CENT. XVI. love of truth and of sacred liberty. It is also certain that many of these great men, such as Erasmus and others, pointed the delicacy of their wit, or leveled the fury of their indignation, at the superstitions of the times, the corruptions of the priesthood, the abuses that reigned in the court of Rome, and the brutish manners of the monastic orders. But this was not sufficient, since none had the courage to strike at the root of the evil, to attack the papal jurisdiction and statutes, which were absurdly, yet artfully, sanctified by the title of canon-law, or to call in question the ancient and most pernicious opinion, that Christ had established a vicegerent at Rome, clothed with his supreme and unlimited authority. Entrenched within these strong holds, the pontiffs looked upon their own authority and the peace of the church as beyond the reach of danger, and treated with indifference the threats and invectives of their enemies. Armed with power to punish, and abundantly furnished with the means of rewarding in the most alluring manner, they were ready, on every commotion, to crush the obstinate, and to gain over the mercenary to their cause; and this indeed could not but contribute considerably to the stability of their dominion.

The popes

VI.

Pius III.

IV. Hence it was, that the bishops of Rome lived Alexander in the utmost security and ease, and, being free from apprehensions and cares of every kind, followed without reluctance, and gratified without any limi tation or restraint, the various demands of their lusts and passions. Alexander VI., whom humanity disowns, and who is rather to be considered as a monster than as a man, whose deeds excite horror, and whose enormities place him on a level with the most execrable tyrants of ancient times, stained the commencement of this century by the most atrocious crimes. The world was delivered from this papal fiend in the year 1503, by the poisonous draught which he had prepared for others, as is generally believed, though there are historians

who attribute his death to sickness and old age. CENT. XVI. He was succeeded in the pontificate by Pius III., who, in less than a month, was deprived by death of that high dignity. The vacant chair was obtained by fraud and bribery by Julian de la Rovere, who assumed the denomination of Julius II.

V. To the odious list of vices with which Julius II. Julius II. dishonored the pontificate, we may add the most savage ferocity, the most audacious arrogance, the most despotic vehemence of temper, and the mots extravagant and phrenetic passion for war and bloodshed. He began his military enterprises by entering into a war with the Venetians, after having strengthened his cause by an alliance with the emperor and the king of Franced. He afterwards laid siege to Ferrara, and at length turned his artns against his former ally, the French monarch, in conjunction with the Venetians, Spaniards, and Swiss, whom he had drawn into this war, and engaged in his cause by an offensive league. His whole pontificate, in short, was one continued scene of military tumult; nor did he suffer Europe to enjoy a moment's tranquillity as long as he lived. We may easily imagine the miserable condition of the church under a vicar of Christ, who lived in camps, amidst the din of arms, and who was ambitious of no other fame than that which arose from battles won and cities desolated. Under such a pontiff all things must have gone to ruin; the laws must have been subverted, the discipline of the church destroyed, and the genuine lustre of true religion entirely effaced.

VI. Nevertheless, from this dreadful cloud that The council hung over Europe, some rays of light seemed to of Pisa. break forth, that promised a better state of things, and gave some reason to expect that reformation in the church which was so generally and so ardently

See cent. xv. part ii. chap. ii. sect. xviii. note 4. d See Du Bos, Histoire de la Ligue de Cambray.

CENT. XVI. desired. Louis XII., king of France, provoked by the insults he had received from this arrogant pontiff, meditated revenge, and even caused a medal to be stricken with a menacing inscription, expressing his resolution to overturn the power of Rome, which was represented on this coin by the title of Babylon *. Several cardinals also, encouraged by the protection of this monarch and the emperor Maximilian I., assembled, in 1511, a council at Pisa, with an intention to set bounds to the tyranny of this furious pontiff, and to correct and reform the errors and corruptions of a superstitious church. Julius, on the other hand, relying on his own strength, and on the power of his allies, beheld these threatening appearances without the least concern, and even treated them with mockery and laughter. He did not, however, neglect the methods of rendering ineffectual the efforts of his enemies, that prudence dictated, and therefore gave orders for a council to meet in the Lateran palace in 1512f, in which the decrees of the council of Pisa were condemned and annulled in the most injurious and insulting terms. This condemnation would, undoubtedly, have been followed by the most dire and formidable anathemas against Louis and other princes, had not death carried off this audacious pontiff in 1512, in the midst of his ambitious and vindictive projects.

Leo X.

VII. He was succeeded, in 1513, by Leo X., of the family of Medicis, who, though of a milder dis position than his predecessor, was equally indifferent about the interests of religion and the advancement of true piety. He was a protector of men of learning, and was himself learned, as far as the darkness of the

6

• See B. Christ. Sigismund. Liebii Commentatio de Nummis Ludovici XII. Epigraphe, Perdam Babylonis nomen,' insignibus, Leipsic, 1717.-See also Thesaurus Epistolicus Crozianus, tom. i.-Colonia, Histoire Liter. de la Ville de Lyon, tom. ii.→ The authenticity and occasion of this medal have been much disputed, and, as is well known, have afforded matter of keen debate.

f Harduini Concilia, tom. ix. p. 1559.

age would admit. His time was divided between CENT. XVI. conversation with men of letters and pleasure, though it must be observed, that the greatest part of it was consecrated to the latter. He had an invincible aversion to whatever was accompanied with solicitude and care, and discovered the greatest impatience under events of that nature. He was remarkable for his prodigality, luxury, and imprudence, and has even been charged with impiety, if not atheism. He did not, however, lose sight of the grand object which the generality of his predecessors had so much at heart, that of promoting and advancing the opulence and grandeur of the Roman see; for he took the utmost care that nothing should be transacted in the Lateran council, (which Julius had assembled and left sitting,) that had the least tendency to favor the reformation of the church; and, in a conference which he had with Francis I., king of France, at Bologna, he engaged that monarch to abrogate the Pragmatic Sanction 5, which had been so long odious to the popes, and to substitute in its place another body of laws, more advantageous to the papacy; which he accordingly imposed upon his subjects under the title of the Concordat, but not without their utmost indignation and reluctance".

We have mentioned this Pragmatic Sanction, cent. xv. part ii. chap. ii. sect. xvi. note ", and given there some account of its nature and design. This important edict is published at large in the eighth volume of the Concilia Harduini, as is the Concordat in the ninth volume, and in Leibnitz' Mantissa Codicis Diplomat. part i. ii. The history of these two pieces is given in an ample and accurate manner by bishop Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, vol. iii.-See also, on the same subject, Boulay's Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. vi.-Du Clos, Histoire de Louis XI.-Histoire du Droit Ecclesiastique François, tom. i. diss. ix.-Menagiana, tom. iii.

∞ The king went in person to the parliament to offer the Concordat to be registered; and letters patent were made out, requiring all the judges and courts of justice to observe this act, and see it executed. The parliament, after deliberating a month upon this important matter, concluded not to register the Concordat, but to observe still the Pragmatic Sanction, unless the new edict should be received and established in as great an

CENT. XVI, VIII. The raging thirst of dominion that inflamed The avarice these pontiffs, and their arrogant endeavours to crush of the popes. and oppress all who came within the reach of their

power, were accompanied with the most insatiable avarice. All the provinces of Europe were, in a manner, drained to enrich these spiritual tyrants, who were perpetually gaping after new accessions of assembly as that was, which published the other in the reign of Charles VII.; and when by violence and force they were obliged to publish the Concordat, they joined to this publication a solemn protest, and an appeal from the pope to the next general council; into both which measures the university aud the clergy entered with the greatest alacrity and zeal. But royal and papal despotism at length prevailed.

The chancellor Du-Prat, who was principally concerned in promoting the Concordat, has been generally regarded as an enemy to the liberties of the Gallican church. The illustrious and learned president Henault has not, however, hesitated to defend his memory against this accusation, and to justify the Concordat as an equitable contract, and as a measure attended with less inconvenience than the Pragmatic Sanction, He observes, that by the king's being invested, by the Concordat, with the privilege of nominating to the bishoprics and vacant benefices of the first class, many corruptions and abuses were prevented, which arose from the simoniacal practices that prevailed almost every where, while, according to the Pragmatic Sanction, every church chose its bishop, and every monastery its abbot. He observes, moreover, that this nomination was the natural right of the crown, as the most considerable part of the great benefices had been created by the kings of France; and he insists particularly on this consideration, that the right which Christian communities have to choose their leaders, cannot be exercised by such large bodies without much confusion and many inconveniences; and that the subjects, by entrusting their sovereign with the government of the state, invest him, ipso facto, with an authority over the church which is a part of the state, and its noblest branch. See Henault's Abregé Chronologique de l'Histoire de France, in the particular remarks that are placed at the end of the reign of Louis XIV.

The most specious objection that was made to the Concordat was this; that, in return for the nomination to the vacant bene, fices, the king granted to the popes the annates, or first-fruits, which had so long been complained of as an intolerable grievance. There is, however, no mention of this equivalent in the Con cordat; and it was by a papal bull that succeeded this compact, that the pontiffs claimed the payment of the first-fruits, of which they had put themselves in possession in 1316, and which had been suspended by the Pragmatic Sanction.