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XIV.

CEN T.men to love and pursue what is forbidden, the PART II Consequence was, that the party of the Nominalists flourished more than ever.

Astrology

sophy of the

ed as ma

VIII. Among the philosophers of these times, mingles itself with there were many who mingled astrology with the philo their philosophy, i. e. the art of telling fortunes, times, and by the aspect of the heavens, and the influence of is consider the stars; and, notwithstanding the obvious folly gic. and absurdity of this pretended science, all ranks of people, from the highest down to the lowest, were fond of it even to distraction. Yet, in spite of all this popular prejudice in favour of their art, these astrological philosophers, to avoid being impeached of witchcraft, and to keep themselves out of the hands of the inquisitors, were obliged to behave with great circumspection. The neglect of this caution was remarkably fatal to CECCUS ASCULANUS, a famous peripatetic philosopher, astrologer, and mathematician, first of all physician to pope JOHN XXII. and afterwards to CHARLES SINETERRA, duke of Calabria. This unhappy man having performed some experiments in mechanics, that seemed miraculous to the vulgar, and having also offended many, and among the rest his master, by giving out some predictions, which were said to have been fulfilled, was universally supposed to deal with infernal spirits, and burnt for it by the inquisitors at Florence, in the year 1337 [a]. There is yet extant a commentary of his upon the Sphere of John de Sacrobosco, otherwise named Holywood, which shews its author to have been deeply tainted with superstition [b].

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[a] PAUL ANTON. APPIANUS wrote a defence of this unhappy man, which is inserted in DOMEN. BERNINI Storia di tutte 'heresie, tom. iii. sæc. xiv. cap. iii. P. 210. S. We have also a further account of him in Jo. MARIA CRESCIMBENUS, Commentari della volgar. Poesia, vol. ii. part II. lib. iii. cap. xiv. [b] GABR. NAUDEUS, Apologi pour les grands hommes qui oni eté soupsonnez de Magie, p. 270. s.

XIV. PART II.

The philo

IX. RAYMUND LULLY was the author of a new C E N T. and very singular kind of philosophy, which he endeavoured to illustrate and defend by his voluminous writings. He was a native of Major-sophy of ca, and admirable for the extent and fecundity of Lully. his genius; yet, at the same time, a strange compound of reason and folly. Being full of zeal for the propagation of the gospel, and having performed many voyages, and undergone various hardships to promote it, he was slain at Bugia, in Africa, in the year 1315, by the Mahometans, whom he was attempting to convert. The Franciscans, to whose third order it is said he belonged, extol him to the skies, and have taken great pains to persuade several popes to canonize him: while many on the contrary, and especially the Dominicans, inveigh bitterly against him, calling him a harebrained chymist, a hot-headed fanatic, a heretic, a magician, and a mere compiler of the works of the more learned Mahometans. The popes entertained different opinions of him; some esteeming him a harmless pious man, while others pronounced him a vile heretic. But whoever peruses the writings of LULLY without prejudice, will not be biassed by either of these parties. It is at least certain, that he would have been a great man, had the warmth and fertility of his imagination been tempered with a sound judgment [c].

[c] See JOHN SALZINGER's Preface to RAYMUND LULLY's works, which JOHN WILLIAM, elector Palatine, caused to be collected at a great expence, and to be published, in 1720, in five folio volumes. LUC. WADDINGUS, Annal. Minor. tom. iv. p. 421. tom. v. p. 157. 316. tom. vi. p. 229. Concerning the famous invention of LULLY, see DAN. GEORG. MORHOFIUS, Polybistoire, lib. ii. cap. v. p. 352. S.

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XIV. PART II.

rupt state

gy.

CHAP. II.

Concerning the doctors and government of the
Church during this century.

TH

CENTI.HE governors of the church in this period, from the highest to the lowest orders, were addicted to vices peculiarly dishonourable The cor- to their sacred character. We shall say noof the cler-thing of the Grecian and oriental clergy, who lived, for the most part, under a rigid, severe, and oppressive government, though they deserve their part in this heavy and ignominious charge. But with regard to the Latins our silence would be inexcusable, since the flagrant abuses that prevailed among them were attended with consequences equally pernicious to the interests of religion and the well-being of civil society. It is however necessary to observe, that there were, even in these degenerate times, several pious and worthy men, who ardently longed for a reformation of the church, both in its head and members, as they used to express themselves [d]. Laudable as these desires undoubtedly were, many circumstances concurred to prevent their accomplishment; such as the exorbitant power of the popes, so confirmed by length of time that it seemed immoveable, the excessive superstition that enslaved the minds of the generality, together with the wretched ignorance and barbarity of the age, by which every spark of truth was stifled, as it were, in its very birth. Yet, firm and lasting as the dominion of the Roman pontifs seemed to be, it was gradually undermined and weakened,

[d] MATT. FLACIUS, Catalogo testium veritatis, lib. xiii. p 1697. JO LAUNOIUS, De varia fortuna Aristotelis, p. 217. Jo HENR. HOTTINGERI Historia Eccles, Sæc. xiv. p. 754.

ed, partly by the pride and rashness of the popes C E N T. themselves, and partly by several unexpected e-PART H.

vents.

XIV.

II. This important change may be dated from Philip, king of the quarrel which arose between BONIFACE VIII. France opwho filled the papal throne about the beginning poses the of this century, and PHILIP the Fair, king of ranny. papal tyFrance. This prince, who was endowed with a bold and enterprising spirit, soon convinced Europe, that it was possible to set bounds to the overgrown arrogance of the bishop of Rome, notwithstanding many crowned heads had attempted it without success. BONIFACE sent PHILIP the haughtiest letters imaginable, in which he asserted, that the king of France, with all other kings and princes whatsoever, were obliged, by a divine command, to submit to the authority of the popes, as well in all political and civil matters, as in those of a religious nature. The king answered him with great spirit, and in terms expressive of the utmost contempt. The pope rejoined with more arrogance than ever; and, in that famous bull, unam sanctam, which he published about this time, asserted that JESUS CHRIST had granted a twofold power to his church, or, in other words, the spiritual and temporal sword; that he had subjected the whole human race to the authority of the Roman pontif, and that whoever dared to disbelieve it, were to be deemed heretics, and stood excluded from all possibility of salvation [e]. The king, on the other hand, in an assembly of the peers of his kingdom, held in the year 1303, ordered WILLIAM DE NOGARET, a celebrated lawyer [f], to draw up an

accusation

[e] This bull is yet extant in the Corpus Juris Canon. Extravagant. Commun. lib. i. tit. De majoritate et obedientia. [f] Of this celebrated lawyer, who was the most intrepid and inveterate enemy the popes ever had before LUTHER, none

have

XIV.

CEN T.accusation against the pope, in which he publicly PART Charged him with beresies, simony, and many other vices, demanding, at the same time, an acumenical council to depose such an execrable pontif. The pope, in his turn, passed a sentence of excommunication, that very year, against the king and all his adherents.

The event

of this

test.

III. PHILIP, shortly after he received his senwarm con- tence, held an assembly of the states of the kingdom, where he again employed some persons of the highest rank and reputation to sit in judgment upon the pope, and appealed to a general council. After this he sent WILLIAM DE NOGARET, with some others, into Italy, to excite a sedition, to seize the pope's person, and then to convey him to Lyons, where the king was determined to hold the above-mentioned council. NOGARET, being a resolute active man, soon drew over to his assistance the powerful family of the COLONNAS, then at variance with the pope, levied a small army, seized BONIFACE, who lived in perfect security at Anagni, and as soon as he had got him into his power, treated him in the most shocking manner, carried his resentment so far as to wound him on the head by a blow with his iron gauntlet. The inhabitants of Anagni rescued him out of the hands of this fierce and inveterate enemy, and conducted him to Rome, where he died soon after of an illness occasioned by the rage and anguish into which these insults had thrown him [g].

IV.

have given us a fuller account than the Benedictine monks, Hist. Generale de Languedoc, tom. iii. p. 114. 117. s. PHILIP made him chancellor of France for his resolute opposition against the pope.

[g] See the Acta inter Bonifacium VIII. Bened. XI. Clement V. et Philippum Pulchrum, published A. D. 1614, by PETER PUTEANUS.-ADR. BAILLET, Hist. de Demelez du Boniface VIII. avec Philippe de Bel, printed at Paris, in 4to, in

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