kings, and released their subjects from their oaths of allegiance. Retributive justice was, however, sometimes visited on them; and made them feel, that if they had the power of afflicting others, they themselves were not beyond the reach of punishment. To particularize the effects, which flowed from this state of things, or to enter more minutely on this subject, would be to depart from the object of this EPITOME. As no General Council was celebrated in the eleventh century, the chasm, which was occasioned thereby, could not have been better filled up than by the subject in hand, and therefore, it was judged, that a few outlines of this extraordinary man's character, would be acceptable to the reader.

In this century, Constantinople contended with Rome, and York with Canterbury, for the right of Primacy. In it the monastic orders acquired increased strength by the institution of Carthusians, Cistertians, *Camaldolites, the Fra

from their oaths of allegiance. Of this power he gave a practical proof, which he followed up by thundering forth an excommunication against Henry IV. He likewise decided, that the Pope alone has the right to be called universal Bishop; or to wear the Imperial Robes. Lastly, that all Princes should kiss the Pope's foot, and pay honour to him alone!!! DUPIN, vol. ii. pp. 210-230.

* As this order of Monkery must sound strange in the reader's ear, it is sufficient to say that Dupin, vol. ii. p. 265, assigns to St. Romauld, the honour of being its founder.

ternity of Val-ombrosa, the Order of St. Anthony, and Regular Canons.

Numerous Synods undeserving of record were assembled in this age, and but few men of learned repute. Among these may be reckoned, Hildebrand-the Hero of the age, Lanfranc, and Anselm-Archbishops of Canterbury; and Berenger.

INFALLIBILITY. In Benedict IX., we have another Boy-Pope, elected at the early age of eighteen, A. D. 1044. He was the counterpart of John XII., spoken of in the last Chapter, without possessing one redeeming quality. He was both ignorant, and illiterate; and as if Infallibility were a barterable commodity, he entered into a simoniacal contract for its transfer to his successor, Gregory the Sixth. Loyola himself would find it difficult to determine the habitation of Infallibility, during his ten years' occupancy of the papal chair.

THE

WALDENSIAN AGE, OR TWELFTH

CENTURY.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE NINTH GENERAL COUNCIL, OR FIRST OF LATERAN, A. D. 1123.

AFTER the deposition of the Emperor, Henry IV., to which an allusion has been made in the last Chapter, he experienced a variety of vicissitudes in his contests with the Pope, and both cruel, and unnatural treatment from his Son and Successor. Unlike his Father, Henry V. crouched at the feet of Pope Paschal, and received from him his Crown, and the right of Investiture; a grant, by the way, which that Pope revoked in a Council at Rome, within one short year, after he had made it. This revocation, followed up by an Anathema, reduced Henry, now broken down by his losses and misfortunes, to the necessity of renouncing the right of Investiture, which he had so long contended for in vain, and throwing himself on the

clemency and compassion of the offended Pontiff.

As the subject of * INVESTITURES presents itself here, it may not be uninteresting to the reader to take even a cursory view of it: particularly as nothing ever afforded such a firm footing to papal encroachment, or so strong a hold on temporal dominion. The Ninth General Council would, no doubt, claim a priority of notice, did it possess the characteristics, which a Council, called GENERAL, ought to have; but when this is not the case, it may well yield a precedence to other matter.

Investitures, were originally Grants of Territory, Dignity or Privilege, from a Lord to his Vassal, in consideration of services to be performed. These Grants, which were at first confined to Laymen, began to be made to Bishops and Abbots, in the reigns of Pepin, and Charlemagne. Subsequent to their time, when a Bishop died, the right of Investiture reverted into the possession of the Prince, until a Successor was duly elected. After the election of a new Bishop, the ceremony of Investiture was performed, which consisted in the mere presentation of a Pastoral Rod, and Ring. A bare intimation of the Prince's acquiescence was even deemed sufficient. The ceremony itself, which

* See DUPIN, vol. ii. p. 284.

took its rise in the ninth, continued to be observed until the eleventh, century; whether the privilege of using it belonged to the Emperor, or the Pope. GREGORY THE SEVENTH, however, could not brook this subjection of the spiritual, to the temporal power. He, therefore, strenuously opposed the Prince's right altogether to the exercise of a jurisdiction, which left ecclesiastical appointments solely dependant on his will. Gregory's two immediate Successors equally protested against any civil interference in cases of this kind. But Pope Paschal II., in a spirit of peace and disinterestedness, forewent all claims on the part of the Papal See, to fiefs and temporalities; a concession, nevertheless, which was looked on by some, as an innovation, if not a heresy. Calixtus II., who next succeeded to the Popedom, in the early part of the twelfth century, revived the old objection of receiving from the hands of Laymen, any kind of Investiture; while Henry the Fifth was as obstinate in defending his right. An accommodation not so favourable to the Church, and a change in the ceremony of Investiture, afterwards took place, by the substitution of the Sceptre, in place of the Pastoral Rod, and Ring. In France, there never was any dispute on the subject; for Hildebrand himself, with all his darings, never presumed to lord it over that Kingdom; well knowing it to