xx. 22), the touching of the ears with the exclamation: Ephphatha

(Mark vii. 34), marking the brow and breast with the sign of the cross; in Africa also the giving of salt acc. to Mark ix. 50, in Italy the handing over of a gold piece as a symbol of the pound (Luke xiii. 12 f.) entrusted in the grace of baptism. The conferring of a new name signified entrance into a new life. At the renunciation the baptized one turned him to the setting sun with the words: Ἀποτάσσομαί σοι Σατανᾶ καὶ πασῇ τῇ λατρείᾳ σου; to the rising sun with the words: Συντάσσομαί σοι Χριστέ. The dipping was thrice repeated: in the Spanish church, in the anti-Arian interest, only once. Sprinkling was still confined to _Baptismus Clinicorum_ and was first generally used in the West in infant baptism in the 12th century, while the East still retained the custom of immersion.

§ 58.2. =The Doctrine of the Supper= (§ 36, 5).--The doctrine of the Lord’s Supper was never the subject of Synodal discussion, and its conception on the part of the fathers was still in a high degree uncertain and vacillating. All regarded the holy supper as a supremely holy, ineffable mystery (φρικτόν, _tremendum_), and all were convinced that bread and wine in a supernatural manner were brought into relation to the body and blood of Christ; but some conceived of this relation spiritualistically as a dynamic effect, others realistically as a substantial importation to the elements, while most vacillated still between these two views. Almost all regarded the miracle thus wrought as μεταβολή, _Transfiguratio_, using this expression, however, also of the water of baptism and the anointing oil. The spiritualistic theory prevailed among the Origenists, most decidedly with Eusebius of Cæsarea, less decidedly with Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzen, and again very decidedly with Pseudo-Dionysius. In the West Augustine and his disciples, even including Leo the Great, favour the spiritualistic view. With Augustine the spiritualistic view was a consequence of his doctrine of predestination; only to the believer, _i.e._ to the elect can the heavenly food be imparted. Yet he often expresses himself very strongly in a realistic manner. The realistic view was divided into a dyophysitic or consubstantial and a monophysitic or transubstantial theory. A decided tendency toward the idea of transubstantiation was shown by Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Hilary of Poitiers, and Ambrose. The view of Gregory of Nyssa is peculiar: As by Christ during His earthly life food and drink by assimilation passed into the substance of His body, so now bread and wine by the almighty operation of God by means of consecration is changed into the glorified body of Christ and by our partaking of them are assimilated to our bodies. The opposing views were more sharply distinguished in consequence of the Nestorian controversy, but the consistent development of dyophysitism in the eucharistic field was first carried out by Theodoret and Pope Gelasius († A.D. 496). The former says: μένει γὰρ ἐπὶ τῆς προτέρας οὐσίας; and the latter: _Esse non desinit substantia vel natura panis et vini.... Hoc nobis in ipso Christo Domino sentiendum_ (Christological), _quod in ejus imagine_ (Eucharistical), _profitemur_. The massive concrete popular faith had long before converted the μεταβολή into an essential, substantial transformation. Thence this view passed over into the liturgies. Gallican and Syrian liturgies of the 5th century express themselves unhesitatingly in this direction. Also the tendency to lose the creaturely in the divine which still continued after the victory of Dyophysitism at Chalcedon, told in favour of the development of the dogma and about the end of our period the doctrine of Transubstantiation was everywhere prevalent.[174]--Continuation § 91, 3.

§ 58.3. =The Sacrifice of the Mass= (§ 36, 6).--Even in the 4th century the body of Christ presented by consecration in the Supper was designated a sacrifice, but only in the sense of a representation of the sacrifice of Christ once offered. Gradually, however, the theory prevailed of a sacramental memorial celebration of the sacrifice of Christ in that of an unbloody but actual repetition of the same. To this end many other elements than those mentioned in § 36, 6 co-operated. Such were especially the rhetorical figures and descriptions of ecclesiastical orators, who transferred the attributes of the one sacrifice to its repeated representations; the re-adoption of the idea of a priesthood (§ 34, 4) which demanded a corresponding conception of sacrifice; the pre-eminent place given to the doctrine of sacraments; the tendency to place the sacrament under the point of view of a magically acting divine power, etc. The sacrificial idea, however, obtained its completion in its application to the doctrine of Purgatory by Gregory the Great (§ 61, 4). The _oblationes pro defunctis_ which had been in use from early times became now masses for the souls of individuals; their purpose was not the enjoyment of the body and blood of Christ by the living and the securing thereby continued communion with the departed, but only the renewing and repeating of the atoning sacrifice for the salvation of the souls of the dead, _i.e._ for the moderating and shortening of purgatorial sufferings. The redeeming power of the sacrifice of the eucharist was then in an analogous manner applied to the alleviation of earthly calamities, sufferings and misfortunes, in so far as these were viewed as punishments for sin. For such ends, then, it was enough that the sacrificing priest should perform the service (_Missæ solitariæ_, Private Masses). The partaking of the membership was at last completely withdrawn from the regular public services and confined to special festival seasons.--Continuation § 88, 3.

§ 58.4. =The Administration of the Lord’s Supper.=--The sharp distinction between the _Missa Catechumenorum_ and the _Missa Fidelium_ (§ 36, 2, 3) lost its significance after the general introduction of infant baptism, and the name _Missa_, mass, was now restricted to the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper properly so called. In the Eastern and North African churches the communion of children continued common; the Western church forbade it in accordance with 1 Cor. xi. 28, 29. The _Communis sub una_ (sc. _specie_), _i.e._ with bread only, was regarded as a Manichæan heresy (§ 29, 3). Only in North Africa was it exceptionally allowed in children’s communion, after a little girl from natural aversion to wine had vomited it up. In the East, as early as the 4th century, one observance of the Lord’s Supper in the year was regarded as sufficient; but Western Councils of the 5th century insisted upon its observance every Sunday and threatened with excommunication everyone who did not communicate at least on the three great festivals. The elements of the supper were still brought as presents by the members of the church. The bread was that in common use, therefore usually leavened. The East continued this practice, but the West subsequently, on symbolical grounds, introduced the use of unleavened bread. The colour of the wine was regarded as immaterial. Subsequently white wine was preferred as being free from the red colouring matter. The mixing of the wine with water was held to be essential, and was grounded upon John xix. 34; or regarded as significant of the two natures in Christ. Only the Armenian Monophysites used unmixed wine. The bread was broken. To the sick was often brought in the East instead of the separate elements bread dipped in wine. Subsequently also, first in children’s communion and in the Greek church only, bread and wine together were presented in a spoon. The consecrated elements were called εὐλογίαι after 1 Cor. x. 16. The εὐλογίαι left over (περισσεύουσα) were after communion divided among the clergy. At a later period only so much was consecrated as it was thought would be needed for use at one time. The overplus of unconsecrated oblations was blessed and distributed among the non-communicants, the catechumens and penitents. The name εὐλογίαι was now applied to those elements that had only been blessed which were also designated ἀντίδωρα. The old custom of sending to other churches or bishops consecrated sacramental elements as a sign of ecclesiastical fellowship was forbidden by the Council at Laodicea in the 4th century.--Continuation § 104, 3.

§ 59. PUBLIC WORSHIP IN WORD AND SYMBOL.

The text of the sermon was generally taken from the bible portion previously read. The liturgy attained a rich development, but the liturgies of the Latin and Greek churches were fundamentally different from one another. Scripture Psalms, Songs of Praise with Doxologies formed the main components of the church service of song. Gnostics (§ 27, 5), Arians (§ 50, 1), Apollinarians and Donatists found hymns of their own composition very popular. The church was obliged to outbid them in this. The Council at Laodicea, however, in A.D. 360, sought to have all ψαλμοὶ ἰδιωτικοί banished from the church, probably in order to prevent heretical poems being smuggled in. The Western church did not discuss the subject; and Chrysostom at least adorned the nightly processions which the rivalry of the Arians in Constantinople obliged him to make, with the solemn singing of hymns.

§ 59.1. =The Holy Scriptures= (§ 36, 7, 8).--The doubts about the genuineness of particular New Testament writings which had existed in the days of Eusebius, had now greatly lessened. Fourteen years after Eusebius, Athanasius in his 39th Festal Letter of A.D. 367 gave a list of canonical scriptures in which the Eusebian antilegomena of the first class (§ 36, 8) were without more ado enumerated among the κανονιζόμενα. From these he distinguished the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Esther, Judith, and Tobit, as well as the Διδαχὴ καλουμένη τῶν Ἀποστόλων and the Shepherd of Hermas as ἀναγινωσκόμενα, _i.e._ as books which from their excellent moral contents had been used by the fathers in teaching the catechumens and which should be recommended as affording godly reading. The Council at Laodicea gave a Canon in which we miss only the Apocalypse of John, objected to probably on account of the unfavourable view of chiliasm entertained by the church at that time (§ 33, 9); as regards the Old Testament it expressly limited the public readings in churches to the 22 bks. of the Hebrew canon. The Council at Hippo, in A.D. 393, gave synodic sanction for the first time in the West to that Canon of the New Testament which has from that time been accepted.--The question as to the value of the books added to the Old Testament in the LXX. remained undecided down to the time of the Reformation. The Greek church kept to the Athanasian distinction of these as ἀναγινωσκόμενα from the κανονιζόμενοι, until the confession of Dositheus in A.D. 1629 (§ 152, 3) in its anti-Calvinistic zeal maintained that even those books should be acknowledged as γνήσια τῆς γραφῆς μέρη. In the North African church Tertullian and Cyprian had characterized them without distinction as holy scripture. Augustine followed them, though not altogether without hesitation: _Maccab. scripturam non habent Judæi ... sed recepta est ab ecclesia non inutilitor, si sobrie legatur vel audiatur_; and the Synods at Hippo in A.D. 393 and at Carthage in A.D. 397 and A.D. 419 put them without question into their list of canonical books, adding this, however, that they would ask the opinion of the transmarine churches on the matter. Meanwhile too in Rome this view had prevailed and Innocent I. in A.D. 405 expressly homologated the African list. Hilary of Poitiers and Rufinus on the other hand upheld the view of Athanasius, and Jerome in his _Prologus galeatus_ after enumerating the books of the Hebrew Canon went so far as to say: _Quidquid extra hos est, inter Apocrypha ponendum_, and elsewhere calls the addition to Daniel merely _næniæ_. In the _Præfatio in libros Salom._, he expresses himself more favourably of the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobit and Maccabees: _legit quidem ecclesia, sed inter canonicas scripturas non recipit ... legat ad ædificationem plebis sed non ad auctoritatem dogmatum confirmandam_. This view prevailed throughout the whole of the Middle Ages among the most prominent churches down to the meeting of the Council of Trent (§ 136, 4); whereas the Tridentine fathers owing to the rejection of the books referred to by the Protestants (§ 161, 8), and their actual or supposed usefulness in supporting anti-Protestant dogmas, _e.g._ the meritoriousness of good works, Tob. iv. 11, 12; intercession of saints, 2 Macc. xv. 12-14; veneration of relics, Ecclus. xlvi. 14; xlix. 12; masses for souls and prayers for the dead, 2 Macc. xii. 43-46, felt themselves constrained to pronounce them canonical.--The inconvenient _Scriptio continua_ in the biblical Codices led first of all the Alexandrian deacon Euthalius, about A.D. 460, by stichometric copies of the New Testament in which every line (στίχος) embraced as much as with regard to the sense could be read without a pause. He also undertook a division of the Apostolic Epistles and the Acts into chapters (κεφάλαια). An Alexandrian church teacher, Ammonius, even earlier than this, in arranging for a harmony of the gospels had divided the gospels in 1,165 chapters and added to the 355 chapters of Matthew’s gospel the number of the chapter of parallel passages in the other gospels. Eusebius of Cæsarea completed the work by his “Evang. Canon,” for he represents in ten tables which chapters are found in all the four, in three, in two or in one of the gospels.[175]--Jerome made emendations upon the corrupt text of the Itala by order of Damasus, bishop of Rome, and then made from the Hebrew a translation of the =Old Testament= of his own, which, joined to the revised translation of the New Testament, after much opposition gradually secured supremacy throughout all the West under the name of the =Vulgata=. The Monophysite Syrians got from Polycarp in A.D. 508 at the request of bishop Xenajas or Philoxenus of Mabug, a new slavishly literal translation of the New Testament. This so-called Philoxenian translation was, in A.D. 616, corrected by Thomas of Charcal, provided after the manner of the Hexapla of Origen with notes--the Harclensian translation--and in A.D. 617 enlarged by a translation of the Old Testament executed by bishop Paulus of Tella in Mesopotamia according to the Hexapla text of the LXX.--Diligent =Scripture Reading= was recommended by all the fathers, with special fervour by Chrysostom, to the laity as well as the clergy. Yet the idea gained ground that the study of Scripture was the business of monks and clerics. The second Trullan Council, in A.D. 692, forbade under severe penalties that scripture should be understood and expounded otherwise than had been done by the old fathers.

§ 59.2. =The Creeds of the Church.=

I. =The Nicæno-Constantinopolitan Creed.=--The Nicene Creed (§ 50, 1, 7) did not =in the East= succeed in dislodging the various forms of the Baptismal formula (§ 35, 2); indeed, owing to the statement of this third article restricting itself to a mere καὶ εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα ἅγιον it was little fitted to become a universal symbol. But what the _Nicænum_ in spite of its unexampled pretensions never won, the so-called _Nicæno-Constantinopolitanum_ of A.D. 451, not being chargeable with the deficiency referred to, actually achieved. The idea prevailing until quite recently that this Symbol originated at the so-called second œcumenical Council at Constantinople in A.D. 381 as an enlargement of the Nicene confession, has now been shown to be quite erroneous. After the Romish theologian Vincenzi laboured to prove that this was a production forged by the Greeks in the interests of their “heretical” doctrine of the procedure of the Holy Spirit from the Father only (§ 50, 7), Harnack on the basis of the researches of Caspari and Hort reached the following results: The so-called Nicæno-Constantinopolitan Creed is identical with the creed recommended by Epiphanius in his _Anchoratus_, about A.D. 373, as genuinely apostolic-Nicene; the creed of the Anchoratus is that which forms the subject of Cyril’s Catechetical Lectures (§ 47, 10), probably at a later date revised, enriched by the introduction of the most important phrases from the Nicænum and an additional section on the Holy Spirit (comp. § 50, 5, 7), and issued in his own name by Cyril while bishop of Jerusalem (A.D. 351-386) as a Baptismal formula for the church of Jerusalem; this new recension of the Jerusalem Symbol was probably laid before the Council at Constantinople in A.D. 381 by Cyril as a proof of his own orthodoxy that had always been somewhat questionable and as such passed over into the Acts which are now lost; thus at least is it most simply explained how even in A.D. 451 it could be quoted in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon alongside of the Nicene as the Constantinopolitan; in proportion then as the Council of Constantinople of A.D. 381 came to be regarded as an œcumenical Council (§ 50, 4), this creed, erroneously ascribed to that Council, had accorded to it the rank of an œcumenical Symbol.

II. =The Apostles’ Creed.=--The Roman church and with it the whole =West=, standing upon the supposed Apostolic origin of their symbol, did not suffer it to be dislodged by the Nicænum nor to be assimilated by any importations from it. Nevertheless during the period when the Roman chair was dominated by the Byzantine court theology (§ 52, 3) the so-called _Nicæno-Constantinopolitanum_ succeeded in displacing the old Western creed, aided by the opposition to the Arianism that was being driven forward by the Visigoths and Ostrogoths in Italy and Spain (§ 76, 2, 7), which demanded a more decidedly anti-Arian formula. After this danger had been long overcome, the desire was expressed in the 9th century for a shorter creed that might serve as a baptismal formula and as the basis of catechetical teaching. They fell back, however, not upon the old Roman creed, but upon a more modern Gallic expansion of it, which forms what is called by us now the Apostles’ Creed. Owing to the reverence shown to the Roman church this creed soon found its way throughout all the West, and arrogated to itself here the name of an œcumenical Symbol, although it has never been acknowledged by the Greek church. The legend of its apostolic origin was carried out still further by the assertion that each of the twelve Apostles composed one article as his contribution to the formula (συμβολή). Laurentius Valla and Erasmus were the first to dispute its apostolic origin.

III. =The Athanasian Creed.=--The so-called Athanasian Symbol, which from its opening words is also known as _Symb._ “_Quicunque_,” sprang up in the end of the 5th century out of the opposition of Western Catholicism to German Arianism, so that it is doubtful whether it had its origin in Gaul, Spain or North Africa. In short, sharply accentuated propositions it sets forth first of all the Nicene-Constant. doctrine of the Trinity in its fuller form as developed by Augustine (§ 50, 7), then in the second part the dogmatic results of the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies (§ 52, 3, 4), and in the severest terms makes eternal salvation dependent on the acceptance of all these beliefs. The earliest certain trace of its existence is found in Cæsarius of Arles (A.D. 503-543) who quotes some sentences borrowed from it as of acknowledged authority. The idea that Athanasius was its author arose in the 8th century and was soon accepted throughout the West as an undoubted truth. It was first taken notice of by the Greek church in the 11th century, and on account of the _filioque_ (§ 67, 1) was pronounced heretical.[176]

§ 59.3. =Bible Reading in Church and Preaching.=--The =Reading= of non-canonical books in church, which had previously been customary (§ 36, 3), was now forbidden. The _Lectio continua_, _i.e._ the reading of entire biblical books was the common practice down to the 5th century. In the Latin church at each service there were usually two readings, one from the Gospels, the other from the Epistles or the Prophets. The _Apostolic Constitutions_ (§ 43, 4) have three, the Prophets, Epistles, and Gospels; so too the Gallican and Spanish churches; while the Syrian had four, the additional one being from Acts. As the idea of the Christian Year was carried out, however, the _Lectio continua_ gave place to the _Lectio propria_, _i.e._ a selection of passages which correspond to the character of the particular festival. In the West this selection was fixed by the _Lectionaries_ among which the so-called _Liber comitis_, which tradition assigned to Jerome, in various forms and modifications, found acceptance generally throughout the West. In the East where the _Lectio continua_ continued much more prevalent, lectionaries came into use first in the 8th century. The lesson was read by a reader from a reading desk; as a mark of distinction, however, the gospel was often read by the deacon. For the same purpose, too, lights were often kindled during this reading.--The =Sermon= was generally by the bishop, who might, however, transfer the duty to a presbyter or deacon. Monks were forbidden to preach in the church. They were not hindered from doing so in the streets and markets, from roofs, pillars and trees. The bishop preached from his episcopal throne, but often, in order to be better heard, stood at the railing of the choir (_Cancelli_). Augustine and Chrysostom often preached from the reading desk. In the East preaching came very much to the front, lasted often for an hour, and aimed at theatrical effects. Very distracting was the practice, specially common in Greece of giving loud applause with waving of handkerchiefs and clapping of hands (κρότος, _Acclamatio_). In the West the sermon consisted generally of short simple addresses (_Sermones_). Extempore discourses (ὁμιλίαι σχεδιασθεῖσαι) were greatly appreciated, more so than those repeated from memory; reading was quite an exceptional occurrence. Even the emperors after Constantine’s example gave sometimes sermonic lectures in extra-ecclesiastical assemblies. Among the Syrians sermons in verse and strophically arranged, with equal number of syllables in the lines but unrhymed, were very popular.

§ 59.4. =Hymnology.=[177]--Ephraëm [Ephraim] the Syrian († A.D. 378) introduced melodious orthodox hymns in place of the heterodox hymns of the Syrian Gnostics Bardesanes and Harmonius (§ 27, 5). On the later Syrian hymn writers, see § 48, 7. The introduction of their hymns into the public service caused no trouble. For the Greeks orthodox hymns were composed by Gregory Nazianzen and Synesius of Ptolemais. The want of popularity and the ban of the Laodicean Council hindered their introduction into the services of the church; but this ban was removed as early as the 5th century. Under the name of Troparies, from τρόπος=art of music, shorter, and soon also longer, poems of their own composition were introduced alongside of the church service of Psalms (§ 70, 2). But unquestionably the palm for church hymn composition belongs to the Latin church. With Hilary of Poitiers († A.D. 368) begins a series of poets (Ambrose, Damasus, Augustine, Sedulius, Eunodius, Prudentius, Fortunatus, Gregory the Great) who bequeathed to their church a precious legacy of spiritual songs of great beauty, spirituality, depth, power, grandeur and simplicity.

§ 59.5. =Psalmody and Hymn Music.=[178]--From the time when clerical _cantores_ (§ 34, 3) were appointed the symphonic singing of psalms by the congregation seems to have been on the wane. The Council of Laodicea forbade it altogether, without, however, being able quite to accomplish that. Antiphonal or responsive singing was much enjoyed. Hypophonic singing of the congregation in the responses with which the people answered the clerical intonings, readings and prayers, and in the beating of time with which they answered the clerical singing of psalms, was long persisted in in spite of clerical exclusiveness. The singing of prayers, readings and consecrations was first introduced in the 6th century. At first church music was simple, artless, recitative. But the rivalry of heretics forced the orthodox church to pay greater attention to the requirements of art. Chrysostom had to declaim against the secularisation of Church music. More lasting was the opposition of the church to the introduction of instrumental accompaniments. Even part singing was at this time excluded from the church. In the West psalmody took a high flight with a true ecclesiastical character. Even in A.D. 330, bishop Sylvester erected a school at Rome for training singers for the churches. Ambrose of Milan was the author of a new kind of church music full of melodious flow, with rhythmical accent and rich modulation, nobly popular and grandly simple (_Cantus Ambrosianus_). Augustine speaks with enthusiasm of the powerful impression made on him by this lively style of singing, but expresses also the fear that the senses might be spellbound by the pleasant sound of the tune, and thus the effect of the words on the mind be weakened. And in fact the Ambrosian chant was in danger during the 6th century through increasing secularisation of losing its ecclesiastical character. Then appeared Gregory the Great as reformer and founder of a new style of music (_Cantus Romanus, ferinus, choralis_) for which at the same time, in order that he might fix it in a tune book (_Antiphonarium_), he invented a special notation, the so-called _Neumæ_, either from πνεῦμα as characterizing the music, or from νεῦμα as characterizing the musical notes, a wonderful mixture of points, strokes and hooks. The Gregorian music is in unison, slow, measured and uniform without rhythm and beat, so that it approaches again the old recitative mode of psalm singing, while still at the same time its elaboration of the art with much richer modulation marks an important step in advance. The Ambrosian briskness, freshness and popular style were indeed lost, but all the more certainly the earnestness, dignity and solemnity of Church music were preserved. But it was a very great defect that the Gregorian music was assigned exclusively to well equipped choirs of clerical singers, hence _Cantus choralis_, for the training of which Gregory founded a school of music in Rome. The congregation was thus deprived of that lively participation in the public service which up to that time it had enjoyed.

§ 59.6. =The Liturgy.=--The numerous liturgies that had sprung up since the 4th century were reared on the basis of one common type which we find in the liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions (§ 43, 4). The most important orthodox liturgies are: the Jerusalem liturgy which is ascribed to the Apostle James, the Alexandrian which claims as its author Mark, disciple of the Apostles (§ 16, 4), the Byzantine which professes to have been composed by Basil and abbreviated by Chrysostom, which ultimately dislodged all others from the orthodox church of the East. Among Western liturgies the following are distinguished for antiquity, reputation and significance: the Gallican Masses of the 5th century, the Milan liturgy, professedly by Barnabas, probably by Ambrose, and the Roman or that of St. Peter, to the successive revisions of which are attached the names of the great popes Leo the Great, † A.D. 461, Gelasius I., † A.D. 496, and Gregory the Great, † A.D. 604. It gradually obtained universal ascendancy in the West. Its components are: The _sacramentarium_, prayers for the service of the Mass, the _antiphonarium_, the _lectionarium_, and the _Ordo Romanus_, guide to the dispensation of the Mass. The uniting of these several writings to the _Missale Romanum_ belongs to a later period.--=The Greek Liturgy= in the combining of the vesper, matins and principal service of worship represents a threefold religious drama in which the whole course of the sacred history from the creation of the world to the ascension of our Lord is brought to view. In the lighting and extinguishing of candles, in opening and closing of doors, in the figured cloth covering the altar space, (§ 60, 1), in burning of incense and presentations, in the successive putting on of various liturgical vestments, in the processions and genuflections of the inferior clergy, in the handling of the sacramental elements, etc., the chief points of the gospel history are symbolically set forth. The word accompanying the ceremonies (intonations, responses, prayers, readings, singing) has a subordinate significance and forms only a running commentary on the drama.--=The Latin Church= changed the dramatic character of the liturgy into a dogmatic one. It is no longer the objective history of salvation which is here represented, but the subjective appropriation of salvation. The sinner in need of redemption comes to the altar of the Lord, seeks and finds quickening and instruction, forgiveness and grace. The real pillar of the whole service is therefore the word, and to the symbol is assigned only the subordinate part of accompanying the word with a pictorial representation. The components of the liturgy are partly such as invariably are repeated in every Mass, partly such as change with the calendar and the requirements of particular festivals. Among the former the canon of the Mass forms the real centre of the whole Mass. It embraces the eucharistic forms of consecration with the prayer offered up in connection with the offering of it up.--Among the liturgical writings are specially to be named the =Diptychs= (δὶς ἀπτύσσω, to fold twice), writing tablets which were covered on the inside with wax. They were the official lists of persons of the ancient church, and were of importance for the liturgy inasmuch as the names written upon them were the subject of special liturgical intercession. We have to distinguish, δίπτυχα ἐπισκόπων, in which are written the names of the foreign bishops with whom church fellowship is maintained, and δίπτυχα ζώντων or lists of their own church members as the offerers, and δίπτυχα νεκρῶν.[179]

§ 59.7. =Liturgical Vestments.=--A special clerical costume which made the clergy recognisable even in civil life arose from their scorning to submit to the whims of fashion. The transition from this to a compulsory liturgical style of dress was probably owing to the fact that the clergy in discharging their official functions wore not their every-day attire, but a better suit reserved for the purpose. If in this way the idea of sacred vestments was arrived at it was an easy step to associate them with the official costume of the Old Testament priesthood, attributing to them, as to the dress of the Jewish priests, a symbolico-mystical significance, to be diversified according to their patterns as well as according to the needs of the worship and their hierarchical rank. In the West the proper dress for Mass was and continued the so-called _Alba_, among the Greeks στοιχάριον or στιχάριον, a white linen shirt reaching down to the feet after the pattern of the old Roman _Tunica_ and corresponding to the long coat of the Old Testament priest, with a girdle (_Cingulum_). The shorter _Casula_ or _Pineta_, among the Greeks φελώνιον, over the Alba took the place of the _Toga_. It was originally without sleeves, simply a coloured garment of costly material furnished with an opening for the head, but in later times made more convenient by being slit half way down on both sides. The _Orarium_, ὀράριον, afterwards called _Stola_, is a long wide strip of costly cloth which the deacon threw over his left shoulder and on his right thigh, but the priest and the bishop wore it over both shoulders and at the sacrifice of the Mass in the form of the cross over the breast. Over these priestly vestments the bishop wore as representing the high priest’s ephod the so-called _Dalmatica_, among the Greeks σάκκος, a costly sleeved robe; and the archbishop also the _Pallium_, ὠμοφόριον. This last was originally a complete robe, but in order not to conceal the episcopal and priestly ornaments it was reduced to a small white woollen cape with two strips hanging down on the breast and the back. To episcopal ornaments of the Greeks besides belonged the ἐπιγονάτιον, a square-shaped piece of cloth, hanging down from the σάκκος on the left side, ornamented with a picture of Christ sewed on stiff pasteboard; and to correspond to the high priest’s Urim and Thummim, the πανάγιον, a painting in enamel of a saint, hung to the breast by a golden chain. Among the Latins the place of the latter is taken by the golden cross for the breast or _Pectorale_. As covering of the head the priest had the Barretta (_birretum_), the bishop the mitre, _mitra_ (§ 84, 1). The ring and staff (marriage ring and shepherd’s staff) were in very early times made the insignia of the episcopal office. The settling of the various liturgical colours for the successive festivals of the Christian year was first made during the 12th century.[180]

§ 59.8. =Symbolical Acts in Worship.=--The fraternal kiss was a general custom throughout the whole period. On entering, the church door or threshold was kissed; during the liturgical service the priest kissed the altar, the reader the Gospel. Even relics and images were kissed. When one confessed sin he beat upon his breast. The sign of the cross was made during every ecclesiastical action and even in private life was frequently used. The custom of washing the hands on entering God’s house and lighting candles in it, was very ancient. No quite certain trace of sprinkling with holy water is found before the 9th century. The burning of incense (_thurificari_) is first found late in the 4th century. In earlier times it was supposed to draw on and feed the demons; afterwards it was regarded as the surest means of driving them away. The consecration of churches and the annual commemoration thereof are referred to even by Eusebius (ἐγκαινίων ἑορταί). Even so early as the times of Ambrose the possession of relics was regarded as an indispensable condition to such services.

§ 59.9. =Processions= are of early date and had their prototypes in the heathen worship in the solemn marches at the high festivals of Dionysos, Athene, etc., etc. First at burials and weddings, they were practised since the 4th century at the reception of bishops or relics, at thanksgivings for victories, especially at seasons of public distress and calamity (_Rogationes_, _Supplicationes_). Bishop Mamertus of Vienna about A.D. 450 and Gregory the Great developed them into regularly recurring institutions whose celebration was rendered more solemn by carrying the gospels in front, costly crosses and banners, blazing torches and wax candles, relics, images of Mary and the saints, by psalm and hymn singing. The prayers arranged for the purpose with invocation of saints, and angels and the popular refrain, _Ora pro nobis!_ were called _Litanies_.

§ 60. PLACES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP, BUILDINGS AND WORKS OF ART.[181]

Church architecture made rapid advance as a science in the times of Constantine the Great. The earliest architectural style thus developed is found in the Christian _Basilicas_. Whether this was a purely original kind of building called forth by the requirements of congregational worship, or whether and how far it was based upon previously existing styles, is still a subject of discussion. In later, and especially oriental, church buildings the flat roof of the basilica was often changed into a cupola. Of the plastic arts painting was the next to be represented.

§ 60.1. =The Basilica.=--The original form of the Christian basilica was that of an oblong four-sided building running from west to east. It was divided lengthwise by rows of pillars, into three parts or aisles, in such a way as to leave the middle aisle at least double the breadth of each of the other two. The middle aisle led up to a semicircular recess (κόγχη, ἀψίς, _Concha_, _Absida_), curved out of the eastern side wall, which was separated from the middle aisle proper by a railing (κιγκλίδες, _Cancelli_) and a curtain (καταπέτασμα, _Velum_), and, because raised a few steps, was called βῆμα (from βαίνω). From the 5th century the pillars running down the length of the house were not carried on to the eastern gable, and thus a cross passage or transept was formed, which was raised to the level of the Bema and added to it. This transept now in connection with the middle aisle and the recess imprints upon the ground plan of the church the significant form of the cross. At the entrance at the western end there was a porch which occupied the whole breadth of the house. Thus then the whole fell into three divisions. The =Bema= was reserved for the clergy. The elevated seat of the bishop (θρόνος, _Cathedra_) stood in the middle of the round wall forming the recess, lower seats for the presbyters on both sides (σύνθρονοι), the altar in the centre or in front of the recess. As a place reserved for the altar and the clergy the βῆμα had also the names ἅγιον, ἄδυτον, ἱερατεῖον, _Sacrarium_, _Sanctuarium_, the name “Handbook of Painting: Italian Schools. Based on Kügler’s Handbook.” by Eastlake; new ed. by Layard, 2 vols., Lond., 1886.] of Choir being first given it in the Middle Ages. Under the Apse or Bema there was usually a subterranean chamber, κρυπτή, _Memoria_, _Confessio_, containing the bones of martyrs. The altar space in later times in the Eastern churches instead of being marked off by railings or curtains was separated by a wooden partition which because adorned with sacred pictures painted often on a golden ground and inlaid with most precious stones, was called the picture screen (εἰκονόστασις). It had usually three doors of which the middle one, the largest of the three, the so-called “Royal” door, was reserved for the bishop and for the emperor when he communicated. The =Nave= or main part of the building, consisting of three, less frequently of five, aisles (νάος, ναῦς, _Navis_, so called partly from its oblong form, partly and chiefly on account of the symbolical significance of the ship as a figure of the means of salvation, Gen. vii. 23), was the place where the baptized laity met, and were arranged in the different aisles according to sex, age and rank. In the Eastern churches galleries (ὑπερῶα) were often introduced along the sides for the women. The =Porch= (πρόναος, _Vestibulum_) which from its great width was also called νάρθηξ or _Ferula_, properly the hollow stalk of an umbelliferous plant, was the place occupied by the catechumens and penitents. In front of it, in earlier times unroofed, afterwards covered, was the enclosure (αἴθριον, αὐλή, _Atrium_, _Area_) where a basin of water stood for washing the hands. Here too the penitents during the first stage of their discipline, as well as the _energumeni_, had to stand. That the Atrium was also called _Paradisus_, as Athanasius tells us, is best explained by supposing that here for the warning of penitents there was a picture of Adam and Eve being driven out of Paradise. The porch and the side aisles just to the height of the pillars, were shut in with tesselated rafters and covered with a one-sided slanting roof. But middle aisle and transept were heightened by side walls resting on the pillars and rising high above the side roofs and covered with a two-sided slanting roof. In order that the pillars might be able to bear this burden, they were bound one to another by an arched binding. The walls of the middle aisle and transepts rising above the side roofs were supplied with windows, which were usually wanting in the lower walls.--Utility was the main consideration in the development of the plan of the basilicas, but nevertheless at the same time the idea of symbolical significance was also in many ways very fully carried out, such as the form of the cross in the ground plan, and the threefold division into middle and side aisles. In the bow-shaped binding of the pillars the idea of pressing forward (Phil. iii. 13, 14) was represented, for there the eye was carried on from one pillar to the other and led uninterruptedly forward to the recess at the east end, where stood the altar, where the Sun of righteousness had risen (Mal. iv. 2). The semicircle of the recess to which the eye was carried forward reminded of the horizon from which the sun rose in his beauty; and the bold rising of the walls of the middle aisle, which rested on the arched pillars, pointed the eye upwards and gave the liturgical _sursum corda_ which the bishop called out to the congregation a corresponding expression in architectural form. This significance was further intensified by the light falling down from above into the sacred place.

§ 60.2. =Secular Basilicas.=--All spaces adorned with pillared courts were called among the ancient Romans basilicas. In the private houses of distinguished Romans the name _Basilica domestica_ was given to the so-called Oëcus, _i.e._ the chamber reserved for solemn occasions with the peristyle in front, the inner open court surrounded by covered pillared halls; while public markets and courts of justice were called _Basilicæ forenses_. The latter were oblong in shape; at the end opposite the entrance the dividing wall was broken through and in the opening a semicircular recess was carved out with an elevated platform, and in this were the tribunal of the prætor and seats for the assessors and the jury. In the covered pillared courts along the two sides were the wares exposed for sale and in the usually uncovered large middle space the buyers and lookers-on moved about. Outside of the enclosing wall before the entrance was often a pillared porch standing by itself for a lobby.--From having the same name and many correspondences in construction the later Christian basilica was supposed to have been copied from the forensic basilica. Zestermann was the first to contest this theory and in this found hearty support especially on the Catholic side. According to him the Christian basilica had nothing in common with the forensic, but was called forth quite independently of any earlier style of building by the requirements of Christian worship. Now certainly on the one side the similarity had been quite unduly over-estimated. For almost everything that gave its symbolically significant character to the ecclesiastical basilica,--the transept and the form of the cross brought out by it, the bow-shaped binding of the pillars, the walls of the middle aisle resting on the pillars rising sheer into the heights, as well as the entirely new arrangement of the whole house, are the essential and independent product of the Christian spirit. But on the other hand, differences have been greatly exaggerated and features which the ecclesiastical basilica had in common with the forensic, which were demonstrably copied from the latter, have been ignored. On both sides, too, the importance for our question of the _basilicæ domesticæ_ used for worship before regular churches were built, has been overlooked. Here the peristyle with its pillared courts with the oëcus attached supplied the divisions needed for the different classes attending divine service (clergy, congregation, penitents, catechumens). What was more natural than that this form of building, brought indeed into more perfect accord with the Christian idea and congregational requirements, should be adopted in church building and with it also the name with a new application to Christ the heavenly King? But one and indeed a very essential feature in the later basilica style is wanting generally in the oëcus of private houses, viz. the Apse. One would naturally suppose that it was borrowed from the forensic basilica in consideration of its purpose there, scruples against such procedure being lessened as the heathen state passed over to Christianity. Thus too it is easily explained how the earliest basilicas, like that of Tyre consecrated in A.D. 313, of which Eusebius’ description gives us full information, have as yet no Apse.

§ 60.3. =The Cupola Style.=--We meet with the first example of the cupola style among Christian buildings in the form of Roman mausoleums in chapels or churches raised over martyrs’ graves. This style, however, was in many ways unsuitable for regular parish churches. The necessarily limited inner space embraced within the circular or polygonal walls would not admit of the significant shape of the nave being preserved; it could not be proportionally partitioned among clergy, congregation, catechumens and penitents. In an ideal point of view only the centre of the whole space was suitable for the bema with the altar, bishop’s throne, etc. In that case, however, the half of the congregation present would have to stand behind the officiating clergy and so this arrangement was not to be thought of. In the later ecclesiastical buildings, therefore, of the cupola style the ground plan of the basilica was adopted, with atrium and narthex at the west end and bema and apse at the east end. The old basilica style, though capable of so much artistic adornment, passed now indeed more and more into desuetude before the overpowering impression made upon one entering the building by the cupola (θόλος, _Cuppula_) like a cloud of heaven overspanning at a giddy height the middle space, pierced by many windows and resting on four pillars bound by arches one to another. Besides this main and complete cupola there were often a number of semi- and secondary cupolas, which gave to the whole building from without the appearance of a rich well ordered organism. The greatest masterpiece in this style, which Byzantine love of art and beauty valued far more than the simple basilica, is the church of Sophia at Constantinople (Σοφία=Λόγος), at the completion of which in A.D. 587 Justinian I. cried out: Νενίκηκά σε Σαλομών.

§ 60.4. =Accessory and Special Buildings.=--Alongside of the main building there generally were additional buildings for special purposes (ἐξέδραι), surrounded by an enclosing wall. Among these isolated extra buildings _Baptistries_ (βαπτιστήρια, φωτιστήρια) held the first rank. They were built in rotunda form after the pattern of the Roman baths. The baptismal basin (κολυμβήθρα, _Piscina_) in the middle of the inner space was surrounded by a series of pillars. In front there was frequently a roomy porch used for the instruction of catechumens. When infant baptism became general, separate baptistries were no longer needed. Their place was taken by the baptismal font in the church itself on the north side of the main entrance. For the custody of church jewels, ornaments, robes, books, archives, etc. in the larger churches there were special buildings provided. The spirit of brotherhood, the _Philadelphia_, expressed itself in the πτωχοτροφεῖα, ὀρφανοτροφεῖα, γηροκομεῖα, βρεφοτροφεῖα (Foundling Hospitals), νοσοκομεῖα, ξενοδοχεῖα. The burying ground (κοιμητήριον, _Cimeterium_, _Dormitorium_, _Area_) was also usually within the wall enclosing the church property. The privilege of burial within the church was granted only to emperors and bishops. When clocks came into vogue towers were introduced, but these were at first simply attached to the churches, occasionally even standing quite apart.

§ 60.5. =Church furniture.=--The centre of the whole house of God was the _Altar_ (ἁγία τράπεζα, θυσιαστήριον, _Ara_, _Altare_), since the 5th century commonly of stone, often overlaid with gold and silver. The altar stood out at the east end, the officiating priest behind it facing the congregation. The introduction of the _Missæ solitariæ_ (§ 58, 3) made it necessary in the West to have a large number of altars. In the Greek church the rule was to have one altar. Moveable altars, for missionaries, crusaders, etc., were necessary since the consecration of the altar had been pronounced indispensable. The Latins used for this purpose a consecrated stone plate with a cover (_Palla_); the Greeks only a consecrated altar cloth (ἀντιμήνσιον). The altar cloth was regarded as essential, a _denudatio alteris_ as impious desecration; according to liturgical rule, however, the altar was bared on Friday and Saturday of Passion Week. From the altar cloth was distinguished the _Corporale_, εἰλητόν, for covering the oblations. On the altar stood the _Ciborium_, a canopy supported by four feet, to which by a golden chain was attached a dove-shaped vessel (περιστήριον) with the consecrated sacramental elements for the communion of the sick. The _Thuribulum_ was for the burning of incense, cross for marches and processions (_Cruces stationales_) and banners (_Vexilla_). In the nave were seats for the congregation; in the narthex there were none. The pulpit or reading desk (_Pulpitum_) at first movable, afterwards permanently fixed to the railings in the middle of the bema in the basilica was called the _Ambo_ from ἀναβαίνω, or _Lectorium_, our English Lectern. In many churches two ambos were erected, on the north or left side for the gospel, and on the south or right side for the epistle. In larger churches, however, the ambo was often brought forward into the nave. Our chancel had its origin late in the Middle Ages by a separate preaching Ambo being erected beside the lectern, and raised aloft in order that the preacher might be better seen and heard.--The introduction of church clocks (_Nolæ_, _Campanulæ_, because commonly made of Campanian brass which was regarded as the best) is sometimes ascribed to bishop Paulinus of Nola in Campania, who died in A.D. 431, sometimes to Pope Sabinianus, who died in A.D. 606. In the East they were first introduced in the 9th century. In early times the hours of service were announced by _Cursores_, ἀνάδρομοι, afterwards by trumpets or beating of gongs.

§ 60.6. =The Graphic and Plastic Arts= (§ 38, 3; § 57, 4).--The Greek church forbade all nudity; only face, hands and feet could be left uncovered. This narrowness was overcome in the West. Brilliancy of colour, costliness of material and showy overloading of costume made up for artistic deficiencies. The εἰκόνες ἀχειροποίητοι afforded stereotyped forms for the countenances of images of Christ, Mary and the Apostles. The _Nimbus_, originally a soft mist or transparent cloud, with which pagan poets and painters surrounded the persons or heads of the gods, in later times also those of the Roman emperors, made its appearance during the 5th century in Christian painting as the _halo_, in the form of rays, of a diadem or of a circle, first of all in figures of Christ. Images of the Saviour bound to the cross were first introduced about the end of the 6th century. The symbol was previously restricted to the representation of a lamb at the foot of the cross, a bust of Christ at the top or in the middle of the cross, or the full figure of Christ holding His cross before Him. _Anastasius Sinaita_ in the 7th century, to show his opposition to the monophysite doctrine that only the body had been crucified, painted a figure of the crucified which straightway came to be regarded in the Eastern church as the pattern figure, without the crown of thorns, with nimbus, the wound of the spear with blood streaming forth, the cross with an inscription on both sides--JC. XC.--and a sloping peg as support for the feet, and under the cross the skull of Adam. The Western crucifix figures, on the other hand, though likewise governed by a special type, show greater freedom in artistic development. Wall or fresco painting was most extensively carried on in the Catacombs during the 4th-6th centuries. Mosaic painting, _Musivum_, λιθοστράτια, with its imperishable beauty of colouring, was used to decorate the long flat walls of the basilicas, the vaulted ceilings of the cupolas and the curving sides of the apse (glass-mosaic on a gold ground). Liturgical books were adorned with miniature figures. Sublimity came more and more to characterize ecclesiastical art; it became more majestic, dignified and dispassionate, but also stiffer and less natural. Statues seemed to the ancient church heathenish, sensuous and realistic. The Greek church at last prohibited them entirely and would not suffer even a single crucifix, but only simple crosses with a sloping transverse beam at the foot. The West had more liberal views, yet even there Christian statues were only quite isolated phenomena. There was less scruple in regard to bas-reliefs and alto-reliefs (ἀναγλυφαί) especially on sarcophagi and ecclesiastical furniture.

§ 61. LIFE, DISCIPLINE AND MORALS.[182]

When whole crowds of worldly-minded men, who only sought worldly advantages from professing Christ, were drawn into the church after the State had become Christian, the Christian life lost much of the earnestness, power and purity, by which it had conquered the old world of heathenism. More and more the church became assimilated and conformed to the world, church discipline grew more lax, and moral decay made rapid progress. Passionate contentions, quarrels and schisms among bishops and clergy filled also public life with party strife, animosity and bitterness. The immorality of the court poisoned by its example the capital and the provinces. Savagery and licentiousness grew rampant amid the devastating raids of the barbarians. Hypocrisy and bigotry speedily took the place of piety among those who strove after something higher, while the masses consoled themselves with the reflection that every man could not be a monk. But in spite of all Christianity still continued to act as a leaven. In public and civil life, in the administration of justice and the habits of the people, the Christian spirit, theoretically at least, and often also practically, was still everywhere present. The requirements of humanity and the rights of man were recognised; slavery was more and more restricted; gladiatorial shows and immoral exhibitions were abolished; the limits of proud exclusive nationality were broken through; polygamy was never tolerated, and the sanctity of marriage was insisted upon, the female sex obtained its long unacknowledged rights; benevolent institutions (§ 60, 4) flourished; and the inveterate vices of ancient paganism could at least be no longer regarded as the sound, legitimate and natural conditions and expressions of civil and social life. Even the pagan, who, adopting the profession of Christianity, remained pagan at heart, was obliged at least to submit himself to the forms and requirements of the church, to its discipline and morals. The shady side of this period is glaring enough, but a bright side and noble personages of deep piety, moral earnestness, resolute denial of self and the world, are certainly not wanting.

§ 61.1. =Church Discipline.=--The Penitential Discipline of the 3rd century (§ 39, 2) dealt only with public offences which had become common scandal. But even those who were burdened in conscience with heavy but hidden sins and thereby felt themselves excluded from church fellowship, were advised to seek deliverance from this secret excommunication by public confession of sin before the church in the form of _exomologesis_ and to submit to whatever humiliation the church should lay upon them. In presence of this hard and unreasonable demand the need must have soon become apparent of a secret and private tribunal in place of this public one, which when once introduced would soon drive the earlier out of the field. The first step in this direction was taken in the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th century in the Eastern church by the appointment of a special penitential presbytery (πρεσβ. ἐπὶ τῆς μετανοίας), who under an oath of secresy heard the confession of such sinners and laid upon them the proper penances. But when in A.D. 391, a female penitent, a married lady of good family in Constantinople, having committed adultery in the church with a deacon during her time of penance, confessed this sin also to a priestly confessor and so brought about the excommunication of the guilty deacon, the Patriarch Nectarius was obliged on account of the popular feeling excited to again abolish the whole institution and to leave to the consciences of such sinners themselves the question of partaking in the sacraments. But it was evident that this could not exclude pastoral advice and guidance by the clergy. In the West, notwithstanding the confident assertions of Socrates, we never meet with a penitential priest expressly appointed to such duties. Jerome on Matt. xvi. 19 calls it pharisaic pride in a bishop or presbyter to arrogate the judicial function of forgiving sins, “_cum apud Deum non sententia sacerdotum, sed reorum vita quæratur_.” Augustine distinguishes three kinds of penance corresponding to the three classes in the congregation.

1. The penance of catechumens; all their previous sins are atoned for by baptism.

2. The penance of believers whose venial sins (_peccata venialia_) occasioned by the universal sinfulness of human nature obtain forgiveness in daily prayer.

3. The penance of those who on account of serious actual breaches of the decalogue (_peccata gravia s. mortalia_) are punished with ecclesiastical excommunication.

In estimating the church discipline to be exacted of this last class of offenders he lays down the principle that the degree of its publicity is to be measured in accordance with the degree of publicity of the offence committed, and according to the magnitude of the scandal which it has occasioned. And when some Italian bishops demanded “_in pœnitentia, quæ a fidelibus postulatur_” the reading before the congregation of a written confession of their sin, Leo the Great forbade this extreme practice, as unevangelical as it was unreasonable, declaring that it was quite enough to confess the sin first to God and then in secret confession to the priest. But when Leo added the assertion: _divina bonitate ordinatum esse, ut indulgentia Dei nisi supplicationibus sacerdotum nequeat obtineri; et salvatorem ipsum, qui hane præpositis ecclesiæ tradidit potestatem, ut et confidentibus actionem pœnitentiæ durent, et eosdem salubri satisfactione purgatos ad communionem sacramentorum per januam reconciliationis admitterent, huic utique operi incessabiliter intervenire_,--we have here the first foundation laid of the present Roman Catholic doctrine of penance. But this _confessio secreta_ is still something very different from the later so-called Auricular Confession. Leo’s ordinance treats only of the confession of grave offences, which, if openly committed or proclaimed, would have called forth punishment from the judicial tribunal; _quibus_, says Leo, _possint legum constitutione percelli_. But still more important is the distinction that even Leo does not confer upon the priest absolute power of forgiving sin as God’s vicegerent, but only allows him to officiate as “_peccator pro delictis pœnitentium_.” Besides Leo’s view of the unconditional necessity of confession in order to obtain divine forgiveness of heinous sins by no means gained universal acceptance in the church. The opinion that it was enough to confess sins to God alone, and that confession to a priest, while helpful and wholesome, was not absolutely necessary, was universally prevalent in the East, where Chrysostom especially maintained it, and even in the West down to the time of Gratian, A.D. 1150, and Petrus [Peter] Lombardus [Lombard], † A.D. 1164, had numerous and important representatives among the teachers of the church (§ 104, 4). An important step onwards on the path opened up by Leo was taken soon after him in the West when not merely actual sins but even sinful dispositions and desires, ambition, anger, pride, lust, etc., of which Joh. Cassianus enumerates eight as _vitia principalia_, as well as the sinful thoughts springing from them, were included in the province of secret confession. A system of confession as a regular and necessary preparation for observing the sacrament did not as yet exist.--The so-called Penitential books from the 6th century afforded a guide to determine the penances to be imposed upon the penitents in the form of fasts, prayers, almsgiving, etc., according to the degree of their guilt. The first Penitential book for the Greek church is ascribed to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Joh. the Faster or Jejunator, † A.D. 595, and is entitled: Ἀκολουθία καὶ τάξις ἐπὶ τῶν ἐξομολογουμένων.[183]--Continuation § 89, 6.

§ 61.2. =Christian Marriage.=--The ecclesiastical consecration of the marriage tie (§ 39, 1) performed after, as well as before, civil marriage by mutual consent before two secular witnesses, was made more solemn by being separated from the ordinary worship and celebrated at a special week-day service (_missa pro sponsis_), and a rich ritual grew up which gradually developed itself into an independent liturgy. Into this many bridal customs hitherto despised as heathenish were introduced, the wedding ring, veiling the bride, the crowning both betrothed parties with wreaths, bridal sashes, bridal torches, bridesmaids or παράνυμφοι. The granting of the wedding ceremony was regarded as an honour which would be refused in the case of marriages not approved by the church. But neither the refusal nor the neglect of the ceremony on the part of those newly married interfered with the validity of the marriage. Charlemagne was the first in the West and Leo VI. (§ 70, 2) was the first in the East, to make the church ceremony obligatory. Marriage between free and bond, which was regarded by the state as concubinage, was regarded by the church as perfectly valid. Blood relationship by consanguinity and affinity was regarded as hindrance to marriage; artificial relationship by adoption and spiritual relationship by baptismal and confirmational sponsorship (§ 58, 1) were also hindrances. Marriage between brothers’ or sisters’ children was pronounced unbecoming by Augustine. Gregory the Great forbade it on physiological grounds, and permitted marriage only in the third or fourth degree of relationship. With gradually increasing strictness the prohibition was extended even to the seventh degree, but finally was fixed at the fourth by Innocent III. in A.D. 1215. In direct opposition to the Roman law of hereditary claims which established the degree of relationship according to the number of actual descendants, so that father and son were counted as related in the first degree to one another, brothers and sisters as in the second degree, uncle and niece or nephew as in the third, brothers’ or sisters’ children as in the fourth degree, the canon law on hindrances to marriage begins this reckoning after the withdrawal of the common parents, so that brother and sister are related in the first degree, uncle and niece in the second, etc. Several Councils of the 4th century wished to make the contracting of a second marriage occasion of church discipline; subsequently this demand was abandoned. Many canonists, however, contest even yet the legitimacy of a third marriage, and a fourth was almost universally admitted to be sinful and unallowable (§ 67, 2). The contracting of mixed marriages, with heathens, Jews or heretics, demanded penance, and was strictly forbidden by the second Trullan Council in A.D. 692. Only adultery was usually admitted as affording ground for divorce; and also for the most part, unnatural vice, murder and apostasy. The Council at Mileve in Africa in A.D. 416 for the first time forbade divorced persons marrying again, even the innocent party, and Pope Innocent I. † A.D. 417, made this prohibition applicable universally.--Continuation § 89, 4.

§ 61.3. =Sickness, Death and Burial.=--The anointing the sick with oil (Mk. vi. 13; Jas. v. 14) as means of charismatic bodily healing is met with down to the 5th century. Innocent I. put it in a decretal of A.D. 416, for the first time as a sacrament for the dispensation of spiritual blessing to the sick. But many centuries passed before the anointing of the sick was generally observed as the sacrament of Extreme Unction (§ 70, 2; 104, 5). On the other hand, the Areopagite (§ 47, 11) reckoned the anointing of the dead a sacrament. The closing of the eyes implied that death was a sleep with the hope of an awakening in the resurrection. The fraternal kiss sealed the communion of Christians even beyond the grave. The putting garlands on the corpse as expressive of victory still met with opposition. Several Synods found it necessary to forbid the absurdity of squeezing the consecrated elements into the lips of the dead or laying them in the coffin. Passionate lamentation, rending of garments, wearing sackcloth and ashes, hired mourners, cypress branches, etc., were regarded as despairing, heathenish customs. So too festivals of the dead by night were condemned, while on the contrary funeral processions by day, with torches, lamps, palm and olive branches, were in high repute. Julian and the Vandals prohibited them. In the 4th century the celebration of the Agape and Supper at the grave was still frequent. In their place afterwards we find mourning feasts, but these, on account of their being abused, were disallowed by the church.

§ 61.4. =Purgatory and Masses for Souls.=--The connection of the custom already referred to by Tertullian of not only praying in family worship for members of the family that had fallen asleep, but also by oblations of sacramental elements on the memorial days of the dead (_Oblationes pro defunctis_) of giving to the intercessions at the Supper in public worship a special direction to them, with the doctrine of =Purgatory= (_Ignis purgatorius_) which had developed itself in the West since the 5th century, gave rise to the institution of masses for souls (§ 58, 3). The idea of a place of punishment between death and the resurrection, in which the venial sins (_peccata venialia_) of believers must be atoned for, was quite unknown to the whole ancient church down to the age of Augustine and to the Greek church till even after his day (§ 67, 6). Mention is made indeed even by Origen of a future πῦρ καθάρσιον or καθαρτικόν; but he means by it a mere spiritual burning, from which even a Paul and a Peter were not exempted. In the West it was first Augustine who deduced from Matt. xii. 32, that even in the hereafter forgiveness of sins is possible, holding in accordance with 1 Cor. iii. 13-15 that it is not incredible, but yet always questionable, that many believers who took over with them into the hereafter a sinful connection with their earthly past life, might there he purified by an “_ignis purgatorius_” of longer or shorter duration as the continuation and completion of the earthly “_ignis tribulationis_,” fiery trial, from the earthly dross still adhering to them, and so might be saved. With greater confidence _Cæsarius of Arles_ teaches that believers who during their earthly life had neglected to atone for their minor offences by almsgiving and other good works, must be purified by a lingering fire in the next world, in order to win admission into eternal blessedness. Finally, Gregory the Great raised this idea into an established dogma of the Western church, while he, at the same time, taught that by the intercession of the living for the dead, and especially by the sacrifices of the mass offered for them their purgatorial pains would be moderated and curtailed. He too referred to Matt. xii. and 1 Cor. iii. The reference to 2 Maccabees xii. 41-46 belongs to a later period.--Continuation, § 106, 2, 3.

§ 62. HERETICAL REFORMERS.

During the 4th century a spirit of opposition to the dominant ecclesiastical system was awakened, but as it manifested itself in isolated forms, it had no abiding result and was soon stamped out. This spirit showed itself in various attempts which passed beyond what evangelical principles could vindicate. It directed its attacks partly against the secularization of the church, branching out often into wild fanaticism and rigorism, and partly against superstition and externalism. Disgusted with the interminable theological controversies and heresy huntings of that age, many came to regard the distinction between orthodoxy and heresy as a matter of indifference so far as religion is concerned, and to look for the core and essence of Christianity not so much in doctrine as in morals.

§ 62.1. =Audians and Apostolics.=--As fanatical opponents of the secularizing of the church, besides the Montanists (§ 40, 1) and the Novatians (§ 41, 3) still surviving as isolated communities down to the 5th century, we meet during the 4th century with the Donatists (§ 63, 1), the Audians and the Apostolics. The sect of the =Audians= was founded about A.D. 340 by a layman, a monk, Audius or Udo from Mesopotamia. Having been challenged for his crude anthropomorphic views, in support of which he referred to Gen. i. 26 and other passages, he allowed himself to be chosen and ordained bishop over his adherents. Placed thus in a directly hostile relation to the Catholic church, they accused the church of most arrant worldliness and degeneracy, called for a return to apostolic poverty and avoided all communion with its members. They also rejected the Nicene canon on the observance of Easter and adopted the quartodeciman practice (§ 56, 3). On the motion of several Catholic bishops the emperor banished the founder of the sect to Scythia, where he laboured earnestly for the conversion of the Goths, founded also some bishoprics and monasteries with strict rules, and died in A.D. 372. The persecution of the Christians under Athanaric, in A.D. 370 (§ 76, 1), pressed sorely upon the Audians. Still remnants of them continued to exist down to the end of the 5th century.--The so-called =Apostolics= of Asia Minor in the 4th century went even further than the Audians. Of their origin nothing certain is known. They declared that the holding of private property and marriage are sinful, and unconditionally refused readmission to all excommunicated persons.

§ 62.2. =Protests against Superstition and External Observances.=--About the end of the 4th century lively protests were made against the superstitions and shallow externalism of the church. They were directed first of all to the worship of Mary, especially the now wide-spread belief in her _perpetua virginitas_ as mother of Jesus (§ 57, 2). The first protesters against this doctrine that we meet with are the so-called =Antidicomarianites= in Arabia, whom Epiphanius sought to turn from their heresy by a doctrinal epistle incorporated in his history of heresies. In the West too there sprang up several opponents of this dogma of the church. One of the most prominent of these was a layman =Helvidius= in Rome in A.D. 380, a scholar of Auxentius, the Arian bishop of Milan. Then about A.D. 388 the Roman monk =Jovinian= opposed on substantial doctrinal grounds the prevailing notions about the merit of works and external observances, especially monasticism, asceticism, celibacy and fasting. And finally, =Bonosus=, bishop of Sardica, about A.D. 390, wrought in the same direction, though at a later period he seems to have given his adhesion to the Ebionite error that Jesus had been an ordinary man whom God adopted as His Son on account of His merit (_Filius Dei adoptivus_). At least his younger contemporary Marius Mercator describes him as an advocate of these views alongside of Paul of Samosata and Photinus. We also find many allusions during the 7th century to a sect of Bonosians teaching similar doctrines in Spain and Gaul, who are frequently associated with the Photinians. Even before Jovinian, =Aërius=, a presbyter of Sebaste in Armenia, about A.D. 360, entered his protest against the doctrine of the merit of external observances. He objected to prayer and oblations for the dead, would have no compulsory fasting, and no distinction of rank between bishops and presbyters. In this way he was brought into collision with his bishop Eustathius (§ 44, 3). Persecuted on all sides, his adherents betook themselves to the caves and forests. The two monks of Milan, Sarmatio and Barbatianus, about A.D. 396, were perhaps scholars of Jovinian, were at least of the same mind with him. Finally, =Vigilantius=, presbyter at Barcelona about A.D. 400, with passionate violence opposed the veneration of relics, the invocation of saints, the prevailing love of miracles, the vigil services, the celibacy of the clergy and the merit of outward observances.--The counterblast of the church was hot and violent. Epiphanius wrote against the Audians and Aërians; Ambrose against Bonosus and the followers of Jovinian; Jerome with unparalleled bitterness and passion against Helvidius, Jovinian and Vigilantius; Augustine with greater moderation discussed the views of Jovinian which in their starting point were related to his own soteriological views.[184]

§ 62.3. =Protests against the Over-Estimation of Doctrine.=--Even in the times of Athanasius a certain Rhetorius made his appearance with the assertion that all heretics had a right to their opinion, and Philastrius [Philaster] speaks of a sect of =Rhetorians= in Egypt who, perhaps with a reference to Phil. i. 18, set aside altogether the idea of heresy and placed the essence of orthodoxy in fidelity to convictions. The =Gnosimachians= were related to them in the depreciation of dogma, but went beyond them by wholly withdrawing themselves from the domain of dogmatics and occupying themselves exclusively with morals. They are put in the list of heretics by Joh. Damascenus. This sect had sprung up during the monophysite and monothelite controversies, and maintained that since God requires of a Christian nothing more than a righteous life (πράξεις καλάς), all striving after theoretical knowledge is useless and fruitless.

§ 63. SCHISMS.

The Novatian and the Alexandrian Meletian Schisms (§ 41, 3, 4) continued to rage down into our period. Then in consequence of the Arian controversy there arose among the orthodox three new schisms (§ 50, 8). Among them was a Roman schism, followed later by several others that grew out of double elections (§ 46, 4, 6, 8, 11). The most threatening of all the schisms of this period was the Donatist in North Africa. On the Johannite schism in Constantinople, see § 51, 3. Owing to various diversities in the development of doctrine (§ 50, 7), constitution (§ 46), worship (§ 56 ff.), and discipline (§ 61, 1), material was accumulating for the grand explosion that was to burst up the connection of East and West (§ 67). The imperial union attempts during the Monophysite controversy caused a thirty-five years’ schism between the two halves of the Christian world (§ 52, 5), and want of character in the Roman bishop Vigilius split off the West for half a century (§ 52, 6). The split between the East and West over the union with the Monothelite party (§ 52, 8) was soon indeed overcome. But soon thereafter the second Trullan Council at Constantinople, A.D. 692, which, as the continuation of the 5th and 6th œcumenical Councils (σύνοδος πενθέκτη, _Concilium quinisextum_), occupied itself exclusively with questions of constitution, worship, and discipline, which had not there been discussed, gave occasion to the later incurable and disastrous schism.

§ 63.1. =The Donatist Schism, A.D. 311-415.=--In North Africa, where echoes of the Montanist enthusiasm were still heard, many voluntarily and needlessly gave themselves up to martyrdom during the Diocletian persecution. The sensible bishop of Carthage Mensurius and his archdeacon Cæcilian [Cæcilius] opposed this fanaticism. Both had given up heretical books instead of the sacred books demanded of them. This was sufficient to make the opposite party denounce them as _traditores_. Mensurius died in A.D. 311, and his followers chose Cæcilian [Cæcilius] as his successor, and had him hastily ordained by bishop Felix of Aptunga, being sorely pressed by the machinations of the other party. The opposition, with a bigoted rich widow Lucilla at its head, denounced Felix as a traditor, and so treated his ordination as invalid. It put up a rival bishop in the person of the reader Majorinus, who soon got, in A.D. 313, a more powerful successor in Donatus, called by his own followers the Great. The schism spread from Carthage over all North Africa. The peasants, sorely oppressed by exorbitant taxes and heavy villeinage, took the side of the Donatists (_Pars Donati_). Constantine the Great at the very first declared himself against them. When they complained of this, the emperor convened for the purpose of special investigation a clerical commission at Rome in A.D. 313, under the presidency of the Roman bishop Melchiades, and then a great Western Synod at Arles in A.D. 314. Both decided against the Donatists. They appealed to the immediate decision of the emperor, who also heard the two parties at Milan, but decided in accordance with previous judgments in A.D. 316. Now followed severe measures, taking churches from them and banishing their bishops which powerfully excited and increased their fanaticism. Constantine resorted therefore to milder and more tolerant procedure, but in their fanatical zeal they repudiated all compromises. Under Constans the matter became still more formidable. Ascetics mad with enthusiasm, drawn from the very dregs of the people, who called themselves _Milites Christi_, _Agonistici_, swarmed as beggars through the country, _Circumcelliones_, roused the oppressed peasants to revolt, preached freedom and fraternity, forced masters to do the work of slaves, robbed, murdered, and burned. Political revolution was carried on under the cover of a religious movement. An imperial army put down the revolt, and an attempt was made in A.D. 348 to pacify the needy Donatists by imperial gold. But Donatus flung back the money with indignation, and the rebellion was renewed. A severe sentence was now passed upon the heads of the party, and all Donatist churches were closed or taken from them. Julian restored the churches and recalled the exiled bishops. He allowed the Donatists with impunity to take violent revenge upon the Catholics. Julian’s successor however again issued strict laws against the sectaries, and schisms arose among themselves. Toward the end of the 4th century bishop Optatus of Mileve opposed them in his treatise _De Schismate Donatistarum Ll. VII._ In A.D. 400 Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius, began his unwearied attacks upon this sect. The mildest terms were offered to induce the Donatists to return to the church. Many of the more moderate took advantage of the opportunity; but this only made the others all the more bitter. They refused repeated invitations to a discussion, fearing Augustine’s masterly dialectic. Augustine, who at first maintained that force should not be used in matters of faith, was moved by the persistent stiffneckedness and senseless fanaticism of his opponents to change his opinion, and to confess that in order to restore such heretics to the church, to salvation, recourse must be had to violent compulsion (_coge intrare_, Lk. xiv. 23). A synod at Carthage in A.D. 405 called upon the Emperor Honorius to take proceedings against this stiffnecked sect. He did so by imposing fines, banishing their clergy, and taking their churches. Augustine renewed the challenge to a public disputation. The Donatists were at last compelled by the emperor to enter the lists. Thus came about the three days’ _Collatio cum Donatistis_ of A.D. 411 at Carthage. There appeared 279 Donatist and 286 Catholic bishops. Petilian and Primian were the chief speakers on the side of the Donatists, Augustine and Aurelian of Carthage on the other. The imperial commissioner assigned the victory to the Catholics. In vain the Donatists appealed. In A.D. 414 the Emperor declared that they had forfeited all civil rights, and in A.D. 415 he threatened all who attended their meetings with death. The Vandals, who conquered Africa in A.D. 429, persecuted Catholics and Donatists alike, and a common need furthered their reconciliation and secured a good mutual understanding.--The Donatists started from the principle that no one who is excommunicated or deserves to be excommunicated is fit for the performance of any sacramental action. With the Novatians they demanded the absolute purity of the church, but admitted that repentance was a means for regaining church fellowship. They maintained that they were the pure and the Catholics were schismatics, who had nothing in common with Christ, whose administration of the sacraments was therefore invalid and useless, so that they even rebaptized those who had Catholic baptism. The partiality of the state for their opponents and confused blending of the ideas of the visible and invisible church led them to adopt the view that church and state, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world, had nothing in common with one another, and that the state should not interfere in religious matters.

§ 63.2. =The _Concilium Quinisextum_, A.D. 692.=--This Council claimed to be regarded as œcumenical and was recognised as such even by Pope Sergius I. The Greeks had not yet got over their vexation at the triumph which Rome had won at the last œcumenical Council (§ 52, 8). It thus happened that among the multitude of harmless decrees the following six were smuggled in which were in flat contradiction to the Roman practice.

1. In enumerating the sources of the canon law alone valid almost all the Latin Councils and Papal Decretals were omitted, and the whole 85 _Canones Apostt._ (§ 43, 4) included, whereas Rome had pronounced only the first 50 valid.

2. The Roman custom of enforcing celibacy on presbyters and bishops is condemned as unjustifiable and inhuman (§ 45, 2).

3. Fasting on the Saturdays of the Quadragesima is forbidden (§ 56, 4).

4. The 28th Canon of the Council of Chalcedon which makes the patriarch of Constantinople equal to the bishop of Rome is repeated and anew enforced (§ 46, 1, 7).

5. The Levitical prohibition against blood and things strangled is sanctioned as still binding upon Christians, although it had never been enforced by the Roman church.

6. Images of Christ in the shape of a lamb, which were very common in the West, were forbidden. The papal legates subscribed the decrees of the Council; but the Pope forbade their publication in all the churches of the West. Compare further § 46, 11.

VI. THE CHURCH OUTSIDE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.[185]

§ 64. MISSIONARY OPERATIONS IN THE EAST.

The real missionarizing church of this period was the Western (§ 75 ff.). It was pre-eminently fitted for this by its practical tendency and called to it by its intimate connection with the hordes of the migrating peoples. Examples of organized missionary activity in the East are rare. Yet other more occasional ways were opened for the spread of Christianity outside of the empire, by Christian fugitives and prisoners of war, political embassies and trade associations. Anchorets, monks and stylites, too, who settled on the borders of the empire or in deserts outside, by their extraordinary appearance made a powerful impression on the surrounding savage tribes. These streamed in in crowds, and those strange saints preached Christ to them by word and work.

§ 64.1. =The Ethiopic-Abyssinian Church.=[186]--About A.D. 316 a certain Meropius of Tyre on a voyage of discovery to the countries south of Egypt was murdered with his whole ship’s company. Only his two nephews Frumentius and Aedesius were spared. They won the favour of the Abyssinian king and became the tutors of the heir apparent, Aizanas. Frumentius was subsequently, in A.D. 438, ordained by Athanasius bishop of the country. Aizanas was baptised, the church spread rapidly from Abyssinia to Ethiopia and Numidia. A translation of the bible into the Geez dialect, the language of the country, is attributed to Frumentius. Closely connected with the Egyptian mother church, it fell with it into Monophysitism (§ 52, 7). In worship and discipline, besides much that is primitive, it has borrowed many things from Judaism, and retained many of the old habits of the country, _e.g._ observing the Sabbath alongside of the Sunday, forbidding certain meats, circumcision, covenanting. Their canon comprised 81 books: besides the biblical, there are 16 patristic writings of the Pre-Chalcedonian age.

§ 64.2. =The Persian Church.=--The church had taken root in Persia as early as the 3rd century. With the 4th century there came a sore time of bloody persecution, which was constantly fed partly by the fanatical Magians, partly by the almost incessant wars with the Christian Roman empire, which aroused suspicion of foreign sympathies hostile to the country. The first great and extensive persecution of the Christians broke out in A.D. 343 under Shapur or Sapores [Sapor] II. It lasted 35 years and during this dreadful time 16,000 of the clergy, monks and nuns were put to death, but the number of martyrs from the laity was far beyond reckoning. Only shortly before his death Shapur [Sapor] stopped the persecution and proclaimed universal religious toleration. During 40 years’ rest the Persian church attained to new vigour; but the fanaticism of Bishop Abdas of Susa who caused a fire-temple to be torn down in A.D. 418, occasioned a new persecution, which reached its height in A.D. 420 under Bahram or Baranes V. and was carried on for 30 years with the most fiendish ingenuity of cruel tortures. The generosity of a Christian bishop, Acacius of Amida in Mesopotamia, who by the sale of the church property redeemed a multitude of Persian prisoners of war and sent them to their homes, at last moved the king to stop the persecution. The Nestorians driven from the Roman empire found among the Persians protection and toleration, but were the occasion under king Firuz or Peroz of a new persecution of the Catholics, A.D. 465. In A.D. 498 the whole Persian church declared in favour of Nestorianism (§ 52, 3), and enjoyed forthwith undisturbed toleration, developed to an unexpected extent, retained its bloom for centuries, gave itself zealously to scientific studies in the seminaries at Nisibis, and undertook successfully mission work among the Asiatic tribes. The war with the Byzantines continued without interruption. Chosroes II. advanced victoriously as far as Chalcedon in A.D. 616 and persecuted with renewed cruelty the Catholic Christians of the conquered provinces. Finally the emperor Heraclius plucked up courage. By the utter rout of A.D. 628 the power of the Persians was broken (§ 57, 5), and in A.D. 651 the Khalifs overthrew the dynasty of the Sassanidæ.

§ 64.3. =The Armenian Church.=--There were flourishing Christian churches in Armenia so early as Tertullian’s time. The Arsacian ruler Tiridates III., from A.D. 286, was a violent persecutor of the Christians. During his reign, however, Gregory the Illuminator, the Apostle of Armenia, carried on his successful labours. He was the son of a Parthian prince, who, snatched when a child of two years’ old by his nurse from the midst of a massacre of his whole family, received in Cappadocia a Christian training. In A.D. 302 he succeeded in winning over to Christianity the king and the whole country. He left behind him the church which he thus founded in a most prosperous condition. His grandson Husig, his great grandson Nerses I. and his son Isaac the Great held possession of the patriarchal dignity and flourished even in the hard times, when Byzantines, Arsacides, and Sassanidæ fought for possession of the country. Mesrop, with the help of Isaac, whose successor he became in A.D. 440 (dying in A.D. 441), gave to his church a translation of the bible into their own tongue, for which he had to invent a national alphabet. Under his successor, the patriarch Joseph, the famous religious war with the Persian Sassanidæ broke out, who wished to lead back the Armenians to the doctrine of Zoroaster. In the fierce battle at the river Dechmud in A.D. 451 the holy league was defeated. But Armenia still maintained amid sore persecution its Christian confession. In A.D. 651 the overthrow of the Sassanidæ brought it under the rule of the Khalifs.--The Armenian church had vigorously and earnestly warded off Nestorianism, but willingly opened its arms to Monophysitism introduced from Byzantine Armenia. At a synod at Feyin, in A.D. 527, it condemned the Chalcedonian dogma.--Gregory the Illuminator had excited among the Armenians an exceedingly lively interest in culture and science, and when Mesrop gave them an independent system of writing, the golden age of Armenian literature dawned (the 5th century). Not only were many works of classical and patristic Greek and Syrian literature made the property of the Armenians through translations, but numerous writers built up a literature of their own. The history of the conversion of Armenia was written in the 4th century by Agathangelos, private secretary of the king. Whether this was composed in Greek or in Armenian is doubtful; both texts are still extant, evidently much interpolated with fabulous matter and also in many points conflicting with one another. In the 5th century Eznik in his “Overthrow of Heretics” addressed a vigorous polemic against pagans, Persians, Marcionites and Manichæans. Moses of Chorene, also a scholar of Mesrop, composed from the archives a history of Armenia, and Elisaeus described the Armeno-Persian religious war, in which, as secretary of the Armenian commander in chief, he had taken part. On the service done by the Mechitarists to the old Armenian literature, see § 164, 2.[187]

§ 64.4. =The Iberians=, in what is now called Georgia and Grusia, received Christianity about A.D. 326 through an Armenian female slave Nunia, whose prayer had healed many sick. The church then extended from Iberia to the =Lazians= in what is now Colchias and among the neighbouring =Abasgians=. In =India= Theophilus of Diu (an island of the Arabian Gulf?) found in the middle of the 4th century several isolated Christian communities. He was sent by his fellow-citizens as hostage to Constantinople and there was educated for the Arian priesthood. He then returned home and carried on a successful mission among the Indians. The relations of the Indian to the Persian church led to the former becoming affected with Nestorianism (§ 52, 3). Cosmas Indicopleustes (§ 48, 2) found in the 6th century three Christian churches still surviving in India. Theophilus also wrought in =Arabia=. He succeeded in converting the king of the Himyarite kingdom at Yemen. In the 6th century, however, a Jew Dhu-Nowas obtained for himself the sovereignty of Yemen and persecuted the Christians with unheard of barbarity. At last Eleesban king of Abyssinia interfered; the crowned Jew was slain, and from that time Yemen had Christian kings till the Persian Chosroes II. made it a Persian province in A.D. 616. Anchorets, monks and stylites wrought successfully among the Arab nomadic hordes.

§ 65. THE COUNTER-MISSION OF THE MOHAMMEDANS.[188]

Abu Al’ Kasem Mohammed from Mecca made his appearance as a prophet in A.D. 611, and founded a mixed religion of arid Monotheism and sensual Endæmonism drawn from Judaism, Christianity and Arabian paganism. His work first gained importance when driven from Mecca he fled to Medina (Hejira, 15th July, A.D. 622). In A.D. 630 he conquered Mecca, consecrated the old Heathen Kaaba as the chief temple of the new religion, Islam (hence Moslems), and composed the Coran, consisting of 114 suras, which had been collected by his father-in-law, Abu Bekr. At his death all Arabia had accepted his faith and his rule. As he made it the most sacred duty of his adherents to spread the new religion by the sword and had inspired them with a wild fanaticism, his successors snatched one province after another from the Roman empire and the Christian church. Within a few years, A.D. 633-651, they conquered all Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Persia, then, in A.D. 707, North Africa, and, in A.D. 711, Spain. Farther, however, they could not go for the present. Twice they unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople, A.D. 669-676, and A.D. 717-718, and, in A.D. 732, Charles Martel at Tours completely crushed all their hopes of extending further into the West. But the whole Asiatic church was already reduced by their oppressions to the most miserable condition, and three patriarchates, those of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, were forced to submit to their caprices. Amid manifold oppressions the Christians in those conquered lands were tolerated on the payment of a tax, but fear and an eye to worldly advantages led whole crowds of nominal Christians to profess Islam.

§ 65.1. =The Fundamental Principle of Islam= is an arid Monotheism. Abraham, Moses and Jesus are regarded as God-sent prophets. The miraculous birth of Jesus, by a virgin, is also accepted, and Mary is identified with Miriam the sister of Moses. The ascension of Christ is also received. Mohammed, the last and highest of all the prophets, of whom Moses and Christ prophesied, has restored to its original purity his doctrine, which had been corrupted by Jews and Christians. At the end of the days Christ will come again to conquer Antichrist and give universal sovereignty to Islam. Most conspicuous among the corruptions of the doctrine of Jesus is the dogma of the Trinity, which is without more ado pronounced Tritheism, and conceived of as including the mother of Jesus as the third person. So too the incarnation of God is regarded as a falsification. The doctrine of divine providence is strongly emphasized, but is contorted into the grossest fatalism. The Mussulman is in need of no atonement. Faith in the one God and His prophet Mohammed secure for him the divine favour, and his good works win for him the most abundant fulness of eternal blessedness, which consists in absolutely unrestricted sensual enjoyments. The constitution is theocratic; the prophet and his successors the Khalifs are God’s vicegerents on earth. Worship is restricted to prayers, fastings and washings. The Sunna or tradition of oral utterances of the prophet is acknowledged as a second principal source for Islam, alongside of the Coran. The opposition of the Shiites to the Sunnites is rooted in the non-recognition of the first three Khalifs and the prophet’s utterances only witnessed to by them. Mysticism was first fostered among the Ssufis. The Wechabites, who first appear in the 12th century, are the Puritans of Islam.

§ 65.2. =The Providential Place of Islam.=--The service under Providence rendered by Mohammedanism which first attracts attention is the doom which it executed upon the debased church and state of the East. But it seems also to have had a positive task which must be sought mainly in its relation to heathenism. It regarded the abolition of idolatry as its principal task. Neither the prophet nor his successors gave any toleration to paganism. Islam converted a mass of savage races in Asia and Africa from the most senseless and immoral idolatries to the worship of the one God, and raised them to a certain stage of culture and morality to which they could never have risen of themselves. But also upon yet another side, though only in a passing way, it has served a providential purpose, in spurring on mediæval Christianity by its example of devotion to scientific pursuits. Syncretic, as its religious and intellectual life originally was, during its flourishing period from A.D. 750, under the brilliant dynasty of the Abassidean Khalifs at Bagdad in Asia, and from A.D. 756 (comp. § 81) under the no less brilliant dynasty of the Ommaiadean Khalifs at Cordova in Spain, driven out by the Abassidæ from Damascus, it readily appropriated the elements of culture which the classical literature of the ancient Greeks afforded it (§ 42, 4), and with youthful enthusiasm its scholars for centuries on this foundation kept alive and advanced scientific studies--philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, natural science, medicine, geography, history--and by their appropriation of those researches the Latin Middle Ages reached to the height of their scientific culture (§ 103, 1). But also the reawakening of classical studies in the Byzantine Middle Ages (§ 68, 1), which is of still more importance for the West (§ 120, 1), is preeminently due to the impetus given by the scientific enthusiasm of the Moslems of Bagdad, who shamed the Greeks into the study of their own literature. With the overthrow of those two dynasties, the culture period of the Moslems closed suddenly and for ever, but not until it had accomplished its task for the Christian world.[189]

THIRD SECTION.

HISTORY OF THE GRÆCO-BYZANTINE CHURCH IN THE 8TH-15TH CENTURIES (A.D. 692-1453).

I. Developments of the Greek Church in Combination with the Western.

§ 66. ICONOCLASM OF THE BYZANTINE CHURCH (A.D. 726-842).[190]

The worship of images (§ 57, 4) had reached its climax in the East in the beginning of the 8th century. Even the most zealous defenders of images had to admit that there had been exaggerations and abuses. Some, _e.g._, had taken images as their godfathers, scraped paint off them to mix in the communion wine, laid the consecrated bread first on the images so as to receive the body of the Lord from their hands, etc. A powerful Byzantine ruler, who was opposed to image worship from personal dislike as well as on political grounds, applied the whole strength of his energetic will to the uprooting of this superstition. Thus arose a struggle that lasted more than a hundred years between the enemies of images (εἰκονοκλάσται) and the friends of images (εἰκονολάτραι), in which there stood, on the one side, the emperor and the army, on the other, the monks and the people. Twice it seemed as if image worship had been completely and for ever stamped out; but on both occasions a royal lady secured its restoration. In practice indeed the Roman church remained behind the Greek, but in theory they were agreed, and in the struggle it gave the whole weight of its authority to the friends of images. On the part taken by the Frankish church, see § 92, 1.

§ 66.1. =Leo III., the Isaurian, A.D. 717-741.=--Leo, who was one of the most powerful of the Byzantine emperors, after the attack of the Saracens on Constantinople, in A.D. 718, had been successfully repelled, felt himself obliged to take other measures against the aggressions of Islam. In the worship of images abhorred by Jews and Moslems he perceived the greatest obstacle to their conversion, and, being personally averse to image worship, he issued an edict, in A.D. 726, which first ordered the images to be placed higher in the churches that it might be impossible for the people to kiss them. But the peaceable overcoming of this deeply rooted form of devotion was frustrated by the unconquerable firmness of the ninety-year old patriarch Germanus in Constantinople, as well as by the opposition of the people and the monks. The greatest dogmatist of this age, Joh. Damascenus, who was secured from the rage of the emperor in Palestine under Saracen rule, issued three spirited tracts in defence of the images. A certain Cosmas took advantage of a popular rising in the Cyclades, had himself proclaimed emperor and went with a fleet against Constantinople. But Leo conquered and had him executed, and now in a second edict of A.D. 730 ordered all images to be removed from the churches. Now began a war against images by military force, which went to great excess in fanatical violence. Repeated popular tumults were quelled in blood. Only in Rome and North Italy did the powerful arm of the emperor make no impression. Pope Gregory II., A.D. 715-731, treated him in his letters like a stupid, ill-mannered school-boy. In proportion as the bitterness against the emperor increased enthusiasm for the pope increased, and gave expression to itself in the most vehement revolts against the imperial Council. A great part of the exarchate (§ 46, 9) surrendered voluntarily to the Longobards and so much of it in the north as remained with the emperor proved more obedient to the pope than to the sovereign. Gregory III., A.D. 731-741, at a Synod in Rome in A.D. 731 excommunicated all enemies of images. The emperor fitted out a powerful fleet to chastise him, but a storm broke it up. He now deprived the pope of all his revenues from Southern Italy, severed Illyria (§ 46, 5) in A.D. 732 from the papal chair and gave it to the patriarch of Constantinople, but in doing so he cut the last cord that bound the Roman chair to the interests of the Byzantine Court (§ 82, 1).

§ 66.2. =Constantine V. A.D. 741-775.=--To the son and successor of Leo the monks gave the unsavoury names of Copronymus and Caballinus in token of their hatred, the latter on account of his love of horses, the former because it was said that at his baptism he had defiled the water. He was like his father a powerful ruler and soldier, and in the battle against images yet more reckless and determined. He conquered his brother-in-law who had rebelled with the aid of the friends of the images, and caused him to be cruelly treated and blinded. As popular tumults still continued, he thought to get ecclesiastical sanction for his principles from an œcumenical Council. About 350 bishops assembled in Constantinople, A.D. 754. But, as the chair of Constantinople had just become vacant, while Rome, which had excommunicated the enemies of images, refused to answer the summons, and Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem were under Saracen rule, there was not a single patriarch present at the Synod. The Council excommunicated all who made images of Christ, for it declared that the Supper was the only true image of Christ, and condemned every kind of veneration of images. These decrees were now relentlessly carried out with savage violence. Thousands of monks were scourged, imprisoned, banished, chased through the circus with nuns in their arms for the sport of the people, or forced into marriage, many had their eyes gouged out, or had their nose or ears cut off, and the monasteries were turned into barracks or stables. Even in private houses no image of a saint was any longer to be seen. From Rome Stephen II. protested against the decisions of the Council, and Stephen III. from a Lateran Synod of A.D. 769 thundered a fearful anathema against the enemies of images. But in the Byzantine empire monkery and image worship were well nigh extinguished.

§ 66.3. =Leo IV., Chazarus, A.D. 775-780.=--The son of Constantine was of the same mind with his father, but wanted his energy. His wife =Irene= was an eager friend of the images. When the emperor discovered this, he began to take active measures, but his suspiciously sudden death put a stop to operations. Irene now used the freedom which the minority of her son Constantine VI. afforded her for the introduction of image worship. She called a new Council at Constantinople in A.D. 786, which also Hadrian I. of Rome attended, while the other patriarchs, being under Saracen rule, took no part in it. But the imperial guard attacked the place where they were sitting, and broke up the Council. Irene now arranged for the =Seventh Œcumenical Council at Nicæa, A.D. 787=. The eighth and last session was held in the imperial palace at Constantinople, after the guards had been withdrawn from the city and disarmed. The Council annulled the decisions of A.D. 754, and sanctioned image worship for it allowed the bowing and prostration before the images (τιμητικὴ προσκύνησις) as a token of the reverence which was due to the original, and declared that this in no way interfered with that worship (λατρεία) which was due to God alone.[191]

§ 66.4. The next emperors were friendly to image worship, but the victory had departed from their standards. Then the army, which had always been hostile to images, proclaimed =Leo V., the Armenian, A.D. 813-820=, emperor, an avowed opponent of images. He proceeded very cautiously, but the soldiers set aside his prudence and launched out into violent raids against images. At the head of the patrons of images was Theodorus Studita, abbot of the monastery of Studion (§ 44, 2), a man of unfeigned piety and unfaltering decision of character, the most acute apologist of image worship, who had even in exile been eagerly promoting the interests of his party. He died in A.D. 826. Leo lost his life at the hand of conspirators. His successor, =Michael II., Balbus, A.D. 820-829=, allowed at least that images should be reverenced in private. His son =Theophilus, A.D. 829-842=, on the other hand, made it the business of his life to root out entirely every trace of image worship. But his wife =Theodora=, who after his death conducted the government as regent, had it formally reintroduced by a Synod at Constantinople in A.D. 842. Since then all opposition to it has ceased in the Greek church, and the day of the Synodal decision, 19th February, was appointed a standing festival of orthodoxy.

§ 67. DIVISION BETWEEN GREEK AND ROMAN CHURCHES AND ATTEMPTS AT UNION, A.D. 857-1453.[192]

The second Trullan Council in A.D. 692 had given the first occasion to the great schism which rent the Christian world into two halves (§ 63, 2); Photius gave it a doctrinal basis in A.D. 867; and Michael Cærularius in A.D. 1053 completed its development. The increasing need of the Byzantine government drove it to make repeated attempts at reconciliation, but these either were never concluded or the union, if at all completed, proved a mere paper union. The Sisyphus labour of union efforts ended only with the overthrow of the Byzantine empire in A.D. 1453. The three stages referred to--the early misunderstandings, the avowed doctrinal divergence, and the final decisive separation--as well as the persistent rejection of attempts at reunion, were not wholly owing to the importance of ceremonial differences. After as well as before there had been free church communion between them. It was not owing to the importance of the almost solitary point of doctrinal difference between them, in reference to the _filioque_ (§ 50, 7), where if there had been good will a common understanding might easily have been won. It was really the papal claims to the primacy to which the Greeks absolutely refused to submit.

§ 67.1. =Foundation of the Schism, A.D. 867.=--During the minority of the emperor Michael III., son of Theodora (§ 66, 4), surnamed the Drunkard, his uncle Bardas, Theodora’s brother, directed the government. Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople at that time, himself descended from the imperial family, lashed severely the godless, vicious life of the court, and in A.D. 857 kept back from the communion the all-powerful Bardas, who lived in incestuous intercourse with his own daughter-in-law. He was then deposed and banished. =Photius=, the most learned man of his age, previously commander of the imperial bodyguard, was raised to the vacant chair, and inherited the hatred of all the friends of Ignatius. He made proposals of agreement which were proudly and scornfully rejected. He then held a Synod in A.D. 859, which confirmed the deposition of Ignatius and excommunicated him. But nothing in the world could make his party abandon his claims. Now Photius wished to be able to lay in the scales the Roman bishop’s approval of his questionable proceedings. He therefore laid an account of matters highly favourable to himself before Pope =Nicholas I.=, and sought his brotherly love and intercessions. The pope answered that he must first examine the whole affair. His two legates, Rhodoald of Porto and Zacharias of Anagni, were bribed and at a Council at Constantinople in A.D. 861 gave their consent to the deposition of Ignatius. Nicholas, however, had other reporters. He excommunicated his own legates and pronounced Ignatius the lawful patriarch. Bitterness of feeling reached its height in Constantinople, when soon thereafter the Bulgarians broke their connection with the Byzantine mother church and submitted to the pope (§ 73, 3). Photius now by an Encyclica of A.D. 866 called the patriarchs of the East to a Council at Constantinople, and charged the Roman church with the most extreme heresies; that it enjoined fasting on Saturday (§ 56, 1), allowed milk, butter and cheese to be eaten during the first week of the Quadragesima (§ 56, 7), did not acknowledge married priests (§ 45, 2), did not prohibit the clergy from shaving the beard (§ 45, 1), pronounced anointing by a presbyter invalid (§ 35, 4), but above all, that by the addition of the _filioque_ (§ 50, 7) it had falsified the creed, recognising thus two principles and so falling back into dualism. With such heresies too the pope had now infected the Bulgarians. The meeting of the Council took place in A.D. 867. Three monks, tutored by Photius, represented the patriarchs under Saracen rule. Excommunication and deposition were hurled against the pope, and this sentence was communicated to the Western churches. The pope was evidently alarmed. He justified himself before the Frankish clergy and insisted that they should answer the charges of the Greeks in a scholarly reply. This was done by several, most ably by Ratramnus, monk at Corbie. But during that year, A.D. 867, the emperor Michael was murdered. His murderer and successor Basil the Macedonian undertook the patronage of the party of Ignatius, and asked of Pope Hadrian II. a new investigation and decision. A =Synod at Constantinople, A.D. 869=, counted by the Latins the 8th œcumenical, condemned Photius and restored Ignatius. The deciding about the Bulgarians, however, was not committed to the Council but to the reputed representatives of the Saracen patriarchs as impartial umpires. They naturally decided in favour of the Byzantine patriarch. In vain the legates remonstrated. Photius in other respects under misfortune displays a character worthy of our esteem. For several years he languished without company, without books, under the strictest monastic rules. Yet he reconciled himself to Ignatius. Basil entrusted him with the education of his children, and on the death of Ignatius in A.D. 878, restored him to the patriarchate. But still the ban of an œcumenical Council lay upon him. Only a new œcumenical Council could vindicate him. John VIII. agreed to this against the remonstrances of the Bulgarians. But at the ninth =Council at Constantinople, A.D. 879=, the eighth according to the Greeks, the papal legates were completely duped. There was no mention of the Bulgarians, the Council of A.D. 869 was repudiated, and every one excommunicated who dared add anything to the creed. The pope afterwards indeed launched an anathema against the patriarch, his Council, and his followers. The succeeding emperor, Leo the Philosopher, A.D. 886-911, again deposed Photius in A.D. 886, but only that he might put an imperial prince in his place. Photius died in monastic exile in A.D. 891.

§ 67.2. =Leo VI., the Philosopher, A.D. 886-911.=--This emperor was three times married without having any children. He married the fourth only when he had assured himself that she would not be barren. The patriarch Nicolaus [Nicolas] Mysticus refused (§ 61, 2) to celebrate the marriage and was deposed. A Synod at Constantinople in A.D. 906, attended by the legates of Pope Sergius III., approved the marriage and the deposition. But on his deathbed Leo repented of his violence. His brother and successor Alexander restored the patriarch Nicolas, and Pope John X. attended a Synod at Constantinople in A.D. 920, which condemned the Council of A.D. 906, and pronounced a fourth marriage absolutely unallowable, but showed no inclination to make any concessions to the pope. New negociations were begun by the emperor =Basil II.= In consideration of a large sum of money the venal pope John XIX. was willing to acknowledge the Byzantines as œcumenical patriarchs of the East, and to resign all claims of the chair of Peter upon the Eastern church. But the affair became known before it was concluded. The removal of the new Judas was loudly demanded throughout the West, and the pope was compelled to break off his negociations.

§ 67.3. =Completion of the Schism, A.D. 1054.=-Though so many anathemas had been flung at Rome by Byzantium and at Byzantium by Rome, they had hitherto been directed only against the persons and their followers, not against the respective churches as such. This defect was now to be supplied. The emperor Constantine Monómachus sought the papal friendship which he thought necessary to the success of his warlike undertakings. But the patriarch =Michael Cærularius= frustrated his efforts. In company with the Metropolitan of the Bulgarians, Leo of Achrida, he addressed in A.D. 1053 an epistle to bishop John of Trani in Apulia, in which he charged the Latins with the worst heresies, and adjured the Western bishops to separate from them. To the heresies already enumerated by Photius, he added certain others; the use of blood and things strangled, the withdrawal of the Hallelujah during the fast season, and above all the use of unleavened bread in the Supper (§ 58, 4), on account of which he invented for the heretics the name of Azymites. This letter fell into the hands of Cardinal =Humbert=, who translated it and laid it before pope Leo IX. A violent correspondence followed. The emperor offered to do anything to restore peace. At his request the pope sent three legates to Constantinople, among them the occasion of the strife, Humbert (§ 101, 2), and Cardinal Frederick of Lothringen, afterwards pope Stephen IX. (§ 96, 6). These fanned the flame, instead of quenching it. Imperial pressure indeed brought the abbot of Studion, Nicetas Pectoratus to burn his controversial treatise before the legates, but no threat nor violence could move to submission the patriarchs, on whose side were the people and the clergy. The legates finally laid a formal decree of excommunication on the altar of the church of Sophia, which Michael together with the other Eastern patriarchs solemnly returned, A.D. 1054.

§ 67.4. =Attempts at Reunion.=--The crusades increased the breach instead of healing it. Many negociations were begun but none of them came to much. At a Synod at Bari in Naples, in A.D. 1098, Anselm of Canterbury (§ 101, 1), who then lived as a fugitive in Italy, proved to the Greeks there present the correctness of the Latin doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Spirit. In A.D. 1113, Petrus [Peter] Chrysologus, Archbishop of Milan, vindicated it in a complete discourse before the emperor at Constantinople. And in A.D. 1135, Anselm of Havelberg, who went to Constantinople as ambassador for Lothair II., disputed with the Archbishop Nicetas of Nicomedia, and afterwards at the command of the pope wrote down the disputation with creditable faithfulness. The hatred and abhorrence of the Greeks reached its climax on the erection of the Latin empire at Constantinople, A.D. 1204-1261 (comp. § 94, 4). Nevertheless =Michael Palæologus, A.D. 1260-1282=, who brought this dynasty to an end, strove on political grounds in every way possible to overcome this ecclesiastical schism. The patriarch Joseph of Constantinople and his librarian, the celebrated =Joannes Beccus=, stubbornly withstood him. The latter indeed in imprisonment became convinced that the differences were unessential and that a union was possible. This change of mind secured for him the patriarch’s chair. Meanwhile the negotiations of the emperor with the pope, Gregory X., in which he acknowledged the Roman chair to be the highest court of appeal in doctrinal controversies, were brought to a point in the œcumenical =Council at Lyons, A.D. 1274=, reckoned by the Latins the fourteenth. The imperial legates here acknowledged the primacy of the pope and subscribed a Roman creed, while to them was granted liberty to use their creed without the addition and to practise their peculiar ecclesiastical customs. Beccus vindicated this union in several treatises. But a change of dynasty overthrew him in A.D. 1283. Joseph was restored and the union of Lyons was broken up leaving no trace behind.

§ 67.5. The advance of the Turks made it absolutely necessary for the East Roman emperors to secure the support of the West by reconciling and uniting themselves with the papacy. But the powerful party of the monks, supported by popular prejudice against the proposal, thwarted the imperial wishes on all sides. The patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem too were zealous opponents, not only animated by the old bitterness toward their more prosperous rivals on the chair of Peter, but also influenced against the views of the emperor by the policy of their Saracen rulers. The emperor =Andronicus III. Palæologus= won to his side the abbot =Barlaam= of Constantinople, hitherto, though born in Calabria and there educated in the Roman Catholic faith, a zealous opponent of the Western doctrine. Barlaam went at the head of an imperial embassy to Avignon where the pope at that time, Benedict XIII., resided, A.D. 1339. Negotiations, however, broke down through the obstinacy of the pope, who demanded of the Greeks above all unconditional submission in doctrine and constitution, and also showed not once any wish for renewing the conference.--On Barlaam, comp. § 69, 2.--The political difficulties of the emperor, however, continually increased, and so =Joannes V. Palæologus= took further steps. He himself in A.D. 1369 in Rome passed over to the Latin church, but neither did he get his people to follow him, nor did pope Urban V. get the Western princes to give help against the Turks.

§ 67.6. The union attempts of =Joannes VII. Palæologus= had more appearance of success. The emperor had won over the patriarch Joseph of Constantinople, as well as the clever and highly cultured archbishop =Bessarion= of Nicæa, and went personally in company with the latter and many bishops, in A.D. 1438, to the papal Council at =Ferrara= (§ 110, 8), where the pope, Eugenius IV., fearing lest the Greeks might join the reformatory Council at Basel, showed himself very gracious. The Council, nominally on account of the outbreak of a plague at Ferrara was transferred to =Florence=, and here the union was actually consummated in A.D. 1439. The primacy of the pope was acknowledged, though not altogether without dubiety of expression, the ritual differences as well as the priestly marriages of the Greeks tolerated, the doctrinal difference reduced to a misunderstanding and the orthodoxy of both churches maintained. In the Latin text of the decree referred to the pope was acknowledged as “Successor of Peter, the chief of the Apostles, and the vicar of Christ,” as “head of the whole Church, and father and teacher of all Christians, to whom plenary power was given by our Lord Jesus Christ to feed, rule, and govern the universal Church”--yet with the significant addition “in such a way as it is set forth in the œcumenical Councils and in the sacred Canons,” by which certainly the Greeks thought only of the Canons of Nicæa and Chalcedon referred to in § 46, 1, but the Latins mainly of the Pseudo-Decretals of § 87, 2; and thus it happens that in most of the Greek texts the propositions that define the universal primacy of the pope are either wanting, or essentially modified. The first place after the pope is given to the patriarch of Constantinople. In regard to the doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Spirit it was admitted that the Greek formula “_ex Patre per Filium_” was essentially the same as the Latin “_ex Patre Filioque_,” and by the definition “_quod Sp. S. ex P. simul et F. et ex utroque æternaliter tanquam ab uno principio et unica spiratione procedit_,” the latter was saved from the charge of dualism. A new difference, however, came to light in reference to Purgatory (§ 61, 4). The intercessions of the living and the presenting of masses for the dead were allowed by the Greeks as helping to secure the forgiveness of their still unatoned for venial sins, but they decidedly opposed the view that any of the dead could obtain this by his own temporary endurance of penal sufferings, and they would not hear of a fire as a means for its attainment. The Latins also taught that the unbaptized or those dying in mortal sin immediately pass into eternal condemnation and the perfectly pious immediately pass into God’s presence; while the Greeks maintained that this happens only at the last judgment. After long disputes, the Greeks, urged by their emperor, at last gave in on both points. Without much difficulty they accepted the seven sacraments of the Westerns (§ 104, 2). Thus was the union consummated amid embracings and jubilant shoutings. But in reality everything remained as of old. A powerful party at whose head stood archbishop Marcus Eugenicus of Ephesus, who had been shouted down at Florence, roused the whole East against the union that had been made on paper. The new patriarch Metrophanes, whom they repudiated, was ridiculed as Μητροφόνος, and in A.D. 1443 the rest of the Eastern patriarchs at a Synod at Jerusalem excommunicated all who maintained the union. When moreover the hoped for help from the West did not come even the union party lost their interest in it. Bessarion passed over to the Roman church, became cardinal and bishop of Tuscoli, and was as such on two occasions very near being made pope.[193]

§ 67.7. The Byzantine Christian empire went meanwhile rapidly to decay. On the 29th May, 1453, Constantinople was stormed by Mohammed II. The last emperor, Constantine XI., fell in a heroic struggle against tremendous odds. Mohammed conferred upon the patriarch Gennadius (§ 68, 5) the spiritual primacy and even temporal supremacy and full jurisdiction over the whole orthodox inhabitants of the empire, making him, however, answerable for their conduct. The other two patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch were in religious matters co-ordinate, in political matters subordinate, to him. For the executing of his spiritual power he had around him a Synod of twelve archbishops, of whom four as holders of the four divisions of the patriarchal diocese resided in Constantinople. The Synod chose the patriarchs and the Sultan confirmed the elections.--All union negociations were now at an end, for the Porte could only wish for the continuance of the schism. The enormous crowds of Greek refugees who sought protection in foreign lands, especially in Italy, Hungary, Galicia, Poland, Lithuania, either went directly over to the Roman Catholic church, or formed churches of their own under the name of United Greeks, purchasing liberty to observe their old church constitution and liturgy by accepting the Romish doctrine and the papal primacy.

II. Developments in the Eastern Church without the Co-operation of the Western.

§ 68. THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE AND LITERATURE.

The iconoclastic struggle, A.D. 726-842, was to some extent a war against art and science. At least no period in the history of the Greek Middle Ages is so poor in these as this. But about the middle of the 9th century Byzantine culture awoke from its deep torpor to a vigour of which no one would have thought it capable. What is still more wonderful, for six hundred years it maintained its position without a break at this elevation and prosecuted literary and scientific studies with a zeal that seemed to be quickened as its political condition became more and more desperate. What specially characterized the scholarly efforts of this time was the revival of classical studies which from the 6th century had been almost entirely neglected. Now all at once the decaying Greeks, who were threatened with intellectual as well as political bankruptcy, began to realize the rich heritage which their pagan forefathers had bequeathed them. They searched out these treasures amid the dust of libraries and applied to them a diligence, an enthusiasm, a pride, which fills us with astonishment. The Hellenic intellect had, indeed, long lost its genial creative power. The most ambitious effort of this age did not go beyond explanatory reproduction and scholarship. Upon theology, however, bound hard and fast in traditional propositions and Aristotelian formulæ, the revival of classical studies had relatively little influence, and where it did break the fetters it only gave entrance to a deluge of heathen Hellenic views that paganized Christianity.

§ 68.1. The shame caused by the zeal with which the Khalifs of the Abassidean line at the end of the 8th century applied themselves to the classical Greek literature seems to have given the first impulse to the =Revival of Classical Studies=. Behind this we must suppose there was the influence of the Byzantine rulers, unless they had lost all trace of national feeling. Bardas, the guardian and co-regent of Michael III. (§ 67, 1), if there is nothing else in him worthy of praise, has the credit of having been the first to lay anew the foundation of classical studies by establishing schools and paying their teachers. Basil the Macedonian, although himself no scholar, patronized and protected the sciences. Photius was the teacher of his children, and implanted in them a love of study which they transmitted to their children and children’s children. Leo, the Philosopher, the son, and Constantine Porphyrogenneta, the grandson, of Basil were the brilliant scholars in the Macedonian dynasty. Their place was taken by the line of the Comneni from A.D. 1057, which introduced a most brilliant period in the history of scientific studies. The princesses of this house, Eudocia and Anna Comnena, won high fame as gifted and learned authors. What Photius was for the age of the Macedonians, Psellus was for the age of the Comneni. Thessalonica vied with Constantinople as a new Athens in the brilliancy of its classical culture. The rudeness of the crusaders threatened during the sixty years’ interregnum of the Latin dynasty, to undo the work of the Comneni. But when in A.D. 1261 the Palæologi again obtained possession of Constantinople, learning rose once more to the front and won an ever increasing significance. And when the Turks took it in A.D. 1453 crowds of learned Greeks settled in Italy and spread their carefully fostered culture all over the West.

§ 68.2. =Aristotle and Plato.=--The revival of classical studies secured again a preference for Plato, who seemed more classical, at least more Hellenic, than Aristotle. But the ecclesiastical imprimatur that had been given to Aristotle, which had been formally expressed by Joh. Damascenus, formed a barrier against the overflowing of Platonism into the theological domain. The church’s distrust of Plato, on the other hand, drove many of the more enthusiastic friends of classical studies into a sort of Hellenic paganism. The eagerness of the struggle reached its height in the 15th century. Gemisthus Pletho moved heaven and earth to drive the hated usurper Aristotle from the throne of science. He called for unconditional surrender to the wisdom of the divine Plato and expressed the confident hope that soon the time would come when Christianity and Islam would be conquered and the religion of pure humanity would have universal sway. Of similar views were his numerous scholars, of whom the most distinguished was Bessarion (§ 67, 6). But Aristotle also had talented representatives in George of Trebizond and his scholars. Numerous representatives of the two schools settled in Italy and there carried on the conflict with increasing bitterness.--Continuation § 120, 1.

§ 68.3. =Scholasticism and Mysticism= (μάθησις and μυσταγωγία).--By the application of the Aristotelian method which Joh. Philoponus (§ 47, 11) had suggested, and Joh. Damascenus had carried out, the scientific treatment of doctrine in the Greek church had taken a form which in many respects resembles the scholasticism of the Latin Middle Ages, without being able, however, to reach its wealth, power, subtlety and depth. But alongside of the dialectic scholastic treatment of dogma there was found, especially in the quiet life of the monasteries, diligent fostering of the mysticism based upon the pseudo-Areopagite (§ 47, 11). Its chief representative was Nicolas Cabasilas. This mysticism never ran counter to the worship or doctrine of the church, but rather rendered to it unconditional acknowledgment, and was specially characterized by its decided preference for the symbolical, to which it is careful to attach a thoroughly sacramental significance. No reason existed for any hostile encounters between dialectic and mysticism.

§ 68.4. =The Branches of Theological Science.=--About the beginning of our period Joh. Damascenus collected the results of previous =Dogmatic= labours in the Greek church by the use of the dialectic forms of Aristotle into an organic system. His Ecdosis is the first and last complete dogmatic of the old Greek church. The manifold intercourse with the Latin church occasioned by the union efforts was not, however, without influence on the Greek church. In spite of the keenest opposition on debated questions, the far more thoroughly developed statement by Latin scholasticism of doctrines in regard to which both were agreed communicated itself to the Greek church, so that all unwittingly it adopted on many points the same bases and tendencies of belief. =Polemics= were constantly carried on with Nestorians, Monophysites and Monothelites, and fresh subjects of debate were found in the iconoclastic disputes, newly emerging dualistic sects, the Latin schismatics and the defenders of the union. By the changed circumstances of the time =Apologetics= again came to the front as a theological necessity. The incessant advance of Islam and the Jewish polemic, which was now gaining boldness from the protection of the Saracens, urgently demanded the work of the Apologist, but the dominant scholastic traditional theology of the Greeks in its hardness and narrowness was little fitted to avert the storm of God’s judgment. Finally, too, the revival of classical studies and the introduction of pagan modes of thought were followed by a renewal of anti-pagan Apologetics (Nicolas of Methone). In =Exegesis= there was no independent original work. Valuable catenas were compiled by Œcumenius, Theophylact and Euthymius Zigabenus. =Church History= lay completely fallow. Only Nicephorus Callisti in the 14th century gave any attention to it (§ 5, 1). Incomparably more important for the church history of those times are the numerous _Scriptores hist. Byzantinæ_. As a writer of legends Simeon Metaphrastes in the 10th century (?) gained a high reputation.

§ 68.5. The most distinguished theologian of the 8th century was =Joannes Damascenus=. He was long in the civil service of the Saracens, and died about A.D. 760 as monk in the monastery of Sabas in Jerusalem. His admirers called him _Chrysorrhoas_; the opponents of image worship who pronounced a thrice repeated anathema upon him at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 754, called him Mansur. His chief work, which ranks in the Greek church as an epoch-making production, is the Πηγὴ γνώσεως. Its first part, Κεφάλαια φιλοσοφικά, forms the dialectic, the second part, Περὶ αἱρέσεων, the historical, introduction to the third or chief part: Ἔκδοσις ἀκριβὴς τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως, a systematic collection of the doctrines of faith according to the Councils, and the teachings of the ancient Fathers, especially of the three Cappadocians. His Ἱερὰ παράλληλα contain a collection of _loci classici_ from patristic writings on dogmatic and moral subjects arranged in alphabetical order. He wrote besides controversial tracts against Christological heretics, the Paulicians, the opponents of image worship, etc., and composed several hymns for church worship.[194]--Among the numerous writings of =Photius=, who died in A.D. 891, undoubtedly the most important is his Bibliotheca, Μυριοβίβλιον. It gives reports about and extracts from 279 Christian and pagan works, which have since in great part been lost. In addition to controversial treatises against the Latins and against the Paulicians, there are still extant his Ἀμφιλόχια, answers to more than 300 questions laid before him by bishop Amphilochius, and his Nomo-canon (§ 43, 3) which is still the basis of Greek canon law, and was, about A.D. 1180, commented on by the deacon of Constantinople, Theodore Balsamon in his Ἐξήγησις τῶν ἱερῶν καὶ θείων κανόνων.--The brilliant period of the Comnenian dynasty was headed by =Michael Psellus=, teacher of philosophy at Constantinople, a man of wide culture and possessed of an astonishingly extensive store of information which was evinced by numerous works on a variety of subjects, so that he was designated φιλοσόφων ὕπατος. He died in A.D. 1105. Among his theological writings the most important is Περὶ ἐνεργείας δαιμόνων (comp. § 71, 3). As this work is of the utmost importance for the demonology of the Middle Ages, so the Διδασκαλία παντοδαπή, a compendium of universal science on the basis of theology, is for the encyclopædic knowledge of that period. His contemporary =Theophylact=, archbishop of Achrida, in Bulgaria, left behind him an important commentary in the form of a catena. Euthymius Zigabenus, monk at Constantinople, in the beginning of the 12th century, composed, by order of the emperor Alexius Comnenus, in reply to the heretics, a Πανοπλία δογματικὴ τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως ἤτοι ὁπλοθήκη δογμάτων in 24 bks., which gained for him great repute in his times. It is a mere compilation, and only where he combats the sects of his own age is it of any importance. His exegetical compilations are of greater value. The most important personality of the 12th century was =Eustathius=, archbishop of Thessalonica. As commentator on Homer and Pindar he has been long highly valued by philologists; but from the publication of his theological _Opuscula_ it appears that he is worthy of higher fame as a Christian, a theologian, a church leader and reformer of the debased monasticism of his age (§ 70, 4). His friend and pupil, =Michael Acominatus= of Chonæ, archbishop of Athens, treated with equal enthusiasm of the church and his fatherland, of Christian faith and Greek philosophy, of patristic and classical literature, and in a beautiful panegyric raised a becoming memorial to his departed teacher. His younger brother, =Nicetas Acominatus=, a highly esteemed statesman of Constantinople, wrote a Θεσαυρὸς ὀρθοδοξίας in 27 bks., which consists of a justificatory statement of the orthodox doctrine together with a refutation of heretics, much more independent and important than the similar work of Euthymius. He died in A.D. 1206. At the same time flourished the noble bishop =Nicolas of Methone= in Messenia, whose refutation of the attacks of the neo-Platonist Proclus, Ἀνάπτυξις τῆς θεολογικῆς στοιχειώσεως Πρόκλου is one of the most valuable productions of this period. His doctrine of redemption, which has a striking resemblance to Anselm of Canterbury’s theory of satisfaction (§ 101, 1), is worthy of attention. He also contributed several tracts to the struggle against the Latins. During the times of the Palæologi, A.D. 1250-1450, the chief subjects of theological authorship were the vindication and denunciation of the union. =Nicolas Cabasilas=, archbishop of Thessalonica and successor of Palamas, deserves special mention. He was like his predecessor the vindicator of the Hesychasts (§ 69, 2), and was himself one of the noblest mystics of any age. He died about A.D. 1354. His chief work is Περὶ τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ ζωῆς. His mysticism is distinguished by depth and spirituality as well as by reformatory struggling against a superficial externalism. He also shares the partiality of Greek mysticism for the liturgy as his _Expositio Missæ_ shows. From his contemporary =Demetrius Cydonius= we have an able treatise _De Contemnenda Morte_. Archbishop =Simeon of Thessalonica= belongs to a somewhat later time, about A.D. 1400, a thorough expert in classical and patristic literature and a distinguished church leader. His comprehensive work, _De Fide, Ritibus et Mysteriis Ecclesiast._ is an important source of information about the church affairs of the Greek Middle Ages. =Marcus Eugenicus= of Ephesus, the most capable opponent of the Florentine union (§ 67, 2), besides controversial tracts, wrote a treatise Περὶ ἀσθενείας ἀνθρώπου as a philosophico-dogmatic foundation of the doctrine of eternal punishment at which the emperor John VII. Palæologus had taken offence as incompatible with divine justice and human frailty. His disciple Gregorius [Gregory] Scholarius, known as a monk by the name =Gennadius=, was the first patriarch of Constantinople after it had been taken by the Turks. At the Council of Florence he still supported the union, but was afterwards its most vigorous assailant. In the controversy of the philosophers he contended against Pletho for the old-established predominance of Aristotle. At the request of the Sultan, Mohammed II., he laid before him a _Professio fidei_.

§ 68.6. A religious romance entitled =Barlaam and Josaphat= whose author is not named, but evidently belonged to the East, was included, even in the Middle Ages, among the works of Joh. Damascenus, read by many especially in the West, translated into Latin and rendered often in metrical form. It describes the history of the conversion of the Indian prince Josaphat by the eremite Barlaam with the object of showing the power of Christianity against the allurements of sin and its superiority to other religions. An uncritical age accepted the story as historical, and venerated its two heroes as saints. The Roman martyrology celebrated the 27th Nov. in their memory. Liebrecht has discovered that the romance so popular in its days was but a Christianized form of a legendary history of the life and conversion of the founder of Buddhism, which existed in pre-Christian times, and has come down to us under the title _Lalita ristara Purâna_, often copying its original even in the minutest details.

§ 69. DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES IN THE 12TH-14TH CENTURIES.

With the mental activity of the Comnenian age there was also reawakened a love of theological speculation and discussion, and several doctrinal questions engaged considerable attention. Then there came a lull in the controversial strife for two hundred years, to be roused once more by a question of abstruse mysticism.

§ 69.1. =Dogmatic Questions.=--Under the emperor Manuel Comnenus, A.D. 1143-1180, the question was discussed whether Christ presented His sacrifice for the sins of the world only to the Father and the Holy Spirit, or also at the same time to the Logos, _i.e._ to Himself. A Synod at Constantinople in A.D. 1156 sanctioned the latter notion.--Ten years later a controversy arose over the question whether the words of Christ: “The Father is greater than I,” refer to His divine or to His human nature or to the union of the two natures. The discussion was carried on by all ranks with a liveliness and passionateness which reminds one of the similar controversies of the 4th century (§ 50, 2). The emperor’s opinion that the words applied to the God-man gained the victory at a Synod at Constantinople in A.D. 1166. The dissentients were punished with the confiscation of their goods and banishment.--Manuel excited a third controversy by objecting to the anathema of “the God of Mohammed” in the formula of abjuration for converts from Mohammedanism. In vain did the bishops show the emperor that the God of Mohammed was not the true God. The formula had to be altered.

§ 69.2. =The Hesychast Controversy, A.D. 1341-1351.=--In the monasteries of Mount Athos in Thessaly the Areopagite mysticism had its most zealous promoters. Following the example given three centuries earlier by Simeon, an abbot of the monastery of Mesnes in Constantinople, the monks by artificial means put themselves into a condition that would afford them the ecstatic vision of God which the Areopagite had extolled as the highest end of all mystic endeavours. Kneeling in a corner of the solitary closed cell, the chin pressed firmly on the breast, the eyes set fixedly on the navel, and the breath held in as long as possible, they sank at first into melancholy and their eyes became dim. Continuing longer in this position the depression of spirit which they at first experienced gave way to an inexpressible rapture, and at last they found themselves surrounded by a bright halo of light. They called themselves _Resting Ones_, ἡσυχάζοντες, and maintained that the brilliancy surrounding them was the uncreated divine light which shone around Christ on Mount Tabor. Barlaam (§ 67, 5), just returned from his unfortunate union expedition, accused the monks and their defender, Gregorius [Gregory] Palamas, afterwards archbishop of Thessalonica, as Ditheistic heretics, scornfully styling them _navel-souls_, ὀμφαλόψυχοι. But a Council at Constantinople, in A.D. 1341, the members of which were unfavourable to Barlaam because of his union efforts, approved the doctrine of uncreated divine light which as divine ἐνεργεία is to be distinguished from the divine οὐσία. Barlaam, in order to avoid condemnation, recanted, but withdrew soon afterwards to Italy, where he joined the communion of the Latin church in A.D. 1348, and died as a bishop in Calabria. A disciple of Barlaam, Gregorius [Gregory] Acindynos and the historian Nicephorus Gregoras [Gregory] continued the controversy against the Hesychasts. Down to A.D. 1351 as many as three Synods had been held, which all decidedly favoured the monks.

§ 70. CONSTITUTION, WORSHIP AND LIFE.

The Byzantine emperors had been long accustomed to carry out in a very high-handed manner their own will even in regard to the internal affairs of the church. The anointing with sacred oil gave them a sacerdotal character and entitled them to be styled ἅγιος. Most of the emperors, too, from Leo the Philosopher (§ 68, 1), possessed some measure of theological culture. The patriarchate, however, if amid so many arbitrary appointments and removals it fell into the proper hands, was always a power which even emperors had to respect. What protected it against all encroachments of the temporal power was the influence of the monks and through them of the people. In consequence of the controversies about images, Theodorus Studita (§ 66, 4) founded a strong party which fought with all energy against every interference of the State in ecclesiastical matters and against the appointing of ecclesiastical officers by the temporal power, but only with temporary success. The monks, who had been threatened by the iconoclastic Isaurian with utter extermination, at the restoration grew and prospered more than ever in outward appearance, but gave way more and more to spiritual corruption and extravagance. The Eastern monks had not that genial many-sided culture which was needed for the cultivation of the fields and the minds of the barbarians. They were deficient in those powers of tempering, renovating and ennobling, whereby the monks of the West accomplished such wonderful results. But, nevertheless, if in those debased and degenerate days one looks for examples of fidelity to convictions, firmness of character, independence and moral earnestness, he will always find the noblest in the monasteries.--Public worship had already in the previous period attained to almost complete development, but theory and practice received enrichment in various particulars.

§ 70.1. =The Arsenian Schism, A.D. 1262-1312.=--Michael Palæologus, after the death of the emperor Theodore Lascaris in A.D. 1259, assumed the guardianship of his six years’ old son John, had himself crowned joint ruler, and in A.D. 1261 had the eyes of the young prince put out so as to make him unfit for governing. The patriarch Arsenius then excommunicated him. Michael besought absolution, and in order to obtain it submitted to humiliating penances; but when the patriarch insisted that he should resign the throne, the emperor deposed and exiled him, A.D. 1267. The numerous adherents of Arsenius refused to acknowledge the new patriarch Joseph (§ 67, 4), seceded from the national church, and when their leader died in exile in A.D. 1273, their veneration for him expressed itself in burning hatred of his persecutors. When Joseph died in A.D. 1283, an attempt was made to decide the controversy by a direct appeal to God’s judgment. Each of the two parties cast a tract in defence of its position into the fire, and both were consumed. The Arsenians, who had expected a miracle, felt themselves for the moment defeated and expressed a readiness to be reconciled. But on the third day they recalled their admissions and the schism continued, until the patriarch Niphon in A.D. 1312 had the bones of Arsenius laid in the church of Sophia and pronounced a forty days’ suspension on all the clergy who had taken part against him.

§ 70.2. =Public Worship.=--In the Greek church preaching retained its early prominence; the homiletical productions, however, are but of small value. The objection to hymns other than those found in Scripture was more and more overcome. As in earlier times (§ 59, 4) Troparies were added to the singing of psalms, so now the New Testament hymns of praise and doxologies were formed into a so-called Κανών, _i.e._ a collection of new odes arranged for the several festivals and saints’ days. The 8th century was the Augustan age of church song. To this period belonged the celebrated ἅγιοι μελωδοί, Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus, Cosmas of Jerusalem, and Theophanes of Nicæa. The singing after this as well as before was without instrumental accompaniment and also without harmonic arrangement.--There was a great diversity of opinion in regard to the idea of the sacraments and their number. Damascenus speaks only of two: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Theodorus Studita, on the other hand, accepts the six enumerated by the Pseudo-Areopagite (§ 58). Petrus [Peter] Mogilas in his Anti-Protestant _Confessio orthodoxa_ of A.D. 1643 (§ 152, 3) is the first confidently to assert that even among the Latins of the Middle Ages the Sacraments had been regarded as seven in number. The Greeks differed from the Latins in maintaining the necessity of immersion in baptism, in connecting the chrism with the baptism, using leavened bread in the Supper and giving both elements to all communicants. From the time of Joh. Damascenus the teachers of the church decidedly subscribed to the doctrine of Transubstantiation; but in regard to penance and confession they stoutly maintained (§ 61, 1), that not the priest but God alone can forgive sins. The _Unctio inferiorum_, εὐχέλαιον, also made way in the Greek church, applied in the form of the cross to forehead, breast, hands and feet; yet with this difference that, expressly repudiating the designation “extreme” unction, it was given not only in cases of mortal illness, but also in less serious ailments, and had in view bodily cure as well as spiritual benefit.--The emperor Leo VI. the Philosopher made the benediction of the church (§ 61, 2) obligatory for a legally valid marriage.

§ 70.3. =Monasticism.=--The most celebrated of all the monastic associations were those of Mount Athos in Thessaly, which was covered with monasteries and hermit cells, and as “the holy mount” had become already a hallowed spot and the resort of pilgrims for all Greek Christendom. The monastery of Studion, too (§ 44, 3), was held in high repute. There was no want of ascetic extravagances among the monks. There were numerous stylites; many also spent their lives on high trees, δενδρίται, or shut up in cages built on high platforms (κιονῖται), or in subterranean caverns, etc. Others bound themselves to perpetual silence. Many again wore constantly a shirt of iron (σιδηρούμενοι), etc. A rare sort of pious monkish practice made its appearance in the 12th century among the =Ecetæ=, Ἱκέται. They were monks who danced and sang hymns with like-minded nuns in their monasteries after the pattern of Exod. xv. 20, 21. Although they continued orthodox in their doctrine and were never charged with any act of immorality, Nicetas Acominatus proceeded against them as heretics.

§ 70.4. =Endeavours at Reformation.=--In the beginning of the 12th century a pious monk at Constantinople, Constantinus Chrysomalus, protested against prevailing hypocrisy and formalism. A decade later the monk Niphon took a similar stand. Around both gathered groups of clergy and laymen who, putting themselves under their pastoral direction and neglecting the outward forms of the church, applied themselves to the deepening of the spiritual life. Both brought down on themselves the anathema of the church. The patriarch Cosmas, who was not convinced that Niphon was a heretic and so received him into his house and at his table, was deposed in A.D. 1150. Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica (§ 68, 5), carried on his reformatory efforts quite within the limits of the dominant institutions of the church, and so kept himself safe from the machinations of his enemies. Relentlessly and powerfully he struggled against the corruption in the Christian life of the people, and especially against the formalism and hypocrisy, the rudeness and vulgarity, the spiritual blindness and pride, and the eccentric caricatures of ascetism that were exhibited by the monks, though he was himself in heart and soul a monk. Two hundred years later Nicolas Cabasilas (§ 68, 5) yet more distinctly maintained that a consistent life was the test and love the root of all virtue.

§ 71. DUALISTIC HERETICS.

Remnants of the Gnostic-Manichæan heresy lingered on into the 7th century in Armenia and Syria, where the surrounding Parseeism gave them a hold and support. Constantinus of Mananalis near Samosata gathered these together about the middle of the 7th century and reformed them somewhat in the spirit of Marcion (§ 27, 11). The Catholics, sneeringly called by them Ῥομαῖοι, gave the name of =Paulicians= to them because they regarded Paul alone as a true apostle. Even before the rise of the Paulicians, a sect existed in Armenia called =Children of the Sun= who had mixed up the Zoroastrian worship with Christian elements. They, too, during the 9th and 10th centuries, by reorganization reached a position of more importance, and represented, like the Paulicians, a reformatory opposition to the formal institutions of the Catholic church. A similar attitude was assumed by the =Euchites= in Thrace during the 11th century. Like the old Euchites (§ 44, 7), they got their name from the unceasing prayers which they regarded as the token of highest perfection. Their dualistic-gnostic system is met with again among the =Bogomili= in Bulgaria. These were still more decidedly hostile to the Catholic church, and had adopted the anthropological views of Saturninus and the Ophites as well as the trinitarian theory of Sabellius (§ 27, 6, 9; 33, 7). All these sects were accused by their Catholic opponents with entertaining antinomian doctrines and practising licentious orgies and unnatural abominations.

§ 71.1. =The Paulicians.=--They called themselves only Χριστιανοί, but were in the habit of giving to their leaders and churches the names of Paul’s companions and mission stations. They combined dualism, demiurgism and docetism with a mysticism that insisted upon inward piety, demanded a strict but not rigorous asceticism, forbade fasting and allowed marriage. Their worship was very simple, their church constitution moulded after the apostolic pattern, with the rejection of the hierarchy and priesthood. They were specially averse to the accumulation of ceremonies and the veneration of images, relics and saints in the Catholic church. They also urged the diligent study of Scripture, rejecting, however, the Old Testament, and the Jewish-Christian gospels and epistles of the New Testament. The Catholic polemists of the 9th century traced their origin and even their name (=Παυλοϊωάννοι) to a Manichæan family of the fourth century, a widow Callinice and her two sons Paul and John. None of the distinctive marks of Manichæism, however, are discoverable in them, and their founding by Constantine of Mananalis is a historic fact, as also that he, in A.D. 657, assumed the Pauline name of Sylvanus. The first church, which he called _Macedonia_, was founded by him at Cibossa in Armenia. From this point he made successful missionary journeys in all directions. The emperor Constantinus Pogonnatus, A.D. 668-685, began a bloody persecution of the Paulicians. But the martyr enthusiasm of Sylvanus, who was stoned in A.D. 685, made such an impression upon the imperial officer Symeon, that he himself joined the sect, was made their chief under the name of Titus, and on the renewal of persecution in A.D. 690 joyfully died at the stake. His successor Gegnesius, who took the name of Timothy, was obliged by Leo the Isaurian to undergo an examination under the patriarch of Constantinople, had his orthodoxy attested, and received from the iconoclast emperor a letter of protection. Soon, however, divisions sprang up within the sect itself. One of their chiefs Baanes, on account of his antinomian practices, was nicknamed ὁ ῥυπαρός the smutty. But, about A.D. 801, Sergius Tychicus, converted in earlier years by a Paulician woman, who directed him to the Bible, made his appearance as a reformer and second founder of the sect. He died in A.D. 835. Leo the Armenian, A.D. 813-820, organized an expedition for their conversion. The penitents were received back into the church, the obstinate were executed. A mob of Paulicians murdered the judges, fled to the Saracen regions of Armenia, and founded at Argaum, the ancient Colosse, a military colony which made incessant predatory and retaliating raids upon the Byzantine provinces. They were most numerous in Asia Minor. The empress Theodora (§ 66, 4) carried out against them about A.D. 842 a new and fearfully bloody persecution. Many thousands were put to death. This too was the fate of an officer of high rank. His son, Carbeas, also an officer, incited by an ardent desire for revenge, gathered about 5,000 armed Paulicians around him in A.D. 844, fled with them to Argaum, and became military chief of the sect. New crowds of Paulicians streamed daily in, and the Khalifs assigned to them two other fortified frontier cities. With a well organized army, thirsting for revenge, Carbeas wasted the Byzantine provinces far and wide, and repeatedly defeated the imperial forces. Basil the Macedonian after two campaigns, at last in A.D. 871, hemmed in the Paulician army in a narrow pass and annihilated it. Their political power was now broken. The sect, however, still continued to gather members in Syria and Asia Minor. In A.D. 970, the emperor John Tzimisces transported the greater part of them as watchers of the frontier of Thrace, where Philippopolis became their Zion. They soon had possession of all Thrace. Alexius Comnenus, A.D. 1081-1118, was the first earnestly again to attempt their conversion. He himself appeared at Philippopolis in A.D. 1115, disputed a whole day with their leaders, promised and threatened, rewarded and punished, but all his efforts were fruitless. From that time we hear nothing more of them. Their remnants probably joined the Euchites and the Bogomili.

§ 71.2. =The Children of the Sun=, or Arevendi were a sect gathered and organized in the 9th century in Armenia by a Paulician Sembat in the country town of Thontrace into a separate community of Thontracians. In A.D. 1002 the metropolitan Jacob of Harkh gave a Christian tinge to their doctrine, went through the country preaching repentance and the performances of ritual observances, and obtained much support from clergy and laity. The Catholicus of the Armenian church caused him to be branded and imprisoned. He made his escape, but was afterwards slain by his opponents.

§ 71.3. =The Euchites=, Messelians [Messalians], Enthusiasts, attracted the attention of the government in the beginning of the 11th century as a sect widely spread in Thrace. In common with the earlier Euchites (§ 44, 7) they had great enthusiasm in prayer, but they were distinguished from them by their dualism. Their doctrine of the two sons of God, Satanaël and Christ, shows a certain relation to the form of Persian dualism, which derives the two opposing principles, Ormuzd and Ahriman, from one eternal primary essence, Zeruane Acerene. The germs of this sect may have come from the transplanting of Paulicians to Thrace by the emperor Tzimisces. The Byzantine government sent a legate to Thrace to suppress them. This may have been Michael Psellus (§ 68, 5) whose Διάλογος περὶ ἐνεργείας δαιμόνων is the only source of information we have regarding them.

§ 71.4. =The Bogomili=, θεόφιλοι, taught: that Satanaël, the firstborn son of God, as chief and head over all angels, clothed with full glory of the Godhead, sat at the right hand of the Father; but, swelling with pride, he thought to found an empire independent of his Father and seduced a portion of the angels to take part with him. Driven with them out of heaven, he determined after the pattern of the creation of the Father (Gen. i. 1) to create a new world out of chaos (Gen. ii. 3 ff.). He formed the first man of earth mixed with water. When he set up the figure, some of the water ran out of the great toe of the right foot and spread out over the ground; and after he had breathed his breath into it, that also escaped owing to the looseness of the figure by the toe, permeated the soil moistened with the water and animated it as a serpent. At Satanaël’s earnest entreaty the heavenly Father took pity on the miserable creature, and gave it life by breathing into it His own breath. Afterwards with the Father’s help Eve, too, was created. Satanaël in the form of the serpent seduced, deceived and lay with Eve in order that by his seed, Cain and his twin sister Calomina, Adam’s future descendants, Abel, Seth, etc., might be oppressed and brought into bondage. Jealous lest the latter should obtain that heavenly dwelling place from which they had been driven, Satanaël’s angels seduced their daughters (Gen. vi.). From this union sprang giants who rebelled against Satanaël, but were destroyed by him in the flood. Henceforth he reigned unopposed as κοσμοκράτωρ, seduced the greater part of mankind, and endowed Moses with the power of working miracles as the instrument of his tyranny. Only a few men under the oppression of his law attained the end of their being; the sixteen prophets and those named in Matt. i. and Luke iii. Finally, in the year 5,500 after the creation of man, the supreme God moved with pity caused a second son, the Logos, to go forth from His bosom, who as chief of the good angels is called Michael, and sent Him to earth for man’s redemption. He entered in an ethereal body through the right ear into the virgin to be born of her with the semblance of an earthly body. Mary noticed nothing of all this. Without knowing how or whence, she found the child in swaddling clothes before her in the cave. His death on the cross was naturally in appearance only. After his resurrection he showed himself to Satanaël in his true form, bound him with chains, robbed him of his divine power, and compelled him to abandon his divine designation, by taking the El from his name, so that he is henceforth called Satan. Then He returned to the Father, took the seat that formerly was Satanaël’s at His right hand, and sinks again into the bosom of the Father out of which He had come. This, however, did not take place before a new Aëon [Æon], the Holy Spirit, emanated from the Godhead, and was sent forth as continuator and completer of the work of redemption. This Spirit, too, after he has finished his task will sink back again into the Father’s bosom.--Of the Old Testament the Bogomili acknowledged only the Psalter and the Prophets; of the New Testament books they valued most the Gospel of John. Veneration of relics and images, as well as the sign of the cross they abhorred as demoniacal inventions. Church buildings were regarded by them as the residences of demons. Satanaël himself in earlier days resided in the temple of Jerusalem, later in the church of Sophia at Constantinople. Water baptism, which was introduced by John the Baptist a servant of Satanaël, they rejected; but the baptism of Christ is spiritual baptism (παράκλησις=_Consolamentum_). It was imparted by laying the Gospel of John on the head of the subject of baptism, with invocation of the Holy Spirit and chanting the Lord’s Prayer. They declared the Catholic mass to be a sacrifice presented to demons; the true eucharist consists in the spiritual nourishment by the bread of life brought down in Christ from heaven, to which also the fourth petition in the Lord’s Prayer refers. They placed great value upon prayer, especially the use of the Lord’s Prayer. So too they valued fasting. Their ascetism was strict and required abstinence from marriage and from the eating of flesh. But prevarication and dissimulation they regarded as permissible.--The emperor Alexius Comnenus caused their chief Basil to be brought to Constantinople, under the delusive pretext of wishing himself to become a proselyte of the sect, got him to open all his heart, and enticed him under the semblance of a purely private conference to make reckless statements, while behind the curtain a judge of heresies was taking notes. This first act in the drama was followed by a second. The sentence of death was passed upon all adherents of Basil who could be laid hold upon. Two great funeral piles were erected, one of which was furnished with the figure of the cross. The emperor exhorted them, at least to die as true Christians, and in token of this to choose the place of death provided with a cross. Those who did so were pardoned, the rest for the most part condemned to imprisonment for life. Basil himself, however, was actually burnt, A.D. 1118. The sect was not by any means thus rooted out. The Bogomili hid themselves mostly in monasteries, and Bulgaria long remained the haunt of dualistic heresy, which spread thence through the Latin church of the West.

§ 72. THE NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CHURCHES OF THE EAST.

The Nestorian and Monophysite churches of the East owed the protection and goodwill of their Moslem rulers to their hostile position in regard to the Byzantine national church. Among the Persian Nestorians as well as among the Syrian and Armenian Monophysites we find an earnest endeavour after scholarship and great scientific activity. They were the teachers of the Saracens in the classical, philosophical and medical sciences, and with no little zeal pursued the study of Christian theology. The Nestorians also long manifested great earnestness in missions. Only when the science-loving Khalifs gave place to Mongolian and Turkish barbarians did those churches lose their prestige, and that stagnation and torpidity passed over them in which they still lie. In order to crown the Florentine union attempts of A.D. 1439 (§ 67, 6), Rome solemnly proclaimed in the immediately following year the complete union with all the detached churches of the East. But this was a vain self-delusion or a bit of jugglery. Men pretending to be deputed by those churches treated about restoration to the bosom of the church, which was accorded them amid great applause.

§ 72.1. =The Persian Nestorians=, or Chaldean Christians (§ 64, 2), stood in peculiarly friendly relations to the Khalifs, who, in the Nestorian opposition to Theotokism, worship of saints, images and relics, and priestly celibacy, saw an approach to a rational Christianity more in accordance with the Moslem ideal. The Nestorian seminaries at Edessa, Nisibis, Seleucia, etc., were in high repute. The rich literature issued by them is, however, mostly lost, and what of it remains is known only by Asseman’s [Assemani’s] quotations (_Biblioth. Orientalia_). Among the later Nestorian authors the best known is Ebed Jesus, Metropolitan of Nisibis, who died in A.D. 1318. His writings treat of all subjects in the domain of theology. The missionary zeal of the Nestorians continued unabated down to the 13th century. Their chief mission fields were China and India. At the beginning of the 11th century they converted the prince of the Karaites, a Tartar tribe to the south of Lake Baikal, who as vassals of the great Chinese empire had the name Ung-Khan. A large number of the people followed their prince. The Mongol conqueror Genghis-Khan married the daughter of the Karaite prince, but quarrelled with him, drove him from his throne, and took his life, A.D. 1202.--With the overthrow of the Khalifs by Genghis-Khan in A.D. 1219, the prosperity of the Nestorian church came to an end. At first the Nestorians attempted missionary operations not unsuccessfully among the Mongols. But the savage Tamerlane, the Scourge of Asia, A.D. 1369-1405, drove them into the inaccessible mountains and wild ravines of the province of Kurdistan.[195]

§ 72.2. Among the =Monophysite Churches= the most important was the =Armenian= (§ 64, 3). It boasted, at least temporarily and partially, of political independence under national rulers. The Armenian patriarch from the 12th century had his residence in the monastery of Etshmiadzin at the foot of Ararat. The literary activity in the translation of classical and patristic writings, as well as in the production of original works, reached a particularly high point in the 8th and then again in the 12th century. To the earlier period belong the patriarch Johannes Ozniensis and the metropolitan Stephen of Sünik, to the later, the still more famous name of the patriarch Nerses IV. Clajensis, whose epic “Jesus the Son” is regarded as the crown of Armenian poetry, and his nephew, the metropolitan Nerses of Lampron. The two last named readily aided the efforts for reunion with the Byzantine church, but owing to the troubles of the time these came to nothing. The Western endeavours after union which were actively carried on from the beginning of the 13th century, split upon the dislike of the Armenian church to the Western ritual, and found acceptance with only a relatively small fragment of the people. These _United Armenians_ acknowledged the primacy of the pope and the catholic system of doctrine, but retained their own constitution and liturgy.--In =the Jacobite-Syrian Church= (§ 52, 7), too, theological and classical studies were prosecuted with great vigour. The most distinguished of its scholars during our period was George, bishop of the Arabs, who died in A.D. 740. He translated and annotated the Organon of Aristotle, and wrote exegetical, dogmatic, historical and chronological works, also poems on various themes, and a number of epistles important for the history of culture during these times, in which he answered questions put to him by his friends and admirers. The brilliant Gregory Abulfarajus is the last of the distinguished scholars of the Jacobite-Syrian church. He was the son of a converted Jewish physician, and hence he is usually called Barhebræus. He was made bishop of Guba, afterwards Maphrian of Mosul, and died in A.D. 1286. His noble and truly benevolent disposition, his extraordinary learning, the rich and attractive productions of his pen, and his skill as a physician made him universally revered by Christians, Mohammedans and Jews. Among his writings, for the most part still in manuscript, the most important and best known is the _Chronicon Syriacum_.--The Jacobite church suffered most in =Egypt=. The perfidy of the Copts, who surrendered the country to the Saracens, was terribly avenged. From A.D. 1254 the Fatimide Khalifs held them down under the most severe oppression, and this became yet more severe under the Mamelukes. The Copts were completely driven out of the cities, and even in the villages maintained only a miserable existence. Their church was now in a condition of utter stagnation. In =Abyssinia= (§ 64, 1) the national rulers maintained their position, though pressed within narrower limits from time to time by the Saracens. But here, too, church life became fossilized. At the head of the church was an Abbuna consecrated by the Coptic patriarch (§ 64, 1; 165, 3).

§ 72.3. =The Maronites= (§ 52, 8) attached themselves to the Western church on the appearance of the crusades in A.D. 1182, renouncing their Monothelite heresy and acknowledging the primacy of the pope, but retaining their own ritual. In consequence of the Florentine union measures they renewed their connection in A.D. 1445, and subsequently adopted also the doctrinal conclusions of the Council of Trent. Their numbers at the present day amount to somewhere about 200,000.

§ 72.4. =The Legend of Prester John.=--In A.D. 1144 Bishop Otto of Freisingen obtained from the bishop of Cabala in Palestine, whom he met at Viterbo, information about a powerful Christian empire in Central Asia, and published it in A.D. 1145 in his widely-read Chronicle. According to this story the king of that region, a Nestorian Christian, who was named Prester John, had not long before driven to flight the Mohammedan kings of the Persians and Medes, and thus delivered from great danger the crusaders in the Holy Land. He had also wished to go to the help of the church of Jerusalem, but was prevented by the Tigris which overflowed its banks. Twenty years later appeared a writing attributed to Prester John, first referred to by the Chronicler Alberich. It was addressed to the European princes in a Latin translation which contained the most fabulous stories, borrowed from the Alexander legends, about the extent and glory of his empire and the many wonders in nature, white lions, the phœnix, giants and pigmies, dog-headed and horned men, fauns, satyrs, cyclops, etc., which were to be seen in his country; and notwithstanding all these absurdities it was received as genuine. The pope, Alexander III., took occasion from its appearance to send an answer to Prester John by his own physician Philip, of whose fate nothing more is known. When in A.D. 1219 the first news reached Palestine of the irrepressible advance of Mongolian hordes under Genghis Khan, the crusaders felt justified in assuming that he was the successor of the celebrated Prester John, and was now to accomplish what his distinguished predecessor had wished to undertake. But they were soon cruelly undeceived. The missionaries sent to the Mongols about the middle of the 13th century (§ 93, 15), reported that the last Prester John had lost his kingdom and his life in battle with Genghis Khan. Nevertheless the belief in the continued existence of an exceedingly glorious and powerful empire ruled by a Christian priest in further India was not by any means overthrown; but it was no longer sought in an Asiatic but in an African “India,” and the Portuguese actually believed that at last the famed Prester John had been found in the Christian king of Abyssinia, so that that country was known down to the 17th century as _Regnum presb. Joannis_.--The Jacobite historian Barhebræus had identified the first Presbyter-king with the prince of the Mongolian Karaites converted by the Nestorians. His name Ung-Khan or Owang-Khan corresponded both to the name Joannes and to the Chaldean כַּהֲנָא=priest. This notion prevailed until recently the Orientalist Oppert by careful examination and comparison of all Oriental and Western reports reached the conclusion (§ 93, 16) that these legends are to be referred to the kingdom established about A.D. 1125 by Kur-Khan, prince of the tribe of the Caracitai in the Mandshuria of to-day. This prince, who was probably himself a Nestorian Christian, favoured the establishment of Christianity in his country; but this was utterly destroyed by Genghis Khan so early as A.D. 1208. The title Prester or Presbyter given to the prince of this tribe is to be explained perhaps by the statement of the missionary Ruysbroek that almost all male Nestorians in Central Asia received priestly consecration.[196]

§ 73. THE SLAVONIC CHURCHES ADHERING TO THE ORTHODOX GREEK CONFESSION.

Among the crowds of immigrants whom the wanderings of the people had set in motion, the Germans and the Slavs are those whose future is of most historic interest. The former went at once in a body over to the Roman Catholic church, and at first it appeared as if the Slavs were with similar unanimity to attach themselves to the Byzantine orthodox church. But only the Slavs of the Eastern countries remained true to that communion, though they were mostly with it brought under the yoke of the Turkish power. So was it with the specially promising Bulgarian church. All the more important was the incomparably more significant gain which the Greek church made in the conversion of the Russians.

§ 73.1. Soon after Justinian’s time the Slavic hordes began to overflow the =Greek Provinces=--Macedonia, Thessaly, Hellas and Peloponnesus. The old Hellenic population was mostly rooted out; only in well fortified cities, especially coast towns, as well as on the islands, did the Greek people and the Christian confession remain undisturbed. The empress Irene made the first successful attempt to restore Slavic Greece to the allegiance of the empire and the church, and Basil the Macedonian, A.D. 867-886, completed the work so thoroughly that at last even the old pagan Mainottes (§ 42, 4) in the Peloponnesus bent their necks to the double yoke. Regenerated Hellenism by its higher culture and national, as well as ecclesiastical, tenacity, completely absorbed by assimilation the numerically larger Slavic element of the population, and Mount Athos with its hermits and monasteries (§ 70, 3) became the Zion of the new church.

§ 73.2. The =Chazari= in the Crimea asked about A.D. 850 for Christian missionaries from Constantinople. The court sent them a celebrated monk Constantine, surnamed the Philosopher, better known under his monkish name of =Cyril=. Born at Thessalonica, and so probably of Slavic descent, at least acquainted with the language of the Slavs, he converted in a few years a great part of the people. In A.D. 1016, however, the kingdom of the Chazari was destroyed by the Russians.

§ 73.3. =The Bulgarians= in Thrace and Mœsia had obtained a knowledge of Christianity from Greek prisoners, but its first sowing was watered with blood. A sister, however, of the Bulgarian king Bogoris had been baptized when a prisoner in Constantinople. After her liberation, she sought, with the help of the Byzantine monk =Methodius=, a brother of Cyril, to win her brother to the Christian faith. A famine came to their aid, and a picture painted by Methodius, representing the last judgment, made a deep impression on Bogoris. In A.D. 861 he was baptized and compelled his subjects to follow his example. But soon thereafter, Methodius, along with his brother Cyril, was called to labour in another field, in Moravia (§ 79, 2), and political considerations led the Bulgarian prince in A.D. 866 to join the Western church. At his request pope Nicholas I. sent bishops and clergy into Bulgaria to organize the church there after the Roman model. Byzantine diplomacy, however, succeeded in winning back the Bulgarians, and at the œcumenical Council at Constantinople in A.D. 869, their ambassadors admitted that the Bulgarian church according to divine and human laws belonged to the diocese of the Byzantine patriarch (§ 67, 1). Meantime the two Apostles of the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius, by the invention of a Slavic alphabet and a Slavic translation of the Bible, laid the foundation of a Slavic ecclesiastical literature, which was specially fostered in Bulgaria under the noble-minded prince Symeon, A.D. 888-927. Basil II., the Slayer of the Bulgarians, conquered Bulgaria in A.D. 1018. It gained its freedom again, together with Walachia, in A.D. 1186; but fell a prey to the Tartars in A.D. 1285, and became a Turkish province in A.D. 1391.

§ 73.4. =The Russian Church.=--Photius speaks in A.D. 866 of the =Conversion of the Russians= as an accomplished fact. In the days of the Grand Duke Igor, about A.D. 900, there was a cathedral at Kiev. Olga, Igor’s widow, made a journey to Constantinople and was there baptized in A.D. 955 under the name Helena. But her son Swätoslaw could not be persuaded to follow her example. The aged princess is said according to the report of German chroniclers to have at last besought the emperor Otto I. to send German missionaries, and that in response Adalbert of Treves, afterwards archbishop of Magdeburg, undertook a missionary tour, from which, however, he returned without having achieved his purpose, after his companions had been slain. Olga’s grandson, Vladimir, “Equal of the Apostles,” was the first to put an end to paganism in the country. According to a legend adorned with many romantic episodes he sent ten Boyars in order to see how the different religions appeared as conducted in their chief seats. They were peculiarly impressed with the beautiful service in the church of Sophia. In A.D. 988, in the old Christian commercial town Cherson, shortly before conquered by him, Vladimir was baptized with the name Basil, and at the same time he received the hand of the princess Anna. The idols were now everywhere broken up and burnt; the image of Perun was dragged through the streets tied to the tail of a horse, beaten with clubs and thrown into the Dnieper. The inhabitants of Kiev were soon afterwards ordered to gather at the Dnieper and be baptized. Vladimir knelt in prayer on the banks and thanked God on his knees, while the clergy, standing in the stream, baptized the people. On the further organization of the Russian church Anna exercised a powerful and salutary influence. Vladimir died in A.D. 1015. His son Jaroslaw I., the Justinian of the Russians, attended to the religious needs of his people by the erection of many churches, monasteries and schools, improved the worship, enriched the psalmody, awakened a taste for art and patronized learning. The monastery of Petchersk at Kiev was the birthplace of Russian literature and a seminary for the training of the clergy. Here, at the end of the 11th century, the monk Nestor wrote his annals in the language of the country. The metropolitan of Kiev was the spiritual head of the whole Russian church under the suzerainty of the patriarch of Constantinople. After the great fire of A.D. 1170, which laid the glory of Kiev in ashes, the residency of the Grand Duke was transferred to Vladimir. In A.D. 1299 the metropolitan also took up his abode there, but only for a short time; for in A.D. 1328 the Grand Duke Ivan Danilowitsch settled at Moscow and the metropolitan went there along with him. The patriarch of Constantinople on his own authority consecrated in A.D. 1353 a second Russian metropolitan for the forsaken Kiev, to whom he assigned the Southern and Western Russian provinces which since A.D. 1320 had been under the rule of the pagan Lithuanians. This schism was overcome in A.D. 1380 on the next occasion of a vacancy in the Moscow chair by the appointment to Moscow of the Kiev metropolitan. But the Lithuanian government, which had meanwhile become Catholic (§ 93, 15), compelled the South Russian bishops in A.D. 1414 to choose a metropolitan of their own independent of Moscow, who in A.D. 1594 with his whole diocese at the Synod of Brest (§ 151, 3) attached himself to Rome. The primate of Moscow continued under the jurisdiction of Constantinople until, in A.D. 1589, the patriarch Jeremiah II. (§ 139, 26), on the occasion of his being personally present at Moscow voluntarily declared the Russian church independent of him, and himself consecrated Job, the metropolitan of that time, its first patriarch.[197]

§ 73.5. =Russian Sects.=--About A.D. 1150, the monk Martin, an Armenian by birth, insisted upon a liturgical reform that seemed to him most necessary. Among other things he declared that it was sinful to lead the subject of baptism to the baptismal font from right to left or from south to north; the direction should be reversed following the course of the sun. But it seemed to him most important that a reform should be made in the hitherto prevalent mode of making the sign of the cross. Instead of symbolizing, as up to this time had been done, the two natures in Christ and the three persons in the Trinity by bending the little finger and the thumb, and making the sign of the cross with other three, they made this sign with the fore and middle fingers. For nearly ten years this monk was allowed to disseminate his errors unchecked, till a Council obliged him to retract. Two hundred years later a certain Carp Strigolnik at Novgorod in A.D. 1375 publicly accused the clergy of sinning, because, in accordance with an old custom, they took fees in assisting in the consecration of bishops, and demanded of all orthodox Christians that they should separate from them as unworthy of their office. But he, along with many of his followers, was mobbed by the adherents of the opposite party and drowned in the Volga. More dangerous than all the earlier sectaries was the so-called Jewish sect at the end of the 15th century, which sought to reduce orthodox Christianity to a rationalistic cabbalistic Ebionitism. About A.D. 1470 the Jew Zachariah arrived at Novgorod. He won two distinguished priests Alexis and Denis to his views, that Christ was nothing more than an ordinary Jewish prophet, that the Mosaic law is a divine institution and is of perpetual obligation. By the advice of the Jew the two priests continued to profess the greatest zeal for the ceremonial laws of the Church, and by strict observance of the fasts obtained a great reputation for piety, but secretly they wrought all the more successfully for the dissemination of their sect among all classes of the people. When the czar, Ivan III., in A.D. 1480, came to Novgorod, they made so favourable an impression on him that he took them with him to Moscow, where they reaped a rich harvest for their secret doctrine. They succeeded through their influence with the czar in placing at the head of the whole Russian church a zealous proselyte for their sect in the archimandrite Zosima. Meanwhile at Novgorod iconoclast excesses were committed by the sectaries, which the archbishop of that place, Gennadius, set himself to suppress by imposing generally mild penalties. His successor Joseph Ssanin proceeded much more energetically. He did not rest till the czar in A.D. 1504 called a Church Synod at Novgorod which condemned the chiefs of the sect to be burnt, and their followers to be shut up in monasteries. Even the metropolitan Zosima as a favourer of the sect was sent to a monastery; but Alexis managed so cleverly that he retained his office and dignity to the end of his life. Secret remnants of this sect, as well as of the two previously referred to, continued to exist for a long time, even down to the 17th century, when sectarianism in the Russian Church made again a new departure (§ 163, 10).

§ 73.6. =Romish Efforts at Union.=--From a very early time Rome cast a covetous glance at the young Russian church, and she spared neither delicate hints nor attempts to subdue by force by the aid of Danes, Swedes, Livonians and at a later time, the Poles. In order to avert this danger and to obtain from the West assistance against the oppressive yoke of the Mongols, A.D. 1234-1480, the Grand Duke Jaroslav [Jaroslaw] II. of Novgorod was not averse to a union. His son Alexander succeeded him in A.D. 1247. By a glorious victory over the Swedes in A.D. 1240, on the Neva, he won for himself the surname Newsky, and in A.D. 1242 he defeated the Livonians on the ice of Lake Peipus. Pope Innocent IV. who had already in A.D. 1246 nominated Arch bishop Albert Suerbeer (§ 93, 12) a legate to Russia with the power to erect bishoprics there, addressed an earnest exhortation to the young prince in A.D. 1248 with promises of help against the Mongols, urging him to go in the footsteps of his father and to secure his own and his subjects’ salvation by doing what his father had promised. The Grand Duke referred to the wisest men of the land and answered the Pope: From Adam to the flood, from that to the Confusion of languages, etc., down to Constantine and the seventh œcumenical Council, we know the true history of the Church, but yours we do not wish to acknowledge. Alexander Newsky died in A.D. 1263, and has been ever since venerated by his country as a national hero and by his Church as a national saint. The prospects of the Roman Curia were more favourable during the 14th century owing to the Lithuanian and Polish supremacy in South and West Russia, and by the schism of the Russian Church into Kiev and Moscow primacies. In those Southern and Western provinces there was originally less disinclination to Rome than in Moscow. Still even here we meet during the 15th century in the metropolitan Isidore, born in Thessalonica, a prelate who made everything work toward a union with Rome. When the Union Synod of A.D. 1438 was to meet at Ferrara (§ 67, 6), he represented to the Grand Duke Vassili that it was his duty to appear there. He gave a hesitating and unwilling consent. At the Council Isidore along with Bessarion showed himself a zealous promoter of the union. He returned in A.D. 1441 as cardinal and papal legate. But when at the first public service in Moscow he read aloud the union documents, the Grand Duke had him imprisoned and banished to a monastery. He escaped from his prison and died in Rome in A.D. 1643.--Continuation, § 151, 3.

SECOND DIVISION.

THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERMAN AND ROMAN CHURCH DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.[198]

§ 74. CHARACTER AND DIVISIONS OF THIS PERIOD OF THE DEVELOPMENT.

With the historically significant appearance of the Germanic peoples, from whose blending with the old Celtic and Latin races of the conquered countries the _Romance_ group of nationalities has its origin, there begins a new phase in the historical development of the world and the church. The so-called migration of the nations produced an upheaval and revolution among the very foundations and springs of history such as have never since been seen. For a similar significance cannot be ascribed to the appearance at a somewhat later period of a motley crowd of Slavic tribes and a detached contingent of the Turanian-Altaic race (Finns, Magyars, etc.), because the stream of their development ran in the same channel. Thus the appearance of the Germans forms the watershed between the old world and the new. This dividing boundary, however, is not a straight line; for the shoots of the old world run on for centuries alongside of and among the young growths of the new world. In so far as those remnants of the old have no relation to the new and work out uninfluenced by their surroundings their own material in their own way, the history of their developments has no place here; but even these demand consideration at this point in so far as they affect the development of the new world as a means of educating and moulding, arresting and perverting. Just as the history of the church and the world as a whole is distributed into ancient and modern, so the special history of the Germano-Roman world can and must be distributed into ancient and modern, the dividing boundary of which is the Reformation of the 16th century. The earlier of these two phases of history presents itself to us with a Janus-head, whose two faces are directed the one to the ancient, the other to the modern world. This follows from the fact that the groups of peoples referred to did not require any longer to pursue the weary way of their development on their own charges, but rather entered upon the spiritual heritage of the defunct ancient world, and were able by means thereof more quickly and surely to grow to the maturity of their own proper and independent rank and culture. The Roman and, for some branches of the Slavic races, also the Byzantine, church was the bearer and medium of this spiritual heritage, and as such became teacher and disciplinarian of the young world. The Reformation is the emancipation from the administrator of discipline, whose leading strings were cast off by the youth when he reached the maturity of man’s estate. It is the assertion of the German nation that it had reached its intellectual majority.

§ 74.1. =The Character of Mediæval History.=--As its name implies the mediæval period of church history is one of transition from the old to the new. The old is the now completed development of Christianity under the moulding influences of the ancient Greek and Roman world; the new is the complete incorporation of the special forms of life and culture that characterize the new peoples, who are placed by means of the migration of the nations in the foreground of history. But since the peculiar culture of these nations was first present only potentially and as a capacity, and was to realize itself first through the influence of the early Christian culture, between the old and the new a middle and intermediate age intervened, the extent of which was just that influence of the old completed culture upon the new developing culture. This conflict during the whole course of the Middle Ages was carried on by those powerful waves of action and reaction (formation, deformation, reformation), which, however, amid the ferment of the times displayed an ever varying mixing of the one with the other. The Middle Ages have brought forth the most magnificent phenomena, the papacy, the monastic system, scholasticism, etc., but characteristic of them all is that crude blending of the three kinds of movement named above, which hindered its effectiveness and led to its own deterioration. First in the beginning of the 16th century did the reformatory endeavours become so mature and strong that it could assume a purer form and carry out its efforts with success. With this too we reach the end of the Middle Ages and witness the birth of the modern world.

§ 74.2. =Periods in the Church History of the German-Roman Middle Ages.=--The first regular period is marked by the end of the Carolingian age, which may be regarded as completed by the dying out of the German Carolingians in A.D. 911. The movement in all the chief departments of the church was hitherto regular and unbroken: before Charlemagne an ascending one, during his reign reaching the summit, and after his death declining. It is the =universal German= period of history. The fundamental idea of the Carolingian dynasty, which survived even its weakest representatives, was no other than the combination of all German, Roman and Slavic nationalities under the sceptre of one German empire. The last German Carolingian carried this idea with him to the grave. The powerful impulse present even in the 9th century toward national separation and the dismemberment of the Carolingian empire into independent Germanic, Romanic and Slavic nations has since asserted its irresistible power. But with the Carolingian empire the Carolingian epoch of civilization also came to an end. And even the glory of the papacy, whose intrigues had undermined the empire, because it had thus snapped the branch on which it sat, now sank into the lowest depths of weakness and corruption. When we take a general survey of the beginning of the 10th century, we find on all sides, in church and state, in secular and spiritual governments, in science, culture and art, the creations of Charlemagne overthrown, and a _seculum obscurum_ introduced from which amid great oppression and savagery, emerge the conditions, earnests and germs of a new golden age.--A second period is marked out, in quite a different fashion, by the age of Pope Boniface VIII. or the beginning of the 14th century. Up to this time =Germany= stood distinctly in the foreground both of the history of the world and of the church; but the unhappy conflict of Boniface with Philip the Fair of France placed the papacy at the mercy of French policy, and so henceforth in all the movements of Church history =France= stands in the front. The pontificate of Boniface forms a turning point also for the historical development within the church itself. The most vast and influential products of mediæval ecclesiasticism are the papacy, monasticism and scholasticism. The period before Boniface is characterized by the growth and flourishing of these; the period after Boniface by their decay and deterioration. The reformatory current, too, which permeated the whole of the Middle Ages, has in each of these two periods its own distinctive character. Before Boniface those representatives of the dominant ecclesiastical system were themselves inspired by a powerful reformatory spirit working its way up from the great and widespread depravation of the 10th century, accompanied, however, by a hierarchical lust of power far beyond the limits justifiable on evangelical principles. The evangelical reformatory endeavours again directed against those representatives of ecclesiasticism are still relatively few and isolated and find but a slight echo, while as their caricature we see alongside of them heretical extravagances which have scarcely ever had their like in history. Toward the end of the first period, however, this relation begins to be reversed. The papacy, monasticism and scholasticism becoming more and more deteriorated are the patrons of every sort of deterioration within the church. The revolutionary heretical movement is indeed overcome, but all the more powerfully, generally and variedly does the evangelical reformatory movement, though still always burdened with much that was confused and immature, assert itself independently of and over against those ecclesiastical principalities, without being able, however, to exert upon them any abiding influence.--Thus our phase of development is divided into three periods: the period from the 4th to the 9th cent. (till A.D. 911); the period from the 10th to the 13th cent. (A.D. 911-1294); and the period of the 14th and 15th cent. (A.D. 1294-1517).

FIRST SECTION.

HISTORY OF THE GERMAN-ROMAN CHURCH FROM THE 4TH TO THE 9TH CENTURY (DOWN TO A.D. 911).

I. Founding, Spread, and Limitation of the German Church.[199]

§ 75. CHRISTIANITY AND THE GERMANS.

In the pre-German age Europe was for the most part inhabited by Celtic races. In Britain, Spain and Gaul, however, these were subjugated by the Roman forces and Romanized, whereas in northern, eastern and middle Europe they were oppressed, exterminated or Germanized by the Germans. In its victorious march through Europe, Christianity met with Celtic races of unmixed nationality only in Ireland and Scotland, for even among the neighbouring Britons the Celtic nationality was already blended with the Roman. Only in a very restricted field, therefore, could the church first of all develop itself according to the Celtic mode of culture. But here, with a wonderful measure of independence, missionary operations were so energetically prosecuted that for a long time it seemed as if the greater part of the opposite continent with its German population was to be its prey, until at last the Romish church would be driven out of its own home as well as out of its hopeful mission fields (§ 77).--Even in pre-Christian times a second and more powerful immigration from the East had begun to pour over Europe. The various Germanic groups of tribes now presented themselves, followed by other warlike races, Huns, Slavs, Magyars, etc., alternately driving and being driven. The Germans first came into contact with Christian elements in the second half of the 3rd century, and toward the end of the 5th a whole series of powerful German peoples are found professing the Christian faith, and each successive century far down into the Middle Ages brings always new trophies from these nations into the treasure-house of the church. It would certainly be wrong to ascribe these results to a national predisposition of the German churches and type of mind for Christianity. This cannot be altogether denied, but it did not predispose the German peoples to Christianity as it then was preached, but was first developed when this by other ways and means had found an entrance and only at the Reformation of the 16th century did it get full expression. For that predisposition was directed to the deepest and innermost sides of Christianity, for which the ecclesiastical institution of the times in its externalism had little appreciation; and the first task of the German spirit was to secure recognition of this reformatory principle.

§ 75.1. =The Predisposition of the Germans for Christianity.=--What we have been accustomed to hear about this subject is in part greatly exaggerated, in part sought for where its proper germ does not lie. The German mythology may indeed conceal many deep thoughts under the garb of legendary poetry which have some relation to Christian truth and afford evidence of the religious needs, the speculative gifts and the characteristic profundity of German thought, but this scarcely in a larger measure than in the Greek myths, philosophemes and mysteries.[200] Much more suggestive of a predisposition to Christianity than such bright spots in the mythological system of the Germans are the special and distinguishing characteristics of the life of the German people. The fidelity of the vassal to his lord, transferred to Christ the heavenly king, constitutes the special core of Christianity. Besides, closely connected therewith, the love of battle and faithfulness in battle for and with the hereditary or elected chief found a parallel in the struggles and victories of the Christian life. Further, the Germans’ noble love of freedom, sanctified by the Gospel, afforded form and expression for the glorious freedom of the children of God. And finally, the spirituality of the Germans’ worship, praised even by Tacitus, who says that they _nec cohibere parietibus Deos, neque in ullam humani oris speciem adsimulare, ex magnitudine cœlestium arbitrantur_, predisposed them in favour of the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth.

§ 75.2. What is of most significance, however, for understanding the almost unopposed =Adoption of Christianity= by so many German races is the slight hold that their heathen religion had upon them at that time. It is essentially characteristic of heathenism as the religion of nature that it can flourish only on its native soil. German paganism, however, had been uprooted by its transplantation to European soil and had, amid the movements of peoples during the first centuries after their migration, never quite struck root in the new ground. In the later centuries, when it had long enough time for doing so, _e.g._ among the Frisians, Saxons, Danes, it offered an incomparably more resolute resistance. Again, rapid conversion will be furthered or hindered according as the new home is one where already from Roman times Christian institutions existed or even had existed, or is one where the old primitive heathenism still prevailed. Only in the latter case could German paganism develop its full power and strike its roots deeply and feel at home upon the new soil; whereas in the other case, the higher culture and spiritual power of Christianity, even where it had been vanquished by the barbarians, disturbed the even tenour and naïvete of the genuinely pagan course of development. The circumstance also deserves mention, that the marriage of heathen princes with Christian princesses frequently secured their conversion along with that of their subjects. In the narrower circles of the home, the family, the tribe, innumerable instances of the same sort of thing repeatedly occurred. There is something specially Germanic, in the prominent position which German feeling had assigned to the wife: _Inesse quin etiam_, says Tacitus, _sanctum aliquid et providum putant; nec aut consilia earum adspernantur, aut responsa negligunt_.[201]

§ 75.3. =Mode of Conversion in the Church of these Times.=--Apart from the too frequent practice of Christian rulers to secure conversions by the sword, baptism and conversion were commonly regarded as an _opus operatum_, and whole crowds of heathens without any knowledge of saving truth, with no real change of heart and mind, were received into the church by baptism. No one can approve this. But it must be admitted that only in this way could striking and rapid results have been reached; that indeed in the stage of childhood, in which the Germans then were, it had a certain measure of justification. By the history even of its attack upon German paganism an entirely different career of conflict and victory was marked out to Christianity than that through which it had to pass in its conquests of Græco-Roman paganism. In this latter case it had to confront a high form of civilization which had outlived its powers and had lost itself in its own perplexities, which for a thousand years had proved in its civilization and history a παιδαγωγὸς εἰς Χριστόν. All this was wanting to the Germans. If the Roman world might be compared to a proselyte who in ripe, well proved and much experienced maturity receives baptism, the conversion of the Germans may be compared to the baptism of children.--Gregory the Great had at first directed the missionaries to the Anglo-Saxons (§ 77, 4) to destroy the idol temples of converted heathens. But further reflection convinced him that it was better to transform them into Christian churches, and now he laid it down as a maxim in Roman Catholic missions that pagan forms of worship and places of worship which were capable of modification to Christian uses should be carefully preserved and respected: “_Nam duris mentibus simul omnia abscindere impossibile esse dubium non est, quia et is qui summum locum ascendere nititur, gradibus vel passibus, non autem saltibus, elevatur._” It was a fateful, two-edged word, which led Catholic missions to a brilliant outward success, but has saturated the Catholic worship and life with a pagan leaven, which works in it powerfully down to the present day.

§ 76. THE VICTORY OF CATHOLICISM OVER ARIANISM.[202]

The first conversions of multitudes of the German races occurred at the time when Arianism had reached its climax in the Roman empire. Internal disturbances and external pressure compelled a portion of the Goths in the second half of the fourth century to throw themselves into the arms of the East Roman empire and to purchase its protection by the adoption of Arian Christianity. The missionary zeal of the national clergy, with bishop Ulfilas at their head, though we cannot indicate particularly his methods, spread Arianism in a short time over a multitude of the German nationalities. Down to the end of the fifth century Arianism was professed by the larger portion of the German world, by Visigoths and Ostrogoths, by Vandals, Suevi and Burgundians, by the Rugians and Herulians, by the Longobards, etc. And as the early friendly relations to the Roman empire had given Arianism a foundation among those peoples, so the later hostile relations to the Roman empire now turned Catholic made them cling tenaciously to their Arian heresy. Arianism had more and more assumed the character of a national German Christianity, and it almost seemed as if the whole German world, and with it the universal history of the future, were its secure prey. But a quick end was made of these expectations by the conversion of one of its chief branches to Catholicism. The Franks had from the first pursued a policy which was directed rather to the strengthening of the future of its brother tribes, than to the accelerating of the downfall of the Roman empire. This policy led them to embrace Catholicism. Trusting to the protection of the Catholic Christians’ God and the sympathies of the whole Catholic West, the Frankish rulers took advantage of the call to suppress heresy and conquer heretics’ lands. To renounce heresy so as to find occasion for attacking the territories of heretics, was probably with them a matter of political necessity.

§ 76.1. =The Goths in the lands of the Danube.=--From the middle of the 3rd century Christianity had found an entrance among the Goths through Roman prisoners of war. At the Council of Nicæa in A.D. 325 there was present a Gothic bishop Theophilus. From A.D. 348 the scion of an imprisoned Cappadocian Christian family, =Ulfilas=[203] by name, wrought as bishop among the Visigoths, already attached to the Arian confession, with so much zeal and success for the spread of Christianity that the hatred of the pagans was roused to such a pitch that in A.D. 355 they began a bloody persecution of the Christians. With a great part of the Gothic Christians Ulfilas fled over the Danube, and the emperor Constantius, who honoured him as a second Moses, assigned him a dwelling-place in Mount Hæmus. Ulfilas continued his work for thirty-three years with many tokens of blessing. In order that the Goths might have access to the original fount of saving knowledge, he translated the Holy Scriptures into their language, for which he invented a written character of his own. He died in A.D. 381. A short biography of the Apostle of the Goths was written by his disciple Auxentius, bishop of Dorostorus in Silistria, which gives an account at first hand of his life and doctrine. But not all Gothic Christians were expatriated with Ulfilas. Those who remained behind were a leaven which ever continued to expand and spread. So Athanaric, king of the Thervingians, about A.D. 370, started a new and cruel persecution against them. Soon afterwards a rebellion broke out among the pagan Thervingians. At the head of the malcontents was Frithigern. He was subdued, but got aid from the emperor Valens and in gratitude for the help given adopted the Arian religion of the emperor. This was the first conversion in multitude among the Goths. A second followed not long after. The Huns had rushed down like a whirlwind in A.D. 375 and destroyed the empire of the Ostrogoths. A part of these were obliged to join the Huns; while another fled into the country of the Thervingians. These last again were driven before the conquerors and crossed the Danube under Frithigern and Alaviv, where in A.D. 376 Valens gave them a settlement on condition that they should profess Arian Christianity. But this friendship did not last long, and Valens fell in A.D. 378 fighting against them. Theodosius, the restorer of the Catholic faith in the Roman empire, made peace with them. They retained, however, their Arian Confession, which spread from them in a way not yet explained to the Ostrogoths and other related tribes. Chrysostom started a Catholic mission among them, but it was stopped at his death.

§ 76.2. =The Visigoths in Gaul and Spain.=--The death of Theodosius in A.D. 395 and the partition of his empire gave the signal to the Visigoths to attempt securing for themselves more room. Alaric devastated Greece, broke in upon Italy in search of prey and plundered Rome in A.D. 410. His successor Athaulf descended upon southern Gaul, and Wallia founded there a Visigoth empire with Toulouse for its capital, which under Euric, who died in A.D. 483, reached the summit of its glory. Euric extended his kingdom in Gaul, and in A.D. 475, conquered the most of Spain. He sought to strengthen his government by having one system of law and one religion, but in his projected conversion of his subjects to Arianism, he met with unexpected opposition, which he sought in vain to put down by a severe persecution of the Catholics. The Roman population and the Catholic bishops longed for a Catholic government and placed their hopes in the Frankish king Clovis who had been converted in A.D. 496. As saviour and avenger of the Catholic faith Clovis completely destroyed the Visigoth power on this side the Pyrenees in a battle at Vouglé near Poitiers in A.D. 507. In Spain, however, the Visigoths retained their power and persisted in their efforts to convert all to the Arian faith. Under the violent Leovigild these efforts culminated in A.D. 585 in a cruel persecution. His son and successor Reccared, however, saw the vanity and danger of this policy and took the opposite course. At the third Synod of Toledo in A.D. 589 he adopted the Catholic faith and with the co-operation of the able metropolitan Leander of Seville secured complete ascendency for Catholicism throughout the empire. Under the later kings the Visigoth power sank lower and lower amid the treacheries, murders and revolts of internal factions, and in A.D. 711 the last king of the Visigoths, Roderick, after a bloody fight at Xeres de la Frontera yielded to the Saracens who had rushed down from Africa upon Spain.

§ 76.3. =The Vandals in Africa.=--Early in the 5th century the Vandals, who were even then Arian Christians, combining with the Alani and Suevi, made a descent from Pannonia upon Gaul in A.D. 406 and from thence upon Spain in A.D. 409, and made dreadful havoc of these rich and fertile lands. In A.D. 428 the Roman proconsul of Africa, Boniface, unjustly accused of treason by the Roman government, in his straits called in the aid of the Vandals. Their king Genseric went in A.D. 429 with 50,000 men. Boniface, however, was meanwhile reconciled with his government and did all in his power to get the barbarians to retire. But all in vain. Genseric conquered Africa and founded there a powerful Vandal empire. In A.D. 455 he even made an attack upon Rome, which was plundered by his hordes for fourteen days. In order to prevent any sympathy being shown by Africa for Rome he determined to secure throughout his empire uniform profession of the Arian creed, and in prosecuting this purpose during his fifty years’ reign exercised continual cruelties. He died in A.D. 477. But the African Catholics were faithful to their creed unto death and went forth to martyrdom in a spirit worthy of their ancestors of the 2nd or 3rd centuries. His son Hunneric allowed them only a short respite and began again in A.D. 483 the bloody work. He died in A.D. 484. Under his successor Guntamund [Gunthamund], who died in A.D. 496, a stop was put to the persecution; but Thrasamund [Thrasimund], who died in A.D. 523, again adopted bloody measures. Hilderic, who died in A.D. 530, a man of mild and generous temper, and the son of a Catholic mother, openly favoured the Catholics. Gelimer, a great-grandson of Genseric, put himself at the head of the Arians whom Hilderic’s catholic sympathies had alienated, took Hilderic prisoner and had him executed. But before he could carry out the intended persecution, Justinian’s general Belisarius marched into Africa, annihilated the Vandal army in a battle near Tricameron in A.D. 533, and overthrew the Vandal empire.[204]

§ 76.4. =The Suevi= were still heathens when they entered Spain with the Vandals in A.D. 409. Here under their king Rechiar they adopted the Catholic faith. But Remismund to please the Visigoths went over to Arianism in A.D. 465 with the whole people. Carraric, who thought he owed the cure of his son to the relics of Martin of Tours, passed over again to Catholicism in A.D. 550. With the co-operation of Martin, metropolitan of Braga, he converted his people, and a Provincial Synod at Braga in A.D. 563 under Theodimir I. completed the work. The empire of the Suevi was destroyed by Leovigild king of the Visigoths, in A.D. 585.

§ 76.5. =The Burgundians= carried on by the irresistible advance of Vandals, Suevi and Alani from their home on the Main and the Neckar, where they had adopted the Catholic faith, founded an independent kingdom in the Jura district. Here they came into contact with the Visigoths and for the most part fell away to Arianism. Of Gundiac’s four sons, who divided the empire among them, only Chilperic II., the father of Clotilda, remained Catholic. By fratricide his brother Gundobald secured complete sovereignty. The bishop Avitus of Vienne (§ 53, 5), however, vigorously opposed Arianism, and to secure its suppression called a Council at Epaon in A.D. 517, the decisions of which were recognised by Sigismund, Gundobald’s son, and were made valid throughout the empire. But even this did not satisfy Clotilda, the wife of the Frankish king Clovis, as an atonement for her father’s death. Her sons, urged by their mother to prove avengers of her father’s blood, made an end of the Burgundian empire in A.D. 534.

§ 76.6. =The Rugians=, in combination with the Herulians, Scyrians and Turcellingians, had founded an independent kingdom in the Old Roman Noricum, the Lower Austria of to-day. Arianism had been introduced among them by the Goths but without the complete expulsion of paganism. The Romans among them attached to Catholicism were sorely oppressed. But from A.D. 454, =Severinus= wrought among them like a messenger from heaven to bless, help and comfort the heavily burdened. He died in A.D. 482. Even from the barbarians he won the deepest reverence, and over heathens and Arians he had an almost magical power. He prophesied to the Scyrian Odoacer his future greatness. This prince in A.D. 476 put an end to the West Roman empire and ruled ably and wisely as king of Italy for seventeen years. He put an end too to Arian fanaticism in Rugiland in A.D. 487 by overthrowing the empire of the Rugians. But in A.D. 489 the Ostrogoth Theodoric came down upon Italy, conquered Ravenna after a three years’ siege, took Odoacer prisoner and in a wild drunken revel had him put to death in A.D. 493.

§ 76.7. =The Ostrogoths= when they conquered Italy had already for a long time been Arians, but were free from that fanaticism which so often characterized German Arianism. Theodoric granted full liberty to Catholicism, spared, protected and prized Roman culture, in all which certainly his famous minister Cassiodorus (§ 47, 23) had no small share. This liberal-minded tolerance was indeed made easy to the king by the thirty-five years’ schism of that time (§ 52, 5), which prevented any suspicions of danger to the state from the combination of Roman and Byzantine Catholics. And in fact, when this schism was healed in A.D. 519, Theodoric began to interest himself more in Arianism and to give way to such suspicions. He died in A.D. 526. The confusions that followed his death were taken advantage of by the emperor Justinian for the reconquest of Italy. His general Narses annihilated the last remnants of the Ostrogoth power in A.D. 554. The Byzantine government again rose upon the ruins of the Goths, and in A.D. 567 established the exarchate with Ravenna as its capital. For the time being Arianism was completely destroyed in Italy.[205]

§ 76.8. =The Longobards in Italy.=--In A.D. 569 the Longobards under Alboin made a descent upon Italy from the lands of the Danube, and conquered what has been called Lombardy after them, with its capital Ticinum, now Pavia. His successors extended their conquests farther south, till at last only the farthest point of Italy, the duchies of Naples, Rome and Perugia, Ravenna with its subject cities and Venice, acknowledged Byzantine rule. Excited by desire of plunder and political jealousy, the Arian Longobards warred incessantly for twenty years with Roman culture and Roman Catholicism. But after this first outburst of persecution had been stilled, religious indolence won the upper hand and the Arian clergy were not roused from their indifference to spiritual things by the growing zeal for conversions which characterized the Catholic bishops. Pope Gregory the Great, A.D. 590-604, devoted himself unweariedly to the task, and was powerfully supported by a Bavarian princess, the zealous Catholic queen Theodelinde. The Longobards were so enamoured of this fair and amiable queen that, when her first husband Anthari was murdered in A.D. 590, one year after their marriage, they allowed her to choose for herself one of the dukes to be her husband and their king. Her choice fell on Agilulf, who indeed himself still continued an Arian, but did not prevent the spread of Catholicism among his people. Their daughter Gundiberge, married successively to two Longobard kings, Ariowald († A.D. 636) and Rothari († A.D. 652) was an equally zealous protectress of the Catholic church; and with Rothari’s successor Aribert, brother’s son of Theodelinde, who died in A.D. 663, begins the series of Catholic rulers of the Longobards.--Continuation, § 82, 1.

§ 76.9. =The Franks in Gaul.=--When the West Roman empire was overthrown by Odoacer in A.D. 476, the Roman authority was still for a long time maintained in Gaul by the proconsul Syagrius. But the Merovingian Clovis, A.D. 481-511, put an end to it by the battle of Soissons in A.D. 486. In A.D. 493 he married the Burgundian princess Clotilda, and she, a zealous Catholic, used every effort to convert her pagan husband. The national pride of the Frank resisted long, but she got permission to have her firstborn son baptized. The boy, however, died in his baptismal robes, and Clovis regarded this as a punishment from his gods. Nevertheless on the birth of his second son he was unable to resist the entreaties of his beloved wife. He too sickened after his baptism; but when contrary to expectation he recovered amid the fervent prayers of the mother, the heathen father confessed that prayer to the Christian’s God is more powerful than Woden’s vengeance. He remembered this when threatened in A.D. 496 at Tolbiac with loss of the battle, of his life and of his empire in the war with the Alemanni. Prayer to the national gods had proved fruitless. He now turned in prayer to the God of the Christians, promising to own allegiance to Him, if He should get the victory. The fortune of battle soon turned. The army and kingdom of the Alemanni were destroyed. At his baptism at Rheims on Christmas Eve, A.D. 496, Archbishop Remigius addressed him thus: “Bend thy neck, proud Sigamber; adore what thou hast burnt, burn what thou hast adored!” The later tradition, first reported by Hincmar of Rheims in the 9th century, relates that when the church officer with the anointing oil could not get forward because of the crowd, in answer to Remigius’ prayer a white dove brought an oil flask from heaven, out of which all the kings of the Franks from that day have been anointed. The conversion of Clovis, soon followed by that of the nobles and the people, seems really to have been a matter of conviction and genuine according to the measure of his knowledge of God. He made a bargain with the Christian’s God and fulfilled the obligations under which he had placed himself. Of an inner change of heart we can indeed find no trace. There was, however, no mention of that in his bargain. Just after his conversion he commits the most atrocious acts of faithlessness, treachery and secret murder. The Catholic clergy of the whole West nevertheless celebrated in him a second Constantine, called of God as avenger upon heathenism and Arian heresy, and asked of him nothing more, seeing in this the task which providence had assigned him. The conversion of Clovis was indeed in every respect an occurrence of the greatest moment. The rude Arianism of the Germans, incapable of culture, received here its deathblow. The civilization and remnants of culture of the ancient world found in the Catholic church its only suitable vehicle for introduction into the German world; and now the Franks were at the head of it and laid the foundation of a new universal empire which would for centuries form the central point of universal history. On the work of Friddin [Fridolin] and Columbanus in the land of the Franks, see § 77, 7.

§ 77. VICTORY OF THE ROMISH OVER THE OLD BRITISH CHURCH.[206]

According to an ancient but more than doubtful tradition a British king Lucius about the middle of the 2nd century is said to have asked Christian missionaries of the Roman bishop Eleutherus and by them to have been converted along with his people. This, however, is certain, that at the end of the 3rd century (§ 22, 6) Christianity had taken root in Roman Britain, probably through intercourse with the Romans. Down to the Anglo-Saxon invasion in A.D. 449, the British church certainly kept up regular communication with that of the continent, especially with Gaul. From that time, being driven back into North and South Wales, it was completely isolated from the continental church; but all the more successfully it spread itself out among its neighbours in the allied tribes of Ireland and Scotland, among the former through Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, among the latter by Columba, the Apostle of the Scots, and followed a thoroughly independent course of development. When one hundred and fifty years later, in A.D. 596 the long interrupted intercourse with Rome was again renewed by a Romish mission to the Anglo-Saxons, several divergences from Roman practice were discovered among the Britons in respect of worship, constitution and discipline. Rome insisted that these should be corrected, but the Britons insisted on retaining them and repudiated the pretensions of the Romish hierarchy. The keen struggle which therefore arose, beginning amid circumstances that promised a brilliant success to the British church, ended with complete submission to Rome. The battle-field was then transferred to Germany, and there too in spite of the resolute resistance of their apostles the contest concluded with the same result (§ 78). The struggle was not merely one of highly tragic interest but of incomparable importance for the history of Europe. For had the result been, as for a time it seemed likely that it would be, in favour of the old British church, not only England but also all Germany would have taken up a decidedly anti-papal attitude, and not only the ecclesiastical but also the political history of the Middle Ages would have most likely been led into an altogether different course.

§ 77.1. =The Conversion of the Irish.=--Among the Celtic inhabitants of the island of Ireland there were some individual Christians from the beginning of the 5th century. The mission of a Roman deacon Palladius in A.D. 431 was without result. But in the following year, A.D. 432, the true apostle of the Irish, =Patrick=, with twenty-four companions, stept upon the shore of the island. The only reliable source of information about his life and work is an autobiography which he left behind him, _Confessiones_. According to it he was grandson of a presbyter and son of a deacon residing at Banava, probably in Britain, not likely in Gaul. In his sixteenth year he was taken to Ireland by Irish pirates and sold to an Irish chief whose flocks he tended for six years. After his escape by flight the love of Christ which glowed within his heart gave him no rest and his dreams urged him to bring the glorious liberty of the children of God to those who so long kept him bound under hard slavery. Familiar with the language and the customs of the country, he gathered the people by beat of drum into an open field and told them of the sufferings of Christ for man’s salvation. The Druids, priests of the Celts, withstood him vigorously, but his attractive and awe-inspiring personality gained the victory over them. Without a drop of martyr’s blood Ireland was converted in a few years, and was thickly strewn with churches and monasteries. Patrick himself had his residence at Macha, round which the town of Armagh, afterwards the ecclesiastical metropolis, sprang up. He died about A.D. 465, and left the island church in a flourishing condition. The numerous monasteries, in which calm piety flourished along with diligent study of Scripture and from which many teachers and missionaries went forth, won for the land the name of _Insula Sanctorum_. Only after the robber raids of the Danes in the 9th century did the glory of the Irish monasteries begin to fade.[207]

§ 77.2. =The Mission to Scotland.=--A Briton, Ninian, educated at Rome, wrought, about A.D. 430, among the Celtic =Picts= and =Scots= in Scotland or Caledonia. But those converted by him fell back into paganism after his death. The true Apostle of Scotland was the Irishman =Columba=. In A.D. 563 he settled with twelve disciples on the small Hebridean island Hy. Its common name, Iona, seems to have originated by a clerical error from Ioua, and was then regarded as the Hebrew equivalent of Columba, a dove. Icolmkill means Columba’s cell. Here he founded a monastery and a church, and converted from this centre all Caledonia. Although to the last only a presbyter and abbot of this monastery, he had all the authority of an apostle over the Scottish church and its bishops, a position that was maintained by successive abbots of Iona. He died in A.D. 597. The numerous monasteries founded by him vied with the Irish in learning, piety and missionary zeal. The original monastery of Iona flourished in a superlative degree.[208]

§ 77.3. =The Peculiarities of the Celtic Church.=--In the Anglo-Saxon struggle the following were the main points at issue.

1. On the part of Rome it was demanded that they should submit to the archiepiscopal jurisdiction instituted by the pope, which the British refused as an unrighteous assumption.

2. The British had an =Easter Canon= different from that of the Romish church. They were indeed nothing else than Quartodecimans, although they like these in ignorance referred to the Johannine tradition (§ 34, 2), but celebrated their Easter always on a Sunday, the settling of which they decided according to an 84 years’ cycle of the moon, after Rome had adopted a cycle of 19 years (§ 56, 3).

3. The Celtic clergy had also a different =Tonsure= from the Roman _Tonsura Petri_ which seems to have been the Greek _Tonsura Pauli_ (§ 45, 1), although the zealous advocate of the Roman customs, Ceolfrid, abbot of Jarrow, in a letter to Naitan, king of the Picts, derives it from Simon Magus.

4. Besides this there was also the question of the Marriage of Priests, which indeed the popish Anglo-Saxon Archbishop Augustine declared himself at first willing to allow to the British, which, however, was subsequently so passionately denounced by Boniface as _fornicatio_ and _adulterium_.

5. If, further, according to Bede’s statement, besides their divergent views about Easter, the British _et alia plurima imitati ecclesiasticæ contraria faciebant_, this certainly cannot be understood of doctrinal divergences, but only of different forms of constitution and worship, or ecclesiastical habits and customs, as might be well expected in churches that had been completely separated since A.D. 449. We need only think, _e.g._, of the progress made by the idea of the papal primacy (§ 46, 7-10), the consolidation and reconstruction of monasticism under Benedict (§ 85), the codification of Roman canon law by Dionysius Exiguus (§ 43, 3), the modification of the idea of penance since Leo the Great (§ 61, 1) and the development of the doctrine of the mass down to Gregory the Great (§ 58, 3; 59, 6). The most considerable peculiarity of constitution in the Celtic church seems to have been that above referred to in placing the abbots of the principal monasteries at the head of the hierarchy. Only in one passage (Bede, III. 19) is there mention of ecclesiastical doctrine: In A.D. 640 Pope John IV. addressed a conciliatory letter to the Scots in which he warns them against the Pelagian heresy, “_quam apud eos revivescere didicerat_.”

When then we turn our attention to the Celtic church planted on the continent at a later period, it is specially Columbanus’ view of Easter that is regarded in France as heretical. Often and loud as Boniface lifted up his voice against the horrible heresies of British, Irish and Scotch intruders, it is found at last that these consist in the same or similar divergences as those of the Anglo-Saxons. Not insisting upon the law of celibacy, opposition to the Roman primacy, the Romish tradition and the Romish canon law, especially the ever-increasing strictness of the Roman marriage laws (§ 61, 2), more simple modes of administering the sacraments and conducting public worship, even in unconsecrated places in forests and fields,--these and such like were the heresies complained of.--As concerns the _pro_ and _con._ of the evangelical purity of the ancient British Christianity, so highly praised by Ebrard, one occupying an impartial historical standpoint is justified in expecting that as all the good development so also all the bad development which had taken firm root in the common thought and feeling of the church down to the middle of the 5th century, would not have been uprooted from the church of Patrick and Columba, so also in the 7th century it would be still prevalent there. And this expectation is in general confirmed, so far as our information goes about all which was not expressly imported from Rome into the British church. If we deduct the by no means insignificant amount of unevangelical corruption which was first introduced into the Romish church during the period between Leo the Great and Gregory the Great, A.D. 440-604, partly by exaggerating and adorning elements previously there, partly by bringing in wholly new elements of ecclesiastical credulity, superstition and mistaken faith, there still remains for the Celtic church standing outside of this process of deterioration a relatively purer doctrine. Yet the Christianity that remains is by no means free of mixture from unevangelical elements as Jonas of Bobbio himself shows in his biography of his teacher Columbanus. But the more embittered the conflict between the British and the Romish churches became over matters of constitution and worship, the more did differences in faith and life, which had been overlooked at first, assume serious proportions, and supported by a careful study of Scripture, led to greater evangelical freedom and purity on the side of the British. This is thoroughly confirmed by Ebrard’s numerous quotations from the literature of that period.[209]

§ 77.4. =The Romish Mission to the Anglo-Saxons.=--To protect himself against the robber raids of the Picts and Scots, the British king Vortigern sought the aid of the Germans inhabiting the opposite shores. Two princes of the Jutes, Hengist and Horsa, driven from their home, led a horde of Angles and Saxons over to Britain in A.D. 449. New hordes kept following those that had gone before and after a hundred years the British were driven back into the western parts of the island. The incomers founded seven kingdoms; at the head of all stood the prince of one of the divisions who was called principal king, the Bretwalda. The Anglo-Saxons were heathens and the bitter feelings that prevailed between them and the ancient Britons prevented the latter from carrying on missionary operations among the former. The opportunity which the British missed was seized upon by Rome. The sight of Anglo-Saxon youths exposed as slaves in the Roman market inspired a pious monk, afterwards Pope Gregory I., with a desire to evangelize a people of such noble bodily appearance. He wished himself to take the work in hand, but was hindered by the call to the chair of Peter. He now bought Anglo-Saxon youths in order to train them as missionaries to their fellow-countrymen. But when soon thereafter the Bretwalda Ethelbert of Kent married the Frankish princess Bertha, Gregory sent the Roman abbot =Augustine= to England with forty monks in A.D. 596. Ethelbert gave them a residence and support in his own capital Dorovernum, now Canterbury. At Pentecost the following year he received baptism and 10,000 of his subjects followed his example. Augustine asked from Gregory further instructions about relics, books, etc. The pope sent him what he sought and besides the pallium with archiepiscopal rights over the whole Saxon and British church. Augustine now demanded of the Britons submission to his archiepiscopal authority and that they should work together with him for the conversion of the Saxons. But the British would do nothing of the sort. A personal interview with their chiefs under Augustine’s oak in A.D. 603 was without result. At a second conference everything was spoilt by Augustine’s prelatic pride in refusing to stand up on the arrival of the Britons. Inclined to compliance the Britons had just proposed this at the suggestion of a member as a sign. Augustine died in A.D. 605. The pope nominated as his successor his previous assistant Laurentius. Ethelbert’s heathen son and successor, Eadbald, oppressed the missionaries so much that they decided to withdraw from the field, in A.D. 616. Only Laurentius delayed his retreat in order to make a final attempt at the conversion of Eadbald. He was successful. Eadbald was baptized; the fugitives returned to their former posts. In the kingdom of Essex Augustine had already established Christianity, but a change of government had again restored paganism. The gospel, however, soon afterwards got entrance into Northumbria, the most powerful of the seven kingdoms. King Edwin, the founder of Edinburgh, won the hand of the Kentish princess Ethelberga, daughter of Bertha. With her, as spiritual adviser of the young queen, went the monk Paulinus, A.D. 625. These two persuaded the king and he again persuaded his nobles and the priests to embrace Christianity. At a popular assembly Paulinus proved the truth of Christianity, and the chief priest Coisi, setting at defiance the gods of his fathers, flung with his own hand a spear into the nearest idol temple. The people thought him mad and looked for Woden’s vengeance. When it came not, they obeyed the command of Coisi and burnt down the temple, A.D. 627. Paulinus was made bishop of Eboracum, now York, which pope Honorius on sending a pallium raised to a second metropolitanate. Edwin, however, fell in battle in A.D. 633 fighting against Penda, the pagan king of Mercia; Paulinus had to flee and the church of Northumbria was almost entirely rooted up.[210]

§ 77.5. =Celtic Missions among the Anglo-Saxons.=--The saviour of Northumbria was Oswald, A.D. 635-642, the son of a former king who had been driven out by Edwin. He had found refuge as a fugitive in the monastery of Hy and was there converted to Christianity. To restore the church in Northumbria the monks sent him one of their number, the amiable Aidan. Oswald acted as his interpreter until he acquired the Saxon language. His success was unexampled. Oswald founded a religious establishment for him on the island of Lindisfarne, and supported by new missionaries from Hy, Aidan converted the whole of the northern lands to Christianity. Oswald fell in battle against Penda. He was succeeded as king and also as Bretwalda by his brother Oswy. Irish missionaries joined the missionary monks of Hy, rivalling them in their exertions, and by A.D. 660 all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy had been converted to Christianity, and down to this date all, with the exception of Kent, which alone still adhered to the Romish church, belonged to the ancient British communion.[211]

§ 77.6. =The Celtic Element Driven out of the Anglo-Saxon Church.=--Oswy perceived the political danger attending the continuance of such ecclesiastical disputes. He succeeded in convincing also his neighbour kings of the need of ecclesiastical uniformity. The only question was as to which of the two should be recognised. The choice fell upon the Romish. Oswy himself most decidedly preferred it. His wife Eanfled, Edwin’s daughter, was a zealous partisan of the Romish church, and on her side stood a man of extraordinary power, prudence and persistence, the abbot Wilfrid, a native Northumbrian, trained in the monastery of Lindisfarne. He had, however, visited Rome, and since then used all his eloquence and skill in intrigue in order to lay all England at the feet of the pope. The queen and the abbot wrought together upon the Bretwalda, and he in his turn upon the other princes. To these personal influences were added others of a more general kind: the preference for things foreign over those of home growth, the brilliancy and preponderating weight of the Romish church, and above all, the gulf, not yet by any means bridged over, between the Saxons and the British. When secret negociations toward the desired end had been carried out, Oswy called a general Synod at the nunnery of Streoneshalch, now Whitby, _Synodus Pharensis_, A.D. 664. Here all the civil and ecclesiastical notabilities of the Heptarchy were assembled. The chief speaker on the Roman side was Wilfrid, on the Celtic side bishop Colman of Lindisfarne. The observance of Easter was the first subject of discussion. Wilfrid referred to the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord said: Thou art Peter, etc. Then Oswy asked Colman whether it was true that the Lord had said so to Peter. Colman could not deny it, and Oswy declared that he would follow him who had the power to open for them the gates of heaven. And so the question was settled. Oswy as Bretwalda carried out with energy the decisions of the Council, and within a few weeks the scissors had completed the conversion of the whole Heptarchy to the Roman tonsure and the Roman faith.[212]

§ 77.7. =Spread and Overthrow of the British Church on the Continent.=--The first Celtic missionary who crossed the channel was the Irishman =Fridolin=, about A.D. 500. With several companions he settled near Poitiers in Aquitaine which was then under the Visigoths, converted the Arian bishop of that place together with his congregation to trinitarian orthodoxy, and, under the protection of Clovis, who had meanwhile, A.D. 507, overthrown the Visigoth power in Gaul, founded churches and monasteries. Afterwards he wrought among the heathen Alemanni in Switzerland (§ 78, 1). We have fuller and more reliable accounts of Columba the younger, usually called =Columbanus=, an Irishman by birth, who, in A.D. 590, with twelve zealous companions, went forth from the British monastery of Bangor in Co. Down, Ireland, and settled among the Vosges mountains. Here they founded the monastery of Luxovium, now Luxeuil, as centre with many others affiliated to it. They cultivated the wilderness and wrought laboriously in restoring church discipline and order in a region that had been long spiritually neglected. But their strict adherence to the British mode of observing Easter caused offence. The severe moral discipline which they enjoined was galling to the careless Burgundian clergy, and the aged Brunehilda swore to compass their death and destruction, because of the influence adverse to her authority which they exercised upon her grandson, the young king Theodoric II. Thus it happened that in A.D. 610, after twenty years’ labours, they were driven away. They turned then to Switzerland (§ 78, 1). But when persecuted here also, Columbanus with his followers migrated to Italy, about A.D. 612, where, under Agilulf’s protection (§ 76, 8), he founded the celebrated monastery of Bobbio and contended against Arianism. The _Regula Columbani_ extant in several MSS. constitutes a written guide to Christian piety and breathes a free evangelical spirit, while the annexed _Regula cœnobialis fratrum de Hibernia_, also ascribed to him, bears a rigoristic ascetic character, enjoining frequent flagellations. Columbanus died in A.D. 615. The monks of his order joined the Benedictines in the 9th century. On his personal relation to the Romish chair during his residence in Gaul and Italy we get some information from three of his epistles still extant. In the first he asks Gregory the Great for an explanation of the Gallic observance of Easter, and in the second he asks Boniface IV. to confirm his old British mode of reckoning Easter. In both he recognises the pope as occupier of the chair of Peter, and in the second greets him as head of all the churches of Europe and describes the Roman church as the chief seat of the orthodox faith. In the third, on the other hand, he demands of the pope in firm terms an account of his own faith and that of the Roman church. He did so in consequence of a report having reached him, probably through the mention by the 5th œcum. Council (§ 52, 6) of a schism between Rome and Northern Italy, that the Roman chair had fallen into the heresies of Eutyches and Nestorius.--The ablest of Columbanus’ followers was Gallus or St. Gall. He remained in Switzerland and had his faithfulness rewarded by rich success. After Columbanus had been expelled from France traces of Celtic ecclesiastical institutions may indeed for a considerable time have lingered on among his Frankish scholars and friends animated by the missionary zeal of their master. For from their midst as it would seem proceeded most of those Frankish missionaries who carried the gospel in the 7th century to the German lands (§ 78). But from the time of the overthrow of the old Celtic ecclesiastical system at the Synod of Streoneshalch in A.D. 664, whole troops of its adherents, British, Irish, Scotch and Anglo-Saxons, crossed the channel to convert Germany. With very few exceptions, only the names of these men, and for the most part not even these, have come down to us. But their zeal and success are witnessed to by the fact that even in the beginning of the 8th century throughout all the district of the Rhine, as well as Hesse, Thuringia, Bavaria and Alemannia we find a network of flourishing churches bearing the impress of Celtic institutions. And the overthrow of this great and promising ecclesiastical system, partly by peaceful, partly by violent transportation into the Romish church, was the work of the Anglo-Saxon Winfrid, whom the Romanists, quite rightly from their point of view, honour, under the name of Boniface, as the Apostle of Germany (§ 78, 4-8).[213]

§ 77.8. =Overthrow of the Old British System in the Iro-Scottish Church.=--After the British Church had lost, in A.D. 664, all support in the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, it could not long maintain itself in its own original Celtic home. The Scottish kings on political grounds, in order to avoid giving their Saxon neighbours an opportunity of gratifying the love of conquest under the pretext of zeal for the faith, were obliged to assimilate their church organization with that of the Southerns. The learned Abbot Adamnan of Hy, when, in A.D. 684, by order of his king, he visited the Northumbrian court, professed to be there convinced of the correctness of the Romish observance of Easter. But when his monks stoutly resisted, he left the monastery and went on a missionary tour to Ireland where he urged his views so successfully that in A.D. 701 the most of the Irish adopted the Roman reckoning. Some years later, in A.D. 710, Naitan II., the powerful king of the Picts, asked instructions from Abbot Ceolfrid about the superiority of the Romish practice regarding Easter and the tonsure, forced his whole people to adopt the Romish doctrine and banished the obstinate priests. Finally, the Anglo-Saxon Egbert, educated in Ireland, but subsequently won over to the Romish church, induced by visions and tempests to abandon his projected mission to the heathen Frisians (§ 78, 3), and to devote himself to what was regarded as the more arduous task of the conversion of the schismatical monks of Hy, succeeded in A.D. 716 in so far overcoming their obstinacy that they at least gave up their divergent tonsure and Easter reckoning. Thereafter the Romanists were satisfied with the gradual Romanizing of the whole Celtic regions in the west and north. In worship, constitution and discipline all remained for a long time as it had been of old. The Roman law of celibacy could not win its way. Public worship was conducted and the sacraments dispensed in the language of the people and in the simple forms of primitive times. Canon law was almost everywhere made subordinate to the customs of the national church. Indeed, when in A.D. 843, the kingdom of the Picts, where the papacy had made most progress, went by inheritance to the Scottish king Kenneth, he restored even there the old ecclesiastical institutions of their fathers. Malcolm III., who died in A.D. 1093, was the first of the Scottish kings to begin the complete, thorough and lasting Romanizing of the whole country. His marriage with the English princess Margaret, a zealous supporter of the papacy, marks the beginning of that policy which was carried out and completed by their son David, who died in A.D. 1152. In Ireland the English conquest of A.D. 1171 under Henry III. prepared the way for the complete Romanizing of the island. Still in both Scotland and Ireland down to the 14th century many of the old Celtic priests survived. To them was given the Celtic name Kele-de, _servus_ or _vir Dei_, Latinized as Colidei, and in modern form, Culdees. They were secular priests who, bound by a strict rule, in companies generally of twelve with a prior over them, like a Catholic canon (§ 84, 1), devoted themselves to a common spiritual life and activity, maintaining an existence in many places down to the end of the 8th century. The origin of the rule under which they lived is still very obscure. It allowed them to marry but enforced abstinence from marital intercourse during the period of their service, and required of them, besides the charge of the public services, special attention to the poor. In Scotland particularly their societies soon became so numerous that almost the whole secular clergy went over to them. By the forcible introduction of regular canons they were crushed more and more down to the 11th century, or where they still existed, they were deprived of the right of pastoral supervision and administration of the sacraments and reduced to subordinate positions, such as that of choir singers.--The usual application of the name of Culdees to all, even earlier representatives of the Celtic church, is quite unjustifiable.[214]

§ 78. THE CONVERSION AND ROMANIZING OF GERMANY.[215]

In the Roman period the regions of the Rhine and the Danube had become Christian countries, but the rush of the migration of the peoples had partly destroyed the Christian foundations, partly overlaid them with heathen superstitions. By the end of the 6th century a great part of Germany was already under the dominion of the Franks, and, to distinguish it from the country of the West Franks or Neustria, was called Austrasia or the land of the East Franks. South-western and South-eastern Germany (Alemannia, Bavaria, Thuringia) was governed by native dukes under the often disputed over-lordship of the Franks. North-western Germany (embracing the Frisians and the Saxons) still enjoyed undisputed national independence. The first serious attempt to introduce or restore Christianity in Austrasia began about the end of the 6th century. The missionaries who took the work in hand went, partly from Neustria, partly from this side of the Channel. The Irish and Scottish monasteries were overflowing. Those dwelling in them had an unconquerable passion for travel and in their hearts an eager longing to spread Christ’s kingdom by preaching the gospel. This impulse was greatly strengthened by the overthrow of their national prestige (§ 77, 6). They were thus out of sympathy with their native land, and were encouraged to hope that they might win on the opposite continent what they had lost at home. Crowds of monks from Iro-Scottish monasteries crossed over into the heathen provinces of Germany. But Romish Christian Anglo-Saxons, no less fond of travel, impelled by the same missionary fervour and no slight zeal for their own communion, followed in their steps. Thus in the 8th century on German soil the struggle was renewed which at home had been already fought out, to end again as before in the defeat of the Celtic claims. In almost all German countries we find traces of Irish or Scottish missionaries and married priests, reproachfully styled adulterers. What mainly secured for the Anglo-Saxons the victory over them was the practical talent for organization shown by the former, and their attachment to the imposing spiritual power of the papal see. To them alone is Germany indebted for her incorporation into the Roman ecclesiastical union; for even the Frankish missionaries for the most part had no connection with Rome.--Most rapid and successful progress was made by the mission where there had previously been Christian institutions, _e.g._ in the provinces of the Rhine and the Danube. The work was more difficult on the east of the Scheldt in Friesland, Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony, where paganism had reigned undisturbed. Mission work was at once furthered and hindered by the selfish patronage of the Frankish rulers. Paganism and national liberty, the yoke of Christ and the yoke of the Franks, seemed inseparably conjoined. The one stood and fell with the other. The sword of the Franks was to make the way for the cross of Christ, and the result of preaching was to afford an introduction to political subjection. The missionaries submitted regretfully to this amalgamation of religious and political interests, but it was generally unavoidable.

§ 78.1. =South-Western Germany.=--Here were located the powerful race of the =Alemanni=. Of the Christian institutions of the Roman period only some shadowy remnants were now to be seen. The diet of Tolbiac in A.D. 496 which gave the Franks a Christian king, first secured an entrance among the Alemanni to Christianity. Yet progress was slow, for the Franks did not resort to force. The revision of Alemannian jurisprudence, concluded by Dagobert I. about A.D. 630, assumed indeed that the country was wholly Christian, but it only anticipated what the country was destined to become. =Fridolin= (§ 77, 7), founder of the monastery of Seckingen on an island of the Rhine above Basel, is called the first Apostle of the Alemanni, A.D. 510. The reports that have reached us of his work are highly legendary and unreliable. After =Columbanus= in A.D. 610 had been compelled along with his companions to leave the Frankish territory (§ 77, 7), he chose Alemannian Switzerland as the field of their operations. They settled first of all at Tuggen on the Zurich lake. The fiery zeal with which they destroyed heathen idols, roused the wrath of the inhabitants, who maltreated them and drove them away. They next wrought for three years at Bregentz where they converted many pagans. The main instrument in this work was =Gallus= who had gained thorough mastery of the language of the people. Driven from this place also, Columbanus and his followers settled in Italy. Only =Gallus=, who was ill at the time, remained behind. He felt obliged, in spite of all unfavourable circumstances, to carry on the work that had been begun. In a wild forest dale by the stream Steinach, where he was held firm by a thorn bush while on his knees praying, he built a cell, from which arose in later times the famous abbey of St. Gall. He died, after an eminently useful and successful life in his 95th year in A.D. 646. He does not seem to have been so persistent as Columbanus in maintaining the peculiarities of the British church. His disciple =Magnoald= continued his work and founded the monastery of Füssen on the Upper Lech in Swabia. At the same time there wrought at Breisgau the hermit =Trudpert=, an Irishman, who laid the foundation of the future abbey of Trudpert at the foot of the Black Forest, and was murdered in A.D. 643 by a servant given up to him for forced labour. Somewhat later we meet with =Pirminius=, a Frankish cleric, on the Lake of Constance, where, under the protection of the Frankish ruler Charles Martel, he founded the monastery of Reichenau in A.D. 724. A national rising of the Alemanni against the Franks drove him away after three years; but the monastery remained uninjured. He then proceeded down the Rhine and founded several monasteries, the last at Hornbach in the diocese of Metz, where he died in A.D. 753.

§ 78.2. =South-Eastern Germany.=--After the successful labours of Severinus (§ 76, 6) the history of the Danubian provinces is shrouded in thick darkness. A hundred years later we find there the powerful nation of the Boyars, now Bavarians, with native dukes descended from Agilulf. Only scanty remnants of Christianity were to be seen. In A.D. 615 the Frankish abbot =Eustasius= of Luxeuil, the successor of Columbanus, appears prosecuting the missionary labours, and struggling against the so-called heresies of Bonosus and Photinus, remnants probably of Gothic Arianism. About the middle of the 7th century, at the court of the Duke of Bavaria, Theodo I., at Regensburg, =Emmeran=, bishop of Poitiers, laboured for three years. Suddenly he left the country and made a pilgrimage to Italy. Being charged with the seduction of the Princess Ota, he was on his journey in A.D. 652, according to others in A.D. 715, overtaken by her brother and cruelly murdered. Ota is said at the advice of the saint himself to have named him as her seducer, in order to screen the actual seducer from vengeance. The true Apostle of Bavaria was bishop =Rupert= of Worms. In A.D. 696 he baptized the Duke Theodo II. with his household, founded many churches and monasteries, and almost completed the Christianizing of the country. The centre of his operations was the bishopric of Salzburg, founded by him. About A.D. 716 he returned to Worms and died there in A.D. 717. An old tradition describes him as a Scot, whether in respect of his descent or of his undoubtedly ecclesiastical tendencies, is uncertain. We find at least no trace of his having had any connection with Rome. Soon after him a Frankish itinerant bishop called =Corbinianus= made his appearance in Bavaria, and was the founder of the episcopal see at Freisingen, A.D. 724. He was a man of imperious temper and unbending stubbornness, who exercised discipline with reckless strictness, rooted out the remnants of pagan superstition, and founded many churches and monasteries. He died in A.D. 730.--That the Frankish missionaries were still more or less influenced by the old British traditions is shown by the fact that Boniface found the Bavarian church free from Rome. Duke Theodo II. soon after Rupert’s departure on a pilgrimage to Rome had indeed entered into relations with Gregory II., in consequence of which three Roman clerics made their appearance in Bavaria. But the organization of the Bavarian church committed to them by the pope could not be carried out on account of political troubles. Boniface was the first who succeeded in some measure in doing this.--The Apostle of the neighbouring Thuringians was an Irishman =Kilian= or Kyllena, who, toward the end of the 7th century, along with twelve companions, entered the province of Würzburg. These faithful men found the reward of their labours in the crown of martyrdom. But crowds of their zealous believing fellow-countrymen followed them, and continued with rich success the work which they had begun, until, after a hard struggle, they were obliged to resign the field to Boniface.

§ 78.3. =North-Western Germany.=--In the Middle Rhine provinces Christian episcopal dioceses had been maintained, but in a feeble condition and overrun with crowds of heathen people. About the middle of the 6th century a Frank called =Goar= settled as a hermit within the bounds of the diocese of Treves, converted many of the surrounding heathens and put to shame the envious suspicions of the clergy of Treves, his holiness being attested according to later legends by many extraordinary miracles. The beautiful town of St. Goar has grown up round the spot where he built his cell and church. After him in the same region wrought a Longobard =Wulflaich= who as a stylite (§ 44, 6), in spite of the northern climate, preached down to the heathens from his pillar. But the neighbouring bishops disliked his senseless asceticism and had the pillar thrown down.--After the Frankish king Dagobert I. conquered the south of the Netherlands in A.D. 630, an accomplished Frankish priest, =Amandus=, appeared at Rome preaching the gospel among the Frisians settled there. The command given by him for the compulsory baptism of all the pagans only intensified the hatred against him and his sacred message. Insulted, maltreated and repeatedly thrown into the Scheld, he left the country to missionarize among the Basques of the Pyrenees and then among the Slavs of the Danube. But at a later period he returned to Ghent, and gained great influence after having succeeded in converting a rich Frisian called Bavo, with whose help he built two monasteries. In A.D. 647 he was chosen bishop of Maestricht, but retired in A.D. 649, notwithstanding the dissuasion of Pope Martin I., on account of the opposition of his clergy, and then founded the monastery of Elno, afterwards called St. Amand, near Tournay, where he died in A.D. 648. During the same period wrought =Eligius=, formerly a skilful goldsmith at the court of Dagobert, from A.D. 641 bishop of Noyon, where he died in A.D. 658. He took numerous missionary journeys for the conversion of the Frisians extending as far as the Scheld. From this side of the Channel too wistful eyes had looked over to the Frisian coasts. A Briton said to have been converted to Romanism by Augustine the Apostle of the Anglo-Saxons, =Livinus=, appeared as a missionary on the Scheld about A.D. 650, but was slain by the heathens soon after his arrival. The celebrated supporter of Romish claims, =Wilfrid= (§ 77, 6), first preached the gospel to the Frisians living north of the Scheld. He had been elected archbishop of York, but, expelled from his bishopric (§ 88, 3), he went to seek protection at Rome and was cast by a storm on the Frisian shores, which was fortunate for him as hired assassins waited for him in France. He spent the winter of A.D. 677-678 in Friesland, preached daily, baptized Duke Aldgild and “thousands” of the people. But in the following spring he took his departure. Aldgild’s successor Radbod († A.D. 719), who passed his whole life in war with Pippin of Heristal († A.D. 714) and Charles Martel, hated and persecuted Christianity as the religion of the Franks, and the seed sown by Wilfrid perished. Pippin’s victory at Dorstadt in A.D. 689 compelled him for a time to show greater toleration. Then immediately a Frankish mission was started under bishop =Wulfram= of Sens, a pupil of the monastery of Fontanelle founded by Columbanus. According to an interesting tradition, which, however, does not stand the test of criticism, Radbod was himself just about to receive baptism, but drew back from the baptismal font, because he would rather go with his glorious forefathers to hell than enter the Christian heaven with a crowd of miserable people. It is probably only a legend designed in the interest of the doctrine of predestination.--The true Apostle of the Frisians was the Anglo-Saxon =Wilibrord= who, in company with twelve followers, undertook the work in A.D. 690. Born in Northumbria about A.D. 658, he received his first training under Wilfrid at the monastery of Ripon and then in an Irish monastery under the direction of Egbert, whose debt to the Frisians (§ 77, 8) he now undertook to pay. Pippin gave protection and aid to the missionaries, and Wilibrord travelled to Rome that he might get there support for his life work. He returned armed with papal approbation and supplied with relics. But meanwhile a party of his followers, probably dissatisfied with his control, sent one of their number called Suidbert to England, where he received episcopal consecration. Wilibrord’s party, however, kept the upper hand. Suidbert went to the Bructeri on the Upper Ems, and, when driven thence by the Saxons, to the Rhine, where he built a monastery on an island of the Rhine given him by Pippin, and died there in A.D. 715.--After many years’ successful labour Wilibrord, at Pippin’s command, went a second time to Rome in A.D. 696, to be there consecrated a bishop. Sergius I. gave him consecration under the name of Clement, distinguishing him in this way as an eminent man, and Pippin gave him the castle of Utrecht as an episcopal residence. From this centre his missionary labours stretched out over Radbod’s realm and even across the Danish frontier. During a visit to the island of Heligoland he ventured to baptize three men in a holy well. Radbod would have the blasphemers together to sacrifice to the gods; thrice he enquired at the sacred lot, but it answered regularly in favour of the missionaries. But, in consequence of the complete defeat which Charles Martel suffered at the hands of Radbod at Cologne, in A.D. 715, the Frisian mission was stopped and only after Radbod’s death in A.D. 719 could Wilibrord commence operations again from the monastery of Echternach, to which he had meanwhile withdrawn. When he died at the age of eighty-one in A.D. 739, the conversion at least of South Friesland was almost completed. We hear nothing of conflicts and disputes with Celtic missionaries all through his fifty years of missionary labour, in consequence, no doubt, of his mild and peaceful temper, which led him to attend rather to the Christianizing of the heathen than to the Romanizing of those who were already Christian.--In consequence of jurisdictional claims of the Cologne see, the episcopate of Utrecht remained vacant for a long time after Wilibrord’s death. The mission among the heathens was meanwhile conducted with zeal and success by =Gregory=, a Frankish nobleman of the Merovingian family and a favourite pupil of Boniface, who as abbot of the monastery of Utrecht presided over its famous seminary. Willehad, the Anglo-Saxon, was held in high repute by his scholars and was made bishop of Bremen by Charlemagne. The conversion of the northern Frisians was completed by =Liudger=, a native Frisian, afterwards bishop of Münster.

§ 78.4. =The Missionary Work of Boniface.=--The Anglo-Saxon =Winfrid= or =Boniface=,[216] born at Kirton in Wessex about A.D. 680 had at an early age, on account of his piety, ecclesiastical tastes and practical talent, gained an honourable position in the church of his native land. But he was driven by an irresistible impulse to devote himself to the heathen tribes of Germany. In A.D. 716 he landed in Friesland. Although Radbod, then at war with Charles Martel, considering that he had no connection with the Franks, put no hindrances in his way, he had not such success as encouraged him to continue, and so before winter he returned home. But his missionary ardour gave him no rest; even his election as abbot of his monastery of Nutscall was not sufficient to hold him back. And so in the spring of A.D. 718 he crossed the Channel a second time, but went first of all to Rome, where Gregory II., A.D. 715-731, supplied him with relics and papal authority for the German mission. The task to which he now applied himself was directed less to the uprooting of paganism than to the overthrow of that Celtic heresy which had on many sides struck its roots deeply in German soil. He next attempted to gain a footing in Thuringia. But he could neither induce the “adulterous” priests to submit to Rome, nor seduce their people from allegiance to them. News of Radbod’s death in A.D. 719 moved him to make a journey into Friesland, where he aided Wilibrord for three years in converting the heathens. Wilibrord wished him to remain in Friesland as his coadjutor, and to be his future successor in the bishopric of Utrecht. But this reminded him of his own special task. He tore himself away and returned to Upper Hesse in A.D. 722. Here he won to Roman Christianity two Christian chiefs Dettic and Deorulf, erected with their help the monastery of Amanaburg (Arnöneburg, not far from the Ohm or _Amana_), and baptized, as his biographer Willibald assures us, in a short time “many thousands” of the heathens. He reported his success to the pope who called him to Rome in A.D. 723, where, after exacting of him a solemn vow of fealty to the papal chair, he consecrated him Apostolic bishop or Primate of all Germany, and gave him a _Codex canonum_ and commendatory letters to Charles Martel and the German clergy, as well as to the people and princes of Thuringia, Hesse, and even heathen Saxony. He next secured at the court of Charles Martel a letter of protection and introduction from that powerful prince, and then again betook himself to Hesse. The cutting down of the old sacred oak of Thor at Geismar near Fritzlar in A.D. 724, against which he raised the axe with his own hand amid the breathless horror of the heathen multitudes, building a Christian chapel with its timber, marked the downfall of heathenism in the heart of Germany. In the following year, A.D. 725, he extended his operations into Thuringia, where Celtic institutions were still more widely spread than in Hesse. This extension of his field of labour required a corresponding increase of his staff. He applied to his English friends, of whom bishop Daniel of Winchester was the most distinguished. His call was responded to year after year by Anglo-Saxon priests, monks and nuns. All England was roused to enthusiasm for the work of its apostle and supported him with advice and practical aid, with prayers and intercessions, with gifts and presents for his personal and ecclesiastical necessities. Thus there soon arose two spiritual armies over against one another; both fought with equal enthusiasm for what seemed to them most high and holy. But the Anglo-Saxon invader gained ground always more and more, though indeed amid much want, weariness and care, and the Celtic church gradually disappeared before advancing Romanism. Meanwhile Gregory II. had died. His successor Gregory III., A.D. 731-741, to whom Boniface had immediately submitted a report, answered by sending him the archiepiscopal pallium with a commission as papal legate in the German lands to found bishoprics and consecrate bishops. His work in Thuringia, after ten years’ struggles and contests, was so far successful that he could look around for other fields of labour. He chose now, however, not heathen Saxony but the already Christianized Bavaria, which, as still free from Rome and strongly infected with the British heresy, seemed to afford a more attractive field for his missionary zeal. He made a hasty tour of inspection through the country in A.D. 735-736. The most important result of this journey was the accession of a fiery young Bavarian named Sturm, supposed to be next in succession to Odilo the heir of the throne, whom Boniface took with him to educate at the seminary at Fritzlar. In the following year he undertook a third journey to Rome, undoubtedly to consult with the pope about the further organization of the German church and the best mode of its accomplishment. He had the most flattering reception and stayed almost a whole year in Rome. The pope sent him away in A.D. 738 with apostolic letters to the clergy, people and nobles of Middle Germany, and also to some distinguished Bavarian and Alemannian bishops, in which those addressed were urged to assist his legate by their ready and hearty obedience in bringing about a much-needed organization of the churches in their several provinces.[217]

§ 78.5. =The Organization Effected by Boniface.=--The attention of Boniface was directed first of all to Bavaria, and duke Odilo reigning there since A.D. 737 anticipated it by an invitation. Arriving in Bavaria he divided the whole Bavarian church into four dioceses. Bivilo of Passau had before this been consecrated as bishop in Rome. Erembert of Freisingen received consecration at the hand of the legate. The bishops of Regensburg and Salzburg, however, down to the close of their lives, asserted themselves as opposition bishops over against those appointed by Boniface. Odilo, too, withdrew from him his favour, and entrusted not to him but to Pirminian the Alemannian Apostle, who sided with the Celtic church, the organization and oversight of several newly-founded Bavarian monasteries. Thus the results of the papal legate’s visit to Bavaria were of a very doubtful kind, and he had not even made a beginning of Romanizing Alemannia. In the meantime, however, an incident occurred which gave him in a short time the highest measure of influence and success. Charles Martel died in A.D. 741 and his sons succeeded him, Carloman in Austrasia and Pepin the Short in Neustria. Charles Martel had indeed on Gregory’s recommendation given Boniface a letter of protection that he might carry on his work in Hesse and Thuringia, but he had never gone further, so that Boniface often complained bitterly to his English friends of the indolent, even hostile attitude of the Frankish prince. But he could not wish a better coadjutor than Carloman, who was really rather more a monk than a prince. And so Boniface no longer delayed the organization of the Hessian and Thuringian churches, for in the course of the year 741 he founded four bishoprics there. It was a matter of still greater consequence that Carloman and then also Pepin aided him in the reorganization of the Frankish national church on both sides of the Vosges mountains, where partly on account of sympathy with the British church system, partly on account of the wild spirit engendered by a life of war and the chase, the clergy had not hitherto submitted to the influence of the papal emissary. In order that the estates of the realm might be advised by “the envoy of St. Peter” and the clergy of the empire about what was necessary for the Austrasian church, Carloman, at the close of an imperial diet, at a place unknown, called the first Austrasian Synod, _Concilium Germanicum_, in A.D. 742, and gave to its decrees the authority of imperial laws. Boniface was recognised as Archbishop and Primate of the whole Austrasian church; it was forbidden that the higher or lower clergy should have anything to do with arms, hunting and war, that all “false and adulterous” priests should be expelled; that the admission of “strange” clerics should be dependent on examination before a Synod to be held annually; that in all monasteries the Benedictine rule (§ 85, 1) should be enforced; and that it be made the duty of counts to support the bishops in maintaining church discipline and stamping out all remnants of paganism. In the next year, A.D. 743, Carloman summoned the Second Austrasian Synod at Liptinä, now Lestines, near Cambray, which confirmed the decrees of the first and enlarged their scope, especially in regard to the rooting out of pagan superstition and enforcing strictly the Romish prohibition of marriage between those naturally (§ 61, 2) and spiritually (§ 58, 1) related. Thus upon the whole the legal reorganization of the church of Austrasia might have been regarded as complete, even though its actual enforcement required yet many severe struggles. In A.D. 744 Boniface laid the foundation of the famous monastery of Fulda which for many centuries was a chief resort and principal school of the Benedictine monks of Germany. Its first abbot was young Sturm.--After the close of the Austrasian Synod Boniface began to treat with Pepin about the reorganization of the church in Neustria. Pepin called a Neustrian provincial Synod at Soissons in A.D. 744. Its decrees in regard to discipline were in essential agreement with those of the two Austrasian Synods. Besides it was resolved to erect three metropolitan sees. Two of the prelates designate, however, refused to accept the pallium offered by pope Zacharias, A.D. 741-752, ostensibly on the plea that the payment of the fee demanded would render them guilty of simony. Their refusal, however, was perhaps mainly due to Pepin’s discovery that the political unity of Neustria required a Primate at Rheims rather than three metropolitans (§ 83). At a national Synod, place of meeting unknown, held in A.D. 745, called by the two princes acting together, at Boniface’s request the bishop Gewilib of Mainz, a rude warrior guilty of secret murders, was deposed. It was now the wish of Boniface that he should receive the vacant episcopal chair of Cologne, which was destined to be raised into a metropolitan see. Yet, through the machinations of his opponents, the vacancy at Cologne was otherwise filled, and Boniface was at last obliged to be satisfied with the less important bishopric of Mainz. At a second national Council of A.D. 748 held probably at Düren he succeeded in getting a considerable number of Austrasian and Neustrian bishops to subscribe a declaration of absolute submission to the pope in which they fully acknowledged the papal supremacy over the Frankish church. Pepin, who now, after the retirement of his brother Carloman from the government in A.D. 747, in order to spend the rest of his days in the monastery of Monte Cassino, was sole ruler of both kingdoms, obtained the express approval of pope Zacharias in A.D. 752 in making an end of the puppet show of a sham Merovingian royalty (§ 82, 1). But it is quite a mistake to say that Boniface was the intermediary in this matter between the pope and the mayor of the palace. His letters rather show, from the disfavour in which he at that time stood at the court of Pepin, that the negociations were carried on directly with the pope without his knowledge.[218]

§ 78.6. =Heresies Confronted by Boniface.=--Among the numerous heresies with which Boniface had to deal the most important were those of the Frankish Adalbert, the Scotchman Clement, and the Irishman Virgilius. Adalbert wrought on the left bank of the Rhine far into the interior of Neustria; Clement among the East Franks. In the summer of A.D. 743 Carloman had at Boniface’s urgent request cast both into prison, and at the Neustrian Synod of Soissons in A.D. 744 Boniface secured Adalbert’s condemnation. Yet soon after we find both at liberty. Boniface now accused them before the pope Zacharias, and they were condemned unheard at a Lateran Council in A.D. 745. The legate’s written accusation charged the Frankish =Adalbert= with the vilest hypocrisy and blasphemy: He boasted that an angel had brought him relics of extraordinary miracle-working power, by which he could do anything that God could; he placed himself on an equality with the apostles; he introduced unlearned and uncanonically ordained bishops; he forbade pilgrimages to Rome, and the consecration of churches and chapels in the names of apostles and martyrs, but had no objection to their consecration in his own name; he neglected divine service in consecrated places and assembled the people for worship in woods and fields and wheresoever it seemed good to him; he let his own hair and nails be venerated as relics; he absolved those who came to him in confession with the words: I know all your sins, for nothing is hidden from me, confession is unnecessary, go in peace, your sins are forgiven you, etc.; in this way he won great influence especially over women and peasants, who honoured him as a great apostle and miracle-worker. Three documents supported the report of Boniface; viz., a biography of Adalbert composed by one of his admirers, according to which his mother in the “ever blessed” hour of his birth had in vision seen an ox go forth out her right side; also, a letter said to have fallen from heaven to Jerusalem which guaranteed his divine mission; and finally, a prayer composed by him which while generally breathing a spirit of deep humility and firm faith, went on to invoke a rarely-named angel. If we strike out from these charges those which evidently rest upon misunderstanding and legendary or malevolent exaggeration, we have before us a man who in opposition to the prevailing worship of saints and relics maintained that the relics set up for veneration were no more worthy of it than his own hair and nails would be, who also disputed the advantage of pilgrimages, denied the necessity of auricular confession, insisted upon the universal priesthood of believers in opposition to Romish hierarchical claims, and the evangelical worship of God in spirit and in truth in opposition to the Romish overestimation of consecrated places; but in doing so perhaps, more certainly in mystic-theosophic enthusiasm than in conscious deceitfulness, he may have boasted of divine revelations and the possession of miracle-working power.--The figure of the Scotchman =Clement= comes out yet more distinctly in the charge formulated against him. He is simply an adherent of the pure and unadulterated ecclesiastical system of the old British church. He treats with contempt the Canon law, and does not regard himself as bound by the decrees of Synods or the authority of the Latin Fathers; he claims to be a bishop and still lives in “adulterous” wedlock; he affirms that a man may marry the widow of his deceased brother; he teaches with reference to Christ’s descent into hell that even those who died in heathenism may yet be redeemed, and “_affirmat multa alia horribilia de prædestinatione Dei contraria fidei cath_.” The pope committed to his legate the execution of the Synod’s condemnatory judgment. But still in A.D. 747 Boniface again complains that the undiminished reputation of both heretics at all points stands in his way. Soon after this, however, Carloman, after Adalbert had submitted in a disputation with Boniface, sent him into confinement in the monastery of Fulda, from which he made his escape, and after long wanderings was at last killed by the swineherds. No information has reached us as to the end of Clement.--The Irishman =Virgilius= was from A.D. 744 bishop of Salzburg, and, as before at the court of Pepin, so now at his recommendation at the court of the Bavarian duke Odilo, he stood in high favour. After a long and determined refusal he at last agreed to submit to the Romish choice of bishops. A priest of his diocese unskilled in Latin had baptized _in nomine patria et filia et speritus sancti_, Boniface pronounced such baptism invalid. Virgilius thought otherwise and appealed to the pope who was obliged to admit that he was right. But now Boniface complained of him as a heretic because he taught: _Quod alius mundus et alii homines sub terra sint_, and this time the pope took the side of his legate, because upon the accepted notion of the orbicular form of the earth, the doctrine of antipodes (already regarded by Lactantius and Augustine as of dangerous tendency) amounted to a denial of the unity of the human race and the universality of redemption, whereas the Irishman belonging to a seafaring race probably considered the earth to be globular. The pope, in A.D. 748, ordered his deposition and removal from the clerical order, which Boniface, however, was not able to accomplish.[219]

§ 78.7. =The End of Boniface.=--On the one hand, distrusted, and set aside by Pepin and the new pope Stephen II., A.D. 752-757, from his position as legate (§ 82, 1), and also, on the other hand, feeling himself overborne in his old age by the burden of his episcopal and archiepiscopal cares, sorrows and conflicts, Boniface had his favourite pupil, the energetic Lullus, already recognised by pope Zacharias, elected as his successor, and with Pepin’s consent transferred to him at once the independent administration of the episcopal diocese of Mainz. He now determined to devote his last as he had his first energies undividedly to his archiepiscopal diocese embracing the Frisian church, which still needed firm episcopal control and was now threatened with a pagan reaction. After Wilibrord’s death in A.D. 739, Cologne, resting its pretensions on an ancient deed of gift by Dagobert, claimed jurisdiction over the Frisian church. Boniface indeed at Carloman’s orders had ordained a new bishop to the Utrecht chair, in A.D. 741, probably the Anglo-Saxon Eoban. Yet this new bishop never came into actual, at least not into undisputed possession. In one of his last letters Boniface earnestly but in vain implores pope Stephen II. to disallow the unjust pretensions of Cologne. Charlemagne first settled the dispute by requiring Alberich, Gregory’s successor in the Utrecht see, to receive consecration at the hands of the Cologne prelate. With a stately retinue of fifty-two followers clerical or lay, and with a foreboding presentiment carrying with him a winding sheet, Boniface sailed down the Rhine in the spring of A.D. 754. Whether he had now in view a reorganization of the existing Frisian church and how far he succeeded, we have no means of knowing. On the other hand his biographers in their legendary exaggeration cannot sufficiently extol the wonderful success of his missionary preaching. Wherever he appeared throughout the land he baptized thousands of heathens. At last he had pitched his tent in the neighbourhood of what is now Dokkum, and there, on June 5th, A.D. 755, a number of neophytes received confirmation. But a wild troop of heathen apostates rushed down on them before the break of day. The guard desired to offer armed resistance, but Boniface refused to shed blood, and, according to the report of an old woman, received his deathblow holding the gospel over his head. His companions were also cut down around him. Utrecht, Mainz and Fulda quarrelled over his bones. Signs and wonders at last decided in favour of Fulda, which he had himself fixed upon as their resting place.--By order of Lullus, a priest of Mainz called Wilibald wrote his life about A.D. 760. Another life by an anonymous author in Utrecht appeared about A.D. 790; and yet another by the Regensburg monk Othlo about A.D. 1060. His literary remains consist of Epistles, Sermons, and Penitentials of doubtful authenticity.

§ 78.8. =An Estimate of Boniface.=--In opposition to the current Roman Catholic apotheosis of Boniface which assigns to him as the true Apostle of the Germans the highest place of honour in the firmament of German saints and cannot find the least shadow or defect in all his life, struggles and doings, ultra-protestant estimates have run to the very contrary extreme. Ebrard has carried this to the utmost length. He refuses to credit him with zeal, any hearty regard, any real capacity for proper mission work among the heathens. Alongside of Wilibrord he was only a despicable Romish spy; in Hesse and Thuringia only the brutal destroyer of the Culdee church that flourished there, and in the Frankish empire only the inconscionable agent of Rome who allied himself to the Rome-favouring dynasty of Pepin in order to secure the overthrow of the Culdee-favouring Merovingians, purchasing thus Frankish aid in subjecting the German and Frankish churches to the hierarchical tyranny of Rome. He can find in him no trace of intellectual or spiritual greatness. On the contrary fanaticism, hatred and a persecuting spirit, intrigue and dishonesty, servility, dissimulation, hypocrisy, lying and double dealing are there in abundance. His world-wide fame is accounted for by this, that he is the accursed founder of all mischief which has arisen upon Germany from its connection with the papal chair.--It is true that Boniface stopped the course of the national and independent development of the German church that had begun and put it on the track of Roman Catholic development and mal-development. But even had Boniface never crossed the Channel this fate could scarcely have been averted. It is further true that Boniface was far more eager in uprooting heretical “Celtism” and bringing Frankish and Bavarian Christians under the Romish yoke than in converting heathen Saxons to Christianity. But he was thus eager because that seemed to him in the first instance more necessary and important than aiming at new conversions. It is a crying injustice to deny that he showed any zeal, any energy, or that he had any success in the conversion of the heathen in Friesland, Hesse and Thuringia. All his thoughts, labours and endeavours are dominated by a steadfast conviction that the pope is the head and representative of the church in which alone salvation can be found. But yet with him the church laws which emanate from the Holy Spirit stand superior to the pope. Hence the right of final decision on all ecclesiastical questions belongs indeed to the pope, but only _secundum canones_. The expression ascribed to Boniface in Gratian’s Decretal: _Papa a nemine judicetur nisi devius a fide_ is never met with in any of his extant writings, but it thoroughly well characterizes his position. Thus alongside of the most abject submission to the chair of Peter, we see how firmly he speaks to pope Zacharias in connection with the Neustrian pallium affair about the Simoniacal greed of the officials, and on another occasion declares his profound indignation at the immoral, superstitious and blasphemous proceedings, fit to be compared to the old pagan Saturnalia, which, went on in Rome openly before the eyes of the pope unchecked and unpunished. He also showed brave resistance when papal dispensations infringed his ordinances founded upon the canon law, and protested vigorously, when Stephen II., in A.D. 754, disregarding the archiepiscopal authority gave episcopal consecration to Chrodegang of Metz. But Boniface never mixed himself up with the political intrigues of the popes, nor did he ever intermeddle in the political manœuvres between Pepin and the Merovingians, between the Frankish empire and its German vassals. An inventive genius, great and profound thoughts, a liberal and comprehensive view of matters, we certainly often miss in him. All his thoughts, feelings and desires were bound within the narrow limits of Romish ecclesiasticism. His piety was deep, earnest and sincere, but is quite of the legalistic and hard external kind that characterizes Roman Catholicism. With the most painful conscientiousness he holds by Rome’s ecclesiastical institutions; any resistance to these is abhorrent to him and he persecutes heresies as cursed and soul-destroying. He clearly understands the absurdity of prohibiting marriage between those who are related only in baptism and at confirmation. For he sees that on this principle all marriages between Christian people as recipients of baptism must be forbidden since by baptism they have all become sons and daughters of Christ and His church, and so are spiritually brothers and sisters. But then he willingly sacrifices his understanding, and continues to denounce all marriages between those spiritually related as fearful sin and horrible incest. Very characteristic too are many of his questions to the popes as to what should be held on this point and that, mostly about very trivial and indifferent matters of common life. Thus he lets himself be informed that raw bacon should only be eaten smoked, but that the eating of the flesh of horses, hares, beavers, jackdaws, ravens and storks is absolutely forbidden, “_immundum enim est et execrabile_.”[220]

§ 78.9. =The Conversion of the Saxons.=--The first missionary attempts among the Saxons, who had forced their way from the north-west of Germany down to the neighbourhood of the Rhine, were made by two Anglo-Saxon monks, who were both called Ewald, the black or the white Ewald. A Saxon peasant received them hospitably, but so soon as he discovered their object, fell upon them with his household servants and slew them, A.D. 691. Boniface had many pious wishes about his heathen kinsfolk but did nothing for their conversion. The most that he did was to found the monastery of Fulda on the Saxon frontier as the rallying point for a future clerical raid upon Saxon paganism. For thirty years, however, this remained but a pious wish, till at last the sword of the most powerful of the Frankish kings took up the mission. The subjugation of the powerful as well as hostile Saxon people was with Charlemagne a political necessity. But lasting subjugation was impossible without conversion and conversion was impossible without subjugation; for the Saxons hated the religion of the Franks no less heartily than they did the Franks themselves. Alcuin with true magnanimity exerted all his influence with his royal friend against any use of force in conversion, but political necessity overcame the counsel of the much trusted friend. The Saxon war lasted for thirty-three years, A.D. 772-804. In the very first campaign the strongest Saxon fortress Eresburg was stormed and their most revered idol, the Erminsul, was destroyed. Frankish priests followed the Frankish arms and Christianized immediately the conquered districts. But as soon as Charlemagne’s army was engaged elsewhere, the Saxons proceeded to destroy again all Christian foundations. In the imperial diet at Paderborn in A.D. 777 they were obliged to swear that life and property would be forfeited by a new apostasy. But the most powerful of the Saxon princes, Wittekind, who had not appeared at the diet, organized a new revolt. The Frankish army sustained a fearful defeat at Mount Sunthal, all Christian priests were murdered, all churches were destroyed. Charlemagne took a dreadful revenge. At Verden he beheaded in one day 4,500 Saxons. After a new rebellion, a second diet at Paderborn in A.D. 785 prescribed for them horribly bloody laws. The least resistance against the precepts of the church was punished with death. Wittekind and Albion, the two most famous Saxon chiefs, acknowledged the vanity of further resistance. They were baptized in A.D. 785 and continued thenceforward faithful to the king and the church. But the rebellions of the rest of the Saxons were still continued. In A.D. 804 Charlemagne drove 10,000 Saxon families from their homes on the Elbe, and gave the country to the Obohites [Obotrites] that were subject to him. Now for the first time was a lasting peace secured. Charlemagne had founded eight bishoprics in Saxony, and under these bishops’ care throughout this blood-deluged country, no longer disturbed, a Christianity was developed as truly hearty and fresh as in any other part of Germany. One witness to this among others is afforded by the popular epic the Heliand (§ 89, 3).[221]

§ 79. THE SLAVS IN GERMAN COUNTRIES.[222]

The sudden rush of the wild hordes of the Huns in the 5th century drove the Slavs to the south of the Danube and to the west of the Vistula. Again in the 6th century Slavic tribes forced their way westward under pressure from the Mongolian Avars who took possession of Dacia, Pannonia and Dalmatia. For the conversion of the Slavs in north-eastern Germany nothing was done; but much was attempted on behalf of the conversion of the southern Slavs and the Avars, who were specially under the care of the see of Salzburg.

§ 79.1. =The Carantanians and Avars.=--The Carantanian prince Boruth, in what is now called Carinthia, in A.D. 748 asked the help of the Bavarian duke Thassilo II. against the oppression of the Avars. His nephew Chatimar, who had received a Christian training in Bavaria, when in A.D. 753 he succeeded to the throne, introduced Christianity into his country. After the overthrow of Thassilo in A.D. 788, Carinthia came under Frankish rule, and Charlemagne extended his conquests over the Avars and Moravians. Bishop Arno of Salzburg, to whom metropolitan rights had been accorded, conducted a regular mission by Charlemagne’s orders for the conversion of these peoples. In A.D. 796, Tudun, the prince of the Avars, with a great band of his followers, received baptism, and vowed in A.D. 797 to turn the whole nation of the Avars to Christianity, and asked for Christian teachers. In the 9th century, however, the name of the Avars passed away from history.

§ 79.2. =The Moravian Church.=--In A.D. 855 Rastislaw, Grand Duke of Moravia, freed his country from the Frankish yoke and deprived the German bishops of all their influence. He asked Slavic missionaries from the Byzantine emperor. The brothers =Cyril= and =Methodius= (§ 73, 2, 3) who had already approved themselves as apostles of the Slavs, answered the call in A.D. 863. They introduced a liturgy and public worship in the language of the Slavs, and by preaching in the Slavic tongue they won their way to the hearts of the heathen people. But in spite of this encouraging success they found themselves, amid the political convulsions of the age, in a difficult position. Only by attachment to the pope could they reasonably expect to hold their ground. They accepted therefore an invitation of Nicholas I. in A.D. 867, but on their arrival in Rome they found that Hadrian II. had succeeded to the papal chair. Cyril remained in Rome and soon died, A.D. 869. =Methodius= swore fealty to the pope and was sent away as archbishop of Moravia. But now all the more were the German bishops hostile to him. They suspected his fidelity to the pope, charged him with heresy and inveighed against the Slavic liturgy which he had introduced. John VIII., rendered suspicious of him by these means, called upon him in strong terms in A.D. 879 to make answer for himself at Rome. Methodius obeyed and succeeded in completely vindicating himself. The pope confirmed him in his archiepiscopal rank and expressly permitted him to use the Slavic liturgy, enjoining, however, that by way of distinction the gospel should first be read in Latin and then rendered in a Slavic translation. The intrigues of the German clergy, however, continued and embittered the last days of the good and brave apostle of the Slavs. He died in A.D. 885. A general persecution now broke out against the Slavic priests and the metropolitan chair of Moravia remained vacant for fourteen years. John IX. restored it in A.D. 899. But in A.D. 908 the Moravian kingdom was overthrown. The Bohemians and Magyars shared the spoil between them.

§ 79.3. =The Beginnings of Christianity in Bohemia.=--On New Year’s day of A.D. 845 fourteen Bohemian lords appeared at Regensburg at the court of Louis of Germany and asked for baptism along with their followers. Of the motives and of the consequences of this step we know nothing. When Rastislaw raised the Moravian empire to such a height of glory the Bohemians connected themselves closely with Moravia. Rastislaw’s successor Swatopluc married a daughter of the Bohemian prince Borsivoi in A.D. 871. After that Methodius extended his missionary labours into Bohemia. Borsivoi himself and his wife, Ludmilla, were baptized by Methodius in A.D. 871. The sons of Borsivoi, also, Spitihnew, who died in A.D. 912 and Wratislaw, who died in A.D. 926, with the active support of their mother furthered the interests of the church in Bohemia.

§ 80. THE SCANDINAVIAN NATIONS.[223]

The mission to the Frisians and Saxons called the attention of missionaries to the neighbouring Jutes and Danes. Wilibrord (§ 78, 3) in A.D. 696 carried the gospel across the Eider, and Charlemagne felt it necessary in order to maintain his authority over the Frisians and Saxons to extend his conquest and that of the church over the peninsula of Jutland to the sea coast. He could not, however, accomplish his design. Better prospects opened up before Louis the Pious. Threatened with expulsion through disputes about the succession, Harald the king of the Jutes sought the protection of the Franks. Consequently Ebo, archbishop of Rheims, crossed the Eider in A.D. 823 at the head of an imperial embassy and clothed with full authority from pope Paschalis I. He baptized also a number of Danes, and when, after a year’s absence, he returned home, he took with him several young Jutes to educate as teachers for their countrymen. But Harald was again hard pressed and concluded to break entirely with the national paganism. In A.D. 826 he took ship, with wife and child, accompanied by a stately retinue, and at Mainz, where Louis then held his court, received baptism with great pomp and ceremony. Soon after his return a young monk followed him from the monastery of Corbei on the Weser. =Ansgar=, the apostle of the north, had committed to him by Louis the hard and dangerous task of winning the Scandinavian nations for the church. Ansgar devoted his whole life to the accomplishment of this task, and in an incomparable manner fulfilled it, so far as indomitable perseverance, devotion and self-denial amid endless difficulties and perverse opposition could do it.

§ 80.1. =Ansgar= or Anschar, the son of a Frankish nobleman, born A.D. 801, was educated in the monastery of Old Corbie in Picardy, and on the founding of New Corbie in A.D. 822 was made Superior of it. Even in very early youth he had dreams and visions which led him to look forward to the mission field and the crown of martyrdom. Accompanied by his noble-minded brother monk Autbert, who would not let his beloved friend go alone, Ansgar started in A.D. 826 on his first missionary journey. Harald had established his authority in the maritime provinces of Jutland, but he ventured not to push on into the interior. In this way the missionary efforts of the two friends were restricted. On the frontier of Schleswig, however, they founded a school, bought and educated Danish slave youths, redeemed Christian prisoners of war and preached throughout the country. But in the year following Harald was driven out and fled to the province of Rüstringen on the Weser, which Louis assigned to him for life. Also the two missionaries were obliged to follow him. Autbert died in the monastery of Corbie in A.D. 829, having retired again to it when seized with illness. Soon afterwards the emperor obtained information through ambassadors sent by the Swedish king Bjorn, that there were many isolated Christians in their land, some of them merchants, others prisoners of war, who had a great desire to be visited by Christian priests. Ansgar, with several companions, undertook this mission in A.D. 830. On the way they were plundered by Norse pirates. His companions spoke of returning home, but Ansgar would not be discouraged. King Bjorn received them in a very kindly manner. A little group of Christian prisoners gathered round them and heartily joined in worship. A school was erected, boys were bought and adults preached to. Several Swedes sought baptism, among them the governor of Birka, Herigar, who built at his own cost the first Christian church. After eighteen months Ansgar returned to the Frankish court in order to secure a solid basis for his mission. Louis thus perceived an opportunity of founding a bishopric for the Scandinavian Norsemen at Hamburg on the borders of Denmark. He appointed Ansgar bishop in A.D. 834, and assigned to him and the mission the revenues of the rich abbey of Turholt in Flanders. Ansgar obtained in Rome from Gregory IV. the support of a bull which recognised him as exclusively vicar apostolic over all the Norse. Then he built a cathedral at Hamburg, besides a monastery, bought again Danish boys to educate for the priesthood and sent new labourers among the Swedes, at whose head was the Frankish monk Gauzbert. But soon misfortunes from all sides showered down upon the poor bishop. His patron Louis died in A.D. 840, Harald apostatized from the faith, the Swedish missionaries were driven out by the pagans, the Norse rushed down on Hamburg and utterly destroyed city, church, monastery, and library. Moreover Charles the Bald took possession of the abbey of Turholt which according to the Treaty of Verdun in A.D. 843 had fallen to Flanders, in order to bestow it upon a favourite. Ansgar was now a homeless beggar. His clergy, when he had no longer support for them, left him. His mission school was broken up. His neighbour, bishop Leuterich of Bremen, with whom he sought shelter, inspired by despicable jealousy, turned him from his door. At last he got shelter from a nobleman’s widow who provided for him at her own expense a lodging at Ramslo, a country house near Hamburg. In A.D. 846 Leuterich died. Louis of Germany now gave to the homeless Apostle of the North a fixed habitation by appointing Ansgar to the vacant bishopric. The bishops of Cologne and Verden had divided between them the shattered fragments of the Hamburg bishopric. But at last pope Nicholas I. in A.D. 834 put an end to their selfish pretensions by uniting the two dioceses of Hamburg and Bremen into one, and conferring upon it metropolitan rights for the North. But meanwhile Ansgar notwithstanding all the neediness in which he himself lived had been working away uninterruptedly on behalf the Scandinavian mission. In =Denmark= the king was Eric whose court Ansgar repeatedly visited as ambassador of the German king. By Eric’s favour he had been enabled to found a church in Schleswig and to organize a mission stretching over the whole country. Eric did not venture himself to pass over to Christianity, and when pagan fanaticism broke out in open rebellion in A.D. 854, he fell in a battle against his nephew who headed the revolt. A boy, Eric II., perhaps grandson of the fallen Eric, mounted the throne. But the chief Jovi reigned in his name, a bitter foe of the Christians, who drove away all Christian priests and threatened every Christian in the land with death. Yet in A.D. 855 Eric II. emancipated himself from the regency of Jovi and granted toleration to the Christians. The work of conversion was now again carried on with new zeal and success.--All attempts, by means of new missionaries, to gather again the fragments of the mission in =Sweden=, broken up by Gauzbert’s expulsion, had hitherto proved vain. At last Ansgar himself started on his journey thitherward about A.D. 850. By rich presents and a splendid entertainment he won king Olaf’s favour. A popular assembly determined to abide by the decision of the sacred lot and this decided in favour of the adoption of Christianity. From that time the Swedish mission was carried on without check or hindrance under the direction of Erimbert, whom Ansgar left there. Ansgar died in A.D. 865. The most dearly cherished hope of his life, that he should be honoured with the crown of martyrdom, was not realized; but a life so full of toil, privation and trouble, sacrifice, patience and self-denial, was surely nobler than a martyr’s crown.[224]

§ 80.2. =Ansgar’s Successor= in the see of Hamburg-Bremen was =Rimbert=, his favourite scholar, his companion in almost all his journeys, who wrote an account of his master’s life and pronounced him a saint. He laboured according to his ability to follow in the steps of his teacher, especially in his care for the Scandinavian mission. But he was greatly hindered by the wild doings of the Danish and Norse pirates. This trouble reached its height after Rimbert’s death, and went so far that the archbishop of Cologne on the pretext that the Hamburg see had been extinguished was able to renew his claims upon Bremen.--Continuation, § 93.

§ 81. CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM.[225]

From A.D. 665 the Byzantine rule in =North Africa= (§ 76, 3) was for a time narrowed and at last utterly overthrown by the Saracens from Egypt, with whom were joined the Berbers or Moors who had been converted to Islam. In A.D. 711, called in by a rebel, they also overthrew the Visigoth power in =Spain= (§ 76, 2). In less than five years the whole peninsula, as far as the mountain boundaries of the north, was in the hands of the Moors. Then they cast a covetous glance upon the fertile plains beyond the Pyrenees, but Charles Martel drove them back with fearful loss in the bloody battle of Poitiers in A.D. 732. The Franks were in this the saviours of Europe and of Christianity. In A.D. 750 the Ommaiadean dynasty at Damascus, whose lordship embraced also the Moors, were displaced by the Abbassidean, but a scion of the displaced family, Abderrhaman I., appeared in Spain and founded there an independent khalifate at Cordova in A.D. 756, which soon rose to an unexampled splendour. Also in =Sicily= the Moslem power obtained an entrance and endeavoured from that centre to maintain itself by constant raids upon the courts of Italy and Provence. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain and Sicily was first completely accomplished during the next period (§ 95).

§ 81.1. =Islam in Spain.=--The Spanish Christians under the Ommaiade rule were called Mozarabians, _Arabi Mustaraba_, _i.e._ Arabianized Arabs as distinguished from Arabs proper or _Arabi Araba_. They were in many places under less severe restrictions than the Oriental Christians under Saracen rule. Many Christian youths from the best families attended the flourishing Moorish schools, entered enthusiastically upon the study of the Arabic language and literature, pressed eagerly on to the service of the Court and Government, etc. But in opposition to such abandonment of the Christian and national conscience there was developed the contrary extreme of extravagant rigorism in obtrusive confessional courage and uncalled-for denunciation of the prophet. Christian fanaticism awakened Moslem fanaticism, which vented itself in a bloody persecution of the Christians in A.D. 850-859. The first martyr was a monk Perfectus. When asked his opinion about Mohammed he had pronounced him a false prophet, and was executed. The khalif of that period, Abderrhaman II., was no fanatic. He wished to stop the extravagant zeal of the Christians at its source, and made the metropolitan Recafrid of Seville issue an ecclesiastical prohibition of all blasphemy of the prophet. But this enactment only increased the fanaticism of the rigorists, at whose head stood the presbyter, subsequently archbishop, Eulogius of Cordova and his friend Paulus Alvarus (§ 90, 6). Eulogius himself, who kept hidden from her parents a converted Moorish maiden, and was on this account beheaded along with her in A.D. 859, was the last victim of the persecution.--The rule of the Arabs in Spain, however, was threatened from two sides. When Roderick’s government (§ 76, 2) had fallen before the arms of the Saracens in A.D. 711, Pelayo, a relation of his, with a small band of heroic followers, maintained Christian national independence in the inaccessible mountains of Asturia, and his son-in-law Alphonso the Catholic in the Cantabrian mountains on the Bay of Biscay. Alphonso subsequently united both parties, conquered Galicia and the Castilian mountain land, erecting on all sides the standard of the cross. His successors in innumerable battles against the infidels enlarged their territory till it reached the Douro. Of these Alphonso II., the Chaste, who died in A.D. 850, specially distinguished himself by his heroic courage and his patronage of learning. Oviedo was his capital. On the east too the Christian rule now again made advance.--Charlemagne in A.D. 778 conquered the country down to the Ebro. But a rebellion of the Saxons prevented him advancing further, and the freebooting Basques of the Pyrenees cut down his noblest heroes. Two subsequent campaigns in A.D. 800, 801, reduced all the country as far as the Ebro, henceforth called the Spanish March, under the power of the Franks.[226]

§ 81.2. =Islam in Sicily.=--A Byzantine military officer fled from punishment to Africa in A.D. 827 and returned with 10,000 Saracen troops which terribly devastated Sicily. Further migrations followed and in a few years all Sicily was under the rule of the Arabs, who made yearly devastating raids from thence upon the Italian coasts, venturing even to the very gates of Rome. In A.D. 880 they settled on the banks of the Garigliano, and put all central Italy under tribute, until at last in A.D. 916 the efforts of pope John X. were successful in driving them out. Spanish-Moorish pirates landed in A.D. 889 on the coasts of Provence, besieged the fortress of Fraxinetum, and plundered from this centre for a hundred years the Alpine districts and northern Italy. Their robber career in south Italy was most serious of all. It lasted for three centuries and was first brought to an end by the Norman invasion.--Continuation, § 95, 1.

II. THE HIERARCHY, THE CLERGY AND THE MONKS.

§ 82. THE PAPACY AND THE CAROLINGIANS.

The Christianizing of the German world was in great part accomplished without the help of Rome. Hence the German churches, even those that were Catholic, troubled themselves little at first about the papal chair. The Visigoth church in Spain was most completely estranged from it. The Saracen invasion of A.D. 711 cut off all possibility of intercourse with Rome. Even the free Christian states in Spain down to the 11th century had no connection with Rome. The Frankish churches, too, in Gaul as well as in Austrasia, throve and ran wild in their independence during the Merovingian age. On the other hand, the relation of the English Church to Rome was and continued to be very intimate. Numerous pilgrimages of Anglo-Saxons of higher and lower ranks were undertaken to the grave of the chief of the Apostles, and increased the dependence of the nation on the chair of St. Peter. For the support of these pilgrims and as a training school for English clergy, the _Schola Saxonica_ was founded in the 8th century, and for its maintenance and that of the holy places in the city, on Peter’s day the 29th June was collected the so-called Peter’s pence, a penny for every house. Out of this sprang a standing impost on all the English people for the papal chair, which in the 13th century became a money tax upon the kings of England which Henry VIII. was the first to repudiate in A.D. 1532. The credit belongs to the Anglo-Saxons and especially to Boniface of not only delivering the rich sheaves of their missionary harvest into the granaries of Rome, but also of organizing the previously existing churches of the Frankish territories after the Romish method and rendering them obedient to the Roman see. Since then there has been such a regular intercourse between the pope and the Carolingian rulers that it absorbed almost completely the whole diplomatic activity of the Romish curia.

§ 82.1. =The Period of the Founding of the States of the Church.=--From bequests and presents of ancient times the Roman chair succeeded to an immense landed property, _Patrimonium S. Petri_, which afforded it the means of greatly assuaging the distress of the inhabitants of Italy during the disturbances of the migrations of the peoples. There was naturally then no word of the exercise of sovereign rights. From the time of the restoration of the Byzantine exarchate in A.D. 567 (§ 76, 7) the political importance of the pope grew immensely; its continued existence was often dependent on the good will of the pope for whom generally indeed the idea of becoming the court patriarch of a Longobard-Roman emperor was not an enticing one. But the pope could not prevent the Longobard power (§ 76, 8) from gaining ground in the north as well as in the south of the peninsula. An important increase of influence, power and prestige was brought to the papal chair under =Gregory II.=, A.D. 715-731, through the rebellions in northern and central Italy occasioned by the Byzantine iconoclastic disputes. Rome was in this way raised to a kind of political suzerainty not only over the Roman duchy but also over the rest of the exarchate in the north--Ravenna and the neighbouring cities together with Venice (§ 66, 1). =Gregory III.=, A.D. 731-741, hard pressed by Luitprand the Longobard, thrice (A.D. 739, 740) applied for help to the Frank =Charles Martel=, who, closely bound in friendship with Luitprand, his ally against the Saracens, sent some clerics to Italy to secure a peaceful arrangement. Gregory’s successor =Zacharias=, A.D. 741-752, sanctioned by his apostolic judgment the setting aside of the Merovingian sham king Childeric III., whereupon =Pepin the Short=, in A.D. 752, assumed the royal title with the royal power which he had long possessed. The next elected pope called Stephen died before consecration, consequently his successor of the same name is usually designated =Stephen II.=, A.D. 752-757. The Longobard Aistulf had in A.D. 751 conquered Ravenna and the cities connected with it. Pope Stephen II. sought help anew of the Frankish king and supported his petition by forwarding an autograph letter of the Apostle Peter, in which he exhorted the king of the Franks as his adopted son under peril of all the pains of hell to save Rome and the Roman church. He himself at Pepin’s invitation went to France. At Ponthion, where, in A.D. 754, the king greeted him, Pepin promised the pope to restore to Rome her former possessions and to give protection against further inroads of the Longobards; while the pope imparted to the king and his two sons Charles and Carloman the kingly anointing in the church of St. Dionysius or Denis in Paris. At Quiersy then Pepin took counsel with his sons and the nobles of his kingdom about the fulfilling of his promise, bound the Longobard king by oath in the year following after a successful campaign to surrender the cities, properties and privileges claimed by the pope, and assigned these in A.D. 755 as a present to St. Peter as their possessor from that time forth. But scarcely had he retired with his army when Aistulf not only refused all and any surrender, but broke in anew upon Roman territory, robbing and laying waste on every side. By a second campaign, however, in A.D. 756, Pepin compelled him actually to deliver over the required cities in the provinces of Rome and Ravenna the key of which he deposited with a deed of gift, no longer extant, on the grave of St. Peter; while the pope, transferring to Pepin the honorary title of Exarch of Ravenna, decorated him with the insignia of a Roman patrician. When the Byzantine envoys claimed Ravenna as their own property, Pepin answered that the Franks had not shed their blood for the Greeks but for St. Peter.--Aistulf’s death followed soon after this and amid the struggles for the succession to the throne one of the candidates, duke Desiderius of Tuscany, sought the powerful support of the pope and promised him in return the surrender of those cities of the eastern province of Ravenna which still remained in the hands of the Longobards. The pope obtained Pepin’s consent to this transaction, and Desiderius was made king. But neither Stephen nor his successor Paul I., A.D. 757-767, could get him completely to fulfil his promise, and new encroachments of the Longobards as well as new claims of the pope intensified the bad feeling between them, which the conciliation of Pepin, who died in A.D. 768 had not by any means overcome.[227]

§ 82.2. After the death of Paul I. the nobles forced one of their own order upon the Romans as pope under the name of Constantine II. Another party with Longobard help appointed a presbyter, Philip. The former maintained his ground for thirteen months, but was then overthrown by a clerical party and, with his eyes put out, was cast into the street. They now united in the choice of =Stephen III.=, A.D. 768-772.--Desiderius wished greatly to form a marriage connection with the Frankish court, and found a zealous friend in Bertrada, the widow of Pepin. When Stephen heard of it his wrath was unbounded, and he gave unbridled expression to it in a letter which he sent to her sons Charlemagne and Carloman. Referring to the fact that the devil had already in Paradise by the persuasion of a woman overthrown the first man and with him the whole race, he characterized this plan as _propria diabolica immissio_, declared that any idea of a connection by marriage of the illustrious reigning family of the Franks with the _fœtentissima Longobardorum gens_, from which all vile infections proceed, was nothing short of madness, etc. Not peace and friendship, but only war and enmity with this robber of the patrimony of Peter would be becoming in the pious kings of the Franks. He laid down this his exhortation at the grave of Peter and performed over it a Mass. Whoever sets himself to act contrary to it, on him will fall the anathema and with the devil and all godless men he shall burn in everlasting flames; but whosoever is obedient to it, shall be partaker of eternal salvation and glory. Nevertheless Charles married Desiderata the daughter of Desiderius, and Gisela, Charles’ sister, married the son of Desiderius. But before a year had passed, in A.D. 771, he wearied of the Longobard wife and sent her home. Soon after this Carloman died. Charles seized upon the inheritance of his youthful nephews, who together with their mother found shelter with Desiderius. When =Hadrian I.=, A.D. 772-795, refused to give the royal anointing to Carloman’s sons, Desiderius took from him a great part of the States of the Church and threatened Rome. But Charles hastened at the pope’s call to give him help, conquered Pavia, shut up king Desiderius in the monastery of Corbei, and joined Lombardy to the Frankish empire. Further information as to what passed between him and Hadrian at Rome in A.D. 774 is only to be got from the _Vita Hadriani_ (§ 90, 6) written during the reign of Louis of France. It relates as follows: At the grave of Peter the pope earnestly exhorted him to fulfil at last completely the promise which his father Pepin I. with his own consent and that of the Frankish nobles gave to pope Stephen II. at Quiersy in A.D. 754. Charles after reading over the document referred to agreed to everything promised therein, and produced a new deed of gift after the style (_ad instar_) of the old, undertaking to transfer to the Roman church a territorial possession which, together with the assumed _Promissio_ of Pepin described with geographical precision, embraced almost all Italy, excepting Lombardy but including Corsica, Venice and Istria. It is now quite inconceivable that Charles, let alone Pepin, should have given the pope such an immense territory which Pepin for a simple footing in A.D. 754, and Charles for at least three-fourths of it, must have first themselves conquered. Moreover this account of the matter is directly contradicted by the statement of all the witnesses of Pepin’s own times. On the part of the Franks the continuator of the Chronicler Fredégar, on the part of the Romans the biographer of Stephen II. in the _Liber pontificalis_ and that pope himself in his letters to Pepin, all speak of the negociations between the king and the pope as having reference simply to Rome and Ravenna. And since all attempts to reconcile these contradictions by exegetical devices have failed, we can only regard this as a fiction designed to palm off upon Louis of France Rome’s own ambitious territorial scheme. All that Charlemagne did was to confirm and renew his father’s gifts, as Hadrian himself distinctly states: _Amplius_ (=further, _i.e._ for time to come) _confirmavit_.--Moreover Pepin, and still more Charlemagne, would hardly have granted to the holy father by his gift absolute sovereignty over the States of the Church thus founded. By conferring the patriciate upon the two Frankish princes, the pope, indeed, himself acknowledged that the suzerainty now belonged to them which formerly the Byzantine emperor had exercised by his viceroy, the exarch of Ravenna. A more exact definition of these rights, however, may have been first given when Charles was crowned emperor, his imperial authority undoubtedly extending over the Papal States. The pope as a temporal prince was his vassal and must himself, like all citizens of Rome, take the oath of allegiance to the emperor. Judicial authority and the appointment of government officials belonged to him; but they were supervised and controlled by the Frankish ambassadors, _Missi dominici_, who heard appeals and complaints of all kinds and were authorized to give a final judgment.

§ 82.3. =Charlemagne and Leo III.=--Hadrian I. was succeeded by =Leo III.=, A.D. 795-816. During a solemn procession in A.D. 799 he was murderously attacked by the nephews of his predecessor and severely beaten. Some of the bystanders declared that they had seen the bandits tear out his tongue and eyes. The legend vouched for by the pope himself was added that Peter by a miracle restored him both the next night. Leo meanwhile escaped from his tormentors and fled to Charlemagne. His opponents accused him before the king of perjury and adultery, and the hearing of witnesses seems to have confirmed the serious charges, for Alcuin hastened to burn the report which was given in to him on the subject. But the pope was honourably discharged and assumed again the chair of Peter under the protection of a Frankish guard. Next year Charles crossed the Alps with his army for a campaign against Benevento. He convened a Synod at Rome; but the bishops maintained that the pope, the head of all, can be judged of none; yet the pope with twelve sponsors swore an oath of purgation and prayed for his accusers. At the Christmas festival Charles went to the church of St. Peter. At the close of Mass the pope amid the applause of the people placed a beautiful golden crown upon his head (A.D. 800). The world is asked to believe that he did it by the immediate impulse of a divine inspiration; but it was the result of the negociations of years and the fulfilment of a promise by which the pope had purchased the king’s protection against his enemies. With the idea of the imperial power Charlemagne connected the idea of a theocratic Christian universal monarchy in the sense of Daniel’s prophecy. The Greeks had proved themselves unworthy of this position and so God had transferred it to the king of the Franks. As emperor, Charles stands at the head of all Christendom, and has only God and His law over him. He is the most obedient son, the most devoted servant of the church, so far as it is the vehicle and dispenser of salvation; but he is its supreme lord and ruler so far as it needs to adopt earthly forms and an earthly government. Church and state are two separate domains, which, however, on all sides limit and condition one another. Their uniting head they have in the person of the emperor. Hence on every hand Charles’ legislation enters the domain of the church, in respect of her constitution, worship and doctrine. On these matters he consults the bishops and synods, but he confirms, enlarges and modifies their decisions according to his own way of thinking, because for this he is personally answerable to God. In the pope he honours the successor of Peter and the spiritual head of the church; but, because the emperor stands over church and state, he is also ruler of the pope. The pope who gave him imperial consecration did it not by any power of his own immanent in the papacy, but by special divine impulse and authority. Hence the crowning of the emperor is only to be once received at the pope’s hand. This rank is henceforth hereditary in the house of Charles, and only the emperor can beget and nominate the new emperor. The unity of the empire is to be maintained under all circumstances, and hence, contrary to the Frankish custom of dividing the inheritance, younger sons are to receive only the subordinate rank of ruling princes.[228]

§ 82.4. =Louis the Pious and the Popes of his Time.=--Charlemagne’s weaker son Louis the Pious, A.D. 814-840, was not in a position to carry out the work his father had begun. But pious as Louis was, he was yet as little inclined as his immediate successor to give up the imperial suzerainty over the city and chair of St. Peter. The popes were most expressly required before receiving papal consecration to obtain imperial confirmation of their election. Leo’s successor =Stephen IV.=, A.D. 816-817, seems indeed to have evaded it, yet still he let the Romans take the oath of fealty to the emperor, and unasked submitted to make a journey over the Alps in order to get over the anomaly of an emperor without the consecration of Peter’s hand. An agreement come to on that occasion, A.D. 816, between emperor and pope has not been preserved. A few days after his return the pope died. The newly-elected =Paschalis I.=, A.D. 817-824, also indeed mounted the papal chair without imperial confirmation, but apologized by an embassy on the ground that he had been unwillingly obliged to act so, and praying for a continuation of the agreement made with his predecessor, to which the emperor consented. Indeed, according to a diploma of A.D. 817, extant only in a transcript, bearing the name of Louis, the king was to bestow upon the papal chair, besides what Pepin and Charlemagne had given, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, and many estates in Calabria and Naples. There was also an undertaking that only after having been consecrated should any newly-elected pope interchange friendly greetings with the emperor. All copies of this document can be traced back to a collection of imperial grants to the Romish church of the 11th century. At its basis there lay probably a genuine document, but it has been variously altered in the interests of the high church party.--Some years later, after he had decoyed to France and blinded his illegitimate nephew Bernard, who had as reigning prince in Italy rebelled against the law of succession passed in A.D. 817, Louis sent his son Lothair into Italy to quiet the tumults there, and the pope availed himself of this opportunity to crown the prince already crowned by his father as co-emperor. But scarcely had Lothair got over the Alps again when two of the most distinguished and zealous of the Frankish partisans were in A.D. 823 blinded and beheaded in the papal palace. Before the imperial commission the pope took an oath of purgation, to which 34 bishops and 5 presbyters joined with him in swearing, but bluntly refused to deliver up the perpetrator of the deed. As the pope died soon afterwards, Lothair was sent a second time to Rome, in order to enforce once and for all upon his successor =Eugenius II.=, A.D. 824-827, the observance of imperial rights. The result of their conference was the so-called _Constitutio Romano_, by which the election of the pope (§ 46, 11) was taken from the common people and given to the clergy and nobles, but the consecration was made dependent on the emperor’s confirmation and an oath of homage from the newly-elected pope (A.D. 824). Nevertheless his successor Valentine was elected and consecrated without any reference to the constitution. He died, however, after six months, and now the Frankish party came forward so energetically that the new pope =Gregory IV.=, A.D. 827-844, was obliged to submit in all particulars to the requirements of the law. But soon after political troubles arose in the Frankish kingdom which could not fail to contribute to the endeavours of the papacy after emancipation. From his weak preference for his younger son, Charles the Bald, born of a second marriage, Louis was led in A.D. 829 to set aside the law of succession he himself had issued in A.D. 817. The sons thus disinherited rebelled with the assistance of the most distinguished Frankish prelates, at whose head was Wala, abbot of Old Corbie, cousin of Charlemagne, and the bishops Agobard of Lyons, Ebo of Rheims, etc., as assertors of the unity of the empire. Also pope Gregory IV., whose predecessors had sanctioned the law of succession now set aside, was won over and was taken across the Alps by Lothair to strengthen his cause by the weight of his apostolic authority. The pope threatened with the ban those bishops who remained true to the old emperor and had obeyed his summons to attend the diet. But they answered the pope that he had no authority in the empire of the Franks, and that if he did not quietly take himself over the Alps again they would excommunicate him. He was inclined to yield, but Wala’s counsel restrained him. He answered the bishops earnestly and moderately, and, as a last attempt at conciliation, went himself personally to the camp of the emperor, but was unable to effect anything. But next morning Louis had no army; during the night most of his soldiers had passed over to the camp of his enemy. The emperor now had to surrender himself prisoner to his son Lothair, then at a diet at Compiègne in A.D. 833, to do humble penance in church and to resign the government. His penitent son, Louis the German, however, set him free in A.D. 834. A severe judgment was now passed upon the confederate prelates at the Diedenhosen in A.D. 835. But the brothers continued constantly at war with one another, and Louis the Pious did not live to see the end of it.

§ 82.5. =The Sons of Louis the Pious and the Popes of their Days.=--The Treaty of Verdun, A.D. 843, put an end to the bitter war between the sons of Louis the Pious, and made of the western empire three independent groups of states under Lothair, Louis the German and Charles the Bald. Lothair I., who got the title of Emperor with Italy and a strip of land between Neustria and Austrasia, died in A.D. 855. Of his sons, Louis II. inherited Italy with title of Emperor, Lothair II. the province called after him Lotharingia, _Lotharii regnum_, and Charles Burgundy and Provence. Lothair and Charles died in A.D. 869 soon after one another without heirs, and before the emperor Louis II. could lay his hands upon their territories they were seized by the uncle. By the treaty of Mersen, A.D. 870, Charles took the Romanic, and Louis the German took the German portions. Thus was completed the partition of the Carolingian empire into three parts distinguished as homogeneous groups of states by language and nationality: Germany, France and Italy.--Gregory IV. had survived the overthrow of the universal monarchy of Charlemagne. His successor, =Sergius II.=, A.D. 844-847, did not observe the obligations devolving on him by the _Constitutio Romana_. But Lothair I. was not inclined to let pass this slight to his imperial authority. His son Louis was sent into Italy with a powerful army, and obliged the pope and the Romans to take the oaths of fealty to his father with the promise not again to consecrate a pope before they had the emperor’s consent. But the next pope =Leo IV.=, A.D. 847-855, was also consecrated without it, but excused himself from the circumstances of the age, the pressure of the Saracens, while making humble professions of most dutiful obedience. His successor =Benedict III.=, A.D. 855-858, did not regard the imperial consent as necessary, and the anti-pope set up by the French party could not maintain his position.

§ 82.6. =The Legend of the Female Pope Joanna.=--Between Leo IV. and Benedict III. is inserted an old legend of the pontificate of a woman, the so-called female pope Joanna: A maiden from Mainz went in man’s clothes with her lover to Athens, obtained there great learning, then appeared at Rome as Joannes Anglicus, was elected pope, but having become pregnant by one of her chamberlains, was seized with labour pains in the midst of a solemn procession and died soon after, having been pope under the name of John VIII. for two years, five months and four days. This story was widely credited from the 13th to the 17th century, but its want of historical foundation is proved by the following facts:

1. The immediate succession of Benedict III. to Leo. IV. has contemporary testimony from the _Annales Bertiniani_ of A.D. 855, also from a letter of Hincmar to Nicholas I., Benedict’s successor, as well as the inscription “Benedict” and “Lothair,” on a Roman denarius of the same year.

2. Neither Photius nor Michael Cærularius, who certainly would not have failed to make a handle of such a papal scandal (§ 67), know anything of the matter.

3. The first certain trace of the existence of such a legend is found about A.D. 1230 in Stephen of Bourbon, yet there indeed the words are added: _Ut dicitur in chronicis_; but he makes the female pope mount St. Peter’s chair only about A.D. 1100, knows neither her name nor her native country, and describes the catastrophe of her overthrow differently from the legend current in later times.

4. On the other hand, the existence of her biography in the _Liber pontificalis_ between that of Leo IV. and that of Benedict III., was regarded down to the 17th century as the oldest and indeed almost contemporary witness to the historicity of the female pope. It is wanting, however, in the oldest and best MSS. and must therefore be considered a later interpolation. This also applies to the reference made thereto by Marianus Sectus (d. A.D. 1086), Sigbert of Semblours (d. A.D. 1113), Otto of Friesingen (d. A.D. 1158), and Godfrey of Viterbo (about A.D. 1190). Even in the oldest MSS. of the Chronicle of the Roman penitentiary Martinus Polonus (d. A.D. 1278) we read nothing of the female pope; yet the story must soon have been inserted there, for Tolomeo of Lucca about A.D. 1312 affirms in his Church History, that all writers whom he had read, with the single exception of Martin, made Benedict III. follow immediately after Leo IV. Perhaps Martin himself in a second enlarged edition of his chronicle had inserted a biography of the female pope, which he might do with the less hesitation if it was true that the pope of his own time John XX., A.D. 1276-1277, thought it wrong not to count the female pope and so styled himself John XXI. From that time all chroniclers of the Middle Ages without the slightest expression of doubt repeated the legend in essentially the same way as Martin’s chronicle and the _Liber pontificalis_ report it. The Reformed theologian, David Blondel, in A.D. 1649, performed a service to the Catholic church by his elaborate critical treatment of the legend which destroyed all belief in its historicity. After this, however, it was again vindicated by Spanheim (_Opp._ ii. 577) and Kist; and even Hase regards it as still conceivable that the church which has affirmed the existence of things that never were, may have denied the existence of things that were, if the knowledge of it might prove hazardous to the interests of the papacy.

The origin and gradual development of the legend, about the middle of the 12th century and certainly in Rome, may be most simply explained with Döllinger from a combination of the following data.

1. From the time of Paschalis II. in A.D. 1099 it was customary for the new pope in the solemn Lateran procession when having his entrance on office attested to sit upon two old chairs standing in the Lateran with pierced seats, which probably came from an old Roman bath. But the popular wit of the Romans suggested another reason for the pierced seats. The chairs were thus pierced in order that before the consecration a deacon might satisfy himself of the manhood of the new pope; for, it would be added by and by, a woman in disguise was once made pope, etc.

2. In a street of Rome was found a statue in white robes with a child and an enigmatical inscription, the letter P six times repeated which some read: _Parce pater patrum papissæ prodere partum_, others: _Papa pater patrum peperit papissa papellum_; so that this statue was supposed to represent the female pope with her child.

3. Further the papal processions between the Lateran and the Vatican at a point where the direct way was too narrow were wont to diverge into another wider street; this was done, it was now said, because at this place the catastrophe referred to had befallen the female pope.

4. That the name Joannes was given to the female pope is easily explained from the frequency of this name among the popes. In A.D. 1024 it had been already held by nineteen. And that she who had brought such a disgrace upon the papacy should have been described as a native of the German city of Mainz, is explained from national antipathy entertained by the Italians for everything German.

5. Finally, the most difficult part of the problem, why this episode should have been inserted just between Leo IV. and Benedict III., may perhaps find satisfactory solution in the supposition that the legend may have been first introduced as an appendix to a codex of the _Liber ponficalis_ which closed with the biography of Leo IV.[229]

§ 82.7. =Nicholas I. and Hadrian II.=--The successor of Benedict III., =Nicholas I.=, A.D. 858-867, was chosen with the personal concurrence of the emperor Louis II. then in Rome. This pope was undoubtedly the greatest of all the popes between Gregory I. and Gregory VII. He was a man of inflexible determination, clear insight and subtle intellect, who, favoured by the political movement of the age, supported by public opinion which regarded him as a second Elijah, and finally backed up in his endeavours after papal supremacy by the Isidorian collection of decretals just now brought forward (§ 87, 2), could give prestige and glory to the struggle for law, truth and discipline. Among the many battles of his life none brought him more credit and renown than that with Lothair II. of Lothringia. That he might marry his mistress Waldrade, Lothair accused his wife Thielberga of committing incest before her marriage with her brother, abbot Hucbert, and of having obtained abortion to conceal her wickedness. Before a civil tribunal she was in A.D. 858 acquitted by submitting to a divine ordeal, the boiling caldron ordeal which a servant undertook for her. But Lothair treated her so badly that at last, in order simply to be rid of her tormentors, she confessed herself guilty of the crime charged against her before a Synod at Aachen in A.D. 859 attended by the two Lothringian metropolitans Günther of Cologne and Thietgaut of Treves, and expressed the wish that she should atone for her sins in a cloister. But soon she regretted this step and fled to Charles the Bald in Neustria. A second Synod at Aachen in A.D. 860 now declared the marriage with Thielberga null, and Lothair formally married Waldrade. Meanwhile the Neustria metropolitan Hincmar of Rheims had published an opinion in respect of civil and ecclesiastical law (_De divortio Lotharii_) wholly favourable to the ill-used queen, and she herself had referred the matter to the pope. Nicholas sent two Italian bishops, one of whom was Rhodoald of Porto (§ 67, 1), to Lothringia to investigate the affair. These took bribes and decided at the Synod of Metz in A.D. 863 in favour of the king. But Nicholas annulled the decisions of the Council, excommunicated his legates and deposed the two Lothringian metropolitans who had vainly trusted to the omnipotence of Lothringian gold in Rome. Thirsting for revenge they incited the emperor Louis II., Lothair’s brother, against the pope. He besieged Rome, but came to an understanding with the pope through his wife’s mediation. Lothair, detested by his subjects, threatened with war by his uncles Louis of Germany and Charles the Bald as champions of the childless Thielberga, repented and besought the pope for grace and protection from the ambitious designs of his uncles. Nicholas now sent a legate, Arsenius, across the Alps, who acting as plenipotentiary in all three kingdoms, obliged Lothair to take back Thielberga and put away Waldrade. But she flung herself upon him and in her arms Lothair soon forgot the promise to which he had sworn. At the same time he reconciled himself to his uncles whose zeal had somewhat cooled in presence of the lordly conduct of the papal legate. Thielberga now herself sought divorce from the pope. But Nicholas continued firmly to insist upon his demands. His successor =Hadrian II.=, A.D. 867-872, an old man of seventy-five years, could only gradually emancipate himself from the imperial party which had elected him and taken him under its protection. He received back again the two excommunicated metropolitans, without, however, restoring them to their offices, released Waldrade from church discipline, and always put off granting Thielberga’s reiterated request for divorce. Lothair now went himself to Rome, took a solemn oath that he had no carnal intercourse with Waldrade since the restoration of his wife, and received the sacrament from the pope’s hand. Full of hope that he would get success in his object he started for home, but died at Piacenza of a violent fever in A.D. 869. When dead the uncles pounced upon the kingdom. Hadrian used all his influence in favour of the emperor, the legitimate heir, and threatened his opponents with excommunication. But Hincmar of Rheims composed a state paper by order of his king, in which he told the pope that the opinion of France was that he should not interfere with things about which he knew nothing. The pope was obliged to let this insult pass unrevenged. In a dispute of his own Hincmar succeeded in giving the pope a second rebuff (§ 83, 2).[230]

§ 82.8. =John VIII. and his Successors.=--His successor =John VIII.=, A.D. 872-882, was more successful than Hadrian in bringing the Carolingian king to kneel at his footstool. In the art of intrigue and in the perfidy, hypocrisy and unconscionableness required therefor, he was, however, greatly superior. He succeeded almost completely in freeing the papal chair from the imperial authority. But he did so only to make it a playball of the wildest party interests around his own hearth. To his account mainly must be laid the unfathomable degradation and debasement of the papacy during the 10th century. When the emperor Louis II. died in A.D. 875, Louis the German, as elder and full brother of his father, ought to have been his heir. But the pope wished to show the world that the papal favour could make a gift of the imperial crown to whomsoever it chose. Accepting his invitation, Charles the Bald appeared in Rome and was crowned by the pope on Christmas Day, A.D. 875. But he had to pay dearly for the papal favour, by formally renouncing all claims to the rights of superior over the States of the Church, allow for the future absolute freedom in the election of popes, and accept a papal representative and clerical primate for all France and Germany. But not altogether satisfied with this, the pope made the new emperor submit himself to a formal act of election by the Lombards of Pavia, and in order to secure the approval of his own nobles to his proceedings he even agreed to give them the right of election. The Neustrian clergy, however, with Hincmar at their head, offered a vigorous resistance and at the first Synod at Pontion in A.D. 876 there were violent altercations. The shameful compromise satisfied neither pope nor emperor. In Rome a wild party faction gained ground against the pope, and the Saracens pressed further and further into Italy. From the emperor, who knew not how to keep back the advances of the Normans in his own country, no help could be expected. Yet he made hasty preparations, purchased a dishonourable peace from the Normans, and crossed the Alps. But new troubles at home imperiously called him back, and at the foot of Mount Cenis in A.D. 877, he died in a miserable hut of poison administered by his physician, a Jew. The pope got into yet greater straits and made his position worse by further intrigues. Also his negotiations with Byzantium in A.D. 879 involved him in yet more serious troubles (§ 67, 1). He died in A.D. 882, apparently by the hand of an assassin. A year before his death Charles the Fat, the youngest son of Louis the German, had been crowned emperor, and he, the least capable of all the Carolingian line, by the choice of the Neustrian nobles, united once more all the Frankish empire under his weak sceptre. Marinus, the successor of John VIII., died after a single year’s pontificate. So was it, too, with Hadrian III. And now the Romans, without paying any heed to the impotent wrath of the emperor, elected and consecrated =Stephen V.=, A.D. 885-891, as their pope. In A.D. 857 the German nobles at last put an end to the despicable rule of the fat Charles by passing an act of formal deposition. They chose in his place Arnulf of Carinthia, a natural son of Charles’ brother Carloman. Pope =Formosus=, A.D. 891-896, called him to his assistance in A.D. 894, and crowned him emperor. But he could not hold his ground in Italy and the opposition emperor Lambert, a Longobard, had possession of the field. Formosus died soon after Arnulf’s withdrawal. Boniface VI., who died after fifteen days, was succeeded by =Stephen VI.= in A.D. 896. This man, infected by Italian fanaticism, had the body of Formosus, who had favoured the Germans, lifted from the grave, shamefully abused and then thrown into the Tiber. The three following popes reigned only a few weeks or months, and were either murdered or driven away. John IX., A.D. 898-900, in order to pacify the German party, honoured again the memory of Formosus.--Arnulf’s tenure of the empire, however, had only been a short vain dream; but in Germany during a trying period he wielded the sceptre with power and dignity. When he died in A.D. 899, the German nobles elected his seven-year-old son, Louis the Child. He died in A.D. 911, and with him the dynasty of the Carolingians in Germany became extinct. In France this line continued to exist in pitiable impotence down to the death of Louis V. in A.D. 987.--Continuation, § 96.

§ 82.9. =The Papacy and the Nationalities.=[231]--From the time of Charlemagne the policy of the French kings was to establish bishoprics on the frontiers of their territories for Christianizing the neighbouring heathen countries, and thereby securing their conquest, or, if this had been already won, confirming it. The first part of this purpose the popes could only approve and further, but just as decidedly they opposed the second. There must be a reference to the chair of Peter, that the pope may maintain and preserve as head of the universal church the rights of nationalities. Each country won to Christianity should be received into the organism of the church with its national position unimpaired, and so under the spiritual fatherhood of the pope there would be established a Christian family of states, of which each member occupies a position of perfect equality with the others. In this way the interests of humanity, and at the same time, the selfish interests of papal policy, were secured. This policy was therefore directed to the emancipating as soon as possible the newly founded national churches from the supremacy of the German clergy and giving them an independent national church organization under bishops and archbishops of their own.

§ 83. THE RANK OF METROPOLITAN.[232]

The position of metropolitan was not regarded with equal favour in the German church and in the German state. Amid the variety of races the metropolitans represented the unity of the national church, as the pope did that of the universal church, while at the same time as an estate of the empire they exercised great influence on civil administration and foreign policy. The reigning princes recognised in the unity of the ecclesiastical administration of the country a support and security for the political unity and therefore opposed the partition of the national church into several metropolitanates, or, where the larger extension of the empire required several archbishoprics, wished rather to give the ablest of these the rank and authority of a primate. The popes on the other hand endeavoured to give each of the larger countries at least two or three metropolitans, and to prevent as far as possible the appointment of a national church primate; for in the unity of the national church they perceived the danger of such a prelate sooner or later giving way to the desire to emancipate himself from Rome and secure for himself the position of an independent patriarch.

§ 83.1. =The Position of Metropolitans in General.=--As representing the unity of the national churches the interests of the metropolitans were bound up with those of the ruling princes. They were the most vigorous supporters of their policy, and generally got in return the prince’s hearty support. This coalition of the metropolitans and the civil power, however, threatened the subordinate clergy with abject servitude, and drove them to champion the interests of the pope. Through pressure of circumstances, a widespread conspiracy of bishops and abbots was formed during the last years of Louis the Pious to emancipate the clergy and especially the episcopate from the dominion of the state and the metropolitans and to place them immediately under the papal jurisdiction. They founded upon the Isidorian decretals as showing their rights in the earliest times (§ 87, 2). Their endeavour met indeed powerful opposition, but the statements of the Pseudo-Isidore had now obtained the validity of canon law.

§ 83.2. =Hincmar of Rheims.=--Among the =French= prelates after the restoration of the order of metropolitans by Boniface the first place was held by the occupant of the see of Rheims. It reached the summit of its glory under Hincmar of Rheims, A.D. 845-882, the ablest of all the ecclesiastical leaders of France. His life consists of an uninterrupted series of battles of the most varied kind. The first fight in which he engaged was the predestination controversy of Gottschalk (§ 91, 5). But his strength did not lie in dogmatics but in church government. And here, every inch a metropolitan, he has fought the most glorious battles of his life and affirmed, against the assumptions of popes and emancipation efforts of bishops, the autonomy of reigning princes, the freedom and independence of national churches, and the jurisdiction of metropolitans. Of this sort was his contest with bishop Rothad of Soissons. Hincmar had deposed him in A.D. 861 for insubordination. Rothad appealed to pope Nicholas I. on the ground of the Sardican Canon (§ 46, 3), which, however, had never been accepted in the Frankish Empire. He had at the same time referred the pope to the Isidorian decretals. Thus supported, Nicholas after a hard struggle had Rothad reinstated in A.D. 865. The insolent defiance of his own nephew, Hincmar, bishop of Laon, led the archbishop into another obstinate fight. Here too the Isidorian decretals played a prominent part. Hadrian II. in A.D. 869 took the side of the nephew, but the metropolitan gained the victory, and the nephew, who defied the king as well as the metropolitan and moreover had entered into treasonable communication with the German court, ended his course by being deprived of his eyes by the king. Down to A.D. 875 Hincmar was inflexibly true to the king as a pillar of his policy and his throne. But when Charles the Bald in that year paid down as purchase price for the imperial throne, not only the autonomy of the empire but also the freedom of the French church and the rights of the metropolitans, he was obliged now to turn his weapons against him. Hincmar died in A.D. 882 in flight before the Normans. With him the glory of the French archbishopric sank into its grave. The pseudo-Isidorian party had triumphed, the bishops were emancipated from the government of the princes of their country, but instead of this were often surrendered to the rude caprice of secular nobles.

§ 83.3. =Metropolitans in other lands.=--The =English= princes in the interests of the political unity of the Heptarchy for a long time withstood the endeavours of the popes to place a rival alongside of the archbishop of Canterbury. The action and reaction of these opposing interests were particularly strong in the time of Wilfrid (§ 78, 3), whom the Roman party had appointed archbishop of York. Wilfrid was driven away and died in A.D. 709 after an eventful life, without succeeding in taking possession of the place to which he had been appointed. At last, however, the pope reached his end. In A.D. 735 a Northumbrian prince obtained a pallium, and after that the see of York got an undisputed place alongside that of Canterbury.--In =Northern Italy= there were metropolitan sees at Ravenna, Milan and Aquileia which still made their old claims to self-government (§ 46, 1). Sergius, the prelate of Ravenna, about A.D. 760, thought it would be well out of the ruins of the exarchate to found an ecclesiastical state after the model of that of Rome. There was often opposition there to the Roman supremacy. On this account the violent archbishop John of Ravenna, who was also a defrauder of the church, suffered the most complete humiliation from Nicholas I. in A.D. 861, in spite of the emperor’s protection. The force of public opinion compelled the emperor to abandon his protégé when excommunicated by the pope. But during the pontificate of John VIII., Ausbert, prelate of Milan (died A.D. 882), who kept true to the German party, could defy papal anathema and deposition. His successor, however, again acknowledged the papal supremacy.--In =Germany=, since the time of Charlemagne, new metropolitan sees had been created at Salzburg, Cologne, Treves and Hamburg-Bremen. Mainz, however, still claimed the primacy and represented the unity of the German church. The Isidorian forgery availed not here as in the land of its birth to stop the contention of the archbishop. The German metropolitanate to the advantage of the empire maintained its rights untouched for centuries. Among the primates of Mainz the most important by far was =Hatto I.=, A.D. 891-913. Even under Arnulf (died A.D. 899), whose most trusted adviser he was, he exercised a wide as well as wholesome influence on the administration of the empire. It was still greater under Louis the Child (died A.D. 911) whom he raised to the throne and for whom he acted as regent. Conrad I. (§ 96, 1) also owed to him his election as king of the Germans. In the internal affairs of the German church, he directed and adjusted, organized and ruled in this time of general upheaval with wonderful insight, wisdom and energy, most conspicuously, and that too against papal assumptions, at the great national synod of Tribur in A.D. 895. The primate regarded it as a political axiom, that, in order to conserve and advance the unity of the empire, the particularism of the several races and the struggles of their chiefs and princes for independence should be crushed. Owing to the consistency and energy with which he carried out his idea, he did indeed make many enemies. The stories of insidious perfidy and bloody violence which have attached themselves to his memory are to all appearance due to their calumnious hatred. His sudden death probably gave rise to the legend that the devil fetched him away and cast him into the mouth of Etna. To him, and not to the much less important Hatto II., who died in A.D. 970, is the other equally baseless legend of the Mäusethurm near Bingen to be referred.--Continuation, § 97, 2.

§ 84. THE CLERGY IN GENERAL.[233]

The bishops subject to the archbishop were called diocesan bishops, or, as voting members of the Provincial Synod, suffragan bishops. The canonical election of bishops by the people and clergy was completely done away with in the German national church. Kings without opposition filled vacant bishoprics according to their own choice. Louis the Pious at the Synod of Aachen, in A.D. 817, restored canonical election by people and clergy, subject to the emperor’s confirmation, but his successors paid no attention to the law. Deposition was usually carried out by the Provincial and National Synods. The investiture of bishops with pastoral staff and marriage ring by the reigning prince is occasionally met with even in the Merovingian age and became general after the development of the benefice system in the 9th century. Out of the institution of bishops without dioceses, _Episcopi regionarii_, originally intended for missionary service, arose in all probability the institution of _Chorepiscopi_ which flourished especially in France during the 8th and 9th centuries. With the old _Chorepiscopi_ (§ 34, 2; § 45) they have nothing in common beyond the name. They were subordinate assistants of the diocesan bishops, whose convenience, unspirituality and often absence on state affairs demanded such substitutes. But by their arbitrary conduct and refractoriness they often gave great trouble to those bishops who had any care for their flock. A Synod at Paris, therefore, in A.D. 849, withdrew all authority from them. From that time they gradually sank out of view. The inferior clergy, taken generally from the serfs, stood mostly in slavish dependence on the bishop and often had not the barest necessaries of culture. Their appointment lay with the bishop, yet the founder of a church and his successors frequently retained the right of patronage in choosing their own officiating clergymen.[234] Especially in the later Merovingian and earlier Carolingian periods, the Frankish clergy, superior and inferior, had become terribly corrupt. Boniface was the first to reintroduce some sort of discipline (§ 78, 5) and Charlemagne’s powerful government contributed in an extraordinary measure to the ennobling of the clergy. Yet the corruption was too general and too great to be altogether eradicated. Louis the Pious, therefore, in A.D. 816, extended to the whole kingdom a reformation which Chrodegang of Metz had introduced fifty years previously among his own clergy, by which means discipline and order were again improved for some decades. But in the troublous times of the last Carolingians everything went again into confusion and decay. Exemption from civil jurisdiction was accorded the clergy during this period only to this extent, that the secular courts could not proceed against a clergyman without the advice of the bishop, and the bishop himself was subject only to the jurisdiction of the king and the Provincial Synod.

§ 84.1. =The Superior Clergy.=--In the German states from the earliest times the superior clergy constituted a spiritual aristocracy which by means of their higher culture won a more influential position in civil life than the secular nobles. In all important affairs of state the bishops were the advisers of the king; they were almost exclusively employed on embassies; on all commissions there were clerical members and always one half of the _Missi dominici_ were clerics. This nearness to the person of the king and their importance in civil life made them rank as one of the estates of the realm. The Frankish idea of immunity, in consequence of which by royal gift along with the rights of territorial lords there were handed over to the new proprietors also the princely right of levying taxes and administering justice, brought to them secular as well as spiritual jurisdiction over a great part of the land. As the court of the Frankish king was moved from place to place, he required a special court, chapel, with a numerous court-clergy, at the head of which was an Arch-chaplain, usually the most distinguished prelate in the land. The names _Capella_ and _Capellani_ were originally applied only to court chapels and court chaplains, and were derived from the fact that in the chapel was kept the _Cappa_ or coat of Martin of Tours as a precious relic and the national palladium of France. The court clergy formed the nursery for future bishops of the realm. In addition to the ring and staff as episcopal insignia we find in the Carolingian age the bishop’s cap, consisting of two long sheets of tin or pasteboard running up to a peak, covered with silk of the same colour as the dress used in celebrating mass, generally richly ornamented with gold and precious stones, called by the old pagan name _Infula_ or _Mitra_.[235]

§ 84.2. =The Inferior Clergy.=--The enormous expansion of episcopal dioceses rendered a new arrangement of the =inferior clergy= indispensable. The extension churches in towns and the country churches which previously had been served by the clergy of the cathedral church, obtained a regular clergy of their own. As these churches were always dedicated to a saint they were called _Tituli_, and the clergy appointed to officiate in them, _Intitulati_, _Incardinati_, _Cardinales_. Thus originated the idea of _Parochia_, παροικία and of _Parochus_ or parish priest,[236] who, because the _cura animarum_ was committed to him was also called Curate, as in the French curé. Over about ten parishes was placed an _Archipresbyter ruralis_ who was called _Decanus_, Dean. As the right of administering baptism belonged originally to him exclusively, his church was called _Ecclesia baptisimalis_; his diocese, _Christianitas_ or _Plebs_; he himself also, _Plebanus_. A further arrangement was first introduced in the 8th century by Heddo of Strasburg [Strassburg], who gave to each of the deans in his diocese seven archdeacons, _præpositi_, provosts. Besides the parish churches there were many chapels or oratories where divine service was conducted only at certain times by the neighbouring parish clergy or chaplains appointed for that purpose. To this class also belong the domestic chapels in episcopal residences or on the estates of noblemen which were served by special domestic or castle chaplains. The latter indeed had in addition the duty of feeding the dogs, waiting at table and taking charge of the lady’s pony. Notwithstanding repeated reinforcement of the old law: _Ne quis vage ordinetur_, there was still a great number of so-called _Clericis vagis_, mostly vagabonds and idlers, who, ordained by unprincipled bishops for a reward, roamed over the country like clerical pedlars.

§ 84.3. =Compulsory Celibacy= was stoutly resisted by the German clergy. The inferior clergy were mostly married. At ordination they were ordered indeed to separate from their wives and to abstain from marital intercourse, but the promise was rarely fulfilled. Among the unmarried clergy, fornication, adultery and unnatural lust were prevalent. A bishop, Ulrich of Augsburg, addressed to Nicholas I. a philippic against the law of celibacy with fearless exposures of its evil consequences. The =moral condition= of the clergy was generally speaking shockingly low. Legacy hunting, forging of documents, simony and chaffering for benefices were carried on in a shameless way. The lordly habits of the bishops consisted in hunting, going about with dogs and falcons, and in wild drunken revels. In the 7th century it was the peculiar pleasure of the Frankish bishops in wild scenes of blood that induced them to take part in the wars, and led to their being afterwards obliged to fit out contingents for the field at the cost of their ecclesiastical revenues. Pepin, Charlemagne and Louis the Pious passed stringent laws against these warlike habits of churchmen; but the later Carolingians not only tolerated but actually encouraged them.

§ 84.4. =Canonical life.=--Augustine’s institution of a _monasterii Clericorum_ (§ 45, 1) was often imitated in later times. But bishop =Chrodegang of Metz=, who died in A.D. 766, gave it for the first time, about A.D. 760, a fixed and permanent form. His rule or _Canon_ is closely connected with the monastic rule of St. Benedict (§ 85), with the omission of the vow of poverty. He built a commodious residence Domus, _monasterium_ (comp. Germ. words Dom and Münster), in which all the clergy of his cathedral church were obliged to live, pray, work, eat and sleep under the constant and strict supervision of the bishop or his archdeacon. This was the _Vita canonica_. After morning devotions all the members of the establishment gathered together in the hall where the bishop or provost read to them a chapter from the Bible, most frequently from Leviticus, from the rule or from the fathers, and added thereto the necessary explanations and exhortations. The hall was therefore called the Chapter House; then the name =Chapter=[237] was given to the whole body gathered together there. The =Colleges=[238] were a subsequent development of the chapter in non-episcopal city churches, with a provost or deacon at their head. Louis the Pious allowed Chrodegang’s rule to be revived and generalized by the deacon Amalarius of Metz, and at the National Assembly at Aachen in A.D. 817 enforced it for the whole kingdom. It is known as _Regula Aquisgranensis_. But soon after the Canons endeavoured to emancipate themselves more and more from the burdensome yoke of episcopal control. Gunther of Cologne (§ 82, 7) who, though deposed by the pope, retained his official position, was obliged to purchase the support of his chapter by a bargain in accordance with which a great part of the ecclesiastical revenues of the chapter were placed at their own full disposal as Prebends or Benefices. And what this one chapter gained for itself was afterwards contended for by others.[239]--Continuation, § 97, 3.

§ 85. MONASTICISM.[240]

While from the 5th century one rush of migrating peoples was rapidly followed by another, the monkish orders fell into decay, barbarism and corruption. They would scarcely have survived this period of commotion, at least would not have proved the great blessing that they have been to the German west, had not the spirit of ancient Rome with its practical turn, its appreciation of law and order and its organizing talent, given them at the right time, what they hitherto wanted, a rule answering to the requirements and circumstances of the age, and by means of it firm footing, unity, order and legal form. This task was accomplished by =Benedict of Nursia= (d. A.D. 543), the patriarch of Western Monasticism. The rule, which he prescribed in A.D. 529 to the monks of the monastery of Monte Cassino in Campania founded by him, was not unduly ascetic, combined strict discipline with a certain degree of mildness and indulgence, estimated the needs of human nature as well as the circumstances of the times, and was, in short, adaptable and practical. From the rule of Cassiodorus (§ 47, 23) Benedict’s disciples borrowed that zeal for scholarly studies about which their master had given no directions, and Gregory the Great inspired the order with enthusiasm for missionary labours. Thus the Benedictine order obtained its full consecration to its calling of worldwide significance. Soon spreading over all the West, being introduced into France by Maurus in A.D. 543, it nobly fulfilled its vocation by cultivating the soil and the mind, by clearing the forests, bringing in waste lands, zealously preaching the gospel, rooting out superstition and paganism, educating the young, fostering and restoring literature, science and art. The barbarous age, however, which saw the overthrow of the Merovingians and the rise of the Carolingians, exerted a deteriorating influence also on the Benedictines. But Charlemagne restored strict discipline, and assigned to the monasteries the task of erecting schools and prosecuting scholarly studies. By authority of Louis the Pious and by order of the National Assembly at Aachen in A.D. 817, =Benedict of Aniane= undertook a reformation and re-organization of all the monkish systems throughout the empire. At the head of a commission appointed for that purpose he visited all the Frankish monasteries, and compelled them to organize themselves after his improved Benedictine Rule.

§ 85.1. The one source of information regarding the life of =Benedict of Nursia= is the miracle-laden record of the miracle-loving pope Gregory the Great in the second book of his Dialogues. Benedict’s =Rule= comprises 73 chapters. The first principle of the monastic life is obedience to the Abbot, as representative of Christ. The choice of abbot lies with the brothers. Of serving brothers the rule knows nothing. The chief occupation is agriculture. Idleness is strictly forbidden. Charge of the kitchen and reading at table are duties performed by all the monks in turn week about. Divine service begins at 3 a.m. and is rendered regularly through all the seven hours (§ 56, 2). Two meals a day are partaken of and each monk has daily half a bottle of wine. Flesh meat is given only to the sick and weak. At table and after the _Completorium_ or last hour of prayer, no word was allowed to be spoken. All the brothers slept in a common dormitory, each in a separate bed, but completely dressed and girded, so as to be ready at call for matins. The discipline was strict and reasonable; first private, then public rebuke, then penal fasting, corporal punishment, and finally excommunication. Hospitality and attention to the poor were enjoined on all monasteries. Reception was preceded by a year’s novitiate. The vow included _Stabilitas loci_, _Conversio morum_ (poverty and chastity) and _Obedientia_. The _Oblati_ were a special kind of novices, _i.e._ children who in their early youth were placed in the monastery by their parents. They were educated in the monastic schools and were not allowed to go back to the world.

§ 85.2. =Benedict of Aniane= (A.D. 821) was originally called Witiza and was the son of a Visigoth count. He had served as a soldier under Charlemagne. In attempting to save his brother he was himself almost drowned. His ambition was now directed to an ascetic life, in which his personal performances were most remarkable. On the river Anianus in Languedoc he founded in A.D. 779 the monastery of Aniane. He was the indispensable and all-powerful counsellor of Louis the Pious. In order to have him always near him, Louis founded for him the monastery of Inda or the Cornelius-Münster near Aachen. In the interests of his cloister reform he published in A.D. 817 a _Codex regulorum_ in which he collected all the monastic rules previously known.

§ 85.3. The rule of the elder Benedict made no reference to =Nunneries=; but his sister Scholastica is regarded as the founder of the order of female Benedictines. Another form of female asceticism was developed after the model of the canonical life of the secular clergy in the institution of canonesses. The rule, which Louis the Pious at Aachen in A.D. 816 allowed them to draw up for themselves, is distinctly milder than that of the nuns. The ladies’ orders gradually became places of resort for the unmarried daughters of the nobles. The canonical age for taking the nun’s vows was twenty-five. The novitiate lasted three years. Besides the _propria professio_ the _paterna devotio_ was also regarded as binding. In regard to dress the adoption of the veil was the main thing; but in addition they wore the wreath as a symbol of virginity and the ring as token of spiritual marriage. At this time the cutting of the hair was only a punishment for unchaste nuns. The honourable position of the wife among the Germans secured special respect for the abbess, and obtained for the most famous nunneries exemption, civil prerogatives and proprietary, even princely rights. The frequent appearance of =Double-Cloisters= where monks and nuns, naturally in separate dwellings, under a common rule either of an abbess as often in England, or of an abbot, was also peculiarly German.

§ 85.4. =The Greater Monasteries=, formed as they were of a vast number of separate buildings for agriculture, cattle rearing, handicraft and arts of all kinds, for elementary teaching, for higher education, for hospitable entertainment, caring for the sick, etc., came by and by to attain the proportions of little towns. Frequently they were the centre around which cities were raised. The monastery of Vivarium in Calabria, Cassiodorus’ foundation, inspired Western monasticism with an enthusiasm for scholarly studies. The regulations of Monte Cassino were extended to all monasteries of the West. Columbanus’ monastery of Bobbio rooted out paganism and Arianism in northern Italy. The monasteries of Iona in Scotland and Bangor in Ireland gained high repute in the struggle of the Celtic church against the Roman. The English monastery of Wearmouth was a famous school of science. In France St. Denys near Paris and Old Corbei in Picardy gained a high reputation. In South Germany St. Gall, Reichenau, Lorsch and Hirschau, in Central Germany Fulda, Hersfeld and Fritzlar, and in North Germany New Corbei, a branch from Old Corbei, were main centres of Christian culture.

§ 85.5. In its new Western form also monasticism was still without the clerical character. But there was an ever-increasing tendency to draw the monastic and the clerical institutions more and more closely together. By means of celibacy and the introduction of the canonical life (§ 84, 4) the clergy came to have the monkish character, and on the other hand, most of the monks, in the first instance for monastic and mission services, took clerical orders. By and by monks sought appointments as curates (§ 84, 2), and thus rivalries arose between them and the clergy. The monasteries were wholly under the jurisdiction of the bishops in whose diocese they lay. The exemptions of this period were limited to security for the free election of the abbot, independent administration of property and gratuitous performance of consecrations by the bishop. In the Frankish empire, however, abbots were ordinarily appointed to vacancies by the court, and rich abbeys were also often bestowed upon distinguished noblemen _in commendam_, _i.e._, for temporary administration with the enjoyment of their revenues, or even to court and military officers as a reward for special services. Such lay abbots or _abbacomites_ often stayed in the monasteries for months with their families, their huntsmen and their soldiers, and made them the scene of their drinking bouts, their field sports and their military exercises. The kings retained the richest abbacies to themselves or gave them to their sons and daughters, wives and concubines.

§ 85.6. =The Stylites= (§ 44, 6) on account of the climate, could gain no footing, though attempts were indeed made, _e.g._ by Wulflaich (§ 78, 3). In place of them we find male and female recluses, =Reclusi= (_Inclusi_) and _Reclusæ_, who shut themselves up in cells which they never quitted. =Hermits of the Woods=, unfettered by any rules, found great favour among the Germans. Their national melancholic temperament inclining them to solitude, their strong love of nature, their passionate delight in roaming unchecked through woods and mountains, contributed to make such a mode of life attractive. It was during the 6th century that this craze for hermit life reached its height in Germany, and its main seat was in Auvergne with its wild mountains, glens and gorges. But as the cell of the saint was often in later times developed into a monastery on account of the crowds of disciples that gathered round, the hermit life gradually passed over into a regulated cœnobite life. In Switzerland Meinard, son of a count of Zollern, was a hermit of this sort. In A.D. 861 he had been murdered by two robbers, and this was afterwards discovered, the legend says, by means of two ravens feeding upon the body of the murdered man. His cell in later times grew into the beautiful Benedictine abbey of Maria-Einsiedeln with its miracle-working image of the mother of God, which at this day is visited by more than a hundred thousand pilgrims yearly.

§ 86: THE PROPERTY OF CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES.

The inalienableness of church property being regarded as the first principle of its administration, it grew by enormous strides from year to year through donations and legacies, At the end of the 7th century there was in Gaul fully a third of the whole territory in the possession of the churches and monasteries, while the national exchequer was quite exhausted. In this emergency Charles Martel founded the benefice system, for which he also converted into money the abundant possessions of the church. His sons, however, Carloman and Pepin the Short, in consideration of the reorganization of the Frankish church effected by Boniface (§ 78, 5), sought to avert the impoverishment of many churches and cloisters by a partial restitution so far as the neediness of the times would allow. Charlemagne and Louis the Pious did still more in this direction, so that partly by these means, partly by the continued donations of rich people, church property soon acquired its earlier proportions. Thus, _e.g._, the monastery of Luxeuil had in the 9th century an estate with 15,000 farm-houses upon it.--The administration of the property of churches and monasteries lay in the hands of the bishops and abbots. For defending and maintaining secular and legal rights there were ecclesiastical and monastic advocates, _Advocati ecclesiæ_. This institution, however, often degenerated into an agency for oppressing the peasants and plundering the property of their clients; for many advocates assumed arbitrary powers and dealt with the property of the church and its proceeds just as they chose.

§ 86.1. =The Revenues of Churches and Monasteries.=--The main sources of their growing wealth were donations and legacies. Princes often made bequests of enormous magnitude and rich people in private life vied with them. Occasions were never wanting; restoration from sickness, escape from danger, the birth of a child, etc., regularly won for the church whose patron saint had been helpful, some valuable present. The clergy also used all means in their power to encourage this prevailing readiness to bestow presents; and to this must in great measure be traced the beginnings of the forging of deeds. A peculiar form for bequeathing a gift was that of the _Precaria_, according to which the giver retained to himself for his lifetime the use of the goods which he gifted. Church property was farther greatly increased by the personal possessions of the clergy and the monks, which at the death of the former and at the _conversio_ of the latter usually became part of the revenue of the church or cloister to which their owners belonged. Besides the proceeds of its own estates the church drew the tithes of all property and incomes of parishioners, the claim being enforced as a _jus divinum_ by a reference to the Mosaic legislation and made a law of the empire by the injunction of Charlemagne. On the other hand the clergy were forbidden to exact payment for discharge of official duties, so called stole-dues, because they were performed by the priest dressed in the _stola_. The cathedral church was entitled to an annual tax, _Honor cathedræ_, levied upon all the churches of the diocese. The inferior clergy, on the other hand, often arrogated to themselves the right in accordance with a bad custom of grasping by violent plunder the possessions of their deceased bishop, _Spolium_.[241]

§ 86.2. =The Benefice System.=--In consequence of the vast gifts of the Merovingians to the churches and their ministrants, when Charles Martel assumed the government, the sources of crown revenue that hitherto seemed inexhaustible were almost completely dried up, while this prince, in order to deliver the country from the Saracens and in order to maintain his rule over against the innumerable petty tyrants who threatened to dismember the empire, required a yet fuller treasury than any of his predecessors. Out of these circumstances grew the =Benefice System=. The soldiers who had served the nation and princes had been as before rewarded by grants of lands. These, however, were no longer given as hereditary possessions but only for the lifetime of the receiver (_Beneficium_), and for this he was under obligation to supply a proportionate contingent for military service. When the crown lands had been well nigh exhausted, Charles Martel did not hesitate to lay claim to the church property. His son Carloman at the first Austrasian national Synod in A.D. 742 (§ 78, 5) promised to restore the church property that had thus been alienated, but had soon to confess his inability to perform his promise. At the second Austrasian Synod at Lestines in A.D. 743 he therefore limited the immediate restitution to the most pressing cases of notoriously poor and needy churches and monasteries. He was driven to this by the absolutely needful claims of the civil and military departments. But the claim of the church to get back the property was secured by the beneficiary giving a _Precarial_ letter and by the payment of an annual tax of a solidus for every farm house on the estate. The king also promised the full restoration on the death of the beneficiary, with express retention, however, of the right, if the needs of the times required it, to lease out again the vacant _precariæ_. Even Pepin at the Neustrian national Synod at Soissons in A.D. 744 granted similar concessions, but yet in the execution of them did not go so far as his brother. In A.D. 751 he caused a _descriptio et divisio_, _i.e._ an inventory of church property with an exact fixing of the limits of its various titles to be made.[242]--The annual tax referred to was transformed by Charlemagne into a second tithe, the so-called _Nonæ_. But even after the partial restitution effected by the descendants of Pepin there still remained upon the restored property the beneficial burdens that had been laid upon it, especially the obligation to supply and equip a certain number of soldiers, and this was thence transferred to the whole property of the church.--The benefice system, originating in the pressure of circumstances, continued to spread more and more, and formed the foundation of the entire social and civil organization of the Middle Ages.[243]

§ 87. ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION.

The construction of ecclesiastical legislation for the German empire was at first wholly the work of the Synods. The popes exerted scarcely any influence upon it, but all the more powerfully was felt the influence of the kings. They summoned the Synods, laid down to them the subjects to be discussed, and confirmed according to their own judgment their decisions. From the time that the Frankish bishoprics were filled by native Franks the independent life of the Synods was quenched, and ecclesiastical affairs were arranged at the national assemblies in which the bishops also took part as territorial nobles. The great national Synods, too, at which Boniface’s reorganization of the church in accordance with Roman ecclesiastical law as carried (§ 78, 5) were _Concilia mixta_ of this kind; and even under Charlemagne and Louis of France these were still prevalent. Charles, however, made their proceedings more orderly by grouping the nobles into three ranks as bishops, abbots and counts. Under the Pepin dynasty alongside of the synodal we have the royal decrees, arranged in separate chapters, and hence the ordinances are called _Capitularia_. Purely ecclesiastical Synods in later times again gained a footing and were particularly numerous in the times of Hincmar.

§ 87.1. =Older Collections of Ecclesiastical Law.=--Gregory II. furnished Boniface with a _Codex canonum_, undoubtedly the _Dionysiaca_ (§ 43, 3), and Hadrian II. presented Charlemagne with one which was solemnly received at the National Synod of Aachen in A.D. 802. There was in Spain a new collection which was erroneously attributed to bishop Isidore of Seville, who to distinguish him from the Frankish Pseudo-Isidore is designated the genuine Isidore, or more correctly as _Hispana_. This collection in form attaches itself to _Dionysiaca_. In the 9th century it was introduced among the Franks, and here gave contents and name to the Pseudo-Isidorian collection. In close connection with this masterpiece of forgery stands the collection of laws by Benedictus Levita of Mainz, which was indeed called a collection of capitularies, but was gathered mainly from documents of ecclesiastical legislation, genuine and spurious. A collection of true and genuine capitularies was made in A.D. 827 by Ansegis, Abbot of Fontenelles. Benedict’s collection was included in it as 5th, 6th, and 7th books. Besides these large collections many bishops prepared epitomized collections for the use of their own dioceses, of which several are extant under the name of _Capitula Episcoporum_. Decidedly in the interest of the Pseudo-Isidore are the _Capitula Angilramni_, composed and subscribed by bishop Angilramnus of Metz (d. A.D. 791). The dates and contents of the three first-named collections were determined in the interest of the Pseudo-Isidorian, and are still a matter of controversy. Benedict, according to his own credible statement, undertook his work at the command of the archbishop Otgar, of Mainz, for the archives of Mainz, but completed and published it probably in France only after Otgar’s death, which occurred in A.D. 847. But while in earlier times it was generally believed that Benedict had used the Pseudo-Isidore, Hinschius has become convinced that the author of the capitula is identical with the Pseudo-Isidore, and from Benedict’s capitularies has unravelled first the composition of the capitula and then that of the decretals.[244]

§ 87.2. =The Collection of Decretals of the Pseudo-Isidore.=--In the fiftieth year of the 9th century there appeared in France under the name of Isidorus Mercator a collection of canons and decretals, which indeed completely embraced the older so-called _Isidoriana_, but was enlarged by the addition of a multitude of forged decretals. The surname Mercator, otherwise Peccator, is probably derived from the well known Marius Mercator (§ 47, 20), who had also occupied himself with the translation of ecclesiastical documents, which the Pseudo-Isidore used for his work. It begins with the fifty _Canones Apostt._, then follow fifty-nine forged decretals which are assigned to the thirty oldest popes from Clement to Melchiades (d. A.D. 314). The second part embraces, besides the original document of the Donation of Constantine, genuine synodal decrees falsified apparently only in one passage. The third part, again, contains decretals of Sylvester, the successor of Melchiades, down to Gregory II. (d. A.D. 731), of which thirty-five are not genuine. The non-genuine decretals are for the most part not altogether forgeries, but are rather based upon the literature of theology and canon law then existing, amplified or altered, and wrought up to serve the purposes of the compiler. The system of the Pseudo-Isidore is characterized by the following peculiarities: Over the _Imperium_ is raised the _Sacerdotium_, ordained of Christ to be governor and judge of the world. The unity and head of the _Sacerdotium_ is represented by the pope. Bishops are related to the pope as the other apostles were to Peter. The metropolitan is only _primus inter pares_. Between the pope and the bishops as an intermediate rank we have the primates or patriarchs. This rank, however, belongs only to such metropolitan sees as either were ordained to it by the apostles and their successors, or to such sees in more recently converted lands as were elevated to this position in consequence of the multitude of bishops belonging to them. Provincial Synods should be held only with the consent of the pope, their decrees become valid only after receiving his confirmation, and all _causæ majores_, especially all complaints against bishops, belong solely to his own judicature. Priests are the _Familiares Dei_, the _Spirituales_; the laity, on the other hand, are the _Carnales_. No clergyman, least of all a bishop, may be taken before a secular tribunal. A layman may not appear as an accuser against a clergyman, and the Synods are enjoined to render charges against a bishop as difficult as possible. An expelled bishop, before the charges against him can be examined, must have been fully restored (_Exceptio Spolii_). If the accused regards his judges as _inimici_ or _suspecti_, he may appeal to be examined before the pope. For the establishing of a charge at least seventy-two witnesses are necessary, etc.

§ 87.3. The forgery originated in France, where it had been in existence for some years before it was known in Rome, as appears from the process against Rothad of Soissons (§ 83, 2). Rothad first brought it to Rome in A.D. 864. Blondel and Kunst regard Benedict Levita as its author. He first gave currency to the forgery in his Collection of Capitularies. and so arouses the suspicion that he is himself the forger. Philipps fathers it upon Rothad of Soissons; Wasserschleben ascribes it to archbishop Otgar of Mainz, who, as a prominent head of the clerical conspiracy against Louis the Pious (§ 82, 4), would have reason to defend himself against the judgment which would befall conspirators. But this doom did not in any very special manner threaten Otgar. On Louis’ restoration he was not sentenced or deposed by any synod, but was without more ado received into favour by the emperor. The Pseudo-Isidore’s hostile attitude toward the chorepiscopi (§ 84), while gaining no footing in Germany, certainly prevailed in France; and France, not Germany, was the place where this collection first appeared between A.D. 853 and 864. Since now, moreover, the prominence given by the Pseudo-Isidore to the rank of primate may be regarded as equally favourable to the see of Rheims as to that of Mainz, Weizsäcker and v. Noorden have sought the original home of the forgery in the diocese of Rheims, and point to Ebo, archbishop of Rheims, Hincmar’s predecessor, as the forger. And Ebo certainly stood in the front rank of the revolt referred to. Before him Louis had specially to humble himself. He was therefore taken prisoner immediately upon the emperor’s restoration, and deprived of his office at the Synod of Didenhofen in A.D. 835 (§ 82, 4). The emperor Lothair, indeed, restored him in A.D. 840, but his position was still very insecure, as he had before a year passed to save himself by flight on the approach of Charles the Bald, and never again saw Rheims, which till Hincmar’s elevation remained in the hands of chorepiscopi. The composition of the collection, according to v. Noorden, belongs to the period immediately preceding and lasting through his restitution. Finally Hinschius regards Rheims as undoubtedly the scene of the composition of these forgeries, but he cannot ascribe them to Ebo because, according to his demonstration, Benedict’s Pseudo-Isidore used as his authority only a collection completed after A.D. 847, and by that time Ebo could not have the shadow of a hope of restoration. But he also advances other weighty considerations. Ebo himself had never attempted to make good the claims which the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals would have afforded him. If his own affairs had first led him to think of forging decretals he must have foreseen that the extensive studies necessary for such a work would have demanded many years of laborious effort, and would be concluded much too late to serve his purpose. It would, therefore, seem to him safer to confine himself to what his immediately present circumstances urgently required; whereas the actual Pseudo-Isidore, on the contrary, puts in the mouths of the early popes, with no little zeal and emphasis, a vast array of other exhortations and decrees that seemed to him useful amid the troubles of that age for the well being of the church and its ministers. Thus the whole work assumes more of the character of a _pia fraus_ of a somewhat high church cleric of that time than of a forgery devised in the selfish interests of an individual. This much, however, must be admitted, that the directions quoted about judicial procedure against accused bishops exactly fit the case of Ebo. As the first attempt to use the non-genuine decretals only found in Pseudo-Isidore was made at the Synod of Soissons in A.D. 853, by those clerics who had been ordained by Ebo after his deposition but rejected by Hincmar, the final redaction and publication must fall between A.D. 847 and 853. Langen fixes the date at A.D. 850, and refers its authorship to Servatus Lupus (§ 90, 5). Nobody then doubted their genuineness. Even Hincmar seems for a long time to have had no doubts. But he decidedly repudiated their legal authority in the Frankish church, and energetically opposed them when they were sought to be enforced against the independence of the church. Thus he could always refer to them where their contentions agreed with his own, or, as in the case against his nephew, where they supported his rights as primate, in order to defeat his opponents with their own weapons. Subsequently however, in A.D. 872, in a letter written in the name of his king to pope Hadrian, he characterized them in contrast with the genuine and valid decretals as _secus a quoquam compilata sive conficta_. The Magdeburg Centuriators were the first conclusively to prove them spurious. The Jesuit Turrianus, however, entered the lists once more on their behalf. But the reformed theologian, David Blondel, castigated so sharply and thoroughly this theological unprincipledness, that even in the Roman Catholic church their non-genuineness has been now since admitted.[245]

§ 87.4. Among the many spurious documents which the Pseudo-Isidore included in his collection of ecclesiastical laws, we find an =Edictum Constantini Imperatoris=. In the first part of it, the so-called _Confessio_, Constantine makes a confession of his faith, and relates in detail in what a wonderful way he was converted to Christianity by pope Sylvester, and cured of leprosy (§ 42, 1). Then in the second part, the so-called _Donatio_, he confers upon the chair of Peter, with recognition of its absolute primacy over all patriarchates of the empire, imperial power, rank, honour, and insignia, as all privileges and claims of imperial senators upon its clergy. In order that the possessor of this gift may be able to all time to maintain the dignity of his position, he gives him the Lateran palace, transfers to him independent dominion over “_Romanam urbem et omnes Italiæ seu_ (in Frankish Latin of the 8th and 9th centuries this means ‘as well as’) _occidentalium regionum provincias, loca et civitates_” (therefore not merely Italy but the whole West Roman empire); he removes his own imperial residence to Byzantium, “_quoniam ubi principates Sacerdotum et Christ. religionis Caput ab Imperatore cœlesti constitutum est, justum non est, ut illic Imperator terrerum habeat potestatem_.” In a letter of Hadrian I. to Charlemagne in A.D. 788, in which he salutes the emperor as a second Constantine who is called upon by God not only to restore to the apostolic chair the “_potestas in his Hesperiæ partibus_,” which had been already assigned it by the first Constantine, but also all later legacies and donations “of various patricians and other God-fearing men,” which the godless race of the Longobards in course of time tore from it, we have the first hint at the idea of a _Donatio Constantini_. The same pope, too, according to the _Vita Hadriani_ in the Romish Pontifical, on the occasion of Charles’ visit to Rome in A.D. 774 is said to have reclaimed from him an enormous grant of land (§ 82, 2). It seemed therefore an extremely probable supposition that assigned Rome as the place where this document originated, and the period of the overthrow of the Longobard empire, whether actually accomplished or on the eve of taking place, as the date of its fabrication (§ 82, 1, 2). Against this view, almost universally prevalent, quite recently Grauert has advanced a vast array of powerful arguments, _e.g._, the limitation of the _Donatio_ of Constantine to Italy which is here suggested contradicts its own express statement. The words of the letter of Hadrian referred to speak not of a dominion =over= Italy, and which they could have read, “_in has H. partes_,” but of a dominion in Italy which was founded upon Constantine’s munificence and enlarged by many subsequent presents. They do not, therefore, refer like the words of the _Donatio_ to sovereign territorial authority, but to the exceedingly wide-spread and rich property included in the _Patrimonium Petri_ (§ 46, 10). The “potestas,” said to have been assigned by Constantine to the Roman see, does not exceed the authority which even according to the _Vita Sylvestri_ of the Pontifical had been given by Constantine to that pope.--Thus the donation document is met with first in the Pseudo-Isidore. It was often afterwards referred to by the Frankish government. By Rome, on the other hand, although even Nicholas I. was made acquainted with the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals by Rothad, and referred to them in A.D. 865, they are never used, either against the Franks or against the Byzantines until, in A.D. 1053, we meet an allusion to them in a letter from Leo IX. to the patriarch Michael Cærularius (§ 67, 3). Grauert accounts for this by saying that there were two recensions of Pseudo-Isidore, a shorter, which had only the first part of the document, the so-called _Confessio_; and a longer, which had also the _Donatio_, and that Rothad took probably only the shorter one to Rome. From these and other data adduced by Grauert it seems more than probable that the foundry in which the document was forged was not in Rome, but rather in France among the high church party there, from which also the full-fledged forgery proceeded. It would also seem that a double purpose was served by its composition. On the one hand, over against the Greeks it represented the chair of Peter as raised above all the patriarchates of the empire, and the Western empire as a thoroughly legitimate one transferred by Constantine the Great to the pope, and then by him to the kings of the Franks. And, on the other hand, it also made it clear to the Frankish princes that all temporal power in the West essentially, and from of old, belonged to the pope, and is bestowed upon them by means of their coronation by the pope’s hands.--That from the time when they met with the document unto the 11th century the Byzantines did not contest its genuineness, need not surprise us when we consider the uncritical character of the age. They would also be the less disposed to do so as they could only thereby hope to win that perfect equality in spiritual authority as well as in secular rank with the Roman bishop which the fourth œcumenical council had assigned to their patriarchal see. But while the Byzantines may be regarded as inconsiderately incorporating this donation of Constantine into their historical and legal books, blotting out indeed the passages which seemed to them to favour the pretensions of the pope to universal sovereignty, it is a more difficult task to secure for it acceptance among Western diplomatists. Even in A.D. 999 a state paper of Otto III. describes it as a pure fiction. High church tendencies, however, raised their standard also in the West during the 11th century (§ 96, 4, 5). Indeed, even in A.D. 1152, an Arnoldist (§ 108, 7), named Wetzel, wrote to the Emperor Frederick I.: “Their lies and heretical fables are now so completely exploded that even day-labourers and cow-men could prove to scholars their emptiness, and the pope with his cardinals ventures not for shame to show himself in the city of Rome.” The victory, however, of the papacy over the Hohenstaufen gained currency for it again, and it was the treatise of Laurentius Valla, “De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione declamatio,” which Ulrich von Hutten issued in multitude from the press, gave it the death blow (§ 120, 1). When, thereafter, even Baronius admitted the spuriousness of the document, though assigning its fabrication to the Greeks, who wished by it to prove that the Roman primacy was not of Christ but from Constantine, it found no longer a vindicator even in the Roman Catholic church.

III. THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE.

§ 88. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND ART.

The German Arians undoubtedly used the language of the people in their services. The adoption of Catholicism, however, led to the introduction of the Latin tongue. The last trace of acquaintance with Ulfilas’ translation of the Bible is found in the 9th century. The nations converted directly to Catholicism had from the first the Latin language in public worship. Only the Slavs still retained the use of their mother tongue (§ 79, 2). The Roman liturgy, as well as the Roman language, was adopted in all churches with the exception of those of Milan and Spain. After Pepin had entered into closer relations with the popes, he endeavoured, in A.D. 754, at their desire, to bring about a uniformity between the Frankish ritual and the Roman pattern; and Charlemagne, whom Hadrian I. presented with a Roman Sacramentarium, carried it out with relentless energy. The slightness of the liturgical contributions of the Germans is to be accounted for partly by the fact that the Roman liturgy was already presented to them in a richly developed and essentially complete form, but also partly by the exclusion of the national languages and the refusal to give the people a share in the liturgical services. Under the constraint of a foreign tongue the Germans could not put the impress of their national character on a department in which language plays so important a part.

§ 88.1. =Liturgy and Preaching.=--Alongside of the Roman or Gregorian =Liturgy= many others also were in use. The people and clergy of Milan so determinedly adhered to their old Ambrosian liturgy, that even Charlemagne could not dislodge it, and down to the present day Milan has preserved this treasure. No less energetically did the Spaniards hold by their national liturgy, the so-called Mozarabic (§ 81, 1). It has a strong resemblance to the oriental liturgies, but was further elaborated by bishops Leander and Isidore of Seville (§ 80, 2), and was recognised by the National Synod of Toledo in A.D. 633 as valid for the whole of Spain. The Gallican liturgies too of the Carolingian times betrayed a certain dependence upon the oriental rituals. =Preaching=, in the services of the Western churches was always subordinate to the liturgy, and the relapse into savagery occasioned by the migrations of the peoples drove it almost completely out of the field. The missionary fervour in the Western church during the 7th century was the first thing to re-awaken a sense of its importance. But then very few priests could compose a sermon. Charlemagne, therefore, about A.D. 780, had a Latin Homiliarium compiled by Paulus Diaconus [Paul Warnefrid] (§ 90, 3) from the fathers for all the Sundays and Festivals of the year, as a model for their own composition, or, where that was too much to be expected, for reading in the original or in a translation. During the whole Middle Ages and beyond the Reformation it continued to be one of the most read and most diligently used books in the Roman Catholic church. Missionaries naturally preached themselves or through interpreters in the language of the people; even in constituted churches preaching was generally conducted in the speech of the country. Charlemagne and the Synods of his time insisted at least upon German or Romanic preaching.

§ 88.2. =Church Music= (§ 59, 4, 5).--After Gregory’s ordinance church music continued to be restricted to the clergy. Charlemagne indeed insisted, but unsuccessfully, that all the people should take part in singing the _Gloria_ and the _Sanctus_. In the 7th-9th cent. a number of Latin hymn-writers flourished, of whom the most distinguished were Bede, Paul Warnefrid, Theodulf of Orleans, Alcuin, Rabanus Maurus, and Walafrid Strabo. The beautiful Pentecost hymn _Veni creator Spiritus_ is ascribed to Charlemagne. The old classical form and colouring were more and more lost, but all the more the essentially Christian and Germanic character of simplicity and spirituality became prominent. Toward the end of our period the composition of Latin hymns obtained a new and fruitful impetus from the adoption of the so-called =Sequences= or =Proses= in the Mass. Under the long series of notes, hitherto without words attached, which were appended to the Alleluia to express inarticulate jubilation, hence called _jubilationes_, were now placed appropriate rhythmical words in Latin prose, which, however, soon assumed the form of metre, rhyme and strophes. The first famous writer of Sequences was the monk Notker Balbulus of St. Gall, who died in A.D. 912. Connected in form with the Latin Sequences were the more recently introduced Old Frankish _Lais_ (Celtic=verse, song) and the Old German _Leiche_ (=melody, song), to simple airs that had been used for popular songs. The only one which the church allowed to the people, and that only in services outside of the church, in processions, rogations and pilgrimages, in going to the church, at translations of relics, funerals, consecrations of churches, popular religious festivals, etc., was the singing or rather reciting of the _Kyrie eleison_ from the great Litany. The fondness of the Germans for singing and composing hymns led, in the second half of the 9th century, to the attaching to these words short rhyming sacred verses in their mother tongue, and this in such a manner that the _Kyrie eleison_ always formed the refrain of a strophe, so that they were called =Leisons=. This was the beginning of German church music. Of the Leisons only one hymn to St. Peter in the Old High-German dialect has come down to our day.--=The Gregorian Music=, _Cantus firmus_ or _choralis_, won a most complete victory over the Ambrosian (§ 59, 5). In A.D. 754 Pepin at the request of Stephen II. ordered that in France only the Roman singing should be allowed, and Charlemagne secured for it complete and exclusive ascendency in all the West by violently extirpating the already very degenerate Ambrosian music, by establishing the celebrated singing schools of Metz, Soissons, Orleans, Paris, Lyons, etc., at the head of which he placed teachers brought from Rome, and by introducing instruction in singing in all the higher and lower schools. The first =Organ= came to France in A.D. 757 as a present to Pepin the Short from the Greek emperor Constantinus Copronymus; the second to Aachen with an embassy from the emperor Michael I. in Charlemagne’s time. From that time they became more common. They were still as instruments very imperfect. They had only from 9 to 12 notes, and the keys were so stiff that they had to be beaten down with the fist.[246]--Continuation, § 104, 10, 11.

§ 88.3. =The Sacrifice of the Mass.=--As the idea of sacrifice gained place there sprang up in addition to the masses for the souls of the departed (§ 58, 3) private masses for various other purposes, for the success of some undertaking, for the recovery of a sick person, for good weather and a good harvest, etc. To some extent the multiplication of masses was limited by the ordinance that celebration should be made at the same altar and by the same priest only once in the day. From the wish to secure that as many masses as possible should be said for their souls after death, churches and monasteries were formed into fraternities with a stipulated obligation to celebrate a certain number of masses for each deceased member of the fraternity in all the churches and monasteries belonging thereto. Fraternities of this kind, into which as a special favour princes and nobles were received, were called =Confederacies for the Dead=.

§ 88.4. =The Worship of Saints= (§ 57).--This practice found a very ready response from the Germans. It afforded some compensation for the abandoned worship of their ancestors. But over all other saints towered the mother of God, the meek and gentle queen of heaven. In her the old German reverence for woman found its ideal and full satisfaction. In respect of =Image Worship= (§ 57, 4) the Germans lagged behind, partly from the scarcity of images, partly from national aversion to them. The Frankish church of the Carolingian age protested formally against them (§ 92, 1). But all the greater was the zeal shown in the =Worship of Relics= (§ 57, 5) in which the worshipper had the saint concretely and bodily. The relics of the West were innumerable. Rome was an inexhaustible storehouse; and from the successive missionaries, from the deserts and solitudes, from the monasteries and bishops’ seats, there went forth crowds of new saints whose bones were venerated with enthusiasm. The gaining of a new relic for a church or monastery was regarded as a piece of good fortune for the whole land, and amid thousands assembled from far and near the translation was carried out, accompanied with liberal gifts of money. The Frankish monastery of Centula could show in the 9th century an immensely long list of the relics which it possessed, from the grave of the Innocents, the milk of the Holy Virgin, the beard of Peter, his cloak, the _Oratorium_ of Paul, and even from the wood of the three tabernacles that Peter wished to build on Tabor. The custom of making =Pilgrimages= (§ 57, 6) also found great favour among the travel-loving Germans, especially among the Anglo-Saxons. The places most frequented by pilgrims were the tomb of the chief Apostles at Rome, then the tomb of Martin of Tours, and, toward the end of our period, that of St. James of Compostella, _Jacobus Apostolus_ the elder, the supposed founder of the Spanish church, whose bones were discovered there by Alfonso the Chaste. The immoralities consequent upon pilgrimages, about which even the ancient church complained, were also only too apparent in this later age. On account of them Boniface urges that his countrywomen should be forbidden to go on pilgrimages, since this only served to supply the cities of Gaul and Italy with prostitutes. The idea of =Guardian Angels= (§ 57, 3) was eagerly adopted by the Germans. They were specially drawn to the warlike Archangel Michael, the conqueror of the great dragon (Dan. xii. 1; Jude 9; Rev. xii. 7 ff.).--Continuation, § 104, 8.

§ 88.5. =Times and Places for Public Worship.=--The beginning of the church year was changed from Easter to Christmas. All Saints’ Day (§ 57, 1), originally a Roman local festival, was made a universal ordinance by Gregory IV. who, in A.D. 835, fixed its date at 1st Nov. The abundance of relics and the multitude of masses that were said made it necessary to increase the number of altars in the churches beyond what Charlemagne had enjoined. Afterwards they were usually limited to three. The high altar stood out by itself in the middle of the choir recess. The side altars leant on pillars or on the chief altar. A relic shrine generally from the 8th century formed the back of the altar. No trace of a chancel is found, not even of a confessional chair. In churches which had the right of baptizing (§ 84, 2) there were as a rule separate baptistries. In place of these, after the right of baptizing was conferred on all churches, the baptismal font was introduced, either on the left side of the main entrance or at the point where the transepts crossed the nave. This change required the substitution of sprinkling for immersion. Clocks and towers became always more common. The latter, at first separate from the buildings, were from Charlemagne’s time attached to the church edifice. The baptism of bells, their consecration with water, oil and chrism, with the bestowing on them of some saint’s name, was forbidden by Charlemagne, but it was nevertheless continued, and is common to this day in the Roman Catholic church.

§ 88.6. Most attention was paid to ecclesiastical architecture and painting, south of the Alps during the Ostro-gothic period, north of the Alps during the Carolingian period. The Anglo-Saxons, however, in their island home also developed a taste for art. During the 9th century it received special attention in the German monasteries of St. Gall and Fulda. The monk Tutilo of St. Gall, d. A.D. 912, was pre-eminently distinguished both as a master in architecture, painting and sculpture, and in poetry and scholarship. The old Roman basilica style still maintained the front rank in church building. Yet at Ravenna, the Byzantium of Italy, during the Gothic domination there were several beautiful churches in the Byzantine cupola style. Einhard received from Charlemagne the rank of a court architect. Of all the churches built in Charlemagne’s time the most important was the cathedral of Aachen. It was built in the cupola style after the pattern of the cathedral church of Ravenna. Intended as a royal chapel, it was connected by a pillared passage with the palace. It was therefore also of only moderate dimensions. Its being appropriated as the coronation church led subsequently to its enlargement by the addition to it in A.D. 1355 of a large choir in the Gothic style. The church afforded abundant scope for the use of the art of the statuary. Costly shrines for relics were required, crucifixes, lamps, _ciboria_, incense vessels, etc., on which might be lavished all the refinements of artistic skill. The church books had artistically carved covers. Church doors, episcopal thrones, reading desks, baptismal fonts, afforded room for practice in _relievo_ work. Among the various kinds of pictorial representations miniature painting was most diligently practised upon copies of the church books.--Continuation, § 104, 12, 14.

§ 89. NATIONAL CUSTOMS, SOCIAL LIFE AND CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

The remains of Christian popular poetry of this period afford a convincing proof of the powerful and profound manner in which the truths of Christianity (§ 75, 1) had been grasped by the German races. The great mass of the people indeed had adopted the new faith in a purely historical fashion. Only gradually did it make its way into the inner spiritual life, and meanwhile out of the not fully conquered paganism there grew up a rich crop of superstitions in connection with the Christian life. It must be confessed that the state of morality among the Germans had fallen very low as compared with that which prevailed before Germany’s conversion to Christianity. A sadder contrast is scarcely conceivable than that presented by a comparison of the description in Tacitus of the old German customs and discipline and the account of Gregory of Tours of colossal criminality and brutish sensuality in the Merovingian Age. But never more than here does the fallacy: _Post hoc ergo propter hoc_, require to be guarded against. The moral deterioration of the German peoples was carried out independently of their contemporaneous, merely external, Christianization. The cause of it lies only in the overturning of the foundations of German life by the migration of the peoples. Severed from their original home, the most powerful guardian of ancestral customs, and set down as conquerors in the midst of rich countries with morally base surroundings, which had a poisonous effect upon them, with that eagerness and tenacity which characterize children of nature, they seized upon the seductive treasures and enjoyments, and their unfettered passion broke through all restraints of discipline and morality. The clearest proof of this view lies in the fact that the moral decay appeared in so remarkable a degree only among such peoples as settled in the corrupt Roman world and became amalgamated with it, most conspicuously among the Franks in Gaul and the Longobards in Italy, whereas among the Anglo-Saxons and the inhabitants of Germany the moral development was more normal.

§ 89.1. =Superstition.=--A powerful impulse was given to superstition on the one hand by the church, according to the educational method recommended by Gregory the Great (§ 75, 3), refusing recklessly to root out every element of paganism and rather endeavouring to give Christian applications to heathen institutions and views and to fill pagan forms with Christian contents, and on the other hand, by the representatives of the church not regarding belief in the existence of heathen deities as a delusion but counting the gods and goddesses as demons. The popular belief therefore saw in them a set of dethroned deities who in certain realms of nature maintain their ancient sway, whom therefore they dare not venture altogether to disoblige. The fanciful poetic view of nature prevailing among the Germans contributed also to this result, with its love of the mysterious and supernatural, its fondness for subtle enquiries and intellectual investigations. Thus, in the worship of the saints as well as in the church’s belief in angels and devils, new rich worlds opened themselves up before the Christianized Germans, which the popular belief soon improved upon. The pious man is exposed on all sides to the vexations of demons, but he is also on all sides surrounded by the protecting care of saints and angels. The popular belief made a great deal of the devil, but the relation of men to the prince of darkness and his attendant spirits seemed much too earnest and real to be as yet the subject of the humour which characterized the devil legends of the later Middle Ages, in which the cheated, “stupid” devil is represented as at last possessed only of impotent rage and sneaking off in disgrace.

§ 89.2. =Popular Education.=--The idea of a general system of education for the people was already present to the mind of Charlemagne. Yet as we may suppose only beginnings were made toward its realization. Bishop Theodulf of Orleans was specially active in founding schools for the people in all the villages and country towns of his diocese. The religious instruction of the youth was restricted as a rule to the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed. Whatever grown up man or woman did not know these two was at Charles’ command to be subjected to flogging and fasting and to be made to learn them besides. As evidence of the extent of a religious consciousness among the people may be adduced the German forms of adjuration, belief, confession and prayer, of the 8th and 9th centuries which are still preserved. Further means of advancing the religious education of the people were afforded by the attempts to make the biblical and patristic books accessible to the people by translations in their own language. Among the Germans the monastery of St. Gall was famous for its zeal in originating a national literature. Among the Anglo-Saxons this effort was made and carried out by Alfred the Great, who died in A.D. 901 (§ 90, 10).

§ 89.3. =Christian Popular Poetry.=--It makes its first appearance at the end of the 7th century and continued far down into the 9th century. It flourished chiefly in England and Germany. Under the name of the Northumbrian =Cædmon=, who died in A.D. 680, there has been preserved a whole series of biblical poems of no small poetic merit, which range over the whole of the Old and New Testament history. The most important Anglo-Saxon poet after him was his countryman =Cynewulf= living about a century later. His poems are less homely and simple, but more elaborate than those of Cædmon, and as full of poetic enthusiasm as these. He too paints for us in his “Christ” the picture of the Redeemer as that of a manly victorious prince among his true “champions and earls” with such clear-cut features that “whoever once beholds them will never again forget them.” His poetically wrought up legends bear more of the Romish stamp with traces of saint worship and the doctrine of merit.[247] Still higher than these two Anglo-Saxon productions stands the German-Saxon epic the =Heliand=, of the time of Louis of France, a song of the Messiah worthy of its august subject, truly national, perfect in form, simple, lively and majestic in style, transposing into German blood and life a genuine deep Christianity. In poetic value scarcely less significant is the “Krist” of Otfried, a monk of Weissenberg about A.D. 860. Near to his heart as well as to that of the Anglo-Saxon singers lay the thought: _thaz wir Kriste sungun in unsere Zungun_. It is, however, no longer popular but artistic poetry, in which the old German letter rhyme or alliteration gives place to the softer and more delicate final rhyme. To this class belongs also the so-called =Wessobrunner Prayer=, of which the first poetical half is probably a fragment of a larger hymn of the creation, and a poem in High German on the end of the world and the last judgment, known by the name of =Muspilli=, extant only as a fragment which is, however, almost unsurpassable in dignity and grandeur of description.

§ 89.4. =Social Condition.=--From the point of view of German law the contract of betrothal had the validity of =marriage= and the subsequent nuptial ceremony or surrender of the bride to the bridegroom in a public legal manner by her father or legal guardian was held to be only the carrying out of that contract. The bridal ceremony with the ecclesiastical benediction of the marriage bond already legally tied, was frequently celebrated only on the day following the marriage, therefore after its consummation. The Capitulary of Charlemagne of A.D. 802 came to the support of the claims of the church (§ 61, 2), ordaining that without previous careful enquiry as to the relationship of the parties by the priest, and the elders of the people, and also without the priestly benediction, no marriage could be concluded. The Pseudo-Isidorian decretals ascribed this demand to the popes of the 4th and 5th centuries. But the right to perform marriages was not thereby committed to the church; it was only that the religious consecration of the civil ordinance of marriage was now made obligatory. It seemed best of all when sooner or later the spouses voluntarily renounced marital intercourse; but this was strictly forbidden during Lent (§ 56, 4, 5), on all festivals and on the station days of the week (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Second marriages were branded with the reproach of incontinence and called forth a lengthened penance. There was on the other hand as yet no prohibition of divorce, and the marrying again of those separated was only unconditionally forbidden in particular cases. The church was not willing to tolerate mixed marriages with heathens, Jews and Arians. The Germans found it most difficult to reconcile themselves to the strict requirements of the church in regard to the prohibited degrees of relationship. National customs had regarded many such marriages, especially with a brother’s widow, as even a pious duty.[248]--Continuation, § 104, 6.--=Slavery= or Serfdom was an institution so closely connected among the Germans with their notions of property that the church could not think of its entire abolition; indeed the church itself, with its large landed possessions, owned quite a multitude of slaves. Yet it earnestly maintained the religious and moral equality of masters and servants, assigned to the manumission of slaves one of the first places among good works, and was always ready to give protection to bondmen against cruel masters.[249]--The church with special energy entered upon the task of =Caring for the Poor=; even proud and heartless bishops could not overlook it. Every well appointed church had several buildings in which the poor, the sick, widows and orphans were maintained at the church’s cost.[250]

§ 89.5. =Practice of Pubic Law.=--The custom of =Blood Revenge= was also a thoroughly German institution. It had, however, been fairly restricted by the custom of =Composition= or the payment of satisfaction in the form of a pecuniary fine. The church from its dislike of capital punishment decidedly favoured this system. As a means of securing judicial evidence oaths and ordeals were administered. Only the freeman, who was quite capable of acting in accordance with his own judgment, was allowed to take an =Oath=; the husband took the oath for his wife, the father for the children, the master for the slave. Relatives, friends and equals in rank swore along with him as sharers of his oath, _Conjuratores_. Although they repeated with him the oath formula, the meaning of their action simply was that they were fully satisfied as to the honour and truthfulness of him who took the oath. Where the oath of purgation was not allowed, _conjuratores_ were not forthcoming and the other means of proof awanting, the =Ordeal= (_Ordale_ from _Ordâl_=judgment) was introduced. Under this may be included:

1. The Duel, derived from the old popular belief: _Deum adesse bellantitus_. Only a freeman was allowed to enter the lists. Old men, women, children and priests were allowed to put in their place another of the same rank by birth.

2. Various fire tests; holding the bare hand a length of time in the fire; in a simple shirt walking over burning logs of wood; carrying glowing iron in the bare hand for nine paces; walking barefoot over nine or twelve glowing ploughshares.

3. Two water tests: the accused was obliged to pick up with his naked hand a ring or stone out of a kettle filled with boiling water, or with a cord round his naked body he was cast into deep water, his sinking was the proof of his innocence.

4. The cross test: he whose arms first sank with weariness from the cruciform position, was regarded as defeated.

5. The Eucharist test, applied especially to priests: it was expected that the criminal should soon die under the stroke of God’s wrath. As a substitute for this among the laity we find the test of the consecrated morsel, _Judicium offæ_ which the accused was required to swallow during mass.

6. The bier test, _Judicium feretri_: if when the accused touched the wound of the murdered man blood flowed from the wound or forth from the mouth, it was regarded as proof of his guilt.

The church with its belief in miracles occupied the same ground as that on which the ordeal practice was rooted. It could therefore only combat the heathen conception of the ordeal and not the thing itself. But the church took charge of the whole procedure, and certainly did much to reduce the danger to a minimum. It was Agobard of Lyons, who died in A.D. 840, who first contended against the superstition as worthy of reprobation. Subsequently the Roman chair, first by Nicholas I., forbade ordeals of all kinds.--Among the various kinds of privileges involving the inviolability of person and goods, profession and business, the privileges of the church were regarded as next highest to those of the king. Any injury done to ecclesiastical persons or properties and any crime committed in a sacred place, required a threefold greater composition than _ceteris paribus_ would have otherwise been required. The bishop ranked with the duke, the priest with the count.

§ 89.6. =Church Discipline and Penitential Exercises= (§ 61, 1).--=The German= State allowed the church a share in the administration of punishments, and regarded an evildoer’s atonement as complete only when he had submitted to the ecclesiastical as well as the secular judgment. Out of this grew the institution of Episcopal =Synodal Judicatures=, _Synodus_, under Charlemagne. Once a year the bishop accompanied by a royal _Missus_ was to travel over the whole diocese, and, of every parish priest assisted by assessors sworn for the purpose, should inquire minutely into the moral and ecclesiastical condition of each of the congregations under him and punish the sins and shortcomings discovered. Directions for the conducting of Synodal judicatures were written by Regino of Prüm and Hincmar of Rheims (§ 90, 5). The state also gave authority to =Ecclesiastical Excommunication= by putting its civil forces at the disposal of the church. Pepin ordained that no excommunicated person should enter a church, no Christian should eat or drink with him, none should even greet him. Directions for the practice of =Penitential Discipline= are given in the various =Penitentials= or Confessional-books, which, after the pattern of forensic productions, settle the amount of penal exactions for all conceivable sins in proportion to their enormity. The Penitential erroneously ascribed to Theodore archbishop of Canterbury (§ 90, 8) is the model upon which most of these are constructed. The Confessional-books that go under the names of the Venerable Bede and Egbert of York obtained particularly high favour. All these books, even in their earliest form extremely perverse and in their later much altered forms full of contradictions, errors and arbitrary positions, reduced the whole penitential practice to the utmost depths of externalization and corruption. How confused and warped the church idea of penitence had become is seen by the rendering of the word _pœnitentia_ by penance, _i.e._ satisfaction, atonement. In the Penitentials _pœnitere_ is quite identical with _jejunare_. The idea of _pœnitentia_ having been once associated with external performances, there could be no objection to substitute the customary penitential act of fasting (§ 56, 7) for other spiritual exercises, or by adoption of the German legal practice of receiving composition to accept a money tax for ecclesiastical or benevolent purposes. In this way the first traces made their appearance of the Indulgences of the later Roman Catholic church. It therefore followed from this, that, as satisfaction could be rendered for all sins by corresponding acts of penance, so these works might also be performed vicariously by others. Thus in the Penitentials there grew up a system of =Penitential Redemptions= which formed the most despicable mockery of all earnest penitence. For example, a direction is given as to how a rich man may be absolved from a penance of seven years in three days, without inconveniencing himself, if he produces the number of men needed to fast for him. Such deep corruption of the penitential discipline, however, aroused, in the 8th and 9th centuries, a powerful reaction against the Confessional-books and their corrupt principles. It was first brought forward at the English Synod at Clovesho in A.D. 747; in its footsteps followed the French Synods of Chalons in A.D. 813, of Paris A.D. 829, of Mainz, A.D. 847. The Council of Paris ordered that all Confessional-books should be seized and burnt. They nevertheless still continued to be used.--There did not as yet exist any universal and unconditional compulsion to make confession. The custom, however, of a yearly confession in the Easter forty days’ season was even during the 9th century so prevalent, that the omission of it was followed by a severe censure by the synodal court. The formulæ of absolution were only deprecative, not judicative.[251]

IV. THEOLOGY AND ITS BATTLES.

§ 90. SCHOLARSHIP AND THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE.[252]

With the exception of Ulfilas’ famous efforts, the Arian period of German church history is quite barren in scientific performances. Yet those few who preserved and fostered the scientific gains of earlier times were honoured and made use of by the noble-minded Ostrogoth king Theodoric, and under him Boethius [Boëthius] and Cassiodorus (§ 47, 23) performed the praiseworthy task of saving the remnants of classical and patristic learning. For Spain the same office was performed by Isidore of Seville, who died in A.D. 636, whose text-books continued for centuries, even on this side the Pyrenees, to supply the groundwork of scholarly studies. The numerous Scottish and Irish monasteries maintained their reputation down to the 9th century for eminent piety and distinguished scholarship. Among the Anglo-Saxons the learned Greek monk Theodore of Tarsus, who died in A.D. 690, and his companion Hadrian, enkindled an enthusiasm for classical studies, and the venerable Bede, who died in A.D. 735, though he never quitted his monastery, became the most famous teacher in all the West, The Danish pirates did indeed crush almost to extinction the seeds of Anglo-Saxon culture, but Alfred the Great sowed them anew, though this revival was only for a little while. In Gaul Gregory of Tours, who died in A.D. 595, was the last representative of Roman ecclesiastical learning. After him we enter upon a chaos without form and void, from which the creative spirit of Charlemagne first called a new day which spread over the whole West its enlightening beams. This light, however, was put out even by the time of the great emperor’s grandson, and then we suddenly pass into the night of the _Sæculum Obscurum_ (§ 100).

§ 90.1. =Rulers of the Carolingian Line.=--=Charlemagne=, A.D. 768-814, may be regarded as beginning his scientific undertakings on his first entrance into Italy in A.D. 774. On this occasion he came to know the scholars Peter of Pisa, Paul Warnefrid, Paulinus of Aquileia, and Theodulf of Orleans, and brought them to his palace. From A.D. 782, however, the particularly brilliant star of his court was the Anglo-Saxon scholar Alcuin, whom Charles had met in Italy in the previous year. Scientific studies were now carried on in an exceedingly vigorous manner in the palace. The royal family, the whole court and its surroundings engaged upon them, but of them all Charles himself was the most diligent and successful of Alcuin’s students. In the royal school, _Schola palatina_, which was ambulatory like the royal residence itself, the sons and daughters of the king with the children of the most distinguished families of the land received a high-class education. The teaching staff was constantly recruited from England, Ireland and Italy. After such preparations Charles issued in A.D. 787 a circular to all the bishops and abbots of his kingdom which enjoined under threat of his severe royal displeasure that schools should be erected in all monasteries and cathedral churches. Meanwhile his endeavours were most successful, but were rather one-sided in the preference given to classical and patristic literature, without a proper national foundation. Charles’s great and generous nature indeed had a warm interest in national culture, but those around him, with the single exception of Paul Warnefrid, had in consequence of their Latin monkish training lost all taste for German thought, language and nationality, and fearing lest such studies might endanger Christianity and cause a relapse into paganism, they did not help but rather hindered the king’s effort to promote a national literature.--=Louis the Pious=, A.D. 814-840, had his weak government disturbed by the strifes of parties and of the citizens. This period, therefore, was not specially favourable to the development of scientific studies, but the seed sown by his father still bore noble fruit. His son Lothair issued an ordinance which gave a new organization to the educational system of Italy, indeed created it anew. But Italy restless and full of factions was the land where least of all such institutions could be successfully conducted. A new golden age, however, dawned for France under =Charles the Bald=, A.D. 840-877. His court resembled that of his great grandfather in having gathered to it the élite of scholars from all the West. The royal school gained new renown under the direction of _Joannes Scotus Erigena_. The cathedral and monastic schools of France vied with the most famous institutions of Germany (St. Gall, Fulda, Reichenau, etc.), and over the French episcopal sees men presided who had the most distinguished reputation for scholarship. But after Charles’s death the bloom of the Carolingian period passed away with almost inconceivable rapidity amid the commotions of the time into thick darkness, chaos and barbarism.

§ 90.2. =The most distinguished Theologians of the Pre-Carolingian Age.=

1. In Merovingian France flourished =Gregory of Tours=, sprung of a good Roman family. When in A.D. 573, in order to get cured of an illness, he made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Martin (§ 47, 14), he had the bishopric of Tours conferred upon him, where he continued till his death in A.D. 595. His _Historia Ecclesiastica Francorum_ in ten Bks. affords us the only exact and trustworthy information we possess of the Merovingian age. The _Ll. VII. Miraculorum_ are a collection of several hagiographic writings, four of them recounting some of the innumerable miracles of St. Martin.

2. Scientific studies were prosecuted more vigorously on the other side of the Pyrenees than on this. In the empire of the Suevi (§ 76, 4) archbishop =Martin of Braccara=, now Braga, distinguished himself in the work of Catholicising the Arian population. He was previously abbot of the monastery of Dumio, and died about A.D. 580. He was a voluminous writer on church law and also in the departments of moral and ascetical theology. His writings in the latter section have so much in common with those of Seneca that they were at one time ascribed to the Roman moralist. The treatise _De Correctione Rusticorum_ is very important for the history of the morals, legal institutions and culture of that period.--The great star of the Spanish Visigothic kingdom was =Isidorus [Isidore] Hispalensis=, who died in A.D. 636. He was descended from a distinguished Gothic family, and, as successor of his brother Leander, rose to the archbishopric of Seville (Hispalis). His writings are diligent compilations, which have preserved to us many fragments and items of information otherwise unknown. Incomparably greater, however, was the service they rendered in conveying classical and patristic learning to the German world of that age. His most comprehensive work consists of xx. Bks. _Originum s. Etymologiarum_, an encyclopædic exhibition of the whole field of knowledge of the day. He also wrote a _Chronicon_ reaching down to A.D. 627, and _Hist. de regibus Gotorum_, a shorter _Hist. Vandalorum et Suevorum_, and a continuation of Jerome’s _Catalogus de viris illustr_. Of more importance than his numerous compilations of mystico-allegorical expositions of Scripture are the iii. Bks. _Sententiarum_, a well-arranged system of doctrine and morals from patristic passages, especially from Augustine and Gregory the Great, and the _Lb. II. de ecclest. officiis_. The two last-named works were highly prized as text-books throughout the Middle Ages. The two books _Contra Judæos_ belong to the department of apologetics. He also composed a monastic rule (comp. further § 87, 1 and 88, 1).--Isidore’s elder brother =Leander of Seville=, who died in A.D. 590, had a good reputation as a church leader (§ 76, 2; 88, 1), and had no insignificant rank as a theological writer. The same may be said of the two bishops of Toledo, =Ildefonsus=, who died in A.D. 669, and =Julianus=, who died in A.D. 690.

3. England’s greatest and most famous teacher was the Anglo-Saxon, the =Venerable Bede=. Trained in the monastery of Wearmouth, he subsequently took up his residence in the monastery of Jarrow, where he died in A.D. 735. He was a proficient in all the sciences of his time and withal a model of humility, piety and amiability. While his numerous pupils reached the highest places in the service of the church, their famous teacher continued in quiet retirement as a simple monk. He himself wished nothing else. Even on his deathbed he continued unweariedly to teach and write. Immediately before his death he dictated the last chapter of an Anglo-Saxon translation of the Gospel of John. By far his most important work for us is the _Hist. ecclest. gentis Anglorum_ in 5 Bks. reaching down to A.D. 731 (Engl. Transl. by Giles, Lond., 1840; and by Gidley, Lond., 1871). Connected with this are his biographies of several saints of his native land, also a history of the monastery of Wearmouth, and a _Chronicon de sex ætatibus mundi_ reaching down to A.D. 729. His commentaries ranging over almost all the books of the Old and New Testament give evidence of a wonderful knowledge of the fathers. His numerous sermons are mostly exegetical and practical, rarely doctrinal. He was distinguished too as a poet in Latin as well as in his mother tongue.

§ 90.3. =The most distinguished Theologians of the Age of Charlemagne.=

1. The brightest star in the theological firmament of this period was the Anglo-Saxon =Alcuin= (Albinus) with the Horatian surname of Flaccus, which he got for his poetical productions. He was educated in the famous school of York under Egbert and Elbert. When the latter was made archbishop in A.D. 766, Alcuin undertook the presidency of the schools. While on a visit to Rome in A.D. 781 he met Charlemagne who took him to his court, where he became the emperor’s teacher, friend and most trusted counsellor. Down to his death in A.D. 804 he was the king’s right hand in all religious ecclesiastical and educational matters. In order to allay a feeling of home-sickness, he undertook a journey in A.D. 789 to his native country as ambassador of Charlemagne, returned in A.D. 793, and did not again quit France. In A.D. 796 Charles gave him the abbacy of Tours. He soon raised its monastic school to the highest rank as a seminary of learning. His exegetical works are mere compilations. The _Ll. II. de fide s. et Individuæ Trinitatis_ may be regarded as his dogmatic masterpiece; a compendium of dogmatics based upon Augustine’s writings. The _Quæstiones de Trin._ treat of the same matter in the catechetical form of question and answer. He contributed to the doctrinal controversies of his time the _Libellus de processione Spiritus S._ (§ 91, 2) and by several learned controversial tracts against the leaders of the Adoptionists (§ 91, 1). It is doubtful whether at all, and if so to what extent, he had to do with the composition of the _Libri Carolini_ (§ 94, 1) which appeared during his stay in England. His numerous epistles, about 300 in number, are very important for the history of his times. In his Latin poems he sometimes very happily imitates his classical models.[253]

2. =Paulus Diaconus= or Paul (the son of) Warnefrid, of an honourable Longobard family, was next to Alcuin the most distinguished scholar of his age. Probably sorrow at the overthrow of his people (§ 82, 2) drove him into the monastery of Monte Cassino; but Charlemagne took him to his court in A.D. 782, where he was an object of admiration as a Homer among the Grecians, a Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, among the Latinists, and a Philo (!) among the Hebraists. Love of his native land, however, led him back to his monastery in A.D. 786, where he died at a very advanced age in A.D. 795. What was specially praiseworthy in this learned and amiable man, all the more that few then took interest in those matters, was love and enthusiasm for the language, the national legends and heroic tales, the old laws and customs of his fellow-countrymen. His most important work is the _Historia s. de Gestis Langobardorum_ in 6 bks., reaching down to A.D. 774. The earlier _Hist. Romana_, composed at the wish of a daughter of king Desiderius, is, so far as its earlier periods are concerned, compiled from the classical historians, but for the later periods down to the overthrow of the Gothic rule is more independent. At the Frankish court he composed the _Hist. Episcoporum Mettensium_. He was also distinguished as a poet. On his _Homiliarius_ comp. § 88, 1.[254]

3. =Theodulf, bishop of Orleans=, distinguished as a Christian poet and learned theologian, and especially as a promoter of popular education, stood in high repute with Charlemagne, but under Louis the Pious, being suspected of treasonable correspondence with Bernard of Italy, was deposed and banished in A.D. 818. Subsequently, however, he was pardoned and recalled, but died in A.D. 821 before he reached his diocese. His book _De Spiritu S._ was a contribution to the controversy about the procession of the Holy Spirit (§ 91, 2). At Charlemagne’s request he described and explained the baptismal ceremony in the book _De ordine baptismi_. His numerous poems have been published in 6 bks.

4. =Paulinus=, patriarch of Aquileia, who died in A.D. 804, and bishop =Leidrad of Lyons=, who died in A.D. 813, took part in Alcuin’s controversy against the Adoptionists by the publication of able treatises.

5. Of the works of =Hatto=, abbot of Reichenau, subsequently bishop of Basel, who died in A.D. 836, we still have the so-called _Capitulare Hattonis_, with prefatory directions for the official guidance of the Basel clergy, and the _Visio Wettini_, describing the vision of a monk of Reichenau called Wettin, who in A.D. 824 three days before his death was conducted by an angel through hell, purgatory and paradise. Hatto wrote it in prose and Walafrid Strabo rendered it into verse. It made a great impression on his contemporaries and was probably not without influence upon Dante’s _Divina Comediá_.

§ 90.4. =The most distinguished Theologians of the Age of Louis the Pious.=

1. =Agobard of Lyons=, a Spaniard by birth, died as archbishop of Lyons in A.D. 840. As the resolute defender of the integrity of the empire and the head of the national church party among the Frankish clergy, he was drawn into a conspiracy against Louis the Pious in A.D. 833 (§ 82, 4), which led to his deposition and banishment in A.D. 835. After two years, however, he was pardoned. He was a man of remarkable culture and extraordinary force of character, and withal a vigorous opponent of all ecclesiastical and extra-ecclesiastical superstition. On his writings referring to these matters see § 92, 2. In the book _Adv. dogma Felicis_ he contended against Adoptionism (§ 91, 1). In connection with his battle against the insolence and pride of the numerous and wealthy Jews in his diocese he wrote and dedicated to the emperor the accusatory tract _De insolentia Judæorum_, followed by several similar addresses to the most influential councillors of the crown. Another series of writings from his pen was devoted to the vindication of the attitude which he had assumed in the struggle between Louis the Pious and his sons. Several treatises on the position and task, the rights and duties of the ministerial office show a reformatory tendency. He engaged in a passionate controversy with Amalarius of Metz about the necessity of a liturgical reform. Against Fredigis of Tours, Alcuin’s successor, he maintained the view regarding the prophets and apostles that the Holy Spirit _non solum sensum prædicationis et modos vel argumenta dictionum inspiraverit, sed etiam ipsa corporalia verba extrinsecus in ora illorum ipse formaverit_.

2. =Claudius, bishop of Turin=, who died in A.D. 839, was also a Spaniard by birth and a scholar of Felix of Urgel (§ 91, 1), without, however, imbibing his heretical views. He was throughout his whole career a zealous and determined reformer. His reformatory notions were set forth first of all in his exegetical works that covered almost the whole range of Scripture. Of these only the commentary on Galatians is now extant. He also vindicated his position against the attacks of his old friend the abbot Theodemir in his _Apologeticus_ (§ 92, 2).

3. =Jonas of Orleans=, the successor of Theodulf, was one of the most distinguished prelates of his age, who wrought earnestly and successfully for the restoring of discipline and order in his diocese. In the struggle between Louis the Pious and his sons he resolutely took the side of the old king. He died in A.D. 844. His three books, _De institutione laicali_ constitute a handbook of morals for married persons, which also, because it deals with the sins and vices that were then rampant, is of value as a picture of the moral condition of his age. The book _De institutione regia_, addressed to Louis’ son Pepin, may be regarded as an appendix to the former treatise. In opposition to the iconoclastic opinions of Claudius (§ 92, 2) he wrote _Ll. III. De cultu imaginum_.

4. The principal work of the priest =Amalarius of Metz= is his _De ecclesiasticis officiis_ in 4 bks., a detailed description of all the ceremonies of public worship and the ecclesiastical furniture and vestments, with many arbitrary mystico-allegorical explanations, which called forth a crushing rejoinder from Agobard. On his revision of the rule of Chrodegang, see § 84, 4.

5. From the pen of the German monk =Christian Druthmar= of Old Corbei we have a commentary on Matthew, which is remarkable for the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper which it sets forth (§ 91, 3), as well as for the hermeneutical principle there laid down, that first and foremost the exegete must secure a thorough understanding of the historical literal sense, before he may think of developing the spiritual sense, which must have the former as its basis.

6. =Rabănus [Rabanus] Magnentius Maurus=, the most distinguished scholar of his age, was descended from an old Roman family but one that had long been Germanized at Mainz. His earliest education was received at the monastery of Fulda. He then became a pupil of Alcuin at Tours. In A.D. 803 he became himself a teacher at Tours, and in A.D. 822 was made abbot of Fulda. After the death of Louis the Pious he took the side of Lothair against Louis the German, and was consequently obliged to resign his position as abbot and to quit Fulda in A.D. 842. Subsequently, however, he obtained Louis’ favour, and upon Otgar’s death in A.D. 847 (§ 87, 3) was appointed his successor in the archiepiscopal see of Mainz. He died in A.D. 856. The monastic school at Fulda was raised by him to the highest eminence. His commentaries extending over almost all the Old and New Testaments are mainly occupied with the development of the so-called spiritual sense, manifest wonderful familiarity with the writings of the Latin fathers from Ambrose to Bede, and were held in the highest esteem throughout the Middle Ages. The same may be said of his numerous homilies. The encyclopædic work _De universo_ in 22 bks., is a continuation of Isidore’s _Origines_. His book _De institutione clericorum_ in 3 bks. affords a summary of all that was then to be learnt by the clergy for the practical work of the ministry. The _Tractatus de diversis quæstionibus ex V. et N. T. contra Judæos_ is an apologetic treatise. He wrote against Gottschalk’s doctrine of predestination in a letter to bishop Noting of Verona (§ 91, 5), and another to the abbot Eigil of Prüm against Radbert’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper (§ 91, 3). Of his many other works we may mention a _Martyrologium_ based upon ancient authorities.

7. =Walafrid Strabo= received his early training in the monastery of Reichenau. He studied subsequently under Rabanus at Fulda, in which institution he became a teacher. About A.D. 842 he was made abbot of Reichenau; the seminary here he raised to high repute, although he died in his early prime in A.D. 849. Among his evangelical writings his so-called _Glossæ ordinariæ_, _i.e._ short explanations of the Latin text of the Bible, mostly culled from the commentaries of Rabanus, were extremely popular, and continued in use throughout the Middle Ages as an exegetical handbook. In the liturgical department we have his treatise _De exordiis et incrementis rerum ecclesiasticarum_, in which he expresses himself on the image controversy in the spirit of the old Frankish church (§ 92, 1). Walafrid was also famous as a writer of sacred and secular poems.

§ 90.5. =The Most Distinguished Theologians of the Age of Charles the Bald.=

1. The powerful metropolitan =Hincmar of Rheims=, who died in A.D. 882 (§ 82, 7; 83, 2), was not indeed strong in dogmatics, but in his writings just as well as in his life and struggle he was heart and soul a church leader and statesman. His most important work from a theological point of view is the _Capitula Synodica ad presbyteros parochiæ suæ_ on various points of worship and discipline, a notable witness to the zeal and care which this man, so much taken up with affairs of state and ecclesiastical controversies, showed in the discharge of his ministerial duties. Of his writings in connection with the Gottschalk controversy (§ 91, 5, 6) only the prolix work _De predest. Dei et libero arbitrio_ vindicating the decrees of Quiersy of A.D. 853 are now extant.

2. =Paschasius Radbertus=, who died about A.D. 865, was monk, and, from A.D. 844-851, also abbot of the monastery of Corbei in Picardy. But among the monks of that place there was a cotery which occasioned the most profound grief to the pious-minded abbot; especially the learned monk Ratramnus under the protection of court favour took delight in contesting the somewhat ultra-pietistic views of his abbot. Probably it was this that led Radbertus to resign his office in A.D. 851. Besides the two treatises controverted by Ratramnus he composed biblical commentaries, which are more independent and contain more of his own than was common at that time. He also wrote 3 bks. on faith, love and hope; besides several Hagiographies.

3. =Ratramnus=, the antagonist of the former, takes a very prominent place among the clear and subtle thinkers of that age. Besides his controversial treatises against Radbertus (§ 91, 3, 4) and against Hincmar (§ 91, 5, 6), he took part in the burning controversy between the Greeks and Latins (§ 67, 1) and wrote, _Contra Græcorum opposita Romanam eccl. infamantium_.

4. =Florus Magister= was a cleric of the diocese of Lyons distinguished no less for great learning than for poetic gifts. His principal work _De actione Missarum, s. expositio in Canonem Missæ_ is, notwithstanding its title, not so much a liturgical treatise as a controversial tract against Radbertus’ doctrine of the Eucharist (§ 91, 3). In the liturgical controversy between Agobard and Amalarius, he took the side of Agobard and argued against Amalarius in several epistles. In the predestinarian controversy he published the work _Contra J. Scoti Erigenæ erroneas definitiones_ (§ 91, 5). He also composed a _Martyrologium_.

5. =Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt=, who died in A.D. 853, won great reputation not only by his compiled exegetical works and his _Homiliarium_ for the festival part of the year, but also as author of a Church History, which, however, is nothing more than a working up of extracts from Rufinus.

6. =Servatus Lupus=, scholar of Rabanus, was from A.D. 842 abbot of Ferrières. His 130 epistles are important for the history of his time, as he was in constant correspondence with the most famous men of his day. On the side of Gottschalk in the predestinarian controversy he wrote his treatise _De tribus quæstionibus_.

7. =Remigius of Auxerre=, who died about A.D. 908, was teacher of the monastic school at Rheims, and subsequently at Paris. Besides numerous commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments in the usual compilatory and allegorical style, he has left in his _Expositio Missæ_ a mystico-allegorical explanation of the ceremonies of the mass.

8. =Regius of Prüm=, abbot of the monastery there, subsequently resigned his rank and retired into the monastery of Treves. He died in A.D. 915. His _Chronicon_ reaching down to A.D. 906 is of great value for his own times. His 2 bks. _De cantis synodalibus et disciplinis ecclesiasticis_ are a directory for the visitation of churches to be carried out by means of synodical judicatures.

§ 90.6.

9. =Anastasius Bibliothecarius= was abbot of a Roman monastery and librarian under popes Nicholas I., Hadrian II. and John VIII., and visited the Byzantine court in A.D. 869 as member of an embassy of Emperor Louis II., and was also present at the 8th œcumenical Council at Constantinople (§ 67, 1). He translated the acts of this synod into Latin, wrote the lives of several saints, and composed a _Hist. ecclest. s. Chronographia tripartita_ drawn from three Byzantine historical works of that period. To the _Liber Pontificalis s. de vitio Roman. pontificum_, reaching down to the death of Stephen V. in A.D. 891, which has been ascribed to him, he can only have contributed the _Vita_ of pope Nicholas I., and perhaps also the _Vitæ_ of his four immediate predecessors. It is a history of the popes gathered together from various sources that had their origin at different times, the earliest of which goes back to A.D. 354. The oldest extant recension of it reaches down to Pope Conon in A.D. 687, and forms an important link in the chain of Romish fabrications and interpolations, by means of which the numerous fabricated acts of Romish martyrs, as well as already existing fables referring to particular popes and emperors (comp. _e.g._ § 42, 1), gained credence, more recently introduced liturgical practices had assigned to them a more remote antiquity, and the popes were represented as legislators for the whole church. The complete biographies often written by contemporaries preserved in this collection are of great historical value.

10. =Eulogius of Cordova= was chosen archbishop in A.D. 858, but was not received by the Moorish government, and suffered martyrdom in A.D. 859 (§ 81, 1). The most important of his writings is the historical _Memoriale Sanctorum s. Ll. III. de Martyrib. Cordubens_. The _Apologeticus Sanctorum_ is a continuation of the former with violent invectives against Islam and its false prophet. =Paulas [Paul] Alvarus= of Cordova, from his youth closely associated with Eulogius, wrote his life and vindicated in a _Judiculus luminosus_ the tendency to court martyrdom then frequently shown by Christians but often objected to.

§ 90.7.

11. =Joannes Scotus Erigena=, the miracle as well as the enigma of his age, by birth probably an Irishman, who flashed out as a brilliant meteor in the court of Charles the Bald and passed away from view, without its being known whence he came or whither he went, was the greatest scholar, the most profound, subtle and liberal thinker of his times, with a speculative power the like of which was not seen for centuries before and after. He died after A.D. 877. His extant works embrace fragments of his commentary on the Areopagite (§ 47, 11), and a Latin faithful, literal and therefore hard to understand translation of the Areopagite’s writings, also a translation of a work of Maximus Confessor on difficult passages from the writings of Gregory Nazianzen (_Loca ambigua_), his controversial treatise _De prædestinatione_ (§ 91, 5), a homily on the prologue of John’s gospel, a fragment of a speculative-mystical treatise _De egressu et regressu animæ ad Deum_, and the _Opus palmare_ of the author, by far the most comprehensive of his writings, the 5 bks. _De divisione naturæ_. Based upon the gnosis of the school of Origen, but resting mainly on the theosophical mysticism of the Areopagite and the dialectic of Maximus Confessor, he produced in this treatise a system of speculative theology of magnificent dimensions which, in spite of every effort to hold by the doctrinal position of the church, is but one piece of heterodoxy from beginning to end. He starts from the principle that true theology and true philosophy are only formally different, but essentially identical. The _Fides_ have to express the truth as _Theologia affirmativa_ (καταφατική) in the biblically revealed and ecclesiastically communicated shell, accommodating itself to the finite understanding by figurative and metaphorical expressions. But the task of the _Ratio_ is to strip off this shell (_Theologia negativa_, ἀποφατική), and by means of speculation raise the faith to knowledge. The title of this book is to be explained from its fundamental thought that nature, _i.e._ the sum of all being and non-being, by which he understands everything the existence of which is yet unknown, or merely potential, or necessarily belonging to things past, comprises four forms of existence:--_Natura creatrix non creata_, _i.e._ God as the potential sum of all being, _Natura creatrix creata_, _i.e._ the eternal thoughts of God regarding the world as the eternal primal types of all creation, _Natura creata non creans_, _i.e._ the world in time as the visible product and sensible realization of the eternal invisible world of ideas, and _Natura nee creata nee creans_, _i.e._ God as the final end of all created being, to whom all creation when all contradictions have been overcome returns in the ἀποκατάστασις τῶν πάντων. The Aristotelian threefold division into the unmoved and moving, the moved and moving, and the moved and not moving, seems to have afforded him the starting-point for his fourfold division; while the divergent conception of them, their enlargement and development may be traced to Platonic and Neo-Platonic influences.--That such a system must essentially tend to pantheism soon became evident, but on the other hand Erigena’s own Christian consciousness strongly reacted against the pantheistic current of his thought, and he was anxiously concerned to preserve the fundamental truths of Christian Theism. By the fundamental fourfold division of his system he could not give to the doctrine of the Trinity a necessary and controlling but only an accidental and occasional position. Only the presence of this doctrine in Scripture and tradition obliged him to maintain it. He speaks indeed of three persons in God, but he uses the expression only in an improper sense, and has no intention of explaining Father, Son and Spirit as mere names of divine relations (_habitudines_, _relationes_): _Pater vult, Filius facit, Spir. S. perficit_. In the Son as the creative Word of God are all original causes of things, undistinguished, unordered; by the Spirit are they differentiated into the various phenomena and effects in the kingdom of nature as well as of grace. On his doctrine of evil, comp. § 91, 5. As Origen has in himself the germs of all orthodoxy and heterodoxy of the ancient church undeveloped and uncontrasted, so also in Erigena are there the germs of the contradictions of later scholasticism and mysticism. Had he lived three centuries later he would probably have set the whole learned world astir, but now he passed unhonoured, misunderstood, scarcely regarded worth dealing with for heresy (§ 91, 5), and apparently leaving little trace behind him. His great work _De divisione naturæ_ was first condemned by a provincial Council at Sens, and this judgment was confirmed by Honorius III. in A.D. 1225. The book was characterized as _Scatens vermibus hæreticæ pravitatis_; orders were given that it should be sought out everywhere and burnt.[255]

§ 90.8. =The Monastic and Cathedral Schools= had as their main task the training of capable servants for the church. The handbooks mainly in use were those of Cassiodorus, Isidore, Bede, Alcuin and Rabanus. Great diligence was shown, especially in the monasteries, in founding libraries and multiplying books by means of good copies. Alcuin made a threefold division of all sciences; ethics, physics and theology. Ethics corresponded to what was afterwards called the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic); Physics to the Quadrivium (Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy). These two together comprehended the whole range of the seven _free_ arts, _i.e._ worthy of the study of a free man, liberal studies. Latin was the language of intercourse and instruction. Greek, which was spread by Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk, who, after being long a teacher in Rome, was in A.D. 669 made archbishop of Canterbury, and by his pupils was also taught in the more important schools. Acquaintance with Hebrew was much more rare, and was often obtained by means of intercourse with learned Jews. Boethius [Boëthius] was the vehicle of instruction in philosophy. In the 9th century the works ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite (§ 47, 11) were sent to France as a present from the Byzantine emperor Michael to Louis of France. He was identified with the founder of the church of Paris of the same name, and patriotic feeling gave an immense impulse to the study of his writings. The abbot Hildmin of St. Denys, and subsequently Joannes Erigena, translated them into Latin. Encyclopædic works, giving compendiums of the whole range of the sciences then known, were produced by Isidore and Rabanus.[256]--Continuation, § 99, 3.

§ 90.9. =Various Branches of Theological Science.=--The labours of the German church in the department of scientific theology was directed to the church’s immediate needs, and hence the character of its theology was biblical and practical, and the reputation of the fathers so extravagantly high, that wherever it was possible, teaching, preaching, proving and refuting were all carried on in their very words. Charlemagne’s powerful efforts in the direction of reform gave even in the department of theology abundant occasion and encouragement to scholars round about him to a more independent procedure, and the theological controversies of the 9th century afforded sufficient scope to independent thinking.

1. =Exegesis= on the basis of the Vulgate was most diligently prosecuted. Charlemagne set Alcuin to produce a critical revision of its very corrupt text. Agobard combated the mechanical theory of inspiration by the assertion that the holy prophets were something better than Balaam’s ass. Only one out of the very numerous exegetes, Christian Druthmar, recognised it as a first principle, most essential and necessary, if not the only task of the exegete, to bring out the grammatical and historical sense of the words of Scripture. The literal sense was and continued to be regarded as the scullion of interpretation, while it was thought that the most precious treasures of Divine wisdom were to be found in the _allegorical_ sense, _i.e._ with application to the mysteries of the faith, the _tropological_ or moral, and the _anagogical_, which aimed at the elevation of the mind.

2. In =Systematic Theology= Apologetics was most feebly represented. The humble form of the paganism to be controverted did not require elaborate defences of the Christian faith, but the advance of Mohammedanism and the great number of Jews established in France, especially under Louis of France, by means of their wealth and bribes, developed an incredible arrogance. While Jewish and pagan slaves were not allowed to have baptism, Christian slaves on the other hand were compelled to observe the Sabbath, to work on Sunday, to eat flesh on fast days; they openly blasphemed Christ, insulted the church and sold Christian slaves to the Saracens. Agobard fought against them energetically by word, Scripture and action, but the needy court protected them. Isidore and Rabanus in their apologetical writings proved the nullity of the Jewish beliefs. From the time of Charlemagne theologians were much more eagerly engaged in polemics (§§ 91, 92). Isidore in his _Ll. III. Sententiarum_ collected from patristic passages a system of doctrine and morals, which continued a favourite text-book for centuries. Alcuin’s _Ll. III. De fide Trinitatis_ form a compendium of dogmatics. The introduction of the Pseudo-Areopagita into the West prepared the way for speculative mysticism, which had its first representative in Joannes Scotus Erigena.

3. In =Practical Theology= homiletical literature was but poorly represented. Besides the Homiliarius of Paul Warnefrid (§ 88, 1), we meet with Bede, Walafrid, Rabanus and Haymo as authors of sermons. On the other hand great and constant interest was shown in developing a theory of worship, in describing it and giving a mystical explanation of it. Isidore with _De officiis ecclesiasticis_ was the first in this department. Charlemagne set to all his theologians the task of explaining the baptismal ceremony. In the time of Louis the Pious, Agobard appears as a reformer of the liturgy, in connection with which he passionately contended against Amalarius, against whom also Florus Magister entered the lists. Important works in this department were also written by Rabanus, Walafrid and Remigius. On works treating of church law and church discipline, see § 87 and § 89, 5.

4. Finally, as to the department of =Historical Theology= all knowledge of earlier church history was derived from Rufinus and Cassiodorus. Even Haymo’s Church History is made up simply of extracts from Rufinus. All the greater diligence was shown throughout the Middle Ages in chronicling the ecclesiastical and political events of the immediate present and also keeping the past in memory. This endeavour shows itself in a threefold direction. (a) The writing of =National Chronicles=. The Visigoths had their Isidore, the Ostrogoths their Cassiodorus,[257] the Longobards their Paul Warnefrid, the Franks their Gregory of Tours, the Britons their Gildas[258] and Nennius,[259] the Anglo-Saxons their Bede.--(b) Then we have the clumsy compilations of =Annals= and =Chronicles= which most monasteries produced, and which were continued from year to year.--(c) And further, =Biographies=, both of distinguished statesmen and distinguished churchmen. The _Vitæ Sanctorum_ are innumerable, mostly quite uncritical, composed purely for the glorification of some local saint. To this category belong the numerous _Martyrologies_, arranged in the order of the Calendar. Among the most famous were those prepared by Bede, Ado of Vienne, Usuardus, Rabanus, Notker Balbulus, Wandelbert, etc. In the department of historical biography proper may be included the portion of the _Liber pontificalis_ belonging to this period, the _Hist. Mettensium Episcoporum_ of Paul Warnefrid, and Isidore’s continuation of Jerome’s _Catalogus_, which was further continued by Ildefonsus of Toledo.

§ 90.10. =Anglo-Saxon Culture under Alfred the Great=, A.D. 871-901.--Alfred the Great, the greatest and noblest of all the kings that England has ever had, was the grandson of Egbert who had united in A.D. 827 the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. When five years old he received papal anointing at Rome and two years later in company with his pious father he travelled thence, made a considerable stay at the brilliant court of Charlemagne where he received the impress of its superior culture, and began his reign in A.D. 871 in his 22nd year when the kingdom was sorely oppressed by Danish invasions. He applied all the energy of his mind to the difficult problems of government, to the emancipation and civilization of his country and people by driving out the Danish robbers, and then improving the internal condition of the land by attention to agriculture, industry and trade, by a wise organization, legislation and administration, by the founding of churches, monasteries and schools, and by furthering every scientific endeavour from a thoroughly national point of view. When already thirty-six years of age he learnt the Latin language and used this acquirement for the enriching of Anglo-Saxon literature by translations from his own hand, with many important additions of his own, of Boëthius’ _Consolatio philosophiæ_, the Universal History of Orosius, Bede’s History of the Church of England and the _Regula pastoralis_ of Gregory the Great. He also began a translation of the Psalms. He stimulated his learned friends to a like activity, among whom bishop Asser of Sherborne in his _Vita Alfredi_ (Engl. transl. in “Six Old English Chronicles”) has reared a worthy memorial of his master.[260]--Continuation, § 100, 1.

§ 91. DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES.

The first important heresy that grew up independently on German soil was Adoptionism. This heresy took its rise at that point in the development of Christology that was reached by the 6th œcumenical Council of Constantinople in A.D. 680 (§ 52, 8), for it recognises the double nature and the double will while denying the double sonship. Frankish orthodoxy, however, saw in it not a further development of doctrine, but a relapse into Nestorianism, and so condemned the new doctrine. During the same period the dogma of the procession of the Holy Spirit was the subject of lively controversy, and the Frankish church came forward as defender of Western orthodoxy against the Greeks. In the Eucharistic controversy the most eminent Frankish theologians opposed the Transubstantiation doctrine of Balbutus [Balbulus]. A further controversy as to the conception of the Blessed Virgin was closely connected with the one just referred to. Neither of them was made the subject of any synodal decision. On the other hand very definite synodal decisions were passed in reference to the predestination controversy, without, however, bringing that controversy by any means to a conclusion. Of subordinate importance was the dispute over the expression _Trina Deitas_.

§ 91.1. =The Adoptionist Controversy, A.D. 782-799.=--Of all Christian dogmas none were so offensive to the Moslems as that of the Trinity which to their barren monotheism necessarily appeared as Tritheism, and none were the subject of so much scorn as the idea that God should have a son. It need not, therefore, surprise us to find that Spanish theologians endeavoured to put this doctrine in a form as little offensive as possible to the Moslems. One =Migetius= went so far as to adopt a very crude form of Sabellianism, for he, undoubtedly approaching the Mohammedan view of the prophetic order, represented the Trinitarian development of the one Divine Being as a threefold historical manipulation of God: in David the person of the Father is revealed, in Christ as son of David that of the Son, and finally, in the Apostle Paul that of the Holy Spirit. At a Spanish synod of A.D. 782 he was successfully opposed by the archbishop =Elipandus of Toledo=, who took the opportunity of attempting a further development of the Christological dogma. This also was more fully elaborated by =Felix of Urgel= in the Spanish Mark. Both taught: That Christ is properly Son of God only according to His divine nature (_Filius Dei Naturâ_); according to His human nature He is properly, like all of us, a servant of God, and only by the decision of the Divine will is He adopted as the Son of God (_Filius Dei Adoptivus_), just as all of us may by Him and after His example be raised from the condition of servant into the family of God. According to His Divine nature therefore He is the =Only Begotten=, according to His human nature the =First Begotten= Son of God. The adoption of the human nature into Divine Sonship began with its conception by the Holy Ghost, but was more definitely determined in His baptism, and perfected in His resurrection. The first scene of the controversy called forth by this doctrine was enacted on Spanish soil. Two representatives of the Asturian clergy, the presbyter Beatus of Libana and bishop Etherius of Osma, contended by word and writing against the heresy of Elipandus (A.D. 785). This was done perhaps with the view of emancipating the Asturian church from the see of Toledo then under Saracen domination. The Asturians applied to Hadrian I., who in an epistle to the bishops of Spain in A.D. 786 condemned Adoptionism as a heresy. The controversy entered upon a second stage through the interference of Charlemagne. The absence of Adoptionism in Frankish Spain afforded him an excuse for interfering, and he readily seized upon this, because it gave him an opportunity of posing as the defender of orthodoxy in the West, _i.e._ as Emperor _in esse_. Before a Synod at Regensburg in A.D. 792, Felix was compelled to renounce this heresy, and was sent to Rome to pope Hadrian I. There he had to make a second recantation, but escaped from prison and fled to Saracenic territory. In the meantime Alcuin had returned from his travels in England, and immediately engaged in controversy by addressing an affectionate exhortation to Felix. The Spaniards gave a very firm reply and Charlemagne then convened the famous œcumenical German Synod of Frankfort in A.D. 794. After further investigation Adoptionism was again condemned, and the judgment of the synod, in order that it might have an œcumenical character, was sent to Spain accompanied by four complete reports as representing the various national churches and authorities. But on the Spaniards this made little impression. Just as little effect had a learned controversial tract of Alcuin’s, to which Felix made a smart rejoinder. Meanwhile Charlemagne sent a clerical commission under Leidrad of Lyons and Benedict of Aniane (§ 85, 2) into the Spanish Mark, in order to root out the weeds of heresy that were growing there. Felix declared himself ready for further enquiry. At the national Synod of Aachen in A.D. 792 he disputed for six days with Alcuin, and declared himself at last thoroughly convinced. Alcuin and Paulinus of Aquileia published new controversial tracts, and Leidrad went a second time into the Spanish Mark where he succeeded in rooting out the heresy. But all the more determined were the bishops of Saracenic Spain in maintaining their doctrine, and Elipandus answered a conciliatory letter of Alcuin in a passionate and angry tone. Felix remained until the end of his life in A.D. 818 under the guardianship of the bishop of Lyons. Leidrad’s successor, Agobard, found among his papers undoubted evidence that to the end he was at heart an Adoptionist, and from this took occasion to publish another controversial tract. This was the very last of these productions. But in Spain Adoptionism seems to have maintained its hold down to the second half of the 9th century. At last about that time Paulus Alvarus of Cordova (§ 90, 6) contended with a certain Joannes Spalensis on account of his Adoptionist views. In the 12th century the controversy again broke out on German soil (§ 102, 6).[261]

§ 91.2. =Controversy about the Procession of the Holy Spirit.=--At a Synod at Gentiliacum in A.D. 767, held for the purpose of meeting a Byzantine embassy about the iconoclast controversy, the addition to the creed of the _Filioque_ was spoken about (§ 67, 1). The result of the discussion is unknown. In Charlemagne’s time Alcuin and Theodulf defended the Latin doctrine in special treatises, and at a Synod at Friaul in A.D. 791 Paulinus of Aquileia justified its adoption into the creed and the Carolingian books (§ 92, 1). The discussion was renewed when the Latin monks of Mount Olivet, blamed by the Greeks because of the addition, appealed to the usage of the Frankish church. Pope Leo III. communicated in regard to this with Charlemagne, and a Council at Aachen in A.D. 809 defended the addition. But the pope, although not contesting the correctness of the doctrine, disallowed the change in the creed, and had two silver tablets erected in St. Peter’s in Rome with the creed wanting the addition. This was evidently a damper upon the ecclesiastico-political movements of the emperor.

§ 91.3. =The Eucharistic Controversy, A.D. 844.=--Vacillations about the doctrine of the Supper (§ 58, 2) lasted down to the 9th century. Paschasius Radbertus, monk at Corbie, undertook in A.D. 831, in his treatise _De Sanguine et corpore Domini_, theologically to justify, and on all sides to develop the doctrine of the Supper, which had long ago struck its roots in the practice of the church and the faith of the people. The air of genuine piety which meets us in this work impresses us favourably, and it cannot be denied that he had a profound perception of fulness, power, and depth of the Sacrament. It was, therefore, quite in accordance with popular belief. He could, also, refer to facts from the _Vitæ Sanctorum_, where the inner _Veritas_ had come to outer manifestation. He thinks that the fact that this did not always happen is to be accounted for partly by this, that the Supper in its very nature is a _Mysterium_ for faith and not a _Miraculum_ for unbelief, partly by the divine condescendence which takes into account the natural horror at flesh and blood, and would take away from the heathen all occasion for blasphemy. At this time, A.D. 831, the Scriptures were not appealed to. Meantime Radbertus was made abbot of Corbie, and in this important position he revised his work, and presented it to Charles the Bald in A.D. 844. The king called upon the learned monk, =Ratramnus= of Corbie, to express his opinion on the subject, and he was only too ready to do an injury to his abbot. Without naming him, he contested his doctrine in his treatise, _De corp. et sang. Domini ad Carolum Calvum_, with bitter criticism, and subtly developed his own view, according to which the body and blood of Christ are enjoyed only _spiritualiter et secundum potentiam_. Rabanus Maurus, Scotus Erigena, and Florus of Lyons also opposed the magical transformation doctrine of Radbertus in favour of a merely spiritual enjoyment. Hincmar and Haymo, on the other hand, took the side of Radbertus, while Walafrid Strabo, and the able, energetic Christian Druthmar, found in the idea of impanation and consubstantiation a more fitting expression for the solemn mystery. But Radbertus had spoken the word which gave clear utterance to the ecclesiastical feeling of the age; the protest of so many great authorities might delay, but could not destroy its effects. Continuation, § 101, 2.

§ 91.4. =Controversy about the Conception of the Virgin.=--This notion of the magical operation of the Divine prevailed with Radbertus when soon afterwards he undertook in his own way, and also in accordance with Ps. xxii. 10 and Jer. xxxi. 22, in the tract, _De partu virginali_, to establish the opinion already expressed by Ambrose and Jerome (§ 57, 2), that Mary brought forth _utero clauso_, and without pain. Ratramnus also has left a treatise on this theme: _De eo quod Christus ex Virigine natus est_. He maintains equally with Radbertus that during conception as well as in bearing, the Virgin did not lose her virginity. But while Radbertus contended against those who taught less than this, _i.e._, that though Mary conceived as a virgin, she bore after the manner of all women, Ratramnus directed his attack against those who affirmed more than that, _i.e._, that Christ at His birth did not leave His mother’s womb in the usual, natural manner, by His mother bearing Him. Further, while the former was angry at the profaning of the mystery of the birth of Christ, by ranking it under the laws of nature, the latter emphasized the fact that in no case should it be regarded as in itself ignominious to be placed under the laws of nature. Finally, while Radbertus unconditionally repudiated the position, _Vulvam aperuit_, Ratramnus felt compelled by Luke ii. 23 to admit it in a certain sense. C. v. “_Utique vulvam aperuit, non et clausam corrumperet, sed et per eam suæ nativitatis ostium aperiret, sicut et in Ezech. xliv. 3 porta et clausa describitur et tamen narratur Domino aperta; non quod liminis sui fores dimoverit ad ejus egressum, sed quod sic clausa patuerit dominanti_,” and c. viii. “_Exivit clauso sepulchro (?) et ingressus foribus obseratis (Jo. xx. 9) ... ut et clausam relinqueret et per eam transiret ... nec haureundo patefecit_.” The polemic, therefore, was most probably occasioned not by anything in the writings, but rather in their oral utterances. Neither understood the other’s view, and the one drew consequences from the other’s statements that were not warrantable. But when Ratramnus pretends to be debating, not with his abbot but with an unnamed German opponent, this can only be regarded as a literary artifice.

§ 91.5. =The Predestinarian Controversy A.D. 847-868.=--The earlier predestinarian controversy (§ 53, 5), was, so far from being brought to a conclusion, that all the gradations of doctrinal views, from that of Semi-Pelagianism to a doctrine of predestination to condemnation that went far beyond Augustine, could find representatives among the teachers of the church. In the 9th century the controversy broke out in a passionate form. =Gottschalk=, the son of Berno, a Saxon count, had been placed by his parents when a child in the monastery of Fulda. A Synod at Mainz in A.D. 829 allowed him to go forth, but the abbot of Fulda at that time, Rabanus Maurus, got Louis the Pious to annul this dispensation. Transferred to the monastery of Orbais, in the diocese of Soissons, Gottschalk sought comfort in the study of the writings of Augustine, and was an enthusiastic defender of the doctrine of absolute predestination. In one point he even went beyond Augustine himself, for he taught a two-fold predestination (_Gemina prædestinatio_), a predestination to salvation and a predestination to condemnation, while Augustine had spoken of the latter mostly as a giving over to deserved condemnation. He took advantage of two journeys into Italy in A.D. 840 and A.D. 847 for spreading his doctrine. Impelled with a vehement desire to make converts, he made an attempt upon bishop Noting of Verona. Through him Rabanus, from A.D. 847 archbishop of Mainz, obtained information thereof, and issued to Noting, as well as to Count Eberhard of Friaul, with whom Gottschalk was living, threatening letters which distorted Gottschalk’s doctrine in many particulars, and drew from it unfair consequences, making the _Prædestinatio ad damnationem_ a _Prædestinatio ad peccatum_. Rabanus’s own doctrine distinguished prescience and predestination, and placed the condemnation of the wicked under the former point of view. At the same time, in A.D. 848, he convened a Synod at Mainz, before which Gottschalk stated his doctrine without reserve, in the joyous conviction that it was in accordance with the doctrine of the church. But the Council excommunicated him, and assigned him for punishment to his metropolitan Hincmar of Rheims. Hincmar had him anew condemned at the Synod of Quiersy in A.D. 849, then, because he steadily refused to recant, had him savagely scourged and consigned to imprisonment for life in the monastery of Hautvilliers. Gottschalk offered to prove the justice of his cause by submitting to an ordeal; but Hincmar, though in other instances a defender of the ordeal, denounced this as the proposal of a second Simon Magus. The inhuman treatment of the poor monk, and the rejection of the doctrine of Augustine by two church leaders, occasioned a mighty commotion in the Frankish church, which was mainly directed against Hincmar. At first, bishop Prudentius of Troyes took the condemned monk’s part. Then Charles the Bald asked the opinions of Ratramnus of Corbie and the abbot Servatus Lupus of Ferrières. Both of these took the side of Gottschalk. Hincmar’s position threatened to become very serious. He looked out for supporters, and succeeded in finding champions in the deacon Florus of Lyons, the priest Amalarius of Metz, and the learned Joannes Scotus Erigena. But the latter’s advocacy was almost more dangerous to the metropolitan than the charges of his accusers. For the speculative Irishman founded his objections to the doctrine of predestination on the position, unheard of before in the West, that evil is only a μὴ ὄν, and condemnation therefore not a positive punishment of God, but consisting only in the consciousness of a defect. Hincmar’s position was now worse than ever, for his opponents made him responsible for the heresies of Scotus. And not only an old objector, Prudentius of Troyes in his _De prædest. c. Joh. Scotu_, but even archbishop Wessilo of Sens and the deacon Florus of Lyons, who had hitherto supported him, now put on their armour against him. But Charles the Bald took the part of the sorely-beset metropolitan, and summoned the national Synod of Quiersy of A.D. 853, where in four articles (_Capitula Carisiaca_), a modified Augustinianism, rejecting the _gemina prædestinatio_, was set forth as the orthodox faith. The Neustrian objectors were now compelled to keep silence, but archbishop Remigius of Lyons set a Lothringian national Synod of Valence of A.D. 855 over against the Neustrian Synod. This Synod expressly condemned the decisions of the Synod of Quiersy, together with the Scottish mixture (_pultus Scotorum_), and laid down six conflicting articles as the standard of orthodoxy. Finally the rulers of the West Franks combined their forces and called an Imperial Synod at Savonnières, a suburb of Toul, in A.D. 859. But harmony was not yet secured, and they were likely to part with bitter feelings, when Remigius made the proposal to reserve decision for a subsequent assembly to be convened in a less agitated time, and meanwhile to maintain the peace. This was agreed upon, and so the controversy put out of view, for the proposed assembly was never brought about. Gottschalk, left in the lurch by his former friends, now turned for help to the powerful pope Nicholas I. The pope ordered Hincmar to answer before the papal plenipotentiaries for his proceedings against the monk at the Synod of Metz in A.D. 863 (§ 82, 7). Hincmar preferred not to comply to this demand, and to his delight the pope himself annulled the decisions of the Synod because his legates had been bribed. Moreover the metropolitan succeeded by intercession and well-planned letters in winning over the pope. Thus then Gottschalk was cheated out of his last hope. For twenty years he languished in prison, but with his latest breath he rejected every proposal of recantation. He died in A.D. 868, and by Hincmar’s orders was buried in unconsecrated earth.

§ 91.6. =The Trinitarian Controversy, A.D. 857.=--From his prison Gottschalk had accused his metropolitan of a second heresy. Hincmar had removed from a church hymn, _Te trina Deitas unaque poscimus_, the expression, =trina Deltas=, as favouring Arianism, and substituted the words, _sancta Deitas_. His opponents therefore charged him with Sabellianism, and Ratramnus made this accusation in a controversial tract no longer extant. Ratramnus, on the other hand, to whom Hincmar applied, supported the change, but would not commit himself to a written approval of it, whereupon Hincmar himself undertook a defence of the expression substituted in his treatise, _De una et non trini Deitate_.[262]

§ 92. ENDEAVOURS AFTER REFORMATION.

The independence which Charlemagne gave to the German church first awakened in it the consciousness of its vocation as a reformer. This consciousness was maintained throughout the Middle Ages, though hampered indeed by much narrowness, one-sidedness, and error. Charlemagne himself stood first in the series of reformers with his energetic protest against image worship. Louis the Pious too persevered in this same direction, and encouraged Agobard of Lyons and Claudius of Turin when they contested similar forms of ecclesiastical superstition.

§ 92.1. =The Carolingian Opposition to Image Worship, A.D. 790-825.=--On the occasion of an embassy of the emperor Constantinus Copronymus (§ 66, 2) Pepin the Short convened a Synod at Gentiliacum in A.D. 767 (§ 91, 2) where the question of image worship was dealt with. We have no further information, as the acts of this Synod have been lost. Then in A.D. 790 Hadrian I. sent to Charlemagne the acts of the 7th occasional Synod of Nicæa (§ 66, 3). Charles, as emperor-elect, regarded himself as grievously wronged by the assumption of the Greeks, who, without consulting the German court, sought to enact laws that were wholly antagonistic to the Frankish practice. He published under his own name a state paper in 4 bks., the so-called _Libri Carolini_, in which the Byzantine proceedings were censured in strong terms, the synodal acts refuted one by one, every form of image worship denounced as idolatry, while at the same time the position of the iconoclasts was repudiated and, with reference to Gregory the Great (§ 57, 4), the usefulness of images in quickening devotion, instructing the people and providing suitable decoration for sacred places was admitted. Veneration of saints, relics, and the cross is, on the other hand, permitted. Charlemagne sent this writing to the pope, who in the most courteous language wrote a refutation, which, however, made no impression upon Charlemagne. On the contrary he now hastened preparations for calling a great œcumenical Synod of all German churches that would outdo the Synod of the Byzantine court. Alcuin utilized his visit to England for securing a representation at this Synod of the Anglo-Saxon church. The Synod met at Frankfort in A.D. 794 and confirmed the positions of the Caroline books. The pope found it prudent to yield to the times and the people. Under Louis the Pious the matter was brought forward anew on the occasion of an embassy from the iconoclast emperor Michael Balbus. A national Synod at Paris in A.D. 825 condemned image worship sharply, in opposition to Hadrian I., and affirmed the positions of the Caroline books. Pope Eugenius II. kept silent on this subject. In the Frankish empire down to the 10th century no recognition was given to the 2nd Nicene Council, and official opposition was continued against image worship.

§ 92.2. Soon after the Parisian council of A.D. 825, =Agobard of Lyons= made his appearance with a powerful polemic: _Contra superstitionem eorum, qui picturis et imaginibus sanctorum adorationis obsequiem deferendum putant_. He goes much further than the Caroline books, for not only does he regard it as advisable, on account of the inevitable misuse on the part of the people, to banish images entirely, but with image worship he also rejects all adoration of saints, relics, and angels. Man should put his trust in the omnipotent God alone, and worship and reverence only the one Mediator, Christ. He comes forward also as a reformer of the liturgy. He finds fault with all sensuous additions to Divine service, would banish from it all non-Biblical hymns, urges to earnest study of Scripture, contends against the folly of the ordeal (_De Divinis Sententiis_), the popular superstitions about witchcraft and weather omens (_Contra insulsam vulgi opinionem de grandine et tonitruis_), and the idea that by presents to churches a stop can be put to epidemics and pestilences. Also on inspiration he entertained very liberal opinions (§ 90, 9). No one thought on account of these views to charge him with heresy. =Claudius of Turin= went still further than Agobard. By the help of Augustine he was able to grasp more profoundly than any of his contemporaries the essential core of saving truth, that man without any merit of works is justified and saved by the grace of God in Christ alone. Louis the Pious appointed him to the bishopric of Turin with the express injunction that he should contend against image worship in his Italian diocese. He found there image worship along with an extravagant devotion to relics, crosses and pilgrimages carried on to such a degree that he felt himself constrained reluctantly because of the condition of affairs to cast images and crosses out of the churches altogether. The popular excitement over this proceeding rose to the utmost pitch, and his life was saved and his office retained only through dread of the Frankish arms. When pope Paschalis intimated to him his displeasure, he said the pope is only to be honoured as apostolic, when he does the works of an apostle, otherwise Matt. xxiii. 2-4 applies to him. Against the views of his early scholar and friend the abbot Theodemir, regarding monastic psalmody, he vindicated himself in A.D. 825 in his controversial tract _Apologeticus_, which is now known only from the replies of his opponents. A Scotchman, Dungal, teacher at Pavia, entered the lists against him and accused him before the emperor, who, however, contented himself with calling upon bishop Jonas of Orleans to refute the apologetical treatise. This refutation appeared only after the death of Claudius. It assumed the position of the Frankish church on the question of image worship, as also Dungal had done.

SECOND SECTION.

HISTORY OF THE GERMANO-ROMANIC CHURCH, FROM THE 10TH TO THE 13TH CENTURY. A.D. 911-1294.

I. The Spread of Christianity.

§ 93. MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES.

During this period the Christianizing of Europe was well nigh finished. Only Lapland and Lithuania were reserved for the following period. The method used in conversion was still the same. Besides missionaries, warriors also extended the faith. Monasteries and castles were the centres of the newly founded Christianity. Political considerations and Christian princesses converted pagan princes; their subjects followed either under violent pressure or with quiet resignation, carrying with them, however, under the cover of a Christian profession, much of their old heathen superstition. It was the policy of the German emperors to make every effort to unite the converted races under the German metropolitans, and to establish this union. Thus the metropolitanate of Hamburg-Bremen was founded for the Scandinavians and those of the Baltic provinces, that of Magdeburg for the Poles and the Northern Slavs, that of Mainz for the Bohemians, that of Passau and Salzburg for the Hungarians. But it was Rome’s desire to emancipate them from the German clergy and the German state, and to set them up as independent metropolitanates of a great family of Christian nationalities recognising the pope as their spiritual father (§ 82, 9). The Western church did now indeed make a beginning of missionary enterprise, which extended in its range beyond Europe to the Mongols of Asia and the Saracens of Africa, but throughout this period it remained without any, or at least without any important, result.

§ 93.1. =The Scandinavian Mission Field.=--The work of Ansgar and Rimbert (§ 80) had extended only to the frontier provinces of Jutland and to the trading ports of Sweden, and even the churches founded there had in the meantime become almost extinct. A renewal of the mission could not be thought of, owing to the robber raids of =Normans= or =Vikings=, who during the ninth and tenth centuries had devastated all the coasts. But it was just those Viking raids that in another way opened a door again for the entrance of missionaries into those lands. Many of the home-going Vikings, who had been resident for a while abroad, had there been converted to the Christian faith, and carried back the knowledge of it to their homes. In France the Norwegians under Rollo founded Normandy in A.D. 912. In the tenth century the entire northern half of England fell into the hands of the Danes, and finally, in A.D. 1013, the Danish King Sweyn conquered the whole country. Both in France and in England the incomers adopted the profession of Christianity, and this, owing to the close connection maintained with their earlier homes, led to the conversion of Norway and Denmark.

§ 93.2. In =Denmark=, Gorm the Old, the founder of the regular Danish monarchy, makes his appearance toward the end of the ninth century as the bitter foe of Christianity. He destroyed all Christian institutions, drove away all the priests, and ravaged the neighbouring German coasts. Then, in A.D. 934, the German king Henry I. undertook a war against Denmark, and obliged Gorm to pay tribute and to grant toleration to the Christian faith. Archbishop Unni of Bremen then immediately began again the mission work. With a great part of his clergy he entered Danish territory, restored the churches of Jutland, and died in Sweden in A.D. 936. Gorm’s son, Harald Blaatand, being defeated in battle by Otto I. in A.D. 965, submitted to baptism. But his son Sweyn Gabelbart, although he too had been baptized, headed the reactionary heathen party. Harald fell in battle against him in A.D. 986, and Sweyn now began his career as a bitter persecutor of the Christians. Eric of Sweden, however, formerly a heathen and an enemy of Christianity, drove him out in A.D. 980, and at the entreaty of a German embassage tolerated the Christian religion. After Eric’s death in A.D. 998, Sweyn returned. In exile his opinions had changed, and now he as actively befriended the Christians as before he had persecuted them. In A.D. 1013 he conquered all England, and died there in A.D. 1014. His son Canute the Great, who died in A.D. 1036, united both kingdoms under his sceptre, and made every effort to find in the profession of a common Christian faith a bond of union between the two countries over which he ruled. In place of the German mission issuing from Bremen, he set on foot an English mission that had great success. In A.D. 1026 by means of a pilgrimage to Rome, prompted also by far-reaching political views, he joined the Danish church in the closest bonds with the ecclesiastical centre of Western Christendom. Denmark from this time onwards ranks as a thoroughly Christianized land.

§ 93.3. In =Sweden=, too, Archbishop Unni of Bremen resumed mission work and died there in A.D. 936. From this time the German mission was prosecuted uninterruptedly. It was, however, only in the beginning of the eleventh century, when English missionaries came to Sweden from Norway with Sigurd at their head, that real progress was made. By them the king Olaf Skötkonung, who died in A.D. 1024, was baptized. Olaf and his successor used every effort to further the interests of the mission, which had made considerable progress in Gothland, while in Swealand, with its national pagan sanctuary of Upsala, heathenism still continued dominant. King Inge, when he refused in A.D. 1080 to renounce Christianity, was pursued with stones by a crowd of people at Upsala. His son-in-law Blot-Sweyn led the pagan reaction, and sorely persecuted those who professed the Christian faith. After reigning for three years, he was slain, and Inge restored Christianity in all parts. It was, however, only under St. Eric, who died in A.D. 1160, that the Christian faith became dominant in Upper Sweden.[263]

§ 93.4. =The Norwegians= had, at a very early period, by means of the adventurous raids of their seafaring youth, by means of Christian prisoners, and also by means of intercourse with the Norse colonies in England and Normandy, gained some knowledge of Christianity. The first Christian king of Norway was Haco the Good (A.D. 934-961), who had received a Christian education at the English court. Only after he had won the fervent love of his people by his able government, did he venture to ask for the legal establishment of the Christian religion. The people, however, compelled him to take part in heathen sacrifices; and when he made the sign of the cross over the sacrificial cup before he drank of it, they were appeased only by his associating the action with Thor’s hammer. Haco could never forgive himself this weakness and died broken-hearted, regarding himself as unworthy even of Christian burial. Olaf Trygvesen (A.D. 995-1000), at first the ideal of a Norse Viking, then of a Norse king, was baptized during his last visit to England, and used all the powerful influences at his command, the charm and fascination of his personality, flattery, favour, craft, intimidation and cruelty, to secure the forcible introduction of Christianity. No foreigner was ever allowed to quit Norway without being persuaded or compelled by him to receive baptism. Those who refused, whether natives or foreigners, suffered severe imprisonment and in many cases were put to death. He fell in battle with the Danes. Olaf Haraldson the Fat, subsequently known as St. Olaf (A.D. 1014-1030), followed in Trygvesen’s steps. Without his predecessor’s fascinating manners and magnanimity, but prosecuting his ecclesiastical and political ends with greater recklessness, severity, and cruelty, he soon forfeited the love of his subjects. The alienated chiefs conspired with the Danish Canute; the whole country rose against him; he himself fell in battle, and Norway became a Danish province. The crushing yoke of the Danes, however, caused a sudden rebound of public feeling in regard to Olaf. The king, who was before universally hated, was now looked on as the martyr of national liberty and independence. Innumerable miracles were wrought by his bones, and even so early as A.D. 1031 the country unanimously proclaimed him a national saint. The enthusiasm over the veneration of the new saint increased from day to day, and with it the enthusiasm for the emancipation of their native country. Borne along by the mighty agitation, Olaf’s son, Magnus the Good, drove out the Danes in A.D. 1035. Olaf’s canonization, though originating in purely political schemes, had put the final stamp of Christianity upon the land. The German national privileges, however, were insisted upon in Norway over against the canon law down to the 13th century.[264]

§ 93.5. =In the North-Western Group of Islands=, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Faröe Isles, the sparse Celtic population professing Christianity was, during the ninth century, expelled by the pagan Norse Vikings, and among these Christianity was first introduced by the two Norwegian Olafs. The first missionary attempt in =Iceland= was made in A.D. 981 by the Icelander Thorwald, who having been baptized in Saxony by a Bishop (?) Frederick, persuaded this ecclesiastic to accompany him to Iceland, that they might there work together for the conversion of his heathen fellow countrymen. During a five years’ ministry several individuals were won, but by a decision of the National Council the missionaries were forced to leave the island in A.D. 958. Olaf Trygvesen did not readily allow an Icelander visiting Norway to return without having been baptized, and twice he sent formal expeditions for the conversion of Iceland. The first, sent out in A.D. 996, with Stefnin, a native of Iceland, at its head, had little success. The second, A.D. 997-999, was led by Olaf’s court chaplain Dankbrand, a Saxon. This man, at once warrior and priest, who when his sermons failed shrank not from buckling on the sword, converted many of the most powerful chiefs. In A.D. 1000 the Icelandic State was saved at the last hour from a civil war between pagans and Christians which threatened its very existence, by the adoption of a compromise, according to which all Icelanders were baptized and only Christian worship was publicly recognised, but idol worship in the homes, exposure of children, and eating of horses’ flesh was tolerated. But in A.D. 1016, as the result of an embassage of the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldson, even these last vestiges of paganism were wiped out.--=Greenland=, too, which had been discovered by a distinguished Icelander, Eric the Red, and had then been colonized in A.D. 985, owed its Christianity to Olaf Trygvesen, who in A.D. 1000 sent the son of the discoverer, Leif the Fortunate, with an expedition for its conversion. The inhabitants accepted baptism without resistance. The church continued to flourish there uninterruptedly for 400 years, and the coast districts became rich through agriculture and trade. But when in A.D. 1408 the newly elected bishop Andrew wished to take possession of his see, he found the country surrounded by enormous masses of ice, and could not effect a landing. This catastrophe, and the subsequent incursions of the Eskimos, seem to have led to the overthrow of the colony.--Continuation, § 167, 9.--Leif discovered on his expeditions a rich fertile land in the West, which on account of the vines growing wild there he called =Vineland=, and this region was subsequently colonized from Iceland. In the twelfth century, in order to confirm the colonists in the faith, a Greenland bishop Eric undertook a journey to that country. It lay on the east coast of North America, and is probably to be identified with the present Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

§ 93.6. =The Slavo-Magyar Mission-field.=--Even in the previous period a beginning had been made of the Christianizing of =Bohemia= (§ 79, 3). After Wratislaw’s death his heathen widow Drahomira administered the government in the name of her younger son Boleslaw. Ludmilla, with the help of the clergy and the Germans, wished to promote St. Wenzeslaw, the elder son, educated by her, but she was strangled by order of Drahomira in A.D. 927. Wenzeslaw, too, fell by the hand of his brother. Boleslaw now thought completely to root out Christianity, but was obliged, in consequence of the victory of Otho [Otto] I. in A.D. 950, to agree to the restoration of the church. His son Boleslas [Boleslaw] II., A.D. 967-999, contributed to its establishment by founding the bishopric of Prague. The pope seized the opportunity on the occasion of this founding of the bishopric to introduce the Roman ritual (A.D. 973).[265]

§ 93.7. From Bohemia the Christian faith was carried to the =Poles=. In A.D. 966 the Duke Micislas was persuaded by his wife Dubrawka, a Bohemian princess, daughter of Boleslaw I., to receive baptism. His subjects were induced to follow his example, and the bishopric of Posen was founded. The church obtained a firm footing under his son, the powerful Boleslaw Chrobry, A.D. 992-1025, who with the consent of Otto III. freed the Polish church from the metropolitanate of Magdeburg, and gave it an archiepiscopal see of its own at Gnesen (A.D. 1000). He also separated the Poles from German imperial federation and had himself crowned king shortly before his death in A.D. 1025. A state of anarchy, which lasted for a year and threatened the overthrow of Christianity in the land, was put an end to by his grandson Casimir in A.D. 1039. Casimir’s grandson Boleslaw II. gave to the Poles a national saint by the murder in A.D. 1079 of Bishop Stanislas [Stanislaus] of Cracow, which led to his excommunication and exile.

§ 93.8. Christianity was introduced into =Hungary= from Constantinople. A Hungarian prince Gylas received baptism there about A.D. 950, and returned home with a monk Hierotheus, consecrated bishop of the Hungarians. Connection with the Eastern church, however, was soon broken off, and an alliance formed with the Western church. After Henry I. in A.D. 933 defeated the Hungarians at Keuschberg, and still more decidedly after Otto I. in A.D. 955 had completely humbled them by the terrible slaughter at Lechfelde, German influence won the upper hand. The missionary labours of Bishop Piligrim of Passau, as well as the introduction of Christian foreigners, especially Germans, soon gave to Christianity a preponderance throughout the country over paganism. The mission was directly favoured by the Duke Geysa, A.D. 972-997, and his vigorous wife Sarolta, a daughter of the above-named Gylas. The Christianizing of Hungary was completed by Geysa’s son St. Stephen, A.D. 997-1038, who upon his marriage with Gisela, the sister of the Emperor Henry II., was baptized, a pagan reaction was put down, a constitution and laws were given to the country, an archbishopric was founded at Gran with ten suffragan bishops, the crown was put upon his head in A.D. 1000 by Pope Sylvester II., and Hungary was enrolled as an important member of the federation of European Christian States. Under his successors indeed paganism once more rose in a formidable revolt, but was finally stamped out. St. Ladislaw [Ladislaus], A.D. 1077-1095, rooted out its last vestiges.

§ 93.9. Among the numerous =Wendish Races= in Northern and North-Eastern Germany the chief tribes were the Obotrites in what is now Holstein and Mecklenburg, the Lutitians or Wilzians, between the Elbe and the Oder, the Pomeranians, from the Oder to the Vistula, and the Sorbi, farther south in Saxony and Lusatia. Henry I., A.D. 919-936, and his son Otto I., A.D. 936-973, in several campaigns subjected them to the German yoke, and the latter founded among them in A.D. 968 the archbishopric of Magdeburg besides several bishoprics. The passion for national freedom, as well as the proud contempt, illtreatment, and oppression of the German margraves, rendered Christianity peculiarly hateful to the Wends, and it was only after their freedom and nationality had been completely destroyed and the Slavic population had been outnumbered by German or Germanized colonists, that the Church obtained a firm footing in their land. A revolt of the =Obotrites= under Mistewoi in A.D. 983, who with the German yoke abjured also the Christian faith, led to the destruction of all Christian institutions. His grandson Gottschalk, educated as a Christian in a German monastery, but roused to fury by the murder of his father Udo, escaped from the monastery in A.D. 1032, renounced Christianity, and set on foot a terrible persecution of Christians and Germans. But he soon bitterly repented this outburst of senseless rage. Taken prisoner by the Germans, he escaped and took refuge in Denmark, but subsequently he returned and founded in A.D. 1045 a great Wendish empire which extended from the North Sea to the Oder. He now enthusiastically applied all his energy to the establishment of the church in his land upon a national basis, for which purpose Adalbert of Bremen sent him missionaries. He was himself frequently their interpreter and expositor. He was eminently successful, but the national party hated him as the friend of the Saxons and the church. He fell by the sword of the assassin in A.D. 1066, and thereupon began a terrible persecution of the Christians. His son Henry having been set aside, the powerful Ranian chief Cruco from the island of Rügen, a fanatical enemy of Christianity, was chosen ruler. At the instigation of Henry he was murdered in his own house in A.D. 1115. Henry died in A.D. 1127. A Danish prince Canute bought the Wendish crown from Lothair duke of Saxony, but was murdered in A.D. 1131. This brought the Wendish empire to an end. The Obotrite chief Niklot, who died in A.D. 1161, held his ground only in the territory of the Obotrites. His son Pribizlaw, the ancestor of the present ruling family of Mecklenburg, by adopting Christianity in A.D. 1164, saved to himself a part of the inheritance of his fathers as a vassal under the Saxon princes. All the rest of the land was divided by Henry the Lion among his German warriors, and the depopulated districts were peopled with German colonists.--In A.D. 1157 Albert the Bear, the founder of the Margravate of Brandenburg, overthrew the dominion of the =Lutitians= after protracted struggles and endless revolts. He, too, drafted numerous German colonists into the devastated regions.--The Christianizing of the =Sorbi= was an easier task. After their first defeat by Henry I. in A.D. 922 and 927, they were never again able to regain their old freedom. Alongside of the mission of the sword among the Wends there was always carried on, more or less vigorously, the mission of the Cross. Among the Sorbi bishop Benno of Meissen, who died in A.D. 1107, wrought with special vigour, and among the Obotrites the greatest zeal was displayed by St. Vicelinus. He died bishop of Oldenburg in A.D. 1154.

§ 93.10. =Pomerania= submitted in A.D. 1121 to the duke of Poland, Boleslaw III., and he compelled them solemnly to promise that they would adopt the Christian faith. The work of conversion, however, appeared to be so unpromising that Boleslaw found none among all his clergy willing to undertake the task. At last in A.D. 1122, a Spanish monk Bernard offered himself. But the Pomeranians drove him away as a beggar who looked only to his own gain, for they thought, if the Christians’ God be really the Lord of heaven and earth He would have sent them a servant in keeping with His glorious majesty. Boleslaw was then convinced that only a man who had strong faith and a martyr’s spirit, united with an imposing figure, rank, and wealth, was fit for the work, and these qualifications he found in bishop Otto of Bamberg. Otto accepted the call, and during two missionary journeys in A.D. 1124-1128 founded the Pomeranian church. Following Bernard’s advice, he went through Pomerania on both occasions with all the pomp of episcopal dignity, with a great retinue and abundant stores of provisions, money, ecclesiastical ornaments, and presents of all kinds. He had unparalleled success, yet he was repeatedly well nigh obtaining the crown of martyrdom which he longed for. The whole Middle Ages furnishes scarcely an equally noble, pure, and successful example of missionary enterprise. None of all the missionaries of that age presents so harmonious a picture of firmness without obstinacy, earnestness without harshness, gentleness without weakness, enthusiasm without fanaticism. And never have the German and Slavic nationalities so nobly, successfully, and faithfully practised mutual forbearance as did the Pomeranians and their apostle.--The last stronghold of Wendish paganism was the island of =Rügen=. It fell when in A.D. 1168 the Danish king Waldemar I. with the Christian Pomeranian and Obotrite chiefs conquered the island and destroyed its heathen sanctuaries.

§ 93.11. =Mission Work among the Finns and Lithuanians.=--St. Eric of Sweden in A.D. 1157 introduced Christianity into Finland by conquest and compulsion. Bishop Henry of Upsala, the apostle of the Finns, who accompanied him, suffered a martyr’s death in the following year. The Finns detested Christianity as heartily as they did the rule of the conquering Swedes, who introduced it, and it was only after the third campaign which Thorkel Canutson undertook in A.D. 1293 against Finland, that the Swedish rule and the Christian faith were established, and under a vigorous yet moderate and wise government the Finns were reconciled to both.--=Lapland= came under the rule of Sweden in A.D. 1279, and thereafter Christianity gradually found entrance. In A.D. 1335 bishop Hemming of Upsala consecrated the first church at Tornea.

§ 93.12. =Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland= were inhabited by peoples belonging to the Finnic stem. Yet even in early times people from the south and east belonging to the Lithuanian stem had settled in Livonia and Courland, Letts and Lettgalls in Livonia, and Semgalls and Wends in Courland. The first attempts to introduce Christianity into these regions were made by Swedes and Danes, and even under the Danish king Sweyn III., Eric’s son, about A.D. 1048 a church was erected in Courland by Christian merchants, and in Esthonia the Danes not long after built the fortress of Lindanissa. The elevation of the bishopric of Lund into a metropolitanate in A.D. 1098 was projected with a regard to these lands. In A.D. 1171 Pope Alexander III. sent a monk, Fulco, to Lund to convert the heathen and to be bishop of Finland and Esthonia, but he seems never to have entered on his duties or his dignity. Abiding results were first won by German preaching and the German sword. In the middle of the 12th century merchants of Bremen and Lübeck carried on traffic with towns on the banks of the Dwina. A pious priest from the monastery of Segeberg in Holstein, called Meinhart, undertook in their company under the auspices of the archbishop of Bremen, Hartwig II., a missionary journey to those regions in A.D. 1184. He built a church at Üxküll on the Dwina, was recognised as bishop of the place in A.D. 1186, but died in A.D. 1196. His assistant Dietrich carried on the work of the mission in the district from Freiden down to Esthonia. Meinhart’s successor in the bishopric was the Cistercian abbot, Berthold of Loccum in Hanover. Having been driven away soon after his arrival, he returned with an army of German crusaders, and was killed in battle in A.D. 1198. His successor was a canon of Bremen, Albert of Buxhöwden. He transferred the bishop’s seat to Riga, which was built by him in A.D. 1201, founded in A.D. 1202, for the protection of the mission, the Order of the Brethren of the Sword (§ 98, 13), amid constant battles with Russians, Esthonians, Courlanders and Lithuanians erected new bishoprics in Esthonia (Dorpat), Oesel, and Semgallen, and effected the Christianization of nearly all these lands. He died in A.D. 1229. After A.D. 1219 the Danes, whom Albert had called in to his aid, vied with him in the conquest and conversion of the Esthonians. Waldemar II. founded Revel in A.D. 1219, made it an episcopal see, and did all in his power to restrict the advances of the Germans. In this he did not succeed. The Danes, indeed, were obliged to quit Esthonia in A.D. 1257. After Albert’s death, however, the difficulties of the situation became so great that Volquin, the Master of the Order of the Sword, could see no hope of success save in the union of his order with that of the Teutonic Knights, shortly before established in Prussia. The union, retarded by Danish intrigues, was not effected until A.D. 1237, when a fearful slaughter of Germans by the Lithuanians had endangered not only the existence of the Order of the Sword but even the church of Livonia. Then, too, for the first time was Courland finally subdued and converted. It had, indeed, nominally adopted Christianity in A.D. 1230, but had soon after relapsed into paganism. Finally in A.D. 1255 Riga was raised to the rank of a metropolitanate, and Suerbeer, formerly archbishop of Armagh in Ireland, was appointed by Innocent IV. archbishop of Prussia, Livonia, and Esthonia, with his residence at Riga.

§ 93.13. The Old Prussians and Lithuanians also belonged to the Lettish stem. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, first brought the message of salvation to the =Prussians= between the Vistula and Memel, but on the very first entrance into Sameland [Samland] in A.D. 997 he won the martyr’s crown. This, too, was the fate twelve years later of the zealous Saxon monk Bruno and eighteen companions on the Lithuanian coast. Two hundred years passed before another missionary was seen in Prussia. The first was the Abbot Gothfried from the Polish monastery of Lukina; but in his case also an end was soon put to his hopefully begun work, as well as to that of his companion Philip, both suffering martyrdom in A.D. 1207. More successful and enduring was the mission work three years later of the Cistercian monk Christian from the Pomeranian monastery of Oliva, in A.D. 1209, the real apostle of the Prussians. He was raised to the rank of bishop in A.D. 1215, and died in A.D. 1245. On the model of the Livonian Order of the Brethren of the Sword he founded in A.D. 1225 the Order of the Knights of Dobrin (_Milites Christi_). In the very first year of their existence, however, they were reduced to the number of five men. In union with Conrad, Duke of Moravia, whose land had suffered fearfully from the inroads of the pagan Prussians, Christian then called in the aid of the Teutonic Knights, whose order had won great renown in Germany. A branch of this order had settled in A.D. 1228 in Culm, and so laid the foundation of the establishment of the order in Prussia. With the appearance of this order began a sixty years’ bloody conflict directed to the overthrow of Prussian paganism, which can be said to have been effected only in A.D. 1283, when the greater part of the Prussians had been slain after innumerable conflicts with the order and with crusaders from Germany, Poland, Bohemia, etc. Among the crowds of preachers of the gospel, mostly Dominicans, besides Bishop Christian and the noble papal legate William, bishop of Modena, the Polish Dominican Hyacinth, who died in A.D. 1257, a vigorous preacher of faith and repentance, deserves special mention. So early as A.D. 1243, William of Modena had sketched an ecclesiastical organization for the country, which divided Prussia into four dioceses, which were placed in A.D. 1255 under the metropolitanate of Riga.

§ 93.14. The introduction of Christianity into =Lithuania= was longest delayed. After Ringold had founded in A.D. 1230 a Grand Duchy of Lithuania, his son Mindowe endeavoured to enlarge his dominions by conquest. The army of the Prussian-Livonian Order, however, so humbled him that he sued for peace and was compelled to receive baptism in A.D. 1252. But no sooner had he in some measure regained strength than he threw off the hypocritical mask, and in A.D. 1260 appeared as the foe of his Christian neighbours. His son Wolstinik, who had remained true to the Christian faith, dying in A.D. 1266, reigned too short a time to secure an influence over his people. With him every trace of Christianity disappeared from Lithuania. Christians were again tolerated in his territories by the Grand Duke Gedimin (A.D. 1315-1340). Romish Dominicans and Russian priests vied with one another under his successor Olgerd in endeavours to convert the inhabitants. Olgerd himself was baptized according to the Greek rite, but apostatised. His son Jagello, born of a Christian mother, and married to the young Polish queen Hedwig, whose hand and crown seemed not too dearly purchased by submitting to baptism and undertaking to introduce Christianity among his people, made at last an end to heathenism in Lithuania in A.D. 1386. His subjects, each of whom received a woollen coat as a christening gift, flocked in crowds to receive baptism. The bishop’s residence was fixed at Wilna.

§ 93.15. =The Mongolian Mission Field.=--From the time of Genghis Khan, who died in A.D. 1227, the princes of the =Mongols=, in consistency with their principles as deists with little trace of religion, showed themselves equally tolerant and favourable to Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. The Nestorians were very numerous in this empire, but also very much deteriorated. In A.D. 1240-1241 the Mongols, pressing westward with irresistible force, threatened to overflow and devastate all Europe. Russia and Poland, Silesia, Moravia, and Hungary had been already dreadfully wasted by them, when suddenly and unexpectedly the savage hordes withdrew. Innocent IV. sent an embassage of Dominicans under Nicolas Ascelinus to the Commander Batschu in Persia, and an embassage of Franciscans under John of Piano-Carpini to the Grand Khan Oktaï, Genghis Khan’s successor, to his capital Karakorum, with a view to their conversion and to dissuade them from repeating their inroads. Both missions were unsuccessful. Certain adventurers pretending to be bearers of a message from Mongolia, told Louis IX. of France fabulous stories of the readiness of the Grand Khan Gajuk and his princes to receive Christianity, and their intention to conquer the Holy Land for the Christians. He accordingly sent out two missions to the Mongols. The first, in A.D. 1249 was utterly unsuccessful, for the Mongols regarded the presents given as a regular tribute and as a symbol of voluntary submission. The second mission in A.D. 1253, to the Grand Khan Mangu, although under a brave and accomplished leader, William of Ruysbroek, yielded no fruit; for Mangu, instead of allowing free entrance into the land for the preaching of the gospel, at the close of a disputation with Mohammedans and Buddhists sent the missionaries back to Louis with the threatening demand to tender his submission. After Mangu’s death in A.D. 1257, the Mongolian empire was divided into Eastern and Western, corresponding to China and Persia. The former was governed by Kublai Khan, the latter by Hulagu Khan.--Kublai Khan, the Emperor of =China=, a genuine type of the religious mongrelism of the Mongolians, showed himself very favourable to Christians, but also patronised the Mohammedans, and in A.D. 1260 gave a hierarchical constitution and consolidated form to Buddhism by the establishment of the first Dalai Lama. The travels of two Venetians of the family of Polo led to the founding of a Latin Christian mission in China. They returned from their Mongolian travels in A.D. 1269. Gregory X. in A.D. 1272 sent two Dominicans to Mongolia along with the two brothers, and the son of one of them, Marco Polo, then seventeen years old. The latter won the unreserved confidence of the Grand Khan, and was entrusted by him with an honourable post in the government. On his return in A.D. 1295 he published an account of his travels, which made an enormous sensation, and afforded for the first time to Western Europe a proper conception of the condition of Eastern Asia.[266] A regular Christian missionary enterprise, however, was first undertaken by the Franciscan Joh. de Monte-Corvino, A.D. 1291-1328, one of the noblest, most intelligent, and most faithful of the missionaries of the Middle Ages. After he had succeeded in overcoming the intrigues of the numerous Nestorians, he won the high esteem of the Grand Khan. In the royal city of Cembalu or Pekin he built two churches, baptized about 6,000 Mongols, and translated the Psalter and the New Testament into Mongolian. He wrought absolutely alone till A.D. 1303. Afterwards, however, other brethren of his order came repeatedly to his aid. Clement V. appointed him archbishop of Cembalu in A.D. 1307. Every year saw new churches established. But internal disturbances, under Kublai’s successor, weakened the power of the Mongolian dynasty, so that in A.D. 1370 it was overthrown by the national Ming dynasty. By the new rulers the Christian missionaries were driven out along with the Mongols, and thus all that they had done was utterly destroyed.--The ruler of =Persia=, Hulagu Khan, son of a Christian mother and married to a Christian wife, put an end in A.D. 1258 to the khalifate of Bagdad, but was so pressed by the sultan of Egypt, that he entered on a long series of negotiations with the popes and the kings of France and England, who gave him the most encouraging promises of joining their forces with his against the Saracens. His successors, of whom several even formally embraced Christianity, continued these negotiations, but obtained nothing more than empty promises and protestations of friendship. The time of the crusades was over, and the popes, even the most powerful of them, were not able to reawaken the crusading spirit. The Persian khans, vacillating between Christianity and Islam, became more and more powerless, until at last, in A.D. 1387, Tamerlane (Timur) undertook to found on the ruins of the old government a new universal Mongolian empire under the standard of the Crescent. But with his death in A.D. 1405 the dominion of the Mongols in Persia was overthrown, and fell into the hands of the Turkomans. Henceforth amid all changes of dynasties Islam continued the dominant religion.

§ 93.16. =The Mission Field of Islam.=--The crusader princes and soldiers wished only to wrest the Holy Land from the infidels, but, with the exception perhaps of Louis IX., had no idea of bringing to them the blessings of the gospel. And most of the crusaders, by their licentiousness, covetousness, cruelty, faithlessness, and dissensions among themselves, did much to cause the Saracens to scorn the Christian faith as represented by their lives and example. It was not until the 13th century that the two newly founded mendicant orders of Franciscans and Dominicans began an energetic but fruitless mission among the Moslems of Africa, Sicily, and Spain. St. Francis himself started this work in A.D. 1219, when during the siege of Damietta by the crusaders he entered the camp of the Sultan Camel and bade him kindle a fire and cause that he himself with one of the Moslem priests should be cast into it. When the imam present shrank away at these words, Francis offered to go alone into the fire if the sultan would promise to accept Christianity along with his people should he pass out of the fire uninjured. The sultan refused to promise and sent the saint away unhurt with presents, which, however, he returned. Afterwards several Franciscan missions were sent to the Moslems, but resulted only in giving a crowd of martyrs to the order. The Dominicans, too, at a very early period took part in the mission to the Mohammedans, but were also unsuccessful. The Dominican general Raimund de Pennaforti [Pennaforte], who died in A.D. 1273, devoted himself with special zeal to this task. For the training of the brethren of his order in the oriental languages he founded institutions at Tunis and Murcia. The most important of all these missionary enterprises was that of the talented Raimund Lullus of Majorca, who after his own conversion from a worldly life and after careful study of the language, made three voyages to North Africa and sought in disputations with the Saracen scholars to convince them of the truth of Christianity. But his _Ars Magna_ (§ 103, 7), which with great ingenuity and enormous labour he had wrought out mainly for this purpose, had no effect. Imprisonment and ill-treatment were on all occasions his only reward. He died in A.D. 1315 in consequence of the ill-usage which he had been subjected.

§ 94. THE CRUSADES.[267]

The Arabian rulers had for their own interest protected the Christian pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre. But even under the rule of the Fatimide dynasty, early in the 10th century, the oppression of pilgrims began. Khalif Hakim, in order that he might blot out the disgrace of being born of a Christian mother, committed ruthless cruelties upon resident Christians as well as upon the pilgrims, and prohibited under severe penalties all meetings for Christian worship. Under the barbarous Seljuk dynasty, which held sway in Palestine from about A.D. 1070, the oppression reached its height. The West became all the more concerned about this, since during the 10th century the idea that the end of the world was approaching had given a new impulse to pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Pope Sylvester II. had in A.D. 999 _ex persona devastatæ Hierosolymæ_ summoned Christendom to help in this emergency. Gregory VII. seized anew upon the idea of wresting the Holy Land from the infidels. He had even resolved himself to lead a Christian army, but the outbreak of contentions with Henry IV. hindered the execution of this plan. Meanwhile complaints by returning pilgrims of intolerable ill-usage increased. An urgent appeal from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus gave the spark that lit the combustible material that had been gathered throughout the West. The imperial ambassadors accompanied Pope Urban II. to the Council of Clermont in A.D. 1095, where the pope himself, in a spirited speech, called for a holy war under the standard of the cross. The shout was raised as from one mouth, “It is God’s will.” On that very day thousands enlisted, with Adhemar, bishop of Puy, papal legate, at their head, and had the red cross marked on their right shoulders. The bishops returning home preached the crusade as they went, and in a few weeks a glowing enthusiasm had spread throughout France down to the provinces of the Rhine. Then began a movement which, soon extending over all the West, like a second migration of nations, lasted for two centuries. The crusades cost Europe between five and six millions of men, and yet in the end that which had been striven after was not attained. Its consequences, however, to Europe itself were all the more important. In all departments of life, ecclesiastical and political, moral and intellectual, civil and industrial, new views, needs, developments, and tendencies were introduced. Mediæval culture now reached the highest point of its attainment, and its failure to transcend the past opened the way for the conditions of modern society. And while on the other hand they afforded new and extravagantly abundant nourishment for clerical and popular superstition, in all directions, but specially in giving opportunity to roguish traffic in relics (§ 104, 8; 115, 9), on the other hand they had no small share in producing religious indifference and frivolous free-thinking (§ 96, 19), as well as the terribly dangerous growth of mediæval sects, which threatened the overthrow of church and State, religion and morality (§ 108, 1, 4; 116, 5). The former was chiefly the result of the sad conclusion of an undertaking of unexampled magnitude, entered upon with the most glowing enthusiasm for Christianity and the church; the latter was in great measure occasioned by intercourse with sectaries of a like kind in the East (§ 71).

§ 94.1. =The First Crusade, A.D. 1096.=--In the spring of A.D. 1096 vast crowds of people gathered together, impatient of the delays of the princes, and put themselves under the leadership of Walter the Penniless. They were soon followed by Peter of Amiens with 40,000 men. A legend, unworthy of belief, credits him with the origin of the whole movement. According to this story, the hermit returning from a pilgrimage described to the holy father in vivid colours the sufferings of their Christian brethren, and related how that Christ Himself had appeared to him in a dream, giving him the command for the pope to summon all Christendom to rescue the Holy Sepulchre. The legend proceeds to say that, by order of the pope, Peter the Hermit then went through all Italy and France, arousing the enthusiasm of the people. The hordes led by him, however, after committing deeds of horrid violence on every side, while no farther than Bulgaria, were reduced to about one half, and the remnant, after Peter had already left them because of their insubordination, was annihilated by the Turks at Nicæa. Successive new crusades, the last of them an undisciplined mob of 200,000 men, were cut down in Hungary or on the Hungarian frontier. In August a regular crusading army, 80,000 strong, under the leadership of Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, passing through Germany and Hungary, reached Constantinople. There several French and Norman princes joined the army, till its strength was increased to 600,000. After considerable squabbling with the Byzantine government, they passed over into Asia. With great labour and heavy loss Nicæa, Edessa, and Antioch were taken. At last, on 15th July, 1099, amid shouts of, It is God’s will, they stormed the walls of Jerusalem; lighted by torches and wading in blood, they entered with singing of psalms into the Church of the Resurrection. Godfrey was elected king. With pious humility he declined to wear a king’s crown where Christ had worn a crown of thorns. He died a year after, and his brother Baldwin was crowned at Bethlehem. By numerous impropriations crowds of greater and lesser vassals were gathered about the throne. In Jerusalem itself a Latin patriarchate was erected, and under it were placed four archbishoprics, with a corresponding number of bishoprics. The story of these proceedings enkindled new enthusiasm in the West. In A.D. 1101 three new crusades of 260,000 men were fitted out in Germany, under Welf, duke of Bavaria, and in Italy and in France. They marched against Bagdad, in order to strike terror into the hearts of Moslems by the terrible onslaught; the undisciplined horde, however, did not reach its destination, but found a grave in Asia Minor.

§ 94.2. =The Second Crusade, A.D. 1147.=--The fall of Edessa in A.D. 1146, as the frontier fortress of the kingdom, summoned the West to a new effort. Pope Eugenius III. called the nations to arms. Bernard of Clairvaux, the prophet of the age, preached the crusade, and prophesied victory. =Louis VII. of France= took the sign of the cross, in order to atone for the crime of having burnt a church filled with men; and =Conrad III. of Germany=, moved by the preaching of Bernard, with some hesitation followed his example. But their stately army fell before the sword of the Saracens, the malice of the Greeks, and internal disorders caused by famine, disease, and hardships. Damascus remained unconquered, and the princes returned humbled with the miserable remnant of their army.

§ 94.3. =The Third Crusade, A.D. 1189.=--The kingdom of Jerusalem before a century had past was in utter decay. Greeks or Syrians and Latins had a deadly hatred for one another: the vassals intrigued against each other and against the crown. Licentiousness, luxury, and recklessness prevailed among the people; the clergy and the nobles of the kingdom, but especially the so called Pulleni,[268] descendants of the crusaders born in the Holy Land itself, were a miserable, cowardly and treacherous race. The pretenders to the crown also continued their intrigues and cabals. Such being the corrupt condition of affairs, it was an easy thing for the Sultan Saladin, the Moslem knight “without fear and without reproach,” who had overthrown the Fatimide dynasty in Egypt, to bring down upon the Christian rule in Syria, after the bloody battle of Tiberias, the same fate. Jerusalem fell into his hands in October, A.D. 1187. When this terrible piece of news reached the West, the Christian powers were summoned by Gregory VIII. to combine their forces in order to make one more vigorous effort, Philip Augustus of France and Henry II. of England forgot for a moment their mutual jealousies, and took the cross from the hands of Archbishop William of Tyre, the historian of the crusade. Next the =Emperor Frederick I.= joined them, with all the heroic valour of youth, though in years and experience an old man. He entered on the undertaking with an energy, considerateness, and circumspection which seemed to deserve glorious success. After piloting his way through Byzantine intrigues and the indescribable fatigues of a waterless desert, he led his soldiers against the well-equipped army of the sultan at Iconium, which he utterly routed, and took the city. But in A.D. 1190 the heroic warrior was drowned in an attempt to ford the river Calycadnus. A great part of his army was now scattered, and the remnant was led by his son Frederick of Swabia against Ptolemais. At that point soon after landed =Philip Augustus= and =Richard Cœur de Lion= of England, who after his father’s death put himself at the head of an English crusading army and had conquered Cyprus on the way. Ptolemais (Acre) was taken in A.D. 1191. But the jealousies of the princes interfered with their success. Frederick had already fallen, and Philip Augustus under pretence of sickness returned to France; Richard gained a brilliant victory over Saladin, took Joppa and Ascalon, and was on the eve of marching against Jerusalem when news reached him that his brother John had assumed the throne of England, and that Philip Augustus also was entertaining schemes of conquest. Once again Richard won a great victory before Joppa, and Saladin, admiring his unexampled bravery, concluded with him now, in A.D. 1192, a three years’ truce, giving most favourable terms to the pilgrims. The strip along the coast from Joppa to Acre continued under the rule of Richard’s nephew, Henry of Champagne. But Richard was seized on his return journey and cast into prison by Leopold of Austria, whose standard he had grossly insulted before Ptolemais, and for two years he remained a prisoner. After his release he was prevented from thinking of a renewal of the crusade by a war with France, in which he met his death in A.D. 1199.[269]

§ 94.4. =The Fourth Crusade, A.D. 1217.=--Innocent III. summoned Christendom anew to a holy war. The kings, engaged in their own affairs, gave no heed to the call. But the violent penitential preacher, Fulco of Neuilly, prevailed upon the French nobles to collect a considerable crusading army, which, however, instead of proceeding against the Saracens, was used by the Venetian Doge, Dandolo, in payment of transport, for conquering Zaras in Dalmatia, and then by a Byzantine prince for a campaign against Constantinople, where Baldwin of Flanders founded a =Latin Empire=, A.D. 1204-1261. The pope put the doge and the crusaders under excommunication on account of the taking of Zaras, and the campaign against Constantinople was most decidedly disapproved. Their unexpected success, however, turned away his anger. He boasted that at last Israel, after destroying the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, was again united to Judah, and in Rome bestowed the pallium upon the first Latin patriarch of Constantinople.--The =Children’s Crusade=, which in A.D. 1212 snatched from their parents in France and Germany 30,000 boys and girls, had a most tragic end. Many died before passing from Europe of famine and fatigue; the rest fell into the hands of unprincipled men, who sold them as slaves in Egypt.--King =Andrew II. of Hungary=, urged by Honorius III., led a new crusading army to the Holy Land in A.D. 1217, and won some successes; but finding himself betrayed and deserted by the Palestinian barons, he returned home in the following year. But the Germans under Leopold VII. of Austria, who had accompanied him remained, and, supported by a Cologne and Dutch fleet, undertook in A.D. 1218, along with the titular king John of Jerusalem, a crusade =against Egypt=. Damietta was taken, but the overflow of the Nile reservoirs placed them in such peril that they owed their escape in A.D. 1221 only to the generosity of the Sultan Camel.

§ 94.5. =The Fifth Crusade, A.D. 1228.=--The Emperor Frederick II. had promised to undertake a crusade, but continued to make so many excuses for delay that Gregory IX. (§ 96, 19) at last thundered against him the long threatened excommunication. Frederick now brought out a comparatively small crusading force. The Sultan Camel of Egypt, engaged in war with his nephew, and fearing that Frederick might attach himself to the enemy, freely granted him a large tract of the Holy Land. At the Holy Sepulchre Frederick placed the crown of Jerusalem, the inheritance of his new wife Iolanthe, with his own hands on his head, since no bishop would perform the coronation nor even a priest read the mass service for the excommunicated king. He then returned home in A.D. 1229 to arrange his differences with the pope. The crusading armies which Theobald, king of Navarre, in A.D. 1239, and Richard Earl of Cornwall, in A.D. 1240, led against Palestine, owing to disunion among themselves and quarrels among the Syrian Christians, could accomplish nothing.

§ 94.6. =The Sixth, A.D. 1248, and Seventh, A.D. 1270, Crusades.=--The zeal for crusading had by this time considerably cooled. =St. Louis of France=, however, the ninth of that name, had during a serious illness in A.D. 1244, taken the cross. At this time Jerusalem had been conquered and subjected to the most dreadful horrors at the hands of the Chowaresmians, driven from their home by the Mongols, and now in the pay of Egyptian sultan Ayoub. Down to A.D. 1247 the rule of the Christians in the Holy Land was again restricted to Acre and some coast towns. Louis could no longer think of delay. He started in A.D. 1248 with a considerable force, wintered in Cyprus, and landed in Egypt in A.D. 1249. He soon conquered Damietta, but, after his army had been in great part destroyed by famine, disease and slaughter, was taken prisoner at Cairo by the sultan. After the murder of the sultan by the Mamelukes, who overthrew Saladin’s dynasty, he fell into their hands. The king was obliged to deliver over Damietta and to purchase his own release by payment of 800,000 byzantines. He sailed with the remnant of his army to Acre in A.D. 1250, whence his mother’s death called him home in A.D. 1254. But as his vow had not yet been fully paid, he sailed in A.D. 1270 with a new crusading force to Tunis in order to carry on operations from that centre. But the half of his army was cut off by a pestilence, and he himself was carried away in that same year. All subsequent endeavours of the popes to reawaken an interest in the crusades were unavailing. Acre or Ptolemais, the last stronghold of the Christians in the Holy Land, fell in A.D. 1291.

§ 95. ISLAM AND THE JEWS IN EUROPE.

The Saracens (§ 81, 2) were overthrown in the 11th century by the Normans. The reign of Islam in Spain too (§ 81, 1) came to an end. The frequent change of dynasties, as well as the splitting up of the empire into small principalities, weakened the power of the Moors; the growth of luxurious habits in the rich and fertile districts robbed them of martial energy and prowess. The Christian power also was indeed considerably split up and disturbed by many internal feuds, but the national and religious enthusiasm with which it was every day being more and more inspired, made it invincible. Rodrigo Diaz, the Castilian hero, called by the Moors the Cid, _i.e._ Lord, by the Christians Campeador, _i.e._ champion, who died in A.D. 1099, was the most perfect representative of Spanish Christian knighthood, although he dealt with the infidels in a manner neither Christian nor knightly. Also the Almoravides of Morocco, whose aid was called in in A.D. 1086, and the Almohades, who had driven out these from Barbary in A.D. 1146, were not able to stop the progress of the Christian arms. On the other hand, neither the unceasing persecutions of the civil power, nor innumerable atrocities committed on Jews by infuriated mobs, nor even Christian theologians’ zeal for the instruction and conversion of the Israelites, succeeded in destroying Judaism in Europe.

§ 95.1. =Islam in Sicily.=--The robber raids upon Italy perpetrated by the Sicilian Saracens were put an end to by the Normans who settled there in A.D. 1017. Robert Guiscard destroyed the remnant of Greek rule in southern Italy, conquered the small Longobard duchies there, and founded a Norman duchy of Apulia and Calabria in A.D. 1059. His brother Roger, who died in A.D. 1101, after a thirty years’ struggle drove the Saracens completely out of Sicily, and ruled over it as a vassal of his brother under the title of Count of Sicily. His son Roger II., who died in A.D. 1154, united the government of Sicily and of Apulia and Calabria, had himself crowned in A.D. 1130 king of Sicily and Italy, and finally in A.D. 1139 conquered also Naples. In consequence of the marriage of his daughter Constance with Henry VI. the whole kingdom passed over in A.D. 1194 to the Hohenstaufens, from whom it passed in A.D. 1266 to Charles of Anjou; and from him finally, in consequence of the Sicilian Vespers in A.D. 1282, the island of Sicily passed to Peter of Arragon, the son-in-law of Manfred, the last king of the Hohenstaufen line. The Normans and the Hohenstaufens granted to the subject Saracens for the most part full religious liberty, the Emperor Frederick recruiting from among them his bodyguard, and they supplied the bravest soldiers for the Italian Ghibelline war. For this purpose he was constantly drafting new detachments from the African coast, as Manfred also had done. The endeavours made by monks of the mendicant orders for the conversion of the Saracens proved quite fruitless. It was only under the Spanish rule that conversions were made by force, or persecution and annihilation followed persistent refusal.

§ 95.2. =Islam in Spain.=--The times of Abderrhaman III., A.D. 912-961, and Hacem II., A.D. 961-976, were the most brilliant and fortunate of the =Ommaiadean= khalifate. After the death of the latter the chamberlain Almansor, who died in A.D. 1002, reigned in the name of Khalif Hescham II., who was little more than a puppet of the seraglio, and his rule was glorious, powerful and wise. But interminable civil contentions were the result of this disarrangement of government, and in A.D. 1031, in consequence of a popular tumult, Abderrhaman IV., the last of the Ommaiades, took to flight, and voluntarily resigned the crown. The khalifate was now broken up into as many little principalities or emirships as there had been governors before. Amid such confusions the Christian princes continued to develop and increase their resources. Sancho the Great, king of Navarre, A.D. 970-1035, by marriage and conquest united almost all Christian Spain under his rule, but this was split up again by being partitioned among his sons. Of these Ferdinand I., who died in A.D. 1065, inherited Castile, and in A.D. 1037 added to it Leon by conquest. With him begins the heroic age of Spanish knighthood. His son Alfonso IV., who died in A.D. 1109, succeeded in A.D. 1085 in taking from the Moors Toledo and a great part of Andalusia. The powerful leader of the =Almoravides=, Jussuf from Morocco, was now called to their aid by the Moors. On the plain of Salacca the Christians were beaten in A.D. 1086, but soon the victor turned his arms against his allies, and within six years all Moslem Spain was under his government. His son Ali, in a fearfully bloody battle at Ucles in A.D. 1107, cut down the flower of the Castilian nobility; this marked the summit of power reached by the Almoravides, and now their star began slowly to pale. Alfonso I. of Arragon, A.D. 1105-1134, conquered Saragossa in A.D. 1118, and other cities. Alfonso VII. of Castile, A.D. 1126-1157, whose power rose so high that most of the Christian princes in Spain acknowledged him as sovereign, and that he had himself formally crowned emperor of Spain in A.D. 1135, conducted a successful campaign against Andalusia, and in A.D. 1144 forced his way down to the south coast of Granada. Alfonso I. of Portugal, drove the Moors out of Lisbon; Raimard, count of Barcelona, conquered Tortosa, etc. At the same time too the government of the Almoravides was being undermined in Africa. In A.D. 1146 Morocco fell, and with it North-western Africa, into the hands of the =Almohades= under Abdelmoumen, while his lieutenant Abu Amram at the same time conquered Moslem Spain and Andalusia. Abdelmoumen’s son Jussuf himself crossed over into Spain with an enormous force in order to extinguish the Christian rule there, but fell in a battle at Santarem against Alfonso I. of Portugal. His son Jacob avenged the disaster by the bloody battle of Alarcos in A.D. 1195, where 30,000 Castilians were left upon the field. When, notwithstanding the overthrow, the Christians a few years later endeavoured to retrieve their loss, Jacob’s successor Mohammed descended upon Spain with half a million fanatical followers. The critical hour for Spain had now arrived. The Christians had won time to come to agreement among themselves. They fought with unexampled heroism on the plain of Tolosa in A.D. 1212 under Alfonso VIII. of Castile. The battlefield was strewn with more than 200,000 bodies of the African fanatics. It was the death-knell of the rule of the Almohad in Spain. Notwithstanding the dissensions and hostilities that immediately broke out among the Christian princes, they conquered within twenty-five years the whole of Andalusia. The work of conquest was carried out mostly by Ferdinand III., the saint of Castile, A.D. 1217-1254, and Jacob I., the conqueror of Arragon, A.D. 1213-1276. Only in the southernmost district of Spain a remnant of the Moslem rule survived in the kingdom of Granada, founded in A.D. 1238 by the emir Mohammed Aben Alamar. Here for a time the glories of Arabic culture were revived in such a way as seemed like a magical restoration of the day of the Ommaiades. In consequence of the marriage in A.D. 1469 of Ferdinand of Arragon, who died in A.D. 1516, with Isabella of Castile, these two most important Christian empires were united. Soon afterwards the empire of Granada came to an end. On 2nd January, A.D. 1492, after an ignominious capitulation, the last khalif, Abu Abdilehi Boabdil, was driven out of the fair (Granada), and a few moments later the Castilian banner waved from the highest tower of the proud Alhambra. The pope bestowed upon the royal pair the title of Catholic monarchs. The Moors who refused to submit to baptism were expelled, but even the baptized, the so-called Moriscoes, proved so dangerous an element in the state that Philip III., in A.D. 1609, ordered them to be all banished from his realm. They sought refuge mostly in Africa, and there went over openly again to Mohammedanism, which they had never at heart rejected.[270]

§ 95.3. =The Jews in Europe.=--By trade, money lending and usury the Jews succeeded in obtaining almost sole possession of ready money, which brought them often great influence with the needy princes and nobles, but was also often the occasion of sore oppression and robbery, as well as the cause of popular hatred and violence. Whenever a country was desolated by a plague the notion of well-poisoning by the Jews was renewed. It was told of them that they had stolen the consecrated sacramental bread in order to stick it through with needles, and Christian children, that they might slaughter them at their passover festival. From time to time this popular rage exploded, and then thousands of Jews were ruthlessly murdered. The crusaders too often began their feats of valour on Christian soil by the slaughter of Jews. From the 13th century in almost all lands they were compelled to wear an insulting badge, the so called Jews’ hat, a yellow, funnel-shaped covering of the head, and a ring of red cloth on the breast, etc. They were also compelled to herd together in the cities in the so called Jewish quarter (Italian=Ghetto), which was often surrounded by a special wall. St. Bernard and several popes, Gregory VII., Alexander III., Innocent III., etc., interested themselves in them, refused to allow them to be violently persecuted, and pointed to their position as an incontrovertible proof of the truth of the gospel to all times. The German emperors also took the Jews under their special protection, for they classed them, after the example of Vespasian and Titus, among the special servants of the imperial chamber, (_Servi camera nostræ speciales_).[271] In England and France they were treated as the _mancipium_ of the crown. In Spain under the Moorish rule they had vastly increased in numbers, culture and wealth; also under the Christian kings they enjoyed for a long time special privileges, their own tribunals, freedom in the possession of land, etc., and obtained great influence as ministers of finance and administration, and also as astrologers, physicians, apothecaries, etc.; but by their usury and merciless greed drew forth more and more the bitter hatred of the people. Hence in the 14th century in Spain also there arose times of sore oppression and persecution, and attempts at conversion by force. And finally, in A.D. 1492, Ferdinand the Catholic drove more than 400,000 Jews out of Spain, and in the following year 100,000 out of Sicily. But even the baptized Jews, the so-called “New Christians,” who were prohibited from removing, fell under the suspicion of secret attachment to the old religion, and many thousands of them became victims of the Inquisition.--Many apologetic and polemical treatises were composed for the purpose of discussion with the Jews and for their instruction, but like so many other formal disputations they did not succeed in securing any good result, for the Jewish teachers were superior in learning, acuteness, and acquaintance with the exposition of Old Testament Scriptures, upon which in this discussion everything turned. But an interesting example of a Jew earnestly striving after a knowledge of the truth and working himself up to a full conviction of the divinity of Christianity and the church doctrine of that age, somewhere about A.D. 1150, is presented by the story told by himself of the conversion of Hermann afterwards a Premonstratensian monk in the monastery of Kappenberg in Westphalia.[272] But on the other hand there are also isolated examples of a passing over to Judaism as the result, it would seem, of genuine conviction. The first known example of this kind appears in A.D. 839, in the case of a deacon Boso, who after being circumcised received the name Eleazar, married a Jewess, and settled in Saracen Spain, where he manifested extraordinary zeal in making converts to his new religion. A second case of this sort is met with in the times of the Emperor Henry II., in the perversion of a priest Wecelinus. The narrator of this story gives expression to his horror in the words, _Totus contremisco et horrentibus pilis capitis terrore concutior_. Also the Judaising sects of the Pasagians in Lombardy during the 11th century (§ 108, 3) and the Russian Jewish sects of the 15th century (§ 73, 5) were probably composed for the most part of proselytes to Judaism.[273]

II.--The Hierarchy, the Clergy, and the Monks.

§ 96. THE PAPACY AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE GERMAN NATIONALITIES.[274]

The history of the papacy during this period represents it in its deepest shame and degradation. But after this state of matters was put an end to by the founding of the Holy Roman Empire of German nationalities, it sprang up again from its deep debasement, and reached the highest point of power and influence. With the German empire, to which it owed its salvation, it now carried on a life and death conflict; for it seemed that it was possible to escape enslavement under the temporal power of the emperor only by putting the emperor under its spiritual power. In the conflict with the Hohenstaufens the struggle reached its climax. The papacy won a complete victory, but soon found that it could as little dispense with as endure the presence of a powerful empire. For as the destruction of the Carolingian empire had left it at the mercy of the factions of Italian nobles at the time when this period opens, so its victory over the German empire brought the papacy under the still more degrading bondage of French politics, as is seen in the beginning of the next period. It had during this transition time its most powerful props and advisers in the orders of Clugny and Camaldoli (§ 98, 1). It had a standing army in the mendicant orders, and the crusaders, besides the enthusiasm, which greatly strengthened the papal institution, did the further service of occupying and engrossing the attention of the princes.

§ 96.1. =The Romish Pornocracy and the Emperor Otto I., † A.D. 973.=--Among the wild struggles of the Italian nobles which broke out after the Emperor Arnulf’s departure (§ 82, 8), the party of the Margrave Adalbert of Tuscany gained the upperhand. His mistress Theodora, a well born and beautiful, ambitious and voluptuous Roman, wife of a Roman senator, as well as her like-minded daughters Marozia and Theodora, filled for half a century the chair of St. Peter with their paramours, sons and grandsons. These constituted the base and corrupt line of popes known as the pornocracy. =Sergius III.=, A.D. 904-911, Marozia’s paramour, starts this disgraceful series. After the short pontificates of the two immediately following popes, Theodora, because Ravenna was inconveniently distant for the gratification of her lust, called John, the archbishop of that place, to the papal chair under the title of =John X.=, A.D. 914-928. By means of a successful crusade which he led in person, he destroyed the remnant of Saracen robbers in Garigliano (§ 81, 2), and crowned the Lombard king Bernard I., A.D. 916-924, as emperor. But when he attempted to break off his disgraceful relations with the woman who had advanced him, Marozia had him cast into prison and smothered with a pillow. The two following popes on whom she bestowed the tiara enjoyed it only a short time, for in A.D. 931 she raised her own son to the papal throne in the twentieth year of his age. His father was Pope Sergius, and he assumed the name of =John XI.= But her other son Alberich, who inherited the temporal kingdom from A.D. 932, restricted this pope’s jurisdiction and that of his four successors to the ecclesiastical domain. After Alberich’s death his son Octavianus, an arch-profligate and blasphemer, though only in his sixteenth year, united the papacy and the temporal power, and called himself by the name of =John XII.= A.D. 955-963--the first instance of a change of name on assuming the papal chair. He would sell anything for money. He made a boy of ten years a bishop; he consecrated a deacon in a stable; in hunting and dice playing he would invoke the favour of Jupiter and Venus; in his orgies he would drink the devil’s health, etc. Meantime things had reached a terrible pass in Germany. After the death of Louis the Child, the last of the German Carolingians, in A.D. 911, the Frankish duke =Conrad I.=, A.D. 911-918, was elected king of the Germans. Although vigorously supported by the superior clergy, the Synod of Hohenaltheim in A.D. 915 threatening the rebels with all the pains of hell, the struggle with the other dukes prevented the founding of a united German empire. His successor, the Saxon =Henry I.=, A.D. 919-936, was the first to free himself from the faction of the clergy, and to grant to the dukes independent administration of internal affairs within their own domains. His greater son, =Otto I.=, A.D. 936-973, by limiting the power of the dukes, by fighting and converting heathen Danes, Wends, Bohemians and Hungarians, by decided action in the French troubles, by gathering around him a virtuous German clergy, who proved true to him and the empire, secured after long continued civil wars a power and reputation such as no ruler in the West since Charlemagne had enjoyed. Called to the help of the Lombard nobles and the pope John XII. against the oppression and tyranny of Berengarius [Berengar] II., he conquered the kingdom of Italy, and was at Candlemas A.D. 962 crowned emperor by the pope in St. Peter’s, after having really held this rank for thirty years. Thus was the =Holy Roman Empire of German Nationalities= founded, which continued for centuries to be the centre around which the history of the church and the world revolved. The new emperor confirmed to the pope all donations of previous emperors with the addition of certain cities, without detriment, however, to the imperial suzerainty over the patrimony of St. Peter, and without lessening in any degree the imperial privileges maintained by Charlemagne. The _Privilegium Ottonis_, still preserved in the papal archives, and claiming to be an authentic document, was till quite recently kept secret from all impartial and capable investigators, so that the suspicion of its spuriousness had come to be regarded as almost a certainty. Under Leo XIII., however, permission was given to a capable Protestant scholar, Prof. Sickel of Vienna, to make a photographic facsimile of the document, the result of which was that he became convinced that the document was not the original but a contemporary official duplicate, a literally faithful transcript on purple parchment with letters of gold for solemn deposition in the grave of St. Peter. Its first part describes the donations of the emperor, the second the obligations of the pope in accordance with the _Constitutio Romana_, § 82, 4.--But scarcely had Otto left Rome than the pope, breaking his oath, conspired with his enemies, endeavoured to rouse the Byzantines and heathen Hungarians against him, and opened the gates of Rome to Adalbert the son of Berengarius [Berengar]. Otto hastened back, deposed the pope at the synod of Rome in A.D. 963, on charges of incest, perjury, murder, blasphemy, etc., and made the Romans swear by the bones of Peter never again to elect and consecrate a pope, without having the emperor’s permission and confirmation. Soon after the emperor’s departure, however, the newly elected pope =Leo VIII.=, A.D. 963-965, had to betake himself to flight. John XII. returned again to Rome, excommunicated his rival pope, and took cruel vengeance upon the partisans of the emperor. On his death soon afterwards, in A.D. 964, the Romans elected Benedict V. as his successor; but he, when the emperor conquered Rome after a stubborn resistance, was obliged to submit to humiliating terms. Leo VIII. had in =John XIII.=, A.D. 965-972, a virtuous and worthy successor. A new revolt of the Romans led soon after his election to his imprisonment; but he succeeded in making his escape in A.D. 966. Otto now for the third time crossed the Alps, passed relentlessly severe sentences upon the guilty, and had his son, now thirteen years of age, crowned in Rome as Otto II., A.D. 967.

§ 96.2. =The Times of Otto II., III., A.D. 973-1002.=--After the death of Otto I., since Otto II., A.D. 973-983, was restrained from a Roman campaign in consequence of Cisalpine troubles, the nobles’ faction under Crescentius, son of Pope John X. and the younger Theodora, again won the upperhand. This party had in A.D. 974 overthrown Pope =Benedict VI.=, A.D. 972-974, appointed by Otto I., and cast him into prison. But their own anti-pope Boniface VII. could not maintain his position, and fled with the treasures of St. Peter to Constantinople. By means of a compromise of parties =Benedict VII.=, A.D. 974-983, was now raised to the papal chair and held possession in spite of manifold opposition, till the arrival of the young emperor in Italy in A.D. 980 obtained for him greater security. Otto II. again restored the imperial prestige in Rome in A.D. 981, but in A.D. 982 he suffered a complete defeat at the hand of the Saracens. He died in the following year at Rome, after he had in =John XIV.=, A.D. 983-984, secured the appointment of a pope faithful to the empire. His son Otto III., three years old, was at the council of state, held at Verona, by the princes of Germany and Italy, there gathered together, elected king of both kingdoms. During the German civil wars under the regency of the Queen-mother Theophania, a Byzantine princess, and the able Archbishop Willigis, of Mainz, who, through his firmness and penetration saved the crown for the royal child Otto III., A.D. 983-1002, and maintained the existence and integrity of the German empire, Rome and the papacy fell again under the domination of the nobles, at whose head now stood the younger Crescentius, a son of the above mentioned chief of the same name. In A.D. 984 the anti-pope =Boniface VII.=, who had fled to Constantinople, made his appearance in Rome, won a following by Greek gold, got possession of John XIV. and had him cast into prison, but was himself soon afterwards murdered. The new pope =John XV.=, A.D. 985-996, who was thoroughly venal, was an obedient tool of the tyranny of Crescentius, which, however, soon became so intolerable to him, that he yearned for the restoration of imperial rule under Otto III. At this same time great danger threatened the imperial authority from France. Hugh Capet had, after the death of the last Carolingian, Louis V., in A.D. 987, taken possession for himself of the French crown. He insisted upon John XV. deposing the archbishop Arnulf of Rheims, who had opened the gates of Rheims to his uncle Charles of Lorraine, the brother of Louis V.’s father. The pope, who was then dependent upon German power, hesitated. Hugh then had Arnulf deposed at a synod at Rheims in A.D. 921, and put in his place Gerbert, the greatest scholar (§ 100, 2) and statesman of that age. The council quite openly declared the whole French church to be free from Rome, whose bishops for a hundred years had been steeped in the most profound moral corruption, and had fallen into the most disgraceful servitude, and Gerbert issued a confession of faith in which celibacy and fasting were repudiated, and only the first four œcumenical councils were acknowledged. But the plan was shattered, not so much through the apparently fruitless opposition of the pope as through the reaction of the high church party of Clugny and the popular esteem in which that party was held. Gerbert could not maintain his position, and was heartily glad when he could shake the dust of Rheims off his feet by accepting an honourable call of the young emperor, Otto III., who in A.D. 997 opened new paths for his ambition by inviting the celebrated scholar to be with him as his classical tutor. Hugh’s successor Robert reinstated Arnulf in the see of Rheims. John XV. called in Otto III. to his help against the intolerable oppression of the younger Crescentius, but died before his arrival in A.D. 996. Otto directed the choice of his cousin Bruno, twenty-four years of age, the first German pope, who assumed the name of =Gregory V.=, A.D. 996-999, and by him he was crowned emperor in Rome. Gregory was a man of an energetic, almost obstinate character, thoroughly in sympathy with the views of the monks of Clugny. The emperor having soon returned home, Crescentius violated his oath and made himself again master of Rome. Gregory fled to Pavia, where he held a synod in A.D. 997, which thundered an anathema against the disturber of the Roman church. Meanwhile Crescentius raised to the papal throne the archbishop John of Piacenza, formerly Greek tutor to Otto III., under the title of John XVI. It was not till late in autumn of that year that the emperor could hasten to the help of his injured cousin. He then executed a fearfully severe sentence upon the tyrant and his pope. The former was beheaded, and his corpse dragged by the feet through the streets and then hung upon a gallows; the latter, whom the soldiers had cruelly deprived of his ears, tongue, and nose, was led through the streets seated backward on an ass, with the tail tied in his hands for reins.--From Pavia Gregory had issued a command to Robert, the French king, to put away his queen Bertha, who was related to him in the fourth degree, on pain of excommunication. But he died a suspiciously sudden death before he could bring down the pride of this king, which, however, his successor accomplished.

§ 96.3. =Otto III.= now raised to the papal chair his teacher Gerbert, whom he had previously made Archbishop of Ravenna, under the title of =Sylvester II.=, A.D. 999-1003. Already in Ravenna had Gerbert’s ecclesiastical policy been changed for the high church views of his former opponents, and as pope he developed an activity which marks him out as the worthy follower of his predecessor and the precursor of a yet greater Gregory (VII.). He energetically contended against simony, that special canker of the church, and by sending the ring and staff to his former opponent, Arnulf, made the first effort to assert the papal claim to the exclusive investiture of bishops. But he had previously, as tutor of Otto, by flattering his vanity, inspired the imaginative, high-spirited youth with the ideal of a restoration of the ancient glory of Rome and its emperors exercising universal sway. And just with this view had Otto raised him to the papal chair in order that he might have his help. The pope did not venture openly to withdraw from this understanding, for in the condition of Italy at that time in a struggle with the emperor, the victory would be his in the first instance, and that would be the destruction of the papal chair. So there was nothing for it but by clever tacking in spite of contrary winds of imperial policy, to make the ship of the church hold on as far as possible in the high church course and surround the emperor by a network of craft. The phantom of a _Renovatio imperii Romani_ with the mummified form of the Byzantine court ceremonial and the vain parade of a title was called into being. On a pilgrimage to the grave of his saintly friend Adalbert in Gnesen (§ 93, 13) the emperor emancipated the Polish church from the German metropolitanate by raising its see into an archbishopric. He also, in A.D. 1000, released the Polish duke Boleslaw Chrobry (§ 93, 7), the most dangerous enemy of Germany, who schemed the formation of a great Slavic empire, from his fealty as a vassal of the German empire, enlisting him instead as a “friend and confederate of the Roman people” in his new fantastic universal empire. In the same year, however, Sylvester, in the exercise of papal sovereignty, conferred the royal crown on Stephen the saint of Hungary (§ 93, 8), appointed the payment by him of a yearly tribute to the papal vicar with ecclesiastical authority over his country, and made that land ecclesiastically independent of Passau and Salzburg by founding a separate metropolitanate at Gran. Though Otto let himself be led in the hierarchical leading strings by his papal friend, he yet made it abundantly evident by bestowing upon his favourite pope eight counties of the States of the Church, that he regarded these as merely a free gift of imperial favour. He also lashed violently the extravagances as well as the greed of the popes, and declared that the donation of Constantine was a pure fabrication (§ 87, 4). The emperor, however, had meanwhile thoroughly estranged his German subjects and the German clergy by his un-German temperament. The German princes denounced him as a traitor to the German empire. Soon all Italy, even the much fondled Rome, rose in open revolt. Only an early death A.D. 1002 saved the unhappy youth of twenty-two years of age from the most terrible humiliation. With him, too, the star of the pope’s fortunes went down. He died not long after in A.D. 1003, and left in the popular mind the reputation of a dealer in the black art, who owed his learning and the success of his hierarchical career to a compact with the devil.

§ 96.4. =From Henry II. to the Synod at Sutri, A.D. 1002-1046.=--After the death of Otto III., =Henry II.=, A.D. 1002-1024, previously duke of Bavaria, a great-grandson of Henry I. and as such the last scion of the Saxon line, obtained the German crown--a ruler who proved one of the ablest that ever occupied that throne. A bigoted pietist and under the power of the priests, although pious-hearted according to the spirit of the times and strongly attached to the church, and seeking in the bishops supports of the empire against the relaxing influence of the temporal princes, yet no other German emperor ruled over the church to the same extent that he did, and no one ventured so far as he did to impress strongly upon the church, by the most extensive appropriation of ecclesiastical property, especially of rich monasteries, that this was the shortest and surest way of bringing about a much needed reformation. Meanwhile in Rome, after the death of Otto III., Joannes Crescentius, the son of Crescentius II., who was beheaded by order of Otto, assumed the government, and set upon the chair of Peter creatures of his own, John XVII., XVIII., and Sergius IV. But as he and his last elected pope died soon after one another in A.D. 1012, the long subjected faction of the Tusculan counts, successors of Alberich, came to the front again, and chose as pope a scion of one of their own families, =Benedict VIII.=, A.D. 1012-1024. The anti-pope Gregory, chosen by the Crescentians, was obliged to retire from the field. He sought protection from Henry II. But this monarch came to an understanding with the incomparably nobler and abler Benedict, received from him for himself and his Queen Cunigunda, subsequently canonized by Innocent III., the imperial crown, in A.D. 1014, and continued ever after to maintain excellent relations with him. These two, the emperor and the pope, were on friendly terms with the monks of Clugny. They both acknowledged the need of a thorough reformation of the church, and both carried it out so far as this could be done by the influence and example of their own personal conduct, disposition, and character. But the pope had so much to do fighting the Crescentians, then the Greeks and Saracens in Italy, and the emperor in quelling internal troubles in his empire and repelling foreign invasions, that it was only toward the close of their lives that they could take any very decided action. The pope made the first move, for at the Synod of Pavia in A.D. 1018, he excommunicated all married priests and those living in concubinage, and sentenced their children to slavery. The emperor entertained a yet more ambitious scheme. He wished to summon a Western œcumenical council at Pavia, and there to engage upon the reformation of the whole church of the West. But the death of the pope in A.D. 1024, which was followed in a few months by the death of the emperor, prevented the carrying out of this plan. After the death of the childless Henry II., =Conrad II.=, A.D. 1024-1039, the founder of the Franconian or Salic dynasty, ascended the German throne. To him the empire was indebted for great internal reforms and a great extension of power, but he gave no attention to the carrying out of his predecessor’s plans of ecclesiastical reformation. Still less, however, was anything of the kind to be looked for from the popes of that period. Benedict VIII. was succeeded by his brother Romanus, under the name of =John XIX.=, A.D. 1024-1033, as void of character and noble sentiments (§ 67, 2) as his predecessor had been distinguished. When he died, Count Alberich of Tusculum was able by means of presents and promises to get the Romans to elect his son Theophylact, who, though only twelve years old, was already practised in the basest vice. He took the name of =Benedict IX.=, A.D. 1033-1048, and disgraced the papal chair with the most shameless profligacy. The state of matters became better under Conrad’s son, =Henry III.=, A.D. 1039-1056, who strove after the founding of a universal monarchy in the sense of Charlemagne, and by a powerful and able government he came nearer reaching this end than any of the German emperors. He was at the same time inspired with a zeal for the reformation of the church such as none of his predecessors or successors, with the exception of Henry II., ever showed. Benedict IX. was, in A.D. 1044, for the second time driven out by the Romans. They now sold the tiara to Sylvester III., who three months after was driven out by Benedict. This pope now fell in love with his beautiful cousin, daughter of a Tusculan count, and formed the bold resolve to marry her. But the father of the lady refused his consent so long as he was pope. Benedict now sold the papal chair for a thousand pounds of silver to the archdeacon Joannes Gratian. This man, a pious simple individual, in order to save the chair of St. Peter from utter overthrow, took upon himself the disgrace of simony at the bidding of his friends of Clugny, among whom a young Roman monk called Hildebrand, son of poor parents of Soana, in Tuscany, was already most conspicuous. The new pope assumed the name of =Gregory VI.=, A.D. 1044-1046. He wanted the talents necessary for the hard task he had undertaken. Benedict having failed in carrying out his matrimonial plans, again claimed to be pope, as did also Sylvester. Thus Rome had at one and the same time, three popes, and all three were publicly known to be simonists. The Clugny party cast off their protégé Gregory, and called in the German emperor as saviour of the church. Henry came and had all the the three popes deposed at the =Synod at Sutri=, A.D. 1046. The Romans gave to him the right of making a new appointment. It fell upon Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, who took the name of =Clement II.=, and crowned the king emperor on Christmas, A.D. 1046. The Romans were so delighted at having order restored in the city, that they gave over to the emperor with the rank of patrician the government of Rome and the right of papal election for all time, and swore never to consecrate a pope without the emperor’s concurrence. Henry took the ex-pope Gregory along with him, back to Germany, where he died in exile, at Cologne. Hildebrand, his chaplain, had accompanied him thither, and after his death retired into the monastery of Clugny.

§ 96.5. =Henry III. and his German Popes, A.D. 1046-1057.=--With =Clement III.=, 1046-1047, begins a whole series of able German popes, who, elected by Henry III., wrought under his protection powerfully and successfully for the reform of the church. All interested in the reformation, the brethren of Clugny, as well as the disciples of Romuald and the settlers in Vallombrosa (§ 98, 1), agreed that at the root of all the corruption of the church of that age were _simony_, or obtaining spiritual offices by purchase or bribery (Acts viii. 19), and _Nicolaitanism_ (§ 27, 8), under which name were included all fleshly lusts of the clergy, marriage as well as concubinage and unnatural vices. These two were, especially in Italy, so widely spread, that scarcely a priest was to be found who had not been guilty of both. Clement II., in the emperor’s presence, at a synod in Rome in A.D. 1047, began the battle against simony. But he died before the end of the year, probably by poison. While Roman envoys presented themselves at the German court about the election of a new pope, Benedict IX., supported by the Tusculan party, again laid claim to the papal chair, and the emperor had to utter the severest threats before the man of his choice, Poppo, bishop of Brixen, was allowed to occupy the papal chair as =Damasus II.= Twenty-three days afterwards, however, he was a corpse. This cooled the ardour of German bishops for election to so dangerous a position, and only after long persuasion Bishop Bruno of Toul, the emperor’s cousin and a zealous friend of Clugny, accepted the appointment, on the condition that it should have the approval of the people and clergy of Rome, which, as was to be expected, was given with acclamation. He ascended the papal throne as Leo IX., A.D. 1049-1054. According to a later story conceived in the interests of Hildebrandism, Bruno is said not only to have made his definite acceptance of the imperial call dependent upon the supplementary free election of people and clergy of Rome, but also to have been prevailed upon by Hildebrand, who by his own request accompanied him, to lay aside his papal ornaments, to continue his journey in pilgrim garb, and to make his entrance into the eternal city barefoot, so that the necessary sanction of a formal canonical election might be given to the imperial nomination. Leo found the papal treasures emptied to the last coin and robbed of all its territorial revenues by the nobles. But Hildebrand was his minister of finance, and soon improved the condition of his exchequer. Leo now displayed an unexampled activity in church reform and the purifying of the papacy. No pope travelled about so much as he, none held as many synods in the most distant places and various lands. The uprooting of simony was in all cases the main point in their decrees. By bonds of gratitude and relationship, but above all of common interests, he was attached to the German emperor. He could not therefore think of emancipating the papacy from the imperial suzerainty. Practically Leo succeeded in clearing the Augean stable of the Roman clergy, and filled vacancies with virtuous men brought from far and near. In order to chastise the Normans, put by him under ban because of their rapacity, he himself took the field in A.D. 1053, when the emperor refused to do so, but was taken prisoner after his army had been annihilated, and only succeeded, after he had removed the excommunication, in getting them to kiss his feet with the most profound devotion. He demanded from the Greek emperor full restitution of the donation of Constantine, so far as this was still in the possession of the Byzantines, and his envoys at Constantinople rendered the split between the Eastern and Western churches irreparable (§ 67, 3). Leo died in A.D. 1054, the only pope for centuries whom the church honours as a saint. A Roman embassy called upon the emperor to nominate a new pope. He fixed upon Gebhardt, bishop of Eichstädt [Eichstadt], who now ascended the papal throne as =Victor II.=, A.D. 1055-1057. Here again monkish tales have transformed a single matter of fact into a romance in the interests of their own party. The Romans wished Hildebrand himself for their pope, but he was unwilling yet to assume such a responsibility. He put himself, however, at the head of an embassy which convinced the emperor of the sinfulness of his former interferences in the papal elections, and persuaded him to set aside the tyrannical power of his patrician’s rank and to resign to the clergy and people their old electoral rights. As candidate for this election, Hildebrand himself chose bishop Gebhardt, the most trusted counsellor of the emperor. After long opposition Henry’s consent was won to this candidature, he even urged the bishop to accept it, who at last submitted with the words: “Now so do I surrender myself to St. Peter, soul and body, but only on the condition that you also yield to him what belongs to him.” The latter, however, seems not mere beating of the air, for the emperor restored to the newly elected pope the patrimony of Peter in the widest extent, and bestowed on him besides the governorship of all Italy.--Henry died in A.D. 1056, after he had appointed his queen Agnes to the regency, and had recommended her to the counsel and good offices of the pope. But the pope’s days were already numbered. He died in A.D. 1057. Hildebrand could not boast of having dominated him, but the position of the powerful monk of Clugny under him had become one of great importance.

§ 96.6. =The Papacy under the Control of Hildebrand, A.D. 1057-1078.=--After Victor’s death the cardinals without paying any regard to the imperial right, immediately elected Cardinal Frederick of Lorraine, at that time abbot of Monte Cassino, and Hildebrand travelled to Germany in order to obtain the _post factum_ approval of the empress. =Stephen IX.=, A.D. 1057-1058, for so Frederick styled himself, died before Hildebrand’s return. The Tusculan party took advantage of his absence to put forward as pope a partisan of their own, Benedict X., A.D. 1058. But an embassy of Hildebrand’s to the empress secured the succession to bishop Gerhard of Florence. Benedict was obliged to withdraw, and Gerhard ascended the papal throne as Nicholas II., A.D. 1058-1061. With him begins the full development of Hildebrand’s greatness, and from this time, A.D. 1059, when he became archdeacon of Rome, till he himself mounted the papal chair, he was the moving spirit of the Romish hierarchy. By his powerful genius in spite of all hindrances he raised the papacy and the church to a height of power and glory never attained unto before. He thus wrought on, systematically, firmly, and irresistibly advancing toward a complete reformation in ecclesiastical polity. Absolute freedom of the church from the power and influence of the state, and in order to attain this and make it sure, the dominion of the church over the state, papal elections independent of any sort of temporal influence, the complete uprooting of all simoniacal practices, unrelenting strictness in dealing with the immorality of the clergy, invariable enforcement of the law of celibacy, as the most powerful means of emancipating the clergy from the world and the state, filling the sacred offices with the most virtuous and capable men, were some of the noble aims and achievements of this reformation. Hildebrand sought the necessary secular protection and aid for the carrying out of his plans among the Normans. Nicholas II., on the basis of the donation of Constantine, gave as a fief to their leader, Robert Guiscard (§ 95, 1), the lordship of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, out of which the Saracens had yet to be expelled, and exacted from him the oath of a vassal, by which he bound himself to pay a yearly tribute, to protect the papal chair against all encroachments of its privileges, and above all to maintain the right of papal elections by the “_meliores cardinales_.” Yet again, Nicholas, when, at a later period, by the help of the Normans, he had broken the power of the Tusculan nobles, issued a decree at a Lateran synod at Rome, in A.D. 1059, by which papal elections (§ 82, 4) were regulated anew. Of the two extant recensions of this decree, which are distinguished as the papal and the imperial, the former is now universally acknowledged to be the more authentic form. According to it the election lies exclusively with the Roman cardinal priests (§ 97, 1); to the rest of the clergy as to the people there is left only the right of acclamation, that brought no advantage, and to the emperor, according to Boichorst, the right of concurrence after the election and investiture, according to Granert, the right of veto before the election. This decree, and not less the league with the Normans, were open slights to the imperial claims upon Italy and the papal chair. The empress therefore convened about Easter, A.D. 1061, a council of German bishops, at which Nicholas was deposed, and all his decisions were annulled. Soon after the pope died. The Tusculan party, now joined with the Germans under the Lombard chancellor Wibert, asked a new pope from the empress. At the Council of Basel in A.D. 1061, bishop Cadalus of Parma was appointed. He assumed the name of Honorius II., A.D. 1061-1072. But Hildebrand had already five weeks earlier in concert with the Margravine Beatrice of Canossa, wholly on his own responsibility, chosen bishop Anselm of Lucca, and had him consecrated as =Alexander II.= A.D. 1061-1073. Honorius advanced to Rome, accompanied by Wibert, and frequently in bloody conflicts conquered the party of his opponent. Duke Godfrey the Bearded of Lorraine, the husband of Beatrice, now appeared as mediator. He made both popes retire to their dioceses and gave to the empress the decision of the controversy. But meanwhile a catastrophe occurred in Germany that led to the most important results. Archbishop Anno of Cologne, standing at the head of a rising of the princes, decoyed the young king of twelve years of age on board a ship at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, and took him to Cologne. The regency and the conduct of government were now transferred to the German bishops collectively, but lay practically in the hands of Anno, who meanwhile, however, since A.D. 1063, found himself obliged to share the power with Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen. At a council held at Augsburg in A.D. 1062, Alexander was acknowledged as the true pope, but Honorius by no means resigned his claims. With a small army he advanced upon Rome in A.D. 1064, seized fort Leo, which had been built and fortified by Leo IV. for defence against the Saracens, entrenched himself in the castle of St. Angelo, and repeatedly routed his opponent’s forces. But Hildebrand reminded the Normans of their oath of fealty. At a council held at Mantua in A.D. 1064 (or 1067?) Alexander was once again acknowledged, and Honorius, whose party the council sought in vain to break up by force of arms, was again deposed. The proud, ambitious and self-seeking priest of Cologne had meanwhile been obliged to transfer to his northern colleague, Adalbert of Bremen, the further education and training of the young king, who, though only fifteen years old was now proclaimed of age in A.D. 1065, as =Henry IV.=, A.D. 1056-1106. If the bishop of Cologne injured the disposition of the royal youth by his excessive harshness and severity, the bishop of Bremen did him irreparable damage by allowing him unrestrained indulgence in his evil passions.

§ 96.7. =Gregory VII., A.D. 1073-1085.=--Hildebrand had at last brought the papacy to such a height of power that he was able now to put the finishing stroke to his own work in his own name, and so now he mounted the chair of the chief of the apostles, as Gregory VII., elected and enthroned by a disorderly mob. The Lombard and German bishops appealed to the emperor to have the election declared invalid. But he being on all sides threatened with wars and revolution, thought it advisable to forego the assertion of his rights and to win the favour of the pope by a letter full of devotion and humility. At the Roman Fast Synod of A.D. 1074, Gregory renewed the old law of celibacy and rendered it more strict, deposed all married priests or those who got office through simony, and pronounced their priestly acts invalid. The lower clergy, who were generally married, violently opposed the measure, but Gregory’s stronger will prevailed. Papal legates visited all lands, and, supported by the people, insisted upon the strict observance of the papal decree. At the next fast synod in A.D. 1075, the pope began the contest against the usual investiture of the higher clergy by the temporal princes, with ring and staff as symbols of episcopal office. Whoever should accept ecclesiastical office from the hand of a layman was to be deposed, and any potentate who should give investiture should be put under the ban of the church. Here too he thundered his anathema against the counsellors of Henry who should meanwhile prove guilty of the sale of ecclesiastical offices. Henry, whose hands were fully occupied with the rebellious Saxons, at first dismissed his counsellors, but after the close of the wars he reinstated them, and quite ignored the papal prohibition of investiture. Gregory had for a while quite enough to do in Italy. Cencius, the head of the nobles opposed to reform, fell upon him on Christmas, A.D. 1075, during Divine service, and made him prisoner, but the Romans rescued him, and Cencius had to take to flight. On New Year’s Day, A.D. 1076, there appeared at the royal residence at Goslar a papal embassy which threatened the king with excommunication and deposition should he not immediately break off all relations with the counsellors under the ban, and reform his own infamous life. The king burst out in furious rage. He heaped insults upon the legates, and at the Synod of Worms, on 24th January, had the pope formally deposed as a perjured usurper of the papal chair, a tyrant, an adulterer and a sorcerer. The Lombard bishops, too, gave their consent to this decree (§ 97, 5). At the next Roman Fast Synod on 22nd February, the pope placed all bishops who had taken part in these proceedings under ban, and at the same time solemnly excommunicated and deposed the king, and released all his subjects from the obligation of their oaths of allegiance. Moreover he had the king’s ambassadors, whose life he had preserved from the fury of those present at the meeting of synod by his personal interference, cast into prison, and then in the most contemptuous manner led through the streets. The papal ban made a deep impression upon the German people and princes. One bishop after another gave in, the Saxons raised a new revolt, and at the princes’ conference at Tribur, in October, A.D. 1076, the pope was invited to come personally to Augsburg on 2nd February, to meet and confer with the princes about the affairs of the king. It was resolved that if Henry did not succeed by 22nd February, the first anniversary of the ban, to get it removed, he should for ever forfeit the crown, but that meanwhile he should reside at Spires and continue in the exercise of all royal prerogatives.

§ 96.8. It was for the pope’s advantage to have the business settled upon German soil with the greatest possible publicity. Therefore he scornfully refused the humble petition of the king to send him absolution from Rome, and hastened his preparations for travelling to Augsburg. But Henry went forth to meet him on the way. Shortly before Christmas he escaped from Spires with his wife and child, and in spite of a severe winter crossed Mount Cenis. The Lombards protected him in defying the pretensions of the pope. But Henry’s whole attention was now directed to overturning the machinations of the hostile German princes. So he suddenly appeared at Canossa, where Gregory was staying with the Margravine Matilda, daughter of Beatrice, a princess enthusiastically attached to him and his ideal. This meeting was unexpected and undesired by the pope. There during the cold winter days, from 25th to 27th January, A.D. 1077, stood the son of Henry III. barefoot in the courtyard of the castle of Canossa, wearing a sackcloth shirt, fasting all day and supplicating access to the proud monk. With inflexible severity the pope refused, until at last the tears, entreaties, and reproaches of the margravine overcame his obduracy. Henry promised to submit himself to the future judgment of the pope in regard to his reconciliation with the German princes, and was absolved. Nevertheless the princes at the Assembly at Forcheim in March, with the concurrence of the papal legate, elected a new king in the person of Rudolph of Swabia, Henry’s brother-in-law. Roused to fury, Henry now hastened back to Germany, where soon he gathered round him a great army. Notwithstanding all pressure brought to bear upon him, Gregory maintained for three years a position of neutrality, but at last, in A.D. 1080, at the Roman Fast Synod, where the envoys of the contending kings presented their complaints, he renewed the excommunication and deposition of Henry. Then the bishops of Henry’s party immediately met at Brixen, and hurled the anathema and pronounced sentence of deposition against Gregory, and elected as anti-pope Wibert, formerly chancellor, then archbishop of Ravenna, who assumed the title of Clement III., A.D. 1080-1100. After the death of Rudolph in battle, at Merseburg, in A.D. 1080, Henry marched across the Alps and appeared at Pentecost before the gates of Rome, which were opened to him after a three years’ siege. Clement III. then at Easter, A.D. 1084, set upon him and his queen the imperial crown. Gregory had withdrawn to the Castle of St. Angelo. Henry, however, was compelled by the appearance of a new rival for the crown, Henry, Count of Luxemburg, to return to Germany, and Robert Guiscard, the Norman duke, hastened from the south to deliver the pope, which he accomplished only after Rome had been fearfully devastated. Gregory died in the following year, A.D. 1085, at Salerno. Gregory VII. also took the field against the dissolute and prodigal king of France, Philip I., and threatened him, because of simony, with interdict and deposition. His success here, however, was comparatively small. Philip avowedly submitted to the papal decree, but did not in the least alter his conduct, and Gregory felt that it was not prudent to push matters to an extremity. He showed himself more indulgent toward the powerful William the Conqueror of England, although this prince ruled the church of his dominions with an iron hand, pronounced all church property to be freehold, and was scarcely less guilty of simony than the kings of Germany and France. Yet the pope himself, who hoped to secure the aid of his arms against Henry IV., and sought therefore to dazzle him with the prospect of the imperial throne, winked at his delinquencies, and loaded him with expressions of his good-will. The primate of England, too, the powerful Conqueror’s right-hand supporter, Lanfranc of Canterbury, who bore a grudge against Gregory because of his patronage of the heretic Berengarius [Berengar] (§ 101, 2), showed no special zeal for the reforms advocated by the pope. At a synod held at Winchester in A.D. 1076, the law of celibacy was enforced, with this limitation, however, that those of the secular clergy who were already married should not be required to put away their wives, but no further marriages among them were to be permitted.[275]

§ 96.9. =The Central Idea in Gregory’s Policy= was the establishment of a universal theocracy, with the pope as its one visible head, the representative of Christ upon earth, who as such stands over the powers of the world. Alongside of it, indeed, the royal authority was to stand independently as one ordained of God, but it was to confine itself strictly to temporal affairs, and to be directed by the pope in regard to whatever might be partly within and partly without these lines. All states bearing the Christian name were to be bound together as members of one body in the great papal theocracy which had superior to it only God and His law. The princes must receive consecration and Divine sanction from the spiritual power; they are “by the grace of God,” not immediately, however, but only mediately, the church as the middle term stands between them and God. The pope is their arbiter and highest liege lord, whose decisions they are under obligation unconditionally to obey. Royalty stands related to the papacy as the moon to the sun, from which she receives her light and warmth. The church, which lends to the power of the world her Divine authority, can also withdraw it again when it is being misused. When this is done, the obligation of subjects to obey also ceases. Gregory began this gigantic work, not so much to raise himself personally to the utmost pinnacle of power, but rather to save the church from destruction. He certainly was not free from ambition and the lust of ruling, but with him higher than all personal interests was the idea of the high vocation of the church, and to the realizing of it he enthusiastically devoted all the energies of his life. On the other hand, he cannot escape the reproach of having striven with carnal weapons for what he called a spiritual victory, of having meted out unequal measures, where his interests demanded it, in the exercise of his assumed function as judge of kings and princes, and of having occupied himself more with political schemes and intrigues than with the ministry of the church of Christ. His whole career shows him to have been a man of great self reliance, yet, on the other hand, he was able to preserve the consciousness of the poor sinner who seeks and finds salvation only in the mercy of Christ. The strict morality of his life has been admitted even by his bitterest foes. Not infrequently too did he show himself in advance of his time in humanity and liberality of sentiment, as _e.g._ in the Berengarian controversy (§ 101, 2), and in his decided disapproval of the prosecution of witches and sorcerers.[276]

§ 96.10. =Victor III. and Urban II., A.D. 1086-1099.=--Gregory VII. was succeeded by the talented abbot of Monte Cassino, Desiderius, under the title of =Victor III.=, A.D. 1086-1087. Only after great pressure was brought to bear upon him did he consent to leave the cloister, which under his rule had flourished in a remarkable manner; but now aged and sickly, he only enjoyed the pontificate for sixteen months. His successor was bishop Odo, of Ostia, a Frenchman by birth, and a member of the Clugny brotherhood, who took the name of =Urban II.=, A.D. 1088-1099. For a long time he was obliged to give up Rome to the party of the imperial anti-pope. But the enthusiasm with which the idea of rescuing the Holy Sepulchre was taken up, which he proposed to Western Christendom at the Council of Clermont, in A.D. 1095 (§ 94), secured for him the highest position in his time, and made him strong enough to withstand the opposition of Philip I., king of France, whom he had put under ban at Clermont, on account of his adulterous connection with Bertrada. Returning to Italy from his victorious campaign through France, he was able to celebrate Christmas once again in the Lateran at Rome in A.D. 1096. His main supporters in the conflict against the emperor were the powerful Margravine Matilda, and the emperor’s most dangerous opponent in Germany, duke Welf of Bavaria, whose son of the same name, then in his seventeenth year, was married by the pope to the widowed Matilda, who was now forty years of age, whence arose the first of the anti-imperial and strongly papistical Welf or Guelph party in Germany and Italy. On the other side the margravine succeeded in stirring up Conrad, the son of Henry IV., to rebel against his father, and had him crowned king in A.D. 1087. At Cremona this prince held the pope’s stirrup, and took the oath of obedience to him. The emperor had him deposed in A.D. 1098, and had his second son elected and crowned as Henry V. Urban, who received on his death-bed the news of the destruction of Jerusalem, died in A.D. 1099, and his anti-pope Clement III., who had withdrawn to Ravenna, died in the following year.

§ 96.11. =Paschalis II., Gelasius II., and Calixtus II., A.D. 1099-1124.=--Urban’s successor, =Paschalis II.=, A.D. 1099-1118, also a member of the Clugny brotherhood, at once stirred up the fire of rebellion against the excommunicated emperor, and favoured a conspiracy of the princes. The young king, at the head of the insurgents, took his father prisoner, and obliged him to abdicate in A.D. 1106. Six months afterwards the emperor died. The church’s curse pursued even his corpse. Twice interred in holy ground, first in the cathedral of Liège, then in the cathedral of Spires, his bones were exhumed and thrown into unconsecrated ground, until at last, in A.D. 1111, his son obtained the withdrawal of the ban. At the Council of Guastalla in A.D. 1106, Paschalis renewed the prohibition of =Investiture=. But =Henry V.=, A.D. 1106-1125, concerned himself as little about this prohibition as his father had done. No sooner had he seated himself upon the throne in Germany than he crossed the Alps to compel the pope to crown him emperor and concede to him the right of investiture. The pope, who was willing that the church should be poor if only she retained her freedom, being now without counsel or help (for Matilda was old and her warlike spirit was broken, and from the Normans no assistance could be looked for), was driven in A.D. 1111, in his perplexity to offer a compromise, whereby the emperor should surrender investiture to the church, but on the other hand the clergy should return to him all landed property and privileges given them by the state since the times of Charlemagne, while the Patrimony of Peter should continue the property of the pope himself. On the basis of this agreement the coronation of the emperor was to be celebrated in St. Peter’s on 12th Feb., A.D. 1111. But when after the celebration had begun the document which set forth the compact was read, the prelates present in the cathedral raised loud cries of dissent and demanded that it should immediately be cancelled. The coronation was not proceeded with, the pope and his cardinals were thrown into prison, and a revolt of the Romans was suppressed. The pope was then compelled to rescind the synodal decrees and formally to grant to the king the right of investiture; he had also, after solemnly promising never again to put the emperor under ban, to proceed with the coronation. But Hildebrand’s party called the pope to account for this betrayal of the church. A synod at Rome in A.D. 1112 declared the concessions wrung from him invalid, and pronounced the ban against the emperor. The pope, however, remembering his oaths, refused to confirm it, but it was nevertheless proclaimed by his legate in the French and German synods. Matilda’s death in A.D. 1115 called the emperor again to Italy. She had even in the time of Gregory VII. made over all her goods and possessions to the Roman Church; but she had the right of free disposal only in regard to allodial property, not in regard to her feudal territories. Henry, however, now laid claim to all her belongings. At the Fast Synod of A.D. 1116 Paschalis asked pardon of God and man for his sin of weakness, renewed and made more strict the prohibition of investiture, but still stoutly refused to confirm the ban of the emperor. In consequence of a rebellion of the Romans he was obliged to take to flight, and he died in exile in A.D. 1118. The high church party now chose =Gelasius II.=, A.D. 1118-1119, but immediately after the election he was seized by a second Cencius (see § 96, 7) on account of a private grudge, fearfully maltreated and confined in chains within his castle. The Romans indeed rescued him, but the emperor’s sudden arrival in Rome led him, in order to avoid making inconvenient terms of peace, to seek his own and the church’s safety in flight. The people and nobles in concert with the emperor set up Gregory VIII. as anti-pope. So soon as the emperor left Rome, Gelasius returned. But Cencius fell upon him during Divine service, and only with difficulty he escaped further maltreatment by flight into France, where he died in the monastery of Clugny after a pontificate of scarcely twelve months. The few cardinals present at Clugny elected archbishop Guido of Vienne. He assumed the title of =Calixtus II.=, A.D. 1119-1124. Pope and emperor met together expressing desires for peace. But the auspiciously begun negotiations never got beyond the statement of the terms of contract, and ended in the pope renewing at the Council of Rheims, in A.D. 1119, the anathema against the emperor and anti-pope. Next year Calixtus crossed the Alps. He received a hearty greeting in Rome. He laid siege to the anti-pope in Sutri, took him prisoner, and after the most contumelious treatment before the Roman mob, cast him into a monastic prison. The investiture question, now better understood through learned discussions on civil and ecclesiastical law, was at last definitely settled in the =Worms Concordat=, as the result of mutual concessions made at the National Assembly at Worms, A.D. 1122. The arrangement come to was this: canonical election of bishops and abbots of the empire by the diocesan clergy and the secular nobles should be restored, and under imperial inspection made free from all coercion, but in disputed elections decisions should be given in accordance with the judgment of the metropolitan and the rest of the bishops, the investing of the elected with the sceptre in Germany before, in other parts of the empire after, consecration, should belong to the emperor, and investiture with ring and staff at the consecration should belong to the pope. This agreement was solemnly ratified at the =First Œcumenical Lateran Synod= in A.D. 1123.

§ 96.12. The contemporary =English Investiture Controversy= was brought earlier to a conclusion. William the Conqueror had unopposed put Norman prelates in the place of the English bishops, and had homage rendered him by them, while they received from him investiture with the ring and the staff. William Rufus, the Conqueror’s son and successor, A.D. 1087-1100, a domineering and greedy prince, after Lanfranc’s death in A.D. 1089 (§ 101, 1) allowed the archbishopric of Canterbury to remain vacant for four years, in order that he might himself enjoy the undisturbed possession of the revenues. It was not till A.D. 1093, during a severe illness and under fear of death, that he agreed to bestow it upon Anselm, the celebrated Abbot of Bec (§ 101, 1, 3), with the promise to abstain ever afterwards from simony. No sooner had he recovered than he repented him of his promise. He resumed his old practices, and even demanded of Anselm a large sum for his appointment. For peace sake Anselm gave him a voluntary present of money, but it did not satisfy the king. When, in A.D. 1097, the archbishop asked permission to make a journey to Rome in order to have the conflict settled there, the king banished him. In Rome Anselm was honourably received and his conduct was highly approved; but neither Urban II. nor Paschalis II. could venture upon a complete breach with the king. William the Conqueror’s third son, Henry I. Beauclerk, A.D. 1100-1135, who, having also snatched Normandy from his eldest brother Robert, needed the support of the clergy to secure his position, agreed to the return of the exiled primate, and promised to put a stop to every kind of simony; but he demanded the maintenance of investiture and the oath of fealty which Anselm now, in consequence of the decrees of a Roman synod which he had himself agreed to, felt obliged to refuse. Thus again the conflict was renewed. The king now confiscated the goods and revenues of the see, and the archbishop was on the point of issuing an excommunication against him, when at last an understanding was come to in A.D. 1106, through the mediation of the pope, according to which the crown gave up the investiture with ring and staff, and the archbishop agreed to take the oath of fealty.--In France, too, from the end of the 11th century, owing to the pressure used by the high church reforming party, the secular power was satisfied with securing the oath of fealty from the higher clergy, without making further claim to investiture.[277]

§ 96.13. =The Times of Lothair III. and Conrad III., A.D. 1125-1152.=--After the death of Henry V. without issue, the Saxon =Lothair=, A.D. 1125-1137, was elected, and the Hohenstaufen grandson of Henry IV. descended in the female line was passed over. =Honorius II.=, A.D. 1124-1130, successor of Calixtus II., hastened to confer the papal sanction upon the newly elected emperor, who already upon his election had, by accepting spiritual investiture before temporal investiture, and a minimising of the oath of fealty by ecclesiastical reservations, showed himself ready to support the claims of the clergy. But neither ban nor the preaching of a crusade against Count Roger II. of Sicily (§ 95, 1) could prevent him from building up a powerful kingdom comprehending all Southern Italy. The next election of the cardinals gives us two popes: =Innocent II.=, A.D. 1130-1143, and Anacletus II., A.D. 1130-1138. The latter, although not the pope of the majority, secured a powerful support in the friendship of Roger II., whom he had crowned king by his legate at Palermo. Innocent, on the other hand, fled to France. There the two oracles of the age, the abbot Peter of Clugny and Bernard of Clairvaux, took his side and won for him the favour of all Cisalpine Europe. Both popes fished for Lothair’s favour with the bait of the promise of imperial coronation. A second edition of the Synod of Sutri would probably have enabled a more powerful king to attain the elevation of Henry III. But Lothair was not the man to seize the opportunity. He decided in favour of the _protégé_ of Bernard, led him back in A.D. 1133 to the eternal city, had himself crowned emperor by him in the Lateran and invested with Matilda’s inheritance, which was declared by the curialists a fief of the empire. But Lothair’s repeated demands, that what had been acquired by the Concordat of Worms should be renounced, were set aside, through the opposition not so much of the pope as of St. Bernard and St. Norbert (§ 98, 2). At the prayer of the pope, who immediately after Lothair’s departure had been driven out by Roger, and moved by the prophetic exhortations of Bernard, the emperor prepared for a second Roman campaign in A.D. 1136. Leaving the conquest of Rome to the eloquence of the prophet of Clairvaux, he advanced from one victory to another until he brought all Southern Italy under the imperial sway, and died on his return homeward in an Alpine hut in the Tyrol. Fuming with rage Roger now crossed over from Sicily and in a short time he reconquered his southern provinces of Italy. The appointment, however, of a new pope after the death of Anacletus miscarried, and Innocent was able at the =Second Œcumenical Lateran Synod= in A.D. 1139 to declare the schism at an end. The pope then renewed the excommunication of Roger and pronounced an anathema against the teachings of Arnold of Brescia (§ 108, 7), a young enthusiastic priest of the school of Abælard, who traced all ecclesiastical corruption back to the wealth of the church and the secular power of the clergy. He next prepared himself for war with Roger. That prince, however, waylaid him and had him brought into his tent, where he and his sons cast themselves at the holy father’s feet and begged for mercy and peace. The pope could do nothing else than play the _rôle_ of the magnanimous given him in this comedy. He had therefore to confirm the hated Norman in the possession of the conquered provinces as a hereditary monarchy with the ecclesiastical privilege of a native legate, and, as some set off to comfort himself with, the prince was to regard the territory as a fief of the papal see. But still greater calamities befell this pope. The republican freedom, which the cities of Tuscany and Lombardy won during the 12th century, awakened also among the Romans a love of liberty. They refused to render obedience in temporal matters to the pope and established in the Capitol a popular senate, which undertook the civil government in the name of the Roman Commune. Innocent died during the revolution. His successor =Cœlestine II.= held the pontificate for only five months, and =Lucius II.=, after vainly opposing the Commune for seven months, was killed by a stone thrown in a tumult. =Eugenius III.=, A.D. 1145-1153, a scholar and friend of St. Bernard, was obliged immediately after his election to seek safety in flight. An agreement, however, was come to in that same year: the pope acknowledged the government of the Commune as legitimate, while it recognised his superiority and granted to him the investiture of the senators. Yet, though taken back three times to Rome, he could never remain there for more than a few months. He visited France and Germany (Treves) in A.D. 1147. In France he heard of the fall of Edessa. Supported by the fiery zeal of Bernard, the summons to a second crusade (§ 94, 2) aroused a burning enthusiasm throughout all the West. But in Rome he was unable to offer any effectual resistance to the demagogical preaching by which Arnold of Brescia from A.D. 1146 had inflamed the people and the inferior clergy with an ardent enthusiasm for his ideal constitution of an apostolic church and a democratic state. Since this change of feeling had taken place in Rome, both parties, that of the Capitol as well as that of the Lateran, had repeatedly endeavoured to win to their side the first Hohenstaufen on the German throne, =Conrad III.=, A.D. 1138-1152, by promise of bestowing the imperial crown. But Conrad, meanwhile otherwise occupied, refrained from all intermeddling, and when at last he actually started upon a journey to Rome death overtook him on the way.

§ 96.14. =The Times of Frederick I. and Henry VI., A.D. 1152-1190.=--The nephew and successor of Conrad III., =Frederick I. Barbarossa=, A.D. 1152-1190, began his reign with the firm determination to realize fully the ideas of Charlemagne (§ 82, 3) by his pope Paschalis III., whom at a later period, in A.D. 1165, he had canonized. With profound contempt at heart for the Roman democracy of his time, he concluded a compact in A.D. 1153 with the papal see, which confirmed him in the possession of the imperial crown and gave to the pope the _Dominium temporale_ in the Church States. After the death of Eugenius which soon followed, the aged =Anastasius IV.= occupied the papal chair for a year and a half, a time of peace and progress. He was succeeded by the powerful =Hadrian IV.=, A.D. 1154-1159. He was an Englishman, Nicholas Breakspear, son of a poor English priest, the first and, down to the present time, the only one of that nation who attained the papal dignity. He pronounced an interdict upon the Romans who had refused him entrance into the inner part of the city and had treacherously slain a cardinal. Rome endured this spiritual famine only for a few weeks, and then purchased deliverance by the expulsion of Arnold of Brescia, who soon thereafter fell into the hands of a cardinal. He was indeed again rescued by force, but Frederick I., who had meanwhile in A.D. 1154 begun his first journey to Rome, and on his way thither had humbled the proud Lombard cities struggling for freedom, urged by the pope, insisted that he should be surrendered up again, and subsequently gave him over to the Roman city prefect, who, in A.D. 1155, without trial or show of justice condemned him to be burnt and had his ashes strewn upon the Tiber. In the camp at Sutri the pope personally greeted the king who, after refusing for several days, at length agreed to show him the customary honour of holding his stirrup, doing it however with a very bad grace. Soon too the senatorial ambassadors of the Roman people, who indulged in bombastic, turgid declamation, presented themselves professing their readiness on consideration of a solemn undertaking to protect the Roman republic, and on payment of five thousand pounds, to proclaim the German king from the Capitol Roman emperor and ruler of the world. With a furious burst of anger Frederick silenced them, and with scathing words showed them how the witness of history pointed the contrast between their miserable condition and the glory and dignity of the German name. Yet on the day of the coronation, which they were not able to prevent, the Romans took revenge for the insults he had heaped upon them by an attack upon the papal residence in the castle of Leo, and upon the imperial camp in front of the city, but were repelled with sore loss. Soon thereafter, in A.D. 1155, the emperor made preparations for returning home, leaving everything else to the pope. The relations between the two became more and more strained from day to day. The Lombards, too, once again rebelled. Frederick therefore in A.D. 1158 made his second expedition to Rome. On the Roncalian plains he held a great assembly which laid down to the Lombards as well as to the pope the imperial prerogatives. Hadrian would have given utterance to his wrath by thundering an anathema, but he was restrained by the hand of death.

§ 96.15. The cardinals of the hierarchical party elected =Alexander III.=, A.D. 1159-1181, those of the imperial party, Victor IV. A synod convened by the emperor at Pavia in A.D. 1160 decided in favour of Victor, who was now formally recognised. Meanwhile Milan threw off the yoke that had been laid upon her. After an almost two years’ siege the emperor took the city in A.D. 1162 and razed it to the ground. From France whither he had fled, Alexander, in A.D. 1163, launched his anathema against the emperor and his pope. The latter died in A.D. 1164, and Frederick had Paschalis III. († A.D. 1168) chosen his successor; but in A.D. 1165, Alexander returning from France, pressed on in advance of him and was acknowledged by the Roman senate. Now for the third time in A.D. 1166, Frederick crossed the Alps. A small detachment of troops that had been sent in advance to accompany the imperial pope to Rome under the leadership of the archbishops of Cologne and Mainz, in a bloody battle at Monte Porzio in A.D. 1167 utterly destroyed a Roman army of twenty times its size. Frederick then himself hasted forward. After an eight days’ furious assault the fortress of Leo surrendered, and Paschalis was able to perform the _Te Deum_ in St. Peter’s. The Transtiberines, too, after Alexander had sought safety in flight, soon took the oath of fealty to the emperor upon a guarantee of imperial protection of their republic. But at the very climax of his success “the fate of Sennacherib” befell him. The Roman malaria during the hot August became a deadly fever plague, thinned the lines of his army and forced him to withdraw. So weakened was he that he could not even assert his authority in Lombardy, but had to return to Germany in A.D. 1168. The emperor’s disaster told also unfavourably upon the fortunes of his pope, whose successor Calixtus III. was quite disregarded. In A.D. 1174 Frederick again went down into Italy and engaged upon a decisive battle with the confederate cities of Lombardy, but in A.D. 1176 at Legnano he suffered a complete defeat, in consequence of which he agreed at the Congress of Venice, in A.D. 1177, to acknowledge the freedom of the Lombard cities, abandoned the imperial claims upon Rome, and recognised Alexander III., who was also present there, as the rightful pope, kissing his feet and holding his stirrup according to custom. Rome, which he had not seen for nearly eleven years, would no longer shut her gates against the pope. Welcomed by senate and people, he made his public entrance into the Lateran in March A.D. 1178, where in the following year he gathered together 300 bishops in the =Third Lateran Council= (the 11th œcumenical), in order by their advice to heal the wounds which the schism of the church had made. Here also, in order to prevent double elections in time to come, it was resolved that for a valid papal election two-thirds of the whole college of cardinals must be agreed. The right of concurrence assigned by the decree of Nicholas II. in A.D. 1059 to the people and emperor was treated as antiquated and forgotten, and was not even alluded to.

§ 96.16. Even before his victory over the powerful Hohenstaufen, Alexander III. during his exile won a yet more brilliant success in England. King Henry II., A.D. 1154-1189, wished to establish again the supremacy of the state over church and clergy, and thought that he would have a pliant tool in carrying out his plans in =Thomas à Becket=, whom he made archbishop of Canterbury, in A.D. 1162. But as primate of the English church, Thomas proved a vigorous upholder of hierarchical principles. Instead of the accommodating courtier, the king found the archbishop immediately upon his consecration the bold asserter of the claims of the church. The jovial man of the world became at once the saintly ascetic. At a council at Tours in A.D. 1163, he returned into the pope’s own hand the pallium with which an English prince had invested him in name of the king, resigning also his archiepiscopal dignity, that he might receive these directly as a papal gift. Straightway began the conflict between the king and his former favourite. Henry summoned a diet at Clarendon, where he obtained the approval of the superior clergy for his anti-hierarchical propositions; Thomas also for a time withstood, promising at last, when urged on all sides, to assent to the constitutions, but refusing to sign the document when it was placed before him. The king now ordered a process of deposition to be executed against him, and Thomas then fled to France, where the pope was at that time residing. The pope released him from his promise, condemned the Constitutions of Clarendon, and threatened the king with anathema and interdict. At last, after protracted negotiations, in A.D. 1170 by means of a personal interview on the frontiers of Normandy, a reconciliation was effected; by which, however, neither the king nor the archbishop renounced their claims. Thomas now returned to England and threatened with excommunication all bishops who should agree to the Constitutions of Clarendon. Four knights seized upon an unguarded word of the king which he had uttered in passion, and murdered the archbishop at the altar in A.D. 1170. Alexander canonized the martyr to Hildebrandism, and the king was so sorely pressed by the pope, his own people and his rebellious sons, that he consented to do penance humbly at the tomb of his deadly sainted foe, and submitted to be scourged by the monks. Becket’s bones, for which a special chapel was reared at Canterbury, were visited by crowds of pilgrims until Henry VIII., when he had broken with Rome (§ 139, 4), formally arraigned the saint as a traitor, had his name struck out of the calendar and his ashes scattered to the winds.[278]--Thus by A.D. 1178 Alexander III. had risen to the summit of ecclesiastical power; but in Rome itself as well as in the Church States, he remained as powerless politically as before. Soon, therefore, after the great council he again quitted the city for a voluntary exile, and never saw it more. His three immediate successors, too, =Lucius III.= († A.D. 1185), =Urban III.= († A.D. 1187), and =Gregory VIII.= († A.D. 1187), were elected, consecrated and buried outside of Rome. =Clement III.= († A.D. 1191) was the first to enter the Lateran again in A.D. 1188, on the basis of a compromise which acknowledged the republican constitution under the papal superiority. Meanwhile Frederick I., without regarding the protest of the pope as liege lord of the Sicilian crown, had in A.D. 1186 consummated the fateful marriage of his son Henry with Constance, the posthumous daughter of king Roger, and aunt of his childless grandson William II. († A.D. 1194), and thus the heiress of the great Norman kingdom of Italy. From the crusade which he then undertook in A.D. 1189 Frederick never returned (§ 94, 3). His successor, =Henry VI.=, A.D. 1190-1197, compelled the new pope =Cœlestine III.=, A.D. 1191-1198, to crown him emperor in A.D. 1191, conquered the inheritance of his wife, pushed back the boundaries of the Church States to the very gates of Rome, and asserted his imperial rights even over the city of Rome itself. He pressed on to the realizing of the scheme for making the German crown together with the imperial dignity for ever hereditary in his house. The princes of the empire in A.D. 1196 elected his son Frederick II., when scarcely two years old, as king of the Romans. He then thought under the pretext of a crusade to conquer Greece, to which he had laid groundless claims of succession, but while upon the way his plans were overthrown by his sudden death at Messina.

§ 96.17. =Innocent III., A.D. 1198-1216.=--After the death of Alexander III. the power and reputation of the Holy See had fallen into the lowest degradation. Then the cardinal deacon, Lothair Count of Segni in Anagni, succeeded in A.D. 1198 in his 37th year, under the name of Innocent III., and raised the papacy again to a height of power and glory never reached before. In point of intellect and power of will he was not a whit behind Gregory VII., while in culture (§ 102, 9), scholarship, subtlety and adroitness he far excelled him. His piety, too, his moral earnestness, his enthusiasm and devotion to the church and the theocratical interest of the chair of St. Peter, were at least as powerful and decidedly purer, deeper and more spiritual than Gregory’s. And in addition to all these great endowments he enjoyed an invariable good fortune which never forsook him. His first task was the restoration of the Church States and his political prestige in Rome. In both these directions he was favoured by the sudden death of Henry VI. and the internal disorders of the Capitoline government of that time. On the very day of his enthronement the imperial prefect tendered him the oath of fealty and the Capitol did homage to him as the superior. And also before the second year had passed the Church States in their fullest extent were restored by the expulsion of the greater and smaller feudal lords who had been settled there by Henry VI. Rome was indeed once more the scene of wild party conflicts which forced the pope in A.D. 1203 to fly to Anagni. He was able, however, to return in A.D. 1204 and to conclude a definite and decisive peace with the Commune in A.D. 1205, according to the terms of which the many-headed senate resigned, and a single senator or podestà nominated by the pope was entrusted with the executive authority. Meanwhile Innocent had been gaining brilliant successes beyond the limits of the States of the Church. These were won first of all in Sicily. The widow of Henry VI. had her son Frederick of four years old, after his father’s death, crowned king in Palermo. Unadvised and helpless, pressed upon all sides, she sought protection from Innocent, which he granted upon her renouncing the ecclesiastical privileges previously claimed by the king and making acknowledgment of the papal suzerainty. Dying in A.D. 1198, Constance transferred to him the guardianship of her son, and the pope justified the confidence placed in him by the excellent and liberal education which he secured for his ward, as well as by the zeal and success with which he restored rest and peace to the land. In Germany, Philip of Swabia, Frederick’s uncle, was appointed to carry on the government in the name of his Sicilian nephew during his minority. The condition of Germany, however, demanded the direct control of a firm and vigorous ruler. The princes, therefore, insisted upon a new election, for which Philip also now appeared as candidate. The votes were split between two rivals; the Ghibellines voting for Philip, A.D. 1198-1208, and the Guelph party for =Otto IV.= of Brunswick, A.D. 1198-1218. The party of the latter referred the decision to the pope. For three years he delayed giving judgment, then he decided in favour of the Guelph, who paid for the preference by granting all the demands of the pope, and calling himself king by the grace of God and the pope. The States of the Church were thus represented as including the Duchy of Spoleto, and in the election of bishops the church was freed from the influence of the state. By A.D. 1204, however, Philip’s power and repute had risen to such a pitch that even the pope found himself obliged to take into account the altered position of matters. A papal court of arbitration at Rome to which both claimants had agreed to submit, was on the point of giving its decision unequivocally in favour of the Hohenstaufen, when the murder of Philip by Otto of Wittelsbach, in A.D. 1208, rendered it void. Otto IV. was now acknowledged by all, and in A.D. 1209 he was crowned by the pope after new concessions had been made. But as Roman emperor he either would not or could not perform what he had promised before and at his coronation. He took to himself the possessions of Matilda as well as other parts of the States of the Church, and was not prevented from pursuing his victorious campaign in Southern Italy by the anathema which Innocent thundered against him in A.D. 1210. Then Innocent called to mind the old rights of his former pupil to the German crown, and insisted that they should be given effect to. In A.D. 1212, Frederick II., now in his eighteenth year, accepted the call, was received in Germany with open arms, and was crowned in A.D. 1215 at Aachen. Otto could not maintain his position against him, and so withdrew to his hereditary possessions, and died in A.D. 1218.

§ 96.18. King Philip Augustus II. of France, had in A.D. 1193 married the Danish princess Ingeborg, but divorced her in A.D. 1196, and married the beautiful Duchess Agnes of Meran. Innocent compelled him in A.D. 1200 to put her away by issuing against him an interdict, but it was only in A.D. 1213 that he again took back Ingeborg as his legitimate wife.--From far off Spain the young king Peter of Arragon went in A.D. 1204 to Rome, laid down his crown as a sacred gift upon the tomb of the chief of the apostles, and voluntarily undertook the payment of a yearly tribute to the Holy See. In the same year a crusading army, by founding a Latin empire in Constantinople, brought the schismatical East to the feet of the pope (§ 94, 4). In England, when the archbishopric of Canterbury became vacant, the chapter filled it by electing their own superior Reginald. This choice they had soon cause to rue. They therefore annulled their election, and at the wish of the usurping king John Lackland made choice of John, bishop of Norwich. Innocent refused to confirm their action, and persuaded certain members of the chapter staying in Rome to choose the cardinal priest Stephen Langton, whose election he immediately confirmed.[279] When the king refused to recognise this appointment, and on an interdict being threatened swore that he would drive all priests who should obey it out of the country, the pope issued it in A.D. 1208 against all England, excommunicated the king, and finally, in A.D. 1212, released all his subjects from their oath of allegiance and deposed the monarch, while he commissioned Philip Augustus of France to carry the sentence into effect. John, now as cringing and terrified as before he had been proud and despotic, humbled himself in the dust, and at Dover, in A.D. 1213, placed kingdom and crown at the feet of the papal legate Pandulf, and received it from his hands as a papal fief, undertaking to pay twice a year the tribute imposed. But in A.D. 1214 the English nobles extorted from their cowardly tyrant as a safeguard against lordly wilfulness and despotism the famous _Magna Charta_, against which the pope protested, threatening excommunication and promising legitimate redress of their grievances, though in consequence of confusion caused by the breaking out again of the civil wars he was unable to enforce his protest. And now his days were drawing to an end. At the famous =Fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215=, more than 1,500 prelates from all the countries of Christendom, along with the ambassadors of almost all Christian kings, princes and free cities, gave him homage as the representative of God on earth, as visible Head of the Church, and supreme lord and judge of all princes and peoples. A few months later he died.--As in Italy and Germany, in France and England, he had also in all other states of the Christian world, in Spain and Portugal, in Poland, Livonia and Sweden, in Constantinople and Bulgaria, shown himself capable of controlling political as well as ecclesiastical movements, arranging and smoothing down differences, organizing and putting into shape what was tending to disorder. Some conception of his activity may be formed from the 5,316 extant decretals of the eighteen years of his pontificate.

§ 96.19. =The Times of Frederick II. and his Successors, A.D. 1215-1268.=--=Frederick II.=,[280] A.D. 1215-1250, contrary to the Hohenstaufen custom, had not only agreed to the partition of Sicily from the empire in favour of his son Henry, but also renewed the agreements previously entered into with the pope by Otto IV. He even increased the papal possessions by ceding Ancona, and still further at his coronation at Aachen he showed his goodwill by undertaking a crusade. He also allowed this same Henry who became king of Sicily as a vassal of the pope, to be elected king of the Romans in A.D. 1220, and then began his journey to Rome to receive imperial coronation. The new pope =Honorius III.=, A.D. 1216-1227, formerly Frederick’s tutor and even still entertaining for him a fatherly affection, exacted from him a solemn renewal of his earlier promises. But instead of returning to Germany, Frederick started for Sicily in order to make it the basis of operations for the future carrying out of the ideas of his father and grandfather. The peace-loving pope constantly urged him to fulfil his promise of fitting out a crusade. But it was only after his successor =Gregory IX.=, A.D. 1227-1241, a high churchman of the stamp of Gregory VII. and Innocent III., urged the matter with greater determination, that Frederick actually embarked. He turned back, however, as soon as an epidemic broke out in the ships, but he did not himself escape the contagion, and died three days after. In A.D. 1227 the pope had in a senseless passion hurled an anathema against him, and, in an encyclical to all the bishops, painted the emperor’s ingratitude and breach of faith in the darkest colours. The emperor on his part, in a manifesto justifying himself addressed to the princes and people of Europe, had quite as unsparingly lashed the worldliness of the church, the corruption, presumption and self-seeking of the papacy, and then in A.D. 1228 he again undertook the postponed crusade (§ 94, 5). The pope’s curse followed “the pirate” to the very threshold of the Holy Sepulchre, and a papal crusading force made a raid upon Southern Italy. Frederick therefore hastened his return, landed in A.D. 1229 in Apulia, and entered into negotiations for peace, to which, however, the pope agreed only in A.D. 1230, when the emperor’s victoriously advancing troops threatened him with the loss of the States of the Church. In consequence of the pope’s continued difficulties with his Romans, who drove him three times out of the city, Frederick had frequent opportunities of showing himself serviceable to the pope by giving direct aid or mediating in his favour. Nevertheless he continually conspired with the rebellious Lombards, and in A.D. 1239 renewed the ban against the emperor. The pope who had hitherto only charged Frederick with a tendency to freethinking, as well as an inclination to favour the Saracens (§ 95, 1), and to maintain friendly intercourse with the Syrian sultans, now accused him of flippant infidelity. The emperor, it was said, had among other things declared that the birth of the Saviour by a virgin was a fable, and that Jesus, Moses and Mohammed were the three greatest impostors the world had ever seen,--a form of unbelief which spread very widely in consequence of the crusades. Manifestoes and counter-manifestoes sought to outdo one another in their violence. And while the wild hordes of the Mongols were overspreading unopposed the whole of Eastern Europe, the emperor’s troops were victoriously pressing forward to the gates of Rome, and his ships were preventing the meeting of the council summoned against him by catching the prelates who in spite of his prohibition were hastening to it. The pope died in A.D. 1241, and was followed in seventeen days by his successor Cœlestine IV.

§ 96.20. For almost two years the papal chair remained vacant. Then this position was won by =Innocent IV.=, A.D. 1243-1254, who as cardinal had been friendly to the emperor, but as pope was a most bitter enemy to him and to his house. The negotiations about the removal of the ban were broken off, and Innocent escaped to France, where at the =First Lyonese or 13th Œcumenical Council of A.D. 1245=, attended by scarcely any but Frenchmen and Spaniards, he renewed the excommunication of the emperor, and declared him as a blasphemer and robber of the church deprived of his throne. Once again with the most abject humility Frederick sued for reconciliation with the church. The pope, however, wished not for reconciliation, but the destruction of the whole “viper brood” of the Hohenstaufens. But the rival king, Henry Raspe of Thuringia, set up by the papal party in Germany, and William of Holland, who was put forward after his death in A.D. 1247, could not maintain their position against Frederick’s son, Conrad IV., who as early as A.D. 1235 had been elected in place of his rebel brother Henry as king of the Romans. Even in Italy the fortune of war favoured at first the imperial arms. At the siege of Parma, which was disloyal, the tide began to turn. The sorely pressed citizens made a sally in A.D. 1248, while Frederick was away at a hunt, and roused to courage by despair, put his army to flight. His brave son, Enzio, king of Sardinia and governor of Northern Italy, fell in A.D. 1249 into the hands of the Bolognese, and was subjected to a life-long imprisonment. Frederick himself in A.D. 1250 closed his active life in the south in the arms of his son Manfred. The pope then returned to Italy, in order to take possession of the Sicilian kingdom, which he claimed as a papal fief. But in A.D. 1251 =Conrad IV.=, summoned by Manfred, hasted thither from Germany, subdued Apulia, conquered Naples, and was resolved to lay hands on the person of the pope himself, who had also excommunicated him, when his career was stopped by death in A.D. 1254, in his twenty-sixth year. On behalf of Conrad’s two-year-old son, Conradin, who had been born in Germany after his father’s departure, Manfred undertook the regency in Southern Italy, but found himself obliged to acknowledge the pope’s suzerainty. Nevertheless the pope was determined to have him also overthrown. Manfred, however, escaped in time to the Saracenic colony of Luceria, and with its help utterly defeated the papal troops sent out against him. Five days after Innocent IV. died, =Alexander IV.=, A.D. 1254-1261, although without his predecessor’s ability, sought still to continue his work. He could not, however, either by ban or by war prevent Manfred, who on the report of Conradin’s death had had himself crowned, from extending the power and prestige of his kingdom farther and farther into the north. =Urban IV.=, A.D. 1261-1264, a Frenchman by birth, son of a shoemaker of Troyes, took up with all his heart the heritage of hate against the Hohenstaufens, and in A.D. 1263 invited Charles of Anjou, the youngest brother of Louis IX. of France, to win by conquest the Sicilian crown. While the prince was preparing for the campaign Urban died. His successor, =Clement IV.=, A.D. 1265-1268, also a Frenchman, could not but carry out what his predecessor had begun. Charles, whom the Romans without the knowledge of the pope had elected their senator, proceeded in A.D. 1265 into Italy, took the vassal oath of fealty, and was crowned as Charles I., A.D. 1265-1285, king of the two Sicilies. Treachery opened up his way into Naples. Manfred fell in A.D. 1266 in the battle of Benevento; and Conradin, whom the Ghibellines had called in as a deliverer of Italy, after the disastrous battle of Tagliacozzo in A.D. 1268, died on the scaffold in his sixteenth year.

§ 96.21. =The Times of the House of Anjou down to Boniface VIII., A.D. 1288-1294.=--The papacy had emerged triumphantly from its hundred years’ struggle with the Hohenstaufens, and by the overthrow of this powerful house Germany was thrown into the utmost confusion and anarchy. But Italy, too, was now in a condition of extreme disorder, and the unconscionable tyrants of Naples subjected it to a much more intolerable bondage than those had done from whom they pretended to have delivered it. After the death of Clement IV. the Holy See remained vacant for three years. The cardinals would not elect such a pope as would be agreeable to Charles I. During this papal vacancy Louis IX. of France, A.D. 1226-1270, fitted out the seventh and last crusade (§ 94, 6), from which he was not to return. As previously he had reformed the administration of justice, he now before his departure introduced drastic reforms in the ecclesiastical institutions of his kingdom, which laid the first foundations of the celebrated “Gallican Liberties.” Clement IV. gave occasion for such procedure on the part of the monarch who was a model of piety after the standard of those times, by claiming in A.D. 1266 for the papal chair the _plenaria dispositio_ of all prebends and benefices. In opposition to this assumption the king secured by a Pragmatic Sanction of A.D. 1269 to all churches and monasteries of his realm unconditional freedom of all elections and presentations according to old existing rights, confirmed to them anew all privileges and immunities previously granted them, forbade every form of simony as a heinous crime, and prohibited all extraordinary taxation of church property on the part of the Roman curia.--At last the cardinals took courage and elected =Gregory X.=, A.D. 1271-1276, an Italian of the noble house of Visconti. The desolating interregnum in Germany was also put an end to by the election of =Count Rudolf of Hapsburg=, A.D. 1273-1291, as king of the Germans. At the =Second Lyonese or 14th Œcumenical Council of A.D. 1274=, the worthy pope continued his endeavours without avail to rouse the flagging enthusiasm of the princes so as to get them to undertake another crusade. The union with the Greek church did not prove of an enduring kind (§ 67, 4). The constitution, too, sanctioned at the council, which provided, in order to prevent prolonged vacancies in the papal see, that the election of pope should not only be proceeded with in immured conclaves in the place where the deceased pope last resided with the curia, but also (though this was again abrogated in A.D. 1351 by a decree of Clement VI.) should be expedited by limiting the supply of food after three days to one dish, after other five days to water, wine, and bread. Yet this completely failed to secure the object desired. More successful, however, were the negotiations carried on at Lyons with the ambassadors of the new German king. Rudolf, in entering upon his government, renewed all the concessions made by Otto IV. and Frederick II., renounced all imperial claims upon Rome and the States of the Church, with the exception of the possessions of Matilda, and abandoned all pretension to Sicily. The pope on his part acknowledged him as king of the Romans and undertook to crown him emperor in Rome, where this agreement was to be formally ratified and signed. But Gregory died before arrangements had been completed.

§ 96.22. The three following popes, Innocent V., Hadrian V., and John XXI., died soon after one another. The last named, previously known as Petrus [Peter] Hispanus, had distinguished himself by his medical and philosophical writings. He was properly the twentieth Pope John, but as there was a slight element of uncertainty (§ 82, 6) he designated himself the twenty-first. After a six months’ vacancy =Nicholas III.=, A.D. 1277-1280, mounted the papal throne. By diplomacy he secured the ratification of the still undecided concordat with the German kingdom, and Rudolf, who had enough to do in Germany, immediately withdrew from Italian affairs, even abandoning his claims to imperial coronation. The powerful pope, whose pontificate was marked by rapacity and nepotism, and who is therefore put by Dante in hell, did not live long enough to carry out his plans for the overthrow of the French yoke in Italy. But he obliged Charles I. to resign his Roman senatorship, and secretly encouraged a conspiracy of the Sicilians, which under his successor =Martin IV.=, A.D. 1281-1285, a Frenchman and a pliable tool of Charles, broke out in the terrible “Sicilian Vespers” of A.D. 1282. The island of Sicily was thereby rent from the French rule and papal vassalage, and in a roundabout way the Hohenstaufens by the female line regained the government of this part of their old inheritance (§ 95, 1). Rome now again in A.D. 1284 shook off the senatorial rule which Charles I. had meanwhile again assumed, and after his death and that of Martin, which speedily followed, they transferred this dignity to the new pope =Honorius IV.=, A.D. 1285-1287, whose short but vigorous reign was followed by a vacancy of eleven months. The Franciscan general then mounted the papal throne as =Nicholas IV.=, A.D. 1288-1292. He filled up the period of his pontificate with vain endeavours to revive the spirit of the crusades and secure the suppression of heresy. Violent party feuds of cardinals of the Orsini and Colonna factions delayed the election of a pope after his death for two years. They united at last in electing the most unfit conceivable, Peter of Murrone (§ 98, 2), who, as =Cœlestine V.= changed the monk’s cowl for the papal tiara, but was persuaded after four months by the sly and ambitious Cardinal Cajetan to resign. Cajetan now himself succeeded in A.D. 1294 as Boniface VIII. The poor monk was confined by him in a tower, where he died. He was afterwards canonized by Pope John XXII.

§ 96.23. =Temporal Power of the Popes.=--During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the spiritual power of the papacy had reached its highest point, the pope came to be regarded as the absolute head of the church. Gregory VII. arrogated the right of confirming all episcopal elections. The papal recommendations to vacant sees (_Preces_, whence those so recommended were called _Precistæ_) were from the time of Innocent III. transformed into mandates (_Mandata_), and Clement IV. claimed for the papal chair the right of a _plenario dispositio_ of all ecclesiastical benefices. Even in the 12th century the theory was put forth as in accordance with the canon law that all ecclesiastical possessions were the property not of the particular churches concerned but of God or Christ, and so of the pope as His representative, who in administering them was responsible to Him alone. Hence the popes, in special cases when the ordinary revenues of the curia were insufficient, had no hesitation in exercising the right of levying a tax upon ecclesiastical property. They heard appeals from all tribunals and could give dispensations from existing church laws. The right of canonization (§ 104, 8), which was previously in the power of each bishop with application simply to his own diocese, was for the first time exercised with a claim for recognition over the whole church by John XV., in A.D. 993, without, however, any word of withdrawing their privilege from the bishops. Alexander III. was the first to declare in A.D. 1170 that canonization was exclusively the right of the papal chair. The system of Gregory VII. made no claim of doctrinal infallibility for the Holy See, though his ignorance of history led him to suppose that no heretic had ever presided over the Roman church, and his understanding of Luke xxii. 32 made him confidently expect that none ever would. Innocent III., indeed, publicly acknowledged that even the pope might err in matters of faith, and then, but only then, become amenable to the judgment of the church. And Innocent IV., fifty years later, taught that the pope might err. It is therefore wrong to say, “I believe what the pope believes;” for one should believe only what the church teaches. Thomas Aquinas was the first who expressly maintained the doctrine of papal infallibility. He says that the pope alone can decide finally upon matters of faith, and that even the decrees of councils only become valid and authoritative when confirmed by him. Thomas, however, never went the length of maintaining that the pope can by himself affirm any dogma without the advice and previous deliberations of a council.--Kissing the feet sprang from an Italian custom, and even an emperor like Frederick Barbarossa humbled himself to hold the pope’s stirrup. According to the _Donation of Constantine_ document (§ 87, 4), Constantine the Great had himself performed this office of equerry to Pope Sylvester. When the coronation of the pope was introduced is still a disputed point. Nicholas I. was, according to the _Liber pontificalis_, formally crowned on his accession. Previously the successors of the apostles were satisfied with a simple episcopal mitre (§ 84, 1), which on the head of the crowned pope was developed into the tiara (§ 110, 15). At the Lateran Council of A.D. 1059 Hildebrand is said to have set upon the head of the new pope Nicholas II. a double crown to indicate the council’s recognition of his temporal and spiritual sovereignty. The papal granting of a golden rose consecrated by prayer, incense, balsam and holy water to princes of exemplary piety or even to prominent monasteries, churches, or cities, conveying an obligation to make acknowledgment by a large money gift, dates as far back as the 12th century. So far as is known, Louis VII. was the first to receive it from Alexander III. in A.D. 1163.--The popes appointed legates to represent them abroad, as they had done even earlier at the synods held in the East. Afterwards, when the institution came to be more fully elaborated, a distinction was made between _Legati missi_ or nuntios and _Legati nati_. The former were appointed as required for diplomatic negotiations, visitation and organization of churches, as well as for the holding of provincial synods, at which they presided. They were called _Legati a latere_, if the special importance of the business demanded a representation from among the nearest and most trusted councillors of the pope, _i.e._ one of the cardinals, as _Pontifices collaterales_. The rank of _born_ legate, _Legatus natus_, on the other hand, was a prelatic dignity of the highest order conferred once for all by papal privilege, sometimes even upon temporal princes, who had specially served the Holy See, as for example the king of Hungary and the Norman princes of Italy (§ 96, 3, 13), which made them permanently representatives of the pope invested with certain ecclesiastical prerogatives.--Among the numerous literary and documentary fictions and forgeries with which the Gregorian papal system sought to support its ever-advancing pretensions to authority over the whole church, is one which may be regarded as the contemporary supplement to the work of the Pseudo-Isidore. It is the production of a Latin theologian residing in the East, otherwise unknown, who, at the time of the controversies waged at the Lyonese Council of A.D. 1274 between the Greeks and Latins (§ 67, 4), brought forth what professed to be an unbroken chain of traditions from alleged decrees and canons of the most famous Greek Councils, _e.g._ Nicæa, Chalcedon, etc., and church fathers, most frequently from Cyril of Alexandria, the so-called Pseudo-Cyril, in which the controverted questions were settled in favour of the Roman pretensions, and especially the most extreme claims to the primacy of the pope were asserted. It was presented in A.D. 1261 to Urban IV., who immediately guaranteed its genuineness in a letter to the emperor Michael Palæologus. On its adoption by Thomas Aquinas, who diligently employed its contents in his controversies against the Greeks as well as in his dogmatic works, it won respect and authority throughout all the countries of the West.

§ 97. THE CLERGY.

By tithes, legacies, donations, impropriations, and the rising value of landed estates, the wealth of churches and monasteries grew from year to year. In this way benefit was secured not only to the clergy and the monks, but also in many ways to the poor and needy. The law of celibacy strictly enforced by Gregory VII. saved the church from the impoverishment with which it was beginning to be threatened by the dividing or squandering of the property of the church upon the children of the clergy. But while an absolute stop was put to the marriage of the clergy, it tended greatly to foster concubinage, and yet more shameful vices. Yet notwithstanding all the corruption that prevailed among the clerical order it cannot be denied that the superior as well as the inferior clergy embraced a great number of worthy and strictly moral men, and that the sacerdotal office which the people could quite well distinguish from the individuals occupying it, still continued to be highly respected in spite of the immoral lives of many priests. Even more hurtful to the exercise of their pastoral work than the immorality of individual clergymen was the widespread illiteracy and gross ignorance of Christian truth of those who should have been teachers.

§ 97.1. =The Roman College of Cardinals.=--All the clergy attached to one particular church were called _Clerici cardinales_ down to the 11th century. But after Leo IX. had reformed and re-organized the Roman clergy, and especially after Nicholas II. in A.D. 1059 had transferred the right of papal election to the Roman cardinals, _i.e._ the seven bishops of the Roman metropolitan dioceses and to the presbyters and deacons of the principal churches of Rome, the title of cardinal was given to them at first by way of eminence and very soon exclusively. It was not till the 13th century that it became usual to give to foreign prelates the rank of Roman cardinal priests as a mark of distinction. Under the name of the holy college the cardinals, as the spiritual dignitaries most nearly associated with the pope, formed his ecclesiastical and civil council, and were also as such entrusted with the highest offices of state in the papal domains. Innocent IV. at Lyons in A.D. 1245 gave to them as a distinction the red hat; Boniface VIII. in A.D. 1297 gave them the purple mantle that indicated princely rank. To these Paul II. in A.D. 1464 added the right of riding the white palfrey with red cloth and golden bridle; and finally, Urban VIII. in A.D. 1630 gave them the title “Eminence.” Sixtus V. in A.D. 1586 fixed their number at seventy, after the pattern of the elders of Israel, Exod. xxiv. 1, and the seventy disciples of Jesus, Luke x. 1. The popes, however, took care to keep a greater or less number of places vacant, so that they might have opportunities of showing favour and bestowing gifts when necessary. The cardinals were chosen in accordance with the arbitrary will of the individual pope, who nominated them by presenting them with the red hat, and installed them into their high position by the ceremony of closing and opening the mantle. From the time of Eugenius IV., A.D. 1431, the college of cardinals put every newly elected pope under a solemn oath to maintain the rights and privileges of the cardinals and not to come to any serious and important resolution without their advice and approval.

§ 97.2. =The Political Importance of the Superior Clergy= (§ 84) reached its highest point during this period. This was carried furthest in Germany, especially under the Saxon imperial dynasty. On more than one occasion did the wise and firm policy of the German clergy, splendidly organized under the leadership of the primate of Mainz, save the German nation from overthrow or dismemberment threatened by ambitious princes. This power consisted not merely in influence over men’s minds, but also in their position as members of the states of the empire and territorial lords. Whether or not a warlike expedition was to be undertaken depended often only on the consent or refusal of the league of lords spiritual. It was the policy of the clergy to secure a united, strong, well-organized Germany. The surrounding countries wished to be included in the German league of churches and states; not, however, as the emperor wished, as crown lands, but as portions of the empire. Against expeditions to Rome, which took the attention of German princes away from German affairs and ruined Germany, the German clergy protested in the most decided manner. They wished the chair of St. Peter to be free and independent as a European, not a German, institution, with the emperor as its supporter not its oppressor, but they manfully resisted all the assumptions and encroachments of the popes. One of the most celebrated of the German dignitaries of any age was Bruno the Great, brother of the Emperor Otto I., equally distinguished as a statesman and as a reformer of the church, and the unwearied promoter of liberal studies. Chancellor under his imperial brother from A.D. 940, he was his most trusted counsellor, and was appointed by him in A.D. 953 Archbishop of Cologne, and was soon after made Duke of Lorraine. He died in A.D. 965. Another example of a German prelate of the true sort is seen in Willigis of Mainz, who died in A.D. 1011, under the two last Ottos and Henry II., whom he raised to the throne. The good understanding that was brought about between this monarch and the clergy of Germany was in great measure owing to the wise policy of this prelate. Under Henry IV. the German clergy got split up into three parties,--the papal party of Clugny under Gebhard [Gebhardt] of Salzburg, including almost all the Saxon bishops; an imperial party under Adalbert of Bremen, who endeavoured with the emperor’s help to found a northern patriarchate, which undoubtedly tended to become a northern papacy; and an independent German party under St. Anno II. of Cologne (§ 96, 6), in which notwithstanding much violence, ambition, and self-seeking, there still survived much of the spirit that had characterized the policy of the old German bishops. Henry V., too, as well as the first Hohenstaufens, had sturdy supporters in the German clergy; but Frederick II. by his ill treatment of the bishops alienated their clergy from the interest of the crown. The rise of the imperial dignitaries after the time of Otto I., and the transference to them under Otto IV. of the election of emperor raised the archbishops of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne to the rank of spiritual electoral princes as arch-chaplains or archchancellors. The Golden Bull of Charles IV., in A.D. 1356 (§ 110, 4), confirmed and tabulated their rights and duties.

§ 97.3. =The Bishops and the Cathedral Chapter.=--The bishops exercised jurisdiction over all the clergy of their diocese, and punished by deprivation of office and imprisonment in monasteries. Especially questions of marriage, wills, oaths, were brought before their tribunal. The German synodal judicatures soon gave way before the Roman judiciary system. The archdeacons emancipated themselves more and more from episcopal authority and abused their power in so arbitrary a way that in the 12th century the entire institution was set aside. For the discharge of business episcopal officials and vicars were then introduced. The _Chorepiscopi_ (§ 84) had passed out of view in the 10th century. But during the crusades many Catholic bishoprics had been founded in the East. The occupants of these when driven away clung to their titles in hopes of better times, and found employment as assistants or suffragans of Western bishops. Thus arose the order of _Episcopi in partibus (sc. infidelium)_ which has continued to this day, as a witness of inalienable rights, and as affording a constant opportunity to the popes of showing favour and giving rewards. For the exercise of the archiepiscopal office, the Fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215 made the receiving from the pope the pallium (§ 59, 7) an absolutely essential condition, and those elected were obliged to pay to the curia an arbitrary tax of a large amount called the pallium fee. The canonical life (§ 84, 4) from the 10th century began more and more to lose its moral weight and importance. Out of attempts at reform in the 11th century arose the distinction of _Canonici seculares_ and _regulares_. The latter lived in cloisters according to monkish rules, and were zealous for the good old discipline and order, but sooner or later gave way to worldliness. The rich revenues of cathedral chapters made the reversion of prebendal stalls the almost exclusive privilege of the higher nobility, notwithstanding the earnest opposition of the popes. In the course of the 13th century the cathedral clergy, with the help of the popes, arrogated to themselves the sole right of episcopal elections, ignoring altogether the claims of the diocesan clergy and the people or nobles. The cathedral clergy also made themselves independent of episcopal control. They lived mostly outside of the cathedral diocese, and had their canonical duties performed by vicars. The chapter filled up vacancies by co-optation.

§ 97.4. =Endeavours to Reform the Clergy.=--As a reformer of the English clergy, who had sunk very low in ignorance, rudeness and immorality, the most conspicuous figure during the 10th century was =St. Dunstan=. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in A.D. 959 and died in A.D. 988. He sought at once to advance the standard of education among the clergy and to inspire the Church with a higher moral and religious spirit. For these ends he laboured on with an energy and force of will and an inflexible consistency and strictness in the pursuit of his hierarchical ideals, which mark him out as a Hildebrand before Hildebrand. Even as abbot of the monastery of Glastonbury he had given a forecast of his life work by restoring and making more severe the rule of St. Benedict, and forming a brotherhood thoroughly disciplined in science and in ascetical exercises, from the membership of which, after he had become bishop of Worcester, then of London, and finally primate of England and the most influential councillor of four successive kings, he could fill the places of the secular priests and canons whom he expelled from their cures. As the primary condition of all clerical reformation he insisted upon the unrelentingly consistent putting down of marriage and concubinage among the priests.[281]--In the 11th century =St. Peter Damiani= distinguished himself as a zealous supporter of the reform party of Clugny in the struggle against simony, clerical immorality, and the marriage of priests. This obtained for him not only his position as cardinal-bishop of Ostia, but also his frequent employment, as papal legate in serious negotiations. In A.D. 1061 he resigned his bishopric and retired into a monastery, where he died in A.D. 1072. His friend Hildebrand, who repeatedly called him forth from his retreat to occupy a conspicuous place among the contenders for his hierarchical ideal, was therefore called by him his “holy Satan.” He had indeed little interest in pressing hierarchical and political claims, and was inclined rather to urge moral reforms within the church itself. In his _Liber Gomorrhianus_ he drew a fearful picture of the clerical depravity of his times, and that with a nakedness of detail which gave to Pope Alexander II. a colourable excuse for the suppression of the book. For himself, however, Damiani sought no other pleasure than that of scourging himself till the blood flowed in his lonely cell (§ 106, 4). His collected works, consisting of epistles, addresses, tracts and monkish biographies, were published at Rome in A.D. 1602 in 4 vols. by Cardinal Cajetan.--In the 12th century St. Hildegard (§ 107, 1) and the abbot Joachim of Floris, (§ 108, 5) raised their voices against the moral degradation of the clergy, and among the men who contributed largely to the restoring of clerical discipline, the noble provost Geroch of Reichersberg in Bavaria, who died in A.D. 1169 (§ 102, 5) and the canon Norbert, subsequently archbishop of Magdeburg (§ 98, 2), are deserving of special mention.--In the 13th century in England =Robert Grosseteste= distinguished himself as a prelate of great nobility and force of character. After being chancellor of Oxford he became bishop of Lincoln, energetically reforming many abuses in his diocese, and persistently contending against any form of papal encroachment. He died in A.D. 1253.[282]

§ 97.5. =The Pataria of Milan.=--Nowhere during the 11th century were simony, concubinage and priests’ marriages more general than among the Lombard clergy, and in no other place was such determined opposition offered to Hildebrand’s reforms. At the head of this opposition stood Guido, archbishop of Milan, whom Henry III. deposed in A.D. 1046. Against the papal demands, he pressed the old claims of his chair to autonomy (§ 46, 1) and renounced allegiance to Rome. The nobles and the clergy supported Guido. But two deacons, Ariald and Landulf, about A.D. 1057 formed a conspiracy among the common people, against “the Nicolaitan sect” (§ 27, 8). To this party its opponents gave the opprobrious name of Pataria, Paterini, from patalia, meaning rabble, riffraff, or from Pattarea, a back street of ill fame in Milan, the quarter of the rabble, where the Arialdists held their secret meetings. They took the name given in reproach as a title of honour, and after receiving military organization from Erlembald, Landulf’s brother, they opened a campaign against the married priests. For thirty years this struggle continued to deluge city and country with blood.

§ 98. MONASTIC ORDERS AND INSTITUTIONS.

In spite of the great and constantly increasing corruption the monastic idea during this period had a wonderfully rapid development, and more persistently and successfully than ever before or since the monks urged their claims to be regarded as “the knighthood of asceticism.” A vast number of monkish orders arose, taking the place for the most part of existing orders which had relaxed their rules. These were partly reformed off-shoots of the Benedictine order, partly new organizations reared on an independent basis. New monasteries were being built almost every day, often even within the cities. The reformed Benedictine monasteries clustered in a group around the parent monastery whose reformed rule they adopted, forming an organized society with a common centre. These groups were therefore called Congregations. The oldest and, for two centuries, the most important, of these congregations was that of the Brethren of Clugny, whose ardent zeal for reform in the hierarchical direction was mainly instrumental in raising again the church and the papacy out of that degradation and corruption into which they had fallen during the 10th and 11th centuries. The otherwise less important order of the Camaldolites was also a vigorous promoter of these movements. But Clugny had in Clairvaux a rival which shared with it on almost equal terms the respect and reverence of that age. The unreformed monasteries of the Benedictines, on the other hand, still continued their easy, luxurious style of living. They were commonly called the Black Monks to distinguish them from the Cistercians who were known as the White Monks. In order to prevent a constant splitting up of the monkish fraternities, Innocent III. at the Lateran Council of A.D. 1215 forbade the founding of new orders. Yet he himself took part in the formation of the two great mendicant orders, and also the following popes issued no prohibition.--The papacy had in the monkish orders its standing army. It was to them, in a special manner, that Gregory’s system owed its success. But they were also by far the most important promoters and fosterers of learning, science, and art. The pope in various ways favoured the emancipation of the monasteries from episcopal control, their so-called _Exemption_; and conferred upon the abbots of famous monasteries what was practically episcopal rank, with liberty to wear the bishop’s mitre, so that they were called _Mitred Abbots_ (§ 84, 1). The princes too classed the abbots in respect of dignity and order next to the bishops; and the people, who saw the popular idea of the church more and more represented in the monasteries, honoured them with unmeasured reverence. From the 10th century the monks came to be considered a distinct religious order (_Ordo religiosorum_). Lay brethren, _Fratres conversi_, were now taken in to discharge the worldly business of the monastery. They were designated _Fratres_, while the others who received clerical ordination were addressed as _Patres_. The monks rarely lived on good terms with the secular clergy; for the former as confessors and mass priests often seriously interfered with the rights and revenues of the latter.--Besides the many monkish orders, with their strict seclusion, perpetual vows and ecclesiastically sanctioned rule, we meet with organizations of a freer type such as the Humiliati of Milan, consisting of whole families. Of a similar type were the Beguines and Beghards of the Netherlands, the former composed of women, the latter of men. These people abandoned their handicraft and their domestic and civic duties for a monastic-like mode of life retired from the world. The crusading enthusiasm also occasioned a combination of the monastic idea with that of knighthood, and led to the formation of the so-called Orders of Knights, which with a Grandmaster and several Commanders, were divided into Knights, Priests, and Serving Brethren.--Continuation, § 112.

§ 98.1. =Offshoots of the Benedictines.=

1. =The Brethren of Clugny.= Among the Benedictines, since their reformation by the second Benedict (§ 85, 2) many serious abuses had crept in. After the Burgundian Count Berno, who died in A.D. 927, had done useful service by restoring discipline and order in two monasteries of which he was abbot, the Duke William of Aquitaine founded for him a new institution. Thus arose in A.D. 910 the celebrated monastery of Clugny, _Cluniacum_, in Burgundy, which the founder placed under immediate papal control. Berno’s successor Odo, who died in A.D. 942, abandoning the life of a courtier on his recovery from a severe illness, made it the head and heart of a separate Clugny-Congregation as a branch of the Benedictine order. Strict asceticism, a beautiful and artistic service, zealous prosecution of science and the education of the young, with yet greater energy in the promotion of a hierarchical reform of the church as a whole, as well as an entire series of able abbots, among whom Odilo († A.D. 1048), the friend of Hildebrand, and Peter the Venerable († A.D. 1156) are specially prominent, gave to this congregation, which in the 12th century had 2,000 monasteries in France, an influence quite unparalleled in this whole period. The abbot of Clugny stood at the head, and appointed the priors for all the other monasteries. Under the licentious Abbot Pontius, who on account of his base conduct was deposed in A.D. 1122, the order fell into decay, but rose again under Peter the Venerable. Continuation, § 164, 2.

2. =The Congregation of the Camaldolites= was founded in A.D. 1018 by the Benedictine Romuald, descended from the Duke of Ravenna, at Camaldoli (_Campus Maldoli_), a wild district in the Apennines. In A.D. 1086 a nunnery was placed alongside of the monastery. The president of the parent monastery at Camaldoli stood at the head of the whole order as Major. The order carried out enthusiastically the high church ideal of Clugny, and won great influence in its time, although it by no means attained the importance of the French order.

3. Twenty years later, in A.D. 1038, the Florentine Gualbertus founded the =Order of Vallombrosa=, in a romantically situated shady valley of the Apennines (_Vallis umbrosa_), according to the rule of Benedict. This was the first of all the orders to appoint lay brethren for the management of worldly business, in order that the monks might observe their vow of silence and strict seclusion. The parent monastery attained to great wealth and reputation, but it never had a great number of affiliated institutions.

4. =The Cistercians.= In A.D. 1098 the Benedictine abbot Robert founded the monastery of Citeaux (_Cistercium_) near Dijon, which as the parent monastery of the Congregation of the Cistercians became the most formidable rival of Clugny. The Cistercians were distinguished from the Brethren of Clugny by voluntary submission to the jurisdiction of the bishops, avoidance of all interference with the pastorates of others, and the banishing of all ornaments from their churches and monasteries. The order continued obscure for a while, till St. Bernard (§ 102, 3), from A.D. 1115 abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux (Claravallis), an offshoot of Citeaux, by his ability and spirituality raised it far above all other orders in the esteem of the age. In honour of him the French Cistercians took the name of =Bernardines=. The hostility between them and the Brethren of Clugny was overcome by the personal friendship of Bernard and Peter the Venerable. By the statutory constitution, the so-called _Charta charitatis_, drawn up in A.D. 1119, the administration of all the affairs of the order was assigned to a general of the order, appointed by the abbot of Citeaux, the abbots of the four chief affiliated monasteries, and twenty other elected representatives forming a high council. This council, however, was answerable to the general assembly of all the abbots and priors, which met at first yearly, but afterwards every third year. The affiliated monasteries had a yearly visitation of the abbot of Citeaux, but Citeaux itself was to be visited by the four abbots just referred to. In the 13th century this order had 2,000 monasteries and 6,000 nunneries.

5. =The Congregation of Scottish Monasteries= in Germany owed its origin to the persistent love of travel on the part of Irish and Scottish monks, which during the 10th century received a new impulse from the Danish invasions (§ 93, 1). The first monastery erected in Germany for the reception exclusively of Irish monks was that of St. Martin at Cologne, built in the 10th century. Much more important, however, was the Scottish monastery of St. James at Regensburg, founded in A.D. 1067 by Marianus Scotus and two companions. It was the parent monastery of eleven other Scottish cloisters in South Germany. Old Celtic sympathies (§ 77, 8), which may have originally bound them together, could not assert themselves in the new home during this period as they did in earlier days; and when Innocent III., at the Lateran Council of A.D. 1215, sanctioned them as a separate congregation bound by the Benedictine rule, there certainly remained no longer any trace of Celtic peculiarities. They were distinguished at first for strict asceticism, severe discipline and scientific activity, but subsequently they fell lower than all the rest in immorality and self-indulgence (§ 112).

§ 98.2. =New Monkish Orders.=--Reserving the great mendicant orders, the following are the most celebrated among the vast array of new orders, not bound by the Benedictine rule:

1. =The Order of Grammont= in France, founded by Stephen of Ligerno in A.D. 1070. It took simply the gospel as its rule, cultivated a quiet, humble and peaceable temper, and so by the 12th century it had its very life crushed out of it by the bold assumptions of its lay brethren.

2. =The Order of St. Anthony=, founded in A.D. 1095 by a French nobleman of Dauphiny [Dauphiné], called Guaston, in gratitude for the recovery of his son Guérin from the so-called St. Anthony’s fire on his invoking St. Anthony. He expended his whole property upon the restoring of a hospital beside the church of St. Didier la Mothe, in a chapel of which it was supposed the bones of Anthony lay, and devoted himself, together with his son and some other companions, to the nursing of the sick. At first merely a lay fraternity, the members took in A.D. 1218 the monk’s vow. Boniface VIII. made them canons under the rule of St. Augustine (§ 45, 1). They were now called Antonians, and devoted themselves to contemplation. The order spread greatly, especially in France. They wore a black cloak with a T-formed cross of blue upon the breast (Ezek. ix. 9) and a little bell round the neck while engaged in collecting alms.

3. =The Order of Fontevraux= was founded in A.D. 1094 by Robert of Arbrissel in Fontevraux (_Fons Ebraldi_) in Poitou. Preaching repentance, he went through the country, and founded convents for virgins, widows and fallen women. Their abbesses, as representatives of the Mother of God, to whom the order was dedicated, were set over the priests who did their bidding.

4. =The Order of the Gilbertines= had its name from its founder Gilbert, an English priest of noble birth. Here too the women formed the main stem of the order. They were the owners of the cloister property, and the men were only its administrators. The monasteries of this order were mostly both for men and women. It did not spread much beyond England, and had at the time of the suppression of the monasteries twenty-one well endowed convents, with orphanages and houses for the poor and sick.

5. =The Carthusian Order= was founded in A.D. 1086 by Bruno of Cologne, rector of the High School at Rheims. Disgusted with the immoral conduct of Archbishop Manasseh, he retired with several companions into a wild mountain gorge near Grenoble, called Chartreuse. He enjoined upon his monks strict asceticism, rigid silence, earnest study, prayer, and a contemplative life, clothed them in a great coarse cowl, and allowed them for their support only vegetables and bran bread. Written statutes, _Consuetudines Cartusiæ_, which soon spread over several houses of the Carthusians, were first given them in A.D. 1134 by Guido, the fifth prior of the parent monastery. A steward had management of the affairs of the convent. Each ate in his own cell; only on feast days had they a common meal. At least once a week they fasted on salt, water and bread. Breaking silence, permitted only on high festivals, and for two hours on Thursdays, was punished with severe flagellation. Even the lay brethren were treated with great severity, and were not allowed either to sit or to cover their heads in the presence of the brothers of the order. Carthusian nuns were added to the order in the 13th century with a modified rule.

6. =The Premonstratensian Order= was founded in A.D. 1121 by Norbert, the only German founder of orders besides and after Bruno. A rich, worldly-minded canon of Xanthen in the diocese of Cologne, he was brought to another mind by the fall of a thunderbolt beside him. He retired along with several other like-minded companions into the rough valley of Prémontré in the bishopric of Laon (_Præmonstratum_, because pointed out to him in a vision). In his rule he joined together the canonical duties with an extremely strict monastic life. He appeared in A.D. 1126 as a preacher of repentance at the Diet of Spires, was there elected archbishop of Magdeburg, and made a most impressive entrance into his metropolis dressed in his mendicant garb. His order spread and established many convents both for monks and for nuns.

7. =The Trinitarian Order=, _ordo s. Trinitatis de redemptione captivorum_, was called into existence by Innocent III., and had for its work the redemption of Christian captives.

8. =The Cœlestine Order= was founded by Peter of Murrone, afterwards Pope Cœlestine V. (§ 96, 22). Living in a cave of Mount Murrone in Apulia, under strict penitential discipline and engaged in mystic contemplation, the fame of his sanctity attracted to him many companions, with whom in A.D. 1254 he established a monastery on Mount Majella. Gregory X., in whose presence Peter, according to his biographer, hung up his monkish cowl in empty space, upon a sunbeam which he took for a cord stretching across, instituted the order as Brethren of the Holy Spirit. But when in A.D. 1294 their founder ascended the papal throne, they took his papal name. This order, which gave itself up entirely to extravagant mystic contemplation, spread over Italy, France and the Netherlands.

§ 98.3. =The Beginnings of the Franciscan Order down to A.D. 1219.=--The founder of this order was =St. Francis=, born in A.D. 1182, son of a rich merchant of Assisi in Umbria. His proper name was Giovanni Bernardone. The name of Francis is said to have been given him on account of his early proficiency in the French language; “Francesco”--the little Frenchman. As a wealthy merchant’s son, he gave himself to worldly pleasures, but was withdrawn from these, in A.D. 1207, by means of a severe illness. A dream, in which he saw a multitude with the sign of the cross, bearing weapons designed for him and his companions, led him to resolve upon a military career. But a new vision taught him that he was called to build up the fallen house of God. He understood this of a ruined chapel of St. Damiani at Assisi, and began to apply the proceeds of valuable cloth fabrics from his father’s factory to its restoration. Banished for such conduct from his father’s house, he lived for a time as a hermit, until the gospel passage read in church of the sending forth of the disciples without gold or silver, without staff or scrip (Matt. x.), fell upon his soul like a thunderbolt. Divesting himself of all his property, supplying the necessaries of life by the meanest forms of labour, even begging when need be, he went about the country from A.D. 1209, sneered at by some as an imbecile, revered by others as a saint, preaching repentance and peace. In the unexampled power of his self-denial and renunciation of the world, in the pure simplicity of his heart, in the warmth of his love to God and man, in the blessed riches of his poverty, St. Francis was like a heavenly stranger in a selfish world. Wonderful, too, and powerful in its influence was the depth of his natural feeling. With the birds of the forest, with the beasts of the field, he held intercourse in childlike simplicity as with brothers and sisters, exhorting them to praise their Creator. The paradisiacal relation of man to the animal world seemed to be restored in the presence of this saint.--Very soon he gathered around him a number of like-minded men, who under his direction had decided to devote themselves to a similar vocation. For the society of “_Viri pœnitentiales de civitate Assisii oriundi_” thus formed Francis issued, in A.D. 1209, a rule, at the basis of which lay a literal acceptance of the precepts of Christ to His disciples, sent forth to preach the kingdom of God (Matt. x.; Luke x.), along with similar gospel injunctions (Matt. xix. 21, 29; Luke vi. 29; ix. 23; xiv. 26), and then he went to Rome to get for it the papal confirmation. The pope was, indeed, unwilling; but through the pious man’s simplicity and humility he was prevailed upon to grant his request. In later times this incident was in popular tradition transformed into a legend, representing the pope as at first bidding him go to attend the swine, which the holy man literally obeyed. =Innocent III.= was the more inclined to yield, owing to the painful experiences through which the church had passed in consequence of its unwise treatment of similar proposals made by the Waldensians thirty years before. He therefore gave at least verbal permission to Francis and his companions to live and teach according to this rule. At the same time also Francis heartily responded to the demand to place at the head of his rule the obligation to obey and reverence the pope, and to conclude with a vow of the most rigid avoidance of every kind of addition, abatement, or change. There was no thought of founding a new monkish order, but only of a free union and a wandering life, amid apostolic poverty, for preaching repentance and salvation by word and example. On entering the society the brothers were required to distribute all their possessions among the poor, and dress in the poor clothing of the order, consisting of a coarse cloak bound with a cord and a capouch, to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God wherever their master sent them, and to earn their livelihood by their usual occupation, or any other servile work. In case of need they were even to beg the necessaries of life. Thus mendicancy, though only allowed in case of necessity, soon came to be transformed by the lustre of the example of the poverty of Jesus and His disciples and mother, who all had lived upon alms, and by the idea of a twofold merit attaching to self-abnegation, inasmuch as not only the receiver, by voluntarily submitting to the disgrace which it involved in the eyes of the world, but also the giver of alms, obtained before the judgment seat of God a great reward. But neither as wages for work nor as alms were the brothers permitted to accept money, but only the indispensable means of life, while that which remained after their own wants had been supplied was divided among the poor. From time to time they withdrew, either singly or in little groups, for prayer, contemplation, and spiritual exercises into deserts, caves, or deserted huts; and annually at Pentecost they assembled for mutual edification and counsel in the small chapel at Assisi, dedicated to “Mary of the Angel,” given to St. Francis by the Benedictines. This church, under the name of the _Portiuncula_, became the main centre of the order, and all who visited it on the day of its consecration received from the pope a plenary indulgence. The number of the brothers meanwhile increased from day to day. When representatives of all ranks in society and of all the various degrees of culture sought admission, it soon became evident that the obligation to preach, hitherto enjoined upon all the members of the order, should be restricted to those who were specially qualified for the work, and that the rest should take care to carry out in their personal lives the ideal of poverty, joined with loving service in institutions for the poor, the sick, and the lepers. A further move in the development of the order, tending to secure for it an independent ecclesiastical position, was the admission into it of ordained priests. Their missionary activity among Christian people was restricted at first to Umbria and the neighbouring districts of central Italy. But soon the thought of a missionary vocation among the unbelievers got possession of the mind of the founder. Even in A.D. 1212 he himself undertook for this purpose a journey to the East, to Syria, and afterwards to Morocco; in neither case, however, were his efforts attended with any very signal success. In A.D. 1218, Elias of Cortona, with some companions, again took up the mission to Syria, with equally little success; and in A.D. 1219 five brethren were again sent to Morocco, and there won the crown of martyrdom. In that same year, A.D. 1219, the Pentecost assembly at Assisi passed the resolution to include within the range of their call as itinerants the sending of missions, with a “_minister_” at the head of each, into all the Christian countries of Europe. They began immediately, privileged with a papal letter of recommendation to the higher secular clergy and heads of orders in France, to carry out the resolution in France, Spain, Portugal, and Germany; while at the same time Francis himself, accompanied by twelve brethren, again turned his steps toward the East.

§ 98.4. =The Franciscans from A.D. 1219 to A.D. 1223.=--Soon after the departure of St. Francis the report of his death spread through Italy, and loosened the bonds which, by reason of the obligation to render him obedience hitherto operative, had secured harmony among the brethren. Francis had, on the basis of Luke x. 7, 8, laid upon his companions only the commonly accepted rules of fasting, but the observance of a more rigorous fast required his own special permission. Now, however, some rigorists, at a convention of the elders, gave expression to the opinion, that the brethren should be enjoined to fast not as hitherto, like all the rest of Christendom, only on two, but on four, days of the week, a resolution which not only removed the rule altogether from its basis in Luke x. 7, 8, but also broke the solemn promise to observe the wish of Innocent III., incorporated in it, that in no particular should it be altered. And while the rule forbade any intercourse with women, brother Philip obtained a papal bull which appointed him representative of the order of “poor women,” afterwards the Nuns of St. Clara, founded in A.D. 1212 on the model of the Franciscan ideal of poverty. Another brother, John of Capella, sought to put himself at the head of an independent order of poor men and women. Many such projects were being planned. So soon as news reached Francis of these vagaries, he returned to Italy, accompanied by his favourite pupil, the energetic, wise, and politic Elias of Cortona, whose organizing and governing talent was kept within bounds down to the founder’s death. Perceiving that all these confusions had arisen from the want of a strictly defined organization, legitimized by the pope and under papal protection, Francis now endeavoured to secure such privileges for his order. He therefore entreated Honorius III. to appoint Cardinal Ugolino of Ostia, afterwards Pope Gregory IX., previously a zealous promoter of his endeavours, as protector and governor of his brotherhood; and he soon with a strong hand put a stop to all secessionist movements in the community. A vigorous effort was now made by the brotherhood, suggested and encouraged by the papal chair, to carry out a scheme of transformation, by means of which the order, which had hitherto confined itself to simple religious and ascetic duties, should become an independent and powerful monkish order, to place it “with the whole force of its religious enthusiasm, with its extraordinary flexibility and its mighty influences over the masses, at the service of the papacy, and to turn it into a standing army of the pope, ever ready to obey his will in the great movements convulsing the church and the world of that time.” Honorius III. took the first step in this direction by a bull addressed, in Sept., A.D. 1220, to Francis himself and the superiors of his order, there styled “_Ordo fratrum minorum_,” by which a novitiate of one year and an irrevocable vow of admission were prescribed, the wearing of the official dress made its exclusive privilege, and jurisdiction given to its own tribunal to deal with all its members. Francis was now also obliged, willing or unwilling, to agree to a revision of his rule. This new rule was probably confirmed or at least approved at the famous Pentecost chapter held at the Portiuncula chapel in A.D. 1221, called the “_Mat Chapter_” (_C. storearum_), because the brethren assembled there lived in tents made of rush-mats.[283] It is, as Carl Müller has incontestably proved, this same rule which was formerly regarded by all as the first rule composed in A.D. 1209. The older rule, however, formed in every particular its basis, and the enlargements and modifications rendered necessary by the adoption of the new ideas appear so evidently as additions, that the two different constituents can even yet with tolerable certainty be distinguished from one another, and so the older rule can be reconstructed. But the development and modification of the order necessarily proceeding in the direction indicated soon led to a gradual reformation of the rule, which in this new form was solemnly and formally ratified by Honorius III. in November, A.D. 1223, as possessing henceforth definite validity. In it the requirement of the literal acceptance of the commands of Jesus on sending out His disciples in Matthew x. and Luke x. is no longer made the basis and pattern, as in the two earlier rules, but all the stress is laid rather upon the imitation of the lives of poverty led by Jesus and His apostles; as an offset to the renunciation of all property, the obligation to earn their own support by work was now set aside, and the practice of mendicancy was made their proper object in life, came indeed to be regarded as constituting the special ideal and sanctity of the order, which in consequence was now for the first time entitled to be called a =mendicant or begging order=. At its head stood a _general-minister_, and all communications between the order and the holy see were conducted through a _cardinal-protector_. The mission field of the order, comprising the whole world, was divided into _provinces_ with a _provincial-minister_, and the provinces into _custodies_ with a _custos_ at its head.--Every third year at Pentecost the general called together the provincials and custodes to a general chapter, and the custodes assembled the brethren of their dioceses as required in provincial and custodial chapters. The dress of the order remained the same. The usual requirement to go barefoot, however, was modified by the permission in cases of necessity, on journeys and in cold climates, to wear shoes or sandals.

§ 98.5. =The Franciscans from A.D. 1223.=--There was no mention in the rule of A.D. 1223 of any sort of fixed place of abode either in cloisters or in houses of their own. The life of the order was thus conceived of as a homeless and possessionless pilgrimage; and as for the means of life they were dependent on what they got by begging, so also it was considered that for the shelter of a roof they should depend upon the hospitable. The gradual transition from a purely itinerant life had already begun by the securing of fixed residences at definite points in the transalpine district and first of all in Germany. After the first sending forth of disciples in A.D. 1219, without much attention to rule and without much plan, had run its course there with scarcely any success, a more thoroughly organized mission, under the direction of brother Cæsarius of Spires, consisting of twelve clerical and thirteen lay brethren, including John v. Piano Cupini, Thomas v. Celano, Giordano v. Giano, was sent by the “_Mat Chapter_” of A.D. 1221 to Germany, which, strengthened by oft-repeated reinforcements, carried on from A.D. 1228 a vigorous propaganda in Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and Norway. In accordance with the rule of A.D. 1223 Germany as forming one province was divided into five custodies, but in A.D. 1230 into two distinct provinces, the Rhineland and Saxony, with a corresponding number of custodies. Even more brilliant was the success attending the mission to England in A.D. 1224. On their missionary tours the brethren took up their residence temporarily in hospitals and leper houses, or in hospitable parsonages and private houses, and preached by preference in the open air, where the people flocked around them in crowds, occasionally at the invitation of a bishop or priest in the churches. Presents of lands gave them the opportunity of erecting convents of their own, with churches and burying-grounds for themselves, which, placed under the charge of a guardian, soon increased in number and importance. The begging, which was now made the basis of the whole institution, was regulated by the principle, that, besides the benefactions voluntarily paid into the cloister, monks sent forth at particular terms, hence called Terminants[284] with a beggar’s bag, should beg about for the necessaries of life. With agriculture and industrial work, and generally all bodily labour, the brothers had nothing to do. On the contrary, what was altogether foreign to the intention of the founder and their rules, and so originating not from within the order itself, but from without, first of all by the admission of scientifically cultured priests, a strong current set in in favour of scientific studies, stimulated by their own personal ambition as well as by rivalry with the Dominicans. These scholarly pursuits soon yielded abundant fruit, which raised the reputation, power, and influence of the order to such a height, that it has been enabled to carry out in all details the task assigned it in the papal polity. Architecture, painting, and poetry also found among the members of the order distinguished cultivators and ornaments.--Supported by accumulating papal privileges, which, for example, gave immunity from all episcopal jurisdiction and supervision, and allowed its clergy the right in all parts, not only of preaching, but also of reading mass and hearing confessions, and aided in its course of secularization by papal modifications and alterations of its rule, which permitted the obtaining and possessing rich cloister property, the order of Minor Brothers or Minorites soon could boast of an extension embracing several thousands of cloisters.--Francis, wasted by long-continued sickness and by increasing infirmities, was found dead, in A.D. 1226, stretched on the floor of the Portiuncula chapel. Two years afterwards he was canonized by Gregory IX., and in A.D. 1230 there was a solemn translation of his relics to the beautiful basilica built in his honour at Assisi. The legend, that a seraph during his last years had imprinted upon him the bloody wound-prints or stigmata of the Saviour was also turned to account for the glorification of the whole order, which now assumed the epithet “_seraphic_.”--The one who possessed most spiritual affinity to his master of all the disciples of St. Francis, and after him most famous among his contemporaries and posterity, was =St. Anthony of Padua=. Born in A.D. 1195 at Lisbon, when an Augustinian canon at Coimbra he was, in A.D. 1220, received into the communion of the Minorites, when the relics of the five martyrs of Morocco were deposited there, and thereupon he undertook a mission to Africa. But a severe sickness obliged him to return home, and driven out of his course by a storm, he landed at Messina, from whence he made a pilgrimage to Assisi. The order now turned his learning to account by appointing him teacher of theology, first at Bologna, then at Montpellier. For three years he continued as custos in the south of France, going up and down through the land as a powerful preacher of repentance, till the death of the founder and the choice of a successor called him back to Italy. He died at Padua in A.D. 1231. The pope canonized him in A.D. 1232, and in A.D. 1263 his relics were enshrined in the newly built beautiful church at Padua dedicated to him. Among the numerous tales of prodigies, which are said to have accompanied his goings wherever he went, the best known and most popular is, that when he could obtain no ready hearing for his doctrine among men, he preached on a lonely sea-shore to shoals of fishes that crowded around to listen. His writings, sermons, and a biblical concordance, under the title _Concordantiæ Morales SS. Bibliorum_, are often printed along with the _Letters, Hymns, Testament_, etc., ascribed to St. Francis.--Among the legends of the order still extant about the life of St. Francis is the _Vita I._ of Thomas of Celano, written in A.D. 1229, the oldest and relatively the most impartial. On the other hand, the later biographies, especially that of the so-called _Tres socii_ and the _Vita II._ of Thomas, which has been made accessible by the Roman edition of Amoni of 1880, written contemporaneously somewhere about A.D. 1245, as well as that of St. Bonaventura of A.D. 1263, recognised by the chapter of the order as the only authoritative form of the legends, are all more or less influenced by the party strifes that had arisen within its ranks, while all are equally overladen with reports of miracles. In A.D. 1399, by authority of the general chapter at Assisi, the “_Liber Conformitatum_” of Bartholomew of Pisa pointed out forty resemblances between Christ and St. Francis, in which the saint has generally the advantage over the Saviour. In the Reformation times an anonymous German version of this book was published by Erasmus Alber with a preface by Luther, under the title, _Der Barfüssermönche Eulenspiegel und Alkoran_, Wittenberg, 1542. The most trustworthy contemporary source of information has been only recently again rendered accessible to us in the _Memorabilia de Primitiv. Fratrum in Teutoniam Missorum Conversatione et Vita_ of the above-named Giordano of Giano, embracing the years 1207-1238, which G. Voigt discovered among his father’s papers, and has published with a full and comprehensive introduction. The Franciscans of Quaracchi near Florence have re-edited it “after the unique Berlin manuscript,” as well as the supplementary document, the _De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Anglia_, in the first volume of their _Analecta Franciscana, Quar._, 1885.--Thode, in his _Fr. v. A. und die Anfänge d. Kunst d. Renaissance in Ital._ (Berl., 1885), has described in a thorough and brilliant style the mighty influence which St. Francis and his order exerted upon the development of art in Italy, especially of painting and architecture, as well as of poetry in the vernacular; for he has shown how the peculiar and close relation in which the saint stood to nature gave the first effective impulse to the emancipation of art from the trammels of formalism, and how the new artistic tendency, inspired by his spirit, was first given expression to in the building and adorning of the basilica at Assisi dedicated to him.[285]

§ 98.6. =Party Divisions within the Franciscan Order.=--That the founder was by no means wholly in sympathy with the tendency which prevailed in his order from A.D. 1221, and only tolerated what he was no longer in a position to prevent, might have been guessed from the fact that from that time he withdrew himself more and more from the supreme direction of the order, and made it over to =Elias of Cortona=, as his general-vicar, who in existing circumstances was better fitted for the task. But from his _Testament_ it appears quite evident that he strictly adhered to the views of his early days, and even attempted a last but fruitless reaction against the tendency to worldly conformity that had set in. Thus, for example, it still puts all the brethren under obligation to perform honourable labour, and will allow them to beg only in case of necessity, but especially forbids them most distinctly by their sacred vow of obedience from asking any privilege from the papal chair, or altering the simple literal meaning of the rule of the order, and of this his last will and testament by addition, abatement, or change. After his death, on 4th October, 1226, Elias retained in his hand the regency till the next meeting of the Pentecost chapter; but then he was deprived of office by the election of John Pareus as general-minister, a member of the stricter party. Meanwhile the increasing number and wealth of their cloisters and churches, with their appurtenances, made it absolutely necessary that the brethren should face the question how the holding of such possessions was to be reconciled with the strict injunction of poverty in the sixth chapter of their rule, according to which “the brothers are to possess nothing of their own, neither a house, nor an estate, nor anything whatsoever, but are to go about for alms as strangers and pilgrims in this world.” At the next general chapter, in A.D. 1230, this question came up for discussion, along with that of the validity of the testament above referred to. When they could not agree among themselves, it was decided, in spite of all the protestations of the general, to request by a deputation the advice of the pope, Gregory IX., on this and certain other disputed questions. With reference to the testament, the pope declared that its demands, because issued without the consent and approval of the general chapter, could not be binding upon the order. With reference to the property question, he repudiated the rendering of the rule in such a way as if in this, just as in all other orders, only the possession of property on the part of individual brothers was forbidden; but the membership of the order as a whole could not be prevented from holding property, as directly contrary to the literal statements of the rule, without, however, entering upon the question as to whose property the movables and immovables standing really at the call of the order were to be considered. And as he had at an earlier date, on the occasion of sending a new Minorite mission to Morocco, granted as a privilege to the order to take alms in money, which was allowed by the rule only for the support of sick brethren, for the reason that without money they would not be able there to procure the necessaries of life, so he now extended this permission for other purposes essential to the good of the order, _e.g._ building and furnishing of cloisters and churches, as not contrary to the rule, if the collecting and spending of the money is carried on, not by members of the order, but by procurators chosen for the work. It was probably to this victory of the lax party that Elias owed his elevation at the next election, in A.D. 1332, to the office of general. It also enabled him to maintain his position for seven years, during which he showed himself particularly active and efficient, not only as general of the order, but also in political negotiations with the princes of Italy, especially as mediator between the pope and the emperor, Gregory IX. and Frederick II. But his government of the order in a despotic and lordly manner, and his reckless endeavours to conform to worldly customs, intensified the bitterness of his pious opponents, and his growing friendliness with the emperor lost him the favour of the pope. And so it came about that his overthrow was accomplished at the general chapter in Rome, in A.D. 1239. He now openly passed over into the service of the emperor, against whom the ban had anew been issued, accompanied him on his military campaigns, and inveighed unsparingly against the pope in public speeches. As partisan of the banned emperor, already _de jure_ excommunicated, the ban was pronounced against him personally in A.D. 1244, and he was expelled from the order. He died in A.D. 1253, reconciled with the church after a penitential recantation and apology. His four immediate successors in the generalship all belonged to the strict party; but the growing estrangement of the order from the interests and purposes of the curia, especially too its relations to the _Evangelium æternum_, pronounced heretical in A.D. 1254 (§ 108, 5), produced a reaction, in consequence of which the general, John of Parma, was deprived of office in A.D. 1257. With his successor, St. Bonaventura, the opposition succeeded to the undisputed control of the order. The difficult question, how the really pre-eminently rich cloister property was to be reconciled with the rule of the order requiring absolute abandonment of all possessions, found now among the preponderating lax party, the so-called =Fratres de communitate=, its solution in the assertion, that the goods in their hands had been bestowed upon them by the donors only in usufruct, or even that they were presented not so much to the order, as rather to the Romish Church, yet with the object of supporting the order. Nicholas III., in A.D. 1279, legitimated the theory, for he decided the question in dispute in his bull _Exiit qui seminat_, by saying that it is allowed to the disciples of St. Francis to hold earthly goods in usufruct, but not in absolute possession, as this is demanded by the example of Christ and His apostles. But now arose a new controversy, over the form and measure of using with a distinction of a _usus moderatus_ and a _usus tenuis_ or _pauper_, the latter permitting no store even of the indispensable necessaries of life beyond what is absolutely required to satisfy present needs. Those, on the other hand, who were dissatisfied with the principles affirmed in the papal bull, the =Spirituales= or _Zelatores_, with Peter John de Oliva and Ubertino de Casale at their head, assumed an attitude of open, fanatical opposition to the papacy, identifying it with antichrist (§ 108, 6). A section of them, which, besides the points about poverty, took offence at the lax party also over questions of clothing reform, obtained permission from Cœlestine V., in A.D. 1294, to separate from the main body of the order, and, under the name of =Cœlestine Eremites=, to form an independent communion with a general of their own. They settled for the most part in Greece and on the islands of the Archipelago. Boniface VIII., in A.D. 1302, peremptorily insisted upon their return to the West and to the present order. But as he died soon after, even those who had returned continued their separate existence and their distinctive dress.--Continuation, § 112, 2.

§ 98.7. =The Dominican or Preaching Order.=--=St. Dominic=, to whom this order owes its origin, was born, in A.D. 1170, at Calaruega, in Old Castile, of a distinguished family (De Guzman?). As a learned Augustinian canon at Osma, he had already wrought zealously for the conversion of Mohammedans and heretics, when Bishop Diego of Osma, entrusted in A.D. 1204, by King Alphonso VIII. with obtaining a bride for his son Ferdinand, took him as one of his travelling retinue. The sudden death of the bride, a Danish princess, rendered the undertaking nugatory. On their homeward journey they met at Montpellier with the Cistercian mission, sent out for the conversion of the Albigensians (§ 109, 1), the utter failure of which had become already quite apparent. Dominic, inflamed with holy zeal, prevailed upon his bishop to enter along with himself upon the work already almost abandoned in despair; and after the bishop’s early death, in A.D. 1206, he carried on the enterprise at his own hand. For Albigensian women, converted by him, he founded a sort of conventual asylum at Prouille, and a house at Toulouse, which was soon afterwards gifted to him, became the first centre where his disciples gathered around him, whence by-and-by they removed into the cloister of St. Romanus, assigned to them by Bishop Fulco. During the Albigensian crusade, the thought ripened in his mind that he might secure a firmer basis and more powerful support for his enterprise by founding a new, independent order, whose proper and exclusive task should be the combating and preventing of heresy by instruction, preaching, and disputation. In order to obtain for this proposal ecclesiastical sanction, he accompanied his patron, Bishop Fulco of Toulouse, in A.D. 1215, to the Fourth Lateran Council at Rome. But pope and council seemed little disposed to favour his idea. The former, indeed, sought rather to persuade him to join some existing ecclesiastical institution, and carry out his scheme under its organization. Consequently Dominic, with his sixteen companions, resolved to adopt the rule of St. Augustine, augmented by several Præmonstratensian articles. When, however, Honorius III. had ascended the papal chair, Dominic hastened again to Rome, and in A.D. 1216 obtained from this pope without difficulty what Innocent III. had refused him, namely, permission to found a new, independent order, with the privilege of preaching and hearing confession everywhere. Then, and also subsequently, he preached frequently with great acceptance to those living in the papal palace, and thus an opportunity was afforded of establishing the office of a _magister sacri palatii_, or papal court preacher, which was immediately occupied, and has ever since continued to be held, by a Dominican. At a later period the supreme censorship of books was also assigned to this same official. The first general chapter of the order met at Bologna in A.D. 1220. There the vow of poverty, which was hitherto insisted upon only in the sense of all the earlier orders as a mere abandonment of property on the part of individuals, was put in a severer form, so that even the order as such kept itself free from every kind of possession of earthly goods and revenues, except the bare cloister buildings, and exhorted all its adherents to live only on begged alms. Thus the Dominicans, even earlier than the Franciscans, whose rule then permitted begging only in case of need, constituted themselves into a regular mendicant order. Dominic, however, chose voluntary poverty for himself and his disciples, not like St. Francis simply for the purpose of securing personal holiness, but rather only to obtain a perfectly free course for his work in the salvation of others. The official designation, “=Ordo fratrum Prædicatum=,” was also fixed at this chapter.[286] At the second general chapter, in A.D. 1221, there were already representatives from sixty cloisters out of eight provinces. Dominic died soon after, at Bologna, on 6th August, 1221, uttering anathemas against any one who should corrupt his order by bestowing earthly goods upon it. He was canonized by Gregory IX. in A.D. 1233. His immediate successor, Jordanus, wrote his first biography, adorned, as we might expect, with endless miracles.

§ 98.8. According to the constitutional rules of the order, collected and revised by the third general of the order, Raimund de Pennaforte, about A.D. 1238, the general who stands at the head of the whole order, residing at Rome, _magister generalis_, is elected to office for life at the general chapter held annually at Pentecost, and he nominates his own _socii_ as advisory assistants. The government of the provinces is conducted by a provincial chosen every four years by the provincial chapter, assisted by four advisory _definitores_, and each cloister elects its own prior. The mode of life was determined by strict rules, severe fasts were enjoined, involving strict abstinence from the use of flesh, and during particular hours of the day absolute silence had to be observed. In the matter of clothing, only woollen garments were allowed. The dress consisted of a white frock with white scapular and a small peaked capouch; but outside of the cloister a black cloak with capouch was worn over it. From the favourite play upon the name Dominican, _Domini canes_, in contrast to the dumb dogs of Isaiah lvi. 10, the order adopted as its coat of arms a dog with the torch of truth in its mouth. The special vocation of the order as preachers and opponents of heresy required a thorough scientific training. Every province of the order was therefore expected to have a seminary capable of giving a superior theological education to the members of the order, to which they gave the name of a _studium generale_, borrowed from the universities, although the predicate was here used in a sense much more restricted (comp. § 99, 3). But ambitious desires for scientific reputation incited them to obtain authority for instituting theological chairs in the University of Paris, the most celebrated theological seminary of that age. The endeavour was favoured by a conflict of Queen Blanca with the Parisian doctors, in consequence of which they left the city and for a time gathered their students around them partly at Rheims, partly at Angers, while the Dominicans, encouraged by the bishop, established their first chair in the vacant places in A.D. 1230. The Franciscans too accomplished the same end about this time. The old professors on their return used every means in their power to drive out the intruders, but were completely beaten after almost thirty years of passionate conflict, and the nurture of scholastic theology was henceforth all but a monopoly of the two mendicant orders (§ 103, 3). The art of ecclesiastical architecture and painting, which during this age reached a hitherto unattained degree of perfection, found many of its most distinguished ornaments and masters in the preaching order. And in zeal for missions to the Mohammedans and the heathen the Franciscans alone could be compared with them. But the order reached the very climax of its reputation, influence, and power when Gregory IX., in A.D. 1232, assigned to it exclusive control of the inquisition of heretics (§ 109, 2).--The veneration of the devout masses of the people, who preferred to confide their secret confessions to the itinerant monks, roused against both orders the hatred of the secular clergy, the preference shown them by the popes awakened the envy of the other orders, and their success in scientific pursuits brought down upon them the ill-will of the learned. Circumstances thus rendered it necessary for a long time that the two orders should stand well together for united combat and defence. But after all those hindrances had been successfully overcome, the rivalry that had been suppressed owing to temporary community of interests broke out all the more bitterly in the endeavour to secure world-wide influence, intensified by opposing philosophico-dogmatic theories (§ 113, 2), as well as by the difference in the interpretation and explanation of the doctrine of poverty, in regard to which they strove with one another in the most violent and passionate manner (§ 112, 2). From having in their hands the administration of the Inquisition the preaching order obtained an important advantage over the Minorites; while these, on the other hand, were far more popular among the common people than the proud, ambitious Dominicans, who occupied themselves with high civil and ecclesiastical politics as counsellors and confessors of the princes and the nobles.--Continuation, § 112, 4.

§ 98.9. To each of the =two mendicant orders= there was at an early date attached a female branch, which was furnished by the saint who founded the original order with a rule adapting his order’s ideal of poverty to the female vocation, and therefore designated and regarded as his “second order.”

1. The female conventual asylum, founded in A.D. 1206 at Prouille, may be considered the first cloister of =Dominican nuns=. The principal cloister and another institution, however, was the convent of _San Sisto_ in Rome, given to St. Dominic for this purpose by Honorius III. In all parts of Christendom where the preaching order settled there now appeared female cloisters under the supervision and jurisdiction of its provincial superior, with seclusion, strict asceticism, passing their time in contemplation, and conforming as closely as possible to the mode of life and style of clothing prescribed for the male cloisters. This institution was presided over by a prioress.

2. The order of the =Nuns of St. Clara=, as “_the second order of St. Francis_,” was founded by =St. Clara of Assisi=. Born of a distinguished family, endowed with great physical beauty, and destined to an early marriage, in her eighteenth year, in A.D. 1212, she was powerfully impressed by the teaching of St. Francis, so that she resolved completely to abandon the world and its vanities. She proved the earnestness of her resolve by obeying the trying requirement of the saint to go through the streets of the city clad in a penitent’s cloak, begging alms for the poor. On Palm Sunday at the Portiuncula chapel she took at the hand of her chosen spiritual father the three vows. Her younger sister Agnes, along with other maidens, followed her example. Francis assigned to this union of “poor women” as a conventual residence the church of St. Damiani restored by him, from which they were sometimes called the _Nuns of St. Damiani_. When in A.D. 1219 St. Francis undertook his journey to the east, he commended them to the care of Cardinal Ugolino, who prescribed for them the rule of the Benedictine nuns; but after the saint’s return they so incessantly entreated him to draw up a rule for themselves, that he at last, in A.D. 1224, prepared one for them and obtained for it the approval of the pope. Clara died in A.D. 1253, and was canonized by Innocent IV. in A.D. 1255. Her order spread very widely in more than 2,000 cloisters, and can boast not only of having received 150 daughters of kings and princes, but also of having enriched heaven with an immense number of beatified and canonized virgins.

§ 98.10. =The other Mendicant Orders.=--The brilliant success of the Franciscans and Dominicans led other societies, either previously existing, or only now called into being, to adopt the character of mendicants. Only three of them succeeded, though in a much less degree than their models, in gaining position, name and extension throughout the West. The first of these was the =Carmelite Order=. It owed its origin to the crusader Berthold, Count of Limoges, who in A.D. 1156 founded a monastery at the brook of Elias on Mount Carmel, to which in A.D. 1209 the patriarch of Jerusalem prescribed the rule of St. Basil (§ 44, 3). Hard pressed by the Saracens, the Carmelites emigrated in A.D. 1238 to the West, where as a mendicant order, under the name of _Frates Mariæ de Monte Carmelo_, with unexampled hardihood they repudiated their founder Berthold, and maintained that the prophet Elias had been himself their founder, and that the Virgin Mary had been a sister of their order. What they most prided themselves on was the sacred scapular which the Mother of God herself had bestowed upon Simon Stock, the general of the order in A.D. 1251, with the promise that whosoever should die wearing it should be sure of eternal blessedness. Seventy years later, according to the legends of the order, the Virgin appeared to Pope John XXII. and told him she descended every Saturday into purgatory, in order to take such souls to herself into heaven. In the 17th century, when violent controversies on this point had arisen, Paul V. authenticated the miraculous qualities of this scapular, always supposing that the prescribed fasts and prayers were not neglected. Among the Carmelites, just as among the Franciscans, laxer principles soon became current, causing controversies and splits which continued down to the 16th century (§ 149, 6).--=The Order of Augustinians= arose out of the combination of several Italian monkish societies. Innocent IV. in A.D. 1243 prescribed to them the rule of St. Augustine (§ 45, 1) as the directory of their common life. It was only under Alexander IV. in A.D. 1256 that they were welded together into one order as _Ordo Fratrum Eremitarum S. Augustini_, with the duties and privileges of mendicant monks. Their order spread over the whole West, and enjoyed the special favour of the papal chair, which conferred upon its members the permanent distinction of the office of sacristan to the papal chapel and of chaplain to the Holy Father (Continuation, § 112, 5).--Finally, as the fifth in the series of mendicant orders, we meet with the =Order of Servites=, _Servi b. Virg._, devoted to the Virgin, and founded in A.D. 1233 by seven pious Florentines. It was, however, first recognised as a mendicant order by Martin V., and had equal rank with the four others granted it only in A.D. 1567 by Pius V.

§ 98.11. =Penitential Brotherhoods and Tertiaries of the Mendicant Orders.=--Carl Müller was the first to throw light upon this obscure period in the history of the Franciscans. The results of his investigations are essentially the following: In consequence of the appearance of St. Francis as a preacher of repentance and of the kingdom of God there arose a religious movement which, not merely had as its result the securing of numerous adherents to the association of Minor Brethren directed by himself, as well as to the society of “_poor women_” attaching itself to St. Clara, but also awakened in many, who by marriage and family duties were debarred from entering these orders, the desire to lead a life of penitence and asceticism removed from the noisy turmoil of the world in the quiet of their own homes while continuing their industrial employments and the discharge of civil duties. As originating in the movement inaugurated by St. Francis, these “_Fratres pœnitentiæ_” designated themselves “_the third order of St. Francis_,” and as such made the claim that they should not be disturbed in their retired penitential life to engage upon services for the State, military duty, and so forth. In this way they frequently came into conflict with the civil courts. Although in this direction powerfully supported by the papal curia, the brotherhoods were just so much the less able to press their claim to immunity in proportion as they spread and became more numerous throughout the cities of Italy, and the greater the rush into their ranks became from day to day from all classes, men and women, married and unmarried. The right of spiritual direction and visitation of them was assigned in A.D. 1234 by Gregory IX. to the bishops; but in A.D. 1247 Innocent IV., at the request of the Minorites, issued an ordinance according to which this right was to be given to them, but they were not able in any case to carry it out. Not only the secular clergy were opposed, but they were vigorously aided in their resistance by the Dominicans.--In A.D. 1209, at the beginning of the Albigensian crusade, St. Dominic had founded, at Toulouse, an association of married men and women under the name of _Militia Christi_, which, recognisable by the wearing of a common style of dress, undertook to vindicate the faith of the church against heretics, to restore again any goods that had wrongfully been appropriated by them, to protect widows and orphans, etc. This _Militia_ migrated from France to Italy. Although originally founded for quite different purposes than the Penitential brotherhoods, it had the same privileges as these enjoyed conferred upon it by the popes, and assimilated itself largely to these in respect of mode of life and ascetic practices, and practically became amalgamated with them. But still the Penitential brotherhoods always formed a neutral territory, upon which, according to circumstances, sometimes the secular clergy, and sometimes one or other of the two mendicant orders, but much more frequently the Minorite clergy, exercised visitation rights. The first attempt at effecting a definite separation arose from the Dominicans, whose seventh general, Murione de Zamorra, prescribed a rule to those Penitential brotherhoods which were more closely related to his order. Upon their adopting it they were loosed from the general society as “_Fratres de Pœnitentia_” =S. Dominici=, and described as exclusively attached to the preaching order. In A.D. 1288, however, Jerome of Arcoli, the former general of the Franciscans, ascended the papal throne as Nicholas IV., and now used all means in his power to secure to his own order the supremacy in every department. In the following year, A.D. 1289, he issued the bill _Supra montem_, in which he prescribed (_statuimus_) a rule of his own for all Penitential brotherhoods; and then, since on this point, out of regard for the powerful Dominican order, he did not venture to do more than simply recommend, added the advice (_consulimus_), that the visitation and instruction of these should be assigned to the Minorite superiors, giving as a reason that all these institutions owed their origin to St. Francis. Against both the prescription and the advice, however, the bishops, as well in the interest of their own prerogatives as for the protection of their clergy, threatened in vocation and income, raised a vigorous and persistent protest, which at last, however, succumbed before the supreme power of the pope and the marked preference on the part of the people for the clergy of the orders. Those brotherhoods which adopted the rule thus obtruded on them stood now in the position of rivals, alongside of those of St. Dominic, as “_Fratres de pœnitentia_” =S. Francisci=. The Dominican Penitentials afterwards adopted the name and character of a “_third order of St. Dominic_” or “_Tertiaries_.” In the Franciscan legends, however, the rule drawn up by Nicholas IV. soon came to be represented as the one prescribed to the Penitentials on their first appearance in A.D. 1221 by St. Francis himself, only ratified anew by the pope, and has been generally regarded as such down to our own day.--The rapid growth in power and influence which the two older mendicant orders owe to the Tertiary Societies, induced also the later mendicant orders to produce an imitation of them within the range of their activity. Crossing the Alps the Penitential brotherhoods found among these orders, on this side, an open door,--the Franciscan brothers being especially numerous,--and entered into peculiarly intimate relations with the Beghard societies which had sprung up there, forming, like them, associations of a monastic type.

§ 98.12. =Working Guilds of a Monkish Order.=--(1) During the 11th century, midway between the strictly monastic and secular modes of life, a number of pious artisan families in Milan, mostly weavers, under the name of =Humiliati=, adopted a communal life with spiritual exercises, and community of handicraft and of goods. Whatever profit came from their work was devoted to the poor. The married continued their marriage relations after entering the community. In the 12th century, however, a party arose among them who bound themselves by vows of celibacy, and to them were afterwards attached a congregation of priests. Their society was first acknowledged by Innocent III. in A.D. 1021. But meanwhile many of them had come under the influence of Arnold (§ 108, 6), and so had become estranged from the Catholic church. At a later period these formed a connection with the French Waldensians, the _Pauperes de Lugduno_, adopted their characteristic views, and for the sake of distinction took the name of _Pauperes Italici_ (§ 108, 12).--Related in every respect to the Lombard Humiliati, but distinguished from them by the separation of the sexes and a universal obligation of celibacy, were the communities of the =Beguines= and =Beghards=. Priority of origin belongs to the Beguines. They took the three monkish vows, but only for so long as they belonged to the society. Hence they could at any time withdraw, and enter upon marriage and other relations of social life. They lived under the direction of a lady superior and a priest in a so-called Beguine-house, _Curtis Beguinarum_, which generally consisted of a number of small houses connected together by one surrounding wall. Each had her own household, although on entrance she had surrendered her goods over to the community and on withdrawing she received them back. They busied themselves with handiwork and the education of girls, the spiritual training of females, and sewing, washing and nursing the poor in the houses of the city. The surplus of income over expenditure was applied to works of benevolence. Every Beguine house had its own costume and colour. These institutions soon spread over all Belgium, Germany, and France. The first Beguine house known to us was founded about 1180 at Liège, by the famous priest and popular preacher, Lambert la Bèghe, _i.e._ the Stammerer. Hallmann thinks that the name of the society may have been derived from that of the preacher. Earlier writers, without anything to support them but a vague similarity of sound, were wont to derive it from Begga, daughter of Pepin of Landen in the 7th century. Most likely of all, however, is Mosheim’s derivation of it from “beggan,” which means not to pray, “beten,” a praying sister, but to beg, as the modern English, and so proves that the institute originally consisted of a collection of poor helpless women. We may compare with this the designation “Lollards,” § 116, 3.--After the pattern of the Beguine communities there soon arose communities of men, Beghards, with similar tendencies. They supported themselves by handicraft, mostly by weaving. But even in the 13th century corruption and immorality made their appearance in both. Brothers and sisters of the New (§ 108, 4) and of the Free Spirit (§ 116, 5), Fratricelli (§ 112, 2) and other heretics, persecuted by the church, took refuge in their unions and infected them with their heresies. The Inquisition (§ 109, 2) kept a sharp eye on them, and many were executed, especially in France. The 15th General Council at Vienna, in A.D. 1312, condemned eight of their positions as heretical. There was now a multitude of Beguine and Beghard houses overthrown. Others maintained their existence only by passing over to the Tertiaries of the Franciscans. Later popes took the communities that were free from suspicion under their protection. But even among these many forms of immorality broke out, concubinage between Beguines and Beghards, and worldliness, thus obliging the civil and ecclesiastical authorities again to step in. The unions still remaining in the time of the Reformation were mostly secularized. Only in Belgium have a few Beguine houses continued to exist to the present day as institutions for the maintenance of unmarried women of the citizen class.[287]

§ 98.13. =The Spiritual Order of Knights.=--The peculiarity of the Order of Knights consists in the combination of the three monkish vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience with the vow to maintain a constant struggle with the infidels. The most important of these orders were the following.

1. =The Templars=, founded in A.D. 1118 by Hugo de Payens and Godfrey de St. Omer for the protection of pilgrims in the Holy Land. The costume of the order was a white mantle with a red cross. Its rule was drawn up by St. Bernard, whose warm interest in the order secured for it papal patronage and the unanimous approbation of the whole West. When Acre fell in A.D. 1291 the Templars settled in Cyprus, but soon most of them returned to the West, making France their headquarters. They had their name probably from a palace built on the site of Solomon’s temple, which king Baldwin II. of Jerusalem assigned them as their first residence.[288]--Continuation, § 112, 7.

2. =The Knights of St. John= or Hospitallers, founded by merchants from Amalfi as early as the middle of the 11th century, residing at first in a cloister at the Holy Sepulchre, were engaged in showing hospitality to the pilgrims and nursing the sick. The head of the order Raimund du Puy, who occupied this position from A.D. 1118, added to these duties, in imitation of the Templars, that of fighting against the infidels. They carried a white cross on their breast, and a red cross on their standard. Driven out by the Saracens, they settled in Rhodes in A.D. 1310, and in A.D. 1530 took possession of Malta.[289]

3. =The Order of Teutonic Knights= had its origin from a hospital founded by citizens of Bremen and Lübeck during the siege of Acre in A.D. 1120. The costume of the knights was a white mantle with a black cross. Subsequently the order settled in Prussia (§ 93, 13), and in A.D. 1237 united with the order of the Brothers of the Sword, which had been founded in Livonia in A.D. 1202 (§ 93, 12). Under its fourth Grandmaster, the prudent as well as vigorous Hermann v. Salza, A.D. 1210-1239, it reached the summit of its power and influence.

4. =The Knights of the Cross= arose originally in Palestine under the name of the Order of Bethlehem, but at a later period settled in Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Poland. There they adopted the life of regular canons (§ 97, 5) and devoted themselves to hospital work and pastoral duties. They are still to be found in Bohemia as holders of valuable livings, with the badge of a cross of red satin.

In =Spain=, too, various orders of spiritual knights arose under vows to fight with the Moors (§ 95, 2). The two most important were the =Order of Calatrava=, founded in A.D. 1158 by the Cistercian monk Velasquez for the defence of the frontier city Calatrava, and the =Order of Alcantara=, founded in A.D. 1156 for a similar purpose. Both orders were confirmed by Alexander III. and gained great fame and still greater wealth in the wars against the Moors. Under Ferdinand the Catholic the rank of Grandmaster of both orders passed over to the crown. Paul III. in A.D. 1540 released the knights from the vow of celibacy, but obliged them to become champions of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. Both orders still exist, but only as military orders of merit.

§ 98.14. =Bridge-Brothers and Mercedarians.=--The name of Bridge Brothers, _Frères Pontifex_, _Fratres Pontifices_, was given to a union founded under Clement III., in Southern France, in A.D. 1189, for the building of hospices and bridges at points where pilgrims crossed the large rivers, or for the ferrying of pilgrims over the streams. As a badge they wore a pick upon their breast. Their constitution was modelled upon that of the Knights of St. John, and upon their gradual dissolution in the 13th century most of their number went over to that order.--Petrus [Peter] Nolescens, born in Languedoc, of noble parents and military tutor of a Spanish prince, moved by what he had seen of the sufferings of Christian slaves at the hand of their Moorish masters, and strengthened in his resolve by an appearance of the Queen of Heaven, founded in A.D. 1228 the knightly order of the =Mercedarians=, _Mariæ Virg. de mercede pro redemptione Captivorum_. They devoted all their property to the purchase of Christian captives, and where such a one was in danger of apostatising to Islam and the money for redemption was not procurable, they would even give themselves into slavery in his place. When in A.D. 1317 the Grand Commandership passed over into the hands of the priests, the order was gradually transformed into a monkish order. After A.D. 1600, in consequence of a reform after the pattern of the rule of the Barefoots, it became a mendicant order, receiving the privileges of other begging fraternities from Benedict XIII. in A.D. 1725. The order proved a useful institution of its time in Spain, France and Italy, and at a later period also in Spanish America.

III. Theological Science and its Controversies.

§ 99. SCHOLASTICISM IN GENERAL.[290]

The scientific activity of the Middle Ages received the name of =Scholasticism= from the cathedral and cloister schools in which it originated (§ 90, 8). The Schoolmen, with their enthusiasm and devotion, their fidelity and perseverance, their courage and love of combat, may be called the knights of theology. Instead of sword and spear they used logic, dialectic and speculation; and profound scholarship was their breastplate and helmet. Ecclesiastical orthodoxy was their glory and pride. Aristotle, and also to some extent Plato, afforded them their philosophical basis and method. The Fathers in their utterances, _sententiæ_, the Councils in their dogmas and canons, the popes in their decretals, yielded to this Dialectic Scholasticism theological material which it could use for the systematising, demonstrating, and illustrating of the Church doctrine. If we follow another intellectual current, we find the Mystical Scholasticism taking up, as the highest task of theology, the investigating and describing of the hidden life of the pious thinker in and with God according to its nature, course, and results by means of spiritual contemplation on the basis of one’s individual experience. Dogmatics (including Ethics) and the Canon Law constituted the peculiar field of the Dialectic Theology of the Schoolmen. The standard of dogmatic theology during the 12th century was the Book of the Sentences of the Lombard (§ 102, 5); that of the Canon Law the Decree of Gratian. Biblical Exegesis as an independent department of scientific study stood, indeed, far behind these two, but was diligently prosecuted by the leading representatives of Scholasticism. The examination of the simple literal sense, however, was always regarded as a secondary consideration; while it was esteemed of primary importance to determine the allegorical, tropological, and anagogical signification of the text (§ 90, 9).

§ 99.1. =Dialectic and Mysticism.=--With the exception of the speculative Scotus Erigena, the Schoolmen of the Carlovingian Age were of a practical turn. This was changed on the introduction of Dialectic in the 11th century. Practical interests gave way to pure love of science, and it was now the aim of scholars to give scientific shape and perfect logical form to the doctrines of the church. The method of this =Dialectic Scholasticism= consisted in resolving all church doctrines into their elementary ideas, in the arranging and demonstrating of them under all possible categories and in the repelling of all possible objections of the sceptical reason. The end aimed at was the proof of the reasonableness of the doctrine. This Dialectic, therefore, was not concerned with exegetical investigations or Scripture proof, but rather with rational demonstration. Generally speaking, theological Dialectic attached itself to the ecclesiastical system of the day as positivism or dogmatism; for, appropriating Augustine’s _Credo ut intelligam_, it made faith the principal starting point of its theological thinking and the raising of faith to knowledge the end toward which it laboured. On the other hand, however, scepticism often made its appearance, taking not faith but doubt as the starting point for its inquiries, with the avowed intention, indeed, of raising faith to knowledge, but only acknowledging as worthy of belief what survived the purifying fire of doubt.--Alongside of this double-edged Dialectic, sometimes in conflict, sometimes in alliance with it, we meet with the =Mystical Scholasticism=, which appealed not to the reason but to the heart, and sought by spiritual contemplation rather than by Dialectic to advance at once theological science and the Christian life. Its object is not Dogmatics as such, not the development of _Fides quæ creditur_, but life in fellowship with God, the development of _Fides qua creditur_. By contemplative absorption of the soul into the depth of the Divine life it seeks an immediate vision, experience and enjoyment of the Divine, and as an indispensable condition thereto requires purity of heart, the love of God in the soul and thorough abnegation of self. What is gained by contemplation is made the subject of scientific statement, and thus it rises to speculative mysticism. Both contemplation and speculative mysticism in so far as their scientific procedure is concerned are embraced under the name of scholastic mysticism. The practical endeavour, however, after a deepening and enhancing of the Christian life in the direction of a real and personal fellowship with God was found more important and soon out-distanced the scientific attempt at tabulating and formulating the facts of inner experience. Practical mysticism thus gained the ascendency during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, and formed the favourite pursuit of the numerous inmates of the nunneries (§ 107).

§ 99.2. =The Philosophical Basis of Dialectic Scholasticism= was obtained mainly from the Aristotelian philosophy, which, down to the end of the 12th century, was known at first only from Latin renderings of Arabic and even Hebrew translations, and afterwards from Latin renderings of the Greek originals (§ 103, 1). Besides Aristotle, however, Plato also had his enthusiastic admirers during the Middle Ages. The study of the writings of Augustine and the Areopagite (§ 90, 7) led back again to him, and the speculative mystics vigorously opposed the supremacy of Aristotle.--At the outset of the philosophical career of scholasticism in the 11th century we meet with the controversy of Anselm and Roscellinus [Roscelin] about the relations of thinking and being or of the idea and the substance of things (§ 101, 3). =The Nominalists=, following the principles of the Stoics, maintained that General Notions, _Universalia_, are mere abstractions of the understanding, _Nomina_, which as such have no reality outside the human mind, _Universalia =post= res_. =The Realists=, on the contrary, affirmed the reality of General Notions, regarding them as objective existences before and apart from human thinking. But there were two kinds of realism. The one, based on the Platonic doctrine of ideas, taught that General Notions are really existent before the origin of the several things as archetypes in the Divine reason, and then also in the human mind before the contemplation of the things empirically given, _Universalia =ante= res_. The other, resting on Aristotle’s doctrine, considered them as lying in the things themselves and as first getting entrance into the human mind through experience, _Universalia =in= rebus_. The Platonic Realism thought to reach a knowledge of things by pure thought from the ideas latent in the human mind; the Aristotelian, on the other hand, thought to gain a knowledge of things only through experience and thinking upon the things themselves.--Continuation, § 103, 1.

§ 99.3. =The Nurseries of Scholasticism.=--The work previously done in cathedrals and cloister schools was, from about the 12th century, taken up in a more comprehensive and thorough way by the =Universities=. They were, as to their origin, independent of church and state, emperor and pope. Here and there famous teachers arose in the larger cities or in connection with some celebrated cloister or cathedral school. Youths from all countries gathered around them. Around the teacher who first attracted attention others gradually grouped themselves. Teachers and scholars organized themselves into a corporation, and thus arose the University. By this, however, we are to understand nothing less than a _Universitas litterarum_, where attention was given to the whole circle of the sciences. For a long time there was no thought of a distribution into faculties. When the multitude of teachers and students demanded a distribution into several corporations, this was done according to nations. The name signifies the _Universitas magistrorum et scholarium_ rather than an articulated whole. The study here pursued was called _Studium generale_ or _universale_, because the entrance thereto stood open to every one. At first each university pursued exclusively and in later times chiefly some special department of science. Thus, _e.g._ theology was prosecuted in Paris and Oxford and subsequently also in Cologne, jurisprudence in Bologna, Medicine in Salerno. The first university that expressly made provision for teaching all sciences was founded at Naples in A.D. 1224 with imperial munificence by Frederick II. The earliest attempt at a distribution of the sciences among distinct faculties was occasioned by the struggle between the university of Paris and the mendicant monks (§ 103, 1), who separated themselves from the other theological teachers and as members of a guild formed themselves in A.D. 1259 into a theological faculty. The number of the students, among whom were many of ripe years, was immensely great, and in some of the most celebrated universities reached often to ten or even twenty thousand. There was a ten years’ course prescribed for the training of the monks of Clugny: two years’ _Logicalia_, three years’ _Literæ naturales et philosophicæ_, and five years’ Theology. The Council at Tours in A.D. 1236 insisted that every priest should have passed through a five years’ course of study.[291]

§ 99.4. =The Epochs of Scholasticism.=--The intellectual work of the theologians of the Middle Ages during our period ran its course in four epochs, the boundaries of which nearly coincide with the boundaries of the four centuries which make up that period.

1. From the 10th century, almost completely destitute of any scientific movement, the so-called _Sæculum obscurum_, there sprang forth the first buds of scholarship, without, however, any distinct impress upon them of scholasticism.

2. In the 11th century scholasticism began to show itself, and that in the form of dialectic, both sceptical and dogmatic.

3. In the 12th century mysticism assumed an independent place alongside of dialectic, carried on a war of extermination against the sceptical dialectic, and finally appeared in a more peaceful aspect, contributing material to the positive dogmatic dialectic.

4. In the 13th century dialectic scholasticism gained the complete ascendency, and reached its highest glory in the form of dogmatism in league with mysticism, and never, in the persons of its greatest representatives, in opposition to it.

§ 99.5. =The Canon Law.=--After the Pseudo-Isidore (§ 87, 2) many collections of church laws appeared. They sought to render the material more complete, intentionally or unintentionally enlarging the forgeries and massing together the most contradictory statements without any attempt at comparison or sifting. The most celebrated of these were the collections of bishops Burchard of Worms about A.D. 1020, Anselm of Lucca, who died in A.D. 1086, nephew of the pope of the same name, Alexander II., and Ivo of Chartres, who died in A.D. 1116. Then the Camaldolite monk =Gratian= of Bologna undertook not only to gather together the material in a more complete form than had hitherto been done, but also to reconcile contradictory statements by scholastic argumentation. His work appeared about A.D. 1150 under the title _Concordantia discordantium canonum_, and is commonly called _Decretum Gratiani_. A great impulse was given to the study of canon law by means of this work, especially at Bologna and Paris. Besides the _Legists_, who taught the Roman law, there now arose numerous _Decretists_ teaching the canon law and writing commentaries on Gratian’s work. Gregory IX. had a new collection of Decrees of Councils and Decretals in five books, the so-called _Liber extra Decretum_, or shortly _Extra_ or _Decretum Gregorii_, drawn up by his confessor and Grand-Penitentiary, the learned Dominican Raimundus [Raimund] de Pennaforti [Pennaforte], and sent it in A.D. 1234 to the University of Bologna. Boniface VIII. in A.D. 1298 added to this collection in five parts his _Liber Sextus_, and Clement V. in A.D. 1314 added what are called after him the _Clementinæ_. From that time down to A.D. 1483 the decretals of later popes were added as an appendix under the name _Extravagantes_, and with these the _Corpus juris canonici_ was concluded. An official edition was begun in A.D. 1566 by the so-called _Correctores Romani_, which in A.D. 1580 received papal sanction as authoritative for all time to come.[292]

§ 99.6. The Schoolmen as such contributed nothing to =Historical Literature=. Histories were written not in the halls of the universities but in the cells of the monasteries. Of these there were three kinds as we have already seen in § 90, 9. For workers in the department of Biblical History, see § 105, 5; and of Legends of the Saints, § 104, 8. For ancient Church History Rufinus and Cassiodorus were the authorities and the common text books (§ 5, 1). An interesting example of the manner in which universal history was treated when mediæval culture had reached its highest point, is afforded by the _Speculum magnum s. quadruplex_ of the Dominican =Vincent of Beauvais= (_Bellovacensis_). This treatise was composed about the middle of the 13th century at the command of Louis IX. of France as a hand-book for the instruction of the royal princes. It forms an encyclopædic exposition of all the sciences of that day in four parts, _Speculum historiale_, _naturale_, _doctrinale_, and _morale_. The _Speculum doctrinale_ breaks off just at the point where it should have passed over to theology proper, and the _Speculum morale_ is a later compilation by an unknown hand.[293]

§ 100. THE _SÆCULUM OBSCURUM_: THE 10TH CENTURY.[294]

In contrast to the brilliant theological scholarship and the activity of religious life in the 9th century, as well as to the remarkable culture and scientific attainments of the Spanish Moors with their world-renowned school at Cordova, the darkness of the 10th century seems all the more conspicuous, especially its first half, when the papacy reached its lowest depths, the clergy gave way to unblushing worldliness and the church was consumed by the foulest corruption. During this age, indeed, there were gleams of light even in Italy, but only like a will o’ the wisp rising from swampy meadows, a fanatical outburst on behalf of ancient classic paganism. The literature of this period stood in direct and avowed antagonism to Christian theology and the Christian church, and commended a godless frivolity and the most undisguised sensuality. A grammarian Wilgard of Ravenna taught openly that Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal were better and nobler than Paul, Peter, and John. The church had still so much authority as to secure his death as a heretic, but in almost all the towns of Italy he had sympathisers, and that among the clergy as well as among laymen. It was only by the influence of the monks of Clugny, the reformatory ascetic efforts of Romuald (§ 98, 1) and St. Nilus the Younger, a very famous Greek recluse of Gaeta, who died in A.D. 1005, aided by the reformatory measures for the purification of the church taken by the Saxon emperors, that this unclean spirit was gradually driven out. The famous endeavours of Alfred the Great and their temporary success were borne to the grave along with himself. From A.D. 959 however, Dunstan’s reformation awakened anew in England appreciation of a desire for theological and national culture. The connection of the imperial house of Otto with Byzantium also aroused outside of Italy a longing after old classical learning. The imperial chapel founded by the brother of Otto I., Bruno the Great (§ 97, 2), became the training school of a High-German clergy, who were there carefully trained as far as the means at the disposal of that age permitted, not only in politics, but also in theological and classical studies.

§ 100.1. The degree to which =Classical Studies= were pursued in Germany during the period of the Saxon imperial house is shown by the works of the learned nun =Roswitha= of Gandersheim, north of Göttingen, who died about A.D. 984. The first edition of her works, which comprise six dramas on biblical and ecclesiastical themes in the style of Terence, in prose interspersed with rhymes, also eight legends, a history of Otto I., and a history of the founding of her cloister in leonine hexameters, was issued by the humanist Conrad Celtes, with woodcuts by Dürer in A.D. 1501.--=Notker Labeo=, president of the cloister school of St. Gall, who died in A.D. 1022, enriched the old German literature by translations of the Psalms, of Aristotle’s _Organon_, the _Moralia_ of Gregory the Great, and various writings of Boethius [Boëthius].--In =England= the educational efforts of =St. Dunstan= (§ 97, 4) were powerfully supported by Bishop =Ethelwold= of Winchester, who quite in the spirit of Alfred the Great (§ 90, 10) wrought incessantly with his pupils for the extension and enrichment of the Anglo-Saxon literature. Of his scholars by far the most famous was =Aelfric=, surnamed Grammaticus, who flourished about A.D. 990. He wrote an Anglo-Saxon Grammar, prepared a collection of homilies for all the Sundays and festivals and a free translation from sermons of the Latin Fathers, translated also the Old Testament heptateuch, and wrote treatises on other portions of Scripture and on biblical questions.[295]

§ 100.2. =Italy= produced during the second half of the century many theologians eminent and important in their day. =Atto=, bishop of Vercelli, who died about A.D. 960, distinguished himself by his exegetical compilations on Paul’s epistles, and as a homilist and a vigorous opponent of the oppressors of the church during these rough times. Still more important was his younger contemporary =Ratherius=, bishop of Verona, afterwards of Liège, but repeatedly driven away from both, who died A.D. 974. A strict and zealous reformer of clerical morals, he insisted upon careful study of the Bible, and wrought earnestly against the unblushing paganism of the Italian scholars of his age as well as against all kinds of hypocrisy, superstition, and ecclesiastical corruptions. This, and also his attachment to the political interests of the German court, exposed him to much persecution. Among his writings may be named _De contemptu canonum_, _Meditationes cordis_, _Apologia sui ipsius_, _De discordia inter ipsum et clericos_.--In =France= we meet with =Odo of Clugny=, who died in A.D. 942, famed as a hymn writer and homilist, and, in his _Collationum Ll. iii._, as a zealous reprover of the corrupt morals of his age. In England and France, =Abbo of Fleury= taught toward the end of the century. From England, where he had been induced to go by St. Dunstan, he returned after some years to his own cloister of Fleury, and by his academic gifts raised its school to great renown. He wrote on astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and history. He also composed a treatise on dialectics, in which he makes his appearance as the first and most eminent precursor of the Schoolmen. Chosen abbot of his monastery and exercising strict discipline over his monks, he suffered a martyr’s death by the hand of a murderer in A.D. 1004.--=Gerbert of Rheims=, afterwards Pope Sylvester II. (§ 96, 3, 4), during his active career lived partly in France, partly in Italy. Distinguished both for classical and Arabic scholarship, he shone in the firmament of this dark century as it was passing away († A.D. 1003) like a star of the first magnitude in theology, mathematics, astronomy, and natural science, while by the common people he was regarded as a magician. Under him the school of Rheims reached the summit of its fame.

§ 101. THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.

During the 11th century, with the moral and spiritual elevation of the church, eager attention was again given to theological science. It was at first mainly prosecuted in the monasteries of the Cistercians and among the monks of Clugny, but afterwards at the seminaries which arose toward the end of the century. The dialectic method won more and more the upper hand in theology, and in the Eucharist controversy between Lanfranc and Berengar, as well as in the controversy between Anselm and Gaunilo about the existence of God, and between Anselm and Roscelin about the Trinity, Dogmatism obtained its first victory over Scepticism.

§ 101.1. =The Most Celebrated Schoolmen of this Century.=

1. =Fulbert= opens the list, a pupil of Gerbert, and from A.D. 1007 Bishop of Chartres Before entering on his episcopate he had founded at Chartres a theological seminary. His fame spread over all the West, so that pupils poured in upon him from every side.

2. The most important of these was =Berengar of Tours=, afterwards a canon and teacher of the cathedral school of his native city, and then again archdeacon at Angers. He died in A.D. 1088. The school of Tours rose to great eminence under him.

3. =Lanfranc=, the celebrated opponent of the last-named, was abbot of the monastery of Bec in Normandy, and from A.D. 1070 Archbishop of Canterbury (§ 96, 8). He died in A.D. 1089. He wrote against Berengar _Liber de corpore et sanguine Domini_.

4. Bishop =Hildebert of Tours=, who died in A.D. 1134, famous as a writer of spiritual songs, was a pupil of Berengar. But he avoided the sceptical tendencies of his teacher, and, warned of the danger of dialectic and following the mystical bent of his mind, he applied himself to the cultivation of a life of faith, so that St. Bernard praised him as _tantam columnam ecclesiæ_.

5. The monastic school of Bec, which Lanfranc had rendered celebrated, reached the summit of its fame under his pupil =Anselm of Canterbury=, who far excelled his teacher in genius as well as in importance for theological science. He was born in A.D. 1033 at Aosta in Italy, educated in the monastery of Bec, became teacher and abbot there, was raised in A.D. 1093 to the archiepiscopal chair of Canterbury, and died in A.D. 1109. As a churchman he courageously defended the independence of the church according to the principles of Hildebrand (§ 96, 12). As a theologian he may be ranked in respect of acuteness and profundity, speculative talent and Christian earnestness, as a second Augustine, and on the theological positions of that Father he based his own. Though carrying dialectic even into his own private devotions, there was yet present in him a vein of religious mysticism. According to him faith is the condition of true knowledge, _Fides præcedit intellectum_; but it is also with him a sacred duty to raise faith to knowledge, _Credo ut intelligam_. Only he who in respect of endowment and culture is not capable of this intellectual activity should content himself with simple _Veneratio_. His _Monologium_ contains discussions on the nature of God, his _Proslogium_ proves the being of God; his three books, _De fide Trinitatis et de incarnatione Verbi_, develop and elaborate the doctrine of the Trinity and Christology; while the three dialogues _De veritate_, _De libero arbitrio_, and _De casu diaboli_ treat of the object, and the tract _Cur Deus homo?_ treats of the subject, of soteriology. The most able, profound, and impressive of all his writings is the last-named, which proves the necessity of the incarnation of God in Christ for the reconciliation of man with God. It was an epoch-making treatise in the historical development of the church doctrine of satisfaction on Pauline foundations.[296] Anselm took part in the controversy of the Greeks by his work _De processione Spiritus_ (§ 67, 4). He discussed the question of predestination in a moderate Augustinian form in the book, _De concordia præscientæ et prædest. et gratiæ Dei cum libero arbitrio_. In his _Meditationes_ and _Orationes_ he gives expression to the ardent piety of his soul, as also in the voluminous collection (426) of his letters.[297]

6. =Anselm of Laon=, surnamed Scholasticus, was the pupil of Anselm of Canterbury. From A.D. 1076 he taught with brilliant success at Paris, and thus laid the first foundation of its university. Subsequently he returned to his native city Laon, was made there archdeacon and Scholasticus, and founded in that place a famous theological school. He died in A.D. 1117. He composed the _Glossa interlinearis_, a short exposition of the Vulgate between the lines, which with Walafrid’s _Glossa ordinaria_ (§ 90, 4), became the favourite exegetical handbook of the Middle Ages.

7. =William of Champeaux=, the proper founder of the University of Paris, had already taught rhetoric and dialectic for some time with great success in the cathedral school, when the fame of the theological school of Laon led him to the feet of Anselm. In A.D. 1108 he returned to Paris, and had immense crowds listening to his theological lectures. Chagrined on account of a defeat in argument at the hand of Abælard, one of his own pupils, he retired from public life into the old chapel of St. Victor near Paris, and there founded a monastery under the same name for canons of the rule of St. Augustine. He died in A.D. 1121 as Bishop of Chalons.

8. The abbot =Guibert of Nogent=, in the diocese of Laon, who died about A.D. 1124, a scholar of Anselm at Bec, was a voluminous writer and, with all his own love of the marvellous, a vigorous opponent of all the grosser absurdities of relic and saint worship. He wrote a useful history of the first crusade, and a work important in its day entitled, _Liber quo ordine sermo fieri debeat_. His great work was one in four books, _De pignoribus Sanctorum_, against the abuses of saint and relic worship, the exhibition of pretended parts of the Saviour’s body, _e.g._ teeth, pieces of the foreskin, navel cord, etc., against the translation or distribution of the bodies of saints, against the fraud of introducing new saints, relics, and legends.

§ 101.2. =Berengar’s Eucharist Controversy, A.D. 1050-1079.=--Berengar of Tours elaborated a theory of the eucharist which is directly antagonistic to the now generally prevalent theory of Radbert (§ 91, 3). He taught that while the elements are changed and Christ’s body is really present, neither the change nor the presence is substantial. The presence of His body is rather the existence of His power in the elements, and the change of the bread is the actual manifestation of this power in the form of bread. The condition however of this power-presence is not merely the consecration but also the faith of the receiver. Without this faith the bread is an empty and impotent sign. Such views were publicly expressed by him and his numerous followers for a long while without causing any offence. But when he formally stated them in a letter to his friend Lanfranc of Bec, this churchman became Berengar’s accuser at the Synod of Rome in A.D. 1050. The synod condemned him unheard. A second synod of the same year held at Vercelli, before which Berengar was to have appeared but could not because he had meanwhile been imprisoned in France, in an outburst of fanatical fury had the treatise of Ratramnus on the eucharist, wrongly ascribed to Erigena, torn up and burnt, while Berengar’s doctrine was again condemned. Meanwhile Berengar was by the intervention of influential friends set at liberty and made the acquaintance of the powerful papal legate Hildebrand, who, holding by the simple Scripture doctrine that the bread and wine of the sacrament was the body and blood of Christ, occupied probably a position intermediate between Radbert’s grossly material and Berengar’s dynamic hypothesis. Disinclined to favour the fanaticism of Berengar’s opponents, Hildebrand contented himself with exacting from him at the Synod of Tours in A.D. 1054 a solemn declaration that he did not deny the presence of Christ in the Supper, but regarded the consecrated elements as the body and blood of Christ. Emboldened by this decision and still always persecuted by his opponents as a heretic, Berengar undertook in A.D. 1059 a journey to Rome, in order, as he hoped, by Hildebrand’s influence to secure a distinct papal verdict in his favour. But there he found a powerful opposition headed by the passionate and pugnacious Cardinal Humbert (§ 67, 3). This party at the Lateran Council in Rome in A.D. 1059, compelled Berengar, who was really very deficient in strength of character, to cast his writings into the fire and to swear to a confession composed by Humbert which went beyond even Radbert’s theory in the gross corporeality of its expressions. But in France he immediately again repudiated this confession with bitter invectives against Rome, and vindicated anew against Lanfranc and others his earlier views. The bitterness of the controversy now reached its height. Hildebrand had meanwhile, in A.D. 1073, himself become pope. He vainly endeavoured to bring the controversy to an end by getting Berengar to accept a confession couched in moderate terms admitting the real presence of the body and blood in the Supper. The opposite party did not shrink from casting suspicion on the pope’s own orthodoxy, and so Hildebrand was obliged, in order to avoid the loss of his great life work in a mass of minor controversies, to insist at a second synod in Rome in A.D. 1079 upon an unequivocal and decided confession of the substantial change of the bread. Berengar was indiscreet enough to refer to his private conversations with the pope; but now Gregory commanded him at once to acknowledge and abjure his error. With fear and trembling Berengar obeyed, and the pope dismissed him with a safe conduct, distinctly prohibiting all further disputation. Bowed down under age and calamities, Berengar withdrew to the island of St. Come, near Tours, where he lived as a solitary penitent in the practice of strict asceticism, and died at a great age in peace with the church in A.D. 1088. His chief work is _De Cœna S. adv. Lanfr._--Continuation, § 102, 5.

§ 101.3. =Anselm’s Controversies.=

I. On the basis of his Platonic realism, Anselm of Canterbury constructed the ontological proof of the being of God, that there is given in man’s reason the idea of the most perfect being to whose perfection existence also belongs. When he laid this proof before the learned world in his _Monologium_ and _Proslogium_, the monk Gaunilo of Marmoutiers, who was a supporter of Aristotelian realism, opposed him, and acutely pointed out the defects of this proof in his _Liber pro insipiente_. He so named it in reference to a remark of Anselm, who had said that even the _insipiens_ who, according to Psalm xiv. 1, declares in his heart that there is no God, affords thereby a witness for the existence of the idea, and consequently also for the existence of God. Anselm replied in his _Apologeticus c. Gaunilonem_. And there the controversy ended without any definite result.

II. Of more importance was Anselm’s controversy with =Roscelin=, the Nominalist, canon of Compiègne. He in a purely nominalistic fashion understood the idea of the Godhead as a mere abstraction, and thought that the three persons of the Godhead could not be _una res_, οὐσία, as then they must all at once have been incarnate in Christ. A synod at Soissons in A.D. 1092 condemned him as a tritheist. He retracted, but afterwards reiterated his earlier views. Anselm then, in his tract _De fide Trinitatis et de incarnatione Verbi contra blasphemias Rucelini_, proved that the drift of his argumentation tended toward tritheism, and vindicated the trinitarian doctrine of the church. For more than two centuries Nominalism was branded with a suspicion of heterodoxy, until in the 14th century a reaction set in (§ 113, 3), which restored it again to honour.

§ 102. THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

In the 12th century dialectic and mysticism are seen contending for the mastery in the department of theology. On the one side stands Abælard, in whom the sceptical dialectic had its most eminent representative. Over against him stands St. Bernard as his most resolute opponent. Theological dialectic afterwards assumed a pre-eminently dogmatic and ecclesiastical character, entering into close relationship with mysticism. While this movement was mainly carried on in France, where the University of Paris attracted teachers and scholars from all lands, it passed over from thence into Germany, where Provost Gerhoch and his brother Arno gave it their active support in opposition to that destructive sort of dialectic that was then spreading around them. Although the combination of dogmatic dialectic and mysticism had for a long time no formal recognition, it ultimately secured the approval of the highest ecclesiastical authorities.

§ 102.1. =The Contest on French Soil.=

I. =The Dialectic Side of the Gulf.=--=Peter Abælard=, superior to all his contemporaries in acuteness, learning, dialectic power, and bold freethinking, but proud and disputatious, was born at Palais in Brittany in A.D. 1079. His first teacher in philosophy was Roscelin. Afterwards he entered the school of William of Champeaux at Paris, the most celebrated dialectician of his times. Having defeated his master in a public disputation, he founded a school at Melun near Paris, where thousands of pupils flocked to him. In order to be nearer Paris, he moved his school to Corbeil; then to the very walls of Paris on Mount St. Genoveva; and ceased not to overwhelm William with humiliations, until his old teacher retreated from the field. In order to secure still more brilliant success, he began to study theology under the Schoolman Anselm of Laon. But very soon the ambitious scholar thought himself superior also to this master. Relying upon his dialectical endowments, he took a bet without further preparation to expound the difficult prophet Ezekiel. He did it indeed to the satisfaction of scholars, but Anselm refused to allow him to continue his lectures. Abælard now returned to Paris, where he gathered around him a great number of enthusiastic pupils. Canon Fulbert appointed him teacher of his beautiful and talented niece Heloise. He won her love, and they were secretly married. She then denied the marriage in order that he might not be debarred from the highest offices of the church. Persisting in this denial, her relatives dealt severely with her, and Abælard had her placed in the nunnery of Argenteuil. Fulbert in his fury had Abælard seized during the night and emasculated, so that he might be disqualified for ecclesiastical preferment. Overwhelmed with shame, he fled to the monastery of St. Denys, and there in A.D. 1119 took the monastic vow. Heloise took the veil at Argenteuil. But even at St. Denys Abælard was obliged by the eager entreaties of former scholars to resume his lectures. His free and easy treatment of the church doctrine and his haughty spirit aroused many enemies against him, who at the Synod of Soissons in A.D. 1121 compelled him before the papal legate to cast into the fire his treatise _De Unitate et Trinitate divina_, and had him committed to a monastic prison. By the intercession of some friends he was soon again set free, and returned to St. Denys. But when he made the discovery that Dionysius at Paris was not the Areopagite the persecution of the monks drove him into a forest near Troyes. There too his scholars followed him and made him resume his lectures. His colony grew up under his hands into the famous abbey of the Paraclete. Finding even there no rest, he made over the abbey of the Paraclete to Heloise, who had not been able to come to terms with her insubordinate nuns at Argenteuil. He himself now became abbot of the monastery of St. Gildasius at Ruys in Brittany, and, after in vain endeavouring for eight years to restore the monastic discipline, he again in A.D. 1136 resumed his office of teacher and lectured at St. Genoveva near Paris with great success. He wrote an ethical treatise, “_Scito te ipsum_,” issued a new and enlarged edition of his _Theologia christiana_, now extant as the incomplete _Introductio ad theologiam_ in three books, and composed a _Dialogus inter Philosophum, Judæum et Christianum_, in which the heathen philosophers and poets of antiquity are ranked almost as high as the prophets and apostles. In _Sic et Non_, “Yes and No,” a collection of extracts from the Fathers under the various heads of doctrine contradictory of one another, the traditional theology was held up to contempt.

§ 102.2.

=Abælard= maintained, in opposition to the Augustinian-Anselmian theory, that faith preceded knowledge, that only what we comprehend is to be believed. He did indeed intend that his dialectic should be used not for the overthrow but for the establishment of the church doctrine. He proceeded, however, from doubt as the principle of all knowledge, regarding all church dogmas as problems which must be proved before they can be believed: _Dubitando enim ad inquisitionem venimus, inquirendo veritatem percipimus_. He thus reduced faith to a mere probability and measured the content of faith by the rule of subjective reason. This was most glaring in the case of the trinitarian doctrine, which with him approached Sabellian modalism. God as omnipotent is to be called Father, as all wise the Son, as loving and gracious the Spirit; and so the incarnation becomes a merely temporal and dynamic immanence of the Logos in the man Jesus. The significance of the ethical element in Christianity quite overshadowed that of the dogmatic. He taught that all fundamental truths of Christianity had been previously proclaimed by philosophers and poets of Greece and Rome, who were scarcely less inspired than the prophets and apostles, the special service of the latter consisting in giving currency to these truths among the uncultured. He turns with satisfaction from the theology of the Fathers to that of the apostles, and from that again to the religion of Jesus, whom he represents rather as a reformer introducing a pure morality than as a founder of a religious system. Setting aside Anselm’s theory of satisfaction, he regards the redemption and reconciliation of man as consisting in the awakening in sinful man, by means of the infinite love displayed by Christ’s teaching and example, by His life, sufferings and death upon the cross, a responding love of such fulness and power, that he is thereby freed from the dominion of sin and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God.[298]--Abælard’s fame and following grew in a wonderful manner from day to day; but also powerful opponents dragged his heresies into light and vigorously combated them. The most important of these were the Cistercian monk William of Thierry and St. Bernard, who called attention to the dangerous tendency of his teaching. St. Bernard dealt personally with the heretic, but when he failed in converting him, he appeared in A.D. 1141 at the Synod of Sens as his accuser. The synod condemned as heretical a series of statements culled from his writings by Bernard. Abælard appealed to the pope, but even his friends at Rome, among whom was Card. Guido de Castella, afterwards Pope Cœlestine II., could not close their eyes to his manifest heterodoxies. His friendship for Arnold of Brescia also told against him at Rome (§ 108, 7). Innocent II. therefore excommunicated Abælard and his supporters, condemned his writings to be burnt and himself to be confined in a monastery. Abælard found an asylum with the abbot Peter the Venerable of Clugny, who not only effected his reconciliation with Bernard, but also, on the ground of his _Apologia s. Confessio fidei_, in which he submitted to the judgment of the church, obtained permission from the pope to pass his last days in peace at Clugny. During this time he composed his _Hist. calamitatum Abælardi_, an epistolary autobiography, which, though not free from vanity and bitterness, is yet worthy to be ranked with Augustine’s “Confessions” for its unreserved self-accusation and for the depth of self-knowledge which it reveals. He died in A.D. 1142, in the monastery of St. Marcellus at Chalons, where he had gone in quest of health. He was buried in the abbey of the Paraclete, where Heloise laid on his coffin the letter of absolution of Peter of Clugny. Twenty-two years later Heloise herself was laid in the same quiet resting place.[299]

§ 102.3.

II. =The Mystic Side of the Gulf.=--Abælard’s most famous opponent was =St. Bernard of Clairvaux= (§ 98, 1), born in A.D. 1091 at Fontaines near Dijon in Burgundy, died in A.D. 1153, a man of such extraordinary influence on his generation as the world seldom sees. Venerated as a miracle worker, gifted with an eloquence that carried everything before it (_doctor mellifluus_), he was the protector and reprover of the Vicar of God, the peacemaker among the princes, the avenger of every wrong. His genuine humility made him refuse all high places. His enthusiasm for the hierarchy did not hinder him from severely lashing clerical abuses. It was his word that roused the hearts of men throughout all Europe to undertake the second crusade, and that won many heretics and schismatics back to the bosom of the church. Having his conversation in heaven, leading a life of study, meditation, prayer, and ecstatic contemplation, he had also dominion over the earth, and by counsel, exhortation, and exercise of discipline exerted a quickening and healthful influence on all the relations of life. His theological tendency was in the direction of contemplative mysticism, with hearty submission to the doctrine of the church. Like Abælard, but from the opposite side, he came into conflict with the theory of Anselm; for the ideal of theology with him was not the development of faith into knowledge by means of thought, but rather the enlightenment of faith in the way of holiness. Bernard was not at all an enemy of science, but he rather saw in the dialectical hair-splitting of Abælard, which grudged not to cut down the main props of saving truth for the glorification of its own art, the overthrow of all true theology and the destruction of all the saving efficacy of faith. Heart theology founded on heart piety, nourished and strengthened by prayer, meditation, spiritual illumination and holiness, was for him the only true theology. _Tantum Deus cognoscitur, quantum diligitur. Orando facilius quam disputando et dignius Deus quæritur et invenitur._ The Bible was his favourite reading, and in the recesses of the forest he spent much time in prayer and study of the Scriptures. But in ecstasy (_excessus_) which consists in withdrawal from sensible phenomena and becoming temporarily dead to all earthly relations, the soul of the pious Christian is able to rise into the immediate presence of God, so that “_more angelorum_” it reaches a blessed vision and enjoyment of the Divine glory and that perfect love which loves itself and all creatures only in God. Yet even he confesses that this highest stage of abstraction was only attained unto by him occasionally and partially through God’s special grace. Bernard’s mysticism is most fully set forth in his eighty-six Sermons on the first two chapters of the Song of Solomon and in the tract _De diligendo Deo_. In his controversy with Abælard he wrote his _Tractatus de erroribus Petri Abælardi_. To the department of dogmatics belongs _De gratia et libero arbitrio_; and to that of history, the biography of his friend Malachias (§ 149, 5). The most important of his works is _De Consideratione_, in 5 bks., in which with the affection of a friend, the earnestness of a teacher, and the authority of a prophet, he sets before Pope Eugenius III. the duties and dangers of his high position. He was also one of the most brilliant hymn writers of the Middle Ages. Alexander III. canonized him in A.D. 1173, and Pius VIII. in A.D. 1830 enrolled him among the _doctores ecclesiæ_ (§ 47, 22 c).--Soon after the controversy with Abælard had been brought to a close by the condemnation of the church, Bernard was again called upon to resist the pretensions of dialectic. Gilbert de la Porrée (Porretanus), teacher of theology at Paris, who became Bishop of Poitiers in A.D. 1142 and died in A.D. 1154, in his commentary on the theological writings of Boëthius (§ 47, 23) ascribed reality to the universal term “God” in such a way that instead of a Trinity we seemed to have a Quaternity. At the Synod of Rheims, A.D. 1148, under the presidency of Pope Eugenius III., Bernard appeared as accuser of Porretanus. Gilbert’s doctrine was condemned, but he himself was left unmolested.[300]

§ 102.4.

III. =Bridging the Gulf from the Side of Mysticism.=--At the school of the monastery of St. Victor in Paris, founded by William of Champeaux after his defeat at the hands of Abælard, an attempt was made during the first half of the 12th century to combine mysticism and dialectic in the treatment of theology. The peaceable heads of this school would indeed have nothing to do with the speculations of Abælard and his followers which tended to overthrow the mysteries of the faith. But the mystics of St. Victor made an important concession to the dialecticians by entering with as much energy upon the scientific study and construction of dogmatics as they did upon the devout examination of Scripture and mystical theology. They exhibited a speculative power and a profundity of thought that won the hearty admiration of the subtlest of the dialecticians. By far the most celebrated of this school was =Hugo of St. Victor=. Descended from the family of the Count of Halberstadt, born in A.D. 1097, nearly related to St. Bernard, honoured by his contemporaries as _Alter Augustinus_ or _Lingua Augustini_, Hugo was one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle Ages. Having enjoyed a remarkably complete course of training, he was enthusiastically devoted to the pursuit of science, and, endowed with rich and deep spirituality, he exerted a most healthful and powerful influence upon his own and succeeding ages, although church and science had to mourn their loss by his early death in A.D. 1141. In his _Eruditio didascalica_ we have in 3 bks. an encyclopædic sketch of all human knowledge as a preparation to the study of theology, and in other 3 bks. an introduction to the Bible and church history.[301] His _Summa sententiarum_ is an exposition of dogmatics on patristic lines, an ecclesiastical counterpart of Abælard’s _Sic et Non_. The ripest and most influential of all his works, and the most independent, is his _De sacramentis christ. fidei_, in 2 bks., in which he treats of the whole contents of dogmatics from the point of view of the Sacraments (§ 104, 2). His exegetical works are less important and less original. His mysticism is set forth _ex professo_ in his _Soliloquium de arrha animæ_ and in the series of three tracts, _De arca morali_, _De arca mystica_, and _De vanitate mundi_. He makes Noah’s ark the symbol of the church as well as of the individual soul which journeys over the billows of the world to God, and, by the successive stages of _lectio_, _cogitatio_, _meditatio_, _oratio_, and _operatio_ reaches to _contemplatio_ or the vision of God.--Hugo’s pupil, and from A.D. 1162 the prior of his convent, was the Scotchman =Richard St. Victor=, who died in A.D. 1173. With less of the dialectic faculty than his master--though this too is shown in his 6 bks. _De trinitate_, a scholastic exposition of the _Cognitio_ or _Fides quæ creditur_--he mainly devoted his energies to the development on the mystico-contemplative side of the “_Affectus_” or _Fides qua creditur_, which aims at the vision and enjoyment of God. This he represents as reached by the three stages of contemplation, distinguished as _mentis dilatatio_, _sublevatio_, and _alienatio_. Among his mystical tracts, mostly mystical expositions of Scripture passages, the most important are, _De præparatione animæ ad contemplationem, s. de xii. patriarchis_, and the 4 bks. _De gratia contemplationis s. de arca mystica_. These are also known as _Benjamin minor_ and _B. major_. In Richard there appears the first indications of a misunderstanding with the dialecticians which, among the late Victorines, and especially in the case of Walter of St. Victor, took the form of vehement hostility.

§ 102.5.

IV. =Bridging the Gulf from the Side of Dialectics.=--After Abælard’s condemnation theological dialectics came more and more to be associated with the church doctrine and to approach more or less nearly to a friendly alliance with mysticism. Hugo’s writings did much to bring this about. The following are the most important Schoolmen of this tendency.

1. The Englishman =Robert Pulleyn=, teacher at Oxford and Paris, afterwards cardinal and papal chancellor at Rome, who died about A.D. 1150. His chief work is _Sententiarum Ll. VIII._ Though very famous in its day, it was soon cast into the shade by the Lombard’s work.

2. =Petrus [Peter] Lombardus [Lombard]=, born at Novara in Lombardy, a scholar of Abælard, but powerfully influenced by St. Bernard and Hugo St. Victor, was Bishop of Paris from A.D. 1159 till his death in A.D. 1164. He published a dogmatic treatise under the title of _Sententiarum Ll. IV._; of which Bk. 1 treated of God, Bk. 2 of Creatures, Bk. 3 of Redemption, Bk. 4 of the Sacraments and the Last Things. For centuries this was the textbook in theological seminaries and won for its author the designation of _Magister Sententiarum_. He himself compared this gift laid on the altar of the church to the widow’s mite, but the book attained a place of supreme importance in mediæval theology, had innumerable commentaries written on it and was officially authorized as the theological textbook by the Lateran Council of A.D. 1215. It is indeed a well arranged collection of the doctrinal deliverances of the Fathers, in which apparent contradictions are dialectically resolved, with great skill, and wrought up together into an articulate system, but from want of independence and occasional indecision or withholding of any definite opinion, it falls behind Hugo’s _Summa_ and Robert’s _Sentences_. It had this advantage, however, that it gave freer scope to scholars and teachers, and so was more stimulating as a textbook for academic use. The Lombard’s works include a commentary on the Psalms and _Catenæ_ on the Pauline Epistles.

3. The Frenchman =Peter of Poitiers= (_Pictaviensis_), one of the ablest followers of the Lombard, was chancellor of the University of Paris toward the end of the century. He wrote 5 bks. of Sentences or Distinctions, which in form and matter are closely modelled on the work of his master.

4. The most gifted of all the Summists of the 12th century was the German =Alanus ab Insulis=, born at Lille or Ryssel, lat. _Insulæ_. After teaching long at Paris, he entered the Cistercian order, and died at an advanced age at Clairvaux in A.D. 1203. A man of extensive erudition and a voluminous writer, he was called _Doctor universalis_. He wrote an allegorical poem _Anticlaudianus_, which describes how reason and faith in union with all the virtues restore human nature to perfection. His _Regulæ de s. theologia_ give a short outline of theology and morals in 125 paradoxical sentences which are tersely expounded. A short but able summary of the Christian faith is given in the 5 bks. _De arte catholicæ fidei_. This work is characterized by the use of a mathematical style of demonstration, like that of the later school of Wolf, and an avoidance of references to patristic authorities, which would have little weight with Mohammedans and heretics. He is thus rather an opponent than a representative of dialectic scholasticism. The _Summa quadripartita c. Hæreticos sui temporis_ ascribed to him was written by another Alanus.

§ 102.6. =The Controversy on German Soil.=--The provost =Gerhoch= and his brother, the dean =Arno= of Reichersberg in Bavaria, were representatives of the school of St. Victor as mediators between dialectics and mysticism. In A.D. 1150 Gerhoch addressed a memorial to Eugenius III., _De corrupto ecclesiæ statu_, and afterwards he published _De investigatione Antichristi_. He found the antichrist in the papal schisms of his times, in the ambition and covetousness of popes, in the corruptibility of the curia, in the manifold corruptions of the church, and especially in the spread of a dialectic destructive of all the mysteries of the faith. The controversy in which both of these brothers took most interest was that occasioned by the revival of Adoptionism in consequence of the teaching of French dialecticians, especially Abælard and Gilbert. It led to the formulating of the Christological doctrine in such a form as prepared the way for the later Lutheran theories of the _Communicatio idiomatum_ and the _Ubiquitas corporis Christi_ (§ 141, 9).--In South Germany, conspicuously in the schools of Bamberg, Freisingen, and Salzburg, the dialectic of Abælard, Gilbert, and the Lombard was predominant. Its chief representatives were =Folmar of Triefenstein= in Franconia and Bishop =Eberhard of Bamberg=. The controversy arose over the doctrine of the eucharist. Folmar had maintained like Berengar that not the actually glorified body of Christ is present in the sacrament, but only the spiritual substance of His flesh and blood, without muscles, sinews and bones. Against this gross Capernaitic view (John vi. 52, 59) Gerhoch maintained that the eucharistic body is the very resurrection body of Christ, the substance of which is a glorified corporeity without flesh and blood in a carnal sense, without sinews and bones. The bishop of Bamberg took offence at his friend’s bold rejection of the doctrine approved by the church, and so Folmar modified his position to the extent of admitting that there was on the altar not only the true, but also the whole body in the perfection of its human substance, under the form of bread and wine. But nevertheless both he and Abælard adhered to their radical error, a dialectical dismemberment of the two natures of Christ, according to which the divinity and humanity, the Son of God and the Son of man, were two strictly separate existences. Christ, they taught, is according to His humanity Son of God in no other way than a pious man is, _i.e._ by adoption; but according to His Divine nature He is like the Father omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. In respect of His human nature it must still be said by Him, “My Father is greater than I.” He dwells, however, bodily in heaven, and is shut in by and confined to it. Only His Divine nature can claim _Latria_ or _adoratio_, worship. Only _Dulia, cultus_, reverence, such as is due to saints, images, and relics, should be given to His body and blood upon the altar. Gerhoch’s doctrine of the Supper, on the other hand, is summed up in the proposition: He who receives the flesh of the Logos (_Caro Verbi_) receives also therewith the Logos in His flesh (_Verbum carnis_). Folmar and Eberhard denounced this as Eutychian heresy. A conference at Bamberg in A.D. 1158, where Gerhoch stood alone as representative of his views, ended by his opponents declaring that he had been convicted of heresy. In A.D. 1162 a Council at Friesach in Carinthia, under the presidency of Archbishop Eberhard of Salzburg, reached the same conclusion.

§ 102.7. =Theologians of a Pre-eminently Biblical and Ecclesiastico-Practical Tendency.=

1. =Alger of Liège=, teacher of the cathedral school there, was one of the most important German theologians in the beginning of the 12th century. He resigned his appointment in A.D. 1121, to spend his last years in the monastery of Clugny, in order to enjoy the company and friendship of its abbot, Peter the Venerable; and there he died about A.D. 1130. The school of Liège, in which he had himself been trained up in the high church Cluniac doctrine there prevalent, flourished greatly during his rule of twenty years. His chief works are _De Sacramentis corporis et sanguinis Domini_ in 3 bks., distinguished by acuteness and lucidity, and a controversial tract on the lines of Radbert against Berengar’s doctrine condemned by the church. In his _De misericordia et justitia_ he treats of church discipline with circumspection, clearness, and decision.

2. =Rupert of Deutz=, more than any mediæval scholar before or after, created an enthusiasm for the study of Scripture as the people’s book for all times, the field in which the precious treasure is hid, to be found by any one whose eyes are made sharp by faith. He was a contemporary and fellow countryman of Alger, and died in A.D. 1135. Though he refers to the Hebrew and Greek texts, he cares less for the literal than for the speculative-dogmatic and mystical sense discovered by allegorical exegesis. In his principal work, _De trinitate et operilus ejus_, he sets forth in 3 bks. the creation work of the Father, in 30 bks. the revealing and redeeming work of the Son, from the fall to the death of Christ, and in the remaining 9 books the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, from the resurrection of Christ to the general resurrection. He maintains in opposition to Anselm (who was afterwards followed by Thomas Aquinas) that Christ would have become incarnate even if men had not sinned (a view which appears in Irenæus, and afterwards in Alexander Hales, Duns Scotus, John Wessel, and others). In regard to the Lord’s Supper he maintained the doctrine of consubstantiation, and he taught like pope Gelasius (§ 58, 2) that the relation of the heavenly and earthly in the eucharist is quite analogous to that of the two natures in Christ.[302]

3. The Benedictine =Hervæus= in the cloister of Bourg-Dieu, who died about A.D. 1150, was distinguished for deep piety and zealous study of Scripture and the fathers. He wrote commentaries on Isaiah and on the Pauline Epistles, the latter of which was ascribed to Anselm and so published among his works.

§ 102.8.

4. =John of Salisbury=, _Johannes Parvus Sarisberiensis_, was a theologian of a thoroughly practical tendency, though a diligent student of Abælard and an able classical scholar, specially familiar with the writings of Cicero. As the trusted friend of Hadrian IV. he was often sent from England on embassies to the pope. In Becket’s struggle against the encroachments of the Crown upon the rights of the church (§ 96, 16) he stood by the primate’s side as his faithful counsellor and fellow soldier, wrote an account of his life and martyrdom, and laboured diligently to secure his canonization. He was made Bishop of Chartres in A.D. 1176, and died there in A.D. 1180. His works, distinguished by singularly wide reading and a pleasing style, are pre-eminently practical. In his _Policraticus s. de nugis Curialium et vestigiis Philosophorum_ he combats the _nugæ_ of the hangers on at court with theological and philosophical weapons in a well balanced system of ecclesiastico-political and philosophico-theological ethics. His _Metalogicus_ in 4 bks. is a polemic against the prostitution of science by the empty formalism of the schoolmen. His 329 Epistles are of immense importance for the literary and scientific history of his times.

5. =Walter of St. Victor=, Richard’s successor as prior of that monastery, makes his appearance about A.D. 1130, as the author of a vigorous polemic against dialectic scholasticism, in which he combats especially Christological heresies and spares the idolized Lombard just as little as the condemned Abælard.[303] He combats with special eagerness a new heresy springing from Abælard and developed by the Lombard which he styles “Nihilism,” because by denying the independence of the human nature of Christ it teaches that Christ in so far as He is man is not an _Aliquid_, _i.e._ an individual.

6. =Innocent III.= is deserving of a place here both on account of his rich theological learning and on account of the earnestness and depth of the moral and religious view of life which he presents in his writings. The most celebrated of these are _De contemtu mundi_ and 6 bks. _Mysteria evang. legis ac sacramenti Eucharistitæ_, and during his pontificate, his epistles and sermons.

§ 102.9. =Humanist Philosophers.=--While Abælard was striving to prove Christianity the religion of reason, and for this was condemned by the church, his contemporary =Bernard Sylvester=, teacher of the school of Chartres, a famous nursery of classical studies, was seeking to shake himself free of any reference to theology and the church. Satisfied with Platonism as a genuinely spiritual religion, and feeling therefore no personal need of the church and its consolations, he carefully avoided any allusion to its dogmas, and so remained in high repute as a teacher and writer. His treatise, _De mundi universitates. Megacosmus et Microcosmus_, in dialogue form discussing in a dilettante, philosophizing style natural phenomena, half poetry, half prose, was highly popular in its day. It fared very differently with his accomplished and like-minded scholar =William of Conches=. The vehemence with which he declared himself a Catholic Christian and not a heathen Academic aroused suspicion. Though in his _Philosophia mundi_, sometimes erroneously attributed to Honorius of Autun, he studiously sought to avoid any contradiction of the biblical and ecclesiastical theory of the world, he could not help in his discussion of the origin of man characterizing the literal interpretation of the Scripture history of creation as peasant faith. The book fell into the hands of the abbot William of Thierry, who accused its author to St. Bernard. The opposition soon attained to such dimensions that he was obliged to publish a formal recantation and in a new edition to remove everything objectionable.

§ 103. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

Scholasticism took a new departure in the beginning of the 13th century, and by the middle of the century it reached its climax. Material for its development was found in the works of Aristotle and his Moslem expositors, and this was skilfully used by highly gifted members of the Franciscan and Dominican orders so that all opposition to the scholastic philosophy was successfully overborne. The Franciscans Alexander of Hales and Bonaventura stand side by side with the brilliant Dominican teachers Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. As reformers of the scholastic philosophy from different points of view we meet with Raimund Lull and Roger Bacon. There were also numerous representatives of this simple biblical and practical tendency devoted to Scripture study and the pursuit of the Christian life; and during this period we find the first developments of German mysticism properly so called.

§ 103.1. =The Writings of Aristotle and his Arabic Interpreters.=--Till the end of the 12th century Aristotle was known in the Christian West only through Porphyry and Boëthius. This philosophy, however, from the 9th century was diligently studied in Arabic translations of the original text (§ 72) by Moslem scholars of Bagdad and Cordova, who wrote expositions and made original contributions to science. The most distinguished of these, besides the logicians Alkindi in the 9th, and Alfarabi in the 10th century, were the supernaturalistic Avicenna of Bokhara, † A.D. 1037 Algazel of Bagdad, inclined to mysticism or sufism, † A.D. 1111, and the pantheistic-naturalistic Averroes of Cordova, † A.D. 1198. The Moors and Spanish Jews were also devoted students of the peripatetic philosophy. The most famous of these was Maimonides, † A.D. 1204, who wrote the rationalistic work _More Nebochim_. On the decay of Arabic philosophy in Spain, Spanish Jews introduced the study of Aristotle into France. Dissatisfied with Latin translations from the Arabic, they began in A.D. 1220 to make translations directly from the Greek. Suspicions were now aroused against the new gospel of philosophy. At a Synod in Paris A.D. 1209 (§ 108, 4) the physical writings of Aristotle were condemned and lecturing on them forbidden. This prohibition was renewed in A.D. 1215 by the papal legate and the metaphysics included. But no prohibition of the church could arrest the scientific ardour of that age. In A.D. 1231 the definitive prohibition was reduced to a measure determining the time to be devoted to such studies, and in A.D. 1254 we find the university prescribing the number of hours during which Aristotle’s physics and metaphysics should be taught. Some decades later the church itself declared that no one should obtain the degree of master who was not familiar with Aristotle, “_the precursor of Christ in natural things as John Baptist was in the things of grace_.” This change was brought about by the belief that not Aristotle but Erigena was the author of all the pantheistic heresies of the age (§§ 90, 7; 108, 4), and also by the need felt by the Franciscans and Dominicans for using Aristotelian methods of proof in defence of the doctrine of the church. Philosophy, however, was now regarded by all theologians as only the handmaid of theology. Even in the 11th century Petrus [Peter] Damiani had indicated the mutual relation of the sciences thus: _Debet velut ancilla dominæ quodam famulatus obsequio subservire, ne si præcedit, oberret_.[304]

§ 103.2. On account of their characteristic tendencies Avicenna was most popular with the Schoolmen and after him Algazel, while Averroes, though carefully studied and secretly followed by some, was generally regarded with suspicion and aversion. Among his secret admirers was Simon of Tournay, about A.D. 1200, who boasted of being able with equal ease to prove the falseness and the truth of the church doctrines, and declared that Moses, Christ, and Mohammed were the three greatest deceivers the world had ever seen. The Parisian scholars ascribed to Averroes the =Theory of a twofold Truth=. A positive religion was required to meet the religious needs of the multitude, but the philosopher might reach and maintain the truth independently of any revealed religion. In the Christian West he put this doctrine in a less offensive form by saying that one and the same affirmation might be theologically true and philosophically false, and _vice versa_. Behind this, philosophical scepticism as well as theological unbelief sought shelter. Its chief opponents were Thomas Aquinas and Raimund Lull, while at a later time Duns Scotus and the Scotists were inclined more or less to favour it.

§ 103.3. =The Appearance of the Mendicant Orders.=--The Dominican and Franciscan orders competed with one another in a show of zeal for the maintenance of the orthodox doctrine, and each endeavoured to secure the theological chairs in the University of Paris, the principal seat of learning in those days. They were vigorously opposed by the university corporation, and especially by the Parisian doctor William of St. Amour, who characterized them in his tract _De periculis novissimorum temporum_ of A.D. 1255 as the precursors of antichrist. But he was answered by learned members of the orders, Albert the Great, Aquinas, and Bonaventura, and finally, in A.D. 1257, all opposition on the part of the university was checked by papal authority and royal command. The Augustinians, too, won a seat in the University of Paris in A.D. 1261.--The learned monks gave themselves with enthusiasm to the new science and applied all their scientific gains to polemical and apologetical purposes. They diligently conserved all that the earlier Fathers down to Gregory the Great had written in exposition of the doctrine and all that the later Fathers down to Hugo St. Victor and Peter the Lombard had written in its defence. But what had been simply expressed before was now arranged under elaborate scientific categories. The Summists of the previous century supplied abundant material for the work. Their _Summæ sententiarum_, especially that of the Lombard, became the theme of innumerable commentaries, but besides these, comprehensive original works were written. These were no longer to be described as _Summæ sententiarum_, but assumed with right the title of _Summæ theologiæ_ or _theologicæ_.

§ 103.4. =Distinguished Franciscan Schoolmen.=--=Alexander of Hales=, trained in the English cloister of Hales, _doctor irrefragabilis_, was the most famous teacher of theology in Paris, where in A.D. 1222 he entered the Seraphic Order. He died in A.D. 1245. As the first church theologian who, without the excessive hair-splitting of later scholastics, applied the forms of the peripatetic philosophy to the scientific elaboration of the doctrinal system of the church, he was honoured by his grateful order with the title of _Monarcha theologorum_, and is still regarded as the first scholastic in the strict sense of the word. His _Summa theologica_, published at Nuremberg in A.D. 1482 in 4 folio vols. was accepted by his successors as the model of scientific method and arrangement. The first two vols. treat of God and His Work, the Creature; the third, of the Redeemer and His Work; the fourth, of the Sacraments of the O. and N.T. The conclusion, which is not extant, treated of _Præmia salutis per futuram gloriam_. Each of these divisions was subdivided into a great number of _Quæstiones_, these again into _Membra_, and these often into _Articuli_. The question at the head of the section was followed by several answers affirmative and negative, some of which were entitled _Auctoritates_ (quotations from Scripture, the Fathers, and the teachers of the church), some _Rationes_ (dictates of the Greek, Arabian, and Jewish philosophers), and finally, his own conclusion. Among the authorities of later times, Hugo’s dogmatic works (§ 102, 4) occupy with him the highest place, but he seems to have had no appreciation of his mystical speculations.--His most celebrated disciple =John Fidanza=, better known as =Bonaventura=, had a strong tendency to mysticism. Born at Bagnarea in the district of Florence in A.D. 1221, he became teacher of theology in Paris in A.D. 1253, general of his order in A.D. 1257, was made Cardinal-bishop of Ostia by Gregory X. in A.D. 1273, and in the following year was a member of the Lyons Council, at which the question of the reunion of the churches was discussed (§ 67, 4). He took an active part in the proceedings of that council, but died before its close in A.D. 1274. His aged teacher Alexander had named him a _Verus Israelita, in quo Adam non peccasse videtur_. Later Franciscans regarded him as the noblest embodiment of the idea of the Seraphic Order next to its founder, and celebrated the angelic purity of his personality by the title _doctor seraphicus_. Sixtus IV. canonized him in A.D. 1482, and Sixtus V. edited his works in 8 fol. vols. in A.D. 1588, and gave him in A.D. 1587 the sixth place in the rank of _Doctores ecclesiæ_ as the greatest church teacher of the West. Like Hugo, he combined the mystical and doctrinal sides of theology, but like Richard St. Victor inclined more to the mystical. His greatest dogmatic work is his commentary in 2 vols. fol. on the Lombard. His able treatise, _De reductione artium ad theologiam_, shows how theology holds the highest place among all the sciences. In his _Breviloquium_ he seeks briefly but with great expenditure of learning to prove that the church doctrine is in accordance with the teachings of reason. In the _Centiloquium_, consisting of 100 sections, he treats summarily of the doctrines of Sin, Grace, and Salvation. In the _Pharetra_ he gives a collection of the chief authorities for the conclusions reached in the two previously named works. The most celebrated of his mystical treatises are the _Diætæ salutis_, describing the nine days’ journey (_diætæ_) in which the soul passes from the abyss of sin to the blessedness of heaven, and the _Itinerarium mentis in Deum_, in which he describes as a threefold way to the knowledge of God a _theologia symbolica_ (=_extra nos_), _propria_ (=_intra nos_) and _mystica_ (=_supra nos_), the last and highest of which alone leads to the beatific vision of God.

§ 103.5. =Distinguished Dominican Schoolmen.=--(1) =Albert the Great=, the oldest son of a knight of Bollstadt, born in A.D. 1193, at Laningen in Swabia, sent in A.D. 1212, because too weak for a military career, to the University of Padua, where he devoted himself for ten years to the diligent study of Aristotle, entered then the Dominican order, and at Bologna pursued with equal diligence the study of theology in a six years’ course. He afterwards taught the regular curriculum of the liberal arts at Cologne and in the cloisters of his order in other German cities; and after taking his doctor’s degree at Paris, he taught theology at Cologne with such success that the Cologne school, owing to the crowds attracted to his lectures, grew to the dimensions of a university. In A.D. 1254 he became provincial of his order in Germany, was compelled in A.D. 1260 by papal command to accept the bishopric of Regensburg, but returned to Cologne in A.D. 1262 to resume teaching, and died there in A.D. 1280, in his 87th year. His amazing acquirements in philosophical, theological, cabalistic, and natural science won for him the surname of the Great, and the title of _doctor universalis_. Since the time of Aristotle and Theophrastus there had been no investigator in natural science like him. Traces of mysticism may be discovered in his treatise _Paradisus animæ_, and in his commentary on the Areopagite. Indeed from his school proceeded the greatest master of speculative mysticism (§ 114, 1). His chief work in natural science is the _Summa de Creaturis_, the fantastic and superstitious character of which may be seen from the titles of its several books: _De virtutibus herbarum, lapidum, et animalium_, _De mirabilibus mundi_, and _De secretis mulierum_. He wrote three books of commentaries on the Lombard, and two books of an independent system of dogmatics, the _Summa theologica_. The latter treatise, which closely follows the work of Alexander of Hales, is incomplete.[305]

§ 103.6. The greatest and most influential of all the Schoolmen was the _Doctor angelicus_, =Thomas Aquinas=. Born in A.D. 1227, son of a count of Aquino, at his father’s castle of Roccasicca, in Calabria, he entered against his parents’ will as a novice into the Dominican monastery at Naples. Removed for safety to France, he was followed by his brothers and taken back, but two years later he effected his escape with the aid of the order, and was placed under Albert at Cologne. Afterwards he taught for two years at Cologne, and was then sent to win his doctor’s degree at Paris in A.D. 1252. There he began along with his intimate friend Bonaventura his brilliant career. It was not until A.D. 1257, after the opposition of the university to the mendicant orders had been overcome, that the two friends obtained the degree of doctor. Urban IV. recalled him to Italy in A.D. 1261, where he taught successively in Rome, Bologna, Pisa, and Naples. Ordered by Gregory to take part in the discussions on union at the Lyons Council, he died suddenly in A.D. 1274, soon after his return to Naples, probably from poison at the hand of his countryman Charles of Anjou, in order that he might not appear at the council to accuse him of tyranny. John XXII. canonized him in A.D. 1323, and Pius V. gave him the fifth place among the Latin _doctores ecclesiæ_.--Thomas was probably the most profound thinker of the century, and was at the same time admired as a popular preacher. He had an intense veneration for Augustine, an enthusiastic appreciation of the church doctrine and the philosophy which are approved and enjoined by this great Father. He had also a vein of genuine mysticism, and was distinguished for warm and deep piety. He was the first to give the papal hierarchical system of Gregory and Innocent a regular place in dogmatics. His _Summa philosophiæ contra Gentiles_, is a Christian philosophy of religion, of which the first three books treat of those religious truths which human reason of itself may recognise, while the fourth book treats of those which, because transcending reason though not contrary to it, _i.e._ doctrines of the incarnation and the trinity, can be known only by Divine revelation. He wrote two books of commentaries on the Lombard. By far the most important work of the Middle Ages is his _Summa theologica_, in three vols., in which he gives ample space to ethical questions. His polemic against the Greeks is found in the section in which he defines and proves the primacy of the pope, basing his arguments on ancient and modern fictions and forgeries (§ 96, 23), which he, ignorant of Greek and deriving his knowledge of antiquity wholly from Gratian’s decree, accepted _bona fide_ as genuine. His chief exegetical work is the _Catena aurea_ on the Gospels and Pauline Epistles, translated into English by Dr. Pusey, in 8 vols., Oxf., 1841, ff. In commenting on Aristotle Thomas, unlike Albert, neglected the treatises on natural science in favour of those on politics.--The Dominican order, proud of having in it the greatest philosopher and theologian of the age, made the doctrine of Thomas in respect of form and matter the authorized standard among all its members (§ 113, 2), and branded every departure from it as a betrayal not only of the order but also of the church and Christianity. The other monkish orders, too, especially the Augustinians, Cistercians, and Carmelites, recognised the authority of the Angelical doctor. Only the Franciscans, moved by envy and jealousy, ignored him and kept to Alexander and Bonaventura, until the close of the century, when, in Duns Scotus (§ 113, 1), they obtained a brilliant teacher within their own ranks, whom they proudly thought would prove a fair rival in fame to the great Dominican teacher.[306]

§ 103.7. =Reformers of the Scholastic Method.=--=Raimund Lull=, a Catalonian nobleman of Majorca, born in A.D. 1234, roused from a worldly life by visions, gave himself to fight for Christ against the infidels with the weapons of the Spirit. Learning Arabic from a Saracen slave, he passed through a full course of scholastic training in theology and entered the Franciscan order. Constrained in the prosecution of his mission to seek a simpler method of proof than that afforded by scholasticism, he succeeded by the help of visions in discovering one by which as he and his followers, the Lullists, thought, the deepest truths of all human sciences could be made plain to the untutored human reason. He called it the _Ars Magna_, and devoted his whole life to its elaboration in theory and practice. Representing fundamental ideas and their relations to the objects of thought by letters and figures, he drew conclusions from their various combinations. In his missionary travels in North Africa (§ 93, 16) he used his art in his disputations with the Saracen scholars, and died in A.D. 1315 in consequence of ill treatment received there, in his 81st year. Of his writings in Latin, Catalonian, and Arabic, numbering it is said more than a thousand, 282 were known in A.D. 1721 to Salzinger of Mainz, but only 45 were included in his edition of the collected works.

§ 103.8. =Roger Bacon=, an English monk, contemporary with Lull, worked out his reform in a sounder manner by going back to the original sources and thus obtaining deliverance from the accumulated errors of later times. He appealed on matters of natural science not to corrupt translations but to the original works of Aristotle, and on matters of theology, not to the Lombard but to the Greek New Testament. He prosecuted his studies laboriously in mathematics and the Greek language. Roger was called by his friends _Doctor mirabilis_ or _profundus_. He was a prodigy of learning for his age, more in the department of physics than in those of philosophy and theology. He was regarded, however, by his own order as a heretic, and imprisoned as a trafficker in the black arts. Born in A.D. 1214 at Ilchester, he took his degree of doctor of theology at Paris, entered the Franciscan order, and became a resident at Oxford. Besides diligent study of languages, which secured him perfect command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, he busied himself with researches and experiments in physics (especially optics), chemistry, and astronomy. He made several important discoveries, _e.g._ the principle of refraction, magnifying glasses, the defects of the calendar, etc., while he also succeeded in making a combustible material which may be regarded as the precursor of gunpowder. He maintained the possibility of ships and land vehicles being propelled most rapidly without sails, and without the labour of men or animals. Yet he was a child of his age, and believed in the philosopher’s stone, in astrology, and alchemy. Thoroughly convinced of the defects of scholasticism, he spoke of Albert the Great and Aquinas as boys who taught before they learnt, and especially reproached them with their ignorance of Greek. With an amount of brag that smacks of the empiric he professed to be able to teach Hebrew in three days and Greek in the same time, and to give a full course of geometry in seven days. With fearless severity he lashed the corruptions of the clergy and the monks. Only one among his companions seems to have regarded Roger, notwithstanding all his faults, as a truly great man. That was Clement IV. who, as papal legate in England, had made his acquaintance, and as pope liberated him from prison. To him Roger dedicated his _Opus majus s. de emendandis scientiis_. At a later period the general of the Franciscan order, with the approval of Nicholas IV., had him again cast into prison, and only after that pope’s death was he liberated through the intercession of his friends. He died soon after in A.D. 1291.[307]

§ 103.9. =Theologians of a Biblical and Practical Tendency.=

1. =Cæsarius of Heisterbach= near Bonn was a monk, then prior and master of the novices of the Cistercian monastery there. He died in A.D. 1230. His _Dialogus magnus visionum et miraculorum_ in 12 bks., one of the best specimens of the finest culture and learning of the Middle Ages, in the form of conversation with the novices, gives an admirable and complete sketch of the morals and manners of the times illustrated from the history and legends of the monks, clergy, and people.

2. His younger contemporary the Dominican =William Peraldus= (Perault), in his _Summa virtutum_ and _Summa vitiorum_, presents a summary of ethics with illustrations from life in France. He died about A.D. 1250, as bishop of Lyons.

3. =Hugo of St. Caro= (St. Cher, a suburb of Vienne), a Dominican and cardinal who died in A.D. 1263, gives evidence of careful Bible study in his _Postilla in univ. Biblia juxta quadrupl. sensum_ (a commentary accompanying the text) and his _Concordantiæ Bibliorum_ (on the Vulgate). To him we are indebted for our division of the Scriptures into chapters. At the request of his order he undertook a correction of the Vulgate from the old MSS.

4. =Robert of Sorbon= in Champagne, who died in A.D. 1274, was confessor of St. Louis and teacher of theology at Paris. He urged upon his pupils the duty of careful study of the Bible. In A.D. 1250 he founded the Sorbonne at Paris, originally a seminary for the education and support of the poorer clergy who aspired to the highest attainments in theology. Its fame became so great that it rose to the rank of a full theological faculty, and down to its overthrow in the French Revolution it continued to be the highest tribunal in France for all matters pertaining to religion and the church.

5. =Raimund Martini=, Dominican at Barcelona, who died after A.D. 1284, was unweariedly engaged in the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans. He spoke Hebrew and Arabic as fluently as Latin, and wrote _Pugio fidei contra Mauros et Judæos_.[308]

§ 103.10. =Precursors of the German Speculative Mystics.=--=David of Augsburg=, teacher of theology and master of the novices in the Franciscan monastery at Augsburg, deserves to be named first, as one who largely anticipated the style of speculative mysticism that flourished in the following century (§ 114). His writings, partly in Latin, partly in German, are merely ascetic directories and treatises of a contemplative mystical order, distinguished by deep spirituality and earnest, humble piety. The German works especially are models of a beautiful rhythmical style, worthy of ranking with the finest creations of any century. He is author of the important tract, _De hæresi pauperum de Lugduno_, in which the pious mystic shows himself in the less pleasing guise of a relentless inquisitor and heresy hunter.--A brilliant and skilful allegory, =The Daughter of Zion=, the human soul, who, having become a daughter of Babylon, went forth to see the heavenly King, and under the guidance of the virgins Faith, Hope, Love, Wisdom, and Prayer attained unto this end, was first written in Latin prose; but afterwards towards the close of the 13th century a free rendering of it in more than 4,000 verses was published by the Franciscan Lamprecht of Regensburg. Its mysticism is like that of St. Bernard and Hugo St. Victor.--In speculative power and originality the Dominican =Theodorich of Freiburg=, _Meister Dietrich_, a pupil of Albert the Great, far excelled all the mystics of this century. About A.D. 1280 he was reader at Treves, afterwards prior at Würzburg, took his master’s degree and taught at Paris, A.D. 1285-1289. About A.D. 1320, however, along with Meister Eckhart (§ 114, 1), he fell under suspicion of heresy, and nothing further is known of him. Among his still unpublished writings, mostly on natural and religious philosophy, the most important is the book _De beatifica visione Dei per essentiam_, which marks him out as a precursor of the Eckhart speculation.--On Female Mystics, see § 107.

IV. The Church and the People.

§ 104. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND ART.

Public worship had for a long time been popularly regarded as a performance fraught with magical power. The ignorant character of the priests led to frequent setting aside of preaching as something unessential, so that the service became purely liturgical. But now popes and synods urged the importance of rearing a race of learned priests, and the carefully prepared and eloquent sermons of Franciscans and Dominicans found great acceptance with the people. The Schoolmen gave to the doctrine of the sacraments its scientific form. The veneration of saints, relics, and images became more and more the central point of worship. Besides ecclesiastical architecture, which reached its highest development in the 13th century, the other arts began to be laid under contribution to beautify the ceremonial, the dresses of the celebrants, and the inner parts of the buildings.

§ 104.1. =The Liturgy and the Sermon.=--The Roman =Liturgy= was universally adopted except in Spain. When it was proposed at the Synod of Toledo in A.D. 1088 to set aside the old Mozarabic liturgy (§ 88, 1), the people rose against the proposal, and the ordeals of combat and fire decided in favour of retaining the old service. From that time both liturgies were used side by side. The Slavic ritual was abandoned in Moravia and Bohemia in the 10th century. The language of the church services everywhere was and continued to be the Latin. The quickening of the monkish orders in the 11th century, especially the Cluniacs and Cistercians, but more particularly the rise of the Franciscans and Dominicans in the 13th century, gave a great impulse to preaching. Almost all the great monks and schoolmen were popular preachers. The crowds that flocked around them as they preached in the vernacular were enormous. Even in the regular services the preaching was generally in the language of the people, but quotations from Scripture and the Fathers, as a mark of respect, were made in Latin and then translated. Sermons addressed to the clergy and before academic audiences were always in Latin.--As a preacher of repentance and of the crusades, Fulco of Neuilly, † A.D. 1202, regarded by the people as a saint and a miracle worker, had a wonderful reputation (§ 94, 4). Of all mediæval preachers, however, none can be compared for depth, spirituality, and popular eloquence with the Franciscan =Berthold of Regensburg=, pupil and friend of David of Augsburg (§ 103, 10), one of the most powerful preachers in the German tongue that ever lived. He died in A.D. 1272. He wandered from town to town preaching to crowds, often numbering 100,000 men, of the grace of God in Christ, against the abuse of indulgences and false trust in saints, and the idea of the meritoriousness of pilgrimages, etc. His sermons are of great value as illustrations of the strength and richness of the old German language. Roger Bacon too (§ 103, 8), usually so chary of praise, eulogises _Frater Bertholdus Alemannus_ as a preacher worth more than the two mendicant orders together.

§ 104.2. =Definition and Number of the Sacraments= (§§ 58; 70, 2).--Radbert acknowledged only two: Baptism including confirmation, and the Lord’s Supper. Rabanus Maurus by separately enumerating the bread and the cup, and counting confirmation as well as baptism, made four. Hugo St. Victor again held them to be an indefinite number. But he distinguished three kinds: those on which salvation depends, Baptism, Confirmation, and the Supper; those not necessary and forming important aids to salvation, sprinkling with holy water, confession, extreme unction, marriage, etc.; those necessary for particular callings, the ordination of priests, sacred vestments. Yet he prepared the way for the final ecclesiastical conception of the sacraments, by placing its _Elementa Corporalia_ under the threefold category as _divinam gratiam ex similitudine repræsentantia_, _ex institutione significantia_, and _ex consecratione continentia_. Peter the Lombard took practically the same view, but fixed the number of the Sacraments at seven: Baptism, Confirmation (§ 35, 4), the Supper, Penance, Extreme Unction, Marriage, and Ordination (§ 45, 1). This number was first officially sanctioned by the Florentine Council of A.D. 1439 (§ 67, 6). Alexander of Hales gave a special rank to Baptism and the Supper, as alone instituted by Christ, while Aquinas gave this rank to all the seven. All the ecclesiastical consecrations and benedictions were distinguished from the sacraments as _Sacramentalia_.--The Schoolmen distinguished the sacraments of the O.T., as _ex opera operante_, _i.e._ efficacious only through faith in a coming Redeemer, from the sacraments of the N.T. as _ex opera operato_, _i.e._ as efficacious by mere receiving without the exercise of positive faith on the part of all who had not committed a mortal sin. Against old sectaries (§§ 41, 3; 63, 1) and new (§§ 108, 7, 12) the scholastic divines maintained that even unworthy and unbelieving priests could validly dispense the sacraments, if only there was the _intentio_ to administer it in the form prescribed by the church.[309]

§ 104.3. =The Sacrament of the Altar.=--At the fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215 the doctrine of Transubstantiation was finally accepted (§ 101, 2). The fear lest any of the blood of the Lord should be spilt led to the withholding from the 12th century of the cup from the laity, and its being given only to the priests. If not the cause, then the consequence, of this was that the priests were regarded as the only full and perfect partakers of the Lord’s table. Kings at their coronation and at the approach of death were sometimes by special favour allowed to partake of the cup. The withdrawal of the cup from the laity was dogmatically justified, specially by Alex. of Hales, by the doctrine of _concomitantia_, _i.e._ that in the body the blood was contained. Fear of losing any fragment also led to the substitution of wafers, _the host_, for the bread that should be broken.--A consecrated host is kept in the _Tabernaculum_, a niche in the wall on the right of the high altar, in the so-called _liburium_ or _Sanctissimum_, _i.e._ a gold or silver casket, often ornamented with rich jewels. It is taken forth, touched only by the priests, and exhibited to the kneeling people during the service and in solemn processions.

§ 104.4. =Penance.=--Gratian’s decree (§ 99, 5) left it to the individual believer’s decision whether the sinner could be reconciled to God by heart penitence without confession. But in accordance also with the teaching of the Lombard, confession of mortal sins (Gal. v. 19 ff. and Cor. v. 9 f.), or, in case that could not be, the desire at heart to make it, was declared indispensable. The forgiveness of sins was still, however, regarded as God’s exclusive prerogative, and the priest could bind and loose only in regard to the fellowship of the church and the enjoyment of the sacraments. Before him, however, Hugo St. Victor had begun to transcend these limits; for he, distinguishing between the guilt and the punishment of the sinner, ascribed indeed to God alone the absolution from the guilt of sin on the ground of sincere repentance, but ascribed to the exercise of the priestly function, the absolution from the punishment of eternal death, in accordance with Matthew xviii. 18 and John xx. 23. Richard St. Victor held that the punishment of eternal death, which all mortal sins as well as venial sins entail, can be commuted into temporal punishment by priestly absolution, atoned for by penances imposed by the priests, _e.g._ prayers, fastings, alms, etc.; whereas without such satisfaction they can be atoned for only by the pains of purgatory (§ 61, 4). Innocent III., at the fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215, had the obligation of confession of all sins raised into a dogma, and obliged all believers under threat of excommunication to make confession at least once a year, as preparation for the Easter communion. The Provincial Synod at Toulouse in A.D. 1229 (§ 109, 2) insisted on compulsory confession and communion three times a year, at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. The three penitential requirements, enforced first by Hildebert of Tours, and adopted by the Lombard, _Contritio cordis_, _Confessio oris_, and _Satisfactio operis_ continued henceforth in force. But Hugo’s and Richard’s theory of absolution displaced not only that of the Lombard, but, by an extension of the sacerdotal idea to the absolution of the sinner from guilt, led to the introduction of a full-blown theory of indulgence (§ 106, 2). As the ground of the scientific construction given it by the Schoolmen of the 13th century, especially by Aquinas, the Catholic Church doctrine of penance received its final shape at the Council of Florence in A.D. 1439. Penance as the fourth sacrament consists of hearty repentance, auricular confession, and satisfaction; it takes form in the words of absolution, _Ego te absolvo_; and it is efficacious for the forgiveness of sins. Any breach of the secrecy of the confessional was visited by the fourth Lateran Council with excommunication, deposition, and lifelong confinement in a monastery. The exaction of a confessional fee, especially at the Easter confession, appears as an increment of the priest’s income in many mediæval documents. Its prohibition by several councils was caused by its simoniacal abuse. By the introduction of confessors, separate from the local clergy, the custom fell more and more into disuse.

§ 104.5. =Extreme Unction.=--Although as early as A.D. 416 Innocent I. had described anointing of the sick with holy oil (Mark vi. 13; Jas. v. 14) as a _Genus Sacramenti_ (§ 61, 3), extreme unction as a sacrament made little progress till the 9th century. The Synod of Chalons in A.D. 813 calls it quite generally a means of grace for the weak of soul and body. The Lombard was the first to give it the fifth place among the seven sacraments as _Unctio extrema_ and _Sacramentum exeuntium_, ascribing to it _Peccatorum remissio et corporalis infirmitatio alleviatus_. Original sin being atoned for by baptism, and actual sins by penance, Albert the Great and Aquinas describe it as the purifying from the _Reliquiæ peccatorum_ which even after baptism and penance hinder the soul from entering into its perfect rest. Bodily healing is only a secondary aim, and is given only if thereby the primary end of spiritual healing is not hindered. It was long debated whether, in case of recovery, it should be repeated when death were found approaching, and it was at last declared to be admissible. The Council of Trent defines _Extreme Unction_ as _Sacr. pœnitentiæ totius vitæ consummativum_. The form of its administration was finally determined to be the anointing of eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands, as well as (except in women) the feet and loins, with holy oil, consecrated by the bishop on Maundy Thursday. Confession and communion precede anointing. The three together constitute the _Viaticum_ of the soul in its last journey. After receiving extreme unction recipients are forbidden again to touch the ground with their bare feet or to have marital intercourse.

§ 104.6. =The Sacrament of Marriage= (§ 89, 4).--When marriage came generally to be regarded as a sacrament in the proper sense, the laws of marriage were reconstructed and the administration of them committed to the church. It had long been insisted upon by the church with ever-increasing decidedness, that the priestly benediction must precede the marriage ceremonial, and that bridal communion must accompany the civil action. Hence marriage had to be performed in the immediate vicinity of a church, _ante ostium ecclesiæ_. As another than the father often gave away the bride, this position of sponsor was claimed by the church for the priest. Marriage thus lost its civil character, and the priest came to be regarded as performing it in his official capacity not in name of the family, but in name of the church. Christian marriage in the early times required only mutual consent of parties (§ 39, 1), but the Council of Trent demanded a solemn agreement between bride and bridegroom before the officiating priest and two or three witnesses. In order to determine more exactly hindrances to marriage (§ 61, 2) it was made a law at the second Lateran Council in A.D. 1139, and confirmed at the fourth in A.D. 1215, that the parties proposing to marry should be proclaimed in church. To each part of the sacrament the _character indelibilis_ is ascribed, and so divorce was absolutely forbidden, even in the case of adultery (in spite of Matt. v. 32 and xix. 9), though _separatio a mensa et toro_ was allowed. Innocent III. in A.D. 1215 reduced the prohibited degrees from the seventh to the fourth in the line of blood relationship (§ 61, 2).

§ 104.7. =New Festivals.=--The worship of Mary (§ 57, 2) received an impulse from the institution of the Feast of the Birth of Mary on 8th of September. To this was added in the south of France in the 12th century, the Feast of the =Immaculate Conception= on the 8th December. Radbert (§ 91, 4) by his doctrine of _Sanctificatio in utero_ gave basis to the theory of the Virgin’s freedom from original sin in her conception and bearing. Anselm of Canterbury, however, taught in _Cur Deus Homo?_ ii. 16, that Mary was conceived and born in sin, and that she like all others had sinned in Adam. Certain canons of Lyons, in A.D. 1140, revived Radbert’s theory, but raised the _Sanctif. in utero_ into the _Immaculata conceptio_. St. Bernard protested against the doctrine and the festival; sinless conception is a prerogative of the Redeemer alone. Mary like us all was conceived in sin, but was sanctified before the birth by Divine power, so that her whole life was faultless; if one imagines that Mary’s sinless conception of her Son had her own sinless conception as a necessary presupposition, this would need to be carried back _ad infinitum_, and to festivals of Immaculate Conceptions there would be no end. This view of a _Sanctificatio in utero_, with repudiation of the _Conceptio immaculata_, was also maintained by Alex. of Hales, Bonaventura, Albert the Great, and Aquinas. The feast of the Conception, with the predicate “immaculate” dropped, gradually came to be universally observed. The Franciscans adopted it in this limited sense at Pisa, in A.D. 1263, but when, beginning with Duns Scotus (§§ 113, 112), the doctrine of the immaculate conception came to be regarded as a distinctive dogma of the order, the Dominicans felt called upon to offer it their most strenuous opposition.[310] (Continuation, § 112, 4.)--To the feast of All Saints, on 1st November, the Cluniacs added in A.D. 998, the feast of =All Souls= on 2nd November, for intercession of believers on behalf of the salvation of souls in purgatory. In the 12th century the =Feast of the Trinity= was introduced on the Sunday after Pentecost. Out of the transubstantiation doctrine arose the =Corpus Christi Festival=, on the Thursday after Trinity. A pious nun of Liège, Juliana, in A.D. 1261, saw in a vision the full moon with a halo around it, and an inward revelation interpreted this phenomenon to indicate that the festal cycle of the church still wanted a festival in honour of the eucharist. Urban IV. gave effect to this suggestion in A.D. 1264, avowedly in consequence of the miracle of the mass of Bolsena. A priest of Bolsena celebrating mass spilt a drop of consecrated wine, which left a blood-red stain on the corporal or pall (§ 60, 5), in the form of a host. The festival did not come into favour till Clement V. renewed its institution at the Council of Vienne, in A.D. 1311. The church, by order of John XXIII. in A.D. 1316, celebrated it by a magnificent procession, in which the _liburium_ was carried with all pomp.

§ 104.8. =The Veneration of Saints= (§ 88, 4).--The numerous =Canonizations=, from the 12th century exclusively in the hands of the popes, gave an impulse to saint worship. It was the duty of _Advocatus diaboli_ to try to disprove the reports of virtues and miracles attributed to candidates. The proofs of holiness adduced were generally derived from thoroughly fabulous sources. The introduction of the name of accepted candidates into the canon of the mass gave rise to the term canonization. =Beatification= was a lower degree of honour, often a preliminary to canonization at a later period. It carried with it the veneration not of the whole church, but of particular churches or districts. The Dominican Jacobus a Voragine, who died in A.D. 1298, in his _Legenda aurea_ afforded a pattern for numerous late legends of the saints. A Parisian theologian who styled it _Legenda ferrea_, was publicly expelled from his office. The =Veneration of Mary=, to whom were rendered _Hyperdoulia_ in contradistinction from the _Doulia_ of the saints, not only among the people, but with the most cultured theologians, publicly and privately, literally and figuratively, in prose and poetry, was almost equal to the worship rendered to God, and indeed often overshadowed it. The angel’s salutation (Luke i. 28) was in every prayer. Its frequent repetition led to the use of the _Rosary_, a rose wreath for the most blessed of women. The great rosary attributed to St. Dominic has fifteen decades, or 150 smaller pearls of Mary, each of which represents an _Ave Maria_, and after every ten there is a greater Paternoster pearl. The small or common rosary has only five decades of beads of Mary with a Paternoster bead for each decade. Thrice repeated it forms the so-called _Psalter of Mary_. The first appearance of the rosary in devotion was with the monk Macarius in the 4th century, who took 300 stones in his lap, and after every Paternoster threw one away. The rosary devotion is also practised by Moslems and Buddhists. In cloisters, Saturday was usually dedicated to the Mother of God, and was begun by a special _Officium S. Mariæ_. May was called the month of Mary.--In the 11th century no further trace is found of the Frankish opposition to =Image Worship= (§ 92, 1). But this in no way hindered the growth of =Relic Worship=. Returning crusaders showered on the West innumerable relics, which notwithstanding many sceptics were received generally with superstitious reverence. Castles and estates were often bartered for pretended relics of a distinguished saint, and such treasures were frequently stolen at the risk of life. No story of a trafficker in relics was too absurd to be believed.--=Pilgrimages=, especially to Rome and Palestine, were no less in esteem among the Western Christians of the 10th century during the Roman pornocracy (§ 96, 1) or the tyranny of the Seljuk dynasty in Palestine (§ 94). The expectation of the approaching end of the world, rather gave them an impulse during this century, which reached its fullest expression in the crusades.--Continuation, § 115, 9.

§ 104.9. The earliest trace of a commemoration of =St. Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins= is met with in the 10th century. Excavations in the _Ager Ursulanus_ near Cologne in A.D. 1155 led to the discovery of some thousand skeletons, several of them being those of males, with inscribed tablets, one of the fictitious inscriptions referring to an otherwise unknown pope Cyriæus. St. Elizabeth of Schönau (§ 107, 1) at the same time had visions in which the Virgin gave her authentic account of their lives. Ursula, the fair daughter of a British king of the 3rd century, was to have married a pagan prince; she craved three years’ reprieve and got from her father eleven ships, each with an equipment of a thousand virgins, with which she sailed up the Rhine to Basel, and thence with her companions travelled on foot a pilgrimage to Rome. On her return, in accordance with the Divine instruction, Pope Cyriæus accompanied her, whose name was on this account struck out of the list by the offended cardinals; for as Martinus Polonus says, _Credebant plerique eum non propter devotionem sed propter obtectamenta virginum papatum dimississe_. Near Cologne they met the army of the Huns, by whom they were all massacred, at last even Ursula herself on her persistent refusal to marry the barbaric chief.--In the absence of any historical foundations for this legend, an explanation has been attempted by identifying Ursula with a goddess of the German mythology. An older suggestion is that perhaps an ancient inscription may have given rise to the legend.[311]

§ 104.10. =Hymnology.=--The Augustan age of scholasticism was that also of the composition of Latin hymns and sequences (§ 88, 2). The most distinguished sacred poets were Odo of Clugny, king Robert of France (_Veni, sancte Spiritus, et emitte_), Damiani, Abælard, Hildebert of Tours, St. Bernard, Adam of St. Victor,[312] Bonaventura, Aquinas, the Franciscan Thomas of Celano, A.D. 126O (_Dies iræ_), and Jacopone da Todi, † A.D. 1306 (_Stabat mater dolorosa_). The latter, an eccentric enthusiast and miracle-working saint, called himself “_Stultus propter Christum_.” Originally a wealthy advocate, living a life of revel and riot, he was led by the sudden death of his young wife to forsake the world. He courted the world’s scorn in the most literal manner, appearing in the public market bridled like a beast of burden and creeping on all fours, and at another time appearing naked, tarred and feathered at the marriage of a niece. But he glowed with fervent love for the Crucified and a fanatical veneration for the blessed Virgin. He also fearlessly raised his voice against the corruption of the clergy and the papacy, and vigorously denounced the ambition of Boniface VIII. For this he was imprisoned and fed on bread and water. When tauntingly asked, “When wilt thou come out?” he answered in words that were soon fulfilled, “So soon as thou shall come down.” =Sacred Poetry= in the vernacular was used only in extra-ecclesiastical devotions. The oldest German Easter hymn belongs to the 12th century.[313] The Minnesingers of the 13th century composed popular songs of a religious character, especially in praise of Mary; there were also sacred songs for travellers, sailors, soldiers, etc. Heretics separated from the church and its services spread their views by means of hymns. St. Francis wrote Italian hymns, and among his disciples Fra Pacifico, Bonaventura, Thomas of Celano, and Jacopone followed worthily in his footsteps.

§ 104.11. =Church Music= (§ 88, 2).--The Gregorian _Cantus firmus_ soon fell into disfavour and disuetude. The rarity, costliness, and corruption of the antiphonaries, the difficulty of their notation and of their musical system, and the want of accurately trained singers, combined to bring this about. Singers too had often made arbitrary alterations. Hence alongside of the _Cantus firmus_ there gradually grew up a _Discantus_ or _Cantus figuratus_, and instead of singing in unison, singing in harmony was introduced. Rules of harmony, concord, and intervals were now elaborated by the monk Hucbald of Rheims about A.D. 900, while the German monk Reginus about A.D. 920 and the abbot Opo of Clugny did much for the theory and practice of music. In place of the intricate Gregorian notation the Tuscan Benedictine Guido of Arezzo, A.D. 1000-1050, introduced the notation that is still used, which made it possible to write the harmony along with the melody, counterpoint, _i.e._ _punctum contra punctum_. The discoverer of the measure of the notes was Franco of Cologne about A.D. 1200. The organ was commonly used in churches. The Germans were the greatest masters in its construction and in the playing of it.--Continuation, § 115, 8.

§ 104.12. =Ecclesiastical Architecture.=--Church building, which the barbarism of the 10th century, and the widespread expectation of the coming end of the world had restrained, flourished during the 11th century in an extraordinary manner. The endeavour to infuse the German spirit into the ancient style of architecture gave rise to the =Romance Style of Architecture=, which prevailed during the 12th century. It was based upon the structure of the old basilicas, the most important innovation being the introduction of the vaulted in place of the flat wooden roof, which made the interior lighter and heightened the perspective effect. The symbolical and fanciful ornamentation was also richly developed by figures from the plants and animals of Germany, from native legends. Towers were also added as fingers pointing upward, sometimes over the entrance to the middle aisle or at both sides of the entrance, sometimes over the point where the nave and transepts intersected one another, or on both sides of the choir. The finest specimens of this style were the cathedrals of Spires, Mainz, and Worms. But alongside of this appeared the beginnings of the so-called =Gothic Architecture=, which reached its height in the 13th and 14th centuries. Here the German ideas shook themselves free from the bondage of the old basilica style. Retaining the early ground plan, its pointed arch admitted of development in breadth and height to any extent. The pointed arch was first learnt from the Saracens, but its application to the Gothic architecture was quite original, because it was not as with the Saracens decorative, but constructive. The blank walls were changed into supporting pillars, and became a magnificent framework for the display of ingenious window architecture. A rich stone structure rose upon the cruciform ground plan, and the powerful arches towered up into airy heights. Tall tapering pillars symbolized the heavenward strivings of the soul. The rose window over the portal as the symbol of silence teaches that nothing worldly has a voice there. The gigantic peaked windows send through their beautifully painted glass a richly coloured light full on the vast area. Everything in the structure points upward, and this symbolism is finally expressed in the lofty towers, which lose themselves in giddy heights. The victory over the kingdom of darkness is depicted in the repulsive reptiles, demonic forms, and dragon shapes which are made to bear up the pillars and posts, and to serve as water carriers. The wit of artists has made even bishops and popes perform these menial offices, just as Dante condemned many popes to the infernal regions.[314]

§ 104.13. The most famous architects were Benedictines. The master builder along with the scholars trained by him formed independent corporations, free from any other jurisdiction. They therefore called themselves “=Free Masons=,” and erected “=Lodges=,” where they met for consultation and discussion. From the 13th century these lodges fell more and more into the hands of the laity, and became training schools of architecture. To them we are largely indebted for the development of the Gothic style. Their most celebrated works are the Cologne cathedral and the Strassburg minster. The foundation of the former was laid under Archbishop Conrad of Hochsteden in A.D. 1248; the choir was completed and consecrated in A.D. 1322 (§ 174, 9). Erwin of Steinbach began the building of the Strassburg minster in A.D. 1275.

§ 104.14. =Statuary and Painting.=--Under the Hohenstaufens =statuary=, which had been disallowed by the ancient church, rose into favour. Its first great master in Italy was Nicola Pisano, who died in A.D. 1274. Earlier indeed a statuary school had been formed in Saxony, of which no names but great works have come down to us. The goldsmith’s craft and metallurgy were brought into the service of the church by the German artists, and show not only wonderful technical skill, but also high attainment in ideal art. In =Painting= the Byzantines taught the Italians, and these again the Germans. At the beginning of the 13th century there was a school of painting at Pisa and Siena, claiming St. Luke as its patron, and seeking to impart more life and warmth to the stiff figures of the Byzantines. Their greatest masters were Guido of Siena and Giunta of Pisa, and the Florentine Cimabue, † A.D. 1300. Mosaic painting mostly on a golden ground was in favour in Italy. Painting on glass is first met with in the beginning of the 11th century in the monastery of Tegernsee in Bavaria, and soon spread over Germany and all over Europe.[315]--Continuation, § 115, 13.

§ 105. NATIONAL CUSTOMS AND THE NATIONAL LITERATURE.

It was an age full of the most wonderful contradictions and anomalies in the life of the people, but every phenomenon bore the character of unquestionable power, and the church applied the artificer’s chisel to the unhewn marble block. In club law the most brutal violence prevailed, but bowed itself willingly or unwillingly before the might of an idea. The basest sensuality existed alongside of the most simple self-denial and renunciation of the world, the most wonderful displays of self-forgetting love. The most sacred solemnities were parodied, and then men turned in awful earnest to manifest the profoundest anxiety for their soul’s salvation. Alongside of unmeasured superstition we meet with the boldest freethinking, and out of the midst of widespread ignorance and want of culture there radiated forth great thoughts, profound conceptions, and suggestive anticipations.

§ 105.1. =Knighthood and the Peace of God.=--Notwithstanding its rude violence there was a deep religious undertone in knighthood, which came out in Spain in the war with the Saracens, and throughout Europe in the crusades. What princes could not do to check savagery was to some extent accomplished by the church by means of the injunction of the Peace of God. In A.D. 1034 the severity of famine in France led to acts of cannibalism and murder, which the bishops and synods severely punished. In A.D. 1041 the bishops of Southern France enjoined the Peace of God, according to which under threat of anathema all feuds were to be suspended from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, as the days of the ascension, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. At a later council at Narbonne in A.D. 1054, Advent to Epiphany, Lent to eight days after Easter, from the Sunday before Ascension to the end of the week of Pentecost, as well as the ember days and the festivals of Mary and the Apostles, were added. Even on other days, churches, cloisters, hospitals, and churchyards, as well as priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, and agriculturists, in short, all unarmed men, and, by the Council of Clermont, A.D. 1095, even all crusaders, were included in the peace of God. Its healthful influence was felt even outside of France, and at the 3rd Lateran Council in A.D. 1179 Alexander III. raised it to the rank of a universally applicable law of the church.

§ 105.2. =Popular Customs.=--Superstition resting on old paganism introduced a Christian mythology. In almost all the popular legends the devil bore a leading part, and he was generally represented as a dupe who was cheated out of his bargain in the end. The most sacred things were made the subjects of blasphemous parodies. On =Fool’s Festival= on New Year’s day in France, mock popes, bishops, and abbots were introduced and all the holy actions mimicked in a blasphemous manner. Of a similar nature was the _Festum innocentum_ (§ 57, 1) enacted by schoolboys at Christmas. Also at Christmas time the so-called =Feast of Asses= was celebrated. At Rouen dramatic representation of the prophecies of Christ’s birth were given; at Beauvais, the flight into Egypt. This relic of pagan license was opposed by the bishops, but encouraged by the lower clergy. After bishops and councils succeeded in banishing these fooleries from consecrated places they soon ceased to be celebrated. Under the name of =Calends=, because their gatherings were on the Calends of each month, brotherhoods composed of clerical and lay members sprang up in the beginning of the 13th century throughout Germany and France, devoting themselves to prayer and saying masses for living and deceased members and relatives. This pious purpose was indeed soon forgotten, and the meetings degenerated into riotous carousings.

§ 105.3. =Two Royal Saints.=--=St. Elizabeth=, daughter of Andrew II. of Hungary, married in her 14th year to St. Louis IV., Landgrave of Thuringia, was made a widow in her 20th year by the death of her husband in the crusade of Frederick II. in A.D. 1227, and thereafter suffered many privations at the hand of her brother-in-law. Her father confessor inspired her with a fanatical spirit of self denial. She assumed in Marburg the garb of the Franciscan nuns, took the three vows, and retired into a house of mercy, where she submitted to be scourged by her confessor. There she died in her 24th year in A.D. 1231. Her remains are credited with the performance of many miracles. She was canonized by Gregory IX., in A.D. 1235, and in the 14th century the order of Elizabethan nuns was instituted for ministering to the poor and sick.[316]--=St. Hedwig=, aunt of Elizabeth, married Henry duke of Silesia, in her 12th year. After discharging her duties of wife, mother, and princess faithfully, she took along with her husband the vow of chastity, and out of the sale of her bridal ornaments built a nunnery at Trebnitz, where she died in A.D. 1243 in her 69th year. Canonized in A.D. 1268, her remains were deposited in the convent church, which became on that account a favourite resort of pilgrims.

§ 105.4. =Evidences of Sainthood.=

1. =Stigmatization.= Soon after St. Francis’ death in A.D. 1226, the legend spread that two years before, during a forty days’ fast in the Apennines, a six-winged seraph imprinted on his body the nail prints of the wounded Saviour. The saint’s humility, it was said, prevented him speaking of the miracle except to those in closest terms of intimacy. The papal bull canonizing the saint, however, issued in A.D. 1228, knows nothing of this wonderful occurrence. What was then told of the great saint was subsequently ascribed to about 100 other ascetics, male and female. Some sceptical critics attributed the phenomenon to an impressionable temperament, others again accounted for all such stories by assuming that they were purely fabulous, or that the marks had been deceitfully made with human hands. Undoubtedly St. Francis had made those wounds upon his own body. That pain should have been felt on certain occasions in the wounds may be accounted for, especially in the case of females, who constituted the great majority of stigmatized individuals, on pathological grounds.

2. =Bilocation.= The Catholic Church Lexicon, published in A.D. 1882 (II. 840), maintains that it is a fact universally believed that saints often appeared at the same time at places widely removed from one another. Examples are given from the lives of Anthony of Padua, Francis Xavier, Liguori, etc. This is explained by the supposition that either God gives this power to the saint or sends angels to assume his form in different places.

§ 105.5. =Religious Culture of the People.=--Unsuccessful attempts were made by the Hohenstaufens to institute a public school system and compulsory education. Waldensians and such like (§ 108) obtained favour by spreading instruction through vernacular preaching, reading, and singing. The Dominicans took a hint from this. The Council of Toulouse, A.D. 1229 (§ 109, 2), forbade laymen to read the Scriptures, even the Psalter and Breviary, in the vulgar tongue. Summaries of the Scripture history were allowed. Of this sort was the =Rhyming Bible= in Dutch by Jacob of Maërlant, † A.D. 1291, which gives in rhyme the O.T. history, the Life of Jesus, and the history of the Jews to the destruction of Jerusalem. In the 13th century =Rhyming Legends= gave in the vernacular the substance of the Latin Martyrologies. The oldest German example in 3 bks. by an unknown author contains 100,000 rhyming lines, on Christ and Mary, the Apostles and the saints in the order of the church year. Still more effectively was information spread among the people during the 11th and subsequent centuries by the performance of =Sacred Plays=. From simple responsive songs they were developed into regular dramas adapted to the different festivals. Besides historical plays which were called =Mysteries==_ministeria_ as representations of the _Ministri eccl._, there were allegorical and moral plays called =Moralities=, in which moral truths were personified under the names of the virtues and vices. The numerous pictures, mosaics, and reliefs upon the walls helped greatly to spread instruction among the people.[317]

§ 105.6. =The National Literature= (§ 89, 3).--_Walter v. d. Vogelweide_, † A.D. 1230, sang the praises of the Lord, the Virgin, and the church, and lashed the clerical vices and hierarchical pretensions of his age. The 12th century editor of the pagan _Nibelungenlied_ gave it a slightly Christian gloss. _Wolfram of Eschenbach_, however, a Christian poet in the highest sense, gave to the pagan legend of Parcival a thoroughly Christian character in the story of the Holy Grail and the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur. His antipodes as a purely secular poet was _Godfrey of Strassburg_, whose Tristan and Isolt sets forth a thoroughly sensual picture of carnal love; yet as the sequel of this we have a strongly etherealized rhapsody on Divine love conceived quite in the spirit of St. Francis.--The sprightly songs of the _Troubadours_ of Southern France were often the vehicle of heretical sentiments and gave expression to bitter hatred of the Romish Babylon.[318]

§ 106. CHURCH DISCIPLINE, INDULGENCES, AND ASCETICISM.

The ban, directed against notorious individual sinners and foes of the church, and the interdict, directed against a whole country, were formidable weapons which rarely failed in accomplishing their purpose. Their foolishly frequent use for political ends by the popes of the 13th century was the first thing that weakened their influence. The penitential discipline of the church, too (§ 104, 4), began to lose its power, when outward works, such as alms, pilgrimages, and especially money fines in the form of indulgences were prescribed as substitutes for it. Various protests against prevailing laxity and formality were made by the Benedictines and by new orders instituted during the 11th century. Strict asceticism with self-laceration and mortification was imposed in many cloisters, and many hermits won high repute for holiness. The example and preaching of earnest monks and recluses did much to produce a revival of religion and awaken a penitential enthusiasm. Not satisfied with mortifying the body by prolonging fasts and watchings, they wounded themselves with severe scourgings and the wearing of sackcloth next the skin, and sometimes also brazen coats of mail, heavy iron chains, girdles with pricks, etc.

§ 106.1. =Ban and Interdict.=--From the 9th century a distinction was made between _Excommunicatio major_ and _minor_. The latter, inflicted upon less serious offences against the canon law, merely excluded from participation in the sacrament. The former, called =Anathema=, directed against hardened sinners with solemn denunciation and the church’s curse, involved exclusion from all ecclesiastical communion and even refusal of Christian burial. Zealots who slew such excommunicated persons were declared by Urban II. not to be murderers. Innocent III., at the 4th Lateran Council A.D. 1215, had all civil rights withdrawn from excommunicates and their goods confiscated. Rulers under the ban were deposed and their subjects released from their oath of allegiance. Bishops exercised the right of putting under ban within their dioceses, and the popes over the whole church.--The =Interdict= was first recognised as a church institution at the Synod of Limoges in A.D. 1031. While it was in force against any country all bells were silenced, liturgical services were held only with closed doors, penance and the eucharist administered only to the dying, none but priests, mendicant friars, strangers, and children under two years of age received Christian burial, and no one could be married. Rarely could the people endure this long. It was therefore a terrible weapon in the hands of the popes, who not infrequently exercised it effectually in their struggles with the princes of the 12th and 13th centuries.

§ 106.2. =Indulgences.=--The old German principle of composition (§ 89, 5), and the Gregorian doctrine of purgatory (§ 61, 4), formed the bases on which was reared the ordinance of indulgences. The theory of the monks of St. Victor of the 12th century regarding penitential satisfaction (§ 104, 4), gave an impetus to the development of this institution of the church. It copestone was laid in the 13th century by the formulating of the doctrine of the superabundant merit of Christ and the saints (_Thesaurus supererogationis Christi et perfectorum_) by Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, and Aquinas. The members of the body of Christ could suffer and serve one for another, and thus Aquinas thought the merits of one might lessen the purgatorial pains of another. Innocent III., in A.D. 1215, allowed to bishops the right of limiting the pains of purgatory to forty days, but claimed for the pope exclusively the right of giving full indulgence (_Indulgentia plenaria_). Clement VI. declared that the pope as entrusted with the keys was alone the dispenser of the _Thesaurus supererogationis_. Strictly indulgence was allowed only to the truly penitent, as an aid to imperfect not a substitute for non-existent satisfaction. This was generally ignored by preachers of indulgences. This was specially the case in the times of the crusaders. Popes also frequently gave indulgences to those who simply visited certain shrines.

§ 106.3. =The Church Doctrine of the Hereafter.=--All who had perfectly observed every requirement of the penances and sacraments of the church to the close of their lives had the gates of =Heaven= opened to them. All others passed into the =Lower World= to suffer either positively=_sensus_, inexpressible pains of fire, or negatively=_damnum_, loss of the vision of God. There are four degrees corresponding to four places of punishment. =Hell=, situated in the midst of the earth, _abyssus_ (Rev. xx. 1), is place and state of eternal punishment for all infidels, apostates, excommunicates, and all who died in mortal sin. The next circle is the purifying fire of =Purgatory=, or a place of temporary punishment positive or negative for all believing Christians who did not in life fully satisfy the three requirements of the sacrament of penance (§ 104, 4). The =Limbus infantum= is a side chamber of purgatory, where all unbaptized infants are kept for ever, only deprived of blessedness in consequence of original sin. Then above this is the =Limbus Patrum=, “Abraham’s bosom,” where the saints of the Old Covenant await the second coming of Christ.

§ 106.4. =Flagellation.=--From the 8th century discipline was often exercised by means of scourging, administered by the confessor who prescribed it. In the 11th century voluntary =Self-Flagellation= was frequently practised not only as punishment for one’s own sin, but, after the pattern of Christ and the martyrs, as atonement for sins of others. It originated in Italy, had its great patron in Damiani (§ 97, 4), and was earnestly commended by Bernard, Norbert, Francis, Dominic, etc. It is reported of St. Dominic that he scourged himself thrice every night, first for himself, and then for his living companions, and then for the departed in purgatory. The zealous Franciscan preachers were mainly instrumental in exerting an enthusiasm for self-mortification among the people (§ 98, 4). About A.D. 1225, Anthony of Padua attracted crowds who went about publicly lashing themselves while singing psalms. Followers of Joachim of Floris (§ 108, 5) as =Flagellants= rushed through all Northern Italy in great numbers during A.D. 1260, preaching the immediate approach of the end of the world.[319]

§ 107. FEMALE MYSTICS.

Practical mysticism which concerned itself only with the salvation of the soul, had many representatives among the women of the 12th and 13th centuries. Among them it was specially characterized by the prevalence of ecstatic visions, often deteriorating into manifestations of nervous affections which superstitious people regarded as exhibitions of miraculous power. Examples are found in all countries, but especially in the Netherlands, and the Rhine provinces, in France, Alsace and Switzerland, in Saxony and Thuringia. Those whose visions pointed to the inauguration of reforms are of particular interest to us, as they often had a considerable influence on the subsequent history of the church.

§ 107.1. =Two Rhenish Prophetesses of the 12th Century.=--=St. Hildegard= was founder and abbess of a cloister near Bingen on the Rhine, where she died in A.D. 1178 in her 74th year. Grieving over clerical and papal corruptions, she had apocalyptic visions of the antichrist, and travelled far and engaged in an extensive correspondence in appealing for radical reforms. St. Bernard and pope Eugenius III. who visited Treves in A.D. 1147 acknowledged her prophetic vocation, and the people ascribed to her wonderful healing power.--Hildegard’s younger contemporary was the like-minded =St. Elizabeth of Schönau=, abbess of the neighbouring convent of Schönau, who died in A.D. 1165. Her prophecies were mostly of the apocalyptic-visionary order, and in them with still greater severity she lashed the corruptions of the clergy. She also gave currency to the legend of St. Ursula (§ 104, 9).

§ 107.2. =Three Thuringian Prophetesses of the 13th Century.=--=Mechthild of Magdeburg=, after thirty years of Beguine life, wrote in a beautiful rhythmical style in German her “Light of Deity,” setting forth the sweetness of God’s love, the blessedness of glorified saints, the pains of purgatory and hell, and denouncing with great moral earnestness the corruptions of the clergy and the church, and depicting with a poet’s or prophet’s power the coming of the last day. Influenced by the apocalyptic views of Joachim of Floris (§ 108, 5), she also gives expression to a genuinely German patriotism. With her it is a new preaching order that leads to victory against antichrist, and the founder of this order, who meets a martyr’s death in the conflict, is a son of the Roman king. In contrast with Joachim, she thus makes the German empire not a foe but the ally of the church. Mechthild’s prophecies largely influenced Dante, and even her name appears in that of his guide Matilda.--=Mechthild of Hackeborn=, who died in A.D. 1310, in her _Speculum spiritualis gratiæ_ published her visions of a reformatory and eschatological prophetic order, more subjective and personal than those of the former.--=Gertrude the Great=, who died in A.D. 1311, is more decidedly a reformer than either of the Mechthilds or any other woman of the Middle Ages. A diligent inquirer into the depths of Scripture, she renounced the veneration usually shown to Mary, the saints, and relics, repudiated all the ideas of her age regarding merits, ceremonial exercises, and indulgences, and in the exercise of simple faith trusted only to the grace of God in Christ. She seems to belong to the 16th rather than to the 13th century. Her visions, too, are more of a spiritual kind.

V. Heretical Opposition to Ecclesiastical Authority.

§ 108. THE PROTESTERS AGAINST THE CHURCH.

Mediæval endeavours after reform, partly proceeded from within the church itself in attempts to restore apostolic purity and simplicity, partly from without on the part of those who despaired of any good coming out of the church, and who therefore warred bitterly against it. Such attempts were often lost amid the vagaries of fanaticism and heresy, which soon threatened the foundation of the social fabric, and often came into collision with the State. Most widely spread and most radical were the numerous dualistic sects of the Cathari. Montanist fanaticism was revived in apocalyptic prophesyings. There were also pantheistic sects, and among the Pasagians a sort of Ebionism reappeared. Another group of sects originated through reformatory endeavours of individual men, who perceiving the utter corruption of the church of their day, sought salvation in a revolutionary overthrow of all ecclesiastical institutions and repudiated often the truth with the error which was the object of their hate. The only protesting church of a thoroughly sensible evangelical sort was that of the Waldensians.

§ 108.1. =The Cathari.=--Opposition to hierarchical pretensions led to the spread of sects, especially in Northern Italy and France, from the 11th century. Hidden remnants of Old Manichæan sects got new courage and ventured into the light during the period of the crusades. In France they were called Tisserands, because mostly composed of weavers. In Italy they were called Patareni or Paterini, either from the original meaning of the word, rabble, riff-raff (§ 97, 5), or because they so far adopted the attitude of the Pasaria of Milan, as to offer lay opposition to the local clergy, or because of the frequent use of the Paternoster. Of later origin are the names Publicani and Bulgări, given as opprobrious designations to the Paulicians. The most widely current name of Cathari, from early times a favourite title assumed by rigorist sects (§ 41, 3), had its origin in the East. In France they were called Albigensians, from the province of Albigeois, which was their chief seat in Southern France.--Of the =Writings of the Cathari= we possess from the end of the 13th century a Provençal translation of the N.T., free from all falsification in favour of their sectarian views. Their tenets are to be learnt only from the polemical writings of their opponents, Alanus ab Insulis (§ 102, 5), the Dominican Joh. Moneta, about A.D. 1240, and Rainerius, Sacchoni, Dominican and inquisitor, about A.D. 1250.

§ 108.2. Besides their opposition to the hierarchy, all these sects had in common a dualistic basis to their theological systems. They held in a more or less extreme form the following doctrines: The good God who is proclaimed in the N.T. created in the beginning the heavenly and invisible world, and peopled it with souls clothed in ethereal bodies. The earthly world, on the other hand, is the work of an evil spirit, who is held up as object of worship in the O.T. Entering the heavenly world he succeeded in seducing some of its inhabitants, whom he, when defeated by the archangel Michael, took with him to earth, and there imprisoned in earthly bodies, so as to make return to their heavenly home impossible. Yet they are capable of redemption, and may, on repentance and submission to purificatory ordinances, be again freed from their earthly bonds and brought home again to heaven. For this redemption the good God sent “the heavenly man” Jesus (1 Cor. xv. 47) to earth in the appearance of man to teach men their heavenly origin and the means of restoration. The Cathari rejected the O.T., but accepted the N.T., which they read in the vernacular. Marriage they regarded as a hindrance to Christian perfection. They treated with contempt water baptism, the Supper, and ordination, as well as all veneration of saints and relics, and tolerated no images, crosses, or altars. Prayer, abstinence, and baptism of the Spirit were regarded as the only means of salvation. Preaching was next to prayer most prominent in their public services. They also laid great stress upon fasting, genuflection, and repetitions of stated formulæ, especially the Lord’s Prayer. Their members were divided into _Cregentz_ (_credentes_ or catechumens) and _Bos homes_ or _Bos crestias_ (_boni homines, boni Christiani_=_perfecti_ or _electi_). A lower order of the catechumens were the _Auditores_. These were received as _Credentes_ after a longer period of training amid various ceremonies and repetition of the Lord’s prayer, etc. The order of the _Perfecti_ was entered by spiritual baptism, the _Consolamentum_ or communication of the Holy Spirit as the promised Comforter, without which no one can enjoy eternal life. Even opponents such as St. Bernard admit that there was great moral earnestness shown by some of them, and many met a martyr’s death with true Christian heroism. Symptoms of decay appeared in the spread among them of antinomian practices. This moral deterioration showed itself as a radical part of this system in the so-called =Luciferians= or devil worshippers, whose dualism, like that of the Euchites and Bogomils (§ 71), led to the adoption of two Sons of God. Lucifer the elder, wrongly driven from heaven, is the creator and lord of this earthly world, and hence alone worshipped in it. His expulsion (Isa. xiv. 12) is carried out by the younger son, Michael, who will, however, on this account, whenever Lucifer regains heaven, be sent with all his company into eternal punishment. Of an incarnation of God, even of a docetic kind, they know nothing. They regarded Jesus as a false prophet who was crucified on account of the evil he had done.--Catharist sects suspected of Manichæan tendencies were discovered here and there during the 11th century. In the following century their number had increased enormously, and they spread over Lombardy and Southern France, but were also found in Southern Italy, in Germany, Belgium, Spain, and even in England. They had a pope residing in Bulgaria, twelve magistri and seventy-two bishops, each with a _Filius major_ and _minor_ at his side. In A.D. 1167 they were able to muster an œcumenical Catharist Council at Toulouse. Neither clemency nor severity could put them down. St. Bernard prevailed most by the power of his love, and subsequently learned Dominicans had more effect with their preaching and disputations. They found abundant opportunity of displaying their hatred of the papacy during the struggles of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. In spite of terrible persecution, which reached its height in the beginning of the 13th century in the Albigensian crusade (§ 109, 1), remnants of them were found down into the 14th century.

§ 108.3. The small sect of the =Pasagians= in Lombardy during the 12th century, protesting against the Manichæan depreciation of the O.T. of the Catharists, adopted views of a somewhat Ebionite character. With the exception of sacrifice, they enforced all the old ceremonial observances, even circumcision, and held an Arian or Ebionite theory of the Person of Christ. Their name meaning “passage,” seems to refer to pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and possibly from this a clue to their origin may be obtained.

§ 108.4. =Pantheistic Heretics.=

1. =Amalrich of Bena= taught first philosophy, then theology, at Paris in the end of the 12th century. In A.D. 1204 Innocent III. called him to account for his proposition, Christian in sound, but probably pantheistically intended, that no one could be saved who is not a member in Christ’s body, and obliged him to retract. His death occurred soon after, and some years later we find traces of a pantheistic sect founded on the alleged doctrines of Amalrich vigorously propagated by his disciple William the goldsmith. God had previously appeared as Father incarnate in Abraham, and as Son in Christ, and now henceforth as the Holy Spirit in every believer, who therefore in the same sense as Christ is God. As such, too, he is without sin, and what to others would be sin is not so to him. In the age of the Son the Mosaic law lost its validity, and in that of the Spirit, the sacraments and services of the new covenant. God has always been all in all. We find him in Ovid as well as in Augustine, and the body of Christ is in common bread as well as in the consecrated wafer on the altar. Saint worship is idolatry. There is no resurrection; heaven and hell exist only in the imagination of men. Rome is Babylon, and the pope is antichrist; but to the king of France, after the overthrow of antichrist, shall the kingdoms of the earth be subject, etc. A synod at Paris in A.D. 1209 condemned William and nine priests to be burnt, and four other priests to imprisonment for life, and ordered that Amalrich’s bones should be exhumed and scattered over an open field. Regarding the physical works of Aristotle as the source of this heresy, the council also prohibited all lectures upon these (§ 103, 1). This was seen to be a mistake, and so in A.D. 1225 Honorius III. fixed on the true culprit and condemned the _De divisione naturæ_ of Erigena (§ 90, 6). The penalties inflicted did not by any means lead to the rooting out of the sect. During the whole 13th century it continued to spread from Paris over all eastern France as far as Alsace, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and in the 14th century reached its highest development in the pantheistic-libertine doctrines of the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit (§ 116, 5). We never again meet with the name of Amalrich, and the sects were never called after him.

2. =David of Dinant= at the same time with Amalrich taught philosophy and theology in the University of Paris. He also lived for a long while at the papal court in Rome, high in favour with Innocent III. as a subtle dialectician. The Synod of Paris of A.D. 1209, which passed judgment on the Amalricians, pronounced David a heretic and ordered his works to be burnt. He avoided personal punishment by flight. The central point of his system was the assumption of a single eternal substance without distinctions, from which God, spirit (νοῦς), and matter (ὕλη) sprang as the three principles of all later forms of existences (_corpora_, _animæ_, and _substantiæ æternæ_). God is regarded as the _primum efficiens_, matter as the _primum suscipiens_, and spirit as the medium between the two. David’s scholars never formed a sect and never had any connection apparently with the followers of Amalrich.

3. =The Ortlibarians= were a sect condemned by Innocent III., followers of a certain Ortlieb of Strassburg about A.D. 1212. They held the world to be without beginning. They looked upon Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary, sinless like all other children, but raised to be son of God only through illumination from the doctrines of their sect, which had existed from the earliest times. They admitted the gospel story of Christ’s life, sufferings, and resurrection, not, however, in a literal but only in a moral and mystical acceptation. The consecrated host was but common bread, and in it was the body of the Lord. A Jew entering their sect needed not to be baptized, and fellowship with them was sufficient to secure salvation. There is no resurrection of the flesh; man’s spirit alone is immortal. After the last judgment, which will come when pope and emperor are converted to their views and all opposition is overcome, the world will last for ever, and men will be born and die just as now. They professed a strictly ascetic life, and many of them fasted every second day.

§ 108.5. =Apocalyptic Heretics.=--The Cistercian abbot =Joachim of Floris=, who died in A.D. 1202, with his notions of the so called “_Everlasting Gospel_,” as a reformer and as one inclined to apocalyptic prophecy, followed in the footsteps of Hildegard of Bingen and Elizabeth of Schönau (§ 107, 1). His prophetic views spread among the Franciscans and were long unchallenged. In A.D. 1254 the University of Paris, warning against the begging monks (§ 103, 3), got Alexander IV. to condemn these views as set forth in commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah ascribed to Joachim, but now found to be spurious. Preger doubts but, Reuter maintains the genuineness of the three tracts grouped under the title of the _Evangelium æternum_. The main points in his theory seem to have been these: There are three ages, that of the Father in the O.T., of the Son in the N.T., and of the Holy Spirit in the approaching fulness of the kingdom of God on earth. Of the apostles, Peter is representative of the first age, Paul of the second, and John of the third. They may also be characterized as the age of the laity, the clergy, and the monks, and compared in respect of light with the stars, the moon, and the sun. The first six periods of the N.T. age are divided (after the pattern of the forty-two generations of Matt. i. and the forty-two months or 1260 days of Rev. xi. 2, 3) into forty-two shorter periods of thirty years each, so that the sixth period closes with A.D. 1260, and then shall dawn the Sabbath period of the New Covenant as the age of the Holy Spirit. This will be preceded by a short reign of antichrist as a punishment for the corruptions of the church and clergy. By the labours of the monks, however, the church is at last purified and brought forth triumphant, and the life of holy contemplation becomes universal. The germs of antichrist were evidently supposed to lie in the Hohenstaufen empire of Frederick I. and Henry VI. The commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah went so far as to point to the person of Frederick II. as that of the antichrist.

§ 108.6. =Ghibelline Joachites= in Italy, mostly recruited from the Franciscans, sided with the emperor against the pope and adopted apocalyptic views to suit their politics, and regarded the papacy as the precursor of antichrist. One of their chiefs, Oliva, who died in A.D. 1297, wrote a _Postilla super Apoc._, in which he denounced the Roman church of his day as the Great Whore of Babylon, and his scholar Ubertino of Casale saw in the beast that rose out of the sea (Rev. xiii.) a prophetic picture of the papacy.--In Germany these views spread among the Dominicans during the 13th century, especially in Swabia. The movement was headed by one Arnold. who wrote an _Epistola de correctione ecclesiæ_ about A.D. 1246. He finds in Innocent IV. the antichrist and in Frederick II. the executioner of the Divine judgment and the inauguration of the reformation. Frederick’s death, which followed soon after in A.D. 1250, and the catastrophe of A.D. 1268 (§ 96, 20), must have put an end to the whole movement.

§ 108.7. =Revolutionary Reformers.=

1. The =Petrobrusians=, whose founder, =Peter of Bruys=, was a pupil of Abælard and a priest in the south of France, repudiated the outward or visible church and sought the true or invisible church in the hearts of believers. He insisted on the destruction of churches and sanctuaries because God could be worshipped in a stable or tavern, burnt crucifixes in the cooking stove, eagerly opposed celibacy, mass, and infant baptism, and after a twenty years’ career perished at the stake about A.D. 1126 at the hands of a raging mob. One of Peter’s companions, =Henry of Lausanne=, whose fiery eloquence had been influential in inciting to reform, succeeded to the leadership of the Petrobrusians, who from him were called =Henricians=. St. Bernard succeeded in winning many of them back. Henry was condemned to imprisonment for life, and died in A.D. 1149.

2. =Arnold of Brescia=, who died in A.D. 1155, a preacher of great moral and religious earnestness, addressed himself to attack the worldliness of the church and the papacy. Except in maintaining that sacraments dispensed by unworthy priests have no efficacy, he does not seem to have deviated from the church doctrine. Officiating as reader in his native town, his bishop complained of him as a heretic to the second Lateran Council of A.D. 1139. His views were condemned, and he himself was banished and enjoined to observe perpetual silence. He now went to his teacher Abælard in France. Here St. Bernard accused him at the synod convened against Abælard at Sens in A.D. 1141 (§ 102, 2) as “the armour-bearer” of this “Goliath-heretic,” and obtained the condemnation of both. He was then excommunicated by Innocent II. and imprisoned in a cloister. Arnold, however, escaped to Switzerland, where he lived and taught undisturbed in Zürich for some years, till Bishop Hermann of Constance, at the instigation of the Saint of Clairvaux, threatened him with imprisonment or exile. He was now taken under the protection of Guido de Castella, Abælard’s friend and patron, and accompanied him to Bohemia and Moravia. On Guido’s elevation as Cœlestine II. to the papal chair in A.D. 1143, Arnold returned to his native land. From A.D. 1146 we find him in Rome at the head of the agitation for political and ecclesiastical freedom. For further details of his history, see § 96, 13, 14. A party of so-called Arnoldists occupied itself long after his death with the carrying out of his ecclesiastico-political ideal.

§ 108.8.

3. The so called =Pastorelles= were roused to revolution by the miseries following the crusades. An impulse was given to the sect by the news of the imprisonment of St. Louis (§ 94, 6). A Cistercian =Magister Jacob= from Hungary appeared in A.D. 1251 with the announcement that he had seen the Mother of God, who gave him a letter calling upon the pastors to rescue the Holy Sepulchre. Those who have heard the Christmas message are called of God to undertake the great work which neither the corrupt hierarchy nor the proud, ambitious nobles were able to perform; but before them, the poor shepherds, the sea will open a way, so that they may hasten with dry feet to the release of king Louis. His fanatical harangues soon gathered immense crowds of common people around him, estimated at about 100,000 men. But instead of going to the Holy Land, they first gave vent to their wrath against the clergy, monks, and Jews at home by murdering, plundering, and ill treating them in all manner of ways. The queen-mother Blanca, favourable at first, now used all her power against them. Jacob was slain at Bourges, his troops scattered, and their leaders executed.

4. In the =Apostolic Brothers= we have a blending of Arnoldist and Joachist tendencies. Their founder, =Gerhard Segarelli=, an artisan of Parma, was moved about A.D. 1260 by the sight of a picture of the apostles in their poverty to go about preaching repentance and calling on the church to return to apostolic simplicity. He did not question the doctrine of the church. Only when Honorius in A.D. 1286 and Nicholas IV. in A.D. 1290 took measures against them did they openly oppose the papacy and denounce the Roman church as the apocalyptic Babylon. Segarelli was seized in A.D. 1294 and perished in the flames with many of his followers in A.D. 1300. =Fra Dolcino=, a younger priest, now took the leadership, and roused great enthusiasm by his preaching against the Roman antichrist. He bravely held his ground with 2,000 followers for two years in the recesses of the mountains, but was reduced at last in A.D. 1307 by hunger, and died like his predecessor at the stake. He distinguished four stages in the historical development of the kingdom of God on earth. The first two are those of the Father and the Son in the O.T. and the N.T. The third begins with Constantine’s establishment of the Christian empire, advanced by the Benedictine rule and the reforms of the Franciscans and Dominicans, but afterwards falling into decay. The fourth era of complete restoration of the apostolic life is inaugurated by Segarelli and Dolcino. A new chief sent of God will rule the church in peace, and the Holy Spirit will never leave the restored communion of His saints. Remnants of the sect were long in existence in France and Germany, where they united with the Fraticelli and Beghards. Even in A.D. 1374 we find a synod at Narbonne threatening them with the severest punishments.

§ 108.9. =Reforming Enthusiasts.=

1. A certain =Tanchelm= about A.D. 1115 preached in the Netherlands against the corruptions of the church. He claimed like honour with Christ as being assisted by the same Spirit, is said to have betrothed himself to the Virgin Mary, and to have been killed at last in A.D. 1124 by a priest.

2. A Frenchman, =Eon de Stella= of Brittany, hearing in a church the words “_per =Eum= qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos_,” and understanding it of his own name, went through the country preaching, prophesying, and working miracles. He secured many followers, and when persecuted, fled to the woods. He denied the Divine institution of the hierarchy, denounced the Roman church as false because of the wicked lives of the priests, rejected the doctrine of a resurrection of the body, denied that marriage was a sacrament, and regarded the communication of the Spirit by imposition of hands the only true baptism. In A.D. 1148 troops were sent against him, and he and many of his followers were taken prisoners. His adherents were burnt, but Eon was brought before a synod at Rheims, where he answered the question of the pope Eugenius III., “Who art thou?” by saying _Is qui venturus est_, etc. He was then pronounced deranged and delivered over to the custody of the archbishop.

§ 108.10. =The Waldensians.=

1. =Their Origin.=--A citizen of Lyons, named Valdez (Valdesius, Waldus, the Christian name of Peter, given to him first 120 years later, is quite unsupported), who had become rich by the practice of usury, an occupation condemned by the church, was about A.D. 1173 deeply impressed by reading the legend of St. Alexius, and was in his spiritual anxiety directed by a theologian to the words of Christ to the rich young ruler in Matthew xix. 21. Making over to his wife only his landed property, and distributing all the rest of his possessions among the poor, and then, for further instruction in regard to the imitation of Christ required of him, having applied himself to the study of the gospels, the Psalter, and other biblical books, and a selection of classical passages translated for his use by two friendly priests out of the writings of the Fathers into the Romance dialect, he founded in A.D. 1177, in company with certain men and women, who were prepared like himself to abandon the world and all its goods, a society for preaching the gospel among the people. In accordance with the Lord’s command to the seventy disciples (Luke x. 1-4), they went forth two and two in apostolic costume, in woollen penitential garments, without staff or scrip, their feet protected with merely wooden sandals (_sabatas, sabots_), preaching repentance, and proclaiming the gospel message of salvation throughout the land, in order to bring back again among the people the Christian life in its purity and simplicity. The Archbishop of Lyons prohibited their preaching; but they referred to Acts v. 29, and appealed, praying for a confirmation of their association, to the Third Lateran Council of A.D. 1179, under Alexander III., which, however, scornfully dismissed their appeal. As they nevertheless still continued to preach, Pope Lucius III., at the Council of Verona, in A.D. 1184, laid them under the ban. They had hitherto no intention of offering any sort of opposition to the doctrine, worship, or constitution of the Catholic church. Even the Catholic authorities did not so much take offence at what they preached but rather only at this, that they without ecclesiastical call and authority had assumed the function of preaching. Innocent III., also, admitted the imprudence of his predecessor, and favoured the plan of a Waldensian who had left his brethren to transform the association of the _Pauperes de Lugduno_ into the monastic-like lay union of _Pauperes Catholici_, to which in A.D. 1208 he assigned the duties of preaching, expounding Scripture, and holding meetings for edification under episcopal supervision. But this concession came too late. Since the church had itself broken off the fetters which had previously bound them to the traditional faith of the Catholic church, the Leonists had gone too far upon the path of evangelical freedom to be satisfied with any such terms. Innocent now renewed the ban against them at the Fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215. Of the later life and work of the founder we know with certainty only this, that he made extensive journeys in the interests of his cause. Even during his lifetime (he died probably about A.D. 1217) the members (_socii_) of the society (_Societas Valdesiana_) founded by him had spread themselves in great numbers over the whole of the south of France, the east of Spain, the north of Italy, and the south of Germany, and had even crossed the Channel into England. They were named, in accordance with their fundamental principle, as well as from the starting point of their apostolic mission, _Pauperes de Lugduno_ or _Leonistæ_=from Lyons, also from the covering of their feet, _Sabatati_; but they styled themselves among one another _fratres_ and _sorores_, and their adherents among the people _amici_ and _amicæ_; while the Catholic polemical writers, who for a similar class among the Cathari had employed the distinctive terms _Perfecti_ and _Credentes_, made use of these designations in treating of the Waldensians. The latter continue “in the world,” that is, in the exercise of their family duties, and the discharge of civil obligations, and all the positions and entanglements connected therewith; while the former devoted themselves to a celibate life, to absolute poverty, to incessant preaching from place to place, and to unconditional refusal of all oathtaking, and a literal acceptance of all the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, involving the rejection of any sort of fixed residence, and on the basis of Luke x. 7, 8, any handiwork that would earn for them the necessaries of life. They had their own _ministri_ for the administration of the sacraments; but these were elected only _ad tempus_, namely once a year, simply for the discharge of that duty. At the head of the whole community down to his death stood the founder himself. He led the entire movement, received new members into the _societas_, and chose and ordained the _ministri_.--The two most important sources for the primitive history of the Waldensian movement, mutually supplementing one another, are, the _Chronicon Laudunense_ of an unnamed canon of Laon in the _Mon. Germ. Scrr._ xxvi. 447, and the tract _De Septem Donis Spir. S._ of the inquisitor Stephen de Borbone, who died A.D. 1261, which is given in full in _de la Marche, Anecdotes historiques_, etc., Paris, 1877.

§ 108.11.

2. =Their Divisions.=--One of the oldest, most important, and most reliable sources of information regarding the affairs of the old Waldensians was first published by Preger in 1875, in his _Beiträge z. Gesch. d. Waldensier im MA._, namely, an epistle embodied by the “_anonymous writer of Passau_” in his heretic catalogue, from the “Poor Men of Italy” to their fellow believers in Germany, _ad Leonistas in Alamannia_, in which they give a report of the proceedings at a convention held at Bergamo in A.D. 1218, with the deputies from “_the ultramontane_,” that is, the French, “Poor Men.” On the basis of this communication Preger has contested the view that the “Poor Men of Italy” were the Waldensians, and traces their origin rather to the working men’s association of the _Humiliati_ that had already sprung up in the eleventh century (§ 98, 7), which having even before this, by adopting Arnoldist ideas, become estranged from the Catholic church, came also into connection with Valdez, appropriated many of his opinions, and then entered into fraternal relations with the French Waldesians. This theory, as also no less the explanations connected therewith of the constitutional and doctrinal differences of the two parties, has been proved by Carl Müller in his _Die Waldensier u. ihre einzelne Gruppen bis Auf d. 14. Jhd._ to be in many particulars untenable, and he has shown that the Waldensian origin of “the Poor Men of Lombardy” is witnessed to even by this epistle. The results of his researches are in the main as follows: The movement set on foot in A.D. 1177 by Valdez of Lyons in the direction of an apostolic walk and conversation was transplanted at a very early period into northern Italy, and found there a favourable reception, especially in the ranks of the Humiliati. These, too, as well as Valdez, in A.D. 1179, approached Alexander III. with the prayer to authorize their entering on such a vocation, but were also immediately repulsed, attached themselves then to the “Poor Men of Lyons,” submitting to the monarchical rule of their founder, and along with them, in A.D. 1184, fell under the papal ban. Yet among the Lombards a strong craving after greater independence and freedom soon found expression, which asserted itself most decidedly in the claim to the right of their own independent choice and ordination of lifelong organs of government for their society, as well as for priestly services, which, however, Valdez, fearing a dissolution of the whole society from the granting of such partial independence, answered with a decided refusal. With equal decision did he insist upon the disbanding of those workmen’s associations for common production, which the Lombards, as formerly the Humiliati, formed from the laymen belonging to them, and forbade them even engaging in any handicraft which they had hitherto pursued alongside of their spiritual vocations, as inconsistent with the apostolic life according to the prescriptions of Christ in Luke x. Thus it came about, in consequence of the unyielding temper of both parties, that there was a formal split; for the Lombards appointed their own independent _præpositus_, who, just like their _ministri_ charged with the conduct of worship, held office for life. In the course of the year the split widened through the adoption of other divergences on the part of the Lombards. Yet after the death of the founder, about A.D. 1217 they entered upon negotiations about a reunion, which found a hearty response also among the French. By means of epistolary explanations a basis for union in regard to those questions which had occasioned the separation had already been attained unto. The French granted to the Lombards independent election and ordination of their ministers for church government and worship, and allowed the appointment to be for life, while they also agreed to the continuance of their workmen’s associations. In May, A.D. 1218, six brethren from the two parties were at Bergamo appointed to draw up definite terms of peace, and to secure a verbal explanation of other less important differences, which was also accomplished without difficulty. The whole peace negotiations, however, were ultimately shattered over two questions, which first came to the front during the verbal explanations: (i.) Over the question of the felicity of the deceased founder, which the Lombards were disposed to affirm only conditionally, _i.e._ in case he had been penitent before his death for the sins of which he had been guilty through his intolerant treatment of them, while the French would have it affirmed unconditionally; and (ii.) over the controversy about the validity of the dispensation of the sacrament of the altar by an unworthy person. On both sides they were thoroughly agreed in saying that not the priest, but the omnipotence of God, changed bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper into the body and blood of Christ. But while the French drew from this the conclusion that even an unworthy and wicked priest could truly and effectually administer the sacrament, the Italians persisted in the contrary opinion, and quoted Scripture and the writings of the Fathers to prove the correctness of their views.

§ 108.12.

3. =Attempts at Catholicizing.=--On the origin, character, and task of the _Pauperes Catholici_ referred to above, the epistles of Pope Innocent III. regarding them afford us pretty accurate and detailed information. The first impulse toward their formation was given by a disputation with the French Waldensians held by Bishop Diego of Osma at Pamiers in A.D. 1206, by means of which he succeeded, aided by the powerful co-operation of his companion St. Dominic, in persuading a number of the heretics to return to the obedience of the Catholic church. Among those converted on that occasion was the Spaniard Durandus of Osca (Huesca), who now laid before the pope the plan of forming from among the converted Waldensians a society of Catholic Poor Men under the oversight of the bishops, which, by appropriating and carrying out all the fundamental principles of the Waldensian system--apostolic poverty, apostolic dress, apostolic life, and apostolic vocation, according to Luke x.--would not only paralyse or outbid the ministry of the heretical Poor Men among the people, but would also open up the way for their own return and attachment again to the church. The pope approved of his plan, and confirmed the union founded by him in A.D. 1208. The undertaking of Durandus seems to have been from the first not altogether without success in the direction intended. At least we find that Bernard Primus was encouraged one and a half years later to found a second similar society on essentially the same basis, which Innocent III. approved and confirmed. This later association was distinguished from the earlier only in this, that it allowed its members, besides their itinerant preaching and pastoral work, to engage also in their own handicraft. We are now led, by this difference, to the conclusion that, as the institution of Durandus issued from the bosom of the French Waldensians, that of Bernard had its origin among the groups of the Poor Men of Lombardy. This supposition is further confirmed when we observe that the latter, in drawing up its Catholic confession of faith, expressly abjures the formerly cherished conviction of the inefficacy of sacramental actions performed by unworthy priests. But the reason why both these unions, notwithstanding papal approval and support, failed to exert any permanent influence is to be sought pre-eminently in this, that, tainted as their reputation was with the memory of their former heresy, they were soon far outrun and overshadowed by the two great mendicant orders, which wrought with ampler means and appliances in the same direction.

§ 108.13.

4. =The French Societies.=--What these found fault with in the Catholic church was, not its dogmatics, to which, with the single exception of the doctrine of purgatory and all therewith connected, indulgence, masses for souls, foundations, alms, and works of piety on behalf of the dead, they firmly adhered; nor yet its liturgical institutions, which, with the exception of masses for souls, they left untouched; nor yet its hierarchical constitutions _per se_, for they transferred its leading principles into their own organization: but it was simply this, that its clergy had become guilty of the deadly sin of assuming and exercising the apostolic prerogative without undertaking the obligations of apostolic poverty, the apostolic life, and the apostolic vocation, which alone warranted such assumption. But as they thus, nevertheless, firmly adhered to the Catholic principle of the validity of a sacrament administered even by an unworthy person, if only he had authority for doing so from the church, they could allow themselves, and specially their lay adherents, to take part in all Catholic services and acts of worship, without regarding themselves or their followers as under obligation to yield obedience to the pope and the bishops, or to recognise their spiritual jurisdiction, authority to inflict punishment, and right of arbitrary legislation in regard to fasts, festivals, impediments to marriage, etc.--As to the organization of the society, it is now perfectly clear that there was a threefold division of offices: bishops, presbyters, and deacons. Reception into the _Societas Fratrum_ was consummated by the imparting of the ordination of deacon. This, however, was preceded by a longer or shorter novitiate, _i.e._ a period of trial and preparation for the apostolic vocation of preaching. The entrance into this novitiate (_conversio_) required the surrender of all property for the benefit of the poor, and on the part of those already married the abandonment of every form of marital relationship; and on reception into the brotherhood the vow of obedience to the superiors was exacted, as well as a vow of celibacy and chastity.--To the bishop, who as such was also called _minister_ and _major_ or _majoralis_, belonged the right to administer the sacraments of penance and ordination, as well as the consecration of the eucharistic elements; he might preach wherever he chose, and he assigned to presbyters and deacons their spheres of labour. The presbyters, in addition to preaching, also heard confessions, imposed penance, and granted absolution, but did not administer the punishments imposed, for this was the exclusive function of the bishop.--The deacons were only to preach, but not to hear confession, and their special duty consisted in collecting contributions for the support of the brethren. That also women, on the basis of Titus ii. 3, 4, were admitted into these societies is an undoubted fact. Their position was essentially the same as that of the deacons; but the number of preaching sisters continued always relatively small.--After the death of the founder the society once a year chose from among the existing bishops two _rectores_, who now together administered that supreme government and high priesthood which had previously been exercised by the founder alone. It was, however, by-and-by found desirable to revert to the older monarchical constitution, but all through the 13th century this office was held only by a yearly tenure. The retiring bishops, however, received for life the rank and title of _major_. But even over the rector stood the _commune_ or _congregatio_; _i.e._ the general chapter assembled once or twice in the year, in which the brethren of all the three orders had a seat and vote. The obligation to wear the apostolic dress, persistence in which would have in a very short time thrown all the brethren into the Moloch arms of the Inquisition, was abandoned soon after the erection of that tribunal in A.D. 1232.--The lay adherents attracted by the preaching and pastoral activity of the brethren, the so-called _Amici, Fautores, Receptatores_, were not organized as exclusive and independent communities, because their continued participation in the services and sacraments of the Catholic church was regarded as permissible. On the other hand, they maintained, as far as possible, regular intercourse with the brethren, who in various styles of dress visited them secretly, preached to them, exhorted and instructed them, prayed with them and said grace at their tables, heard their confessions, imposed penances and granted absolution, uttering the formula of absolution, however, not in the language of an absolute judicial proclamation, but as a supplication and fervent desire. The _Amici_ were allowed to make their Easter confession and observance of the Supper at the Catholic service. The brethren had of course also an independent celebration of the Lord’s Supper, which occurred only once a year, on Maundy Thursday, but was confined as a rule to the brothers and sisters there assembled. The profound acquaintance with Holy Scripture, especially the New Testament, not only among the preaching “brothers,” but also among their “friends,” many of whom knew by heart a large portion of the New Testament, was the subject of general remark and the occasion of astonishment. Besides Holy Scripture, the selection of patristic passages used by Valdez and the _Moralia_ of Gregory the Great were in high repute as means of instruction and edification.--The systematic efforts put forth from A.D. 1232 for the uprooting and extirpating of heresy wrought effectually among the French Waldensian “brethren” and “friends.” The remnants of them that survived the persecution were driven farther and farther into the remotest valleys of the western and eastern spurs of the Cottian Alps, into Dauphiné and Provence on the French side, and into Piedmont on the Italian side.--The most important sources are: _Adv. Valdens. sectam_, of Bernard Abbot of Fonscalidus, who died in A.D. 1193; _Doctrina de Moda Procedendi a Hæret._ of the Inquisition at Carcassone and Toulouse of A.D. 1280; the _consultatio_ of Arch. Peter Amelius of Narbonne and the provincial synods held under him in A.D. 1243, 1244; and the recently published _Practica Inquisition._ of the inquisitor Bernard Guidonis of A.D. 1321.--Continuation, § 119, 9A.

§ 108.14.

A representation of the origin and character of the old Waldensian movement completely different from that given in the sources mentioned and used in the preceding sections, especially in reference to the French societies, has been current since the middle of the 16th century in the modern Waldensian tradition, and by means of falsified or misunderstood documents has been repeated by most Protestant historians down to and including U. Hahn. The investigations of Dieckhoff and Herzog first demolished for ever those fabulous creations of Waldensian mythology, though more recent Waldensian writers, _e.g._ Hudry-Ménos, but not Comba, seek still tenaciously to assert their truth. According to these traditions, long before the days of Waldus of Lyons there were Waldensian, _i.e._ Vallensian communities in the valleys of Piedmont, the “Israel of the Alps,” the bearers of pure gospel truth, whose origin was to be traced back at least to Claudius of Turin, while others fondly carried it back to the Apostle Paul, who on his journey to Spain (Rom. xv. 24) may have also visited the Piedmontese valleys. It was to them that Peter of Lyons owed his spiritual awakening and his surname of Waldus, _i.e._ the Waldensian. For proof of this assertion we are referred to a pretty copious manuscript literature said to be old Waldensian, written in a peculiar Romance dialect, deposited in the libraries of Geneva, Dublin, Cambridge, Zürich, Grenoble, and Paris. Upon close and unprejudiced examination of these literary pieces, of which the oldest portion cannot possibly claim an earlier date than the beginning of the 14th century, it has become quite apparent that these, in so far as they are not fabrications or interpolations, do not afford the least grounds for justifying those Waldensian fantasies. This view is further corroborated by the fact, that the most careful and thorough investigator in this department, Carl Müller, confidently maintains the conviction and shows the basis on which it rests, “that the whole so-called Waldensian literature of the pre-Hussite period has been without exception derived from Catholic and not from Waldensian sources.” The falsifications in this reputed old Waldensian group of writings referred to, by means of interpolation, omission, and alteration in the tracts belonging to that collection, as well as the forging of new writings, and that simply for the purpose of vindicating for their society the mythical fame of a primitive, independent, and ever pure evangelical church, first found place after the Protestantizing of the Romance or Piedmontese Waldensians, and were thereafter successfully turned to account _bona_ or _mala fide_ by their historians, Perrin, Leger, Muston, Monastier, etc. In the _Nobla laiczon_ (=_lectio_), _e.g._ a religious doctrinal poem, in the statement of _vv._ 6, 7, that since the origin of the New Testament writings 1,400 years had passed (mil e 4 cent anz) the figure 4 was erased, so that it might appear to be an ascertained fact that in A.D. 1100, seventy years before the appearance of Waldus, there were already Waldensian communities in existence. But when, in A.D. 1862, the Morland manuscripts, which had been lost for 200 years, were again discovered in Cambridge library, there was found among them a copy of the _Nobla laiczon_, in which before the word _cent_ an erasure was observable, in which the outlines of the loop of the Arabic numeral 4 were still clearly discernible. In another piece contained in this collection the passage referred to was quoted as “mil e CCCC anz.” Hussite writings translated from the Bohemian were also palmed off as genuine Waldensian works of the earlier centuries, and were in addition provided with the corresponding date. A manuscript of the New Testament at Zürich was assigned to the 12th century; but on more careful scrutiny it was shown that the writer must have had before him the Greek Testament of Erasmus. But the most glaring case of falsification is seen in the “Waldensian Confession of Faith,” first adduced by Perrin as evidence of the faith of the old Waldensians, to which a later hand had ascribed as the date of its composition the year 1120. It copies almost word for word the utterances of Bucer as given in Morel’s report of his negotiations with that divine and Œcolampadius. In this way a new stamp has been put upon the doctrinal articles of the old Waldensians.[320]

§ 108.15.

5. =The Lombard-German Branch.=--In regard to the Lombards themselves, since the epistle of Bergamo we have only scanty reports, and these are found in the treatise of Monata, of 1240, _Adv. Catharos et Valdenses_, and in the _Summa de Catharis et Leonistis_ of the Dominican inquisitor Rainerius Sacchoni, of 1250. We have ampler accounts, however, from their German mission-field, which had already extended so far as to stretch from the Rhine provinces into Austria. From the time of the unsuccessful endeavours at Bergamo to effect a union between the two principal groups, there was, so far as we are aware, no further intercourse between the two. On the other hand, the German Waldensians during the 13th and 14th centuries maintained a pretty regular communication with their Italian brethren.--In general, too, the Lombards continued, along with their German offspring, to hold firmly by the fundamental tenets of the primitive Waldensian faith. Their preaching brothers and sisters were also called in Germany _Meister_ (_magistri_) and _Meïsterinnen_, the men also _Apostles_ and _Twelve-Apostles_, or, since also there, next to preaching, they had as their most essential and important spiritual function the administration of the sacrament of penance, _Beichtiger_ (_bihter_), confessors. The view that had been already so vigorously maintained at Bergamo, that a priest guilty of mortal sin, and such in their eyes were all Catholic priests, could not efficaciously administer any sacrament, led them naturally to assume a much freer attitude toward the Catholic church, which summed itself up in the radical principle, that everything connected with that church which cannot be shown from the New Testament to have been expressly taught and enjoined by Christ or His apostles, is to be set aside as an unevangelical human addition. This position however was insisted upon by them less in criticism and confutation of the church doctrine than in opposition to the practices of the church as a whole. In consequence of this criticism, they, transcending far the mere negations of the French, rejected not only all church festivals, beyond the simple Sunday festival, not only all processions and pilgrimages, all ceremonies, candles, incense, holy water, images, liturgical dress and cloths, all consecrations and blessing of churches, bells, burying grounds, candles, ashes, palms, robes, salt, water, etc., but also the centre and climax of all Catholic worship, the mass; not only of purgatory and everything in church practice that had sprung from it, not only ban and interdict, but also invocation of saints, image and relic worship, etc. Yet all the masters did not go equally far in this negative direction. Especially during the second half of the 13th century a remarkable reaction set in against the severity and exclusiveness of that negation, because increasing persecution obliged them to withdraw into secrecy as much as possible with their confession and their specifically Waldensian forms of worship, or to suspend their services altogether, and indeed, to save themselves from the suspicion of heresy, to allow to themselves and their lay adherents liberty to engage in the services of the Catholic church, and to submit to the indispensable demands of the church, such as the attendance at mass, making confession, and taking the communion at Easter. They held indeed firmly by the principle, _Quod sacerdos in mortali peccato sacramentum non possit conficere_, but they comforted themselves by the assurance already expressed at Bergamo, that the Lord Himself directly gives to the worthy communicant who, in case of need, receives the sacrament from the hand of an unworthy priest, what by him cannot be communicated, for the transubstantiation is effected not _in manu indigne conficientis_, but _in ore digne sumentis_. Thus during the times of oppression they kept their own observance of the supper quite in abeyance, the dispensation of which was not among them, as among the French, restricted to the masters; but on this account they laid all the greater weight on the necessity of confession to their own clergy as those who could alone give absolution. Also the prohibition of all oaths as well as bloodshedding, therefore also of military service, and the acceptance of magisterial and judicial offices, was strictly adhered to.--A peculiar adaptation of the Roman Catholic tradition of the baptism and donation of Constantine, which seems to have found no acceptance among the French, became a favourite legend among all the Lombard and German Waldensians. According to it the ancient church had existed for three hundred years in apostolic humility, simplicity, and poverty. But when the Roman bishop Sylvester was endowed by the emperor Constantine the Great with such superabundance of worldly might, riches, and honour, the period of general decline from the apostolic pattern set in. Only one of his fellow clergy protested, and was, when all enticements and threatenings proved of no avail, driven away along with his adherents. The latter increased and spread by-and-by over the earth. After a violent persecution, which had almost cut off all of them, Peter Waldus made his appearance with his companion, John of Lyons, as the restorer of the apostolic life and calling, etc. To this there was subsequently attached another legend. The brethren had previously based their right to discharge all priestly functions with the greatest confidence simply on their apostolic life, and so they could not conceal from themselves at a later period the fact that the want of continued apostolic succession, on which the Catholic church rested the claims of their priests, would place the Waldensian masters very much in the shade as compared with the Catholics. They began, therefore, not only to claim that their founder Waldus had been previously a Roman presbyter, but also to devise the fable of a bishop or even a cardinal of the Romish church, through whose favour that defect had been overcome.--Continuation, § 119, 9.

§ 108.16.

6. =Relations between the Waldensians and Older and Contemporary Sects.=--Owing to the extraordinarily lively and zealous propagandist activity of the sects at the time of the origin and early development of the Waldensian movement, there can scarcely be a doubt that the latter, after it had freed itself from all obligation of obedience to the pope and bishops, and had been driven out by them, must at various points have come into close relations with the other sects which, like it, had risen in rebellion against the papacy and the hierarchy, and like it had been persecuted by these. The numerous sect of the Cathari holds a conspicuous position in this connection. That Waldus and his companions must have decidedly repudiated the dualistic principles which all these otherwise greatly diverging Catharist sects had in common is indeed quite self-evident; but this by no means prevented them from recognising and appropriating such particular institutions, forms of organization or modes of worship, peculiar moral requirements, etc., practised by them as might seem fitted to further their own ends. And that this actually was done, many noticeable points of agreement between the two plainly indicate. Thus on both sides we find a similar division of members, the _Perfecti_ and _Credentes_ corresponding to the _Fratres_ and _Amici_, and the kind of spiritual care which the former took of the latter, the grace at table said by the itinerant preachers, the importance attached to the possession and use of bread that had been blessed by the brethren, the frequent use by both of the Lord’s Prayer, the rejection of purgatory and everything connected therewith, also the prohibition of swearing and of military service, the refusal of the magisterial _jus gladii_, etc. On the other hand, however, it is more than probable that at last the remnants of the Cathari which escaped the Inquisition in great part had found refuge among the Waldensians in the valleys of the Cottian Alps, and there became assimilated and amalgamated with them (§ 119, 9A).--Further, the assumption that the Lombard Waldensians had first reached the principle by which they are distinguished from their French brethren, about the incapacity of unworthy priests for dispensing the sacraments, from outside influences, perhaps from the Arnoldists, is raised almost to a certainty by the statement made by their deputies at Bergamo in A.D. 1218, that they had even themselves in earlier times held the opposite view.--Even the pantheistic tendency of an Amalrich and the Brethren of the New Spirit may have found entrance among the German Waldensians, and have there given origin to the sect of the Ortlibarians.

§ 109. THE CHURCH AGAINST THE PROTESTERS.

The church was by no means indifferent to the spread of those heresies of the 11th and 12th centuries, which called in question its own very existence. Even in the 11th century she called in the aid of the stake as a type of the fire of hell that would consume the heretics, and against this only one voice, that of Bishop Wazo of Liège († A.D. 1048), was raised. In the 12th century protesting voices were more numerous: Peter the Venerable (§ 98, 1), Rupert of Deutz, St. Hildegard, St. Bernard, declared sword and fire no fit weapons for conversion. St. Bernard showed by his own example how by loving entreaty and friendly instruction more might be done than by awakening a fanatical enthusiasm for martyrdom. But hangmen and stakes were more easily produced than St. Bernards, of whom the 12th and 13th centuries had by no means a superabundance. By-and-by Dominic sent out his disciples to teach and convert heretics by preaching and disputation; as long as they confined themselves to these methods they were not without success. But even they soon found it more congenial or more effective to fight the heretics with tortures and the stake rather than with discussion and discourse. The Albigensian crusade and the tribunal of the Inquisition erected in connection therewith at last overpowered the protesters and drove the remnants of their sects into hiding. In the administration of punishment the church made no distinction between the various sects; all were alike who were at war with the church.

§ 109.1. =The Albigensian Crusade, A.D. 1209-1229.=--Toward the end of the 12th century sects abounded in the south of France. Innocent III. regarded them as worse than the Saracens, and in A.D. 1203 sent a legate, Peter of Castelnau, with full powers to secure their extermination. But Peter was murdered in A.D. 1208, and suspicion fell on Raymond IV., Count of Toulouse. A crusade under Simon de Montfort was now summoned against the sectaries, who as mainly inhabiting the district of Albigeois were now called =Albigensians=. A twenty years’ war was carried on with mad fanaticism and cruelty on both sides, in which guilty and innocent, men, women, and children were ruthlessly slain. At the sack of Beziers with 20,000 inhabitants the papal legate cried, “Slay all, the Lord will know how to seek out and save His own.”[321]

§ 109.2. =The Inquisition.=--Every one screening a heretic forfeited lands, goods, and office; a house in which such a one was discovered was levelled to the ground; all citizens had to communicate thrice a year, and every second year to renew their oath of attachment to the church, and to refuse all help in sickness to those suspected of heresy, etc. The bishops not showing themselves zealous enough in enforcing these laws, Gregory IX. in A.D. 1232 founded the Tribunal of the Inquisition, and placed it in the hands of the Dominicans. These as _Domini canes_ subjected to the most cruel tortures all on whom the suspicion of heresy fell, and all the resolute were handed over to the civil authorities, who readily undertook their execution.[322]--Continuation § 117, 2.

§ 109.3. =Conrad of Marburg and the Stedingers.=--The first Inquisitor of Germany, the Dominican =Conrad of Marburg=, also known as the severe confessor of St. Elizabeth (§ 105, 3), after a three years’ career of cruelty was put to death by certain of the nobles in A.D. 1233. _Et sic_, say the Annals of Worms, _divino auxilio liberata est Teutonia ab isto judicio enormi et inaudito_. He was enrolled by Gregory IX. among the martyrs. Perhaps wrongly he has been blamed for Gregory’s crusade of A.D. 1234 against the =Stedingers=. These were Frisians of Oldenburg who revolted against the oppression of nobles and priests, refused socage and tithes, and screened Albigensian heretics. The first crusade failed; the second succeeded and plundered, murdered, and burned on every hand. Thousands of the unhappy peasants were slain, neither women nor children were spared, and all prisoners were sent to the stake as heretics.

_THIRD SECTION._

HISTORY OF THE GERMANO-ROMANIC CHURCH IN THE 14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES (A.D. 1294-1517).

I. The Hierarchy, Clergy, and Monks.

§ 110. THE PAPACY.[323]

From the time of Gelasius II. (§ 96, 11) it had been the custom of the popes whenever Italy became too hot for them to fly to France, and from France they had obtained help to deliver Italy from the tyranny of the latest representatives of the Hohenstaufens. But when Boniface VIII. dared boldly to assert the universal sovereignty of the papacy even over France itself, this presumption wrought its own overthrow. The consequence was a seventy years’ exile of the papal chair to the banks of the Rhone, with complete subjugation under French authority. Under the protection of the French court, however, the popes found Avignon a safe asylum, and from thence they issued the most extravagant hierarchical claims, especially upon Germany. The return of the papal court to Rome was the occasion of a forty years’ schism, during which two popes, for a time even three, are seen hurling anathemas at one another. The reforming Councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel sought to put an end to this scandal and bring about a reformation in the head and the members. The fathers in these councils, however, in accordance with the prevalent views of the age, maintained the need of one visible head for the government of the church, such as was afforded by the papacy. But the corruptions of the papal chair led them to adopt the old theory that the highest ecclesiastical authority is not the pope but the voice of the universal church expressed in the œcumenical councils, which had jurisdiction over even the popes. The successful carrying out of this view was possible only if the several national churches which had come now more decidedly than ever to regard themselves as independent branches of the great ecclesiastical organism, should heartily combine against the corrupt papacy. But this they did not do. They were contented with making separate attacks, in accordance with their several selfish interests. Hence papal craft found little difficulty in rendering the strong remonstrances of these councils fruitless and without result. The papacy came forth triumphant, and during the 15th century, the age of the Renaissance, reached a degree of corruption and moral turpitude which it had not approached since the 10th century. The vicars of God now used their spiritual rank only to further their ambitious worldly schemes, and by the most scandalous nepotism (the so-called nephews being often bastards of the popes, who were put into the highest and most lucrative offices) as well as by their own voluptuousness, luxury, revelry, and love of war, brought ruin upon the church and the States of the Church.

§ 110.1. =Boniface VIII. and Benedict XI., A.D. 1294-1304.=--=Boniface VIII.=, A.D. 1294-1303 (§ 96, 22), was not inferior to his great predecessor in political talents and strength of will, but was destitute of all spiritual qualities and without any appreciation of the spiritual functions of the papal chair, while passionately maintaining the most extravagant claims of the hierarchy. The opposition to the pope was headed by two cardinals of the powerful Colonna family, who maintained that the abdication of Cœlestine V. was invalid. In A.D. 1297 Boniface stripped them of all their dignities, and then they appealed to an œcumenical council as a court of higher jurisdiction. The pope now threatened them and their supporters with the ban, fitted out a crusade against them, and destroyed their castles. At last after a sore struggle Palæstrina, the old residence of their family, capitulated. Also the Colonnas themselves submitted. Nevertheless in A.D. 1299 he had the famous old city and all its churches and palaces levelled to the ground, and refused to restore to the outlawed family its confiscated estates. Then again the Colonnas took up arms, but were defeated and obliged to fly the country, while the pope forbade under threat of the ban any city or realm to give refuge or shelter to the fugitives. But neither his anathema nor his army was able to keep the rebellious Sicilians under papal dominion. Even in his first contest with the French king, =Philip IV. the Fair=, A.D. 1285-1314, he had the worst of it. The pope had vainly sought to mediate between Philip and Edward I. of England, when both were using church property in carrying on war with one another, and in A.D. 1295 he issued the bull _Clericis laicos_, releasing subjects from their allegiance and anathematizing all laymen who should appropriate ecclesiastical revenues and all priests who should put them to uses not sanctioned by the pope. Philip then forbade all payment of church dues, and the pope finding his revenues from France withheld, made important concessions in A.D. 1297 and canonized Philip’s grandfather, Louis IX. His hierarchical assumptions in Germany gave promise of greater success. After the first Hapsburger’s death in A.D. 1291, his son Albert was set aside, and Adolf, Count of Nassau, elected king; but he again was overthrown and Albert I. crowned in A.D. 1298. Boniface summoned Albert to his tribunal as a traitor and murderer of the king, and released the German princes from their oaths of allegiance to him. Meanwhile, during A.D. 1301, Boniface and Philip were quarrelling over vacant benefices in France. The king haughtily repudiated the pretensions of the papal legate and imprisoned him as a traitor. Boniface demanded his immediate liberation, summoned the French bishops to a council at Rome, and in the bull _Ausculta fili_ showed the king how foolish, sinful, and heretical it was for him not to be subject to the pope. The bull torn from the messenger’s hands was publicly burnt, and a version of it probably falsified published throughout the kingdom along with the king’s reply. All France rose in revolt against the papal pretensions, and a parliament at Notre Dame in Paris A.D. 1302, at which the king assembled the three estates of the empire, the nobles, the clergy, and (for the first time) the citizens, it was unanimously resolved to support Philip and to write in that spirit to Rome, the bishops undertaking to pacify the pope, the nobles and citizens making their complaint to the cardinals. The king expressly forbade his clergy taking any part in the council that had been summoned, which, however, met in the Lateran, in Nov., 1302. From it Boniface issued the famous bull _Unam Sanctam_, in which, after the example of Innocent III. and Gregory IX., he set forth the doctrine of the two swords, the spiritual wielded _by_ the church and the temporal _for_ the church, by kings and warriors indeed, but only according to the will and by the permission of the spiritual ruler. That the temporal power is independent was pronounced a Manichæan heresy; and finally it was declared that no human being could be saved unless he were subject to the Roman pontiff. King and parliament now accused the pope of heresy, simony, blasphemy, sorcery, tyranny, immorality, etc., and insisted that he should answer these charges before an œcumenical council. Meanwhile, in A.D. 1303, Boniface was negotiating with king Albert, and got him not only to break his league with Philip, but also to acknowledge himself a vassal of the papal see. The pope had all his plans laid for launching his anathema against Philip, but their execution was anticipated by the king’s assassins. His chancellor Nogaret and Sciarra, one of the exiled Colonnas, who, with the help of French gold, had hatched a conspiracy among the barons, attacked the papal palace and took the pope prisoner while he sat in full state upon his throne. The people indeed rescued him, but he died some weeks after in a raging fever in his 80th year. Dante assigns him a place in hell. In the mouth of his predecessor Cœlestine V. have been put the prophetic words, _Ascendisti ut vulpes, regnatis ut leo, morieris ut canis_.[324] His successor =Benedict XI.=, A.D. 1303, 1304, would have willingly avenged the wrongs of Boniface, but weak and unsupported as he was he soon found himself obliged, not only to withdraw all imputations against Philip, who always maintained his innocence, but also to absolve those of the Colonnas who were less seriously implicated.

§ 110.2. =The Papacy during the Babylonian Exile, A.D. 1305-1377.=--After a year’s vacancy the papal chair was filled by Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux, a determined supporter of Boniface, who took the name of =Clement V.=, A.D. 1305-1314. He refused to go to be enthroned at Rome, and forced the cardinals to come to Lyons, and finally, in A.D. 1309, formally removed the papal court to Avignon, which then belonged to the king of Naples as Count of Provence. At this time, too, Clement so far yielded to Philip’s wish to have Boniface condemned and struck out of the list of popes, as to appoint two commissions to consider charges against Boniface, one in France and the other in Italy. Most credible witnesses accused the deceased pope of heresies, crimes, and immoralities committed in word and deed mostly in their presence, while the rebutting evidence was singularly weak. A compromise was effected by Clement surrendering the Templars to the greedy and revengeful king. In the bull _Rex gloriæ_ of A.D. 1311 he expressly declares that Philip’s proceeding against Boniface was _bona fide_, occasioned by zeal for church and country, cancels all Boniface’s decrees and censures upon the French king and his servants, and orders them to be erased from the archives. =The 15th œcumenical Council of Vienne in A.D. 1311= was mainly occupied with the affairs of the Templars, and also with the consideration of the controversies in the Franciscan order (§ 112, 2).--=Henry VII.= of Luxemburg was raised to the German throne on Albert’s death in A.D. 1208 in opposition to Philip’s brother Charles. Clement supported him and crowned him emperor, hoping to be protected by him from Philip’s tyranny. At Milan in A.D. 1311 Henry received the iron crown of Lombardy; but at Rome the imperial coronation was effected in A.D. 1312, not in St. Peter’s, the inner city being held by Robert of Naples, papal vassal and governor of Italy, but only in the Lateran at the hands of the cardinals commissioned to do so. The emperor now, in spite of all papal threats, pronounced the ban of the empire against Robert, and in concert with Frederick of Sicily entered on a campaign against Naples, but his sudden death in A.D. 1313 (according to an unsupported legend caused by a poisoned host) put an end to the expedition. Clement also died in the following year; and to him likewise has Dante assigned a place in hell.

§ 110.3. After two years’ murderous strife between the Italian and French cardinals, the French were again victorious, and elected at Lyons =John XXII.=, A.D. 1316-1334, son of a shoemaker of Cahors in Gascony, who was already seventy-two years old. He is said to have sworn to the Italians never to use a horse or mule but to ride to Rome, and then to have taken ship on the Rhone for Avignon, where during his eighteen years’ pontificate he never went out of his palace except to go into the neighbouring cathedral. Working far into the night, this seemingly weak old man was wont to devote all his time to his studies and his business. The weight of his official duties will be seen from the fact that 60,000 minutes, filling 59 vols. in the papal archives, belong to his reign.--In Germany, after the death of Henry VII. there were two rivals for the throne, =Louis IV. the Bavarian=, A.D. 1314-1347, and Frederick III. of Austria. The pope, maintaining the closest relations with Robert of Anjou, his feudatory as king of Naples and his protector as Count of Provence, and esteeming his wish as a command, refused to acknowledge either, declared the German throne still vacant, and assumed to himself the administration of the realm during the vacancy. At Mühldorf in A.D. 1322 Louis conquered his opponent and took him prisoner. He sent a detachment of Ghibellines over the Alps, while he made himself master of Milan and put an end to the papal administration in Northern Italy. The pope in A.D. 1323 ordered him within three months to cease discharging all functions of government till his election as German king should be acknowledged and confirmed by the papal chair. Louis first endeavoured to come to an understanding with the pope, but soon employed the sharp pens of the Minorites, who in May, 1324, drew up a solemn protest in which the king, basing his claims to royalty solely on the election of the princes and treating the pope as one who had forfeited his chair in consequence of his heresies (§ 112, 2), appealed from this false pope to an œcumenical council and a future legitimate pope. John now thundered an anathema against him, declared that he was deprived of all his dignities, freed his subjects from their allegiance, forbade them, under pain of anathema, to obey him, and summoned all European potentates to war against the excommunicated monarch. Louis now sought Frederick’s favour, and in A.D. 1325 shared with him the royal dignity. In Milan in A.D. 1327 he was crowned king of Lombardy, and in A.D. 1328 in Rome he received the imperial crown from the Roman democracy. Two bishops of the Ghibelline party gave him consecration, and the crown was laid on his head by Sciarra Colonna in the name of the Roman people. In vain did the pope pronounce all these proceedings null and void. The king began a process against the pope, deposed him as a heretic and antichrist, and finally condemned him to death as guilty of high treason, while the mob carried out this sentence by burning the pope in effigy upon the streets. The people and clergy of Rome, in accordance with an old canon, elected a new pope in the person of a pious Minorite of the sect of the Spirituales (§ 112, 2), who took the name of Nicholas V. Louis with his own hand placed the tiara on his head, and was then himself crowned by him. All this glory, however, was but short lived. An unsuccessful and inglorious war against Robert of Naples and a consequent revolt in Rome caused the emperor in A.D. 1328, with his army and his pope, amid the stonethrowing of the mob, to quit the eternal city, which immediately became subject to the curia. He did not fare much better in Tuscany or Lombardy; and thus the Roman expedition ended in failure. Returning to Munich, Louis endeavoured in vain amid many humiliations to move the determined old man at Avignon. But Nicholas V., the most wretched of all the anti-popes, went to Avignon with a rope about his neck in A.D. 1328, cast himself at the pope’s feet, was absolved, and died a prisoner in the papal palace in A.D. 1333. Next year John died. Notwithstanding the expensive Italian wars 25,000,000 gold guldens was found in the papal treasury at his death.--Roused by his opposition to the stricter party among the Franciscans (§ 112, 2), its leaders lent all their influence to the Bavarian and supported the charge of heresy against the pope. Against John’s favourite doctrine that the souls of departed saints attain to the vision of God only after the last judgment, these zealots cited the opinions of the learned world (§ 113, 3), with the University of Paris at its head. Philip VI. of France was also in the controversy one of his bitterest opponents, and even threatened him with the stake. Pressed on all sides the pope at last in A.D. 1333 convened a commission of scholars to decide the question, but died before its judgment was given. His successor hasted to still the tumult by issuing the story of a deathbed recantation, and gave ecclesiastical sanction to the opposing view.

§ 110.4. =Benedict XII.=, A.D. 1334-1342, would probably have yielded to the urgent entreaties of the Romans to return to Rome had not his cardinals been so keenly opposed. He then built a palace at Avignon of imposing magnitude, as though the papacy were to have an eternal residence there. Louis the Bavarian retracted his heretical sentiments in order to get the ban removed and to obtain an orderly coronation. The first diet of the electoral union was held at Rhense near Mainz, in A.D. 1338, where it was declared that the election of a German king and emperor was, by God’s appointment, the sole privilege of the elector-princes, and needed not the confirmation or approval of the pope. This encouraged Louis to assert anew his imperial pretensions. Benedict’s successor =Clement VI.=, A.D. 1342-1352, added by purchase in A.D. 1348 the city of Avignon to the county of Venaissin, which Philip III. had gifted to the papal chair in A.D. 1273. Both continued in the possession of the Roman court till A.D. 1791 (§ 165, 13). Louis, now at feud with some of the powerful German nobles, sought to make terms of peace with the new pope. But Clement was not conciliatory, and made the unheard of demand that Louis should not only annul all his previous ordinances, but also should in future issue no enactment in the empire without permission of the papal see; and on Maunday Thursday, A.D. 1346, he pronounced him without title or dignity and called upon the electors to make a new choice, which, if they failed to do, he would proceed to do himself. As fittest candidate he recommended Charles of Bohemia, who was actually chosen by the five electors who answered the summons, under the title of =Charles IV.=, A.D. 1346-1378, and had his election confirmed by the pope. The new emperor solemnly promised never to set foot on the domains of the Roman church without express papal permission, and to remain in Rome only so long as was required for his coronation. Louis died before he was able to engage in war with his rival, and when, six months later, the next choice of Louis’ party also died, Charles was acknowledged without a dissentient voice. He was crowned emperor in Rome by a cardinal appointed by Innocent VI., in A.D. 1355. Without doing anything to restore the imperial prestige in Italy, Charles went back like a fugitive to Germany, despised by Guelphs and Ghibellines. But in the following year, at the Diet of Nuremberg, he passed a new imperial law in the so called Golden Bull of A.D. 1356, according to which the election of emperor was to be made at Frankfort, by three clerical electors (Mainz, Cologne, and Treves) and four temporal princes (Bohemia, the Palatine of the Rhine, Saxony, and Brandenburg), and he appeased the pope’s wrath by various concessions to the curia and the clergy.

§ 110.5. The famous Rienzi was made apostolic notary by Clement VI. in A.D. 1343, and as tribune of the people headed the revolt against the barons in A.D. 1347. Losing his popularity through his own extravagances he was obliged to flee, and being taken prisoner by Charles at Prague, he was sent to Avignon in A.D. 1350. Instead of the stake with which Clement had threatened him, =Innocent VI.=, A.D. 1352-1362, bestowed senatorial rank upon him, and sent him to Rome, hoping that his demagogical talent would succeed in furthering the interests of the papacy. He now once more, amid loud acclamations, entered the eternal city, but after two months, hated and cursed as a tyrant, he was murdered in A.D. 1354, while attempting flight.--By A.D. 1367 things had so improved in Rome that, notwithstanding the opposition of king and court and the objections of luxurious cardinals unwilling to quit Avignon, =Urban V.=, A.D. 1362-1370, in October of that year made a triumphal entrance into Rome amid the jubilations of the Romans. Charles’ Italian expedition of the following year was inglorious and without result. The disquiet and party strifes prevailing through the country made the position of the pope so uncomfortable, that notwithstanding the earnest entreaty of St. Bridget (§ 112, 8), who threatened him with the Divine judgment of an early death in France, he returned in A.D. 1370 to Avignon, where in ten weeks the words of the northern prophetess were fulfilled. His successor was =Gregory XI.=, A.D. 1370-1378. Rome and the States of the Church had now again become the scene of the wildest anarchy, which Gregory could only hope to quell by his personal presence. The exhortations of the two prophetesses of the age, St. Bridget and St. Catherine (§ 112, 4), had a powerful influence upon him, but what finally determined him was the threat of the exasperated Romans to elect an anti-pope. And so in spite of the renewed opposition of the cardinals and the French court, the curia again returned to Rome in A.D. 1377; but though the rejoicing at the event throughout the city was great, the results were by no means what had been expected. Sick and disheartened, the pope was already beginning to speak of going back to Avignon, when his death in A.D. 1378 put an end to his cares and sufferings.

§ 110.6. =The Papal Schism and the Council of Pisa.=--Under pressure from the people the cardinals present in Rome almost unanimously chose the Neapolitan archbishop of Bari, who took the name of =Urban VI.=, A.D. 1378-1389. His energies were mainly directed to the emancipating of the papal chair from French interference and checking the abuses introduced into the papal court during the Avignon residence; but the impatience and bitterness which he showed in dealing with the greed, pomp, and luxury of the cardinals roused them to choose another pope. After four months, they met at Fundi, declared that the choice of Urban had been made under compulsion, and was therefore invalid. In his place they elected a Frenchman, Robert, cardinal of Geneva, who was enthroned under the name of Clement VII., A.D. 1378-1394. The three Italians present protested against this proceeding and demanded, but in vain, the decision of a council. Thus began the greatest and most mischievous =papal schism=, A.D. 1378-1417. France, Naples, and Savoy at once, and Spain and Scotland somewhat later, declared in favour of Clement; while the rest of Western Europe acknowledged Urban. The two most famous saints of the age, St. Catherine and St. Vincent Ferrér (§ 115, 2), though both disciples of Dominic, took different sides, the former as an Italian favouring Urban, the latter as a Spaniard favouring Clement. Failing to secure a footing in Italy, Clement took possession of the papal castle at Avignon in A.D. 1379. The schism lasted for forty years, during which time =Boniface IX.=, A.D. 1389-1404, =Innocent VII.=, A.D. 1404-1406, and =Gregory XII.=, A.D. 1406-1415, elected by the cardinals in Rome, held sway there in succession, while at Avignon on Clement’s death his place was taken by the Spanish cardinal Pedro de Luna as Benedict XIII., A.D. 1394-1424. The Council of Paris of A.D. 1395 recommended the withdrawal of both popes and a new election, but Benedict insisted upon a decision by a two-thirds majority in favour of one or other of the two rivals. An =œcumenical council at Pisa=, in A.D. 1409, dominated mainly by the influence of Gerson (§ 118, 4), who maintained that the authority of the councils is superior to that of the pope, made short work with both contesting popes, whom it pronounced contumacious and deposed. After the cardinals present had bound themselves by an oath that whosoever of them might be chosen should not dissolve the council until a reform of the church in its head and members should be carried out, they elected a Greek of Candia in his seventieth year, Cardinal Philangi, who was consecrated as =Alexander V.=, A.D. 1409-1410, and for three years the council continued to sit without effecting any considerable reforms. The consequence was that the world had the edifying spectacle of three contemporary popes anathematizing one another.

§ 110.7. =The Council of Constance and Martin V.=--Alexander V. died after a reign of ten months by poison administered, as was supposed, by Balthasar Cossa, resident cardinal legate and absolute military despot, suspected of having been in youth engaged in piracy. Cossa succeeded, as =John XXIII.=, A.D. 1410-1415. He was acknowledged by the new Roman king, =Sigismund=, A.D. 1411-1437, and soon afterwards, in A.D. 1412, by Ladislas [Ladislaus] of Naples, so that Gregory XII. was thus deprived of his last support. The University of Paris continued to demand the holding of a council to effect reforms. Sigismund, supported by the princes, insisted on its being held in a German city. Meanwhile Ladislas [Ladislaus] had quarrelled with the pope, and had overrun the States of the Church and plundered Rome in A.D. 1413, and John was obliged to submit to Sigismund’s demands, He now summoned the =16th œcumenical Council of Constance=, A.D. 1414-1418 (§ 119, 5). It was the most brilliant and the most numerously attended council ever held. More than 18,000 priests and vast numbers of princes, counts, and knights, with an immense following; in all about 100,000 strangers, including thousands of harlots from all countries, and hordes of merchants, artisans, showmen, and players of every sort. Gerson and D’Ailly, the one representing European learning, the other the claims of the Gallican church (§ 118, 4), were the principal advisers of the council. The decision to vote not individually but by nations (Italian, German, French, and English) destroyed the predominance of the Italian prelates, who as John’s creatures were present in great numbers. Terrified by an anonymous accusation, which charged the pope with the most heinous crimes, he declared himself ready to withdraw if the other two popes would also resign, but took advantage of the excitement of a tournament to make his escape disguised as an ostler. Sigismund could with difficulty keep the now popeless council together. John, however, was captured, seventy-two serious charges formulated against him, and on 26th July, A.D. 1415, he was deposed and condemned to imprisonment for life. He was given up to the Count Palatine Louis of Baden, who kept him prisoner in Mannheim, and afterwards in Heidelberg. Meanwhile the leader of an Italian band making use of the name of Martin V. purchased his release with 3,000 ducats. He now submitted himself to that pope, and was appointed by him cardinal-bishop of Tuscoli, and dean of the sacred college, but soon afterwards died in Florence, in A.D. 1419. Gregory XII. also submitted in A.D. 1415, and was made cardinal-bishop of Porto. Benedict, however, retired to Spain and refused to come to terms, but even the Spanish princes withdrew their allegiance from him as pope. The cardinals in conclave elected the crafty Oddo Colonna, who was consecrated as =Martin V.=, A.D. 1417-1431. There was no more word of reformation. With great pomp the council was closed, and indulgence granted to its members. As the whole West now recognised Martin as the true pope the schism may be said to end with his accession, though Benedict continued to thunder anathemas from his strong Spanish castle till his death in A.D. 1424, and three of his four cardinals elected as his successor Clement VIII. and the fourth another Benedict XIV. Of the latter no notice was taken, but Clement submitted in A.D. 1429, and received the bishopric of Majorca.--Martin V. on entering Rome in A.D. 1420 found everything in confusion and desolate. By his able administration a change was soon effected, and the Rome of the Renaissance rose on the ruins of the mediæval city.[325]

§ 110.8. =Eugenius IV. and the Council of Basel.=--Martin V. commissioned Cardinal Julian Cesarini to look after the Hussite controversy in the =Basel Council=, A.D. 1431-1449. His successor =Eugenius IV.=, A.D. 1431-1447, confirmed this appointment. After thirteen months he ordered the council to meet at Bologna, finding the heretical element too strong in Germany. The members, however, unanimously refused to obey. Sigismund, too, protested, and the council claimed to be superior to the pope. The withdrawal of the bull within sixty days was insisted upon. As a compromise, the pope offered to call a new council, not at Bologna, but at Basel. This was declined and the pope threatened with deposition. A rebellion, too, broke out in the States of the Church; and in A.D. 1433 Eugenius was completely humbled and obliged to acquiesce in the demands of the council. One danger was thus averted, but he was still threatened by another. In A.D. 1434 Rome proclaimed itself a republic and the pope fled to Florence. The success of the democracy, however, was now again of but short duration. In five months Rome was once more under the dominion of the pope. Negotiations for union with the Greeks were begun by the pope at =Ferrara= A.D. 1438. A small number of Italians under the presidency of the pope here assumed the offices of an œcumenical council, those at Basel being ordered to join them, the Basel Council being suspended, and the continuance of that council being pronounced schismatical. Julian, now styled “_Julianus Apostata II._,” with almost all the cardinals, betook himself to Ferrara. Under the able cardinal Louis d’Aleman (§ 118, 4), archbishop of Arles, some still continued the proceedings of the council at Basel, but in consequence of a pestilence they moved, in A.D. 1439, to =Florence=. A union with the Greeks was here effected, at least upon paper. The Basel Council banned by the pope, deposed him, and in A.D. 1439 elected a new pope in the person of Duke Amadeus of Savoy, who on his wife’s death had resigned his crown to his son and entered a monkish order. He called himself Felix V. Princes and people, however, were tired of rival papacies. Felix got little support, and the council itself soon lost all its power. Its ablest members one after another passed over to the party of Eugenius. In A.D. 1449 Felix resigned, and died in the odour of sanctity two years afterwards.[326]

§ 110.9. Only =Charles VII.= of France took advantage of the reforming decree of Basel for the benefit of his country. He assembled the most distinguished churchmen and scholars of his kingdom at Bourges, and with their concurrence published, in A.D. 1438, twenty-three of the conclusions of Basel that bore on the Gallican liberties under the name of the =Pragmatic Sanction=, and made it a law of his realm. For the rest he maintained an attitude of neutrality towards both popes, as also shortly before the electors convened at Frankfort had done. Those assembled at the Diet of Mainz in A.D. 1439 recognised the reforming edicts of Basel as applying to Germany. =Frederick IV.=, A.D. 1439-1493, who as emperor is known as Frederick III., under the influence of the cunning Italian Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (§ 118, 6), though at first in the opposition, went over to the side of Eugenius IV. in A.D. 1446 upon receiving 100,000 guldens for the expenses of an expedition to Rome and certain ecclesiastical privileges for his Austrian subjects. Some weeks later the electors of Frankfort took the same steps, stipulating that Eugenius should recognise the decrees of the Council of Constance and the reforming decrees of Basel, and should promise to convene a new free council in a German city to bring the schism to an end, which if he failed to do they would quit him in favour of Basel. But at the diet, held in September of that year at Frankfort, the legates of the pope and of the king succeeded by diplomatic arts in coming to an understanding with the electors met at Mainz. Thus it happened that in the so-called =Frankfort Concordat of the Princes= a compromise was effected, which Eugenius confirmed in A.D. 1447, with a careful explanation to the effect that none of these concessions in any way infringed upon the rights and privileges of the Holy See. In the following year Frederick in name of the German nation concluded with Eugenius’ successor, Nicholas V., the =Concordat of Vienna=, A.D. 1448. The advantages gained by the German church were quite insignificant. Frederick received imperial rank as reward for the betrayal of his country, and was crowned in Rome, in A.D. 1452, as the last German emperor.

§ 110.10. =Nicholas V., Calixtus III., and Pius II., A.D. 1447-1464.=--With =Nicholas V.=, A.D. 1447-1455, a miracle of classical scholarship and founder of the Vatican Library, the Roman see for the first time became the patron of humanistic studies, and under this mild and liberal pope the secular government of Rome was greatly improved. The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, in A.D. 1453, produced excitement throughout the whole of Europe. The eloquence of the pope roused the crusading spirit of Christendom, and oratorical appeals were thundered from the pulpits of all churches and cathedrals. But the princes remained cold and indifferent. After Nicholas, a Spaniard, the cardinal Alphonso Borgia, then in his seventy-seventh year, was raised to the papal chair as =Calixtus III.=, A.D. 1455-1458. Hatred of Turks and love of nephews were the two characteristics of the man. Yet he could not rouse the princes against the Turks, and the fleet fitted out at his own cost only plundered a few islands in the Archipelago. Calixtus’ successor was Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the able and accomplished apostate from the Basel reform party, who styled himself, with intended allusion to Virgil’s “_pius Æneas_,” =Pius II.=, A.D. 1458-1464. The pope’s Ciceronian eloquence failed to secure the attendance of princes at the Mantuan Congress, summoned in A.D. 1459 to take steps for the equipment of a crusade. A war against the Turks was indeed to have been undertaken by emperor Frederick III., and a tax was to have been levied on Christians and Jews for its cost; but neither tax nor crusade was forthcoming. Pius demanded of the French ambassadors a formal repudiation of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, and when they threatened the calling of an œcumenical council, he issued the bull _Execrabilis_, which pronounced “the execrable and previously unheard of” enormity of an appeal to a council to be heresy and treason. In A.D. 1461 the pope, by a long epistle, attempted the conversion of Mohammed II., the powerful conqueror of Constantinople. As the discovery of the great alum deposit at Rome in A.D. 1462 was attributed to miraculous direction, the pope was led to devote its rich resources to the fitting out of a crusade against the Turks. He wished himself to lead the army in person, in order to secure victory by uplifted hands, like Moses in the war with Amalek. But here again the princes left him in the lurch. Coming to Ancona in A.D. 1464 to take ship there upon his great undertaking, only his own two galleys were waiting him. After long weary waiting, twelve Venetian ships arrived, just in time to see the pope prostrated with fever and excitement.

§ 110.11. =Paul II., Sixtus IV. and Innocent VII., A.D. 1464-1492.=--Among the popes of the last forty years of the 15th century =Paul II.=, A.D. 1464-1471, was the best, though vain, sensual, greedy, fond of show, and extravagant. He was impartial in the administration of justice, free from nepotism, and always ready to succour the needy. His successor, =Sixtus IV.=, A.D. 1471-1484, formerly Franciscan general, was one of the most wicked of the occupants of the chair of Peter. His appeal for an expedition against the Turks finding no response outside of Italy, his love of strife found gratification in fomenting internal animosities among the Italian states. In favour of a nephew he sought the overthrow in A.D. 1478 of the famous Medici family in Florence. Julian was murdered, but Lorenzo escaped, and the archbishop, as abettor of the crime, was hanged in his official robes. The pope placed the city under ban and interdict. It was only the conquest of Otranto in A.D. 1480, and the terror caused by the landing of the Turks in Italy, that moved him to make terms with Florence. His nepotism was most shamelessly practised, and he increased his revenues by taxing the brothels of Rome. His powerful government did something towards the improvement of the administration of justice in the Church States and his love of art beautified the city. In A.D. 1482 Andrew, archbishop of Crain, a Slav by birth and of the Dominican order, halted at Basel on his return from Rome, where he had been as ambassador for Frederick, and, with the support of the Italian league and the emperor, issued violent invectives against the pope, and summoned an œcumenical council for the reform of the church in its head and members. The pope ordered his arrest and extradition, but this the municipal authorities refused. After a volley of bulls and briefs, charges and appeals, and after innumerable embassies and negotiations between Basel, Vienna, Innsbrück, Florence, and Rome, in which the emperor abandoned the archbishop and the papal legates dangled an interdict over Basel, the authorities decided to imprison the objectionable prelate, but refused to deliver him up. After eleven months’ imprisonment, however, he was found hanged in his cell in A.D. 1484. Sixtus had died three months before and Basel was absolved by his successor =Innocent VIII.=, A.D. 1484-1492. In character and ability he was far inferior to his predecessor. The number of illegitimate children brought by him to the Vatican gave occasion to the popular witticism: “_Octo Nocens genuit pueros totidemque puellas, Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma patrem_.” The mighty conqueror of half the world, Mohammed II., had died in A.D. 1481. His two sons contested for the throne, and Bajazet proving successful committed the guardianship of his brother to the Knights of St. John in Rhodes. The Grandmaster transferred his prisoner, in A.D. 1489, to the pope. Innocent rewarded him with a cardinalate, and Bajazet promised the pope not only continual peace, but a yearly tribute of 40,000 ducats. He also voluntarily presented his holiness with the spear which pierced the Saviour’s side. All this, however, did not prevent the pope from repeatedly but ineffectually seeking to rouse Christendom to a crusade against the Turks. To this pope also belongs the odium of familiarizing Europe with witch prosecutions (§ 117, 4).[327]

§ 110.12. =Alexander VI., A.D. 1492-1503.=--The Spanish cardinal Roderick Borgia, sister’s son of Calixtus III., purchased the tiara by bribing his colleagues. In him as Alexander VI. we have a pope whose government presents a scene of unparalleled infamy, riotous immorality, and unmentionable crimes, of cruel despotism, fraud, faithlessness, and murder, and a barefaced nepotism, such as even the city of the popes had never witnessed before. He had already before his election five children by a concubine, Rosa Vanossa, four sons and one daughter, Lucretia, and his one care was for their advancement. His favourite son was Giovanni, for whom while cardinal he had purchased the rank of a Spanish grandee, with the title Duke of Gandia, and when pope he bestowed on him, in A.D. 1497, the hereditary dukedom of Benevento. But eight days after his corpse with dagger wounds upon it was taken out of the Tiber. The pope exclaimed, “I know the murderer.” Suspicion fell first upon Giovanni Sforsa of Pesaro, Lucretia’s husband, who had charged the murdered man with committing incest with his sister, but afterwards upon Cardinal Cæsar Borgia, the pope’s second son, who was jealous of his brother because of the favour shown him by Lucretia and by her father. Alexander’s grief knew no bounds, but sought escape from it by redoubled love to the suspected son. In A.D. 1498 the papal bastard resigned the cardinalate as an intolerable burden, married a French princess, and was made hereditary duke of Romagna. Suddenly at the same time, and in the same manner, in A.D. 1503, father and son took