and desolation of the Church to the frightful ungodliness of its pastors. The earliest ministers of the Gospel were devout, humble, charitable, liberal, disinterested, and they despised the good things of this world. But as riches increased, piety diminished; luxury, ambition, and insolence took the place of religion, humility, and charity: poverty became a disgrace, and economy a vice; avarice came to the aid and support of ambition; and the property of ecclesiastics being no longer sufficient for their desires, it grew into practice to seize that of others, to pillage, assault, and oppress the inferiors, and to plunder every one under every pretext.' Such being the substance of his general* censures, he did not hesitate more particularly to ascribe the first rank in vice and scandal to the Popes, When they saw, that the revenues of Rome and the patrimony of St. Peter were inadequate to their designs of aggrandisement, it became necessary to discover new resources for the support of that project of universal monarchy. And nothing could be conceived more lucrative, than to deprive metropolitans, bishops, and other ordinaries, of the right of election to benefices, and to reserve the nomination and collation to themselves; and these they never conferred, except for large sums of money; which they often obtained in advance, by granting expectative graces to all sorts of persons indiscriminately, or at least without any distinction in regard to capacity or morals.' Such was, in truth, the origin of the Apostolic Chamber; and the mysteries of that fiscal inquisition had, no doubt, been intimately revealed to the secretary of Benedict XIII. The last whom we shall mention, and the greatest among the reformers of France, was the Chancellor of the University of Paris, John Gerson. In a sermon delivered before the Council of Rheims in 1408, that eloquent Doctor exposed the vices of the clergy, with the same freedom which he afterwardst employed at Constance in defining the legitimate limits of Papal authority. From the exposure of the evil he proceeded to investigate its origin; and as the general degeneracy of every rank in the priesthood was commonly traced by the writers of that age to the licentiousness of the Roman Court, so any effort to purify the descending stream was reasonably directed to its supposed source, If the most distinguished among the reforming party were natives of France, the Germans engaged in greater numbers, and with greater consistency, in the same project. They appear, moreover, to have been the *Not that his censures were confined to the avarice and rapacity of the clergy; a considerable share of them is directed to their incontinence-for instance, Quid illud, obsecro, quale est? quod plerisque in Diocesibus rectores parochiarum ex certa et conducto cum suis Prælatis pretio passim et publicè Concubinas tenent? Quod subditorum excessus et vitia, omniaque officia, quæ judiciis præesse sunt solita, publicè venundant? Sed adhuc levia hæc sunt." Nor was he more merciful to the canons and monks; he was even particularly severe on the insolence and vanity of the latter, whom he considered as the Pharisees of their age. Respecting the abominations committed in the nunneries, his expressions are strong and exaggerated. Nam quid, obsecro, aliud sunt hoc tempore puellarum monasteria, nisi quædam, non dico Dei sanctuaria, sed Veneris execranda prostibula, sed lascivorum et impudicorum Juvenum ad libidines explendas receptacula. Ut idem hodie sit puellam velare, quod ad publicè scortandum exponere.' (Nicol. de Clemangiis, de Ruina Ecclesiæ. cap. xxxvi. Apud Von der Hardt, tom. i. Conc. Constan.) Gerson, also, in his sermon at Rheims, used these words: Et utinam nulla sint Monasteria mulierum, quæ facta sunt prostibula meretricum, et prohibeat_adhuc deteriora Deus.' Ser. factus in Concil. Remensi. Op. Gers., vol. ii., p. 625. Edit. Paris. See Lenfant, Conc. Const., 1. vii., c. 13. In 1410 he addressed to Pierre d'Ailly his treatise De Modis Uniendi et Refor mandi Ecclesiam in Concilio Universali.' His more celebrated work, De Simonia abolenda Constantiensis Concilii Ope,' was written during the Council. Both may be found in Von der Hardt, tom. i. earliest in the field; for we observe, that Henry de Langenstein, of Hesse, a German, published in 1381 a vigorous treatise on the Union and Refor mation of the Church*. The five last chapters of his work were employed in depicting the universal profligacy of the clergy. After denouncing the simonies and other iniquities of the Popes, the Cardinals, and Prelates, he descended to expose the concubinage of the priests and the debaucheries of the monks; he represented the cathedrals as no better than dens of robbers, and the monasteries as taverns and brothelst. From England the voice of remonstrance proceeded with not less energy. The Golden Mirror of the Pope, his Court, the Prelates, and the rest of the Clergy+,' was composed during the pontificate of Boniface IX., the most triumphant era of schism and simony; and the Treatise of Richard Ullerston, an Oxford Doctor, is said to have guided the views of the Bishop of Salisbury, who effectually served the cause by his personal zeal, both at Pisa and Constance. The Italians, as they were the only people who profited by pontifical corruption, so were they more commonly found to defend and uphold it. But even among them were a few splendid exceptions; Pileus §, Archbishop of Genoa, and Zabarella, Cardinal of Florence, acknowledged and deplored the general unworthiness of the order to which they belonged. Lastly, even the Spaniards themselves, the perverse adherents of Benedict XIII., vented at Constance, in some satirical compositions, the indignation, which it was not yet politic to express openly. We have thus seen how generally¶ it was admitted at that period, even by the friends and ministers of the Church, that great abuses existed *Consilium Pacis de Unione ac Reformatione Ecclesiæ in Concilio Universali quærenda.' It occupies sixty columns in the beginning of Von der Hardt's second volume. This reformer seems also to have looked somewhat more deeply into the question; for he beheld with dissatisfaction the great multitude of images, which he held to be so many incentives to idolatry; and he was offended by the multiplication of festivals, and the frivolous nature of the controversies which divided the Church. Aureum Speculum Papæ, ejus Curiæ, Prælatorum, aliorumque Spiritualium.' The work gained great celebrity on the Continent. See his Ingenua Parænesis ad Sigismund. Imper. De Reformatione Ecclesiæ in Conc. Const. prosequenda, apud Von der Hardt, tom. i., part 15. There still exists a long and elaborate Treatise, published by Zabarella, De Schismate Innocentii et Benedicti Pontificis,' either before the meeting of the Council of Pisa, or during its earliest deliberations. In the History of the Council of Constance,' by Theodoric Vrie, written at the time and dedicated to Sigismond, the Church herself is made to speak the following lines, more remarkable for the bold truths which they contain, than for delicacy of expression, or metrical correctness. (Lib. i. Metrum Secundum.) Heu Simon regnat; per munera quæque reguntur, Curia Papalis fovet omnia scandala mundi, Ordo sacer, baptisma sacrum cum Chrismate Sancto Dives honoratur, pauper contemnitur, atque Qui dare plura valet munera gratus erat. Aurea quæ quondam fuit, hinc argentea Papæ Curia procedit deteriore modo. Ferrea dehinc facta, dura cervice quievit Tempore non modico; sed modo facta lutum. Postque lutum quid deterius solet esse? Recordor Stercus. Et in tali Curia tota sedet. Semler, in Cap. ii. Secul. xv., ' De Publico Ecclesiæ Statu,' enumerates a great multitude of compositions produced by the discontented spirits of the 14th and 15th centuries. Several are given at length by Herman Von der Hardt, Hist. Concil. Constant. Let therein, that they demanded immediate and effectual correction, and that such could only be administered by removing the cause of the evil. us examine then, for one moment, the view which they took of their own imperfections. . We may observe that the lamentations and censures, so abundantly poured forth by those writers, were confined almost wholly to one subject-the degeneracy and corruption of the clergy. This, indeed, was acknowledged to extend to the lowest rank from the very highest -this was admitted to comprise every form of sin and degradation-but this, according to their notions, was the limit of the evil. Under this one head was comprehended (or very nearly so) the sum and substance of the ecclesiastical derangement. The purity of the system was seldom or never questioned; the perfect integrity and infallible wisdom of the Church, and the divine obligation to believe and obey, without thought or question, all that it had enjoined or should enjoin, in practice, or precept, or ceremony, or discipline, was as strongly inculcated by the most eminent reformers, as by the most perverse upholders of the avowed abuses; only, it was maintained by the former, that the men, who administered this heaven-descended system, were sunk in a depravity from which it was necessary to raise them, and that no measures could effect this benefit, which did not first provide for the re-organization of the highest ranks. After all, it was but the surface of the subject which they surveyed; and thus the remedies proposed could not be other than ineffectual. At the same time it must be admitted, that those remedies were properly adapted to the end which they were intended to attain. The demoralization of the inferior clergy was undoubtedly occasioned, in a very great measure, by the non-residence, the avarice, and the venality of their more elevated brethren; and these views were communicated almost necessarily by the contagion of the Court of Rome. And since it was become the practice of that Court to attract all aspiring ecclesiastics by the undisguised sale of the most honourable dignities, its malignant influence spread like a pestilence through the Church. Those, therefore, who maintained that no reform could have any effect unless it commenced at the head, and whose first endeavours were turned to extirpate the scandals of the Vatican, pursued their own views with boldness and sagacity, and aimed well to uproot the evil which they saw-only, their views were too narrow, and the evil lay deeper than they were able to discover, or than they dared to avow. One professed object of the Council of Pisa was to reform the Church in its head and in its members;' and many of the The Council of Pisa. fathers there assembled were earnest in that intention. We have seen, indeed, to what insufficient limits their project was confined: still was it no inconsiderable design in that age, nor unworthy of a bold and generous character, especially in ministers and prelates of the Roman Church, to repress the licentiousness, and to moderate the power, of the successor of St. Peter. The boldness of the enterprise may be measured by its difficulty; for, if it was little that the reformers attempted, it was much more than they had the means of accomplishing. The moment, however, was exceedingly favourable; and when, after the deposition of the two pretenders, the See was vacant, and the election about to be made under the very eyes of the Council, an oath was imposed upon the Cardinals, that he among them who should be raised to the Pontificate, should not dissolve the Council, until after the reformation of the Church had been completed. The choice of the College, directed by the counsels of Baltazar Cossa, fell upon Alexander V. Gerson pre sently preached before him, and did not omit to press the paramount duty of correcting many abuses. A great number of the fathers held the same expectation. But Alexander, who was a Greek and a Pope, had no design to diminish his own profitable privileges, nor any scruple in evading his solemn obligation. In the 22nd and 23rd Sessions he published certain declarations, that out of regard for the necessities of the Churches, he remitted all arrears due to the Apostolical Chamber; that he resigned henceforward his claim on the property of deceased Prelates, and the revenues of vacant bishoprics; that he would make no more transfers of bene fices, without previously hearing the parties concerned; and that provincial councils should be more frequently assembled for the salutary regulation of the Church. The consideration of any extensive plan of reform he thought expedient to defer, until the next general Council; but this was to be assembled in three years. With these unsubstantial concessions-and even from these there was one dissentient Cardinal,—the Prelates of Pisa were dismissed; and if they returned to their several Sees with the consciousness, that they had not fully accomplished any one of the objects for which they were convoked, yet were they not without consolation, nor were their labours without fruit. They had not, indeed, healed the divisions of the Church; they had not restrained the abuses of papal power; they had not checked the profligacy of the Cardinals; they had not imposed any limit on the spreading domination of simony. Nevertheless, they had fulfilled an important destiny in the declining history of their Church; they had proclaimed the supremacy of a general Council, and deposed the two disputants who divided the papacy; they had freely censured the vices of the Apostolical See, and had demanded its reformation; they had secured the early convocation of another Council for the remedy of their grievances; and lastly, and most especially, they had opposed to pontifical despotism that independent constitutional spirit, which was the safeguard of the ancient Church; and which spreading from Pisa to Constance, from Constance to Basle, and striking deeply, though latently, during the times of iniquity which succeeded, at length achieved, under happier auspices and in a bolder spirit, its great and effectual triumph. The Council of Constance. A much more numerous congregation of prelates and ecclesiastics of every rank, of ambassadors, of doctors of law, and other distinguished laymen, constituted the august assembly of Constance. The place was favourable to the hopes of reform; for the German soil was more auspicious to that cause than the irreligious and interested cities of Italy. Accordingly, we observe that its necessity was more loudly proclaimed, and its principles defined with greater boldness and exactitude. Gerson once more led the assault against papal delinquency. He attacked the Decretals, the Clementines, and most of the constitutions of the Popes; he overthrew many of the pretensions thence derived, and he exposed, in a strain now familiar to his audience, their simony, their avarice, and antiChristian usurpations*. All the bulls of John begin with a falsehood; Non Christi, sed mores gerunt Antichristi;' and again, Non legimus Christum illi contulisse potestatem beneficia, dignitates, episcopatus, villas, terras dispensandi aut distribuendi, sed nec unquam legimus Petrum hæc fecisse. Sed solum hanc potestatem ei tribuit specialem, scriptam Matt. xvi., quam etiam minimo mundi episcopo concessit.' Such expressions might be flattering to the dignity of the surrounding prelates. But he was an injudicious friend to the Roman Catholic Church, who appealed to the Bible as the test of its purity. John Huss, had he been present at this discourse, might have pressed that argument somewhat farther. for, if he was truly the servant of the servants of God, he would employ himself in rendering service to the faithful, and assisting the poor, who are the members of Christ Jesus. But so far is he from calling the poor about him, or persons distinguished for their learning or their virtue, that he surrounds himself with lords, and tyrants, and soldiers. Let him, then, rather assume the title of Lord of Lords; since he dares to boast, that he possesses the same power which Christ possessed in his divine and human nature*. It was well, indeed, for Gregory the Great to call himself the Servant of the Servants of God. He nourished the poor, and was poor himself; he conferred benefices only on men of virtue and capacity; he preached the Gospel himself to his clergy and his people; he composed works to confirm believers in their faith; he held a rein over the luxury of the Roman people, and rescued them by his prayer to God from a pernicious pestilence.' . . Accustomed to the bitterness of such taunts, the Pope and his luxurious court may have been insensible to their shamefulness, or even questioned their justice; but, among the mitred multitudes who were present, some were doubtless awakened by the eloquence of Gerson to a better sense of their faith, their duties, and their obedience. The Council had not been many months in existence before it entered seriously into this department of its duties; and a Committee of Reform (Collège Reformatoire) was appointed to examine into particular abuses, and prepare a general project for the approbation of the whole assembly. This College, named on the 15th of June, 1415, was composed of nineteen persons, viz. four deputies from each of the four nations, and three Car dinals. The deputies were chosen indifferently The College of Reform. from bishops, doctors in theology, and doctors in law. There had been some previous contest, whether or not the Cardinals should be at all. admitted as members of this body; since it was now well understood by all parties, that the question of a general reform practically resolved itself into a reform of the Court of Rome: not only because any other measures would have been wholly useless, unless attended by that, but also because the whole opposi tion to the removal of abuses proceeded from that quarter. Of the three *Quia præsumit dicere esse tantam suam potestatem, quantam Christus habuit, secundum quod Deus et secundum quod homo.' Opera Gersoni, Apud Lenfant, Hist. Conc. Const. 1. vii. s. xiv. The same doctor, in his sermon, 'De Signis Ruinæ Ecclesiæ,' mentions eight such indications: (1.) Rebellio et inobedientia; (2.) Inverecundia; (3.) Immoderata inæqualitas, qua alius et sæpe dignior esurit; alius et frequenter indignior præ multitudine et magnitudine beneficiorum ebrius est; (4.) Fastus et superbia prælatorum et aliorum ecclesiasticorum-tantus fastus in Dei Ecclesia, præcipuè in temporibus istis, non tam multos movet ad reverentiam quam multos ad indignationem; et plures invitat ad prædam, qui se reputarent fortasse Deo sacrificium offerre, si possent quosdam divites ecclesiasticos spoliare; (5.) Signum sumitur ex tyrannide præsidentium-tales sunt pastores qui nen pascunt gregem Domini sed semetipsos; (6.) Conturbatio principum et commotio populorum; (7.) Recusatio correctionis in principibus ecclesiæ; (8.) Novitas opinionum. Moderno quidem tempore unusquisque interpretari et trahere non veretur sacram scripturam, jura, sanctorumque patrum instituta ad libitum suæ voluntatis, prout amor, odium, invidia, spes promotionis, aut vindicta eum inclinat. . . . : Præter hæc sunt alia signa, videlicet recessus justitiæ, distinctio studiorum, prælatio puerorum, et ignorantium et pravorum, et hæc erit destructio Latinorum. Plura alia sunt descripta in Prophetis de dejectione sacerdotalis honoris, ex quibus et prædictis, sapiens potest concludere ruinam temporalium de propinquo imminere. A multis annis non fuerunt tot malevoli, tanti corde rebelles et animo accensi contra ecclesiam sicut his diebus. Quos in longum compescere nequaquam valebimus, nisi signis virtutum manifestis ad benevolentiam eos inclinaverimus.' Gersoni Opera, vol. i. p. 199, Ed. Paris, 1606. This sermon was preached before the Council of Constance. |