תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

||

dignity Amadeus, duke of Savoy, who then lived in the most profound solitude at a charm ing retreat, called Ripaille, upon the borders of the Leman Lake, and who is known in the papal list by the name of Felix V.

XIV. This election was the occasion of the

in the highest degree, and induced him to form the intention, either of removing this troublesome and enterprising council into Italy, or of setting up a new assembly in opposition to it, which might fix bounds to its zeal for the reformation of the church. Accordingly, on the 7th of May, 1437, the assembled fathers hav-revival of that deplorable schism, which had ing, on account of the Greeks, come to a resolution of hoiding the new council at Basil, Avignon, or some city in the duchy of Savoy, the intractable pontiff opposed this motion, and maintained that it should be transferred Into Italy. Each of the contending parties persevered, with the utmost obstinacy, in the resolution they had taken; and this occasioned a warm and violent contest between the pope and the council. The latter summoned Eu-|| genius to appear at Basil, in order to give an account of his conduct; but the pontiff, instead of complying with the requisition, issued a decree, by which he pretended to dissolve the council, and to assemble another at Ferrara. This decree, indeed, was treated with the utmost contempt by the council, which, with the consent of the emperor, the king of France, and several other princes, continued its deliberations, and pronounced a sentence of contumacy against the rebellious pontiff, for having refused to obey its order.

formerly rent the church, and which had been terminated with so much difficulty, and after so many vain and fruitless efforts, at the coun cil of Constance. The new breach was even more lamentable than the former one, as the flame was kindled not only between rival pontiffs, but also between the contending councila of Basil and Florence. The greatest part of the church submitted to the jurisdiction, and adopted the cause of Eugenius; while Felix was acknowledged, as lawful pontiff, by a great number of universities, and, among others, by that of Paris, as also in several kingdoms and provinces. The council of Basil continued to deliberate, to enact laws, and publish edicts, until the year 1443, notwithstanding the efforts of Eugenius and his adherents to put a stop to their proceedings. And, though in that year the members of the council retired to their respective places of abode, yet they declared publicly that the council was

not dissolved.

In the mean time, the council of Florence, with Eugenius at its head, was chiefly employed in reconciling the differences between the Greeks and Latins; which weighty busi ness was committed to the prudence, zeal, and piety, of a select number of eminent men on both sides. The most distinguished among those whom the Greeks chose for this purpose was the learned Bessarion, who was afterwards raised to the dignity of cardinal in the Romish church. This great man, engaged and seduced by the splendid presents and pro

XIII. In the year 1438, Eugenius in person opened the council, which he had summoned to meet at Ferrara, and at the second session thundered out an excommunication against the fathers assembled at Basil. The principal business that was now to be transacted, was the proposed reconciliation between the Greek and Latin churches; and, in order to bring this salutary and important design to a happy issue, the emperor John Palæologus, the Grecian patriarch Josephus, with the most eminent bishops and doctors among the Greeks, arrived in Italy, and appeared at Ferrara. The ex-mises of the Latin pontiff, employed the whole tremity to which the Greeks were reduced by extent of his authority, and the power of his elothe Turks, and the pleasing hope, that their quence, and even had recourse to promises and reconciliation with the Roman pontiff would threats, to persuade the Greeks to accept the contribute to engage the Latins in their cause, conditions of peace that were proposed by Eugeseem to have animated, in a particular manner, nius. These conditions required their consent to their zeal in this negotiation. Be that as it the following points:-"That the Holy Spirit may, there was little done at Ferrara, where proceeded from the Son, as well as from the Fa matters were carried on too slowly, to afford ther; that departed souls were purified in the any prospect of an end of their dissensions: but infernal regions, by a certain kind of fire, bethe negotiations were more successful at Flo- fore their admission to the presence and vision rence, whither Eugenius removed the council of the Deity; that unleavened bread might be about the beginning of the year 1439, on ac- used in the administration of the Lord's supcount of the plague that broke out at Ferrara. per;"-and lastly, which was the principal On the other hand, the council of Basil, exas- thing insisted upon by the Latins, that 'the perated by the imperious proceedings of Euge- Roman pontiff was the supreme judge, the nius, deposed him from the papacy on the 25th true head of the universal church.' Such of June, 1439; which vigorous measure was were the terms of peace to which all the not approved by the European kings and Greeks were obliged to accede, except Mark princes. It may be easily conceived what an of Ephesus, whom neither entreaties nor reimpression this step made upon the affronted wards could move from his purpose, or engage pontiff; he lost all patience; and devoted, for to submit to a reconciliation founded upon such the second time, to hell and damnation, the conditions. And indeed this reconciliation, members of the obnoxious council by a solemn which had been brought about by various and most severe edict, in which also he de-stratagems, was much more specious than clared all their acts null, and all their proceed-solid, and had by no means stability sufficient ings unlawful. This new peal of papal thun- to insure its duration. We find, accordingly, der was held in derision by the council of Ba- that the Grecian deputies had no sooner resil, whose members, persisting in their purpose, turned to Constantinople, than they declared elected another pontiff, and raised to that high publicly, that all things had been carried on VOL. I.-53

at Florence by artifice and fraud, and renewed || preyed upon his spirits, and hastened his death, the schisin, which had been so imperfectly which happened on the 24th of March, 1455. healed. The council put an end to its delibe- XVI. His successor Alphonso Borgia, who rations on the 26th of April, 1442,* without was a native of Spain, and is known in the having executed any of the designs that were papal list by the denomination of Calixtus III. proposed by it, in a satisfactory manner; for, was remarkable for nothing but his zeal in ani beside the affair of the Greeks, they proposed mating the Christian princes to make war upon bringing the Armenians, Jacobites, and more the Turks; his reign also was short, for he died particularly the Abyssinians, into the bosom in 1458. Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini, whe of the Romish church; but this project was at- succeeded him in the pontificate in that same tended with as little success as the other. year, under the title of Pius II., rendered his name much more illustrious, not only by his extensive genius, and the important transac tions that were carried on during his adminis tration, but also by the various and useful pro ductions with which he enriched the republic of letters. The lustre of his fame was, indeed, tarnished by a scandalous proof which he gave of his fickleness and inconstancy, or rather perhaps of his bad faith; for, after having vi gorously defended, against the pontiffs, the dignity and prerogatives of general councils, and maintained, with peculiar boldness and obstinacy, the cause of the council of Basil against Eugenius IV., he ignominiously re

XV. Eugenius IV., who had been the occasion of the new schism in the see of Rome, died in February, 1447, and was succeeded, in a few weeks, by Thomas de Sarzano, bishop of Bologna, who filled the pontificate under the denomination of Nicolas V. This eminent prelate had, in point of merit, the best pretensions possible to the papal throne. He was distinguished by his erudition and genius; he was a zealous patron and protector of learned men; and, what was still more laudable, he was remarkable for his moderation, and for the meek and pacific spirit that discovered itself in all his conduct and actions. Under this pontificate, the European princes, and more es-nounced these principles upon his accession to pecially the king of France, exerted their warmest endeavours to restore tranquillity and nion to the Latin church; and their efforts were crowned with the desired success. For, in 1449, Felix V., resigned the papal chair, and returned to his delightful hermitage at Ripaille, while the fathers of the Council of Basil, assembled at Lausanne, ratified his voluntary abdication, and, by a solemn decree, ordered the universal church to submit to the jurisdiction of Nicolas as their lawful pontiff. On the other hand, Nicolas proclaimed this treaty of peace with great pomp on the 18th of June, in the same year, and set the seal of his approbation and authority to the acts and decrees of the council. This pontiff distinguished himself in a very extraordinary manner, by his love of learning, and by his ardent zeal for the propagation of the liberal arts and sciences, which he promoted, with great success, by the encouragement he granted to the learned Greeks, who emigrated from Constantinople into Italy. The principal occasion of his death was the fatal revolution that threw this capital of the Grecian empire into the hands of the Turks; this melancholy event

* The history of this council, and of the frauds and stratagems that were practised in it, was composed by that learned Grecian, Sylvester Sgyropulus, whose work was published at the Hague, in 1660, with a Latin translation, a preliminary Discourse, and ample notes, by the learned Robert Creighton, a native of Great Britain. This history was refuted by Leo Allatius, in a work entitled, Exercitationes in Creightoni Apparatum, Versionem, et Notas ad Historiam Concilii Florentini scriptam a Sgyropulo, Romæ, 1674. See the same author's Perpetua Consensio Ecclesiæ Oriental. et Occident. p. 875, as also Mabillon, Museum Italicum, tom. i. p. 243.-Spanheim, de perpetua Dissensione Eccles. Orient. et Occident. tom. ii. op. p. 491.-Hermann, Historia concertat. de Pane azymo, part ii. c. v.

†This abdication was made on the 9th of April, 1449, and was ratified on the 10th.

See Dum. Georgii Vita Nicolai V. ad fidem veterum Monumentorum; to which is added a treatise, entitled Disquisitio de Nicolai V. erga Literas et Literatos Viros Patrocinio, published at Rome, in

742

the pontificate, and acted in direct opposition to them during the whole course of his administration. Thus, in 1460, he denied publicly that the pope was subordinate to a general council, and even prohibited all appeals to such a council under the severest penalties. In the following year he obtained from Louis XI., king of France, the abrogation of the Pragmatic Sanction, which favoured, in a particular manner, the pretensions of the general councils to supremacy in the church * But the most egre

There was a famous edict, entitled, The

Pragmatic Sanction, issued by Louis IX., who, though
he is honoured with a place in the Kalendar, was yet
a zealous assertor of the liberty and privileges of the
Gallican church, against the despotic encroachments
and pretensions of the Roman pontiffs. It was
against their tyrannical proceedings, and intolera-
ble extortions, that this edict was chiefly levelled;
and though some creatures of the court of Rome
have thrown out insinuations of its being a spurious

production, yet the contrary is evident from its hav
ing been registered, as the authentic edict of that pi
ous monarch, by the parliament of Paris, in 1461,
by the states of the kingdom assembled at Tours in
1483, and by the university of Paris, in 1491.-See,
for a farther account of this edict, the excellent His
tinued by M. Villaret,) vol. vi. p. 57.
tory of France, (begun by the Abbe Velly, and con

The edict which Dr. Mosheim has in view here, is the Pragmatic Sanction that was drawn up at Bourges, in 1438, by Charles VII. king of France, with the consent of the most eminent prelates and grandees of the nation, who were assembled at that place. This edict, (which was absolutely necessary in order to deliver the French clergy from the vexations they suffered from the encroachments of the popes, ever since the latter had fixed their residence at Avignon) consisted of twenty-three articles, in which, among other salutary regulations, the elections to vacant benefices were restored to their ancient purity and freedom,* the annates and other pecuniary preten.

That is to say, these elections were wrested out of the hands of the popes, who had usurped them, and, by the new edict, every church had the privilege of choosing its bishop, and every monastery its abbot or prior. By the Concordat, or agreement, between Francis I. and Leo X., (which was substituted in the place of the Pragmatic Sanction.) the nomination of the bishoprics in France, and the collation of certain benefices of the higher class were vested in the kings of France. An ample and satisfactory

gious instance of impudence and perfidy that || in a posture of defence, and warmly exhorted he exhibited to the world was in 1463, when the European princes to check the progress of he publicly retracted all that he had written in that warlike people; but many obstacles arose, favour of the council of Basil, and declared which rendered their exhortations ineffectual. without either shame or hesitation, that, as The other undertakings that were projected or Eneas Sylvius, he was a damnable heretic, but carried on, during their continuance at the that, as Pius II., he was an orthodox_pontiff. head of the church, are not of sufficient imThis indecorous declaration was the last cir-portance to require particular notice. cumstance, worthy of notice, that happened during his pontificate; for he died in July, 1.164.*

XVII. Paul II., a Venetian by birth, whose name was Peter Barbo, was raised to the head of the church in 1464, and died in 1471. His administration was distinguished by some measures, which, if we consider the genius of the times, were worthy of praise; though it must at the same time be confessed, that he did many things which were evidently inexcusable, || (not to mention his reducing the jubilee circle to twenty-five years, and thus accelerating the return of that most absurd and superstitious ceremony;) so that his reputation became at least dubious in aftertimes, and was viewed in different lights by different persons. The following popes, Sixtus IV., and Innocent VIII., whose names were Francis Albescola and John Baptist Cibo, were neither remarkable for their virtues nor their vices. The former died in 1484, and the latter in 1492. Filled with the most terrible apprehensions of the danger that threatened Europe in general, and Italy in particular, from the growing power of the Turks, both these pontiffs attempted to put themselves

sions and encroachments of the pontiffs abolished,
and the authority of a general council declared supe-
rior to that of the pope. This edict was drawn up
in concert with the fathers of the council of Basil,
and the articles were taken from the decrees of that
council, though they were admitted by the Gallican
church with certain modifications, which the nature
of the times and the manners of the nation rendered
expedient. Such then was the Pragmatic Sanction,
which Pius II. engaged Louis XI. (who received upon
that occasion, for himself and his successors, the ti-
tle of Most Christian) to abolish by a solemn decla-
ration the full execution of which was, however,
prevened by the noble stand made by the university
of Paris in favour of the edict. The king also, per-
ceiving that he had been deluded into this declara-
tion by the treacherous insinuations of Geoffry, bi-
shop of Arras, (whom the pope had bribed with a
cardinal's cap, and large promises of a more lucra-
tive kind,) took no sort of pains to have it executed,
but published, on the contrary, new edicts against the
pecuniary pretensions and extortions of the court
of Rome; so that in reality the Pragmatic Sanction
was not abolished before the adjustment of the Con-
cordat or agreement, which was transacted between
Francis I. and Leo X. in 1517, and was forced upon
the French nation in opposition to the united efforts
of the clergy, the university, the parliament, and the
people. See, for a farther account of this matter,
Du Clos. Histoire de Louis XI. vol. i. p. 115-132.
*Beside the writers of ecclesiastical history, see
Nouveau Diction. Histor. et Critique, tom. ii. at the
article Enee Sylvius.

† Paul II. has had the good fortune to find, in one of the most eminent and learned men of this age, (the famous cardinal Quirini,) a zealous apologist. See, among the productions of that illustrious prelate, the piece entitled, "Pauli II. Vita, ex Codice Anglica Bibliothecæ desumpta, præmissis ipsius Vindiciis adversus Platinam aliosque obtrectatores, Ro. mæ, 1740."

account of this convention may be seen in bishop Burnet's excellent History of the Reformation, vol. iii. and in a book entitled, Histoire du Droit public Ecclesiastique Francois, published in 1737.

XVIII. In the series of pontiffs that ruled the church during this century, the last, in order of time, was Alexander VI., a Spaniard by birth, whose name was Roderic Borgia. The life and actions of this man show, tha there was a Nero among the popes, as well as among the emperors. The crimes and enor mities, that history has imputed to this papal Nero, evidently prove him to have been not only destitute of all religious and virtuous principles, but even regardless of decency, and hardened against the very feeling of shame; and, though the malignity of his enemies may have forged false accusations against him, and, in some instances, exaggerated the horror of his real crimes, yet we have upon record an authentic list of undoubted facts, which, both by their number and their atrocity, are suffi cient to render the name and memory of Alex ander VI. odious and detestable, in the opinion even of such as have the smallest tincture of virtuous principles and feelings. An inordinate affection for his children was the principal source from which proceeded a great part of the crimes he committed. He had four sons by a concubine with whom he had lived many years; among whom was the infamous Cæsar Borgia. A daughter, named Lucretia, was likewise among the fruits of this unlawful commerce. The tenderness of the pontiff for his spurious offspring was excessive beyond all expression; his only aim was to load them with riches and honours; and, in the execution of this purpose, he trampled with contempt upon every obstacle, which the demands of justice, the dictates of reason, and the remonstrances of religion, threw in his way.* Thus he persisted in his profligate career until the year 1503, when the poison, which he and his son Cæsar had mingled for others who stood. in the way of their avarice and ambition, cut short, by a happy mistake, his own days.†

XIX. The monastic societies, as we learn from a multitude of authentic records, and from the testimonies of the best writers, were, at this time, so many herds of lazy, illiterate, profligate, and licentious Epicureans, whose views in life were confined to opulence, idleness, and pleasure. The rich monks, particularly those of the Benedictine and Augustine orders, perverted their revenues to the gratification of their lusts; and renouncing, in their conduct, all regard to their respective rules of discipline, drew upon themselves great

*The life of this execrable tyrant was written in

English by Mr. Alexander Gordon; but the same subject has been treated with greater moderation by the ingenious and learned author of the Histoire du Droit Publ. Eccles. Francois, to which work are subjoined the lives of Alexander VI. and Leo X.

† Such is the account which the best historians have given of the death of Alexander VI. Not. withstanding these authorities, Voltaire has pretended to prove that this potiff died a natural death.

[ocr errors]

popular odium by their sensuality and licen- || patronised them, others opposed them: and tiousness. This was matter of affliction to this circumstance frequently changed the as many wise and good men, especially in France pect of affairs, and, for a long time, rendered and Germany, who formed the pious design of the decision of the contest dubious.* The stemming the torrent of monkish luxury, and persecution that was carried on against the excited a spirit of reformation among that de- Beguins became also an occasion of increasing generate order. Among the German reform- the odium that had been cast upon the begging ers, who undertook the restoration of virtue monks, and was extremely prejudicial to their and temperance in the monasteries, Nicolas de interests. For the Beguins and Lollards, to Mazen, an Austrian abbot, and Nicolas Dun- escape the fury of their inverate enemies, the elspuhl, professor at Vienna, held the first bishops and others, frequently took refuge in rank. They attempted, with unparalleled zeal the third order of the Franciscans, Dominiand assiduity, the reformation of the Benedic- cans, and Augustinians, hoping that, in the tines throughout Germany, and succeeded so patronage and protection of these numerous far as to restore, at least, a certain air of de- and powerful societies, they night find a secency and virtue in the conventual establish- cure retreat from the calamities that oppressed. ments of Suabia, Franconia, and Bavaria.f them. Nor were their hopes entirely disapThe reformation of the same order was at- pointed; but the storm that hitherto pursued tempted in France by many, and particularly them, fell upon their new patrons and protec by Guy Juvenal, a learned man, whose wri- tors, the Mendicants; who, by affording a re tings, upon that and on other subjects, were fuge to a sect so odious to the clergy, drew received with applause. § It is, however, upon themselves the indignation of that sacred certain, that the majority of the monks, both order, and were thereby involved in various in France and elsewhere, resisted, with obsti- difficulties and perplexities.† nacy, the salutary attempts of these spiritual physicians, and returned their zeal with the worst treatment that it was possible to show them.

XX. While the opulent monks exhibited to the world scandalous examples of luxury, ignorance, indolence, and licentiousness, accompanied with a barbarous aversion to every thing that carried the remotest aspect of science, the Mendicants, and more especially the Dominicans and Franciscans, were chargeable with irregularities of another kind. Beside their arrogance, which was excessive, a quarrelsome and litigious spirit, an ambitious desire of encroachiing upon the rights and privileges of others, an insatiable zeal for the propagation of superstition, and the itch of disputing and of starting absurd and intricate questions of a religious kind, prevailed among them, and drew upon them justly the displeasure and indignation of many. It was this wrangling spirit that seriously protracted the controveries which had subsisted so long between them and the bishops, and, indeed, the whole sacerdotal order; and it was their vain curiosity, and their inordinate passion for novelty, that made the divines, in the greatest part of the European colleges, complain of the dangerous and destructive errors which they had introduced into religion. These complaints were repeated, without interruption, in all the provinces where the Mendicants had any credit; and the same complaints were often presented to the court of Rome, where they exercised sufficiently both the patience and subtlety of the pope and his ministers. The different pontiffs who ruled the church during this century, were differently affected toward the Mendicants;, some

*See Martin Senging, Tuitiones Ordinis S. Bene. dicti, seu Oratio in Concilio Basiliensi, an. 1433, contra vitia Benedict. recitata, in Bern. Pezii Bib. Ascetica, t. vili.

† See Leibnitii Præf. ad t. ii. Script. Bruns.

For an account of these reformers, see Martin Kropf. Bibliotheca Mellicensis, seu de Vitis et Scrip. Benedict, Mellicens. p. 143, 163, 203.

See Liron's Singularites Historiques et Literes, tom. iii. p. 49,

XXI. The more austere and rebellious Fran ciscans, who, separating themselves from the church, renounced their allegiance to the Roman pontiffs, and were distinguished by the appellation of Fratricelli or Minorites, continued, with their Tertiaries, the Beghards, to carry on an open war against the court of Rome. Their head-quarters were in Italy, in the marquisite of Ancona and the neighbouring countries; for it was there that their leader and chief ruler resided. They were persecuted, about the middle of this century, with the greatest severity, by pope Nicolas V., who employed every method he could devise to vanquish their obstinacy, sending for that purpose successively against them the Fanciscan monks, armed hosts, and civil magistrates, and committing to the flames many of those who remained unmoved by all these means of conversion. This heavy persecution was carried on by the succeeding pontiffs, and by none with greater bitterness and vehemence than by Paul II., though it is said, that this pope chose rather to conquer the headstrong and stubborn perseverance of this sect by imprisonment and exile, than by fire and sword.§ The Fratricelli, on the other hand, animated by the protection of several persons of great influence, who became their patrons on account of the striking appearance of sanctity which they exhibited, had recourse to violence, and went so far as to put to death some of the inquisitors, among whom Angelo of Camaldoli fell a victim to their vengeance.jj

* See Launoy, Lib. de Canone Utriusque Sexus. op. tom. i. part i.-Boulay, tom. v.-Ant. Wood, tom. i.

See the history of the preceding century. Mauritius Sartius, de Antiqua Picentum civi tate Cupromontana, in Angeli Calogera Raccolta di Opusculi Scientifici, tom. xxxix. where we have several extracts from the manuscript dialogue of Jacobus de Marchia against the Fratricelli.

Ang, Mar. Quirini Vita Pauli II. p. 78.-Jo. Targionius, Præf. ad claror. Venetor. Epistolas ad Mag. liabechium, tom. i. p. 43, where we have an account of the books that were written against the Fratricelli by Nicolas Palmerius and others under the pon tificate of Paul II. and which are yet in manuscrip See the Acta Sanctor. tom. ii. Maii, p. 356.

Nor were the commotions raised by this trou- || that were not consecrated to prayer and readblesome sect confined to Italy; other countries ing, in the education of young females, and in felt the effects of their petulant zeal; and Bohe- branches of industry suitable to their sex. The mia and Silesia (where they preached with schools, that were erected by the clerks of this warmth their favourite doctrine, "that the fraternity, acquired a great and illustrious true imitation of Christ consisted in beggary reputation in this century. From them issued ⚫ and extreme poverty") became the theatres of those immortal restorers of learning and taste the spiritual war.* .* The king of Bohemia was which gave a new face to the republic of letwell affected to these fanatics, granted them ters in Germany and Holland, such as Eras nis protection, and was on that account ex- mus of Rotterdam, Alexander Hegius, John communicated by Paul II.† In France, their || Murmelius, and several others.* But the inaffairs were far from being prosperous; such of stitution of the order of Jesuits seemed to dithem as fell into the hands of the inquisitors, minish the credit of these excellent schools, were committed to the flames, and they were which, from that period, began to decline. It eagerly searched after in the province of Tou- ought to be added, that the Brethren of the louse and the adjacent countries, where great common life, however encouraged by the pubnumbers of them lay concealed, and endea- lic, were exposed to the insults and opposition voured to escape the vigilance of their enemies; of the clergy and monks, who had a strong while several of their scattered parties removed aversion to every thing that bore the remotest to England and Ireland.§ Even the dreadful aspect of learning or taste.† series of calamities and persecutions that harassed this miserable sect did not entirely extinguish it; for it subsisted to the time of the reformation in Germany, when its remaining votaries adopted the cause, and embraced the doctrines and discipline of Luther.

XXII. Of the religious fraternities that were founded in this century, not one deserves a more honourable mention than the Brethren and Clerks of the common life, (as they called themselves,) who lived under the rule of St. Augustine, and were eminently useful in promoting the cause of religion, learning, and virtue. This society had been formed in the preceding age by Gerard Groote, a native of Deventer,|| remarkable for his fervent piety and extensive erudition; it was not, however, before the present century, that it received a proper degree of consistence, and, having obtained the approbation of the council of Constance, flourished in Holland, the Lower Germany, and the adjacent provinces. It was divided into two classes, the Lettered Brethren or Clerks, and the Illiterate, who, though they occupied separate habitations, lived in the firmest bonds of fraternal union. The Clerks applied theinselves with exemplary zeal and assiduity to the study of polite literature, and to the education of youth. They composed learned works for the instruction of their contemporaries, and erected schools and seminaries of learning wherever they went. The Illiterate Brethren, on the other hand, were employed in manual labour, and exercised with success the mechanic arts. No religious vows restrained the members of either class; yet they had all things in common, and this community was the great bond of their union. The Sisters of this virtuous society lived much in the same manner, and employed the hours, * Jo. Georgii Schelhornii Acta Historica Eccles. nart i.

† Quirini Vita Pauli I p. 73.

I have in manuscript the acts or decrees of the nquisition against John Gudulchi de Castellione and Francis d'Archata, both of them Fratricelli, who were burned in France, in 1454.

Wood's Antiq. Oxoniens. tom. i. p. 232.

The life of this famous Dutchman, Gerard Groote, was written by Thomas a Kempis, and is to be found in his works. It stands at the head of the lives of eleven of his contemporaries, composed by this emient writer.

XXIII. Of the Greeks, who acquired fame by their learned productions, the most eminent were,

Simeon of Thessalonica, the author of seve ral treatises, and, among others, of a book against the heresies that had troubled the church; to which we may add his writings against the Latins, which are yet extant;‡

Josephus Bryennius, who wrote a book concerning the Trinity, and another against the Latins;

Macarius Macres, whose animosity against the Latins was carried to the greatest height; George Phranza, whose historical. talent makes a figure in the compilation of the Byzantine historians;

Marcus Ephesius, who was an obstinate enemy to the council of Florence;§

Cardinal Bessarion, the illustrious protector and supporter of the Platonic school, a man of unparalleled genius and erudition; but much hated by the Greeks, because he seemed to lean to the party of the Latins, and proposed an union of the two nations to the prejudice of the former;||

George Scholarius, otherwise called Genna dius, who wrote against the Latins, especially

* Accounts of this order have been given by Aub Miræus, in his Chronicon, ad an. 1384, and by Helyot in his Histoire des Ordres, tom. iii. But, in tha which I have here given, there are some circumstan ces taken from ancient records not yet published. 4 have in my possession several manuscripts, which furnish materials for a much more clear and circum stantial account of the institution and progress of this order, than can be derived from the books that have hitherto appeared on that subject.

† We read frequently, in the records of this cen tury, of schools erected by the Lollards, and some times by the Beghards, at Deventer, Brunswick Koningsberg, and Munster, and many other places Now these Lollards were the clerks of the common life, who, on account of their virtue, industry, and learning, which rendered them very useful in the education of youth, were invited by the magistrates of several cities to reside among them.

Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. vol. xiv. p. 49.Rich. Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque Eccles. pas M. Du-Pin, tom. i. p. 400.

Rich. Simon, tom. i. p. 431.

For an account of Bessarion and the other learned men here mentioned, see Bornerus and Hody in their histories of the restoration of letters in Italy. by the Greeks who took refuge there, after the taking of Constantinople; add to these the Bibliothee Græca of Fabricius

« הקודםהמשך »