Part 114 (1/2)

Boniface had employed the exalted language of Gregory VII in dealing with Henry IV, but he found an opponent in a monarch more resolute and resourceful than any Holy Roman Emperor. This was Philip the Fair, [2]

king of France. Philip answered the first bull by refusing to allow any gold and silver to be exported from France to Italy. The pope, thus deprived of valuable revenues, gave way and acknowledged that the French ruler had a limited right to tax the clergy. Another dispute soon arose, however, as the result of Philip's imprisonment and trial of an obnoxious papal legate. Angered by this action, Boniface prepared to excommunicate the king and depose him from the throne. Philip retaliated by calling together the Estates-General and asking their support for the preservation of the ”ancient liberty of France.” The n.o.bles, the clergy, and the ”third estate” rallied around Philip, accused the pope of heresy and tyranny, and declared that the French king was subject to G.o.d alone.

ANAGNI, 1303 A.D.

The last act of the drama was soon played. Philip sent his emissaries into Italy to arrest the pope and bring him to trial before a general council in France. At Anagni, near Rome, a band of hireling soldiers stormed the papal palace and made Boniface a prisoner. The citizens of Anagni soon freed him, but the shock of the humiliation broke the old man's spirit and he died soon afterwards. The poet Dante, in the _Divine Comedy_, [3]

speaks with awe of the outrage: ”Christ had been again crucified among robbers; and the vinegar and gall had been again pressed to his lips”. [4]

The historian sees in this event the end of the temporal power of the Papacy.

THE ”BABYLONION CAPTIVITY,” 1309-1377 A.D.

Soon after the death of Boniface, Philip succeeded in having the archbishop of Bordeaux chosen as head of the Church. The new pope removed the papal court to Avignon, a town just outside the French frontier of those days. The popes lived in Avignon for nearly seventy years. This period is usually described as the ”Babylonian Captivity” of the Church, a name which recalls the exile of the Jews from their native land. [5] The long absence of the popes from Rome lessened their power, and the suspicion that they were the mere va.s.sals of the French crown seriously impaired the respect in which they had been held.

THE ”GREAT SCHISM,” 1378-1417 A.D.

Following the ”Babylonian Captivity” came the ”Great Schism.” Shortly after the return of the papal court to Rome, an Italian was elected pope as Urban VI. The cardinals in the French interest refused to accept him, declared his election void, and named Clement VII as pope. Clement withdrew to Avignon, while Urban remained in Rome. Western Christendom could not decide which one to obey. Some countries declared for Urban, while other countries accepted Clement. The spectacle of two rival popes, each holding himself out as the only true successor of St. Peter, continued for about forty years and injured the Papacy more than anything else that had happened to it.

COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE, 1414-1418 A.D.

The schism in western Christendom was finally healed at the Council of Constance. There were three ”phantom popes” at this time, but they were all deposed in favor of a new pontiff, Martin V. The Catholic world now had a single head, but it was not easy to revive the old, unquestioning loyalty to him as G.o.d's vicar on earth.

THE RENAISSANCE POPES

From the time of Martin V the Papacy became more and more an Italian power. The popes neglected European politics and gave their chief attention to the States of the Church. A number of the popes took much interest in the Renaissance movement and became its enthusiastic patrons.

[6] They kept up splendid courts, collected ma.n.u.scripts, paintings, and statues, and erected magnificent palaces and churches in Rome. Some European peoples, especially in Germany, looked askance at such luxury and begrudged the heavy taxes which were necessary to support it. This feeling against the papacy also helped to provoke the Reformation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, THE GREAT SCHISM, 1378-1417 A.D.]

COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE CLERGY

The worldliness of some of the popes was too often reflected in the lives of the lesser clergy. Throughout the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the Church encountered much criticism from reformers. Thus, the famous humanist, Erasmus, [7] wrote his _Praise of Folly_ to expose the vices and temporal ambitions of bishops and monks, the foolish speculations of theologians, and the excessive reliance which common people had on pilgrimages, festivals, relics, and other aids to devotion.

So great was the demand for this work that it went through twenty-seven large editions during the author's lifetime. Erasmus and others like him were loyal sons of the Church, but they believed they could best serve her interests by effecting her reform. Some men went further, however, and demanded wholesale changes in Catholic belief and wors.h.i.+p. These men were the heretics.

229. HERESIES AND HERETICS

PERSECUTION OF HERETICS

During the first centuries of our era, when the Christians had formed a forbidden sect, they claimed toleration on the ground that religious belief is voluntary and not something which can be enforced by law. This view changed after Christianity triumphed in the Roman Empire and enjoyed the support, instead of the opposition, of the government. The Church, backed by the State, no longer advocated freedom of conscience, but began to persecute people who held heretical beliefs.

MEDIEVAL ATt.i.tUDE TOWARD HERESY

It is difficult for those who live in an age of religious toleration to understand the horror which heresy inspired in the Middle Ages. A heretic was a traitor to the Church, for he denied the doctrines believed to be essential to salvation. It seemed a Christian duty to compel the heretic to recant, lest he imperil his eternal welfare. If he persisted in his impious course, then the earth ought to be rid of one who was a source of danger to the faithful and an enemy of the Almighty.

PUNISHMENT OF HERESY

Although executions for heresy had occurred as early as the fourth century, [8] for a long time milder penalties were usually inflicted. The heretic might be exiled, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property and his rights as a citizen. The death penalty was seldom invoked by the Church before the thirteenth century. Since ecclesiastical law forbade the Church to shed blood, the State stepped in to seize the heretic and put him to death, most often by fire. We must remember that in medieval times cruel punishments were imposed for even slight offenses, and hence men saw nothing wrong in inflicting the worst of punishments for what was believed to be the worst of crimes.

THE ALBIGENSES

In spite of all measures of repression heretics were not uncommon during the later Middle Ages. Some heretical movements spread over entire communities. The most important was that of the Albigenses, so called from the town of Albi in southern France, where many of them lived. Their doctrines are not well known, but they seem to have believed in the existence of two G.o.ds--one good (whose son was Christ), the other evil (whose son was Satan). The Albigenses even set up a rival church, with its priests, bishops, and councils.