fending the doctrine of Berenger, concerning the sacra ment of the Lord's supper.

IX. The sect of the nominalists had for their chief a certain person called John, who, on account of his logical subtilty, was surnamed the Sophist, which is the only circumstance we know of his history. His principal disciples were Robert of Paris, Roscelin of Compiegne, and Arnoul of Laon, who propagated his doctrine with industry and success, to whom we may add, with some probability, Raimbert, the master of a famous school at Lisle in Flanders, who is said, according to the quibbling humour of the times, to have read nominal logic to his disciples, while Odo, whom we have already had occasion to mention, instructed his scholars in reality. The most renowned of all the nominal philosophers of this age was Roscelin; and hence it is that many have considered him as the chief and founder of that sect, and that he is still considered as such by several learned men.

CHAPTER II.'

CONCERNING THE DOCTORS AND MINISTERS OF THE church, anD ITS FORM OF GOVERNMENT DURING THIS CENTURY.

I. ALL the records of this century loudly complain of the vices that reigned among the rulers of the The corruption church, and in general, among all the sacerdotal of the clergy. orders; they also deplore that universal decay of piety and discipline, that was the consequence of this corruption in a set of men, who were bound to support, by their example, their authority, and their instructions, the

s This account we have from the unknown author of the Fragmentum Historie Francisca, a Roberto rege ad mortem Philippi I. which is published in Du Chesne's Scriptores Historia Francica, tom. iv. p. 90, whose words are as follows. "In Dialectica hi potentes extiterunt Sophista Johannes, qui artem Sophisticam vocalem esse disseruit," &c. Du Boulay, Hist. Academ. Paris. tom. i. p. 443, et 612, conjectures that this John the Sophist was the same person with John of Chartres, surnamed the Deaf, who was first physician to Henry I. king of France, and had acquired a high degree of renown by his genius and erudition. The same author, p. 377, tells us, that John had for his master, Giraldus of Orleans, who was an incomparable poet, and an excellent rhetorician, but he advances this without any proof. Mabillon, on the other hand, in his Annal. Benedict. tom. v. lib. lxvii. § lxxviii. p. 261, supposes that John the Nominalist was the same person who made known to Anselm the error of Roscelinus concerning the three persons in the godhead.

t The passage in the original is "Qui dialecticam clericis suis in voce legebat, quum Odo in re discipulis legeret." See Herimannus, Histor. restaurationis Monasterii Sti. Martini Tornaceng. in Dacherii Spicilegio Veter. Scriptor. tom. ii. p. 889.

sacred interests of religion and virtue. The western bishops were no sooner elevated to the rank of dukes, counts, and nobles, and enriched with ample territories, than they gave themselves up entirely to the dominion of pleasure and ambition, and wholly employed in displaying the magnificence of their temporal stations, frequented the courts of princes, accompanied always with a splendid train of attendants and domestics." The inferior orders of the clergy were also licentious in their own way; few among them preserved any remains of piety and virtue, we might add of decency and discretion. While their rulers were wallowing in luxury, and basking in the beams of worldly pomp and splendour, they were indulging themselves, without the least sense of shame, in fraudulent practices, in impure and lascivious gratifications, and even in the commission of the most flagitious crimes. The Grecian clergy were somewhat less chargeable with these shocking irregularities, as the calamities under which their country groaned, imposed a restraint upon their passions, and gave a check to their licentiousness. Yet, notwithstanding these salutary restraints, there were few examples of piety and virtue to be found among them.

Roman

II. The authority and lustre of the Latin church, or to speak more properly, the power and dominion The authori of the Roman pontiffs, arose in this century to ma pontheir highest period, though they arose by degrees, and had much opposition and many difficulties to conquer. In the preceding age, the pontiff's had acquired a great degree of authority in religious matters, and in every thing that related to the government of the church; and their credit and influence increased prodigiously toward the commencement of this century. For then they received the pompous titles of masters of the world, and popes, i.e. universal fathers; they presided also every where in the councils by their legates; assumed the authority of supreme arbiters in all controversies that arose concerning religion or church discipline; and maintained the pretended rights of the church against the encroachments and usurpations of kings and princes. Their authority however was con

u See among other examples of this episcopal grandeur, that of Adalbert in Adam. Bremens. lib. iii. cap. xxiii. p. 38, lib. iv. cap. xxv. p. 52, that of Gunther, in the Lectiones Antiqua of Canisius, tom. iii. pars i. p. 186, and that of Manasses, in the Museum Italicum of Mabillon, tom. i. p. 114. Add to all these Muratorii Antiq. Ital. medii ævi, tom. vi. p. 72.

fined within certain limits; for, on the one hand, it was restrained by sovereign princes, that it might not arrogantly aim at civil dominion; and on the other, it was opposed by the bishops themselves, that it might not arise to a spiritual despotism, and utterly destroy the liberty and privileges of synods and councils." From the time of Leo IX. the popes employed every method which the most artful ambition could suggest, to remove these limits, and to render their dominion both despotic and universal. They not only aspired to the character of supreme legislators in the church, to an unlimited jurisdiction over all synods and councils, whether general or provincial, to the sole distribution of all ecclesiastical honours and benefices as divinely authorized and appointed for that purpose, but they carried their insolent pretensions so far as to give themselves out for lords of the universe, arbiters of the fate of kingdoms and empires, and supreme rulers over the kings and princes of the earth. Before Leo IX. no pope was so enormously impudent as to claim this unbounded authority, or to assume the power of transferring territories and provinces from their lawful possessors to new masters. This pontiff gave the example of such an amazing pretension to his holy successors, by granting to the Normans, who had settled in Italy, the lands and territories which they had already usurped, or were employed in forcing out of the hands of the Greeks and Saracens. The ambition however of the aspiring popes was opposed by the emperors, the kings of France, by William the Conqueror, who was now seated on the throne of England, and was the boldest asserter of the rights and privileges of royalty against the high claims of the apostolic see, and also by several other

X

w The very learned Launoy, in his Assertio contra Privilegium Sti. Medardi. pars ii. cap. xxxi. opp. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 307, has given us an accurate account of the ecclesiastical laws, and of the power of the hierarchy during this century, which he collected from the letters of pope Gregory VII. from which account it appears, that Gregory, ambitious as he was, did not pretend to a supreme and despotic authority in the church. x See Gaufr. Mallatera Hist. Sicula, lib. i. cap. xiv. p. 553, tom. v. Scriptor. Ital. Muratorii. The translator has here incorporated the notes of the original into the text. y See Eadmeri Historia novorum, lib. i. p. 29, which is published at the end of the works of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury. It is proper to observe here, that if it is true on the one hand, that William the Conqueror opposed, on many occasions, with the utmost vehemence and zeal the growing power of the Roman pontiffs, and of the aspiring bishops; it is no less certain, on the other, that to accomplish his ambitious views, he, like many other European princes, had recourse to the influence of the pontiffs upon the minds of the multitude, and thereby nourished and encouraged the pride and ambition of the court of Rome. For while he was preparing all things for this expedition into England, he sent ambassadors to pope Alexander II. "in order," as Matthew Paris says, Hist. Major. lib. i. p. 2, "to have his undertaking approved and

princes. Nor did the bishops, particularly those of France and Germany, sit tamely silent under the papal yoke; many of them endeavoured to maintain their rights and the privileges of the church; but as many, seduced by the allurements of interest or the dictates of superstition, sacrificed their liberties, and yielded to the pontiffs. Hence it happened, that these imperious lords of the church, though they did not entirely gain their point, nor satisfy to the full their raging ambition, yet obtained vast augmentations of power, and extended their authority from day to day.

III. The see of Rome, after the death of Silvester II. which happened in the year 1003, was filled successively by John XVII. John XVIII. and Sergius IV. none of whose pontificates were distinguished by any memorable events; it is however proper to observe, that these three popes were confirmed in the see of Rome by the approbation and authority of the emperors, under whose reign they were elected to that high dignity. Benedict VIII. who was raised to the pontificate in the year 1012, being obliged by his competitor Gregory to leave Rome, fled into Germany for succour, and threw himself at the feet of Henry II. by whom he was reinstated in the apostolic chair, which he possessed in peace until the year 1024. It was during his pontificate, that those famous Normans, who make such a shining figure in history, came into Italy, and reduced several of its richest provinces under their dominion. Benedict was succeeded by his brother John XIX. who ruled the church until the year 1033. The five pontiffs we have now been mentioning were not chargeable with dishonouring their high station by that licentiousness and immorality that rendered so many of their successors infamous; their lives were virtuous; at least, their conduct was decent. But their examples had little effect upon Benedict IX. a most abandoned profligate, and a wretch capable of the most horrid crimes, whose flagitious conduct drew upon him the just resentment of the Romans, who, in the year 1038, degraded him from his office. He

justified by apostolical authority; and the pope, having considered the claims of the contending parties, sent a standard to William as an omen of his approaching royalty." It is highly probable, that the Normans in Italy had made the same humble request to Leo IX. and demanded his confirmation both of the possessions they had acquired, and of those they designed to usurp. And when we consider all this, it will not appear so surprising that the popes aimed at universal empire, since they were encouraged to this by the mean submissions and servile homage of the European princes

was afterward indeed restored, by the emperor Conrad, to the papal chair; but instead of learning circumspection and prudence from his former disgrace, he grew still more scandalous in his life and manners, and so provoked the Roman people by his repeated crimes, that they deposed him a second time, A. D. 1044, and elected in his place John, bishop of Sabina, who assumed the name of Silvester III. About three months after this new revolution, the relations and adherents of Benedict rose up in arms, drove Silvester out of the city, and restored the degraded pontiff to his forfeited honours, which however he did not enjoy long; for perceiving that there was no possibility of appeasing the resentment of the Romans, he sold the pontificate to John Gratian, archpresbyter of Rome, who took the name of Gregory VI. Thus the church had, at the same time, two chiefs, Silvester and Gregory, whose rivalry was the occasion of much trouble and confusion. This contest was terminated in the year 1046, in the council held at Sutri, by the emperor Henry III. who so ordered matters, that Benedict, Gregory, and Silvester were declared unworthy of the pontificate, and Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, was raised to that dignity, which he enjoyed for a short time under the title of Clement II.

IV. After the death of Clement II. which happened in the year 1047, Benedict IX. though twice degraded, aimed anew at the papal dignity, and accordingly forced himself into St. Peter's chair for the third time. But the year following he was obliged to surrender the pontificate to Poppo, bishop of Brixen, known by the name of Damasus II, whom Henry II. elected pope in Germany, and sent from thence into Italy to take possession of that dignity. Upon the death of Damasus, who ruled the see of Rome but three and twenty days, the same emperor, in the diet held at Worms, A. D. 1048, appointed Bruno, bishop of Toul, to succeed him in the pontificate. This prelate is known in the list of the popes by the name of Leo IX. and his private virtues, as well as his public acts of zeal and piety in the government of the church, were deemd meritorious

z In this compendious account of the popes, I have followed the relations of Francis and Anthony Pagi, Papebrock, and also those of Muratori, in his Annales Italiæ, persuaded that the learned and judicious reader will justify my treating with the utmost eentempt what Baronius and others have alleged in favour of Gregory VI.