which it actually possessed, and shocked by the ill purpose to which it sometimes applied that power. But our most thoughtful attention has still been fixed upon the proceedings of the Pope. We have observed him, in the first place, contending with the Emperor for the independence of his own election with a great degree of success; next we have beheld him engaged in occasional contests with the most powerful Sovereigns of the age, not only in those domestic concerns which might seem to give some plea for ecclesiastical interference, but about affairs strictly secular, and the very successions to their thrones; and, lastly, we have noticed the movements of that more confined, but scarcely more legitimate ambition, which pretended to depress the superior ranks of the Clergy, to despoil them of their privileges, and to remove them to so humble a distance from the Roman See, that the Pope might seem to concentrate (if it were possible) in his own person the entire authority of the ecclesiastical order. The particular facts by which these designs were manifested belong, for the most part, to the ninth century; but the grand pontifical principles, if they suffered a partial suspension, yet lost none of their force and vitality during that which followed. And upon the whole it is a true and unavoidable observation, that the period during which the mighty scheme first grew and developed itself, embraced that portion of papal history which, above all others, is most scandalously eminent for the disorders of the See, and for the weakness and undisguised profligacy of those who occupied itt.

CHAPTER XV.

REESE

*

BRARY

OF TPZ

UNIVERSITY

CALIFORNIA.

On the Opinions, Literature, Discipline, and External Fortunes.

of the Church.

I. On the Eucharist-Original Opinions of the Church-Doctrine of Paschasius Radbert combated by Ratram and John Scotus-Conclusion of the Controversy-Predestination-Opinions and Persecution of Gotteschalcus-Millennarianism in the Tenth Century-its strange and general Effect. II. Literature-Rabanus Maurus, John Scotus, Alfred-its Progress among the Saracens -Spain-South of Italy-France-Rome-Pope Sylvester II. III. Discipline of the Church -Conduct of Charlemagne and his Successors-St. Benedict of Aniane. Institution of Canons regular-Episcopal election-Translations by Bishops prohibited. Pope Stephen VI.-Claudius Bishop of Turin-Penitential System. IV. Conversion of the North of Europe-of Denmark, Sweden, Russia-of Poland and Hungary-how accomplished and to what Extent-The Normans -The Turks.

THE particulars contained in the preceding Chapter present an imperfect picture of the condition of Religion during the ninth and tenth cen

This is more particularly true of the tenth century, but even the ninth was not exempt from the same charge. To this age belongs the popular story of the female Pope; the pontificate of Joan is recorded to have commenced on the death of Leo IV., in 855, and to have lasted for about two years. Historians agree that very great confusion prevailed at Rome respecting the election of Leo's successor, and that Benedict III. did not prevail without a severe and tumultuous struggle with a rival named Anastasius. The rule of Pope Joan is now indeed generally discredited; but the early invention of the tale, and the belief so long attached to it, attest a condition of things which made it at least possible.

The Lives of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) were written by Anastasius, a librarian, who died before 882; they reach as far as the death of Nicholas I. in 867. The lives of some other Popes, as far as 889, were added by another librarian named Guillaume. From 889 to 1050 (where the Collection of Cardinal d'Aragon begins) there is a suspen sion of pontifical biography.

turies. They are sufficient, perhaps, to exhibit the outlines of the visible Church, as it was gradually changing its shape and constitution, and passing through a region of disorder and darkness, from a state of contested rights and restricted authority to a situation of acknowledged might and unbounded pretension. They may also have discovered to us, in some manner, the process of the change, and certain of the less obvious means and causes through which it was accomplished: still the inquiry has been confined to the external Church; it has gone to examine a human and perishable institution-no farther; it has illustrated the outworks which man had thrown up for the protection (as he imagined) of God's fortress -nothing more. It remains, then, to complete the task, and to notice some circumstances in the history of this period unconnected with the ambitious struggles of Popes or Bishops.

It is observable that, during the seventh and eighth ages, Religion lost much of its vigour and efficacy in France and Italy, while it took root and spread in Britain; during the ninth, it arose, through the institutions of Charlemagne, with renovated power in France; in the course of the tenth, its progress in Germany made some amends for its general degradation. These fluctuations corresponded, upon the whole, with the literary revolutions of those countries. Learning was, in those days, the only faithful ally and support of religion, and the causes which withered the one never failed to blight the other. Indeed, as learning was then almost wholly confined to the Clergy, it naturally partook of a theological character; and as the season of scholastic sophistry had not yet set in, the theology did not so commonly obscure, it even commonly illustrated, the religion.

Religious zeal, when informed by imperfect education, and unrestrained by a moderate and charitable temper, is rarely unattended by religious dissension; and thus it happened, that, while the intellectual torpor of the tenth century was little or nothing agitated by such disputes, the ninth, which was partially enlightened, witnessed three important controversies. The first was that which Photius carried on with the Roman See, regarding Image worship and other differences, the work of preceding generations; and it has been already treated. The other two respected the manner of Christ's presence at the Eucharist, and the doctrine of Salvation by Grace, and they shall now be noticed: it will afterwards be necessary to say a few words on the Discipline of the Church; and we shall then observe the progress of Christianity among distant and barbarous nations, as well as the severe reverse which afflicted it.

I. Mosheim* asserts without hesitation, that it had been hitherto the unanimous opinion of the Church, that the body and Ecclesiastical con- blood of Christ were really administered to those who troversies. received the Sacrament, and that they were consequently present at the administration, but that the sentiments of Christians concerning the nature and manner of this presence were various and contradictory. No Council had yet determined with precision the manner in which that presence was to be understood; both reason and folly were hitherto left free in this matter; nor had any imperious mode of faith suspended the exercise of the one, or controlled the extravagance of the other. The Historian's first position is laid down, perhaps, somewhat too peremptorily; for though many passages may be adduced from very ancient fathers in affirmation of the bodily presence, the obscurity or different tendency of others would rather persuade us, that even

*Cent, ix. p. 2, c. 3.

that doctrine was also left a good deal to individual judgment. The second is strictly true; and the question which had escaped the vain and intrusive curiosity of oriental theologians, was at length engendered in a Convent in Gaul. In the year 831, Paschasius Radbert, a Benedictine Monk, afterwards Abbot of Corbie, published a treatise concerning the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ,' which he presented, fifteen years afterwards, carefully revised and augmented, to Charles the Bald. The doctrine advanced by Paschasius may be expressed in the two following propositions :-First, that after the consecration of the bread and wine, nothing remains of those symbols except the outward figure, under which the body and blood of Christ were really and locally present. Secondly, that the body of Christ, thus present, is the same body which was born of the Virgin, which suffered upon the cross, and was raised from the dead *. Charles appears decidedly to have disapproved of this doctrine. And it might perhaps have been expected that, after the example of so many princes, he would have summoned a Council, stigmatized it as heresy, and persecuted its author. He did not do so; but, on the contrary, adopted a method of opposition worthy of a wiser Prince and a more enlightened age. He commissioned two of the ablest writers of the day, Ratramn† and Johannes Scotus, to investigate by arguments the suspicious opinion. The composition of the former is still extant, and has exercised the ingenuity of the learned even in recent times; but they

* Pachasius derived three consequences from his doctrine. 1. That Jesus Christ was immolated anew every day, in reality but in mystery. 2. That the Eucharist is both truth and figure together. 3. That it is not liable to the consequences of digestion. The first of these positions assumes a new and express creation on every occasion of the cele bration of the Sacrament. The disputes arising from the third afterwards gave birth to the heresy named Stercoranism.-Fleury, 1. xlvii., s. 35. Semler (sec. ix. cap. iii.) is willing to deduce Paschasius' doctrine from the Monophysite Controversy, and the opinions respecting one incarnate nature of Christ,' which had still some prevalence in the East. A monk of Corbie. His book was long received under the name of Bertram; and some have even supposed it to be the work of John Scotus on the same subject, but clearly without reason. Dupin, Hist. Eccl., Cent. ix. c. vii. Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 52, 53. Semler, loc. cit. Ratramn proposes the subject in the following manner:-"Your Majesty inquires whether the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which is received in the Church by the mouth of the faithful, is made in mystery-that is, if it contains anything secret which only appears to the eyes of faith-or if, without any veil of mystery, the eyes of the body perceive without, that which the view of the spirit perceives within; so that all which is made is manifestly apparent. You inquire besides, whether it is the same body which was born of the Virgin Mary, which suffered, died, and was buried; and which, after its resurrection, ascended to Heaven, and sat on the right hand of the Father." Respecting the second question, the opinion of Ratramn was in direct opposition to that of Paschasius; but, in the treatment of the first, it would be difficult certainly to pronounce on what they differed, or indeed on what they agreed. There is moreover extant an anonymous composi tion, which combats the second proposition of Paschasius-first in itself, and then in its consequence that Jesus Christ suffers anew on every occasion that mass is celebrated. The writer acknowledges the real presence as a necessary tenet. Every Christian' (thus he commences) 'ought to believe and confess that the body and blood of the Lord is true flesh and true blood; whoever denies this proves himself to be without faith.' It appears indeed true that Paschasius' second proposition gave much more general offence than the first.

John Scotus Erigena (i. e. John the Irishman) was a layman of great acuteness and much profane learning, and irreproachable moral character. He was in high estimation at the court of Charles the Bald, and honoured by the personal partiality of that prince. He is described in the Hist. Litt. de la France, to have been of 'très petite taille, vif, pénétrant, et enjoué.' Fleury (1. xlviii., s. 48) disputes the great extent of his theological acquirements, and perhaps with justice. His book on the Eucharist was burnt about two hundred years afterwards by the hand of his disciple Berenger, on ecclesiastical compulsion.

S

have not succeeded in extricating from the perplexities of his reasoning, and, perhaps, the uncertainty of his belief, the real opinions of the author. The work of Johannes Scotus is lost; but we learn that his arguments were more direct, and his sentiments more perspicuous and consistent; he plainly declared, that the bread and wine were no more than symbols of the absent body and blood of Christ, and memorials of the last supper. Other theologians engaged in the dispute, and a decided superiority, both in number and talents*, was opposed to the doctrine of Paschasius—yet so opposed, that there was little unanimity among its adversaries, and no very perfect consistency even in their several writingst.

The controversy died away before the end of the ninth century, without having occasioned any great mischief, and the subject was left open to individual inquiry or neglect, as it had ever been. The intellectual

lethargy of the century following was not to be disturbed by an argument demanding some acuteness, and susceptible of much sophistry; and an age of entire ignorance has at least this advantage over one of superficial learning, that it suffers nothing from the abuse of the human understanding. But very early in the eleventh century, the dispute was again awakened it assumed, under different circumstances and other principles, another aspect and character, and closed in a very different termination. But as this event belongs more properly to the life of Gregory VII. we shall not anticipate the triumph of that Pontiff, nor deprive his name of any ray of that ambiguous splendour which illustrates it. The subject of Predestination and Divine Grace, which had already § been controverted in France with some acuteness, and, Opinions of what is much better, with candour and charity, was Godeschalcus. subjected to another investigation in the ninth century. Godeschalcus, otherwise called Fulgentius, was a native of Germany, and a monk of Orbais, in the diocese of Soissons. He was admitted to orders, during the vacancy of the See, by the Chorepiscopus-a circumstance to which the subsequent animosity of Hinemar is sometimes attributed. He possessed considerable learning, but a mind withal too prone to pursue abstruse and unprofitable inquiries. Early in life he consulted Lupus, Abbot of Ferrara, on the question, whether, after the resurrection, the blessed shall see God with the eyes of the body? The Abbot concluded a reluctant reply to the following effect:'I exhort you, my venerable brother, no longer to weary your spirit with suchlike speculations, lest, through too great devotion to them, you become incapacitated for examining and teaching things more useful. Why waste so many researches on matters, which it is not yet, perhaps, expedient that we should know? Let us rather exercise our talents in the spacious fields of Holy Writ; let us apply entirely to that meditation, and let prayer be associated to our studies. God will not fail in his goodness to manifest himself in the manner which shall be best for us, though we should cease to pry into things which are placed above us.' The specu

:

Hincmar appears to have held the doctrine of the real presence; and it is difficult to pronounce whether or not he confined his meaning to a spiritual presence.

The worship of the elements is not mentioned by any of the disputants—it was an extravagance of superstition too violent for the controversialists of the ninth century.

As early as the conclusion of the eighth century, a heresy respecting the nature of Jesus Christ appeared in the Western Church-that of the Adoptians. It was condemned by Charlemagne in three Councils, between the years 790 and 800, and presently disappeared.

§ In the fifth century.-See chap. xi.

lations of Godeschalcus were diverted by this judicious rebuke, but not repressed; and the books of Scripture were still rivalled or superseded in his attention by those of Augustin. Accordingly he involved himself deeply and inextricably in the mazes of fatalism. About the year 846, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and on his return, soon afterwards, he expressed his opinions on that subject very publicly in the diocese of Verona. Information was instantly conveyed to Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mayence, the most profound theologian of the age. That Prelate immediately replied; and in combating the error of a professed Augustinian, protected himself also by the authority of Augustin*.

Happy had it been for the author of the controversy, if his adversary had allowed it to remain on that footing; but the doctrine was becoming too popular, and threatened moral effects too pernicioust to be overlooked by the Church. Rabanus assembled, in 848, a Council at Mayence, at which the king was present, and Godeschalcus was summoned before it. Here he defended, in a written treatise, the doctrine of double predestination-that of the elect, to eternal life by the free Grace of God-that of the wicked, to everlasting damnation through their own sins. His explanations did not satisfy the Council, and the tenet was rejected and condemned; but its advocate was not considered amenable to that tribunal, as he had been ordained in the diocese of Rheims; wherefore Rabanus consigned him to the final custody of Hincmar, who then held that See.

The unfortunate heretic (he had now deserved that appellation) profited nothing by this change in jurisdiction. Hincmar, in the following year, caused him to be accused before the Council of Quiercy sur Oise, when he was pronounced incorrigible, and deposed from the priesthood. Moreover, as the penalty of his insolence and contumacy, he was condemned to public flagellation and perpetual imprisonment. The sentence was rigidly executed, and Charles was not ashamed to countenance it by his royal presence. It is affirmed, that under the prolonged agony of severe torture, the sufferer yielded so far as to commit to the flames the Texts which he had collected in defence of his opinions; and if he did so, it was human and excusable weakness. But it is certain that he was confined to the walls of a convent for almost twenty § years, and that at length,

• Rabanus was the most profound divine in the ninth century, as Augustin was in the fifth, but the spirit of the one age was original thought and reasoning-that of the other, blind and servile imitation: therefore Rabanus was contented to cite and explain Augustin; and the controversy descended from lofty philosophical investigation to logical, and even critical subtilty. The object in the fifth age was, to solve an abstruse and difficult question; that in the ninth, to penetrate the real opinions of an ancient writer.

In one of the letters written on this subject, Rabanus asserts that the doctrine of Godeschalchus had already driven many to despair, and that several began to inquire'Wherefore should I strive and labour for my salvation? In what does it profit me to be righteous, if I am not predestined to happiness? What evil may I not safely commit, if I am surely predestined to life eternal ?' This natural inference, however disavowed by the more ingenious teachers of the doctrine, is very liable to be drawn by the people, even in ages much more enlightened than the ninth.

Godeschalcus solicited permission to maintain the truth of his doctrine in the presence of the King, the Clergy, and the whole people, by passing through four barrels filled with boiling water and oil and pitch, and afterwards through a large fire. If he should come out unhurt, let the doctrine be acknowledged and received; if otherwise, let the flames take their course. Milner, whose account of this Controversy should be mentioned with praise, can scarcely pardon this desire of his persecuted favourite as if the champion of Predestination had been less liable than his neighbours to the superstitious contagion of his age. In this case, however, his imperfection was peculiarly excused by the more deliberate absurdity of Hinemar himself, who had so far degraded his genius as to write a serious treatise on 'Trials by Hot and Cold Water.' See Hist. Litt de la France. § His death is usually referred to the year 866. We should observe that his sufferings