Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

PART II.

Two popes

raised at the same

cate.

112

CEN T. and remains still in force in our times; though XII. the true sense of some of its articles has occasioned disputes between the emperors and pontifs [k]. VII. CALLIXTUs did not long enjoy the fruits of this peace, to which he had so much contritime to the buted by his prudence and moderation. He depontifi parted this life in the year 1124, and was succeeded by LAMBERT, bishop of Ostia, who assumed the title of HONORIUS II. and under whose pontificate nothing worthy of mention was transacted. His death, which happened A. D. 1130, gave rise to a considerable schism in the church of Rome, or rather in the college of cardinals, of whom one party elected to the papal chair, GREGORY, a cardinal deacon of St Angelo, who was distinguished by the name of INNOCENT II. while the other chose for successor to HONORIUS, PETER, the son of LEO, a Roman prince, under the title of ANACLETUS II. The party of INNOCENT was far from being numerous in Rome, or throughout Italy in general, for which reason he judged it expedient to retire into France, where he had many adherents, and where he sojourned during the space of two years. His credit was very great out of Italy; for, besides the emperor LoTHARIUS, the kings of England, France, and Spain, with other princes, espoused warmly the cause of INNOCENT, and that principally by the influence of St BERNARD, who was his intimate friend, and whose counsels had the force and authority of laws in almost all the countries of Europe. The patrons of ANACLETUS were fewer in number, and were confined to the kings of Sicily and Scotland his death, however, which happened A. D. 1138, terminated the contest, and left INNOCENT in the entire

[k] It was disputed among other things, whether the consecration of the bishop elect was to precede or follow the collation of the regalia? See Jo. WILH. HOFFMAN. ad concordatum. Henrici V. et Callisti II. Vitemberg. 1739, in 4to.

XII.

entire and undisputed possession of the apostolic C EN T. chair. The surviving pontif presided, in the PART 11. year 1139, at the second council of Lateran, and about four years after ended his days in peace [7].

of the pon

of Inno

century.

VIII. After the death of INNOCENT, the Ro-Succession man see was filled by Guy, cardinal of St Mark, tifs, from who ruled the church about five months, under the death the title of CELESTINE II. If his reign was short, cent to the it was however peaceable, and not like that of his end of this successor LUCIUS II. whose pontificate was disturbed by various tumults and seditions, and who about eleven months after his elevation to the papacy, was killed in a riot which he was endeavouring to suppress by his presence and authority. He was succeeded by BERNARD, a Cistertian monk, and an eminent disciple of the famous St BERNARD, abbot of Clairval. This worthy ecclesiastic, who is distinguished among the. popes by the title of EUGENIUS III. was raised to that high dignity in the year 1145, and during the space of nine years, was involved in the same perils and perplexities that had embittered the ghostly reign of his predecessor. He was often obliged to leave Rome, and to save himself by flight from the fury of the people [m]; and the same reason engaged him to retire into France, where he sojourned for a considerable time.

E 2

[] Besides the ordinary writers of the papal history, see JEAN DE LANNES, Histoire du pontificat du Pape Innocent 11. Paris. 1741, in 8vo.

[m] There was a party formed in Rome at this time, whose design was to restore the Roman senate to its former privileges and to its ancient splendor and glory; and for this purpose, to reduce the papal revenues and prerogatives to a narrower compass, even to the tithes and o. lations that were offered to the primitive bishops, and to the spiritual government of the church, attended with an utter exclusion from all civil jurisdiction over the city of Rome. It was this party that produced the feuds and seditions to which Dr MOSHEIM has an eye in this eighth section.

CEN T. time.
XII

At length, exhausted by the opposition PART II. he met with in supporting what he looked upon as the prerogatives of the papacy, he departed this life in the year 1153. The pontificate of his successor CONRAD, bishop of Sabino, who, after his elevation to the see of Rome, assumed the title of ANASTASIUS IV. was less disturbed by civil commotions, but it was also of a very short duration; for ANASTASIUS died about a year and four months after his election.

The contest be

tween the

barossa

an IV.

IX. The warm contest between the emperors and the popes, which was considered as at an emperors end ever since the time of CALLIXTUS II. and popes was unhappily renewed under the pontificate of under Fre- ADRIAN IV. who was a native of England, and deric Bar- whose original name was NICOLAS BREAKSPEAR. and Adri- FREDRIC 1. surnamed Barbarossa, was no sooner seated on the imperial throne, than he publicly declared his resolution to maintain the dignity and privileges of the Roman empire in general, and more particularly to render it respectable in Italy; nor was he at all studious to conceal the design he had formed of reducing the overgrown power and opulence of the pontifs and clergy within narrower limits. ADRIAN perceived the danger that threatened the majesty of the church, and the authority of the clergy, and prepared himself for defending both with vigour and constancy. The first occasion of trying their strength was offered at the coronation of the emperor at Rome, in the year 1155, when the pontif insisted upon FREDERIC's performing the office of equerry, and holding the stirrup to his Holiness. This humbling proposal was at first rejected with disdain by the emperor, and was followed by other contests of a more momentous nature relating to the political interests of the empire.

These differences were no sooner reconciled than new disputes equally important arose in the year

XII.

1158, when the emperor, in order to put a stopс EN T. to the enormous opulence of the pontifs, bishops, PART II. and monks, which increased from day to day, enacted a law to prevent the transferring of fiefs, without the knowledge or consent of the superior or lord in whose name they were held [n], and turned the whole force of his arms to reduce the little republics of Italy under his dominion. An open rupture between the emperor and the pontif was expected as the inevitable consequence of such vigorous measures, when the death of ADRIAN, which happened on the first of September, A. D. 1159, suspended the storm [2].

arises in

the tion of a

new pon

as-tif.

X. In the election of a new pontit, the cardi- A dispute nals were divided into two factions. The most the elecnumerous and powerful of the two raised to pontificate ROLAND, bishop of Sienna, who sumed the name of ALEXANDER III. While the opposite party elected to that high dignity OCTAVIAN, cardinal of St Cecilia, known by the title of VICTOR IV. The latter was patronised by the emperor, to whom ALEXANDER was extremely disagreeable on several accounts. The council of Pavia, which was assembled by the emperor in the year 1160, adopted his sentiments, and pronounced in favour of VICTOR, who became thereby triumphant in Germany and Italy; so that France alone was left open to ALEXANDER, who accordingly left Rome, and fled thither for safety

E 3

and

[n] This prohibition of transferring the possession of fiefs, from one to another, without the consent of the supreme lord, or sovereign, under whom they were held, together with other laws of a like nature, was the first effectual barrier that was opposed to the enormous and growing opulence and authority of the clergy. See MURATOR Antiq. Ital. medii ævi, tom. vi. p. 239.

[o] See the accurate and circumstantial account of this whole affair that is given by the illustrious and learned Count BUNAU, in his History of Frederic 1. wrote in German, p. 45• 49. 73. 99.105. &c.

PART II.

CEN T. and protection. Amidst the tumults and comXII. motions which this schism occasioned, VICTOR died at Lucca, in the year 1164, but his place was immediately filled by the emperor, at whose desire Guy, cardinal of St Calixtus, was elected pontif under the title of PASCAL III. and acknowledged in that character by the German princes assembled in the year 1167, at the diet of Wurtzbourg. In the mean time ALEXANDER recovered his spirits, and returning into Italy maintained his cause with uncommon resolution and vigour, and not without some promising hopes of success. He held at Rome, in the year 1167, the council of Lateran, in which he solemnly deposed the emperor (whom he had, upon several occasions before this period, loaded publicly with anathemas and execrations), dissolved the oath of allegiance which his subjects had taken to him as their lawful sovereign, and encouraged and exhorted them to rebel against his authority, and to shake off his yoke. But, soon after this audacious proceeding, the emperor made himself master of Rome, upon which the insolent pontif fled to Benevento, and left the apostolic chair to PASCAL, his competitor.

XI. The affairs of ALEXANDER seemed to take soon after a more prosperous turn, when the greatest part of the imperial army being consumed by a pestilential disorder, the emperor was forced to abandon Italy, and when the death of PASCAL, which happened in the year 1168, delivered him from such a powerful and formidable rival. But this fair prospect soon vanished. For the imperial faction elected to the pontificate JOHN, abbot of Strum, under the title of CALLIXTUS III. whom FREDERIC, notwithstanding his absence in Germany, and the various wars and disputes in which he was involved, supported to the utmost of his power. When peace was, in a good measure, restored to the empire, Frederic

marched

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »