tiff to his side. But, during the course of these negotiations, Urban's death left matters unfinished, and suspended once more the hopes and expectations of the public. Under the pontificate of Gregory X. proposals of peace were again made by the same emperor, who, after much opposition from his own clergy, sent ambassadors to the council that was assembled at Lyons in the year 1274,' and there, with the solemn consent of John Veccus, patriarch of Constantinople, and several Greek bishops, publicly agreed to the terms of accommodation proposed by the Roman pontiff." This reunion however was not durable; for the situation of affairs in Greece and Italy being changed some years after this convention, and that in such a manner as to deliver the former from all apprehensions of a Latin invasion, Andronicus, the son of Michael, assembled a council at Constantinople in the palace of Bla chernæ, A. D. 1284, in which, by a solemn decree, this ignominious treaty was declared entirely null, and the famous Veccus, by whose persuasion and authority it had been concluded, was sent into exile." This resolute measure, as may well be imagined, rendered the divisions more violent than they had been before the treaty now mentioned; and it was also followed by an open schism, and by the most unhappy discords among the Grecian clergy. XIV. We pass over several controversies of a more private kind and of inferior moment, which have The disputes nothing in their nature or circumstances that deserves the attention of the curious; but we must body in the not forget to observe that the grand dispute concerning the Eucharist was still continued in this century,not only in France, but also in several other places. concerning the presence of Christ's Kucharist con tinued. Wadding. Annal. Minor. tom. iv. p. 181, 201, 223, 269, 303. 1See Wadding. Annal. Minor. tom. iv. p. 343, 371, tom. v. p. 9, 29, 62. Colenia Hist. Liter. de Ville de Lyon, tom. ii. p. 284. Im Joseph, and not Veccus, was patriarch of Constantinople, when this treaty was concluded. The former had bound himself by a solemn oath never to consent to a reconciliation between the Greek and Latin churches; for which reason the emperor, when he sent his ambassadors to Lyons, proposed to Joseph the following alternative; that if they succeeded in bringing about an accommodation, he should renounce his patriarchal dignity; but if they failed in their attempt he was to remain patriarch, advising him, at the same time, to retire to a convent, until the matter was decided. The ambassador succeeded, Joseph was deposed, and Veccus elected in his place; when, and not before, this latter ratified the treaty in question by his solemn consent to the ignominious article of supremacy and pre-eminence, which it confirmed te the Roman pontiff. n Leo Allatius de perpetua consensione Eccles. Orient. Occident. lib. ii. c. xv. xvi. §. 727. Fred. Spanheim de perpet. dissensione Græcor. et Latin. tom. î. opp. p. 438, &c. For though Innocent III. had, in the council held at the Lateran in the year 1215, presumptuously taken upon him to place transubstantiation among the avowed doctrines of the Latin church, yet the authority of this decree was called in question by many, and several divines had the courage to maintain the probability of the opinions that were opposed to that monstrous doctrine. Those who, adopting the sentiments of Berenger, considered the bread and wine in no other light, than as signs or symbols of the body and blood of Christ, did not venture either to defend or profess this opinion in a public manner. Many also thought it sufficient to acknowledge, what was termed a real presence, though they explained the manner of this presence quite otherwise than the doctrine of Innocent had defined it. Among these, John, surnamed Pungens Asinus, a subtle doctor of the university of Paris, acquired an eminent and distinguished name, and without incurring the censure of his superiors, substituted consubstantiation in the place of transubstantiation toward the conclusion of this century. CHAPTER IV. CONCERNING THE RITES AND CEREMONIES USED IN THE CHURCH DURING THIS CENTURY. 1. It would be endless to enumerate the additions that were made in this century to the external part of Rites multidivine worship, in order to increase its pomp and plied. render it more striking. These additions were owing partly to the public edicts of the Roman pontiffs, and partly to the private injunctions of the sacerdotal and monastic orders, who shared the veneration which was excited in the multitude by the splendour and magnificence of this religious spectacle. Instead of mentioning these additions, we shall only observe in general, that religion was now become a sort of a raree show in the hands of the o Pet. Allix, Præf. ad F. Johannis Determinat. de Sacramento Altaris, published at London in 8vo. in the year 1686. p The book of this celebrated doctor was published by the learned Alix above mentioned. See Baluzii Vita Pontif. Avenion. tom. i. p. 576. Dacherii Spicileg. Veter. Scriptor, tom. iii. p. 59. Echardi Scriptores Dominicani, tom. i. p. 561. rulers of the church, who, to render its impressions more deep and lasting, thought proper to exhibit it in a striking manner to the external senses. For this purpose, at certain stated times, and especially upon the more illustrious festivals, the miraculous dispensations of the divine wisdom in favour of the church, and the more remarkable events in the Christian history, were represented under certain allegorical figures, and images, or rather in a kind of mimic show. But these scenic representations, in which there was a motley mixture of mirth and gravity, these tragicomical spectacles, though they amused and affected in a certain manner the gazing populace, were highly detrimental, instead of being useful to the cause of religion; they degraded its dignity, and furnished abundant matter of laughter to its enemies. tuted in relation 1. It will not appear surprising that the bread, consecrated in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, The rites insti- became the object of religious worship; for this to the eucharist. was the natural consequence of the monstrous doctrine of transubstantiation. But the effects of that impious and ridiculous doctrine did not end here; it produced all that train of ceremonies and institutions that are still used in the church of Rome in honour of that deified bread, as they blasphemously call it. Hence those rich and splendid receptacles, that were formed for the residence of God under this new shape,' and the lamps and other precious ornaments that were designed to beautify this habitation of the Deity. And hence the custom that still prevails, of carrying about this divine bread in solemn pomp through the public streets, when it is to be administered to sick or dying persons, with many other ceremonies of a like nature, which are dishonourable to religion, and opprobrious to humanity. But that which gave the finishing touch to this heap of absurdities, and displayed q It is probable enough, that this licentious custom of exhibiting mimic representations of religious objects derived its origin from the mendicant friars. This blasphemous language, which Dr. Mosheim is obliged to use in representing the absurdities of the doctrine of transubstantiation, is nothing in comparison with the impious figures that were made use of by the abettors of that monstrous tenet to accommodate it, in some measure, to the capacities of the multitude. We need not wonder, that the pagans metamorphosed their Jupiter into a bull, a swan, and other such figures, when we see the rulers of the Christian church transforming the Son of God into a piece of bread; a transformation so vile, and even were it not vile, so useless, that it is inconceivable how it could enter into the head of any mortal, and equally so, how the bishops of Rome could confide so far in the credulity of the people as to risk their authority by propagating such a doctrine. superstition in its highest extravagance, was the institution of the celebrated annual festival of the holy sacrament, or, as it is sometimes called, of the body of Christ, whose origin was as follows; a certain devout woman whose name was Juliana, and who lived at Liege, declared that she had received a revelation from heaven, intimating to her, that it was the will of God, that a peculiar festival should be annually observed in honour of the holy sacrament, or rather of the real presence of Christ's body in that sacred institution. Few gave attention or credit to this pretended vision, whose circumstances were extremely equivocal and absurd,' and which would have come to nothing, had it not been supported by Robert, bishop of Liege, who, in the year 1246, published an order for the celebration of this festival throughout the whole province, notwithstanding the opposition which he knew would be made to a proposal founded only on an idle dream. After the death of Juliana, one of her friends and companions, whose name was Eve, took up her cause with uncommon zeal, and had credit enough with Urban IV. to engage him to publish, in the year 1264, a solemn edict, by which the festival in question was imposed upon all the Christian churches, without exception. This edict however did not produce its full and proper effect, on account of the death of the pontiff, which happened soon after its publication; so that the festival under consideration was not celebrated universally throughout the Latin churches, before the pontificate of Clement V.' who, in the council held at Vienne in France, in the year 1311, confirmed the edict of Urban, and thus, in spite of all opposition, established a festival, which contributed more to render the doctrine of transubstantiation agreeable to the people, than the decree of the council of the Lateran under Innocent III. or than all the exhortations of his lordly successors. Is This fanatical woman declared, that as often as she addressed herself to God, or to the saints in prayer, she saw the full moon with a small defect or breach in it; and that, having long studied to find out the signification of this strange appearance, she was inwardly informed by the Spirit, that the moon signified the church, and that the defect or breach was the want of an annual festival in honour of the holy sacrament, t See Barthol. Fisen. Origo prima Festi Corporis Christi ex Viso Sanctæ Virginis Juliana oblato, published in Svo. at Liege, in the year 1619. Dallæus, De cultus religiosi objecto, p. 287. Acta Sanctor. April. tom. i. p. 437, 903. And above all Benedict. Pont. Max. de Festis Christi et Mariæ, lib. i. c. xiii. p. 360, tom. x. opp. The year of the church. III. About the conclusion of this century, Boniface VIII. added to the public rites and ceremonies of the jubilee added church, the famous jubilee, which is still celebrated at Rome, at a stated period, with the utmost profusion of pomp and magnificence. In the year 1299, a rumour was spread abroad among the inhabitants of that city, that all such as visited, within the limits of the following year, the church of St. Peter, should obtain the remission of all their sins, and that this privilege was to be annexed to the performance of the same service once every hundred years. Boniface no sooner heard of this than he ordered strict inquiry to be made concerning the author and the foundation of this report, and the result of this inquiry was answerable to his views; for he was assured, by many testimonies worthy of credit," say the Roman catholic historians, that, from the remotest antiquity, this important privilege of remission and indulgence was to be obtained by the services above mentioned. No sooner had the pontiff received this information, than he issued out an epistolary mandate, addressed to all Christians, in which he enacted it as a solemn law of the church, that those who, every hundredth or jubilee year, confessed their sins, and visited, with sentiments of contrition and repentance, the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome, should obtain thereby the entire remission of their various offences." The successors of Boniface were not u These testimonies worthy of credit, have never been produced by the Romish writers, unless we rank in that class, that of an old man, who had completed his one hundred and seventh year, and who, being brought before Boniface VIII. declared, if we may believe the Abbe Fleury, that his father, who was a common labourer, had assisted at the celebration of a jubilee, an hundred years before that time. See Fleury Hist. Eccles. toward the end of the twelfth century. It is however a very unaccountable thing, if the institution of the jubilee year was not the invention of Boniface, that there should be neither in the acts of councils nor in the records of history, nor in the writings of the learned, any trace, or the least mention of its celebration before the year 1300; this, with other reasons of an irresistible evidence, have persuaded some Roman catholic writers to consider the institution of this jubilee year, as the invention of this pontiff, who, to render it more respectable, pretended that it was of a much earlier date. See Ghilen. and Victorell. apud Bonanni Numism. Pontif. Rom. tom. i. p. 22, 23. w So the matter is related by James Cajetan, cardinal of St. George, and nephew to Boniface, in his Relatio de Centesimo seu Jubilæo anno, which is published in his Magna Bibliotheca Vet. Patrum, tom. vi. p. 426, 440, and in the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum, tom. xxv. p. 267. Nor is there any reason to believe that this account is erroneous and false, nor that Boniface acted the part of an impostor, from a principle of avarice, upon this occasion. N. B. It is not without astonishment, that we hear Dr. Mosheim deciding in this manner with respect to the good faith of Boniface and the relation of his nephew. The character of that wicked and ambitious pontiff is well known, and the relation of the cardinal of St. George has been proved to be the most ridiculous, fabulous, motley piece of stuff that ever usurped the title of an historical record. See the excel |