PART 11.

with a peculiar zeal and application by almost all CENT. XIII. who were ambitious of literary glory. These sciences however, notwithstanding the assiduity with which they were cultivated, were far from being, as yet, brought to any tolerable degree of perfection. They were disfigured by the jargon that reigned in the schools, and they were corrupted and rendered intricate by a multitude of trivial commentaries that were designed to illustrate and explain them. Some employed their labours in collecting the letters of the Roman pontiffs, which are commonly known under the title of Decretals, and which were looked upon as a very important branch of ecclesiastical law. Raimond of Pennafort, a native of Barcelona, was the most famous of all these compilers, and acquired a considerable reputation by his collection of the Decretals in five books, which he undertook at the desire of Gregory IX. and which has been since honoured with the name of that pontiff, who ordered it to be added to the Decretals of Gratian, and to be read in all the European colleges. Toward the conclusion of this century, Boniface VIII. had a new collection made, which was entitled, The Sixth Book of Decretals, because it was added to the five already mentioned.

iSee Boulay, Hist. Academ. Paris. tom. iii. p. 98.

k Gerh. a Mastricht, Historia juris Ecclesiastici, § 353, p. 384. Jo. Chiflet, De juris utriusque Architectis, cap. vi. p. 60. Echard et Quetif, Scriptores Dominicani, tom. i. p. 106. Acta Sancter. Antwerp. tom. i. Januarii ad d. vii. p. 404.

CHAPTER II.

CENT. XIII.
PART 11.

tion of the elergy.

CONCERNING THE DOCTORS AND MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH, AND
ITS FORM OF GOVERNMENT, DURING THIS CENTURY.

1. BOTH the Greek and Latin writers, provoked, beyond measure, by the flagitious lives of their The corrup spiritual rulers and instructors, complain loudly of their licentious manners, and load them with the severest reproaches; nor will these complaints and reproaches appear excessive to such as are acquainted with the history of this corrupt and superstitious age. Several eminent men attempted to stem this torrent of licentiousness, which from the heads of the church had carried its pernicious streams through all the members; but their power and influence were unequal to such a difficult and arduous enterprise. The Grecian emperors were prevented from executing any project of this kind by the infelicity of the times, and the various calamities and tumults, that not only reigned in their dominions, but even shook the throne on which they sat; while the power and opulence of the Roman pontiffs, and the superstition of the age hindered the Latins from accomplishing, or even attempting a reformation in the church.

And of the Ro- II. The history of the popes presents a lively and man pontitis. horrible picture of the complicated crimes that dishonoured the ministers of the church, who were

1 See the remarkable letter of the Roman pontiff, Gregory IX. to the archbishop of Bourges, which was written in the year 1227, with a design to reprove and reform the vices which had infested all the various orders of the clergy, and which is published by Dion. Sammarthanus, in his Gallia Christiana, tom. ii. in Append. p. 21. See also Du Fresne, Annotat. in Vitam Ludovici Sti. p. 99.

tue.

PART II.

peculiarly obliged, by their sacred office, to exhibit CENT. XIII. to the world distinguished models of piety and virSuch of the sacerdotal order as were advanced to places of authority in the church, behaved rather like tyrants than rulers, and showed manifestly, in all their conduct, that they aimed at an absolute and unlimited dominion. The popes, more especially, inculcated that pernicious maxim, "That the bishop of Rome is the supreme lord of the universe, and that neither princes nor bishops, civil governors nor ecclesiastical rulers, have any lawful power in church or state but what they derive from him." This extravagant maxim, which was considered as the sum and substance of papal jurisprudence, the Roman pontiffs maintained obstinately, and left no means unemployed, that perfidy or violence could suggest, to give it the force of a universal law. It was in consequence of this arrogant pretension, that they not only claimed the right of disposing of ecclesiastical benefices, as they are commonly called, but also of conferring civil dominion, and of dethroning kings and emperors, according to their good pleasure. It is true, this maxim was far from being universally adopted; many placed the authority of councils above that of the pontiffs, and such of the European kings and princes as were not ingloriously blinded and enslaved by the superstition of the times, asserted their rights with dignity and success, excluded the pontiffs from all concern in their civil transactions, nay, even reserved to themselves the supremacy over the churches that were established in their dominions. In opposing thus the haughty pretensions

m

As a specimen of this, the reader may peruse the letters of Inno cent III. and the emperor Otho IV. which have been collected by the learned George Christ. Gebaur, in his History of the Emperor Richard, written in German, p. 611-614. Other princes, and more especially the kings of England and France, displayed, in the defence of their rights and privileges, the same zeal that animated Otho.

PART II.

CENT. XIII. of the lordly pontiffs, it was indeed necessary to proceed with mildness, caution, and prudence, on account of the influence which these spiritual tyrants had usurped over the minds of the people, and the power they had of alarming princes, by exciting their subjects to rebellion.

Creating bish

The power of II. In order to establish their authority, both in ops, abbots, civil and ecclesiastical matters, upon the firmest by the pon- foundations, the Roman pontiffs assumed to them

&c. claimed

tiffs.

selves the power of disposing of the various offices of the church, whether of a higher or more subordinate nature, and of creating bishops, abbots, and canons, according to their fancy. Thus we see the ghostly heads of the church, who formerly disputed with such ardour against the emperors in favour of the free election of bishops and abbots, overturning now all the laws that related to the election of these spiritual rulers, reserving for themselves the revenues of the richest benefices, conferring vacant places upon their clients and their creatures, nay, often deposing bishops that had been duly and lawfully elected, and substituting, with a high hand, others in their room." The hypocritical pretexts for all these arbitrary proceedings were an ardent zeal for the welfare of the church, and an anxious concern, lest devouring heretics should get a footing among the flock of Christ. The first of the pontiffs, who usurped such an extravagant extent of authority, was Innocent III. whose example was followed by Honorius III. Gregory IX. and several of their successors. But it was keenly opposed by the bishops, who had hitherto enjoyed

Many examples of this may be taken from the history of this century. See Steph. Baluzii Miscellan. tom. vii. p. 443, 466, 470, 488, 491, 493. Gallia Christiana, tom. i. p. 69, Append. Luc. Waddingi Annal. Minor, in Diplomat. Wood, Antiquit. Oxon. tom. i. p. 148, 201, 202.

See the Epistle of Innocent IV. in Baluz. Miscellan. tom. vii. p. 468.

PART II.

the privilege of nominating to the smaller benefices, CENT. XIII. and still more effectually by the kings of England and France, who employed the force of warm remonstrances and vigorous edicts to stop the progress of this new jurisprudence." Lewis IX. king of France, and now the tutelar saint of that nation, distinguished himself by the noble opposition he made to these papal encroachments. In the year 1268, before he set out for the holy land, he secured the rights of the Gallican church against the insidious attempts of the Roman pontiffs, by that famous edict, known in France by the name of the pragmatic sanction. This resolute and prudent measure rendered the pontiffs more cautious and slow in their proceedings, but did not terrify them from the prosecution of their purpose. For Boniface VIII. maintained, in the most express and impudent terms, that the universal church was under the dominion of the pontiffs, and that princes and lay patrons, councils and chapters, had no more power in spiritual things, than what they derived from Christ's vicar upon earth.

of the pope's

IV. The legates, whom the pontiffs sent into the The authority provinces to represent their persons, and execute legates. their orders, imitated perfectly the avarice and insolence of their masters. They violated the privileges of the chapters; disposed of the smaller, and sometimes of the more important ecclesiastical benefices, in favour of such as had gained them by bribes, or such like considerations; extorted money from the people by the vilest and most iniquitous means; seduced the unwary by forged letters and other stratagems of that nature; excited tumults among the multitude, and were themselves the

P Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, tom-iii. p. 659, and principally tom. iv. p. 911.

4 Idem, ib. p. 389.

See Baluzii Miscellanea, tom. vii. p. 437, 475, 480, &e.