XVI

SECT.

after new accessions of wealth, in order to aug-CENT ment the number of their friends and the stability ser. I. of their dominion. And indeed, according to the notions commonly entertained, the rulers of the church seemed to have a fair enough pretext, from the nature of their character, to demand a sort of tribute from their flock; for none can deny to the supreme governors of any state (and such was the character assumed by the popes) the privilege of levying tr.bute from those over whom they bear rule. But as the name of tribute was every way proper to alarm the jealousy and excite the indignation of the civil magistrate, the pontifs were too cunning to employ it, and had recourse to various stratagems and contrivances to rob the subject without shocking the sovereign, and to levy taxes under the specious mask and pretext of religion. Among these contrivances, the distribution of indulgences, which enabled the wealthy to purchase impunity for their crimes by certain sums applied to religious uses, held an eminent rank. This traffic of indulgences was constantly renewed whenever the coffers of the church were exhausted. On these occasions, they were recommended warmly to the ignorant multitude under some new, specious, yet fallacious pretext, and were greedily sought after, to the great detriment both of individuals and of the community.

held infe

cil.

IX. Notwithstanding the veneration and hom- The pope's age that were almost every where paid to the Ro-authority man pontifs, they were far from being universally rior to that reputed infallible in their decisions, or unlimited of a counin their authority. The wiser part of the German, French, Flemish, and British nations, considered them as liable to error, and bounded by law. The councils of Constance and Basil had contributed extremely to rectify the notions of the people in that respect; and from that period all

Christians,

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CENT. Christians, except the superstitious monks and SECT. I. parasites of Rome, were persuaded that the pope was subordinate to a general council, that his decrees were not infallible, and that the council had a right to depose him, whenever he was convicted of gross errors or enormous crimes. Thus were the people, in some measure, prepared for the reformation of the church; and hence that ardent desire, that earnest expectation of a general council, which filled the minds of the wisest and best Christians in this century. Hence also those frequent appeals that were made to this approaching council, when the court of Rome issued out any new edict, or made any new attempt repugnant to the dictates of piety and justice.

The cor

the lower

orders of

X. The licentious examples of the pontifs were ruption of zealously imitated in the lives and manners of the subordinate rulers and ministers of the church, the clergy. The greatest part of the bishops and canons passed their days in dissolute mirth and luxury, and squandered away, in the gratification of their lusts and passions, the wealth that had been set apart for religious and charitable purposes. Nor were they less tyrannical than voluptuous: for the most despotic princes never treated their vassals with more rigour and severity, than these ghostly rulers employed towards all such as were under their jurisdiction. The decline of virtue among the clergy was attended with the loss of the public esteem; and the most considerable part of that once-respected body became, by their sloth and avarice, their voluptuousness and impurity, their ignorance and levity, contemptible and infamous, not only in the eye of the wise and good, but also in the universal judgment of the multitude [i]. Nor

[] See CORNELII AURELII GAUDANI Apocalypsis, seu Visio Mirabilis super miserabili Statu Matris Ecclesia, in CASPAR BURMANNI Analect. Hist. de Hadriano VI. p. 245. printed in 4to at Utrecht, in 1727.

XVI.

Nor could the case be otherwise as matters were C E N T. now constituted; for, as all the offices and digni- SCT. I. ties of the church were become venal every where, the way of preferment was inaccessible to merit, and the wicked and licentious were rendered capable of rising to the highest ecclesiastical honours.

tic orders,

XI. The prodigious swarms of monks that over- The state of spread Europe were universally considered as cum- the monasberers of the ground, and occasioned murmurs and complaints every where. And, nevertheless, such was the genius of the age, of an age that was but just emerging from the thickest gloom of ignorance, and was suspended, as it were, in a dubious situation between darkness and light, that these monastic drones would have remained undisturbed, had they taken the least pains to preserve any remains even of the external air of decency and religion, that used to distinguish them in former times. But the Benedictine and the other monkish fraternities, who were invested with the privilege of possessing certain lands and revenues, broke through all restraint, made the worst possible use of their opulence, and, forgetful of the gravity of their character and of the laws of their order, rushed headlong into the shameless practice of vice in all its various kinds and degrees. On the other hand, the Mendicant orders, and especially those who followed the rule of St DOMINICK and St FRANCIS, though they were not carried away with the torrent of licentiousness that was overwhelming the church, yet they lost their credit in a different way; for their rustic impudence, their ridiculous superstitions, their ignorance, cruelty, and brutish manners, alienated from them the minds of the people, and diminished their reputation from day to day. They had the most barbarous aversion to the arts and sciences, and expressed a like abhorrence of certain eminent and learned men, who endeaVOL. IV. voured

C

CENT.voured to open the paths of science to the pursuits SCT. 1. Of the studious youth, recommended the culture of

XVI.

The Dominicans.

the mind, and attacked the barbarism of the age in their writings and in their discourse. This is sufficiently evident from what happened to REUCLINUS, ERASMUS, and other learned men.

XII. Among all the monastic orders, none enjoyed a higher degree of power and authority than the Dominican friars, whose credit was great, and their influence universal. This will not appear at all surprising, when we consider that they filled very eminent stations in the church, presided every where over the terrible tribunal of the inquisition, and had the care of souls, with the function of confessors, in all the courts of Europe; a circumstance this, which, in these times of ignorance and superstition, manifestly tended to put the most of the European princes in their power. But, notwithstanding all this credit and authority, the Dominicans had their enemies; and about this time their influence began to decline. Nay, several marks of perfidy, that appeared in the measures they employed to extend their authority, exposed them justly to the public indignation. Nothing more infamous than the frauds they practised to accomplish their purposes, as may be seen, among other examples, by the tragedy they acted at Bern, in the year 1509 [k]. They were perpetually

[] This most impious fraud is recorded at length by Ruchat, at the end of the sixth volume of his Histoire de la R. for matione en Suisse; and also by Hottinger, in his Histor. Eccles. Helvet. tom. i. p. 334. There is also a compendious, but distinct, narration of this infernal stratagem, in Bishop Burnet's Travels through France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, p. 31. The stratagem in question was the consequence of a rivalship between the Franciscans and Dominicans, and more especially of their controversy concerning the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The former maintained, that she was born without the blemish of original sin; the latter asserted the contrary. The doctrine of the Franciscans, in an

age

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perpetually employed in stigmatising, with the CENT. opprobrious mark of Heresy, numbers of learned SECT. I.

and

age of darkness and superstition, could not but be popular; and hence the Dominicans lost ground from day to day. To support the credit of their order, they resolved, at a chapter held at Vimpsen in the year 1504, to have recourse to fictitious visions and dreams, in which the people at that time had an easy faith; and they determined to make Bern the scene of their operations. A person named Jetzer, who was extremely simple, and much inclined to austerities, and who had taken their habit, as a lay-brother, was chosen as the instrument of the delusions they were contriving. One of the four Dominicans, who had undertaken the management of this plot, conveyed himself secretly into Jetzer's cell, aud about midnight appeared to him in a horrid figure, surrounded with howling dogs, and seeming to blow fire from his nostrils, by the means of a box of combustibles which he held near his mouth. In this frightful form he approached Jetzer's bed, told him that he was the ghost of a Dominicar, who had been killed at Paris, as a judgment of Heaven for laying aside his monastic habit; that he was condemned to purgatory for this crime; adding, at the same time, that, by his means, he might be rescued from his misery, which was beyond expression. This story, accompanied with horrible cries and howlings, frighted poor Jetzer out of the little wits he had, and engaged him to promise to do all that was in his power to deliver the Dominican from his torment. Upon this the impostor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary mortifications, such as the Discipline of the Whip performed during eight days by the whole monastery, and Jetzer's lying prostrate in the form of one crucified in the chapel during mass, could contribute to his deliverance. He added, that the performance of these mortifications would draw down upen Jetzer the peculiar protection of the Blessed Virgin; and concluded by saying, that he would appear to him again, accompanied with two other spirits. Morning was no sooner come, than Jetzer gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who all unanimously advised him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined him; and every one consented to bear his share of the task imposed. The deluded simpleton obeyed, and was admired as a saint by the multitudes that crowded about the convent, while the four friars that managed the imposture magnified, in the most pompous manner, the miracle of this apparition, in their sermons and in their discourse. The night after, the apparition was renewed with the addition of two impostors, dressed like devils, and Jetzer's faith was augmented by hearing from the spectre Ca