Furthermore the state and the nobility stepped in and attempted to
control the monastic system and particularly the appointment of
abbots.[516:3] The obligation of obedience to superior authority seemed
to be utterly disregarded.

The old form of monasticism, at its best, thought only of the salvation
of its own members and not of the world. Here, then, was an opportunity
for a great revolution and also a crying need for it. Everywhere
monasteries were rapidly obtaining exemptions from the bishops and
subjecting themselves to the successor of St. Peter. While this
strengthened the Pope, it stimulated conventual degeneracy, relaxed
monastic discipline, denationalised monasticism, aroused popular
hostility, and spread the report that a little gold would purchase any
privilege.[516:4] Under these conditions it was perhaps natural that the
inmates of monasteries were frequently recruited from the worst and
most vicious classes. Such motives as sickness, poverty, crime, mortal
danger, dread of hell, and desire of heaven would not furnish the best
class of devotees.[517:1] In one French cloister the inmates were all
professional highway robbers. Furthermore, the name monk was rendered
still more despicable by the crowds of tramps palming themselves off as
monks. Bearded, tonsured, and dressed in the religious habit, they
swarmed throughout all parts of Christendom, begging, stealing,
deceiving, and peddling false relics, and were often taken in crime and
slain without mercy.[517:2] The secular priests hated the monks and the
people mistrusted and despised both.[517:3] The intense speculative
spirit of the age tended to create disbelief in the Church and to
produce new sects which the Papacy tried in vain to suppress by force.
The secular clergy were also in bad condition--the upper clergy wealthy,
powerful, immoral, and worldly; the lower clergy characterised by sloth
and incapacity. The need of reformation was generally recognised, but
who would do it? "The Church had made no real effort at internal reform;
it was still grasping, licentious, covetous, and a strange desire for
something--they knew not exactly what--began to take possession of men's
hearts and spread like an epidemic from village to village and from land
to land."[517:4] Heresy, likewise, was making rapid strides and was
propagated by sects whose austere lives and serviceable conduct were
popular because in such a striking contrast to those of the monks and
clergy.

The general purpose of the begging orders, which grew out of these
conditions, was (1) to reform the Church from within and not by
revolution; (2) to avoid the evils and corruptions of wealth by making
poverty an object of admiration and sanctification; (3) to send their
members out to save the Church and the world instead of shutting them up
in monasteries for the selfish purpose of saving their own souls; (4) to
supervise the whole system and to keep the order in a harmonious working
condition by a rigidly organised monarchial government; and (5) to set
on foot a great reformatory home movement which would win the Church
away from the corrupting idols back to a purer and more primitive
Christianity.[518:1] The two prominent begging orders were both Romanic
in origin and not Germanic.

The way for the begging orders was partially prepared by antecedent
reformers and orders. Conspicuous among the individuals who were
forerunners of St. Francis and St. Dominic was (1) St. Bernard
(1091-1153) who advocated poverty and denounced the abuses of his day.
(2) Arnold of Brescia (_c._ 1100-1155), a priest and follower of
Abélard, assailed the Pope's temporal power, attacked the wealth of the
clergy, urged the secularisation of ecclesiastical property, and led a
popular revolt in Rome for a republic. He was hanged, burned, and his
ashes were thrown into the Tiber.[518:2] (3) Gerach of Reichersberg
(1093-1169), a German monk and canon of Augsburg, left his position
disgusted at the irregularity of the lives of the canons, went to Rome
in 1125, and was officially appointed by Honorius II. to reform the
canonry. As the head of the canonry of Reichersberg (1132) he became an
active and rigorous reformer.[519:1] (4) Foulques de Neuilly (died
1202), an obscure, ignorant priest, whose mighty conviction of the sins
of the world and the Church made him a great preacher, was licensed by
Innocent III. as a missionary. He converted thousands from wayward
lives, reclaimed lost women and founded a convent for them at Paris,
denounced the clergy without mercy, and struck at every evil in the
Church. His reformation, however, was lost in the crusading zeal and he
himself helped to preach the Fourth Crusade.[519:2]

Among the movements laying the foundations for the begging orders were
(1) the "Poor Men," or Arnoldists, who were founded in Italy after the
death of Arnold of Brescia[519:3]; (2) the "Poor Men of Lyons"[519:4];
and (3) the "Poor Catholics," who were founded by Duran de Husce, a
Spaniard and disciple of St. Dominic. These "Poor Catholics" based their
organisation on poverty and self-abnegation, sought to convert heretics,
and were approved by Innocent III. although fought by the clergy. They
appear to have been lost in the forcible effort to exterminate
heresy.[519:5] (4) The Beghards and Beguins were founded in the
Netherlands about 1180. At first companies of women were formed in the
Belgian cities to care for the sick, to perform other acts of charity,
and to aid the widows and orphans of the Crusaders. They lived together
in a common house, led a pious life according to a few simple rules,
but took no vows. They were called Beguins. Early in the thirteenth
century similar companies of men were formed and called Beghards.
Members could leave the order at will, marry or enter any occupation
after leaving. These orders had their own little houses, each one
distinct in its organisation, which were frequently endowed by rich
burghers. The inmates were also given to hand labour and did not neglect
education, although their chief work was soul saving and charity. They
spread rapidly from the Netherlands to Germany, to France, to Italy, and
to Bohemia and Poland. As these associations increased, their members
began to wander through the countries, begging and performing acts of
mercy. After the middle of the thirteenth century, charges of heresy
were made against them and they were persecuted by the Church.[520:1]
(5) The Carmelites, one of the mendicant orders, according to its
legendary history was founded by Elijah on Mount Carmel. The first
disciples were Jonah, Micah, and Obadiah; and the wife of Obadiah was
the first abbess. Even Pythagoras, Mary, and Jesus were considered
members. The real origin, however, seems to lie in the fact that Phocas,
a Greek monk from Patmos, in 1185 saw the ruins of a monastery on Mount
Carmel and there an association of hermits was formed. The Patriarch of
Jerusalem in 1209 gave the association a rule and in 1224 this rule was
confirmed by Honorius III. The order played an active part during the
Crusades until 1238, when it was removed to Sicily and later to England
and France, where it followed the custom and became a mendicant order in
1247.

The founder of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, was Dominic de Guzman,
born in 1170 in old Castile of noble ancestry. Many miraculous tales
were told about his mother and his infancy.[521:1] At the age of seven
he was given over to his uncle, who was archpresbyter at Gumyel de Ycan.
At the age of fourteen he entered the University of Palencia,[521:2]
where he remained ten years as a "laborious, devout, abstemious"
student. Theology was his chief subject and he became a distinguished
theologian. While a student, it was said that he sold his clothes to
feed the poor in a time of famine, and on another occasion he offered to
redeem a sad woman's brother from slavery by taking his place. At the
age of twenty-four (1194), after having studied ten years at the
University, he became a canon of the Bishop of Osma, where he helped to
introduce the rules of St. Augustine. Soon he was made sub-prior of the
chapter, became very active in ecclesiastical affairs, excelled in
asceticism, which was inspired no doubt by reading Cassian's famous work
on monasticism, and became a zealous and eloquent missionary among the
Mohammedans and Jews of the neighbourhood.

In 1203 he went with the Bishop of Osma to southern France to secure a
bride for the King's son. In this diplomatic venture they were
successful, but the bride died before she could go to Spain. Here it was
that Dominic got his first view of the aggressive Albigensian
heretics.[521:3] From southern France he accompanied the Bishop of Osma
to Rome, where the bishop begged Innocent III. to permit him to go as a
missionary to the Huns, or the Saracens, but the request was refused.
The task of converting the heretics of southern France had been
intrusted to the Cistercians, but they had utterly failed to accomplish
it. As Dominic and the bishop were returning to France, they met at
Montpellier three of these Cistercian abbots, who had been sent out by
the Pope to superintend the duties intrusted to their order. The pomp
and splendour of the abbots called forth this bold rebuke from Dominic:
"It is not by the display of pomp and power, cavalcades of retainers and
richly houseled palfreys, nor by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win
proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by
austerity and seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by
humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by
preaching truth."[522:1] The abbots were advised to send out for the
great work men who were imbued with apostolic poverty and zeal. The
abbots accepted the advice and joined Dominic and his companion in their
new conception of missionary work, but apparently their labours were
checked in 1208 by the crusade waged against the Albigenses.

During the efforts to exterminate these revolters against the faith and
authority of Rome, there are two accounts of the activity of
Dominic,--first, that that he was a fiery leader of the crusading
parties, and, secondly, that he strongly denounced the war. The
probability seems to be that he lived quietly in his monastery at
Prouille endeavouring to convert the heretics without taking part in
the war.[523:1] Whatever the fact may have been however, so far as the
historical sources go, for the next eight years his life is a blank. No
doubt he was wisely planning for the future. In 1206 the Bishop of
Toulouse presented "to Dominic of Osma the church of St. Mary's of
Prouille and the adjacent land to the extent of thirty feet" for the use
of his women converts, who at first were nine noble ladies for whom he
drew up a monastic rule. The convent soon became wealthy and
influential. At the close of the war in 1214 Dominic, now forty-four
years old, had made but little progress. His converts were few, his
influence small, but the seeds were being sowed which would return a
rich harvest. His character at this time reveals a man of earnest,
resolute purpose; of deep, unalterable conviction; full of burning
faith; kind of heart and ever cheerful; of winning manner and charitable
beyond reason; yet given to scourgings and vigils till nature was nearly
exhausted.[523:2]

Through the gift of Peter Cella, a rich man of Toulouse, Dominic founded
in 1214 the monastery of St. Rouen near Toulouse which was the home of
the Inquisition for over a hundred years. There he gathered some devout
souls about him and they began to live like monks. The Bishop of
Toulouse gave them one sixth of the tithes for their work. This was the
beginning of the great Dominican order. The next step was to get papal
sanction for the new organisation and for this purpose Dominic went with
the Bishop of Toulouse to Rome. Innocent III., won through a
dream,[524:1] consented to sanction the order provided some known rule
should be adopted. Consequently Dominic organised his monks according to
the canons regular of St. Augustine, which was Dominic's own order. That
rule, however, was almost immediately modified to meet the boundless
plans and scope of the work which held Dominic captive. A grand master
was put at the head of the order as absolute ruler and under him were
provincial priors, elected during good behaviour. The friars were held
to implicit obedience, as soldiers of Christ, but poverty was not at
first a part of the rule. It was adopted only after the Franciscans had
made it so attractive (1220). At stated times general and provincial
assemblies were to be held to further the prosperity of the order.

Dominic now wisely took up his residence at Rome, where he was made
court preacher, lived in the papal palace, and guided the activities of
his new order. Honorius III. in 1216 sanctioned the needed changes in
the rule, authorised the monks to preach and hear confessions
everywhere, and took the order under his special protection.[524:2]
Dominic's little band of sixteen followers--among whom were an
Englishman, a German, and some Spaniards--were sent out into the world
to begin the strenuous life of service. Laymen and ecclesiastics of all
ranks hastened to join the order. When the second general assembly was
held at Bologna in 1221 there were present representatives from sixty
convents and eight provinces, representing Spain, France, England,
Hungary, Poland, and Italy. This same year a secular organisation for
both men and women called "The Soldiers of Jesus Christ" was organised
to convert the laymen, to fight heretics, and to win unbelievers. The
members had a distinct dress and special rites and services.[525:1]
Dominic died in a monastery at Bologna in 1221 and twelve years later
was canonised.

A new constitution was adopted by the Dominicans in 1228 and revised and
completed in 1241 and 1252. Members of the order devoted themselves
exclusively to preaching, soul saving, fighting heresy, and in educating
the people in the true faith. From the schools founded by the order came
most of their recruits. They were the model preachers of the Middle Ages
and the keenest theologians of the day, producing such men as Peter
Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. Among their numbers were found popes,
cardinals, and famous doctors. The first Dominican to wear the papal
tiara was Innocent V. in 1276, and he was succeeded by three others. The
first cardinal to be chosen from their ranks was Hugh of Vienne in 1243,
and he was followed by fifty-nine more. Among the famous doctors of the
order were Albertus Magnus, Meister Echart, Johan Tauler, Henry Suso,
Savonarola, Las Casas, and Vincent Ferrier. The Dominicans could boast
of more than eight hundred bishops, one hundred and fifty archbishops,
and the number of martyrs belonging to their order between 1234 and 1334
was thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy. So influential did they
become and so dangerous to the prerogatives of the clergy[525:2] that
Innocent IV. (1254), Boniface VIII. (1300), and Clement VIII. (1311)
were forced to curtail their privileges. In 1228 the first Dominican
monk occupied a chair in the University of Paris and in 1230 another was
added and from this time on they attempted to monopolise learning in the
University. Scholasticism was largely the product of their minds. They
were very active in missionary work and in 1245 they were sent to the
Tartars by Innocent IV.; in 1249 to Persia by Louis IX.; in 1272 to
China by Gregory X.; and they laboured among the Jews and Saracens
in Spain, and in Poland, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. They built
monasteries and churches; and art and architecture are deeply indebted
to them for many of the finest specimens produced in Europe.[526:1] The
history of theology, philosophy, and science until the Renaissance and
Reformation is little more than a petty controversial rivalry between
them and the Franciscans.

The founder of the Franciscans, or Minorites, or Grey Friars, was
Francis of Assisi. He was born in 1182 at Assisi of a rich mercantile
family. He received a little learning from the parish priest, but
manifested no love for school instruction. He knew Latin and learned
some French while with his father on business in France. It was early
determined that he should be educated for business. Reports concerning
his early character show that he was cheerful and kind-hearted, careless
and indifferent to work, vain and fond of fine clothes, prone to join
comrades in dissipating carousals, and too fond of squandering his
father's money in banquets for his friends.[526:2]

At the age of twenty Francis joined a war party against Perugia. He was
taken captive and held for a year in prison and this seemed to sober him
somewhat. Two serious illnesses led him to change his life and a series
of visions determined his conduct (1208). He boldly and suddenly
deserted his worldly companions and started out passionately on the path
of self-denial. He was now twenty-six years of age. He declared that
poverty should be his bride, and resolved to go to Rome to throw all his
possessions on the altar of St. Peter. Upon his return journey he joined
a gang of beggars and exchanged his clothes for the filthiest rags among
them. Next he appropriated a quantity of his father's goods and sold
them, together with the horse, to restore the church of St. Damiani.
Then he hid a month in a cave and when he returned looking wild and
haggard he was hooted and stoned in the streets. His father, alarmed and
angered at his acts called him before the Bishop to force him to give up
his patrimony. Francis stripped off all his clothing but his hair shirt
and the Bishop covered him with an old cloak. Surrendering his
inheritance and even his very clothing to his father he exclaimed:
"Peter Bernardone was my father; I now have but one father, He that is
in heaven." This was the keynote of his whole life.[527:1] From now
henceforth he was consecrated to mendicancy, wandered about in a
hermit's attire, devoted himself to the lepers, helped restore with his
own hands four ruined churches, and resolved to work out his own
salvation in loving service for the weak and needy--an evidence of his
genuine conversion and a thing radically different from the Christianity
of that period. One day in February, 1209, the text rang in his ears:
"Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither scrip
for your journey, neither two coats nor shoes nor staff, for the
labourer is worthy of his hire."[528:1] These strong words, coming from
the priest who was celebrating mass in one of the little churches which
Francis had helped to rebuild, pierced him like a revelation. "This is
what I want," he cried; "this is what I was seeking; from this day forth
I shall set myself with all my strength to put it in practice."
Accordingly he threw away his wallet, staff, and shoes, and put on a
rough grey tunic of coarse woollen cloth, girt by a hempen cord, and
went barefooted through the land preaching repentance.[528:2] He lived
now as a follower of the living Jesus,--"like the birds of the
air,"--and his childish simplicity and radiating face made him beloved
by the poor and a comfort to the troubled and sick.[528:3]

Francis did not have in mind at first the institution of a brotherhood;
his ideal was rather the solitary ascetic preaching repentance to a
world of sin, and his strange, fervoured piety soon made him famous in
the neighbourhood of Assisi. Gradually kindred spirits joined him and
begged to share his mission. Bernard of Quintavalle was the first to ask
to be associated with him, and in order to learn God's will Francis
opened the Bible at random and read Matthew xix., 21; vi., 8; xvi., 24.
Others came until his disciples numbered eight. He received them and put
them under vows of poverty and preaching. The time had now come to
evangelise the world. These disciples were sent out in pairs to the four
points of the compass, with these words:

     Go and preach two by two. Preach peace and patience; tend the
     wounded and relieve the distressed; reclaim the erring; bless
     them which persecute you and pray for them that despitefully
     use you. Fear not because you are small and seem foolish. Have
     confidence in the Lord who has vanquished the world. Some will
     receive you and many proud will resist you. Bear all with
     sweetness and patience. Soon the wise and noble will be with
     us. The Lord hath given me to see this--I have in my ears the
     sounds of the languages of all peoples who will come to
     us--French, Spanish, German and English. The Lord will make us
     a great people even to the end of the earth.

Upon their reuniting, four more were added to their number and Francis
gave them a rule of which poverty was the basic principle and chastity
and obedience were necessary requirements.

Papal confirmation was the next step. This Francis sought in 1210 from
Innocent III. in a friendly interview at Rome.[529:1] The Pope in doubt
submitted the question to the cardinals and it was carried in favour of
Francis. His rule was approved orally and the members thus came under
the spiritual authority of Rome and were authorised to receive the
tonsure and to preach the word of God. A second rule less severe than
the first was drawn up and approved by Honorius III. in 1223, and it
remained the unaltered constitution of the Franciscan order.[529:2] The
organisation according to this rule provided for a General Minister at
the head, provincial ministers, and brethren, or minorities. Applicants
were required to sell all their possessions for the poor, to promise to
live according to the gospel, and to take the absolute vows of chastity,
obedience, and poverty. Each monk was to have two gowns of vile cloth
which were to be patched as long as possible. No shoes were to be worn
except when absolutely necessary. All but the sick had to walk. No money
could be received save for the poor and the needy. All who were able
were compelled to labour and thus earn their food and clothing.
"Brethren," said Francis, "know that poverty is the special path of
salvation, the inciter to humility, and the root of perfection."[530:1]
A very simple ritual with one daily mass and but little music was
instituted.

Francis sent his disciples out over the whole world to preach his
gospel, while he continued the simplicity of his earlier life, living in
a little hut with a ground floor, preaching to and converting whole
multitudes who came to hear and to see him, and continuing his acts of
mercy and love. He founded a convent of women called the "Clarisses" or
"Poor Clares," who became almost as famous as the "Poor
Brothers."[530:2] In 1221 he established the "Brothers and Sisters of
Penitence," a lay order whose members, though living under a rule,
retained their social position and employments, but bound themselves to
abstain from all worldly dissipations like dancing, theatre-going, and
secular festivals, and to live godly lives.[530:3] This was a very
sensible arrangement because by it Francis enlisted all classes in
sympathetic co-operation.[530:4] Impelled by missionary zeal Francis
journeyed not only throughout Italy but to Illyria, Spain, and with
twelve brethren even went to the distant Holy Land, where he not only
converted thousands to Christianity, but even attempted to win the
Sultan himself. Failing in this he returned to Italy.[531:1] In his
relations with Rome Francis was the truest son of the Church and formed
an army trained in piety and absolute obedience which the Pope used
later to great advantage. For himself, however, he demanded freedom to
live and to act after his own heart. His life was spared to see his
order cover the world, but at length worn out by his labours and
consuming zeal he died in 1226 naked and in poverty.[531:2] After his
death it is said that the five wounds of the Saviour, called the
"stigmata," were found on his body.[531:3] He was canonised in 1228 by
Gregory IX.

Few persons in the world's history have stamped their character and
influence upon their age in a more marked manner than did St. Francis.
His life is hallowed by countless miracles and it is not always easy to
separate myth from truth. But a careful study of his career reveals the
fact that he felt the unity of the universe in God and preached it to
man in love and charity as a genuine religious philosopher. With an
unparalleled ardour and spiritual industry, he taught every one that the
salvation of a human soul comes through self-sacrifice. He and his
followers aimed to realise the simplicity of Christ and his apostles.
"No human creature since Christ has more fully incarnated the ideal of
Christianity than Francis."[531:4] His chief happiness was in
ministering to the needs of his fellow creatures. "The perfection of
gladness," he said "consists not in working miracles, in curing the
sick, expelling devils, or raising the dead; nor in learning and
knowledge of all things; nor in eloquence to convert the world, but in
bearing all ills and injuries and injustices and despiteful treatment
with patience and humility." Through his insane, extravagant asceticism
there shines forth a patience, humility, and depth of love necessary to
oppose the pride and cruelty of his age. He inculcated the gospel of
cheerfulness and declared that gloom and sadness were the deadly weapons
of Satan. He had a poetic soul, was passionately fond of animals and
flowers--called them his brothers and sisters--and preached some
beautiful sermons to the trees, the fish in the streams, the
birds,[532:1] and the posies. He wrote some rugged and touching
verse--"The first broken utterances of a new voice which was soon to
fill the world."[532:2] "Of all saints St. Francis was the most
blameless and gentle. Francis was emphatically the saint of the people,
of a poetic people, like the Italians."[532:3] In many ways he was the
forerunner of Dante. In prayer, in picture, and in song, the worship of
St. Francis vied with that of Jesus. In story and legend he soon
outstripped Christ.

It was in 1219 that St. Francis sent his disciples out to evangelise the
world. Those who went to Germany and Hungary were regarded as heretics
and roughly treated. In France at first they were mistaken for Cathari
and an appeal was made to the Pope concerning them. Five suffered
martyrdom in Morocco. They soon spread to all parts of the world and
many of them perished as martyrs in the cause they had espoused. When
St. Francis held his first chapter in 1221 three thousand members[533:1]
were present and Provincial Masters had been appointed in all European
countries. In 1260 there were thirty-three provinces, one hundred
eighty-two guardianships, eight thousand monasteries and two hundred
thousand friars. The order has produced five Popes and many cardinals,
bishops, theologians, writers, and poets.

A comparison of the two founders and their orders reveals some
interesting facts. Both leaders were born about the same time, St.
Dominic being the older by twelve years. Both were of Romance
origin--one of noble, the other of ignoble birth. The early life of each
was wholly dissimilar in disposition, education, and relation to the
Church. The causes operating to make them reformers were very different.
St. Dominic dreamed of an aggressive, skilfully-trained body of
preachers of simple life to convert the heretics and to instruct the
orthodox, thus keeping them firm. St. Francis on the other hand made
poverty the first Christian grace and sought to lead all men back to
Jesus as the great model. One laboured for doctrinal orthodoxy, the
other for personal piety. Both applied to Innocent III. about the same
time for a permit to found a new order and both were successful. Each
order in its purpose was reformatory and in the monastic world
revolutionary.[533:2] In organisation the two orders were essentially
the same: each had a governor-general at Rome, provincial governors in
the provinces, priors or guardians over single cloisters, which were
simply "homes" and not convents in the old sense and demanded a certain
type of life for the members. The vows were essentially the same,
although the Franciscans originated and the Dominicans adopted that of
poverty. Both orders devoted themselves to preaching and to saving
souls.

Education, art, morality, and religion of the later Middle Ages were in
a large measure moulded by the influence of these two organisations.
Both had great scholars, preachers, teachers, higher clergy, and popes.

     Whenever in the thirteenth century we find a man towering
     above his fellows, we are almost sure to trace him to one of
     the mendicant orders. Raymond of Pennaforte, Alexander Hales,
     Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Roger Bacon, and
     Duns Scotus are names which show how irresistibly the men of
     highest gifts were glad to seek among the Dominicans or
     Franciscans their ideal life.[534:1]

The Franciscans were realists and Scottists; the Dominicans, nominalists
and Thomists. The Franciscans believed in the immaculate conception; the
Dominicans denied it. Both came into conflict with the secular clergy.
They could not say mass, but were very popular confessors and thus
tended to deprive the clergy of support and revenues and even threatened
to supersede the old ecclesiastical system. Women and the pious as a
rule upheld the begging orders, while the state, the soldiers, and the
men took the part of the clergy. In both, the individual was compelled
to remain poor, while the society became dangerously rich. The
Dominicans were aristocratic; the Franciscans democratic.

Each order borrowed something from the other: St. Francis took St.
Dominic's idea of itinerant preachers; St. Dominic adopted St. Francis's
plan of poverty. Both became quickly popular and both had exemptions and
privileges showered upon them by Rome.[535:1] Their members could not be
excommunicated by any bishop and were exempt from all local jurisdiction
save that of their own order.[535:2] They had a right to live freely in
excommunicated lands. Being directly responsible to the Pope alone, they
were used by him to raise money, to preach crusades, to sell
indulgences, to execute excommunications, to serve as spies and secret
police, and to act as papal legates on all kinds of missions. In
addition to practically usurping and monopolising the functions of
preaching and confession and granting absolution, they were finally
permitted to celebrate mass on portable altars.[535:3] In return for
these privileges each order gave the Pope a vast army which overran
Europe in his name. Both orders helped to carry on the work of the
Inquisition.[535:4] Both laboured incessantly in the missionary field
and from the thirteenth century onward they were the great missionary
pioneers in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Both had a tertiary order
of laymen which went far to remove the barrier between the ecclesiastic
and the people. From this comparison it will be seen that the
Franciscans and Dominicans were much more alike than unlike in their
origin, leaders, aims, methods, and results. After the thirteenth
century both departed from their original ideals, became corrupt,
worldly, and very unpopular.

A third begging order was created in 1243, when Pope Innocent IV.
authorised the organisation of a band of Italian monks under the rule of
St. Augustine. Lanfranc Septala of Milan was made general of the order
and provincial rulers were appointed for Italy, Spain, France, and
Germany. Under Alexander IV. in 1256 they assumed the rights and duties
of a mendicant order and in 1287 they were taken under the particular
protection of the Pope. They soon spread rapidly over western Europe and
by the fifteenth century covered forty-two provinces, had two thousand
monasteries, and thirty thousand monks. It was this order which young
Martin Luther entered in 1505 at Erfurt.

No better summary of the general results of the begging orders has ever
been made than that of Lea when he says:

     The Mendicants came upon Christendom like a revelation--men
     who had abandoned all that was enticing in life to imitate the
     Apostles, to convert the sinner and unbeliever, to arouse the
     slumbering sense of mankind, to instruct the ignorant, to
     offer salvation to all; in short to do what the Church was
     paid so enormously in wealth and privileges and power for
     neglecting. Wandering on foot over the face of Europe, under
     burning suns or chilling blasts, rejecting alms in money but
     receiving thankfully whatever coarse food might be set before
     the wayfarer, or enduring hunger in silent resignation, taking
     no thought for the morrow, but busied eternally in the work of
     snatching souls from Satan, and lifting men up from the sordid
     cares of daily life, of ministering to their infirmities and
     of bringing to their darkened souls a glimpse of heavenly
     light--such was the aspect in which the earliest Dominicans
     and Franciscans presented themselves to the eyes of men who
     had been accustomed to see in the ecclesiastic only the
     sensual worldling intent solely upon the indulgence of his
     appetites.[537:1]

     In the busy world of the 13th century there was then no agency
     more active than that of the Mendicant Orders, for good and
     for evil. On the whole perhaps the good preponderated, for
     they undoubtedly aided in postponing a revolution for which
     the world was not yet ready. Though the self-abnegation of
     their earlier days was a quality too rare and perishable to be
     long preserved, and though they soon sank to the level of the
     social order around them, yet their work had not been
     altogether lost.[537:2]

The degeneration which soon crept into both orders was not allowed to
increase without efforts of reformation. Within fifty years after the
death of St. Francis, Bonaventura, the governor-general who succeeded
him, complained that the vow of poverty had broken down, that the
Franciscans were more entangled in money matters than the older orders
and that vast sums were lavished on costly buildings. He declared that
the friars were idle, lazy beggars given to vice and so brazen that they
were feared as much as highway robbers. He said further that they made
undesirable acquaintances and thus gave rise to grave scandals, and that
they were too greedy of burial and legacy fees and thus encroached upon
the parochial clergy. St. Francis himself had been compelled to resign
his generalship on account of the abuses and offered to resume it only
on condition of reformation.[537:3] The second general, Elias, the
shrewdest politician in Italy, was removed by Pope Gregory IX. It was
high time therefore that a high-minded reformer like Bonaventura
appeared, for by a series of steps the Franciscans changed from a body
of pietists to a band of the boldest swindlers. As preaching and
soul-saving died out, the begging propensities were developed. As early
as 1233 Gregory IX. told the Dominicans that their poverty should be
genuine and not hypocritical.[538:1] The wide use of the friars by the
Pope for political purposes still further diverted them from their
spiritual functions and tended to make them worldly.

As a result the Franciscans soon broke into two parties: (1) The
liberals who were not averse to dropping the vow of poverty and
imitating the older monastic orders were very strong. (2) The reform
party who desired to adhere rigidly to the preaching and practice of St.
Francis were probably a minority and were weakened by subdivisions. One
faction of the strict party was called Spirituales,[538:2] and in turn
was represented by the Cæsarins who revolted against the public activity
of Elias and were punished as rebels; the Celestines who were permitted
to exist as a separate order by Pope Celestine V. in 1294, and were
later denounced as heretics; the congregation of Narbonne which was
formed in 1282; the Clarenins who were accused of heresy in 1318; and
the congregation of Philip of Nyarca which was formed in 1308. A second
reform element within the rigid party were the Fratricelli, authorised
by Celestine V., who became revolutionists, repudiated the Papacy, left
the Church, joined the Beghards, thought that they were possessed with
the Holy Spirit and were exempt from sin, and repudiated the sacraments
of the Church. They were condemned as heretics and the Inquisition was
turned against them in Italy, Sicily, and southern France, but they
lasted until the Reformation. Later reform factions among the
Franciscans were the Capuchins (1526), Minims (1453), Observants (1415),
and Recollects. These internal reformers failed to change the order
because the rule of St. Francis was utterly incompatible with social
life in any form.

For three centuries the Franciscans and Dominicans practically ruled the
Church and state. They filled the highest civil ecclesiastical
positions; they taught authoritatively in the universities and churches;
they maintained the prerogatives of the Roman Pontiffs against kings,
bishops, and heretics; and they were to the Church before the
Reformation what the Jesuits were after the Reformation. The Mendicants
increased so rapidly however that they soon became a burden to the
Church and the people. Hence in 1272 Gregory X. in the Council of Lyons
suppressed the "extravagant multitude" by reducing them to four orders:
the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Augustinians.

SOURCES.

A.--PRIMARY:

   1.--Gerard de Frachet, _Lives of the Brethren_.

   2.--Eales, S. J., _Letters of St. Bernard_. Lond., 1888.

   3.--Bonaventura, _The Life of St. Francis of Assisi_. Lond.,
          1868.

   4.--Brewer and Howlett, _Monumenta Franciscana_.

   5.--Eccleston, _Arrival of the Friars in England_. Ed. by Brewer
          and Howlett in _Pub. Rolls Ser._, 1882.

   6.--_Legend of St. Francis by the Three Companions._ Tr. by E.
          G. Salter. Lond., 1902.

   7.--Brother Leo of Assisi, _S. Francis of Assisi, Mirror of
          Perfection_. Tr. by S. Evans. Lond., 1898.

   8.--_The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi._ Tr. by T. W.
          Arnold. Lond., 1898. Several other translations.

   9.--_Legends of St. Francis._ Cath. Penny Lib. Lond., 1901.

  10.--_Manual of the Third Order of St. Francis._

  11.--_Third Order._ Tr. by J. G. Adderley and C. L. Marson.
          Lond., 1902.

  12.--Parenti, P., _Commercium or My Lady's Poverty_. Tr. by
          Carmichael.

  13.--The Franciscan Fathers, _Spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, or
          Maxims for Every Day in the Year_. Dub., 1888.

  14.--_Works of the Seraphic Father, St. Francis of Assisi._ Tr.
          by a Religious of the Order. Lond., 1890.

  15.--Brother Leo of Assisi, _The Mirror of Perfection_. Tr. by
          Countess De La Warr. Lond., 1902.

  16.--Robinson, _Readings in European History_, i., 387, 391, 392.

  17.--Thatcher and McNeal, _A Source-Book for Mediæval History_,
          498, 504, 508.

  18.--Ogg, A. F., _The Source-Book of Mediæval Europe_. N. Y.,
          1908.

B.--SECONDARY:

    I.--SPECIAL:

     I.--DOMINICAN:

     1.--Alemany, T., _Life of St. Dominic with a Sketch of the
          Dominican Order_. N. Y., 1887.

     2.--Drane, A. T., _The Spirit of the Dominican Order_. Lond.,
          1896. _The History of St. Dominic._ Lond., 1891. _The
          Life of St. Dominic._ Lond., 1891.

     3.--Guirand, J., _Saint Dominic_. Tr. by Kath. de Mattos.
          Lond., 1901.

     4.--Herkless, J., _Francis and Dominic and the Mendicant
          Orders_. Lond., 1901.

     5.--Fletcher, W. D. G., _The Black Friars of Oxford_. Oxf.,
          1882.

     6.--Lacordaire, H. D., _Life of Saint Dominic._ Lond., 1883.

     7.--_Short Lives of Dominican Saints._ Lond., 1901.

   II.--FRANCISCANS:

     1.--Adderley, J., _Francis, the Little Poor Man of Assisi_.
          Lond., 1600. Has Rule of St. Francis.

     2.--Baring-Gould, _Lives of the Saints_.

     3.--De Chérancé, F. L., _Saint Francis of Assisi_. Tr. by R.
          F. O'Connor. Lond., 1880.

     4.--Cotton, A. L., _A Sketch of the Life of St. Francis of
          Assisi_. Lond., 1885.

     5.--Douglass, Cap., _Brother Francis, or Less than the Least_.
          Lond., 1901.

     6.--Faber, F. W., _The Life of St. Francis of Assisi_. 2 vols.
          Lond., 1853-4.

     7.--Lear, H. L. S., _Life of Francis of Assisi_. N. Y., 1888.

     8.--Leon, Father, _Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the
          Three Orders of St. Francis_. 5 vols. Taunton, 1885-8.

     9.--_The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi; and a Sketch of the
          Franciscan Order_, by a Religious of the Order. N. Y.,
          1867.

    10.--Little, W. J. K., _St. Francis of Assisi, his Times, Life
          and Work_. Lond., 1897.

    11.--Luther, M., _Preface to a Book of Selections from the
          Legends of St. Francis_. Brighton, 1845.

    12.--Le Monnier, Abbe Leon, _History of St. Francis of Assisi_.
          Tr. by a Franciscan Tertiary. Lond., 1894.

    13.--Muzzy, D. S., _The Spiritual Franciscans_. Wash., 1907.

    14.--Oesterley, W. O. E., _St. Francis of Assisi_. Lond., 1901.

    15.--Oliphant, Mrs. M. O., _Francis of Assisi_. Lond., 1870.

    16.--Sabatier, P., _Life of St. Francis of Assisi_. Tr. by
          Louise S. Houghton. N. Y., 1894.

    17.--Westlake, N. H. J., _On the Authentic Portraiture of S.
          Francis of Assisi_. Lond., 1897.

    18.--Vernet, Abbe Felix, _The Inner Life of St. Francis of
          Assisi_. Tr. by Father Stanislaus. Lond., 1900.

  III.--MISCELLANEOUS:

     1.--Browne, E. G. K., _Monastic Legends_. Lond.

     2.--Brown, J. B., _Stoics and Saints_. Glasg., 1893.

     3.--Butler, _Lives of the Saints_.

     4.--Day, S. P., _Monastic Institutions_. Lond., 1865.

     5.--Fosbroke, T. D., _British Monachism_.

     6.--Fox, S., _Monks and Monasticism_. Lond., 1848.

     7.--Gasquet, F. A., _Notes on Mediæval Monastic Libraries_.
          Yevil, 1891. _Sketches of Mediæval Monastic Life_. Yevil,
          1891.

     8.--Griffin, _Grandmont; Stories of an Old Monastery_. N. Y.,
          1895.

     9.--Harnack, A., _Monasticism: Its Ideals and Its History_.
          Lond., 1901.

    10.--Hill, O. T., _English Monasticism_. Lond., 1867.

    11.--Jameson, Mrs. A., _Legends of the Monastic Orders_. Lond.,
          1880.

    12.--Jessopp, A., _The Coming of the Friars_. N. Y., 1889.

    13.--Lea, H. C., _History of the Inquisition_. 3 vols. _History
          of Sacerdotal Celibacy_. Phil., 1884. 3d ed. 2 vols. N.
          Y., 1907.

    14.--Maclear, _History of Christian Missions in the Middle
          Ages_.

    15.--Montalembert, Count de, _Monks of the West_. 7 vols.
          Lond., 1861-7.

    16.--Wishart, A. D., _Short History of Monks and Monasticism_.
          N. Y., 1900.

   IV.--GENERAL:

    Alzog, ii., 507-522. Adams, _Med. Civ._, 401. Cutts. Darras,
    ii., 121 _ff._; iii., 337 _ff._ Döllinger, ch. 23-24. Fisher,
    pd. 6, ch. 6. Fitzgerald, ii., 54-106. Foulkes, 398. Gieseler,
    § 67-72. Gilmartin, i., ch. 45; ii., ch. 9-10, 11-13, 14.
    Hase, sec. 204-211. Hore, ch. 14. Hurst, i., 805 _ff._
    Jennings, ii., ch. 12-13. Kurtz, ii., 64-67. Milman, v., bk.
    9, ch. 9-10. Moeller, ii., 404 _ff._ Neander, pd. 5, sec. 2,
    pt. 5, 268 _ff._ Robertson, bk. 5, ch. 7, 13. Tout, ch. 9, 18.
    Workman, ch. 7-8.

FOOTNOTES:

[510:1] See Ch. XI.

[510:2] See Ch. XVIII.

[510:3] Migne, vol. 204, pp. 1005-1046.

[511:1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._, bk. viii., ch. 4.

[511:2] Mabillon, _Life and Letters_, 2 vols.; Ogg, § 43, 44.

[511:3] Storrs, _Bernard of Clairvaux_; Eales, _St. Bernard_; Eales,
_The Works of St. Bernard_, 4 vols. See Chap. XX.

[512:1] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._

[513:1] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 266. Privileges granted by Anastasius
IV. in 1154.

[513:2] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 265a.

[515:1] Lea, _Hist. of Sacer. Celib._

[516:1] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 39, 53, 54.

[516:2] _Ibid._, i., 70.

[516:3] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 267.

[516:4] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 35.

[517:1] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 36, 37.

[517:2] _Ibid._, i., 37, 38.

[517:3] _Ibid._, i., 34.

[517:4] _Ibid._, i., 268.

[518:1] Sabatier, 28 _ff._

[518:2] _Mon. Ger._, xx., 537; Jaffé, i., 404; Hausrath, _Arnold of
Brescia_; Franke, _Arnold of Brescia_; Gregorovius, _Rome in M. A._

[519:1] Migne, 193, 194; _Mon. Ger._, iii., 131-525; Wattenbach,
_Geschichtsquellen_, ii., 308, 520.

[519:2] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 244.

[519:3] _Ibid._, i., 75.

[519:4] See Chap. XVIII.

[519:5] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 246.

[520:1] Mosheim, _The Beghards and Beguins_. In 1311 Clement V.
suppressed both orders.

[521:1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._, bk. ix., 250. See Drane, _Hist. of St.
Dominic_, Lond., 1891, who narrates all these legends as true.

[521:2] Afterwards transferred to Salamanca.

[521:3] It is related that at Toulouse, Dominic's host was an
Albigensian and that the young religious enthusiast spent the night in
converting him.

[522:1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._, bk. ix., 242.

[523:1] The Inquisition was not organised until 1215. See Drane, 109;
Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 300.

[523:2] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 250.

[524:1] In the dream the Pope saw the great Roman Church about to fall
had not Dominic upheld it.

[524:2] Conway, _Frachet's Lives of the Brethren_.

[525:1] The "Soldiers of Jesus Christ" later became the "Order of
Penance" and is now known as "The Third Order." There are many editions
in English of the _Tertiary Daily Manual_.

[525:2] Moeller, ii., 412 _ff._

[526:1] Jameson, _Legends of Monastic Orders as Represented in the Fine
Arts_.

[526:2] Sabatier, 8.

[527:1] Robinson, _Readings_, i., 387.

[528:1] Matt. x., 7-10.

[528:2] Sabatier, 70.

[528:3] See Ogg, § 63.

[529:1] Matthew of Paris, ed. by Watson, 340.

[529:2] Henderson, _Hist. Docs._, 344; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 269.

[530:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, vol. i., 264. See his curious prayer to
Christ.

[530:2] Read the legend of St. Clara in Butler, _Lives of Saints_.

[530:3] Milman, iv., 270.

[530:4] Maclear, _Hist. of Christ. Missions in the M. A._, ch. 16.

[531:1] Milman, iv., 267.

[531:2] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 270; Robinson, _Readings_, i., 392;
Ogg, § 64, gives the will of St. Francis.

[531:3] See Sabatier, 443 _ff._, Hase, and other authorities.

[531:4] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 260. See Jessopp, _The Coming of the
Friars_, 47 _ff._

[532:1] Robinson, _Readings_, i., 391.

[532:2] Read his "Song of Creation" in Mrs. Oliphant's Biography.

[532:3] Milman, iv., 268, 269.

[533:1] Moeller, i., 405.

[533:2] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 273.

[534:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 266.

[535:1] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 271, 272, 273. _Cf._ No. 268.

[535:2] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 274.

[535:3] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 271, 272, 273.

[535:4] _Ibid._, 299.

[537:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 266.

[537:2] _Ibid._, i., 304.

[537:3] _Ibid._, 295.

[538:1] See letter of Innocent III., about monastic simony in 1211.
Thatcher and McNeal, No. 267.

[538:2] Muzzy, _The Spiritual Franciscans_.

CHAPTER XXII

INNOCENT III. AND THE CHURCH AT ITS HEIGHT

OUTLINE

I.--Antecedent preparation for this period. II.--Career of Innocent III.
up to 1198. III.--Innocent III.'s plans and ideals as Pope.
IV.--Condition of Europe at the close of the twelfth century.
V.--Innocent III. makes himself the political head of Europe.
VI.--Innocent III.'s efforts to root out heresy and reform the Church.
VII.--Innocent III.'s character and the general results of his
pontificate. VIII.--Sources.

Many antecedent forces prepared the way for the ascendency of the Church
under the greatest of all the Popes, Innocent III. The promulgation of
the Petrine theory and its development for many centuries afforded the
fundamental groundwork upon which the Church at its height was built.
The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals furnished the constitutional basis for
the work of this master Pope and their most complete realisation
culminated under his rule. The Hildebrandine reformation, inspired by
the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, was largely attained under Innocent III.
The reorganisation of the College of Cardinals tended to purify papal
elections. The administrative reforms of Hildebrand restored order in
the Church and subjected the councils and clergy to the Pope. The moral
reforms attempted sought: (1) to enforce clerical celibacy and, although
a failure immediately, ultimately were successful; (2) to abolish
simony--a task that was left for the great Innocent; (3) and to
annihilate lay investiture which was partly successful in the Concordat
of Worms formed in 1122. Gregory VII. had sought also, to subject the
state to the Church. Some of his successors, notably Urban II., Pascal
II., Calixtus II., and Alexander III.,[545:1] strove valiantly to
realize this same purpose. The complete realisation of all these hopes,
however, was left for Innocent III.

Innocent III. was born in 1160 at Anagni and bore the name Lothario. He
was the fourth son of a rich noble Italian family named Conti.[545:2]
His father was Count Trasimundo of Segni and his mother belonged to the
noble Roman Scotti family which had given the Church nine Popes and
thirteen cardinals. It is not unreasonable to believe, therefore, that
the young Lothario inherited from his ancestors both a capacity and a
desire for an important position in the Church. His education was the
best obtainable at that day and was begun under the direction of two
cardinal uncles. He was sent to Rome to one of the schools attached to
all the churches and there received his elementary education and
likewise his preparation for the university. When properly qualified he
entered the University of Paris where he studied philosophy and theology
under the celebrated Peter of Corbeil. While there he probably visited
England in order to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket.
From Paris he was sent to Bologna University where he studied civil law
and especially canon law, then a very popular subject. He mastered the
whole system of decretal lore and made it his guide for the rest of his
life. In 1181 he returned to Rome, a university graduate, only
twenty-one years of age, yet celebrated for his theological and legal
erudition.

Everything pointed him toward a career in the Church--his character, his
birth as the youngest son of a noble, his family connections with the
Church, his education, and his natural inclination. It is no surprise,
consequently, to learn that upon his return to the Eternal City he was
made a canon of St. Peter's (1181). Gregory VIII. (1187), promoted him
to the office of subdeacon and Clement III. (1190), his maternal uncle,
made him cardinal-deacon. He now became the chief papal adviser, was a
recognised leader in the College of Cardinals, though only twenty-nine
years of age, and was generally known as a second Hildebrand. Upon the
election of Pope Celestine III. (1191-1198), the leader of a rival
party, the young churchman deserted practical church work and church
politics to devote himself to study and literary work. He wrote several
books of importance which reveal his deep and extensive culture, his
ascetic spirit resembling that of Hildebrand and Luther, his lofty
ideals of the Papacy, and his mediæval theology.[546:1]

Celestine III. died January 8, 1198, urging the cardinals to elect his
nephew John, Cardinal of St. Paul's, as his successor. But the sacred
college at once unanimously elected Cardinal Lothario, the youngest of
their number, only thirty-seven, as Pope and saluted him as Innocent
III. His ability and life had marked him out for several years as the
next occupant of St. Peter's See. Being only in deacon's orders he was
first advanced to the priesthood (Feb. 21) then consecrated bishop and
crowned Pope with an elaborate ceremony of installation (Feb.
22).[547:1]

Innocent III. came to the papal chair with a belief in man's utter
depravity and in the Pope's power to pardon all sin and to remit all
penances. After his election, but before coronation, he declared:

     As God . . . hath set in . . . the heavens two great lights,
     the greater to rule the day, the lesser to rule the night, so
     also hath He set up in His Church . . . two great powers: the
     greater to rule the day, that is the souls; the lesser to rule
     the night, that is the bodies of men. These powers are the
     pontifical and royal: but the moon, as being the lesser body,
     borroweth all her light from the sun both in the quantity and
     quality of the light she sends forth, as also in her position
     and functions in the heavens. . . . The royal power borrows
     all its dignity and splendour from the pontifical.[547:2]

Again

     the Lord hath fashioned His Church after the model of the
     human body placing the Roman Church at the head, thereby
     subjecting, in obedience to himself and her, all churches as
     members of the one body . . . but the Church without the Pope
     were a body without a head.[547:3]

His whole policy was summed up in a remarkable consecration sermon from
Luke 12:42:

     Who is this steward? It is he to whom the Lord Omnipotent
     said, Thou are Peter, etc. This foundation cannot be shaken
     . . . for Christ himself is on board; . . . Christ is the rock
     upon which the Holy See is founded; . . . this chair is not
     established by man but by God alone. . . . Therefore I fear
     not, for I am that steward whom the Lord hath placed over His
     household to give them their meat in due season. . . .
     Therefore my desire is to serve, not to rule. . . . As the
     Lord's steward . . . I must be established in the faith. . . .
     But faith without works is dead. My works, therefore, must be
     wise as well as faithful. . . . The high-priest of the Old
     Testament was the type and pattern of the Pope. . . . I am he
     whom the Lord hath placed over His household; yet who am I
     that I should sit on high above kings and above all princes?
     For of me it is written in the prophets (Jer. 1:10): This
     steward is the viceroy of God, the successor of Peter; he that
     standeth in the midst between God and man. He is the judge of
     all, but is judged by no one . . . Now His Household is the
     whole church and this household is one . . . out of which, if
     anyone remain, he and all his shall surely perish in the
     flood.

The germs of these ideas were found in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals.
They were formulated by Hildebrand and it now became the passionate
purpose of Innocent III. to realise them in their entirety. To that end
he adopted Hildebrand's reform program to abolish abuses and corruptions
of all sorts, to enforce celibacy, to subject the clergy to the head of
the Church, and to make the Church supreme above the state.

The situation in Europe at the close of the twelfth century was such as
to aid Innocent in his great plans. The Crusades, now in progress for a
century, had aroused a terrific religious enthusiasm, enriched the
Church, increased the Pope's power, weakened rival secular authority,
and paved the way for the successful realisation of Hildebrand's ideals
by Innocent III. The Papacy was well established. Its dogmas were
expressed in canon law, its machinery was completed, and its right to
exist as a state resting upon a territorial basis was recognised. In the
Empire Henry VI. had died in 1197, Naples was ruled by a child, the
Guelphs and Ghibellines were at war in the Lombard cities and the whole
Empire was distracted and almost reduced to anarchy by the rival
claimants to the imperial throne. In France Philip Augustus, a
tyrannical ruler, ambitious to overthrow the English king, greedy to
swallow up the larger fiefs, was on the throne. He had divorced his
Danish wife and had remarried. At this time he was violently opposed by
both the nobles and the people. In Spain the lack of a strong central
power led to quarrelling among the rival kings and compelled the Pope to
interfere. In England the brutal, boisterous, immoral Richard I. died in
1199 and was succeeded by the tyrannical and feeble King John who was at
war with his own nobles. In the East the Slavic nations were ready to
accept Roman rule while the Eastern Empire was tottering and ready to
fall. In general parties in all countries were crying out to the Pope
for assistance. All Europe was ripe for just such a man as Innocent III.
with just such a policy.

The first step in Innocent's plan was to make himself the political head
of Europe. In Italy he first made himself absolute sovereign of Rome by
removing all vestiges of imperial rule. The senators and the prefect,
who held their commissions from the Emperor, were required to take oaths
to him as their sovereign.[549:1] The imperial judges were also
replaced by his own appointees. By persuasion or tactful diplomacy he
gained a mastery over the warring Roman nobles. From Rome he gradually
extended his sway over the rest of Italy. He was made regent of
Frederick II., the youthful son of Henry VI.,[550:1] now King of Sicily.
He forced the Tuscan cities to recognise his suzerainty[550:2] instead
of that of the German Emperor, and subdued the March of Ancona and the
Duchy of Spoleto.[550:3] He posed as the champion of Italian
independence and liberty against foreign rule. His leadership was
generally recognised and he was called "The Father of His Country."
"Innocent III. was the first Pope who claimed and exercised the rights
of an Italian Prince."[550:4] When Emperor Otto IV. ceded all the lands
claimed by the Papacy under grants from former rulers, an indisputable
title to the papal states was established.

In Germany, before the imperial throne was made vacant by the death of
Henry VI. (1197), the princes had been persuaded to choose his infant
son, Frederick, King of the Romans. But the election had been set aside,
and now the imperial crown was claimed by two rival claimants: Otto of
Brunswick and Philip of Hohenstaufen, a brother of Henry VI. The civil
war which ensued in Germany between these rival claimants gave Innocent
III. his opportunity. Both claimants appealed to the Pope, but Otto was
the more submissive. The Pope assumed the function of arbiter and issued
a famous bull favouring Otto.[550:5] Otto promised on oath protection
of the possessions and rights of the Roman Church, and obedience and
homage such as pious Emperors had formerly shown towards the Chair of
Peter (1201). Still victory did not come to Otto and the Pope, until
after ten years of civil strife followed by the assassination of Philip.
In 1208 Otto was coronated by Innocent in St. Peter's, Rome, but was
soon caught in deeds of treachery to the Pope and excommunicated and
deposed (1210), and died forgotten seven years later.

Frederick of Sicily was anxious to become King of Germany and also
Emperor. The Hohenstaufen party in Germany invited him to visit them and
in this Frederick was encouraged by Innocent III. Frederick made some
important concessions to the Holy See[551:1] (1213), was victorious in
Germany, and was crowned Emperor at Aachen after the Lateran Council in
1215. After a most remarkable career he died, however, a rebel against
the Church (1250). When death smote down Innocent III., he had created
two Emperors, he was recognised as lord paramount over the Empire, and
he ruled personally over a larger domain in the Empire than any
preceding Pope.

In France Philip Augustus had been excommunicated by Pope Celestine III.
(1196) for having divorced his wife, a Danish Princess in order to
marry, with the sanction of the French clergy, Mary, the daughter of the
Duke of Bohemia. Immediately after his election and before his
coronation, Innocent III. took up this case. He ordered Philip to put
away his concubine and to take back his lawful wife under the threat of
pronouncing his children bastards and of putting his land under an
interdict. Since the king turned a deaf ear to these demands, the Pope
excommunicated him, declared France under an interdict,[552:1] and
punished the French bishops. As a result Philip was compelled to submit,
and agreed to take back his wife and to restore confiscated Church
lands. This was a great and significant victory for the Pope.

In Spain the King of Leon had married a cousin contrary to canon law.
The Pope immediately annulled the marriage. The king refused at first to
give up his wife, but was forced to submission by excommunication.[552:2]
The Kings of Navarre and Castile were compelled to make peace and to
unite against the Saracens. Portugal was declared a fief of the Holy See
and the king was commanded to hurry up the payment of tribute.[552:3]
The King of Aragon was crowned by the Pope at Rome as a feudal
vassal.[552:4]

In England King John, who had succeeded Richard I. in 1199, had
embittered against him nobles, clergy, and common people by extortions
and tyrannical acts of all sorts. He aroused the wrath of Innocent III.
by making a treaty of peace with Philip Augustus of France, while
that ruler was still under the ban for repudiating his first wife
and marrying another. John had likewise boldly ousted the Bishop of
Limoges, confiscated his lands, and revived the Constitutions of
Clarendon.[552:5] Innocent III. immediately called John to account for
these misdemeanours[552:6] and forced the stubborn king to promise to
make a crusade to atone for his sins. The Pope demanded the immediate
reinstatement of the Bishop of Limoges in his office and lands.[553:1]
He treated the Constitutions of Clarendon as if they had been repealed
and waited for his opportunity to humble the haughty English ruler.

In 1205 (July 13), Hubert the Archbishop of Canterbury died. That same
night the monks of the Cathedral elected their sub-prior as archbishop
and hurried him off to Rome for papal confirmation. King John, backed by
the suffragan bishops of the diocese, appointed and invested the Bishop
of Norwich as archbishop and he also started for Rome to get the papal
sanction. Here was the opportunity for which Innocent III. was looking.
Both elections were declared void and the fifteen monks of Canterbury
were brought to Rome where they were forced to choose Cardinal Stephen
Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury.[553:2] The Pope consecrated Langton
to the new office and demanded King John's approval. John's rage was
unbounded. He impeached the monks for treason and expelled them from
England on pain of death. He confiscated the property of the see and the
chapter of Canterbury and told the Pope bluntly that he would never
permit the illegally elected stranger to set foot on English soil. The
Pope first threatened the king with an interdict, which merely produced
angry and obstinate counter threats from John, and then in 1208 actually
published the interdict.[553:3] The king retaliated by seizing Church
property, abusing the clergy, exiling the bishops, and confiscating the
estates of their relatives.

Determined to humble the stubborn monarch, Innocent III. in 1210
formally excommunicated John and deposed him from the kingship.[554:1]
The English crown was given to Philip II. of France who at once prepared
an army to invade England. At the same time John's followers deserted
him and in this desolation he was compelled to accept humiliating terms
of unconditional surrender.[554:2] He agreed to reinstate all prelates
to office and property; to pay a full indemnity to all laity and clergy,
eight thousand pounds being paid down as a guarantee; to make the Pope
arbiter about all sums of restitution; to give the Pope all right to
Church patronage in England; to reverse all outlawries; and to surrender
his crown and kingdoms of England and Ireland to the Pope and then to
receive them back as the sworn vassal of Rome, paying therefore the
annual sum of one thousand marks of silver.[554:3]

When the English barons wrested from the stubborn king the great Magna
Charta in 1215,[554:4] Pope Innocent III. championed the cause of the
king, his vassal, against the barons. He called a council, annulled the
Magna Charta, issued a manifesto against the barons, and ordered the
bishops to excommunicate them.[554:5] He suspended Archbishop Langton
from office for siding with the barons against the king and directly
appointed the Archbishop of York. At the same time Prince Louis
of France, who had invaded England with an army, was summarily
excommunicated for having entered a domain of the Holy See. As a result
of the Pope's policy King John of England became a suppliant vassal of
Rome, the English clergy were subjected to the Pope, the resources of
England were put at the Pope's command, the nobles and the people were
thwarted in their efforts to check John in his tyranny, and Magna Charta
was declared illegal though not invalidated.

In the East the Latin rulers in Palestine and at Constantinople were
papal vassals. The Pope asserted his supremacy over the Eastern Empire
in refusing to restore the Isle of Cyprus and in demanding a council to
heal the schism.[555:1] Leo, King of Armenia, threw both his church and
his kingdom into the Pope's arms for protection.[555:2] Bulgaria was won
away from the Greek Church and her king was given a crown independent of
the Eastern Empire.[555:3] Hungary was treated as a vassal kingdom and
papal protection was extended to her king.

In the North the King of Norway had been slain by a priest who then
compelled the bishops in 1184 to crown him king. Innocent III. took up
the case and appointed the King of Denmark and the Archbishop of Norway
a court to try the murderer on the charge of having forged papal bulls
to favour his coronation. His supporters were excommunicated, he himself
was put under the ban, and all places giving him shelter were
interdicted. Even the Bishop of Ireland was rebuked for having
permitted his clergy to communicate with the "accursed apostate." The
Pope reorganised the northern churches and tied the clergy to St.
Peter's Chair. In Poland the archbishop was censured for neglecting to
draw the spiritual sword in favour of Duke Bolesas who had been ill
treated by his subjects. The Duke of Holland, a faithful vassal, was in
turn assisted against his rebellious subjects.

No occupant of St. Peter's Chair was more sincerely impressed with the
beauty and necessity of rescuing the Holy Land from the infidels than
Innocent III. He sent preachers all over Europe to stir up a holy war.
He laboured incessantly to pacify and unite all rulers under his
guidance in this great enterprise. He attempted to eliminate the
mercenary character of the crusade by forbidding the Venetians to
traffic with the Mohammedans.[556:1] But he strove in vain to prevent
the secular diversions and consequent failure of the Fourth Crusade.
When the crusaders in fulfilment of their bargain with the
Venetians,[556:2] left Venice to attack Zara, a Christian city, he
threatened them with excommunication. After the deed was done, however,
he granted conditional pardon.[556:3] The capture of Constantinople was
likewise censured but in the end lauded,[556:4] although he strongly
urged the crusaders to fulfil their original vow.[556:5] So skillfully
did he manipulate affairs that both Greek and Latin Emperors recognised
his overlordship, the Greek Church was subjected to Rome, and the
appointment of the Patriarch of Constantinople was in his hands.

Since this phase of the fourth crusade fell so far short of its original
aim, Innocent summoned the Lateran Council in 1215 to proclaim an ideal
crusade for June 1, 1216.[557:1] The Pope intended to direct the
movement in person or by legates. The usual privileges were granted to
crusaders and a variety of financial regulations were published
authorising the clergy to sell or mortgage Church lands for three years
in order to raise necessary funds; urging kings, nobles, cities, and
rural districts to contribute money and men, and levying a tax on the
cardinals and the head of the Church. In addition the Pope contributed
out of his private possessions thirty-three thousand pounds of silver
and a large ship. A truce for four years was enjoined on all Christian
princes on pain of excommunication and interdict. Through the untimely
death of the Pope, however, while he was going to persuade Pisa to join
in the crusade, the crusade did not mature, but later the Popes were not
slow in claiming the leadership granted in this instance by the council
to Innocent III.

In no direction did Innocent III. accomplish more than in his
uncompromising attack on heresy. It must never be forgotten that heresy
was the greatest crime of the Middle Ages. God had planted His Church on
earth, appointed the Pope as vice-gerent, and prescribed laws and dogmas
in the Bible and the canons to govern the Church. Any violation of these
laws, or disbelief in the dogmas, was heresy. Consequently, heresy was
treason against both the Church and God. A heretic was like a man with
a dangerous, infectious disease. Not only was he himself in mortal
danger, but he might inoculate the whole community and carry it too,
down to perdition. It was the duty of the Church, therefore, to get rid
of that diseased person either by curing him through recantation, or
ending his power for evil by death.

The existence of heresy parallels the whole history of the Church and
suggests a universal mental attribute. The causes for the remarkable
growth of heresy are to be found in the departure of the Church from its
earlier teachings and practices, in the failure of the Church to make
its theory and practice harmonise,[558:1] in the remnants of earlier
doctrines and heresies, and in the mental awakening of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries[558:2] due to the crusades and other
influences.[558:3] Among the leading heretics of this period were:

1. Tanchelm, who carried on a heretical movement in Flanders
(1108-1126), teaching the historical origin of the hierarchy, the
pollution of the Eucharist in the hands of a bad priest, the illegality
of tithes and the congregational view of church government.[558:4]

2. Eon de l'Etoile in Brittany who declared that he was the son of God
sent to reform the Church (1145-1148).[558:5]

3. Pierre de Bruys who preached in Vallonise until he was burned
(1106-1126), declaring infant baptism useless, offerings, prayers, and
masses for the dead of no avail since each one would be judged by his
own merits, churches unnecessary, the use of the cross idolatry, the
Eucharist a mere historical incident and the Papacy with its hierarchy
of officials a blatant fraud.[559:1]

4. Henry of Lausanne who deserted his monastery and became a reformer in
various districts in France (1116-1147). He rejected the invocation of
saints, taught asceticism, denounced the vice of the clergy, discarded
the Eucharist, denied the sanctity of the priesthood, declared tithes to
be illegal, opposed attendance at Church, and aroused an intense zeal
for purity and piety. Whole congregations left their churches and joined
him. At last the Church secured his arrest and condemnation to
imprisonment for life, but he appears to have died shortly after.[559:2]

5. Arnold of Brescia, a pupil of Abelard, who travelled in various parts
of Italy, France, and Germany, denouncing infant baptism, rejecting the
Eucharist, assailing the wealth of the Church, lashing the vices of the
clergy, and organising associations of "Poor Men" until he was finally
hanged, then burnt, and his ashes thrown into the Tiber.[559:3]

6. Peter Waldo of Lyons, a rich but ignorant merchant, who from a study
of the New Testament was led, after providing for his family, to give
all his possessions to the poor.[559:4] He became an ardent preacher,
won converts, and sent them out as proselyting missionaries. He and his
followers refused obedience to Pope and prelates saying all good men
were priests, permitted women to preach, declared God and not man should
be obeyed, rejected masses and prayers for the dead as useless, denied
purgatory, assailed indulgences, advocated non-resistance, denounced war
and homicide, attacked all the vices of the day, and organised "The Poor
Men of Lyons" which order soon spread under the name Waldenses all over
Europe.[560:1]

7. The Catharists who appeared during the Middle Ages in Lombardy in the
eleventh century and soon spread over western Europe and became very
powerful. They were dualists believing in God and Satan, the spiritual
and the physical, the good and the bad. They held that Christ came to
overthrow Satan and that the Roman Church was the latter's seat. They
rejected the authority and doctrines of the Church and had a distinct
ritual of their own. Soon they broke up into different sects with
different names and were known in southern France as Albigenses.[560:2]

Innocent III.'s theory of the Papacy clearly indicated his duty about
heresy and the co-operation which he might demand of the secular
powers.[560:3] In the first year of his pontificate (1198) heretics were
offered the choice of recantation or death.[560:4] The clergy were
likewise ordered to mend their ways in order to remove the cause of
heresy.[560:5] Two Inquisitors-General were sent to Spain and France
where the clergy were directed to give them information about heresy,
and the rulers and laity were asked to help the "Persecution."[560:6] As
a result a number of heretics were put to death in Spain, southern
France, and Italy. The following year (1199) the Pope appointed an
additional Inquisitor-General for Italy and added a third for France
and Spain. They were all kept very busy.

In 1207 Innocent in person led a force against the heretics at Viterbo
in Italy. The heretics fled but their houses were torn down, their
property confiscated, and a search made for suspects. An edict was also
passed decreeing that heretics should be treated as outcasts, that they
should be seized and given up to secular rulers, that their property
should be confiscated, that their hiding places should be razed to the
ground, that their protectors or sympathisers should forfeit one fourth
of their property and be outlawed, and that rulers refusing to execute
the decree should be excommunicated.[561:1] The same year a similar
edict was issued against the heretics in southern France. To all who
executed the decree were offered indulgences like those given devout
visitors to the shrines of the Apostles Peter and James. On the other
hand those who aided heretics were to suffer the same punishment.[561:2]

Innocent appointed a fourth Inquisitor-General and sent him to the
French King to urge him to help exterminate the heretics. The powers of
the Inquisitors at the same time were enlarged. The Pope now decreed a
general war against "the enemies of God and man." The King of France was
called upon to draw the sword, while the nobles and people were summoned
to the new crusade with promises of the same indulgences as given to
those who went as soldiers to Palestine.[561:3] Count Raymond of
Toulouse was harshly excommunicated and deposed. This new holy war with
Simon de Montfort as leader, was preached amidst much enthusiasm. A
bloody war of extermination was carried on for some years in southern
France until the Albigenses were all but extinct. As a result, the
Pope's authority was greatly increased, Simon de Montfort was made Count
of Toulouse, while Raymond was exiled to England, the precedent for
using the crusading machinery against heretical regions was established,
and the Inquisition was founded. The Lateran Council in 1215 defined
heresy and formulated complete regulations for its suppression.[562:1]

Not only was Innocent III. a great defender of Church dogmas, a
master-organiser of the hierarchy, and an administrator without a peer
in Church history, but he was also a far-reaching and sincerely
intelligent reformer. The judicial reforms were necessary to round out
Innocent's theory of Church government. He claimed immediate, personal
jurisdiction over all "_causæ majores_," such as disputes of the clergy,
and all questions involving the interests of the Church or of churchmen.
Consequently, the power of secular rulers over the clergy was curtailed.
An appalling number of cases was sent for settlement to the curia at
Rome and cases there were decided with a speed and punctuality hitherto
unknown. Innocent III. personally "held court" three days each week,
heard all important cases and rendered the decisions.[562:2] On the
other hand unimportant cases were turned over to committees under his
eye. He insisted upon having honest judges all over Christendom for
minor cases and enforced his will by making an appeal to Rome simple,
easy, and inexpensive.[562:3] All bribes and gifts to judges were
strictly prohibited. The Lateran Council of 1215 modified the trial of
clerical offenders by insisting upon trial in the presence of the
accused, a clear statement of the charges, a list of witnesses for the
accused, and no appeal before the rendering of a decision in an inferior
court.[563:1] Innocent III. also took all treaties between nations under
the protection of the Church,[563:2] and insisted on acting as supreme
arbiter in all wars and civil feuds.[563:3]

The necessity of moral reformation was recognised by Innocent III. from
the beginning of his pontificate. From the year of his election he
endeavoured to abolish all those debilitating corruptions which
prevented the realisation of his ideal priesthood; namely, pluralism,
luxury, rapacity, pride, arrogance, and other evils. The clergy were
emphatically commanded to free themselves of these abuses and severe
orders were given to his legates to root out these evils.[563:4] In 1215
the Lateran Council was called for the "extirpation of vices, the
planting of virtues, the correction of abuses, and the reformation of
morals." All the clergy were urged to note the evils needing amendment
and to correct the same.[563:5] In a sermon opening this remarkably
representative council the Pope urged the clergy to reform themselves so
that they could the better lead their flocks aright.[563:6] Many
reformatory measures were enacted by this Council. Nepotism was
prohibited, monastic abuses were corrected; pluralities were forbidden;
the extravagant use of relics was curtailed; the extortions and simony
of the clergy were abolished and renewed stress was laid on the canons
of celibacy.[564:1]

The doctrinal changes instituted by Innocent III. were likewise
important. The dogma of transubstantiation was canonised by the Lateran
Council in 1215. Before that time there had been many and divergent
views concerning this important subject. The leading motive which
actuated Innocent in having this doctrine carefully defined was to
destroy heresy. In consequence of the new dogma the sacerdotal body was
elevated by being given a holier character while each individual priest
employed this new power as a badge of divine dignity. All discussion
about transubstantiation now ceased. Heresy was more clearly defined
than ever and the Inquisition was canonised. At the same time the unity
of the Church on its doctrinal side was given greater emphasis. The
canonical restrictions on marriage were relaxed. The earlier rigid law
had led to grave abuses, since the clergy annulled marriages and
bastardised the offspring while the laity made it an excuse for divorce
and licentious passion. The prohibition of marriage between the relative
of a second wife and a first was removed. The degree of consanguinity
and affinity was reduced from the seventh to the fourth canonical
degree. Secret marriages were prohibited. The publication of the bans
was made necessary. Confession and penitential satisfaction were
prescribed as obligatory at least once a year under the penalty of
excommunication. Physicians were likewise required to send all the sick
to the priest first to have their souls cured before any effort was
made to heal the body. The penalty for disobedience was exclusion from
the communion.

The administrative reforms of Innocent III. embraced a wide range of
measures. Honorary precedence was granted to the Patriarch of
Constantinople. Elections to vacancies in the Church were reduced to
three forms: (1) A committee of three of the electors was to take the
votes and to declare who had received "the greater and sounder" number;
(2) a committee was to be empowered to appoint for the whole body of
electors; (3) a choice was to be made by acclamation. All lay
interference was excluded, otherwise the election would be _ipso facto_
illegal. Papal confirmation and the right of revision were carefully
guarded. Pluralities were strictly prohibited. Tithes were given
precedence over all other taxes and dues, and the clergy were urged to
guard the property and to collect all monies of the Church.[565:1] The
right to transfer ecclesiastics was reserved to the Pope alone.[565:2]
Finally the Inquisition was instituted for the purpose of suppressing
heresy, of enforcing doctrines and ordinances, and of reforming the
Church.

Innocent III. as head of the great Church easily outranked every ruler
of his day and stands high among the greatest leaders of the Middle Ages
and of all ages. A contemporary describes him as "A man of wonderful
fortitude and wisdom--one who had no equal in his own day; whereby he
had been able to do acts of miraculous power and greatness." If
Hildebrand was the Julius, Innocent was the Augustus of the Papal
Empire. He seldom miscalculated--his clear intellect never missed an
opportunity--his calculating spirit rarely erred--and he combined
forbearance with vigour. "Order, method, unswerving resolution,
inexorable determination, undaunted self-assertion, patience, vigilance,
and cunning, all co-operating to the accomplishment of a single
well-defined object--and that object the unlimited extension of the
political power of the Pontiff of Rome--had achieved a signal triumph
over the irregular, the selfish, and the impulsive political opposition
of the secular powers."[566:1]

The moral character of his reign was variously viewed by contemporaries.
The English clergy generally disliked him and a writer of the day
asserted that his death, July 26, 1216, caused more joy than sorrow. St.
Luitgarde, the prioress of a Cistercian Convent in Brabant, said that in
a vision she had seen him in purgatory enveloped in flames for his
sins.[566:2] The crimes of ambition, cruelty, deceit and treachery were
charged against him as a shrewd political intriguer. The practical
charity and genuine humility of an earlier day--when he washed and
kissed the feet of twelve poor men taken from the street every
Saturday[566:3]--seemed to disappear in the multiplied duties of a world
ruler. His piety, honesty of purpose, and sincere conviction of his
great mission cannot be questioned. Yet for some reason the Church, for
which he did so much, has never seen fit to canonise this great Pope.

No other wearer of the papal tiara has left behind him so many results
pregnant with good and ill for the future of the Church. Under him the
Papacy reached the culmination of its secular power and prerogatives.
The principles of sacerdotal government were fully and intelligently
elaborated. The code of ecclesiastical law was completed and enforced.
All the Christian princes of Europe were brought to recognise the
overlordship of the successor of St. Peter. All the clergy obeyed his
will as the one supreme law. Heresy was washed out in blood. The
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals and the dreams of Hildebrand had been
realised. Yet in this very greatness, wealth, and strength, were the
germs of weakness and disease which were eventually to overthrow the
great structure reared by Innocent III. and his predecessors.

SOURCES.

A.--PRIMARY:

     1.--Colby, C. W., _Selections from the Sources of English
          History_. Lond. and N. Y., 1899.

     2.--Gee, H., and Hardy, W. J., _Documents Illustrative of
          English Church History_. Lond., 1896.

     3.--Henderson, E. F., _Select Historical Documents of the
          Middle Ages_. N. Y., 1892.

     4.--Innocent III., _The Mirror of Man's Lyfe_. Lond., 1576.
          _The Droome of Doomsday._ Tr. by G. Gascoigne. Lond.,
          1576. _Bull of March 3, 1216._ Tr. by W. Beaumont. Lond.,
          1886.

     5.--Lee, G. C., _Leading Documents of English History_. Lond.,
          1900.

     6.--Ogg, F. A., _A Source-Book of Mediæval History_. N. Y.,
          1908.

     7.--Robinson, J. H., _Readings in European History_, i., 338.

     8.--Thatcher and McNeal, _A Source-Book for Mediæval History_,
          496, 497, 535, 537.

B.--SECONDARY:

    I.--SPECIAL:

     1.--Bower, A., _History of the Popes_, vi., 183 _ff._

     2.--Greenwood, T., _Cathedra Petri_, v., 321-668.

     3.--Gurney, J. H., _Four Ecclesiastical Biographies_. Lond.,
          1864.

     Note:--There is no good biography of Innocent III. in English.
          Langen, Hurter, Delitzsch have excellent works in German,
          and Jorry and Luchaire in French.

   II.--GENERAL:

    Adams, 354, 269, 393, 414. Allen, ii., 73, 80, 82, 90, 99,
    178. Alzog, ii., 411-421. Bryce, ch. 13. Butler, ch. 81, 82.
    Coxe, lect. 7, sec. 6. Creighton, i., 21. Crooks, ch. 34.
    Darras, iii., 311 _ff._ Döllinger, iv., ch. 3, sec. 3.
    Emerton, ch. 10. Fisher, pd. 6, ch. 3. Foulkes, 369, 398.
    Gibbon, vi., 36. Gieseler, ii., § 54. Gilmartin, ii., ch. 5-6.
    Gregorovius, bk. ix., ch. 1-3. Guizot, _Hist. of Fr._, ch. 18.
    Hallam, iii., ch. 6. Hardwick, ch. 10, sec. 1. Hare, ch. 13.
    Hase, sec. 192. Ingham, ch. 1. Jennings, i., ch. 13. Kurtz,
    sec. 96-109. Milman, bk. 9, ch. 1-10. Milner, iii., cent. 12,
    ch. 6. Moeller, ii., 275. Mosheim, cent. 11, pt. 2, ch. 2.
    Neander, iv., 173. Platina, ii., 68-73. Reichel, 242 _ff._
    Robertson, bk. 6, ch. 1. Robinson, ch. 14. Tout, ch. 14.

FOOTNOTES:

[545:1] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 105; Henderson, 420.

[545:2] Barry, _The Papal Monarchy_, 287, calls him "a Roman with
Northern blood in his veins."

[546:1] He wrote: _De contemptu mundi, sivi de miseria humanæ
conditionis_ (Migne, vol. 217. Part tr. in Greenwood, v., 349);
_Mysteriorum Evangelicæ Legis et Sacramenti Eucharistiæ_; _De
Quadrioartita Specia Nuptiorum_ (lost).

[547:1] Hurter, vol. i., 89-90; Greenwood, vol. v., 371.

[547:2] _Gesta Inn. III._, sec. ii., p. 3, 4.

[547:3] _Ep. Inn. III._, lib. i., ep. 117, 335.

[549:1] _Gesta_, sec. 8; Ep. i., 23, 577; Hurter, i., 125; Thatcher and
McNeal, No. 123.

[550:1] Greenwood, v., 376; Ep., i., 410. A papal bull declaring Sicily
a papal fief was accepted without opposition.

[550:2] _Gesta_, sec. ii.

[550:3] _Ibid._, sec. 9, 10.

[550:4] Creighton, i., p. 21.

[550:5] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 130.

[551:1] _Mon. Ger._, ii., 224; Greenwood, v., 510; Thatcher and McNeal,
No. 135, 136.

[552:1] Ogg, § 66.

[552:2] _Gesta_, sec. 58.

[552:3] Ep. i., 99, 249, 446.

[552:4] Greenwood, v., 456; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 118.

[552:5] Henderson, 11.

[552:6] Lee, _Source-Book of Eng. Hist._, sec. 66.

[553:1] Ep. v., 66.

[553:2] See Roger of Wendover's _Chronicle_, for facts about life of
Langton, and Hook, _Lives of Archbishops of Cant._, ii., 657.

[553:3] _Cf._ Roger of Wendover, _Chronicle_, tr. by Giles. Lee
_Source-Book_, sec. 67; Colby, No. 29.

[554:1] Lee, _Source-Book_, sec. 68, 69.

[554:2] _Ibid._, sec. 71.

[554:3] Greenwood, v., 587; Ep., xvi., 77; Lee, _Source Book_, sec. 72,
73, 74. Gee and Hardy, No. xxv.

[554:4] Roger of Wendover, _Chronicle_, tr. by Giles, ii., 304. Lee,
_Source-Books_.

[554:5] Rymer, i., 135; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 129.

[555:1] _Gesta_, par. 60, 61; _Ep._, i., 353, 354.

[555:2] _Ibid._, 109, 110.

[555:3] _Ibid._, 68, 70.

[556:1] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 286.

[556:2] _Transl. and Reprints_, iii., No. 1, p. 2-8.

[556:3] _Gesta_, sec. 83, 85, 87.

[556:4] _Ibid._, sec. 89; _Ep._, vii., 164; _Transl. and Reprints_,
iii., No. 1, p. 20.

[556:5] _Gesta_, sec. 93.

[557:1] _Gesta_, sec. 98; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 288; Robinson,
_Readings_, i., 338.

[558:1] _Ep._, i., 494.

[558:2] See Munro, "The Ren. of the Twelfth Cent.," in _An. Rep. of Am.
Hist. Assoc._, 1906, i., 45.

[558:3] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., ch. 2.

[558:4] _Ibid._, i., 64.

[558:5] _Ibid._, 66.

[559:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, vol. i., 68.

[559:2] _Ibid._, 69.

[559:3] _Ibid._, 72.

[559:4] Robinson, _Readings_, i., 380.

[560:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 76.

[560:2] _Ibid._, 89; Robinson, _Readings_, i., 381.

[560:3] Robinson, _Readings_, i., 385.

[560:4] _Ep._, i., 94.

[560:5] _Ibid._, 79, 80.

[560:6] _Ibid._, 94.

[561:1] _Ep._, vol. ii., 335.

[561:2] _Ibid._, i., 94.

[561:3] _Ibid._, x., 149.

[562:1] Greenwood, v., 641, 644. Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 314, 320.

[562:2] _Gesta_, sec. 41, 42.

[562:3] _Ep._, i., 335, 349, 399.

[563:1] Greenwood, v., 651.

[563:2] _Ep._, i., 130.

[563:3] _Gesta_, sec. 133.

[563:4] _Ep._, i., 79, 80.

[563:5] _Ibid._, xvi., 30-34. Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 41, 46.

[563:6] Matt. Paris, an. 1215; Murat, vii., 893; Raynaldus, an. 1215.

[564:1] Lea, _Hist. of Sac. Celib._ By the thirteenth century celibacy
was generally recognised as a canon all over the Latin Church, but
secret alliances continued as an unmitigated evil.

[565:1] _Ep._, i., 205, 217, 250, 292, 294, 388, 416, etc.

[565:2] _Gesta_, sec. 34-45.

[566:1] Greenwood, v., 666.

[566:2] Raynaldus, an. 1216, sec. 11; Fleury, _H. E._, xvi., 426.

[566:3] _Gesta_, sec. 134.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE MEDIÆVAL CHURCH AT ITS HEIGHT

     OUTLINE: I.--Characteristics of the thirteenth century.
     II.--Territorial extent and wealth of the Church.
     III.--Organisation of the papal hierarchy completed. IV.--The
     legal system of the Church. V.--The official language and
     ritual of the Church. VI.--The sacramental system. VII.--The
     employment of art. VIII.--The Church moulded the civilisation
     of Europe. IX.--Sources.

The thirteenth century was an age "of lofty aspirations unfulfilled,
of brilliant dreams unsubstantial as visions, of hopes ever looking
to fruition and ever disappointed. The human intellect awakened,
but as yet the human conscience slumbered, save in a few rare souls
who mostly paid in disgrace or death the penalty of their precocious
sensitiveness."[569:1] The thirteenth century left as a legacy to the
fourteenth century vast activity in intellectual progress, but a
spiritual desert. Society was harder, coarser, and more worldly than
ever.

Everywhere in western Europe the Church seemed to have attained the
extreme limits of its claims. The papal theory was triumphant. Temporal
rulers were everywhere subservient to the ecclesiastics. Locally the
clergy ruled the masses in morals and religion; they controlled
education and intelligence; and they practically settled all social and
industrial questions. At the same time the spirit of asceticism was
never more pronounced than in the early Cistercians, Carthusians,
Dominicans, Franciscans, and other orders. Mysticism stood like a
stone wall to stem the tide of worldliness, of wickedness, and of
disbelief.[570:1] When St. Bernard preached to the students at Paris on
the vanity of study and induced twenty of them to follow him into
the cloister at Clairvaux he was attempting a very significant
social revolution which culminated in St. Dominic and St. Francis.
Nevertheless, in the very face of the ascendancy of the Roman hierarchy
and notwithstanding the spiritual revival within the Church, there
appeared a vast amount of heresy, of irreverence, and of independence.
The spirit of individuality was abroad. Men became less obedient to
authority and began to doubt the truth of what was taught them. This
wide-spread distrust led to a shifting from one authority to another,
rather than an entire rejection of all authority.[570:2]

The wealth and power of the clergy and nobility had decreased; the
burghers had advanced to a position of influence and self-consciousness.
Guilds, the awakened spirit of nationality, and self-governing communes
were democratic factors to be taken into account. The rise of the lower
classes, and the consequent decline of the upper classes, show that a
new era is dawning over Europe. The bourgeois literature reveals a
mocking contempt for nobles and bishops alike. There was a great deal of
flippant wit which spared no topic and no individual. "God and the
devil, Aristotle and the Pope, canon and feudal law, Cistercians and
priests were held up to ridicule."[571:1] The subjects of popular songs
are no longer exclusively the virtues of asceticism and humility,
obedience to God and the feudal lord; but love of woman and the carnal
joys of life have become popular themes. Villains achieve paradise by
trickery. Men continually outwit Satan. A famous jongleur even shakes
dice with St. Peter, and beats him at the game. Verily a new chapter was
opening in the history of Europe.

Severe criticism of the iniquity and depravity of the clergy, their
greed for wealth and position, and particularly their contempt for their
sacred obligations, came from several sources.

(1) The best men in the Church, among whom are Popes, bishops, abbots,
priests, and monks. Their letters and sermons reveal flagrant abuses and
an earnest cry for reform.

(2) The acts of Church councils and synods show the general recognition
among the clergy of the presence of grave irregularities and evils, and
also a consciousness of their destructive tendencies.

(3) The general impression of selfishness and wickedness, which the
Church officials made, soon was reflected in the satirical poems of the
popular troubadours and by the sprightly versifiers of the
courts.[571:2]

(4) The laity of course were not slow to understand conditions and
became scathing critics. These lay censors in many instances went far
beyond the clerical reformers. While the better clergy urged the
elimination of current abuses not one of them dreamed of denying the
fundamental doctrines of the Church or the efficacy of its ceremonies.
On the contrary, the lay leaders became very extreme. They declared that
the Church was the creation and home of the devil; that no one ought to
believe any longer that salvation came only through sacerdotal
ministrations; that all theatrical ceremonies were of no avail; that the
masses, relics, holy water, and indulgences were mere priestly tricks
for money-making purposes and not certain means of gaining paradise.
These extreme opponents of the Church soon gained followers all over
Christendom, from all social classes and on account of a great many
reasons.

From the standpoint of ecclesiastical law, however, these drastic
critics who questioned the teachings of the Church, and proposed to
repudiate it, were guilty of the grave crime of heresy. The attempt to
crush the wide-spread heresies of the thirteenth century forms an awful
chapter in the history of the mediæval Church. The rise of the
Albigenses, the Waldenses, and other heretical sects forced the Church
to take drastic measures against these dangerous foes. Before the close
of the twelfth century secular rulers were induced to take measures
against heresy. In England Henry II. in 1166 ordered that no one should
harbour heretics, and that any house in which they were received should
be burned. In Spain the King of Aragon in 1194 decreed that any one who
should listen to the Waldensians, or even give them food, should have
his property confiscated and suffer death. These measures began a series
of merciless decrees which even the most enlightened rulers of the
thirteenth century passed against heretics and their abettors.[573:1]

The Church was not slow to utilise this power. A determination to
extirpate these dangerous heretics with the sword produced the crusade
against the Albigensians. The Inquisition was also organised to ferret
out secret heretics and to bring them before inquisitorial tribunals for
punishment. The unfairness of the trials and the heartless treatment of
suspects have rendered the name of the Inquisition infamous.[573:2]

From an early day the Church exercised a censorship over all
books.[573:3] The first specific instance was that of a synod of bishops
in Asia Minor about 150 A.D. which prohibited the _Acta pauli_. After
that the condemnation of books was not at all uncommon.[573:4] The first
papal Index was issued in 494 by Pope Gelasius I., who made a definite
catalogue of works prohibited. Councils condemned books as heretical,
while Popes prohibited their use, destroyed them, and punished those who
violated the law. This policy was continued throughout the Middle Ages.
Naturally the Church was just as desirous of getting rid of heretical
books as of suppressing the obnoxious authors.[573:5]

In territorial extent the Roman Church of the thirteenth century
included Italy and Sicily, Spain except the southern part, France,
Germany, Hungary, Poland, England, Ireland, and Scotland, Scandinavia
and Iceland, the Eastern Empire, though but temporarily, and Palestine
for a short period. In size, therefore, it surpassed the old Roman
Empire at its greatest height. The boundary lines of this great papal
Empire were widened still further by the zealous missionary work
encouraged by the Supreme Pontiff in Europe among the Slavs, Prussians,
Finns, and Mohammedans in Sicily and Spain; in Asia among the Tartars,
Mongols, and Moslems; in Africa among the Mohammedans[574:1]; in America
among the inhabitants of Iceland, Greenland, and "Vineland"--possibly
even on the New England coast. These fruitful labours were conducted
chiefly by the Franciscans and the Dominicans.

The wealth of the Church at this time consisted of lands and buildings;
Church furniture, utensils, and ornaments; and money derived from Church
lands, the sale of privileges, the gifts of the pious, tithes, and the
fees for various kinds of religious service. In the United States
churches must rely wholly upon voluntary support. It was not so with the
mediæval Church. The tithes were regular taxes and those persons upon
whom they were levied had to pay them just as taxes imposed by
governments must be paid to-day. Wide-spread complaint came from both
clergy and laity that these taxes were unjust. The Church actually owned
about one third of Germany, nearly one fifth of France, the greater part
of Italy, a large section of Christian Spain, a big portion of England,
perhaps one third, and important regions in Scandinavia, Poland, and
Hungary. The papal states in Italy, running diagonally across the
peninsula, were ruled by the Pope as a temporal prince. These extensive
territorial possessions together with the great wealth made the Church
the mightiest secular power in the world and put into the hands of the
Church thousands of lucrative sinecures, coveted and too often secured
by persons wholly unfitted for the spiritual functions of the office.
Through these extensive possessions the Church was beyond all question
the greatest economic and industrial power in Europe. The Church was led
to adopt feudalism and thus the Pope became the most powerful feudal
overlord in Europe. Furthermore, the Church, because of its vast domains
and enormous income, was enabled to support itself by its own perpetual
wealth. In consequence many evils and abuses sprang up,[575:1] or were
introduced, which led to the decline of the Church and the numerous
demands for reformation. It must be said, however, to the credit of the
Church that these resources were used to excellent advantage in
furthering charity of all sorts and in caring for the poor and
unfortunate.

During this period the organisation of the papal hierarchy was
perfected. At the head stood the all-powerful and absolute Pope as God's
agent on earth; hence, at least in theory and claim, he was the ruler of
the whole world in temporal and spiritual affairs. He was the defender
of Christianity, the Church, and the clergy in all respects. He was the
supreme censor of morals in Christendom and the head of a great
spiritual despotism. He was the source of all earthly justice and the
final court of appeal in all cases. Any person, whether priest or
layman, could appeal to him at any stage in the trial of a great many
important cases. He was the supreme lawgiver on earth, hence he called
all councils and confirmed or rejected their decrees. He might, if he
so wished, set aside any law of the Church, no matter how ancient, so
long as it was not directly ordained by the Bible or by nature. He could
also make exceptions to purely human laws and these exceptions were
known as dispensations.[576:1] He had the sole authority to transfer
or depose bishops and other Church officers. He was the creator of
cardinals and ecclesiastical honours of all kinds. He was the exclusive
possessor of the universal right of absolution, dispensation, and
canonisation. He was the grantor of all Church benefices. He was the
superintendent of the whole financial system of the Church and of all
taxes. He had control over the whole force of the clergy in Christendom,
because he conferred the _pallium_,[576:2] the archbishop's badge of
office. In his hands were kept the terrible thunders of the Church to
enforce obedience to papal law, namely, excommunication and the
interdict.

Excommunication meant for a private person that he was a social outcast,
excluded from all legal protection and deprived of the sacraments which
were "the life blood of the man of the Middle Ages." His property might
be confiscated without the possibility of recovery. Death and hell were
sure to be his doom if repentance and absolution did not occur. And
these same terrible results might even be extended to his descendants.
Excommunication for a king meant, in addition to the same treatment as a
private individual, the deprivation of all authority and the absolution
of subjects from all obedience. Excommunication was the greatest moral
power in all history and effective simply because the Christian opinion
of the age responded to it and enforced it. By its use the Pope
subjected to his will such powerful personages as Henry IV. of Germany,
Henry II. of England, Philip (IV.) Augustus of France, Frederick II. of
Germany, John of England, and countless lesser persons all over
Christendom.[577:1] The power of excommunication was exercised by
the Pope for the whole Church, by the bishop for his diocese, and
even by subordinate Church officials. The formula and ceremony for
excommunication were not uniform either in time or place but varied
greatly.[577:2]

The interdict was directed against a city, a region, or a kingdom. It
was used for the purpose of forcing a city or a ruler to obedience, as
for example the interdict laid on Rome in 1155, and that on England,
which lasted six years three months and fourteen days, to subdue the
obstinate King John; or to enforce the ban of excommunication[577:3]; or
to collect debts[577:4]; or to wreak vengeance for the death or
maltreatment of a son of the Church.[577:5] The interdict was proclaimed
in a papal bull and read by the clergy of the region affected to the
congregations every Sunday for some weeks before it went into operation.
Then all religious rites and sacraments ceased except baptism,
confession, and the viaticum.[577:6] All the faithful were ordered to
dress like penitents and to pray for the removal of the cause of the
curse. Thus the interdict resembled a raging pestilence and made a deep
impression on the ignorant masses. It practically stopped all civil
government, for the courts of justice were closed, wills could not be
made, and public officials of all kinds were forbidden to act. Naturally
it led to many very superstitious tales. For instance, the valley of
Aspe in Béarn was cursed for seven years and during that time it was
said that women bore no children, cattle gave no increase, and the land
produced no crops or fruit.[578:1]

The use of such powerful weapons as excommunication and interdict was
soon greatly abused. Popes and bishops employed this power out of spite,
or hatred or for ambitious ends.[578:2] Scheming rulers enlisted papal,
or episcopal, help of this sort to humble political rivals and
for purely secular ends such as enforcing laws and collecting
obligations.[578:3] In fact so wide-spread was the employment of these
powers that by the fourteenth century half of the Christians in Europe
were under the ban.[578:4] It was taught, moreover, that however illicit
or apparently unfair or unwarranted, still the ecclesiastical mandates
were to be obeyed. Hence Popes even granted the right not to be
excommunicated without good cause.[578:5] Before long these religious
curses degenerated to the point where they were applied to animals and
inanimate objects, of which there are many illustrations. For instance
two of St. Bernard's monks cursed the vineyard of a rival monk and it
became sterile until St. Bernard himself removed the blight.[579:1] A
certain priest, noticing that the fruit of a neighbouring orchard had a
stronger attraction for the children of his congregation than the divine
service, excommunicated the orchard, whereupon it remained barren until
the ban was taken off.[579:2] At the request of the farmers, the Bishop
of Comminges cursed the weeds in their fields with the desired
result.[579:3] St. Bernard, however, capped the climax of these
absurdities when he solemnly excommunicated the devil.[579:4] After the
thirteenth century the same weapons were used against leeches, rats,
grasshoppers, snails, bugs, and pests of all kinds. In fact as late as
1648 a similar formula was given based on the forty-ninth psalm and the
eleventh chapter of Luke.[579:5]

The efficacy of excommunication was likewise brought into service to
protect property. For instance the Archbishop of Campostella in the
twelfth century excommunicated any one who should steal or mutilate the
manuscript history of his diocese. The Abbot of Sens in 1123 cursed on
his death-bed any successor who should sell, lend, or lose any of the
twenty volumes in the abbey library. Clement III. encouraged Bologna
University by anathematising any person who should offer a higher rent
for rooms used by students or teachers. Later, copyrights were protected
by the same power and stolen property was recovered.[579:6] Letters
bestowing the power of excommunication were soon purchased and used for
all sorts of mercenary purposes.[579:7] John Gerson of the University
of Paris denounced Pope Martin V. for saying that as Pope he
congratulated himself because he was no longer in danger of
excommunication.[580:1] Gradually there came to be drawn up a list of no
less than one hundred sins which were _ipso facto_ followed by
excommunication. Many of these are of the most trifling character, like
that of collecting toll from a priest on crossing a bridge.[580:2] But
this evil was offset by the ease with which one could purchase
absolution.

The papal court, or curia, by the thirteenth century included an
enormous number of persons both secular and ecclesiastic with all kinds
of duties. The financial section was in many ways the most important
one.[580:3] All members of the curia, which resembled the court of an
Emperor, were directly responsible to the Pope. The cardinals were the
most dignified and powerful members. Papal legates from the court
swarmed over all Europe commissioned with unlimited authority to execute
papal commands and to uphold papal claims. They ranged from primates to
petty priests and monks, were directly subject to the Pope, and were
feared and hated by the clergy and laity alike.

The College of Cardinals created in 1059 had come to play a marked rôle
in ecclesiastical affairs in addition to their original duties. Their
office ranked next to that of the Pope and they were called the "Holy
and Sacred College." Foreigners were first appointed as cardinals in the
thirteenth century. A distinct dress was assumed. The red hat was given
by Innocent IV. (1245); the purple robe was bestowed by Boniface VIII.
(1297); the white horse, red cover, and golden bridle were added by Paul
II. (1464); and the title of "Eminence" was created by Urban VIII.
(1630). These cardinals were shrewd politicians for the most part and
hence divided into French, German, and Italian parties. They secured
their appointments ofttimes through favouritism or nepotism, hence were
not always men of the most sterling worth. As members of the papal court
they lived at Rome and were supposed to be occupied with ecclesiastical
affairs in the capital or busy on important diplomatic missions. They
were easily won away, however, from their lofty duties by secular
princes and became involved in all sorts of questionable intrigues. It
is not a matter of surprise, therefore, to find the best men of the day
like Dante and Petrarch denouncing them in unmeasured terms.

Below the cardinals in the hierarchy came the metropolitans,
archbishops, and primates. The archbishops were the most numerous but
the lowest in rank. The metropolitans ranked next and were found in the
great cities. The primates had the highest rank but were comparatively
few. It is doubtful whether altogether the archbishops in the thirteenth
century numbered more than twenty-five. The primates, who had charge in
a general way of what might be called the national churches, confirmed
the election of bishops and archbishops in their dioceses, called and
presided over national synods, held the superior ecclesiastical courts,
performed the coronation ceremonies of kings and queens, and had general
control of their districts. The archbishops ruled over a distinct
province including several bishops, whose election and consecration they
superintended, called and presided over provincial synods, inflicted
censures and punishments on the bishops for breaches of discipline,
acted as court of appeal above the episcopal courts, and exercised
general oversight concerning all Church affairs of the districts. The
metropolitans, whose historical significance was practically lost by the
thirteenth century, had essentially the same office as that of
archbishop. Under the leadership of the higher ecclesiastics there was a
tendency to form national churches. The primates and archbishops
defended these national churches even against the Pope and frequently
sided with the kings against the supreme Pontiffs. In Germany they
helped elect the Emperor, played an important political rôle, and saved
Germany from ruin again and again.[582:1] In France and England they
were the trusted counsellors and advisers of the sovereign. Almost
without exception they came from the nobility and were large landed
proprietors as well as secular rulers.

The bishops, who came next in the scale of the hierarchy, were elected
originally by the people and the clergy but that right was gradually
usurped by the metropolitans and the secular rulers. The mitre and
crosier were the emblems of the episcopal office. The Concordat of Worms
in 1122 settled long disputes by giving both Pope and ruler a share in
the election. By the thirteenth century, however, the Pope had come to
have the upper hand in these ecclesiastical preferments. The total
number of bishops in the thirteenth century was approximately
700.[582:2] The duties of the bishop were both spiritual and temporal.
His office was one of the most important in the mediæval Church. He
ruled over a diocese of any number of parish churches, but had his own
especial church, which was called the cathedral, and usually surpassed
all other churches of the diocese in size and beauty. He saw to it that
public services were conducted in the proper manner. He overlooked the
administration of charity. He tried to secure efficient subordinates who
would fulfil all their duties, and he alone could ordain new priests or
degrade the old. He enforced discipline and canon law. He exercised the
rights of confirmation and holy orders, and consecrated _res sacræ_ like
churches and shrines. He usually supervised the monastic houses in his
diocese.[583:1] And he himself conducted religious services of a special
character in his cathedral or _domus dei_. He assumed judicial power
over his clergy and in case of misbehaviour punished them by deposition
or confinement in a cloister. He passed judgment on all questions of
marriage, wills, oaths, usury, and similar subjects. In general each
bishop, under the authority of the representative of St. Peter, was a
little pope over that section of the Church which was under his
jurisdiction[583:2] and he was regarded as the direct successor of the
Apostles. On the temporal side the bishop was a landlord, governed a
large estate, and performed those governmental duties which the king,
particularly in Germany, thrust upon him. He did not own the land, but
only used it. He himself was often a vassal, had a large number of
vassals and sub-vassals under him, collected feudal dues from his
inferiors, paid feudal tributes to his superiors, and was an integral
part of the feudal system. His installation to office was invariably
accompanied by the ceremony of feudal investiture. Indeed from many
standpoints he was more of a feudal lord than a churchman. It is easy to
see, therefore, what a powerful factor the bishop was in both secular
and ecclesiastical affairs, and how sweeping was his influence.

There were several deviations from the regular office of bishop. The
chor-bishop or "country bishop," who was little more than an assistant
of the city bishop, had gradually died out by the thirteenth
century.[584:1] The honorary bishop, or titular bishop, a title first
applied to missionary bishops, still existed in Europe but with no
regular diocese. The progress of Mohammedanism drove many regular
bishops away from their episcopal seats in Asia, Africa, and Spain. But
they were allowed to retain their titles and functions even though
deprived of their dioceses, and successors were regularly elected. Again
during the Crusades many bishoprics were established in the East.
Through the failure of the Crusades, however, these bishops lost their
dioceses, but they too were permitted to retain their titles in the hope
of eventually recovering their possessions. They likewise served as
assistants to bishops in western Europe and their successors were
regularly appointed by the Pope. They became very independent and often
caused the regular bishops much trouble. Efforts were made later to get
rid of them but without success.

Connected with each bishop's cathedral was a chapter which probably grew
out of the original college of presbyters who assisted the bishop in his
spiritual and secular duties. As time passed and the Church grew these
presbyters came to be attached to the cathedral as a distinct body of
the clergy. By the ninth century these clergy came to be known as a
chapter and consisted of either the "seculars," _i.e._, the clergy not
bound by monastic vows and living in separate houses, or the "regulars,"
_i.e._, the clergy living as monks in a common building. Thus the
chapter came to have a regular organisation with officers whose duties
were more or less clearly defined. At the head stood the bishop; then
the dean, the real acting head; and after him the precentor, or chanter,
who was a musical director; the chancellor, who had charge of the
education of younger members, the library, correspondence, and the
delivery of lectures and sermons; the treasurer, who was responsible for
the funds of the church, the sacred vessels, the altar furniture, and
the reliquaries; the sub-dean, the sub-chanter, and vice-chancellor; and
the archdeacons, whose number depended on the size of the diocese, who
executed episcopal orders, who acted as inspectors and had minor
judicial functions, and who became so independent and powerful that the
office was abolished in the twelfth century.[585:1] The remaining
members of the chapter were called canons or prebendaries. During the
absence of the canons their duties were performed by substitutes called
vicars.

Each chapter had its own laws, endowments, fees, revenues, and
jurisdiction over lands. The chapters often came into open conflict with
the bishops[585:2] and tended to form alliances with Popes and rulers
against the episcopal authorities. It was not uncommon, either, to find
chapters practically independent of the bishops with members appointed
directly by the Pope. These bodies exercised great powers--they called
councils, they tried clerical cases, they even excommunicated, and as
little Colleges of Cardinals, usually at the king's suggestion, elected
bishops.[586:1] Membership in a chapter was regarded as a fat berth and
hence eagerly sought by leading families of nobility.

At the bottom of the hierarchical scale stood the priests who presided
over the parishes, which were divided into city, village, and rural
parishes, and were the lowest divisions of the Church. As a rule a
parish contained at least ten families and varied from that to a
considerable village, or a large section of a town. The appointment of
the priests was made by the "Patron" of the parochial church, _i.e._,
the person who owned the church property, whether a layman or a clerical
person. The appointee was confirmed by the bishop. Churches were thus
frequently handed about from one owner to another like any feudal
property and consequently the tendency was to secularise the priests as
well as the higher clergy. Seeing this evil the monastic orders sought
to reform the abuse by bringing priests under their control. The income
of the priest was derived from lands belonging to the parish church,
from tithes, and from contributions, but as a rule it was scarcely more
than enough to meet his scanty needs.[586:2] The priest was the only
Church officer who came continually into direct touch with the masses of
the people and, consequently, he it was who really controlled the
destiny of both their bodies and souls. In addition to conducting the
regular services, he could administer or withhold the sacraments so
necessary to salvation, and hence the destiny of all men rested in his
hands. He absolved, baptised, married, and buried his parishioners. He
monopolised the auricular confession and through it regulated the
conscience, determined conduct, and cured the soul of sin. If advice and
penance failed to keep the incorrigible sinner in the path of
righteousness, his case could be carried to the spiritual court of the
bishop, who had practically unlimited power. Each priest had not only
certain duties to perform, but also possessed distinct rights and
privileges, and a supernatural character which put him and his property
above the common level of humanity. No longer a citizen of a state, the
Church was his country, his home, and his family. No matter what crime
he committed, the secular power could not arrest him--only a religious
tribunal could try him and such bodies never shed human blood. Hence
punishments for misdemeanours were comparatively light.

The parish church was the unit of mediæval civilisation and the priest
was looked up to as the natural guardian of the community. He cared for
both the souls and bodies of his flock. In addition to using every
agency to induce his members to lead godly lives, it was his business to
see that no dangerous characters lurked in the villages--heretics,
sorcerers, or lepers.

The clergy were separated from the laity by a very pronounced
differentiation. The sacred character imparted to the priesthood by the
sacrament of ordination, the holy calling of the man of God who held in
his hands the power of spiritual life and death, and the enforcement of
the canon of celibacy after a bitter struggle of more than a century,
all tended to emphasise and magnify the wide gulf between the clergy and
the laymen. The sacerdotal office was most highly respected as the
certain avenue to social service, to fame, and to honour. It is no
surprise, therefore, to see men of all ranks entering the ministry of
the Church. For those of humble birth, the opportunity thus offered was
about the only means of promotion in Europe. Once in the Church, talent
and energy could always overcome lowly origin, and attain elevation to a
high place. The annals of the hierarchy are full of the examples of
those who rose from the meanest social ranks to the most commanding
positions. Many of the greatest and best Popes had that
experience.[588:1] Thus the Church constantly recruited its ranks with
vigorous fresh blood. Not even the lot of the prince was envied by the
priest. "Princes," asserted John of Salisbury, "derive their power from
the Church, and are servants of the priesthood." Honorius of Autun
wrote, "The least of the priestly order is worthier than any king." A
great thing it truly was for the future of Europe that in those rough
ages there existed a moral force superior to noble descent, to blue
blood, and to martial prowess to point out the correct path, to uphold
right, and to sanction eternal justice.

The _corpus juris canonici_, or canon law, which regulated all the
workings of the hierarchy, included all the rules enacted by the Church
for its relation with the secular power, for its own internal
administration, and for the duties and conduct of its members. It
differed from the _jus ecclesiasticum_, or ecclesiastical law, in
having the Church for its source, while the latter had the Church for
its subject. The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals continued to be the
constitution of the Church. Various commentaries, all based upon the
Decretals as the chief repertory, were made by prominent
churchmen.[589:1] Gratian, a Camaldolensian monk, a professor in Bologna
University, in 1250 first taught canon law as a distinct and complete
system like Roman law. He published the _Decretum Gratiani_, a
scientific digest of all canon laws, which soon superseded all other
codifications and became the basis for many later commentaries.[589:2]
Canon law was studied in all the mediæval universities. Regular
faculties of canon law were established, which granted the degree of
_doctores decretorum_ after a course of six years' study. It was not
long, therefore, until the Church was given a class of keen,
well-drilled lawyers who gradually extended ecclesiastical jurisdiction
over all religious duties; over baptisms, marriages, and deaths, and
hence over legitimacy and succession; over all persons under religious
vows, and consequently over the clergy, crusaders, widows, orphans, and
minors; over heresy, blasphemy, and sacrilege; and over adultery,
bigamy, fraud, and perjury. The canon law of the Church must also be
given credit for laying the foundation for international law and serving
as a model for constitutional law.

The papal penitentiary, or court, grounded on the "power of the keys,"
possessed original and appellate powers of first instance and last
resort. It originated in 1215 at Rome and consisted of a body of
canonists and theologians who acted as a unit under powers granted by
the Pope.[590:1] It attempted to decide all cases of morals and
discipline, oftentimes in virtual ignorance of the facts. During the
thirteenth century penitentiaries were appointed in every bishopric to
take cognisance of cases. Thus the eagle eyes of the supreme court of
Rome were fastened on every breach of law throughout Christendom.
Naturally many abuses were connected with such a system. In 1022 the
Council of Seligenstadt complained that Rome had extended her
jurisdiction even over the laity.[590:2] Through local representatives
the papal penitentiary practically nullified the discipline of bishops
and granted virtual immunity to offenders. Venality was an accompanying
evil from the beginning. Absolution could easily be secured by the rich
and influential and dispensations were sold for money. Of course this
condition produced disastrous effects on morals. "Rome was a fountain of
pardon for all infractions of the decalogue." Bishop Grosseteste
declared about 1250 that the low morality of the priesthood was due to
this system. Pardon was granted to both sides of the controversy. A
priest stole a book from his own church, pawned it for money, and then
excommunicated the unknown thief. He was discovered but pardoned on the
ground that he could not interdict himself. Monks and nuns bought their
way into convents and then purchased absolution for the act.

By the thirteenth century the Roman ritual in the Latin language was
practically in universal use. The Slavish liturgy had disappeared and in
Spain alone the old national liturgy still lingered, though even there
the Roman ritual was permitted. Latin had become the general official
language of the Church. But it was not uncommon to give in the
vernacular, besides the regular announcements, the confession of faith,
the confession of sin with the general absolution, intercessions for the
living and the dead, and the Lord's Prayer.

At this period of the Church's greatest power there was a noticeable
revival of preaching caused by the monastic reformers like the
Clugniacs, Cistercians, Dominicans, and Franciscans who earnestly
preached repentance, and also by the tremendous crusading enthusiasm.
All the heroes of monasticism, scholasticism, and the papal hierarchy
were forceful preachers.[591:1] To accommodate these preachers pulpits
were built against a pillar or in a corner of a nave. To the masses on
popular occasions, and even in the regular services, they spoke in the
vernacular, but all stately addresses in synods and councils were
delivered in the speech of Rome. Popes and councils urged the importance
of rearing a race of learned clergy who could give the Church
intelligent leadership. The synod of Treves in 1221 went so far as to
forbid uneducated and inexperienced priests to preach, because it caused
more harm than good. As a result of this wide-spread preaching the
Church was given a unity of doctrine and feeling which it had not
enjoyed before.

The number of sacraments was generally recognised by the thirteenth
century as seven.[592:1] Peter Lombard's _Sentences_ first outlined them
and Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) practically established them, although they
were not officially adopted until the Council of Florence in 1439.
Theoretically the sacraments were believed to confer grace, "the fulness
of divine life," upon the recipients and to make them different persons
with new characters. This change was produced by God through the Church
and was based upon the idea that this life should be consecrated and
sanctified by religion in all its various relations. Hence baptism
suggested birth to a new spiritual life free from the sin due to Adam's
fall; the Lord's Supper gave nutriment to preserve life and strength;
penance indicated a recovery to health after sickness incident to sin;
confirmation marked the growth of righteous life to maturity; extreme
unction suggested diet and exercise in convalescence and purified and
refreshed the spirit of the dying; ordination marked a promotion to a
higher consecrated life and to new duties; and marriage meant the
assumption of new social relations which could never be severed. The
Church held that all these sacraments were instituted by Jesus and used
by him personally, although baptism and the Lord's Supper were the most
important. Peter Lombard said that if Christ did not employ them, the
Apostles at least did. Baptism, confirmation, and ordination, it was