of estates, and of all civil rights, even with respect to the sovereign, the clergy could always accuse of this crime any person whom they meant to destroy; and if the prince would not submit to their sentence, he was accused of not believing the power of the keys, and accused of heresy. it being soon imagined to be forbidden not interfered, as in respect to usury by Paul, who says, a bishop must be and concubinage. And because the the husband of one wife. Epiphanius crime of heresy drew after it the loss mentions a person who being a widower married a second wife, that he might not be made a priest. Jerome says, we do not desire, but we allow of second marriages. In 901, the patriarch of Constantinople refused to marry the emperor Leo, a fourth time, alleging a law which he himself had made, that no person should marry more than twice. After much altercation on the subject, it was agreed, in 902, that third marriages should be lawful, but not fourth." It was thought proper in very early times, that a new-married couple should have the benediction of the bishop or a priest. Thus, in the fourth Council of Carthage, in 398, it was ordered that the bride and bridegroom should be presented to a priest for his benediction, and that, out of respect to it, they should abstain from commerce the first night. This custom of giving the benediction prepared the way for the clergy being considered as the only persons before whom marriage could be legally contracted, and the laity were effectually excluded when matrimony was made one of the seven sacraments. Marriage also came under the cognizance of the clergy by means of the oath which the parties took to be faithful to each other. For Fleury says, the clergy included within their jurisdiction everything in which oaths were concerned, as well as where the causes had any connexion with things spiritual. Thus on account of the sacrament of marriage, they took cognizance of marriage portions, cases of dowry, of adultery, of legitimacy, and also of wills; because it was supposed that the church ought not to be without some pious legacy.4 The clergy also claimed entire jurisdiction in cases of heresy and schism, and in matters where the civil law had 1 Le Clerc's Hist. Eccl. A. D. 158. (P) 2 Sueur. (P.) 8 Ibid. (P.) 4 Fleury's Seventh Discourse, p. 17. (P.) The ordinary jurisdiction of the bishops was much restrained by the Pope's legates, especially from the eleventh century; and the bishops, thus restrained, endeavoured to extend their jurisdiction at the expense of the lay-judges, by three methods, viz. the quality of the persons, the nature of the causes, and the multiplication of the judges. Boniface VIII. ordained that laymen should have no power over ecclesiastical persons or goods, and the bishops made as many clergy as they pleased, by which means they drew great numbers from the temporal jurisdiction, an abuse which was carried to an enormous extent. Because widows and orphans had been protected by the bishops in early ages, they now undertook all their causes, even those of the widows of kings, and those of kings themselves in their minority. They also took cognizance in all cases in which lepers were concerned. Lastly, the bishops multiplied judges, and thereby extended their jurisdiction, establishing their officials in various places besides the episcopal city. The archdeacons and chapters also did the same, and all these had their delegates, sub-delegates, and other commissaries. However, in all great causes, the authority of the bishops was much lessened by the number of appeals to the court of Rome; and afterwards the Inquisition also encroached upon the jurisdiction of the bishops, as well as on that of the ordinary judges." 5 Ibid. p. 17. (P.) 6 Ibid. p. 18. (P.) 7 Ibid. p. 23. (P.) necessary to hold another synod on this subject at Calne, four years afterwards, in which it was finally decided. A circumstance which contributed not a little to make the clergy intent upon extending their authority in the state, and to make them formidable in With the high rank and the wealth it, was their not being allowed to which the clergy acquired, it is not to marry. In consequence of this, great be wondered that they should not imnumbers of them became less attached prove in virtue, heavenly-mindedness, to their respective countries, and made and a careful attention to the duties the hierarchy alone their great object. of their office. Complaints of their This point, however, was not estab- arrogance, avarice and voluptuousness, lished without much opposition. A are without end; and yet, vicious as council held at Constantinople under the clergy in general were, they were Justinian II. gave the priests leave to reverenced almost to adoration by the marry, though the popes had enjoined ignorant vulgar of those ages. This the contrary. Many priests had wives arose, in a great measure, from the even in the West about the year 1000; sentiments and customs of the Northern but, in 1074, Gregory VII. decreed in nations before their conversion to Chriscouncil, not only that priests "should tianity; which in those days consisted abstain from marriage," but that they in nothing more than their being taught who had wives should either dismiss to say by rote some general principles of them, or quit their office. But even the Christian religion, being baptized, this law was often disregarded.1 and changing the objects of their That the true motive to this, in later superstitious customs. For these were ages, was not a regard to purity, is evi- suffered to continue the same as bedent, from its being no objection to fore, only, instead of being acts of priests to keep many concubines, even homage to their heathen deities, they publicly. John Cremensis, who came were now taught to consider them as to England to hold a synod for the directed to the popish saints. purpose of prohibiting the marriage of Now these people having been before priests, was the very night after the their conversion absolutely enslaved by council found in bed with a common their priests, having never been used to prostitute." Father Simon says, that undertake anything, even in civil or the priests being prohibited from mar- military affairs, without their counsel; riage, made no scruple of keeping con- when they became Christians, they cubines. It was in 970 that a synod transferred the same superstitious dewas held at Canterbury, in which it ference to their Christian priests, who, was decreed that the clergy in Eng- we may be sure, did nothing to check land should either part with their it. In the dark ages, the profligacy of wives or their livings; a law which the clergy perhaps exceeded that of the Dunstan enforced with great rigour. laity, as the sacredness of their chaThe priests, however, were much averse racter gave them a kind of impunity. to this law, and therefore it was found One Fabricius complains of the luxury of the clergy in his time, towards the Ch. ii. Sect xii. 1 Mosheim, II. p. 284. (P.) Cent. xi. Pt. ii. end of the tenth century, in the follow2 History of Popery, III. p. 45. (P.) It is ing terms:-They no longer saluted creditable to a priest of the same church, "John one another with the title of brother, Brompton, Abbot of Jourval in Richmondshire, who lived in the reign of Edward III.," that he but that of master; they would not thus acknowledges and censures the fact: "Res learn anything belonging to their minisasperrima negari non potuit, celari non decuit; et sic qui summo honore ubique habe- try, but committed the whole to their batur, ingloriosus et Dei judicio confusus cum summo dedecore in sua repedavit. Hoc si cuiquam displiceat, taceat, ne Johannem sequi videatur." Hist. of Popery, 1735, I. pp. 363, 364. 3 On Church Revenues, p. 78. (P.) 4 At this council the king and nobles were present with the prelates and abbots. See Rapin, L. iv. I. p. 367. 5 Mosheim, II. p. 59. (P.) Cent. viii. Pt. ii. Ch. ii. Sect. ii, R vicars. Their study was to have horses, cooks, maîtres d'hôtel, concubines, buffoons and mountebanks; and they applied to the emperor for leave to hunt all sorts of wild beasts.1 Nothing, perhaps, can show the pride of the clergy in a stronger light, than the decrees of the eighth general council, held at Constantinople, in 869, in which it was ordered that bishops should not go before princes, that they should not alight from their mules or horses, but that they should be considered as of equal rank with princes and emperors; that if any bishop should live in a low manner, according to the ancient and rustic custom, he should be deposed for a year; and that if the prince was the cause of it, that prince should be excommunicated for two years. In the same council it was decreed that bishops only should be present at councils, and not secular princes; for that they ought not to be even spectators of such things as sometimes happen to priests. All writers agree in giving the most shocking picture of the depravity of all ranks of men in the tenth century.3 When the occupation of churchmen and temporal lords differed so very little, it is natural to expect that there would be no great difference in their accomplishments. In the ninth century the ignorance of the clergy was so great, that few of them could either write or read. But one reason of this was, that many noblemen and others, wanting sufficient talents to appear to advantage in the field, retired into the church, the great endowments of which were temptations to them. The estates of the church were also often openly invaded, and the ignorant spoilers got possession of the benefices." Britain, being removed from the seat of the greatest rapine and profligacy, had a greater proportion of learned clergy than the rest of Europe, in the 1 Sueur, A. D. 989. (P.) 2 Ibid. A. D. 869. (P.) 3 Among others, see Sueur, A. D. 909. (P.) 4 Mosheim, II. p. 119. (P.) Cent. ix. Pt. ii. Ch. ii. Sect. ii. greatest part of the dark ages; and Ireland had perhaps a greater proportion than Britain, as they had suffered still less by the ravages of the barbarians. The very corrupt state of the clergy made the monks, and their monasteries, of great value to the Christian world. With them almost all the learning and piety of those ages had an asylum, till the approach of better times.5 In the Church of England there is a three-fold order of ministers, viz. bishops, priests, and deacons. The deacons may baptize and preach, but not administer the Lord's supper; the priests may administer the Lord's supper, and pronounce absolution; and only the bishops confirm baptized persons, ordain ministers, and govern the church. The bishop's diocese is considered as the lowest kind of a church, and the presbyters are considered as his delegates or curates. But the first English reformers considered bishops and priests as of the same order, and therefore did not require that those who had been ordained by priests should be ordained again by a bishop. Wickliffe, who began the reformation in England, admitted no more than two degrees in the ministerial office, viz., deacons and presbyters or bishops. These two, says he, were known in Paul's time, and others are the invention of impious pride. There is also another deviation from the primitive state of things in the Church of England, as the people have not in general the choice of their minister, and the bishops are all nominated by the court. For though 5 "Where, indeed, could the precious remains of classical learning, and the divine monuments of ancient taste, have been safely lodged, amidst the ravages of that age of ferocity and rapine... except in sanctuaries like these? There Homer and Aristotle were obliged to shroud their heads from the rage of Gothic ignorance; and there the sacred records of divine truth were preserved like treasure, hid in the earth in troublesome times, safe but unenjoyed." On Monastic Institutions. Miscel. Pieces, by J. and A. L. Aikin, 1775, Ed. 2, pp. 91, 92. 6 In some parishes, the inhabitants have, alternately, a choice; the chancellor nominating to the intermediate vacancy. the dean and chapter have the nominal choice, the king sends them an express order to choose such as he shall direct. In the reign of Edward IV. this absurd To 1 "The Queen [Anne] grants a license to the dean and chapter, under the great seal, to elect the person whom, by her letters missive, she hath appointed; and they are to choose no other." Rights of the Clergy, 1709, p. 90. See [Rutt's Priestley] Vol. II. p. 339, Note t. which add the following testimonies: "This order of admitting none to any ecclesiastical general assembly, was inviolably observed, and so continued for about two hundred years." function, but by election of all the faithful, in a Father Paul, on Eccles. Benef. Ch. iii. Ed. 3, p. 6. "That the people had votes in the choice of bishops all must grant; and it can be only ignorance and folly that pleads the contrary" Lowth on Church-power. Towgood, Let. ii. Ed. 5, p. 96. custom was set aside, and the king himself immediately appointed the bishops; but the old custom was renewed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Almost all the inferior ministers are chosen by the bishops, the chancellor, or some lay patrons. When a new rector is to be placed in a parish, the patron of the living recommends whom he pleases to the bishop, and the bishop has no power to refuse. The rights of patronage to livings are openly bought and sold; and it is not reckoned simony to buy the next right of presentation, provided the living be not void at the time. PART XI. THE HISTORY OF THE PAPAL POWER. THE INTRODUCTION. WHEN we consider that, originally, the bishops of Rome were nothing more than any other bishops, that is, the ministers or pastors of a society of Christians, without any power, even within their own church, besides that of exhortation and admonition, it is truly astonishing that the popes, who are no other than the successors of those bishops, should have obtained the rank and authority that they have done; and it is hardly possible to conceive how the one should have arisen from the other. There is not, indeed, in the whole history of human affairs, another example of so great a change in the condition of any order of men whatever, civil or ecclesiastical. From being in the lowest state of persecution, in common with other Christians, and having nothing to do with things of a temporal nature, they came to be the greatest of all persecu tors themselves, and rose to a greater height of temporal power (and a power established on the voluntary subjection of the mind) than almost any sovereign, the most despotic by law or constitution, ever attained. And from being mere subjects, they came to be not only princes, but the most imperious lords of their former masters; and their ecclesiastical power was still more absolute and extensive than their civil power. I shall endeavour to point out the several steps by which this great change was made. The ground of the papal pretensions to power, in later ages, was the popes being the successors of the apostle Peter, to whom was delivered by Christ the keys of the kingdom of heaven. But whatever was meant by that expression, Peter himself assumed no pre-eminence over the rest of the apostles. Paul opposed him to his face, and says that he himself was not inferior to the very chiefest apostles. Also, though it be probable that Peter head of the church, at that time, was at Rome, and suffered martyrdom deemed to be. The rise and progress there, it is not probable that he was of such an amazing power, from so ever the proper bishop of Rome, or of very low a beginning, is indeed a great any particular place; the apostles object, and well deserves to be conhaving a general jurisdiction over the sidered with attention. church at large, appointing and direct ing the conduct of all the bishops; an office to which they appointed no successors at all. The title of pope (papa), which sig. nifies father, was not originally peculiar SECTION I. POWER TILL THE TIME OF CHARLEMAGNE. to the bishop of Rome, but in early OF THE STATE OF THE PAPAL times was commonly applied to other bishops, especially in the greater sees. Thus Cornelius, bishop of Rome, called THE first cause of the increase of Cyprian the pope of Carthage; and it power to the popes was the same that was not till about the beginning of the enlarged the power of the bishops of seventh century, that the bishops of all the great cities of the empire; in Rome appropriated that title to them- consequence of which they had the selves. power of calling, and presiding in, the One of the most extraordinary cir- assemblies of bishops within the procumstances relating to the papal vinces to which the civil jurisdiction of power is, that, though the founda- their respective cities extended: and, tions on which it rested were entirely by degrees, as has been observed bechanged, and those pretences on which fore, they had the power of ordaining the greatest stress was laid, had not the bishops in their provinces, and a been heard of, or hinted at, for many negative on the choice of the people. centuries; yet being continually urged, The bishops of the most important in dark ages, they came at length sees were at length distinguished by to be universally acknowledged, and the title of patriarchs, who had all acquiesced in, even by those princes equal power, and differed only with whose interest it was to oppose them. respect to rank and precedency; and And in time the business transacted in general the bishop of Rome was at the court of Rome was so great and considered as the first in rank, out of peculiar, that nothing was more sen- respect to the city in which he presibly felt than the want of unity in it, sided. After the see of Rome, the during the great schism in the papacy. preference was given to the other great All Europe was in the deepest afflic- sees, in the following order, viz. those tion on the occasion; and instead of of Constantinople, Alexandria, Anrejoicing in the division of this enor- tioch, and Jerusalem. The churches mous controlling power, it was the of Africa do not appear to have been great object of princes and people to subject to any of these patriarchs; unite the church under its one proper and Cyprian, who was bishop of Carhead. Had the sun been divided, and thage, in the third century, had the its light been in danger of being extin- same power that the bishops of Rome guished, the Christian world would had, viz. to assemble the bishops of hardly have been more alarmed than his province, to preside in their counit was; so necessary was the subjec- cils, and to admonish his brethren. tion of all Christians to one supreme of Rome, though he was the only perThe proper authority of the bishop 1 On the death of Gregory XI., in 1378, when there were rival popes, one at Rome, and the other at Avignon. 2 Mosheim, I. p. 215. (P.) Cent. iii. Pt. il Ch. ii. Sect. ii. |