An archbishop waiting to have his head shaved.

The Pope encourages appeals to Rome.

land, despatched Wighard, a newly elected archbishop of Canterbury to receive his ordination from the hands of the Pope, with a present to St. Peter, of several valuable articles of silver and gold. Wighard, dying of the plague, which then raged at Rome, the Pope resolved to embrace the favorable opportunity of advancing his power, by choosing an archbishop himself, instead of sending to the two kings, to request them, according to the previous custom, to elect a successor to Wighard. The Pope soon after nominated an Eastern monk, named Theodore, and informed the two kings that he would proceed to his consecration, and despatch him to England Notwithstanding they were impatiently expecting his arrival, three months were permitted to elapse before his consecration, and what does the reader suppose was the all-important cause of this delay. Risum teneatis, amici! The historian gravely informs us that he was tarrying at Rome till his hair was grown! Theodore being an Eastern monk, had his head shaved all over, according to the custom of the East, and this was called the tonsure of St. Paul. The Pope deemed it necessary, therefore, to delay the consecration till his hair was grown all over, so that he might be shaven only on the top of his head, in the form of a crown. This was called the Roman tonsure, or the tonsure of St. Peter. It would hardly be deemed credible that so much importance should be attached to such puerile trifles, were not the fact confirmed by the continuance of this absurd and senseless heathen practice of shaving the top of the head among the priests of Rome, down to the present day.

§7.—Another most effectual way which the popes took to increase their power and influence, in this period, was to encourage appeals from the decisions of other ecclesiastical courts to the apostolic See, by almost invariably deciding in favor of the appellant, whatever might be the just merits of the case. Thus in the very next year after the appointment of Theodore to Canterbury, the same pope Vitalianus reversed the judgment of a synod consisting of all the bishops of the island of Crete, against one John, bishop of Lappa in that island, who had been found guilty of certain crimes, absolved the criminal, and imperiously commanded Paul, the primate of Crete, to restore the deposed bishop to his office.

The same thing happened a few years later, in the case of Wilfrid, bishop of York, who, according to the biographer of queen Etheldreda, the wife of Ecgfrid, king of Northumberland, had encouraged that queen in a resolution she had formed, to refuse to the king the rights of a husband, and to take a vow of chastity, and retire into a monastery. Persisting in this resolution, in express opposition to the wishes of her husband, the king requested Wilfrid to use his influence with the queen, to bring her to a sense of her duty. Instead of this, however, he only confirmed her in her resolution, and the queen retired to a monastery in Scotland, where she received the veil at the hands of Wilfrid himself. The king, who loved his wife with the greatest tenderness, took a journey to Scotland, to try and persuade her to return, but failing in this, he vented

Wilfrid, an English bishop, appeals with success to pope Agatho.

First form of a bishop's oath

his indignation against Wilfrid, caused him to be deposed from his bishopric, by Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, and banished him from the kingdom of Northumberland. Wilfrid appealed to the Pope, and was received by Agatho with the greatest respect and honor. The merit of appealing to the apostolic See, especially as he was the first British ecclesiastic who had, in this way, acknowledged the supremacy of the successor of St. Peter, was, in the eyes of the Pope, sufficient to cover a multitude of sins.

Wilfrid was

declared innocent and unjustly deposed, and ordered to be restored to his See, and the clergy, as well as the laity of England, were required to pay implicit obedience to this decision, the former, on pain of being deposed, and the latter of being for ever excluded from the Eucharist.*

§ 8.-During the pontificate of pope Gregory II., the first instance was exhibited of a Roman pontiff requiring a solemn oath of allegiance and submission from his legates and bishops. It was in the case of the celebrated Winfrid or Boniface, who has been called the apostle of Germany. Boniface was a native of England,† and in the year 716, voluntarily went on a mission among the pagans of Germany, and after laboring with zeal and success for several years; repairing to Rome at the command of the Pope, he was ordained a bishop, and appointed by Gregory, his legate to all the inhabitants of Germany. Upon this occasion, the Pope required him to take the following oath at the tomb of St. Peter:

"In the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the seventh year of our most pious emperor Leo, in the fourth of his son Constantine, and in the seventh indiction, I, Boniface, by the grace of God, bishop, promise to you, blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, to blessed Gregory your vicar, and to his successors, by the undivided trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by this your most sacred body, to maintain to the last, with the help of God, the purity andity of the holy Catholic faith; to consent to nothing contrary to either; to consult in all things the interest of your church, and in all things to concur with you, to whom power has been given of binding and loosing, with the above-mentioned vicar, and with his successors. If I shall hear of any bishops acting contrary to the canons, I shall not communicate, nor entertain any commerce with them, but reprove and retrieve them, if I can; if I cannot, I shall acquaint therewith MY LORD THE POPE. If I do not faithfully perform what I now promise, may I be found guilty at the tribunal of the eternal Judge, and incur the punishment inflicted by you on Ananias and Sapphira, who presumed to deceive and defraud you."

When Boniface had taken this oath, he laid it written with his own hand on the pretended body of St. Peter, and said, "This is

*Eddius' Life of Wilfrid, chap. li., quoted by Bower, vol. iii., page 59.

+ See Fleury's Ecclesiastical History, book xli., 35, &c., and Dupin, 8th cen tury, Boniface.

Horrid cruelties of the Pope and the Emperor, on the refractory bishop of Ravenna.

the oath which I have taken, and which I promise to keep." How painful to think that so holy and self-denying a man as Boniface, both from his life and death, appears to have been, should have been thus blinded by superstitious reverence for the holy See, and especially for the artful, unworthy, and ambitious Gregory, who exacted from him this oath! We shall perceive that in future ages the popes improved upon this oath, though all who read it must admit that it was a pretty fair specimen for a beginning.

§ 9.-The popes of this age also strove to establish and confirm their power, by punishing to the utmost of their ability, all who should presume to rebel against the authority of the apostolic See. An instance of this is given in the case of the cruel vengeance inflicted by the Emperor, through the persuasions of pope Constantine, upon Felix and his associates. In the early part of the eighth century, Felix, archbishop elect of Ravenna, came to Rome to receive ordination from the Pope, having first, according to Anastasius, promised obedience and subjection to the Roman See. Upon his return to Ravenna, being encouraged by the people, Felix withdrew himself from all subjection to Rome, and asserted the independence of his See. Of his motives for this step we are not informed. Perhaps, like Luther in after times, he had seen during his visit too much of the pretended successors of St. Peter, to be willing longer to acknowledge their lofty assumptions. Be this as it may, the Pope was no sooner informed of the conduct of Felix, than transported with rage, he immediately wrote to the Emperor Justinian, entreating him to espouse the cause of the prince of the apostles, and demanding vengeance on the rebels against St. Peter. The Emperor, who at this time was desirous to oblige the Pope, immediately ordered one of his generals to repair to Ravenna, to seize on the archbishop, and the other rebels against St. Peter, and send them in chains to Constantinople, where all except the archbishop were soon after put to death, and the latter, after havi. his eyes cruelly dug out of their sockets, was banished to Pontus. The popish historian, Anastasius, has the audacity to ascribe those horrid cruelties of the Pope and the Emperor, to God and St. Peter. "And thus," says he, "by a just judgment of God, and by the sentence of St. Peter, all were, in the end, deservedly cut off, who refused to pay the obedience that was due to the apostolic See."

§ 10. In addition to these various ways adopted by the popes of extending their power and influence, and of inspiring with terror of their authority, all who should presume to oppose them, they made the most extravagant claims to the reverence and homage of the people. About the commencement of the eighth century, the debasing custom originated, which has continued ever since, of kissing the pope's foot. The emperor Justinian is thought thus to have degraded himself upon the occasion of a visit of pope Constantine, to the East, the very next year after he had been guilty of the cruelties just named, to the unfortunate bishop of Ravenna. As this visit of Constantine well illustrates the extravagant honors paid

The emperor Justinian kisses the Pope's foot.

Character of this tyrant

to the popes of this age, it may be well to give a brief account of it. In the year 710, the Pope received an order from Justinian to repair to Constantinople as soon as convenient, and embarked on the 5th of October, for that city, accompanied by two bishops and a large number of the inferior clergy. The Emperor addressed an order to all governors, judges, and magistrates of the places through which he should pass, to pay to him precisely the same honors as they would if he were the Emperor himself. At every place he touched at, he was received in a kind of triumph, amidst the joyful acclamations and homage of the people. On approaching Constantinople, he was met seven miles from the city, by Tiberius, the Emperor's son, the senate, the nobility, the chief citizens, and the patriarch Cyrus at the head of his clergy. Thus attended, and mounted, together with the chief persons of his retinue, on the Emperor's own horses, richly caparisoned, he arrived at the palace assigned for his habitation. The Emperor, who was absent at the time of his arrival, as soon as he received the intelligence, appointed to meet the Pope at Nicomedia, and it was there that Anastasius informs us, "the most Christian Emperor" prostrated himself on the ground, with the crown on his head, kissed his feet, and then cordially embraced him. On the following Sunday Justinian received the sacrament at the hands of the Pope, begged HIS HOLINESS to intercede for him that God might forgive his sins, and renewed and confirmed all the privileges that had ever been granted to the Roman See.*

§ 11. It is unfortunate for the credit of the Romish church, that this "most Christian Emperor," as the popish historian calls him, like the other two sovereigns to whom that apostate church was indebted for her most valuable favors, Phocas and Irene, was one of the most bloodthirsty of tyrants, and the most abandoned of the human family. He delighted in nothing so much as in cruelty and revenge, in bloodshed and slaughter. After returning from Chersonesus, where, in consequence of his tyranny, he had been driven into banishment; in consequence of supposing his dignity insulted by the inhabitants of Chersonesus, he despatched a fleet and army against them, with express orders to spare neither man, woman, nor child alive, whether guilty or innocent, and in consequence of this inhuman command, multitudes of people miserably perished by the flames, the rack, or the sea. On his return from banishment, when sailing on the Euxine, says Gibbon, "his vessel was assaulted by a violent tempest, and one of his companions advised him to deserve the mercy of God, by a vow of eternal forgiveness, if he should be restored to the throne. Of forgiveness! (replied the intrepid tyrant), may I perish this instant-may the Almighty whelm me in the waves if I consent to spare a single head of my enemies! But never was vow more religiously performed than the sacred oath of revenge that he had sworn amidst the storm of the Euxine. The

* Anastasius, in vità Constantin.

Gibbon's account of the cruelty and tyranny of this worshipper of the Pope.

two usurpers, who had in turn occupied his throne during his banishment, were dragged into the hippodrome, the one from his prison, the other from the palace. Before their execution, Leontius and Apsimar were cast prostrate in chains beneath the throne of the Emperor, and Justinian, planting a foot on each of their necks, contemplated above an hour the chariot race, while the innocent people shouted, in the words of the psalmist, Thou shalt trample on the asp and basilisk, and on the lion and dragon shalt thou set thy foot! The universal defection which he had once experienced might provoke him to repeat the wish of Caligula, that the Roman people had but one head. Yet I shall presume to observe, that such a wish is unworthy of an ingenious tyrant, since his revenge and cruelty would have been extinguished by a single blow, instead of the slow variety of tortures which Justinian inflicted on the victims of his anger. His pleasures were inexhaustible: neither private virtue nor public service could expiate the guilt of active, or even passive obedience to an established government; and, during the six years of his new reign, he considered the axe, the cord, and the rack, as the only instruments of royalty." Such was the man whom Romish historians do not blush to call "the most Christian and orthodox Emperor," merely because he cruelly tortured, blinded, and murdered those who would not succumb to the papal anti-Christ, bowed down and kissed the feet of the haughty pontiff, and loaded with his imperial favors, the apostate church of which he was the head.

§ 12. It might be expected that an age which could yield itself so far to the extravagant claims of the newly created spiritual monarch of the world must be one of the grossest ignorance and darkness. Such, we find, was the fact. "Nothing," says Mosheim, speaking of the century in which the Pope established his supremacy, "can equal the ignorance and darkness that reigned in this century; the most impartial and accurate account of which will appear incredible to those who are unacquainted with the productions of this barbarous period. The greatest part of those who were looked upon as learned men, threw away their time in reading the marvellous lives of a parcel of fanatical saints, instead of employing it in the perusal of well chosen and excellent authors. The bishops in general were so illiterate, that few of that body were capable of composing the discourses which they delivered to the people. Such of them as were not totally destitute of genius, composed out of the writings of Augustine and Gregory a certain number of repid homilies, which they divided between themselves and their stupid colleagues, that they might not be obliged, through incapacity, to discontinue preaching the doctrines of Christianity to their people." The want even of an acquaintance with the first rudiments of literature was so general among the higher ecclesiastics of those times, that it was scarcely deemed disgraceful to acknowledge it

*Decline and Fall, vol. iii., page 242.