In this age, no fewer than 123 Synods were assembled. The only thing for which they are remarkable, is the number of their ordinances. A Synod sat in Cashel, A. D. 1172; according to LUCIUS GRATIANUS, p. 201. Besides a Canon, which related to the marriage of cousins, it passed a strange decree, that children should be baptized in water, and not in MILK, which the rich used! One Synod at Avranches, in the year 1172; and another, in London, in 1175, decreed *" that the sons of Priests shall be incapable of succeeding to the Churches possessed. by their fathers."

EMINENT CHARACTERS. The mellifluous Bernard, as the late Doctor Milner was wont to call him, Anselm, Roger Hoveden, Thomasa-Becket, Gratian, Innocent III., Peter Lombard, Malachy-Archbishop of Armagh, Peter Waldo, the founder of the humble Christians, now inhabiting Piedmont, and Anna Commena, were among the most conspicuous characters in, this age.

INFALLIBILITY was not pretended to have had more than a name in the twelfth century.

* DUPIN, vol. ii. p. 394.

THE

SCHOLASTIC AGE, OR THIRTEENTH

CENTURY.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE TWELFth general COUNCIL, OR THE FOURTH OF LATERAN, A. D. 1215.

SCHOLASTIC Theology, which was reduced to a science in the Twelfth, became so universal in the Thirteenth Century, as to impart to it its character, and title. In the first ages of the Church, pious and learned men explained Gospel truths, in the pure and simple way, in which the Apostles imparted them to their immediate disciples. Not so Origen, who was so captivated by the charms of the Platonic Philosophy, that he set it up as the criterion of all religion. In the succeeding century, familiar exposition, notwithstanding the licentious manner in which his disciples interpreted Scripture, was preserved by Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheses; and by Gregory of Nyssa, in his Catechetical Orations. In the three succeeding

centuries, this useful kind of instruction was lost sight of, and one of a more refined nature, as it was considered, substituted. In the VIIIth Century John of Damascus reduced Theology among the Greeks to a state of greater perfection, as he thought, by distributing its Dogmas into their proper classes. Before the XIth Century his plan was not acted on in the Latin Church; but in that age *Lanfranc, the opponent of Berenger, embraced it. In the beginning of the XIIth Century, Abelard followed it up, and towards the middle of it, Peter Lombard, who vainly attempted to reconcile the discordant opinions of the Fathers, in his Book of the Sentences, reduced the system to perfection. Theology now assumed a new aspect, and instead of the divine truths of the Gospel being presented to the mind, as they originally were, in their native purity, and excellence; they were involved in sophism, and the intricacies of metaphysical subtilty. Thorny and perplexing arguments superseded the artless simplicity of primitive instruction. The Aristotilian Philosophy itself was resorted to, and was so intimately blended with the system, that the Stagyrite, and not St. Paul, became the standard of authority in the Schools. The advan

* "In Ecclesiâ Latinà, nemo hoc saxum volvisse deprehenditur ante Lanfrancum, &c." CAVE'S Conspectus Sæculi Scholastici, p. 695.

tages accruing to the See of Rome from this Revolution in Theology were numerous; and the Canon Law, which was brought into existence about the same time, while it added to the influence of the Roman See, tended to establish the reign of superstition. So far was the Gospel removed out of sight at this time, that it was impossible for men to see how much its beautiful simplicity was disfigured; or what a wide departure from "the faith once delivered to the Saints," had now taken place.

Thus we see, that although Scholastic Theology had not been completed, when Pope INNOCENT the Third appeared on the stage, it was far advanced towards perfection. No man was better qualified to take advantage of the circumstances of the times, than this overbearing Pontiff. His tyrannical disposition was strongly evinced at the very commencement of his reign, both by his deposing Princes, and absolving their subjects from their oaths of allegiance. Among other crowned Heads; John, King of England, felt the tremendous effects of an excommunication in the loss of his Kingdom, and in the necessity he was under of acknowledging the justice of the sentence, and of swearing fealty to the tyrant, who pronounced it. The next step he took was the convocation of a General Council, the Fourth of Lateran, A. D. 1215, by and with the concurrence of the reigning Em

peror, Frederic II. In his Letter of Indiction, he assigned two reasons for convening this celebrated Assembly:-the first was for the Reformation of the Church, and the suppression of heresy; and the second, for the purpose of spiriting up the Princes, and Prelates of Christendom to engage in an expedition for the recovery of the Holy Land. *Four hundred and twelve Bishops; twice that number of Abbots, and Deputies from absent Bishops; the Latin Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem in person;―for a few years previously, Constantinople having been taken by the Romans, the Greek Church, at the same time, participated in its downfall. Patriarchal Deputies also from Antioch and Alexandria, attended, and Ambassadors from the Emperors of Constantinople and Germany; beside representatives from England, + Ireland, France, Spain, and Hungary. So formidable an array of power and authority did this mixed assembly present.

Innocent opened the Council in person in his double capacity of Prince and Bishop. Armed with the two swords, he seemed to have acted like his Predecessors in the three preceding General Councils, with a consciousness of authority, which could brook no superior.

* “Cui plusquam mille Prælati interfuisse dicuntur." Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 696.

+ L. GRATIANUS, p. 165, says, that four Irish Bishops attended this Council.