A general union of Christian powers was required to withstand this common enemy. But the popes, who had so often armed them against each other, wasted their spiritual and political counsels in attempting to restore unanimity. War was proclaimed against the Turks at the diet of Frankfort, in 1454; but no efforts were made to carry the menace into execution. No prince could have sat on the imperial throne more unfitted for the emergency than Frederick III.; his mean spirit and narrow capacity exposed him to the contempt of mankind; his avarice and duplicity ensured the hatred of Austria and Hungary. During the papacy of Pius II., whose heart was thoroughly engaged in this legitimate crusade, a more specious attempt was made by convening a European congress at Mantua. Almost all the sovereigns attended by their envoys; it was concluded that 50,000 menat-arms should be raised, and a tax levied for three years of one tenth from the revenues of the clergy, one thirtieth from those of the laity, and one twentieth from the capital of the Jews.* Pius engaged to head this armament in person; but when he appeared next year at Ancona, the appointed place of embarcation, the princes had failed in all their promises of men and money; and he found only a headlong crowd of adventurers, destitute of every necessary, and expecting to be fed and paid at the pope's expense. It was not by such a body that Mahomet could be expelled from Constantinople. If the Christian sovereigns had given a steady and sincere co-operation, the contest would still have been arduous and uncerInstitution of tain. In the early crusades, Janizaries. the superiority of arms, of skill, and even of discipline, had been uniformly on the side of Europe. But the present circumstances were far from similar. An institution, begun by the first and perfected by the second Amurath, had given to the Turkish armies, what their enemies still wanted, military subordination and veteran experience. Aware, as it seems, which, though too declamatory, like most of his writings, is an interesting illustration of the state of Europe, and of the impression produced by that calamity. Spondanus, ad an. 1454, has given large extracts from this oration.

Spondanus. Neither Charles VII., nor even Philip of Burgundy, who had made the loudest professions, and pledged himself in a fantastic pageant at his court, soon after the capture of Constantinople, to undertake this crusade, was sincere in his promises. The former pretended apprehensions of invasion from England, as an excuse for sending no troops; which, considering the situation of England in 1459, was a bold attempt upon the credulity of mankind.

of the real superiority of Europeans in war, these sultans selected the stoutest youths from their Bulgarian, Servian, or Albanian captives, who were educated in habits of martial discipline, and formed into a regular force with the name of Janizaries. After conquest had put an end to personal captivity, a tax of every fifth male child was raised upon the Christian population for the same purpose. The arm of Europe was thus turned upon herself; and the western nations must have contended with troops of hereditary robustness and intrepidity, whose emulous enthusiasm for the country that had adopted them was controlled by habitual obedience to their commanders.*

Yet, forty years after the fall of Constantinople, at the epoch of Charles VIII.'s expedition into Italy, the just apprehensions of European statesmen might have gradually subsided. Except the Morea, Negropont, and a few other unimportant conquests, no real Suspension of progress had been made by the Ottoman the Ottomans. Mahomet II. conquests. had been kept at bay by the Hungarians; he had been repulsed with some ignominy by the knights of St. John from the Island of Rhodes. A petty chieftain de

* In the long declamation of Eneas Sylvius before the diet of Frankfort, in 1454, he has the following contrast between the European and Turkish militia; a good specimen of the artifice with which an ingenious orator can disguise the truth, while he seems to be stating it most precisely. Conferamus nunc Turcos et vos invicem; et quid sperandum sit, si cum illis pugnetis, examinemus. Vos nati ad arma, illi tracti. Vos armati, illi inermes; vos gladios versatis, illi cultris utuntur; vos balistas tenditis, illi arcus trahunt; vos lorica thoracesque protegunt, illos culcitra tegit; vos equos regitis, illi ab equis reguntur; vos nobiles in bellum ducitis, illi servos aut artifices cogunt, &c. &c., p. hearers, who were better judges of military affairs 685. This, however, had little effect upon the than the secretary of Frederick III. Pius II., or Eneas Sylvius, was a lively writer and a skilful intriguer. Long experience had given him a considerable insight into European politics; and his views are usually clear and sensible. Though not so learned as some popes, he knew much better what was going forward in his own time. But the vanity of displaying his eloquence betrayed him into a strange folly, when he addressed a very long letter to Mahomet II., explaining the Catholic faith, and urging him to be baptized; in which case, so far from preaching a crusade against the Turks, he would gladly make use of their power to recover the rights of the church. Some of his inducements are curious, and must, if made public, have been highly gratifying to his friend Frederick III. Quippe ut arbitramur, si Christianus fuisses, mortuo Ladislao Ungariæ et Bohemiæ rege, nemo præter te sua regna fuisset adeptus. Sperassent Ungari post diuturna bellorum mala sub tuo regimine pacem, et illos Bohemi secuti fuissent; sed cum esses nostræ religionis hostis, elegerunt Ungari, &c.-Epist. 396.

fied this mighty conqueror for twenty | session of Mahomet. On his death a disyears in the mountains of Epirus; and puted succession involved his children in the persevering courage of his desulto- civil war. Bajazet, the eldest, obtained ry warfare with such trifling resources, and so little prospect of ultimate success, may justify the exaggerated admiration with which his contemporaries honoured the names of Scanderbeg. Once only the crescent was displayed on the Calabrian coast [A. D. 1480]; but the city of Otranto remained but a year in the pos

the victory; but his rival brother Zizim fled to Rhodes, from whence he was removed to France, and afterward to Rome. Apprehensions of this exiled prince seem to have dictated a pacific policy to the reigning sultan, whose character did not possess the usual energy of Ottoman sovereigns.

CHAPTER VII.

HISTORY OF ECCLESIASTICAL POWER DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.

Wealth of the Clergy-its Sources.-Encroach-tain immoveable estates, the revenues of ments on Ecclesiastical Property-their Juris- which were applicable to their own main

diction-arbitrative - coercive-their Political

Power.- Supremacy of the Crown. - Charle- tenance and that of the poor. These, magne.-Change after his Death, and Encroach- indeed, were precarious, and liable to ments of the Church in the ninth Century.-Pri- confiscation in times of persecution. But macy of the See of Rome-its early Stage. it was among the first effects of the conGregory I.-Council of Frankfort-false Decretals.-Progress of Papal Authority-Effects of version of Constantine, to give not only Excommunication. Lothaire.-State of the a security, but a legal sanction, to the terChurch in the tenth Century. - Marriage of ritorial acquisitions of the church. The Priests. Simony.- Episcopal Elections.-Im- edict of Milan, in 313, recognises the perial Authority over the Popes.-Disputes con- actual estates of ecclesiastical corporacerning Investitures.-Gregory VII. and Henry tions. Another, published in 321, grants IV. Concordat of Calixtus.-Election by Chapters-general System of Gregory VII.-Progress to all the subjects of the empire the powof Papal usurpations in the twelfth Century.-er of bequeathing their property to the Innocent III.-his Character and Schemes-con-church. His own liberality and that of tinual Progress of the Papacy.-Canon Law his successors set an example which did Mendicant Orders-dispensing Power.-Taxation of the Clergy by the Popes.-Encroachments not want imitators. Passing rapidly on Rights of Patronage.--Mandats, Reserves, from a condition of distress and persecu&c.-General Disaffection towards the See of tion to the summit of prosperity, the Rome in the thirteenth century.--Progress of church degenerated as rapidly from her Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction.-Immunity of the Clergy in Criminal Cases.-Restraints imposed ancient purity, and forfeited the respect upon their Jurisdiction-upon their Acquisition of future ages in the same proportion as of Property. Boniface VIII.-his Quarrel with she acquired the blind veneration of her Philip the Fair-its Termination.-Gradual Deown. Covetousness, especially, became cline of Papal Authority.-Louis of Bavaria.almost a characteristic vice. ValentiniSecession to Avignon and Return to Rome.Conduct of Avignon Popes-contested Election an I., in 370, prohibited the clergy from of Urban and Clement produces the great Schism. receiving the bequest of women; a modi-Council of Pisa Constance-Basle.--Meth-fication more discreditable than any genods adopted to restrain the Papal usurpations in England, Germany, and France. - Liberties of the Gallican Church.-Decline of the Papal In

fluence in Italy.

Wealth of

AT the irruption of the northern invaders into the Roman empire, the church they found the clergy already under the endowed with extensive possesempire. sions. Besides the spontaneous oblations upon which the ministers of the Christian church had originally subsisted, they had obtained, even under the pagan emperors, by concealment or connivance, for the Roman law did not permit a tenure of lands in mortmain, cer

eral law could have been. And several of the fathers severely reprobate the prevailing avidity of their contemporaries.§

The devotion of the conquering nations, as it was still less enlight Increased ened than that of the subjects of after its the empire, so was it still more

subversion.

* Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, 1. ii., c. 8. Gibbon, c. 15 and c. 20. F. Paul's Treatise on Benefices, c. 4. The last writer does not wholly confirm this position; but a comparison of the three seems to justify my text.

† Giannone. Gibbon, ubi supra. F. Paul, c. 5. + Idem, Ibid.

Giannone, ubi supra. F. Paul, c. 6

erality, as numerous charters still extant in diplomatic collections attest. Many churches possessed seven or eight thousand mansi; one with but two thousand passed for only indifferently rich.* But it must be remarked, that many of these donations are of lands uncultivated and unappropriated. The monasteries acquired legitimate riches by the culture of these deserted tracts, and by the prudent management of their revenues, which were less exposed to the ordinary means of dissipation than those of the laity. Their wealth, continually accumulated, enabled them to become the regular purchasers of landed estates, especially in the time of the crusades, when the fiefs of the nobility were constantly in the market for sale or mortgage.‡

munificent. They left, indeed, the worship of Hesus and Taranis in their forests; but they retained the elementary principles of that, and of all barbarous idolatry, a superstitious reverence for the priesthood, a credulity that seemed to invite imposture, and a confidence in the efficacy of gifts to expiate offences. Of this temper it is undeniable that the ministers of religion, influenced probably not so much by personal covetousness as by zeal for the interests of their order, took advantage. Many of the peculiar and prominent characteristics in the faith and discipline of those ages appear to have been either introduced, or sedulously promoted, for the purposes of sordid fraud. To those purposes conspired the veneration for relics, the worship of images, the idolatry of saints and martyrs, If the possessions of ecclesiastical the religious inviolability of sanctuaries, communities had all been as Sometimes the consecration of cemeteries, but, above fairly earned, we could find no- improperly all, the doctrine of purgatory, and masses thing in them to reprehend. acquired. for the relief of the dead. A creed thus But other sources of wealth were less contrived, operating upon the minds of pure; and they derived their wealth from barbarians, lavish though rapacious, and many sources. Those who entered into devout though dissolute, naturally caused a monastery threw frequently their whole a torrent of opulence to pour in upon the estates into the common stock; and even church. Donations of land were contin- the children of rich parents were expectually made to the bishops, and, in stilled to make a donation of land on assumore ample proportion, to the monastic ming the cowl. Some gave their properfoundations. These had not been very ty to the church before entering on militanumerous in the west till the begin-ry expeditions; gifts were made by some ning of the sixth century, when Benedict to take effect after their lives, and beestablished his celebrated rule.* A more quests by many in the terrors of dissoluremarkable show of piety, a more abso- tion. Even those legacies to charitable lute seclusion from the world, forms more impressive and edifying, prayers and masses more constantly repeated, gave to the professed in these institutions a preference over the secular clergy.

The ecclesiastical hierarchy never received any territorial endowment by law, either under the Roman empire or the kingdoms erected upon its ruins. But the voluntary munificence of princes, as well as their subjects, amply supplied the place of a more universal provision. Large private estates, or, as they were termed, patrimonies, not only within their own diocesses, but sometimes in distant countries, sustained the dignity of the principal sees, and especially that of Rome. The French monarchs of the first dynasty, the Carlovingian family and their great chief, the Saxon line of emperors, the kings of England and Leon, set hardly any bounds to their lib.

Giannone, 1. iii., c. 6; 1. iv., c. 12. Treatise on Benefices, c. 8. Fleury, Huitième Discours sur l'Hist. Ecclésiastique. Muratori, Dissert. 65.

St. Marc, t. 1., p. 281. Giannone, 1. iv., c. 12.

purposes, which the clergy could with more decency and speciousness recommend, and of which the administration was generally confined to them, were frequently applied to their own benefit.§ They failed not, above all, to inculcate upon the wealthy sinner, that no atonement could be so acceptable to Heaven as liberal presents to its earthly delegates. To die without allotting a por

Schmidt, t. ii., p. 205.

+ Muratori, Dissert. 65. Du Cange, v. Eremus. Heeren, Essai sur les Croisades, p. 166. Schmidt, t. iii., p. 293.

Primo sacris pastoribus data est facultas, ut hæreditatis portio in pauperes et egenos dispergeretur; sed sensim ecclesiæ quoque in pauperum censum venerunt, atque intestate gentis mens credita est proclivior in eas futura fuisse quâ ex re pinguius illarum patrimonium evasit. Immò epis copi ipsi in rem suam ejusmodi consuetudinem interdum convertebant: ac tributum evasit, quod antea pii moris fuit.-Muratori, Antiquitates ita

liæ, t. v., Dissert. 67.

Muratori, Dissert. 67 (Antiquit. Italiæ, t. v., p. 1055), has preserved a curious charter of an Italian count, who declares, that, struck with reflections upon his sinful state, he had taken counsel with certain religious how he should atone for his offences. Accepto consilio ab iis excepto si re

tion of worldly wealth to pious uses, | As an additional source of revenue, was accounted almost like suicide, or a and in imitation of the Jewish law, the refusal of the last sacraments; and hence payment of tithes was recommended or intestacy passed for a sort of fraud upon enjoined. These, however, were not apthe church, which she punished by taking plicable at first to the maintenance of a the administration of the deceased's ef- resident clergy. Parochial divis- Tithes. fects into her own hands. This, howev- ions, as they now exist, did not er, was peculiar to England, and seems take place, at least in some countries, till to have been the case there only between several centuries after the establishment the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III., of Christianity. The rural churches, when the bishop took a portion of the in- erected successively as the necessities testate's personal estate, for the advan- of a congregation required, or the piety tage of the church and poor, instead of dis- of a landlord suggested, were in fact a tributing it among his next of kin.* The sort of chapels dependant on the cathecanonical penances imposed upon repent-dral, and served by itinerant ministers at ant offenders, extravagantly severe in the bishop's discretion. The bishop himthemselves, were commuted for money self received the tithes, and apportioned or for immoveable possessions; a fertile, them as he thought fit. A capitulary of though scandalous source of monastic Charlemagne, however, regulates their diwealth, which the popes afterward di- vision into three parts; one for the bishverted into their own coffers by the op and his clergy, a second for the poor, usage of dispensations and indulgences.† and a third for the support of the fabric The church lands enjoyed an immunity of the church.† Some of the rural churchfrom taxes, though not in general from es obtained by episcopal concessions the military service, when of a feudal tenure. privileges of baptism and burial, which But their tenure was frequently in what were accompanied with a fixed share of was called frankalmoign, without any tithes, and seem to imply the residence obligation of service. Hence it became of a minister. The same privileges were a customary fraud of lay proprietors to gradually extended to the rest; and thus grant estates to the church, which they a complete parochial division was finally received again by way of fief or lease, established. But this was hardly the exempted from public burdens. And as case in England till near the time of the if all these means of accumulating what conquest.‡ they could not legitimately enjoy were insufficient, the monks prostituted their knowledge of writing to the purpose of forging charters in their own favour, which might easily impose upon an ignorant age, since it has required a peculiar science to detect them in modern times. Such rapacity might seem incredible in men cut off from the pursuits of life and the hope of posterity, if we did not behold every day the unreasonableness of avarice, and the fervour of professional attachment.‡

nunciare sæculo possem, nullum esse melius inter eleemosinarum virtutes, quàm si de propriis meis substantiis in monasterium concederem. Hoc consilium ab iis libenter, et ardentissimo animo ego accepi.

* Selden, vol. iii., p. 1676. Prynne's Constitutions, vol. iii., p. 18. Blackstone, vol. ii., chap. 32. In France, the lord of the fief seems to have taken the whole spoil.-Du Cange, v. Intestatus.

+ Muratori, Dissert. 68.

+ Muratori's 65th, 67th, and 68th Dissertations on the antiquities of Italy, have furnished the principal materials of my text, with Father Paul's treatise on Benefices, especially chaps. 19 and 29; Giannone, loc. cit. and 1. iv., c. 12; 1. v., c. 6; l. x., c. 12. Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands, t. i., p. 370; t. ii., p. 203, 462; t. iv., p. 202. Fleury, III., Discours sur l'Hist. Ecclés. Du Cange, voc. Precaria.

The slow and gradual manner in which parochial churches became independent, appears to be of itself a sufficient answer to those who ascribe a great antiquity to the universal payment of tithes. There are, however, more direct proofs that this species of ecclesiastical property was acquired not only by degrees, but with considerable opposition. We find the payment of tithes first enjoined by the canons of a provincial council in France near the end of the sixth century. From the ninth to the end of the twelfth, or even later, it is continually enforced by similar authority. Father Paul remarks, that most of the sermons preached about the eighth century inculcate this as a duty, and even seem to place the summit of Christian perfection in its perform

* Muratori, Dissert. 74, and Fleury, Institutions au Droit Ecclésiastique, t. i., p. 162, refer the origin of parishes to the fourth century; but this must be limited to the most populous parts of the empire.

Schmidt, t. ii., p. 206. This seems to have been founded on an ancient canon.-F. Paul, c. 7. Collier's Ecclesiastical History, p. 229.

Selden's History of Tithes, vol. iii., p. 1108, edít. Wilkins, Tithes are said by Giannone to have been enforced by some papal decrees in the sixth century, l. iii., c. 6.

through such means as I have described, and torn from her by lawless power. Those very men who, in the hour of sickness and impending death, showered the gifts of expiatory devotion upon her altars, had passed the sunshine of their lives in sacrilegious plunder. Notwithstanding the frequent instances of ex

among the nobility, we should be deceived in supposing this to be their general character. Rapacity, not less insatiable than that of the abbots, was commonly united with a daring fierceness that the abbots could not resist. In every country, we find continual lamentation over the plunder of ecclesiastical possessions. Charles Martel is reproached with having given the first notorious example of such spoliation. It was not, however, commonly practised by sovereigns. But the evil was not the less universally felt. The parochial tithes, especially, as the hand of robbery falls heaviest upon the weak, were exposed to unlawful seizure. In the tenth and eleventh centuries nothing was more common than to see the revenues of benefices in the hands of lay

ance.* This reluctant submission of the people to a general and permanent tribute is perfectly consistent with the eagerness displayed by them in accumulating voluntary donations upon the church. Charlemagne was the first who gave the confirmation of a civil statute to these ecclesiastical injunctions; no one at least has, so far as I know, adduced any ear-treme reverence for religious institutions lier law for the payment of tithes than one of his capitularies. But it would be precipitate to infer, either that the practice had not already gained ground to a considerable extent, through the influence of ecclesiastical authority, or, on the other hand, that it became universal in consequence of the commands of Charlemagne. In the subsequent ages, it was very common to appropriate tithes, which had originally been payable to the bishop, either towards the support of particular churches, or, according to the prevalent superstition, to monastic foundations. These arbitrary consecrations, though the subject of complaint, lasted, by a sort of prescriptive right of the landholder, till about the year 1200. It was nearly at the same time that the obligation of paying tithes, which had been ori-impropriators, who employed curates at ginally confined to those called predial, the cheapest rate; an abuse that has nevor the fruits of the earth, was extended, er ceased in the church. Several atat least in theory, to every species of tempts were made to restore these tithes ; profit, and to the wages of every kind of but even Gregory VII. did not venture to labour. proceed in it; and indeed it is highly Yet there were many hinderances that probable that they might be held in some Spoliation thwarted the clergy in their ac-instances by a lawful title. Sometimes of church quisition of opulence, and a sort property of reflux, that set sometimes very strongly against them. In times of barbarous violence, nothing can thoroughly compensate for the inferiority of physical strength and prowess. The ecclesiastical history of the middle ages presents one long contention of fraud against robbery; of acquisitions made by the church

* Treatise on Benefices, c. 11.

+ Mably (Observations sur l'Hist. de France, t. 1., p. 238 et 438) has, with remarkable rashness, attacked the current opinion, that Charlemagne established the legal obligation of tithes, and denied that any of his capitularies bear such an interpretation. Those which he quotes have indeed a different meaning; but he has overlooked an express enactment in 789 (Baluzii Capitularia, t. i., p. 253), which admits of no question; and I believe that there are others in confirmation.

the property of monasteries was dilapida ted by corrupt abbots, whose acts, however clandestine and unlawful, it was not easy to revoke. And both the bishops and convents were obliged to invest powerful lay protectors, under the name of advocates, with considerable fiefs, as the price of their assistance against depredators. But these advocates became too often themselves the spoilers, and oppressed the helpless ecclesiastics for whose defence they had been engaged.§

* Du Cange, voc. Abbas.

Schmidt, t. iv., p. 204. At an assembly held at St. Denis in 997, the bishops proposed to restore the tithes to the secular clergy: but such a tumult was excited by this attempt, that the meeting was broken up.-Recueil des Historiens, t. xi,, præfat,

Selden's Hist. of Tithes, p. 1136. The third council of Lateran restrains laymen from transferring their impropriated tithes to other laymen.Velly, Hist. de France, t. iii., p. 235. This seems tacitly to admit that their possession was lawful, at least by prescription.

p. 212. The grant of Ethelwolf in 855 seems to be the most probable origin of the right to tithes in England. Whether this law, for such it was, met with constant regard, is another question. It is said by Marina, that tithes were not legally established in Castile till the reign of Alfonso X.-Ensayo sobre las siete partidas, c. 359.

Selden, p. 1114, et seq. Coke, 2 Inst., p. 641. Selden's History of Tithes. Treatise on Benefices, c. 28. Giannone, 1. x., c. 12.

For the injuries sustained by ecclesiastical proprietors, see Muratori, Dissert. 72. Du Cange, v. Advocatus. Schmidt, t. ii., p. 220, 470; t. ni., p. 290; t. iv., p. 188, 202. Recueil des Historiens, t.