§ 11. The Re-establishment of the Papacy in Rome. 1377.
§ 11. The Re-establishment of the Papacy in Rome. 1377.
Of the nineteen cardinals who entered the conclave at the death of Urban V., all but four were Frenchmen. The choice immediately fell on Gregory XI., the son of a French count. At 17 he had been made cardinal by his uncle, Clement VI. His contemporaries praised him for his moral purity, affability, and piety. He showed his national sympathies by appointing 18 Frenchmen cardinals and filling papal appointments in Italy with French officials. In English history he is known for his condemnation of Wyclif. His pontificate extended from 1370–1378.
With Gregory’s name is associated the re-establishment of the papacy in its proper home on the Tiber. For this change the pope deserves no credit. It was consummated against his will. He went to Rome, but was engaged in preparations to return to Avignon, when death suddenly overtook him.
That which principally moved Gregory to return to Rome was the flame of rebellion which filled Central and Northern Italy, and threatened the papacy with the permanent loss of its dominions. The election of an anti-pope was contemplated by the Italians, as a delegation from Rome informed him. One remedy was open to crush revolt on the banks of the Tiber. It was the presence of the pope himself.233
Gregory had carried on war for five years with the disturbing elements in Italy. In the northern parts of the peninsula, political anarchy swept from city to city. Soldiers of fortune, the most famous of whom was the Englishman, John Hawkwood, spread terror wherever they went. In Milan, the tyrant Bernabo was all-powerful and truculent. In Florence, the revolt was against the priesthood itself, and a red flag was unfurled, on which was inscribed the word "Liberty." A league of 80 cities was formed to abolish the pope’s secular power. The interdict hurled against the Florentines, March 31, 1376, for the part they were taking in the sedition, contained atrocious clauses, giving every one the right to plunder the city and to make slaves of her people wherever they might be found.234 Genoa and Pisa followed Florence and incurred a like papal malediction. The papal city, Bologna, was likewise stirred to rebellion in 1376 by its sister city on the Arno.
Florence fanned the flames of rebellion in Rome and the other papal towns, calling upon them to throw off the yoke of tyranny and return to their pristine liberty. What Italian, its manifesto proclaimed, "can endure the sight of so many noble cities, serving barbarians appointed by the pope to devour the goods of Italy?"235 But Rome remained true to the pope, as did Ancona. On the other hand, Perugia, Narni, Viterbo, and Ferrara, in 1375, raised the banner of rebellion until revolt threatened to spread over the whole of the papal patrimony. The bitter feeling against the French officials was intensified by a detachment of 10,000 Breton mercenaries which the pope sent to crush the revolution. They were under the leadership of Cardinal Robert of Geneva,—afterward Clement VII.,—an iron-hearted soldier and pitiless priest. It was as plain as day, Pastor says, that Gregory’s return was the only thing that could save Rome to the papacy.
To the urgency of these civil commotions were added the pure voices of prophetesses, which rose above the confused sounds of revolt and arms, the voices of Brigitta of Sweden and Catherine of Siena, both canonized saints.
Petrarch, who for nearly half a century had been urging the pope’s return, now, in his last days, replied to a French advocate who compared Rome to Jericho, the town to which the man was going who fell among thieves, and stigmatized Avignon as the sewer of the earth. He died 1374, without seeing the consuming desire of his life fulfilled. Guided by patriotic instincts, he had carried into his appeals the feeling of an Italian’s love of his country. Brigitta and Catherine made their appeals to Gregory on higher than national grounds, the utility of Christendom and the advantage of the kingdom of God. Emerging from visions and ecstatic moods of devotion, they called upon the Church’s chief bishop to be faithful to the obligations of his holy office.
On the death of her husband, St. Brigitta left her Scandinavian home and joined the pilgrims whose faces were set towards Rome in the Jubilee year of 1350.236 Arriving in the papal city, the hope of seeing both the emperor and the pope once more in that centre of spiritual and imperial power moved her to the devotions of the saint and the messages of the seer. She spent her time in going from church to church and ministering to the sick, or sat clad in pilgrim’s garb, begging. Her revelations, which were many, brought upon her the resentment of the Romans. She saw Urban enter the city and, when he announced his purpose to return again to France, she raised her voice in prediction of his speedy death, in case he persisted in it. When Gregory ascended the throne, she warned him that he would die prematurely if he kept away from the residence divinely appointed for the supreme pontiff. But to her, also, it was not given to see the fulfilment of her desire. The worldliness of the popes stirred her to bitter complaints. Peter, she exclaimed, "was appointed pastor and minister of Christ’s sheep, but the pope scatters them and lacerates them. He is worse than Lucifer, more unjust than Pilate, more cruel than Judas. Peter ascended the throne in humility, Boniface in pride." To Gregory she wrote, "in thy curia arrogant pride rules, insatiable cupidity and execrable luxury. It is the very deepest gulf of horrible simony.237 Thou seizest and tearest from the Lord innumerable sheep." And yet she was worthy to be declared a saint. She died in 1373. Her daughter Catherine took the body to Sweden.
Catherine of Siena was more fortunate. She saw the papacy re-established in Italy, but she also witnessed the unhappy beginnings of the schism. This Tuscan prophetess, called by a sober Catholic historian, "one of the most wonderful appearances in history,"238 wrote letter after letter to Gregory XI. whom she called "sweet Christ on earth," appealing to him and admonishing him to do his duty as the head of the Church, and to break away from his exile, which she represented as the source of all the evils with which Christendom was afflicted. "Be a true successor of St. Gregory," she wrote. "Love God. Do not bind yourself to your parents and your friends. Do not be held by the compulsion of your surroundings. Aid will come from God." His return to Rome and the starting of a new crusade against the Turks, she represented as necessary conditions of efficient measures to reform the Church. She bade him return "swiftly like a gentle lamb. Respond to the Holy Spirit who calls you. I tell you, Come, come, come, and do not wait for time, since time does not wait for you. Then you will do like the Lamb slain, whose place you hold, who, without weapons in his hands, slew our foes. Be manly in my sight, not fearful. Answer God, who calls you to hold and possess the seat of the glorious shepherd, St. Peter, whose vicar you are."239
Gregory received a letter purporting to come from a man of God, warning him of the poison which awaited him at Rome and appealing to his timidity and his love of his family. In a burning epistle, Catherine showed that only the devil or one of his emissaries could be the author of such a communication, and called upon him as a good shepherd to pay more honor to God and the well-being of his flock than to his own safety, for a good shepherd, if necessary, lays down his life for the sheep. The servants of God are not in the habit of giving up a spiritual act for fear of bodily harm.240
In 1376, Catherine saw Gregory face to face in Avignon, whither she went as a commissioner from Florence to arrange a peace between the city and the pope. The papal residence she found not a paradise of heavenly virtues, as she expected, but in it the stench of infernal vices.241 The immediate object of the mission was not accomplished; but her unselfish appeals confirmed Gregory in his decision to return to Rome—a decision he had already formed before Catherine’s visit, as the pope’s own last words indicate.242
As early as 1374, Gregory wrote to the emperor that it was his intention to re-establish the papacyon the Tiber.243 A member of the papal household, Bertrand Raffini, was sent ahead to prepare the Vatican for his reception. The journey was delayed. It was hard for the pope to get away from France. His departure was vigorously resisted by his relatives as well as by the French cardinals and the French king, who sent n delegation to Avignon, headed by his brother, the duke of Anjou, to dissuade Gregory from his purpose.
The journey was begun Sept. 13, 1376. Six cardinals were left behind at Avignon to take care of the papal business. The fleet which sailed from Marseilles was provided by Joanna of Naples, Peter IV. of Aragon, the Knights of St. John, and the Italian republics, but the vessels were not sufficient to carry the large party and the heavy cargo of personal baggage and supplies. The pope was obliged to rent a number of additional galleys and boats. Fernandez of Heredia, who had just been elected grand-master of the Knights of St. John, acted as admiral. A strong force of mercenaries was also required for protection by sea and at the frequent stopping places along the coast, and for service, if necessary, in Rome itself. The expenses of this peaceful Armada—vessels, mercenaries, and cargo—are carefully tabulated in the ledgers preserved in Avignon and the Vatican.244 The first entries of expense are for the large consignments of Burgundy and other wines which were to be used on the way, or stored away in the vaults of the Vatican.245 The cost of the journey was heavy, and it should occasion no surprise that the pope was obliged to increase the funds at his control at this time by borrowing 30,000 gold florins from the king of Navarre.246 The papal moneys, amounting to 85,713 florins, were carried from Avignon to Marseilles in twelve chests on pack horses and mules, and in boats. To this amount were added later 41,527 florins, or, in all, about $300,000 of our present coinage. The cost of the boats and mercenaries was very large, and several times the boatmen made increased demands for their services and craft to which the papal party was forced to accede. Raymund of Turenne, who was in command of the mercenaries, received 700 florins a month for his "own person," each captain with a banner 24 florins, and each lance with three men under him 18 florins monthly. Nor were the obligations of charity to be overlooked. Durandus Andreas, the papal eleemosynary, received 100 florins to be distributed in alms on the journey, and still another 100 to be distributed after the party’s arrival at Rome.247
The elements seemed to war with the expedition. The fleet had no sooner set sail from Marseilles than a fierce storm arose which lasted several weeks and made the journey tedious. Urban V. was three days in reaching Genoa, Gregory sixteen. From Genoa, the vessels continued southwards the full distance to Ostia, anchorage being made every night off towns. From Ostia, Gregory went up the Tiber by boat, landing at Rome Dec. 16, 1377. The journey was made by night and the banks were lit up by torches, showing the feverish expectation of the people. Disembarking at St. Paul’s, the pope proceeded the next day, Jan. 17, to St. Peter’s, accompanied by rejoicing throngs. In the procession were bands of buffoons who added to the interest of the spectacle and afforded pastime to the populace. The pope abode in the Vatican and, from that time till this day, it has continued to be the papal residence.
Gregory survived his entrance into the Eternal City a single year. He spent the warmer months in Anagni, where he must have had mixed feelings as he recalled the experiences of his predecessor Boniface VIII., which had been the immediate cause of the transfer of the papal residence to French soil. The atrocities practised at Cesena by Cardinal Robert cast a dark shadow over the events of the year. An uprising of the inhabitants in consequence of the brutality of his Breton troops drove them and the cardinal to seek refuge in the citadel. Hawkwood was called in, and, in spite of the cardinal’s pacific assurances, the mercenaries fell upon the defenceless people and committed a butchery whose shocking details made the ears of all Italy to tingle. Four thousand were put to death, including friars in their churches, and still other thousands were sent forth naked and cold to find what refuge they could in neighboring towns. But, in spite of this barbarity, the pope’s authority was acknowledged by an enlarging circle of Italian commonwealths, including Bologna. Florence, even, sued for peace.
When Gregory died, March 27, 1378, he was only 47 years old. By his request, his body was laid to rest in S. Maria Nuova on the Forum. In his last hours, he is said to have regretted having given his ear to the voice of Catherine of Siena, and he admonished the cardinals not to listen to prophecies as he had done.248 Nevertheless, the monument erected to Gregory at Rome two hundred years later is true to history in representing Catherine of Siena walking at the pope’s side as if conducting him back to Rome. The Babylonian captivity of the papacy had lasted nearly three-quarters of a century. The wonder is that with the pope virtually a vassal of France, Western Christendom remained united. Scarcely anything in history seems more unnatural than the voluntary residence of the popes in the commonplace town on the Rhone remote from the burial-place of the Apostles and from the centres of European life.
Drumann, p. 4, Gregorovius, etc. Setting aside the testimony of the contemporary Ferretus of Vicenza, and on the ground that it would be well-nigh impossible for a man of Boniface’s talent to remain in an inferior position till he was sixty, when he was made cardinal, Finke, p. 3 sq., makes Boniface fifteen years younger when he assumed the papacy.
Not at Paris, as Bulaeus, without sufficient authority, states. See Finke, p. 6.
Finke discovered this document and gives it pp. iii-vii.
There is no doubt about the manifestation of popular joy over the rumor of the pope’s death. Finke, p. 46. At the announcement of the election, the people are said to have cried out, "Boniface is a heretic, bad all through, and has in him nothing that is Christian."
Gregorovius, V. 597, calls Boniface "an unfortunate reminiscence" of the great popes.
"Where Simon Magus hath his curst abode
To depths profounder thrusting Boniface." —Paradiso, xxx. 147 sq.
Inferno, xix. 45 sq. 118.
Dupuy, pp. 225-227.
Super reges et regna in temporalibus etiam presidere se glorians, etc., Scholz, p. 338.
Tytler, Hist. of Scotland, I. 70 sqq.
Edward removed from Scone to Westminster the sacred stone on which Scotch kings had been consecrated, and which, according to the legend, was the pillow on which Jacob rested at Bethel.
So Hefele VI. 315, and other Roman Catholic historians.
Potthast, 24917. The bull is reprinted by Mirbt, Quellen, p. 147 sq. The indulgence clause runs: non solum plenam sed largiorem immo plenissimam omnium suorum veniam peccatorum concedimus. Villani, VIII. 36, speaks of it as "a full and entire remission of all sins, both the guilt and the punishment thereof."
Leo’s bull, dated May 11, 1899, offered indulgence to pilgrims visiting the basilicas of St. Peter, the Lateran, and St. Maria Maggiore. A portion of the document runs as follows: "Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world, has chosen the city of Rome alone and singly above all others for a dignified and more than human purpose and consecrated it to himself." The Jubilee was inaugurated by the august ceremony of opening the porta santa, the sacred door, into St. Peter’s, which it is the custom to wall up after the celebration. The special ceremony dates from Alexander VI. and the Jubilee of 1600. Leo performed this ceremony in person by giving three strokes upon the door with a hammer, and using the words aperite mihi, open to me. The door symbolizes Christ, opening the way to spiritual benefits.
See Gregorovius, V. 299, 584, who gives an elaborate list of the estates which passed by Boniface’s grace into the hands of the Gaetani. Adam of Usk, Chronicon, 1377-1421, ad ed., London, 1904, p. 259, "the fox, though ever greedy, ever remaineth thin, so Boniface, though gorged with simony, yet to his dying day was never filled."
Quomodo presumimus judicare reges et principes orbis terrarum et vermiculum aggredi non audemus, etc.; Denifle, Archiv, etc., V. 521. For these and other quotations, see Finke, Aus den Tagen Bon., etc., p. 152 sqq.
Contemporary writers spoke of the modern or recent French nation as opposed to the nation of a preceding period. So the author of the Tractate of 1308 in defence of Boniface VIII., Finke, p. lxxxvi. He said "the kings of the modern French people do not follow in the footsteps of their predecessors"—reges moderni gentis Francorum, etc. The same writer compared Philip to Nebuchadnezzar rebelling against the higher powers.
See Scholz, Publizistik, VIII. p. 3 sqq.
Summaria brevis et compendiosa doctrina felicis expeditionis et abbreviationis guerrarum ac litium regni Francorum. See Scholz, p. 415.
See Scholz, p. 357. The authenticity of the bull Ausculta was once called in question, but is now universally acknowledged. The copy in the Vatican bears the erasure of Clement V., who struck out the passages most offensive to Philip. Hefele gives the copy preserved in the library of St. Victor.
Sciat maxima tua fatuitas in temporalibus nos alicui non subesse, etc. Hefele, VI. 332, calls in question the authenticity of this document, at the same time recognizing that it was circulated in Rome in 1802, and that the pope himself made reference to it. The original phrase is ascribed to Pierre Flotte, Scholz, p. 357. Flotte was an uncompromising advocate of the king’s sovereignty and independence of the pope. He made a deep impression by an address at the parliament called by Philip, 1302. He was probably the author of the anti-papal tract beginning Antequam essent clerici, the text of which is printed by Dupuy, pp. 21-23. Here he asserts that the Church consists of laymen as well as clerics, Scholz, p. 361, and that taxes levied upon Church property are not extortions.
The university declared in favor of a general council June 21, 1303, Chartul. Univ. Par. II. 101 sq.
VIII. 63. See Scholz, pp. 363-375, and Holtzmann: W. von Nogaret.
VIII. 63. Döllinger, whose account is very vivid, depends chiefly upon the testimony of three eye-witnesses, a member of the curia, the chronicler of Orvieto and Nogaret himself. He sets aside much of Villani’s report, which Reumont, Wattenbach, Gregorovius, and other historians adopt. Dante and Villani, who both condemn the pope’s arrogance and nepotism, resented the indignity put upon Boniface at Anagni, and rejoiced over his deliverance as of one who, like Christ, rose from the dead. Dante omits all reference to Sciarra Colonna and other Italian nobles as participants in the plot. Dante’s description is given in Paradiso, xx. 86 sqq.
"I see the flower-de-luce Alagna [Anagni] enter,
And Christ in his own vicar captive made."
Ferretus of Vicenza, Muratori: Scriptores, IX. 1002, reports that Boniface wanted to be removed from St. Peter’s to the Lateran, but the Colonna sent word he was in custody.
Extra mentem positus. Ferretus relates that Boniface fell into a rage and, after gnawing his staff and striking his head against the wall, hanged himself. Villani, VIII. 63, speaks of a "strange malady" begotten in the pope so that he gnawed at himself as if he were mad. The chronicler of Orvieto, see Döllinger: Beiträge, etc., III. 353, says Boniface died weighed down by despondency and the infirmities of age, ubi tristitia et senectutis infirmitate gravatus mortuus est. It is charitable to suppose that the pope’s old enemy, the stone, returned to plague him, the malady from which the Spanish physician Arnald of Villanova had given him relief. See Finke, p. 200 sqq.
Kirchengesch., II. 597 sq. Boniface called the French "dogs" and Philip garçon, which had the meaning of street urchin. A favorite expression with him was ribaldus, rascal, and he called Charles of Naples "meanest of rascals," vilissimus ribaldus. See Finke, p. 292 sq. Finke’s judgment is based in part upon new documents he found in Barcelona and other libraries.
This passage is based almost word for word upon Hugo de St. Victor, De Sacramentis, II. 2, 4.
The text is taken from W. Römer: Die Bulle, unam sanctam, Schaffhausen, 1889. See also Mirbt: Quellen, p. 148 sq.
In his Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, I. 483-489. This view is also taken by J. Berchtold: Die Bulle Unam sanctam ihre wahre Bedeutung und Tragweite Staat und Kirche, Munich, 1887. An attempt was made by Abbé Mury, La Bulle Unam sanctam, in Rev. des questions histor. 1879, on the ground of the bull’s stinging affirmations and verbal obscurities to detect the hand of a forger, but Cardinal Hergenröther, Kirchengesch., II. 694, pronounces the genuineness to be above dispute.
So Hergenröther-Kirsch, Hefele-Knöpfler: Kirchengesch., p. 380, and Conciliengesch., VI. 349 sq. Every writer on Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair discusses the meaning of Boniface’s deliverance. Among the latest is W. Joos: Die Bulle Unam sanctam, Schaffhausen, 1896. Finke: Aus den Tagen Bonifaz VIII., p. 146 sqq., C-CXLVI. Scholz: Publizistik, p. 197 sqq.
Summus pontifex ... est illa potestas cui omnisanima debet esse subjecta.
De necessitate esse salutis omnes Christi fideles romani pontifici subesse. The writer in Wetzer-Welte, XII. 229 sqq., pronounces the view impossible which limits the meaning of the clause to temporal rulers.
I have followed closely in this chapter the clear and learned presentations of Richard Scholz and Finke and the documents they print as well as the documents given by Goldast. See below. A most useful contribution to the study of the age of Boniface VIII. and the papal theories current at the time would be the publication of the tracts mentioned in this section and others in a single volume.
The date of the De monarchia is a matter of uncertainty. There are no references in the treatise to Dante’s own personal affairs or the contemporary events of Europe to give any clew (sic). Witte, the eminent Dante student, put it in 1301; so also R. W. Church, on the ground that Dante makes no reference to his exile, which began in 1301. The tendency now is to follow Boccaccio, who connected the treatise with the election of Henry VII. or Henry’s journey to Rome, 1311. The treatise would then be a manifesto for the restoration of the empire to its original authority. For a discussion of the date, see Henry: Dante’s de monarchia, XXXII. sqq.
Libertus est maximum donum humanae naturae a Deo collatum, I. 14. It is a striking coincidence that Leo XIII. began his encyclical of June 20, 1888, with these similar words, libertas praestantissimum naturae donum, "liberty, the most excellent gift of nature."
ii. 3. Dante appeals to the testimony of Virgil, his guide through hell and purgatory. He also quotes Virgil’s proud lines:—
"Tu regere imperii populos, Romane, memento.
Haec tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem
Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos."
Roman, remember that it was given to thee to rule the nations. Thine it is to establish peace, spare subject peoples and war against the proud.
ii. 12, 13; iii. 13, 16.
This last section of the book has the heading auctoritatem imperii immediate dependere a Deo.
iii. 10, Constantinus alienare non poterat imperii dignitatem nec ecclesia recipere.
xix. 115 sqq. Ahi, Constantin, di quanto mal fu matre,
Non la tua conversion, ma quella dote
Che da te prese il primo ricco padre!
In the Purgatorio, xvi. 106-112, Dante deplores the union of the crozier and the sword.
With reference to the approaching termination of the emperor’s influence in Italian affairs, Bryce, ch. XV., sententiously says that Dante’s De monarchia was an epitaph, not a prophecy.
Non cives propter consules nec gens propter regem sed e converso consules propter cives, rex propter gentem, iii. 14.
Scholz, pp. 32-129.
Chartul. Univ. Paris., II. 12.
Jourdain, in 1858, was the first to call attention to the manuscript, and Kraus the first to give a summary of its positions in the Oesterr. Vierteljahrsschrift, Vienna, 1862, pp. 1-33. Among Aegidius’ other tracts is the "Rule of Princes,"—De regimine principum —1285, printed 1473. It was at once translated into French and Italian and also into Spanish, Portuguese, English, and even Hebrew. The "Pope’s Abdication"—De renunciatione papae sive apologia pro Bonifacio VIII.—1297, was a reply to the manifesto of the Colonna, contesting a pope’s right to resign his office. For a list of Aegidius’ writings, see art. Colonna Aegidius, in Wetzer-Welte, III. 667-671. See Scholz, pp. 46, 126.
Aegidius quotes the Wisdom of Solomon 2:21
See Scholz, p. 96 sqq. This author says the de regimine principum of Aegidius presents a different view, and following Aristotle, derives the state from the social principle.
Sub dominio et potestate ecclesiae.
Scholz, p. 124.
See Finke, pp. 163-166; Scholz, pp. 129-153.
Scholz, pp. 135, 145, 147. These two prerogatives are called potestas ordinis and potestas jurisdictionis.
Scholz, p. 148.
Potest agere et secundum leges quas ponit et praeter illas, ubi opportunum esse judicaverit. Finke, p. 166.
Finke, pp. 166-170; Scholz, pp. 162-1S6. Finke was the first to use this Tract. Scholz describes two MSS. in the National Library of Paris, and gives the tract entire, pp. 459-471.
A contemporary notes that the consistory was reminded that the nominee was the author of the De potestate papae, "a book which proves that the pope was overlord in temporal as well as spiritual matters." Scholz, p. 155. The tract was written, as Scholz thinks, not later than 1301, or earlier than 1298, as it quotes the Liber sextus.
Constantinus non dedit sed recognovit ab ecclesia se tenere—confitetur se ab ecclesia illud tenere. See Scholz, p. 467.
Non defectus juris, sed potentiae.
Four of his smaller tracts are summarized by Scholz, pp. 172-189. See § 8.
Scholz, pp. 198-207.
Scholz, pp. 208-223.
Tam in capite quam in membris. Scholz, pp. 211, 220. The tract was reprinted at the time of the Council of Trent and dedicated to Paul III.
The words Matt. 16:19, were addressed to the whole Church, he says, and not to Peter alone.
Scholz, p. 214.
This date is made very probable by Scholz, p. 225 sqq. Riezler, p. 141, wrongly put it down to 1364-1380. Scheffer-Boichorst showed that the author spoke of the canonization of Louis IX., 1297, as having occurred "in our days," and that he quoted the Liber sextus, 1298, as having recently appeared. The tract is given in Goldast: Monarchia, II. 195 sqq.
Scholz, p. 239. On Feb. 28, 1302, Philip made his sons swear never to acknowledge any one but God as overlord.
It is bound up in MS. with the former tract and with the work of John of Paris. It is printed in Dupuy, pp. 663-683. It has been customary to regard Peter Dubois as the author, but Scholz, p. 257, gives reasons against this view.
Disputatio inter clericum et militem. It was written during the conflict between Boniface and Philip, and not by Ockam, to whom it was formerly ascribed. Recently Riezler, p. 146, has ascribed it to Peter Dubois. It was first printed, 1476, and is reprinted in Goldast: Monarchia, I. 13 sqq. MSS. are found in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, and Prag. See Scholz, p. 336 sqq. An English translation appeared with the following title: A dialogue betwene a knight and a clerke concerning the Power Spiritual and temporal, by William Ockham, the great philosopher, in English and Latin, London, 1540.
Finke, pp. 170-177; Scholz, pp. 275-333.
Chartul. Univ. Paris., II. 102.
De modo existendi corporis Christi in sacramento altaris. Chartul. II. 120.
First printed in Paris, 1506, and is found in Goldast, II. 108 sqq. For the writings ascribed to John, see Scholz, p. 284 sq. Finke, p. 172, says, ein gesundes beinahe modernes Empfinden zeichnet ihn aus. His tract belongs to 1302-1303. So Scholz and Finke. John writes as though Boniface were still living. He quotes "the opinions of certain moderns" and Henry of Cremona by name. The last chapter of John’s tract is largely made up of excerpts from Aegidius’ De renuntiatione papae. Scholz, p. 291, thinks it probable that Dante used John’s tract.
Congregatio fidelium ... congregatio clericorum.
Scholz, p. 315.
Finke, p. 72; Scholz, p. 324.
See Renan: Hist. Litt. XXVI. 471-536; Scholz, pp. 374-444.
Advocatus regalium causarum.
For these tracts, see Renan, p. 476 sq.; Scholz, p. 385 sqq.
Scholz, p. 398.
Contulit conjugato scilicet beato Petro primatum ecclesiae, Finke, p. clxxiii. Arnald is attacking the Minorites and Dominicans for publicly teaching that the statements of married people in matters of doctrine are not to be believed, conjugato non est credendum super veritate divina.
See the summary of Scholz, pp. 444-458.
It is quoted again and again by Henry of Cremona. See the text in Scholz, p. 464 sq., etc. For the text of the bull, see Mirbt: Quellen, pp. 127-130.
Scholz, p. 322; Schwab: Life of Gerson, p. 133.
Ferretus of Vicenza, Muratori, IX. 1013. Villani, VIII. 80. As an example of Benedict’s sanctity it was related that after he was made pope he was visited by his mother, dressed in silks, but he refused to recognize her till she had changed her dress, and then he embraced her.
See Pastor, I. 75-80. He calls Clement’s decision to remain in France der unselige Entschluss, "the unholy resolve," and says the change to Avignon had the meaning of a calamity and a fall, die Bedeutung einer Katastrophe, eines Sturzes. Hefele-Knöpfler, Kirchengeschichte, p. 458, pronounces it "a move full of bad omen." Baur, Kirchengesch. d. M. A., p. 265, said, "The transference of the papal chair to Avignon was the fatal turning-point from which the papacy moved on to its dramatic goal with hasty step." See also Haller, p. 23. Pastor, p. 62, making out as good a case as he can for the Avignon popes, lays stress upon the support they gave to missions in Asia and Africa. Clement VI., 1342-1352, appointed an archbishop for Japan.
Petrarch speaks of it "as filled with every kind of confusion, the powers of darkness overspreading it and containing everything fearful which had ever existed or been imagined by a disordered mind." Robinson: Petrarch, p. 87. Pastor, I. p. 76, seeks to reduce the value of Petrarch’s testimony on the ground that he spoke as a poet, burning with the warm blood of his country, who, notwithstanding his charges, preferred to live in Avignon.
The children did not escape the violence of this mad frenzy. The little child, Agapito Colonna, was found in the church, where it had been taken by the servant, strangled by the Orsini.
Pastor, p. 78, with note.
John XXII. paid off the cost incurred for this restoration with the price of silver vessels left by Clement V. for the relief of the churches in Rome. See Ehrle, V. 131.
See Finke: Quellen, p. 92.
Döllinger says Clement passed completely into the service of the king, er trat ganz in den Dienst des Königs. Akad. Vorträge, III. 254.
Mansi was the first to express doubts concerning these articles, reported by Villani, VIII. 80. Döllinger: Akad. Vorträge, III. 254, and Hefele, following Bouteric, deny them altogether. Hefele, in a long and careful statement, VI. 394-403, gives reasons for regarding them as an Italian invention. Clement distinctly said that he knew nothing of the charges against the Templars till the day of his coronation. On the other hand, Villani’s testimony is clear and positive, and at any rate shows the feeling which prevailed in the early part of the fourteenth century. Archer is inclined to hold on to Villani’s testimony, Enc. Brit., XXIII. 164. The character of pope and king, and the circumstances under which Clement was elected, make a compact altogether probable.
Dupuy, pp. 448-465. See Finke and Scholz, pp. 198-207. Among those who took sides against the pope was Peter Dubois. In his Deliberatio super agendis a Philippo IV. (Dupuy, pp. 44-47), he pronounced Boniface a heretic. This tract was probably written during the sessions of the National Assembly in Paris, April, 1302. See Scholz, p. 386. In another tract Dubois (Dupuy, pp. 214-19) called upon the French king to condemn Boniface as a heretic.
This is upon the basis of a tractate found and published by Finke, Aus den Tagen Bon. VIII., pp. lxix-c, and which he puts in the year 1308. See pp. lxxxv, xcviii. Scholz, p. 174, ascribes this tract to Augustinus Triumphus.
Holtzmann: W. von Nogaret, p. 202 sqq.
The tract of 1308 attempts to prove some of the charges against Boniface untrue, or that true sayings attributed to him did not make him a heretic. For example, it takes up the charges that Boniface had called the Gauls dogs, and had said he would rather be a dog than a Gaul. The argument begins by quoting Eccles. 3:19, p. lxx. sqq.
The condemned clauses were in some cases erased, but Boniface’s friends succeeded in keeping some perfect copies of the originals. See Hefele-Knöpfler, VI. 460.
Döllinger’s treatment, Akad. Vorträge, III. 244-274, was the last address that distinguished historian made before the Munich Academy of the Sciences. In his zeal to present a good case for the Templars, he suggests that if they had been let alone they might have done good service by policing the Mediterranean, with Cyprus as a base.
In the bull Pastoralis praeeminentiae, 1307. Augustinus Triumphus, in his tract on the Templars, de facto Templarorum, without denying the charges of heresy, denied the king’s right to seize and try persons accused of heresy on his own initiative and without the previous consent of the Church. See the document printed by Scholz, pp. 508-516.
It consisted of the archbishop of Narbonne, the bishops of Mende, Bayeux, and Limoges and four lesser dignitaries. The place of sitting was put at Paris at the urgency of Philip.
In the bull Faciens misericordiam. In this document the pope made the charge that the grand-master and the officers of the order were in the habit of granting absolution, a strictly priestly prerogative. It was to confirm the strict view of granting absolution that Alexander III. provided for the admission of priests to the Military Orders. See Lea’s valuable paper. The Absolution Formula of the Templars. See also on this subject Finke I. 395-397. Funk, p. 1330, saysder Pabst kam von jetzt an dem König mehr und mehr entgegen und nachdem er sich von dem gewaltigsten und rücksichtsiosigsten Fürsten seiner Zeit hatte ungarnen lassen, war ein Entkommen aus seiner Gewalt kaum mehr möglich.
These practices have been regarded by Prutz, Loiscleur (La doctrine secrète des Templiers, Paris, 1872) and others as a part of a secret code which came into use in the thirteenth century. But the code has not been forthcoming and was not referred to in the trials. Frederick II. declared that the Templars received Mohammedans into their house at Jerusalem and preferred their religious rites. This statement must be taken with reserve, in view of Frederick’s hostility to the order for its refusal to help him on his crusade. See M. Paris, an. 1244.
At the trial before the bishop of Nismes in 1309, out of 32, all but three denied the charges. At Perpignan, 1310, the whole number, 26, denied the charges. At Clermont 40 confessed the order guilty, 28 denied its guilt. With such antagonistic testimonies it is difficult, if at all possible, to decide the question of guilt or innocence.
Per viam provisionis seu ordinationis apostolicae is the language of the bull, that is, as opposed to de jure or as a punishment for proven crimes. This bull, Vox clamantis, was found by the Benedictine, Dr. Gams, in Spain, in 1865. See Hefele-Knöpfler, VI. 625 sqq. It is found in Mirbt: Quellen, p. 149 sq. Clement asserts he issued the order of abolition "not without bitterness and pain of heart," non sine cordis amaritudine et dolore. Two other bulls on the Templars and the disposition of their property followed in May.
The wealth of the Templars has been greatly exaggerated. They were not richer in France than the Hospitallers. About 1300 the possessions of each of these orders in that country were taxed at 6000 pounds. See Döllinger, p. 267 sq. Thomas Fuller, the English historian, quaintly says, "Philip would never have taken away the Templars’ lives if he might have taken away their lands without putting them to death. He could not get the honey without burning the bees." The Spanish delegation to the Council of Vienne wrote back to the king of Aragon that the chief concern at the council and with the king in regard to the Templars was the disposition of their goods, Finke, I. 360, 374. Finke, I. 111, 115, etc., ascribes a good deal of the animosity against the order to the revelations made by Esquin de Floyran to Jayme of Aragon in 1306. But the charges he made were already current in France.
In 1609 the benchers of the Inner and Middle Temple received the buildings for a small annual payment to the Crown, into whose possession they had passed under Henry VIII.
Dante and Villani agree that the Templars were innocent. In this judgment most modern historians concur. Funk declares the sentence of innocence to be "without question the right one," p. 1341. Döllinger, with great emphasis, insists that nowhere did a Templar make a confession of guilt except under torture, p. 257. More recently, 1907, Finke (I. p. ix. 326 sq. 337) insists upon their innocence and the untrustworthiness of the confessions made by the Templars. He declares that he who advocates their guilt must accept the appearances of the devil as a tom-cat. Prutz, in his earlier works, decided for their guilt. Schottmüller, Döllinger, Funk, and our own Dr. Lea strongly favor their innocence. Ranke: Univ. Hist., VIII. 622, wavers and ascribes to them the doctrinal standpoint of Frederick II. and Manfred. In France, Michelet was against the order; Michaud, Guizot, Renan and Boutaric for it. Hallam: Middle Ages, I. 142-146, is undecided.
See Döllinger, p. 255, and Gregorovius. Lea gives as excuse for the length at which he treats the trial and fate of the unfortunate knights, their helplessness before the Inquisition.
Ehrle,Archiv für Lit. und Kirchengesch. IV. 361-470, published a fragmentary report which he discovered in the National Library in Paris. For the best account of the proceedings, see Hefele-Knöpfler, VI. 514-554.
Haller, p. 46 sqq.
Ehrle, V. 139 sq.
Ehrle, p. 147, calculates that Clement’s yearly income was between 200,000 and 250,000 gold florins, and that of this amount he spent 100,000 for the expenses of his court and saved the remainder, 100,000 or 160,000. Ehrle, p. 149, gives Clement’s family tree.
Ehrle, pp. 126, 135.
Clement’s grave is reported to have been opened and looted by the Calvinists in 1568 or 1577. See Ehrle, p. 139.
Finke: Aus den Tagen Bon. VIII., p. Ixxxviii.
Chronicle, IX. 59. Villani tells the story that at the death of one of Clement’s nephews, a cardinal, Clement, in his desire to see him, consulted a necromancer. The master of the dark arts had one of the pope’s chaplains conducted by demons to hell, where he was shown a palace, and in it the nephew’s soul laid on a bed of glowing fire, and near by a place reserved for the pope himself. He also relates that the coffin, in which Clement was laid, was burnt, and with it the pope’s body up to the waist.
Villani, IX: 81, gives the suspicious report that the cardinals, weary of their inability to make a choice, left it to John. Following the advice of Cardinal Napoleon Orsini, he grasped his supreme chance and elected himself. He was crowned at Lyons.
Villani’s statement that he was the son of a cobbler is doubted. Ferretus of Vicenza says he was "small like Zaccheus."
See Müller: Kampf Ludwigs, etc., I. 61 sqq. Examinatio, approbatio ac admonitio, repulsio quoque et reprobatio.
X. 55.
The grounds on which John was deposed were his decisions against the Spirituals, the use of money and ships, intended for a crusade, to reduce Genoa, appropriation of the right of appointment to clerical offices, and his residence away from Rome. The document is found in Muratori, XIV., 1167-1173. For a vivid description of the enthronement and character of John of Corbara, see Gregorovius, VI. 153 sqq.
336 sqq., 376 sqq., 406.
It is uncertain whether this bull was made a part of the proceedings of the Oecumenical Council of Vienne. See Hefele, VI. 550, who decides for it, and Ehrle, Archiv, 1885, p. 540 sqq.
Hefele, VI. 581. Ehrle: Die Spiritualen in Archiv, 1885, pp. 509-514.
Ehrle: Archiv, pp. 156-158. He adduces acts of Inquisition against the Spirituals in Umbria, in the vicinity of Assisi, as late as 1341.
See Riezler, p. 124.
Magister-generalis fratrum minorum conventualium and minister-generalis totius ordinis S. Francesci. The Capuchins, who are Franciscans, were recognized as a distinct order by Paul V., 1619. Among the other schismatic Franciscan orders are the Recollect Fathers of France, who proceeded from the Recollect Convent of Nevers, and were recognized as a special body by Clement VIII., 1602. These monks were prominent in mission work among the Indians in North America.
In facultate theologiae omnino fait ignarus. See Müller: Kampf, etc., I. 24, note.
Mansi, XXV. 982-984.
Divinam essentiam immediate, se bene et clare et aperte illis ostendentem. Mansi, XXV. 986.
XI. 20. Another writer, Galvaneus de La Flamma, Muratori, XII. 1009 (quoted by Haller, Papsttum, p. 104), says, John left 22,000,000 florins besides other "unrecorded treasure." This writer adds, the world did not have a richer Christian in it than John XXII.
This is the figure reached by Ehrle, Die 25 Millionen im Schatz Johann XXII., Archiv, 1889, pp. 155-166. It is based upon the contents of 15 coffers, opened in the year 1342 at the death of Benedict XII. These coffers contained John’s treasure, and at that time yielded 750,000 florins. But it is manifestly uncertain how far John’s savings had been reduced by Benedict, or whether these coffers were all that were left by John. For example, at his consecration, Benedict gave 100,000 florins to his cardinals, and 150,000 to the churches at Rome, and it is quite likely he drew upon John’s hoard. The gold mitres, rings, and other ornaments which John’s thrift amassed, were stored in other chests. Villani got his report from his brother, a Florentine banker in the employ of the curia at Avignon. It is difficult to understand how, in making his statement, he should have gone so wide of the truth as Ehrle suggests.
Riezler, p. 247 sq. Three of these writings are in Goldast’s Monarchia II., 1236 sqq. Riezler’s work, Die literarischen Widersacher der Päpste is the best treatment of the subject of this chapter.
The Dialogue, which is printed in Goldast, is called by Riezler an almost unreadable monster, ein kaum übersehbares Monstrum.
Quod non est necesse, ut sub Christo sit unus rector totius ecclesiae sed sufficit quod sint plures diversas regentes provincias. Quoted by Haller, p. 80.
Müller, I. 368, upon the basis of a note in a MS. copy in Vienna, places its composition before June 24, 1324; Riezler between 1324-1326. John of Jandun’s name is associated with the composition of the book in the papal bulls. However, the first person singular, ego, is used throughout. According to Innocent VI., Marsiglius was much influenced by Ockam, then the leading teacher in France. This is inherently probable from their personal association in Paris and at the emperor’s court and the community of many of their views. See Haller, p. 78. John of Jandun died probably 1328. See Riezler, p. 56.
See the bull of Oct. 23, 1327, Mirbt, Quellen, p. 152.
In that year Clement spoke of Marsiglius as dead, Riezler, p. 122. With Ockam, Marsiglius defended the marriage of Lewis’ son to Margaret of Maultasch, in spite of the parties being within the bounds of consanguinity forbidden by the Church. His defence is found in Goldast, II. 1383-1391. For Ockam’s tract, see Riezler, p. 254.
Riezler, p. 36. It contains 150 folio pages in Goldast. Riezler, 193 sq., gives a list of MS. copies. Several French translations appeared. Gregory XI. in 1376 complained of one of them. An Italian translation of 1363 is found in a MS. at Florence, Engl. Hist. Rev., 1905, p. 302. The work was translated into English under the title The Defence of Peace translated out of Latin into English by Wyllyam Marshall, London, R. Wyer, 1535.
Hergenröther-Kirsch, II. 755, says: Unerhört in der christlichen Welt waren die kühnen Behauptungen die sie zu Gunsten ihres Beschützers aufstellten. Pastor, I. 85, says that Marsiglius’ theory of the omnipotence of the state cut at the root of all individual and Church liberty and surpassed in boldness, novelty, and keenness all the attacks which the position claimed by the Church in the world had been called upon to resist up to that time.
Chartul. Univ. Paris., II. 301.
Mirbt: Quellen, pp. 150-152, presents a convenient summary of Part III. of the Defensor. In this part a resumé is given by the author of the preceding portion of the work. Marsiglius quotes Aristotle and other classic writers, Augustine and other Fathers, Hugo of St. Victor and other Schoolmen, but he ignores Thomas Aquinas, and never even mentions his name.
Ad observanda praecepta divinae legis poena vel supplicio temporali nemo evangelica scriptura compelli praecipitur, Part III. 3.
Nullam potestatem eoque minus coactivam jurisdictionem habuit Petrus a Deo immediate super apostolos reliquos, II. 15. This is repeated again and again.
Non plus sacerdotalis auctoritatis essentialis habet Rom. episcopus, quam alter sacerdos quilibet sicut neque beatus Petrus amplius ex hac habuit ceteris apostolis, II. 14.
Interpretatio ex communi concilio fidelium facta, etc., Part III. 1.
Exclusit se ipsum et app. ac discipulos etiam suos ipsorumque successores, consequenter episcopos seu presbyteros, ab omni principatu seu mundano regimine exemplo et sermone, II. 4.
Döllinger: Kirchengesch. II. 259, 2d ed., 1843, says, "In the Defensor the Calvinistic system was in respect to Church power and constitution, already marked out." Pastor, 1. 85, says, "If Calvin depended upon any of his predecessors for his principles of Church government, it was upon the keen writer of the fourteenth century."
Pastor, I. 84, shifts this notoriety from Huss to Marsiglius. Riezler, p. 232, and Haller, p. 77, compare Marsiglius’ keenness of intellect with the Reformers’, but deny to him their religious warmth.
Est liber mirabiliter bene fundatus. Et fuit homo multum peritus in doctrina Aristoteleia, etc., Enyl. Hist. Rev. p. 298. The Turin MS. dates from 1416, that is, contemporary with Gerson. In this MS, John of Paris’ De potestate is bound up with the Defensor.
Compared with Wyclif, a pamphleteer as keen as he, Marsiglius did not enter into the merits of distinctly theological doctrine nor see the deep connection between the dogma of transubstantiation and sacramental penance and papal tyranny as the English reformer did. But so far as questions of government are concerned, he went as far as Wyclif or farther. See the comparison, as elaborated by Poole, p. 275.
Der älteste Versuch einer Theorie des deutschen Staatsrechts, Riezler, p. 180. Two other works by Lupold have come down to us. See Riezler, pp. 180-192.
For the papal tracts by Petrus de Palude and Konrad of Megenberg, d. 1374, see Riezler, p. 287 sqq. The works are still unpublished. Konrad’s Planctus ecclesiae is addressed to Benedict in these lines, which make the pope out to be the summit of the earth, the wonder of the world, the doorkeeper of heaven, a treasury of delights, the only sun for the world.
"Flos et apex mundi, qui totius esse rotundi
Nectare dulcorum conditus aromate morum
Orbis papa stupor, clausor coeli et reserator,
Tu sidus clarum, thesaurus deliciarum
Sedes sancta polus, tu mundo sol modo solus."
Pastor, I. 85. Hergenröther-Kirsch, II. 757, complains that these two authors push matters beyond the limits of truth, "making the pope a semi-god, the absolute ruler of the world." See Haller, p. 82 sq. Haller says it is a common thing among the common people in Italy for a devout man to call the pope a god upon earth, un Dio in terra. One of the smaller tracts already referred to is printed by Finke in Aus den Tagen, etc., LXIX-XCIX, and three others by Scholz, Publizistik, pp. 486-516. See Scholz’s criticism, pp. 172-189. Finke, p. 250, is in doubt about the authorship.
For edd. of Triumphus’ tract, see Potthast, Bibl. Hist. under Triumphus. Riezler, p. 286, dates the tract 1324-1328, Haller, p. 83, 1322, Scholz, p. 172, 1320. See Poole, 252 sq.
Nec credo,quod papa possit scire totum quod potest facere per potentiam suam, 32. 3, quoted by Döllinger, Papstthum, p. 433.
This famous passage runs sententia papae sententia Dei una sententia est, quia unum consistorium est ipsius papal et ipsius Dei ... cujus consistorii claviger et ostiarius est ipse papa. See Schwab, Gerson, p. 24.
Totum purgatorium evacuare potest, 3. 28. Döllinger, p. 451, says of Triumphus’ tract that on almost every page the Church is represented as a dwarf with the head of a giant, that is, the pope.
He incorporated into his work entire sections from James of Viterbo, De regimine christiano, Scholz, p. 151.
Döllinger, p. 433, places its composition in 1329, Riezler, 1331, Haller, between 1330-1332. Alvaras issued three editions, the third at Santiago, 1340.
Vere papa representat Christum in terris, ut qui videt cum oculo contemplativo et fideli videat et Christum, I. 13.
Apud eum est pro ratione roluntas, et quod ei placet legis habet viogorem, I. 45.
Unum est consistonum et tribunal Christi et papae, I. 29. Ubicunque est papa, ibi est Eccles. Rom .... Non cogitur stare Romae, I. 31.
Haller says, p. 103, the characteristic of John’s pontificate was finance, der Fiskalismus. Tangl, p. 40, compares his commercial instincts to the concern for high ideals which animated Gregory VII., Alexander III., and Innocent III. See vol. V, I., pp. 787, sqq.
Licet ecclesiarum. See Lib. sextus, III. 4, 2. Friedberg’s ed., II. 102, Lux, p. 5, says romanus pontifex supremus collator, ad quem plenaria de omnibus totius orbis beneficiis eccles. dispositio jure naturo pertinet, etc.
Lux, p. 12; Hefele: Conciliengesch. VI. 151.
Lux, p. 13; Friedberg: Reservationen in Herzog, XVI. 672.
Lux, p. 17 sqq., and Haller, p. 38, with authorities.
Verum super ipsum jus, potest dispensare, etc. Quoted by Gieseler, II. 123.
A provision that is providere ecclesiae de episcopo signified in the first instance a promotion, and afterwards the papal right to supersede appointments made in the usual way by the pope’s own arbitrary appointment. The methods of papal appointment are given in Liber sextus, I. 16, 18; Friedberg’s ed., II. 969. See Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. 320. "Collations" was also used as a general term to cover this papal privilege. The formulas of this period commonly ran de apostol. potestatis plenitudine reservamus. See John’s bull of July 30, 1322, Lux, p. 62 sq. Rogare, monere, precipere are the words generally used by pope Innocent III., 1198-1216, see Hinschius, II. 114 sq. Alexander III. used the expression ipsum commendamus rogantes et rogando mandantes and others like it. Hinschius, III. 116, dates insistence on reservations as a right from the time of Lucius III., 1181-1185.
Haller, p, 107.
Lux, p. 61 sq. This author, pp. 59-106, gives 57 documents not before published, containing reservations by John XXII. and his successors.
Kirsch: Kollektorien, p. xxv sq.
See Hergenröther-Kirsch, II. 762. K. Müller: Kirchengesch., II. 45. Kirsch: Finanzverwaltung, p. 70. Pastor, in the 1st ed. of his Hist. of the Popes, I. 63, said das unheilvolle System der Annaten, Reservationen und Expektanzen hat seit Johann XXII. zur Ausbildung gelangt.
The course of Clement V., in allowing grants to Philip the Fair, Charles of Valois, and other princes, was followed by John. In 1316 he granted to the king of France a tenth and annates for four years, in 1326 a tenth for two years, and in 1333 a tenth for six years. The English king, in 1317, was given a share of the tenth appointed by the Council of Vienne for a crusade and at the same time one-half of the annates. Again, in the years 1319, 1322, 1330, a tenth was accorded to the same sovereign. See Haller, p. 116 sq.
De planctu eccles., II. 14, papa legibus loquentibus de simonia et canonibus solutus est.
V. 3, certum est, summum pontificem canonicam simoniam a jure positivo prohibitam non posse committere, quia ipse est supra jus et eum jura positiva non ligant.
Kirsch: Kollektorien, p. xii sq. and other Catholic writers make some defence of John’s financial measures on the ground that the sources of income from the State of the Church dried up when the papacy was transferred to Avignon.
For the details, see Tangl, p. 20 sqq.
See vol. V. 1, p. 787 sqq.
Non habita consideratione ad valorem beneficii, de quo fiet gratia sed ad laborem scripturae dumtaxat. See Tangl, p. 21.
Woker took up the study in 1878, and has been followed by a number of scholars such as Tangl, Gottlob, Goeller, Haller, Baumgarten, Schulte, and especially Dr. Kirsch, professor of church history in the Catholic University of Freiburg, Switzerland. See, for a full description, Baumgarten, pp. v-xiii. The subject involves a vast array of figures and commercial briefs of all kinds, and includes the organization of the camera, the system of collection, the graduated scales of prices, the transmission of moneys to Avignon, the division of the receipts between the pope and the cardinals, the values of the numerous coins, etc. Garampi, a keeper of the Vatican Archives, in the eighteenth century arranged these registers according to countries. See Kirsch, Kollektorien, p. vii, and Rückkehr, p. xli-l; Tangl, vi sqq.; Baumgarten, viii, x sqq.
Kirsch: Kollektorien, p. vii, note, gives four different headings under which the moneys were recorded, namely: (1) census and visitations; (2) bulls; (3) servitia communia; (4) sundry sources. He also gives the entries under which disbursements were entered, such as the kitchen, books and parchments, palfreys, journeys, wars, etc.
Tangl, 74 sq
As an example of the host of these officials who had to be fed, see Tangl, pp. 64-67. He gives a list of the fees paid by agents of the city of Cologne, which was seeking certain bulls in 1393. The title "secretary" does not occur till the reign of Benedict XII., 1338. Goeller, p. 46.
One of the allowances made by John XXII. for collectors was 5 gold florins a day. Kirsch: Kollektorien, VII. sqq., XLIX. sqq. Kirsch gives the official ledgers of papal collectors in Basel, pp. 4-32, and other sees of Germany. Sometimes the bishop acted as collector in his diocese, Goeller, p. 71.
For elaborate comparisons of the value of the different coins of the fourteenth century, see Kirsch, Kollektorien, LXXVIII. and Rückkehr, p. xli sqq. Gottlob, pp. 133, 174 sq., etc. Baumgarten, CCXI sqq. The silver mark, the gold florin and the pound Tournois were among the larger coins most current. One mark was worth 4 or 6 gold florins, or 8 pounds Tournois. The grossus Turonensis was equal to about 26 cents of our value. See Tangl, 14. For the different estimates of marks in florins, see Baumgarten, CXXI. The gold florin had the face value of $2.50 of our money, or nearly 10 marks German coinage. See Kirsch, Kollektorien, p. Ixx; Rückkehr, p. xlv; Gottlob, Servitientaxe, p. 176; Baumgarten, p. ccxiii; Tangl, 14, etc. Kirsch gives the purchasing price of money in the fourteenth century as four times what it now is, Finanzerverwaltung p. 56. The gold mark in 1370 was worth 62 gold florins the silver mark 5 florins, Kirsch: Rückkehr, p. xlv. Kirsch: Rückkehr, pp. l-lxi, gives a very elaborate and valuable list of the prices of commodities and wages in 1370 from the Vatican ledger accounts. Urban V.’s agents bought two horses for 117 florins gold and two mules for 90 florins. They paid 1 gold florin for 12 pairs of shoes and 1 pair of boots. A salma of wheat—equal to 733 loaves of bread—cost 4 florins, or $10 in our money. The keeper of the papal stables received 120 gold florins a year. The senator of Rome received from Gregory XI. 600 gold florins a month. A watchman of the papal palace, 7 gold florins a month. Carpenters received from 12-18 shillings Provis, or 60-80 cents, 47 of these coins being equal to 1 gold florin.
Visitationes ad limina apostolorum, that is, visits to Rome.
See Baumgarten, CXXI.; Kirsch: Finanzverwaltung, p. 22 sq.
Baumgarten, p. cxxii.
Gottlob, Servitien, p. 30 sqq., 75-93; Baumgarten, p. xcvii sqq.
Gottlob, p. 130.
Kirsch: Finanzverwaltung, and Baumgarten, p. xcvii, make it one-third. Gottlob, p. 120 says it was sometimes more.
Baumgarten, p. cvi, Schulte, p. 97 sq. Cases are also reported of the reduction of the assessment upon a revaluation of the property. In 1326 the assessment of the see of Breslau was reduced from 4, 000 to 1, 786 gold florins. Kirsch: Finanzverwaltung, p. 8.
For cases, see Baumgarten, p. cviii. Attempts to get rid of this assessment were unavailing. The bishop of Bamberg, in 1335, left Avignon without a bull of confirmation because he had not made the prescribed payment. The reason is not recorded, but the statement is spread on the ledger entry that episcopal confirmation should not be granted to him till the Apostolic letters pertaining to it were properly registered and delivered by the Apostolic camera. Goeller, p. 69.
Gesta Abb. monaster. S. Albani, II. 55 sq. See Gottlob, Servitien, p. 174 sqq. for the full list of his expenses.
The contract is printed entire by Kirsch, Finanzerverwaltung, pp. 73-77, and Gottlob, p. 162 sqq.
See Gottlob, pp. 102-118; Schulte, p. 13 sqq.
Baumgarten, p. cxx.
John XXII., 1316, Benedict XII, 1335, Clement VI., 1342, and Boniface IX., 1392, issued bulls requiring such appointees to pay one-half the first year’s income into the papal treasury. See, on this subject, Kirsch, Kollektorien, p. xxv sqq. He mentions the papal collector, Gerardus, who gives a continuous list for the years 1343-1360, of such payments of annates, fructus beneficiorum vacantium ad Cameram Apostolicam pertinentes. The annates, or annalia, were originally given to the bishops when livings became vacant, but were gradually reserved for the papal treasury. See Friedberg, Kirchliche Abgaben, in Herzog, I. 95.
Kirsch: Kollektorien, p. xxvi. Benedict, 1335, appropriated these payments to the papal treasury.
Tangl, pp. 31, 32, 37
Kirsch: Kollektorien, pp. xx, xxi.
Kirsch: Finanzverwaltung, p. 3; Rückkehr, p. xv. The payment to Urban V. in 1367 and its division into equal shares is a matter of record. In a ledger account begun in 1317, and now in the Vatican, an ounce of gold was estimated at 5 florins, a pound of gold at 96 florins. See Kirsch, Finanzverwaltung, p. 71; Baumgarten, p. ccxi.
Baumgarten, p. cxlii sq.
Baumgarten, CXXVI. sqq.
Ehrle: Process über d. Nachlass Klemens V., in Archiv, etc., V. 147. The revenue of Philip the Fair amounted in 1301 to 267,900 pounds. See Gottlob, Servitien, 133. Gottlob, p. 134, says the cardinals received as much more as their share.
Haller, p. 138.
Walter de Gray, bishop of Worcester, is said to have borrowed 10,000 pounds at his elevation, 1215. Roger de Wendover, as quoted by Gottlob, p. 136. The passage runs obligatus in curia Romana de decem millibus libris, etc. Gottlob understands this to refer to Roman bankers, not to the Roman curia.
De planctu eccl. II. 7, quum saepe intraverim in cameram camerarii domni papae, semper ibi vidi nummularios et mensas plenas auro, et clericos computantes et trutinantes florenos. See Döllinger-Friedrich, pp. 86, 420.
Insatiabilis vorago et in avaricia nullus ei similis. De schismate, Erler’s ed., p. 119. The sacra auri fames prevailed at Avignon.
Pastor, I. 76, says, "Luxury and fast living prevailed to the most flagrant degree under Clement’s rule." For detailed description of Avignon and the papal palace, see A. Penjon, Avignon, la ville et le palais des papes, pp. 134, Avignon, 1878; F. Digonnet: Le palais des papes en Avignon, Avignon, 1907.
This awful denunciation runs: Veniat ei laqueus quem ignorat, et cadat in ipsum. Sit maledictus ingrediens, sit maledictus egrediens. Percutiat eum dominus amentia et caecitate ac mentis furore. Coelum super eum fulgura mittat. Omnipotentis dei ira et beatorum Petri et Pauli ... in hoc et futuro seculo exardescat in ipsum. Orbis terrarum pugnet contra eum, aperiatur terra et ipsum absorbeat vivum. Mirbt: Quellen, p. 153. See Müller: Kampf Ludwigs, etc., II. 214.
Quoted by Gasquet, Black Death, p. 46.
Whitcomb, Source Book of the Renaissance, pp. 15-18, gives a translation.
Knighton’s account, Chronicon, Rolls Series II. 58-65.
Quoted by Gasquet, p. 46 sqq.
Gasquet, p. 40.
Thorold Rogers saw the remains of a number of skeletons at the digging for the new divinity school at Cambridge, and pronounced the spot the plague-pit of this awful time. Six Centuries of Work and Wages, I. 157.
Gasquet, p. 128.
These are the figures of Jessopp, Coming of the Friars, Gasquet, p. 226, and Cunningham, Growth of English Industries and Commerce, p. 275. Thorold Rogers, however, in Six Centuries of Work, etc., and England before and after the Black Death, Fortnightly Review, VIII. 190 sqq. reduces the number. Jessopp bases his calculations upon local documents and death lists of the diocese of Norwich and finds that in some cases nine tenths of the population died. The Augustinians at Heveringland, prior and canons, died to a man. At Hickling only one survived. Whether this fell mortality among the clergy, especially the orders, points to luxuriant living and carelessness in habits of cleanliness, we will not attempt to say.
Knighton, II. 62, 65.
Gasquet, p. 253. This author, pp. viii, 8, compares the ravages of the bubonic plague in India, 1897-1905, to the desolations of the Black Death. He gives the mortality in India in this period as 3,250,000 persons. He emphasizes the bad effects of the plague in undoing the previous work of the Church and checking its progress.
Ralph, bishop of Bath and Wells, in a pastoral letter warned against the "pestilence which had come into a neighboring kingdom from the East." Knighton refers its origin to India, Thomas Walsingham, Hist. Angl., Rolls Series I. 273, thus speaks of it: "Beginning in the regions of the North and East it advanced over the world and ended with so great a destruction that scarcely half of the people remained. Towns once full of men became destitute of inhabitants, and so violently did the pestilence increase that the living were scarcely able to bury the dead. In certain houses of men of religion, scarcely two out of twenty men survived. It was estimated by many that scarcely one-tenth of mankind had been left alive."
Muratori, XV. 56.
Cola had roamed about till he went to Prag, where Charles IV. seized him and sent him to Avignon in 1352. Petrarch, who corresponded with him, speaks of seeing him in Avignon, attended by two guards. See Robinson, Petrarch, pp. 341-343 sqq.
The full term of Albernoz’ service in Italy extended from 1353-1368. By his code, called the Aegidian Constitutions, he became the legislator of the State of the Church for centuries. For text, see Mansi, XXVI. 299-307. Gregorovius, VI. 430, calls him "the most gifted statesman who ever sat in the college of cardinals," and Wurm, his biographer, "the second founder of the State of the Church."
In 1334 Clement had set off the diocese of Prag from the diocese of Mainz and made it an archbishopric.
Bryce, ch. XIV., says well that the Golden Bull completed the Germanization of the Holy Roman Empire by separating the imperial power from the papacy. See Mirot, La politique pontificale, p. 2.
Kirsch: Rückkehr, etc., pp. xii, 74-90. During the stop of five days at Genoa, Urban received timely help in the payment of the feoffal tax of Naples, 8000 ounces of gold. Kirsch, in his interesting and valuable treatment, publishes the ledger entries made in the official registers, deposited in Rome and Avignon and giving in detail the expenses incurred on the visits of Urban and Gregory XI. Gregorovius, VI. 430 sqq., gives an account of Urban’s pilgrimage in his most brilliant style.
The accounts are published entire by Kirsch, pp. ix sqq. xxx, 109-165.
Döllinger, The Church and the Churches, Engl. trans., 1862, p. 363, puts the population at 17,000. Gregorovius, VI. 438, makes the estimate somewhat higher
233 Pastor, Hergenröther-Kirsch, Kirsch, Rückkehr, p. xvii; Mirot, p. viii, 7 sq., and other Catholic historians agree that this was Gregory’s chief motive. Mirot, pp. 10-18, ascribes to Gregory three controlling ideas—the reform of the Church, the re-establishment of peace with the East as a preliminary to a new crusade against the Turks, and the return of the papacy to Rome.
234 Baluz, I. 435, Gieseler, IV. 1, p. 90 sq., give the bull.
235 Quoted by Mirot, p. 48, and Gregorovius, VI. 466 sqq.
236 Brigitta was born near Upsala, 1303. See Gardner, St. Catherine of Siena, p. 44 sqq. Döllinger has called attention to the failure of her prophecies to be fulfilled, Fables and Prophecies of the Middle Ages, trans. by Prof. Henry B. Smith, pp. 331, 398.
237 Vorago pessima horribilis symoniae, Brigitta’s Revelationes, as quoted by Gieseler, Haller, p. 88, and Gardner, p. 78 sq.
238 Pastor, I. 103.
239 Scudder: Letters of St. Catherine, p. 132 sq.; Gardner, pp. 158, 176, etc.
240 Scudder, p. 182 sqq.
241 This was Catherine’s deposition to her confessor. See Mirbt: Quellen, p. 154, in romana curia, ubi deberet paradisus esse caelicarum virtutum, inveniebat faetorem infernalium vitiarum.
242 Mirot, p. 101, is quite sure Catherine had no infuence in bringing Gregory to his original decision. So also Pastor and Gardner.
243 Later biographers tell of a vow made by Gregory at the opening of his pontificate to return to Rome, but no contemporary writer has any reference to it, Mirot, p. 62.
244 Kirsch, pp. 169-264, gives a copy of these ledger entries. One set contains the expenses of preparation, one set the expenses from Marseilles to Rome, and a third set, the expenses after arriving in Rome. Still another gives the espenses of repairing the Vatican—the wages of workmen and the prices paid for lumber, lead, iron, keys, etc. On the back of this last volume, which is in the Vatican, are written the words, "Expensae palatii apostolici, 1370-1380."
245 Kirsch, pp. xviii, 171, Mirot, p. 112 sq., says, Les vins paraissent avoir tenu une grande place dans le rétour, et, à la veille du départ, on s’occupa tant d’assurer le service de la bouteillerie durant le voyage, que de garnir en prévision de l’arrivée, les caves du Vatican.
246 Kirsch, p. 184. For other loans made by Gregory, e.g. 30,000 florins in 1374 and 60,000 in 1376, see Mirot, p. 36.
247 Kirsch, pp. xx, xxii, 179.
248 So Gerson, De examinatione doctrinarum, I. 16, as quoted by Gieseler, ut caverent ab hominibus sive viris sive mulieribus, sub specie religionis loquentibus visiones ... quia per tales ipse reductus. See Pastor, I. 113.