THE MANOR HOUSE,

PONTESBURY,
SHREWSBURY.
 a

THE POPE AND THE COUNCIL

ft\
 RIVINGTONS
3Lonl30n Waterloo Place
ifortl High Street.
Trinity Street.
 THE POPE
AND THE COUNCIL

BY JANUS

AUTHORIZED TKAXSLATIOS FROM THE GEEMAN

THIRD EDITION REVISED

PJVINGTONS
iLontron, xforb, auto Camfcrflnje

1870

[All rights reserved]

 EDINBURGH T. CONSTABLE,
:

PRINTER TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY,

 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE

PREFACE, .......
NOTICE BY TRANSLATOR, . . . . . ix

xiii

INTRODUCTION
Jesuit Programme for the Council, ... 1

Recent Provincial Synods on Papal

Method of Proceedings pre-arranged, ...
Infallibility, . 5

CHAPTER I.

MAKING THE SYLLABUS DOGMATIC.

Schrader

(1.)

(2.)
s

Coercive

Political
Affirmative Statement of the Propositions,

Power of the Church,

Supremacy of the Popes,

...
. .
.

.
9

13
9

(3.) Revision of History, . . . . . 15

(4.) Freedom of Conscience and Persecution, . . 16

(5.) Modern Civilisation and Constitutionalism condemned, 20

CHAPTER
THE NEW DOGMA ABOUT MARY, .... II.

34
vi Table of Contents.

CHAPTER TIL

PAPAL INFALLIBILITY.

SECT.

SECT.
1.

2.
Ultramontanism,

Consequences of the Dogma

....of Infallibility, .
PAGE
37
45
SECT. 3. Errors and Contradictions of the Popes, . 51
SECT. 4. The Verdict of History on the Position of Bishops

of Rome in the Ancient Church, . . 63

SECT. 5. The Primacy in the Ancient Constitution of the
Church, . . . . . 77
SECT. 6. The Teaching ofihe Fathers on the Primacy, . 80
SECT. 7. Forgeries
The Isidorian Decretals,

Forgeries of the Hildebrandine Era,

... . .
94
100
Earlier Roman Fabrications, . . . 122
The Liber Pontificalis, . . . 128
The Donation of Constantino, . 131
Donations of Pepin and 135
Charlemagne, .

The Decretum of Gratian, . 142

SECT. 8. Progress of Papal Power in the Twelfth and Thir
teenth Centuries, . . 151
SECT. 9. Papal Encroachments on Episcopal Rights
Legates, . . . . .164
The Pallium, ......169
Exemptions and Dispensations,

Plenitudo Potestatis, . . .
. . 165

167

Appeals to Rome, .
172
Papal Patronage, . 175
 Table of Contents. vii
PAGK
Reservations, . . . . 170

The Oath of Obedience, . . . 176

Interference with Diocesan Administration and

its Results, . . . 177

SECT. 10. Personal Attitude of the Popes, . . 181

SECT 1 1. Relation of Popes to Councils in the Middle Ages, 190

SECT. 12. Neglect of Theology at Rome, . . . 199

SECT. 13. The College of Cardinals, . . . 205

SECT. 14. The "

Curia" . . . . . 215

SECT. 15.

SECT. 16.

SECT. 17.
The Inquisition,
Trials for Witchcraft,
.....249
The Judgments of Contemporaries,

. .
.

.
. 223
235

SECT. 18. Dominican Forgeries and their Results, . 261

SECT. 19.

SECT. 20.

SECT. 21.
Papal
Fresh Forgeries,

Interdicts,
Infallibility

....
.....
Disputed, . . . 271

278
289
SECT. 22. The Schism of the Antipopes, . . . 292
SECT. 23.

SECT. 24.
The Council of Constance,
The Council of Basle, .... . . . 298
308
SECT. 25.

SECT. 26.

SECT. 27.
The Union with
The Papal Reaction, ....
the Greek Church,

Temper and Circumstances of the Fifteenth Century, 337

. . 319

327

SECT. 28. The Opening of the Sixteenth Century

The Fifth Lateran Synod, . . . 347

Security of the Curia, . . . 349

The Roman Chancery, . . . 351
Conecte and Savonarola, . . . 353
SECT. 29. The State of Contemporary Opinion, . , 355
viii Table of Contents.
PAGi;

SECT. 30. The Council of Trent and its Results, . . 365

SECT. 31. Papal Infallibility formulized into a Doctrine

Italian Theologians, . . . .371
Admissions made by Infallibilists, . . 377
Bull of Paul iv., Cum ex Apostolatus officio, . 382

Bull, In Cozna Domini,

The Jesuit Divines,
Bellarmine, .
....
.
.

.
.

.
.

.
384
387
390

Corruptions of the Breviary, . . 396

The Roman Martyrology corrupted, . . 399
The Isidorian Forgeries maintained, . 401
Definitions ex cathedrd, . . . 403

SECT. 32. The Infallibility of the Church and of the Popes

compared
Infallibility of the Church, . . . 411

Infallibility of the Pope, . . . 412

Moral Effect of the Theory on the Popes, . 414
SECT. 33. What is meant by a Free Council, . . 419
 NOTICE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

T will be obvious at a glance to the reader, that this

i work emanates from Catholic authorship, and dis

cusses the great religious crisis through which the Church

and the world are now passing from a Catholic, though
a "

liberal Catholic/ point of view. That it bears evi

dence of no common attainments and grasp of mind a

very cursory examination will suffice to show. An

English translation is offered to the public under the

belief that there are very many in this country, as well

Protestants as Catholics, who will gladly avail them

selves of an opportunity of learning, on the most direct

authority, how the grave questions which just now

agitate the Church are regarded by the members of a

school, morally if not numerically strong, within her

pale, who yield indeed to none in their loyal devotion

x Notice by the Translator.

to Catholic truth, but are unable to identify its interests

with the advance of Ultramontanism, or rather, who

cannot but recognise between the two an antithesis

which the Church history of the last thousand years

too eloquently attests, and to which present facts, no

less than past experience, give all the significance of a

solemn warning it would be worse than unwisdom to

ignore.

Two rival tendencies, alien alike in their principles

and their aims, which have long been silently develop

ing themselves, are now contending for the mastery

within the bosom of the Church, like the unborn babes

in Eebekah s womb, and it is simply a truism to assert

that every section of our divided Christendom is inter

ested in the result of the struggle. We live in an age

powerful beyond all that have gone before for good and for

evil, penetrated perhaps more deeply than controversial

ists are willing to admit by Christian sentiment, but also

presenting in too many quarters a spectacle unprece

dented in modern history, of fixed and deliberate anta

gonism to the dogmas of the Christian creed. Not only

the world of sense, but of supernatural revelation, is
 Notice by the Translator. xi

delivered over to the disputations of men. At such a

moment, it is proposed, amid the fervid acclamations

of one party, the earnest and sorrowful protests of

another, the careless acquiescence or sullen indiffer

ence of a host of nominal believers, and the triumphant

sneers of an amused but unbelieving outside world, to

erect Papal Infallibility into an article and therefore

inevitably the cardinal article of the Catholic faith.

Under a profound sense of the range and gravity of the

issues involved this work was written, and with a simi

lar feeling, which each day s experience only deepens,

it has been translated. Man s necessity, we know, is

God s opportunity, and even at the eleventh hour He

mav /
stretch forth His arm to save His menaced and

afflicted Church.
"

Oculi omnium in Te sperant, Domine,

et Tu das escam illorum in tempore opportune."

We cannot, indeed, forget that two years elapsed

before the oecumenical pretensions cf the Latrocinium

of Ephesus were formally superseded, and that for more

than twenty the Church lay, technically at least, under
the reproach of heresy inflicted on her by the Council

of Rimini, to which St. Jerome gave expression in the

xii Notice by the Translator.

well-known words, "Ingemuit totus orbis et Ariamim se

esse miratus est."

Meanwhile, it behoves us to possess our
souls in patience, as knowing that the Church is greater
than any parties or individuals who for the moment may
usurp her functions and prostitute her awful name, and

that, come what will, truth must ultimately prevail.

It may be well to add that the substance of the

earlier portion of this volume appeared in a series of

articles on "

The Council and the Civilta," published

during last March in the Allgemeine Zeitung?- which

attracted very general attention on the Continent. But
the whole subject is here worked out in detail, and

with constant reference to the original authorities for

every statement that is dwelt upon.

1 See Allg. Z. for March 10-15, 1869.

Sept. 10, 1869.

NOTICE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

SEVERAL verbal changes have been introduced into the

present edition, with a view to greater clearness and accuracy

of rendering, besides the correction of
misprints both in the
Original and the Translation, and some additional footnotes.

Dec. 8, 1869.
 P REFA CE.

rjlHE immediate object of this work is to investigate

by the light of history those questions which, we

are credibly informed, are to be decided at the (Ecu
menical Council already announced. And as we have
endeavoured to fulfil this task by direct reference to

original authorities, it is not perhaps too much to hope

that our labours will attract attention in scientific

circles, and serve as a contribution to Ecclesiastical

History. But this work aims also at something more

than the mere calm and aimless exhibition of histori

cal events ;
the reader will readily perceive that it has
a far wider scope, and deals with ecclesiastical politics,

in one word, that it is a pleading for very life, an

appeal to the thinkers among believing Christians, a

protest based on history against a menacing future,

against the programme of a powerful coalition, at one

time openly proclaimed, at another more darkly insi-
xiv Preface.

nuated, and which thousands of busy hands are daily

and hourly employed in carrying out.
We have written under a deep sense of anxiety in
presence of a serious danger, threatening primarily the
internal condition of the Catholic Church, and then-
as is inevitable with what affects a corporation includ

ing 180 millions of men destined to assume vaster

dimensions, and take the shape of a great social pro

blem, which cannot be without its influence on eccle

siastical communities and nations outside the Catholic

Church.
This danger does not date from yesterday, and did
not begin with the proclamation of the Council. For
some twenty- four years the reactionary movement in
the Catholic Church, which is now swollen to a mighty

torrent, has been manifesting itself, and now it is pre

paring, like an advancing flood-tide, to take possession

of the whole organic life of the Church by means of this

Council.

We and the plural must not here be understood

figuratively, but literally we confess to entertaining

that view of the Catholic Church and her mission

which its opponents designate by that much-abused

term, so convenient in its vagueness for polemical pur-
 Preface. xv

Liberal; a term in the worst repute

with all
poses

uncompromising adherents of the Court

of Eome and of

the Jesuits two powers intimately allied, and never

mentioned by them without bitterness. We are of

their opinion who are persuaded, first, that the Catholic

Church, far from assuming an hostile and suspicious

attitude towards the principles of political, intellectual,

and religious freedom and self-determination, in so

far as they are capable of a Christian interpretation,

or rather are directly derived from the letter and

spirit of the Gospel, ought, on the contrary, to be in

positive accord with them, and to exercise a constant

purifying and ennobling influence on their develop

ment ; secondly, that a great and searching reformation
of the Church is necessary and inevitable, however

long it may be evaded.

To us the Catholic Church and Papalism are by no
means convertible terms, and therefore, while in out
ward communion with them, we are inwardly separated

by a great gulf from those whose ideal of the Church

is an universal empire spiritually, and, where it is pos
sible, physically, ruled by a single monarch, an empire
of force and oppression, where the spiritual authority
is aided by the secular arm in summarily suppressing
xvi Preface.

every movement it dislikes. In a word, we reject that

doctrine and idea of the^ Church which has for years

been commended by the organ of the Koman Jesuits as

alone true, as the sole remaining anchor of deliverance

for the perishing human race.

It will more precisely indicate our point of view if

we quote the words of a man regarded in his lifetime

as the ornament and pride of the German clergy, the
Cardinal and Prince- - Bishop Diepenbrock, who was

himself the pupil of the ever-memorable Sailer, and

shared his sentiments. Diepenbrock replied to the

reforming suggestions of his friend Passavant, involving
an alteration in the hierarchy, a softening of the sharp
distinction between clergy and laity, a co-operation of

the people in Church-government, and a transformation

of the Eoman Court, by saying that

"

only in this way

can health be restored to the general body, and earthly
conditions be elevated and ennobled, which is a task
that Christianity must accomplish ; only thus, by deve
loping and quickening the constitution and doctrine of
the Church, can the questionings and aspirations this

remarkable age of ours is everywhere seething with

obtain their rest and satisfaction/
"

It is true, indeed," he added, "

that the ultra party

 Preface. xvii

in the Church hopes to reach its goal by an opposite

road. But such a return to the past is an impossibility in

history. The Middle Ages are left behind once for all,

and nothing but a fata morgana can make them hover

like a possible future before the lively imagination of

and his allies. The necessity of a complete re

novation of the Church is already dawning on the vision
of all who think without prejudice, while to the few

only its nature and method are as clear as the thing

itself. To speak out such ideas openly I hold to be a

sort of duty of charity towards mankind."

It would be easy to quote from the writings of

Giigler, Gorres, Eckstein, Francis Baader, and Mohler

-to mention only the departed a series of testimonies

to prove that the most gifted and enlightened among

German Catholics have entertained the same or kin

dred views.

Diepenbrock only lived to witness the first tentative

approaches of that Ultramontanism which he has de

scribed. What appeared in his time as an isolated and
half-unconscious tendency, has since grown up into a

powerful party, with clearly ascertained objects, which

has gained a firm footing through the wide ramifications
1 See Letters published in Passavant s Nachlass (Remains), p. 87.

I
xviii Preface.

of the Jesuit Order, and enlists the energetic services

of a constantly increasing body of fellow-labourers in

the clergy educated at the Jesuit College in Eome.

As it had become necessary to assail this party, which

carries on its plans either in ignorance of Church history
or by deliberately falsifying it, we were obliged to distin

guish the primacy as it existed in the ancient Church

from its later form, and we could not therefore avoid

bringing forward in this connexion a very dark side of

the history of the Papacy. Every one who examines
the internal relations of Church history will be con

strained to acknowledge that, since the eleventh cen

tury, there has been no period of it on which a Chris

tian student can dwell with unmixed satisfaction ;
and
as he endeavours to get at the bottom of the causes

underlying that unmistakable decay of Church life, con

stantly getting a deeper hold, and more widely spreading,

he will always be brought back to the distortion and
transformation of the Primacy as the ultimate root of

the evil. If the Primacy is on the one hand a source of

strength to the Catholic Church, yet on the other hand

it cannot be denied that, when one looks at it from the

standpoint of the ancient Church from the Apostolic

age till about 845. the Papacy, such as it has become,

 Preface. xix

presents the appearance of a disfiguring, sickly, and

choking excrescence on the organization of the

Church, cramping and decomposing its better vital

powers, and bringing manifold diseases in its train.

And now, when for many years preparations have been

going on for effecting the final completion of the sys

tem which lies at the root of the present incongruities

in the Church, and surrounding it with an impregnable

bulwark by the doctrine of Infallibility, it becomes the

duty of every one who wishes well to the Church and

to society, to which it supplies an element of life, to

try, according to the measure of his knowledge and

working power, what can yet be done to ward off so

fatal a catastrophe.

We do not conceal from ourselves that the charge of

a radical aversion to the Papacy will be brought from

more than one quarter against this book and its authors.

Their number is legion at the present day, for whom

the scriptural saying,
"

Meliora sunt vulnera diligentis

quam fraudulenta oscula odientis," has no meaning, and

who cannot comprehend how a man can at once love
and honour an institution, and yet expose its weak
points, denounce its faults, and purposely exhibit their

mischievous results. In their opinion, things of the

xx Preface.

kind should be carefully hushed up, or only apologeti

cally referred to. And for some time past this way of

looking at matters has been designated "

piety."
It is

therefore pious to believe gladly and readily fables and

falsehoods which have been invented for certain ends

connected with religion, or are clothed in a religions

dress; it is pious either wholly to deny the injuries

and abuses of the Church s life, and the perversities in
her government, or, when this is impracticable, to do
one s utmost to defend them, and to gain them the cre
dit of being due to good motives, or, at least, of having

a tolerable side. The absence of such a disposition is

visited in ecclesiastical circles with the reproach of im

piety a reproach which, accordingly, our work is sure

not to escape. But we do not acknowledge the jus

tice of this view ;
we consider it, indeed, a commend
able piety to maintain silence about the personal in

firmities or errors of a man in high position, or even at

the head of the Church, or at least to deal gently with

them, but we think it a complete misapplication of the

term when it is called a duty of piety to conceal or

colour historical facts and faulty institutions. On the

contrary, we believe our piety owes its first duties to the

Divine institution of the Church and to the truth, and

 Preface. xxi

it is precisely this piety which constrains us to oppose,

frankly and decisively, every disfigurement or disturb

ance either of the one or the other. And we hold it the

more imperative on us to come forward, when not only

hereditary evils are not to be got rid of, but are actually
to be increased by new abuses, and that too at a time
when the falling away from Christianity has become so

general and cuts so deep partly for this very reason,

that, under the mass of rubbish it is overlaid with, its

eternal, divine, and saving germ is hidden from the

short-sighted gaze of the present generation. In proof

that herein we are but acting in the spirit of the

Church, we can appeal to sayings, the one of a Pope,

the other of a highly-venerated saint. Innocent HI.

said, "Falsitas sub velamine sanctitatis tolerari non

debet," and St. Bernard declares, "

Melius est ut scan-

dalum oriatur quam veritas relinquatur."

Every faithful Catholic is convinced and to that con

viction the authors of this book profess their adherence
that the primacy rests on higher appointment. The
Church from the first was founded upon it, and the Lord
of the Church ordained its type in the person of Peter.
It has therefore, from the necessity of the case, developed

itself up to a certain point, but on this has followed, since

xxii Preface.

the ninth century, a further development artificial and

sickly rather than sound and natural of the Primacy

into the Papacy, a transformation more than a develop
ment, the consequences of which have been the splitting

up of the previously united Church into three great

ecclesiastical bodies, divided and at enmitv

w
with each
other. The ancient Church found the need of a centre

of unity, of a bishop possessed of primatial authority, to

whom the oppressed might turn, and by whose powerful

intercession they might obtain justice. But when the

presidency in the Church became an empire, when in

place of the first bishop deliberating and deciding in

on the
"

union with his "

brethren affairs of the Church,

and setting them the example of submission to her laws,

was substituted the despotic rule of an absolute mon

arch, then the unity of the Church, so firmly secured be

fore, was broken up. When we inquire for definite, fixed,

and universally acknowledged rights, exercised equally

throughout the whole Church during the first Christian

centuries by the bishop of Borne, as holding the primacy,

we seem to lose sight of him again, for of the privileges
afterwards obtained or laid claim to by the Popes not one
can be traced up to the earliest times, and pointed to
as a right
uninterruptedly and everywhere exercised.
 Preface. xxiii

But we meet with abundant facts which prove unmis-

takeably that the Eoman bishops not only believed

themselves to be in possession of a Divine right, and
acted accordingly, but that this right was actually

recognised by others. And if it was often affirmed, as

by the Council of Chalcedon, that the Eoman Church

had received its privileges from the Fathers, we shall
have to consider that the Primacy itself, the first rank

among Churches, was not given to it by any Synod at

any fixed time, but had always existed since the time of
the Apostles, and that to any heathen who asked which
among their Churches was the first and principal one,

whose voice and testimony had the greatest weight and

influence, every Christian would have answered at once

that it was the Eoman Church, where the two chief

Apostles, Peter and Paul, sealed their testimony with

their blood, just as Irenseus has expressed it.

But we shall be obliged to allow that the form which

this Primacy took depended on the concessions of the

particular local Churches, and was never therefore the

same everywhere, acting within certain fixed limits

prescribed by law. No one acquainted with Church

history will choose to affirm that the Popes ever exer

cised a fixed primatial right, in the same way in Africa
xxiv Preface.

as in Egypt, in Gaul as in Mesopotamia; and the

well-known fact speaks* clearly enough for itself, that

throughout the whole ancient canon law, whether in

the collections preserved in the Eastern or the Western

Church, there is no mention of Papal rights, or any re -

ference to a legally defined action of the bishop of Rome

in other Churches, with the single exception of the

canon of Sardica, which never obtained universally even

in the West.

A good illustration of this relation of the Primacy to

the Church is afforded by the Council of Chalcedon in

451. The position of Pope Leo, though he was not

present, is evidently a very high and influential one ;

more honour was shown to him and his Church than

had been ever shown at any Synod to any other bishop,
and his legates presided with great authority at this
most numerous of the ancient assemblies of the Church.
Meanwhile matters came at last to a point, where the
Council maintained, and eventually, after long opposi
tion on the side of Borne, carried out its own will against
the legates, and the instructions they had received

from Leo. 1

In the account of patristic teaching on the Roman primacy given

below (pp. 87 sqq.), there is no mention made of one important name, St.
 Preface. xxv

In this "book the first attempt has been made to

give a history of the hypothesis of Papal Infallibility

from its first beginnings to the end of the sixteenth

century, when it appears in its complete form. That

hypothesis, late as was the date of its invention, and

though for a long met with strenuous opposi

time it

tion, will yet always have numerous adherents, if it

is to remain for the future in its former condition of

a mere theological opinion, for it is recommended by

its convenience and facility of application. It seems
to attain, by the shortest road, in the simplest way,

and with least waste of time, what the ancient Church

expended so much trouble upon, with so many appli

ances, and for so long a time. But, if once generally
Jerome As the omission might be considered intentional, we take this
s.

opportunity of making some remarks on him. His letters to Pope Damasus

of 375 (Opp. ed. Vallarsi, i. 39), were written tinder the pressure of his
distress in Syria from the charge of heresy ; he was unwilling to use the
received expression, "three hypostases," instead of "three persons," and
was therefore accused of Sabellianism. He then urged the Pope, with
courtly and high-sounding professions of unconditional submission to his
authority, but, at the same time, in a strictly menacing tone, to pronounce
upon this term in the sense needed for justifying him. In fact, he gave St.
Cyril of Jerusalem, to whom he sent his profession of faith, as high a place
as the Pope. But Cyril, with good ground, thought the case a suspicious
one, and gave him no answer. St. Jerome s well-known saying, "

Inter
duodecim unus eligitur, ut capite constituto schismatis tolleretur occasio,"
gives the most pointed expression to the view then entertained by the
faithful of the nature of the Primacy, only the notions current in our
day
of the privileges involved in this description of it are more extensive than
was then the case.
xxvi Preface.

accepted as a rule of faith, it becomes not only a soft

cushion on which the wearied or perplexed mind, as well

of the layman as of the theologian, may repose softly, and
abandon itself to undisturbed slumber, but it also supplies
to the intellectual world in religious matters what our
steam conveyances and electrical wires supply to the ma
terial world in the saving of time and labour. Nothing
could be more economical or better adapted to save study

and intellectual toil even for Eome herself ;

for the in

evitable result of the principle would speedily bring us

to this point, that the essence of Infallibility consists in

the Pope s signature to a decree hastily drawn up by a

congregation or a single theologian. The remark has
frequently been made that it is chiefly converts, with
little theological cultivation, but plenty of youthful

zeal, who surrender themselves in willing and joyful

mental slavery to the infallible ruler of souls ; rejoicing
and deeming themselves fortunate to have a master,

visible, palpable, and easily inquired of. Christ seems

to them so exalted and so distant, the Church so large

and wide, so many-sided in its opinions, and so silent

on many points people would like to know about. How

much easier to get a dogmatic decision from a Pope by
the proper amount of pressure ! We may call to mind,
 Preface. xxvii

in this connexion, the decisions of Alexander vn. in

favour of the newly discovered doctrine of attrition, the

decrees of Clement XL and Benedict xm., and the

powers which have thereby been called into operation.

But if raising the doctrine of Infallibility into an
article of faith must, on the one hand, cripple all intel

lectual movement and scientific activity in the Catholic

Church, it would, on the other hand, build up a new

wall of partition, and that the strongest and most im
penetrable of all, between that Church and the religious
communities separated from her. We must renounce
that dearest hope which no Christian can banish from
his breast, the hope of a future reunion of the divided
Churches both of the East and the West. For no one
who is moderately acquainted with the history of the
Eastern Church and of the Protestant bodies, will seri

ously hold it to be conceivable that a time can ever

come in which even any considerable portion of these
Churches will subject itself, of its own free-will, to the

arbitrary power of a single man, stretched, as it would be,

through the doctrine of Infallibility, even beyond its pre
sent proportions. Only when a universal conflagration
of libraries had destroyed all historical documents, when
Easterns and Westerns knew no more of their own early
xxviii Preface.

history than the Maories in New Zealand know of theirs

now, and when, by a miracle, great nations had abjured

their whole intellectual character and habits of thought,

then, and not till then, would such a submission be

possible.
What was it that gave the Councils of Constance and

Basle, in the fifteenth century, so constraining an autho

rityand such a lasting influence on the condition of the

Church ? It was the power of public opinion which
backed them up. And if at this day a strong and
unanimous public opinion, at once positive in its faith
and firm in its resistance to the realization of the Ultra
montane scheme, were awakened and openly proclaimed
in Europe, or even in Germany only, then, in spite of
the utterances, so suggestive of gloomy forebodings, of the

Bishops of Mayence, St. Polten, and Mechlin, the present

danger would happily pass away. We have attempted in

this work to contribute to the awakening and direction
of such a public opinion. It may, perchance, produce
no more permanent effect than a stone thrown into the

water, which raises a momentary ripple on the surface,

and then leaves all as it was before but yet it may act
;

like a net cast into the sea, which brings in a rich

draught of fishes.
 Preface. xxix

For many reasons no names of authors are placed on

our title-page. We consider that a work so entirely

made up of facts, and supporting all its statements by

reference to the original authorities, must and can speak
for itself, without needing any names attached to it.

We are anxious that the reader s attention should be

exclusively concentrated on the matter itself, and that,

in the event of its evoking controversy, no opportu
nity should be given for transferring the dispute from
the sphere of objective and scientific
investigation of
the weighty questions under review, conducted with

dignity and calmness, into the alien region of venomous

personal defamation and invective.

July 31, 18G9.

d
 INTRODUCTION.

COEEIGENDA.
Page 164, line 13, for
"

prominent
"

read "

permanent."

237, line 12, for "

devices
"

read "

decrees."

326, note, line 5, for "

all the words after primacy over the

whole Church are missing," read "

the words about headship

over the whole Church are also
wanting."

Page 336, line 21, for

"

read "

canonizing" beatifying."

\-f L/ l_/V^OJ-i>V-/ J.J.V7 JU JLJ.\_/ r TT A._/AJ. %/_ v^ \^/ v, viajLv^j.^. vvy

J-^v/K/

promulgate the doctrines of the Syllabus. In any case,

the Council could put out in a positive form, and with

the requisite developments, the negative statements of

the Syllabus, and thereby quite set aside the

rnisappre-
 IN TROD UCTION.

veil which has hitherto hung over the prepara

tions for the great General Council, and the ends
it is
designed to serve, is already lifted.

The Civiltdb Cattolica of 6th February published the

following remarkable article, in the form of a com

munication from France :
"

The liberal Catholics are

afraid the Council may proclaim the doctrines of the

Syllabus and the Infallibility of the Pope, but they do

not give up the hope that it may modify or interpret

certain statements of the Syllabus in a sense favourable

to their own and that the question of Infallibility

ideas,

will either not be mooted or not decided. The true

Catholics, who are the great majority of the faithful,

entertain opposite hopes. They wish the Council to

promulgate the doctrines of the Syllabus. In any case,

the Council could put out in a positive form, and with

the requisite developments, the negative statements of

the Syllabus, and thereby quite set aside the rnisappre-

2 Introduction.

tensions which exist about some of them. Catholics will

accept with delight the proclamation of the Pope s dog

matic infallibility. Every one understands that he him
self is not disposed to take the initiative in a matter

so directly concerning himself; but it is hoped that his

infallibility will be denned unanimously, by acclama

tion, by the mouth of the assembled Fathers, under the

inspiration of theHoly Ghost. Finally, many Catholics

wish the Council to crown the many honours the Church
has bestowed on the all-blessed Virgin by promulgating
her glorious assumption into heaven as a dogma."
It

said before, that Catholics believe the Council will

"

is

be of short duration, like the Council of Chalcedon (i.e.,

that it will only last three weeks). It is believed that

the Bishops will be so united on the main points, that

the minority, however willing, will not be able to make

any prolonged opposition."

In a later issue of the Civilta similar wishes are put

into the mouth of the Belgian Catholics, "

who are not

only devoted body and soul to the interests of the Church

and the Holy See, but have submitted unreservedly to all

doctrinal decisions emanating from the Holy See."

They
hope, among other things, that the Council will once for

put an end to the division among Catholics, by strik-

 Introduction. 3

ing a decisive blow at the spirit and doctrines of Liberal

ism, and that the doctrine of the Pope s infallibility and

supremacy over a General Council will be defined. The

same correspondent is no less emphatic in repudiating
the tolerably opposite desires of "

the so-called liberal

Catholics" of Belgium.These, who number many of the

younger clergy among their ranks, and who have not

completely submitted to the teaching of the Encyclical
and Syllabus, maintain that political questions do not

belong to the Popes, and some of them have violently

distorted the Encyclical and Syllabus in their own
1
sense. Their blindness, to say nothing worse, is so

great, that they expect the Council either to give de

cisions contradicting these pronouncements of the Holy
See, or to interpret them in their sense.

We shall not be wrong in taking these correspon

dents articles of the Cimltti, which are, perhaps, to be

followed by others from other parts of the Catholic

world, as something more than feelers merely to ascer

tain whether things are ripe for the dogmatic surprises
already prepared. No ! these zealots are not accus

tomed to pay the very slightest regard to the mental

disposition of their age. In these communications

1
[This seems to refer to the Pastoral of the Bishop of Orleans, Dupan-
loup, on the Encyclical. TR.]
4 Introduction.

about the wishes and hopes of Catholics, which take

the innocent form of petitions to the Holy See, we
have significant hints of what the Council is expected
to do ; significant hints, first to the Bishops to acquaint

themselves with their duty, and abstain from useless

opposition ;
and next, to the rest of the Catholic world

to prepare itself for the announcements of

"

approaching
the Holy Ghost."

The Civilta, written by Roman Jesuits, and com

mended some years ago in a Papal Brief as the purest
journalistic organ of true Church doctrine, may be

regarded as in some sense the Moniteur of the Court

of Eome. It is not too much to say that in all im
portant questions its thoughts are identical with those
of the chief head, and of many other "

heads/ in Eome.
Its lofty tone and arrogant handling of all opponents

correspond to this official character. Its articles often

read like Papal Bulls spun out. One could not there

fore desire a more trustworthy authority as to the aims

of Eome in convoking this Council.

Nor are other instructive signs wanting besides the

statements of the Civilta. The Jesuits have been

some time past in founding confraternities
active for

which bind themselves to hold and propagate Papal

 Introduction. 5

Infallibility as an article of faith. For the same object

the institution of Provincial Synods has been revived

during the last ten years, under stringent and repeated

exhortations from Eome. And it may be seen from
the published acts of those held both in and out of

Germany, that the question of Papal Infallibility and

of the theses of the Syllabus has been laid before
them. The Jesuit Schneemann reports that the Pro
vincial Synods of Cologne, Colocsa, Utrecht, and those
held in North America, have accepted Papal Infalli
1
bility. He observes that "these
Synodal affirmations
of Papal Infallibility, revised at Eorne, are important as

showing that, though as yet no formal article of faith,

it is in the eyes of Eome, and of the Bishops, an in

dubitable truth. For Provincial Synods are strictly

forbidden to decide controverted points of belief." We

may safely assume, on such good authority, that these
decisions were not waited for at Eome, but were sent
from Eorne to the Provincial Synods for approval. The
answers were such as could be reckoned on beforehand
in the present state of things in the Church ; they will
be produced in the Council as proofs of the belief of
the majority of Catholic Bishops, and to give the ap-

1
Literarischer Handweiser, 1S67, pp. 439 seq.
6 Introduction. ,

pearance of the definition of Papal Infallibility not

being so exclusively the work of the Jesuits, an ap

pearance Pius ix. was anxious to avoid in the case of

the Immaculate Conception. It appears, by a letter of

Flir s from Eome, that he yielded quite unexpectedly

in that case to Cardinal Eauscher s demand for striking

out of the Bull some of the irrelevant proofs alleged,

because, as he said, this must be endured, though a

humiliation for Koine, that people might not say every
1
thing depended on the Jesuits.
We know on good authority that the whole plan of
the campaign for fixing the Infallibility dogma is already
2
mapped out. An English Prelate we could name him-
has undertaken at the commencement of the Sessions to

direct a humble prayer to the Holy Father to raise the

opinion of his infallibility to the dignity of a dogma.

The Jesuits and their Eoman allies hope that the
majority of the Bishops present, who have been already

primed for the occasion, will accede by acclamation to

this petition, and the Holy Father will gladly yield to

1
Briefe aus Rom (Innsbruck, 1864), p. 25: "The Holy Father has
found this criticism of a stranger (viz. Eauscher) very unpleasant, and
said Questa e una mortificazione per Roma, ma e bisogno di soffrirl?,
affinche non si dica, che tutto sia dipendente dai Gesuiti." [Flir wa
Rector of the German Church at Rome, and Auditor of the Rota. His
Letters are reviewed in the Saturday Review for May 28, 1864, TE.]
2
[This is understood to have been subsequently modified
"plan" view m
of the adverse attitude of many of the French and German bishops. TR.]
 Introduction. 7

the pressure coming on him spontaneously, and, as it

were, through a sudden and irresistible inspiration from

on high, and so the new dogma will be settled at one

without further examination, as by the stroke

sitting,

of a magician s wand. As the Eoman people are told

after a Conclave, Habemus Papam, on the evening of
this memorable sitting the news will go forth to the
^vhole Catholic world, Habemus Papam infallibilem.

And before this newly risen and bright sun of divine

truth, all the ghosts of false science and delusive forms

of modern civilisation will be scared away for ever.

Meanwhile, to keep to the articles of the Civilta,

already quoted, it is clear from them that the Council

is summoned chiefly for the purpose of satisfying the

darling wishes of the Jesuits and that part of the Curia

which is led by them.
We propose to examine these theories in the follow

ing order : first we shall take the Syllabus and what

it aims at ;
then we shall briefly discuss the new
dogma about Mary ;
and lastly we shall set the dogma
of Papal Infallibility in the light of history.
 CHAPTER I.

MAKING THE SYLLABUS DOGMATIC.

articles of the Syllabus such, we are told, is

one of the urgent wishes of true Catholics are

to be defined by the Council in the form of positive

dogmas. The Church will thus be enriched with a
considerable number of new articles of faith, hitherto

unheard of or abundantly contradicted ;

but when once
Papal Infallibility has become matter of faith, this will

be only the first fruits of a far richer harvest .in the

future. The extent of the Catholic Church will thereby

be gradually narrowed, perhaps till it presents the

spectacle once offered to the world by a Pope, Peter

de Luna, Benedict XIIL, who from his castle of Peniscola

condemned the whole of Christendom which refused to

acknowledge him, and finally, when the Council of

Constance had solemnly deposed him (1417), and the

number of his adherents was reduced to a few indivi -

duals, declared "The whole Church is assembled in

 The Syllabus. 9

Peniscola, not in Constance, as once the whole human

race was collected in Noah s ark." But this will give

them little concern ; nay, the more the educated classes

are forced out of the Church, the easier will it be for

Loyola s steersmen to guide the ship, and reduce the

true flock that still remains in it to more complete
subjection. Catholicism, hitherto regarded as a uni
versal religion, would, by a notable irony of its fate,

be transformed into the precise opposite of what its

name and notion import As the assembled Bishops

are to exercise their power of formulating dogmas on

the contents of the Syllabus, they have only to set

their conciliar seal on a work already prepared to

1
their hand by the Vienna Jesuit, Schrader. He has

already turned the negative statements of the Syllabus

into affirmatives, and so we can, without trouble, anti

cipate the decisions of the Council on this matter.

And, as it is to last only three weeks, from and after
29th December 1869 the Eoman Catholic world will be
enriched by the following truths, and will have to ac

cept, on peril of salvation, the following principles :

(1.) The Church has the right of employing external

1
Der Pabst und die modernen Ideen. Heft II. Die Encyclica Wien
1865.
TO The Syllables.

coercion ;
she has direct and indirect temporal power,

potestatem temporalem as distinguished from spiritualem,

or, in ecclesiastical language, power of civil and corporal

1
punishment. Schrader himself intimates that this is

meant when he says,

"

It is not only minds that are

under the power of the Church." His fellow-Jesuit,

Schneemann, speaks out clearly and roundly enough on

this point As the Church has an external jurisdiction
:
"

she can impose temporal punishments, and not only

deprive the guilty of spiritual privileges. . . . The love

of earthly things, which injure, the Church s order,

obviously cannot be effectively put down by merely

spiritual punishments. It is little affected by them.

If that order is to be avenged on what has injured it, if

that is to suffer which has enjoyed the sin, temporal and

sensible punishments must be employed." Among these
Schneemann reckons fines, imprisonment, scourging, and
banishment, and he is but endorsing an article in the

Civiltd,
"

Del potere coattivo della Chiesa," which main

tains the necessity of the Church visiting her opponents

The Syllabus condemns the following propositions

"
1 Ecclesia vis :

inferendse potestatem non habet, neque potestatem ullam temporalem,

directam aut indirectam" (24).
"

Prater potestatem episcopatui inhaeren-

tem, alia ei attributa est temporalis potestas a civili imperio vel expresse vel
tacite concessa, revocanda propterea, cum libuerit, a civili imperio (25).
"

2
Der Pabst, p. 64.
 The Syllabiis. 1 1

with fines, fasts, imprisonment, and scourging, because

without this external power she could not last to the end
of the world. The Church herself is to fix the limits of

this power, and he is a rebel against God who denies it.

Schneemann does not conceal his grief that the present

world is so far gone from the apprehension and appli

cation of these wholesome truths :
"

We see that the

State does not always fulfil its duties towards the

Church according to the divine idea, and, let us add,

cannot always fulfil them, through the wickedness of
men. And thus the Church s rights in inflicting tem
poral punishment and the use of physical force are re
l
duced to a minimum."

It was from the spirit here manifested that Pius IX.

in 1851 censured the teaching of the canonist Nuytz in

Turin, because he allowed only the power of spiritual

punishment to the Church. 2 And in the Concordat

made in 1863 with the Eepublics of South America, it

1
Sclmeemann sDie kirchliche Gewalt und Hire Trdger forms vol. vii. of
the Stimmen aus Maria Laach (Freiburg, 1867). The passages quoted are
from pp. 18, 41. The article of the Civiltd referred to appeared in 1854,
vol. vii. p. 603. It is said expressly of the Church that
against those che
"

ricusano la soggezione dello spirito, operi per via di castighi

temporal!,
multandoli nelle sostanze, maurandoli con privazioni e digiuni,
affligendoli
con carcere e battiture." The other references to the Civiltd are from vol.
viii. pp. 42, 279-282.
2
The works censured are Juris Ecclesiastici Instil, and In Jus Eccles.
Univ. Tractat.
 12 The Syllabus.

is laid down in Article 8 that the civil authorities are

absolutely bound to execute every penalty decreed by the

spiritual courts. In a statement addressed by Pius ix. to

Count Duval de Beaulieu, published in the Allgemeine

Zeitung of November 13, 1864, the power of the Church

(meaning, of course, the Roman Court) over the govern
ment of civil society, and its direct jurisdiction and right
of interference in temporal matters, are expressly guarded.

It follows that they are greatly mistaken who suppose

that the Biblical and old Christian spirit has prevailed

in the Church over the medieval notion of her being

an institution with coercive power to imprison, hang,
and burn. On the contrary, these doctrines are to

receive fresh sanction from a General Council, and that

pet theory of the Popes that they could force kings and

magistrates, by excommunication and its consequences,

to carry out their sentences of confiscation, imprison

ment, and death is now to become an infallible dogma.

It follows that not only is the old institution of the

Inquisition justified, but it is recommended as an urgent

necessity in view of the unbelief of the present age.

The Civilta has long since described it as
"

a sublime

and the two recent

"

spectacle of social perfection ;

1
In 1855, vol. i. p. 55, the Inquisition is called "

un sublime spettacolo
della perfezione sociale."
 The Syllables. 13

canonizations and beatifications of inquisitors, following

in rapid succession, gain in this connexion a new and

remarkable significance.

According to Schrader s affirmative statement

(2.)

of the twenty -third proposition of the Syllabus, the

Popes have never exceeded the bounds of
their power
1
or usurped the rights of princes. All Catholics must

for the future acknowledge, and all teachers of civil

law and theology must maintain, that the Popes can

still depose kings at their will, and give away whole

kingdoms and nations at their good pleasure.

When, for instance, Martin IV. placed King Pedro of
Ara^on
o under excommunication and interdict for making
good his hereditary claim to Sicily after the rising of
the Sicilians against the tyranny of Charles of Anjou (in

1282), and then promised indulgences for all their sins

to those who fought with him and Charles against Pedro,
and finally declared his kingdom forfeit, and made it

over for a yearly tribute to Charles of Valois a step

which two kings of France and Aragon their

cost the
2
life, and the French the loss of an army, this was not,

1 The Syllabus condemns the following proposition (23),

"

Romani Pon-
Concilia OEcumenica a limitibus suae potestatis recesserunt, jura
tifices et
Of. Schrader, ut sup. p. 63.
"

Principum usurparnnt.
2
See Raynald. Annal. Ecdes. (ed. Mansi), vol. iii. pp. 183-4. The Bull of
Martin iv. against Peter of Aragon runs thus :
"Regnum Aragonia cseter-
14 The Syllabus.

as the world in its false

enlightenment has hitherto
supposed, a violent usurpation, but the application of a
divine right which every Pope still possesses in full,

though prudence may require that for the moment, and

perhaps for some time to come, they should let it lie

dormant, and adopt meantime a waiting attitude.

Pope Clement iv., in 1265, after selling millions of

South Italians to Charles of Anjou for a yearly tribute

of eight hundred ounces of gold, declared that he would
be excommunicated payment was deferred
if the first

beyond the appointed term, and that for the second

neglect the whole nation would incur interdict, i.e., be
1
deprived of sacraments and divine worship.
asque terras Regis ipsius exponentes, ut sequitur, ipsum Petmm regem
Aragonum eisdem regno et terris regioque honore sententialiter, justitia
exigente, privamus et privantes exponimus eadein occupanda Catholicis,
;

de quibus et prout Sedes Apostolica duxerit providendum, in dictis regno

et terris ejusdem Ecclesiee Romance jure salvo." The Pope required of
Charles of Anjou, "quingentas libras parvorum Turonensium as Papal
"

tribute, and for this consideration had a crusade preached against Peter,
with the following promise (1283) Omnibus Christi fidelibus qui contra
:
"

Regem Aragonire nobis, Ecclesise vel Regi Siciliae astiterint, si eos propterea
in conflictu mori contigerit, illam peccatorum suorum, de qnibus corde
contriti et ore professi fuerint, veniam indulgemus quae transfretantibus in
terra sanctae subsidium consueverit. It is noteworthy that Martin iv.
"

compelled several German churches (Liege, Metz, Verdun, Basle) to pay

a tenth of all ecclesiastical property to France for carrying on this war.
When Rudolph of Hapsburg reclaimed vigorously against so unheard of a
demand, Martin s successor, Honorius iv., exhorted him "to submit
patiently to the exaction out of reverence for the Papal See." Raynald.
ut sup. pp. 600-1.
1
Raynald. p. 162. "Quod si in secundo termino infra snbsequentes
 The Syllabus. 15

Nevertheless, the Bishops of the future Council are to

make it an article of faith that the Pope did not thereby
exceed the limits of his power ;
in other words, that he

could at his mere caprice, and for purely political or

pecuniary ends, deprive millions of innocent men of

what, according to the teaching of the Church, are the

necessary means of salvation.

(3.) If the Council executes the programme of the

Civilta, it will also undertake a correction of the hitherto

prevalent estimate of history. We now read in all

historical books and systems of canon law that the

immunities of the clergy (e.g.,
the primlegium fori, the

unrestricted right of acquiring property, and exemption

from civil functions) were gradually conceded to the

Church by the Eoman emperors and later kings, and
have therefore a civil origin. This will be characterized
1
as heresy.

Those also will become guilty of heresy who write or

teach that the extravagant pretensions of the Popes

contributed to the separation of the Eastern and Western

Churches, though every one may read this in the official

duos menses eundem censum sine diminutione qualibet non persolveritis,

totum regnum ac tota terra predicta ecclesiastico erunt supposita inter-
dicto."

1
The Syllabus condemns the prop. (30), "Eeclesiae et personarum
ecclesiasticarum immunitas a jure civili ortum habuit."
1 6 The Syllabus.

documents from the twelfth to the sixteenth century,

and the avowals of a number of contemporary authori
1
ties.

In prospect of such decrees all Catholic writers on

Law or History should be urgently advised to publish

their works before 30th December 1869 ;

for from thence

magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur

"

forward, ordo,"

and only Jesuits or their pupils will be called or

qualified, without savour of heresy, to write on secular

or Church history, civil law, politics, canon law, etc.

There will at least be required for literary and academical

work a flexibility and elastic versatility of spirit and

pen hitherto confined to journalism.

(4.)
Still more dangerous will be the questions of

freedom of conscience, and persecution, when once the

propositions of the Syllabus are made articles of faith,

according to the will of the Jesuits and the Bishops

acting under their guidance.

The Syllabus condemns the whole existing view of
the rights of conscience and religious faith and profes

sion : it is a wicked error to admit Protestants to equal

political rights with Catholics, or to allow Protestant

i It condemns proposition 38,

"

Division! Ecclesise in Orientalem atque

Occidental em Romanorum Pontificum arbitria contulerunt."
 The Syllabus. 1
7

1
immigrants the free use of their worship j
on the con

trary, to coerce and suppress them is a sacred duty, as

soon as it becomes possible to do so, as the Jesuit Fathers

and their adherents teach. Till then, Schneemann says,

the Church will, of course, act with the greatest prud

ence in the use of her temporal and coercive power, ac

cording to altered circumstances, and will riot therefore

2
at present adopt her entire mediaeval policy.

The inevitable result of this is to propagate, from

generation to generation, lies, hypocrisy, and deceit by

wholesale ;
but that is the lesser evil For freedom of

opinion and worship produces, according to the Syllabus,

profligacy and the pest of indifferentism. That, too, is

to become an article of faith, and the future commenta

tors on the decrees of the Council will have to confirm
its truth by reference to the actual condition of the

nations which have these liberties. They will point to

the Germans, the English, the French, and the Belgians
1
It condemns prop. 77, ^Etate hac nostra non amplius expedit reli-
"

gionem Catholicam haberi tanquam tmicam status religionem, caeteris

quibuscunque cultibus exclusis prop. 78, "Hinc laudabiliter in qui-
;"

busdam Catholic! nominis regionibus lege cautum est, ut hominibus illuc

immigrantibus liceat publicum proprii cujusque cultus exercitium habere
"

prop. 79, Enimvero falsum est civilem cujusque cultus libertatem,

"

itemque plenam potestatem omnibus attributam quaslibet opiniones cogi-

tationesque palam publiceque manii estandi, conducere ad populorum mores
animosque facilius corrumpendos ac indifferentismi pestera propagandam.
"

2
Schneemann, ut supra, p. 30.
B
 1 8 The Syllables.

as the most profligate of men, while the Neapolitans,

Spaniards, and inhabitants of the Bom an States, with

whom the exclusive system flourishes, or did till quite

lately, shine as brilliant models of virtue among all

nations of the earth. To speak seriously, the contest

inaugurated by the Encyclical of 1864 will have to be

carried out with fresh energy, and with the free use of

the whole powers and resources of the Church, a con

test against the common sentiment and moral sense of

every civilized people, and all the institutions that have

grown out of them.

It is but a few years since Ketteler, Bishop of

Mayence, in a widespread work praised by all the
Catholic journals of the day, undertook to show the
moderation, tolerance, and self-restraint of the Catho
lic Church in its relations with the State and the

separated Churches. He insists that the Church so

thoroughly respects freedom of conscience as to repu

diate all outward coercion of those beyond her pale as

immoral and utterly unlawful ;

that nothing is further

from her mind than to employ any physical force against

those who, as being baptized, are her members ;
that

she must leave it entirely to their own freest determi

nation whether they will accept her faith ;
and that it is

absurd for Protestants to suppose they have any need to

 The Syllables. 19

fear a forcible conversion, etc. etc.

1
How far these state
ments can be verified by history is indeed very doubtful.

Meanwhile the Bishop is instructed by the Syllabus

and its commentator, Schrader, that he has fallen into
that forbidden liberalism which is, according to the
Eoman view, one of the grossest errors of the day, and
that it was by special indulgence of Borne that his
book was not put on the Index. What a light this

throws on the condition of the Church, and what an

unworthy mental slavery the Eoman Jesuit party

threatens foreign Catholics with is thus made clear

enough ! An illustrious bishop speaks, amid universal

applause, without a syllable of dissent from his fellow-

bishops, on those grave questions, upon the right an

swer to which the legal position and beneficial action of
the Church in our days in large measure depends. And
now, a few years afterwards, the Pope, without indeed

naming him, condemns his doctrine, and the very people

who applauded the bishop s book applaud the Encyclical
with yet profounder homage, and are convinced that
what they took for white is black. Ketteler, who knows
well enough that the main object of the Syllabus is to
exalt principles at first only applied to the condition
1
Freiheit, Autoritat, und Kirche, Mainz, 1862.
2O The Syllabus.

and circumstances of a particular country into universal

articles of faith, tried to save himself by the pitiful
evasion that these articles of the Syllabus do not con

tain a general principle, but only one applicable to

1
certain countries, especially Spain. It appears, then,

that our bishops, our theologians and preachers, and

our people, did not know what the true doctrine of the

Catholic Church is, but only those monks and monsi-

gnori, especially the Jesuits, who compose the Eoman

Congregations, and who have now for the first time
since the Encyclical of Gregory xvi. opened the hitherto

jealously closed fountains of knowledge. And thus

the singular fact has come to light that the Catholic

nations have for a long time been thoroughly heterodox,

and that their appointed teachers have helped on the

error, and sworn to Constitutions moulded in utterly

vicious principles and laid under the ban of Eome.

(5.) The Syllabus closes, as is well known, with the

declaration that
"

they are in damnable error who regard

the reconciliation of the Pope with modern civilisation

as possible or desirable."

Every existing Constitution in Europe, with the sole

1
Deutschland nach dem Kriege, Mainz, 1867, cap. 12.
a
The Syllabus condemns prop. 80,
"

Romanus Pontifex potest ac debet

cum progressu cum liberalismo et cum recent! civilisatione sese reconcili-
are et eomponere."
 The Syllabus. 2 1

exception of Kussia and the Eoman States, is an outgrowth

of this modern civilisation. Freedom of religious profes

sion, worship, and teaching, equality before the law, and

equality both of political rights and duties, these, with

the people s right of taxing themselves, and taking a part

in legislation and municipal self-government, are the

dominant principles and ideas which interpenetrate all

existing Constitutions, and they are so closely connected,

and so sustain each other, that where some of them are
conceded, the rest inevitably follow. But an opposite
course has been steadily pursued in the Church for cen
turies, especially since the pseudo-Isidorian decretals;

the hierarchical system has become more and more

built up into an unlimited oligarchical absolutism, and

a constantly growing and encroaching bureaucratic
centralization has killed out all the old Church-life in

its harmonious disposition and synodal self-government,

01 nrned it into a mere empty form.
f

Thus Church and State are like two parallel streams,

one flowing north, the other south. The modern civil

Constitutions, and the efforts for self-government and

the limitation of arbitrary royal power, are in the
strong
est contradiction to Ultramontanism, the very kernel
and ruling principle of which is the consolidation of
22 The Syllabus.

absolutism in the Church. But State and Church are

intimately connected;* they act and react on one an

other, and it is inevitable that the political views and
tendencies of a nation should sooner or later influence

it in Church matters also.

Hence the profound hatred, at the bottom of the soul

of every genuine ultramontane, of free institutions and
the whole constitutional system. The Civilta not long

since gave pointed utterance to Christian States

"

it :

have ceased to exist ;

human society is again become
heathen, and an earthly body with no breath
is like

from heaven. But with God nothing is impossible he ;

can quicken the dry bones, as in Ezeldel s vision. The

politicalpowers, parliaments, voting urns, civil marriages,

are dry bones. The universities are not only dry, but

stinking bones, so great is the stench that rises from

their deadly and pestilential teaching. But these bones

can be recalled to life if they hear God s word and
receive His law, which is proclaimed to them by the

supreme and infallible doctor, the Pope."

Let us remember that the noble mother of Euro

pean Constitutions, the English Magna Charta, was

Ossa, non pur aride, ma fetenti le
1
Vol. iii. pp. 265 seq., 1868.
"

tmiversita, tanto 6 il
puzzo, ehe n esce di dottrine corrompitrici e pesti-
ferL"
 The Syllables. 23

visited with the severest anger of Pope Innocent m.,

who understood its importance well enough. He saw
therein a contempt for the Apostolic See, a curtailing of

royal prerogatives,and a disgrace to the English nation;

he therefore pronounced it null and void, and excom
municated the English barons who obtained it.
1
We may
readily do Pius ix. and his Jesuit counsellors, who are

notoriously the authors of the Encyclical and Syllabus,

the justice of admitting that they have done in 1864

what Innocent in 1215 was prophet enough to consider

for the interests of the Church. What was then a weak
and tender sapling has grown, in spite of the curse of
the most powerful of all the Popes, into a mighty tree,

overshadowing half the world, and is blest with bloom-

i The Bull
(Aug. 15, 1215) runs thus "Nos tantse
:
indignitatis auda-
ciam dissimulare nolentes, in apostolicse sedis contemptum, regalis juris
dispendium, Anglicange gentis opprobrium et grave periculum totius
uegotii crucifix! (quod utique immineret, nisi per auctoritatem nostram
revocarentur omnia, quae a tanto Principe cruce signato totaliter sunt
extorta, etiam ipso volente ilia servari) ex parte Dei onmipotentis, Patris
:

fct Filii, et quoque beatorum Petri et Pauli

Spiritus sancti, auctoritate
Apostolorum ejus, ac nostra, de communi fratruni nostrorum consilio,
compositionem hujusmodi reprobamus penitus et damnamus sub inter- ;

minatione anathematis prohibentes, ne dictus Rex earn observare praB-

sumat, aut Barones cum complicibus suis ipsam exigant observari tarn :

chartam quam obligationes seu cautiones, qusecunque pro ipsa vel de ipsa
sunt factte, irritantes penitus, aut cassantes, ut nullo unquam tempore
aliquam habeant firmitatem.
"

Rymer, Fcedera, etc. (ed. Clarke), i. p. 135.

Innocent sent a similar document to the English barons, and when they
took no heed of it the ban and interdict followed.
24 The Syllabus.

ing children and children s children. And so, too, its

latest offspring, the Austrian Constitution, -which a

far feebler successor of Innocent has stigmatized as

an "

unspeakable abomination" (infanda sane), may

rest in peace, and appeal confidently to the world s

verdict on the world s history. And the more so, since

this very successor was not ashamed, a year or two ago,

to have the question asked in London, whether he too

might not find a residence in the motherland of those

"

demoralizing" laws of freedom.

Eome has shown herself no less hostile to the French

than to the English Constitution. In 1824, Leo xii.

addressed a letter to Louis XVIIL, pointing out the

badness of the French Constitution, and urgently press

ing him to expunge from the charter those articles which

1
savoured of liberalism. When Charles x. tried to

change the Constitution by the ordinances of July 1830,

every one gave the blame to his episcopal advisers, and
especially his confessor, Cardinal Latil. The fall of

the Bourbons was the result. Soon after the establish

ment of the new Belgian Constitution in 1832, Gregory

xvi. issued his famous Encyclical, recently used and

confirmed by Pius ix., which pronounces freedom of

1
See Artaud de Montor, Hist. Leo XII. (Paris, 1843), vol. i.
p. 234 seq.
 The Syllabus. 25

conscience an insane folly, and freedom of the press a

pestiferous error, which cannot be sufficiently detested,

The immediate consequence was the rise of a liberal

party in Belgium, at internecine feud with the Catholic

party. The contest between the two still goes on, after

nearly forty years ;

the gulf has grown ever wider and

deeper, and the hatred fiercer between them, and, as

Ultramontanism makes every understanding or compro
mise impossible, the political controversy has merged
in a systematic attacking and undermining of all posi
tive religion. The Belgian Catholics have never been
able to meet the reproach that they are necessarily
enemies to a Constitution condemned as wicked by the

Pope, and that all their assurances of loyalty and con

scientious respect for the fundamental law of the country

are mere hypocrisy. And thus, with all the religious

ness of the people, the liberal and anti-religious party

is constantly gaining ground, while the Catholic party,

divided against itself by the split between ultramon-
tanes and liberals (i. e., Catholics true to the Constitution),

is no longer competent to form any available Cabinet.

The attempt of the Congress of Malines in 1863 was
wrecked ;
the Syllabus has pronounced sentence of

death on its programme, so eloquently set forth by

26 The Syllabus.

Montalembert, for reconciling the Church with civil

freedom.

In the United States, Catholics cannot form a politi

cal party. There, too, as an American bishop has as
sured us, their situation is most unfavourable as regards

political influence and admission to office, because it

is always cast in their teeth by Protestants that they

find their principles in Papal pronouncements, and can
not therefore honestly accept the common liberties and

obligations of a free State, but always cherish an amkre

pens6e that if ever they become strong enough they
will upset the Constitution.

In Italy, the Papal Government has used every effort

to deter Austriaand the other Italian sovereigns from

granting parliamentary and free municipal institutions.

The documents proving this are to be seen in print.
The Eoman Court declared that it could not suffer even
the very mildest forms of parliamentary government in
1
its neighbourhood, on account of the bad example.
1
Prince Schwarzenberg reported this in 1850 to Baron Hiigel in Flo
rence. As the document is not well known north of the Alps, we give the
passage. The whole letter will be found in a book printed by Gennarelli
at Florence in 1862 Le Dottrine cimli e religiose della Corte di Roma"
"

p. 72. It says, in reference to the Tuscan Constitution of 1848, "Le

gouvernement pontifical avoue, que repugnances a cet egard se fondent

ses
aussi sur des motifs, qui lui sont plus particuliers. II ne cherche nulle-
ment a dissimulerj que, force comme il est, a devoir reconnoitre et pro-
 The Syllabus. 27

The mild and just Grand-Duke Leopold of Tuscany

was compelled against his will, under pressure from

Eome, to abolish that article of the Constitution which

asserted the equality of all citizens before the law,

without distinction of religion, because the Pope de

tutd con-
"

clared that it could not be promulgated

1
scientid" Under the same influence the Jewish

physicians in Tuscany were first in 1852 forbidden to

practise, as they had long been allowed to do. Who

can wonder, after this, at the hatred of the Italians

towards the Papacy as it now is, or think any permanent

peace possible between Italy and such a hierarchy as

this?

That the Bavarian Constitution, with its equality of

religious confessions, and of all citizens before the law,

is looked on with an evil eye at Eome, is sufficiently

shown by the constant reproaches of the Curia since

clamer tout regime parlementaire comme directement menasant pour le

libre exercice du pouvoir spirituel, il ne sauroit voir sans alarme se pro-

pager et se consolider autour de lui non seulement des principes constitu-

tionnels imposes originairement par la revolution, mais encore des forme?
representatives plus mitigees, dont la contagion lui semble non moins in
evitable et desastreuse dans I mterieur des etats," etc. In other words,
Our absolutist system, supported by the Inquisition, the strictest cen
"

sorship, the suppression of all literature, the privileged exemption of the

clergy, and arbitrary power of bishops, cannot endure any other than
absolutist governments in Italy."
1
Gennarelli, ut supra, pp. 78, seq.
28 The Syllables.

1
181 8. And finally, the Austrian Constitution has

drawn on itself the curse of the Vatican. In the Allo

cution of 22d June 1868 we read
"

By our apostolic authority we reject and condemn

the above-mentioned (new Austrian) laws in general,

and in particular all that has been ordered, done, or

enacted in these and in other things against the rights

of the Church by the Austrian Government or its sub
ordinates ; by the same authority we declare these laws
and their consequences to have been, and to be for the
future, null and void (nulliusque roboris fuisse ac fore).

We exhort and adjure their authors, especially those

who call themselves Catholics, and all who have dared

to propose, to accept, to approve, and to execute them,

to remember the censures and spiritual penalties incurred
ipso facto, according to the apostolical constitutions and
decrees of the (Ecumenical Councils, by those who violate

the rights of the Church."

By this sentence the whole legislature and executive

of Austria is placed under ban, with the Emperor Francis

Joseph at its head, and the Austrians may be thankful

that the whole territories of the empire are not placed

See, for these, Concordat und Constitutions Eid der Kathol in Bayern
1

(Augsburg, 1847), pp. 244 seq.

 The Syllabus. 29

under interdict, according to the earlier precedent put in

practice the last time against Venice (1606).

Pius IX. condemns the Austrian Constitution for

making Catholics bury the bodies of heretics in their

cemeteries where they have none of their own, and he

considers it
"

abominable" (abominabilis), because it

allows Protestants and Jews to erect educational insti

tutions. He seems to have quite forgotten that similar

laws have long prevailed elsewhere without opposition
from Rome.
If the will of the Civilta is accomplished, the Bishops

will solemnly condemn, by implication, next December,

the Constitutions of the countries they live in, and the
laws which they, or many of them, have sworn to ob

serve, and will bind themselves to use all their efforts

for the abolition of those laws and the overthrow of the

Constitutions. This will not, of course, be so openly
stated ;
the Civilta and its allies will say, what has
often been said since 1864, that the Church must ob
serve for a time a prudent economy, and must so far

take account of circumstances and accomplished facts,

as, without any modification of her real principles, to

pay a certain external deference to them. The Bishops

do well to endure the lesser evil, as long as open resist-
 3O The Syllabus.

ance would lead to worse consequences, and prejudice

the interests of the Qhurch. But this submission, or
rather silence and endurance, is only provisional, and
simply means that the lesser evil must be chosen in

preference to a contest with no present prospect of

success.

As soon as the situation changes, and there is a

hope of contending successfully against free laws, the

attitude of the bishops and clergy changes too. Then,
as the Court of Eome and the Jesuits teach, every oath

taken to a Constitution in general or to particular laws

loses its force. The oft-quoted saying of the apostle,

that we must obey God rather than man, means, in the

Jesuit gloss, that we must obey the Pope, as God s

representative on earth, and the infallible interpreter of

His will, rather than any civil authority or laws. There
fore Innocent x., in his Bull of 20th November 1648,

Zdus domus Dei, which condemns the Peace of West

phalia as
"

null and void, and of no effect or authority

for past, present, or future," expressly adds, that no one,

though he had sworn to observe the Peace, is bound

1
to keep his oath. It was chiefly those conditions

1
The passage referred to runs as follows Motu proprio, ac ex certa
:
"

scientia et matura deliberatione nostris, deque Apostolicae potestatis

 The Syllabus. 3 1

of the AVestphalian Peace which secured to Protes

tants the free exercise of their religion, and admission

to civil offices, that filled the Pope, as he said, with

profound grief (cum intimo doloris sensu). And this

sentence was adhered to, for in 1789 Pius vi. declared

that the Church had never admitted the AYestphalian

Peace,
"

Pacem Westphalicam Ecclesia minquam proba-

vit." Thus again in 1805, Pius VII, in writing to his

nuncio at Venice, upholds the punishments imposed by

Innocent in. for heresy, viz., confiscation of property for
private persons, and the relaxation of all obligations of
tribute and subjection to heretical princes and he only ;

regrets that we are fallen on such evil days, and the

Bride of Christ is so humbled, that it is neither possible

to carry out, nor even of any avail to recall, these holy

maxims, and she cannot exercise a righteous severity
1
against
o the enemies of the faith.

These then, are allowed for a while

"

holy maxims,"

plenitudine, prsedictos alterius sen utriusque Pacis Imjusmodi articulos

cseteraque in dictis Isstrnmentis contenta .... ipso jure nulla, irrita,
invalida, injusta, damnata, reprobata, inania, viribusqne et effectu vana
omnia fnisse, esse et in perpetuo fore neminemque ad illorum et cnjus
;

libet eomm
etiamsi juraniento vallata sint, observantiam teneri ....
deeernimus et declaramus." Magnum Buttar. Roman, t. v. p. 466 seq,
Luxemb. 1727.
1
The Italian text of the letter is given in Essai sur la Puissance Temp,
des Papes (Paris, 1818), vol. ii. p. 320.
32 The Syllabus-

to lie dormant, though, according to .the Jesuit

plan of
the campaign, they are to be raised at the approaching

Council to the dignity of irreversible dogmas through

the assertion of Papal Infallibility. Better times must
be waited for, when the Church (that is, the Court of

Rome) shall be raised once more from the dust, and

seated on the throne of her universal, world-wide, spi

ritual sovereignty.

But here "the true Catholics" are divided into two

parties. The one party, which is sufficiently educated

to understand something of the spirit and tendencies of
the age, cherishes no illusions as to the possibility, or

at least the near approach, of a thousand years reign

of absolute Papal dominion, and therefore despairs of

humanity, which in its scornful blindness has rejected

its last anchor of hope. The age we live in is the dark

age of Antichristian dominion, the age of wailing and

woe which is to precede the appearance of the bodily
Antichrist for two years and a half, after which comes

the end of all things and the general judgment. This

party was represented in Bavaria by a learned and

influential ecclesiastic, now dead, who gave it expres
1
sion in a pastoral of the present Cardinal Reisach. It

[Windischmann, Vicar- General of Cardinal Reisach when Archbishop

1
 The Syllabus. 33

simply means : As -history does not go our way, there

shall be no more history, or, in other words, the world

must come to an end, because our system is not carried

out. As their wisdom is at fault, they presume the

wisdom of Providence is exhausted also ! Men of this

school think a Council so near the end of the world

superfluous, or at best only a last warning, given to men

rather in wrath than in mercy.

The other party, and the Jesuits at their head, see it

the Council the last star of hope, and expect that, when
Papal Infallibility and the articles of the Syllabus have
been proclaimed, mankind will bow down its proud
neck, like the royal Sicambrian, Clevis, and will burn
what it adored before, and adore what it burnt.

A holy bishop, Francis of Sales, often expressed his

dislike of writings which deal with political questions,

such as the indirect power of the Pope over princes,

and thought with good reason that, in an age when
the Church has so many open enemies, such questions
1
should not be mooted. But St. Francis of Sales is no

authority for the Jesuits.

of Munich, one of the few very learned men modern Ultramontanism has
produced. TK.]
1
(Euvres, xi. 406.
 CHAPTER II

THE NEW DOGMA ABOUT MARY.

comparison with the principles involved in sanc

IN tioning the Syllabus, the new dogma proposed
about Mary is harmless enough. No one indeed can

comprehend the urgent need for it only a few years

after Pius ix. has solemnly proclaimed the Immaculate

Conception as a revealed truth. But there never seems

to be enough done for the glorification of Mary. It is

worth while, however, to take note of this second exhi

bition of the characteristic contempt of the Jesuits for

the tradition of the ancient Church.

Neither the New Testament nor the Patristic writings

tell us anything about the destiny of the Holy Virgin

after the death of Christ. Two apocryphal works of

the fourth or fifth century one ascribed to St. John,

the other to Melito, Bishop of Sardis are the earliest

authorities for the tradition about her bodily assump-

 The Assumption. 35

1
tion. It is contained also in the pseudo-Dionysius ;

he and Gregory of Tours brought it into the Western

2
Church. But centuries passed before it found any

recognition. Even the Martyrology of Usuard, used in

the Eoman Church in the ninth century, confined itself

to the statement that nothing was known of the manner

of the holy Virgin s death and the subsequent condi
tion of her body :
"

Plus eligebat sobrietas Ecclesiae cum

pietate nescire, quam aliquid frivolum et apocryphum
3
inde tenendo docere." If this floating tradition too is

made into a dogma under Jesuit inspiration, it may

easily be foreseen that the Order tapp&it vient en
mangeant will bestow many a jewel hereafter on the

dogma- thirsting world, out of the rich treasures of its

traditions and pet theological doctrines. There is, for

instance, the doctrine of Prolalilism^vfliich lies quite

as near its heart as the Syllabus and Papal Infallibility,

and which has stood it in such excellent stead in prac

tice. What a glorious justification it would be for an

Order which has been so widely blamed, if the Council

:
Et s TT]V Koifjiirjffii TTJS vwepayias AeffTroivTjs, and De Transitu Maria
2 De
De Nom. Div. 3. Glor. Mart. i. 4.
s
Usuard, Martyrol. 18 Kal. Sept.
4
[The lax system of Jesuit casuistry exposed in the Provincial Letters
of Pascal. Innocent xi. condemned it in some of its extremer forms.
TB.]
36 The Assumption.

were to be so accommodating as to set its seal to this

doctrine too as an article of faith !

We know that the Order expects another important

service from the Council, viz., that the gymnasia and

schools of higher education should be placed in its

hands, as being specially called and fitted for the work,

and that the Bishops should engage, wherever they
have the power, to hand over these establishments to
the Fathers of the Society. It is therefore extremely

desirable, nay necessary, that that ever-gaping wound

in the reputation of the Order its moral system-
should be healed by a decree of the Council
 CHAPTER III.

PAPAL INFALLIBILITY.

I. Ultramontanism.

is the fundamental principle of the Ultramon

IT tane view that when we speak of the Church,
its rights and its action, we always mean the Pope, and

the Pope only. "

When we speak of the Church, wo

mean the Pope," says the Jesuit Gretser, at the begin

ning of the seventeenth century, Professor at Ingold-

stadt, and one of the most learned theologians of the
Order. Taken by itself, as the community of believers,

clergy, and bishops, the Church, according to Cardinal

Cajetan the classical theologian of the Roman Court

is the slave (servo) of the Pope. Neither in its whole
nor its parts (National Churches) can it desire, strive

for, approve, or disapprove, anything not in absolute

accordance with the Papal will and pleasure. In an
38 Papal Infallibility.

article of the Civilta, entitled

"

The Pope the Father of

the Faithful," we read as follows :

It is not enough for the people only to know that

"

the Pope is the head of the Church and the Bishops ;

they must also understand that their own faith and re

ligious life flow from him ;

that in him is the bond

which unites Catholics to one another, and the power

which strengthens and the light which guides them;
that he is the dispenser of spiritual graces, the giver of

the benefits of religion, the upholder of justice, and the

protector of the oppressed. And still this is not enough ;

it is further requisite to refute the accusations directed

against the Pope by the impious and the Protestants,

and to show how serviceable the Papacy and the Pope
have at all times been to civil societv,
V
to the Italian

people, to families, and to individuals, even in regard to

1
their temporal interests."

1 Civ. 1867, vol. xii. pp. 86seq. Non basta che il popolo sappiaessere
"

Papa) il capo della chiesa e del vescovi : bisogna che intenda da lui de-
(il
rivare la propria fede, da lui la propria vita religiosa, in lui resiedere il
vincolo che unisce insieme i cattolici, la forza che li convalida, la guida che
lidirige lui essere il dispensiere delle grazie spiritual!, lui il promotore
:

dei beneficii che la religione impartisce, lui il conservatore della giustizia,

lui il protettore degli oppressi. Ne ci6 solo basta ; si richiede di piu che
dileguinsi le accuse lanciate contro del Papa dagli empii e dai protestanti,
e che dimostrisi quanto benefico alle societa civili, ai popoli italiani, alle

famiglie e agli individui, eziando in ordine agl interessi temporali sia stato
in ogni tempo il Papato e il Papa."
 Ultramontanism. 39

It was St. Jerome s reproach to the Pelagians that,

according to their theory, God had, as it were, wound

up a watch once for all, and then gone to sleep because

there was nothing more for Him to do. Here we have

the Jesuit supplement to this view. God has gone to

sleep because in His place His ever wakeful and infal

lible Vicar on earth rules, as lord of the world, and dis

penser of grace and of punishment. St. Paul s saying,

"

In him we live, and move, and are,"

is transferred to the

Pope. Few even of the Italian canonists of the fifteenth

century could screw themselves up to this point, those

greedy place-hunters and sycophants, who were blamed
even in Eome as mainly responsible for the corruption
of the Church caused by the Popes. Under the lead of

the new Order of the sixteenth century all hitherto said

and done for the exaltation of the Papal dignity was

thrown into the background. We owe it to Bellarmine

and other Jesuits that in some documents the Pope is

expressly designated
"

Vice- God." The Civilta, too,

after asserting that all the treasures of divine revelation,

of truth, righteousness, and the gifts of God, are in the

Pope hand, s who dispenser and guardian,
is their sole

comes to the conclusion that the Pope carries on Christ s

work on earth, and is in relation to us what Christ
4O Papal Infallibility.

would be if He was still visibly present to rule His

1
Church. It is but one step from this to declare the
2
Pope an incarnation of God.
Ultramontanism, then, is essentially Papalism, and
its starting-point is that the Pope is infallible in
all doctrinal decisions, not only on matters of faith,

but in the domain of ethics, on the relations of religion

to society, of Church to State, and even on State insti

tutions, and that every such decision claims unlimited

and unreserved submission in word and deed from all

Catholics. On this view the power of the Pope over

the Church is purely monarchical, and neither knows
nor tolerates any limits. He is to be sole and absolute

master; all beside him are his plenipotentiaries and

servants, and are, in fact, whether mediately or imme

diately, the mere executors of his orders, whose powers

1 "

Vol. iii. p. 259, 1868. I tesori di questa revelazione, tesori di verita,

tesori di gi\\stizia, tesori di carismi, vennero da Dio depositati in terra nelle
mani di un iiomo, che ne e solo dispensiero e custode . . . quest uomo e il
Papa. Cio evidentemente e racchiuso nella sua stessa appellazione di Vi-
cario di Christo. Imperocche se egli sostiene in terra le veci di Christo,
vtiol dire die egli continua nel mondo 1 opera di Christo ; ed e rispetto a
noi cio che sarebbe esso Christo, se per se medesimo e visibilmente quaggiu
governasse la chiesa."

2
[Compare with this Pusey s Eirenicon, p. 327 One recently returned
:

from Eome had the impression that some of the extreme Ultramontanes,
if they do not say so in so many words, imply a quasi-hypostatic union 01

the Holy Ghost with each successive Pope. The accurate writer who re
ported this to me observed in answer, This seems to me to be Llamaism.
"

-TR.I
 Ultramontanism. 41

he can restrict or cancel at his pleasure. On Ultramon

tane principles the Church is in a normal and flourish

ing condition in proportion as it is ruled, administered,

supervised, and regulated, down to the minutest details,

in all its branches and national boundaries, from Rome.

Eome is to act as a gigantic machine of ecclesiastical

administration, a Briareus with a hundred arms, which

finally decides everything, which reaches everywhere

with its denunciations, censures, and manifold means
of repression, and secures a rigid uniformity. For the
Church-ideal of the Ultramontanes is the Romanizing
of all particular Churches, and above all the suppression
of every shred of individuality in National Churches. 1

Nay, more, they consider it the conscientious duty of

all nations to mould themselves, to the utmost of their

power, into the specifically clerico- Italian fashion of

thinking and feeling. How should they not, when the
Civilta says roundly,
"

As the Jews were formerly God s

people, so are the Eomans under the New Covenant.
2
They have a supernatural dignity" ?

1
Romanize," etc., are used by German writers not as
"

Romanism,"
["

synonymous terms with Roman Catholicism, etc., but to designate the

Romanist or Ultramontane party in the Roman Catholic Church. TR.]
2 Vol. iii. p. 11, 1862. Sopranaturale essendo il fine, per cui Iddio
"

conserva lo stato Romano, sopranaturale in qualche modo si vedra essere

la dignita di questo popolo." These praises of the so-called Roman people,
which no longer exists for the population of Rome is a mere fluctuating
4.2 Papal Infallibility.

The Ultramontane knows nothing higher than the

usage and law of Eome. For him Eome
is an ecclesiasti

cal address and inquiry- office, or rather a standing oracle

the Civilta calls the Pope "summum oraculum,"

which can give at once an infallible solution of every doubt,

speculative or practical. While others are guided in their

judgment on facts and events by the moral and religious

sentiment developed in their Church-life, with Ultra-
montanes the authority of Eome and the typical ex

ample of Eornan morals and customs are the embodiment

of the moral and ecclesiastical law. If Jewish parents

are forcibly robbed of their child in Eome, that he may

be brought up a Christian, the Ultramontane finds it

quite in order that natural human rights should yield to

the ordinances of Eome, however late devised, although

theologians in other cases maintain that here the law

of Nature is the law of God, and therefore above any

mere human and ecclesiastical ordinance. If the Inqui

sition still proclaims excommunication in the States of

medley of Italians, and especially Italian clerics, from all parts of the
Peninsula seem to be phrases brought up from a former age. Thus, for
example, in 1626, Carrerio, Provost and Professor at Padua, says, The
"

Italians are exalted above all nations by the special grace of God, who

gives them in the Pope a spiritual monarch, who has put down from their
thrones great kings and yet mightier emperors, and set others in their
place, to whom the greatest kingdoms have long paid tribute, as they do
to no other, and who dispenses such riches to his courtiers that no king or
emperor has ever had so much to give."
 Ultramontanism. 43

the Church against every son and daughter if they omit

to denounce their parents, and get them put into prison
for using flesh or milk on a fast-day, or reading a book

on the Index, the Eomanist is prepared to justify this

too. If the Eoman Government, by its lottery, openly
conducted by priests, fosters the passion for gambling,

and produces the ruin of whole families, the Civilta

composes an apology for the lottery, although Alexan

der vir. and Benedict xin. forbade it under pain of ex
communication. If in Eome, clergymen (the so-called

preti di piazza) stand in the public places till some one

hires them for a mass, this gives no more offence to the

Eomanist than the sale of indulgence -bills ;

and so the

Eoman commissionaires, after showing visitors the vari

ous sights of the place, finally point out this spectacle to

them. He thinks it at least very excusable that the very

utmost is got out of dispensations and indulgences as a
mine of pecuniary profit ; that, for instance, the indul

gences of
"

privileged altars" are sold to certain churches

at a scudo apiece, thus giving occasion to the

grossest

superstition about the delivery of souls from Purga

tory ;
that certain marriage dispensations are granted to

the wealthy for a high price, which are denied to the

poorer ;
that some kinds of matrimonial causes are car-
44 Papal Infallibility.
ried to Home, against the express stipulation of treaties,
and the citizens thereby subjected to protracted and

costly processes, as happened not long since in a

German State, when this new encroachment seemed to

the local bishops so strong a case, that they made ener

getic representations at Borne on the subject, which
resulted in the demand being given up for a while, and
the question being allowed to remain unsettled.

Borne on her part omits no means of confirming the

whole Catholic world in thto clerico-Italian manner of

thinking and feeling. More than nine-tenths of the

Boman congregations and tribunals are composed of

Italians,and they regulate everything through their

precepts and decisions, spun out into the minutest and

most frivolous detail, and issued in the name of the

Pope. Every breath of religious life is to be drawn by

Italian rule. Bishoprics out of Italy are to be filled,

as far as possible, by men who have got the Catholic

mind in Borne, or who at least have been trained by
the Jesuits or their pupils.

The more questions any country or diocese refers to

Borne the more dispensations, indulgences, altar privi

leges, consecrated objects, and the like, it receives from

Borne the more presents of money it sends there, so
 Ultramontanism. 45

much the higher praise it gets for piety and genuine

Catholic sentiment. What is called Catholicity can

only be attained in the eyes of the Court of Eome by

every one translating himself and his ideas, on every
subject that has any connexion with religion, into

Italian. If, in points where the Italian form or view,

or practice or manner of devotion, conflicts with their

national feeling, or is being forced into the place of

what is native and suits them better, Germans or

Frenchmen or Englishmen repudiate the foreign use,

they are said to be on a wrong road, they are not

"

genuine Catholics," but only liberal Catholics ;

for so

the Society of Jesus distinguishes what we should call

"

Ultramontane," or simply
"

Catholic."

II. Consequences of the Dogma.

The root of the whole Ultramontane habit of mind
is the personal infallibility of the Pope, and accordingly

the Jesuits declare it to be the wish of true Catholics

that this dogma should be denned at the
forthcoming
Council. If this desire is accomplished, a new prin

ciple of immeasurable importance, both retrospective

and prospective, will be established a principle which,

when once irrevocably fixed, will extend its dominion

46 Papal Infallibility.

over men s minds more and more, till it has coerced

them into subjection .to every Papal pronouncement in
matters of religion, morals, politics, and social science.

For it will be idle to talk

any more of the Pope s
encroaching on a foreign domain he, and he alone, ;

have the right of determining

as being infallible, will

the limits of his teaching and action at his own good

pleasure, and every such determination will bear the

stamp of infallibility. When once the narrow adherence

of many Catholic theologians to the ancient tradition

and the Church of the first six centuries is happily

broken through, the pedantic horror of new dogmas

completely got rid of, and the well-known canon of St.

Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab

"

Yincent, omnibus,"

which is still respected here and there, set aside then

every Pope, however ignorant of theology, will be free

to make what use he likes of his power of dogmatic

creativeness, and to erect his own thoughts into the

common belief, binding on the whole Church. We say
advisedly, however ignorant he may be of theology,"
"

for the Jesuit theologians have already foreseen this

contingency as being not an unusual one with Popes,

and one of them, Professor Erbermann of Mayence, has
observed
"

A thoroughly ignorant Pope may very well

 Consequences of the Dogma. 47

be infallible, for God has before now pointed out the

right road by the mouth of a speaking But, ass."

after Infallibility has been made into a dogma, whoever

dares to question the plenary authority of any new
article of faith coined in the Vatican mint, will incur,

according to the Jesuits, excommunication in this world

and everlasting damnation in the next. Councils will
for the future be superfluous ;
the Bishops will no
doubt be assembled in Eome now and then to swell
the pomp of a Papal canonization or some other grand

ceremony, but they will have nothing more to do with

dogmas. If they wish to confirm a Papal decision,

itself the result of direct Divine inspiration as, e.g.,

the Council of Chalcedon, after careful examination,

sanctioned the dogmatic letter of Pope Leo I, this

would be bringing lanterns to aid the light of the noon

day sun. The form hitherto used by the Bishops in

subscribing the doctrinal decisions of Councils,
"

defini-

ens subscripsi,"
would for the future be a blasphemy.

Papal Infallibility, when once defined by the Coun

cil as an article of faith, will give the impulse to a

theological, ecclesiastical, and even political revolution,

1
Irenic Cathol. (Mogunt. 1645), cap. vi. p. 97 "

Quomodo hinc infertur,

:

nos fidem salutemque nostram ab unico tali homine suspendere et non

potius ab eo, qui novit etiam per asinum loquentem dirigere iter nos
trum."
48 Papal Infallibility.

the nature of which very few and least of all those

who are urging it on have clearly realized, and no

hand of man will be able to stay its course. In Rome
itself the saying will be verified, "

Thou wilt shudder

thyself at thy likeness to God."

In the next place, the newly-coined article of faith

will inevitably take root as the foundation and corner

stone of the whole Roman Catholic edifice. The whole
activity of theologians will be concentrated on the one

point of ascertaining whether or not a Papal decision

can be quoted for any given doctrine, and in labour

ing to discover and amass proof for it from history and

literature. Every other authority will pale beside the
living oracle on the Tiber, which speaks with plenary

inspiration, and can always be appealed to.

What use in tedious investigations of Scripture, what

use in wasting time on the difficult study of tradition,

which requires so many kinds of preliminary know

ledge, when a single utterance of the infallible Pope

may shatter at a breath the labours of half a lifetime,

and a telegraphic message to Rome will get an answer

in a few hours or a few days, which becomes an axiom

and article of faith ? On one side the work of theolo

gians will be greatly simplified,

while on the other it
 Consequences of the Dogma. 49

becomes harder and more extensive. A single comma

in a single Bull (of Pius V. against Baius) has before
now led to endless disputes, because it is doubtful

whether it should precede or follow certain words, and

the whole dogmatic meaning of the Bull depends on its
position. But the dispute, which has gone on for three
centuries, can never be settled now, not even by examin
ing the original document at Eome, which is written,

according to the old custom, without punctuation. And

how will it be in the future ? The Eabbis say, On
"

every apostrophe in the Bible hang whole mountains of

hidden sense," and this will apply equally to Papal
Bulls and thus theology, in the hands of the Ultra
;

montane school, which will alone prevail, promises to

become more and more Talmudical.
To prove the dogma of Papal Infallibility from Church
history nothing less is required than its complete
falsification. The declarations of Popes which con
tradict the doctrines of the Church, or contradict each

other (as the same Pope sometimes contradicts himself),

will have to be twisted into agreement, so as to show

that their heterodox or mutually destructive enuncia

tions are at bottom sound doctrine, or, when a little

has been subtracted from one dictum and added to the

Tt
50 Papal Infallibility.

other, are not really contradictory, and mean the same

thing. And here future theologians will have to get

well indoctrinated in the Eabhinical school ;

and indeed

they will find a good deal of valuable matter ready to

their hand in the Jesuit casuists. These last, mean

time, will be their best teachers in the skilful mani
pulation of history. They never had any particular
difficulty in manufacturing Church history they have ;

already performed the most incredible feats in that

line. Not to speak now of their zeal for the discovery

and dissemination of apocryphal tales of miracles and

lives of saints, of which the Catholic world owes to

them so many, we will merely refer here to their

huge falsification of Spanish Church-history. They

have provided Spain with a wholly new history, in
accordance with the interests of their Order, as well as

with the national wish, and the dogma of the Immacu

late Conception; and this could only be accomplished by
the Jesuit, Eoman De la Higuera, inventing chronicles

and archaeological records, with the necessary appur

tenance of relics, the genuineness of which had to be

proved by a miracle brought forward for this express

purpose.
 Errors and Contradictions of the Popes. 5 1

III. Errors and Contradictions of the Popes.

It is necessary for illustrating the question of Infalli

bility to recall some of the historical difficulties it is

beset with.

Innocent I. and Gelasius L, the former writing to the

Council of Milevis, the latter in his epistle to the

Bishops of Picenum, declared it to be so indispensable

for infants to receive communion, that those who die

without it go straight to hell.
1
A thousand years later
the Council of Trent anathematized this doctrine.

It is the constant teaching of the Church that ordi

nation received from a bishop, quite irrespectively of

his personal worthiness or unworthiness, is valid and

indelible. Putting aside Baptism, the whole security
of the sacraments rests on this principle of faith, and
re-ordination has always been opposed in the Church

as a crime and a profanation of the sacrament. Only

in Rome, during the devastation which the endless

wars of Goths and Lombards inflicted on Central Italy,

there was a collapse of all learning and theology, which
disturbed and distorted the dogmatic tradition. Since
the eighth century, the ordinations of certain Popes
1
S. Aug. Opp. iL 640 ;
Condi. Coll. (ed. Labbe), iv. 1178.
52 Papal Infallibility.

began to be annulled, and the bishops and priests

ordained by them were compelled to be re-ordained.
This occurred first in 769, when Constantine IL, who
had got possession of the Papal chair by force of arms,
and kept it for thirteen months, was blinded, and

deposed at a Synod, and all his ordinations pronounced

invalid.

But the strongest case occurred at the end of the

ninth century, after the death of Pope Forrnosus, when
the repeated rejection of his ordinations threw the whole

Italian Church into the greatest confusion, and produced

a general uncertainty as to whether there were any valid

sacraments in Italy. Auxilius, who was a contemporary,

said that through this universal rejection and repetition

of orders ("ordinatio,exordinatio,et superordinatio") mat

ters had come to such a pass in Rome, that if the principle

adopted by Stephen, Sergius, and their adherents was right,

for twenty years the Christian religion had been inter
rupted and extinguished in Italy. Popes and Synods de
cided in glaring contradiction to one another, now for, now
against, the validity of the ordinations,
and it was self-

evident that in Borne all sure knowledge on the doc

trine of ordination was lost. At the end of his second

work, Auxilius, speaking in the name of those numer

ous priests and bishops whose ecclesiastical status was
 Errors and Contradictions of the Popes. 53

called in question by the decisions of Stephen vii. and

Sergius m., demanded the strict investigation of a

General Council, as the only authority capable of solv

1
ing the complication introduced by the Popes.
But the Council never met, and the dogmatic uncer

tainty and confusion in Borne continued. In the middle

of the eleventh century the great contest against Simony,

which was then thought equivalent to heresy, broke

out, and the ordinations of a simoniacal bishop were

pronounced invalid. Leo ix. re- ordained a number of

2
persons on this ground, as Peter Damiani relates.

Gregory VIL, at his fifth Eoman Synod, made the inva

lidity of all simoniacal ordinations a rule, and the prin

ciple, confirmed by Urban II., that a simoniacal bishop

can give nothing in ordination, because he has nothing,

3
passed into the Decretum of Gratian.
In these cases it is obvious that doctrine and practice
were most intimately connected. It was only from
their holding a false, and, in its consequences, most

injurious, notion of the force and nature of this sacra

ment, that the Popes acted as they did, and if they had
then been generally considered infallible, a hopeless

1
Mabillon, Analecta (Paris, 1723), p. 39.
* 1 etri Damiaiii Opusc. p. 419. 3 Cans, i.
Q. 7. c. 24.
54 Papal Infallibility.

confusion must have been introduced, not only into

Italy, but the whole Church.

In contrast to Pope Pelagius, who had declared, with
the whole Eastern and Western Church, the indispen

sable necessity of the invocation of the Trinity in Bap

tism, Nicolas I. assured the Bulgarians that baptism

in the name of Christ alone was quite sufficient, and

thus exposed the Christians there to the danger of an

invalid baptism. The same Pope declared confirmation

administered by priests, according to the Greek usage

from remote antiquity, invalid, and ordered those so

confirmed to be confirmed anew by a bishop, thereby

denying to the whole Eastern Church the possession of

a sacrament, and laying the foundation of the bitter
1
estrangement which led to a permanent division.
Stephen n. (in.) allowed marriage with a slave girl

to be dissolved, and a new one contracted, whereas all

previous Popes had pronounced such marriages indis

2
soluble. He also declared baptism, in case of neces
3
sity, valid when administered with wine.

Celestine in. tried to loosen the marriage tie by de

claring it dissolved if either party became heretical.
Innocent m. annulled this decision, and Adrian VL
1 8 vl 1650. 3
Cancil. Coll, (ed. Labbe), vi. 543. 7Z>. Ib. vi. 1652.
 Errors and Contradictions of the Popes. 55

called Celestine a heretic for giving it. This decision

was afterwards expunged from the MS. collections of

Papal decrees, but the Spanish theologian Alphonsus

1
de Castro had seen it there.

The Capernaite doctrine, that Christ s body is sen

sibly (sensualiter) touched by the hands and broken by

the teeth in the Eucharist an error rejected by the
whole Church, and contradicting the impassibility of
His body, was affirmed by Mcolas n. at the Synod of
Home in 1059, and Berengar was compelled to acknow

ledge it. Lanfranc reproaches Berengar with afterwards

wanting to make Cardinal Humbert, instead of the Pope,

2
responsible for this doctrine.
Innocent in., in order to exhibit the Papal power in
the fullest splendour of its divine omnipotence, invented

the new doctrine that the spiritual bond which unites

a bishop to his diocese is firmer and more indissoluble
than the "

carnal
"

bond, as he called it, between man

and wife, and that God alone can loose it, viz., translate

a bishop from one see to another. But as the Pope is

the representative of the true God on earth, he and he
alone can dissolve this holy and indissoluble bond, not

1 Cf. Melch. Canns, p. 240.

Adv. Hor. (ai. Paris), 1565.
2
Lanfranc, De Euch. c. 3 (ed. Migne), p. 412.
56 Papal Infallibility.

by human but divine authority, and it is God, not man,

who looses it. 1 The pbvious and direct corollary, that
the Pope can also dissolve the less firm and holy bond

of marriage, Innocent, as we have seen, overlooked, for

he solemnly condemned Celestine m. s decision on

that point; and thus he unwittingly involved himself

in a contradiction. Many canonists, however, have ac

cepted this consequence of his teaching as legitimate.

Innocent betrayed his utter ignorance of theology,
when he declared that the Fifth Book of Moses, being

called Deuteronomy, or the Second Book of the Law,

must bind the Christian Church, which is the second
2
Church. This great Pope seems never to have read

Deuteronomy, or he could hardly Lave fallen into the

blunder of supposing, e.g., that the Old Testament prohi

bitions of particular kinds of food, the burnt- offerings,

the harsh penal code and bloody laws of war, the prohibi

tions of woollen and linen garments, etc., were to be agaio

made obligatory on Christians. And as the Jews were
allowed in Deuteronomy to put away a wife who dis

pleased them, and take another, Innocent ran the risk

1
Decretal, De Transl. Episc., c. 2, 3, 4. This was to introduce a new
article of faith. The Church had not known for centuries that resigna

tions, depositions, and translations of bishops, belonged by divine right to

the Pope.
2
Decretal, Quifilii sint legitimi, c. 13.
 Errors and Contradictions of the Popes. 57

of falling himself into a greater error about marriage

than Celestine in.

Great light is thrown on this question by the history

of the alternate approbations and persecutions of the
Franciscan Order by the Popes.
Nicolas m., in the decretal, Exiit qui seminat, gave
an exposition of the rule of St. Francis, and affirmed the
renunciation of all personal or corporate property to be

holy and meritorious that Christ Himself had taught,

;

and by His example confirmed it, and also the first

founders of the Church. The Franciscans therefore were

to have the use only, not the possession, of property ;

the possession he adjudged to belong to the Eoman

Church. He expressly added that this exposition of the
rule of St. Francis was to have permanent force, and,

like every other constitution or decretal, to be used in

the schools and literally interpreted. He forbade,
under pain of excommunication, all glosses against the
literal sense. There can be no shadow of doubt that
Nicolas meant in this decree to issue a solemn decision

on a matter of faith. It is not addressed to the Fran

ciscan Order only, but to the schools (i.e., universities)
and the whole Church.
Clement v., in the decretal, Exivi de Paradiso, re-
58 Papal Infa llibility.

newed the ordinance assigning the property of Fran

ciscans to the Eoman Church and John xxn., in the
;

Bull Quorundam, declared this ordinance of Nicolas in.

and Clement v. to be salutary, clear, and of force. But

no sooner did John come into conflict with the Fran

ciscans, partly in his attempts to limit their ludicrous

excesses in the exhibition of Evangelical poverty, partly

owing to the strong denunciations of the corruption of

the Papal Court, and loud demands for a reformation

in the Church, which issued from the bosom of the

Order, than he began gradually, and as far as he could
without prejudicing his authority, to undermine the
constitution of Nicolas in. First, he removed the ex
communication for all non-literal interpretations of the

Franciscan rule, and then attacked certain of its details.

Meanwhile the strife grew fiercer ;

the "

Spirituals,"
in

union with Louis of Bavaria, began to brand John as a

heretic, and he, in a new Bull, declared the distinction be

tween use and possession impossible, neither serviceable
for the Church nor for Christian perfection, and finally

rejected the doctrine of his predecessor,

that Christ and
the Apostles were in word and deed patterns of the
Franciscan ideal of poverty, as heretical, and hostile to
the Catholic faith.
 Errors and Contradictions of the Popes. 59

And thus the perplexing spectacle was afforded the

Church of one Pope unequivocally charging another with

false doctrine. What Nicolas ill. and Clement V. had
solemnly commended as right and holy, their successor
branded, as solemnly, as noxious and wrong. The Fran
ciscans repeated the charge of heresy against John xxu.
with the more emphasis, "since what the Popes had once
defined in faith and morals, through the keys of wisdom,

their successors could not call in question."

1
John con
demned the writings of D Olive, and several more of their
theologians, and handed over the whole community of the
or Fratricelli, as the advocates of extreme
"

Spirituals,"

poverty were called, to the Inquisition. Between 1316

and 1352, 114 of them were burnt, martyrs to their
misconception of Evangelical poverty and Papal infalli

bility; for they were among the first champions of that

theory, as yet new in the Church. After long and
bitter persecutions, Sixtus iv. at last made some satis

faction to the by letting the works

"

Spirituals," of their

prophet and theologian, D Olive, be re-examined, and

in contradiction to the sentence of John xxu., declared
orthodox. Later Popes resumed possession of the pro

perty of the Franciscans, which John had repudiated.

1
Cf. Bossuet, Defens. Declarat. <Eumes t xviii. pp. 339 seq. Liege, 1768.
60 Papal Infallibility.

One of the most comprehensive, dogmatic documents

ever issued by a Pope is the decree of Eugenius iv.
"

to

the Armenians/ dated 22d November 143 9, three months

after the Council of Florence was brought to an end by

the departure of the Greeks. It is a confession of faith

of the Eoman Church, intended to serve as a rule of

doctrine and practice for the Armenians, on those points

they had previously differed about. The dogmas of

the Unity of the Divine Nature, the Trinity, the In

carnation, and the Seven Sacraments, are expounded,

and the Pope moreover asserts that the decree thus

solemnly issued has received the sanction of the Council,

that is, of the Italian bishops whom he had detained in
Florence.

If this decree of the Pope were really a rule of

faith, the Eastern Church would have only four sacra

ments instead of seven the Western Church would

;
for

at least eight centuries have been deprived of three

sacraments, and of one, the want of which would make
all the rest, with one exception, invalid. Eugenius iv.

determines in this decree the form and matter, the sub

stance, of the sacraments, or of those things on the

presence or absence of which the existence of the sacra

ment itself depends, according to the universal doctrine
 Errors and Contradictions of the Popes. 61

of the Church. He gives a form of Confirmation which

never existed in one- half of the Church, and first came
into use in the other after the tenth century. So again

with Penance. What is given as the essential form of

the sacrament was unknown in the Western Church for

eleven hundred years, and never known in the Greek.

And when the delivery of the sacred vessels, and the

words accompanying the rite, are given as the form and

matter of Ordination, it follows that the Latin Church
for a thousand years had neither priests nor bishops-

nay, like the Greek Church, which never adopted this

usage, possesses to this hour neither priests nor bishops,

and consequently no sacraments except Baptism, and
1
perhaps Marriage.
It is noteworthy that this decree with which Papal

Infallibility or the whole hierarchy and the sacraments

of the Church stand or fall is cited, refuted, and

appealed to by all dogmatic writers, but that the adhe

rents of Papal Infallibility have never meddled with it.

Neither Bellarmine, nor Charlas, nor Aguirre, nor Orsi,

Denzinger, Enchirid. Symbol. etDefinit. (Wirceb. 1854), pp. 200

1
Cf. seq.
But Denzinger, in order to conceal the purely dogmatic character of this
famous decree, has omitted the first part, on the Trinity and Incarnation,
which is given in Eaynaldus s Annals, 1439. [The same conspicuously
untenable explanation was adopted in the Dublin Review for January
1866. -In.]
62 Papal Infallibility.

nor the other apologists of the Eoman Court, troubled

themselves with it.

After the Papal claim to infallibility had taken a

more definite shape at Kome, Sixtus v. himself brought

it
again into jeopardy by his edition of the Bible. The
Council of Trent had pronounced St. Jerome s version
authentic for the Western Church, but there was no

authentic edition of the Latin Bible sanctioned by the

Church. Sixtus v. undertook to provide one, which

appeared, garnished with the stereotyped forms of ana

thema and penal enactments. His Bull declared that this

edition, corrected by his own hand, must be received and

used by everybody as the only true and genuine one,

under pain of excommunication, every change, even of

a single word, being forbidden under anathema.

But it soon appeared that it was full of blunders,

some two thousand of them introduced by the Pope

himself. It was said the Bible of Sixtus v. must

be publicly prohibited. But Bellarmine advised that

the peril Sixtus had brought the Church into should be

hushed up as far as possible ;

all the copies were to be

called in, and the corrected Bible printed anew, under

the name of Sixtus V., with a statement in the Preface
that the errors had crept in through the fault of the
 Errors and Contradictions of the Popes. 63

of others. Bellarmine
compositors and the carelessness
himself was commissioned to give circulation to these

lies, to which the new Pope gave his name, by compos

ing the Preface. In his Autobiography this Jesuit and
Cardinal congratulates himself on having thus requited

Sixtus with good for evil ;

for the Pope had put his

great work on Controversies on the Index, because he

had not maintained the direct, but only the indirect,

dominion of the Pope over the whole world. And now

followed a fresh mishap. The Autobiography, which was

kept in the archives of the Eoman Jesuits, got known

in Eome through several transcripts. On this Cardinal

Azzolini urged that, as Bellarmine had insulted three

Popes and exhibited two as liars, viz., Gregory xiv.

and Clement VIIL, his work should be suppressed and

1
burnt, and the strictest secrecy inculcated about it.

IV. The Verdict of History.

Some explanation is imperatively needed of the strange

phenomenon, that an opinion according to which Christ

i
For, thought Azzolini, what shall we say, if our adversaries infer
exponenda Ecclesias S. Scriptura" the Pope can err
falli in
"

Papa potest
in expounding Scripture nay, hath erred, non solum in exponendo sed
"

in ea multa perperam mutando," not only in expoimding it, but in making

many wrong changes in the text ? Voto ndla causa della Beatif. del Card.
Bellarm. (Ferrara, 1761), p. 40.
64 Papal Infallibility.

has made the Pope of the day the one vehicle of His in

spirations, the pillar and exclusive organ of Divine truth,

without whom the Church is like a body without a soul,

deprived of the power of vision, and unable to deter

mine any point of faith that such an opinion, which

is for the future to be a sort of dogmatic Atlas carrying

the whole edifice of faith and morals on its shoulders,

should have first been certainly ascertained in the year
of grace 1869, but is from henceforth to be placed as a

primary article of faith at the head of every catechism.

Fox thirteen centuries an incomprehensible silence
on this fundamental article reigned throughout the
whole Church and her literature. None of the ancient

confessions of faith, no catechism, none of the patristic

writings composed for the instruction of the people,

contain a syllable about the Pope, still less any hint
that all certainty of faith and doctrine depends on him.

For the first thousand years of Church history not one

single question of doctrine was finally decided by the Pope.

The Eoman bishops took no part in the commotions
which the numerous Gnostic sects, the Montanists and
Chiliasts, produced in the early Church, nor can a single
dogmatic decree issued by one of them be found during
the first four centuries, nor a trace of the existence of any.
 The Verdict of History. 65

Even the controversy about Christ kindled by Paul of

Samosata, which occupied the whole Eastern Church for

a long time, and necessitated the assembling of several

Councils, was terminated without the Pope taking any

part in it. So again in the chain of controversies and dis

cussions connected with the names of Theodotus, Arte-
mon, Noetus, Sabellius, Beryllus, and Lucian of Antioch,
which troubled the whole Church, and extended over

nearly 150 years, there is no proof that the Roman

bishops acted beyond the limits of their own local

Church, or accomplished any dogmatic result. The only

exception is the dogmatic treatise of the Eoman bishop
Dionysius, following a Synod held at Eome in 262, de

nouncing and rejecting Sabellianism and the opposite

method of expression of Dionysius of Alexandria. This

document, if any authority had been ascribed to it, was

well fitted in itself to cut short, or rather strangle at its

birth, the long Arian disturbance but ;

it was not known
out of Alexandria, and exercised no influence whatever on

the later course of the controversy. It is only known

from the fragments quoted afterwards by Athanasius.

In three controversies during this early period the
Pioman Church took an active part, the question about

Easter, about heretical baptism, and about the peni-

E
66 Papal Infallibility.

tential discipline. In all three the Popes were unable to

carry out their own will and view and practice, and the
other Churches maintained their different usage with

out its leading to any permanent division. Pope Victor s

attempt to compel the Churches of Asia Minor to adopt
the Eoman usage, by excluding them from his com
munion, proved a failure.

The dispute about the stricter or milder administra

tion of penance, and as to whether certain heinous sins

should exclude from communion for life, lasted a lonir

O
time in the Church of Eome, as elsewhere. There is

no trace found of any attempt to force other Churches

to adopt the principles received at Eome ;
and even in
the fourth century, the Spanish Synod of Elvira estab

lished rules differing widely from the Eoman. This

difference had an intimate relation to dogma.

The dispute about heretical baptism, in the middle of

the third century, had a still.more clearly dogmatic char

acter, for the whole Church doctrine of the efficacy and

conditions of sacramental grace was involved. Yet the

opposition of Pope Stephen to the doctrine, confirmed

at several African and Asiatic Synods, against the

validity of schismatical baptism, remained wholly in

operative. Stephen went so far as to exclude those

 The Verdict of History. 67

Churches from his communion, but he only drew down

sharp censures on his unlawful arrogance. Both St.

Cyprian and Firmilian of Csesarea denied his having any

right to dictate a doctrine to other bishops and Churches.
And the other Eastern Churches, too, which were not

directly mixed up in the dispute, retained their own

practice for a long time, quite undisturbed by the
Eoman theory. Later on, St. Augustine, looking back
at this dispute, maintains that the pronouncement of

Stephen, categorical as it was, was no decision of the

Church, and that St. Cyprian and the Africans were

therefore justified in rejecting it ;
he says the real obli

gation of conforming to a common practice originated

with the decree of a great (plenarium) Council, meaning
the Council of Aries in 314. 1

In the Arian disputes, which engaged and disturbed

the Church beyond all others for above half a century,

and were discussed in more than

fifty Synods, the Eoman
See for a long time remained passive. The long pon
tificate of Pope Silvester (314-335) has no document or

sign of doctrinal activity to show, any more than those

Aug., De Bapt. contr. Donat., Opp. (ed. Benedict.) ix. pp. 98-111. The
1

advocates of Papal Infallibility are obliged to give up St.

Augustine. Orsi
formally rebukes him, and Bellarmine (De Eccles. i. 4) thinks he perhaps
spoke a falsehood.
68 Papal Infallibility.

of all his predecessors from 269 to 314. Julius and

Liberius (337-366) were the first to take part in the

course of events, but they only increased the uncer

tainty. Julius pronounced Marcellus of Ancyra, an

avowed Sabellian, orthodox at his Eoman Synod ;
and
Liberius purchased his return from exile from the Em
perorby condemning St. Athanasius, and subscribing an
Arian creed. Anathema to thee, Liberius
"

was then !"

the cry of zealous Catholic bishops like Hilary of

Poitiers. This apostasy of Liberius sufficed, through
the whole of the middle ages, for a proof that Popes

could fall into heresy as well as other people.

Later on, and especially after the unfortunate issue
of the Synods of Milan, Sirmium, Eirnini, and Seleucia,
when men s confidence in this method of securing sound

definitions was greatly shaken, and St. Jerome wrote

that the world was amazed to find itself Arian then, if
ever, we might expect that Christians and Churches

would resort in their perplexity from all parts of the

empire to the Eoman See for aid and counsel, as the

one anchor of salvation and rock of orthodoxy; but

nothing of the kind took place ;

so far from it, that in

all the treatises and discussions consequent on the

Synods of Eimini and Seleucia in 359, the Pope s name

 The Verdict of History. 69

is never once mentioned. The first sign of life he gave

was some years afterwards, when he adopted the pro
cedure of the Synod of Alexandria against the bishops
1
who fell at Eimini.

During all the fourth century Councils alone decided

dogmatic questions. If the Bishop of Kome was ever

appealed to for a decision, it was understood that he

was desired to call a Synod to decide the point at issue.

At the second (Ecumenical Council in 381, which decreed

the most important definition of faith since the Nicene,

by first formalizing the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, the

Church of Eome was not represented at all ; only the
decrees were communicated to it as to other Churches.

Two Eoman Synods, under Damasus, about 378, did

indeed anathematize certain errors without naming their

authors; but Pope Siricius (384-398) declined to pro

nounce on the false doctrine of a bishop (Bonosus),
when requested to do so, on the ground that he had no

right, and must await the sentence of the bishops of the

2
province,
"

to make it the rule of his own." He con

demned the teaching which originated in
of Jovinian,

Eome itself, but only through the means of a Synod.

A greater share fell to the Popes in the Pelagian con-
1 2
Epist. Pontif. (ed. Const.) p. 448. fa p<
JO Papal Infallibility.

troversies, which chiefly concerned the West, than in

previous ones. Inribcent i., when invoked by the

Africans, after five years of disputing, had sanctioned

the decrees of their two Synods of Milevis and Carthage

(417), and pronounced a work of Pelagius heretical, so

that St. Augustine said, in a sermon, The matter "

is

now ended." But he deceived himself, for the strife

was only fairly begun, and it was not ended till many
years later, by the decision of the (Ecumenical Council

of Ephesus in 431. Meanwhile Pope Zosimus spoke

on the Pelagian doctrine in a very different fashion

from his immediate predecessor, Innocent. He bestowed

high commendation on the profession of faith of Celes-

tius, who was accused before him of the heresy, though

it contained an open denial of Original Sin, and severely

rebuked the African bishops, who had made the com

plaint, for accusing so orthodox a person of heresy. It

was only after they had addressed an energetic letter to

Zosimus, telling him that they adhered to their decision,
and that he was mistaken, and after they had again
anathematized the teaching of Pelagius and Celestius,
at a Council held at Carthage, that the Pope assented
to their judgment.
1 Senno 10. v. 449.
131, c. Opp. (ed. Antwerp)
 The Verdict of History. 7 1

But St. Augustine s saying, quoted above, lias been

al

leged in proof of his accepting Papal Infallibility, which,

in dealing with the baptismal controversy, he so often

and so pointedly repudiates. Such a notion was utterly

foreign to his mind. The Pelagian system was in his

eyes so manifest and deadly an error (aperta pernicies),

that there seemed to him no need even of a Synod to
1
condemn it. The two African Synods, and the Pope s
assent to their decrees, appeared to him more than

enough, and so the matter might be regarded as at an

end. That a Eornan judgment in itself was not con
clusive, but that a "Concilium plenarium was neces

sary for that purpose, he had himself emphatically

maintained; and the conduct of Pope Zosimus could

only confirm his opinion.
A new chapter in the dogmatic action of the Popes

opens with the year 430, which was the starting-point of

the controversies on the Incarnation and the relation of

the two natures in Christ, which lasted on to the close

of the seventh century. Pope Celestine s condemnation

of Nestorius was superseded by the Emperor s
convoking
a General Council at Ephesus in 431, where it was sub
mitted to examination, and approved. When the Euty-
1
Contr. Ep. Pelag. i. 4, c. ult.
72 Papal Infallibility.

chian controversy arose, the letter of Leo the Great to

Flavian appeared in 449, and this was the first dogmatic

Pope which found acceptance both in East
writing of a
and West, but not until it had been examined at the
Council of Chalcedon. Leo himself acknowledged
o that

his treatise could not become a rule of faith till it was

1
confirmed by the bishops.

Pope Yigilius was less happy in the dispute about

"

the
"

Three Chapters the writings of Theodore, Theo-

doret, and Ibas, which were held to be Nestorian, which

he first pronounced orthodox in 546, then condemned
the next year, and then again reversed this sentence in

deference to the Western bishops, and thus came into

conflict with the Fifth General Council, which excom

municated him. Finally, he submitted to the judgment

of the Council, declaring that he had unfortunately been a

tool in the hands of Satan, who labours for the destruc

tion of the Church, and had thus been divided from his
2
colleagues, but God had now enlightened him. Thus he
thrice contradicted himself: first he anathematized those
who condemned the Three Chapters as erroneous ;
then
he anathematized those who held them to be orthodox,
1
Leonis Ep. ad Episc. Gall, See Mansi, Condi, vi. 181.
-
See Ms letter to the Patriarch Eutychius. Of. De Marca, Dissert.

(Paris, 1669), p. 45.

 The Verdict of History. 73

as he had just before himself held them to be ;

soon after
he condemned the condemnation of the Three Chapters ;

and lastly, the Emperor and Council triumphed again

over the fickle Pope. A long schism in the West was

the consequence. Whole National Churches Africa,
North Italy, Illyria broke off communion with the
Popes, whom they accused of having sacrificed the
faith and authority of the Council of Chalcedon by

condemning the Three Chapters. Pelagius I., Yigilius s

5uccessor, whose orthodoxy was on this ground sus

pected by the Prankish king, Childebert, and the bishops

of Gaul, never dreamt of claiming immunity from
error, but excused himself in all directions. He laid

before Childebert a public profession of his faith, and

declared himself, before the bishops of Tuscany,

ready
to give to every one an account of his faith.

Often and earnestly as the Popes exhorted separated

bishops and Churches to return to communion with

Eome, they never appealed to any peculiar authority or

exemption from error in the Eoman See.

The Monoth elite controversy, growing out of the as

sertion that Christ had not two wills, a human and a
Divine, but one Divine will only, led to the General

Synod of Constantinople in 680. At the beginning of

 74 Papal Infallibility.
the controversy, Pope Honorius I., when questioned by
three Patriarchs,had spoken entirely in favour of the
heretical doctrine in letters addressed to them, and had

thereby powerfully aided the new sect. Later on, in

649, Pope Martin, with a Synod of 105 bishops from

Southern and Central Italy, condemned Monothelism.

But the sentence of a Pope and a small Synod had no

binding authority then, and the Emperor Constantine

found it necessary to summon a General Council to

settle the question. It was foreseen that Pope Hon

orius I., who had hitherto been protected by silence,

must share the fate of the other chief authors of the

heresy at this Council. He was, in fact, condemned for

heresy in the most solemn manner, and not a single

voice, not even of the Papal legates who were present,

was raised in his defence. His dogmatic writings were
committed to the flames as heretical. The Popes sub
mitted to the inevitable; they subscribed the anathema,
and themselves undertook to see that the "heretic"

Honorius was condemned in the West as well as

throughout the East, and his name struck out of the

Liturgy. This one fact that a Great Council, univer

sally received afterwards without the slightest hesitation

throughout the Church, and presided over by Papal le

gates, pronounced the dogmatic decision of a Pope here-

 The Verdict of History. 75

tical, and anathematized him by name as a heretic is a

proof, clear as the sun at noonday, that the notion of

any peculiar enlightenment or inerrancy of the Popes

was then utterly unknown to the whole Church. The

only resource of the defenders of Papal Infallibility,

since Torquemada and Bellarmine, has been to attack
the Acts of the Council as spurious, and maintain that

they are a wholesale forgery of the Greeks. The Jesuits

clung tenaciously to this notion till the middle of the

last century. Since it has had to be abandoned, the

device has been to try and torture the words of Honorius

into a sort of orthodox sense. But whatever comes of

that, nothing can alter the fact, that at the time both

Councils, and the Popes themselves, were convinced of

the fallibility of the Pope. 1

A century later, Pope Adrian I.

vainly endeavoured
to get the decrees of the second Nicene Council on

Image Worship, which he had approved, received by

Charlemagne and his bishops. The great assembly
at Frankfort in 794, and the Caroline books, rejected
and attacked these decrees, and Adrian did not ven
ture to offer more than verbal opposition. In 824 the

bishops assembled in synod at Paris spoke without

1
[On the various infallibilist answers to the case of Honorius, the reader
may consult with advantage The Case of Pope Honorious Reconsidered with
reference to Recent Apologies. By P. Le Page Renouf. Longmans. TR.]
76 Papal Infallibility.
"

remorse of the
"

absurdities Pope Adrian,

(absona) of

who, they said, had commanded an heretical worship

1
of images.

ISTo less light is thrown on the relations of Western

bishops to the Pope by the Predestinarian controversy

occasioned by the monk Gottschalk, and prolonged for

ten years at Synods and in various writings. The first

prelates of the day, Hincmar, Ehabanus, Amolo, Pru-

dentius, Wenilo, and others, took opposite sides, Synod
contended against Synod, and there seemed no possi

bility of coming to an agreement. Yet it never occurred

to any one to appeal to the Pope s sentence, ready as he

was to interpose in the affairs of the Frankish Church ;

only at last Gottschalk himself made an unsuc

cessful attempt to get his hard fate mitigated by the
Pope.

Up to the time of the Isidorian decretals no serious

attempt was made anywhere to introduce the neo-

Eoman theory of Infallibility. The Popes did not dream
of laying claim to such a privilege. Their relation to

the Church had to be fundamentally revolutionized,

and the idea of the Primacy altered, before there could

be any room for this doctrine to grow up ;

after that it

1
Mansi, Concil. xiv. 415 seq.
 The Verdict of History. 77

developed itself by a sort of logical sequence, but very

slowly, being at issue with notorious historical facts.

V. The Ancient Constitution of the Church.

To get a view of the enormous difference in the posi

tion and action of the Primacy, as it was in the Eoman

Empire, and as it became in the later middle ages, it is

enough to point out the following facts :

(1.) The Popes took no part in convoking Councils.

All Great Councils, to which bishops came from differ

ent countries, were convoked by the Emperors, nor

were the Popes ever consulted about it beforehand. If

they thought a General Council necessary, they had to

petition the Imperial Court, as Innocent did in the
matter of St. Chrysostom, and Leo after the Synod of
1
449 j
and then they did not always prevail, as both
the Popes just named learnt
by experience.
(2.) They were not always allowed to preside, per
sonally or by deputy, at the Great Councils, though no
one denied them the first rank in the Church. At
Nice, at the two Councils of Ephesus in 431 and 449,
and at the Fifth General Council in 553, others pre

sided; only at Chalcedon in 451, and Constantinople in

1
[The
"

Latrocinium" of Ephesus. TR.]

78 Papal Infallibility.

680, did the Papal legates preside. And it is clear that

the Popes did not claim this as their exclusive right,

from the conduct of Leo I. in sending his legates to

Ephesus, although he knew that the Emperor had

named, not him, but the bishop of Alexandria, to
preside.

(3.) Neither the dogmatic nor the disciplinary deci

sions of these Councils required Papal confirmation, for

their forceand authority depended on the consent of

the Church, as expressed in the Synod, and afterwards

in the fact of its being generally received. The con

firmation of the Nicene Council by Pope Silvester was
afterwards invented at Rome, because facts would not

square with the newly devised theory.

(4.) For the first thousand years no Pope ever issued

a doctrinal decision intended for and addressed to the

whole Church. Their doctrinal pronouncements, if de-

signed to condemn new heresies, were always submitted

to a Synod, or were answers to inquiries from one or
more bishops. They only became a standard of faith
after being read, examined, and approved at an (Ecume
nical Council.

(5.) The Popes possessed none of the three powers

which are the proper attributes of sovereignty, neither

 Ancient Constitution of the Church. 79

the legislative, the administrative, nor the judicial. The

Council of Sardica, in 343, gave them, indeed, a handle
for the attempt to usurp the latter. Here it was decreed
for the first time, and as a personal privilege to the then

Pope, Julius, that he should be authorized

to appoint

instance to hear the

judges for a bishop in the second
cause on the spot, with the assistance of a Boman legate,

and, in the event of a further appeal, to pronounce sen

tence himself. But this regulation was received neither

by the Eastern Church nor the African, never observed

by the former, and steadily rejected by the latter, and
it never came into full force anywhere till after the

Isidorian decretals were fabricated. The African bishops

wrote to Pope Boniface I., in 41 9,
"

We are resolved not

to admit this arrogant claim."

The Popes at that time made no attempt to exercise

legislative power. For a long time, according to their

own statement, no canons but those of the first Nicene
Council obtained in the West, in the East only the
canons of Eastern Synods. Declarations or ordinances

issued by Popes in reply to questions of particular

bishops could not be regarded as general laws of the

i
Epist. Fontif. (ed. Coust.), p. 113 :
"

Non sumus jam istum typhum

passuri."
8o Papal Infallibility.

Church, for the simple reason that they were only

known to particular "bishops
The spread
and Churches.
of the Dionysian writings, with the second part com

posed of Papal documents, after the sixth century, began

gradually to pioneer the way for the notion that certain

decretals of the Roman bishops had the force of law, but

their authority was still limited, as in the Spanish

Church, to those issued by Roman Synods, or else was

made dependent on their express acceptance by National
Churches. Even if the Popes had attempted at that time
to exercise a formal government over the Church, the
thing was a sheer impossibility. Government cannot be
carried on by occasional Synods, and there was no other
machinery for governing. The Popes would have required
a court, a system of clerical officials, congregations, and
the like, but nothing of the kind was remotely dreamt

of. The Roman clergy were organized just like every

other for all the offices and functions undertaken later,
;

and still discharged by the court, there was then neither

need nor occasion.

(6.) Nobody thought of getting dispensations from

Church laws from the Roman bishops, nor was a single

tax or tribute paid to the Roman See, for no court as yet
existed. To make laws which could be dispensed for
 Ancient Constitution of the Church. 81

money would have appeared both a folly and a crime.

The power of the keys, or of binding and loosing, was
universally held to belong to the other bishops just as
much as to the bishop of Kome.

(7.) The bishops of Kome could exclude neither indi

viduals nor Churches from the communion of the Church

Universal.They could withdraw their own Church from
communion with particular bishops or Churches, and
they often did so, but this in nowise affected their rela
tion to other bishops or Churches, as was shown, among
other instances, by the long Antiochian schism from
361 to 413. And, on the other hand, if they admitted
own communion one excommunicated by other
into their

Churches, this did not bring him into communion with

any other Church.

(8.) For a long time nothing was known in Borne of
definite rights bequeathed by Peter to his successors.
Nothing but a care for the weal of the Church, and the

duty of watching over the observance of the canons,

was ascribed to them. Only after the Sardican Council,

and in reliance solely on it, or the Mcene, which was

designedly confounded with it, was a right of hearing ap

peals laid claim to. Innocent I. himself (402-417), who

tried to give the widest extent to the Sardican canon, and
82 Papal Infallibility.

claimed, on the strength of it, a right to interpose in all

graver Church questions, grounded his claim entirely on

"
"

the Fathers and the Synod. So, too, with Zosimus

(417-418), it was the Fathers who had given the See

1
of Eome the privilege of final decision in appeals. But
soon afterwards, at the Council of Ephesus, the Eoman
legates declared that Peter, to whom Christ gave the

power of binding and loosing, lives and judges in his suc

2
cessors. No one put forward this plea more frequently

or more energetically than Leo I. But when the Coun

cil of Chalcedon declared, in its famous twenty-eighth

canon, that it was the Fathers who adjudged the primacy

to Eome, and that too on account of the political dignity

of the city, Leo did not venture to contradict them, though

he strenuously resisted the main purport of the canon,

which raised the See of Constantinople to the first rank
after the Eoman, and to equal rights. It was not the

degradation of the Eoman See, but only the injury done

to the Eastern Patriarchs and the Mcene canon, which,
*

according to his own assurance, was the ground of his

3
refusing his assent to the canon of Chalcedon. He
1 2 Ib. iv. 1296.
Mansi, Condi, iv. 366.
sixth Nicene canon, referring to the rights of the Roman See over
3 The
part of the Italian Church, had given the same rights to the bishops of
Alexandria and Antioch over their own Patriarchates.
 Ancient Constitution of the Church. 83

had, indeed,some years before, induced the Emperor

Valentinian an edict in favour of the See of
in. to issue

Rome, which subjected all the bishops of the then very

reduced Western empire (strictly only those of Italy and

Gaul) to the Pope, and which, had it obtained full force,

would have changed the whole constitution of the West

ern Church. This edict names, besides the canon of

Sardica, and the greatness of the city,

"

the merit of St.

Peter," as the first ground for so comprehensive a power,

which the bishops were to be compelled by the imperial

officers to bow to. But when Leo had to deal with

Byzantium and the East, he no longer dared to plead this

argument, which would alone have proved the hated

twenty-eighth canon of Chalcedon to be null and void,

-but preferred to appeal to the Mcene Council, utterly
untenable as his inferences from the sixth canon must
have appeared to the Greeks. The opposition of his

successors was equally fruitless. The canon took full

effect, and from that day to this has determined the

form and constitution of the Eastern Church, and its

view of the prerogatives of Rome.

(9.) What was afterwards called the Papal system,

when first proclaimed in words only, was repudiated

with horror by that best and greatest of Popes,
Gregory
84 Papal Infallibility.

the Great. On this theory thePope has the plenitude

of power, all other bishops are only his servants and

auxiliaries, from him all power is derived, and he is

concurrent ordinary in every diocese. So Gregory un

derstood the title of
"

(Ecumenical Patriarch," and would

wicked and blasphemous a
"

not endure that so "

title
1
should be given to himself or any one else.

(10.) There are many National Churches which were

never under Eome, and never even had any intercourse

by letter with Eome, without this being considered a

defect, or causing any difficulty about Church com

munion. Such an autonomous Church, always in

dependent of Eome, was the most ancient of those

founded beyond the limits of the empire, the Armenian,
wherein the primatial dignity descended for a long

time in the family of the national apostle, Gregory the

Illuminator. The great Syro-Persian Church in Meso
potamia, and the western part of the kingdom of the
Sassanidae, with its thousands of martyrs, was from the

first, and always remained, equally free from any in

fluence of Eome. In its records and its rich litera

ture we find no trace of the arm of Eome having

reached there. The same holds good of the Ethiopian

1
Lib. v. Ep. 18 ad Joann ; Lib. viii. Ep. 30 ad Eulog. etc.
 Ancient Constitution of the Church. 85

or Abyssinian Church, which was indeed united to the

See of Alexandria, but wherein nothing, except perhaps

a distant was heard of the claims of Koine. In
echo,
the West, the Irish and the ancient British Church

remained for centuries autonomous, and under no sort

of influence of Eonie.

If we put into a positive form this negative account

of the position of the ancient Popes, we get the follow

ing picture of the organization of the ancient Church :-

Without prejudice to its agreement with the Church

Universal in all essential points, every Church manages
its own affairs with perfect freedom and independence,
and maintains its own traditional usages and discipline,
all questions not concerning the whole Church, or of

primary importance, being settled on the spot. The

Church is organized in dioceses, provinces, patriarchates

(National Churches were added afterwards in the West),

with the bishop of Eome at the head as first Patriarch,

the Centre and Eepresentative of unity, and, as such,

the bond between East and West, between the Churches

of the Greek and the Latin tongue, the chief watcher and

guardian of the, as yet very few, common laws of the

Church, for a long time only the Mcene but he

; does
not encroach on the rights of patriarchs, metropolitans,
86 Papal Infallibility.

and bishops. Laws and articles of faith, of universal

obligation, are issued only by the whole Church, con

centrated and represented at an (Ecumenical Council.

VI. The Teaching of the Fathers.

What has now become a rule in dogmatic works to

3

give a separate "treatise" or "locus to the Pope-

came in with Aquinas, the first
theologian who, on
grounds to be explained presently, made the doctrine
of thePope a formal part of dogmatic theology, i.e., of
the Scholastic, and it thus dates from 1274. Since
then every doctrinal treatise has its section on the
"

Primacy," and since Melchior Canus (abotit 1550) more

especially, but in a shorter form with Aquinas, a dis
cussion of the Pope s authority in matters of faith.

With the Jesuit theologians (compare, e.g., among

living writers, Passaglia, Schrader, Weninger, etc.), the

monarchical authority and magisterial power of the

Pope is the chief article on which all the rest depends,

and which comes before all in weight and fundamental

significance. And rightly so, if the Pope is infallible

in his decisions ;
for then every authority in the

Church, that of Councils included, is a mere derivation

from his, and all certainty of faith rests ultimately on
 The Teaching of the Fathers. 87

him and his divine prerogative of being the vehicle of a

permanent illumination from on high. Every Christian

must say I believe this or that article of faith, because
"

I believe in the Pope s infallibility, and because the

Pope has decided it, or has ratified the decision and

teaching of others."

And now compare with this the silence of the

ancient Church. In the first three centuries, St.

Irenseus is the only writer who connects the superiority

of the Eoman Church with doctrine ;

but he places this

superiority, rightly understood, only in its antiquity,

its double apostolical origin, and in the circumstance
of the pure tradition being guarded and maintained
there through the constant concourse of the faithful
1
from all countries. Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, know
nothing of special Papal prerogatives, or of any higher or
supreme right of deciding in matters of faith and doc
trine. In the writings of the Greek doctors, Eusebius,
2
St. Athanasius, St. Basil t^- Great, the two Gregories,

1
the famous interpolation in Cyprian s De Unit. Ecdes. see later.
On
(Opp. ed. Bened. iii. 301, Epp. 239 and 214) has expressed
2 St. Basil
most strongly his contempt for the writings of the Popes, those insolent
"

and puffed up Occidentals, who would only sanction false doctrine." He

says he would not receive their letters if they fell from heaven. He was
provoked by the support given at Rome to the open Sabelliauism of Mar-
cellus and the unsettling of the Antiochian Church.
88 Papal Infallibility.

and St. Epiphanius, there is not one word of any pre

rogatives of the Eoman bishop. The most copious of

the Greek Fathers, St. Chrysostom, is wholly silent on

the subject, and so are the two Cyrils ; equally silent are
the Latins, Hilary, Pacian, Zeno, Lucifer, Sulpicius, and

St. Ambrose. Even the Eoman writer Ursinus (about

440), in defending the Eoman view of re-baptism,

avoids, or does not venture upon, any appeal to the

authority of the Eoman Church, as final, or even of

1
especial weight !

St. Augustine has written more on the Church, its

unity and authority, than all the other Fathers put

together. Yet, from all his numerous works, filling ten

folios, only one sentence, in one letter, can be quoted,

where he says that the principality of the Apostolic
2
Chair has always been in Eome, - -which could, of

course, be said then with equal truth of Antioch,

Jerusalem, and Alexandria. Any reader of his Pastoral

Letter to the separated Donatists on the Unity of the

Church, must find it inexplicable, on the Jesuit theory,

that in these seventy- five chapters there is not a single

1 all but contemporary statement

That he is the author is clear from the
of Gennadius, and the oldest MS. See Bennettis, Privilegia R. P. Yin-
dicata (Romse, 1756), ii. 274.
2
Ep. 43, Opp. (Antwerp), ii. 69.
 The Teaching of the Fathers. 89

word on the necessity of communion with Eome as the

centre of unity. He urges all sorts of arguments to

show that the Donatists are bound to return to the

Church, bat of the Papal Chair, as one of them, he

knows nothing. So again with the famous Commoni-
torium of St. Vincent of Lerins, composed in 434. If

the view of Eoman infallibility had existed anywhere

in the Church at that time, it could not have been

possibly passed over in a book exclusively concerned

with the question of the means for ascertaining the

genuine Christian doctrine. But the author keeps to

the three notes of universality, permanence, and con

sent, and to the (Ecumenical Councils. Even Pope

Pelagius I.
praises St. Augustine for "being mindful
of the divine doctrine which places the foundation of
the Church in the Apostolical Sees, and teaching that

they are schismatics who separate themselves from the

communion of these Apostolical Sees." This Pope (555-

560), then, knows nothing of any exclusive teaching

privilege of Eome, but only of the necessity of adher

ing in disputed questions of faith to the Apostolical

Churches Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, as well
2
as Eome.
1 8
Mansi, Condi, ix. 710. 74. ix. 732.
90 Papal Infallibility.

Moreover, we have writings or statements about the

ranks of the hierarchy in the ancient Church, and the

Papal dignity is never named as one of them, or men

tioned as anything existing apart in the Church. In the

writings of the Areopagite, composed at the end of the

fifth century, on the hierarchy, only bishops, presbyters,
and deacons are mentioned. In 63 1, the famous Spanish

theologian, Isidore of Seville, describes all the grades of

the hierarchy, and divides bishops into four ranks

Patriarchs, Archbishops, Metropolitans, and Bishops.

Gratian incorporated this long chapter from Isidore
into his Decretum, strange as it must have appeared to

him that the first and highest office should not be

named at all. As late as 789 the Spanish Abbot
Beatus gives the same account; he too knows no

higher office in the Church than Patriarchs, of whom

1
he calls the Eoman the first.

There is another fact the infallibilist will find it

impossible to explain. We have a copious literature on

the Christian sects and heresies of the first six centu

ries, Irenseus, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, Philastrius, St.

Augustine, and, later, Leontius and Timotheus, have

left us accounts of them to the number of eighty, but
1
Beati Comment, in Apoc. (Madr. 1776), p. 99.
 The Teaching of the Fathers. 9 1

not a single one is reproached with rejecting the Pope s

authority in matters of faith, while Aerius, e.g.,

is re

proached with denying the episcopate as a grade of the

hierarchy. Had the mot d ordre been given for centu
ries to observe a dead silence on this, in the Ultramon

tane view, articulus stantis vel cadentis Ecclesice ?

All this is intelligible enough, if we look at the patris

tic interpretation of the words of Christ to St. Peter. Of

all the Fathers who have exegetically explained these

passages in the Gospels (Matt. xvi. 1 8, John xxi. 1 7), not

a single one applies them to the Roman bishops as Peter s

successors. How many Fathers have busied themselves
with these texts, yet not one of them whose commen
taries we possess Origen, Chrysostom, Hilary, Augus
tine, Cyril, Theodoret, and those whose interpretations
are collected in catenas, has dropped the faintest hint

that the primacy of Eome is the consequence of the

commission and promise to Peter ! Not one of them

has explained the rock or foundation on which Christ
would build His Church of the office given to Peter to
be transmitted to his successors, but they understood

by it either Christ Himself, or Peter s confession of faith

in Christ ;
often both together. Or else they thought
Peter was the foundation equally with all the other
92 Papal Infallibility.

Apostles, the Twelve being together the foundation-stones

of the Church (Apoc. xxi. 14). The Fathers could the
less recognise in the power of the keys, and the power
of binding and
any special prerogative or lord
loosing,

ship of the Boinan bishop, inasmuch as what is ob

vious to any one at first sight they did not regard a
power first given to Peter, and afterwards conferred in
precisely the same words on all the Apostles, as any

thing peculiar to him, or hereditary in the line of Eoman

bishops, and they held the symbol of the keys to mean
just the same as the figurative expression of binding
1
and loosing.

Every one knows that the one classical passage of

Scripture on which the edifice of Papal Infallibility
has been reared is the saying of Christ to St. Peter :

"

I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : and
when thou art converted, confirm thy brethren." But
these words manifestly refer only to Peter person

ally, to his denial of Christ and his conversion ;

he is

told that he, whose failure of faith would be only of

Dollinger might therefore have spared himself the trouble of trying to

1

show that the power of the keys differs from the power of binding and

loosing, so that the former extended over the whole Church, and passed
to Peter s successors (First Age of the Church, pp. 29, 30, 2d ed.) This
contradicts all the patristic interpretations, and the exegetical traditirn
of the Church.
s Luke xxii. 3:2.
 The Teaching of the Fathers. 93

short duration, is to strengthen the other Apostles, whose

faith would likewise waver. It is directly against the

sense of the passage, which speaks simply of faith, first

wavering, and then to he confirmed in the Messianic

dignity of Christ, to find in it a promise of future infal

libility to a succession of Popes, just because they hold

the office Peter first held in the Eoman Church. No

single writer to the end of the seventh century dreamt
of such an interpretation ;
all without exception and
there are eighteen of them explain it simply as a
prayer of Christ that his Apostle might not wholly suc
cumb, and lose his faith entirely in his approaching

trial. The first to find in it a promise of privileges to

the Church of Rome was Pope Agatho in 680, when

trying to avert the threatened condemnation of his pre
decessor, Honorius, through whom the lioman Church

had lost its boasted privilege of doctrinal purity.

Now, the Tridentine profession of faith, imposed by

oath on the clergy since Pius iv., binds them never to in

Holy Scripture otherwise than in accord with the

terpret
unanimous consent of the Fathers that is, the great
Church doctors of the first six centuries, for Gregory
the Great, who died in 604, was the last of the Fathers ;

every bishop and theologian therefore breaks his oath

94 Papal Infallibility.

when he interprets the passage in question of a gift of

infallibility promised by Christ to the Popes.

VII. Forgeries.

At the beginning of the ninth century no change had

taken place in the constitution of the Church as we

have described it, and especially none as to the autho

rity for deciding matters of faith. When the Prankish

bishops came to Leo in., he assured them that, far from

setting himself above the Fathers of the Council in 381,

who made the additions to the Mcene Creed, he did not
venture to put himself on a par with them, and there
fore refused to sanction the interpolation of Filioque
1
into the Creed.

But in the middle of that century about 845 arose

the huge fabrication of the Isidorian decretals, which

had results far beyond what its author contemplated,

and gradually, but surely, changed the whole constitu
tion and government of the Church. It would be

difficult to find in all history a second instance of so

successful, and yet so clumsy a forgery. Tor three cen

turies past it has been exposed, yet the principles it

introduced and brought into practice have taken such

1
Concil. Gall. (ed. Sirmondi) ii. 256.
 Forgeries; Isidorian Decretals. 95

deep root in the soil of the Church, and have so grown

into her life, that the exposure of the fraud has pro

duced no result in shaking the dominant system.

About a hundred pretended decrees of the earliest

of other
Popes, together with certain spurious writings
Church dignitaries and acts of Synods, were then fabri

cated in the west of Gaul, and eagerly seized upon by

Pope Nicolas I. at Eome, to be used as genuine docu
ments in support of the new claims put forward by him
self and his successors. It is true that the immediate

object of the compiler of this forgery was only to protect

bishops against their metropolitans and other authorities,

so as to secure absolute impunity, and the exclusion of all

influence of the secular power. But this end was to be

gained through such an immense extension of the Papal

power, that, as his principles gradually penetrated the
Church, and were followed out into their consequences,
she necessarily assumed the form of an absolute monarchy
subjected to the arbitrary power of a single individual,

and the foundation of the edifice of Papal Infallibility

was already laid first, by the principle that the

decrees of every Council require Papal confirmation ;

secondly, by the assertion that the fulness of power,

even in matters of faith, resides in the Pope alone, who

 Papal Infallibility.

is bishop of the universal Church, while the othei

bishops are his servants.
Now, if the Pope is really the bishop of the whole
Church, so that every other bishop is his servant, he,

who is the sole and legitimate mouth of the Church,

ought to be infallible. If the decrees of Councils are

invalid without Papal confirmation, the divine attesta

tion of a doctrine undeniably rests in the last resort on

the word of one man, and the notion of the absolute

power of that one man over the whole Church includes

that of his infallibility, as the shell contains the kernel.

With perfect consistency, therefore, the pseudo-Isidore

makes his early Popes say: "The Eoman Church re

mains to the end free from stain of heresy."

Formerly all learned students of ecclesiastical anti

quity and canon-law men like De Marca, Baluze,

Constant, Gibert, Berardi, Zallwein, etc. were agreed
that the change introduced by the pseudo-Isidore was a

substantial one, that it displaced the old system of

Church government and brought in the new. Modern
writers have maintained that the compiler of the forgery

only meant to codify the existing state of things, and

1
Ep. Lucii in HinscMus ed. of Decretals, p. 179. Cf. p. 206. The
same statement is put into the mouth of Marcus and Felix I.
 Forgeries ; Isidorian Decretals. 97

give it a formal status, and that the same development

would have taken place without his trick. 1 The truth
is:

First, Before this fabrication many very efficacious

forgeries had won a gradual recognition at Eome since
the beginning of the sixth century ;
and on them was
based the maxim that the Pope, as supreme in the
Church, could be judged by no man.

Secondly, The Isidorian doctrine contradicted itself,

for it aimed at two things which were mutually incom

patible, the complete independence and impunity of

bishops on the one hand, and the advancement of Papal

power on the other. The first point it

sought to effect

by such strange and unpractical rules that they never

attained any real vitality, while, on the

contrary, the
principles about the power of the Eoman See worked
their way, and became dominant under favourable
circumstances, but with a result greatly opposed to the
views of Isidore, by bringing the bishops into complete

subjection to Eome. But that the pseudo-Isidorian

principles eventually revolutionized the whole consti

tution of the Church, and introduced a new system in
1
So "Walter, Phillips, Schulte, Pachmann, among
canonists, and Dollinger
in Ms Church
History (ii. 41-43), on grounds betraying a very imperfect
knowledge of the decretals.

G
98 Papal Infallibility.

place of the old, on that point there can be no contro

versy among candid historians.

At the time when the forged decretalsbegan to be
widely known, the See of Eome was occupied by Nico
las i.
(858-867), a Pope who exceeded all his prede

cessors in the audacity of his designs. Favoured and

protected by the break-up of the empire of Charle

magne, he met East and West alike with the firm resolu

tion of pressing to the uttermost every claim of any one

of his predecessors, and pushing the limits of the Eoman

supremacy to the point of absolute monarchy. By a bold

but non-natural torturing of a single word against the
sense of a whole code of law, he managed to give a turn

to a canon of a General Council, excluding all appeals

to Eome, as
though opened it to the whole clergy in East
and West a right of appeal to Eome, and made the Pope
the supreme judge of all the bishops and clergy of the

whole world. 1 Rewrote this to the Eastern Emperor, to the

Frankish king, Charles, and to all the Prankish bishops. 2

And he referred the Orientals, and so sharp -sighted a

1
Canon 17 of Chalcedon, which speaks of appeals to the "primas
dioceseos/ t .e., one of the Eastern patriarchs, not a civil ruler, as Baxmann
thinks (Politik der Palate, ii. 13). Nicolas said the singular meant the
plural, "dioceseo??," and that the "primate" meant the Pope, a notion
which would not seem worth a reply in Constantinople.
2
Mansi, Condi, v. 202, 688, 694.
 Forgeries ; Isidorian Decretals. 99

man as Photius, to those fabrications fathered on Popes

Silvester and Sixtus, which were thenceforth used for

centuries, and gained the Pioman Church the oft-repeated

reproach from the Greeks, of being the native home of

inventions and falsifications of documents. Soon after,

receiving the new implements forged in the Isidorian

workshop (about 863 or 864), Nicolas met the doubts

of the Frankish bishops with the assurance that the

Eoman Church had long preserved all these documents

with honour in her archives, and that every writing of

a Pope, even if not part of the Dionysian collection of
1
canons, was binding on the whole Church. In a Synod
at Eome in 863 he had accordingly anathematized all

who should refuse to receive the teaching or ordinances

2
of a Pope. If, indeed, all Papal utterances were a
rule for the whole Church, and all decrees of Councils

dependent on the Pope s good pleasure, as Mcolas

asserted on the strength of the Isidorian forgery, then
there would be but one step further to the promulgation

of Papal Infallibility, though it has been long delayed.

It was thought enough to repeat from time to time that
the Eoman Church keeps the faith pure, and is free from

every stain.
1 a
Mansi, Condi, rv. 695. Earduin, Condi, v. 574.
TOO Papal Infallibility.

Nearly three centuries passed before the seed sown

produced its full harvest. For almost two hundred

years, from the death of Nicolas i. to the time of Leo ix.,

the Eoman See was in a condition which did not allow

of any systematic acquisition and enforcement of new or
extended rights. For above seventy years (883-955) the
Eoman Church was enslaved and degraded, while the

Apostolic See became the prey and the plaything of rival

i actions of the nobles, and for a long time of ambitious
and profligate women. It w as
r
only renovated for a brief
interval (997-1003) in the persons of Gregory V. and
Silvester IL, by the influence of the Saxon emperor.
Then the Papacy sank back into utter confusion and

moral impotence ;
the Tuscan Counts made it hereditary
in their family ; again and again dissolute boys, like
John xii. and Benedict ix., occupied and disgraced the

Apostolic throne, which was now bought and sold like

a piece of merchandise, and at last three Popes fought

for the tiara, until the Emperor Henry in. put an end
to the scandal by elevating a German bishop to the See

of Borne.

With Leo ix. (1048-1054) was inaugurated a new era

of the Papacy, which may be called the Hildebrandine.

Within sixty years, through the contest with kings,

 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. i oi

bishops, and clergy, against simony, clerical marriage,

and investiture, the Koman See had risen to a height of

power even Nicolas I. never aspired to. A large and

powerful party, stronger than that which two hundred

years before had undertaken to carry through the
Isidoriaii forgery, had been labouring since the middle
of the eleventh century, with all its might, to weld the

Europe into a theocratic priest-kingdom, with

States of

the Pope as its head. The urgent need of reform in

the Church helped on the growth of the spiritual

monarchy, and such a concentration and increase of

ecclesiastical power seemed necessary for her puri
fication. In France this party was supported by
the most influential spiritual corporation of the

time, the Congregation of Cluny. In Italy, men like

Peter Damiani, Bishop Anselm of Lucca, Humbert,

Deusdedit, and above all Hildebrand, who was the life

and soul of the enterprise, helped on the new system,

though some of them, as Damiani and Hildebrand,
differed widely both in theory and practice.
It has not perhaps been sufficiently observed that Gre

gory vii. is in fact the only one of all the Popes who set

himself with clear and deliberate purpose to introduce

a new constitution of the Church, and by new means.
IO2 Papal Infallibility.

He regarded himself not merely as the reformer of the

Church, but as the divinely commissioned founder of a

wholly new order of things, fond as he was of appealing

to his predecessors. Nicolas I. alone approaches him in

this, but none of the later Popes, all of whom, even the

boldest, have but filled in the outline he sketched.

Gregory saw from the first that Synods regularly held

by the Popes, and new codes of canon law, were the

means for introducing the new system. Synods had
been held, at his by Leo ix. and his
suggestion,

successors, and he himself carried on the work in

those assembled after 1073. But only Popes and
their legates were henceforth to hold Synods ;
in every

other form the institution was to disappear. Gregory

collected about him by degrees the right men for elabo

rating his system of canon law. Anselm of Lucca,

nephew of Pope Alexander n., compiled the most im

portant and comprehensive work, at his command,
between 1080 and 1086. Anselm maybe called the

founder of the new Gregorian system of canon law,

first, by extracting and putting into convenient working

shape everything in the Isidorian forgeries serviceable

i or the Papal absolutism ; next, by altering the law of
the Church, through a tissue of fresh inventions and
 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. 103

interpolations, in accordance with the requirements of

1
his party and the stand-point of Gregory. Then came
Deusdedit, whom Gregory made a Cardinal, with some
more inventions. At the same time Bonizo compiled his

work, the main object of which was to exalt the Papal

prerogatives. The forty propositions or titles of this part

of his work correspond entirely to Gregory s Dictatus
and the materials supplied by Anselm and Deusdedit. 2
The last great work of the Gregorians (before Gratian)

was the Polycarpus of Cardinal Gregory of Pavia (before

1118), which almost always adheres to Anselm in its

3
falsifications.

The Preface of Deusdedit to his work is the pro

gramme of the whole school whose labours were at

4
length crowned with such complete success. The
Eoman Church, says the Cardinal, is the mother of all

Churches, for Peter first founded the Patriarchal Sees

of the East, and then gave bishops to all the cities of

1 The contents of the Anselmian collection are known from the list of
chapters in the Spicilegium Rom. (ed. Mai, vi. ) from Antonius Augustinus,
;

Epitome Juris Pontif. (Paris, 1641) ; and from the citations of Pithou in the
Paris edition of Gratian, 1686.
2
Nova Patrum Biblioth. (ed. Mai), vii. 3, 48.
3 Ivo of
Chartres, though a contemporary of Cardinal Gregory, cannot
he reckoned among the Gregorian canonists. Much as he was influenced
in his compilations by Isidore, and sometimes by Anselm, still in certain
important articles he held to the old canon law.
4
It is found in Memorie del Card. Passiond (Koma, 1762), p. 30.
1
04 Papal Infallibility.

the West. Councils cannot be held without the sanction

of the Pope, according to the decisions of the 318 Fathers

at Nice. The Eoman clergy rule the Church even with

out the Pope, when the See is vacant, and therefore

Cyprian and the Africans humbly submitted to their

decisions before the election of Cornelius a pet crot

chet of the Cardinal s, which Anselm, who was not a

Cardinal, did not adopt. He adds, that he writes in

order to confirm the authority of Eome and the liberty

of the Church against its assailants, and maintains that

the testimonies he has collected disprove all objections,

on the principle that the must always yield to

lesser

the greater i.e., the authority of Councils and Fathers

to the Pope. With this one axiom which not only

opened the door wide for the Isidorian decretals, but
prevented any attempt to moderate their system by an
appeal to the ancient canons the revolution in the

Church was accomplished in the simplest and least

troublesome manner.

Cleverly and cautiously as the Gregorian party went

to work, they lived in a world of dreams and illusions
about the past and about remote countries. They could
not escape the imperative necessity of demonstrating
their new system to have been the constant practice of
 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. 105

the Church, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to dis

tinguish where involuntary delusion merged into con

scious deceit. Whatever present exigencies required
was selected from the mythical stores at their com
mand hastily and recklessly then ;
fresh inventions were

added, and soon every claim of Eome could "be shown

to have a legitimate foundation in existing records and
decrees.

It is so far true to say, that without the pseudo-

Isidore there would have been no Gregory vii., that the
Isidorian forgeries were the broad foundation the

Gregorians built upon. But the first object of Isidore

was to secure the impunity of bishops, whereas the
Eoman party which for a long time had a majority of
the bishops against it wanted to introduce a state of

things where the Popes or their legates could sum

marily depose bishops, intimidate them, and reduce
them to complete subjection to every Papal command.
The newly invented doctrines about the deposing

power contributed to this end. In a word, a new his

tory and a new civil and canon law was required, and
both had to be obtained by improving on the Isidorian

principles with new forgeries. The correction of his

tory was to some extent provided for in Germany by

io6 Papal Infallibility.

the monk Bernold, and in Italy by the zealous Gre

gorian Bonizo, Bishop of Piacenza, who tried, among

other things, to get rid of the coronation of Charle
1
magne. Their other assistants had to invent or adapt
historical facts for party purposes, for their new codes

of canon law innovated largely on ancient Church

history. Gregory himself had his own little stock

of fabricated or distorted facts to support pretensions

and undertakings which seemed to his contemporaries

strange and unauthorized. It was, for instance, an

axiomatic fact with him that Pope Innocent I. excom
municated the Emperor Arcadius, that Pope Zachary

deposed the Prankish king Childeric, and that Gregory

the Great threatened to depose the kings who should
rob a hospice at Autun.
2
He treated the Donation of

Constantino as a valuable and important document it ;

3
gave him a right over Corsica and Sardinia. His pupil
Leo IX. used it against the Greeks, and his friend Peter
Damiani against Germany ;
Anselm and Deusdedit as

signed it a prominent place in their codes of canon law.

1
See Jaffe s Introduction to his edition of Bonitho in Monumenta Gre-

gor., pp. 596 seq.

in Autun, which Launoi
He appealed to a recently forged document
2

v. p.ii. 445) has dissected.

(Opp.
that Gregory
Bellinger is mistaken in saying (Pabstfabeln, p. 84)
3

never appealed to it.

 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. 107

At the same time, Gregory thought it most import

ant, with all his legislative activity and lofty claims

and high-handed measures, not to seem too much of an

innovator and despot he constantly affirmed that he
;

only wished to restore the ancient laws of the Church,

and abolish late abuses. When he drew out the whole

system of Papal omnipotence in twenty-seven theses in

his Dictatus, these theses were partly mere repetitions
or corollaries of the Isidorian decretals ; partly he and
his friends and allies sought to give them the appear
1
ance of tradition and antiquity by new fictions.

Gregory s chief work is his letter to Bishop Hermann

of Metz, designed to prove how well grounded is the

Pope s dominion over emperors and kings, and his right

to depose them in cases of necessity. In this he
showed his adherents how to manipulate facts and
texts, by twisting a passage in a letter of Pope Gelasius
to the Emperor Anastasius so skilfully, by means of
omissions and arbitrary collocations, as to make Gela

sius say just the opposite of what he really said, viz.,

that kings are absolutely and universally subject to

the Pope, whereas what he did say was, that the rulers
i As to this Dictatus being his own work, and an authentic part of the
Register edited by himself, see Giesebrecht, Gesetzgeb. der Rom. Kirche.
Mlinchner hist. Jahrbuch, 1866, p. 149.
1 08 Papal Infallibility.

of the Church are always subject to the laws of the

emperors, only disclaiming the interference of the

1
secular power in questions of faith and the sacraments.
How what was a falsification to begin with was falsi
fied again in the interests of the new system, and accen
tuated to serve the cause of ecclesiastical despotism,

may be seen from the eleventh canon of Causa 25,

Q. 1, in Gratian. The Council of Toledo in 646 had

excommunicated the Spanish priests who took part in

the rebellion against the King, and included the King

himself in the anathema if he violated this censure

(kujus canonis censuram). Out of this Isidore made,

two hundred years afterwards, the following : The

anathema applied to all kings who violated any canon
binding under censure, or allowed it to be violated

by others; and this he put into the mouth of Pope

2
Adrian. In the new text-books compiled by Anselm,

Deusdedit, and Gregory of Pavia, the (pretended) de

crees of the Popes were put in place of the canons of
Councils, and this supplied just what was wanted a

system of ancient Church law to justify the procedures

of Gregory vil. and Urban II. against the princes of

their own day and a Pope would never lack some pre-
1 2 769
Registr. (ed. Jafle), p. 457. Capp. Angilram. p. (ed. Hinsch.)
 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. 1
09

text for threatening excommunication, with all its con

1
sequences.

Gregory borrowed one main pillar of his system from

the False Decretals. Isidorehad made Pope Julius

(about 338) write to the Eastern bishops, The Church "

of Eome, by a singular privilege, has the right of open

ing and shutting the gates of heaven to whom she

3
will" On this Gregory built his scheme of dominion.
How should not he be able to judge on earth, on whose
will hung the salvation or damnation of men ? The
passage was made into a special decree or chapter in
4
the new codes. The typical formula of binding and

loosing had become an inexhaustible treasure-chamber

of rights and claims. The Gregorians used it as a

charm to put them in possession of everything worth

coveting. If Gregory who was notoriously the first to

undertake dethroning kings wanted to depose the

German Emperor, he said,
"

To me is given power to
5
bind and loose on earth and in heaven." Were sub-
1 The monk Bernold, in his Apol.
contr. Schismat., written in 1087
"

(Ussermann, ed. p. 361), fabricates

Apostolicae Sedis statuta."
2
Decret. pseudo-Is. (ed. Hinsch.), p. 464.
3 Monum. Gregor. (ed. Jaffe), p. 445.
4 see Galland. SylL
By Deusdedit ;
ii. 745 ; by Anselm, Maii Spicil.
E<m. vi. 317. 23 ; by Bonizo, Maii Pat. Nov. Biblioth. vii. 3, 47 ; Gre-
gory s Polycarpus, i. 4, tit. 34.
5
See the form in Mansi, xx. 4-67.
i i o Papal Infallibility.

be absolved from their oaths of allegiance ?

jects to
which he was also the first to attempt, he did it by
virtue of his power to loose. Did he want to dispose

of other people s property ? he declared, as at his Eoman

Synod of 1080,
"

We desire to show the world that we

can give or take away at our will kingdoms, duchies,

earldoms, in a word, the possessions of all men; for

we can bind and loose." In the same way a saying

ascribed to Constantine, at the Council of Nice, in a

legend recorded by Eufinus, was amplified till it was

fashioned into a perfect mine of high-flying pretensions.

Constantine, according to this fable, when the written

accusations of the bishops against each other were laid

before him, burned them, saying, in allusion to a verse of

the Psalter, that the bishops were gods, and no man

could dare to judge them. Nicolas i.
quoted this to
2
the Emperor Michael. Anselm adopted the story into
his collection, Gratian followed, and Gregory himself
found in it clear evidence that he, the Pope, the bishop

of bishops, stood in unapproachable majesty over all

monarchs of the earth. For, as the passage stood in

Anselm and Gratian, it was the Pope whom Constan-
1
Quia si potestis in coelo ligare et solvere, potestis in
"

Mansi, xx. 533,

terra imperia . . et omnium hominum possessiones pro meritis toilers
.

2
unicuique et concedere. Muiisi, xv. 215.
 Forgeries of Hildcbrandine Era. 1 1 1

tine called a god, and so it has been understood and

1
explained ever since.

A man like Gregory VIL, little familiar as he was with

theological questions, must have held the prerogative of

Infallibility the most precious jewel of his crown. His

claims to universal dominion, to the deposing power,

and the right of dispensing subjects from their oaths,

all rested ultimately on his own authority. All was
to be believed because he, the infallible Pope, affirmed it.

Accordingly, stronger proofs and testimonies than Isidore

supplied had to be found for this infallibility of his.

Pope Agatho had said at a Roman Synod, in 680,

that all the English bishops were to observe the ordi

nances made in former Eoman Synods for the Anglo-

Saxon Church. 2 Cardinal Deusdedit made this into a

decree issuedby Agatho to all bishops in the world,

saying they must receive all Papal orders as though

attested by the very voice of Peter, and therefore, of
3
course, infallible. One of the boldest falsifications the

1
Satis evidenter ostenditur a seecnlari potestate nee
"

Dist. 96, 97.

ligariprorsus nee solvi posse Pontificem, quern constat a pio Principe Con
stantino Deum appellatwn, nee posse Deum ab hominibus judicari maui-
festum est."

2
Labbe, Condi, vi. 580.
3 It
occurs in the same spurious form in Gregory s Poly carpus, Ivo s

Collection, and- which was, of course, quite conclusive in Gratian

Decretum, Dist. 19, c. 2.
1 1 2 Papal Infallibility.
1
Gregorians allowed themselves occurs first in Anselm s,

and then in Cardinal Gregory s works, from whom Gra-

tian borrowed it. St. Augustine had said that all those

canonical writings (of the Bible) were pre-eminently

which Apostolical Churches had first received

attested,

and possessed. He meant the Churches of Corinth,

Ephesus, etc. The passage was corrupted into,

"

The

Epistles issued by the Holy See are part of the canonical

Scriptures ;"
and thus it came to pass that the mediaeval
theologians and canonists, who generally derived their
whole knowledge of the Fathers from the passages col
lected by Peter Lombard and Gratian, really believed that

St. Augustine had put the decretal letters of Popes on a

2
par with Scripture. When Cardinal Turrecremata, about
1450, and Cardinal Cajetan, about 1516, put the Infalli-

bilist doctrine into formal shape, they too relied on

the clear testimony of St. Augustine, which left no

doubt that the first theologian of the ancient Church
had declared every Papal utterance to be as free from
*
error as the Apostolical Epistles.

1
Sec Pithou s ed. of Gratian. Cf. Grat. Dist. 19, c. 6.
2 The title of the canon in Gratian "

Inter canonicas Scriptur&s

is,
decretales epistolse annnmerantur."
Turrecremata, Summa de Eccl. P. De
3 ii. Primat. Rom. c. 14.
; Cajetan,
Alphonsusde Castiohas exposed the whole forgery in his work Adv. Hceres.
(Paris, 1565) i. 11.
 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. 113

That Papal Infallibility might be more firmly believed,

personal sanctity was also ascribed to every Pope.
This notion was first invented by Ennodius, deacon and

Pope Symmachus, who wrote in 503 to

secretary of
defend him against certain charges. The Popes, he
said, must be held to inherit innocence and sanctity
1
from St. Peter. Isidore eagerly seized on this, and in
vented two Eoman
Synods, which had unanimously ap
2
proved and subscribed the work of Ennodius. Gregory
vii. made this holiness of all Popes, which he said he had

personal experience of, the foundation of his claim to

3
universal dominion. Every sovereign, he said, how
ever good before, becomes corrupted by the use of power,
4
whereas every rightly appointed Pope becomes a saint
through the imputed merits of St. Peter. Even an
5
exorcist among the clergy, he added, is higher and more
powerful than every secular monarch, for he casts out
devils, whose slaves evil princes are. This doctrine of
the personal sanctity of every Pope, put forward by the
Gregorians, and by Gregory vii. himself, as a claim

1
Liber Apol., Opp. (Sirmondi) i. 1621.
2
Decret. pseudo-Isidor. (ed. Hinsch.), pp. 675, seq.
3
Ep. viii. 21 (Jaffe), p. 463.
4 This proviso was meant to cover the frequent cases of such evil Popes
as, e.g., John xn. and Benedict ix.
5
[One of the lower ranks of the Catholic clergy. Tii.]

II
1
14 Papal Infallibility.

made by Pope Symmachus, was adopted into the codes

of canon law. But as notorious facts, and the crimes

and excesses of many Popes, which no denials could get
rid of, were in glaring contradiction to it, a supplemen

tary theory had to be invented, which Cardinal Deus-

dedit published under the venerated name of St. Boniface,
the apostle of Germany. It was to this effect : Even
if a Pope is so bad that he drags down whole nations to

hell with him in troops, nobody can rebuke him ;

for

he who judges all can be judged of no man ;

the only

exception is in case of his swerving from the faith. That

this could have been written nowhere but in Eome, and

certainly not by St. Boniface, is self-evident. There were

no "

innumerable nations" in his day for the Pope to drag

down into hell with him like slaves. The words imply
an experience of many profligate Popes, and a period
of enormously extended Papal power over the nations,
and were clearly invented after the pontificate of Bene
dict ix. Gratian has, of course, adopted them from
1
Deusdedit.

The Gregorian doctrine since 1080 then is, that every

Pope, lawfully appointed, and not thrust in by force,

is
holy and infallible. But his holiness is imputed, not
1 List. 40, c. 53.
 Forgeries of Hildebrandine
Era. 1 1
5

inherent, so that if he has no merits of his own, he

inherits those of his predecessor St. Peter. Notwith

standing his holiness, he may drag countless troops of

men down to hell, and none of them may withstand or
warn him; notwithstanding his infallibility, he may
become an apostate, and then he may be resisted. Pro

bably the later distinction between his official or ex

cathedra infallibility and his personal denial of the

faith was implied here.

Gregory vn. seems to have sincerely believed that

his infallibility was already acknowledged throughout
the Christian world, even in the East. He wrote to

Emperor Henry, The Greek Church is fallen away,

"

the

and the Armenians also have lost the right faith, but/
he adds,
"

all the Easterns await from St. Peter (viz.,

from me) the decision on their various opinions, and at

this time will the promise of Peter s confirming his
brethren be fulfilled." He wanted then (in 1074) to

go at the head of a great army to Constantinople, and

there to hold his solemn judgment in matters of faith,

for he does not seem to have counted on the voluntary

submission of the Greeks ;
instead of which he contented

himself with plunging Germany and Italy into a religious

1
Ep. ii. 31, p. 45 (Jafie).
1 1 6 Papal Infallibility.

and civil war, the end of which he did not live to see.

AH history proves, he says, how clearly holiness is con

nected with infallibility in the Popes. While there are at

most only a few kings or emperors who have been holy,

out of 153 Popes 100 have not only been holy, but
1
have reached the highest grade of sanctity. And the

Gregorian s disseminated the fable, which even the uni

versally circulated annals of the Popes contradicted, that
of the thirty before Constantine all but one were mar
2
tyrs. The Gregorians busied themselves greatly with
the rectification of Papal history, and as the apostasy of
Liberius copied from St Jerome s Chronicle into so

many historical works was not easy to reconcile with

Papal infallibility and sanctity, Anselm adopted into
his codex the earlier fable, that Liberius, when exiled,

had ordained Felix his successor, by advice of the

Roman clergy, and abdicated, so that his subsequent
3
apostasy did not matter.
If every Pope is holy and infallible, then, according
to the Gregorian view, all Christendom must tremble
before him, as before an Asiatic despot whose disfavour
is death. Accordingly, Anselm and Cardinal Gregory
1
Ep. 21, p. 463 (Jaffe).
viii.
2
Bonizo, Pair. Nov. Eibl. vii. 3,37 (ed. Mai).
3
Sclielstrate (Antiq. Iliustr. i. 456) quotes the passage from Auselm.
 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. 117

extracted passages from older forgeries, especially from

a spurious speech of St.* Peter, to the effect that no one

should hold intercourse with a man under the Pope s

1
displeasure. Like the successive strata of the earth

covering one another, so layer after layer of forgeries

and fabrications was piled up in the Church. This

shows itself most conspicuously in the great Churcli

question of Synods, where the two contradictory views

of the self-government and administration of the
Church by Councils, and of the absolute sovereignty of
the Pope and Court of Eome over the whole Church,

were at issue. In 342, Pope Julius had written to the

Eastern Bishops, who had confirmed the deposition of
St. Athanasius at the Synod of Antioch, that they

should not have acted for themselves in a matter affect

ing the whole Church, but, according to ecclesiastical

custom, in union with the bishops of
"

all of us," i.e.,

2
the West. Socrates, who welcomed an opportunity of
3
pointing out the ambition of the Eoman Church, had
twisted this into his saying that nothing could be
decided without the bishop of Eome. His Latin trans-
1
See Gratian, Dist. 93, c. i.
2
Ep. Rom. Pont. (ed. Constant), p. 386.
3
Thus he observes (vii. 11) that the Roman See, like the Alexandrian,
had for some time advanced to dominion (Swaoreta) over the
priesthood.
1 1 8 Papal Infallibility.

lator, Epiphanius the Italian, about 500, went a step

further, and made the Pope say that no Council could

be held without his consent, 1 worked up these
Isidore

materials, and made Pope Julius write, in two spuri

ous epistles, that the Apostles and the Mcene Council
had said no Council could be held without the Pope s

injunction. And thus Anselm and the other Gregorian

canonists could quote a whole string of primitive de

crees resting Councils and all their decisions on the

arbitrament of the Pope, and Gratian has borrowed the

whole of his seventeenth Distinction from Anselm.
Even this was not enough. Not only were Councils
to be made dependent, but the institution itself, as it

had existed for nine hundred years, was to be abolished.

As the kings who had become absolute in the sixteenth

and seventeenth centuries could no longer endure any

representative assemblies, so the Papacy, when it wished

to become absolute, found that Synods of particular

National Churches were better out of the way altogether.

For was only in and by means of Synods of parti
it

cular districts, provinces, and National Churches, that a

healthy and in some sense independent Church life could

spread and maintain itself. These had therefore to be

1
Hist. Trip. i. 4, 9.
 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. 119

put an end to, or at least broken up and made so diffi

cult that they could only proceed at the beck of Borne.

The following forgery was used for the purpose :

The opponents of Pope Symmachus, in 503, in order

to show that they could assemble in Borne without

him, had affirmed that the annual Provincial Synods

prescribedby the Church would not lose their force

merely because the Pope was not present at them.
Ennodius, in his defence of Symmachus, replied that

weighty causes (causce majores) were by the canon of

Sardica reserved to the Pope. That was itself a mis

representation, long current in Borne ;

the canon only

gave a right of appeal to Borne for bishops. Anselm

of Lucca, and Cardinal Gregory, and Gratian after him,

made out of this the following decree of Pope Sym

machus "

The Provincial Councils, ordered by the can

ons to be held annually, have lost their validity from

the Pope not being present at them." And the title

of the decree is,

"

Provincial Synods without the Pope s

1
presence have no force"
(pondere carent). And thus
an ecclesiastical revolution was brought about in three
lines.

But a formal prohibition of all Synods was still

1
Dist. 17, c. G.
120 Papal Infallibility.

wanted, and this was attained by Anselm, Cardinal

Gregory, and Gratian>after them, making Pope Gregory

the Great declare that no one ever had been, or ever

would be, permitted to hold a particular (not (Ecumenical)

1
Synod. The fraud lay in converting what Pelagius I.

had said, in the particular case of the schism of Aquileia,

of a Council assembled against the Fifth (Ecumenical,

into a general prohibition issued by Gregory I. against all

Synods, while, by changing the plural into the singular,
a reference to the authority of the Apostolic Churches

of Alexandria and Antioch was altered into an exalta

2
tion of Papal authority. And thus the double end
was attained of putting down all meetings of bishops
as in itself an illegal act of presumption, and at the
same time bringing out prominently the plenitude of

the Papal power, which could even withdraw from all

Christendom the apostolical institution of Synods at its

will

But Isidore s chief contribution to the designs of

Gregory VII. was by his inventions about the effect

of excommunication, for this, in the extended sense

given it by Gregory, was the sharpest weapon in the

i
Decret. Dist. 17, c. 4.
2
Cf. on this and other falsifications, Berardi, Gratian. Can. ii. 489.
 Forgeries of Hildebrandine Era. 121

struggle for Papal domination. Isidore had made the

earliest Popes assert that no speech ever could be held

with an excommunicated man, whence Gregory and his

allies inferred that this applied also to kings and em
perors, and that nobody could, even in matters of

business, hold any intercourse with them if excommu

nicated, so that they were no longer fit to reigri, and
must be deposed. By this extension of the idea, wholly

unknown to the ancient Church, and destructive of the

entire original character of the institution, an enormous
instrument of power was created, which not only might
be abused, but was itself a standing abuse, a confusion of

things human and divine, and a perpetual source of civil

disturbance and division. Bossuet has vouched for its

being a false doctrine which Gregory introduced into

the Church, by altering and distorting the notion of
1
excommunication. Gregory himself must have known
he was the first to make the claim, and that even in the

Isidorian decretals there was nothing like it, yet at.

2
the Synod of 1078 he grounded it
exclusively on the
statutes of his predecessors. To make their spiritual

arms irresistible, the Gregorians also borrowed from

1
Defens. Dedar. pars. 1. 1. 3. c. 7.
a
Ivo and Gratian, for the misfortune of Europe, received this into their
codes (c. 15, qu. 6. 4).
1 22 Papal Infallibility.

Isidore an alleged rule of Pope Urban i., addressed to

all bishops, that even <an

unjust excommunication by a

bishop must be respected, and nobody could receive the

excommunicated man. 1
If we look at the whole Papal system of universal

monarchy, as it has been gradually built up during

seven centuries, and is now being energetically pushed

on to its final completion, we can clearly distinguish
the separate stones the building is composed of. Tor
a long time all that was done was to interpret the canon
of Sardica so as to extend the appellate jurisdiction of

the Pope to whatever could be brought under the gene

ral and elastic term of "

greater causes." But from the

end of the fifth century the Papal pretensions had
advanced to a point beyond this, in consequence of the

attitudeassumed by Leo and Gelasius, and from that

time began a course of systematic fabrications, some
times manufactured Rome, sometimes originating
in

elsewhere, but adopted and utilized there.

The conduct of the Popes since Innocent i. and
Zosimus, in constantly quoting the Sardican canon on

appeals as a canon of Nice, cannot be exactly ascribed

to conscious fraud the arrangement of their collection

1
Thus Anselin aud Card. Gregory, and then Gratian, c. 11, qu. 3. 27.
 Earlier Roman Forgeries. 123

of canons misled them. There was more deliberate

purpose in inserting in the Konian manuscript of the

sixth ISTicene canon,
"

The Eoman Church always had the

primacy,"
of which there is no syllable in the original,

a fraud exposed at the Council of Chalcedon, to the con

1
fusion of the Eoman legates, by reading the original.

Towards the end of the fifth and beginning of the

sixth century, the process of forgeries and fictions in

the interests of Eome was actively carried on there.

Then began the compilation of spurious acts of Eoman
martyrs, which was continued for some centuries, and
which modern criticism, even at Eome, has been obliged
to give up, as, for instance, is done by Papebroch, Euinart,

Orsi, and Saccarelli. The fabulous story of the conver

sion and baptism of Constantine was invented to glorify

the Church of Eome, and make Pope Silvester appear a

worker of miracles. Then the inviolability of the Pope

had to be established, and the principle that he cannot
be judged by any human tribunal, but only by himself.

For four years before 514 Eome was the scene of a

bloody strife about this question ;

the adherents of

Symmachus and his opponent Laurentius murdered one

another in the streets, and the Arian Goth, King Theo-
1
Mansi, Condi, vii. 44-1.
1
24 Papal Infallibility.

doric, was as little acceptable as a judge as the

Emperor,
who was hated in Borne. So the acts of the Council
of Sinuessa and the legend of Pope Marcellinus were

invented, and the

"

Constitution of Silvester," viz., the

decision of aSynod of 284 bishops, pretended to have
been held by him in 321 at Eome, evidently compiled
while the bloody scenes in which clerics were mur
dered or executed for their crimes were fresh in men s
minds. There again the principle was inculcated that
1
no one can judge the first See.

Some other records were fabricated at Eome in the

same barbarous Latin, such as the Gesta Liberii, designed

to confirm the legend of Constantino s baptism at Eome,

and to represent Pope Liberius as purified from his

heresy by repentance, and graced by a divine miracle.

Of the same stamp were the Gesta of Pope Xystus in. and
the History of Polychronius, where the Pope is accused,
but the condemnation of his accuser follows, as also of
the accuser of the fabulous Polychronius, Bishop of Jeru

salem. These fabrications of the beginning of the sixth

century, which all belong to the same class, had a refer

ence also to the attitude of Eome towards the Church

of Constantinople. It was the period of the long inter-

1
Append, ad Epp. Pont. Rom. (ed. Constant), pp. 38 seq.
 Earlier Roman Forgeries. 125

ruption of communion between East and West caused

by the Henoticon (484-519), when Felix II. even sum
moned the Patriarch Acacius to Eome, and Pope Gela-
sius, about 495, for the first time insulted the Greeks

and their twenty-eighth canon of Chalcedon, by affirm

ing that every Council must be confirmed and every

Church judged by Eome, but she can be judged by
none. It was not by canons, as the Council of Chal

cedon affirmed, but by the word of Christ, that she re

1
ceived the primacy. In this he went beyond all the claims
of his predecessors. Thence came the fictions manufac
tured at Eome after his death, a letter of the Nicene

Council praying Pope Silvester for its confirmation, and

the confirmation given by Silvester and a Eoman Synod ;

the declaration in the acts of Xystus in. that the Em

peror had convoked the Council by the Pope s authority ;

the History of Polychronius, exhibiting the Pope, as

early as 435, sitting in judgment on an Eastern Patriarch ;

and lastly, the fabulous history of the Synod held

by Silvester, which adopted Gelasius s saying about the
divine origin of the Eoman primacy, and confirmed the
order of precedence of the Churches of Alexandria and

Antioch next after Eome, making no mention of Con-

1 54.
Mansi, viii.
 26
1
Papal Infallibility.

stantinople, and thus upsetting the canons of 381 and

1
451, which gave her the precedence.
While this tendency to forging documents was so
strong in Eome, it is remarkable that for a thousand
years no attempt was made there to form a collection of
canons of her own, such as the Easterns had as early as
the fifth century, clearly because for a long time Eome
took so very little part in ecclesiastical legislation. No
doubt constant appeal was made to the canons of

Councils, and Eome professed her resolve to secure

their observance with all her might, and by her conspi

cuous example ;
but the canon she had chiefly at heart
was the third of Sardica, and the Sardican canons were
2
never received at all in the East. When Dionysius
gave the Eoman Church her first tolerably comprehen
sive collection of canons, viz., his translation of the

Greek canons, with the African and Sardican, more

than twenty Synods had been held in Eome since 313,

but there were no records of them to be found.

1 These documents are printed from MSS. of the eighth, century in

Amort s Elements Juris Canon, ii. 432-486.
2 this in the Preface to the second edition
Dionysius Exiguus observes
of his Collection, prepared command of Pope Hormisdas. See Andres,
"by

Lettera d G. Morelli (Parma, 1802), p. 66. It will be seen that there was

always a quarrel about the Nicene canons, and one party wished to replace
them (probably the sixth canon) by others. This points to the decisions of
Silvester and his Synod, mentioned above.
 Forgeries ; St. Cyprian. 127

Towards the end of the sixth century a fabrication

was undertaken in Borne, the full effect of which did
not appear till long afterwards.The famous passage in
St. Cyprian s book on the Unity of the Church was
adorned, in Pope Pelagius ii. s letter to the Istrian

bishops, with such additions as the Eoman pretensions

required. St. Cyprian said that all the Apostles had

received from Christ equal power and authority with

Peter, and this was too glaring a contradiction of the

theory set up since the time of Gelasius. So the fol

lowing words were interpolated :

"

The primacy was

given to Peter to show the unity of the Church and of

the chair. How can he believe himself to be in the

Church who forsakes the chair of Peter, on which the
1
Church is The varying judgments of the
built?"

later Eoman clergy on Cyprian, who had up to his

death been a decided opponent of Eome, seem to have
had an influence on this interpolation. He was at

first almost the only foreign martyr whose annual

feast was kept in Eome ;
but after Gelasius had included
his writings in a list of works rejected by the Church,
it became necessary to find some way of reconciling the

1
Cf. the notes of Bigault, Baluze, and Krabinger, to their editions of
Cyprian.
 i 28 Papal Infallibility.

high reverence accorded to the man with the disapproval

of his writings. This seems to have led to the interpo

lation, so that the first rank among orthodox Fathers

was assigned to Cyprian in the revised edition of the
catalogue of Gelasius, in direct contradiction to the

passage in the same decree placing him among

1
"

apocryphal," viz., rejected authors. But as Cyprian s

writings had not spread from Eome, but had long

been much read in the Gallican and North Italian

Churches, the additions did not get into the manu

scripts.

Earlier than this an interpolation of the old catalogue

of Eoman bishops had been undertaken for a definite pur

pose, and thus the foundation was laid of the Liber Pon-

tificalisf afterwards enlarged. It exists in Schelstrate s

1
When Cyprian was edited at Eome by Manutius in 1563,
in later times
the Roman
censors insisted on the interpolated passages "being retained,
though not found in the MSS., as the editor, Latino Latini, complains in his
Letters (Viterbii, 1667, ii. 109). The minister, Cardinal Fleury, made the
same condition for the Paris edition of Baluze. See Chiniac, Histoire des
Capitul. (Paris, 1772), p. 226. The minister named
a commission to decide
whether the interpolations erased by Baluze, and expunged from every
critical edition, should be printed, but Fleury was Cardinal as well as

minister, and a moins que de vouloir se faire une querelle d etat avec
"

Eome il falloit que le passage fut restitue, parceque en le lais-

imperieuse,
sant supprime en vertu d une decision ministerielle, il auroit semble qu on
vouloit porter atteinte a la primaute Eomaine. Le passage fut restitue par
le moyeu d un carton."
The Liber Pvrdificalis, or Anastasius (falsely so called), was
2 usually
quoted as a work of Pope Damasus in the middle ages.
 Forgeries; Liber Pontificalis. 129

1
edition, in its original form, of about 530. The second

edition, and continuation to the time of Conon (687)

written about 730, and afterwards brought down to 724

by the same hand, is based on contemporary records for

the sixth and seventh century. It is the first edition

of 530 which is chiefly to be reckoned as a deliberate

forgery, and an important link in the chain of Eoman

inventions and interpolations. It is all composed in
the barbarous and ungrammatical Latin common to the
2
Eoman fabrications of the sixth century. The objects
were first, to attest the mass of spurious acts of Eoman
martyrs, and the reiterated statements that the earliest

Popes had appointed a number of notaries to compile these

acts, and seven deacons to superintend them ; secondly,
to confirm the existing legends of Popes and Emperors,
such as the Eoman baptism of Constantine, the stories

about Silvester, Felix, and Liberius, Xystus in., and the

like ; thirdly, to assign a greater antiquity to some later

liturgical usages ; fourthly, to exhibit the Popes as legis

lators for the whole Church, although, apart from the

liturgical directions ascribed to them, and the constantly

1 He has collated the two editions in his Antiq. Eccl. Rom. 1693,
i. 402-495 in parallel columns.
;

2
See the careful analysis of the whole work in Piper s Eirdeitung in
die Monum. Theol (Gotha, 1867), pp. 315-349.
1
30 Papal Infallibility.

recurring assertion that they had marked out the parishes

and the hierarchical grades of the clergy in Eome, no

particular ordinances of theirs could be quoted, and people

had to be content with stating generally that Damasus
or Gelasius or Hilary had made a law binding the whole
1
Church. In the later and more historical portion (from
440 to 530) the Pope is specially represented as teacher
of doctrine and supreme judge, with a view to the Greeks.
In the first edition every historical notice, except about

buildings, sacred offerings, and cemeteries, is false : the

author s statements about the fortunes and acts of par

ticular Popes never agree with what is known of their

history, but rather contradict it, sometimes glaringly ;

and thus we must regard as fabulous even what cannot

be proved such from sources now accessible to us, for
2
there is almost always an obvious design.

The fictions of the Liber Pontificalis had a far-reach

ing influence after they became known, and were used-

The phrase fecit Constitutum de omni Ecclesia" is repeated on nearly

1 "

every page, but what the ordinance was is never specified, while the pre
tended liturgical appointments are always precisely expressed.
Pontificalis has been critically examined by Tillemont, and
2 The Liber

more fully by Constant, and its gross anachronisms proved, so that there
can be no doubt about its fabulous character, and it gives one the impres
sion throughout of deliberate fraud. Clearly the compilers had no historical
or documentary evidence. The first enlargement of the Liberian catalogue
reached almost to Damasus, and must have been composed early in the
 Forgeries; Donation of Constantine. 131

first by Bede about 710 in the rest of the West. They

supplied the basis for the notion of the Popes having

constantly acted from the first as legislators of the whole

Church, and they greatly helped on the later fabrication

of Isidore, who incorporated these records of Papal
enactments into his decretals, and thereby gave them
an appearance of being genuine. This agreement of

the forged decretals with the annals of the Popes is

what gave the former so long a hold on public belief.

After the middle of the eighth century, the famous

Donation of Constantine was concocted at Home. It is

based on the earlier fifth-century legend of his cure from

leprosy,and his baptism by Pope Silvester, which is re

peated at length, and the Emperor is said, out of grati

tude, to have bestowed Italy and the western provinces
on the Pope, and also to have made many regulations
about the honorary prerogatives and dress of the Eoman
1
clergy. The Pope is, moreover, represented as lord

sixth century. The two letters of Damasus and Jerome were invented for
it,according to which Damasus collected and sent to St. Jerome what could
found of the biographies of the Popes. In a second and altered edition,
"be

some twenty years later, about 536, was added the list of Popes from Da
masus to Felix iv. This last part, from 440, is historical, but strongly
coloured, and garnished with fables devised in the interest of Kome.
1
The western provinces" must not be understood of Gaul, Spain, etc.
"

The phrase is used for the northern parts of the Peninsula Lombardy,
Venetia, and Istria, which do not properly belong to Koman Italy.
132 Papal Infallibility.

and master of all bishops, and having authority over

the four great throne* of Antioch, Alexandria, Constan

tinople, and Jerusalem.

The forgery betrayed its Roman authorship in every
line ;
it is self-evident that a cleric of the Lateran

Church was the composer. The document was obvi

ously intended to be shown to the Prankish king,

Pepin, and must have been compiled just before 754.

Constantine relates in it how he served the Pope as his

croom, and led his horse

O some distance. This induced

Pepin to Pope a homage, so foreign to Prankish

offer the

ideas, and the Pope told him from the first that he

expected, not a gift, but restitution from him and his

1
Franks. The first reference to this gift of Constantine

occurs in Adrian s letter toCharlemagne in 777, where

he tells him that, as the new Constantine, he has

1
There can be no doubt as to the Roman origin of the "Donation."
The Jesuit Cantel has rightly recognised this in his Hist. Metrop. Urb. p. 195.
He thinks a Roman subdeacon, John, was the author. The document had a
threefold object, against the Longobards, who were threatening Rome,
of the Roman
against the Greeks, who would acknowledge no supremacy
See over their Church, and with a view to the Franks. The attempt of the
Jesuits in the Civiltd to make a Frank the author, simply because JSneas
of Paris and Ado of Vienne mention the gift in the ninth century, is not
worth serious notice it refutes itself. There is the closest agreement in
;

style and idea between the "Donation" and contemporary

Roman docu
ments, especially the Conslitutum Pauli I. (Harduin, Condi, iii. 1999 seq.)
compiled in 753 or 754. The phrase Concinnatio
"

and the Epistola S. Petri,

 Forgeries; Donation of Constantine. 133

indeed given the Church what is her own, but that he

has more of the old Imperial endowments to restore to

her. The Popes had already been accustomed, for several

years, since 752, to speak, not of gifts, but restitutions,

in their letters ;
the Italian towns and provinces were

to be restored, sometimes to St. Peter, sometimes to the

1
Eoman republic. Such language first became intelli

gible when the Donation of Constantine was brought

forward to show that the Pope was the rightful pos
sessor as heir of the Eoman Caesars in Italy; for, he

being at once the successor of Peter and of Constantine,

what was given to the Eoman Eepublic was given to St.

Peter, and vice versa. In this way it was made clear to

Pepin that he had simply to reject the demands of the

Greek Imperial Court about the restoration of its terri

tory as unauthorized.
It would indeed be incomprehensible how Pepin

used only in Papal letters of that date, and in the Consti-

luminarium,"
tutum and Donatio, betrays a Roman hand. So does the form of impreca
tion and threat of hell-torments, found also in the Constitution and Epis-
tola S. Petri, and the term "Satrapse," wholly foreign to the West, and
found only in the Donation," and in contemporary Papal letters.
"

See
Cenni, Monum. Dominat. Pontif. i. 154.
1 "Exarchatum Ravennae et
rei-publicae jura seu loca reddere" is the
phrase in the Liber Pontif. See Le Cointe, Annal. Eccl. Franc, v. 424.
Again, in the letter of Pope Stephen we read,
"

per Donationis paginam

civitates et loca . restituenda confirmastis."
. . And so constantly when
the Exarchate and Pentapolis are sDoken of.
1
34 Papal Infallibility.

could have been induced to give the Exarchate, with

twenty towns, to the Pope, who never possessed it,

and thereby to draw on himself the enmity of the still

powerful Imperial Court, merely that the lamps in the

Eoman churches might be furnished with oil,
1
had he
not been shown that the Pope had a right to it by the
gift of Constantino, and terrified by the threat of ven

geance from the Prince of the Apostles, if his property

should be withheld. There was no fear of such docu
ments as the Epistle of Peter and the Donation of Con-
stantine being critically examined at the warlike Court

of Pepin. Men who might be written to that their

bodies and souls would be eternally lacerated and tor

mented in hell if they did not fight against the enemies

of the Church, believed readily enough that Constantine

had given Italy to Pope Silvester. Those were days of
darkness in France, and, in the complete extinction of
all learning, there was not a single man about Pepin
whose sharpsightedness the Eoman agents had reason
2
to dread.

One is tempted to ascribe to the same hand the

Epistle of St. Peter to his
"

adopted son" the King of

1
This was always given in the covetous "begging-letters of the Popes as
their main ground for demanding the gifts of land they wished for.
2
See the Benedictine Hist. Lit. de la France, iv. 3.
 Forgeries; Donation of Pepin. 135

the Franks, which appeared also at this moment of great

danger and distress, as well as of lofty hopes and preten

sions, a fabrication which for strangeness and audacity

has never been exceeded. Entreating and promising

victory, and then again threatening the pains of hell,

the Prince of the Apostles adjures the Franks to deli

ver Borne and the Eoman Church. The Epistle really

went from Eome to the Frankish kingdom, and seems

1
to have produced its effect there.

Twenty years later the need was felt at Eome of a

more extensive invention or interpolation. Pepin had

given the Pope the Exarchate, taken away from the

Longobards, with Eavenna for its capital, and twenty
other towns of the Emilia, Flaminia, and Pentapolis, or

the triangle of coast between Bologna, Comacchio, and

2
Ancona. More he had been unable to give, for this

was all the territory the Longobards had shortly before

acquired, and were now obliged to give up. In 774

Pepin s son, Charlemagne, after taking Pavia, became

king of the Longobardic territory, stretching far south
wards. Ko more could be said about the gift of Con-
1 It was incorporated in tlie official collection of the Codex Carolinus.
Cf. Cenni, op. cit. 150.
2
This is clear from the enumerations in the Liber Pontif. and the notice
in Leo of Ostia. See Le Cointe, v. 484, and Mock, De Donat. d Car. M.
, pp. 8 seq.
1
36 Papal Infallibility.

stantine ; Charlemagne would have had at once to abdi

cate. Moreover, a strong Italian, sovereign was wanted

at Eome, who from his own part of the peninsula could
also keep the Papal dominions in subjection ;
at the

same time, the Eoman lust for land and subjects and
revenues was not long satisfied with the Exarchate
and its belongings. So a document was laid before the

King in Eome, professing to be his father s gift or

promise (promissio) of Kiersy. He renewed it, as it

was shown him, and gave away thereby the greater part
of Italy, including a good deal that did not belong to

him; for the document, as quoted in Adrian s Bio

graphy, specifies as territories to be assigned to the

Popes all Corsica, Yenetia, and Istria, Luni, Monselice,

Parma, Eeggio, Mantua, the duchies of Spoleto and

1
Benevento, and the Exarchate.
It has seemed to every one mysterious and inexplicable
that Charlemagne should have made so comprehensive

a gift, leaving himself but little of his Italian kingdom.

Accordingly Muratori, Sugenheim, Hegel, Gregorovius,

and Niehues have either declared the passage spurious,
or accused the Papal biographer of falsehood ; else, ob

serves Niehues, we must accuse Charlemagne of con-

1 193.
Lib. Pontif. (ed Vignol.) ii.
 Forgeries; Donation of Pepin. 137

sciously indorsing a perjury,

and Adrian of a cowardly

negligence. Abel thinks the suspicions against the gen

1

uineness of the passage are strong, but not conclusive, and

contents himself with assuming that the gift was really
2
equal to Pepin s, but was very limited. Lastly, Mock
accepts the extent of the gift, but rejects its equality to

Pepin s, and therefore the truth of Adrian s Biography ;

3
and Baxmann, the latest authority, leaves all uncertain.

In short, no one has succeeded in unravelling the secret.

But the thing explains itself when we compare with

4
this gift the twice printed and wholly fabulous document,

professing to be the pact or bond of Pepin, and which

really describes the geographical extent of the gift as it
is stated in Adrian s
Biography, only with the addition
of more names of towns. This document is closely
related to the Donation of Constantine. Like Constan-
tine, Pepin gives an express account of his relations to
the Pope as an explanation to the Greeks and Lombards

of his gifts, and disclaims for himself and his successors

all interest in the alienated territories, except the
right
1
Geschichte des Verhaltn. zwischen Kaiserthum und Pdbsthum. i. 565.
2
Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, i. 469 seq. Jahrbiich, i. 131.
3 Politik der Pdbste. 1. 277.
4
Fantuzzi, Monum. Ravennati. vi. 264 ; Troya, Codice diplom. Longo-
bard. (Napoli, 1854), iv. 503 seq. Troya thinks the document genuine,
which is unintelligible in a man of his information.
 1
38 Papal Infallibility.

of having prayers offered for the rest of their souls, and

the title of a Eoman patrician ;
for those territories were
become the lawful property of the Pope through so

many imperial deeds of gift. For this document,

obviously composed in the style of the Donation of
Constantine and the Eoman biographies of Popes, it is

difficult to assign any other origin or object than the

1
purpose of having it laid before Charlemagne; and it

shows how he was induced to make a promise he found

it
impossible to keep ;
for he henceforth vigorously with
stood the perpetually renewed demands of the Popes,

and made the counter requisition that Eome should

prove its title to each particular domain separately.

There have unquestionably been some falsifications

in the privileges granted to the Eoman See by Em

perors later than Charlemagne, though they do not

go so far as has often been maintained. The pact

or gift of Louis the Pious in 817 bears internal signs

of genuineness, but has evidently been interpolated. 2

1
It must
else have been meant for the eye of one of the later Carlovin-

gians. Clearly it was designed for the eye of a Frankish king, and after
the establishment of the empire, Pepin s disclaimer of reserving any power
in the alienated dominions would have no further object. must there We
fore hold to Charlemagne, and the date of 774, and attribute the wrong
name of the Pope to the ignorance of a later copyist.
2 It has been held as a
pure invention by most scholars, as Pagi, Mura-
tori, Beretto, Le Bret, Pertz, Gregorovius, Bnxmami, and lastly, that great
 Roman Forgeries ; Deeds of Gift. 1
39

It makes the Emperor give the islands of Corsica, Sar

dinia, and Sicily, with the opposite coasts, and all Tus

cany and Spoleto, Pope Pascal. It is needless to

to

observe that if Louis had really partly given and partly

confirmed to the Pope the greater part of Italy in this
elastic and unlimited fashion, the whole subsequent

history of the Papacy to Gregory vii. would be an

insoluble riddle ;
for the Popes neither possessed nor
once claimed those territories, which together make up
a large kingdom. Innocent in.was the first to main
tain that all Tuscany belonged to the Popes ;
no one
did so before him. Gregory vii. first claimed the duchy
of Spoleto. The falsification certainly took place to
wards the end of the eleventh century, when matters
were managed so actively and astutely at Eome ;
for

Gregory vii. was also the first to claim Sardinia, but he

takes occasion to observe that the Sardinians have
hitherto had no relations with the Pioman See, or rather,

as he thinks, have become as much strangers to it,

through the negligence of his predecessors, as the people

1
at the ends of the earth. Urban IL, indeed, in 1091,

proved that Corsica was a Papal fief, not merely from

master in the criticism of the Caroline documents, Sickel, while Marini
(Nuovo Esame, etc., Roma, 1822) and Gfrorer defend it as genuine.
1
Epist. i. 29.
140 Papal Infallibility.

the gift of Louis or Charlemagne, but from the Dona

tion of Constantine, which, as then interpreted, assigned

to Pope Silvester all islands of the West, including the

Balearic Isles, and even Ireland. So again with the

privileges of the Emperors Otho I. in 962, and Henry n.

in 1020. The documents are in both cases genuine, or

copies of genuine ones, in the main, but the statement

of the Liber Pontificates about Charlemagne s Donation
1
was manifestly interpolated wholesale afterwards.

It is well known that the Countess Matilda, who

was entirely under the influence of Gregory vn. and
Anselm of Lucca, gave Liguria and Tuscany to the

Eoman See in 1077.

2
When we remember that Gre

gory vir., in 1081, required of the pretender Kudolph an

oath that he would restore the lands and revenues

which Constantine and Charlemagne had given to St.

3
Peter, that Leo ix. had already solemnly appealed to

the Donation of Constantine, and that Matilda s ad

viser, Anselm, had inserted this Donation in his Codex,

we may easily judge what document was used to con-

1 580
Cf. Watterich, Vitce Pont. i. 45 ; Hefele, Concil. Geschichte, iv. ;

Bcitrage, i. 255.
2
Leo Cassinensis in Pertz, Monum. Germ. ix. 738. Liguria means the
Lombardic duchies belonging to Matilda.
3 viii. 8. 26.
Ep.
 Roman Forgeries ; Deeds of Gift. 1
41

vince her that she was obliged in conscience to make

so extensive an abdication or restitution.

We cannot suppose that such a man as Gregory vn.

would consciously take part in these fabrications, but,
in his unlimited credulity and eager desire for territory

and dominion, he appealed to the first forged document

that came to hand as a solid proof. Thus, in 1081,
he affirmed that, according to the documents preserved
in the archives of St. Peter s, Charlemagne had made
the whole of Gaul tributary to the Koman Church, and
given to her all Saxony.
1
A document forged at Eome
in the tenth or eleventh century is undoubtedly referred
2
to, which may be found in Torrigio. Charlemagne
there calls himself Emperor in the year 797, and his

kingdoms are Francia, Aquitania, and Gaul Alcuin is ;

his Chancellor, and each of his kingdoms is to

pay an
annual tribute of 400 pounds to Eome.
We have put forward these facts about the deeds of

gift, because they set in a clear light the line habitually

followed at Eome from the sixth to the twelfth

century,
1
Ep. viii. 23.
2 Le Grotte Vaticane (Roma, 1639), pp. 505-510. As Acts of the Martyrs
had been fabricated there earlier, so, from the tenth century, false docu
ments were fabricated wholesale at Home, as the monographs about
parti
cular Roman churches prove. So the first document of 570 Marini
quotes
(Papiri Diplom., Roma, 1805) is an invention. See Jaffe, 936.
Regesta, p.
142 Papal Infallibility.

and because their authors are undoubtedly the very

persons chargeable with the fictions undertaken in the

interests of ecclesiastical supremacy. We shall now
continue our enumeration and examination of the for

geries by which the whole constitution of the Church

was gradually changed.
The pseudo-Isidorian forgery of the middle of the
ninth century has been already mentioned. Borne, as
we have seen, had no part in that, though she after

wards took full advantage of it for extending her power,

the substance of these forgeries being incorporated into

the canonical collections of the Gregorian party.

The most potent instrument of the new Papal system

was Gratian s Decretum, which issued about the middle
of the twelfth century from the first school of Law in

Europe, the juristic teacher of the whole of Western

Christendom, Bologna. In this work the Isidorian

forgeries were combined with those of the Gregorian

writers, Deusdedit, Anselm, Gregory of Pavia, and

with Gratian s own additions. His work displaced all

the older collections of canon law, and became the

manual and repertory, not for canonists only, but for the
scholastic theologians, who, for the most part, derived

all their knowledge of Fathers and Councils from it.

 Forgeries ; Decretum of Gratian. 143

No book has ever come near it in its influence in the

Church, although there is scarcely another so chokefull

of gross errors, both intentional and unintentional Not

only Anselm, Deusdedit, and Cardinal Gregory, whose

works had little circulation, but also the German Bur-
kard (or his assistant, the Abbot Olbert) had pioneered
the way for Gratian. Burkard had not only made copious
use of the Isidorian fictions in his Collection, compiled
between 1012 and 1024, but had also ascribed the eccle

siastical decisions in the capitularies to various Popes,

so that from the middle of the eleventh century the

erroneous notion took rise that the free determinations

of Frankish Synods in the ninth century were the

autocratic commands of Popes. All these fabrications
the rich harvest of three centuries Gratian inserted
in good faith into his collection, but he also added,

knowingly and deliberately, a number of fresh corrup

tions, all in the spirit and interest of the Papal system.

It may be shown by certain examples, going deep

into the development of the new Church system, how
Gratian the Italian forwarded by his own interpola
tions the grand national scheme of making the whole
Christian world, in a certain sense, the domain of the

Italian clergy, through the Papacy. The German and

1 44 Papal Infallibility.

West Frankish bishops had already bowed to the Isi-

dorian decretals. T^eir influence is shown in the deci

sions of the German National Synod at Tribur in 895.

We may see here how deeply the pseudo-Isidore, with

the imperial dignity of his Popes, and their dictatorial

commands, had penetrated into the very lifeblood of the

German hierarchy. It came to this, that the bishops had
bound themselves most closely to King Arnulf, who was
present, and took a prominent part in the Synod, and
that he, desiring the imperial crown, which had already

once allured him into Italy, could only obtain it by the

favour of Pope Formosus. So they decided that, though
the yoke of Eome should become intolerable, it
ought
to be borne with pious resignation.
How often has this saying been repeated since ! It

was ascribed to Charlemagne, just as Constantino is

affirmed to have called the Pope a God. And since

Gratian adopted it as a capitulary of his, and stamped

1
it as a universal canon, it became the current view up
to the time of the Council of Constance, albeit some
times contradicted in act, that it is a duty to endure

the unendurable if Eome imposes it.

The corruption of the thirty- sixth canon of the

i Dist. 19, c. 3.
 Forgeries; Decretum of Gratian. 145
1
(Ecumenical Council of 692 is Gratian s own doing.
It renewed the canon of Chalcedon (451), which gave
the Patriarch of New Eome, or Constantinople, equal

rights with the Eoman Patriarch. Gratian,by a change

of two words, gives it a precisely opposite sense, and

suppresses the reference to the canon of Chalcedon.

He also reduces the five Patriarchs to four ;
for the

ancient equality of position of the Koman bishop and

the four chief bishops of the East was now to disappear,

though even the Gregorians, as, e.g., Anselm, had treated

2
him as one of the Patriarchs. There was no longer
o
any room for the patriarchal dignity of the Eoman See ;

he who had drawn to himself every conceivable right

in the Church could hardly exercise a particular patri
archal power in one portion of it. The plenary powers
of the Pope were become a mare magnum, within which
there could be no sea or lake of special privileges. 3 This

showed itself conspicuously in reference to the provinces

of Eastern Illyricum, Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus,
1
List The Eoman correctors have substituted "nee non" for
22. 6.
Gratian s fabrication of non tamen," which was left for 400 years.
"

2 Anselm
and Deusdedit set aside the famous decree of Nicolas II.,
giv
ing the German Emperor the right of confirming Papal elections, on the
ground that one patriarch, the Koman, could not annul the decision of five
patriarchs at Constantinople.
3The numberless privileges accorded by Popes to the Mendicant Orders
were afterwards called a mare magnum."
"

K
1
46 Papal Infallibility.

Dardania, which were before under the patriarchal

jurisdiction of the !oman bishop, so that the metropo

litan of Thessalonica was appointed his vicar over them.

The Emperor Leo, the Isaurian, separated those provinces

from Eome about 730, and they now belonged to the

patriarchate of Constantinople. There was a long dis

pute about it ;
the perpetually renewed demands of the

Popes gained no attention at Constantinople till the

establishment of the Latin Empire there in 1204 gave

them power for the moment in these Eastern lands

also. And it is significant that Innocent in., far from

attempting to resume his ancient patriarchal rights there,

made the Bishop of Tornobus Patriarch, an ephemeral

creation, soon to be again extinguished. 1

The canon of the African Synod, that immoveable

stumblingblock of all Papalists, which forbids any

appeal beyond the seas, Eome, Gratian adapted

i.e., to

to the service of the new system by an addition which

made the Synod affirm precisely what it denies. If

Isidore undertook by his fabrications to annul the old

law forbidding bishops being moved from one see to

another, Gratian, following Anselm and Cardinal Gre

gory, improved on this by a fresh forgery, appropriating

Le Quien, Oriens Christ, i. 96-98 ;

ii. 24, 25.
 Forgeries; Decretum of Gratian. 147
1
to the Pope alone the right of translation. One of the

most important of his additions, and also an evidence of

the wide divergence hetween the old and new canon

law, is the chapter also based on Anselm, Deusdedit,

and Cardinal Gregory which elaborated a system of
2
religious persecution. While, on the one hand, by fal

sifying a canon quoted by Ivo and Burkard, he makes

Gregory the Great order that the Church should protect

3
homicides and murderers ;
on the other hand, he takes

great pains to inculcate, in a long series of canons, that

it is lawful, nay, a duty, to constrain men to goodness,

and therefore to faith, and to what was then reckoned

matter of faith, by all means of physical compulsion,

and particularly to torture and execute heretics, and

confiscate their property. In this he went beyond the

Gregorian canonists. He does not fail to urge that

Urban (1088-1099) had declared any one who should
n.

kill an excommunicated person, out of zeal to the Church,

to be by no means a murderer, and hence draws the

general conclusion that it is clear the "bad" -all who

bad
"

are declared by the Church

"

authorities are not

only to be scourged, but executed.

Still worse things may be found in the work of the
1
Cans. 7. Q. i. 31 2
Cans. 23. Q. iv. 4, 5. 3
Cans. 23. Q. v. 7.
148 Papal Infallibility.

Bolognese monk, which, through the instrumentality of

the Curia, became the manual and canonical code of the
West, to the scandal of religion and the Church, and
this medley, not of simple, but complicated and multi

plied was rich in materials containing the

forgeries,

germ of future developments, and cutting deep in their

consequences into both the civil and ecclesiastical
life of the West. So was it with the idea of heresy,
which even then was fashioned into a two-edged sword,
and veritable instrument of ecclesiastical domination.

Pope Nicolas I. had affirmed, in his letter to the Greek

Emperor Michael, that by the sixth canon of the (Ecu

menical Council of 381 (the first of Constantinople),

which he grossly distorted, schismatics and excom

municated men were to be treated as heretics. Anselm
and Gratian embodied this statement in their new
*
codes ;
so that at the very time when heresy was
stamped as a capital offence, the term received a terrible
and unlimited extension, as indeed everything had been
done by earlier fabrications to make heretics of all who
dared to disobey a Papal command, or speak against a

Papal decision on doctrine.

The earlier Gregorians had not laid down so clearly

and nakedly as Gratian, that in his unlimited superi-

1
Cans. 4. Q. i. c. 2.
 Forgeries; Decretum of G rattan. 149

ority to all law, the Pope stands on an equality with the

Son of God. Gratian says that, as Christ submitted to
the law on earth, though in truth he was its Lord, so
the Pope is high above all laws of the Church, and can

dispose of them as he will, since they derive all their

force from him alone. 1 This became, and chiefly through

Gratian s influence, the prevalent doctrine of the Curia,
so that even after the great reforming Councils,
Eugenius
IV., in 1439, answered King Charles VIL, when he ap
pealed to the laws of the Church, that it was simply
ludicrous to come with such an appeal to the Pope,

who remits, suspends, changes, or annuls these laws at

2
his good pleasure.
In the fifty years between the appearance of Gratian s
Decretum and the pontificate of the most powerful of
the Popes, Innocent in., the Papal system, such as it

had become in its three stages of development,

through
the pseudo- Isidore, the Gregorian school, and Gratian,

worked its way to complete dominion. In the Roman

courts Gratian s Code was acted upon at Bologna it

was taught; even the Emperor Frederick I. had his

son Henry vi. instructed in the Decretum and Eoman
3
law. The whole decretal legislation from 1159 to 1320

1 2
Cans. 25. Q. i. c. 11, 12, 16.
Raynajd, anno 14 3 9j 37
3 Cf. Bohmer, Diss. de Deer. Grat. in Pref. to his Corp. Jur. Van.
p. x vii.
 1
50 Papal Infallibility.

is built upon the foundation of Gratian. The same is

true of Aquinas s dogmatic theology on all kindred

points, as, indeed, the whole scholastic system in ques

tions of Church constitution was modelled on the
favourite science of the clergy of the period, Jurisprud

ence, as interpreted by Gratian, Raymund, and the other

compilers of decretals. The theologians borrowed theory,

texts, and proofs, alike from these compilations. As
early as the twelfth century, in quoting a passage from

Gratian, the Popes used to say, it was "

in sacris
1
canonibus," or "in decretis." And about 1570, the
Roman correctors of the Decretum, appointed by three
Topes, said the work was intrusted to them, that the

authority of this most useful and weighty Codex might

not be shaken. 2 So high stood the character of this

work, saturated through and through as it is with de

ceit and error and forgeries, which, like a great wedge
driven into the fabric of the Church, gradually loosened,

disjointed, and disintegrated the whole of its ancient

order, not, indeed, without putting another, and, in its

way, very strong constitution in its place.

1
Thus Alex. in. (Deer. c. 6 de Despons. inpub.), Clem. in. (De Jure
Patron, c. 25), and Innoc. in., cite Gratian with the words, iu corpora
"

decretorum."
a
".Ne hujusce utilissimi et gravissimi Codicis vacillaret auctoritas."
 Progress of the Papal Power. 1
5 1

VIII. Progress of the Papal Power.

Alexander in. (1159-81) and Innocent m. (1198-1216)

were the chief authors of the development of the new
system, and creators of the decretal canon law, through the
number of their edicts, and the unity and coherence of
their policy, based on one fundamental idea. The notion
is more prominent with Innocent than even with Gre

gory VIL, that the Pope is God s locum tenens on earth,

set to watch over the social, political, and religious con

dition of mankind, like a Divine Providence, as chief
overseer and lord, who must put down all opposition.

The radical principle with him, as with Gregory, is that

all rank and authority not held by priests is an incon

gruity in the Divine plan of the world, introduced

through human folly and sinfulness, while the priesthood

is, properly speaking, the sole ordinance and institution

1
of God. Gregory had declared, of course in direct
contradiction to the Gospel teaching about the Divine

institution of government, that the royal power was set

up at the instigation of Satan, by persons ignorant of

God, and full of crimes, out of mere lust of dominion,

2
whereas before men had been equal.
1
See Ep. ad Joan. Angl. Reg. in Eymer s Feed era Reg. Angl. i. 1, 119,
Institution fuit sacerdotium per ordinationem Divinam,
"

reguum autem
jn-r
extortionem humanam," etc.
3
Epist. lib. viii. Ep 21 :
"

Quis nesciat, reges et duces ab iis habuisse

i
52 Papal Infallibility.

New means of influence accrued to the Bo man See

through the Crusades, and the consequent change in
the system of penance and indulgences, the privileges

awarded to Crusaders, and the leadership in these holy

wars, which, as a matter of course, devolved on the

Popes. The same end was served by the military

Orders, which acknowledged the Pope as their only

superior; the constant union with France, clergy as

well as kings (before 1300); and still more by the

intellectual power the Papal monarchy derived from the
two great Universities Bologna, the school of Papal
canon law, and Paris, the home of scholasticism, which

was more and more lending itself to the Papal system.

But, above all, from the beginning of the thirteenth

century, the new Keligious Orders of Mendicants, which

swarmed over the whole Christian world Franciscans,

Dominicans, Augustinians, and Carmelites, especially

the two first were the strongest pillars and supports
of this monarchy. After the Isidorian decretals and

Gratian, the introduction of these Orders, with their

was the third great lever
rigid monarchical organization,

whereby the old Church system, resting on the grada

-

pdncipium, qui Deum ignorantes, superbia, rapinis, perfidift, homicidiia

postrenio universis pene sceleribus, mundi principe diaboio videlicet agi-
taute, super pares scilicet homines dominari caeca cupiditate et intolerabili

pncsumtione affectaverunt!"
 Progress of the Papal Power. 153

tion of bishops, presbyteries, and parish priests, was

undermined and destroyed. Completely under Eoman
and acting everywhere as Papal delegates, wholly
control,

independent of bishops, with plenary power to encroach

on the rights of parish priests, these monks set up their

own churches in the Church, laboured for the honour

and greatness of their Order, and for the Papal authority

on which their prerogatives rested. We may say that
that authority was literally doubled through their means.

They became masters of literature, of the pulpits, and

of the university chairs ; they travelled about as Papal

tax-gatherers and preachers of indulgences, with plenary

power, even of inflicting excommunication. And thus

the spiritual campaign organized at Eome was carried

into every village, and the parish clergy generally suc

cumbed to the Mendicants, armed as they were with

privileges from head to heel. For they possessed and

used the effective expedients of easy absolution, and
new devotions and methods of salvation, invented by

themselves, to which the parish priests had nothing to

oppose, while their isolation made every attempt at open

resistance on their part useless. They could compel
both priest and people, by excommunication, to hear
them preach the Papal indulgences, and could absolve
154 Papal Infallibility.

from reserved sins in the confessional. Bishops and

priests felt their impotence against the new power of
these monks, strengthened by the Inquisition, and had,
however indignantly, to bend under the yoke laid on
their necks by two powers irresistible in their union.

If Gregory vn. supported his new claims, his political

lordship and subjugation of the royal power, on falsehoods,

not indeed of his own coining, Innocent in. went further
in this direction, and dealt with history as with the Bible,

according to the exigencies of the case.

<^j ci?
He invented
the story that the Empire had been transferred from
1
the Greeks to the Franks by a Papal sentence ;
-

and
thence inferred that the German princes derived their

right of electing the Emperor from the Pope only, and

asserted that he had the right of rejecting their nominee.
Later Papal authors have transformed these assertions

into historical facts invented by themselves.

One of Gregory vn. s maxims, ascribing personal
holiness to every rightly elected Pope, was suffered to

drop. There was danger of the want of holiness sug

gesting the invalidity of the election, and therefore the

decretal books, while upholding the rest of Gregory s

postulates, were silent about this. Moreover, every

1
De Elect, c. 34.
 Progress of the Papal Power. 155

one knew and said that simony, which was generally

treated as heresy, was rampant in the Eoman Court,
and that taking bribes for benefices and legal pro
cesses was a daily occurrence with the Popes and Car

dinals. The charge of heresy going on under the very

eyes of the Pope, and with his express or tacit consent,

could not be answered, and was constantly urged, till

upon the resource of maintaining that

the canonists hit

what was simony in others was not simony in the

Pope, because he is superior to law, and everything in

the Church is his property, which he can deal with as
1
he will
The Gregorian system required the most complete
immunity of the whole clergy from the secular power
and civil courts. It served to create an immense army,

exclusively belonging to the Pope, and widely separated

by common caste feeling and caste interests from the

lay world. Every clergyman was to recognise but one

lord and ruler, the Pope, who disposed of him indirectly,

through the bishops, who were bound by oath to himself,

or directly, in cases of exemption, and used him as a

1
Thus the canonist John of God, about 1245, quotes and repudiates the
statement, Lex Julia dicit quod apud Eomam simonia non committitur"
"

(De Pom, D. Papce). See excerpts in Theodori Pcenitent. (ed. Petit.) Paris,
1677. There was a long controversy about it.
 r
56 Papal Infallibility.

tool for the execution of his commands. Gratian has

adapted his Codex to these views, partly by means of

the pseudo-Isidorian fabrications, partly by later corrup
1
tions of his own and the Gregorian s. The Papal pre
scriptions in the code of decretals completely establish
the principle that clerics are exempt from secular courts,

and that by Divine ordinance. 2 The Popes added that

no cleric could renounce this privilege, as it belonged
to the whole Church.
One would have supposed there would be no farther
need for so perilous an instrument as falsification of texts,

when was required for the development

all that of Papal

domination in Church and State could easily be built on

the strong and broad foundation of Gratian s Decretum.

And yet the same method was still pursued, and that
too with texts of Scripture. Innocent ill. (1198-1216)
wished to make Deuteronomy a code for Christians, that

he might get Bible authority for his doctrine of Papal

power over life and death but to prove this the words
;

had to be altered. It is there said that an Israelite may

1
Thus (Caus. ii. Q. i. c. 5) lie has expunged the words of a law of Theo-
dosius confining the exemption to spiritual matters, and thereby wholly
So (ib. c. 5} he changed the words sine scientia Pontificis"
"

altered it.
into "sine licentia," to make the civil authority over clerics dependent on
delegation from the bishops.
2
Deer, de Judic. c. 4, 8, 10 ;
De Foro Compet. c. i. 2. Q. 12, 13.
 Progress of the Papal Power. 157

appeal to the high priest and chief judge, and if he

1
does not abide by their sentence shall be put to death.

Innocent, by a slight interpolation in the text of the

Vulgate, made this into a statement that whoever does

not submit to the decision of the high priest (whose

place the Pope occupies under the New Covenant) is

2
to be sentenced by the judge to execution. And Leo x.
quoted the passage with the same corruption, in a Bull
of his, giving a false reference to the Book of Kings
instead of Deuteronomy, to prove that whoever dis
3
obeyed the Pope must be put to death.
Innocent went beyond Gratian, above all, in fixing

the relations of the Church to the State and secular

princes. He taught that the Papal power is to the

imperial and royal as the sun to the moon, which last

has only a borrowed light, or the soul to the body,

which exists not for itself, but only to be the slave of

the soul, and that the two swords (Luke xxii. 38) are a

symbol of the ecclesiastical and secular power, both of

which belong to the Pope, but he wields one himself

and intrusts the other to princes to use at his behest, and

1
Dent. xvii. 12.
1 Deer. Per Venerdbilem, Qui filii sint legitimi,"
"

4. 17.
8 Pastor JEternus, Harduin, Condi, ix. 1826.
1
58 Papal Infallibility.

1
for the service of the Church. In his famous decretal

Novit, Innocent was the first to lay down the theory,

often repeated by later Popes, that wherever a serious

sin has been committed, or is charged by one party on
the other, it behoves the Pope to interpose with his

judgment, to punish, and to annul the decisions of the

2
civil tribunal. The principle this newly devised claim
is based upon must apply to every clergyman, parisli

priest, or bishop, within his own sphere, and a general

domination of clergy over laity would follow, as in

Thibet; the Popes, however, claimed the right for

themselves alone. Moreover there accrued to the Popes
new and unlimited powers, exalting them over princes,

peoples, and courts of justice, beyond what any mortal

had yet enjoyed, from the so-called Evangelical
"

denunciation." It means that by asserting that it is

a sin on the part of the defendant not to admit the

right of the plaintiff, any cause can be brought before

the Pope, if he chooses to meddle with it, before a
3
judge, that is, who is reponsible to God alone.

Irmoc. in. in c. 6, De Majorit. ct Obed., D. i. 33.

1
Gregory vir. had
before used the symbol of the two heavenly luminaries, Ep. ad Guil.
Regem.
2 C. 13 de Judic. D. 2. It belongs to the
"

de quocunque peccato
1. Pope
compere quemlibet Christianum."
3 The chief
authority is Decret. c. 13, De Judic. ii. i.
 Progress of the Papal Power. 159

All roads at that time led to Eome. Whichever of

the Isidorio- Gregorian maxims one started from, the

result was the same. Either it was said the right of the

Church is alone Divine, and therefore takes precedence

of all other rights, but in the Church the Pope is the

fountain and possessor of all rights, and thus every one

is absolutely subject to him ; or, the Pope is the ruler of

souls, but the body is the mere vassal and instrument

of the soul, therefore the Pope is also supreme over

bodies, with power of life and death. And again, who
ever disobeys a Papal command shows thereby that he
holds wrong notions about the extent of the Papal power,

and the irresistible force of Papal commands and pro

hibitions, and thus he incurs at least vehement sus
picion of heresy, and must answer for his orthodoxy
before the Holy Office.
The very names the Popes assumed or accepted mark
the broad division between the earlier and new Gre
gorian Papacy. To the end of the twelfth century they
had called themselves Vicars of Peter, but since Inno
cent m. this title was superseded by Vicar of Christ.
1

In fact the gulf between the position and rights of a

Gregory i. and the pretensions and plenary power of a

1
Beugnot, Scriptor. Rerum Gallic, x. Prof. 47.
1 60 Papal Infallibility.

Gregory ix., or between 600 and 1230, is as wide aa

from Peter to Christ. All bishops had formerly been

styled representatives of Christ, but when the Pope

laid claim to this title, it meant "

I am the represen

tative on earth of the Almighty, and my power stands

high above earthly power and
all limitations, in me
and through me is the Church free," according to the
mediaeval clerical view of Church freedom, which re

garded the Church as free only if omnipotent, and the

Church in the last resort as simply meaning the Pope.
Gregory IX. (1229-1241) went still further in his asser

tion of an absolute domination over the State, when he

declared, on the strength of the forged Donation of Con-

stantine, that the Pope is properly lord and master of the

whole world, things as well as persons, so that his pre
decessors had only in some sense delegated their power
to emperors and kings, but had relinquished nothing of
1
the substance of their jurisdiction. Innocent iv. (1243-

1254) claimed as self-evident, the same direct dominion

over the world, and all that is in it, only that he proclaimed
in yet stronger terms the absolute universal supremacy

of the Popes, and the union of the two supreme powers

1
See Huillard Breholles, Codex dipl. Frieder. ii. iv. 921.
"

Ut in uni-
verso mundo rerum obtineret et corporum principatum."
 Progress of the Papal Power. 1 61

in one hand. He thought it false to say that Constan-

tine had given secular power to the Papal Chair, for this
it possessed from the nature of the case and directly from

Christ, who founded a kingdom, and gave to Peter the

keys both of earthly and heavenly sovereignty. Secu

larpower was only so far legitimate as secular princes

used it by commission from the Pope. Constantine
had in truth only given back Church part ofto the

what was hers from the beginning, and what he had

no right to hold. If possible, Innocent iv. spoke even
more disparagingly than Gregory vii. of the origin of
secular princedoms and their possessors. He supple
mented the hierarchical organization by adding a link
hitherto wanting to the papal chain, when he esta

blished the principle that every cleric must obey the

Pope, even if he commands what is wrong, for no one
can judge him. The only exception was if the com
mand involved heresy or tended to the destruction of
1
the whole Church. Boniface vm. gave a dogmatic and
1
Comment, in Decretal. Francof. 1570, 555. Innocent wrote this com
mentary as Pope. He has openly told us what amount of Christian cul
ture and knowledge, both for clergy and laity, suits the Papal system.
It is enough, he says, for the laity to know that there is a God who re
wards the good, and, for the rest, to believe implicitly what the Church,
believes. Bishops and pastors must distinctly know the articles of the
Apostles Creed the other clergy need not know more than the laity, and
;

also that the body of Christ is made in the sacrament of the altar. Com-
1 62 Papal Infallibility.

biblical foundation to the doctrine of the universality of

papal dominion in his Bull, Unam Sanctam (1302), where

he condemns the independence of the civil power in its

own sphere as Manicheisin. He affirms that the Pope

is judge over all secular matters where sin is involved,
and holds the two swords, one to be used by himself,
the other by kings and warriors, but at his beck and

by his permission ;
that he judges all, but is judged by
none, being responsible to God only and that whoever
;

denies this subjection of every human being to the

Pope cannot be saved. His violent perversion of the

clearest texts of Scripture in support of these claims

was matter of astonishment and mockery even at the

1
time.

After the removal of the Papal See to Avignon, when

the Curia had become French both in its personnel
and its political line, the juristic dogmatism of the

Popes was applied principally to the empire, and for

centuries the steady aim of their policy was to break

the imperial power in Germany and Italy and dissolve

ment. in Deer. 2. Naturally, therefore, the laity were forbidden to read

the Bible in their own
tongue, and, if they conversed publicly or privately
on matters of faith, incurred excommunication by a Bull of Alexander iv.,
and after a year became amenable to the Inquisition. Sext. Dec. 5, 2.
1
See the writings of contemporary French jurists and theologians in
Dupuy s collection.
 Progress of the Papal Power. 1
63

its unity. Clement v. (1305-1316) declared "by apo

stolical authority" that every emperor must take an
actual oath, of obedience to the Pope, so that he might
1
form no alliance with any sovereign suspected by him.
The Popes even insisted to the Greek emperors and

patriarchs on the undoubted truth of faith that all ful

ness of spiritual and secular power, at least in Christen

dom, belonged to them. Thus Gregory IX. and Gregory x.

"We know this," said the latter, "from
reading the Gos-

peL"
Innocent in. wrote to the Patriarch of Constantin

ople that "Christ has committed the whole world to the

government of the Popes."

And he gives, as conclusive
evidence of this, that Peter once walked on the sea,

the sea signifying the nations, whence it is clear

that his successors are entitled to rule the nations. 2

One of the most far-reaching principles gradually

developed from the Gregorian system was, that every

baptized man becomes thereby a subject of the Pope,
and must remain such all his life, whether he will or
no. Every Christian, even though baptized outside
the papal communion, is not only therefore subject to
all papal laws (though invincible ignorance may be a
Tit. 9, p. 1058 (ed. Bb hmer).
1
Clementin. de Jurej.
1
Innoc. in. lib. ii. 209, ad Pair. Constantin. "Dominus Petro nou
iolura imiversam Ecclesiam, sed totum reliquit saeculum gubernandum."
164 Papal Infallibility.

conceivable excuse in particular cases), but the Pops

can call him to account and punish him for every grave

sin, and this may extend to the penalty of death. For,

in the first place, all disobedience to a papal command
is either heresy or proximate heresy ; and, moreover, the

Pope can excommunicate him for his offences, and if he

does, not submit and receive absolution within a year,
he is declared a heretic, and incurs death and con

fiscation of his goods.

IX. Papal Encroachments on Episcopal Rights.

In order completely to subvert the old constitution of

the Church and the regular administration of dioceses by

bishops, the institution of Legates was brought into pro

minent use from Hildebrand s time. Sometimes with a

general commission to visit Churches, sometimes for a

special emergency, but always invested with unlimited

powers, and determined to bring back considerable sums

of money over the Alps, the legates traversed different

countries surrounded by a troop of greedy Italians, and

armed against opposition by ban and interdict, and held

forced synods, the decrees of which they themselves

dictated. Contemporaries in their alarm compared

 Encroachments on Bishops ; Dispensations. 165

the appearance of these legates to physical calamities,

1
hailstones or pestilence. Complaints and appeals
to Eome availed nothing, for it was a fixed principle

with the Popes to uphold the authority of their

legate.
The Pope in the new system is not only the chief,

but is in fact the sole legislator of the Church. He,

as Boniface vm. expressed it, carries all rights in the

shrine of his breast, and draws out thence from time

to time what he thinks the needs of the world and

the Church require. And so it comes to pass that a

single Pope of the thirteenth or fourteenth century,

an Innocent in., Gregory IX., or John XXIL, has made
more laws than fifty Popes of an earlier period put
together. The notions about the plenary powers of

the Caesars prevalent in the latter days of the Eoman

empire had their influence here, and the Popes called
their acts by the same name as the Csesarean laws,

Prescripts and Decrees. And as the Pope makes laws

by his supreme authority, so too he can wholly or

temporarily suspend them ;

thus he, and he alone, can

dispense with Church laws, whether canons of Councils

1
Cf. e.g., Johann. Opp. (ed. Giles), iii. 331. Polycrat. 5, 16:
Saris!).
c .

Ita debaechantur ac si ad Ecclesiam flagellandam egressus sit Satan a facie

Domini." Petri Blesensis epist. ap. Baron, a. 1193, 2 ff.
1 66 Papa I Infallibility.

or decrees of Popes. The customary limitation that

he cannot dispense with the law of God was frequently

superseded by the canonists, especially since Innocent

ill., by his declaration about marriage, and the yet holier
bond between a bishop and his diocese, which the Pope
can dissolve at his good pleasure, prepared the way for

the belief that it is not beyond papal power to dispense

with some at least of the laws of God.
^Yhenever the Pope issued a new law, the Curia
reckoned what the necessary dispensations would bring

in,and many laws were unmistakably framed with a

view to the purchase of dispensations. So too with

exemptions from episcopal jurisdiction; every exempted

corporation or monastery had to pay a yearly tribute to
the See of Borne, whose interest it was to thwart and
restrain episcopal authority whenever it tried to act.

And thus a bishop who took in hand the administration

of his diocese in good earnest found himself cramped at

every step, surrounded, as it were, in his own country

by hostile fortresses closed against him, and in perpetual

danger of incurring suspension or excommunication, or

being cited to Eome for violating some papal privilege ;

for every college and convent watched jealously over its

own privileges and exemptions, and regarded the bishops

 Encroachments on Bishops ; the Pallium. 167

as its natural enemies. And as bishops and corpora

tions were in mutual hostility, so the parochial clergy

found opponents and dangerous rivals in the richly

privileged Mendicant Orders,

who were indefatigable in
their attempts to appropriate the lucrative functions of

the priesthood, and to decoy the people from the parish

churches into their own. The members of the Curia,

as John of Salisbury remarks, had one common view :

whoever did not agree to their doctrines was either a

1
heretic or a schismatic, The Curia wanted to be in

fallible even before the Popes made that claim. They

thought this shield indispensable for carrying on their
business.

The Popes made their first experience with the Pal

lium of the irresistible charm, which signs of honour,

decorations, titles, distinctions in the colour and cut
of a garment, have for ordinary men, and especially
clerics, and thus learnt what effective instruments of

power they might become. From the fifth century the

Popes had bestowed the pall on archbishops named
as vicars of their patriarchal rights, and in the eighth
it
began also to be given to metropolitans, although

1 "

Polycrat. 6, 24. Opp. (ed. Giles), iv. 61. Qui a doctrina vestra dis-
sentit, aut haereticus aut scMsmaticus est."
1 68 Papal Infallibility.

these last hesitated to receive it on the conditions

offered by Kome, as was proved by the attitude of the

Prankish archbishops towards the thoroughly Eoman-

1
izing Boniface. On the strength of the pseudo-Isi-
dorian fabrications, which exercised a most destructive

influence on metropolitan rights, the Popes who became

founders of the new system Nicolas i., John vm., Gre
gory vii. insisted that a metropolitan could perform no
ecclesiastical function before receiving this ornament.
The next step was to ascribe a secret and mystical power
to it, and when Paschal n. (1099-1118), and all the
Popes after him, and the Decretals maintained that the
fulness of high priestly office was attached to it, it

inevitably followed that this office is an outflow of the

papal plenary power, so far as it extends. Meanwhile

this notion of metropolitan jurisdiction being delegated

from the Pope was developed in contradiction to facts ;

for the Popes had appropriated to themselves the

weightiest and most valuable rights of metropolitans,

and did this still more after the beginning of the thir

teenth century and next they began to give the pall to

;

some bishops avowedly as a mere ornament, and without

any single right being attached to it. But as a means

1
Bonif. Epist. (ed. Serarius) ; Ep. 141, 142, pp. 211, 212.
 Encroachments ; Plenitude Potestatis. 169

for reducing metropolitans to complete dependence on

Borne, sealed moreover by an oath of obedience, it quite
answered its end. Gregory vii. altered the previous form
into a regular oath of vassalage, so that the relation was
one of personal loyalty, and the terms of the oath were
1
borrowed from oaths of civil fealty.

The next thing was to mould the bishops by a vow

of obedience into pliant tools of the Eoman sovereignty,
and guard against any danger of opposition on their

part to the expanding schemes and claims of the Curia.

For a long time bishops were much better off than

metropolitans, for in the thirteenth century they still

received their confirmation which in the ancient

Church was not separated from ordination from the

metropolitan, while the latter had to buy the pall and

the accompanying license to exercise this office at a
2
high price from Eome.
Innocent III.
grounded on a misrepresentation of a
passage of Leo i/s letter to the Bishop of Thessalonica,
whom he had made his vicar, saying, that he had com
mitted to him part of his responsibility, and on one

1
The "

Regulse Patrum," which the metropolitan previously swore to

observe, was changed into "

Regalia S. Petri."

2
In the fifteenth century, German archbishops had to pay 20,000 florins

[1600], equivalent to ten times that sum now, for the pallium.
170 Papal Infallibility.

of the Isidorian fabrications, the principle that the

Pope alone has plenary jurisdiction in the Church,

while all bishops are merely his assistants for such

portions of his duty as he pleases to intrust to them.
This may be said to be the completion of the papal

system. It reduces all bishops to mere helpers, to

whom the Pope assigns such share of his rights as

he finds good, whence he can also assume to himself

at his arbitrary will such of their ancient rights as he
1
pleases.
And now the term
"

Universal Bishop,"
used by the

Pope, gained its true significance. Though rejected even

by Leo ix. (1048-1055), it described quite correctly the

Pope s position as understood at Eome since the begin

ning of the thirteenth century. In the ancient sense

of the word there were no more any bishops, but only

delegates and vicars of the Pope.

A number of rights never thought of by the ancient
Popes followed as a matter of course. There was no
need of particular laws or papal reservations in many
cases ;
was enough to draw the necessary consequences
it

from the Isidorian or Gregorian fabrications and inter

polations. It seemed self-evident that the Pope alone

1
Innoc. in. Ep. i. 350 ;
Decret. Greg. 3. 8.
 Encroachments ; Plenitude Potestatis. i
7 1

could appoint and depose bishops, could interfere always

and directly in their dioceses by the exercise of a con

current jurisdiction, and bring any cases before his

own Court. Innocent in, as we have seen, claimed a

special Divine revelation for the Pope s right of depos

ing bishops. It has been charged against him as a

wicked and capricious invention; but we must
error

remember that, when he had persuaded himself and

others that every Pope possesses the fulness of juris
diction, and is absolute ruler of the whole Church, not

by concession of the Church, but by Divine appoint

ment, he might fairly assume a Divine right to dispose
of his bishops as an absolute monarch disposes of his

officials. And, in fact, some bishops soon began to

subscribe themselves as such "by

the favour of the

Papal See."

Whatever relics of freedom had hitherto been preserved

from the ancient Church were now trampled and rooted

out. No one had doubted before that a bishop could re

sign his office when he felt unequal to its duties. This

was usually done at Provincial Synods. But from the
time of Gratian and Innocent in., the new principle, that

only the Pope can dissolve the bond between a bishop

and his Church, was extended to the case of
resignation
1
72 Papa I Info, llibility .

1
also. And then came the further requirement, made
into a rule by John XXIL (131G-1334), that sees vacated

by resignation lapsed to the Pope.

Again, the appeals encouraged in every way by the

Popes, and the ready grants of dispensations, paved the

way for their acquiring one of the most important rights,

in the appointment of bishops. As the pseudo-Isidore
had given an unprecedented extension and impetus
to appeals to Home, the new Decretal legislation since
Alexander in. was specially adapted for multiplying

and encouraging appeals to the Curia. Alexander

knew well what he was about when he declared appeals,
which hung like a Damocles sword over the head of

every bishop, to be the most important of his rights.

2
Some thirteen new articles in the Decretals provided
for the Curia being occupied annually with thousands

of processes, which often extended over many years,

bringing in a rich harvest to the officials, and filling the

streets and also the churchyards of Eome. And a further

point was secured by this, for the bishops and arch

deacons, impeded and disabled by the endless number

of Papal exemptions and privileges, lost all desire to

1
D. de Translat. c. 2 (1, 7).
3
They are quoted in Die Geschichte der Appel. von GeistL Gerichtskof.
Frankfort, 1788, p. 127 sqq.
 Encroachments on Bishops ; Appeals. i
73

take Church discipline in hand, and thereby involve

themselves in tedious and costly processes at Eome.

And thus the anarchy in dioceses and wild demoraliza

tion of the clergy reached a point one cannot read of

without horror in contemporary writers. When appeals

came to Eome on disputed presentations to benefices or

episcopal elections, the Popes often took occasion to

oust both the rival claimants, and appoint a third per

son. Abbot Conrad of Lichtenau says,

"

There is no

bishopric or spiritual dignity or parish that is not

made the subject of a process at Eome, and woe to him
who comes empty-handed !
Eejoice, mother Eome, at

the crimes of thy sons, for they are thy gain ;

to thee

flows all the gold and silver ;

thou art become mistress
of the world through the badness, not the
piety, of
mankind."

No people suffered more from these appeals and

processes than the Germans. After the Concordat of

Worms (1122), the Popes had gradually managed to

exclude the German emperors from all share in episcopal

appointments, and practically to nullify the Concordat.

And then, partly from the circumstances of the German
dioceses, partly from the new Papal enactments, most
1
Chron. p. 821.
1
74 Papal Infallibility.

elections came to be disputed, and a handle was given fco

one party or the other^for an appeal to Borne, which was

taken full advantage of. The candidates or their proc

tors had to waste years in Eome, and either died there

or carried home with them nothing but debts, disease,

and a vivid impression of the dominant corruption there.
The Popes could now dispose as they liked of the German

archbishops and their votes for the empire ;

for besides

the pallium, the heavy tax, and the oath of obedience,

they had the Eoman debts and censures to fear, in case

of insolvency, and this constrained them to follow the

Pope s guidance even in secular matters, supposing the

oath thev
V
had sworn was not sufficient to make them
into mere machines of the will of the Curia. These facts

alone explain the elections of Henry Easpo in 1246,

AVilliam of Holland in 1247, Eichard and Alphonsus in

1257, and the miserable interregnum from 1256 to 1273.

Only in this way could the ruin of the Hohenstaufen

House have been accomplished, and Germany have
been kept in the state of weakness and division required
French and Angiovine interest, and the policy
for the

of the French Popes, Urban IV., Clement iv., and

Martin IV.

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the

 Encroachments on Bishops; Patronage. 175

Popes made gigantic strides in the acquisition of new

rights and the suppression of other peoples Innocent .

in. had recognised the right of archbishops to confirm

1
and ordain their suffragans, but Nicolas in. (1280) re
served their confirmation to the Pope. In the ancient
Church it was held uncanonical for a Pope or Patriarch
tomake appointments or bestow benefices out of his

own district. The Popes began their meddling in the

matter only by begging recommendations of favourites of

their own, and without specifying any particular benefice.
So was it still in the twelfth century. But soon these
recommendations took the form of mandates. Italians,

nephews and favourites of the Popes, persons who had

aided them in the controversies of the day, or suffered

in their interest, were to be provided for, enriched, and

indemnified in foreign countries. Eights of patronage
were not respected if they stood in the way ;
the Papal

lawyer knew how to manage that, often through means

of Papal executors appointed for the purpose. This
caused loud discontent in national Churches ; protests
were made even at the Synod of Lyons in 1245. Mean
while the Popes had another gate open for attaining

rights of patronage. A great number of bishops and

1
D. De Elect, c. 11, 20, 28 (1, 6).
1
76 Papal Infallibility.

prelates were drawn to Eome and detained there by

processes spun out interminably. They died off by

shoals in that unhealthy city, the home of fevers, as

Peter Damiani calls it, and now suddenly a new Papal

right was devised, of giving away all benefices vacated

by the death or resignation of their occupants at Eome.

Clement iv. announced it to the world in 1266, while at
the same time broadly affirming the right of the Pope
1
to give away all Church offices without distinction.
Then came the reservations of the French Popes at

Avignon. They reserved to themselves a certain num

ber of bishoprics, which, however, in France they often

had to bestow according to the pleasure of the king. At

the same time commendams were introduced, whereby
they sometimes gave abbacies to secular priests, and

other Church dignities to laymen.

The oath of obedience or vassalage the bishops had

now to take to the Pope was understood as binding

them to unconditional subjection in political as well

as ecclesiastical matters, whence Innocent in. de

clared the German bishops perjured who acknowledged

2
any other emperor than Otho whom he had chosen.
It was by means of this oath that the Popes carried the

1
Sext. Deer. 3, L 2.
2
Registr. de Neg. Imp. Ep. 68.
 Encroachments on Bishops. 177
1
exclusion of the Hohenstaufen from the throne. Accord

ing to Pius IL, a bishop broke his oath who uttered any

truth inconvenient for the Pope,and he required the

Archbishop of Mayence by virtue of it to convoke no

2
imperial parliament without the Pope s consent.

Thus the Roman Court became the universal heir of

all former authorities and institutions in the Church.
It had appropriated the rights of metropolitans, synods,

bishops, national Churches, and besides that, the powers

formerly exercised by the emperors and Prankish kings,

in ecclesiastical matters. The inevitable consequence

was to cripple the pastoral, whether parochial or diocesan

administration throughout the Church, and introduce a

general state of religious disease and decay, bishops and

parish priests withdrawing more and more from their

pastoral charges. This gave an immense lift to monas-

ticism, with its strongly organized centralization, and

the great religious communities became the centres of
all active Church The exemptions and other privi
life.

leges, only to be obtained at Eome, bound them closely

to the Papacy, whose great support they were well
known to be against the bishops. Leo x. assembled
a commission, composed of members of the Eeligious
1
Raynald. Annal. 1206, 13 Leibnit. Prodr. Cod. Jur. Gent.
a. ; i.
11, 12.
2
Gobellin, Comm. Pii //., 65, 143.
M
1
78 Papal Infallibility.

Orders in Borne, to consult on the means for forwarding:

o

papal interests and .their own against their common

1
enemies, the bishops.
"
"

For," says Pallavicini, every

monarchical Government must have a select body of
subalterns in every province of the kingdom not subject
to the immediate local authorities ;
hence exemptions."

The monks were the willing and devoted servants and

agents of the Eoman Court against the bishops, who

3
were looked upon and treated as its born enemies.
At no time or place has the contradiction been so

glaring between theory and practice, principles and

proceedings, as during those centuries at Eome and

Avignon. The Popes condemned all taking of interest,
but the most elaborate banking business was carried on
under their very eyes, and in close connexion with the

Curia, who would have lost the breath of life, if the

Florentine and Siennese capitalists and brokers had not

advanced the required sums at usurious interest to the

prelates, place-hunters, and numberless litigants. The

papal bankers were a protected and privileged class,

while everywhere else their fellows were under the ban,

Bzovius, AnnaL Eccl. xix. a. 1516.
1

2
Storia del Condi, di Trento, 12, 13. 8.
Bossuet says, "La cour de Eome regardant les eveques comme ses
3

ennemis, n a plus mis sa confiance et ses esperances que dans cette multi
tude d exempts." CEuvresf xx.i. 461. Ed. de Liege,, 1768.
 Encroachments on Bishops. 179

and collected their debts and interest without mercy

1
under shelter of Papal censures. As early as the

twelfth century the Curia had made the discovery,

which they were already reaping the fruits of in the thir
teenth, that it was greatly for their interest to have a
number of bishops, dioceses, and beneficiaries in their

debt all over Europe, who were all the more pliant the

more easily they could be held to payment by excom

munication, and by putting on the screw of interest, at

a time when ready money could generally be procured

with difficulty only, and at an enormous interest. Thus
Cardinal Mcolas Tudeschi, the first canonist of his day,

observes that the Church dignities were so loaded with

excessive imposts and extortions that they were always

subject to debts, and nothing of their revenues was avail

2
able for religious purposes. Cardinal Zabarella saw

clearly enough that the root of the ecclesiastical cor

ruption was the doctrine of legal sycophants about the

papal omnipotence, whereby they had persuaded the

Popes that they could do whatever they So
"

liked.

1
Cf. Biblioth. de I Ecole de Chartres, 19 e annee (Paris 1858), p. 118, and
Peter Dubois account, about 1306 ("De Kecup, Terrae Sanctae," Bongars,
Gesta Dei per Francos, ii. 315), of how one had to borrow many thou
sands sub gravibus usuris ab illis qui publice Papse mercatores vocantur"
"

to spend on the Pope and Cardinals.

2
Tract de Condi. Basil, in Pragmatica Sanctio (ed. Paris, 1C56), p. 913.
 i So Papal Infallibility.

completely has the Pope destroyed all rights of all lesser

Churches that their bishops are as good as non-exist

ent." Chancellor Gerson says, still more emphatically,
"

In consequence of clerical avarice, simony, and the

greed and lust of power of the Popes, the authority of

bishops and inferior Church officers is completely done

away with, so that they look like mere pictures in the
2
Church, and are almost superfluous." The Bishop of
Lisieux observes later how the whole constitution of the

Church is in a state of dissolution, and everything has

long been full of quarrels and divisions through the
conduct of the Popes. 3 And the Church, torn to pieces
with discontents and dissensions, made the impression
on thinking men like Gerson, Pelayo, d Ailly, Zabarella,
and others, of having become "

brutal," a hard prison-

house, where only dungeon-air could be breathed, and

therefore full of hypocrisy and pretence. The Vene
tian Sanuto, in 1327, reckoned that half the Christian

world was under excommunication, including the most

devoted servants of the Popes, so lavish had they
4
been in the use of ban and interdict since 107 1. Epis-
1
De Schismatibus (ed. Schardius), pp. 560, 561.
8
Qpp- (ed. Dupin), ii. p. 1, 174.
3 In a letter to Louis xi. See Durand de Maillane, Libertes de VEglise
Gallicane, iii. 6, 61, sqq.
4
Epist. op. Bongars. Gesta Dei per Francos, ii. 310.
 Encroachments on Bishops. 1 8 1

copal officials, archdeacons, and all who could then ex

communicate, followed the papal example in this respect.

They considered the Roman Church their model, and
inferred that they should not be niggardly in the use

of such weapons. And if, as often happened, bishops

themselves were suspended or excommunicated, simply

for being unwilling or unable to pay the legates their
journey money, why should laymen fare better ? Thus
it came to pass, as Dubois said in 1300, that at every

sitting of the episcopal officials in France more than

10,000 souls were thrust out of the way of salvation

l
into the hands of Satan ;
and in every parish, thirty,

forty, or even seventy persons were excommunicated on

the slenderest pretexts. Absolution from censures could
indeed be purchased, but an exorbitant price was often
demanded. 2

X. The Personal A ttitude of the Popes.

The means used by the Popes to secure obedience,

and break the force of opposition among people, princes,

or clergy, were always violent. The interdict which
suddenly robbed millions, the whole population of a
1
Memoires de I Acad. des Inscript. (1855), xviii. 458.
See the episcopal memorial drawn up for the General Council of 1311,
2

Bzovius, AnnaZ. Eccl. ann. 1311, p. 163 (ed. Colon.)

1 82 Papal Infallibility.

country, often for trifling causes which they had no

thing to do with themselves, of Divine worship and

sacraments, was no longer sufficient. The Popes de

clared families, cities, and states outlawed, and gave
them up to plunder and slavery, as, for instance, Cle
ment v. did with Venice, or excommunicated them, like

Gregory XL, to the seventh generation, or they had whole

cities destroyed from the face of the earth, and the in
habitants transported, the fate Boniface vm. deter
mined on for Palestrina.

It is a psychological marvel how this unnatural theory

of a priestly domination, embracing the whole world,

controlling and subjugating the whole of life, could

ever have become established. It would have required

superhuman capacities and Divine attributes to wield

such a power even in the most imperfect way with

some regard to equity and justice, and conscientious
and really religious men would have been tormented,

nay, utterly crushed, under the sense of its rightfulness

and the corresponding obligations it involved. There
was indeed no want of modest phraseology every Pope ;

asserts in the customary language that his merit and

1
Verci, Sloria della Marco, Trivig. iii. 87.
*
Opere di S. Cat. de Siena, ii. 160.
 Personal A ttitude of Popes. 183

capacities are unequal to the dignity and burden, but for

all that, their constant endeavour for centuries to increase

their already excessive power is a proof that no need

for restricting themselves was usually realized. There

have been kings who said they would not be absolute
rulers if they could. So the Popes of the first centuries

could say, We desire not to rule over canons and coun

cils, but to be ruled by them. But since Nicolas I., and

especially since Gregory VIL, the principle was avowed

that the Pope is lord of canons and councils ;
the law

is not his will, but his will is law. In numberless

cases, of course, his will was simply the custom and

practical tradition of the Curia, and the Pope, the

mightiest ruler in the world, was in one sense the most

limited since the eleventh century, for he could only act

as the temporary depositary of this capital of power, a

steward who ought to increase, but must never suffer it

to be diminished. The strongest will must succumb

before the quiet, passive, but energetic resistance of a

corporation bound together by common interests, work

ing by a common rule, and striving for a common end ;

how much more the good intentions of individual Popes,

generally of great age when elected, who saw but a few

years of work before them, and knew by long experience

1 84 Papal Infallibility.

the firmness of that serried phalanx of officials surround

ing them, whose opposition soon reduced them to a mere

trunk without arms or feet. And thus it came to pass

that, while those at a distance felt and said that the

proverbial shortness of Popes was a providential

lives

dispensation to save the Church from utter ruin, 1 the

Popes admitted that they felt themselves the most un

fortunate of men. Thus Adrian iv. was driven to the

melancholy avowal that no condition is so pitiable as a

Pope s, whose throne is planted thick with thorns, and

his destiny only bitterness, with a heavy weight pressing
on his shoulders.
It was this consciousness of supreme power in theory,
and of lamentable slavery and dependence on a purely
selfish Court in practice, combined with a feeling of the

curse that must rest on such an administrative machine,

composed of clerical parasites and vampires, which ex

torted the complaint uttered by Mcolas v. (1447-1455)
before two Carthusian monks, that no man in the world
was more wretched and unhappy than he was, that no

body who came near him told him the truth, and that
his Italians were insatiable, 2 etc. Still later, Marcellus

1 Joh. Sarisb. Polyc. 6, 24 ; Opp. iv. 60 (ed. Giles).

2
Vespas, Vita Nicol. v. in Muratori, Script. Rer. ItaL xxv. 286.
 Personal A ttitude of Popes. 1 85

II.
(1555) exclaimed,
under a similar feeling of anguish,
1
that he did not see how a Pope could be saved.

One may say without exaggeration, that the indivi

dual Popes did not know the whole extent of their

power, it was so immense. More than a century s

legislation, steadily
directed to the one end of self-

of Gregory to the
aggrandizement, from the Dictatus
latest articles of the Extravagantes, had so well pro

vided for every contingency, that a Pope could never

be at a loss for some legitimate plea for interference,
however purely secular the point at issue might be.

By the formula, non obstante," etc., the Pope s right

"

was secured of suspending for that particular case any

papal law which chanced to conflict with the interests
of the Curia. The whole legislation of the ancient

Church was gradually abrogated, or sometimes changed

into the precise opposite. The papal decretals had
devoured the decisions of councils, like Pharaoh s seven
lean kine. What had become of the Mcene, Chalce-
donian, and African canons? Like half-buried tomb
stones in a deserted churchyard, scattered fragments of

up here and
"

this older order cropped there. It is

clear as the noonday sun," said Chancellor Gerson, the

i
Pollidor. Vit. Marc. II., 132 (Roma, 1744).
1 86 Papal Infallibility.

most learned theologian and warmest friend of the

Church in that age,
"

that the ordinances of the four first

and subsequent General Councils have been metamor

phosed and exposed to mockery and oblivion through the

ever-increasing avarice of Popes, Cardinals, and Prelates,

through the unjust constitutions of the papal Court, the

rules of the Chancery, and the dispensations, absolutions,
1
and indulgences granted from lust of domination."

To the Popes, not to the German emperors, belongs the

"

title semper Augustus" as formerly understood. They

always aggrandizers of the
"

are kingdom," i.e., of their

own. They became such under the sincere conviction,

cherished from earliest youth, that the welfare of the

whole Church and Christian world depended on their

power being great and irresistible ;

that their right

and power, and theirs alone, was truly divine, and

therefore unlimited, because no mere earthly right could
limit an authority given from heaven. And we must
recognise the sincerity of this conviction, by which the
Popes were thoroughly possessed, even when it drove

them to the use of crooked means, to falsification, for

gery, and misrepresentation.

Everything which Popes had formerly shrunk from or

1 Ecd. in Cone. Univ.

Tract, de Ref. c. 17.
 Personal A ttitude of Popes. 187

avoided, or been cautioned against, they now eagerly

seized upon. Gregory the Great had complained that,
under the pressure of business, his mind could not rise
1
to higher things. Even Alexander II., in 1066, when
the great centralization movement was just beginning,
said that for five years he had scarcely been able to pay
any attention to the internal affairs of his own special

flock, the Church of the city of Eome, still less of

2
foreign Churches. Early Church history was one long
warning for the Popes not mix themselves up with
to

the affairs of foreign Churches, and want to decide

from a distance on one-sided and partial information.

Every one in the ancient Church, the Popes included,

was persuaded that nothing is more injurious in Church
matters than decisions made at a distance, in ignorance

of local circumstances. As a rule they made mistakes,

and involved themselves in humiliations and contradic

tory judgments. So it was with Basilides in Spain,

Hilary of Aries in Gaul, Marcellus of Ancyra, Eusta-

thius of Sebaste, Meletius at Antioch, with Eros and

Lazarus, and with Apiarius in Africa ; constantly the

Popes made rash mistakes, and were deceived, imposed

Greg. M. Ep.
1
i. 1 ; vii. 25. 5.
2
Bouquet, &cri2)t. Rer. Gall. xiv. 543.
1 88 Papal Infallibility.

upon, and misled through, their hurried or importunate

action. And constantly had the wisdom of the Nicene

decision "been
o should be
commended, that everything /

examined and decided on the spot. The Popes and

Gregorians were ready enough, indeed, to appeal to the
Mcene canon, but they appealed to the spurious one.

And if, in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Popes

only interfered with the concerns of foreign Churches
now and then at long intervals, and in the same way as

the bishops of other apostolical sees, such cases oc

curred now by thousands in one year, and every new

reservation was a copious source of emolument, so that

Bishop Alvaro Pelayo tells us that whenever he entered

the apartments of the Eoman Court clergy, he found
them occupied in counting up the gold coin which lay
1
there in heaps.

Every opportunity of extending the jurisdiction of

the Curia was welcome. Nothing was too insignificant.
Exemptions and privileges were so managed that fresh

grants became constantly necessary. Thus, e.g., the im

munity from episcopal censures granted beforehand to

individuals and whole colleges was an inexhaustible
source of revenue. And the bishops on their side were
1
De Planctu Ecd. ii. 29.
 Personal Attitude of Popes. 189

compelled to procure papal privileges, at least to enable

them to guard their property with censures against
holders of Eoman privileges ;
the Bishop of Laon
1
obtained such a privilege from Urban iv. So far was
the principle, divide et carried at Eome, that
"

impera,"

even cathedral chapters, who are supposed to be the

immediate counsellors and presbytery of the bishop,

were armed with privileges and exemptions against him,
and he against them. If we look at the huge number
of Papal privileges conferred in the thirteenth century

on one national Church only, the French, we cannot

but marvel at the slavish spirit of the bishops, who
dared not move an inch without sanction from Eome,

as well as at the utter insignificance of the objects for

which special authorization or dispensation from Eome

was thought necessary. If a monastery wanted leave
for the sick to eat meat, or the inmates to talk at dinner,
a permission from the Pope was required. Above all,

bishops, convents, and individuals wanted to protect

themselves by Papal privileges against the censures and

spiritual methods of extortion employed so prodigally

2
by the Legates.
1
Gallia Christ, vi. instr. 308.
2
A clear idea
of these may be formed from inspecting Brequigny s and
Pardessus Tables Chronologiques, 1230-1300, A.D.
1
90 Papal Infallibility.

XI. The Relation of Popes to Councils.

Hitherto the Church had known but one means of

protection against internal corruption, that of Councils.

But the attitude towards Councils taken up by the Popes
since Gregory vn. must have made even this unavailing.

Councils were perverted, as we shall see, into mere tools

of Papal domination, and reduced to a condition of

undignified servitude, which made them mere shadows

of the Councils of the ancient Church.

All synods counted as oecumenical, and whose decrees

had force throughout the universal Church, were held

during the first nine centuries in the East, at Nicsea,

Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople. During that

period the Popes had never once made the attempt to

gather about them a great synod of bishops from differ

-

ent countries. Two centuries followed, the tenth and

eleventh, without any great synod. In 1123, immedi

ately after the close of the Investiture controversy, and

to confirm and seal the great victory won through the

Gregorian system, Calixtus n. assembled a numerous

synod, afterwards called (Ecumenical (the first Lateran)
at which, very significantly, twice as many abbots as

bishops (600 to 300) were present. ]STo

contemporary
 Relation of Popes to Councils. 1
9 1

tells us anything of this first general assembly of the

West; it passed unnoticed, and left no trace behind.

The Pope promulgated at it certain laws on subordinate

points simony, clerical marriages, and the Truce of

God. There is no sign of any action on the part of the

bishops ; they seem to have been summoned merely as.

a foil to the Papacy, for this was the first example of a

council professing to be oecumenical, where not the

Council, as for a thousand years, but the Pope published

the decrees in his own name. 1
Sixteen years later, in 1139, Innocent n. assembled a
second (Ecumenical Synod, again at Rome (the second

Lateran). Once more the bishops appeared as mere

passive witnesses to hear the Pope s lofty commands,

and to see him tear, with words of abuse, the pastoral
staff from the hand and the pallium from the shoulders
2
of prelates ordained by his rival, Pierleone.

More serious and eventful was the third of these

Eoman Church assemblies, held in 1 1 79 by Alexander m.
(the third Lateran). There were but three sessions, and
the Pope published the twenty- seven canons he had put
1
Atictoritate sedis apostolicse proMbemus" in first canon.
"

Harduin,
Condi, vi. ii. 1111.
2
Harduin, i. c. 1214. [Pierleone was the anti-pope Anacletus n.
TR.]
 192 Papal Infallibility.

before them as enacted "with the consent of the Synod."

So completely did the world regard these assemblies as

mere arrangements for the solemn promulgation of papal

commands, that the Emperor described the third Lateran

Synod in a document as
"

the Council of the Supreme

*
Pontiff."

Any free deliberation in presence of an Innocent in.,

when in 1215 he summoned 453 bishops to the fourth

Lateran Council, was not to be thought of. From the

standpoint of the Popes at that time, the only business of

bishops at a Council could be to inform the Pope of the

condition of their dioceses, to give him their advice, and
form a picturesque background for the solemn promul

gation of his decrees. Perhaps the greatest number of

bishops ever seen at a Western Council were present,

besides ambassadors of sovereigns. Innocent had his
2
decrees read to them, and after listening in silence they

were allowed to give their assent.

3
When they wished
to return home, the Pope forbade them until they had

paid him large sums of money, which they had to

1 See Trouillart, Docum. de Bdle, i.

389,
"

In general! Concilio summi

Pontificis . . .
judicatum est."

2 See Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl. ann. 1215.

"

Eecitata sunt in pleno Con

cilio, capitula 70."

3 We know the decisions only from their appearing in different parts of

book under the heading, Innocentius in. in Concil.
"

Gregory ix. s decretal

Lat."
 Relation of Popes to Coimcils. 193

borrow at high interest from the brokers of the papal

1
Court.

The one act of the first Council of Lyons in 1245

worthy of record, was the deposition of Frederick n. by
Innocent IV. with 144 bishops, chiefly Spanish and
2
French. In this affair of such high importance to
Italy and Germany, these two nations were either not
at all, or very inadequately, represented it was an ;

assembly chiefly composed of prelates from foreign

nations which supported the Pope in his procedure, and
allowed itself thus to help him in meddling with the

concerns of Italy and Germany. The right of deposing

the Emperor, and thereby plunging Germany and Italy
into confusion and a long was again proved
civil war,

by the fables to which Gregory vn. had before ap-

1
Matt. Paris, Hist. Minor, Lond. 1866, ii. 176.
2
We learn from from Raynaldus (Annal. arm. 1245, i.)that Innocent only
summoned the Archbishop of Sens with his suffragans, the King of France,
and number of English bishops. Kaynaldus, who had the papal Register,
a,

with all the documents before him, could not disclose more. The German
prelates, who had come to Lyons, departed shortly before the opening of
the Council. Innocent therefore avoided calling it a General Council ;
and
it isa proof of the unhistorical and \inscientific character of so many theo
cite this as an (Ecumenical Council,
logical manuals, that they usually
though has no claim on the conditions they themselves give to being
it

such. more glaringly is this true of the Council of Vienne in 1311, to

Still
which Clement v. himself said, that he had only summoned certain selected
bishops. See his Letter to the Emperor Henry in. in Rayuald. Annal.
ann. 1311.

N
194 Papal Infallibility.

pealed, viz.,Pope Innocent had excommunicated

that

the Emperor Arcadins, and Pope Anastasius had not

only excommunicated the Emperor Anastasius, but

deprived him of his empire. 1 The natural inference

was, that the Popes could do to a German Emperor

what they had done to the Greek Emperor at Constan

tinople. This time again the bishops and abbots had

to pay or promise the Pope large sums for carrying on
his war against the Emperor, and thus to burden their
2
churches and convents with heavy debts.
The second Synod of Lyons, counted as the sixth

(Ecumenical Council of the West, at which 500 bishops

and twice as many abbots assembled in 1274, was con
voked by the best Pope of that age, who, had it
only
been possible, would gladly have repaired the mischief
done by the policy of his predecessors Gregory x.

But even he did not venture to restore the old forms of

Councils, necessary and helpful as they would have

been for effecting a reformation of the desolated and

disjointed Church. The union with the Greek Church

was a mere formal act concluded without any delibera

tion, and broke up again in a few years. Eor the rest,
1
See the historian of the Curia, Nicolas of Curloio, Vita Innoc.
official

rv. in Baluze, Miscell. i. 198, ed. Mansi.

2
For fuller particulars, cf. Tillemout, Vie de S. Louis, iii. 83.
 Relation of Popes to Councils. 195
*

impossible to say what decrees the Pope caused

it is to

be published at the Council, for the thirty-one articles

found in the papal Decretals, under the title, Gregory
"

1
x. at the Synod of Lyons,"
were partly promulgated
as the Pope
during the Council, and partly afterwards,
2
himself declares. Of the intended reform of the Church

nothing was effected.

As the deposition of the Emperor Frederick was the

one event of the Synod of Lyons, so the suppres
first

sion of the Templars was the one result of the Synod

of Yienne in 1311. When at that Synod, to which he

only admitted bishops previously selected by himself,
Clement v. observed that a majority was favourably

disposed towards the Order of Templars, he ordered

a cleric to proclaim, that any bishop who spoke a
word without being first asked for his opinion by the
Pope, would incur the greater excommunication. And
thereupon he announced that, by the plenitude
"

of his

power/ he annihilated the Order, although he could

not abolish it on the strength of the criminal
charges

brought against it. But Clement himself was a mere

tool of the French King ;
to accommodate him he had
ordered his inquisitors everywhere to extort confessions
1 2
Sextus Decretal. Harduin, Condi, vii. 705.
 1 96 Papal Infallibility.
from the ill-fated Knights -Templars by torture. And
yet he must have known, before the Council met, that
the result of the investigation did not justify the penal

abolition of the Order. All he gained by it was, that

the King allowed him to put a stop to the process
against his predecessor Boniface VIIL, which was a
source of pain, anxiety, shame, and humiliation for

Clement and the Papacy generally for, if Boniface had ;

been condemned on the charge of heresy and unbelief

brought against him by King Philip, all his acts would

have become null and void, and a terrible confusion in
the Church must have followed. "This
assemblage,"

says the contemporary writer, "Walter of Hemingburgh,

"

cannot be called a Council, for the Pope did every

thing out of his own head, so that the Council neither

1
answered nor assented." The servitude of bishops

and degradation of Councils could go no further. And

now came a change for which the Great Schism pre
pared the way.
After the deposition of the last German Emperor
who deserved the name, July 17, 1245, the Papacy be

came the prey for French and Italians to quarrel over.

In the long contest of Popes and anti-popes, the old

1 Lond. 1849, 293.
Chron. Walt, de Hemingb. ii.
 Relation of Popes to Councils. 197

weapons by which the Papacy had acquired its gigantic

power became somewhat blunted the nations rebelled.
;

A different spirit and different principles prevailed at

the fifteenth century Councils of Pisa, Constance, and

Basle, and the preponderance of Italian bishops was

broken by new regulations. Even at the Synod of
Florence in 1439, the forms of the ancient Councils and
free discussion had to be allowed on account of the

Greeks, and the mere dictation and promulgation of

decrees previously prepared in the papal Curia had to

be abandoned.

Soon, however, better days for the Curia returned.

Julius II.
inaugurated, and Leo x. concluded, the fifth

Lateran Synod with about fifty-three Italian bishops and

a number of cardinals (1512-17). That such an assem

blage is no representation of the whole Church, that it

sounds like a mockery to put it on a par with the

Synods of Nicsea, Chalcedon, and Constantinople at a

time when, by the admission of a bishop who was pre

sent, there were not four capable men among the 200

bishops of Italy, is evident to the blindest eye. Julius

showed his appreciation of it, when he had a decree
laid before it at the third session forbidding the annual
market hitherto held at Lyons, and transferring it to
 1
98 Papal Infallibility.

Geneva.
1
Prior Kilian Leib of Eebdorf expresses won
der in his annals at this being called a General Coun
cil, at which hardly any one was present besides the
usual attendants of the Court, and nothing of import
2
ance was done. The papal decrees published there were,

however, far from unimportant. On the contrary, a de

cree was issued exceeding in weight and significance any

published in former Eoman Councils, viz., Leo x/s Bull,
Pastor jEternus, in which, while abolishing the Prag
matic Sanction in France, he declares as a dogma that
"

the Pope has full and unlimited authority over Coun

cils ;
he can at his good pleasure summon, remove, or
dissolve them." The proofs for this cited in the Bull
are all spurious or irrelevant. Earlier and later fictions,

partly borrowed from the pseudo- Isidore, are quoted to

show that the ancient Councils were under the absolute
authority of the Pope, that even the Mcene Council

supplicated him for the confirmation of its decrees, etc.

The long deduction, in which every statement would be

a lie, if the compiler could be credited with any know
ledge of Church history, closes with the renewal of
Boniface VIIL S Bull, Unam Sanctam.
1
Condi, ed. Labbe, xiv. 82.
2
See Aretin s Beitrage, vii. 624. [It is expressly reckoned among (Ecu
menical Councils in Archbishop Manning s Pastoral on the Infallibility oj
the Roman Pontiff, p. 69. Tn.j
 Theological Study at Rome. 199

XII. Theological Study at Rome.

It may seem strange that since the new system of

Church government centralized at Eome had come into

vogue, and the Councils had pretty well lost their

importance, the Popes should not have thought of

establishing a theological school in Eome at the seat

of the Curia. The profound ignorance of the Eoman

clergy, and their incapacity for judging theological ques
tions, was proverbial. As early as the end of the

seventh century, Pope Agatho had to make the humi

liating confession to the Greeks, that the right interpre
tation of Holy Scripture could not be found with the
Eoman clergy, who had to work with their hands for

their support. They could do no more than preserve

the traditions handed down from the ancient Councils
and Popes. 1 The Greeks, who were better versed in

Biblical studies, might well ascribe to this ignorance,

admitted by the Pope himself, his interpreting the prayer
of Christ for St. Peter (Luke xxii. 32) in a sense which
had never occurred to any one before, and which clearly
had but one object, viz., to secure authority in doctrinal

matters to the Eoman Church, in spite of the undeni-

1
Harduin, Condi, iii. 1078.
2OO Papal Infallibility.
able rudeness and ignorance of its clergy. Their defects in

learning and knowledge were supposed to be supplied by

special Divine inspiration. Gregory n. speaks, fifty years

later, as modestly as Pope Agatho. Otho of Vercelli, in

the tenth century, and Gerbert in the eleventh, expressed

themselves strongly about this theological ignorance of

2
the Eoman clergy. But since Gratian s time juris

prudence became the queen of sciences; exegesis of

Holy Scripture, and study of tradition and the Fathers
were dropped, for they would have led to suspicious results
and dangerous disclosures,and would eventually have

exposed the evil contradictions between the old and new

law of the Church. The new codes of canon law, Gratian,

the decretals, and the Eoman imperial law, were studied ;

and, accordingly, Innocent IV. established a school of law

in Eome, leaving theology to the distant Paris. Theology

was never extensively prosecuted at Eome, or with any
result, nor did those who wished to study it go there dur

ing the Middle Ages. Among the cardinals there were

always at least twenty jurists to one theologian; and here

in the Curia was genuinely Italian, or Italy genuinely
Eoman ;
for though from the beginning of the thirteenth
1
Pertz, Monum. iii. 675.
*
Mail, Nova Coll. vi. ii. 60. "In tanta Ecclesia vix uims posset
reperiri, quin vel illiteratus, vel simoniacus, vel esset concubinarius."
 Theological Study at Rome. 20 1

century there had beeii an emulation in establishing

universities, itwas never theology, but jurisprudence
and medicine, that was thought of. Although they had
some great theologians to show, as Aquinas, Bonaven-
ture, ^Egidius Colonna, the Italians gladly left the care

of theology to the French, English, and Germans, and

such of them as desired to become theologians, like
those just named, had to seek their education and

sphere of work abroad.

Dante says of his countrymen
that they only study the Decretals, and neglect the

Gospels and the Fathers. And among Italians the

Eoman clergy did least for the promotion of theological
1
studies.

The Popes were the more ready to abdicate all influ

ence through the cultivation of

theology, since so many
other means of action were open to them, and such as

could not in the long-run bear scientific examination.

Moreover, they had the new Eeligious Orders of Domini

cans and Minorites for that work, who, acting under the

most stringent censure and discipline of Borne, exercised

through their own Generals, and being accustomed to

identify the interests of their own Order with those of the

1
Re\imont observes (Geschichte der Stadt Horn, ii. 678) that the intellec-
tual productiveness of Rome was at best very
slight.
2O2 Papal Infallibility.

Curia, had given every guarantee that they would repu

diate whatever did nok subserve the newEoman system.
It was from the bosom of these Orders, especially the
Dominicans, that the Curia selected its official court

theologian for one at least it was obliged to have the

Master of the Sacred Palace.

And thus, as Eoger Bacon and contemporary writers
generally state, juristic science, and not theology, was
the sure road to Church dignities and preferment. Tor

theology, as conducted by the school of St. Anselm of

Canterbury, Abailard, Bernard, Eobert Pullus, Hugh and

Eichard of St. Victor, and the other scholastics before

Aquinas, had done nothing directly for strengthening

the papal dominion over the world and establishing the

Gregorian system. Nowhere in the writings of these

theologians is there any exposition of the doctrine of

Church authority on the basis of the papal system.

The dealings with the Greeks, before and after the

Synod of Lyons in 1274, and the newly discovered spuri

ous testimonies of Greek Fathers and Councils, as well as

Gregory ix. s collection of Decretals, first introduced it into

theology. The jurists were the first to prostitute their

science to an instrument of flattery, and it was not till

after the end of the thirteenth century that the theolo-

 Theological Study at Rome. 203

gians followed them same path. Those who took

in the

that line belonged mostly to the great Mendicant Orders,

who had the most urgent reasons for advancing rather

than depreciating the plenary papal jurisdiction, to
which they owed the privileges and exemptions so

lavishly bestowed on them and if any of their members

;

had written in an opposite sense, they would have been

sure soon to find themselves in the convent prison.

Only men in so extraordinary and abnormal a position

as Occam and other

"

Spirituals/ could be influenced

in a contrary direction ;
and such writers, as we see in

the case of the acute Marsilio of Padua, could find no

certain track in the maze of forgeries and fictions, though

1
they saw through some of them.
To this jurisprudence, viz., the corrupt system of
canon law perverted into an instrument of despotism,
and to the Papacy, the wretched state of moral and re

ligious degradation throughout Western Christendom was

generally ascribed. By the united streams flowing from

[Marsilio of Padua, a famous jurist, wrote a book called De/ensor

1

Pads, which had the distinction of being the first work condemned in a
papal Bull, issued by John xxn. in 1327. It was answered in the Summa
of Agostino Trionfo of Ancona (dedicated to John XXIL), an Augustinian
friar, who maintained the Pope s absolute jurisdiction over the whole
world, Christian or Pagan, and over purgatory. Cf. infra, p. 230. TR.]
2O4 Papal Infallibility.

these two fountains both, up to 1305, Italian the

Bolognese School of Law and the Curia men said the

whole world was poisoned. "

It is the jurists," according

to Eoger Bacon, "who now rule the Church, and torment
and perplex Christians with processes endlessly spun

And, in fact, the most powerful Popes, such as

out."

Innocent m. and Innocent iv., Clement iv. and Boniface

VIIL, attained as jurists the highest dignity and sove

reignty over the world. Bacon thought the only remedy

was for canon law to become more theological or
Biblical He saw a source of corruption, just as Dante

did, in the papal Decretals, and the precedence over

2
Holy Scripture assigned to them.

We see how deep that remarkable man, Eoger Bacon,

saw into the causes of corruption which were hidden

from most of his contemporaries, although he, like all

the rest, could only form conjectures, and could not

gain that clear insight which was impossible without

historical and critical information unattainable in his

day. But he believed, and many for forty years (since

1225) had been hoping with him, that a purification of

the Church was approaching, through the means of a

God-fearing Pope, and, perhaps, with the co-operation

1 2
Opus Tert. ed. Brewer, 1859, p. 84. Paradise ix. 136-8.
 Theological Study at Rome. 205

of a good emperor, consisting essentially in a thorough

reform of the canon law. 1

XIII. The College of Cardinals.

The two main pillars of the new Papal system, and, at

the same time, the two institutions which understood how
to fetter the Popes themselves, and make them subservi
ent to their own interests, were the College of Cardinals
and the Curia. In proportion as the rupture, partly

conscious, partly unconscious, between the Papacy and

the old Church order and legislation was consummated,

the College or Senate of Cardinals took shape, and in

1059, when the right of papal election was transferred to

2
it, became a body of electors. Through the Legations, and
their share in the administration of what had become
1 Totus clems
Hog. Bacon, Compend. Stud. ed. Brewer, pp. 339-403.
"

vacat superbiae, luxurise, avaritise," etc. Here, too, he dwells on the decay
of all learning for forty years past, attributing it principally to the cor
ruption of the canon law.
[Before 1059, the right of election resided in the whole body of Roman
2

clergy, down to the acolytes, with the concurrence of the magistrates and
the citizens. Nicolas n., acting under Hildebrand s advice, issued a Bull
conferring the elective franchise exclusively on the College of Cardinals,
reserving, however, to the German Emperor the right of confirmation. By
a Bull of Alexander in., in the third Lateran Council (1179), two-thirds of
the votes were required for a valid election, and this regulation is still in
force. See Cartwright s Papal Conclaves, pp. 11-16, and cf. Hemans s
Mediceval Christianity, pp. 73, 101, where the Bull of Nicolas is quoted
at length. The forms to be observed in Conclave, still in force, were fixed
by a constitution of Gregory x. in the Second Council of Lyons, 1272.
Cartwright, pp. 20 seq_.; Hemans, pp. 362-3. TB.]
206 Papal Infallibility.

an unlimited sovereignty, the cardinals rapidly rose to

a height from which they looked down on the bishops,

who, as late as the eleventh century, took precedence

of them in Councils. While the new system of

Papalism was yet in its birth-throes, in 1054, the car

dinal-bishops claimed precedence of archbishops ;

but
in 1196 the archbishops still always took precedence of
them. At the Synod of Lyons, in 1245, the precedence

of all cardinals, even presbyters and deacons, to all the

bishops of the Christian world was first fixed, and never

afterwards disputed. By degrees it came to this, that

bishops could only venture to speak to cardinals on their

1
knees, and were treated by them as servants.

It was not without set purpose that the Gregorians,

Anselm and Gregory of Padua, and Gratian after them,
had incorporated into their codes those passages of St.

Jerome which affirm the original equality of bishops and

and reduce the superiority of bishops to
presbyters,
mere customary law. These short-sighted architects
of the papal system did not perceive that they were

thereby laying the axe to the root of the Eoman

Primacy; all they wanted was to pave the way for

1
See an anonymous French writing of the end of the fourteenth century,
given in Paulin Paris, Manuscr. Franc, vi. 265.
 The College of Cardinals. 207

the superiority of cardinals, and with it the domination

of the Curia, and to build up the papal system on the

ruins of the ancient episcopal system. As their views

of theChurch and the hierarchy were drawn exclusively

from Gratian, bishops towards the end of the thirteenth

century were brought to allow themselves to be made

cardinal-presbyters, and even to regard as a promotion
this degradation of the Episcopate to the Presbyterate,

which in the first centuries of the Church would have

been thought a monstrosity. In the palmy days of

exemptions, of the overthrow of all ancient Church

laws, and the loosening of the diocesan tie, at a time

when the parochial system was torn to pieces by the
strolling mendicant monks, this too became part of
the system.

The rival principles of a cardinal oligarchy and of

papal absolutism were long trembling in the balance in

the Eoman Church. There were Popes like Martin iv.
and Clement V. who carried out their French policy

against the resistance of the Italian cardinals ; Popes

before whom the cardinals scarcely dared to lift their

eyes or utter a word, like Boniface vm. and Paul iv. ;

Popes who put to death their cardinals, like Urban vi.,

Alexander VL, and Leo x. But, as a rule, the College

208 Papal Infallibility.
of Cardinals, to which the Pope owed his election, and
which preserved the interests and traditions of the

papal system, took the lead. They took care that the

Popes should give up nothing of the accepted principles

or let drop any particle of the plenary authority Rome
had gained, and took in fact, as well as in theory, their full

part in the government of the Church. They contrived

to make the Popes in many cases the mere executive
of their will The later and still prevalent device, of

carrying out plans the majority are opposed to with the

aid of two or three cardinals like-minded with the Pope,
and without consulting the College, was hardly adopted
in the thirteenth century, or only under Martin IV. But
Boniface VIIL, Clement V., and John xxn., and the Popes
after the middle of the fifteenth century, nearly all

understood and adopted it energetically, and the more

securely as they held the greater part of the body in

their hands, through the dispensation of benefices and
emoluments.
The struggle between absolute monarchy and

oligarchy lasted really for two centuries. The car

dinals wanted the Pope to be absolute and omnipo

tent in his external rule over national Churches, but

they sought to bind him by conditions at the time of

 The College of Cardinals. 209

election,and by a recognised share in the government

in the name of the Curia. Innocent VL, in 1353, had
that the
repudiated any such conditions, on the ground

papal power bestowed by God in all its plenitude

could not be limited. But the attempt was constantly
renewed. A series of articles was put forward in con
clave, which the new Pope, immediately after his election,

and before consecration, swore to observe, partly drawn

up in the interests of the cardinals, as, e.g.,

for a participa

tion of revenues between the Pope and cardinals, and for

their being irremovable, partly with a view of restricting

the worst acts of extravagance and arbitrary power on

the part of the Popes, by requiring the assent of the

cardinals. Eugenius IV. (1431) confirmed these articles

1
without thereby really binding himself. Pius n. (1458)
took a similar oath, and swore to reform the Eoman
Curia. was an urgent necessity to keep secret these
It

capitulations, which in themselves presented a gloomy

picture of the misgovernment of the Church, as the Popes

of that age, in addition to all the other bitter complaints

against them, would have been charged on all sides with

perjury. Pius IL, in spite of the articles he had sworn to,

acted just as arbitrarily as his predecessors. Nevertheless
1
Eaynald. Annal. ann. 1431.

O
2 1 o Papal Infallibility.
the oath imposed on Paul n. in conclave in 1464 included

still more articles. He was to have them read in public

once a month, and to allow the cardinals to assemble

twice a year to discuss how the Pope had kept his

oath. Paul soon discovered, and was told by his flatterers,

that his papal freedom was too much limited, and ac

cordingly broke his oath, and compelled or induced the

cardinals to subscribe a new and entirely changed capitu
lation, without reading it. He dragged back Bessarion,
who was escaping from the room, and enforced his
signature by the threat of excommunication. He re

warded the cardinals with a new head-dress, a silk

cap, besides a scarlet cape, hitherto only worn by the

1
Popes. This occurrence did not prevent them from

again devising a capitulation, on the death of Sixtus IV.

(1484), for the new Pope to swear to ;

it provided afresh
for the advantage and enrichment of the cardinals at

the expense of Church discipline and order. Inno

2
cent vin. took and broke it.

The same farce was enacted with Julius IL in 1503.

The Popes swore to summon an (Ecumenical Council at

the earliest opportunity, and so the controversy went

1
Card. Jacob! Papiens. Comment. Franco/. 1614, p. 372.
8
Raynald. Annal. ann. 1484. 23.
 The College of Cardinals. 2 1 1

on repeating itself for nearly a century, the cardinals

wanting a larger share in Church government and

emoluments, the Popes refusing to stint themselves in

the full enjoyment of their despotic power. The

victory at last, as was inevitable, remained with the

Popes, and in the course of the sixteenth century the

cardinals lost again the rights they had hitherto main
tained, and were reduced simply to advisers, whom the

Pope might consult or not as he pleased, but whose

opinions could not bind him.

It seemed like a Nemesis, that the Popes, who since

Gergory vn. s time were so ingenious in inventing oaths

to entangle men s consciences and bring everything
under their own power, now themselves took oaths,
which they regularly broke. On the other hand, it is a

riddle how the very cardinals who elected a Sixtus iv.,

an Innocent VIIL, and an Alexander VI., one after the

other, and thereby broke their own oaths, could sup

pose a Pope would be really withheld, by swearing to

certain conditions at his election, from the seductions

of absolute power. It was perhaps the lesser evil that

the Popes eventually triumphed, for the despotism of

an oligarchy is apt to be more oppressive than that of

a single individual.
2 1 2 Papal Infallibility.

Unquestionably the influence over Church life ex

ercised by the cardinals was mainly an injurious one.

The institution was a later artificial creation, a foreign

and disturbing element newly interpolated, a thousand

years after the foundation of the Church, into the origi

nal hierarchy based on the ordinance of Christ and the

Apostles. The cardinals wanted to excel the wealthiest

bishops in expenditure, pomp, and number of servants,

and Eome and the environs did not supply means for

this. They wanted to provide their nephews and

friends with benefices, and to enrich their families. In
their interest, and to satisfy their wants, the order of the

Church had to be disintegrated, heaping incompatible

1
offices on one person to be allowed, and the system of

increasing the revenues of the Curia by simony to be

constantly extended. It was they who lived and bat

2
tened on the grasping corruption of the Church. Before

the thirteenth century there were only two examples of

the union of the cardinalate with foreign bishoprics, but

under Innocent iv. (1250) it became common, and thus the

Roman Church supplied the precedent of the contempt

1
This was carried so far in the fourteenth century that one cardinal
held five hundred benefices. Cf. "De corrupto Eccles. statu," inLydius
edition of Werke Clemang. 1614, p. 15.
2
Alv. Pelag. De Planet. Ecd. ii. 16, f. 52.
 The College of Cardinals. 2 1
3

and neglect of official duties. Jacob of Vitry thought,

even in his day, the revenues of the whole of France were
1
insufficient for the expenditure of the cardinals. The

great Schism, from 1378 to 1429, was ascribed by Western

Christendom solely to their greed and lust of power.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the

cardinals sometimes elected Popes not of their own

body, but this never occurred after the middle of the

fifteenth. During all the twelfth and the first half

of the thirteenth century papal elections took place

within a few days of the decease of the last Pope,

but after the Papacy had reached the summit of its

power, and the Pope was regarded as the spouse of

the Church, widowed by his death, long vacancies,
sometimes of years, became common. It seemed as if

the cardinals wanted to show the world by a rare irony

how easily the Church could get on without him from

whom, in the new theory, all her authority was derived.
Thus Celestine TV. was elected in 1241 after a vacancy
of two years, Gregory x. in 1271 after three, Mcolas iv.

in 1288 after one. Two years and three months elapsed

between his death and the election of Celestine v.

There was a vacancy of eleven months after the death

1
A eta Sanct. Bolland. 23 Jun. p. 675.
214 Papal Infallibility.

of Benedict XL in 1304, and of two years and four

months after Clement v. in 1314, and the Christian

world had to get accustomed to every conclave being

the theatre of intrigues and quarrels between the
French and Italian nations, which fought for the pos

session of the Papacy, till at last the French acquired

exclusive possession of it.

The German nation was practically excluded from

the College of Cardinals at that time. The German
Popes, from 1046 to 1059, made no German cardinals.

During the contest of the Papacy against the Salic and

Hohenstaufen emperors, some Germans who declared
themselves against the Emperor were made cardinals ;

as Cuno, Cardinal-bishop of Pr^neste in 1114, who, more

papal than the Popes, filled all Germany with excom

munications in his office of Legate. After him there

is the Cluniac, Gerhard, and Ditwein in 1134. Then

Conrad of Wittelsbach, and Siegfried of Eppenstein, were

appointed on account of their hostility to the Hohen

staufen, and Conrad of Urach by Honorius in. After

him, the only German cardinal in the thirteenth

century is Oliverius of Paderborn, and then, for above

a century and a half, no German enjoyed the dignity.

We must remember that every German would lean to

the imperial side, and this, especially after French
 The College of Cardinals, 215

policy became dominant in the Curia, would secure

their exclusion. Urban VL, in 1379, when repudiated
bv
v
the French and in the extremest distress, was the
next to name some German cardinals.

XIV. The Curia.

If we describe the great change which took place

between the end of the eleventh century and about

1130, within the short space of some forty years,

by saying that during that period the Roman Church

became the Roman Court, this indicates a pheno
menon of world-wide historical interest in its enor

mous consequences. The distinction between a Church

and a Court is in truth a very great one. By the Church
of Jerusalem, or Alexandria, or Ephesus, or Eome, or

Carthage, had always been understood a Christian

people united with their bishop and presbyters, a com

munity of clergy and laity bound together by the ties
1
of brotherhood. Ordinary matters were settled in the
permanent synod of the bishop and his clergy weightier ;

and extraordinary matters in a council composed of the

neighbouring bishops. In such a Church there were

laymen, bishops and priests teaching and dispensing

1
Thus in the well-known definition of St. Cyprian (Ep. 69),
"

Ecelesia
est sacerdoti plebs adunata et pastori grex adhaerens."
2 1 6 Papal Infallibility.

sacraments, but no legal functionaries. Such a Church

could never become ,a court as long as the ecclesi

astical spirit and usage prevailed. But now what used

to be called the Roman Church had become a Court,

that is to say, an arena of rival litigants ;

a chancery

of writers, notaries, and tax-gatherers, where transac

tions about privileges, dispensations, exemptions, etc.,

were carried on, and suitors went with petitions from

door to door ;
a rallying-point for clerical place-hunters

from every nation of Europe. In earlier days those who

were ordained for the divine service in Eome and the

Roman Church had managed the business which its supe

rior rank rendered necessary. Weightier matters were
settled at synods comprising the bishops of the province,

and a few persons sufficed for so limited a circle of affairs

as is indicated by the official collection of formularies,

the Liber Diurnus, so late as the beginning of the eighth

century. What a complete difference after the Worms

Concordat of 1 1 2 2, and still more after Gratian ! In com

parison with the enormous mass of business, processes,

graces, indulgences, absolutions, commands, and de

cisions addressed to the remotest countries of Europe,

and even to Asia, the functions of the local Church

service sunk into insignificance, and a troop of some
 The Curia. 217

hundreds of persons was required whose home was the

Curia, and their ambition to rise in it, and whose constant

aim was to contrive fresh financial transactions, to mul
and enlarge the profits that accrued to them
tiply taxes,
and the papal treasury, which was always in want.
Secure and unassailable in the service of such a power,

the officials of the Curia did not trouble themselves

about the hatred and contempt of the world, which

had been made tributary to them.
"

Oderint, dum
metuant." The warnings of the most enlightened
men were vain. Early in the twelfth century, the great
danger this change of the Eoman Church into a Court

must bring upon the Christian world had been seen

through by men like Gerhoch of Eeigersberg, St. Ber

nard, John of Salisbury, Peter of Blois, and almost all
2
in that age whose mind we are still acquainted with.
1
What giant strides centralization had made, and the consequent in
crease of the business of the Curia, may be illustrated from the case of a
single official. About the middle of the thirteenth century there was but
one "

Auditor About 1370, twenty auditors were hardly enough

Camerae."

for the Pope alone, and every cardinal had several besides. Cf. Baluze
and Mansi, Miscel. i. 479. It is mentioned here that under Gregory xi.
seven bishops were at one time under excommunication, simply for not
having paid the for the decree of provisions.
"

servitia"
2
Gerhoch observes in his letter to Eugenius in., about 1150, "De cor-
rupto Ecclesie statu"
(Baluz. Miscel. v. 63), as
something new and
deplorable, "qnodmmcdicitnr Curia Romana quod antea dicebatur Eccle-
sia Romana." In his work, written some fifteen years later, De Investi-
gatione Antichristi, he painted in darker colours the disintegration of the
 2 1 8 Papal Infallibility.

Jacob of Vitry, who subsequently became a cardinal,

after making some stay at the Court, perceived, as he
writes to his friend (12 16), that it had lost every vestige
of real Church spirit, and its members busied them
selves solely with politics, litigation, and processes, and
never breathed a syllable about spiritual concerns. 1

Among the bishops of Innocent iv. s time there was

not one more highly honoured and admired than Gros-

tete,Bishop of Lincoln, nor one for a long time more

devoted to the Pope. Dominated by Gratian and the

Gregorian system, he supposed his episcopal jurisdic

tion was simply intrusted to him as a derivation from
the papal. But the corruptions, which like a poisonous

miasma penetrated from the Curia into every portion

of the Church, the gross hypocrisy exhibited in declar

ing the taking of interest a mortal sin, while the papal

usurers and brokers exhausted the churches and corpora

tions in all countries with usurious imposts, and, begin

ning from London, had made every English bishopric

Church through exemptions bought at Rome, and the greed of the Romans.
Cf A rchiv. fur osterreich. Geschichtsquellen, xx. 140 seq. He variously sup
.

plements and confirms St. Bernard s complaints about the disorder at Rome.
1
Saint Genois, Sur les Lettres inedites de Jacques de Vitry, Bruxelles,
1846, p. 31. Cum autem aliquanto tempore fuissem in curia, multa in
"

veni spiritui meo contraria, adeo enim circa soecularia et temporalia, circa
reges et regna, circa lites et jurgia occupati erant, quod vix de spirituali-
bus aliquid loqui permittebant. "
 The Ctiria. 2 1
9

tributary to them ;
this and a great deal more led him

shortly before his death, in 1253, to reproach the Pope

with his tyrannical conduct in a letter sharply warning
him to repent; and he still prophesied, when on his

deathbed, that the Egyptian bondage, to which the

whole Church had been degraded by the Eonian Curia,
would become yet worse. 1
Somewhat later, when Pope Nicolas III.
(1277-1281)
wanted to make John of Parma, General of the Minorites,

whom Pius iv. beatified in 1777, a cardinal, he declined,

saying: "The Roman Church hardly concerns itself with

anything but wars and juggleries ( truffce ) ;
for the sal

vation of souls it takes no care." The Pope answered,

sighing,
O O "We are so accustomed to these things
O
Epist. Rolerti O., ed. Luard, p. 432, Loud. 1861 ; Matt. Par., Hist.
i

Angl. p. 586, Paris 1644. [There is a cnrious story told in the Liber
Monasterii de Melsti (ed. E. A. Bond, vol. n. London, 1867, in the Master of
the Rolls Series) which illustrates the contemporary view of the subject in
England, as to why "St. Robert Grostete," as the monastic chronicler
calls him, was not canonized. It is said that, being summoned to Rome

by Innocent iv. and excommunicated, he appealed from the judgment of

the Pope to the tribunal of Christ, and two years after his death appeared
"

by night to Innocent, in full pontificals, saying, Ai-ise, wretched man,

and come to judgment," and struck him with his pastoral staff. In the
morning the bed was found covered with blood and the Pope dead. "And
"the Curia would not let him be
therefore," adds the chronicler, canonized,
although he was honoured by illustrious miracles." Cf. for another ver
sion of the story, Milman s Lat. Christ, vi. 293. It is true that Grostete
excited the Pope s anger by refusing to confer a rich canonry at Lincoln on
his nephew, a young boy (puerulus), but not true that he was excommuni
cated. TB.]
2 2o
Papal Infallibility.
that we think everything we say and do is really
1
beneficial."

From the middle of the twelfth century the whole secu

lar and religious literature of Europe grew more and more
hostile to the Papacy and the Curia. German as well

as Provencal poetry, historians as well as theologians

none of them as a rule attack the authority or rights of

the Pope, but they all abound in sharp denunciations and

bitter complaints of the decay of the Church occasioned

by Borne, the demoralization of the clergy corrupted by
the Curia, the simony of an ecclesiastical court where

every stroke of a pen, and every transaction, has its

price, where benefices, dispensations, licenses, absolu

tions, indulgences, and privileges are bought like so much

merchandise. St. Hildegard, that famous prophetess
on the Ehine, highly honoured by Popes and Emperors,

predicted of the Popes, as early as 1170, "They

seize

upon us, like ravening beasts, with their power of bind

ing and loosing, and through them the whole Church
is withered. They desire to subjugate the kingdoms of
the world, but the nations will rise against them and
the too rich and haughty clergy, whose property they

will reduce to its right limits. The pride of the Popes,

1 del B. Giov. di 169.

Salimbene, in Affo s Vit. Parma, 1777, p.
 The Citria. 22 1

who no longer observe any religion, will be brought

low ;
Eome and its immediate neighbourhood will alone
be left to them, partly in consequence of wars, partly

by the common agreement of the States."

More cutting and more terrible sound the words of

the northern prophetess, St. Bridget, who lived in Eome

some two centuries later. It has not prejudiced the

high reverence felt for her visions, universally regarded

as inspired, and defended in an express treatise by
Cardinal Torquemada, that they contain the most vivid

pictures of the corruption of the Papal See and its

Court, and their mischievous influence on the Church.

She calls the Pope worse than Lucifer, a murderer of

the souls intrusted to him, who condemns the innocent

and sells the elect for filthy lucre. 2

Every one told the same tale. Bishops and abbots

had to exhaust and denude their churches and estab
lishments to satisfy the greed of the court officials and
3
get their causes settled. They bid against each other
in bribery. Every one, from doorkeeper to Pope, had

1
This remarkable prophecy, with many more of St. Hildegard s, is in the
collections of Baluze and Mansi, Miscel. ii. 444-447.
2
Revel, i. c. 41, p. 49, cf. iv. c. 49, p. 211.
3
Bishop Stephen of Tournay, in 1192, said,
"

Romano plumbo nudantui

ecclesise."
Ep. 16.
222 Papal Infallibility.
to be paid and fee d, or the case was lost. It may be
seen from the accounts of ambassadors, e.g., of the de

puties sent in 1292 from the citizens of. Bruges, that

giving once was not enough, but the fee had to be con
1
stantly repeated as long as the process lasted. The
cardinals and Popes nephews were quite inordinately
insatiable. The jurist, Peter Dubois, thought it a mis

fortune for the whole of Christendom that the cardinals

found themselves compelled to live by robbery, as their

benefices were not productive enough. The upshot was,
that poor men could neither hope to gain preferment

nor could keep it, and bishops entered on their office

already loaded with heavy debts, which were further

augmented by the annates introduced in the fourteenth

century.
In the eleventh century there was an energetic move
ment throughout the whole Church with a view to

putting an end to the sale of benefices at royal courts,

but now the Eoman Court had made simony the

supreme power everywhere. The little finger of the

Curia pressed more heavily on the churches than ever did

They may be found in Kervyn of Lettenhove, Hist, de Flandre, ii. 589.

1

Again Herculano (Hist, de Portugal) cites from the Codex Vatican. 3457,
a bill of the Archbishop of Bruges, showing that he paid through the
Roman bankers the sum of 3000 florins to nineteen cardinals in 1226.
 The Curia. 223

the arm of kings. No one knew what remedy to suggest ;

complaints and reproaches were disregarded, and synods

were powerless and condemned to silence in the absence
of the Pope or his legates. Every cleric excused his

simoniacal conduct by the example of the Koman Church.

Itwas the common saying, that every one was taught
from youth upwards to look on the Eoman Church as the
mistress of doctrine and the bright example for all other

Churches; that what she approved and openly practised

others must also approve and copy, and that they mighi
on their side make their profits out of spiritual minis
tries and sacraments who had dearly bought the right
to do so at Borne with their benefices, and who, indeed,
could in no other way pay off the debts incurred there.

XV. The Judgments of Contemporaries.

Bishop Durandus of Mende contemplates the Church

of his age from many points of view, especially its con
dition in 1310 in Italy and the south of France, but
he is always brought back to the one crying evil, and
source of so many corruptions, the papal Court. "It is that

Court," he says,
"

which has drawn all things to itself,

and is in danger of losing all. It is always sending out
into the various dioceses immoral clerks, provided with
224 Papal Infallibility.

benefices, whom the bishops are obliged obediently to

receive, while they .have no persons fit for the work

of the Church. It is continually extorting large sums
from prelates, to be shared between the Pope and his

cardinals, and by this simony is corrupting the Uni

versal Church to the utmost of its power. While the
Curia goes on in this way, all remedies for the Church
are vain." He then enumerates the most necessary

reforms, without which the Church must sink deeper

and deeper in corruption, but they cut, in fact, at the

roots of the whole papal system as it had existed for

200 years, and therefore his book produced no effect

worth mentioning, though the Pope asked for it, and

it was laid before the Council of Vienne.

Durandus says the Eoman Church is reviled in every country.

1

Every one is ashamed of her, and charges her with corrupting the whole
clergy, whose immorality has exposed them to universal hatred. It is the
fault of the Curia, he says, "ut inde tota Ecclesia vilipendatur et quasi
. . .

coDtemptui habeatur." Tract, de modo Gen. Condi, celeb. (Paris, 1761),

p. 300. He, at the same time, differs widely in his devotion to the Pope
from his contemporaries Pelayo and Trionfo. He maintains the Pope s
absolute dominion over monarchs, and insists on the Donation of Constan-
stine, and the rights that flow from it. But he desiderates a certain decen
tralization. He wants the Curia, which has absorbed all Church rights
and jurisdiction, to give back some of them, and restore to national Churches
and bishops some freedom of action. See Tract, (ut sup.), p. 294, where
he says the Roman Court understands omnia traham ad Me Ipsum as
"
"

authorizing appropriating the rights of all others exclusively to itself.

its

One would like to know whether this book, which holds up to the Pope
and cardinals, as in a mirror, so terrible a reflection of their misdeeds and
iniquitous acts against the Church, had ever been read in Avignon.
 Contemporary Judgments. 225

One of the French Popes, Urban v., who had some

good instincts, acknowledged the misery and corruption
of the Church, and thought (in 1368) the cessation of
1
Councils was the main cause of the mischief. But he
did not perceive, or at least did not say, that this was

the fault of his predecessors, whose systematic policy

had brought matters to such a pass that it was partly

impossible and partly useless to hold Councils. This

state of things led theologians, who wished to use Bib
lical language, to appropriate involuntarily the sayings
of Old Testament prophets on the corruptions of their

people, and Church of the day as the

to describe the

venal harlot whose shame God would shortly uncover

in sight of all men. Nicolas Oresme, Bishop of Lisieux,
for instance, does so in an address before Urban v. and
2
the cardinals at Avignon in 1363. Great, indeed, must
have been the evil, when even bishops applied such

expressions and metaphois to the Church and the Papal

See which coincided with those used by the sectaries
;

of the time, and bordered closely on suspicious inferences

as to their right of separating from so terribly corrupt

an institution.

When we read all these accusations and these descrip-

1 2
Condi, (ed. Labbe), xi. 1958. Brown, Fasc. jRer. Expet. ii. 487.

P
226 Papal Infallibility.

tions, agreeing in the main, of the Curia and the Papal

administration and he strongest things are invariably
said by eye-witnesses, and observe how the impressions
and experiences of all classes are the same, we can
understand how the Apocalyptic images and their ful

filment in Eome and in the Curia occurred to every

mind. The transference of power from Italians to

Frenchmen, through the removal of the Curia to Avig

non, and the succession of French Popes who appointed
for the most part cardinals of their own nation only, led
to no important change. Only the Italians then became
as keen- sighted as others in detecting the corruption of

the Church, for the Papacy, with all its endless resources

for the enrichment of so many Italian families, had

slipped out of their grasp. They felt what Italy, or
rather what "

the Latin race," had thereby lost, for as yet

there was no Italian but only a Latin national senti

ment. Lombardy was half German. The inhabitants

of Tuscany and the States of the Church believed them
selves the genuine and only rightful descendants of

the old Eomans, and entitled, as such, to rule the world

through the Papacy, which was their appanage; and

thus Dante urges them in his letters not to endure

any longer that the fame and honour of the Latin

 Contemporary Judgments. 227
1
name should be by the avarice of the Gascons
disgraced

(Clement v. and John xxn.) Even a man like St.

Bonaventure, whom the Popes had loaded with honours,

and who was bound by the closest ties to Eome as a

cardinal and General of his Order, did not hesitate in

his Commentary on the Apocalypse to declare Eome to

be the harlot who makes kings and nations drunk with
the wine of her whoredoms. For in Eome, he said,

Church dignities were bought and sold, there did the

princes and rulers of the Church assemble, dishonouring

God by their incontinence, adherents of Satan, and

plunderers of the flock of Christ. He adds that the

prelates, corrupted by Eome, infect the clergy with their

vices ;
and the clergy, by their evil example of avarice
/

and profligacy, poison and lead to perdition the whole

2
Christian people. If the General of the Order spoke

thus of the Eoman Court, we may easily comprehend

how its stricter members, the
"

Spirituals," went further

still, and called the Curia the utterly corrupt
"

carnal

Church/ and predicted a great renewal and purifica

tion through a holy Pope, the Papa Angelicus, long
looked for, but never willing to appear.
1
Epist. ed. Torsi, Livorno, 1843, p. 90.
2
Oper. Omn. Supplem. sub ausp. Clem. xiv. Trid. 1773, ii.
729, 755,
815. Cf. Apol. contra eos qni Ord. Min. aversantur, Q. I,
228 Papal Infallibility.
It was not, therefore, as was commonly said, from
the blindness of GhUjelline party spirit that Dante too

applied to the Popes the Apocalyptic prophecy of the

harlot on the seven hills who is drunk with the blood
of men, and seduces princes and peoples ;
he had read
St. Bonaventure, and puts directly into his mouth in
Paradise the denunciation on the covetous policy of the

Court of Borne. 1 It had occurred to him, as to others,

that thePapacy was in fact the hostile power which

weakened and unsettled the Empire, and was promoting
its and was thus furthering and hastening the
fall,

appearance of Antichrist, who was held in check by

the continuance of the Empire. And why should
Dante scruple to speak out, when almost at the same
time a bishop and official of the Papal Court, Alvaro

Pelayo, pointed, from long personal experience and

observation, to the very details which showed the

fulfilment of St. John s prophecy of the harlot in the
2
then condition of the Papacy? Yet the whole of
his great work is devoted to proving that the Papacy

1
Parad. xii. 91-94.
2
Pelayo says (De Planet. Ecd. ii. 28) Ecclesia," but the context shows
"

that the Court of Avignon is meant ; and he says afterwards (37), "Con
sidering the Papal Court has filled the whole Church with simony, and the
consequent corruption of religion, it is natural enough the heretics should
call the Church the whore."
 Contemporary Judgments. 229

is the power ordained by God to rule absolutely the

world and the Church. It is very instructive to ob

serve how this man, while examining the condition of

the Church from every side, and painting it in lively

colours, is obliged again and again to confess that it is

the Papal See itself, and that alone, which has infected

the whole Church with the poison of its avarice, its

ambition, and its pride ;

that the clergy had become

by the whole lay world,

bitterly hated for their vices
and that the Eoman Court was mainly responsible for
their corruption. All this is conspicuous on almost
every page of his work. He observes that the bad

example given by the Popes is universally followed, and

the prelates say,The Pope does so, and why not we?"
"

Thus the whole Church is turned, as it were, into blood,

and there is an universal darkening of head and mem
1
bers. But if the reader expects Pelayo to come to the

conclusion that the old order in the Church should be

restored as far as possible, and a limit be set to this

unlimited despotism, he will find himself greatly mis

taken. He holds to the principle that the Pope is

God s representative on earth, and that one can no

1
De
Planet. Eccl. ii. 48, 49. The work was written in 1329. The
author says that even right-minded people no longer dare to utter the truth
because of the persecution it would entail. Yet he became Bishop of Silva.
230 Papal Infallibility.

more dream of setting limits to his power, than any

body, or the whole Christian world, would undertake

to limit the omnipotence of God.
His contemporary, Agostino Trionfo of Ancona, an

Augustinian monk, who wrote his Bumma on the

Church by command of John xxn., had already dis

covered a new kingdom for the Pope to rule over. It

had been said before that the power of God s vicar ex

tended over two realms, the earthly and the heavenly,

meaning by the latter that thePope could open or close

heaven at his pleasure. From the end of the thirteenth
century a third realm was added, the empire over
which was assigned to the Pope by the theologians of
the Curia Purgatory. Trionfo, commissioned by John
xxii. to expound the rights of the Pope, showed that, as

the dispenser of the merits of Christ, he could empty

Purgatory at one stroke, by his Indulgences, of all the

souls detained there, on the sole condition that some

body fulfilled the rules laid down for gaining those

indulgences ;
he advises the Pope, however, not to
1
Only those of the unbaptized, w hom God
T
do this.

by His extraordinary mercy placed in purgatory, were

not amenable there to the Pope s jurisdiction. Trionfo
1 Summa de Pot. EccL, Komse, 1584, p. 193.
 Contemporary Judgments. 231

observes rightly enough that he believes the Pope s

power is so immeasurably great, that no Pope can ever

1
know the full extent of it.

Petrarch, who for years had closely observed the

Curia, saw and felt, somewhat later (1350), like St.

Bonaventure, Dante, and Pelayo. In his eyes, too, it

is the Apocalyptic woman drunken with blood, the
seducer of Christians, and plague of the human race.

His descriptions are so would sup

frightful, that one

pose them the exaggerations of hatred, were they not

2
confirmed by all his contemporaries. The letter of the
Augustinian monk of Florence, Luigi Marsigli, Pe
trarch s friend and pupil, is quite as outspoken about
the Papal Court, which no longer ruled through

hypocrisy so openly did it flaunt its vices- -but

only through the dread inspired by its interdicts and

3
excommunications.
For four centuries, from all nations and in all tongues,
ll
1
Nee credo quod Papa totum quodpotest facere per poten-
possit scire
tiam suam." Such things were written in 1320 at the Pope s command,
and in 1584, when this work, which exhibits the Church as a dwarf with a
giant s head, was republished by the Papal sacristan Fivizani, Gregory xin.
accepted the dedication.
2
Epist. sine Titulo. Opp. ii. 719.
3 Lettera del Ven. Maestro L. M. contro i vizi delta Corte del Papa,
Geneva, 1859. He calls the cardinals "

avari, dissoluti,import uni, e

sfacciati Limogini," most of them being of the province of Limousin, and
the Curia at this time entirely in their hands.
232 Papal Infallibility.

were thousandfold accusations raised against the ambi

tion,, tyranny, and gree$ of the Popes, their profanation of

holy things, and their making all the nations of Christen

dom the prey of their rapacity ; and, what is still more

surprising, in all this long period no one attempted to
refute these charges, or to represent them as calumnies

or even exaggerations. The Eoman Court, indeed,

always found champions of its rights, knowing, as it did

so well, how to reward them for their services. The later

scholasticism moulded on St. Thomas, the copious litera

ture of canon law, and the host of decretalists on the

side of the Curia, Italians first, and then from 1305 to

1375 from the south of France, who fought and wrote

for the Papacy as their special and eminently profitable

subject, never yielded an inch of the enormous jurisdic

tion it had already acquired, but were always spinning
out fresh corollaries of its previously acknowledged

rights. During the long period from 1230 to 1520 the

parasites of the Eoman Court ruled and cultivated the
domain of canon law as interpreters of the new codes ;

or, in the scriptural language of the cardinals who com

posed the Opinion of 1538, the Popes heaped up for

themselves teachers after their lusts, having itching

ears, to invent cunning devices for building up a
 Contemporary Judgments. 233

system which, made it lawful for the Pope to do exactly

1
what he pleased.

Nevertheless, not one of all this multitude undertook

the defence of the Popes and their government against

the flood of reproaches and accusations which rolled up

from all sides upon them, nor one of the theologians
and practical Church writers ;
all confined themselves

to the question of legitimate right. They insist conti

nually that the first See can be judged by no man, that

none may dare say to the most reprobate and mischiev

ous of Popes, "

Why dost thou do so ?" One must

endure anything silently and patiently, bending humbly
beneath the rod. That is all they have to say ; only
now and then the indignation of the secular and married

jurists, who could not hold benefices, broke out against

the clergy, who reserved all the good things of this world

to themselves. Or they intimated the ground of their

silence and connivance, like Bartolo, who said,

"

As we
live in the territory of the (Roman) Church, we affirm

the Donation of Constantine to be valid."

1
Consil. Delect. Card. p. 106, in Durandus, Tract, de Modo Co-mil.
Paris, 1671 ;
ut eorum studio et calliditate inveniretur ratio, qua liceret id
"

quod liberet." The Opinion was drawn up by Cardinal Caraffa, with the as
sistance of the most respected men in Italy [including Cardinal Pole], but
when he became Pope Paul rv. he had the Consilium put on the Index.
There have not been wanting persons who regarded it as an act of heroism
for a Pope to put himself on the Index.
234 Papal Infallibility .

But the strength of a power like the papal must rest

ultimately on public opinion only while contemporaries

;

are convinced of its

legitimacy, and believe that its exer
cise really rests on a higher will, can it maintain itself. In
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, no one in
Europe
knew or even suspected the true state of the case ;
no
one was able to distinguish between the original germ
of theprimacy in the apostolic age and that colossal
monarchy which presented itself before the deluded
eyes of men as a work that came ready-made from the
hand of God. The notion that manifold forgeries and
inventions had co-operated with favourable circum
stances to foster its growth, would have been generally
rejected as blasphemy. They grumbled at the use the

Popes made of their power, but did not question their

right to it, and the obedience paid was more willing
than enforced. At the beginning of the fifteenth cen
tury, and after the commencement of the Great Schism,

a few men, like Gerson, D Ailly, and Zabarella, began

to open their eyes gradually to the truth, as they com
pared the existing state of the law with the ancient
canons. They saw there must have been a portentous
revolution somewhere, but how or when it happened

they were still ignorant.

 The Inquisition. 235

XVI. The Inquisition.

A wholly new institution and mighty organization

had been introduced to make the papal system irresis

tible, to impede any disclosure of its rotten foundations,

and to bring the infallibilist theory into full possession :

it was the Inquisition.

Through the influence of Gratian, who chiefly fol

lowed Ivo of Chartres, and through the legislation and
unwearied activity of the Popes and their legates since

1183, the view of the ancient Church on the treatment

of the heterodox had been for a long period completely

superseded, and the principle made dominant that every

departure from the teaching of the Church, and every

important opposition to any ecclesiastical ordinances,

must be punished with death, and the most cruel of

deaths, by fire.

The earlier laws of the Eoman Emperors had distin

guished between heresies, and only imposed severe pen

alties on some on account of their moral enormity, but
this distinction was given up after the time of Lucius

in., in 1 1 84. Complete apostasy from the Christian faith,

or a difference on some minor point, was all the same.

Either was heresy, and to be punished with death.

236 Papal Infallibility.

The Waldenses, the Poor Men of Lyons, who at first did

but claim the right of preaching, although laymen, and

who with more gentle treatment would never have formed
themselves into a hostile sect, were dealt with just like
the Cathari, who were separated by a broad gulf from
Catholics. Innocent ill. declared the mere refusal to

swear, and the opinion that oaths were unlawful, a

1
heresy worthy of death, and directed that whoever
differed in any respect from the common way of life of

the multitude, should be treated as a heretic.

Both the initiation and carrying out of this new prin

ciple must be ascribed to the Popes alone. There was

nothing in the literature of the time to pave the way for

it. It was not till the practice had been systematized

and carried out in many places, that scholastic theo

2
logy undertook its justification. In the ancient Church,
when had become implicated in the capital
a bishop

punishment of a heretic, only as accuser, he was sepa-

1
Condi, (ed. Labbe) xi. 152.
2 Thomas (Summa. ii. 9, 11, art. 3, 4) tries to prove from the
Thus St.

symbolic names given them in Scripture, that heretics should be put to

death. He says, e. g., that heretics are called and "wolves, "but we
"thieves"

hang thieves and Again, he calls heretics sous of P .ttan, and

kill wolves.
thinks they should share even on earth the fate of their father, i.e., be
burnt. He observes, on the apostle s saying that a heretic is to be avoided
after two admonitions, that this avoidance is best accomplished by execut

ing him. For the relapsed he thinks all instruction is useless, and they
shoiild be at once burnt.
 The Inquisition. 237

rated from the communion of his brethren, as Idacius

and Ithacius were by St. Martin and St. Ambrose in 385.

It was the Popes who compelled bishops and priests

to condemn the heterodox to torture, confiscation of

their goods, imprisonment, and death, and to enforce the

execution of this sentence on the civil authorities, under

pain of excommunication. From 1200 to 1500 the

long series of Papal ordinances on the Inquisition, ever

increasing in severity and cruelty, and their whole

policy towards heresy, runs on without a break. It

is a rigidly consistent system of legislation ; every Pope

confirms and improves upon the devices of his prede
cessor. All is directed to the one end, of completely

uprooting every difference of belief, and very soon the

principle came to be openly asserted that the mere

thought, without having betrayed itself by outward

sign, was penal. It was only the absolute dictation of

the Popes, and the notion of their infallibility in all

questions of Evangelical morality, that made the Chris

tian world, silently and without reclamation, admit the

code of the Inquisition, which contradicted the simplest

principles of Christian justice and love to our neigh

bour, and would have been rejected with universal

horror in the ancient Church. As late as the eleventh,
238 Papal Infallibility.
and first half of the twelfth century, the most influen

tial voices in the Church were raised to protest against

the execution of heretics. Men, like Bishop Wazo of

1
Liege, Bishop Hildebert of Le Mans, Eupert of Deutz,
and St. Bernard, pointed out that Christ had expressly
forbidden the line of conduct afterwards prescribed by

the Popes, and that it could only multiply hypocrites

and confirm and increase the hatred of mankind against
a bloodthirsty and persecuting Church and clergy.

It is only the resolve to foster and develop the Infalli-

bilist theory at any cost that can explain the fact of

not one Pope in the long line from Lucius in. down
wards having swerved from this policy. Men of gentler

views and milder character, like Honorius in., Gregory

x., and Celestine v., would else certainly have mitigated
the severity of the maxims of their predecessors, and

put some on the unlimited and arbitrary

restraint

power the Popes had placed in the hands of fanatical

and greedy inquisitors for there was no want of com
;

plaints against the inquisitors, who often used their

office for extorting money, and made the tribunal of the

faith into a finance establishment. The Popes were
overwhelmed with complaints and petitions for redress

1
See Martene and Durandus, Ampliss. Coll. iv. 898, sqq.
 The Inquisition. 239
1
Clement V. mentions them; but neither he nor a

single Pope before or after him substantially diminished

the power of the Inquisition, or in any way softened

its Draconian code; on the contrary, the Curia was

always requiring greater strictness and energy, and the

Popes suffered the inquisitors, without a word of opposi

tion, to formalize their cunning in bringing their vic

tims to the stake, into the regular system of deceit and

treacherous outwitting of the accused, that may be seen
in the work of Eymerich the Dominican, adopted and
disseminated by the Curia?

It was Papal legates who induced Louis IX., when

barely fourteen years old, to make the cruel law which
3
punished all heterodoxy with death. The Emperor
Frederick II, busied in crushing the Guelphs in Italy,

had, during the period when everything depended on his

securing the goodwill or the neutrality of the Popes, who
1
Constit. Clementin. Tit. 3. De Hreret. ; Multorum querela Sedis
"

Apostolicse probavit auditum," etc. Yet all previous and subsequent Bulls
of the Popes only urged the inquisitors to a
"

justa severitas."
2
Direct. Inquis. (composed at Avignon in 1376) Venet. 1607. [Several
extracts from Eymerich may be found in the Appendix to Dr. Harris
Rule History of the Inquisition. TE.]
s
3 On
April 12, 1229, the treaty was concluded at Paris, with the concur
rence of two Papal legates, which robbed Count Raymond of Toulouse ol
the greater part of his possessions ; and on April 14 appeared the law,
enacted immediately for these territories of Languedoc and Provence, which
Papal policy had torn from their possessor, and given to the Crown of
France. Vaissette, Hist. Gen. de Langued. (Paris, 1737), iii. 374 sea.
240 Papal Infallibility
were threatening and pressing on him, issued those
barbarous laws against heretics in 1224, 1238, and 1239,

punishing them with burning and confiscation of goods,

depriving them of every legal remedy, and imposing
severe penalties even on their friends and patrons.
Innocent iv. repeatedly confirmed these laws also, and
herein the later Popes followed him, who constantly
referred to them, and inculcated their fulfilment, point

ing out that Frederick IL, that great enemy of the Church,
was under her obedience when he issued them. A Papal
vice-legate, Peter of Collemedio, was the first to promul
gate Louis s law in Languedoc; and it was again the Papal

legate, the Cardinal of St. Angelo, who, on entering Tou

louse that year, at the head of an army, introduced the
1
Inquisition there. In 1231, and the following years,

inquisitors, delegated by the Pope, Conrad

Marburg of

and the Dominican Dorso, were raging in Germany,

Eobert, surnamed le Bougre, in France. And now

Gregory ix., in 1233, handed over the office in perma
nence to the Dominicans, but always to be exercised in
2
the name, and by authority of, the Pope.

The binding force of the laws against heretics lay not

1
Yaissette, iii. 382.
2
No bishop, observes the Jesuit Salelles, has named eveii one inquisitor,
only the Pope does that. De Mat. Tribunal. S. Inquis. (Romas, 1651), i. 81.
 The Inquisition. 241

in the authority of secular princes, but in the sovereign

dominion of life and death over all Christians, claimed

1
by the Popes as God s representatives on earth. Every
prince or civil magistrate, according to the constant doc
trine of the Court of Eome, was to be compelled simply

to carry out the sentence of the inquisitors, by the fol

lowing process :
first, the magistrates were themselves

excommunicated on their refusal, and then all who held

intercourse with them. If this was not enough, the
city was laid under interdict. was still
If resistance

prolonged, the officials were deprived of their posts,

and, when all these means w^ere exhausted, the city was
deprived of intercourse with other cities, and its bishop s

see removed. Thus Eymerich in the fourteenth, and

Cardinal Albizzi in the seventeenth century, describe
the process as drawn out by the Popes for the judges in

questions of faith. Only the latter measure, Eymerich

thinks, ought to be left to the Pope himself. 2

The practice of the Inquisition, as time went on,

1
As Innocent in. expressly states it,
"

non puri hominis sed veri Dei

vicern gerens."

JRispost. aW Hist, del Inquis. Romee, p. 104.

2
Director, p. 432 ; In
this one case the Papal legislation was really softened, for Boniface vni.
had ordered that magistrates who refused to execute the condemned should,
if they remained a year under excommunication, then be themselves treated
as heretics, and burnt.
242 Papal Infallibility.

became further and further removed from all principles

of justice and equity. Innocent IV. especially occupied

himself (1243-1254) in increasing power and sever its

ity he directed the application of the torture, which

;

Alexander iv., Clement iv., and Calixtus in. approved.

The tribunal, as carried on in all important points
down to the fourteenth century, and described in

Eymerich s classical work, presents a phenomenon sin

gular in human history. Here mere suspicion suf

ficed for the application of torture it was by an act
;

of grace that you were imprisoned for life between

four narrow walls, and fed on bread and water, and it

was a conscientious obligation for a son to give up his

own father to torture, perpetual imprisonment, or the

stake. Here the accused was not allowed to know the

names of his accusers, and means of legal protection

all

were withheld from him ;

there was no right of appeal,

and no aid of legal adviser allowed him. Any

lawyer who undertook his cause would have incurred
excommunication. Two witnesses were enough to secure

conviction, and even the depositions of those refused a

hearing in all other trials, either from personal enmity

to the accused, or on account of public infamy, such as

perjurers, panders, and malefactors, were admitted. The

 The Inquisition. 243

inquisitor was forbidden show any pity torture in

to ;

its severest form was the usual means of extorting con

fessions. JSTo recantation or assurance of orthodoxy could

save the accused ;

he was allowed confession, absolution,
and communion, and his profession of repentance and

change of mind was accepted inforo sacramenti, but he

was told at the same time that it would not be accepted

judicially, and he must die if he were a relapsed heretic.

Lastly, to fill
up the measure, his innocent family were
deprived of their property by legal confiscation, half of it

passing into the Papal treasury, the other half into the
1
hands of the inquisitors. Life only, said Innocent m.,

was to be left to the sons of misbelievers, and that as

an act of mercy. They were therefore made incapable
of civil offices and dignities.
The civil authorities had to build and keep up the

prisons, to provide wood for the burnings, and to carry

out the sentences of the Holy Office. If they refused

1
Calderini (De Hceret., Venet. 1571, p. 98), writing in 1330, appeals to
the directions of Benedict XI. that all the confiscated property should go
into the Papal treasury. The manual of the Inquisition, composed later,
at the beginning of the sixteenth century (ed. Venet. 1588, p. 270), says,
"

Inquisitores . . dicunt quod Romana Ecclesia vult, quod dimidia dic-

.

tomm bonorum assign etur suse cameras." And the famous jurist, Felino
Sandei, bishop of Lucca in 1499, says, in his Commentar. in Decret. (Be
Off. Ord. in cap. irref.), "Per Extravagantes Pontificios bona hsereticorum

dividuntur inter Eomanam Ecclesiam, episcopum et inquisitorem."

244 Papal Infallibility.

these menial services, or wanted to take cognizance first

of the grounds of the sentence, they incurred excommu

nication, and if they did not repent and submit within
a year, they fell themselves under the jurisdiction of the

Inquisition on suspicion of heresy. But the inquisitors

derived their whole power from the Pope; 1 they were

his delegates, and no one was ever condemned to torture

or the stake but in his name and by his general or

special order. This began in 11 8 3 with Lucius m. direct

ing a number of heretics to be burnt in Flanders by his

legate, the Archbishop of Eheims, and was continued

2
for centuries afterwards with terrible consistency.
And thus it came to pass that perhaps more execu
tions took place in the name and by command of the
Popes of that period than in the name of any civil
ruler.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the num

ber of decisions on points of faith received throughout
the Church was small as compared with the period after

the Council of Trent, and the inquisitors had therefore

full scope for the exercise of their own judgment as to

1
The constitution of Benedict XI., quoted by Calderini, assures the
inquisitors they are absoluti a poena et a culpa" by Papal favour, through
"

the privilege of Clement rv., and enjoy all the same rights as the Crusaders.
2
Pagi, Critic, in Baron, a. 1183.
 The Inquisition. 245

what was heretical, and used the frightful power left to

them over the life and death of men simply according

to their pleasure, for from their sentence there was no

appeal. And as they almost always belonged to one or

other of the two Mendicant Orders, whose great object

was the furthering of the Papal system, they took the

teaching of the Pope, so far as they knew it, as the

safest and simplest criterion of the true faith. And as

the great majority of the inquisitors were Dominicans,

it is self-evident that, as Thomists, they would adopt
this convenient and easy test. Whoever contradicted a

Papal decision, or knowingly disobeyed a Papal com

mand, thereby incurred the guilt of heresy, and was
handed over to the secular power to be put to death.
The Popes themselves had long since laid down this

principle. Whoever does not agree with the Apostolic

"

See," says Paschal n., making a (spurious) citation from

1
St. Ambrose,
"

is without any doubt a heretic." And

when the Archbishop of Mayence complained of the

Concordat being violated by the Pope, Calixtus ill. an

swered him, in 1457, that he must know this was an
attack on the authority of the Pope, and that he thereby

committed a flagrant crime of heresy, and incurred

1
Martene, Thesaur. Anecdot. i. 338.
2 46 Papal Infallibility.
the penalties prescribed for it by divine and human
1
laws.

That contradicting the Pope was treated and punished

as heresy was shown in the most pointed way, when the
Minorites, who, as genuine disciples of St. Francis, wished
to observe the rule of poverty in all its strictness, were
condemned. John of Belna, the inquisitor at Carcas

sonne, appealed to the most famous canonist of that

time, Henry of Segusio, who had declared that he is a

heretic who does not receive Papal decrees, and that he

lapses into heathenism who refuses to obey the Papal

2
As we number
"

said before, a of the

"

See. Spirituals

paid with their lives for disputing the right of John xxii.
to upset their rule and the Bull of his predecessor, Mco-
3
las in. No Council had condemned their opinion ;
it

was only Papal authority, and in this case the authority

of the reigning Pope, on the strength of which they were

sentenced to the stake, and it went against all natural

feeling to ascribe possibility of error to an authority

which it was a capital offence to reject. Jurists and

theologians who were building up the rights of the

Inquisition went further still. Ambrose of Vignate
Raynald. Annal. ann. 1457,
1
p. 49.
Paganitatis iucurrit." Baluze and Mansi, Miscell.
3
"Peccatum ii. 275.
a Tract, de Hcer. (Roma, 1581), f. 11. [Cf. supr. pp. 57, 58.]
 The Inquisition. 247

(who wrote about 1460) declares him to be a heretic who

thinks of the sacraments otherwise than the Koman
Church, so that if a theologian had then raised his voice

against the recent decree of Eugenius iv. to the Arme

1
nians, and the errors contained in it, he would have
incurred sentence of death.

As in the thirteenth century, so it was still in the

sixteenth. Cornelius Agrippa describes the conduct of

the inquisitors in his time, about 1530, as follows :

"

The

inquisitors act entirely by the rule of the canon law and

the Papal decretals, as was impossible for a Pope to
if it

err. They neither go by Scripture nor the tradition of

the Fathers. The Fathers, they say, can err and mis

lead, but the Roman Church, whose head is the Pope,

cannot err. They accept as a rule of faith the teaching

of the Curia, and the only question they ask the accused

is, whether he believes in the Eoman Church. If he

says Yes, they say, The Church condemns this proposi

tion recant it/ If he refuses, he is handed over to the

secular power to be burnt."

In the long strife of Guelphs and Ghibellines, inquisi

tors and trials for heresy were among the means con
stantly employed by the Popes to crush the opponents of
1
[Cf. supr. pp. 60 sqq.]
2
De Vanit. Sclent, c. 96. Hagascomit. 1662, p. 444.
248 Papal Infallibility.

their policy and of the Angiovine preponderance. The

Bolognese jurist, Calderini, maintains that whoever de-

spises Papal decretals is a heretic, for he thereby seems

to contemn the power of the keys. That might be

1
applied to every Ghibelline. Thus Innocent iv., in 1248,

declared his great Guelphic enemy, Ezzelino, a heretic.

In vain did he give assurance, through an ambassador^ of

the purity of his faith, and offer to swear to it ;
Innocent
stuck to his point, that Ezzelino was one of the Paterines

(a new Gnostic sect), without being able to bring forward

2
even any plausible ground for the charge. John xxn.
made still more copious use of the same means, partly for

carrying out his own territorial claims, partly in support

of the rule of King Eobert
in Italy. On this ground the
Margraves Einaldo and Obizzo of Este, zealous Catholics,

and never Ghibellines, but Guelphs, found themselves

suddenly declared heretics by the Pope in 1320, and

3
subjected to a process of the Inquisition. Two years
afterwards the same thing happened to the whole of the

stanchly Ghibelline house of the Visconti at Milan ;

a

Papal Bull announced to them that they were heretics,

1
Tractat. Novus Aureus et Solemn, de Hasret. (Venet. 1571), f. 5. Cal
derini, adopted son of the famous Giovanni d Andrea, wrote about 1330.
2 258.
Verci, Storia degli Ecelini, ii.

3 xii. 138 (Milano, 1819).

Muvatori, Annali,
 The Inquisition. 249

and condemned all their adherents and subjects to

1
slavery. Similar cases occurred repeatedly.

When the Popes themselves made such a use of

their judicial power in matters of faith, when Nicolas

in. is reproached by his contemporaries with enriching

his family through the plunder extorted by means of
the Inquisition, one cannot be much surprised to find
the inquisitors so habitually using their office for pur
poses of extortion, as Alvaro Pelayo complains. Clem
ent v., however, declared that an inquisitor, "simply

following his conscience," has full power to imprison,

2
and even put into irons, any one he pleases.

XVII. Trials for Witchcraft.

When we affirm that the whole treatment of witch

craft, as it existed from the thirteenth to the sixteenth

century, was partly the direct, partly the indirect, result

of the belief in the irrefragable authority of the Pope,

this will perhaps sound like a paradox, and yet it is not

difficult to show that such is certainly the case.
For many centuries the relics of heathen misbelief,
and the popular notions about diabolical agency, noc
turnal meetings with demons, enchantments, and witch-
1 2
Miiratori, op. cit. 150. Clement de Hceret. c. "Multorum."
250 Papal Infallibility.

craft, were viewed and treated as a folly inconsis

tent with Christian belief. Councils
Many directed
that penance should be imposed on women addicted to
this delusion. A canon, adopted into the collections of

Kegino, Burkard, Ivo, and Gratian, and always appealed

to, ordered the people to be instructed on the nonentity

of witchcraft, and its

incompatibility with the Chris
1
tian faith. It was long looked upon as a wicked and
unchristian error, as something heretical, to attribute

superhuman powers and effects to the aid of demons.

In the eleventh century it was still considered a hein
ous sin merely to believe in enchantments and the

tricks of professors of witchcraft, as may be seen from

Burkard and the penitentiaries. No one could then
anticipate a time when the Popes would acknowledge
this belief in their Bulls, and direct their subordinates

to condemn thousands of men to death on the strength

of it.

There is no trace of any belief in diabolical sorcery

to be found throughout the liturgical literature of the
1 This canon
got into Gratian s Decretum as a canon of Ancyra, through
a mistake of Burkard s, who took it from Kegino, but misinterpreted the
reference, as though this passage also came from the Ancyran canon. See
Berardi, Gratian. Can. i. 40
Regino (ed. Wassersahleben), p. 354. Eegino
;

has compiled his chapter 371 from, passages in the pseudo-Augustiniari

writing, De Spiritu et Animd, with some additions.
 Trials for Witchcraft. 251

ancient Eoman Church. Even in the twelfth century

John of Salisbury reckons the various kinds of belief

in magic among fables and illusions. But at that time

the writings of the Cistercians and Dominicans, filled

with visions, legends, and miracles, began to spread in

the Church, writings such as the compilations of Ceesa-
rius of Heisterbach, Thomas of Cantimpre, Stephen of

Bourbon, ?nd the like. At the same time, the prin

ciple became more and more definitely laid down that

there were miracles among the numerous heretical sects,

which could only be Satanic. And to this was added

a notion wholly unknown in earlier times. As the

legend of Theophilus spread in the West, the notion

got into vogue that men could make a compact with
Satan, securing them many enjoyments and the posses
1
sion of preternatural powers. Csesarius and Vincent
of Beauvais brought the first reports of such compacts

being actually made, and soon the official Papal his

torians themselves, Martin the Pole and others, related

that a Pope, Silvester n., had really attained the high-

1
The story of the sorcerer Theophilus, qui diabolo homagium fecit et
"

per diabolum ad quod volebat promotus erat," appeared so important,

that Martin the Pole and Leo of Orvieto embodied it in their abridgments
of Papal and Imperial history. And from the end of the thirteenth cen
tury there are constant charges of persons, as, e.g., the Bishop of Coven
try in 1301, doing homage to the devil.
252 Papa I Infa liability.
est dignity in the Church, through a compact with
Satan.

Hardly was the Inquisition established by the Popes,

and the first inquisitors, acting under Papal commission,
in full work in Germany and France, than heresy came
to be mixed up with sorcery or Satan-worship. The
Dominican theologians seized on an incidental expres
sion of St. Augustine, used in mere blind credulity, in

order to spin out a theory of impure commerce between

human beings and demons, and children born of the
incubus} Aquinas became the master and oracle of
2
this new doctrine; and soon it was not safe even to

dispute the dark delusion.

In a Bull of 1231 Gregory ix. ordered the secular
sword to be unsheathed in Germany against the newly
discovered heretical abomination of which his inquisi

tors had informed him. 3 He related with full belief

nocturnal meetings, where the devil appeared in the

form of a toad, a pale spectre, and a black tom-cat, and

Dei, xv. 23. He afterwards confessed himself, in reference to

1 De Civ.

a similar statement (Retract, ii. 30), se rem dixisse occultissimam auda-

"

ciori asseverations qnam dehuerit."

2
Summa, Pars. i. Q. 51, art. 3, 6.
3 Cf. The
Mansi, Condi, xxiii. 323 ; Kipoll. Bullar. Ord. Prosd. i. 52.
Bull was wrongly referred to the Stedinger, as Schumacher shows, Die
Stedinger, pp. 225 sqq.
 Trials for Witchcraft. 253

wicked abominations were practised. The Pope owed

this information principally to Conrad of Marburg, who
had every one burnt who did not admit that he had
touched the toad, and kissed the lean white man and
1
the tom-cat. In the south of France, the inquisitors,

somewhat later, made similar discoveries; in 1275 a

woman of sixty was burnt there for sexual intercourse

with Satan.
It was chiefly the introduction of torture by Innocent
iv. into trials for heresy, which helped to establish this

ideaby procuring all the requisite confessions. When

Clement v. named inquisitors for the trial of the Knights-
Templars, they soon extorted confessions at Mmes by
torture, that the devil had appeared as a black tom-cat
in their nightly meetings, and demons in the form of
women had committed fornication with them after the
2
lights were extinguished. About 1330, John xxii.

ordered in a Bull, couched in general terms, that all who

meddled with sorcery (the enumeration of such acts is

1
So says Archbishop Siegfried of Mayence, in his letter to the Pope
(Albericus, ann. 1233, p. 544, ed. Leibnit.) The Jesuit Spee, in his well-
known Cautio Crimin. dub. 23, n. 5, has rightly observed that it was the
Papal inquisitors who naturalized the notion in Germany Vereri in- "

imo saepe ante sum veritus, ne praedicti inquisitores

cipio, omnem hanc
sagarum multitudinem primum in Germaniam importarint torturis suis
tarn indiscretis, imo, inquam verissime, discretis et divisis."

2
Menard, HisL de Nimes, Preuves (Paris, 1750), i. 211.
254 Papal Infallibility.

very comprehensive) should be punished, like heretics,

with the exception of confiscation of their goods. 1
From the middle of the fifteenth century, and par

ticularly after Innocent vm. had issued his Bull on

witchcraft, the trials, which had before been compara

tively few, began to be much more numerous. At first

the inquisitors, who had had their hands quite free since

the Bull of Pope John, took the opinion of jurists. The

most renowned jurist of his age, Bartolo, about 1350, de
2
cided for death by fire. This decision, which inaugurated

the regular burning of witches, is very remarkable. Here

we plainly see the mischief done by the crude, material

istic, hierarchical interpretation of the Bible by the

Popes and their juristic and theological parasites. It lay
in applying what Christ and the Apostles had spoken,

in Oriental imagery, describing the spiritual by sensible

figures, to worldly dominion and compulsory power over

the lives and property of men. St. Paul s statement
that
"

the spiritual man judges all things,"

was under

stood, and explained in the Bull Unam Sanctam, to

mean that the Pope is the supreme judge of nations

and kings. When Jeremiah describes his prophetic

1 de Confess. Male/. (Trevir. 1596),

Of. Binsfield, Tract, p. 760.
8
Ziletti, Consil. Select. 1577, i. 8.
 Trials for Witchcraft. 255

office of denouncing the judgments of God, in Oriental

language, as a commission to destroy and lay waste, the

Pope interprets this of the power conferred on him by

God to destroy and uproot what and whom he will.
When it is said in the Psalms, of the future Messianic

King, that he shall rule the heathen with a rod of iron,

this was taken to prove the right and duty of the Popes
to introduce the Inquisition with its capital penalties.
Thus the Papal jurists corrupted theology, and the

Papal theologians jurisprudence. And in the same

spirit altogether the jurists declared, like Bartolo in his

decision, that a witch must be burnt, because Christ

says that he that abideth not in communion with Him

is cast out as a rotten branch to be burnt.

In the work of Eymerich sorcery and witchcraft is

treated as an undoubted coming under the juris

reality,

diction of the Inquisition. The limits between the

lawful use of pretended magical powers, and the magic

forbidden under penalty of death, long remained mut

able and uncertain. In a Bull of 1471, Sixtus iv.

reserved to himself, as an exclusive prerogative of the

Pope, the fabrication and engraving of the waxen lambs

used as a preservative against enchantments. According
to him, their touch bestowed, besides remission of sin,
256 Papal Infallibility.

security against fire, shipwreck, lightning, and hail

stones. And soon after the Pope had thus himself

encouraged the crude superstition of the people, Inno

cent vm. in 1484 issued his Bull on witchcraft, in conse

quence of the laity and clergy in some German dioceses

having opposed and endeavoured to thwart the inquisi
tors appointed for the prosecution of sorcerers. In this

Bull the Pope repeatedly expresses his belief in the

possibility of sexual intercourse with demons as "

in-

cubi
"

and "

succubi," of women and animals when

pregnant, fruits, vineyards, storehouses, and fields being

injured through sorcery, of men and beasts being tor

mented, and men and women rendered impotent. He

then complains of the hindrances thrown in the way of
the inquisitors he had sent to put down such wickedness,
by these prying clerics and laymen, who seek to know
1
more than is necessary, and arms them with fresh

powers. The inquisitors were Sprenger, the author of

the notorious Witches Hammer, and Institoris. In like

manner, Alexander VI., Leo x., Julius II., Adrian vi., and
other Popes, for more than a century after Innocent

vm., gave an ecclesiastical sanction to this delusion by

their directions for the prosecution of magic.
1 "

Qucereutes plura sapere quam oporteat."

 Trials for Witchcraft. 257

Theology held itself bound to follow the precedent

of its great master, St. Thomas, by indorsing the

greatest absurdities of this belief in witchcraft. The

main was only how to evade the force of
difficulty

the canon Gratian had cited from Eegino, which every

one took for an ordinance of the Council of Ancyra,

whereby the Church had, as early as 314, declared the

new doctrine about the works of Satan and his wor

shippers to be an error and denial of Christian truth,

and had thus by anticipation described Popes and in

quisitors as heretics. Most persons consoled themselves

with the consideration that anyhow the Pope s autho

rity stood higher, or that a different kind of witches

was intended. So many have been executed
"

already,"

says the Dominican inquisitor, Bernard Bategno, about

1
1510,
"

and the Popes have allowed it." Some Minor

ites, however, maintained belief in the reality of witch
craft to be a folly and a heresy, as, for instance, did

Samuel Cassini and Alfonso Spina, and the latter

thought the inquisitors had witches burnt simply on

2
account of that belief. But the Popes and the Do
minicans maintained the reality of the diabolical

1
Bern. Comensis, Lucern. Inquis. (Romse, 1584), p. 144.
2
Fortalit. Fidei (Paris, 1511), f. 365.

K
258 Papal Infallibility.

agency, and thus the two views stood out in sharp con
trast in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A man
might at the same time be condemned as a heretic in
Spain for affirming, and in Italy for denying, the reality
of the witches nightly rides. But by degrees the three
fold authority of the Popes, of Aquinas, and of the

powerful Dominican Order, prevailed, and all contradic

tion was put The teaching of the Domini

to silence.

cans, Nider, Jacquier, Dodo, and the two leading Papal

theologians, Bartholomew Spina and Silvester Mazzo-

lini (Prierias), on sorcery and witchcraft, had all the

weight of Papal approbation. Spina expressly stated

that the truth and reality of the Witches Sabbath, with

its horrors and wonders, rested on the authority of the

infallible Pope, in whose name and by whose commis

sion the inquisitors tried the accused. And as some

jurists appealed to the pretended canon of the Council

of Ancyra, in Gratian s Decretum, on behalf of the vic
tims sacrificed in shoals to this fanatical folly in Italy,

Spina did not hesitate to declare that the authority of

the Council, which had pronounced all this to be a

pure delusion, must succumb to the authority of the

1
Pope. So, too, the Jesuit Delrio appealed, in vindication
1
Malleus Malefic. Apol. Prima (Francof. 1588), ii. 652-653.
 Trials for Witchcraft. 259

of this whole system of superstition, to the sentences of

the Popes on sorcerers and witches, which proved that

they did not regard their wild vagaries as illusions, but

as sober realities.
"

This," he continues, "

is the opinion

of all ecclesiastical tribunals in Italy, Spain, Germany,

and France, and all inquisitors have followed it in

practice. This therefore is the opinion and sentence

of the Church, and to dissent from it is a sign of a

heart not sincerely Catholic, and savours of heresy."

Every literary attempt of physicians, jurists, natural

ists, and theologians,

to throw any light on the matter,

and explain the natural causes of the supposed diaboli

cal phenomena, was put down by the Eoman censure,
so far as its power reached. For a century, all works
written in this sense were placed on the Index, as hap

pened in the case of the works of Weier, Godelmann,

r

Wolfhart or Lycosthenes, Agrippa, Servin, Delia Porta,

and others. On the other hand, all attempts were vain

to get the Jesuit Delrio s most pernicious handbook of

sorcery, which served as a guide for the judges, cen

sured. Whoever dared to express doubts on the sub

ject, or to expose the delusion, had to recant and admit

that he had spoken under the inspiration of the Evil
1
Disquis. Mag. i. 16.
260 Papal Infallibility.

Spirit, and was either imprisoned for life or burnt.

Such a recantation the theologian De Lure or Edeline

was compelled to make about 1460 but ;

it did not

save him. When the priest Cornelius Loos Callidius

affirmed, a century later, that the unhappy women only

confessed under torture what they had never done,
and that thus gold and silver was obtained by a new sort

of alchemy out of men s blood, the Papal Nuncio impri

soned him. He had to recant, but relapsed, and after a

long imprisonment only escaped by his death the fate

of his contemporary Flade, the Treves counsellor, who
was burnt for assailing the trials of witches on the
1
strength of the so-called canon of Ancyra. As late as

1623, Gregory xv. ordered that any one who made a

pact with Satan, producing impotence in animals,

or

injuring the fruits of the earth, should be imprisoned

for life by the Inquisition. At last, when these mis

chievous practices of the Inquisition had been carried on

for 170 years, and countless victims had been sacrificed
to the fancies of the Popes and monks, an instruction of

the Pvoman Inquisition appeared in 1657, containing the

shameful admission that for a long time not a single

processhad been rightly conducted by the inquisitors,

that they had wickedly erred through their reckless
1 227
Disquis. Mag. iii. 58, scq.
 Trials for Witchcraft. 261

application of torture and other irregularities, and that

most dangerous mistakes were still made daily by them,
as by the other spiritual tribunals, and thus unrighteous
sentences of death were passed, whereupon certain miti
1
gations and precautions were enjoined. It is even now
ordered in the Roman ritual, which, according to Papal

injunction, is to be inviolably observed and exclusively

used by every priest, that any one who has swallowed
charmed articles (malefica signa vel instrumenta) must
drive out Satan, who has thereby gained possession of
2
him, by an emetic.

XVIII. Dominican Forgeries and their Consequences.

How far the principle that Eoman decisions are im

mutable and infallible, had been already introduced,

by means of the forgeries and fictions before referred

to, at the beginning of the twelfth century, may
be perceived from the French Bishop Ivo, who has

adopted into his Dccretum a copious store of such

spurious pieces. His logic and it has been repeated
countless times since comes simply to this : the Popes
have asserted that this or that prerogative belongs to

them, we must therefore believe that they really pos-

1 It
may be found in Pignatelli, Consultat. Noviss. i. 123 and without
;

any alterations in Carena, De Offic. Inquis., in the Appendix.

2
Kit. Rom. (ed. Antwerp, 1669), p. 167.
262 Papal Infa llibility.

sess it. He observes, naively enough, We are taught "

by the Eoman Church that no one may call in question

its decisions, therefore we must flee to it for refuge from
"

itself, i.e., simply submit ;

and accordingly it is clear

to him that to contradict a Papal ordinance is heresy.

This implies that a bishop is orthodox who submits to
a Papal injunction, though convinced that it is pre

judicial to his Church; a heretic, if he opposes the

incipient abuse or usurpation. This view involved

momentous results : it disarmed the Church ;
it caused
the neglect of that first principle of moral and political

prudence, that an abuse should be resisted at the begin

ning, and thus left the growing corruption in the Church

to spread unchecked, and made the attempted reforma

tion too late when it was at last undertaken.

About the middle of the thirteenth century a new

and comprehensive fabrication was effected, which was
not less eventful in its results than the pseudo-Isido-

rian, though in a different way. As the one served to

transform the constitution and canon law of the Church,

the other penetrated her dogmatic theology and ruled

the schools.

In the twelfth and first half of the thirteenth century,

1
Epist. 159.
 Dominican Forgeries. 263

theologians had not occupied themselves with the doc

trine of Church authority, and, in some cases, had quite

remarkably avoided pronouncing on the position of the

Pope in the Church. Hugo and Eichard of St. Victor, the
compilers of
"

Sentences," Eohert Pulleyn, Peter of Poitiers,

Peter Lombard, and after them Eupert of Deutz, William
of Paris, and Vincent of Beauvais, refrained from enter

ing at all on the subject. The true fathers of scholas

ticism Alexander of Hales, Alanus of Eyssel, and even

Albertus Magnus, the most fertile of all theologians of

that period have equally abstained from investigating

it.
Only in one passage, when explaining the well-
known prayer of Christ for Peter in St. Luke s Gospel,
Albert observes that it implies that a successor of Peter
cannot wholly and finally (finaliter) lose the faith.
The controversy with the Greeks, which the pre
sence of Dominicans in the East had again brought to

the surface, gave occasion for new inventions. To the

Greeks, the Isidorio- Gregorian Papacy, which the Domi
nicans put before them as the sole genuine and saving
form of Church government, was utterly unknown and

incomprehensible. No attention had been paid at Con

stantinople to such claims when urged by Mcolas I.,

and in a more developed form by Leo IX. and Gregory ix,

264 Papal Infallibility.

in their letters to emperors and patriarchs, nor does any

reply seem to have beeoi sent. In Eastern estimation,
"the Patriarch of old Kome" was indeed the first of the

patriarchs, to whom belonged the primacy in the Church,

provided he did not render himself unworthy of it

through heterodoxy ;
but the absolute monarchy which
the emissaries of Eome preached was something wholly
different. The Orientals held the Pope s action to be

limited by the consent of the other patriarchs, in all

important concerns affecting the whole Church ; they

could not conceive any arbitrary and autocratic power

existing in the Church. Some special means therefore

had to be found for getting at them.

A Latin theologian, probably a Dominican, who had
resided among the Greeks, composed a catena of spu

rious passages of Greek Councils and Fathers, St. Chry-

sostom, the two Cyrils, and a pretended Maximus, con

taining a dogmatic basis for these novel Papal claims.

In 1261 it was laid before Urban iv., who at once

availed himself of the fabrication in his letter to the

Emperor, Michael Palseologus, discreetly concealing the

names of the witnesses. He wanted to prove from these
newly invented texts, professedly eight hundred years

old, that
"

the Apostolic throne" is the sole authority

 Dominican Forgeries. 265
1
in doctrinal matters. There was this misfortune attend

ing the intercourse of the Popes after Nicolas

I. with

the Byzantines, that they always appealed to spurious

testimonies and authorities, which did unspeakable

injury to the cause of unity.

Urban, evidently deceived himself, sent the document
to. St. Thomas Aquinas, who inserted the whole of what
concerned the Primacy into his work against the Greeks,
without the least suspicion of its not being genuine, for

the doubts expressed in his letter to the Pope refer only

to the passages on the Trinity and the Procession of the

Holy Ghost. At the same time, Buonaccursio, a Domi

nican residing in the East, translated these passages

into Greek in his Thesaurus? St. Thomas, who knew

no Greek, and, being educated in the Gregorian system,
derived all his knowledge of ecclesiastical antiquity from
Gratian, found himself at once in possession of this
treasure of most weighty testimonies from the early

centuries, which left no doubt in his mind that the

great Councils and most influential bishops and theo-

Raynald. Annal. aim. 1263, 61.

1

2
The Dominican Doto, who brought this work into the "West about
1330, says Buonaccursio made the Latin translation, and collated it with
the Greek text. That, in fact, it was composed in Latin and translated
into Greek has been recognised already by Quetif and Echard, Script. Ord.
Prcedic. i. 156 seq.
266 Papal Infallibility.

logians of the fourth and fifth had recognised

centuries

in thePope an infallible monarch, who ruled the whole

Church with absolute power. He therefore did what
the scholastics had never done before : he introduced
the doctrine of the Pope and his infallibility, as he got

it from these spurious passages, and often in the same

words, into the dogmatic system of the Schola, a step

the gravity and momentous results of which can hardly

be exaggerated.
What the Orientals, according to this forgery, are sup

posed to have taught about the Primacy during the first

five centuries, and what St. Thomas developed still fur

ther on their authority, is in substance as follows :

Christ has conferred on Peter his own plenary autho

rity, and thus it is the Pope alone who can command,

bind, and loose. Every one is under him as though

he were Christ himself, and what he decrees must be

obeyed. For "

and completely with

Christ is fully

every Pope in sacrament and authority." The Apostolic

See rules, ever remaining unshaken in the faith of Peter,
while other Churches are deformed by error, and thus
the Eoman Church is the sun from which they all re

ceive their light. A Council derives its whole autho-

i That is to say, in a mysterious manner, only to be imderstood by faith.

An infallibility resting on inspiration appears to be intended.

 Dominican Forgeries : Results. 267

rity from the Pope ;

he has the right of establishing a

new confession of faith, and whoever rejects his autho

rity is a heretic, for it belongs to him alone to decide on

1
every doctrinal question.
It was, then, on the basis of fabrications invented by
a monk of his own Order, including a canon of Chalcedon

giving all bishops an unlimited right of appeal to the

Pope, and on the forgeries found in Gratian, that St.

Thomas built up his Papal system, with its two leading

principles, that the Pope is the first infallible teacher of

2
the world, and the absolute ruler of the Church. The

spurious Cyril of Alexandria is his favourite author on

this subject, and he constantly quotes him.
At Kome was perceived at once how great was the
it

gain of what had hitherto been taught only by jurists

and codes of canon law becoming an integral part of

dogmatic theology. John xxii., in his delight, uttered

his famous saying, that Thomas had worked as many

miracles as he had written articles, and could be canon

ized without any other miracles, and in his Bull he

affirmed that Thomas had not written without a special

Q. i. Art. 10 ; Q. xi. Art. 2, 3.

1
Sitmma, ii. 2.
2
The portion of his work against the Greeks on the Primacy is derived

entirely from these fictions. In the Paris Dominican edition of 1660, t. xx. ,

the parallel passages from his other works are marked in the margin.
268 Papal Infallibility.

inspiration of tlie Holy Ghost. Innocent VI. said that who

ever assailed his teaching incurred suspicion of heresy. 1

In fact, the new Greek tradition was more necessary

and more prized in the West than the East at the time
of its appearance. The Church had just been flooded
by the stream of new Orders, who were supported
entirely on begging, the confessional, and the use of

Papal privileges, i.e., preaching indulgences, and absolv

ing from sins reserved to the Pope. In 1215, at his
2
great Eoman synod, Innocent in. had for the first time

ordered that every Christian should confess once a year to

his own parish priest, without whose permission nobody

could give absolution. Soon afterwards the Papal See
decided to place the new monks everywhere at the side

of the bishops and parish priests, as instruments wholly

devoted to it, and bearing its direct commission and ;

thus the law of 1215 about one s "own

parish priest"

was made inoperative through privileges accorded to

these new wandering confessors, who gained their live

lihood chiefly by the confessional. But this required

the theory of a universal bishop, acting by his own

right throughout the whole Church, and holding con
current jurisdiction with the diocesan bishops. The
Touron, Vie de S. Thomas, p. 590 seq.
1
Cf.
2
[The fourth Lateran Council. TR.]
 Dominican Forgeries : Res^llts. 269

title Gregory the Great had rejected with horror was

now interpreted in its fullest sense, and St. Thomas
asserted, on the strength of his new apocryphal docu

ments, that the Council of Chalcedon had given it to

the Pope. The dispute about the privileges accorded

to the new Orders raged violently on many points.
Innocent IV. tried, in 1254, to protect the parish

priests against this invasion of itinerant monks, who

were always ready to absolve. It had been repre
sented to him that the penitential discipline, sufficiently

weakened already by the religious wars and the indul

gences, would be utterly destroyed in this way. The

Pope says it has been proved that the action of the
parish priests is thoroughly crippled, and all cure of
souls unsettled, that the people learn to despise their

priests, and shameful consequences ensue, for men are

absolved by a monk who speedily disappears, and per

haps is never seen in the place again, and go on con

1
tentedly in their sins. But his ordinance, that the

monks should not enter the confessional without per

mission from the parish priest, was revoked by his

2
successor, Alexander iv. St. Thomas wrote against

1 See the Bull "

Etsi in Raynald. Annal. aim. 1254, p. 70.

animarum,"
8
Haynald. ib. ; B nisei Hist. Univ. Paris, ii.
pp. 315-350.
2 7O Papal Infallibility.

the Paris theologians who defended the parish priests

and the previously existing order and discipline of the
Church he deduced from his spurious testimonies of St.
;

Cyril, that, as regards obedience, there is no difference

between Christ and the Pope, and made the Fathers say
that in fact the rulers of the world (primates mundi) obey

the Pope as though he were Christ. 1 He can therefore

annul the ancient order of the Church established by

Councils, for all Councils derive their authority solely

from him. And, on the faith of the fabrications sup

plied to him, St. Thomas appeals directly to the Council

of Chalcedon for the truth of his Papal absolutism.

The victory of the two Mendicant Orders was

complete, and with it prevailed the view of the

Pope being the real bishop in every diocese, the ordi

nary of the ordinary, as was said. But every parish

priest found himself powerless in his own village in

presence of a begging monk, dependent on the produce

of his privileges, and could not guard against the

injury and destruction of his pastoral work, resulting

from Papal absolutism. The bishops, whose diocesan
administration was already complicated by the number
of exemptions, were obliged to give free course to troops
1
Opusc. xxxiv. (ed. Paris), xx. 549, 580.
 Dominican Forgeries : Results. 271

of new religious, with still larger exemptions, and own

ing no obedience but to their distant superiors. The

result was such that even a cardinal, Simon of Beau-

lieu, said in France, in 1283, that all ecclesiastical dis

cipline was ruined by the privileges of the Begging Orders,

1
and that one might well call the Church a monster.

The parish priests were then the most powerless and

unprotected of all classes of the clergy; they had no

organ and no representation for making their com

plaints heard. The bishops complained frequently, and
the University of Paris made a long resistance ;
but all

had to bow to the united power of the Popes and the

Mendicants. The only effect was to convince the monks
more clearly that the Papal system, with its theory
of Infallibility, was as indispensable and valuable to

them as to the Curia itself.

XIX. Infallibility Disputed.

All the alleged grounds for Papal Infallibility,

through
the older Born an fabrications, the pseudo- Isidore, the

Gregorians, and Gratian, and, finally, the Dominican

forgeries and the theological authority of St. Thomas,
were now admitted almost without contradiction. Yet
1
Hist. Lit. de France, xxi. 24.
272 Papal Infallibility

it was not generally acknowledged that a Pope was

actually infallible in, his pronouncements on matters of

faith. In countries where the Inquisition was not per

manently established, the contrary might be taught, and

for centuries opposite views on this point prevailed.
That the Eoman Church was divinely guaranteed by a
special Providence against entire apostasy from the
1
faithwas affirmed by Guibert of Tournay about 1250,
2
and Nicolas of Lyra, and was pretty generally believed.
But then was always assumed that a Pope could fall
it

into heresy, and give a wrong decision in weighty

questions of faith, and that he might in that case be

judged and deposed by the Church. Besides the his

tory of Liberius, it was mainly the oft-quoted canon

of Gratian, ascribed to St. Boniface, that supplied the
3
rule of judgment here. Even the boldest champions of

Papal absolutism, men like Agostino Trionfo and Alvaro

Pelayo, assumed that the Popes could err, and that

their decisions were no certain criterion. But they also

held that an heretical Pope ipso facto ceased to be Pope,

without or before any judicial sentence, so that Councils,

which are the Church s judicature, only attested the

1 De Offit, Episc. c. 85, in Biblioth. Max. Patrum, t. xxv.

3 Ad Lucam, xxii. 31. 3 Si Papa, Dist. vi. 50.
 Disputed. 273

vacancy of the Papal throne as an accomplished fact.

In that case, according to Trionfo, the Papal authority

1
resides in the Church, as at a Pope s death. So too,

Cardinal Jacob Fournier, afterwards Pope, thought that

Papal decisions were by no means final, but might be

overruled by another Pope, and that John xxn. had done
well in annulling the offensive and doctrinally erroneous

decision of Nicolas in. on the poverty of Christ, and the

2
distinction of use and possession. And Innocent in.

had said before,

"

For other sins I acknowledge no

judge but God, but I can be judged by the Church for

3
a sin concerning matters of faith." And Innocent iv.

allowed that a Papal command containing anything

heretical, or threatening destruction to the whole Church
system, was not to be obeyed, and that a Pope might
4
err in matters of faith. John xxn. had to learn, not

without personal mortification, that his authority was

when opposed to the dominant belief,
of little weight

and that a simple recantation was his only resource.

1
Summa, v. 6.
2
See Eymeric. Director. Inquis. p. 295.
3 De Consec. Pontif. Serm.
3. Opp. (ed. Venet. 1578), p. 194. But he
thinks God would hardly suffer a Pope to err against the faith.
4 Comment, in Dec. v.
39, f. 595. Papa etiam potest errare in fide et
"

ideo non debet quis dicere, credo id quod credit Papa, sed illud
quod credit
Ecclesia, et sic diceudo non errabit." The passage is left in the repertory
of his work, but has been expunged from the text of the later editions.

S
2 74 Papal Infallibility disputed :

When he preached at Avignon the doctrine that the

blessed do not enjoy the Beatific Vision before the

general resurrection, a universal outcry was raised in

Paris. The theologians drew up propositions declaring
the doctrine to be heretical. The King had it publicly
condemned in Paris with sound of trumpets, and com
manded the Pope to accept the judgment of the Paris
doctors, who must know what was the true faith better

than the spiritual jurists, who understood little or

1
nothing of theology. That was the estimate long en
tertained of the Curia. No confidence was felt in their

judgment on questions of dogma and theology.

The inseparable connexion between Aquinas and

Papal Infallibility was shown in the contest already

mentioned between the University of Paris and the
Dominican Order, in the person of Montson. The Do
minicans said that St. Thomas s doctrine was in all points
sanctioned by the Popes, among others by Urban v. in his

Bull, addressed to the High School of Toulouse; and

thus the Popes accredit St. Thomas, and he the Popes.
But St. Thomas teaches, on the authority of his spuri-
As Cardinal D Ailly stated it to the assembly of the French clergy in
1

1406, the King s message to the Pope was still ruder

and more peremptory,
"

qu il se revoquait ou qu il se ferait ardre." Cf. Du Chastenet, Xouv.

Hist, Cone, de Constance (Paris, 1718), Preuves, p. 153.
du Villani, whose
brother was then in Avignon, does not mention this.
 Re- ordination. 275

ous Cyril, that it is enough for the Pope alone to declare

what is matter of faith, and to sanction or condemn any

doctrine. On the other hand, the Faculty enumerated

a whole series of errors in St. Thomas, and classed among

1
them this very doctrine of Papal Infallibility. They
distinctly call it heresy, it being notoriously the doc
trine of the Church that there is an appeal from a Pope
to a General Council, and that every bishop, by divine
and human right, is qualified to pronounce sentence on
points of faith. Thus in 1388 the dogmatic infallibility

of the Popes was repudiated by the first and most influen

tial theological corporation in the Church, and the supe

riority of Councils in matters of faith expressly affirmed,

though certainly no Paris theologian doubted the genu

ineness of the imposing testimonies cited
by St. Thomas.
The Popes themselves were constantly bringing their

dogmatic authority afresh into suspicion. The most

thorough-going and credulous devotee of Eoman suprem
acy could not help feeling uneasy when he found that the
Papal See was at a loss for any clear and well-defined
principles, on one of the gravest and most practically im

portant questions, involving all certainty of individual

and corporate religious life the doctrine of ordination,
1
D Argeiitre, Collect. Judic. i. 2, 84.
276 Papal Infallibility disputed:

that the Curia was constantly fluctuating on this question,

and that it had infected the Sclwla with the same uncer

tainty since the middle of the twelfth century, as may

be seen from Peter Lombard. We mean that since the

eighth century, as was before said, ordinations which

were valid according to immutable laws, grounded in

the very nature of the Church and the Sacraments,

had been declared null at Rome, and re-ordinations

performed, which had thrown the Italian Church into
the most vexatious confusion by the end of the ninth
1
century. And again the increase of simony had given
occasion to Popes, as, e.g., Leo ix., to annul a number of
ordinations at a Eoman Synod, and either to solemnize
2
or order regular re- ordinations. This was based on
the double error of supposing that simony, or procur

ing ordination for money, was heresy, and that heresy

made the ordination invalid. The mischief done bv
V

the Popes in this way was immeasurable, for there were

but few priests and bishops then throughout Italy alto

gether free from simony, so that millions of the laity

became perplexed about the sacraments they had re

ceived from clergy said to be invalidly ordained, and

1 Cf. supra, p. 52.
2
Petri Damiani, Opusc. v. p. 419. "Leo ix. plerosque Simoniacos et

male promotes tanquam noviter ordinavit."

 Re-ordination. 277

hatred and feuds between the people and their pastors

penetrated every village, nor was it easy to find any way

out of this labyrinth of universal religious doubt and in

terruption or destruction of the succession. Nor was this

all. The same confusion was imported into Germany

too, and the ordinations of those bishops were declared to
be invalid whom the Popes had excommunicated for their

loyalty to the Emperor Henry IV. Thus, at the Synod

of Quedlinburg in 1085, the Papal legate Otho annulled
the ordinations of the bishops of Mayence, Augsburg,

and Coire, although Peter Damiani had long since raised

his voice against this capricious annulling of ordinations

and re-ordaining. 1 Otho, afterwards Pope Urban IL, de

clared that even when there was no simony in the actual

ordination, it was rendered invalid if performed by a

2
simoniacal bishop.

At a Synod at Piacenza he annulled the ordinations

3
of his rival, Archbishop Guibert of Eavenna, cele
brated after his excommunication by Gregory vii., and

thereby gave public evidence of another gross error,

1 Bernold. in Pertz, Monum. vii. 442 Harduin, Condi, vi. 1. 614.
;

2
This letter of Urban n. has puzzled theologians who dislike seeing a
Pope openly teacli heresy. Thus, e.g., "Witasse (Tract. Theol. ed Venet.
"

vi. 81) says it is intricatissimus et difficillimus locus." "VVecilo is the

bishop referred to.
3
[The Antipope Clement in., elected at Brixen in 1080. TR.]
278 Papal Infallibility.

that the validity of sacraments is affected by Church

1
censures. Even Innocent n. made a great Synod, the
second Council of Lateran, an accomplice in his error
of declaring invalid the ordinations of
"

schismatics/ i.e.,

of the episcopal adherents of Pope Anacletus, who had

been elected by a majority of the cardinals, but was
then dead, an act of arbitrary caprice and notorious

heresy, which cannot be excused, like earlier re- ordina

2
tions, by the horror professedly felt for simony. Hence
it was the Eoman Church itself which, notwithstanding
the protests raised from time to time within its bosom

against the terrible disorder caused by these ordinations,

was again and again falling into the same error, and dis -

turbing the consciences and belief of the faithful in a

way that in the ancient Church would have been found

intolerable, and against which a remedy would soon

have been discovered.

XX. Fresh Forgeries.

Soon after St. Thomas s time, towards the end of the

thirteenth century, there arose a need for further in

ventions, this time in the domain of history, to sustain

and further the system. As the contradictions between

*
1
C<mctt.
(ed. Labbe), x. 50L Ib. p. 1009.
 Fresh Forgeries: Historical. 279

the older historical authorities and the recent codes of

canon law, Gratian and the Decretals, were obvious to

every one who looked beneath the surface, it seemed

desirable to represent the history of the Popes and

Emperors in such a way as to get rid of those contra

dictions, and give an historical sanction to the new

canon law. This task was undertaken, at the command
of Clement v., by Martin of Troppau, called the Pole,

owing to Nicolas in. having made him Archbishop of

Gnesen in 1275. He was penitentiary and chaplain
to the Pope ;
all jurists and canonists were supposed
to bind up his book with Gratian and the Decretals,
and all theologians with the Bible history of Peter
Cornestor.
1
And this book is, of all historical works of

the middle ages, at once the most popular and the most

utterly fabulous. Many of its fictions simply evidence

the want of any historical sense and the miracle-mon-

gering credulity which had been the rage since the

rise of the Mendicant Orders but many also were in
;

vented with deliberate intention. The Popes were to be

exhibited, as in the Liber Pontificalis, but still more

[Peter Comestor, Chancellor of Paris at the end of the twelfth cen

1

tury, wrote a history extending from the Creation to the birth of Christ.
This work, with the Sentences of Peter Lombard and Gratian s Decretwn,
is said to have made up the average reading of mediaeval divines. TR.]
2 8o
Papa I Infa llibility .

conspicuously, as the rulers and legislators of the whole

Church, the pseudo-Isidorian fabrications and Gratian
were to be confirmed, and history made to reflect the

supremacy of Popes over Emperors. The book indi

cates a great falling off in historical composition ;

and
this is to be accounted for by the general influence of
the Begging Monks, especially the Dominicans, with their

insatiable hankering after miracles, and their constant

endeavour to trace the Papal system to the earliest ages,

in materially obscuring historical knowledge, and degrad

ing it below the level it had attained in the twelfth cen

tury. The mere fact of so miserable and thoroughly men

dacious a book as Martin s gaining such universal cur

rency and influence is an eloquent proof of this decline.

The same object, of adapting the history both of the

Empire and the Church to the Gregorian system, was
followed by the Dominican Tolomeo of Lucca, Papal

librarian, whom John xxii. appointed in 1318 to the

see of Torcello. His Church History, up to 1313, is

much fuller than Martin s dry compendium, and a far

more spirited and artistic composition. This is true

also of his continuation of the Political Treatise com

1
menced by Aquinas, and his Annals from the year
1
St. Thomas only wrote the first book of the De Regimine Frincipum,
 Fresh Forgeries: Historical. 281

10G2. His principal work often reads like a commen

tary on Gratian or the pseudo-Isidore, whom, however,
he only knew through Gratian. The purport of his
work for the first twelve centuries is to mould the
fabrications of these two writers and the Decretals into
a coherent history. It may suffice for an illustration of

his treatment of ancient Church history, to say that he

describes Pope Vigilius as holding the fifth (Ecumenical

Council at Constantinople in sovereign majesty, with

the hearty co-operation of the Emperor Justinian, who
1
manifested an entire devotion to him. So was history
written at the Papal Court. One of its main objects
was to supply an historical basis for the principles of

Eome, and her claims to jurisdiction over the German

empire, the elections to the throne, and the emperors.
At that time the Papacy was gradually passing into

French hands. The institution of Legates, unknown in

the ancient Church, but imported into the ecclesiasti

cal system by means of a spurious canon, and accounted

2
necessary by Gratian, had enabled the Popes to
and two chapters of the second. Tolomeo completed the second, and Avrote
the third and fourth books. Cf. Quetif-Echard, i. 543.
1 Ptol. Luc. 895-899.
2 with the "Excommunicetur qui
Dist. 94, c. 2, title legatum Sedis Apo-
stolicse impedire tentaverit." The passage
from pseudo-Isidore, hut
is

speaks in very general terms of the episcopal office, which was not to "be
282 Papal Infallibility.

dominate and tax the various National Churches, and

was now in The Popes had overthrown the
full bloom.
Hohenstaufen dynasty, and transplanted a French

dynasty and French influence into Italy for the sake of

the South Italian kingdom. The feudal claim of the Nor

mans was not enough to legitimatize this procedure,

and some other title had to be discovered. Tolomeo

accordingly related that the Emperor Constantine had

presented this kingdom to the Pope as a
"

manuale,"

which he could dispose of as he pleased. 1 Thus hjs

whole History is thrown into the shape requisite for the
Curia and the Dominicans in 1 3 1 3. He begins by saying
that Christ was the first Pope, and keeps to that pro
gramme throughout. The second Pope was Peter, who
founded, by his disciples, all the principal churches in

Italy and Gaul.

Tolomeo was also the first to disseminate, in the Papal
interest, the fable about the appointment of the Electors
2
by Gregory v. in 995. This was the complement of the

impeded. By omitting the word vestram," and with, the help of Gratian s
title, the Legates are represented as competent to excommunicate any one
1 Ptol. Luc. 1066.
2
Not Trionfo, as Friedburg maintains (De Fin. inter Eccl. et Civit.
regund, Judicio, 1861, p. 25). Nor was the passage interpolated into St.
Thomas, as he thinks, and the book does not belong to JSgidius of Columna,
as Wattenbach thinks (Deutschlands Geschichtsquel. 519), but the passage
is in Tolomeo s continuation. Quetif and Echard have already pointed out
 Fresh Forgeries : Historical. 283

theory of translations invented by Alexander m. and

Innocent in. It was the Popes, according to Innocent,

who took the Empire from the Greeks and gave it to

the Franks, and they did this for their own better pro
1
tection. Charlemagne, by command of the Church,
2
put an end to the empire of the Greeks, says Tolomeo.
Boniface VIII. brought the German emperor Albert to
acknowledge formally that the Popes had transferred
the Empire ;
that it was they who had conferred the

right of election on certain princes, and given to kings

3
and emperors the power of the civil sword. And to

this were added the new claims, first put in force by

Clement v., that the Pope succeeds during a vacancy to
the Imperial power, and that every Emperor is bound to

take an oath of fealty to him, claims which John xxn.

acted upon in his contest with the Emperor Louis, and
from whence he drew the further corollary, which he at
once put into practice against Louis, that he, as Pope,
was administrator of the Empire during a vacancy. 4
The Curia found Gratian and the Decretals insufficient

this addition of Tolomeo s to St. Thomas s work, and shown that he was the
first to disseminate the fable, and probably himself invented it.

Registr. Epp. 29, 62 ; Decret. c. 34, De Elect, i. 6.

1

2 3
PtoL Luc. 974. Eaynald. Annal. ann. 1303, 8.
4 Of. "Processus in Ludovic. in Martene, Thes. Anecd, ii. 710
Bay."

seq., where a whole series of fables and falsifications, like Martin s and Tolo-
284 Papal Infallibility.
for these purposes, and so to the numerous class of

Papal Court jurists and Court theologians, like Trionfo

and ^Egidius Columna, must be added the Court his

torians Martin and Tolomeo.

Besides these, special fictions were wanted to meet

the circumstances of particular countries and National

Churches, so as to adapt their history to the require

ments of the Papal system. This was eminently true of

Spain. The business of cooking history was carried on

in her case more systematically than anywhere else.

The ancient Spanish Church, without ignoring the

Eoman primacy, 1 had yet maintained an independent
attitude towards it. Her Synods, regularly held, exer
cised judicial power over bishops and metropolitans, and
sometimes opposed even Popes in questions of faith, as,

e.g., the Synod of Toledo in 688 subjected Pope Bene

dict s letter to severe criticism, and did not scruple to

charge him with "barefaced contradiction of the Fathers."

At the time of the Arabian invasion, and till towards

the end of the eleventh century, the Spanish Church

meo s, weapons against the Emperors and tbeir adherents,

are produced as
Pope Innocent s excommunication of the Emperor Arcadius, the
as, e.g.,
legends of Constantine and Theodosius, and many more.
1
Thus the most influential of Spanish prelates and theologians, Isidore
of Seville, in his letter to the Duke Claudius, asserts his subjection to the
Eoman See raore emphatically than was usual with bishops of that age.
 Fresh Forgeries : Historical. 285
1
preserved her independent life. Eoman influences were

seldom felt, and only at long intervals. Archbishop

Diego Gelmirez, a zealous advocate of the Gregorian
system, testifies, at the beginning of the twelfth century,

that no Spanish bishop then (in the previous century)

paid to the Eoman Church tribute or obedience, and

that the Spanish Church followed the laws of Toledo,
2
not of Borne.

A change in the interests of Eome was effected

through the influence of the monks of Clugny, who

received abbeys and bishoprics, through the action of

French queens, and the policy of some kings who were

seeking support at Eome. Even Gregory vn. asserted

that all Spainhad from ancient times been the property

of the Popes, as he expected also to be able to demand

Hungary, Eussia, Provence, and Saxony. And this

claim had one result, in the suppression of the Mozarabic

and substitution of the Eoman rite in 1085. A French

Cluniac monk became Archbishop of Toledo, and for 150
years, up to the middle of the thirteenth century, a con-

1
Masdeu, Hist. Critic, de Espana, xiii. 258 sqq. Here it is observed
that, according to a letter issued by Adrian I. about 790, denouncing certain
abuses, there had for two centuries been no correspondence of the Popes
with Spain. Nor was there any even in the eleventh century, before Gre
gory vu. s time, except on a few unimportant points.
2
Hist. Compost. 253, in vol. xx. of Florez EspaTla Sagrada.
286 Papal Infallibility.

stant struggle went on for the subjugation of the Spanish

Church. This was the- aim of the historical fictions first

perpetratedby Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo, and then by

Bishop Lucas of Tuy. The former adulterated Sam-
piro s Chronicle by inventing an embassy of the Spanish

Church to John VIIL, some decrees of that Pope, and a

1
Synod held by his order at Oviedo, besides other things.

More comprehensive and still more influential were

the inventions of Lucas, who thoroughly corrupted the

ancient history of Spain. In order to give an appear

ance of early and complete dependence on Eome to

the Spanish Church, he represented Archbishop Leander

as a legate of the Pope, and falsified the whole history

of Isidore, whom he converts into a vicar of Pope
2
Gregory. The misfortunes of Spain and the overthrow
of the Gothic kingdom are explained by a purely fabu
lous history he invented of King Witiza, who is said

to have forbidden the Spaniards, on pain of death, to

3
obey the Pope.

1
Florez Espcfiia Sagrada, xiv. 440.
3
76. ix. 203-204.
3 Istud quidem
Chronicon Mundi" in Schotti Ilisp. lllustrat. iv. 69.
" "

causa pereundi Hispanise fuit," says Lucas. The moral to be drawn was
that the prosperity of Spain depended on obedience to the Pope. The
whole Chronicle, written about 1236, is a tissue of lies, exceeding anything
previously knoAvn, or at least published, in Spain.
 Fresh Forgeries : St. Cyril. 287

In theology, from the beginning of the fourteenth cen

tury, the spurious passages

of St. Cyril and forged canons
of Councils maintained their ground, being guaranteed

by the authority of St. Thomas.

against all suspicion
Since the work of Trionfo in 1320, up to 1450, it is
remarkable that no single new work appeared in the
interest of the Papal system. But then the contest
between the Council of Basle and Pope Eugenius iv.

evoked the work of Cardinal Torquemada, besides some

others of less importance. Torquemada s argument,
which was held up to the time of Bellarmine to be the

most conclusive apology of the Papal system, rests en

tirely on fabrications later than the pseudo-Isidore, and

chiefly on the spurious passages of St. Cyril. To ignore

the authority of St. Thomas is, according to the Car
dinal, bad enough, but to slight the testimony of St.

Cyril is intolerable. The Pope is infallible ;

all autho

rity of the other bishops is borrowed or derived from

his. Decisions of Councils without his assent are null

and void. These fundamental principles of Torquemada

are proved by the spurious passages of Anacletus, Cle

ment, the Council of Chalcedon, St. Cyril, and a mass

1
of forged or adulterated testimonies. In the times of

DePontif. M. Summa
1
et Gen. Condi. Auctorit. (Venet. 15S3), p. 17 ; de
288 Papal Infallibility.

Leo x. and Clement in., the Cardinals Thomas of Vio,

or Cajetan, and Jacobazzi, followed closely in his foot

1
steps. Melchior Canus built firmly on the authority
of Cyril, attested by St. Thomas, and so did Bellarmine
and the Jesuits who followed him. The Dominicans,
Mcolai, Le Quien, Que tif, and Echard, were the first to

avow openly that their master, St. Thomas, had been

deceived by an impostor, and had in his turn misled

the whole tribe of theologians and canonists who fol

2
lowed him. On the other hand, the Jesuits, including

even such a scholar as Labbe ,

while giving up the

pseudo-Isidorian decretals, manifested their resolve still

3
to cling to Cyril. In Italy, as late as 1713, Professor

EccL (Venet. 1561), p. 171 ; Apparat. super Deer. Union. Grcec. (Venet.
1561), p. 366, and in many other places.
1
Opera (ed. Serry), Patav. 734, p. 194,
"

Cyrillus . . . multo eviden-

tius quam cteteri auctores huic veritati testimonium perhibet," viz., that
the Pope the infallible judge of doctrine. Those who wish to get a bird s-
is

eye view of the extent to which the genuine tradition of Church authority
was still overlaid and obliterated by the rubbish of later inventions and
forgeries about 1563, when the Loci of Canus appeared, must read the fifth
book of his work. It is indeed still worse fifty years later in this part of
Bellarmine s work. The difference is that Canus was honest in his belief,
which cannot be said of Bellarmine.
2
Le Quien speaks out with peculiar distinctness on the point in the
Preface to his Panoplia contra Schisma Grcecorum, published at Paris in
1718 under the name of Steph. de Altimura, pp. xv.-xvii.
3
Cf. Labbe, De Script. Eccles. (Paris, 1660), i. 244. He and Bellar
mine sheltered themselves under the pretext that the Thesaurus of Cyril
has come to us in a mutilated condition Dupin, Ceillier, Oudin, and others
;

have long since shown the falsehood of this assertion.

 Fresh Forgeries : St. Cyril. 289

Andrazzi of Bologna cited the most important of the

interpolations in St. Cyril as a conclusive argument in

his controversial treatise against the patriarch Dosi-
1
theus.

XXI. Interdicts.

To all these means for supporting the universal

supremacy of the Popes, and bringing the belief of their

infallibility into more general acceptance, were added
the Interdicts to which whole countries were frequently

subjected. God s Yicar upon earth, it was said, acts

like God, who often includes many innocent persons in
the punishment of the guilty few who shall dare to
;

contradict him ? He acts under Divine guidance, and

his acts cannot be measured by the rules of human

justice. And thus from the Divine inspiration which

guided their action was inferred the doctrinal infalli

bility of the Popes, and vice versa, just as is the case

now with the people, and even the clergy, especially in

countries of the Latin race. The Popes had indeed

themselves declared, in their new code, in the sixth book
of the Decretals, that interdicts produced the most
injurious effects on the religion of the people, strength-
1 Veins Groetia de Rom. Sedeprceclare sentiens, Venet. 1713, p. 219.

T
290 Papal Infallibility .

ening their impiety, eliciting heresies, originating

numberless dangers \o souls, and depriving the Church
1
of her rightful dues. But notwithstanding this con
fession, they made more copious use of interdicts than
ever; their proceedings against Germany during the

long struggle against the Emperor Louis the Bavarian

exceeded, through the long duration of the interdict,

anything that had happened there before. It really

seemed as if they wished to root out from the minds of

men the gospel teaching about the rights of baptized

Christians, and teach them instead to regard themselves

as mere herds of cattle belonging to the Pope, with no

will of their own, or, as Alvaro Pelayo said, teach them

to fly from his wrath to his mercy, which, however, had
been refused to them. The results of this conduct varied

greatly according to differences of national character.

While it led some nations to question more and more
the Divine right of an authority so horribly abused, and

thus scattered seeds which bore fruit a century and a

half later ;
others were confirmed in the notion that

the Papacy is a mysterious power like the Godhead,

whose ways are unsearchable, and which must not be

too closely scrutinized, but must always be blindly
1
Cap. lilt, de Excom. in Sexto Deer.
 Interdicts. 291

trusted as being enlightened from on high, and acting

under Divine inspiration.
Paradoxical as it may sound, it is an historical fact

that the more suspicious and scandalous the conduct

of the Popes with their exemptions, privileges, indul

gences, and the like, and the consequent confusion in

the Church appeared to pious men, the more inclined
they felt to take refuge from their own doubts and sus

picions in the bosom of Papal infallibility. Tested by

simple Christian feeling, they would have been obliged

to condemn this, and much else, as an abuse and heinous
sin against the Church. But that feeling had to con
tend with the notion, instilled into them from youth,

Pope is the lord and master of the Church,

that the ,

whom none may contradict or call to account. This

may be illustrated by the language of Peter Cantor, as

early as the end of the twelfth century. He says there

would indeed be just reason to apprehend that the Papal
corruptions might produce a general separation from
the spiritual empire of Eome, for there is no scriptural

justification for them ;

but then it would be sacrilegious
to find fault with what the Pope does. God suffers not

the Eoman Church to fall into any error, and we must

assume that the Pope does these things under inspira-
292 Papal Infallibility.

tion of the Holy Ghost, by virtue of which he is in the

last instance the sole^ ruler of the Church, to the exclu

1
sion of all others.

XXII. Tlie Schism of the Antipopes.

In the fourteenth century, the Church was brought

into a condition which forced doubts upon the minds of
even the most zealous votaries of the Papal system.
The long schism which for above forty years pre
sented to the world the novel spectacle of rival Popes

mutually anathematizing one another, and two Curias,

a French one at Avignon, and an Italian, shook an

authority still commonly regarded as invincible under

the last Popes before 1376. For the discomfiture suf
fered by the Papacy at the beginning of the century, in

the person of Boniface VIIL, was soon blotted out of

men s remembrance by the complete victory it gained

soon afterwards over Germany and the Emperor Louis ;

and the practical effects of that first humiliation were

inconsiderable, it left its mark rather on the Schola and

the writings of the French jurists. The wounds in

flicted by the persistent policy of the Popes for centuries
on the Empire and the national unity of Germany long
continued to bleed. The German Church had lost the
1
Vcrbum Abbrev. (ed. Galopin), p, 114,
 The Great Schism. 293

very idea of regarding itself as an organic whole ;

that

there had ever been such a thing as German National

Synods was utterly forgotten. ofThe experiment
divide et impera" had been first tried upon the German
"

Church, and had proved a complete success.

The Schism arose from the struggle between two na
tions for the possession of the Papacy the Italians wanted :

to regain and the French to keep it. And thus it came

to pass that from 1378 to 1409 Western Christendom
was divided into two, from 1409 to 1415 into three,

Obediences. A Neapolitan, Urban VL, had been elected,

and his first slight attempt at a reform gave immediate

occasion to the outbreak of the schism. Soon after

entering on his pontificate, he excommunicated the

Cardinals who were guilty of simony. But simony had
long been the daily bread of the Eoman Curia and
the breath of its life ;
without simony the machine
must come to a stand-still and instantly fall to pieces.

The Cardinals had, from their own point of view,

ample ground for insisting on the impossibility of

subsisting without it.

They accordingly revolted from
Urban and elected Clement vn., a man after their own
1
heart. Nobody knew at the time whose election was
the most regular, Urban s or Clement s. Things had
1
Thorn, de Acern. De Great. Urbani. See Muratori, iii. 2, 721.
294 Papal Infallibility.

in fact occurred in both elections which made them

legally invalid. The* attorneys on both sides urged

irrefutable arguments to show that the Pope of the
opposite party had no claim to their recognition.
There were persons on both sides, since accounted as
Saints throughout the whole Church, but who then
anathematized one another : on the French side, Peter

of Luxemburg and Yincent Ferrer, on the Italian, Cath

erine of Sienna and Catherine the Swede. Meanwhile
there were two Papal Courts and two Colleges of Car
dinals, each Court with diminished revenues, and deter
mined to put on the screw of extortion to the utmost,

each inexhaustible in the discovery of new methods of

making gain of spiritual things, and the increased

application of those already in use.

The situation was a painful one for all adherents of

Papal infallibility, who found themselves in an inextri

cable labyrinth. Their belief necessarily implied that

the particular individual who is in sole possession of all

truth, and bestows on the whole Church the certainty

of its faith, must be always and undoubtingly acknow

ledged as such. There can as little be any uncer

tainty allowed about the person of the right Pope as

about the books of Scripture. Yet every one at that

 The Great Schism. 295

period must at bottom have been aware that the mere

accident of what country he lived in determined which

Pope he adhered to, and that all he knew of his

Pope legitimacy was that half Christendom rejected

s

it.
Spaniards and Frenchmen believed in Clement
vii. or Benedict xiu., Englishmen and Italians in Ur
ban vi. or Boniface ix. What was still worse, the
old notion, which for centuries had been fostered by
the Popes, and often confirmed by them, of the invali

dity of ordinations and sacraments administered out

side the Papal communion, still widely prevailed, espe
cially in Italy. The Papal secretary Coluccio Salutato

paints in strong colours the universal uncertainty and

anguish of conscience produced by the schism, and his

own conclusion as a Papalist is, that as all ecclesiastical

jurisdiction is derived from the Pope, and as a Pope

invalidly elected cannot give what he does not himself

possess, no bishops or priests ordained since the death
of Gregory XL could guarantee the validity of the sacra
ments they administered. 1 It followed, according to

him, that any one who adored the Eucharist consecrated

by a priest ordained in schism worshipped an idol.

1
See his letter to the Count Jost of Moravia, in Martene, Thes. Anecd.
[[. 1159, "Quis nescit ex vitiosa parte veros episcopos esse non posse?"
Ajad the point is then further worked out.
296 Papal Infallibility.

Such was the condition of Western Christendom. A

happier view prevailed in France, England, Germany,
and Spain, than in Italy and at the Papal Court, about
the conditions of valid ordination and administration of

sacraments.

Those who had any knowledge of the constitution

of the ancient Church perceived now that the con
fusion for which no remedy had been discovered for

thirty years, could only be traced ultimately to the

development of the Gregorian system. A strong and

earnest desire was aroused for the restoration of the

episcopal system, so far as it could then be distinguished

through the accumulated rubbish of fabrications it was

overlaid with, and the distortions and obscuring of Church

history. It was felt that the old system would have made

such a degradation and devastation as the Church had

now experienced impossible. The conviction grew

stronger and stronger that a General Council was the

only effectual means for the restoration of harmony in

the Church, as also for limiting Papal despotism. Ger

mans, like Henry of Langenstein and Nicholas Cusa ;

Frenchmen like D Ailly, Gerson, and Clemange ;

Italians

like Zabarella; Spaniards like Escobar and John of Sego

via, came, in the end of the fourteenth and beginning

of the fifteenth century, to substantially similar conclu-
 The Great Schism. 297

sions, that the Church must recover herself, break the

chains the Curialistic system had fastened upon her,

and reform herself in her head and her members. And

indeed for some time, all who were eminent in the
Church and knowledge had declared
for intelligence

themselves in favour of her rights, and the rights of

free Councils, against the Papacy. Even the voices of

those who thought so terribly degenerate and misused

an institution as the Eoman See had now become was
nevertheless indispensable, were loudly raised, but with

out producing any result. Public opinion still recog

nised the necessity of its existence, but also the urgent

need for its limitation and purification.

The first attempt to bring about the assembling of a
and independent Council succeeded. Instead
real, free,

of the mock Synods which had been customary for the

last 300 years, when the bishops only came to hear the

Pope s decrees read and go home again, a Synod from

all Europe was assembled at Pisa in 1409, at which men

could dare to speak openly and vote freely. It seemed

a great point to contemporaries that two Popes, Gregory

xii. and Benedict xin., were deposed, and a third, Alex

ander in., was elected. But these proceedings exhausted
the strength of the Synod; the mere presence of a Pope,

with the Cardinals now asrain

* >

o to him, though
adhering (^*
298 Papal Infallibility.

he was the creation of the Synod, prevented even the

attempt or beginning of a reformation of the Church.

The reforms conceded by Alexander were insignificant.
As the other two Popes did not submit to the decision

of the Synod, there were now three heads of the Church,

as before in 1048, but the Pope elected by the Council

received far the most general recognition.

XXIII. The Council of Constance.

To bring about the actual downfal of the system, it

was necessary that it should be represented in the person

of a Pope who was the most worthless and infamous man
to be found anywhere, according to the testimony of a
1
contemporary. This Pope, recognised up to the day of

his deposition by the great majority of Western Chris

tendom, was Balthasar Cossa, John xxin. Now was
the first real victory won, not only over persons, but
over the Papacy, and for this was required such an

assembly as was the Council of Constance (1414-1418),

the most numerous ever seen in the West, at which,

besides 300 bishops, there were present the deputies of

fifteen universities, and 300 doctors, men who were not

1
Justinger, Berner-Chronic. p. 276. The worst and most abused man
"

to be found, when his badness had been thoroughly exposed in the Council
at Constance."
 Council of Constance. 299

in the ambiguous position of having to reform abuses

to which they owed their own dignities and emoluments.

And this assembly had to introduce the new plan of
voting by nations in place of the old one of voting by
individuals, or all would have been wrecked through
the great number of Italian bishops, the majority of

whom considered it their natural duty to uphold the

Papal system, the Curia, and the means of revenue thence
accruing to the Italians. The corruption of the Church,
and the demoralization which was its result, had pene

trated deeper in Italy than elsewhere, and then, as

afterwards, was remarked, that the Italian bishops

it

were the most steady opponents of every remedy and

reformation.

With the Council of Constance arose a star of hope

for the German Church. Well were it if she had

possessed men capable of taking permanent advantage

of so favourable a situation. The new Emperor, Sigis-

mund, full of earnest zeal to help the Church in her

managed so skilfully to persuade and press

sore distress,

Pope John, who was threatened in Italy, that he chose

the German city of Constance for the Council, and came

there himself, though not by his own goodwill. For

three centuries the Germans had been thrust out by
300 Papal Infallibility.

the Italians and French from all active part in the

general affairs of tire Church. They were the nation

least responsible, next to the English, for the evils of
the schism, for the Curia had always been purely

French and and had contained no single element

Italian,

of German representation. The German clergy were

more sinned against than sinning. It is true that even
in Germany the corruption of the Church had become

intolerable, and cried to Heaven, but it was no native

product of the German people it had been imported

;

from the south, like a foreign pestilence, and had become

permanent through the destruction of the organic life

of the national Church.

In the famous decrees of the fourth and fifth sessions,

the Council of Constance declared that "

every lawfully
convoked (Ecumenical Council representing the Church
derives its authority immediately from Christ, and
every one, the Pope included, is subject to it in matters

of faith, in the healing of schism, and the reformation

of the Church." The decree was passed without a
single dissentient voice, a decision more eventful and

pregnant in future consequences than had been arrived

at by any previous Council, and accordant in principle
with primitive antiquity, for so the Church held before
 Council of Constance. 30 1

the appearance of the pseudo- Isidore. But at the time

it must have looked like a bold innovation ;

so strongly

had the current set in the opposite direction for a

lengthened period, and so loftily had the Popes towered

above the humble attitude of the silent and submissive

Synods from the third Lateran to the Council of Vienne.

That the Council had a full right to call itself (Ecumen
ical was obvious. The small and divided fractions of

the other two Obediences could not prejudice its claims.

Gregory xn. and Benedict XIIL had been deserted by

their Cardinals, and all that could be held to consti

tute the Eoman Church took part in the Council

If a Pope is subject to a Council in matters of faith
he is not infallible ;
the Church, and the Council which

represents it, inherit the promises of Christ, and not the

Pope, who may err apart from a Council, and can be

judged by it for his error. This inference was clear

and indisputable. But it was not the article in the

decrees concerning faith, but that concerning reforma

tion, which excited the suspicion of the Cardinals. That

a Pope who became heretical fell under the judgment
of the Church, and therefore of a Council, was the com

monly accepted and admitted theory since the so-called

canon of St. Boniface had been received into tlie codes,
3O2 Papal Infallibility.

though it could not really be reconciled with the doc

trine of infallibility assumed in the same codes of

canon law, and disseminated by Aquinas. Yet the
Cardinals dared not refuse their assent to the decrees

which were so menacing to the interests of the Curia.

These decisions of Constance are perhaps the most

extraordinary event in the whole dogmatic history of

the Christian Church. Their language leaves no doubt
that they were understood to be articles of faith, dog

matic definitions of the doctrine of Church authority.

And they deny the fundamental position of the Papal
system, which is thereby tacitly but very eloquently
signalized as an error and abuse. Yet that system had

prevailed in the administration of the Church for cen

turies,had been taught in the canon law books and the

schools of the Eeligious Orders, especially by Thomist

divines, and assumed or expressly affirmed in all pro

nouncements and decisions of the Popes, the new
authorities for the laws of the Church. And now not

a voice was raised in its favour ;

no one opposed the
doctrines of Constance, no one protested !

But the state of the Church had become so unnatural

and monstrous, the measure of human infirmity and

sinfulness which must be reckoned upon in every,
 Coimcil of Constance. 303

even the best, community was so largely exceeded, -

and the habitual transgression of the laws of God and
the ordinances of the ancient Church was so open and

universal, that every one could perceive that the whole

dominant system, rather than particular individuals,

was responsible for this perversion of Church-govern
ment into a vast engine of finance and money- getting/
this transformation of a free Church, arranging its affairs

by common consultation, into a subject empire under

absolutist rule, and made the prey of an oligarchy.
When the Cardinals said, in the letter they addressed

to their Pope, Gregory XIL, in 1408, that there was no

soundness in the Church from the sole of the foot to
1
the crown of the head, they should have added, if they
wished to tell the whole truth, "

It is we and our col

leagues,and your predecessors, it is the Curia, who

have gone on saturating the body of the Church with
moral poison, and therefore is it now so sorely diseased."

There were certainly but few who clearly understood

all the real causes as well as the greatness of the

evil, but those few spoke out distinctly what every

one dimly felt. Reform in the head and the mem
bers was the universal watchword throughout Europe,
1
Raynald. Annal. 1408.
304 Papal Infallibility.

and was understood by every one to mean that the

head, the Papal See, needed reform first of all, and

that only then and thus would a reform of the mem
bers be possible. It was notorious to all that the good
dispositions of this or that individual Pope, even if

they continued, were utterly powerless, and that refor

mation in the present case meant an entire change of

system. In face of this evidence all the wisdom of

both schools of the canonists and the monkish theo

logians was dumb, built, as it was, on rotten founda

tions. They were reduced to silence, or had, like

Tudeschi and many Dominicans, to assent to the decrees

of Constance. The public opinion of the whole Chris

tian world, directed and matured by the discussions
carried on for the last forty years at Paris, Avignon,
Borne, Pisa, and the German universities, was too strong
for them.
Even the new Pope elected at the Council of Con
stance was obliged to declare himself in accord with

this feeling. He had indeed been a zealous adherent

of John xxni., and had only at the last moment deserted

him, and given in his adhesion to the Council. But

he was now Pope by virtue of this deposition of his

predecessor, which depended entirely on the decree

 Council of Constance. 305

passed at the Council, and therefore on the Episcopal

system. John had not been deposed on account of his

opposition to the Council, but only on account of his

breaking his oath of obedience to it, and his crimes, after

a formal investigation. An express confirmation of this

decree by Martin v. seemed at the time not only super

fluous, but objectionable. It would have been like a

son wanting to attest the genuine paternity of his own

father, for this decree had made him Pope. Had he
wished to assail its validity inany way he would
have been bound at once to resign, and let the deposed

Pope again take his place. It was clear to him that

he could no longer act upon the right, claimed and

exercised by his predecessors for 200 years, to be the
ruler of the whole Church assembled and represented
at the Council, and he distinctly said this in his Bull

against the doctrine of Wicliffe, where he asserted the

proposition that the supremacy of the Eoman Church

over the rest is no part of necessary doctrine, to be an

error, because Wicliffe understood by the Eoman the

universal Church, or a Council, or at least denied the

1
primacy of the Pope over the other particular Churches.
Super alias ecclesias particulares," i.e., no primacy over the universal
1 "

Church or a general Council, in strict accordance with the decrees of Con

stance. So, again, in the questions addressed by Martin s direction to the
Wicliffites or Hussites, they were asked whether they believed the Pope

U
306 Papal Infallibility.

He took occasion to declare, towards the end of the

Council of Constance, that he confirmed all its
"

con-
"

ciliar meaning by this phraseology to withhold

decrees,

his approval from two decrees, on Annates, and on a book

by the Dominican Falkenberg, not passed by the Coun

cil in full session, but in the congregations of certain
1 2
nations. The two other Obediences also, in giving in

their adherence to the Council afterwards, assented to its

decrees, as is clearly shown by the Concordat of Nar-

bonne, in the twentieth session, which enumerated the

subjectscoming within the competence of the Council in

accordance with the decrees of the fourth and fifth sessions.

After the deposition of John xxm., and the resigna

tion of Gregory xn., there occurred a significant division

and struggle between the Latins and Germans. The

Germans and English wanted the reformation of the
Church, which was the most important and difficult

task of the Council, to be undertaken before proceeding

to the election of a new Pope. The experience of the

Council of Pisa had proved that the election of a new

Pope at once put an end to every scheme of reformation.
to be Peter s successor, habens supremam auctoritatem in Ecclesid (not
"

Ecclesiam) Dei," and that every General Council, including that of Con
stance, represents the universal Church.
1 "

Conciliariter" is opposed to
"

nationaliter."
a
[The adherents of Benedict xin. and Gregory XIL TR.]
 Council of Constance. 307

But the Cardinals, and with them the Italians and French
the latter from jealousy of the lofty position held

by the German King Sigismund, pressed for the elec

tion taking precedence of the reformation. Sigismund
contended skilfully, bravely, and perseveringly for the

interests of the Church, the Empire, and the German

people, who then with good reason called themselves

the godly, patient, humble, and yet not feeble

"
J

nation."

Had they been somewhat less patient and humble, and

had something more of that strength which union be
stows, the ecclesiastical and national discomfiture of
1417 would not have been followed by the revolt of

1517, the religious division of the nation, the Thirty

Years War, and many other disastrous consequences.

But the Cardinals and Latins carried the day by gain

ing over the English, and corrupting some German

prelates, as, for instance, the Archbishop of Riga, and

2
the Bishops of Coire and Leutomischl. And before

the new Pope, Martin v., had been elected above a few
weeks, the Curia and
"

were again in the

"

curialism

ascendant. The new rules of the Chancery, at once

published by Martin, must have opened the eyes of the,

short-sighted French, and have shown them that in the

1 See De Hardt, A eta Cone. Const, iv. 1410. a
75. iv. 1427.
308 Papal Infallibility.

disposal of benefices the whole network of abuses and

1
corrupt trading upon patronage was to be maintained.

Only a few reforming ordinances came into force ;

the worst wounds and sores of the ecclesiastical body

remained for the most part untouched. Martin under

stood how to divide the nationsby pursuing a dif
ferent policy towards each. His two Concordats, with
the German States and the Latin nations, chiefly related
to the possession of offices,and expressly reserved to
the Pope what a long and universal experience had

proved to be hateful abuses, as, e.g., the annates, which

were so demoralizing to the character of the clergy, and

compelled them to incur heavy debts. And most of

the articles were so drawn as to leave open a door for

the renewal of the abuse. In the life and practice of

the Church, the Papal system, with all its attendant

evils, was restored.

XXIV. The Council of Basle.

The Episcopal system, which was the true principle

of reform, still survived in the decrees of the fourth

and fifth sessions of Constance, and for a long time no

one dared to meddle with them. One other hope re-
1 See De Hardt, Acta Cone. Const, i. 965 seq.
 The Council of Basle. 309

mained : the Synod had decided that another should be

held after five years, and that for the future there should

be an (Ecumenical Council every ten years. Here

again Martin v. showed that he felt bound to observe

the decrees of Constance, for he actually summoned the

Council, in 1423, to meet, first at Pavia, and then at

Sienna. But the moment any signs of an attempt at
reform manifested themselves, he dissolved it,
"

on
account of the fewness of those present." However,
shortly before his death, he summoned the new Council
to meet at Basle. Eugenius iv. could not avoid carrying
out the duty he had inherited from his predecessor, to

which he was already pledged in conclave. When the

earliest arrivals at Basle took place at the appointed time,

the citizens laughed at the new-comers as dreamers, so

little could they now conceive the Pope s being in earnest

in convoking the Council after the course events had
1
taken since 1417. In fact, Eugenius ordered the dis

solution of the still scanty assembly immediately after

its first proceedings, December 18, 1431, on the most

transparently frivolous pretexts, with a view to its resum

ing its sittings a year and a half later at Bologna, under his
own presidency. And yet the need for a Council had
. S\lv. Commentar. de Rebus Basil. Gestis (ed. Fea. Rom. 1823), p. 39.
3 1 o Papal Infallibility.

never seemed more urgent than at that moment, on

account of the triumpjis of the Hussites. The assembly,
relying on the decrees of Constance, which had been re

peatedly promulgated, remained united, and profited by

the warning of the evil consequences resulting at Con
stance from the sharp division of nations to frame a better

organization for itself, by forming four deputations, in

which different nations and orders were represented.

And thus the contest with the Pope began, at first

under favourable circumstances, for public opinion

throughout Europe was already enlisted on the side of

the Council. Moreover, it received strong support from

King Sigismund, and Eugenius found himself hard

pressed in Italy, and deserted by many Cardinals, and
even by the Court officials, hundreds of whom had run

away from him. In vain he pronounced excommuni

cation against the prelates who were on their way to

Basle. Letters of adhesion poured into Basle from kings,

princes, and prelates, from bishops and universities ;

it

seemed was broken whereby the

as if once again the spell

Papal system had held men s minds enthralled. Eugenius

saw that he must give in,and he signified his assent to

the continuance of the Council in his Bull of February

4, 1433, and named four cardinals to preside over it.

 The Council of Basle. 3 1 1

Bui this Bull, again, did not satisfy the Council, though
Eugenius expressly declared that he regarded it as having
never been interrupted, and thereby absolutely retracted
his former decree for its dissolution. There was a design
of suspending him, when Sigismund, now become Em
peror, arrived unexpectedly, and, through his exertions, ef
Pope and the Council.
fected a reconciliation between the

Eugenius transcribed word for word the form of approval

drawn up by the Council in his Bull of December 15,
1433, and recalled his three former Bulls ;
he was now
ashamed of the which he had most vigorously
third, in

assailed the authority of the Council, and on the prin

ciples of the Papal system, and affirmed that he had

not sanctioned its publication.
1
He admitted that the
Council had been fully justified in continuing in ses

sion, and passing decrees, in spite of his Bull of disso

lution, and promised to adhere to it

"

with all zeal and

devotion."
2 "

We recall the three Bulls," he said,

"

to

show clearly to the world the purity of our intentions

and the sincerity of our devotion to the universal
Church and the holy (Ecumenical Council of Basle." The
1 The
style and tone of this Bull, Deus novit, betray unmistakeably the
hand of the Papal Court theologian, and Master of the Palace,
Torquemada,
who was in Basle in 1433, by commission of the Pope, but seems soon after
wards to have returned to him.
2
Mansi, Condi, xxix. 78.
312 Papal Infallibility.

humiliation of the man and the discomfiture of the sys

tem were complete. It was no isolated act of conde

scension for the sake of peace, but the most definite

and indubitable acknowledgment of the superior autho

rity of the Council, and his own subjection to it.

The Synod had from the first taken the decrees of

Constance on the supreme authority of Councils as its

basis, and expressly published them anew as articles of

faith, which in fact they were expressly declared to be

by the Council Pope and Council in

of Constance.

common enjoined Western Christendom to believe these

doctrines, and it
certainly appeared incredible to every
one then that a time could ever come when the attempt
1
would be made to overthrow them.

Even in his former Bulls, condemning and annulling

1
Ultramontanes, from Torqnemada and Bellarrnine to Orsi, have disco
vered but one escape from this dilemma, by saying that Eugenius s conces
sions were made under sheer pressure of fear. But he was perfectly free per
sonally. Sigismund was at Basle, Eugenius in Italy, and they corresponded
by letter.If Eugenius was afraid, it was simply the conviction of the
whole Church, the public opinion of princes, clergy, and nations, he was
afraid of. And if this feeling is to be called fear, then every Pope lives in a
chronic state of fear. Eugenius had indeed first sent about his ambassadors
to investigate the state of opinion. But even the Religious Orders, always
devoted to Rome, refused their services then. Gonzalez, General of the
Jesuits, who thought the argument from fear too absurd, took refuge in
the pretext that Eugenius sought to deceive the Council by the ambiguous
language of his Bull (De Infallib. Rom, Pontif. Romas, 1689, p. 695), an
unjust imputation on the Pope, for the Bull is clear and unambiguous from
beginning to end.
 The Council of Basle. 3 1
3

the decisions of the Fathers at Basle, Eugenius had not

ventured to touch the decrees of Constance on which

they were based, and he had, moreover, recognised the

second session, in which those decrees were renewed ;

he had only attacked what was done after the issue of

his decree for the dissolution of the Council. So com -

and irrevocably was the Papal See bound, as must

pletely
have been believed, to the decisions of Constance on
Church authority, for if Eugenius erred in confirming
them he was not infallible, and the gift must rest with
the Council, while, on the other hand, if he was right, his

subjection in matters of faith to the Council, and there

fore his fallibility, was again affirmed. Moreover,

Eugenius had maintained his right, as Pope, to dissolve

or suspend any Council at his pleasure this he now

;

retracted, and acknowledged the legitimacy of a General

Council carried on in defiance of a Papal decree for its

dissolution.

Eor three years and a half, from the fourteenth session

of November 7, 1433, to the twenty-fifth of May 7, 1437,
an external harmony at least was maintained between
the Council and the Pope, as represented by his legates

and by Cardinal Caesarini. The decrees of reform

only
included matters long since universally recognised as
314 Papal Infallibility.

necessary, and forbade nothing which had not been

regarded as a public scandal for the Church. The regu

lar method of conferring spiritual offices was restored,

reservations of elective benefices and reversionary rights

in them were abolished, simony and pluralities were

forbidden,some regulation and limitation of appeals

was introduced, and the frequency and severity of
interdicts diminished. All this was so reasonable, so

just, and so ecclesiastical, that it was received with

general applause. The Synod acted so considerately, that

of the numerous rights claimed by the Popes in the De

cretals of the Corpus Juris, no single one was abrogated.
And besides, by adding the exception,
"

for weighty and

prudent reasons," the Synod had left open a wide door
for the Pope, notwithstanding its prohibitions, which

gave occasion to the University of Paris to blame them

1
sharply.

Eugenius himself had declared his entire agreement

with the decrees of reformation, even after the twentieth
2
session of January 23, 1435, and he repeated this on
June 15 of the same year to the deputy of the Synod,
John of Brekenstein. 3 Yet he had a grudge against

1
Bulsei, Hist. Univ. Paris, v. 246.
3 Patric.
Se Concilii decreta semper suscepisse et
"
observasse." Aug.
Hist. Condi. Basil, 46, in
c. Labbe, ConcU. xiii. 1533.
3 ut supra, p. 866.
Labbe,
 The Council of Basle. 315

the Council for not giving liim the means of obtaining

money, which he asserted his need of, for abolishing

annates, and for disputing his right to the patronage of

benefices reservedby the last Popes. Before finally
breaking with them, he had a charge brought against
the Council, through his agents, who travelled about to

the different Courts furnished with secret instructions,

that they had appointed a President, and given far too

sweeping an interpretation to the decrees of Constance,

which, however, he had himself three years before ac

knowledged as the true one. The payment of annates, he

said, was an immemorial usage

O the fact beincr
O that the
Popes had introduced it about forty years before, during
the schism. 1 His nuncios were further instructed that,

as the abuses of the Court of Eome were constantly

cast in its teeth, and this produced a great impression,
they should carry with them a scheme of reformation
of a certain sort, in the shape of a Bull, to be produced

for the edification of the sovereigns, and to shut the

2
mouths of accusers. They were at the same time fur-
1 The annates amounted to half, and often more than half, the annual in
come of a see or a benefice, which every fresh occupant had to pay once, and
to pay in advance, to the Papal treasury. This excluded all poorer men,
unless their families could raise the money, from the higher dignities in
the Church, and placed the clergy generally in the position of
having to
enter on their posts under pressure of heavy debts. In some German
bishoprics the annates amounted to 25,000 florins (2000).
3
Per hanc reformationem, etiamsi usquequaque plena nou foret, modo
"
3 1 6 Papal Infallibility.

nislied with special powers, m foro conscientice (dispen

sations and absolutions), by the use of which they
1
might gain over the sovereigns to the Pope.
The Council, on the other hand, had some weak
points. Carried on and encouraged by the general

confidence and assent accorded to it, it was under the

temptation of entering upon a mass of details, processes,

and local concerns, which were brought before it

chiefly
from France and Germany got involved as umpire
;
it

in political intrigues, and made enemies here and there

even among the sovereigns. And the final decision

naturally rested with them, when the struggles between

the Council and the Pope broke out afresh.

The negotiations with the Greek Emperor about the

reunion of the Churches gave the Pope the desired pre-

esset aliqua, eorum ora obstruerentur, qui continue lacerant et carpunt

Romance Curias famam redderenturque tune reges et principes melius
aedificati et magis proni ad condescendendum petitionibus Papae et Car-
dinalium," etc. Eaynald. Annal. ann. 1436, 15. Had the Roman encom
iast, who has been so discreetly reticent elsewhere, gone to sleep when he
let this passage get into print ?
The Bull does not specify the extent of graces of this kind, such as were
1

used for detaching the princes from the side of the Council but they must ;

have been very large, for a century earlier, e.g., Clement v. had granted
to King John of France and his wife the privilege of being absolved by their
confessor, retrospectively and prospectively, from all obligations, engage
ments, and oaths, which they could not conveniently keep. Sacramenta "

per vos praestita et per vos et eos praestanda in posterum, quae vos et illi
servare commode non possetis." D
Achery, Spicil. (Paris, 1661), iv. 275.
 The Co^lnc^l of Basle. 317

text for setting up a rival Synod in Italy. He had

already obtained a decision from the minority friendly
to him at Basle in favour of removing into Italy, when,
at the end of 1437, he proclaimed the adjournment of
the Council, or rather, as the event showed, the open-

o of a
ins new one at Ferrara. As the Greeks took his

side, and the Emperor, the Patriarch, and the Bishops of

the Eastern Church, really came to Ferrara (as after

wards to Florence), his design succeeded.

It was well known at Basle that the Synod opened
on Italian soil would at once be flooded by the local

bishops, the officials of the CWm,and the clerical vagrants

and place-hunters, and all hopes of reforming the

Church would be lost. In fact, during the two years

the Council sat at Ferrara and Florence, which the Pope

prolonged to two years more, until 1442, after the

departure of the Greeks, not a single genuine decree of

reform was framed or promulgated.
Meanwhile the breach between the Fathers of Basle
and the Pope was not obvious on the surface from the

beginning, for Eugenius worded his original Bull as

though were based on that decree of the minority

it

which professed to emanate from the whole Council,

and thus the Synod of Ferrara at first appeared to be
3 1 8 Papal Infallibility.

simply a continuation of that at Basle, and its decrees

were supposed to form one body with those enacted

there up to the time of the adjournment of the Synod
after the twenty-fifth session. Both parties in the
meantime adopted the extremest measures. The Synod
of Basle, on the strength of the canon of Constance,

declared it an article of faith that the authority of a

General Council is higher than the Pope s, that none

can dissolve or remove it against its will, and that

to deny Thereupon Eugenius iv. was
this is heresy.

deposed, against the advice of the Emperor, and a new

Pope, Duke Amadeus of Savoy, chosen, who took the

name of Eelix v., a grievous mistake and excess,
for the horror of a two or three headed Papacy

and an European schism were still only too fresh in

men s memory. Moreover, when the Synod ventured

on these steps, at the instigation of its leader, Cardinal

Allemand of Aries, it had already become insignificant

in numbers and personal weight. It was too like a

tumultuous multitude composed partly of impure and

incongruous elements, though it manifested good dis

cipline and steady perseverance under the leadership of

1
the presiding Cardinal, whom it implicitly obeyed.
1
To the constantly repeated charge that the few bishops had been out-
 The Union with the Greek Church. 3 19

XXV. The Union with the Greek Church.

Eugenius had to give up all hopes of the non-Italian

bishops attending his Italian Council ;
not one of them

came, except two prelates from his own dominions, whom

the Duke of Burgundy had compelled to appear. But at

Ferrara and Florence he at last induced the Greeks, after

long resistance, to accept to be sure only for the moment

those conditions of reconcilation which he insisted

upon, and to subscribe the act of union. The Emperor, in

presence of the threatened destruction of his capital and
the last remaining fragments of his empire, yielded at

last. One of the main difficulties concerned the question

of the primacy, and that at the moment was the most

important point for the Pope, for if he could meet the

efforts of the Synod of Basle
by producing the testi
mony of the re-united Eastern Church on his side, it
would greatly strengthen his case in the public opinion
of the whole West. A general recognition of the
Eoman primacy was a matter of course for the Greeks,

according to their own tradition, as soon as the charge

voted by the numerous presbyters, D Allemand might well have replied,

that had bishops only voted, the will of the Italian nation must have
always prevailed, for their bishops outnumbered or equalled those of all
other nations. (^En. Silv. DeConc. Basil. 1791, p. 87.)
3 2o Papal Infallibility.

against the Holy See of having become heretical or

schismatical was disposed of. The Easterns had been
familiar for nearly a thousand years with the Patriarchal

theory, according to which the five Patriarchs, among

whom the Patriarch of old Kome was the first and chief
in rank, stood at the head of the whole Church, so
that nothing could be separately decided on questions

of doctrine and the common interests of the Church

without the consent of all five of them. But this view
of the precedence of the Kornan "Pope" (the Patriarch of
Alexandria had the same title with them) had at bottom
as little in common with that universal Papal monarchy
invented in the West in 845, and carried out in practice

since 1073, as the position of a Venetian Doge has with

that of a Persian Shah. To the Greeks, at all events,

the notion of such theocratic sovereignty, interfering

forcibly in all the details of the Church s life, and

systematically ignoring all legal limitations, such as

existed in the West, was strange and incomprehen
sible. Their Patriarchs moved within a far narrower

sphere, and acted by fixed rules. The whole Papal

system of indulgences was entirely unknown to them.

Many rights and means of power gradually acquired by
the Popes could never have come into use in their
 The Union with the Greek Church. 321

simple system of Church- government. And it was just

these very claims of the Papal system which for cen

turies had been their main ground for resisting any

overtures for reunion. As early as 1232 the Patriarch
Germanus had written to the Cardinals,
"

Your tyran
nical oppression and the extortions of the Pioman

Church are the cause of our disunion/ Humbert,

General of the Dominicans, made the same statement
in the memorial he drew up for the Council of Lyons
in 1274: Eoman Church knows only how to
"The

make the yoke she has laid on men s shoulders press

heavily; her extortions, her numberless legates and

nuncios, and the multitude of her statutes and punish

ments, have deterred the Greeks from reunion." And

3
thiswas the universal opinion in the West. The
French clergy appealed to it in their representation to
4
Clement iv. in 1266 ;
and Bishop Durandus of Mende
5
urged it
upon Clement v. The English Sir John
Mandeville related, after his return from the East, that
the Greeks had answered laconically to John xxn/s

1 2
Matt. Par. Hist. Angl. p. 461. Brown, Fascic. ii. 215.
3 So Gerlioch (De Invest, A ntichr. p. 171) said about 1150, "

Graeci a
Romania propter avaritiam, lit dicunt, se alienaverunt."
4 "

Marlot, Metrop. Rhemens, ii. 557, Quod propter ejusmodi exactiones

Orientalis Ecclesia ab obedientia Komanae Ecclesias recesserit, patet om
5
nibus." Tractat. de Cone. p. 69.
322 Papal Infallibility.

demand for their submission, "Thy plenary power

over thy subjects we firmly believe ;
thine immeasur

able pride we cannot endure, and thy greed we cannot

1
satisfy. With thee is Satan, with us the Lord." In

1339, the Minorite John of Florence, sent to the East

by Benedict XIIL, had an interview with the Patriarch

of Constantinople and his Synod, and it was again said
that the cause of the disunion was the insatiable pride

of the Bishop of Rome. 2

That notion of the Papacy according to which all
Church authority is exercised by the Pope, and belongs

by inherent right to him alone, in whom are centred all

the rights of the episcopate, was a special stumbling-

3
block to the Greeks ;
and if they regarded the number
of oaths in use among the Latins as unchristian, the

demand that they should take an oath of obedience to

the Pope was doubly hateful to them. But the hope

lessness of their situation had broken their spirit ; they
were living during the Council on the alms of the Pope,
and could not return home with their work unaccom

plished. Eugenius wanted them to acknowledge his

1
Itinerar. Zwollis, 1487, i. 7.
2
Job. Marignol. Chronic, in Dobner s Script. Ter. Bohem. ii. 85.
3 Thus in the Crimen contra Eccl. Lat., written about 1200, and found
in Coteler, Monum. Eccl. Grose, iii. 502, we read, W <rvveKTiKdi>

a.irdi>Tuv
dpxie oea Tbv Ha.Trav. That they could not comprehend.
 The Union with the Greek Church. 323

monarchical power over the whole Church in the form

usual in the West, and, when the Papal theologians

overwhelmed them with a mass of forged or corrupted

passages derived from the pseudo-Isidore and Gratian,

they answered shortly and All these canons are

"

drily,
1
apocryphal."
The Emperor said that if the Pope in
sisted on this point, he would depart with his bishops.
At last a compromise was effected; the Pope waived
his demand for a recognition of his supremacy over the
Church according to Scripture and the sayings of the
"

2
saints." The Emperor had observed on that point,
that the courtly rhetoric to be found in the letters of

ancient bishops and emperors could not be transmuted

into the logic of strict law, and that the canons of

Councils should rather be taken as the rule. The
article was accordingly worded to this effect, that
"

the

Pope is the vicar of Christ, the head of the whole

Church, the Father and teacher of all Christians, and

has full authority from Christ to rule and feed the

Church in the manner contained in the acts of the

(Ecumenical Councils and in the Canons." This lan

guage defined the limits of the Papal authority, and the

i
Harduin, Condi, ix. 968-974.
s
This meant, as the acts show, the strongest of the spurious passages in

pseudo-Isidore and St. Thomas.

324 Papal Infallibility.

rules for its exercise, and moreover reduced it within

such narrow and moderate boundaries that Eugenius

and his theologians would never have agreed to it, had

they known the true state of the case, and not been

misled by the old and new forgeries into a very mis

taken estimate of the ancient Councils, and the position
the Pope occupied in them. The Greeks understood
by the (Ecumenical Councils those only which were
held in the East during the first eight centuries, and
before the division of the two halves of the Church,

the Eastern and Western, and this was recognised at

Borne as self-evident, so that in the first edition printed

there, as well as in the Primhgium of Clement vil.,

and even in the Eoman edition of 1626, the Council of

1
Florence is called the eighth (Ecumenical. But in the

first seven Councils nothing was said of any special

rights of superiority in the Pope only his precedence

;

over all other patriarchs was recognised in the twenty-

eighth canon of Chalcedon. The appeals, which Euge

nius wanted, were expressly forbidden by the ancient

Councils. But the Latins, to whose minds the mention

of the ancient Councils only suggested the legends of

1
[It is also quoted as the eighth
in Cardinal Pole s Reformation o/
England, dated Lambeth, 1556. Tn.]
 The Unto ft with the Greek Chiirch. 325

Silvester, Julius, and Virgilius, etc., and the spurious

canons, thought they had provided sufficiently for the

interests of the Pope by this formula.

The original Latin translation rendered the Greek

text faithfully, for after the long controversy with the

Greeks over every word, it had been necessary to draw

up the decrees first in Greek. Flavio Biondo, the

1
Pope s secretary, gives a correct version. But in the
Roman edition of Abraham Cretensis, by the unob
trusive change of a single word, what the Greeks in

tended to have expressed by it had disappeared, viz.,

that the prerogatives attributed to the Pope are to be

understood and exercised according to the rule of the

2
ancient Councils. By this change the rule was trans-

1 The Greek version "

/cd0 ov rpoirov /ecu zv TCKS Trpa/crkots

runs, TU>V

"

olKov/mevLKUv Gvvbfiwv /cal ev rot s Itpocs 6ta\a u/3dz eTcu This is

Kaz>o<n
y

honestly rendered in the original Latin text,

"

quemadmodum (better juxta

eura modum
qui ) et in gestis CEcum. Concil. et in sacris canonibus con-
tinetnr." So Biondo quotes it in his History (1. x. Dec. 3), and so Cardinal
Marcus Vigerius, Bishop Fisher of Kochester, Eck, and Pighius have quoted
it after him. But the Dominican Antoninus had already substituted
"
Continetur" is, however, an inadequate
etiam." [" rendering, to say the
least, of 5ia\afj.pdveTai, which rather means determined" than is con
"

"is

tained." See an article on the Council of Florence in the Union Review,

vol. iv. pp. 190 sqq. and cf. vol. iii. pp. 686, 687. TR.]
2
etiam," instead of
"

Quemadmodum et It is one of the many

"

et."

disingenuous statements Orsi has made himself responsible for, when he

says (De Rom. Pont. Auctor. vi. 11), in the teeth of the facts as evidenced
by the record of proceedings, that the Greek text was translated from the
Latin, which, however, had not "

etiam"
originally. His ignorance of
 326 Papal Infallibility.

formed into a mere confirmatory

v reference,
and the sense
of the passage became, that the prerogatives enume
rated there belonged to the Pope, and were also contained

in the ancient Councils. And the decree of Union

has since been printed in this corrupted form in the

collections of canons, and elsewhere. 1

After the departure of the Greeks, Eugenius severely

denounced the Synod of Basle in his Bull, issued from

Florence, but this censure onlv touched the sessions

held after its prorogation, and the
"

false interpretation

put upon the decrees of Constance." In this reserved

and tortuous document he did not venture to make
any direct attack on the decrees of Constance, then so

highly reverenced throughout the Christian world, but

he tried to damage their credit by observing that they

Greek may excuse him for saying, on the authority of a young man, that
may be translated by etiam." Launoy, Bossuet, Natalis Alex
"

/cat KO.I

ander, De Marca, the Jesuit Maimbourg, and Duguet, have long since
exposed the fraud. But in the Greek version, sent directly from Florence
by the Pope to the King of England, all the words after
primacy over
"

the whole Church" are missing, so that there reason to suspect an inter
is

polation even in the Greek text. Brequigny has shown (Memoires de

how suspicious are all the copies of
UAcadem. des Tnscr. t. 43, p. 306 sqq,)
the decree of Union, nine in number, now extant, except the British.
None of them are original documents. The five original copies have dis
appeared.
[It is also printed in some theological manuals, and often qiioted for
1

controversial purposes, with the critical clause about the canons of Coun
cils suppressed altogether. We have a fresh instance of this in Archbishop
Manning s Pastoral on the Infallibility of the Roman Ponti/,})}). &,. TR.]
3
In the Decretal Moyses Vir Dei." Cf. Condi (ed. Labbe), xiii. 1030.
"
 The Union with the Greek Church. 327

had been passed during the time of the schism by one

Obedience only, and after the departure of Pope John.
Yet it was not the loss of his infallibility through these
decrees that so deeply grieved him. That he had

already recognised. Torquemada had made him say in

the former Bull (Deus novit) that the Pope s sentence

must always take precedence of that of a Council,

except in what concerned questions of faith, or rules

necessary for the good of the whole Church, for in that

1
case the decision of the Council must be preferred.

XXVL The Papal Reaction.

The French nation assumed the most dignified and

consistent attitude in view of the altered condition of

the Church and the renewal of the schism. In 1438

theKing opened a mixed assembly of ecclesiastics and
laymen at Bourges. The deputies both of the Pope
and the Council of Basle were heard, and it was decided
to receive the decrees of the Council, with certain modi

fications required by the circumstances of France. Thus

originated the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, which
included the freedom of Church elections, the principle
of the superior authority of General Councils, and the
1 See Condi, (ed Lab"be) ; xii. 537.
328 Papal Infallibility.

rejection of the disorderly proceedings of the Curia,

with its expectancies, reservations, appeals, and mani
fold devices for extorting money. It was the first

comprehensive codification of what have since been

called the Gallican Liberties. Detested at Eome, it

became the butt for the attacks of every Pope after

Eugenius iv., until at last Leo x. succeeded in abolish

ing it
by the Concordat of 1517, in which the Pope and
the King shared the spoils of the French Church the ;

lion s share falling, however, to the King.

England, involved at the time in political troubles,

neglected to take a side. Few only would acknowledge
the Savoyard Pope, even if they could not resolve on
giving up the Council. Alfonso, King of Aragon and
Naples, hitherto the main support of the Council of
Basle, but who had now been won over by the large
offers of the Pope, recalled his bishops, and together

with the Venetians, who were the countrymen of

Eugenius, became his supporter in Italy. The German

nation, under the lead of the Electors, maintained

neutrality between the Synod of Basle and the Pope,

but in a sense practically favourable to the Council ;

and they solemnly accepted its decrees of reformation

in 1439 at the imperial Diet of Mayence, whereby

 The Papal Reaction. 329

Germany bound itself, like France, to the recognition

of the doctrine of Church authority laid down in the

1
canons of Constance. There was no man of mark in

all Germany at that time who expected any good from

the Court of Borne for the Church or for his country.

Most of the clergy, the Universities of Vienna. Erfurt,

2
Cologne, Louvain, and Cracow, besides Paris, the

sovereigns and their counsellors, and all the people,

were for the Council and its doctrine against the

Papal system.
But Eugenius understood well how to gain over
converts to his side, by bestowing privileges and grants
of all kinds, and for this he was much more favourably

situated than the Council, which was bound by its own

principles, and the decrees it had published, and had

little or nothing to give in the way of dispensations,

privileges, and exemptions, but was obliged to confine

itself within the limits of the ancient Church, while

Eugenius, according to the tradition of the Curia,

was not bound to the laws of the Church. To the
Duke of Cleves he gave such important ecclesiastical

1 document of acceptance, Koch, Sanctio Pragmat. Germ.

See, for the
p. 93.
2
Launoy(0pp. vi. 521 seg.) has had their judgments printed from Parisian
manuscripts.
3 3o Papal Infallibility.

rights, at the expense of the bishops, that he made him

master of the Church." and the clergy of his country, so
that it became a proverb, The Duke of Cleves is Pope
"

in his own land." As early as 1438, Eugenius had not

only deposed and anathematized the members of the

Council, but had laid Basle under interdict, excommuni
cated the municipal council, and required every one to

plunder the merchants who were bringing their wares

to the city, because it is written,
"

The righteous hath

spoiled the ungodly."
For a long time, indeed, his acts

produced no result was too strong a feeling in

;
there

favour of the Council, which had shown so sincere a desire

to benefit the Church. For some years the Electors va

cillated in their policy between Eome and Basle. At last
their decision came, in 1446. King Frederick, acting
under the advice of his secretary, the accomplished
rhetorician ^Eneas Silvio Piccolomini, sold himself to

Pope Eugenius, who could offer him more than Felix,

since the latter was bound to the decisions of the Council.

Eugenius in his lavish bounty pledged himself to pay the

King 1 00,000 florins for his journey, together with the im
perial crown, assigned tithes to him from all the German

1
Teschenmacher, Annal. Clivice (Francof. 1729), p. 294.
8
Raynald. Annal. anno 1433, 5.
 The Papal Reaction. 331

benefices, the patronage for one vacancy of 100 bene

fices in his hereditary territories, and the appoint
ment of bishops to six dioceses, and, finally, gave full

powers to his confessor to give him twice a plenary ab

1
solution from all sins.
Thereby the cause of the Council
and of Church reformation was lost in Germany, and the
German Church sank back, step by step, into its former

bondage. ^Eneas Silvius, who had meanwhile entered

the Papal service, bribed two ministers of the Elector

of Mayence, who won over their master to the side of

the Pope. Thus the body of German princes was

divided, and the previous demand for a new Council
was reduced to a mere petition, which people did not
trouble themselves about at Eome. The victory of

Eugenius was complete. When on his death-bed he

received the homage of the German ambassadors, the
event was celebrated (Feb. 7, 1447) in Rome with ring
ing of bells and bonfires. Even the slight concessions
the Pope had made to the Germans he thereupon at

once recalled in secret Bulls, "

so far as they contained

anything prejudicial to the Papal See." A fortnight

later he died, after triumphing over the Council and

1
Chmel, Geschicht. Friedr. iv. (Hamburg, 1839), ii. 385 ; Material, ii.
19o sqq.
33 2 Papal Infallibility.

overGermany but the means he had employed wrung

;

from him in his aony of conscience the words, "

Gabriel, how much better were it for thy soul s sal

vation, hadst thou never become Cardinal and Pope!"

Meanwhile, however, he had acknowledged in his public

Bull the decrees of Constance on the superiority and
1
periodical convocation of Councils.
When Frederick in., in 1452, received the imperial

crown from the hands of the Pope, ^Eneas Silvius was

able to declare in his name and his presence that another

Emperor would, no doubt, have desired a Council, but

2
the Pope and the Cardinals were the best Council.

The new Pope, Nicolas v. that same Thomas of

Bologna who had been so successful in his dealings with

King Frederick added a fresh conquest to the hard-
won victory of his predecessor in the Concordat of
Vienna (of Feb. 17, 1448), restoring to the Pope the
right of appointing to a great number of German bene
fices a compact concluded with King Frederick, as

plenipotentiary of the German princes, which resulted

in a division of gains and influence between them
and the Papal Court. The princes had been the
1
Eaynald. Annal. ann. 1447, 4; Miiller, Reichstags-Theatrum,^. 347,
seq. ; Koch, Sanctio Pragm. pp. 81 seq.
3
^Eneae Silvii Hist. Fred. III. in Kollar s Analecta, ii. 317.
 The Papal Reaction. 333

more readily won over at an earlier period by various

privileges, because the observance of the reforming

decrees of Basle would have considerably diminished

theirpower over the churches in their dominions. Not

long after the compact had been agreed upon, Pope
Calixtus in., in 1457, declared to the Emperor that it

was obvious the Pope was not bound by the Concordat,

for no agreement could bind or limit in any way the

full and free authority of the Papal See, and if he paid

regard to it, that was only out of favour, friendliness,

1
and tender affection for the German nation. And this

has been a Roman maxim from that day forward. It

was taught that an authority like the Papal cannot

bind itself, for that would be inconsistent with its

plenary power ;
least of all can it lay an obligation on
future Popes, since all have equal rights, and an equal

has no power over his equals. The nation therefore is

bound by the Concordat, but not the Pope. And thus

the Bolognese jurist, Cataldino de Buoncampagni, who
wrote for the Pope against the Synod of Basle, had

already determined that whatever promises the Pope

might make, he was never bound by them in the fulness

1
Quamvis liberrima
"

sit Apostolicse Seclis auctoritas imllisque delbeat

pactionum vinculis coerceri," etc. JEnece Silvii Epist. 371, Opp. (ed. Basil.
1551), 840.
 334 Papal Infallibility.

of his power, for as every one is his com

subject, every

pact or engagement bears the character of a gracious

condescension only, and can, as such, be at any moment
1
retracted, and therefore the Pope, in spite of his pro
2
mises, was not bound to the decrees of the Council.
Itwas roundly affirmed in the Eoman Court of the
Eota in 1610, in reference to the German Concordat,
that for the Pope and the Curia its only validity was
as a privilege graciously bestowed, and that it had no
3
binding force.

But the hatred and contempt of both Pope and Em

peror, which had become deeply fixed in the minds of the

Thus, e.g., says the Roman canonist and assessor of the Inquisition,
1

Pirro Corrado, Praxis Dispens. Apost. de Concord. Quaest. 8.

2
De Translat. Condi, in Roccaberti s Biblioth. Max. vi. 27. That
was allowed to be again printed in 1697, under sanction of the Roman cen
sorship. It was maintained still later by the famous canonist, Felino

Sandei, whom the Pope rewarded with bishoprics for his commentary on
the Decretals, "ad
cap. xiii. de Judiciis."
3
Nicolarts, Ad Concord. Germ. Tit. 3. dub. 3, 6. It was the re
ceived doctrine of the Curia, that Concordats could not bind the Pope.
Thus the Benedictine Zallwein (Princip. Jur. Eccl. iv. 300) says, Passim "

decent assentatores Romani Pontificis et curiales Romani apud quos ipsum

nomen Concordatorum pessime audit." Hence all German canonists, with
the exception of course of the Jesuits, have felt it necessary to prove,
from the laws of nations and of the ancient Church, that a Pope is bound
to keep his word and the engagements of his predecessors. Thus Barthel,
Schramm, Schrodt, Schmidt, Schlor, Oberhauser, Zallwein, etc.
Diirr,
Benedict xiv. himself alone declared, Dec. 14, 1740, in a Brief to the Chapter
of Liege, that he did not hold himself bound by the Concordat. Cf Endres, .

De Libert. Eccl. Germ. 1774, p. 60 Theod. a Palude (Hontheirn) Florc-3

;

Sparsi, 1770, p/ 452 j Barthel, Opusc. Jurid. 1756, ii. 373 seq.
 The Papal Reaction. 335

Germans, broke out at the Imperial Diet at Frankfort

in 1454, and later, when the question of contributions

for thewar against the Turks was raised. Nobody was

willing to trust a word said by them or their ambas-

sors, since the extortion of money was the only thing

aimed at.
"

All," says ^Eneas Silvius, who was soon as

Pope to experience similar treatment,

"

cursed the Em
peror and the Pope, and treated the legates with con
1
tempt."
But the summoning of a General Council

was still sometimes talked of at these Diets, and the

very notion had become such a bugbear of the Popes,

that they made it a primary condition in their dealings

with some German princes, as, e.g.,

with Diether of

Isenberg, that they should never moot the question.

Meanwhile every appeal to a General Council was

promptly visited with excommunication in the most

decisive manner by Pius 11.

At the close of his life, the Emperor Frederick seems

to have repented of his share in this work of destruc

tion. The instructions he gave his ambassador for the

Diet at Frankfort, in 1486, contain words to the effect

that he knew what immense sums passed to Eome

in the shape of annates, indulgences, and the like, and
1 Pii Ccmmentar. a Joli. Gobellin (Fef. 1614), p. 22.
336 Papal Infallibility.

what abject obedience and subjection to the Papal See

the German nation iiad exhibited, above all others.

These services were received thanklessly and haughtily

by the Pope, Cardinals, and Court officials, and the

German nation was contumeliously treated in all deal
ings, from the highest to the lowest, so that it would
be against the common nature and reason of mankind
to endure such piteous treatment any longer. It was
therefore to be impressed on the princes that they
should no longer show obedience and submission to the

Pope, in order that the German nation might no more

be despised and humbled beyond all others."

Felix (the Antipope) wasnow induced by the

French King to resign, and was made the chief Car
dinal, with extensive jurisdiction over several dioceses.
The remnant of the Synod of Basle, which had at last

been driven to Lausanne, dissolved itself, and the Car

dinal of Aries, that "adept
in iniquity and son of

perdition,"
as Eugenius had termed him, was restored
without ever retracting any of his principles. This did

not prevent Clement vn. from canonizing him after his

death,
"

had been proved by miracles,

since his sanctity

and he had always led a heavenly, chaste, and blameless

life."

1
Schlozer, Briefwechsel, x. 269.
Temper and Circumstances of i^tli Century. 337

XXVII. Temper and Circumstances of the Fifteenth

Century.

Some time had elapsed after the disastrous year 1446,

before it was understood in
Germany that all hope of
reforming the Church by means of Councils was at an
end. Even so late as 1459, men could not and would
not believe in this utter wreck of all schemes of re

formation. The Carthusian Prior, Vincent of Axpach,

thought that if but one king would issue safe-conducts

for the assemblage of a Council in his dominions, and
but one bishop were to summon it, it would meet in

spite of the reclamations or anathemas of the Court of

Eome ;
and that was the last remaining hope, for the
experience of the last fifty years proved that no help
could be looked for from the See of Eome. It was a far

worse error than the Hussite heresy, to deprive the

Church of General Councils, which are its best possession.

And Vincent then relates how Eugenius succeeded in

alluring over nearly all lettered men to his side by the

offer of benefices.
1
An anonymous German writer, as

early as 1443, had also lamented this falling away of

the learned, such as Nicolas Cusa and Archbishop
1
Fez, Codex Epistol. iii. 335.

Y
33 8 Papal Infallibility.

Tudesclii.
"

The Eoman harlot has so many para

mours drunk with the wine of her fornications, tlmt the

Bride of Christ, the Church, and the Council represent

ing her, scarcely receive the loyal devotion of one

among a thousand. And yet Germany, in the person

of its Emperor, has been worse used by the Popes than
any other kingdom; the German Emperor alone was
compelled, in accordance with legendary and forged
decretals/ to swear obedience to the Pope."

At last, at the very moment of its dissolution, the

much-abused Synod of Basle had obtained a conspicuous

satisfaction ; Councils were still held in such high, esteem
in Eome, even after the death of Eugenius, that the

new Pope, Nicolas V., by advice of the Cardinals, issued

a Bull, declaring all documents, processes, decrees, and

censures of his predecessor against the Council void and

of no effect, even though issued with the approval of

2
the Council of Ferrara or Florence, or any other.

They were to be regarded as having never existed, and

were expunged from the writings of Eugenius as com-
1
Tractat. missus March. Brandenburg. 1443. See MSS. of vol. 31 of
Hardtisch collection in the library of Stuttgart. What is said of the de
cretals is sin-prising at that early date. Yet Nicolas of Cusa also had just
then for the first time recognised the spurious character of certain Isidorian
decretals.
2 See Bull Tanto Nos, in the Jesuit Monod s Amadeus Pacif. (Paris,
1626), p. 272.
Temper and Circumstances of i ^th Century. 339

pletely as the Bulls of Boniface vm. against France and

the French king had been expunged on a former occa
1
sion by command of Clement v. And thus the prin

ciples of the two reforming Councils, on the superiority

of General Councils to Popes, completely triumphed
after all ;
the attempts of Eugenius, acting under in

spiration of Cardinal Torquemada, to bring the Synod

of Constance into bad odour, were entirely foiled, and
the Curia itself bowed to the superior claims of a

General Council. As regards the reforming decrees of

the Fathers of Basle, so far as they prejudiced the

power and finances of the Curia, they were surrendered

to destruction, but the dogmatic decisions of the Pope s

inferiority to a Council, on which they were based,

remained untouched.
Pius II., indeed, who in his former position of rhetori

cian and scholar had defended the interests of the

Synod of Basle, made the most desperate attempt to

directly condemn the decisions of Constance, which

hung Damocles- sword over the uneasy heads of

like a

the Court officials, and disturbed their enjoyment of

Papal autocracy. But public opinion was too em

phatically on the side of the Council, and he not only

1 The Bull says,
"

Tollimus, cassamus, irritamus et cancpllanms."

340 Papal Infallibility.

did not dare to go against it, but on the contrary found it

prudent, in his Bull of retractation in 1463, to add ex

pressly that he acknowledged the authority and power

of an (Ecumenical Council, as defined by the Council

of Constance, which he reverenced. 1

But the race of Torquemadas was not yet extinct. By
degrees works appeared from the pens of monks and
cardinals, or those who hoped to become such, designed
to raise the Papal system from the humiliation it had

suffered through the Councils. This was not difficult,

forthey had merely to arrange and systematize, in the

form of axioms and deductions, the rich materials

provided by the forgeries of Isidore, Gratian, and St.

Thomas, in order to prove the groundlessness of the

two closely connected doctrines, of the authority of

the episcopate and of Councils. In this way originated

the writings of Capistrano, Albanus, Campeggi, Elisius,

Marcellus, and Lselius Jordanus, between 1460 and

1525. The character of the whole series may be judged
from any one of them, for one is copied from another,
and the same falsified or spurious testimonies, canons,

and statements of fact, are reproduced in all of them.

When that holy and highly favoured soul, St. Cathe-

1
Condi, (ed. Labbe), xiii. 1410.
Temper and Circumstances of i^tk Century. 341

rine of Sienna, came to Gregory XL, she told him that

she found in the Court of Kome the stench of infernal

vices, and on his replying that she had only been there
a few days, the virgin, humble as she was, rose majesti

cally, uttering these I dare to say that in my

"

words,
native city I have found the stench of the sins com
mitted in the Curia more oppressive than it is to those

who daily commit them."

It was the same everywhere ;
it seemed as though,

through the state of things gradually brought about,

and the dominant system in Kome, a new art had been
discovered among men, of making corruption and vice

omnipresent, and diffusing it like some subtle poison

from one centre and workshop, throughout every pore
of the vast organization of the Church. Every one
who looked over the Christian world for advice and

aid against the general corruption, or who only tried

to effect an improvement within his own immediate
sphere, found himself hampered at once by a Papal
ordinance, and gave up the attempt as hopeless. Papal
bulls, fulminations, begging monks, clerical place-
2
hunters, and inquisitors, were everywhere. Even
1
Acta Sanct. Holland. 30 April, p. 891.
2 "

Curtisanen," a name given to clerical vagrants who came to Rome

to barter or for beiiefices.
"beg Wimpheling has accurately described them.
34 2 Papal Infallibility.

Erasmus could say, in his letter to Bishop Fisher of

If Christ does not deliver His people from
"

Kochester,
this multiform ecclesiastical tyranny, the tyranny of the
1
Turks will at last become less intolerable."

And thus from the middle of the fifteenth century

every accent of hope disappears from the literature of

the Church, clearly as these accents had again rung

out at the beginning of the century, and about the time

of the Synods of Constance and Basle, both in speech

and writing. Men s thoughts could only revolve within
the same narrow circle a reformation of the Church

is impossible as long as the Court of Eome remains

what it is; there every mischief is fostered and protected,

and thence it spreads, but there, unless by a miracle,

there is no hope of reformation. So says the Abbot

James of Junterberg,
"

A reformation of the Church is to

me almost incredible, for first the Court of Eome must

be reformed, and the course things are taking shows
how difficult that is. Yet no nation so vehemently
opposes reform as the Italian, and to them all who
have cause to fear it attach themselves." The most
the
"

highly reverenced theologian of the Netherlands,

1
Erasm. Epp. vi. 8, p. 353 (ed. Londin. 1642).
Walch, Monum.
8
De Sept. Stat. Ecd. about 1450, in ii. 2, 42.
Temper and Circumstances of \^th Century. 343

ecstatic doctor," as he was called, the Carthusian Prior

Dionysius Eyckel, related how it was revealed to him

in a vision, which he communicated to the Pope him
self, that the whole choir of the blessed in heaven had
offered intercessions for the Church on earth, which
was threatened with the severest judgments, but had
received answer that even if the Pope, the cardinals,

and the prelates, with the rest, swore in God s name,

that they wished to reform themselves, they would be

perjured ;
from head to foot there was no soundness in
1
the Church.
It was pretty generally felt that it was with the re

formation of the Church as with the Roman king and

the Sibylline books ;
since the seed of corruption sown
everywhere by the Curia had so plentifully sprung up
during the last fifty years, while the Church made no
efforts for her deliverance, reform could only be pur
chased at a much dearer price, and with far less hope

of satisfactory results. Many thought, like the Domi

nican Institoris, about 1484, "The world cries for a

Council, but how can one be obtained in the present

condition of the heads of the Church ? No human power

avails any longer to reform the Church through a
1
Petr. Borland. Chron. Cartus. (Colon. 1608), pp. 394-9.
344 Papal Infallibility.

Council, and God himself must come to our aid in

some way unknown to us."

The Germans at that period looked with great envy on

the French, English, Scotch, and othe* nations, who were

not so shamefully abused and recklessly plundered as

the barbarous but humble and Germans, who
"

patient"

were sacrificed by their own princes. ^Eneas Silvius, or

Pius IL, had reminded them before, that, considering

their barbarism, they must account it properly an honour

they had to be thankful for, that the Court of Eome, in

virtue of its long attested civilizing mission for Germany,

was undertaking their affairs, and indemnifying itself
2
richly for the trouble.
When the Elector James of Treves advised King

Frederick to gain the favour of the German nation by

urging the new Pope, Calixtus in., to remedy their

grievances, ^Eneas Silvius persuaded him rather to unite

himself with the Pope than with the German people for

a common object, for, said the Italian, between king and

people there is an inextinguishable hatred, and it is

1
Cf. Hottinger, Hist. Eccl. Scec. xv. p. 413.
2
Respons. et Repl. Wimphel. ad ^Eneam Silvium, in Freher, Script. Rer.
Germ. (eel. Struv.) ii. 686-98. As late as 1516 the patriotic Wimpheling
thought it necessary to defend his country and its spokesman, Chancellor
Martin Maier of Mayence, against the Siennese Pope.
Temper and Circumstances of i ^tk Century. 345

therefore wiser to secure the favour of the new Pope

1
by rendering services to him.

Rome thus became the great school of iniquity, where

a large part of the German and Italian clergy went

through their apprenticeship as place-hunters, and re

turned home loaded with benefices and sins, as also

with absolutions and indulgences.

There is something almost enigmatical about the
universal profligacy of that age. In whole dioceses and
countries of Christian Europe clerical concubinage was
so general that it no longer excited any surprise ;
and
it might be said of certain provinces that hardly one
clergyman in thirty was chaste, while in our own day
there are countries where the great majority of the

clergy are free even from the suspicion of incontinence.

This distinction is to be explained by the universally

corrupt state of the ecclesiastical administration. There

could be no thought of any selection or careful training
for the ministrywhere everything was matter of sale,
where both ordination and preferment w ere bought and r

begged in Eome, where the conscientious, who would

not be tainted with simony, had to stand aside, while

the men of no conscience prospered, and rapidly attained

1 Gobellin. Comment. Pii n. p. 25.
34-6 Papal Infallibility.
the highest posts, and the clerical profession was that

of all others which offered the easiest and idlest life,

with the largest privileges and the least of corporate

obligations. The Curia had abundantly provided for

the universal security and impunity of the clergy.
Where the heads themselves gave the example of con

tempt for all laws, human and divine, it could not be

expected that their subordinates would submit to the

oppressive yoke of continence, and so the contagion
was sure to spread. Every one who came from Rome
brought back word that in the metropolis of Christen
dom, and in the bosom of the great mother and mistress
of all Churches, the clergy, with scarcely an exception,
1
kept concubines.

XXVIIL The Opening of the Sixteenth Century.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, under

Julius II., events took a turn which suggested an oppor

tunity to the Curia for recovering the ground they

had in theory lost. Louis xn. of France, and the

German emperor Maximilian, who were at political

1 When the vicar of Innocent vin. wanted to forbid this, the Pope made
him withdraw his edict, "propter quod talis effecta est vita sacerdotum
et curialium ut vix reperiatur qui concubinam non retineat vel saltern
meretricem." So too the Roman annalist, Infessura, in his diary, given in
Eccard. Corp. Hist. ii. 1997.
 The Opening of the \>th
Century. 347

enmity with the Popes, had recourse to the plan of

holding ecclesiastical assemblies. First, a Trench

National Synod was assembled at Tours, and then a

General Council summoned to Pisa, which being almost

entirely composed of French prelates, imitated the con

duct of the Council of Basle towards the Pope. The

quarrel, as all the world knew, was purely political,

o o the sovereignty
regarding o in Italv, and thus the scheme
*/ /

of the Council came to nothing. Julius IL, and Leo. x.

after him, assembled their Lateran Council, with about

sixty- five bishops, in opposition to it. The utter failure

of the attempt made at Pisa encouraged the Curia in

its turn to strike a blow at Councils, since during the

period of increased confusion and uncertainty, from 1460

to 1 5 1 5, the names of Constance and Basle were become

obsolete. Francis I. surrendered the Pragmatic Sanction

in return for theChurch patronage bestowed upon him,

whereby elections were abolished, and the fortunes of

the superior clergy, who aimed at dignities and bene

fices, were placed absolutely in the hands of the

King. Thus fell the main support of the authority

of the Council of Basle in France, as it had already

fallen in Germany through the Concordat of Vienna.

Maximilian, herein a worthy son of his father, had

348 Papal Infallibility .

shortly before sacrificed the Council of Pisa, and given

in his adherence to Julius n. and the Lateran Synod.
But in Eome the Curia seized the opportunity to ex
tricate the clergy, who in France had just been so com

pletely made dependent on the favour of the Court, from

all subjection to civil ties, and accordingly, in the ninth
session of the Lateran Council, it was ruled by the Pope
and bishops that "

by divine as well as human law the

laity have no jurisdiction over ecclesiastical persons."

This was a confirmation of the former decree issued by

Innocent in. at the Synod of 1215 (the fourth Lateran),

that no cleric should take an oath of fealty to the

princes of wliorn he held his temporalities. It was next

declared to be an obvious and notorious truth, attested

by Scripture, Fathers, Popes, and Councils, that the

Pope has full authority over Councils, and can summon,

suspend, or dissolve them at his pleasure.

We must presume that at a period when the most

complete theological barbarism prevailed in Eome itself,

and there was nothing but scholasticism as represented

by some Dominicans like Prierio and Cajetan, the car

dinals and bishops of the day no longer even knew what
Eugenius iv., Nicolas v., and Pius n. had so often de

clared. For they could hardly have expected the autho-

 The Opening of the i6//z Ccnhiry. 349

rity of a Leo x., with his hole-and-corner Council of

sixty-five Italians, to outweigh the Councils of Constance

and Basle, and the Popes above named, in the public

opinion of Europe. The Curia, however, were further

encouraged by their feeling of complete security, their

consciousness that whatever they undertook, and how

ever threatening or complicated might be the political

situation in Italy, they had nothing to fear in Church

matters. ISTor was this confidence disturbed by reproaches
and accusations, however loud ;
and however often the

cry for a Council was raised, which always and chiefly

meant only a limitation of the Papacy, the Curia took
it quietly. So much stronger had the tie become dur

ing the last hundred years which bound the clergy to

Eome ; every cleric who showed signs of rebelling was
crushed at once, and even the laity could not escape
excommunication and its consequences. Even the bold
Gregory of Heimburg only found a refuge with the

Hussite King in Bohemia, and was at last obliged, even

there, to supplicate for absolution at Eome, when a

1
sick and broken-down old man, in 1472.
Yet the Christian world had endured patiently, from
1464 to 150 3, without even the remonstrance of a Synod
1
Brockhaus, Gregor. von Heimburg (Leipzig, 1861), p. 383.
35 Papal Infallibility.

being raised, the rule of such Popes as Paul IL, Sixtus

iv., Innocent vin., and Alexander vi., each of whom had

striven to exceed the vices of his predecessor. Paul IL,

according to the expression of a contemporary, made

the Papal Chair into a sewer by his debaucheries. 1
The same witness observes that he had gone to Eome
and visited the various ecclesiastical communities, but
had nowhere found a man of really religious life.

"What he says of the lives of the Popes, cardinals, and

prelates, is stronger still.

Under Paul II., and still more under Sixtus v., the

great clerical market was further extended, and princi

palities had to be found for nephews, and fortunes for

natural sons and daughters. New offices were estab

lished in order to sell them, and the cardinalitial

dignity was highly priced. Leo x. and Clement vn.

sold a number of cardinal s hats, as the unbounded

extravagance of the Medici had emptied even the Papal

treasury, which before was held to be inexhaustible.
From one end of Europe to the other it was again the

cry, "Everything is made merchandise of at Eome."

That had been said and written, indeed, in and out of

Italy, for four centuries, but now, at the beginning of the

1 Attilio Alessio of Arezzo in Baluze and Mansi, iv. 519.
 The Opening of the i6tk Century. 351

sixteenth, it was the universal conviction that the

venality could not before have been carried on in so gross,

open, and shameless a manner as it now was before the

eyes of the whole world ;

the art of turning everything

into money could not have been worked up to such

perfection. Count John Francis Pico of Mirandola,

who wrote a treatise on the misfortunes of Italy as
caused by Leo x., mentions, as a symptom of the extent

of national demoralization and godlessness, that now

ecclesiastical and religious offices were put up to for
1
mal and public auction to the highest bidder.

Since 1512 a fresh source of information had been

added, in the shape of an official edition, printed in

Rome, of the customary taxes in the Roman Chancery
and Penitentiary. It was based throughout on the
older arrangement of taxes, dating from the time of

John xxil., but it was then kept secret, whereas it was

2
now publicly exposed for sale. This publication,
1 De Veris Calamitalum Causis nostrorum Temporum
(ed. Colorius
Cesius Mutinse, 1860), p. 24.
2
The composition of the Curia at the opening of the sixteenth century
was very different from what it is now. A
Provinciate of 1518, printed in
Rome, contains, somewhere near the end, a list of the
"

officia Curite."
Most of them are marked The purchase of such, an office
"

venduntur."

was the most profitable investment of capital, which, of course, produced

the richest interest. We learn from this Provinciate that the referen
daries "non habent numerum," that there were 101 sollicitatores, 101
masters of the archives, 8 writers of supplications, 12 registrars, 27 clerks
35 2 Papal Infallibility.

which was soon disseminated in every country, opened

men s eyes everywhere to the huge mass of Roman
reservations and prohibitions, as also to the price fixed

for every transgression, and for absolution from the worst

sins murder, incest, and the like. This tariff of the

chancery was afterwards supposed to be an invention

of the enemies of the Papacy, but the repeated editions

prepared under Papal sanction leave no doubt about the

1
matter. They show the complete feeling of security in
Rome, and what the Curia believed it could safely offer
to the gaze of the world. For the bitterest enemy of Rome
could have invented nothing worse than this exposure
of amechanism systematically developed for centuries,
wherein laws seemed to be made only for the purpose
of the Penitentiary, 81 writers of briefs, 104 collector esplumbi, 101 aposto
lical clerks. All these offices were sold. There were besides 13 proctors
in the Audientia Contradictor um," 60 abbreviators
"

de minori," 12
"

deparco majori. Most of these posts also could be bought. We

must fn.d
12 Consistorial advocates, 12 auditors of the Eota, who are said to be de
pendent on gratuities, 10 notaries under the Auditor Gamerce, 29 secretaries
and 7 clerics of the Camera, with 9 notaries. Think of a well-meaning Pope
like Adrian VI. finding himself suddenly, in his old age, with the prospect
of only a few years reign, placed at the head of this gigantic machine,
constructed in every part for money-getting some 800 persons all bent on
;

making the most out of the capital they had bought their places with, and
all together forming a serried phalanx united by a common interest ! A
feeling of hopeless impotence to grapple with such a condition of things
must steal over the very boldest heart.
1
They were afterwards put on the Index, with the comment,
"

ab hsere-
but the many editions which have,
ticis depravata," true, been pre
it is

pared by Protestants, do not differ from the authentic Roman issues under
Leo x. and Julius II.
 Opening of the 1 6th Century. 353

of selling the right to break them, and both individuals

and communities were only allowed the exercise of their
1
natural rights when they had paid for it.

The Curia cared nothing for being described by writers

of the day as the source of all the corruption in Chris

tendom, the poisoner and plague-spot of the nations.

There were indeed outbreaks of indignation here and

there, especially when the Curia attacked some favourite

popular orator. When the Carmelite Thomas Conecte,

who had long been labouring in France, Flanders, and

Italy, as a travelling missionary, had wrought numberless

conversions, and had distinguished himself by the saint-

liness of his life, at last lashed the vices of the Court of

Borne, Eugenius iv. had him tortured by the Inquisi

2
tion, and burnt alive. And as Eugenius treated him,
Alexander vi. treated Savonarola. That famous preacher
and theologian had called aloud for a reformation of

the polluted Church, and had urged the sovereigns to

1
Thus, had to pay a license at Rome for erecting a primary
e.g., cities
school, and if a school was to be removed, a sum of money had again to be
paid for it. Nuns had to buy permission for having two maid-servants for
the sick. Taxce Cancellar. Apost. (Romse, 1514), f. 10 seq.
Cf.
2 vitia Curise Romauaa emergentia nimio quia zelo
Adversus
"

declamabat,
captus pro hseretico habitus est et uttalis combustus." Cosmas de Villiers,
Eiblioth. Carmel. Aurelianis 1752, ii. 814. His brother monk, Baptista
Mantuanus (De Vitd Beatd) pronounces Thomas a martyr, and compares
his deathwith St. Laurence s. Eugenius is said afterwards on his death
bed to have bitterly repented his share in this deed.

Z
 354 Papal Infallibility.

lend tlieir aid to the assembling of an (Ecumenical

Council. For that the Pope excommunicated him,

and threatened Florence with an interdict. Papal Com
missaries were sent there, and Savonarola, with two

brethren of his Order, was executed for heresy, and

their bodies burnt. Thus did the crowned theologian
overcome the simple preaching monk, the theologian,
for Julius was that, in spite of his children and his
"

handmaidens." He had done, as Eodrigo Borgia,

what was sure to gain him the red hat ;
he had, besides
a gloss on the rules of the Chancery, composed a really

learned work in defence of the universal monarchy and

2
infallibility of the Popes, P>ut
Savonarola, as even his
enemies must admit, was not only one of the most

gifted men and best theologians of his day ;

he also

belonged to the most powerful of the Eeligious Orders,

and had many adherents among its members. And
thus he came to be honoured as a saint and martyr for
the truth, and other saints, like Philip Xeri and Cathe
rine Eicci, bore witness to his holiness, and even a later

Pope, Benedict xiv., declared him worthy of canonization. 3

1
The expression is borrowed from Macchiavelli, "

Tre sue famigliari e

care anzelle, lussuria, simonia, e crudeltade," J. Decennal. Opere (ed.

Fiorent. 1843), p. 682.
2
Clypeus Defens. Fid. S. E.om. EccL Argentor. 1497.
3 De Serv. Dei Canonis, iii. 25. 17.
 Contemporary Testimonies. 355

XXIX. The State of Contemporary Opinion.

Italy was still more thoroughly victimized to the Curia

than Germany, but the Italians bore the burden more

easily, because the sums which flowed in from all parts

of tributary Europe to the Court of Rome, through a

hundred different channels, were again diffused from
Eome, by means of nepotism, throughout the Peninsula,
and most of the cardinals and prelates were flesh of
their flesh, and bone of their bone. But the very fact

of this close neighbourhood and kinship made its moral

effects more mischievous. All thoughtful Italians of
that age who could make comparisons, regarded their
nation as surpassing those of Northern Europe in corrup

tion and irreligion. Macchiavelli says : "The Italians

are indebted to the Eoman Church and its priests

for our having and devotion through
lost all religion

their bad examples, and having become an unbelieving

and evil people."
He adds, The "

nearer a people

dwells to the Eoman Court the less religion it has.

Were that Court set down among the Swiss, who still

remain more pious, they too would soon be corrupted by

its vices." Nor was a more favourable judgment given
i
Ducorsi, i. 12, p. 273, ed. 1843.
356 Papal Infallibility.

by Macchiavelli s fellow-citizen, Guicciardini, who for

many years served the Medicean Popes in high offices,

administering their provinces and commanding their

army ;
he observes, on Macchiavelli s words, that what
ever evil may be said of the Eoman Court must fall short
1
of its deserts. What these statesmen say of the moral

corruption introduced into Italy by the Curia is confirmed

in theirway by the prelates. Isidore Chiari, Bishop of
Foligno, who had opportunities at Trent of becoming

thoroughly acquainted with his episcopal colleagues, says

that, in all Italy, among 250 bishops, one could scarcely
find four who even deserved the name of spiritual shep

herds, and really exercised their pastoral office.

"

If the

Italians are so alienated from Christianity that its pro

fession may almost be said to have died out among us,

the fault lies with the bishops and parish priests, for

our whole life is a continuous preaching of unbelief."

It is worth showing, that then, in spite of the Inquisi

tion, much could be said in Italy, and many an avowal

1
Opere Inedite, i. 27 (Firenze, 1857) Non si puo dire tanto malle della
:

corte Romana che non meriti se ne dica piu, perche e una infamia, nno
esemplo di tutti e vituperii e obbrobrii del mondo." In his Ricordi Auto-
biografici, he says again, A Roma, dove le cose vanno alia grossa, ove
"

si corrompe ogmmo," etc. Opere, x. 166.

2 ad German,
The passage is cited by Bishop Lindanus in his Apoloyet.

(Antwerp. 1568), p. 19.

 Contemporary Testimonies. 357

made, which would not have been tolerated at a later

period, when the Jesuits had got the upper hand, with

their system of reticence, hushing up, and excuses.

The Popes themselves did not shrink from making con
fessions which must have offended the majority of the

cardinals and prelates of their Court as highly indiscreet.

Adrian vi. told the Germans, by the mouth of his

legate, Chieregati, that for years many abominations

had disgraced the See of Borne, and everything had
been perverted to evil from the head corruption had
;

1
spread to the members, from the Pope to the prelates.
If there was a well-meaning bishop here and there in

Italy, he felt himself powerless the moment he tried in

good earnest to undertake the administration of his

diocese. When Matteo Giberto, the confidant and

datary of Clement VIL, at last sought out his diocese of

Verona, he found the city itself divided into six dif

ferent spiritual jurisdictions, and his schemes of reform

2
hopelessly baffled in presence of so many exemptions.
His biographer, in describing the state of Lombardy,
alleges that the people knew neither the Lord s
Prayer
nor the Apostles Creed, and a great part of them did not

Raynald. Annal. ann. 1522,

1
p. 66.
1
prefixed to his Opera (ed. Veron. 1733), p.
"

Giberti Vita," xi.

 Papal Infallibility.

go once a year even to confession and communion, the

best of them not oftener, as a rule.

One evidence of the state of clergy and people in Papal

dioceses may be gathered from the writings of Bishop Isi
dore Chiari, alreadv mentioned. He found in 1550 that
V

not above one or two priests in his diocese even knew

the words of the sacramental absolution, and all the rest

confused the form of absolving from excommunication

with it. He had to send teachers to instruct them how
to say mass properly. And they had incurred public

contempt by their vices as much as by their ignorance.

1
Most of the bcneficed clergy could not even read. In

comparison with this state of things, which the Curia

had produced in its own immediate neighbourhood, the

condition of remoter countries was less disheartening.

The great diocese of Milan, with 2500 priests, was for

sixty years without a bishop. There was nothing in

the houses of the clergy but arms, concubines, and

children, and it had passed into a common proverb

among the people that the priestly profession was the

surest road to hell. Here too the use of the sacraments

had almost disappeared. These are some features of

the terrible picture sketched a few years later by the
1
Isidor. Clar. Episc. Fulgent. In Serm. Domini (Venet. 1566), f. 101-125.
 Contemporary Testimonies. 359

Milanese priest, Giussano, of the condition of things

1
there.

When Leo x. was elected in 1513, he had a terrible

inheritance to enter upon, which might have made even

the boldest shudder. His predecessors since Paul II.

had done their utmost to cover the Papal See with

infamy, and give up Italy to all the horrors of endless

wars. But his first thought was that, now he was Pope,
2
a life of unmixed enjoyment had begun for him.
The Roman prelates bore with great equanimity the

knowledge that Borne and the Curia were hated all the
world over. Giberto, whom we mentioned before, fore

saw that, in the event of war, the Germans "

would
hasten hither in troops to glut their natural hatred

against us." Erasmus had repeatedly told them from

the first that this hatred supplied its chief nourishment

to the schism, daily increasing in strength. And the

1 De Vit. et Rebus Gestis Car. Borrom. (ed. Oltrocchi, Mediol. 3757),
p. 69.
2
"Primo Pontificates die maximum voluptatem
et cupiditatem ex-

pressit, dum Florentina lingua palam

hoc enuntiavit Volo lit Pontificatu:

isto quam maxime perfruamur. His biographer adds that this could only
understood of bodily pleasures by any one who knew him.
"be
The pas
sage is missing in Roscoe Rossi s impression of Vita di Leone x. t. xii.,
but occurs in Cod. Vat. 3920, whence a friend copied it for us, with the
following, which is also omitted in Rossi, "Ea tempestate Romre sacra
omnia venalia erant, ac nulla habita religionis aut integrse famse ratione
palam ad Pontificatum suflragia vendebantur, omniaque ambitione cor-
rupta erant."
360 Papal Infallibility.

facts spoke loudly enough for themselves. Even so

thorough-going a partisan as Cornelio Musso, Bishop of

Bitonto, one of the chosen speakers at Trent, did not
shrink from saying that the name of Eome was hated

by all nations, and its friends could only sigh over the
shame and contempt of the Eoman Church. 1 And if
at the eleventh hour, as might happen, the bishops
of a country took counsel with a view to stemming
the double tide of corruption and secession from the

Church, they found again that the Curia had cut

through the nerves and sinews of their episcopal power.

At the Synod held at Paris in 1528 by the French

bishops of the province of Sens, it had to be actually

inserted in the canons that the bishops could not so

much as keep out the incompetent and unworthy by

refusing them ordination, for the rejected candidate
2
would at once go to Eome and get ordained there.

Twenty years later the French prelates had again to

protest, an assembly held at Melun, against the

at

fatal encroachments of the Curia, which had sud

denly put in a claim to dispose of the benefices in

Brittany and Provence, and to transplant into France
the whole simoniacal abomination of reservations, ex-
*
1
Sermones, ii. Dora. v. Serin. 2. Harduiu, Cone. ix. 1953.
 Contemporary Testimonies. 361

pectatives, and reversionary rights, with the endless

processes they led to, in the teeth of the Concordat of

1517, whereby, as the bishops told the Pope bitterly

1
enough, all hope of reformation was cut off.

When in 1527 that judgment broke upon Eome

which, like Eome itself, stands alone in history, when
the city which time out of mind had been absorbing
countless sums of money from the whole West, was in
its turn plundered by Germans, Italians, and Spaniards,

and wrung dry like a sopping sponge, then at last the

eyes of many were opened. That very Cajetan or De Yio,

who had been Leo x/s Court theologian and factotum,

who had been his instigator in the disgrace of the

Lateran Synod, in his decisions against Constance and

Basle, in his proclamation of the divine right of every

cleric to disobey his sovereign, and had lent his pen to

these objects that same man who, as legate in Ger

many, had embittered the Lutheran business by his

insolence, and who again had induced the Pope to de
2
clare it a heresy to disapprove of burning heretics -
now in 1527 wrote, after the capture of Rome, "Justly

is the life of the pastors of the Church the object of

Baluze and Mansi, Miscell. ii. 297-300.
1

[One of Luther s propositions, condemned by Leo

2 "

x., is, Hoereticoa

coniburi est contra charitatein Spirittis." TR.]
362 Papal Infallibility.

contempt, and their word neglected. We, the Roman

prelates, now experience this, who by the righteous

judgment of God have been given up as a prey, not to

unbelievers, but to Christians, to be robbed and impri

soned. We are become useless for anything but exter

nal ceremonies and the enjoyment of this world s goods,

and therefore are we trodden under foot and reduced to

bondage."

Whenever the influence of the Papacy on the

Church and the religious administration of Rome was
discussed in colloquies and conferences between Catho

lics and Protestants of that period, the Catholic spokes

men were obliged to declare : Here our apology
"

ceases ;
we are conquered here, and can neither deny
nor excuse." So spoke in 1519 Bishop Berthold of

Chiemsee, Cardinal Contarini, the author of the Roman

memorial of 1538, the Abbot Blosius, the French and

Belgian theologians, Claudius d Espense, Ruard Tapper,

Gentian Hervet, Bishop Lindamis, and John Hoffmeister.
There were moments when even the Popes were obliged
to let their most approved servants say what in ordinary

times would have led to a process of the Inquisition.

Gaspar Contarini, whom Paul in. in his need suddenly

KaynaM. AnnaL
1 arm. 1527, p. 2.
 Contemporary Testimonies. 363

transformed from a secular statesman into a Cardinal,

ventured in substance to tell the Pope that the whole

Papal system was wrong and unchristian. He said that

Luther had good reason for writing his book on the

Nothing can be devised more

"

Babylonish Captivity.
opposed to the law of Christ, which is a law of freedom,

than this system, which subjects Christians to the Pope,

who can make, unmake, and dispense laws at his mere

caprice. No greater slavery than this could be imposed

on the Christian people."
Such utterances indeed

produced no effect. Paul in. was not minded to swerve

a hair s-breadth from his claim of absolute power, and

for one Contarini there were always in Pome hundreds

of Torquemadas, Cajetans, Jacobazzis, and Bellarmines.
The two Councils, the Lateran in 1516, and the Tri-

dentine in its earlier period, had this point in common,

that the speakers made avowals and charges so out

spoken and of such overwhelming force that they cannot

but amaze us. These speeches and descriptions reproduce
in various forms the same idea :
"

"We
Cardinals, Italian

bishops, and officials of the Curia, are a tribe of worth

less men, who have neglected our duties. We have let

Epist. Dim ad Paulum

1 iv. (Colon. 153S), pp. 62 sqq. Cf. the Collec
tion of Le Plat, ii. 605.
364 Papal Infallibility.

numberless souls perish through our neglect, we dis

grace our episcopal office, we are not shepherds but

wolves, we are the authors of the corruption prevalent

throughout the whole Church, and are in a special sense

responsible for the decay of religion in Italy."

Cardinal Antonio Pucci said publicly before the

assembly of 1516, Eome, the Eoman and

"

prelates
the bishops daily sent forth from Borne, are the joint

causes of the manifold errors and corruptions in the

Church ;
unless we recover our good fame, which is

almost wholly lost, it is all up with us/ And Matthias

Ugoni, Bishop of Famagusta, who also took part in

the Lateran Synod, describes in his work the contempt
the Italian bishops had sunk into, so that there was no

infamy men did not attribute to them, while they re

pelled with scorn any one who so much as hinted at

the need of reform and of a true Council, as disturbers of

peace, and hypocrites. And the worst that had been

said before of the Italian prelacy was confirmed in

1546 by the Papal legates at Trent. The German Ee-

formers, when they wished to paint for public view the
heinous guilt of the Popes and Italian bishops, had no
need to do more than transcribe the words of the legates,

and many similar statements and avowals let fall at

 Contemporary Testimonies. 365

the Council. For no words could say more plainly

that the ruinous condition of the whole Church, the

dominant profligacy, the applause with which the ne

glected and dissatisfied people, in utter perplexity about

their clergy and their Church, universally hailed every
new doctrine or scheme of Church-government, was
ultimately due to the Italian prelacy, which had its

centre in the Curia, and was thence appointed over the

1
dioceses. They said that all which they suffered at
the hands of the heretics was only a just retribution on
their vices and crimes, their bestowal of Church offices

on the unworthy, and the like.

XXX. The Council of Trent, and its Results.

The very first speech made at the opening of the

Council by Bishop Coriolano Martorano, of San Marco,

1 See Admonit. ad Synodum. 1546, in Le Plat, Monum. Coll. i. 40.

Horum malorum magna ex parte nos
"
causa sumus. Quod lapsam
morum disciplinam et abusus complectitur, hie nihil attinet diu investigare,

quinarn tantorum malorum auctores fuerint, cum prseter nos ipsos ne norni-
nare quidem ullum alium auctorem possimus." Cf. Girolamo Muzzio s
Lettre catoliche (Venez. 1571), p. 27, written in 1557, on the abominazione "

introdotta nella Chiesa." The bishops, themselves "bad and incompetent,

"

danno la cura dell anima

alia feccia degli uomini." Guicciardini describes
in his Ricordi how
a bishopric was bought at Rome for a fixed sum,
and this was the usual provision for the younger son of an aristocratic
family. His relative, Einieri Guicciardini, a bastard, but richly beneficed,
bought the See of Cortona of the Pope for 4000 ducats, and with it a dis
pensation for retaining his benefices. Opere, x. 59.
366 Papal Infallibility.

1
created astonishment. The picture he drew of the
Italian cardinals and bishops, their bloodthirsty cruelty,
their avarice, their pride, and the devastation they had

wrought of the Church, was perfectly shocking. An

unknown writer, who has described this first sitting
in a letter to a friend, thinks Luther himself never
2
spoke more severely. What he then heard at Trent

gave him the notion that the Council would not indeed
accept Protestant doctrine, but would assail the Papal

tyranny more energetically even than the Lutherans.

How utterly was he deceived in his ignorance of the

Italian prelacy ! But what was then said in Trent left

no doubt that the general absence of the Italian bishops

from their dioceses, most of which had never even seen
their chief pastor,must be regarded as fortunate, strongly
as the Roman compilers of the memorial of 1538, de

signed for Paul ill., insisted on this state of things being

3
intolerable. There is a letter extant of the famous

Antonio Flaminio, of 1545, referring to the beginnings

1
See Le Plat, i. 20 if.

2
Fortgesetzte Sammlung von TheoL Sachen. ] 747, p. 335.
3 Omnes fere pastores recesserunt a suis gregibus, commissi stint omnes
fere mercenariis" (ed. 1C71), p. 114. It was just the same sixty years later,
in spite of the pretended reformation of Trent. Bellarmine says, in his
memorial to Clement vni., Video in Ecclesiis Italue desolationem tantam
"

quanta ante multos annos fortasse non fuit ut jam neque divini juris neque
humani residentia esse videatur." Baron. Ep. et Opusc. (Romoe, 3770), iii. 9.
 The Council of Trent. 367
"

of the Council while in process of formation.

he asked, will a Council, composed of such monstrous

bishops, do for the Church ? There is nothing episco

pal about them except their long robe. He knew of

but one worthy bishop in Italy, who was now dead,

Giberto of Verona, but nothing was to be hoped from

the existing body, who had become bishops through

royal favour, through solicitation, through purchase in

Eome, through criminal arts, or after long years spent

in the Curia. If any improvement was to be effected,

1
they must all be deposed.
The appearance of some French and Spaniards at
Trent was enough at once to convert the Italian bishops
into a herd of slavish sycophants of Eome, acting simply
at the beck of the legates. They quietly let themselves
be described as wretched, unprincipled hirelings, rude and

ignorant men, without a murmur or contradiction inter

rupting the speaker. An Italian even ventured to say

what would not have been endured from a Cismontane

that all the evils and abuses of the Church came from
the Church of Eome. 2 But when they had to testify their

1 See Quatro Lettere di Gasparo Contarini (Firenze, 1558). Cardinal

Quiriru ascribes this letter to Flaminio.
2
Thus, e.g., Antonio Pucci, afterwards Cardinal Archbishop of Albano, at
the Lateran Synod, called
"

Eome or Babylon, ejusque jncolas pastores,

qui
368 Papal Infallibility.

devotion to the Curia, they rivalled each other in theii

"

fervid zeal. The. Italian bishops," says Pallavicini,

"

knew of no other aim than the upholding of the

Apostolic See and its greatness. They thought that

in working for its interests they showed themselves at
1
once good Italians and good Christians." When, on
one occasion, a foreign bishop mentioned an historical
fact which would not fit in with the Papal system, the

storm broke out. Vosmediano, Bishop of Cadiz, had

observed that formerly metropolitans used to ordain the

bishops of their provinces by virtue of their own

authority. Cardinal Simonetta promptly contradicted

him, and then the Italian bishops raised a wild cry, and

put him down by stamping and scraping with their feet.

They cried out that this accursed wretch must not

2
speak ;
he should at once be brought to trial. That
was the Conciliar freedom of speech at Trent !

In Italy, where matters did not come, as elsewhere,

to an open breach of communion, and where the great
mass of the lower orders remained Catholic, the better-
minded were seized with a despondency bordering on

quotidie per universum terrarum orbem animarum saluti praeficiuntur, tan-

torum causam errorum." Cone, (ed Labbe), xiv. 240.
1 "

Nontendevono al altro oggetto che al sostentamento ed alia grandezza

della Sede Storiadel Cone, di Trento, v. 425 (ed. Milan, 1844).
Apostolica."
3 Le 92.
Psalmsei, Coll. Actor., in Plat, vii. ii.
 The Coimcil of Trent. 369

despair. In their speeches and writings about the time of

the opening of the Tridentine Council, they spoke of the

decay of all religion, the last agony, or the actual burial

of the Church, which the bishops were to be present at.

They call the Church a corpse in process of corruption,

or a house on fire, and almost reduced to ashes. So spoke
Lorenzo Giustiniani, Patriarch of Venice, the Cardinals

^Egidius of Viterbo, and Antonio Pucci, and several of the

bishops at Trent. That was the impression made on them

by the state of things in Italy, where the nation seemed

to be divided between unbelief and rude superstition,
whereas the nations north of the Alps were still, on the

whole, believing, though deeply shaken in their alle

giance to the Church, which presented itself to them as

a tyrannical mistress, and so terribly disfigured and dis

torted that it could hardly be recognised. Socinianism

was a national product of Italy ;
in Germany and Eng
land it found no place.
In Germany, and generally on this side the Alps, it
was long before men grasped the idea of the breach of
Church communion becoming permanent. The general

feeling was still so far Church-like, that a really free

Council, independent of Papal control, was confidently

looked to for at once purifying and uniting the Church,
2 A
37 Papal Infallibility

though of course views differed as to the conditions of

re-union, according to personal position and national

sentiment. Here, as well as in the Scandinavian coun

tries, in England and in the Netherlands, a lond fide

reformation, by making some concessions about the use

of the chalice and clerical marriage, above all, by abol

ishing the Papal system, might have saved or restored

religious unity. If the more moderate Eeformers, like

Melanchthon, would only recognise the primacy of the

Pope as matter of human ordinance, and an institution

beneficial to the Church, this was chiefly, as one sees
from Luther s statements, because in their minds the
notion of the primacy had become inseparably identified

with its caricature in the form of an absolute monarchy,

which was always held up before their eyes. Just as

they could not or would not comprehend the idea of

the New Testament priesthood and Eucharistic Sacri

fice, because both to their minds assumed only the

shape to which they had been perverted and degraded,

of a domination over the laity, and a systematic traffic

in masses, so was it with the primacy. It could not

but be doubly hateful and intolerable to them, both on

account of the then occupants of the office, and of the
element of tyranny it contained, and the perception that
 formulized into a Doctrine. 371

it was precisely the Curia which was the source and

origin of corruption in the Church.

XXXI. The Theory of Infallibility formulized

into a Doctrine.

It was above all owing to the Italian devotion to

Eome that homage was paid not only to the Papal

system, but to the theory of Papal Infallibility which
is its consequence. From the time of Leo x. this doc
trine entered on a fresh phase of development. On the

whole, during the long controversy between the Council

and the Popes from 1431 till about 1450, as to their

right of superiority, the question of Papal authority in

matters of faith had retired into the background. At
the Council of Florence, after the Greeks had summarily

rejected the spurious passages of St. Cyril, the subject

was not mooted again by the Papal theologians it was ;

understood that there was no hope of getting that claim

acknowledged by the Greeks. At the Council of Basle it

was openly said, as a matter of public notoriety, that the

Popes, like other people, were liable to error in matters

of faith.The theologians of the Papal system, like

Torquemada, the Minoritic Capistrano, and the Domini

can archbishop Antoninus, who defended the pet doc-
372 Papal Infallibility formulized ;

trine of the Curia about the superiority of Popes to Coun

cils, between 1440* and 1470, devised another method
for exempting the Pope from subjection to a Council

in matters of faith, which was afterwards adopted by

Cardinal Jacobazzi also. They maintained, as Torque-

mada expresses it, that the Pope can indeed lapse into

heresy and propound false doctrine, but then he is ipso

by God himself before any sentence of the

facto deposed
Church has been passed, so that the Church or Coun
cil cannot judge him, but can only announce the judg
ment of God
and thus one cannot properly say that a
;

Pope can become heretical, since he ceases to be Pope

at the moment of passing from orthodoxy to heterodoxy.

On this principle they should have said that a bishop

or priest never becomes heretical, and cannot be deposed
for heresy, because God has already deposed him at the

moment of his internal acquiescence in a false doctrine ;

for if once such a Divine act of deposition were to be

assumed before any human intervention, it is impossible
to limit it to the case of the Pope, and to say that God is

only so severe against heretical Popes, and milder towards

heretical bishops and priests. A theory so obviously
devised to meet a particular difficulty could satisfy
i 16
Summa, iv. 2, c. f. 383.
 Italian Theologians.

nobody. Meanwhile Torquemada clung to this disco

very of his. He repudiates the notion that God would

not allow a Pope to define anything false. What he
knew from Gratian only was enough to exclude this pre
text, but then his opinion was that when the Pope acts
thus he has ceased de jure, to be Pope ;
he is therefore

but the corpse of a Pope, and the Church can execute

justice upon him at her good pleasure. The contem

poraries of Torquemada, St. Antoninus, Archbishop of
Florence, and the canonist, Antonius de Rosellis, highly
as they exalted Papal authority, ascribed infallibility

only to the whole Church and its representative Councils.

Only in union with the Church, and when advised by

it by a Council is the Pope, according to the former,
1
secured from error. And thus
there was still no Papal

Infallibility. principleThe
was too firmly rooted that

the Pope may become heretical, and then the Church

or the Council must first tell him to abdicate, and, if he

refuses, proceed to depose him. So Cardinal Jacobazzi
2
has laid down. And he also applies the prayer of
Christ to the Church, and not to the successor of
3
Peter, as Thomas Netter or Waldensis had done before

1 Theol. P.
Summa, iii. p. 416.
2 De Concilia (ed. Paris), p. 390. 3 Ib.
p. 421.
3 74 Papal Infallibility formulized ;

1
him. Silvester de Prierio, who was then Master of tho
2
Palace, did not go The Pope does not
beyond him.
"

err/ he says, when advised by a Council." Thomas

"

of Vio or Cajetan was the first to maintain Papal Infal

libility in its fulness. It was he who first got the

authority of the decisions of Constance and Basle on

the rights of Councils, which had been so solemnly

acknowledged and attested by former Popes, assailed by

Leo x., although the Council of Constance was not once

named, even in the Pope s decree on the subject pro

mulgated at his Italian Synod.
It was now time to crown the edifice of the Papal
system by putting into shape the principle of Infalli

bility, first sketched out by St. Thomas in reliance on

forged testimonies, which is its natural consummation.

To the decrees of the two Councils were opposed the

well-known forgeries, the spurious passages and canons
of Eastern Fathers and Councils. The coarsest and
most palpable of these forgeries, where St. Augustine is

made to identify the letters of the Popes with canonical

3
Scripture, was utilized by Cajetan for his doctrine.

To the fictions he had borrowed from St. Thomas, he

1 ii. 19.
Doctrines,
8 Summa SUvestr. (Konue, 1516), verbo Concilium."
"

* Ad Leon. X. De Div. Inst. Pont. (Roma, 1521), c. 14.

 Italian Theologians. 375

added a new fraud of his own, by mutilating the

famous censure of Wicliffe s teaching at the Council
1
of Constance, which was very inconvenient for him.

Cajetan was a type of that class of sycophantic Court

divines afterwards stigmatized by Caraffa and the other
compilers of the memorial of 1538, as deceivers of the

Pope through their doctrine of absolute supremacy, and

authors of the corruption and dissolution of the Church.

He was the inventor of that saying, which found its

practical comment in the policy of the Medicean Popes

and their immediate successors, "

The Catholic Church

2
is the born handmaid of the Pope,"
he who had seen
a Sixtus IV., an Innocent vm., an Alexander vi.

One cannot say that Cajetan s new doctrine became

dominant at Piome. It must have seemed suspicious
to many, if at the same time Papal Infallibility had been

affirmed, and the long series of Papal Bulls confirming

and fixing the chief dogmatic decisions of Constance

had been declared erroneous. Innocent vm. had already,

in 1486, acknowledged the orthodoxy of the Paris Uni
versity, at a time when the theologians Almain and
1 He suppressed the crucial words
"

(error est) si perKomanam Ecclesiam

Universalem aut Concilium Generale.
"

intelligat
2
Apol. Tractat. de Comparat. Auctorit. Papce et Condi. (Romae, 1512),
c. 1.
3 j6 Papal Infallibility fonmdized;

Johannes Major declared in its name that it branded as

heresy the doctrine of the superiority of the Pope to a

Council, and this was universally taught in France and

Germany. The Cardinal of Lorraine made a similar

statement at the Council of Trent, without its provoking

any contradiction. Adrian vi. was elected Pope, al

though it was notorious that, as professor of theology at

Louvain, he had maintained in his principal work that

several Popes had been heretical, and that it was cer

tainly possible for a Pope to establish a heresy by his

1
decisions or decretals. The phenomenon of a Pope
so wholly destitute of any consciousness of infallibility
that as Pope he had his work denying it reprinted in
Borne, was not without its effect. Men could still

venture in Italy to defend the authority and decrees of

the two Councils, and reject the Papal system as un
tenable on historical and canonical grounds. This was

proved by the work of Bishop Ugoni of Famagusta,

which received the commendation and assent of Paul in.,

in spite of his contradicting Torquemada, and maintain

2
ing the judicial authority of Councils over Popes. And
1
Comment, in iv. Sent. Q. de Confirm.
"

Certum est quod possit errare,

hseresim per suam determinationem autDecretalem asserendo." And he says
expressly, Evacuare intendo impossibilitatem errandi, quamaliiasserunt."
"

2
De Condi. M. Ugonii Synodia (Venet. 1568). The Pope s letter is
prefixed to it.
 Admissions of Infallibilists. 377

again,
O "
it is clear from the whole contents of the famous and

outspoken memorial on the state of the Church in Eome

and drawn up by the Cardinals Caraffa, Pole,
Italy,

Sadolet, and Contarini, with the assistance of Fregoso,

Giberto, Aleandro, Badia, and Cortese, that they had

very distinctly realized the ecclesiastical errors, mistakes,

and false principles of the Popes, and were by no means

addicted to the hypothesis of Papal Infallibility. When
they describe the misery brought upon the whole Church
through the blindness of the Popes, its desolation, nay
1
downfal, caused by the false doctrines of Papal omni

potence and absolutism, they were certainly far from

supposing that Christ has bestowed on every Pope the
privilege of strengthening his brethren by his dogmatic
infallibility, while he is weakening and dismembering
the whole Church by his perverse ordinances.
The very men who were most active in disseminating
the doctrine of the personal infallibility of the Popes,

could not help perceiving that the corruptions and

abuses in the Church, which had been introduced and

"

confirmed by the Popes themselves, were

"

infallible

still further strengthened by this doctrine, and every

attempt at improvement made more hopeless. Cajetan,

i
"Collapsam in pneceps Ecclesiam Christi."
3 78 Papal Infallibility formalized ;

after he had been rewarded with a cardinal s hat for

his services at the Lateran Council, afterwards, under

Adrian vi., who was open to such representations,

becoming suspicious of the simony of the Curia, ven

tured to complain of the sale of bishoprics and bene

fices, dispensations and indulgences, which would at last

lose all value. Thereupon a general feeling of indigna

tion was kindled against him. What folly ! it was said,

did he want to turn Koine into an uninhabited desert,

to reduce the Papacy to impotence, and deprive the

Pope, who was so heavily involved in debt, of the pecu

niary resources indispensable for the discharge of his

office ? What the Pope had a right to give he had a
1
right to sell. To protect Cajetan, he was sent as legate

to Hungary.
The other patron of the Infallibility theory, who
laboured hard to naturalize it in Belgium, was the Lou-
vain theologian, Euard Tapper. He returned from Trent
in 1552 cruelly disillusionized. He had had a near view
as his friend Bishop Lindanus tells us of the manners

of the Komans, and the working of the Curia, exclusively

1
quam vastam in Urbe facere solitudinem Pon-
Quid enim aliud
"
esset ?

tificatum ad niliilum redigere ? . . . Kidiculum est quod donate

gratis

possis, id ipsum vendere non posse."

Joh. B. Flavii, De Vita Th. de Vio
in S. Script. (Lugd. 1639),
Ccyetani, prefixed to Commentar. Cajetan
t. i.
 Admissions of Infallibilists. 379

up an ever hungry and yawning chasm,

directed to filling

of the hypocrisy of the heads of the Church, and the

venality of ecclesiastical transactions. He now thought

this deep-seated corruption and decay of the Church no
matter to be disputed about with Protestants, but to be

deplored.
The third of the theological fathers of Papal Infalli
bility was Tapper s Spanish contemporary, Melchior

Canus, who, like him, was at the Council of Trent.

His work on theological principles and evidences was,

up to Bellarmine s time, the great authority used by all

infallibilists. But his experience of the effects of that

system on the Popes and the Curia themselves is thus

summed up in a later judgment, composed by command
of the King of Spain, He who thinks Eome can be
"

healed, knows little of her the whole administration

;

of the Church is there converted into a great trading

business, a traffic forbidden by all laws human, natural,

1
and divine."

Out of Italy, the hypothesis of Infallibility had but

few adherents even in the sixteenth century, till the
Jesuits began to exercise a powerful influence. In
1 This Opinion, which had previously been published in French
by Cam
pouianes, may be seen in Spanish, in the new edition of 1855, of Enzinas,
Dos Informaciones, Appendix, p. 35.
380 Papal Infallibility formalized;

Spain, the subjection of a Pope to a Council, in accord

ance with the decrees of Constance and Basle, had been

maintained, as late as the fifteenth century, by the most

distinguished theologian of his country, Alfonso Mad

rigal, named Tostado. The Spanish bishop, Andrew
Escobar, went further in the same direction. It was

the Inquisition which first brought the doctrine of the

Eoman Jesuits into universal prevalence there, by
making all contradiction impossible.

In Germany, before the Jesuits had gained the con

trol of the Universities and Courts, the theologians, who
were contending against Protestantism, stood entirely
on the side of the Councils. They saw with what
terribleweapons the adoption of Papal Infallibility
armed Protestantism against the Catholic Church, and
how it robbed her of her prerogative of dogmatic im
mutability. Cochlaeus, Witzel, and Bishop Nausea of

Vienna rejected it.

"

It would be too perilous," says

the latter,
"

to make our faith dependent on the judg

ment of a single individual ;

the whole earth is greater
l
than the city."

In France, under the powerful influence of the Uni

of Councils
versity of Paris, the belief in the superiority
1
Rerum Conciliar. v. 3.
 The Curia. 381

liad been universal, nor was it changed by the aboli

tion, against the popular will, of the Pragmatic Sanction.
So much the more devotedly did the Italian prelates

proclaim their subservience about the time of the Council

of Trent. Bishop Cornelio Musso of Bitonto preached
in Eome on the Epistle to the Eomans,
"

What the

Pope says we must receive as though spoken by God

himself. In Divine things we hold him to be God;
in matters of faith I had rather believe one Pope than
a thousand Augustines, Jeromes, or Gregories."

When Bellarmine undertook to provide a new basis

for the pet doctrine of Eome, the violence of the intel

lectual tempest had driven theology into new-made

paths, and compelled theologians to adopt a different

method. The Eoman Curia, encouraged by the success
of the Jesuits, the powerful European position of the
Spanish Court, which was thoroughly devoted to it,

and the submission of Henry iv., believed at that time

that it could recover its dominion, at least over the West.

The interdict launched against Venice showed what it

was thought safe to venture upon. The favourite insti

tution of Eome was then again the Inquisition, in its

new and enlarged form, with the Congregation of the

1 Condones in Ep, ad Rom. p. 606.
382 Papal Infallibility formulized :

Index To be an active inquisitor was

affiliated to it.

the best recommendation and surest road to attaining

the cardinalate, or even the Papal throne. Paul iv.

had declared the Inquisition to be the one support of

the Papacy in Italy. Two remarkable and important
documents show what was now aimed at, and how the

Gregorian ideas were intended to be adapted to the

circumstances of Europe in the sixteenth century.
Paul iv. issued, with peculiar solemnity, and directly
ex cathedra, his Bull, Cum ex Apostolatus officio. He
had consulted his cardinals, and obtained their sig

natures to it, and then defined,

"

out of the pleni

tude of his apostolic power,"

the following propo

sitions :

(1.)
The Pope, who as
"

Pontifex Maximus" is God s

1
representative on earth, has full authority and power

over nations and kingdoms ;

he judges all, and can in
in this world be judged by none.
(2.)
All princes and monarchs, as well as bishops,

as soon as they fall into heresy or schism, without the

need of any legal formality, are irrevocably deposed,

deprived for ever of all rights of government, and incur

sentence of death. In case of repentance, they are to

1 "

Qui Dei et Domini nostri Jesu Cliristi vices gerit in terris."

 Bull of Paul IV. 383

be imprisoned in a monastery, and to do penance on

bread and water for the remainder of their life.

(3.) None may venture to give any aid to an here

tical or schismatical prince, not even the mere services

of common humanity any monarch who does so for

;

feits his dominions and property, which lapse to princes

obedient to the Pope, on their gaining possession of

them.

(4.) When it is discovered that a Pope has at any

previous time been heretically or schismatically minded,

all his subsequent acts are null and void.
Such, then, is this most solemn declaration, issued as

late as 1558, subscribed by the cardinals, and after

wards expressly confirmed and renewed by Pius v., that

the Pope, by virtue of his absolute authority, can de

pose every monarch, hand over every country to foreign

invasion, deprive every one of his property, and that
without any legal formality, and not only on account
of dissent from the doctrines approved at Eome, or

separation from the Church, but for merely offering

an asylum to such dissidents, so that no rights of

dynasty or nation are respected, but nations are to be

given up to all the horrors of a war of conquest. And
to all this is finally subjoined the doctrine, that all
384 Papal Infallibility form iilized :

official and sacramental acts of a Pope or Bishop, who

has ever say twenty or thirty years before been

heretically minded on any single point of doctrine, are

null and void ! This last definition contains so emphatic
and flat a contradiction of the principles on the validity of

sacraments universally received in the Church, although

mistakes have sometimes been made about it at Koine,
that they must have seemed to theologians utterly

incomprehensible. The serious inconveniences which

at former periods such doctrines had led to in the

Church would have been reproduced now, had not even

the most decided adherents of the infallibilist theory, the

Jesuit divines, shrunk from adopting the principle laid

down by this Pope and his cardinals, though Paul iv.

threatened all who resisted his decrees with the wrath

of God. Bellarmine himself, forty years later, said in

Borne itself that a bishop or Pope did not lose his power

by becoming or by having been a concealed heretic, or

everything would be reduced to uncertainty, and the
whole Church thrown into confusion.
Far graver and more permanent consequences resulted
from the other document, the Bull In Ccend Domini,
which the Popes had laboured at for centuries, and
which was finally brought out in the pontificate of
 Bull "In Ccena Domini! 385

Urban VIII. in 1627. It had appeared first in its broader

outlines under Gregory XI. in 1372. Gregory xil, in

141 1, renewed it, and under Pius v., in 1568, it preserved

its substantial identity with certain additions. Accord

ing to his decision it was to remain as an eternal law

in Christendom, and above all to be imposed on bishops,

penitentiaries, and confessors, as a rule they were to

impress in the confessional on the consciences of the

faithful. any document bore the stamp of an
If ever

ex cathedra decision, it is this, which has been over and

over again confirmed by so many Popes.

This Bull excommunicates and curses all heretics

and schismatics, as well as all who favour or defend

them all princes and magistrates, therefore, who allow

the residence of heterodox persons in their country. It

excommunicates and curses all who keep or print

the books of heretics without Papal permission, all

whether private individuals or universities, or other

corporations who appeal from a Papal decree to a future

General Council. It encroaches on the independence

and sovereign rights of States in the imposition of
taxes, the exercise of judicial authority, and the punish

ment of the crimes of clerics, by threatening with ex

communication and anathema those who perform such
2 B
386 Papal Infallibility formulized :

acts without special Papal permission ;

and these penal
ties fall not only on* the supreme authorities of the

State, but on the whole body of civil functionaries,

down to scribes, jailers, and executioners. The Pope

alone can absolve from these censures, except in articulo

mortis.

No wonder that Sovereigns and States resisted such

a manifesto, forbade its publication, and declared it

null and void. The French Parliament ordered, in

1580, that all bishops and archbishops who promulgated

the Bull should have their goods confiscated, and be

pronounced guilty of high treason. The bishops them

selves opposed it in the Netherlands. Nor was the
King of Spain, who saw in it an encroachment on his

rights, any readier to allow its introduction into his

territories, nor the Viceroy of Naples. Eudolph n.

protested solemnly against its publication in Germany,

and especially in Bohemia. Nor could the Archbishop
of Mayence be induced to admit it, nor Venice. But
the theologians and canonists, above all the Jesuits,

inserted the Bull in their doctrinal treatises, and wrote

commentaries on it; many confessors went so far as

to make it a ground for refusing absolution. Even in

1707, Clement XL ventured to excommunicate Joseph II.

 Bull "

In Ccena Domini." 387

and all his adherents on the strength of this Bull, for

his proceedings about Parma and Piacenza, over which

Borne claimed rights of suzerainty; but the Emperor

strenuously resisted, and the Pope had to yield. When,

still later, in 1768, Clement xm. once again invaded the

sovereign rights of the Duke of Parma by excommuni

cation, it caused a general commotion in the Catholic
States. Even so rigid a Catholic as Maria Theresa

energetically repulsed the Papal encroachments from

Austrian Lombardy, and forbade the Bull being acted

upon, remarking in her edict that it contained decisions

unsuited to the priestly character, wholly incapable of

justification, and very prejudicial to the royal power.

As this Bull was annually published in Eome on

Maundy-Thursday for 200 years, the ambassadors of
the Catholic Powers who were present could each time

report that their Sovereigns and Governments, who did

not allow the Papal claims to be carried out in practice,

had been excommunicated on that day. And if it has

ceased to be read out on Holy Thursday, as before,

since Clement xiv/s time, still it is

always treated, as
Cretineau-Joly states, in the Eoman tribunals and con

gregations, as having legal force.

It was wholly inconsistent with the character and
388 Papal Infallibility formalized :

objects of the Jesuit Order to acquiesce in any half-

and-half views on the question of Papal infallibility, or,

like the older infallibilists from St. Thomas to Cajetan,

to oscillate between the possibility of an heretical Pope

and the duty of unconditional submission to his deci

sions. The Jesuit sees the perfection of piety in the

renunciation of one s own judgment, the passive sur

render of intelligence and will alike to those whom he

recognises as his rulers. The sacrifice of one s own

understanding to that of another man is, according to
the teaching of the Order, the noblest and most accept
1
able sacrifice a Christian can offer to God. The Jesuit
who is entering upon his novitiate is at once admo

nished to quench the light of his understanding so far

as it may interfere with blind obedience. He is there

fore to be tempted by the novice-master as God tempted

Abraham. 2 In the Exercises it is inculcated that if

the Church decides anything to be black, which to our

3
eyes looks white, we must say that it is black. The
Order considers itself the most exact copy of the

1 "

Obedientia turn in executions, turn in voluntate, turn in intellectu sit

in nobis semper omni ex parte perfecta omnia justa esse nobis persuadendo,
omnem sententiam ac judiciuna nostrum contrarium cseca quadam obedi-
entia -Instit. Soc. Jesu (Pragae, 1757), i. 408.
abnegando."
Here come the
well-known comparisons of a corpse and of a staff.
2 3 Exerdt.
fnstU. i. 376. Spirit, (ed. Reg. 1644), pp. 290, 291.
 The Jesuits. 389

ecclesiastical hierarchy, the General being for it \vhat

1
the Pope is for the whole Church. As the Jesuit

obeys his General, every Christian should obey the

Pope as blindly, and with as complete a sacrifice of

his own judgment.

Every Jesuit therefore must be the advocate of the
extremest absolutism in the Church. In his eyes every

restriction is an abomination, every legal ordinance

attempting to maintain itself against any one arbitrary

act of the one almighty lord and master is an assault
on him, and matter of high treason. When the Pope

speaks on a doctrinal question, every one must sacrifice

his understanding and submit blindly, and first of all

the bishops, singly or in union, as patterns to their

flocks. And yet this is but little ;

the Jesuit, as the

most perfect being, makes the offering twice. He first

sacrifices his judgment to the Pope, and secondly to his

General. For, according to the notion which had

haunted some minds previously, but was first reduced

to consistency by the Jesuits, and expressed by Cardinal

Pallavicini, the collective Church is a body, inanimate

when alone and without the Pope, but informed by the

1 ?
In hac religione quse Merarchiam ecclesiasticam maxime imitatur."

Suarez, De Rel. Soc. Jesu, pp. 629, 725.

 Papal Infallibility formulized :
1
Pope with a soul. To this soul therefore, i.e., to the

Pope, belongs dominion over the whole Christian world ;

he is its monarch and lord, and his authority is

the foundation, the uniting bond and moving intelli

2
gence, of all ecclesiastical government. And Gregory
xiv., in his Bull of 1591, recognised the pre-eminence

of the Jesuit Order as an excellent instrument, which,

from the despotic power of its General, can the more

easily be applied to various purposes by the Pope.

The Papal system, when raised to this level, displays

itself with a perfection and consistency even Trionfo

and Peiayo had not conceived of. The absolutists of

the fourteenth century had not yet risen to the idea of

the whole Christian world having but one thinking,

knowing, and willing and that soul the Pope.soul,

Such a notion could only be formed in the minds of

men who had grown up under the discipline of the

Holy Office.

Bellarmine further developed the ideas of Cajetan, in

which he generally concurs, but he rejects decisively

Cajetan s hypothesis of an heretical Pope being deposed

1 Non meriterebbe piii la Chiesa nome di Chiesa, cioe di Congregazione,

"

mentre fosse disgregata per tante membra senza aver 1 unita di un anima
che le informasse e le regesse." Storia del Con. di Tr. i. 103 (ed. 1843).
2
Ib. i. 107.
 Bellarmine. 391

ipso facto by the judgment of God. An heretical Pope

is legitimate so long as the Church has not deposed him.
If Cajetan said the Church was the handmaid of the

Pope, Bellarmine adds that whatever doctrine it pleases

the Pope to prescribe, the Church must receive ;
there

can be no question raised about proving it; she must

blindly renounce all judgment of her own, and firmly

Pope teaches is absolutely true, all
believe that all the

he commands absolutely good, and all he forbids simply

evil and noxious. For the Pope can as little err in

moral as in dogmatic questions. Nay, he goes so far

as to maintain that if the Pope were to err by prescrib

ing sins and forbidding virtues, the Church would be

bound to consider sins good and virtues evil, unless she

1
chose to sin against conscience; so that if the Pope
absolves the subjects of a prince from their oath of alle

giance which, according to Bellarmine, he has a full

right to do the Church must believe that what he

has done is good, and every Christian must hold it a

sin to remain any longer loyal and obedient to his

sovereign. In Bellarmine s eyes it must have been a

perverse act of presumption in Councils to submit

1
"Si autem Papa
erraret prsecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes,
teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona et virtutes mala, nisi vellet contra
conscientiam peccare." De Rom, Pont. iv. 5 (ed. Paris, 1643), p. 456.
39- Papal Infallibility formulized :

Papal declarations on matters of faith to their own

1
examination.
After Cajetan and Canus, Bellarmine so widely ex

tended the range of Papal Infallibility, and so com

pletely subordinated Councils, and indeed the whole
Church, to the Pope, that only one method of conceiv

ing the relations between them was possible. God does

nothing superfluous. He does not give the Christian

world the infallible authority it requires twice over,

once to the whole body of the Church, and again speci

fically to the Pope. And as it is certain that it belongs

to the Pope, it follows that the Church has not received
it for herself, but only through the Pope, as an illumi
nation proceeding from him and residing in his person,
-in other words, that active infallibility belongs to

the Pope, and only passive infallibility to the Church.

Hence, according to the teaching of this party, every

decision of a Council is doubtful till it has received the

Papal confirmation, which first imparts to it complete

certainty. On the other hand, a Papal utterance cannot

be confirmed by any earthly power or community, it

is in itself of binding force and divine certainty.

The spurious character of the Isidorian decretals had

1
[As, e.g., St. Leo s Tome on the Incarnation was examined in detail,
and finally approved, by the Council of Chalcedon. Cf. supr. p. 72. TR.]
 Bellarmine. 393

been exposed by the Magdeburg Centuriators, and no

one with any knowledge of Christian antiquity could
retain a doubt of their being a later fabrication. But
the growth of the Papal system had been so inseparably

associated with these forgeries, that the theologians of

the Curia and the Jesuit Order were resolved to defend

them, and make further use of them for proving the

infallibility and monarchy of the Popes. The Jesuit

Turrianus composed an elaborate apology for the decre
tals. Bellarmine acknowledged that without the for

geries of the pseudo- Isidore, and of the later anonymous

Dominican writers, it would be impossible to make out
even a semblance of traditional evidence ;
the three

leading authors of the new doctrine St. Thomas, Oaje-

tan, and Melchior Canus had grounded it exclusively
on these fictions. Moreover, the new and extremely

vigilant censorship had now "been established, and hopes

were entertained in Eome that, by its aid in suppress

ing and condemning every work which pointed out or

admitted that these testimonies were spurious, their

authority and influence might be upheld.

Bellarmine then made copious use of the Isidorian
fictions. To his mind, enlightened by these letters of

the earliest Popes, it is abundantly clear that all the

394 Papal Infallibility fortmdized:

principles of the Papal system were in full bloom in the

first and second centimes of the Church, that Christen

dom already formed an absolute monarchy, and that
even then the Popes had exempted the clergy from the
1
jurisdiction of civil courts. St. Thomas s favourite wit

ness, the spurious Cyril, is also an invaluable authority

with Bellarmine, and he thinks the Greek text exists,

only it has not yet been discovered and printed. What

Greek testimonies for Papal monarchy and infallibility

could have been cited from the first thousand years of

Church history, if all the forged or corrupted passages
had been set aside ?

It is impossible to maintain the entire good faith and

sincerity of Bellarmine, for such blind credulity would

be inconceivable in a man like him, the more so as

Eishton states that he is reported to have said in his

lectures at Eome that he considered the Isidorian

2
decretals spurious, in spite of Turrianus s defence ;
and
in fact, in a moment of forgetfulness, he has distinctly

hinted, in his great work on the Pope, his disbelief in

3
their genuineness. But of course the most transparent

1
Of. especially De Rom. Pont. i. 2. c. 14.
2
Colloq. Rainold. cum Harto. p. 94.
3
De Rom. Pont. ii. 14, in speaking of the second epistle of Calixtus and
Pius. He says he dares not affirm that they are undoubtedly genuine.
 Bellarmine. 395

fictions were welcome to him if they served the great

end of supporting the universal monarchy of the Pope.
Even Pope Innocent s letter excommunicating the Em
peror Arcadius was accredited, and the legend of the

Popes appointing the German Electors was expressly

vindicated. This dishonesty is shown again in his

attempts to get rid of the fact he was perfectly ac

quainted with, that the whole Church, with all univer

sitiesand theologians of any weight in the fifteenth

century, had rejected the Papal system in its two lead

ing principles of absolute monarchy and infallibility.

He knew from the writings of Pius n. (JEneas Silvius)

that in his time the superiority of Councils was the

1
dominant view; yet he spares no pains to make his

readers believe that this doctrine was represented only

by two isolated theologians, who were universally con

demned.
It seems to have been really believetl in Eome that the

Curia, with the help of the Inquisition, which had been

more effectively organized since Paul v. s time, and of
the Index proliilitorum Librorum, could again suppress

1
Hist. Cone. Basil, p. 773 : Illud imprimis cupio notum, quod
"

Romanum Papam omnes, qui aliquo numero sunt, Concilio subjiciunt."

sive avidi glorise, sive quod adulando prsemia expectant,"
"

Only some,
tlien defended the opposite opinion, according to .(Eneas Silvius.
396 Papal Infallibility for mulized:

criticism and Church history, or at least keep the mass

of the clergy in ignorance of them. The Index was just
then so rigorously worked that scholars were reduced
to despair, and many had to abandon their theological
studies. In Germany, matters had already come to such
a pass, under the influence of the Jesuits, in 1599, that

Catholics had to give up studying altogether, for they

could no longer venture to use lexicons, compendiums, or
1
indexes. Even the bishops were forbidden to read any
book condemned at Eome ; they too were to be kept in
ignorance of the true state of things on so many points
which had been now cleared up. The publication of

works revealing the very different condition of the

Church and the Eoman See in earlier days, like the

Liber Diurnus and Agnellus History of the Bishops of

Ravenna, was forbidden under the severest penalties,
and impressions of them already in print were destroyed.
This explains how it was that in the new edition of

the Breviary a whole series of Popes of the first three

centuries was introduced, with proper offices and lec

tions, of whom no one knew anything, and who have

left no trace behind them, who are found in none of the

1 Jodocus Grses wrote to Baronius, c Piaster infinites alios libros neque
Lexico aut Thesauro aut Indice aliquo tute licet See Briefe des Car
uti."

dinals, i. 474 (ed. Alberic. Rom. 1759).

 Corruptions of Breviary. 397

ancient martyrologies, and were taken no particular

notice of in Rome for 1500 years. The only ante-

Mcene Popes in the ancient unreformed Breviaries

were Clement, Urban, Marcus, and Marcellus. But

Bellarmine and Baronius introduced into the new Bre
viary, under Clement VIIL, Popes Zephyrinus, Soter,

Caius, Pius, Calixtus, Anacletus, Pontianus, and Eva-

ristus, with lections taken from the pseudo-Isidorian

decretals. The older lections, taken from the legends,

were even turned out to make room for the pseudo-

Isidorian, and the clergy were obliged to nourish their
devotion on the reading of such fables as that without
the Pope no Council could be held, that he is the sole

judge of all bishops, that no clergyman can be cited

before a civil court, and the like. And Cardinal Baro

nius, the author of the Annals, co-operated in this

work, although he had there spoken with indignation

of the fraud of the pseudo-Isidore.

The new Breviary, moreover, was mutilated as well

as interpolated. The name of Pope Honorius was struck

out of the lection for Leo ii. s feast, in the passage

where his condemnation by the sixth (Ecumenical

Council had been related, for since the Popes wanted
to be infallible, this inconvenient fact ought at least to
398 Papal Infallibility formalized*.

be obliterated from the memory of the clergy. 1 Even

the fable of the apostasy of Pope Marcelliims and the

Synod of Sinuessa was now for the first time incor

porated in full into the Breviary, in order to keep con

stantly before the eyes of bishops and priests that dar

ling maxim, in support of which so many fictions had

already been invented at Eome, that no Council can

judge a Pope. Then the word "

souls
"

had to be ex

punged from the Missal and Breviary in the collect for

the feast of St. Peter s Chair. It was now held scan

dalous at Rome, that the ancient Pioman Church should

have restricted Peter s power of binding to souls only,

whereas the full right was claimed for the Pope to
2
bind bodies also, and to put them to death. One of

these enrichments of the Breviary was the putting

Satan s words to our Lord in the Temptation, "

I will

give thee all the kingdoms of the world," into the

mouth of Christ, who is made to address them to

1
The Breviaries we have compared are a Boman edition printed at Venice
in 1489, the Augsburg Breviary printed in Venice in 1519, and the new re
formed edition printed at Antwerp in 1719.
2 "

animas ligandi et solvendi pontificium tra-

Deus, qui B. Petro . . .

"Animas" is now struck out.

(Jan. 18, Fest. Oath. S. Petr.)
didisti"

In the old Eoman missal of the eleventh century, edited by Azavedo in

1754, it occurs at p. 188. Bellarmine maintained that the reformers of the
Breviary had mutilated this collect under Divine inspiration. Resp. ad Kp.
de Monit. contr. Venet. resp. ad 3. prop.
 Martyrology corrupted. 399

1
Peter. These forgeries and mutilations in the interest
of the Papal system were so astonishing, that the Vene
tian Marsiglio thought in course of time no faith would
be reposed in any documents at all, and so the Church
2
would be undermined.
Thus Baronius and Bellarmine worked together to

pour out a new stream of inventions and corruptions of

history, in the interest of the Papal system, from Eome,
over the countries and Churches of the West which had
retained their allegiance to her, or had been forcibly

reclaimed. Besides his Annals, which contain a vast

repertory of spurious passages and fictions, Baronius

I

availed himself for this purpose of his commission to

re-edit the Eoman martyrology. His object here was

to attest the fable that Peter, as bishop of Eome, had
sent out bishops to the cities of the West, and that thus

Eome was strictly the Mother Church of all the rest. It

was merely stated, for instance, in the older editions of

the Eoman martyrology, for August 5, that Memmius

was the first bishop in Chalons. Baronius made him
into a Eoman citizen whom St. Peter had himself COD-

secrated for that See. So again with Julian of Le Mans,

1
Brev. Rom. Fest Petr. et Pauli resp. ad lect. 6.
2
Defens. contr. Bellarm. c. 6.
4OO Papal Infallibility formalized :

on January 27. Baronius knew, what the ancient Eoman

martyrology was ignorant of, that St. Peter had conse

crated him to that See. His treatment of Bishop Diony-

sius of Paris is still more audacious. The oldest accounts,

which were well known to him, represented Dionysius

as first preaching in Gaul after the middle of the third

century, but Baronius relates that he was first conse

crated bishop of Athens by the Apostle Paul, and after

wards sent from Eome by Pope Clement as bishop to

Gaul. And thus two points were gained for Eome :

first, it was proved that the Pope could remove a

bishop appointed even by the apostle Paul; and,

secondly, that Paris was the immediate spiritual daugh
ter of Eome. And as with interpolations and inven

tions, so it fared with criticism at Eome. Baronius

and Bellarmine pronounced all documents concerning
the sixth Council fabricated or falsified, which men
tioned the condemnation of Pope Honorius.

It is clear that, within a few decades after the spread

of the Jesuit Order, the Infallibilist hypothesis had made

immense strides. The Jesuits had from the first made it

their special business to suppress the spirit of historical

criticism, and the investigation of Church history. They

had rivalled one another in taking under their charge
 Martyrotogy corrupted. 401

the pseudo-Isidorian decretals, as well as both the

earlier and later Eoman fabrications. Thus Maldonatus,
Suarez, Gretser, Possevin, Valentia, and others. That
same Turrianus, who expressly defended the decretals,
had come to the aid of the Eoman system with fresh
which he appealed to manuscripts
patristic forgeries, for
no human eye had seen. At the same time the Jesuit
Alfonsus Pisanus composed a purely apocryphal history
of the Mcene Council, adapted simply to the exaltation
of Papal authority. Others, like Bellarmine, Delrio,
and Halloix, defended the writings of the pseudo-

Dionysius as genuine ;
Peter Canisius produced forged

letters of the Virgin Mary.

But the chief affair was the maintenance of the

authority of the Isidorian decretals, Gratian, and the

forgeries acceptedby St. Thomas. For a long while no

one in the Catholic Church dared to expose the latter.
French scholars were the first, about 1660, to tell the
truth about them. Decretum had gained new
Gratian s

authority through the revision and correction ordered by

the Popes, in the course of which many forgeries must
doubtless have been detected. The pseu do -Isidore was
still for a long time protected by the Index. When
the famous canonist, Contius, brought forward the evi-

2 c
40 2 Papal Infallibility formulized :

dence of its spuriousness, the Preface in which this is

contained was suppressed by the censorship. On the

appearance of the famous work of Blondel, which com

pletely dissected the pseudo-Isidore, the last doubts
about the true nature of the fraud were exploded. "But

it too was placed on the Index. About the time of the

1
Declaration of 1682, the Spanish Benedictine, Aguirre,

made the last attempt worth mentioning to rehabilitate

the pseudo-Isidore. It could now no longer be denied

that with this forgery disappeared the whole historical

foundation of the Papal system for any one acquainted

with history. Aguirre was rewarded with a cardinal s
hat. But in the course of the eighteenth century it

came to be perceived at Eome that it was impossible to

maintain any longer the genuineness of this compila

tion, and thus at last the fraud was admitted in the

answer given by Pius vi., in 1 789, to the demands of

the German archbishops. In recent times the Jesuits

in Paris have gone still further. Father Eegnon now
confesses that
"

the impostor really gained his end, and

altered the discipline of the Church, as he desired,

but did not hinder the universal decay. God blesses

no fraud ;
the false decretals have done nothing but

the Four Gallicun

[The Declaration of the French clergy containing
i

Articles. TR.]
 Decisions
"

ex cat/iedrd." 403
1
mischief." The crucial importance of this admission

does not seem to have been understood in the Order.

One difficulty resulted from the formulization of the

doctrine of Infallibility, for the solution of which a

variety of hypotheses have been invented, without any

unanimity among theologians in accepting some one of

them being secured. Every theologian, on closer in

spection, found Papal decisions which contradicted other

doctrines laid down by Popes or generally received in

the Church, or which appeared to him doubtful ;

and it

seemed impossible to declare all these to be products

of an infallible authority. It became necessary, there
fore, to specify some distinctive marks by which a
really infallible decision of a Pope might be recognised,
or to fix certain conditions in the absence of which the

pronouncement is not to be regarded as infallible. And

thus, since the sixteenth century, there grew up the
famous distinction of Papal decisions promulgated ex
catkedrd, and therefore dogmatically, and without any

possibility of error.
The distinction between a judgment pronounced ex
cathedra and a merely occasional or casual utterance

is, indeed, a perfectly reasonable one, not only in the

1
Etudes de TheoL, par les PP. Jesuites d>

Paris, Nov. 1866.

404 Papal Infallibility formulized :

case of the Pope, but of any bishop or professor. In

other words, every one whose office it is to teach can,,

and will at times, speak off-hand and loosely on dogmatic

and ethical questions, whereas, in his capacity of a pub
lic and official teacher, he pronounces deliberately, and

with serious regard to the consequences of his teaching.

No reasonable man will pretend that the remarks made
by a Pope in conversation are definitions of faith. But
beyond this the distinction has no meaning. When a

Pope speaks publicly on a point of doctrine, either of

his own accord, or in answer to questions addressed to

him, he has spoken ex cathedra, for he was questioned

as Pope, and successor of other Popes, and the mere
fact that he has made his declaration publicly and in

writing makes it an ex cathedra judgment. This

holds good equally of every bishop. The moment
any accidental or arbitrary condition is fixed, on which
the ex cathedra nature of a Papal decision is to de

pend, we enter the sphere of the private crotchets of

theologians, such as are wont to be devised simply to

meet the difficulties of the system. Of such notions,

one is as good as another ; they come and go, and are

afterwards noted down. It is just as if one chose to say

afterwards of a physician who had been consulted, and

 Decisions
"

ex cathedra" 405

had given his opinion on a disease, that he had formed

his diagnosis or prescribed his remedies as a private

person, and not as a physician. As soon, therefore, as

limitations are introduced, and the dogmatic judgments

of the Popes are divided into two classes, the ex cathe-

drd and the personal ones, it is obvious that the sole

ground for this arbitrary distinction lies in the fact that

there are sure to be some inconvenient decisions of

Popes, which it is desirable to except from the privilege

of infallibility generally asserted in other cases. Thus,

for instance, Orsi maintains that Honorius composed

the dogmatic letter he issued in reply to the Eastern

Patriarchs, and which was afterwards condemned as

1
heretical by the sixth (Ecumenical a
"

Council, only as
private teacher," but the expression doctor privatus, when
used of a Pope, is like talking of wooden iron. Others,
like Gonet, have pronounced the decision addressed by
Nicolas I. to the Bulgarian Church, that baptism admi
nistered simply in the name of Jesus is valid, to be a

judgment given by him as a private person only. 2

Several theologians said that for the Pope to be infal

lible, he must understand something of the things he is

1
[Cf. supr. p. 74.]
3
Cursus Theol. Disput. I. No. 105. [Cf. supr. p. 54.]
406 Papal Infallibility formalized :

to pronounce sentence upon infallibly, and it must

therefore be made a condition of his infallibility that

he should first have been duly informed about the

matter in hand, and should have consulted bishops and

theologians.
"

For it is notorious/ said the Spaniard

Alphonsus de Castro,
"

that many of the Popes know

nothing of grammar, not to speak of the Bible. But one
cannot decide on dogma without a knowledge of the
1
Bible." That is to say, the Pope is infallible when he
decides ex catliedrd, but that implies that he should

firsthave made careful inquiry, and have informed

himself, and acquired certainty by his own study, and

by consulting others.

Others, especially Jesuits, replied that the Church

would be ill served with such an infallibility as this.

Most of the Popes have attained this supreme dignity as

jurists or administrators, or sons of distinguished families,
and would no longer be able, even if they wished it, to

prosecute theological studies at so advanced an age. Most

of them do not even know how to set about it. The

spiritual gift of infallibility must be so regulated as to

enlighten for the moment even the most ignorant Pope,

and secure him from any error. When a Pope pro-

plures eorum adeo illiterates esse ut grammaticam penittis

1
"Constat

fgnorent. Quifit, ut Sacras literas interpretari possent

Adversus lice- ?"

rests (eel. 1539), f. 8b.

 Decisions
"

ex cathedra"
407

claims a doctrine, when he decides on dogmatic and

moral questions, his decision is final, whether it be the

result of lengthened deliberation or pronounced at once.

The seat of infallibility is only in the innermost work

shop of his mind. Why consult others, who are liable

to error, while he is not ? Why bring in the feeble light

of a few oil-lamps, when he himself possesses the full

radiance of the spiritual sunlight streaming from the

Holy Ghost ?

Bellarmine most strictly limited the Papal prerogative

of dogmatic infallibility. He would know nothing in
deed of the concurrence of a Council, or of consulting
the episcopate ; only when the Pope issues a decree

addressed to the whole Catholic Church, or when he

proclaims a moral law to the whole Church, is he to be
2
held infallible. This limitation seemed rather to be
framed with a view to the future than the past, for no

single decree of a Pope addressed to the whole Church

is known for the first thousand years of Christian his

tory, and even after the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

the Popes usually decided at Councils on doctrinal

questions. Boniface vm. s Bull Unam Sanctam, in 1303,

1
[A living German
theologian, Phillips, quoted Bishop Dupanloup s in
recent Pastoral on Infallibility, maintains that it is not necessary, for an in
fallible decision, that the Pope should either
"

reflect maturely," or "lift

up his heart to God in prayer," before pronouncing it.

TR.]
8
De Earn. Pont, iv, 3, 5. So his fellow-Jesuit, Eudsemon Johannes.
408 Papal Infallibility formulized :

is the first addressed to the whole Church. Why the

Pope should be held "fallible when addressing himself to
a part of the Church, but infallible when he addresses

himself to the whole, the Cardinal has omitted to state.

His opinion therefore has been almost suffered to drop.

Other theologians of his Order, like Tanner and

Compton, assumed that a Papal decree was to be con

sidered ex cathedra and infallible only when certain

formalities had been complied with, when it had been

affixed for some time to the door of St. Peter s, and in
the Campofiore. But most were not satisfied with this.

Some, like Duval and Cellot, maintained that the Pope

was only infallible when he anathematized all who re
1
jected his teaching.
The general opinion was that very little depended
on such points, but yet they could not make up their
minds to affirm an absolute and simply unconditional

infallibility. The Jesuits Francis Torrensis and Bagot

thought the infallibility of a Papal decree could not be

reckoned on without a Council, including at least the

cardinals, prelates, and theologians resident at Borne.

So, again, Driedo, Lupus, and Hosius wanted to make

i
Duval, De Si^r. R. P. in Eccl. Potest. (Paris, 1614), Q. 5 ; Cellot,
lie Hierarch. (Rothom. 1641), iv. 10.
 Decisions
"

ex cathedra." 409

infallibility dependent at least on a Council being pre

viously consulted. And hence arose a fresh controversy,
as to whether the assent of the Council was required for

a decision ex cathedra, or whether it was enough for the

Pope to hear the assembly, and then decide according

to his own good pleasure. To make the assent of the
Council a condition would be in fact to overthrow the

principle of Papal infallibility. Why call an assembly

of bishops, said others, when the cardinals are there for

that very purpose, who, as belonging to the Curia, out

weigh a whole host of bishops ? But then a new diffi

culty came in, is it of the essence of an ex cathedra

judgment that the Pope should first take the opinions

of the whole college of cardinals ? or does it suffice, as

Gravina and Cherubini maintain, if he consults two

cardinals only, and leaves the rest unnoticed, among
whom he presumes a contrary opinion to prevail ? This

question has become a crucial one since 1713, when

Clement XL issued his famous Bull Unigenitus, which
he had drawn up with the assistance of two cardinals

only, like-minded with himself. This gave the Jesuits

a new light on the knotty point of how to differentiate

a definition of faith ex cathedra. They seem to have

perceived that it was better to set aside altogether the
41o Papal Infallibility.

conditions of a previous consultation and questioning of

others, and to make the Pope alone the immediate organ

of the Divine Spirit; but to introduce two other limita

tions, viz., Bellarmine s, that his decree must he addressed

to the whole Church, and Cellot s, that he must anathe
matize all who dissent from his teaching. According
1
to this doctrine, which is taught by Perrone, and re

ceived by pretty well the whole Order, the Pope is liable

to err when he addresses an instruction to the Trench or

German Church only, and, moreover, his infallibility

becomes very questionable whenever he omits to de

nounce an anathema on all dissentients. Meanwhile, as

Perrone s theology has not obtained the character of a
confession of faith in the Church, nor even attained

equal authority with the Summa of St. Thomas, there

is no hope of his exposition of the term ex cathedra

forming a common point of agreement. And thus,

notwithstanding the immense importance ascribed to it,

the meaning of the term is still among the dark and

inexplicable problems of dogmatic theology. It remains

open to every infallibilist to make his own definition of

an ex cathedra decision for his own private use.

1 Project. Thert. (Lov. 1843), viii. 497.
 Infallibility of the Church. 41 1

8 XXXII. Infallibility of the Church and the Popes

compared.

A personal infallibility evidently extends far beyond

the inerrancy of a great corporation, like the Catholic

Church, or of a Council representing it. The Church

in its totality is secured against false doctrine ;
it will

not fall away from Christ and the Apostles, and will not

repudiate the doctrine it has once received, and which has

been handed down within it. When a Council passes

sentence on doctrine, it thereby gives testimony to its

truth. The bishops attest, each for his own portion of

the Church, that a certain defined doctrine has hitherto

been taught and believed there ;

or they bear witness

that the doctrines hitherto believed involve, as their

logical and necessary consequence, some truth which

may not yet have been expressly formalized. As to

whether this testimony has been rightly given, whether

freedom and unbiassed truthfulness have prevailed

among the assembled bishops, on that point the

Church herself is the ultimate judge, by her acceptance
or rejection of the Council or its decision.

Here, therefore, the certainty and infallibility rest

entirely on the solid ground of facts. The Church does

4i 2 Papal Infallibility

not go on to disclose new doctrines, she does not want

to create anything, but only to protect and keep the

deposit she has inherited. The meaning of a judgment

passed by the assembled bishops is simply this, thus
have our predecessors believed, thus do we believe,

and thus will they that come after us believe. A great

community, a whole Church, is not exposed to the

danger of and presumptuous pretensions

self- exaltation

to illumination from on high. It makes no attempt

to establish some particular subjective view or opinion

of its own. Being left to itself, it naturally keeps
within the limits of the traditional faith which has
been constantly and everywhere received. But matters
assume a very different shape, when a single indi

vidual is made the organ of infallibility. The whole

Church, as long as its representatives at a Council

preserve their apostolic independence, cannot be forced

or cajoled into giving a wrong testimony, or proclaim

ing the view or doctrine of a particular school or party

as the constant and universal belief of all Catholic

Christendom ;
but an individual Pope is always ex
posed to the danger of falling under the influence of
sycophants and intriguers, and thus being forced into
giving dogmatic decisions. Advantage is taken of his
 in its Influence on the Popes. 413

some theological opinion, or

predilection for for some

Religious Order and its favourite doctrines, or of his

ignorance of the history of dogma, or of his vanity and

ambition for signalizing his pontificate by a memorable

decision, and one supposed to be in the interest of the

Roman See, and thus associating his name with a great

dogmatic event which may constitute an epoch in the

Church. Nor is anything easier for a Pope than to keep

all contradiction at arm s length ;
as a rule, no one who is

not expressly consulted ventures even to make any re

presentation or suggest any doubts to him. The natter

ing conviction, so welcome to the old Adam, grows up

easily within his soul, that his wishes and thoughts are
Divine inspirations, that he is under the special grace
and guidance of Heaven, and that by virtue of his office
the fulness of truth and knowledge, as of power, is his,

without effort of his own. He will the more believe,

and the more quickly catch at this idea, the smaller is
his information and the less suspicion or knowledge he

has of the doubts and difficulties which restrain learned

theologians from adopting a particular doctrinal opinion.

And thus even a well-meaning Pope may come to imagine
that he is far removed from all self- exaltation, and is

simply the humble organ of the Holy Ghost, who speaks

through him.
414 Papal Infallibility

One of the Popes whose government is of most

inauspicious memory, Innocent x., himself confessed

that, having been all his life engaged in legal affairs
and processes, he understood nothing of theology. But
that did not hinder him from originating, by his con

demnation of the Five Propositions on grace, a contro

versy which lasted above a century, and has never

1
found a solution. He told the Bishop of Montpellier

that hehad received so great an enlightenment of soul

from God, that the sense of Holy Writ had become
clear to him, and he had suddenly attained a compre
hension of the intricate subtleties of scholasticism.

The presence Holy Ghost, as he expressed it

of the to

another clergyman (Aubigni), had become palpable to

him. He needed no Synod, nor even any advice of the

cardinals, but only the opinion of some regular clergy

selected by himself.
"

All this depends on the inspira

Holy Ghost/ he said

tion of the to the theologians who
2
had come to him from Paris.
To speak of a Pope of very recent date, a statesman
1
[The Five Propositions, said to be extracted from Jansen s Augustinus,
and condemned by Innocent x. in 1653. His successor, Alexander vn.,
pronounced further, that they were condemned sensu auctoris," which
"in

gave rise to a fresh dispute about infallibility extending to "dogmatic

facts." Clement ix. somewhat modified the sentence. TR.]
2
"Tutto questo dipende dall inspirazione dello Spirito Santo."

Arnauld, (Euvres, xxii. p. 210.

 in its Influence on the Popes. 415

resident in Eome related "that

Gregory xvi, in his
naive manner, enjoyed his high position on the express

ground that he believed by virtue of it he must always

be in the right. When Capaccini discoursed with him
on financial affairs, and neither the refined and inge
nious statesman could convince his master, nor he
with his home -baked arguments convince his minister,

Gregory used to exclaim from time to time that he

was Pope, and could not err, and must know every
1
thing best."

All absolute power demoralizes its possessor. To

that all history bears witness. And if it be a spiritual

power, which rules men s consciences, the danger of self-

exaltation is only so much the greater, for the posses

sion of such a power exercises a specially treacherous

fascination, while it is peculiarly conducive to self-

deceit, because the lust of dominion, when it has be

come a passion, is only too easily in this case excused

under the plea of zeal for the salvation of others. And

if the man into whose hands this absolute power has
fallen cherishes the further opinion that he is infallible,

and an organ of the Holy Ghost, if he knows that a

decision of his on moral and religious questions will be
1 Politische Briefe und Charakt. (Berlin, 1849), p. 248.
416 Papal Infallibility

received with the general, and, what is more, ex animo

submission of millions, it seems almost impossible that
his sobriety of mind should always be proof against so in

toxicating a sense of power. To this must be added the

notion, sedulously fostered by Eome for centuries, that

every conclave is the scene of the eventual triumph of

the Holy Ghost, who guides the election in spite of the

artifices of rival parties, and that the newly elected

Pope is the special and chosen instrument of Divine

grace for carrying out the purposes of God towards the

Church and the world. The whole life of such a man,

from the moment when he is placed on the altar to

receive the homage by the kissing

first of his feet, will

be an unbroken chain of adorations. Everything is

expressly calculated for strengthening him in the belief

that between himself and other mortals there is an im

passable gulf, and when involved in the cloud and fumes

of a perpetual incense, the firmest character must yield

at last to a temptation beyond human strength to resist.
It is related of Marcel] us n. that at his election he
was full of alarm, lest that should also happen in his

case, which had been observed in most of his prede

cessors, who had been completely changed after their

accession, and had carried out nothing of their previous

 in its Influence on the Popes. 41 7

good intentions. So injurious, lie thought, was the in

fluence on a
Pope s character of the change of position,
the swarm of sycophants, and the spirit of partisan
1
ship. Even the Jesuit General Oliva, about 1670,

observes that the character of the newly elected Pope is

generally so deteriorated by his elevation, that no one

desires such an elevation for a good man, and no one
expects that the very best cardinal will retain as Pope
the good and holy resolutions he cherished at the time
2
of his accession.

Cardinal Sadolet, who was his intimate friend, said

of Clement VIL, that he had the Bible constantly in his

hands, and thus entertained good resolutions, yet his

pontificate was but a series of mistakes, a perpetual man

oeuvring to evade the Council which lie hated and feared.

Sadolet obliged to admit that Clement, misled by
"

is

his minister," departed widely from his former charac

8
ter, and the goodness of his nature.

Paul iv. (Caraffa) before his election was a warm

friend of Church reformation, and left the Papal Court

because there was no hope of obtaining any help to

wards it under Clement vn. When he became Pope
1 Pollidor. De Vit. Marcell. II. (Eom. 1744), p. 1S2.
2 Lett&re (Bologna, 1705), ii. 214.

Epistolcc Sadoleti, Omphalii et Sturmii (Argentorati, 1539), p. 9.

2 D
418 Papal Infallibility

himself nothing was to be seen of his former zeal for

reforming the Church. At a time when almost every

post brought fresh news of the advance of Protestant

ism, he left the Church in its helpless condition; he

did not so much as think of continuing the Council,

which had some years been suspended. His chief

for

concerns were the advancement and enrichment of his

nephews ;
his favourite institution, the Inquisition ;
and
the quarrel with the two only champions the Papal sys

tem then had, Charles v, and Philip IL, for it is the office
1
of the Papacy to tread under foot kings and emperors.
His contemporary, Onufrio Panvinio, paints in the
most glaring colours the complete transformation which
took place in Pius iv. (John Angelo de Medici, Pope
from 1559 to 1565). Before his elevation he had shown

himself humane, tolerant, beneficent, gentle, and un

selfish ;
but as Pope he was just the reverse passionate,

covetous, and jealous. Especially after he had freed

himself from the hated Council of Trent, he abandoned

himself to vulgar sensuality and lusts, ate and drank

immoderately, became imperious and crafty, and with

2
drew himself from Divine service in the chapel.
1
Relaz. di Bernardo Navagero, in Relazioni degli Ambasciadori Veneti,
vii. 380.
a
Panviu. Vit. Pontif. post Platinam (Colon. 1593), pp. 463, 477. With
 in its htftuence on the Popes. 419

So was it afterwards with Innocent x. (Pamfili), who

had previously passed for a blameless and honest man,
but who Pope gave the world the spectacle of an
as

administration guided and made pecuniary capital out

of by an imperious and covetous woman, his sister. So

again with Alexander vn. (Flavio Chigi), who as Cardi

nal was an able and gifted man of business, but as Pope

soon let himself be readily persuaded by the fawning

Jesuit, Oliva, that it was a mortal sin not to bring his

nephews to Eome and make them rich and great. 1 His

chief care was to get rid of all business, and lead an

easy and quiet life. Of later Popes we say nothing here.

XXXIII. What is meant ~by a Free Council.

The experiences of the non- Italian bishops at the

Council of Trent, its results, which fell so far short of

the reforms desired and expected, the conduct of Eome

in strictly prohibiting
any explanations or commentaries
on the decrees of the Council being written, and reserv-
this agrees the statement of the Venetian ambassador Tiepolo, Relazioni,
x. 171.
1 What has so often been observed of the Popes, that in audiences and
intercourse they had behaved without any scruple, and with habi
official

tual dissimulation, the Florentine ambassador expresses shortly in these

words, in his report about Alexander vir. "We have a
:
Pope, who never
speaks a word of truth." See the Chronol. Hist, des Popes of the Bene
dictines of St. Maur (Paris, 1783), p. 314.
420 Papal Infallibility.

ing to herself the interpretation of them, while she

quietly shelved many of its most important decisions

(e.g., on indulgences, and many others), without even

any semblance of carrying them out all this led to

the call for a new Council, so often repeated previously,

being silenced from that time forward. In countries

subjected to the Inquisition, the mere wish for another

Council would have been declared penal, and have ex

posed to danger those who uttered it. The Eoman See

had no doubt suffered considerable losses of privilege

and income in consequence of the Tridentine decrees,

and still more from the opposition of the different
Governments ; but, on the other hand, those decrees, the

activity of the Jesuits, and the establishment of standing

congregations and of the nunciatures, which had been

previously unknown, had very materially increased the

power and influence of Rome. But at Eome Councils

were always held in abomination ;

the very name was
strictly forbidden under penalties there. When in the

controversy about grace, in 16 02, the Molinists spoke of

its being decided by a Council, the Dominican Pena
wrote that in Eome the word Council, at least in matters

of dogma, was regarded as sacrilegious, and excom

1
municated.
1
In the letter in Serry, Hist. Cong, de Grat. (Antwerp, 1709), p. 270.
 Freedom in Council. 421

And thus it has come to pass, that three centuries

have elapsed without any earnest desire for a Council

making itself heard anywhere a thing wholly unpre

cedented in the past history of the Church. It is com

monly taught in theological manuals, schools, and sys
tems, that the Councils of the Church are not only

useful but necessary. But this, like so much else in

the ordinary teaching, was held only in the abstract.

It was at bottom universally felt that Councils as little

fitted into a Church organized under an absolute Papal

monarchy, as the States-General into the monarchy of

Louis xiv. The most faithful interpreter of the Eoman
view of things, Cardinal Pallavicini, put this feeling
into words, when he said, To hold another Council
"

would be to tempt God, so extremely dangerous and so

threatening to the very existence of the Church would

such an assembly be." In that point, he thinks his

History of the Council of Trent will make the same im

1
pression on the reader as Sarpi s. Even National
2
Synods, he says, the Popes have always detested.
But the chief reason why nobody any longer desired
a Council, lay in the conviction that, if it met, the first

and most essential condition, freedom of deliberation

and voting, would be wanting. The latest history
J
Storia del Cone, di Tr. iv. p. 331, ed. 1S4,>. /$. p. 7.}.
 422 Papal Infallibility,

showed this as much as the theory. In the Papal

system, which knows nothing of true bishops ruling

independently by virtue of the Divine institution, but

only recognises subjects and vicars or officials of the

Pope, who exercise a power lent them merely during his

pleasure, there is no room for an assembly which would
1
be called a Council in the sense of the ancient Church.
If the bishops know the view and will of the Pope on

any question, it would be presumptuous and idle to

vote against it ;
and if they do not, their first duty at

the Council would be to ascertain it and vote accord

ingly. An oecumenical assembly of the Church can

have no existence, properly speaking, in presence of an
ordinarius ordinariorum and infallible teacher of faith,

though, of course, the pomp, ceremonial, speeches, and

votings of a Council may be displayed to the gaze

of the world. And therefore the Papal legates at

Trent used at once to rebuke bishops as heretics and

1
Cardinal de Lmca says (Relat. Curice Rom. Diss. iv. n. 10), it is the
"

opinio in liae Curiarecepta," that

the Pope is Ordinarius Ordinariorum,
habens luiiversurn mundum
pro clioecesi," so that bishops and archbishops
are only his "

Benedict xiv. observes (De Synod. Dioccs.

officiates," or, as
x. 14 v. 7), the Pope is "in
;
Ecclesia proprius sacerdos potest ab
tota"

omni jurisdictione episcopi subtrahere quamlibet Ecclesiam." In Merlini s

Decis.Rot. Ro:n. ed. 1660 (Dec. 830), we read, "Papa est dominus omnium
beneficiorum." In a word, this system leaves nothing which can be said to
belong to bishops of right. The Roman theory allows the Curia to rob
them, wholly or in part, of their rights, to hand over their rights to
others, etc.
 Freedom in Council. 423
1
rebels who ever dared to express any view of their own.

Bishops who have been obliged to swear

"

to maintain,

defend, increase, and advance the rights, honours, privi

and authority of -and every
"

leges, their lord the Pope

bishop takes this oath cannot regard themselves, or be

regarded by the Christian world, as free members of a

free Council ;
natural justice and equity require that.

These men neither will nor can be held responsible for

decisions or omissions which do not depend on them.

There have certainly been the weightiest reasons for

holding no Council for three hundred years, and avoid

ing such a useless as the infallibilist Car

"

hubbub/
2
dinal Orsi calls Councils.

Complete and real freedom for every one, freedom

from moral constraint, from fear and intimidation, and
from corruption, belongs to the essence of a Council.
An assembly of men bound in conscience by their oaths
1
Numberless instances of this may be found in the letters of the Spanish
ambassador Vargas, and the autobiography of Bishop Martin Perez de
Ayalas, in the appendix to Villanueva, Vida Liter, ii. 420.
2
Bossuet has brought forward the question, so often asked and never
answered to what purpose were so many Councils held in the Church, with
:

so much trouble and expense, if the infallible Popes could have finally set
tled every doctrinal controversy by a single utterance of their own ? To
this Orsi answers, and we have his reply in Count de Maistre s trans

lation,
"

Ne ledemandez point aux Papes qui n ont jamais imagine qu il

fut besoiu de conciles oecumeniques pour reprimer (les heresies d Arius, etc.)
Demandez le aux empereurs qui ont absolument voulu les conciles, qui les
ont convoques, qui ont exige 1 assentiment des Papes, qui ont excite inutile-
ment tout ce fracas dans 1 eglise."
 424 Papal Infallibility.

to consider tlie maintenance and increase of Papal

1-
power their main object, -men living in fear of incur

ring the displeasure of the Curia, and with it the

charge of perjury, and the most burdensome hindrances

in the discharge of their office cannot certainly be
called free in all those questions which concern the

authority and claims of the See of Borne, and very few

at most of the questions that would have to be dis

cussed at a Council do not come under this category.

None of our bishops have sworn to make the good of

the Church and of religion the supreme object of their

actions and endeavours ;

the terms of the oath provide

only for the advantage of the Curia. How the oath is

understood at Borne, and to what reproaches a bishop

exposes himself who once chooses to follow his own

conviction against the tradition of the Curia, there are

plenty of examples to show.

In Bimini and Seleucia (359), at Ephesus (449) and
at Yienne (1312), and at many other times, even at

Trent, the results of a want of real freedom have been

displayed. In early times, when the Popes were as yet

1
The mere important passages of the oath are Jura, :
"

b.onores, privi-
legia et auctoritatem S. Horn. Ecclesiaj Domini nostri Papas et sucessorum
prsedictorum conservare, defendere, augere et promovere curabo. Re- . . .

gulas sanctorum Patrum, decreta, ordinationes seu dispositiones, reserva-

tiones, provisiones et mandata apostolica totis viribus observabo et faciam
ab aliis observari."
 Freedom in Council. 425

in no position to exercise compulsion or intimidation

upon Synods, it was the Emperors who sometimes

trenched too closely on their freedom. But, from

Gregory vn. s time, the weight of Papal power has

pressed ten times more heavily upon them than ever
did the Imperial authority. With abundant reason were
the two demands urged throughout half Europe in the

sixteenth century, in the negotiations about the Council,

first, that it should not be held in Borne, or even in

Italy, and secondly, that the bishops should be absolved

from their oath of obedience. The recently proclaimed
Council is to be held not only in Italy, but in Borne

itself, and already it has been announced that, as the

sixth Lateran Council, it will adhere faithfully to the
1
fifth. That is quite enough it means this, that what

ever course the Synod may take, one quality can never

be predicated of it, namely, that it has been a really

free Council.

Theologians and canonists declare that without com

plete freedom the decisions of a Council are not bind

ing, and the assembly is only a pseudo-Synod. Its

decrees may have to be corrected.

i
[Cf. supr. pp. 107, 198, 348.]
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CA TENA CLASSIC OR UM (Continued).

THUCYDIDIS HISTORIA,
Edited by CHARLES BIGG, M.A. late Senior Student and Tutor of
Christ Church, Oxford. Second Classical Master of Chelten
ham College.
[Vol. I. Books I. and II. with Introductions. 6s.

DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PUBLICAE,

Edited by G. H. HESLOI% M. A. late Fellow and Assistant Tutor
of Queen s College, Oxford. Head Master of St. Bees.

[Parts I. & II. The Olynthiacs and the Philippics. 4^. 6</.

ARISTOPHANIS COMOEDIAE,
Edited by W. C. GREEN, M.A. late Fellow of King s
College,
Cambridge. Classical Lecturer at Queens College.
[Part I. The Acharnians and the Knights, js.

[Part II. The Clouds. 3*. dd.

[Part III. The Wasps. y bd.

ISOCRATIS ORATIONES,
Edited by JOHN EDWIN SANDYS, B.A. Fellow and Lecturer of
St John s College, and Lecturer at Jesus College, Cambridge.
[Part I. Ad Demonicum et Panegyricus. 4-r. 6</.

A PERSII FLACCI SATIRARUM LIBER,

Edited by A. PRETOR, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge,
Classical Lecturer of Trinity Hall. 3-5-. 6d.

HOMERI ILIAS,
Edited by S. H. REYNOLDS, M.A. Fellow and Tutor of Brasenose
College, Oxford. [Vol. I. Books I. to XII. 6s.

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CATENA CLASSICORUM.
The following Parts are in course of preparation:
PLATONIS PHAEDO,
Edited by ALFRED BARRY, D.D. late Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge ; Principal of King s College, London.

DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PUBLICAE,

Edited by G. H. HESLOP, M.A. late Fellow and Assistant Tutor
of Queen s College, Oxford ; Head Master of St. Bees.
[Part III. De Falsa Legatione.

MARTIALIS EPIGRAMMATA,
Edited by GEORGE BUTLER, M.A. Principal of Liverpool College ;
late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.

DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PRIVATAE,

ARTHUR
Edited by HOLMES, M.A. Fellow and Lecturer of Clare
College, Cambridge. [Part I. De Corona.
HORATI OPERA,
Edited by J. M. MARSHALL, M.A. Fellow and late Lecturer of
Brasenose College, Oxford ; one of the Masters in Clifton
College.
TERENTI COMOEDIAE,
Edited by T. L. PAPILLON, M.A. Fellow and Classical Lecturer of
Merton College, Oxford. [Part I. Andria et Eunuchus.
HERODOTI HISTORIA,
Edited by H. G. WOODS, M.A. Fellow and Tutor of Trinity
College, Oxford.
TACITI HISTORIAE,
Edited by W. H. SIMCOX, M.A. Fellow and Lecturer of Queen s
College, Oxford.
OVIDI TRISTIA,
Edited by OSCAR BROWNING, M.A. Fellow of King s College,
Cambridge ; and Assistant Master at Eton College.
CICERONIS ORATIONES,
Edited by CHARLES EDWARD GRAVES, M.A. Classical Lecturer
and late Fellow of St. John s College, Cambridge.
[Part I. Pro P. Sextio.
THEOPHRASTI CHARACTERES,
Edited by A. PRETOR, M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge ;

Classical Lecturer of Trinity Hall.

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