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escence of the Cardinals makes it highly probable, that the legitimacy of Urban would never have been questioned, had he followed the usual course of pontifical misgovernment, or even published his schemes of reformation with less earnestness, or more discretion. The severity of his rebukes rankled in the conscience of those who deserved them; and his menaces persuaded the court, that, to preserve its beloved impurities, it must depose the master who presumed to arraign them. A Pope, so dangerous to the vices* of the powerful clergy, could not hope to maintain without dispute an ambiguous right.

Such was the origin of the schism which divided the Roman Church for about forty years, and accelerated more than any other event the decline of papal authorityt. We have related the particulars with some minuteness, not only in justice to the importance of the subject, but also to show, that the great difficulties, which were soon afterwards found, even by impartial judges, in determining the rights of the competitors, were not without foundation; but that both parties had a plausible plea for their respective obedience, though the true policy and interests of the church clearly recommended an undivided adherence to the cause of Urban.

France declares

for Clement.

The hopes of Clement were fixed on the court of France; he knew that prejudices in his favour naturally existed in that kingdom, and he knew, too, that the first steps towards his general acknowledgment must be taken there. Charles V., affecting great impartiality, and admitting the deliberation due to so grave a question, convoked at Vincennes a grand Assembly of his clergy, nobles, and council. This august body, after individually abjuring the influence of all personal considerations, expressed an unanimous conviction of the legitimacy of Clement. The

However, the real object of the populace was effected, if they obtained a Pope who would probably reside at Rome: this, and not the place of his nativity, was the point which touched their interests,-and the election of a Neapolitan secured it almost as certainly, as that of a Roman. Upon the whole, it seems most probable (and the result of the second election confirms this) that, had no external influence been exercised, the Cardinals would have chosen an Ultramontane, or, at any rate, not the Archbishop of Bari. Sismondi's eloquent description of this affair is chiefly drawn from the contemporary account of Thomas d'Acerno, Bishop of Lucera, who was present. On the other hand, Baldus, a celebrated lawyer and adherent of Urban, does not dispute the influence of the popular uproar, but rests the legitimacy of that Pope on the subsequent confirmation and obedience of the sacred college.

*He strictly forbade the Cardinals, on pain of excommunication, to accept any presents. He endeavoured to restrain the luxury of all his prelates, and even to reduce their tables to a single dish,-a laudable moderation, of which he set the example himself. Again, he threatened the French, that he would create so many Cardinals as to place them in a minority in the college. "Item Cardinali de Ursinis dixit quod erat unus Sotus." (Thomas d'Acerno, p. 725.) His harsh and offensive manner increased the unpopularity of his proposed reforms.

The entire number of the schisms, which have disturbed the Roman Catholic Church, is variously estimated by its historians. Johannes Marius, a Belgian, historian of Louis XII., (a Latin translation of whose work is published, together with that of Theodoric of Niem,) makes the fated number to be twenty-four,-the last of which, the Schism of Anti-Christ, the most deadly of all, had not yet in his time befallen. The first in his catalogue is that of the Novatians; the sixteenth was that occasioned by Gregory VII.; the twentieth by Frederick Barbarossa; the twenty-second was that, which we are now describing. His Book is divided into three parts, of which the second, "De Conciliis Ecclesiæ Gallicanæ," contains some useful information.

In a Council previously held (on Sept. 8), to examine the rights of the dispute between Urban and the French Cardinals, before the election of Robert of Geneva, the majority declared for the Cardinals, though they advised the king still to suspend his de

king was guided by their voice, and declared on the 13th of November in his favour. The Queen of Naples, the city of Avignon, and the six Cardinals who resided there, had already come to the same determination. In the mean time, a passionate warfare of bulls and anathemas commenced on both sides; but happily the thunders must on this occasion have fallen harmless, even in the judgment of a moderate Catholic, since it was impossible certainly to decide which were the genuine bolts; and the ambiguous election of the rivals placed them both in the situation of Antipopes, rather than of Popes.

But they were not contented with those innocuous conflicts; the rights which were ineffectually asserted by ecclesiastical censures, appealed for protection to the sword: a succession of combats desolated the South of Italy, and ended in the discomfiture of Clement. His first refuge was Naples; but at length, finding it impossible to maintain himself in Italy against an Italian rival, he retired to the residence most suited to his fortunes and his prospects, Avignon. From a city which was already consecrated by the tombs of so many Popes, supported by the court and nourished by the clergy of France, he bade defiance to his Transalpine adversary; and since he could not command, he was contented to divide, the spiritual obedience of Europe.

It does not enter into the plan of this History to pursue the affairs of the Church into all their connexions with political matters; to attend the march of papal armies, hateful alike in their reverses and their triumphs; or to trace the flimsy threads of intrigue, by which the momentary interests of Popes and kings have been suspended. It is enough to say, that, notwithstanding an intemperate ambition and some acts of singular imprudence, Urban continued to retain the greater part of his adherents. The

Kings of Scotland and Cyprus, the Counts of Savoy Division of Europe. and Geneva, the Duke of Austria, and some other German princes, and even the Kings of Castille and Arragon, were finally united with France in allegiance to Clement But the other states of Europe remained faithful to the vows, which they had earliest taken; and it was no unreasonable reply to the Antipope, Robert of Avignon, that he should be the last to reject that Pontiff, whom the Cardinal, Robert of Geneva, had officially recommended to universal obedience. The doctors and learned men of the age were similarly divided, and their division produced the most voluminous controversies. And lastly, as is observed by some Roman Catholic writers, many pious and gifted persons, who are now numbered among the saints of the Church, were to be found indifferently in either obedience; which sufficiently proved (they assert) that the eternal salvation of the faithful was not in this case endangered by their error. In this holy society, Catharine of Sienna was again conspicuous, as the advocate and adviser of the Roman Pope. She declared herself (says Maimbourg) loudly for Urban, and employed whatever talents, and eloquence, and force she possessed, in writing and exhorting all the world to acknowledge him. At the same time, in six epistles, which she addressed to himself, she discreetly recommended him to relax somewhat from that extreme austerity, which had made him so many enemies. To what extent Urban profited by that counsel we are scarcely able to decide, though some assert, that he held his holy monitress in much veneration. But we are credibly informed, that his predecessor, who had certainly been influenced by her cision. Gibbon remarks, that it was the vanity, rather than the interest of the nation, which determined the court and clergy of France.

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persuasions, when at length, on his death-bed, his stronger reason prevailed, called around him his friends and assistants, and solemnly cautioned them against all pretenders of either sex, who should propound their private revelations as rules of conduct and policy. Since I, (he said,) having been seduced by such as these, and having rejected the rational counsel of my friends, have dragged myself and the Church into the perils of a schism, which is now near at hand, unless Jesus, her Spouse, shall interpose in his mercy to avert it*.'

Such persons, notwithstanding, were found in abundance on both sides; and their wild visions were interpreted by the devotees of the day, and recorded by the grave historians of after times; and it was this, among other circumstances, which has seduced Roman Catholic writers to the very consoling conclusion, that, though a schism did unquestionably exist, yet there were none who could properly be termed schismatics; that the adherents of Urban and of Clement were equally the children of the church; and that, while the faithful differed as to the name of the bishop, they were united in unshaken allegiance and attachment to the Seet.

Certainly the character of Urban was not permanently softened by the admonitions of his inspired instructress; and to many reported acts of harshness and rigour he presently added one of positive barbarity. The following story rests on satisfactory evidence. A plot for his deposition had been set on foot, originating, as it would seem, with the King of Naples; and a paper, which had been circulated with that object, was placed in the hands of some of his Cardinals-for Urban had immediately supplied the defection of his original court by a large and, for the most part, respectable creation. How far they countenanced the propositions contained in it does not certainly appear; but as by one of those the provisional government of the church was vested in the hands of the sacred college, it is not improbable that some may have assented to them. Urban discovered the conspiracy; he immediately seized six, the most suspected of the body, and after subjecting them to the utmost severity of torture, cast them into a narrow and noisome dungeon. This affair took place at Nocera, in the kingdom of Naples; but some reverses presently obliged the Pope to take refuge at Genoa. He carried his prisoners along with him in chains, and afflicted with severe hardships; and, during a year of sojourn in that civilised city, he could never be moved by the counsels of his friends, or the prayers of the republic which protected him, to re

"Ille positus in extremis, habens in manibus sacrum Christi Corpus, protestatus est coram omnibus, ut caverent ab hominibus, sive viris sive mulieribus sub specie religionis loquentibus visiones sui capitis; quia per tales ipse seductus, dimisso suorum rationabili consilio, se traxerat et ecclesiam in discrimen schismatis imminentis, nisi misericors provideret sponsus Jesus." See Gerson, De Examinatione Doctrinarum, Pars ii., consid. iii. Never, says Maimbourg, was the unity of the See better preserved, than during this

schism.

Respecting some of the particulars of this affair we have the directly opposite evidence of two contemporaries, who had both excellent means of information. Gobellinus was attached to the house of Urban, and he relates, as the report which had reached him, that the Cardinals not only assented to the plan proposed to them, but actually suborned false witnesses to convict the Pope of heresy, and intended to burn him on the day of his condemnation,-and that this appeared from their own confessions. Theodoric of Niem, who was on the spot, and one of the judges appointed by the Pope to try the Cardinals, attests that all of them constantly asserted their innocence, excepting one only, who confessed, in the agony of the torture, anything that was asked him. Though neither author is free from the charge of partiality, we must here give our credence to the latter account, recollecting, that even that does not necessarily acquit the accused. Fleury (1. xcviii., s. xx., xxi., &c.), who relates the particulars of the torture from Theod. de Niem with painful minuteness, certainly believes the conspiracy.

lease his captives. At length, when on the point of departure, as he feared the inconvenience or the scandal of dragging them after him through a second journey, and as he could not exalt his resolution to the performance of an act of clemency, if, indeed, it were not justice, he consigned five of them to sudden and secret* execution. The other, an Englishman named Adam Eston, Bishop of London, owed his preservation only to the frequent and pressing remonstrances of the English King. This affair took place in the December of 1386.

Election and character of Boniface IX.

In the October of 1389, Urban died at Rome; and as soon as the glad intelligence reached Avignon and Paris, great wishes were expressed and some hopes entertained in both places, that the schism would thus terminate; that the Cardinals of Rome, wearied by the labours, the vicissitudes, and the dangers of the conflict, would voluntarily unite themselves with the college at Avignon, and acknowledge Clement for Pope, on the condition of his residence at Rome. In the university especially the public lectures were suspended, and no subject was discussed, except the probable determination of the Roman Cardinals. In the mean time, that body, on whose resolution at that moment so much depended, appear not to have been embarrassed by any hesitation as to the course before them. The members immediately assembled, to the number of fourteen; they entered into conclave, and elected, within a fortnight from Urban's decease, another Neapolitan for his successor. Pietro or Perrino Tomacelli, Cardinal of Naples, assumed, on the second of November, the name of Boniface IX., and was placed on the throne for which his ignorancet alone was sufficient to disqualify him. But the scandal of his ignorance was enhanced by his avarice. On the year following his accession, a Jubileet was held at Rome, and the devout

were exhorted to present themselves from every quarter. The Jubilee. Unmoved by distance and expense, and even by the personal dangers which awaited them from the partizans of Clement or the neutral bandits of the mountains, great multitudes undertook, and many accomplished, the pilgrimage. The altars of the Roman churches were again enriched by the contributions of superstition; and if some part of the offerings was expended in the repair of the sacred edifices, by far the larger proportion flowed directly into the coffers of the Pope. But Boniface was not contented with that partial stream, which had found its way to his capital; and being desirous, no doubt, that even those of his children, who had not listened to his call, should still participate in the spiritual consolation, he sent his emissaries among all the nations by whom he was acknowledged, with commissions to sell the plenary indulgence to all indiscriminately, for the same sum

Most assert that he threw them into the sea in sacks; others affirm that they were strangled in prison, and their bodies consumed by quick-lime. It is certain that they disappeared.

+ Theodoric of Niem, lib. ii., cap. vi., 'scribendi atque canendi imperitus. . . Nemo prosperatur in illo quod ignorat; unde inscitia ferè venalis facta fuit in ipsa Curia, tempore suo. Fuit tamen satis edoctus grammaticæ ac disertus, sed non habuit in aliqua scientia præeminentiam sive gradum.'

The indication of this jubilee was the act of his predecessor. Urban VI., moved by the gradual abbreviation of human life, determined to reduce the interval (already reduced from 100 to 50) from 50 to 33 years, this last space being the probable duration of Christ's sojourn on earth. See Spondanus, ann. 1389, s. ii. and iii. The new institution was to begin afresh from the year 1390; but it was not intended, as we shall presently observe, to supersede the secular celebration.

which the journey to Rome would have cost them. This absolution extended to every sort of offence, and appears not to have been preceded even by the ordinary formalities of confession or penance, it was purely and undisguisedly venal. The necessary consequences of this measure were sufficiently demoralizing; but the evil was multiplied by the impostures of certain mendicants and others, who traversed the country with forged indulgences, which they bartered for their private profit.

Still dissatisfied, and determined to carry this lucrative mummery of the jubilee to its utmost depth, and, as it were, to fathom the superstition of his age, Boniface communicated the privileges of the holy city to two towns of Germany-Cologne and Magdebourg; and permitted them also to hold their year of Jubilee, after the fashion and example of Rome. By this rash act he disparaged the supereminent sanctity of the see of St. Peter, of the tombs of the apostles, and the relics of so many martyrs! He called in question the exclusiveness of that glory, which was thought to encircle the throne of the Vicars of Christ! He sacrificed -that which he least intended to sacrifice-even the temporal interests, even the pecuniary profits, which were ever closely connected with the · peculiar holiness of the apostolical city. But his immediate greediness was gratified; his collectors were present in both places to share the offerings of the faithful; and when he perceived that their fatuity was not yet exhausted, he extended the licence still further, and accorded it to several insignificant places. At length, says Fleury, that Pope became so prodigal of his indulgences, that he refused them to no one, provided he was paid for them; the effect of which was, that they grew into contempt*.

Projects of the University of Paris.

After mature delibe

In the mean time, the necessity of restoring the union of the church became more evident, and the expressions of that opinion more loud and general. Boniface himself professed an ardent though, as it proved, an insincere desire for the same consummation, and even addressed a letter to Charles of France (in April, 1393), in which he exhorted him seriously to undertake the sacred office of conciliationt. The king consented; the University of Paris eagerly caught at any hope of removing the scandal and the daily growing evils which attended it, and applied itself to discover the most efficient means. ration, a public harangue was delivered before that body (in the June of 1394), by a doctor‡ appointed to the office, and after receiving their approbation, was presented to the king. It contained in substance, that there were three methods of healing the schism, any one of which might be adopted with reasonable hope of success :-the method of cession,the method of compromise, the method of a General Council. By the first the voluntary resignation of both competitors was recommended, in the presence of both colleges; these were then to proceed in conjunction to another election. By the second, the opposite claims might

The indulgence-mongers of Boniface IX., when they arrived in any city, suspended at their windows a flag, with the arms of the Pope and the keys of the Church. Then they prepared tables in the cathedral church, by the side of the altar, covered with rich cloths, like bankers', to receive the purchase-money. They then informed the people of the absolute power, with which the Pope had invested them, to deliver souls from purgatory, and give complete remission to all who bought their wares. If the German clergy exclaimed against this base traffic of spiritual favours, they were excommunicated. See Sismondi, Repub. Ital., ch. lxii.

+ It appeared, on subsequent explanation, that Boniface saw only one solution of the difficulty, the expulsion of his rival, and the universal acknowledgment of himself. Nicholas de Clemangis.

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