XVI. SECT. III. PART I. of the gradual decline of that ignorance and superstition CENT. that prescribed a blind obedience to the pontiff, and the new degrees of power and authority that monarchs and other civil rulers have gained by the revolutions that have shaken the papal throne. XIV. That part of the body of the clergy, that The state is more peculiarly devoted to the Roman pontiffs, clergy. seemed to have undergone no visible change during this century. As to the bishops, it is certain that they made several zealous attempts, and some even in the council of Trent, for the recovery of the ancient rights and privileges, of which they had been forcibly deprived by the popes. They were even persuaded that the pope might be lawfully obliged to acknowledge, that the episcopal dignity was of divine original, and that the bishops received their authority immediately from Christ himself [h]. But all these attempts were successfully opposed by the artifice and dexterity of the court of Rome, which never cease to propagate and enforce this despotic maxim : 66 That the bishops are no more than the legates "or ministers of Christ's vicar; and that the authority they exercise is entirely derived from "the munificence and favour of the apostolic see," a maxim, however, that several bishops, and more especially those of France, treat with little respect. Some advantages, however, and those not inconsiderable, were obtained for the clergy at the expence of the pontiffs; for those reservations, provisions, exemptions, and expectatives (as they are termed by the Roman lawyers), which before the Reformation had excited such heavy and bitter complaints throughout all Europe, and exhibited the clearest proofs of papal avarice and tyranny, were now almost totally suppressed. 0 2 XV. Among [] See Paolo Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent. CENT. PART I. of the clergy. XV. Among the subjects of deliberation in the XVI. council of Trent, the reformation of the lives and SECT. III. manners of the clergy, and the suppression of the scandalous vices that had too long reigned in The lives that order, were not forgot; nay, several wise and morals and prudent laws were enacted with a view to that important object. But those who had the cause of virtue at heart, complained (and the reason of these complaints still subsists) that these laws were no more than feeble precepts, without any avenging arm to maintain their authority; and that they were transgressed, with impunity, by the clergy of all ranks, and particularly by those who filled the highest stations and dignities of the church. In reality, if we cast our eyes upon the Romish clergy, even in the present time, these complaints will appear as well founded now, as they were in the sixteenth century. In Germany, as is notorious to daily observation, the bishops, if we except their habit, their title, and a few ceremonies that distinguish them, have nothing in their manner of living that is, in the least, adapted to point out the nature of their sacred office. In other countries, a great part of the episcopal order, unmolested by the remonstrances or reproofs of the Roman pontiff, pass their days amidst the pleasures and cabals of courts, and appear rather the slaves of temporal princes, than the servants of Him whose kingdom is not of this world. They court glory; they aspire after riches, while very few employ their time and labours in edifying their people, or in promoting among them the vital spirit of practical religion and substantial virtue. Nay, what is still more deplorable, those bishops, who, sensible of the sanctity of their character and the duties of their office, distinguish themselves by their zeal in the cause of virtue and good morals, are frequently exposed to the malicious efforts of envy, often loaded XVI. SECT. III. PART I. loaded with false accusations, and involved in per- CENT. plexities of various kinds. It may, indeed, be partly owing to the examples they have received, and still too often receive, from the heads of the church, that so many of the bishops live dissolved in the arms of luxury, or toiling in the service of ambition. Many of them, perhaps, would have been more attentive to their vocation, and more exemplary in their manners, had they not been corrupted by the models exhibited to them by the bishops of Rome, and had constantly before their eyes a splendid succession of popes and cardinals, remarkable only for their luxury and avarice, their arrogance and vindictive spirit, their voluptuous ness and vanity. That part of the clergy that go under the denomination of canons, continue almost every where, their ancient course of life, and consume, in a manner far remote from piety and virtue, the treasures which the religious zeal, and liberality of their ancestors, had consecrated to the uses of the church and the relief of the poor. It must not, however, be imagined, that all the other orders of the clergy are at liberty to follow such corrupt models, or, indeed, that their inclinations and reigning habits tend towards such a loose and voluptuous manner of living. For it is certain, that the Reformation had a manifest influence even upon the Roman Catholic clergy, by rendering them, at least, more circumspect and cautious in their external conduct, that they might be thus less obnoxious to the censures of their adversaries; and it is accordingly well known, that since that period the clergy of the inferior orders have been more attentive to the rules of outward decency, and have given less offence by open and scandalous vices and excesses, than they had formerly done. XVI. The 0 3 CENT. PART I. The an cient orders XVI. The same observation holds good with XVI. respect to the Monastic orders. There are, inSECT. III. deed, several things, worthy of the severest animadversion, chargeable upon many of the heads Monks and rulers of these societies; nor are these societies themselves entirely exempt from that laziness, reformed. intemperance, ignorance, artifice, discord, and voluptuousness, that were formerly the common and reigning vices in the Monastic retreats. It would be nevertheless an instance of great partiality and injustice to deny, that in many countries the manner of living among these religious orders, has been considerably reformed, severe rules employed to restrain licentiousness, and much pains taken to conceal, at least, any vestiges of ancient corruption and irregularity that may yet remain. In some places, the austerity of the ancient rules of discipline, which had been so shamefully relaxed, was restored by several zealous patrons of Monastic devotion; while others, animated with the same zeal, instituted new communities, in order to promote, as they piously imagined, a spirit of religion, and thus to contribute to the well-being of the church. Of this latter number was Matthew de Bassi, a native of Italy, the extent of whose capacity was much inferior to the goodness of his intentions, and who was a Franciscan of the more rigid class [i], who were zealous in observing rigorously the primitive rules of their institution. This honest enthusiast seriously persuaded himself, that he [i] The dispute that arose among the Franciscans by Innocent IV.'s relaxing so far their institute as to allow of property and possessions in their community, produced a division of the order into two classes, of which the most considerable who adopted the papal relaxation, were denominated Conventuals, and the other who rejected it, Brethren of the Observance. The latter professed to observe and follow rigorously the primitive laws and institute of their founder. XVI. SECT. IIL he was divinely inspired with the zeal that im- CENT. pelled him to restore the original and genuine rules of the Franciscan order to their primitive PART I austerity; and, looking upon this violent and irresistible impulse as a celestial commission, attended with sufficient authority, he set himself to this work of Monastic reformation with the most devout assiduity and ardour [k]. His enterprize was honoured in the year 1525, with the solemn approbation of Clement VII. and this was the origin of the order of Capuchins. The vows of this order implied the greatest contempt of the world and its enjoyments, and the most profound humility, accompanied with the most austere and sullen gravity of external aspect [1]; and its reputation and success excited, in the other Franciscans, the most bitter feelings of indignation and envy [m]. The Capuchins were so called from the sharp-pointed Capuche, or Cowl [n], which they added to the ordinary Franciscan habit, and which 04 [k] The Brethren of the Observance, mentioned in the preceding note, had degenerated, in process of time, from their primitive self-denial; and hence the reforming spirit that animated Bassi. [1] See Luc. Waddingi Annales Ordinis Minorum, tom. xvi. p. 207. 257. edit. Roman.-Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, tom. vii. ch. xxiv. p. 264.-And, above all, Zach. Boverii Annales Capuchinorum. [m] One of the circumstances that exasperated most the Franciscans, was the innovation made in their habit by the Capuchins. Whatever was the cause of their choler, true it is, that their provincial persecuted the new monks, and obliged them to fly from place to place, until they at last took refuge in the palace of the Duke of Camerino, by whose credit they were received under the obedience of the Conventuals, in the quality of hermits minors, in the year 1527. The next year the pope approved this union, and confirmed to them the privilege of wearing the square capuche; and thus the order was established in 1528. [n] I know not on what authority the learned Michael Geddes attributes the erection and denomination of this order to one Francis Puchine. |