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HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH From The Renaissance To The French Revolution
Volume I
(c) The Religious Condition of Europe.
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Pastor, op. cit. Janssen, op. cit. Creighton, /History of the
Papacy from the Great Western Schism to the Sack of Rome/, 2nd
edition, 1897. Ranke, /Die Romische Papste im 16 und 17
jahrhunderten/ (xxxvii-xxxix), 1900 (Eng. Trans., 3 vols., 1866).
Haller, /Papsttum und Kirchenreform/, 1904. Mansi, /Sacrorum
Conciliorum Collectio/, 1900. Hefele, /Conciliengeschichte/ 2 auf.
1873-90 (Eng. Trans. in part, French Trans.). Imbart de la Tour,
/Les origines de la Reforme/, ii., 1909. Thomas, /Le Concordat de
1516/, 1910. Ullman, /Reformatoren vor der Reformation/, 1866
(Eng. Trans. by Menzies, 1855).
The withdrawal of the Popes from the capital of Christendom and the
unfortunate schism, for which their residence at Avignon is mainly
responsible, proved disastrous to the authority of the Holy See. The
Avignon Popes were Frenchmen themselves. Their cardinals and officials
belonged for the most part to the same favoured nation. They were
dependent upon the King of France for protection, and in return, their
revenues were at times placed at his disposal in order to ensure
victory for the French banners. Such a state of affairs was certain to
alienate the rulers and people of other nations, especially of Germany
and England, and to prepare the way for a possible conflict in the
days that were to come.
The Great Western Schism that followed upon the residence at Avignon
divided Christian Europe into hostile camps, and snapped the bond of
unity which was already strained to the utmost by political and
national rivalries. Sincere believers were scandalised at the
spectacle of two or three rival Popes, each claiming to be the
successor of St. Peter, and hurling at his opponents and their
supporters the severest censures of the Church. While the various
claimants to the Papacy were contending for supreme power in the
Church, they were obliged to make concession after concession to the
rulers who supported them and to permit them to interfere in religious
affairs, so that even when peace was restored and when Martin V. was
universally recognised as the lawful Pope, he found himself deprived
of many of the rights and prerogatives, for which his predecessors
from Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII. had struggled so bravely.
Nor was this all. In their efforts to bring about a reunion, and
despairing of arriving at this happy result by an agreement among the
contending Popes, many honest theologians put forward principles,
which, however suitable to the circumstances of the schism, were
utterly subversive of the monarchical constitution of the Church. They
maintained that in case of doubtful Popes the cardinals had the right
to summon a General Council to decide the issue, and that all
Christians were bound to submit to its decrees. In accordance with
these principles the Council of Constance was convoked, and, elated
with the success of this experiment, many of the more ardent spirits
seemed determined to replace, or at least, to limit the authority of
the Popes by the authority of General Councils summoned at regular
intervals. The Pope was to be no longer supreme spiritual ruler. His
position in the Church was to be rather the position of a
constitutional sovereign in a state, the General Council being for the
Pope what modern Parliaments are for the king.
Fortunately for the Popes such a theory was completely discredited by
the excesses of its supporters at the Council of Basle, but it served
to weaken the authority of the Holy See, and to put into the hands of
its opponents a weapon which they were not slow to wield whenever
their personal interests were affected. Henceforth appeals from the
Pope to a General Council, although prohibited, were by no means
unfrequent.
Yet in spite of all these reverses, had the Church been blessed with a
succession of worthy Popes burning with zeal for religion, free to
devote themselves to a thorough reform, and capable of understanding
the altered political and social conditions of the world, the Papacy
might have been restored to its old position. But unfortunately the
Popes from Nicholas V. to Leo X. were not the men to repair the damage
that was done, or to ward off impending danger. The calamities that
threatened Europe from the advance of the Turks, and the necessity of
rousing its rulers to a sense of their responsibilities occupied a
large share of their attention; while the anxiety which they displayed
in the miserable squabbles of the Italian kingdoms, sometimes out of
disinterested regard for the temporal States of the Church, as in the
case of Julius II., more frequently from a desire of providing
territories for their unworthy relations, left them little time to
safeguard the general well-being of the Church. In case of some of
them, too, if one may judge them by their actions, the progress of
Humanism seemed to be nearer to their hearts than the progress of
religion.
In his personal life Nicholas V. (1447-55) was not unworthy of his
exalted position, but the necessity of repairing the damage that had
been done by the unruly assembly at Basle, which arrogated to itself
the authority of an independent General Council, the removal of the
last obstacle to the Turkish invasion of Europe in the fall of
Constantinople, and the importance of securing for Rome a pre-eminent
position in the great classical revival, engaged all his energies to
the exclusion of necessary reforms. Calixtus III. (1455-58) was too
old to do much, yet, notwithstanding his advancing years and the
indifference of the European rulers, he threw himself into the
struggle against the Turks, aiding and encouraging Hungary and Albania
in their resistance, and it is due largely to his efforts that the
victorious advance of Mahomet II. was checked by the overthrow of his
forces at Belgrade (1456). Pius II.[1] (1458-64), though in his youth
not the most exemplary of the Humanist school, devoted himself with
earnestness and zeal to the duties of his sacred office. He published
a Bull retracting all the attacks which he had made against the Papacy
in his capacity as secretary to the /Concilabulum/ at Basle. He set
himself to study the Scriptures and the early Fathers in place of the
Pagan classics, and he showed his approbation of the Christian
Humanists. But he was unable to undertake the work of reform. In view
of the danger that still threatened Europe he convoked an assembly of
the princes at Mantua to organise a crusade against the Turks, but
they turned a deaf ear to his appeals, and, at last weary of their
refusals and indifference, he determined to place himself at the head
of the Christian forces for the defence of Europe and Christianity. He
reached Ancona broken down in spirits and bodily health, and died
before anything effective could be done. Paul II. (1464-71), who
succeeded, made some efforts to purify the Roman Court. He suppressed
promptly the College of Abbreviators who were noted for their greed
for gold and their zeal for Paganism, and closed the Roman Academy. On
account of his severity in dealing with the half Christian Humanists
of the Curia he has been attacked with savage bitterness by Platina,
one of the dismissed officials, in his /Lives of the Popes/,[2] but
nobody is likely to be deceived by scurrilous libels, the motives of
which are only too apparent. The worst that can be said against Paul
II. is that he was too fond of appointing his relatives to high
positions in the Church; but in mitigation of that it is well to
remember that his reforms had raised up so many enemies against him in
Rome, and disaffection was so rife amongst even the highest officials
of his court, that he may have deemed it prudent to have relatives
around him on whom he could rely.
Sixtus IV. (1471-84) was the first of the political Popes, Leo X.
being the last. They are so called on account of the excessive
interest they displayed in Italian politics of the period, to the
neglect of the higher interests with which they were entrusted. Most
of them, with the exception of Alexander VI., were not positively
unworthy men, but they were too much concerned with secular pursuits
to undertake a reform of the gross abuses which flourished at the very
gates of their palace. The papal court was no worse and very little
better than the courts of contemporary rulers, and the greed for
money, which was the predominant weakness of the curial officials,
alienated the sympathy of all foreigners, both lay and cleric.
Julius II. (1503-13) did, indeed, undertake the difficult task of
restoring the States of the Church that had been parcelled out into
petty kingdoms by his predecessors, but his policy soon brought him
into conflict with Louis XII. of France. Louis demanded that a General
Council should be convoked, not so much out of zeal for reform as from
a desire to embarrass the Pope, and when Julius II. refused to comply
with his request the king induced some of the rebellious cardinals to
issue invitations for a council to meet at Pisa (Sept. 1511). Most of
the bishops who met at Pisa at the appointed time were from France.
The Emperor Maximilian held aloof, and the people of Pisa regarded the
conventicle with no friendly feelings. The sessions were transferred
from Pisa to Milan, and finally to Lyons. As a set off to this Julius
II. convoked a council to meet at Rome, the fifth Lateran Council (May
1512), for the threefold purpose of healing the French schism, of
proscribing certain doctrinal errors, and of undertaking the work of
reform. The earlier sessions were taken up almost entirely with the
schism, and before the work of reform was begun Julius II. passed
away.
He was succeeded by the young and learned John de' Medici, son of
Lorenzo the Magnificent of Florence, who took the name of Leo X.
(1513-21). Like his father, the new Pope was a generous patron of art
and literature, and bestowed upon his literary friends, some of whom
were exceedingly unworthy, the highest dignities in the Church.
Humanism was triumphant at the Papal Court, but, unfortunately,
religion was neglected. Though in his personal life Leo X. could not
be described as a deeply religious man, yet he was mindful of his vows
of celibacy, attentive to the recitation of the divine, office,
abstemious, and observant of the fasts of the Church. As a secular
ruler he would have stood incomparably higher than any of the
contemporary sovereigns of Europe, but he was out of place
considerably as the head of a great religious organisation.
Worldliness and indifference to the dangers that threatened the Church
are the most serious charges that can be made against him, but
especially in the circumstances of the time, when the Holy See should
have set itself to combat the vicious tendencies of society, these
faults were serious enough.
The defeat of the French forces at Novara (1513), and the loyalty of
the other rulers of Europe to the Holy See induced Louis XII. of
France to make peace with the new Pope, and to recognise the Lateran
Council. But on the accession of Francis I. (1515-47) a fresh
expedition into Italy was undertaken; the Swiss troops were overthrown
at Marignano (1515) and Leo X. was obliged to conclude a Concordat[3]
with the French King. By the terms of this agreement France agreed to
abandon the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, while the Pope bestowed
upon Francis I. and his successors the right of presentation to the
bishoprics and abbacies in his dominions. The work of reform, which
should have claimed special attention at the Lateran Council, was
never undertaken seriously. Some decrees were passed prohibiting
plurality of benefices, forbidding officials of the Curia to demand
more than the regulation fees, recommending preaching and religious
instruction of children, regulating the appointment to benefices,
etc., but these decrees, apart from the fact that they left the root
of the evils untouched, were never enforced. The close of the Lateran
Council synchronises with the opening of Luther's campaign in Germany,
for the success of which the Council's failure to respond to the
repeated demands for reform is to a great extent responsible.
In any scheme for the reform of the abuses that afflicted the Church
the reformation of the Papal Court itself should have occupied the
foremost place. At all times a large proportion of the cardinals and
higher officials were men of blameless lives, but, unfortunately, many
others were utterly unworthy of their position, and their conduct was
highly prejudicial to religion and to the position of the Holy See.
Much of the scandalous gossip retailed by Platina in his /Lives of the
Popes/, and by Burcard[4] and Infessura[5] in their /Diaries/ may be
attributed to personal disappointment and diseased imaginations, but
even when due allowance has been made for the frailty of human
testimony, enough remains to prove that the Papal Court in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was not calculated to inspire
strangers to Rome with confidence or respect. Such corrupt and greedy
officials reflected discredit on the Holy See, and afforded some
justification for the charges levelled against them of using religion
merely as a means of raising money.
The various taxations,[6] direct and indirect, levied by the Popes
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries helped to give colour to
these accusations. It ought to be remembered, however, that the Popes
could not carry on the government of the Church, and support the large
body of officials whose services were absolutely necessary, without
requiring help from their subjects in all parts of the world. During
the residence of the Popes at Avignon additional expenses were
incurred owing to the necessity of providing residences for themselves
and their court, and, at the same time, the rebellions and disorders
in the Papal States put an end to any hope of deriving any revenue
from their own temporal dominions. On their return to Rome money was
required to repair the palaces that had gone into ruin, and to enable
the Popes to maintain their position as patrons of art and literature,
and as the leaders of Europe in its struggle against the forces of
Islam.
For this last purpose, namely, to organise the Christian forces
against the Turks, the Popes claimed the right of levying a fixed tax
on all ecclesiastical property. The amount of this varied from one-
thirtieth to one-tenth of the annual revenue, and as a rule it was
raised only for some definite period of years. Even in the days when
the crusading fever was universal, such a tax excited a great deal of
opposition; but when Europe had grown weary of the struggle, and when
the Popes could do little owing to the failure of the temporal rulers
to respond to their appeals, this form of taxation was resented
bitterly, and the right of the Popes to raise taxes in this way off
ecclesiastical property was questioned by the ecclesiastics affected
as well as by the temporal rulers. England and France took measures to
protect themselves; but in Germany the absence of any strong central
authority, and the want of unity among the princes made it difficult
to offer any effective resistance to these demands. In 1354, 1372,
1459, 1487, and in 1500, the German bishops protested strongly against
the attempts of the Pope to levy taxes on ecclesiastical property.
But in addition to these extraordinary levies there were many
permanent sources of revenue for the support of the Papal Court. In
the first place from the time of Boniface IX. annats, which consisted
of a certain proportion of the first year's revenue, were to be paid
by all clerics on whom a minor benefice was conferred by the Holy See.
In case of the major benefices, bishoprics and abbacies, the /servitia
communia/ and the /servitia minuta/ took the place of annats. The
/servitia communia/ was a fixed sum the amount of which depended upon
the annual revenue of the See or abbey, and was divided between the
Pope and the cardinals of the Curia. The /servitia minuta/, amounting
to about 3 1/2 per cent. of the /servitia communia/, was given to the
lower officials, who prepared the letters of appointment. The revenues
of vacant Sees and the property of deceased bishops were also claimed
by the Holy See. From England the Pope received yearly the Peter's
Pence, and from all countries that acknowledged his feudal
jurisdiction he was entitled to a definite annual tribute.
Furthermore, the reservations[7] of benefices were another fruitful
source of revenue. The policy of reserving benefices to the Holy See
might be defended, on the ground that it was often necessary in order
to counterbalance the interference of secular rulers in regard to
ecclesiastical appointments, and that it afforded the Pope a
convenient means of rewarding officials whose services were required
for the government of the Church. But the right of the Pope to reserve
benefices was abused during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
and gave rise to constant friction with the civil and ecclesiastical
authorities in different countries of Europe. Reservations, instead of
being the exception, became very general, and, as a result, the eyes
of all ambitious clerics were turned towards Rome from which they
hoped to receive promotion, whether their immediate superiors deemed
them worthy or unworthy. Such a state of affairs opened the way to the
most serious abuses, and not unfrequently to disedifying wrangles
between rival candidates, all of whom claimed to have received their
appointments from Roman officials.
Intimately connected with papal reservations were expectancies or
promises given to certain persons that they would be appointed to
certain benefices as soon as a vacancy would occur. Such promises of
appointment were unknown in the Church before the twelfth century, but
later on they became very general, and led to most serious abuses
during the residence of the Popes at Avignon and during the
disturbances caused by the Great Western Schism. Expectancies were
adopted as a means of raising money or of securing support. Various
attempts were made to put an end to such a disastrous practice, as for
example at the Councils of Constance and Basle, but it was reserved
for the Council of Trent to effect this much needed reform.
Again the custom of handing over benefices /in commendam/, that is of
giving some person the right of drawing the revenues of a vacant
benefice for a certain specified time, was highly prejudicial to the
best interests of religion. Such a practice, however justifiable in
case of benefices to which the care of souls was not attached, was
entirely indefensible when adopted in regard to bishopric, abbacies,
and minor benefices, where so much depended upon personal activity and
example. The person who held the benefice /in commendam/ did nothing
except to draw the revenue attached to his office, while the whole
work was committed to an underpaid vicar or representative, who was
obliged often to resort to all kinds of devices to secure sufficient
means of support. Again though plurality of benefices was prohibited
by several decrees, yet during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
nothing was more common than to find one individual holding, by virtue
of a papal dispensation, two, three, six, ten, and possibly more
benefices to most of which the care of souls was attached. Such a
state of affairs was regarded as an intolerable scandal by right
minded Christians, whether lay or cleric, and was condemned by decrees
of Popes and councils; but as exceptions were made in favour of
cardinals or princes, and as even outside these cases dispensations
were given frequently, the evils of plurality continued unabated.
Again, the frequent applications for and concessions of dispensations
in canonical irregularities by the Roman congregations were likely to
make a bad impression, and to arouse the suspicion that wholesome
regulations were being abandoned for the sake of the dispensation fees
paid to the officials. Similarly, too, complaints were made about the
dispensations given in the marriage impediments, and the abuses
alleged against preachers to whose charge the duty of preaching
indulgences was committed. Furthermore, the custom of accepting
appeals in the Roman Courts, even when the matters in dispute were of
the most trivial kind, was prejudicial to the local authorities, while
the undue prolongation of such suits left the Roman lawyers exposed to
the charge of making fees rather than justice the motive of their
exertions.
The disturbances produced by the schism, and the interference of the
state in episcopal elections helped to secure the appointment of many
unworthy bishops. Even in the worst days of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries a large proportion of the bishops in the different
countries of Europe were excellent men, but a large percentage also,
especially in Germany, were thoroughly worldly. They were more anxious
about their position as secular princes or proprietors than about the
fulfilment of their sacred duties. Very often they were sprung from
the nobility, and were appointed on account of their family influence
without any regard to their qualifications, and, as a rule, the duties
of visitation, of holding synods, and even of residing in their
dioceses, were neglected. Besides, even when they were anxious to do
their best, the claims of the lay patrons and the papal reservation of
benefices made it difficult for them to exercise proper disciplinary
control over their clergy. In many cases, too, the cathedral chapters
were utterly demoralised, mainly owing to outside influence in the
appointment of the canons. The clergy as a body were very far from
being as bad as they have been painted by fanatical reformers or by
the followers of Luther. The collections of sermons that have come
down to us, the prayer books for the instruction of the faithful, the
catechisms, the compilations from the Holy Scriptures, the hymns,
theological works, and especially the compendiums prepared for the use
of those engaged in hearing confessions, give the lie to the charge of
wholesale neglect[8]; but, at the same time the want of sufficient
control, the interference of lay patrons in the appointments to
benefices, the absence of seminaries, and the failure of the
universities to give a proper ecclesiastical training, produced their
natural effect on a large body of the clergy. Grave charges of
ignorance, indifference, concubinage, and simony were not wholly
groundless, as the decrees of various councils sufficiently testify.
Many causes contributed to bring about a relaxation of discipline in
many of the religious orders. The uncanonical appointment of abbots,
the union of various abbacies in the hands of a single individual, the
custom of holding abbacies /in commendam/, and the wholesale exemption
from episcopal authority for which many of the religious orders
contended, are sufficient to account for this general relaxation. The
state of the various houses and provinces even belonging to the same
order depended largely on the character of the superiors, and hence it
is not fair to judge one country or one province, or even one house,
by what happened in other countries, provinces, or houses. Hence
arises the difficulty of arriving at any general conclusion about the
religious houses. It is safe, however, to say that with the exception
of the Carthusians all the older orders required reform. From the
beginning of the fifteenth century attempts were made to restore the
old discipline in the Benedictine communities and with considerable
success. The Carmelites were divided into two main branches, the
Calced and the Discalced; the Franciscans were divided into three main
bodies, the Conventuals, the Observants, and the Capuchins; the
Dominicans made various efforts to restore the ancient discipline
especially from about the beginning of the fifteenth century; while
many of the Augustinians who were determined on reform established new
congregations, as for example, the Discalced Augustinian Hermits, who
spread themselves over France, Spain, and Portugal. In addition,
various new congregations, amongst them the Oblates founded in 1433 by
St. Francisca Romana, and the Hermit Brothers in 1435 by St. Francis
of Paula, were established to meet the necessities of the age.[9]
Unfortunately the endless disputes between the religious and secular
clergy[10] at this period tended to distract the attention of both
from their spiritual work, and to give rise to considerable disorder
and discontent. On the one side, men like the Paris professor, John
Poilly and Richard Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh, were too extreme
and seemed inclined to leave to the religious orders no place in the
ministration of the Church, while on the other, some of the religious,
such as the Franciscan, John von Gorrel, wished to assert for
themselves complete independence of episcopal control. Various
attempts were made by Boniface VIII., Benedict XI., Alexander V., John
XXII., Calixtus III., Sixtus IV., and by the Councils of Constance and
Basle to settle these disputes, but without much permanent result. It
was only in the eleventh session of the Fifth Lateran Council (1516)
that Leo X. promulgated the decrees, which in substance hold good at
the present time, fixing the relation between the bishops and the
regular clergy.[11]
Many of the fanatical preachers anxious for reform were guilty of
undoubted exaggeration in the pictures which they painted of clerical
life at the time, as were also not a few of the Humanists, anxious to
cast ridicule on their opponents. But even when all due allowance has
been made for these exaggerations in such works as the /Onus
Ecclesiae/[12] of Bishop Berthold, the rhymed sermons of one of the
great Franciscan opponents of Luther, Thomas Murner (1475-1537), which
became popular in Germany under the titles of the /Narrenbeschworung/
and the /Schelmenzunft/, Faber's /Tractatus de Ruinae Ecclesiae
Planctu/, the /Encomium Moriae/ of Erasmus, the Dialogues of St.
German in England, the /Narrenschiff/ of Sebastian Brant, and the
petitions of the Spanish Cortes, enough remains to convince any
reasonable man that a reform of the clergy was an urgent necessity.
For many years the cry of reform of the Church in its head and members
had been heard in nearly every country of Europe. The justice of such
a demand was admitted universally, but the difficulties in the way
were so great that no Pope cared to risk a generous scheme of reform.
Most of the abuses of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries might be
traced back to the decline of the papal power during the Avignon exile
and the Great Western Schism. When peace was restored to the Church,
and when the Popes might have done something for the revival of
ecclesiastical discipline, the advocates of the conciliar theory
blocked the way by their extravagant attacks on the Papacy, and by
their attempts to destroy the supremacy of the Holy See under the
guise of reforming the Roman Curia. Besides, it was impossible to
carry through any effective measures for the removal of abuses without
attacking what were regarded as vested interests, and the holders of
these interests were determined not to yield without a struggle. The
cardinals wished to restrict the rights of the Pope; the bishops
wished to reform the cardinals and the Papal Court; the Paris doctors
wished to reform the bishops and the regular clergy; while the regular
clergy traced all the evils in the Church to the indifference and
neglect of the secular priests. Unfortunately there was no man endowed
with the foresight and the courage of Gregory VII. to put his finger
upon the real cause of the downfall, namely the slavery of the Church,
and to lead a campaign for the independence of the spiritual power,
particularly for the restoration of free canonical elections.
At the Council of Constance everybody recognised the necessity of
reform, but the jealousies of the various nations, the opposition of
the interests concerned, and the fear of provoking a new schism, made
it impossible to do more than to adopt temporary expedients, which, it
was hoped, might give some relief. Decrees concerning exemption from
episcopal authority, the union of benefices, simony, tithes, and the
duties of the clerical state were promulgated in the fourteenth
session, and the other questions, upon which the different nations
could not agree, were to be regulated by Concordats with the Holy See.
The Concordat with the German nation dealt with canonical election,
appeals to Rome, annats, indulgences, dispensations, and the
limitation of excommunication; the English Concordat insisted on the
right of England to be represented in the college of cardinals and
contained clauses dealing with indulgences and dispensations; the
Concordant with Castile regarded the number of cardinals, the
reservation and collation of benefices, annats, /commendams/, appeals,
and indulgences; by the Concordat with France it was arranged that
owing to the wars in which France was engaged the annats and other
taxes payable to the Holy See should be reduced considerably. Measures
such as these were utterly inadequate even had they been observed to
the letter, but in reality complaints were made frequently, especially
in Germany, that they were disregarded.
The Council which met in Siena (1524) was entirely unrepresentative,
and was dissolved without having accomplished anything. But great
hopes were expressed that the Council of Basle would formulate and
carry out a thorough scheme of reform. Unfortunately, however, these
hopes were doomed to disappointment. An extreme section, hostile to
the Papacy and determined to weaken its position, dominated the
Council, and made it impossible to do the work for which the assembly
had been convoked. Though the council held its first session in 1431,
nearly four years passed before any reform decrees were issued. They
dealt with concubinage, excommunication, the abuse of interdicts, and
the abolition of annats and other taxes payable to the Holy See. The
violence with which the Council assailed Eugene IV., and the fear of a
new schism alienated many who were anxious for reform, but who were
not willing to attack the essential prerogatives of the Pope. The
clergy of France met at Bourges in 1432, and with their consent the
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges was published by the king in 1438.
According to this edict annats were retained, but were reduced to one-
fifth of the amount formerly paid, and most of the reformatory decrees
of Basle were adopted for use in France. Germany was desirous of
reform, but at the same time unwilling to break with the Holy See, and
hence the German nation remained neutral in the disputes between
Eugene IV. and the Council. Finally Germany returned to its
allegiance, and the Concordat of Vienna was signed in 1448, according
to which the right of the Pope to make appointments to benefices in
the Empire and the amount of the fees to be paid to the Curia were
regulated. This agreement was not regarded with favour in some parts
of Germany, and complaints were made frequently by the princes that
the terms of the agreement were not observed by the Roman officials.
England also took steps to protect itself by the Statutes of
/Provisors/ and /Praemunire/ (1453). These statutes rendered null and
void all collations, reservations or provisions of benefices made by
the Holy See in England, and forbade all appeals to the Roman tribunal
on questions which could be settled before English tribunals.
During the pontificate of Nicholas V., Calixtus III., and Pius II.,
very little was done for reform. The fear that if another General
Council were convoked the disgraceful scenes of Basle might be
repeated, and the dangers which threatened Europe from a Turkish
invasion, seem to have paralysed the Popes, and to have prevented them
from taking effective measures to abolish evident abuses. Paul II.
did, indeed, take action against the Pagan Humanists who barely
concealed their antipathy to Christianity even in the city of the
Popes, but he took no steps to remove the influences which had made
such a state of affairs possible. As a rule at each successive
conclave the cardinal electors pledged themselves that whichever of
them should be elected would undertake certain measures, some of which
might have redounded to the good of the universal Church, others of
them merely to the advantage of the sacred college itself; but these
election agreements were always quashed, and the evil was allowed to
increase without check. From the election of Sixtus IV. the tendency
was steadily downwards, till in the days of Alexander VI. the Papacy
reached its lowest point. At a time when even people indifferent to
religion were shocked by the state of affairs at the Roman Court, it
is no wonder that a zealous and holy ecclesiastic like the great
Dominican Savonarola[13] should have denounced these abuses in no
uncertain language, and should have warned Alexander VI. of the
terrible judgment in store for the Church unless some steps were taken
to avert the indignation of an offended Almighty. The threats and
warnings of Savonarola were, however, scoffed at as the unbridled
outbursts of a disappointed fanatic, and the cry for reform was put
aside as unworthy of attention.
Julius II. (1503-13) was personally above reproach, but the
circumstances of his time allowed him very little opportunity to
undertake a generous plan of reform. The recovery of the Papal States
that had been frittered away by his predecessors in providing
territories for their family connections, the wars in Italy, and the
schemes of Louis XII. forced the Pope to play the part of a soldier
rather than that of an ecclesiastic, and delayed the convocation of
the General Council to which right-minded Christians looked for some
relief. Louis XII., taking advantage of this general desire,
forestalled the Pope by inducing some of the cardinals to summon a
General Council to meet at Pisa (September 1511). The assembly met at
Pisa and adjourned to Lyons, but the feeling of loyalty to the Pope
was too strong for Louis XII., and the assembly at Lyons could count
on very little support outside France. Julius II. determined to summon
a General Council to meet in Rome for the reformation of the Church.
This, the Fifth Lateran Council, as it was called, was opened in May
1512, but the earlier sessions were devoted almost entirely to the
condemnation of the French schism, the decrees of the /Conciliabulum/
at Lyons, and the Pragmatic Sanction. Before the work of reform could
be taken in hand Julius XII. died (1513), and the young cardinal
deacon, John de' Medici, ascended the papal throne under the title of
Leo X.
From the new Pope, if one were to judge him by his antecedents, a
development of classical learning and art might be expected rather
than a renewal of religion. Personally Leo X. was not a wicked man. On
the contrary in his private life he was attentive to his religious
duties, but he was indifferent and inclined to let things shape their
own course. The Lateran Council did, indeed, undertake the restoration
of ecclesiastical discipline. It condemned abuses in connexion with
the bestowal of benefices, decreed the reformation of the Curia,
especially in regard to taxes, defined the position of the regulars in
regard to the bishops of the dioceses in which their houses were
situated, ordered the bishops to enforce their censorship over books
published within their jurisdiction, and approved of the Concordat
that had been arranged between Leo and Francis I. (1516).
Such reforms as these were so completely inadequate that they failed
to give satisfaction to the host of clerics and laymen who desired a
thorough reform. The news that the Council was dissolved in March 1517
without having grappled with the urgent reform of the Church in its
head and members, sent a thrill of dismay throughout the Christian
world, and secured for Luther the sympathy of many when a few months
later he opened his campaign at Wittenberg. It was thought at first
that he aimed merely at the removal of abuses, and in this work he
could have counted upon the active co-operation of some of the leading
German ecclesiastics, who showed themselves his strongest opponents
once they realised that he aimed not so much at reform as at the
destruction of the Church and of all religious authority.
[1] Weiss, /Aeneas Silvius als Papst Pius II./, 1897. Boulting,
/Aeneas Silvius, Orator, Man of Letters, Statesman, and Pope/,
1908.
[2] /Vitae Pontificum Romanorum/, etc., 1479.
[3] Thomas, /Le Concordat de 1516/, 1910.
[4] Burcadus, /Diarium Innocen. VIII. et Alex. VI./, Florence, 1884.
/Diarium sive rerum urbanarum Commentarii/ (1483-1506), 1883-5.
[5] Infessura, /Diario d. Citta di Roma/, 1890.
[6] Tangl, /Das Taxwesen der papstlichen Kanzlei/, 1892. Samaran et
Mollat, /La fiscalite pontificate en France du XVe siecle/, 1905.
Kirsch, /Die papstlichen Kollektorien in Deutschland wahrend des
14 Jahr/, 1894.
[7] Lux, /Constitutionum Apostolicarum de generali beneficiorum
reservatione ab anno 1265 ad an. 1378/, etc., 1904.
[8] Cf. Gasquet, /Eve of the Reformation/, chap. ix. Janssen, op.
cit., Eng. Trans., vol. i., pp. 9-86. Leclerc, /Memoire sur la
predication au XIV. siecle/ (/Hist. Litter. de France/, tom.
xxiv.).
[9] Helyot, /Hist. des ordres monastiques/, 8 vols., 1714-19. Henrion,
/Allgem. Geschichte der Monchsorden/, 1855.
[10] Paulus, /Welt und Ordensklerus beim Ausgange des 13 Jahrh/, etc.,
1901.
[11] Raynaldus, /Annal. an./ 1515, 1516.
[12] Published in 1524.
[13] Lucas, /Fra Girolamo Savonarola/, 1906. O'Neill, /Jerome
Savonarola/, 1898.
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