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Title: Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)
Author: Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Language: English
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CHURCH HISTORY.
BY
PROFESSOR KURTZ.
_AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION FROM LATEST REVISED EDITION BY THE_
REV. JOHN MACPHERSON, M.A.
IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II.
_SECOND EDITION._
London:
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXCII.
BUTLER & TANNER,
THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS,
FROME, AND LONDON.
CONTENTS.
SECOND DIVISION.
(Continued.)
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.
(1) The Scandinavian Mission Field.
(2) Denmark.
(3) Sweden.
(4) The Norwegians.
(5) In the North-Western Group of Islands.
(6) The Slavo-Magyar Mission-field.
(7) The Poles.
(8) Hungary.
(9) The Wendish Races.
(10) Pomerania.
(11) Mission Work among the Finns and Lithuanians.
(12) Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland.
(13) The Prussians.
(14) Lithuania.
(15) The Mongolian Mission Field.
(16) The Mission Field of Islam.
§ 94. THE CRUSADES.
(1) The First Crusade, A.D. 1096.
(2) The Second Crusade, A.D. 1147.
(3) The Third Crusade, A.D. 1189.
(4) The Fourth Crusade, A.D. 1217.
(5) The Fifth Crusade, A.D. 1228.
(6) The Sixth, A.D. 1248, and Seventh, A.D. 1270, Crusades.
§ 95. ISLAM AND THE JEWS IN EUROPE.
(1) Islam in Sicily.
(2) Islam in Spain.
(3) The Jews in Europe.
II.--The Hierarchy, the Clergy, and the Monks.
§ 96. THE PAPACY AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE GERMAN
NATIONALITIES.
(1) The Romish Pornocracy and the Emperor Otto I.,
† A.D. 973.
(2) The Times of Otto II., III., A.D. 973-1002.
(3) Otto III.; Pope Sylvester II.
(4) From Henry II. to the Synod at Sutri, A.D. 1002-1046.
(5) Henry III. and his German Popes, A.D. 1046-1057.
(6) The Papacy under the Control of Hildebrand,
A.D. 1057-1078.
(7) Gregory VII., A.D. 1073-1085.
(8) Gregory’s Contention with Henry IV.
(9) The Central Idea in Gregory’s Policy.
(10) Victor III. and Urban II., A.D. 1086-1099.
(11) Paschalis II., Gelasius II., and Calixtus II.,
A.D. 1099-1124.
(12) English Investiture Controversy.
(13) The Times of Lothair III. and Conrad III.,
A.D. 1125-1152.
(14) The Times of Frederick I. and Henry VI.,
A.D. 1152-1190.
(15) Alexander III., A.D. 1159-1181.
(16) The Times of King Henry II. and Cœlestine III.,
A.D. 1154-1198.
(17) Innocent III., A.D. 1198-1216.
(18) ---- Fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215.
(19) The Times of Frederick II. and his Successors,
A.D. 1215-1268.
(20) Innocent IV. and his Successors, A.D. 1243-1268.
(21) The Times of the House of Anjou down to Boniface VIII.,
A.D. 1288-1294.
(22) Nicholas III. to Cœlestine V., A.D. 1277-1294.
(23) Temporal Power of the Popes.
§ 97. THE CLERGY.
(1) The Roman College of Cardinals.
(2) The Political Importance of the Superior Clergy.
(3) The Bishops and the Cathedral Chapter.
(4) Endeavours to Reform the Clergy.
(5) The Pataria of Milan.
§ 98. MONASTIC ORDERS AND INSTITUTIONS.
(1) Offshoots of the Benedictines.
1. The Brethren of Clugny.
2. The Congregation of the Camaldolites.
3. The Order of Vallombrosa.
4. The Cistercians.
5. The Congregation of Scottish Monasteries.
(2) New Monkish Orders.
1. The Order of Grammont.
2. The Order of St. Anthony.
3. The Order of Fontevraux.
4. The Order of the Gilbertines.
5. The Carthusian Order.
6. The Premonstratensian Order.
7. The Trinitarian Order.
8. The Cœlestine Order.
(3) The Beginnings of the Franciscan Order down to A.D. 1219.
(4) The Franciscans from A.D. 1219 to A.D. 1223.
(5) The Franciscans from A.D. 1223.
(6) Party Divisions within the Franciscan Order.
(7) The Dominican or Preaching Order.
(8) The Dominican Constitutional Rules.
(9) The Female Orders.
1. Dominican Nuns.
2. Nuns of St. Clara.
(10) The other Mendicant Orders.
(11) Penitential Brotherhoods and Tertiaries of the
Mendicant Orders.
(12) Working Guilds of a Monkish Order.
(13) The Spiritual Order of Knights.
1. The Templars.
2. The Knights of St. John.
3. The Order of Teutonic Knights.
4. The Knights of the Cross.
(14) Bridge-Brothers and Mercedarians.
III. Theological Science and its Controversies.
§ 99. SCHOLASTICISM IN GENERAL.
(1) Dialectic and Mysticism.
(2) The Philosophical Basis of Dialectic Scholasticism.
(3) The Nurseries of Scholasticism.
(4) The Epochs of Scholasticism.
(5) The Canon Law.
(6) Historical Literature.
§ 100. THE _SÆCULUM OBSCURUM_: THE 10TH CENTURY.
(1) Classical Studies--Germany; England.
(2) ---- Italy; France.
§ 101. THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.
(1) The Most Celebrated Schoolmen of this Century.
1. Fulbert.
2. Berengar of Tours.
3. Lanfranc.
4. Hildebert of Tours.
5. Anselm of Canterbury.
6. Anselm of Laon.
7. William of Champeaux.
8. Guibert of Nogent.
(2) Berengar’s Eucharist Controversy, A.D. 1050-1079.
(3) Anselm’s Controversies.
§ 102. THE TWELFTH CENTURY.
(1) The Contest on French Soil.
I. The Dialectic Side of the Gulf--Peter Abælard.
(2) ---- Abælard’s Teachings.
(3) II. The Mystic Side of the Gulf--St. Bernard
of Clairvaux.
(4) III. Bridging the Gulf from the Side of Mysticism.
(5) IV. Bridging the Gulf from the Side of Dialectics.
(6) The Controversy on German Soil.
(7) Theologians of a Pre-eminently Biblical and
Ecclesiastico-Practical Tendency.
1. Alger of Liège.
2. Rupert of Deutz.
3. Hervæus.
(8) 4. John of Salisbury.
5. Walter of St. Victor.
6. Innocent III.
(9) Humanist Philosophers.
§ 103. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
(1) The Writings of Aristotle and his Arabic Interpreters.
(2) Theory of a twofold Truth.
(3) The Appearance of the Mendicant Orders.
(4) Distinguished Franciscan Schoolmen.
(5) Distinguished Dominican Schoolmen--Albert the Great.
(6) ---- Thomas Aquinas.
(7) Reformers of the Scholastic Method--Raimund Lull.
(8) ---- Roger Bacon.
(9) Theologians of a Biblical and Practical Tendency.
1. Cæsarius of Heisterbach.
2. William Peraldus.
3. Hugo of St. Caro.
4. Robert of Sorbon.
5. Raimund Martini.
(10) Precursors of the German Speculative Mystics.
IV. The Church and the People.
§ 104. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND ART.
(1) The Liturgy and the Sermon.
(2) Definition and Number of the Sacraments.
(3) The Sacrament of the Altar.
(4) Penance.
(5) Extreme Unction.
(6) The Sacrament of Marriage.
(7) New Festivals.
(8) The Veneration of Saints.
(9) St. Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins.
(10) Hymnology.
(11) Church Music.
(12) Ecclesiastical Architecture.
(13) Free Mason Lodges.
(14) Statuary and Painting.
§ 105. NATIONAL CUSTOMS AND THE NATIONAL LITERATURE.
(1) Knighthood and the Peace of God.
(2) Popular Customs.
(3) Two Royal Saints.
(4) Evidences of Sainthood.
1. Stigmatization.
2. Bilocation.
(5) Religious Culture of the People.
(6) The National Literature.
§ 106. CHURCH DISCIPLINE, INDULGENCES, AND ASCETICISM.
(1) Ban and Interdict.
(2) Indulgences.
(3) The Church Doctrine of the Hereafter.
(4) Flagellation.
§ 107. FEMALE MYSTICS.
(1) Two Rhenish Prophetesses of the 12th Century.
(2) Three Thuringian Prophetesses of the 13th Century.
V. Heretical Opposition to Ecclesiastical Authority.
§ 108. THE PROTESTERS AGAINST THE CHURCH.
(1) The Cathari.
(2) ---- Their Theological Systems.
(3) The Pasagians.
(4) Pantheistic Heretics.
1. Amalrich of Bena.
2. David of Dinant.
3. The Ortlibarians.
(5) Apocalyptic Heretics.
(6) Ghibelline Joachites.
(7) Revolutionary Reformers.
1. The Petrobrusians.
2. Arnold of Brescia.
(8) 3. The Pastorelles.
4. The Apostolic Brothers.
(9) Reforming Enthusiasts.
1. Tanchelm.
2. Eon de Stella.
(10) The Waldensians.
1. Their Origin.
(11) 2. Their Divisions.
(12) 3. Attempts at Catholicizing.
(13) 4. The French Societies.
(14) ---- An Alternate Origin.
(15) 5. The Lombard-German Branch.
(16) 6. Relations between the Waldensians and Older
and Contemporary Sects.
§ 109. THE CHURCH AGAINST THE PROTESTERS.
(1) The Albigensian Crusade, A.D. 1209-1229.
(2) The Inquisition.
(3) Conrad of Marburg and the Stedingers.
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.
(1) Boniface VIII. and Benedict XI., A.D. 1294-1304.
(2) The Papacy during the Babylonian Exile, A.D. 1305-1377.
(3) John XXII., A.D. 1316-1334.
(4) Benedict XII., A.D. 1334-1342.
(5) Innocent VI. to Gregory XI., A.D. 1352-1378.
(6) The Papal Schism and the Council of Pisa, A.D. 1378-1410.
(7) The Council of Constance and Martin V., A.D. 1410-1431.
(8) Eugenius IV. and the Council of Basel, A.D. 1431-1449.
(9) Pragmatic Sanction, A.D. 1438.
(10) Nicholas V. to Pius II., A.D. 1447-1464.
(11) Paul II., Sixtus IV. and Innocent VII., A.D. 1464-1492.
(12) Alexander VI., A.D. 1492-1503.
(13) Julius II., A.D. 1503-1513.
(14) Leo X., A.D. 1513-1521.
(15) Papal Claims to Sovereignty.
(16) The Papal Curia.
§ 111. THE CLERGY.
(1) The Moral Condition of the Clergy.
(2) Commendator Abbots.
§ 112. MONASTIC ORDERS AND SOCIETIES.
(1) The Benedictine Orders.
(2) The Franciscans.
(3) The Observants and Conventuals.
(4) The Dominicans.
(5) The Augustinians.
(6) John von Staupitz.
(7) Overthrow of the Templars.
(8) New Orders.
1. Hieronymites.
2. Jesuates.
3. Minimi.
4. Nuns of St. Bridget.
5. Annunciate Order.
(9) The Brothers of the Common Life.
II. Theological Science.
§ 113. SCHOLASTICISM AND ITS REFORMERS.
(1) John Duns Scotus.
(2) Thomists and Scotists.
(3) Nominalists and Realists.
(4) Casuistry.
(5) The Founder of Natural Theology--Raimund of Sabunde.
(6) Nicholas of Cusa.
(7) Biblical and Practical Theologians.
1. Nicholas of Lyra.
2. Antonine of Florence.
3. John Trithemius.
§ 114. THE GERMAN MYSTICS.
(1) Meister Eckhart.
(2) Mystics of Upper Germany after Eckhart.
(3) The Friend of God in the Uplands.
(4) Nicholas of Basel.
(5) Henry Suso.
(6) Henry of Nördlingen.
(7) Mystics of the Netherlands.
1. John of Ruysbroek.
2. Hendrik Mande.
3. Gerlach Peters.
4. Thomas à Kempis.
III. The Church and the People.
§ 115A. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.
(1) Fasts and Festivals.
(2) Preaching.
(3) The _Biblia Pauperum_.
(4) The Bible in the Vernacular.
(5) Catechisms and Prayer Books.
(6) The Dance of Death.
(7) Hymnology.
(8) Church Music.
(9) Legendary Relics.
§ 115B. NATIONAL LITERATURE AND ECCLESIASTICAL ART.
(10) The Italian National Literature.
(11) The German National Literature.
(12) The Sacred Drama.
(13) Architecture and Painting.
§ 116. POPULAR MOVEMENTS.
(1) Two National Saints.
(2) The Maid of Orleans, A.D. 1428-1431.
(3) Lollards, Flagellants, and Dancers.
(4) The Friends of God.
(5) Pantheistic Libertine Societies.
§ 117. CHURCH DISCIPLINE.
(1) Indulgences.
(2) The Inquisition.
(3) The Bull “_In Cœna Domini_.”
(4) Prosecution of Witches.
IV. Attempts at Reformation.
§ 118. ATTEMPTED REFORMS IN CHURCH POLITY.
(1) The Literary War between Imperialists and Curialists
in the 14th Century.
(2) ---- Continued.
(3) Reforming Councils of the 15th Century.
(4) Friends of Reform in France during the 15th Century.
1. Peter d’Ailly.
2. Jean Charlier (Gerson).
3. Nicholas of Clemanges.
4. Louis d’Aleman.
(5) Friends of Reform in Germany.
1. Henry of Langenstein.
2. Theodorich or Dietrich of Niem.
3. Gregory of Heimburg.
4. Jacob of Jüterboyk [Jüterbock].
5. Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa.
6. Felix Hemmerlin.
7. The Reformation of the Emperor Sigismund.
(6) An Italian Apostate from the Basel Liberal
Party--Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini.
(7) Reforms in Church Policy in Spain.
§ 119. EVANGELICAL EFFORTS AT REFORM.
(1) Wiclif and the Wiclifites.
(2) Precursors of the Hussite Movement.
1. Conrad of Waldhausen.
2. John Milicz of Cremsier.
3. Matthias of Janow.
(3) John Huss of Hussinecz.
(4) ---- Rector of the University of Prague.
(5) ---- Council of Constance; Trial; Execution.
(6) ---- His Teachings.
(7) Calixtines and Taborites.
(8) The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren.
(9) The Waldensians.
1. Lombard-German Waldensians.
(9A) 2. French Waldensians.
(10) The Dutch Reformers.
1. John Pupper of Goch.
2. John Ruchrath of Wesel.
3. John Wessel.
4. Nicholas Russ.
(11) An Italian Reformer--Jerome Savonarola.
§ 120. THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING.
(1) Italian Humanists.
(2) German Humanism--University of Erfurt.
(3) ---- Other Schools.
(4) John Reuchlin.
(5) _Epistolæ obscurorum virorum._
(6) Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.
(7) Humanism in England.
(8) Humanism in France and Spain.
(9) Humanism and the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century.
THIRD DIVISION.
History of the Development of the Church under
Modern European Forms of Civilization.
§ 121. CHARACTER AND DISTRIBUTION OF MODERN CHURCH HISTORY.
FIRST SECTION.
CHURCH HISTORY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
I. The Reformation.
§ 122. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WITTENBERG REFORMATION.
(1) Luther’s Years of Preparation.
(2) Luther’s Theses of A.D. 1517.
(3) Prierias, Cajetan, and Miltitz, A.D. 1518, 1519.
(4) The Leipzig Disputation, A.D. 1519.
(5) Philip Melanchthon.
(6) George Spalatin.
§ 123. LUTHER’S PERIOD OF CONFLICT, A.D. 1520, 1521.
(1) Luther’s Three Chief Reformation Writings, A.D. 1520.
(2) The Papal Bull of Excommunication, A.D. 1520.
(3) Erasmus, A.D. 1520.
(4) Luther’s Controversy with Emser, A.D. 1519-1521.
(5) The Emperor Charles V.
(6) The Diet at Worms, A.D. 1521.
(7) Luther at Wittenberg after the Diet.
(8) The Wartburg Exile, A.D. 1521, 1522.
(9) The Attitude of Frederick the Wise to the Reformation.
§ 124. DETERIORATION AND PURIFICATION OF THE WITTENBERG
REFORMATION, A.D. 1522-1525.
(1) The Wittenberg Fanaticism, A.D. 1521, 1522.
(2) Franz von Sickingen, A.D. 1522, 1523.
(3) Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt, A.D. 1524, 1525.
(4) Thomas Münzer, A.D. 1523, 1524.
(5) The Peasant War, A.D. 1524, 1525.
§ 125. FRIENDS AND FOES OF LUTHER’S DOCTRINE, A.D. 1522-1526.
(1) Spread of Evangelical Views.
(2) “The Sum of Holy Scripture” and its Author.
(3) Henry VIII. and Erasmus.
(4) Thomas Murner.
(5) “_Onus ecclesiæ._”
§ 126. DEVELOPMENT OF THE REFORMATION IN THE EMPIRE, A.D. 1522-1526.
(1) The Diet at Nuremberg, A.D. 1522, 1523.
(2) The Diet at Nuremberg, A.D. 1524.
(3) The Convention at Regensburg, A.D. 1524.
(4) The Evangelical Nobles, A.D. 1524.
(5) The Torgau League, A.D. 1526.
(6) The Diet of Spires, A.D. 1526.
§ 127. ORGANIZATION OF THE EVANGELICAL PROVINCIAL CHURCHES,
A.D. 1526-1529.
(1) The Organization of the Church of the Saxon
Electorate, A.D. 1527-1529.
(2) The Organization of the Hessian Churches,
A.D. 1526-1528.
(3) Organization of other German Provincial Churches,
A.D. 1528-1530.
(4) The Reformation in the Cities of Northern Germany,
A.D. 1524-1531.
§ 128. MARTYRS FOR EVANGELICAL TRUTH, A.D. 1521-1529.
§ 129. LUTHER’S PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LIFE, A.D. 1523-1529.
(1) Luther’s Literary Works.
(2) Döllinger’s View of Luther.
§ 130. THE REFORMATION IN GERMAN SWITZERLAND, A.D. 1519-1531.
(1) Ulrich Zwingli.
(2) The Reformation in Zürich, A.D. 1519-1525.
(3) Reformation in Basel, A.D. 1520-1525.
(4) The Reformation in the other Cantons, A.D. 1520-1525.
(5) Anabaptist Outbreak, A.D. 1525.
(6) Disputation at Baden, A.D. 1526.
(7) Disputation at Bern, A.D. 1528.
(8) Complete Victory of the Reformation at Basel,
St. Gall, and Schaffhausen, A.D. 1529.
(9) The first Treaty of Cappel, A.D. 1529.
(10) The Second Treaty of Cappel, A.D. 1531.
§ 131. THE SACRAMENTARIAN CONTROVERSY, A.D. 1525-1529.
§ 132. THE PROTEST AND CONFESSION OF THE EVANGELICAL NOBLES,
A.D. 1527-1530.
(1) The Pack Incident, A.D. 1527, 1528.
(2) The Emperor’s Attitude, A.D. 1527-1529.
(3) The Diet at Spires, A.D. 1529.
(4) The Marburg Conference, A.D. 1529.
(5) The Convention of Schwabach and the Landgrave Philip.
(6) The Diet of Augsburg, A.D. 1530.
(7) The Augsburg Confession, 25th June, A.D. 1530.
(8) The Conclusions of the Diet of Augsburg.
§ 133. INCIDENTS OF THE YEARS A.D. 1531-1536.
(1) The Founding of the Schmalcald League,
A.D. 1530, 1531.
(2) The Peace of Nuremberg, A.D. 1532.
(3) The Evangelization of Württemberg,
A.D. 1534, 1535.
(4) The Reformation in Anhalt and Pomerania,
A.D. 1532-1534.
(5) The Reformation in Westphalia, A.D. 1532-1534.
(6) Disturbances at Münster, A.D. 1534, 1535.
(7) Extension of the Schmalcald league, A.D. 1536.
(8) The Wittenberg Concordat of A.D. 1536.
§ 134. INCIDENTS OF THE YEARS A.D. 1537-1539.
(1) The Schmalcald Articles, A.D. 1537.
(2) The League of Nuremberg, A.D. 1538.
(3) The Frankfort Interim, A.D. 1539.
(4) The Reformation in Albertine Saxony, A.D. 1539.
(5) The Reformation in Brandenburg and Neighbouring
States, A.D. 1539.
§ 135. UNION ATTEMPTS OF A.D. 1540-1546.
(1) The Double Marriage of the Landgrave, A.D. 1540.
(2) The Religious Conference at Worms, A.D. 1540.
(3) The Religious Conference at Regensburg, A.D. 1541.
(4) The Regensburg Declaration, A.D. 1541.
(5) The Naumburg Bishopric, A.D. 1541, 1542.
(6) The Reformation in Brunswick and the Palatinate,
A.D. 1542-1546.
(7) The Reformation in the Electorate of Cologne,
A.D. 1542-1544.
(8) The Emperor’s Difficulties, A.D. 1543, 1544.
(9) Diet at Spires, A.D. 1544.
(10) Differences between the Emperor and the Protestant
Nobles, A.D. 1545, 1546.
(11) Luther’s Death, A.D. 1546.
§ 136. THE SCHMALCALD WAR, THE INTERIM, AND THE COUNCIL,
A.D. 1546-1551.
(1) Preparations for the Schmalcald War, A.D. 1546.
(2) The Campaign on the Danube, A.D. 1546.
(3) The Campaign on the Elbe, A.D. 1547.
(4) The Council of Trent, A.D. 1545-1547.
(5) The Augsburg Interim, A.D. 1548.
(6) The Execution of the Interim.
(7) The Leipzig or Little Interim, A.D. 1549.
(8) The Council again at Trent, A.D. 1551.
§ 137A. MAURICE AND THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG A.D. 1550-1555.
(1) The State of Matters in A.D. 1550.
(2) The Elector Maurice, A.D. 1551.
(3) The Compact of Passau, A.D. 1552.
(4) Death of Maurice, A.D. 1553.
(5) The Religious Peace of Augsburg, A.D. 1555.
§ 137B. GERMANY AFTER THE RELIGIOUS PEACE.
(6) The Worms Consultation, A.D. 1557.
(7) Second Attempt at Reformation in the Electorate
of Cologne, A.D. 1582.
(8) The German Emperors, A.D. 1556-1612.
§ 138. THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
(1) Calvin’s Predecessors, A.D. 1526-1535.
(2) Calvin before his Genevan Ministry.
(3) Calvin’s First Ministry in Geneva, A.D. 1536-1538.
(4) Calvin’s Second Ministry in Geneva, A.D. 1541-1564.
(5) Calvin’s Writings.
(6) Calvin’s Doctrine.
(7) The Victory of Calvinism over Zwinglianism.
(8) Calvin’s Successor in Geneva.
§ 139. THE REFORMATION IN OTHER LANDS.
(1) Sweden.
(2) Denmark and Norway.
(3) Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia.
(4) England--Henry VIII.
(5) ---- Edward VI.
(6) ---- Elizabeth.
(7) Ireland.
(8) Scotland.
(9) ---- John Knox.
(10) ---- Queen Mary Stuart.
(11) ---- John Knox and Queen Mary Stuart.
(12) The Netherlands.
(13) France.
---- Francis I.
---- Henry II.
(14) ---- Huguenots.
---- Francis II.
---- Charles IX.
(15) ---- Persecution of the Huguenots.
(16) ---- The Bloody Marriage--Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
(17) ---- Henry III.
---- Henry IV.
---- Edict of Nantes.
(18) Poland.
(19) Bohemia and Moravia.
(20) Hungary and Transylvania.
(21) Spain.
(22) Italy.
(23) ---- Aonio Paleario.
(24) 1. Bernardino Ochino.
2. Peter Martyr Vermilius.
3. Peter Paul Vergerius.
4. Cœlius Secundus Curio.
5. Galeazzo Carraccioli.
6. Fulvia Olympia Morata.
(25) The Protestantizing of the Waldensians.
(26) Attempt at Protestantizing the Eastern Church.
II. The Churches of the Reformation.
§ 140. THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.
§ 141. DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.
(1) The Antinomian Controversy, A.D. 1537-1541.
(2) The Osiander Controversy, A.D. 1549-1556.
(3) Æpinus Controversy; Kargian Controversy.
(4) The Philippists and their Opponents.
(5) The Adiaphorist Controversy, A.D. 1548-1555.
(6) The Majorist Controversy, A.D. 1551-1562.
(7) The Synergistic Controversy, A.D. 1555-1567.
(8) The Flacian Controversy about Original Sin,
A.D. 1560-1575.
(9) The Lutheran Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper.
(10) Cryptocalvinism in its First Stage, A.D. 1552-1574.
(11) The Frankfort Compact, A.D. 1558, and the Naumburg
Assembly of Princes, A.D. 1561.
(12) The Formula of Concord, A.D. 1577.
(13) Second Stage of Cryptocalvinism, A.D. 1586-1592.
(14) The Huber Controversy, A.D. 1588-1595.
(15) The Hofmann Controversy in Helmstadt, A.D. 1598.
§ 142. CONSTITUTION, WORSHIP, LIFE, AND SCIENCE IN THE
LUTHERAN CHURCH.
(1) The Ecclesiastical Constitution.
(2) Public Worship and Art.
(3) Church Song--Luther and early Authors.
(4) ---- Later Authors.
(5) Chorale Singing.
(6) Theological Science.
(7) German National Literature.
(8) Missions to the Heathen.
§ 143. THE INNER DEVELOPMENT OF THE REFORMED CHURCH.
(1) The Ecclesiastical Constitution.
(2) Public Worship.
(3) The English Puritans.
(4) ---- The Brownists.
(5) Theological Science.
(6) Philosophy.
(7) A Missionary Enterprise.
§ 144. CALVINIZING OF GERMAN LUTHERAN NATIONAL CHURCHES.
(1) The Palatinate, A.D. 1560.
(2) Bremen, A.D. 1562.
(3) Anhalt, A.D. 1597.
III. THE DEFORMATION.
§ 145. CHARACTER OF THE DEFORMATION.
§ 146. MYSTICISM AND PANTHEISM.
(1) Schwenkfeld and his Followers.
(2) Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Weigel.
(3) Franck, Thamer, and Bruno.
(4) The Pantheistic Libertine Sects of the Spirituals.
(5) The Familists.
§ 147. ANABAPTISM.
(1) The Anabaptist Movement in General.
(2) Keller’s View of Anabaptist History.
(3) The Swiss Anabaptists.
(4) The South German Anabaptists.
(5) The Moravian Anabaptists.
(6) The Venetian Anabaptists.
(7) The older Apostles of Anabaptism in the North-West
of Germany.
1. Melchior Hoffmann.
2. Melchior Ring.
(8) Jan Matthys of Haarlem.
(9) The Münster Catastrophe, A.D. 1534, 1535.
(10) Menno Simons and the Mennonites.
§ 148. ANTITRINITARIANS AND UNITARIANS.
(1) Anabaptist Antitrinitarians in Germany.
(2) Michael Servetus.
(3) Italian and other Antitrinitarians before Socinus.
(4) The Two Socini and the Socinians.
IV. THE COUNTER-REFORMATION.
§ 149. THE INTERNAL STRENGTHENING AND REVIVAL OF THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
(1) The Popes before the Council.
(2) The Popes of the Time of the Council.
(3) The Popes after the Council.
(4) Papal Infallibility.
(5) The Prophecy of St. Malachi.
(6) Reformation of Old Monkish Orders.
(7) New Orders for Home Missions.
(8) The Society of Jesus--Founding of the Order.
(9) ---- Constitution.
(10) ---- The Doctrinal and Moral System.
(11) Jesuit Influence upon Worship and Superstition.
(12) Educational Methods and Institutions of the Jesuits.
(13) Theological Controversies.
(14) Theological Literature.
(15) Art and Poetry.
(16) The Spanish Mystics.
(17) Practical Christian life.
§ 150. FOREIGN MISSIONS.
(1) Missions to the Heathen--East Indies and China.
(2) ---- Japan.
(3) ---- America.
(4) Schismatical Churches of the East.
§ 151. ATTEMPTED REGENERATION OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
(1) Attempts at Regeneration in Germany.
(2) Throughout Europe.
(3) Russia and the United Greeks.
NOTE BY TRANSLATOR.
While the translator was working from the ninth edition of 1885,
a tenth edition had appeared during 1887, to which unfortunately his
attention was not called until quite recently. The principal additions
and alterations affecting Vol. II. occur in §§ 98, 108, 119, and 147.
On the section dealing with Anabaptism, the important changes have been
made in the text, so that § 147 precisely corresponds to its latest
and most perfect form in the original. As the printing of the volume
was then far advanced, it was impossible thus to deal with the earlier
sections, but students will find references in the Table of Contents to
the full translation in the Appendix of those passages where material
alterations have been introduced.
JOHN MACPHERSON.
FINDHORN, _March, 1889_.
SECOND DIVISION.
(Continued.)
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
ill. The father died after a few days, but the vigour of youth
aided the son’s recovery. Cæsar Borgia was at a later period cast
into prison by Julius II., and fell in A.D. 1507 in the service
of his brother-in-law, the king of Navarre. It was generally
believed that Alexander died of poisoned wine prepared by his
son to secure the removal of a rich cardinal. The father as well
as the two brothers were suspected of incest with Lucretia. This
pope, too, did not hesitate to intrigue with the Turkish sultan
against Charles VIII. of France. With unexampled assumption,
during the contention of Portugal and Spain about the American
discoveries, he presented Ferdinand and Isabella in A.D. 1493
with all islands and continents that had been discovered or might
yet be discovered lying beyond a line of demarcation drawn from
the North to the South Pole. Once only, when grieving over the
death of his favourite son, had this pope a twinge of conscience.
He had resolved, he said, to devote himself to his spiritual
calling and secure a reform in church discipline. But when
the commission appointed for this purpose presented its first
reform proposals the momentary emotion had already passed away.
Nothing was further from his thought than the calling of an
œcumenical council, which not only the king of France, but also
the Florentine reformer Savonarola demanded (§ 119, 11).
§ 110.13. =Julius II., A.D. 1503-1513.=--Alexander’s successor,
Pius III., son of a sister of Pius II., died after a twenty-six
days’ pontificate. He was followed by a nephew of Sixtus IV.,
a bitter enemy of the Borgias, who took the name of Julius II.
He was essentially a warrior, with nothing of the priest about
him. He was also a lover of art, and carried on the works which
his uncle had begun. His youthful excesses had seriously impaired
his health. As pope, he was not free from nepotism and simony, in
controversy passionate, and in policy intriguing and faithless.
He transformed the States of the Church into a temporal despotic
monarchy, and was himself incessantly engaged in war. When
he broke with France, which held Milan from A.D. 1499 with
Alexander’s consent, =Louis XII.=, A.D. 1498-1515, convened
a French national council at Tours in A.D. 1510. This council
renewed the Pragmatic Sanction, which in a weak hour Louis XI.,
in A.D. 1462, had abrogated, and had in consequence obtained,
in A.D. 1469, the title _Rex Christianissimus_, and refused to
obey the pope. Also =Maximilian I.=, A.D. 1493-1519, who even
without papal coronation called himself “elected Roman emperor,”
directed the learned humanist Wimpfeling of Heidelberg to collect
the gravamina of the Germans against the Roman curia, and to
sketch out a Pragmatic Sanction for Germany. France and Germany,
with five revolting cardinals, convoked an œcumenical council at
Pisa, in A.D. 1511. Half in sport, half in earnest, Maximilian
spoke of placing on his own head the tiara, as well as the
imperial crown. The pope put Pisa, where only a few French
prelates ventured, under an interdict, and anathematized the
king of France, who then had medals cast, with the inscription,
_Perdam Babylonis nomen_. In a murderous battle at Ravenna, in
A.D. 1512, the army of the papal league was all but annihilated.
But two months later, the French, by the revolt of the Milanese
and the successes of the Swiss, were driven to their homes
ingloriously, and the schismatic council, which had been shifted
from Pisa to Milan, had to withdraw to Lyons, where it was
dissolved by the pope “on account of its many crimes.” Meanwhile
the pope had summoned a council to meet at Rome, the =fifth
œcumenical Lateran Council=, A.D. 1512-1517, at which however
only fifty-three Italian bishops were present. There the ban upon
the king of France was renewed, but a concordat was concluded
with Maximilian, redressing the more serious grievances of which
he had complained. The pope succeeded in freeing Northern Italy
from French oppression, and only his early death prevented him
from delivering Southern Italy from the Spanish yoke.
§ 110.14. =Leo X., A.D. 1513-1521.=--John, son of Lorenzo
Medici, who was cardinal in A.D. 1488, in his eighteenth year,
when thirty-eight years of age ascended the papal throne as
Leo X.; a great patron of the Renaissance, but luxurious and
pleasure-loving, extravagant and frivolous, without a spark
of religion (§ 120, 1), and a zealous promoter of the fortunes
of his own family. The attempt of Louis XII., with the help of
Venice, to regain Milan failed, and being hard pressed in his
own country by Henry VIII. of England, the French king decided
at last, in Dec., 1513, to end the schism and recognise the
Lateran Council. His successor, =Francis I.=, A.D. 1515-1547, was
more fortunate. In the battle of Marignano he gained a brilliant
victory over the brave Swiss, in consequence of which the
duchy of Milan fell again into the hands of France. At Bologna,
in A.D. 1516, the pope in person now greeted the king, who
proferred him obedience, and concluded a political league and
an ecclesiastical concordat with his holiness, abrogating the
Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII., but maintaining the king’s
right to nominate all bishops and abbots of his realm, with
reservation of the annats for the papal treasury. The Lateran
Council, though attended only by Italian bishops, was pronounced
œcumenical. During its five years’ sittings it had issued
concordats for Germany and France, the papal bull _Pastor
æternus_ was solemnly ratified, which renewed the bull _Unam
sanctam_ and by various forgeries proved the power of the
pope to be superior to the authority of councils, quieted the
bishops’ objections to the privileges of the begging friars by
a compromise, and as a protection against heresy gave the right
of the censorship of the press to bishops, while explicitly
asserting the immateriality, individuality, and immortality of
the human soul.[328]
§ 110.15. =Papal Claims to Sovereignty.=--From A.D. 1319 the
popes secured large revenues from the Annats, revenues for a
full year of all vacancies; the Reservations, the holding of
rich benefices and bestowing them upon payment of large sums;
the Expectances, naming for payment a successor to an incumbent
still living; the Offices held _in commendam_, provisionally
on payment of a part of the incomes; the _Jus spoliarum_, the
Holy See being the legitimate heir of all property gained by
Churchmen from their offices; the Taxing of Church property for
particularly pressing calls; innumerable Indulgences, Absolutions,
Dispensations, etc. The happy thought occurred to Paul II., in
A.D. 1469, to extend the law of Annats to such ecclesiastical
institutions as belonged to corporations. He reckoned the
lifetime of a prelate at fifteen years, and so claimed his tax
of such institutions every fifteenth year. The doctrine of the
papal infallibility in matters of faith, under the influence
of the reforming councils of the 15th century, was rather less
in favour than before. The rigid Franciscans opposed the papal
doctrine of poverty (§§ 98, 4; 112, 2); and John XXII. was almost
unanimously charged by his contemporaries with heresy, because
of his views about the vision of God. Even the most zealous
curialists of the 15th century did not venture to ascribe to
the pope absolute infallibility. A distinction was made between
the infallibility of the office, which is absolute, and that of
the person, which is only relative; a pope who falls into error
and heresy thereby ceases to be pope and infallible. This was the
opinion of the Dominican Torquemada (§ 112, 4), whom Eugenius IV.
rewarded at the Basel Council with a cardinalate and the title
of _Defensor fidei_, as the most zealous defender of papal
absolutism. From the 14th century the popes have worn the triple
crown. The three tiers of the tiara, richly ornamented with
precious stones, indicated the power of the pope over heaven by
his canonizing, over purgatory by his granting of indulgences,
and over the earth by his pronouncing anathemas. Until the papal
court retired to Avignon the Lateran was the usual residence of
the popes, and after the ending of the schism, the Vatican.[329]
§ 110.16. =The Papal Curia.=--The chief courts of the papal
government are spoken of collectively as the curia, their members
being taken from the higher clergy. The following are the most
important: the _Cancellaria Romana_, to which belonged the
administration of affairs pertaining to the pope and the college
of cardinals; the _Dataria Romana_, which had to do with matters
of grace not kept secret, such as absolutions, dispensations,
etc.; while the _Pœnitentiaria Romana_ dealt with matters which
were kept secret; the _Camera Romana_, which administered the
papal finances; and the _Rota Romana_, which was the supreme
court of justice. Important decrees issued by the pope himself
with the approval of the cardinals are called _bulls_. They are
written on parchment in the Gothic character in Latin, stamped
with the great seal of the Roman church, and secured in a metal
case. The word bull was originally applied to the case, then
to the seal, and at last to the document itself. Less important
decrees, for which the advice of the cardinals had not been asked,
are called _briefs_. The brief is usually written on parchment,
in the ordinary Roman characters, and sealed in red wax with the
pope’s private seal, the fisherman’s ring.
§ 111. THE CLERGY.
Provincial synods had now lost almost all their importance, and
were rarely held, and then for the most part under the presidency of
a papal legate. The cathedral chapters afforded welcome provision for
the younger sons of the nobles, who were nothing behind their elder
brothers in worldliness of life and conversation. For their own
selfish interests they limited the number of members of the chapter,
and demanded as a qualification evidence of at least sixteen ancestors.
The political significance of the prelates was in France very small,
and as champions of the Gallican liberties they were less enthusiastic
than the University of Paris and the Parliament. In England they
formed an influential order in the State, with carefully defined
rights; and in Germany, as princes of the empire, especially the
clerical elector princes, their political importance was very great.
In Spain, on the other hand, at the end of the 15th century, by
the ecclesiastico-political reformation endeavours of Ferdinand
“the Catholic” and Isabella (§ 118, 7), the higher clergy were made
completely dependent upon the Crown.
§ 111.1. =The Moral Condition of the Clergy= was in general
very low. The bishops mostly lived in open concubinage. The lower
secular clergy followed their example, and had toleration granted
by paying a yearly tax to the bishop. The people, distinguishing
office and person, made no objection, but rather looked on it
as a sort of protection to their wives and daughters from the
dangers of the confessional. Especially in Italy, unnatural vice
was widely spread among the clergy. At Constance and Basel it
was thought to cure such evils by giving permission to priests
to marry; but it was feared that the ecclesiastical revenues
would be made heritable, and the clergy brought too much
under the State.--The mendicant orders were allowed to hear
confession everywhere, and when John de Polliaco, a Prussian
doctor, maintained that the local clergy only should be taken
as confessors, John XXII., in A.D. 1322, pronounced his views
heretical.
§ 111.2. The French concordat of A.D. 1516 (§ 110, 14),
which gave the king the right of appointing commendator abbots
(§ 85, 5), to almost all the cloisters, induced many of the
younger sons of old noble families to take orders, so as to
obtain rich sinecures or offices, which they could hold _in
commendam_. They bore a semi-clerical character, and had the
title of =abbé=, which gradually came to be given to all the
secular clergy of higher culture and social position. In Italy
too it became customary to give the title =abbate= to the younger
clergy of high rank, before receiving ordination.
§ 112. MONASTIC ORDERS AND SOCIETIES.
The corruption of monastic life was becoming more evident from day
to day. Immorality, sloth, and unnatural vice only too often found
a nursery behind the cloister walls. Monks and nuns of neighbouring
convents lived in open sin with one another, so that the author of the
book _De ruina ecclesia_ (§ 118, 4, c) thinks that _Virginem velare_
is the same as _Virginem ad scortandum exponere_. In the Benedictine
order the corruption was most complete. The rich cloisters, after the
example of their founder, divided their revenues among their several
members (_proprietarii_). Science was disregarded, and they cared
only for good living. The celebrated Scottish cloister (§ 98, 1) of
St. James, at Regensburg, in the 14th century, had a regular tavern
within its walls, and there was a current saying, _Uxor amissa in
monasterio Scotorum quæri debet_. The mendicants represented even
yet relatively the better side of monasticism, and maintained their
character as exponents of theological learning. Only the Carthusians,
however, still held fast to the ancient strict discipline of their
order.
§ 112.1. =The Benedictine Orders.=--For the reorganization of
this order, which had abandoned itself to good living and luxury,
Clement V., at the Council of Vienna, A.D. 1311, issued a set of
ordinances which aimed principally at the restoration of monastic
discipline and the revival of learning among the monks. But they
were of little or no avail. Benedict XII. therefore found it
necessary, in A.D. 1336, with the co-operation of distinguished
French abbots, to draw up a new constitution for the Benedictines,
which after him was called the Benedictina. The houses of Black
Friars were to be divided into thirty-six provinces, and each
of them was to hold every third year a provincial chapter for
conference and determination of cases. In each abbey there
should be a daily penitential chapter for maintaining discipline,
and an annual chapter for giving a reckoning of accounts. In
order to reawaken interest in scientific studies, it was enjoined
that from every cloister a number of the abler monks should be
maintained at a university, at the cost of the cloister, to study
theology and canon law. But the disciplinary prescriptions of the
Benedictina were powerless before the attractions of good living,
and the proposals for organization were repugnant to the proud
independence of monks and abbots. The enactments in favour of
scientific pursuits led to better results. The first really
successful attempt at reforming the cloisters was made, in
A.D. 1435, by the general chapter of the Brothers of the Common
Life, who not only dealt with their own institutions, but also
with all the Benedictine monasteries throughout the whole of
the West. The soul of this movement was Joh. Busch, monk in
Windesheim, then prior in various monasteries, and finally
provost of Sulte, near Hildesheim, A.D. 1458-1479. The so called
_Bursfeld Union_ or Congregation resulted from his intercourse
with the abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Bursfeld, on the
Weser, John of Hagen (ab Andagine). Notwithstanding the bitter
hostility of corrupt monks and nuns, there were in a short time
seventy-five monasteries under this Bursfeld rule, where the
original strictness of the monastic life was enforced. The rule
was confirmed by the council of A.D. 1440, and subsequently
by Pius II. Most of the cloisters under this rule joined the
Lutheran reformation of the 16th century, and Bursfeld itself is
at this day the seat of a titular Lutheran abbot.--A new branch
of the Benedictine order, the =Olivetans=, was founded by Bernard
Tolomæi. Blindness having obliged him to abandon his teaching of
philosophy at Siena, the blessed Virgin restored him his sight;
and then, in A.D. 1313, he forsook the world, and withdrew
with certain companions into almost inaccessible mountain
recesses, ten miles from Siena. Disciples gathered around him
from all sides. He built a cloister on a hill, which he called
the Mount of Olives, and founded under the Benedictine rule
a congregation of the Most Blessed Virgin of the Mount of Olives,
which obtained the sanction of John XXII. Tolomæi became its
first general, in A.D. 1322, and held the office till his death,
caused by infection caught while attending the plague stricken
in A.D. 1348. There were new elections of abbots every third
year. The Olivetans were zealous worshippers of Mary, and
strict ascetics. In several of their cloisters, which numbered
as many as one hundred, the study of theology and philosophy
was diligently prosecuted. They embraced also an order of nuns,
founded by St. Francisca Romana.
§ 112.2. =The Franciscans.=--At the Council of Vienna, in
A.D. 1312, Clement V. renewed the decree of Nicholas III., and
by the constitution _Exivi de paradiso_ decided in favour of
the stricter view (§ 98, 4), but ordered all rigorists to submit
to their order. But neither this nor the solemn ratification of
his predecessor’s decisions by John XXII. in A.D. 1317 put an
end to the division. The contention was now of a twofold kind.
The =Spirituals= confined their opposition to a rigoristic
interpretation of the vow of poverty. The =Fraticelli= carried
their opposition into many other departments. They exaggerated
the demand of poverty to the utmost, but also repudiated
the primacy of the pope, the jurisdiction of bishops, the
admissibility of oaths, etc. In the south of France within
a few years 115 of them had perished at the stake; and the
Spirituals also suffered severely.--The Dominicans were the
cause of a new split in the Seraphic order. The Inquisition
at Narbonne had, in A.D. 1321, condemned to the stake a Beghard
who had affirmed, what to the Dominicans seemed a heretical
proposition, that Christ and the apostles had neither personal
nor common property. The Franciscans, who, on the plea of a
pretended transference of their property to the pope, claimed
to be without possessions, pronounced that proposition orthodox,
and the Dominicans complained to John XXII. He pronounced
in favour of the Dominicans, and declared the Franciscans’
transference of property illusory; and finding this decision
contrary to decrees of previous popes, he asserted the right
of any pontiff to reverse the findings of his predecessors. The
Franciscans were driven more and more into open revolt against
the pope. They made common cause with the persecuted Spirituals,
and like them sought support from the Italian Ghibellines and
the emperor, Louis the Bavarian (§ 110, 3). The pope summoned
their general, Michael of Cesena, to Avignon; and while detaining
him there sought unsuccessfully to obtain his deposition by
the general synod of the order. Michael, with two like-minded
brothers, William Occam (§ 113, 3) and Bonagratia of Bergamo,
escaped to Pisa in a ship of war, which the emperor sent for
them in A.D. 1328. There, in the name of his order, he appealed
to an œcumenical council to have the papal excommunication and
deposition annulled which had now been issued against him. After
the disastrous Italian campaign in A.D. 1330, the excommunicated
churchmen accompanied the emperor to Munich, where they conducted
a literary defence of their rights and privileges, and charged
the pope with a multitude of heresies. Michael died at Munich,
in A.D. 1342.--After the overthrow of the schismatic Minorite
pope, Nicholas V. (§ 110, 3), the opposition soon gave in
its submission. But to the end of his life John XXII. was a
bloody persecutor of all schismatical Franciscans, who showed
a fanatical love of martyrdom, rather than abate one iota of
their opposition to the possession of property.
§ 112.3. The strict and lax tendencies were brought to light in
connection with successive attempts at reformation. In A.D. 1368
Paolucci of Foligni founded the fraternity of Sandal-wearers,
which embraced the remnants of the Cœlestine eremites
(§ 98, 4). This strict rule was soon modified so as to admit
of the possession of immovable property and living together
in conventual establishments. Those who adhered rigidly to the
original requirements as to seclusion, asceticism, and dress
were now called =Observants= and the more lax =Conventuals=.
Crossing the Alps in A.D. 1388, they spread through Europe,
converting heretics and heathens. Both sections received
papal encouragement. Their leader for forty years was =John
of Capistrano=, born A.D. 1386, died A.D. 1456, who inspired
all their movements, and as a preacher gathered hundreds of
thousands around him. His predecessor in office, Bernardino
of Siena, who died in A.D. 1444, was canonized after a hard
fight in A.D. 1450. John was deputed by the pope in that same
year to proceed to Austria and Germany to convert the Hussites
and preach a crusade against the Turks. His greatest feat was
the repulse, in A.D. 1456, of the Turks, under Mohammed II.,
before Belgrade, ascribed to him and his crusade, which delivered
Hungary, Germany, and indeed the whole West, from threatened
subjection to the Moslem yoke. Capistrano died three months
afterwards. Notwithstanding all the efforts of his followers,
his beatification was not secured till A.D. 1690, and the decree
of canonization was not obtained till A.D. 1724.--Continuation
§ 149, 6.
§ 112.4. =The Dominicans.=--The Dominicans, as they interpreted
the vow of poverty only of personal and not of common property,
soon lost the character of a mendicant order.--One of their most
distinguished members was =St. Catharine of Siena=, who died
in A.D. 1380, in her thirty-third year. Having taken the vow of
chastity as a child, living only on bread and herbs, for a time
only on the eucharistic elements, she was in vision affianced to
Christ as His bride, and received His heart instead of her own.
She felt the pains of Christ’s wounds, and, like St. Dominic,
lashed herself thrice a day with an iron chain. She gained
unexampled fame, and along with St. Bridget procured the
return of the pope from Avignon to Rome.--The controversy
of the Dominicans with the Franciscans over the _immaculata
conceptio_ (§ 104, 7) was conducted in the most passionate
manner. The visions of St. Catherine favoured the Dominican,
those of St. Bridget the Franciscan views; during the schism
the French popes favoured the former, the Roman popes the
latter. The Franciscan view gained for the time the ascendency.
The University of Paris sustained it in A.D. 1387, and made its
confession a condition of receiving academic rank. The Dominican
Torquemada combated this doctrine, in A.D. 1437, in his able
_Tractatus de veritate Conceptionis B. V._ In A.D. 1439, the
Council of Basel, which was then regarded as schismatical,
sanctioned the Franciscan doctrine. Sixtus IV., who had
previously, as general of the Franciscans, supported the views
of his order in a special treatise, authorized the celebration
of the festival referred to, but in A.D. 1483 forbade controversy
on either side. A comedy with a very tragical conclusion was
enacted at Bern, in connection with this matter in A.D. 1509.
The Dominicans there deceived a simple tailor called Jetzer, who
joined them as a novice, with pretended visions and revelation
of the Virgin, and burned upon him with a hot iron the wound
prints of the Saviour, and caused an image of the mother of
God to weep tears of blood over the godless doctrine of the
Franciscans. When the base trick was discovered, the prior and
three monks had to atone for their conduct by death at the stake.
(Continuation § 149, 13.) A new controversy between the two
orders broke out in A.D. 1462, at Brescia. There, on Easter Day
of that year, the Franciscan Jacob of Marchia in his preaching
said that the blood of Christ shed upon the cross, until its
reassumption by the resurrection, was outside of the hypostatic
union with the Logos, and therefore as such was not the subject
of adoration. The grand-inquisitor, Jacob of Brescia, pronounced
this heretical, and at Christmas, A.D. 1463, a three days’
disputation was held between three Dominicans and as many
Minorites before pope and cardinals, which yielded no result.
Pius II. reserved judgment, and never gave his decision.
§ 112.5. =The Augustinians.=--In A.D. 1432, =Zolter=, at the
call of the general of the Augustinians, reorganized the order,
and in A.D. 1438 Pius II. gave a constitution to the Observants.
The “Union of the Five Convents” founded by him in Saxony and
Franconia, with Magdeburg as its centre, formed the nucleus of
=regular Augustinian Observants=, which had =Andrew Proles= of
Dresden as their vicar-general for a second time in A.D. 1473.
Notwithstanding bitter opposition, the union spread through
all Germany, even to the Netherlands. In A.D. 1475 the general
of the order at Rome took offence at Proles for looking directly
to the apostolic see, and not to him, for his authority. He
therefore abolished the institution of vicars, insisted that all
Observants should return to their allegiance to the provincials,
and make full restitution of all the cloisters which they had
appropriated, and empowered the provincial of Saxony to imprison
and excommunicate Proles and his party, in case of their refusal.
Proles did not submit, and when the ban was issued appealed
directly to the pope. A papal commission in A.D. 1477 decided
that all Observant cloisters placed by the duke under the pope’s
protection should so continue, confirmed all their privileges,
and annulled all mandates and anathemas issued against Proles
and his followers. With redoubled energy and zeal Proles now
wrought for the extension and consolidation of the congregation
until A.D. 1503, when he resigned office in his 74th year,
and soon after died. He was one of the worthiest and most
pious men in the German Church of his time; but Flacius is
quite mistaken when he describes him as a precursor of Luther,
an evangelical martyr and witness for the truth in the sense
of the Reformation of the 16th century. Energetic and devoted
as he was in prosecuting his reformation, he gave himself
purely to the correcting of the morals of the monks and
restoring discipline; but in zeal for the doctrine of merits,
the institution of indulgences, mariolatry, saint and image
worship, and in devotion to the papacy, he and his congregation
were by no means in advance of the age.
§ 112.6. As his successor in the vicariate the chapter, in
accordance with the wish of Proles, elected =John von Staupitz=.
He had been prior of the Augustinian cloister at Tübingen, and
became professor of theology in the University of Wittenberg,
in A.D. 1502. Like his predecessor, he devoted himself to
the interests of the congregation, and by the union which he
effected between it and the Lombard Observant congregation,
he greatly increased its importance. In carrying out a plan
for uniting the Saxon Conventuals with the German Observants
by combining in his own hand the Saxon provincial priorate with
the German vicariate, he encountered such difficulties that he
was obliged to abandon the attempt; but he succeeded thus far,
that from that time the Conventuals and Observants of Germany
dwelt in peace side by side. He directed the troubled spirit of
Luther to the crucified Saviour (§ 122, 1), and thus became the
spiritual father of the great reformer. The new constitutions
for the German congregations, proffered by him and accepted
by the chapter at Nuremberg, A.D. 1504, are characterized by
earnest recommendations of Scripture study. But of a deep and
comprehensive evangelical and reformatory application of them
we find no traces as yet, even in Staupitz; neither do we
see any zealous study of Augustine’s writings, and consequent
appreciation of his theological principles, such as is shown
by the mystics of the 13th and 14th centuries. All this appears
later in his little treatise “On the Imitation of the Willingly
Dying Christ” of A.D. 1515. A discourse on predestination
in A.D. 1517 moves distinctly on Augustinian lines, and the
mysticism of St. Bernard may be traced in the book “On the
Love of God” of that same year. True as he was to Luther as
a counsellor and helper during the first eventful year of
struggle, the reformer’s protest soon became too violent for
him, and in A.D. 1520 he resigned his office, withdrew to the
Benedictine cloister at Salzburg, and died as its abbot in
A.D. 1524. His continued attachment to the positive tendencies
of the Reformation is proved by his “Fast Sermons,” delivered
in A.D. 1523.--His successor =Link=, Luther’s fellow student
at Magdeburg, was and continued to be an attached friend of
the reformer. Unsuccessful in his endeavours to remove abuses,
he resigned office in A.D. 1523, and became evangelical pastor
in Altenburg, and married. The very small opposition chose in
place of him Joh. Spangenberg, who, unable to withstand the
movement among the German Conventuals, as well as among the
Observants, resigned in A.D. 1529.
§ 112.7. =Overthrow of the Templars.=--The order of Knights
Templar, whose chief seat was now in Paris and the south of
France, by rich presents, exactions, and robberies in the
island of Cyprus, vast commercial speculations and extensive
money-lending and banking transactions with crusaders and
pilgrims and needy princes, had acquired immense wealth in
money and landed property in the East and the West. They
had in consequence become proud, greedy, and vicious. Their
independence of the State had long been a thorn in the eye
of Philip the Fair of France, and their policy was often at
variance with his. But above all their great wealth excited
his cupidity. In a letter to a visitor of the order Innocent III.
had in A.D. 1208 bitterly complained of their unspirituality,
worldliness, avarice, drunkenness, and study of the black art,
saying that he refrained from remarking upon yet more shameful
offences with which they were charged. Stories also were current
of apostasy to Mohammedanism, sorcery, unnatural vice, etc.
It was said that they worshipped an idol Baphomet; that a
black cat appeared in their assemblies; that at initiation
they abjured Christ, spat on the cross, and trampled it under
foot. A Templar expelled for certain offences gave evidence in
support of these charges. Thereupon in A.D. 1307 Philip had all
Templars in his realm suddenly apprehended. Many admitted their
guilt amid the tortures of the rack; others voluntarily did so
in order to escape such treatment. A Parliament assembled at
Tours in A.D. 1308 heartily endorsed the king’s opinion, and
the pope, Clement V., was powerless to resist (§ 110, 2). While
the pope’s commissioners were prosecuting inquiries in all
countries, Philip without more ado in A.D. 1310 brought to the
stake one hundred Templars who had retracted their confession.
The =œcumenical council at Vienne in A.D. 1311=, summoned for
the final settlement of the matter, refused to give judgment
without hearing the defence of the accused. But Philip threatened
the pope till a decree was passed disbanding the order because
of the suspicion and ill repute into which it had fallen. Its
property was to go to the Knights of St. John. But a great part
had already been seized by the princes, especially by Philip.
Final decision in regard to individuals was committed by the
pope to the provincial synods of the several countries. Judgment
on the grand-master, James Molay, and the then chief dignitaries
of the order, he reserved to himself. Philip paid no attention
to this, but, when they refused to adhere to their confession
of guilt, had them burnt in a slow fire at Paris in A.D. 1314.
Most of the other knights turned to secular employments, many
entered the ranks of the Knights of St. John, while others ended
their days in monastic prisons.--Scholars are to this day divided
in opinion as to the degree of guilt or innocence which may be
ascribed to the Templars in regard to the serious charges brought
against them.[330]
§ 112.8. =New Orders.=--In A.D. 1317 the king of Portugal,
for the protection of his frontier from the Moors, instituted
the =Order of Christ=, composed of knights and clergy, and to
it John XXII. in A.D. 1319 gave the privileges of the order
of Calatrava (§ 98, 13). Alexander VI. released them from the
vow of poverty and allowed them to marry. The king of Portugal
was grand-master, and at the beginning of the 16th century
it had 450 companies and an annual revenue of one and a half
million livres. In A.D. 1797 it was converted into a secular
order.--Among the new monkish orders the following are the most
important:
1. =Hieronymites=, founded in A.D. 1370 by the Portuguese
Basco and the Spaniard Pecha as an order of canons regular
under the rule of Augustine, and confirmed by Gregory XI.
in A.D. 1373. Devoted to study, they took Jerome as their
patron, and obtained great reputation in Spain and Italy.
2. =Jesuates=, founded by Colombini of Siena, who, excited
by reading legends of the saints, combined with several
companions in forming this society for self-mortification
and care of the sick, for which Urban V. prescribed the
Augustinian rule in A.D. 1367. They greeted all they met
with the name of Jesus: hence their designation.
3. =Minimi=, an extreme sect of Minorites (§ 98, 3), founded
by Francis de Paula in Calabria in A.D. 1436. Their rule
was extremely strict, and forbade them all use of flesh,
milk, butter, eggs, etc., so that their mode of life was
described as _vita quadragesimalis_.
4. =Nuns of St. Bridget.= To the Swedish princess visions of
the wounded and bleeding Saviour had come in her childhood.
Compelled by her parents to marry, she became mother of
eight children; but at her husband’s death, in A.D. 1344,
she adopted a rigidly ascetic life, and in A.D. 1363
founded a cloister at Wedstena for sixty nuns in honour
of the blessed Virgin, with thirteen priests, four deacons,
and eight lay brothers in a separate establishment. All were
under the control of the abbess. She also founded at Rome a
hospice for Swedish pilgrims and students, made a pilgrimage
from Rome to Jerusalem, and died at Rome in A.D. 1373.
The _Revelationes S. Brigittæ_ ascribed to her were in
high repute during the Middle Ages. They are full of bitter
invectives against the corrupt papacy; call the pope worse
than Lucifer, a murderer of the souls committed to him, who
condemns the guiltless and sells believers for filthy lucre.
There were seventy-four cloisters of the order spread over
all Europe. Her successor as abbess of the parent abbey was
her daughter, St. Catherine of Sweden, who died in A.D. 1381.
5. The French =Annunciate Order= was founded in A.D. 1501 by
Joanna of Valois, the divorced wife of Louis XII., and when
abolished by the French Revolution it numbered forty-five
nunneries.
§ 112.9. =The Brothers of the Common Life=, a society of pious
priests, gave themselves to the devotional study of Scripture,
the exercise of contemplative mysticism, and practical imitation
of the lowly life of Christ with voluntary observance of the
three monkish vows, and residing, without any lifelong obligation,
in unions where things were administered in common. Pious laymen
were not excluded from their association, and institutions for
sisters were soon reared alongside of those for the brothers. The
founder of this organization was Gerhard Groot, _Gerardus magnus_,
of Deventer in the Netherlands, a favourite pupil of the mystic
John of Ruysbroek (§ 114, 7). Dying a victim to his benevolence
during a season of pestilence in A.D. 1384, a year or two after
the founding of the first union institute, he was succeeded by
his able pupil and assistant Florentius Radewins, who zealously
carried on the work he had begun. The house of the brothers at
Deventer soon became the centre of numerous other houses from
the Scheld to the Wesel. Florentius added a cloister for regular
canons at Windesheim, from which went forth the famous cloister
reformer Burch. The most important of the later foundations of
this kind was the cloister built on Mount St. Agnes near Zwoll.
The famous Thomas à Kempis (§ 114, 7) was trained here, and
wrote the life of Groot and his fellow labourers. Each house was
presided over by a rector, each sister house by a matron, who was
called Martha. The brothers supported themselves by transcribing
spiritual books, the lay brothers by some handicraft; the sisters
by sewing, spinning, and weaving. Begging was strictly forbidden.
Besides caring for their own souls’ salvation, the brothers
sought to benefit the people by preaching, pastoral visitation,
and instructing the youth. They had as many as 1,200 scholars
under their care. Hated by the mendicant friars, they were
accused by a Dominican to the Bishop of Utrecht. This dignitary
favoured the brothers, and when the Dominican appealed to the
pope, he applied to the Constance Council of A.D. 1418, where
Gerson and d’Ailly vigorously supported them. Their accuser was
compelled to retract, and Martin V. confirmed the brotherhood.
Though heartily attached to the doctrines of the Catholic Church,
their biblical and evangelical tendencies formed an unconscious
preparation for the Reformation (§ 119, 10). A great number
of the brothers joined the party of the reformers. In the
17th century the last remnant of them disappeared.[331]
II. Theological Science.
§ 113. SCHOLASTICISM AND ITS REFORMERS.
The University of Paris took the lead, in accordance with the
liberal tendencies of the Gallican Church, in the opposition to
hierarchical pretensions, and was followed by the universities of
Oxford, Prague, and Cologne, in all of which the mendicant friars
were the teachers. Most distinguished among the schoolmen of this
age was John Duns Scotus, whose works formed the doctrinal standard
for the Franciscans, as those of Aquinas did for the Dominicans.
After realism had enjoyed for a long time an uncontested sway, William
Occam, amid passionate battles, successfully introduced nominalism.
But the creative power of scholasticism was well nigh extinct. Even
Duns Scotus is rather an acute critic of the old than an original
creator of new ideas. Miserable quarrels between the schools and a
spiritless formalism now widely prevailed in the lecture halls, as well
as in the treatises of the learned. Moral theology degenerated into
fruitless casuistry and abstruse discussion on subtly devised cases
where there appeared a collision of duties. But from all sides there
arose complaint and contradiction. On the one side were some who made
a general complaint without striking at the roots of the evil. They
suggested the adoption of a better method, or the infusion of new life
by the study of Scripture and the Fathers, and a return to mysticism.
To this class belonged the Brothers of the Common Life (§ 112, 9) and
d’Ailly and Gerson, the supporters of the Constance reforms (§ 118, 4).
Here too we may place the talented father of natural theology, Raimund
of Sabunde, and the brilliant Nicholas of Cusa, in whom all the nobler
aspirations of mediæval ecclesiastical science were concentrated. But
on the other side was the radical opposition, consisting of the German
mystics (§ 114), the English and Bohemian reformers (§ 119), and the
Humanists (§ 120).
§ 113.1. =John Duns Scotus.=--The date of birth, whether
A.D. 1274 or A.D. 1266, and the place of birth, whether in
Scotland, Ireland, or England, of this Franciscan hero, honoured
with the title _doctor subtilis_, are uncertain; even the place
and manner of his training are unknown. After lecturing with
great success at Oxford, he went in A.D. 1304 to Paris, where
he obtained the degree of doctor, and successfully vindicated
the _immaculata conceptio B. V._ (§ 104, 7) against the Thomists.
Summoned to Cologne in A.D. 1308 to engage in controversy with
the Beghards, he displayed great skill in dialectics, but died
during that same year. His chief work, a commentary on the
Lombard, was composed at Oxford. His answers to the questions
proposed for his doctor’s degree were afterwards wrought up
into the work entitled _Quæstiones quodlibetales_. The opponent
and rival of Thomas, he controverted his doctrine at every point,
as well as the doctrines of Alexander and Bonaventura of his own
order, and other shining stars of the 13th century. In subtlety
of thought and dialectic power he excelled them all, but in
depth of feeling, profundity of mind, and ardour of faith he
was far behind them. Proofs of doctrines interested him more
than the doctrines themselves. To philosophy he assigns a purely
theoretical, to theology a pre-eminently practical character,
and protests against the Thomist commingling of the two. He
accepts the doctrine of a twofold truth (§ 103, 3), basing it
on the fall. Granting that the Bible is the only foundation
of religious knowledge, but contending that the Church under
the Spirit’s guidance has advanced ever more and more in the
development of it, he readily admits that many a point in
constitution, doctrine, and worship cannot be established from
the Bible; _e.g._ immaculate conception, clerical celibacy,
etc. He has no hesitation in contradicting even Augustine and
St. Bernard from the standpoint of a more highly developed
doctrine of the Church.
§ 113.2. =Thomists and Scotists.=--The Dominicans and Franciscans
were opposed as followers respectively of Thomas and of Scotus.
Thomas regarded individuality, _i.e._ the fact that everything
is an individual, every _res_ is a _hæc_, as a limitation and
defect; while Duns saw in this _hæcitas_ a mark of perfection
and the true end of creation. Thomas also preferred the Platonic,
and Duns the Aristotelian realism. In theology Duns was opposed
to Thomas in maintaining an unlimited arbitrary will in God,
according to which God does not choose a thing because it is
good, but the thing chosen is good because He chooses it. Thomas
therefore was a determinist, and in his doctrine of sin and
grace adopted a moderate Augustinianism (§ 53, 5), while Duns
was a semipelagian. The atonement was viewed by Thomas more in
accordance with the theory of Anselm, for he assigned to the
merits of Christ as the God-Man infinite worth, _satisfactio
superabundans_, which is in itself more than sufficient
for redemption; but Duns held that the merits of Christ were
sufficient only as accepted by the free will of God, _acceptatio
gratuita_. The Scotists also most resolutely contended for
the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin, while
the Thomists as passionately opposed it.--Among the immediate
disciples of Duns the most celebrated was =Francis Mayron=,
teacher at the Sorbonne, who died in A.D. 1325 and was dignified
with the title _doctor illuminatus_ or _acutus_. The most notable
of the Thomists was =Hervæus Natalis=, who died in A.D. 1323
as general of the Dominicans. Of the later Thomists the most
eminent was =Thomas Bradwardine=, _doctor profundus_, a man of
deep religious earnestness, who accused his age of Pelagianism,
and vindicated the truth in opposition to this error in his _De
causa Dei c. Pelagium_. He began teaching at Oxford, afterwards
accompanied Edward III. as his confessor and chaplain on his
expeditions in France, and died in A.D. 1349 a few weeks after
his appointment to the archbishopric of Canterbury.[332]
§ 113.3. =Nominalists and Realists.=--After nominalism
(§ 99, 2) in the person of Roscelin had been condemned by the
Church (§ 101, 3) realism held sway for more than two centuries.
Both Thomas and Duns supported it. By sundering philosophy
and theology Duns opened the way to freer discussion, so that
by-and-by nominalism won the ascendency, and at last scarcely
any but the precursors of the Reformation (§ 119) were to be
found in the ranks of the realists. The pioneer of the movement
was the Englishman =William Occam=, a Franciscan and pupil of
Duns, who as teacher of philosophy in Paris obtained the title
_doctor singularis et invincibilis_, and was called by later
nominalists _venerabilis inceptor_. He supported the _Spirituals_
(§ 112, 2) in the controversies within his order. He accompanied
his general, Michael of Cesena, to Avignon, and escaping with
him in A.D. 1328 from threatened imprisonment, lived at Munich
till his death in A.D. 1349. There, protected by Louis the
Bavarian, he vindicated imperial rights against papal pretensions,
and charged various heresies against the pope (§ 118, 2). In
philosophy and theology he was mainly influenced by Scotus.
In accordance with his nominalistic principles he assumed the
position in theology that our ideas derived from experience
cannot reach to a knowledge of the supernatural; and thus he
may be called a precursor of Kant (§ 171, 10). The _universalia_
are mere _fictiones_ (§ 99, 2), things that do not correspond to
our notions; the world of ideas agrees not with that of phenomena,
and so the unity of faith and knowledge, of theological and
philosophical truth, asserted by realists, cannot be maintained
(§ 103, 2). Faith rests on the authority of Scripture and the
decisions of the Church; criticism applied to the doctrines of
the Church reduces them to a series of antinomies.--In A.D. 1339
the University of Paris forbade the reading of Occam’s works, and
soon after formally condemned nominalism. Thomists and Scotists
forgot their own differences to combine against Occam; but all
in vain, for the Occamists were recruited from all the orders.
The Constance reform party too supported him (§ 118, 4).[333]
Of the Thomists who succeeded to Occam the most distinguished
was =William Durand= of St. Pourçain, _doct. resolutissimus_,
who died in A.D. 1322 as Bishop of Meaux. =Muertius of Inghen,=
one of the founders of the University of Heidelberg in A.D. 1386
and its first rector, was also a zealous nominalist. The last
notable schoolman of the period was =Gabriel Biel= of Spires,
teacher of theology at Tübingen, who died A.D. 1495, a nominalist
and an admirer of Occam. He was a vigorous supporter of the
doctrine of the immaculate conception, and delivered public
discourses on the “Ethics” of Aristotle.
§ 113.4. =Casuistry=, or that part of moral theology which
seeks to provide a complete guide to the solution of difficult
cases of conscience, especially where there is collision of
duties, moral or ecclesiastical, makes its first appearance in
the penitentials (§ 89, 6), and had a great impetus given it in
the compulsory injunction of auricular confession (§ 104, 4). It
was also favoured by the hair-splitting character of scholastic
dialectics. The first who elaborated it as a distinct science
was Raimundus [Raimund] de Pennaforte, who besides his works on
canon law (§ 99, 5), wrote about A.D. 1238 a _summa de casibus
pœnitentialibus_. This was followed by the Franciscan _Antesana_,
the Dominican _Pisana_, and the Angelica of the Genoese Angelus
of A.D. 1482, which Luther in A.D. 1520 burned along with the
papal bull and decretals. The views of the different casuists
greatly vary, and confuse rather than assist the conscience.
Out of them grew the doctrine of probabilism (§ 149, 10).
§ 113.5. =The Founder of Natural Theology.=--The Spaniard
=Raimund of Sabunde= settled as a physician in Toulouse in
A.D. 1430, but afterwards turned his attention to theology.
Seeing the need of infusing new life into the corrupt
scholasticism, he sought to rescue it from utter formalism and
fruitless casuistry by a return to simple, clear, and rational
thinking. Anselm of Canterbury was his model of a clear and
profound thinker and believing theologian (§ 101, 1). He also
turned for stimulus and instruction to the book of nature.
The result of his studies is seen in his _Theologia naturalis
s. liber creaturarum_, published in A.D. 1436. God’s book
of nature, in which every creature is as it were a letter,
is the first and simplest source of knowledge accessible to
the unlearned layman, and the surest, because free from all
falsifications of heretics. But the fall and God’s plan of
salvation have made an addition to it necessary, and this we
have in the Scripture revelation. The two books coming from the
one author cannot be contradictory, but only extend, confirm,
and explain one another. The facts of revelation are the
necessary presupposition or consequences of the book of nature.
From the latter all religious knowledge is derivable by ascending
through the four degrees of creation, _esse_, _vivere_, _sentire_,
and _intelligere_, to the knowledge of man, and thence to the
knowledge of the Creator as the highest and absolute unity, and
by arguing that the acknowledgment of human sinfulness involved
an admission of the need of redemption, which the book of
revelation shows to be a fact. In carrying out this idea Raimund
attaches himself closely to Anselm in his scientific reconciling
of the natural and revealed idea of God and redemption. Although
he never expressly contradicted any of the Church doctrines, the
Council of Trent put the prologue of his book into the _Index
prohibitorum_.
§ 113.6. =Nicholas of Cusa= was born in A.D. 1401 at Cues,
near Treves, and was originally called Krebs. Trained first by
the Brothers at Deventer (§ 112, 9), he afterwards studied law
at Padua. The failure of his first case led him to begin the
study of theology. As archdeacon of Liège he attended the Basel
Council, and there by mouth and pen supported the view that the
council is superior to the pope, but in A.D. 1440 he passed over
to the papal party. On account of his learning, address, and
eloquence he was often employed by Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V.
in difficult negotiations. He was made cardinal in A.D. 1448,
an unheard of honour for a German prelate. In A.D. 1450 he was
made bishop of Brixen, but owing to a dispute with Sigismund,
Archduke of Austria, he suffered several years’ hard imprisonment.
He died in A.D. 1464 at Todi in Umbria. His principal work
is _De docta ignorantia_, which shows, in opposition to proud
scholasticism, that the absolute truth about God in the world
is not attainable by men. His theological speculation approaches
that of Eckhart, and like it is not free from pantheistic
elements. God is for him the absolute maximum, but is also the
absolute minimum, since He cannot be greater or less than He is.
He begets of Himself His likeness, _i.e._ the Son, and He again
turns back as Holy Spirit into unity. The world again is the
aggregated maximum. His _Dialogus de pace_, occasioned by the
fall of Constantinople in A.D. 1453, represents Christianity
as the most perfect of all religions, but recognises in all
others, even in Islam, essential elements of eternal truth.
Like Roger Bacon (§ 103, 8), he assigns a prominent place to
mathematics and astronomy, and in his _De separatione Calendarii_
of A.D. 1436 he recommended reforms in the calendar which were
only effected in A.D. 1582 by Gregory XIII. (§ 149, 3). He
detected the pseudo-Isidore (§ 87, 2) and the Donation of
Constantine (§ 87, 4) frauds.
§ 113.7. =Biblical and Practical Theologians.=
1. The Franciscan =Nicholas of Lyra=, _doctor planus et utilis_,
a Jewish convert from Normandy, and teacher of theology at
Paris, did good service as a grammatico-historical exegete
and an earnest expositor of Scripture. Luther gratefully
acknowledges the help he got in his Bible translation from
the postils of Lyra.[334] He died in A.D. 1340.
2. =Antonine of Florence= played a prominent part at the
Florentine Council of A.D. 1439, and was threatened
by Eugenius IV. with the loss of his archbishopric. He
discharged his duties with great zeal, especially during
a plague and famine in A.D. 1448, and during the earthquake
which destroyed half of the city in A.D. 1457. As an earnest
preacher, an unwearied pastor, and upright churchman he was
universally admired, and was canonized by Hadrian VI. in
A.D. 1523. He had a high reputation as a writer. His _Summa
historialis_ is a chronicle of universal history reaching
down to his own time; and his _Summa theologica_ is a
popular outline of the Thomist doctrine.
3. The learned and famous abbot =John Trithemius=, born
in A.D. 1462, after studying at Treves and Heidelberg,
entered in A.D. 1487 the Benedictine cloister of Sponheim,
became its abbot in the following year, resigned office
in A.D. 1505 owing to a rebellion among his monks, and
died in A.D. 1516 as abbot of the Scottish cloister of
St. James at Würzburg. Influenced by Wessel’s reforming
movement (§ 119, 10), he urged the duty of Scripture study
and prayer, but still practised and commended the most
extravagant adoration of Mary and Ann. Though he was keenly
alive to the absurdity of certain forms of superstition,
he was himself firmly bound within its coils. He lashed
unsparingly the vices of the monks, but regarded the
monastic life as the highest Christian ideal. He pictured
in dark colours the deep and widespread corruption of the
Church, and was yet the most abject slave of the hierarchy
which fostered that corruption.
§ 114. THE GERMAN MYSTICS.[335]
The schoolmen of the 13th century, with the exception of
Bonaventura, had little sympathy with mysticism, and gave their whole
attention to the development of doctrine (§ 99, 1). The 14th century
was the Augustan age of mysticism. Germany, which had already in
the previous period given Hugo of St. Victor and the two divines of
Reichersberg (§ 102, 4, 6), was its proper home. Its most distinguished
representatives belonged to the preaching orders, and its recognised
grand-master was the Dominican Meister Eckhart. This specifically
German mysticism cast away completely the scholastic modes of thought
and expression, and sought to arrive at Christian truth by entirely new
paths. It appealed, not to the understanding and cultured reason of the
learned, but to the hearts and spirits of the people, in order to point
them the surest way to union with God. The mystics therefore wrote
neither commentaries on the Lombard nor gigantic _summæ_ of their own
composition, but wrought by word and writing to meet immediate pressing
needs. They preached lively sermons and wrote short treatises, not in
Latin, but in the homely mother tongue. This popular form however did
not prevent them from conveying to their readers and hearers profound
thoughts, the result of keen speculation; but that in this they did
not go over the heads of the people is shown by the crowds that flocked
to their preaching. The “Friends of God” proved a spiritual power
over many lands (§ 116, 4). From the practical prophetic mysticism
of the 12th and 13th centuries (§§ 107; 108, 5) it was distinguished
by avoiding the visionary apocalyptic and magnetic somnambulistic
elements through a better appreciation of science; and from the
scholastic mysticism of that earlier age (§§ 102, 3, 4, 6; 103, 4)
by abandoning allegory and the scholastic framework for the elevation
of the soul to God, as well as by indulgence in a somewhat pantheistic
speculation on God and the world, man and the God-Man, on the
incarnation and birth of God in us, on our redemption, sanctification,
and final restoration. Its younger representatives however cut off all
pantheistic excrescences, and thus became more practical and edifying,
though indeed with the loss of speculative power. In this way they
brought themselves more into sympathy with another mystic tendency
which was spreading through the Netherlands under the influence of
the Flemish canon, John of Ruysbroek. In France too mysticism again
made its appearance during the 15th century in the persons of d’Ailly
and Gerson (§ 118, 4), in a form similar to that which it had assumed
during the 12th and 13th centuries in the Victorines and Bonaventura.
§ 114.1. =Meister Eckhart.=--One of the profoundest
thinkers of all the Christian centuries was the Dominican
Meister Eckhart, the true father of German speculative mysticism.
Born in Strassburg about A.D. 1260, he studied at Cologne under
Albert the Great, but took his master’s degree at Paris in
A.D. 1303. He had already been for some years prior at Erfurt
and provincial vicar of Thuringia. In A.D. 1304 he was made
provincial of Saxony, and in A.D. 1307 vicar-general of Bohemia.
In both positions he did much for the reform of the cloisters
of his order. In A.D. 1311 we find him teacher in Paris;
then for some years teaching and preaching in Strassburg;
afterwards officiating as prior at Frankfort; and finally as
private teacher at Cologne, where he died in A.D. 1327. While
at Frankfort in A.D. 1320 he was suspected of heresy because
of alleged intercourse with Beghards (§ 98, 12) and Brothers
of the Free Spirit (§ 116, 5). In A.D. 1325 the archbishop
of Cologne renewed these charges, but Eckhart succeeded in
vindicating himself. The archbishop now set up an inquisition
of his own, but from its sentence Eckhart appealed to the pope,
lodged a protest, and then of his own accord in the Dominican
church of Cologne, before the assembled congregation, solemnly
declared that the charge against him rested upon misrepresentation
and misunderstanding, but that he was then and always ready to
withdraw anything that might be erroneous. The papal judgment,
given two years after Eckhart’s death, pronounced twenty-eight
of his propositions to be pantheistic in their tendency,
seventeen being heretical and eleven dangerous. He was therefore
declared to be suspected of heresy. The bull, contrary to reason
and truth, went on to say that Eckhart at the end of his life
had retracted and submitted all his writings and doctrines
to the judgment of the Holy See. But Eckhart had indignantly
protested against the charge of pantheism, and certainly in his
doctrine of God and the creature, of the high nobility of the
human soul, of retirement and absorption into God, he has always
kept within the limits of Christian knowledge and life. Attaching
himself to the Platonic and Neoplatonic doctrines, which are met
with also in Albert and Thomas, and appealing to the acknowledged
authorities of the Church, especially the Areopagite, Augustine,
and Aquinas, Eckhart with great originality composed a singularly
comprehensive and profound system of religious knowledge.
Although in all his writings aiming primarily at quickening and
edification, he always grounds his endeavours on a theoretical
investigation of the nature of the thing. But knowledge is for
him essentially union of the knowing subject with the object to
be known, and the highest stage of knowledge is the intuition
where all finite things sink into the substance of Deity.[336]
§ 114.2. =Mystics of Upper Germany after Eckhart.=--A noble band
of mystics arose during the 14th and 15th centuries influenced
by Eckhart’s writings, who carefully avoided pantheistic extremes
by giving a thoroughly practical direction to their speculation.
Nearest to Eckhart stands the author of “=The German Theology=,”
in which the master’s principles are nobly popularized and
explained. Luther, who took it for a work of Tauler, and
published it in A.D. 1516, characterized it as “a noble little
book, showing what Adam and Christ are, and how Adam should
die and Christ live in us.” In the most complete MS. of this
tract, found in A.D. 1850, the author is described as a “Friend
of God.”--The Dominican =John Tauler= was born at Strassburg,
studied at Paris, and came into connection with Eckhart, whose
mysticism, without its pantheistic tendencies, he adopted. When
Strassburg was visited with the Black Death, he laboured as
preacher and pastor among the stricken with heroic devotion.
Though the city was under an interdict (§ 110, 3), the Dominicans
persisted for a whole year in reading mass, and were stopped
only by the severe threats of the master of their order. The
magistrates gave them the alternative either to discharge their
official duties or leave the city. Tauler now, in A.D. 1341,
retired to Basel, and afterwards to Cologne. In A.D. 1437
we find him again in Strassburg, where he died in A.D. 1361.
His thirty sermons, with some other short tracts, appeared
at Leipzig in A.D. 1498. The most important of all Tauler’s
works is, “The Imitation of the Poverty of Christ.” It was
thought to be of French authorship, but is now admitted to be
Tauler’s.[337]--=Rulman Merswin=, a rich merchant of Strassburg,
in his fortieth year, A.D. 1347, with his wife’s consent,
retired from his business and forsook the world, gave his
wealth to charities, and bought in A.D. 1366 an old, abandoned
convent near the city, which he restored and presented to the
order of St. John. Here he spent the remainder of his days in
pious contemplation, amid austerities and mortifications and
favoured with visions. He died in A.D. 1382. Four years after
his conversion he attained to clear conceptions and inner
peace. His chief work, composed in A.D. 1352, “The Book of the
Nine Rocks,” was long ascribed to Suso. It is full of bitter
complaints against the moral and religious corruption of all
classes, and earnest warnings of Divine judgment. Its starting
point is a vision. From the fountains in the high mountains
stream many brooks over the rocks into the valley, and thence
into the sea; multitudes of fishes transport themselves from
their lofty home, and are mostly taken in nets, only a few
succeed in reaching their home again by springing over these
nine rocks. At the request of the “Friend of God from the
Uplands” he wrote the “Four Years from the Beginning of Life.”
His “Banner Tract” describes the conflict with and victory
over the Brothers of the Free Spirit under the banner of
Lucifer (§ 116, 4, 5).
§ 114.3. =The Friend of God in the Uplands.=--In a book
entitled “The Story of Tauler’s Conversion,” originally called
“The Master’s Book,” but now assigned to Nicholas of Basel,
it is told that in A.D. 1346 a great “Master of Holy Scripture”
preached in an unnamed city, and that soon his fame spread
through the land. A layman living in the Uplands, thirty miles
off, was directed in a vision thrice over to go to seek this
Friend of God, companion of Rulman. He listened to his preaching,
chose him as his confessor, and then sought to show him that
he had not yet the true consecration. Like a child the master
submitted to be taught the elements of piety of religion
by the layman, and at his command abstaining from all study
and preaching for two years, gave himself to meditation and
penitential exercises. When he resumed his preaching his success
was marvellous. After nine years’ labour, feeling his end
approaching, he gave to the layman an account of his conversion.
The latter arranged his materials, and added five sermons of
the master, and sent the little book, in A.D. 1369, to a priest
of Rulman’s cloister near Strassburg. In A.D. 1486 the master
was identified with Tauler. This however is contradicted by
its contents. The historical part is improbable and incredible,
and its chronology irreconcilable with known facts of Tauler’s
life. We find no trace of the original ideas or characteristic
eloquence of Tauler; while the language and homiletical
arrangement of the sermons are quite different from those
of the great Dominican preacher.
§ 114.4. =Nicholas of Basel.=--After long hiding from the
emissaries of the Inquisition the layman Nicholas of Basel,
in extreme old age, was taken with two companions, and burned
at Vienna, as a heretic, between A.D. 1393-1408. He has been
identified by Schmidt of Strassburg with the “Friend of God.”
This is more than doubtful, since of the sixteen heresies,
for the most part of a Waldensian character, charged against
Nicholas, no trace is found in the writings of the Friend of
God; while it is made highly probable by Denifle’s researches
that the “Friend of God” was but a name assumed by Rulman Merswin.
§ 114.5. =Henry Suso=, born A.D. 1295, entered the Dominican
cloister of Constance in his 13th year. When eighteen years old
he took the vow, and till his twenty-second year unceasingly
practised the strictest asceticism, in imitation of the
sufferings of Christ. He completed his studies, A.D. 1325-1328,
under Eckhart at Cologne, and on the death of his pious mother
withdrew into the cloister, where he became reader and afterwards
prior. The first work which he here published, in A.D. 1335, the
“Book of the Truth,” is strongly influenced by the spirit of his
master. Accused as a heretic, he was deposed from the priorship
in A.D. 1336. His “Book of Eternal Wisdom” was the favourite
reading of all lovers of German mysticism. Blending the knight’s
and fanatic’s idea of love with the Solomonic conception of
Wisdom, which he identifies sometimes with God, sometimes with
Christ, sometimes with Mary, he chose her for his beloved,
and was favoured by her with frequent visions and was honoured
with the title of “Amandus.”--Like most of his fellow monks at
Constance, Suso was a supporter of the pope in his contest with
Louis the Bavarian, while the city sided with the emperor. When,
in A.D. 1339, the monks, in obedience to the papal interdict,
refused to perform public worship, they were expelled by the
magistrates. In his fortieth year Suso had begun his painful
career of self-discipline, which he carried so far as to endanger
his life. Now driven away as an exile, he began his singularly
fruitful wanderings, during which, passing from cloister to
cloister as an itinerant preacher, he became either personally
or through correspondence most intimately acquainted with all
the most notable of the friends of mysticism, and made many
new friends in all ranks, especially among women. In A.D. 1346,
along with eight companions, he ventured to return to Constance.
There however he met with his sorest trial. An immoral woman,
who pretended to him that she sorrowed over and repented of her
sins, while really she continued in the practice of them, and
was therefore turned away by him, took her revenge by charging
him with being the father of the child she was about to bear.
Probably this painful incident was the occasion of his retiring
into the monastery of Ulm, where he died in A.D. 1366. In him
the poetic and romantic element overshadowed the speculative,
and in his attachment to ecclesiastical orthodoxy he kept aloof
from all reformatory movements.
§ 114.6. =Henry of Nördlingen= is only slightly known to us
by the letters which he sent to his lady friend, the Dominican
nun =Margaret Ebner=. He was spiritually related to Tauler,
as well as to Suso, and shared with the great preacher in his
sorrows over the calamities of the age, which his sensitive
nature felt in no ordinary degree during enforced official
idleness under the interdict. His mysticism, by its sweetly
sentimental character, as well as by its superstitious tendency
to reverence Mary and relics, was essentially distinguished
from that of Tauler. His friend Margaret, who had also a
spiritual affinity to Tauler, and was highly esteemed by all
the “Friends of God,” was religiously and politically, as a
supporter of the anathematized emperor, much more decided.
In depth of thought and power of expression however she
is quite inferior to the earlier Thuringian prophetesses
(§ 107, 2).--=Hermann of Fritzlar=, a rich and pious layman,
is supposed to have written, A.D. 1343-1349, a life of the
saints in the order of the calendar, as a picture of heart
purity, with mystic reflections and speculations based on the
legendary matter, and all expressed in pure and simple German.
Hermann, however, was only the author of the plan, and the actual
writer was a Dominican of Erfurt, =Giseler of Slatheim=.--A
Franciscan in Basel, =Otto of Passau=, published, in A.D. 1386,
“The Four-and-Twenty Elders, or the Golden Throne,” which became
a very popular book of devotion, in which the twenty-four elders
of Revelation iv. 4, one after another, show the loving soul
how to win for himself a golden throne in heaven. Passages of
an edifying and contemplative description from the Fathers and
teachers of the Church down to the 13th century are selected by
the author, and adapted to the use of the unlearned “Friends of
God” in a German translation.
§ 114.7. =Mystics of the Netherlands.=
1. =John of Ruysbroek= was born, in A.D. 1298, in the village
of Ruysbroek, near Brussels. In youth he was addicted more
to pious contemplation than to scholastic studies, and
in his sixtieth year he resigned his position as secular
priest in Brussels, and retired into a convent of regular
canons (§ 97, 3) near Brussels, where he died as its prior
in A.D. 1481, when eighty-eight years old. He was called
_doctor ecstaticus_, because he regarded his mystical
views, which he developed amid pious contemplation in the
shades of the forest, and there wrote out in Flemish speech,
as the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. His mysticism was
essentially theistic. The _unio mystica_ consisted not
in the deification of man, but was wrought only through
the free grace of God in Christ without the loss of man’s
own personality. His genuine practical piety led him to
see in the moral depravity of the clergy, not less than
of the people generally, the cause of the decay of the
Church, so that even the person of the pope did not escape
his reproof. Numerous pilgrims from far and near sought
the pious sage for counsel and quickening. His favourite
disciple was Gerhard Groot of Deventer, who impressed
much of his master’s spirit upon the brotherhood of the
Common Life (§ 112, 9).--Of this noble school of mystics
the three following were the most distinguished.
2. =Hendrik Mande=, who died A.D. 1430, impressed by a sermon
of Groot’s, and favoured during a long illness by visions,
abandoned the life of a courtier for the fellowship of
the Brethren of Deventer, and in A.D. 1395 entered the
cloister of Windesheim, to which he bequeathed his wealth,
and where he continued to enjoy visions of the Saviour and
the saints. His works, written in Dutch, are characterized
by spirituality and depth of feeling, copious and
appropriate imagery, and great moral earnestness.
3. =Gerlach Peters= was the favourite scholar of Florentius
in Deventer. He subsequently entered the monastery of
Windesheim, where, after a painful illness, he died in
A.D. 1411, in his thirty-third year. “An ardent spirit
in a body of skin and bone,” praising God for his terrible
bodily sufferings as a means of grace bestowed on him,
his devotion reaches the sublimest heights of enthusiasm.
He wrote the _Soliloquium_, the voice of a man who has
daily struggled in God’s presence to free his heart from
worldly bonds, and by God’s grace in the cross of Christ
to have Adam’s purity restored and union with the highest
good secured.
4. =Thomas à Kempis=, formerly Hamerken, was born in A.D. 1380
at Kempen, near Cologne. He was educated at Deventer, and
died as sub-prior of the convent of St. Agnes, near Zwoll,
in A.D. 1471. To him, and not to the chancellor Gerson,
according to the now universally accepted opinion, belongs
the world renowned book _De Imitatione Christi_. Reprinted
about five thousand times, oftener than any other book
except the Bible, it has been also translated into more
languages than any other. Free from all Romish superstition,
it is read by Catholics and Protestants, and holds an
unrivalled position as a book of devotion. A photographic
reproduction of the original edition of A.D. 1441 was
published from the autograph MSS. of Thomas, by Ch. Ruelans,
London, 1879.[338]
III. The Church and the People.
§ 115A. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
OF THE PEOPLE.
Preaching in the vernacular was carried on mainly by the Brothers
of the Common Life, the mystics, and several heretical sects, _e.g._
Waldensians, Wiclifites, Hussites, etc.; and stimulated by their
example, others began to follow the same practice. The so called
_Biblia pauperum_ set forth in pictures the New Testament history
with its Old Testament types and prophecies; _Bible Histories_ made
known among the people the Scripture stories in a connected form; and,
after the introduction of printing, the German _Plenaries_ helped also
to spread the knowledge of God’s word by renderings for private use of
the principal parts of the service. For the instruction of the people
in faith and morals a whole series of _Catechisms_ was constructed
after a gradually developed type. The “Dance of Death” in its various
forms reminded of the vanity of all earthly pleasures. The spirit of
the Reformation was shown during this period in the large number of
hymns written in the vernacular. Church music too received a powerful
impulse.
§ 115.1. =Fasts and Festivals.=--New =Mary Festivals= were
introduced: _F. præsentationis M._ on 21st Nov. (Lev. xii. 5-8),
_F. visitationis M._ (Luke i. 39-51), on 2nd July. In the
15th century we meet with the festivals of the Seven Pains of
Mary, _F. Spasmi M._, on Friday or Saturday before Palm Sunday.
Dominic instituted a rosary festival, _F. rosarii M._, on 1st
Oct., and its general observance was enjoined by Gregory XIII.
in A.D. 1571.--The =Veneration of Ann= (§ 57, 2) was introduced
into Germany in the second half of the 15th century, but soon
rose to a height almost equal to that of Mary.--The =Fasts= of
the early Church (§ 56, 7) had, even during the previous period,
been greatly relaxed. Now the most special fast days were mere
days of abstinence from flesh, while most lavish meals of fish
and farinaceous food were indulged in. Papal and episcopal
dispensations from fasting were also freely given.
§ 115.2. =Preaching= (§ 104, 1).--To aid and encourage preaching
in the language of the people, unskilled preachers were supplied
with _Vocabularia prædicantium_. Surgant, a priest of Basel,
wrote, in the end of the 15th century, a treatise on homiletics
and catechetics most useful for his age, _Manuale Curatorum_.
In it he showed how Latin sermons might be rendered into the
tongue of the people, and urged the duty of hearing sermons.
The mendicants were the chief preachers, especially the mystics
of the preaching orders, during the 14th century (§ 114), and
the Augustinians, particularly their German Observants, during
the 15th (§ 112, 5), and next to them, the Franciscans.--The
most zealous preacher of his age was the Spanish Dominican
=Vincent Ferrér=. In A.D. 1397 he began his unprecedentedly
successful preaching tours through Spain, France, Italy, England,
Scotland, and Ireland. He died in A.D. 1419. He laboured with
special ardour for the conversion of the Jews, of whom he is
said to have baptized 35,000. Wherever he went he was venerated
as a saint, received with respect by the clergy and prelates,
highly honoured by kings and princes, consulted by rich and
poor regarding temporal and spiritual things. He was canonized
by Calixtus III. in A.D. 1455. Certain Flagellants (§ 116, 3)
whom he met in his travels followed him, scourging themselves
and singing his penitential songs, but he stopped this when
objected to by the Council of Constance. His sermons dealt
with the realities of actual life, and called all classes
to repent of their sins. Of a similar spirit was the Italian
Dominican =Barletta=, who died in A.D. 1480, whose burlesque
and scathing satire rendered him the most popular preacher
of the day. In his footsteps went the Frenchmen =Maillard=
and =Menot=, both Franciscans, and the German priest of
Strassburg, =Geiler of Kaisersberg=, quite equal to them in
quaint terseness of expression and biting wit. All these were
preeminently distinguished for moral earnestness and profound
spirituality.[339]
§ 115.3. =The _Biblia Pauperum_.=--The typological
interpretation of the Old Testament history received a fixed
and permanent form in the illustrations introduced into the
service books and pictures printed on the altars, walls, and
windows of churches, etc., during the 12th century. A set of
seventeen such picture groups was found at Vienna, of which the
middle panels represent the New Testament history, _sub gracia_,
above it an Old Testament type from the period _ante legem_, and
under it one from the period _sub lege_. This picture series was
completed by the =Biblia pauperum=, so called from the saying
of Gregory I., that pictures were the poor man’s Bible. Many of
the extant MSS., all depending on a common source, date from the
14th and 15th centuries. The illustrations of the New Testament
are in the middle, and round about are pictures of the four
prophets, with volumes in their hands, on which the appropriate
Old Testament prophecies are written. On right and left are Old
Testament types. The multiplication of copies of this work by
woodcuts and types was one of the first uses to which printing
was put.[340]
§ 115.4. =The Bible in the Vernacular.=--The need of
=translations of the Bible= into the language of the people,
specially urged by the Waldensians and Albigensians, was now
widely insisted upon by those of reformatory tendencies (§ 119).
On the introduction of printing, about A.D. 1450, an opportunity
was afforded of rapidly circulating translations already made
in most of the European languages. Before Luther, there were
fourteen printed editions of the Bible in High and five in Low
German. The translations, made from the Vulgate, were in all
practically the same. The translators are unknown. The diction
is for the most part clumsy, and the sense often scarcely
intelligible. Translations had been made in England by the
Wiclifites, and in Bohemia by the Hussites. In France, various
renderings of separate books of Scripture were circulated,
and a complete French Bible was issued by the confessor of
Charles VIII., Jean de Rely, at Paris, in A.D. 1487. Two
Italian Bibles were published in Venice, in A.D. 1471, one by
the Camaldulite abbot Malherbi, closely following the Vulgate;
the other by the humanist Bruccioli, which often falls back
on the original text. The latter was highly valued by Italian
exiles of the Reformation age. In Spain a Carthusian, Ferreri,
attempted a translation, which was printed at Valencia in
A.D. 1478. More popular however than these translations were the
=Bible Histories=, _i.e._ free renderings, sometimes contracted,
sometimes expanded, of the historical books, especially these
of the Old Testament. From A.D. 1470 large and frequent editions
were published of the German =Plenaries=, containing at first
only the gospels and epistles, afterwards also the Service of
the Mass, for all Sundays and festivals and saints’ days, with
explanations and directions.
§ 115.5. =Catechisms and Prayer Books.=--Next to preaching,
the chief opportunity for imparting religious instruction was
confession. Later catechisms drew largely upon the baptismal
and confessional services. In the 13th and 14th centuries the
decalogue was added, and afterwards the seven deadly sins and
the seven principal virtues. Pictures were used to impress
the main points on the minds of the people and the youth.
The catechetical literature of this period, both in guides
for priests and manuals for the people, was written in the
vernacular.--During the 15th century there were also numerous
so-called _Artes moriendi_, showing how to die well, in which
often earnest piety appeared side by side with the grossest
superstition. There were also many prayer books, _Hortuli animæ_,
published, in which the worship of Mary and the saints often
overshadowed that of God and Christ, and an extravagant belief
in indulgences led to a mechanical view of prayer that was
thoroughly pagan.
§ 115.6. =The Dance of Death.=--The fantastic humour of the
Middle Ages found dramatic and spectacular expression in the
Dance of Death, in which all classes, from the pope and princes
to the beggars, in turn converse with death. It was introduced
into Germany and France in the beginning of the 14th century,
with the view of raising men out of the pleasures and troubles
of life. It was called in France the Dance of the Maccabees,
because first introduced at that festival. Pictures and verbal
descriptions of the Dance of Death were made on walls and
doors of churches, around MSS. and woodcuts, where death was
generally represented as a skeleton. Hans Holbein the Younger
gave the finishing touch to these representations in his
_Imagines Mortis_, the originals of which are in St. Petersburg.
In this masterpiece, the idea of a dancing pair is set aside,
and in its place forty pictures, afterwards increased to
fifty-eight, full of humour and moral earnestness, pourtray
the power of death in the earthly life.[341]
§ 115.7. =Hymnology= (§ 104, 10).--The =Latin Church poetry= of
the 14th and 15th centuries was far beneath that of the 12th and
13th. Only the mystics, _e.g._ Thomas à Kempis, still composed
some beautiful hymns. We have now however the beginnings of
=German= and =Bohemian= hymnology. The German flagellators sang
German hymns (§ 116, 3), and so obtained much popular favour.
The Hussite movement of the 15th century gave a great impulse
to church song. Huss himself earnestly urged the practice of
congregational singing in the language of the people, and himself
composed Bohemian hymns. The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren
were specially productive in this department (§ 119, 8). In
many churches, at least on high festivals, German hymns were
sung, and in some even at the celebration of mass and other parts
of public worship. The spiritual songs of this period were of
four kinds: some half German, half Latin; others translations of
Latin hymns and sequences; others, original German compositions
by monks and minstrels; and adaptations of secular songs to
spiritual purposes. In the latter case the original melodies
were also retained. Popular forms and melodies for sacred songs
were now secured, and these were subsequently appropriated by
the Reformers of the 16th century.
§ 115.8. =Church Music= (§ 104, 11).--Great improvements were
made in organs by the invention of pedals, etc. =Church music=
was also greatly developed by the introduction of harmony and
counterpoint. The Dutch were pre-eminent in this department.
Ockenheim, founder of the second Dutch school of music, at
the end of the 15th century, was the inventor of the canon
and the fugue. The greatest composer of this school was
Jodocus Pratensis, about A.D. 1500, and next to him may be
named the German, Adam of Fulda.
§ 115.9. =Legendary Relics.=--The legend of angels having
transferred the house of Mary from Nazareth, in A.D. 1291,
to Tersato in Dalmatia, in A.D. 1294 to Reccanati, and finally,
in A.D. 1295, to Loretto in Ancona, arose in the 14th century,
in connection with the fall of Acre (§ 94, 6) and the overthrow
of the last remnants of the kingdom of Jerusalem. When and how
the legend arose of the _Scala santa_ at Rome being the marble
steps of Pilate’s prætorium, brought there by St. Helena, is
unknown.--Even Frederick the Wise, at an enormous cost, brought
together 1,010 sacred relics into his new chapel at Wittenberg,
a mere look at which secured indulgence for 100 years. In a
catalogue of relics in the churches of St. Maurice and Mary
Magdalene at Halle, published in A D. 1520, are mentioned a
piece of earth, from a field of Damascus, of which God made
the first man; a piece from a field at Hebron, where Adam
repented; a piece of the body of Isaac; twenty-five fragments
of the burning bush of Horeb; specimens of the wilderness
manna; six drops of the Virgin’s milk; the finger of the
Baptist that pointed to the Lamb of God; the finger of Thomas
that touched the wounds of Jesus; a bit of the altar at which
John read mass for the Virgin; the stone with which Stephen was
killed; a great piece of Paul’s skull; the hose of St. Thomas
of Canterbury; the baret of St. Francis, etc. The collection
consisted of 8,933 articles, and could afford indulgence
for 39,245,100 years and 220 days! Benefit was to be had by
contributions to the church, which went into the pocket of the
elector-archbishop, Albert of Mainz. The craze for =pilgrimages=
was also rife among all classes, old and young, high and low.
Signs and wonders and newly discovered relics were regarded
as consecrating new places of pilgrimage, and the stories of
pilgrims raised the fame of these resorts more and more. In
A.D. 1500 Düren, by the possession of a relic of Ann, stolen
from Mainz, rapidly rose to first rank. The people of Mainz
sought through the pope to recover this valuable property,
but he decided in favour of Düren, because God had meanwhile
sanctioned the transfer by working many miracles of healing.
§ 115B. NATIONAL LITERATURE AND ECCLESIASTICAL ART.
Toward the close of the 13th century, and throughout the 14th,
a national literature, in prose and poetry, sprang up in Italy, which
in several respects has close relations to the history of the church.
The three Florentines, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, boldly burst
through the barriers of traditional usage, which had made Latin the
only vehicle for literature and science, and became the creators of
a beautiful Italian style; while their example powerfully influenced
their own countrymen, and those of other western nations, during the
immediately succeeding ages. The exclusive use of the Latin language
had produced a uniform hierarchical spirit, and was a restraint to
the anti-hierarchical movements of the age after independent national
development in church and State. The breaking down of this barrier to
progress was an important step. But all the three great men of letters
whom we have named were also highly distinguished for their classical
culture. They introduced the study of the ancient classics, and were
thus the precursors of the humanists. They also presented a united
front against the corruptions of the church, against hierarchical
pretensions, the greed and moral debasement of the papacy, as well
as against the moral and intellectual degradation of the clergy
and the monks. Petrarch and Boccaccio too warred against the
depraved scholasticism. The Augustan age of German national poetry
was contemporary with the age of the Hohenstaufens. It consisted
in popular songs, these often of a sacred character. During the
14th century the sacred drama reached the highest point of its
development, especially in Germany, England, France, and Spain. The
spirit of the Renaissance, which during the 15th century dominated
Italian art, made itself felt also in the domain of ecclesiastical
architecture and painting.
§ 115.10. =The Italian National Literature.=[342]--=Dante
Alighieri=, born at Florence in A.D. 1265, was in A.D. 1302
banished as a Ghibelline from his native city, and died an
exile at Ravenna, in A.D. 1321. His boyish love for Beatrice,
which after her early death continued to fill his soul to
the end of his life, gave him an impulse to a “New Life,”
and proved the unfailing source of his poetic inspiration. His
studies at Bologna, Padua, and Paris made him an enthusiastic
admirer of Thomas, but alongside of his scholastic culture
there lay the quick perception of the beautiful, combined with
a lively imagination. He was thus able to deal with the burning
questions of his day in one of the greatest poetic masterpieces
of any age, people, or tongue. His _Divina Commedia_ describes
a vision in which the poet is led, first by the hand of
Virgil, as the representative of human wisdom, through Hell
and Purgatory, then by Beatrice, whose place at times is taken
by the German Matilda (§ 107, 2), and finally by St. Bernard,
as representatives of revealed religion, through Paradise and
the several heavens up to the empyræum, the eternal residence
of the triune God. The poet presents his readers with a
description of what he saw, and reports his conversations
with his guides and the souls of more important personages,
most of them shortly before deceased, in which the problems of
philosophy, theology, and politics are discussed. His political
views, of which he treats _ex professo_ in the three books of
his _De monarchia_, are derived from Aquinas’ theory of the
State, but breathe a strong Italian Ghibelline patriotism, so
that he places not only Boniface VIII. but also Frederick II.
in Hell. In the struggle between the empire and the papacy
he stands decidedly on the side of the former. With profound
sorrow he bewails the corruption of the church in its head and
members, but holds firmly by its confession of faith. And while
lashing vigorously the corruptions of monkery, he eulogizes
the heavenliness of the lives of Francis and Dominic.[343]
=Petrarch=, who died in A.D. 1374, broke away completely from
scholasticism, and turned with enthusiasm to classical studies.
He combated superstition, _e.g._ astrology, but also contends
against the unbelief of his age, and in his letters and poems
lashes with merciless severity the immorality of the papacy
and the secularization of the church.[344] In =Boccaccio=
again, who died in A.D. 1375, antipathy to scholasticism,
monkery, and the hierarchy had reached its utmost stage. He
has no anger and denunciation, but only contempt, reproach,
and wit to shoot against them. He also makes light of the
moral requirements of Christianity and the church, especially
the seventh commandment. But in later years he manifested
deep penitence for the lascivious writing of his youth, to
which he had given reckless and shameless expression in his
“Decameron.”
§ 115.11. =The German National Literature.=--The German
prose style was greatly ennobled by the mystics (§ 114), and
the highest development of German satire against the hierarchy,
clergy, and monks was reached by Sebastian Brant, of Strassburg,
who wrote in A.D. 1494 his “Ship of Fools.” Among popular
preachers John Tauler held the first rank (§ 114, 2). In
Strassburg, Geiler of Kaisersberg distinguished himself as
an original preacher. His sermons were full of biting wit,
keen sarcasm, and humorous expressions, but also of profound
earnestness and withering exposures of the sins of the clergy
and monks. His best known work is a series of sermons on Brant’s
“Ship of Fools,” published in A.D. 1498.
§ 115.12. =The Sacred Drama= (§ 105, 5).--The poetic merit of
most of the German mysteries performed at high festivals is not
great. The Laments of Mary however often rose to true poetic
heights. Comedy and burlesque too found place especially in
connection with Judas, or the exchangers, or the unconverted
Magdalene. A priest, Theodoric Schernberg, wrote a play on the
fall and repentance of the popess Johanna (§ 82, 6). On Shrove
Tuesday plays were performed, in which the clergy and monks
were held up to ridicule. Hans Roseuplüt of Nuremberg, about
A.D. 1450, was the most famous writer of German Shrovetide
plays. In France, about the end of the 14th century, a society
of young people of the upper rank was formed, called _Enfans
sans souci_, whose _Sotties_, buffooneries, in which the church
was ridiculed, were in high repute in the cities and at the
court. Their most distinguished poet was Pierre Gringoire, who,
in the beginning of the 16th century, in the French _Chasse
du Cerf des Cerfs_, parodied the _Servus servorum_ (§ 46, 10),
and the church is represented as the old befooled mother. The
numerous Italian mysteries were produced mainly by the gifted
and cultured sons of Tuscany, who had already developed their
native tongue into a beautiful and flexible language. In Spain,
during the 15th century, the _Autos_, partly as Christmas plays
and partly as sacramental or passion plays, were based on the
ancient mysteries, and in form inclined more to the allegorical
moralities.
§ 115.13. =Architecture and Painting= (§ 104, 12, 14)--=Gothic
architecture= was the prevailing style in the churches of
Germany, France, and England. In Italy, the humanist movement
(§ 120, 1) led to the imitation of ancient classical models,
and thus the Renaissance style was introduced, which flourished
for 300 years. Its real creator was the Florentine Bruneleschi,
who won imperishable renown by the grand cupola of the cathedral
of Florence. Bramante, died A.D. 1514, marks the transition
from the earlier Renaissance of the 15th century to the later
of the 16th, at the summit of which stands Michael Angelo,
A.D. 1474-1564. After a plan of Bramante Julius II., in
A.D. 1506, began the magnificent reconstruction of St. Peter’s
at Rome, the execution of which in its gigantic proportions
occupied the reigns of twenty popes. It was completed under
Urban VIII., in A.D. 1636. This great building, in consequence
of the traffic in indulgences, entered on to defray its cost,
became the occasion of the loss to the papacy of the half
of western Christendom.--Sacred =Statuary=, in the hands of
Ghiberti, died A.D. 1455, and Michael Angelo, reached the
highest stage of excellence.--Of =Painting=, the Augustan
age of which was the 15th century, there were properly four
schools. Giotto, who died in A.D. 1336, was founder of the
Florentine school, which was specially distinguished by its
delineations of sacred history. To it belonged the Dominican
Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, who painted only as he prayed,
Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolomeo, and Michael Angelo. Then
there was the Lombard or Venetian School, at the head of
which stands Giovanni Bellini, died A.D. 1516, which turned
away from the church and applied itself with its fresh living
colouring to the depicting of earthly ideals. Its most eminent
representatives were Correggio, died A.D. 1534, and Titian,
died A.D. 1576. In the Umbrian school, again, the spirit of
St. Francis continued still to breathe. Its greatest master
was Raphael of Urbino, the noblest and most renowned of all
Christian painters, distinguished also as an architect. The
German school had its ablest representatives in the brothers
Hubert and John van Eyk, Albert Dürer, and Hans Holbein the
Elder.--Continuation § 149, 15.
§ 116. POPULAR MOVEMENTS.
In consequence of the shameful debasement of the papacy and the
deep corruption of the clergy and monks, the influence of the church
on the moral and religious culture of the people, in spite of the
ardent zeal of the homilists and catechists, was upon the whole much
less than formerly. Reverence for the church as it stood was indeed
tottering, but was not yet completely overthrown. The religious
enthusiasm of earlier times was fading away, but occasional phenomena
still continued to arise, like St. Bridget and St. Catharine of Siena
(§ 112, 4, 8), Claus of Flüe, and the Maid of Orleans. But in order
to elevate a John of Nepomuk into a recognised national saint, it
was necessary to produce forged legendary stories in post-Reformation
times. The market-place tricks of John of Capistrano (§ 112, 3) were
of such a kind, that even the papal curia only after a century and a
half had passed could venture to adorn him with the halo of saintship.
The ever-increasing nuisance of the sale of indulgences smothered
religious earnestness and crushed all religious spirit out of the
people. But earnestness showed itself again in the reactions of the
Beghards and Lollards, or in the explosions of the Flagellants, and
spirituality often found rich nourishment in the preaching of the
mystics. One current issuing from the widespread Friends of God
passed deep into the heart of the German people; another, springing
probably from the same source, but with a quite different tendency,
appears in the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit. On the other
hand, superstition also prevailed, and was all the more dangerous
the more it parted with its poetic and naïve character (§ 117, 4).
Toward the end of that period however a new era dawned in social
life, as well as in national literature. Knighthood paled before
gunpowder. The establishment of civic corporations developed a sense
of freedom, and introduced a healthy understanding and appreciation
of civil liberty. The printing of books began the dissemination of
knowledge, and the discovery of America opened to view a new world
for trade, colonization, and the spread of Christianity. To the
pious heart of the discoverer the extension of Christ’s kingdom
proved the most powerful motive to his continued exertions, and
from the treasures of the new world he hoped also to obtain the
means for conquering again the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Land.
§ 116.1. =Two National Saints.=--=John of Nepomuk=, of
Pomuk in Bohemia, was from A.D. 1380 pastor, then canon,
archiepiscopal secretary, and vicar-general of Prague. King
Wenzel had him seized, cruelly tortured, and flung over the
bridge into the Moldau, because, so runs the legend, he as
confessor of the queen sturdily refused to betray the secrets
of the confessional, but really because he had roused the king’s
anger to the uttermost in a violent controversy between the
king’s archbishop, John of Jenzenstein, and the chapter over
their election and consecration of an abbot. The confession
legend appears first in an Austrian writer of A.D. 1451,
who gives it distinctly as a tradition. It is evidently
connected with the Taborite rejection of the Catholic doctrine
of auricular confession (§ 119, 7). If it be accepted as true,
then, seeing that all the older chroniclers ascribe the cruel
treatment of this prelate to the share he took in the abbot’s
election, it will be necessary to assume two victims of the
king’s wrath instead of one. The John Nepomuk of the legend,
and the confessor of the queen, was tortured by the king’s
command in A.D. 1383; the other, who figures in the old
chronicles as archiepiscopal vicar-general, and is simply
called John, was tortured in A.D. 1393, and then thrown over
the bridge into the Moldau. This latter story appears first
in a Bohemian chronicle of A.D. 1541. In the 17th century the
Jesuits, in order to deprive the heretical national saint and
martyr John Huss of his supremacy by bringing forward another
genuine Bohemian, but also a thoroughly Catholic saint, gave
currency to the legend, adorned with many additional stories
of miracles. Benedict XIII. (§ 164, 1) was just the pope
to aid such a device by sanctioning, as he did in A.D. 1729,
the canonization of a purely fictitious saint-confessor John
Nepomuk. He is patron saint of bridges, whose image in Bohemia,
and other strictly Catholic lands, is met with at almost
every bridge, and is reverenced as the protector from unjust
accusations, as well as the dispenser of rain in seasons
of great drought. Although no mention is made of the story
about the confessional in the letter of complaint to Rome
by Archbishop Jenzenstein, Catholic historians still insist
that the confessor’s steadfastness was the real cause, the
election of the abbot the ostensible cause, of the martyrdom
of A.D. 1393.[345] The need of strengthening the position
of the Romish church, in face of the progress of the Swiss
Reformation of the 16th century, led also to the elevation
of the recluse, =Nicolaus [Nicolas] of Flüe= upon the pedestal
of a Swiss national saint. Esteemed even before his birth a
saint by reason of signs and wonders, “Brother Claus,” after
a long, active life in the world, in his 50th year, the father
of ten children, forsook house and home, with the approval
of his wife, abstained from all nourishment save that of the
sacrament, and died, after spending nineteen years in the
wilderness, in A.D. 1487. During this period he was the trusted
adviser of all classes upon public and private affairs. He
is specially famous as having saved Switzerland, by appearing
personally at the Diet of Stanz, in A.D. 1481, stopping
the conflict between cities and provinces, which threatened
to break up the confederation and bring about civil war, and
suggesting the peaceable compromise of the “Agreement of Stanz.”
That Brother Claus did assist in securing harmony is a well
established fact, but it is also demonstrable that he was not
personally present at Stanz. He was beatified by Clement X.
in A.D. 1671, but notwithstanding repeated endeavours by his
admirers, he has not yet been canonized.
§ 116.2. =The Maid of Orleans, A.D. 1428-1431.=--Joan of Arc
was the daughter of a peasant in the village of Domremy, in
Champagne. Even in her thirteenth year she thought she saw
a peculiar brightness and heard a heavenly voice exhorting
her to chastity and piety. She now bound herself by a vow to
perpetual virginity. Afterwards the heavenly voices became more
frequent, and the brightness took the shape of the archangel
Michael, St. Catharine, and other saints, who saluted her as
saviour of her fatherland. France was, under the imbecile king
Charles VI., and still more after his death, rent by the rival
parties of the Armagnacs and Burgundians. The former fought for
the rights of the dauphin Charles VII.; the latter supported his
mother Isabella and the English king Henry V., who was succeeded
in A.D. 1422 by his son Henry VI., then only nine months old.
Joan was the enthusiastic supporter of the dauphin. He found
himself in A.D. 1428 in the greatest straits. The last bulwark
of his might, the city of Orleans, was besieged by the English,
and seemed near its fall. Then her voices commanded Joan to
relieve Orleans, and to accompany the dauphin to his coronation
at Rheims. She now published her call, which had been hitherto
kept secret, overcame all difficulties, was recognised as
a messenger of heaven, assumed the male attire of a soldier,
and placed herself at the head of an enthusiastic crowd. Great
success attended the movements of this girl of seventeen years.
In the latter campaigns of the war she became the prisoner of
Burgundy, who delivered her over to the English. At Rouen she
was subjected to an ecclesiastical tribunal, which after four
months’ investigation condemned her to the stake as a heretic
and sorceress. In view of the fire, her courage failed. Yielding
to the persuasion of her confessor, she acknowledged her guilt,
and had her sentence commuted to that of imprisonment for life.
But eight days later she was led forth to the stake. Her rude
keepers had taken away her female attire, and forced her to wear
again male garments, and this act to which she was compelled was
made a charge against her. She died courageously and piously in
A.D. 1431. At the demand of her family, which had been ennobled,
a revision of the process against her was made in A.D. 1450, when
she was pronounced innocent, and the charges against her false.
The endeavour of Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, in A.D. 1876,
in the name of Catholic France, to have her canonized, was not
responded to by the papal curia. The infallible church, that
had burnt her as a witch in A.D. 1431, could scarcely give her
a place among its saints, even after 450 years had gone.
§ 116.3. =Lollards, Flagellants, and Dancers.=--During a plague
at Antwerp in A.D. 1300 the =Lollards= made their appearance,
nursing the sick and burying the dead. They spread rapidly
over the Netherlands and the bordering German provinces. Like
the Beghards however, and for the same reasons, they soon fell
under suspicion of heresy, and were subjected to the persecution
of the Inquisition, until Gregory XI., in A.D. 1347, again
granted them toleration. But the name Lollard still continued
to be associated with heresy or hypocrisy (§ 119, 1).[346]
The =Flagellant= fraternities, which had sprung up in the
12th century (§ 106, 4), greatly increased during this period,
and reached their height during the 14th century. Their
influence was greatest during the visitation of the Black
Death, A.D. 1348-1350, which cost Europe many millions of
lives. Issuing from Hungary, rushing forth with the force of
an avalanche, and massing in great numbers on the upper Rhine,
they spread over all Germany, Belgium and Holland, Switzerland,
England, and Sweden. Entrance into France was refused them
at the bidding of the Avignon pope Clement VI. In long rows
of penitents, with uncovered head, screaming forth their
penitential songs, and with tears streaming down their cheeks,
they rushed about lashing their bare backs. They also from
city to city and from village to village read aloud a letter
of warning, said to have been written by Christ, and brought
to the Patriarch of Jerusalem by an angel. This paroxysm
lasted for three years. In Lombardy, in A.D. 1399, when famine,
pestilence, the Turkish war, and expectation of the end of the
world inclined men to such extravagances, the Flagellants made
their appearance again, dressed in white robes, and so called
_Bianchi_, _Albati_. Princes, scholars, and popes, universities
and councils sought to check this silly fanaticism, but were
not able to suppress it. Many Flagellants were also heretical
in their views, spoke of the hierarchy as antichrist, withdrew
from the worship of the church, declared the bloody baptism of
the scourge the only true sacrament, and died at the stake of
the Inquisition.--The =Dancers=, _Chorisantes_, were a sect
closely related to the Flagellants, but their fanaticism seemed
more of a pathological than of a religious order. Half naked
and crowned with leaves they rushed along the streets and into
houses, dancing in a wild, tumultuous manner. They made a great
noise in the Rhine Provinces in A.D. 1374 and in A.D. 1418. They
were regarded as demoniacs and cured by calling upon St. Vitus.
§ 116.4. =The Friends of God.=--During the 14th century many
detachments of mystic sects spread through all Southern Germany,
and even from the Netherlands to Hungary and Italy. A powerful
religious awakening, with an undertone of contemplative mysticism,
was now experienced in the castles of the knights, in the shops
of artisans, and in the stalls of traders, as well as in the
Beguine houses, the monasteries, and nunneries of the Dominicans
and other monkish orders. A great free association was then
called forth under the name of “Friends of God” (John xv. 15),
whose members maintained personal and epistolary correspondence
with one another. The headquarters of this movement were
Cologne, Strassburg, and Basel. Its preachers and supporters
were mostly Dominicans. They drew their intellectual and
spiritual nourishment from the writings of the German mystics.
They repudiated all sectarian intentions, carefully observed
the rites and ceremonies and attended on the worship of the
church, and accepted all its dogmas. But all the greater on
this account was their sorrow over the deep decay of religious
and moral life, and their lamentations over the corruption
of the clergy and hierarchy. Fantastic visionary conceptions,
however, derived from the domain of mysticism, were by no means
rare among them.
§ 116.5. =Pantheistic Libertine Societies.=--A demoniacally
inspired counterpart to the fraternity of the “Friends of God” is
found in the sect of the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit.
This sect, derived for the most part from the artisan class,
may be regarded as carrying out to a consistent development the
views of Amalrich of Bena (§ 108, 4). We meet with these in the
beginning of the 14th century wandering about, missionarising
and agitating in all parts of Southern Germany as well as in
Switzerland, while they were particularly numerous in the Rhine
Provinces, where Cologne and Strassburg were their main resorts.
Often associating with strolling Beghards (§ 98, 12) they
are frequently confounded with these. They were communistic
libertine pantheists. Every pious man is a Christ, in whom God
becomes man. Whatever is done in love is pure. The perfect are
free from the law, and cannot sin. The church with her sacraments
and institutions is a thorough cheat; purgatory, heaven, and
hell are mere figments, the marriage bond contrary to nature,
all property is common good, and theft of it allowable. Their
secret services ended with immoral orgies. The Inquisition
exterminated the sect by sword and stake.--The Adamites in
Austria in A.D. 1312 and the Turlupines in the Isle of France
showed similar tendencies. In the beginning of the 15th century
they reappeared as _Homines intelligentiæ_ at Brussels. In
A.D. 1421 the Hussite leader Ziska rooted out the Bohemian
Adamites or Picards, who went naked after the pattern of
paradise, and had a community of wives. Picard is just a
modification of the heretical designation Beghard. They gained
a footing in several villages, and built an establishment on a
small island in a tributary of the Moldau, from which they made
excursions into the surrounding districts, until Ziska put an
end to them by conquering the island in A.D. 1421.
§ 117. CHURCH DISCIPLINE.
The reckless and shameless sale of indulgences often made the
exercise of church discipline impossible, and the discreditable
conduct of the mendicant monks destroyed all respect for the
confessional. The scandalous misuse of the ban and interdict had shorn
these of much of their terror. Frightful curses were pronounced at Rome
every Maundy Thursday against heretics by the solemn reading of the
bull _In Cœna Domini_. The Inquisition was still abundantly occupied
with persecuting and burning numerous heretics, and at the end of our
period Innocent VIII. carried to the utmost extreme the persecution and
burning of witches.
§ 117.1. =Indulgences.=--The scholastic theory of indulgences
(§ 106, 2) was authoritatively proclaimed by Clement VI. in
A.D. 1343. The reforming councils of the 15th century wished
only to prevent them being misused, for the purpose of filling
the papal treasury. Sixtus IV., in A.D. 1477, declared that
it was allowable to take money for indulgences for the dead,
and that their souls might be freed from purgatory. The pert
question, why the pope would not rather free all souls at
once by the exercise of his sovereign power, was answered
by the assertion that the church, in accordance with Divine
righteousness, could dispense its grace only _discrete et cum
moderamine_. The institution of the jubilee gave a great impulse
to the sale of indulgences. In A.D. 1300 Boniface VIII., at the
bidding of an old man, proclaimed a complete indulgence for one
hundred years to all Christians who would do penance for fifteen
days in the churches of the apostles at Rome, and by this means
gathered from day to day 200,000 pilgrims within the walls of
the Holy City. Later popes made a jubilee every fiftieth year,
then every thirty-third, and finally every twenty-fifth. Instead
of appearing personally at Rome, it was enough to pay the cost
of such a journey. The nepotism and extravagance of the popes
had left an empty exchequer, which this sale of indulgences
was intended to fill. The war with the Turks and the building
of St. Peter’s gave occasion to repeated indulgence crusades.
Traffickers in indulgences in the most barefaced way cried
up the quality of their wares; the conditions of repentance
and purpose of reformation were scarcely so much as named.
Indulgences were even granted beforehand for sins that were
contemplated.
§ 117.2. =The Inquisition=, since A.D. 1232 under the direction
of the Dominicans (§ 109, 2), spread through all European
countries during the 14th century. While the papal court resided
at Avignon the Inquisition was at its height in =France=, where
Waldensians and Albigensians, Beghards and Lollards, Fraticelli
and Fanatical Spiritualists, were brought in crowds to the stake
and subjected to the most cruel tortures. Bernard Delicieux, a
Franciscan, raised his voice, A.D. 1300-1320, against the inhuman
cruelty of the inquisitors, and with noble independence and
heroic bravery appealed to king and pope against the merciless
sacrifice of so many victims. He was shut up for life in a
dark dungeon, and fed on bread and water.--In =Germany=, where,
from the murder of Conrad of Marburg in A.D. 1233 (§ 109, 3),
for almost a century and a half we find no trace of a regularly
constituted Inquisition, it made its appearance again in
A.D. 1368. During that year Urban V. issued a bull, by which
he required that the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of
Germany should support with their counsel and influence the two
inquisitors who were searching out the heretical Beghards and
Beguines (§ 116, 5), and place their prisons at the disposal
of the Holy Office, which had still no prison of its own. His
successor, Gregory XI., in A.D. 1372 increased the number of
inquisitors in Germany to five, one in each of the archdioceses
of Mainz, Cologne, Salzburg, Magdeburg, and Bremen; while his
successor, Boniface IX., in A.D. 1399 added a sixth for North
Germany. But these papal bulls would probably, owing to the
disinclination of the Germans to the Inquisition, like the
attempts of Gregory IX., never have been put in force, had not
Charles IV. (§ 110, 4, 5) taken up the matter with an ardent
zeal that even went beyond the intentions of Urban and Gregory.
During his second journey to Rome, in A.D. 1369, he issued
from Lucca four imperial decrees, and in A.D. 1378 from Treves
a fifth, by which he granted to the Inquisition throughout
Germany all the rights, powers, and privileges which it had
anywhere, and required that all civil and ecclesiastical
authorities, under pain of severest penalties and confiscation
of all their goods, should support the Inquisition in its search
for heretics and in its discovery and burning of all religious
writings in the vulgar tongue composed and circulated by laymen
or semi-laymen.--The =Spanish Inquisition= was re-established
under Ferdinand and Isabella in A.D. 1480, and thoroughly
organized by the grand-inquisitor Torquemada, A.D. 1483-1499.
One of the first inquisitors appointed by him in A.D. 1484 was
an Augustinian, Pedro Arbires, who amid the most unrelenting
cruelties performed the duties of his office with such zeal,
that in sixteen months many hundreds had perished at the stake;
but his fanatical career was ended by his murder at the altar
in A.D. 1485. Not only the two who did the deed, but also all
their relatives and friends, to the number of two hundred,
suspected of complicity in a plot, were burned, while the
“martyr” himself was beatified by Alexander VII. in A.D. 1661,
and canonized by Pius IX. in A.D. 1867. This terrible tribunal
further undertook the persecution of the hated Moors and Jews
who had been baptized under compulsion (§ 95, 2, 3), which
through numerous confiscations greatly enriched the national
exchequer of Spain. This institution reached its highest
point under the grand-inquisitor the Cardinal Francis Ximenes,
A.D. 1507-1517, under whom 2,536 persons were burnt alive
and 1,368 in effigy. The _auto da fès_, which ended at the
stake, were conducted with a horrible pomp. Even those who were
acquitted of the charge of heresy were compelled for a long
time to wear the _san benito_, an armless robe with a red cross
marked on it before and behind. According to Llorente, who had
been general secretary of the Inquisition at Madrid, the Spanish
inquisition, down to its suppression by Joseph Buonaparte in
A.D. 1808, had executed in person 31,912, burned in effigy
17,659, and subjected to severe punishments 291,456.[347]
§ 117.3. =The Bull “_In Cœna Domini_.”=--It was customary
to repeat from time to time the more important decrees of
excommunication, to show that they were still valid. In this
way the famous bull _In Cœna Domini_ was gradually constructed.
The earliest sketch of it was given by Urban V., who died in
A.D. 1370, and it was published in its final form by Urban VIII.
in A.D. 1627. It contains a summary of all the rights of the
Roman hierarchy, with anathemas against all opposing claims,
not only on the part of secular princes and laymen, but also of
antipapal councils, and concludes with a solemn excommunication
of all heretics, to which Paul V. in A.D. 1610 added Lutherans,
Zwinglians, and Calvinists, together with all their sympathisers.
Pius V., in A.D. 1567, in a new redaction insisted that it should
be read yearly in the Catholic churches of all lands, but could
not get this carried out, especially in France and Germany. In
A.D. 1770 Clement XIV. forbade its being read.
§ 117.4. =Prosecution of Witches.=--Down to the beginning of
the 13th century many churchmen had spoken against the popular
superstition regarding sorcery, witchcraft, and compacts with the
devil, and a whole series of provincial councils had pronounced
such belief to be heathenish, sinful, and heretical. Even in
Gratian’s decretal (§ 99, 5) there was a canon which required
the clergy to teach the people that witchcraft was a delusion,
and belief in it incompatible with the Christian faith. But
upon the establishment of the Inquisition in the beginning of
the 13th century witchcraft came more and more to occupy the
attention of the ecclesiastical authorities. Heresy and sorcery
were now regarded as correlates, like two agencies resting on
and serviceable to the demoniacal powers, and were therefore
treated in the same way as offences to be punished with
torture and the stake. The Dominicans, as administrators of
the Inquisition, were the most zealous defenders of the belief
in witchcraft, whereas the Franciscans generally spoke of it
simply as foolish, heathenish, and heretical. Thomas Aquinas
included it in his theological system, and Eymerich in his
_Directorium Inquisitorium_ (§ 109, 2). Yet witch prosecutions
were only occasional incidents during the 14th and 15th centuries,
especially in Germany, where clergy and people were adverse
to them. But it was quite otherwise after Innocent VIII., on
3rd December, 1484, by his bull _Summis desiderantes affectibus_,
complaining of previous laxity, called attention to the spread
of witchcraft in the country, and appointed two inquisitors,
Sprenger and Institor, to secure its extermination. These
administered their office with such zeal and success, that
in A.D. 1489 at Cologne they were able, as the result of their
experiences, to publish under the title _Malleus maleficarum_
a complete code for witch prosecutions. From the confessions
wrung from their victims by torture and suggestive questions,
they obtained a full, dogmatic system of compacts and intrigues
with the devil, of _Succubis_ and _Incubis_, of witch ointment,
broomsticks, and ovenforks, of witches’ sabbaths, Walpurgis
nights, and flights up chimneys. Soon this illusion spread
like an epidemic, and thousands throughout Germany and all
other Catholic countries, mostly old women, but also some young
maidens, were subjected to the most horrible tortures, and after
confession had been extorted, to death by fire. The _Malleus_
accounted for the fact that women and very rarely men were found
engaged in such proceedings, by this statement: _Dicitur enim
femina a feret minus, quia semper minorem habet et servat fidem,
et hoc ex natura._--The Reformation of the 16th century made
no change in these horrible proceedings, which rather rose to
a height during the 17th century. Theologians of all confessions
believed in the possibility and reality of compacts with the
devil, and regarded this to be as essential to an orthodox creed
as belief in the devil’s existence. The jurists and civil judges
in Protestant and Catholic countries were no less narrow-minded
and superstitious than the theologians. Among Catholics the
most celebrated defenders of the witch prosecutions were Jean
Bodin (§ 148, 3), Peter Binsfeld, and the Jesuit Mart. Delrio
(§ 149, 11). Among Protestant vindicators of these prosecutions
may be named the Heidelberg physician Thomas Erastus (§ 144, 1),
James I. of England, and the famous criminal lawyer Carpzov of
Leipzig. Noble men however were not wanting on both sides who
were shrewd and sensible enough to oppose such crude conceptions.
In the 16th century we have the physician Weier, who wrote his
_De præstigiis dæmonorum_ in A.D. 1563, and in the 17th the
Jesuits Tanner and Spee (§ 149, 11; 156, 3), and the Dutch
Protestant Bekker (§ 160, 5). The writings of the Halle jurist
Thomasius in A.D. 1701, 1704, were the first to tell powerfully
in favour of liberal views. In A.D. 1749 a nun of seventy
years old was burnt at Würzburg as a witch. In A.D. 1754 a
girl of thirteen and in A.D. 1756 one of fourteen years were
put to death at Landshut as suspected of witchcraft. In German
Switzerland a servant girl at Glarus in A.D. 1782 was the last
victim. In bigoted Catholic countries the delusion lasted longer,
but prosecutions were seldomer carried the length of judicial
murder. In Mexico however, the Alcade Ignacio Castello of
San Jacobo on 20th August, 1877, “with consent of the whole
population,” burnt five witches alive. Altogether since the
issue of the bull of Innocent there have been certainly no less
than 300,000 women brought to the stake as witches.
IV. Attempts at Reformation.
§ 118. ATTEMPTED REFORMS IN CHURCH POLITY.
The struggle between imperialism and hierarchism, which is present
through the whole course of the Middle Ages, rose to a height in the
times of Louis the Bavarian, A.D. 1314-1347 (§ 110, 3, 4), and is
of special interest here because of the literary war waged against
one another by the rival supporters of the emperor and the pope. It
concerns itself first of all only with the questions in debate between
the imperial and the sacerdotal parties; but soon on the imperialist
side there appeared a reforming tendency, which could not be given
effect to without carrying the discussion into a multitude of other
departments where reformation was also needed. Of quite another kind
was the “reformation of head and members” desired by the great councils
of the 15th century. The contention here was based, not so much upon
any superiority claimed by the emperor over the pope and by the State
over the church, but rather upon the subordination of the pope to the
supreme authority of the universal church represented by the œcumenical
councils. Yet both agreed in this, that with like energy they attacked
the corruption of the papacy, in the one case in the interest of the
State, in the other in the interest of the church.
§ 118.1. =The Literary War between Imperialists and Curialists in
the 14th Century.=--The literary controversy over the debatable
land between church and State was conducted with special vigour
in the earlier part of our period, on account of the conflict
between Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair of France (§ 110, 1).
The ablest vindicators of the independence of the State were the
advocate =Peter Dubois= and the Dominican theologian =John of
Paris=. Among their scholars were the men who twenty years later
sought refuge from the wrath of Pope John XXII. at the court of
Louis the Bavarian at Munich. Of these the most important was the
Italian =Marsilius of Padua=. As teacher of theology, philosophy,
and medicine at Paris, in A.D. 1324, when the dispute between
emperor and pope had reached its height, he composed jointly with
his colleague =John of Jandun= in Champagne a _Defensor pacis_,
a civil and ecclesiastical memoir, which, with an insight and
clearness very remarkable for that age, developed the evangelical
mean of the superiority of the State over the church, and of
the empire over the papacy, historically, exegetically, and
dogmatically; and for this end established theories of Scripture
and tradition, of the tasks and place of the church in the State,
of excommunication and persecution of heretics, of liberty of
faith and conscience, etc., which even transcend the principles
laid down on these points by the Reformation of the 16th century.
Both authors accompanied Louis to Italy in A.D. 1326, and there
John of Jandun died in A.D. 1328. Marsilius continued with the
emperor as his physician, counsellor, and literary defender, and
died at Munich between A.D. 1341-1343. In A.D. 1327 John XXII.
condemned the _Defensor pacis_, and Clement VI. pronounced its
author the worst heretic of all ages. The book, often reprinted
during the 16th century, was first printed at Basel in A.D. 1522.
§ 118.2. Alongside of Marsilius there also stood a goodly array
of schismatical Franciscans, with their general, Michael of
Cesena, at their head (§ 112, 2), who were like himself refugees
at the court of Munich. They persistently contested the heresies
of John XXII. in regard to the vision of God (§ 110, 3) and his
lax theory of poverty. Their polemic also extended to the whole
papal system, and the corruption of church and clergy connected
therewith. The most celebrated of them in respect of scientific
attainments was =William Occam= (§ 113, 3). His earlier treatises
dealt with the pope’s heresies, and only after the Diet of
Rhense (§ 110, 4) did he take up the burning questions about
church and State. In the comprehensive _Dialogus_ he rejects
the infallibility of the pope as decidedly as his temporal
sovereignty, and denies the Divine institution of the primacy.
Also a German prelate, =Leopold of Bebenburg=, Canon of Würzburg,
and from A.D. 1353 Bishop of Bamberg, inspired by genuinely
German patriotism, made his appearance in A.D. 1338 as a brave
and prudent defender of imperial rights against the assumptions
of the papacy.--The ablest of all Marsilius’ opponents was the
Spanish Franciscan =Alvarus Pelagius=, who wrote in A.D. 1330 the
treatise _De planctu ecclesiæ_, in which, while sadly complaining
of the corruption of the church and clergy, he yet ascribes
to the pope as the vicar of Christ unlimited authority over
all earthly principalities and powers, and regards him as the
fountain of all privileges and laws. A still more thoroughgoing
deification of the papacy had appeared a few years earlier
in the _Summa de potestate ecclesiæ ad Johannem Papam_ by
the Augustinian =Augustinus Triumphus= of Ancona. But neither
he nor Pelagius, in view of the manifest contradictions of the
pope’s doctrines of poverty (§ 112, 2), dared go the length of
maintaining papal infallibility. A German canon of Regensburg,
=Conrad of Megensburg=, also took part in the controversy,
seeking to vindicate and glorify the papacy.
§ 118.3. =Reforming Councils of the 15th Century.=--The
longing for reform during this period found most distinct
expression in the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel
(§ 110, 7-9). The fruitlessness of these endeavours, though
they had the sympathy of the people generally, shows that there
was something essentially defective in them. The movement had
kept itself aloof from all sectaries and separatists, wishing to
hold by and reform the presently existing church. But its fault
was this, that it insisted only upon a reformation in the head
and members, not in the spirit, that it aimed at lopping off
the wild growths of the tree, without getting rid of the corrupt
sap from which the very same growths would again proceed. Only
that which was manifestly unchristian in the pretensions of
the hierarchy, the covetousness and greed of the pope, the
immorality of the clergy, the depravity and ignorance of
the monks, etc.--in short, only abuses in hierarchical
constitution and discipline--were dealt with. There was no
word about doctrine. The Romish system, in spite of all its
perversions, was allowed to stand. The current forms of worship,
notwithstanding the introduction of many unevangelical elements
and pagan superstitions, were left untouched. It was not seen
that what was most important of all was the revival of the
preaching of repentance and of justification through Him who
is the justifier of the ungodly. And so it happened that at
Constance Huss, who had pointed out and followed this way, was
sent to the stake, and at Basel the doctrine of the immaculate
conception (§ 112, 4) was admitted as a doctrine of the church.
It was not merely the election of a new pope opposed to the
Reformation that rendered the negotiations at Pisa and Constance
utter failures, the wrong principle upon which they proceeded
insured a disappointing result.
§ 118.4. =Friends of Reform in France during the 15th Century.=
1. =Peter d’Ailly=, professor and chancellor of the University
of Paris, Bishop of Cambray in A.D. 1397 and cardinal in
A.D. 1411, was one of the ablest members of the councils of
Pisa and Constance. He died in A.D. 1425 as cardinal-legate
in Germany. His chief dogmatic treatise, the _Quæstiones_
on the Sentences of the Lombard, occupies the standpoint
of Occam. In many of his other works he falls back upon
the position of the mystics of St. Victor (§ 102, 4),
and recommends with much warmth the diligent study of the
Scriptures. His ideas about church reform are centred in
the affirmation of the Gallican Liberties, which he had
to maintain as a French bishop, but are expressed with the
moderation becoming a Roman cardinal. In opposition to Occam
and the Spirituals, he founds the temporal sovereignty of
the pope on the _Donatio Constantini_. He also holds by
the primacy of the Roman bishop, as firmly established by
Scripture. But the πέτρα of Matthew xvi. 18 he understands
not of Peter, but of Christ. In this passage therefore no
pre-eminence is given to Peter over the other apostles in
the _potestas ordinis_, but by the injunction of John xx.,
“Feed My sheep,” such pre-eminence is given in the _potestas
regiminis_. The œcumenical council, as representative of the
whole church, stands superior to the pope as administrative
head.
2. d’Ailly’s successor as professor and chancellor was the
celebrated =Jean Charlier=, better known from the name of
his birthplace near Rheims as =Gerson=. Having denounced the
Duke of Burgundy’s murder of the Duke of Orleans, and having
thus incurred that prince’s hatred, he withdrew after the
Council of Constance into Bavaria. Soon after the duke’s
death, in A.D. 1419, he returned to France, and settled
at Lyons, where he died in A.D. 1429. Like d’Ailly, Gerson
was a decided nominalist, and sought to give new life
to scholasticism by combining with it Scripture study
and mysticism. He, too, was powerfully influenced by the
Victorine mystics, and yet more by Bonaventura He had
no appreciation of the speculative element in German
mysticism. Gerson was the first French theologian who
employed the language of the people, particularly in his
smaller practical tracts. He was mainly instrumental in
bringing about the Council of Pisa. In the Council of
Constance he was one of the most conspicuous figures.
Restrained by no personal or official relationship with
the curia, he could by speech and writing express himself
much more freely than d’Ailly. The principle and means
of the reform of the church, in its head and members, was
recognised by Gerson in his statement that the highest
authority of the church is to be sought not in the pope,
but in the œcumenical council. He held however in every
point to the Romish system of doctrine. He did indeed
unweariedly proclaim the Bible the one norm and source
of all Christian knowledge, but he would not allow the
reading of it in the vernacular, and regarded all as
heretics who did not in the interpretation of it submit
unconditionally to the judgment of the church.
3. Nicholas of Clemanges was in A.D. 1393 rector of the
University of Paris, but afterwards retired into solitude.
He had the profoundest insight into the corruption of the
church, and acknowledged Holy Scripture to be the only
source of saving truth. From this standpoint he demanded
a thorough reform in theological study and the whole
constitution of the church.
4. Louis d’Aleman, cardinal and Archbishop of Arles, who died
in A.D. 1450, was the most powerful and most eloquent of the
anti-papal party at Basel. He was therefore excommunicated
by Eugenius IV. At last submitting to the pope, he was
restored by Nicholas V. and in A.D. 1527 beatified by
Clement VII.
§ 118.5. =Friends of Reform in Germany.=
1. Even before the appearance of the Parisian friends of
reform, a German, =Henry of Langenstein=, at Marburg had
insisted upon the princes and prelates calling an œcumenical
council for putting an end to schism and reforming the
church. In a treatise published in A.D. 1381 he gave a sad
but only too true picture of the desolate condition of the
church. The cloisters he designated _prostibula meretricium_,
cathedral churches _speluncæ raptorum et latronum_, etc.
From A.D. 1363 he taught in Paris, from A.D. 1390 in Vienna,
where in A.D. 1397 he died as rector of the university.
2. =Theodorich or Dietrich of Niem= in Westphalia
accompanied Gregory XI. from France to Rome as his
secretary in A.D. 1377. From A.D. 1395-1399 he was Bishop
of Verdun, was probably present at the Council of Pisa,
and certainly at that of Constance. He died in this latter
place in A.D. 1417. His writings are of great value for
the history of the schism and of the councils of Pisa and
Constance. His language is simple, strong, and faithful.
3. =Gregory of Heimburg= was present at the Basel Council,
in terms of close friendship with Æneas Sylvius, who was
then also on the side of reform. He became in A.D. 1433
syndicus at Nuremberg, went to the council at Mantua
in A.D. 1459 as envoy of Duke Sigismund of Austria, was
banished in A.D. 1460 by his old friend, now Pius II.,
afterwards led a changeful life, never free from the
papal persecutions, and died at Dresden in A.D. 1472. His
principal writings on civil and ecclesiastical polity,
powerful indictments against the Roman curia inspired by
love for his German fatherland, appeared at Frankfort in
A.D. 1608 under the title _Scripta nervosa justitiæque
plena_.
4. =Jacob of Jüterboyk [Jüterbock]=, who died in A.D. 1465,
was first a Cistercian monk in Poland and teacher of
theology at Cracow, then Carthusian at Erfurt, and to the
end of his life a zealous defender of the positions of the
Council of Basel, at which he was present in A.D. 1441. His
writings leave untouched the doctrines of the church, but
vigorously denounce the political and moral corruption of
the papacy and monasticism, the greedy misuse of the sale
of indulgences, and insist upon the subordinating of the
pope under general councils, and their right even to depose
the pontiff. Whoever contests this latter position teaches
that Christ has given over the church to a sinful man, like
a bridegroom who surrenders his bride to the unrestrained
will of a soldier. All possession of property on the part
of those in sacred offices is with him an abomination, and
unhesitatingly he calls upon the civil power to put an end
to this evil.
5. The =Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa= (§ 113, 6) also for a long
time was one of the most zealous friends of reform in the
Basel Council.
6. =Felix Hemmerlin=, canon at Zürich, was to the end of
his life an ardent supporter of the reform measures of the
Council of Basel, at which he had been present. As he gave
effect to his views in his =official= position, he incurred
the hatred and persecution of the inmates of his convent
to such an extent, that they laid a plot to murder him in
A.D. 1439. His whole life was an almost unbroken series of
sufferings and persecutions. These in great part he brought
on himself by his zealous support of the reactionary party
of the nobles that sided with Austria in opposition to the
patriotic revolutionary party that struggled for freedom.
Deprived of his revenues and deposed from office, he was
imprisoned in A.D. 1454, and died between A.D. 1457-1464
in the prison of the monastery of the Minorites at Lucerne,
martyr as much to his political conservatism as to his
ecclesiastical reformatory principles. His writings were
placed in the _Index prohibitorum_ by the Council of Trent.
7. To this place also belongs the work written in the Swabian
dialect, “=The Reformation of the Emperor Sigismund=,”
which demands a thoroughgoing and radical reform of
the clergy and the secular priests, insisting upon the
renunciation of all personal property on the part of the
latter, enforcing against prelates, abbots, monasteries,
and monks all the reforms of the Basel Council, and making
proposals for their execution in the spirit of the Taborites
and Hussites. The author is styled in the MSS. Frederick
of Landscron, and describes himself as a councillor of
Sigismund. The tract was therefore regarded during the
15th and 16th centuries as a work composed under the
direction of the emperor, setting forth the principles
of reformation attempted at the Basel or Constance Council.
According to Böhm its author was the Taborite Reiser
(§ 119, 9), who, under the powerful reforming impulse
of the Basel Council of A.D. 1435-1437, composed it in
A.D. 1438.
§ 118.6. =An Italian Apostate from the Basel Liberal
Party.=--=Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini=, born at Siena in A.D. 1405,
appeared at Basel, first as secretary of a bishop, then of a
cardinal, and finally of the Basel anti-pope Felix V., as a most
decided opponent of Eugenius IV., and wrote in A.D. 1439 from
this point of view his history of the council. In A.D. 1442 he
entered the service of the then neutral Emperor Frederick III.,
was made _Poeta laureatus_ and imperial councillor, and as such
still fought for the independence of the German church. But in
A.D. 1445, with all the diplomatic arts which were so abundantly
at his disposal, he wrought to secure the subjection of the
emperor and German princes under the pope (§ 110, 10). Made
bishop of Siena in A.D. 1450, he was raised to the cardinalate
by Calixtus III. in A.D. 1456, and two years later ascended the
papal throne as Pius II. The lasciviousness of his earlier life
is mirrored in his poems, novels, dialogues, dramas, and letters.
But as pope, old and weak, he maintained an honourable life, and
in a bull of retractation addressed to the University of Cologne
exhorted Christendom _Æneam rejicite, Pium recipite_!
§ 118.7. =Reforms in Church Policy in Spain.=--Notwithstanding
the church feeling awakened by the struggle with the Moors, a
vigorous opposition to papal pretensions was shown during the
14th century by the Spanish princes, and after the outbreak
of the great schism the anti-pope Clement VII., in A.D. 1381,
purchased the obedience of the Spanish church by large
concessions in regard to appointment to its bishoprics and
the removal of the abuses of papal indulgences. The popes,
indeed, sought not unsuccessfully to enlist Spain in their
favour against the reformatory tendencies of the councils
of the 15th century, until =Ferdinand= of Aragon [Arragon],
A.D. 1479-1516, and =Isabella= of Castille [Castile],
A.D. 1474-1504, who had on account of their zeal for the
Catholic cause been entitled by the pontiff himself “their
Catholic majesties,” entered so vigorous a protest against
papal usurpations, that toward the end of the 15th century the
royal supremacy over the Spanish church had won a recognition
never accorded to it before. They consistently refused to
acknowledge any bishop appointed by the pope, and forced from
Sixtus IV. the concession that only Spaniards nominated by
the Crown should be eligible for the highest ecclesiastical
offices. All papal rescripts were subject to the royal approval,
ecclesiastical tribunals were carefully supervised, and appeals
from them were allowed to the royal judicatures. The church had
also to give ordinary and extraordinary tithes of its goods and
revenues for State purposes. The Spanish inquisition (§ 117, 2),
thoroughly recognised in A.D. 1483, was more of a civil than
an ecclesiastical institution. As the bishops and inquisitors
were appointed by the royal edict, the orders of knights
(§ 98, 13), by the transference of the grand-mastership to
the king, were placed in complete subjection to the Crown;
and whether he would or not Alexander VI. was obliged to accord
to the royal commission for church and cloister visitation
and reform the most absolute authority. But in everything
else these rulers were worthy of the name of “Catholics,”
for they tolerated in their church only the purely mediæval
type of strict orthodoxy. The most distinguished promoter
of their reforms in church polity was a Franciscan monk,
=Francis Ximenes=, from A.D. 1492 confessor to Isabella,
afterwards raised by her to the archbishopric of Toledo,
made a Roman cardinal by Alexander VI., and grand-inquisitor
of Spain in A.D. 1507. He died in A.D. 1517.
§ 119. EVANGELICAL EFFORTS AT REFORM.
Alongside of the Parisian reformers, but far in advance of them,
stand those of the English and Bohemian churches represented by Wiclif
and Huss. The reformation aimed at by these two was essentially of
the same kind, Wiclif being the more original, while Huss was largely
dependent upon his great English precursor. For in personal endowment,
speculative power, rich and varied learning, acuteness and wealth of
thought, originality and productivity of intellect, the Englishman
was head and shoulders above the Bohemian. On the other hand, Huss
was far more a man for the people, and he conducted his contention
in a sensible, popular, and practical manner. There were also powerful
representatives of the reform movement in the Netherlands during this
period, who pointed to Scripture and faith in the crucified Saviour as
the only radical cure for the corruptions of the church. While Wiclif
and Huss attached themselves to the Augustinian theology, the Dutchmen
gave themselves to quiet, calm contemplation and the acquirement of
practical religious knowledge. In Italy too a reformer appeared of a
strongly evangelical spirit, who did not however show the practical
sense of those of the Netherlands.
§ 119.1. =Wiclif and the Wiclifites.=--In England the kings and
the Parliament had for a long time withstood the oppressive yoke
of the papal hierarchy. Men too like John of Salisbury, Robert
Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, and Thomas Bradwardine had raised their
voices against the inner corruption of the church. =John Wiclif=,
a scholar of Bradwardine, was born about A.D. 1320. As fellow of
the University of Oxford, he supported in A.D. 1366 the English
Crown against the payment of tribute to the papal court then at
Avignon, admitted by John Lackland (§ 96, 18), of which payment
had now for a long time been refused. This secured him court
favour, the title of doctor, and a professorship of theology at
Oxford; and in A.D. 1374 he was chosen as member of a commission
which was to discuss at Brügge in the Netherlands with the papal
envoys the differences that had arisen about the appointing
to ecclesiastical offices. After his return he openly spoke
and wrote against the papal “antichrist” and his doctrines.
Gregory XI. now, in A.D. 1377, condemned nineteen propositions
from his writings, but the English court protected him from the
strict inquiry and punishment threatened. Meanwhile Wiclif was
ever becoming bolder. Under his influence religious societies
were formed which sent out travelling preachers of the gospel
among the people. By their opponents they were called Lollards
(§ 116, 3), a name to which the stigma of heresy was already
attached. Wiclif translated for them the Scriptures from
the Vulgate into English. The bitterness of his enemies now
reached its height. Just then, in A.D. 1381, a rebellion of
the oppressed peasants that deluged all England with blood
broke out. Its origin has been quite gratuitously assigned to
the religious movement. When he had directly repudiated the
doctrine of transubstantiation, a synod at London, in A.D. 1382,
condemned his writings and his doctrine as heretical, and the
university also cast him out. Court and Parliament could only
protect his person. He now retired to his rectory at Lutterworth
in Leicestershire, where he died on 31st December, 1384.--For
five centuries his able writings were left unprinted, to moulder
away in the obscurity of libraries. His English works have
now been edited by Matthews, London, 1880. Lechler of Leipzig
edited Wiclif’s most complete and comprehensive work, the
“_Trialogus_” (Oxford, 1869), in which his whole theological
system is developed. Buddensieg of Dresden published the keen
antipapal controversial tract, “_De Christo et suo adversario
Antichristo_” (Leipzig, 1880). The Wiclif Society, instituted
at the fifth centenary of Wiclif’s death for the purpose of
issuing critical editions of his most important works, sent
forth as their first performance Buddensieg’s edition of
“twenty-six Latin controversial tracts of Wiclif’s from MSS.
previously unprinted,” in 2 vols., London, 1883. Among Wiclif’s
systematic treatises we are promised editions of the _Summa
theologiæ_, _De incarnatione Verbi_, _De veritate s. Scr._,
_De dominio divino_, _De ecclesia_, _De actibus animæ_, etc.,
some by English, some by German editors.--As the principle of
all theology and reformation Wiclif consistently affirms the
sole authority of Divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. He
has hence been called _doctor evangelicus_. Anything that cannot
be proved from it is a corrupting human invention. Consistently
carrying out this principle, he denounced the worship of saints,
relics, and images, the use of Latin in public worship, elaborate
priestly choir singing, the multiplication of festivals, private
masses, extreme unction, and generally all ceremonialism. The
Catholic doctrine of indulgence and the sale of indulgences,
as well as the ban and the interdict, he pronounced blasphemous;
auricular confession he regarded as a forcing of conscience; the
power of the keys he explained as conditional, its binding and
loosing powerless, except when in accordance with the judgment
of Christ. He denied the real presence of the body and blood
of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, and affirmed, like Berengar,
a spiritual communication thereof, which however he makes
dependent, not only on the faith of the receiver, but also
on the worthiness of the officiating priest. The doctrine of
purgatory he completely rejected, and supported Augustine’s
predestinationism against the prevalent semipelagianism. The
papacy was antichrist; the pope has his power only from the
emperor, not from God. The hierarchical system should be
replaced by the apostolic presbyterial constitution. Ordination
confers no indelible character; a priest who has fallen into
mortal sin cannot dispense the sacrament. Every believer is as
such a priest. The State is a representation of Christ, as the
God-Man ruler of the universe; the clergy represent only the
poor and suffering life of His humanity. Monkery is contrary
to nature, etc.--Wiclif’s supporters, many of them belonging
to the noblest and most cultured orders, were after his death
subjected to violent persecution, which reached its height when
the House of Lancaster in the person of Henry IV. ascended the
English throne in A.D. 1399. An act of parliament was passed in
A.D. 1400 which made death by fire the punishment of the heresy
of the Lollards. Among the martyrs which this law brought to
the stake was the noble Sir John Oldcastle, who in A.D. 1418
was hung up between two beams in iron chains over a fire and
there slowly burnt. The Council of Constance in A.D. 1415
condemned forty-five propositions from Wiclif’s writings, and
ordered his bones to be exhumed and scattered abroad. Many
germs sown by him continued until the Reformation came.[348]
§ 119.2. =Precursors of the Hussite Movement.=--Owing to its
Greek origin (§ 79, 2, 3), the Bohemian church had a certain
character of its own and barely tolerated the Roman constitution
and ritual. In Bohemia too the Waldensians had numerous
supporters during the 13th century. And even before the
appearance of Huss three distinguished clergymen in and around
Prague by earnest preaching and pastoral work had awakened in
many a consciousness of crying abuses in the church.
1. =Conrad of Waldhausen= was a famous preacher when called
by Charles IV. to Prague, where after fifteen years’ labour
he died in A.D. 1369. Preaching in German, he inveighed
against the cupidity, hypocrisy, and immorality of the
clergy and monks, against the frauds connected with the
worship of images and relics and shrines, and threw back
upon his accusers the charge of heresy in his still extant
_Apologia_.
2. More influential than Conrad as a preacher of repentance
in Prague was =John Milicz of Cremsier= in Moravia, who
died in A.D. 1374. Believing the end of the world near
and antichrist already come, he went to Rome in A.D. 1367
to place before Urban V. his scheme of apocalyptic
interpretation. Escaping with difficulty from the
Inquisition, he returned to Prague, and there applied
himself with renewed zeal to the preaching of repentance.
His preaching led to the conversion of 200 fallen women,
for whom he erected an institution which he called Jerusalem.
But the begging friars accused him before Gregory XI. as a
heretic. Milicz fearlessly went for examination to Avignon
in A.D. 1374, where he soon died before judgment had been
passed. The most important of his works is _De Antichristo_.
3. =Matthias of Janow=, of noble Bohemian descent, died in
A.D. 1374, after fourteen years’ work as a preacher and
pastor in Prague. His sermons, composed in Bohemian, lashed
unsparingly the vices of the clergy and monks, as well
as the immorality of the laity, and denounced the worship
of images and relics. None of his sermons are extant,
but we have various theological treatises of his on the
distinguishing of the true faith from the false and the
frequent observance of the communion. At a Prague synod of
A.D. 1389 he was obliged to retract several of his positions,
and especially to grant the propriety of confessing and
communicating half-yearly. Janow however, like Conrad and
Milicz, did not seriously contest any fundamental point of
the doctrine of the church.
§ 119.3. =John Huss of Hussinecz= in Bohemia, born A.D. 1369,
was Bachelor of Theology at Prague, in A.D. 1394, Master
of Liberal Arts in A.D. 1396, became public teacher in the
university in A.D. 1398, was ordained priest in A.D. 1400,
undertook a pastorate in A.D. 1402 in the Bethlehem chapel,
where he had to preach in the Bohemian language, was chosen
confessor of Queen Sophia in A.D. 1403, and was soon afterwards
made synodal preacher by the new archbishop, Sbynko of Hasenburg.
Till then he had in pious humility accepted all the doctrines
of the Romish Church, and even in A.D. 1392 he offered his last
four groschen for an indulgence, so that for a long time dry
bread was his only nourishment. But about A.D. 1402 he reached
an important crisis in his life through the study of Wiclif’s
theological works.--Bohemians who had studied in Oxford brought
with them Wiclif’s philosophical works, and in A.D. 1348 the
discussion on realism and nominalism broke out in Prague. The
Bohemians generally sided with Wiclif for realism; the Germans
with the nominalists (§ 113, 3). This helped to prepare an
entrance for Wiclif’s theological writings into Bohemia. Of the
national party which favoured Wiclif’s philosophy and theology,
Huss was soon recognised as a leader. A university decree of
A.D. 1403 condemned forty-five propositions from Wiclif’s works
as heretical, and forbade their promulgation in lectures or
sermons. Huss however was still highly esteemed by Archbishop
Sbynko. In A.D. 1405 he appointed Huss, with other three
scholars, a commission to investigate a reputed miracle at
Wilsnack, where on the altar of a ruined church three blood-red
coloured hosts were said to have been found. Huss pronounced
the miracle a cheat, and proved in a tract that the blood of
Christ glorified can only be invisibly present in the sacrament
of the altar. The archbishop approved this tract, and forbade
all pilgrimages to the spot. He also took no offence at Huss
for uttering Wiclifite doctrine in his synod sermon. Only when,
in A.D. 1408, the clergy of his diocese complained that Huss by
his preaching made the priests contemptible before the people,
did he deprive him of his function as synod preacher. When the
majority of cardinals at Leghorn in A.D. 1408 took steps to put
an end to the schism, king Wenzel determined to remain neutral,
and demanded the assent of the university as well as the clergy
of his realm. But only the Bohemian members of the university
agreed, while the rest, along with the archbishop, supported
Gregory XII. Sbynko keenly resented the revolt of the Bohemians,
and forbade Huss as their spokesman to preach within his diocese.
Huss paid no attention to the prohibition, but secured a royal
injunction, that henceforth in the university Bohemians should
have three votes and foreigners only one. The foreigners then
withdrew, and founded the University of Leipzig in A.D. 1409.
Huss was made first rector of the newly organized University
of Prague; but the very fact of his great popularity in Bohemia
caused him to be profoundly hated in other lands.[349]
§ 119.4. The archbishop escaped prosecution only by
unreservedly condemning the doctrines of Wiclif, burning his
books, and prohibiting all lectures upon them. Huss and his
friends appealed to John XXIII., but this did not prevent the
archbishop burning in his palace yard about two hundred Wiclifite
books that had previously escaped his search. For this he was
hooted in the streets, and compelled by the courts of law to
pay the value of the books destroyed. John XXIII. cited Huss
to appear at Rome. King, nobles, magistrates, and university
sided with him; but the papal commission condemned him when he
did not appear, and the archbishop pronounced anathema against
him and the interdict against Prague (A.D. 1411). Huss appealed
to the œcumenical council, and continued to preach. The court
forced the archbishop to become reconciled with Huss, and to
admit his orthodoxy. Sbynko reported to the pope that Bohemia
was free from heresy. He soon afterwards died. The pope himself
was the cause of a complete breach, by having an indulgence
preached in Bohemia in A.D. 1412 for a crusade against Ladislaus
of Naples, the powerful adherent of Gregory XII. Huss opposed
this by word and writing, and in a public disputation maintained
that the pope had no right to grant such indulgence. His most
stanch supporter was a Bohemian knight, Jerome of Prague, who
had studied at Oxford, and returned in A.D. 1402 an enthusiastic
adherent of Wiclif’s doctrines. Their addresses produced
an immense impression, and two days later their disorderly
followers, to throw contempt on the papal party, had the bull
of indulgence paraded through the streets, on the breast of a
public prostitute, representing the whore of Babylon, and then
cast into the flames. But many old friends now withdrew from Huss
and joined his opponents. The papal curia thundered against him
and his followers the great excommunication, with its terrible
curses. Wherever he resided that place was put under interdict.
But Huss appealed to the one righteous Judge, Jesus Christ. At
the wish of the king he left the city, and sought the protection
of various noble patrons, from whose castles he went forth
diligently preaching round about. He spread his views all over
the country by controversial and doctrinal treatises in Latin
and Bohemian, as well as by an extensive correspondence with
his friends and followers. Thus the trouble and turmoil grew
from day to day, and all the king’s efforts to restore peace
were in vain.
§ 119.5. The Roman emperor Sigismund summoned Huss to attend the
Council of Constance (§ 110, 7), and promised him a safe-conduct.
Though not yet in possession of this latter, which he only
got at Constance, trusting to the righteousness of his cause,
for which he was quite willing to die a martyr’s death, he
started for Constance on 11th October, A.D. 1414, reaching his
destination on 3rd November. On 28th November he was sentenced
to imprisonment at a private conference of the cardinals, on the
pretended charge of an attempt at flight, first in the Dominican
cloister, then in the bishop’s castle of Gottlieben, where he
was put in chains, finally in the Franciscan cloister. Sigismund,
who had not been forewarned when he was cast into prison, ordered
his release; but the council convinced him that Huss, arraigned
as a heretic before a general council, was beyond the reach
of civil protection. His bitterest enemies and accusers were
two Bohemians, Michael of Deutschbrod and Stephan of Palecz.
The latter extracted forty-two points for accusations from his
writings, which Huss from his prison retracted. D’Ailly and
Gerson were both against him. The brave knight John of Chlum
stood faithfully by him as a comforter to the last. For almost
seven months was he harassed by private examinations, in which,
notwithstanding his decided repudiation of many of them, he was
charged with all imaginable Wiclifite heresies. The result was
the renewed condemnation of those forty-five propositions from
Wiclif’s writings, which had been condemned A.D. 1408 by the
University of Prague. At last, on 5th June, A.D. 1415, he was
for the first time granted a public trial, but the tumult at
the sitting was so great that he was prevented from saying a
single word. Even on the two following days of the trial he
could do little more than make a vain protest against being
falsely charged with errors, and declare his willingness to be
better instructed from God’s word. The humility and gentleness of
his demeanour, as well as the enthusiasm and believing joyfulness
which he displayed, won for him many hearts even outside of the
council. All possible motives were urged to induce him to submit.
Sigismund so exhorted him, with the threat that if he did not
he would withdraw his protection. The third and last day of
trial was 8th June, A.D. 1415, and judgment was pronounced in
the cathedral church on the 6th July. After high mass had been
celebrated, a bishop mounted the pulpit and preached on Romans
vi. 6. He addressed Sigismund, who was present, “By destroying
this heretic, thou shalt obtain an undying name to all ensuing
generations.” Once again called upon to recant, Huss repeated
his previous protests, appealed to the promise of a safe-conduct,
which made Sigismund wince and blush, and kneeling down prayed
to God for his enemies and unjust judges. Then seven bishops
dressed him in priestly robes in order to strip him of them one
after another amid solemn execrations. Then they put on him a
high pyramidal hat, painted with figures of devils, and bearing
the inscription, _Hæresiarcha_, and uttered the words, “We give
thy soul to the devil.” He replied: “I commend it into the hands
of our Saviour Jesus Christ.” On that same day he was given over
by Sigismund to Louis Count-palatine of the Rhine, and by him
to the Constance magistrates, and led to the stake. Amid prayer
and praise he expired, joyfully, courageously, and confidently,
showing himself worthy to rank among the martyrs who in the best
times of Christianity had sealed their Christian confession with
their blood. His ashes were scattered on the Rhine. The later
Hussites, in accordance with an old Christian custom (§ 39, 5),
celebrated the day of his death as the _dies natalis_ of the
holy martyr John Huss.--=Jerome of Prague= had gone unasked to
Constance. When he saw that his longer stay would not help his
friend, but only involve himself in his fate, he left the city;
but was seized on the way, and taken back in chains in April,
A.D. 1415. During a severe half-year’s imprisonment, and wearied
with the importunities of his judges, he agreed to recant, and
to acquiesce in the sentence of Huss. But he was not trusted, and
after as before his recantation he was kept in close confinement.
Then his courage revived. He demanded a public trial before the
whole council, which was at last granted him in May, A.D. 1416.
There he solemnly and formally retracted his previous retractation
with a believer’s confidence and a martyr’s joy. On May 30th,
A.D. 1416, he, too, died at the stake, joyfully and courageously
as Huss had done. The Florentine humanist Poggio, who was present,
has given enthusiastic expression in a still extant letter to his
admiration at the heroic spirit of the martyr.
§ 119.6. In all his departures from Romish doctrine Huss was
dependent upon Wiclif, not only for the matter, but even for
the modes of expression. He did not however separate himself
quite so far from the Church doctrines as his English master.
He firmly maintained the doctrine of transubstantiation; he was
also inclined to withhold the cup from the laity; and, though
he sought salvation only from the Saviour crucified for us, he
did not refuse to give any place to works in the justification
of the sinner, and even invocation of the saints he did not
wholly condemn. While he energetically protested against the
corruption of the clergy, he never denied that the sacrament
might be efficaciously administered by an unworthy priest. In
everything else however he was in thorough agreement with the
English reformer. The most complete exposition of his doctrine
is found in the _Tractatus de ecclesia_ of A.D. 1413. Augustine’s
doctrine of predestination is its foundation. He distinguishes
from the church as a visible human institution the idea of the
church as the true body of Christ, embracing all elected in
Christ to blessedness from eternity. Its one and only head is
Christ: not Peter, not the pope; for this church is no monster
with two heads. Originally and according to Christ’s appointment
the bishop of Rome was no more than the other bishops. The
donation of Constantine first gave him power and dignity over
the rest. As the church in the beginning could exist without
a pope, so the church unto the end can exist without one. The
Christian can obey the pope only where his commands and doctrines
agree with those of Christ. In matters of faith Holy Scripture
is the only authority. Fathers, councils, and popes may err,
and have erred; only the word of God is infallible.--That
this liberal reforming Council of Constance, with a Gerson
at its head, should have sentenced such a man to death is not
to be wondered at when we rightly consider how matters stood.
His hateful realism seemed to the nominalistic fathers of the
council the source of all conceivable heresies. It had even
been maintained that realism consistently carried out would
give a fourth person to the Godhead. His devotion to the national
interests of Bohemia in the University of Prague had excited
German national feeling against him. And, further, the council,
which was concerned only with outward reforms, had little
sympathy with the evangelical tone of his spirit and doctrine.
Besides this, Huss had placed himself between the swords of two
contending parties. The hierarchical party wished, in order to
strike terror into their opponents, to show by an example that
the church had still the power to burn heretics; and the liberal
party refused to this object of papal hate all protection, lest
they should endanger the cause of reformation by incurring a
suspicion of sympathy with heresy.--The prophecy said to have
been uttered by Huss in his last moments, “To-day you burn a
goose (this being the meaning of Huss in Slavonian), but from
its ashes will arise a swan (Luther’s coat of arms), which you
will not be able to burn,” was unknown to his contemporaries.
Probably it originated in the Reformation age from the appeals
of both martyrs to the judgment of God and history. Huss had
often declared that instead of the weak goose there would come
powerful eagles and falcons.[350]
§ 119.7. =Calixtines and Taborites.=--During the imprisonment
of their leader the Hussite party was headed by Jacob of Misa,
pastor of St. Michael’s church in Prague. With consent of Huss
he introduced the use of the cup by the laity and rejected the
_jejunium eucharisticum_ as opposed to Matthew xxvi. 26. This
led to an interchange of controversial tracts between Prague and
Constance on the withholding of the cup. The council decreed that
whoever disobeys the Church on this point is to be punished as a
heretic. This decree, followed by the execution of Huss, roused
Bohemia to the uttermost. King Wenceslaw died in A.D. 1419 in the
midst of national excitement, and the estates refused to crown
his brother Sigismund, “the word-breaker.” Now arose a civil war,
A.D. 1420-1436, characterized by cruelties on both sides rarely
equalled. At the head of the Hussites, who had built on the brow
of a steep hill the strong fortress Tabor, was the one-eyed,
afterwards blind, =John Ziska of Trocznov=. The crusading armies
sent against the Hussites were one after another destroyed;
but the gentle spirit of Huss had no place among most of his
followers. The two parties became more and more embittered toward
one another. The aristocratic =Calixtines= (_calix_, cup) or
Utraquists (_sub utraque_), at whose head was Bishop Rokycana
of Prague, declared that they would be satisfied if the Catholic
church would concede to them four articles:
1. Communion under both kinds;
2. Preaching of the pure gospel in the vulgar tongue;
3. Strict discipline among the clergy; and
4. Renunciation by the clergy of church property.
On the other hand, the =Taborites= would have no reconciliation
with the Romish church, regarding as fundamentally corrupt in
doctrine and worship whatever is not found in Scripture, and
passing over into violent fanaticism, iconoclasm, etc. After
Ziska’s death of the plague in A.D. 1424, the majority of the
Taborites elected Procopius the Great as his successor. A small
party that regarded no man worthy of succeeding the great Ziska,
refused him allegiance, and styled themselves Orphans. They were
the most fanatical of all.--Meanwhile the Council of Basel had
met (§ 110, 8) and after long fruitless negotiations it was
resolved in A.D. 1433 that 300 Hussite deputies should appear
at Basel. After a fifty days’ disputation the four Calixtine
articles with certain modifications were accepted by the council.
On the basis of this =Basel Compact= the Calixtines returned
to the Romish church. The Taborites regarded this as shameful
treason to the cause of truth, and continued the conflict. But
in A.D. 1434 they were utterly annihilated at Böhmischbrod, not
far from Prague. In the Treaty of Iglau in A.D. 1436 Sigismund
swore to observe the compact, and was recognised as king. But
the concessions sworn to by church and state were more and more
restricted and ultimately ignored. Sigismund died in A.D. 1437.
In place of his son-in-law, Albert II., the Utraquists set up a
rival king in the person of the thirteen year old Polish prince
Casimir; but Albert died in A.D. 1439. His son, Ladislaus, born
after his father’s death, had, in George Podiebrad, a Calixtine
tutor. After he had grown up in A.D. 1453, he walked in his
grandfather’s footsteps, and died in A.D. 1457. The Calixtines
now elected Podiebrad king, as a firm supporter of the compact.
Pius II. recognised him in the hope that he would aid him in his
projected war against the Turks. When this hope was disappointed
he cancelled the compact, in A.D. 1462. Paul II. put the king
under him, and had a crusade preached against him. Podiebrad
however still held his ground. He died in A.D. 1471. His
successor, Wladislaw II., a Polish prince, though a zealous
Catholic, was obliged to confirm anew to the Calixtines
at the Diet of Cuttenberg, in A.D. 1485, all their rights
and liberties. Yet they could not maintain themselves as
an independent community. Those of them who did not join
the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren gradually during the
16th century became thoroughly amalgamated with the Catholic
church.
§ 119.8. =The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren.=--George Podiebrad
took Tabor in A.D. 1453, and scattered the last remnants of the
Taborites. Joining with the evangelical Friends of God, they
received from the king a castle, where, under the leadership
of the local pastor, Michael of Bradacz, they formed a _Unitas
fratrum_, and called themselves Bohemian and Moravian Brethren.
But in A.D. 1461 Podiebrad withdrew his favour, and confiscated
their goods. They fled into the woods, and met for worship in
caves. In A.D. 1467 the most distinguished of the Bohemian and
Moravian Brethren met in a Bohemian village, Shota, with the
German Waldensians, and chose three brethren by lot as priests,
who were ordained by Michael and a Waldensian priest. But
when the validity of their ordination was disputed, Michael
went to the Waldensian bishop Stephen, got from him episcopal
consecration, and then again ordained the three chosen at Shota,
one, Matthias of Conewald, as bishop, the other two as priests.
This led Rokycana to persecute them all the more bitterly. They
increased their numbers however, by receiving the remnants of
the Waldensians and many Utraquists, until by the beginning of
the 16th century they had four hundred congregations in Bohemia
and Moravia. Under Wladislaw II. persecution was stopped from
A.D. 1475, but was renewed with great violence in A.D. 1503. They
sent in A.D. 1511 a confession of faith to Erasmus (§ 120, 6),
with the request that he would give his opinion about it; which
he however, fearing to be compromised thereby, declined to do.
After the death of Bishop Matthias, in A.D. 1500, a dislike
of monarchy led to the appointment of four _Seniors_ instead
of one bishop, two for Bohemia and two for Moravia. The most
important and influential of these was Luke of Prague, who
died in A.D. 1518, rightly regarded as the second founder
of the union. He impressed a character upon the brotherhood
essentially distinct in respect of constitution and doctrine
from the Lutheran Reformation.--Continuation § 139, 19.
§ 119.9. =The Waldensians.=
1. The range of the missionary enterprise of the
=Lombard-German Waldensians= was widely extended during
the 14th century. At the close of that period it stretched
“from western Switzerland across the southern borders
of the empire, from the upper and middle Rhine along
the Main and through Franconia into Thuringia, from
Bohemia up to Brandenburg and Pomerania, and with its
last advances reached to Prussia, Poland, Silesia, Hungary,
Transylvania, and Galicia.” The anonymous writer of Passau,
about A.D. 1260 or 1316, reports from his own knowledge
of numerous “Leonists,” who in forty-two communities, with
a bishop at Einzinspach, in the diocese of Passau, were in
his time the subject of inquisitorial interference, and in
theory and practice bore all the characteristic marks of
the Lombard Leonists. The same applies to the Austrian
Waldensians, of whose persecution in A.D. 1391 we have
an account by Peter of Pilichdorf. We may also with equal
confidence pronounce the Winkelers, so called from holding
their services in secret corners, who about this time
appeared in Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, and the Rhine
Provinces, to be Waldensians of the same Lombard type.
Their confessors, Winkelers in the narrower sense, were
itinerant, celibate, and without fixed abode, carrying
on missionary work, and administering the sacrament of
penance to their adherents. Although, in order to avoid
the attentions of the Inquisition, they took part in
the Catholic services, and in case of need confessed to
Catholic priests, they were nevertheless traced about
A.D. 1400 to Strassburg. Thirty-two of them were thrown
into prison, and induced under torture to confess. The
Dominicans insisted that they should be immediately burned,
but the council was satisfied with banishing them from the
city. At a later period the Hussites obtained an influence
over them. One of their most notable apostles at this time
was Fr. Reiser of Swabia. In his travels he went to Bohemia,
attached himself to the Hussites there, received from
them priestly ordination, and in A.D. 1433 accompanied
their representatives to the Basel Council. Then Procopius
procured him a call to a pastorate in the little Bohemian
town of Landscron, which, however, he soon abandoned.
Encouraged by the reformatory tendency of the council,
he now remained for a long time in Basel, then conducted
missionary work in Germany, at first on his own account,
afterwards at the head of a Taborite mission of twelve
agents, in which position he styled himself _Fridericus Dei
gratia Episcopus fidelium in Romana ecclesia Constantini
donationem spernentium_. At last, in A.D. 1457, he went
to Strassburg, with the intention of there ending his days
in peace. But soon after his arrival he was apprehended,
and in A.D. 1458, along with his faithful follower, Anna
Weiler, put to death at the stake.--On the Waldensians
in German Switzerland, and the Inquisition’s oft repeated
interference with them, Ochsenbein gives a full report,
drawn from original documents, specially full in regard
to the great Inquisition trial at Freiburg, in A.D. 1430,
consisting of ninety-nine wearisome and detailed examinations.
Subsequently terrible persecutions, aiming at their
extermination, became still more frequent in Switzerland.
Also the Swiss Waldensians already bore unmistakable
marks of having been influenced by the Hussites. Finally,
Wattenbach has made interesting communications regarding
the Waldensians in Pomerania and Brandenburg, based
upon a manuscript once in the possession of Flacius, but
afterwards supposed to have been lost, discovered again
in the Wolfenbüttel library in A.D. 1884, though in a
very defective form, which contains the original reports
of 443 prosecutions for heresy in Pomerania, Brandenburg,
and Thuringia. By far the greatest number of these trials
were conducted between A.D. 1373 and 1394, by the Cœlestine
provincial Peter, appointed inquisitor by the pope. From
A.D. 1383 Stettin was the centre of his inquisitorial
activity, and on the conclusion of his work he could boast
that during the last two years he had converted to the
Catholic faith more than 1,000 Waldensians. The victims of
the Inquisition belonged almost exclusively to the peasant
and artisan classes. Their objectionable doctrines and
opinions are essentially almost the same as those of their
ancestors of the 13th century. Although equally with their
predecessors they abhorred the practice of the Catholic
church, and declared all swearing and slaughter to be
mortal sin, they yet in great part, and as it seems even
without the application of torture, were persuaded to
abjure their heresy, and incurred nothing more than a
light penance. They did this, perhaps, only in the hope
that their indulgent confessors would absolve them from
their sin. The last protocols bring us down to A.D. 1458.
Since a great number of these heretics were found again
in Brandenburg, the elector caused one of their most
distinguished leaders, the tailor Matthew Hagen, and
three of his disciples to be taken prisoners to Berlin,
and commissioned the Bishop of Brandenburg to investigate
the case; but owing to his sickness this duty devolved
upon John Cannemann, professor and doctor of theology. The
elector was himself present at the trial. The investigation
showed that the Waldensians of Brandenburg had evidently
been influenced in their opinions by the Bohemian Taborites,
and that they were constantly in close communion with them,
and Hagen confessed that he had been there ordained by
Fr. Ryss or Reiser to the clerical office. When Hagen
persistently refused to retract, he was delivered over
to the civil authorities for punishment, and was by them
executed, probably at the stake. His three companions
abjured their heresy, and on submitting to church discipline
and wearing clothes marked with the sign of the cross, were
pardoned. Cannemann then proceeded to Angermünde, where in
the city and surrounding country crowds of such heretics
resided; and there he succeeded without great difficulty
in bringing them to abjure their errors and accept the
Catholic confession.--The Waldensians in Bohemia and
Moravia quite voluntarily amalgamated with the “_United
Brethren_” there. The remnants of the German and Swiss
Waldensians may have attached themselves to the Reformation
of the 16th century, but probably for the most part to the
Protestant sects of that age, some joining Schwenkfeld,
and still more going with the Anabaptists, to whom they
were essentially much more closely related than to Luther
or Zwingli.--As to the ultimate fate of the Lombard
Waldensians themselves, we know nothing. Probably many
of them sought escape from the persecutions which raged
against them among the French Waldensians in the valleys
of Piedmont.
§ 119.9A.
2. The remnants of the =French Waldensians= and their lay
adherents down to the beginning of the 14th century had for
the most part settled in the remote and little cultivated
valleys on both sides of the Cottian Alps. This settlement,
which bore the character of an assembly as well as that of
an isolation, now rendered indispensable the organization
of an independent congregational order, such as had never
been attempted before. In the arrangements of this community,
not only was the question of clerical rank simplified by
the combination of the order of bishop or _majoralis_ with
that of the presbyter, to which combined office was given
the honourable designation of “_barbe_,” uncle, and instead
of the hitherto annual tenure of this office was introduced
a life tenure, but also to the laity was assigned a share
in the church government at their synod meetings. A bull
of John XXII., of A.D. 1332, informs us that then in the
Piedmontese valleys _ita creverunt et multiplicati sunt
hæretici, præcipue de secta Waldensium, quod frequenter
congregationes per modum capitali facere inibi præsumpserunt,
in quibus aliquando 500 Valdenses fuerunt insimul congregati_;
yet certainly not merely clergy, as among the earlier
congregations on the yearly tenure. The great, yea,
extraordinarily great, number of the Waldensians in the
Piedmontese valleys is proved by this, that from thence,
since A.D. 1340, flourishing colonies of Waldensians were
transplanted into Calabria and Apulia with the connivance
of the larger proprietors in those parts. Those who had
settled on the western side, in the province of Dauphiné,
succumbed completely in A.D. 1545 to the oft repeated
persecutions. The colonies of southern Italy, however,
seem long to have led a quiet and little disturbed life
under the protection of the territorial princes, until
their adoption of Protestant views called down upon
them the attention of the Inquisition, and led to their
utter extermination in A.D. 1561. On the other hand, the
Waldensians of Piedmont, in spite of continuous oppression
and frequently renewed persecution, maintained their
existence down to the present day. When in the beginning
of the 15th century their residence came under the sway of
the Duke of Savoy, the persecutions began, and lasted down
to A.D. 1477, when a crusade for their extermination was
summoned by Innocent VIII., which ended in the utter rout
of the crusading army by Savoy and France. They had now a
long period of repose, till their adoption of Protestant
views in the 16th century anew awakened against them the
horrors of persecution. In this time of rest brotherly
intercourse was cultivated between the Waldensian groups
and the Bohemian Brethren, who had hitherto maintained
relations only with the German Waldensians. This movement
originated with the Bohemians. Even at an earlier date,
these, inspired by the wish to seek abroad what they could
not obtain at home, namely, communion with a church free
from Romish corruptions, had made a voyage of discovery
in the east, which yielded no result. Now, in A.D. 1497,
they determined to make another similar search, under the
leadership of Luke of Prague, in the primitive haunts of
the Waldensians in France and Italy. The deputies went
forth, beginning with the south of France, and the remnants
of the French communities in their settlements among the
Piedmontese Alps. More detailed reports of their intercourse
with these no longer exist, but it cannot be doubted that
there was a mutual interchange of religious writings. It
is a question therefore that has been much discussed as
to which party was the chief gainer by this interchange.
But it can now be no longer questioned that the Waldensians,
as those who were far less advanced in the direction of
the evangelical reformation, learnt much from the Bohemians,
and by transferring it into their own literature, secured
it as their permanent property.
§ 119.10. =The Dutch Reformers= sprang mostly from the Brothers
of the Common Life (§ 112, 9).
1. =John Pupper of Goch= in Cleves, prior of a cloister
founded by him at Mecheln, died A.D. 1475. His works
show him to have been a man of deep spirituality. Love,
which leads to the true freedom of sons of God, is
the _material_, the sole authority of Scripture is the
_formal_, principle of his theology, which rests on a
purely Augustinian foundation. He contends against the
doctrine of righteousness by works, the meritoriousness
of vows, etc.
2. =John Ruchrath of Wesel=, professor in Erfurt, afterwards
preacher at Mainz and Worms, died in A.D. 1481. On the
basis of a strictly Augustinian theology he opposed the
papal systems of anathemas and indulgences, and preached
powerfully salvation by Jesus Christ only. For the church
doctrine of transubstantiation he substituted one of
impanation. He spiritualized the doctrine of the church.
Against the ecclesiastical injunction of fasts, he wrote
_De jejunio_; against indulgences, _De indulgentiis_;
against the hierarchy, _De potestate ecclesiastica_. The
Dominicans of Mainz accused and condemned him as a heretic
in A.D. 1479. The old man, bent down with age and sickness,
was forced to recant, and to burn his writings, and was
sentenced to imprisonment for life in a monastery.
3. =John Wessel= of Gröningen was a scholar of the Brothers
of the Common Life at Zwoll, where Thomas à Kempis exerted
a powerful influence over him. He taught in Cologne, Lyons,
Paris, and Heidelberg, and then retired to the cloister
of Agnes Mount, near Zwoll, where he died in A.D. 1489.
His friends called him _Lux mundi_. Scholastic dialectics,
mystical depths, and rich classical culture were in him
united with a clear and accurate knowledge of science.
Luther says of him: “Had I read Wessel before, my enemies
would have said, Luther has taken everything from Wessel,
so thoroughly do our ideas agree.” His views are in
harmony with Luther’s, especially in what he teaches of
Holy Scripture, the universal priesthood of Christians,
indulgence, repentance, faith, and justification. He
taught that not only popes but even councils may err and
have erred; excommunication has merely outward efficacy,
indulgence has to do only with ecclesiastical penalties,
and God alone can forgive sins; our justification rests
on Christ’s righteousness and God’s free grace. Purgatory
meant for him nothing more than the intermediate position
between earthly imperfection and heavenly perfection, which
is attained only through various stages. The protection
of powerful friends saved him from the persecution of
the Inquisition. Many of his works were destroyed by the
diligence of the mendicant friars. The most important of
his extant writings is the _Farrago_, a collection of short
treatises.[351]
4. The priest of Rostock, =Nicholas Russ=, in the end of
the 15th century, deserves honourable mention alongside
of these Dutchmen. Living in intimate relations with
Bohemian Waldensians, he was subjected to many indignities,
and died a fugitive in Livonia. He wrote in the Dutch
language a tract against the hierarchy, indulgences,
worship of saints and relics, etc., which was translated
into German by Flacius. A copy of it was found in Rostock
library in A.D. 1850. It is entitled, “Of the Rope or
of the Three Strings.” The rope that will raise man from
the depths of his corruption must be made up of the three
strings, faith, hope, and love. These three strings are
described in succession, and so the book forms a complete
compendium of Christian faith and life, with a sharp polemic
against the debased church doctrine and morals of the age.
§ 119.11. =An Italian Reformer.=--=Jerome Savonarola=, born
A.D. 1452, monk and from A.D. 1481 prior of the Dominican
cloister of San Marco in Florence, was from A.D. 1489 in high
repute in that city as an eloquent and passionate preacher of
repentance, with even reckless boldness declaiming against the
depravity of clergy and laity, princes and people. With his whole
soul a Dominican, and as such an enthusiastic admirer of Thomas,
practising rigid self-discipline by fasts and flagellations,
he was led by the study of Augustine and Scripture to a pure
and profound knowledge of the evangelical doctrine of salvation,
which he sought, not in the merits and intercession of the saints,
nor in the performance of good works, but only in the grace of
God and justification through faith in the crucified Saviour
of sinners. But with this he combined a prophetic-apocalyptic
theory, according to which he thought himself called and fitted
by Divine inspiration, like the prophets of the Old Testament,
to grapple with the political problems of the age. And, in fact,
he made many a hardened sinner tremble by revealing contemplated
secret sins, and many of his political prophecies seem to have
been fulfilled with surprising accuracy. Thus he prophesied
the death of Innocent VIII. in A.D. 1492, and proclaimed the
speedy overthrow of the house of the Medici in Florence, as
well as the punishment of other Italian tyrants and the thorough
reformation of the church by a foreign king crossing the Alps
with a powerful army. And lo, in the following year, the king
of France, Charles VIII., crossed the Alps to enforce his claims
upon Naples and force from the pope recognition of the Basel
reforms; the Medici were banished from Florence, and Naples
unresistingly fell into the hands of the French. Thus the ascetic
monk of San Marco became the man of the people, who now began
with ruthless energy to carry out, not only moral and religious
reformatory notions, but also his political ideal of a democratic
kingdom of God. In vain did Alexander VI. seek by offer of a
cardinal’s hat to win over the demagogical prophet and reformer;
he only replied, “I desire no other red hat than that coloured
by the blood of martyrdom.” In vain did the pope insist that
he should appear before him at Rome; in vain did he forbid him
the pulpit, from which he so powerfully moved the people. An
attempt to restore the Medici also failed. At the carnival in
A.D. 1497 Savonarola proved the supremacy of his influence over
the people by persuading them, instead of the usual buffoonery,
to make a bonfire of the articles of luxury and vanity. But
already the political movements were turning out unfavourably,
and his utterances were beginning to lose their reputation
as true prophecies. Charles VIII. had been compelled to quit
Italy in A.D. 1495, and Savonarola’s assurances of his speedy
return were still unfulfilled. Popular favour vacillated, while
the nobles and the libertine youth were roused to the utmost
bitterness against him. The Franciscans, as members of a rival
order, were his sworn enemies. The papal ban was pronounced
against him in A.D. 1497, and the city was put under the
interdict. A monk of his cloister, Fra Domenico Pescia, offered
to pass the ordeal of fire in behalf of his master, if any of his
opponents would submit to the same trial. A Franciscan declared
himself ready to do so, and all arrangements were made. But
when Domenico insisted upon taking with him a consecrated host,
the trial did not come off, to the great disappointment of a
people devotedly fond of shows. A fanatical mob took the prophet
prisoner. His bitterest enemies were his judges, who, after
torture had extorted from him a confession of false prophecy
most repugnant to his inmost convictions, condemned him to
death by fire as a deceiver of the people and a heretic. On
23rd May, A.D. 1498, he was, along with Domenico and another
monk, hung upon a gallows and then burned. The believing
joy with which he endured death deepened the reverence of
an ever-increasing band of adherents, who proclaimed him
saint and martyr. His portrait in the cell once occupied
by him, painted by Fra Bartolomeo, surrounded with the halo
of a saint, shows the veneration in which he was held by his
generation and by his order. His numerous sermons represent
to us his burning oratory. His chief work is his _Triumphus
crucis_ of A.D. 1497, an eloquent and thoughtful vindication
of Christianity against the half pagan scepticism of the
Renaissance, then dominant in Florence and at the court.
An exposition of the 51st Psalm, written in prison and not
completed, works out, with a clearness and precision never
before attained, the doctrine of justification by faith. It
was on this account republished by Luther in A.D. 1523.[352]
§ 120. THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING.
The classical literature of Greek, and especially of Roman,
antiquity was during the Middle Ages in the West by no means so
completely unknown and unstudied as is commonly supposed. Rulers
like Charlemagne, Charles the Bald, Alfred the Great, and the German
Ottos encouraged its study. Such scholars as Erigena, Gerbert, Barnard
Sylvester, John of Salisbury, Roger Bacon, etc., were relatively
well acquainted with it. Moorish learning from Spain and intercourse
with Byzantine scholars spread classical culture during the 12th
and 13th centuries, and the Hohenstaufen rulers were its eager and
liberal patrons. In the 14th century the founders of a national Italian
literature, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, earnestly cultivated and
encouraged classical studies. But an extraordinary revival of interest
in such pursuits took place during the 15th century. The meeting of
Greeks and Italians at the Council of Florence in A.D. 1439 (§ 67, 6)
gave the first impulse, while the Turkish invasion and the downfall
of Constantinople in A.D. 1453 gave it the finishing touch. Immense
numbers of Byzantine scholars fled to Italy, and were accorded an
enthusiastic reception at the Vatican and in the houses of the Medici.
With the aid of printing, invented about A.D. 1450, the treasures of
classical antiquity were made accessible to all. From the time of this
immigration, too, classical studies took an altogether new direction.
During the Middle Ages they were made almost exclusively to subserve
ecclesiastical and theological ends, but now they were conducted in
a thoroughly independent spirit, for the purpose of universal human
culture. This “humanism” emancipated itself from the service of the
church, assumed toward Christianity for the most part an attitude of
lofty indifference, and often lost itself in a vain worship of pagan
antiquity. Faith was mocked at as well as superstition; sacred history
and Greek mythology were treated alike. The youths of all European
countries, thirsting for knowledge, crossed the Alps, to draw from
the fresh springs of the Italian academies, and took home with them
the new ideas, transplanting into distant lands in a modified form
the libertinism of the new paganism that had now over-run Italy.
§ 120.1. =Italian Humanists.=--Italy was the cradle of humanism,
the Greeks who settled there (§ 62, 1, 2), its fathers. The first
Greek who appeared as a teacher in Italy was Emmanuel Chrysoloras,
in A.D. 1396. After the Council of Florence, =Bessarion= and
=Gemisthus Pletho= settled there, both ardent adherents of
the Platonic philosophy, for which they created an enthusiasm
throughout all Italy. From A.D. 1453 Greek _littérateurs_ came
in crowds. From their schools classical culture and pagan ideas
spread through the land. This paganism penetrated even the
highest ranks of the hierarchy. =Leo X.=[353] is credited with
saying, “How many fables about Christ have been used by us and
ours through all these centuries is very well known.” It may not
be literally authentic, but it accurately expresses the spirit of
the papal court. Leo’s private secretary, Cardinal =Bembo=, gave
a mythological version of Christianity in classical Latin. Christ
he styled “Minerva sprung from the head of Jupiter,” the Holy
Spirit “the breath of the celestial Zephyr,” and repentance
was with him a _Deos superosque manesque placare_. Even during
the council of Florence Pletho had expressed the opinion that
Christianity would soon develop into a universal religion not
far removed from classical paganism; and when Pletho died,
Bessarion comforted his sons by saying that the deceased had
ascended into the pure heavenly spheres, and had joined the
Olympic gods in mystic Bacchus dances. In the halls of the
Medici there flourished a new Platonic school, which put Plato’s
philosophy above Christianity. Alongside of it arose a new
peripatetic school, whose representative, =Peter Pompanazzo
[Pomponazzo]=, who died A.D. 1526, openly declared that from
the philosophical point of view the immortality of the soul
is more than doubtful. The celebrated Florentine statesman and
historian =Macchiavelli=,[354] who died A.D. 1527, taught the
princes of Italy in his “Prince,” in direct contradiction to
Dante’s idealistic “Monarchia,” a realistic polity which was
completely emancipated from Christianity and every system of
morality, and presented the monster Cæsar Borgia (§ 110, 12)
as a pattern of an energetic prince, consistently labouring for
the end he had in view. Looseness of morals went hand in hand
with laxity in religion. Obscene poems and pictures circulated
among the humanists, and their practice was not behind their
theory. Poggio’s lewd facetiæ, as well as Boccadelli’s indecent
epigrams, fascinated the cultured Christian world as much by
their lascivious contents as by their classical style. From the
dialogues of Laurentius Valla on lust and the true good, which
were meant to extol the superiority of Christian morals over
those of the Epicureans and Stoics, comes the saying that the
Greek courtesans were more in favour than the Christian nuns.
The highly gifted poet, Pietro Aretino, in his poetical prose
writings reached the utmost pitch of obscenity. He was called
“the divine Aretino,” and not only Charles V. and Francis I.
honoured him with presents and pensions, but also Leo X.,
Clement VIII., and even Paul III. showed him their esteem and
favour. In their published works the Italian humanists generally
ignored rather than contested the church and its doctrines and
morality. But =Laurentius Valla=, who died A.D. 1457, ventured
in his _Adnotationes in N.T._ freely to find fault with and
correct the Vulgate. He did even more, for he pronounced the
Donation of Constantine (§ 87, 4) a forgery, and poured forth
bitter invectives against the cupidity of the papacy. He also
denied the genuineness of the correspondence of Christ with
Abgarus [Abgar] (§ 13, 2), as well as that of the Areopagite
writings (§ 47, 11) and questioned if the Apostles’ Creed was
the work of the apostles (§ 35, 2). The Inquisition sought to
get hold of him, but Nicholas V. (§ 110, 10) frustrated the
attempt and showed him kindness. With all his classical culture,
however, Valla retained no small reverence for Christianity. In
a still higher degree is this true of =John Picus=, Prince of
=Mirandola=, the phœnix of that age, celebrated as a miracle
of learning and culture, who united in himself all the nobler
strivings of the present and the past. When a youth of twenty-one
he nailed up at Rome nine hundred theses from all departments
of knowledge. The proposed disputation did not then come off,
because many of those theses gave rise to charges of heresy,
from which he was cleared only by Alexander VI. in A.D. 1493.
The combination of all sciences and the reconciliation of all
systems of philosophy among themselves and with revelation on
the basis of the Cabbala was the main point in his endeavours.
He has wrought out this idea in his _Heptaplus_, in which, by
means of a sevenfold sense of Scripture, he succeeds in deducing
all the wisdom of the world from the first chapter of Genesis.
He died in A.D. 1494, in the thirty-first year of his age. In
the last year of his life, renouncing the world and its glory,
he set himself with all his powers to the study of Scripture,
and meant to go from land to land preaching the Cross of Christ.
His intentions were frustrated by death. His saying is a very
characteristic one: _Philosophia veritatem quærit, theologia
invenit, religio possidet_.
§ 120.2. =German Humanism.=--The home of German humanism was
the University of =Erfurt=, founded A.D. 1392. At the Councils
of Constance and Basel Erfurt, next to Paris, manifested
the greatest zeal for the reformation of head and members,
and continued to pursue this course during the twenty years’
activity of John of Wesel (§ 119, 10). About A.D. 1460 the first
representatives of humanism made their appearance there, a German
Luder and a Florentine Publicius. From their school went forth
among others Rudolph of Langen, who carried the new light into
the schools of Westphalia, and John of Dalberg, afterwards Bishop
of Worms. When these two had left Erfurt, =Maternus Pistorius=
headed the humanist movement. Crowds of enthusiastic scholars
from all parts of Germany gathered around him. As men of poetic
tastes, who appreciated the ancient classics, they maintained
excellent relations with the representatives of scholasticism.
But in A.D. 1504 Busch, a violent revolutionist, appearing
at Erfurt, demanded the destruction of the old scholastic
text-books, and thus produced an absolute breach between the
two tendencies. Maternus retired, and =Mutian=, an old Erfurt
student, assumed the leadership in Gotha. Erfurt and Gotha were
kept associated by a lively intercourse between the students
resident at these two places. Mutian had no literary ambitions,
and firmly declined a call to the new University of Wittenberg.
All the more powerfully he inspired his contemporaries. His
bitter opposition to hierarchism and scholasticism was expressed
in keen satires. On retiring from public life, he devoted himself
to the study of Holy Scripture and the Fathers. Shortly before
his death he wrote down this as his confession of faith: _Multa
scit rusticus, quæ philosophus ignorat; Christus vero pro nobis
mortuus est, qui est vita nostra, quod certissime credo_. The
leadership passed over to Eoban Hesse. The members of the society
joined the party of Luther, with the exception of Crotus Rubianus.
=Ulrich von Hutten= was one of the followers of Mutian, a knight
of a noble Franconian family, inspired with ardent patriotism
and love of freedom, who gave his whole life to battle against
pedantry, monkery, and intolerance. Escaping in A.D. 1504 from
Fulda, where he was being trained for the priesthood, he studied
at Erfurt, fought in Maximilian’s army with the sword, in Mutian’s
and Reuchlin’s ranks with the pen, and after the fall of Sickingen
became a homeless wanderer, until he died in want, in A.D. 1523,
on Ufenan, an island in the Lake of Zürich.[355]
§ 120.3. Next to Erfurt, =Heidelberg=, founded in A.D. 1386,
afforded a congenial home for humanist studies. The most
brilliant representative of humanism there was =Rudolph
Agricola=, an admirer and disciple of À. Kempis and Wessel.
His fame rests more on the reports of those who knew him
personally than on any writings left behind by him. His pupils
mostly joined the Reformation.--The University of =Wittenberg=,
founded by Frederick the Wise in A.D. 1502, was the nursery of
a wise and moderate humanism. Humanist studies also found an
entrance into Freiburg, founded in A.D. 1455, into =Tübingen=,
founded in A.D. 1477, where for a long time Reuchlin taught,
and into =Ingolstadt=, founded in A.D. 1472, where the Duke
of Bavaria spared no efforts to attract the most distinguished
humanists. Conrad Celtes, a pupil of Agricola, taught at
Ingolstadt until his removal to Vienna in A.D. 1497. Eck
and Rhegius, too, were among its ablest alumni. As a bitter
opponent of Luther, Eck gave the university a most pronounced
anti-reformation character; whereas Rhegius preached the
gospel in Augsburg, and spent his life in the service of the
Reformation. Reuchlin also taught for a time in Ingolstadt,
and the patriotism and reformatory tendencies of Aventinus
the Bavarian historian received there the first powerful
impulse. At =Nuremberg= the humanists found a welcome in the
home of the learned, wealthy, and noble Councillor Pirkheimer.
In Reuchlin’s controversy with the scholars of Cologne he showed
himself an eager apologist, and headed the party of Reuchlin.
He greeted Luther’s appearance with enthusiasm, and entertained
the reformer at his own house on his return from the discussion
with Cajetan (§ 122, 3), on account of which Eck made the papal
bull against Luther tell also against him. What he regarded
as Luther’s violence, however, soon estranged him, while the
cloister life of his three sisters and three daughters presented
to him a picture of Catholicism in its noblest and purest form.
His eldest sister, Christas, abbess of the Clara convent at
Nuremburg [Nuremberg], one of the noblest and most cultured
women of the 16th century, had a powerful influence over him.
He died in A.D. 1530.
§ 120.4. =John Reuchlin=, born in A.D. 1455 at Pforzheim, went
to the celebrated school at Schlettstadt in Alsace, studied at
Freiburg, Paris, Basel, and Orleans, taught law in Tübingen,
and travelled repeatedly in Italy with Eberhard the Bearded
of Württemberg. After Eberhard’s death he went to the court of
the Elector-palatine Philip, and along with D’Alberg [Dalberg]
did much for the reputation of the University of Heidelberg.
Afterwards he was for eleven years president of the Swabian
court of justiciary at Tübingen. When in A.D. 1513 the seat
of this court was removed to Augsburg he retired to Stuttgart,
was called in A.D. 1519 by William of Bavaria to Ingolstadt as
professor of Greek and Hebrew. On the outbreak of the plague
at Ingolstadt in A.D. 1520, he accepted a call back to Tübingen,
where he died in A.D. 1522. He never gave in his adhesion to
the reforming ideas of Luther. He left unanswered a letter
from the reformer in A.D. 1518. But as a promoter of every
scientific endeavour, especially in connection with the study
of the original text of the O.T., Reuchlin had won imperishable
renown. He was well entitled to conclude his _Rudimenta linguæ
Hebraicæ_ of A.D. 1506 with Horace’s words, _Stat monumentum aëre
perennino_, for that book has been the basis of all Christian
Hebrew philology.[356] He also discussed the difficult subject
of Hebrew accents in a special treatise, _De Acc. et Orthogr.
Hebr._ 11. iii, and the secret doctrines of the Jews in his _De
arte Cabbalistica_. He offered to instruct any Jew who wished
it in the doctrines of Christianity, and also to care for his
temporal affairs. His attention to rabbinical studies involved
him in a controversy which spread his fame over all Europe.
A baptized Jew, Pfefferkorn, in Cologne in A.D. 1507 exhibited
a neophyte’s zeal by writing bitter invectives against the Jews,
and in A.D. 1509 called upon the Emperor Maximilian to have all
rabbinical writings burnt because of the blasphemies against
Christ which they contained. The emperor asked the opinion of
the universities of Mainz, Cologne, Erfurt, and Heidelberg,
as well as of Reuchlin and the Cologne inquisitor Hoogstraten.
Erfurt and Heidelberg gave a qualified, Reuchlin an unqualified
answer in opposition to the proposal. The openly abusive
Jewish writings, _e.g._ the notorious _Toledoth Jeschu_, he
would indeed condemn, but all other books, _e.g._ the Talmud,
the Cabbala, the biblical glosses and commentaries, books of
sermons, prayers, and sacred songs, as well as all philosophical,
scientific, poetic, and satirical writings of the Jews, he
was prepared unconditionally to defend. Pfefferkorn contended
against him passionately in his “Handspiegel” of A.D. 1511, to
which Reuchlin replied in his “Augenspiegel.” The theological
faculty of Cologne, mostly Dominicans, pronounced forty-three
statements in the “Augenspiegel” heretical, and demanded its
suppression. Reuchlin now gave free vent to his passion, and
in his _Defensio c. calumniatores suos Colonienses_ denounced
his opponents as goats, swine, and children of the devil.
Hoogstraten had him cited before a heresy tribunal. Reuchlin
did not appear, but appealed to Pope Leo X. (A.D. 1513). A
commission appointed by Leo met at Spires in A.D. 1514, and
declared him not guilty of heresy, found Hoogstraten liable
in the costs of the process, which was enforced with hearty
satisfaction by Franz von Sickingen in A.D. 1519. But meanwhile
Hoogstraten had made a personal explanation of his affairs at
Rome, and had won over the influential _magister sacri palatii_,
Sylvester Prierias (§ 122, 2), who got the pope in A.D. 1520
to annul the judgment and to condemn Reuchlin to pay the costs
and observe eternal silence. The men of Cologne triumphed, but
in the public opinion of Germany Reuchlin was regarded as the
true victor.
§ 120.5. A multitude of vigorous and powerful pens were now
in motion on behalf of Reuchlin. In the autumn of A.D. 1515
appeared the first book of the =Epistolæ obscurorum virorum=,
which pretended to be the correspondence of a friend with
the Cologne teacher Ortuinus Gratius of Deventer. In the most
delicious monkish Latin the secret affairs of the mendicant
monks and their hatred of Reuchlin were set forth, so that
even the Dominicans, according to Erasmus, for a time regarded
the correspondence as genuine. All the more overwhelming was
the ridicule which fell upon them throughout all Europe. The
mendicants indeed obtained from Leo a bull against the writers
of the book, but this only increased its circulation. The
authors remained unknown; but there is no doubt they belonged
to the Mutian party. Justus Jonas, a member of that guild,
affirms that Crotus Rubianus had a principal hand in its
composition. The idea of it was probably suggested by Mutian
himself. Ulrich von Hutten repudiated any share in it, and
on internal and external grounds this is more than probable.
Busch, Urban, Petrejus, and Eoban Hesse most likely contributed
to it. In order to keep up the deception, Venice was given as
the place of publication, the name of the famous Aldus Manutius,
the papal publisher of Venice, was put upon the title, and
a pseudo-papal imprimatur was attached. The second book was
issued in A.D. 1517 by Frobenius in Basel. The monkish party
published as a counterblast _Lamentationes obscurorum virorum_
at Cologne in A.D. 1518, but the lame and forced wit of the
book marked it at once as a ridiculous failure. The monks and
schoolmen were once and for ever morally annihilated.[357]
§ 120.6. =Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam= was the most brilliant
of all the humanists, not only of Germany, but also of all Europe.
Born in A.D. 1465, he was educated by the Brothers of the Common
Life at Deventer and Herzogenbusch, and afterwards forced by his
relatives to enter a monastery in A.D. 1486. In A.D. 1491 he was
relieved from the monastic restraints by the Bishop of Cambray,
and sent to finish his studies at Paris. He visited England in
A.D. 1497, in the company of young Englishmen to whom he had been
tutor. There the humanist theologian Colet of Oxford exerted over
him a wholesome influence that told upon his whole future life.
After spending a year and a half in England, he passed the next
six years, sometimes in France, sometimes in the Netherlands;
was in Italy from A.D. 1507 till A.D. 1510; then again for
five years in England, for most of that time teaching Greek
at Cambridge; then other six years in the Netherlands; and at
last, in A.D. 1521, he settled with his publisher Frobenius in
Basel, where he enjoyed intercourse with the greatest scholars
of the day, and maintained an extensive correspondence. He
refused every offer of official appointment, even the rank of
cardinal, but in reality held undisputed sway as king in the
world of letters. He did much for the advancement of classical
studies, and in various ways promoted the Protestant Reformation.
The faults of the scholastic method in the study of theology
he unsparingly exposed, while the misdeeds of the clergy and
the ignorance and sloth of the monks afforded materials for his
merciless satires. The heathenish spirit of many of the humanists,
as well as the turbulent and revolutionary procedure of Ulrich
von Hutten, was quite distasteful to him; but his Pelagianising
tendencies also prevented him from appreciating the true character
of the gospel. He desired a reformation of the Church, but he had
not the reformer’s depth of religious emotion, world-conquering
faith, self-denying love, and heroic preparation for martyrdom.
He was much too fond of a genial literary life, and his perception
of the corruption of the church was much too superficial, so that
he sought reformation rather by human culture than by the Divine
power of the gospel. When the Reformation conquered at Basel in
A.D. 1529, Erasmus withdrew to Freiburg. He returned to Basel
in A.D. 1536 for conference with Frobenius, and died there under
suspicion of heresy without the sacraments of the church. His
friends the monks at an earlier period, on the occasion of a
false report of his death, had said in their barbarous Latin that
he died “_sine lux, sine crux, sine Deus_.” The most important of
his works are his critical and exegetical treatises on the N.T.
The first edition of his Greek N.T., with Latin translation,
short notes, and three introductory sections, was published
in A.D. 1516. In the second edition of A.D. 1519, one of
these introductory sections, _Ratio veræ theologiæ_, appeared
in a greatly extended form; and from A.D. 1522 it was issued
separately, and passed through several editions. Scarcely less
important were his paraphrases of all the biblical books except
the Apocalypse, begun in A.D. 1517. He did much service too
by his editions of the Fathers. On his polemic with Luther
see § 125, 3. His _Ecclesiastes s. concionator evangelicus_
of A.D. 1535 is a treatise on homiletics admirable of its kind.
In his “Praise of Folly” (Ἐγκώμιον μωρίας, _s. Laus stultitiæ_)
of A.D. 1511, dedicated to his friend Sir Thomas More, he
overwhelms with ridicule the schoolmen, as well as the monks
and the clergy; and in his “Colloquies” of A.D. 1518, by which
he hoped to make boys _latiniores et meliores_, he let no
opportunity pass of reproaching the monks, the clergy, and
the forms of worship which he regarded as superstitious. Also
his _Adagia_ of A.D. 1500 had afforded him abundant scope for
the same sort of thing. A piety of the purest and noblest type,
derived from the schools of the Brothers of the Common Life, and
from intercourse with Colet, breathes through his _Enchiridion
militis christiani_ of A.D. 1502.[358]--Continuation § 123, 3.
§ 120.7. =Humanism in England.=--In England we meet with two
men in the end of the 15th century, closely related to Erasmus,
of supreme influence as humanists in urging the claims of reform
within the Catholic church. =John Colet= in A.D. 1496 returned
to England after a long sojourn in Italy, where he had obtained,
not only humanistic culture, but also, through contact with
Savonarola and Mirandola, a powerful religious impulse. He then
began, at Oxford, his lectures on the Pauline epistles, in which
he abandoned the scholastic method and returned to the study
of Scripture and the Fathers. There, in A.D. 1498, he attached
himself closely to Erasmus and to young Thomas More, who was
studying in that place. In A.D. 1505 Colet was made doctor and
Dean of St. Paul’s, in which position he expounded with great
success whole biblical books and large portions of others in his
sermons. After his father’s death in A.D. 1510, he applied his
great wealth to the founding of a grammar school at St. Paul’s
for the instruction of more than 150 boys in classical, biblical,
and patristic literature. A convocation of English bishops in
A.D. 1512, to devise means for rooting out heresy (§ 119, 1),
gave him the opportunity in his opening sermon to speak plainly
to the assembled bishops. He told them that reform of their
own order was the best way to protect the church against the
incursion of heretics. This aroused the bitter wrath of the old,
bigoted Bishop Fitzjames of London, who disliked him exceedingly
on account of his reforming tendencies and his pastoral and
educational activity. But the archbishop, Warham of Canterbury,
repelled the bishop’s fanatical charge of heresy as well as King
Henry’s suspicions in regard to the political sympathies of the
simple, pious man. Colet died in A.D. 1519.--=Thomas More=, born
in A.D. 1480, was recommended to the king by Cardinal Wolsey, and
rose from step to step until in A.D. 1529 he succeeded his patron
as Lord Chancellor of England. In bonds of closest intimacy
with Colet and Erasmus, More also shared in their desires for
reform, but applied himself, in accordance with his civil and
official position, more to the social and political than to the
ecclesiastical aspects of the question. His most comprehensive
contribution is found in his famous satire, “Utopia,” of
A.D. 1516, in which he sets forth his views as to the natural
and rational organization of all social and political relations
of life in contrast to the corrupt institutions of existing
states. The religious side of this utopian paradise is pure
deism, public worship being restricted to the use of what
is common to all religions, and peculiarities of particular
religions are relegated to special or private services. We
cannot however from this draw any conclusion as to his own
religious beliefs. More continued to the end a zealous Catholic
and a strict ascetic, and was a man of a singularly noble and
steadfast character. In the controversy between the king and
Luther (§ 125, 3) he supported the king, and as chancellor he
wrote, in direct contradiction to the principles of religious
toleration commended in his “Utopia,” with venomous bitterness
against the adherents of the anti-Catholic reformation. But
he decidedly refused to acquiesce in the king’s divorce; and
when Henry quarrelled with the pope in A.D. 1532 and began to
carry out reforms in a Cæsaro-papistic manner (§ 139, 4), he
resigned his offices, firmly refused to acknowledge the royal
supremacy over the English church, and, after a long and severe
imprisonment, was beheaded in A.D. 1535.[359]
§ 120.8. =Humanism in France and Spain.=--In =France= humanist
studies were kept for a time in the background by the world-wide
reputation of the University of Paris and its Sorbonne. But a
change took place when the young king Francis I., A.D. 1515-1547,
became the patron and promoter of humanism. One of its most
famous representatives was =Budæus [Buddæus]=, royal librarian,
who aided in founding a college for the cultivation of science
free from the shackles of scholasticism, and exposed the
corruptions of the papacy and the clergy. But much as he
sympathized with the spirit of the Reformation, he shrank
from any open breach with the Catholic church. He died in
A.D. 1540. His like-minded contemporary, =Faber Stapulensis=,
as a teacher of classical literature at Paris gathered crowds
of pupils around him, and from A.D. 1507 applied himself almost
exclusively to biblical exegetical studies. He criticised and
corrected the corrupt text of the Vulgate, commented on the
Greek text of the gospels and apostolic epistles, and on account
of this, as well as by reason of a critical dissertation on Mary
Magdalene of A.D. 1521, was condemned by the Sorbonne. Francis I.
and his sister Margaret of Orleans protected him from further
persecution. Also his former pupil, William Briçonnet, Bishop
of Meaux, who was eagerly endeavouring to restore morality
and piety among his clergy, appointed him his vicar-general,
and gave him an opportunity to bring out his French translation
of the New Testament from the Vulgate in A.D. 1523, which was
followed by a translation of the Old Testament and a French
commentary on the pericopes of the Sundays and festivals.
As Faber here represented the Scriptures as the only rule of
faith for all Christians, and taught that man is justified not
by his works, but only by faith in the grace of God in Christ,
the Sorbonne charged him with the Lutheran heresy, and Parliament,
during the king’s imprisonment in Spain (§ 126, 5) in A.D. 1525,
appointed a commission to search out and suppress heresy in the
diocese of Meaux. Faber’s books were condemned to the flames,
but he himself, threatened with the stake, escaped by flight to
Strassburg. After his return the king provided for him a safe
retreat at Blois, where he wrought at his translation of the Old
Testament, which he completed in A.D. 1528. He spent his last
years at Nérac, the residence of his patroness Margaret, now
Queen of Navarre, where he died in A.D. 1536 in his 86th year.
Though at heart estranged from the Catholic church, he never
formally forsook it.--In =Spain= Cardinal Ximenes (§ 118, 7)
acted as the Mæcenas of humanist studies. The most distinguished
Spanish humanist was =Anton of Lebrija=, professor at Salamanca,
a fellow labourer with Ximenes on the Complutensian Polyglott,
and protected by him from the Inquisition, which would have
called him to account for his criticism of the Vulgate. He died
in A.D. 1522.
§ 120.9. =Humanism and the Reformation of the Sixteenth
Century.=--Humanists, in common with the reformers, inveighed
against the debased scholasticism as well as against the
superstition of the age. They did so however on very different
grounds, and conducted their warfare by very different methods.
While the reformers employed the word of God, and strove
after the salvation of the soul, the humanists employed wit
and sarcasm, and sought after the temporal well-being of
men. Hence the reaction of the despised scholasticism and the
contemned monasticism against humanism was often in the right.
A reformation of the church by humanism alone would have been
a return to naked paganism. But, on the other hand, classical
studies afforded men who desired a genuine reformation of
the church a rich, linguistic, philosophical, and scientific
culture, without which, as applied to researches in church
history, the exposition of Scripture, and the revision of
doctrine, the reforms of the sixteenth century could hardly
have been carried out in a comprehensive and satisfactory manner.
The most permanent advantage won for the church and theology
by the revival of learning was the removal of =Holy Scripture=
from under the bushel, and giving it again its rightful place
as the lamp of the church. It pointed back from the Vulgate,
of which since A.D. 1500, some ninety-eight printed editions
had appeared, to the original text, condemned the allegorical
method of exposition, awakened an appreciation of the grammatical
and historical system of interpretation, afforded scientific
apparatus by its philological studies, and by issuing printed
Bibles secured the spread of the original text. From the time
of the invention of printing the Jews were active in printing
the Old Testament. From A.D. 1502 a number of Christian scholars,
under the presidency of Ximenes, wrought at Alcala at the great
Complutensian Polyglott, published in A.D. 1520. It contained the
Hebrew and Greek texts, the Targums, the LXX., and the Vulgate,
as well as a Latin translation of the LXX. and of the Targums,
with a much-needed grammatical and lexical apparatus. Daniel
Bomberg of Antwerp published at Venice various editions of the
Old Testament, some with, some without, rabbinical commentaries.
His assistants were Felix Pratensis, a learned Jew; and Jacob ben
Chaijim, a rabbi of Tunis. As the costly Complutensian Polyglott
was available only to a few, Erasmus did great service by his
handy edition of the Greek New Testament, notwithstanding its
serious critical deficiencies. Erasmus himself brought out five
successive editions, but very soon more than thirty impressions
were exhausted.
THIRD DIVISION.
History of the Development of the Church under
Modern European Forms of Civilization.
§ 121. CHARACTER AND DISTRIBUTION OF MODERN CHURCH HISTORY.
In the Reformation of the sixteenth century the intelligence of
Germany, which had hitherto been under the training and tutelage of
the Romish church, reached maturity by the application of the formal
and material principles of Protestantism,--the sole normative authority
of Scripture, and justification by faith alone without works of merit.
It emancipated itself from its schoolmaster, who, for selfish ends,
had made and still continued to make strenuous efforts to check every
movement towards independence, every endeavour after ecclesiastical,
theological, and scientific freedom, every struggle after evangelical
reform. Yet this emancipation was not completely effected in all the
purely German nationalities, much less among those Romanic and Slavonic
peoples which had bowed their necks to the papal hierarchy. The Romish
church of the Reformation not only adhered to the form and content of
its former unevangelical constitution, but also still further developed
and formally elaborated its creed in the same unevangelical direction,
and the result was a split in the western church into an Evangelical
Protestant and a Roman Catholic church. Then again the principles of
the Reformation were set forth in different ways, and Protestantism
branched off into two divisions, the Lutheran and the Reformed. Besides
these three new western churches and the one old eastern church, which
all rested upon the common œcumenical basis of the old Catholic church,
a variety of sects sprang out of them. Through these greater and lesser
divisions, modern church history, where, with some advantages and
some disadvantages, one church is pitted against another, possesses
a character entirely different from the church history of earlier times.
Modern church history naturally falls into four divisions.
The distinguishing characteristic of each is found partly in
the opposition of particular churches to one another, partly
in the antagonism of faith and unbelief. The transition from
one to another corresponds generally with the boundaries of
the centuries. The =sixteenth century= forms the Reformation
period, in which the new Protestantism, parted from the old
Roman Catholicism, cast off the deformatory elements which had
attached themselves to it, and developed for itself a system
of doctrine, worship, and constitution; while the Roman Catholic
church, from the middle of the century, set to work upon a
counter-Reformation, by which it succeeded in large measure
in reconquering the field that had been lost. The =seventeenth
century= was characterized on the Protestant side as the age
of orthodoxy, in which confessionalism obtained undivided
supremacy, deteriorating however in doctrine and life into
a frigid formalism, which called forth the movement of Pietism
as a corrective; but, on the Roman Catholic side, it was
characterized as a period of continued successful restoration.
In the =eighteenth century= begins the struggle against the
dominant church and the prevailing conceptions of Christianity
in the forms of deism, naturalism, and rationalism within
both the Protestant and Catholic churches. The fourth division
embraces the =nineteenth century=. The newly awakened faith
strives vigorously with rationalism, and then, on the Protestant
side, splits into unionism and confessionalism; while, on the
Roman Catholic side, it makes its fullest development in a
zealous ultramontanism. But rationalism again renews its youth
under the cloak of science, and alongside of it appears a more
undisguised unbelief in the distinctly antichristian forms of
pantheism, materialism, and communism, which seeks to annihilate
everything Christian in church and state, in science and faith,
in social and political life.
FIRST SECTION.
CHURCH HISTORY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
I. The Reformation.[360]
§ 122. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WITTENBERG REFORMATION.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century everything seemed to
combine in favour of those reforming endeavours which had been
held back during the Middle Ages. There was a lively perception of
the corruptions of the church, a deep and universal yearning after
reformation, the scientific apparatus necessary for its accomplishment,
a pope, Leo X., careless and indolent; a trafficker in indulgences,
Tetzel, stupidly bold and shameless; a noble, pious, and able prince,
Frederick the Wise (§ 123, 9), to act as protector of the new creed;
an emperor, Charles V. (§ 123, 5), powerful and hostile enough to
kindle the purifying fire of tribulation, but too much occupied with
political entanglements to be able to indulge in reckless and violent
oppression. There were also thousands of other persons, circumstances,
and relations helping, strengthening, and furthering the work. And now,
at the right hour, in the fittest place, and with the most suitable
surroundings, a religious genius, in the person of Luther, appeared
as the reformer, with the rarest combination of qualities of head and
heart, character and will, to engage upon that great work for which
Providence had so marvellously qualified him. This mighty undertaking
was begun by ninety-five simple theses, which he nailed to the door of
the church of Wittenberg, and the Leipzig Disputation marked the first
important crisis in its history.
§ 122.1. =Luther’s Years of Preparation.=--Martin Luther,
a miner’s son, was born on November 10th, A.D. 1483. His
childhood was passed under severe parental control and amid
pinching poverty, and he went to school at Mansfeld, whither
his parents had migrated; then at Magdeburg, where, among the
Brothers of the Common Life, he had mainly to secure his own
support as a singing boy upon the streets; and afterwards at
Eisenach, where Madame Ursula Cotta, moved by his beautiful
voice and earnest entreaty, took him into her house. In A.D. 1501
he entered on the study of jurisprudence at Erfurt (§ 120, 2),
took the degree of bachelor in A.D. 1502, and that of master in
A.D. 1505. During a fearful thunderstorm, which overtook him as
he travelled home, he was driven by terror to vow that he would
become a monk, impressed as he was by the sudden death of an
unnamed friend which had taken place shortly before. On the
17th July, A.D. 1505, he entered the Augustinian convent at
Erfurt. In deep concern about his soul’s salvation, he sought
by monkish asceticism, fasting, prayer, and penances to satisfy
his conscience, but the inward struggles only grew stronger. An
old monk proclaimed to the weary inquirer, almost fainting under
the anxiety of spirit and self-imposed tortures, the comforting
declaration of the creed, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
Still more powerful in directing him proved the conversation
of his noble superior, John Staupitz (§ 112, 6). He showed him
the way of true repentance and faith in the Saviour crucified
not for _painted_ sins. Following his advice, Luther diligently
studied the Bible, together with, of his own accord, Augustine’s
writings. In A.D. 1507 he was ordained priest, and in A.D. 1508
Staupitz promoted him to the University of Wittenberg, founded
in A.D. 1502, where he lectured on the “Dialectics” and “Physics”
of Aristotle; and in A.D. 1509 he was made _Baccalaureus
biblicus_. In the autumn of the same year he went again,
probably by Staupitz’ advice, to Erfurt, until, a year and a
half afterwards, he obtained a definite settlement at Wittenberg.
Highly important for his subsequent development was the journey
which, in A.D. 1511, he took to Rome in the interests of his
order. On the first view of the holy city, he sank upon his
knees, and with his hands raised to heaven cried out, “I greet
thee, holy Rome.” But he withdrew utterly disgusted with the
godless frivolity and immorality which he witnessed among the
clergy on every side, and dissatisfied with the externalism
of the penitential exercises which he had undertaken. During
his whole journey the Scripture sounded in his ear, “The just
shall live by his faith.” It was a voice of God in his soul,
which at last carried the blessed peace of God into his wounded
spirit. After his return, in A.D. 1512, Staupitz gave him
no rest until he took the degree of doctor of divinity; and
now he gave lectures in the university on Holy Scripture, and
afterwards preached in the city church of Wittenberg. He applied
himself more and more, by the help of Augustine, to the study
of Scripture and its fundamental doctrine of justification by
faith alone. About this time too he was powerfully influenced
by Tauler’s mysticism and the “Deutsche Theologie,” of which
he published an edition in A.D. 1516.
§ 122.2. =Luther’s Theses of A.D. 1517.=--The æsthetic and
luxurious pope Leo X. (§ 110, 14), avowedly for the building of
St. Peter’s, really to fill his own empty coffers, had proclaimed
a general indulgence. Germany was divided between three indulgence
commissions. The elector-cardinal Albert of Mainz, archbishop
of Magdeburg, and brother of Elector Joachim of Brandenburg,
undertook the direction of the commission for his archiepiscopal
province, for which he was to receive half the proceeds for the
payment of his debts. The most shameless of the traffickers in
indulgences employed by him was the Leipzig Dominican prior,
John Tetzel. This man had been sentenced at Innsbrück to be
drowned for adultery, but on the intercession of the Elector
of Saxony had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life.
He now was taken from his prison in order to do this piece of
work for Albert. With great success he went from place to place,
and offered his wares for sale, proclaiming their virtues in the
public market with unparalleled audacity. He went to Jüterbock,
in the vicinity of Wittenberg, where he attracted crowds of
purchasers from all around. Luther discovered in the confessional
the corrupting influence of such procedure, and on the afternoon
of All Saints’ Day, =October 31st, A.D. 1517=, he nailed on
the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg ninety-five theses,
explaining the meaning of the indulgence. Although they were
directed not so much against the principle of indulgences as
against their misunderstanding and abuse, they comprehended
the real germ of the Reformation movement, negatively in the
conception of repentance which they set forth, and positively
in the distinct declaration that the grace of God in Christ can
alone avail for the forgiveness of sin. With incredible rapidity
the theses spread over all Germany, indeed over all Europe.
Luther accompanied them with a sermon on indulgence and grace.
The immense applause which its delivery called forth led the
supporters of the old views to gird on their armour. Tetzel
publicly burnt the theses at Jüterbock, and with the help of
Wimpina posted up and circulated at Frankfort and other places
counter-theses. The Wittenberg students purchased quantities
of these theses, and in retaliation burnt them, but Luther did
not approve their conduct. In April, A.D. 1518, Luther went
to Heidelberg, to take part there in a regular chapter of the
Augustinians, which was usually accompanied by public preaching
and disputations by members of the order. The disputation, which
on this occasion was assigned to Luther, gave him the welcome
opportunity of making known to wider circles these philosophical
and theological views which he had hitherto uttered only in
Wittenberg. The professors of the University of Heidelberg
repudiated and opposed them, but in almost every case mildly
and with tolerance. On the other hand, many of the young
theologians studying there enthusiastically accepted his
doctrines, and several of them, _e.g._ Martin Bucer of
Strassburg (§ 125, 1), John Brenz and Erhard Schnepf of Swabia
(§ 133, 3), as well as Theobald Billicanus, afterwards reformer
of Nördlingen, etc., there and then consecrated themselves to
their life work.
§ 122.3. =Prierias, Cajetan, and Miltitz,
A.D. 1518, 1519.=--Leo X. at first regarded the matter as an
insignificant monkish squabble, and praised Brother Martin as
a real genius. He gave no heed to Hoogstraten’s outcry of heresy,
nor did he encourage the Dominican Prierias in his attack on
Luther. The book of Prierias was a harmless affair. Luther gave
it a short and crushing reply. Prierias answered in a second
and third tract, which Luther simply republished with sarcastic
and overwhelming prefaces. The pope then enjoined silence upon
his luckless steward. In May, A.D. 1518, Luther wrote a humble
epistle to the pope, and added a series of _Resolutiones_ in
vindication of his theses. Staupitz is said to have revised
both. Meanwhile it had been determined in Rome to deal with
the Wittenberg business in earnest. The papal procurator made
a complaint against Luther. A court was commissioned, which
summoned him to appear in person at Rome to answer for himself.
But, on the representations of the University of Wittenberg
and the Elector Frederick the Wise, the pope charged Cardinal
Cajetan, his legate at the Diet of Augsburg, to take up the
consideration of the matter. Luther appeared, and made his
appeal to the Bible. The legate however wished him to argue
from the schoolmen, demanded an unconditional recantation,
and at last haughtily dismissed “the beast with deep eyes
and wonderful speculations in his head.” Luther made a formal
appeal _a sanctissimo Domino Leone male informato ad melius
informandum_, and quitted Augsburg in good spirits. The cardinal
now sought to rouse Frederick against the refractory monk, but
Luther’s buoyant and humble confidence won the noble elector’s
heart. Cajetan continued a vigorous opponent of the reformed
doctrine. But Luther’s superiority in Scripture knowledge
had so impressed the cardinal, that he now applied himself
closely to the study of the Bible in the original tongues;
and thus, while firmly attached to the Romish system, he was
led on many points, _e.g._ on Scripture and tradition, divorce,
injunctions about meats, the use of the vernacular in public
worship, the objectionableness of the allegorical interpretation,
etc., to adopt more liberal views, so that he was denounced
by some Roman Catholic controversialists as guilty of various
heresies.--Luther had no reason in any case to look for any
good from Rome. Hence he prepared beforehand an appeal for an
œcumenical council, which the publisher, against Luther’s will,
at once spread abroad. In Rome the cardinal’s pride was wounded
by the failure of his undertaking. A papal bull defined the
doctrine of indulgences, in order more exactly to guard against
misrepresentations, and an accomplished courtier, the papal
chamberlain, Carl von Miltitz, a Saxon, was sent to Saxony,
in A.D. 1519, as papal nuncio, to convey to the elector the
consecrated golden rose, and to secure a happy conclusion
to the controversy. The envoy began by addressing a sharp
admonition to Tetzel, and met Luther with hypocritical
graciousness. Luther acknowledged that he had acted rashly,
wrote a humble, submissive letter to the pope, and published
“_An Instruction on some Articles ascribed to him by his
Traducers_.” But after all the retractations which he made
at the diet he still firmly maintained justification by faith,
without merit of works. He promised the nuncio to abstain
from all further polemic, on condition that his opponents
also should be silent. But silent these would not be.
§ 122.4. =The Leipzig Disputation, A.D. 1519.=--John Eck
of Ingolstadt had engaged in controversy with a zealous
supporter and colleague of Luther, Andrew Bodenstein of
Carlstadt, professor and preacher at Wittenberg, and Luther
himself took part in the discussion between the two. This
disputation came off at Leipzig, and lasted from June 27th
to July 16th. But Eck’s vanity led him not only to seek the
greatest possible fame from his present disputation, but also
to drag in Luther by challenging his theses. Eck disputed for
eight days with Carlstadt about grace and free will, and with
abundant eloquence, boldness, and learning vindicated Romish
semi-Pelagianism. Then he disputed for fourteen days with Luther
about the primacy of the pope, about repentance, indulgences,
and purgatory, and pressed him hard about the Hussite heresy.
But Luther sturdily opposed him on the grounds of Scripture,
and confirmed himself in the conviction that even œcumenical
councils might err, and that not all Hussite doctrines are
heretical. Both parties claimed the victory. Luther continued
the discussion in various controversial treatises, and Eck,
too, was not silent. New combatants also, for and against,
from all sides appeared upon the scene. The liberal humanists
(§ 120, 2) had at first taken little notice of Luther’s
contention. But the Leipzig Disputation led them to change
their attitude. Luther seemed to them now a new Reuchlin,
Eck another specimen of Ortuinus Gratius. A biting satire of
Pirkheimer (§ 120, 3), “Der abgehobelte Eck,” appeared in the
beginning of A.D. 1520, exceeding in Aristophanic wit any of
the epistles of the Obscurantists. It was followed by several
satires by Ulrich von Hutten, who received new inspiration
from Luther’s appearance at Leipzig. Hutten and Sickingen,
with their whole party, undertook to protect Luther with body
and soul, with sword and pen. This was a covenant of some
advantage to the Reformation in its early years; but had it
not been again abrogated, it might have diverted the movement
into an altogether wrong direction. From this time forth Duke
George of Saxony, at whose castle and in whose presence the
disputation had been conducted, became the irreconcilable enemy
of Luther and his Reformation.
§ 122.5. =Philip Melanchthon.=--At the Leipzig Disputation there
also appeared a man fated to become of supreme importance in the
carrying out of the Reformation. Born on February 16th, A.D. 1497,
at Bretten in the Palatinate, Philip Melanchthon entered the
University of Heidelberg in his thirteenth year, and at the
age of sixteen published a Greek grammar. He took the degree
of master at seventeen, and at twenty-one, in A.D. 1518, on the
recommendation of his grand-uncle Reuchlin, he was made Professor
of Greek in Wittenberg. His fame soon spread over all Europe, and
attracted to him thousands of hearers from all parts. Luther and
Erasmus vied with one another in lauding his talents, his fine
culture and learning, and his contemporaries have given him the
honourable title of _Præceptor Germaniæ_. He was an Erasmus of
nobler form and higher power, a thorough contrast to Luther. His
whole being breathed modesty, mildness, and grace. With childlike
simplicity he received the recognised truths of the gospel. He
bowed humbly before the powerful, practical spirit of Luther, who
also, on his part, acknowledged with profound thankfulness the
priceless treasure God had sent to him and to his work in this
fellow labourer. Melanchthon wrote to his friend Œcolampadius
at Basel an account of the Leipzig Disputation, which by chance
fell into Eck’s hands. This occasioned a literary controversy,
in which Eck’s vain over-estimation of himself appears in
very striking contrast to the noble modesty of Melanchthon.
He took part in the Reformation first in February, A.D. 1521,
by a pseudonymous apology for Luther.[361]
§ 122.6. =George Spalatin.=--In consequence of his influential
position at the court of the elector, which he obtained on
Mutian’s (§ 120, 2) recommendation, after completing his
philosophical, legal, and theological studies at Erfurt,
George Burkhardt, born in A.D. 1484 at Spalt, in the diocese
of Eichstadt, and hence called Spalatinus, played an important
part in the German Reformation. Frederick the Wise, who had,
in A.D. 1509, entrusted him with the education of his nephew
John Frederick, appointed him, in A.D. 1514, his court chaplain,
librarian, and private secretary, in which capacity he accompanied
the elector to all the diets, and was almost exclusively the
channel for communicating to him tidings about Luther. John the
Constant, in A.D. 1525, made him superintendent of Altenburg,
and took him with him to the diets of Spires, in A.D. 1526, 1529,
and of Augsburg in A.D. 1530. John Frederick the Magnanimous, his
former pupil, employed him in A.D. 1537 on important negotiations
at the conference of the princes at Schmalkald [Schmalcald]
(§ 134, 1). From A.D. 1527 Spalatin was specially busy with
the visitation and organization of the Saxon church (§ 127, 1),
conducted, in the interests of the Reformation, an extensive
correspondence, and composed several works on the history of his
times and the history of the Reformation.
§ 123. LUTHER’S PERIOD OF CONFLICT, A.D. 1520, 1521.
The Leipzig Disputation had carried Luther to a more advanced
standpoint. He came to see that he could not remain standing half way,
that the carrying out of the Reformation principle, justification by
faith, was incompatible with the hierarchical system of the papacy
and its dogmatic foundation. But amid all the violence and subjective
one-sidedness which he showed at the beginning of this period of
conflict, he had sufficient control of himself to make clear the
spiritual character of his reforming endeavours, and firmly to reject
the carnal weapons which Ulrich von Hutten and his revolutionary
companions wished him to take up, thankful as he was for their warm
sympathy. His standpoint as a reformer is shown in the writings which
he published during this period. The Romish bull of excommunication
provoked him to strong words and extreme measures, and with heroic
boldness he entered Worms to present to the emperor and diet an
account of his doings. The papal ban was followed by the imperial
decree of outlawry. But the Wartburg exile saved him from the hands
of his enemies and--of his friends.
§ 123.1. =Luther’s Three Chief Reformation Writings,
A.D. 1520.=--In the powerful treatise, “To His Imperial Majesty
and the Christian Nobility of the German Nation on the Improvement
of the Christian Condition,” which appeared in the beginning of
August, A.D. 1520, Luther bombards first of all the three walls
behind which the Romanists entrenched themselves, the superiority
of the spiritual to the civil power, the sole right of the pope
to interpret Scripture and to summon œcumenical councils. Then he
commends to the laity, as consecrated by baptism to a spiritual
priesthood, especially civil rulers ordained of God, the task
of carrying out the reformation which God’s word requires, but
the pope and clergy hinder; and then finally he makes a powerful
appeal for carrying out this work in a practical way. He exposes
the false pretensions of the papal curia, demands renunciation of
annats and papal confirmation of newly elected bishops, complete
abandonment of the interdict and the abuse of excommunication,
the prohibition of pilgrimages and the begging of the monks, a
limitation of holy days, reform of the universities, permission
to the clergy to marry, reunion with the Bohemian Picards
(§ 119, 8), etc.--The second work, “On the Babylonish Captivity
of the Church,” is a dogmatic treatise, and is directed mainly
against the misuse of the sacraments and the reckoning of them
as seven, which have been made in the hands of the pope an
instrument of tyranny over the church. Only three are recognised
as founded on Scripture: baptism, penance, and the Lord’s Supper,
with the remark that, strictly speaking, even penance, as wanting
an outward sign, cannot be styled a sacrament. The doctrine of
transubstantiation, the withholding of the cup from the laity,
and the idea of a sacrifice in the mass are decidedly rejected.
The third treatise, “On the Freedom of a Christian Man,” enters
the ethical domain. It represents the life of the Christian,
rooted in justifying faith, as complete oneness with Christ.
His relation therefore to the world around is set forth in two
propositions: A Christian man is a free lord over all things,
and subject to no one; and a Christian man is a ministering
servant of all things, and subject to every one. On the one
hand, he has the perfect freedom of a king and priest set over
all outward things; but, on the other hand, he yields complete
submission in love to his neighbour, which, as consideration of
the weak, his very freedom demands.[362]
§ 123.2. =The Papal Bull of Excommunication, A.D. 1520.=--In
order to reap the fruits of his pretended victory at Leipzig,
Eck had gone to Rome, and was sent back triumphant as papal
nuncio with the bull _Exsurge Domini_ of June 16th. It charged
Luther with forty-one heresies, recommended the burning of his
works, and threatened to put him and his followers, if they
did not retract in sixty days, under the ban. Miltitz renewed
his attempts at conciliation, which, however, led to no result,
although Luther, to show at least his good will, attended
the conference, and, as a basis for a mutual understanding,
published his treatise, “On the Freedom of a Christian Man,”
in Oct., A.D. 1520. He accompanied this with a letter to the
pope, in which he treated him with personal respect, as a
sheep among wolves and as a Daniel sitting among lions; but
there was in it no word of repentance or of any desire to
retract. It could easily have been foreseen that these two
documents would prove thoroughly distasteful to the Romish
court. Meanwhile Eck had issued the bull. Luther published
a scathing polemic against it, and renewed his appeal, made
two years before, to an œcumenical council. In Saxony Eck
gained only scorn and reproach with his bull; but in Lyons,
Mainz, Cologne, etc., Luther’s works were actually burnt.
It was then that Luther took the boldest step in his whole
career. With a numerous retinue of doctors and students, whom
he had invited by a notice posted up on the blackboard, on the
10th Dec., A.D. 1520, at the Elster gate of Wittenberg, he cast
into the blazing pile the bull and the papal decretals with the
words, “Because thou hast troubled the saints of the Lord, let
eternal fire consume thee.” It was the utter renunciation of the
pope and his church, and with it he cut away every possibility
of a return.
§ 123.3. =Erasmus, A.D. 1520.=--Erasmus (§ 120, 6) had been
hitherto on good terms with Luther. They entertained for one
another a genuine regard. Diverse as their positive tendencies
were, they were at one in contending against scholasticism and
monkery. Erasmus was not sorry to see such heavy blows dealt
to the detested monks, and constantly refused to write against
Luther; he had also, he confessed, no wish to learn from his
own experience the sharpness of Luther’s teeth. When the papal
bull appeared, without hesitation he disapproved it, and indeed
refused to believe in its genuineness. He, as the oracle of his
age, was applied to by many for his opinion of the matter. His
judgment was that not the papal decision in itself but its style
and form should be disapproved. He desired a tribunal of learned,
pious men and three princes (the emperor and the kings of England
and Hungary), to whose verdict Luther would have to submit. When
Frederick the Wise consulted him, he expressed the opinion that
Luther had made two mistakes, in touching the crown of the pope
and the belly of the monks; he regretted in Luther’s proceedings
a want of moderation and discretion. Not without profit did the
elector hear the oracle thus discourse.--Continuation § 125, 3.
§ 123.4. =Luther’s Controversy with Emser,
A.D. 1519-1521.=--Emser, secretary and orator in the service
of Duke George, after the Leipzig Disputation, which he had
attended, sought by letter-writing to alienate the Bohemians
(§ 139, 19) from Luther, representing him as having there spoken
bitterly against them. This roused Luther to make a passionate
reply. After several pamphlets of a violent character had been
issued by both combatants, Emser issued his charge in a full and
comprehensive treatise, to which Luther replied in his work, “The
Answer of Martin Luther to the Unchristian, Ultra-ecclesiastical,
and Over-ingenious Book of Emser at Leipzig.” They had also a
sharp passage at arms with one another, in A.D. 1524, over the
canonization of Bishop Benno of Meissen, in which Emser, by his
duke’s order, took a zealous part (§ 129, 1). But all the later
writings in this controversy Luther left unanswered. Emser, with
great bitterness, assailed Luther’s translation of the Bible, in
which he professed to have found 1,400 heretical falsifications
and more than 1,000 lexical blunders. Luther was candid enough to
acknowledge that several of his animadversions were not unfounded.
On Emser’s own translation, which appeared shortly before his
death in A.D. 1527, see § 149, 14.
§ 123.5. =The Emperor Charles V.=--The Emperor Maximilian
had died on 12th Jan., A.D. 1519. The Elector of Saxony, as
administrator of the empire, managed to determine the election,
which took place on 28th June, A.D. 1519, against the French
candidate, Francis I., who was supported by the pope, in favour
of the young king of Spain, Charles I., grandson of Maximilian.
Detained at home by Spanish affairs, it was 23rd Oct., A.D. 1520,
before he was crowned at Aachen. All hopes were now directed
toward the young emperor. It was expected that he would put
himself at the head of the religious and national movement in
Germany. But Charles, uninspired by German sentiment, and even
ignorant of the German language, had other interests, which he
was not inclined to subordinate to German politics. The German
crown was with him only an integral part of his power. Its
interests must accommodate themselves to the common interests
of the whole dominions, upon which the sun never set. The German
movement he regarded as one, indeed, of high importance, but he
regarded it not so much from its religious as from its political
side. It afforded him the means for keeping the pope in check
and obliging him to sue for his favour. Two things required he
of the pope as the price of suppressing the German movement:
renunciation of the French alliance, and repeal of the papal
brief by which a transformation had been recommended of the
Spanish Inquisition, the main buttress of absolute monarchy
in Spain. The pope granted both demands, and the hopes of the
Germans in their new emperor, that he would finally free their
nation from the galling yoke of Rome, were thus utterly blasted.
§ 123.6. =The Diet at Worms, A.D. 1521.=--Immediately after the
arrival of the bull the emperor gave it the full force of law in
the Netherlands, where he was then staying. He did not at once
venture to make the same proclamation for Germany, specially from
regard to Frederick the Wise, Luther’s own prince, who insisted
that he should not be condemned unheard. Personal negotiations
between Frederick and the emperor and his councillors at Cologne,
in November, A.D. 1520, ended with a demand that the elector
should bring Luther to the diet, summoned to meet at Worms,
on 28th January, A.D. 1521; but at the desire of Aleander, the
papal nuncio, who energetically protested against the proposal
that civil judges should treat of matters of faith with an
already condemned heretic, the emperor, in December, withdrew
this summons. In the beginning of February there came a papal
brief, in which he was urgently entreated to give effect to
the bull throughout Germany. Aleander even sketched an imperial
mandate for its execution, but was not able to prevent the
emperor from laying it before his councillors for their opinion
and approval. This was done in the middle of February. And
now there arose a quite unexpected storm of opposition. The
councillors demanded that Luther should be brought under an
imperial safe conduct to Worms, there to answer for himself.
His attacks on Romish abuses they would not and could not regard
as crimes, for they themselves, with Duke George at their head,
had presented to the pope a complaint containing 101 counts. On
the other hand, they declared that if Luther would not retract
his doctrinal vagaries, they would be prepared to carry out
the edict. They persisted in this attitude when another scheme
was proposed to them, which insisted on the burning of Luther’s
writings. In the beginning of March a third proposal was made,
which asked only for the temporary sequestration of his works.
And to this they agreed. The emperor, though against his own
will, submitted to their demand, and cited the reformer of
Wittenberg to answer for himself at Worms. On 6th March he
signed a summons, accompanied with a safe conduct, both intended,
as Aleander said in writing to Rome, rather to frighten him
from coming than with any desire for his presence. But the
result was not as they desired. The courier appointed to deliver
this citation was not sent, but instead of him, on the 12th, an
imperial herald, who delivered to Luther a respectful invitation
beginning with the address, “Noble, dear, and worshipful sir.”
This herald was to bring him honourably and safely to Worms,
and to conduct him back again in safety. All this was done behind
the back of Aleander, who first came to know about it on the 15th,
and certainly was not wrong in attributing the emperor’s change
of mind to a suspicion of French political intrigues, in which
Leo X., notwithstanding his negotiations for an alliance with
the emperor, was understood to have had a share. Two weeks later,
however, such suspicions were seen to be unfounded. Too late the
sending of the herald was regretted, and an effort was made to
conciliate the nuncio by the publication of the sequestrating
mandate, which had been hitherto suppressed.
§ 123.7. =Luther= was meanwhile not idle at Wittenberg, while
waiting with heroic calm the issue of the Worms negotiations.
He preached twice daily, delivered lectures at the university,
taught and exhorted by books, letters, and conversations,
fought with his opponents, especially Emser, etc. While Luther
was engaged with these multifarious tasks the imperial herald
arrived. He now set everything aside, and on 2nd April boldly
and confidently obeyed the summons. The fears of his Wittenberg
friends and the counsels to turn back which reached him on
his way were rejected with a heroic consciousness that he
was in the path of duty. He had written on 14th March to
Spalatin, _Intrabimus Wormatiam invitis omnibus portis inferni
et potentatibus aëris_; and again from Oppenheim he wrote him,
that he would go to Worms even if there were as many devils
there as tiles upon the roofs. Still another attempt was
made upon him at Oppenheim. The emperor’s confessor, Glapio,
a Franciscan, who was by no means a blind worshipper of the
Roman curia, thought it possible that a good understanding
might be reached. He was of opinion that if Luther would
only withdraw the worst of his books, especially that on
the Babylonish Captivity, and acknowledge the decisions of
the Council of Constance, all might be agreeably settled. With
this in his mind he applied to the Elector of Saxony, and when
he received no encouragement there, to Franz von Sickingen, who
invited Luther, on his arrival at Ebernburg, near Worms, to an
interview with Glapio; but Luther declined the invitation.--His
journey all through was like a triumphal march. On 16th April,
amid a great concourse of people, he entered Worms, along with
his friends Justus Jonas and Nic. Amsdorf, as well as his legal
adviser Jerome Schurf. He was called to appear on the following
day. He admitted that the books spread out before him were his,
and when called on to retract desired one day’s adjournment.
On the 18th the trial proper began. Luther distinguished three
classes of his writings, systematic treatises, controversial
tracts against the papacy and papal doctrine, and controversial
tracts against private individuals, and did not know that he
had said anything in them that he could retract. He was asked
to give a direct answer. He then gave one “without horns or
teeth,” saying that he could and would retract nothing unless
proved false from Scripture, or on other good and clear grounds,
and concluded with the words, “Here stand I; I can no otherwise!
God help me, Amen.” Among the German knights and princes he had
won many hearts, but had made no favourable impression on the
emperor, who, when Luther denounced the absolute authority of
councils, stopped proceedings and dismissed the heretical monk.
On the following day, without consulting the opinion of the
councillors, he passed sentence of unconditional condemnation.
But the councillors would not have the matter settled in this
fashion, and the emperor was obliged, on 24th April, to reopen
negotiations before a select commission, under the presidency of
the Archbishop of Treves. Of no avail was a private conference
of the archbishop and Luther on the 25th, in which the prelate
accompanied his exhortation to retract with the promise of
a rich priorate in his neighbourhood under his own and the
emperor’s protection and favour. Luther supported his refusal
by confident reference to the words of Gamaliel, Acts v. 38.
On 26th April he left Worms unhindered; for the emperor had
decidedly refused to yield to the vile proposal that the safe
conduct of a heretic should be violated.--In consequence of
Luther’s persistent refusal to retract anything, the majority
of the diet pronounced themselves ready to agree to the
emperor’s judgment against him. The latter now assigned to
Aleander the drawing up of a new mandate, which should in the
severest terms proclaim the ban of the empire against Luther
and all his friends. After it had been approved in an imperial
cabinet council, and was ready for printing in its final form
in Latin and German, with the date 8th May, it was laid before
the emperor for signature, which, however, he put off doing
from day to day, and finally, in spite of all the nuncio’s
remonstrances, he decided that it must be produced before the
diet. When it appeared that this must be done, the two nuncios
were all impatient to have it passed soon. But it was only on
the 25th May, after the close of the diet, and after several
princes, especially the Electors of Saxony and the Palatinate,
had gone, that Charles let them present the edict, to which
all present agreed. On the 26th May, after Divine service
in church, he solemnly signed the Latin and German forms,
which were published with blast of trumpets on the following
day, and on Wednesday the sequestrated books of Luther were
burnt.--Undoubtedly political motives occasioned this long
delay in signing the documents. Perhaps he suspected the pope
of some new act of political treachery; probably also he wished
to postpone the publication of the edict until the imperial
councillors had promised to contribute to his proposed journey
to Rome, and perhaps until the nobles dissenting from the
proceedings against Luther had departed.
§ 123.8. =The Wartburg Exile, A.D. 1521, 1522.=--Some days
after Luther had dismissed the imperial herald, his carriage
was stopped in a wood near Eisenach by two disguised knights
with some retainers. He was himself carried off with show of
violence, and brought to the Wartburg, where he was to remain
in knight’s dress under the name of Junker Georg without himself
knowing anything more of the matter. It was indeed a contrivance
of the wise elector, though probably he took no active share
in the matter, so that he could declare at Worms that he knew
nothing of the Saxon monk. The most contradictory reports were
spread. Sometimes the Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (§ 122, 2)
was thought of as the perpetrator of the act, sometimes Franz
von Sickingen (§ 124, 2), sometimes a Franconian nobleman who
was on intimate terms with Frederick. And as the news rapidly
spread that Luther’s body, pierced with a sword, had been found
in an old silver mine, the tumult in Worms became so great that
Aleander had good cause to fear for his life.--From the Wartburg
Luther maintained a lively correspondence with his friends, and
even to the general public he proved, by edifying and stirring
tracts, that he still lived, and was not inclined to be silenced
or repressed. He completed the exposition of the _Magnificat_,
wrought upon the Latin exposition of the Psalms, issued the
first series of his “Church Postils,” wrote an “Instruction
to Penitents,” a book “On Confession, whether the Pope have
the Power to Enjoin it,” another “Against the Abuses of the
Mass,” also “On Priestly and Monkish Vows,” etc. When Cardinal
Albert, in September, A.D. 1521, proclaimed a pilgrimage with
unlimited indulgence to the relic shrine at Halle (§ 115, 9),
Luther wrote a scathing tract, “Against the New Idol at Halle.”
And when Spalatin assured him that the elector would not suffer
its being issued, he declined to withhold it, but sent him
the little book, with imperative orders to give it over to
Melanchthon for publication. While Spalatin still delayed
its issue, Luther left his castle, pushed his way toward
Wittenberg through the very heart of Duke George’s territories,
and suddenly appeared among his friends in the dress of a knight,
with long beard and hair. When he heard that the mere report
of what he was proposing to do had led those in Halle to stop
the traffic in indulgences, he decided not to proceed with the
publication, but instead he addressed a letter to Albert, in
which the archbishop had to read many a strong word about “the
knavery of indulgences,” “the Pharaoh-like hardened condition
of ecclesiastical tyrants,” etc. The prelate sent a most humble,
apologetic, and gracious reply to the bold reformer. Luther then
returned to his protective exile, as he had left it, unmolested.
But the longer it continued the more insupportable did this
electoral guardianship become. He would rather “burn on glowing
coals than spend thus a half idle life.” But it was just this
enforced exile that saved Luther and the Reformation from utter
overthrow. Apart from the dangers of the ban of the empire,
which would have perhaps obliged him to throw himself into
the arms of Hutten and his companions, and thus have turned
the Reformation into a revolution this confinement in the
Wartburg was in various ways a blessing to Luther and his
work. It was of importance that men should learn to distinguish
between Luther’s work and Luther’s person, and of yet greater
importance was the discipline of this exile upon Luther himself.
He was in danger of being drawn out of the path of positive
reformation into that of violent revolutionism. The leisure
of the Wartburg gave him time for calm reflection on himself
and his work, and the extravagances of the Wittenberg fanatics
and the wild excuses of the prophets of Zwickau (§ 124, 1)
could be estimated with a freedom from prejudice that would
have been impossible to one living and moving in the midst of
them. Besides, he had not reached that maturity of theological
knowledge needed for the conduct of his great undertaking, and
was in many ways fettered by a one-sided subjectivism. In his
seclusion he could turn from merely destructive criticism to
construction, and by undisturbed study of Scripture became
able to enlarge, purify, and confirm his religious knowledge.
But most important of all was the plan which he formed in the
Wartburg, and so far as the New Testament is concerned carried
out there, of translating the whole of the Scriptures.[363]
§ 123.9. =The Attitude of Frederick the Wise to the
Reformation.=--Frederick the Wise, A.D. 1486-1525, has usually
been styled “the Promoter of the Reformation.” Kolde, however,
has sought to represent him as favouring Luther because of
his interest in the University of Wittenberg founded by him,
the success of which was largely owing to Luther, and because
of his patriotic desire to have German questions settled at
home rather than in Rome. This author supposes that after the
Diet of Worms Frederick took no particular interest in the
Reformation, beyond watching to see how things would turn out.
To all this Köstlin has replied that Frederick’s whole attitude
during the Diet of Worms betrayed a warm and hearty interest
in evangelical truth; that his correspondence with Tucher of
Nuremberg, A.D. 1518-1523, supports this view; that in one
of these letters he addresses his correspondent with evident
satisfaction as a good Lutheran; that in another he incloses
a copy of Luther’s _Assertio omnium articulorum_; that at a
later period he forwards him a copy of Luther’s New Testament,
and expresses the hope that he will gain spiritual blessing
from its perusal. He himself found it his greatest comfort
in the hour of death, partook of the communion in both kinds
after the reformed manner, which takes away all ground for
the suspicion that he yielded only to the importunities of
his brother John and his chaplain Spalatin. And even though
Frederick, as late as A.D. 1522, continued to increase the
rich collection of relics which he had previously made for
his castle church, this only proves that not all at once but
only bit by bit he was able to break away from his earlier
religious tendencies and predilections.
§ 124. DETERIORATION AND PURIFICATION OF THE WITTENBERG
REFORMATION, A.D. 1522-1525.
During Luther’s absence, the Reformation at Wittenberg advanced
only too rapidly, and at last ran out into the wildest extravagances.
But Luther hastened thither, regulated the movement, and guided it
back into wise evangelical ways. This fanaticism arose in Wittenberg,
but soon spread into other parts. The Reformation was at the same time
threatened with danger from another quarter. The religious movement
came into contact with the struggle of the German knights against the
princes and that of the German peasants against the nobles, and was
in danger of being identified with these revolutionary proceedings
and sharing their fate. But Luther stood firm as a wall against all
temptations, and thus these dangers were avoided.
§ 124.1. =The Wittenberg Fanaticism, A.D. 1521, 1522.=--In
A.D. 1521 an Augustinian, Gabriel Didymus or Zwilling, preached
a violent tirade against vows and private masses. In consequence
of this sermon, thirteen of the brethren of his order at once
withdrew. Two priests in the neighbourhood married. Carlstadt
wrote against celibacy and followed their example. At the
Wittenberg convent, secessions from the order were allowed
at pleasure, and mendicancy, as well as the sacrifice of the
mass, was abolished. But matters did not stop there. Didymus,
and still more Carlstadt, spread a fanatical spirit among the
people and the students, who were encouraged in the wildest
acts of violence. The public services were disturbed in order
to stop the idolatry of the mass, images were thrown out of
the churches, altars were torn down, and a desire evinced
to put an end to theological science as well as to clerical
orders. A fanatical spirit began now also to spread at Zwickau.
At the head of this movement stood the tailor Nicolas Storch
and a literate Marcus Stübner, who boasted of Divine revelations;
while Thomas Münzer, with fervid eloquence, proclaimed the new
gospel from the pulpit. Restrained by energetic measures taken
against them, the Zwickau prophets wandered abroad. Münzer went
to Bohemia, Storch and Stübner to Wittenberg. There they told
of their revelations and inveighed against infant baptism as
a work of Satan. The excitement in Wittenberg became greater
day by day. The enemies of the Reformation rejoiced; Melanchthon
could give no counsel, and the elector was confounded. Then
could Luther no longer contain himself. Against the elector’s
express command he left the Wartburg on 3rd March, A.D. 1522,
wrote him a noble letter, availed himself of his knight’s
incognito on the way, and appeared publicly at Wittenberg.
For a week he preached daily against fanaticism, and got
complete control of the wild revolutionary elements. The
prophets of Zwickau left Wittenberg. Carlstadt remained, but
for a couple of years held his peace. Luther and Melanchthon
now laboured to secure a positive basis for the Reformation.
Melanchthon had already made a beginning in A.D. 1521 by the
publication of his _Loci communes rerum theologicarum_. Luther
now, in A.D. 1522, against the decided wish of his friend,
published his _Annotationes in epist. t. Pauli ad Rom. et
Cor._ In Sept. of the same year appeared Luther’s translation
of the N.T. Besides these he also issued several treatises
in defence of the Reformation.
§ 124.2. =Franz von Sickingen, A.D. 1522, 1523.=--A private
feud led Franz von Sickingen to attack the Elector and Archbishop
of Treves in A.D. 1522, but soon other interests were involved,
and he was joined by the whole party of the knights. Sickingen’s
opponent was a prelate and a pronounced enemy of the Reformation,
and he was also a prince and a peer of the empire. In both
characters he was opposed by Sickingen, who called for support
in the name of religion and freedom. The knights, discontented
with the imperial government and bureaucracy, with princes and
prelates, crowded to his standard. Sickingen would also have
gladly secured the monk of Wittenberg as an ally, but Luther
was not to be won. Sickingen’s enterprise failed. The Elector
of the Palatinate and the young Landgrave of Hesse hasted to
the help of their beleaguered neighbours. The knights were
overthrown one after another; Sickingen died of mortal wounds
in May, A.D. 1523, immediately after the taking of the shattered
Ebernburg. The power of the knights was utterly broken. The
Reformation thus lost indeed brave and noble protectors, but
it was itself saved.
§ 124.3. =Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt, A.D. 1524,
1525.=--Even after the suppression of the Wittenberg
fanaticism, Carlstadt continued to entertain his revolutionary
views, and it was only with difficulty that he restrained himself
for a few years. In A.D. 1524 he left Wittenberg and went to
Orlamünde. With bitter invectives against Luther’s popism, he
there resumed his iconoclasm, and brought forward his doctrine
of the Lord’s Supper, in which the real presence of the body
and blood of Christ was absolutely denied (§ 131, 1). In order
to prevent disturbance, Luther, by the order of the elector,
went to Jena, and there in Carlstadt’s presence preached most
emphatically against image breakers and sacramentarians. This
roused Carlstadt’s indignation. When Luther visited Orlamünde,
he was received with stone throwing and curses. Carlstadt was
now banished from his territories by the elector. He then went
to Strassburg, where he sought to win over the two evangelical
pastors, Bucer and Capito. Luther issued a letter of warning,
“To the Christians of Strassburg.” Carlstadt went to Basel,
and published violent tracts against Luther’s “unspiritual
and irrational theology.” Luther replied in A.D. 1525,
earnestly, thoroughly, and firmly in his treatise, “Against
the Heavenly Prophets, or Images and the Sacraments.” Carlstadt
had secured the support of the Swiss reformers, who continued
the controversy with Luther. He involved himself in the Peasants’
War, and afterwards, by Luther’s intercession with the elector,
obtained leave to return to Saxony. He retracted his errors,
but soon again renewed his old disorderly practices; and, after
a singularly eventful career, died as professor and preacher
at Basel during the plague of A.D. 1541.
§ 124.4. =Thomas Münzer, A.D. 1523, 1524.=--The prophets
when expelled from Wittenberg did not remain idle, but set
themselves to produce all sort of disorders in church and state.
At the head of these disturbers stood Thomas Münzer. After his
expulsion from Zwickau, he had gone to Bohemia, and was there
received as an apostle of the Taborite doctrine (§ 119, 7).
In A.D. 1523 he returned to Saxony, and settled at Allstadt
[Allstädt] in Thuringia, and when driven out by the elector
he went to Mühlhausen. In both places he soon obtained a large
following. The Wittenberg Reformation was condemned no less
than the papacy. Not the word of Scripture but the Spirit was
to be the principle of the Reformation; not only everything
ecclesiastical but also everything civil was to be spiritualized
and reorganized. The doctrine of the evangelical freedom of
the Christian was grossly misconceived, the sacraments despised,
infant baptism denounced, and sole weight laid on the baptism
of the Spirit. Princes should be driven from their thrones,
the enemies of the gospel destroyed by the sword, and all
goods be held in common. When Luther wrote a letter of warning
on these subjects to the church at Mühlhausen, Münzer issued
an abusive rejoinder, in which he speaks contemptuously of
Luther’s “honey-sweet Christ,” and “cunningly devised gospel.”
From Mühlhausen, Münzer went forth on a proselytising crusade
in A.D. 1524, to Nuremberg, and then to Basel, but found little
response in either city. His revolutionary extravagances were
more successful among the peasants of Southern Germany.
§ 124.5. =The Peasant War, A.D. 1524, 1525.=--The peasants of
the empire had long groaned under their heavy burdens. Twice
already, in A.D. 1502, 1514, had they risen in revolt, with
little advantage to themselves. When Luther’s ideas of the
freedom of a Christian man reached them, they hastily drew
conclusions in accordance with their own desires. Münzer’s
fanatical preaching led to the adoption of still more decidedly
communistic theories. In August, A.D. 1524, in the Black Forest,
a rebellion broke out, which was, however, quickly suppressed.
In the beginning of A.D. 1525 troubles burst forth afresh.
The peasants stated their demands in twelve articles, which
they insisted upon princes, nobles, and prelates accepting.
All Franconia and Swabia were soon under their power, and
even many cities made common cause with them. Münzer, however,
was not satisfied with this success. The twelve articles were
too moderate for him, and still more distasteful to him were
the terms that had been made with the nobles and clergy. He
returned to Thuringia and settled again at Mühlhausen. From
thence he spread his fanaticism through the whole land and
organized a general revolt. With merciless cruelty thousands
were massacred, all cloisters, castles, and palaces were
ruthlessly destroyed. Boldly as Luther had attacked the
existing ecclesiastical tyranny, he resolutely left civil
matters alone. He preached that the gospel makes the soul
free, but not the body or property. He had profound sympathy
for the sorely oppressed peasants, and so long as their
demands did not go beyond the twelve articles, he hoped to
be able to regulate the movement by the power of the word.
The revolutionists had themselves in their twelfth article
offered to abandon any of their claims that might be found
to have no countenance from the word of God. When Münzer’s
disorders began in Thuringia, Luther visited the cities most
threatened and exhorted them to quiet and obedience. But the
death of the elector on 5th May called him back to Wittenberg.
From thence he now published his “Exhortations to Peace on the
Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants,” in which he speaks
pointedly to the consciences of the nobles no less than of the
peasants. But when the agitation continued to spread, and one
enormity after another was perpetrated, he gave vent to his
wrath in no measured terms in his book, “Against the Robbing
and Murdering Peasants.” He there, with burning words, called
upon the princes vigorously to stamp out the fanatical rebellion.
Philip of Hesse was the first to take the field. He was joined
by the new Elector of Saxony, Frederick’s brother, =John the
Constant=, A.D. 1525-1532, as well as by George of Saxony and
Henry of Brunswick. On 15th May, A.D. 1525, the rebels were
annihilated after a severe struggle at Frankenhausen. Münzer
was taken prisoner and beheaded. Even in Southern Germany the
princes were soon in all parts masters of the situation. In
this war 100,000 men had lost their lives and the most fertile
districts had been turned into barren wastes.
§ 125. FRIENDS AND FOES OF LUTHER’S DOCTRINE,
A.D. 1522-1526.
Luther’s fellow labourers in the work of the gospel increased
from day to day, and so too the number of the cities in Northern and
Southern Germany in which pure doctrine was preached. But Wittenberg
was the heart and centre of the whole movement, the muster-ground for
all who were persecuted and exiled for the sake of the gospel, the
gathering point and nursery of new preachers. Among the theological
opponents of Luther’s doctrine appears a crowned head, Henry VIII.
of England, and also “the king of literature,” Erasmus of Rotterdam,
entered the lists against him. But neither the one nor the other, to
say nothing of the rude invectives of Thomas Murner, was able to shake
the bold reformer and check the rapid spread of his opinions.
§ 125.1. =Spread of Evangelical Views.=--The most powerful
heralds of the Reformation were the monkish orders. Cloister
life had become so utterly corrupt that the more virtuous of
the brethren could no longer endure it. Anxious to breathe a
healthier atmosphere, evangelists inspired by a purer doctrine
arose in all parts of Germany, first and most of all among
the Augustinian order (§ 112, 6), which almost to a man went
over to the Reformation and had the glory of providing its
first martyr (§ 128, 1). The order regarded Luther’s honour
as its own. Next to them came the Franciscans, prominent during
the Middle Ages as a fanatical opposition (§ 98, 4; 108, 5;
112, 2), of whom many had the courage to free themselves of
their shackles. From their cloisters proceeded, _e.g._, the
two famous popular preachers, Eberlin of Günzburg and Henry
of Kettenbach in Ulm, the Hamburg reformer Stephen Kempen,
the fervent Lambert reformer of Hesse, Luther’s friend
Myconius of Gotha, and many more. Other orders too supplied
their contingent, even the Dominicans, to whom Martin Bucer,
the Strassburg reformer, belonged. Blaurer of Württemberg
was a Benedictine, Rhegius a Carmelite, Bugenhagen a
Premonstratensian, etc. At least one of the German bishops,
George Polenz of Samland, openly joined the movement, preached
the gospel in Königsberg, and inspired the priests of his diocese
with the same views. Other bishops, such as those of Augsburg,
Basel, Bamberg, Merseburg, sympathised with the movement or at
least put no hindrance in its way. But the secular clergy gave
crowds of witnesses. In all the larger and even in some of the
smaller towns of Germany Luther’s doctrines were preached from
the pulpits with the approval of the magistrates, and where these
were refused the preachers took to the market-places and fields.
Where ministers were wanting, artisans and knights, wives and
maidens, carried on the work.--One of the first cities which
opened its gates freely to the gospel was Strassburg. Nowhere
were Luther’s writings more zealously read, discussed, printed,
and circulated than in that city. Shortly before Geiler of
Kaisersberg (§ 115, 11) had prepared the soil for receiving
the first seed of the Reformation. From A.D. 1518 Matthew Zell
had wrought as pastor at St. Laurence in Münster. When the
chapter forbade him the use of the stone pulpit erected for
Geiler, the joiners’ guild soon made him a wooden pulpit, which
was carried in solemn procession to Münster, and set up beside
the one that had been closed against him. Zell was soon assisted
by Capito, Bucer, Hedio, and others.
§ 125.2. =“The Sum of Holy Scripture” and its Author.=--This
work, called also _Deutsche Theologie_, appeared anonymously
at Leyden in A.D. 1523, and was confiscated in March, A.D. 1524.
In various Dutch editions and in French, Italian, and English
translations, it was soon widely spread over Europe; but
so vigorously was it suppressed, that by the middle of the
century it had disappeared and was forgotten. In A.D. 1877
the Waldensian Comba discovered and published an old Italian
version, and Benrath translated into German in A.D. 1880 an
old Dutch edition of A.D. 1526, and succeeded in unravelling
for the most part its interesting history. He found that it
was composed in Latin, and on the entreaty of the author’s
friends rendered into Dutch. This led to the discovery, in
the possession of Prof. Toorenenberger of Amsterdam, of the
Latin original, which had appeared anonymously at Strassburg
in A.D. 1527 with the title, _Æconomica christiana_. Benrath
has also discovered the author to be Hendrik van Bommel, who
was in the first half of A.D. 1520 priest and rector of a
sisterhood at Utrecht, expelled in A.D. 1536 from Cleves,
from A.D. 1542 to 1560 evangelical teacher and preacher at
Wesel, dying in A.D. 1570 as pastor at Duisburg. The “Sum” is
evidently influenced by those works of Luther which appeared
up to A.D. 1523, its thoroughly popular, edifying, and positive
contents are based upon a careful study of Scripture, and it is
throughout inspired by the one grand idea, that the salvation
of sinful men rests solely on the grace of God in Christ
appropriated by faith.
§ 125.3. =Henry VIII. and Erasmus.=--Henry VIII. of England,
as a second son, had been originally destined for the church.
Hence he retained a certain predilection for theological
studies and was anxious to be regarded as a learned theologian.
In A.D. 1522 he appeared as the champion of the Romish doctrine
of the seven sacraments in opposition to Luther’s book on the
“Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” treating the peasant’s
son with lordly contempt. Luther paid him in the same coin, and
treated his royal opponent with less consideration than he had
shown to Emser and Eck. The king obtained what he desired, the
papal honorary title of _Defensor fidei_, but Luther’s crushing
reply kept him from attempting to continue the controversy.
He complained to the elector, who consoled him by reference
to a general council (comp. § 129, 1). The pretty tolerable
relations between Erasmus and Luther now suffered a severe
shock. Erasmus, indebted to the English king for many favours,
was roused to great bitterness by Luther’s unmeasured severity.
He had hitherto refused all calls to write against Luther. Many
pulpits charged him with having a secret understanding with the
heretic; others thought he was afraid of him. All this tended
to drive Erasmus into open hostility to the reformer. He now
diligently studied Luther’s writings, for which he obtained
the pope’s permission, and seized upon a doctrine which would
not oblige him to appear as defender of Romish abuses, though
to gauge and estimate it in its full meaning he was quite
incompetent. Luther’s life experiences, joined with the study
of Paul’s epistles and Augustine’s writings, had wrought in
him the conviction that man is by nature incapable of doing
any good, that his will is unfree, and that he is saved without
any well doing of his own by God’s free grace in Christ. With
Luther, as with Augustine, this conviction found expression
in the doctrine of absolute predestination. Melanchthon had
also formulated the doctrine in the first edition of his _Loci
communes_. This fundamental doctrine of Luther was now laid hold
upon by Erasmus in A.D. 1524 in his treatise, Διατριβή _de libra
arbitrio_, pronounced dangerous and unbiblical, while his own
semi-Pelagianism was set over against it. After the lapse of
a year, Luther replied in his treatise, _De servo arbitrio_,
with all the power and confidence of personal, experimental
conviction. Erasmus answered in his _Hyperaspistes diatribes
adv. Lutheri servum arbitrium_ of A.D. 1526, in which he gave
free vent to his passion, but did not advance the argument
in the least. Luther therefore saw no need to continue the
discussion.[364]
§ 125.4. =Thomas Murner.=--The Franciscan, Thomas Murner of
Strassburg, had published in A.D. 1509 his “Fools’ Exorcism”
and other pieces, which gave him a high place among German
satirists. He spared no class, not even the clergy and
the monks, took Reuchlin’s part against the men of Cologne
(§ 120, 4), but passionately opposed Luther’s movement. His
most successful satire against Luther is entitled, “On the
Great Lutheran Fool as Exorcised by Dr. Murner, A.D. 1522.”
It does not touch upon the spiritual aspect of the Reformation,
but lashes with biting wit the revolutionary, fanatical, and
rhetorical extravagances which were often closely associated
with it. Luther did not venture into the lists with the savagely
sarcastic monk, but the humanists poured upon him a flood of
scurrilous replies.
§ 125.5. A notable Catholic witness on behalf of the
Reformation is the “=Onus ecclesiæ=,” an anonymous tract of
A.D. 1524, written by Bishop Berthold Pirstinger of Chiemsee.
In apocalyptic phraseology it describes the corruption of
the church and calls for reformation. The author however
denounces Luther as a sectary and revolutionist, though he
distinctly accepts his views of indulgences. He would reform
the church from within. Four years after, the same divine
wrote a “_Tewtsche Theologey_,” in which, with the exception
of the doctrine of indulgence, the whole Romish system is
vindicated and the corruptions of the church are ignored.
§ 126. DEVELOPMENT OF THE REFORMATION IN THE EMPIRE,
A.D. 1522-1526.
In consequence of the terms of his election, Charles V. had, at
the Diet of Worms, to agree to the erection of a standing imperial
government at Nuremberg, which in his absence would have the supreme
direction of imperial affairs. Within this commission, though presided
over by Archduke Ferdinand, the emperor’s brother, a majority was
soon found which openly favoured the new religion. Thus protected
by the highest imperial judicature, the Reformation was able for
a long time to spread unhindered and so made rapid progress (§ 125, 1).
The Nuremberg court succumbed indeed to the united efforts of its
political opponents, among whom were many nobles of an evangelical
spirit, but all the more energetically did these press the interests
of the Reformation. And their endeavours were so successful, that
it was determined that matters should be settled without reference
to pope and council at a general German national assembly. But the
papal legate Campegius formed at Regensberg [Regensburg], in A.D. 1524,
a league of the Catholic nobles for enforcing the edict of Worms,
against which the evangelical nobles established a defensive league
at Torgau, in A.D. 1526. The general national assembly was vetoed by
the emperor, but the decision of the Diet of Spires of A.D. 1526 gave
to all nobles the right of determining the religious matters of their
provinces after their own views.
§ 126.1. =The Diet at Nuremberg, A.D. 1522, 1523.=--The
imperial court held its first diet in the end of A.D. 1522.
Leo X. had died in Dec., A.D. 1521, and Hadrian VI. (§ 149, 1),
strictly conservative in doctrine and worship, a reformer of
discipline and hierarchical abuses, had succeeded with the
determination “to restore the deformed bride of Christ to her
pristine purity,” but vigorously to suppress the Lutheran heresy.
His legate presented to the diet a letter confessing abuses and
promising reforms, but insisting on the execution of the edict
of Worms. The diet declared that in consequence of the admitted
corruptions of the church, the present execution of the Worms
edict was not to be thought of. Until a general council in a
German city, with guaranteed freedom of discussion, had been
called, discussion should be avoided, and the word of God, with
true Christian and evangelical explanation, should be taught.
§ 126.2. =The Diet at Nuremberg, A.D. 1524.=--A new diet was
held at Nuremberg on 14th Jan., A.D. 1524. It dealt first of
all with the question of the existence of the imperial court.
The reformatory tendencies of the government showed that what
was vital to this court was so also to the Reformation. This
party had important supporters in the arch-catholic Ferdinand,
who hoped thus to strengthen himself in his endeavour to obtain
the Roman crown, in the Elector of Mainz, the prime mover in
the traffic in indulgences, who had personal antipathies to
the foes of the court, in the elector of Saxony, its proper
creator, and in the princes of Brandenburg. But there were
powerful opponents: the Swabian league, the princes of Treves,
the Palatinate and Hesse, who had been successful in opposition
to Sickingen, and the imperial cities, which, though at one
with the court in favouring the Reformation, were embittered
against it because of its financial projects. The papal legate
Campegius also joined the opposition. Hadrian VI. had died in
A.D. 1523, and was succeeded by =Clement VII.=, A.D. 1523-1534.
A skilful politician with no religious convictions, he determined
to strengthen in every possible way the temporal power of
the papal see. His legate was a man after his own mind. The
opposition prevailed, and even Ferdinand after a struggle gave
in. The newly organized governing body was only a shadow of
the old, without power, influence, or independence. Thus a
second (§ 124, 2) powerful support was lost to the Reformation,
and the legate again pressed for the execution of the edict
of Worms. But the evangelicals mustering all their forces,
especially in the cities, secured a majority. They were indeed
obliged to admit the legality of the edict; they even promised
to carry it out, but with the saving clause “as far as possible.”
A council in the sense of the former diet was demanded, and
it was resolved to call a general national assembly at Spires,
to be wholly devoted to religious and ecclesiastical questions.
In the meantime the word of God in its simplicity was to be
preached.
§ 126.3. =The Convention at Regensburg, A.D. 1524.=--While the
evangelical nobles, by their theologians and diplomatists, were
eagerly preparing for Spires, an assembly of the supporters
of the old views met at Regensburg, June and July, A.D. 1524.
Ignoring the previous arrangement, they proceeded to treat
of the religious and ecclesiastical questions which had
been reserved for the Spires Diet. This was the result of
the machinations of Campegius. The Archduke Ferdinand, the
Bavarian dukes, the Archbishop of Salzburg, and most of the
South German bishops, joined the legate at Regensburg in
insisting upon the edict of Worms. Luther’s writings were
anew forbidden, their subjects were strictly enjoined not to
attend the University of Wittenberg; several external abuses
were condemned, ecclesiastical burdens on the people lightened,
the number of festivals reduced, the four Latin Fathers, Ambrose,
Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory, set up as the standard of
faith and doctrine, while it was commanded that the services
should be conducted unchanged after the manner of these Fathers.
Thus was produced that rent in the unity of the empire which
never again was healed.--The imperial and the papal policies
were so bound up with one another, that the proceedings of the
Nuremberg diets, with their national tendencies, were distasteful
to the emperor; and so in the end of July there came an imperial
rescript, making attendance at the national assembly a _crimen
læsæ majestatis_, punishable with ban and double-ban. The nobles
obeyed, and the assembly was not held. With it Germany’s hopes
of a peaceful development were shattered.
§ 126.4. =The Evangelical Nobles, A.D. 1524.=--Several nobles
hitherto indifferent became now supporters of the Reformation.
Philip of Hesse, moved by an interview with Melanchthon, gave
himself enthusiastically to the cause of evangelical truth.
Also the Margrave Casimir, George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Duke
Ernest of Lüneburg, the Elector Louis of the Palatinate, and
Frederick I. of Denmark, as Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, did
more or less in their several countries for the furtherance of
the Reformation cause. The grand-master of the Teutonic order,
Albert of Prussia, returned from the Diet of Nuremberg, where
he had heard Osiander preach, doubtful of the scripturalness
of the rule of his order. He therefore visited Wittenberg to
consult Luther, who advised him to renounce the rule, to marry,
and obtain heirs to his Prussian dukedom (§ 127, 3). The cities
took up a most decided position. At two great city diets at
Spires and Ulm in A.D. 1524, it was resolved to allow the
preaching of a pure gospel and to assist in preventing the
execution of the edict of Worms in their jurisdiction.
§ 126.5. =The Torgau League, A.D. 1526.=--Friends and foes of
the Reformation had joined in putting down the peasant revolt.
Their religious divergences however immediately after broke
out afresh. George consulted at Dessau in July, A.D. 1525, with
several Catholic princes as to means for preventing a renewal
of the outbreak, and they unanimously decided that the condemned
Lutheran sect must be rooted out as the source of all confusion.
Soon afterwards two Leipzig citizens, who were found to have
Lutheran books in their possession, were put to death. But
Elector John of Saxony had a conference at Saalfeld with Casimir
of Brandenburg, at which it was agreed at all hazards to stand
by the word of God; and at Friedewald in November Hesse and the
elector pledged themselves to stand true to the gospel. A diet
at Augsburg in December, for want of a quorum, had reached no
conclusion. A new diet was therefore summoned to meet at Spires,
and all the princes were cited to appear personally. Duke George
meanwhile gathered the Catholic princes at Halle and Leipzig,
and they resolved to send Henry of Brunswick to Spain to the
emperor. Shortly before his arrival, the emperor had concluded
a peace at Madrid with the king of France, who had been taken
prisoner in the battle of Pavia. Francis I., feeling he could
not help himself, had agreed to all the terms, including
an undertaking to join in suppressing the heretics. Charles
therefore fully believed that he had a free hand, and determined
to root out heresy in Germany. Henry of Brandenburg brought
to the German princes an extremely firm reply, in which this
view was expressed. But before its arrival the elector and the
landgrave had met at Gotha, and had subsequently at Torgau, the
residence of the elector, renewed the league to stand together
with all their might in defence of the gospel. Philip undertook
to gain over the nobles of the uplands. But the fear of the
empire hindered his success. The elector was more fortunate
among the lowland nobles. On 9th June the princes of Saxony,
Lüneberg [Lüneburg], Grubenhagen, Anhalt, and Mansfeld met at
Magdeburg, and subscribed the Torgau League. Also the city of
Magdeburg, emancipated since A.D. 1524 from the jurisdiction
of its archbishop, Albert of Mainz, and accepting the Lutheran
confession, now joined the league.
§ 126.6. =The Diet of Spires, A.D. 1526.=--The diet met on
25th June, A.D. 1526. The evangelical princes were confident;
on their armour was the motto, _Verbum Dei manet in æternum_.
In spite of all the prelates’ opposition, three commissions were
approved to consider abuses. When the debates were about to begin,
the imperial commissioners tabled an instruction which forbade
them to make any change upon the old doctrines and usages, and
finally insisted upon the execution of the edict of Worms. The
evangelicals however took comfort from the date affixed to the
document. They knew that since its issue the relation of pope
and emperor had become strained. Francis I. had been relieved
by the pope from the obligation of his oath, and the pope
had joined with Francis in a league at Cognac, to which also
Henry VIII. of England adhered. All Western Europe had combined
to break the supremacy gained by the Burgundian-Spanish dynasty
at Pavia, and the duped emperor found himself in straits. Would
he now be inclined to stand by his instruction? The commissioners,
apparently at Ferdinand’s wish, had kept back the document till
the affairs of the Catholics became desperate. The evangelical
nobles felt encouraged to send an embassy to the emperor,
but before it started the emperor realized their wishes. In
a letter to his brother he communicated a scheme for abolishing
the penalties of the edict of Worms and referring religious
questions to a council. At the same time he called for help
against his Italian enemies. Seeing then that in present
circumstances it did not seem advisable to revoke, still less
to carry out the edict, the only plan was to give to each prince
discretionary power in his own territory. This was the birthday
of the territorial constitution on a formally legitimate basis.
§ 127. ORGANIZATION OF THE EVANGELICAL PROVINCIAL CHURCHES,
A.D. 1526-1529.
The nobles had now not only the right but also had it enjoined on
them as a duty to establish church arrangements in their territories
as they thought best. The three following years therefore marked the
period of the founding and organizing of the evangelical provincial
churches. The electorate of Saxony came first with a good example.
After this pattern the churches of Hesse, Franconia, Lüneburg, East
Friesland, Schleswig and Holstein, Silesia, Prussia, and a whole group
of Low German states modelled their constitution and worship.
§ 127.1. =The Organization of the Church of the Saxon
Electorate, A.D. 1527-1529.=--Luther wrote in A.D. 1528 an
instruction to visitors of pastors in the electorate, which
showed what and how ministers were to preach, indicated the
reforms to be made in worship, protested against abuse of the
doctrine of justification by urging the necessity of preaching
the law, etc. The whole territory was divided under four
commissions, comprising lay and clerical members. Ignorant
and incompetent religious teachers were to be removed, but
to be provided for. Teachers were to be settled over churches
and schools, and superintendents over them were to inspect
their work periodically, and to these last the performance
of marriages was assigned. Vacant benefices were to be applied
to the improvement of churches and schools; and those not vacant
were to be taxed for maintenance of hospitals, support of the
poor, founding of new schools, etc. The dangers occasioned by
the often incredible ignorance of the people and their teachers
led to Luther’s composing his two catechisms in A.D. 1529.
§ 127.2. =The Organization of the Hessian Churches,
A.D. 1526-1528.=--Philip of Hesse had assembled the peers
temporal and spiritual of his dominions in Oct., A.D. 1526,
at Homberg, to discuss the question of church reform. A
reactionary attempt failed through the fervid eloquence
of the Franciscan Lambert of Avignon, a notable man, who,
awakened in his cloister at Avignon by Luther’s writings,
but not thoroughly satisfied, set out for Wittenberg, engaged
on the way at Zürich in public disputation against Zwingli’s
reforms, but left converted by his opponent, and then passed
through Luther’s school at Wittenberg. There he married
in A.D. 1523, and after a long unofficial and laborious
stay at Strassburg, found at last, in A.D. 1526, a permanent
residence in Hesse. He died in A.D. 1530.--Lambert’s personality
dominated the Homberg synod. He sketched an organization of the
church according to his ideal as a communion of saints with a
democratic basis, and a strict discipline administered by the
community itself. But the impracticability of the scheme soon
became evident, and in A.D. 1528 the Hessian church adopted the
principles of the Saxon church visitation. Out of vacant church
revenues the University of Marburg was founded in A.D. 1527 as
a second training school in reformed theology. Lambert was one
of its first teachers.
§ 127.3. =Organization of other German Provincial Churches,
A.D. 1528-1530.=--George of =Franconian-Brandenburg=, after his
brother Casimir’s death, organized his church at the assembly of
Anspach after the Saxon model. =Nuremberg=, under the guidance
of its able secretary of council, Lazarus Spengler, united
in carrying out a joint organization. In =Brunswick-Lüneburg=,
Duke Ernest, powerfully impressed by the preaching of Rhegius
at Augsburg, introduced the evangelical church organization
into his dominions. In =East Friesland=, where the reigning
prince did not interest himself in the matter, the development
of the church was attended to by the young nobleman Ulrich of
Dornum. In =Schleswig= and =Holstein= the prelates offered no
opposition to reorganization, and the civil authorities carried
out the work. In =Silesia= the princes were favourable, Breslau
had been long on the side of the Reformation, and even the
grand-duke who, as king of Bohemia, was suzerain of Silesia,
felt obliged to allow Silesian nobles the privileges provided
by the Diet of Spires. In =Prussia= (§ 126, 4), Albert of
Brandenburg, hereditary duke of these parts, with the hearty
assistance of his two bishops, provided for his subjects an
evangelical constitution.
§ 127.4. =The Reformation in the Cities of Northern Germany,
A.D. 1524-1531.=--In these cities the Reformation spread rapidly
after their emancipation from episcopal control. It was organized
in =Magdeburg= as early as A.D. 1524 by Nic. Amsdorf, sent for
the purpose by Luther (§ 126, 5). In =Brunswick= the church was
organized in A.D. 1528 by Bugenhagen of Wittenberg. In =Bremen=
in A.D. 1525 all churches except the cathedral were in the
hands of the Lutherans; in A.D. 1527 the cloisters were turned
into schools and hospitals, and then the cathedral was taken
from the Catholics. At =Lübeck=, nobles, councillors, and
clergy had oppressed and driven away the evangelical pastors;
but the councillors in their financial straits became indebted
to sixty-four citizens, who stipulated that the pastors must
be restored, the Catholics expelled, the cloisters turned into
hospitals and schools, and finally Bugenhagen was called in to
prepare for their church a Lutheran constitution.
§ 128. MARTYRS FOR EVANGELICAL TRUTH, A.D. 1521-1529.
On the publication of the edict of Worms several Catholic
princes, most conspicuously Duke George of Saxony, began the
persecution. Luther’s followers were at first imprisoned, scourged,
and banished, and in A.D. 1521 a bookseller who sold Luther’s books
was beheaded. The persecution was most severe in the Netherlands,
a heritage of the emperor independent of the empire. Also in Austria,
Bavaria, and Swabia many evangelical confessors were put to death by
the sword and at the stake. The peasant revolt of A.D. 1525 increased
the violence of the persecution. On the pretence of punishing rebels,
those who took part in the Regensburg Convention (§ 126, 3) were
expelled the country, thousands of them with no other fault than
their attachment to the gospel. The conclusion of the Diet of Spires
in A.D. 1526 (§ 126, 6) added new fuel to the flames. While the
evangelical nobles, taking advantage of that decision, proceeded
vigorously to the planting and organizing of the reformed church,
the enemies of the Reformation exercised the power given them in
cruel persecutions of their evangelical subjects. The vagaries
of Pack (§ 132, 1) led to a revival and intensification of the
spirit of persecution. In Austria, during A.D. 1527, 1528, a church
visitation had been arranged very much in the style of that of Saxony,
but with the object of tracking out and punishing heretics. In Bavaria
the highways were watched, to prevent pilgrims going to preaching over
the borders. Those caught were at first fined, but later on they were
drowned or burned.
=The first martyrs for evangelical truth= were two young
Augustinian monks of Antwerp, Henry Voes and John Esch, who
died at the stake in A.D. 1523, and their heroism was celebrated
by Luther in a beautiful hymn. They were succeeded by the
prior of the cloister, Lampert Thorn, who was strangled in
prison. The Swabian League, which was renewed after the rising
of the Diet of Spires, with the avowed purpose of rooting
out the Anabaptists, directed its cruel measures against
all evangelicals. The Bishop of Constance in A.D. 1527 had
John Hüglin burnt as an opposer of the holy mother church.
The Elector of Mainz cited the court preacher, George Winkler,
of Halle, for dispensing the sacrament in both kinds at
Ascheffenburg [Aschaffenburg]. Winkler defended himself, and
was acquitted, but was murdered on the way. Luther then wrote
his tract, “Comfort to the Christians of Halle on the Death
of their Pastor.” In North Germany there was no bloodshedding,
but Duke George had those who confessed their faith scourged
by the gaoler and driven from the country. The Elector Joachim
of Brandenburg with his nobles resolved in A.D. 1527 to give
vigorous support to the old religion. But the gospel took deep
root in his land, and his own wife Elizabeth read Luther’s
writings, and had the sacrament administered after the Lutheran
form. But the secret was revealed, and the elector stormed and
threatened. She then escaped, dressed as a peasant woman, to
her cousin the Elector of Saxony.
§ 129. LUTHER’S PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LIFE, A.D. 1523-1529.
Only in December, A.D. 1524, did Luther leave the cloister, the
last of its inhabitants but the prior, and on 13th June, A.D. 1525,
married Catherine Bora, of the convent of Nimptschen, of whom he
afterwards boasted that he prized her more highly than the kingdom
of France and the governorship of Venice. Though often depressed
with sickness, almost crushed under the weight of business, and
harassed even to the end by the threats of his enemies against his
life, he maintained a bright, joyous temper, enjoyed himself during
leisure hours among his friends with simple entertainments of song,
music, intellectual conversation, and harmless, though often sharp
and pungent, interchange of wit. Thus he proved a genuine comfort
and help in all kinds of trouble. By constant writing, by personal
intercourse with students and foreigners who crowded into Wittenberg,
by an extensive correspondence, he won and maintained a mighty
influence in spreading and establishing the Reformation. By Scripture
translation and Scripture exposition, by sermons and doctrinal
treatises, he impressed upon the people his own evangelical views.
A peculiarly powerful factor in the Reformation was that treasury
of sacred song (§ 142, 3) which Luther gave his people, partly in
translations of old, partly in the composition of new hymns, which
he set to bright and pleasing melodies. He was also most diligent in
promoting education in churches and schools, in securing the erection
of new elementary and secondary schools, and laid special stress on
the importance of linguistic studies in a church that prized the pure
word of God.
§ 129.1. =Luther’s Literary Works.=--In A.D. 1524 appeared the
first collection of spiritual songs and psalms, eight in number,
with a preface by Luther. His reforms of worship were extremely
moderate. In A.D. 1523 he published little tracts on baptism
and the Lord’s Supper, repudiating the idea of a sacrifice in
the mass, and insisting on communion in both kinds. In A.D. 1527
he wrote his “German Mass and Order of Public Worship” (§ 127, 1)
which was introduced generally throughout the elector’s dominions.
He wrote an address to burgomasters and councillors about the
improvement of education in the cities. Besides his polemic
against Erasmus and Carlstadt, against Münzer and the rebellious
peasants, as well as against the Sacramentarians (§ 131), he
engaged at this time in controversy with Cochlæus. A papal
bull for the canonization of Bishop Benno of Meissen (§ 93, 9)
called forth in A.D. 1524 Luther’s tract, “Against the new God
and the old Devil being set up at Meissen.” He was persuaded by
Christian II. of Denmark to write, in A.D. 1526, a very humble
letter to Henry VIII. of England (§ 125, 3), which was answered
in an extremely venomous and bitter style. When his enemies
triumphantly declared that he had retracted, Luther answered,
in A.D. 1527, with his book, “Against the Abusive Writing of
the King of England,” in which he resumed the bold and confident
tone of his earlier polemic. A humble, conciliatory epistle
sent in A.D. 1526 to Duke George was no more successful. He
now unweariedly continued his Bible translation. The first
edition of the whole Bible was published by Hans Lufft in
Wittenberg, in A.D. 1534. A collection of sayings of Luther
collected by Lauterbach, a deacon of Wittenberg, in A.D. 1538,
formed the basis of later and fuller editions of “Luther’s
Table Talk.” A chronologically arranged collection was made
ten years later, and was published in A.D. 1872 from a MS. in
the Royal Library at Dresden. Aurifaber in his collection did
not follow the chronological order, but grouped the utterances
according to their subjects, but with many arbitrary alterations
and modifications. The saying falsely attributed to Luther, “Who
loves not wine, women, and song?” etc., is assigned by Luther
himself to his Erfurt landlady, but has been recently traced to
an Italian source.
§ 129.2. The famous Catholic Church historian Döllinger, who in
his history of the Reformation had with ultramontane bitterness
defamed Luther and his work, twenty years later could not forbear
celebrating Luther in a public lecture as “the most powerful
patriot and the most popular character that Germany possessed.”
In A.D. 1871 he wrote as follows: “It was Luther’s supreme
intellectual ability and wonderful versatility that made him
the man of his age and of his nation. There has never been a
German who so thoroughly understood his fellow countrymen and
was understood by them as this Augustinian monk of Wittenberg.
The whole intellectual and spiritual making of the Germans
was in his hands as clay in the hands of the potter. He has
given more to his nation than any one man has ever done:
language, popular education, Bible, sacred song; and all that
his opponents could say against him and alongside of him seemed
insipid, weak, and colourless compared with his overmastering
eloquence. They stammered, he spoke. It was he who put a stamp
upon the German language as well as upon the German character.
And even those Germans who heartily abhor him as the great
heretic and betrayer of religion cannot help speaking his words
and thinking his thoughts.”
§ 130. THE REFORMATION IN GERMAN SWITZERLAND, A.D. 1519-1531.
While Luther’s Reformation spread in Germany, a similar movement
sprang up in the neighbouring provinces of German Switzerland. Its
earliest beginnings date back as far as A.D. 1516. The personal
characteristics of its first promoter, and the political democratic
movement in which it had its rise, gave it a complexion entirely
different from that of the Lutheran Reformation. The most conspicuous
divergence occurred in the doctrine of the supper (§ 131), and since
the Swiss views on this point were generally accepted in the cities
of the uplands, the controversy passed over into the German Reformed
Church and hindered common action, notwithstanding common interests
and common dangers.
§ 130.1. =Ulrich Zwingli.=--Zwingli, born at Wildhaus in
Toggenburg on January 1st, A.D. 1484, a scholar of the famous
humanist Thomas Wyttenbach at Basel, was, after ten years’
service as pastor at Glarus, made pastor of Maria-Einsiedeln
in A.D. 1516. The crowding of pilgrims to the famous shrine
of Mary at that place led him to preach against superstitious
notions of meritorious performances. But far more decisive
in determining his attitude toward the Reformation was his
appointment on January 1st, A.D. 1519, as Lent priest at Zürich,
where he first became acquainted with Luther’s works, and took
sides with him against the Romish court party. Zwingli soon
took up a distinctive position of his own. He would be not
only a religious, but also a political reformer. For several
years he had vigorously opposed the sending of Swiss youths as
mercenaries into the armies of foreign princes. His political
opponents, the oligarchs, whose incomes depended on this traffic,
opposed also his religious reforms, so that his support was
wholly from the democracy. Another important distinction between
the Swiss and German movements was this, that Zwingli had grown
into a reformer not through deep conviction of sin and spiritual
conflicts, but through classical and biblical study. The writings
of Pico of Mirandola (§ 120, 1), too, were not without influence
upon him. To him, therefore, justification by faith was not
in the same degree as to Luther the guiding star of his life
and action. He began the work of the Reformation not so much
with purifying the doctrine, as with improving the worship,
the constitution, the ecclesiastical and moral life. His
theological standpoint is set forth in these works: _Comment.
de vera et falsa relig._, A.D. 1525; _Fidei ratio ad Car.
Imp._, A.D. 1530; _Christian. fidei brevis at clara expos._, ed.
Bullinger, A.D. 1536; _De providentia Dei_; and _Apologeticus_.
Of the two principles of the anti-Romish Reformation (§ 121)
the Wittenberg reformer placed the material, the Zürich reformer
the formal, in the foreground. The former only rejected what was
not reconcilable with Scripture; the latter repudiated all that
was not expressly enjoined in Scripture. The former was cautious
and moderate in dealing with forms of worship and mere externals;
the latter was extreme, immoderate, and violent. Luther retained
pictures, altars, the ornaments of churches, and the priestly
character of the service, purifying it simply from unevangelical
corruptions; Zwingli denounced all these things as idolatry,
and burnt even organ pipes and clock bells. Luther recognised
no action of the Holy Spirit apart from the word and sacrament;
Zwingli separated it from these, and identified it with mere
subjective feeling. The sacraments were with him mere memorial
signs; justification solely by the merits of Christ as a
joyous assurance of salvation had for him a negative rather
than a positive significance, _i.e._ opposition to the Romish
doctrine of merits; original sin was for him only hereditary
moral sickness, a _naturalis defectus_, which is not itself
sin, and virtuous heathens, like Hercules, Theseus, Socrates,
and Cato were admitted as such into the society of the blessed,
without apparently sharing in the redemption of Christ. His
speculations, which led on one side almost to pantheism,
favoured a theory of predestination, according to which the
moral will has no freedom over against Providence.[365]
§ 130.2. =The Reformation in Zürich, A.D. 1519-1525.=--In
A.D. 1518 a trafficker in indulgences, the Franciscan Bernard
Samson, of Milan, carried on his disreputable business in
Switzerland. At Zwingli’s desire Zürich’s gates were closed
against him. In A.D. 1520 the council gave permission to priests
and preachers in the city and canton to preach only from the
O. and N.T. All this happened under the eyes of the two papal
nuncios staying in Zürich; but they did not interfere, because
the curia was extremely anxious to get auxiliaries for the
papal army for an attack on Milan. Zwingli was promised a rich
living if he would no more preach against the pope. He refused
the bait, and went on his way as a reformer. The continued
indulgence of the curia allowed the Reformation to take even
firmer root. Zwingli published, in A.D. 1522, his first work,
“Of Election, and Freedom in Use of Food,” and the Zürichers
ate flesh and eggs during Lent of A.D. 1522. He also claimed
liberty to marry for the clergy. At this time Lambert came from
Avignon to Zürich (§ 127, 2). He preached against the new views,
disputed in July with Zwingli, and confessed himself defeated
and convinced. Zwingli’s opponents had placed great hopes in
Lambert’s eloquence and dialectic skill. All the greater was
the effect of the unexpected result of the disputation. The
council, now impressed, commanded that the word of God should
be preached without human additions. But when the adherents of
the Romish party protested, it arranged a public disputation on
29th Jan., A.D. 1523, on sixty-seven theses or _conclusiones_
drawn up by Zwingli: “All who say, The gospel is nothing without
the guarantee of the Church, blaspheme God;--Christ is the one
way to salvation;--Our righteousness and our works are good
so far as they are Christ’s, neither right nor good so far as
they are our own,” etc. A former friend of Zwingli, John Faber,
but quite changed since he had made a visit to Rome, and now
vicar-general of the Bishop of Constance, undertook to support
the old doctrines and customs against Zwingli. Being restricted
to Scripture proof he was forced to yield. The cloisters were
forsaken, violent polemics were published against the canon
of the mass and the worship of saints and images. The council
resolved to decide the question of the mass and images by a
second disputation in October, A.D. 1523. Leo Judä, Lent priest
at St. Peter’s in Zürich, contended against image worship,
Zwingli against the mass. Scarcely any opposition was offered
to either of them. At Pentecost, A.D. 1524, the council had
all images withdrawn from the churches, the frescoes cut down,
and the walls whitewashed. Organ playing and bell ringing
were forbidden as superstitious. A new simple biblical formula
of baptism was introduced, and the abolition of the mass, in
A.D. 1525, completed the work. At Easter of this year Zwingli
celebrated a lovefeast, at which bread was carried in wooden
trenchers, and wine drunk from wooden cups. Thus he thought the
genuine Christian apostolic rite was restored. In A.D. 1522 he
had married a widow of forty-three years of age, but he publicly
acknowledged it only in A.D. 1524. He penitently confesses that
his pre-Reformation celibate life, like that of most priests
of his age, had not been blameless; but the moral purity of his
later life is beyond suspicion.
§ 130.3. =Reformation in Basel, A.D. 1520-1525.=--In Basel, at
an early period, Capito and Hedio wrought as biblical preachers.
But so soon as they had laid a good foundation they accepted a
call to Mainz, in A.D. 1520, which they soon again quitted for
Strassburg, where they carried on the work of the Reformation
along with Bucer. Their work at Basel was zealously and
successfully continued by Röublin. He preached against the mass,
purgatory, and saint worship, often to 4,000 hearers. On the
day of Corpus Christi he produced a Bible instead of the usual
relics, which he scornfully called dead bones. He was banished,
and afterwards joined the Anabaptists. A new epoch began in
Basel in A.D. 1523. =Œcolampadius= or John Hausschein, born
at Weinsberg in A.D. 1482, Zwingli’s Melanchthon, was preacher
in Basel in A.D. 1516, and was on intimate terms there with
Erasmus. He accepted a call in A.D. 1518 to the cathedral of
Augsburg, but a year after withdrew into an Augsburg convent
of St. Bridget. There he studied Luther’s writings, and, in
A.D. 1522, found shelter from persecution in Sickingen’s castle,
where he officiated for some months as chaplain. He then returned
to Basel, became preacher at St. Martin’s, and was soon made,
along with Conrad Pellican (§ 120, 4, footnote), professor in
the university. Around these two a group of younger men soon
gathered, who energetically supported the evangelical movement.
They dispensed baptism in the German language, administered the
communion in both kinds, and were indefatigable in preaching.
In A.D. 1524 the council allowed monks and nuns, if they so
wished, to leave their cloisters. Of special importance for
the progress of the Reformation in Basel was the arrival in
A.D. 1524 of William Farel from Dauphiné (§ 138, 1). He had
been obliged to fly from France, and was kindly received by
Œcolampadius, with whom he stayed for some months. In February
he had a public disputation with the opponents of the Reformation.
University and bishop had interdicted it, but all the more
decided was the council that it should come off. Its result
was a great impulse to the Reformation, though Farel in this
same year, probably at the suggestion of Erasmus, whom he
had described as a new Balaam, was banished by the council
(§ 138, 1).[366]
§ 130.4. =The Reformation in the other Cantons,
A.D. 1520-1525.=--In =Bern=, from A.D. 1518 Haller, Kolb, and
Mayer carried on the work of the Reformation as political and
religious reformers after the style of Zwingli. Nic. Manuel,
poet, satirist, and painter, supported their preaching by his
satirical writings against pope, priests, and superstition
generally. Also in his Dance of Death, which he painted on
the walls of a cloister at Bern, he covered the clergy with
ridicule. In A.D. 1523 the council allowed departures from the
convents, and several monks and nuns withdrew and married. The
opposition called in the Dominican John Haim, as their spokesman,
in A.D. 1524. Between him and the Franciscan Mayer there arose
a passionate discussion, and the council exiled both. But Haller
continued his work, and the Reformation took firmer root from
day to day.--In =Muhlhausen [Mühlhausen]=, where Ulr. von Hutten
spent his last days, the council issued a mandate in A.D. 1524
which gave free course to the Reformation. At =Biel=, too,
it was allowed unrestricted freedom. In East Switzerland,
=St. Gall= was specially prominent under its burgomaster Joachim
v. Watt, who zealously advanced the interests of the Reformation
by word, writing, and action. John Karsler, who had studied
theology in Wittenberg in A.D. 1522, and was then obliged,
in order to avoid reading the mass, to learn and practise the
trade of a saddler, preached the gospel here in the Trades’
Hall in his saddler’s apron in A.D. 1524, and took the office
of reformed pastor and Latin preceptor in A.D. 1537. He died in
A.D. 1574 as President of St. Gall. In =Schaffhausen= Erasmus
Ritter, called upon to oppose in discussion the reformed pastor
Hofmeister, owned himself defeated, and joined the reform party.
In the canton =Vaud= Thos. Platter, the original and learned
sailor, afterwards rector of the high school at Burg, laid the
foundations of the Reformation. In =Appenzel= and =Glarus= the
work gradually advanced. But in the Swiss midlands the nobles
raised opposition in behalf of their revenues, and the people
of Berg, whose whole religion lay in pilgrimages, images, and
saints, constantly opposed the introduction of the new views.
Lucerne and Freiburg were the main bulwarks of the papacy in
Switzerland.
§ 130.5. =Anabaptist Outbreak, A.D. 1525.=--In Switzerland,
though the reformers there had taken very advanced ground,
a number of ultra-reformers arose, who thought they did not
go far enough. Their leaders were Hätzer (§ 148, 1), Grebel,
Manz, Röublin, Hubmeier, and Stör. They began disturbances
at Zolticon near Zürich. Hubmeier held a council at Waldshut,
Easter Eve, A.D. 1525, and was rebaptized by Röublin. During
Easter week 110 received baptism, and subsequently more than
300 besides. The Basel Canton, where Münzer had been living,
broke out in open revolt against the city. St. Gall alone
had 800 Anabaptists. Zürich at Zwingli’s request at once took
decided measures. Many were banished, some were mercilessly
drowned. Bern, Basel, and St. Gall followed this example.[367]
§ 130.6. =Disputation at Baden, A.D. 1526.=--The reactionary
party could not decline the challenge to a disputation, but
in the face of all protests it was determined to be held in
the Catholic district of Baden. The champions and representatives
of the cantons and bishops appeared there in May, A.D. 1526,
Faber and Eck leading the papists and Haller of Bern and
Œcolampadius of Basel representing the party of reform. Zwingli
was forbidden by the Zürich council to attend, but he was kept
daily informed by Thos. Platter. Eck’s theses were combatted one
after another. It lasted eight days. Eck outcried Œcolampadius’
weak voice, but the latter was immensely superior in intellectual
power. At last Thomas Murner (§ 125, 4) appeared with forty
abusive articles against Zwingli. Œcolampadius and ten of
his friends persisted in rejecting Eck’s theses; all the
rest accepted them. The Assembly of the States pronounced
the reformers heretics, and ordered the cantons to have them
banished.
§ 130.7. =Disputation at Bern, A.D. 1528.=--The result of
the Bern disputation was ill received by the democrats of
Bern and Basel. A final disputation was arranged for at
=Bern=, which was attended by 350 of the clergy and many
noblemen. Zwingli, Œcolampadius, Haller, Capito, Bucer,
and Farel were there. It continued from 7th to 27th January,
A.D. 1528. The Catholics were sadly wanting in able disputants,
and they sustained an utter defeat. Worship and constitution
were radically reformed. Cloisters were secularized; preachers
gave their official oath to the civil magistrates. There were
serious riots over the removal of the images. The valuable
organ in the minster of St. Vincent was broken up by the
ruthless iconoclasts. A political reformation was carried
out along with the religious, and all stipendiaries received
their warning.
§ 130.8. =Complete Victory of the Reformation at Basel, St. Gall,
and Schaffhausen, A.D. 1529.=--The Burgomaster von Watt brought
to =St. Gall= the news of the victorious issue of the disputation
at Bern. This gave the finishing blow to the Catholic party.
Thus in A.D. 1528, certainly not without some iconoclastic
excesses, the Reformation triumphed.--In =Basel=, the council
was divided, and so it took but half measures. On Good Friday,
A.D. 1528, some citizens broke the images in St. Martin’s
Church. They were apprehended. But a rising of citizens obliged
the council to set them free, and several churches from which
the images had been withdrawn were given over to the reformers.
In December, A.D. 1528, the trades presented a petition asking
for the final abolition of idolatry. The Catholic party and
the reformed took to arms, and a civil war seemed imminent.
The council, however, succeeded in quelling the disturbance
by announcing a disputation where the majority of the citizens
should decide by their votes. But the Catholic minority
protested so energetically that the council had again recourse
to half measures. The dissatisfaction of the reformed led
to an explosion of violent image breaking in Lent, A.D. 1529.
Huge bonfires of images and altars were set a blaze. The strict
Catholic members of the council fled, the rest quelled the
revolt by an unconditional surrender. Even Erasmus gave way
(§ 120, 6). Œcolampadius had married in A.D. 1528. He died
in A.D. 1531. In =Schaffhausen= up to A.D. 1529 matters were
undecided, but the proceedings at Basel and Bern gave victory
to the reformed party. The drama here ended with a double
marriage. The abbot of All Saints married a nun, and Erasmus
Ritter married the abbot’s sister. Images were removed without
tumult and the mass abolished.
§ 130.9. =The first Treaty of Cappel, A.D. 1529.=--In the five
forest cantons the Catholics had the upper hand, and there every
attempted political as well as religious reform was relentlessly
put down. Zürich and Bern could stand this no longer. Unterwalden
now revolted, and found considerable support in the other four
cantons, and the position of the cities became serious. The
forest cantons now turned to Austria, the old enemy of Swiss
freedom, and concluded at Innsbrück in A.D. 1529 a formal league
with King Ferdinand for mutual assistance in matters touching
the faith. Trusting to this league, they increased their cruel
persecutions of the reformed, and burnt alive a Zürich preacher,
Keyser, whom they had seized on the public highway on neutral
territory. Then the Zürichers rose up in revolt. With their
decided preponderance they might certainly have crushed the
five cantons, and then all Switzerland would have surrounded
Zwingli in the support of reform. But Bern was jealous of
Zürich’s growing importance, and even many Zürichers for fear
of war urged negotiations for peace with the old members of the
league. Thus came about the First Treaty of Cappel in A.D. 1529.
The five cantons gave up the Austrian league document to be
destroyed, undertook to defray the costs of the war, and agreed
that the majority in each canton should determine the faith of
that canton. As to freedom of belief it was only said that no
party should make the faith of the other penal. This was less
than Zwingli wished, yet it was a considerable gain. Thurgau,
Baden, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, Neuenburg, Toggenburg, etc.,
on the basis of this treaty, abolished mass, images, and altars.
§ 130.10. =The Second Treaty of Cappel, A.D. 1531.=--Even
after the treaty the five cantons continued to persecute
the reformed, and renewed their alliance with Austria. Their
undue preponderance in the assembly led Zürich to demand a
revision of the federation. This led the forest cantons to
increase their cruelties upon the reformed. Zürich declared
for immediate hostilities, but Bern decided to refuse all
commercial intercourse with the five cantons. At the diet at
Lucerne, the five cantons resolved in September, A.D. 1531,
to avert famine by immediately declaring war. They made their
arrangements so secretly that the reformed party was not the
least prepared, when suddenly, on the 9th October, an army of
8,000 men, bent on revenge, rushed down on the Zürich Canton.
In all haste 2,000 men were mustered, who were almost annihilated
in the battle of Cappel on 11th October. There, too, Zwingli
fell. His body was quartered and burnt, and the ashes scattered
to the winds. Zürich and Bern soon brought a force of 20,000
men into the field, but the courage of their enemies had grown
in proportion as all confidence and spirit departed from the
reformed. Further successes led the forest cantons, which had
hitherto acted only on the defensive, to proceed on the offensive,
and the reformed were constrained to accept on humbling terms
the Second Treaty of Cappel of A.D. 1531. This granted freedom
of worship to the reformed in their own cantons, but secured the
restoration of Catholicism in the five cantons. The defeated had
also to bear the costs of the war, and to renounce their league
with Strassburg, Constance, and Hesse. The hitherto oppressed
Catholic minority began now to assert itself on all hands, and
in many places were more or less successful in securing the
ascendency. So it was in Aargau, Thurgau, Rapperschwyl, St. Gall,
Rheinthal, Solothurn, Glarus, etc.
§ 131. THE SACRAMENTARIAN CONTROVERSY, A.D. 1525-1529.[368]
Luther in his “Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” of A.D. 1520,
had, in opposition to prevailing views, which made the efficacy of the
sacraments dependent on the objective receiving without regard to the
faith of the receiver, _opus operatum_, pressed forward the subjective
side in a somewhat extreme manner. During the earlier period of
his career as a reformer, and indeed even at a later period, as his
letter to the men of Strassburg shows, he was in danger of going to
the extreme of overlooking or denying the real objective and Divine
contents of the sacrament. But decided as the opposition was to the
scholastic theory of transubstantiation, and convinced as he was that
the bread and wine were to be regarded as mere symbols, the text of
Scripture seemed clearly to say to him that he must recognise there
the presence of the true body and blood of Christ. His anxiety to
avoid the errors of the fanatics, and his simple acceptance of the
word of Scripture, led him to that conviction which inspired him to
the end, that IN, WITH, and UNDER the bread and wine the true body
and blood of the Lord are received, by believers unto salvation, by
unbelievers unto condemnation.
=Carlstadt= (§ 124, 3) had denied utterly the presence of the
body and blood of the Lord in the sacrament. He sought to set
aside the force of the words of institution by giving to τοῦτο
an absurd meaning: Christ had pointed to His own present body,
and said, “This here is My body, which in death I will give
for you, and in memory thereof eat this bread.” When Carlstadt,
expelled from Saxony, came to Strassburg, he sought to interest
the preachers there, Bucer and Capito, in himself and his
sacramental view. But Luther was not moved by their attempts
at conciliation. =Zwingli=, too, took the side of Carlstadt.
In essential agreement with Carlstadt, but putting the matter
on another basis, Zwingli interpreted the words of institution,
“This is,” by “This signifies,” and reduced the significance
of the sacrament to a symbolical memorial of Christ’s suffering
and death. In an epistle to the Lutheran Matthew Alber at
Reutlingen in A.D. 1524 he set forth this theory, and sided
with Carlstadt against Luther. He developed his views more
fully in his dogmatic treatise, _Commentarius de vera et falsa
relig._, A.D. 1525, where he characterizes Luther’s doctrine
as an _opinio non solum rustica sed etiam impia et frivola_.
=Œcolampadius=, too, took part in the controversy as supporter
of his friend Zwingli when attacked by Bugenhagen, and wrote in
A.D. 1525 his _De genuina verborum Domini, Hoc est corpus meum,
expositione_. He wished to understand the σῶμα of the words of
institution as equivalent to “sign of the body.” Œcolampadius
laid his treatise before the Swabian reformers Brenz and Schnepf;
but these, in concert with twelve other preachers, answered in
the _Syngramma Suevicum_ of A.D. 1525 quite in accordance with
Luther’s doctrine. The controversy continued to spread. Luther
first openly appeared against the Swiss in A.D. 1526 in his
“Sermon on the Sacrament against the Fanatics,” and to this
Zwingli replied. Luther answered again in his tract, “That
the words, This is My body, stand firm;” and in A.D. 1528 he
issued his great manifesto, “Confession in regard to the Lord’s
Supper” (§ 144, 2, note). Notwithstanding the endeavours of the
Strassburgers at conciliation the controversy still continued.
Zwingli’s statement was the shibboleth of the Swiss Reformation,
and was adopted also in many of the upland cities. Strassburg,
Lindau, Meiningen, and Constance accepted it; even in Ulm,
Augsburg, Reutlingen, etc., it had its supporters.--Continuation,
§ 132, 4.
§ 132. THE PROTEST AND CONFESSION OF THE EVANGELICAL NOBLES,
A.D. 1527-1530.
For three years after the diet at Spires in A.D. 1526 no public
proceedings were taken on religious questions. The success of the
Reformation however during these years roused the Catholic party to
make a great effort. At the next diet at Spires, in A.D. 1529, the
Catholics were in the majority, and measures were passed which, it
was hoped, would put an end to the Reformation. The evangelicals
tabled a formal protest (hence the name Protestants), and strove
hard to have effect given to it. The union negotiations with the
Swiss and uplanders were not indeed successful, but in the Augsburg
Confession of A.D. 1530 they raised before emperor and empire a
standard, around which they henceforth gathered with hearty goodwill.
§ 132.1. =The Pack Incident, A.D. 1527, 1528.=--In A.D. 1527
dark rumours of dangers to the evangelicals began to spread.
The landgrave, suspecting the existence of a conspiracy of the
German Catholic princes, gave to an officer in Duke George’s
government, Otto von Pack, 10,000 florins to secure documents
proving its existence. He produced one with the ducal seal,
which bound the Catholic princes of Germany to fall upon
the elector’s territories and Hesse, and to divide the lands
among them, etc. The landgrave was all fire and fury, and
even the Elector John joined him in a league to make a vigorous
demonstration against the purposed attack. But Luther and
Melanchthon pressed upon the elector our Lord’s words, “All
they that take the sword shall perish with the sword,” and
convinced him that he ought to abide the attack and restrict
himself to simple defence. The landgrave, highly offended
at the failure of his project, sent a copy of the document
to Duke George, who declared the whole affair a tissue of
lies. Philip had begun operations against the elector, but
was heartily ashamed of himself when he came to his sober
senses. Pack when interrogated became involved in contradictions,
and was found to be a thoroughly bad subject, who had been
before convicted of falsehood and intrigues. The landgrave
expelled him from his territories. He wandered long a homeless
exile, and at last, in A.D. 1536, was executed by Duke George’s
orders in the Netherlands. All this seriously injured the
interests of the gospel. Mutual distrust among the Protestant
leaders continued, and sympathy was created for the Catholic
princes as men who had been unjustly accused.
§ 132.2. =The Emperor’s Attitude, A.D. 1527-1529.=--The
faithlessness of the king of France and the ratification of
the League of Cognac (§ 126, 6) led to very strained relations
between the pope and the emperor. Old Frundsberg raised an
army in Germany, and the German peasants, without pay or reward,
crossed the Alps, burning with desire to humiliate the pope.
On 6th May, A.D. 1527, the imperial army of Spaniards and
Germans stormed Rome. The so-called sack of Rome presented
a scene of plunder and spoliation scarcely ever paralleled.
Clement VII., besieged in St. Angelo, was obliged to surrender
himself prisoner. But once again Germany’s hopes were cast
to the ground by the emperor. Considering the opinion that
prevailed in Spain, and influenced by his own antipathy to the
Saxon heresy, besides other political combinations, he forgot
that he had been saved by Lutheran soldiers. In June, A.D. 1528,
at Barcelona, he concluded a peace with the pope and promised
to use his whole power in suppressing heresy. By the Treaty of
Cambray, in July, A.D. 1529, the French war also was finally
brought to a conclusion. In this treaty both potentates promised
to uphold the papal chair, and Francis I. renewed his undertaking
to furnish aid against heretics and Turks. Charles now hastened
to Italy to be crowned by the pope, meaning then by his personal
attentions to settle the affairs of Germany.
§ 132.3. =The Diet at Spires, A.D. 1529.=--In the end of
A.D. 1528 the emperor issued a summons for another diet at
Spires, which met on 21st Feb., A.D. 1529. Things had changed
since A.D. 1526. The Catholics were roused by the Pack episode,
halting nobles were terrorized by the emperor, the prelates
were present in great numbers, and the Catholics, for the
first time since the Diet at Worms, were in a decided majority.
The proposition of the imperial commissioners to rescind the
conclusions of the diet of A.D. 1526 was adopted by a majority,
and formulated as the diet’s decision. No innovations were to
be introduced until at least a council had been convened, mass
was everywhere to be tolerated, the jurisdiction and revenues
of the bishops were in all cases to be fully restored. It was
the death-knell of the Reformation, as it gave the bishops
the right of deposing and punishing preachers at their will.
As Ferdinand was deaf to all remonstrances, the evangelicals
presented a solemn protest, with the demand that it should
be incorporated in the imperial statute book. But Ferdinand
refused to receive it. The =Protestants= now took no further
steps, but drew up a formal statement of their case for the
emperor, appealed to a free council and German national assembly,
and declared their constant adherence to the decisions of the
previous diet. This document was signed by the Elector of Saxony,
the Landgrave of Hesse, George of Brandenburg, the two dukes
of Lüneburg, and Prince Wolfgang of Anholt [Anhalt]. Of the
upland cities fourteen subscribed it.
§ 132.4. =The Marburg Conference, A.D. 1529.=--The Elector of
Saxony and Hesse entered into a defensive league with Strassburg,
Ulm, and Nuremberg at Spires. The theologians present agreed
only with hesitation to admit the Zwinglian Strassburg. The
landgrave at the same time formed an alliance with Zürich,
which attached itself to the interests of Francis I. of
France. Thus began the most formidable coalition which had
ever yet been formed against the house of Austria. But one
point had been overlooked which broke it all up again, _viz._
the religious differences between the Lutheran and Zwinglian
confessions. Melanchthon returned to Wittenburg [Wittenberg]
with serious qualms of conscience; Luther had declared against
any league, most of all against any fraternising with the
“Sacramentarians,” and the elector to some extent agreed with
him. Even the Nuremberg theologians had their scruples. The
proposed league was to have been ratified at Rotach in June.
The meeting took place, but no conclusion was reached. The
landgrave was furious, but the elector was resolute. Philip
now summoned leading theologians on both sides to a =conference
at Marburg= in his castle, which lasted from 1st till 3rd Oct.,
A.D. 1529. On the one side were Luther, Melanchthon, Justus
Jonas, from Wittenberg, Brenz from Swabia, and Osiander from
Nuremberg; on the other side, Zwingli from Zürich, Œcolampadius
from Basel, Bucer and Hadio [Hedio] from Strassburg. After, by
the landgrave’s well-meant arrangement, Zwingli had discussed
privately with Melanchthon, and Luther with Œcolampadius, during
the first day, the public conference began on the second. First
of all several points were discussed on the divinity of Christ,
original sin, baptism, the word of God, etc., in reference
to which suspicions of Zwingli’s orthodoxy had been current
in Wittenberg. On all these Zwingli willingly abandoned his
peculiar theories and accepted the doctrines of the œcumenical
church. But his views of the Lord’s Supper he stoutly maintained.
He took his stand upon John vi. 63, “The flesh profiteth
nothing;” but Luther wrote with chalk on the table before
him, “This is My body,” as the word of God which no one may
explain away. No agreement could be reached. Zwingli declared
that notwithstanding he was ready for brotherly fellowship,
but this Luther and his party unanimously refused. Luther said,
“You are of another spirit than we.” Still Luther had found
his opponents not so bad as he expected, and also the Swiss
found that Luther’s doctrine was not so gross and capernaitic
as they had imagined. They agreed on fifteen articles, in
the fourteenth of which they determined on the basis of the
œcumenical church doctrine to oppose the errors of Papists
and Anabaptists, and in the fifteenth the Swiss admitted that
the true body and blood of Christ are in the sacrament, but
they could not admit that they were corporeally in the bread
and wine. Three copies of these Marburg articles were signed
by the theologians present.--Continuation, § 133, 8.
§ 132.5. =The Convention of Schwabach and the Landgrave
Philip.=--A convention met at Schwabach in Oct., A.D. 1529,
at which a confession of seventeen articles was proposed
to the representatives of the Swiss, but rejected by them.
Meanwhile the imperial answer to the decisions of the diet
had arrived from Spain, containing very ungracious expressions
against the Protestants. The evangelical nobles sent an embassy
to the emperor to Italy; but he refused to receive the protest,
and treated the ambassadors almost as prisoners. They returned
to Germany with a bad report. Hitherto there had been only a
defensive federation against attacks of the Swabian League or
other Catholic princes. Luther’s hope that the emperor might
yet be won was shattered. The question now was, what should be
done if an onslaught upon the reformed should be made by the
emperor himself. The jurists indeed were of opinion that the
German princes were not unconditionally subject to the emperor;
they too have authority by God’s grace, and in the exercise of
this are bound to protect their subjects. But Luther did not
hesitate for a moment to compare the relation of the elector
to the emperor with that of the burgomaster of Torgau to the
elector; for he maintained the idea of the empire as firmly
as that of the church. He insisted that the princes should not
withstand the emperor, and that they should bear everything
patiently for God’s sake. Only if the emperor should proceed
to persecute their own subjects for their faith should
they renounce their obedience. The landgrave’s negotiations
with Zwingli also led to no result. For political purposes,
notwithstanding the opposition of Wittenberg, there was formed a
coalition of all the Protestants of the north with the exception
of Denmark, extending also to the south and embracing even
Venice and France. The Swiss would stop the way of the emperor
over the Alps; Venice would be of service with her fleet, and
the most Christian king of France was to be summoned as the
protector of political and religious freedom of Germany. But
these fine plans were seen to be vain dreams when the time for
putting them in practice came round.
§ 132.6. =The Diet of Augsburg, A.D. 1530.=--From Boulogne,
where the pope crowned him, the emperor summoned a diet to
meet at Augsburg, at which for the first time in nine he was
to be personally present. He would once again seek to induce
the Protestants quietly to return to the old faith, and so
his missive was very conciliatory. But before its arrival new
irritations had arisen at Augsburg. The Elector John allowed
the preachers accompanying him, Spalatin and Agricola, to
engage freely in preaching. The emperor was greatly displeased
at this, and sent him a request to withdraw this permission,
which, however, he did not regard. On 15th June, accompanied
by the papal legate Campegius (§ 126, 2, 3), he made a brilliant
entrance, the Protestants, on the ground of 2 Kings v. 17, 18,
offering no opposition to all the civil and ecclesiastical
reception ceremonies. This gave the emperor greater confidence
in renewing the demand to stop the preaching. But the Protestants
stood firm, and Margrave George called down the unmeasured
wrath of the emperor by his decided but humble declaration,
that before he would deny God’s word, he would kneel where
he stood and have his head struck off. Just as decidedly he
refused the emperor’s call to join the Corpus Christi procession
on the following day, even with the addition that it was “to the
glory of Almighty God.” At last they yielded the matter of the
preaching so far as to discontinue it during the emperor’s stay,
on the other party undertaking to discontinue controversial
discourses. On 20th June the diet opened. The matter of the
Turkish war was on the emperor’s motion postponed, to allow
of the thorough discussion of the religious questions.
§ 132.7. =The Augsburg Confession, 25th June, A.D. 1530.=--In
view of the diet the evangelical theologians prepared for the
elector a short confession in the form of a revision of the
seventeen Schwabach Articles, the so called Torgau Articles.
Melanchthon employed the days that preceded the opening of
the diet in drawing up on the basis of the Torgau Articles,
in constant correspondence with the evangelical theologians,
the =Augsburg Confession=, _Confessio Augustana_. This concise,
clear, and decided though temperate document received the hearty
approval of Luther, who, as still under the ban, was kept back
by the elector at Coburg. It contained twenty-one _Articuli
fidei præcipui_, and also seven _Articuli in quibus recensentur
abusus mutati_. On 24th June the Protestants said they desired
their confession to be publicly read. But it was with difficulty
that they obtained the emperor’s consent to allow its being read
on the 25th June, and even then not in the public hall, but in
a much smaller episcopal chapel, where only members of the diet
could find room. The two chancellors of the electorate, Baier
and Brück, appeared, the one with a German, the other with
a Latin copy of the confession. The emperor wished the Latin,
but the elector insisted that on German soil the German copy
should be read. When this was done Dr. Brück handed both copies
to the emperor, who kept the Latin one and gave the German one
to the Elector of Mainz. Both were subscribed by Elector John,
Margrave George, Duke Ernest of Lüneburg, Landgrave Philip,
Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, and the cities of Nuremberg and
Reutlingen. The confession made a favourable impression
on many of the assembled princes, and many prejudices were
dissipated; while the evangelicals were greatly strengthened by
the unanimous confession of their faith before the emperor and
the empire. The Catholic theologians Faber, Eck, Cochlæus, and
Wimpina were ordered by the emperor to controvert the confession.
Meanwhile Melanchthon entered into negotiations with the legate
Campegius, in which his love of peace went so far as to withdraw
all demands for marriage of the clergy, and the giving of the
cup to the laity, and to allow the ecclesiastical jurisdiction
of the bishops, reserving the question about the mass to the
decision of a council. But these weak concessions found little
or no favour among the other Protestants, and the legate could
make no binding engagement until he consulted Rome. On 3rd Aug.
the confutation of the Catholic theologians was read. The
emperor declared that it maintained the views by which he
would stand. He expected the princes would do the same. He
was defender of the Church, and was not disposed to suffer
ecclesiastical schism in Germany. The Protestants demanded for
closer inspection a copy of the confutation. This was refused.
The landgrave now left the diet. To the elector he said that
he gave over to him and to God’s word body and goods, land
and people; and to the representatives of the cities he wrote:
“Say to the cities that they are not women, but men. There is
no fear; God is on our side.” The zealous Papist Duke William of
Bavaria declared to Eck, “If I hear well, the Lutherans sit upon
the Scripture and we alongside of it.” The cities siding with
Zwingli, Strassburg, Memmingen, Constance, and Lindau, presented
their own confession drawn up by Bucer and Capilo [Capito], the
_Confessio Tetrapolitana_. In its eighteenth article it taught
that Christ gives in the sacrament His true body and His true
blood to be eaten and drunk for the feeding of the soul. The
emperor had a Catholic reply read, with which he expressed
satisfaction. Luther had meanwhile from Coburg supported those
contending for the confession by prayer, counsel, and comfort.
He preached frequently, wrote many letters, negotiated with
Bucer (§ 133, 8), wrought at the translation of the prophets,
and composed several evangelical works of edification.
§ 132.8. =The Conclusions of the Diet of Augsburg.=--The firm
bright spirit of the minority made it seem to the Catholic
majority too considerable to allow of an open breach. A further
attempt was therefore made to reach some agreement. A commission
was appointed, comprising from either side two princes, two
doctors of canon law, and three theologians. On the twenty-one
doctrinal articles, with the exception of that on the sacraments,
they were practically agreed, but the Protestants were called
upon to abandon everything in regard to constitution and customs.
Thus the attempt failed. Five imperial cities took the side
of the emperor, the rest attached themselves to the Protestant
princes. The Protestants wished to read Melanchthon’s apology
for the Augsburg Confession against the charge of the Catholic
confutation, but the emperor with unbending stubbornness refused.
This was the most decided piece of work Melanchthon ever did.
At the close of the diet, 22nd Sept., the Protestant princes
were informed that time for reflection would be allowed them
till 15th April of the following year; meanwhile they should
not enforce any innovations and should allow confession and
the mass in their territories. The early calling of a council
was expressly promised. The princes of the church had all their
rights restored. The emperor declared his firm determination to
enforce in its full rigour the edict of Worms, and commissioned
the public prosecutor to proceed against the disobedient even
to the length of putting them under the ban. The judicature was
formally and expressly empowered to carry out the conclusions
of the diet. Finally, the emperor expressed the wish that on
account of his frequent absence his brother Ferdinand should
be chosen King of Rome. The election was accordingly soon
carried out at Frankfort; but the elector lodged a protest
against it.
§ 133. INCIDENTS OF THE YEARS A.D. 1531-1536.
The Protestants now made an earnest effort to effect a union by
forming in A.D. 1531 the Schmalcald League. To this decided action
and the political difficulties of the emperor we owe the Peace of
Nuremburg [Nuremberg] of A.D. 1532. The bold step of the landgrave
freed Württemberg from the Austrian yoke and papal oppression. At
the same time the Reformation triumphed in Anhalt, Pomerania, and
several Westphalian cities. All Westphalia might have been one but
for the Anabaptists. Bucer’s unwearied efforts at last succeeded by
the Wittenberg concordat in opening the way for the Schmalcald League
into the cities of the Uplands. The league now comprised an imposing
array of powerful members.
§ 133.1. =The Founding of the Schmalcald League,
A.D. 1530, 1531.=--The conferring upon the court of justiciary
the power to execute the decrees of the Diet of Augsburg was
most dangerous to the Protestants. For protection against this
design, the Protestant nobles at a convention at Schmalcald in
Dec., A.D. 1530, formed the bold resolution, that all should
stand as one in resisting every attack of the court. But when
the question came to be discussed, whether in case of need they
should go the length of armed resistance to the emperor opinion
was divided. The views of the jurists finally prevailed over
those of the theologians, and the elector insisted on a league
against every aggressor, even should it be the emperor himself.
At a new convention at Schmalcald in March, A.D. 1531, a league
on these terms was concluded for six years. The members of it
were the electorate of Saxony, Hesse, Lüneburg, Anhalt, Mansfeld,
and eleven cities.
§ 133.2. =The Peace of Nuremberg, A.D. 1532.=--The energetic
combination of the Protestants had now rendered them formidable,
and the Sultan Soliman was threatening a new attack. If the
Protestants were to be conquered, an agreement must be come
to with the Turks; if the Turks were to be humbled, a peaceable
settlement with the Protestants was indispensable. Ferdinand’s
policy at first inclined to the latter direction, and by his
advice the emperor summoned a diet at Regensburg, and till the
meeting forbade any prosecutions on the basis of the decrees of
the Diet of Augsburg. But soon the catastrophe in Switzerland
(§ 130, 10) changed Ferdinand’s policy. It seemed to him now
the fittest time to deal a similar blow to the evangelicals in
Germany. He therefore sent an embassy to the sultan, empowered
to make the most humiliating conditions of peace. But Soliman
rejected all proposals with scorn, and in April, A.D. 1532,
advanced with an army of 300,000 men. Meanwhile the Diet of
Regensburg had opened on 17th April, A.D. 1532. The Protestants
no longer presented a humble petition, as they had done two
years before, but they firmly made their demands. There was
no longer talk of compromise or suffrance. They demanded
peace in matters of religion; the annulling of all religious
prosecutions; and, finally, a free general council, where
matters should be decided solely by God’s word. So long as
Ferdinand had any hope of getting a favourable answer from
the Turks, he would not seriously consider proposals for peace.
But when that hope was shattered, and Soliman’s terrible host
approached, there was no time to lose. At Nuremberg the peace
was concluded on 23rd July, A.D. 1532. The faithful elector
was allowed to see the happy day, but died in that same year.
He was succeeded by his son, =John Frederick the Magnanimous=,
A.D. 1532-1547. A noble army was soon raised from the imperial
guards. Soliman suffered various misfortunes on land and water,
and withdrew without accomplishing anything. The emperor now
went to Italy, and insisted on the pope calling a general
council. But the pope thought the time had not come for that.
Also the annulling of prosecutions promised in the treaty
remained long unfulfilled. Pending prosecutions, mostly about
restitution of ecclesiastical goods and jurisdiction, were
pronounced to be not matters of religion, but of spoliation
and breach of the peace. The Protestants made a formal complaint
in Jan., A.D. 1534. This was disregarded, and arrangements
were being made to put certain nobles under the ban when events
occurred at Württemberg which changed the aspect of affairs.
§ 133.3. =The Evangelization of Württemberg,
A.D. 1534, 1535.=--The Swabian League in the interest of
Austria had obtained the banishment of Duke Ulrich in A.D. 1528,
and frustrated every attempt to secure his return. His son
Christopher had been educated at the court of Ferdinand,
and in A.D. 1532 accompanied the emperor to Spain. He made
his escape into the Alps, and publicly claimed his German
inheritance. The Landgrave Philip, Ulrich’s personal friend,
had long resolved to reconquer Württemberg for him. At last,
in the spring of A.D. 1534, with aid of French gold, he carried
out his plan. At Laufen Ferdinand’s army was almost annihilated,
and he himself was obliged in the Peace of Cadau of A.D. 1534
to restore Ulrich to Württemberg as an under-feudatory, but
with seat and vote in the imperial diet, and to allow him a
free hand in carrying out the Reformation in his territory.
Luther’s views had from the first found hearty reception in
Württemberg. The oldest and most distinguished of the Swabian
reformers, whose reputation had spread far beyond Württemberg,
was John Brenz (§§ 131, 1; 132, 4; 135, 2; 136, 6, 8). He
was preacher in Swabian Halle from A.D. 1522, provost in
Stuttgart from A.D. 1553, and died in A.D. 1570. But Ferdinand’s
government had stretched its arm so far as to visit with death
all manifestations of sympathy with the Reformation. All the
more rapidly did the work of evangelization now proceed. Ulrich
brought with him Ambrose Blaurer, a disciple of Zwingli and
friend of Bucer, and Erhard Schnapf, a decided supporter of
Luther; to the former he assigned the evangelization of the
upper, and to the latter the evangelization of the lower
division of his territories. Both had agreed in accepting
a common formula of Reformation principles. By the founding
of the University of Tübingen, organized after the pattern
of Marburg, Ulrich rendered important service to the cause
of Protestant learning. Several neighbouring courts and cities
were encouraged to follow Württemberg’s example.
§ 133.4. =The Reformation in Anhalt and Pomerania,
A.D. 1532-1534.=--Wolfgang of =Anhalt= had at an early date
introduced the Reformation on the banks of the Saale and into
Zerbst. Another prince of Anhalt, George, at first an opponent
of Luther, but converted by means of his writings, began in
A.D. 1532 the Reformation of the country east of the Elbe. And
when the Bishop of Brandenburg refused to ordain his married
priests, he sent them to be ordained by Luther in Wittenberg.
Much more violent was the Reformation of =Pomerania=. Nobles
and clergy sought to rouse the people against Lutheranism.
Prince Barnim was an ardent supporter of Luther, but his brother
George was bitterly opposed. On George’s death, his son Philip
joined with Barnim in introducing the Reformation into the land.
At the Assembly of Treptow, in Dec., A.D. 1534, they presented
a scheme of Reformation, which the nobles heartily accepted. It
was carried into operation by Bugenhagen by a church visitation
after the pattern of that of Saxony.
§ 133.5. =The Reformation in Westphalia, A.D. 1532-1534.=--In
the Westphalian cities much was accomplished by Luther’s hymns.
Pideritz, priest of =Lamgo=, was a supporter of Eck; but wishing
to see the working of the new views for himself, he went to
Brunswick, and returned to inaugurate the Reformation in his
own city. At =Soest=, the Catholic council condemned to death
a workman who had spoken of it with disrespect. Two blundering
attempts were made upon the scaffold, and the victim at last
was conducted home by the crowd in triumph. He died next day.
The council precipitately fled from the city. And thus in July,
A.D. 1533, Catholicism lost its last prop in that place. In
=Paderborn=, where liberty of preaching had been enjoyed, the
Elector of Cologne (§ 135, 7) had some of the leading Lutherans
imprisoned; and when some on the rack confessed to a treasonable
correspondence with the Landgrave of Hesse, of which they had
been falsely accused, he condemned them to death. But moved
by the request of an old man to share their death, and by
the weeping of the wives and maidens, Hermann spared their
lives. In =Münster=, Luther’s doctrines were preached as early
as A.D. 1531 by Rottmann, and soon the evangelicals won the
ascendency, so that council and clergy left the city. The Bishop
of Waldeck, after an unsuccessful attempt by force of arms, was
obliged in A.D. 1533 to grant unconditional religious freedom.
The neighbouring cities were about to follow the example of
the capital, when a catastrophe occurred which resulted in the
complete restoration of Catholicism.
§ 133.6. =Disturbances at Münster, A.D. 1534, 1535.=--Rottmann
had added to his Zwinglian creed the renunciation of infant
baptism, and prepared the way for Anabaptist excesses. John
of Leyden appeared in A.D. 1534, gained great popularity as
a preacher, and the council was weak enough to grant legal
recognition to the fanatics. Mad enthusiasts flocked into the
city. One of their prophets proclaimed it as God’s will that
unbelievers should be expelled. This was done on 27th February,
A.D. 1534. Seven deacons divided what was left among the
believers. In May the bishop laid siege to the city. This had
the effect of confining the mad disorder to Münster. After the
destruction of all images, organs, and books, with exception
only of the Bible, community of goods was introduced. John of
Leyden got the council set aside as required by his revelations,
and appointed a theocratic government of twelve elders, who
took their inspiration from the prophet. He proclaimed polygamy,
himself taking seventeen wives, while Rottmann contented himself
with four. In vain did the moral conscience of the inhabitants
protest. The objectors were executed. One of his fellow prophets
proclaimed John king of the whole world. He set up a showy
and expensive establishment, and committed the most frightful
abominations. He regarded himself as called to inaugurate the
millennium, sent out twenty-eight apostles to extend his kingdom,
and named twelve dukes who should rule the world under him.
The besiegers made an unsuccessful attempt in August, A.D. 1534,
to storm the city. Had not aid been sent them before the end
of the year from Hesse, Treves, Cleves, Mainz, and Cologne,
they would have been obliged to raise the siege. Even then they
could only think of reducing the city by famine. It was already
in great straits. On St. John’s night, A.D. 1535, a deserter
led the troops to the walls. After a stubborn resistance the
Anabaptists were beaten. Rottmann threw himself into the hottest
of the fight, and there perished. John, with his chief officers,
was taken prisoner, put to death with frightful tortures on
22nd Jan., A.D. 1536, and then hung in chains from St. Lambert’s
tower. Catholicism was thus restored to absolute supremacy.
§ 133.7. =Extension of the Schmalcald league, A.D. 1536.=--A
war with France had broken out in A.D. 1536, which taxed all
the emperor’s resources. Francis I. had made a league with
Soliman for a combined attack upon the emperor. Instead therefore
of punishing the Protestant princes for their proceedings in
Württemberg, he was obliged to do all he could to conciliate
them, as Francis was bidding for their alliance. Ferdinand
therefore, from the summer of A.D. 1535, sought to ingratiate
himself with the Protestants. In November he received a visit
of the elector in Vienna, and granted the extension of the Peace
of Nuremberg to all nobles who since its ratification had become
Protestants. The elector then went to an assembly at Schmalcald,
where the Schmalcald League was extended for ten years, the
French embassy dismissed, and the opposition to Austria abandoned.
On the basis of the Vienna compact Württemberg, Pomerania, Anhalt,
and several cities were added to the league. Signature of the
Augsburg Confession was the indispensable condition of reception.
Bucer managed to win over the upland cities to accept this
condition.
§ 133.8. =The Wittenberg Concordat of A.D. 1536.=--Bucer and
ultimately Œcolampadius, made such concessions on the doctrine
of the sacraments as satisfied Luther, but they were rejected
by Bullinger of Zürich. In December, A.D. 1535, there was a
conference at Cassel between Bucer and Melanchthon. A larger
conference was afterward held at Wittenberg, at which Bucer
and Capito from Strassburg, and eight other distinguished
theologians from the uplands, were present. As they accepted
the formula “in, with, and under,” the only question remaining
was whether unbelievers partook of the body of Christ. They
admitted this in regard to the unworthy, but not, as Luther
wished, in regard to the godless and unbelieving. Luther was
satisfied. On 25th May, A.D. 1536, Melanchthon composed the
“Wittenberg Concord,” which was signed by all, and ratified
by the common partaking of the sacrament. In consequence of
this union effort, three of the Swiss theologians, Bullinger,
Myconius, and Grynæus seceded, and produced the _Confessio
Helvetica prior_, in which the Zwinglian doctrine of the
sacraments was moderately but firmly maintained.
§ 134. INCIDENTS OF THE YEARS A.D. 1537-1539.
Clement VII. made many excuses for postponing the calling of a
council. At last, in A.D. 1533, he declared himself willing to do
so in the course of the year; but he required of the Protestants
unconditional acceptance of its decisions, to which they would not
agree. His successor, Paul III., A.D. 1534-1549, called one to meet
at Mantua in A.D. 1537. Luther composed for it as a manifesto the
Schmalcald Articles; but finally the Protestants renewed their demand
for a free council in a German city. In A.D. 1538 the Catholic nobles
concluded the Holy Alliance at Nuremberg for carrying out the decrees
of the Diet of Augsburg; but the political difficulties of the emperor
compelled him to make new concessions to the Protestants in the
Frankfort Interim of A.D. 1539. But in the same year the duchy of
Saxony and the electorate of Brandenburg went over to the Reformation.
By the beginning of A.D. 1540 almost all North Germany was won. Duke
Henry of Brunswick alone held out for the old faith.
§ 134.1. =The Schmalcald Articles, A.D. 1537.=--In A.D. 1535
Paul III. sent his legate Vergerius (§ 139, 24) into Germany
to fix a place of meeting for the council. At Wittenberg he
conferred with Luther and Bugenhagen, who scarcely expecting
the council were indifferent as to the place. The council was
formally summoned to meet at Mantua on May 23rd, A.D. 1537. At
a diet at Schmalcald in Feb., A.D. 1537, the Protestants stated
their demands. Luther, by the elector’s orders, had drawn up
the articles of which the council must treat. These Schmalcald
Articles are distinctly polemical, and indicate boldly the
limits of the papal hierarchy demanded by evangelicals. The
first part states briefly four uncontested positions on the
Trinity and the Person of Christ; the second part deals with
the office and work of Christ or our redemption, and marks
abruptly the points of difference between the two confessions;
the third part treats of those points which the council may
further discuss. In the second part Luther unconditionally
rejected the primacy of the pope, as not of Divine right and
inconsistent with the character of a true evangelical Church.
When the articles had been subscribed by the theologians,
Melanchthon added under his name: “As to the pope, I hold
that if he will not oppress the gospel, for the sake of the
peace and unity of those Christians who are or may be under
him, his superiority over bishops _jure humano_ might be allowed
by us.” Melanchthon’s tracts on “The Power of the Pope” and the
“Jurisdiction of Bishops” were also subscribed by the theologians
and added to the Schmalcald Articles. It was then decided that
in order to secure a free Christian council it must be held in
a German city. The elector even made the bold proposal to have
a counter-council summoned, say, at Augsburg, by Luther and his
fellow bishops.
§ 134.2. =The League of Nuremberg, A.D. 1538.=--The Protestant
princes were astonished at the close of the Schmalcald
convention to be told by Vice-Chancellor Held, on behalf
of the emperor, that he did not recognise the Peace of
Cadau or the Vienna Compact, and that the prosecutions
would be resumed. They therefore resumed their old attitude
of opposition. But Held visited all the Catholic courts in
order to complete the formation of a Catholic league for
the suppression of Protestantism. Ferdinand, who knew well
that Held exceeded his instructions, was very angry, for the
emperor was in the greatest straits, but he could not offer
direct opposition without offending the Catholic princes. So
on July 10th, A.D. 1538, the Holy Alliance was actually formed
at Nuremberg, embracing George of Saxony, Albert of Brandenburg,
Henry and Eric of Brunswick, King Ferdinand, and the Archbishop
of Salzburg. The Schmalcald nobles prepared to meet force with
force. A general bloody engagement seemed unavoidable.
§ 134.3. =The Frankfort Interim, A.D. 1539.=--As the emperor
needed help against Soliman, he recalled Held, and sent in
his place John, formerly Archbishop of Leyden. The electors
of Brandenburg and the Palatinate went as mediators with the
new envoy to Frankfort, where negotiations were opened with
the Protestants present, who demanded an unconditional, lasting
peace, and a judiciary court with Protestant as well as Catholic
members. These demands were at first refused, but pressing
need obliged the emperor to reopen negotiations, proposing
that a diet should be held, consisting of learned theologians
and simple, peaceable laymen, to effect a final union of
Christians in faith and worship. He would also grant suspension
of all proceedings against the Protestants for eighteen months.
The Protestants accepted in this “Frankfort Interim” what had
been greatly sought for at the Diet of Nuremberg. It was a
victory of the Schmalcald over the Nuremberg League. The public
confidence in Protestantism grew, and the cause rapidly spread
into new regions.
§ 134.4. =The Reformation in Albertine Saxony, A.D. 1539.=--Duke
George of Saxony, A.D. 1500-1539, was a devoted adherent of the
old faith. Of his four sons only one survived, and he almost
imbecile. He had him married, but he died two months after
the marriage. The old prince was in perplexity, for his brother
Henry, an ardent supporter of the Reformation, was his next
heir. He could ill brook the idea of having the whole work of
his life immediately undone. On the day of the death of his last
son he proposed to his nobles a scheme of succession, according
to which his brother Henry should succeed him only if he joined
the Nuremberg League; otherwise it should go to the emperor
or the King of Rome. Duke Henry rejected the proposal, and
Duke George died before he could produce another scheme. With
loud rejoicing the people received their new prince, and their
allegiance was sworn to him at Leipzig. Luther was there, for
the first time for twenty years, and preached with extraordinary
success. The Reformation proceeded rapidly throughout the whole
district. The King of Rome wished indeed to question George’s
claim, but the Schmalcald League resolved to stand by him, so
that Ferdinand thought it prudent to take no further steps.
§ 134.5. =The Reformation in Brandenburg and Neighbouring
States, A.D. 1539.=--Henry of Neumark joined the Schmalcald
League, and introduced the Reformation into his territories;
but his brother Joachim II. of Brandenburg, A.D. 1535-1571,
for several years adhered to the old faith without forbidding
evangelical preaching, which gradually made an impression on
his own mind. In the beginning of A.D. 1539, with the approval
of his nobles, he gave his adhesion to the reformed doctrines.
The city of Berlin asked for communion in both kinds, and a
considerable section of the nobles of Brandenburg expressed a
hearty longing for the pure gospel. On November 1st, A.D. 1539,
Joachim assembled all the preachers of his land in the Nicolai
Church at Spandau, the Bishop of Brandenburg held the first
evangelical communion, and the whole court and many knights
received the communion in both kinds. The people followed the
example of the prince. Joachim sketched a service which let
several of the old ceremonies remain, but justification by
faith was the central point of the doctrine, and communion
in both kinds the centre of the worship. The Duchess Elizabeth
of Calenberg-Brunswick followed her brother’s example. After
the death of her husband Eric, who was otherwise minded, she
exercised her influence as regent for the spread of the reformed
religion. The Cardinal-archbishop and Elector of Mainz, Albert
of Brandenburg, sought to preserve his archiepiscopal diocese of
Magdeburg, but his constant calls for money would be responded
to only on condition that he granted liberty of preaching. At
his Halle residence he made vigorous resistance, but there too
was obliged to yield. Before his eyes, Justus Jonas, Luther’s
most trusted friend and fellow labourer, Prof. and Provost of
Wittenberg since A.D. 1521, carried on the work of Reformation
in the city. The cardinal, in a rage, left Halle and the “idol
of Halle” (§ 123, 8) for Mainz.--Mecklenburg also about this
time adopted the evangelical constitution, mainly promoted by
one of its princes, Magnus Bishop of Schwerin. The Abbess of
Quedlinburg, Anna von Stolberg, had not ventured, so long as
Duke George of Saxony lived, to bring forward her evangelical
confession; but now without opposition she reformed her convent
and the city.
§ 135. UNION ATTEMPTS OF A.D. 1540-1546.
The Frankfort Interim revived the idea of a free union among those
who in the main agreed upon matters of faith and worship. With the
object of realizing this idea a whole series of religious conferences
were held. But near as its realization at one time seemed to be all
the measures taken proved one after another abortive, because the
emperor would not recognise the conclusions of any conference at
which a papal legate was not present. And just at this time, when
the imposing might of the Protestant nobles excited the brightest
hopes, the Protestant princes themselves laid the grounds of their
deepest humiliation: the landgrave by his double marriage, and the
elector by his quarrels with the ducal Saxon court.
§ 135.1. =The Double Marriage of the Landgrave,
A.D. 1540.=--Landgrave Philip of Hesse had married Christina,
a daughter of the deceased Duke George of Saxony. Various causes
had led to an estrangement between them, and a strong sensuous
nature, which he had been unable to control, had driven him to
repeated acts of unfaithfulness. His conscience reproved him;
he felt himself unworthy to be admitted to communion, great
as his desire for it was, and doubted of his soul’s salvation.
From regard to his wife he could not think of a divorce. Then
came the idea, suggested by the O.T. polygamy that had not been
abrogated in the N.T., that with consent of his wife he might
enter into a regular second marriage with Margaret von der Saale,
one of his sister’s lady’s-maids. In Nov., A.D. 1539, he sent
Bucer to Wittenberg in order to get the advice of Luther and
Melanchthon. The alternative was either continued adultery, or
an honourable married life with a second wife taken with consent
of the first. Luther and Melanchthon entreated him earnestly
for his own and for the gospel’s sake to avoid this terrible
scandal, but haltingly admitted that the latter alternative
was less heinously wicked than the former. They added, however,
that in order to avoid scandal the marriage should be private,
and their answer regarded not as a theological opinion, but
confidential counsel. The landgrave had the marriage consummated
in May, A.D. 1540. But the story soon spread. The court of
Albertine Saxony was deeply incensed, the elector beside
himself with rage, the theologians in most extreme embarrassment.
Melanchthon started to attend a religious conference at Hagenau,
but the excitement over the unhappy business prostrated him
on a sick-bed at Weimar. The emperor threatened Philip with
the infliction of capital punishment, which by the law of the
empire was attached to the crime of bigamy. At last the elector
called a convention of Saxon and Hessian theologians at Eisenach
to consult about the matter. Luther refused to treat it as a
question of law, and demanded absolute privacy as the condition
of permission. Among the opponents of the Reformation, it was
Duke Henry of Brunswick who insisted upon exacting the utmost
penalties of the law. He indeed was least fitted by his own
character to assume the part of defender of morals. It was
well known that he was then living in adultery with Eva von
Trott, after her pretended death and burial. In his perplexity,
Philip turned to the imperial chancellor Granvella, who was
willing to intercede for him, but on conditions to which the
landgrave could not accede. At last, at the Diet of Regensburg,
in A.D. 1541, Philip undertook to further the imperial interests
and to join no union in any way inimical to these; and upon
these terms the emperor agreed to grant him a full indemnity.
§ 135.2. =The Religious Conference at Worms,
A.D. 1540.=--Negotiations for peace with France having failed,
the emperor still required the support of the Protestant
party. He therefore agreed to the holding of a religious
conference at =Worms=, in order to reach if possible a good
mutual understanding on the basis of Holy Scripture. It was
held in Nov., A.D. 1540, under the presidency of Granvella.
On one side were Melanchthon, Bucer, Capito, Brenz, and Calvin;
on the other, Eck, Gropper, canon of Cologne, the Spaniard
Malvenda, etc. But the emperor had insisted on the papal
nuncio Marone taking part, and this, contrary to his intention,
brought the whole affair to naught. For Marone first of all
presented a number of formal objections, and when at last,
in Jan., A.D. 1541, the conference began, and awakened the
utmost apprehensions for the papacy, he rested not till
Granvella, even before the first article on original sin had
been discussed, dissolved the conference in the name and by
command of the emperor. But the emperor did not give up the
idea of conciliation, and called a diet at Regensburg, at
which the negotiations were to be renewed.
§ 135.3. =The Religious Conference at Regensburg,
A.D. 1541.=--The diet at Regensburg was opened on April 5th,
A.D. 1541. The emperor, anxious to reach a peaceable conclusion,
named as members of the conference Eck, Gropper, and Julius
von Pflugk, Dean of Meissen, on the one side; and Melanchthon,
Bucer, and Pistorius, on the other side; with Granvella and
Frederick, count-palatine, as presidents. The nuncio Contarini
was representative of the curia. By such a gathering the emperor
hoped to reach the wished for conclusion. In Italy (§ 139, 22)
there had sprung up a number of men well instructed in Scripture,
who sought to reform the doctrine of the church by adopting the
principle of justification by faith without touching the primacy
of the pope and the whole hierarchical system. Contarini was one
of the leaders of this party. He had come to an understanding
with the emperor that justification by faith, the use of
the cup in communion by the laity, and marriage of priests
should be allowed for Germany, and that, on the other hand,
the Protestants were to agree to the primacy of the pope. The
_justitia imputativa_ was acknowledged by both parties; and
even when Contarini, on the basis of that imputation, insisted
upon a _justitia inhærens_, _i.e._ not merely a declaring but
a making righteous, seeing that he grounded it solely on the
merits of Christ, the Protestants acquiesced. Differences arose
over the doctrine of the church, which were reserved for another
occasion. And now they came to the sacrament of the altar.
Communion in both kinds was agreed to by both; but trouble
arose over the word transubstantiation. Not only Eck, who had
opposed all concessions, but even Contarini, who had his orders
from Rome, would not yield. No more would the Protestants.
The conference had therefore to be dissolved. The emperor
wished both parties to accept the articles agreed on as
a common standard, and to have toleration granted upon the
disputed points; but the Catholic majority would not agree
to this. The Regensburg Interim, therefore, as the decision
of the diet is usually called, extends the Nuremberg Peace
(§ 133, 2) to all presently members of the Schmalcald League,
and enforced upon Protestants only the accepted articles.
§ 135.4. =The Regensburg Declaration, A.D. 1541.=--The emperor,
in order to satisfy the naturally dissatisfied Protestants,
made a special declaration, annulling the prosecutions decree
of the Augsburg Diet and relieving the adherents of the Augsburg
Confession from all disabilities. Also the injunction that no
one should withhold their dues from the clergy was extended
to the Protestant ministers. But on the very day when the
declaration was issued the emperor held a private session
with the Catholic majority, in which the Nuremberg League was
renewed and the pope received into it. Thus he hoped to receive
help from all parties and to ward off internecine conflict till
a more convenient season. He concluded a separate treaty with
the landgrave and the Elector Joachim II., both undertaking
to support imperial interests. The elector expressly promised
not to join the Schmalcald League; and the landgrave promised
to oppose all consorting of the league not only with foreign
powers (England and France), but also with the Duke of Cleves,
with whom the emperor had a standing feud. In return the
landgrave was granted an amnesty for all previous delinquencies
and undisturbed liberty in matters of religion. The emperor’s
negotiations with the Elector of Saxony broke down over the
Cleves dispute, for the Duke of Cleves was his brother-in-law.
§ 135.5. =The Naumburg Bishopric, A.D. 1541, 1542.=--Since
A.D. 1520 the Lutheran doctrines had spread in the diocese
of Naumburg. When the bishop died, in A.D. 1511, the chapter
elected the learned and mild provost Julius von Pflugk. But
the elector regarded it as proper in a Lutheran state to have a
Lutheran bishop, and so refused to confirm Pflugk’s appointment,
and had Nic. von Arnsdorf (§ 127, 4) ordained bishop by Luther,
in A.D. 1542, “without chrism, butter, suet, lard, tar, grease,
incense, and coals.” The civil administration of the diocese was
committed to an electoral officer; Arnsdorf was satisfied with
the small income of 600 florins and the rest of the revenues
were applied to pious uses. After the battle of Mühlberg,
in A.D. 1547, Arnsdorf was expelled and Pflugk restored. On
his death in 1564, the chapter, though then Lutheran, did not
restore Arnsdorf, but gave over the administration to a Saxon
prince. The elector’s violent procedure in this case caused
great offence to the Albertine court. Duke Henry had died in
A.D. 1541, and was succeeded by his son Maurice. The elector
and the young duke quarrelled over a question of jurisdiction,
and it was only with great difficulty that Luther and the
landgrave managed to effect a peaceful solution of the dispute.
But the mutual estrangement and rivalry between the courts soon
afterwards broke out in a violent form.
§ 135.6. =The Reformation in Brunswick and the Palatinate,
A.D. 1542-1546.=--Duke Henry of Brunswick accused the city
of Goslar of the destruction of two monasteries, and in spite
of all the concessions to Protestants the court pronounced
the ban against the city, and empowered Henry to carry it
out. The elector and the landgrave, acting for the Schmalcald
League in defence of the city, entered Henry’s territory in
A.D. 1542 and conquered it. The gospel was now preached, and an
evangelical constitution was given to Brunswick by Bugenhagen.
This completed the conquest of North Germany for the gospel.--In
South Germany Regensburg received the Reformation in A.D. 1542;
but Bavaria, owing to Ferdinand’s influence, gave no place to
the heretics. In the Upper Palatinate evangelical preachers
had for a long time been tolerated. The young prince of
the Neuburg Palatinate in A.D. 1543 called Osiander from
Nuremburg [Nuremberg], and joined the Schmalcald League.
The Elector-palatine Louis died in A.D. 1543. His brother
Frederick II., who succeeded him was not unfavourable to the
Reformation, and formally introduced it into his dominions in
A.D. 1546. Even in Austria evangelical views made such advance
that Ferdinand neither could nor would attempt those violent
measures that he had previously tried.
§ 135.7. =The Reformation in the Electorate of Cologne,
A.D. 1542-1544.=--Hermann von Weid (§ 133, 5), Archbishop and
Elector of Cologne, now far advanced in life, by the study of
Luther’s Bible had convinced himself of the scripturalness of
the Augsburg Confession. He resolved to reform his province
in accordance with God’s word. At the Bonn Assembly of March,
A.D. 1542, he made known his plan, and found himself supported
by his nobles. He invited Bucer to inaugurate the work, and
he was soon joined by Melanchthon. In July, A.D. 1543, the
elector laid before the nobles his Reformation scheme, and
they unanimously accepted it. The cathedral chapter and the
university opposed it in the interests of the papacy; also
the Cologne council from fear of losing their authority.
Nevertheless the movement advanced, and it was hoped that the
opposition would gradually be overcome. Cologne was to remain
after as before an ecclesiastical principality, but with an
evangelical constitution. The Bishop of Münster prepared to
follow the example, and had the work in Cologne been lasting,
certainly many others would have pursued the same course.
§ 135.8. =The Emperor’s Difficulties, A.D. 1543, 1544.=--Soliman
in A.D. 1541 had overrun Hungary, converted the principal
church into a mosque, and set a pasha over the whole land,
which now became a Turkish province. Aid against the Turks
was voted at a diet at Spires in the beginning of A.D. 1542,
and the Protestants were left unmolested for five years after
the conclusion of the war. The campaign against the Turks led
by Joachim II. was unsuccessful. Meanwhile new troubles arose
with France, and Soliman prepared for a second campaign.
The emperor now summoned a diet to meet at Nuremberg, Jan.,
A.D. 1543. Ferdinand was willing to grant to the Protestants
the Regensburg Declaration, but William of Bavaria would rather
see the whole world perish or the crescent ruling over all
Germany. In summer of A.D. 1543 the emperor was beset with
dangers from every side; France attacked the Netherlands,
Soliman conquered Grau, the Danes closed the Sound against
the subjects of the emperor, a Turco-French fleet held sway
in the Mediterranean and had already taken Nizza, and the
Protestants were assuming a threatening attitude. Christian III.
of Denmark and Gustavus Vasa of Sweden asked to be received
into the Schmalcald League. The Duke of Cleves, too, broke
his truce. This roused the emperor most of all. He rushed down
upon Cleves and Gelderland, and conquered them, and restored
Catholicism. The emperor’s circumstances now improved: Cleves
was quieted; Denmark and England came to terms with him. But
his most dangerous enemies, Soliman and Francis I., were still
in arms. He could not yet dispense with the powerful support
of the Protestants.
§ 135.9. =Diet at Spires, A.D. 1544.=--In order to get
help against the Turks and French, at the Diet of Spires,
in Feb., A.D. 1544, the emperor relieved the Protestants of
all disabilities, promised a genuine, free Christian council
to settle matters in dispute, and, in case this should not
succeed, in next autumn a national assembly to determine
matters definitely without pope or council. The emperor promised
to propose a scheme of Reformation, and invited the other nobles
to bring forward schemes. After such concessions the Protestants
went in heartily with the emperor’s political projects. He
wished first of all help against the French. In the same year
the emperor led against France an army composed mostly of
Protestants, and in Sept., A.D. 1544, obliged the king to
conclude the Peace of Crespy. The Turks had next to be dealt
with, and the Protestants were eager to show their devotion
to the emperor. In prospect of the national assembly the
Elector of Saxony set his theologians to the composition of
a plan of Reformation. This document, known as the “Wittenberg
Reformation,” allows to the prelates their spiritual and civil
functions, their revenues, goods, and jurisdiction, the right
of ordination, visitation, and discipline, on condition that
these be exercised in an evangelical spirit.
§ 135.10. =Differences between the Emperor and the Protestant
Nobles, A.D. 1545, 1546.=--The pope by calling a council to
meet at Trent sowed seeds of discord between the emperor and
the Protestants. The emperor’s proposals of reform were so
far short of the demands of the Protestants that they were
unanimously rejected. The Reformation movement in Cologne had
seriously imperilled the imperial government of the Netherlands.
An attempt of Henry to reconquer Brunswick was frustrated by the
combined action of the Landgrave of Hesse and the Duke of Saxony.
Frederick II., elector-palatine, began to reform his provinces
and to seek admission to the Schmalcald League. Four of the
six electors had gone over, and the fifth, Sebastian, who after
Albert’s death in A.D. 1545 had been, by Hessian and Palatine
influence, made Elector of Mainz, had just resolved to follow
their example. All these things had greatly irritated the
emperor. He concluded a truce with the Turks in Oct., A.D. 1545,
and arranged with the pope, who pledged his whole possessions
and crown, for the campaign against the heretics. On 13th Dec.,
A.D. 1545, the pope opened the =Council of Trent=, and made
it no secret that it was intended for the destruction of the
Protestants. The emperor attempted to get the Protestants to
take part. In Jan., A.D. 1546, a conference was held in which
Cochlæus (§ 129, 1) and others met with Bucer, Brenz, and Major;
but it was soon dissolved, owing to initial differences. The
horrible fratricide committed at Neuburg upon a Spaniard, Juan
Diaz, showed the Protestants how good Catholics thought heretics
must be dealt with. The murderer was seized, but by order of the
pope to the Bishop of Trent set again at liberty. He remained
unpunished, but hanged himself at Trent A.D. 1551.
§ 135.11. =Luther’s Death, A.D. 1546.=--Luther died at Eisleben
in his 63rd year on 18th Feb., 1546. During his last years he
was harassed with heavy trials. The political turn that affairs
had taken was wholly distasteful to him, but he was powerless to
prevent it. In Wittenberg itself much was done not in accordance
with his will. Wearied with his daily toils, suffering severe
pain and consequent bodily weakness, he often longed to die
in peace. In the beginning of A.D. 1546 the Counts of Mansfeld
called him to Eisleben in order to compose differences between
them by his impartial judgment. In order to perform this
business he spent the three last weeks of his life in his
birthplace, and, with scarcely any previous illness, on the
night of the 18th Feb., he peacefully fell asleep in Jesus.
His body was taken to Wittenberg and there buried in the
castle church.
§ 136. THE SCHMALCALD WAR, THE INTERIM, AND THE COUNCIL,
A.D. 1546-1551.
All attempts at agreement in matters of religion were at an end.
The pope, however, had at last convened a council in a German city.
The emperor hoped to conciliate the Protestants by bringing about
a reformation after a fashion, removing many hierarchical abuses,
conceding the marriage of the clergy, the cup to the laity, and even
perhaps accepting the doctrine of justification. But he soon came to
a rupture with the Protestants, and war broke out before the Schmalcald
Leaguers were prepared for it. Their power, however, was far superior
to that of the emperor; but through needless scruples, delays, and
indecision they let slip the opportunity of certain victory. The power
of the league was utterly destroyed, and the emperor’s power reached
the summit of its strength. All Southern Germany was forced to submit
to the hated interim, and in North Germany only the outlawed Magdeburg
ventured to maintain, in spite of the emperor, a pure Protestant
profession.
§ 136.1. =Preparations for the Schmalcald War, A.D. 1546.=--In
consequence of variances among the members of the league the
emperor conceived a plan of securing allies from among the
Protestants themselves by a judicious distribution of favours.
The Margrave Hans of Cüstrin and Duke Eric of Brunswick, the
one cousin, the other son-in-law, of the exiled and imprisoned
Duke of Wolfenbüttel, were ready to take part in war against the
robbers of their friend’s dominions. Much more eager, however,
was the emperor to win over the young Duke Maurice of Saxony. He
tempted him with the promise of the electorate and the greater
part of the elector’s territory, and was successful. The emperor
could not indeed formally release any of them from submission
to the council, but he promised in any case to reserve for
their countries the doctrine of justification, the cup in lay
communion, and the marriage of priests. Now when he was sure
of Maurice the emperor proceeded openly with his preparations,
and made no secret of his intention to punish those princes who
had despised his imperial authority and taken to themselves the
possessions of others. The Schmalcald Leaguers could no longer
deceive themselves, and so they began their preparations.
With such an open breach the Diet of Regensburg ended in June,
A.D. 1546.
§ 136.2. =The Campaign on the Danube, A.D. 1546.=--Schärtlin,
at the head of a powerful army, could have attacked the emperor
or taken the Tyrol; but the council of war, listening to William
of Bavaria, who professed neutrality, and hoping to win over
Ferdinand, foolishly ordered delay. Thus the emperor gained
time to collect an army. On 20th June, A.D. 1546, he issued
from Regensburg a ban against the Landgrave Philip and the
Elector John Frederick as oath-breaking vassals. These princes
at the head of their forces had joined Schärtlin at Donauwörth
[Donauwört]. Papal despatches fell into their hands, in which
the pope proclaimed a crusade for the rooting out of heretics,
promising indulgence to all who would aid in the work. Fatal
indecision still prevailed in the council of war, and winter
came on without a battle being fought. The news that Maurice
had taken possession of the elector’s domains led the landgrave
and the ex-elector to return home, and Schärtlin, for want of
money and ammunition, was unable to face a winter campaign in
Franconia. Thus the whole country lay open to the emperor. One
city after another accepted terms more or less severe. In the
beginning of A.D. 1547 he was master of all Southern Germany.
Now at last he put an end to the Cologne movement (§ 135, 7).
The pope had issued the ban against the archbishop in A.D. 1546,
and now the emperor had the former coadjutor proclaimed
archbishop and elector, in spite of the opposition of the
nobles. Hermann was willing to secure the religious peace of
his dominions by resignation, but this was refused, and being
too weak to offer resistance, he resigned unconditionally. Thus
the Rhine provinces were irretrievably lost to Protestantism.
§ 136.3. =The Campaign on the Elbe, A.D. 1547.=--After rapidly
reconquering his own territories, the Elector John Frederick
hastened with a considerable army to meet his enemy. At Mühlberg
he suddenly came upon the emperor’s forces. There scarcely was
a battle. His comparatively small armament melted away before
the superior numbers of the imperial host, and the elector was
taken prisoner on 24th April, A.D. 1547. He had already been
sentenced to death as a rebel and heretic. It was deemed more
prudent to require of him only the surrender of his fortresses.
The pious prince willingly resigned all temporal dignities, but
in matters of religion he was inflexible. He was sentenced to
life-long imprisonment and his possessions were mostly given
to Maurice. The Landgrave Philip, for want of money, ammunition,
and troops, had been prevented from doing anything. The news
of John Frederick’s misfortunes brought him almost to despair.
Too powerless to offer opposition, he surrendered at discretion
to the emperor. He was to prostrate himself before the emperor,
surrender all his fortresses, neither now nor in future suffer
enemies of the emperor in his lands, and for all his life to
renounce all leagues, to liberate Henry of Brunswick and restore
him to his dominions. The ceremony of prostration was performed
at Halle on 19th July. The two electors with the landgrave
then went by invitation to a supper with the Duke of Alba.
After supper the duke declared the landgrave his prisoner.
The elector’s remonstrances then with Alba and next day with
the imperial councillors were all in vain. The emperor was
equally deaf to all representations.
§ 136.4. =The Council of Trent, A.D. 1545-1547.=--The Council
of Trent opened in Dec., A.D. 1545 (§ 149, 2). At the outset,
contrary to the emperor’s wishes, the pope laid down conditions
that excluded Protestants from taking part in it. Scripture and
tradition were first discussed. The O.T. Apocrypha (§§ 59, 1;
161, 8) had equal authority assigned it with the other books
of the O. and N.T., and the Vulgate was declared to be the
only authentic text for theological discussions and sermons.
Tradition was placed on equal terms alongside of Scripture,
but its contents were carefully defined. Original sin was
extinguished by baptism, and after baptism there is only
actual transgression. The scholastic doctrine of justification
was sanctioned anew, but accommodated as far as possible to
Scripture phraseology; justification is the inward actual change
of a sinner into a righteous man, not merely the forgiveness
of sins, but pre-eminently the sanctification and renewal of
the inner man. It is effected, not so much by the imputation
of Christ’s merits, as by the infusion of habitual righteousness,
which enables men to win salvation by works. It is not forensic,
but a physical act of God, is wrought not once for all, and not
by faith alone, but gradually by the free co-operation of the
man. The emperor, who saw in these decisions the overthrow of
his attempts at conciliation, was highly displeased, and wished
at least to postpone their promulgation. The pope obeyed for
a time; but when the emperor threatened to interfere in the
proceedings of the council, he had the decrees published, Jan.,
A.D. 1547, and some weeks after, on the plea of a dangerous
plague having broken out, removed the council to Bologna, where
for the time proceedings were suspended.
§ 136.5. =The Augsburg Interim, A.D. 1548.=--At a diet
at Augsburg in Sept., A.D. 1547, the Protestants declared
themselves willing to submit to a council meeting again at
Trent, and beginning afresh; but as the pope refused this,
the emperor was obliged to plan an interim, which should form
a standard for all parties till a settlement at a proper council
should be reached. It granted the cup to the laity and marriage
of priests, but held by the Tridentine doctrine of justification.
It represented the pope as simply the highest bishop, in whom
the unity of the church is visibly set forth. The right of
interpreting Scripture was given exclusively to the church.
The sacraments were enumerated as seven, and the doctrine
of transubstantiation emphatically maintained. The duty of
fasting, and seeking the intercession of the mother of God
and the saints, observing all Catholic ceremonies of worship,
processions, festivals, etc., was strictly insisted upon. The
emperor was satisfied, and so too some of the Protestant princes.
Maurice, however, felt that his people would not agree to its
adoption. He gave at last a half assent, which the emperor
accepted as approval. The emperor took no notice of those who
opposed it, the presence of his Spaniards in their dominions
would prevent all trouble. The emperor was not strong enough
to force the Catholic nobles to accept his interim, and so its
observance was to be binding only on the Protestants. Landgrave
Philip, whose power was for ever broken, gave in, but nothing
in the world would induce the noble John Frederick to submit.
The pope too refused persistently to recognise the interim, and
only in Aug., A.D. 1549, did he allow the bishops to agree to
the concessions made by it to the Protestants.
§ 136.6. =The Execution of the Interim= had on all sides to
be compulsorily enforced. Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm were one
after another coerced into adopting it. Constance resisted,
was put under the ban, and lost all privileges, till at last
instead of the interim the papacy found entrance, and evangelical
Protestantism got its death-blow. The other cities submitted to
the inevitable. All preachers refusing the interim were exiled
and persecuted. Over 400 true servants of the word wandered with
wives and children through South Germany homeless and without
bread. Frecht of Ulm was taken in chains to the emperor’s camp.
Brenz, one of the most determined opponents of the interim,
during his wanderings often by a miracle escaped capture. Much
more lasting was the opposition in North Germany. In Magdeburg,
still lying under the imperial ban, the fugitive opponents of
the interim gathered from all sides, and there alone was the
press still free in its utterances against the interim. A
flood of controversial tracts, satires, and caricatures were
sent out over all Germany. In Hesse and Brandenburg the princes
were unable to enforce the obnoxious measures; still less could
Maurice do so in the electorate.
§ 136.7. =The Leipzig or Little Interim, A.D. 1549.=--Maurice
in his difficulties sent for Melanchthon. Since the death
of Luther and the overthrow of John Frederick of Saxony,
Melanchthon’s tendency to yield largely for peace’ sake had
lost its wholesome checks. In writing to the minister Carlowitz,
the bitterest foe of Luther and the elector, he even went so far
as to complain of Luther’s combativeness. The result of various
negotiations was the drawing up of a document at the assembly in
Leipzig, 22nd December, A.D. 1548, by the Wittenberg theologians
in accordance with the views of Melanchthon. This modified
interim became the standard for religious practice in Saxony,
and a directory of worship in harmony with it was drawn up
by the theologians, and published in July, A.D. 1549. Calvin
and Brenz wrote letters that cut Melanchthon to the heart.
The measure was everywhere viewed by zealous Lutherans with
indignation, and the Interim of Leipzig was even more hateful
to the people than that of Augsburg. Imprisonment and exile
were vigorously carried out by means of it, yet the revolution
and ferment continued to increase.--The Leipzig Interim treated
Romish customs and ceremonies almost as things indifferent,
passed over many less essential doctrinal differences, and
gave to fundamental differences such a setting as might
be applied equally to the pure evangelical doctrine as to
that of the Augsburg Interim. The evangelical doctrine of
justification was essentially there, but it was not decidedly
and unambiguously expressed; and still less were Romish errors
sharply and unmistakably repudiated. Good works were said to
be necessary, but not in the sense that one could win salvation
by means of them. Whether good works in excess of the law’s
demands could be performed was not explicitly determined. On
church and hierarchy, the positions of the Augsburg Interim
were simply restated. To the pope as the highest bishop, as well
as to the other bishops, who performed their duties according
to God’s will for edification and not destruction, all churchmen
were to yield obedience. The seven sacraments were acknowledged,
though in another than the Romish sense. In the mass the Latin
language was again introduced. Images of saints were allowed,
but not for worship; so too the festivals of Mary and of _Corpus
Christi_, but without processions, etc.
§ 136.8. =The Council again at Trent, A.D. 1551.=--In September,
A.D. 1549, Paul III. dissolved the council at Bologna, where it
had done nothing. His successor, =Julius III.=, A.D. 1550-1555,
the nominee of the imperial party, acceded to the emperor’s
wishes to have the council again held at Trent. The Protestant
nobles declared their willingness to recognise it, but demanded
the cancelling of the earlier proceedings, a seat and vote for
their representatives. This the emperor was prepared to grant,
but the pope and prelates would not agree. The council began
its proceedings on 1st May, A.D. 1551, with the doctrine of
the Lord’s Supper. Meanwhile the Protestants prepared a new
confession, which might form the basis of their discussions
in the council. Melanchthon, who was beginning to take courage
again, sketched the _Confessio Saxonica_, or, as it has been
rightly named, the _Repetitio Confessionis Augustanæ_, in which
no trace of the indecision and ambiguity of the Leipzig Interim
is to be found. The pure doctrine is set forth firmly, with even
a polemical tone, though in a moderate and conciliatory manner.
Brenz, who had been in hiding up to this time, by order of Duke
Christopher of Württemberg, sketched for a like purpose the
“Württemberg Confession.” In November, A.D. 1551, the first
Protestants, lay delegates from Württemberg and Strassburg,
appeared in Trent. They were followed in January by Saxon
statesmen. On 24th January, A.D. 1552, these laid their
credentials before the council, but, notwithstanding all
the effort of the imperial commissioners, they could not gain
admission. In March the Württemberg and Strassburg theologians
arrived, with Brenz at their head, and Melanchthon, with two
Leipzig preachers, was on the way, when suddenly Maurice put
an end to all their well concerted plans.
§ 137A. MAURICE AND THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG A.D. 1550-1555.
In the beginning of A.D. 1550 the affairs of the Reformation were
in a worse condition than ever before. In the fetters of the interim,
it was like a felon on whom the death sentence was about to be passed.
Then just at the right time appeared the Elector Maurice as the man
who could break the fetters and lead on again to power and honour.
His betrayal of the cause had brought Protestantism to the verge of
destruction; his betrayal of the emperor proved its salvation. The
Compact of Passau guaranteed to Protestants full religious liberty
and equal rights with Catholics until a new council should meet. The
Religious Peace of Augsburg removed even this limitation, and brought
to a conclusion the history of the German Reformation.
§ 137.1. =The State of Matters in A.D. 1550.=--It was a doleful
time for Germany. The emperor at the height of his power was
laying his plans for securing the succession in the imperial
dignity to his son Philip of Spain. In a bold, autocratic
spirit he trampled on all the rights of the imperial nobles,
and contrary to treaty he retained the presence of Spanish
troops in the empire, which daily committed deeds of atrocious
violence. The deliverance of the landgrave was stubbornly
refused, though all the conditions thereof were long ago
fulfilled. Protestant Germany groaned under the yoke of the
interim; the council would only confirm this, if not rather
enforce something even worse. Only one bulwark of evangelical
liberty stood in the emperor’s way, the brave, outlawed
Magdeburg. But how could it continue to hold out? Down to
autumn, A.D. 1552, all attempts to storm the city had failed.
Then Maurice undertook, by the order of the emperor and at the
cost of the empire, to execute the ban.
§ 137.2. =The Elector Maurice, A.D. 1551.--Maurice had lost the
hearts of his own people, and was regarded with detestation by
the Protestants of Germany, and notwithstanding imperial favour
his position was by no means secure. Yet he was too much of the
German and Protestant prince to view with favour the emperor’s
proceedings, while he felt indignant at the illegal detention
of his father-in-law. In these circumstances he resolved to
betray the emperor, as before he had betrayed to him the cause
of Protestantism. A master in dissimulation, he continued the
siege of Magdeburg with all diligence, but at the same time
joined a secret league with the Margrave Hans of Cüstrin and
Albert of Franconian Brandenburg, as also with the sons of the
landgrave, for the restoration of evangelical and civil liberty,
and entered into negotiations with Henry II. of France, who
undertook to aid him with money. Magdeburg at last capitulated,
and Maurice entered on 4th November, A.D. 1551. Arrears of
pay formed an excuse for not disbanding the imperial troops,
and, strengthened by the Magdeburg garrison and the auxiliary
troops of his allies, he threw off the mask, and issued public
proclamations in which he brought bitter charges against the
emperor, and declared that he could no longer lie under the
feet of priests and Spaniards. The emperor in vain appealed for
help to the Catholic princes. He found himself without troops
or money at Innsbrück, which could not stand a siege, and every
road to his hereditary territories seemed closed, for where
the leagued German princes were not the Ottomans on sea and
the French on land were ready to oppose him. Maurice was already
on the way to Innsbrück “to seek out the fox in his hole.” But
his troops’ demands for pay detained him, and the emperor gained
time. On a cold, wet night he fled, though not yet recovered
from fever, over the mountains covered with snow, and found
refuge in Villach. Three days after Maurice entered Innsbrück;
the council had already dissolved.
§ 137.3. =The Compact of Passau, A.D. 1552.=--Before the
flight of the emperor from Innsbrück, Maurice had an interview
with Ferdinand at Linz, where, besides the liberation of the
landgrave, he demanded a German national assembly for religious
union, and till it met unconditional toleration. The emperor,
notwithstanding all his embarrassments, would not listen to the
proposal. Negotiations were reopened at Passau, and Maurice’s
proposals were in the main accepted. Ferdinand consented, but
the emperor would not. Ferdinand himself travelled to Villach
and employed all his eloquence, but unconditional toleration
the emperor would not grant. His stubbornness conquered; the
majority gave in, and accepted a compact which gave to the
Protestants a full amnesty, general peace, and equal rights,
till the meeting of a national or œcumenical council, to be
arranged for at the next diet. Meanwhile the emperor had made
great preparations. Frankfort was his main stronghold, and
against it Maurice now advanced, and began the siege. Matters
were not promising, when the Passau delegate appeared in his
camp with the draft of the terms of peace. Had he refused his
signature, the ban would have been pronounced against him,
and his cousin would have been restored to the electorate.
He therefore subscribed the document. With difficulty Ferdinand
secured the subscription of the emperor, who believed himself
to be sufficiently strong to carry on the battle. The two
imprisoned princes were now at last liberated, and the preachers
exiled by the interim were allowed to return. John Frederick
died in A.D. 1554, and the Landgrave Philip in A.D. 1567.
§ 137.4. =Death of Maurice, A.D. 1553.=--The Margrave Albert
of Brandenburg had been Maurice’s comrade in the Schmalcald
war, and with him also he turned against the emperor. But after
the ratification of the Passau Compact, to which he was not a
party, Albert continued the war against the prelates and their
principalities. He now fell out with Maurice, and was taken into
his service by the emperor, who not only granted him an amnesty
for all his acts of spoliation and breaches of the truce, but
promised to enforce recognition of him from all the bishops.
Albert therefore helped the emperor against the French, and
then carried his conquests into Germany. Soon an open rupture
occurred between him and Maurice. In the battle of Sievershausen
Maurice gained a brilliant victory, but received a mortal wound,
of which he died in two days. Albert fled to France. The rude
soldier was broken down by misfortune, the religious convictions
of his youth awakened, and the composition of a beautiful and
well-known German hymn marks the turning point in his life.
He died in A.D. 1557.--The year 1554 was wholly occupied with
internal troubles. A desire for a lasting peace prevailed, and
the calamities of both parties brought Protestants and Catholics
nearer to one another. Even Henry of Brunswick was willing to
tolerate Protestantism in his dominions.
§ 137.5. =The Religious Peace of Augsburg, A.D. 1555.=--When
the diet met at Augsburg in February, A.D. 1555, the emperor’s
power was gone. To save his pride and conscience he renounced
all share in its proceedings in favour of his brother.
The Protestant members stood well together in claiming
unconditional religious freedom, and Ferdinand inclined
to their side. Meanwhile Pope Julius died, and the cardinals
Morone and Truchsess hasted from the diet to Rome to take part
in the papal election. The Catholic opposition was thus weakened
in the diet. The Protestants insisted that the peace should
apply to all who might in future join this confession. This
demand gave occasion to strong contests. At last the simple
formula was agreed upon, that no one should be interfered with
on account of the Augsburg Confession. But a more vehement
dispute arose as to what should happen if prelates or spiritual
princes should join the Protestant party. This was a vital
question for Catholicism, and acceptance of the Protestant
view would be its deathblow. It was therefore proposed that
every prelate who went over would lose, not only his spiritual
rank, but also his civil dominion. But the opposition would
not give in. Both parties appealed to Ferdinand, and he
delayed giving a decision. Advice was also asked about the
peace proclamation. The Protestants claimed that the judges
of the imperial court should be sworn to observe the Religious
Peace, and should be chosen in equal numbers from both religious
parties. On 30th Aug. Ferdinand stated his resolution. As
was expected, he went with the Catholics in regard to prelates
becoming Protestants, but, contrary to all expectations, he
also refused lasting unconditional peace. On this last point,
however, he declared himself on 6th Sept. willing to yield
if the Protestants would concede the point about the prelates.
They sought to sell their concession as dearly as possible
by securing to evangelical subjects of Catholic princes the
right to the free exercise of their religion. But the Catholic
prelates, on the ground of the territorial system (§ 126, 6)
advocated by the Protestants themselves, would not give in.
It was finally agreed that every noble in matters of religion
had territorial authority, but that subjects of another faith,
in case of the free exercise of their religion being refused,
should have guaranteed unrestricted liberty to withdraw without
loss of honour, property, or freedom. On 25th Sept., A.D. 1555,
the decrees of the diet were promulgated. The Reformed were
not included in the Religious Peace; this was first done in
the Peace of Westphalia (§ 153, 2).
§ 137B. GERMANY AFTER THE RELIGIOUS PEACE.
The political importance of the Protestant princes was about equal
to that of the Catholics; the Electors of Cologne, Mainz, and Treves
were not more powerful than those of Saxony, the Palatinate, and
Brandenburg; and the great array of Protestant cities, with almost
all the minor princes, were not behind the combined forces of Austria
and Bavaria. The maintenance of the peace was assigned to a legally
constituted corporation of Catholic and Protestant nobles, which held
power down to A.D. 1806. The hope of reaching a mutual understanding
on matters of religion was by no means abandoned, but the continuance
of the peace was to be in no way dependent upon its realization. A new
attempt to effect a union, which like all previous efforts ended in
failure, was soon made in the Worms Consultation. Equally unsuccessful
was a union project of the emperor Ferdinand I. Protestantism could get
no more out of the Catholic princes. A second attempt to protestantize
the Cologne electorate broke down as the first had done (§ 136, 2).
§ 137.6. =The Worms Consultation, A.D. 1557.=--Another effort
was made after the failure of the council in the interests of
union. Catholic and Protestant delegates under the presidency
of Pflugk met at Worms in A.D. 1557. At a preliminary meeting
the princes of Hesse, Württemburg [Württemberg], and the
Palatinate adopted the Augsburg Confession as bond of union
and standard for negotiations. The Saxon delegates insisted
upon a distinct repudiation of the interim and the insertion
of other details, which gave the Catholics an excuse for putting
an end to the negotiations. They had previously expressly
refused to acknowledge Scripture as the unconditional and
sole judge of controversies, as that was itself a matter in
dispute (§ 136, 4).
§ 137.7. =Second Attempt at Reformation in the Electorate of
Cologne, A.D. 1582.=--The Archbishop and Elector of Cologne,
Gebhard Truchsess of Waldburg went over in A.D. 1582 to the
Protestant Church, married the Countess Agnes of Mansfeld,
proclaimed religious freedom, and sought to convert his
ecclesiastical principality into a temporal dominion. His
plan was acceptable to nobles and people, but the clergy of
his diocese opposed it with all their might. The pope thundered
the ban against him, and Emperor Rudolph II. deposed him. The
Protestant princes at last deserted him, and the newly elected
archbishop, Duke Ernest of Bavaria, overpowered him by an armed
force. The issue of Gebhard’s attempt struck terror into other
prelates who had been contemplating similar moves.
§ 137.8. =The German Emperor.=--=Ferdinand I.=, A.D. 1556-1564,
conciliatory toward Protestantism, thoroughly dissatisfied
with the Tridentine Council, once and again made attempts to
secure a union, which all ended in failure. =Maximilian II.=,
A.D. 1564-1576, imbued by his tutor, Wolfgang Severus, with an
evangelical spirit, which was deepened under the influence of
his physician Crato von Crafftheim (§ 141, 10), gave perfect
liberty to the Protestants in his dominions, admitted them
to many of the higher and lower offices of state, kept down
the Jesuits, and was prevented from himself formally going
over to Protestantism only by his political relations with
Spain and the Catholic princes of the empire. These relations,
however, led to the adoption of half measures, out of which
afterwards sprang the Thirty Years’ War. His son =Rudolph II.=,
A.D. 1576-1612, educated by Jesuits at the Spanish court, gave
again to that order unlimited scope, injured the Protestants on
every side, and was only prevented by indecision and cowardice
from attempting the complete suppression of Protestantism.
§ 138. THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.[369]
In French Switzerland the Reformation appeared somewhat later,
but in essentially the same form as in German Switzerland. Its special
character was given it by Farel and Viret, the predecessors of Calvin.
The powerful genius of Calvin secured for his views victory over
Zwinglianism in Switzerland, and won the ascendency for them in the
other Reformed Churches.
§ 138.1. =Calvin’s Predecessors, A.D. 1526-1535.=--=William
Farel=, the pupil and friend of the liberal exegete Faber
Stapulensis (§ 120, 8), was born in A.D. 1489 at Gap in
Dauphiné. When in A.D. 1521 the Sorbonne condemned Luther’s
doctrines and writings, he was obliged, as a suspected adherent
of Luther, to quit Paris. He retired to Meaux, where he was
well received by Bishop Briçonnet, but so boldly preached
the reformed doctrines, that even the bishop, on renewed
complaints being made, neither could nor would protect him.
He then withdrew to Basel (§ 130, 3). His first permanent
residence was at Neuchatel, where in November, A.D. 1530,
the Reformation was introduced by his influence. He left
Neuchatel in A.D. 1532 in order to work in Geneva. But the
civil authorities there could not protect him against the
bishop and clergy. He was obliged to leave the city, but
Saunier, Fromant, and Olivetan (§ 143, 5) continued the work
in his spirit. A revolution took place; the bishop thundered
his ban against the refractory council, and the senate replied
by declaring his office forfeited. Farel now returned to Geneva,
A.D. 1535, and there accompanied him =Peter Viret=, afterwards
the reformer of Lausanne. Viret was born at Orbe in A.D. 1511,
and had attached himself to the Protestant cause during his
studies in Paris. He therefore had also been obliged to quit
the capital. He retired to his native town, and sought there
diligently to spread the knowledge of the gospel. The arrival
of these two enthusiastic reformers in Geneva led to a life
and death struggle, from which the evangelicals went forth
triumphant. As the result of a public disputation in August,
A.D. 1535, the magistracy declared in their favour, and
Farel gave the movement a doctrinal basis by the issuing
of a confession. In the following year Calvin was passing
through Geneva. Farel adjured him in God’s name to remain
there. Farel indeed needed a fellow labourer of such genius
and power, for he had a hard battle to fight.
§ 138.2. =Calvin before his Genevan Ministry.=--=John Calvin=,
son of diocesan procurator Gerhard Cauvin, was born on 10th July,
A.D. 1509, at Noyou in Picardy. Intended for the church, he was,
from his twelfth year, in possession of a benefice. Meeting with
his relation Olivetan, he had his first doubts of the truth of
the Catholic system awakened. With his father’s consent he now
turned to the study of law, which he eagerly prosecuted for
four years at Orleans and Bourges. At Bourges, Melchior Wolmar,
a German professor of Greek, exercised so powerful an influence
over him, especially through the study of the Scriptures, that
he decided, after the death of his father, to devote himself
exclusively to theology. With this intention he went to Paris
in A.D. 1532, and there enthusiastically adopted the principles
of the Reformation. The newly appointed rector of the university,
Nic. Cop, had to deliver an address on the Feast of All Saints.
Calvin prepared it for him, and expressed therein such liberal
and evangelical views, as had never before been uttered in that
place. Cop read it boldly, and escaped the outburst of wrath
only by a timely flight. Calvin, too, found it prudent to quit
Paris. The bloody persecution of the Protestants by Francis I.
led him at last to leave France altogether. So he went, in
A.D. 1535, to Basel, where he became acquainted with Capito
and Grynæus. In the following year he issued the first sketch
of the _Institutio Religionis Christianæ_. It was made as
a defence of the Protestants of France, persecuted by Francis
on the pretext that they held Anabaptist and revolutionary
views. He therefore dedicated the book to the king, with a
noble and firm address. He soon left Basel, and went to the
court of the evangelical-minded Duchess Renata of Ferrara
(§ 139, 22), in order to secure her good offices for his fellow
countrymen suffering for their faith. He won the full confidence
of the duchess, but after some weeks was banished the country
by her husband. On his journey back to Basel, Farel and Viret
detained him in Geneva in A.D. 1536, and declared that he was
called to be a preacher and teacher of theology. On 1st October,
A.D. 1536, the three reformers, at a public disputation in
Lausanne, defended the principles of the Reformation. Viret
remained in Lausanne, and perfected the work of Reformation
there. As a confession of faith, a catechism, not in dialogue
form, was composed by Calvin as a popular summary of his
_Institutio_ in the French language, and was sworn to, in
A.D. 1536, by all the citizens of Geneva. The _Catechismus
Genevensis_, highly prized in all the Reformed churches, was
a later redaction, which appeared first in French in A.D. 1542,
and then in Latin, in A.D. 1545.[370]
§ 138.3. =Calvin’s First Ministry in Geneva, A.D. 1536-1538.=--In
Geneva, as in other places, there sprang up alongside of the
Reformation, and soon in deadly opposition to it, an antinomian
libertine sect, which strove for freedom from all restraint
and order (§ 146, 4). In the struggle against this dangerous
development, which found special favour among the aristocratic
youth of Geneva, Calvin put forth all the power of his logical
mind and unbending will, and sought to break its force by
the exercise of an excessively strict church discipline. He
created a spiritual consistory which arrogated to itself the
exclusive right of church discipline and excommunication, and
wished to lay upon the magistrates the duty of inflicting civil
punishments on all persons condemned by it. But not only did
the libertine sections offer the most strenuous opposition,
but also the magistrates regarded with jealousy and suspicion
the erection of such a tribunal. Magistrates and libertines
therefore combined to overthrow the consistory. A welcome
pretext was found in a synod at Lausanne in A.D. 1538, which
condemned the abolition of all festivals but the Sundays,
the removal of baptismal fonts from the churches, and the
introduction of leavened bread at the Lord’s Supper by the
Genevan church as uncalled for innovations. The magistrates
now demanded the withdrawal of these, and banished the preachers
who would not obey. Farel went to Neuchatel, where he remained
till his death in A.D. 1565; Calvin went to Strassburg, where
Bucer, Capito, and Hedio gave him the office of a professor
and preacher. During his three years’ residence there Calvin,
as a Strassburg delegate, was frequently brought into close
relationship with the German reformers, especially with
Melanchthon (§§ 134, 135). But he ever remained closely
associated with Geneva, and when Cardinal Sadolet (§ 139, 12)
issued from Lyons in A.D. 1539 an appeal to the Genevese to
return to the bosom of the Romish church, Calvin thundered
against him an annihilating reply. His Genevan friends, too,
spared no pains to win for him the favour of the council and
the citizens. They succeeded all the more easily because since
the overthrow of the theocratic consistory the libertine party
had run into all manner of riotous excesses. By a decree of
council of 20th Oct., A.D. 1540, Calvin was most honourably
recalled. After long consideration he accepted the call in
Sept., A.D. 1541, and now, with redoubled energy, set himself
to carry out most strictly the work that had been interrupted.
§ 138.4. =Calvin’s Second Ministry in Geneva,
A.D. 1541-1564.=--Calvin set up again, after his return, the
consistory, consisting of six ministers and twelve lay elders,
and by it ruled with almost absolute power. It was a thoroughly
organized inquisition tribunal, which regulated in all details
the moral, religious, domestic, and social life of the citizens,
called them to account on every suspicion of a fault, had the
incorrigible banished by the civil authorities, and the more
dangerous of them put to death. The Ciceronian Bible translator,
Sebastian Castellio, appointed rector of the Genevan school by
Calvin, got out of sympathy with the rigorous moral strictures
and compulsory prescriptions of matters of faith under the
Calvinistic rule, and charged the clergy with intolerance and
pride. He also contested the doctrine of the descent into hell,
and described the Canticles as a love poem. He was deposed,
and in order to escape further penalties he fled to Basel in
A.D. 1544. A libertine called Gruet was executed in A.D. 1547,
because he had circulated an abusive tract against the clergy,
and blasphemous references were found in his papers; _e.g._
that Christianity is only a fable, that Christ was a deceiver
and His mother a prostitute, that all ends with death, that
neither heaven nor hell exists, etc. The physician, Jerome
Bolsec, previously a Carmelite monk in Paris, was imprisoned
in A.D. 1551, and then banished, because of his opposition
to Calvin’s doctrine of predestination. He afterwards returned
to the Romish church, and revenged himself by a biography
of Calvin full of spiteful calumnies. On the execution of
Servetus in A.D. 1533, see § 148, 2. Between the years 1542
and 1546 there were in Geneva, with a population of only
20,000, no less than fifty-seven death sentences carried out
with Calvin’s approval, and seventy-six sentences of banishment.
The magistrates faithfully supported him in all his measures.
But under the inquisitorial reign of terror of his consistory,
the libertine party gained strength for a vehement struggle,
and among the magistrates, from about A.D. 1546, there arose
a powerful opposition, and fanatical mobs repeatedly threatened
to throw him into the Rhone. This struggle lasted for nine
years. But Calvin abated not a single iota from the strictness
of his earlier demands, and so great was the fear of his
powerful personality that neither the rage of riotous mobs
nor the hostility of the magistracy could secure his banishment.
In A.D. 1555 his party again won the ascendency in the elections,
mainly by the aid of crowds of refugees from France, England,
and Scotland, who had obtained residence and thus the rights of
citizens in Geneva. From this time till his death on 27th March,
A.D. 1564, his influence was supreme. The impress of his strong
mind was more and more distinctly stamped upon every institution
of the commonwealth, the demands of his rigorous discipline were
willingly and heartily adopted as the moral code, and secured
for Geneva that pre-eminence which for two centuries it retained
among all the Reformed churches as an honourable, pious, and
strictly moral city. In spite of a weak body and frequent
attacks of sickness Calvin, during the twenty-three years of
his two residences in Geneva, performed an amazing amount of
work. He had married in A.D. 1540, at Strassburg, Idaletta de
Bures, the widow of an Anabaptist converted by him. His wife
died in A.D. 1549. He preached almost daily, attended all
the sittings of the consistory and the preachers’ association,
inspired all their deliberations and resolutions, delivered
lectures in the academy founded by his orders in A.D. 1559,
composed numerous doctrinal, controversial, and apologetical
works, conducted an extensive correspondence, etc.
§ 138.5. =Calvin’s Writings.=--The most important of the
writings of Calvin is his already mentioned _Institutio
Religionis Christianæ_, of which the best and most complete
edition appeared in A.D. 1559, a companion volume to
Melanchthon’s _Loci_, but much more thorough and complete
as a formal and scientific treatise. In this work Calvin
elaborates his profound doctrinal system with great speculative
power and bold, relentless logic, combined with the peculiar
grace of a clear and charming style. Next in order of importance
came his commentaries on almost all the books of Scripture.
Here also he shows himself everywhere possessed of brilliant
acuteness, religious geniality, profound Christian sympathy,
and remarkable exegetical talent, but also a stickler for
small points or seriously fettered by dogmatic prejudices.
His exegetical productions want the warmth and childlike
identification of the commentator with his text, which in
so high a degree distinguishes Luther, while in form they are
incomparably superior for conciseness and scientific precision.
In the pulpit Calvin was the same strict and consistent logician
as in his systematic and polemical works. Of Luther’s popular
eloquence he had not the slightest trace.[371]
§ 138.6. =Calvin’s Doctrine.=--Calvin set Zwingli far below
Luther, and had no hesitation in characterizing the Zwinglian
doctrine of the sacraments as profane. With Luther, who highly
respected him, he never came into close personal contact, but
his intercourse with Melanchthon had a powerful influence upon
the latter. But decidedly as he approached Luther’s doctrine,
he was in principle rather on the same platform with Zwingli.
His view of the Protestant principles is essentially Zwinglian.
Just as decidedly as Zwingli had he broken with ecclesiastical
tradition. In the doctrine of the person of Christ he inclined
to Nestorianism, and could not therefore reach the same
believing fulness as Luther in his doctrine of the Lord’s
Supper. He taught, as Berengar before had done, that the
believer by means of faith partakes in the sacrament only
spiritually, but yet really, of the body and blood of the
Lord, through a power issuing from the glorified body of Christ,
whereas the unbeliever receives only bread and wine. In his
doctrine of justification he formally agrees with Luther, but
introduced a very marked difference by his strict, almost Old
Testament, legalism. His predestination doctrine goes beyond
even that of Augustine in its rigid consistency and unbending
severity.[372]
§ 138.7. =The Victory of Calvinism over Zwinglianism.=--By
his extensive correspondence and numerous writings Calvin’s
influence extended far beyond the limits of Switzerland. Geneva
became the place of refuge for all who were exiled on account
of their faith, and the university founded there by Calvin
furnished almost all Reformed churches with teachers, who
were moulded after a strict Calvinistic pattern. Bern, not
uninfluenced by political jealousies, showed most reluctance
in adopting the Calvinistic doctrine. Zürich was more compliant.
After Zwingli’s death, =Henry Bullinger= stood at the head
of the Zürich clergy. With him Calvin entered into doctrinal
negotiations, and succeeded in at last bringing him over to
his views of the Lord’s Supper. In the _Consensus Tigurinus_
of A.D. 1549, drawn up by Calvin, a union was brought about on
a Calvinistic basis; but Bern, where the Zwinglians contending
with the Lutheranised friends of Calvin had the majority,
refused subscription. The _Consensus pastorum Genevensium_,
of A.D. 1554, called forth by the conflict with Bolsec,
in which the predestination doctrine of Calvin had similar
prominence, not only Bern, but also Zürich refused to accept.
Yet these two confessions gradually rose in repute throughout
German Switzerland. Even Bullinger’s personal objection
to the predestination doctrine was more and more overcome
from A.D. 1556 by the influence of his colleague Peter
Martyr (§ 139, 24), though he never accepted the Calvinistic
system in all its severity and harshness. When even the
Elector-palatine Frederick III. (§ 144, 1) wished to lay
a justificatory confession before the Diet of Augsburg in
A.D. 1566, which threatened to exclude him from the peace
on account of his going over to the Reformed church, Bullinger,
who was entrusted with its composition, sent him, as an appendix
to the testament he had composed, a confession, which came
to be known as the _Confessio Helvetica posterior_ (§ 133, 8).
This confession, not only obtained recognition in all the Swiss
cantons, with the exception of Basel, which likewise after
eighty years adopted it, but also gained great consideration
in the Reformed churches of other lands. Its doctrine of
the sacraments is Calvinistic, with not unimportant leanings
toward the Zwinglian theory. Its doctrine of predestination
is Calvinism, very considerably modified.
§ 138.8. =Calvin’s Successor in Geneva.=--=Theodore Beza= was
from A.D. 1559 Calvin’s most zealous fellow labourer, and after
his death succeeded him in his offices. He soon came to be
regarded at home and abroad with something of the same reverence
which his great master had won. He died in A.D. 1605. Born in
A.D. 1519 of an old noble family at Vezelay in Burgundy, he
was sent for his education in his ninth year to the humanist
Melchior Wolmar of Orleans, and accompanied his teacher when
he accepted a call to the Academy of Bourges, until in A.D. 1534
Wolmar was obliged to return to his Swabian home to escape
persecution as a friend and promoter of the Reformation. Beza
now applied himself to the study of law at the University of
Orleans, and obtained the rank of a licentiate in A.D. 1539.
He then spent several years in Paris as a man of the world,
where he gained the reputation of a poet and wit, and wasted
a considerable patrimony in a loose and reckless life. A secret
marriage with a young woman of the city in humble circumstances,
in A.D. 1544, put an end to his extravagances, and a serious
illness gave a religious direction to his moral change. He had
made the acquaintance of Calvin at Bourges, and in A.D. 1543 he
went to Geneva, was publicly married, and in the following year
received, on Viret’s recommendation, the professorship of Greek
at Lausanne. Thoroughly in sympathy with all Calvin’s views,
he supported his doctrine of predestination against the attacks
of Bolsec, justified the execution of Servetus in his tract _De
hæreticis a civili magistratu puniendis_, zealously befriended
the persecuted Waldensians, along with Farel made court to the
German Protestant princes in order to secure their intercession
for the French Huguenots, and negotiated with the South German
theologians for a union in regard to the doctrine of the
supper. In A.D. 1558 Calvin called him to Geneva as a preacher
and professor of theology in the academy erected there. In
A.D. 1559 he vindicated Calvin’s doctrine of the supper against
Westphal’s attacks (§ 141, 10) in pretty moderate language; but
in A.D. 1560 he thundered forth two violent polemical dialogues
against Hesshus (§ 144, 1). The next two years he spent in
France (§ 139, 14) as theological defender and advocate of
the Huguenots. After Calvin’s death the whole burden of the
government of the Genevan church fell upon his shoulders, and
for forty years the Reformed churches of all lands looked with
confidence to him as their well-tried patriarch. Next to the
church of Geneva, that of his native land lay nearest to his
heart. Repeatedly we find him called to France to direct the
meetings of synod. But scarcely less lively was the interest
which he took in the controversies of the German Reformed
with their Lutheran opponents. At the Religious Conference of
Mömpelgard, which the Lutheran Count Frederick of Württemberg
called in A.D. 1586, to make terms if possible whereby the
Calvinistic refugees might have the communion together with
their Lutheran brethren, Beza himself in person took the field
in defence of the palladium of Calvinistic orthodoxy against
Andreä, whose theory of ubiquity (§ 141, 9, 10) he had already
contested in his writings. Very near the close of his life the
Catholic Church, through its experienced converter of heretics,
Francis de Sales (§ 156, 1), made a vain attempt to win him back
to the Church in which alone is salvation. To a foolish report
that this effort had been successful Beza himself answered in
a satirical poem full of all his youthful fire.[373]
§ 139. THE REFORMATION IN OTHER LANDS.
The need of reform was so great and widespread, that the movement
begun in Germany and Switzerland soon spread to every country in
Europe. The Catholic Church opposed the Reformation everywhere with
fire and sword, and succeeded in some countries in utterly suppressing
it; while in others it was restricted within the limits of a merely
tolerated sect. The German Lutheran Confession found acceptance
generally among the Scandinavians of the north of Europe, the Swiss
Reformed among the Romanic races of the south and west; while in the
east, among the Slavs and Magyars, both confessions were received.
Calvin’s powerful personal influence had done much to drive the
Lutheran Confession out of those Romance countries where it had
before obtained a footing. The presence of many refugees from the
various western lands for a time in Switzerland, as well as the
natural intercourse between it and such countries as Italy and France,
contributed to the same result. But deeper grounds than these are
required to account for this fact. On the one hand, the Romance people
are inclined to extremes, and they found more thorough satisfaction
in the radical reformation of Geneva than in the more moderate
reformation of Wittenberg; and, on the other hand, they have a love
for democratic and republican forms of government which the former,
but not the latter, gratified.--Outside of the limits of the German
empire the Lutheran Reformation first took root, from A.D. 1525,
in Prussia, the seat of the Teutonic Knights (§ 127, 3); then in the
Scandinavian countries. In Sweden it gained ascendency in A.D. 1527,
and in Denmark and Norway in A.D. 1537. Also in the Baltic Provinces
the Reformation had found entrance in A.D. 1520; by A.D. 1539 it had
overcome all opposition in Livonia and Esthonia, but in Courland it
took other ten years before it was thoroughly organized. The Reformed
church got almost exclusive possession of England in A.D. 1562,
of Scotland in A.D. 1560, and of the Netherlands in A.D. 1579. The
Reformed Confession obtained mere toleration in France in A.D. 1598;
the Reformed alongside of the Lutheran gained a footing in Poland
in A.D. 1573, in Bohemia and Moravia in A.D. 1609, in Hungary in
A.D. 1606, and in Transylvania in A.D. 1557. Only in Spain and Italy
did the Catholic Church succeed in utterly crushing the Reformation.
Some attempts to interest the Greek church in the Lutheran Confession
were unsuccessful, but the remnants of the Waldensians were completely
won over to the Reformed Confession.
§ 139.1. =Sweden.=--For fifty years Sweden had been free from
the Danish yoke which had been imposed upon it by the Calmar
union of A.D. 1397. The higher clergy, who possessed two-thirds
of the land, had continuously conspired in favour of Denmark.
The Archbishop of Upsala, Gustavus Trolle, fell out with the
chancellor, Sten Sture, and was deposed. Pope Leo X. pronounced
the ban and interdict against Sweden. Christian II. of Denmark
conquered the country in A.D. 1520, and in the frightful
massacre of Stockholm during the coronation festivities, in
spite of his sworn assurances, 600 of the noblest in the land,
marked out by the archbishop as enemies of Denmark, were slain.
But scarcely had Christian reached home when =Gustavus Vasa=
landed from Lübeck, whither he had fled, drove out the Danes,
and was elected king, A.D. 1523. In his exile he had become
favourably inclined to the Reformation, and now he joined the
Protestants to have their help against the opposing clergy.
=Olaf Peterson=, who had studied from A.D. 1516 in Wittenberg,
soon after his return home, in A.D. 1519, began as deacon
in Strengnæs, along with =Lawrence Anderson=, afterwards
administrator of the diocese of Strengnæs, to spread the
reformed doctrines. Subsequently they were joined by Olaf’s
younger brother, =Laurence Peterson=. During the king’s absence
in A.D. 1524, two Anabaptists visited Stockholm, and even the
calm-minded Olaf was for a time carried away by them. The king
quickly suppressed the disturbances, and entered heartily upon
the work of reformation. Anderson, appointed chancellor by Vasa,
in A.D. 1526 translated the N.T., and Olaf with the help of
his learned brother undertook the O.T. The people, however,
still clung to the old faith, till at the Diet of =Westnæs=,
in A.D. 1527, the king set before them the alternative of
accepting his resignation or the Reformation. The people’s love
for their king overcame all clerical opposition. Church property
was used to supply revenues to kings and nobles, and to provide
salaries for pastors who should preach the gospel in its purity.
The Reformation was peacefully introduced into all parts of
the land, and the diets at Örebro, in A.D. 1529, 1537, and
at Westnæs, in A.D. 1544, carried out the work to completion.
The new organization adopted the episcopal constitution, and
also in worship, by connivance of the people, many Catholic
ceremonies were allowed to remain. Most of the bishops accepted
the inevitable. The Archbishop Magnus of Upsala, papal legate,
went to Poland, and Bishop Brask of Linköping fled with all the
treasures of his church to Danzig. Laurence Peterson was made
in A.D. 1531 first evangelical Archbishop of Upsala, and married
a relative of the royal house. But his brother Olaf fell into
disfavour on account of his protest against the king’s real or
supposed acts of rapacity. He and Anderson, because they had
failed to report a conspiracy which came to their knowledge in
the confessional, were condemned to death, but were pardoned
by the king. Gustavus died in A.D. 1560. Under his son Eric
a Catholic reaction set in, and his brother John III., in
A.D. 1578, made secret confession of Catholicism to the Jesuit
Possevin, urged thereto by his Catholic queen and the prospect
of the Polish throne. John’s son Sigismund, also king of
Poland, openly joined the Romish Church. But his uncle Charles
of Sodermanland, a zealous Protestant, as governor after John’s
death, called together the nobles at Upsala in A.D. 1593, when
the Latin mass-book introduced by John was forbidden, and the
acknowledgment of the Augsburg Confession was renewed. But as
Sigismund continued to favour Catholicism, the peers of the
realm declared, in A.D. 1604, that he had forfeited the throne,
which his uncle now ascended as Charles IX.--The Reformation
had been already carried from Sweden into =Finland=.[374]
§ 139.2. =Denmark and Norway.=--=Christian II.=, nephew of the
Elector of Saxony and brother-in-law of the Emperor Charles V.,
although he had associated himself with the Romish hierarchy in
Sweden for the overthrow of the national party, had in Denmark
taken the side of the Reformation against the clergy, who were
there supreme. In A.D. 1521 he succeeded in getting Carlstadt
to come to his assistance, but he was soon forced to quit the
country. In A.D. 1523 the clergy and nobles formally renounced
their allegiance, and gave the crown to his uncle =Frederick I.=,
Duke of Schleswig and Holstein. Christian fled to Saxony,
was there completely won over to the Reformation by Luther,
converted also his wife, the emperor’s sister, and had the
first Danish N.T., by Hans Michelson, printed at Leipzig and
circulated in Denmark. To secure the emperor’s aid, however,
he abjured the evangelical faith at Augsburg in A.D. 1530.
In the following year he conquered Norway, and bound himself
on his coronation to maintain the Catholic religion. But in
A.D. 1532 he was obliged to surrender to Frederick, and spent
the remaining twenty-seven years of his life in prison, where
he repented his apostasy, and had the opportunity of instructing
himself by the study of the Danish Bible.--Frederick I. had
been previously favourable to the Reformation, yet his hands
were bound by the express terms of his election. His son
Christian III. unreservedly introduced the Reformation into
his duchies. In this he was encouraged by his father. In
A.D. 1526 he openly professed the evangelical faith, and
invited the Danish reformer =Hans Tausen=, a disciple of
Luther, who had preached the gospel amid much persecution
since A.D. 1524, to settle as preacher in Copenhagen. At a
diet at Odensee [Odense] in A.D. 1527 he restricted episcopal
jurisdiction, proclaimed universal religious toleration, gave
priests liberty to marry and to leave their cloisters, and thus
laid the foundations of the Reformation. Tausen in A.D. 1530
submitted to the nobles his own confession, _Confessio Hafinca_,
and the Reformation rapidly advanced. Frederick died in A.D. 1533.
The bishops now rose in a body, and insisted that the estates
should refuse to acknowledge his son =Christian III.= But when
the burgomaster of Lübeck, taking advantage of the anarchy,
plotted to subject Denmark to the proud commercial city, and
in A.D. 1534 actually laid siege to Copenhagen, the Jutland
nobles hastened to swear fealty to Christian. He drove out the
Lübeckers, and by A.D. 1536 had possession of the whole land.
He resolved now to put an end for ever to the machinations of
the clergy. In August, A.D. 1536, he had all bishops imprisoned
in one day, and at a diet at Copenhagen had them formally
deposed. Their property fell into the royal exchequer, all
monasteries were secularized, some presented to the nobles,
some converted into hospitals and schools. In order to complete
the organization of the church Bugenhagen was called in in
A.D. 1537. He crowned the king and queen, sketched a directory
of worship, which was adopted at the =Diet of Odensee [Odense]=
in A.D. 1539, and returned to Wittenberg in A.D. 1542. In place
of bishops Lutheran superintendents were appointed, to whom
subsequently the title of bishop was given, and the Augsburg
Confession accepted as the standard. The Reformation was
contemporaneously introduced into =Norway=, which acknowledged
the king in A.D. 1536. The Archbishop of Drontheim, Olaf
Engelbrechtzen, fled with the church treasures to the Netherlands.
=Iceland= stood out longer, but yielded in A.D. 1551, when the
power of the rebel bishops was broken.[375]
§ 139.3. =Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia.=--Livonia had
seceded from the dominion of the Teutonic knights in A.D. 1521,
and under the grand-master Walter of Plattenburg assumed the
position of an independent principality. In that same year a
Lutheran archdeacon, =Andr. Knöpken=, expelled from Pomerania,
came to Riga, and preached the gospel with moderation. Soon
after Tegetmaier came from Rostock, and so vigorously denounced
image worship that excited mobs entered the churches and tore
down the images; yet he was protected by the council and the
grand-master. The third reformer =Briesmann= was the immediate
scholar of Luther. The able town clerk of Riga, Lohmüller,
heartily wrought with them, and the Reformation spread through
city and country. At Wolmar and Dorpat, in A.D. 1524, the work
was carried on by Melchior Hoffmann, whose Lutheranism was
seriously tinged with Anabaptist extravagances (§ 147, 1).
The diocese of Oesel adopted the reformed doctrines, and at
the same time a Lutheran church was formed in Reval. After
strong opposition had been offered, at last, in A.D. 1538,
Riga accepted the evangelical confession, joined the Schmalcald
League, and in a short time all Livonia and Esthonia accepted
the Augsburg Confession. Political troubles, occasioned
mainly by Russia, obliged the last grand-master, =Kettler=,
in A.D. 1561 to surrender Livonia to Sigismund Augustus of
Poland, but with the formal assurance that the rights of the
evangelicals should be preserved. He himself retained Courland
as an hereditary duchy under the suzerainty of Poland, and
gave himself unweariedly to the evangelical organization of
his country, powerfully assisted by Bülau, first superintendent
of Courland.--The Lutheran church of Livonia had in consequence
to pass through severe trials. Under Polish protection a Jesuit
college was established in Riga in A.D. 1584. Two city churches
had to be given over to the Catholics, and Possevin conducted
an active Catholic propaganda, which was ended only when Livonia,
in A.D. 1629, as also Esthonia somewhat earlier, came under the
rule of Sweden. In consequence of the Norse war both countries
were incorporated into the Russian empire, and by the Peace
of Nystadt, of A.D. 1721, its Lutheran church retained all its
privileges, on condition that it did not interfere in any way
with the Greek Orthodox Church in the province. In A.D. 1795
Courland also came under Russian sway, and all these are now
known as the Baltic Provinces.
§ 139.4. =England.=[376]--=Henry VIII.=, A.D. 1509-1547, after
the literary feud with Luther (§ 125, 3), sought to justify his
title, “Defender of the Faith,” by the use of sword and gibbet.
Luther’s writings were eagerly read in England, where in many
circles Wiclif’s movements were regarded with favour, and two
noble Englishmen, John Fryth and William Tyndal, gave to their
native land a translation of the N.T. in A.D. 1526. Fryth was
rewarded with the stake in A.D. 1533, and Tyndal was beheaded
in the Netherlands in A.D. 1535.[377] But meanwhile the king
quarrelled with the pope. On assuming the government he had
married Catharine of Arragon, daughter of Ferdinand the Catholic
and Isabella, six years older than himself, the widow of his
brother Arthur, who had died in his 16th year, for which he
got a papal dispensation on the ground that the former marriage
had not been consummated. His adulterous love for Anne Boleyn,
the fair maid of honour to his queen, and Cranmer’s biblical
opinion (Lev. xviii. 16; xx. 21) convinced him in A.D. 1527
of the sinfulness of his uncanonical marriage. Clement VII.,
at first not indisposed to grant his request for a divorce,
refused after he had been reconciled to the emperor, Catharine’s
nephew (§ 132, 2). Thoroughly roused, the king now threw off
the authority of the pope. Convocation was forced to recognise
him in A.D. 1531 as head of the English Church, and in 1532
Parliament forbade the paying of annats to the pope. In
the same year Henry married Anne, and had a formal divorce
from Catharine granted by a spiritual court. Parliament in
A.D. 1534 formally abolished papal jurisdiction in the land,
and transferred all ecclesiastical rights and revenues to the
king. The venerable Bishop Fisher of Rochester and the resolute
chancellor, Sir Thomas More (§ 120, 7), in A.D. 1535 paid the
price of their opposition on the scaffold. Now came the long
threatened ban. Under pretext of a highly necessary reform no
less than 376 monasteries were closed during the years 1536-1538,
their occupiers, monks and nuns, expelled, and their rich
property confiscated.[378] Nevertheless in doctrine the king
wished to remain a good Catholic, and for this end passed in
the Parliament of A.D. 1539 the law of the Six Articles, which
made any contradiction of the doctrines of transubstantiation,
the withholding of the cup, celibacy of the clergy, the mass,
and auricular confession, a capital offence. Persecution raged
equally against Lutherans and Papists, sometimes more against
the one, sometimes more against the other, according as he
was moved by his own caprice, or the influence of his wives
and favourites of the day. On the one side, at the head of
the Papists, stood Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, and Bonner,
Bishop of London; and on the other, Thomas Cranmer, whom the
king had raised in A.D. 1533 to the see of Canterbury, in order
to carry out his reforms in the ecclesiastical constitution.
But Cranmer, who as the king’s agent in the divorce negotiations
had often treated with foreign Protestant theologians, and at
Nuremberg had secretly married Osiander’s niece, was in heart
a zealous adherent of the Swiss Reformation, and furthered as
far as he could with safety its introduction into England. Among
other things, he secured the introduction in A.D. 1539, into
all the churches of England, of an English translation of the
Bible, revised by himself. He was supported in his efforts by
the king’s second wife, Anne Boleyn; but she, having fallen
under suspicion of unfaithfulness, was executed in A.D. 1536.
The third wife, Jane Seymour, died in A.D. 1537 on the death
of a son. The fourth, Anne of Cleves, was after six months, in
A.D. 1540, cast aside, and the promoter of the marriage, the
chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, was brought to the scaffold. The
king now in the same year married Catharine Howard, with whom
the Catholic party got to the helm again, and had the Act of
the Six Articles rigorously enforced. But she, too, in A.D. 1543,
was charged with repeated adulteries, and fell, together with
her friends and those reputed as guilty with her, under the
executioner’s axe. The sixth wife, Catharine Parr, who again
favoured the Protestants, escaped a like fate by the death of
the tyrant.[379]
§ 139.5. =Edward VI.=, A.D. 1547-1553, son of Henry VIII. and
Jane Seymour, succeeded his father in his tenth year. At the
head of the regency stood his mother’s brother, the Duke of
Somerset. =Cranmer= had now a free hand. Private masses and
image worship were forbidden, the supper was administered in
both kinds, marriage of priests was made legitimate, and a
general church visitation appointed for the introduction of
the Reformation. Gardiner and Bonner, who opposed these changes,
were sent to the Tower. Somerset corresponded with Calvin, and
invited at Cranmer’s request distinguished foreign theologians
to help in the visitation of the churches. Martin Bucer and Paul
Fagius from Strassburg came to Cambridge, and Peter Martyr to
Oxford.[380] Bernardino Ochino was preacher to a congregation
of Italian refugees in London. A commission under Cranmer’s
presidency drew up for reading in the churches a collection
of _Homilies_, for the instruction of the young a _Catechism_,
and for the service a liturgy mediate between the Catholic
and Protestant form, the so-called _Book of Common Prayer_
of A.D. 1549; but from the second edition of which we