The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0088/00888.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 33KB | 527 lines

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$Title{History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Part I}
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$Author{Hallam, Henry}
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church
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ii
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Title:       History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Book:        Book VII: History Of Ecclesiastical Power During The Middle Ages
Author:      Hallam, Henry

Part I

     Wealth of the Clergy - its Sources - Encroachments on Ecclesiastical
Property - their Jurisdiction - Arbitrative - coercive - their political Power
- Supremacy of the Crown - Charlemagne - Change after his Death, and
Encroachments of the Church in the ninth Century - Primacy of the See of Rome
- its early Stage - Gregory I. - Council of Frankfort - false Decretals -
Progress of Papal Authority - Effects of Excommunication - Lothaire - State of
the Church in the tenth Century - Marriage of Priest - Simony - Episcopal
Elections - Imperial Authority over the Popes - Dispute concerning
Investitures - Gregory VII. and Henry IV. - Concordat of Calixtus - Election
by Chapters - general System of Gregory VII. - Progress of Papal Usurpations
in the twelfth Century - Innocent III. his Character and Schemes.

     At the irruption of the northern invaders into the Roman empire they
found the clergy already endowed with extensive possessions.  Besides the
spontaneous oblations upon which the ministers of the Christian church had
originally subsisted, they had obtained, even under the pagan emperors, by
concealment or connivance - for the Roman law did not permit a tenure of lands
in mortmain - certain immovable estates, the revenues of which were applicable
to their own maintenance and that of the poor. ^a These indeed were precarious
and liable to confiscation in times of persecution.  But it was among the
first effects of the conversion of Constantine to give not only a security,
but a legal sanction, to the territorial acquisitions of the church.  The
edict of Milan, in 313, recognizes the actual estates of ecclesiastical
corporations. ^b Another, published in 321, grants to all the subjects of the
empire the power of bequeathing their property to the church. ^c His own
liberality and that of his successors set an example which did not want
imitators.  Passing rapidly from a condition of distress and persecution to
the summit of prosperity, the church degenerated as rapidly from her ancient
purity, and forfeited the respect of future ages in the same proportion as she
acquired the blind veneration of her own.  Covetousness, especially, became
almost a characteristic vice.  Valentinian I., in 370, prohibited the clergy
from receiving the bequests of women - a modification more discreditable than
any general law could have been.  And several of the fathers severely
reprobate the prevailing avidity of their contemporaries. ^d

[Footnote a: Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, l. ii. c. 8; Gibbon, c. 15 and c.
20; F. Paul's Treatise on Benefices, c. 4.  The last writer does not wholly
confirm this position; but a comparison of the three seems to justify my
text.]

[Footnote b: Giannone; Gibbon, ubi supra; F. Paul, c. 5.]

[Footnote c: Giannone.]

[Footnote d: Ibid., ubi supra; F. Paul, c. 6.]

     The devotion of the conquering nations, as it was still less enlightened
than that of the subjects of the empire, so was it still more munificent.
They left indeed the worship of Hesus and Taranis in their forests; but they
retained the elementary principles of that and of all barbarous idolatry, a
superstitious reverence for the priesthood, a credulity that seemed to invite
imposture, and a confidence in the efficacy of gifts to expatiate offences.
Of this temper it is undeniable that the ministers of religion, influenced
probably not so much by personal covetousness as by zeal for the interests of
their order, took advantage.  Many of the peculiar and prominent
characteristics in the faith and discipline of those ages appear to have been
either introduced or sedulously promoted for the purposes of sordid fraud.  To
those purposes conspired the veneration for relics, the worship of images, the
idolatry of saints and martyrs, the religious inviolability of sanctuaries,
the consecration of cemeteries, but, above all, the doctrine of purgatory and
masses for the relief of the dead.  A creed thus contrived, operating upon the
minds of barbarians, lavish though rapacious, and devout though dissolute,
naturally caused a torrent of opulence to pour in upon the church.  Donations
of land were continually made to the bishops, and, in still more ample
proportion, to the monastic foundations.  These had not been very numerous in
the West till the beginning of the sixth century, when Benedict established
his celebrated rule. ^e A more remarkable show of piety, a more absolute
seclusion from the world, forms more impressive and edifying, prayers and
masses more constantly repeated, gave to the professed in these institutions
an advantage, in public esteem, over the secular clergy.

[Footnote e: Giannone, l. iii. c. 6; l. iv. c. 12.  Treatise on Benefices, c.
8; Fleury, Huitieme Discours sur l'Hist. Ecclesiastique; Muratori, Dissert.
65.]

     The ecclesiastical hierarchy never received any territorial endowment by
law, either under the Roman empire or the kingdoms erected upon its ruins.
But the voluntary munificence of princes, as well as their subjects, amply
supplied the place of a more universal provision.  Large private estates, or,
as they were termed, patrimonies, not only within their own dioceses, but
sometimes in distant countries, sustained the dignity of the principal sees,
and especially that of Rome. ^f The French monarchs of the first dynasty, the
Carlovingian family and their great chief, the Saxon line of emperors, the
kings of England and Leon, set hardly any bounds to their liberality, as
numerous charters still extant in diplomatic collections attest.  Many
churches possessed seven or eight thousand mansi; one with but two thousand
passed for only indifferently rich. ^g But it must be remarked that many of
these donations are of lands uncultivated and unappropriated.  The monasteries
acquired legitimate riches by the culture of these deserted tracts and by the
prudent management of their revenues, which were less exposed to the ordinary
means of dissipation than those of the laity. ^h Their wealth, continually
accumulated, enabled them to become the regular purchasers of landed estate,
especially in the time of the crusades, when the fiefs of the nobility were
constantly in the market for sale or mortgage. ^i

[Footnote f: St. Marc, t. i. p. 281; Giannone, l. v. c. 12.]

[Footnote g: Schmidt, t. ii. p. 205.]

[Footnote h: Muratori, Dissert. 65; Du Cange, v. Eremus.]

[Footnote i: Heeren, Essai sur les Croisades, p. 166; Schmidt, t. iii. p.
293.]

     If the possessions of ecclesiastical communities had all been as fairly
earned, we could find nothing in them to reprehend.  But other sources of
wealth were less pure, and they derived their wealth from many sources.  Those
who entered into a monastery threw frequently their whole estates into the
common stock; and even the children of rich parents were expected to make a
donation of land on assuming the cowl.  Some gave their property to the church
before entering on military expeditions; gifts were made by some to take
effect after their lives, and bequests by many in the terrors of dissolution.
Even those legacies to charitable purposes, which the clergy could with more
decency and speciousness recommend, and of which the administration was
generally confined to them, were frequently applied to their own benefit. ^j
They failed not, above all, to inculcate upon the wealthy sinner that no
atonement could be so acceptable to Heaven as liberal presents to its earthly
delegates. ^k To die without allotting a portion of worldly wealth to pious
uses was accounted almost like suicide, or a refusal of the last sacraments;
and hence intestacy passed for a