I shall conclude this article with some particulars that lead us to think unfavourably, and others that may incline us to think more favourably, of monks in general. The religious orders in general have been the great support of the papal power, and of all the superstitions of the Church of Rome, in all ages. The worship of saints, and the superstitious veneration for relics, were chiefly promoted by their assiduity, in proclaiming their virtues everywhere, and publishing accounts of miracles wrought by them, and of revelations in their favour. They were also the great venders of indulgences, the founders of the Inquisition, and the great instrument of the Papal persecutions. The licentiousness of the monks was become proverbial so early as the fifth century, and they are said, in those times, to have excited tumults and seditions in various places. In some periods the monks, having an unlimited licence to buy and sell, exercised their permission with so little scruple, that it encouraged many great men to usurp the estates of their neigh bours, being sure to find purchasers among the monks. F. Simon relates an instance in the abbey of Mire in Switzerland, in which the monk, who compiled the acts of the monastery, gives a list of things which were ac quired by unjust means, without the least hint of any obligation to make restitution.1 Nothing could exceed the insolence shall be admitted into the council of princes, and they never the wiser; charming of them, yea, making your princes reveal their hearts, and the secrets therein unto them, and yet they not perceive it: which will happen from falling from the law of God, by neglect of fulfilling of the law of God, and by winking at their sins. Yet in the end God, to justify his law, shall suddenly cut off this society, even by the hands of those who have most succoured them, and made use of them; so that at the end they shall become odious to all nations: they shall be worse than Jews, having no resting-place upon the earth, and then shall a Jew have more favour than a Jesuit." Phenix, 1707, I. p. 136. On this Order, see An Essay, by C. Villers, 1805, pp. 96, Note, and 271. 1 On Church Revenues, p. 56. (P.) and arrogance of the Dominicans and Franciscans. They even declared "publicly, that they had a divine impulse and commission to illustrate and maintain the religion of Jesus....that the true method of obtaining salvation was revealed to them alone;" and they boasted of "their familiar connexions with the Supreme Being, the Virgin Mary, and the saints in glory." By these means they gained such an ascendancy over the common people, that these would trust no others "but the Mendicants with the care of their souls."? St. Francis imprinted upon himself five wounds, similar to those of our Saviour, which his followers asserted were given him by Christ himself; and in this they were encouraged by the mandates of the popes, and by several bulls enjoining the belief of it. They even approved and recommended an impious treatise entitled, "The Book of the Conformities of St. Francis with Jesus Christ," composed in 1383, by a Franciscan of Pisa, in which this saint is put on a level with Christ.3 The Carmelites imposed upon the credulous, by asserting that the Virgin Mary appeared to the general of their order, and gave him a solemn promise, that the souls of all those who left the world with the Carmelite cloak or scapulary upon their shoulders, should be infallibly preserved from eternal damnation; and this impudent fiction found patrons and defenders among the pontiffs. Even the late Pope Benedict XIV., who is generally esteemed the most candid and sensible of all the popes, is an advocate for this gross imposition. It must, however, be acknowledged, that notwithstanding the great mischief that has been done to the Christian world by the religious orders, they have, 2 Mosheim, III. p. 61. (P.) Cent. xiii, Pt. ii. Ch. ii. Sect. xxix. both directly and indirectly, been the occasion of some good; and though they were the chief support of the papal power, they nevertheless contributed something to the diminution of it, and to the Reformation. Such places as monasteries originally were, though they were abused by many, must have been a very desirable retreat to many others, in times of war and confusion. And the opportunity of leisure and meditation, with a total exclusion from the world, must have been of great use to those who had been too much immersed in the bustle and the vices of it. For notwith standing the irregularities with which monks in general were perhaps justly charged, there must have been, in all ages, great numbers who conscientiously conformed to the rules of them. There is no period, perhaps, in which the state of Christianity, and of Europe in general, wore a more unfavourable aspect than in the fourteenth century, during the residence of the popes at Avignon; and yet Petrarch, who lived in that age, and who makes heavy and repeated complaints of the vices of it, and especially of the extreme profligacy of the court of Rome, appears to have had a good opinion of the state of many of the monasteries; and his own brother, who had been rather dissolute in his youth, retired to one of them in the very flower of his age, and became truly exemplary for his piety, humanity and other virtues, which were especially conspicuous during the great plague. Indeed, the general credit of the order in all ages cannot be accounted for on any other supposition, than that, as things then stood, they were, upon the whole, really useful. Another capital advantage which the Christian world always derived from the monks, and which we enjoy to this day, is the use they were of to literature in general, both on account of the monasteries being the principal repositories of books, and the monks the copiers of them, and because, almost from their first institution, the monks had a greater share of knowledge than the secular clergy. In the seventh century, the little learning there was in Europe was, in a manner, confined to the monasteries, many of the monks being obliged by their rules to devote certain hours every day to study, when the schools which had been committed to the care of the bishops were gone to ruin.' A very respectable religious fraternity was founded in the fourteenth century, confirmed by the Council of Constance, called the brethren and clerks of common life." The schools erected by this fraternity acquired great reputation. From them issued Erasmus of Rotterdam, and other eminent persons.3 The cause of literature has also been much indebted to the Jesuits, and more lately to the Benedictines; the members of both these orders having produced many works of great erudition and labour, and having employed the revenues of their societies to defray the expense of printing them. As a proof of the monastic orders having contributed something to the Reformation, it may be sufficient to adduce the following facts. The Dominicans and Franciscans soon_quarrelled about pre-eminence, and they differed exceedingly amongst themselves; and these differences among the mendicant orders, as well as the division of the popedom, and the mutual excommunication of the popes and antipopes, gave several mortal blows to the authority of the Church of Rome, and excited in the minds of the people 66 1 Mosheim, II. p. 12. (P.) Cent. vii. Pt. ii. Ch. i. Sect. i. ad init. See the reference, supra, p. 242, and Villers's Essay, p. 51. 2 "Les frères de la vie commune, où des personnes distinguées par leur savoir, et par leur piété, vivoient en commun de ce qu'elles mettoient ensemble pour ne pas vivre dans la fainéGroot, ou, le Grand, de Deventer, Docteur de Paris, et Chanoine d'Utrecht." Hist. du Concil. Const. An. 1418, II. p. 601. antise. On attribue cet établissement à Gerard 3 Mosheim, III. p. 254. (P.) Cent. xv. Pt. ii. Ch. ii. Sect. xxii. [most] ardent desires of a reformation in the church."1 The Fratricelli, or Fratres Minores, were monks who, in the same thirteenth century, "separated themselves from the grand community of St. Francis," with a view to observe his rule more strictly. "They went about clothed with sordid garments, or rather with loathsome rags," declaiming in all places "against the corruption of the Church of Rome, and the vices of the pontiffs and bishops." These were persecuted with the utmost virulence by the other Franciscans, who were countenanced by the popes, and they continued in this violent state of war with the Church of Rome till the Reformation, multitudes of them perishing in the flames of the Inquisition. These rebellious Franciscans, therefore, deserve an eminent rank among those who prepared the way for the Reformation, exciting in the minds of the people a just aversion to the Church of Rome in its then very corrupt state. The original_difference of these monks with the Pope was perhaps the most trifling and absurd that can well be imagined, viz. the property of the things that were consumed by them, as bread and other provisions; they maintaining that they had not the property, but only the use of them. This dispute was at first confined to the monks themselves, but at length the popes interposed, and John XXII. declaring that obedience is the principal virtue of monks, and preferable to poverty, they asserted the contrary, maintaining that they ought not to obey their superiors when they commanded anything contrary to perfec 1 Mosheim, III. p. 62. (P.) Cent. xiii. Pt. ii. Ch. ii. Sect. xxx. 2 By "a bloody decree, beginning 'Gloriosam Ecclesiam.'" Limborch, Hist. I. p. 104. 3 Mosheim, III. p. 76. (P.) Cent. xiii. Pt. ii. Ch. ii. Sect. xxxix. tion. John condemning these refrac tory monks, they declared him a heretic by his own authority. They even went so far as to call him Antichrist, and to appeal from his constitution to a future council. At length the revolt went so far, that the monks, supported by the emperor Lewis of Bavaria, pronounced sentence of deposition against the Pope, and set up another in his place.* Since the fifteenth century, in the beginning of which the discipline of the monks was exceedingly relaxed, various reformations have been made, which, Mr. Fleury says, has raised the credit of most of the orders.5 But notwithstanding these reforms, and though nothing is now objected to them with respect to the observance of their rules, they are found to be of so little use in the present state of society, that it seems to be the determination of most of the Catholic powers to abolish them by degrees; as appears by the regulations that have been made respecting the time of admission, making it so late in life, that very few will not be so far engaged in other pursuits, as to have no inducement to become monks or nuns; and the authority of parents, who often found it convenient to dispose of their younger children in this way, is now generally set aside. In consequence of this, and other causes, which have been operating more silently ever since the Reformation, the religious houses are in general but thinly inhabited. Some of their revenues have already been diverted to other uses, and such is the aspect of things at present, and the wants of the several potentates of Europe, that it is justly to be apprehended, that all the rest will soon share the same fate. 4 Fleury's Eighth Discourse, p. 30. Mosheim, III. p. 74. (P.) Cent. xiii. Pt. ii, Ch. ii. Sect xxxix. Note. 5 Eighth Discourse, p. 47. (P.) PART XIII. THE HISTORY OF CHURCH REVENUES. THE INTRODUCTION. tom of the Jewish synagogues, the members of which contributed every IN the preceding parts of this work we have taken a view of the changes entrusted it with those who distributed week what they could spare, and which, in the course of time, have taken alms. Like the Jews, also, the Chrisplace with respect to the rank and tians sent alms to distant places, and character of Christian ministers; by what steps it came to pass, that, from gave to those who came from a dishaving no authority whatever, besides tance with proper recommendations. what their greater virtue or ability sions, that Lucian says, that, to beThey were so liberal upon these occagave them, and especially from having no dominion over the faith of their fel- come rich in a short time, a man had low-christians, the authority of the nothing to do but to pretend to be a bishops, with respect to articles of Christian. In those times both alms faith, as well as matters of discipline raries. Thus when Paul bid Timothy and stipends were often called honoand worship, came to be absolute and honour widows that are widows indeed, despotic; and how, from living in a he means rewarding them for disstate of the most submissive subjection charging particular offices, which in to all the temporal powers of the world, those days widows held in churches. and keeping as far as possible from in- So also the phrase worthy of double terfering in all civil affairs, they came to be temporal princes and sovereigns honour, signifies worthy of a double or themselves, and to control all the tema larger reward. poral princes of Europe, even in the exercise of their civil power. In this part I shall exhibit a similar view of the changes which have taken place with respect to the revenues of the church; and shall show by what steps ministers of the gospel, from living on the alms of Christian societies, together with the poor that belonged to them, came to have independent and even princely incomes, and to engross to the wealth and even of the landed prothemselves a very considerable part of perty of Europe. SECTION I. THE HISTORY OF CHURCH The church had no other revenues besides these voluntary alms till the time of Constantine. Indeed, before considered as unlawful assemblies, and that time, the Christian churches were perty, than the Jewish synagogues, or therefore could no more acquire proother communities not authorized by the state; though in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the senate permitting any person to give whatever he pleased toleration or connivance, to possess to communities already formed, the church began, in the third century, by estates. But under Constantine, Christian churches were considered as respectable societies, and from that time they began to grow rich. In 321 this emperor made an edict, addressed to REVENUES, the people of Rome, by which he gave all persons the liberty of leaving by will to the churches, and especially that of Rome, whatever they pleased. He also ordained that what had been WESTERN IN the constitution of the primitive church, the apostles followed the cus taken from the churches in the perse- first,) that they alone were allowed to cution of Dioclesian should be restored superintend the distribution of the to them, and that the estates of the common church stock to the inferior martyrs who had no heirs should be clergy, as well as to the poor, accordgiven to the churches.1 ing to the merits or occasions of each By this means, in time, all churches individual. But, in consequence, prohad what was called their patrimony, bably, of some abuse of this discreand that of Rome in the sixth century tionary power, we find afterwards, that had a very great one, not only in Italy, not the bishop alone, but the whole but in other countries; and to inspire body of the presbyters made that a greater respect for these patrimonies, distribution. Still, however, it cannot they were denominated by the saints but be supposed that, the bishops that were most respected in each par- having superior influence, more would ticular church. Thus the territories be in their power in this respect, than belonging to the Church of Rome were in that of the presbyters; and these, called the patrimony of St. Peter. But being subject to the bishops in other these patrimonies were, like other es- things, would not choose to disoblige tates, subject to the laws of the coun- them in this. tries in which they were.2 We do find, however, that when Though the bishops and priests had churches grew very rich, the bishops originally no property of their own, often embezzled the estates belonging but lived upon the stock of the church, to them. This evil grew to so great a Cyprian complains that some of them, height, that at the Council of Gangres, in his time, not content with a subsist- in Paphlagonia, held in 324, they were ence in common, began to live in allowed to give some of the church separate houses of their own, and to stock to their relations, if they were have each their allowance paid in poor, but were prohibited selling the money, daily, monthly, or for a longer estates belonging to their churches, time, and this was soon tolerated. and were ordered to give an account of And, whereas part of the church stock their administration of these tempohad always been given to the poor, the ralities. And that the goods which clergy began to encroach upon this properly belonged to the bishops might part, and to appropriate it almost not be confounded with those that wholly to themselves. That part also belonged to the church, every bishop, which used to be employed in the upon his election, was ordered to give repairs of churches, &c. was inter- an account of his possessions, that he cepted in the same manner. might bequeath them, and nothing All the civil affairs of Christian else, by will. But still the bishops societies were at first managed by abusing the power that was left them, deacons, but the disposal of money, as stewards were afterwards appointed to well as of everything else, was in the take care of the temporalities of the power of the presbyters, by whose church, and the bishops were confined general directions the deacons acted; to the cure of souls. These stewards, and the bishops having encroached however, being at first chosen by the upon the presbyters in other things, bishops, the same abuses were resumed; did not neglect to avail themselves of and therefore, at the Council of Chaltheir authority with respect to the cedon, in 451, the stewards were temporalities of the church. And so appointed to be chosen by the body of great was the confidence which the the clergy." primitive Christians reposed in their bishops, (and with reason, no doubt, at 1 Anecdotes, pp. 129, 131. (P.) These offices of stewards became so considerable in the church of Constan • Simon on Church Revenues, pp. 18, 20. (P.) |