THE SECULAR CLERGY.

The Minor and the Major Orders in the Early Centuries of the Church.—Establishment of Tithes originally voluntary, and afterwards obligatory.—Influence of the Bishops.—Supremacy of the See of Rome.—Form of Episcopal Oath in the Early Centuries.—Reform of Abuses by the Councils.—Remarkable sayings of Charlemagne and Hincmar.—Public Education created by the Church.—The Establishment of the Communes favoured by the Bishops.—The Beaumont Law.—Struggle with the Bourgeoisie in the Fifteenth Century.—The Council of Trent.—Institution of Seminaries.

Fig. 219.—The Chanter or Psalmist, Minor Order.—G. Durand’s “Rationale.”

Near the close of the ninth century, Anastasius the Librarian wrote, at Rome, an Ecclesiastical History, from which we learn that the hierarchical order of the functionaries in the primitive Church was composed as follows: the doorkeeper (Fig. 220), the reader, the exorcist (Fig. 221), the acolyte, the sub-deacon, the keeper of the confessions of the martyrs, the deacon, the priest, the bishop. To these were afterwards added the chanters or psalmists, entitledconfessors, because their function was to confess the name of God by celebrating His praises. The interpreter-linguists, the copyists, and the notaries, who figure in the Greek as well as in the Roman Church down to the fourth or fifth century, ranked with the order of confessors and that of clerks.

In the early days of Christianity the bishop in each diocese consecrated to the service of religion, after the manner of St. Paul, those who were represented to him as being the most worthy, or whom he himself deemed fitting. The aspirant to the major orders sometimes rose very slowly, howevermeritorious he might be; thus Latinus, Bishop of Brescia, who died towards the close of the third century, had been, as his epitaph recorded, simple exorcist for twelve years, priest for fifteen, and bishop for three years and seven months. There were, however, some rapid and almost immediate promotions, calledper saltum, because they jumped, as it were, from one grade to another; but these were made under exceptional circumstances.

Fig. 220.—The Doorkeeper, Minor Order.

Fig. 221.—The Exorcist, Minor Order.Miniature from the “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum” of William Durand (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), in the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

Fig. 221.—The Exorcist, Minor Order.

Miniature from the “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum” of William Durand (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), in the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

At first the Christians had not any clergymen, properly so called; priests, however, ministered in each locality, for we read that St. Paul appointed Titus “to ordain elders in every city” (Titus i. 5). But in most cases, during the first centuries, the bishop alone ministered in his episcopal city, particularly in the East (Fig. 222).

Fig. 222.—The Good Shepherd, whose head appears as if crowned with seven stars, carrying the lost sheep upon his shoulders; around him are collected the seven faithful sheep. On one side Jonah is being vomited out by the great fish; on the other he is lying beneath the gourd; above him are the dove and Noah’s Ark. The old man with a crown, with his hand raised above the clouds, and the woman with a crescent on the forehead, personify the sun and the moon.—Funereal lamp in baked clay of the Third Century, found in the Catacombs. In the Christian Museum of the Vatican.

After the fourth century we find that, in the East as at Rome, there were other churches in the large towns besides the cathedral; the functions of the clergymen, orcardinals, who ministered in them were confined to giving the people religious instruction, and to keep the bishop informed of everything relating to the government of the church. Down to the fifth century, the administration of the sacraments and the celebration of the holy communion took place in the cathedral only. Pope St. Marcellus founded, in the fourth century, twenty-fivetitlesor parishes in Rome, in order to afford greaterfacilities for the preparatory instruction by which the sacraments of baptism and penance were preceded. But in the fifth century, when the cathedrals were found too small to hold all the congregation, it became the custom to distribute, in thetitlesor parishes of the city, the holy eucharistwhich the bishop sent by the hands of deacons to the titulary clergy. The bishops also delegated to their clergy the power of receiving the reconciliation of the penitents in cases of necessity, of admitting heretics in danger of death (but only in the bishop’s absence), and of pronouncing excommunications in their parishes, by virtue of a sentence delivered by the bishop. The clergyman also visited the sick, administered the sacrament of extreme unction, blessed the private dwelling-places, and himself selected the staff for his church. At last, in the sixth century, clergymen celebrated, in the quarters ortitleswherein they ministered, the entire liturgy of the holy communion, and from the seventh century they were empowered to diminish or to increase, as they thought proper, in accordance with the revenues of the parish, the number of the clerks, choristers, and the various subordinate officers. In compliance with the wishes of the faithful, the bishop would often authorise the clergy to celebrate two masses upon the same day, one to take place of necessity in the parish church, the other perhaps in some oratory attached to the parish (Fig. 223).

Fig. 223.—The celebration of Mass in an Oratory.—Fac-simile of a Miniature in a Manuscript of the Ninth Century, from an Engraving belonging to M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

Independently of the offerings made by the faithful, the churches, which already possessed landed property, after the conversion of Constantine found their domains increasing in value. The barbarian chiefs who became convertsto Christianity outrivalled each other in their liberality towards the clergy. Tithes, the regular payment of which was only proposed towards the close of the fifth century, were soon made compulsory, more especially in the countries subject to the Franks. It is incorrect that tithes were not made obligatory until the time of Charlemagne; all he did was to ensure their collection, and to impose them upon the newly-converted under threat of excommunication. In conformity with a decree issued by Pope Gelasius, he ordained that the produce of the tithe should be equally divided amongst the bishop, the priests, the fabrics in each diocese, and the poor—that is to say, the hospitals. These establishments were administered and provided with religious services by the charity of the clergy; thus the increase of ecclesiastical wealth turned to the profit of the needy.

By the name ofpresbyters(from a Greek word equivalent to the Latin wordsseniores, sages, andsacerdotes, sacred men) were designated the functionaries who stood in the second rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. From this term was afterwards derived that ofpriest. At first there was no fixed age for admission to the priesthood; but at the end of the fourth century Pope St. Syricius decided that a clerk, promoted to be a deacon at thirty, should not become a priest for at least five years.

The Emperor Justinian prohibited a deacon from being promoted to the priesthood until he had attained the age of thirty-five; but in Gaul, Spain, and Germany the minimum age was thirty, and as soon as the people had given their sanction to the ordination of a deacon, the election took place. The functions of deacons are from the first clearly indicated by what they did, for in the first century Philip, one of the seven deacon-cardinals chosen by the Apostles, preached the Gospel and baptized. At the end of the third century we find in Spain that St. Vincent, only a deacon, took Bishop Valerian’s place when he felt himself unable to minister the word. Moreover, St. Stephen, the first of the deacons and martyrs, was also preaching, within a few months of the death of Jesus Christ, when he was dragged from the sanctuary to be stoned. The deacons, therefore, performed liturgical functions, but their ordinary duty was to preside at the tables of the Christian communion.

The tumular epigraph on the catacombs of Rome exhibits a curious list of the various special duties allotted to the priests, as well as to the deacons, besides the service of the altar: here we find a priest doctor;a priest guardian, overseer, possibly our inn or lodging-keeper (mansionarius); again, we find a deacon archivist, or keeper of the archives (scrinarius), a priest schoolmaster (magister ludi), &c.

In the first three centuries of the Church, holy orders were conferred not only in the basilicas and in the catacombs, but also in private oratories; some few recluses were even ordained in their own cells. From the reign of Constantine, it was decided by the councils that the laying on of hands upon the clerks to raise them to deacons, or upon deacons to raise them to the priesthood, should always take place in public (coram populo) and at fixed periods. The epoch chosen was at first the calends of December, afterwards extended to each of the four seasons.

Fig. 224.—The Ecclesiastical Tonsure.—Miniature from the “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum” of William Durand (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

The iconography of the officers of the sanctuary nearly always represents the bishop as seated upon an elevated chair, laying hands upon clerks of a gradually descending order; the priest raising his arms and spreading them out to give the benediction; the deacon, bearing a cross or a book of the Gospels, or perhaps both, as he is portrayed in an ancient mosaic in St. Lawrence-without-the-walls, at Rome. It must also be noted that the deacons and the priests, as well as the clerks of a lower order, are represented as beardless and with short-cut hair.

In the sixth century, the tonsure orclerical crown, was universally adopted by the Church. It was a mark of dignity which distinguished the clerks from the monks and the rest of the faithful; laymen wore theirhair more or less long with a proportionate amount of beard, and the monks cut their hair almost as close as if shorn.

The primitive Church had created the office of acolyte, whose duty consisted in accompanying the bishops, the priests, and even the deacons. Under the pontificate of Cornelius (251), there were forty-two of these assistants. The Eastern Church also had its acolytes, but did not accord them the importance which they had in the city of the popes, where they formed three classes: thepalatines, who assisted the sovereign pontiff in the basilica of the Lateran; thestationaries, who aided him in the churches where the stations took place; theregionaries, who assisted the deacons in each of the regions or parishes.

The political power of the bishops was founded in Gaul at the beginning of the sixth century (Fig. 225), and down to the end of the first dynasty they were the real organizers of the French monarchy. Converted to Christianity after the battle of Tolbiac, and baptized by St. Remigius, Clovis became the protector of the Gallo-Roman Church. The Clergy then enjoyed a legitimate influence, as is justly remarked by a grave historian: “The barbarians, accustomed to carry all before them by the weight of arms, could not be subdued by a force or civilised by a literature which they despised or failed to understand; but the clergy, surrounded by that pomp which has so great an influence over uncultivated imaginations, combated them with simple and plain doctrines, with a vigorous and united hierarchy, and with a faith which, needing no subtle reasonings, imposes only the duty of belief, and leans for support upon a morality the sanctity of which they could not but feel, even while violating it. Was it not most fortunate that there should have been an order capable of arresting the universal disorder? Unarmed priests mingled with these savage hordes and inspired them, by means of baptism, with some notions of humanity; they taught them to hold their hands, showing them that they whom they were about to strike was a brother.

Fig. 225.—The Legend of St. Martin.—From a piece of tapestry of the Thirteenth Century, in the Louvre (No. 1117).—1. St. Martin sharing his cloak with a poor man.—2. He sees in a dream Jesus Christ clad with this half of his cloak.—3. The saint’s baptism, the priest sprinkling him with water, and God blessing him.—4. He brings to life a catechumen, who had died without being baptized, in his monastery at Ligugé, near Poitiers.—5. At the same place he recalls to life a slave, who is first represented as hung from a gibbet, and afterwards standing on the ground and giving him thanks.—6. St. Martin consecrated Bishop of Tours in 371.—7. He evokes the spectre of a pretended martyr, held in veneration about Tours, and when it appears and avows that it had been executed for its crimes, the chapel is demolished.—8. He gives his tunic to a poor man.—9. He brings to life the son of a peasant in a heathen village near Chartres.—10. He drives out the evil spirit from the body of a mad cow.—11. Seeing on the banks of a river some birds watching to catch fish, he bids them fly away, saying, “Here we see the type of the enemies of our salvation, always on the watch to seize our souls.”—12. Death of St. Martin. His soul, in the form of a child, is being borne off to heaven by two angels.

“The bishops carried out, with as much dignity as benevolence, their sublime mission of sympathizing with the people and those who were oppressed; having a paternal solicitude for their flock, they placed themselves face to face with conquerors, whom they knew how to pacify and to conciliate. The veneration with which they were surrounded and the holiness of their lives earned them the respect even of Attila and Genseric.

They were entrusted with the embassies, and they administered in the room of magistrates, whose power had been crushed. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia, was sent to the Burgundian kings Gundibald and Godegesil, to procure the release of a number of Italian prisoners, whom he brought back with him in triumph. When the Ligurians were ravaged by the incursions of the Transalpines, the king remitted, at the prayer of the bishop, one-third of the indemnity. St. Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles, sold the patens and chalicesto ransom the prisoners. Euspicius, Bishop of Sergiopolis, upon the Euphrates, paid Chosroës for the ransom of twelve thousand prisoners. St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, gave away even his own tunic by way of charity; ‘so that,’ to use the language of an artless chronicler, ‘he was often shivering with cold, while those upon whom he had bestowed his favours were warm.’”

The bishops were sometimes obliged to exercise the duties of royalty. Honorius, of Novara, when Theodoric and Odoacer were at war, fortified, in order to give shelter to his flock, a certain number of places similar to those in which the military were garrisoned. Nicetius, Bishop of Trèves, “an apostolic man, in his progress through the country, constructed, like a good shepherd that he was, a fold to protect his flock; he surrounded the hill with thirty towers, which shut it in on all sides, and an edifice rose where hitherto a forest had cast its shadow.”

During the reigns of the last of the Merovingians and the first of the Carlovingians, the jurisconsults and the magistrates were generally bishops or plain priests, whose venerable character, in addition to their knowledge and wisdom, had caused them to be designated to fulfil these high functions. Dagobert, when about to draw up the Capitularies which were to govern the Germans, the Thuringians, the Burgundians, the Neustrians, the Ripuairians, and the Romans, entrusted the work to four ecclesiastical doctors, and consequently the disposition of this new code was remarkably tolerant,—“for,” said these pious legislators, “there is no sin so grave, but that the culprit’s life may be spared, if he will but hold God in fear and the saints in respect, seeing that the Lord hath said, ‘He who pardons shall himself be forgiven, but he who pardoneth not shall obtain no mercy.’” In cases where the crime seemed of a nature to deserve no clemency, the law remitted the culprit to be judged by the bishop or a priest delegated by him, whose tribunal, standing in the midst of a church, was from that very fact inviolable, and placed under the tutelary protection of religion. The royal decree added, “When the culprit shall take refuge in a church, let no one dare to drag him out with violence; if he has already crossed the threshold of the sanctuary, let the bishop or curate of that church be sent for, and if they refuse to deliver him up, it is to them that the pursuers shall look for his punishment.”

Fig. 226.—Consecration of St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims.—Fac-simile of an Engraving of the “Rheims Tapestry,” in the cathedral of that city, published by M. Ach. Jubinal. (Sixteenth Century.)

For more than a century before, the spiritual and temporal constitutionof the Church was regularly organized throughout France. The diocese comprised the territorial boundaries which the Roman administration had established in the provinces for the civil government of the vicars and the counts, and most of these dioceses were kept, within about the same limits, down to 1789. The ecclesiastical province, of which the metropolitan or the archbishop was head, was made up of several dioceses or suffragan bishoprics, and when a provincial council took place, it assembled in the metropolis under the presidency of the archbishop. Above the metropolitans there were the patriarchs and the primates, dignitaries occupyingthe principal apostolic sees, such as Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Cesarea, and Heraclea in the East, and in the West, Milan, Lyons, Rheims, Trèves, and Mayence—which latter city became, under Pope Zacharias (741–752), the metropolis of all Germany. The supremacy of Rome was acknowledged by the universal Church from the days of the Apostles, as is attested by all the Fathers, and especially by St. Irenæus, whose spiritual father was Polycarp, a disciple of St. John.

Fig. 227.—Ceremony of robing a Bishop for his consecration.—From the “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum” of William Durand (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

History has handed down to us the form of oath of allegiance to the pope taken by the apostle of Germany in the eighth century, Wilfred, better known by the name of Boniface, who, in the course of a few years, made more than a hundred thousand converts. So far from being exalted with pride at the success of his mission, he continued to go for advice to Pope Gregory II., and to submit to his decision any intricate matters which might occur in the course of his ministry. The following translation of the form which he signed when raised to the dignity of bishop, will give an idea of his deference and spirit of submissiveness; it forcibly exhibits the power of the hierarchy at this epoch:—“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has saved us, Leo the Great being Emperor, the seventh year of his consulate, and the fourth of his son Constantine the Great, Emperor,—I, Boniface, by the grace of God bishop, promise to thee, blessed St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and to thy vicar, the blessed Gregory, as well as to his successors, in the name of the indivisible Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and by his most holy body here present, to observe in purity and fidelity the Catholic Faith, and, with God’s assistance, to persevere in the unity of this same Faith upon which indubitably depends the salvation of all Christians. I also promise never to yield to any instigation contrary to the unity of the common and universal Church, but faithfully and sincerely to devote all my strength to thee and to the interests of thy Church, which has received from the Lord the power of binding and loosing, and also to thy Vicar and his successors. If I find any prelate living in disobedience to the ordinances of the holy Fathers, I undertake not to hold any kind of communion with him, but to win him back if I can; if not, to send a faithful report of his conduct to my lord the successor of the Apostle. And if (which may God forfend!) I should attempt to infringe the terms of this declaration, at any time or in any manner whatsoever, I acknowledge myself guilty of eternal punishment, and deserving the fate of Ananiasand Sapphira, who were guilty of fraud in the declaration of their goods. I, Boniface, a humble bishop, have written with my own hand the text of this oath, which I lay upon the most holy body of St. Peter, in the presence of God who is my witness and judge; I have taken, as is herein stated, the oath which I undertake to observe.” It is worthy of notice that this formula was already in use in the time of Pope Gelasius, in the fifth century.

Fig. 228.—Solemn Reception of a Bishop. Arrival of St. Gêry at Cambrai, where he was appointed bishop, in 589. View of the city, the ramparts, and the church dedicated to St. Médard, and founded by St. Gêry.—Miniature from the “Chroniques du Hainaut” (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century), Burgundian Library, Brussels.

Fig. 229.—St. Wulfram, Bishop of Sens, clad in his pallium; died in 720 at the Abbey of St. Wandrille.—From a Miniature in the “Chronicon Fontinellense” (Manuscript of the Ninth Century), Havre Library.

From the sixth century, the influence which the bishops enjoyed under the Roman empire went on increasing. Chilperic I. was alarmed at its progress, declaring that “the bishops alone were supreme in the cities.” Each one administered the affairs of his diocese with sovereign authority (Fig. 228), and, by means of the councils convoked by the kings, theygoverned the whole of the kingdom. In Gaul, there were twenty-five councils during the fifth century, fifty-four in the sixth, and twenty in the seventh, all of which were composed of bishops, supplemented by a few abbots and priests who were either well-known masters of ecclesiastical law, or eligible upon other grounds. From the diminution in the number of councils dates the decline of the authoritative influence of the French episcopacy; during the eighth century, in the first half of which there were only two councils, it declined still further, because the intrusion of theleudesin several bishoprics had brought about a great change in the austere morals of the ancient Church, replacing the cultivated spirit, the orderly conduct, and the charitable habits of the first prelates (Fig. 229) by a display of gross ignorance and unbridled barbarism. Three successivecouncils, held respectively in Germany, Belgium, and at Soissons (742, 743, 744), aimed at a reformation of the morals of the clergy, which were thoroughly perverted, as is evident from the decrees of these councils, forbidding the priests to follow the chase with hounds, falcons, and sparrowhawks. Other provincial councils of the same epoch condemned simony, the traffic in the immunities and privileges of the Church, and the plurality of benefices. This last abuse went beyond all bounds; the same prelate would hold three or four bishoprics at once, several abbeys, and the revenues of numerous parishes left without a pastor. On the other hand, many lay lords, who had usurped the property of the Church, and appropriated to themselves benefices, monasteries, and episcopal revenues, especially since the days of Charles Martel, created great confusion in the temporal economy of each diocese.

Charlemagne applied himself to the reformation of these abuses. That illustrious monarch at all times displayed the most respectful deference for the clergy, from amongst whom he selected his principal ministers and most trusted councillors. Two-thirds of his Palatine Academy were ecclesiastics; themissi dominici, the official inspectors appointed to visit the provinces, the churches, the presbyteries, and the hospitals, to render justice upon appeal, to suspend or dismiss the fiscal agents, were all, or nearly all, bishops and priests. Royalty was looked upon by Charlemagne as a kind of priesthood, and his mission was to give the people greater facility for practising the Gospel, and to bring it within the reach of the idolatrous nations. The capitulars say, “The king must walk uprightly, as his name signifies (‘Rex arecteagendo vocatur’). If he acts with piety, justice, and clemency, he deserves the name of king; otherwise he is not a king, but a tyrant. The special duty of royalty is to govern the people of God, but to govern them with equity and justice; forthe king is above allthe defender of the churches, of the servants of God, of the widows, the other poor, and all who are in distress.” These rules, laid down in the time of Charlemagne, were adopted by all Europe. The king who did not observe them was to be deposed; his judges were the bishops, the councils, and the pope, as head of the Church (Charlemagne, in a capitular from Thionville, in 805, submitted his own sons to be judged by the bishops). If they refused obedience, they were condemned to be driven from their palaces, deprived of their dignities and goods, declared infamous, and sent into exile. Thisis why, during the unhappy dissensions that broke out between the sons of Louis the Good-natured, each one endeavoured to procure the deposition of his rival by sentence of the council.

Fig. 230.—Bas-relief on the Tomb of Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, in the Church of St. Remigius in that city. Monument of the Tenth or Eleventh Century.—Hincmar, upon his knees, and followed by the Abbot of St. Remigius, is thanking Charles the Bald for his pious donations; the king holds in his hand a model of the church on which he bestowed his largesses.

Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, the noblest representative of the Western Church at this epoch, constituted himself the defender of the throne (Fig. 230). He endeavoured to arrive at an equitable settlement as to the respective limits of the two great powers—the Church and the Crown. Commenting upon, but not receding from, the ideas expressed by Charlemagne, he declared, “When it is said that the king is not subject to the laws or judgment of any man, but only of God, the statement is true if he be a king indeed, as his name indicates. He is called king because he reigns and governs; if he governs himself according to the will of God, if he directs the good in the right path, and corrects the wicked to draw them from their evil way, then he is king, not subject to the judgment of any man (Fig. 231 and 232); but if he be an adulterer, a homicide, an iniquitous person, a ravisher, then he must be judged, in secret or in public, by the bishops, who are God’s representatives.” It is necessary to bear well in mind these ideas, inculcated in the Middle Ages, if we would understand the important functions of the secular clergy.

Fig. 231.—Consecration of Philip Augustus at Rheims, November 1st, 1179, by his uncle, William, Archbishop of Rheims.—Manuscript 9232 of the Fourteenth Century, Burgundian Library, Brussels.

Fig. 232.—Coronation of Henry of Anjou as King of Poland, February 22nd, 1573, in the Church of St. Stanislaus at Cracow. At the termination of the consecrating ceremony the Archbishop of Gnesen, Primate of Poland, places the crown upon the prince’s forehead.—Bas-relief on a French coffer of the Sixteenth Century belonging to M. Achille Jubinal (fac-simile of its present condition).

At this early period of society, civilisation was, beyond all doubt, in the hands of the ecclesiastics. Public education, which the Church had established, and which was given in one or several episcopal schools in each diocese, under the direction of the archdeacon, was subject, like judicial proceedings, to hierarchical regulations. Although the bishopwas free to extend or to limit certain branches of instruction, all the clerks admitted to follow the courses of these schools had to go through the series of studies prescribed and specified in the capitulars of Charlemagne. Thus, at Metz and Soissons, for instance, the school of singing was an imperial institution, and the bishop, no matter what authority he might have in other matters, had no power to suppress it. The same was the case withthe courses on law and medicine, which had been founded, since the days of Charlemagne, in various episcopal cloisters at Paris, Rheims,Lyons, Metz, Trèves, Canterbury, Milan, &c. Roman chanting, grammar, Holy Scripture, the Liturgy, and calligraphy, formed the classical basis of clerical education. Other studies were looked upon as accessories, without being absolutely prohibited. At the same time, to the superficial study of Latin, was added that of Greek or of German, or of the vulgar idiom of the Latin, Teutonic, or Sclavic tongues, when deemed useful for the purposes of popular preaching. In certain cases, and for the exclusive service of the Church, the clerks were taught the rudiments of architecture, painting, mechanics, agriculture, and hygiene, but it was more especially at the Palatine school, which was always open, and in the large abbeys, that this literary and scientific course of education prevailed.

Clerical discipline, though continually being reformed, was incessantly needing fresh changes. The usurpation of the Church’s domains by the monarchs, the princes, and the great lay lords, contributed to the disorder which prevailed in many abbeys. In some churches an intruder would thrust himself into a canonry, usurp the abbatial seat, or live at the expense of the community. The bishops were often powerless to get rid of these false abbots, canons, and monks, who set them at defiance. Ecclesiastical cures and prebends were formed, like many public bakehouses and mills, sometimes as dowers for daughters about to marry, and even for new-born infants. Severe measures were adopted at several provincial councils (in 860, 863, 888, 895) against the disorderly acts committed, to the detriment of the Church.

A diploma issued by the Emperor Henry III. (May 12th 1052), confirmed the doctrine of the Roman Church, declaring that the episcopal jurisdiction was entirely independent of the civil jurisdiction. By this diploma, all judges and officers of justice were prohibited from exercising their authority in the churches, castles, villages, and parishes which formed the temporal domain of the diocesan chapter.

Fig. 233.—Treaty of Arras, concluded in 1191, by the interposition of William of Champagne, Archbishop of Rheims, between Baldwin V., Count of Hainault, and Matilda of Portugal, Widow of Philip, Count of Flanders.—Miniature from the “Chroniques de Hainaut” (Fifteenth Century), Burgundian Library, Brussels.

When the Crusades brought about the concord, or rather the calm, of which the Church had so long been deprived, its progress became more regular, more marked, and more easy; it also suffered less from the encroachment of laymen upon its rights and privileges (Fig. 233), but the enormous expenses of these distant expeditions had ruined it. There was not, indeed, a single diocese where the property was not loaded with mortgages, nor where the services were not crippled by the reduction of the diocesan revenues. This penury, coupled with the absence of a great number of themost esteemed ecclesiastics, who had taken up the cross, left many important churches almost without resources or guidance; hence arose a general relaxation of morals on the part of the clerks, whose misconduct was in some cases so flagrant that it became necessary to expel them from the religious houses and parishes which had been committed to their charge. The abuses of authority, the uncertainty in point of faith, and the Vaudois heresy, which shot through Western Europe like a poisoned barb, gave rise to frequent dissensions amongst the faithful, the disputes being carried on even amongst members of the same family, whilst in many localities the people, attracted by a form of worship where the chanting and the prayers were recited in the vulgar tongue, deserted their parish church for the heretic priest; this wasthe origin of an infinity of disturbances and tumults in the large towns, especially in those governed by a municipality.

And yet the bishops had contributed in a material degree to the establishment of the communes; for, if history tells us of some towns being at war with their ecclesiastical lord, in order to declare themselves independent, we find, on the other hand, that a great number of the charters of enfranchisement were due to the initiative of the bishops. The two most interesting of these documents which have been preserved to us in their integrity, are the charter and the law of Beaumont-en-Argonne, formerly a fortified place, but almost forgotten in the present day, until brought into prominence by the war of 1870. This town had the satisfaction, not of imposing its law, but of seeing it adopted by numerous communes, amongst which may be cited Nancy, Lunéville, Verdun, Luxemburg, and Longwy, together with all the Duchy of Bar, Montmédy, &c. A lord-bishop, William, whose love of equity earned him the appellation of William the White-handed, was the author both of this law and of this charter, in the twelfth century (Fig. 234). By the charter, the lord-bishop made all the inhabitants of the commune of Beaumont proprietors of a sufficient quantity of land to give them the means of subsistence, with the use of the woods and water-courses; every precaution was taken to prevent fraud in commerce and trade, especially in regard to the millers, the bakers, and the butchers; and the administration of the commune was entrusted to so many burghers elected by the most notable citizens; while intrigue was powerless in its attempts to bias the free and independent suffrages of the burgher-electors. The time that the Beaumont law has lasted is a proof of its merits, for, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of time, five hundred communes were being governed by it in the eighteenth century.

Fig. 234.—Reduced fac-simile from the commencement of the Charter of William the White-handed, Archbishop of Rheims (Twelfth Century).—From the work of M. Defourny.

In the communes which adopted the Beaumont law, the burghers, exempt from all military burdens, were only compelled to take arms in the event of a sudden invasion of their territory, and this forced service was only of twenty-four hours’ duration. After that, the lord had to provide for the ordinary protection of the inhabitants in return for the trifling taxes which they paid him. In the commune of Escombes, for instance, which, being a frontier village, was very exposed to attack, the right of safe-guard (le droit de sauvement) consisted of two measures of oats, a hen, and a French denier for each burgher. A charter of an archbishopof Rheims, successor of William the White-handed, recounts how a good chevalier, in return for the gift of a piece of land belonging to the bishopric, undertook to bring together, train, and maintain a body of armed men for the protection of the burghers of Beaumont, who were thus enabled safely to carry on the tillage of the land and their commercial operations. Towards the close of the fourteenth century, the Archbishop of Rheims exchanged with the King of France the sovereignty over the towns of Mouzon and Beaumont-en-Argonne against the lordship of Vailly and its dependencies; but the law of Beaumont was respected, and by letters patent, “given at Montargis in the month of September, the year of grace one thousand three hundred and seventy-nine,” King Charles V. solemnly recognised and sanctioned all the advantageswhich the law of Beaumont assured to the inhabitants. “By these presents,” said the king, “we approve and confirm all their charters and liberties, franchises, usages, privileges, and customs which they have been granted by our above-mentioned Archbishops of Rheims in times past, to enjoy and use without deducting, innovating, or diminishing anything, and in the same manner and fashion as they have formerly enjoyed and used them before our acquisition.”

Throughout nearly all France, justice, which had been for eight centuries episcopal, became almost entirely civil; but the bishop still levied a part of the fines imposed, and when the citizens of a town or district were brought together to settle some grave dispute, it was the prelate of the diocese, or the dean of the chapter, or the precentor, who had the right of naming the day and the place of the meeting, which they had no power to prevent. Louis IX., great as was his piety, undertook the task of forming a lay magistracy capable of rendering justice. To avoid a conflict with the national clergy, he obtained from Innocent IV. a dispensation from the ordinary jurisdiction for the person of the King of France, for his consort, and his heir-presumptive. He solicited the intervention of the Pope to reform numerous abuses that had crept into the Church in France, especially in respect of the right of asylum, and the excessive immunities accorded to the ecclesiastical tribunals. Towards the end of the thirteenth century the jurisdiction of the clergy was, with the exception of the episcopal court, confined to the vassals of the bishops’ temporalities.

Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the episcopal power was engaged in a ceaseless struggle with a turbulent bourgeoisie (Fig. 235), whose spirit of opposition drove it into open and armed rebellion. In order to obviate this, and to order an effective resistance to the civil authority, itself overpowered by the populace, several diocesan chapters formed a league with the clergy and with the monks; but this did not bring them any increase of strength to combat the lay magistrates, because the bishop often deserted their cause or showed himself indifferent to it. Hence arose excommunications, imprisonments, proscriptions, and acts of seizure which only led to increased scandal. The schism which desolated the Christian world since the death of Gregory IX. (1378), the struggle for influence between the anti-pope Urban VI. and Pope Clement VII., were not calculated to allay the internal troubles of the Church.

Fig. 235.—Title of the Concordat of Cambrai, agreed upon in 1466 by the bishop, the chapter, and the commune of the town, for the maintenance of peace. This charter commences with the wordNOUSin illuminated letters. The first letter (N) encircles an angel holding the escutcheon of Bishop John of Burgundy; the Latin inscription signifies, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The letter O represents the arms of the chapter, surmounted by Notre-Dame des Flammes, with the words in Latin, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” The third letter (U) is symbolic of the commune of Cambrai, and also expresses a peaceful idea in the motto, “His abode is an abode of peace.” Amongst the witnesses, numbering more than a hundred, who signed this Concordat, was the Chronicler of Cambrai, Enguerrand de Monstrelet.—Fac-simile of the original, preserved in the Archives du Nord, at Lille, and the text of which was published by M. L. Dancoisne, at Hénin-Liétard. (The illuminated letters in this engraving are one-fourth the size of the original.)

The desire to remedy this general disorder was at that time uppermost in every Christian mind, for the question as to the territorial possessions of the two Churches had long been settled. Rome possessed nearly all Italy, except the manufacturing and maritime States of the peninsula; she also had Germany, a part of Switzerland, Bohemia, Hungary, England, and Holland. The other Church was recognised by France, French or Vaudois Switzerland, Savoy, Lorraine, Luxemburg, the Metz district, Scotland, and Spain. The most respected of the Christians, alarmed at a state of things which was so fatal to religion, in vain attempted to stem the torrent. The only remedy lay in the reformation of the clergy, and the Church’s independence of the civil power. In the year 1469, a noble and pious woman, the Countess Vio di Thiene, gave birth at Gaeta to a son, afterwards known as Cajetan, who became cardinal-bishop, and was one of the greatest men of the age. The Countess Vio di Thiene had resolved that the heir of her noble house should be born, as was the Saviour of mankind, in a stable. It was thus that in an actual manger this blessed infant first obtained his indifference to the world, his love of simplicity, his spirit of prayer and charity, his angelic modesty, which made him a martyr of penitence, a hero of self-denial, and a model of humility. When in 1505 Luther received the minor orders at the monastery of the Augustines at Erfurt, and when, upon the occasion of a granting of indulgences by Leo X. to the Dominicans (1517), he published the programme of his anti-papal and anti-canonical propositions, he at once found himself face to face with Cajetan, who was the leader and promoter of the Catholic movement in opposition to the German pervert. Cajetan conceived the happy idea of instituting a vast confraternity of the regular clergy, with the view of re-establishing ecclesiastical discipline. He was the ideal of the praying and working priest, without family ties, with no close or continuous relations with the outside world, and yet so brought up that while mixing with it he could forward the interests of the Church. The Somasques, regular clergy for the education of orphans (1528); the Barnabites, regular clergy of St. Paul (1532); the Jesuits, regular clergy of the Company of Jesus; the Crucifers, regular clergy ministering to the sick (1592); the Scholopians, regular clergy for the poor of the Mother of God; the Minorites, regular clergy of the minor order, and many other institutions of the same kind, are the offspring of Cajetan’s creation, and thus he has been called the patriarch of the clergy. The project of the Council of Trent was theconception, and its preliminary elaboration was the work, of Cajetan, and this famous council, which was to have so much influence over the Christian world, raised the moral dignity of the clergy, while it prepared the way for a general reform of the Church.

Fig. 236.—Angels praying over a Skull.—Fragment of a Bas-relief in the Cloister of the Chartreuse, at Pavia (close of the Fourteenth Century).

The instruction of the young men who were destined for the priesthood also dates from the same epoch. It is true that there existed in Italy, France, and Spain, schools of theology frequented by the clergy, but the latter prepared themselves for holy orders without rule or guidance, without any of those intellectual and moral resources which a community can offer. Many of the pupils wore no tonsure nor even a uniform ecclesiastical dress, they mixed in society, sometimes led a dissipated life, and reached the solemn period of ordination without having received any proper teaching. The Council of Trent, at the instance of Cajetan, decided that each diocese should have a school of ecclesiastics termed aseminary. St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, the good Paul d’Arezzo, Archbishop of Naples, and several Italian bishops, set Europe the example by establishing these pious retreats in their dioceses; the Cardinal of Lorraine imitated them by founding the seminary of Rheims, and two French bishops also created seminaries at Carpentras and Bordeaux. These were the only seminaries in France for more than eighty years, and they were so badly managed, so little in harmony with the importance of their design, that they were looked upon as attempts that had miscarried. The seminary of Paris, the most famous of all those in France, was not created until the middle of the seventeenth century, when it was founded by the active and generous co-operation of two pious women, with the help of St. Vincent de Paul and the Abbé Ollier, for ecclesiastical retreats and for the establishment of theCongregation de Saint-Sulpice.

Back to Index Next