The Power Of The Popes

rst, filled the prefectorial office. As to the patrician, who was named John, and who was the principal author of the reestablishment of this civil magistracy, he is expressly designated to us as son

he defender and advocate of the Roman Church. Glaber,135 a contemporary historian, after having related this coronation, says, that it appears very reasonable, and a thing well established, that no prince could take the title of

; and we see that in 1020, when Benedict VIII. resorted to Henry in Germany, this prince confi

3, whom he had crowned in 1027. After John, who survived his re-establishment but a short time, his nephew w

a very young man: he bore to the chair of St. Peter the thoughtlessness and irregularities of youth; and he was equally reproached for his robb

fied to sta

which Benedict led

refore I shall c

iod when God too

enedict IX. had

his murders, his

illainy became i

y the people: a

a stipulated pri

John, Bishop of

or three months

ter in. Benedic

he Consuls of R

ecalled, wasted t

e aid of his sol

ire ignominiously

ict in resuming t

his manners, alw

he people, whom h

sgust; terrified

s crimes, given up

, and more dispo

as a pontiff, he

ling the pontifi

ho paid him a c

hn nevertheless

est of the eccles

p his abode in h

name of Gregory

and three months

II., king o

of the condition of the Holy See, under thre

nedict IX. were of the house of the Alberics counts of Tusculum. This is one of the first examp

ce, wished to reap its fruits, and could not behold them without grief considerably lessened from the loss of many domains, usurped by seculars from the Holy See. He took up arms to reconquer them, without neglecting, however, the excommunication of their possessors. These were the principal a

the Vatican, and Gregory VI. or John his coadjutor, at Saint-Mary-Major. Henry deposed the whole three without any difficulty, and

en years of this emperor's reign, are one of the epochs during which the R

at Rome, he decreed that the females whom the priests should abuse in the bosom of this city, should remain slaves of the palace of the Lateran.141 This pontiff, whom they have placed in the catalogue of saints, should rather have obtained a place in the rank of warriors. He led an army against the Normans, who defeated him, and kept him prisoner at Be

f the priesthood over the rest of mankind, he saw the necessity of reforming their manners and concentrating their relations, to isolate them more strictly, and to form them into one great family, the members of which should no longer recollect having belonged to a secular one. Ecclesiastical celibacy was as yet but a general practice, introduced into and renewed in almost every church, but in almost all, nevertheless, modified by exceptions or transgressions. Hildebrand resolved to reduce it to a rigorous law: at his

no others than the seven bishops of the Roman territory: Nicholas, in the same decree calls them his fellow countrymen, "comprovinciales episcopi.144 With respect to the cardinal priests or clerks, it was those who administered the offices of the twenty-eight principal churches of the city of Rome. Long before Nicholas, these twenty-eight priests and these bishops, had been designated by the appellation of 'cardinals'; but now for the first time, behold them i

ur and respect d

to whom the Apost

vilege of concurr

cons

hey satisfy themselves by misrepresenting them, and by referring to them as a concession g

en between the patrons and the candidates. A vast number of benefices were disposed of no doubt: but this traffic has subsisted under every regime; the question never has been other than that of knowing for whose benefit it should be earned on. Hildebrand armed himself with a sanctified zeal against this abuse: to extinquish it, he ventured to dictate for Nicholas II. a decree, which prohibited the a

d the election irrevocable: and if the patron layman had been advertised of neither one nor the other, he lost the opportunity of bestowing or selling the dignity. To escape this stratagem, the sovereigns decreed that, immediately after the death of a prelate, the ring and crozier should be transferred to his successor only in investing him. Adam de Breme147 refers to the reign of Louis le Débonnaire this form of inves

ondition that as vassal of the Apostolic See, this chief, named Robert Guiscard, should take to the Roman Church the oath of fidelity, pledge himself in the same character to pay it an annual tribute, and enter into the same engagement for his successors.149 Such was the origin of the kingdom of Naples; and this strange concession stripped the emperors of Constantinople of every remnant of sovereignty over Grecia Major. Nicholas II. died in 1

is personal elevation, his opinions and character impelled him. We perceive in his conduct none of the man?uvering which private interest suggests: it evinces all the outlines of an inflexible system, the integrity of which is never permitted to be compromised by concession or compliance. His zeal, which was not merely active but daring, obstinate and inconsiderate, proceeded from an incurable persuasion. Hildebrand would have been the martyr of theocracy, if circumstances had called for it; and they were little short of it. Like all rigid enthusiasts, he considered himself disinterested, and became without remors

drew up or dictated these articles; but the substance of them and their developement will be found in his authenticated letters: they may be entitled "The Spirit of Hildebrand;" they were the rule of his conduct, the creed which he professed, and would have wished to impose on Christendom. In them it is expressly stated that the

ad done nothing but weaken itself; Italy was divided into petty states; a young king governed France; the Moors ravaged Spain; the Normans had just con

, that homage should be demanded of those from whom he received charity. William at the same time forbad the English from going to Rome, and prohibited them acknowledging any other pope than him whom he should approve. This trifling affair had no other consequence; and we only mention it in this place as it evinces better than any other, that Gregory knew not how to fix any bounds to the pretensions of the Holy See. Perh

ed to abdicate his crown152 ; Boleslaus, king of Poland, whom he declared deprived of his authority, and added that Poland should be no longer a king-dom153 ; Solomon, king of Hungary, whom he sent to learn from the old men of his country, that it belonged to the Roman church154 ; the Princes of Spain, to whom he stated that St. Peter was supreme and sovereign lord of their states and domains, and that it would be preferable that Spain should fall into the hands of the Saracens, than cease to render

them, the Roman Chu

from the servic

ain obstinate; let

be interdicted thr

y God's assistanc

m from such

had the principal influence in Italian affairs, was, on this

generous and tender friendship; he addressed to her also, as a spiritual director, extremely affectionate letters; she lived unhappily with Godfrey-le-Bossu, her first husband: from this circumstance, and others, rash inductions hav

There exist indeed some difficulties, respecting these three acts: why has the first been allowed to go astray? wherefore do historians say, it was signed at Canossa, while it is referred to in the second, as having been subscribed at Rome? And this second deed itself, which so completely divests the giver, which reserves to her only some life enjoyments, how reconcile it with the extensive domains with which s

and which reverted at a later period to the Court of Rome; but, with time, the popes have secured a part of this

it was requisite to obtain pardon, or submit to an excommunication160 Henry, although he despised the menace, thought proper to give the pope some trouble in the city of Rome: a tumult took place, and Gregory was seized, struck, imprisoned, and ransomed. The effect of

the Almighty God

rbid Henry, the

gdom of the Teu

hristians from t

hereafter take to

n to render him se

led in the centre of Germany; an army of confederates was assembled near Spires, surrounded Henry, opposed to him the sentence of the pope, and made him pledge himsel

feet, in the month of January 1077, he awaited in the midst of the court the Holy Father's reply. This reply was, that he should fast three days before he could be permitted to kiss Hildebrand's feet; and at the end of three days, they would be willing to absolve and receive him, under the promise of a perfect submission to the forthcoming decision of Augsburgh

tion. "La Pierre a donne a Pierre, et Pierre donne a Rodolphe le diademe."163 Peter, a stone, has given to Peter, and Peter gives to Rodolph a diadem. At the same time Henry elevated to the papacy Guibert the archbishop of Ravenna, and assembled an army against Rodolph. In vain Gregory prophesied that Heniy w

is perfect only in the French, the

rt Guiscard took advantage of one of these occasions to deliver Gregory, but still more to ravage and pillage the city: he burned one quarter, which has since remained almost deserted, that bet

nts165 So lived and so died Gregory VII., whose name, under Gregory XIII., was inscribed in the Roman martyrology, to whom Paul V. decreed the honours of an annual festival166 and

experience, of his deplorable wanderings. For the excuse cannot be alleged in favour of his panegyrists that his enterprises m

f the

the Roman See, w

of the pen, or b

tend to the advan

antage of

e commencement of this chapter, to depict some of the preceding popes. Victor III. filled scarcely for a year t

king of Italy. Christendom was then divided between Urban II. and Guibert, who had taken the name of Clement III. and whom Henry IV. re-established in Rome in 1091. Urban till 1096 travelled in France and Northern Italy. Philip, king of France, repudia

y did not arrive till Urban's time: a man named Cucupietre, called Peter the Hermit, made to the pope a lamentable recital of the vexations which the Christians experienced in Palestine; he implored on their behalf powerful succours against the Musselmans. Urban dispatched Peter to all the princes and churches of Italy, France, and Germany; and after leaving the preacher time sufficient to spread his enthusiasm among the people of these countries, the crusade was finally proposed in a council or assembly at which the pope presided, in an open plain not far from Placentia. There were collected upwards of thirty thousand laics alone, independent of prelates and priests: the expedition projected was universally applauded, but it

her countries: the French emperors, threatened in their own palaces, had lost every remnant of authority in Italy: it was sufficient to humble the Emperor of the West; he alone counterbalanced in Europe the weight of the Holy See. In attacking him one might reckon on the support or neutrality of other monarchs; they were jealous of his preponderance: Rome in humiliating them, disposed them to reconcile themselves to it by the spectacle of more serious outrages reserved for their head; they childishly rejoiced in the great share he should have in the common humiliation. They turn, in the mean time, against him, the old or new factions which troubled Germany; they redouble their insolence and their power by the thunder of the anathemas with which they struck him; and if so many efforts did not overthrow him, at least, they staggered and weakened him. Such was the war waged by Hildebrand, against Heniy IV. the first at the period, or as we may term him, the only representative of the civil power in the West. In bequeathing this war to his succe