshaken  authority. 
He  issued  a  Bull,  commencing  with,  "  Since  that  repro- 
bate man,  Michael  di  Cesena."  Though  the  strength 
of  the  General  of  the  Order  was  in  Italy,  yet  even  there 
the  Prelates  of  the  Order,  who  were  by  family,  city 
connexions,  or  opinions,  Guelf,  adhered  to  the  Pope. 
The  Imperialists  in  Germany  were  with  the  rebellious 
General,  but  in  France  he  was  held  as  a  heretic.  The 
more  sober  and  moderate  of  the  Order  assembled,  de- 
posed him,  and  chose  Bertrand  di  Torre  as  the  General 
of  the  Franciscans. 

This  spiritual  democracy  had  more  profound  and  en- 

The  Pas-    during  workings  on  the  mind  and  heart  of  man 

toureaux.   ^j^^^^^  ^^le  ficrcc  Outbreak  of  social  democracy 

which  now,  during  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Long,  again 


''  Extravagant,  de  Institut.  *'  Ipse 
solus  edit  legem,  ipse  solus  a  legibus 
ab.>olutus.      Ipse  est  solus   sedeiis  in 


beati  Petri  cathedra,  non  tanquara 
purus  homo  sed  tanquaix  Deus  et 
homo."— P.  601. 


CHAi'.  VT.  THE  PASTOUREAUX.  381 

desolated  France.  As  in  the  days  of  St.  Louis,  an  in- 
surrection of  the  peasantry  spread  from  the  British 
Channel  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  long 
unrelenting  exactions  of  Philip  the  Fair,  which  had 
weighed  so  heavily  on  the  higher  orders — where  there 
were  middle  classes,  on  them  too — increasing  in  weight 
as  they  descended,  crushed  to  the  earth  the  cultivators 
of  the  soil.  The  peasantry  were  goaded  to  madness ; 
their  madness  of  course  in  that  age  took  a  religious 
turn.  Again,  at  the  persuasion  of  a  degraded  priest 
and  a  renegade  monk,  they  declared  that  it  was  for 
them,  and  them  only,  to  recover  the  sepulchre  of  Christ. 
So  utterly  hopeless  was  it  that  they  should  conquer  a 
state  of  freedom,  peace,  plenty,  happiness  at  home,  that 
they  were  driven  by  force  to  this  remote  object.  By  a 
simultaneous  movement  they  left  evervwhere 

AD    1^20 

their  unploughed  fields,  their  untended  flocks 
and  herds.  At  first  they  were  unarmed,  barefooted, 
with  wallet  and  pilgrim's  staff.  They  went  two  by  two, 
preceded  by  a  banner,  and  begged  for  food  at  the  gates 
of  abbeys  and  castles.  As  they  went  on  and  grew  in 
numbers,  they  seized  or  forged  wild  weapons.  They 
were  joined  by  all  the  wandering  ribalds,  the  outcasts  of 
the  law  (no  small  force).  Ere  they  reached  Paris  they 
were  an  army.  They  had  begun  to  plunder  for  food. 
Everywhere,  if  the  authorities  had  apprehended  any  of 
their  followers,  they  broke  the  prisons.  Some  had  been 
seized  and  committed  to  the  gaols  of  Paris.  They 
swarmed  into  the  city,  burst  open  the  gaol  of  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Martin  des  Champs,  forced  the  stronger 
Chatelet,  hurled  the  Provost  headlong  down  the  stairs, 
set  free  the  prisoners,  encamped  and  offered  battle  in 
the  Pre  aux  Clercs  and  the  Pre  St.  Germain  to  the 
King's  troops.     Few  soldiers  were  ready  to  encounter 


382  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XH 

them.  They  set  off  towards  Aquitaine.  Of  their  march 
to  the  south  nothing  is  known ;  but  in  Languedoc  they 
appeared  on  a  sudden  to  the  number  of  forty  thousand.*" 
In  Languedoc  they  found  victims  whom  the  govern- 
ment, the  nobles,  and  the  clergy  would  willingly  have 
yielded  to  their  pillage,  if  they  could  thus  have  glutted 
their  fury.  The  Jews  of  the  South  of  France,  notwith- 
persecution  Standing  persccutiou,  expulsion,  were  again  in 
of  tte  Jews,  numbers  and  in  perilous  prosperity.  On  them 
burst  the  zeal  of  this  wild  crusade.  Five  hundred  took 
refuge  in  the  royal  Castle  of  Verdun  on  the  Garonne. 
The  royal  officers  refused  to  defend  them.  The  shep- 
herds set  fire  to  the  lower  stories  of  a  lofty  tower ;  the 
Jews  slew  each  other,  having  thrown  their  children  to 
the  mercy  of  their  assailants ;  the  infants  which  escaped 
were  baptised.  Everywhere,  even  in  the  great  cities, 
Audi,  Toulouse,  Castel  Sarrasin,  the  Jews  were  left  to 
be  remorselessly  massacred,  their  property  pillaged. 
The  Pope  himself  might  behold  from  the  walls  of 
Avignon  these  wild  bands ;  but  in  John  XXII.  there 
was  nothing  of  St.  Bernard.  He  launched  his  excom- 
munication, not  against  the  murderers  of  the  inoffensive 
Jews,  but  against  all  who  presumed  to  take  the  Cross 
without  warrant  of  the  Holy  See.  Even  that  same  year 
he  published  violent  Bulls  against  the  poor  persecuted 
Hebrews,  and  commanded  the  Bishops  to  destroy  the 
source  of  their  detestable  blasphemies,  to  burn  their 
Talmuds.°  The  Pope  summoned  the  Seneschal  of  Car- 
cassonne to  defend  the  shores  of  the  Rhone  opposite  to 
Avignon :  the  Seneschal  did  more  terrible  service.  As 
the  shepherds  crowded,  on  the  notion  of  embarking  for 


«  Sismondi  says  that  they  wuie  at  Albi  June  25,  at  Carcassonne  June  29, 
♦.D.  1320.  "  A.D.  1320. 


Thap.  VI  THE  LEPERS.  383 

the  Holy  Land,  to  Aigues  Mortes,  he  cut  off  at  once 
their  advance  and  their  retreat,  and  left  them  to 
perish  of  want,  nakedness,  and  fever  in  the  pestilential 
marshes.  When  they  were  weakened  by  their  miseries 
he  attacked  and  hung  them  without  mercy. 

The  next  year  witnessed  a  more  cruel  persecution, 
that  of  the  Lepers.  There  can  be  no  more 
certain  gauge  of  the  wretchedness  of  the  lowest 
classes  of  society  than  the  prevalence  of  that  foul 
malady,  the  offspring  of  meagre  diet,  miserable  lodging 
and  clQthing,  physical  and  moral  degradation.  The 
protection  and  care  of  this  blighted  race  was  among  the 
most  beautiful  offices  of  the  Church  during  the  Middle 
Ages.°  Now  in  their  hour  of  deeper  wretchedness  and 
sufferings,  aggravated  by  the  barbarous  folly  of  man, 
the  cold  Church  was  silent,  or  rather,  by  her  denuncia- 
tions of  witchcraft  and  hatred  of  the  Jews,  counte- 
nanced the  strange  accusations  of  which  the  j^^  24, 
poor  Lepers  were  the  victims.  King  Philip  sat  ^^^^' 
in  his  Parliament  at  Poitiers.  Public  representations 
were  made  that  all  the  fountains  in  Aquitaine  had  been 
poisoned,  or  were  about  to  be  poisoned,  by  the  Lepers. 
Many  had  been  burned ;  they  had  confessed  their  dia- 
bolic wickedness,  which  was  to  be  practised  throughout 
France  and  Germany.  Everywhere  they  were  seized ; 
confessions  were  wrung  from  them.  They  revealed  the 
plot ;  they  revealed  the  authors  of  the  plot ;  they  were 
bribed  by  the  Jews,  they  were  bribed  by  the  King  of 
Grenada.  The  ingi-edients  of  the  poison  were  named, 
a  wild  brewage  of  everything  loathsome  and  awful; 
human  urine,  three  kinds  of  herbs  (which  they  could 
not  describe),  with  these  a  consecrated  Host  reduced  to 


®  See  vol.  iv.  p.  173,  note. 


384  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

powder.  With  another  it  was  the  head  of  a  serpent,  the 
feet  of  a  toad,  the  hair  of  a  w^oman  steeped  in  some 
black  and  fetid  mixture.  Every  leper,  every  one  sus- 
pected of  leprosy,  was  arrested  throughout  the  realm. 
Some  disputes  arose  about  jurisdiction :  they  were  cut 
short  by  a  peremptory  ordinance  of  the  King  to  clear 
the  land  of  the  guilty  and  superstitious  brood  of  lepers. 
They  were  ordered  to  be  burned,  and  burned  they  were 
in  many  parts  of  France.  A  milder  ordinance  came  too 
late,  that  only  the  guilty  should  be  burned,  that  the 
females  with  child  should  be  permitted  to  give  birth  to 
their  miserable  offspring.  The  innocent  were  shut  up 
for  life  in  lazarets.^ 

The  inexhaustible  Jews  furnished  new  holocausts. 
The  rich  alone  in  Paris  were  reserved  to  gorge  the 
royal  exchequer  with  their  wealth.  The  King  is  said  to 
have  obtained  from  this  sanguinary  source  of  revenue 
the  vast  sum  of  150,000  livres.  The  mercy  of  Charles 
the  Fair  afterwards  allowed  all  who  survived  to  quit 
the  kingdom  on  paying  a  heavy  ransom  to  the  royal 
treasury.^ 


P  Continuat.   Nangis,  p.  78.     Histoire  de  Languedoc,  iv.  79.     Comimre 
Sismondi  ix.  p.  394.  9       Ccntinuator  Nangis. 


Chap.  VII.  JOHN  XXII.— LOUIS  OF  BAVARIA.  3S5 


CHAPTER    Vli. 


John  XXII.     Louis  of  Bavaria. 


If  John  XXII.  by  his  avarice  offended  those  who  held 
absolute  poverty  to  be  the  perfection  of  Christianity,  he 
was  in  other  respects  as  far  from  their  conception  of  a 
true  Pope — one  who  should  be  content  with  spiritual 
dominion,  and  withdraw  altogether  from  secular  affairs. 
His  whole  life  was  in  contemptuous  opposition  to  such 
doctrines.  Of  all  the  Pontiffs — Gregory  VII.,  Innocent 
III.,  Boniface  VIII. — no  one  was  more  deeply  involved 
in  temporal  affairs,  or  employed  his  spiritual  weapons, 
censures,  excommunications,  interdicts,  more  prodigally 
for  political  ends.  His  worldliness  wanted  the  dignity 
of  motive  which  might  dazzle  or  bewilder  the  strong 
minds  of  his  predecessors.  If  he  did  not  advance  new 
pretensions,  he  promulgated  the  old  in  the  most  naked 
and  offensive  form,  so  as  to  provoke  a  controversy, 
which,  however  silenced  for  a  time,  left  its  indelible  in- 
fluence on  the  mind  of  man.  In  his  long  strife  with 
Louis  of  Bavaria,  no  great  religious,  ecclesi-  Louisof 
astical,  or  even  Papal  interests  were  con-  ^a^^"^- 
cerned.  It  was  no  mortal  struggle,  as  for  the  investi- 
tures, for  the  privileges,  or  immunities  of  the  hierarchy. 
Louis  of  Bavaria  was  no  Henry  IV.,  whose  profligate 
life  might  seem  to  justify  the  severe  animosity  of  the 
Pope ;  no  Barbarossa  aiming  at  the  servitude  of  Italy, 
and  of  the  Pope  himself,  to  the  Empire ;  no  Frederick  II. 
enclosing  the  Pope  between  the  territory  of  the  Empire 
VOL.  VII.  2  c 


386 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


and  the  Kingdom  of  Naples,  and  suspected  at  least 
and  accused  of  designs  not  against  the  hierarchy  alone, 
against  the  faith  itself.  Louis,  for  his  age,  was  a  vir- 
tuous and  religious  prince,  who  would  have  purchased 
the  Pope's  friendship  by  any  concessions.  Nor  was  he 
powerful  enough  to  be  formidable.  Nothing  but  the 
implacable  and  unprovoked  hostihty  of  the  Pope  goaded 
him  to  liis  descent  on  Italy,  his  close  alliance  with  the 
Ghibellines,  his  sympathy  with  the  Spiritual  Fran- 
ciscans, his  elevation  of  an  Antipope. 

If  John  XXII.,  9-8  he  was  publicly  accused,^  avowed 
the  wicked  and  un-Christian  doctrine  that  the  ani- 
mosities of  Kings  and  Princes  made  a  real  Pope,  a  Pope, 
as  he  meant,  the  object  of  common  dread ;  if  on  this 
principle  civil  war  amongst  the  Princes  of  Germany  was 
the  peace  and  security  of  the  Church  of  Kome :  never 
did  Pope  reign  at  a  more  fortunate  juncture.  On  his 
accession  John  found  the  Empire  plunged  into  con- 
fusion as  inextricable  as  the  most  politic  or  hostile 
_Pontiff  could  desir^  On  the  sudden  death  of  Henry 
of  Luxemburg  a^..^uble  election  followed,  of  singular 
doubtfulness  and  intricacy  of  title.  Of  the  seven 
Electors,  Louis  of  Bavaria  had  three  uncontested 
voices — old  Peter  Aschpalter,  Archbishop  of  Mentz, 
who,  as  heretofore,  exacted  on  behalf  of  his  See  an 
ample  price  for  his  suffrage  ;  ^  Baldwin  of  Treves,  as 
solemnly  pledged,  and  for  the  same  kind  of  retaining 
fee ;  and  the  Marquis  of  Brandenburg.  The  fourth  was 
King  Louis  of  Bohemia.     For  Frederick,  of  the  great 


a  Ludovici  IV.  Appellatio  apud  Ba- 
luzium.     Vit.  Pap.  Avenion.  ii.  p.  478. 

''  See  in  Boehmer  (Regesta)  the  re- 
peated and  prodigal  gi-ants  to  tiie 
Archbishop  of  Mentz,  less   lavish  to 


the  Archbishop  of  Treves.  On  Jan. 
10,  1315,  he  pledges  Oppenheim,  the 
town  and  castle,  with  other  places,  to 
Peter  Aschpalter,  not  to  the  A  rchbishop, 
ThiiJ  is  not  a  singular  iastance. 


Chap.  VII.  JOHN  5XIL— LOUIS  OF  BAVAEIA.  387 

house  of  Austria,  stood  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne ; 
Rodolph,  Elector  Palatine,  though  brother  of  the  Ba- 
varian ;  and  the  Duke  of  Saxe  Wittemberg.  With 
^  these  was  Heniy  of  Carinthia,  who  laid  claim  to  the 
kingdom  and  suffrage  of  Bohemia.  Besides  this  dispute 
about  the  Bohemian  vote,  the  Prince  of  Saxe  Lauen- 
berg,  on  the  side  of  Louis  of  Bavaria,  contested  the 
Saxon  suffrage.  For  part  of  eight  years  '^  Pope  John  / 
had  the  satisfaction  of  hearing  that  the  fertile  fields  of/ 
Germany  were  laid  waste,  her  noble  cities  burned,  the^ 
Rhine  and  her  affluents  running  with  the  blood  ofl 
Christian  men.  He  might  look  on  with  complacency, 
admitting  neither  title,  and  awaiting  the  time  when  j 
he  would  no  longer  dissemble  his  own  designs.  Even 
Clement  V.  had  dreaded  the  union  of  the  two  realms  of 
France  and  the  Empire  ;  he  had  dared  secretly  to  baffle 
the  plans  of  his  tyrant  Philip  the  Fair,  to  raise  a  prince 
of  his  house  to  the  Imperial  throne.  Either  from  sub- 
servience, from  gratitude,  or  from  some  haughty  notion 
that  a  Pope  in  Avignon  might  rule  the  feeble  princes 
who  successively  filled  the  throne  of  Philip  the  Fair, 
John  determined  to  strive  for  the  elevation  of  the  King 
of  France  to  the  Empire.  In  Italy  it  was  the  deliberate 
policy  of  Pope  John  altogether  to  abrogate  the  Imperial 
claims  of  supremacy  or  dominion;  but  this  was  not 
conceived  in  the  noble  spirit  of  an  Italian  Pontiff,  gene- 
rously resolved,  for  the  independence  of  Italy,  to  raise 
a  powerful  monarchy  in  the  Peninsula,  at  the  hazard  of 
its  obtaining  control  over  the  Pope  himself.  It  was  as  a 
French  Pontiff,  ruling  in  Avignon,  as  the  grateful  vassal 
of  his  patron  Robert  of  Naples,  who  had  raised  him  to 


«  From  the  accession  of  Louis   of  Bavaria,  Oct.  20,  1314,  to  the  battle 
of  Muhldorf,  Sept.  28,  1322.     John,  Pope,  1317. 

2  c  2 


388  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

the  Papal  throne,  and  continued  to  exercise  unbounded 
influence  over  the  mind  of  John,  that  the  Pope  plunged 
Italic  poll-  J^to  the  politics  of  Italy.     The  expedition  of 
tics.  Henry  of  Luxemburg,  and  the  voluntary  exile 

of  the  Popes,  had  greatly  strengthened  the  Ghibellines. 
At  their  head  were  the  three  most  powerful  of  those 
subtle  adventurers  who  had  become  Princes,  the  Yisconti 
in  Milan,  Can  della  Scala  in  Verona,  Castruccio  in 
Lucca.  Eobert  of  Naples  and  the  Kepublic  of  Florence 
headed  the  Guelfs.  Immediately  on  his  accession  Pope 
John  went  through  the  idle  form  of  issuing  letters  of 
peace,  addressed  to  all  the  Princes  and  cities  of  Italy. 
But  tempests  subside  not  at  the  breath  of  Popes,  and 
John  speedily  forgot  his  own  lessons.  Matteo 
Yisconti  ruled  as  Imperial  Yicar,  not  through 
that  vain  title,  but  by  his  own  power  in  the  north.  He 
was  Lord  of  Milan,  Pavia,  Piacenza,  Novara,  Ales- 
sandria, Tortona,  Como,  Lodi,  Bergamo,  and  other  ter- 
ritories.*^  The  Pope  forbade  him  to  bear  the  title  of 
Imperial  Yicar  during  the  abeyance  of  the  Empire. 
Yisconti  obeyed,  and  styled  himself  Lord  of  Milan.  As 
yet  there  was  no  open  hostility ;  but  Genoa  had  expelled 
her  Ghibelline  citizens.  The  exiles  returned  at  the 
head  of  a  formidable  Lombard  force  furnished  by  the 
Yisconti.  The  city  was  besieged,  reduced  to  extremity. 
The  Genoese  summoned  Kobert  King  of  Naples  to  their 
aid ;  they  made  over  to  him  the  Seignory  of  the  city ; 
but  the  new  Lord  of  Genoa  could  not  repel  the  be- 
sieging army,  which  still  pressed  on  its  operations.  On 
the  29th  April,  1320,  Kobert  of  Naples  set  out  to  visit 
the  Pope  at  Avignon.  The  fate  of  Italy  was  determined 
in  their  long  and  amicable  conference.     The  King  had 


Muratori,  Annali  d'  Italia,  sub  ann.  1320, 


Chap  VII. 


EOBEET  OF  NAPLES  VICAR. 


bestowed  on  John  ttie  Popedom,  John  would  bestow  on 
Eobert  the  Kingdom  of  Italy.  The  Cardinal  Bertrand 
da  Poyet,  as  the  enemies  of  the  Pope  and  the  Cardinal 
averred  (and  they  were  not  men  to  want  enemies),  the 
natural  son  of  the  Pope,  was  sent  as  the  Legate  of  the 
Koman  See  into  Lombardy.  The  Pope,  during  the 
vacancy  of  the  Empire  (and  the  Empire,  if  he  had  hia 
will,  would  be  long  vacant),  claimed  the  administration 
of  the  Imperial  realm.® 

In  the  next  year  King  Robert  was  created,  by  the 
Pope's  mandate,  Vicar  of  Italy  during  the  Robert  of 
abeyance  of  the  Empii'e.  The  Pope  was  pre-  vicar. 
pared  to  maintain  his  Vicar,  to  crush  the  audacious 
GhibeUines,  who  had  not  withdrawn  from  the  siege  of 
Genoa,  with  all  the  arms,  spiritual  as  well  as  temporal, 
within  his  power.  The  Inquisition  was  commanded  to 
institute  a  process  of  heresy  against  Matteo  Visconti 
and  his  sons,  against  Can  Grande,  against  Passerino, 
Lord  of  Mantua,  against  the  Marquis  of  Este,  Lord  of 
Ferrara,  and  all  the  other  heads  of  the  GhibeUines. 
The  Princes  protested  their  zealous  orthodoxy ;  their 
sole  crime  was  resistance  to  this  new  usurpation  of  the 
Pope.^  But  the  Pope  relied  not  on  his  spiritual  arms. 
France  was  ever  ready  to  furnish  gallant  Knights  and 
Barons  on  any  adventure,  especially  where  they  might 


«  "  De  jure  est  legendum  quod  va- 
cante  imperio  ....  ejus  jurisdictio, 
regimen  et  dispositio  ad  summum  Pon- 
tificem  devolvantur,  cui  in  peisona 
B.  Petri,  ccfilestis  simul  et  terreni  Im- 
perii jura  Deus  ipse  commisit." — Bull, 
dated  1317.  Compare  Planck,  \. p.  118. 

'  Good  Muratori  had  before  spolien 
ot  the  immoderate  influence  of  Robert 
of  Naples  cer  the  Pope ;  he  proceeds : 


"  Che  i  Re  e  Principi  della  terra  fac- 
ciano  guerra,  e  una  pension  dura,  ma 
inevitabile  di  questo  misero  mondo  .  . 
Ma  sempre  saia  da  desiderare  chh  11 
sacerdozio,  instituito  da  Dio  per  bene 
deir  anime,  e  per  seminar  la  pace,  nou 
entri  ad  adjutare,  e  fomentar  le  ambi- 
tioze  voglie  de'  Principi  terreni,  e 
molto  piii  guardi  dall'  ambizione  w 
' — Annal.  sub  ana.  1320. 


390  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

adorn  their  biilliant  arms  with  the  Cross.  Philip,  the 
son  of  Charles  of  Valois,  descended  the  Alps  at  the 
head  of  three  thousand  men-at-arms  ;  the  Cuelfs  flocked 
to  his  standard  ;  he  was  joined  by  the  Cardinal  Legate. 
But  the  French  Prince,  encompassed  by  the  wily  Yis- 
conti  with  a  large  force,  either  won  by  his  unexpected 
and  politic  courtesy,  or,  as  the  Guelfs  bitterly  declared, 
over-bribed,  at  all  events  glad  to  extricate  himself  from 
his  perilous  position,  retreated  beyond  the  Alps  without 
striking  a  blow.  Still,  though  Vercelli  fell  before  the 
conquering  Yisconti,  the  Cardinal  Legate  maintained 
his  haughty  tone.  He  sent  to  command  the  Milanese 
to  submit  to  the  Vicar  named  by  the  Pope,  King  Robert 
of  Naples:  his  messenger,  a  priest,  was  thrown  into 
prison. 

The  next  year  more  formidable  preparations  were 
made.  A  large  army  was  levied  and  placed  under  the 
command  of  Raymond  de  Cardona,  an  experienced 
General.  Frederick  of  Austria  was  invited  to  join  the 
league :  his  brother  Henry  came  down  the  Alps,  on  the 
German  side,  with  a  body  of  men. 

The  spiritual  battle  was  waged  with  equal  vigour. 
Council  of  ^  Council  was  held  at  Brogolio,  near  Alex- 
Brogoiio.  andria.  Matteo  Yisconti  was  arraigned  as  a 
profane  enemy  of  the  Church,  as  the  impious  and  cruel 
perpetrator  of  all  crimes  and  sins,  the  ravening  depopu- 
lator  of  Lombardy.^  He  had  contumaciously  prevented 
any  one  from  passing  his  frontier  with  the  Papal  Bull  of 
excommunication ;  he  had  resisted  the  Inquisition,  and 
endeavoured  to  rescue  a  heretic  female  named  Man- 
fredi ;  he  was  a  necromancer,  invoked  devils,  and  took 
their  counsel ;  he  denied  the  resurrection  of  the  body ; 


%  Feb.  20,  1322.   Concilium  Brogoliense,  apud  Labbe,  1322. 


Chap.  VII.  HENRI  OF  AUSTRIA.  391 

for  two  years  he  had  resisted  the  Papal  monition.  He 
was  pronounced  to  be  degraded,  deprived  of  his  military 
belt,  incapacitated  from  holding  any  civil  office,  and 
condemned,  with  all  his  posterity,  to  everlasting  infainy.^^ 
The  land  was  under  an  interdict ;  his  estates,  and  those 
of  all  his  partisans,  declared  confiscate ;  indulgences 
were  freely  offered  to  all  who  would  join  the  crusade, 
as  against  a  Saracen.  Henry  of  Austria  was  received  in 
Brescia  with  two  thousand  men-at-arms :  the  Pope  had 
purchased  this  support  by  one  hundred  thousand  golden 
florins.  The  Patriarch  of  Aquileia,  at  the  head  of  four 
or  five  thousand  men,  did  not  fear  to  publish  the  Bull  of 
excommunication.'  But  Henry  of  Austria  found  that  it 
was  not  in  the  interest  of  a  candidate  for  the  Henry  of 
Empire  to  war  on  the  partisans  of  the  Empire.  -^'^*^"^- 
"  I  come,"  he  said  to  the  Guelfic  exiles  from  Bergamo, 
"  not  to  crush  but  to  raise  those  who  keep  their  fealty 
to  the  Empire."  He  refused  forty  thousand  florins  for 
their  reinstatement  in  Bergamo,  and  retired  to  Yerona. 
There  he  was  magnificently  entertained,  received  sixty 
thousand  florins  from  the  Ghibelline  league,  and  retired 
to  Germany. 

Matteo  Yisconti  was  only  more  assiduous,  on  account 
of  his  excommunication,  in  visiting  churches,  by  such 


*  "  Publico  e  confermb  tutte  le  sco- 
muniche  e  gl'  interdetti  contro  la  per- 
sona di  Matteo  Visconti,  de'  suoi 
figliuoli  e  fautori,  e  delle  di  lui  cittk, 
col  confisco  de'  beni,  schiavitu  delle 
persone  come  se  si  trattasse  de'  Sara- 
ceni.  Furono  ancora  aperti  tutti  i 
tesori  delle  Indulgenze  e  del  perdonc 
de'  peccati,  a  chi  prendeva  la  Croce  e 
1'  armi  contra  di  questi  p:6etesi  Eretici. 
— Muratori,  sub  ann.  1322. 

'  Compare    Muratori     during     tne 


years  1319,  1320,  1321,  1323,  for 
the  acts  of  this  furious  Patriarch, 
supported  by  the  no  less  furious 
Legate,  Bertrand  de  Poggetto  (Poyet). 
Foscolo  says,  with  justice,  "  Era  prete 
omicida,  venduto  al  Papa,  e  federate 
satellite  di  quel  Cardinale  di  Poggetto 
il  ouale  un  anno  o  due  dopo  la  morte 
di  Dante  ando  a  Ravenna  a  dissotterrar 
le  sue  ceneri." — Discorso  sul  Testo  di 
Dante,  pp.  20,  305. 


b92 


LATIN  CHEISTIANITY. 


Book  XU 


Jtine  21. 


acts  of  devotion  making  public  profession  of  his  Catholic 
faith ;  but  he  was  seventy-two  years  old :  he 
died  broken  down  by  the  weight  of  affairs,  and 
left  his  five  sons  and  their  descendants  to  maintain  the 
power  and  glory  of  his  house,  who  were  to  provoke,  from 
more  impartial  posterity,  a  sentence  of  condemnation 
for  far  worse  crimes  than  the  heresy  imputed  to  him 
by  Pope  John. 

The  great    battle   of  Muhldorf,   between   the  rival 
Sept.  28, 1322.  clalmauts  for  the  Empire,  chansred  the  aspect 

Battle  of  X'     £P   •       k       T         ■        X?  T>  ■      m    •  i       i         tt- 

Muhldorf.  01  auairs.'^  ijouis  01  JDavaria  trmmphed.  His 
adversary,  Frederick  of  Austria,  was  his  prisoner.  He 
communicated  his  success  to  the  Pope.°^  The  Pope 
answered  coldly,  exhorting  him  to  treat  his  illustrious 
captive  with  humanity,  and  offering  his  interposition, 
as  if  Louis  had  won  no  victory,  and  the  award  of  the 
Empire  rested  with  himself. 

Louis  could  not  doubt  the  implacable  hostility  of  the 
Pope,  at  least  his  determination  not  to  leave  him  in 
quiet  and  uncontested  possession  of  the  Empire.  In 
seK-defence  he  must  seek  new  alliances.  As  Emperor 
now,  by  the  judgement,  he  might  suppose,  of  the  God 
of  battles,  it  was  his  duty  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the 
Empire,  and  those  rights  comprehended  at  least  the 
cities  of  Lombardy.  Kobert  of  Naples  aimed  mani- 
june  13,  festly,  If  not  undisguisedly,  at  the  kingdom  of 
^^^^'  Italy :  it  was  rumoured  that  he  had  assumed 
the  royal  title.     The  Pope  had  proclaimed  him  Yicar  of 


^  Compare  the  account  of  the  battle 
m  Boahmer,  Fontes  Rerum  Germ.  i. 
p.  161  ;  and  Joannes  Victorinus,  ibid, 
p.  393. 

■*  There  is  a  strai^ge  story  in  the 
Lib.  de  Due.  Bavariae  (apud  Boehraer, 


Fontes),  that  Louis,  after  the  battle, 
sent  letters  of  submission  to  the  Pope, 
which  were  flilsified  by  his  Chancellor, 
Ulric  of  Augsburg,  as  those  of  Fre- 
derick II.  had  been  by  Peter  de  Vinca, 
— Fontes,  i.  142. 


Chap.  VII.     PROCESS  AGAINST  LOUIS  OF  BAVARiA.  393 

the  vacant  Empire.  The  Cardinal  Legate  was  in  person 
combating  at  the  head  of  the  armies  which  were  to 
subdue  all  Lombardy  to  the  sway  of  the  Vicar  or  King. 
Louis  entered  into  engagements  with  his  Ghibelline 
subjects.  His  ambassador,  Count  Bertholdt  de  Ny£fen,° 
sent  an  admonition  to  the  Cardinal  Legate  at  Piacenza 
to  commit  no  further  hostilities  on  the  territory  of  the 
Empire.  The  Cardinal  replied  that  he  held  the  terri- 
tory in  his  master's  name  during  the  vacancy  of  the 
Empire ;  he  was  astonished  that  a  Catholic  prince  lik6 
Louis  of  Bavaria  should  confederate  with  the  hereti- 
cal Yiscontis.  Eight  hundred  men-at-arms  arrived  at 
Milan ;  the  city  was  saved  from  the  besieging  army  of 
the  Legate  and  the  King  of  Naples. 

The  Pope  resolved  to  crush  the  dangerous  league 
growing  up  among  the  Ghibellines.  On  October  9, 
1323,  a  year  after  the  battle  of  Muhldorf,  he  p^pg  i^g^j. 
instituted  a  process  at  Avignon  against  Louis  JesslgaSS 
of  Bavaria.  He  arraigned  Louis  of  presump-  ^''"^^• 
tion  in  assuming  the  title,  and  usurping  the  power  of 
the  King  of  the  Komans,  before  the  Pope  had  examined 
and  given  judgement  on  the  contested  election,  espe- 
cially in  granting  the  Marquisate  of  Brandenburg  to  his 
own  son.  Louis  w^as  admonished  to  lay  down  all  his 
power,  to  appear  personally  before  the  Court  of  Avignon 
within  three  months,  there  to  receive  the  Papal  sen- 
tence. All  ecclesiastics,  patriarchs,  archbishops,  and 
bishops,  under  pain  of  deprivation  and  forfeiture  of  all 
privileges  and  feuds  which  they  held  of  the  Church — 
all  secular  persons,  under  pain  of  excommunication  and 
interdict — were  forbidden  to  render  further  fealty  or 
allegiance  to  Louis  as  King  of  the  Romans ;  all  oaths  of 


Joannes  Victorinus,  p,  396# 


394  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

fealty  were  annulled.  Louis  sent  ambassadors  to  the 
Court  of  Avignon,  not  to  contest  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Pope,  but  to  obtain  a  prolongation  of  the  period  assigned 
for  his  appearance.  In  his  apology  he  took  bolder 
ground.  '*  For  ten  years  he  had  been  King  of  the 
Romans ;  and  he  declared  the  interposition  now  ob- 
truded by  the  Pope  to  be  an  invasion  of  his  rights.  To 
the  charge  of  alliance  with  the  Viscontis  he  pleaded 
ignorance  of  their  heretical  tenets.  He  even  ventured 
to  retort  insinuations  of  heresy  against  the  Pope,  as 
having  sanctioned  the  betrayal  of  the  secrets  of  the  con- 
fessional by  the  Minorite  friars.  Finally  he  appealed 
to  a  General  Council,  at  which  he  declared  his  intention 
to  be  present."  ° 

Yet  once  more  he  strove  to  soften  the  inexorable 
Pope.  He  had  already  revoked  the  title  of  Imperial 
Vicar  borne  by  Galeazzo  Visconti.  His  ambassadors 
presented  an  humble  supplication  to  the  Pope  seated  on 
his  throne,  for  the  extension  of  the  time  for  his  appear- 
ance at  Avignon.  The  answer  of  John  was  even  more 
insultingly  imperious.  "  The  Duke  of  Bavaria,  contrary 
to  the  Pontifical  decree,  persisted  in  calling  himself 
King  of  the  Romans ;  not  merely  was  he  in  league  with 
the  Viscontis,  but  had  received  the  homage  of  the 
Marquis  of  Este,  who  had  got  possession  of  Ferrara. 
They  too  were  heretics,  as  were  all  who  opposed  the 
Pope.  Louis  had  presumptuously  disturbed  Robert 
King  of  Naples  in  his  office  of  Vicar  of  Italy,  conferred 
on  him  by  the  Pope."^ 

Against  the  Visconti  Pope  John  urged  on  his  crusade : 
it  was  a  religious  war.  The  Cardinal  Legate  was  de- 
feated  with  great  loss  before  Lodi.    The  Papal  General, 


Dated  Nuremberg,  Oct.  1323.  P  Kaynaldus,  Jan.  5,  1324. 


CiiAP.  VII.  ESCOMMUNICATIOIT.  395 

Raymond  de  Cardona,  was  attacked  and  made  prisoner 
near  Vaprio  :  he  was  taken  to  Milan,  but  made  Capture  of 
his  escape  to  Monza,  afterwards  to  Avignon.  General. 
According  to  one  account,  Galeazzo  Yisconti  had  con- 
nived at  the  flight  of  Cardona.  The  General  declared 
at  Avignon  that  it  was  vain  to  attempt  the  subjugation 
of  the  Yisconti,  but  that  Galeazzo  was  prepared  to  hold 
Milan  for  himself  with  fifteen  hundred  men-at-arms, 
subject  to  the  Pope.*^  John  would  have  consented  to 
this  compact  with  the  heretical  Yisconti,  but  he  could 
not  act  without  the  consent  of  the  King  of  Naples. 
Robert  demanded  that  the  Yisconti  should  join  with  all 
their  forces  to  expel  the  Emperor  from  Italy.  The  wily 
Yisconti  sought  to  be  master  himself,  not  to  create  a 
King  in  Italy.  He  broke  off  abruptly  the  secret  negotia- 
tions, and  applied  himself  to  strengthen  the  fortifications 
and  the  castle  of  Milan. 

The  war  was  again  a  fierce  crusade  against  heretical 
and  contumacious  enemies  of  the  Pope  and  Excommn. 
of  religion.     A  new  anathema  was  launched  ^Jfelzzo^^ 
against   the  Yisconti,   reciting   at  length   all  v^^'^'^""- 
their  heresies,  in  which,  except  their  obstinate  Ghibel- 
linism,   it   is   difficult   to   detect   the   heresy.      It  was 
asserted  that  the  grandmother  of  Matteo  Yisconti  and 
two  other  females  of  his  house  had  been  burned  for  that 
crime.     Matteo,  now  dead,  laboured  under  suspicion  of 
having  denied  the  resurrection  of  the  body.     Galeazzo 
was  thought  to  be  implicated  in  this  hereditary  guilt. 
The  rest  of  the  charges  were  more  likely  to  be  true : 
acts  of  atrocious  tyranny,  sacrileges  perpetrated  during 
war,  which  they  had  dared  to  wage  against  the  Legate 
of  the  Pope. 


Morigia,  1.  iii,  c.  27.     R.  I.  t.  xii.     Muratori,  Ann.  d'  Italia,  sub  ann.  1324. 


896  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII, 

The  Pope  proceeded  to  the  excommunication  of  Louis 
Excommu-  ^^  Bavai'ia.  Twice  had  he  issued  his  process  ; 
STof  ^^  the  two  months  were  passed ;  Louis  had  not 
Bavaria.  appeared.  On  the  21st  of  March  the  sentence 
was  promulgated  with  all  its  solemn  formalities.  Ex- 
communication was  not  all :  still  severer  penalties 
awaited  him  if  he  did  not  present  himself  in  humility 
at  the  footstool  of  the  Papal  throne  within  three  weeks. 
By  this  Bull  all  prelates  and  ecclesiastics  were  for- 
bidden to  render  him  allegiance  as  King  of  the  Eomans ; 
all  cities  and  commonalties  and  private  persons,  though 
pardoned  for  their  contumacy  up  to  the  present  time, 
were  under  ban  for  all  future  acts  of  fealty ;  all  oaths 
were  annulled.  The  Bull  of  excommunication  was 
affixed  to  the  cathedral  doors  of  Avignon,  and  ordered 
to  be  published  by  the  ecclesiastical  Electors  of 
Germany.'' 

Pope  John  had  yet  but  partially  betrayed  his  ulti- 
mate purpose — no  less  than  to  depose  Louis  of  Bavaria, 
and  to  transfer  the  Imperial  crown  to  the  King  of 
France.  Another  son  of  Philip  the  Fair,  Philip  the 
Long,  had  died  without  male  issue.  Charles  the  Fair, 
the  last  of  the  unblessed  race,  had  sought,  immediately 
on  his  accession,  a  divorce  from  his  adulterous  wife, 
Blanche  of  Bourbon.^  The  canon  law  admitted  not  this 
cause  for  the  dissolution  of  the  sacrament,  but  it  could 
be  declared  null  by  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  Pope  on 
the  most  distant  consanguinity  between  the  parties. 
Yet  this  marriage  had  taken  place  under  a  Papal  dis- 
pensation; a  new  subterfuge  must  be  sought:  it  was 

'  Shroeck,  p.  71.  Oehlenschlager,  I  in  her  prison  in  Chateau-Gaillard.  She 
sub  ann.  |  was  pregnant   by  her   keeper,  or  bj 

•  It  was  reported  that  Blanche  of    some  one  else. — Continuat.  Nangis. 
Boarbon  continued  her  licentious  life 


Chap.  VII.  GERMAN  PROCLAMATION.  39? 

luckily  found  that  Clement  V.,  in  his  dispensation,  had 
left  unnoticed  some  still  more  remote  spiritual  relation- 
ship. Charles  the  Fair  was  empowered  to  marry  again. 
His  consort  was  the  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Henry  of 
Luxemburg.  A  Papal  dispensation  removed  the  ob- 
jection of  as  close  consanguinity  as  in  the  former  case — 
a  dispensation  easily  granted,  for  the  connexion,  if  not 
suggested  by  the  Pope,  singularly  agreed  with  his 
ambitious  policy.  It  broke  the  Luxemburg  party,  the 
main  support  of  Louis  of  Bavaria ;  it  carried  over  the 
suffrage  of  the  chivalrous  but  versatile  John  of  Bohemia, 
son  of  the  Emperor  Henry,  the  brother  of  the  Queen  of 
France.  John  of  Bohemia  appeared  with  his  uncle,  the 
Archbishop  of  Treves,  and  took  part  in  all  the  Pentecost 
rejoicings  at  the  coronation  of  his  sister  in  ^^^^" 
Paris.  His  son  w^as  married,  still  more  to  rivet  the 
bond  of  union,  to  a  French  princess ;  his  younger  son 
sent  to  be  educated  at  the  Court  of  France.  Charles 
the  Fair  came  to  Toulouse  to  preside  over  the  Floral 
Games :  thence  he  proceeded  to  Avignon.  The  Pope, 
the  King  of  France,  King  Robert  of  Naples,  met  to  par- 
tition out  the  greater  part  of  Christendom — to  France 
the  Empire,  to  Eobert  the  Kingdom  of  Italy. 

But  the  avowed  determination  to  WTcst  the  Empire 
from   Germany  roused   a   general   opposition 
beyond  the  Ehine.     Louis  held  a  Diet,  early    ^™^^* 
in  the  spring,  at  Frankfort.     The  proclamation  issued 
from   this  Diet   was  in  a  tone  of  high  defiance.*^      It 
taunted  John,  "  who  called  himself  the  XXII.,  as  the 


*  The  long  document  may  be  read 
InBaluzius,  Vitae  Pap.  Aven.  i.  p.  478, 
et   seqq.  ;    imperfectly  in    Raynaldus, 


Boic,  and  in  Goldastus,  dated  at 
Ratisbon,  Aug.  (Christus  Servator  Do- 
mmus),  is  not  authentic,  according  to 


sub  ann.  1324  about  April  24.     An- i  Oehlenschlager  and  Boehmer,  Rcgesta, 
othfr   protest,    in   Aventinus,   Annal.  1  p.  42. 


398 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


enemy  of  peace,  and  as  deliberately  inflaming  war  in 
the  Empire  for  the  aggrandisement  of  the  Papacy." 
"  He  had  been  so  blinded  by  his  wickedness  as  to  abuse 
one  of  the  keys  of  St.  Peter,  binding  where  he  should 
loose,  loosening  where  he  should  bind.  He  had  con- 
demned as  heretics  many  pious  and  blameless  Catholics, 
whose  only  crime  was  their  attachment  to  the  Empire." 
"  He  will  not  remember  that  Constantino  drew  forth  the 
Pope  Silvester  from  a  cave  in  which  he  lay  hid,  and  in 
his  generous  prodigahty  bestowed  all  the  liberty  and 
honour  possessed  by  the  Church.  In  return,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Silvester  seeks  by  every  means  to  destroy  the 
holy  Empire  and  her  true  vassals."  The  protest  ex- 
amined at  great  length  all  the  proceedings  of  the  Pope, 
his  disputing  the  election  of  Louis  at  Frankfort  by  the 
majority  of  the  Electors  and  the  coronation  of  Louis  at 
Aix -la-Chapelle ;  his  absolution  of  the  vassals  of  the 
Empire  from  their  oaths,  "  a  wicked  procuration  of  per- 
jury !  the  act  not  of  a  Yicar  of  Christ,  but  of  a  cruel 
and  lawless  tyrant ! "  It  further  denies  the  right  of  the 
Pope  to  assume  the  government  of  the  Empire  during 
a  vacancy,  as  utterly  without  ground  or  precedent. 
Moreover,  "  the  Pope  had  attacked  Christ  himself,  his 
ever  blessed  Mother,  and  the  Holy  Apostles,  by  re- 
jecting the  evangelic  doctrine  of  absolute  poverty."  ^ 
The  last  sentence  divulged  the  quarter  from  which 


n  "  Non  suffecit  in  Im-perium  .... 
in  ipsum  Dominum  Jesum  Christum 
Regem  Regum,  et  Dominum  Domino- 
rum,  Principem  Regum  terrse,  et  ejus 
sanctissimam  matrem,  quae  ejusdem 
voti  et  status  cum  filio  in  observantid 
paupertatis  vixit,  et  sanctum  Apos- 
tolorum  collegium  ipsomm  denigrando 


vitam  et  actus  insurgeret,  et  in  doc- 
trinam  evangelicam  de  paupertate  altis- 
sima  .  .  .  quod  fundamentum  non 
solum  sua  mala  vita  et  a  mundi 
contemptu  aliena  oonatur  evertere  et 
hseretico  dogmatc,  et  venenata  dc© 
trina,"  &c.  &c.— P  494. 


Chap.  VII.       SPIRITUALISTS  FOR  THE  EMPEROR.  399 

came  forth  this  fearless  manifesto.  The  Spiritual  Fran- 
ciscans were  throughout  Germany  become  the  spiritualists 
staunch  allies  of  the  Pope's  enemy.  Men  of  Emperor. 
the  profoundest  learning  began  vdth.  intrepid  diligence 
to  examine  the  whole  question  of  the  Papal  power — 
men  who  swayed  the  populace  began  to  fill  their  ears 
with  denunciations  of  Papal  ambition,  arrogance,  wealth. 
The  Dominicans,  of  course  adverse  to  the  Franciscans, 
tried  in  vain  to  stem  the  torrent ;  for  all  the  higher 
clergy,  the  wealthier  monks  in  Germany,  were  now 
united  with  the  barefoot  friars.  The  Pope  had  but  two 
steadfast  adherents,  old  enemies  of  Louis,  the  Bishops  of 
Passau  and  Strasburg.  No  one  treated  the  King  of  the 
Romans  as  under  excommunication.  The  Canons  ot 
Freisingen  refused  to  receive  a  Bishop,  an  adherent  ot 
the  Pope.  The  Dominicans  at  Ratisbon  and  Landshut 
closed  their  churches ;  the  people  refused  them  all 
alms ;  they  were  compelled  by  hunger  to  resume  their 
services.  Many  cities  ignominiously  expelled  those 
prelates  who  would  publish  the  Papal  Bull.  At  Stras- 
burg a  priest  who  attempted  to  fix  it  on  the  doors  of  the 
cathedral  was  thrown  into  the  Rhine.  The  Dominicans 
who  refused  to  perform  divine  service  were  driven  from 
the  city."" 

King  Charles  of  France,  trusting  in  the  awe  of  the 
Papal  excommunications  and  the  ardent  promises  of 
the  King  of  Bohemia,  advanced  in  great  state 
to  Bar-sur-Aube,  where  he  expected  some  of 
the  Electors  and  a  great  body  of  the  Princes  of  Ger- 
many to  appear  and  lay  the  Imperial  crown  at  his  feet. 
Leopold  of  Austria  came  alone.  The  German  Queen  of 
France  had  died,  in  premature  childbirth,  at  Issoudon, 


Burgundi,  Hist.  Bavai'.  ii.  86. 


400 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


on  tlie  return  of  the  Court  from  Avignon/  The  con- 
nexion was  dissolved  which  bound  the  King  of  Bohemia 
to  the  French  interest :  on  the  other  side  of  the  Rhine 
he  had  become  again  a  German.  He  wrote  to  the  Pope 
that  he  could  not  consent  to  despoil  the  German  Princes 
of  their  noblest  privilege,  the  election  to  the  Empire. 
The  ecclesiastical  Electors  stood  aloof.  Leopold  was 
resolved  at  any  price  to  revenge  himself  on  Louis  of 
Bavaria,  and  to  rescue  his  brother  Frederick  from  cap- 
tivity.^ The  King  of  France  advanced  thirty  thousand 
marks  to  enable  him  to  keep  up  the  war.  At  the  same 
time  the  Pope  issued  a  fourth  process  against  Louis  of 
Bavaria :  he  was  cited  to  appear  at  Avignon  in  October. 
All  ecclesiastics  who  had  acknowledged  the  King  were 
declared  under  suspension  and  excommunication  ;  all 
laymen  under  interdict.  The  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg 
was  commanded  to  publish  the  Bull.* 

On  the  other  hand,  at  the  wedding  of  Louis  of  Bavaria 
with  the  daughter  of  William  of  Holland  at  Cologne, 
John  of  Bohemia  and  the  three  ecclesiastical  Electors 
Feb.  23, 1324.  had  vouchsafcd  their  presence.     In  a  Diet  at 

Diet  of  Katis-    t-,.,  -p         •       i     >  i    i      n  i         o 

^n.  Katisbon  Louis  laid  before  the  otates  of  the 

Empire   his  proclamation   against  the  Pope,   and  his 


y  She  died  April  1324.  July  5, 
Charles  married  his  cousin-german, 
the  daughter  of  Louis,  Count  of 
Evreux.  The  Pope,  in  other  cases  so 
difficult,  shocked  the  pious  by  per- 
mitting this  marriage  of  cousins-ger- 
man. 

'  See  in  Albert.  Argent,  (apud 
Urstisium)  the  dealings  of  Leopold 
with  a  famous  necromancer,  who  pro- 
mised to  deliver  Frederick  from  prison. 
The  devil  appeared  to  Frederick  as  a 
poor  scholar,  offering  to  transport  him 


away  in  a  cloth.  Frederick  made  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  the  devil  disappeared. 
Frederick  entreated  his  guards  to  give 
him  some  reliques,  and  to  pray  that 
he  should  not  be  conjured  out  of  cap- 
tivity.—P.  123. 

"  July  13.  Villani,  ix.  264.  Mar- 
tine,  Anecdot.  Oehlenschlager,  Urkun- 
denbuch,  xlii.  106.  Raynaldi  (imper- 
fect). The  Pjpe  condemns  Louis  as 
the  fautor  of  those  heretics,  Milanc 
of  Lombardy,  Mu-gilio  of  Padua, 
John  of  Ghent 


Chap.  VII.  MEETmG  AT  EHENSE  401 

appeal  to  a  General  Council.  Not  one  of  the  States 
refused  its  adherence;  the  Papal  Bulls  against  the 
Emperor  were  rejected,  those  who  dared  to  publish 
them  banished.  The  Archbishop  of  Saltzburg  was  de- 
clared an  enemy  of  the  Empire.^  Even  Leopold  of 
Austria  made  advances  towards  reconciliation.  He  sent 
the  imperial  crown  and  jewels  to  Louis ;  he  only  urged 
the  release  of  his  brother  from  captivity. 

Louis,  infatuated  by  his  success,  refused  these  over- 
tures. But  the  gold  of  France  began  to  work.  Leopold 
was  soon  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  Austrian  and  German 
force.  Louis  was  obliged  to  break  up  the  siege  of  Burgau 
and  take  to  flight,  with  the  loss  of  his  camp,  munitions, 
and  treasures.  The  feeble  German  princes  again  looked 
towards  France.  A  great  meeting  was  held  at  End  of  Jan. 
Rhense  near  Coblentz.  The  Electors  of  Mentz  Meeung  of 
and  Cologne,  with  Leopold  of  Austria,  met  ^^^^^s^- 
the  ambassadors  of  the  Pope  and  of  Charles  of  France. 
The  election  of  the  King  of  France  to  the  Empire  was 
proposed,  almost  carried.*'  Berthold  of  Bucheck,  the 
commander  of  the  Teutonic  Order  at  Coblentz,  rose.  He 
appealed  with  great  eloquence  to  the  German  pride. 
"  Would  they,  to  gratify  the  arbitrary  passions  of  the 
Pope,  inflict  eternal  disgrace  on  the  German  Empire,  and 
elect  a  foreigner  to  the  throne?"  Some  attempt  was 
made  to  compromise  the  dispute  by  the  election  of  the 
King  of  France  only  for  his  life ;  but  the  Germans  were 
too  keen-sighted  and  suspicious  to  fall  into  this  snare. 

Louis  had  learned  wisdom.  The  only  safe  course  was 
reconciliation  with  his  rival;  and  Frederick  of  Austria 
had  pined  too  long  in  prison  not  to  accede  to  any  terms 


•"  Aug.     Boehmer  seems  to  doubt  the  Diet  of  Ratisbou. 
c  Albert  Argent.      Raynald.  sub  ann.     Schmidt.     Sismondi,  p.  4;3fc 
VOL.  VII.  2    D 


402 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


of  release.     Louis  visited  his  captive  at  Trausnitz :  the 
Treaty  with    terms  wero  easily  arranged  between  parties  so 


Frederick 


May  4. 


eager  for  a  treaty.  Frederick  surrendered  all 
right  and  title  to  the  Empire ;  Leopold  gave  up  all 
which  his  house  had  usurped  from  the  Empire ;  he 
and  his  brothers  were  to  swear  eternal  fealty  to  Louis, 
against  every  one,  priest  or  layman,  by  name  against  him 
who  called  himself  Pope.  Certain  counts  and  knights 
were  to  guarantee  the  treaty.  Burgau  and  Reisenberg 
were  to  be  surrendered  to  Bavaria ;  Stephen,  son  of 
Louis,  was  to  marry  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Frederick. 
The  Pope  and  the  Austrian  party  were  alike  astounded 
by  this  sudden  pacification.  The  Pope  at  once 
declared  the  treaty  null  and  void.  Leopold 
rushed  to  arms.  Bat  the  highminded  Frederick  would 
not  stoop  to  a  breach  of  faith.  He  had  but  to  utter  his 
wish,  and  the  Pope  had  absolved  him  from  all  his  oaths. 
They  were  already  declared  null,  as  sworn  to  an  excom- 
municated person,  and  therefore  of  no  validity.  The 
Pope  forbade  him  to  return  to  prison  ;  "^  but  he  pubhshed 
letters  declaring  his  surrender  of  his  title  to  the  Empire, 
admonished  his  brother  to  desist  from  hostilities,  and 
endeavoured  to  reconcile  the  Pope  with  Louis.  He 
had  sworn  to  more  than  he  could  fulfil :  he  retm^ned  to 
Munich  to  offer  himself  again  as  a  prisoner.  There 
was  a  strife  of  generosity  ;  the  rivals  became  the  closest 
friends,  ate  at  the  same  table,  slept  in  the 
same  bed.®  The  Pope  wrote  to  the  King  of 
France,  expressing  his  utter  astonishment  at  this  strange 
and  incredible  German  honesty.^ 


July  30. 


«>  Bull  "  Ad  nostrum."  Raynald. 
sub  ann.  Oehlenschlager. 

e  See  the  authorities  m  Schmidt,  p. 
26.'=.. 


f  "  Familiaritas  et  amicitia  illonim 
ducum  incredi bills." —  Raynald,  sub 
ann.  Read  Schiller's  fine  lines,  Deutsche 
Trene,  \Ve)-ke,  b.  ix.  p.  199. 


Chap.  VII.    TREATY  OF  LOUIS  AND  OF  FREDERICK.         403 

The  friends  agreed  to  cancel  the  former  treaty — a 
new  one  was  made.  Both,  as  one  person,  were  to  have 
equal  right  and  title  to  the  Empire,  to  be  brothers,  and 
each  alike  King  of  the  Romans  and  administrator  of  the 
Empire.  On  every  alternate  day  the  names  of  Louis 
and  of  Frederick  should  take  precedence  in  the  instru- 
ments of  state ;  no  weighty  affairs  were  to  be  determined 
but  by  common  consent ;  the  great  fiefs  to  be  granted, 
homage  received,  by  both ;  if  one  set  out  for  Italy,  the 
other  was  to  rule  in  Germany.  There  was  to  be  one 
common  Imperial  Judge,  one  Secretary  of  State.  The 
seat  of  government  was  to  change  every  half  or  quarter 
of  a  year.  There  were  to  be  two  great  seals ;  on  that  of 
Louis  the  name  of  Frederick,  on  that  of  Frederick  the 
name  of  Louis  stood  first.  The  two  Princes  swore  before 
their  confessors  to  keep  their  oath:  ten  great  vassals 
were  the  witnesses. 

This  singular  treaty  was  kept  secret ;  as  it  transpired, 
all  parties,  except  the  Austrian,  broke  out  into  dissatis- 
faction.^ The  Electors  declared  it  an  invasion  of  their 
rights.  The  Pope  condemned  the  impiety  of  Frederick 
in  daring  to  enter  into  this  intimate  association  with 
one  under  excommunication.  Another  plan  was  pro- 
posed, that  Louis  should  rule  in  Italy,  Frederick  in 
Germany.  This  was  more  perilous  to  the  Pontiff:  he 
wrote  to  Charles  of  France  to  reprove  him  for  his 
sluggishness  and  inactivity  in  the  maintenance  of  his 
own  interests. 

The  Austrian  party  under  Leopold    began  to  hope 
that  as  Louis  was  proscribed  by  the  inexorable  Death  of 
hatred  of  the  Pope,  his  Holiness  would  be  per-  Austria. 
suaded  to  acknowledge  Frederick.     The  Archbishops  oJ 


«  Villani,  ix.  c.  34.     Schmidt,  p.  265. 

2  D  2 


404 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY 


Book  XII. 


]\Ientz  and  Cologne,  and  their  brothers  the  Counts  of 
Bucheck  and  Yirneburg,  repaired  to  Avignon.  Duke 
Albert,  the  brother  of  Frederick  and  of  Leopold,  urged 
this  conclusion.  But  the  Pope  was  too  deeply  pledged 
by  his  passions  and  by  his  promises  to  Charles  of 
France :  the  Austrians  obtained  only  bland  and  un- 
meaning words.  The  death  of  Leopold  of  Austria, 
before  the  great  Diet  of  the  Empire,  summoned  to 
Diet  of  Spires,  seemed  at  once  to  quench  the  strife. 

Fer28. 1326.  Frcdcrick  withdrcw  from  the  contest.  Louis 
March.  1326.  of  Bavaria  met  the  Diet  as  undisputed  Em- 
peror ;  he  even  ventured  to  communicate  his  deter- 
mination to  descend  into  Italy,  his  long-meditated  plan 
of  long-provoked  vengeance  against  the  Pope.  There 
were  some  faint  murmurs  among  the  ecclesiastical 
Electors  that  he  was  still  under  the  ban  of  excommuni- 
cation. "  That  ban,"  rejoined  Louis,  "  yourselves  have 
taught  me  to  despise :  to  the  pious  and  learned  Italians 
it  is  even  more  despcable."  ^ 

Louis  of  Bavaria,  now  that  Germany,  if  it  acknow- 
Louis  medi-  ledgcd  uot,  yet  acquiesced  in  his  kingly  title, 
SSiTton  determined  to  assert  his  imperial  rights  in 
^^^^-  Italy.     The  implacable  Pope  compelled  him 

to  seek  allies  in  all  quarters,  and  to  carry  on  the  contest 
wherever  he  might  hope  for  success.  None  of  the  great 
German  feudatories  obeyed  the  summons  to  attend  him. 
They  were  bound  by  their  fealty  to  appear  at  his  coi-o- 
nation  in  Rome,  but  that  coronation  they  might  think 
remote  and  doubtful.     The  Prelates,  the  ecclesiastical 


h  Trithemius,  Chron,  Hirsch.  Boeh- 
mer  observes,  "  Weder  eine  urkuude 
noch  ein  gleichz^itiger  auf  diese  That- 
sach^  hiudeuten.''  He  therefore  rejects 
Liie    -arhole.      But   are   not   the    "  ur- 


ic unde  "  very  imperfectly  preserved, 
and  the  writers  few  and  uncertain  in 
their  notice  of  events?  It  is  of  no 
great  historic  consequence.  The  lead- 
ing facts  are  certain. 


Chap.  VII.  WAR  OF  WRITINGS.  405 

Electors,  would  hardly  accompany  one  still  under  ex- 
communication. An  embassy  to  Avignon,  demanding 
that  orders  should  be  given  for  his  coronation,  was  dis- 
missed with  silent  scorn.  But  the  Ghibelline  chieftains 
eagerly  pressed  his  descent  into  Italy.'  He  appeared  at 
a  Diet  of  the  great  Lombard  feudatories  at  Trent,  with 
few  troops  and  still  more  scanty  munitions  of  At  Trent. 
war.  He  found  around  him  three  of  the  Yis-  1327. 
contis,  Galeazzo,  Marco,  Luchino,  the  jMarquises  of  Este, 
Kafaello  and  Obizzo,  Passerino  Lord  of  Mantua,  Can 
della  Scala  Lord  of  Verona,  Vicenza,  Feltre,  and 
Belluno.  Della  Scala  had  an  escort  of  600  horse,  his 
body-guard  against  the  Duke  of  Carinthia,  with  whom 
he  was  contesting  Padua.  There  were  ambassadors 
from  Pisa,  from  the  Genoese  exiles,  from  Castruccio  of 
Lucca,  and  the  King  of  Sicily.  All  were  prodigal  in 
their  vows  of  loyalty,  and  even  prodigal  in  act.'^  They 
offered  150,000  florins  of  gold.  The  tidings  of  this 
supply  brought  rapidly  down  considerable  bands  of 
German  adventurers  around  the  standard  of  Louis. 

Louis  relied  not  on  arms  alone,  nor  on  the  strength 
and  fidelity  of  the  Italian  Ghibellines.  A  war  y^^^  ^^ 
had  long  been  waging ;  and  now  his  dauntless  ^'"^i"?^- 
and  even  fanatical  champions  were  prepared  to  wage 
that  religious  war  in  public  opinion  to  the  last  ex- 
tremity. He  was  accompanied  by  Marsilio  of  Padua 
and  by  John  of  Jaudun.™  These  men  had  already 
thrown  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  world  in  defence  of 
the  Imperial  against  the  Papal  supremacy. 

Marsilio  of  Padua  was  neither  ecclesiastic  nor  lawyer, 


*  Cortesius  apud  Muratori,  R.  I.  S.  xii.  839.     Albertus  Mussatus,  Pontes,  p.  172 

^  "  Multis  gravis  aeris  dispensis." — Albert  Mussato. 

■'  In   Champagne,  sometimes    erroneously  called  John  of  Ghent, 


406 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


he  was  tlie  King's  physician ;  but  in  profound  theolo- 
Marsiiioof  gical  learning  as  in  dialectic  skill  surpassed 
Padua.  Y)j  few  of  his  age.  Three  years  before,  Marsilio 
liad  published  his  famous  work,  '  The  Defender  of 
Peace.'  The  title  itself  was  a  quiet  but  severe  sarcasm 
against  the  Pope ;  it  arraigned  him  as  the  irreconcile- 
able  enemy  of  peace.  This  grave  and  argumentative 
work,  if  to  us  of  inconceivable  prolixity  (though  to  that 
of  William  of  Ockham  it  is  light  and  rapid  reading), 
advanced  and  maintained  tenets  which,  if  heard  for 
centuries  in  Christendom,  had  been  heard  only  from 
obscure  and  fanatic  heretics,  mostly  mingled  up  with 
wild  and  obnoxious  opinions,  or,  as  in  the  strife  with  the 
Lawyers  or  concerning  the  memory  of  Boniface,  with 
fierce  personal  charges. 

The  first  book  discusses,  with  great  depth  and  dia- 
lectic subtlety,  the  origin  and  principles  of  government. 
In  logic  and  in  thought  the  author  is  manifestly  a 
severe  Aristotelian.  The  second  establishes  the  origin, 
the  principles,  the  limits  of  the  sacerdotal  power." 
Marsilio  takes  his  firm  and  resolute  stand  on  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  or  rather  on  the  Gospel ;  he  distinctly  re- 
pudiates the  dominant  Old  Testament  interpretation  of 
the  New.  The  Gospel  is  the  sole  authoritative  law  of 
Christianity ;  the  rule  for  the  interpretation  of  those 
Scriptures  rests  not  with  any  one  priest  or  college  of 
priests ;  it  requires  no  less  than  the  assent  and  sanction 


■  "  Mosi  legem  Deus  tradidit  ob- 
servandorum  in  statu  vitse  prcesentis, 
ad  contentiones  humanas  dirimendas, 
praecepta  talium  specialiter  continen- 
tem,  et  ad  hoc  proportionaliter  se 
habentem  humanae  legis  quantum  ad 
aliquam  sui  partem.      Verum  hujus- 


modi  praecepta  in  Evangelica  lege  non 
tradidit  Christus,  sed  tradita  vel  ti-a- 
denda  supposuit  in  humanis  legibus, 
quas  observari  et  principantibus  se* 
cundum  eas  omnem  animam  humanam 
obedire  prteoipit,  in  his  saltern  quod  now 
adversaretur  legi  salutis." — P.  215. 


Chap.  VU. 


MARSILIO  OF  PADUA. 


407 


of  a  General  Council.  These  Scriptures  gave  no  co- 
ercive power  whatever,  no  secular  jurisdiction  to  the 
Bishop  of  Kome,  or  to  any  other  bishop  or  priest.  The 
sacerdotal  order  was  instituted  to  instruct  the  people  in 
the  truths  of  the  Gospel  and  for  the  administration  of 
the  Sacraments.  It  is  only  by  usage  that  the  clergy 
are  called  the  Church,  by  recent  usage  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  and  the  Cardinals.  The  true  Church  is  the  whole 
assembly  of  the  faithful.  The  word  "spiritual"  has  in 
like  manner  been  usurped  by  the  priesthood  ;  all  Chris- 
tians, as  Christians,  are  spiritual.  The  third  chapter 
states  fairly  and  fully  the  scriptural  grounds  alleged  for 
the  sacerdotal  and  ])apal  pretensions:  they  are  sub- 
mitted to  calm  but  rigid  examination."^  The  question 
is  not  what  power  was  possessed  by  Christ  as  God  and 
man,  but  what  he  conferred  on  the  apostles,  what  de- 
scended to  their  successors  the  bishops  and  presbyters ; 
what  he  forbade  them  to  assume ;  what  is  meant  by  the 
power  of  the  keys.  "  God  alone  remits  sins,  the  priest's 
power  is  only  declaratory."  The  illustration  is  the  case 
of  the  leper  in  the  Gospels  healed  by  Christ,  declared 
healed  by  the  priest.^  He  admits  what  is  required  by 
the  Sacrament  of  Penance,  and  some  power  of  com- 
muting the  pains  of  purgatory  (this,  as  well  as  transub- 
stantiation,  he  distinctly  asserts)  for  temporal  penalties. 
But  eternal  damnation  is  by  God  alone,  for  God  alone 
is  above  ignorance  and  partial  affection,  to  which  all 
priests,  even  the  Pope,  are  subject.  Crimes  for  which  a 
man  is  to  be  excommunicated  are  not  to  be  judged  by 
a  priest  or  college  of  priests,  but  by  the  whole  body  of 


*  Innocent's  famous  similitude  of 
tlie  sun  and  moon  is,  I  think,  alone 
omitted,  no  doubt  in  disdain. 

P  He  has  another  illustration.     The 


prie.st  is  the  jailor,  who  has  no  judicia* 
power,  though  he  may  open  and  shul 
the  door  of  the  prison. 


408 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


the  faithful."  The  clergy  have  no  coactive  power  even 
over  heretics,  Jews  or  infidels.  Judgement  over  them 
is  by  Christ  alone,  and  in  the  other  world.  They  are 
to  be  punished  by  the  temporal  power  if  they  offend 
against  human  statutes.^  The  immunities  of  the  clergy 
from  temporal  jurisdiction  are  swept  away  as  irrecon- 
cileable  with  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the  State.  If 
the  clergy  were  entirely  withdrawn  from  temporal  au- 
thority, all  would  rush  into  the  order,  especially  since 
Boniface  VIII.  extended  the  clerical  privilege  to  those 
who  had  the  simple  tonsure.  Poverty  with  contempt  of 
the  world  was  the  perfection  taught  by  Christ  and  his 
apostles,  and  therefore  the  indelible  characteristic  of  all 
bishops  and  priests.  Now  the  clergy  accumulate  vast 
wealth,  bestow  or  bequeath  it  to  their  heirs,  or  lavish  it 
on  horses,  servants,  banquets,  the  vanity  and  voluptu- 
ousness of  the  world.  Marsilio  does  not,  with  the  rigour 
of  Spiritual  Franciscanism,  insist  on  absolute  mendi- 
cancy :  sustenance  the  clergy  might  have,  and  no  more ; 
with  that  they  should  be  content.  Tithes  are  a  direct 
usurpation.  The  Apostles  were  all  equal ;  the  Saviour 
is  to  be  believed  rather  than  old  tradition,  which  in- 
vested St.  Peter  with  coercive  power  over  the  other 
Apostles.      Still  more  do  the  Decretals  err,  that  the 


1  «  Universitas  Fidelium,"  p.  208. 

'  This  is  remarkable.  "  Quod  si 
humana  lege  prohibitum  fuerit,  hsere- 
ticum  aut  aliter  infidelem  in  regione 
manere,  qui  talis  in  ipsa  repertus 
fuerit,  tanquam  legis  humance  trans- 
gressor eadem  poena  vel  supplicio  huic 
transgressioni  eadwn  lege  statutis,  in 
hoc  sceculo,  debot  arceri.  Si  vero 
haereticum  aut  aliter  infidelem  com- 
morari  fidelibus  eddem  provincia  non 


fuerit  prohibitum  humana  lege,  quem- 
adraodum  hsereticis  et  semini  Judaeo- 
rum  seu  humanis  legibus  permissum 
extitit  etiam  temporibus  Christianorura 
populorum  principum  atque  pontifi- 
cum,  dico  cuipiam  non  licere  hajre- 
ticum  vel  aliter  infidelem  quenquam 
judicare  vel  arcere  pcena  vel  suyplicio 
reali  aut  personali  pro  statu  vitse  pra; 
sentij.  "—P.  217. 


Chap.  VII. 


BISHOP  OF  ROME. 


409 


Bishop  of  Rome  has  authority  over  the  temporalities, 
not  only  of  the  clergy,  but  of  emperors  and  kings.  The 
Bishop  of  Rome  can  in  no  sense  be  called  the  successor 
of  St.  Peter :  first,  because  no  apostle  was  appointed 
by  the  divine  law  over  any  peculiar  people  or  land  ; 
secondly,  because  he  was  at  Antioch  before  Rome. 
Paul,  it  is  known,  was  at  Rome  two  years.  He,  if  any 
one,  having  taught  the  Romans,  was  Bishop  of  Rome : 
it  cannot  be  shown  from  the  Scriptures  that  St.  Peter 
was  Bishop  of  Rome,  or  that  he  was  ever  at  Rome.  It 
is  incredible  that  if  he  were  at  Rome  before  St.  Paul, 
he  should  not  be  mentioned  either  by  St.  Paul  or  by  St. 
Luke  in  the  Acts.^  Constantino  the  Great  first  emanci- 
pated the  priesthood  from  the  coercive  authority  of  the 
temporal  prince,  and  gave  some  of  them  dignity  and 
power  over  other  bishops  and  churches.  But  the  Pope 
has  no  power  to  decree  any  article  of  faith  as  necessary 
to  salvation.*  The  Bull  therefore  of  Boniface  VIII. 
("Unam  Sanctam")  was  false  and  injurious  to  all  mankind 
beyond  all  imaginable  falsehood."  A  General  Council 
alone  could  decide  such  questions,  and  General  Councils 
could  only  be  summoned  by  the  civil  sovereigns.  The 
primacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  no  more  than  this  : 
that  having  consulted  with  the  clergy  on  such  or  on 
other  important  matters,  he  might  petition  the  sove- 
reign to  summon  a  General  Council,  preside,  and  with 
the  full  consent  of  the  Council  draw  up  and  enact  laws 


■  It  is  curious  to  find  this  argument 
60  well  put  in  the  fourteenth  century. 

*  The  author  examines  the  famous 
saying  ascribed  to  St.  Augustine, 
"  Ego  vero  non  crederem  Evangelio, 
nisi  me  Catholicse  Ecclesiae  commo- 
veret    auctoritas."      He    meant    the 


testimony  of  the  Church  (the  col- 
lective body  of  Christians)  that  these 
writings  really  proceeded  from  Apos- 
tles and  Evangelists. 

"  "  Cunctis  civiliter  viventibus  prae- 
judicialissimum  omnium  excogitabi* 
lium  falsorum." — P.  258. 


410  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Bees  XII. 

As  to  the  coronation  of  the  Emperor  at  Eome,  and  the 
confirmation  of  his  election  by  the  Pope,  the  first  was  a 
ceremony  in  which  the  Pope  had  no  more  power  than 
the  Archbishop  of  Rheims  at  the  anointing  of  the  Kings 
of  France.  The  simplicity  alone,  not  to  say  the  pusil- 
lanimity, of  certain  Emperors  had  permitted  the  Bishops 
of  Rome  to  transmute  this  innocent  usage  into  an  arbi- 
trary right  of  ratifying  the  election ;  and  so  of  making 
the  choice  of  the  seven  Electors  of  as  little  value  as  that 
of  the  meanest  of  mankind.'' 

The  third  book  briefly  draws  forty-one  conclusions 
from  the  long  argument.  Among  these  were, — the 
Decretals  of  the  Popes  can  inflict  no  temporal  penalty 
unless  ratified  by  the  civil  Sovereign ;  there  is  no  power 
of  dispensation  in  marriages  ;  the  temporal  power  may 
limit  the  number  of  the  clergy  as  of  churches ;  no 
canonisation  can  take  place  but  by  a  General  Council ; 
a  General  Council  may  suspend  or  depose  a  Bishop  of 
Rome. 

The  '  Defender  of  Peace"'  was  but  one  of  several 
writings  in  the  same  daring  tone.  There  was  a  second 
by  Marsilio  of  Padua  on  the  Translation  of  the  Empire. 
Another  was  ascribed,  but  erroneously,  to  John  of 
Jaudun,  on  the  nullity  of  the  proceedings  of  Pope  John 
against  Louis  of  Bavaria.  Above  all  the  famous  School- 
wiuiam  of  T^SiU,  William  of  Ockham,  composed  two  works 
ockham.  ^Q^-^Q  |j^  "ninety  days")  of  an  enormous  pro- 
lixity and  of  an  intense  subtlety,  such  as  might,  accord- 
ing to  our  notions,  have  palled  on  the  dialectic  passions 
of  the  most  pugnacious  university,  or  exhausted  the 
patience  of  the  most  laborious  monk  in  the  most  drowsy 


tiibuei-e. 


Tantam  enim  septen/  tcnsores  aut  lippi  possenl  Romano  Kegi  auctorilatcn 
re." 


Chap.  VII. 


WILLIAM  OF  OCKHAM. 


411 


cloister.^  But  no  doubt  there  were  lighter  and  more 
inflammatory  addresses  poured  in  quick  succession  into 
the  popular  ear  by  the  Spiritual  Franciscans,  and  by  all 
who  envied,  coveted,  hated,  or  conscientiously  believed 
the  wealth  of  the  clergy  fatal  to  their  holy  office — by  all 
who  saw  in  the  Pope  a  political  despot  or  an  Antichrist. 
At  Trent,  Louis  of  Bavaria  and  his  fearless  counsellors 
declared  the  Pope  a  heretic,  exhibited  sixteen  articles 
against  him,  and  spoke  of  him  as  James  the  Priest. 

So  set  forth  another  German  Emperor,  unwarned, 
apparently  ignorant  of  all  former  history,  to  run  the 
same  course  as  his  predecessors — a  triumphant  passage 
tiirough  Italy,  a  jubilant  reception  in  Rome,  a  splendid 
coronation,  the  creation  of  an  Antipope ;  then  dissatis- 
faction, treachery,  revolt  among  his  partisans,  soon 
weary  of  the  exactions  wrung  from  them,  but  which 
were  absolutely  necessary  to  maintain  the  idle  pageant ; 
his  German  troops  wasting  away  with  their  own  excesses 
and  the  uncongenial  climate,  and  cut  off  by  war  oi 
fever;  an  ignominious  retreat  quickening  into  flight; 
the  wonder  of  mankind  sinldng  at  once  into  contempt ; 
the  mockery  and  scoffing  joy  of  his  inexorable  foes. 

From    Trent   Louis   of  Bavaria,   with   six   hundred 
German  horse,  passed  by  Bergamo,  and  arrived  Loyis  in 
at  Como  ;  from  thence,  his  forces  e^atherine:  as  March  15. 

'  '  °  ^  March  18. 

he  advanced,  he  entered  Milan.    At  Pentecost  March  22. 

May  n. 

he  was  crowned  in  the  Church  of  St.  Ambrose.  May  30. 
The  Archbishop  of  Milan  was  an  exile.     Three  excom- 
municated   Bishops    (Federico   di   Maggi    of   Brescia, 
Guido  Tarlati  the  turbulent   Prelate   of  Arezzo,   and 


-7  The  two,  the  Dialogus,  and  the 
Opus  Nonaginta  Dierum,  which  com- 
prehends  the    Compendium    Enorum 


Papse,  occupv  nearly  1000  pages,  print- 
ed in  the  very  closest  type,  in  Goldasti 
Monarchia,  vol.  ii.  p.  ''.13  to  1235. 


412  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Xii 

Henry  of  Trent)  set  the  Iron  Crown  on  the  head  of  tlio 
Kiner  of  the  Komans :  his  wife,  Margarita,  was 

At  Milan.  °       ,         .  .  _     ^  n         ■,  ^         r^  t    ii 

crowned  with  a  diadem  oi  gold.  Can  del  la 
Scala  was  present  with  fifteen  hundred  horse,  and  most 
of  the  mighty  Ghibelline  chieftains.  Galeazzo  Yisconti 
was  confirmed  as  Imperial  Vicar  of  Milan,  Pavia,  Lodi, 
Vercelh ;  but  hardly  two  months  had  elapsed 
when  Galeazzo  was  arrested,  imprisoned, 
threatened  with  the  loss  of  his  head,  if  Monza  was  not 
surrendered.  The  commander  of  the  castle  hesitated, 
but  was  forced  to  yield.  The  cause  of  this  quarrel  is 
not  quite  certain.  The  needy  Bavarian  pressed  for  the 
full  payment  of  the  covenanted  contribution.  Galeazzo, 
it  is  said,  haughtily  replied  that  the  Emperor  must  wait 
his  time.^  Galeazzo  knew  that  Milan  groaned  under  his 
exactions.  Two  of  his  own  brothers  were  weary  of  Gale- 
azzo's  tyranny.  Louis  at  once  caught  at  popularity,  and 
released  himself  from  the  burthen  of  gratitude,  from  the 
degrading  position  of  being  his  vassal's  vassal.  The 
Visconti  was  therefore  cast  into  prison,^  all  his  proud 
house  were  compelled  to  seek  concealment ;  but  it  was  a 
fatal  blow  to  the  party  of  Louis.  The  Ghibelline  tyrants 
had  hoped  to  rule  under  the  name  of  the  Emperor,  not 
to  be  ruled  by  him.^  The  Guelf  secretly  rejoiced:  "  God 
is  slaying  our  enemies  by  our  enemies." 

Louis  having  extorted  200,000  florins  from  Milan  and 
Aug.  13.     the  other  cities,  advanced  unopposed  towards 

At  Lucca.  '  .  5f 

Sept.  6.       luscany.     He  was  received  with  great  pomp 
by  Castruccio  of  Lucca,  but  imperialist  Pisa  closed  her 


*  Villani.  Morigia,  Hist.  Modoet.  j  nervoque  pedes  astringi  fecit." — Albert 
R.  I.  S.  t.  xxii.  Mussat.— P.  776. 

a  "  Interim  Galeaz  superbum  atque  •>  "  Animadversio  hsec  a  Ludovico  in 
iiisolentem,  ac  facere  lecusantem  in  Vice Comites facta tyrannis ceteris Lom- 
altum    profunduin   carcerem    detrudi    bardiae  ingentes  terrores  incussit." — lb. 


Chap.  VII. 


CECCO  D'ASCOLI. 


41C 


gates  against  the  ally  of  her  deadly  enemy;  nor  till 
after  she  had  suffered  a  long  siege  was  Pisa  AtPisa, 
compelled  to  her  old  obedience :  she  paid  ^^'^^  ^• 
heavily  for  her  brief  disloyalty."  This  was  the  only 
resistance  encountered  by  the  Bavarian.  The  ^prn  3 
Pope  meanwhile  had  launched  in  vain,  and  for  ^^^^• 
a  fifth  time,  his  spiritual  thunders.  For  his  impious 
acts  at  Trent,  Louis  was  declared  to  have  forfeited  all 
fiefs  he  held  of  the  Church  or  of  the  Empire,  especially 
the  Dukedom  of  Bavaria.  He  was  again  cited  to  appear 
before  the  judgement-seat  at  Avignon,  to  receive  due 
penalty  for  his  sins ;  all  Christians  were  enjoined  to 
withhold  every  act  of  obedience  from  him  as  ruler. '^ 
But  no  Guelfic  chieftain,  no  State  or  city,  stood  forward 
to  head  the  crusade  commanded  by  the  Pope.  Florence 
remained  aloof,  though  under  the  Duke  of  Calabria ; 
the  proceedings  of  the  Pope  against  Louis  of  Bavaria 
were  published  by  the  Cardinal  Orsini.  Her  only  act 
was  the  burning,  by  the  Inquisitor,  of  the  astrologer, 
Cecco  d'Ascoli,  whose  wild  predictions  were  said  to 
have  foreshown  the  descent  of  the  Bavarian  and  the 
aggrandisement  of  Castruccio.  Cecco's  book,  according 
to  the  popular  statement,  ascribed  all  human  events  to 
the  irresistible  influence  of  the  stars.  The  stars  them- 
selves were  subject  to  the  enchantments  of  malignant 
spirits.  Christ  came  into  the  world  under  that  fatal 
necessity,  lived  a  coward  life,  and  died  his  inevitable 
death.  Under  the  same  planetary  force,  Antichrist  was 
to  come  in  gorgeous  apparel  and  great  power.® 


c  "  E  bisognavagli  pero  ch'  ella  e  sua 
gente  eiano  molto  poveri." — Villani. 

d  Apud  Martene,  p.  471. 

•  Vill'ai,  cxxxix.  Compare  de  Sade, 
Vie  de  Petiaique,  i.  p.  48.     He  says 


that  there  is  in  the  Vatican  a  MS.. 
"  Profetie  di  Cecco  d'  Ascoli."  I  have 
examined,  1  will  not  say  read,  Cecco's 
poem,  "  L'Acerba,"  half  astrology, 
half  natural  history,  and   must  sub- 


414 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Bock  XII. 


Eome  had  already  sent  a  peremptory  summons  to 
Embassy  of  the  Popo  to  retum  and  take  up  his  residence 
John  XXII.  in  the  sacred  city.  If  he  did  not  obey,  they 
threatened  to  receive  the  King  of  Bavaria.  A  Court 
they  would  have  :  if  not  the  Pope's,  that  of  the  Emperor. 
The  Pope  replied  with  unmeaning  promises  and  solemn 
admonitions  against  an  impious  alliance  with  the  perse- 
cutor of  the  Church/  The  Komans  had  no  faith  in  his 
promises,  and  despised  his  counsels.  Napoleon  Orsini 
and  Stephen  Colonna,  both  in  the  interests  of  Eobert  of 
Naples,  were  driven  from  the  city.  Sciarra  Colonna,  a 
name  fatal  to  Popes,  was  elected  Captain  of  the  people. 
A  large  Neapolitan  force  landed  at  Ostia,  and 
broke  into  the  Leonine  city.  The  bell  of  the 
Capitol  tolled,  the  city  rose,  the  invaders  were  repelled 
with  great  slaughter. 

From  Pisa,  where  he  had  forced  a  contribution  of 
Jan.  1328.        200,000  florius,  20,000  from  the  clergy,  Louis 

Louis  advances       n    -t-t  •  i  •  i  i 

to  Rome.  01  i3avaria  made  a  wmter  march  over  the 
Maremma  to  Yiterbo.  His  partisans  (Sciarra  Colonna, 
Jacopo  Savelli,  Tebaldo  di  St.  Eustazio)  were  masters 
of  the  city.  To  soothe  the  people  they  sent  ambassadors 
to  demand  certain  terms.  Louis  ordered  Castruccrlo 
Lord  of  Lucca,  to  reply.  Castruccio  signed  to  the 
trumpeters  to  sound  the  advance.  "  This  is  the  answer 
of  my  Lord  the  Emperor."     In  five  days  Louis  was 


Sept.  23. 


scribe  to  De  Sade's  verdict :  "  S'il 
n'e'toit  pas  plus  sorcier  que  poete, 
comme  il  y  a  apparence,  on  lui  fit 
grande  injustice  en  le  briilant." — P. 
50.  There  are,  however,  some  curious 
passages  in  which  he  attacks  Dante, 
not,  as  Pignotti  (v.  iii.  p.  1)  unfairly 
says,  thinking  himself  a  better  poet, 


but    reprehending     his    philosophical 
doctrines — 

"  In  cio  peccasti,  fiorentin  poeta, 
Ponendo  che  gli  ben  della  fortuna 
Necessitate  sieno  con  lor  metii. 

*         *         *  *         ♦ 

Fortuna  non  e  altro  che  disposto 
Cie'.o,  che  dispone  cosa  animata,"  clc. 
—p.  XXXV. ;  see  alsvi  lij. 
Albert  Mussato,  p.  173. 


Chap.  VII.  CORONATION  OF  LOUIS.  415 

within  the  city ;  there  was  no  opposition ;  his  advent 
was  welcomed,  it  was  said,  like  that  of  God.^  His 
march  had  been  swelled  by  numbers:  the  city  was 
crowded  with  swarms  of  the  Spiritual  Franciscans ;  with 
all  who  took  part  with  their  General,  Michael  di  Cesena, 
against  the  Pope ;  with  the  Fraticelli ;  with  the  poorer 
clergy,  who  desired  to  reduce  the  rest  to  their  own 
poverty,  or  who  were  honestly  or  hypocritically  possessed 
with  the  fanaticism  of  mendicancy.  The  higher  and 
wealthier,  as  well  of  the  clergy  as  of  the  monastic 
Orders,  and  even  the  friars,  withdrew  in  fear  or  disgust 
before  this  democratic  inroad.  The  churches  were 
closed,  the  convents  deserted,  hardly  a  bell  tolled,  the 
services  were  scantily  performed  by  schismatic  or  ex- 
communicated priests. 

Yet  the   procession   to   the   coronation   of  Louis  of 
Bavaria  was  as  magnificent  as  of  old.     The  coronation. 

T-,  111  1  j>i  Sunday, 

Emperor  passed  through  squadrons  oi  at  least  Jan.  17. 
five  thousand  horse ;  the  city  had  decked  itself  in  all  its 
splendour;  there  was  an  imposing  assemblage  of  the 
nobles  on  the  way  from  S.  Maria  Maggiore  to  St. 
Peter's  ;  but  at  the  coronation  the  place  of  the  Pope  or 
of  delegated  Cardinals  was  ill  supplied  by  the  Bishop  of 
Venetia  and  the  Bishop  of  Aleria,  known  only  as  under 
excommunication.  The  Count  of  the  Lateran  Palace 
was  wanting :  Castruccio  was  invested  with  that  dignity. 
Castruccio  (clad  in  a  crimson  vest,  embroidered  in  front 
with  the  words,  "  'Tis  he  whom  God  wills,"  behind, 
"  He  will  be  whatever  God  wills")  was  afterwards 
created,  amid  loud  popular  applause,  Senator  and  Impe- 


8  "  Populus  Romanus  ut  Deo  ab  exceJsis  veniente,  gavisus  ilium  magnis 
alacritatibus,  praeconiorumque  applausibis  excepit." — Albert  Mussjto,  S.  K.  i. 
p.  772, 


116  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

rial  Vicar  of  Kome.  Three  laws  were  promulgated : 
one  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Catholic  faith,  one  on 
the  revenues  due  to  the  clergy  (a  vain  attempt  to 
propitiate  their  favour),  one  in  defence  of  widows  and 
orphans. 

Louis  could  not  pause  :  he  was  but  half  avenged  upon 
his  implacable  enemy.  He  was  not  even  secure;  so 
long  as  John  was  Pope,  he  was  not  Emperor ;  he  was 
under  the  ban  of  excommunication.  He  had  been 
driven  to  extremity ;  there  was  no  extremity  to  which 
he  must  not  proceed.  He  had  not  satisfied  nor  paid  the 
price  of  their  attachment  to  his  Mendicant  partisans. 
On  the  Place  before  St.  Peter's  Church  was  erected  a 
lofty  stao^e.     The  Emperor  ascended  and  took 

April  18.      ,.*''='  ^        -  ,  - 

his  seat  on  a  gorgeous  throne:  he  wore  the 
purple  robes,  the  Imperial  crown ;  in  his  right  hand  he 
bore  the  golden  sceptre,  in  his  left  the  golden  apple. 
Around  him  were  Prelates,  Barons,  and  armed  Knights ; 
the  populace  filled  the  vast  space.  A  brother  of  the 
Order  of  the  Eremites  advanced  on  the  stage,  and  cried 
aloud,  *'Is  there  any  Procurator  who  will  defend  the 
Priest  James  of  Cahors,  who  calls  himseK  Pope  John 
XXII.  ?  "  Thrice  he  uttered  the  summons ;  no  answer 
was  made.  A  learned  Abbot  of  Germany  mounted  the 
stage,  and  made  a  long  sermon  in  eloquent  Latin,  on 
the  text,  "This  is  the  day  of  good  tidings."  The 
topics  were  skilfully  chosen  to  work  upon  the  turbulent 
audience.  "  The  holy  Emperor  beholding  Kome,  the 
head  of  the  world  and  of  the  Christian  faith,  deprived 
both  of  her  temporal  and  her  spiritual  throne,  had  left 
his  own  realm  and  his  young  children  to  restore  her 
dignity.  At  Kome  he  had  heard  that  James  of  Cahors, 
called  Pope  John,  had  determined  to  change  the  titles 
of  the  Cardinals,  and  transfer  them  also  to  Avignon; 


Chap.  vn.  THE  POPE  DEPOSED.  417 

that  he  liad  proclaimed  a  crusade  against  tlio  lloman 
people  :  therefore  the  Syndics  of  the  Roman  clergy,  and 
the  representatives  of  the  Roman  people,  had  entreated 
him  to  proceed  against  the  said  James  of  Cahors  as 
a  heretic,  and  to  provide  the  Church  and  people  of 
Rome,  as  the  Emperor  Otho  had  done,  with  a  holy  and 
faithful  Pastor."  He  recounted  eight  heresies  of  John. 
Among  them,  "  he  had  been  urged  to  war  against  the 
Saracens :  he  had  replied,  '  We  have  Saracens  enough 
at  home.' "  He  had  said  that  Christ,  "  whose  poverty 
was  among  his  perfections,  held  property  in  common 
with  his  disciples."  He  had  declared,  contrary  to  the 
Gospel,  Avhich  maintains  the  rights  of  Caesar,  and  asserts 
the  Pope's  kingdom  to  be  purely  spiritual,  that  to  him 
(the  Pope)  belongs  all  power,  temporal  as  well  as 
spiritual.  For  these  crimes,  therefore,  of  heresy  and 
treason,  the  Emperor,  by  the  new  law,  and  by  other 
laws,  canon  and  civil,  removed,  deprived,  and  ^he  Pope 
cashiered  the  same. James  of  Cahors  from  his  "i^p^sed. 
Papal  office,  leaving  to  any  one  who  had  temporal 
jurisdiction  to  execute  upon  him  the  penalties  of  heresy 
and  treason.  Henceforth  no  Prince,  Baron,  or  com- 
monalty was  to  own  him  as  Pope,  under  pain  of 
condemnation  as  fautor  of  his  treason  and  heresy :  half 
the  penalty  was  to  go  to  the  Imperial  treasury,  half  to 
the  Roman  people.^  He,  Louis  of  Bavaria,  promised 
in  a  few  days  to  provide  a  good  Pope  and  a  good  Pastor 


*  According  to  the  statement  of 
Louis,  still  more  atrocious  charges 
were  inserted  into  this  sentenc-e  of  de- 
position, by  Udalric  of  Gueldres,  the 
Emperor's  secretary.  Louis  being  a 
rude  soldier,  ignorant  of  Latin,  knew 
nothing,  as  he  afterwards  deckred  to  [ 

VOL.  VII.  2    E 


Benedict  XIL,  of  fhese  thisgs  (Ray- 
nald.  sub  ann.  1336).  Udalric  did 
this  out  of  secret  enmity  to  the  Em- 
peror, to  commit  him  more  irre- 
trievably with  the  Pope.  —  Mansi, 
note  on  Raynaldus,  1328,  c.  xxxvi. 


418 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XIK 


for  tlie  great  consolation  of  tlie  people  of  Rome  and  of 
all  Christians.' 

But  Eome  was  awed  rather  than  won  by  this  flattery  to 
her  pride.  Only  four  days  after,  an  ecclesiastic,  James'' 
Protest  of  son  of  Stephen  Colonna,  appeared  before  the 
SSna.  church  of  S.  Marcellus,  and  in  the  presence  of 
April  22.  Q^Q  thousand  Romans  read  aloud  and  at  full 
length  the  last  and  most  terrible  process  of  Pope  John 
against  Louis  of  Bavaria.  He  went  on  to  declare  that 
"  no  Syndicate,  representing  the  clergy  of  Rome,  had  ad- 
dressed Louis ;  that  Syndicate,  the  priests  of  St.  Peter's, 
of  St.  John  Lateran,  of  St.  Maria  Maggiore,  with  all  the 
other  dignified  clergy  and  abbots,  had  left  Rome  for 
some  months,  lest  they  should  be  contaminated  by  the 
presence  of  persons  under  excommunication."  He  con- 
tinued uninterrupted  his  long  harangue,  and  then 
deliberately  nailed  the  Pope's  Brief  on  the  doors  of  the 
Church  of  S.  Marcellus.  The  news  spread  with  a  deep 
murmur  through  the  city.  Louis  sent  a  troop  to  seize 
the  daring  ecclesiastic ;  he  was  gone,  the  populace  had 
made  no  attempt  to  arrest  him.  He  was  afterwards 
rewarded  by  the  Pope  with  a  rich  bishopric. 
The  next  day  a  law  was  published  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  senators  and  people,  that  the  Pope  about  to  be 
named,  and  all  future  Popes,  should  be  bound  to  reside, 
except  for  three  months  in  the  year,  in  Rome ;  that  he 
should  not  depart,  unless  with  the  permission  of  the  Ro- 
man people,  above  two  days'  journey  from  the  city.  If 
summoned  to  return,  and  disobedient  to  the  summons, 
he  might  be  deposed  and  another  chosen  in  his  place."* 


April  23. 


'  Apud  Baluzium,  ii.  p.  523. 

^  He  was  canon  of  the  Lateran  ; 
afterwards  the  friend  of  Petrarch. 
See  account  of  Petrarch's  visit  to  him 


as    Bishop   of  Lombes. — De   Sade,   i 
16i,  &c. 

*"  Tiie  f.ondemn.'ition  of  John  XXII. 
to  death,  And  his  capital  sentence,  are 


Chap.  VII. 


THE  ANTIPOPE. 


419 


On  Ascension  Day  the  people  were  again  summoned 
to  the  Place  before  St.  Peter's  Church.  Louis 
appeared  in  all  his  imperial  attire,  with  many 
of  the  lower  clergy,  monks,  and  friars.  He  took  his 
seat  upon  the  throne:  the  designated  Pope,  Peter  di 
Corvara,  sat  by  his  side  under  the  baldachin.  The  friar 
Nicolas  di  Fabriano  preached  on  the  text,  "  And  Peter, 
turning,  said,  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  hath  appeared  and 
delivered  me  out  of  the  hand  of  Herod."  The  Bavarian 
was  the  angel.  Pope  John  was  Herod.  The  Bishop  of 
Venetia  came  forward,  and  three  times  demanded 
w^hether  they  would  have  the  brother  Peter  for  the 
Pope  of  Kome.  There  was  a  loud  acclamation,  whether 
from  fear,  from  contagious  excitement,  from  wonder  at 
the  daring  of  the  Emperor,  or  from  genuine  joy  that 
they  had  a  humble  and  a  Koman  Pope."  The  Bishop 
read  the  Decree.  The  Emperor  rose,  put  on  the  finger 
of  the  friar  the  ring  of  St.  Peter,  arrayed  him  in  the 
pall,  and  saluted  him  by  the  name  of  Nicolas  V.  With 
the  Pope  on  his  right  hand  he  passed  into  the  church, 
where  Mass  was  celebrated  with  the  utmost  solemnity. 

Peter  di  Corvara  was  born  in  the  Abruzzi ;  he  belonged 
to  the  extreme  Franciscan  faction ;  a  man  of  ^he  Anti- 
that  rigid  austerity  that  no  charge  could  be  p°p^- 
brought  against  him  by  his  enemies  but  hypocrisy.    The 


asserted  by  Kaynaldus  on  unpublished 
authority.  This  account  is  received 
as  authentic  by  Boehmer,  who  accepts 
all  that  is  against  Louis  and  in  favour 
of  Pope  John.  It  is  more  likely  a 
version  of  Mussato's  story  of  his  bei;  j 
burned  in  effigy  by  the  people,  rather 
than  confirmed  by  it.  As  a  gi-ave 
judicial  proceedincj  it  is  highly  impro- 
bable.— Kaynald.  sub  ann. 


■  The  people,  according  to  Albert 
Mussato,  demanded  the  deposition  of 
John,  and  the  elevation  of  a  new  Pope, 
"  novum  proponendum  Pontificem,  qui 
.  .  .  sacrosanctam  ecclesiam  Roma- 
nam  ...  in  sua  Roma  regat  .  .  . 
ilium  Joannem,  qui  trans  montes 
sacrse  Ecclesise  illudit,  anathematiset." 
— Fontes,  p.  175. 

2    E   ^ 


420  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY,  Book  XH. 

one  imputation  was,  tliat  he  had  lived  in  wedlock  five 
years  before  he  put  on  the  habit  of  S.  Francis.  He 
took  the  vows  without  his  wife's  consent.  She  had 
despised  the  beggarly  monk ;  she  claimed  restitution  of 
conjugal  rights  from  the  wealthy  Pontiff.^  All  this 
perhaps  proves  the  fanatic  sincerity  of  Peter,  and  the 
man  that  was  thus  put  forward  by  a  fanatic  party  (it  is 
said  when  designated  for  the  office  he  fled  either  from 
modesty  or  fear)  must  have  been  believed  to  be  a  fanatic. 
Nothing  indeed  but  fanaticism  would  have  given  him 
coui'age  to  assume  the  perilous  dignity. 

The  first  act  of  Nicolas  V.  was  to  create  seven  Car- 
dinals— two  deposed  bishops,  Modena  and  Venetia,  one 
deposed  abbot  of  S.  Ambrogio  in  Milan,  Nicolas  di 
Fabriano,  two  Koman  popular  leaders.  Louis  caused 
himself  to  be  crowned  again  by  his  Supreme  Pontiff. 

But  in  Nicolas  V.  his  party  hoped,  no  doubt,  to  see 
the  apostle  of  absolute  poverty.  They  saw  him  and  his 
Cardinals  on  stately  steeds,  the  gift  of  the  Emperor, 
with  servants,  even  knights  and  squires:  they  heard 
that  they  indulged  in  splendid  and  costly  banquets. 
The  Pope  bestowed  ecclesiastical  privileges  and  benefices 
with  the  lavish  hand  of  his  predecessors,  it  was  believed 
at  the  time  for  payments  in  money. 

The  contest  divided  all  Christendom.  In  the  remotest 
Contest  in  parts  wcro  wandering  friars  who  denounced 
Christendom,  ^-^e  hcresy  of  Popo  Johu,  asserted  the  cause  of 
the  Emperor  and  of  his  Antipope.  In  the  University 
of  Paris  were  men  of  profound  thought  who  held  the 
same  views,  and  whom  the  ruling  powers  of  the  Uni- 
versity  were   constrained   to   tolerate.     The  whole   of 


«»  "  Repetiit  Pontificem  locnpletem,  quern  tot   annos    spieveiat  mendicun* 
■nnonachuixi." — Wading,  1.  vii.  f.  77. 


Chap.  VII.        WANIKG  POPULARITY  OF  LOUIS. 


421 


Europe  seemed  becoming  Guelf  or  Gliibelline.  Yet 
could  no  contest  be  more  unequal ;  that  it  lasted,  proves 
the  vast  and  all-pervading  influence  of  the  Mendicants  ;P 
for  the  whole  strength  of  the  Emperor  and  of  the  Anti- 
popft  was  in  the  religious  movement  of  this  small  section, 
in  the  Koman  populace  and  theii'  Ghibelline  leaders. 
The  great  Ghibelline  princes  were  for  themselves  alone  ; 
if  they  maintained  their  domination  over  theii*  subject 
cities,  they  cared  neither  for  Emperor  nor  Pope.  Against 
this  were  arrayed  the  ancient  awe  which  adhered  to  the 
name  of  the  Pope,  the  Pope  himself  elected  and  sup- 
ported by  all  the  Cardinals,  the  whole  higher  clergy, 
whose  wealth  hung  on  the  issue,  those  among  the  lower 
clergy  (and  they  were  very  many)  who  hated  the 
intrusive  Mendicants,  the  rival  Order  of  the  Dominicans, 
who  now,  however,  were  weakened  by  a  schism  in  which 
the  Pope  liad  mingled,  concerning  the  election  and 
power  of  the  General  and  Prefects  of  the  Order.  Besides 
these  were  Robert  of  Naples,  for  whom  tlie  Pope  liad 
hazarded  so  much,  and  all  the  Guelfs  of  Italy,  among 
them  most  of  the  Roman  nobles. 

The  tide  which  had  so  rapidly  floated  up  Louis  of 
Bavaria  to  the  height  of  acknowledged  Emperor  and 
the  creator  of  a  new  Pope,  ebbed  with  still  greater 
rapidity.  He  is  accused  of  having  wasted  precious 
time  and  not  advanced  upon  Naples  to  crush  his  defence- 
less rival.''  But  Louis  may  have  known  the  inefficient 
state  of  his  own  forces  and  of  his  own  finances.  Robert 
of  Naples  now  took  the  aggressive :  his  fleet  besieged 


P  See  a  very  striking  passage  of 
Albert  Mussato,  de  Ludov.  Bavar.  ; 
Muratori,  x.  p.  775;  Fontes,  p.  77. 

<»  "  Ipse  Caesar  segnis  tanto  tempore 
rtetit,    otiosus    in    urbe,    quod   quasi 


omnia  expendebat."  m  one  expedition 
he  destroyed  the  castle  in  which  Con 
radin  was  beheaded. — Albert.  Argen 
tin.  p.  124. 


422  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  Xli, 

Ostia;  liis  troops  lined  tlie  frontier  and  cut  off  the 
supplies  on  which  Rome  partly  depended  for  subsistence. 
The  Emperor's  military  movements  were  uncertain  and 
desultory;  when  he  did  move,  he  was  in  danger  of 
starvation.  The  Antipope,  to  be  of  any  use,  ought  to 
have  combined  the  adored  sanctity  of  Coelestine  V.  with 
the  vigour  and  audacity  of  Boniface  VIII.  The  Romans, 
always  ready  to  pour  forth  shouting  crowds  into  the 
tapestried  streets  to  the  coronation  of  an  Emperor,  or 
the  inauguration  of  a  Pope,  had  now  had  their  pageant. 
Their  pride  had  quaffed  its  draught :  languor  ever 
follows  intoxication.  They  began  to  oscillate  back  to 
their  old  attachments  or  to  indifference.  The  excesses 
of  the  German  soldiers  violated  their  houses,  scarcity 
raised  their  markets.  If  the  Pope  might  now,  compul- 
sorily,  take  pride  in  his  poverty  (and  the  loss  of  the 
wealth  which  flowed  to  Rome  under  former  Pontiffs  was 
not  the  least  cause  of  the  unpopularity  of  the  Avignonese 
Popes),  yet  the  Emperor's  state,  the  Emperor's  forces 
must  be  maintained.  And  how  maintained,  but  by 
exactions  intolerable,  or  which  they  would  no  longer 
tolerate?  The  acts  of  the  new  government  were  not 
such  as  would  propitiate  their  enemies.  Two  men,  in 
the  absence  of  the  Emperor,  were  burned  for  denying 
Peter  of  Corvara  to  be  the  lawful  Pope.'  A  straw  effigy 
of  Pope  John  was  publicly  burned,  a  puerile  vengeance 
w^hich  might  be  supposed  significant  of  some  darker 
menace.^ 

On  the  4th  of  August,  not  four  months  after  his 
Louis  aban-  corouatiou,  the  Emperor  turned  his  back  on 
dons  Rome,  j^o^e,  which  hc  could  no  longer  hold.  On  the 
following  night  came  the  Cardinal  Berthold  and  Stephen 


'  Villani,  c.  Ixxiv.  •  Mus&ato 


Chap.  VII.  THB  4NTIP0PE  IN  VITERBO.  423 

Colonna  on  the  8th,  Napoleon  Orsini  took  possession 
of  the  cky.  The  churches  were  reopened;  all  the  pri- 
vileges granted  by  the  Emperor  and  the  Antipope 
annulled;  their  scanty  archives,  all  their  Bulls  and 
state  papers,  burned  :  the  bodies  of  the  German  soldiers 
dug  up  out  of  their  graves  and  cast  into  the  Tiber. 
Sciarra  Colonna  and  his  adherents  took  flight,  carrvino- 
away  all  the  plunder  which  they  could  seize. 

Louis  of  Bavaria  retired  to  Viterbo ;  he  was  accom- 
panied by  the  Pope,  whose  pontificate,  by  his  The  Antipope 
own  law,  depended  on  his  residence  in  Rome.  Oct/i^^  °" 
He  is  charged  with  having  robbed  the  church  of  St. 
Fortunatus  even  of  its  lamps — the  apostle  of  absolute 
poverty !  Worse  than  this,  he  threatened  all  who  should 
adhere  to  his  adversary  not  merely  with  excommunica- 
tion, but  with  the  stake.  He  would  employ  against 
them  the  remedy  of  burning,  and  so  of  severing  them 
from  the  body  of  the  faithful.* 

Pope  John,  meantime,  at  Avignon,  having  exhausted 
his  spiritual  thunders,  had  recourse  to  means  of  defence 
seemingly  more  consistent  with  the  successor  of  Christ's 
Apostles.  He  commanded  intercessory  su23plications  to 
be  offered  in  all  churches :  at  Avignon  forms  of  prayer 
in  the  most  earnest  and  solemn  language  were  used, 
entreating  God's  blessing  on  the  Church,  his  malediction 
on  her  contumacious  enemies.  His  prayers  might  seem 
to  be  accepted.  The  more  powerful  of  the  Ghibelline 
chieftains  came  to  a  disastrous  end.  Passerino,  the 
crafty  tyrant  of  Mantua,  was  surprised  by  a  conspiracy 
of  the  Gonzago,  instigated  by  Can  della  Scala,  and 
slain ;  his  son  was  cast  alive  to  perish  in  a  tower,  intc 
which   Passerino   had  thrown   the  victims  of  his  owr 


t  "*•  Adustionis  et  praecisionis  remedi  um." — Apud  Raynaldum,  c.  lii. 


424  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

vengeance.  The  excommunicated  Bishop  of  Forli  died 
by  a  terrible  death ;  Galeazzo  Visconti,  so  lately  Lord 
of  Milan  and  of  seven  other  great  cities,  died  in  poverty, 
a  mercenary  soldier  in  the  army  of  Castruccio.  Cas- 
truccio  himself,  if,  as  is  extremely  doubtful,  Louis  could 
have  depended  on  his  fidelity  (for  Castruccio, 
^*'  ^'  Master  of  Pisa,  was  negotiating  with  Florence), 
seemingly  his  most  powerful  support,  died  of  a  fever." 
Pisa,  of  which  Castruccio  had  become  Lord,  and 
Sept.  21.  which  the  Emperor  scrupled  not  to  wrest  from 
wsa.^^*  his  sons  (Castruccio's  dying  admonition  to 
them  had  been  to  make  haste  and  secure  that  city), 
became  the  head-quarters  of  Louis  and  his  Antipope. 
Nicolas  Y.  continued  to  issue  his  edicts  anathematising 
the  so-called  Pope,  inveighing  against  the  deposed 
James  of  Cahors,  against  Kobert  of  Naples  and  the 
Florentines.  But  the  thunders  of  an  acknowledged 
Pope  made  no  deep  impression  on  the  Italians :  those 
of  so  questionable  a  Pontiff  were  heard  with  utter 
apathy.  The  Ghibellines  were  already  weary  of  an 
Fmperor  whose  only  Imperial  power  seemed  to  be  to 
levy  onerous  taxes  upon  them,  with  none  of  gratifying 
then-  vengeance  on  the  Guelfs.  Gradually  they  fell  off. 
The  Marquises  of  Este  made  their  peace  with  the  Pope. 
Azzo,  the  son  of  Galeazzo  Visconti,  having  purchased 
his  release  from  the  Court  of  the  Emperor  at  the  price 
of  60,000  florins,''  returned  to  Milan  as  Imperial  Yicar ; 
but  before  long  the  Yisconti  began  to  enter  into  secret 
correspondence  with  Avignon;  they  submitted  to  the 
humiliation  of  being  absolved,  on  their  penitence,  from 
the  crime  of  heresy,  and  of  receiving  back  their  dignity 


"  Albei-t  Mussato,  in  Ludov.  Bavar.  Villani,  Ixxxv. 
*  125,000.     Villani,  X.  c.  117. 


Chap.  VII.  DEFECTION  OF  ITALY.  425 

as  a  grant  from  the  Pope  J     The  Pope  appointed  John 
Visconti  Cardinal  and  Legate  in  Lombardy. 

The  Emperor's  own  German  troops,  unpaid  and  unfed, 
broke  aAvay  from  the  camp  to  live  at  free  quarters 
wherever  they  could.  The  only  allies  who  joined  the 
Court  at  Pisa  were  Michael  di  Cesena,  the  contumacious 
General  of  the  Franciscans,  and  his  numerous  followers. 
Pope  John  had  attempted  to  propitiate  this  party  by 
the  wise  measure  of  canonising  Coelestine  V. ;  but  the 
breach  was  irreparable  between  fanatics  who  held  ab- 
solute poverty  to  be  the  perfection  of  Christianity, 
and  a  Pope  whose  coffers  were  already  bursting  with 
that  mass  of  gold  which  on  his  death  astonished  the 
world. 

The  Emperor,  summoned  by  the  threatening  state  of 
aflairs  in  Lombardy,  broke  up  his  Court  at  Defection  of 
Pisa,  and  marched  his  army  to  Pavia,  there  to  ^'^'^* 
linger  for  some  inglorious  months.  No  sooner  was  he 
gone  than  Ghibelline  Pisa  rose  in  tumult,  and  expelled 
the  pseudo-Pontiff  with  his  officers  from  their  city. 
They  afterwards  made  a  merit  with  Pope  John  that 
they  would  have  seized  and  delivered  him  up,  but 
from  their  fear  of  the  Imperial  garrison.  A  short  time 
elapsed :  they  had  courage  to  compel  the  garrison  to 
abandon  the  city.  They  sent  ambassadors  to  make 
their  peace  with  the  Pope.  Most  of  the  Lombard  cities 
had  either  set  or  followed  the  example  of  defection. 
Rumours  spread  abroad  of  the  death  of  Frederick  of 
Austria,  the  friendly  rival  of  the  Bavarian  for  the 
Empire.  Some  more  formidable  claimant  miglit  obtain 
suffrages  among  those  who  still  persisted  in  asserting 
the   Empire   to   be   vacant.     Louis   retired    to   Trent, 


f  See  in  Kaynaldus  the  form  of  absolution,  1328,  c.  Iv.  and  Ivi. 


i26 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII 


and   for   ever   abandoned   his   sliort-lived    kingdom   of 
Italy.' 

Death  seemed  to  conspire  with  Fortune  to  remove  the 
enemies  of  the  Pope.^  Sciarra  Colonna  died ;  Silvester 
Galta,  the  Ghibelline  tyrant  of  Yiterbo,  died  ;  at  length 
Can  della  Scala  was  cut  off  in  his  power  and  magnifi- 
Fate  of  the  ceuco.  A  moro  wretched  and  humiliating  fate 
Antipope.  awaited  the  Antipope.  On  the  revolt  of  Pisa 
from  the  Imperial  interests  he  had  fled  to  a  castle  of 
Count  Boniface,  Doneratico,  about  thirty-five  miles  dis- 
tant. The  castle  being  threatened  by  the  Florentines, 
he  stole  back,  and  lay  hid  in  the  Pisan  palace  of  the 
same  nobleman.  Pope  John  addressed  a  letter  to  "  his 
dear  brother,"  the  Count,  urging  him  to  surrender  the 
child  of  hell,  the  pupil  of  malediction.  Peter  himseK 
wrote  supplicatory  letters,  throwing  himself  on  the 
mercy  of  the  Pope.  The  Count,  with  honour  and 
courage,  stipulated  for  the  life  and  even  for  the  abso- 
lution of  the  proscribed  outlaw.  The  Archbishop  of 
Pisa  was  commissioned  to  receive  the  recantation,  the 
admission  of  all  his  atrocious  crimes,  and  to  remove  the 
spiritual  censures.  In  the  Cathedral  of  Pisa, 
where  he  had  sat  in  state  as  the  successor  of 
St.  Peter,  the  Antipope  now  abjured  his  usurped  Pope- 
dom, and  condemned  all  his  own  heretical  and  impious 
acts.  He  was  then  placed  on  board  a  galley,  and  con- 
veyed to  Avignon.  In  every  city  in  Provence  through 
which  he  passed  he  was  condemned  to  hear  the  public 
recital  of  all  his  iniquities.  The  day  after  his 
arrival  at  Avignon  he  was  introduced  into  the 
full  Consistory  with  a  halter  round  his  neck :  lie  threw 


Aug.  4. 


Aug.  21 


'  He  seems  to  have  reached  Trent 
by  Dec.  24  (1329),  before  the  actual 
death  of  iMeJerick  of  Austria. — Boeh- 


mer,  Regesta. 

a  Raynaldus,    1329,    xix.      Villaiii. 
X.  139. 


Chap.  VII.  THE  ANTIPOPE'S  HUMILIATION.  427 

himself  at  tlie  Pope's  feet,  imploring  mercy,  and  exe- 
crating his  own  impiety.  Nothing  more  was  done  on 
that  day,  for  the  clamour  and  the  multitude,  before 
which  the  awe-struck  man  stood  mute.  A  fortnight 
after,  to  give  time  for  a  full  and  elaborate 
statement  of  all  his  offences,  he  appeared 
again,  and  read  his  long  self-abasing  confession.  No 
words  were  spared  which  could  aggravate  his  guilt  or 
deepen  his  humiliation.  He  forswore  and  condemned 
all  the  acts  of  the  heretical  and  schismatic  Louis  of 
Bavaria,  the  heresies  and  errors  of  Michael  di  Cesena, 
the  blasphemies  of  Marsilio  of  Padua  and  John  of 
Jaudun.  Pope  John  wept,  and  embraced  as  a  father 
his  prodigal  son.  Peter  di  Corvara  was  kept  in  honour- 
able imprisonment  in  the  Papal  palace,  closely  watched 
and  secluded  from  intercourse  with  the  world,  but 
allowed  the  use  of  books  and  all  the  services  of  the 
Church.  He  lived  about  three  years  and  a  half,  and 
died  a  short  time  before  his  triumphant  rival.  ^ 

Louis  of  Bavaria,  now  in  undisturbed  possession  of 
the  Empire  by  the  death  of  Frederick  of  Austria  (the 
Pope  had  in  vain  sought  a  new  antagonist  among 
the  German  princes),  weary  of  the  strife,  dispirited  by 
his  Italian  discomfiture,  still  under  excommunication, 
though  the  excommunication  was  altogether  disregarded 
by  the  ecclesiastics  as  well  as  by  the  lay  nobles  of  Ger- 
many, was  prepared  to  obtain  at  any  sacrifice  Reconciliation 
the  recognition  of  his  title.  Baldwin,  Arch-  ^'^p^'^^- 
bishop  of  Treves,  and  the  King  of  Bohemia,  undertook 
the  office  of  mediation.  They  proposed  terms  so  humi- 
liating as  might  have  satisfied  any  one  but  a  Pope  like 
John  XXII.     Louis  would  renounce  the  Antipope,  re* 


Eead  the  Ccnfession  of  the  Antipope,  vol.  ii. — Apud  Baluzium,  p.  :  45. 


428  LATIN  CHBISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

voke  his  appeal  to  a  General  Council,  rescind  all  acts 
hostile  to  the  Church,  acknowledge  the  justice  of  his 
excommunication.  The  one  concession  was  that  he 
should  remain  Emperor.  The  Pope  replied  at  length, 
and  with  contemptuous  severity.''  The  books  of  Marsilio 
of  Padua  and  John  of  Jaudun  had  made  too  deep  a 
wound:  it  was  still  rankling  in  his  heart.  Nor  these 
alone — Michael  di  Cesena,  Bonagratia,  William  of  Ock- 
ham,  had  fled  to  Germany :  they  had  been  received  with 
respect.  The  Pope  examines  and  scornfully  rejects  all 
the  propositions : — "  The  Bavarian  will  renounce  the 
Antipope  after  the  Antipope  has  deposed  himself,  and 
sought  the  mercy  of  the  Pope.  He  will  revoke  his 
appeal,  but  what  right  of  appeal  has  an  excommuni- 
cated heretic  ?  He  will  rescind  his  acts,  but  what 
atonement  will  he  make  for  those  acts  ?  He  will 
acknowledge  the  justice  of  his  excommunication,  but 
what  satisfaction  does  he  offer? — what  proof  of  peni- 
tence ?  By  what  title  would  he  be  Emperor  ? — his  old 
one,  which  has  been  so  often  annulled  by  the  Pope  ? — 
July  31.  by  some  new  title  ? — he,  an  impious,  sacri- 
1330.  legions,  heretical  tyrant?"  The  King  of  Bo- 
hemia is  then  exhorted  to  take  immediate  steps  for  the 
election  of  a  lawful  Emperor. 

But  Louis  of  Bavaria  continued  to  bear  the  title  and 
to  exercise  at  least  some  of  the  functions  of  Emperor. 
Once  indeed  he  proposed  to  abdicate  in  favour  of  his  son, 
but  the  negotiation  came  to  no  end.  The  restless  ambi- 
tion of  John  of  Bohemia  was  engaged  in  an  adventurous 
expedition  into  Italy,  where  to  the  Guelfs  he  declared  that 
Lis  arms  were  sanctioned  by  the  Pope — to  the  Ghibellines, 
that  he  came  to  re-establish  the  rights  of  the  Empire. 


«  Martene,  Thesaurus,  ii.  800. 


Chap.  VII.  HERESY  OF  THE  POPE.  429 

The  Pope  was  more  vigorous,  if  not  more  successful, 
in  the  suppression  of  the  spiritual  rebels  against  hia 
power.  The  more  turbulent  and  obstinate  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan Order  were  spread  throughout  Christendom,  from 
England  to  Sicily.  The  Queen  of  Sicily  was  suspected 
of  favouring  their  tenets.  Wherever  they  were,  John 
pursued  them  with  his  persecuting  edicts.  The  Inquisi- 
tion was  instructed  to  search  them  out  in  their  remotest 
sanctuaries ;  the  clergy  were  directed  to  denounce  them 
on  every  Sunday  and  on  every  festival. 

On  a  sudden  it  was  bruited  abroad  that  the  Pope 
himself  had  fallen  into  heresy  on  a  totally  dif-  Heresy  of 
ferent  point.  John  XXII.  was  proud  of  his  *^^  ^^p^- 
theologic  learning ;  he  had  indulged,  and  in  public,  in 
perilous  speculations ;  he  had  advanced  the  tenet,  that 
till  the  day  of  Judgement  the  Saints  did  not  enjoy  the 
beatific  vision  of  God.  At  his  own  Court  some  of  the 
Cardinals  opposed  him  with  polemic  vehemence.  The 
more  absolutely  the  question  was  beyond  the  boundary 
of  human  knowledge  and  revealed  truth,  the  more  posi- 
tive and  obstinate  were  the  disputants.  The  enemies 
of  the  Pope — those  who  already  held  him  to  be  a  heretic 
on  account  of  his  rejection  of  absolute  poverty — raised 
and  propagated  the  cry  with  zealous  activity.  It  was 
either  his  assertion,  or  an  inference  from  his  doc- 
trines, that  the  Apostles,  that  John  and  Peter,  even  the 
Blessed  Virgin  herself,  only  contemplated  the  humanity 
of  Christ,  and  beheld  not  his  Godhead.*^ 

About  the  same  time  jealousies  had  begun  to  grow  up 
between  the  Pope  and  the  Court  of  France.  A  new  race, 
that  of  Valois,  was  now  on  the  throne.  The  Pope,  while 
from  his  residence  at  Avignon  he  might   appear  the 


^  VilJani.     That,  no  doubt,  was  the  popular  view  of  the  docti 


430  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

vassal,  in  fact  had  become  the  master  of  his  Sovereign. 
He  ruled  by  a  kind  of  ostentatious  parental  authority, 
by  sympathy  with  all  their  superstitions,  and  by  foster- 
Phiiip  de  ing  their  ambition,  as  soaring  to  the  Imperial 
of  France,  crowu.  Philip  of  Valois  aspired  to  the  cha- 
racter of  a  chivalrous  monarch.  He  declared  his  deter- 
mination to  organise  a  vast  crusade,  first  against  the 
Moors  in  Spain :  his  aims  extended  to  the  conquest  of 
Syiia.  But  the  days  were  past  when  men  were 
content  with  the  barren  glory  of  combating  for 
the  Cross,  when  the  high  religious  impulse  was  the  in- 
spiration of  valour,  the  love  of  Christ  with  the  hope  of 
heaven  the  sole  motive  and  the  sole  reward.  Philip  was 
no  St.  Louis.  There  was  more  worldly  wisdom,  more 
worldly  interest,  in  his  plan.  He  submitted  certain 
propositions  to  the  Pope  as  the  terms  on  which  he  would 
condescend  to  engage  in  holy  warfare  for  the  Cross  : — 
The  absolute  disposal  of  all  the  vast  wealth  in  the  Papal 
treasury,  laid  up,  as  always  had  been  said,  for  this  sacred 
purpose ;  the  tenths  of  all  Christendom  for  ten  years ; 
the  appointment  to  all  the  benefices  in  his  realm  for 
three  years ;  the  re-erection  of  the  kingdom  of  Aries 
in  favour  of  his  son  ;  the  kingdom  of  Italy  for  his 
brother,  Charles  Count  of  Alenfon.^  The  Pope  and  the 
Cardinals  stood  aghast  at  these  demands.  The  ava- 
ricious Pope  to  surrender  all  his  treasures ! — A  new 
kingdom  to  be  formed  which  might  incorporate  Avignon 
within  its  limits !  They  returned  a  cold  answer,  with 
vague  promises  of  spiritual  and  temporal  aid  when  the 
Kins:  of  France  should  embark  on  the  crusade. 

This  menaced  invasion  of  his  treasury,  and  the  design 
of  creating  a  formidable  kingdom  at  his  gates,  caused 


t  RaynalJas,  sub  ann.  13'i2. 


Chap.  VII.  THE  BEATIFIC  VISION.  431 

grave  apprehensions  to  tlie  Pope.  He  liad  no  inclina- 
tion to  sink,  like  his  predecessor,  into  a  tame  Cyrdinai 
vassal  of  the  King  of  France.  He  began,  if  not  Buiugim! 
seriously  to  meditate,  to  threaten  and  to  prepare,  a 
retreat  into  Italy,  not  indeed  to  Home,  liome's  humble 
submission  had  not  effiiced  the  crimes  of  the  coronation 
of  the  Bavarian,  and  the  inauguration  of  the  Antipope  ; 
and  Kome  was  insecure  from  the  raging  feuds  of  the 
Orsinis  and  the  Colonnas.  The  Cardinal  Legate,  Poyet, 
the  reputed  son  or  nephew  of  the  Pope,  after  a  succes- 
sion of  military  adventures  and  political  intrigues,  was 
now  master  of  Bologna.  He  was  Count  of  Komagna, 
Marquis  of  the  March  of  Ancona.  He  announced  the 
gracious  intention  of  the  Pope  to  honour  that  city  with 
his  residence.  He  began  to  clear  a  vast  space,  to  raze 
many  houses  of  the  citizens,  in  order  to  build  a  palace 
for  the  Pope's  reception ;  but  this  palace  had  more  the 
look  of  a  strong  citadel,  to  awe  and  keep  in  submission 
the  turbulent  Bolognese. 

Meanwhile  the  King  of  France  seemed  still  intent 
on  the  crusade.  He  had  rapidly  come  down  in  his 
demands.  He  would  be  content  with  the  grant  of  the 
tenths  throughout  his  realm  for  six  years.  But  the  rest 
of  Christendom  was  not  to  escape  this  sacred  tax :  the 
tenths  were  to  be  levied  for  the  Pope  during  the  same 
period.  The  King  solemnly  pledged  himself  to  embark 
in  three  years  for  Syria  ;  but  he  stipulated  that  if  pre- 
vented by  any  impediment,  the  validity  of  his  excuse 
was  to  be  judged  not  by  the  Pope,  but  by  two  Prelates 
of  France  designated  for  that  office. 

Yet  even  the  stir  of  preparation  for  the  crusade,  some- 
what abated  by  menacing  signs  of  war  between  j^e  Beatific 
France  and  England,  was  absorbed  not  only  ^''^'^^• 
among  the  clergy,  but  among  the  laity  also,  by  the  dis- 


432  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

cussions  concerning  the  Beatific  Vision,  wliich  rose  again 
into  engrossing  importance.  The  tenet  had  become  a 
passion  with  the  Pope.  He  had  given  instructions  to 
the  Cardinals,  Bishops,  and  all  learned  theologians, 
to  examine  it  with  the  most  reverent  attention ;  but 
benefices  and  preferments  were  showered  on  those  who 
inclined  to  his  own  opinions — the  rest  were  rewarded 
with  coldness  and  neglect.  The  Pope  himself  collected 
a  chain  of  citations  from  the  Scriptures  and  the  Fathers, 
in  which,  without  absolutely  determining  the  question, 
he  betrayed  his  own  views  with  sufficient  distinctness. 
Paris  became  the  centre  of  these  disputes.  The  Pope 
was  eager  to  obtain  the  support  of  the  University,  in 
theology,  as  in  all  other  branches  of  erudition,  of  the 
highest  authority.  The  General  of  the  Franciscans, 
Gerald  Otho,  a  fellow-countryman  of  the  Pope,  and  ad- 
vanced by  his  favour  to  that  high  rank  on  the  degrada- 
tion of  Michael  di  Cesena,  was  zealous  to  display  his 
gratitude.  He  preached  in  public,  denying  the  Beatific 
Vision  till  the  day  of  Judgement.  The  University  and 
the  Dominicans,  actuated  by  their  hostility  to  the  Fran- 
ciscans, declared  the  authority  of  their  o^vn  irrefragable 
Thomas  Aquinas  impeached.  They  broke  out  in  indig- 
nant repudiation  of  such  heretical  conclusions.  The  King 
rushed  into  the  contest :  he  declared  that  his  realm  should 
not  be  polluted  with  heresy ;  he  threatened  to  burn  the 
Franciscan  as  a  Paterin  ;  he  uttered  even  a  more  oppro- 
brious name ;  he  declared  that  not  even  the  Pope  should 
disseminate  such  odious  doctrines  in  France.  "  If  the 
Saints  behold  not  the  Godhead,  of  what  value  was  their 
intercession  ?  Why  address  to  them  useless  prayers  ? " 
The  preacher  fled  in  all  haste ;  with  equal  haste  came 
the  watchful  Michael  di  Cesena  to  Paris,  to  inflame  and 
keep  alive  the  ultra-Papal  orthodoxy  of  King  Philip. 


x;aAF,  TTi.  DEATH  OF  JOHN  XXII.  433 

The  King  of  France  and  the  King  of  Naples  were 
estranged  too  by  the  doubtful  conduct  of  the  Pope 
towards  the  King  of  Bohemia.  The  double-minded 
Pontiff  was  protesting  to  the  Florentines  that  he  had 
given  no  sanction  to,  and  disclaimed  aloud  all  con- 
nexion with,  the  invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Bohemian; 
but,  as  was  well  known,  John  of  Bohemia  was  too  useful 
an  ally  against  Louis  of  Bavaria  for  the  Pope  to  break 
with  him  ;  and  the  Cardinal  Legate,  Bernard  de  Poyet, 
was  in  close  alliance  with  the  Bohemian/ 

The  Kings  spoke  the  language  of  strong  remon- 
strance; the  greater  part  of  the  Cardinals  admitted, 
with  sorrow,  the  heterodoxy  of  the  Pope.  His  ad- 
versaries, all  over  Christendom,  denounced  his  grievous 
departure  from  holy  truth.  Bonagratia,  the  Franciscan, 
wrote  to  confute  his  awful  errors.  Even  John  XXII. 
began  to  quail :  he  took  refuge  in  the  cautious  The  pope 
ambiguity  with  which  he  had  promulgated  his  ^i^™^'^- 
opinions.  He  sought  only  truth ;  he  had  not  positively 
determined  or  defined  this  profound  question. 

But  the  time  was  now  approaching,  when,  if  a  Pontiff 
so  worldly  and  avaricious  might  be  admitted  among  the 
Saints,  he  w^ould  know  the  solution  of  that  unrevealed 
secret.  John  XXII.  was  now  near  ninety  years  old : 
the  last  year  of  his  life  was  not  the  least  busy 

A.D   1334. 

and  unquiet.     The  Creeks,  through  succours 
from  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Naples,  had  obtained 
some  naval  advantages  over  the  Turks ;  but  the  Cardinal 
Legate,  expelled  from  Bologna,  either  fled  for  refuge  or 
was  unwilling  to  be  absent,  if  not  from  the  deathbed  of 


'  Compare  the  curious  autobiogra- 
phical account  of  this  expedition  by 
Cimrles,   the   son   of   John  of  Bohe- 


mia, afterwards  the  Emperor  Charles 
IV. — Boehmer,  P'ontes,  i.  pp.  228, 
270. 


VOL.  VII.  2 


i34  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

his  parent,  from  the  conclave  which  should  elect  his 
successor.  Against  Louis  of  Bavaria,  though,  in  the 
hope  of  his  surrender  of  the  Empire  to  his  brother,  Pope 
John  had  taken  a  milder  tone,  he  now  resumed  all  his 
immitigable  rigour :  on  the  condition  of  the  unqualified 
surrender  of  the  Empire,  and  that  alone,  could  Louis  be 
admitted  into  the  bosom  of  tlie  Church.  The  Pope  had 
continued  to  urge  the  suppression  of  the  FraticelK  by 
the  stake.  But  his  theological  hardihood  forsook  him.^ 
He  published  on  his  deathbed  what  his  enemies  called  a 
lukewarm  recantation,^  but  a  recantation  which  might 
have  satisfied  less  jealous  polemics.  He  had  no  intention 
to  infringe  on  the  decrees  of  the  Church.  All  he  had 
preached  or  disputed  he  humbly  submitted  to  the  judge- 
ment of  the  Church  and  of  his  successors.^ 

But  if  the  doctrinal  orthodoxy  of  John  XXII.  was 
thus  rescued  from  obloquy,  the  discovery  of  the  enor- 
mous treasm^es  accumulated  during  his  Pontificate  must 
have  shaken  the  faith  even  of  those  who  repudiated  the 
extreme  views  of  Apostolic  poverty.  The  brother  of 
Villani  the  historian,  a  banker,  was  ordered  to  take  the 
inventory.  It  amounted  to  eighteen  millions  of  gold 
florins  in  specie,  seven  millions  in  plate  and  jewels. 
"  The  good  man,"  observes  the  historian,  "  had  forgotten 
that  saying,  '  Lay  not  up  your  treasures  upon  earth  ;* 
but  perhaps  I  have  said  more  than  enough — perhaps 
he  intended  this  wealth  for  the  recovery  of  the  Holy 
Land."'^      This  was  beyond  and  above  the  lavish  ex- 


f  Raynald.  sub  ann.  I      '^  "  He  loved  our  city,"  says  "Vil- 


^  "  Tepidam  recantationem." — Mino- 
rita  apud  Eccard. 

'  Villani,  This  was  dated  Dec.  3. 
He  died  Dec.  4. 


lani,  "  when  we  were  obedient  to  the 
Legate ;  when  not  so,  he  was  OUJ 
enemy." 


Chap.  VII. 


HIS  CHARACTER. 


435 


penditure  on  tlie  Italian  wars,  the  maintenance  of  his 
martial  son  or  nephew,  the  Cardinal  Legate,  at  the 
head  of  a  great  army,  and  his  profuse  provision  for 
other  relatiyes.""  One  large  source  of  his  wealth  was 
notorious  to  Christendom.  Under  the  pretext  of  dis- 
couraging simony,  he  seized  into  his  own  power  all  the 
collegiate  benefices  throughout  Clu'istendom.  Besides 
this,  by  the  system  of  Papal  reserves,  he  never  con- 
firmed the  direct  promotion  of  any  Prelate ;  but  by  his 
skilful  promotion  of  each  Bishop  to  a  richer  bishopric 
or  archbishopric,  and  so  on  to  a  patriarchate,  as  on  each 
vacancy  the  annates  or  first  fruits  were  paid,  six  or  more 
fines  would  accrue  to  the  treasury.  Yet  this  Pope — 
though  besides  his  rapacity,  he  was  harsh,  relentless,  a 
cruel  persecutor,  and  betrayed  his  joy  not  only  at  the 
discomfiture,  but  at  the  slaughter  of  liis  enemies" — 


™  A  large  portion  of  this  revenue 
rose  from  the  system  of  reservations, 
earned  to  its  height  by  John  XXII. 
He  began  this  early.  "  Joannes  XXII., 
Pontificatus  sui  anno  primo  reservavit 
suae  et  Sedis  Apostolicae  collationi, 
omnia  beneficia  ecclesiastica,  quse  fue- 
runt  et  quocunque  nomine  censeantur, 
ubicunque  ea  vacare  contigerit  per 
acceptionem  alterius  beneficii,  prse- 
textu  gratiae  ab  eodem  D.  Papa  factte 
vel  faciend^  acceptata,  mihique  Gau- 
celmo  Vicecancellario  suo  prsecepit  .  .  . 
quod  hasc  redigerem  in  scripturam." — 
Baluz.  Vit.  P.  Avin.  i.  p.  722.  Those 
vacancies  were  extended  to  other  cases. 
He  amplified  in  the  same  manner  the 
Papal  provisions.  "  That  all  these 
graces  would  be  sold,  and  that  this 
was  the  object  of  their  enactment,  was 
hs  little  a  secret  as  the  wealth  they 


brought  into  the  Papal  treasury."' — 
Eichhorn,  Deutsche  Recht,  1.  ii.  p. 
507.  This  is  truly  said.  John,  by  a 
Bull  under  the  specious  pretext  of  an- 
nulling the  execrable  usage  of  plurali- 
ties (the  Bull  is  entitled  "  Execrabilis"), 
commanded  all  pluralists  to  choose 
one,  and  one  only,  of  their  benefices 
(the  Cardinals  were  excepted),  and  to 
surrender  the  rest,  to  which  the  Pope 
was  to  appoint,  as  reserves.  "  Quae 
omnia  et  singula  beneficia  vacatura, 
ut  prsemittitur,  vel  dimissa,  nostrse 
et  Sedis  Apostolicce  dispositioni  re- 
servamus,  inhibentes  ne  quis  prseter 
Romanum  Pontificem  .  .  .  .  de  hu- 
jusmodi  beneficiis  disponei'e  pr£esu- 
mat." 

"  •'  Rallegravasi  oltre  a  modo  d' 
uceisione  e  rrrrte  de'  nemici." — Vil' 
lani,  xi.  20. 

2  P  2 


486 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI  i. 


had  great  fame  for  piety  as  well  as  learning,  arose 
every  night  to  pray  and  to  study,  and  every  morning 
attended  Mass.° 


*•  Boehmer,  who  warps  everything 
to  the  advantage  of  the  Pope,  ends 
with  this  sentence  :  "  Er  war  neunzig 
j.'^ve  alt,  uud  hiuterhess  eiuen  Schatz 


von  funf  und  zwanzig  IMillioneu 
gold  gulden."  Well  might  he  re- 
pudiate the  absolute  jioverty  of 
Christ  I 


OBiAV  VUL  BENEDICT  XU.  137 


CHAPTER   VIIL 


Benedict  XII. 


John  XXII.  had  contrived  to  crowd  the  Conclave  with 
French  Prelates.  Twenty-four  Cardinals  met ;  the 
general  suffrage  was  in  favour  of  the  brother  of  the 
Count  of  Comminges,  Bishop  of  Porto,  but  the  Cardinals 
insisted  on  a  solemn  promise  that  De  Comminges  would 
continue  to  rule  in  Avignon.  "  I  had  sooner,"  he  said, 
"  yield  up  the  Cardinalate  than  accept  the  Popedom 
on  such  conditions."  All  fell  off  from  the  intractable 
Prelate.  In  the  play  of  votes,  now  become  usual  in  the 
Conclave,  all  happened  at  once  to  throw  away  their 
suffrages  on  one  for  whom  no  single  vote  would  have 
been  deliberately  given.*  To  his  own  surprise,  Dec  20, 
and  to  that  of  the  College  of  Cardinals  and  of  ^^^^' 
Christendom,  the  White  Abbot,  the  Cistercian,  James 
Fournier,  found  himself  Pope.  "  You  have  chosen  an 
ass,"  he  said  in  humility  or  in  irony.  He  took  the  name 
of  Benedict  XII. 

Benedict  XII.  did  himself  injustice :  he  was  a  man 
of  shrewdness  and  sagacity;   he  had  been  a 
great  Pope  if  his  courage  had  been  equal  to 
his  prudence.      His  whole  Pontificate  was  a  tacit  re- 
proach on  the  turbulence,  implacability,  and  avarice  of 
his   predecessor.     His  first  act   was   to   disperse    the 


'  "Et  ecce  in  electione  ...  tot  car-  j  qui  si  essenonpoterit,nommoBlancum, 
dinalibus  quasi  insciis,  sub  altercatione  j  quod  repertum  est  a  duobus  partibns 
electus  extitit."  "  Ego  M.  nomine  ilium,  [  nominatum."—/lb€rt.  Argent,  p.  125 


438  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIl 

throng  of  greedy  expectants  around  the  Court  at 
Avignon.  He  sent  them  back,  each  to  his  proper 
function.  He  declared  against  the  practice  of  heaping 
benefices — held,  according  to  the  phrase,  in  com- 
mendam — on  the  favoured  few :  he  retained  that  privi- 
lege for  Cardinals  alone.  He  discouraged  the  Papal 
reserves ;  would  not  create  vacancies  by  a  long  ascend- 
ing line  of  promotions.  The  clergy  did  not  forgive  him 
his  speech,  ''  that  he  had  great  difficulty  in  finding  men 
worthy  of  advancement."  He  even  opened  the  coffers 
of  his  predecessor :  he  bestowed  100,000  florins  on  the 
Cardinals.  He  sought  for  theological  peace.  He  with- 
juiy  6,  drew  to  the  picturesque  sources  of  the  Sorga, 
^^^^-  not  yet  famed  in  Petrarch's  exquisite  poetry, 
to  meditate  and  examine  the  arguments  (he  was  a  man 
of  learning)  on  the  Beatific  Vision.  He  published  a  full 
Jan.  30,  ^^^  orthodox  determination  of  the  question, 
^^^^-  that  the  saints  who  do  not  pass  through  Purga- 
tory immediately  behold  the  Godhead.  The  heresy  of 
John  XXII.  was  thus  at  the  least  implied.  He  had 
some  thought  (he  wanted  courage  to  carry  out  his  own 
better  designs)  of  restoring  the  See  of  St.  Peter  to 
Italy;  but  Bologna  would  not  yield  up  her  turbulent 
independence,  and  was  averse  to  his  reception.  Eome 
was  still  in  a  state  of  strife;  and  perhaps  Kobert  of 
Naples  did  not  wish  to  be  overshadowed  by  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Pope.^  Benedict  even  made  the  first 
advance  to  reconciliation  with  Louis  of  Bavaria. 

But  Benedict  XII.  was  under  the  hard  yoke  of  the 
King  of  France.  He  soon  abandoned  all  design  of  eman- 
cipation from  that   control.      The  magnificent  palace 


*»  Letter  written  from  the  bridge  over  the  Sorga  to  King  Philip,  July  31, 
1335. — Raynald.  sub  ann. 


Chap.  VIII.  LOUIS  OF  BAVARIA.  439 

which,  out  of  the  treasures  of  Pope  John,  he  began  to 
build,  looked  like  a  deliberate  determination  to  fix  the 
Holy  See  for  ever  on  the  shores  of  the  Khone.  Avignon 
was  to  become  the  centre  and  capital  of  Christendom. 
The  Cardinals  began  to  erect  and  adorn  their  splendid 
and  luxuriant  villas  beyond  the  Khone.  The  amicable 
overtures  to  Louis  of  Bavaria  were  repressed  by  some 
irresistible  constraint.  The  Emperor,  weak,  weary,  worn 
out  with  strife,  would  have  accepted  the  most  abasing 
terms.  His  own  excommunication,  the  interdict  on  the 
Empire,  weighed  him  down.  He  was  not  without  super- 
stitious awe ;  his  days  were  drawing  on ;  he  might  die 
unabsolved.*^  Where  the  interdict  was  not  observed  (in 
most  cities  of  Germany),  there  was  still  some  want  of 
solemnity,  something  of  embarrassment  in  the  services 
of  the  Church ;  in  a  few  cities,  where  the  zealous  monks 
or  clergy  endeavoured  to  maintain  it,  were  heartburn- 
ings, strife,  persecution.  He  would  have  submitted  to 
swear  fealty  to  the  Pope  in  as  ample  terms  as  any 
former  Emperor,  and  to  annul  all  his  acts  against  Pope 
John,  all  acts  done  as  Emperor ;  ^  he  would  revoke  all 
proceedings  and  judgements  of  Henry  of  Luxemburg 
against  Eobert  of  Naples,  all  the  grants  and  gifts  which 
he  had  made  at  Eome;  he  would  agree  to  accept  no 
oath  of  fealty,  recognition,  or  any  advocacy,  or  grant 
any  fief  in  Rome  or  in  the  territories  of  the  Church. 
If  he  broke  this  treaty,  the  Pope  had  power  to  depose 
him  from  all  his  dignities,  or  to  inflict  heavier  penalties, 
without  citation  or  solemnity  of  law.®     He  w^ould  submit 

•s  Schmidt,  Gcschichte,  b.  vii.  1.  7,  j  *  "  Liberum  sit  Romano  Pontifici 
p.  324.  ad  alias  poenas  procedere  contra  nos, 

*  '*  Qusecunque  alia  titulo  imperii  |  privando  etiam  nos,  si  tibi  videbitur, 
dicta  vel  facta  per  nos  existunt  .  .  .  ita  imperial!,  regii  et  qualibet  alia  digni- 
ea  omnia  irrita  et  nulla  pronunciamus."  ,  tate,  absque  alia  vocatione  vel  juris 
— Apud  Raynaldum.  1336,  c.  iviii.       i  solemnitate." — Ibid. 


440  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

to  a  second  coronation  in  Rome,  on  a  day  appointed  by 
the  Pope,  and  quit  the  city  the  day  after.  The  Pope 
was  to  be  the  absolute  judge  of  the  fulfilment  of  the 
treaty. 

No  sooner  had  the  rumour  of  these  negotiations 
spread  abroad,  than  Benedict  XII.  was  besieged  with 
rude  and  vehement  remonstrances.  Ambassadors  ar- 
rived at  Avignon  from  the  Kings  of  France  and  of 
Naples.  The  Kings  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary  were 
known  to  support  their  protest.  "Would  the  Pope," 
they  publicly  demanded,  "  maintain  a  notorious  heretic  ? 
Let  him  take  heed,  lest  he  himself  be  implicated  in  the 
heresy."  Benedict  replied,  "  Would  they  destroy  the 
Empire?"  "Our  sovereigns  speak  not  against  the 
Empire,  but  against  a  Prince  who  has  done  so  much 
wrong  to  the  Church."  "Have  we  not  done  more 
wrong  ?  If  my  predecessor  had  so  willed,  Louis  would 
have  come  with  a  staff  instead  of  a  sceptre,  and  cast 
himself  at  their  feet.  He  has  acted  under  great  pro- 
vocation." "  We  could  not,"  he  subjoined,  "  have 
exacted  harder  terms,  if  Louis  of  Bavaria  had  been  a 
prisoner  in  one  of  our  dungeon  towers.^  But  Benedict 
could  speak,  he  could  not  act,  truth  and  justice :  his 
words  are  a  bitter  satire  on  his  own  weakness.  The 
King  of  France  took  summary  measures  of  compulsion : 
he  seized  all  the  estates  of  the  Cardinals,  most  of  them 
The  King  of  Frcncli  Prclatcs,  within  his  realm.  The  Car- 
AvSnon.  diuals  bcsicgcd  the  Court ;  the  King  of  France 
himself  visited  Avignon.  He  made  a  pompous  journey, 
partly  to  survey  the  cities  of  his  kingdom,  partly  from 
devotion  for  the  recovery  of  his  son.  Prince  John.  He 
was  accompanied  by  the  Kings  of  Bohemia  and  Navarre: 


'  Albert.  Argentin.  Chi-on.,  p.  126. 


Chap.  VIII.  KING  PHILIP  AT  AVIGNON.  441 

he  was  met  by  the  King  of  Arragon.  He  took  up  his 
abode  in  the  Villeneuve  beyond  the  Khone,  in  his  own 
territory,  where  the  Cardinals  had  their  sumptuous 
pahices.  The  Pope,  on  Good  Friday,  preached  so 
moving  a  sermon  (disastrous  news  had  arrived  from  the 
East)  that  the  King  renewed  his  vows  of  embarking  on 
the  crusade.  The  other  Kings,  numberless  Dukes, 
Counts,  and  Knights,  with  four  Cardinals,  were  seized 
with  the  same  contagious  impulse.  Orders  were  actu- 
ally sent  to  prepare  the  fleets  in  all  the  ports  of  the 
south  of  France ;  letters  were  written  to  the  Kings  ol 
Hungary,  Naples,  Cyprus,  and  to  the  Venetians,  to 
announce  the  determination.^  At  Avignon  the  King  of 
France  charged  Louis  of  Bavaria  with  entering  into  a 
league  with  the  enemies  of  France :  as  though  he  him- 
self had  not  occupied  cities  of  the  Empire  under  pre- 
tence of  protecting  them  from  the  pollution  of  heresy, 
or  as  though  a  league  with  the  enemies  of  France  was 
an  act  of  hostility  to  the  Pope.  And  who  were  these 
enemies  ?  The  war  with  England  had  not  begun.  The 
obsequious  Pope  coldly  dismissed  the  Imperial  ambas- 
sadors.^ 

But  even  success  against  his  enemies  raised  not  Louis 
of  Bavaria  from  his  stupor  of  religious  terror.  He  had 
wreaked  his  vengeance  on  his  most  dangerous  foe,  the 
King  of  Bohemia ;  wrested  from  him  Carinthia  and 
the  Tyrol  by  force  of  arms,  and  awarded  them  to  the 
Austrian  Princes.  "  You  tell  me,"  said  the  Pope,  "  that 
he  is  abandoned  by  all ;  but  who  has  yet  been  able  to 
deprive  him  of  his  crown  ?"*  Still  Louis,  though  re- 
pulsed, looked  eagerly  to  Avignon ;  but  so  completely 

t  Froissart,  i   60. 

•»  Letter  of  the  Pope  to  Louis  of  Bavaria. — Apud  Raynald, 

*  Albert.  Argentin    f .  12(:,  apud  Urstisium. 


442  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

did  Philip  rule  the  Cardinals,  the  Cardinals  the  Pope, 
that  he  took  the  desperate  measure  of  proposing  an 
alliance  with  the  King  of  France.  Pliilip  could  not 
but  in  courtesy  consult  the  Pope ;  the  Pope  could  only- 
sanction  an  alliance  with  a  Prince  under  excommuni- 
cation when  he  had  sought  and  obtained  absolution. 
Perhaps  he  thought  this  the  best  course  to  gain  per- 
mission to  absolve  Louis ;  perhaps  he  was  alarmed  at 
the  confederacy.  But  Philip  would  condescend  to  this 
alliance  only  on  his  own  terms.  The  Emperor  was  to 
pledge  himself  to  enter  into  treaty  with  no  enemy  of 
France  (no  doubt  he  had  England  in  view).  The  nego- 
tiations dragged  slowly  on :  the  ambassadors  of  Louis 
at  Avignon  grew  weary  and  left  the  city.  Already  the 
Pope  had  warned  the  King  of  France,  that  if 

^"  ■  he  still  persisted  in  his  haughty  delay,  still 
exacted  intolerable  conditions,  Louis  would  throw  him- 
self into  the  arms  of  England.  The  Pope  was  pro- 
foundly anxious  to  avert  the  damnation  which  hung 
over  the  partisans  of  Louis  in  Germany  and  Italy.'' 

War  was  now  imminent,  inevitable,  between  France 
and  England.  The  Pope  had  interposed  his  mediation, 
but  in  vain.*"  Edward  III.  treated  with  outward  respect, 
but  with  no  more,  the  Pope's  solemn  warning  not  to  be 
guilty  of  an  alliance  witli  Louis  of  Bavaria,  the  contu- 
macious rebel,  and  the  excommunicated  outcast  of  the 
Church.'*    The  English  clergy  were  with  the  King.    The 


"»  Letter  from  the  Pope  to  Philip.— 
Raynald.  1337,  c.  ii. 

™  There  are  several  letters  MS., 
B.  M.,  on  this  subject. 

n  MS.,  B.  M.     A  letter  dated  July 


John  XXII.,  his  consorting  with  no- 
toi'ious  heretics  in  Italy,  his  elevation 
of  Peter  of  Corvara  to  the  Antipope- 
dom.  Benedict,  who  had  treated  him 
with  mildness  in  hope  of  his  penitence, 


20,    1337,    denounces   the   crimes   of  I  entered    into   negotiations   with   hinu 
Louis  of  Bavaria,  his  offences  against  '  Kmg  Edward  is  urged   to  withdraw 


Chap.  VIII.  MO\TEMENT  IN  GERMANY.  443 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  Bishops  of  London  and 
Winchester,  disregarded  the  Pope's  letters,  and  opposed 
his  Legates.  The  Emperor  rose  in  importance.  The 
Pope  reproached  him  afterwards  with  breaking  off  the 
negotiations  at  Avignon,  withdrawing  his  ambassadors, 
and  not  appearing  at  the  appointed  day,  Michaelmas.** 
Yet  all  his  conduct  showed,  that  if  he  had  hoped  for 
absolution,  Louis  of  Bavaria  would  have  bought  it  at 
any  price  of  degradation.  He  might  seem  ready  to 
drink  the  last  dregs  of  humiliation.  He  had  made, 
before  this,  another  long  appeal  to  the  Pope ;  he  had 
excused  himself,  by  all  kinds  of  pitiful  equivocations,  for 
all  his  damnable  acts  in  the  usurpation  of  the  Empire, 
and  the  creation  of  the  Antipope ;  he  forswore  all  his 
bold  partisans,  Marsilio  of  Padua,  John  of  Jaudun ;  de- 
clared himself  ignorant  of  the  real  meaning  of  their 
writings ;  threw  off  Michael  of  Cesena  and  the  Spiritual 
Franciscans ;  asserted  himself  to  hold  the  orthodox  doc- 
trine on  the  poverty  of  Christ.  This  had  been  q^^  28, 
his  sixth  embassy  to  the  Court  of  Avignon.^  ^^^^• 
Now,  however,  Louis  took  a  higher  tone :  he  threatened 
to  march  to  Avignon,  and  to  extort  absolution  by  force 
of  arms.  For  not  only  was  his  alliance  eagerly  solicited 
by  England :  Germany  was  roused  to  indignation.  Diet 
after  Diet  met,  ever  more  and  more  resolved  Movement  in 
to  maintain  their  independent  right  to  elect  ^^^'"'^^"y- 
the  Sovereign  of  the  Empire.  Henry  of  Virneburg  had 
been  forced  by  the  Pope  on  the  reluctant  Chapter  and 
reluctant  Emperor  as  Archbishop  of  Mentz ;  but  Henry 


from  all  recognition  of  Louis  as  Em- 
peror, till  he  should  have  made  full  sa- 
tisfaction to  the  Church.  See,  following 
betters,  his  dread  of  Edward's  alliance 
»*cum  Theutonicis,"  Nov.   13,  1338. 


The  Pope  declares  the  Empire  vacant, 
the  full  right  of  so  ordaining  in  the  Pope 

«>  Lit.  ad  Archepisc.  Colon.,  apul 
Raynald.  1338,  c.  3. 

9  Oehlenschlager,  Urkunden,  Ixvi. 


444  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

was  now  in  direct  opposition  to  the  Pope,  under  excom- 
munication.     He  summoned  an  assembly  of 

March,  1338.      ,        -r.      i  oi     •  ttt- 

tne  Prelates  and  clergy  at  bpiers.  With  the 
utmost  unanimity  they  agreed  to  send  letters,  by  the 
Bishop  of  Coire  and  Count  Gerlach  of  Nassau,  to  de- 
mand the  reconciliation  of  Louis  of  Bavaria  (they  did 
not  call  him  Emperor)  with  the  Church,  and  so  the 
deliverance  of  the  G-erman  churches  and  clergy  from 
their  wretched  state  of  strife  and  confusion.  The  Pope 
openly  refused  an  answer  to  these  ambassadors ;  but  yet 
it  was  believed  in  Germany  that  he  had  whispered  into 
their  ears,  not  without  tears,  that  he  would  willingly 
grant  the  absolution ;  but  that  if  he  did,  the  King  of 

July  L      France  had  tln-eatened  to  treat  him  with  worse 

^^^^-        indignity  than  Philip  the  Fair  had  treated 

Boniface  VIII.*^     To  the  excommunicated  Archbishop 

of  Mentz  he  deigned  no  reply ;  but  to  the  Archbishop  cf 

Cologne  he  spoke  in  milder  language,  but  threw  the 

Diets.        whole  blame  of  the  rupture  on  the  Bavarian. 

May  18,*     Four  othcr  Diets  were  held  of  Prelates,  Princes, 

Au|.8.'     Nobles,  at  Cologne,  Frankfort,  Ehense  near 
Coblentz,  again  at  Frankfort. 

At  Frankfort  the  Emperor  appeared,  and  almost  in 
tears  complained  of  the  obduracy  of  the  Pope,  and 
charged  the  King  of  France  with  preventing  the  recon- 
ciliation in  order  to  debase  and  degrade  the  Imperial 
crown.  He  repeated  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ave-Maria, 
and  the  Apostles'  creed,  to  prove  his  orthodoxy.  The 
assembly  declared  that  he  had  done  enough  as  satis- 
faction to  the  Pope:  they  pronounced  all  the  Papal 
proceedings,  even  the  excommunication,  null  and  void. 
If  the  clergy  would  not  celebrate  the  divine  services, 


«  Albertus  Argentin. 


Chap.  VIII.    DECLAEATION  OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL.     445 


July  16. 


they  must  be  compelled  to  do  so.  The  meeting  at 
Ehense  was  more  imposing.  Six  of  the  Electors,  all 
but  the  King  of  Bohemia,  were  present.'  It 
is  called  the  first  meeting  of  the  Electoral 
College.  They  solemnly  agreed  that  the  holy  Eoman 
Empire  and  they,  the  Prince-Electors,  had  been  assailed, 
limited,  and  aggrieved  in  their  honours,  rights,  customs, 
and  liberties ;  that  they  would  maintain,  guard,  assert 
those  rights  against  all  and  every  one  without  excep- 
tion ;  that  no  one  would  obtain  dispensation,  absolution, 
relaxation,  abolition  of  his  vow ;  that  he  should  be,  and 
was  declared  to  be,  faithless  and  traitorous  before  God 
and  man  who  should  not  maintain  all  this  against  any 
opponent  whatsoever.  The  States-General  at  Frankfort 
passed,  as  a  fundamental  law  of  the  Empire,  a  declara- 
tion that  the  Imperial  dignity  and  power  are  from  God 
alone ;  that  an  Emperor  elected  by  the  concordant 
suffrage  or  a  majority  of  the  electoral  suffrages  has 
plenary  Imperial  power,  and  does  not  need  the  appro- 
bation, confirmation,  or  authority  of  the  Pope,  or  the 
Apostolic  See,  or  any  other.^ 

This  declaration  was  the  signal  for  an  active  contro- 
versy :  for  daring  acts  of  defiance  on  the  Papal  side,  of 
persecution  by  the  Imperial  party.  The  Pope's  ban  of  ex- 
communication was  nailed  upon  the  gate  of  the  Cathedral 
at  Frankfort.  At  Frankfort  all  the  Canons  and  Domi- 
nicans, in  many  cities  on  the  Khine  the  Dominicans  and 
all  known  partisans  of  the  Pope,  all  those  who  refused  to 
celebrate  the  service,  were  expelled  from  their  convents. 


'  Cb-onicoa  Vintoduran.  apud  Ec- 
card,  i.  p.  1844.  Chronicon  Petren. 
apud  Menckenium,  iii.  337.  Raynald. 
1338,  c.  viii. 

»  "  Nee  Papae  sive   Sedis  Aposto- 


licse  aut  alicujus  alterius  approba* 
tione,  confirpaatione,  auctoritate  indig^j 
vel  consensu." — Oehlenschlager,  Na 
Ixviii,  Rebdorf,  Annnl.  apud  Frehei 
i.  616. 


446  LATIN  CHKISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

At  a  Diet  at  Coblentz  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of 
Meeting  with  England  met.  Two  thrones  were  raised  in  the 
?f  EnSr*^  market-place,  on  which  the  monarchs  took 
Sept.  3.  ^i^QJj.  seats.  The  Emperor  held  the  sceptre  in 
bis  right  hand,  the  globe  in  his  left:  a  knight  stood 
with  a  drawn  sword  over  his  head.  Above  17,000  men- 
at-arms  surrounded  the  assembly.  The  King  of  Eng- 
land recognised  the  Emperor  excommunicated  by  the 
Pope.  Before  the  Chief  Sovereign  of  Christendom, 
Edward  arraigned  Philip  of  France  as  unjustly  with- 
holding from  him  not  only  Normandy,  Anjou,  and 
Aquitaine,  but  the  throne  of  France,  his  maternal  in- 
heritance. The  Emperor  then  rose.  He  accused  Philip 
of  refusing  homage  for  the  fiefs  held  of  the  Empire. 
He  declared  Philip  to  have  forfeited  those  fiefs,  to  be 
out  of  the  protection  of  the  Empire,  till  he  should  have 
restored  the  kingdom  of  France  to  its  rightful  owner, 
the  King  of  England.  He  declared  the  King  of  England 
Imperial  Vicar  over  all  the  proyinces  west  of  the  Khine, 
and  from  Cologne  to  the  sea.  All  the  Princes  of  the 
Low  Countries  became  thus  his  allies  or  vassals.  The 
Emperor  and  the  King  of  England  sent  their  common 
defiance  to  the  King  of  France.  Pope  Benedict,  it  was 
said,  rejoiced  at  that  defiance.* 

Yet  all  this  ostentation  of  defiance  and  scorn,  this 
display  of  German  independence,  the  determination  of 
the  electors  to  maintain  their  own  rights,  this  confede- 
racy of  prelates  and  nobles  and  the  States-General  to 
repel  the  pretensions  of  the  Pope,  as  to  any  control 
over  the  election  of  the  Emperor,  the  popular  excite- 
ment against  the   papalising   clergy   and  monks,  the 


«  "De  qua  diffidatione,"  says  Albert  Argentin  (he  was  a  aependent  on  the  Bishop 
of  Strasburg),  "  Papa  Benedictus,  eS.  iiitellecta,  multura  jocundabatur." — P.  12S. 


Chap.  VIII.         WEAKNESS  OF  THE  EMPEROR.  447 

elaborate  arguments  of  the  advocates  of  the  Imperial 
power,  the  alliance  with  England — conld  not  repress 
the  versatility  of  Louis  of  Bavaria,  nor  allay  his  terror 
of  the  Papal  censures.  On  the  first  excuse  he  began  to 
withdraw  his  feeble  support  from  the  King  of  England, 
to  revoke  his  title  of  Imperial  Vicar.*"  He  listened  to 
the  first  advances  of  Philip,  who  lured  him  with  hope  of 
reconciliation  to  the  Koman  See.  Two  years  had  not 
passed  when  Pope  Benedict  beheld  at  his  Court  at 
Avignon  three  Imperial  ambassadors  (not  tlie  first  since 
the  treaty  with  England),  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  the 
Count  of  Holland,  and  the  Count  Hohenberg,  renowned 
for  his  legal  knowledge.  They  were  accompanied  or 
met  by  an  ambassador  from  the  King  of  France,  sup- 
plicating the  Pope  to  grant  absolution  to  the  orthodox, 
pious,  and  upright  Louis  of  Bavaria.  His  letters  were 
tiomewhat  colder  and  less  urgent.  They  pressed  the 
abrogation  of  censures,  which  endangered  such  count- 
less souls,  as  far  as  might  be  consistent  mth  the  honour 
of  the  Church.  Even  a  Pope  in  Avignon  could  not 
submit  to  this  insolent  dictation,  and  from  a  King 
of  France,  embarrassed,  as  Philip  now  was,  by  such 
formidable  enemies.  Benedict  replied  with  dignity, 
mingled  with  his  characteristic  shrewdness  and  sarcasm, 
"  that  he  could  not,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of 


*  MS.,  B.  M.  The  Pope,  who  had  France  :  the  crown  does  not  descend  in 
made  new  proposals  of  peace  between  the  female  line  ;  if  it  did,  there  are 
France  and  England,  urges  Edward  to  nearer  heirs  than  Edward  :  let  him 
give  up  the  Vicariate  accepted  from  '  not  trust  to  Germans  and  Flemings, 
the  excommunicated  Louis  of  Bavaria,  |  March  3,  1340.  See  Edward's  el» 
Oct.  12,  1339.  Benedict's  exertions  '■  borate  answer.  Edward  is  admonished 
for  peace  between  France  and  England  not  to  be  too  proud  of  his  victories, 
were  constant,  earnest,  solemn.  There  '  Oct.  27,  1340.  The  King  of  France 
is  a  letter  on  Edwai-d's  assumption  had  agreed  to  accept  the  Pope's  media* 
of  any  pretensions   to   the  throne  of  |  tiou  as  "  persona  privata." 


448 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


the  King  of  France,  liold  Louis  of  Bavaria  one  day  for 
a  heretic,  tke  next  for  an  orthodox  believer :  Louis  must 
make  his  submission,  and  undergo  canonical  penance," 
The  world  saw  through  both ;  it  was  thought  that  the 
King  of  France  pretended  to  wish  that  which  he  did 
not  wish ;  the  Pope  not  to  wish  that  which  in  fact  was 
his  real  wish.^ 

Benedict  XII.  did  not  live  to  fulfil  his  peaceful  de- 
signs. He  died,  leaving  his  reputation  to  be  disputed 
with  singular  pertinacity  by  friends  and  foes.  He  was 
a  man  wiser  in  speech  than  in  action,  betraying  by  his 
keen  words  that  he  saw  what  was  just  and  right,  but 
dared  not  follow  it.^  Yet  political  courage  alone  was 
wanting.  He  was  resolutely  superior  to  the  papal  vice 
of  nepotism.  On  one  only  of  his  family,  and  that  a 
deserving  man,  he  bestowed  a  rich  benefice.  To  the 
rest  he  said :  "  As  James  Fournier  I  knew  you  well,  as 
Pope  I  know  you  not.  I  will  not  put  myself  in  the 
power  of  the  King  of  France  by  encumbering  myself 
with  a  host  of  needy  relatives."  He  had  the  moral 
fortitude  to  incur  unpopularity  with  the  clergy  by  per- 
sisting in  his  slow,  cautious,  and  regular  distribution  of 
benefices  ;  with  the  monks  by  rigid  reforms.  He  hated 
the  monks,  and  even  the  Mendicant  Orders.  He  showed 
his  hatred,  as  they  said,  by  the  few  promotions  which  he 
bestowed  upon  them ;  and  hatred  so  shown  was  sure  to 
meet  with  hatred  in  return.  His  weaknesses  or  vices 
were  not  likely  to  find  much  charity.  He  was  said  to 
be  fond  of  wine,  to  like  gay  and  free  conversation.  A 
bitter  epitaph  describes  him  as  a  Nero,  as  death  to  the 


«  Albert.  Argentin.  p.  128.  Vin- 
toduran,  p.  1863.  Benedict  Vit.  viii. 
Bpud  Baluzium. 

7  See  the  very  curious  account  of  a 


personal  intei-view  which  Albert  of  Stras- 
burg  had  with  the  Pope,  which  shows 
at  once  his  leaning  towards  the  Emperol 
aud  his  jesting  disposition. — P.  129. 


Chap.  VIII.  CHARACTER  OF  BEN^EDICT  XII. 


449 


laity,  a  viper  to  the  clergy,  without  truth,  a  mere  cup 
of  wiue.*  Yet  of  this  Nero  there  is  not  one  recorded 
act  of  cruelty  (compare  him  with  John  XXTT.)  ;  he  was 
guiltless  of  human  blood  shed  in  war.  He  may  have 
shown  a  viper's  tooth  to  the  clergy  ;  he  was  too  apt  to 
utter  biting  and  unwelcome  truths.  The  justice  of  the 
other  charges  may  be  fairly  estimated  by  the  injustice 
of  these.  The  last  was  most  easy  of  exaggeration  ; 
another  tradition  ascribes  to  the  habits  of  Benedict  the 
coarse  proverb,  "  as  drunk  as  a  Pope."  Another  more 
disgraceful  accusation  has  been  preserved  or  invented 
on  account  of  the  fame  of  one  whose  honour  was  in- 
volved in  it.  He  is  said  to  have  seduced  and  kept  as  a 
concubine  a  sister  of  Petrarch.  But  this  rests  on  the 
unsupported  authority  of  a  late  biographer  of  the  Poet.^ 


*  Ille  fuit  Nero,  lalcls  mors,  vlpera  clero, 

Devius  a  vero,  cuppa  repleta  mero." 

*  It  is  absolutely  without  contem- 
porary authority  or  allusion,  even  in 
the  later  biogi-aphies  in  Baluzius, 
which,  perhaps  written  by  some  of 
the  unpreferred  clergy  cr  monks,  care- 


fully record  all  the  other  charges.-  It 
first  appeared  in  Squarzafico's  "  Life  of 
Petrarch."  If  De  Sade  is  right  in  sup- 
posing Petrarch's  letter  to  refer  to  Bene- 
dict XII.,  he  speaks  of  him  as  "  madidus 
mero,"  but  there  is  not  a  word  about 
licentious  manners. — De  Sade. 


VOL.  VII. 


2  G 


450  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

Clement  VI. 

The  French  Cardinals  were  all-powerful  in  the  Conclave. 
Clement  VI.  ^hc  succcssor  of  Benedict  XII.  was  Cardinal 
May  7, 1342.  p^^er  Rogcr,  of  a  noble  house  of  Marmont  in 
the  Limousin.  He  had  been  prior  of  St.  Bandille  at 
Nismes,  Abbot  of  Fecamp,  Bishop  of  Arras,  Archbishop 
of  Sens,  Archbishop  of  Rouen.  A  Frenchman  by  birth, 
inclination,  character,  at  his  inauguration  all  was  French. 
For  the  Emperor,  for  the  Senator  of  Rome,  for  the 
Orsinis,  Colonnas,  Annibaldis,  his  stirrup  was  held  by 
the  Duke  of  Normandy,  son  and  heir  of  the  King  of 
France,  with  the  Dukes  of  Bourbon  and  Burgundy,  and 
the  Dauphin  of  Vienne.  He  took  the  name  of  Clement 
VI. ;  it  might  almost  seem  an  announcement  of  the 
policy  which  was  to  distinguish  his  popedom.  If  Bene- 
dict XII.  stood  in  every  respect  in  strong  contrast  to 
John  XXII.,  the  rule  of  Clement's  administration  might 
seem  to  be  the  studious  reversal  of  that  of  his  prede- 
His  fiist  cesser.  All  the  benefices,  which  the  tardy  and 
acts.  hesitating  conscientiousness  of  Benedict  had 
left  vacant,  were  filled  at  once  by  the  lavish  and  hasty 
grants  of  Clement.  He  declared  a  great  number  of 
bishoprics  and  abbacies  vacant  as  Papal  reserves,  or  as 
filled  by  void  elections;  he  granted  them  away  with 
like  prodigality.  It  was  objected  that  no  former  Pope 
had  assumed  this  power.    "  They  knew  not,"  he  answered, 


Chap.  IX.  CLEMEJsT  VI.  451 

"liow  to  act  as  Pope."^  He  issued  a  Brief  that  all  poor 
clergy  who  would  present  themselves  at  Avignon  within 
two  months  should  partake  of  his  bounty.  An  eye- 
witness declared  that  100,000  greedy  applicants  crowded 
the  streets  of  Avig-non.^  If  Clement  acted  up  to  his 
maxim,  that  no  one  ought  to  depart  unsatisfied  from 
the  palace  of  a  prince,  how  vast  and  inexhaustible  must 
have  been  the  wealth  and  preferment  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Pope !  The  reforms  of  the  monastic  orders  were 
mitigated  or  allowed  to  fall  into  disuse.  The  clemency 
of  the  Pope  had  something  of  that  dramatic  show  which 
characterises  and  delights  his  countrymen.  A  man  of 
low  rank  had  in  former  days  done  him  some  injury. 
The  man,  in  hopes  that  he  and  his  offence  had  been 
forgotten,  presented  a  petition  to  the  Pope.  Clement 
remembered  both  too  well.  Twice  he  threw  down  the 
petition  and  trampled  it  under  foot.  He  was  then 
heard  by  his  attendants  to  murmur,  "  Devil,  tempt  me 
not  to  revenge  ! "  He  took  up  and  set  his  seal  to  the 
petition." 

If  Clement  was  indulgent  to  others,  he  was  not  less 
so  to  himself.  The  Court  of  Avignon  became  the  most 
splendid,  perhaps  the  gayest,  in  Christendom.  The 
Proven9als  might  almost  think  their  brilliant  and 
chivalrous  Counts  restored  to  power  and  enjoyment. 
The  papal  palace  spread  out  in  extent  and  magnificence. 
The  young  art  of  painting  was  fostered  by  the  encou- 
ragement of  Italian  artists.*^  The  Pope  was  more  than 
royal  in  the  number  and  attire  of  his  retainers.  The 
papal  stud  of  horses  commanded  general  admiration. 
The  life  of  Clement  was  a  constant  succession  of  eccle- 


•  Vit.  iii.  et  v.     Clement  VI.  apud 
Baluzium,  pp.  284,  321. 
»»  Vit.  i.  p.  264. 


e  Vit.  i.  p.  264. 

<*  See  Kugler.     Giotto  had  painted 
for  Clement  V.,  i.  123. 

2  G  2 


452 


LATIN  CHEISTIANITY. 


Book  Xll. 


siastical  pomps  and  gorgeous  receptions  and  luxurious 
banquets.  Ladies  were  admitted  freely  to  the  Court,® 
the  Pope  mingled  with  ease  in  the  gallant  intercourse. 
If  John  XXII.,  and  even  the  more  rigid  Benedict,  did 
not  escape  the  imputation  of  unclerical  licence,  Cle- 
ment YI.,  who  affected  no  disguise  in  his  social  hours, 
would  hardly  be  supposed  superior  to  the  common 
freedom  of  the  ecclesiastics  of  his  day.  The  Countess 
of  Turenne,  if  not,  as  general  report  averred,  actually 
so,  had  at  least  many  of  the  advantages  of  the  Pope's 
mistress — the  distribution  of  preferments  and  benefices 
to  any  extent,  which  this  woman,  as  rapacious  as  she  was 
handsome  and  imperious,  sold  with  shameless  publicity.^ 
A  voluptuous  Court  was  not  likely  to  raise  the  moral 
condition  of  the  surrounding  city.  Petrarch  had  lived 
for  some  time  at  Avignon,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Car- 
dinal Colonna,  and  of  James  Colonna,  Bishop  of  Lombes. 
His  passion  for  Laura  had  begun  in  a  church;  and 
though  her  severe  and  rare  virtue  gave  that  exquisite 
unattainted  purity  to  his  love  verses ;  though  as  a  poet 
his  tenderness  never  melts  into  earthly  passion  ;  his 
highest  raptures  are  Platonism ;  yet  Petrarch  was  not 
altogether,  though  he  became  Canon  of  Lombes  and 
Archdeacon  of  Parma,  preserved  from  the  contagion  of 
Morals  of  l^is  agc  ;  he  had  two  natural  children.  But  of 
Avignon,  ^j^^  moral  corruption  of  Avignon  he  repeatedly 
speaks  with  loathing  abhorrence ;  Eome  itself  in  com- 
parison was  the  seat  of  matronly  virtue  :  by  his  account 
it  was  one  vast  brothel.  He  fled  to  the  quiet  and  un- 
vitiated  seclusion  of  Vaucluse.? 


«  "  Mulierum  et  bonorum  et  poten- 
tiae  cupidus  .  .  .  ipse  Francis  Francus 
ferventer  adhaisit." — Albert.  Argentin. 
P.  132. 


f  Matteo  Villani. 

s  This  repulsive  subject  cannot  be 
fully  understood  without  the  study  of 
Petrarch's  letters,  especially  the  book 


Chap.  IX. 


EMBASSY  FROM  ROME. 


453 


Clement  VI.,  with  his  easy  temper,  was  least  likely  to 
restrain  that  proverbial  vice  of  the  Popes,  which  has 
formed  for  itself  a  proper  name — Nepotism.  On  his 
brothers,  nephews,  kindred,  relatives,  compatriots,  were 
accumulated  grants,  benefices,  promotions.  One  nephew, 
at  the  age  of  eighteen,  was  Notary  of  the  Apostolic 
Court  and  Cardinal.^ 

Scarcely  had  Clement  ascended  the  throne,  when  the 
Koman  people  sent  a  deputation  to  his  Holiness  Embassy 
to  urge  him  to  return  to  his  See.  Petrarch,  fo'^i^^^^- 
who  had  been  crowned  at  Eome,  had  acquired  the 
rights  of  a  Roman  citizen,  and  was  one  of  the  eighteen 
ambassadors.  Among  the  rest  lurked  undistinguished 
Nicolo  Rienzi,  the  future  Tribune.  Petrarch,  as  the 
crowned  Poet  of  Eome,  addressed  the  Pope  in  a  long 
piece  of  Latin  verse.  Rome,  the  aged  female,  besought 
the  return  of  the  Pope ;  she  tempted  him  with  the 
enumeration  of  her  countless  religious  treasures,  her 
wonder-working  reliques,  her  churches,  her  apostolic 
shrines. 

The  Pope,  as  usual,  put  off  this  supplication  with  fine 


"  Sine  Titulo."  AAngnon  was  the  sink 
of  Christendom.  "  Nee  tam  propter 
se  quana  propter  concun-entes  et  coactas 
ibi  concretasque  orbis  sordes  ac  nequi- 
tias  hie  locus  a  principio  multis  atque 
ante  alios  mihi  pessimas  omnium  visus 
est."— Sen.  1.  10,  ep.  2.  But  this 
wiekedness  was  not  only  among  the 
low,  the  retainers  of  the  Church,  or 
the  gown.  "  Tam  calidi,  tamque  prje- 
cipites  in  Venerem  senes  sunt,  tanta 
eos  aetatis  et  status  et  vinum  cepit 
oblivio,  sic  in  libidines  inardescunt, 
sic  in  omne  ruunt  dedecus,  quasi  omnis 
eorum  gloria,  non  in  cruce  Christi  sit, 
sed  in  romessationibus,  et  ebrietatibus, 


et  quae  hsec  sequuntur  in  cubilibus, 
impudentiis  .  .  .  Spectat  hasc  Sathan 
ridens  atque  in  pari  tripudio  delecta- 
tus,  atque  inter  deerepitos  ac  puellas 
arbiter  sedens,  stupet  plus  illos  agere, 
quam  se  hortari."  I  must  break  off. 
"  Mitto  stupra,  raptus,  ineestus,  adul- 
teria,  qui  jam  Pontificalis  ludi  lasci- 
via3  sunt." — P.  730,  Ed.  Bas.  Again 
I  must  pause  ;  I  dai-e  not  quote  even, 
the  Latin.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that 
Peti-arch  was  an  Italian,  and  eager  t9 
restore  the  Papacy  to  Rome,  or  to  treat 
such  passages  as  satiric  declamation. 

»»  Vit.  i.   p.   265.     Matteo   Villai-' 
apud  Mui-atoii,  xiv.  1.  iii.  c.  43. 


454 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


The  Jubilee. 


words,  but  lie  granted  one  request.  The  Jubilee  appointed 
by  Pope  Boniface  for  every  hundred  years  was 
but  a  partial  blessing  to  mankind ;  very  few 
indeed  lived  to  that  period.  Clement  ordained  that  it 
should  be  celebrated  at  the  end  of  fifty  years. 

One  man  alone  was  excepted  from  the  all-embracing 
Louis  of  clemency  of  the  Pope — Louis  of  Bavaria.  Al- 
Bavaria.  ready,  as  Archbishop  of  Eouen,  Clement  had 
preached  before  the  Kings  of  France  and  Bohemia  a 
furious  and  abusive  declamation,  in  which  he  played  on 
the  name  of  the  Bavarian.  Louis  had  not  merely  joined 
in  the  persecution  of  those  ecclesiastics  or  monks  who 
obeyed  the  papal  interdict;  he  had  done  an  act  of 
usurpation  on  the  ecclesiastical  authority,  which,  besides 
its  contempt  of  the  Pope,  had  inflamed  against  him  the 
implacable  resentment  of  the  King  of  Bohemia.  Of  his 
imperial  authority  he  had  dissolved  the  marriage  of 
Margaret  of  Carinthia,  heiress  of  great  part  of  the 
Tyrol,  and  sanctioned  her  repudiation  of  her  husband,  a 
younger  son  of  the  King  of  Bohemia.'  He  had  then 
given  a  dispensation  for  her  marriage  with  his  own  son, 
within  the  prohibited  degrees.^  The  bold  and  faithful 
asserters  of  the  imperial  power,  Marsilio  of  Padua  and 
William  of  Ockham,  had  been  again  his  counsellors ; 
tliey  declared  the  power  of  dissolving  marriages,  and  of 
dispensations,  to  be  inherent  in  the  imperial  crown. 
Yet  on  the  accession  of  Clement.  Louis  sent  a  sub- 


'  Albert  of  Strasburg  gives  a 
sti-ange  account  of  this  ill-assorted 
wedlock.  "  Cumque  Joannes  Comes 
Tyrolis,  filius  Bohemi  impotens,  ux- 
orem  suam  semifatuam  plurimura  mo- 
lestaret,  inter  alia,  ejus  mordendo 
mamraillas." 


k  Albert  (p.  119)  calls  the  act  of 
Louis  "  inconsuetura  et  honibile.  0 
idolorum  servitus  avaritia,  quae  tantos 
principes  confudisti,  ex  quibus  iterum 
inter  Bohemos  et  Principem  et  filiof 
suos  non  imraerito  Uvor  edax  et  odia 
suscitantur." 


Chap.  IX.         CLEMENT  AND  LOUIS  OF  BAVAEIA.  455 

missive  embassy  to  the  Pope,  to  demand  absolution. 
At  the  same  time  he  reminded  Philip  of  France  of  his 
solemn  oath  to  interpose  his  friendly  mediation.  The 
Pope  sternly  answered  that  Louis  must  first  acknowledge 
his  sins  and  heresies,  entreat  pardon,  lay  down  his  im- 
perial power  at  the  Pope's  feet,  and  restore  the  Tyrol  to 
its  rightful  lord. 

During  the  same  year  Clement  published  a  new  Bull 
of  excommunication  throughout  Christendom,  ^pj.jj  ^2, 
which,  if  Louis  did  not  abdicate  all  his  im-  ^^'^^• 
perial  authority  within  three  months,  and  appear  to 
receive  judgement  before  the  papal  tribunal,  threatened 
him  with  still  heavier  and  worldly  penalties.  The 
Archbishops,  Henry  of  Mentz  and  Baldwin  of  Oct.  17, 1343. 
Treves,  were  ordered  immediately  to  take  steps  for  the 
election  of  a  King  of  the  Komans. 

Louis  was  constantly  vacillating  between  the  most 
haughty  defiance  of  the  Pope  and  the  meanest  vacuiation 
submission.  At  one  time  he  alarmed  the  <^f^ouis. 
religious  fears  of  his  boldest  partisans  by  his  lofty  pre- 
tensions ;  at  another,  disquieted  them  by  his  abject 
humiliation.  He  now  threatened  not  to  recognise 
Clement  as  Pope ;  he  gave  away  bishoprics  and  benefices 
to  which  the  Pope  had  already  presented ;  he  seized  the 
money  which  the  Pope's  collectors  were  exacting  for  a 
crusade.  But  no  sooner  had  the  Pope's  order  to  the 
Archbishops  to  summon  the  electors  to  discuss  a  new 
election,  and  the  publication  of  the  papal  excommunica- 
tion throughout  Germany,  produced  some  effect — no 
sooner  had  the  electors  met  at  Rhense, — than  Louis 
hastened  to  entreat  their  forbearance,  to  promise  his 
utmost  endeavours  to  obtain  reconciliation  with  the 
Pope,  and  to  be  guided  altogether  by  their  counsel. 

Not  content  with  this,  Louis  plunged  desperately  and 


456  LATIN  CHKISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

at  once  into  the  lowest  depths  of  humiliation.  The 
Pope  at  the  close  of  the  three  months  had  held  a  con- 
sistory. It  was  proclaimed  in  Latin  and  in  German, 
"  Does  any  one  appear  for  Louis  of  Bavaria  ? "  None 
replied.  He  was  pronounced  in  contumacy.  At  the 
same  time  came  the  answer  of  the  King  of  France. 
"  He  had  not  sought  the  favour  of  the  Pope  in  a  be- 
coming manner."  "^ 

And  now  even  the  Pope  himself  was  astonished  by  a 
Degrading  p^oposal  from  Louis,  that  he,  Clement,  should 
cepted^y  absolutely  dictate  the  form  of  submission :  the 
Louis.  ambassadors  of  Louis  would  receive  full  powers 
to  subscribe  to  whatever  conditions  the  Pope  might  be 
pleased  to  impose.  Now  was  executed  a  procuration 
the  most  disgraceful,  the  most  rigorous,  that  Louis 
ought  not  to  have  signed  had  he  been  in  the  Pope's 
prison.''  It  might  seem  to  tax  the  ingenuity  of  the 
Pope's  pride  and  enmity  to  frame  more  degrading  con- 
ditions. Louis  was  to  acknowledge  and  repudiate  all 
his  transgressions  committed  against  John  XXII.  or  his 
legates  in  the  election  of  an  Antipope,  the  protection  of 
Marsilio  of  Padua  and  his  fellows,  his  appeal  to  the 
Council ;  he  was  to  condemn  and  declare  accursed  all 
the  errors  of  Marsilio  and  his  partisans.  As  penance 
for  these  offences,  Louis  was  to  undertake  a  crusade, 
build  churches  and  monasteries,  and  do  all  other  acts  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  Pope ;  he  was  to  entreat  pardon 
and  absolution  for  all  his  crimes,  to  lay  aside  uncondi- 
tionally tlie  imperial  title  assumed  at  Kome ;  to  confess 
that  he  had  borne  it  heretically  and  unlawfully;  to 
surrender  his  whole  power  into  the  hands  of  the  Pope  ; 


™  Albert.  Argentin. 

«>  So  writes  the  author  of  the  Paralipomena.— Chronic.  Urspergens.  p.  271, 


Chap.  IX. 


DEGRADATION  OF  LOUIS. 


457 


as  regarded  the  Kings  of  France  and  Bohemia,  to  con- 
form himself  entirely  to  the  Pope's  will;  humbly  to 
beseech  the  Pope  to  restore  him  to  that  state  in  which 
he  was  before  his  condemnation  by  Pope  John ;  formally 
to  take  the  amplest  oath  of  allegiance  ever  taken  by 
his  predecessors  to  the  Pope,  to  confirm  all  grants,  to 
swear  never  to  assail  the  papal  territory,  and  be  in  all 
things,  even  the  most  severely  trying,  absolutely  and 
entirely  obedient  to  the  Pope ;  to  surrender  his  whole 
power,  state,  will,  judgement,  to  the  free  and  unlimited 
disposition  of  the  Pope.°  The  imperial  ambassadors, 
the  Dauphin  of  Yienne,  the  Bishops  of  Augsburg  and 
Bamberg,  and  Ulric  of  Augsburg,  had  full  authority  to 
sign  these  terms,  which  Henry  lY.  might 
almost  have  been  ashamed  of  at  Canosa.  They 
swore  on  the  Gospels  and  by  the  soul  of  the  Emperor, 
that  he  would  truly  observe  them.  They  signed  them 
in  full  consistory,  in  the  presence  of  twenty-three  Car- 
dinals and  numbers  of  French,  Itahan,  and  German 
prelates. 

But  even  yet  the  insatiate  pretensions  of  the  Koman 
See  had  not  reached  their  height.  The  Emperor  had 
drunk  the  very  lees  of  humiliation ;  the  Empire  itself 
must  be  prostrate,  as  of  old,  at  the  feet  of  the  Popedom : 
one  more  precedent  must  be  furnished  for  the  total 
subordination  of  the  temporal  to  the  spiritual  power. 
New  articles  were  prepared ;  the  Emperor  was  to  swear 
that  all  acts  hitherto  done  by  himself  or  in  his  name 
were  invalid;  he  was  to  entreat  the  Pope,  when  he 
removed  the  ban  of  excommunication,  to  give  validity 


°  "  Res,  statum,  velle  et  nolle,  nihil 
sibi  proprio  arbitrio  vetinendo,  abso- 
lute   et    liberaliter    in    manibus   dicti 


Domini  nostri  Papse." — Lud.  IV.  Sub- 
missio,  in  Baluz.  Miscellan.  ii.  27fi, 
276. 


458  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

to  sucli  acts;  lie  was  to  make  oath,  not  only  not  to 
attack  the  territory  of  the  Church,  but  especially  the 
three  dependent  kingdoms,  Sicily,  Sardinia,  Corsica; 
that  he  would  enter  into  no  alliance  with  heretics, 
whether  men,  princes,  or  kings ;  that  he  would  issue  no 
ordinance  as  Emperor  or  King  of  the  Komans  without 
special  permission  of  the  Koman  See;  that  he  would 
supplicate  the  Pope,  after  absolution,  to  grant  him  the 
administration  of  the  empire ;  that  he  would  make  the 
States  of  the  empire  swear  by  word  and  by  writing  to 
stand  by  the  Church.  If  he  should  not  fulfil  all  these 
terms,  should  any  doubt  arise  concerning  these  articles, 
the  Pope  alone  was  to  judge  thereof. 

Louis,  without  appeasing  his  enemies,  had  sunk  into 
the  most  abject  contempt  with  his  rightful  partisans: 
this  contempt  would  not  condescend  to  disguise  or  dis- 
sept.1344.  semble  itself.  At  a  Diet  at  Frankfort  the 
Indignation  Empcror  Ventured  to  appear,  and  to  submit 
of  Germany.  ^^  ^YiQ  Statcs  of  Germany  his  own  shame  and 
the  shame  of  the  Empire.  Some  lingering  personal 
respect  for  Louis  and  for  his  high  office  constrained  the 
assembly ;  but  though  he  had  forfeited  his  own  dignity, 
they  would  maintain  theirs.  Wicker,  the  Proto-notary  of 
Treves,  in  a  long  and  skilful  speech,  showed  the  usurp- 
ation of  the  Pope  on  the  rights  of  the  Empire.  An 
embassy  was  determined  to  represent  to  Pope  Clement 
that  the  conditions  to  which  Louis  had  submitted  could 
not  be  fulfilled  without  violating  his  oath  to  the  States. 
Li  other  quarters  there  were  loud  murmurs  that  an 
Emperor  who  had  so  debased  the  holy  office,  ought  to 
be  compelled  to  abdicate :  the  throne  had  been  so 
degraded  by  the  Bavarian,  that  no  Bavarian  should  ever 
hereafter  be  raised  to  the  throne. 

The  Pope,  after  some  time,  took  a  strong  aggressive 


Chap.  IX.  LO CIS  AGAIN  EXCOMMUNICATED.  459 

measure.     Henry  of  Virneburg,  Archbishop  of  Mentz, 
was  deposed  by  his  sole  authority."     Gerlach,  ^p^^  ^^^ 
a  brother  of  the  powerful  Count  of  Holland,  ^^^^• 
whose  estates  were  in  the  neighbourhood,  was  elevated 
though  but  twenty  years  old,  to  the  Metropolitan  See. 

The  Pope  scrupled  not  to  break,  if  he  could,  the 
bruised  reed.  A  new  Bull  of  excommunica-  Apruis, 
tion,  on  the  pretence  that  Louis  had  betrayed  ^^^®' 
reluctance  or  tardiness  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  treaty, 
was  promulgated,  which  in  the  vigour  and  fury  of  its 
curses  transcended  all  that  had  yet,  in  the  wildest  times, 
issued  from  the  Koman  See.  "  We  humbly  implore  the 
Divine  power  to  confute  the  madness  and  crush  the  pride 
of  the  aforesaid  Louis,  to  cast  him  down  by  the  might  of 
the  Lord's  right  hand,  to  deliver  him  into  the  hands 
of  his  enemies,  and  of  those  that  persecute  him.  Let 
the  unforeseen  snare  fall  upon  him !  Be  he  accursed  in 
his  going  out  and  his  coming  in !  The  Lord  strike 
him  with  madness,  and  blindness,  and  fury !  May  the 
heavens  rain  lightning  upon  him !  May  the  wrath  of 
Almighty  God,  and  of  the  blessed  apostles  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  turn  against  liim  in  this  world  and  in  the 
world  to  come !  May  the  whole  world  war  upon  him  ! 
May  the  earth  open  and  swallow  him  up  quick !  May 
his  name  be  blotted  out  in  his  own  generation,  liis 
memory  perish  from  the  earth!  May  the  elements 
be  against  him,  his  dwelling  be  desolate !  The  merits 
of  all  the  Saints  at  rest  confound  him  and  execute 
vengeance  on  him  in  this  life !  Be  his  sons  cast  forth 
from  their  homes  and  be  delivered  before  his  eyes  into  the 
hands  of  his  enemies ! "  •*  The  Electors  were  called  upon 
to  proceed  at  once  to  tl  e  creation  of  a  new  Emperor. 


9  Albert.  Argentin.  p.  135.  «  Raynalius,  sub  ann. 


460  LATIN  CBfllSTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

Of  these  electors  two  only,  liis  son  the  Margrave  of 
Brandenburg,  and  the  deposed  Archbishop  of  Mentz, 
adhered  to  Jjouis.  The  three  ecclesiastical  electors, 
including  Gerlach  of  Mentz,  the  King  of  Bohemia,  the 
Duke  of  Saxony,  were  arrayed  against  him.  The  Elector 
Palatine  vacillated  between  the  parties.  John,  the 
King  of  Bohemia,  the  rival  of  Louis,  now  embittered 
by  the  affair  of  the  Tyrol,  was  blind,  and  so  disqualified 
Charles  of  for  the  Imperial  crown.  His  son,  Charles  of 
Moravia,  jjj^ioravia  (of  the  age  of  thirty-six),  was  the 
representative  of  the  house  of  Luxemburg.  The  Pope, 
not  without  fierce  debates  in  the  consistory,  had  deter- 
mined to  put  forward  Charles.  The  French  cardinals, 
headed  by  the  Cardinal  Perigord,  the  Gascons  by  the 
Cardinal  de  Comminges,  came  to  high  words  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Pope.  Each  charged  the  other  with  treason 
to  the  Church.  De  Comminges  accused  Talleyrand  de 
Perigord  as  implicated  in  the  murder  of  Andrew',  King  of 
Naples.  The  Pope  had  refused  to  hear  the  ambassadors 
of  the  King  of  Hungary,  when  they  demanded  vengeance 
for  that  murder.  The  dispute  almost  came  to  a  personal 
conflict.  Talleyrand  rose  up  to  strike  De  Comminges ; 
the  Pope  and  the  other  cardinals  parted  them  with  diffi- 
culty. They  retired  in  sullen  wrath ;  each  fortified  his 
palace  and  armed  his  retainers.  It  was  long  before  they 
were  brought  even  to  the  outward  show  of  amity.** 

Charles  obtained  not  the  support  of  the  Pope  without 
hard  and  humiliating  conditions.  He  swore  to  those 
conditions  before  the  Conclave.  Eight  days  after  his 
election  he  was  to  ratify  his  oath.  He  was  to  rescind 
all  the  acts  of  Louis  of  Bavaria ;  he  was  so  religiously 
to  respect  the  territories  of  the  Church  to  their  widest 


»  KaynalJus,  sub  ann. 


Chap.  IX.  BATTLE  OF  CEECY.  461 

extent,  tliat  he  was  only  to  enter  Kome  for  his  corona- 
tion, and  on  the  day  of  his  coronation  to  depart  again 
from  the  city. 

The  Electors  met  at  Rhense;  the  Empire  was  de- 
clared long  vacant ;  Charles  of  Moravia  was  proclaimed 
King  of  the  Romans.  But  Frankfort  had  shut  her  gates 
against  the  Electors.  Aix-la-Chapelle  shut  juiyn, 
her  gates  against  the  new  Emperor.  Louis,  ^^'^^• 
low  as  he  had  fallen,  almost  below  contempt,  had  still 
partisans ;  Germany  at  least  had  partisans.  An  assem- 
bly at  Spires  declared  the  election  at  Rhense  void ;  and 
denied  the  right  of  the  Pope  to  depose  an  Emperor. 

War,  a  terrible  civil  war,  seemed  inevitable.  But 
gratitude,  kindred,  the  unextinguished  passion  for  chi- 
valrous adventm-e,  led  the  blind  John  of  Bohemia, 
accompanied  by  his  son,  the  elected  Emperor,  to  join 
the  army  of  the  King  of  France,  now  advancing  to  repel 
the  invasion  of  Edward  III.  of  England.  The  Battle  of 
blind  King  fell  nobly  on  the  field  of  Crecy.  Aug.  26, 1346. 
His  Imperial  son  was  the  first  to  fly ;  he  was  of  the 
few  that  escaped  the  carnage  of  that  disastrous  day. 
Charles  was  thus  King  of  Bohemia.  As  King  of  the 
Romans,  though  Aix-la-Chapelle  and  Cologne  still 
closed  their  gates,  he  was  crowned  at  Bonn.  But  Ger- 
many scoffed  at  the  Priests'  Emperor ;  the  ally  of  the 
discomfited  King  of  France,  the  fugitive  of  Crecy,  made 
but  slow  progress  either  by  arms  or  by  policy.  The 
unexpected  death  of  Louis  of  Bavaria  left  him  Deam  of 
without  rival.  Louis  died  the  last  Emperor  B^vSia! 
excommunicated  by  the  Pope ;  the  Emperor,  ^'^t^^^'"- 
of  all  those  that  had  been  involved  in  strife  with  the 
Papacy,  who  had  demeaned  himself  to  the  lowest  base- 
ness of  submission. 

Yet  Germany  would  not  acknowledge  an  Emperor 


462 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XI L 


June,  1349. 


nominated  by  the  Pope.  The  Empire  was  offered  to 
Edward  of  England ;  it  was  declined  by  him.  The 
Guntherof    election  then  fell  on  Gunther  of  Schwarzen- 

Schwarzen-  ^  .  .  ii.ii 

burg.  1348.    burg.^     His  resignation  and  his  death  relieved 
Charles  from  a  dangerous  rival ;  but  Charles  was  obliged 
to  submit  to  a  new  election  at  Frankfort.    His 
coronation   at  Aix-la-Chapelle  at  length   esta- 
blished his  right  to  the  throne.     Still  he  was  recognised 
not  as  appointed  by  the  Pope ;  but  raised  by  the  free 
choice  of  Germany  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Romans.' 
In  Italy,  tragical  and  wonderful  events  marked  the 
Italy.        Pontificate  of  Clement  VI.     In  Naples,  King 
imI    '     Robert  had  closed  his  long  and  busy  reign. 
The  crown  had  descended  to  his  granddaughter,  the 
heiress  of  the  Duke  of  Calabria.     Joanna  was  wedded 
Joanna  of    ^^  ^^^  early  youth  to  her  kinsman  Andrew, 
Naples.      q£  ^YiQ  royal  house  of  Hungary.     Joanna  now 
stood  arraigned  before  the  world  as  an  adulteress ;  if  not 
as  an  accomplice,  as  having  connived  at  the  murder  of 
her  husband.'^     Louis,  King  of  Hungary,  invaded  the 
kingdom  with  a  strong  force  to  avenge  his  brother's 
Jan.  15,      death,  and  to  assert  his  right  to  the  throne 
^^*''         as  heir  of  Charles   Martel.      Joanna  fled  to 
Avignon  ;  she  was  for  a  time  placed  under  custody ;  but 
the  Pope  granted  a  dispensation  for  her  marriage  with 
her  kinsman,  Louis  of  Tarento.    She  returned  to  Naples, 
having  sold  to  the  Pope  the  city  of  Avignon,  part  of  her 
kingdom  of  Provence.'^     The  Pope  thus  recognised  her 


■  Schmidt,  Geschichte,  p.  359. 

*  Hen'art  von  Hohenburg  published 
two  learned  works,  in  defence  of  Louis 
of  Bavaria  against  Bzovius,  the  con- 
tinuator  of  Baroriius.  They  contain 
many  of  the  documents. 

■  Compare  Giaunone,  1.  xxiii.     He 


is  favourable  to  the  character  and  abi- 
lities of  Joanna. 

*  Vit.  Clement  VI.  apud  Baluzium. 
The  price  was  30,000  florins  of  gold 
of  Florence.  Lunig,  quoted  io  Gian« 
none,  xxiii.  1. 


Chap.  IX.  JOAKNA  OF  NAPLES.  463 

title  ;  he  became  henceforth  the  lord  and  owner  of 
Avignon.  War  continued  to  rage  in  Naples  between 
the  Hungarian  faction  and  that  of  Joanna  and  Louis  of 
Tarento.  At  length  the  determination  of  the  contest 
(the  cause  having,  as  will  appear,  been  heard  on  his 
tribunal  by  Nicolo  Eienzi  at  Kome)  was  referred  to  the 
Pope,  the  lord  paramount  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples. 
After  a  year's  examination  by  three  Cardinals,  Joanna 
pleaded  that  she  was  under  a  magic  spell,  which  com- 
pelled her  to  hate  her  husband.  Against  such  a  plea 
who  would  venture  to  deny  her  innocence  ?  And  in 
this  justification  the  Pope,  and  on  the  Pope's  authority 
the  world,  acquiesced.  The  award  of  Clement  absolved 
Joanna  from  the  crime  :^  with  her  husband,  peace  in 
Louis  Prince  of  Tarento,  she  was  restored  to  ^^^^• 
the  throne.  Peace  was  established  between  Naples 
and  Hungary.  Eome,  meantime,  had  beheld  the  rise 
and  fall  of  Eienzi. 


y  The  King  of  Hungary  openly  acoused  the  Cardinal  Talleyrand  Perigord  as 
sn  accomplice  in  ♦he  murder. 


464  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 


CHAPTER   X. 

Kienzi. 

Rome  for  nearly  forty  years  liad  been  deserted  by  the 
Popes .  she  had  ceased  to  be  the  religious  capital  of  the 
world.  She  retained  the  shrines  and  the  reliques  of 
the  great  apostles  and  the  famous  old  churches,  the 
Lateran,  St.  Peter,  and  St.  Paul ;  some  few  pilgrims 
came  from  all  parts  of  Europe  to  the  city  still  hallowed 
by  these  sacred  monuments,  to  the  Jerusalem  of  the 
West.  But  the  tide  of  homage  and  tribute  which  had 
flowed  for  centuries  towards  the  shrine  of  the  successors 
of  St.  Peter  had  now  taken  another  course.  All  the 
ecclesiastical  causes  and  the  riches  they  poured  into  the 
papal  treasmy;  the  constant  influx  of  business  which 
created  large  expenditm^e ;  the  thousands  of  strangers, 
which  year  after  year  used  to  be  seen  in  Rome  from 
motives  secular  or  religious,  now  thronged  the  expanding 
streets  of  Avignon.  Rome,  thus  degraded  from  her  high 
ecclesiastical  position,  was  thrown  back  more  forcibly 
than  ever  on  her  older  reminiscences.  She  had  lost  her 
new,  she  would  welcome  with  redoubled  energy  whatever 
might  recall  her  ancient  supremacy.  At  the  height  of 
the  Papal  power  old  Rome  had  been  perpetually  breaking 
out  into  rebellion  against  younger  Rome.  Her  famous 
titles  had  always  seemed  to  work  Kke  magic  on  her  ear. 
It  was  now  Republican  and  now  Imperial  Rome  which 
threw  off  disdainfully  the  thraldom  of  the  Papal  dominion. 
The  Consul  Crescentius,  the  Senator  Brancaleone,  Arnold 


Chap.  X. 


RIENZI'S  PARENTAGE. 


465 


of  Brescia,  tlie  Otlios,  the  Fredericks,  Henry  of  Luxem- 
burg, Louis  of  Bavaria,  had  proclaimed  a  new  world- 
ruling  Eoman  republic,  or  a  new  world-ruling  Eoman 
Empire.  Dante's  universal  monarchy,  Petrarch's  aspi- 
rations for  the  independence  of  Italy,  fixed  the  seat  of 
their  power,  splendour,  liberty,  at  Eome. 

The  history  of  Eienzi  may  now  be  related  almost  in 
Eienzi's  own  words,  and  that  history,  thus  re- 
vealed, shows  his  intimate  connexion  not  only 
with  Eoman  and  Papal  affairs,  but  is  strangely  moulded 
up  with  the  Christianity  of  his  time.*  His  autobiography 
ascends  even  beyond  his  cradle.  The  Tribune  disdains 
tJie  vulgar  parentage  of  the  Transteverine  innkeeper 
and  tlie  washerwoman,  whom  Eome  believed  to  be  the 
authors  of  his  birth.  With  a  kind  of  proud  shameless- 
ness  he  claims  descent,  spurious  indeed,  from  the  Impe- 
rial house  of  Luxemburg.  His  account  is  strangely 
minute.  "  When  Henry  of  Luxemburg  went  up  to  be 
crowned  (IVIay,  1312)  at  Eome,  the  church  of  St.  Peter, 
in  which  the  coronation  ought  to  have  been  celebrated, 
was  in  the  power  of  his  enemies,  the  Eoman  Guelfs  and 
the  King  of  Naples.  Strong  barricades  and  defences,  as 
well  as  the  deep  Tiber,  separated  the  two  parts  of  the 
city.  Henry  was  therefore  compelled  to  hold  his  coro- 
nation in  the  church  of  St.  John  Lateran.     But  the 


*  These  documents,  unknown  to 
Gibbon  and  to  later  writers,  were  pub- 
lished by  Dr.  Papencordt,  •'  Cola  di 
Eienzi  und  seine  Zeit,"  Hamburg  and 
Gotha,  1841.  (Compare  Quarterly 
Review,  vol.  Ixix.  p.  346,  by  the 
author.)  They  are  chiefly  letters  ad- 
dressed by  Rienzi  to  Charles,  Emperor 
and  King  of  Bohemia,  and  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Prague,  written  during 

\'0L.  VII. 


his  residence  in  Bohemia  after  his  first 
fall.  They  throw  a  strong,  if  not  a 
clear  and  steady  light  upon  his  character. 
These  documents  were  first  discovered 
and  made  use  of  by  Pelzel,  the  historian 
of  Bohemia.  The  original  MS.  is  not 
to  be  found,  but  the  copy  made  by 
Pelzel  for  his  own  use  is  in  the  library 
of  Count  Thun  at  Tetschen.  It  was  pu}> 
lished  almost  entire  by  Dr.  Papeacordt. 

2h 


i66  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XIi. 

religious  Emperor  was  very  anxious,  before  he  left  Rome, 
to  pay  his  devotions  at  the  shrine  of  St.  Peter,  and  to 
see  the  church  which  had  witnessed  the  coronation  of  so 
many  Emperors.  He  put  on  the  garb  of  a  pilgrim,  and 
in  this  disguise,  with  a  single  attendant,  found  his  way 
into  the  church  of  St.  Peter.  A  report  spread  abroad 
that  the  Emperor  had  passed  the  barriers  in  secret ;  the 
gates  and  bridges  were  instantly  closed  and  jealously 
watched ;  and  a  herald  was  sent  to  put  the  Guelfic  faction 
on  their  guard,  and  to  offer  a  large  reward  for  his  capture. 
As  soon  as  the  Emperor  and  his  attendant  perceived 
this  movement,  they  stole  hastily  along  a  street  by  the 
bank  of  the  river,  and,  finding  all  the  passages  closed, 
they  took  refuge,  under  pretence  of  going  in  to  drink,  in 
the  hostel  or  small  inn  kept  by  Rienzi's  supposed  father. 
There  they  took  possession  of  a  small  chamber,  and  lay 
hid  for  ten  or  fifteen  days.  The  Emperor's  attendant 
story  of  his  wcut  out  to  procure  provisions:  in  the  mean 
^"^'  time,  Rienzi's   mother,  who  was   young   and 

handsome,  ministered  to  the  Emperor  (Rienzi's  own 
words !),  *  as  their  handmaids  did  to  holy  David  and  to 
the  righteous  Abraham.' "  Henry  afterwards  escaped 
to  the  Aventine,  retired  from  Rome,  and  died  in  the 
August  of  that  year.  "  But  as  there  is  nothing  hidden 
that  does  not  come  to  light,  when  his  mother  found  out 
the  high  rank  of  her  lover,  she  could  not  help,  like  a 
very  woman,  telling  the  secret  of  her  pregnancy  by  him 
to  her  particular  friend ;  this  particular  friend,  like  a 
woman,  told  it  to  another  particular  friend,  and  so  on, 
till  the  rumour  got  abroad.  His  mother,  too,  on  her 
deathbed,  confessed  the  whole,  as  it  was  her  duty,  to  the 
priest.  Rienzi,  after  his  mother's  death,  was  sent  by  his 
fathei'  to  Anagni,  where  he  remained  till  his  twentieth 
year.     On  his  return,  this  marvellous  story  was  related 


Chap.  X.  HIS  STUDIEb.  467 

to  him  by  some  of  bis  motber's  friends,  and  by  tbe  priest 
who  attended  her  deathbed.^  Out  of  respect  for  bis 
motber's  memory,  Kienzi  was  always  impatient  of  tbe 
scandal,  and  denied  it  in  public,  but  be  believed  it  in 
bis  beart,^  and  tbe  imperial  blood  stirring  in  bis  veins, 
be  began  to  disdain  bis  plebeian  life,  to  dream  of  bonours 
and  glories  far  above  bis  lowly  condition.  He  sougbt 
every  kind  of  instruction ;  be  began  to  read  and  study 
bistory,  and  tbe  lives  of  great  and  good  men,  till  be 
became  impatient  to  realise  in  bis  actions  tbe  lofty 
lessons  wbicb  be  read."  Was  tbis  an  audacious  fiction, 
and  wben  first  promulgated  ?  Was  it  after  bis  fall,  to 
attacb  bimself  to  tbe  imperial  bouse  wben  be  offered 
bimself,  as  will  bereafter  appear,  as  an  instrument  to 
reinstate  tbe  Csesarean  power  in  Italy  ?  ^ 

Be  tbis  as  it  may,  tbe  adolescence  of  Eienzi  was  passed 
in  obscurity  at  Anagni.  He  tben  returned  to  Kome,  a 
youth  of  great  beauty,  with  a  smile  which  gave  a  peculiar 
and  remarkable  expression  to  his  countenance.  He 
married  the  daughter  of  a  burgher,  who  brought  him  a 
dowry  of  150  golden  florins ;  he  bad  three  chikben,  one 


^  The  priest  must  have  heard  it  sub  I  popular  in  Rome  ;  but  that  the  rumour 
sigillo  confessionis  ;  but  Roman  priests  '  prevailed  among  many  persons  of  both 


in  those  days  may  not  have  been  over 
strict. 

^  There  are  strong  obvious  objections 
to  this  story.     The    German  writers 


sexes  and  all  ages.  Rienzi,  on  the  other 
hand,  appeals  to  a  Roman  noble,  who 
at  the  court  of  Louis  of  Bavaria  had 
spoken  freely  of  his  great  secret,  "  Tam 


know  nothing  of  Henry's  ten  or  fifteen  sibi   quam    suis  ut  audivi  domesticis 

days'   absence  from  his  camp,  which  banc  conditionem  meam  sibi  consciam 
could  hardly  have  been  concealed,  as  it '  revelavit." 

must  have  caused  great  alarm.     Con-        •*  De  Sade  had  picked  up  what  may 

sider    too    Rienzi's     long     suspicious  seem  a  loose  reminiscence  of  the  story, 

silence,  though  he  labours  to  account  The   mother  of  Rienzi,  he  says,  wa« 

for  it.     He  endeavoured,  he  avers,  to  reported  to  be  the  daughter  of  a  bastara 

suppress  the  report  at  the  lime  of  his  of  King  Henry.     This  could  not  ba 

greatness,  because  any  kind  of  German  The  whole   is  in  the  Urkunde  of  Dr. 

connexion  would  have  been  highly  un-  Papenccrdt,  p.  xxxii. 

2  H  2 


468  LATm  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  HL 

son  and  two  daughters.  He  embraced  the  profession  of 
a  notary.  But  his  chief  occupation  was  poring  over  those 
sacred  antiquities  of  Rome,  which  exercised  so  powerful 
an  influence  on  his  mind.  Rome  had  already  welcomed 
the  first  dawn  of  those  classical  studies,  publicly,  proudly, 
in  the  coronation  of  Petrarch.®  The  respect  for  the 
ancient  monuments  of  Rome,  and  for  her  famous  writers, 
which  the  great  poet  had  endeavoured  to  inculcate  by 
his  language  and  by  his  example,  crept  into  the  depths 
of  Rienzi's  souL  The  old  historian,  Fortefiocca,  gives 
as  his  favourite  authors  Livy,  Cicero,  Seneca,  Valerius 
Maxim  us ;  but  "  the  magnificent  deeds  and  words  of  the 
great  Csesar  were  his  chief  delight."  His  leisure  was 
passed  among  the  stupendous  and  yet  august  remains, 
the  ruins,  or  as  yet  hardly  ruins,  of  elder  Rome.  He 
was  not  less  deeply  impregnated  with  the  Biblical  lan- 
guage and  religious  imagery  of  his  day,  though  he 
declares  that  his  meditations  on  the  profound  subjects 
of  providence,  foreknowledge,  will,  and  fate,  were  not 
drawn  from  the  holy  wisdom  of  Gregory  or  Augustine, 
but  were  droppings  from  the  less  deep  and  transparent 
springs  of  the  Roman  patricians,  Boethius  and  Sym- 
machus,  Livy,  Cicero,  and  Seneca.  Even  now  a  religious 
has  begun  to  mingle  with  the  Roman  fanaticism  of  the 
youth. 

Already,  too,  had  Rienzi  learned  to  contrast  the 
miserable  and  servile  state  of  liis  countrymen  with  that 
of  their  free  and  glorious  ancestors.  "  Where  are  those 
old  Romans?  Where  their  justice  ?  Would  that  I  had 
lived  in  their  times ! "  ^  The  sense  of  personal  wrong 
was  wrought  up  with  these  more  lofty  and  patriotic 
feelings.      His  younger    brother   was   murdered ;    and 


•  Apud  Muratori,  R.  I.  S.  '  Tiie  passage  is  quoted  by  Papencortd. 


Chap.  X. 


RIENZI  AT  AVIGNON. 


469 


Kienzi,  unable  to  obtain  redress  from  tlie  partial  and 
disdainful  justice  of  the  nobles,  vowed  vengeance  for  the 
innocent  blood.  And  already  had  he  assumed  the  office 
of  champion  of  the  poor.  As  the  heads  of  the  mercantile 
guilds,  or  the  Eoman  Schools,  called  themselves  by  the 
proud  name  of  Consuls,  so  Kienzi  took  the  title  of  Consul 
of  the  orphans,  the  widows,  and  the  indigent. 

Rienzi  must  have  attained  some  fame,  or  some 
notoriety,  to  have  been  either  alone  or  among  pj^^^j  ^^ 
the  delegates  of  the  people  sent  on  the  public  ^^s°o°' 
mission  to  Clement  VI.  at  Avignon/  These  ambassadors 
were  instructed  to  make  three  demands,  some  of  them 
peremptory,  of  the  Pope  : — I.  To  confirm  the  magistracy 
appointed  by  the  Romans.  II.  To  entreat  his  Holiness 
at  least  to  revisit  Rome.  III.  To  appoint  the  Jubilee 
for  every  fiftieth  year.  The  eloquence  of  Rienzi  so 
charmed  the  Pope  that  he  desired  to  hear  him  every 
day.  He  enthralled  the  admiration  of  a  greater  than 
the  Pope :  Petrarch  here  learned  to  know  him  whose 
fame  was  to  be  the  subject  of  one  of  his  noblest 
odes.^ 

Rienzi  wrote  in  triumph  to  Rome.'  The  Pope  had 
acceded  to  two  of  the  demands  of  the  people :  he  had 
granted  the  Jubilee  on  the  fiftieth  year ;  he  had  pro- 
mised, when  the  affairs  of  Rome  should  permit,  to  revisit 
Rome.     Rienzi  calls  on  the  mountains  around,  and  on 


e  There  seem  to  have  been  two  em- 
bassies, successive  or  simultaneous,  one 
headed  by  Stephen  Colonna,  and  two 
other  nobles,  with  Petrarch;  another 
(perhaps  later),  in  which  Rienzi  signed 
himself  "  Nicolaus  Laurentii,  Romanus, 
consul  orphanorum  viduarum  et  pau- 
perum,  unicus  popularis  legatus." — 
Hobhouse,    "Illustrations    of    Childe 


Harold." 

^  The  "Spirto  gentil."  I  cannot 
doubt  that  this  canzone  was  addressed 
to  Rienzi. 

'  These  letters  were  published  from 
the  Turin  ]\ISS.  by  Mr.  Hobhouse 
(Lord  Broughton),  in  his  "  Illustra- 
tions of  Childe  Harold." 


470  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  XII. 

the  hills  and  plains,  to  break  out  into  joy.  *'  May  the 
Boman  city  arise  from  her  long  prostration,  ascend  the 
throne  of  her  majesty,  cast  off  the  garment  of  her  widow- 
hood, and  put  on  the  bridal  purple.  Let  the  crown  of 
liberty  adorn  her  head,  and  rings  of  gold  her  neck ;  let 
her  reassume  the  sceptre  of  justice ;  and,  regenerate  in 
every  virtue,  go  forth  in  her  wedding  attire  to  meet  her 

brideorroom Behold  the  most  merciful  Lamb  of 

God  that  confoundeth  sin  !  The  most  Holy  Pontiff,  the 
father  of  the  city,  the  bridegroom  of  the  Lord,  moved 
by  the  cries  and  complaints  and  wailings  of  his  bride, 
compassionating  her  sufferings,  her  calamities,  and  her 
ruin — astonished  at  the  regeneration  of  the  city,  the 
glory  of  the  people,  the  joy  and  salvation  of  the  world— 
by  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost — opening  the 
bosom  of  his  clemency — has  pledged  himself  to  have 
mercy  upon  us,  and  promises  grace  and  redemption  to 
the  whole  world,  and  to  the  nations  remission  of  sins." 
After  all  this  vague  and  high-flown  S(3riptural  imagery, 
Eienzi  passes  to  his  classical  reminiscences: — "What 
Scipio,  what  Caesar,  or  Metellus,  or  Marcellus,  or  Fabius, 
can  be  so  fairly  deemed  the  deliverer  of  their  country, 
or  so  justly  honoured  with  a  statue  ?  They  won  hard 
victories  by  the  calamities  of  war,  by  the  bloodshed  of 
citizens :  he,  unsolicited,  by  one  holy  and  triumphant 
word,  has  achieved  a  victory  over  the  present  and  future 
disasters  of  his  country,  re-established  the  Koman  com- 
monwealth, and  rescued  the  despairing  people  from 
death." 

Whether  Pope  Clement  was  conscious  that  he  was 
deluding  the  ardent  Eienzi  with  false  hopes,  while  the 
eloquence  of  Kienzi  palled  in  the  ears  of  the  French 
Papal  Court ;  whether  Eienzi  betrayed,  his  suspicions  ot 
the  Pope's  sincerity,  or  the  Cardinal  Colonna  became 


Chap.  X  RIENZI  AT  ROME.  471 

jealous  of  his  influence  witli  the  Pope,  he  soon  fell  intc 
disfavour.  At  Avignon  he  was  reduced  to  great  poverty, 
and,  probably  from  illness,  was  glad  to  take  refuge  in  a 
hospital.^  The  Cardinal,  however,  perhaps  from  con- 
temptuous compassion,  reconciled  him  with  the  Pope. 
Eienzi  returned  to  Kome  with  the  appointment  of  Notary 
in  the  Papal  Court,  and  a  flattering  testimonial  to  hi« 
character,  as  a  man  zealous  for  the  welfare  of  the 
city. 

At  Kome,  Rienzi  executed  his  office  of  Notary  by 
deputy,  and  confined  himself  to  his  studies,  Rienzi  in 
and  to  his  profound  and  rankling  meditations  ^*^™^- 
on  the  miseries  and  oppressions  of  the  people.  The 
luxury  of  the  nobles  was  without  check ;  the  lives  of  the 
men  and  the  honour  of  the  women  seemed  to  be  yielded 
up  to  their  caprice  and  their  lust.  All  this  Rienzi 
attributed,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  criminal  abandon- 
ment of  his  flock  by  the  Supreme  Pontiff.  "  Would 
that  our  pastor  had  been  content  with  this  scandal  alone, 
that  he  should  dwell  in  Avignon,  having  deserted  his 
flock !  But  far  worse  than  this :  he  nurses,  cherishes, 
and  favours  those  very  wolves,  the  fear  of  which,  as  he 
pretends,  keeps  him  away  from  Rome,  that  their  teeth 
and  their  talons  may  be  stronger  to  devour  his  sheep. 
On  the  Orsini,  on  the  Colonnas,  and  on  the  other  nobles 
whom  he  knows  to  be  infamous  as  public  robbers,  the 
destroyers,  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  of  his  holy  epis- 
copal city,  and  the  devom^ers  of  liis  own  peculiar  flock, 
he  confers  dignities  and  honours;  he  even  bestows  on 
them  rich  prelacies,  in  order  that  they  may  wage  those 
wars  which  they  have  not  wealth  enough  to  support, 
from  the  treasures  of  the  Church ;  and  when  he  has  been 


^  Fortefiocca,  apud  Muratori. 


472  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

perpetually  entreated  by  the  people  that,  as  a  compas- 
sionate father,  he  would  at  least  appoint  some  good  man, 
a  foreigner,  as  ruler  over  his  episcopal  city,  he  would 
never  consent ;  but,  in  contempt  of  the  petitions  of  the 
people,  he  placed  the  sword  in  the  hands  of  some 
madman,  and  invested  the  tyrants  of  the  people  with 
the  authority  of  Senators,  for  the  sole  purpose,  as  it  is 
credibly  known  and  proved,  that  the  Koman  flock,  thus 
preyed  on  by  ravening  wolves,  should  not  have  strength 
or  courage  to  demand  the  residence  of  their  Pastor  in 
his  episcopal  seat."  ^ 

Rienzi,  thus  despairing  of  all  alleviation  of  the 
calamities  of  the  people  from  the  ecclesiastical  power, 
sat  brooding  over  his  hopes  of  reawakening  the  old 
Koman  spirit  of  liberty.  In  this  high  design  he  pro- 
ceeded with  wonderful  courage,  address,  and  resolution. 
He  submitted  to  every  kind  of  indignity,  and  assumed 
every  disguise  which  might  advance  his  end.  He  stooped 
to  be  admitted  as  a  buffoon  to  amuse,  rather  than  as 
a  companion  to  enlighten,  the  haughty  nobles  in  the 
Colonna  Palace.  He  has  been  called  the  modern 
Brutus :  "  he  alleges  higher  examples.  "  I  confess  that, 
drunken  after  the  parching  fever  of  my  soul,  in  order  to 
put  down  the  predominant  injustice,  and  to  persuade 
the  people  to  union,  I  often  feigned  and  dissembled; 
made  myself  a  simpleton  and  a  stage-player;  was  by 
turns  serious  or  silly,  cunning,  earnest,  and  timid,  as 
occasion  required,  to  promote  my  work  of  love.  David 
danced  before  the  ark,  and  appeared  as  a  madmaa 
before  the  King  ;  Judith  stood  before  Holofernes,  bland* 
crafty,  and  dissembling ;  and  Jacob  obtained  his  blessing 


"  Thus  he  wrote  Uter  to  the  Archbisliop  of  Prague. — PapencorJt,  Urkunde. 
r.  xliv.  "  By  Gibbou.     See  Urkunde,  p.  xHx. 


Chap.  X.  ALLEGORICAL  PAINTIJ^G.  473 

by  cunning:  so  I,  when  I  took  up  tlie  cause  of  the 
people  against  their  worst  tyrants,  had  to  deal  with  n(^ 
frank  and  open  antagonists,  but  with  men  of  shifts  and 
wiles,  the  subtlest  and  most  deceitful."  Once  in  the 
assembly  of  the  people  he  was  betrayed  by  his  indigna- 
tion into  a  premature  appeal  to  their  yet  unawakened 
sympathies.  He  reproached  his  fellow  representatives 
with  their  disregard  of  the  sufferings  of  the  peoj)le, 
and  ventured  to  let  loose  his  eloquence  on  the  bless- 
ings of  good  order.  The  only  answer  was  a  blow  from  a 
Norman  kinsman  of  the  Colonnas ;  in  the  simj)le  language 
of  the  historian,  a  box  on  the  ear  that  rang  again.° 

Allegorical  picture  was  the  language  of  the  times. 
The  Church  had  long  employed  it  to  teach  or  to  enforce 
Christian  truth  or  Christian  obedience  among  the  rude 
and  unlettered  people.  It  had  certainly  been  used  for 
political  purposes.^  Dante  may  show  how  completely 
the  Italian  mind  must  have  been  familiarised  with  this 
suggestive  imagery.  Many  of  the  great  names  of  the 
time — the  Orsini,  the  Mastini,  the  Cani,  the  Lucchi — 
either  lent  themselves  to  or  grew  out  of  this  verbal 
symbolism.  Kienzi  seized  on  the  yet  unrestricted 
freedom  of  painting,  as  a  modern  demagogue  might 
on  the  freedom  of  the  press,  to  instil  his  own  Allegorical  - 
feelings  of  burning  shame  at  the  common  P^i'^"°g- 
degradation  and  oppression.  All  the  historians  have 
dwelt  on  the  masterpiece  of  his  pictorial  eloquence : —  ^ 
On  a  sinking  ship,  without  mast  or  sail,  sat  a  noble  lady 
in  widow's  weeds,  with  dishevelled  hair  and  her  hands 
crossed  over  her  breast.  Above  was  written,  *'  This  is 
Rome."     She  was  surrounded  by  four  other  ships,  in 


•  "  Un  sonante  gotata."  —  Fortefiocca. 
^  Dr.  Papencordt  cites  many  examples. 


474 


LATIN  JHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


which  sat  women  who  personated  Babylon,  Carthage, 
Tyre,  Jerusalem.  *'  T'lrough  unrighteousness,"  ran  the 
legend,  "  these  fell  to  ruin."  An  inscription  hung  above, 
"  Thou,  0  Rome,  art  exalted  above  all ;  we  await  thy 
downfall."  Three  islands  appeared  beside  the  ship ;  in 
one  w^as  Italy,  in  another  four  of  the  cardinal  virtues, 
in  the  third  Christian  Faith.  Each  had  its  appro- 
priate inscription.  Over  Faith  was  written,  "  0  highest 
Father,  Ruler,  and  Lord !  when  Rome  sinks,  where  find 
I  refuge  ?  "  Bitter  satire  was  not  wanting.  Four  rows 
of  winged  beasts  stood  above,  who  blew  their  horns,  and 
directed  the  pitiless  storm  against  the  sinking  vessel. 
The  lions,  wolves,  and  bears  denoted,  as  the  legend  ex- 
plained, the  mighty  barons  and  traitorous  senators; 
the  dogs,  the  swine,  and  the  bulls,  were  the  counsellors, 
the  base  partisans  of  the  nobles;  the  sheep,  the  ser- 
pents, and  foxes,  were  the  officers,  the  false  judges,  and 
notaries ;  the  hares,  cats,  goats,  and  apes,  the  robbers, 
murderers,  adulterers,  thieves,  among  the  people.  Above 
was,  "  God  in  his  majesty  come  down  to  judgement,  with 
two  swords,  as  in  the  Apocalypse,  out  of  his  mouth." 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  were  beneath,  on  either  side,  in 
the  attitude  of  supplication. 

Rienzi  describes  another  of  his  well-known  attempts 
to  work  upon  the  populace,  and  to  impress  them  with 
the  sense  of  the  former  greatness  of  Rome.^  The  great 
bronze  tablet '^  containing  the  decree  by  which  the 
Senate  conferred  the  Empire  upon  Vespasian,  had  been 
employed  by  Boniface  VIII.,  out  of  jealousy  to  the  Em- 
peror, as  Rienzi  asserts,"  to  form  part  of  an  altar  in  the 


1  Letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Prague, 
in  Papencordt. 

'  The  lex  vegia,  Imperium.  This 
tablet  is  still  in  the  Capitoline  Museum. 


•  This  was  wiitten  when  Rienzi's 
object  was  to  obtain  favour  with  the 
Emperor  (Charles)  at  the  expense  0/ 
the  Pope. 


Chap.  X. 


REVOLUTION. 


475 


Feb.  n 


on 

the  Aventine. 


Lateran  Churcli,  with  the  inscription  turned  inward,  so 
that  it  could  not  be  read.  Eienzi  brought  forth  this 
tablet,  placed  it  on  a  kind  of  high  scaffold  in  the 
Church,  and  summoned  the  people  to  a  lecture  on  its 
meaning,*^  in  which  he  enlarged  on  the  former  power 
and  dominion  of  Eome.^ 

Kienzi's  hour  came  at  length.  Throughout  his  acts 
the  ancient  traditions  of  Pagan  Kome  mingled 
with  the  religious  observances  of  the  Christian 
capital.  The  day  after  Ash  Wednesday  (a.d.  1347)  a 
scroll  appeared  on  the  doors  of  the  Church  of  8t. 
George  in  Velabro :  "  Ere  long  Kome  will  return  to  her 
good  estate."  Nightly  meetings  were  held  on  the 
Aventine  (Eienzi  may  have  learned  from  Livy  Meeting 
the  secession  of  the  people  to  that  hill).  Eienzi 
spoke  with  his  most  impassioned  eloquence.  He  com- 
pared the  misery,  slavery,  debasement  of  Eome,  with 
her  old  glory,  liberty,  universal  dominion.  He  wept ; 
his  hearers  mingled  their  tears  with  his.  He  summoned 
them  to  freedom.  There  could  be  no  want  of  means  ; 
the  revenue  of  the  city  amounted  to  300,000  golden 
florins.  He  more  than  hinted  that  the  Pope  would  not 
disapprove  of  their  proceedings.  All  swore  a  solemn 
oath  of  freedom. 

On  the  Vigil  of  Pentecost,  the  Festival  of  the  Effusion 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Eoman  people  were  May  20. 
summoned  by  the  sound  of  trumpet  to  appear  devolution. 
unarmed  at  the  Capitol  on  the  following  day.     All  that 
night  Eienzi  was  hearing,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Angelo, 
the  Thirty  Masses  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     "  It  was  the 


»  This  probably  was  somewhat  later. 

°  It  was  in  this  speech  that  he  made 
the  whimsical  antiquarian  blunder, 
irhich  Gibbon  takes  credit  for  detecting. 


He  rendered  "  pomserium,"  of  which 
he  did  not  know  the  meaning,  as  "  po- 
marium,"  and  made  Italy  the  garden 
of  Rome. 


4:76  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

Holy  Ghost  that  inspired  tins  holy  deed."  At  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning  he  came  forth  from  the  Church 
in  full  armour,  with  his  head  bare :  twenty-five  of  the 
sworn  conspirators  were  around  him.  Three  banners 
went  before — the  banner  of  freedom,  borne  by  Cola 
Guallato,  on  which  appeared,  on  a  red  ground,  Eome 
seated  on  her  twin  lions,  with  the  globe  and  the  palm- 
branch  in  her  hand.  The  second  was  white ;  on  it  St. 
Paul  with  the  sword  and  diadem  of  justice :  it  was  borne 
by  the  Notary,  Stefan  ello  Magnacuccia.  On  the  third 
was  St.  Peter  with  the  keys.  By  the  side  of  Rienzi  was 
Raimond,  Bishop  of  Orvieto,  the  Pope's  Vicar :  around 
was  a  guard  of  one  hundred  horsemen.  Amid  the 
acclamations  of  the  thronging  multitudes  they  ascended 
the  Capitol.  The  Count  di  Cecco  Mancino  was  com- 
manded to  read  the  Laws  of  the  Good  Estate.  These 
laws  had  something  of  the  wild  justice  of  wild  times. 
All  causes  were  to  be  determined  within  fourteen  days  ; 
every  murderer  was  to  suffer  death,  the  false  accuser 
the  punishment  of  the  crime  charged  against  the  inno- 
cent man.  No  house  was  to  be  pulled  down ;  those 
that  fell  escheated  to  the  State.  Each  Rione  (there 
were  thirteen)  was  to  maintain  one  hundred  men  on 
foot,  twenty-five  horse :  these  received  a  shield  and 
moderate  pay  from  the  State  ;  if  they  fell  in  the  public 
service,  their  heirs  receive:!,  those  of  the  foot  one 
hundred  livres,  of  the  horse  one  hundred  florins.  The 
treasury  of  the  State  was  charged  with  the  support  of 
widows,  orphans,  convents.  Each  Rione  was  to  have  its 
granary  for  corn ;  the  revenues  of  the  city,  the  hearth- 
money,  salt-tax,  tolls  on  bridges  and  wharves,  were  to 
be  administered  for  the  public  good.  The  fortresses, 
bi'idges,  gates,  were  no  longer  to  be  guarded  by  the 
Barons,  but  by  Captains  chosen  by  the  people.      No 


Chap.  X.  AWE  OF  THE  NOBLES.  4.77 

Baron  miglit  possess  a  stronghold  within  the  city ;  ah 
were  to  be  surrendered  to  the  magistrates.  The  Barons 
were  to  be  responsible,  under  a  penalty  of  one  thousand 
marks  of  silver,  for  the  security  of  the  roads  around  the 
city.  The  people  shouted  their  assent  to  the  new  con- 
stitution. The  senators  Agapito  Colonna,  Eoberto 
Orsini,  were  ignominiously  dismissed.  Eienzi  was  in- 
vested in  dictatorial  power — power  over  life  and  limb, 
power  to  pardon,  power  to  establish  the  Good  Estate  in 
Eome  and  her  domain.  A  few  days  later  he  took  the 
title  of  Tribune.  "  Nicolas,  by  the  grace  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Severe  and  Merciful,  Tribune  of  Freedom, 
Peace,  and  Justice,  the  Deliverer  of  the  Roman  Re- 
public." 

The  nobles,  either  stunned  by  this  unexpected  revo- 
lution, of  which  they  had  despised  the  signs  Awe  of  the 
and  omens,  or  divided  among  themselves,  ^^^'^^• 
looked  on  in  wondering  and  sullen  aj)athy.  Some  even 
professed  to  disdain  it  as  some  new  public  buffoonery  of 
Rienzi.  The  old  Stephen  Colonna  was  opportunely 
absent  from  the  city  ;  on  his  return  he  answered  to  the 
summons  of  the  Tribune,  "  Tell  the  fool  that  if  he 
troubles  me  with  his  insolence,  I  will  throw  him  from 
the  windows  of  the  Capitol !  "  The  tolling  of  the  bell 
of  the  Capitol  replied  to  the  haughty  noble.  Rome  in 
all  her  quarters  was  in  arms.  Colonna  fled  with  diffi- 
culty to  one  of  his  strongholds  near  Palestrina.  The 
younger  Stephen  Colonna  appeared  in  arms  with  his 
partisans  before  the  Capitol,  where  the  Tribune  was 
seated  on  the  bench  of  justice.  The  Tribune  advanced 
in  arms  to  meet  him.  Colonna,  either  overawed,  or 
with  some  respect  for  the  Roman  liberty,  swore  on  the 
Holy  Eucharist  to  take  no  hostile  measure  against  the 
Good  Estate.     All  the  Colonnas,  the  Orsini,  the  Savelli, 


478  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

were  compelled  to  yield  up  their  fortress-palaces,  to 
make  oath  that  they  would  protect  no  robbers  or  male- 
factors, to  keep  the  roads  secure,  to  supply  provisions  to 
the  city,  to  appear  in  arms  or  without  arms  at  the 
summons  of  the  magistracy.  All  orders  of  the  city 
took  the  same  oath — clergy,  gentry,  judges,  notaries, 
merchants,  shopkeepers,  artisans :  they  swore  to  main- 
tain the  laws  of  the  Good  Estate. 

Within  fifteen  days,  so  boasts  Eienzi,  the  old,  in- 
Their  sub-  vctcrate  pride  of  this  barbarous  Patriciate  was 
mission.  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  the  Tribune.  History 
may  record  in  his  own  words  the  rapidity  with  which 
he  achieved  this  wonderful  victory.  "By  the  Divine 
grace  no  King,  or  Duke,  or  Prince,  or  Marquis  in  Italy 
ever  surpassed  me  in  the  shortness  of  the  time  in  which 
I  rose  to  legitimate  power,  and  earned  fame  which 
reached  even  to  the  Saracens.  It  was  achieved  in 
seven  months,  a  period  which  would  hardly  suffice  for 
a  king  to  subdue  one  of  the  Koman  nobles.  On  the 
first  day  of  my  tribunate  (an  office  which,  from  the 
time  that  the  Empire  sank  into  decrepitude,  had  been 
vacant  under  tyrannical  rule  for  more  than  five  hundred 
years)  I,  for  God  was  with  me,  scattered  with  my  con- 
suming breath  before  my  face,  or  rather  before  the  face 
of  God,  all  these  nobles,  these  haters  of  God  and  of 
justice.  And  thus,  in  truth,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
was  that  word  fulfilled  which  is  chanted  on  that  day  in 
honour  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  '  Let  God  arise,  and  let  his 
enemies  be  scattered,'  and  again,  '  Send  forth  thy  Holy 
Ghost,  and  thou  shalt  renew  the  face  of  the  earth.' 
Certainly  hitherto  no  Pontiff  or  Emperor  had  been  able 
to  expel  the  nobles  from  the  city,  who  had  in  general 
rather  triumphed  over  than  submitted  to  Popes  and 
Emperors  ;  and  yet  these  nobles,  thus  terribly  expelled 


Chap.  X.  JUSTICE  OF  RIENZI.  479 

and  exiled,  when  I  cited  tliem  to  appear  again  in  fifteen 
days,  I  had  prostrate  at  my  feet,  swearing  obedience  to 
my  decrees."''  The  old  historian,  in  his  own  graphic 
phrase,  confirms  the  words  of  Rienzi,  "  How  stood  they 
trembling  with  fear."  ^ 

The  primaiy  laws  of  the  new  Kepublic  had  provided 
for  financial  reforms.  The  taxes  became  more  pro- 
ductive, less  onerous :  the  salt-duty  alone  increased 
five  or  six  fold.  The  constitution  had  regulated  the 
military  organisation.  At  the  sound  of  the  bell  of 
the  Capitol  appeared  in  arms  from  the  thirteen  Kioni 
of  the  city  three  hundred  and  sixty  horse,  thirteen 
hundred  foot.  The  open,  patient,  inexorable  justice  of 
Kienzi  respected  not,  it  delighted  to  humiliate,  the 
haughtiest  of  the  nobles.  It  extended  not  only 
throughout  the  city,  but  to  all  the  country  around. 
The  woods  rejoiced  that  they  concealed  no  robbers ; 
the  oxen  ploughed  the  field  undisturbed  ;  the  pilgrims 
crowded  without  fear  to  the  shrines  of  the  saints  and 
the  apostles ;  the  traders  might  leave  their  precious 
wares  by  the  road-side  in  perfect  safety ;  tyrants  trem- 
bled ;  good  men  rejoiced  at  their  emancipa-  justice  of 
tion  from  slavery."  The  Tribune's  hand  fell  ^^^^• 
heavily  on  the  great  houses.  Petruccio  Frangipani,  Lord 
of  Civita  Lavigna,  and  Luca  Savelli,  were  thrown  into 
prison ;  the  Colonnas  and  the  Orsini  bowed  for  a  time 
their  proud  heads ;  the  chief  of  the  Orsini  was  con- 
demned for  neglecting  the  protection  of  the  highways ; 
a  mule  laden  with  oil  had  been  stolen.  Peter  Agapito 
Colonna,  the  deposed  senator,  was  arrested  for  some 
rrime  in  the  public  streets.*     Kome  was  summoned  to 


*  Urkunde,  xxxiv.  /  "  Deh  che  stavano  pauro  i!" 

«  Urkunde.  "•  Fortefiocca,  p.  41. 


'480  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY  Book  XII 

witness  the  ignominious  execution  of  Martino  Gaetani, 
nephew  of  two  Cardinals,  but  newly  married,  for  the 
robbery  of  a  stranded  ship  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber. 
The  Tribune  spared  not  the  sacred  persons  of  the 
clergy :  a  monk  of  S.  Anastasio  was  hanged  for  many 
crimes.  Kienzi  boasted  that  he  had  wrought  a  moral 
as  well  as  a  civil  revolution.  All  who  had  been  banished 
since  1340  were  recalled,  and  pledged  to  live  in  peace. 
"  It  was  hardly  to  be  believed  that  the  Koman  people, 
till  now  full  of  dissension  and  corrupted  by  every  kind 
of  vice,  should  be  so  soon  reduced  to  a  state  of  una- 
nimity, to  so  great  a  love  of  justice,  virtue,  and  peace ; 
that  hatred,  assaults,  murder,  and  rapine  should  be 
subdued  and  put  an  end  to.  There  is  now  no  person  in 
the  city  who  dares  to  play  at  forbidden  games  or  blas- 
phemously to  invoke  God  and  his  saints ;  there  is  no 
layman  who  keeps  his  concubine :  all  enemies  are 
reconciled;  even  wives  who  had  been  long  cast  off 
return  to  their  husbands."  ^ 

The  magic  effect  of  the  Tribune's  sudden  apparition 
at  the  head  of  a  new  Koman  Kepublic,  which  seemed 
to  aspire  to  the  sway  of  ancient  Kome  over  Italy,  if  not 
over  all  the  world,  is  thus  glowingly  described  in  his 
own  language :  this  shows  at  least  the  glorious  ends  of 
Kienzi's  ambition.  "  Did  I  not  restore  peace  among 
the  cities  which  were  distracted  by  factions?  Did  I 
not  decree  that  all  the  citizens  who  were  banished  by 
party  violence,  with  tlieir  wretched  wives  and  children, 
should  be  readmitted  ?  Had  I  not  begun  to  extinguish 
the  party  names  of  Guelf  and  Ghibelline,  for  which 
numberless  victims  had  perished  body  and  soul,  and  to 
reduce  the  city  of  Kome  and  all  Italy  into  one  har- 


*•  Letter  to  a  friPiid  at  Avignon,  from  the  Turin  MS. — Hobhouse,  p.  5;*7 


Chap.  X.  RIENZI'S  ACHIEVEMENTS.  481 

monious,  peaceful,  holy  confederacy  ?  The  sacred 
standards  and  banners  of  all  the  cities  were  gathered, 
and,  as  a  testimony  to  our  hallowed  association,  conse- 
crated and  offered  with  their  golden  rings  on  the  day  of 

the  Assumption  of  our  Blessed  Lady I  received 

the  homage  and  submission  of  the  Counts  and  Barons, 
and  of  almost  all  the  people  of  Italy.  I  was  honoured 
by  solemn  embassies  and  letters  from  the  Emperor  of 
Constantinople  and  the  King  of  England.  The  Queen 
of  Naples  submitted  herself  and  her  kingdom  to  the 
protection  of  the  Tribune.  The  King  of  Hungary,  by 
two  stately  embassies,  with  great  urgency  brought  his 
cause  against  the  Queen  and  her  nobles  before  my 
tribunal.  And  I  venture  to  say  further  that  the  fame 
of  the  Tribune  alarmed  the  Soldan  of  Babylon.  The 
Christian  j)ilgrims  to  the  Sepulchre  of  our  Lord  related 
all  the  wonderful  and  unheard-of  circumstances  of  the 
reformation  in  Rome  to  the  Christian  and  Jewish  in- 
habitants of  Jerusalem ;  both  Christians  and  Jews  cele- 
brated the  event  with  unusual  festivities.  AVhen  the 
Soldan  inquired  the  cause  of  these  rejoicings,  and  received 
this  answer  about  Eome,  he  ordered  all  the  towns  and 
cities  on  the  coast  to  be  fortified  and  put  in  a  state  of 
defence."  ^ 

Nor  was  this  altogether  an  idle  boast.  The  rival 
Emperors,  Louis  of  Bavaria  and  Charles  of  Bohemia, 
regarded  not  his  summons  to  submit  their  differences  to 
the  arbitration  of  Rome.  But  before  the  judgement- 
seat  of  Rienzi  stood  the  representatives  of  Louis  of 
Hungary,  of  Queen  Joanna  of  Naples  and  Louis  Prince 
of  Tarento,  the  husband  of  the  Queen,  and  of  Charles 


■=  I  have  put  together  two  passages :  the  latter  from   his  letter  to  tlie  Eiu 
peror. — Papencordt,  Urkunde. 

VOL.  VII.  2   I 


182  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII . 

of  Durazzo  wlio  claimed  the  throne  in  right  of  his  wife, 
Joanna's  sister.  They  were  prepared  to  obey  the  award 
of  the  Tribune,  who  applied  to  himself  the  words  of  the 
Psalm,  "He  shall  judge  the  people  in  equity."  An 
Archbishop  pleaded  before  the  tribunal  of  Kienzi.  The 
kingdom  of  Naples,  held  in  fee,  as  long  asserted,  of 
the  Pope,  seemed  to  submit  itself  to  the  Seignoralty 
of  the  Tribune  of  Rome. 

It  is  impossible  to  determine  whether,  as  Kienzi 
Rienzi's  himsclf  iu  one  place  admits,  it  was  mere 
titles.  vanity  or  a  vague  and  not  impolitic  desire  to 
gather  round  his  own  name  all  the  glorious  reminiscences 
of  every  period  of  Roman  history,  and  so  to  rivet  his 
power  on  the  minds  of  men,  which  induced  Rienzi  to 
accumulate  on  himself  so  many  lofty  but  discordant 
appellations.  The  Roman  Republic,  the  Roman  Empire 
in  its  periods  of  grandeur  and  of  decline,  the  Church, 
and  the  Chivalry  of  the  middle  ages,  were  blended 
together  in  the  strange  pomp  of  his  ceremonies  and  the 
splendid  array  of  his  titles.  He  was  the  Tribune  of 
the  people,  to  remind  them  of  the  days  of  their  liberty. 
He  called  himself  Augustus,  and  chose  to  be  crowned 
in  the  month  of  August,  because  that  month  was  called 
after  the  "great  Emperor,  the  conqueror  of  Cleopatra."'^ 
He  called  himself  Severe,  not  merely  to  awe  the  noble 
malcontents  with  the  stern  terrors  of  his  justice,  but 
in  respect  to  the  philosopher,  the  last  of  the  Romans, 
Severinus  Boethius.  He  was  knighted  according  to  the 
full  ceremonial  of  chivalry,  having  bathed  in  the  por- 
phyry vessel  in  which,  according  to  the  legend,  Pope 
Silvester  cleansed  Constantino  the  Great  of  his  leprosy. 
Among  the  banners  which  he  bestowed  on  the  cities  of 


Ujkunde,  xi.  and  Ixv. 


Chip.  X.  RESPECT  FOR  THE  CHURCH.  483 

Italy,  which  did  him  a  kind  of  homage,  that  of  Perugia 
was  inscribed  "Long  live  the  citizens  of  Perugia  and 
the  memory  of  Constantine."  Sienna  received  the 
arms  of  the  Tribune  and  those  of  Rome,  the  wolf  and 
her  twin  founders.  Florence  had  the  banner  of  Italy, 
in  which  Rome  was  represented  between  two  other 
females,  designating  Italy  and  the  Christian  faith. 

Rienzi  professed  the  most  profound  respect  for  reli- 
gion :  throughout  he  endeavoured  to  sanction  Respect  for 
and  hallow  his  proceedings  by  the  ceremonial  *^^  church. 
of  the  Church.  He  professed  the  most  submissive 
reverence  for  the  Pope.  The  Papal  Yicar,  the  Bishop 
of  Orvieto,  a  vain,  weak  man,  was  flattered  by  the  idle 
honour  of  being  his  associate  without  any  power  in  the 
government.  Though  many  of  the  Tribune's  measures 
encroached  boldly  on  the  prerogatives  of  the  Pontiff, 
yet  he  was  inclined,  as  far  as  possible,  to  encourage  the 
notion  that  his  rise  and  his  power  were,  if  not  autho- 
rised, approved  by  his  Holiness.  He  asserts,  indeed, 
that  he  was  the  greatest  bulwark  of  the  Church.  **  Who, 
in  the  memory  of  man,  among  all  the  sovereigns  of 
Rome  or  of  Italy,  ever  showed  greater  love  for  eccle- 
siastical persons,  or  so  strictly  protected  ecclesiastical 
rights?  Did  I  not,  above  all  things,  respect  monas- 
teries, hospitals,  and  other  temples  of  God,  and, 
whenever  complaint  was  made,  enforce  the  peaceful 
restitution  of  all  then'  estates  and  properties  of  which 
they  had  been  despoiled  by  the  Nobles  ?  This  resti- 
tution they  could  never  obtain  by  all  the  Bulls  and 
Charters  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff;  and  now  that  I  am 
deposed,  they  deplore  all  their  former  losses.  I  wish 
that  the  Supreme  Pontiff  would  condescend  to  promote 
me  or  put  me  to  death,  according  to  the  judgement  of 
all  religious  persons,   of  the   monks,   and   the  whole 

2  I  2 


484 


LATIN  CHKISTIANITY. 


Book  XII 


clergy."  The  Tribune's  language,  asserting  himself  to 
be  under  the  special  influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
from  the  first  awoke  the  jealousy  of  the  Pope,  he 
explains  away,  with  more  ingenuity,  perhaps,  than 
ingenuousness.^  "No  power  but  that  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  could  have  united  the  turbulent  and  dissolute 
Eoman  people  in  his  favour.  It  was  their  unity,  not 
his  words  and  actions,  which  manifestly  displayed  the 
presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  At  all  events,  in  the 
proudest  days  of  his  ceremonial,  especially  on  that  of 
his  coronation  with  the  seven  crowns,  all  the  most 
distinguished  clergy  of  Rome  did  not  scruple  to  offi-. 
ciate. 

These  days,  the  1st  and  15th  of  August,  beheld 
Rienzi  at  the  height  of  his  power  and  splendour. 
Roman  tradition  hallowed,  and  still  hallows,  the  1st  of 
August  as  the  birthday  of  the  empire:  on  that  day 
Octavius  took  Alexandria,  and  ended  the  civil  war.  It 
became  a  Christian,  it  is  still  a  popular,  festival.^  On 
the  vigil  of  that  day  set  forth  a  procession  to  the 
Lateran  Church — the  Church  of  Constantino  the  Great. 
It  was  headed  by  the  wife  of  Rienzi,  her  mother,  with 
500  ladies,  escorted  by  200  horsemen.  Then  came 
Rienzi  with  his  iron  staff,  as  a  sceptre  ;  by  his  side  the 
Pope's  Vicar.  The  naked  sword  glittered  and  the 
banner  of  the  city  waved  over  his  head.  The  ambassa- 
dors of  twenty-six  cities  were  present ;  those  of  Perugia 
and  Corneto  stripped  off  their  splendid  upper  garments 
and  threw  them  to  the  mob.  That  night  Rienzi  passed 
in  the  church,  in  the  holy  preparations  for  his  knight- 
hood.    The   porphyry   font   or   vessel   in   which   Con- 


•  Written    to    the    Archbishop   of 
I'rague. 

'  It  is  still  called  Felicissimo  Ferau- 


gusto.  Murator.  Ant.  Ital.  diss.  iix. 
torn.  V.  12.  Niebuhr  in  Roras  Be- 
schreibung,  iii.  2,  235. 


Crap.  X.  COEONATIOX  OF  EIEXZI.  485 

stantine,  in  one  legend  was  baptised,  in  another  cleansed 
from  the  leprosy,  was  his  bath.  In  the  morning  pro- 
clamation was  made  in  the  name  of  Nicolas,  the  Severe 
and  Merciful,  the  Deliverer  of  the  City,  the  Zealot  for 
the  freedom  of  Italy,  the  Friend  of  the  World,  the 
August  Tribune.  It  asserted  the  ancient  indefeasible 
title  of  Eome  as  the  head  of  the  world  and  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Christian  faith,  to  universal  sovereignty ;  the 
liberty  of  all  the  cities  of  Italy,  which  were  admitted 
to  the  rights  of  lioman  citizenship.  Through  this 
power,  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  Kome  had  the 
sole  prerogative  of  the  election  of  the  Emperor.  It 
summoned  all  Prelates,  Emperors  elect  or  Kings,  Dukes, 
Princes,  and  Nobles,  who  presumed  to  contest  that  right, 
to  appear  in  Rome  at  the  ensuing  Pentecost.  It  sum- 
moned specially  the  high  Princes,  Louis  Duke  of 
Bavaria  and  Charles  King  of  Bohemia,  the  Dukes  of 
Austria  and  Saxony,  the  Elector  Palatine,  tlie  Margrave 
of  Brandenburg,  the  Archbishops  of  Mentz,  Cologne, 
Treves.  Though  the  proclamation  seemed  to  save  the 
honour  of  the  Pope  and  the  Cardinals,  the  Pope's  Vicar 
attempted  to  interpose;  his  voice  was  drowned  in  the 
blare  of  the  trumpets  and  the  shouts  of  the  multitude. 
In  the  evening  there  was  a  splendid  banquet  in  the 
Lateran  Palace.  Tournaments  and  dances  delighted 
tlie  people.  The  horse  of  the  famous  statue  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  poured  wine  from  his  nostrils.  The  cities 
presented  sumptuous  gifts  of  horses,  mules,  gold,  silver, 
precious  stones. 

The  pride  of  Rienzi  was  not  yet  at  its  full.     Fourteen 
davs  after,  on  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption  of  Aug.  15. 

•^  .  -  ^     .        ^        Coronation  01 

the  Yirgm,  there  was  another  ceremony  m  the  Rienzi. 
Church  of  Santa  Maria  Maggiore.     Seven  distinguished 
ecclesiastics  or  nobles  placed  seven  crowns  on  the  head 


485 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  xn. 


of  the  Tribune,  of  oak,  ivy,  myrtle,  laurel,  olive,  silver, 
gold.  Of  these  the  laurel  crown  had  the  emblems  of 
religion,  justice,  peace,  humility.  Together  the  seven 
crowns  symbolised  the  seven  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  Tribune  spoke,  and  among  his  words  were  these  * 
"  As  Christ  in  his  thirty-third  year,  having  overthrown 
the  tyrants  of  Hell,  "went  up  crowned  into  Heaven,  so 
God  willed  that  in  the  same  year  of  my  life,^  I,  having 
conquered  the  tyrants  of  the  city  without  a  blow,  and 
alone  given  liberty  to  the  people,  should  be  promoted  to 
the  laurel  crown  of  the  Tribune."  This  was  the  day  of 
his  highest  magnificence.  Never,  he  confesses  in  his 
humiliation,  was  he  environed  with  so  much  pomp  or 
elated  by  so  much  pride.  It  was  now,  after  he  had 
made  the  profane  comparison  between  himself  and  the 
Lord,  that  was  uttered  the  awful  prediction  of  his  down- 
fall.^ In  the  midst  of  the  wild  and  joyous  exultation  of 
the  people,  one  of  his  most  zealous  su]3porters,  Fra 
Gulielmo,  in  high  repute  for  sanctity,  stood  aloof  in  a 
corner  of  the  church,  and  wept  bitterly.  A  domestic 
Prophecy  of  chaplaiu  of  Rienzi  inquired  the  cause  of  his 
his  fall.  sorrow.  "  Now,"  replied  the  servant  of  God, 
"is  thy  master  cast  down  from  Heaven.  Never  saw 
I  man  so  proud  !  By  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Ghost  he  has 
driven  the  tyrants  from  the  city  without  drawing  a 
sword;  the  cities  and  the  sovereigns  of  Italy  have 
acknowledged  his  powder.  Why  is  he  so  arrogant  and 
ungrateful  against  the  Most  High  ?  Why  does  he  seek 
earthly  and  transitory  rewards  for  his  labours,  and  in 
wanton  speech  liken  himself  to  the  Creator  ?     Tell  thy 


8  This  is  at  variance  with  the  story 
of  his  imperial  birth.  Henry  of  Luxem- 
burg was  in  Rome  in  May  and  June, 
1312.     In  Aug.  1347,  Rienzi  would 


have  been  in  his  34th  or  35th  year. 

*^  See  the  letter  to  the  Archbishop  a 
Prague  in  Papencordt. 


Chap.  X.  EOMAN  PEOPLE.  487 

master  that  lie  can  atone  for  this  only  by  streams  of 
penitential  tears."  In  the  evening  the  chaplain  com- 
municated this  solemn  rebuke  to  the  Tribune :  it 
appalled  him  for  a  time,  but  was  soon  forgotten  in  the 
tumult  and  hurry  of  business. 

Power  had  intoxicated  Eienzi;  but  the  majestic 
edifice  which  he  had  built  was  based  on  a  Roman 
quicksand.  In  the  people  this  passion  of  p^^^^®' 
virtue  was  too  violent  to  last ;  they  were  accustomed  to 
paroxysmal  bursts  of  liberty.  It  would  indeed  have 
been  a  social  and  rehgious  miracle  if  the  Romans,  after 
centuries  of  misrule,  degradation,  slavery,  superstition, 
had  suddenly  appeared  worthy  of  freedom ;  or  able  to 
maintain  and  wisely  and  moderately  to  enjoy  the  bless- 
ings of  a  just  and  equal  civilisation.  They  had  lived 
too  long  in  the  malaria  of  servitude.  Of  the  old  vigorous 
plebeian  Roman,  they  had  nothing  but  the  turbulence ; 
the  frugality,  the  fortitude,  the  discipline,  the  love  of 
order,  and  respect  for  law,  are  virtues  of  slow  gTowth. 
They  had  been  depressed  too  long,  too  low.  In  victims  of 
the  profligacy  and  tyranny  of  the  nobles,  submission  to 
such  outrages,  however  reluctant,  however  cast  off  in  an 
access  of  indignation,  is  no  school  of  high  and  enduring 
dignity  of  morals,  that  only  safeguard  of  sound  republi- 
can institutions.  The  number,  wealth,  licence  of  the 
Roman  clergy  were  even  more  fatally  corruptive.  Still, 
as  for  centuries,  the  Romans  were  a  fierce,  fickle  populace. 
Nor  was  Rienzi  himself,  though  his  morals  were  blame- 
less, though  he  incurred  no  charge  of  avarice  or  rapacity, 
a  model  of  the  sterner  republican  virtues.  He  wanted 
simplicity,  solidity,  self-command.  His  ostentation,  in 
some  respects  politic,  became  puerile.  His  processions, 
of  which  himself  was  still  the  centre,  at  first  excited,  at 
length  palled  on  the  popular  feeling.     His  luxurj  — for 


488  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

his  table  became  sumptuous,  his  dress,  his  habits  splen- 
did— was  costly,  burthensome  to  the  people,  as  well  as 
offensive  and  invidious ;  the  advancement  of  his  family, 
the  rock  on  which  demagogues  constantly  split,  unwise. 
Even  his  religion,  the  indispensable,  dominant  influence 
in  such  times,  was  showy  and  theatrical ;  it  wanted  that 
depth  and  fervour  which  spreads  by  contagion,  hurries 
away,  and  binds  to  blind  obedience  its  unthinking  par- 
tisans. Fanaticism  brooks  no  rivals  in  the  human  heart. 
From  the  first  the  Papal  Court  had  watched  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Rienzi  with  sullen  jealousy.  There  was  cold 
reserve  in  their  approbation,  or  rather  in  the  suspension 
of  their  condemnation  :  an  evident  determination  not  to 
commit  themselves.  Rienzi  was  in  the  same  letter  the 
humble  servant,  the  imperious  dictator  to  the  Pope. 
As  his  power  increased,  their  suspicions  darkened ;  the 
influence  of  his  enemies  at  Avignon  became  more  for- 
midable.   And  when  the  courtiers  of  the  papal 

Papal  court,         i  i  i  i  •    n  i  -n 

chamber,  the  clergy,  especially  the  rrench 
clergy,  the  Cardinals,  almost  all  French,  who  preferred 
the  easy  and  luxurious  life  at  Avignon  to  a  disturbed 
and  dangerous  residence  at  Rome  (perhaps  with  a  severe 
republican  censorship  over  their  morals) ;  when  all 
these  heard  it  not  obscurely  intimated  that  the  Tribune 
would  refuse  obedience  to  any  Pope  who  would  not  fix 
his  seat  in  Rome,  the  intrigues  became  more  active,  the 
Pope  and  his  representatives  more  openly  adverse  to 
the  new  order  of  things.  Petrarch  speaks  of  the  poison 
of  deep  hatred  which  had  infected  the  souls  of  the  cour- 
tiers; they  looked  with  the  blackest  jealousy  on  the 
popularity  and  fame  of  Rome  and  Italy.*  The  Cardinal 
Talleyrand  Perigord  was  furious  at  the  interposition  of 


I'etrarch,  Epist.  sine  titulo. 


Chap.  X. 


NOBLES  IN  ROME. 


489 


Rienzi  in  the  affairs  of  Naples.  The  Nobles  of  Home 
had  powerful  relatives  at  Avignon.  The  Cardinal 
Colonna  brought  dangerous  charges  against  Rienzi,  not 
less  dangerous  because  untrue,  of  heresy,^  even  of  un- 
lawful and  magical  arts. 

Power  had  intoxicated  Rienzi,  but  it  had  not  inspired 
him  with  the  daring  recklessness  which  often  xobiesin 
accompanies  that  intoxication,  and  is  almost  ^^™^" 
necessary  to  the  permanence  of  power.  In  the  height 
of  his  pride  he  began  to  betray  pusillanimity,  or  worse. 
He  could  condescend  to  treachery  to  bring  his  enemies 
within  his  grasp,  but  hesitated  to  crush  them  when 
beneath  his  feet.  Twice  again  the  Tribune  triumphed 
over  the  Nobles,  by  means  not  to  be  expected  from 
Rienzi,  once  by  perfidy,  once  by  force  of  arms.  The 
Nobles,  Colonnas  and  Orsinis,  had  returned  to  Rome. 
They  seemed  to  have  sunk  from  the  tyrants  into  the 
legitimate  aristocracy  in  rank  of  the  new  republic- 
They  had  taken  the  oath  to  the  Constitution,  the  old 
Stephen  and  the  3'oung  John  Colonna,  Rinaldo  and 
Giordano  Orsini.  At  the  Tribune's  command  the 
armorial  bearings  had  vanished  from  the  hauglity 
portals  of  Colonnas,  Orsinis,  Savellis !  ™  No  one  was  to 
be  called  Lord  but  the  Pope.  They  were  loaded  with 
praise,  with  praise  bordering  on  adulation,  by  the 
Tribune,  not  with  praise  only,  with  favour.  A  Colonna 
and  an  Orsini  were  entrusted  with,  and  accepted,  the 
command  of  the  forces  raised  to  subdue  the  two  tyrants, 
who  held  out  in  the  Campagna,  John  de  Vico,  the  lord 
of  Viterbo,  in  the  strong  castle   of  Respampano,  and 


^  Rienzi's  constant  appeal  to  the 
Holy  Ghost  would  sound  peculiarly  akin 
to  the  prophetic  visions  of  the  Frati- 
celli. 


™  All  this  he  commanded,  "  e  to 
fatto."  Compare  Du  Cerceai.,  Vie  d« 
Rienzi,  p.  93. 


490  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

Gaetano  Cercano,  lord  of  Fondi.  Nicolas  Orsini,  Captain 
of  tlie  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  with  Giordano  Orsini,  com- 
manded against  John  de  Vico. 

On  a  sudden  (it  was  a  month  after  the  last  August 
Arrest  of  fcstivity),  Kome  heard  that  all  these  nobles 
Nobles.  -^^^  been  arrested,  and  were  in  the  prisons  of 
the  Tribune.  Rienzi  has  told  the  history  of  the  event." 
"  Having  entertained  some  suspicion  "  (he  might  per- 
haps entertain  suspicion  on  just  grounds,  but  he  deigns 
not  to  state  them)  ''of  designs  among  the  nobles 
against  myself  and  against  the  people ;  it  pleased  God 
that  they  fell  into  my  hands."  It  was  an  act  of  the 
basest  treachery!  He  invited  them  to  a  banquet. 
They  came,  the  old  Stephen  Colonna,  Peter 
Agapito  Colonna,  lord  of  Genazzano  (once 
senator),  John  Colonna,  who  had  commanded  the  troops 
against  the  Count  of  Fondi ;  John  of  the  Mountain, 
Rinaldo  of  Marino,  Count  Berthold,  and  his  sons, 
the  Captain  of  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  all  Orsinis. 
Luca  Savelii,  the  young  Stephen  Colonna,  Giordano 
Marini  alone  lay  hid  or  escaped.  The  Tribune's  sus- 
picions were  confirmed.  Thus  writes  Eienzi:  "I 
adopted  an  innocent  artifice  to  reconcile  them  not  only 
with  myself  but  with  God;  I  procured  them  the  in- 
estimable blessing  of  making  a  devout  confession."  The 
Confessor,  ignorant  of  the  Tribune's  merciful  designs, 
prepared  them  for  death.  It  happened  that  just  at 
that  moment  the  bell  was  tolling  for  the  assembly  of 
the  people  in  the  Capitol.     The  Nobles,  supposing  it 


•»  This   letter   was   translated  with    who  had  not  seen  the  original,  observes 


tolerable  accuracy,  by  Du  Cerceau, 
from  Hocseraius  (in  Chapeaville,  Hist. 
Episcop.  Leodens.).  It  was  addressed 
to  an  Orsini,  canon  of  Li^ge.     Gibbon, 


on  it,  that  it  displays  in  genuine 
colours  the  mixture  of  the  knave  and 
the  madman.  It  was  obviously  meant 
to  be  communicated  to  the  Pope. 


Chap.  X.  THE  NOBLES  AERESTED.  491 

the  death-knell  for  theu^  execution,  confessed  with  the 
profoundost  penitence  and  sorrow. 

In  the  assembly  of  the  people,  Eienzi  suddenly  veered 
round:  not  only  did  he  pardon,  he  propitiated  the 
people  towards  the  Nobles;  ha  heaped  praise  upon 
them ;  he  restored  their  honours  and  offices  of  trust. 
He  made  them  swear  another  oath  of  fidelity 
to  the  Holy  Church,  to  the  people,  and  to  ^^'  ' 
liimself ;  to  maintain  against  all  foes  the  Good  Estate. 
They  took  the  Blessed  Sacrament  together. 

Kienzi  must  have  strangely  deluded  himself,  if  he 
conceived  that  he  could  impose  upon  Eome,  upon  the 
Pope,  and  upon  the  Cardinals  by  this  assertion  of 
religious  solicitude  for  the  captive  nobles;  still  more 
if  he  could  bind  them  to  fidelity  by  this  ostentatious 
show  of  mercy.  Contemptuous  pardon  is  often  the 
most  galling  and  inexpiable  insult.  His  show  of  mag- 
nanimity could  not  cancel  his  treachery.  He  obtained 
no  credit  for  sparing  his  enemies,  either  from  his 
enemies  themselves  or  from  the  world.  The  Nobles 
remembered  only  that  he  had  steeped  them  to  the 
lips  in  humiliation,  and  brooded  on  vengeance.  Both 
ascribed  his  abstaining  from  blood  to  cowardice.  The 
times  speak  in  Petrarch.  The  gentle  and  high-souled 
poet  betrays  his  unfeigned  astonishment  at  the  weak- 
ness of  Rienzi;  that  when  his  enemies  were  under 
liis  feet,  he  not  merely  spared  their  lives  (that  cle- 
mency might  have  done),  but  left  such  public  par- 
ricides the  power  to  become  again  dangerous  foes  of 
the  state.° 

The  poet  was  no  bad  seer.  In  two  months  the 
Colonnas,  the  Orsinis  were  in  arms.     From  their  fast* 


°  Petrarch's  letter,  quoted  p.  Ixxix.  of  Papencordt's  Urkunde. 


492 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII. 


nesses  in  Palestrina  and  Marino  tbey  ^Yere  threatening 
the  city.  The  character  of  Kienzi  rose  not  with  the 
danger.  He  had  no  military  skill;  he  had  not  even 
the  courage  of  a  soldier.  Nothing  less  than  extra- 
ordinary accident,  and  the  senseless  imprudence  of  his 
Defeat  of  the  adversaries,  gave  him  a  victory  as  surprising 
Coionnas.  ^^  himsclf  as  to  others ;  and  his  mind,  which 
Nov,  22.  -j^^^  been  pitifully  depressed  by  adversity, 
was  altogether  overthrow^n  by  unexpected,  undeserved 
success.  The  young  and  beautiful  John  Colonna  had 
striven  to  force  his  way  into  the  gates;  he  fell;  the 
father,  at  the  sight  of  his  maimed  and  mangled  body, 
checked  the  attack  in  despair.  All  was  panic;  four 
Coionnas  perished  in  the  battle  or  the  flight ;  -eighteen 
others  of  the  noblest  names,  Orsinis,  Frangipanis, 
Savellis,  the  lords  of  Civita  Vecchia,  Viterbo,  Tosca- 
nella.^  Rienzi  tarnished  his  fame  by  insulting  the 
remains  of  the  dead.  His  sprinkling  his  son  Lorenzo 
with  the  water  tainted  by  the  blood  of  his  enemies,  and 
saluting  him  as  Knight  of  Victory,  was  an  outburst  of 
pride  and  vengeance  which  shocked  his  most  ardent 
admirers.^ 

Kienzi  might  seem  by  this  victory,  however  obtained, 
by  the  death  of  the  Coionnas,  the  captivity  of  his  other 
foes,  secure  at  the  height  of  his  greatness.  Not  a 
month  has  passed;  he  is  a  lonely  exile.  Everything 
seems  suddenly,  unaccountably,  desperately  to  break 
down  beneath  him ;  the  bubble  of  his  glory  bursts,  and 
becomes  thin  air. 

Kienzi  miiSt  speak  again.    He  had  dark  and  inward 


P  See  the  list  of  the  slain  and 
prisoners  in  Rienzi's  account. — Papen- 
cor(ft,  note,  p.  182. 

":   Read  in  Hocsemius  (p.  506),  or  in 


Du  Cerceau  ('p.  222),  his  letter  of 
triumph  :  "  This  is  the  day  that  thr 
Lord  hath  made." 


CnAr.  X.  RIENZI'S  MENTAL  PEOSTRATION.  4:9b 

presentiments  of  his  approaching  falL  The  prophecy 
at  his  coronation  recurred  in  all  its  terrors  to  Rienzi's 
his  mind,  for  the  same  Fra  Gulielmo  had  ofmind 
foretold  the  death  of  the  Colonnas  by  his  hand  and 
by  the  judgement  of  God.  The  latter  prophecy  the 
Tribune  had  commimicated  to  many  persons ;  and 
when  the  four  chiefs  of  that  house  fell  under  the  walls 
of  Kome,  the  people  believed  in  a  Divine  revelation. 
His  enemies  asserted  that  Kienzi  kept,  in  the  cross  of 
his  sceptre,  an  unclean  spirit  who  foretold  future  events. 
(This  had  been  already  denounced  to  the  Pope.)  ''When 
I  had  obtained  the  victory,"  he  proceeds,  "  and  in  the 
opinion  of  men  my  power  might  seem  fixed  on  the  most 
solid  foundation,  my  gTeatness  of  mind  sank  away,  and 
a  sudden  timidity  came  over  me  so  frequently,  that  I 
awoke  at  night,  and  cried  out  that  the  armed  enemy 
was  breaking  into  my  palace ;  and  although  what  I  say 
may  seem  ludicrous,  the  night-bird,  called  the  owl,  took 
the  place  of  the  dove  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  palace, 
and,  though  constantly  scared  away  by  my  domestics, 
as  constantly  flew  back,  and  for  twelve  nights  kept  me 
without  sleep  by  its  lamentable  hootings.  And  thus 
he  whom  the  fury  of  the  Eoman  nobles  and  the  array 
of  his  armed  foes  could  not  alarm,  lay  shuddering  at 
visions  and  the  screams  of  night-birds.  Weakened  by 
want  of  sleep,  and  these  perpetual  terrors,  1  was  no 
longer  fit  to  bear  arms  or  give  audience  to  the  people."' 
To  this  prostration  of  mind  Kienzi  attributes  his 
hasty  desperate  abandonment  of  his  power.  But  there 
were  other  causes.  The  Pope  had  at  length  declared 
against  him  in  the  strongest  terms.  During  the  last 
period  of  his  power  Kienzi  had  given   many  grounds 


From  tlie  same  letter. 


494  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

for  suspicion  that  he  intended  to  assume  the  empire. 
He  had  asserted  the  choice  of  the  Emperor  to  be  in  the 
Roman  people;  though  in  his  condescension  he  had 
offered  a  share  in  this  great  privilege  to  the  cities  of 
Italy.  Tlie  bathing  in  the  porphyry  vessel  of  Con- 
stantino was  not  forgotten.  When  the  Papal  Legate, 
Bertrand  de  Deux,  had  appeared  in  Home  to  condemn 
his  proceedings  and  to  depose  him  from  his  power, 
Rienzi  returned  from  his  camp  near  Marino  (he  was 
then  engaged  against  John  de  Vico),  and  confronted 
the  Legate,  clad  in  the  Dalmatica,  the  imperial  mantle 
worn  at  the  coronation  of  the  Emperors,  which  he  had 
taken  from  the  sacristy  of  St.  Peter's.  The  Legate, 
appalled  at  the  demeanour  of  the  Tribune  and  the 
martial  music  which  clanged  around  him,  could  not 
utter  a  word.  Pienzi  turned  his  back  contemptuously, 
and  returned  to  his  camp.  Upon  this,  in  a  letter  to 
his  "  beloved  sons,"  the  Roman  people,  the  Pope  exhaled 
all  his  wrath  against  the  Tribune.^  He  was  denounced 
under  all  those  terrific  appellations,  perpetually  thun- 
dered out  by  the  Popes  against  their  enemies.  He  was 
"  a  Belshazzar,  the  wild  ass  in  Job,  a  Lucifer,  a  fore- 
ThePope'B  runner  of  Antichrist,  a  man  of  sin,  a  son  of 
declaration,  pgrditiou,  a  SOU  of  the  Devil,  full  of  fraud  and 
falsehood,  and  like  tlie  Beast  in  the  Revelations,  over 
whose  head  was  written  *  Blasphemy.' "  He  had  in- 
sulted the  Holy  Catholic  Church  by  declaring  that 
the  Church  and  State  of  Rome  were  one,  and  fallen 
into  other  errors  against  the  Catholic  faith,  and  incurred 
the  suspicion  of  heresy  and  schism. 

After  his  triumph  over  tlie  Colonnas,  Rienzi^s  pride 
had  become  even  more  offensive,  and  his  magnificence 


This  letter  was  priuted  by  Pelzel ;  it  is  not  ia  Papeucovdt 


Chap.  X.  COUNT  PEPIN  IN  ROME.  495 

still  more  insulted  the  poverty  and  necessities  of  the 
people.  He  was  obliged  to  impose  taxes ;  the  gabelle 
on  salt  was  raised.  He  had  neglected  to  pursue  his 
advantage  against  the  Nobles:  they  still  held  many 
of  the  strongholds  in  the  neighbom-hood,  and  cut  off 
the  supplies  of  corn  and  other  provisions  from  the  city. 
The  few  Barons  of  his  party  were  rapidly  estranged ; 
the  people  were  no  longer  under  the  magic  of  his  spell ; 
his  hall  of  audience  was  vacant ;  the  alKed  cities  began 
to  waver  in  their  fidelity.  Kienzi  began  too  late  to 
assume  moderation.  He  endeavoured  again  to  associate 
the  Pope's  Yicar,  the  Bishop  of  Orvieto,  in  his  rule. 
He  softened  his  splendid  appellations,  and  retained 
only  the  modest  title,  the  "  August  Tribune  ! "  He  fell  to 
"Knight  and  Stadtholder  of  the  Pope."  Amid  an 
assembly  of  clergy  and  of  the  people,  after  the  solemn 
chanting  of  psalms,  and  the  hymn,  "Thine,  0  Lord, 
is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,"  he 
suspended  before  the  altar  of  the  Virgin  his  silver 
crown,  his  iron  sceptre  and  orb  of  justice,  with  the  rest 
of  the  insignia  of  his  Tribunate. 

All  was  in  vain.  Pepin,  Palatine  of  Altamura  and 
Count  of  Minorbino,  marched  into  the  city,  count  Pepin 
and  occupied  one  of  the  palaces  of  the  Colonnas  '"  ^°'"^' 
with  an  armed  force.  The  bell  of  the  Capitol  rang 
unheeded  to  summon  the  adherents  of  Kienzi.  He 
felt  that  his  hour  was  come.  He  might,  he  avers, 
easily  have  resisted  the  sedition  excited  by  Count 
Pepin,  but  he  was  determined  to  shed  no  more  blood. 
He  called  an  assembly  of  the  Komans,  solemnly  abdi- 
cated his  power,  and  departed,  notwithstanding,  he 
says,  the  reluctance  and  lamentations  of  the  people. 
After  his  secession,  it  may  well  be  believed  that,  under 
the  reinstated  tyranny  of  the  Nobles,  his  government 


496  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIl 

was  remembered  with  regret;  but  when  the  robber 
chief,  whom  he  had  summoned  before  his  tribunal,  first 
entered  Kome  and  fortified  the  Colonna  Palace,  Eienzi's 
tocsin  had  sounded  in  vain ;  the  people  flocked  not  to 
his  banner,  and  now  all  was  silence,  desertion.  Even 
with  the  handful  of  troops  which  he  might  have  col- 
lected, a  man  of  bravery  and  vigour  might  perhaps 
have  suppressed  the  invasion ;  but  all  his  energy  was 
gone :  he  who  had  protested  so  often  that  he  would 
lay  down  his  life  for  the  liberties  of  the  people  did  not 
show  the  courage  of  a  child.*  His  enemies  could  hardly 
believe  their  easy  victory:  for  three  days  the  Nobles 
without  the  city  did  not  venture  to  approach  the  walls ; 
Eienzi  remained  undisturbed  within  the  castle  of  St. 
Angelo.  He  made  one  effort  to  work  on  the  people  by 
his  old  arts.  He  had  an  angel  painted  on  the  walls 
of  the  Magdalen  Church,  with  the  arms  of  Eome,  and 
a  cross  surmounted  with  a  dove,  and  (in  allusion,  no 
doubt,  to  the  well-known  passage  in  the  Psalms) 
trampling  on  an  asp,  a  basilisk,  a  lion,  and  a  dragon, 
i^iightof  Mischievous  boys  smeared  the  picture  with 
Dec.  14  or  15.  mud.  Eicnzi,  in  the  disguise  of  a  monk,  saw 
it  in  this  state,  ordered  a  lamp  to  be  kept  burning 
before  it  for  a  year  (as  if  to  intimate  his  triumphant 
return  at  that  time),  and  then  fled  from  Eome. 

His  retreat  was  in  the  wild  Apennines  which  border 
on  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  There  the  austerest  of  the 
austere  Franciscans  dwelt  in  their  solitary  cells  in  the 
Kienz5  among  ^^^^P  r^vincs  and  on  the  mountain  sides,  the 
theFraticeiii.  gpintualists  who  adorcd  the  memory  of  Coeles- 
tine  v.,"  despised  the  worldly  lives  of  their  less  recluse 

*  So  writes  the  old  Roman  biographer.  |  vision.     All   that  in   any  way  might 

*  liienzi  at  one  time  declared  that  |  tend  to  the  glory  of  Home  foun'l 
Boniface  VIII.  appeared  to  him  in  a  i  welcome  in  his  miud. 


Chap  X.  THE  PLAGUE.  497 

brethren,  and  brooded  over  the  unfulfilled  prophecies 
of  the  Abbot  Joachim,  John  Peter  Oliva,  the  Briton 
Merlin,  all  which  foreshadowed  the  coming  kingdom, 
the  final  revelation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  proud  vain 
Tribune  exchanged  his  pomp  and  luxury  for  the  habit 
of  a  tertiary  of  the  Order  (his  marriage  prohibited  any 
higher  rank) ;  he  wore  the  single  coarse  gown  and 
cord;  his  life  was  a  perpetual  fast,  broken  only  by 
the  hard  fare  of  a  mendicant.  He  was  enraptured 
with  this  holy  society,  in  which  were  barons.  Nobles, 
even  some  of  the  hostile  house  of  Colonna.  "  0  life 
which  anticipates  immortality !  0  angels'  life,  which 
the  fiends  of  Satan  alone  could  disturb!  and  yet  these 
poor  in  spirit  are  persecuted  by  the  Pope  and  the  In- 
quisition ! " 

For  two  years  and  a  half  Eienzi  couched  unknown,  as 
he  asserts,  among  this  holy  brotherhood.  They  ig^g,  1349. 
were  dismal,  disastrous  years.  Earthquakes  '^^^^^sae. 
shook  the  cities  of  Christendom.  Pope  Clement,  in 
terror  of  the  plague  which  desolated  Em-ope,  shut  him- 
self up  in  his  palace  at  Avignon,  and  burned  large  fires 
to  keep  out  the  terrible  enemy.  The  enemy  respected 
the  Pope,  but  his  subjects  around  perished  in  awful 
numbers.  It  is  said  that  three-fourths  of  the  population 
in  Avignon  died :  in  Narbonne,  thirty  thousand ;  of 
twelve  Consuls  of  Montpellier,  ten  fell  victims.  It  was 
called  the  Black  Plague ;  it  struck  grown-up  men  and 
women  rather  than  youths.  After  it  had  abated,  the 
women  seemed  to  become  wonderfully  prolific,  so  as  to 
produce  a  new  race  of  mankind.  As  usual,  causes 
beyond  the  ordinary  ones  were  sought  and  found.  The 
wells  had  been  poisoned,  of  course  by  unbelievers. 
The  Jews  were  everywhere  massacred.  Pope  Clement 
displayed  a  better  title  to  the  Divine  protection  than  his 

VOL.  VII.  2  K 


198 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  XII 


precautions  of  seclusion  and  his  fii^es.  He  used  his 
utmost  power  to  arrest  the  popular  fury  against  these 
unhappy  victims.'^  The  Flagellants  swarmed  again  1 
through  all  the  cities,  scourging  their  naked  bodies,  and 
tracing  their  way  by  their  gore.  Better  that  fanaticism, 
however  wild,  should  attempt  to  propitiate  God  by  its 
own  blood,  rather  than  by  that  of  others ;  by  seK-torture 
rather  than  murder !  ^ 

The  wild  access  of  religious  terror  and  prostration 
gave  place,  when  the  year  of  Jubilee  began,  to 
as  wild  a  tumult  of  religious  exultation.  Kome 
again  swarmed  with  thousands  on  thousands  of  wor- 
shippers. Kienzi  had  meditated,  but  shrank  in  fear 
from,  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land.  It  is  said  that  he 
stole  into  Rome  in  disguise :  the  Tribune  was  lost  in  the 
multitude  of  adoring  strangers. 

Suddenly  after  his  return,  in  his  retreat  on  Monte 

Magello,  he  was  accosted  by  the  hermit,  Fra 

FraAngeio.    ^^g^j^^    g^    j^g^j^    acknowledged    by   all    the 

brethren  as  a  prophet.  Angelo  pronounced  his  name, 
which  Rienzi  believed  had  been  a  profound  secret.  The 
prophet  had  been  led  to  Rienzi's  dwelling  by  Divine 
revelation : — "  Rienzi  had  laboured  enough  for  himself ; 
he  must  now  labour  for  the  good  of  mankind.  The 
universal  reformation,  foreseen  by  holy  men,  at  the 
urgent  prayer  of  the  Virgin,  was  at  hand :  God  had  sent 
earthquakes  and  great  mortality  on  earth  to  chastise  the 


»  This  plague  has  a  singular  relation 
with  the  history  of  letters.  Among 
its  victims  was  Petrarch's  Lam-a.  It 
has  been  usually  called  the  Plague  of 
Florence,  because  described  in  the 
Decameron  of  Boccaccio ;  just  as  the 
common  pestilence  of  Europe  is  said  to 
be  that  of  Athens,  because  related  by 


Thucydides.  Singular  privilege  of 
genius,  to  concentre  all  the  interest 
and  terror  of  such  a  wide-wasting 
calamity  on  one  spot  I 

T  See  Continuator  of  Nangis ;  and 
the  very  curious  account,  especially  of 
the  Flagellants,  in  Albertus  Argenti- 
nensis,  p.  150. 


Chap.  X.  RIENZI  IN  PRAGUE.  4yy 

sins  of  me.-..  Such  had  been  his  predeterminate  will 
before  the  coming  of  the  blessed  Francis.  The  prayers 
of  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic,  who  had  preached  in 
the  spirit  of  Enoch  and  Elias,  had  averted  the  doom." 
But  "  since  there  is  now  not  one  that  doeth  good,  and 
the  very  Elect  (the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans)  have 
cast  off  their  primitive  virtues,  God  has  prepared,  is 
preparing,  vengeance.  After  this  the  Church  will  resume 
her  primal  holiness.  There  will  be  peace  not  only 
among  Christians,  but  among  Christians  and  Saracens. 
The  age  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  at  hand.  For  this  end 
a  holy  man,  chosen  of  God,  is  to  be  made  known  to 
mankind  by  Divine  revelation,  who,  with  the  Elect 
Emperor,  shall  reform  the  world,  and  strip  the  pastors 
of  the  Church  of  all  temporal  and  fleeting  super- 
fluities." 

Kienzi,  from  doubt,  fear,  perhaps  some  lingering 
touch,  as  he  says,  of  his  old  arrogance,  hesitated  to 
undertake  the  mission  to  the  Emperor  Charles  lY. 
imposed  upon  him  by  the  prophet.  Era  Angelo  un- 
folded, with  much  greater  distinctness,  the  secrets  of 
futurity :  he  showed  him  prophecies  of  Spiritual  men — 
of  Joachim,  of  Oliva,  of  Merlin  —  already  fulfilled. 
Rienzi  deemed  that  it  would  be  contumacy  to  God  to 
resist  the  words  of  the  prophet.^ 

In  the   month  of  August  appeared   in   the   city  of 
Prague  a  man  in  a  strange  dress.    He  stopped    Aug.  i, 
at  the  house  of  a  Florentine  apothecary,  and    Juiy. 
asked  to  be  presented   to  my  Lord  Charles    rrl^e. 
the  Emperor  Elect:   he  had  something  to  communi- 
cate to  his  honour  and  advantage. 

Eienzi,  admitted  to  the  presence  of  the  King  of  the 


«  All  this  is  from  Rienzi's  owii  letters  iu  Papencordt,  with  the  Urkunde, 

2  K  2 


500  LATIN  CHEISTIANITT.  Book  XII. 

Romans,  announced  his  mission  from  the  prophet,  Fra 
Angelo.  He  had  been  commanded  to  deliver  this  mes- 
sage : — "  Know  ye,  Sire  and  Emperor,  that  Brother 
Angelo  has  sent  me  to  say  to  you,  that  up  to  this 
time  the  Father  has  reigned  in  this  world,  and  God 
his  Son.  The  power  has  now  passed  from  him,  and 
is  given  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  shall  reign  for  the  time 
to  come."  The  Emperor,  hearing  that  he  thus  sepa- 
rated and  set  apart  the  Father  and  Son  from  the  Holy 
Ghost,  said,  '•'  Art  thou  the  man  that  I  suppose  you 
to  be  P'"^  He  answered,  "Whom  do  ye  suppose  me  to 
be?"  The  Emperor  said,  "I  suppose  that  you  are  the 
Tribune  of  Rome."  This  the  Emperor  conjectured, 
having  heard  of  the  heresies  of  the  Tribune,  and  he 
answered,  "  Of  a  truth  I  am  he  that  was  Tribune,  and 
have  been  driven  from  Rome."  The  Emperor  sat  in 
mute  astonishment,  while  Rienzi  exhorted  him  to  the 
peaceful  and  bloodless  conquest  of  Italy : — "  In  this 
gi-eat  work  none  could  be  of  so  much  service  as  him- 
self. He  alone  could  overcome  the  rival  Orsinis  and 
Colonnas."  He  offered  his  son  as  a  hostage :  "  he  was 
prepared  to  sacrifice  his  Isaac,  his  only  begotten,  for  the 
welfare  of  the  people."  He  demanded  only  the  Imperial 
sanction.  "  Every  one  w^ho  presumes  to  take  the  rule 
in  Rome  when  the  Empire  is  not  vacant,  without  leave 
of  the  Emperor,  is  an  adulterer." 

He  was  admitted  to  a  second  interview.  The  Arch- 
second  inter-  bishop  of  Trevcs,  two  othcr  Bishops,  the 
^^^'  ambassadors  of  the  King  of  Scotland,  many 

other  nobles  and  doctors,  sat  around  King  Charles. 
Rienzi  was   commanded   to   repeat  his  message.      He 


»  I  have    moulded  together   the  account    in  the  historian    Polistore,  witli 
Rienzi's  own  as  it  appears  in  the  Urkunde.    There  is  no  essential  discrepancy. 


Chap.  X.  EIENZI  IN  CUSTODY.  501 

spoke  on  some  points  more  at  lengtli : — "  Another  mes- 
senger had  been  sent  to  the  Pope  at  Avignon :  him  the 
Pope  would  burn.  The  people  of  Avignon  would  rise 
and  slay  the  Pope ;  then  w^ould  be  chosen  an  Italian 
Pope,  a  poor  Pope,  who  would  restore  the  Papacy  to 
Rome.  He  would  crown  the  Emperor  with  the  crown 
of  gold.  King  of  Sicily,  Calabria,  Apulia  ;  himself, 
Eienzi,  King  of  Eome  and  of  all  Italy.  The  Pope 
would  build  a  temple  in  Rome  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  more 
splendid  than  that  of  Solomon.  Men  would  come  out  of 
Egypt  and  the  East  to  worship  there.  The  triune  reign, 
the  peaceful  reign,  of  the  Emperor,  of  Rienzi,  and  of 
the  Pope,  would  be  an  earthly  image  of  that  of  the 
Trinity." 

The  Archbishops  and  Bishops  departed  in  amazement 
and  horror.  Rienzi  was  committed,  as  having  j^jgu^i  in 
uttered  language  bordering  at  least  upon  ^^^^y- 
heresy,  to  safe  custody  under  the  care  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Prague.  He  was  commanded  to  put  his  words  in 
writing.  From  his  prison  he  wrote  a  long  elaborate 
address.  He  now  revealed  the  secret  of  his  own  Imperial 
birth ;  he  protested  that  he  was  actuated  by  no  fantastic 
or  delusive  impulse ;  he  was  compelled  by  God  to 
approach  the  Imperial  presence  ;  he  had  no  ambition ; 
he  scorned  (would  that  he  had  ever  done  so !)  the  vain 
glory  of  the  world ;  he  despised  riches ;  he  had  no  wish 
but  in  poverty  to  establish  justice,  to  deliver  the  people 
from  the  spoilers  and  tyrants  of  Italy,  "But  arms  I 
love,  arms  I  seek  and  will  seek ;  for  without  arms  there 
is  no  justice."  "  Who  knows,"  he  proceeds,  "  whether 
God,  of  his  divine  providence,  did  not  intend  me  as  the 
precursor  of  the  Imperial  authority,  as  the  Baptist  was 
of  Christ?"  For  this  reason  (he  intimates)  he  mav 
have  been  regenerated  in  the  font  of  Constantino,  and 


602  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XII. 

this  baptism  may  have  been  designed  to  wash  away 
the  stains  which  adhered  to  the  Imperial  power.  He 
exhorts  the  Emperor  to  arise  and  gird  on  his  sword, 
a  sword  which  it  became  not  the  Supreme  Pontiff  to 
assume.  He  concludes  by  earnestly  entreating  his 
Imperial  Majesty  not  rashly  to  repudiate  his  humble 
assistance  ;  above  all,  not  to  delay  his  occupation  of  the 
city  of  Kome  till  his  adversaries  had  got  possession  of 
the  salt-tax  and  other  profits  of  the  Jubilee,  which 
amounted  to  one  hundred  millions  of  florins,  a  sum 
strictly  belonging  to  the  Imperial  treasury,  and  sufficient 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  an  expedition  to  Italy. 

Charles  of  Bohemia  was  no  Otho,  no  Frederick,  no 
^^s^gr  of  Henry  of  Luxemburg ;  his  answer  was  by  no 
the  Emperor,  jj^gans  cncouragiug  to  the  magnificent  schemes 
of  the  Tribune.  It  was  a  grave  homily  upon  lowliness 
and  charity.  It  repudiated  altogether  the  design  of 
overthrowing  the  Papal  power,  and  protested  against 
the  doctrine  of  a  new  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  As 
to  the  story  of  Rienzi's  imperial  descent,  he  leaves 
that  to  God,  and  reminds  the  Tribune  tliat  we  are  all 
the  children  of  Adam,  and  all  return  to  dust.  Finally, 
he  urges  him  to  dismiss  his  fantastic  views  and  earthly 
ambition;  no  longer  to  be  stiff-necked  and  stony- 
hearted to  God,  but  with  a  humble  and  contrite  spirit 
to  put  on  the  helmet  of  salvation  and  the  shield  of 
faith. 

Baffled  in  his  attempts  to  work  on  the  personal 
Archbishop  ambition  of  the  Emperor,  the  pertinacious 
of  Prague.  J^fenzi  had  recourse  to  his  two  most  influential 
counsellors,  John  of  Neumark,  afterwards  Chaticellor, 
and  Ernest  of  Parbubitz,  Archbishop  of  Prague.  John 
of  Neumark  professed  a  love  of  letters,  and  Rienzi 
addressed  to  him  a  brief  epistle  on  which  he  lavished  all 


Chap.  X.         EIENZI'S  OFFER  TO  THE  EMPEROR. 


603 


his  flowers  of  rhetoric.  John  of  Neumark  repaid  him  in 
the  same  coin.  The  Archbishop  was  a  prelate  of  dis- 
tinction and  learning,  disposed  to  high  ecclesiastical 
views,  well  read  in  the  canon  law,  and  not  likely  to  be 
favourable  to  the  frantic  predictions,  or  to  the  adven- 
turous schemes  of  Kienzi.  Yet  to  him  Kienzi  fearlessly 
addressed  a  long  "  libel,"  in  which  he  repeated  all  his 
charges  against  the  Pope  of  abandoning  his  spiritual 
duties,  leaving  his  sheep  to  be  devoured  by  wolves,  and 
of  dividing,  rending,  severing  the  Church,  the  very  body 
of  Christ,  by  scandals  and  schisms.  The  Pope  violated 
every  precept  of  Christian  charity ;  Kienzi  alone  main- 
tained no  dreamy  or  insane  doctrine,  but  the  pure,  true, 
sound  apostolic  and  evangelic  faith.  It  was  the  Pope 
who  abandoned  Italy  to  her  tyrants,  or  rather  armed 
those  tyrants  with  his  power.  Rienzi  contrasts  his  own 
peaceful,  orderly,  and  just  administration  with  the  wild 
anarchy  thus  not  merely  unsuppressed,  but  encouraged 
by  the  Pope;  he  asserts  his  own  more  powerful  pro- 
tection of  the  Church,  his  enforcement  of  rigid  morals. 
"And  for  these  works  of  love  the  Pastor  caUs  me  a 
schismatic,  a  heretic,  a  diseased  sheep,  a  blasphemer  of 
the  Church,  a  man  of  sacrilege,  a  deceiver,  who  deals 
with  unclean  spirits  kept  in  the  Cross  of  the  Lord,  an 
adulterator  of  the  holy  body  of  Christ,  a  rebel  and  a 
persecutor  of  the  Church  ;  but  '  whom  the  Lord  loveth 
he  chasteneth ;'  as  naked  I  entered  into  power,  so  naked 
I  went  out  of  power,  the  people  resisting  and  lamenting 
my  departure."^ 


^  A  little  further  on  he  gives  this 
piece  of  history  :  "  We  read  in  the 
Chronicles  that  Julius,  the  first  Caesar, 
angry  at  the  loss  of  some  battle,  was 
•0  mad  as  to  raise  his  sword  against 


his  own  life ;  but  Octavianus,  his  grand- 
son, the  first  Augustus,  violently 
wrested  the  sword  from  his  hand,  and 
saved  Caesar  from  his  own  frantic  hand. 
Casar,  returning  to  his  senses,  imme 


504  LATIN  CHRISTIAI^ITY.  Book  XII. 

He  reiterates  his  splendid  offer  to  the  Emperor  for 
the  subjugation  of  Italy.  *'  If  on  the  day  of  the  Eleva- 
tion of  the  Holy  Cross  I  ascend  up  into  Italy,  unim- 
peded by  the  Emperor  or  by  you,  before  Whitsuntide 
next  ensuing  I  will  surrender  all  Italy  in  peaceable 
allegiance  to  the  Emperor."  For  the  accomplishment 
of  this  he  offered  hostages,  whose  hands  were  to  be  cut 
off  if  his  scheme  was  not  fulfilled  in  the  prescribed 
time  ;  and  if  he  failed,  he  promised  and  vowed  to  return 
to  prison  to  be  dealt  with  as  the  Emperor  might  decide. 
He  repeats  that  his  mission,  announced  by  the  prophetic 
hermit,  is  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  peaceful  entrance 
of  the  Emperor,  to  bind  the  tyrants  in  chains,  and  the 
nobles  in  links  of  iron.  "So  that  Csesar,  advancing 
without  bloodshed,  not  with  the  din  of  arms  and  German 
fury,  but  with  psalteries  and  sweet-sounding  cymbals, 
may  arrive  at  the  Feast  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  occupy 
his  Jerusalem,  a  more  peaceful  and  securer  Solomon. 
For  I  wish  this  Caesar,  not  secretly  or  as  an  adulterer, 
like  his  ancestor  of  old,''  to  enter  the  chamber  of  my 
mother,  the  city  of  Kome,  but  gladly  and  publicly,  like 
a  bridegroom,  not  to  be  introduced  into  my  mother's 
chamber  by  a  single  attendant,  in  disguise  and  through 
guarded  barriers  ;  not  as  through  the  ancestor  of  Stephen 
Colonna,  by  whom  he  was  betrayed  and  abandoned,  but  by 
the  whole  exulting  people.  Finally,  that  the  bridegroom 
shall  not  find  his  bride  and  my  mother  an  humble  hostess 
and  handmaid,  but  a  free  woman  and  a  queen ;  and  the 
home  of  my  mother  shall  not  be  a  tavern  but  a  church."** 

diately  adopted  Octavianus  as  his  son,  I  «  Henry  of  Luxemburg.  What  docs 
whom  the  Roman  people  sifterwards  this  strange  confusion  of  allusion  mean  ? 
appointed  his  successor  in  the  empire.  ^  There  are  several  more  letters  to 
Thus,  when  I  have  wrested  the  frantic  the  Archbishop  in  the  same  rhapsodicttl 
sword  from  his  hand,  the  Supreme  tone  and  spirit. 
Pontiif  will  call  me  his  faithful  sou."    ' 


Jhap.  X.  PETRARCH'S  LETTER.  505 

The  reply  of  the  Archbishop  was  short  and  dry.  He 
could  not  but  wonder  at  his  correspondent's  protestations 
of  humility,  so  little  in  accordance  with  the  magnificent 
titles  which  he  had  assumed  as  Tribune;  or  with  his 
assertion  that  he  was  under  the  special  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  "  By  what  authority  did  Eienzi  assert  for 
the  Koman  people  the  right  of  electing  the  Emperor  ?  " 
He  was  amazed  that  Eienzi,  instead  of  the  authentic 
prophecies  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  should  consult  the 
wild  and  unauthorised  prophets  Methodius  and  Cyril. 
The  Archbishop  ends  with  the  words  of  Gamaliel,  that 
"  if  the  Tribune's  schemes  are  of  God  they  will  succeed, 
however  men  may  oppose  them." 

Was,  then,  Eienzi  in  earnest  in  his  behalf  in  all  these 
mad  apocalyptic  visions?  Was  he  an  honest  fanatic? 
Does  his  own  claim,  during  all  his  early  career,  to  the 
special  favour  of  the  Holy  Ghost  intimate  an  earlier 
connexion,  or  only  a  casual  sympathy  and  accordance 
with  the  Franciscan  Spiritualists?  A  letter  to  Fra 
Angelo  is  that  of  a  passionate  believer,  prepared,  he 
asserts,  to  lay  down  his  imperilled  life,  entreating  the 
prayers  of  the  brethren,  warning  them  that  they  may  be 
exposed  to  persecution.®  Or  was  it  that  in  the  obstinacy 
of  his  hopes,  the  fertility  of  his  resources,  the  versatility 
of  his  ambition,  Eienzi  deliberately  threw  himself  on 
this  wild  religious  enthusiasm  and  on  Ghibellinism,  to 
achieve  that  which  he  had  failed  to  accomplish  in  his 
nobler  way  ?   Would  he  desperately,  rather  than  abandon 


e  There  is  a  strange  passage  about 
his  wife  (his  Luna),  which  might  tend 
to  the  suspicion  that  she  had  been  cor- 
rupted by  some  of  his  enemies  among 
the  Roman  clergy.  Yet  both  his 
wife  and  his  daughters  he  hopes  at  the 


end  will  become  Sisters  of  St.  Clare 
(the  female  Franciscans).  There  are 
some  tender  parental  provisions  about 
his  son,  whom  he  consigns  to  the  care 
of  tlie  Spiritual  brethren. — Apud  Pa* 
pencordt,  p.  74. 


VOL.  YII.  2   L 


506  LATIN  CHUlSTIAinTY.  Book  XII. 

the  liberty,  the  supremacy  of  Kome,  enlist  in  his  aid 
German  and  Imperial  interests,  Imperial  ambition? 
The  third  and  last  act  of  his  tragic  life,  which  must  await 
the  Pontificate  of  Innocent  YI.,  may  almost  warrant  this 
view,  if,  in  truth,  the  motives  of  men,  especially  of  such 
men  as  Rienzi,  are  not  usually  mingled,  clashing,  seem- 
ingly irreconcileable  impulses  from  contradictory  and 
successive  passions,  opinions,  and  aims. 

During  all  Eienzi's  residence  at  Prague,  the  Pope  had 
been  in  constant  communication  with  the  Emperor,  and 
demanded  the  surrender  of  this  son  of  Belial,  to  be 
dealt  with  as  a  suspected  heretic  and  a  rebel  against  the 
Holy  See.  The  Emperor  at  length  complied  with  his 
request.  Eienzi's  entrance  into  Prague  has  been  de- 
scribed in  the  words  of  an  old  historian ;  his  entrance 
into  Avignon  is  thus  portrayed  by  Petrarch.  The  poet's 
whole  letter  is  a  singular  mixture  of  his  old  admiration, 
and  even  affection  for  Eienzi,  with  bitter  disappointment 
at  the  failure  of  his  splendid  poetic  hopes,  and  not 
without  some  wounded  vanity  and  more  timidity  at 
having  associated  his  own  name  with  one,  who,  however 
foimerly  glorious,  had  sunk  to  a  condition  so  con- 
temptible. One  of  Eienzi's  first  acts  on  his  arrival  at 
Avignon  was  to  inquire  if  his  old  friend  and  admirer  was 
in  the  city.  *'  Perhaps,"  writes  Petrarch,  "  he  supposed 
that  I  could  be  of  service  to  him;  he  knew  not  how 
totally  this  was  out  of  my  power ;  perhaps  it  was  only  a 
feeling  of  our  former  friendship."  "  There  came  lately 
to  this  court — I  should  not  say  came,  but  was  brought 
as  a  prisoner — Nicolas  Laurentius,  the  once  formidable 
Tribune  of  Eome,  who,  when  he  might  have  died  in  the 
Capitol  with  so  much  glory,  endured  imprisonment,  first 
by  a  Bohemian  (the  Emperor),  afterwards  by  a  Limousin 
(Pope  Clement),  so  as  to  make  himself,  as  well  as  the 


Chap.  X.  UIENZl  IMPEISOXED.  507 

name  and  Republic  of  Rome,  a  laughing-stock.  It  is 
perhaps  more  generally  known  than  I  should  wish,  how 
much  my  pen  was  employed  in  lauding  and  exhorting 
this  man.  I  loved  his  virtue,  I  praised  his  design ;  I 
congratulated  Italy :  I  looked  forward  to  the  dominion 

of  the  beloved  city  and  the  peace  of  the  world 

Some  of  my  epistles  are  extant,  of  which  I  am  not  alto- 
gether ashamed,  for  I  had  no  gift  of  prophecy,  and  I 
would  that  he  had  not  pretended  to  the  gift  of  prophecy ; 
but  at  the  time  I  wrote,  that  which  he  was  doing  and 
appeared  about  to  do  was  not  only  worthy  of  my  praise, 
but  that  of  all  mankind.  Are  these  letters,  then,  to  be 
cancelled  for  one  thing  alone,  because  he  chose  to  live 
basely  rather  than  die  with  honour?  But  there  is  no 
use  in  discussing  impossibilities ;  I  could  not  destroy 
them  if  I  would ;  they  are  published,  they  are  no  longer 
in  my  power.  But  to  my  story.  Humble  and  despicable 
that  man  entered  the  court,  who,  throughout  the  world, 
had  made  the  wicked  tremble,  and  filled  the  good  with 
joyful  hope  and  expectation ;  he  who  was  attended,  it  is 
said,  by  the  whole  Roman  people  and  the  chief  men  of 
the  cities  of  Italy,  now  appeared  between  two  guards, 
and  with  all  the  populace  crowding  and  eager  to  see  the 
face  of  him  of  whose  name  they  had  heard  so  much." 

A  commission  of  three  ecclesiastics  was  appointed  to 
examine  what  punishment  should  be  inflicted  on  Rienzi. 
That  he  deserved  the  utmost  punishment  Petrarch 
declares,  "  not  for  his  heresy,  but  for  having  abandoned 
his  enterprise  when  he  had  conducted  it  with  so  much 
success ;  for  having  betrayed  the  cause  of  liberty  by  not 
crushing  the  enemies  of  liberty."  Yet,  after  all,  every- 
thing in  this  extraordinary  man's  life  seems  destined  to 
be  strange  and  unexpected.  Rienzi  could  scarcely  look 
for  any  sentence  but  death,  death  at  the  stake,  as  an 


508  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XIL 

audacious  heretic,  or  perpetual  imprisonment.  He  was 
at  first  closely  and  ignominiously  guarded  in  a  dungeon. 
He  had  few  friends,  many  enemies  at  Avignon.  He  was 
even  denied  the  aid  of  an  advocate.  Yet  the  trial  by 
the  three  Cardinals  was  not  pursued  with  activity. 
Perhaps  Clement's  approaching  death  inclined  him  to 
indifference,  if  not  to  mercy ;  then  his  decease 
and  the  election  of  a  new  Pope  distracted 
public  attention.  The  charge  of  heresy  seems  to  have 
quietly  dropped.  Petrarch  began  to  dare  to  feel  interest 
in  his  fate ;  he  even  ventured  to  write  to  Eome  to  urge 
the  intercession  of  the  people  in  his  behalf.  Kome  was 
silent;  but  Avignon  seemed  suddenly  moved  in  his 
favour.  Kumour  spread  abroad  that  Eienzi  was  a  great 
poet ;  and  the  whole  Papal  court,  the  whole  city,  at  this 
first  dawn  of  letters,  seemed  to  hold  a  poet  as  a  sacred, 
almost  supernatural  being.  "  It  would  be  a  sin  to  put 
to  death  a  man  skilled  in  that  wonderful  art."  Eienzi 
was  condemned  to  imprisonment;  but  imprisonment 
neither  too  ignominious  nor  painful.  A  chain,  indeed, 
around  his  leg  was  riveted  to  the  wall  of  his  dungeon. 
But  his  meals  were  from  the  remnants  of  the  Pope's 
table  distributed  to  the  poor.  He  had  his  Bible  and  his 
Livy,  perhaps  yet  unexhausted  visions  of  future  chs- 
tinction,  which  strangely  enough  came  to  pass. 


END  OF  VOL.  l/II. 


LONDON:    PRINTED  BY  WILLIAM  CLOWES  AND  SONS,   LIMITED,  STAMFORD  STREET 
AND  CHARING  CROSS. 


Date  Due 

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