torment or terror; while others, individually guilty, may have imputed to the society their private crimes. At any rate, their confessions are confronted by the firmness of many others, who repelled, under every risk and torture, the detestable accusations. Indeed many of the charges were of a nature so very monstrous *, so very remote from reason or nature, as almost to carry with them their own confutation-at least, the most explicit and unsuspicious evidence was necessary to establish their truth; and none such was offered.

The abuses of the Church.

Philip was more successful in his efforts to destroy an ancient and powerful Military Order, than to disgrace the memory of an insolent pontiff; and the Council, which suppressed the Templars with such little show of justice or humanity, contended with invincible eagerness for the reputation of Boniface. It was perseveringly attempted to attach the stain of heresy to his name; but though the king pursued this design with all the vehemence of malignity and revenge, the prelates assembled at Vienne, three hundred in number †, unanimously proclaimed his spotless orthodoxy-that he died, as he had lived, in the bosom of the Catholic faith. Disappointed in this favourite hope, the king was compelled to seek consolation in an edict published at the same time by the pope, which accorded a gracious pardon to the enemies and calumniators of Boniface. For the third and worthiest object of the labour of the Council, an abundant harvest was provided by the multiplied abuses of the Church. It was complained that (in France at least) the Lord's day was more generally devoted to business or to pleasure than to divine worship; that the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was frequently delegated to improper persons, and by them so scandalously perverted, that the censures of the Church had lost their power and their terrors; that many contemptible individuals, defective alike in learning and in morals, were admitted to the priesthood; that prebends and other dignities, being now in most cases filled by the pope, seldom by the bishop, were usually presented to strangers and even foreigners, men of dissolute morals, elevated by successful intrigues at the Court of Rome; and that thus the young and deserving aspirants for ecclesiastical promotion were frequently compelled to abandon the profession with disgust, and invariably became the bitterest and most dangerous enemies of the Church. Another abuse was, the immoderate indulgence of pluralities; many held at the same time four or five, some not fewer than a dozen benefices. Another evil mentioned, is the non-residence of many of the higher clergy, occasioned by the necessity of personally watching their interests at the Vatican. The sumptuous luxury in which they lived, and the negligence and indecency with which the divine services were performed, constituted another

*They are contained (see Bzovius, Ann. 1308, s. iii.) in six charges and fourteen questions-involving infidelity, blasphemy, and the most abominable impurities. That which the sufferers appear most generally to have confessed under the torture, was the public denial of Christ, as a condition of admission into the Order, attended with insults to the cross. We need scarcely refer the reader to the excellent remarks of Voltaire and Sismondi on this subject. The latter especially confirms his opinion, that the Templars were sacrificed, by contemporary authority and substantial reasons. Ital. Rep., ch. xix.

+ Bzov. ad ann. 1312, i. A very tedious process against the orthodoxy of Boniface had been carried on in 1310, before the pope at Avignon, where Nogaret appeared as his principal accuser, and the agent of Philip. But Clement, unwilling on the one hand to offend the King, and not daring on the other to scandalize the Church, interposed so many delays, that Philip at length decided to await the decision of the General Council. See Fleury, 1. xci. s. xliii.

charge against the beneficed clergy. The profligacy and simony, publicly practised at the Roman Court, swelled the long list of its acknowledged deformities. On the dissolution of the Council, Clement published, in 1313, its canons, which were fifty-six in number. Most of these were, indeed, nominally directed to the reformation of the Church; the progress of heresy was vigorously opposed; and attempts were made to prevent or heal some divisions now beginning to spring up within the Church: subjects to which we shall presently recur. Some constitutions likewise regulated the relation of the bishops to the Monastic Orders; and others imposed greater decency on the lower† orders of the clergy; but the grand and vital disorders of the Church, those from which its real danger proceeded, and which were in fact the roots whence the others started into life and notice, these were left to flourish unviolated, and to spread more and more deeply into the bosom of the communion.

Clement V. died ‡ very soon afterwards, and his death was followed by an obstinate difference between the French and

Italian cardinals respecting the nation of his Election of John XXII. successor. This was prolonged by the impa

tient interference of the populace §, excited, as it would seem, by some Gascon soldiers, who proposed to terminate the dispute by seizing the persons of the Italians. Accordingly, they set fire to the conclave; but the terrified cardinals escaped by another exit, and immediately dispersed and concealed themselves in various places of refuge. Such, indeed, was their panic, or at least their disinclination, that two years elapsed before they could be reassembled. At length, after a second deliberation, which lasted forty days, they elected James of Euse, a native of Cahors, cardinal bishop of Porto-such long delay and repeated consultation did it require, to add to the list of pontifical delinquents the name of John XXII.! That Pope was of very low origin, the son of a shoemaker or a tapster | ; but he had natural talents and a taste for letters, which were early dis

*The pope ordered all the bishops to bring with them to the Council expositions of all which seemed to demand correction. Two of these memoirs are still extant, and from them the abuses here briefly enumerated are taken. See Fleury, liv. cxi. s. li., lii. Semler, sec. xiv. cap ii. 'Infinita fere sunt quæ reformari deberent; ignorantur quasi totaliter a Christianis articuli fidei et alia quæ ad religionem et salutem animarum pertinent Monachi non vivunt in suo monasterio; sicut equus effrenis discurrunt, mercantur, et alia enormia faciunt, de quibus loqui verecundum est et turpe. . prælati non possunt bonis personis hodie providere obstante multitudine Clericorum apud Curiam Romanam impetrantium, qui quidem nunquam Ecclesiam intrarunt etiam pueri obtinent dignitates Utinam Cardinales, qui sunt animalia pennata, plena oculis ante et retro, talia perspiciant similes sibi similes eligunt bene dico opus esse in Capite etiam et in membris reformatione.' The author of this bold appeal to the Head, which was not itself excepted from the general censure, is not known to posterity-the document is given by Raynaldus e Cod. Vaticano. Bzovius (ann. 1310, sec. vi.) enumerates, at great length, fifteen of the principal abuses with which the Church was charged on this occasion.

...

†The following is the Twenty-second Canon. 'Clerici conjugati carnificum seu macellariorum aut tabernariorum officium publicè et personaliter exercentes, vestes virgatas, partitas, neque statui suo conducentes, portantes severius puniantur. See Bzovius, Contin. Ann. Baron., ann. 1313, sec. i.

He died immensely rich, through the sale of benefices and other such traffic; and the moment that he was known to have expired, all the inmates of his palace are stated to have rushed with one consent to his treasury: not a single servant remained to watch the body of his master, insomuch that the lights which were blazing round fell down and set fire to the bed. The flames were extinguished; but not till they had consumed half the body of the richest Pope who had yet governed the Church. Sismondi believes this anecdote. § The conclave was held at Carpentras, a place on the banks of the Rhone, not far from Avignon. It happened that the Court was assembled there when the Pope died; it therefore became the legal place for the new election.

|| Giovanni Villani, lib. ix. c. lxxix. Giannone, lib. xxii. cap. viii.

covered and encouraged, and his gradual rise to dignity in the Church was not disgraced by any notorious scandals*. But he had not long been in possession of the highest eminence, before he abandoned himself, without scruple or shame, to his predominant passion, avarice. He was not, indeed, exempt from the ambitious arrogance without the Church, and the vexatious intolerance within it, which seem at this time to have been communicated by the chair of St. Peter to its successive possessorsin a greater or less degree to each, according to his previous disposition to those qualities; but avarice was the vice by which John was individually and peculiarly characterized, and to which he gave, during his long pontificate, the most intemperate indulgence. Not contented with the usual methods of papal extortion, he displayed his ingenuity in the invention of others more effectual; he enlarged and extended the Rule of the Apostolical Chancery †; he imposed the The Apostolical Chancery. payment of annates on Ecclesiastical Benefices; he multiplied the profitable abuse of dispensations; he increased in France the number of bishoprics; and commonly took advantage of the vacancy of a rich See, in order to make five or six translations, promoting each prelate to a dignity, somewhat wealthier than that, which he had before held: so that all were contented, (says Giannone ‡) while all paid their fees. In a word, he considered kingdoms, cities, castles and territories to be, the real patrimony of Christ, and held the true virtue of the Church to consist, not in contempt of the world and zeal for the faith and evangelical doctrine, but in oblations and tithes, and taxes, and collections, and purple, and gold and silver. Such is the language of the Italian historians, and if it be somewhat exaggerated by their general prejudices against the popes of Avignon, the immense § treasures which were unquestionably amassed

The violent party-writers of the day, Franciscans and Ghibelines, who heaped every epithet of abuse upon the hostile name of John XXII., have been too hastily credited by some modern writers. Giovanni Villani admits that he was modest in his manner of life, sober, not luxurious, nor profuse in his personal expenditure. In the course of almost every night, he rose to say his office and to study; he celebrated mass almost every day; was easy of access and rapid in the performance of business. He was hasty in temper, of an informed and penetrating understanding, and magnanimous in affairs of importance. (See Fleury, 1. xciv. s. xxxix.) These qualities and habits at least repel the charge of universal profligacy which has been brought against him. Nevertheless, it is the opinion of Sismondi (chap. xxix.) that his elevation was not less ascribable to his intrigues and effrontery than to his talents; and the public acts of his pontificate require

no comment.

He reduced the system of Apostolical taxation to a code of canon law. A deacon or sub-deacon might be absolved for murder, for about twenty crowns; a bishop for about three hundred livres: every crime had its price. See Denina, 14, vi.

We might be disposed to receive this with some little suspicion, even from Giannone -since he was not only an Italian, but a decided anti-Gallican also-were not the facts directly derived from Giov. Villani.

§ Giov. Villani (lib. xi. cap. xx.) asserts (on the authority of his own brother, resident at Avignon, who received his information from the treasurers of the pope) that the treasure found on the death of John XXII. amounted to more than eighteen millions of florins in gold coin; while that in services of the table, crosses, crowns, mitres and other trinkets of gold and precious stones, rose to about seven millions more-total, twenty-five millions of golden florins. The greater part of this was amassed by John, and chiefly by his reservations of all the benefices of all the collegiate Churches of Christendom. His ordinary pretext was the liberation of the Holy Land.

The Storia or Nuova Cronica,' of Giovanni Villani, a citizen of Florence, begins at the earliest age and continues to the year of his death, 1348. It chiefly relates to the affairs of Florence, and is most instructive during the last century. His brother Matteo continued the History (with an addition by his own son Philip) as far as the year 1364.

by John, prepare us to believe much that is asserted respecting the methods of his exaction.

Contest with Louis of Bavaria.

But the circumstance, by which this pontificate was most distinguished, and which for a moment raises us from the sordid details of fraud and extortion to the recollection of the loftier vices of the Gregories and the Innocents, was a contest which the Pope perseveringly maintained with the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria. Having entered at greater length, perhaps, than was necessary into the description of the two former conflicts between the empire and the holy see, and of that also between Philip and Boniface, we shall not pursue the particulars of this last and feeblest effort of declining papacy. The leading events are briefly these. The Electors assembled at Frankfort in 1314 were divided; and while some chose Louis for successor to the throne, others supported Frederic, Archduke of Austria. John * refused to confirm either of the Pretenders, and they continued to dispute the empire with the sword till the year 1323, when Frederic was defeated and taken prisoner. The Duke of Bavaria then took upon himself the imperial administration, without at all soliciting the 'sanction of the Pope. Thereupon the latter pronounced sentence against him, and prepared to support Leopold, the brother of Frederic. Louis boldly appealed to a General Council, and to a future and legitimate Pope, and he received in return an ineffectual sentence of excommunication and deposition. In the mean time, the war between the opposite parties had been maintained with great fury in Italy, and upon the whole to the advantage of the Guelphs, through the powerful aid of the King of Naples, still faithful to the Roman see. Consequently Louis was pressed to cross the Alps. He assembled a parliament at Milan, and assumed with great solemnity the iron crown. From Milan he advanced to Rome: the celerity of his march anticipated all opposition, and the ceremony of his coronation was there performed, with abundant pomp and acclamation, in January, 1328. Vigorous measures of hostility were at the same time adopted a sentence of degradation against John XXII., and the appointment of a new and imperial Pope, who assumed the name of Nicholas V. But though an emperor might at this time be sufficiently powerful to repel with impunity the pontifical censures, his aggressive attempts were at least as futile as those of his adversary. Nicholas was rejected by the Catholic world; and, after two years of vain pretension, surrendered his title and his persont to John. The Emperor had been previously compelled to retire from Rome. So that, after a fruitless contest of about seven years, the relative situation of the combatants was little altered; and the sentences

6

* In a bull published in 1317, John maintained that all imperial vicars lost their authority at the death of the Emperor, and that it devolved on the Pope. God himself,' he continued, has confided the empire of the earth, as well as that of heaven, to the sovereign pontiff. During the interregnum, all the rights of the empire devolve upon the church; and he who, without the permission of the apostolic see, continues to exercise the functions entrusted to him by the Emperor in his lifetime, offends against religion, plunges into crime, and attacks the divine Majesty itself. See Sismondi, Rep. It., ch. xxix. This claim was pressed more than once by the Avignon Popes the more eagerly because the legitimacy of the King of the Romans' was involved in that of the Emperor; and the Pope, who pretended to the prerogatives of the one, had a nearer interest in usurping the functions of the other.

According to the account of Giovanni Villani (lib. x. cap. clxiv), he was delivered up by the Pisans, and sent to Avignon. He threw himself at the feet of the Pope, and prayed for mercy e con bel sermone e autorità se confessò peccatore eretico col Bavero insieme, che fatto l' havea. It should be added, that John treated him extremely well, and that he died a natural death at Avignon three years afterwards.

of degradation and deposition, mutually reiterated, had no other effect than to prove to the world (though not so to the individuals engaged) that there was something in the claims of both parties extravagant and unfounded; and that the temporal authority on the one hand, and the spiritual on the other, though occasionally confounded by the abuse of both, were in fact, as they were in essence and origin, independent.

We observe that, in one respect at least, Louis deviated during this contest from the tactics of his two predecessors, and adopted those of the French King. The appeal from the authority of the Pope to that of a General Council was the severest wound which could be inflicted on papal arrogance. It was more than that, since it led almost necessarily to the limitation of papal power. In an age of darkness, such an appeal might have been treated as a wanton, though bitter insult. But reason was at length awakened, and men were beginning to consider what ought to be, as well as what had been. The promulgation of a new and grand ecclesiastical principle, on the authority of a king and an emperor, would excite some consideration even among the most bigoted; and there would be few who did not begin to entertain a question respecting the spiritual omnipotence of the Pope. Another measure was taken by the Emperor, also after the example of Philip, which tended more directly to the same Charges of Heresy end. In the Assembly held at Milan, at which against John XXII. several prelates attended, John XXII. was formally impeached on the charge of heresy. Sixteen articles were specified, in which he erred against the constitutions of the General Councils; and he was pronounced to have virtually forfeited the pontifical dignity. It was a bold proceeding in Louis, on the judgment of a provincial meeting of his own partizans, to convict the Vicar of Christ of heretical depravity*. It was indeed to repel usurpation by usurpation, and to seize the spiritual sword in his strife to recover the material. The accusations were probably false, and certainly fruitless: they acquired no general credit at the time, nor have they adhered to the memory of the accused. Nevertheless, the mere assumption of papal fallibility in matters of faith by two powerful monarchs, and the vigour of the measures taken on that assumption, naturally confirmed the confidence of those whom reason had already led to the same conclusion.

But it also happened very strangely, that the same extraordinary charge was again incurred by John XXII. towards the end of his life, and with much greater appearance of reason. In some public discourses delivered in the course of the years 1331 and 1332, he had rashly declared his opinion, that the souls of the faithful, in their intermediate state, were indeed permitted to behold Christ as a man; but that the face of God, or the Divine Nature, was veiled from their sight until their reunion with the body at the last dayt. The publication of this new doctrine produced a

*The Pope's disputes with the Spiritual Franciscans had raised a considerable party, even in the church, against him. Besides, all the theologians and sectarians, who were discontented with papal government, declared in favour of Louis. See the latter part of this chapter. Mosh., Cent. XIV., p. ii., ch. ii. The recompense of the saints, before the coming of Jesus Christ, was the bosom of Abraham; after his coming, his passion, and ascension, their recompense, till the day of judgment, is to be under the altar of God, that is, under the protection and consolation of the humanity of Jesus Christ. But after the judgment they shall be on the altar, that is, on the humanity of Jesus Christ, because then they shall behold not only his humanity, but also his divinity as it is in itself; for they shall see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' These are the expressions of John, as given by Fleury, liv. xciv., sect. xxi、,