THE

AGE OF REFORMATION, OR SIX

TEENTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE SEVENTEENTH GENERAL COUNCIL, OR FIFTH OF LATERAN, A. D. 1512.

THE commencement of this century was disgraced by the vices and enormities of one of the most profligate characters that History has ever recorded. Pope Alexander VI., whom humanity disowns, and whose deeds are without a name, was rioting in the full gratification of every sensual appetite, when a poisoned draught, which he had prepared for some of his Cardinals, cut short his flagitious life, A. D. 1503. After a short month's occupancy of the papal chair by Pius III., it became vacant for the reception of another monster;-the infamous Julius II. The propensity for war, and bloodshed, by which this Pontifical General was distinguished, fully bespeaks the savage ferocity of his nature. Military tactics had so engrossed his time and

thoughts, that his whole Pontificate may be said to have been one continued scene of warlike bustle. Under such a Head, the wretched state of the Church may be easily conceived, deluded as it must have been, when it acquiesced in the ordinances of a man, who instead of preaching 'peace on earth;" breathed nothing but war and desolation. The depravation of morals, and the loss of discipline among the Clergy eventually followed :-consequences, which were accompanied by the entire decay of true Religion. At the moment that Christianity was thus depressed and degraded, circumstances arose, which seemed to indicate a change, and that that Reformation, which was so much wanted, and universally desired, would soon ensue.

The Emperor Maximilian, and Louis XII. of France, undertook to check the tyrannical spirit of Julius, as well as to reform the errors of a corrupt Church, by a Council, which they assembled at Pisa. At the very opening of this Synod, they summoned Julius to appear before them, accusing him at the same time, of perfidy and violated honour, and finally decreeing his suspension from the papal dignity. This hostile movement, although it appeared at first only to have excited Julius's ridicule and contempt; yet was not altogether unheeded by him, as he issued his mandate, A. D. 1512, for holding a Council, by which he intended, after annulling

the Acts of the other, and condemning them as heretical; (diris devovere,) to consign their authors to perdition! This Council, which reckons as the FIFTH OF LATERAN, is esteemed by the Romish Church, as

THE SEVENTEENTH GENERAL COUNCIL;

if that can be called General, which only consisted of about eighty Bishops and fifteen Cardinals, all Italians of the worst description;* vilissima sedis Romana mancipia, as they are called together with a few Abbots, or Principals of the Monastic Orders. In justice to the latter, it should indeed be admitted, that one of the leaders of the Augustinian Monks, to whose body LUTHER belonged, † deplored with unaffected sorrow, the monstrous ignorance, profligacy, and impiety, of the age, and even laid his complaints with dutiful obedience before the chief Pastor. But instead of attending to remonstrances of this kind, Julius gave utterance to the most vindictive feelings against the Council of Pisa. He condemned it in language the

* WHITAKERI, Prælect. p. 34. Bellarm. Lib. ii. de Conc. c. 13, observes, that a doubt continues to exist, whether the Fifth Council of Lateran is to be deemed a GENERAL one. Delahogue, in Tract. de Eccl. p. 452, cites the Cardinal's own words to this effect: "Patres interfuêrunt non admodum multi, nempe 114."

† LABB. Tom. xii. p. 403.

most injurious and insulting, that he could use; and would, no doubt, have given practical evidence of the sincerity of his infuriate denunciations against it, as well as against the temporal Princes, who convened it; had not death frustrated his diabolical projects.

A member of the House of Medici succeeded this overbearing, and audacious Pontiff. * LEO X., although as indifferent about religion and true piety, as his predecessor; nevertheless, had some redeeming qualities. He was of a milder and more placable disposition; and considering the darkness of the age, shewed a taste for Letters, by his patronage of learned men. But to the Reformation of the Church, either in its Head, or Members; or to whatever had the remotest tendency to Reform, he was no less an enemy than Julius himself. By his anathematizing the Pisane Council, like his predecessor; and by defining the superiority of the Pontiff over a Council, and annulling the decrees of the Councils of Basil and Constance, which were so adverse to papal preeminence; he afforded demonstrative evidence of his feelings on the subject of Reform.

Besides, it is little to Leo's crédit, that he had been enabled through the influence of Francis I., +totally to annihilate the famous Edict, called

* ROSCOE's Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, vol. ii. p. 387. + See page 247.

A

the PRAGMATIC SANCTION, so obnoxious to papal avarice and domination, after it had been repealed and re-enacted over and over again; and to substitute in its place, a code of Laws more favourable to his ambitious views. These are spots in the pontifical character of Leo, which his luminous panegyrist has not been able to efface. The CONCORDAT, as the code was called, although ratified by the Fifth Coun, cil of Lateran, and approved of by Francis I., was nevertheless received with indignation and reluctance, as well by the Parliament and People, as by every description of the Gallican Clergy. Of this Concordat, it is only necessary further to observe, that its Articles, amounting to twenty-three, were drawn up in opposition to those of the Pragmatic Sanction. The Council continued through twelve Sessions; in the tenth of which it approved of ecclesiastical pawn-broking establishments, which it called

*The Pragmatic Sanction, which was derived from the Canons of the Council of Basil, favoured in an especial manner, the pretensions of General Councils to Supremacy in the Church; while, among other wholesome regulations, it restored the purity of election to vacant benefices, by transferring the appointment of them from the Popes, to their respective Churches, &c. It likewise checked the avarice of the Popes by the extinction of the Annates. Duvol, iii. p. 133–151.

PIN,