XII. PART II. portrait of superstition, we shall only observe, that CENT. the stupid credulity of the people in this century went so far, that when any person, either through the frenzy of a disordered imagination, or with a design to deceive, published the dreams or visions, which they fancied, or pretended they had from above, the multitude resorted to the new oracle, and respected its decisions as the commands of God, who in this way, was pleased, as they imagined, to communicate counsel, instruction, and the knowledge of his will to men. This appears, to mention no other examples, from the extraordinary reputation which the two famous prophetesses Hildegard, abbess of Bingen, and Elisabeth of Schonauge, obtained in Germany [s]. dalous traf the bishops. III. This universal reign of ignorance and su-The scanperstition was dexterously, yet basely improved, fic of inby the rulers of the church, to fill their coffers, dulgences and to drain the purses of the deluded multitude. begun by And, indeed, all the various ranks and orders of the clergy had each their peculiar method of fleecing the people. The bishops, when they wanted money for their private pleasures, or for the exigencies of the church, granted to their flock the power of purchasing the remission of the penalties imposed upon transgressors, by a sum of money, which was to be applied to certain religious purposes, or, in other words, they published indulgences, which became an inexhaustible source of opulence to the episcopal orders, and enabled G 2 nagl's Collect. Vet. Monumentor, p. 41. "Vos licet, sancti Domini, somno vestro requiescatis... haud tamen crediderim, spiritus vestros deesse locis quæ viventis tanta devotione construxitis, et dilexistis. Credo vos adesse cunctis illic degentibus, astare videlicit orantibus, succurrere laborantibus, et vota singu. lorum in conspectu divinæ majestatis promovere.' [s] See Mabillon, Annales Benedict. tom. vi. P. 431.529. PART II. CENT. enabled them, as is well known, to form and XII. execute the most difficult schemes for the enlargement of their authority, and to erect a multitude of sacred edifices, which augmented considerably the external pomp and splendour of the church [t]. The abbots and monks, who were not qualified to grant indulgences, had recourse to other methods of enriching their convents. They carried about the country the carcasses and relics of the saints in solemn procession, and permitted the multitude to behold, touch, and embrace these sacred and lucrative remains at certain fixed prices. The monastic orders gained often as much by this raree-show, as the bishops did by their indulgences [u]. And after man pon IV. When the Roman pontiffs cast an eye upon wards mo- the immense treasures that the inferior rulers of nopolized by the Ro- the church were accumulating by the sale of intiffs. dulgences, they thought proper to limit the power of the bishops in remitting the penalties imposed upon transgressors, and assumed, almost entirely, this profitable traffic to themselves. In consequence of this new measure, the court of Rome became the general magazine of indulgences; and the pontiffs, when either the wants of the church, the emptiness of their coffers, or the dæmon of avarice, prompted them to look out for new subsidies, published not only an universal, but also a complete, or what they called a plenary remission [+] Stephanus, Obazinensis in Baluzii Miscellan. tom iv. p. 130. Mabillon Annal. Benedict. tom. vi. p. 535, &c. [u] We find in the records of this century innumerable examples of this method of extorting contributions from the mul titude. See the Chronicon. Centulense in Dacherii Spicilegio Veter. Scriptor. tom. ii. p. 354.-Vita Sta. Romanæ, ibid. p. 137.-Mabillon, Annal. Benedict. tom. vi. p. 332. 644.Acta Sanctor. Mensis Maii, tom. vii. p. 533. where we have an account of a long journey made by the relics of St. Maucutus.-Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedict. tom. vi. p. 519, 520. and tom. ii. P. 732. XII. PART II. remission of all the temporal pains and penalties, CENT. which the church had annexed to certain transgressions. They went still farther; and not only remitted the penalties, which the civil and ecclesiastical laws had enacted against transgressors, but audaciously usurped the authority which belongs to God alone, and impiously pretended to abolish even the punishments which are reserved in a future state for the workers of iniquity; a' step this, which the bishops, with all their avarice and presumption, had never once ventured to take [w]. The pontiffs first employed this pretended prerogative in promoting the holy war, and shed abroad their indulgences, though with a certain degree of moderation, in order to encourage the European princes to form new expeditions for the conquest of Palestine; but, in process of time, the charm of indulgences was practised upon various occasions of much less consequence, and merely with a view to filthy lucre [x]. Their introduction, among other things, destroyed the credit and authority of the ancient canonical and ecclesiastical discipline of penance, and occasioned the removal and suppression of the penitentials [y], by which the reins were let loose to every kind of vice. Such proceedings stood much in need of a plausible defence, but this was impossible. To justify therefore these scandalous measures of the pontiffs, G 3 [w] Morinus, De administratione sacramenti pœnitentiæ, lib. x. cap. xx, xxi, xxii. p. 768.-Rich. Simon, Biblioth. Critique tom. iii. cap. xxxiii. p. 371.-Mabillon, Præf. ad Acta Sanctor. Sæc. v. Acta Sanctor. Benedict. p. 54. not to speak of the protestant writers, whom I designedly pass over. [x] Muratori Antiq. Italio. medii ævi, tom. v. p. 761.Franc. Pagi Breviar. Rom. Pontif. tom. ii. p. 60.-Theod. Ruinarti Vita Urbani II. p. 231. tom. iii. Opp. Posthum. [y] The Penitential was a book, in which the degree and kind of penance that were annexed to each crime, were registered. PART II. CENT. pontiffs, a most monstrous and absurd doctrine XII. was now invented, which was modified and embellished by St. Thomas in the following cen tury, and which contained among others the following enormities, "That there actually existed "an immense treasure of merit, composed of the "pious deeds, and virtuous actions, which the "saints had performed beyond what was necessary "for their own salvation [*], and which were "therefore applicable to the benefit of others; "that the guardian and dispenser of this precious "treasure was the Roman pontiff; and that of "consequence he was empowered to assign to "such as he thought proper, a portion of this " inexhaustible source of merit, suitable to their "respective guilt, and sufficient to deliver thent "from the punishment due to their crimes." It is a most deplorable mark of the power of superstition, that a doctrine, so absurd in its nature, and so pernicious in its effects, should yet be re tained and defended in the church of Rome [a]. commenta The expo V. Nothing was more common in this century sitors and than expositors and interpreters of the sacred tors of this writings; but nothing was so rare, as to find, in century. that class of authors, the qualifications that are essentially required in a good commentator. Few of these expositors were attentive to search after the true signification of the words employed by: the [*] These works are known by the name of Works of Supererogation. [a] For a satisfactory and ample account of the enor mous doctrine of indulgences, see a very learned and judicious work, entitled Lettres sur les Jubilés, published in the year 1751, in three volumes 8vo. by the Reverend Mr. Chais, minister of the French church in the Hague, on occasion of the universal Jubilee celebrated at Rome the preceding year, by the order of Benedict XIV. In the 2d volume of this excellent work, which we shall have frequent occasion to consult in the course of this history, there is a clear account and a satisfactory refutation of the doctrine in question, as also the history of that: monstrous practice from its origin to the present times. XII. PART II. the sacred writers, or to investigate the precise CENT, sense in which they were used; and these few were destitute of the succours which such researches demand. The Greek and Latin commentators, blinded by their enthusiastic love of antiquity, and their implicit veneration for the doctors of the early ages of the church, drew from their writings, without discernment or choice, a heap of passages, which they were pleased to consider as illustrations of the holy scriptures. Such were the commentators of Euthymius Zigabenus, an eminent expositor among the Greeks, upon the Psalms, Gospels, and Epistles; though it must, at the same time, be acknowledged, that this writer follows, in some places, the dictates of his own judgment, and gives, upon certain occasions, proofs of penetration and genius. Among the Latins, we might give several examples of the injudicious manner of expounding the divine word that prevailed in this century, such as the Lucubrations of Peter Lombard, Gilbert de la Poree, and the famous Abelard, upon the Psalms of David, and the Epistles of St. Paul. Nor do these commentators among the Latins, who expounded the whole of the sacred writings, and who are placed at the head of the expositors of this age, such as Gilbert, bishop of London, surnamed the Universal, on account of the vast extent of his erudition [b], and Hervey, a most studious Benedictine monk [c], deserve a higher place in our esteem, than the authors already mentioned. The writers that merit the preference among the Latins are RuG 4 pert [b] For an account of this prelate, see Le Boeuf, Memoires Concernant l'Histoire d'Auxerre, tom. ii. p. 486. [c] An ample account of this learned Benedictine is to be found in Gabr. Liron, Singularites Historiques et Litteraires, tom. iii. p. 29.-See also Mabillon, Annales Benedict. tom. vi. p. 477, 719. |