BOOK V.

POPERY THE WORLD'S DESPOT.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF POPE GREGORY VII., A. D. 1073, TO THE DEATH OF BONIFACE VIII., A. D. 1303.

CHAPTER I.

THE LIFE AND REIGN OF POPE HILDEBRAND OR GREGORY VII.

§ 1.-ONE of the most extraordinary characters on the page of history, and probably the most conspicuous person in the history of the eleventh century, was the famous monk Hildebrand, now reverenced by papists as Saint Gregory VII., who ascended the papal throne in 1073; and who carried the assumptions of the papacy to a height never before known, claimed supreme dominion over all the governments of the world, and attempted to bring all emperors, kings, and other earthly rulers, under his authority as his vassals and dependents. This artful and ambitious monk had succeeded in obtaining an almost unlimited influence at Rome long before his election to the pontificate, and the attempts of the three or four popes who preceded him, to exercise their haughty sway over the sovereigns of the earth, is to be attributed chiefly to his influence and counsels. So early as previous to the accession of pope Victor II. in 1055, the authority of Hildebrand was such that he was empowered by the people and clergy of Rome to go to Germany, and to select by his own unaided judgment, in their name, a successor to the preceding Pope, Leo IX., by performing which trust to the satisfaction of all, he greatly increased his own popularity and power.

During the reign of Victor, a complaint was received from the emperor Henry III., that Ferdinand of Spain had assumed the title of Emperor, and begging that unless he would immediately relinquish the title, Ferdinand might be excommunicated, and his kingdom put under an interdict. Hildebrand saw at once that this would be a favorable opportunity of advancing the scheme he had doubtless already formed of reducing all earthly sovereigns to subjection to the papal power, and accordingly persuaded the Pope to dispatch legates into Spain, threatening Ferdinand with the thunders of excommunication and interdict unless he immediately obeyed

Hildebrand and the Pope persuade Robert of Normandy to acknowledge himself a vassal of Rome.

the papal mandates and renounced a title which had been conferred by the Holy See only on Henry. The terrified prince was glad to maintain his peace with the spiritual tyrants of Rome, by submissive obedience to his commands.

§ 2. A few years later, Hildebrand and pope Nicholas II., who was elected in 1059, had the address to prevail upon Robert Guiscard, the famous Norman conqueror, in consideration of the Pope's confirming to him certain territories he had conquered, and to which neither Nicholas nor Robert had a particle of right, to own himself a vassal of the Holy See, and to take an oath of allegiance to the Pope, which is transcribed by Cardinal Baronius, from a volume in the Vatican library, in the following terms:-"I, Robert, by the grace of God and St. Peter, duke of Apulia and Calabria, and future duke of Sicily, promise to pay to St. Peter, to you, pope Nicholas, my lord, to your successors, or to your and their nuncios, twelve deniers, money of Pavia, for each yoke of oxen, as an acknowledgment for all the lands that I myself hold and possess, or have given to be held and possessed by any of the Ultramontanes; and this sum shall be yearly paid on Easter Sunday by me, my heirs and successors, TO YOU, POPE NICHOLAS, MY LORD, and to your successors. So help me God, and these his holy Gospels." When Robert had taken this oath, the Pope acknowledged him for lawful duke of Apulia and Calabria, confirmed to him and his successors for ever the possession of those provinces, promised to confirm to him in like manner the possession of Sicily, as soon as he should reduce that island, and putting a standard in his right hand, declared him vassal of the apostolical See, and standard-bearer of the holy church. From this time Robert styled himself dux Apuliæ and Calabria and futurus Siciliæ.'*

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§3.-Soon after the election of pope Nicholas, and probably by the advice of Hildebrand, an important decree was issued relative to the manner of the election of future popes. Before his time, there had been no settled rules accurately defining the electors of the popes, but they had been chosen by the whole Roman clergy, nobility, burgesses, and assembly of the people. The consequence of such a confused and jarring multitude uniting in the election was, that animosities and tumults, sometimes accompanied with bloodshed, frequently occurred in consequence of the collisions of the different contending factions; each party striving to secure the election of its own favorite candidate to the honor of being the successor of St. Peter and the vicar of God upon earth. To prevent these disorders in future, as well as to enhance the power of the higher clergy at Rome, Nicholas issued his decree that the power of electing a pope should be henceforth vested in the cardinal bishops (cardinales episcopi), and the cardinal clerks or presbyters (cardinales clerici). By the cardinal bishops we are to understand the seven bishops, who belonged to the city and territory of Rome,

*Leo Ostiens., l. ii., c. 16.

Decree confining the election of Pope to the cardinals.

Hildebrand becomes Pope

whom Nicholas calls, in the same edict, comprovinciales episcopi ; and by the cardinal clerks, the ministers of twenty-eight Roman parishes or provincial churches. These were to constitute in future the college of electors, and were henceforward called the college of Cardinals, in a new and unusual sense of the term, which is properly the origin of that dignity in its modern sense.

It was customary for bishops in these ages, to be consecrated by the metropolitan, but (in the swelling and bombastic language of the papal edict), "Since the apostolic See cannot be under the jurisdiction of any superior or metropolitan, the cardinal bishops must necessarily supply the place of a metropolitan, and fix the elected pontiff on THE SUMMIT OF APOSTOLIC EXALTATION AND EMPIRE."* All the rest of the clergy, of whatever order or rank they might be, were, together with the people, expressly excluded from the right of voting in the election of the pontiff, though they were allowed what is called a negative suffrage, and their consent was required to what the others had done. In consequence of this new regulation, the cardinals acted the principal part in the creation of the new pontiff; though they suffered for a long time much opposition both from the sacerdotal orders and the Roman citizens, who were constantly either reclaiming their ancient rights, or abusing the privilege they yet retained of confirming the election of every new pope by their approbation and consent. In the following century there was an end put to all these disputes by Alexander III., who was so fortunate as to finish and complete what Nicholas had only begun, and who, just one hundred years after the decree of Nicholas, transferred and confined to the college of cardinals the sole right of electing the popes, and deprived the body of the people and the rest of the clergy of the right of vetoing the choice of the cardinals left them by the decree of pope Nicholas. To appease the tumults occasioned by these acts, the popes, at various times, added other individuals to the college of Cardinals, and in subsequent ages, an admission to this high order of purpled prelates, the obtaining of a cardinal's hat, was regarded, next to the papal chair, as the highest object of Romish sacerdotal ambition, and moreover a necessary step to all aspirants to the dignity of sovereign pontiff, as no one but a cardinal can be elected pope.†

§ 4. At length in the year 1073, Hildebrand was himself chosen Pope, and assumed the title of Gregory VII., and his election was confirmed by the emperor Henry IV., to whom ambassadors had been sent for that purpose. This prince indeed had soon reason to repent of the consent he had given to an election which became so prejudicial to his own authority, so fatal to the interests and liberties of the church, and so detrimental, in general, to the sovereignty

"Quia sedes apostolica super se metropolitanum habere non potest; cardinales episcopi metropolitani vice procul dubio fungantur, qui electum antistatem ad apostolici culminis apicem provebant.” (Edict of Nicholas, in Baluzius iv., 62.) See a learned dissertation on Cardinals in Mosheim, cent. xi., part ii.

Inordinate ambition of Gregory VII.

His plans for universal empire

and independence of kingdoms and empires. Hildebrand was a man of uncommon genius, whose ambition in forming the most arduous projects was equalled by his dexterity in bringing them into execution; sagacious, crafty, and intrepid, nothing could escape his penetration, defeat his stratagems, or daunt his courage; haughty and arrogant beyond all measure; obstinate, impetuous, and intractable; he looked up to the summit of universal empire with a wishful eye, and labored up the steep ascent with uninterrupted ardor, and invincible perseverance; void of all principle, and destitute of every pious and virtuous feeling, he suffered little restraint in his audacious pursuits, from the dictates of religion or the remonstrances of conscience. Such was the character of Hildebrand, and his conduct was every way suitable to it; for no sooner did he find himself in the papal chair, than he displayed to the world the most odious marks of his tyrannic ambition. Not contented to enlarge the jurisdiction, and to augment the opulence of the See of Rome, he labored indefatigably to render the universal church subject to the despotic government and the arbitrary power of the pontiff alone, to dissolve the jurisdiction which kings and emperors had hitherto exercised over the various orders of the clergy, and to exclude them from all part in the management or distribution of the revenues of the church. Nay, this outrageous pontiff went still farther, and impiously attempted to submit to his jurisdiction the emperors, kings, and princes of the earth, and to render their dominions tributary to the See of Rome.

§ 5. The views of Hildebrand, or Hellbrand, as from his insane ambition he has been appropriately styled, were not confined to the erection of an absolute and universal monarchy in the church; they aimed also at the establishment of a civil monarchy equally extensive and despotic; and this aspiring pontiff, after having drawn up a system of ecclesiastical canons for the government of the church, would have introduced also a new code of political laws, had he been permitted to execute the plan he had formed. His purpose was, says Mosheim, to engage in the bonds of fidelity and allegiance to St. Peter, i. e., to the Roman pontiffs, all the kings and princes of the earth, and to establish at Rome an annual assembly of bishops, by whom the contests that might arise between kingdoms or sovereign states were to be decided, the rights and pretensions of princes to be examined, and the fate of nations and empires to be determined. The imperious pontiff did not wholly succeed in his ambitious views, for had his success been equal to his plan, all the kingdoms of Europe would have been this day tributary to the Roman See, and its princes, the soldiers or vassals of St. Peter, in the person of his pretended vicar upon earth. But though his most important projects were ineffectual, yet many of his attempts were crowned with a favorable issue; for from the time of his pontificate the face of Europe underwent a considerable change, and the prerogatives of the emperors and other sovereign princes were much diminished. It was particularly under the ad

Pope Gregory's contest with Henry IV.

Dispute about investitures.

ministration of Gregory, that the emperors were deprived of the privilege of ratifying, by their consent, the election of the Roman pontiff; a privilege of no small importance, and which they never recovered. (Mosh., ii., 484.)

§6.-The contest which Gregory carried on for several years with the unfortunate emperor Henry IV. affords an instructive comment upon the deep-laid plans of this most imperious and ambitious pope. Soon after his election, Gregory was informed that Solomon, king of Hungary, dethroned by his brother Geysa, had fled to Henry for protection, and renewed the homage of Hungary to the empire. Gregory, who favored Geysa, exclaimed against this act of submission; and said in a letter to Solomon, "You ought to know, that the kingdom of Hungary belongs to the Roman church; and learn that you will incur the indignation of the Holy See, if you do not acknowledge that you hold your dominions of the Pope, and not of the Emperor!" This presumptuous declaration, and the neglect it met with, brought the quarrel between the empire and the church to a crisis. It was directed to Solomon, but intended for Henry. And if Gregory could not succeed in one way, he was resolved that he would in another: he therefore resumed the claim of investitures, for which he had a more plausible pretence; and as that dispute and its consequences merit particular attention we shall relate briefly the origin and history of this protracted quarrel between the Pope and the emperors.

§ 7. The investiture of bishops and abbots commenced, undoubtedly, at that period of time when the European emperors, kings, and princes, made grants to the clergy of certain territories, lands, forests, castles, &c. According to the laws of those times, laws which still remain in force, none were considered as lawful possessors of the lands or tenements which they derived from the emperors or other princes, before they repaired to court, took the oath of allegiance to their respective sovereigns as the supreme proprietors, and received from their hands a solemn mark by which the property of their respective grants was transferred to them. Such was the manner in which the nobility, and those who had distinguished themselves by military exploits, were confirmed in the possessions which they owed to the liberality of their sovereigns. But the custom of investing the bishops and abbots with the ring and the crosier, which are the ensigns of the sacred function, is of a much more recent date, and was then first introduced, when the European emperors and princes assumed to themseives the power of conferring on whom they pleased the bishoprics and abbeys that became vacant in their dominions; nay, even of selling them to the highest bidder.

This power, then, being once usurped by the kings and princes of Europe, they at first confirmed the bishops and abbots in their dignities and possessions, with the same forms and ceremonies that were used in investing the counts, knights, and others, in their feudal tenures, even by written contracts, and the ceremony of