r; . JWKWMR*!' ^W . DR. J. J. I. VON DOLLINGER'S FABLES RESPECTING THE POPES IN THE MIDDLE AGES, TRANSLATED BY ALFRED PLUMMER, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford; Together with Dr. Dollinger's Essay on THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT AND TUB PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA, TRANSLATED FOR THE AMERICAN EDITION WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY HENRY B. SMITH, D. D., Professor in Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. DODD & MEAD, No. 762, BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 1872. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by DODD & MEAD, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. INTRODUCTION. Dr. von Dollingcr's Fables about the Popes in the Middle Ages J was published more than ten years ago ; the fruit, as the author says, of preparatory studies upon a larger work, the general History of the Papacy. The growing importance of all subjects bearing upon the development of the papal system, and the high reputation of Dr. Dollinger as a theolo- gian and as the leader of the so-called Old Catholic party in Germany, led to its translation last year in England by Mr. Alfred Plummer, a Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford, and a pupil and personal friend of the author. In the present edition that translation is retained, here and there, revised from a comparison with the original. Mr. Plummer added the Appendices B to F, and also wrote a long and interesting Introduction to the English edition, giving a general review of the main topics of the work. This 1 Die Papst-Fabcln des Mittelalters. Ein Buitrag zur Kirchen- geschidito von Job. Jos. Ign. v. Dollinger. Zweite unveriiuck-rte Auflage. Munchon, 1863. Literarisch-artistischo Austalt der J. G Colta' schen Buckhandlung. II INTRODUCTION. has been left out, in part to make room for another valuable essay of Dr. Dollinger. We are, however, indebted to Mr. Plummer's Introduction for many facts about Dr. Dollinger's life and writings. The paragraphs in brackets are by the English translator, excepting those signed with the initials of the Ameri- can editor. The essay of Dr. Dollinger, translated for this American edition, is on The Prophetic Spirit and the Prophecies of the Christian Era. l It vras published last year m the new series of von Raunier's Histor- isches Taschenbuch. It is an attractive subject, treated with great learning and ability ; and not the less interesting because of its silent bearing upon the questions and complications of the hour, especially the relation of the Italian Papacy to European Christendom. For now, as well as throughout mediaeval times, it may be said, in a broad general view, that Latins and Germans, Guelph and Ghibel- line, Ultramontanes and Cismontancs, the South and the North, the Papacy and the Empire, are arrayed against each other, and that the destiny of Con- tinental Europe hangs, as it has for fifteen hundred 1 Dcr Weissagungfsglaube und das Prophetenthnm in der Christ- lichen Zcit: In the Hislorisches Taschenbuch, begriindet von Friedrich von Raumcr, herausg. von W. II. liiehl. Fiiufte Folga. Erater Jahrgang. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1871. INTRODUCTION. m years, upon the results of this conflict. Besides this, however, the topic itself, as here treated, is one of profound interest in its psychological, as well as in its historical and religious connections. Such a historic review shows that man must look before as well as after ; he must remember the past and also strive to anticipate the future, especially in the great joints and crises of events. Belief in Providence, as well as faith in Scripture, prompts men of deep thought and feeling to ascend some mount of vision, whence they may perchance descry the shadows of coining events. Nowhere has this profound theme been treated in so full and compressed a manner as in Dr. Dollinger's admirable summary. All of the dissertations of the present volume are important to a correct understanding of mediaeval times, and, indirectly, to a just appreciation of those mediaeval tendencies and institutions which still survive, and instinctively contend against reformation and progress. They are likewise valuable as indicating the process through which their distinguished author has passed in coming to his present position. History rather than dogma has brought him to oppose the decrees of the Vatican Council. He has examined and silted the records, and found that the very tradi- tion of the Church disproves the present pretentious iv INTRODUCTION. of the Papacy. In his eloquent inaugural address last year, as Rector of the University of Munich, he declared that the Ultramontanists, unsuccessful in their warfare against science, are now striving to falsify history. In a recent lecture he is reputed to have said, that " the Papacy is based upon an audacious falsification of history. A forgery in its very outset, it has, during the long years of its existence, had a pernicious influence upon Church and State alike." The historic records must be altered, if the Papacy is to be upheld. And this is one reason why Roman Catholics all over the world are now contending for the ecclesiastical control of popular education. They want their own text-books in history as well as their o\vn catechisms. Dr. John Joseph Ignatius von Dollinger celebrated his seventy-third birth day on the 28th of February last ; the celebration was in the Museum Hall of Munich, in connection with the fifth lecture of his recent course on the Reunion of Christendom. He was born at Wiirzburg in 1799, ordained as priest in 1822, and in 1826 he became professor of theology in the new University of Munich. The same year he published his earliest work, The Doctrine of tJie EH- cJiarist in tJie first three Centuries. The first two volumes of his Church History came out from 1833 to INTRODUCTION. v 1835 ; from 1836 to 1843, he published a Compendium of the History of the Church to the Reformation. The English translation of his Church History is " an un- skilful combination of these two." In 1838 he brought o'lt a work on Mohammed's Religion, its Development and Influence. Between 1848 and 1851 appeared his three volumes on The Reformation ', its Internal De- velopment and Effects within the Sphere of the Luther- an Confession (Ratisbon) ; he had previously written, as far back as 1828, a History of the Reformation, which formed the third volume of Hortig's Ecclesias- tical History. All of these works show great research, and ever-increasing largeness of view. He confessed to Mr. Plummer that his History of the Reformation was " a one-sided book written with the definite object of disproving the theory that the German reformers revived pure Apostolic Christianity in the presbytery." The whole of the third bulky volume is in fact de- voted to an examination and refutation of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. In the University he meanwhile read lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Canon Law, Symbolism, Patristics, and lor a time on Dogmatic Theology. He also published several occasional pieces : The Reli- gion of Shakespeare ; The Introduction of Christianity among the Germans ; A Commentary on Dante s Para- VI INTRODUCTION. dise, accompanied with the designs of Cornelius ; Mixed Marriages (1838); TJie English Tractarians ; Joint Huss; TJic Albigcnscs; The Duty and Law of tJie Church toward tliose who die in other Communions (on the occasion of the death of the Queen Dowager of Bavaria, 1842) ; Error, Doubt and Truth, 1845, being an address to the students of the University ; a speech on The Freedom of the Church, 1849, before the Catholic Union of Germany ; Martin Luther, a Sketch, 1852. He superintended an edition of his colleague Mohler's minor writings. For several years he was the editor of the Historisch-politische Blatter, (for which however he did not write much), an able periodical devoted to the interests of the Catholic reactionary party in Southern Germany. Dr. Dollinger has also taken a prominent part in the political movements of his times. He represented the University in the Bavarian Chamber from 1845 to 1847 ; several of his speeches have been published. J In 1847 he was deprived of his professorship, and consequently of his seat in the Chamber, where the ministers who had been raised to power by Lola Montcz dreaded his eloquence and character. Having 1 Drei Rodcn, gchalten auf dem Lnycrfschen Landtapc, 1816. 1. Die Kirchli< hen Antrilgt! dcs liuichrathes. 2. Die ProtetiUin- tischcn Ik-schwurdcn. 3. Die Juduiitrugo. INTRODUCTION. vil been elected a deputy to the National Parliament in 1848, he spoke and wrote with great effect in favor of religious liberty ; and the definition of the relation between Church and State, which was passed at Franc- fort, and aftenvards nominally adopted both at Vienna and Berlin, is said to have been his work. x In 1849 he was restored to his professorship and also to his seat in the Chamber, which last he resigned two years later, to devote himself entirely to his literary labors. He took part in the controversy excited by the discovery of the Philosophumena, 1851 (at first ascribed to Origen, but probably the work of Hippo- lytus) by the publication in 1853 of his Hippolytus and Callistus ; or, the Roman Church in the first half of the Third Century, reviewing the writings of Bunsen, Baur, Wordsworth and Gieseler, and showing himself their equal in learning and skill and power of historic combination. His Paganism and Judaism, translated into English by the Rev. N. Darnell under the title of The Gentile and the Jew, is a very learned and able introduction to the general history of the Christian Church. In 1 860 appeared TIte First Age of Chris- tianity and tlie Church, translated by Rev. H. N. Oxenham ; and the next year The Church and the \ Mr. Plummets Introduction, pp. xi., xii. VIII INTRODUCTION. CJiurches, translated by Mr. W. B. Maccabe which more than any of his previous volumes made his name familiar in England and this country. His inaugural address, 1867, when first chosen Rector of the Uni- versity, was on The Universities as they WeYeand Are; it was published in an enlarged form (p. 58). It gives an excellent account of the rise, growth and present state of the university system in Europe ; though it hardly does full justice to the provisions for higher education in Great Britain and this country. His recent course is well known. The letters on Rome and the Council, by Janus, were doubtless in- spired by him, though said to be written by Professor Huber ; the famous letters of Quirinus, chiefly from Rome, are of a kindred character. Dollinger's De- clarations about the decree of Infallibility, his reply to the sentence of excommunication by the Arch- bishop of Munich, his speech at the Old Catholic Congress in Munich, his Inaugural Address when recently called for the second time to be Rector of the University, his recent lectures at Munich on the Reunion of Christendom, especially the one on Luther, and that on the past attempts to frame schemes for uniting the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Churches these publications have followed in rapid succession, and their fame has gone abroad into all INTRODUCTION. ix lands. They would be well worth gathering into another volume. He is said, by Mr. Plummer, to intend continuing his treatise on Prophecies, etc., by an essay on " Dante as a Prophet," in both senses of the word, L e., as a great and inspired teacher, and as a seer, or foreteller of future events ; aspects of the great mediaeval poet which have hitherto been com- paratively lost sight of. He is also engaged on a work treating of the "Constitution and Internal Government of the Church." Many of the Old Catholics are hardly satisfied with Dr. Dollinger's present position, thinking it to be indefinite and untenable. But, in all great changes, untenable positions must be taken up for a time ; some persons, some Churches, may remain in them for a Ion* time ; a vital and growing movement will soon pass beyond them. And we ought rather to rejoice that "the Nestor of the German Catholic theology" (as the able Canonist von Schulte, of Prague, calls Dr. Dollingcr) has advanced so far, than blame him for not yet being a thorough Protestant. In his successive recent publications his tone is becoming firmer an 1 clearer. In his last course of lectures he speaks of Luther as he has never done before : " The mind and heart of the Germans were in Luther's hands as the lyre in the hands of the musician. Did he not give x INTRODUCTION. to his nation more than any other man in Christian times ever gave to a nation, language, books for all, the Bible, church hymns ? Others were stam- mering, he spoke ; he alone it is who has impressed the ineffaceable stamp of his genius, not only upon the German language, but also upon the German mind. And even those Germans who detest him from the depths of their souls as the mighty heretic and seducer of the nation, are forced to speak in his words and think with his thoughts." In his fifth lecture he discourses about the Papacy thus : " The opinion [that the Pope is Antichrist] has not been formed without the guilt of Rome. When the popes again and again encouraged religious wars, when they recommended and demanded the bloody extirpation of all who believed otherwise than them.^elves, when even in the seventeenth century men were executed at Rome itself on account of their Protestantism the people could hardly fail to believe that the Papacy must be the Woman, of whom John sc.ys that she was drunken with the blood of saints, and the Man of Sin, of whom Paul prophesied as coming with lying wonders, and exalting himself above all that is called God, in that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. ii., 3, 4. lie may not adopt this "popular" view, but he think it natural enough. INTRODUCTION. xi Dr. Dollingcr bides his time. He moves cautiously yet firmly. And who can tell what a few months may bring forth ? It may be that in Southern Germany, a National German Catholic Church will yet be found necessary by the government, to prevent the newly shaped Vatican decree of Infallibility from overriding the old and ever- reserved rights and relative independence of the nations. For that decree claims for the Papacy, not only omniscience in all that man can know about faith and morals, but also the right to make its decisions directly binding on every Roman Catholic conscience, without appeal, and against any and every other earthly power. In a recent conversation with an American citizen of high standing, Dr. Dollinger is reported to have said to him : " Do you in the United States compre- hend what that doctrine (Papal Infallibility) involves ? It imposes upon those who accept it the solemn obligation to violate civil law, to set themselves up in opposition to the ordinances of your Government whenever the Pope shall pronounce his infallible judgment against any one of those ordinances upon moral or religious grounds. In a word, it is the assumption of power on the part of the Pope to proclaim a higher law, which, according to the dogma, 'iis children must obey, though such obedience xii INTRODUCTION. involves treason to the State, and the overthrow of your Government." Sooner than many people suspect, \ve may begin to feel the effects of this new dogma in a new policy on the part of Roman Catholics. This must be so if the Decree is faithfully applied. Revision of many of our laws as to education, ecclesiastical property, and the amenability of the priesthood to civil tribunals, may soon be demanded. This portends serious disturb- ances in our political and religious life. We may soon have to face the question, whether the canon law or the civil law is to be the law of the land. H. B. S, AUTHOR'S PREFACE. THE present publication is the fruit of a course of reading and study which I undertook with a view to a more considerable work, intended to embrace the history of the Papacy. It seemed to me, however, that the results of my researches, which are here given to the public, formed to some extent as a con- nected whole, because all these fables and inventions however different may have been the occasions which gave them birth, and however intentional or unintentional may have been their production have, nevertheless, had at times a marked influence on the whole aspect of the Middle Ages, on the history and poetry of the time, on its theology, and its juris- prudence. For this reason I may, perhaps, venture to hope that not only theologians and ecclesiastical historians, but lovers and students of mediaeval history and mediaeval literature in general, will find this book not altogether devoid of interest. J. V. DdLLINGER. MUNICH, May 24th, 1863. 13 TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I. MEDIAEVAL FABLES ABOUT THE POPES. PAGE. 1. POPE JOAN. Not yet sufficiently proved to be a myth 4 Not an inexplicable riddle 6 Eight explanations stated 7 All eight assume that the story is older than the 13th century 9 The Papess not mentioned by Marianus Scotus 10 nor by Sigebert of Gembloura 11 nor by Otto of Freysingen 12 Stephen de Bourbon the first chronicler who mentions her 14 Martinus Polonus the chief means of Spreading the story.. 1C Even in his ease the story is an interpolation 18 Various ways of interpolating 20 In " Anastasius :) also the story is a later addition 24 Reasons for inserting the Papess between Leo IV. and Benedict III 25 Writers who copy Martinus Polonus 28 Writers of the 14th century who mention her 29 The Dominicans and Minorites spread the story 32 Used as an argument at the council of Constance 34 The Dominicans might easily have ex{>oscd the story 36 Not known to the Greeks till 1450-1500 38 Aventin and Ouulrio Panvinio the ur.st to deny it 40 ANALYSIS or TOT STORY Discrepancies about the name of the Papess 40 the date of her Pontificate 41 her previous abode ) 2 the mode of the catastrophe -13 Boccacio's version probably the popular one 44 15 XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. ORIGIN or THE STORY. Four elements of production. 1. A statue 47 2. An inscription 49 3. A scat of unusual shape 52 4. A custom 53 EXAMPLES OF SIMILAR STORIES. The two wives of the Count of Gleiehen 59 The Piistrich at Sondershausen 61 Archbishop Hatto and the mice 62 i'igure on the Riesenthor of Vienna Cathedral 64 The origin of the house of Colouna 65 ABODE OP THE PAPESS. Why represented as coming from England GG Mayence 67 Athens 72 II. POPE CYRIACUS. This fiction had a definite object 75 Visions of the nun Elizabeth of Schiinau 75 St. Ursula and her maidens 7(1 Abdication of Cyriacus 77 Martinus Polonus the chief means of spreading the story. . 77 The story brought to bear on the abdication of Coelestine V. 79 III. MARCELLINUS. The story of his abdication very ancient 81 The whole story a tissue of absurdities 83 Its object, to prove that popes are above all tribunals 84 Probable date of its fabrication 85 Use made of it by Nicolas I., Gerson, and Gerbert 87 IV. CONST ANT1NE AND SYLVESTER. Multitude of writers who mention the baptism of Constan- tine by Sylvester at Horn'! 88 The true account seemed incredible in the Middle Ages... 83 The .story certainly originated in Rome 91 Probable date of its fabrication 92 iNot generally accepted at tirst 93 ] nlliienee of the Librr I'ontijiciilis 95 Attempt of Kkkclmrd to reconcile the two accounts 90 Theory of iioiiizo of Sutri 97 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xvn Italian chroniclers who follow him 99 The story appealed to by Hadrian 1., Nicolas I., and Leo IX ". 99 Johannes Malalas the first Greek who accepts it 100 The true account seemed incredible to the Greeks also.... 100 ^neas Sylvius and Nicolas of Cusa knew th<- truth 102 The truth spreads slowly 102 Its final triumph due to French theologians 103 The story a favourite subject for poems 103 V. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. Account of the Donation in the Liber Pontificalis sus- picious 104 Evidence of I ladrian 1 105 No traces ot the Donation till about 750 105 Theory that it was a Greek fabrication disproved by the language of the document 107 The Greek text an evident translation ." 1 ;0 Why the Greeks so readily believed in the Donation . .... 113 Accepted in the West even before known tc the Greeks .. 114 The work of a Roman ecclesiastic 1 1 ,"> Probable date of the forgery 116 Iloman horror of the Lombards 1 1 ij Not ungrounded 118 Scheme of Gregory II. to make Koine independent 12 ) The Donation gave an historic basis to this scheme 121 Not fabricated by the pseiido- Isidore 122 Contents of the document 123 The momentous ninth clause 125 Change oi ''or" into "and " 126 Tin 1 senate, patriciate, and consulate in the 8th century... 127 Papal official.-' an imitation of imperial officials 127 Stated object of the Donation 131 Certainly known in Home before 850 ] 'i2 ./Eneas of Paris treats it as authentic 133 Hincmar and Ado are more reserved 133 Leo IX shows full belief in it 134 Remarkable silence of Gregory VII 1.".4 Urban il. claims Corsica on the strength of it . 135 Hadrian IV. gives Ireland to Henry II on the strength of i 1 3G N.-npolitnr. clergy fabricate a Donation 139 The Donation disputed in Rome '.vhen found inconvenient oy monks 140 by followers of Arnold of Brescia .. 141 JJut, though disputed, still largely used 143 XViii TABLE OF CONTENTS. Claims of the popes to the imperial insignia and homage . . 115 Dissatisfaction m Germany at such claims l-7 Historians, more cautious than the clergy, limil w'thoui denying the Donation 148 From the 1 2th to 14th century its authority increases 1 '> 1 Innocent IV. 's statement of papal supremacy 153 Lawyers allowed the Donation only the ri^lit ol , .* - scription 156 Uncertainty as to its extent 1 ~>8 Extension given to it by German law- >uuks 164 Two opposite views respecting it : 1. That it and similar endowments were admirable 166 2. That the wealth of the Church was a source of infinite evil 168 Hence the story of the angel's lament , 1T1 Mediaeval sects adopted the second view 1T3 The fiction exposed by vEivas Sylvius 177 Also by Bishop Pecock, Cardinal Cusa, and Lorenzo Valla its last defenders . . . . ^ 1 T8 VI. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. The true account 183 Felix au antipope 183 Liberius an apostate 185 He is fairly called heretical 1 8(3 He re-establishes his orthodoxy 181) Felix more culpable, and without excuse 190 The fable I'.H Object of it to whitewash the party of Felix 1 12 Not older than the Cth century I '.'2 Version of the Liber Pontijicalit and of the Acts of Felix. . 11)2 Version of the Acts of Eusebiut 1 1)6 Name of Felix inserted into martyrologies, calendars. &c.. 197 He is confounded with the African martyr Felix I 'J'J The fable originated in the Liber I'oittiji alis 202 Difficulties when the truth became known in the 10th century 205 A forged inscription 2'iij 1'aoli's monstrous hypothesis 2<)7 The fable finally abandoned 209 VII. ANASTASIUS II. Anastasius II 210 Dante selects him as an instance of an heretical pope 210 Was lie a heretic ' 212 Dante's error the common belief of the time 2 1 G This erroneous belief creiit.d mainly by Grutiaii 219 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xix VIII. THE CASE OF HONORIUS. Opposite fate of Honorius and Anastasius 223 ilunotholitism an attempted compromise between mono- physitism and orthodoxy 223 Honorius confessedly a monothelite 228 Anathematized by the Vlth general council 229 For actual heresy, not for mere negligence 230 The papal legates vote for the anathema 233 Pope Agatho's vain attempt to avert the anathema 234 Leo II. confirms the anathema 235 The Liler Diurnui requires every pope to confirm tho anathema 236 Marked silence of the Liber Pont'ficalis 237 The anathema treated in the East as a matter of course . . . 240 Hincmar of Rhcims assents to it 240 Silence of the Liber Pontificalia followed by historians. ... 241 The anathema on a pope is thus forgotten 241 Leo IX. shows utter ignorance of it 243 A Greek first reminds the West of the fact 246 Torquemada sacrifices the council to save Honorius 247 The question not seriously debated till the IGth century. . 248 VARIOUS HYPOTHESES. 1. That the Acts of the Council have been interpolated. . . . 248 2. That they arc really the Acts of another synod 249 3. That the letters of Honorius are forgeries 249 4. That Honorius was condemned for negligence only. . . . 250 5. That the letters of Sergius are forgeries ^53 6. That the letters of Leo II. are also forgeries 254 7. That Honorius was condemned by the Greeks only. . . . 254 8. That Honorius wrote, not as pope, but as a private teacher 255 The Monothelitism of Honorius would never have been questioned, had he not been pope 256 IX. POPE GREGORY II. AND THE EMPEROR LEO III. Gregory II. represented as heading a revolt against Leo III 257 Martinus Polonus once more the propagator of error 257 Thcophanes the source of the statement 258 Gregory headed no revolt, but helped to quash one 2<>0 View of Gregorovius inconsistent with facts and itself.... 2U2 Difficult position of Gregory II 204 xx TABLE OF CONTENTS. X. SYLVESTER II. Gradual defamation of his memory 2G7 1. That he was too fond of profane arts and sciences 2(>7 2. That his election at Ravenna was due to sinister arts. . 208 3. That he was addicted to magic and black art 203 4. That he sold himself to the devil 2G C J The fable of Roman origin 2 7D Its object 270 The Dominicans spread the fable 272 The truth recognised in the 14th century 272 PART II. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT AND THE PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. I. INTRODUCTION. Contrast between the prophetic spirit in Heathendom and in Christendom 273 Four orders of prophecies 274 Ecclesiastical prophecies 275 Three-fold origin of predictions 275 Spontaneous prophecies 27G Pr.-dictions with a purpose 277 Dynastic prophecies 278 Predicted succession of the popes 281 The predii ti'ms of Joachim 282 The predictions of Malachias 283 ] less' prophecy of the Reformation 284 Ca/.otte and Beaurcgard 284 II. PROPHECIES OF THE EARLIER TIMES : ANTI- CJIU1ST; THE END OF THE WORLD. Tli.- Sibylline books ' 2SG End of the Roman Empire 287 The Antichrist 288 The literature about the Antichrist 21)0 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxi III. NATIONAL PROPHECIES. From a sense of national guilt 293 Among subjugated nations 294 Merlin and his prophecies 295 The ancient Britons, Cymri 295 Merlin in Southern Europe 296 Galfricd's History of the Britons 297 The German Dragon and the lied Dragon 299 King Arthur 300 M rlin's influence on the Welsh 301 The Irish predictions 302 The Scotch predictions 303 The Portuguese predictions 304 F> bastian and the Sebastianists 305 The prophecies of Vieira 306 I'.yzantine prophecies 308 ('' "iistantinoplc 311 George of Trapezium 312 IV. THE PROPHECY ABOUT ROME. " The Eternal City" 314 Rome and the end of the world 316 Prediction of St. Benedict 317 IU< hard Rolle de llumpole 318 Cliarles V ; 319 liihhop Berthold's Prophecy 319 lijutholoineo lirandano and Clement VII 320 The Church to be saved by fleeing from Rome 323 V. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROPHETS. No special sanctity required 324 A double consciousness 323 Thomas Aquinas on the Prophets 325 False prophecy of Peter Damiani 327 False^prophecy of St. Bernard 328 False prophecy of Vincents Ferrer 329 Prophecy of Catharine of Siena 330 St. Brigitta nearer right 331 Two currents of prophecy 331 Savonamla an unwilling prophet 332 Cam panel la, his prophecies and persecutions 333 Dionysius Ryckel " the ecstatic teacher" 335 Nicolas of Cusa 335 Robert of Usez 337 Uolzhausei's visions... . 337 XXII TABLE OF CONTENTS. VI. THE COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. Four periods of the same 339 From thn ninth to the eleventh century 3-10 The Holy Boman Empire 840 Eevelations of Methodius 341 The Abbot Adso on the last conflict 342 The Mongol Irruption 344 Gog and Magog 344 Brandt's edition of Methodius 346 The prophetess Hildegardc 348 Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy 351 Separation of Empire and Papacy 353 Predicted destiny of the empire 354 Jordan of Osnabriick 355 The Belgian chronicler, Dynter 357 Koger Bacon 359 1 nfluence of Astrology 359 The Flagellants, in 1 2GO 3GO The Papa Angelico in Bacon 3d The Emperor Frederick II 362 The Catharists 363 Dolciuo in Italy ; and the war he occasioned 364 VII. THE JOACHIMITES. Joachim's prophetic gifts 3G4 His great repute and sanctity 366 Prophecies under his name 369 The unfulfilled prophecies 309 Salimbene's position 370 John of Parma and Bonaventura 373 General view of Joachim's system 374 The three great periods 374 The last period 37G The Empire misunderstood by the Guelphs. 378 Difference between the true and false Joachim 379 French and not I talians first attack Joachim 380 William of St Amour 380 Gherardino's Eternal Gospel 382 His " Introductorius " condemned 383 Exact dates given up 384 Seven periods 384 D'Olive on the Apocalypse 385 Ubcrtino's work (in note) 385 Antichrist to be on the papal chair 386 Boniface VIII. " the new Lucifer " 386 Summary about the " Spirituals " 383 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxm The prophecy of Cyril from Constantinople 389 Arnold of Villanova 390 Prophecies about the religious Orders 391 VIII. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT FROM THE FOUR- TEENTH CENTURY TO THE BEGINNING OP THE REFORMATION. The Silver Tables of Cyril 393 Cola di Rknzo 393 The " Papa Angelicu.s" 3'J4 Petrarch s Sonnet on Rome 395 Jean -I. la Rochelaillarde 396 Catharine of Siena and Bi igitta 398 Rome canonizes these prophets 399 Brigitta's Prediction applied to Pius IX 400 The Blaci Death 401 The Crusades and Palestine 402 The Angelic I'ope again 403 The fate of the MOHK. Theodore 404 Savonarola aw " Papa Angeiicus ' 405 The " Papa Angelicus ' quadrupled 406 Joachimites and Anti-Joachimitcs 407 Henry >f Lnngcnstcm 407 The Predictions of Telcsphoi us 409 He revives the prediction about Frederick III 410 But applies it to the French King 410 Ganiuli on's counti-r German prophecy 411 Theological refutation of Telesphorus by Henry of Langenstein 412 Warning more general as tin' 1U formation drew near 413 Bit-hop Grosseteste of Lincoln 414 Blacchiavclli and Pico of V irandula 414 The prophecies of Savonarola 415 His sagacity like that of Cicero and Du Vair 416 His political prophecies true and religious false 417 German popular prophecies 419 John Lichtenbergerand the prophecies ascribed to him. .. 419 Ayiiuger and Griinpeckh 420 John Hagen's warnings 421 Henry of Langenstein 422 German prophecies of a German pope 423 Bishop Berthold's ' Burden of the Church " 424 The Swiss poet Gengcnlwch on the Emperor Maximilian. 425 Close of the fifteenth century 425 xxiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. APPENDICES. A. The Papess in theTegcrnsoc MS ?.. 427 P>. Further pai'lieiilar.s about Pope Joan -ill 1 ) 0. lllu.-tration of the growth of Myths 4:;8 D. Pope Hadrian's Letter to Henry of England 444 E. Ex Cathedra, Definitions 447 F. Defenders of Honorius, etc 4 .",6 G. The Prophecies of Malaehias 402 TART I. MEDI/EVAL FABLES ABOUT THE POPES. I. POPE JOAN. THE subject of Pope Joan has not yet lost the interest which belongs to it as a fact in the province of his- torical criticism. The literature respecting her reaches down to the very latest times. As recently as 1843 and 1845 t\vo works on this question appeared from the pens of two Dutch scholars ; the one by Professor Kist, 1 to prove the existence of Pope Joan, the other, a very voluminous one, by Professor Wensing, of Warmond, to disprove Kist's position. In Italy Bianchi-Giovini wrote a book on the subject in the same year, 1845, without being aware of the works of the two Dutch writers. In Germany no one at any rate of those who know anything of 1 [A Wman in the Chair of S. Peter. Another edition of this haa lately appeared ; Giitersloh, 18(56. Professor KJ8t thinks that Pope Jixm was possibly the widow of Leo IV. j [Kist's Essay was first published in tho N'edtrlana'xrh Archirfvoor Krrkelijkc treftchieiitnis, iii, 27. Siv Gii-sdcr's Clmrch I/ixtun/, N( -w York edition, vol. ii, pp. 30-1, a long note, summing up all tho data in tho case. II. B. S.J 4 POPE JOAN. history will easily be induced to entertain a serious belief in the existence of the female pope. To do so, one must do violence to every principle of historical criticism. But with the banishment of the subject to the realm of fable all has not yet been completely accomplished. The riddle how this strange myth originated remains still to be solved. Nothing but the insufficiency and ill-success of all previous attempts at an explanation can account for it that a man like Luden, in his History of the German People?- does all he can to make the reality of the well-known myth at any rate probable. " It is in- " conceivable," says he, " how it could ever enter into " any man's head to invent such a foolish, insane " falsehood. He must either have invented his lie " out of sheer wantonness in order to scoff at the " papacy, or he must have intended to gain some " other object by means of it. But of all the dozens " of writers who mention Pope Joan and her mishap, *' there is not a single one who can be called an " enemy of the papacy. They are clergy, monks, " guileless people, who notice this phenomenon in the " same dry way in which they mention other things, " that seem to them to be strange, wonderful, " laudable, abominable, or in any way worth men- 1 Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, vi., 513-517. POPE JOAN. 5 " tioning." "And it cannot be imagined," says Luden further on, " what object could seem to any one to " be attainable by means of such a falsehood. More- " over, it is inconceivable how people in general " could have believed in the story, and that without " the slightest doubt, for nearly 500 years from the " eleventh century onwards, if it had not been true." It is here to be noted that Luden make the myth of Pope Joan a matter of general belief from the eleventh century on\\ards. It would be very much nearer the truth to say that it did not find general belief till the middle of the fourteenth century. The author, however, of the article on Pope Joan in the Nonvclle Biographic Generate, published at Paris by Dr. Hofer, as lately as 1858, goes much further. 1 "This belief prevailed in the Christian world from the ninth century to the Renaissance." And to crown it all, Hase thinks it, at any rate, credible that the Church, not content with creating facts, annihilated them, also, whenever the knowledge of them seemed critical for the already tottering papacy. 2 According to Ilasc and Kist, then, we must state the matter thus : that soon after the year 855 an edict issued from Rome to this effect : " Let no one presume to say a word about the fact of *' a female pope," for at that time Rome did not feel 1 Vol. xxvi., p. 569. 2 Kirchenyeschichte, 1. Aufl. s. 213. 6 POPE JOAN, her position to be as yet very secure. About the middle of the thirteenth century, however, a counter order issued from the same place : " Henceforth it " is lawful to discuss history ; we now consider our " position safe, and can venture to let the narrative " appear in historical works." The judgment of Kurtz is, at any rate, more sober and free from prejudice. 1 " The evidence before us," he says, "forbids us to assign to the myth any histo- " rical value whatever. We must, however, (quite " apart from the falsification of the acts, which, in "some cases, is manifest, in others is a matter of " suspicion,) characterize the myth as a riddle, which " criticism has as yet not solved, and probably never " will? That the riddle has not yet been solved, that all attempts at explanation which have been made up to the present time, must be held to have miscarried, is true enough ; that a solution which may satisfy the historian is, nevertheless, possible, it will be the object of the following pages to show. Let us first glance for a moment at the explana- tions which have been set forth up to this time. Baronius considers the myth to be a satire on John \ llandbuch d^r Kirchenyesc/tichle, 185G, ii. Band, 1. Abthc'ilung g. 225. POPE JOAN. 7 VIII.. "ob nimiam ejus animi facilitatem et mollitu- dincm," qualities which he exhibited more especially in the affair of Photius. Others, Aventinc to begin with, and after him Hcumann and Schrockh, prefer to icckon the supposed satire as one on the period of female rule in Rome, the reign of Theodora and Marozia. under certain popes, some of whom were called John ; in which case, however, it would have to be ;ran.slerred from the middle of the ninth century to the tenth. The opinion published by the Jesuit Sei_rhi in Rome, that it is a calumny originating with the Greeks, namely with Photius, is eqally inadmissi- ble. The first Greek who mentions the circumstance is the monk Harlaam in the fourteenth century. Pali's assertion also, which Kckhart supports, that the myth was an invention of the \Valdenses, is pure imagina- tion. The myth evidently originated in Rome t c f, and the first to give it circulation were not the Waldenscs, but their most deadly enemies the Dominicans and Minorites. Leo Aliatius thought that a false prophetess called Thiota, in the ninth century, gave occasion to this myth. The explanation invented by Leibnitz 1 is also a forced attempt to meet the exigencies of the case. 1 Flares spirsi in Tumulum Fjpissce, ap. Schfid, Biblioth. Ilia. Goctting., p. 367. 8 POPE JOAN. There might very well, he thinks, have been a foreign bis/top (pontifex i. e. episcopus), really a woman in dis- guise, who gave birth to a child during a procession at Rome, and thus gave occasion to the story. Blasco and Henke supposed that the myth about the female pope was a satirical allegory on the origin, and circulation of the false decretals of Isidore. This interpretation, however, is entirely at variance with the genius of that century, an age in which men had no sense for satirical allegories ; and then too it refutes itself, for the story of Pope Joan originated at a time when no one doubted the genuineness of the false decretals of Isidore. Nevertheless, Gfrorer has lately taken up this idea, and worked it out in a still more artificial manner. 1 " The whole force of the fable," he says, " resides in these two points, that the " woman was a native of Maycnce, and that she came " from Greece (Athens), and ascended the papal chair. " In the first particular I recognise a condemnation " directed against the canons of the pseudo-Isidore, in " the second an allegorical censure of the alliance " which Leo IV. wished to make with the Byzan- " tines. . . It is said that in the later days of Leo IV. " the papal power in Mayence and Greece was abused, " or to make use of a metaphor, of which the Italians 1 Kirchengeschichle, in., iii., 978. POPE JOAN. 9 " arc very fond in such cases, was at that time "prostituted!' Side by side with this explanation, which can scarcely fail to provoke a smile from any one who is acquainted with the Middle Ages, stands the extraordinary circumstance, that there is no authority whatever for this intention of Leo IV. to compromise himself more than was right with the Byzantines. It is purely an hypothesis of Gfrorer's. But the myth about Pope Joan, as thus interpreted, is in turn made to do further service as a proof of the correctness of this hypothesis, as well as for his assumption that the false decretals originated in Mayence. In short, all the attempts at explanation, which have hitherto been made, split on this rock that the myth had its origin in a much later age ; when the remembrance of the events and circumstances of the ninth and tenth centuries had long ago faded away, or at most existed only in the case of individual scholars, and, therefore, could not form material for the construction of a myth. That is to say, I believe, that I can without difficulty produce convincing evidence, that the myth about the female-pope, though it may possibly have had somewhat earlier circula- tion in the mouth of the people, was not definitively put into writing before the middle of the thirteenth io POPE JOAN century. This evidence could not have been given with anything like certainty before the present time. For it is only during the last forty 1 years that all the stores of mediaeval manuscripts in the whole of Europe have been hunted through with a care such as was never known before. Every library corner has been searched, and an astounding quantity of his- torical documents, hitherto unknown (what a mass of new material exists in the Pertz collection alone, for instance!), has been brought to light. Nevertheless, not a single notice of the myth about Pope Joan has been discovered, which is earlier than the close, or, at the very most, the middle of the thirteenth century. We can now say quite positively, that in the collected literature, whether western or Byzantine, of the four centuries between 850 and 1250, there is not the faintest reference to the circumstance of a female pope. For a long time it was supposed that the myth, though certainly not to be found in any author of the ninth or tenth century, appeared as already in ex- istence in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Marianus Scotus 2 is said to have been the first to mention the 1 [This was written in 18G3.] 2 [Born, probably in Ireland, about 1028 ; died at Mayence, los<> , not to be confounded with Marianus, the Franciscan, a Florentine writer of the lit't:;cuth century In lUoG Muruuiu.s bcolus entered tJio POPE JOAN. n female pope, and he certainly does mention her in the text as given by Pistorius. Now, however, that the text in the great Pertz collection has been edited by Waitz 1 according to the most ancient manuscripts, the fact has come to light, that Marianus knew nothing whatever of Pope Joan. In his case, as in the case of so many other authors, the short mention of the female pope has been interpolated at a later period. In the chronicle of Sigebert of Gemblours, and the supplements of the monks of Orcamp (Auc- tarium Ursicainpinitni), the notice of the papess is wanting in all original manuscripts. She was first inserted by the first editor in the year I5I3- 2 Kurtz abbey of S. Martiu at Cologne ; in 1059 he moved to the abbey of Fulilu, and thence in 10G9 to Mayencc. He passed for the most learned man of his age, being a mathematician and theologian as well as historian. His Chronicon Universale is based on Cassiodorus, nugnvntcd from Kusebins and Bede, and the chronicles of Hildes- heim and Wurxhiirg, and extends down to the year 1083 ; published at Basle by Humid, 155'J.] 1 Monumtn'a German. Hist, viii., 550. [v. 551. vi. 340, 470. J 2 " In ntillo quem noverimus Sigeberti cod ice occnrrit locua " famosus de Johanna papissa, quern hoc loco editio prinreps ex- " liibet," says the latest editor, IMlimann, ap. Pert/, viii., 340. Com- pare the remark, p. 470, where Betlnnann says decisively, " nemo " igitur restat (as interpolater of the passage) nisi primus editor, " sive is Antonius llufus fnerit, sive Heiiricus Stephanus." It is a mistake wh'-n Kurt/, elsewhere (p. 228 > says with regard to Sigehcrt ami Marianus: "The oldest editors would scarcely have added tho " passages in question out of their own heads ; and therefore it is " prububle that the passages were purposely omitted in the codkou 12 POPE JOAN. has lately appealed again to the supposed evidence of Otto of Freysingen. 1 In the list of the popes, con- tinued down to the year 1513, which is printed with his historical work, 2 Pope John VII. (in the year 705) is marked as a woman, without one single word of explanation. And in the edition of the Pantheon, as given by Pistorius, we find in the list of the popes these words, " the Papess Johanna is not reckoned." Meanwhile a close investigation of the oldest and best manuscripts of Gottfried's Pantheon and of Otto's chronicle have brought it to light, that originally neither the word " fcemina " was placed in Otto's chronicle against the name of John VII., nor the gloss " Johanna Papissa non numeratur " in the Pantheon u which they had before them." There are no signs whatever of anything being intentionally omitted or effaced ; in many of the manuscripts, on the other hand, there are many signs of subsequent insertions and additions in the margin. [Sigebert was born about 1030, and died 1112. His chronicle extends from 381, where Eusc- bius ended, to 1112.] 1 Kirchengeschi'-hte, ii., 226 2 ("Otto, Bishop of Freysingcn, went with his brother, Conrad III., on his crusade to the Holy Land, resuming his diocese on his return. He died in September 1158, having held the see twenty years. His chronicle in seven books extends down to 1146. The first four books are a mere compilation from Orosius, Eusebius, Isidore, Bede, &c. ; the last three are of great value. He also wrote two books De Gestia Frideiici I. ^Enobarb/, which come down to the year 1157.] POPE JOAN. 13 between Leo IV. and Benedict III. ; both of which insertions are given in the printed editions. 1 In the chronicle of Otto the addition to the name of John VII. is manifestly the work of a later copyist or reader, who inserted the word quite at random, because he was bound to have a female John some- where among the popes. The fact that this John comes as early as the year 705 was the less likely to puzzle him, because the list of popes in this chronicle does not give the dates. 2 The first who really took up the myth is the author of a chronicle, to which Stephen de Bourbon appeals without giving any more exact quota- 1 [That confusion prevailed in some of the lists of the popes precisely at this point is shown by an annalist, who apparently wrote in Halberstarlt 854: " Benedictus papa, ut quidam Yolunt, " hoc anno factns cst, et post Imnc I'.-uiltis (!), post cum Stephanas " per annos quutuor sedisse inveniimtur." Baxmann, Poltiik dtr Piipste, i., p. 361, note.] 2 In the good original manuscripts of the Pantheon in the royal library at Munich the addition about Pope Joan is wanting. These are: Cod. Lat. 43 (from Hartmann Sehedcl's collection) f. 118, b. Cod. Windberg. 37, or Cod. Lat. 22,2:57, f. 168 b. Similarly in tho oldest manuscripts of the chronicle of Otto in the Munich library the addition to the name of .John VII. does not appear. These are Cod. Weihensteph. 61, or Lat. 21,561, which is of about the samo date. Cod. Prising. 177, or Lat. 6,517. Cod. Scheftlarn. Lat. 17,1J4, in which the list of popes comes to ail cud with Hadrian IV., and tn Trh.iv i also of the same date. 2 14 POPE JO AX. tion. 1 That is to say, Stephen, a French Dominican, born towards the close of the twelfth century, died in the year 1261, in his work on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 2 which was written just about the middle of the thirteenth century, makes the first mention of Pope Joan, whom he asserts he has discovered in a chronicle. Now seeing that he refers with exactness to all the sources from which he has gathered together the collection of passages which contribute to his 1 [He merely says] "dicitur in chronicis." He. moans no more than one chronicle ; Chronica is constantly used in the plural as a title. Otherwise Stephen would naturally have added " variis'' or " pluribus." 2 It has never been printed. The whole, or portions of it, exist in the French libraries, one portion of it in the Munich library. Echard was the first to cite it at great length in his work, S/inr/i T/'ioinse Summa Suo Auctori } r indicata, Paris, 1708 ; and again in the Scri/itores Orilinis I'rsedicalorum, pt. i. [The passage from Stephen de I'ourbon as cited by Ciesrler (ii. 31 ) from Quctif and Echard, Scriptores Ordinis f'radicatormn, 5. 307, reads; Accidit autem, mirabilis audacia, imo insana, circa aim. Dom .MC. [C'M?J ut dicitur in chronicis. Qiiacdam inulier lit'.Tata, ct in arte nondi (notandi ?) edocta, adsunto virili habitu, ct viriiiu selingcns, venit Romam, et tain industria, quain litcratura accepta. facta ost notarius curiae, post diaboloprocurantu cardinal is, posira 1'apa. Ilaec imi)raegnata cum asccmlcivt pepnit. Q iml cum nnvissct lloinana justitia, ligatis pcdibin (jus ad pedes njui dislracta cst I'xtra uibem, et ad diinidiam leucam a i)o])iilo lapidata, ct ulii fuit nnirtii:!, ibi fuit sepulta, et SUJKT lapidcin super ^ae cdciT partiiin." Th' 1 sami! story app'-ars in an enlarged form in Martini I'oloni (f 1278), (.'hron., and here the passage is perhaps gi.-nuine, although it is al.so wanting in several Ai.SS. II. U. S. j POPE JOAN. 15 practical homilctic object, we can, at least with great probability, show from what chronicle he has obtain- ed this mention of Pope Joan. Among chroniclers he names Eusebius, Jerome, Bede, Odo, Hugo of St. Victor, the " Roman Cardinal," and John de Mailly, a Dominican. We may set aside all but the two last- The " Roman Cardinal" (or Cardinal Romanus (?) there were several of this name, but none of them, wrote a chronicle) is probably none other than the author of the Historia Miscclla, or continuation of Eutropius, whom the Dominican, Tolomco of Lucca, also quotes later on among his authorities as Paulus Diaconus Cardinalis j 1 but he cannot be distinguished with certainty. It remains 'then that the lost, or as yet undiscovered, chronicle of the Dominican Jeandc Mailly, 2 who, moreover, must have been a con- temporary of Stephen, is the only source to which the latter can have been indebted for his account of Pope Joan. And Jean de Mailly, we may be tolerably certain, got it from popular report. We can, therefore, consider it as established that not until the year 1240 or 1250, was the myth about the woman-pope put into writing and transferred to works of history. Several decades more passed, 1 Cf. Qii'.'tif ft Krh.ir'l Scrip/ores 'dints PrseJicaiorum, i. 544. 2 On him sec the Ili-Hoire lillcraire de la Fr-mce, xviii., 532. 1 6 POPE JOAN. however, before it came actually into circulation and became really wide-spread. The chronicle of Jean de Mailly seems to have remained in obscurity, for no one, with the exception of his brother Dominican, Stephen, notices it ; and even Stephen's large work great as was its value, especially to preachers, on account of the quantity of examples which it contain- ed, was not possessed by very many, as is proved by the scarcity of existing manuscripts of it. The Speculum Morale, which bears the name of Vincent of Beauvais, was the chief cause of this. For this work ap- propriated most of the examples and instances given by Stephen, but was superior to Stephen's books both in convenience of arrangement and fulness of matter, and eclipsed it so completely, that the narrative about Pope Joan, in the form in which it appears in Stephen's work, is to be found nowhere else. The chronicle of Martinus Polonus has been the principal means of giving circulation to the myth. This book, which gives a synchronistic history of the popes and emperors in the form of a dry, mechanical, and utterly uncritical collection of biographical notes, exercised a most extraordinary influence on the chroniclers and historians from the beginning of the fourteenth century onwards, especially on their ways of thinking in the latter part of the Middle Ages. POPE JOAN. 17 Wattenbach's 1 statement, that Martinus Polonus became almost the exclusive historical instructor of the catholic world, is not an exaggeration. Of no other historical book is there such an inexhaustible number of manuscripts in existence as of this. All volumes of the ArcJiiv fiir dcutsche GcscJiicJitskunde show this. And indeed the book was held in estima- tion in almost all countries alike, was translated into all languages, was continued over and over again, and still more frequently copied by later chroniclers. That the effect of such a book, utterly unhistorical and stuffed with fables, was to the last degree mis- chievous, so that (as Wattenbach says) the careful, thorough, and critical investigation of the history of the early Middle Ages, prosecuted with so much zeal during the twelfth century, was completely choked, or nearly so, by Martin's chronicle, cannot be denied. The position of the author could not fail to win for his history of the popes an amount of authority such as no other similar writing obtained. Troppau was his birth-place, the Dominican order his profession. He was for a long time the chaplain and penitentiary of the popes ; as such lived naturally at the papal court, followed, everywhere, the Curia, which was 1 Deutschlands Ges'hichtsqufllen, 8. 426. 1 8 POPE JOAN. then constantly on the move, and died [A.D. 1278] as archbishop designate of Gncsen. Mis book, therefore, was considered to a certain extent to be the official history of the popes, issuing from the Curia itself. And hence people accepted the history of Pope Joan also, which they found in Martinus Polonus, all the more readily and unsuspectingly. The form in which he giv 7 es the myth became the prevailing one ; and most authors have contented themselves with copy- ing the passage from his chronicle word for word. Nevertheless, Martin himself, as can be proved, knew nothing about Pope Joan, or, at any rate, said nothing about her. Not until several years after his death did attempts begin to be made to insert the myth into his book. It is no doubt correct that Martin himself prepared a second and later edition of his work, which reaches down to Nicolas III., 1277, while the first edition only goes down to Clement IV. (died 1268). But the second is exactly like the first in arrangement. Each pope, and each emperor on the opposite page, had as many lines assigned to him as he reigned years, and each page contained fifty lines, that is, embraced half a century. Hence, in the copies which kept to the original arrangement of the author, additions or insertions could only be made in those places where the account of a pope or emperor POPE JOAN. 19 did not fill all the lines assigned to him, owing to the short period of his reign. But the insertion of a pope had been rendered impossible by Martin himself and all the copyists who kept to the plan of the book, by means of the detailed chronology, according to which every line had a date, and in the case of each pope and emperor the length of his reign was exactly stated. But for this same reason Pope Joan also, if she had originally had a place in his book, could not have been effaced, nor have been omitted from the copies which held fast to the arrangement of the original. Pope Joan then docs not occur in the eldest manu- scripts of Martinus. She is wanting especially in those which have kept to the exact chronological method of the author. Nor is the opinion tenable, that Martinus brought her into the latest edition of his book prepared by himself. That theory is con- tradicted by manuscripts, which come down to the time of Nicolas III., and, nevertheless, contain no trace of Pope Joan. Echard 1 has already noticed several such manuscripts. The exquisite Alders- bach 2 manuscript, now in the Royal Library at 1 On this point sec Qm-tif ct Echnnl. Scriptores Ordinix Pnr. dicato.um, 1. 3G7 ; and Li'miii'ii Oriens Clir. iii., 385. 2 Aldcrsp. 161, fol. Fcrgam. 20 POPE JOAN. Munich, gives the same evidence. There are, however, manuscripts in which her history is written in the margin at the bottom of the sheet, or as a gloss at the side. 1 It was thence gradually, and one may add very violently, thrust in the text. This was done in various ways : either Benedict III., the successor of Leo, was struck out, and Pope Joan put in his place, as is the case in a Hamburg 3 codex reaching down to the year 1302. Or she is placed, usually by some later hand, without any date being given, as an addition or mere legend in the vacant space left after Leo IV. Or, lastly merely in order to gain the neces- sary two years and a half for her reign the whole chronological reckoning of the author is thrown into confusion ; either by assigning an earlier date than is correct to several of Leo's predecessors, and that as far back as the year 800 ; or by giving to individual popes fewer years than belong to them. This eagerness to interpolate the female pope in the book at all hazards so to speak, without shrinking from the most arbitrary alterations in the chronology in order to attain this object, is certainly somewhat astonishing. Just the very circumstance which above 1 In the Arch'v fur alter? deutsche Ceschichtskunde quotations from several of these are given, e. g. vii., 637. 2 Archiv vi., 230. POPE JOAN. 21 all others conferred on Martin's book a certain amount of value, viz. the painstaking and continuous chronological reckoning line by line, has been sacrificed in several manuscripts, 1 merely in order to make the insertion of Pope Joan possible ; or else only one year has been placed against the name of each pope, either in the margin or in the text, in order to conceal the disagreement between the insertion of Pope Joan and the chronological plan of the author. It was in the period between 1278 and 1312 that the interpolation took place ; for Tolomeo of Lucca, who completed his historical work in the year 1312, remarks 2 that all the authorities which he had read placed Benedict III. next after Leo IV.; Martinus Polonus was the only one who put Johannes Anglicus in between. By this means two facts are established ; first, the industrious collector Tolomeo knew of no writing in which a mention of Pope Joan was to be found, except the chronicle of Martinus; secondly, the copy of Martinus with which he was acquainted was one which had her already inserted, and that in the text. Had the account of her merely been written 1 " Nulla chronologin, sod aclest fabnla," says Echard of stvua manuscripts of Martinus which he had aeon, p. 369. 2 Hist. Ecdes., 16, 8. 22 POPE JOAN. alongside in the margin, this would undoubtedly have aroused Tolomeo's suspicions, and he would have noticed the fact in his own work. Another main vehicle for circulating the myth about the papess was the chronicle Florcs Tcmporum, which exists in numerous manuscripts under the names of Martinus Minorita, Herrmannus Januensis, and Herrmannus Gigas. It was printed by Eccard, and, in another form, by Meuschen ; and after that of Martinus Polonus, was the most widely circulated of all the later chronicles. Unlike Martinus Polonus, however, it appears to have come into general use only in Germany. It reaches down to 1290, and is in the main not much more than a compilation from the chronicle of Martinus Polonus, as the author himself states. According to the conjecture of Eccard and others, Martinus Minorita is the original author, 1 and Herrmannus Januensis or Gigas the continucr 2 of the chronicle down to the year 1349. Pertz, 3 on the other hand, is of opinion that what is printed under the name of Martinus Minorita is only a poor extract from the work of Ilerrmannus Gigas, who brought his chronicle down to the year 1290, and died in 1336. 1 Arckiv der Gese'lschaftfur deutsche Gcschichtskunde, viii., 835. 2 Ardiiv i., 402 ff. 3 Achiv vii., 115. POPE JOAN. 23 The relation between the Minorite Martin and the Wilhelmite Herrmann of Genoa appears meanwhile to be tliis : that the latter has copied the Minorite, with 1 many omissions and additions, but without mentioning him. Martin the Penitentiary that is Martinus Polonus is given as the main authority. It was from him, then, beyond all doubt, that the story about Pope Joan passed (embellished with additions) into chronicles of considerably later date ; for manuscripts in which it is wanting have not come within my knowledge. The story of Pope Joan has also been inserted in the so-called Anastasius 2 (the most ancient collection known of biographies of the popes), and in precisely the same form as that in which it exists in Martinus Polonus. The literal wording of the text docs not allow the possibility that the story really formed any 1 Brims, in Gahler's Journal ffir thfo'ng. Lit. 1811, vol. vi., p. S9, etc. Bruns had a manuscript before him in Helmstadr, which was marked as a work of Herrmanmis Minorita. But at the end of the document the author was correctly styled Ilcrrnuinnus Ordinis S. Wilhclmt. 2 [Anastasius, the Librarian of the Vatican, took part in A.D. 809 in the eighth General Council at Constantinople, where his learning and knowledge' of Latin and Greek were of great service to th-i papal legates. His celebrated Liber Pontificalia is a compilation of lives of the popes from S. Peter down to Nicolas I., first print d at Mayence in 1602. Only the lives of some of the popes of his own. times can be regarded as his own composition.] 24 POPE JOAN. part of the original text. The interpolation must have been made with the most foolish wantonness, or just as has been done in the Heidelberg manuscripts, by striking out Benedict III., and then inserting Joan in his place. In other copies she has been added by a later hand in the margin, at the side, or quite at the bottom of the page. The most natural supposition, and the one which Gabler 1 also follows, seems then to be, that the papess passed from Martinus Polonus into the few, and very much later, manuscripts of Anastasius which contain it. Nevertheless, I am driven to the con- jecture that the myth was in the first instance added at the end of some copy of the collection of biogra- phies of the popes which bears the name of Anastasius. For it has long ago been remarked 2 that the life of Benedict III. in this collection is the work of a dif- ferent author from that of the lives immediately pre- ceding it, especially of the very detailed life of Leo IV. There must, therefore, beyond all doubt, have been copies which came to an end with Leo IV., whose biographer was obviously a contemporary. The notice of Pope Joan might then have been added 1 Gablcr's Kleinere theolog. Schriflen, vol. i., p. 446. 2 See Bahr, Geschichte der Rom. Literatur im Karoling. Zeitalter, p. 2G9. POPE JOAN. 25 at the end by a later hand, and from thence have passed into the manuscripts of Martinus Polonus. One sees this from the catalogue of manuscripts which Vignoli gives at the beginning of his edition. The Cod. Vatic. 3764 reaches down to Hadrian II., the Cod. Vatic. 5869 only down to Gregory II. ; the Cod. 629 to Hadrian I. ; others to John VIII., Nicolas I., Leo III., and so forth. In Cod. 3762, which comes down to the year 1142, the fable of the papess is added in later and smaller handwriting underneath in the margin. This conjecture, one must allow, is by no means easy to prove. But supposing it correct, we have then the simplest of all explanations for the interpolation of Pope Joan between Leo IV. and Benedict III., where she certainly has not the 1 slightest connection with the history of the time. Meanwhile, I find in Martinus himself reasons for this place being assigned to her, and the following two in particular. The first is a mere matter of chance, arising out of the me- chanical arrangement ; for Martinus did not know 1 Leo IV. died July llth, 855. Benedict was forthwith [the same month] elected; and, after the emperor had given his consent, was consecrated on 29th of September in the same year, the very day after the Emperor Lothair died. It is notorious that contem- poraries, such as Prudentius and Hinemar, notice that Benedict was Leo s immediate successor, and a diploma of Benedict's dated as early as October 7th, 855 (Maiisi Concill. xv., 113) is still extant. 3 26 POPE JOAN. how to fill up the eight lines which he was obliged to devote to the eight years of Leo's pontificate, so that the first lines of the page which contained the second half of the ninth century remained empty. Here, therefore, the interpolation could be managed without the slightest trouble. But there was a further reason in the nature of the story itself. For the extreme improbability that a woman should be pro- moted to the highest ecclesiastical office, and be chosen by all as pope, was explained in the myth by her great intellectual attainments. She surpassed every one in Rome, so it was said, in learning. Naturally then, as soon as a definite historical place had to be assigned to her (the popular form of the myth had not troubled itself with fixed dates), a tolerably early period at any rate, one anterior to the time of Gregory VII. had to be chosen for her. For this, however, they were obliged to fall back on a period in which there was only a single instance known of a man being elected to the papacy on account of his preeminent knowledge. Since Gregory the Great there had been no pope who was really very remarkable for learning. In the four centuries between John VI., 701, and Gregory VII., this very Leo IV. is the only one whom Martinus notices in particular as a man who " divinarum scripturarum POPE JOAN. 27 extitit ferventissimus scrutator," one who already, in the monastery [of St. Martin] to which his parents had sent him for purposes of study, became remarkable for his learning no less than for his mode of life, and on this account also was unanimously 1 elected pope by the Romans after the death of 'Sergius. On that occasion, then, it was intellectual attainment which influenced the votes of the Romans ; and therefore it might happen that a woman, whose sex was not known, could be chosen as pope by the Romans, because of her intellectual superiority. Now the inter- polated Martinus speaks of Joan in much the same terms as of Leo; "in divcrsis scientiis ita profecit, " ut nullus sibi par invenirctur ; " and, " quum in urbe " vita et scientia magnae opinionis essct, in papam " concorditer eligitur." And hence in Martinus Polo- nus, who speaks in this manner of no other 2 pope in that century, the place assigned to Pope Joan was that immediately after Leo IV., whom she resembled 1 [Sergius died Jan. 27th. Leo IV. was forthwith elected, and consecrated on April 10th, without waiting even for the leave of tho sovereign, not as denying his authority, but because of the pressing fear of the Saracens, who had ventured up the Tiber, and plundered the Basilica of St. Peter at the end of 846. See Baxmann, Polltik der Piipste, vol. i., p. 352. This fear of the Saracens may have had something to do with the unanimity of the electors.] 2 For Gerbcrt (Sylvester II.) owed his promotion, 999-1003, ac- cording to Martinus, not to his great learning, but to the devil. 28 POPE JOAN. in this particular. And since every one took the work of Martinus as their authority, she retained this position. It is at the stage when the myth was just beginning to gain circulation, and was still received with suspi- cion on many sides, that the passages on the subject in the Historical Mirror of Van Maerlant and in Tolomeo of Lucca come in. Maerlant's Dutch chro- nicle is in verse, and is mainly taken from Vincent of Beauvais, but with additions from other sources. Maerlant says moreover (about the year 1283), " I do " not 1 feel clear or certain whether it is fable or fact ; " but in thp chronicles of the popes it is not usually " found." So also a manuscript list of the popes down to John XXII. (13) : " Et 2 in paucis chronicis " invenitur." One of the first who took the story of Pope Joan from the interpolated Martinus Polonus was Gcof- froi de Courlon, a Benedictine of the Abbey of St. Pierre le Vif at Sens, whose chronicle, 3 a somewhat rough compilation, reaches down to 1295. 1 Spiegel Historical, uitgeg. door do Maatschappij dcr ncderl. lettcrk. Lcydon, 1857, Hi., 220. 2 This is appended to the manuscript of the Otia Imperialia by Ger- vasius in Loydcn. Wcnsing, de Pausin Johanna, p. 9. 3 Notices et Ex' raits, ii., 16. He adds, moreover, " Undo dieitur " quod Jlomani in consuetudinem traxcrunt probare sexus electi per " foramen cathedrae lapideaj." Sec Hist. Lit. de France, xxi., 10. POPE JOAN. 29 Next comes the Dominican Bernard Guidonis, ih his unprinted Florcs Chronicorum, and also (in the year 1311) in his now printed history J of the popes. He inserts Johannes Teutonicus (not Anglicus, there- fore, according to him) natione Maguntinus, together with the whole fable about Pope Joan, keeping faith- fully to his authority, Martinus Polonus. About the same period another Dominican, Leo of Orvieto, contributed to the circulation of the fable, by receiving it into his history of the popes and emperors, which reached down to Clement V. [1305]. In his case also* Martinus Polonus is the source from which he draws in this particular, as also in his whole book. 2 Now follow in the first half of the fourteenth century the Dominican John of Paris, Siffrid of Meissen, Occam the Minorite (who turned the story of Pope Joan to account in his controversy with John XXII.), the Greek Barlaam, the English Benedictine Ranulph Higden, the Augustine. Amalrich Augerii, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. 3 1 Maii Spieil. Rom. vi., 202. 2 In the third volume of Lami's Delicix Eruditorum, Florent . 1732, p, 143. 3 Chronicu delle Vite de 1 Pontefici, &c., Venetia, 1507, f. LV. He is here called Giovanni d'Anglia, and the dates arc advanced two years, so that Benedict III. is placed in the year 857 (instead of 30 POPE JOAN. A chronicle of the popes by Aimery of Peyrat, Abbot of Moissac, written in the year 1399, has Johannes Anglicus in the list of popes, with the remark : " Some 1 say that this pope was a woman." The Dominican Jacobe de Acqui, 2 who wrote about the year 1370, inserts the name without this remark, but with the extraordinary statement that this ponti- ficate lasted nineteen years. Of course people in general regarded the cir- cumstance as to the last degree disgraceful to the Roman See, and, indeed, to the whole Church. The woman-pope had reigned for two years and a half, had performed a vast number of functions, all of which were now null and void ; and, added to all this, there was the scandal of her giving birth to a child in the open street. It was scarcely possible to conceive anything more to the dishonor of the chair of the Apostle, or, indeed, of the whole of Christendom. What mockery must not this story excite among the Mohammedans ! As early as the close of the thirteenth, or beginning 855), and Nicolas I. in 859 (instead of 858). [Benedict III. died curly in 858 April 7th ; .so that the difference between that and the- end of 850 would not be far short of two years.] 1 Notices et Entrails vi., 82. 2 Monum. Hist. Patriic, k'criptoresj iii., 1524. POPE JOAN. 31 of the fourteenth century, Geoffroi de Courlon in- troduces the story with the heading Dcccptio Ecclesice Romanes. Macrlant 1 says sorrowfully : " Alse die paves Leo was doot Ghesciede der Kerken grote scame." "Johanne la Papesse," says 2 Jean le Maire, in the year 1511, "fist un grand esclandre a la PapaliteV' All state that since that time the popes always avoid that street, so as not to look upon the scene of the scandal. Now, when we consider that, according to the declaration of the Dominican Tolomco of Lucca, down to the year 1312, the story was extant nowhere, except in certain copies of Martinus Polonus ; that already innumerable lists of the popes, in their chronological order, were in existence, in none of which was there any trace of the female pope to be found, the eagerness, which suddenly meets us at the close of the thirteenth century, to make the fable 1 [" Als dcr Papst Leo war todt G esc hah der Kirche grosse Schamc " After Pope Leo was dead A great scandal rose in the church.] 2 In the Traitf. de la Difference des Schismes tt des Concilet de FEff'ise, part iii., f. 2. 32 POPE JOAN. pass muster as history, and to smuggle it into the manuscripts, is certainly very astonishing'. The author of the Histoire Lit. de France has good reason for saying, " Nous 1 ne saurions nous expliquer comment il " se fait que ce soit precisement dans les rangs de " cette fidele milice du saint-siege que se rencontrent " les propagateurs les plus naifs, et peut-etre les inven- " teurs, d'une histoire si injurieuse a la papauteV' Undoubtedly the thing emanated principally from those otherwise most devoted servants of the Roman Sec, the Dominicans 2 and the Minorites. It was certainly they, especially the former of the two, who were the first to multiply the copies of Martinus Polonus to such an extent, and thus spread the fable everywhere. The time at which this took place meanwhile solves the enigma. It was in the reign of Boniface VIII., who was not favourably disposed to 1 xxi., p. 10. 2 [A serious rupture between Rome and the friars took place under Innocent IV. The University of Paris, alarmed at the hold which the monks were getting, especially on the professorship, decreed that no religious order should hold more than one of the theological chairs. The Dominicans appealed to the pope. Inno- cent decided against them, and within a few days died. His deatli was openly attributed to their prayers " quia impossible erat "mukorum preces non audiri." Hence the well-known " From the litanies of the friars, good Lord, deliver us."J POPE JOAN. 33 the two orders, and whose whole policy 1 displeased them. We see this in the unfavourable judgments which the Dominican historians formed respecting him, and in the attitude which they assumed at the outbreak of the strife between him and Philip the Fair. We notice that from this time, which was in general a crisis for the waning power of the popes, historians among the monastic orders mention and describe with a sort of relish scandals in the history of the popes. In the fifteenth century scarcely a doubt is sug- gested. Quite at the beginning of the century the bust of Pope Joan was placed in the cathedral at Sienna along with the busts of the other popes, and no one took offence at it. The church of Sienna in the time that followed gave three popes to the Roman 1 [This treatment of the English Franciscans made this not un- natural. The Franciscans, iu direct contradiction to their vow of mendicancy, had gradually become very wealthy. Tho pope alone could free them from their rule. The English Minorites offered to deposit forty thousand ducats with certain bankers, as the price of permission to hold property. Boniface played with the monks till the money was paid, then absolved the bankers from their obliga- tion to pay back money which mendicants ought never to have owned, and appropriated it as "res milling*' to his own uses. He thus made implacable enemies of the most popular and intellectual order in Europe. When Philip appealed severally to all the monastic orders in France, all the Franciscans, and with them the Dominicans, Hospitallers, and Templars, took their stand by him against the pope.] 34 POPE JOAN. See, Pius II., Pius III., and Marcellus II. Not one of them ever thought of having the scandal removed. It was not till two centuries later, that, at the pressing demand of pope Clement VIII., 1592-1605, Joan was metamorphosed into pope Zacharias. 1 When Huss at the council of Constance supported 2 his doctrine by appealing to the case of Agnes, who became Pope Joan, he met with no contradiction from either side. Even the Chancellor Gerson himself turned to account the circumstance of the woman-pope as a proof that the Church could err 3 in matters of fact. On the other hand the Minorite Johann de Rocha, in a treatise written at the Council of Constance, uses the case of Johannes Maguntinus to show how dangerous it is to make the duty of obedience to the Church depend upon the personal character of the pope. 4 1 L^quien, Orient Christianus, iii., 392. 2 That is to say, he tried to prove that the Church could pet on very well for a long time without any pope at all, because; during the whole reign of Agnes, namely, two years and a half, it had had no real pope. L'Knfant, Histoire du Concile de Constance, ii., 334. In his work De Ecclesia also, Huss comes back with delight to the woman-pope, whose name was Agnes, and who was called Johannes Anglicus. She is to him a striking proof that the Roman Church has in no way remained spotless: "Qtiomodo ergo ilia Koniana "Ecclesia, ilia Agnes, Johannes Papa cum collcgio semper immacti- "lata permansit, qiii peperit ?" 3 In the speech which he made at Tarascon before Benedict XIII. in the year 1403. Opera, cd. Dupin, ii., 71. 4 In Dupiu's edition of the writings of Gerson, v. 45G. POPE JOAN. 35 Heinrich Korner, a Dominican of Lubeck, 1402 to 1437, not only himself received the story about the \voman-pope in its usual form into his chronicle, but stated in addition that his predecessor, the Dominican Henry of Herford (about 1350), whom he had often copied, had purposely concealed the circumstance, in order that the laity might not be scandalised by reading that such an error had taken place in the Church, which assuredly, as the clergy taught, was guided by the Holy Spirit. l The matter was now generally set forth as an indubitable fact, and the scholastic theologians en- deavoured to accommodate themselves to it, and to arrange their church system and the position of the popes in the Church in accordance with it. ./Eneas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II., had however replied to the Taborites, that the story was nevertheless not certain. But his contemporary, the great upholder of papal despotism, cardinal Torrccrcmata, 2 accepts it as notorious, that a woman was once regarded by all Catholics as pope, and thence draws the following conclusion : that, whereas God had allowed this to 1 Ap. Eccard., ii., 442 2 " Qmiin ergo constot qnod aliqnnndo mnlier a cunctis Cntholkis " putabattir Papa, non cst incredibile quod aliquando hccreticus " habcatur pro Papa, licet vcrus Papa iioa sit.' Summa de Ecclesia, edit. Veiiet., p. 394. 36 POPE JOAN. happen, without the whole constitution of the Church being thrown into confusion, so it might also come to pass, that a heretic or an infidel should be recog- nised as pope ; and, in comparison with the fact of a female pope, that would be the smaller difficulty of the two. St. Antoninus, belonging, like Torrecremata, to the middle of the fifteenth century, and like him a Dominican, J avails himself of the Apostle's words respecting the inscrutability of the divine counsels in connection with the supposed fact of a female pope, and declares that the Church was even then not without a Head, namely Christ, but that bishops and priests ordained by the woman must certainly be re-ordained. The Dominican order, whose members chiefly contributed to spread the fable everywhere, possessed in their strict organization and their numerous li- braries the means of discovering the truth. The General of the order had merely to command that the copies of Martinus Polonus, and the more ancient lists of the popes, of which there were quantities in existence in the monasteries of the order, should once for all be examined and compared together. But people preferred to believe what was most incredible 1 Summa Hist., lib. 16, p. 2, c. 1, 7. POPE JOAN. 37 and most monstrous. Not one of these men, of course, had ever seen, or heard, that a woman had for years been public teacher, priest, and bishop, without being detected, or that the birth of a child had ever taken place in the public street. But that in Rome these two things once took place together, in order to disgrace the papal dignity this people believed with readiness. Martin le Franc, provost of Lausanne, about 1450, and secretary to the popes Felix V. and Nicholas V., in his great French poem, Le Champion des Dames, celebrated Pope Joan at length. First we have his astonishment, that such a thing should have been permitted to take place. " Comment endura Dicu, comment Que femme ribaulde et prestresse Eut 1'Eglise en gouvernement ?" It would have been no wonder had God come down to judgment, when a woman ruled the world. But now the defender steps forward and makes apology *' Or laissons les peches, disans, Qu'elle etoit clergesse lettrce, Quand devant les plus sufiisants De Rome cut Tissue et 1'entree. Encore te pcut etre montree Mainte Preface que dicta, Bien et saintement accoustree Ou en la foy point n'hesita." 1 1 Ap. Oudin, Conn*, de Scr. Eccl., iii. 24GG. 4 38 POPE JOAN. She had, therefore, composed many quite orthodox prefaces for the mass. It was not until the second half of the fifteenth century that the story came into the hands of the Greeks. Welcome as the occurrence of such a thing would have been to a Cerularius and like-minded op- ponents of the papal chair in Constantinople, no one had as yet mentioned it, until Chalcocondylas, in the history of his time, in which he describes the mode of electing a pope, mentions also the fiction of an examination as to sex, and apropos of that relates the catastrophe of Pope Joan ; an occurrence which, as he remarks, could only have taken place in the West, where the clergy do not allow their beard to grow. 1 It is in him that we get the outrageous feature added to the story, that the child was born just as the woman was celebrating High Mass, and was seen by the assembled congregation. 2 In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, says the Roman writer Cancellieri, the romance about Pope 1 De Rebus Turcicis, ed. Bekkcr, Bonn, 1843, p. 303. 2 '12f f TIJV dvainv aQinero, yfwfjcai re. TO naidtov Kara TT/V Qvaia The cleric, who examines the sex of the newly-elected, cries out with u loud voice : n/'/"/ 1 ' '//"' ra~w o dtairoTTjr, I. c., p. 303. Bar- laain, who had mentioned the fable as early as the fourteenth century, lived in Italy. POPE JOAN. 39 Joan circulated widely in all chronicles which were written and copied in Italy, and even under the very eyes of Rome. l Thus it appears in print in Rico- baldo's Italian chronicle of the popes, which Filippo de Lignamine dedicated to pope Sixtus IV. in 14/4- So also in the history of the popes by the Venetian priest Stella. 2 For a long time, and even as late as 1548 and 1550, it found a place in numerous Roman editions of the Mirabilia Urbis Rorncp, 3 which was a sort of guide for pilgrims and strangers. Felix Hemmerlin, Trithemius, Nauclerus, Albert Krantz, Coccius Sabellicus, Raphael of Voltcrra, Joh. Fr. Pico di Mirandola, the Augustine Foresti of Bergamo, Cardinal Domenico Jacobazzi, Hadrian of Utrecht, afterwards pope Hadrian VI., Germans, French, Italians, Spaniards, all appeal to the story, and interweave it with their theological disquisitions; or, like Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, rejoice that the tenets of the canonists about the inerrancy of the 1 Storia de' solenni possessi. Rome, 1802, p. 238. 2 Vila Paparum, R. Basil, 1507, f. E. 2. 3 Other old editions of this strangers' guide to Rome have the title IndulgentiK Ecclesiarum Urbis Romtc. The circumstance about the woman-pope is found in all of them ; and for well-nigh eighty years no one in Rome ever thought of having the scandal expurga- ted from a work, which was constantly reprinted, and was put into the hands of every new-comer. [A reprint has lately been publish- ed at Berlin, 1869, edited by Farthcy.j 40 POPE JOAN. Church had come to such glaring shame in the deception of the woman-pope, and that this woman, in the two years and a half of her reign, had ordained priests and bishops, administered sacraments, and performed all the other functions of a pope ; and that all this had, nevertheless, remained as valid "n the Church. Even John, Bishop of Chiemsee, introduces Agnes and her catastrophe as a proof that the popes were sometimes under the influence of evil spirits. 1 Platina, who thought the story rather sus- picious, nevertheless would not omit it from his history of the popes (about 1460), because nearly every one maintained its truth. 2 Aventin in Ger- many, and Onufrio Panvinio in Italy, were the first to shake the general infatuation. But still in the year 1575 the Minorite Rioche, in his chronicle, opposes the certainty of the collected Church to the hesitating statements of Platina and Carranza. 3 In order to arrive at the causes of the origin and development of the myth, let us now proceed to dissect it. Originally the woman-pope was nameless. The first accounts of her, in Stephen de Bourbon, and 1 Onus Ecclesix, 1531, cap. 19, 4. 2 " No obstinate minium et pertinacitcr omisisso vidcar, qu crimes affirmant." 3 Chroniyue. Paris, 157G, f. 230. POPE JOAN. 41 in the Compilatio Chronologica in Pistorius' collection, know nothing as yet of a Joan. In the latter authority we read : " fuit et alius pseudo papa, cujus " nomen et anni ignorantur, nam mulier erat." Her mie Mirabilia, a work frequently printed in Home during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Then in Ilcm- mrrlin, pp. 1DU7, f. yy, and in a German chroniclo of C'ologiie. POPE JOAN. 47 the dignity of pope, and thereupon wrote a book on necromancy. l Formerly there was a greater number of Prefaces in the missal. The reduction in number which took place afterwards with regard to those whose author and purpose were unknown, was explained by the supposition, that Pope Joan had composed those which were struck out. 2 Now, how is the first origin of the myth to be explained ? Four circumstances have contributed to the production and elaboration of the fable : I. The use of a pierced seat at the institution of a newly elected pope. 2. A stone with an inscription on it, which people supposed to be a tombstone. 3. A statue found on the same spot, in long robes, which were supposed to be those of a woman. 4. The custom of making a circuit in processions, whereby a street which was directly in the way was avoided. In one Street in Rome stood two objects, which were very naturally supposed to be connected, a statue with the figure of a child or small boy, and a monumental stone with an inscription. In addition 1 Tiraqucll, de Leg. Malrim.ed. Basil., 1501, p. 298. 2 Thus, in nn Oxford manuscript of Murtinus Polomis we read : " Hie (Johannes Anglirus) primus post Ambrosium multas pre- " fationcs missirum dicitur compORiiisse, qtue modo omncs stint ' intordicta;." Ap. Maresium, Johnma Papissa Itcslit., p. J9. So also the above-mentioned Martin lo i-'iauc. 48 POPE JOAN. to this came the circumstance, that solemn and state processions made a circuit round this street. The statue is said to have had masculine rather than feminine features ; but certain information on this point is wanting, for Sixtus V. had it removed. The figure carried a palm-branch, and was supposed to represent a priest with a serving boy, or some heathen divinity. But the long robes and the addition of the figure of the boy to the group, created a notion among the people that it was a mother with her child. The inscription was then made use of to explain the statue, and the statue to explain the inscription, the pierced chair and the avoiding of the street served to confirm the explanation. This piece of sculpture was not (as has been maintained) first mentioned by Dietrich von Nieni in the fifteenth century ; but Maerlant says, as early as 1283, i, e., at the time of the first circulation of the myth : ' En daer leget soe, als wyt lesen Noch also up ten Stecn ghchouvven, Dat men ane daer mag scouwen." The myth now sought, and soon found, further circumstances with which to connect itself. The enigmatical inscription on a monumental stone which stood on the spot, and which hitherto no one had been able to -interpret, became all at once clear to the POPE JOAN. 49 Romans. It referred to the female pope and the catastrophe of the denouement. The stone was set up by one of those priests of Mithras who bore the title " Pater Patrum," appa- rently as a memorial of some specially solemn sacrifice ; for the worship of Mithras from the third century of the Christian era onwards was a very favourite one in Rome and very prevalent, until in the year 378 the worship was forbidden and the grotto of Mithras destroyed. The earliest notice of the stone with the inscription, which was supposed to be the tombstone of the female pope, is to be found in Stephen de Bour- bon. According to him the inscription ran thus, " Parce Pater Patrum papissae prodere partum." Now without doubt it did not stand so in as many words. But " Pap." or " Pare. Pater Patrum " followed by " P. P. P." was certainly the reading ; an abbrevia- tion for "propria pecunia posuit" " Pater Patoim" appears constantly on monuments as the title of a priest of the Mithras 1 mysteries. In this case, probably, the name of the priest of 1 Conf. Orelli, Inscriptionum Latinarum Ampl. Coll. 1848, 1933, 2343, 2344, 2353. 50 POPE JOAN. Mithras was Papirius. 1 The remaining letters may have become illegible. The problem therefore now was to interpret the three " P's." One reading was, " Farce Pater Patrum papissas prodere partum ;" 2 or as others supposed, " Papa Pater Patrum papissas pandito partum ; " or, according to another explanation still better, '* Papa Pater Patrum peperit papissa papellum." Thus was the riddle of the inscription solved, and the myth confirmed in connection with the statue and the pierced chair. The stone had turned out to be the tombstone of the unhappy Pope Joan. 3 The verse, however, especially in its first and second form, was altogether a most extraordinary one for an epitaph. There must be something more to account for it, and, accordingly, the myth was soon 1 For several inscriptions with the abbreviation P. a P., see Orelli, ii., 25. 2 This is the oldest interpretation as given l>y Stephen do Bourbon ; see Echard, S. Thomx Summa mo Afctori Vindicata, p. 5C8. 3 Hence the most ancient witness, Stephen do Bourbon, says expressly: " Ubi fuit mortua, ibi fuit scpulta, et super lapidcm "super ea positum scriptus es>t vcrsiculus, etc.'' Ap. Echard., I c., p. 5G8. POPE JOAN. 51 enlarged. Tt was reported that Satan, who of course knew the secret of the papess, had addressed her in the words of the verse in a full consistory. 1 That, however, did not seem a very satisfactory explanation ; and so the supposed epitaph was altered and enlarged, and the story at last ran thus : that the papess, while exorcising a man possessed by a devil, had asked him when the unclean spirit that dwelt in him would leave him, and it had mockingly answered " Papa Pater Patrum papissse pandito partum, Et tibi nunc edam (or dicam) de corpore quando recedam." * Other instances have occurred of an unintelligible inscription being explained by a story 8 being attached to it. Thus the chronicles, since the time of Beda, declare that an inscription had been found at Rome with the six letters : i>ijv i/uiv rortv 6 $to-6Ti)<;. [De rebus Turcicis, cd. Bekker, Bonn., 1843, p 303.] How readily the popular story was believed is shown by Bernardino Corio, of Milan, who describes in his historical work the coronation of popa 56 POPE JOAN. . Of later witnesses it is worth mentioning, that the Swede Lawrence Banck, who minutely described the solemnities which accompanied the elevation of In- nocent X. to the papacy [Sept. 1644], declares, with all earnestness, that it certainly was the case, that an investigation into the sex of the pope was the object of the ceremony. l At that time, howevf-r, the custom of sitting on the two stone seats, along with several other ceremonies, had long since disappeared, namely, since the death of Leo X. And, moreover, Banck does not state that he himself had seen the cere- mony, 2 but only that he had often seen the scat, and by way of proof that it took place, and with this particular object, appeals to -writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Cancellieri, therefore, had good reason for expressing astonishment at the shamelessness of a man, who speaks on other things as an eye-witness, and who had only to inquire of Alexander VI. in the year 1492, when Corio himself was in Homo. There we read, " Finalmente essendo finite lo solite solemnitati in Sancta Sanctorum et diraesticamente toccatogli H testicoli, ritorno al palacio." Fatria Historic, P. rii., fol. Riv. Milauo, 1503. In tho later editions the passage is omitted. Corio, howeTer, says himself, that he was not in the church where it took place, but was standing outside. 1 In the book Roma Triumphant, Frauccker, 1645. Cancellieri has quoted his long account entire. 2 Cancellieri, p. 236. POPE JOAN. 57 any educated Roman to learn that the custom in question had been given up for more than a hundred years. But the strongest case of all is that of Giampetro Valeriano Bolzani, one of the literary courtiers of Leo X., and loaded with benefices, * according to the im- moral custom of the time. This man, in a speech addressed to cardinal Hippolytus dei Medici, printed at Rome with papal privilege, did not scruple to decorate the fiction about the investigation into the sex of each newly-elected pope with new and fabulous circumstances. The ceremony takes places, he declares, quite openly in the gallery of the Lateran church before the eyes of the assembled multitude, and is then most unnecessarily proclaimed by one of the clergy and entered in the register. 2 Thus the wanton frivolity of Italian literati, and the stupid indifference of ecclesiastical dignitaries, worked together to spread this delusion, damaging as it was to the otherwise jealously guarded authority of the papal sec, right through the whole mass of the populace. At the same 1 For the long list of his benefices, see Marini, Archiatri Ponli- ficv, i., 291. 2 Rcsque ipsa sacri pncconis voco palam promulpata in acta mox refertur, legitimumque turn dcmum Pontifuvm nos habere arbi- tramur, quum habere ilium quod liubero decet ocuiata lide fuerit contestation. 58 POPE JOAN. time one could hardly have a more striking instance of the irresistible power which a universally-circulated story exercises over men, even over those of superior intellect. Any one could learn without trouble from a cardinal, or from one of the clergy taking part in the ceremony, what really took place there. But people never asked, or else imagined that the answer meant no more than a refusal to vouch for the fact. They heard this examination of the newly-elected pope spoken of everywhere, in the streets and in private houses, as a notorious fact. Did, then, the meaning assigned to the pierced seat influence the explanation of the inscription and of the statue ; or did, contrariwise, these two objects give origin to the myth about the ceremonies connected with the seat ? That point it is now, of course, out of our power to determine. We can only see that the explanation of the three objects is as old as the myth about the woman-pope. A further confirmation of the whole was soon found in a circumstance of no importance in itself, and for which a perfectly natural explanation was ready at hand. It was remarked that the popes in processions between the Lateran and the Vatican did not enter a street which lay in the way, but made a circuit through other streets. The reason was simply the POPE JOAN. 59 narrowness of the street. But in Rome, where the papess was already haunting the imagination of the masses, it was now discovered that this was done to remind men how the woman had given birth to a child as she was going through this street, and to express horror at the catastrophe which had taken place just at that spot. In the first version of the fable, as we find it in the interpolated Martinus Polonus, it is said : " creditur omnino a quibitsdam, "quod ob dctcstationcm facti hoc faciat" With * later writers the thing is thoroughly established as a notorious fact. It may now be worth while to show by a few examples, how easily a popular myth, or a mythical explanation, may be called into existence by a circumstance, so soon as anything is perceived in it, which seems in the eyes of the people to be astonish- ing, or which excites their imagination. The bigamy of the Count of Glcichcn plays an im- portant part in our literature, and is still believed to be true by numberless people. A count of Glcichcn 1 The chroniclers copy one from another to such a slavish extent in this narrative, that the incorrect expression of the interpolater, "Dominns Papa, quum vadit ad Later.inum, eandem viam semper " obliquat" (instead of declinat) lias been retained by all his followers. The avoided street was, moreover, pulled down by Sixtus V., on account of its narrowness. [The spot where the catastrophe was said to have taken place is between the Colosseum and St. Clement's.] 60 POPE JOAN. is said to have gone to Palestine in the year 1227, in company with the Landgrave of Thuringia, and there to have been captured by the Saracens and thrown into prison. Through the daughter of tie Sultan he obtained his liberty ; and the story goes that, although his wife was living, he obtained a dispensation from pope Gregory IX. in the year 1240 o" 1241, and married the princess ; and the three lived together in undisturbed peace for many years afterwards. It is a well-known fact that the very bed itself (an unusually broad one) of the count and his two wives, was shown for a long time afterwards. This story is told for the first time in the year 1584, that is to say, three centuries and a half later. 1 But from that time onwards it is related in numerous writings, and in the next century became a matter of popular belief, so that henceforth it was printed in all histories of Thuringia, and is to be found in par- ticular in Jovius, Sagittarius, Orlearius, Packcnstcin. etc. In this case, also, it was a tombstone which gave occasion to the story. On it was represented a knight with two 2 female figures, one of whom had a peculiar 1 In Dresscri Ilhetorica, Lips., p. 76, squ. 2 It is, as Flacidus Muth, of Erfurt, has conjectured with much probability, the monument of a count of lilcicb.cn, who died in 1494, and his two wives. POPE JOAN. 6r head dress decorated with a star. No sooner had the myth which fastened on to this figure begun to weave its web, than relics and signs began to multiply. Not only was the bedstead shown, but a jewel which the pope had presented to the Turkish princess, and which she wore in her turban ; a " Turk's road," was pointed out, leading to the castle, and a " Turk's room " within it. And not a word about all this until the seventeenth century. In earlier times no one had ever heard a syllable about the story or the relics. l Another instance is afforded by the Piistrich at Sondershausen, a bronze figure, hollow inside, with an opening in the head. It was found in the year 1550, in a subterranean chapel of the castle of Rothen- burg, near Nordhauscn, and was brought to Son- dershausen in the year 1576, where it still exists in the cabinet of curiosities. Thirty or forty years had scarcely passed before a legend had grown up, which quite harmonised with a time immediately suc- ceeding the great religious contest of the Reforma- tion, and with a country in which the old religion was vanquished. The Piistrich was said to have stood in a niche in a pilgrimage church, and by monkish jugglery to have been filled with water, and made Jo vomit flames of fire, in order to terrify the people, and induce them to make large offerings. Frederick 1 See Ealletche Encycl. Bd. 69. 6 62 POPE JOAN. Succus, preacher in the cathedral of Magdeburg, from 1567 to 1576, relates all this, with many details as to the way in which the deception was managed, adding the remark, "that no one could do the like " now-a-days, so as to make the image vomit flames, "and that many thought it was perhaps brought " about by magic and witchcraft." 1 Again, every one knows the story of Archbishop Hatto, of Mayence, who had a strong tower built in the middle of the Rhine, in order to protect himself from the mice ; but in spite of that was devoured by them. This event, which would have fallen within the year 970, had it happened at all, is mentioned for the first time at the beginning of the fourteenth century, in Siffrid's chronicle. Before that there is not a trace of it. The Mausethurm, or Muus- thurm 2 (that is, Arsenal), as Bodmann explains, was not built till the beginning of the thirteenth 3 century. 1 Rabc, Der Piistrich zu Bonders ha usen, Berlin, 1852, p. 58. He shows how absurd the story is, although repeated in the seventeenth century by Walther, Titus, and Riiser. Even in the year 1782 Galetti, and in 1830 the preacher Quehl, related the ridiculous story, llabe conjectures with probability that the I'iistrich is nothing more than the support of a font. [Others have supposed it U) be an idol of the Sorbic-Wcnds.] 2 Ap. Pistor. SS., Germ., i., 10. 3 f I?y a bishop named Siegfried, together with the opposite castle of Ehrenfels, as a watch tower and toll-house for collecting duties on all goods which passed up or down the river. Maus is possibly only another form of Mauth, toll or excise. Archbishop llatto died iu ylo.J POPE JOAN. 63 Its name with the people slipped from Muusthurm to Mausethurm, and thus, according to all appearance, gave rise to the whole story. In all that is historically known of Hatto II. there is not a feature with which the legend could connect itself. The story of a prince or great man, who tried to save himself from the pursuit of mice in a tower surrounded by water, is to be found in several other places. It appears in the mountains of Bavaria ; it occurs among the myths of primitive Polish history. In l the latter case King Popicl, his wife, and two sons, are followed and killed by mice in a tower in the Goplosee, which to this day bears the name of Mouse-tower. Wherever a tower on an island was to be seen, the object of which could no longer be explained, there sprang up the story of the blood-thirsty mice. 2 1 Ropell s Geschichte Polens, i., 74. [Sec Appendix C.] 2 Liebrccht's explanation in Wolfs Zcitschrift far deutsche Jlfythologit, ii., 408, seems to be erroneous. He says, that "at the " root of legends on this subject lies the primitive custom of " hanging the chiefs of the nation as an offering to appease tho " gods, on the occurrence of any national calamity, wich as famine " through the ravages of mice, for instance.'' In the first place, human sacrifice by means of hanging is almost, if not quite, unknown; secondly, it is not usually a tree, but a tower on an island, to which the legend attaches itself; and, lastly, the legend places the event, as in the case of Hatto, very much later quitv in Christian times. [But may we not give up the hanging, and even the tree, and still retain the idea of propitiatory sacrifice ?J 64 POPE JOAN. If an unusual hollow was remarked in a stone, a hole t>f extraordinary shape, anything which the imagination could take for the impress of a hand or a foot, there at once a myth found lodgment. A stone in the wall of a church at Schlottau in Saxony, which is thought to look like the face of a monk without ever having been carved by the hand of man, has given occasion to a legend of attempted sacrilege, and marvellous punishment. l On the Riesenthoi- (Giant-Porch) of St. Stephen's Cathedral at Vienna, a youth is introduced in the carving of the upper part, who appears to rest a wounded foot on the other knee. A legend has been spun out of that. The architect, Pilgram, 2 is said to have thrown his pupil, Puchsprunn, from the scaffold- ing, out of jealousy, because the execution of the second tower had been transferred to the latter while still under Pilgram. 3 The fable of the papess belongs to the local myths 1 See Grassc's Sagenscha'z des Konigreichs Sachsn. Dresden, 1855. 2 [Pilgram was one of the later architects, successor of Jorg (Ecltsd about 1510. The church was founded in 1144. The Rifsi-nthor seems to belong to a period subsequent to the fire of 12.">8; but it and the Heidenthiirme arc almost the oldest parts of the present building, and therefore existed long before Pilgram's time.] 3 llonnayr. Wien, seine Geschichte, u. . w., 27, 46. POPE JOAN. 65 of Rome, of which a whole cycle existed in the Middle Ages. Hence it may be worth while to compare the birth of such a myth with a Roman example. The legend about the origin of the house of Colonna, whose power and greatness afforded material for the imagination of the people, is so far similar in its origin to that about Pope Joan, as it was a piece of sculpture, viz., the arms of the house with a column, which the legend endeavoured to explain. Just as the lozenge of Saxony, the wheel of Mayence, and the virgin of the Osnabruck arms, have called forth legends of their own to explain them. A smith in Rome notices that his cow, every day, goes of her own accord in the same direction. He follows her, creeps after her through a narrow open- ing, and finds a meadow with a building in it. In the building stands a stone column, and on the top of it a brazen vessel full of money. He is about to take some of the money, when a voice calls out to him, " It is not thine ; take three denarii, and " thou wilt find on the Forum to whom the money " belongs." The smith docs so, and flings the three pieces of money to three different parts of the Forum. A poor neglected lad finds them all three, becomes the smith's son-in-law, buys great possessions with 66 POPE JOAN. the money on the column, and so founds the house of Colonna. x This, perhaps, is sufficient illustration of the way in which the legend of Pope Joan arose. Two circum- stances, however, require special discussion, the state- ments that the woman came from Mayence, and that she had studied in Athens. The first mention that we find respecting the original home of the female pope, namely, in the passage interpolated into Martinus Polonus, combines two contradictory statements. It makes her an Englishwoman, and, at the same time, a native of Mayence : " Johannes Anglus, natione Mogim- " tinus." Probably two stories were extant, of which one made the impostor come from the British Isles, the other from Germany. The reason for one story making her a native of England may have been this. It was a common thing for Englishwomen to go on pilgrimages to Rome : we find St. Boniface even in his day complaining of the number. of them, and their dubious character. Or it may have been that the birth, and first spreading of the myth, fell just within that long period of the violent struggle between Innocent III. and king John, while England 1 Fr. Jacob! do Acqui Chronicon Imaginis Mundi, in the Monu- ment* Hist. Patrise, Script., Vol. iii., p. 1G03. POPE JOAN. 67 was accounted in Rome as the power which above all others was hostile to the Roman see. For, from the very beginning, the fictitious event was considered as a deep disgrace, a heavy blow struck at the authority of the Roman see ; and the myth expressed that by making a country which was considered as hostile to Rome, to be the home of the papess, a woman-pope. In like manner the mythical king Popiel, who was devoured by mice, on account of the wrong done to his father's brothers, is represented in the Polish myth as having married the daughter of a German prince, in order that the guilt of instigating him to the crime might fall on a woman of a foreign nation, and one always hostile to the Sclaves. l It is not difficult to explain how the other version of the story, which became the prevalent one, came to assign Maycncc as the native place of the papess. The rise of the myth falls into the period of the great contest between the papacy and the empire, a time when the Germans often appeared in arms before Rome, and in Rome broke down the walls of the city, took the popes prisoners, or compelled them to take to flight. "Omne malum ab Aquilone," was the feeling at that time in Rome. Germany had then no special capital ; no recognised royal or 1 Bopell, Geschichte Polens, p. 77. 68 POPE JOAN. imperial place of residence. No city but Mayence could be called the most important city in the realm. It was the seat of the first prince of the empire, x and the centre of government. " Moguntia, ubi maxima " vis regni esse noscitur," says Otto of Freysingen. 2 In the Ligurinus of the Pseudo-Gunther, it is said of Mayence : " Pene fuit toto sedes notissima regno." In the cycle of myths which cluster round Charlemagne, and which Italy also appropriated (e.g. in the Rcali di Francia, which was extant as early as the fourteenth century, and in other produc- tions belonging to the same cycle of myths), Roman aversion to the German metropolis, Mayence, is glaringly prominent. Mayence is the seat and home of the malicious scheme of treachery against Charles the Great and his house. Ganelo, the arch-traitor, is count of Mayence. All his party, and his associates in treachery, are called " Maganzesi." They and Ganelo, or the men of Mayence, represent the treacherous usurpation of the empire by the Germans, in violation of the birthright of Rome. 1 [The electoral archbishops of Maycnco were the premier princes of the empire; they presided at diets, and at the election of the emperor. Even in Roman times the Castellum Moguntiacum was the most important of the chain of fortresses which Drusus 7 />uiIt along the Ilhine, and which in like manner became tho gerns of large towns.] 2 De Getlit Frtdenci /., c. 12. POPE JOAN. 69 So again in Pulci's Morgante, and in Ariosto's Cinque Canti or Ganeloni. The poem, Doolin of Mayence, is, to a certain extent, a German rejoinder to the polemics of Rome, as shown in the Carolin- gian myths. Here Doolin, son of Guido, count of Mayence, steps forward as the rival of Charlemagne, first fights with him, then after an indecisive battle is reconciled to him, with him goes to Vauclere, the city of Aubigeant (Wittekind), king of Saxony, marries Flandrine, the daughter of the latter, and ends by joining with Charles in the subjugation of Saxony. Ganelo of Mayence, the treacherous founder of the first German kingdom by separation from the West Frank kingdom, is supplemented in the Italian myth (which thus represents the great contest and op- position between Guelf and Ghibelline) by another native of Mayence, Ghibcllo. The story is to be found in Bogardo's Italian version of the Pomarium of Riccobaldo of Ferrara. * King Conrad II. (it is Conrad III. who is meant) nominates Gibello Maguntino to be administrator of the kingdom in Lombardy in opposition to Wclfo, whom the Church had set up as regent of Lombardy. Gibello is of noble but poor family, had studied for awhile in 1 In Muratori, SS. Ital ix , 360, 57. 70 POPE JOAN. Italy, acquires then great eminence in his native city, Mayence, becomes chancellor of Bohemia, but is publicly convicted of " baratteria," i.e., of political fraud or treason. He and Welfo now have a contest together, which ends in Gibello dying at Bergamo, and Welfo at Milan. Gibello of Maganza is, as one sees, a repetition of Gano or Ganelo of Maganza. But it is also evident why Johannes or Johanna must be made to come from Mayence, and why " Magun- " tinus" or " Magantinus" must be called " Margan- " tinus." * In later times the story, now romancing with an object, endeavoured to harmonise the two statements, 1 Both in manuscripts and printed copies we repeatedly find Mar- gantinus instead of Marguntinus. It would appear that Margan, a famous abbey in Glamorganshire, is here indicated, where the Annales de Margan, with which the second volume of Gale's Historise Anglic. Scriptores commences, were composed. People could not reconcile the appellation Anglicus with the distinctive name Maguntinus, and accordingly changed the German birthplace into an English one. Bernard Guidonis came to the rescue in a different way ; instead of Anglicus, he wrote Johannes Teutonicus natione Maguntinus. Vitx I'ontijlcum, ap. Maii Spicil. Rom, vi., 202. Among the amusing attempts which have been made to reconcile the two adjectives Anglicus and Maguntinus, may be mentioned the version of Amalricus Augerii (Ilistoria Ponliftcum, ap. Eccard, ii., 1706). Here the woman -pope is called Johannes, Anglicus natione, clictus M'ignanimus (instead of Maguntinus). The author would intimate that the boldness and strength of character, without which such a course of life, involving the concealment of her sex for so many years, would not have been possible, had won for her the distinctive title of " magnanimous." POPE JOAN. 71 that the female pope was " Anglicus," and also " natione Maguntinus." The parents of Joan were made to migrate from England to Mayence ; or she was called "Anglicus," it was said, because an English monk in Fulda had been her paramour. l In Germany, however, people began now to be ashamed of the German origin of Pope Joan. She was thrown in the teeth of the Germans, we are told in the chronicle of the bishops of Verden, because she is said to have come from Mayence. 2 Indeed some went so far as to say that this circumstance of the German woman-pope was the reason why no more Germans were elected popes, as Werner Rolevink mentions, adding at the same time that this was not the true reason. 3 In order to conceal the circumstance, we find in the German manuscripts of Martinus Polonus " Margantinus" constantly in- stead of " Magantinus ;" and the Compilatio Chronica in Leibnitz 4 knows only of Johannes Anglicus. This feeling that the nationality of the papess was a thing 1 Compare Marcsii Johanna Papissa Rtslituta, p. 18. 2 Ap. Leibnitz, SS. Brunsvic., ii., 212. 3 Fascic. Temp. at. vi., f. 66. So also in the Dutch Divisie- Ch'onyk, printed at Ltydcn in the yrar 1517. " Om dat dose Paeus " wt duytslant rus van inents opten ryn, so menen sommigo, dat dit " die sake is, dat men gencu geboren duytsche mecr tat paeus " BCtU't." 4 SS. Jlrunsvic., ii., 63. 72 POPE JOAN. of -which Germany must be ashamed even produced a new romance, the object of which was manifestly nothing else than to transfer the home of the female pope and her paramour from Germany to Greece. l The other feature in the myth, that the woman studied in Athens, and then came and turned her knowledge to account in Rome as a teacher of great repute, is thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of mediaeval legends. As a matter of fact, no one for a thousand years had gone from the West to Athens for purposes of study ; for the very best of reasons, because there was nothing more to be found there. But that was no obstacle to the myth, according to which Athens in ancient times (that means perhaps before the rise of the University of Paris) was accounted as the one great scat of education and learning. For that there was, and ought to be, only one " Studium," just as there was, and ought to be, only one Empire and one Popedom, was the prevailing sentiment of that age. " The Church has " need of three powers or institutions," we read in the Chronica Jordanis, " the Priesthood, the Empire, and " the University. And as the Priesthood has only 4 It is to })c. found in n manuscript from Torgcrnsce, now in the royal library at Munich, of the fifteenth century, Codex lat. Tegerns., 781. [Sec Appendix A.] POPE JOAN. 73 " one seat, namely Rome, so the University has and " needs only one seat, namely Paris. Of the three " leading nations each possesses one of these in- " stitutions. The Romans or Italians have the " Priesthood, the Germans have the Empire, and the " French have the University." l This University was originally in Athens, thence it was transported to Rome, and from Rome Charle- magne (or his son) transplanted it to Paris. The very year of this transfer was stated. Thus we find in the Chronicon Tielensc, 2 "Anno D. 830, Romanum " studium, quod prius Athenis exstitit, est translatum Parisios." Hence in ancient times, according to the prevalent notion, the University was at Athens ; and whoever would rise to great eminence in the sphere of know- ledge must go there. There were only two ways in which a foreign adventurer could attain to the highest office in the Church piety, or learning. The legend could not make the girl from Mayencc become eminent through piety ; this would not agree with 1 In Schard. De Juritd. Imperiali ac Potett. Eccles, Variorum Authorum Scripta., Basil., 1566, p. 307. 2 Ed. van Lecuwen, Trajerti, 1780, p. 37. So also Gobelinns Persona. The anonymous writer in Vincent of Beauvais had previously stated, " Alcuinus studiura de Roma Parisios traustulit, " quod illuc a Graecia translatum fuerat a Romanis." 74 POPE JOAN. her subsequent seduction and the birth of the child in the open street. Therefore it was through her learn- ing that she won for herself universal admiration, and, at the election to the papacy, a unanimous vote. And this learning she could only have attained in Athens. For the University, as Amalricus Augerii says, was at that time in Greece. x 1 See Eccard , ii., 1707. [For additional matter on the general subject of the Papess, see Appendix B.J II. TOPE CYRIACUS. POPE CYRIACUS .was foisted into the Roman list of popes about the same time as Pope Joan, and like her, maintained his usurped position for a long time. Here intentional imposture, visionary fancy and groundless credulity conspired together to create a pope as unreal and as purely invented as Pope Joan. In the middle of the twelfth century the nun Elizabeth, in the monasteiy of Schonau, in the dio- cese of Trcves, stood far and wide in high repute. Her visions were inexhaustible ; and as often as a grave was opened, and the bones and remains of some nameless corpse were found, the name and history of the unknown dead were revealed to her, as she said, by an angel or a saint. This worked with inspiriting effect on those who wanted new relics of saints for a church or a chapel to attract the stream of population thither. Elizabeth had already been busy with the myth of St. Ursula 1 and her maidens ; [They arc said to have boon martyred in 237 ; tho sixteenth centenary of the event was celebrated in 1837. Yet it wax tho Hnns returning from their defeat at Chalons, in 451, who put the maidens to death ! St. Ursula's name appears in no mart.yrologjr earlier than tin: tenth century. Mr. Baring-Gould considers he'- as ft no other than the Swabian goddess Ursel or Horsel transformed "into a saint of the Christian calendar." Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 1809, p. 331]. 76 POPE CYRIACUS. and since 1155 thousands of corpses had been dug up in -the fields near Cologne, all of which were said to have belonged to St. Ursula's company. At last, however, the corpses of men also came to light. Tombstones with inscriptions were discovered there, or rather were forthwith invented. They spoke of an Archbishop Simplicius, of Ravenna, Marinus, bishop of Milan, Pantulus, of Basle, and several cardinals and priests. There was, moreover, a stone with the inscription " St. Cyriacus Papa Romnnus qui cum "gaudio suscepit sacras virgines et curn iisdem re- " versus martyrium suscepit et St. Alina V." These epitaphs were sent by the abbot Gerlach to Elizabeth. By the visions which she saw in her states of magnetic clairvoyance she was to decide whether these tablets were to be believed. 1 For he himself, as he said, entertained a suspicion that the stones might have been secretly buried there with a view to gain. Her 2 unwillingness to act as judge was overcome, and now the following history came to light. At the 1 The inscriptions and the narration of St. E'izabeth are to bo found, Ada Sanctorum Octbr. ix., 8G-88. The fiiiv'.ing of the tomb- stones was set on foot, it seems, to explain the appearance of so many bones of males in the field (ager Ursulanus), where people had been accustomed to expect only the bones of the pretended virgins, and in order to vindirate the honour of tin maidens. 2 " Diutina postulationc me xnultuni rehistenti m compulenmt," arc her words. POPE CYRIACUS, 77 time when Ursula and her maidens came to Rome, Cyriacus hau already reigned a year and eleven weeks as the nineteenth pope. In the night he re- ceived the command of heaven to renounce his office, and go forth with the maidens, for a martyr's death awaited him :md them. He accordingly resigned his authority into the hands of the cardinals, and caused Antherus to be raised to the papacy in his place. The Roman c lergy, however, were so indignant at the abdication of Cyriacus that they struck his name out of the list of ihe popes. Accordingly, every objection created by previously- existing authorities was forthwith quashed, and the chroniclers cf the thirteenth century determined without further thought that the newly discovered pope must be inserted between Pontianus and Antcros (238). The first to do this was the Premonstratcnsian monk, Robert Abolant at Auxcrrc, who in the first part of this century composed a general chronicle. The Dominicans, Vincent of Beauvais and Thomas of Chantinpre, followed, and after them the Cistercian Alberich. Martinus Polonus was in this case also the decisive authority and source of information for the times subsequent to himself. In him the reason why Cyriacus was not found in the Calalogns Pontificuin is given with more particularity : " Crcdebant cnim 78 POPE CYRIACUS. " plerique eum non propter devotionom, sed propter " oblectamenta virginum Papatum di nisisse." And on this point Leo of Orvieto has followed him. Aimery du Peyrat 1 also, and Bernard Guidonis 2 con- tend for Cyriacus, while Amalrich Augerii passes him over. The oldest chronicle in the German language (about 1330) says of him : " Want er lies daz babcs- " thum und die wurdikeit wider der Cardinal willen, " und fur mit den XL tusing megden gen Colen, und " wart gemartert, darumb tilketen die cardinal sinen " namen abe der bebiste buche." 3 The Eulogium historiarum, compiled by a monk of Malmesbury about the year 1366, introduces him with the remark, " flic cessit de papatu contra voluntatem cleri." 4 In the fifteenth century Cyriacus, as was to be expected, appeared in all the better known historical works ; in Antonius, Philip of Bergamo, Nauklerus, etc., and 1 Notices et Eztraits, vi., 77. 2 Mail Spicil, vi., 29. 3 [" Since, against the will of the Cardinals, he fjave tip the papacy and the honor, and went with the eleven thousand maidens to Co- logne, and was martyred, on this account the Cardinals expunged his name from the Popes' Book."] Oberrheinisc.ie Chronik, edited l>y S. A. Grieshaber, 1850, p. 5. 4 Ed. Scott ITaydon, I^ond., 1838, i., 180. [TInic snccessit Siriaons papa qui sed it anno uno, mensihus iii. ; hie cessi: de papatu contni voluntatcm cleri, sequendo xi m. virgines quas bfiptizaverat, et suli- stituendo Auucleruui, et ideo non apponitiir in > atulogo papurum.J POPE CYRIACUS. 79 hence passed even mto the older editions of the Roman breviary. 1 But as early as the last year of the thirteenth century the story of Cyriacus had become of no small practical importance, and the lawyers had appro- priated it for their purposes. The resignation of Coelestine V., and the con- sequent elevation of Boniface VIII. to the papacy, created very great commotion. Many were of opinion that it was utterly impossible for a pope to resign, for he had no ecclesiastical superior who could release him from his sacred obligations, and no one can release himself. The numerous opponents of Bo- niface pounced upon this question, and it was now of importance to discover instances of popes resigning. Accordingly the author of the Glossa Ordinaria to the decree, in which Boniface VIII. affirmed the right of popes to resign, appealed to the undoubted instance of Cyriacus ; 2 and thenceforward nearly all 1 Berti, in the Raccolta di Dissertazion of Zuccaria, ii., 10, remarks that he rinds the fabulous acts of St. Ursula even in the breviary of 1526 ; and, according to Launoi, they are still found in the breviary of 1550. 2 " Datur autem cortum excmplum de Cyriaco Papa, de quo " legitur, quod cum Ursula ct undecim millibus virginum inartyr- " izatus est." Then follows the narrative as given by Murtiiius IV!o- nus. Thus it stands in the older editions of the Lib . vi. Deere! il., cap. Renunciat., Lugdun. 1520, 1550, 1553. In the later editions the passage is omitted. So POPE CYRIACUS. canonists availed themselves of the same pretended authority, and not only they, but theologians also, as, for example, yEgidius Colonna 1 and Sylvester Prieras. * It was usual to quote three popes in primitive times 'as instances of abdication, Clement, Marcellinus, and Cyriacus ; 2 so that it really was a most strange mishap that all three cases should be invention. The supposed resignation of Clement was invented merely to harmonise the discrepancy between the statements, according to which he was sometimes .said to have come immediately after St. Peter, some- times not till after Linus and Anacletus. 1 De Renunciations Papx, in Rocaberti Biblioth. Max. Fontif., Ji., 61. 2 So, for instance, Augustinus dc Ancona, Fumma, quest. 4, art. 8 : " Respondes diccndum, quod Canones ot gcsta Pontificnm qua- " tuor Summos Pontifices narrant renunciassc Pontificatui, Clemen- " tern, Cyriacum, Marccllinum ct Cailustinum." So too, Albcricus de llosate, DominicUfl a S. Geminiano, Johannes Tuirecremata, Anto- nius Cucchus Bartholomaeus Fumus, and others. III. MARCELLINUS. THE fable about Pope Marcellinus is far more an- cient than the fiction of Pope Cyriacus. For nearly a thousand years it passed for truth along with the equally imaginary synod of Sinuessa, and has been much used by theologians and lawyers in support of their theories. 1 At the beginning of the persecution under Dio- cletian (this is the fable in substance), the pontifcx of the Capitol represented to Marcellinus, who waS then pope, that he might without scruple offer incense to the gods, for the three wise men from the East had done so before Christ. Both agreed to let the point be decided by Diocletian, who was at that time in Persia, and he naturally ordered that the pope should offer incense. Accordingly Marcellinus is conducted to the temple of Vesta, and there offers 1 [It is well known that this fable has l>eon admitted into the Roman breviary. The interpolation seems to have been made in the first half of the sixteenth century. "A hi fete de Saint Marccllin, " le 16 Avril, 1'ancien breviaire romain de 1520 so borne an refit du ' martyre de cc Papc. Mais voici un autre breviaire romain de 1536 '(Bibl. Sainte Geneviuve, No. B B 70), et un nutre de 1542 (Ibid. 'No. B B 67) oil Ton introduit la fable odieuse et ridicule du ' pretendu concile de Siuuesse." A. Gratry, Premiere leltre ">. 2 Tbid., vii., 78. 3 Jn D'Archrry's Xp : cile'jium, nov. edit., i, 207. 4 It exists iu manuscript, according to D'Achcry, in the library CONSTANTINE AND SYLVESTER. 99 of Euscbius of Caesarea, and differing from the legend. Of great influence in the matter was the additional fact, that the popes also themselves made use of the apocryphal legend of Sylvester, and maintained Constantino's baptism at Rome as historical. Hadrian I., in the letter which was read at the second council of Nicaea, A.D. 787, quoted a long passage out of the legend as evidence of the primitive use of images. l Nicolas I. (858-867) cited a supposed passage from a pseudo-Isidorian letter which bore the name of Sylvester, with the distinctive title " Magni Con- stantini baptizator." 2 Leo IX., also, in the con- troversy with the Patriarch Caerularius, laid stress on of St. Germain. Ratramnns (in D'Achcrr, 1. c., p. 100) quotes a passage from it. It seems to have boon forged, in order to defend Iloman claims and customs against the objections of the Greeks 1 In Harduin, iv., 82 [The gist of it is this. The apostles Peter and Paul appear to Constantino, and tell him to abandon tho idea of the bath of blood, and seek out Sylvester in his exile on Mt. Soracte ; he will cure the emperor of his leprosy. Constaatinc goes to Sylvester, who produces images of SS. Peter and Paul, in order to prove to the emperor that tho two who appeared to him in the vision were not gods, but these two apostles. Constantino recognises the likeness, is convinced and baptized, and proceeds to build and restore churches, which he takes care to adorn with images Com- pare the curious and very different version of the story given in the U- bis Romx JJiruLilia, reprinted from the Vatican manuscripts by Gustav Parthey, Berlin, ISGl'.J 2 Ibid , V., 144. ioo CONSTANTINE AND SYLVESTER. the fact that Constantine was the spiritual son of Sylvester by baptism. 1 Among the Greeks, Johannes Malalas, at Antioch, is the first who accepted the Roman baptism of Constantine 2 He lived at the end of the sixth century, and was certainly one of the least intelligent, and most prolific in fables, of all the Byzantine annalists. His authority may possibly have been the Greek translation of the legend of Sylvester, which had recently been made. It is true that he did not accomplish much in the way of introducing the fable, because his own work was not very widely dis- seminated. But seeing that Constantine was honored in the Greek Church as a saint, and that his festival was yearly celebrated on the 2 1st of May, with the greatest 3 solemnity, especially in Constantinople, it gradually came to appear quite inconceivable to the Greeks, that he should, of his own accord, have remained all his life outside the pale of the Church, and should not have received baptism till he was on his death-bed. 4 Accordingly we find an author as 1 Harduin, vi., 933 2 Ed Dindorf, p. 317 3 Bolland, ad 21 Mai, p. 13, 14. 4 [In Constantino's own age it was probably too common a case to provoke cither .surprise or censure. A century later \ve find St Ambrose uud bt. Auyustine postponing the reception of baptism CONSTANTINE AND SYLVESTER. 101 early as the abbot Thcophanes (died A.D. 817) setting the Anatolian theory of the baptism in Nicomedia, by Eusebius, in opposition to the Roman theory of the baptism of Sylvester, but forthwith declaring that he considered the Roman account as the more correct ; for, of course, Constantine, if unbaptizcd, could not have taken his seat with the fathers at Nicaea, and could not have taken part in the sacred mysteries : to assert or suppose that he could, was to the last degree absurd. * Accordingly, if even the Byzantines, as early as the ninth century, had become so unfamiliar with the circumstances and true history of the fourth century, it cannot excite wonder that the later Greek historians should have considered the incorrect account as an established fact. And this is the case with the lately published Thcodosius Mclitcnus, 2 Cedrcnus, also Zonaras, Gcorgius Ilamartolus, Glycas, and Nicephorus Callistus. Seeing, then, that all the chronicles of the popes subsequent to the Liber Pontificalis, and based upon it, relate the baptism of Constantine at Rome, and that Martinus Polonus, with his predilection for what till they were over thirty yo.nrs of acre,, Ions after th^y wore con- vinced of thj truth of Christianity. SUuiky's L'ualern (Jliurcli. Lcct. vi., sub fin.] 1 Ed. Classen, i., 25. 2 Chronographia, cd. Tafcl.,.Monachii, 1859, p. 61. 102 CONSTANTINE AND SYLVESTER. is fantastic and distorted, has imported the Gcsta Silvestri with its whole tissue of fables into his standard work, the fable maintained itself in un- questioned sovereignty throughout the Middle Ages ; until, with the re-awakening of the knowledge of the Greek language and literature, and of the critical historic sense, the two most advanced spirits of their age, ./Eneas Sylvius and Nicolas of Cusa, recognised the truth. 1 Nevertheless it needed still two centuries and more, before the powerful authorities which gave support to the fable were demolished. All the canonists kept fast to the theory of a Roman baptism for some time longer, for in the collections of canons by Anselm and Deusdcdit, and, above all, in the Dccrctum of Gratian (here indeed marked as "palca" that is, as a later insertion), bits out of the Gcsta Silveslri found a place, and these presupposed the truth of the statement respecting the emperor's baptism. Hence the Cardinals Jacobazzi, Reginald Pole, Baronius, Bellarmine, and in later times even Ciampini himself, and Schelstrate, still continued to defend the theory of a baptism in Rome, sometimes again taking refuge in the desperate resource of an Arian re-baptism. It was the profound erudition 1 Opera, Basil., 1551, p. 338. CONSTANTINE AND SYLVESTER. 103 and historical criticism of French theologians which first enabled truth to win a complete victory. Besides all this, the legend of Sylvester was welcome material for the poetry of the Middle Ages. The venomous dragon, the disputation with the Jews, the slain ox, the emperor's leprosy, and its healing all this is picturesquely described in the Kaiscrchronik, but with the greatest elaboration in the poem Sylvester, by Conrad of Wiirzburg. The LackcnspicgJicl of Jan de Clerc, and the versified legends of the saints, avail themselves of it in like manner; and even Wolfram of Eschenbach alludes in the Parzival to the miracle of the ox raised to life again. [The exploded falsehood still lives on in that museum of exploded falsehoods Rome. On the base of the ancient obelisk which adorns the piazza of St. John Latcran, an inscription in large capitals still states CONSTANTINVS PER CRVCEM VICTOR A S. SILVESTRO HIC BAPTIZATVS CRVCIS GLORIAM PROPAGAVIT; and the atstodc of the Baptistery is still allowed to tell all visitors, that in that building pope Sylvester baptized the emperor.] V. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. THE Liber Pontificalis enumerates a quantity of houses and pieces of land in various places, which Constantine is said to have given to the Church of Rome. The source alone renders these donations suspicious, one which has made such abundant use of the fictions of the age of Symmachus. And the suspicion increases when one remarks that so enormous a number of donations are attributed to Constantine alone, while the book does not mention a single other donation of any of the emperors who follow, until Justin and Justinian in the sixth century; and they are said to have given nothing more than cups and vessels. In addition to this there is the silence of all contemporary writers, and the circum- stance that Constantine, liberal as he proved himself towards the Church, nevertheless, according to all accounts, never gave lands, but only made over to it rents or sums of money. Accordingly the author of the Vita Silvcstri in the Liber Pontificalis appears to have attributed the whole amount of property, which had been gradually inherited or occupied, just as it existed in his own day (that is in the seventh or eighth century), exclusively to donations of Con- THE DONA TION OF CONSTANTINE. 105 stantine. Indeed Asscmani says that Hadrian I. ceitainly had documents of the donation of Con- stantine before him, for in his letter to Charlemagne in the year 775 he appeals to such as existing in the archives of the Vatican. However, if one looks closer, Hadrian is speaking of donations in Tuscany, Spoleto, etc., which various emperors, patricians, and other pious persons had made to St. Peter and the Roman Church, but which the Lombards had taken away from it ; respecting these there are several docu- ments l still extant. Christian Lupus already remarks that Ammianus Marcellinus, up to the year 370, knows only of one source of papal property, viz., the offerings of matrons ; and that, accordingly, the Roman Church at that time was not yet in possession of large and rich patrimonies. 2 Until the middle of the eighth century there is not a trace to be found of the Donation which has since become so famous, by virtue of which Constantine, immediately after his baptism, and to show his gratitude for the cure wrought by Sylvester, gave to 1 Ilal. Ilistorix Sen'ptorea Illuttr., iii., 328. The statement of Gfrorer is misleading (Gregor VII., vol. v., p. 6). lie says that Baronius has "published several documents, by means of which Constantine conferred houses, lands, &c., on the three chief basilicas of Rome" What Baronius did was merely to print the passages from the Liber Pontijica'it. 2 Synodorum Oener. JDtcreta, f fiywf TUV Oebv ~arf/)ttf. " Again, if a Greek had composed the document, he would certainly, in mentioning the four Oriental 1 " Duccm Spoletinum cum ejus Satrapibus." In Cenni, Jlfo- numenta, i., 154. In like manner King Luitprand sends, "Duces et Satrapas BUGS." Lib. Ponlif. ed. Vignoli, ii , G3. [Not Paul's first letter to Pepin, in which he announces his election to tho papacy as successor to his brother Stephen (for (ho election had been contested in favour of the Archdeacon Thcophylact), but the second, in which he complains that the promised territory has not been ceded to the pipal see. Ealdorman, i.e., governor of a county, later earl. The history of the word is a curious one, sup- planted in its honourable meaning by (he Danish "earl," living on itself as the less honourable "aldermen."] 2 From the addition nil Jf^nwi/iac wc may b^ tolerably certain that, in the Latin original used by the translator, "patronos et " defensorea" was the reading. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 109 " Thrones," have placed Constantinople not last, but first. Nowhere but in Rome would Constantinople have been mentioned last, for there, down to the time of Innocent III., recognition was persistently refused to the canons of the second and fourth general councils which settle the order of precedence for the patriarchates. On the other hand, the Byzantine tendencies of the translator are shown in that, though he retains the expression about the Lateran palace, " that it surpasses all palaces in the " whole world," he nevertheless omits the distinction given to the Lateran church, that it is accounted " caput et vertex omnium ecclcsiarum in universe " orbe terrarum." Equally characteristic is it that the passage about the possessions in Judaea, Asia, Greece, Africa, &c., which Constantine gives " pro con- " cinnatione luminarium" in the Roman churches, is left out in the Greek version, and the words " summus Pontifex et universalis urbis Romre Papa," arc merely rendered "ry//f;-d?.y e~toK6rr /cru Koflof.iK'j ~drra.' Thus the title oiKovuew/c^, which had been assumed by the patriarchs of Constantinople, and which would correspond far better than KaOoltrfc to univcrsalis, is avoided no doubt intentionally, so that the whole title, according to the language in use in the Oriental Church, might have been applied equally well to the 10 i io THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. bishop of Alexandria, who was also called ira , l as to the bishop of Rome. Further on we meet with a word never used by any Greek author with whom I am acquainted, Ko'waovfoi for consuls, with the usual word maroi merely inserted alongside as explanatory. This can only be explained on the supposition that the text is a translation. And here the Greek text itself affords palpable evidence of a distorting of the original in a way which betrays the unlearned translator. The oriinal ordains that or 7ra7r, Papa, was originally a general name for all Greek presbyters and Latin bishops ; but from an early age it was the special address which, long before the name of a patriarch or archbishop, was given to the bishop of Alexandria. " Pope of Alex- " andria" was a well-known dignity centuries before the bishops of Rome claimed an exclusive right to the title of pope. This was first done by Gregory VII., in a Council held at Rome in 1076. Stanley (Eastern Church, p. 113) gives the following curious ex- planation of the name : " Down to Heraclas (A.D. 230), the bishop of " Alexandria, being the sole Egyptian bishop, was called ' Abba' " (father), and his clergy ' Elders.' From his time more bishops " were created, who then received the name of ' Abba,' and con- " sequently the name of 'Papa' (ab-aba, pater patrum, grandfather) " was appropriated to the Primate. The Roman account (inconsistent " with facts) is that the name was first given to Cyril, as rcpresent- 11 ing the bishop of Rome in the council of Ephesus (Suieer, in " voce) " He then adds other fantastic explanations : " 1 Po/>j)cc ravra. A man so well read as Photius in literature and history, of course perceived not only the unau- theuticity of the document, but also the object of the fiction. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 113 " reverence is to be seen anywhere," he says, " nothing " which better deserves to be proclaimed far and " wide." This satisfaction rested on a very simple calculation. The canon of the second oecumenical synod of 381, that palladium of the Byzantine Church, enacts that the bishop of Constantinople shall have the privileges of the bishop of Rome, and (as was further concluded) that the clergy of new Rome shall have, in like manner, all the rights of the clergy of old Rome. Therefore, says Balsamon, and this was the opinion of the clergy of the capital, all in the way of honors, dignity, and privileges, which Constantine had showered on the clergy of old Rome with so prodigal a hand, holds good also for the clergy and patriarch of new Rome. Another and later imperial enactment, also cited by Balsamon, 2 serves to confirm this, viz., that Constantinople shall enjoy, not merely the privileges of Italy, but those of Rome itself. The emperors themselves accepted the objects at which this document was aimed, at any rate those which had reference to the relations between ecclesiastical and civil dignities. Thus Michael Palctologus, in the year 1270, wrote to direct the patriarch, that whereas he. the emperor, had appointed the deacon Theodore Skutariotes to the office of Dika^ophylax (supreme 1 Cf. tit. 1, c. 36, p. 38, then tit. 8, c. 1, pp. 85, 89, cd. Paris, 1G20. 114 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. judge or custos justifies), the said deacon should also be invested with an equivalent ecclesiastical dignity, namely, that of an exokatakoilos (that is an assessor of the patriarch with the right of precedence of the bishops) according to the terms of Constantine's rescript to Sylvester. 1 Moreover, the Donation was acknowledged in the West centuries before it was known and noticed by the Greeks. The lately-published Georgius Ilamar- tolus 2 (about the year 842) recounts the fables con- nected with the legend of Sylvester in considerable detail, but does not say a .single word about the Donation. On the contrary, he represents the em- peror -as giving up the West to his sons Constantius and Constans, and to his nephew Dalmatius, intending to make Byzantium his own place of residence. The first Byzantine who mentions and makes use of the Donation is Balsamon, who died patriarch of Antioch in the year 1 180, that is at a period when the Greeks had long since lost every foot of territory in Italy, and the giving away of Italy to the papal chair was a matter perfectly harmless so far as they at least were concerned. But at that time the Latins had for long 1 Nvdlat Constitutiones Imperatorum post Justinianum, ed. Zacha- ria>, 185T, p. 592. 2 Chronicon ed. E. do Muralto, Pctropoli, 1859, p. 399. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 115 been paramount in Syria, and it was from them probably that Balsamon got the document. The Donation of Constantine, therefore beyond all doubt was composed in the West, 1 in Italy, in Rome, and by a Roman ecclesiastic. The time of its appear- ance points to the same conclusion. The date at which the Donation of Constantine was composed may be placed with overwhelming 1 [The author of Der Papst und das Coneil entirely concurs in this conclusion, placing the date of it a little before 754, it having been obviously composed with a view to being shown to Pepin. " There can be no doubt as to the Roman origin of the ' Donation.' "The Jesuit Cantel has rightly recognised this in his IIn>t. Melrop. " >>., p. 195. He thinks that a Roman subdencon, John, was the "author. The document had a threefold object against the "Lombards, who were threatening Rome, against the Greeks who 'would acknowledge no imperium of the Roman see over their "church, and also with a view to the Franks. The attempt of the "Jesuits in the CtviltH to make a Frank the author merely because u ^Encas of Paris and Ado of Vienna mention the Donation in the " ninth century, is scarcely worth serious discussion ; it condemns "itself. The closest agreement in style and thought exists between "the Donation and contemporary Roman documents, especially the " Conslitutum Pauli i. (Harduin Coneil iii., 1909 ft'.), and the Epittola 11 S. Peiri, composed in 753 or 754, about the same time as the "Donation, The expression ' Concinnatio lumiuarium,' which "occurs in papal letters of that age, in the CoTutilulum J'atili and the Donatio, and nowhere else, betrays at once a Roman hand. So " do the form of imprecation and threat of hell-torment, exactly as "in the C nstilutum and the Epitto'a S. Pelri; and the term "'Satrapaj' wholly foreign to the West, and occurring only in the 'Donation and contemporary papal letters. See C'ciiui, JHonum. "Dominut. J'onli/., i., 154." Janus, iii., note 103 ] ii6 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. probability in those years which extend from the time when the power of the Lombard kingdom began to decline, i. e., from about A.D. 752, 1 to the year 777, in which pope Hadrian first makes mention of the gift of Constantine. Earlier than that the author could not well expect any result from his invention. What he aimed at was a great kingdom embracing the whole of Italy under the rule of the pope, instead of an Italy divided between the Lombards and the Greeks, in which Rome was perpetually exposed to the attacks of the one and the maltreatment of the other. In Rjmc the rule of the Greeks, however oppressive it mi-jut be at times, was always preferred to that of the Lombards. The latter dominion was considered as the greatest of all evils, while the emperor and exarch of Ravenna received, on the whole, willing obedience in Rome. The popes were far from wishing to overthrow the Byzantine dominion in Italy, even when its yoke seemed intolerable, as for example/under the two iconoclasts Leo and Con- stantine Copronymus. Even when the opportunity presented itself, they still did not wish to overthrow it. At any rate, between 685 and 741, we see ten popes 1 [The year of Pcpin's accession ; in 755 he was besieging the Lombards in thuir own capital. Astolph yielded at once, and ceded the whole of the contested territory to Pepin and the Pope. Cf Milinan, Latin Christianity bk. iv., chap. xi.J THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 117 follow one another, all of whom, with one exception, were either Syrians (John V., Sergius, Sisinius, Constantinc, and Gregory III.), or Greeks (Conon, John VI., John VII., and Zacharias). This fact alone is sufficient to show that Byzantine influence in Rome was still quite predominant. 1 And the one Roman amongst them, Gregory II., did all that lay in his power to keep down the Italians (who were embittered by Leo's tyrannical persecution of image-worship, and 1 [" Noch viillig liberwiegend war." Some might think this expression rath'T too strong of the period between 716 and 741. Gregory II. (71G-713) begins a new era in the papacy. His imme- diate predecessor Constantine " was the last pope who was tho " humble subject of the Eastern Emperor." Gregory's opposition to Leo the Isanrian on the subject of iconoclasm is quite uneom pro- mising. His K tiers to the emperor on the question are arrogant and defiant, almost brutal in tone. " Neque judicium D<'i rcformi- " dasti, quum scandala in hominum corda, non fidelium modo, sed "ct iiitiilelimn, ingruerent." "Tti miindum totum scandnlizasti, " ut qui mortem nolis subire, et inf. liccm rationem reddcre." " Ingredere rursum ad vrritHtem, iinde exivisti ; exeute spiritus " elatos, et pertinaeiam tolle ; atque ad otnncs scribe quoquoversum ; "eosque quibus oftVndictilo fuisti, erige, quosque exca;casti ; tanietsi " prro nimia tua stupiditate illud pro nihilo babes." " Seripsisti ut "concilium universalc cogcretur; ct nobis inutilis ca res visa est "Tu persecutor cs imnginum, ct hostis contumeliosus ct oversor. "Cessa, nobis hoc largi re ut taceas: turn muudiis pace prrfruetur, "et scandala cessabunt." Gregory concludes this long and offensive letter with a prayer that God will drive out from the Kmpi'ror's IK art the evil beings which dwell there. Harduin Ardi Condi., iv., 1. The second letter is also strong in language. Gregory III. during his briefer pontificate (731-741) maintained the inflexible oppoMiion of his predecessor.] iiS THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. had already begun to think of electing a Roman emperor of their own), under the yoke of subjection. He caused a rebellion which had broken out against Byzantium to be put down by Roman troops, and had the head of the ringleader of the rebels sent to Constantinople. The popes always regarded as a calamity every conquest which the Lombards made in Italy at the expense of Greek dominion ; a calamity which they zealously strove to avert by prayers and remonstrances, as well as by personal intercession with the Lombard kin^s. They had clearly and fully recognized the fact, that when the possession of the exarchate should have strengthened Lombard power and Lombard craving for the possession of the whole peninsula, then the decree for their own subjection, and that of Rome, under this detested dominion, would be already scaled. How powerful the fear of the Lombards and the aversion to them must have been in Rome, may be seen from the fact that Byzantine dominion was always considered preferable there ; although, as- suredly, neither the popes nor the Roman clergy had had so much to endure at the hands of the Lombards as at the hands of the Greeks. True, they had to bear heavy exactions, owing to the avarice of the exarchs, to one of whom even the sacred vessels THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 119 belonging to St. Peter's had to be given as pledges (about the year 700). True, that if ever the emperor's suspicions were excited in Byzantium, the popes must submit to be summoned thither to answer for them- selves ; as Sergius is said to have been brought thither at the command of Justinian II., and pope Constan- tinc, in the year 709, was compelled to obey the sum- mons of the emperor to Nicomcdia in Asia, while the exarch John caused four leading ecclesiastics to be executed l in Rome. For all that the antipathy to the Lombards was paramount. The reason for this hatred was, as it seems, mainly the Lombards' 2 barbarous mode of warfare, the perpetual ravaging, firing, and burning, which threatened to change the beautiful peninsula at last into an unproductive uninhabited wilderness. Not until the incapacity or disinclination of the Greeks to protect the provinces of Italy against the Lombards compelled the Italians to renounce the hopes and wishes they had hitherto entertained, did they throw themselves into the strong arms of the Franks. But even as late as 752 Stephen 1 Vila Constantini, ed. Vignoli, ii , p. 9. 2 [The Lombard host contained various wild Teutonic or Sclavo- nian hordes. Their wars with th'j Franks kept them somewhat in check, otherwise they might have devasled Italy still more. Com- pare the story of Alboin pledging his adulterous queen Rosmundain a cup made of her lather's skull, and ttic tragical end ot" both.] 120 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. IV. had made another appeal to the Greek emperor, imploring him to appear with an army for the defence of Italy against the Lombards. After the year 728 Gregory II. made an attempt to form a confederation of cities, which was to maintain itself independently alike of the Greeks and of the Lombards; the head and centre of it was to be the papal chair. * The plan came to nothing. In Rome, however, the idea ripened more and more, that the power of the pope might come forward in Italy and take the place of the decaying power of the Greeks, and the reluctantly tolerated power of the Lombards; and hence this document of the Donation w r as forged, to represent this as the normal condition of things, planned long ago by the first Christian emperor. Whether this was before the donation of Pcpin or after it, can now no more be decided ; but at any rate it was before the founding of the Prankish kingdom of Italy, and therefore before 774. For after this was established all prospect of realising a union of Italian states fell to the ground, and then the fiction of the Donation would have ceased to have any object. But it may very well have been composed soon after 1 [Tliis statement somewhat qualifies what is said in Essay vui. of Gregory bring well aware that Italian states could n$ earlier period, before John the deacon, of whom the draughtsman of Otho's document makes mention, wrote it out in golden letters, in order to invest it with greater dignity. An analysis and closer consideration of the contents of the document will give a still higher degree of certainty to the supposition that it originated in Rome between 750 and 774. The following are among the grants made in the Donation to the popes and the Roman clergy : 1. Constantine desires to promote the Chiir of Peter over the empire and its seat on earth, by bestowing on it imperial power and honour. 2. The Chair of Peter shall have supreme authority over the patriarchal Chairs of Alexan- dria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, and over all churches in the world. 1 3 It shall be judge in all that concerns the service of God and the Christian Faith. 2 1 ["Ut principatmn tcnout tarn super qnattior sedes, Alexandria- "nam, Antiochemim, Hicrosolymitanain ac Constantinopolitanam, " quamqnc etiam super omnes in univi-rso orbe torranun ecelcsias." As cited by Leo IX., Hardnin, vi., 935.] The Crocks have omitted this article in the recension in I^lastares, and in that of the Parisian manuscript. 2 This article also is wanting in both the above-mentioned texts. [Leo IX., of course, retains it, "ct ejns judicio qtueque ad ctiltum "Dei vel fidei Christianorum stabilitatcm procuranda fucriut, dis- " ponantur."] 124 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 4. Instead of the diadem, which the emperor wished to place on the pope's head, but which the pope refused, Constantine has given to him and to his successors the phrygium l (that is the tiara) and the lorum which adorned the emperor's neck, as well as the other gorgeous robes and /nsignia of the imperial dignity. 5. The Roman clergy shall enjoy the high privileges of the imperial senate, being eligible to the dignity of patrician or consul, a id having the right to wear the decoration worn by the (optimatcs or) nobles in office under the empire. l 6. The offices of cubicularii, ostiarii, and excubitae, shall belong to the Roman Church. 7. The Roman clergy shall ride on horses decked with white coverlets, and, like the senate, wear white sandals. 1 [Leo IX. says, at first, both tho diadem and the phrygium : "delude diadcma, videlicet coronam capitis nostri, simulquo " phrygium, nccnon ot superhumcrale, videlicet lorum quod imperialo (' circunidaie assolct collum." But later on, after mentioning Sylves- ter's refusal of the gold crown, " phrygium uutem candido nitore, " splendidam resurrectionem Dominicam designans, ejus sacrat- "issimo vertici munibus nostris imposuimus, et teneutes frcnum "cqui ipsius, pro revcrentia beati Pctri, &c."] 2 Im|)erialis militia, nrftn-ia, which Munch (On the Donation of Conslanlinc, p. 22) translates as "the imperial army," remarking that tlie Roman clergy had been desirous of wearing military deco- jations. A glance at Duncange's Glossary would have told him what ''militia " or " ar/iaria " meant ut that time [viz., court officials]. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 125 8. If a member of the senate shall wish to take orders, and the pope consents, no one shall hinder him. 1 9. Constantine gives up the remaining sove- reignty over Rome, the provinces, cities, and towns of the whole of Italy or of the western regions, to pope Sylvester and his successors. Judging from the detailed and careful manner in which each single clause is treated, we may conclude that the author, who beyond all doubt was a Roman ecclesiastic, had the articles and colour of the dress proper to the pope and clergy, with their titles and insignia of rank, far more at heart than the ninth clause which, tacked on at the end and expressed in few words, was so pregnant with consequences, tlie Donation of Rome and Italy. And here one must at the same time remember, that the composer intended Italy alone, and not almost the whole of the West which belonged to the kingdom of Rome at the time of Constantine, that is to say, Gaul, Spain, Britain, etc., to be comprehended in the Donation as well as Italy. In all probability he knew nothing of the real extent of the empire at the time of Constantine, but had only 1 So the Greek text. The Latin rending " nullus ex omnibus "praesumat superbo agero " makes no kind of sense with the context just preceding. 126 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. the circumstances of the eighth century before his eyes, for he says " Italy or the western regions," doubtless merely to define more closely the geograph- ical expression " Italy," and to include Istria, Corsica, and Sardinia. Not until a later age was the "or" changed into " and? And for long the matter was so understood. The popes 1 Hadrian I. and Leo IX, the emperor Otho III. and cardinal Peter Damiani found in the document merely the donation of Italy. If one considers the remaining clauses, that is to say, the demands and wishes of Roman ecclesiastics clad in the form of supposed concessions, one sees that they altogether have reference to the state of affairs in Rome and Italy about the middle of the eighth century. The author naturally has not so much the arrangement and relations of rank in Con- stantinople before his eyes, as those of that part of Italy which at that time was still Byzantine. The senate, with which the clergy in Rome wished to be placed on an equality in certain privileges, was no 1 [" Et sicut temporibus bcati Sylvestri Romani Pontificis. a sancfcc " recordationis piisimo Constantino Imperatorc, per ejus largitatem "sancta, Dei Catholica ct Apostolica Romana Ecclcsia clcvata atque "exaltnta cst, ct potestatem in his IJcspcriaj partibus 1'trgiri diguatiis ost, &c., &c." Letter of Hadrian I. to Charles the Great. Recueil des Hisloriens des Gaules et de la France, ap. Palme, Paris, I860, V., 650, c.J THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 127 longer the old Roman senate. That had perished in the sixth century, during the wars with the Goths and the Lombards. The senate is never mentioned 1 in the period from the end of the sixth to the middle of the eighth century, but reappears first in the year 757 as the collective body of the Roman optimates. 2 After that time we have mention made of a special place for the senators [senatorium] in the two chief churches in Rome. Those who sat there received the holy communion from the hands of the pope himself. 3 It was, in fact, a new official nobility which was formed, partly out of the military aristocracy of citizens, partly out of ecclesiastical dignitaries ; and the latter were also to have their share this was one of the objects which the author of the fiction had in view in the highest titles of honour which the emperors granted to certain pre-eminent members of the civil, or rather military aristocracy. The ranks of patrician and consul, for instance, which were to be made accessible to the Roman 1 Savigny's assertions (Oeschichle des Rom. Rechtt, i., 3C7) arc on this point too strong; that in all centuries, as ho says, are to bo found undeniable traces of the real continuance of the Roman senate is, at any rate, without foundation as regards the period between 660 and 750. 2 "Salutant vo* ct cunctns proccrum senatus, atquc divcrsi u populi congregatio." Cenui, ii., 146. 3 Alabillon, JIus. hal., ii., xliv., lii., 10. 128 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINO. clergy, were at that time the highest at which ambition 1 could aim. A patrician, 2 or member of the imperial Privy Council, was promoted to his rank by being solemnly invested with an embroidered robe of state ; and even governors of provinces felt themselves raised in dignity by the addition of this title, the highest in the empire. From the year 754 onwards the pope, in the name of the R^man republic (which still continued to be considered as always virtually existing), and with the acquiescence of the Roman people, claimed to have the power of confer- ring the title of " patrician of Rome ;" and gave it, as is well known, in the first instance to king Pepin and king Carloman. 3 Thus the highest temporal dignity 1 In the Vita Agathonit, Vignoli, i., 279, we havo the high digni- taries thus reckoned: "Patricii, Hypati cum omni Syncleto." In the year 701 Theophylact was Cubic ularius, Patdcius, Exarchus Italiac, ibid., i., 315. 2 [This new rank of patrician was created at Ccmstantinoplp, and was not conferred on old Roman families. It was a personal, not an hereditary dignity, and became extinct with the death of the holder. A patrician family at this period meant one, of which the head was a patrician. The patricians were the highest of the illustres ; consuls alone ranked higher. A patrician was distinguished by such titles as Magnificcntia, Cclsitudo, Eminentia, and Magnitudo. The new dignity was not confined to subjects of the empire, but was some- times given to foreigners, such as Odoaccr. Other sovereigns imitated the emperors and popes in conferring this title on eminent subjects, but such patricians ranked far below Roman patricians. Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, "Patricii," sub iin.] 3 ["In tho meantime tho right of conqucs^ and tho indefinite- THE DONATION OP CONSTANTINE. 129 in Rome, after that of emperor or a Caesar, was to be in the pope's gift, and that without any theoretical infringement of the imperial prerogative. When the Greek dominion perished in north and central Italy, the patriciate, as a dignity conferred on particular governors, vanished along with it, and there remained only the one Roman patriciate, the chief dignity among the inhabitants of the city of Rome. The consuls also, as Savigny 1 has remarked, were first mentioned in the middle of the eighth century, and constituted the rank next to the patricians. The chief city magistrates bore this title, one, however^ which thenceforward occurs merely as a title of honour. One such consul (and dux) was Thcodatus, the tutor of Hadrian I., and afterwards primiccrius of the Roman Church. His contemporary Leoninus, in like manner, was at the same time both consul and dux, afterwards a monk. z Further use of Constantinc's name was made to obtain for the popes the right of having gentlemen of the bed-chamber, door-keepers, and a body-guard title of patrician, assigned by the pope (Stephen), acting in behalf, and with the consent of the Roman republic, to IVpin a title which might be merely honorary, or might justify any authority which ho might have power to exercise gave a kind of supremacy to the king of the Franks in Rome." Milman, Lit. Chr., iv., c. xi.] 1 A., a., O., p. 370. He quotes Fantuzzi, Mon. Hav., i., 15. 2 Vita Hadr^ in Viguoli, ii., 162, 210, i?.o THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. (cabicularii, ostiarii, cxcubitores). Here again the date fits exactly. Formerly in Italy there were only imperial cubicularii. Not until the time of Stephen IV. and Hadrian I. do we find an instance of a papal cubicularius,vlz,, Paul Afiarta, 1 who at the same time was superista, that is, overseer of the palace. In 2 the first Ordo Romanus in Mabillon, who describes the Roman ceremonial at the end of the eighth and begin- ning of the ninth century, the cubicularius tonsuratus, who had to carry the papal robes, is mentioned for the first time. In the Roman Ordo of Cencius (twelfth century) the portarii or ostiarii pro custodioido palatio were placed in the second rank under the Roman scholae or guilds of the papal court servants, and described according to their duties. 3 Lastly, the cxcubitores are unmistakeably the so-called adcxtratorcs of a later age, a guard of honour, 4 which escorted the pope in processions and visits to churches. The author of the Donation manifestly attached great importance to the point, that the Roman 1 Tlmt he was culuculariiis of the pope, and not of the emperor, is plain from the Vita Hadr., in Vignoli, ii., 1G4 and 16G ; for in other instances the Liber Pontificalia adds imperialis, as in the caso of Theodore Pellarius, ib. i. f 2G3. 2 Mus. ItaL, ii., 6. 3 I. c., p. 104, 06. 4 I. c., p. 190. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 131 clergy should have the privilege of decking their horses with white coverings , altogether in harmony with the spirit of the time and place, where this was considered as a thing of extraordinary importance, and as a precious privilege of the Roman clergy sur- passing all others. Hence Gregory the Great had before this notified the archbishop of Ravenna, that the Roman clergy would on no account concede that the use of horse-coverlets (mappula} should be allowed to the clergy of Ravenna. \ The Roman biographer finds great fault with pope Conon, because (about A.D. 687) he had allowed the deacon Constantine of Syracuse, whom he had nominated rector of the patrimony there, to make use of such a coverlet. 2 Lastly, the object attributed to Constantine is altogether in accordance with the sentiments of the eighth century, viz., that he endowed the Roman Church with possessions in the East and West, in order that the lamps and tapers which burnt in the churches and at the tombs of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul might be kept up by the revenues. And thus pope Paul I. writes to Pcpin, in the year 761, saying that the contest which the king had under- 1 Greg. M. Opera, ii., 668, cd. Paris, cf. Gratian. Deerte^ dist. 93, c. 22. 2 Vit. Conon. ap. Vignoli, i., 301. 132 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. taken against the Lombards was waged by him for the restoration of the lamps of St. Peter. l Both internal and external evidence, therefore, conducts us to the period between 750 and 775 as the time when the Donation of Constantine came into existence. The supposition of Natalis Alexander and of his follower Cenni, 2 that it was not known in Rome before the middle of the ninth century, is certainly incorrect. Hadrian I. undeniably alludes to it in the words that Constantine had "given the dominion in these regions of the West" to the Romish Church. These are the "occidentaliuTi regionum provincial (Jw/^v X U P^ V krapxfai)" of which t'ie Donation speaks. Nevertheless, it is quite certain that at first no pains were taken to make it generally known. From Hadrian I. to Leo IX. (776 to 1053) there is no trace of it to be found in the letters of popes ; in the older manuscripts of the Liber Pontificals there is no mention of it ; but by means of the pseudo-Isidore (that is from 840 onwards), it began to be known outside Italy, and indeed perhaps mor^ in France than in Italy itself. For though Luitprand, bishop of Cremona, as imperial ambassador at Byzantium 3 Ccnni, i., 185: "Pro cujus restituendis lumirmriis dcccrtatis." So also thu pscndo-Constantine, " Quibus pro couciunatioiic lumina- "riuin possession fa coiitulimus." 4 J/c/ttuw., i., 304. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 133 boasted of the large donations which Constantine had given to the Roman Church,- in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia ; yet he knew nothing of the contents of the forged document, or at any rate, gave no hint of it ; while, on the other hand, two men who for their age were so learned and so well read in ecclesiastical history and literature as -/Eneas, bishop of Paris, and Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, readily accepted it. The former of them (about the year 868) represents to ttye Greeks that Constantine had declared that two emperors, the one of the realm, the other of the Church, could not rule in common in one city. He had therefore removed his residence to Byzantium, but had placed the Roman territory, " and a vast " number of various provinces," under the rule of the Apostolic chair, and had conferred royal power J on the pope. Hincmar expresses himself with more reserve. He and his contemporary bishop Ado, of Vienne, in his chronicle (about 860), know only of Constantine's having given up the city of Rome to the pope. 2 Pope Leo IX. recounted nearly the whole text of the Donation to the patriarch Michael Ccrularius in the year 1054, openly and confidently, without 1 Liber advermx Grxco~ } in D'Achery, Spicil., vii., iii. 2 Epist. 3, c. 13. 12 134 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. having (as it would seem) a single misgiving as to the weakness of his document. He wished the patriarch to convince himself " of the earthly .and heavenly "imperium, of the royal priesthood of the Roman " Chair," and retain no trace of the suspicion that this chair " wished to usurp power by the help of " foolish l and old wives' fables." He is, however, the only one of all the popes who has brought the document expressly before the eyes of the world, and formally challenged criticism. In remarkable contrast to him, his guide and adviser and successor, Gregory VII., never made use of it, in not one of his numerous letters even mentions it, a most expressive silence, when one considers how strong the temptation must have been to him to avail himself of this weapon against his numerous and overpowering enemies. Not so his friend, cardinal Peter Damiani. He holds up the privilege granted by Constantine as an impene- trable shield against the Greeks, who supported the cause of the imperial anti-pope Caladous, and docs not forget to add that the emperor had also given 1 Harduin, Cone., vi., 934. [" Scd no forte aclhuc dc terrena ipisus 'dominationc aliquis vobis dubietatis supersitscrupulus, neve Icvitcr " fitispicemini incptis ct anilibus fabulis sanctum Romanam scdcm " voile sibi inconcussum hoiiorem vindicarc ct dcfcnsaro aliqua- tciius," &c., &c.J THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 135 over the kingdom of Italy to the rule of the popes. 1 The use and meaning of the forged Donation entered, to a certain extent, a new stage when Urban II., in the year 1091, used it to support the claim of the Roman Church to the possession of Corsica. He deduced the right of Constantine to give away islands, from the strange principle that all islands were legally juris publici, and therefore state domain. It cannot but excite surprise that Urban did not prefer to appeal to the donation of Charlemagne, or rather does not once mention it. For not only is Corsica enumerated among the donations which Charlemagne is said to have made, but Leo III. says this distinctly in a letter to Charlemagne in the year 808. 2 The Church at that time, however, having no fleet, was not in a position to maintain a possession which was perpetually threatened by the Saracens ; and so Leo was obliged to beg the emperor to take the island to himself, and protect it with his "strong arm;" and (as the Corsican historian Limperani 3 remarks) the 1 Hardnin, i. c., 1122. [As "defensor Romans ecclesife," ho argues that Constantino had abdicated, as regards Rome and Italy, in favour of the pope. If, then, the emperor had no authority in Rome, how could he have a voice in the election of the pope ?J 2 Cenni, ii., 60. 3 Istoria delta Corsica, Roma, 1760, ii., 2. 136 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. Roman Chair for 189 years abstained from exercising any dominion in Corsica. Not until the year 1077 do we find Gregory VII. x saying, that the Corsicans are ready to return under the supremacy of the pope ; and from the letter of Urban II. to bishop Daibert, of Pisa, it appears that this actually took place at that time, or not long afterwards. On this notion, that it was the islands especially that Constantine had given to the popes, they pro- ceeded to build, although nothing had been said about them in the original document ; and with a bold leap the Donation of Constantine was transferred irom Corsica to the farthest West, viz., to Ireland ; and the Papal Chair claimed possession of an island, which the Romans themselves had never possessed, and had scarcely known. This was done by Hadrian IV. (II54-U59), 2 an Englishman by birth; "Anglicana 1 Lib. 6, cpist. 12. 2 [Nicolas Brcakspeare, tho poor English scholar, yielded to none of his predecessors, Hildcbrand not cxccpted, in the assertion of the papal authority. " Ho was surpassed by few in the boldness and courage with which he maintained it. English pride might ' mingle with sacerdotal ambition in his boon of a new kingdom to ' his native sovereign. The language of the grant developed u principles as yet unheard of in Christendom The popes had ' assumed the feudal sovere.ignity of Naples and Sicily, as in somo ' vague way the successors to the power of Imperial Home. But ' Hadrian declared that Ireland, and all islands converted to Chris- ' tiauity,,belonged to the special jurisdiction of St. rotor. Tho pro- 137 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. afiectione," as the Irish chieftains declared somewhat later (1316) in a letter to John XXII. * At the desire of the English king, Henry II., the pope conferred on him the dominion over the island of Ireland (1155), which, " like all Christian islands, undoubtedly " belonged of right to St. Peter and the Roman " Church." The king thus received a dominion which, it must be owned, he had first to win with the sword ; and, indeed, it was not till after a contest of five hundred years, and for the most part only by colonization from outside, that it was completely won. It did not help the English much to say to the Irish, "Your island belonged in former times to the pope, " and since he has given it to king Henry, it is your "duty to submit yourselves to English rule." The Irish, who were not altogether ignorant of the history of their native land, knew quite well that neither the Roman emperors nor the popes had ever possessed a foot's breadth of their country, and could not therefore u phetic ambition of Hadrian might seem to havo anticipated tho ' time, when on such principles tho popes should assume the power < of granting away new worlds." Milman, Lot. Christ., viii., c. vii.] 1 In M'Gcoghegan's Hittoire de FIrlande, il., 106 sq. They state that up to 1170 they had sixty-one kings, "nullum In temporalibus u recognoscentes supcriorem." Hadrian had acted u indcbite, ordino "juris omisso omnino." [For this famous letter of Hadrian to Henry II., see Appendix D.J 138 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. exactly understand how pope Hadrian had the power to make a present of it to England. Hadrian does not mention the Donation of Con- stantine in his Bull ; but his friend and confidant, John of Salisbury,, the one who, 1 according to his own confession, induced him to take this step so pregnant with consequences, quotes the Donation of the first believing emperor as the ground of this "right of St. Peter" over all islands. 2 1 " Ad preces mcas illustri regi Anglorum, Hcnrico II., concessit " ct dedit Hibcrniam jure hasreditario possidendam, sicut literae "ipsius testantur in hodiernum diem. Nam omncs insulrc, de jure " antique, ex donatione Constantini, qui cam fimdavit et dotavit, " dicuntur ad Bomanam Ecclesiam pcrtincrc." Metalog. 4, 42, opp. cd. Giles, v., 20G. The embarrassment of Irish writers in later times, as regards the Bull, was, as one might expect, considerable. Stephen White (Apologia pro Hibernia, ed. Kelly, Dublin, 1849, p. 184), and Lynch, or Grantianus Lucius (Cambrensis eversus, Dubl., 1S5G, ii., 434 sq.), struggle iu vain to prove it a bungling forgery. Lanigan, on the other hand (Eccles. History of Ireland, iv., ICO), admits its genuine- ness, and gives vent to some sharp criticisms on the pope and his Bull. M'Geoghchan (Ilistoire de I'Irlande, Paris, 1758, i., 402) foregoes the appeal to the Donation of Constantino, and contents himself with saying, "Le Tape, qui etait no son sujet, lui accorda <; sans pcine sa demande ; ctlaliberte d'une nation cnti6re fut sacrifieo " ii 1'ambition de 1'un par la complaisance dc Pautre." 2 The Abbe Goss^lin (Pouvoir du Pape sur les Souverains, ii., 247, ed. de Louvain) has attempted to show that pope Hadrian, properly speaking, did not in the least intend to dispose of Ireland in his Bull ; that he claimed nothing but a purely spiritual jurisdiction in Ireland, merely the right to demand the payment of Peter's pence. His reasons for this view arc very weak, and he omits to notico evidence which is quite decisive. He omits to notico that Hadrian THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 139 / The Roman clergy with their Donation of Con- stantine had, on the whole, obtained their object very successfully ; attempts were now made in Naples to advance the interests of the clergy there by similar means. In a chronicle of the church of St. Maria del Principio, it is stated that Constantine gave the whole of the kingdom of Sicily on both sides of the straits, along with other possessions, to pope Sylvester ; the town of Naples was the only thing which he reserved as imperial property. Accordingly the two, Con- stantine and Sylvester, came to Naples together, and, seeing that Constantine very often heard mass here in the Episcopal Church, he attached fourteen prebend- aries to it, and endowed these with landed and other property, and founded the dignity of a cimeliarch. 1 says, " that the people of Ireland are to accept and honour the king " (who up to this time had not had the most remote right to the "island) as their lord and master (sicut Dorr.inum vcneretur)." Ho omits all notieo of the statement of John of Salisbury, who was better informed than any other man respecting the whole circum- stance, and respecting the meaning of the Bull, which had been in- troduced by himself. Lastly, he omits to notice the fact that Hadrian formally invested king Henry with the rights of a suzerain by means of a ring which he sent him. The words, that all islands belong "ad jus beati Petri ct SS. Rom. Ecclcsi.v," Gosselin persists in understanding of the spiritual jurisdiction of the pope, quite in defiance of the use of words in the languag of that time. 1 Parascandolo, Memorie stor. crit diplomatiche delta chiesa di Kapoli, 1847, p. 212. The chronicle appears to belong to the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century. [Cimeliarch, t treasurer.] THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 140 Meanwhile, in Italy at this time the Roman story of Constantine's Donation was rejected without scruple, so soon as it clashed with maintained rights or with political plans. In Rome, in the year 1105, the monks of the monastery Farfa, which had been endowed with great privileges by the emperors, contended with some of the Roman nobility for the possession of a certain castle. The latter upheld the title of the Roman Church (on which their own title was supposed to depend) to the disputed property, and traced back this title to the Donation of Constantine. Thereupon the monks, without directly denying the genuineness of the document, brought forward a detailed historical proof that the document could not possibly mean a Donation of Italy, for the emperors who had suc- ceeded Constantine had always possessed and ex- ercised in full their dominion over Italy. Accordingly, Constantine could only have given spiritual rights to the popes in Italy. 1 In Rome itself at that time (under Paschal II, 1099-1118,) the pope was so far from being recognised as the temporal sovereign of a distinct territory, that the monks with their abbot felt able, without contradiction, to state before the Roman judges as a recognised fact that temporal power and government did not befit the pope, for it 1 Uutoria Farjentet, In Pcrtz Monum., xiil., 571^ THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 141 was not the keys of an earthly kingdom, but only the keys of the kingdom of Heaven that he had received from God. About forty years later commenced the great political and religious movements in Italy generally, and the efforts of the Arnoldists, in Rome in parti- cular, which aimed l at placing the control of the imperial dignity in the hands of a rabble in Rome a town populace constantly augmented by the influx of people from the country, but which was supposed to represent the true Romans and heirs of the old Roman empire. Thence began the first misunder- standings between the Hohenstaufen, Frederick I., and the Papal Chair. It was inevitable that the Donation of Constantine should again play an im- portant part. When a Roman faction, stirred up by Arnold of Brescia, was purposing to arrogate to itself the control of the city, the papal party in Rome had appealed to the Donation, according to which it appeared that Rome belonged to the pope. In op- position to this Wctzcl, an Arrioldist, maintained in his letter to Frederick, in the year 1152, that " that lie " and heretical fable of Constantine's having conceded 1 [That to Arnold of Brescia himself much higher aims, and a much nobler policy, must be attributed than are here allowed to his followers, would perhaps scarcely be denied.] 142 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. " the imperial rig} ts in the city to pope Sylvester, " was now so thoroughly exposed, that even day " labourers and wo - nen were able to confute the most " learned on the pcint, and the pope and his cardinals " would not venture to show themselves for shame." 1 And in fact, Eugenius III. had been obliged to leave Rome 2 (for the second time) in the beginning of the year 1150, ind remained until December of 1152 in Segni and Ferentino. It is, however, re- markable that the arguments with which the Arnoldist and his Roman day labourers and housewives knew so well how to demolish the lie about the Donation of Constantine, themselves in their turn rested upon errors and fictions. Constantine, says Wetzel, was a Christian already, and therefore had been baptized before the time of Sylvester, consequently the whole story of the Donation to Sylvester is untrue. As proof of this a passage is quoted out of an apo- cryphal 3 letter of pope Melchiades, which is found in 1 Ap. Martene, ampl. coll., ii., 556. 2 [On the first occasion (March, 1146) Engonius retired first to Viterbo, and thence to Sienna ; then, after a year's delay, to France, where he became little more than the mouthpiece of St. Bernard. He returned to Italy towards the end of 1148, but to Viterbo and Tusculmn, not to Rome. It was not till the end of 1149 that hconco more entered the capital, and then only as its bishop, not as its sovereign.] 3 A document much used, sometimes under the title LibelLua de Mumficentia Constantini. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 143 the pscudo-Isidorian collection, and is also made use of by Gratian ; and it is proved from the Historia tripartite^ (of Cassiodore) that Constantine was a Christian before his entry into Rome. x In spite of this contradiction in Rome itself, the Donation was made the basis of higher and constantly increasing claims at this time, and, indeed, as early as the close of the eleventh century. Already in the time of Gregory VI L, or immediately after him under Urban II., the inclusion of the Donation in the new collection of rights and title-deeds showed clearly an intention of making an extensive use of it. This was now done by Anselm of Lucca, cardinal Deusdedit, and the compilator of the collection which is known under the name of Ivo of Chartres. 2 On the other hand, Burchard of Worms, in his collection, which was made between 1012 and 1023, has not yet in- cluded it. Specially surprising is the change which is made in Anselm's work of the "or" into a most significant and comprehensive "and" lie has, "quod 3 Wctzcl docs not appeal, as one would have expected him to have done, to the baptism in Nicomedia at the end of the emperor's life, as related in the Tripcrtita from Euscbius. No doubt the idea of the baptism in Rome was too deeply rooted in the minds of tho Humans to allow him to make such an appeal. 1 More exact references in Antonius Augustinus, De Emend. Grat. Opp., ed. Luccns, iii., 41, in the notes. 144 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. " Const. Imp. Papae concessit coronam et omnem " regiam dignitatem in urbe Romana, et Italia, et in " partibus occidentalibus" What practical meaning Roman ecclesiastics intended to give to these last words, appears from a statement made by Otto of Freisingen. In his chronicle, which was composed between 1 143 and 1 146, he asserts the authenticity x of the Donation, and relates how Constantine, after conferring the imperial insignia on the pope, went to Byzantium, adding that " for this reason the " Roman Church maintains that the western king- " doms have been given over to her possession by " Constantine, and demands tribute from them to " this day, with the exception of the two kingdoms of " the Franks " (that is, the French and the German one). The defenders of the empire, however, objected " that in each transaction Constantine had not con- " ferrcd the empire on the popes, but had merely " chosen them as spiritual fathers." To the best of my knowledge there are no papal documents extant, with the exception of the one about Ireland, in which the payment of tribute is demanded of the whole realm on the strength of the Donation of Constantine. Just the very pope who went the greatest lengths in such demands, Gregory 1 Chron. 3, 3 a]>., Urstis. i., 80. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 145 VII., never appealed to the Donation in making them, but to feudal rights of the Roman See dating from an earlier period ; and he attempted 1 (without result, however), to exact tribute from France. And yet, as appears from his letters, 2 Gregory had had the archives thoroughly searched, in order to discover documents, from which a feudal dependence of the several kingdoms and countries upon the Roman Chair might be claimed. However, the ninth canon in the Dictatns, which, though not proceeding from Hildebrand himself, arc, nevertheless, the work of his time, is unmistakeably borrowed from the Donation ; "the pope alone may " make use of the imperial insignia." Serious stress was never laid on this point. The popes did not assume the sceptre, sword, and ball. Boniface VIII. is the only pope who, according to one account, is said to have done so at once at the celebration of the Jubilee in the year 1300. But if Constantine had really ceded Italy and the West to the pope, it appeared to follow naturally and fairly that the empire in its whole extent of territory was a present, a free gift of the popes, and therefore (according to the then prevalent ideas and policy) a fief of the Roman Chair, 1 Cf. Muratori, Antichitd Ital., Firenzo, 1833, x. 126 sq. 2 Epist 23. lib. 8. 13 146 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. the emperor being vassal and the pope suzerain. And then, if not the kingdom of Germany, at any rate that of Italy with the Lombard crown would be reckoned as a papal fief. Certainly, since A.D. 800, since the first founding of the Western empire, a broad way had been made towards this end. At that time the pope prostrated himself to the ground before the newly-crowned emperor, and did obeisance to him in the form of homage paid to the old emperors. l Now, however, a picture was placed in the Lateran palace which represented the emperor Lothair doing homage to the pope, 2 with verses, in which it was stated in so many words that the king had first confirmed the rights of the city before the gates of Rome, and had then become the vassal (homo) of the pope, whereupon he received the crown as a gift 3 from the latter. At the same time many Romans declared that the German kings had possessed the Roman empire, 4 no less than the Italian kingdom, 1 Annalcs Laurissemes in Pcrtz, I, 138; "Et post laudcs ab " Apostolieo more antiquorum principum adoratus est." 2 [Compare the gross misrepresentations of the circumstances of the council of Florence in the lassi relieui on the gates of St Peter's at llome. Marriott's Testimony of the Catacombs, London, 1870, p. 10.}, ((' ] 4 Kadevic., i., 10 ; Murat., vi , 748. 2 Imperium I.'rhis. The imperial dignity itself the pope could rot confi-r on the strength of the Donation of Constantino, which contained nothing about it, but on)y (as the liomans said) as tho THE DONA TION OF CONSTANTINE. 147 merely as a present from the popes. From this arose that storm of dissatisfaction which broke out in Germany in the year 1157, when a letter from Hadrian to Frederick Barbarossa spoke of " beneficia " which he had granted to the emperor, or could still grant, and expressly called the imperial crown itself such a beneficium, i. e., a feod, as it was understood at the imperial court. Hadrian could easily justify himself, by saying that he had used the word in its ordinary, not in its technical and political sense ; that he had intended to say nothing more than that it was he who had placed the crown on the emperor's head. 1 But, in Germany, men mistrusted the Roman clergy, and the bitter feeling remained, as we find provost Gerhoh of Reigcrsburg expressing it at the time in sharp words, a man otherwise thoroughly devoted to the organ of the Roman republic ami in their name, for they considered themselves as the heirs of the old populus Romanus; or else, as tho defenders of the Donation supposed, as the supreme Head of tho city of Rome, to which the right of electing tho emperor, originally inherent in the Roman republic, came as a matter of course. Hence, although the empire itself was no fief of the Roman Chair (for which reason it was never actually given away), nevertheless it was possible to maintain in Rome, that the imperium ttrlis and the kingdom rf Italy belonged to the pope alone to confer, seeing that he had received both from Constantine, and that he would confer tin m only as fiefs, reserving his own supremacy ; but that without thcso two things there was no empire. 1 " Per hoc vocabulum 'couLuliinas ' nil aliud iuU-liciimus quam 148 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. Papal See. He says that the custom (which of course rested for support on the Donation of Constantine) of the emperor holding the pope's stirrup had prompted the Romans to paint these offensive pictures, in which kings or emperors were represented as vassals of the popes ; from which they gained nothing, excepting the embittered feelings and hard words of temporal princes. J If the popes, by allowing such pictures, claimed to be emperors and lords of emperors, making the emperors their vassals, this was nothing else than to destroy the power ordained of God and to go against the divine order. However, whatever meaning and extent of applica- tion the Roman clergy might give to the supposed Donation ; whatever new collections of laws might contain on the subject, the historians of this and the following period are wont, when they mention the Donation at all, cautiously to confine it within tolerably narrow limits. Sicard of Cremona gives a very detailed account of the fabulous baptism of Constan- tine, 2 but quotes nothing more than this from the Donation, that the -jaiperor gave Sylvester regal privileges, and ordained that all bishops should be 2 Treatise of the provost Gcrhoh of Rcigcrslnirp, De Invesliga- tione Antic/trisli, edited by blulz, Vicuna, 1858, pp. 64, 56. 3 In Muratori, vii., 564. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 149 subject to the pope; but he does not go on to explain the nature of these regal privileges. Romuald of Salerno knows and mentions merely this ecclesiastical supremacy. 1 Robert Abolant confines himself to mentioning a privilege bequeathed by Constantine to the popes, without any farther statement. 2 A hundred years later, an historian so entirely devoted to papal interests as Tolomeo of Lucca quotes nothing beyond this from the Donation, that the emperor had conferred on certain Roman ecclesiastics (the cardinals of a later age) the rights and prerogatives of the Roman senate. 3 And while of the papal biographers Bernard Guidonis is entirely silent about the Dona- tion, the dominion over the city of Rome, and the conferring of the imperial insignia, is all that Amalrich Augerii quotes from it. 4 On the other hand the Spaniard, Lucas B. of Tuy (about A.D. 1236), repre- sents the dominion over Italy (rcgnum Italian) as having been comerrcd on the pope. 5 His contempo- rary, the Belgian Balduin, monk in the Monastery Ninnove, restricts Constantino's gift once more to the dominion over Rome. 6 1 Jlnratori, vii , 79. 2 Cliroiiol< ffia. Tret-is, 10^9, p. 49. 3 Hist, t.cd , 5, .', 4, in Aluutloii, XL, 825. 4 Ap. Eccard, , ii., 1GG5. 6 Cor/ius Chronicnrum Flandrifr, rd. do Smrt, ii , 613. 6 C'hionicon Mundi, up. bchotti 2Jisj>. llltulr., iv., 36. 150 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. All the more remarkable on this account is the dis- cussion in which, at the close of the twelfth century, a man who, ia a certain sense, belonged to both nations, engaged. Gottfried, a German, educated in Bamberg, chaplain and secretary to the three Hohenstaufen sovereigns Conrad, Frederick, and Henry VI., who ended his days as a canon at Viterbo, states in his Pantheon, 1 which he dedicated to pope Urban III., A.D. 1 1 86, that, in order to secure greater peace to the Church, Constantine had withdrawn with all his pomp to the Greeks, to Byzantium, and had given the pope regal privileges, and, on the strength of them, as it would appear, Rome, Italy, and Gaul. (This is the first time that Gaul is expressly mentioned as in- cluded in the Donation.) Thereupon he makes the " supporters of the empire," and the " defenders of " the Church," state their pros and cons. The former point to the historical fact, that Constantine divided his kingdom between his sons, and to the well-known texts in the Bible. The latter, however, answer, that the will of God is declared in the very fact of the Donation ; that God would allow His Church to have fallen into the error of a possession to which it had no right, was not to be supposed. Gottfried himself, however, docs not venture to decide ; he leaves the solution of this question to the powers that be. 1. Ap. Pistori, ii., 208. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 151 In the Otia Iinpcriala (leisure hours), which Gcrvasius of Tilbury wrote for the emperor Otho IV. about the year 1211, it is stated that Constantino had conferred royal power over the countries of the West on Sylvester, without intending to transfer to him along with it either the kingdom itself or the empire, which he reserved for himself. But the giver is superior to the receiver, and the royal and imperial power is derived immediately from God. God, he says, is the creator of the empire, but the emperor is the creator of the papal supremacy. l On the whole, however, the authority of the Donation from the close of the twelfth century onwards was in the ascendant; and belief in it, and in the wide extent of territory which Constantine in- cluded in it, grew stronger. Gratian himself did not include it, but it was soon inserted as "palca," 2 and thus found an entry into all schools of canonical jurisprudence, so that from this time forth the lawyers were the most influential publishers and defenders of the fiction. The language of the popes also was henceforward more confident. "Omnc rcgnum Oc- " cidentis ei (Silvcstro) tradidit ct dimisit," 3 says 1 Ap. Leibnit, 55. Brunsvic., i., 882. 2 But with the more moderate expression, " Itnliam seu occi- 11 dentalcs regioncs," not with the unlimited " et" of Ansclm. 3 SermodeS. Silvestro, Opera, Veaotiis, 1578, i., 97. 152 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. Innocent III. (1198-1216). Gregory IX. (1214-1227) followed this out to its consequences in a way surpas- sing anything that had been done before, when he represented to the emperor Frederick II., the ablest and most formidable opponent who had yet sustained the lists against the Roman See, that Constantine had, along with the imperial insignia, given over Rome with the duchy and the inipcrium to the care of the popes for ever. Whereupon the popes, without diminishing in any degree whatever the substance of their jurisdiction, established the tribunal of the empire, transferred it to the Germans, and are wont to concede the power of the sword to the emperors at their coronation. * This was as much as to say that the imperial authority had its sole origin in the popes, could be enlarged or narrowed at their good pleasure, and that the pope could call each emperor to account for the use of the power entrusted to him. But the highest rung of the ladder was as yet not reached. This was first achieved by Gregory's successor, Innocent IV., when the synod of Lyons resulted in the deposition of Frederick ; in which act this pope went beyond all his predecessors in the increase of his claim, and the extension of the authority of Rome. It is an error, 1 Ap. Raynald., ad annum 1236, 24, p. 481, cd. Kom. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 153 Innocent declares, in the year 1245, to suppose that Constantine was the first to confer temporal power on the Roman See ; rather Christ Himself entrusted to Peter and his successors both powers, the sacerdotal and the royal, and the reign of both kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly. Constantine, therefore, had merely resigned an unlawfully possessed power into the hands of its legitimate possessor, the Church, and had received it back again from the Church. 1 Another half century, however, elapsed before theologians were found to reduce this new doctrine to a formal shape, and to furnish it with the usual scholastic, and in such cases very elastic apparatus. Under the influence of circumstances which took place towards the end of the thirteenth century, and of the spirit in which a Martin IV. and a Boniface VIII. ruled, the use which had been made of the Donation of Constantine assumed a different form. The Dominican, Tolomco of Lucca, author of the 1 Cod Epist. Vatican., 4957, 49 ; Codex Vindobon Philol., 61, f. 70 306, f. 83. In Raumcr, Geschichte der Hohenst'iufen, iv , 178 (first edition), who quotes the Latin text. The document was not known in the centuries immediately following, though the fact of Innocent IV. having taken up such a position was well known, for Alvaro Pclayo says (Z?e 1'lanclu Ecdesiie, i., 43, about the year 1350), "Collatio autem Constantini potius fuit cessio quam collatio; sic "etiani fertur Inuocentius IV. diiisse imperaturi Frcduico, quern "deposuit." 154 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. two last books of the work De Rcgimine Principum, the first two books of which are by Thomas Aquinas, goes beyond l his predecessors, and explains the Donation as a formal abdication of Constantine in favour of Sylvester; 2 and connecting with this other historical circumstances which are either inventions or misconceptions, he thence draws the conclusion that the power of all temporal princes derives its strength and efficacy solely from the spiritual power of the popes. There was no halting half way ; and immediately afterwards, in the contest of Boniface VIII. with Philip of France, the Augustinian monk, 1 These last two books were written subsequent to 1203 ; for the putting to death of Alclolf of Xassau, by Albert, is mentioned as an event which had already taken place. 2 "Piimo quidem de Constantino apparet, qui Silvestroinimpcrio "ccssit." De Regimine I'rincipum, 3, 10. Opuscula Th mx Ayuin., Lugd , 1502, p. 232. 3 If the treatise De Ulraque Potes(a(e (which is found in Goldast, Ulunarchia, ii.) were from the pen of ^gidius, he must have pro- fessed the very opposite principles in the interest of king Philip. But, seeing that uEgidius, as archbishop of Bourgcs, is found among those prelates who went to Rome against Philip's will to the council summoned by Boniface, and thereupon was punished with confiscation, one may be quite certain that the writing in question was not composed by him. In his genuine and still imprinted work, the substance of which is given by Charges Joiminin. Un Ouvrnye Infdil de Gill's de Jtome, Paris, 1858, JEgidius says bluntly enough. (i Patet quod omnia temporalia sunt sub domino Ecclesiaa " collocata, ft si non de facto, quoniam multi forte huic juri " rebcllaiitur, dejure tamen et exdebito tcuiporalia summo pontilici THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 155 Acgidius Colonna of Rome, whom the pope had nominated to the archbishopric of Bourges, drew the natural conclusions without the slightest disguise in a. work which he dedicated to his patron. Towards the middle of the century two theologians of the papal court, Agostino Trionfo and Alvaro Pelayo, the one an Italian, the other a Spanish minorite, took the same line of argument This theory, reduced to its simplest terms, runs thus : Christ is Lord of the whole world ; at His departure He left this dominion to His representatives, Peter and his successors; there- fore the fullness of all spiritual and temporal power and dominion, the union of all rights and privileges, lies in the hands of the pope. Every monarch, even the most powerful, possesses only so much power and territory as the pope has transferred to him, or finds good to allow him. Trionfo says without reservation, that if an emperor, like Constantine, has given temporal possessions to Sylvester, this is merely a restitution of what had been stolen in an unjust and tyrannical way. l This theory, utterly unknown to the earlier popes and to the whole of Christendom, was invented in the sunt 8ubjccta, a quo jure ct a quo dcbito nullatcnus possunt " absolvi," p. 13. 1 Summa de EccUsia, 94, 1. 156 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. first instance in order to meet the objections to the Donation of Constantine. For there were not wanting persons who declared that Constantine had no power to make such a suicidal Donation, so ruinous to the empire. An emperor could not tear in pieces the empire, for this was in direct contradiction to his office. * The French advocate, Peter Dubois, at Coutances declared, in his opinion about the Bull of Boniface VIII. to Philip, that the Donation was from the first legally null and void ; all lawyers were unanimous in maintaining this, only the very long prescription conferred on it at the present time a legal validity. 2 Contemporaneously with him the Dominican, John Quidort of Paris, magistcr of the theological faculty there (died A.D. 1306), in his book On the Regal and Papal Pozver, contended against the Donation of Con- stantine, for, as all lawyers maintained, the emperor, 1 Brought out more in detail by Dante, for example, in the De Non'Jrchia, 3, 10; Opere Min^ri, cd. cli Fraticelli, Firenzc, 1857, ii.> 460. ["Krgo scindere Imperium, Imperatori non licet. Si ergo " aliquaj dignitates per C'onstantinum esscnt alicnaUe (ut dieunt) " ab Imperio," &c. Here the sceptical "ut dieunt" shows that Dante doubted the fact as well as Ike rightf illness of the Donation. So also u Dieunt quidam ndhuc, quod Constantinus Imperator, " mtmdatus a Icprfi interccssione Sylvestri, tune stimmi pontificis, " imperil sedcin, scilicet lloinam, donavit ecclesue, cum multis aliia " imperii dignitatibua."] 2 In Dupuy, lltsloire des iJi/crentca 1'reuves, p. 4G. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 157 as semper Augustus, could only enlarge, not diminish the empire ; on the contrary, such a mutilation of the empire, of which he was only the administrator, might be set aside by each of his successors as null and void. 1 From the time that the harmonious relations between the empire and the papacy were destroyed, and one conflict after another between the two powers arose with a sort of inherent necessity, and the transfer of the papacy into French hands made the restoration of due relations impossible (that is to say, from the death of Frederick II. to the death of Lewis the Bavarian, 1250-1346), the Donation of Constantine was perpetually mentioned in the various memorials, opinions, and apologies, which had reference to the contest. The defenders of the imperial cause, appealing to the prevailing view of the civil jurists, usually without circumlocution pro- nounced the Donation null and void or obsolete. 2 One of the ablest and acutest contenders for the imperial power, the Minorite Marsiglio of Padua, docs not quite know how he stands towards it. 2 Frntris Johannis de Pnrisiis Tract, de Potcstale Reg. et Pap., in Schnrdii Coll. de Jurisdirtione Imp., p. 208 sq. 1 So the author of the inquiry, \Vhtthcr the pope had power to enforce an armistice on the Emperor, Henry Vll. t ill Ducnuiges, Ada, JJenrici Vii., ii., 158. 14 158 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. " Some say that Constantine conferred the .privilege " on the pope," is the expression he uses ; but he then goes on to say that those in the papal interest, either because the document was not clear and com- prehensive enough, or had become obsolete, or had never been legally valid, had invented this entirely new theory of a universal, spiritual, and temporal power derived immediately from Christ the God- man. 1 But even this Marsiglio found the Donation of Constantine a welcome weapon against the primacy of the Roman See in general, for from it it was very easy to draw the conclusion that even the ecclesiastical supremacy of the pope over all other churches and bishops rested merely on the grant of the emperor, and therefore on a purely human, perishable, and in such things properly invalid right. 2 Marsiglio knew well how to turn this weak spot to good account. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the same amount of uncertainty and arbitrariness as before continued to prevail in the definitions respecting the real extent of the Donation. In the decretal of pope Nicholas III. merely the cession of Rome to the popes by Constantine is mentioned, in accordance with the 1 DefensoT Pads, Heidelberg, 1599, p. 101. 2 I. c., p. 203. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 159 special object of this document. l In the form of oath which the emperor, Henry VII., had to take before his coronation, Clement V. made this monarch swear that he would protect and uphold all the rights which the emperors, and Constantine of course first of all, had granted to the Roman Church, without however going on to state in what these rights consisted. 2 John XXII., in his refutation of Mar- siglio of Padua, in the year 1327, merely mentions in passing the fact that Constantine had given up the imperial city to Sylvester, quoting the words of the Donation. 3 The oldest, or second oldest commentator on Dante, the compiler of the Ottimo Commcnto, who wrote in the year 1333, contents himself with the indefinite statement that Constantine had given Sylvester " all the dignity of the empire." 4 The author of the commentary on Dante, which was written in the year 1375, states quite simply that Constantine gave to the pope and the Church exactly what the pope possesses to this day ; 5 in opposition 1 In 6 to, 1, 6, 17. 2 Clemeutin, 9 de jnr. cj. 3 In Raynald, a. 1327, 31. 4 L'Oltimo Commento delta divina Commedia, Pisa, 1827, 1355, Peter Aurooli says very much the same (about the year 1316): u Honor impcrii translatus est in personam Silvcstri et in Horn, "ecclesiam." Aurea Scriptural Elucidatio, Venetiis, s., a. f. 89. 5 Chiote topra Vanle, tcs.o tnedilo, Firenzc, 1843, p. 161. 160 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. to winch a later commentator, Guiniforto delli Bargigi, is convinced that only "the patrimony in Tuscany, in "the neighbourhood of Rome," is included in the Donation. 1 Rudolf or Pandulf Colonna, 2 canon of Sienna, and probably a Roman by birth (fourteenth century), gives the Donation once more the widest extent of meaning, including " Rome, Italy, and all western "kingdoms." 3 Nicolas of Clamenge himself says without any hesitation, that Constantine conferred the western empire on the Roman Church, and intended the cardinals to be senators of it. 4 In France efforts were made to secure the country 1 I.o Inferno, col comenlo di G. d. ., pubbl. da G. Zaeheroiii, Firenzc, 1838. p. 45G. 2 Not Raotil de Colonmclle, canon of Cliartrc?, as the ITis'oire litleraire de la France, xxi , 151, represents him. The His'oire itself notices that the author in two manuscripts of his small work in called " Canonicus Senensis, ' and only in one " C'anonicus Carno- " tonsis." A Frenchman would have expressed himself differently respecting the " translatio impcrii a Francis ad Gennano.s," and would not have contented himself with saying merely, "llegnum " mundi translatum cst ad Germanos vcl Tciitonicos," p. 2.7. The whole historical view is taken from the standpoint of a Roman ecclesiastic ; and the author gives one pretty clearly to understand that he is a Roman ecclesiastic by noticing that pope Hadrian was by birth " de rcgione Vi latae," p. 292. Moreover, Eadulf has copied Marsilius of Padua, or the latter has copied him, as one can nee by comparing them in Schardius, p. 287 and p. 226. 3 De Transtalione Imperil, iu Schardius, p. 287. 4 De Annatu non Solvendis, O^era, cd. Lymlius, p. 92. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 161 against the consequences which were drawn, or might be drawn, from the extent of a Donation which embraced the whole of the West. The Parisian theologian, Jacob Almain, contends therefore that Constantine had no power whatever to transfer the empire to the pope without the consent of the people; 1 and in the second place, that the kingdom of Gaul at any rate could not have been included, for the Romans had never been masters of Gaul, and the people of Gaul had never of their own accord voted for sub- mitting to Roman rule. He seems to have had no misgivings as to the extent to which the Celtic population of Gaul had allowed themselves to become Romanized. Almain maintains moreover that it is the common opinion of doctors generally, that as a matter of fact Constantine did not resign the empire. 2 Lupold of Babcnbcrg in the fourteenth century, in his treatise On the Roman Empire, dedicated to Baldwin, archbishop of Trcves (1307-1354), discusses 1 " Contradicentc populo occidental!." In Gcrson, Opp. ii, 971, cf p. 1063. 2 i: Qiiod rcsignaverit imperiiim occidonfalo, niinqunm Irgitur." It is remarkable how uncertain people were even at this late date (Almain wrote aliout the year 1510) respecting a fact so unmistake- al>l'. If ono considers to what a high degree of historical discern- nvnt som; writers attained e\vn as early as the twelfth century, one miftht almost say, that in this direction, and in all that relates to a rational understanding of history, the movement for tluee nliolo centuries was a retrogression rather tiiuu au advance. 1 62 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. the Donation very thoroughly while investigating the question whether the king of Rome had to take the oath of a vassal to the Roman See. 1 The discussion with him means nothing less than the decision of the still wider question, whether the pope is really the suzerain of the German empire and possessor of the dominium directum, so that in all countries of the empire all that accrues to the emperor is the dominium utile. Hence we once more meet with the most different opinions as to the validity or nullity of the Donation ; whereupon Lupold remarks that all canon- ists are wont to maintain that the Donation is legally valid and irrevocable. But then the other kingdoms of the West must have stood in the same relation of vassaldom to the pope. Lupold, however, is keen- sighted enough to see through the unhistorical character of the whole fiction. He knows that the emperors ruled over the West just as much after Constantine's time as before it ; and he himself had found passages in the ecclesiastical law-books which speak merely of giving up the city of Rome to the pope. In the end, however (belief in the Donation was at that time still so powerful), he docs not venture to come to a decision, but prefers to leave the settle- ment of the matter to higher powers. 1 la Schard, p. 301. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 163 From a legal point of view the matter remained just as debatable as ever. It was not, however, easy to explain how Constantino, as elective emperor (and the old Roman emperors were supposed to have been elective like the German ones), could have given away half the empire. In a treatise which, so far as I am aware, has never been printed, and which seems to have been written in the time of Lewis of Bavaria in reference to his contests, l the question is discussed, whether in virtue of his election the emperor can forthwith and immediately exercise control over the whole realm, or whether he needs to be empowered by the pope to do so. In consequence of the Donation of Constantine, says the author, the whole jurisdiction of the emperor became dependent on confirmation by the pope ; but, on the other hand, it must be admitted that the rights and constituent parts of the realm could not be alienated so arbitrarily, without the consent of the princes, barons, and high officials. 2 1 B'tvit Tradatut de Jurisdictione Imperil et AuctorUa.it Summi font fid* eirci Impe:ium. Cod. Lat. 5832 in the National Library at Munich, f 121, ff. 2 "Scd contra hoc cst, quod jura impcrii aliennri non possunt " quum sint bona rcpublicae, quzc Kino publicis offkialibu* "dispensari non possunt, ut sunt principcs ct baronea ct quorum "interest assistere ministerio imperial! aulac diversorum apicum." t 123. 1 64 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. On the other hand the Donation is defended towards the end of the fifteenth century by the Strasburg parish priest, John Hug of Schlettstadt, in his Wagenfuhr dcr Ji. KircJie und dcs Romischcn Rcic/is, which he dedicated to cardinal Raymond of Gurk (1493-1505). Accursius, he says, has declared the gift to be invalid on account of its extravagance, but John Teutonicus, the armo- tator of the Dccrctum (of Gratian), has proved its immutable validity from the Clementines, l which inserted the Donation into the imperial oath. The German law-books gave the Donation of Con- stantine a remarkable extension, inasmuch as they maintained that Constantine gave to Sylvester the civil or king's bann to the amount of sixty schillings, " in order to compel all those who will not reform " themselves by corporal punishment, to be compelled "to do so by means of fines." 2 This is a specific German invention, utterly unknown to the Latin nations. The sense is as follows : in consequence of the wide and indefinite sphere of the ecclesiastical 3 1 [The Conslitutinnet Clement : nx are that part of the Corpus Juris C'inonict which contains the decrees of the council of Vienna (A.D. 1311), toother with decrees of Clement V.; published in 1313.1 2 Hachstnrpieffel, von Iloineyer, i., 238 (3, G3). JJtis Kechtsluch nach Distinct ionen, edited by Ortloff, p. 325 (0, 1C). Schwabens^iegel, in Senckcnbcrg, Corp. Jur Germ., ii., 10. 3 [Thcbc ecclesiastical courts (Sciid-gerichte, synodus) were held THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 165 courts, it became a custom in Germany that the ecclesiastical judges should impose fines, levying them themselves, for various crimes, some of which belonged entirely to the municipal jurisdiction ; an abuse which Alexander III. forbade as early as the year 1 180, but to no purpose. As an authority for this abnormal custom was wanted, and none could be found, the Donation of Constantine that large and inexhaustible treasury from which political and municipal privileges could be drawn just as they were wanted must here also be brought into use. * In the ideas of the people and laity generally, the Donation of Constantine had meanwhile acquired another and more comprehensive significance. In the whole of the later Middle Ages we see two diametrically opposite currents prevailing. On the one side was the effort to furnish the Church with by the bishop, or archdeacon, or their substitute (Scndrichter) to try ecclesiastical offences, especially profanation of the Lord's day, and other violations of the decalogue.] I The cardinals D'Ailly and Zaberclla, on behalf of the bishops and their officials, lodged complaints respecting these fiscal gains of the ecclesiastical courts before the council of Constance, and re- quested that provision might be made against th^ni .Sec Von IVr Hardt, Condi. Const., i , p 8, p. 421, and p 9, p. 524). But the mischief continued in Germany, and contributed not a little to tho general bitterness against the hierarchy and the clergy, as one sees from the Gravamina Xationis Germanicic, c. 64, of the year 15-2, not to mention other indications of the same fact. 166 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. considerable donations, to create for her a broad foundation of extensive landed property, and to raise the number and condition of clergy living on ecclesiastical endowments ; but side by side with this was the view which had been making way ever since the twelfth century, that the great possessions and large revenues of the Church were a grievous evil, the sources of nearly all existing abuses, and the causes of a moral deterioration of the clergy. l This view 1 [We find this expressed in very strong language in some of the political and satirical songs of the thirteenth and following centuries. Such songs took a new tone in England just about that ago. The civil commotions of the reign of John, and the weak government of Henry III., afforded every party abundance of material for satire, and plenty of opportunity for giving it free utterance. The clerk with las Latin, the courtier with his Anglo-Norman, and the people with their vigorous old English, all had their word to say. It may be worth while to give a few examples from Mr. Wright's collection of The Political Songs of Enyland, "Roma mundi caput est, sed nil capit mundum; Quod pendet a capite totum est immundum ; Transit enim vitium primum in secundum, Et do fundo redolet quod ebt juxta fundum. "Roma capit singulos et res singuloruin ; Romanorum curia non est nisi forum. Ibi mint venaliajtira scnatorum, Et solvit contraria copia nummorum." " Solam avaritiam Roma novit parca, Parcitdanti munera, parco non est parca: Nuinmus est pro numine, et pro Marco marca, Et est minus Celebris ara quam sit area," &c., &c. From tho Invectio contra avaritiam about the time of the interdict. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 167 gradually assumed a form of serious and threatening import to the clerical body, as the notion was developed out of it that originally the clergy had been poor, had lived solely upon freewill offerings, and had remained poor upon principle, until Con- stantine by his Donation put an end to the former " Jacct ordo clericalis In respectu laicalis, Sponsa Christi fat vcnalis, Generosa general is ; Vcninnt altaria, Venit eucharistiii, Cum sit nugatoiia Gratia venal is." From a Song against the Bishops, about 1250. "Lcs contrc-estanz nbatcnt li fix cle felonie ; Lors pcrit scintc cglise, quant orgoil la mostrie. Ceo sustenent li prelaz ki s'i nc peinent mie, Pur dreiture sustenir nolent perdre vie." From a Song of the Times, about 1274. Sec also Piers the Plonghmin's Crtde (about 1394) passim, and the pelican's charges against the clergy in the Complaint of the J'loughman.] [Walther von der Vogelweide sings thus on the subject : " Solt ich den pfaffen raten an den trinwcn mln ; sO sprasche ir haut don armen zuo ' se daz ist din, 1 ir /.unge sunge unde lieze mam-gem man daz sin ; Geda:liten ouch daz si dtircli Got e waren almnosna;rc : do gap in erste goltes t'il d':r kiinec Constantin. Hot er gewcst daz da von fibel kiinftoc wjcrc, 80 het er wol underkomen des riches swa?re j wan daz si dowaren kischc und iibermiiote l.fre." No. Ill, p. 133, Simrock's edition, Bonn, 1870. His poems abound in anti-papal sentiments.] 1 63 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTTNE. state of poverty, especially in Rome, and pope Sylvester by his acceptance of it gave an example eagerly followed by the clerical body generally, and incradicably implanted in them the passion for acquiring wealth. The view that the wealth of the Church was the great obstacle in the way of all clerical reform gained ground more and more. Sectarianism, which from the middle of the twelfth century onwards assumed numerous and various shapes in Italy, France, and Germany, made common cause with this view, or fostered it and spread it assiduously. It ended in becoming part and parcel of public opinion. It was precisely this which won for the fabulous Donation of Constantine such universal acceptance, that the fiction so exactly corresponded with the feelings and needs of the people at that time. The M.Jdle Ages, with their natural propensity to imagine definite actors, and an act producing effects once for all, in the case of circumstances which really had been gradually and slowly developed, could not account for the fact that the formerly poor Church had gradually become rich, otherwise than by repre- senting this change as having been instantaneous. The Church, which till yesterday had been utterly without property, became suddenly possessed of a THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 169 superabundance of earthly goods, through the acts of the two Heads, the imperial giver, and the accepting pope. And therewith, said numberless persons, the hitherto closed Pandora-box had been opened for the Church ; all the evils from which she was suffering were to be attributed to this source of mischief. l Even men who stood on the heights in their own age, saw the matter thus, and their grief at the in- firmities of the Church, the degeneracy of the clergy, and the ceaseless conflict between the spiritual and temporal power, clothed itself in lamentations over Constantine's well-meant, but ill-advised munificence. Thus two contemporaries, whose sentiments agree in many points, Dante 2 and Ottokar of Ilorncck. The 1 With what na'ivete even ecclesiastics and historians up to iho close of the Middle Ages placed themselves quite at the stand-point of the popular view, is shown from tho following passage of tho monk Bernhard White (about A.D. 1510) in his lltstoria Westphalist, Monast., 1775, p. Cl : "Silveslro pontificantc . . . ecclesiarum " Prrclati, qui hactenus in paupcrtate vixerunt, imonihil habentcset " omnia possidentes, posscssioues habere inccperunt." 2 Inf., xix., 115-17: [" Ahi Constantin, di quanto mnl fu matre, Non la tua conversion, ma quella dote, Che da te presc il primo ricco patre !" "Ah, Constantino! of how much ill was mother, Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower, ^ Inch the first wealthy Father took from thee I" Longfellow's Translation. Dante deplores the supposed Donation no less heartily in the De 15 i;o THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. former especially bewails avarice and simony, as the unhallowed fruit of that Donation ; but the latter says Constantine added a sword, which they did not know Monarchic : " feliccm populum ! Ausoniam te gloriosam! si vcl " nuinquam infirmator imperil tui extitisset ; vel numquam sua pia "intentio ipsum fefellisset." Lib. u., sub finem. Ariosto places the Donation in the moon, among the things which have been lost or abused on earth : " Di varj fiori ad un gran monte passa, Ch' ebber gii buono odore, or puzzan forte, Questo era il dono (se pero dir lece) Che Constantino al buon Silvestro fece." Orl. Fur., c. xxxiv., St. 80. " Then passed he to a flowery mountain green, Which once srnclt sweet, now stinks as odiously ; This was that gift, if you the truth will have, That Constantino to good (Sylvester gave." Milton's Translation. Prose Works, i., p. 11, ed. 1753. From Gary's note on Dante, Inf., xix., 118. But perhaps the strongest passage in Dante against the Donation is Par. xx., 55, where Constantino is found in Paradise, in spite o/tho Donation. " Lo altio, chc segue, con le leggi e mcco Sotto buona intcnzion, che fe mal frutto, Per ccdere al pastor si fece Greco : Ora conosce, come il mal dcdutto Dal suo bcnc opcrar non li 6 nocivo, Avvegna che sia il inondo indi distrutto." " The next who follows (Constantine), with the laws and me, Under the good intent that bore bad fruit Became a Greek by ceding to the pastor; Now knoweth he how all the ill deduced From his good action is not harmful to him, Although the world thereby may be destroyed." Longfellow s Translation.] THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 171 how to wield, to the stole of the priests, and thus broke the strength of the empire. l This view, that the Donation had brought ruin into the Church, assumed in that legend-producing age the form of an actual occurrence. An angel was said to have cried from heaven, " Woe ! woe ! This " day hath poison been infused into the Church." The legend is to be found as early as the commence- ment of the thirteenth 2 century, in Walther von dcr Vogclweidc. "The angel hath told us true," says this poet, but he is thinking chiefly of the weakening of the empire, which appears to him to be the evil fruit of the Donation : " alle vursten lebent nu mit eren, wan dcr hbhstc 1st geswachet, daz hat der pfafTen wal gemachet." * So, also, the Strasburg chronicler, Konigshofcn. " Then was a voice heard over all Rome, which said, " ' This day hath gall and venom flowed into holy 1 Cap. 448. in Fez., iii., 41G. 2 [Siinrotk assigns this poem to A.D. 1198. The one in which (he poet talks of having frung for forty years, "von minnen und als " icmen sol," is assigned to the year 1.28. This would place his birth about 1163. He took part in the sixth crusade, and probably died soon after his return.] 3 [That is, "all the princes now live with honours, since the highest (the emperor) is weakened. The election of the clergy has brought about this." No. 5, p. 36, Simrock's edition.] i;2 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. " ' Christendom,' and know ye that this also is " source and ground of all war between popes A and " emperors." Contemplation of the mischief which the hatred between Lewis the Bavarian and the French popes had created, moved the Minorite John of Winterthur also to complain, that "at this time one sees plainly "enough how truly the angel spoke, in saying that " through that well-meant, but in its consequences " most unhappy, rich dotation and fat present, which " Constantino conferred, poison had flowed into the " Church." 2 Even theologians were not ashamed to appeal to the saying of the angel. John of Paris concludes from it that the Donation had displeased 3 God. A hun- dred years after him Dietrich Vrie, an Augustinian at Osnabruck, says that poison certainly at that time had been administered to the Church, but yet only through the Abuse of the Donation ; for wealth in itself 1 In the Vienna manuscript, Hist. Eccles., 29, fol. 6t ( in thirteenth century), the reason given for the voice of the angel is, " qnia (ecclcsia' major est dignitate, minor religionc." The story about the angel is found also in the Chron. Mono., t. Mellicensis, in P>;2, >cr. Austr , i , 182, in the chronicle of Theodore Engclhuscn, in L-ibnitz, tcr. Hrunsvic.,ii., 1034. 2 In Eccard, i., 1889. 3 lu bchaid, tylloge, p. 210. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 173 was by no means a calamity for the Church. l At last this saying of the angel passed into a proverb, common even in the mouth of the lower orders. 2 At first, however, this angel, who proclaimed the poisoning of the Church, seems to have been a fallen one. For the first who narrates the miracle, Giraldus Cambrensis (about the year nSo), (and, as bishop Pecock of Chichcster (1450) assures us, the other chroniclers merely copy Giraldus,) makes the " old enemy " speak the words. 3 At any rate, this " evil one " shortly afterwards transformed himself into an angel of light. The sects of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially the Catharists and Waldcnscs, proceeded on the principle, that every possession of the Church was in itself objectionable, and that it was damnable for the Church to devote anything more than the mere freewill offerings of the moment, towards supplying 1 Hist. Coneil. Const., in Von dor ITardt, i., 111. 4 Ab omnibus recitatur, tcmpore quo C onstnnfinns M. incoopit dotare ecclcsiam, audita cst vox in acre : " Hodic cffusum vrncnnm " in ecclcsia." Jo. Major, de I'ot. PapaR. In Gcrson's Works, ii., 1159. 1 "The oold enemy made thHk voice in the cir." Peeock's Peprestor, cd. by Churchill I nl.ingfon, London, 18GO, p 3'il. According to Pocock's stattmi'nt, the pns.sagi is to be found in tho Cosmograjihia llilernice. of Giraldus. It is not in tin- printed 7'oyo- graphta Hibernian ; but it is possibly in the still imprinted Uescryiio Muiidi of Uiraldus. 174 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. means of life to the clergy. The l endowment, therefore, of the Church by Constantine was considered by them as a decisive turning-point,, involving the ruin of the Church, nay, its utter destruction. Until Sylvester, they said, the Church existed ; in him it fell, and became extinct by receiving from the hand of Constantine riches and worldly power, until it was once more revived by the " Poor men of Lyons. " 2 With the end of its poverty ended the very existence of the Church : property was the poison of which it died. Sylvester is, therefore, that mighty, bold, and crafty king prophesied of in Daniel 3 viii. 24, who 1 [Tl.is was the doctrine so widely spread by the Abbot Joachim of Fiore, Dolcino of Novara, and the Fraticelli. The primitive Church hc'td held that poverty was better than riches. That period had come to an end with Sylvester. Since his time all popes had been prevaricators and deceivers, except Celestine V. He alono had understood and practised the blessed state of poverty. The Cathari argued that, as Constantino's empire was one of wrong and violence, and he had ceded it to Sylvester, the popes since Sylvester were successors to an unrighteous kingdom, not to an apostolic Church. This view had its effect also on the various prophecies which were circulated in the fourteenth century under the name of- Joa. 1304.] 4 " Qimndo paupertas fnit mutata ah ccclesia per 8. Silv^tnim "tune; s.'inrtitas viUc fuit sublnicta ecclesias et diabolus intnivit in "hune miindum " So the Dulcinist Peter of Lucca, in Limborch llitt. inyuis., p. 3GO. THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 177 himself, in his first letter to Christendom, declared Sylvester to be the angel of Pergamus, who " dwells "where Satan's seat is." (Rev. ii. 13.) The English precursor of Protestantism, Wyclif, shared this view. Constantine, he says, foolishly injured himself and the clergy, in burdening the Church so heavily with temporal goods. l In the Trialogus\i& represents Antichrist as produced by the Donation of Constantine, and thence deduces the downfall of the Roman empire. 2 The days of the Donation of Constantine were, however, numbered. Already, in the year 1443, ./Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini, afterwards pope Pius II., then secretary to Frederick III., had recommended that emperor to summon a fresh council, at which, among other things, the question of the Donation of Constantine, "which caused perplexity to many souls," should on Frederick's proposal be finally decided. He himself was well known to be convinced of its unauthenticity, and he notices that neither in the ancient historians nor in Daniasns, that is, in the Pontifical book, was anything about it to be found. Its unauthenticity, therefore, was to be proclaimed by 1 Thomas Waldcnsis, Doctrin. Fidei, cd. Blanciotti, ii.. 708, quotes his words from his book De Papa. 2 Tracts and Treatises, ed. Vaughan, 1845, p. 174. I ;8 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. the council, and JEneas joined with this the arrttre pensce, that Frederick should again take possession of at least a part of the territory included in the Dona- tion, as belonging to the empire, and thus gain a firm basis in the peninsular for the imperial power, which otherwise would vanish into air. 1 Three men appeared almost simultaneously in the middle of the fifteenth century, to prove on historical grounds, that the fact of the Donation no less than the document was an invention ; Reginald Pecock, bishop of Chichester, cardinal Cusa, and Lorenzo Valla. In contrast to the uncertain vacillation 2 of Cusa, Pecock's exactness of historical investigation, an exactness proportionate to his knowledge of authorities, is very remarkable. 3 In Paris, where scholasticism still held the sceptre, criticism had not 1 Pentaligus, in Fez. Thes. Anecd. iv., p 3, 679. 2 The passage out of his Concordanlia Catholica is printed in Brown, Fasciculus, i., 157. 3 Rtpressor, p. 3G1-67. [Pecock gives eight reasons for main- taining that the Donation is a fiction, most of them tolerably conclusive ; e. g. the silence of Damasus, who mentions other small gifts of Constantino; the silcncj of credible historians; the fact that Constantino bequeathed the very territory in question to his sons, and that Boniface IV. asked the emperor Phocas to give him the Pantheon as a church, A. u 608, &c., &c. By "Damasus" Pecock no doubt means the Liber I'ontificalis or Anastasius (falsfly BO called), which was usually quoted as a work of pope Damasus in the Middle Ayes J THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 179 advanced so far as this fifty years later, as Almain shows. Valla certainly went much farther than Pecock and Cusa ; he undertook to prove that the pope had no right to the possession of Rome, and the States of the Church in particular, that he was " tantum " Vicarius Christi et non etiam Caesaris." His treatise was rather an artistic, rhetorical production, an elo- quent declamation, than a calm historical investiga- tion. l He himself considered it as the chef cTceuvre of his eloquence. And yet after his treatise had been circulated everywhere, and had caused the greatest excitement, Valla was invited to Rome by Nicolas V., taken into the service of the pope, and received both from Nicholas V. and from Calixtus III., various marks of favour, without any retractation whatever being required of him. The jurists meanwhile did not allow themselves to be put out of countenance, and held fast to the fiction for about a hundred years longer. 2 Antonius, arch- bishop of Florence, calls attention to the fact that the passage in Gratian's decretals docs not exist in the 1 Poggiali, Memorie di Lorenzo Valla, Piaccnzn, 1790, p. 119. [A full account of this treatise of Valla is given in the Presbyterian Quarterly Review, Jan. 18G1, pp. 381-411, by K3V. E. H. Gillctt, D.D] 2 " A pud Canonistns nulla ambiguitas cst, quin pcrpetua firinitate " subnixa sit," says Peter of Andlo, De imperto Romano, p. 42, in tho Tractatus varii de R. G. Imp. Beyimine, Noriinb., 1657. iSo THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE, more ancient manuscripts of the collection, but at the same time, remarks that the legists (professors of civil law) disputed the legal validity of the Donation, while the canonists and theologians upheld it. He himself adopts the idea l of a universal dominion of the pope, resting on a divine dispensation, and accordingly sees in the Donation nothing more than a restitution. Meanwhile, defenders of its legal authenticity were not wanting even among the professors of civil law. 2 Above all others Bartolo must be mentioned here (about 1350), to whom formerly, as Tiraboschi says, almost divine honour was paid. But as he calls atten- tion to the territory in which he and his hearers happen to be, he lets one divine his true meaning. 3 On the other hand, Nicolas Tudeschi, who was con- sidered by his contemporaries as the greatest of all canonists, declares that he who denies the Donation lies under the suspicion 4 of heresy. Cardinal P. P. 1 The passage out of his Pars ffistorialis is found in Brown, Fascic., i., 159. 2 The jurists had discovered a passage in proof of the Donation even in the Corpus juris civilis. That is to say, Cod. 5, 27, in a law of the emperor Zeno, they read, " Divi Constantini, qui . . . lloma- " num mi'iuil imperium," instead of " muniv't." 3 " Videtc, quia nos sumus in terris Ecclesise, idcirco dico quod ilia M donatio valuat." In pro.cm., IT. n. 14. 4 Condi, 84, n. 2, in cap. per vcncrabilnm, and elsewhere. Com- pare Francisci Bursati Consilia, Venet., 1572, i , 359. 10 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 181 Parisius, and the Spanish bishop, Arnold Albertinus, declare the same. Whosoever pronounces the Dona- tion to be null and void, says the latter, comes very near to heresy ; but whosoever maintains that it never took place at all is in a still worse case. 1 Antonius 2 Roscllus, and Lud wig Gomez 3 are of the same opinion; and cardinal Hieronymus Albano declares thus much at least, that there exist shameless persons who refuse to submit to the " unanimis consensus tot ac tantorum " Patrum," respecting the Donation ; or, according to the expression of Petrus Igneus, to the " tota acade- " mia Canonistarum et Legistarum," with the whole host of theologians to boot. 4 But after cardinal Baronius had once for all confessed the unauthenticity of the Donation, all these voices, which had shortly before been so numerous and so loud, became dumb. Only one remark more need be added in conclusion. In consequence of its naturalization among the Greeks, the Donation in its full extent found admit- tance even into Russia, for it exists in the Kormczaia Kniga, the Corpus juris canonici of the Graeco-Sla- vonic Church, which was translated from the Greek 1 De Jgno'endis Assert. Cath. et T/.-rr., qrtir.it., 17, n. 14. 2 Tr :ct. de Potest. Papif, Lugd. 8. a., p. 320. 3 In Bursatus, 1. c. 360 b . 4 Bursatus, 1. c., quoted all these, and many others. 182 THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. by a Servian or Bulgarian, in the thirteenth or four- teenth century. l [One 2 further argument may be noticed, not as being needed, but as being in itself almost conclusive. Among the innumerable monuments of Roman art, from the fourth century onwards, some of which have direct reference to Constantine, no reference whatever is made to the Donation. Would it not have been a favourite subject, had it ever been a fact ? There appears to be only one representation in mediaeval art of the Donation of Constantine. It is a mosaic from the " zophoros, " or frieze of the Latcran basilica. Some of the details of the costumes show it to be not earlier than the twelfth century. On one side, " Rex " baptizatur et leprae sorde lavatur ; " on the other, " Rex in scriptura Silvestro dat sua jura."] 1 Wiener Jahrbi'tcher der Literatur, Bd. xxiii., 265. 2 The Testimony of the Catacombs and other Monuments of Chris- tian Art, etc., by Wharton B. Marriott, London, 1870, p. 09. VI. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. IT will be necessary first to give the true history of these two men, the sources of which happily flow with all the clearness that could be wished. In this way the origin and tendency of the fable will become more plainly apparent. The emperor Constantius, under the influence of his eunuchs and certain Arian bishops, wished to force Arianism on the Church and bishops of the West, in that weakened and half ashamed form which the Eusebians had given to it. He, as well as his satellites, made use of all means of seduction, intimi- dation, and brutal violence, in order to accomplish this object. The Roman bishop, Libcrius, first at Rome, and then at Milan, whither he had been summoned to the imperial court, steadfastly resisted the efforts of Constantius and his eunuch, Euscbius ; he was accordingly banished to Bcrsa, in Thrace, in the year 354. In his place Constantius caused the Roman deacon, Felix, to be consecrated by three Arian bishops (one of whom was the Anomscan Acacius of Caesarea), in the presence of three eunuchs. Felix had not formally rejected the Nicene Creed, but 183 1 84 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. lie held ecclesiastical communion with Arians, which was all that the leaders of that party needed then ; for the remainder, viz., the predominance of their doctrine, would gradually follow of itself. In Rome, where Liberius was personally much beloved, the people re- refused to enter the churches in which Felix showed himself. The whole clergy publicly promised, with an oath, before the congregation, that as long as Liberius lived they would recognise no other. It ended at last in an insurrection, in which some persons were killed. l When Constantius came to Rome two years later, he found the Roman populace still true to Liberius. The Roman ladies besought him earnestly to give them back their bishop, and he granted their request to this extent, that he decreed that Liberius and Felix (to the latter of whom the greatest number of the clergy had meanwhile joined themselves) should for the future rule the Roman Church in common. But the people assembled in the circus cried out, " One God, one Christ, one bishop." Liberius was, however, not recalled ; until in the following year, 357, broken by the sufferings and privations of his exile, pressed with threats, and deprived even of the man who hitherto had been left to him as servant and companion, 1 Athanas. Hist, ad monachal, p. 389. Faustini and Marccllini LilelL praif. Socrat., 2, 37; liufin., 1,22; Hicron. Vir. lUuatr., c. 109 ; Chron. ad. a. 354. . LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 185 the deacon Urbicus, he determined to sign a creed which was laid before him, to refuse to hold commu- nion with Athanasius, and in consequence with all decided Nicaeans, and thus to enter the Arian court party. He signed the first formula of Sirmio, which was inoffensive in other respects, and left nothing to be desired but the Ilomoiision. He went further ; he declared himself unable to hold communion with Athanasius, and accordingly entered into communion with the most decided Arians, such as Ursacius, Valcns, and Germinius. lie courted the favour of the influential proteges of the emperor, the Arian bishops, Epictctus and Auxcntius. Later on (in the year 358), he was summoned from Bcrcea to the imperial court at Sirmio, and, at Constantius' bidding, signed a fresh and slill worse formula, which the Arian and Scmiarian bishops, just then assembled at a synod in Sirmio, had drawn up. In this formula, with a view to obtaining an express rejection of the Ilomousion, the decisions of the synod at Antioch l against Paul 1 Not merely of the synod held nt Antiorh in 311, as Hi (Vie stains (Concilien-Geschichte, i., GG2) ; for this did not occupy itself t-itluT wilh the case of 1 aul of Snmosntn, or with that of Photinns ; but also of tho synod of 269, which r j:ct~d (he II>inoiision in the falsj s?n^' yi\vn to it by Paul of Samosala. Tlu objjct now in vi-w was no lung.r a UKTJ abstaining from the usu of the hated word, but a formal condemnation of it ; because, as was represented, under the pretext of the Hoinousiou, certain persons (Athanasius 1 86 LTBERIUS AND FELIX. of Samosata, and the later ones against Photinus and Marcellus of Ancyra, together with one of the formu- laries of the synod at Antioch, in A.D. 341, were incorporated. Liberius was thus reduced to accepting precisely the position of the Semiarians, now so influential with Constantius. He gave his adhesion to their expression, " substantial likeness," sacrificed the Nicene doctrine, and apprised the eastern Arians of his entry into their communion, and of his separation from Athanasius. It was chiefly on account of this weakness exhibited at Sirmio, under the double influence of the emperor and the bishops, and not on account of what had taken place before at Bcraea, that Liberius drew upon himself the reproach of his contemporaries, of being heretical, and an ally of heretics. And, indeed, no other judgment was then possible. He had granted communion to the very worst Arians, such as Epictctus of Centuncellcc and Auxentius of Milan. 1 It was Fortunatianus, bishop and all who held firmly to the Nicene doctrine) wished to set up a Beet of their own. Sozomen, 4, 15. Fhilostorgius (4, 3), moreover, docs not say, as Hcfole represents, that Liberius signed the second Sirmian formula. Of the one signed at Bcraea he says nothing whatever ; but he docs mention the one accepted by Liberius after- wards at Sirmio, that is the third ; and of this he says quite correctly, and in agreement with Sozomen, that Liberia;* thereby condemned the Homousion and Athanasius. 1 Hilar. de *yn., Opp., ii., 464 ; Frag., 6, ii., 680 ; Sozom., 4, 15. The lettors of Liberius in Coustaut, L'putolse fontif., 442 sqq. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 187 of Aquileia, who, according to Jerome, persuaded Liberius to such apostasy. This was the price at which Liberius purchased his return to Rome, where the people joyfully welcomed the bishop, whom they personally loved in spite of his fall. The whole community was, and remained, Catholic. The people of the West had as yet occupied itself but little with the controversies about the con- substantiality of the Son with the Father ; they scarcely understood the question at issue or its import. Liberius was therefore able quietly to resume his office without retracting. It had been determined at Sirmio, that Liberius and Felix should preside over the Church of Rome together ; for Felix, in conse- quence of his holding communion with the Arian bishops, was still high in favour at court. At Rome, however, disturbances with wide reaching conse- quences took place. The clergy were divided, for the majority had broken the oath of fidelity which they had taken to Liberius before his banishment, and had recognised Felix. But the latter was obliged to withdraw from the city, because the people would not tolerate him ; and long afterwards when he attempted to get possession of a church on the other side of the Tiber, he was again driven out. He lived eight years from that time without being able to set foot in Rome ; iSS LIBERIUS AND FELIX. but after his death (November 22nd, 365) Liberius pardoned the clergy of his party, and allowed them to resume their position. 1 Nothing is told us of Liberius own position. He appears not to have retracted what he did at Bersea and Sirmio, and not to have ceased to hold com- munion with the Arians ; otherwise Constantius would not have allowed him to remain long in Rome. The synod of Rimini however, towards the end of the year 359, and in the year 360, gave him an oppor- tunity of proving his orthodoxy. lie rejected the synod, and ordered that those who had taken part in it should be admitted to communion only on con- dition of retracting ; and it was he who, in the year 366, demanded of the Scmiarians an adhesion to the Ilomousion, which he had formerly rejected himself, as a sine qitd non of their being recognised by the Church. lie might have been led astray at Sirmio, in that the misuse which Paul of Samosata, and Mar- cellus of Ancyra, and Photinus had made of the Ilornousion was represented to him as a just grouiH for refraining from using- so double-edged a weapon as this word had proved, and for forbidding the employment of it ; moreover, they had held up to 1 Marcellini ct Faiistin. ad libell. prrc. pncf. Both these Jloman priests were eye-witnesses, and Jerome confirms their statement. LIDERIUS AND FELIX. 189 him the authority of the synod of 269. When he assented to the substantial likeness of the Son to the Father, he might (like other otherwise good catholics of that time) have been convinced, that in the God- head substantial equality and substantial likeness are necessarily equivalent. Thus much may, perhaps, be said in extenuation of his error ; but it certainly gives no excuse for his rejection of Athanasius, or for his entering into communion with the leaders of the Arian party. He must however have made good this grievous error even before the synod of Rimini was held (359). Without doubt events since 358 had taught him that that dogmatic word was indeed quite indispensable for the Church ; that it, as he says in his epistle to the bishops of the East, in the year 366, was " the sure and impregnable bulwark, against " which all attacks and stratagems of Arianism shat- " tered." l Liberius, therefore, at no time in his life was actually heretical ; but his eagerness to see himself freed from the sufferings of a lonely exile and restored to the bosom of his people, who loved and honoured him, blinded him. He sacrificed the Church to the Arians, he perplexed the consciences of his people in regard to Church matters, and one knows, of course, 1 In Coustant, E^. Rom. Ponti/ t p. 4GO. 190 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. that Hilary anathematized him. But he remained throughout the rightful bishop of Rome ; and his oppo- nent, Felix, was and remained an illegitimate intruder, in respect to the Arian trouble still more culpable than Liberius. For Felix received violent handling from no one, and obtained and kept his position only by getting himself ordained by Arians, and by ensuring them communion ; especially the court bishops, and those who hung about the emperor. Whereas Liberius did not succumb to the ill usage to which he was subjected until after several years of steadfast endurance. At the death of Liberius, in the year 366, the split which the intrusion of Felix and the secession of many of the clergy to him had called into existence, broke out afresh, this time with bloodshed. A nu- merous faction of the people, urged on by some of the clergy, wished to decree that none of those who, in violation of their oath, had recognised Felix ten years before, should succeed to the office of bishop. On this ground, Ursinus was set up in opposition to Damasus, who had been elected by a majority of the clergy. A regular civil war was the consequence. They fought in the streets and in the churches with such animosity, that on one occasion, 1 one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies, mostly from the faction 1 Ammian. Marccll., 1, 27, 3, 12. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 191 of Ursinus, were found in the Sicinian basilica. Damasus himself could not restrain his own party ; and only by the banishment of Ursinus and seven others of this faction, and by the strong measures of the prefect Juvencus, was some sort of order at length restored in the city. The supporters of Ursinus, however, continued their schism and their meetings in the cemeteries of the martyrs, which led to fresh bloodshed and fresh banishment of clergy belonging to this faction. Thus passed several years in per- petual disquietude ; and thus from that violent act on the part of'Constantius there grew so long afterwards the bitter fruit of a disturbance in the Church, which was not completely healed until a whole generation had died out. It is very remarkable that the later myth or inten- tional fiction, which dates from the sixth or seventh century, has metamorphosed this history entirely to the disadvantage of Liberius, and in favour of Felix, who was dubbed an ecclesiastical hero and martyr. And it came to this; that this perjured antipope, consecrated by fanatical Arians, and intruded on the Romans only by the temporal power, was honoured as a saint, and reckoned in the list of the popes as pope Felix II. ; while Liberius, even in Rome itcelf, 192 LIDERIUS AND FELIX. was represented as a blood-stained tyrant, a heretic, and persecutor of the faithful. One cannot fail to see that all this was invented with a view to placing the cause of that numerous portion of the Roman clergy who broke their oath and adhered to Felix, in a favourable light, and to represent them as the rightful party, who had withstood heresy and the heretical pope, and had been persecuted on that account. Nevertheless, these fictions must be assigned to a late period, the sixth or seventh century, as it would appear, when only hazy recollections of the events of the fourth century still survived in Rome, and when the story of the Roman baptism of Constantine, with its train of myths, had already disturbed all historic consciousness there, and had thrown into confusion the historical continuity and order of events. There are three documents in which the fictitious history was in- corporated, and from which all later ones have been made : the biographies of Liberius and of Felix in the Liber Pontificalis, the Acts of Felix, first edited by Mombritius, and the Acts of Eiiscbius. v These Acts have manifestly been invented with 1 They an- to bo found in the Balnzc-Mansi Collection, i., 33, and throughout the whole of the Middle Ages were constantly used and copiwi. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 193 a view to branding the memory of Liberius, and representing him in the most glaring way as an heretical apostate and persecutor of the Catholic confessors, so that the party of Felix might appear as the oppressed orthodox. Hence the narrator makes pope Damasus condemn Liberius in a synod of twenty-eight bishops and twenty-five priests, immediately after Liberius' death. At the same time, also, this opportunity was seized, in order to give a fresh security against the contradicting testimony of antiquity to the story of the Roman baptism of Constantine, the pet story of those by whom and for whom the invention was made. Hence the biography of Felix begins with a statement, made with affected precision, to the effect that he had declared the emperor Constantius, son of Con- stantine, a heretic, who had got himself baptized a second time by Eusebius, bishop of Nicomcdia, x in the villa Aquila (Achyro), near to Nicomedia. Here, then, what the father did is transferred to the son, and the intention in Constantino's case to put Rome in the place of Nicomcdia, and Sylvester in the place of Eusebius, is unmistakeablc. The following narrative was substituted in place of 1 In Vignoli, i., 119. 17 i 9 4 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. the true one in the two first-mentioned documents, which really hang together. When Constantius banished Liberius on account of his defence of the Catholic faith, the Roman clergy elected and consecrated the presbyter 1 Felix as bishop, 2 under the advice and with the consent of Liberius. Felix forthwith holds a council of forty- eight bishops, and finds here that two presbyters, 3 Ursacius and Valens, agree with Constantius, and condemns them. The two persuade Constantius, and with his consent go to Liberius and offer him return from banishment on these terms : that there should be communion between Arians and orthodox, but that the latter should not be required to be 1 Felix was only a deacon. Rufinus, 2, 22 ; Marcellin. Libcll. Free. pnef. 2 This would only have been possible if Liberius had abdicated at the same time, which ho did not do. That one bishop should appoint another co-ordinately with himself, or cause himself to bo represented by another during his absence, was contrary to eccle- siastical law, especially to one of the Nicene canons. When after all Valerius, bishop of Hippo, did so, Augustine himself, whom he caused to be consecrated with the permission of the primate of Carthage, found that is was " contra morem ccclcsia?," and accord- ingly gave orders that at every ordination the canons .should bo read beforehand, in order that such a transgression might not occur again 1'ossid. Vit. -Aug., c. 8, :; lioth were bishops, Ursacius of Singidon in Jfysia, Vab-ns of Jliuva in I'aniioiiia, and had no relations whatever to the Unman Church. The main supporter of Ariauism iu tho JLiomaii territory Aas Epictetus, bishop of CircurucclliB. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 195 rc-baptizcd. 1 Libcrius consents, comes back, and takes up his abode in the cemetery of St. Agnes with the emperor's sister, Constantia. 2 She is urged to gain admittance for him into Rome by intercession with her brother, but declines as a true catholic. Constantius, however, summons Libcrius to Rome without the intervention of his sister by the advice of the Arians, gets together a council of heretics, and with its help deposes the catholic Felix from his episcopal 3 office. The very same day a bloody persecution commences, conducted by Constantius and Libcrius in concert. The presbyter Euscbius (who distinguishes himself by his courage and catholic zeal, and gathers the people together in his house) reproaches the emperor and Libcrius with their crime, declares to the latter that he is no longer in any way the rightful follower of Julius because he had fallen from the faith, and to both, that, in satanic blindness, they have driven out the catholic blameless Felix. Whereupon Constantius, by the advice of Libcrius, has him shut up in a deep hole only four 1 There was no discussion about re-baptism at tli.it time, or for a long time afterwards. The Arians before Eunomius considered catholic baptism to be valid. 2 A confusion with the sister of Constantino the Great. 3 All this time, and so lon as Liberins was in office there, Con- stantius was not in Home. The narrative, however, gives one to understand that he lived there regularly. 196 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. feet broad, in which he is found dead at the end of seven months. The presbyters, Gregory and Orosius, relations of Eusebius, bury him ; upon which the emperor gives orders to shut up Gregory alive in the same vault in which they had placed the corpse of Eusebius. Orosius drags him out from the vault by night half dead ; he dies, however, in his arms, whereupon the other, Orosius, records the whole history. Felix, who had reproached the emperor with his re-baptism, is beheaded by the emperor's command. The persecution rages in Rome until the death of Liberius. Constantius publishes an edict that every one who does not join Liberius shall be executed without trial. Clergy and laity are now murdered in the streets and in the churches. At last Liberius dies, and Damas.us brands his memory with infamy in a synod. The description in the Acts of Eusebius is con- siderably more highly coloured than the repre- sentation in the Liber Pontificalis, where the cir- cumstances are toned down somewhat ; but the object in view, viz., to quash Liberius and make him appear as Constantius' companion in guilt, shines through it all from beginning to end. That the acts of Eusebius were composed in the interest of the antipope Felix, has been already remarked by LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 197 Cavalcanti. 1 It appears to me that there was another object joined with this, viz., to place the bloody scenes, which occurred in consequence of the divided election of Ursinus and Damasus, and which may have left behind them a misty recollection even two centuries later in Rome, in a light more favourable to the clergy of the time; and, by this means, the events were ante-dated by two years, and represented as persecutions of the staunch catholic clergy by the two Arians, the pope and the emperor. And they even went so far in their rejection of Liberius and efforts to put Felix in his place, that in the chro- nological notices of the Liberian basilica, built by that very pope, they passed Liberius over altogether, and placed Felix alone between Julius and Damasus. Thus, then, Felix was gradually thrust into the lists of the popes, the liturgies, and martyrologics, as rightful pope and a holy martyr ; not, however, until a late date, and, as regards the martyrologies, only slowly. Optatus and Augustinus had passed him over in their lists of the bishops of Rome. The twenty-ninth of July was the day which had been dedicated to his memory. But here, when the calendars and martyrologics were examined and compared, the deception became palpably manifest, 1 Vindiciu Bom. Pontiff. 193 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. and showed that the Felix there celebrated was quite a different one ; and that not until the eighth century, after the false legends about Felix and Eusebius had been forged, did it occur to people to declare that this Felix was the rival of Liberius. The oldest document as yet known is the Roman calendar, which Martcne has published in the fifth volume of his TJicsaurns. He assigns it to the beginning of the fifth century ; and rightly, for, with a single exception (Sylvester), it contains festivals of martyrs only, and Sylvester is the latest of the saints mentioned in it. Hence Damasus, though canonised at an early date, is wanting. Here, then, the twenty-eighth of July was marked as * natalis s. Fclicis, Simplicii, Faustini, et Bcatricis. In all other cases the designation " papa" is added to the names of the popes in this calendar. Several martyrologics, which bear the name of St. Jerome, and, 2 judging from their chief contents, belong to the fifth century (the period before Cassiodorus), agree with this. That of Bede likewise, without mention- ing Rome. Then the Alartyrologinni Ottobo}iianuin of the tenth, and the Kalcndarium Lanrcs/uvncnsc 3 So also tho S'lcramentarium Grcgorianum. El so where it is always the twenty-ninth. 2 In Martcne, Thes. iii., 1558. 3 Doth iu Giorgi's edition of Ado, p. G33, C92. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 199 of the end of the ninth century. On the other hand, that of St. Jerome in D'Achery separates Felix from the three others which manifestly belong to Rome, and transfers l him to Africa. The Vatican calendar itself, of the beginning of the eleventh century, 2 agrees also with this. But ho.w Felix got transferred from Africa to Rome is explained by a martyrology of Auxerre, which falls well into the end of the ninth century (the latest of the numerous popes men- tioned in it is Zacharias), (741-752) and is especially rich in Roman material, and accurate in local notices ; so that there can be no doubt as to its Roman origin. This is what it says at the twenty- ninth of July : " Romai via Aurclia translatio " corporis bcati Felicis episcopi ct martyris qui iv. " idus Novcmbris martyrio coronatus est. Eodcm "die ss. mm. Simplicii, Faustinii ct s. Bcatricis m. " sororis corum." 8 It appears, therefore, that the bones of the African martyr, Felix, were brought to Rome, and that only on account of this translation, which took place on the twenty-ninth of July, Felix was joined with the Roman martyrs Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrix, to whom this day was 1 Spi'ilej., ii., 15, nor. cd. 2 In Giorgi, p. 699. 3 lu Martone, Coll. Ampl., vi., 712. 200 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. already dedicated. Thus there are other martyr- ologies and missals, in which Felix is not found, but only the three others. In the so-called Sacramcn- tarium of Gelasius he is wanting also, although Simplicius, Faustinus, and Viatrix (or Beatrix) are celebrated. l In the later Gregorian Sacramentarium, on the other hand, the day is given as the birthday of the four saints, but in such a way that in the Oratio Felix alone is celebrated, and that as "martyr et " pontifex." In the martyrology of the year 826, 2 found at Corbie, as well as in the Martyrologium Morbaccnse, and in the Calendarium Anglic anum, only Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrix are men- tioned. 3 Most of them simply mention Felix without further designation, along with the other three ; or, like the Neapolitan of the ninth century, say 4 " Felicis " et Simplicii ;" or, " in Africa Felicis," &c., as the calendar of Stablo. With the eighth century, however, begins, on the other hand, the line of calendars and martyrologics which make Felix a pope, and of course mean one to 1 In Muratori, Liturgii Romana Vetus } i., 658 ; ii., 106. 2 D'Achery, Spici!., ii., 66. 3 Tho Calendarium Anglicinum (of the year 1000) in Martcno Coll. ampl , vi., G55. Tho Martyrologium Morbacerue in Martene, Thesaur., iii., 1570. 2 la Mai. Coll., v., 63. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 201 understand the antipope of A.D. 356. The first is the Roman calendar of the middle of the eighth century, edited by Fronto. l Next to this comes the martyr- ology which Rosweyde was the first to print ; which, however, is not a Roman one, as the editor and the Bollandists have stated. 2 It already contains the fable of Felix's martyrdom under Constantius. It is from this source, or from the legends, or from the book of the popes, that Ado has drawn ; and the subsequent martyrologists for the most part have copied him. Usuard, Notker, Rabanus, Wandelbert, follow in the same track. St. Eusebius, celebrated on the fourteenth of August, is found in almost all calendars and martyr- ologics, with the exception of the oldest, which belongs to the fifth century. This one, however, mentions the church of St. Eusebius as already existing in Rome, because here was a " static " on the Friday in the fourth week of Lent. In the martyrologies of St. Jerome, and in that of Bede, one reads at the four- teenth of August, " Euscbii tituli conditoris." From which it appears that his festival in the first instance was celebrated only in the church which he had built, 1 Epistolse et Dissert. Eccles., cd. Veron, 1733, p. 185. Exaratum intra tempera Gregorii II. and III., according to Borgia, Dt C.uct Valicani. 2 See on this point argument of Frouto, 1. c., p. 137. 202 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. thence passed into the Roman calendars, and from them into those of other countries. Nearer notices of him do not exist, and even from the sixth century and further were not to be found. Hence it was all the more easy for the intentional fiction, which aimed at distorting the history of Liberius and Felix, to make use of his name, and transform him into the hero of a tragedy, which should set forth the Arianism and cruelty of Liberius in strong colours. Here, then, as in other cases, it was the Liber Pontificalis that created the new tradition, which has influenced chroniclers and the papal biographers. The glaring contradictions of the Liber Pontificalis, which resulted from the unthinking interpolations of later hands, were at that time not observed. In the' biography of Liberius, which was correctly composed before any one thought of giving Felix a special biographical article, Felix dies peacefully (rcquicvit in pace) on his own estate, on the first of August. On the other hand, in the article respecting him, a few lines farther on, he is beheaded with many clergy and laity, on the eleventh of November. The author ol this article, in order that nothing should be wanting lor Felix's papal dignity, wished to represent him also as the builder of a church, and so represents him as again building the very "Basilica in via. Aurclia," LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 203 which in the article on Felix the First (A.D. 269-275) had already been mentioned as Felix's work. All the following writers of papal history have therefore' naturally followed this account : Pseudo-Luitprand, Abbo of Flcury, the anonymous chronographer in Fez, 1 Martinus Polonus, Leo of Orvicto, Bernard Guidonis, Amalricus Augerii. Felix is set forth as the thirty-ninth rightful pope. The revelation of the secret, that Constantius had caused himself to be re-baptized by Euscbius of Nicomcdia, costs him his life, and Liberius reigned for five years, as an Arian, and by his Arianism caused the martyrdom of many clergy and laity. Nevertheless, all that he did and ordered was declared null and void after his death by Damasus. Bernard Guidonis makes the addition of a martyrdom, which Eusebius is made to endure because he proclaimed Liberius to be a heretic. 2 From that time onwards the theologians accom- modated themselves to the prevailing view, especially in Rome itself. Who does not know, says the Roman presbyter Auxilius, the defender of Formosus, that Liberius gave his assent to the Arian heresy, and that at his instigation the most horrible abominations were practised ? 3 And towards the middle of the twelfth 1 Thet. Anecd^ i., p. 343. 2 In Mai, fyiciley., vi., 60. 8 De Ordin., i., 25. 204 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. century Anselm, bishop of Havelberg, reproaches the Greeks, because Constantius had caused Felix to be put to death for revealing the fact of his second baptism. But he makes excuses for Liberius, who no doubt had allowed much that was heretical, but had nevertheless steadfastly refused to allow himself to be re-baptized. l The Abbot Hugo of Flavigny (1090-1102) goes a step farther in his chronicle ; he makes Liberius also receive baptism a second time as a thorough, 2 Arian. Eccard, in his most influential chronicle, 3 Romuald of Salerno, the papal historian Tolomeo of Lucca, the Eulogiiim of the monk of Malmcsburg, all follow the usual fabulous tradition, that Liberius remained till the day of his death six, or (according to Tolomeo 4 ) eight years persistently heretical, while Felix is the catholic martyr. Nevertheless, with Marianus Scotus, Gottfried of Viterbo, and Robert Abolant, the au- thority of Jerome is still so powerful, that they narrate how Felix was violently thrust into office by the Arians. When at last the era of historical criticism and the- ological investigation came in with the sixteenth 2 Dialog., iii., 21, in D'Achcry, Spicil., i., 207. 3 In Pertz, x., 301. 4 Pcrtz, viii., 113. 6 " Vixit in hoc crroro annia octo." Muratori, SS. It., xi., p. S"3. LIBERT US AND FELIX. 205 century, no small amount of helplessness was exhibited. Hitherto Felix had been regarded as rightful pope, and the time of his pontificate was reckoned at a year and somewhat more. According to this view, Lib- erius would be deprived of his office by sentence of the church, on account of his lapse into Arianism, and then Felix came in as rightful pope, until at the end of a year he suffered martyrdom. Liberius, however, is said to have survived him by several years, and to have remained an Arian till his death. He could not therefore again become lawful pope after the death of Felix. Nor was the hypothesis of a vacancy of the see for several years either admissible or attempted On the contrary, an interregnum of thirty-eight days is all that the Liber Pontificals records after the death of Felix. This created a difficulty for the theolo- gians, of which they did not know how to dispose, if Felix was to be retained in his position as pope and saint ; and the historians could not deny the irrecon- cilcable contradiction to all contemporary inform- ation. Cardinal Baronius had already composed a treatise to show that Felix was neither a saint nor a pope. Gregory XIII. had appointed a special con- gregation to decide the question. And then (1582) during some excavations under an altar dedicated to SS. Cosmo and Damian, a body was found with an 18 so6 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. inscription on stone " Corpus S. Fclicis Papre ct Martyris qui condemnavit Constantium." The stone with the inscription vanished again soon afterwards, and Schelstrate l laments that search was made for it in vain. The wording of the inscription in itself would have been quite sufficient to prove it at once to be the clumsy invention of a later age. But Bar- onius and the congregation thought otherwise ; and so Felix kept his place as pope and martyr in the corrected Roman martyrology. Nevertheless, the place was 2 expunged from the subsequent editions of the older Roman breviaries, in which the martyr- dom of Euscbius, for merely rebuking the Arianism of Liberius, was related in the words of Ado. More- over in the Oratio of the breviary the designation of Felix as "pope " was removed. But even such a man as Bossuet could allow himself, on the strength of documents so palpably forged, to represent Liberius as an obstinate heretic and bloody persecutor of true 3 catholics. Still he contends against Baronius, who had accepted the wholesale persecution and butchery of the catholics in Rome under Liberius as a literal fact. 1 Anliquit. Illustr., i. 2 Sec Launoi, Epist. 6, p. 41. 3 Defens. Decl. Gall., p. 3, 1. 9, c. 33. LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 207 To complete it all, in the year 1/90, a Roman ecclesiastic, Paul Anton Paoli, 1 undertook in a lengthy work to prove the legitimacy of Felix, and the authenticity of his sufferings and acts. He has succeeded, he says, in accomplishing the feat, hitherto considered an impossibility, of making both the rivals, Libcrius and Felix, appear as innocent and guiltless, both of them together, as legitimate popes. All, according to him, rests upon misunderstandings and untrue reports. Athanasius, Hilary, Jerome, all their contemporaries, have been found to be in uninten- tional and unavoidable error. In Rome men were obliged to believe that the papal chair became vacant through Liberius' guilt, which, however, in reality was not the case, and hence Felix was elected. The Acts of Euscbius are genuine and contemporary. All the awkward statements which they contain arc set aside by the convenient and never-failing resource of supposing them to be later interpolations. Moreover, the author has fortunately discovered that Felix lived concealed in the neighbourhood of Rome for thirty- four years after he was driven out of the city ; although contemporaneous evidence makes him al- ready dead in the year 365, and, although there was 1 Di San Felice Sfcondo Papa e Martire Diuerltuiioni, Roma, 1790. With a supplement of over 400 pages quarto. 208 LIBERIUS AND FELIX. no conceivable reason for his concealment, after the death of Constantius. The whole is a structure of ill-conceived hypotheses and conjectures, which crumbles to dust at the first breath of sober historical investigation. That Felix was never rightful bishop of Rome, but a mere tool of the Arians, foisted upon the people, and successfully rejected by them, has been admitted by all the better ecclesiastical historians, Panvinius, Lupus, Hermant, Tillemont, Natalis Alexander, Fleury, Baillet, Coutant, Ceillier. In Rome itself cardinal Orsi 1 has let his own view, which agrees with theirs, shine through, partly by a meaning silence, partly by the appellation " antipopc," which he gives to Felix, though he only mentions him once in passing. Saccarelli 2 has shown, quite decisively and with correct judgment, that it is historically necessary to strike out Felix from the list of Roman bishops. Saccarelli's contemporary, the Augustinian monk Berti, in one of his treatises on ecclesiastical history, has stated the reasons usually given for and against Felix having a place in the list of the popes in such a way, that he makes one sensible of the weakness of the former ; and then 3 adds, as if by way of a joke, 1 hlori. Eccles., vi , 201, ed. in 12mo. 2 Hist. JSccles., v., 334. Rome, 1777. 3 " Ha;rot, ut aiunt, in aqua : nuquo enim tarditatc ingcnioli mei LIBERIUS AND FELIX. 209 that he does not venture to decide. Later on, three other Roman authors, Novaes, Sangallo, and Palma, the two first in their biographies of the popes, the last in his ecclesiastical history, have given up the case l of Felix as untenable. 2 " percipcre possum, quomodo, scdcnte Liberio, Felix vcrus Pontifex " sit habcndus," etc. Historia Eccles. s. Dissert, hist., iii., 466, Aug. 1TC1. This reluctance to speak his meaning openly is easily ex- plained by the fact, that cardinal Lambertini (afterwards popo Benedict XIV.) in his work D Canoniz. Sanctorum, 1, 4, p. 2. c. 27, 14, had just maintained, to the no small astonishment of all who were acquainted with ecclesiastical antiquity, "Do S. Felicia II. " sanctitate et martyrio nullam aniplius superesse dubitationcm, scd "disputari ab eruditis duntaxat do qualitato rationequo martyrii." When therefore cardinal Borgia, in his Apologia del Pontificate Lene- detto X., says, "passa quasi per dimostrata a lcgittimiti\ del ponti- " ficato di St. Felice per quelli che suppongono la caduta di Liberio," he is stating what is manifestly incorrect. 1 Novaes, Elementi della Storia de' Sommi Ponlffici, Roma, 1821 1, 128; Sungallo, Gett. de' I'onlef., iii., 496; Palma, PTceleciior.es Hist. Eccles. ii., 129. 2 [In the busts of the popes in the cathedral at Sienna the bust of Pope Joan has been transformed into pope Zacharias. (See p. 30.) Felix, however, retains his place there to this day.] VII. ANASTASIUS II. DAXTE sees in hell, in the circle of false teachers and their followers, the cover of a large tomb, with an inscription stating that this tomb contains pope l Anastasius, " Whom out of the right way Photinus drew." Now, it must always be a matter for astonishment that the great poet, when it occurred to him to represent a pope as suffering the fate of a heretic, should have chosen precisely this one, one of the least known in the Roman list One would have thought 1 Inf. Xi., 9. [E quivi per I' orrilalc sopcrchio .Del puazo, cho '1 profondo abisso gitta Ci raccostammo dictro ad nn coperchio D'un grand' avello, ov' io vidi una scritta, Cho diceva : " Anastagio Papa guardo, Lo qual trasse Fotiuo della via drittu" xi., 4-9. And there by reason of the horrible Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out, We drew ourselves aside behind the cover Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing, Which said : "Pope Anastasius I hold, Whom out of the right way Photinus drew." Longfellow's Translation. " The commentators are not agreed concerning the person who is " here mentioned as a follower of the heretical Photinus. l?y some ' he is supposed to have been Anastasius II. ; by others, IV. ; while a 210 ANASTASIUS II. 211 that Liberius or Honorius would have been much more ready to his Hand for this purpose, the first especially, who, according to the account which prevailed everywhere in the Middle Ages, ruled at Rome for several years before his death as a notorious Arian, so that, as was supposed, ardent catholics died as martyrs because of him. It was Gratian's Decrctum which, directly or indirectly, determined the Florentine poet in his choice. That is to say, Gratian, according to the precedent of the Ivonian decretal, inserted a passage from the Pontifical 1 book, in which it is said that "third sot, jealous of the integrity of the papnl faith, contend that our pout lias confounded him with Anastasius I., emperor of tho " East. Fazio degli Ubcrti, like our author, makes hiru a pope : " Anastasio papa in quel tempo era M Di Fotiu vago a nial gradodc sui, Ditlam^ndo, ii., 14." Gary's note in loco. Those who would Rare the pope at tho expense of the emperor say that Photinus died before the time of popo Anastasius II. Both pope and emperor \vcro called heretical out of respect to tho memory of Aracius. But the emperor need not he considered here. Dante probably knew wh.it he meant, and when he says pope, means pope, and not emperor.] 1 Dfcret., i., (list. 19, 9. [Gratian's Dccrttum appeared at Bologna, the first school of law in Europe, about 1150. It combined tho Isidorian forgeries with those of Deusdedit, Anselm, Gregory of Favia, and Gratian himself. It displaced all the older collections of canon law, anil became the usual manual for canonists and theolo- gians. No book has ever had such influence in the Church, although it teems with errors, both intentional and unintentional. For further particulars, see Janus, Der Papst und das Condi, in., p. 154-162.] 212 ANASTASIUS IT. many persons in Rome separated themselves from the company of Pope Anastasius, because he had entered into church communion with the deacon Photinus of Thessalonica, and intended secretly to bring Acacius again into honour in the Church. For which reason God had punished him with sudden death. Throughout the Middle Ages Gratian's Decretum 1 was accounted a decisive authority; it did not readily occur to any one to doubt the facts and doctrines stated in it ; and hence it comes to pass that the memory of pope Anastasius II. has come down to posterity as that of a man prone to heresy, from whose communion in the Church it was ri^ht to o withdraw oneself, pope though he was ; and only by his sudden death was still greater mischief warded off from the Church. Now what was there to justify this view ? The Byzantine emperors were perpetually finding themselves impelled by the political condition of the empire to endeavour to reconcile the powerful party of the Monophysites to the Church, and thus heal, not merely an ecclesiastical, but also a political disorder, and ward off the grave danger which was 1 [It became comparatively obsolete after Gregory IX. caused the five books of Decretals to be published by Raimond do Pcnnafort in 1234. It was, in fact, insufficient for tho increasing usurpations of the popes.] ANASTASIUS II. 213 threatening the State. With this object, the emperor Zcno, advised by Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, had published the Hcnoticon (482), which declared the binding authority and dogmatic decisions of the council of Chalcedon, so hateful to all Monophysites, to be an open question. This ended in pope Felix II. calling a synod, and declaring Acacius anathema. Acacius himself certainly remained all the while catholic in his doctrine, but he sacrificed the council of Chalcedon for the sake of peace, and entered into church communion with all Monophysites who had accepted the Hcnoticon. Acacius had almost the whole East on his side, and as Rome broke off from every one who remained in communion with Acacius, a schism in the Church between East and West for thirty-five years was the consequence. The successors of Acacius were bidden to strike his name off the diptychs as one who had died under excommunication ; and the popes Felix and Gelasius demanded this as a condition of communion. This, however, the patriarchs dared not do, for fear of a popular commotion ; and Rome would not give way, although Gelasius himself confessed that the expectation, that the Orientals would prefer com- munion with the See of Rome to every other con- sideration, had proved 1 a delusion. 1 Concilia, cd. Labbe, iv., 1173. 214 ANASTASIUS IT. The separation had lasted already eleven years, when pope Anastasius ascended the papal throne. He had peace with the Eastern Church more at heart than his two predecessors had had. He did, therefore, what Gelasius had refused to do, even at the request of the patriarch Euphemius ; he sent two bishops as his legates to Constantinople, still, however, contending that the name of . Acacius must no more be mentioned at the altar. In a contemporaneous Roman fragment mention is made of the letter which the pope sent at the time to the emperor. The reader will thence see on what worthless grounds the still continuing schism between the East and the West l rested. At this point Photinus arrived in Rome, a man who seems to have been active in ecclesiastical negotiations, and who probably had received a commission from the Orientals to win the pope over to the cause of union. Anastasius admitted him to communion, although from the Roman point of view he belonged to the schismatical party, that is to say, remained in alliance witli those who honoured the memory of Acacius. And the pope showed himself 2 ready to give way in 1 Tn T>lanfliini, Notre, Vctrinr. ad Annstas. Hi., 200. 2 'I' In 1 expivssion'of th ; biographer in the l'oiitifi<-al lioolc, "orriiltc "volnit n-voraru Acacium," is to bo understood of there-insertion of liis name in the diptychs. "Id nonnisi do illius nomine sacris "diplyclu.s reatitucndo IntelHgl potcst," says Yiynoli (Liber. 1'vnl'f., ANASTASIUS IT. 215 the question of mentioning Acacius name at the altar, and thus renounce the haughty bearing which, as exemplified in the conduct of his predecessors, 1, 171) quite rightly. Cardinal Mai, following in the track of many others (Baronius, Bellarmine, Sotumicr, &c.), says in his note to Bernard Guidonis (Spicil., vi., 98), that the statement in the Pon- tilical book cannot be true; Anastasius cannot have cherished the intention of securing for the name of Acacius mention in the liturgy, because he, like his predecessors, in tha letter which he sent to the emperor immediately after his promotion to the papacy, had demanded that this name should be suppressed. But, in matters of history, it can scarcely ba thought possible to build on such weak arguments. Certainly Anastasius did do this in the first few weeks of his pontificate, on entering upon the heritage of his predecessors. But what can be more natural than that a peace-loving pope, having become convinced of the impracticability of his own hard requisition, one which shocked the feelings of millions [nearly the whole East remained true to Acacius], should have shown a disposition to renounce a demand, with the surrender of which not a single essential principle of church discipline was surrendered. If it was possible in the case of a man, who for a hundred and thirty years after his death had remained in the enjoyment of church ;in- 7nuiii<>ii and intercession (Theodore of Mopsuestia), at last to e.xp'-l him, when men became convinced of the fundamental heterodoxy of his writings, it surely was possible, in the case of a bishop, who had always acknowledged catholic dogma, and had only erred in a formal way, and under very extenuating circumstances, to release him after his death from the anathema which had been pronounced on him, when on this act of clemency depended the well-being and peace of the whole Church. [The anathema against Acacius was pronounced by Felix in an unusually strong form. It was declared to be irreversible by any power, even by Felix himself: "Nunquamqne anathematis viiuulis "eniendus.' 1 Ejrixt. Felic. ad Acarium. In a subsequent letter to Zeno, Felix maintains this inexorable position : " Unde divinojudicio " Tiiillateuus pot u it. et'am qttum id Tna'le-nus. absolvi." Kf'iitt. xi. "Writing to Fravitta, who succeeded Acacius in a brief patriarchate of four months, Felix intimates that Aa< ius is doubtless with Judas in h !!. J'.ut the an.-th -ma was nlm<>im fulmfn in the East. Acaeius maintained his patriarchate till his death, and tho other threi- p;it:iar hs of Anti". h, Alexandria, and Jerusalem remained in commuuiou with him. Milmau's Latin Ckrislianily i blv. iii., c. i.J 216 ANASTASIUS II. had given such offence to the East. But in Rome, where it was considered a duty and point of honour not to depart from the path of Felix and Gelasius, this excited great displeasure ; and it came to a formal separation from Anastasius, for being willing to sacrifice the righteous cause of the Roman See, the authority of his predecessors, and the validity of the Chalcedonian decrees for the sake of an insecure peace. The premature and unexpected death of the pope at this position of affairs was regarded by those who had separated from him as a providential deliver- ance of the Church from very great danger. The later commentators on Dante Poggiali, Lombard!, and Tommaseo think that Dante, misled by Martinus Polonus, has confusecj pope Anastasius with the emperor, his contemporary and namesake. This, as one sees, is not the case. 1 Fhilalethes also thinks that, as Acacius had already been dead some time, the whole story rests on an error ; that is to say, he supposes that the author of the Pontifical book means one to understand the still-living Acacius, because he makes use of the expression (explained in the note) " to recall " [rcvocare Acacium]. There is, however, no necessity for this adoption of a glaring anachronism. It is 1 Dante's Divine Comedy^ Dresden, 1839, i., 60. [by the King of buxony.) ANASTASIUS II. 217 certainly a disfiguring blot in Dante's sublime creation that he has placed an innocent and doctrinally blameless pope, whose desire for peace would have been accounted as a high merit in another age, in hell with the eternally lost heretics. But the error, into which the greatest of Christian poets thus fell, lay not in the historical fact, but in the judgment respecting the fact ; and this erroneous judgment Dante shared with his contemporaries, and with the Middle Ages generally. In the Pontifical book it is stated, that Anastasius was not able to accomplish his intention with regard , to Acacius, l because death overtook him as a judg- ment from heaven. This statement is not sufficient for the chroniclers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The catastrophe must be more distinctly 1 Cardinal Mai also, following in the stops of B"llnrmino, Baronius, nml Xovaes, maintains that the author of the Litter Pontificalia would lead one to suppose that tho pope was struck by lightning, and that this was a confusion with the emperor Anastasius, who had met with this kind of death. Entirely without foundation. Tho Pontifical book does not say one word about lightning. Nothing more than this is conveyed in what it says: that the pope, owing to his opportune, and, as it were, divinely-sent death, was prevented from carrying out his ruinous intent inn. And that tho emperor of like name was killed by a flash of lightning is n late faMe, unknown to his contemporaries or to the next generation, and at the tiinu whn the biography of pope Anastasius was wn'tlen, was ii"l invented. Conf. Tillemont, Hist, dts Empereurs, vi., 5S5. 1'J 218 ANASTASIUS II. marked, and the fate which overtook the heretical pope must be such as to excite horror and disgust. They transferred, therefore, the story of the sudden death of Arius to Anastasius. He had gone aside to satisfy a call of nature, and was found afterwards with his intestines out. So Martinus Polonus, Amalrich Augerii, Bernard Guidonis. 1 Dante's commentators in the fourteenth century have followed them. Ac- cording to them Acacius is the associate (compagno) of Photinus, and canon of Thessalonica; but Photinus seduced the pope into denying the divinity of Christ. A great disputation between the pope and the cardinals, bishops, and prelates, who rebuked him for his false doctrine, 2 precedes the catastrophe. The gloss to the Dccrctum makes the pope struck with leprosy. 1 The papnl biographer, Du Poyrat, on the contrary, contents himself with saying, ''Anastasius damnatus cst et roprobalns," Notices et ezlraits, vi. [Anastasius, the Librarian (I'atrol. cxxviii., 439), says tliat the pope, in punishment for his error, "nutu divino " percussus est." llobertson, Hist, qf the Christian Church, i., p. 627.] 2 So the "false Boccaccio," or the Chiose topra Dante, composed in 137.5, Florence, 1846, p. 87, and the Latin commentary published by Nannucci under the name of Petrus Allegherius, Florent., 1845, p. 137 ; and then the Ottimo Commento, p. 109, which confuses Pho- tinus with the heterodox bishop of the fourth century. So also Francesco da Buti, Comme"to, i., 301. Where Graul (Dan/e's Hulle, p. 11J) found the story that Anabtasius denied the divine nature of Christ, I do not know. ANASTASIUS IT. 219 It was Gratian therefore, mainly, who fixed the judgment of the Middle Ages respecting Anastasius. This pope, 1 he says, is rejected by the Church of Rome. So says also the anonymous writer of Zvvetl in his History of the Popes. "The Church 2 rejects ''him and God smote him." The gloss adds that two popes, Gclasiusand Ilormisdas, excommunicated him. The fact that Gelasius was Anastasius' predecessor was overlooked. * But it was now hereby established, as a certain fact, that Anastasius was an hcrctic.il pope ; and so he was henceforth usually quoted along with Libcrius as a second instance of papal hereby. Since Gratian's time theologians were accustomed to appeal to the chapter " Anastasius " in the Dccrctinn and to the gloss on it, when they discussed the question of heretical error in a pope, and of the conduct of the Church in such circumstances. The schoolman, Algcr 4 of Liege (about A.n. 1150), must certainly have had other sources than Gratian before him when he asserted that pope Anastasius was condemned along with his Decree, because in it he 1 -'I'loo ab Ecclcsia llomana rcpnJiatnr." Distine., 19, c. 8. 2 Ap. Pox., Thesaur. Anecd., i., p. 3, 351. 3 [Frlix II., A.D. 483 Symmnchns, A D. 408 Gelasius I. " 492 Hormisdaa " 514.] Anastasius II. " 496. 4 Liber de JUiseiicordiad Justitia,c. 59. In Martenc, The*. Ane:d. t V., 1127. 220 AXASTASIUS II. had declared that the baptisms and ordinations performed by Ac-vcius aft or the sentence which had passed on him at Rome were valid. In this * he con- tradicted the decisions of his predecessors. Alc^er here agrees in the main with his contemporary Gratian. Gratian has quoted the declaration of Anastasius, according to which the efficacy of sacra- ments is not dependent on the character of the dispenser, and, consequently, even the sacraments administered by a bishop who has lapsed into heresy arc valid, and under proper conditions efficacious, as an instance of a false decision in matters of faith given by a pope, respecting which the Roman correctors have since contradicted him. 2 On the other hand, William of Saint-Amour (about 2 Aljrer himself docs not modn, as he afterwards explains, that the sacraments administered by Aeacins were forthwith null and void. He distinguishes thus : " Quod vera, qnamvis non rnta pos- "sint i-sse KHcramenta ciljtlslibct mali sacerdotis, vel h.-rretici, icl " diimriiiti.'' c. 83 I'.nt he fancies that Anastasius erroneously declared that the sacraments administered by Acacins were '-rata." That is to sav, In; starts from th.; principle which certain short- sighted defenders of papal snpreinaey had already put forth, that a pope who became herc'tiea!, immediately, and before even he had in any way made known liis heretical opinions, ceased to be pope, and heiier all that he subsvqih ntly did was null and void. In which ease the Church, whii h nevertheless, could not possibly do otherwise than recognize him all the while, wuiiid lind itself iu unavoidable error. 1 Decret. dittinc., 10, c. 7, 8. ANASTASIUS II. 221 A.D. 1245) confuses Anastasius with Liberius. He knows nothing more than that in the time of Hilary, a pope lapsed into heresy, of whom it is recorded " nutu divino fuit percussus ; " and he conjectures l that this may have been Anastasius II., mentioned by GraU'an. Alvaro Pclayo, who, next to Augustine of Ancoua, furthered the aggrandisement of the papal power, ' wilh the greatest zeal, beyond all previous bounds, and almost beyond all limits whatever, in his great work on the condition of the Church, makes mention of the judgment 2 which came upon Anastasius, in order to prove his dictum, that a heretical pope m i ;t receive a far heavier sentence than any other. Occr.m, 3 aLo, makes use of the "heretical" Anasta- sius as an instance to prove, what was his main point, that the Church erred by his recognition. The council of Iasle in like manner, with a view to establishing the necessary supremacy of an oecumen- ical council over the pope, did not fail to appeal to the fact, that popes who did not obey the Church were treated by her as heathens and publicans, as one reads of Liberius and Anastasius. 1 2 Opfra. rd. Conl-s. Crmstnnfirr (Pavisiis), 1G32, p. 9G. 3 " Divino jiulii io pcTctissns fuit, nam dum assrllurct intcstina "t'Mii.-it " He I lanclit Ecclesia-, 2, 10, Vcnctiis, 15CO, ii., 38. 4 Opus Aon 'yinta Die'Vm., Lugd., 141>5, f. 124. 1 In Harduin, viii., 1327. 222 ANASTASIUS 77. " The pope," says Domenicus del Domcntci, bishop of Torcello, somewhat later, in a letter addressed to pope Calixtus III. (1455-1458), "the pope by himself " alone is not an infallible rule of faith, for some popes "have erred in faith, as, for example, Liberius and "Anastasius II., and the latter was in consequence ."punished by God." l After him the Belgian John le Maire, also, says (about 1515), Liberius and Anastasius are the two popes of ancient times, who, subsequent to the Donation of Constantine, obtained an infamous reputation in the Church as heretics. 2 1 De Ca'dinalium Legit. Creat Tract., in M. A. dc Dominis, De Rcpull. Eccl , Londini, 1617, i., TG7 ss. 2 " In hceresin prolapsus est, ct reputatnr pro secundo Papa infnmi "post donationcm Constantiui." De Sc/usinatum et ConciL. Differ. Argentor, 160'J, p. 594. VIII. THE CASE OF HONORIUS WHILST Anastasius, most undeservedly, was counted as a heretic, the memory of Honorius, on the other hand, was held in honour ; and the fact that a general council had pronounced an anathema on this pope for holding heterodox opinions and countenancing heresy, was in the Middle Ages usually ignored. The cir- cumstances were as follows : The Monothelite heresy was a dangerous and unhappy attempt to reunite the Monophysites with the Church by means of a very comprehensive concession, devised and introduced into the Church, by certain Oriental prelates, who herein had probably an understanding with the emperor Hcraclius, and were acting in accordance with his wishes. The point of difference was this : the council of Chalccdon had declared that the two natures in Christ are united without any confusion or changing of one into the other ; there must, therefore, be also a duality of wills, and a human and a divine will be distinguished in Christ. The Monophysites, 1 [On this case see a translation of Bishop von Hefele's essay on Honorius, with notes, by II. 15. Smith, in the J'rest-yterian Quarterly and Princeton fieview, New York, April, 1872 ] 223 224 THE CASE OF HO NO RI US. on their side consistent, made the human will vanish in the presence of the divine, allowing to the Logos alone in Christ the full exercise of the power of volition. The Monothclitcs, who had formed them- selves into a middle party, having for its object the reconciliation of the Monophysites with the Church, on this point agreed with the latter ; and thus Cyrus, in Alexandria, brought about a union between the followers of Severus there and the Catholics. Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, who had an understanding with Cyrus, sought and obtained the assent of pope Honorius against the opposition raised by Sophronius. The manner in which the pope and the two patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria held essentially the same view, was this : Honorius had declared, quite in the sense of the other two, that the two decisive texts, in which the human and created will is most clearly distinguished from and opposed to the divine will of the Logos, arc merely an "economy" in Christ's mode of speaking, that is to say, an accommo- dation to be taken only in a figurative sense, by means of which Christ merely intended to exhort us to submit our own wills to the divine will. He was compelled therefore, equally with the Orientals, to recognize only a single will in Christ, the divine or theandric, that is, a will having its source in the Logos, THE CASE OF HONORIUS. 225. and, as it were, merely flowing through the human nature a will in which merely the Logos is the willing power and active principle, while the human nature is purely passive ; so that its power of volition is either non-existent, or, at any rate, quiescent. And this he said in so many words : " We recognise," he says, conceding the point to Sergius, but expressing himself with more decision than Sergius, "we recognise " one will in Christ." And thereupon Honorius, like the Monothelites of the East, troubled himself with the notion, that a human will, as belonging to man's sinful nature, must always strive against the Divine ; whereas the idea was not far to seek, that the human will, having its root in the sinless nature of Christ, conformed to the divine will, so that a moral unity co-existed with an actual duality of will. On the other hand, Honorius, taking the word " energy" (i. c. mode of operation), which had been used by the Greeks, in a sense altogether different from theirs, gave as his decision, that one ought not to speak cither of one or of two energies ; for that Christ, by virtue of His one theandric will, showed many modes of operation and activity. Therefore there is unity of will, says Honorius, for it is the Person that wills, and not the natures, and there is multiplicity (not unity, nor duality) of energies or 226 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. modes of operation. In this way, then, Honorius would have the controversy put down ; viz., that it was preposterous to contest about one or two energies in Christ, because neither the one nor the other expression could be used in a rational sense. At the same time, however, it was set forth that all men should be united in the acceptance of a single power of volition. The emperor Constantine stated sub- sequently in his edict, that Honorius had not only taught a false doctrine, but also contradicted himself, merely because he, being used to the oriental terminology, did not understand the sense in which Honorius used the word " energy." Honorius meant by it, manifestations of activity in the Person, which are many and various. But the emperor understood by it, modes of operation in the natures, of which there must be two, or (according to the Monothelites) on account of the unity of will, only one. This doctrine of Honorius, so welcome to Sergius and the remaining favourers and supporters of Monothelitism, ted to the two imperial edicts, the Ecthcsis and Typus. It led to them to this extent, that Heraclius was thereby justified in concluding that the Roman See would not oppose such a doctrinal decree as the Ecthcsis ; and the Typus of Constans was nothing more than a weaker echo of THE CASE OF HONORIUS. 227 the Ecthcsis, The result, however, was different from what had been hoped at Constantinople. The whole East rose up in arms against the new doctrine, and it forthwith became evident that Honorius, with his mode of understanding the question, stood alone in Rome and in the West. For some time efforts were made to excuse Honorius. Pope John IV. (A.D. 640-642) stated in his 1 apology that his predecessor had merely rejected the fond notion of two mutually opposing wills ; as if, that is to say, Christ had a will tainted with sin. No doubt the fear, that in admitting the double will one would be irre- sistibly driven on to accept two mutually opposing wills, was a very considerable element in the declaration of Honorius ; only it remains a riddle how a man, who certainly had no Monophysite tendencies, could allow himself to be influenced by so unfounded an apprehension. The excuse which Maximus, appealing to the statement of the papal secretary, brings forward for Honorius is still more forced and untenable. Honorius, he says, only 1 Mnrisi, x., G83. [Sevorinus, tho immediate successor of Honorius, had a brief pontificate of only three months; and appears to have rejected the Ecthcsis. John IV. did so in solemn council. Heraclins thereupon wrote to the pope to disown the document, saving that he had only published it at the urgent request of Sergius. Uobertson, Church History, ii., 45.] 228 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. wished to guard against the supposition of two Jannaii and mutually 1 opposed wills. Manifestly the pope had never thought of any such absurdity. Rather his decision and the cause of his error may be briefly expressed thus : One Wilier, therefore . one will ; for the will is the attribute of the Person, not of the natures. Honorius had written again to Sergius to the same o o effect, as well as to Cyrus and Sophronius, and hence it was quite natural that he should come to be regarded as one of the supporters of Monothelitism. The patriarch Pyrrhus, successor of Sergius at Con- stantinople, had accordingly appealed to him and, at the Lateran synod in the year 649, the writings of the Monothclites, which claimed for themselves the authority of Honorius, were publicly read. No one there spoke a word in defence of Honorius. Complete silence was observed respecting him, although the five prelates who were accounted the originators and main supporters of the false doctrine Theodore of Pharan, Cyrus of Alexandria, Sergius, Pyrrhus and Paul, patriarchs of Constantinople were condemned by pope Martin and the synod. At last came the decisive council of A.D. 680. And here took place what preceding events would lead 1 Mansi, x., 687, G91, 739. liO THE CASE OF HONORIUS. 229 one to expect. Honorius, as partaker in the Monothelite heresy, was treated in the same way as the other prelates who had already been condemned at Rome, along with them was placed under anathema, and the council insisted upon cursing " the heretic Honorius" by name. He joined himself, it is stated in the decree, in all particulars to Scrgius; he spread the heresy of the one will abroad among the people ; he deserved to be placed under the same anathema as Scrgius, for his dogmatic writings were completely opposed to the doctrine of the apostles and decisions of councils, tending towards the same godlessncss as the writings of the most pro- nounced Monothclites. The emperor Constantinc [IV., Pogonatus] in- particular, who had taken a l very active part at the council, expressed himself to this effect in the letter which he wrote to the pope. And in the edict which was affixed to the great church of the capital, it was said of Honorius that in all points he was 2 to be treated like Scrgius and Theodore, as " the companion and associate of 1 [There were eighteen sessions, lasting from Nov. 7th, 630, to Sept. 16th, 681. The emperor presided in person at the fust eleven sessions, and nt the eighteenth. In his ali.senc.-c the president's chair was left empty. The number of bishops increased gradually to nearly two hundred.] 2 Mansi. xi. 6U7-712. f " Qui fuit cnra eis in omnibus cohrcreticus " et concMirrt.-ns ct cunfinuator luercsis. 1 ' Hartluiu, iii , 1638. J 230 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. " heretics and the sanctioner of heresy." The council 1 itself, after subjecting the writings of Sergius and Honorius to a careful investigation, declared respecting the two men, " whose godless doctrine we " abominate," that "we deem it necessary to cast their " names out of the Church." That it was the intention of the council to condemn Honorius for actual heresy, and not merely for weakness or negligence or imprudence in his mode of contending against heresy, there cannot be any doubt. And yet it is certain that he 2 was not heretical in the 1 ["Duas igitur in eo naturales voluntntcs (Qvatica Belf/fiara), et " duas naturales opcrationcs (6vaiK.as kvepyela^, communiter atque u indivise procedentes pradicamus ; supcrfluas autcm vocum novi- " tatcs, et harum adinventorcs procul ab ecclesiasticis scptis abjici- " mus, ct anathemati mcrito subjicimus ; id cst, Thcodorum Pharani- " tanum, Sergium ct Paulum, Pyrrhum simul ct Petrum, qui Con- u stantinopoleos pr;csulatum tcnuerunt, insuper et Cyrum, qui " Alexandrinorum sacerdotium gessit, et cum cis Honorium, qui "fuit Pvoma; praesul, utpote qui eos in his sccutus est." Labbe, Cone I., vi., 1053; Harduin, Concil, iii., 1422.] 2 [See on this point the essay of Bishop of von Hcfele, referred to above. He shows that Honorius taught heretical doctrine. Ho says, that " Houorius confounded the energy, or mode of working in itself, with its single manifestations. "His words, bearing on this, read literally: 'It is not right to give the authority of ecclesiastical dogmas to opinions which do not seem to have been submitted to the examination of Synods, nor to have the authority of ecclesiastical canons ; as is the case with those who presume to predicate one energy or tw> energies of Christ, etc.' (ilansi, Collect. Concil. T. xi. p. 542.) " And afterwards he says : ' For we have not learned from the THE CASE OF JIONORIUS. 231 strict sense of the term ; though assuredly it is equally clear that Cyrus, Scrgius, Pyfrhus, and Paul were neither more heretical than Honorius, nor less so. The question at issue was one which had not been raised or discussed before, it then for the first time occupied men's minds ; a question in which the danger of falling into one of two opposite errors Nestorianism or Monophysitism was very imminent. In such cases a certain amount of time and of contro- versy is always needed, in order that the con- sciousness of the Church may find its bearings and Holy Scriptures that Jesus Christ and hisTToly Spirit have one moclo of operation, or two, although we have learned that Ho worked in manifold ways.' (.Van*i, ubi tupr&.) " And at the close : ' This, my brother, yon will also preach as we do ... and we exhort you, that, avoiding the new mode of operation, you proclaim with us one Lord Jesus Christ.' (J/anj/, p. 643.) "Ilonorius here not only rejects the orthodox technical term of two enrrgies, but at the same time prescribes a heretical phrase as a rule of faith when he says : ' On this account we too confess one will (.'"> fq/.l>iin) of our Lord Jesus Christ, since our nature but not our guilt was manifestly assumed by the divinity ; and this nature, too, as it was created before sin and not as it was vitiated by the fall. That is, the corrupted nature was not assumed by the Saviour, for this would be repugnant to the law of the Spirit.' (Manni, p. 539.) " The result is that Honorius (a.) rejected the technical orthodox term of ftco energies (i5tn ivipystai) ; (b ) and declared the specific heretical term, one wi I (iv ftp.rjun) to be correct ; and (", vii., 1(30, 182, 422 3 Suu Garuiur'.s note to the Liber Diurnu , p. 41. THE CASE OF HONORIUS. 241 remark, that he must have deserved anathema in his life, otherwise those who sat in judgment upon him would have harmed themselves rather than l him. After him the recollection of the circumstance perished in the western churches. Of course, in the notices of the sixth council, as they existed in this or that chronicle, and in the Roman breviary, the name of Honorius, without further explanation, was still read along with the rest who had been condemned by this council. But seeing that all these others were Orientals, that the Monothclite controversy had left no traces behind it in the West, and that none of the historical works in general use in the Middle Ages contained any particulars of the Monothclite question, it no longer occurred to any one that the Honorius thus expelled from communion with the Church was the pope. Beyond everything else the silence of the Pontifical book decided the point in this direction. Hence it came to pass that not one of the numerous compilers of histories and lists of popes gave even the slightest hint of so remarkable a circumstance, one quite unique in its kind. The pscudo-Luitprand, Abbo, Martinus Polonus, Leo of Orvicto, Bernard Guidonis, Gervasius Riccobald of Ferrara, Amalrich 1 In the treatise De una et non trina Deitale, cf. Chmcl Vindicii* Concil, vi., Prague, 1777, p. 137. 21 242 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. Augerii all these writers of histories of the popes are silent. They sometimes relate about him some unimportant things, such as small liturgical directions; they mention that Leo II., understanding Greek, translated the Acts of the sixth council into Latin. But an event, which in Rome itself appeared so important that it had been expressly included in the pope's confession of faith, they one and all leave unmentioned, not perhaps of set purpose only of the compiler of the Pontifical book can it be said that he purposely suppressed the proceeding but openly, because they knew nothing whatever about it, although three oecumenical councils, the sixth, the seventh, and the eighth, had pronounced or confirmed the sentence of anathema on Honorius. And this was universally the case with the Latin writers from the tenth to the fifteenth century. True that the chronicle of Eccard, 1 that Ado and Marianus Scotus mention Honorius among those who were condemned by the sixth council, but this name without any further description was, for those times, mere empty sound, conveying no ideas to any one. When, therefore, Cardinal Humbert, in his writing against the Greek Nicetas, 2 inserts a notice of the sixth 1 In IVrtz, viii., ] . r )5. 2 In Baron , Append, ad torn, xi.; Annal.,p. 1005, cd. Colon. THE CASE OF HONORTUS. 243 council, and in this mentions Honorius also as one of those condemned, we may be certain that he had no suspicion of the rank of the person mentioned ; other- wise the Byzantines would have been precisely the people in whose minds he would have avoided awakening such a recollection. The oblivion in.o which the fate of Honorius had fallen is specially astonishing in the letter of Pope Leo IX. to Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, and to Leo l of Achrida, in which all the scandals and heretical errors of their Church and its bishops are set before these prelates. The pope confidently contrasts the 1 Hardnin, in., 9?1. [Michael Ceru'arius and Leo, archbishop of Achrida and metropolitan of P.'ilgaria, provoked the COJT<*>|>< mLncc in 1053, by a letter to the bishop of Trani, in Apulia, warning I. m against the errors of the Latins. The pope replied from his virtual captivity at Bjnevento. After quoting tlic text, " Ego autem rogavi " pro te, ut non dcfi'-mt fides tua ; ct tu aliqnando conversus confi: ma 41 fratres tuos," the pope proceeds: "Erit ergo qnisquam tanta " demcntiae. qui orationcm illius, cii.jjis velle est poss<-, aml> at in "aliquo vacuara putare ? Nonne a scde principis Apostolorum " Rumana videlicet ecclcsia, tain per eumdern Potnim quam succcs- u sores suos, reprobata et conricta, atqii3 cxpugnata sunt omnium "hicreticorum commenta; ct fratrum corda in fide Petri, quaj " hartenus nee defecit, nee usque in fincm defieiet confirmata ? "Pneterimus nomination replicare nonngintact eo ampliushwreses "ab Orientis partibus, vel abipsisGneciH, diverse tcmpore ex diverse " errore ad cornimpendam virginitatrm catholics ecclesiae matris " emergentes. Dicendum vidctur ex parte, quantas Coiidtantino- "politana ecclesia per pr&siiles suos suscitaverit pcstes; quas "viriliter expugnavit, proUivit, et suffocavit Humana et Apoatoliua " sedes."J 244 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. steadfast orthodoxy of the bishops of Rome with the numerous cases of heresy which had occurred in Constantinople, and calls attention to the way in which the popes, especially in the Monothelite con- troversies, had continually exercised their judicial office over the patriarchs of Constantinople, and had condemned them ; evidently not Having the slightest suspicion that Michael and Leo, by quoting the con- demnation of Honorius, pronounced at Constantinople and accepted at Rome, could have demolished his whole argument. On the contrary, deceived by the Roman apocryphal documents, he represents to his opponents that Sylvester had decided that the First See (that is the Roman) can be judged by none, and that Constar.tine, together with the whole council of Nicasa, had approved this. 1 Again, Anselm of Lucca would not have main- tained with such confidence that at the eight oecumen- ical councils which had been held up to that time, it had been proved that the patriarch of Rome was the only one whose faith had never wavered, if he had known that it was precisely at the last three of these 1 ["Illi nempe facitis prtejudicium, de qua nee vobis, nee cuilibct "mortaliurn licet faccrc jiulicium ; bcatissimo et Apostolico Ponti- " ficc Kilvcstro diviuitus decerncnte, spiritualique cjtis filio Constan- " lino religiosissimo Augtisto cum univursa synodo Nieacnaapprobaute ** ac subbcribente, ut summa sedes a neminejudicelur."] THE CASE OF HO NO RI US. 245 eight synods that ITonorius had been condemned for heresy. l In like manner, Rupert of Deutz would not, as he has done, have contrasted the steadfast ortho- doxy of the popes with the heretical aberrations of the patriarchs of Constantinople, if he had not shared the general ignorance respecting the sixth council. 2 Accordingly, in 'the West, as often as cases had to be quoted in which popes had erred or become heretical, people appealed to those of Liberius and Anastasius, sometimes also to that of Marcellinus ; never to Honorius. This ignorance appears in a very astonishing way under Clement V. At that tiir.c there was on the part of the French a pressing desire for a formal anathema on Boniface VIII. The defenders of this pope contended that as being a dead man who could no longer answer for himself, he was exempt from all human judgment, and therefore even from that of the Roman See. The instance of Ilonorius would have been very welcome to the agents of the French court ; for by means of it they could have proved in the most emphatic way that the Church had certainly sat in judgment on a defunct pope, and had condemned him. The fact, however, had long since vanished from the memories of jurists no less 1 Contra Guiberium Antipapam, Bill. Patrum Lugd., xviii., G09. 2 De Divtni* Offic., 2, 22. 246 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. than of theologians ; and hence in the long controversy and legal discussion the name of Honorius was never mentioned. Hence it has come to pass that Platina has even made Honorius a decided opponent of Monothclitism, and he represents Heraclius as banishing Pyrrhus and Cyrus at the suggestion of Honorius. But that towards the close of the sixteenth century the learned Panvinio, whom Cianoni then copied in turn, should allow this to pass unchallenged, is scarcely con- ceivable. The fact that Honorius was condemned by the sixth general council was first brought back to the memory of the Western Church by a Greek living in Constantinople, Manuel Kalekas, who in the year 1390 wrote a work against the Byzantines for being separated from the West. The papal nuncio Anton Massanus, a Minorite, brought the book from Con- stantinople to the papal court in 1421 ; whereupon Martin V. had it translated by the celebrated Camaldulensian abbot, Ambrose Traversari. From it cardinal Torquemada, 1 who wrote his Sununa about tho year 1450, first learnt the condemnation of Ilonorius, which disturbed him greatly; for by no 1 Qucti/et EuLaid, Scrtf lores 0. P., I., Vi8. THE CASE OF HONORIUS. 247 sort of means would it work into his system. x Kalckas had made light of the affair in his contro- versy with the Greeks. He had contented himself with referring to the excuse which Maximus makes for Ilonorius, without troubling himself with the consideration that the judgment of an oecumenical council must have an authority very different from the evasive answer of a theologian, who knew of no other way of helping his case than to make the secretary answerable for the errors contained in the pope's 2 letter. Now Torquemada was acquainted with the declaration of Hadrian II. from the Acts of the eighth council, to the eftect that Honorius had been anathematised for heresy. Nevertheless, he says that we must suppose that the Orientals were misinformed about Ilonorius, and so had condemned him under 3 a mistake. His sole ground ior saying this is, that pope Agatho, in enumerating the Monothclite leaders, has not mentioned Ilonorius among them. This attempt to load an oecumenical council with 1 Summa de Ecclesia, 2, f3, ed. Vcnot., 15GO, f., 228. This is tlio most important work of the Middle Ages on the question of the extent of the papal power. 2 Contra Groccomm errorts, Ingolst., 1C08, p. 381. 3 " Creditui quod hoc fecerint Urii-utalcs ex mala ct falsa siuistra "informativuc do pKciato liyayrio decepti." 248 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. the charge of a gross error, merely to rescue the honour of one pope, remained, however, on the whole, unobserved, and stood alone at that time. For then, as through the whole of the Middle Ages, the view still prevailed that a pope could certainly apostatise from the faith and become heretical, and in such a case both could and ought to be deposed. Not until after the middle of the sixteenth century did any one occupy himself seriously with the question of Honorius. The fact of the condemnation was irreconcilcable with the system then developed by Baronius, Bellarmine, and others. Attempts were accordingly made to set it aside. It was pretended, that is to say, that the Acts of the sixth council had been falsified by the Greeks of a later age, and all therein that concerned Honorius had been inter- polated by them, in order that the disgrace of so many Oriental patriarchs being condemned for heresy might be lessened by the shame of a pope being found in the same predicament. Then it became necessary to declare that the letter of Leo II. was also interpolated. And on this Baronius, Bellarmine, Ilosius, Binius, Duval, and the Jesuits Tanner and Grctscr determined. But when the Liber Diiii'nus came to light, the nullity of this attempt was dis- closed. Another mode of getting out Oi the difficulty THE CASE OF HONORTUS. 249 proved still more untenable ; this was to deny the condemnation of Honorius at the sixth council, and transfer it to another purely Greek synod (the quinisext l council of A.D. 692 is apparently the one meant), the Acts of which were then inserted in those of the sixth council. This was the device resorted to by Sylvius Lupus, and the Roman oratorian Marchese, who has set forth this idea in a book of his own. 2 That the letters of Honorius were forgeries, or that they had been interpolated, was somewhat more conceivable ; at least the supposition demanded no such immense and elaborate apparatus of falsification as Baronius and Bcllarmine pictured to themselves, or at any rate to their readers. This mode of escape therefore was chosen by Gravina and Coster ; Stapleton also and Wiggers were inclined 3 towards it. 1 [Called quinisext, as being supplementary to the fifth nml sixth councils. It is also known as the Trullan, from the Trullus or raulted hall, in which it was held. The date of it is doubtful ; 636, 691, G92 have all been suggested. Harduin places it as late as 708. The two papal legates signed its 102 canons; but popo Ssrgius I., to the chagrin of the emperor Justinian II., declined to do so. The council was recognised by the East only, where iit Ada were quoted as those of the tizth council ; and this was the first grave step towards tb.3 schism between the East and the West.] 2 Clypeus fortium, tive Vtndicix Uonorii Papas. Romae, 1680. 3 Against endeavours such as these of Bjllarmiui-, Baronius, and others after them, to set aside well-attested historical facts by 250 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. Seeing, however, that the letters of Honorius were laid before the council, examined, and condemned in the presence of tJie papal legates, who at any rate must have known their contents, it was found necessary to abandon this method of getting out of the difficulty also. Several, therefore, preferred to maintain that Honorius himself had taught what was orthodox, and had only been condemned by the council because he had shown leniency to heresy from an ill-timed love of peace, and had favoured it by rejecting a dogmatic expression which had become indispensable. So De Marca, Natalis Alexander, Gamier, Du Ilamcl, Lupus, Tamagnini, Pagi and many others. This method of defending Honorius became a very favourite one after the outbreak of the Jan- senite troubles. It is chiefly owing to the Jansenists that the question of Honorius has become a quccstio vexata, in which every effort has been made to throwing suspicion on the witnesses and documents, because they will not square with the system of a particular school or party, cardinal Sfondrati has spokca out very strongly on this very ques- tion of Honorius. "Quid hoc aliud cst, quara contra torrentem " navigare, omncmquc historian! ccclcsiasticam in dubium vocare? " Sublata vero historia et conscquenter traditione ustiquu Eeclesirc, " qua; tu arma contra hareticos satis valida habcbis? Male ergo, ut " nobis quidem vidotur, Ecclesia) illi consulunl', qui ut Iloiiorii ' cuusum tuoantiir, historiam Eeclesianviue uxurmant. Ergo si " testibus agenda res cat, Honorius Papa kajieti^as fail." i^uycuii Lombard! Regale Sacerdotium, p. 721, sq. THE CASE OF JJONORWS. 251 confuse and set aside the facts, and with which since 1650 almost every theologian of note has occupied himself. So that within a period of about 130 years one may say that more has been written on this one question of ecclesiastical history than on any other in 1500 years. For the Jansenists it was all-important to invalidate the judgment which the Church had pronounced on the work of Jansen. Accordingly they put forth the theory that the Church both could err and had erred ; not, indeed, in the setting forth of doctrine, but in "dogmatic questions of fact," that is to say, in its judgment on a book, or its interpretation of a dogmatic text. They set themselves therefore on the side of Ilonorius against the council, and readily pursued the course which had already been opened by cardinals Torqucmada, Baronius, Bellar- mine, DC Laurca, and Aguirrc, 1 maintaining that 1 For these writers, foreseeing that the theory of a falsification of the Acts would not hold water, had already taken up the other alternative, that the council had made a mistake in its judgment on the decretals of Ifonorius Bcnncttls (f'rivil. Pontif. Vmdtciae, Rom., 1759, P. ii., T. V., p. 389) admits, " Turrecremat.-c, Barouio, " Bellarmino ac Spondnno locutione.s excidisso minus accuralas ac " paiilo aspcriores." They have simply sacrificed the authority of an oecumenical council, and of a decision accepted by the Papal Sco itself, to the. interests of their own theory. [So also Pcro Gratry : " On m'accuse de manquer i I'^glise, notre mere, parcc que jo " denonce le pernicietix nuusonge des decretales dans lea lecons du " Breviaire roinain. Le breviaire est-il done 1'Jiylise, et les legccdei 252 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. grievous wrong had been done to Honorius and his letters by the judgment of the council. The council, in spite of the care which it bestowed, and although the matter in question was at that time current with every one, had been mistaken in their decision ! The opponents of the Jansenists, who would not allow that the Church had condemned a pope as heretical and expelled him from communion, preferred rather to do violence to the clear words of the council, in order to say that Honorius had become subject to the anathema of the council, not on account of positive, but only of " negative" heresy ; that is to say, merely because he had countenanced other heretics and favoured their false l doctrine. But Fe"nelon had already pointed out that, with all the artifices and "sont-cllcs done le breviaire? Mais, quoi! si 1'on manque t\ 1'Eglisa "pour vouloir cfiaccr des erreurs dans les lemons du Breviaire " remain, quo dire do ceux qui veulent efiaccr dcs decrets do foi "dans les conciles cccumeniqucs ? . . . Oui, je demandc ce qu'il " faut dire de ccux qui traitcnt ainsi les decrets des conciles; qr,i ? " voyant Honorius condamne par trois coneilcs cecumeniqucs, sans " compter vingt papes, repondent tons simplem nit (juc ces con- " ciles se sont trompes!" Troisilme lettre d Monseiyneur I'Arehe- veque de Malines. Paris, 1870, i., p. 5.] 1 It is specially the Jesuit Gamier, who, in his notes to the Liber Diurnw, has expended great pains on this point. A whole host of theologians have followed him. At last Pal ma (I'rcelfrtiones Hist. Eccles., ii , 127), whoso efforts go beyond everything with this con- clusion, asserts that the council certainly invoked an anathema on Honorius, but in the expression of it was not quite in earnest. THE CASE OF HONORIUS. 253 explanations by means of which the orthodoxy of Ilonorius was to be saved, nothing after all was to be gained. For the paramount question must always be this: Has the Church, represented by a full oecumenical council, declared the dogmatic writings of a pope to be heretical, and thus recognised the fallibility of popes? If this question must be answered in the affirmative, then it matters very little for the interests of the Roman See whether the synod, in the application of the principle to a particular case (the meaning of the letter of Ilonorius), has made a mistake or not. * Some Italians of the last century for example, bishop Bartoli and the librarian Ughi once more took refuge in the favourite and most convenient falsification theory, which makes very short work of every stubborn fact. According to Bartoli, 2 the letters of Ilonorius are forgeries. At the same time, however, Bartoli adopted the discovery which had already been made by the Augustinian Desirant, that besides this the Greeks had forged also the letters of Scrgius ; so that the doubly-deceived synod had regarded the letter of Ilonorius also, which agreed 1 Troisitme instr. pastor, sur le Cas de Conscience. (Euvrcs, ed. da Versailles, xi., 483. 2 Apologia pro Uonorio I. Rom. fonti/., Ausugii, 1750. 254 THE CASE OF HOXORIUS. with that of Senrius. as heretical. U^hi l admitted o o that the synod openly condemned Honorius for heresy ; but thinks that it acted carelessly and without thought in so doing, because it allowed itself O O to be deceived by the letter which had been foisted upon Honorius. And, not to adopt any half measures, he declares that the letters of Leo II. are also spurious. The French theologian, Corgne, likewise has resorted to this lamentable expedient. 2 Arsdekin and Cavalcanti thought of another loophole, through which it was possible to escape from the unwelcome conclusion, viz., that it was the Greeks alone who, at the sixth council, pronounced the unjust sentence upon Honorius ; the Latins present had not taken part in this mistaken proceeding. On the other hand, their contemporary, bishop Duplessis d'Argentre, maintained that the council had condemned Honorius as a Jicrctic, and with justice, for God had allowed him to fall into these errors in his letter to Sergius, in order that popes 1 "Q^as omnia," lie remarks, after qnotinir the most decisive pacsasr'-pfrom the act* of the conncil, "nullo tmqnam tc-mperamento ^vmollita . . . manifeste demonstrant. fuisse Honorium non solum- * ; modo tanqnam desidtrnx, Sid tanqoam vemm hsereticuin a synodo * VI. prosc-riptam." De H'jno,t3 I. Pordif. Max. Liter, Bononise, 17:4. p. &4. of p &3. 2 Ltutertativn critique et theoloyigue CUT U Monrttelitmc, Paris, 1741, p. 56 sq THE CASE OF HONORIUS. 255 might learn by his example that freedom from error in the setting forth of doctrine was assured to them only on condition of their taking proper counsel, which he had neglected to do. : Cardinal Orsi also has fully recognised the untenableness of the efforts to save the orthodoxy of Honorius, and the openings for attack which were thus exposed by shortsighted theologians. He withdraws, therefore, back to the point of view, that Honorius spoke only as a private teacher, neither as pope, nor in the name of the Roman Church giving a solemn decision after the necessary taking of counsel (^r cathedra}. Cardinal Luzerne has subjected these tenets to a sharp 3 criticism. One cannot say, he justly remarks, that Honorius gave his opinion on the Monothelite question not as pope, but only as a private teacher. The question was put to him as pope, and he answered as pope, in the same tone and style in which his predecessors, Celestine and Leo, had answered on dogmatic questions. Orsi, however, is quite right on his side, when he argues that Honorius gave his decision without a council and on his own 1 Collect Jxiiciorvin dt .Vorw Emribtu. Paris, 1724. T. I., prtrf., p 4. And in his VcUviix E.J 256 THE CASE OF HONORIUS. responsibility ; without troubling himself about the doctrine held by the Churches of the West, which from the first had always believed in a duality of wills ; without even giving the Roman Church itself the opportunity of making known its creed as regards this question. If the idea of a decision ex cathedrA be duly expanded, and only those dogmatic announcements be reckoned as ex cathedrA which a pope issues, not in his own name and for himself, but in the name of the Church, with full consciousness of the doctrine prevailing in the Church, and therefore after previous inquiry or discussion by a council then, and only then, can one say that judgment about Honorius was not given 1 ex cathedra. Neither the Roman Church, nor the Western, nor the greater part of the Eastern Church, has ever been Mono- thelite. Nevertheless, Honorius sent letters to the Eastern Church, about the Monothelite meaning of which assuredly not a doubt would ever have been raised, but for the fact that the author was a pope. Accordingly, the old Roman breviary designates him simply as a Monothelite. 2 1 [With this interpretation one would readily admit that not only the popo, but every bishop is infallible, when he speaks ex cathedra.] 2 Hi'fele, in his Concilienffetchichte, and in the discussion in the T hint/fin Qnart.nl schrift, "year. 1857, has treated the question of Ilonorius with philosophic impartiality, accuracy, and thoroughness. [See also four letters to Monseigneur Deschamps, archbishop of Maliues, by A. Gratry, priest of the Oratory. Paris, 1870.J IX. POPE GREGORY II. AND THE EMPEROR LEO THE ISAURIAN. ACCORDING to later historians, who have been eagerly followed by many theologians, Gregory II. deprived the iconoclast emperor Leo of the kingdom of Italy, and induced the Italians to throw off their allegiance to him, because he attempted to carry his edict against the use of images into effect in Italy as well as in the East. Baronius, Bcllarmine, and others have made this supposed fact a main support of their system with regard to the authority of popes over the temporal power. Of the biographers of popes in the Middle Ages, Martinus Polonus is the only one who, while he makes a confusion by transferring the matter to Gregory III., asserts that the pope, recognising in the emperor Leo an incorrigible iconoclast, induced Rome, Italy, Spain, and the " whole of the West " to throw off their alle- giance to the emperor, and forbade all payment of taxes to him. We have here another proof of the incred- ible ignorance of Martinus Polonus, in representing Spain Gothic and even Saracen Spain as throwing off their allegiance. And besides that, what we arc 207 258 GREGOR Y II AND LEO III. to understand by the " whole of the West," he himself would have had some difficulty in showing. The other papal biographers, Amalrich, Guidonis, Leo of Orvieto, and others, know .nothing of the secession of Italy from the empire. But before Martinus Polonus, Sigebert of Gemblours, Otto of Freysingen, Gottfried of Viterbo, Albert of Stade, and the so-called Landulf, the late compiler of the Historia Miscclla, had already accepted the statement that pope Gregory induced the Italians to revolt from Leo. All of these, as well as the Byzantines Zonaras, * Cedrenus, and Glykas, received the statement from one and the same single source. This source is the chronicler Theophancs, who wrote the history of this period eighty years after it (he died not earlier than A.D. 819); and his work, in the abbreviated Latin translation of Anas- tasius Bibliothecarius, was used by the above-men- tioned Latin chroniclers either directly or indirectly. It is altogether futile, therefore, to pile up names of witnesses to this supposed fact (after the manner of Bianchi 2 ), and add to these Nauclerus, and Platina also. All these witnesses resolve themselves into one ; and the investigator has merely to show (i) that 1 [Zonaras and Michael Glykas bring their chronicles down to the death of the emperor Alexis I., Comnenus, 1118; Cudrenus, to 1057.] 2 Delia Potesta e della Polizia della Chiesa. Bom., 1 745, i., 382. CREGOR Y IT AND LEO 111. 259 Theophanes * is a late authority, very little acquainted with Italian affairs ; (2) that the two contemporary Italian witnesses, Paulus Diaconus, and the anony- mous biographer of Gregory in the Pontifical book, state just the opposite of what Theophanes says ; and (3) that Zonaras, in the twelfth century, and certainly Cedrenus (both of whom merely copied Theophanes) are here utterly unworthy of consideration. The special object of Zonaras, moreover, is to throw the blame of the loss of its Italian possessions by the Greek empire on the papacy. Accordingly he de- corates the erroneous statement of Theophanes with the further statement that Gregory made an alliance with the Franks, who hereupon got possession of Rome, a statement which he thrice repeats. That is, he transfers events, which first took place under Pcpin and Charles the Great, to the time of Gregory II. and Charles Martel. The truth of the matter is, then, that, according to the accounts of the two Italian contemporaries and 1 [Thcophanes was born about A.D. 750. He was a most zoalous advocate of the use of images at the second council of Nic.Tit in 787. Leo the Armenian mitdo him an object of persecution for his support to (lie cau.se of image-worship, imprisoned him for two years, and finally banished him to Sarnothrace, where he died almost imme- diately, March, 818. His chronicle is ft continuation of that of his friend Syncellus, commencing with the accession of Diocletian in 284, and going dowu to 813.] 260 GREGOR Y II AND LEO III. Gregory's own statements in his letter to Leo, this pope, far from wishing or effecting the overthrow of the Byzantine dominion in Italy, was rather the only, or at any rate the principal, cause of its maintenance. It is true that, when Leo ordered the destruction of pictures and dismantling of churches, the Romans and inhabitants of Eastern l Italy, from Venice to Osimo, flung off the Greek yoke, and even wished to elect an emperor of their own. But Gregory strained every nerve to prevent this, and exhorted them unceasingly to maintain their allegiance to the Roman empire of the East. 2 The biographer in the Pontifical book, who, from the fullness, insight, and liveliness exhibited in his narrative, is easily seen to be a contemporary and eye-witness, gives only one circumstance which seems to go beyond the line of loyal obedience otherwise observed with great strictness by Gregory, and has given Thcophancs an opening for his mis- representation. The patrician Paul, he says, on becoming exarch, made an attempt on the life of the pope, because he attempted to hinder 3 the imposition 1 [The Greek dominions in Italy at this time were (!) the ex. archaic of Ravenna, (2) the duchy of Rome and Naples, (3) the cities on the coubt of Liguria, and (4) the provinces in the extreme south of Italy] 2 Paul Diac , de Gestis Longob., 6, 49 ; Liber Poniif., cd. Vignoli, ii., 27-36. 3 " Eo quod censum in provinciu possi prsepediebat," 1. c., p. 28. GREGORY II AND LEO III. 261 of a tax in the province, and would not consent to the plundering of the churches that is, the carrying off of pictures and of vessels ornamented with figures of saints. Here the point at issue wds hindering the levying of a new impost, in which the pope did no more than set a precedent, which was then followed by others, of refusing to pay a new impost out of the great and numerous patrimonies of the church. But Theophancs and the Greeks J after him represent this as an injunction issued to the Italians not to pay any more taxes whatever. Ilcfclc, following Bossuct and Muratori, has set the events which took place in Italy at that time in their true light, and has shown how devoid of foundation the Greek statement a is. It would have been suffi- cient merely to call attention to this, had not 1 [In this th^v ar- folW-vl by Gibbon. " Tlio most efT.vtiml and "pi using measure of rebellion was the withholding the tribute of "Italy, and depriving him of ft power which he had recently abused "by ihe imposition of a new capitation." In a note hu adds, "A "census, or capitation, says Anastasius (p. 15G): a most cruel tax, " unknown to the Saracens themselves, exclaims the zealous Maim- " bourg (Ifitt. dft leonoclattet, 1. 1.), and Theophanes (p. 334 [torn, "i., p. 301, ed 1 onn,J) who talks of Pharaoh's numb, Ting the malo "children of Israel. This mode of taxation was familiar to the " Saracens; and, most unluckily for the historian, it was imposed a " few years afterwards in France by his patron Louis XIV." lltcune and Fall of' t/.e Roman Empire, chap, xux., note 33 J 3 Conciliengeschichle, in., 355 ff. 262 GREGOR Y IT AND LEO III. Gregorovius lately revived once more the old view of Bellarmine, and represented the pope as in open revolt against the emperor. " Gregory," he states, " now "decided upon open resistance .... he armed him- " self, as the Pontifical book says, against the emperor " as against a foe .... The act of open rebellion, at "the head of which the pope boldly placed himself, "was perhaps even definitely declared by refusal of "the tribute from the duchy of Rome," 1 &c. But in manifest contradiction to this view, he states further on, " Gregory could not withdraw himself from the "tradition of the Roman empire, the scat of which " was Byzantium ; with prudent moderation he " restrained the rebellious Italians, and appealed to the " legitimate rights of the emperor, whom he had no "longer much need to fear" (page 257). Is it conceivable that so prudent a man as (on Gregorovius' own showing) this pope was, should first have set himself at the head of an open rebellion, and then directly afterwards, without any external com- pulsion, should again have quashed the rebellion, and come forward as champion of the emperor's rights ? For the view that the pope originated and directed the revolt of the Italians, Gregorovius has given no other evidence than his quotation of the words of the 1 Geschichle der Stadt Rom.,11., 255. GREGOR Y IT AND LEO III. 263 Pontifical book, "he armed himself against the " emperor as against a foe ; " 1 but the words which immediately foil iw, and v/hich explain the meaning of this " arming " he emits, namely, the words, ". in " that he rejected the emperor's heresy, and sent " letters everywhere, bidding Christians to be on their "guard against the new form of impiety that had "appeared." Gregory, therefore, kept himself rigor- ously within the sphere of ecclesiastical matters, declared himself the opponent of the imperial decree against the use of images, and charged the faithful not to destroy their images. But at the same time he exhorted them to show civil obedience to the imperial power, so much so that he used all his influence to preserve Ravenna for the empire, when the Lombards were threatening to seize it ; and he placed 2 forces at 1 ("Gibbon quotes the whole pnssngp, but J raws the same conclu- sion as Gregorovius. " Without depending on prayers and miracles, "he boldly armed against the public enemy, and his pastoral letters "admonished the Italians of their danger and their duty." To which he subjoins in the note: "I shall transcribe the important "passage of the Liber Pontificalis." "Kespicicns ergo pius vir " profanam principis jussionem, jam contra Impcratorem quasj "contra hostem se armavit, renuens h.Tresim ojus, scribens ubiquo " se caverc Chrislianos, eo quod orta fuissct impietas talis. Igilur " permoti omnes Pentapolenses, alque Venetiarum cxercitus contra " Imperatoi is jussionem restiterunt : whose chronicle ends with the year 1102, goes so far as to state that it was by certain sinister arts (quibusdam praestigiis) that Gerbcrt contrived to get himself elected archbishop of Ravenna. l The chronicler does not appear by this to have intended the interposition of demoniacal agencies ; in which case he would certainly have used stronger language. He probably meant court intrigues, by means of which the Frenchman won the favour of the empress Adelaide, who at that time held Ravenna, and of the emperor Otho ; so that the latter, evading an open election, simply nominated Gerbcrt. Some years later we have Siegcbcrt of Gcmblours (died A.D. 1113) stating that some did not reckon Gerbcrt among the popes at all, but put in his place a (fictitious) pope Agapetus, because Gerbcrt had been addicted to the practice of the black art, and had been 2 struck dead by the devil. Siegcbcrt may have had before him the work of Cardinal Bcnno. The main features of the fable appear first in the writings of this calumnious enemy of Gregory VII. Bcnno, whose work must have been written about the year 1099, asserts that to a certain extent, during the whole of the eleventh century, a 1 Pertz, x., 367. 2 Bouquet, x., 217. SYLVESTER II. 269 school of black magic existed in Rome, with a suc- cession of adepts in this art, and he enumerates them in order. The most important personage among them is archbishop Laurentius of Amalfi, who at times gave utterance to prophecies, and could also interpret l the notes of birds. Thcophylact (Benedict IX.) and the archpricst John Gratian (Gregory VI.) learnt the unholy art from Laurentius, and Hildebrand from John Gratian. But Laurentius himself was the pupil of Gerbert, who was the first to bring the art to Rome. And then Bcnno relates the story which has since been so often repeated, and which became so popular, that Satan promised his disciple Gerbert that he should not die until he had said mass in Jerusalem. Gerbert accordingly believed himself to be quite safe ; for he thought only of the city of Jerusalem, without remembering the Jerusalem church in Rome. The message of death came to him as he was saying mass in this church, and he thereupon caused his tongue and hand to be cut off, by way of expiation. Benno certainly did not invent this fable ; he found it already existing in Rome. Before him there is no mention of it anywhere, 2 and it evidently sprang up 1 Vila et Gestc Hildebrandi, in Brown, fafdcul., i., 83. 2 Though Dav. Koelcr (Gerbertusinjuriit tain veterum quam 2/0 SYLVESTER II. nowhere else but In Rome, just like the fable about Pope Joan. A foreigner, with his, at that time, unheard of and incomprehensible learning', who had acquired very questionable knowledge among those enemies of the faith, the Mohammedans in Spain, may well have inspired the Romans with something of awe and horror. At a time in which scientific studies had all but died out in Rome, in which the Roman Chair was under the control of aristocratic factions, and a pope without powerful relations was scarcely able to maintain himself, the populace could not understand how a man like Gcrbcrt, of the very humblest extraction, by mere pre-eminence of intel- lectual culture, should have raised himself to the highest dignity in Christendom. That could not have cornc to pass by purely natural means. Here also, as in the fable of Pope Joan, a verse plays an important part It is the well-known line " Scandit ab R Gcrbertus in R, fit postea Papa vigcns R." For it is well known that Gcrbcrt was first arch- bishop of Rheims, then of Ravenna, and finally recfnliorem scriptorum lilcraiuT. Altorf., 1Y20, p. 33) supposes this, and I lock (Gcrlert und icin Jahrhundurt, s. 1(J1) considers it as most probable. The IJ.-nedietines in the Bouquet Collection, x., 241, certainly s.-iy " Ant^si^uanos llenno liabuit." I have not been able, however, to discover these predecessors. SYLVESTER II. 271 became pope of Rome. Originally Gcrbert himself was said to have composed the verse, in calm satisfaction after the attainment of the highest dignity. 1 Next the verse was ascribed to him as a prophecy respecting his future destiny, which was eventually fulfilled. And thus the way was prepared for the next step, which was to make the verse into a prediction or promise of the devil. By this means Gcrbert was placed in the power of Satan ; and his wonderful and, at that time, unexampled success must have been the work of the devil, the result of a compact entered into with him. For after the story of Thcophilus, which arose in the East in the ninth century, had spread in the West also, and the notion of compacts with the arch-enemy (originally quite foreign to the Christian world) became naturalised, there was nothing to hinder even a pope from being represented as having attained to his dignity by such a compact. And thus it is stated in Ordcricus Vitalis, who wrote his chronicle about the year 1151, that Gcrbert is said to have studied as a scholar with a demon, and this demon gave utterance to the famous verse. Soon after, however, in William Godell, who wrote some twenty years later, Gerbcrt has already done 1 So Hclgald, in Bouquet, x., 93. 272 SYLVESTER II. formal homage to Satan, in order to attain the fulfilment of his wishes through his power. William of Malmesbury tells the story in its fully developed form. And now the Dominicans appropriate it ; Vincent of Beauvais, Martinus Polonus, Leo of Orvieto, Bernard Guidonis ; also Amalrich Augerii. Petrarch adheres to them faithfully. In their hands Sylvester II. becomes a successor of St. Peter, who early in life sold himself to the devil, and by his assistance ascends the papal throne. As pope he has daily and familiar intercourse with Satan, making him his counsellor. But when the entry of a troop of demons into the church warns him of the approach of his end, he publicly confesses his sins before the people, and thereupon has one limb after another hacked off, in order to show penitence for his enormities by means of such an agonising death. Since then the rattling of his bones in the grave is wont to give notice of the approaching death of a pope. On the other hand, Dietrich von Nicm (about A.D. 1390) was not far from the truth when he said that the Romans had detested this pope on account of his extraordinary learning, and therefore had accused him of having used magic 1 arts. 1 2'rivilcyia el Jura Impaii, iu Scharclii Sylloyc, p. 832. PART II. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT AND THE PRO- PHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. I. Introduction. TlIE prophetic spirit of classical antiquity was na- tional and patriotic, and hence was restricted to the interests of the state and the fortunes of war ; it did not aim to unfold the vision of a far-distant fu- ture. The Roman Empire did indeed represent a great community, combining many nations, the Orbis Romanits ; but this Empire was content with the pro- phetic announcement that it was destined to endless duration ; and, in fact, the imperial era did not pro- duce any vaticinations excepting some few about the life and death of one or another emperor. With the introduction of Christianity there was a change. Man's sphere of vision was at once enlarged ; there was a general sympathy in the fate of all those na- tions which now confessed the same faith and were knit together as members of the one great Church. 273 274 INTRODUCTION. From this time onwards the destiny of the great nations that took the lead in culture and history, was inseparably intertwined with the progress and the for- tunes of the universal Church. Every one of these nations led, so to say, a double life, the national, moving in its peculiar circle of ideas, and a second life, by virtue of which each of the leading Christian nations fulfilled the mission assigned to it in the great Christian commonwealth. And so it was that in the middle ages Germans, French and Italians had the consciousness that to each one of them some special function and gift (cliarisind) had been as- signed ; that each of them upheld one of the three great Christian institutions, the Imperium^ the Saccr- dotium, and the Studinm. Upon a closer view of the prophetic materials found in the Christian era, it is at once evident that we must distinguish between four kinds or types of prophecies. For besides the purely religious predictions, there arc also the dynastic, then the national, and another kind yet, which I will call the cosmo-political. In the last I include those that relate to the Christian Church ; be- cause, ever since the founding of Christianity, ecclesias- tical fortunes and changes have in general been closely connected with the great progressive development of the world's history. For it is a characteristic of these INTRODUCTION. 275 ecclesiastical prophecies, that they usually relate to ap- proaching ruptures, or to the healing of divisions already existing, or to divine judgments on account of prevalent ecclesiastical corruptions, deeply lamented ; and they announce the coming of some great and longed-for reformation of the Church, or a reunion of the divi- sions in the Christian world. Single monarchies or whole nations are designated as the chosen instru- ments of these ecclesiastical changes ; or, again, such changes are regarded as the causes of social and po- litical catastrophes and revolutions ; and, accordingly, events are foretold, which belong partly to the poli- tical, and partly to the ecclesiastical sphere, some- times equally to both. Thus it happens, that those prophecies which relate to the condition of the world, or to the destiny of the great civilized nations, always have a religious side ; and, on the other hand, it is not possible to predict momentous and deeply penetra- ting events and revolutions in the religious sphere, without at the same time holding up to view a corres- ponding reshaping of political affairs, related to the former as the effect to the cause. Accordingly, the vaticinations current in the Chris- tian era betray a three-fold origin. Sometimes they are, as it were, self-originated products of a certain state or tendency of things, shaped without conscious 276 INTRODUCTION. intention, and without the definite authorship of any one person. But we frequently find such as have the appearance of a deliberate intention to subserve some special interest. In fine, there are also vaticinations which originate from the conjectures or genial insight of some individual, who, having a correct understand- ing of the present, forms conclusions about the pheno- mena of the future in accordance with the laws of causal connection, and boldly proclaims these as facts. The result stamps such instances with the character of prophetic announcements. Some examples will explain and confirm this general view and these dis- tinctions. As the historian is a prophet looking behind, so the prophet is often but a historian gazing backwards, and announcing events that have already occurred as future. This happens, for instance, when future facts are to be corroborated by the past ; as is the case in the well-known Lchnin prophecy. 1 This also occurs 1 [Sec Gicscler, die Lohninscho Weissagnng gogen das TTaus Ho- hcnzollern, als cm Gcdicht dcs Abies von Huysburg Nicoluus von Zitzwitz aus dcm Jahre 1692 nachgewiescn, erklart tind in Hiasicht auf Veranlassung und Zweck belcuchtet. Erfurt, 1840. It is directed against the House of Hohonzollorn ; but its authorship is contested. II. Schmidt (Berlin 1820) ascribes it to Provost Fromm of Berlin, who in 1G67 went over to the Catholic Church. Giese- brecht and Gieseler, with more probability, assign it to Chr. Heinr, Delven. It was first published iu 1723 iu G. P. Schulz's Gelehrtes Preussen, Theil 2. II B. S.J INTRODUCTION. 277 in those cases where, under the protecting form of prophecy, monarchs, or governments, or ecclesiastical affairs arc denounced, warnings are uttered, and a change in the course and destiny of a state is looked for. An example of this genus is the poem upon the government of Edward III. under the name of John of Bridlington (written about 1370), with a gloss in prose, in which the author clothes in the costume of prophecy what he did not dare to utter in open speech, his denunciation of the infamous abuses and prostitutions which abounded. * This, too, was well understood in ancient as well as modern times, that a prophecy can be an effectual political agency, and that an event, whose occurrence is desired, can be more easily brought about if it be foretold. When Queen Christina wished to become Queen of Poland, she gave the order that a prophecy with reference to it should be adroitly spread abroad by a monk. 2 When Cromwell designed to bring about certain events, he had them put beforehand into the Almanac, whose astrologer thus attained high consideration. When William of Orange and his 1 See Th. Wright, Political Poems and Songs relative to English History. Vol. i. London, 1859. 2 ' Votis pourrK'Z aussi t'oriro au Fn-rc (>7. X.) qn'il public ndrof- t"mrnt la propln'ti.v' So it ivads in }->-r 1 tlici< Erudilorum, 1T37, p. 323. 280 INTRODUCTION. them others will be born, strong and ravenous as bears and wolves, Charibert and Childeric and the rest to Clotair II. At last follow the weak Merovingians in the anarchical times preceding the change of dy- nasty. This prophecy is found as early as a codex of Fredegar, reaching back to the first part of the eighth century ; consequently, before the accession of the Carlovingians to the throne. The intention of pre- paring for this change shines out in the ironical de- claration of Basina : " These dog-like kings will be " the pillars of this empire ! " ' A kind of dynastic prophecy, whose origin is easily detected, was current in England as a popular rhyme, passing from mouth to mouth in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and even under James I. : " When Hempe is spun, England's done." I The word "Hempc" means the five monarchs of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VIII. Edward VI. Mary with her husband Philip, and Elizabeth ; because the five letters of this word arc the first letters of these names. This prophetic saying undoubtedly origin- ated in a popular way from the feeling that, as Eliza- 1 Lord Bacon says in his Ess-ays (Works, T.ond. 18.~0, i, 201), it was ^.-ncnilly believed (hat after the death <>f Kli/.al>< th " Ku.uland should conic to utter confusion." A fullilm. ut ofthis prophecy was found in th'- Civil \Vai>, which, iiu'.scVcr, broke ou'uuuro than forty years afterward. INTRODUCTION. 281 bcth had no children, at her death cither a war of succession would break out, or a stranger, the Scottish king, more feared than desired, would ascend the throne. Among these dynastic prophecies we may also reckon the prognostications as to the succession of the popes, two of which have attained special celebrity. In the earlier part of the fourteenth century there was spread abroad, under the name of Joachim, a description with allegorical figures, of the popes from Nicolas III. to Clement V., which designated each one of these popes by a few, short, pithy words, ex- pressing in a symbolical way the chief events of his reign. Like the other spurious Joachimite writings this one, too, proceeded from the bosom of the Fran- ciscan order, that section of them called the Spirituals or Zealots, who were here veiled under the name of the " Dove," given to their order. That a description like this, which painted most of the popes of that pe- riod in so black colors, charging them with serious transgressions, Cclcstinc V. alone is judged more mildly and making them appear to be the despots of the Church, could find so great sympathy and at- tain such repute, is a remarkable sign of the revolu- tion which was then going on in the sentiments of the Italians. As early as the beginning of the fourteenth 282 INTRODUCTION. century, in the chronicles of the Bologncse Dominican, Pipin, these assumed oracles and emblems are indivi- dually mentioned and described ; afterwards less skilful hands continued them ; a part still going under the name of Joachim, and a part under the fictitious name of a bishop, Anselm of Marsica. But while the earlier ones, from Nicolas III. to Clement V., pre-sup- posing the stand-point of the author, are appropriate, and easily conceivable, the later ones, those actually imagined before the event, rapidly degenerate into unintelligible phrases and commonplaces that mean nothing. 1 This fiction long ago died out ; but another one of later origin still has consideration and is reverenced by many persons. It is wholly different from the incisive criticism of the Joachimite vaticinations, for it docs not delineate the moral character of the popes or their mode of administering ecclesiastical affairs, but it attempts to make each one of them known by one or two words, describing some circumstance in his life, 1 [On Joachim's prophecies, see further, Frederick, in Zcilsckrift fiir u'issemch'tflliche Tltfologie, Bde. iii, iv, 185'J ; X. Rousselot, Histoire de CEvangile dterncl, etc. Paris, 18G1 ; Gieseler, Church His- tory (New-York od.), vol. ii, pp. 4?>r;-l35 ; Kenan, in the Rcvne ties 7>f/;c .iVoNi>.<, July, 18CG ; Ilii^cnhach's History of Doctrines (New- York cd.), i, 423, 465; ii, 119. For tlie literature compare A'otcs and Queri"t, London, Sept. 18G2 f pp. 181-3; and Watts' BM. Bri- tann. II. 15. S.J INTRODUCTION. 283 or alluding to some single event in his career. Mala- o o chias, an Irish bishop of the twelfth century, well known by St. Bernard's biography of him, was chosen as the sponsor for these vaticinations, which begin with Cclcstinc II. in 1143. As far down as 1590 (Urban VII.), they are to the point, or admit an inter- pretation not altogether forced. The work was com- pleted in 1590, to promote the election of Cardinal Simoncclli, of Orvicto. He was to be the successor of- Urban ; and is described by the words, DC antiqni- tatc urbis (Orvicto, Urbs veins). The mottoes relating to the following popes are for the most part interpreted in an insipid and ridiculous manner. But since, from time to time, one or another of these prognostications seemed to be applicable, they were printed and used in numberless editions, and even now do not lack believers. Thus, in the case of Pius VI., the words pcrcgrinus aposfolicns, and in the case of Pius IX., the phrase crnx dc crucc, bear a convenient sense ; while, on the other hand, the aquila rapax, for Pius VII., resists all exegesis. One prophecy, which, at the time of the Reforma- tion, exerted a powerful influence upon men's opinions, and so upon the course of events, was indeed ficti- tious ; but still it originated in a very natural way and without design. Muss was reported to have said at 284 INTRODUCTION. the stake : " To day you burn a goose " (this is the Bohemian meaning of his name), " but from my ashes a swan will arise, whom you will not be able to burn." * Luther, who first refers to this and expressly applies it to himself, most certainly did not invent the narrative. The occasion of it was a passage in a letter of Huss to the citizens of Prague, written at Constance : " The goose, a tame animal that cannot fly high, has not rent its fetters ; but other birds, which soar aloft in upward flight by means of the divine word and its life, will bring to naught all their malice." 2 And to this is to be added, that his friend and disciple, Jerome of Prague, actually challenged those that condemned him, to appear after a hundred years before the judgment seat of God. 3 No less clear an invention is the famous vision and prophecy ascribed to Cazottc, about the horrors of the French Revolution, which La Harpe has described in so dramatic a way, and of which he was the un- doubted author. But, on the other hand, it is true that, fourteen years before the breaking out of the Revo- lution, a famous preacher, Bcaurcgard, declared in the pulpit of Notre-Damc : " The temples of God will be 1 Opera, od. AltenlxTff, v, 500 ; viii, 804; ix, 1502. 2 Ili.^t. ct lloiminunta Job. IIus ct Hkvoyni (Xiirnberg, 1715) i, 121. 3 Nurnitiu do May. llicroiiymo, in the Jiotiumenla, ii, 531. INTRODUCTION. 285 plundered and devastated, His festivals abolished, His name blasphemed, His service despised. Yes : what do I hear ? what do I see ? Instead of hymns in praise of God, jovial and profane songs will here be sung ; and Venus herself, the goddess of the heathen, will have the audacity here to take the place of the living God, to sit at the altar, and receive the homage of her true worshippers." All this actually occurred some years later, and in the very church in which the pro- phetic words were uttered. Whoever knows the con- dition of Paris at that time, and considers, for example, what Walpole said of it in his letters, can very well understand how a man like Beauregard, whose vision penetrated the depths of the abyss of the reigning corruption, might very well prognosticate these things, which afterwards came to light as the manifestations of a spirit that for a long time had been at work, although until then only in a noiseless way. II. Prophetic Anticipations in the Early Mcdi&val Times: Antichrist^ and tJie End of the World. To estimate aright the prime characteristics of the religious and political prophecies of the middle ages, we must go back to the earlier times of the Church. The first Christians succeeded to an inheritance trans- mitted to them by the Alexandrian Jews with their Hellenic culture ; for the latter had already fashioned Sibylline prophecies, which held out the prospect of a final victory of Judaism over heathenism, and its ele- vation into a religion for the v/orld. These Sibylline- Jewish books or fragments were current in the last century before Christ, and again in the first and sec- ond centuries after Christ. To them were soon added Christian vaticinations, some of which were held in reverence by the heathen and by a part of the Christians, who took them under their protection or made use of them as genuine, giving to them the name of Sibyllists, as, for example, they were called by the philosopher Cclsus. To the Roman authorities, however, ft did not seem a matter of indifference to spread abroad expectations of an approaching de- struction of the Roman Empire and of the abolition of 2SU PROPHETIC ANTICIPA TIONS. 287 the religion of the state; and so they forbade, under penalty of death, the reading of these books or " leaves." As long as the Roman Empire existed in the west, down to the period of the great migration of the na- tions, there was no real ground for independent pro- phecies. The Christian representations with respect to the future were wholly controlled by their prophetic book, the Apocalypse. While the heathen Romans thought that their empire was sure of endless dura- tion, and the eternity of Rome was, so to speak, an official dogma, the Christians, on the other hand, is new that Rome, drunken with the blood of Christian mar- tyrs, must fall, that the Roman secular power would come to an end. Hence the vaticinations which they framed had reference, first of all, to this expected de- struction of the Roman Empire, and were connected with the interpretation of the prophetic Apocalypse without further details. The Christians of those early centuries had no well-defined idea that a new Christian order of things, a circle of Christian states, would spring up from the ruins of the empire. They were not in a condition to look beyond the Roman horizon, and to anticipate the still slumbering powers of bar- baric nations, who appeared to them to be only the instruments and forces of devastation. And so they cherished the belief that the destruction of the Roman 288 PROPHETIC ANTICIPA TIONS. Empire would also be the end of the present order of the world ; or, to speak more exactly, that the begin- ning of the end had come. They thought, in fact, that Rome itself with its universal power was still spared, so that the catastrophe of the end of the world might be kept in abeyance. Lactantius says : " She, Rome, is the city which still holds and bears all." They were all the more confirmed in this represent- ation by an incorrect interpretation of the passage in Paul's second epistle to the Thessalonians, ii, 7, (rendering Karc^uv, qui tenet, he that holdeth on), under- standing by it the Roman Empire, whose overthrow was to be followed by the manifestation of " the Man of sin," and soon after by the end of the world. And so in the Christian world, until the heart of the middle ages, there were no proper prophecies of gen- eral significance and weight. The prophetic incli- nation natural to man rested satisfied with conjectures about the great enemy of Christianity, the Antichrist, who was expected by every one in east and west to be a Jew and the restorer of Jewish dominion. Much also was said about the approaching end of the world. The formula of the tenth century, " appropinquante mundi tcrmino," is well known. But this was to be preceded by the manifestation of Antichrist, whose dominion was to endure three and a half years. With PROPHETIC ANTICIPA TIONS. 289 him men's imaginations were chiefly busy, yet still within the bounds traced by the old tradition. He was to be of Jewish stock ; in the far east, in Mohammedan surroundings, he was to appear as a victorious general and a devastator, and fill the world with the terror of his name. So long then as no per- sonage appeared, who could be described as a Jewish prophet and mighty tyrant, nothing could be said of an immediate coming of the end of the world. The expectation sometimes became so impatient, that he was represented as already living, though still in secrecy, just delaying his appearance. But farther than this they could not go; and thus the great Anti- christ, the apostasy he was to effect, his victory and his bloody though short dominion, all this remained a phenomenon constantly expected, constantly feared, but never occurring, though his course was minutely described, and his acts and destiny recounted and imaged forth. But in every century there were fore- runners to prepare the way for the great terror ; that is, every party regularly accused its opponents of being such preparatory messengers and servants,, but the lord of these servants showed himself never and nowhere. It was indeed from time to time pro- claimed : He is already born, or he is now nine or ten years old ; as, for example, St. Martin, Bishop of 25 290 PROPHETIC ANTICIPA TIONS. Tours, about the year 380, gave out that the Anti- christ was then living, though still a boy. Towards the end of the eleventh century, about 1080, Bishop Ranieri of Florence was entirely sure that Antichrist was born ; and some decennia later Archbishop Nor- bert of Magdeburg gave the same assurance to St. Bernard. The famous popular preacher, Vincens Ferrer, thought that he had the most exact informa- tion : the birth of the great foe of Christianity took place in 1403. Vincens in 1312 wrote to Pope Bene- dict XIII. that the Antichrist was already nine years old, that this had been revealed at the same time to many persons, and that there was consequently an urgent necessity of proclaiming it to the world, " so that the faithful might be prepared for the fearful battle immediately impending." 1 Baring-Gould, in his Curious Myths of the JITiddle Ages (London, 1869), speaks thus of the literature respecting the Antichrist : " The literature connected with Antichrist is volu- 1 In Malvenda, De Antichristo, t, 119. [On Antichrist, sec the ar- ticle in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, American edition ; Moses Stuart, Commentary on the Apocalypse ; Elliott, on Apocal. Jowctt f on " Man of Sin," in his Epistles of St. Paul ; Schneckcnburgcr, in Jahrh. f. dc;it.sche Thcologie, 1859; Maitlari27,p. 648. All the historians of the Augustine Order, to which Brandano belonged, speak of him. The- most exact accounts are in Bardi's Sloria di Sienti, and I'ecci's Kotizie Storieo-triticfis sulla Vita di B :rt. da I'etroio chiamnto Bran- dano, Lucca, 17G3, p. 20. Among the people he then had the re- pute of sanctity, and his prophetic mission was believed in. 322 THE PROPHECY ABOUT ROME. chair ; 1 and not this only, but the inhabitants of Rome itself were to rise up against the papacy, which would be forced to take its seat elsewhere, and then the judgment would be fulfilled upon the city which was equally apostate with the empire. Precisely those theologians who were the most unconditionally de- voted to the temporal authority of the papacy defended this view. Rome, they said, has been an adulteress of old ; in the conflicts between the popes and the em- perors, the Romans have always shown themselves rather imperialists than papists. 2 All these sins of Rome will, by and bye, be requited in that devastating conflagration. 8 The entire order of the Jesuits was for a time in favor of this explanation of the iSth chap- ter of the Revelation, Ribera, Viegas, Lessius, Bellar- mine, 4 Suarez, Henriquez, Cornelius van de Stcen (a Lapide), ar i others. From this, it was necessarily inferred that, before the 1 So, for example, abbot Engelbert, D>. Ortu, Progressu et Fine Rom. fnifxriij in the Bill. Max. Patrum, vol. xxiv. 2 This was certainly, as early as the 13th century, manifested in a variety of ways, and was one reason why the popes, after Innocent IV., generally kept away from Home, and preferred to reside in the email provincial towns. 3 This is especially brought out by the Roman Oratorian, Thomas Bozio, De Signis Ecclesiml. 24, c. 6. 4. Bellarmine is really wavering between opposite interpretations. See on this Malvenda, De Antickristo, i, 3G7, who^'exeuses him on account of thu obscurity and difficulty of the question. THE PROPHECY ABOUT ROME. 323 judgment upon the city, the papal chair must be translated to some other place, for the continuance of the papacy was not a matter of dispute. Then the conclusion was readily drawn, that it was not an indissoluble bond, -which bound together the highest ecclesiastical dignity and power with Rome and the Roman episcopate. For with the destruc- tion of Rome ended at least the Roman episcop- ate, and yet the Church was to continue, and ought to continue, much longer. Many consequently were of the opinion that, as Antioch, while Peter resided there, had been the scat of the primacy before Rome, and as there was no divine command for transferring it from thence to Rome, so, in these later times, the papal power might be transferred to another city and another Church. V. The Characteristics of the Prophets. LOOKING more closely at the characteristics of the prophets, we soon perceive that when men of theological culture, like Joachim and Savonarola, supposed themselves to be endowed with the pro- phetic gift, they nevertheless remained under the in- fluence of the prevailing opinions in the theology of the schools, concerning the nature and conditions of this endowment. It was the universal teaching of these schools, that the gift of prophecy was, of itself, no sign of especial piety or sanctity of life ; that even bad men might receive this gift from God (they ap- pealed here to the Biblical statements concerning Caiaphas). Accordingly it seemed no presumption, nor to imply any assumption of the heroic Christian virtues, for a man to lay claim to the gift of foreseeing future events. x Not even a special spiritual endowment, nor 1 Thus the Dominican, Bernadin Paulini, in the address he made before Paul IV., who was about to condemn the writings of Savona- rola, says : Ora dunque, se Fra Girolamo fu santo; o tristo, ionon no ]>arlo ; basta che non e impossibile, ch' egli fusse Profeta, cgsendo, come si sa, date e concesse le profezie anche ai tristi" ; in Quetif, Vita P. Ilieron Savonarolse, ii. 572. The doctrine that bad men may sometimes be true prophets has gone over into the canon law : see in Gratiau's JJecrelum, Can. Multu; auteiu, and Can. Prophetavit, 19,1. 824 CHARACTERISTICS' of the PROPHETS. 325 an unusual susceptibility to spiritual influences, said the theologians, was necessary for the prophetic func- tions. They contested the opinion of the Rabbis, who required of the prophet a natural gift and a high degree of insight and wisdom. A double conscious- ness, however, they said, must concur, in order to con- stitute a genuine prophet. He must, to wit, know with entire certainty that what is revealed to him is true, and he must be convinced with equal certainty that God is the author of the revelation. Such pro- phets as Joachim and others used to affirm, it is true, that not the spirit of the prophets, but only of inter- pretation, had been given to them, in consequence of a higher illumination to foretell what they found announced in the prophetical books of the Bible con- cerning the events of their own and of immediately succeeding ages. But that these announcements were infallibly true, and that every event must certainly come to pass, no one, to my knowledge, affirmed. For it was a generally accepted doctrine, that a seer might mix with the visions imparted by divine illumi- nation, other elements, not genuine, attributable to human agency, merely. Thomas Aquinas accord- ingly believed, that when the prophetic illumination was perfect, it brought with it a divinely assured certainty, and from this conviction might be obtained 23 326 CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. a guarantee of its heavenly origin, a most unreliable criterion, since strength and liveliness of fancy are frequently the source of this confidence. Yet the rule, that on the whole a prophet has no guarantee against self-deception, must be granted by every one who is even in a slight degree acquainted with the subject of visions and revelations. It was also conceded, on the ground of the Biblical examples of Jonas and Isaiah, that certain prophetic warnings (proplictice commina- toricc) were not fulfilled, in case of the conversion of those to whom the warnings were addressed. And it was also admitted, that frequently the full compre- hension of the prophecy was not disclosed to him who received it, for the prophet must ever be but an im- perfect instrument in the hand of God : so that in many cases the prophecy itself, as given by God, was true ; but the organ, the man, gave it a false interpret- ation. J It was not until the great ecclesiastical and political agitation after the middle of the eleventh century, that individuals, borne up by the waves of this 1 Aquinas brings this out in his Summa, 2, 2 quncst. 173, art. 4. Lambertini, afterwards Pope Benedict XIV., explains it, in his work JJe Servorum Dei Bealificatione (Padua, 1743),' e. iii, p. 443, by refer- ring to the unfortunate prediction of St. Bernard. This pope also says: " Fieri potest, ut aliquis sanctus ex anticipatis opinionibus nut ideis in phantasia fixis alicjua eibi a Deo revelata putet, quo; a Deo rcvclata uoii eunt." CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. 327 movement, were carried on, in the full assurance of their hearts to the prophetic announcement of definite events. When one believes himself to live in an at- mosphere of miracles, he may easily persuade himself that he possesses the gift of prophecy, and such an one is open to the temptation of foretelling an earnest- ly-wishcd-for event, or one in his opinion necessary or suited to the divine plan for governing the world. Such attempts at prophecy have usually failed, it is true, and this may have sobered and deterred those that came afterwards. Peter Damiani prophesied the death of the anti-pope Cadalous, within a year's time. Cadalous lived beyond the year; and Peter knew no better way of answering the scoffs of his numerous opponents than this : " Cadalous was de- posed by a synod, and that might be called death." 1 The friend and fellow combatant of Damiani, Pope Gregory VII., publicly prophesied at the Easter festi- val, 1080, that Henry, the German emperor, unless he should make his submission before June 1st, would be either deposed or dead ; if not, no one afterwards need believe him, the pope. The result convicted him also of falsehood. * But the later chroniclers, who would vindicate for the pope the right of Caiaphas, to 1. Petri Damiani Opera, iii, 410, cd. Bassan. 2 Bonizo, in Oofele, Script. Rerun Boic., i, 819, 328 CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. prophesy the truth as high-priest, even in opposition to his own opinion, discovered a way of escape. The chronicle of San-Bavo l asserts : " The pope simply announced that God had revealed to him, that the false king should die that year. He supposed it was Henry, but the false king was Rudolph, who really died at that time. " There was great excitement throughout Europe, when St. Bernard, so distinguished as a man, and celebrated as a saint, was found to be a false prophet. At the command of Pope Eugene III., he had pro- claimed a new crusade in France and Germany, and promised victory and success in the name of God. The contrary occurred. The armies were ruined by hunger, pestilence and the sword of Saracens ; the whole Occident was thrown into mourning, and Ber- nard saw himself brought face to face with the charge of deceiving the people and leading them astray. He could only say that the command of the pope had passed with him for the word of God, and could only appeal to the pope, that he would answer for him. 2 And he scarcely found much comfort in the an- nouncement of the abbot, John of Casa-Maria, who 1 In the Corpus Chronic. Flandrise, ed. de Smct (Brussels, 1837,) i, 564. 2 Bernard! Consideraliones, lib. ii, at the beginning. CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. 329 assured him that the guardian saints of his cloister, the martyrs, John and Paul, had appeared and dis- closed to him, that God had permitted the fall of the Christian armies, in order that the vacant places of the fallen angels in Paradise might be filled from the souls of those Christian warriors who had lost their lives in this crusade. l Vincens Ferrer, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, was almost as much reverenced in south-west- ern Europe, as a holy man, and fearless preacher of the truth, as Bernard in his times. Vincens felt called to proclaim, before all things, the great fact of the public and speedy appearance of Antichrist, that he might prepare mankind for the dreadful conflict. He was fully aware, when he wrote to Pope Benedict XIII., that the Antichrist was al- ready nine years old ; it had been contemporaneously revealed to many ; demons had been forced by exorcism to declare it. 2 This eloquent Dominican probably died in the firm conviction that within a few years the truth of his prediction would be palpable to all ; and it cost the brethren of his Order, Antoninus 1 Epistolte S. Bernard!, cd. Mabillon, epistle 336. Wilken in his Geschichte der Kreuzziige, iii, 273, has entirely misunderstood this, in the sense of the final restoration. 2 The larger part of the prophecy of Vincens is given in Malvenda, De Antichristo, i, 120. 330 CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. and others, no little pains to rescue the good name of the prophet from the reproach of presumption and superstition. To Saint Catharine of Siena was accorded by her contemporaries the right to prophesy, as two centuries before to the German Hildegarde. But the world since then must be convincecj. that she had not a prophetic view of the future development of history. She foretold a great and general crusade for the conquest of Pales- tine, and endeavored to induce Pope Gregory XI. to prepare for it. The crusade did not follow. She' an- nounced that a great and thorough-going Reformation would soon pervade the whole Church. 1 "The bride (the Church)," she said, " now all deformed and clothed in rags, will then gleam with beauty and jewels, and be crowned with the diadem of all the virtues. All believ- ing nations will rejoice to have such excellent and holy shepherds ; and the unbelieving world, attracted by the glory of the Church, will be converted to her." How little have these longings of the devout maiden of Siena been transformed Into history ! In place of this great renovation, this conversion of unchristian nations, and this brilliant sanctity, we have had only a long scries of destructive religious wars, and lasting sundering of the greatest and most vital nationalities ! 1 Ada Sanctorum^ Bulland. April II J, 924. CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. 331 St. Brigitta, but a few years before, had prophesied better and more correctly. She, as the organ of the Holy Virgin, announced a mighty collapse (ruind) of the Church, as impending. She portrayed the breaches in the walls, the columns levelled to the earth, the great gaps in the pavement, and so forth. 1 But Catharine herself also appears to have believed that the reno- vation of the Church would not in any case come through the papal chair ; for she affirmed, that if a pope should attempt to reform the barbarized clergy, a great division would rend and pervade the entire Church. 2 Two opposing currents ran through the souls of those who in the time of the I4th and I5th centuries were moved to prophecy. On the one side the view, deeply rooted in the general religious consciousness that the state of the Church was altogether unendura- ble, and that only the hope of a great and impending reformation could prop up the tottering faith in the truth of Christianity. On the other side was the feeling that suitable instruments for this renovation were no- where to be found ; and that in the source whence they were to be expected, namely Rome, there was 1 Revelationes, 78, p. 293, cd. Antwerp. 2 Facicnt tune scandalum universale toti ccclesice Dei quod tan- quaux Uitrctica pestis sciiidct ct triljulabit cam, p. 925. 332 CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. neither inclination nor capacity for the work. Thus it happened that individual men, as, for exemple, William St. Amour, Ryckel and Jacobus de Paradiso, wearied out and disheartened, believed that there was no hope left for the Church ; that she would remain in her degradation until the appearance, so soon to be expected, of the Antichrist. Others, on the con- trary, and they seemed to constitute the majority foretold with confidence a thorough-going purification and renovation of the Church, which her founder could not possibly permit to go on in such a perverted form. But also, in harmony with the prevailing popular view, it was expected that a bloody judgment, a bitter persecution of the clergy, and above all, of the highest leaders as the most guilty, would precede the renova- tion of the Church. It was often the longing for better things which led men of great spiritual endowments to predict the future. The present seemed to them intolerable. They perceived with pain the contradiction between their situation and the demands of the time, which their reli- gious faith, and their love of country forced them to recognize. As with nations so with individuals. With this longing, a presentiment was generally associated, that the times lay in the pains of child-birth ; that humanity stood upon the borders of great changes and CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. 333 transformations. Savonarola at first was himself terri- fied by the impulse to prophecy which gradually over- powered him and controlled his thinking and action. " I do not desire," said he, " to be taken for a prophet, for that is a weighty and dangerous name, makes a man restless, and arouses against him many persecutions, even though for the love of Christ he may be willing to endure them." 1 " You force me," cried he after- wards to the Florentines, " to be a prophet." 2 " The sins of Italy open my mouth. An inward fire con- sumes my bones and forces me to speak." How different from Savonarola, and yet kindred with him, was another prophet of the Dominican order, the learned and profound Campanella, a man of genius. In him also, the prophetic office must go hand in hand with political efforts. To him, a Calabrian, the misfortunes of his narrow native land, Calabria, as well as the condition of the whole of Lower Italy, then oppressed by Spanish rule, weighed heavi- ly upon his heart. He saw his people humiliated by an oppression which a modern writer, well acquainted with Italian affairs, has characterized as perhaps the most wretched that has existed in Christian times. 3 He 1 Compendium Revelationum,^. 274. 2 In \\isPredichefatte Vanno del 1496, f. 359. 3 See Ganganelli, seine Briefs und seine Zeit, by Yon Reumont, au- thor ofthe R'jmische JSrie/c, Berlin, 1847, p. 3g. 334 CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. said that Southern Italy must become a republic under the theocratic dominion of the Papacy ; and in order to gain partisans and confederates, he foretold (basing his prophecies upon the predictions of Joachim, Bri- gitta, Savonarola, and on his exposition of the Apoca- lypse), a transformation of Italy, to occur in the year 1600. Like Savonarola, he said at the same time : " I do not make myself out a prophet, and a wonder- worker, and yet I see, perhaps, some great things." l Speedily betrayed, his undertaking failed. He spent twenty-seven years in fifty different prisons ; he was seven times stretched on the rack, until at last he found an asylum in France. Did then the result, the external quiet of Italy during the year 1600, unde- ceive him in regard to the truth of his prophecies ? In the beautiful and stirring poems in which he breathed forth the changing moods of his long prison life, his anxiety and his hope, his trust in God, and his despair, he raises his complaint towards God : " Shall then the host of the prophets, whom thou scndest, lie ? 2 Wherefore dost thou let the stars and the prophets, Thy gifts, alike become delusive teachers ?" 3 In the 1 In the Proocmium to his Atheismus Triumphatus, in Struvii Collectanea Manuscriptorum (Jena, 1713), li, G8. 2 Poesie Filosojiche di Campanella, pubbl.daG.C.Orelli (Lugano 1834), Madrigalc, viii, p. 101. 3 Miulrigale, i, p. H. CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. 335 book which he wrote in prison, " The Spanish Mo- narchy," Campanella still shows himself full of faith in prophecy ; and lays special emphasis on the assertion that St. Brigitta foretold the discovery of America. A man in whom we may distinctly trace the effects of pain and disappointment produced by earnest reflection ending at last in prophetic vision, was Dionysius Ryckel (or Leewis), styled the ecstatic teacher, a priest, of the deepest and most earnest piety, and at the same time the most learned theologian of his age. Like all the men of insight in Germany, like his friend and patron Nicolas of Cusa, he shared fully in the view of the Church as to the neces- sity of councils and of their authority over the popes. His hopes, like those of all others, rested upon a new council, which he saw at the same time the popes tried to prevent with all their shrewdness and power. This continual and torturing contemplation of the condition of the Church and the world (in the year 1461) led him to visions and revelations ; and he came to see, in converse with the divine Master (what was the product of his own reflections), that the measure of impending chastisements and judgments would be accurately dealt out, according to the measure of the present ecclesiastical corruption. l It was revealed 1 Opufula fnsiffniora Dionysii Corthusiani, Doctoris Est'ttici (Co. logne, 1559), p. 747. Here are found the three " revolatioiies." 336 CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. to him that the Church was utterly backslidden and perverted ; from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there was no soundness to be found in by far the larger part. As to her leaders, even should they swear to reform, they would but forswear themselves. It was the time (1461) of the vain attempt of Pope Pius II. to bring about a Christian crusade against the Turks, after the loss of Constantinople. Diony- sius prophesied that all these efforts must come to naught, as actually happened. It was even expected, with a certain deep sense of guilt, that a Turkish ar- my would soon sweep over the Latin and German na- tions of the West. Ryckel's contemporary and friend, the deepest thinker of his time, Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa, like him also became a prophet without precisely claiming for his declarations a high degree of illumination. Cusa also had a clear perception of the deep corrup- tion of the Church, and of its prime cause, the des- potic and avaricious Papacy, as it then was. Thus he also came to the convictions, which, after he had outlived the failures of the reformatory councils, he delivered in the form of prophecy : " The Church would sink still deeper, until she should at last seem to be extinguished, and the succession of Peter and CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. 337 the other apostles to have expired. l But after that she will be victoriously exalted in the sight of all doubters." 2 There were other visionary prophets, to whom the future was only revealed in symbolic pictures, of the signification of which, however, they were assured with inward certainty. Of such were the Dominican Robert of Usez, at the end of the thirteenth century, and the German priest and founder of a monastic or- der, Bartholomew Holzhauser, in the middle of the seventeenth century. This order affirmed of Robert that he was endowed from his youth with the spirit of prophecy, and had been continually accompanied by the same ; that his gift had been formally tested at an assembly of his Order at Carcassone, in the year 1293, and that, on account of the satisfactory charac- ter of his answers, he had been commissioned to jour- ney through France, Italy and Germany as preacher and prophet. While Robert beheld, especially in sym- bols, the corruption of the Church and of the papal chair, Holzhauser's visions reflected the longings of a man of narrow views, desiring to correct the history of 1 " Xnlla mf>jordi' v ormitas nb nliquo potorit cxoriri, qnnm ab illo, qui, siw magn-n potestatisintuitu liccro sibi cuncta cu'di-ns, in subditorum jura prorumpet," are liia words in Concordta CaUiol., 2, 27, p. 729, cd. I'asel. 8 Of era, I'asle edition, p. 932. 29 333 CHARACTERISTICS of the PROPHETS. the world, because the course and the consequences of the Thirty Years' War had assumed quite a different aspect from that which his opinions required. His commentary on the Apocalypse, which formerly had many believing readers, is written in the same spirit. VI. The Cosmopolitical Prophecies. TURNING now to that class of prophecies which I have styled the " cosmopolitical" we may distinguish four periods. The first extends from the Carlovingian times to the end of the twelfth century. The second period, the Joachimist, extends over the thirteenth and half of the fourteenth centuries. The third divi- sion covers that gloomy time from about 1347 to 1450 ; this was the time of the Black Death, the Papal Schism, and of the brightening expectation, soon to be extinguished in darkness, of the renovation of the Church by means of councils. Then followed the fourth prophetic epoch, comprising a period of about 77 years, from 1450 to 1517. In this, the prophecies are wholly filled with the thought of the judgments impending over Rome, popes and clergy, and with longings for the reformation of the Church ; so that at last, this prophetic expectation became the common conscious- ness, the saving anchor of faith, of all earnest religious spirits. In the first period, in the ninth and tenth centu- ries, and until the middle of the eleventh, the coming of Antichrist and the approaching end of the world 339 340 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. are the well-nigh exclusive objects of men's presenti- ments. As life in great cities, and popular literature, were not yet developed, and as there were thus no important centres of spiritual growth we are here restricted to the aid of ideas prevailing in cloisters. In this seclusion, men did not look either backwards or forward, but chiefly from presages, or from phy- sical and moral phenomena not understood, they formed their conclusions as to the speedy termina- tion of the world's history, with no presentiment * or comprehension of its goal or of its progressive culture. There was but one fundamental thought in this and the following time, that the existence and du- ration of the present order of the world were indis- solubly bound up with the continuance of the Roman empire, as this was renewed in, or made over to, the Carlovingian dynasty, and after its overthrow to Ger- many and its kings. It was accordingly styled the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, for it was held to be the all-supporting keystone of the Christian world, which could not be abandoned until the process of the world's dissolution began. While this kingdom lasted, and the people did not desert it, the last day was still distant, so they believed and thus they spoke. And hence that general fear or ex- pectation that Antichrist would soon come, and that COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 341 the end of all things was near (appropinquante mundi termino, as the formula run). About the beginning of the eleventh century, the minds of men were dis- tressed, not only because the histoiy of the Church had passed through a thousand years, but still more because the kingdom which Otto I. had exalted to such a position of power and glory, appeared, on the death of his powerless uncle, Otto .III., ready to fall in pieces. The most prominent prophetical authorities of this time were Methodius from the Byzantine Orient, and St. Hildegarde. Under the name of that distinguished Bishop of Patara, in Lycia, who suffered martyrdom in the persecution under Diocletian, the so-called " Re clations " first came to light, probably in the eleventh century in Constantinople. The author's name can scarcely have been Methodius, as was assumed. He simply put his productions into the lips of that teacher of the Church, who had written a celebrated commentary on the Apocalypse. The writing was adapted to the Byzantine Greeks, and was designed to administer comfort, courage and hope, in the time of a manifestly increasing weak- ness of the Eastern empire, and when the domi- nion of the Mohammedans was extending its sway over the whole of Asia, Methodius announced the 342 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. victory and conquests of the Ishmaelites (Arabs) breaking forth from the desert. God had given them victory, and allowed them to subjugate so many Chris- tian lands and nations as a punishment for the sins of the laity and clergy. But still the Empire of Rome, as the author and all his countrymen designated the By- zantine (East Roman or Greek) Empire, shall not be eternally overthrown by any power ; its weapons are invincible, and it shall subdue all kingdoms at last. Ac- cordingly, an emperor and his son are to fall upon the Ishmaelites, when they fancy themselves most secure, and suddenly wrest from them all their previously conquered lands, and impose upon them a yoke of servitude a hundredfold worse than that with which they have oppressed the Christians. Finally, the last of the Roman (i. e. Byzantine) emperors is to journey towards the emancipated Jerusalem, and there lay his crown at the feet of Christ. Then comes the end of all things, Gog and Magog, and Antichrist, and the last judgment. This representation of the abdication of the last monarch in Jerusalem is also found in the Occident, in a writing of the Abbot Adso, composed about the year 948, at the request of Queen Gerberga. Since the empire was not until some years later (in 961) trans- ferred to the Germans, one of the Frank kings was here COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 343 represented as the last and most powerful of the emperors, who was to bring to a close the course of his- tory in such a devout and humble style. For, said the abbot of Moutier-en-Der, " the Roman king- dom is almost destroyed, to be sure, but it will survive l in the kings of the Franks. (A Carlovingian is meant ; for the house of Capet had not at that time yet arisen.) But Methodius now essentially controlled the views of the Occident concerning the course of the world's history ; "for in the first half of the twelfth century, a Latin translation of his prophecies must have been in circulation. The Turks had then displaced the Ishmaelites (Arabs) ; the Roman kingdom and the Roman emperor were naturally made to refer to Ger- many and Italy, and the emperors of German birth. Thus was Methodius the original source of those ex- pectations cherished even until modern times, that the Turks would yet some time sweep over the whole of Germany, and their horses drink the waters of the Rhine. Even Otto of Freisingen, in his preface to his Chronicles, addressed to Chancellor Reinhold, intro- duces Methodius as authority for the continuance of 1 This work is in the Appendix to the Benedictine edition of Au- gustine, iv, 243. 344 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. the Roman empire which was to be fully destroyed only at the end of time. Another vie\v, deeply imprinted upon the fancy of the Middle Ages, was drawn from the same source. From Rev. xx, 10, it \vas inferred that heathen nations, from far distant regions, Gog and Magog (Scythians) would, at the end of time, gather together against the New Jerusalem, and be by her destroyed. Now, according to Methodius, Alexander the Great had formerly shut up the race of Gog and Magog in the Caspian mountains by a miracle ; but the mountains were some time to open again, and then this stream of wild conquerors and avengers would be poured forth over the world. There was in this a presenti- ment of the great Mongolian irruption in the thirteenth century, and yet the myth is found in the Syrian poem of a Jacobite of the end of the sixth century. There it is God himself who is described as opening the door of the rocks for the ruin of the nations. 1 Now the chronicles of Alberich in the year 1237 2 an- nounce, that the Minorite Peter de Borcth had from Acre declared, that the Antichrist was already grow- ing up, and would be ten years old in March. It was added in connection therewith, that this was impos- 1 The Revflation of,Te*u<< iyJohn Hooper (London, 1801), ii, 438. 2 In the Recueil des Ilistoriens de la France, xxi, 506. COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 345 sible, since the tower of Babel must first be rebuilt, the closed Caspian mountains must open, the river Ethan flow, and the idol of Mohammed fall to pieces ; that is, Islamism was to die out or decay. The Latin text of Methodius must also have varied very much, with reference to the last things. That feature, that the last emperor of the Frank race was to go to Jerusalem, lay his crown upon the mount of Olives and there die, is certainly not found fn the original Greek. This originated in the tenth century, from a writing by the monk Adso, which was generally taken in the middle ages for a work of the Arch- bishop Rabanus of Mayence. But this addition was variously given. According to Engelbert of Admcnt, 1 Methodius said : " The last emperor would be in- capable of withstanding the Ishmaclites (Mohammed- ans), and would lay down his sceptre, crown, and shield on a withered tree, beyond the sea, and there give up the ghost." The history of the world, accord- ing to this view, was to terminate (before the Anti- christ) with a great victory of Islam over the Christian faith. A view, so dispiriting, so conducive to doubt, led Engelbert to the remark : " The doctors, it is true, out of reverence for the holy martyr (the supposed 1 De Ortu et Fine Rom. Imperil, in the Billiolh. PP. XXV, 378. 346 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. author) did not venture to reject it, and yet attributed little weight to it." It was certainly not found in the manuscripts, for in the printed editions the course of the last days is given quite differently. l The Ishmael- ites or Turks are completely conquered and subjug- ated ; but the Christians immediately fall, during a long and all too happy condition of peace and pros- perity, into fleshly security and luxury, until Gog and Magog set on foot a fearful slaughter, whereupon the Roman king proceeds towards Golgotha, takes his crown from his head, lays it upon the cross, anJ restores the kingdom of the Christians to God the Father. Thus the shame was at least averted of a final victory over the Christians by their ancient hereditary foe, the Turks, and Methodius remained, especially for the Germans, a book of comfort and of hope. Sebastian Brandt says in the preface, in the year 1497 : " I give it over to the press, because, as I hope, the promised triumph of the Christian republic over the unbelievers and Turks, is now quite near." And in the year 1518 the warning cry still went forth to Emperor Maximilian, 2 " Give ear, o king, for God hath called That thou th: suffering Christian world 1 In the Orthodoxoyrapha f Basel, 1555,) p. 397, and in the edition of Sebastian Brandt. Basle, 1504. 2 In Liliencron, III, 215. COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 347 May'st bring again unto its right. How oft to arm thee to the fight, Hath He His holy servant sent, Methodius, to this intent." l After this it was added, that it had been prophesied of an Emperor Maximilian, that he should fill the Holy Land with Christian faith still, another of the many hopes which remained unrealized. In another writing composed by the Dominicans in the year 1474, in order to console the. Christians for the fall of Constantinople, 2 Methodius, the " Doctor authenticus", as he is here styled, is again the chief authority, 3 of course not in the form in which Engel- bert read him, but in the more encouraging text. Here it was related, that many fathers had subjected Metho- dius to a careful investigation, the result of which was now imparted. Germany and France would be de- vastated by internal wars, but should not fall under the 1 Kaiser, schick dich, Gott will dir helf, Dass du die armen Christenwelf "Widerumb bringest zu einem rccht ; Das hab dir Gott den seinen Knecht Zu schanen manigvalt gesant, Methodius war er gcnant. 2 Qni pro fide mancifatus carcerilus angelo sibi revelante lilrum conscripiit, is added. (Who enslaved for the faith, wrote a book in prison, an angel revealing unto him.) In that case certainly every word must have been infallible, and still be going into fulfilment. 3 Tractatus quidam de Turcis, prout ad praesens Ecclesia bauct* ab eis aftligitur (Numuburg, 1481). 343 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. Turkish yoke. Whether Rome would be conquered by the Turks, had been asked by an enlightened monk, worthy to receive divine revelations, to whom Christ had answered, that it was not at present advi- sable that he should know this, 'nor who should be the victor in the next Turkish war. The first of the prophets of more recent times was Saint Hildegarde of Bingen on the Rhine. This German prophetess stands alone, in a peculiar position, actually attained by no other in the entire Christian history. No prophet has ever acquired so high con- sideration, no saint so general confidence, or such unbounded reverence, ! not Bernard himself, who paid reverence to her as the more highly gifted, al- though she was neither spared from attacks, suspicions, nor even scorn and ridicule. Her character and her revelations were investigated at a great assembly of the Church, presided over by Pope Eugene III., and guaranteed and accepted as genuine. Three popes, two emperors, many bishops and abbots came to ask council of her, hoping that divine revelations might be through her imparted to them ; and it is worthy of note, that in the letters addressed to her by Popes Eugene, 1 Famosissima ilia prophelissa Novi Testament!, cum qua familia- ritcr locutus est Deus ; so wrote the author of the Vita S. Gerlaci, in the Acta Sanctorum, 5. Januar. c. 8. COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 349 Anastasius and Hadrian IV., there still remains a breath of genuine humility, and recognition of their own fallibility and neglect of duty. l Bernard still ventured to write his book, and to warn the papacy, although in vain, against the fearful strides it was mak- ing in the path of despotism and centralization. Hil- degarde was in this respect a true German prophetess, in that, as none of her sex before or since have done, she portrayed the spontaneous ethical uprising of the Germanic nationalities, rather than of the Latin race, against the degeneracy and the abominations of an insatiable and avaricious hierarchy, corrupting the life of humanity, a state of things which then was not developed to such a degree as was portrayed, but which was wide spread after the thirteenth century. The time was to come, she said, when princes and people would renounce the authority of the papacy, because religion is found in her no more ; then would separate countries prefer their own church rulers to the Pope; the latter, with greatly diminished reve- rence, would be confined to Rome, and a few surroun- ding places. 2 Hildegarde also foretold the breaking 1 For example, Eugene III. wrote to her, that he rejoiced that in these times God had illumined her by his Spirit, and given to her s > great insight ; sed quid nos ad h:vc dicero valeEius, qui clavim scicn- ti;u habentes, ita quod clandere et aperire possimus ft hoc prudenter facere per stultitiam negligimus. 2 Quia enim nee principes nee reliqui homines tarn spiritalis quam 30 350 COSMOPOLITJCAL PROPHECIES. up of the German Empire ; each people and each race would have its own princes, under the pretext " that the magnitude of the kingdom had become rather a burden than an honor;" and just this division, and diminution of the strength of the empire, would entail the fall of the papal dignity. Hildegarde incontestably had much to do with the fact, that in the middle ages the expectation of a great judgment upon the clergy, and a bloody persecution of the priests, was so deeply fixed in the mind of the German nation. She even foretold a great and uni- versal secularization of the property of the Church, and a return of the clergy, ruined by riches and avarice, to moderate and more equally divided incomes. In a poem of the fifteenth century upon the council of Constance, it was said of her descriptions of simony and clerical luxury : " How sadly their course hath marred, From Bingen, saith Saint Hildegarde, Within her book of wit and taste, Who reads, hath well the truth embraced ! " * Yet Italy was the land where the prophetic spirit, Bof. While the mighty devoted them- selves to astrology, and not seldom, like Frederick Ezzelino, kept their court astrologers, and never entered upon any important undertaking without first having consulted the favorable constellations, the people rioted in prophetic proverbs. Guelphs as well as Ghibellines had their own prophecies. Merlin and the Sybil had to lend their names, which had become typical, to the continually fresh productions which were called forth by the powerful popular demand for prophecy. Mi- chael Scoto, the astrologer of the Emperor Frederick, Asdenta of Parma, and especially Joachim, stood in high esteem. Sibylline prophecies were all the more confidently trusted since it was believed that the Si- bylline books were still preserved in the Lateran church 352 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. at Rome. x Scoto and Asdenta were by Dante placed among the damned as false prophets ; and the latter, a shoemaker of Parma, he represents as in hell, repenting that he had not kept to his trade. His con- temporary, Salimbene, however, reported that he heard much from him which afterwards occurred ; and i.lso that Asdenta, solely by the diligent perusal of the writings of the classic prophets of the time, Methodius and Joachim, together with the sayings of Merlin, Scoto and the Sybils, had cultivated the art of pro- phecy. 2 In Germany, Hildegarde stood a long time un- rivalled. From her death until towards the end of the thirteenth century and even into the fourteenth, no utterances of the prophetic impulse and spirit worthy of mention are preserved among the Germans. All of the German literature, it is true, from the middle of the thirteenth century until its close, was very barren as well in the Latin as in the German tongue, and yet more barren and fragmentary are the historic documents and chronicles which we possess of this period. But one and the same event of world- wide significance was, for both Germany and Italy, 1 Huillard Brcholles, Preface, p. xxxvi, in his edition of the Chro~ nicon 1'lucentinum, Paris, 1856. 2 Salimbcnc, Chron., p. 284, in the Monumenta Hist. Parmens. (Par- ma, 1857). COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 353 equally decisive and momentous ; although Italy was at first plunged, in a far higher degree than Germany, into incurable disasters in consequence of the same. That event was the victory of the Papacy over the Empire, the fall and overthrow of the House of the Hohenstaufen, with which was connected the regularly planned weakening and sundering of the Romano- Germanic empire by the popes, resulting to the ad- vantage of the Curia, of the French kings, and of the Italian Guelphic party. It was clearly seen that the popes, especially the French popes, and Urban IV., Clement IV., Martin IV., did everything to prevent the formation in Germany of any unity, of any powerful royal house, of any firm and well ordered government of the empire. It was speedily recognized that in consequence of this procedure of the popes, an em- peror in the true sense could not be obtained by election, and that a Guelph kingdom in Lower Italy supported by French authority was impossible. And yet it belonged to the religious consciousness of the world at that day, which regarded the empire as an indispensable constituent, an organ of the one Catholic Church, that its dissolution would lead to a general falling away from the papal chair ; for a three-fold disccssio according to 2 Thes. ii, was universally ac- cepted viz : ab inipcrio, a sede apostolico, a fide ; so that 354 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. it seemed to many that the popes were laboring", as if driven by a fatality and an irresistible impulse of the stars, to undermine their own authority. Hence the certainty, that the fall of the kingdom would introduce the outbreak of the rule of Antichrist, with all its in- describable series of abominations and apostasies. The judgment of contemporaries presents to us the key to the origin of the prophecies of the time and of their influence. In England, where there then was more historic insight, and a better historical literature than in the rest of Europe, the contemporary judgment is per- tinent and pragmatic : " The Roman Curia, that it may rule alone, has effected the hopeless destruction of the Roman Empire." 1 In Italy the Sibyl was in favor of the Guelph and the French papal party, and it accordingly announced, that on the death of Frede- rick II., the Germanic Roman Empire itself would go to its grave. The Florentine Guelph, Brunetto Latini, in his work written in French about 1266, gives it as his opinion, that " if Merlin and the Sibyl tell the truth, Frederick and the imperial dignity will end together ; yet I do not know whether this is to be 1 Imperium Romanum, procurantc Curia Romana, ut sola domina- retur, suspcndilur dcspcratum. Chron. Job. de Oxcnedes ad a. 1251 (London, 1860). COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 355 understood of his race, or of the Germans, or of both together." l We learn however from his contemporary and countryman, Salimbene, that the Sibyl expressed herself very distinctly. " In him," she said, " the kingdom shall come to an end, for although he shall have successors, they shall nevertheless be deprived of the title of Emperor, and of the Roman dignity (fastigium). 2 Salimbene himself did not doubt that, for the future, it was the divine purpose that there should be no longer an emperor. Two contemporaries exhibit to us the position of the Germans ; the one, the experienced and observing au- thor of a brief anonymous writing 3 of the year 1288, the other, Jordanus of Osnabruck, in his book on the Roman Empire. * " Within fifty years," said the first, " the Roman kingdom, which in the year 1220 was still so powerful, has sunk so low as to have lost all consi- deration. The Papacy, on the contrary, has mounted so high, that kings and peoples, and the whole world lying at the feet of the Pope, have greeted him as monarch of the world. This can now rise no higher, without degenerating into a complete secular domin- 1 Lts Livres dn Trtsor, ed. Chabaille (Paris, 1863), p. 93. 2 Chro ., p. 167, 378. 3 The Noliia Sxcult, published by Karajan, in his work, Zur Ge- schichte det Concils von Lyon (Vienna, 1849). 4 Jordanus, ed. Waitz, Gottingen, 1868. 356 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. ion. To such an extent has the clergy, in the service of the Roman Church, and with the co-operation of the French, destroyed the Roman Empire (Clcrici ct Gal" lid mine parte magnA Romannm destrnxcrnnt impe- rium). Should they fully succeed in accomplishing this work of destruction, such a flood of misfortune and ruin will break forth, preceding the Antichrist, as the world has not yet experienced. In recompense, hovvever, for the shame which the clergy has already brought upon the empire, a judgment will soon be in- flicted upon them, because they are so deeply infected with the poison of Simony." Jordanus expressed himself more cautiously : " Since the Roman Empire has shared in the great honor of constituting the bulwark of the Christian world against the Antichrist, who could not appear until that em- pire was overthrown, all these forerunners, who as- sist in this overthrow, are but preparing the way for the Antichrist ; and the popes, chief enemies of the Empire, are doing this most of all. The Romans and their popes," then adds Jordanus, "had better beware, lest by a just judgment of God upon their offenses, their authority be taken away from them." The same warning was also delivered by him to the German princes, so gladly enriching them- selves at the expense of the empire. The Cardinal COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 357 Jacob Colonna, who wrote a preface to this work of Jordanus in the year 1281, addressed Pope Martin V., the tireless opponent of the German and patron of the French power, expressing his fear that if the Roman Church, which had banished its custom- ary prayer for the emperor from its liturgy of the mass, has now gone so far as to be able to say, We have no king or emperor but the Pope, there would break forth a great and bloody persecution of the clergy. (Waitz, 41.) In still later times, the Belgian chronicler, Dynter, addressed a pathetic warning to the German electors, that they should earnestly consider what dangers and calamities the destruction of the Roman Empire would bring upon the world. 1 This was written in the year 1445, just as Germany had shown to the world, in the Hussite wars, the spectacle of its pitiable impotence, and that its empire was now become an empty shadow. In the thirteenth century, however, in the midst of all the ruin of Germany and Italy, the hope of an approaching transformation of affairs was still pre- served by means of prophecies. Roger Bacon, who, with Dante, was the most richly endowed, the most many-sided and cultivated spirit of his age, 1 Dynleri Chronicon, ed. de Ram. (Brussels, 1854), i, 166. 358 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. wrote in the year 1267 : "It has been prophesied for forty years, and confirmed by many visions, that a righteous, true and holy priest is to arise, as re- former and purifier of the Church, so deeply involved in error. He is to purify the laws of the Church, and establish the practice of Christian righteousness, and by reason of his excellence, the union with the Greek Church is to be restored, and the Mongols to be converted, when the annihilation of the Saracens will follow." l All this, fancied Bacon, might within the space of a year be accomplished, yea, even in a shorter time, if it pleased God and the pope ; and he challenged Pope Clement IV. with all earnestness, to lay his hand to the work, the very pope, as Bacon must have well known, who, instead of being the leader in the building up of a genuine Christian righteousness, was rather only busied with the development of papal absolutism into a purely arbitrary rule, and the con- firmation of the tribunal of the Inquisition. But Bacon thought that everything was so corrupt, that either Antichrist would come, or a pope to purify the Church must arise ; and he manifestly thinks of the possibility of a great moral and spiritual transformation, to be, as it were, accomplished at one stroke. It is striking to 1 Rogeri Bacon Opera Qusedcm Hactenus Inedila, cd. Brewer (Lon. don, 1859), p. 87, cf. p. 418. COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 359 observe, that the men of greatest insight in those days, like Roger Bacon and Dante, believed in a sudden and complete change of disposition in whole nations and periods, and possessed so little understanding of the laws of historic development. This is to be explained from the astrological delusions which prevailed, and which ruled the minds of these men also. The view was held that the tone and the ethical tendency of an age were controlled by a change in the reciprocal po- sition of the stars ; that sudden transitions, accordingly, from one extreme to the other, from virtue and piety to corruption and sinfulness, and the reverse, were pos- sible. Such changes were to be completed in a fatalistic way, with unavoidable necessity, while yet, to the indi- vidual was guaranteed his personal freedom of will, to hold fast his chosen course in the midst of the stream of ruin. This influence of the stars was then called into the service of prophecy. Such men, it was said, as were receptive of astral impressions by virtue of their natural temperament, were, for that reason adapted to prophecy. They were, so to speak, pre- destined by nature to this calling, and might all the more surely comprehend the twofold revelation of God, the one within them, the other mediated by the constellations. l 1 See what Benedict XIV. cites on this from the manuscript of an Italian theologian, appealing to Albertus Magnus and Aristotle : ubi supra, p. 436. 360 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. Bacon could, it is true, appeal to the fact, that stu- pendous religious movements, suddenly bursting forth, were not unheard-of events in his own times. Once certainly had it happened, that a gigantic revival, ap- parently without previous preparation and entirely spontaneous, a spirit of repentance and conversion to a new life, had been manifested. In the midst of the partizan discords and animosities by which Italy was rent, there were times of weariness, in which they tried to shake off the spirit of faction and political hatred which oppressed them as with the weight of Alps, and poisoned all other relations ; then a spirit of reconciliation prevailed. Thus in the year 1260, when under the influence of prophecy the first great pil- grimage of the Flagellants arose, thousands of peni- tents, men and women of every age, scourging them- selves and beseeching the mercy of God and peace among men, moved on from city to city. It was as if great towns had emptied their entire population, even twelve or twenty thousand souls, into another town. Those banished were allowed to return, Ghibcllincs and Guelphs embraced one another and were reconciled ; many criminals were pardoned. It was a powerful religious impulse of the nations to help themselves ; but the rulers remained unmoved, the pope maintained an attitude of indifference, or even of COSMOPOLTTICAL PROPHECIES. 361 hostility towards the movement, and so the flame of enthusiasm, which, well directed and fostered, might have led to the salvation of Italy, was allowed to become extinguished. In the statements of Bacon, we meet for the first time the thought, which was afterwards adopted in Italy, of a " Papa Angelico." It was the expectation laid down by so many subsequent prophets, of a pope who was to restore peace and harmony and bring back the Church again to the purity and freshness of youth. It was the Italian counterpart to the much desired and hoped-for German Emperor Frederick. After the great intermediate empire, the hopes, desires and needs of the German race were concentrated upon the thought of a strong and all-powerful emperor, who was to re-establish the fallen kingdom, humble the grand and despotic papacy, and strip from the clergy its boundless and misappropriated riches. How long was it believed in Germany that Frederick II. was still alive! How many false Fredericks, pre- tenders trusting to popular favor, deceived the people ! When one of these false Fredericks was burned at Wetzlar in the year 1289, the story among the people was : " His bones were not found in the fire ; Emperor Frederick was still alive, by the power of God, and is 01 362 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. to banish the priests " l As these hopes were all at length extinguished, a new prophecy took their place, which promised the appearance of a new Emperor Frederick. It travelled for more than a century in the greatest variety of shapes, and ran like a thread through many other prophecies. In the collec- tions of such predictions, it was usually found in the first rank. It was said to have originated from the most illustrious of the prophets, from Joachim him- self. Certain it is, that its influence was deep and abiding. The very name of Frederick became signifi- cant, and whoever among princes and monarchs bore it, excited the expectation that he was destined to be- come the instrument of a great and fortunate change. Earlier, it was a Frederick from the Orient who was expected. The natural son of Frederick II., who died in 1258, appears to have been called Frederick of An- tioch for this reason. Later it was simply Frederick, or the third of this name, the Eagle, who was to spread his wings from sea to sea, even to the ends of the earth. By him, or at least in his time, pope and clergy were to be imprisoned, scattered, stripped of their wealth or even killed. Even in the confessions, which the Catharists of southern France made, in the 1 Hagun's Oesterreich. Chronik, in Pexii Scriptures Her. Autr. t i. t 1105. COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. 363 year 1321, before the Inquisition, 1 allusion is made to the expectation which they cherished, that Frede- rick III would arise, extend their Catharist communion, their Gnostic and dualistic church, and while protect- ing them, violently oppress the clergy and the Church. In upper Italy, a prophet of the third Frederick excited a bloody religious war. Dolcino, who had attained the headship of an order of mendicants mo- delled after the Minorites, sent forth from the corner in which he had concealed himself, his prophetic let- ters, one after the other, in the first years of the four- teenth century. Stirred up by the writings of Joa- chim, and by kindred ideas relative to the age in which he lived, and its connection with the world's his- tory, he announced that it was revealed to him, that Frederick of Aragon would be called to the dignity of emperor, and that there would immediately ensue a general slaughter of the entire clergy, and the destruc- tion of all religious bodies. Then a holy pope was to be raised up, in whose days the apostolic brethren would enjoy full freedom, and the whole earth be converted to the new and everlasting gospel of the most perfect poverty. Dolcino fixed the occurrence of this event so near that he very speedily outlived the practical refu- tation of his prophecy. He was so slightly perplexed, 1 In the Codex Vaticanus, 97. 364 COSMOPOLITICAL PROPHECIES. however, that in his next prophetic manifesto, he sim- ply removed for one year the date of its fulfilment. Persecuted, Dolcino with his 1400 followers took the sword, seized and fortified a mountain in the territory of Vercelli, and a war sprang up, marked by all the atro- cities of the times, in which he at last was conquered and with his deluded followers came to a horrible end. His adherents, widely scattered, still believing firmly in the judgment to be visited upon the clergy and his holiness the pope by the predestined emperor, fell into the power of the Inquisition-; and, fifteen years after the death of the prophet, several scores of the followers of Dolcino were burned upon the market place at Padua, i 1 Ilidoria Dulcini, cum Additamcnto, in Muratori Script. Rer. /to/., ix, 425. VII. The JoacJiiinites. WE have, in the teachings of Dolcino, the germs and fruits of a prophetic system, which, like nothing be- fore or after it, was developed into a spiritual power, deeply penetrating the literature of the Church, and for centuries filling the souls of men with hope and fear, controlling their representations of the purposes of God, and of the things to be expected and accom- plished. Joachim, the author of this system, and founder of the congregation of monks at Fiore in Calabria, was a profound theologian, cultivated by the most careful biblical studies, although afterwards (that his writings might appear to be the results of a mira- culous enlightenment), it was affirmed that he was en- tirely destitute of education. * Joachim himself affirmed, that he was not a prophet, in the strict sense ; but that the spirit of understanding had been given to him, or, in other words, the gift rightly to interpret the prophetic contents of the Old and New Testaments, and to construct the course of history, the changeful fate of the Church, from the prophecies, 1 Accopta, nt aiunt, clivinitus sapicntia, cum fVre cssot prius illitcr- atus : Kudulphi Coggeshuli Chron. Any!., in Martene, Coll. Ampl., v. 838. 365 366 THE JOACHIMITES. analogies and types of the Bible. ITe himself de- scribes (Com. in Apocal. p. 39) how, meditating one Easter-night, suddenly v by a divine revelation, the entire fulness of the contents of the Apocalypse, and the harmony of the Old Testament with the New, were made perfectly clear to him. It appeared to him, as if a stream of bright light was poured all at once into his soul. He could say, accordingly, to the Abbot Adam of Pcrsigny, at Rome, that all the mysteries of the sacred Scriptures were as clear to him as they had formerly been to the biblical prophets themselves. Three popes, Lucius III., Urban III. (i 185), and Clement III. (iiSS), advised Joachim not to hide the revelations which God had imparted to him, and to publish the writings which he had subjected to the judgment of the papal chair (the Concordia, the Psal- tcriiun, and the Commentary on tJie Apocalypse]. 1 King Richard of England, and English and French bishops of high standing, asked counsel of him. 2 The report of the appearance of so great a prophet as Joa- chim produced during his life (he died in the year 1202) great excitement even in the remote North, 1 Jafie Regesla, 1085. Vila, Urbani ///., in Mnratori Scr. iv, -170. Joachim also names those three writings in his Confessions. See Grcgorii Latin, Joachim Jluynus I'ropkela (Naples) p. 1GG. 2 Benedict! Ahbatis i'ctrobuigcns., Uesta Regis llenrici ^London* 1867;, ii, 151-155. THE JOACHIMITES. 367 and even where his writings were not yet known. His contemporaries frequently inscribed his name in their chronicles, with the addition: " We must wait to see whether his prophecies are confirmed by the result Every thing is still uncertain." And yet very little was really known before the year 1220 of the contents of his prophetic writings. It had only been noticed with astonishment that he had said to the English king and his bishops, that the Antichrist whom the apostle Paul had described as the man of sin and son of perdition, would soon appear upon the papal chair; that he was already born. 1 Since the opinions of Joachim were not yet known in their full extent, this attracted universal attention. It was not known that Joachim had discovered more than one Antichrist in the history of the Church and in the prophetic intimations of the Bible. It was not known that, in consequence of the deep corruption of the Church and the poisonous influence of the Roman Curia, he natu- rally came to the idea that all these evils met at Rome, concentrated in a single person and a single pope. Honorius III. likewise declared afterthe death of the abbot, that since Joachim had submitted in writing 1 Benedict, Petroburg. p. 153. Boger do Hoveden, ap. Savile, Rer. Angl. Script., p. 388. 368 THE JOACHIMITES. all his writings to the judgment of the Apostolic chair, and had confessed the faith of the Roman Church, it should be announced throughout all Cala- bria that the pope regarded him as a good catholic. 1 This decree of the pope was especially directed against the Cistercians, who had taken much pains to secure the condemnation of the man who had separated him- self from their order with his congregation, or at least to effect the rejection of his writings ; as they had also labored to bring about the condemnation made by Innocent III. of a statement respecting the Trinity, in which Joachim had censured Peter of Lombard. 2 Joachim left behind the reputation of being no less a holy man than one prophetically illuminated. Nu- merous miracles were related of him ; in the churches of Calabria a religious ceremony was dedicated to him as to other saints ; and the Bollandists introduced him into their great work upon the saints. Many really cherished the view, that in him, for the first time since the days of the Apostles, the Christian world had received a genuine prophet, and that in his writ- ings was first presented the true key to the com- prehension of the history of the world and of the church. 1 LamLertini (Benedict XIX.), De Servorum Dei Beatificalione, ii., 248. 2 Gervuiae, Hisloire de I' AIM Joachim (Paris, 1745), ii., 465. THE JOACHIMITES. 369 After the middle of the thirteenth century, other writings appeared, hitherto unknown, under the name of Joachim, his commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah. Had these been genuine, the exact fulfilment of so many historic prophecies, falling into the period from 1 202 to 1240, would have presented the most wonderful phenomenon in the history of prophecy. They were composed, however, by Italian Minorites, although entirely in the spirit and method of Joachim, By means of these new writings, especially the commentary of Jeremiah, which was generally accepted with entire confidence as a genuine pro- duction of the Calabrian abbot, the doctrines of Joachim were first spread abroad through a wider circle, and formed a school. It was said that an a^cd o abbot of the order of Fiore had entrusted the writings of Joachim to the convent of Minorites in Pisa, for fear that his own convent would be destroyed by the Emperor Frederick. (Salimbcne, p. 101.) Hence it was that the Minorites became the most diligent disseminators of his writings. A contem- porary affirms that the prophecies of Joachim came to light about the year 1250, when the Cardinal dc Porto sent them to Germany. 1 The Minorite, Adam 1 Conrad of Hnlbcrstadt in his (imprinted) Latin recasting of the work of Eicko YOU llcpgow. bee Murutod AtUiquitaiet Jtal., iii., p. 943. 370 THE JOACHIMITES. Marsh, at the same time sent to the Bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln fragments from Joachim, which had just been brought to England from the continent by a Minorite, " in order that he might know whether or not the judgment of God was soon to break over prelates and clergy, princes and people." l In Italy Joachimites were found as well among Guelphs as Ghibcllines. Salimbene mentions many of them. Notaries, physicians, judges and literary persons regularly assembled at the residence of Hugo de Barcola, one of the most honored of the Minorites, to listen to his lectures on Joachim. A professor of theology, Rudolph of Saxony, abandoned scholasticism in order to devote himself entirely to this theology of prophecy. Now, however, the entire structure of Joachimism was powerfully shaken by events which did not at all correspond with the prophetical reckoning. On the one hand, the death of the Emperor Frederick II., to whose government so significant a position had been assigned in this system, occurred in the year 1250, and brought about the entire triumph of the Papacy over the empire in total opposition to the prophecy of Joachim, who had assigned a much longer life to the Emperor I Adas cle Marisco JSpislolx, p. 147, in the Monumenta Franciscana, ed. Brewer. THE JOACHIMITES. 371 seventy or seventy-two years, and at the same time had announced to the Church, i.e., according to the Italian and Guelph usage, to the Papacy, a Babylonian captivity of seventy years ; in other words, an oppression by the imperial authority for a corresponding number of years. Ten years later oc- curred another great disappointment. According to the system of Joachim, the second period of the world's history, that of the Son, was to endure twelve hundred and sixty years. The second epoch, accordingly, that of the Holy Ghost, would begin in the year 1260, and in conjunction therewith a great transforma- tion and purification of the Church. By means of their preaching, the Joachimites, belonging to the popular and influential order of the Minorites, had excited in Italy great expectations among the people, and a religious awakening, which manifested itself in the flagellant pilgrimages of that year. It went, however, no farther. The world in general followed its ordinary course. The Curia and the hierarchy maintained an attitude of indifference or hostility towards the movement which had seized upon the people. The Minorites could not long remain blind to the conviction that not the slightest inclination to reform had been aroused in the leading circles of the Church. On the contrary, that evil condition of things, 372 THE yOACHIMITES. which appeared to them so intolerable, and to be the impelling cause of severe and impending judgments, was evidently ever on the increase. " At this time," said Salimbene, "after the experience of the period between 1250 and 1260, I have entirely abandoned the teachings of Joachim, and I will henceforth believe only what I see." l He did not, however, remain steadfast in his determination ; for when in his later years (about 1284) he wrote his chronicles, he had again become a believing follower of Joachim. Hugo had said to him that only the carnally-minded rejected the prophecies of Joachim, because he announced disagreeable things, many and severe sufferings and trials. Joachim himself had in fact declared his computations to be uncertain, and declined to fix a definite period for the fulfilment of his prophecies. His followers, however, were ready with expedients. Some said the third epoch, that of the Holy Ghost, had certainly begun with the year 1260, that the Flagellant pilgrimages were the token of its beginning, and that the characteristic of this period, the power and activity of monastic orders, was actually present. Others, like Ubertino of Casalc, said that Joachim had rightly announced the 1 Diinisi total iter ist.im doctriiiam, ct cli.spono non credere, nisi qu;c vicicro. Salimbcue, p. 131. THE JOACHIMITES. 373 year of the second epoch (1260), but it must, however, be reckoned from the resurrection, not from the birth of Christ : so that the period of the Holy Spirit l would begin in the year 1293. In fact, the honor and the prophetic authority of Joachim were cultivated in the heart of every genuine Minorite ; for the prophet had not only declared the high ecclesiastical importance and dignity of the order, but had also announced that the Dominicans would be visited with the judgments threatening the rest of the clergy, while the Minorites were to happily continue until the end of the world. (Salimbene, p. 338.) Even John of Parma, the universally respected General of the Order, was obliged, after his retirement from the Joachimitcs, to submit himself to a severe examination ; and his successor and judge, Saint Bonaventura, threatened to damn him as heretic, so offensive were his opinions about the estate and future prospects of the Church. lie was only saved by the interposition of the pope. 2 This was all the 1 The formula repeatedly used by Salimbene : in lertio sta/u ojierabilur Spiritus Sanetrtt in religiosis. Kalimhene, p. 123, 240. 2 Aflb, Vita del h. Giovanni di Parma (Parma, 177.), p. 125. Atlb will not allow without proof that Bonaventura was present at this trial ; because at that time he may have been away from If:th r . Besides, John of Parma was canonized by Pius VI., and a festival dedicated to him was introduced into the Order. 374 THE JOACHIMITES. more strange, since Bonaventura, as is evident from his commentary on the Apocalypse, held the same views with his predecessors concerning the corruption of the Church, and the chief cause of it, that is, the Roman Curia polluted by simony. A general survey of the system of Joachim shows us, certainly, the significant germs' which it contains, if we take into view the prevailing form of doctrine, and the hierarchical system of the times. The history of the human race, according to Joachim and his school, runs in three great epochs : I. That of the Father (the Ante-Christian period, or, after the type of the three chief apostles, the Pctrine period). II. That of the Son, or the Pauline period (from Christ to the year 1260). III. That of the Holy Ghost, or the Johannean period. The two latter periods, however, should not be so sharply separated from one another ; for the one passes over into the other by a silent, gradual and imperceptible transition ; so that the period from 1200 to 1260 is as much the end of the second, as the beginning of the third period. The Church has become, chiefly through the ruinous influence of the popes, altogether sensual, a house of prostitution, a den of robbers. Nevertheless, God has left in her a seed of blessing and of grace. The clergy has become despised for its vices ; the pre- THE JOACHIMITES. 375 lates are adulterers and hirelings ; the cardinals and papal legates, the avaricious plunderers of the church, are sucking away its life. Thus is the Christian people misled and spoiled by its shepherds. Whoever goes to Rome on any mission falls at once among thieves the cardinals, notaries, &c. Rome, the city destitute of all Christian discipline, is the fountain of all the abominations of Christendom, and upon her must first fall the judgment of God. The chief instruments of the divine retribution were, besides unbelievers, the Saracens, the Germans, the new Chaldeans, and the Roman Empire, with the emperor. France, the new Egypt, the broken reed upon which the papacy leaned, and which pierced its hand through, must be conquered, and its power broken by the Germans, although it is to subjugate the neighbor- ing countries around. For the Italians, who have so deeply sinned, the German power is to be a scourge. In the bitter conflict between the Empire and the Papacy, both these mighty powers will fall in ruin. The pope will seek to destroy the bounds of the empire, by arousing the barbarian nations against it, and by arbitrary interference in the distribution of the highest dignities. The emperor, however, is to strip the pope of all temporal dominion, and of all his possessions. Then 376 THE JOACHIMITES. is to be the time of the conversion of the nations and of the glorification of the true Church. Now it will come to be understood, that the perverse striving of the Church after an unbecoming authority, can only lead to a continually increasing servitude. After the empire has done its work as an instrument of punishment, the avenging judgments will be com- pleted by the Saracens (the beast out of the sea), and by ten kings from the East. The Saracens are then to be annihilated by the Tartars, coming from the North. The instrument which God is to employ for purifying the corrupted Church, and for the bringing in of the great Sabbath, or the epoch of the Holy Ghost, will be an Order 1 of contemplative Eremites, who, by many years of study completed in silent retirement, ripened and illuminated by prayer! ul reflection, are to be prepared to announce the true gospel of humanity. To this order also will that preacher belong, who, according to the statement of Joachim, either alone or with associates, is to be sent from God as a teacher of love for heavenly things, and 1 In most passages of the genuine writings of Joachim, only one Order JH spoken of, a black-robed society of Eremites. In a few passages, however, lie speaks also of two Orders, of which the one was to furnish martyrs for (he truth, and the other to devote itself to the contest with heretics. In the commentaries on Jcn-miidi and Isaiah, two new orders of mendicants, the Minorites and tho JJomiuicans, are distinctly predicted. (Cumin, in Apocal. p. 142.) THE JOACHIMITES. 377 of contempt for earthly things. (Comm. in Apocal., p. 137) These men, now, will also overthrow the chairs of the carnal teachers, of the Italian "legists," and " decretists," of those flatterers (especially from Bologna, the valley of Tophet) who stimulate the avarice and ambition of ecclesiastical princes by their nefarious doctrines. At last, when the great Sabbath of rest for the Christian nations begins, under the guidance of true shepherds, and the contemplative Church celebrates its triumph, then will also come the conversion of the Jews and unbelievers, and even of the Tartars themselves. With reference to the Antichrist, who is meantime to appear, there are contradictory statements in the writings of Joachim, which are however capable of reconciliation since he adopted the opinion that there are to be many Antichrists, partly in succession, partly contemporaneously, and that the nearer the end of the world's history so much the more would they be multiplied. Such then are the leading features of the prophetic picture of the history of the world, which, sketched by Joachim and completed in sympathy with him (the commentary on Isaiah was not composed until about the year 1266), controlled directly or indi- rectly, for centuries, the presentiments and thoughts of mankind respecting the future, especially in Italy. 373 THE JOACHIMITES. The views respecting the German people and empire, which are here brought to light, are entirely those of the party of the Guelphs, who saw in the Germans only the warlike and plundering oppressors of conquered nations. They refused to recognize the higher calling of the Empire as it was even then perceived by Dante. "The kingdom of the Germans," it is said in the commentary on Jeremiah, "has been for us hard and oppressive ; the Lord must needs annihilate it with the sword of his wrath, that all kings may tremble before the uproar of its overthrow." We recognize in such and similar expressions the language of the Neapolitan Minorites. Of the leading thoughts and events, which the authors of these writings imagined that they beheld in their prophetic mirrors, but very little was ever realized. Of the two powers which were to destroy each other the Papacy and the Empire, the first, the Roman Curia, had just then obtained the most complete victory over the German Empire, which lay at last helpless at its feet The Papal Sec, however, sustained no loss either of possessions or of authority from the Germans and their emperors, at least not in the succeeding centuries, and never through an emperor. When, however, in the year 1 303, the day of Anagni came, and shortly afterwards THE JOACHIMITES. 379 the pontificate of Clement V., the Joachimites might well claim the fulfilment of the prophecy of their master, that France was the reed which should pierce right through the hand of the pope who leaned upon it. There exists, however, a noticeable difference of tone and of judgment, which was not observed by con- temporaries, between the genuine writings of Joachim and the commentary on Jeremiah and Isaiah attributed to him, especially with reference to the Papacy. Between the former and the latter writings a half century had intervened, during which the Papacy advanced with gigantic strides toward its goal, the dominion of the world. The corruption proceeding from the Curia and pervading all orders and institutions of the Church, had increased in a corresponding degree. Joachim had, so to say, written in the interest, and under the very eyes of the popes. The Minorites, however, who com- posed the commentaries on Jeremiah and Isaiah, and who used the name of Joachim to conceal their own, and were moreover u Spirituals," and professors of the new doctrine of poverty, inclined rather to unsparing and severe condemnation of the popes and their avaricious and luxurious courts. Joachim, on the contrary, although recognizing in many passages the Roman Curia as the source of corruption, yet always 3So THE JOACHIMITES. spoke of the Papal Chair in terms of the highest reverence. It was not in Italy, not by the popes, as might have been expected, but in France, and by French theologians and bishops, that the prophecies of Joachim were first attacked, and characterized as dangerous errors, not to be tolerated in the Church. In Provence the doctrine of Joachim had already produced a literature of its o\vn, when, in the year 1260, a synod at Aries imagined itself called upon solemnly to condemn the doctrine of the three epochs of the Church, and the new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (Harduin, Coll. Condi., vii., 512.) This, said the bishops, would have been clone earlier, had not until very recently the works of Joachim, especially the Concordia, lain hidden and unobserved in several cloisters. Certainly, in any other case, they said, the Papal Chair would have condemned ar.d branded, not only the writings of Ghefardino, but Joachim himself, the real source. Somewhat earlier, the Parisian theologian, William Saint-Amour, wrote in opposition to the writings of Joachim, without, however, knowing the later works, the commentaries on Jeremiah and Isaiah. William discovered that all the signs of the coining Antichrist were already present ; the Roman kingdom with THE JOACHIMITES. 381 Frederick II. had come to an end, and the gift of miracles had been taken away from the Church. Consequently, not at all Joachim's period of the Holy Ghost, but the very opposite, was to be expected. l He refused to know anything about a comforting future for humanity and the Church, and it is very characteristic of the times, that the Rector of the first university of the world rejected the pro- phecies of Joachim, for the very reason that they promised the Church and the Christian world a long season of peace and prosperity, and a prosperous old age, continuing through many centuries. That dark sketch which he drew, of the sad condition of the Church in its deep degradation, was not so different from the pictures of Joachim, apart from the mission of the new mendicant orders, which he regarded as injurious in their influence; but both drew from the same facts opposite conclusions. The followers of Joachim, said : Unless we magnify the brilliant future of a purified and well ordered Church, we must be wrong concerning the Church itself, and despair of its divine foundation and mission. William assumed, on the contrary, that the days of a Church, 1 This work is not by the Bishop Oresme do LHcnx, under whose name it is given in Martcne An-plifs. Coll. ix., 127.' 1 .. sq ; but by William of St. Amour, as the author by the Jlistoire Litleraire de la France, xxi., 47'J, has stated. 382 THE JOACHIMITES. well pleasing to God and still true to its original destiny and constitution, had long passed by, and that there is no promise of a better future. The Church has now to look for nothing else but the advent of its great adversary. In the same year in which both the new records of the more fully developed doctrine of Joachim, the two commentaries on the prophets appeared, the Minorite, Gherardino of Borgo-San-Donnino, united them in one work, with three genuine writings of the Abbot of Fiore, under the title of the " Everlasting Gospel," and added to them an Introduction, which though conceived in the spirit of Joachim, sounded to the majority of the party like a lamentable perversion of the genuine doctrine. Forbearing as the Papal Chair had hitherto showed itself towards the teach- ings of Joachim, yet an anathema was now unavoid- able. It was accordingly delivered in the year 1255, by a commission of cardinals, at Anagni, on the complaint of the Bishop of Akkon, who came for that purpose from France. Gherardino had announced in his Introductorius, the advent, six years later, in 1260, of the third epoch of the world's history, the Fra of the Holy Ghost. With this, the New Testament, the epoch and ojconomy of the Son, was to be fully closed, abrogated and made void, as that of THE JOACHIMITES. 383 the first period, or of the Old Testament, had been abrogated by the New. For, he added, no one has been brought to perfection by the Gospel of Christ. Under the guidance of the Order of Minorites, now developed in full proportions, all figures and riddles will vanish in the sunlight of the new Church of the Holy Spirit. As in the beginning of the new covenant there shone three persons, Zacharias, John the Baptist, and the man Jesus ; so in the third, the epoch of the Spirit, the three columns of the structure were to be Joachim, Dominic, and Francis. 1 The fate of Gherardino was fearful. He would not recant, and was condemned to a life-long imprison- ment, in which, after eighteen years, he died. No one any longer defended the Introductoriiis, which after six years was refuted by facts. But the doctrine and prophecies of Joachim were continuously upheld in the Order of the Minorites, and two distinguished men, Peter John D'Olivc and Ui>crtino of Casale, gave it a new impulse. Attached to them was the influential party of the Spirituals, as that class of men was named, in the phrase of Joachim, who desired to retain entire poverty, in the sense of the founder of the order. The authority of 1 Duplessis d'Argentrc, in his Collectio Judiciar^m, i., 1G3, gives tho passages from the Litroductorius. 384 THE JOACHIMITES. Joachim as a prophet remained undiminishcd, only it was discovered that his dates rested upon pure conjectures, and were therefore not to be strictly taken; although the number 1260, according to the theory of the apocalyptic days taken as years, was always retained as indicating the great turning point. The entire duration of the world and the Church was now divided into seven periods, in each of which a great and severe contest was to occur. The fifth period, extending into the thirteenth century, was the time of the complete corruption of the Church, in which the Roman Chair, risen to the highest degree of power, also contributed most to the general corruption. With the sixth period, the third great era, that of the Holy Ghost, had begun. In reality it began with the appearance of Saint Francis, a hundred years before ; but it was then still flooded with the dregs of the fifth period. The carnal Church, however, with its false popes, was ripening for judgment, and the time was not far distant in which the Spirituals should con- quer, and the spiritual Church should manifest itself, and rule, freed from the poison of temporal possessions. Then the Church was to have entire leisure and complete power, am,' endure long enough to bring about the conversion of the Jews as well as of the THE JOACHIMITES. 385 whole heathen world. D'Olive's 1 commentary on the Apocalypse was the favourite book of the Spirituals and of their numerous adherents, especially in Italy, and southern France ; they were continual- ly upheld by these prophecies, expecting from year to year the victory and the public manifestation of the Church of the Holy Ghost. As they had declined to recognize any pope since John XXI I., the popes visited them with that fear- ful persecution in which a hundred and fourteen Spirituals were burned at the stake, and many more died in severe imprisonment. The bones of D'Olive were dug up and burned, and his writings were prohibited, until Sextus IV., himself a Minorite, ordered a new investigation, and declared them orthodox, since, as was said, the passages which had been regarded as objectionable could be inter- preted in a good sense. 2 It cannot be denied that these victims of the papal 1 He was styled the Doctor Columliinit, since his party chose the dove as its symbol. The commentary is still imprinted, but the articles presented to a papal commission under John XXII., wero taken from it, and are sufficient to make us acquainted with his views. Ubertino's chief work was composed in the year 1305, Arbor Vilfe Cnicijixx (Venice, 1484); here he declares Boniface VIII. and Clement V. to be false popes. 2 Flam. Aiiuibali de Latera, Sujylem. ad Bullar. Francis. (Uuiuc, 1778), p. 52. 3S5 THE JOACHIMITES. dogmatic tribunal led a pure and austere life, corres- ponding with the rule of their founder. So much the deeper, then, was the aversion aroused against Rome and the Curia, who, according to the judg- ment of the people, had executed the men that were the very flower of the Catholic Church. It had already been said, in the commentary on Jeremiah attributed to Joachim : " As she (the Curia) had murdered, so should she also be murdered," and the prophecies of the succeeding period had a continually increasing anti-papal coloring. And so sprung up the fearful thought, that the Papal Chair might have been for a time the seat of the Antichrist, or yet should be. For the impression was very deep which Boniface VIII. by his entire bearing made upon his con- temporaries ; by his audacious announcement of the cc'gma of the papal supremacy over the world, by his tyranny based oa fear and terror, and by his undis- guised immorality. The astonishment and dismay of religiously-disposed persons at the appearance of this " r.evr Lucifer " in the Papal Chair was portrayed in gl: .vir.g words by the distinguished poc-t of the Order cf Mir. :.-!::-?, Jacopc/ne of T>di. l The view of the tie cM^ss ^djti/Mis of ti? ]x*-m. b'jt La !x-en <*LrS. Ytrt To*ti it*S K^niited It ID M &*rw M THE JOACHIMITES. 387 Joachimites, that the chair of St. Peter should be for a considerable period the spoil of an adversary of Christ, who was to bear all the marks foretold of the Antichrist, came to appear more probable in the eyes of many persons. It was still more easily imagined that such "a Man of Sin, and Son of Perdition" was actually sitting in the temple of God and adorned with the papal tiara, when, in the year 1310, Pope Clement V. instituted a public process against his predecessor, Boniface, now seven years dead, which was continued over a year; and when a whole series of men of the highest standing, prelates, abbots, counts and other noblemen, came forth as eye-witnesses to convict this pope of unbelief, of heresy, of the utter disregard of all morality, men of whom Clement himself testified, when he rejected the suit, that tluv were in tlu highest decree * o o trustworthy, and hid only been moved to their declarations by zeal for the Catholic Church. The greatest Italian of his time, Dante, who^ although in a way peculiar to himself, was nevertheless a Joachimite, gave utterance to the words (Paradise, 27. 22-24) : " He \vho usurps upon the earth my place, Mv place, my place, which vacant has become, Before the presence of the Son of God." I 1 Longfellow's translation. 388 THE JOACHIMITES. The poet, however, did not, like the Spirituals or Fraticelli, infer from this withdrawal of God from the Papal Chair, that all done on earth by such a usurper was void and invalid. On the contrary, Boniface VIII. was to him the regular representative of Christ upon earth, but in heaven a usurper, as is proved by Dante's renowned expression concerning the seizure at Anagni. 1 The expectations of the Joachimite Spirituals, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, embraced, accordingly, the following points: (i) A general, severe and bloody judgment upon the Church, which had become altogether carnal, in which only few good persons could be found, like a few grains of gold in a great heap of sand. (2) A pope given to^simony (the so called mystical Antichrist), who, a living pattern and picture of the abominations of the Church, claimed for himself divine attributes, and received divine honors. (3) A pouring forth of the Holy Ghost upon the Spirituals, to rally them for the conflict with the great and last Antichrist. Such were the events which numberless adherents of the same 1 [The: seizure and imprisonment of Boniface VIII. by tho troops of Philip the Fair at Aniigni (Alaf,Mia). Sjc Dante's Purgatory .NX , 87. " I see the flower-de-luce Alagna enter, And Christ mliis own Vicar captive made." H. B. S.] THE JOACHIMITES. 389 party of Minorites looked forward to at that time and long afterwards in Italy and Southern France. Another prophecy circulated contemporaneously with that of Joachim, and afterwards, gave much occa- sion for reflection, and was firmly trusted, in the pas- sages which could be understood. As the legend says, it was received from the hands of an angel in 1 192 by Cyril, a Greek from Constantinople (a Carmelite, and General of the Order), and it was written upon two silver tables. This prophecy of Cyril, in language designedly ambiguous, and for the most part hardly intelligible, with many foreign words and bombastic flourishes, l is cne of the numerous fictions of the order of Carmelites ; for which reason it is frequently, though in contradictory senses, elucidated by members of this Order. 2 It starts from the year 1254, and first announces the conflicts between the houses of Anjou and Aragon, about Naples and Sicily. Then the fall of the Church and of the Roman Chair, the severe burden of the sins of the degenerated clergy and the 1 Ex. gr. To express the idea that the Holy Ghost has departed from the church, it is said: " Evolavit pnlumba nidtjicans in corona." The mendicant monks are called I'ocotrojthiia: (i.e. : J'tochotro- 2>hita'), etc. 2 Uivinum Oraculum, S. Cyrillo Carmclitro solanni Icpationo Angeli missimi, cui adj. Commentaries Pliilippi a Trinitati (Lyon* 1GG3). The other commentaries are in the, itiiliolheca CarmelUuntt of Cosinasde Villiers (Aurelian. 1752. i., 358). 390 THE JOACHIMITES. clerical orders, together with the judgments impend- ing upon them, are portrayed. The Imperial Eagle is exhorted to " awake, spread out thy wings, hew down with thy beak." The stress of the whole seems to lie in the last chapter, where an admonitory sermon is preached to the three corrupt orders, the Minorites, the Dominicans, and Carmelites ; and the impositions of the mendicant monks, and their illicit ways of acquiring property, are portrayed. The author himself has supplied a key, though it is a very inadequate one, for the solution of his riddles ; for he has foisted upon the Abbot Joachim an interpre- tation of the prophecy, with the fiction that Cyril sent to him in Calabria this prophecy from the East, and asked him to interpret it. The text is so obscure, that with a little fancy it can be made to apply to every conceivable event, and therefore it long con- tinued in high esteem. Rienzo believed that in it his mission was clearly outlined ; and Telesphorus seized upon it for other ends, and made it a part of the basis of his prophetic scheme. The famous physician, Arnold of Villanova, held this prophecy of Cyril in so high esteem, that he maintained in his writings that it was more precious than all the books of the Bible ; l he probably meant, 1 Sec the Censura of his writings by a tribunal of the Inquisition THE JOACHIMITES. 391 that it must be placed higher than these, since it was written upon a tablet by the hands of angels, while the books of the Bible came only from men. Arnold was, besides, a zealous Joachimite, one of the Spiritu- als, and altogether too bold a prophet. It seemed to him that the whole Western Church was already completely ruined, beyond redemption, by the excess of its sins ; and so he thought that everything must rush quickly to perdition ; and therefore (about 1297), he put the coming of the last great Antichrist in the year 1316, and the end of the world in 1335. His positions were afterwards condemned by a tribunal of the Inquisition in Spain. Spiritual corporations, like the Minorites and the Dominicans, that attain great power in the world, when they come to the height of their importance naturally imagine that their history must have been foretold by divine appointment. The Minorites had taken good care that, in the Joachimite writings, there should be found a very distinct prediction declaring that two Orders were to spring up, one out of Umbria (Assisi), and the other in Spain, brilliant stars for the preaching of the Gospel. 1 Joachim had at Tarragona. 1.116, in Villanucva, Viaje Literario a let Iglaiat d Esf> na, xix, 321 . 1 Compare Urogorius dc Lauro, Joachimi Miralil. Verilas de/enta p. 170. 392 THE JOACHIMITE* even depicted the garbs which were to be worn by these two fraternities, in a painting of the cloister of Fiore, and admonished his monks, that when men came to them thus clad,' they were to be welcomed with friendliness and reverence. l By this means the Joachimites received new support in spite of the unfavorable judgment of the great Dominican theolo- gian, Thomas of Aquinas, about Joachim himself; for Thomas would only let him pass as a well-meaning man who had foretold some truths by happy con- jecture, although in other things he was deluded. (Thomas in lib. iv. Sentent. dist. 439, i, art. 3.) 1 Gerardus de Fracheto, Vita f'ratrum, p. 7, ed. Duaccn. VIII. The Prophetic Spirit from the Fourteenth Century to tlic Beginning of the Reformation. THE silver tables of Cyril exercised no small influence upon the circle of ideas of the Roman tribune, Cola di Ricnzo, who had been educated by the Spiritualists, and Eraticelli, living as hermits in the Apennines. " The tables of stone were given to Moses on Sinai," wrote Cola to the Emperor Charles IV., " and so these silver tables were delivered to Cyril on Carmel," l and he must believe these pro- phecies, since Dominicans, Franciscans and the present pope were so plainly designated therein. So, too, Merlin and Joachim, as well as Cyril, had told beforehand of the present persecution of the poor Eremites by the pope and his inquisitors. In Ricnzo were united, in fact, the brooding spirit of the fanatical Joachimites with political insight and a gift of domination which bordered on genius. Like all the Joachimites he firmly believed in the near approach of the third epoch, the Church of the Holy Ghost. We find in him already the idea of a future 1 Papcncordt, Cola di Rienzo und seine Zeit, (1841), 8., 228. 31)3 394 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. holy pope, accustomed to the poverty of the Gospel, the "Papa Angelicas," as he was soon afterwards called, another Celestine, not like him abdicating, but supported by a pious emperor, accomplishing the renovation of the Church and the purification of the clergy. At the same time, however, Rienzo understood how to regulate Rome as a republic, and rule it almost like a dictator ; and he strove to unite dissevered Italy into a confederation under the leading of Rome. Yet, in this son of an inn-keeper on the Tiber, the fanatic and the visionary were stronger than the statesman. Even after his first fall, when imprisoned by the Emperor Charles, he firmly maintained the belief that Cyril had predicted his sufferings (Pa- pencordt, p. 241), and that he \vas still to be the chosen instrument of God, through whom, at the approaching great regeneration of the Church, should be accomplished the political task of raising up the fallen Roman Empire, and the restoration of united Italy to Rome its capital. His views were fun- damentally the same with those of the Spiritualists or Fraticclli, who at that time, and long afterwards, as soon as they could be got hold of, were sentenced to death at the stake. He too was accused of heresy, yet no sentence of death was passed upon him at Avignon, at least none was carried into execution. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 395 Later, ruling in Rome for the second time, and now sent there by the pope himself, he ended his life as " a tyrant" by the hands of the Roman populace. It can hardly be doubted that the classically educated Petrarch, who joyfully greeted Rienzo as the saviour of Italy, also shared the tribune's prophetic faith. Only, as he had lived so long in Avignon, and there seen the corruption of the Papal Curia and the degradation of the Church by public simony, he was more likely to look for a great and prolonged judg- ment, than to indulge the assured hope of a simultaneous political and ecclesiastical regeneration with which Rienzo was filled. In a sonnet 1 that became famous, he declares that Rome and the Roman Chair 1 L'avaraBabilonia, etc. Rimedi P..tra.'ca, ed. Carrer (Padua, 1837), ii , 434. [Sonnet C V I., Maogregor's translation, in The Sonnet*, Triumphs, and other Poems of Petrarch. London, 18 19 : "Covetous Babylon of wrath divine By its worst crimes has drain'd the full cup now, And for its future gods to whom to bow Not Power nor Wisdom ta'en, but Love and Wine. Though hoping reason, I consume and pine, Yet shall her crown deck some new Soldan's brow, Who shall again build up, and we avow One faith in God, in Rome one head and shrino. Her idols shall be shatter'd, in the dust Her proud towers, enemies of Heaven, be hurl'd, Her wardens into flames and exile thrust. Fair souls and friends of virtue shall the world Possess in peace ; and we shall sec it made All gold, and fully its old works display'd." H. B. S.] 396 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. will at some future time (not so soon as he could wish, he says) be swallowed up by a Mohammedan empire, whose monarch will reside in Bagdad ; 1 then will its proud towers be consumed, and its idols be dashed in pieces upon the ground ; but then too will begin a golden age : he means the age of the Holy Ghost pro- phesied by Joachim. The peculiar prophetic spirit of that period, a mixture of the Joachimite and Minorite Spiritualism, was incorporated in the person of the unfortunate Franciscan, Jean de la Rochetaillade ; but his visions brought him into a prison where Pope Innocent VI. thought he would be harmless. Like most of the seers of the later centuries he did not claim to be an actual prophet, but only an enlightened investigator, to whom the Holy Ghost had disclosed the meaning, first of the Apocalypse, and then of the prophecies of Merlin and Joachim. Froissart, who upon the whole judges him very favorably, describes him as a piou.i and spiritually-minded priest, and Petrarch probably derived from the visions of this man his anticipation 1 Petrarch uses the word " Baldacco." Italian commentators do not scorn to have known that this means Bagdad, which at that tirnc was reputed to be the chief city of the whole new Christian world, the Koine of heathendom. Thus Baldwin of Ninovc says in his Corpus C fir onicor. FLandrix. cd. Smuts, ii., 713: " Haec civitaa Ilundas (Bagdad; cat cauut totiua i'ttganiswi, wvut iluiua Chris, tiauismi." THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 397 of the spread of the Mohammedan dominion over Western Europe, or at least over Italy. Jean de la Rochctailladc felt that he was strongest where Joachim had shown himself weak, that is, in exact dates about the immediate future ; and he compressed into the narrow period of a few years, from 1356 to 1370, a wonderful series of extraordinary com- plications, decisive catastrophes and sudden re- volutions. In a few months there were to be changes that demanded centuries, according to ordinary historical experience. To him, as a genuine Minorite Spiritualist, the observance or transgression of the strict rule of poverty enjoined by his Order is the very heart of the whole history of the world. * Ac- cording to his fancy, the transgressors of this strict rule of poverty are the true cause of all the calamities and maledictions with which the race is now visited. The salvation of the world and of the Church can only come from two " poor rope-wearers" (Cordclarii, Franciscans), one of whom is to be pope, the other a cardinal ; though such severe and destructive conflicts are to precede that the whole Church would be annihilated by them, were this at all possible. And 1 He says literally in his P ophetie Commentary : Transjrressores onlinis fratrum ruinorum sunt in causa, qutur(iru>n. SJG the Nolitia Sxculi, in Karajan's book, Zur Gescfiichte des Concils von Ly n t s., 104. 2 Vita St. Angeh Carmeiitte, in the Ada Sanctor. Holland, ilaii, ii., 821. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 403 were invented, promising to these princes or their successors a great Empire, brilliant conquests in the north and south, and in addition the taking of Jerusalem. l For this purpose Joachim had to be again used, and along with him Johannes Aquitanus and Johannes Rala were adduced as authors of such prophecies. It was well for those pious women, Catharine and Brigitta, and in general for all those W!ID W.TC then troubled about the condition of the Church, that they lived only in the visions of the future, while the past and the sequence of causes and effects which had produced the present condition of the Church, were unknown to them. The corruption, as it lay before their eyes, they heLl to be accidental, the product of recent times; so that it might vanish away in a sudden revolution, under a fuller outpouring of divine grace. They would have been lost in a labyrinth cf doubts and struggles of conscience, and wholly dis- heartened, had they clearly seen that the present condition of the Church was the consequence of a regularly planned perversion of ecclesiastical ordi- nances and institutions. Those well-meaning prophets of the " Papa Angclicus," then so common in Italy, 1 Sec the I'ollandists, as above, p. 822, who have taken it from the work of Johauiies Boaatius, De J'ro^hetit tui Temporis, Naples, 1GGO. 404 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. had the fancy that a single, pious man, spending a life of voluntary poverty and austerity, a second Celestine V., a stranger to all political complications, would be sufficient, if raised to the Papal Chair, to effect a thorough reformation of the Church in the shortest time. In point of fact, for several centuries, not one of the popes had effected any earnest and permanent improvement in the affairs of the Church. And in the l~>ng series of popes, from A.D. 1300 to A.D. 15^0, there was not one whom the popular belief, e'. en tor a day, imagined to be the foretold "Angelic Tape." l But he was expected with ardent longing in all Italy, as the true Emperor Frederick was expected in Germany. In the year 1514, Julius de Medici (after- wards Pope Clement VII.), then Vicar General of the Bishop of Florence, imprisoned a monk named Theo- dore, who had represented to the people that an angel had declared to him that he, Theodore, was the " ' Papa Angelico ' expected by the Italian people." 2 When Savonarola appeared publicly as a reformer in Flo- 1 This name came fiom a misunderstood passage in the old Latin poern asi-ribed to Teitnllian. There the Hernias, who wrote the Pastor or " Shepherd," ia spoken of, and this " Shepherd " or angel is designated as the angelicus pastor. 2 Cambi, Slorie Florentine, iii., 60. Moreni, Memorie della Basilica di S. Lorenzo, ii., 311. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 405 rence, he was accused by his opponents of really intending to have himself made " Papa Angelicas ; " and his adherents actually believed that God had chosen him for this. And all the more, as one Prospero Pitti, a priest of Florence, believed to have prophetic illumination, had a long time before, together with other events, foretold the coming of this bold preaching monk, and the simultaneous elevation of the "Angel Pope." Savonarola himself afterwards, on the rack, declared that his object had not been to become pope, but to bring about a general Council for the purification of the Church. l As early as 1491, in the very midst of Rome, a poorly clad street preacher had appeared, with a wooden cross in his hand, proclaiming that the revelation of the "Pastor Angclicus" was near at hand, together with heavy judgments upon Florence, Milan and Venice. Tlu citizens of Rome, however, did not show the slightest longing for such a pope, who must of course begin with stopping their most fruitful sources of revenue ; and the prophet was laughed at as crazy. 3 This expectation of an "Angel Pope" manifestly sprang up on Italian soil. By the simplest means and i.i the shortest time, although, as it was for the 1 Guicriardini, Storia d'fialia, 3, 7. 2 btoph. luicsbura, Ui^rium, ill Muratori, Serif. Ital. iii., 2, p. 406 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. most part believed, after a great shedding of blood, and after the secularization of the Church property, which had become the mere rental of the priests, he would accomplish the gigantic work of reformation, restoring the Church to the truth of the gospel. It was soon found that a single " Angelicus" was not sufficient for this, so the prophecies soon became broader, and towards the end of the fourteenth century the single elect one was enlarged into a series of four Angel-Popes. The first who predicted this was the venerable Rabanus, Archbishop of Mayence, who, by the accidental error of being mistaken for the author of Adso's work on Antichrist, obtained the name of a prophet, and was credited with the origin of a prediction which briefly designated the four popes who were to bless the Church. Joachim, in a work ascribed to him, the Book of Fiore, and also a so-called Dandalus, who was supposed to have been the author of a " Revelation of the Popes," bore witness to the four expected popes. l The third was to uproot the temporalities of the Church (here is betrayed the Minorite-Joachimite origin of the pro- phecy) ; and. the fourth was to wander through the whole world as a preacher and propagator of the 1 Bishop Berthold of Chiemscc, in Lis Onus Ecclesix, CO, 8, 9, gives the THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 407 Christian faith. Then would begin the catastrophe of the end. This antagonism of the two schools or tendencies, the Joachimites and the anti-Joachimites, the hopeful and the pessimists, was prolonged for centuries. The monk Giovanni delle Celle, of Florence, in a work written against the Fraticelli, summed up this contrast in a concise and conclusive manner. 1 " The former say the world must be renewed, I say it must go to the ground." Both agreed that the Church was in a most woful condition, desperately diseased, and so defaced as to be scarcely recognised. But, the one said, it can and must be restored ; fearful and bloody judgments will first come, but there will follow a long and blessed time of ecclesiastical prosperity. The other said, this decrepitude of the Church will not end in restored health, but all signs indicate death ; anJ the cata- strophes, which, according to biblical and traditional prophecy, arc partly to precede the coming of the great adversary and partly to attend it, arc already begun or are near at hand. History proved both to be wrong. At the time of the Great Schism (13/8- 1455), Henry of Langenstein reported the prophetic 1 Costoro dicouo che'l mondo si dee rinovellarc, odio dicn tlio dec rovinarc. In the Compendia di JJottrina. in the Scelta ai c'u/i- osiia Lett,. (Bologna, 1SG1), disp. 8G, p. 351. 403 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. spirit as in full blossom. l There were soothsayers in abundance who made predictions from the course of the stars, or from conjectures after rules of their own, and found a hearing ; their vaticinations were copied and illuminated, as though they were the literal revelations of the Holy Ghost. In short, they were floating in a sea of prophecies as to the end of the schism, all of which came to confusion. Henry relates the fate of one of these prophets : There came from France to the cloister of Eberbach a learned monk, esteemed a saint ; he had received revelations as to the short duration of the schism, and was sure that it would continue only a few years. As the years flowed on and the schism still continued, he said that he had not weighed the words of the Holy Ghost with sufficient care ; he now knew the end would come somewhat later. But this limit also passed by, and the double schism became a triple one. Then such a feeling of shame got hold of him, that he threw away his monastic garb, fled from the cloister, and wandered around the neighboring forests in wretched lay clothing. One of the late fruits of the ideas and prophetic spirit of the Joachimite school is the writing of a 1 Hcnrid dc Ilassitc, Liber contra Valicinia Telesphori, Thcsaur. Auccdot., i., 2, 510. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 409 so-called hermit Tclcsphorus, who was born, as he says, at Cosenza, in the time of the great ecclesiastical rupture, towards the end of the fourteenth century ; and he gave out that he dwelt in the neighborhood of Thebes, that is, where Thebes, now in ruins, once stood. He relates that by the advice of an angel, who appeared to him in 1386, he buried himself in the study of the-prophecies of Cyril and Joachim, of Merlin and Uandalus, of the Sibyls and of the papal chronicles. The fruit of his study is the glorification of France and its king and the French pope. He said that the schism would come to an end by the killing of the Anti-Pope (the Italian), which would be in the year 1393 at Perugia; then would follow a great renovation of the Church and a return of the clergy to apostolic poverty, for all their wealth and estates would be taken from them. At the same time great wars would be waged between the nations of Europe, in which the two allies would be victorious, viz: the true (French) pope and the French king. For the true pope is the one for whom this king has declared himself, since the kings of France in all the papal divisions have always contended for the legitimate pope ; and he must conquer whom the pope helps, that is the French king. Only it is remarkable that this Joachimite, with 35 4io THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. his Guelph sympathies, who hides himself under the name of Telesphorus, revived and appropriated the legend, now more than a hundred years old, about the Emperor Frederick III., who was to be the restorer of the Empire and the Church, but gave it an opposite sense. About the year 1409 so runs his prophecy, this German Frederick, of the seed of the second Frederick, will be raised to the imperial throne, will subdue the Roman Church and set up a German Anti-Pope, will destroy the clergy in a blood bath, and then march from Italy into France. King Charles is to be his prisoner; but, miraculously set free from the prison, he will fight with and kill this German Emperor. Whereupon the " Pastor Angelicus," meanwhile raised to the Chair of Peter, will forever deprive the German princes of their rights in the election of the Emperor, and will elect and crown King Charles as Emperor. The Emperor and the Pope are then to march to Palestine and conquer it. Whereupon all the children of men will be converted, and the world will be at peace. 1 And so the mask is taken off from this prophecy, pro- 1 This work, ascribed to Telesphorus, was printed at Venice in 1515; but this edition is so rare, that Papenbrock and Mosheim know the work only in manuscript. This Venetian edition is before me. Muratori, in the Anliquitales Jial., iii, 949, has copied tho beginning. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 411 claimed with such pretensions upon the authority of an angel, and widely read and believed ; and it seems to be only a programme of the French aspirations and political aims. It had long been a cherished scheme of the French princes and statesmen, to connect the Empire with the royal house of France. The Germans now tried to weaken the effect of this vaticination in a twofold way, by a counter-prophecy, and by a theological refutation. The German Anti-Telesphorus prophet is said to have been one Gamaleon, a relation of Pope Boniface VIII., and to have imparted to the latter his outlook into the future in the year 1390. 1 Like Telesphorus, he represents that a French king was crowned Roman Emperor by the Pope. This king is to wrest the empire from the restless Germans; Rome and Italy are to be his confederates. The clergy, the prophet goes on to say, has already levelled to the ground all the kingdoms of this world and all principalities. It will at last wrest the empire from the German nation, and strive for the annihilation of the secular princes. Then the Roman Emperor will march forth from the field of lilies, subdue Rome, destroy all the lords and tyrants, the Roman Empire, take the French king 1 Ilis prophecy is in the collection of Wolfgang Lazins : Fmy- mentum Valicinii cvjusdam Mclhodii t etc. (Vienna, 1547), f. hij. 412 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. prisoner, and in future the kingdom of France will no longer be honored, but only the German empire. A German patriarchate will then be established at Mayence, the German land and people be raised t* high honor, and live with their new shepherd (by whom is probably meant the patriarch of Mayence, raised to the papal dignity) ; then comes an expedi- tion to the Holy Land, the last of the Crusades. Lazius in quoting this prophecy leaves out the long description of the ecclesiastical corruptions ; yet here are found allusions to thoughts and aims, which after- wards became prominent in the great Peasants' Wars. The theological refutation of Telesphorus was undertaken by Henry of Langenstein, the most famous German theologian of that time. His book shows more than all else, that the Joachimite views had decided opponents in Germany as well as in France. Henry declares it is a heresy on the part of Joachim and his disciple Telesphorus, to speak about the " leprosy of the Church that has committed whoredom," a representation current among the Italian Jra:himites, especially since the Gtielph party had become accustomed to confound Pope and Church, and to call itself the party of the Church. But in Germany this still sounded strange and gave great offense ; it was conceded that the Roman Curia THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC 413 might well deserve this apocalyptic description, but they could not endure to have the whole Church so called. Henry did not find it any the less ob- jectionable, that the prophet of Cosenza should say to laymen, that by confiscating ecclesiastical property and robbing the clergy they were executing the divine will. l Henry saw clearly that the prophet reverenced and flattered the French court, without being aware of the real connection of things. For there was then on foot a plan for bringing Genoa under French domination, which was carried out at Christmas, in the year 1386. Just before this, Telcsphorus sent his book with a dedication to the doge, Antonio of Genoa, doubtless in order to teach him that the republic, which still accepted the Emperor's sovereignty, would do better to submit to the French King Charles VI., since he was soon to be emperor himself. At last, as the human race approached the great epoch of the Reformation and the rupture of Christen- dom, the prophetic voices became more threatening, 1 If he had had a more intimate acquaintance with the SpiritnaU-s and F'-utkclli, still nimu-rous in South TO G>-rmany, hu would have recognized in Telesphonis a m 'nib T ft' this community. For among the tilings which, a-.rordins to his pivdiVjion, wiv soon to lo fulfilled. In-lulled the dissolution of fill the spiritual onl T>, to lie followed by tlir: founding of a new one, which Joachim had ahvady foretold ; and all future popes were to come from the latter. 414 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. and the thrusts against the papacy more sharp. The Irish used to relate about their St. Columba, that God was pleased to give him the spirit of prophecy in the shape of a wonderfully beautiful queen (Acta Sanctorum, Bolland. Januar. ii., 330) ; and so we may say that the prophetic spirit rf those times had a stonied gorgon-like brow, or at the best appeared like a sorrowful widow clad in garments of mourning. There was no longer need of any special prophetic gift, for every one believed that he could announce with certainty the breaking forth of a great catastrophe. Centuries before this the revered Bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln had declared upon his dying bed, that the evils of the Church could be healed only by fire and sword ; and now Macchiavelli, a man of a very different spirit, but the most acute observer of his times, declared that one of two things must come upon the Roman Church, destruction, or a terrible chastisement. l At the same time Pico of Mirandula believed, as he declared in his Oration to Leo X., that in Italy, of whose ecclesiastical condition he drew a fearful description, the severe and bloody punishment of an avenging Providence had already begun, and still worse evils were to follow. 1 Esser propinqno scnza dubbio o la rovina o il fla^ello : Dixrorsi sopra Livio, i., 12 Opere, Fircnzc 1843, 273. lloscoe, in his Life and J'ont'ficale of Leo JT., gives the oration of I'ico. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 415 Just before this, Italy had seen in one of its great men the most renowned prophet since Joachim, Girolamo Savonarola, the preaching monk, who atoned with his life for his firm faith in his mission as a seer, and for the boldness of his warnings. As to the prophetic gift of Savonarola, the judgment of his contemporaries was as divided as is that of later times. But it is more and more conceded, that this extraordinary man actually possessed a peculiar gift of divination, as the best of his biographers, Villari, has declared. The historian Comincs, who always speaks of him with high veneration, asserts that he had*told him things which nobody believed, and which had all been confirmed. Even Maccht- avelli did not venture to deny his prophecies, " because we must speak with reverence of so great a man." (Discorsi, i., 12, p. 272.) Guicciardini withholds his judgment until time shall have decided about his predictions. Two statesmen have boasted that in the com- munities in which they lived nothing important ever occurred which they had not foreseen. Cicero claims this for himself ; and the other one, the French Du Vair, goes still further and asserts that not only in the State, but also in his private life, nothing ever came to pass which he had not beforehand seen to 416 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. be coming. l It seems to me that Savonarola had a similarly organized nature. Savonarola's prophecies were partly the result of his natural insight and rare penetration, in part they were the conclusions he drew from the course of Jewish history as applied to the Christian Church ; and, in fine, they were also the interpretations of visions which he had had, as he himself tells of one such vision of two immense crosses, which were shown him on Good Friday night, 1492, with other won- derful pictures ; and he gives an interpretation of them. 2 The future holy pope, in whose speedy coming he-believed, was brought in vision before him; he saw his face and form, without knowing who he was among the living, whether an Italian or a foreigner. 3 That this disposition to believe in visions, his own and those of others, was in him developed 1 Cicero's statement is in his Epistolx Famil, C, G. Dn Vair was President of the Parliament of Provence, and the first parliamentary orator of his century ; he lived in the times of Henry IV , and of the Burgher wars. His declarations referred to above are quoted in JK-nage, Observations sur la lanyue Franrtu'xe, ii., 110. There is, however, this difference between the Human anil the Fmu hman ; l)u Vair ascribes his anticipations to a sagac ity which nature had given him, while Cicero believes himself indebted for his diuinalio to prolonged study and political experience gradually attained by many years of service. 2 Compendium ltd elatiwum, Ulm, 1469, i'ol. 9. 3 Oracolo della lltnovazione, Fol. 115. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 417 even to superstition is proved by his reliance upon the angelic voices, which Marelii, a comrade of his Order, maintained that he had heard. (See Villari, i., 296.) Thus it came to pass, that his political pro- phecies were fulfilled, but his religious ones were not fulfilled. His reputation as a prophet was confirmed and widely diffused by his prediction of what nobody was looking for, viz : the French invasion of Italy under Charles VIII., and the expulsion of the Medici from Florence. But he also foretold with all definitencss a speedy and entire devastation of Rome by fire and sword, because Rome was the great deceiver of all Christendom and the source of its crimes. l This destruction never occurred. He further maintained that after many grievous visitations and woes, with which God was about to chastise his Church, it would again be built up as it was in the times of the apostles. Savonarola starts with the idea that when the Church had sunk so deep, and was so thoroughly gangrened as was then the case in Latin Christendom, especially in Italy, there must ere long be a renovation ; or else we must suppose that God will forever cast off his bride, as he formerly did the Synagogue, and 1 Oracolo dclla Rcnovazione Mia Chiesa (Venice, 1543), fol. 101. In this work the Florentine Dominican, Luca Bettini, brings together all of Savonarola's prophecies about the Chun h. 4i 8 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. consign it to a hopeless and helpless perdition ; this, however, is inconceivable on the principles of faith. But such a reform as he had in mind and longed for never occurred. He was no more successful in his assurance that a universal conversion of unbelievers would follow the ecclesiastical renovation. On the other hand, he clearly foresaw that his prophetic mission, and the whole position into which he did not force himself so much as he was forced by others, would inevitably result in his own destruction. He longed, he said, to return from the deep sea on which he was afloat to the haven from which he came, but it was no longer possible ; the cause he represented would be victorious, but he would suffer death from it ; for the master, who bore the hammer, would cast him away when he had made use of him. At the end of March, 1498, he was still preaching thus: "Rome will not quench these flames, and if these be quenched God will kindle others, and they are already kindled all around, only you do not know it." On the 23d of May, 1498, he was executed, the Pope said, because he was a heretic ; his Order and his numerous adherents said, because he was a witness of the truth. A sacred office has been dedicated to him as a holy martyr, and persons, whom Rome itself has canonized, like Catharina Ricci and Philip Neri, have reverenced and called upon him by this name. THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, ETC. 419 In Germany, down to the period of the Re- formation, a certain popular treasury of prophecies was gathered up, which was at once the expression and the nutriment of the national wishes and anticipations. Methodius, Joachim, Brigitta, Hilde- garde, and the so-called Sibylline Revelations, they had in common with the whole western world. There has never appeared in Germany a man like Savonarola, who claimed prophetic endowments and was received as possessing them. But the names of mythical personages were attached to the prophecies which had sprung up in the heart of the people. Thus they had an Eremite prophet, John Lichten- berger. It is said in a poem on the war of Cologne in 1745 : " This thing three years before to pass it came One in Mayence did publicly foretell: John Lichtenberger is the prophet's name, In the whole kingdom is he known full well." I This only means that the Lichtenberger prophecies were known through all Germany, but not that the prophet in person was universally known. The pro- phecies which bore his name were a widely-circulated i Lilicncron, 1/islor. Vo!k*Uc- phetic words, which must already have occurred to many a rea.ler, we close this account of the prophecies current for fifteen hundred years after Christ. 1 Parnpuilus Gengenbach, von Gudeko (ilannover, 1856), p. 77 etc. APPENDIX A. THE story of the Papess, as given in the Te- Thetru* gcrnsee manuscript in the Royal Library at Munich (Cod. lat. Tegerns., 781), is as follows : Jutta> " Item papa Jutta, qui non fuit alamannus, sicut Qiancia " mendose fabulatur chronica martiniana. Glan- was daughter " cia puella, fuit filia ditissimi civis Thessalici, f a Thes- " cujus omnis meditatio aequivoca nota sapiential saiian, a " versabatur ; hujus erat intellectus perspicax et cl and stu- " ingenium docile, quam penitus assidua legendi dioug " solertia vegetabant ; hacc tempore brevi sibi child. At " famam per omncs circuitus vindicabat ; sed s< " prredicatas laudcs rei vcritas exceclcbat. Erat , lovo with " Pircius in scholis illi juvcnculus coasvus. Iluic rircius, " noto discendi capacitatis ingcnio, patcrnis opi- ndciop. " bus et omni quasi fru^alitatc, consiliis hos him, " ambos, quos astas asquavcrat, cxsequat amor, drc??cdin " de jugalitate tractatur, parcntcs abnuunt. Cres- mnn-g " cit inter hos ardor et concupisccntia, cum c The two " dicbus sensim pullulat actas, in oscula veniunt wcntto " ct amplcxus impaticntes. Deniquc latibulum Athcn?, " pctunt ct ardcntes junguntur. Ludo vcneris whcro " consummate de rcccssu tractant. HKC inter mamod ai " mulicrcs, hie inter homines virtutum dotibus 6 tudcnt 428 APPENDIX A. for a long " ac disciplinarum studiis optant fieri singulares, time. She et Athenas ire deliberant inter ipsos. Uterque displayed great " se l uo t potest opulentiis munit ; habitus ges- abiiity, " tusque capit ilia viriles et similes animo simul and be- habitus mirandos ac spectabilcs illos facit. came pro- ., , T .. . , i i " Nulla mora properant Amelias, ubi lon&o ficient in all the " tempore student, et ilia doctior, quidquid est arts and " divinas facultatis, aut humanas discipline vel " artium studiosa capescit, et ille similiter est He also gained a " omn i sapientia gloriosus. Hos non Athcnae name fir " solum, sed univcrsa Graecia vencratur. Hi in8 ' " Romam veniunt, in omni facultate studium Thenee theymov- " pronunciant, ad hos omnes conveniunt tain ed to scholares quam quarumcunque scientiarum " doctores et quo profundiores acccdunt, quas they at- " liauriant venas, uberiores inveniunt. Hos tractod a " omnes ct omnium facultatum doctores adoranr, lare , . hos omnes cives venerantur ct nor urn mores numberof scholars. " modestlamque, virtutes et sapicntiam praedicat On the " omnis Roma, qui amplius in omnem terrain death of . penetrat sonus eorum. Ucniquc functo pon- tae pope, " tificc mulier nominatione omni labio vocatur was una- ct voce non i m p u g n ata, Romanis hortantibus, nimously elected to " ac ' ^postolatus apiccm promovetur. Cardina- ei.cceed. " latur Pircius amasius* vitam sagacitcr agunt et Tircius was made " in eorum gubernatione tota laetatur ecclesia. APPENDIX A. 429 " Sed quum status adulteri raro radices figunt, cardinal. " vel si germincnt, non roborant, ct si roborent, whi ** " non perdurant, accidit ergo, quod antea nun- oiancia became " quam, fucata muher papissa praegnatur et pregnant, " insueta tempora partus ignorans ibat ad eccle- ntulKilvo birth to a " siam sancti Johannis Lateranensis cum uni- child on " verso clero missam solemnem celebratura. Sed . to mays, " inter Colosseum et ecclcsiam s. dementis dying on the spot, " coacta doloribus cccidit et puerum peperit et which , he " pariter expiravit. Ilaec viam papa semper p ^ s .g ltnT " evitat et ante coronationem papa semper ma- avoid. " nibus virilia palpantibus exploratur,"etc. " Vide, quos ad gradus virtus et sapientia extollit Pusillos sic altos in sapientia protcxit; sed nihil Kst omnis nostra sagacitas vel industria contra Dcum. Vide carmina, qua; scquuntur. D. secret ut leges percgrina juvencula plenas Glancia clara segcs mulierum transit Athenas Cum juvene cupido vir facta, sed ista cupido Militat in turbis ac doctores docet urbis. Papa lit et paerum pariens et moritur prope clerum, Moralitas. Nil mage grandescit quam doctus jure fruendo, Nil mage vilescit quam vir sine lege fruendo. Papa, pater pauperam, p;pcrit papissa papcl!um,'*etc. APPENDIX B. THE following additional particulars about the fable of Pope Joan, gathered mainly from Baring-Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, the notes to Soames's edition of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, and the article Papesse in Peter Bayle's Dictionnaire, will be of interest to those who care to pursue the subject further. It is greatly to the discredit of Moshcim that he should write as follows of this monstrous story : " Between Leo IV., who died A.D. 855, and Benedict " ///., a woman, who concealed her sex and assumed " the name of John, it is said, opened her way to the " pontifical throne by her learning and genius, and " governed the Church for a time. She is commonly " called the Papess Joanna. During the five subse- " quent centuries the witnesses to this extraordinary " event are without number ; nor did any one, prior " to the Reformation by Luther, regard the thing " as either incredible, or disgraceful to the Church. " But in the seventeenth century, learned men, not ' only among the Roman Catholics, but others also, " exerted all the powers of their ingenuity both to " invalidate the testimony on which the truth of the 430 APPENDIX B. 431 " story rests and to confute it by an accurate com- " putation of dates. There are still, however, very " learned men who, while they concede that much " falsehood is mixed with the truth, maintain that " the controversy is not wholly settled. Something 4 must necessarily have taken place at Rome to give " rise to this most uniform report of so many ages ; " but even yet it is not clear what that something * was." ' Book III., part 2, chap, ii., 4. Tant il est certain que les memes choses nous paraissent veVita- bles ou fausses a mesure qu'elles favorisent, ou notre parti, ou le parti oppose". One can hardly doubt that it was Protestant prejudice which made Moshcim "wish to believe" (as Gibbon says of a dubious story which pleases him) that the myth of Pope Joan might be true. It matters little to Protestants, as Haylc remarks, whether the Papess existed or not ; it matters much that they should not give a handle to people to regard them commc des gens opiniatrcs, ct qui ne vculent jamais demordre des opinions prccomjucs. Moshcim says, "During the five subsequent centuries " the witnesses to this extraordinary event are with- " out number ;" he omits to add that they occur in the last of the five centuries. For more than 350 years after the death of Leo IV. there is absolute silence about the Papess. Nor is it true that " no one prior 432 APPENDIX B. " to Luther's time regarded the thing as incredible " or disgraceful to the Church." Most people regarded it as a grievous scandal, and some doubted the fact. Platina, who wrote before Luther was born, after tell- ing the story, says, " haec quae dixi, vulgo feruntur, " incertis tamen et obscuris auctoribus ; quae idco " ponere breviter et nude institui, ne obstinate ct per- " tinaciter omisisse videar, quod fere omnes affirmant." Lives of the Popes, John VII. It is almost slaying the dead to argue against the Story of Pope Joan ; but it is worth while to give a specimen of Bayle's mode of reasoning. Is it con- ceivable that five centuries hence there will not be a single historian extant of the sixteenth or seventeenth century who mentions the abdication of Charles V., or the assassinations of Henry III. and IV. of France ; but that the earliest mention of these great events will be in some "miserable annalistc" of the nineteenth century ? If it should be so, the twenty-fourth century will be very credulous if it believes in these events. To show how impossible it would be for the historians of the ninth century to have suppressed a fact so tremendous as a female pope, who was detected as Pope Joan is supposed to have been detected, Bayle supposed a writer of the eleventh century to narrate as follows : Charles the Great was very desirous that APPENDIX B. 433 his successor should be his son ; it was therefore a great grief to him that his wife was barren. When at length there were hopes of a child, he was beside himself with joy ; but when the child proved to be a girl, he was almost as grieved as before. He deter- mined, therefore, to pass the child off as a boy, and gave it the name of Pepin. Six years later his wife bore him a son ; but the parents still felt bound to conceal the sex of the first child, who on Charles' death was crowned as his successor. She reigned for three years without detection. The denouement took place as she was addressing the parliament. The woman-king died in childbirth in the midst of the august assembly ; and the nobles, in horror, passed a law which would render such an imposture impossible in future. Imagine half a dozen different accounts of the way in which Queen Pepin died, and you have a narrative as like that about Pope Joan " commc " deux gouttes d'cau." What amount of credence should we give to this eleventh century writer ? Some writers appear to have believed that the child which the Papess bore was Antichrist ! An eminent Dutch minister considers it as immaterial whether its father was a monk or the devil. The German and French Protestants of the sixteenth century delighted in the story, embellishing it with 37 434 APPENDIX B. details of their own, in order to make capital out of it against the Papacy. Nor did their fancy exuberate in words only. Some of their accounts are illustrated with woodcuts, which would seem to be more curious and graphic than decent. Mr. Baring-Gould gives a copy of one in which the Papess is strung up to a gibbet over the mouth of hell ; rather against the version of the story, which says she was allowed to choose whether she would have the public exposure, or burn for ever in hell. The raison d'etre cf the myth, as given by Dr. Dollinger in the text, is probably sufficient. Mr. Baring-Gould, however, has little doubt " that Pope " Joan is an impersonation of the great whore of Re- " velation, seated on the seven hills, and is the po- " pular expression of the idea prevalent from the " twelfth to the sixteenth century, that the mystery of " miquity was somehow working in the Papal Court. " The scandal of the anti-popes, the utter worldliness " and pride of others, the spiritual fornication with the " kings of the earth, along with the words of Revcla- " tion prophesying the advent of an adulterous woman " who should rule over the Imperial City, and her con- " ncction with Antichrist, crystallized into this curious " myth, much as the floating uncertainty as to the " signification of our Lord's words, ' There be some APPENDIX B. 435 " ' standing here which shall not taste of death till " ' they see the kingdom of God/ condensed into the " myth of the Wandering Jew." He gives the following "jingling record" of tha Papess, which is worth re-quoting. It is a fragment of the rhythmical Vitcs Pontijicuin of Gulielmus Jacobus of Egmonden, preserved in Wolfjii Lcciionnin Meinorabiliuin centcnarii, XVI. : " Priusquam reconditur Sergius, vocatur Ad summam, qui dicitur Johannes, huic addatur Anglicus, Moguntia iste procreatur. Qai, ut dat sententia, fbeminis aptatur Sexu : quod sequentia monstrant, breviatur Haec vox ; nam prolixius chronica proccdui.t. Ista, de qua h'-'-vius dicta minus Ijedunt. Huic erat amasius, ut scriptores crcdunt, Patria relinquitur Moguntia, Grzcorum Studiose petitur schola. Post doctorum Hsec doctrix etficitur Romje legcns ; horum Msec auditu fungitur loquens. Hinc prostrato Summo hzc cligitur; sexu exaltato Quandoque negligitur. Fatur quod hxc nate Per servum conficitur. Tcmpore gignendi Ad processum cquus scanditur, vice flcndi, Papa cadit, panditur improbis ridendi Norma, puer nascitur in vico Clementis, Co!ossa:um jungitur. Corpus parcntis In eodem traditur sepultura: gentis, Faturque scriptoribus, quod Papa przefiito, Vico senioribus transiens amato Congruo ductoribus scquitur negato Loco, quo Ecclesia partu denigratur, Quamvis inter spacia Pontificum ponatur Propter sexum." 436 APPENDIX B. The literature on the subject is abundant. The arguments of those who maintain the truth of the story are collected and stated by Frederick Spanheim in his Exercit. de Papa Fcemina (Opp., torn, ii., p. 577), and L'Enfant has given a French translation and better arrangement of them, with additions : Hisiolrc dela Papesse Jeanne, La Haye, 1736 ; two vols. I2mo- The arguments against the myth are given in Blondel's 1 famous treatise, Familicr /claircissement de 1 Baring-Gould, in his Curious Myths, etc., has the following statement in respect to this work of Blondcl : f tlu'sc died on 29 Sept-ml'er, 85"), just seventy-four days after the tkul.li of I'opo Leo.'* Pp. 17U-18I. 11. B. S.1 APPENDIX C. THE story of Popiel, king of Poland, which is so similar to that of Bishop Hatto of Mayence, is thus given by Mr. Baring-Gould : " Martinus Callus, "who wrote in mo, says that King Popiel, having " been driven from his kingdom, was so tormented " by mice, that he fled to an island whereon was " a wooden, tower, in which he took refuge ; but " lh 2 host of mice and rats swam over and ate him " up. The story is told more fully by Majolus " (Disnun Canic., p. 793). When the Poles mur- " mured at the bad government of the king, and " sought redress, Popiel summoned the chief mur- " murers to his palace, where he pretended that he " was ill, and then poisoned them. After this the " corpses were flung by his orders into the lake " Gopolo. Then the king held a banquet of rejoicing " at having freed himself from these troublesome " complainers. But during the feast, by a strange " metamorphosis (mira quadam metamorphosi), an " enormous number of mice issued from the bodies of " his poisoned subjects, and rushing on the palace, " attacked the king and his family. Popiel took " refuge within a circle of fire, but the mice broke 433 APPENDIX C. 439 " through the flaming ring ; then he fled with his wife " and child to a castle in the sea, but was followed by " the animals and devoured." He also gives other stories, more or less parallel to that of Bishop Hatto ; for instance, the one of Freiherr von Guttingen. This baron is said to have possessed three castles between Constance and Arbon, in the canton of Thurgau, namely, Guttin- gen, Moosburg, and Oberburg. During a grievous famine he collected the poor on his lands together, shut them up in a barn, and burnt them, mocking their shrieks by exclaiming, " Hark how the rats " and mice arc squeaking !" Not long after a huge swarm of mice came down upon him. Me fled to his castle of Guttingen, which stood in the lake of Constance; but the mice swam after him and devoured him. The castle then sank into the lake, \vhcrc it may still be seen when the water is clear and the surface unruffled (Zcitschrift fur Deutsche Alytltologic, iii., p. 307). Again, there is a mouse- tower at Holzolstcr, in Austria, with a very similar legend attached, except that here the wicked noble- man locks the poor people up in a dungeon and starves them to death, instead of making a bonfire of them (Vernaleken, Alptnsagcn, p. 328). Another instance is referred to by Dr. Dollingcr in the text. 440 APPENDIX C. The Worthsee, between Terming and Seefeld, in Bavaria, is also called the Mouse lake. A count of Seefeld once starved all his famishing poor to death in a dungeon during a famine, and laughed at their cries, which he called the squeaking of mice. An island tower was as little use to him as to Bishop Hatto or King Popiel, though he took the additional precaution of having his bed swung from the roof by chains. The mice got at him from the ceiling, and picked his bones (Zcitsclirift fiir Dcut. Myth, i., p. 452). The Mauseschloss in the Hirschberger lake is another instance of a very similar story. Legends abound in which rats or mice are made instruments of divine vengeance, but they do not always contain the feature of the island tower, which is essential for our present purpose. Sometimes the avenging vermin are toads and frogs instead of rats and mice. The tendency which a story of interest has to attract round itself as evidence circumstances which have no connection with it whatever, is so strikingly illustrated by the famous incident of the so-called " Thundering Legion," that I venture to call attention to it. For the sake of clearness I give the outline of the story. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in his celebrated war against the Quadri, was reduced to the greatest extremities by a failure of water, just on APPENDIX C. 441 the very eve of a battle. A large body of Christians in one of the legions fell on their knees, and prayed to heaven for help. A sudden storm followed, which by its thunder and lightning terrified the barbarians, and by its heavy rain relieved the thirst of the Romans. The truth of the narrative docs not concern us ; but probably no one who examines the evidence, as collected by Dr. Newman in his Essays on Miracles (Essay II., chap, v., section i), will dissent from his very moderate statement of the result. " On " the whole, then, we may conclude that the facts of " this memorable occurrence are as the early Christian " writers state them ; that Christian soldiers did ask, " and did receive, in a great distress, rain for their " own supply, and lightning against enemies ; " whether through miracle or not we cannot " say for certain, but more probably not through " miracle in the philosophical sense of the word. All " we know, and all we need know is, that ' He made " ' darkness His secret place, His pavilion round " ' about him, with dark water and thick clouds to " ' cover Him ; the Lord thundered out of heaven, " ' and the Highest gave His thunder; hailstones and " ' coals of fire. He sent out His arrows, and " ' scattered them ; He sent forth lightnings, and " ' destroyed them.' " Just as the story of Pope Joan 442 APPENDIX C. fastened on the fact that pontifical processions never passed through the narrow street between the church of St. Clement and the Coliseum, and just as the story of the Count of Gleichen made capital out of the big bed and the jewel which the Turkish princess was supposed to have worn in her turban, so this history of the " Thundering Legion" has incorporated with itself two utterly irrelevant circumstances, and that so completely, that some persons have supposed that by exposing the irrelevancy they have necessarily demolished the story " as if evidence were the test of truth." Claudius Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis, \vas a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius. His state- ment of this incident in the war against the Quadri is preserved to us by Eusebius (Hisf. v., 5), and he alleges as evidence that the legion to which these Christian soldiers belonged was thenceforth called the Thundering Legion. Tertullian, writing some five and twenty years later (about A.D. 200), states by way of evidence that the emperor in consequence passed an edict in favour of the Christians (Apo- logcticits, chap. v. ; cf. Ad Scapnlam, cap. iv.). Now there certainly was a Thundering Legion (Lcgio Fulminatrix), viz., the twelfth ; but then it was as old as the time of Augustus. It was one of the nineteen legions levied by him. And as regards Tertullian's APPENDIX C. 443 argument, there is some evidence that Marcus Aurelius did issue a rescript favouring the Christians, but in the period of his reign which preceded the battle. And it is notorious that he persecuted the Christians both before and after that event. Here, then, we have a story, almost certainly true in itself, claiming as evidence circumstances which, however well attested, have nothing whatever to do with it. Instances of strange and unusual objects giving rise to myths might be multiplied almost ad infiiiititm. Thus the story of Arion arose from the figure of a man on a dolphin, which was the customary offering of one saved from shipwreck ; the dolphin being a mere emblem of the sea. The story of the Horatii and Curiatii seems to be an attempt to explain five barrows. The custom of representing martyrs with the instruments or marks of their sufferings, produced the legend of St. Dcnys walking with his head under his arm. The allegorical picture of Michael the Archangel conquering the Evil One in the presence of the Church, gave rise to the myth of St. George rescuing Saba from the dragon, &c. APPENDIX D. POPE HADRIAN'S LETTER TO HENRY II., KING ^ OF ENGLAND, A.D. 1154. Adrianus Papa gratum et acceptum habet quod Hen, ricus Rex Anglia Insulam Hyberniam ingrediatnr ut populum ilium legibiis subdat, ita tamen tit annua Pctro solvatur pensio. ADRIANUS Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, caris- simo in Christo filio illustri Anglorum Regi, salu- tem et Apostolicam Bencdictionem. Laudabiliter satis et fructuose de glorioso nomine propagando in terris et aeternas felicitatis praemio cumulando in" ccelis, tua magnificentia cogitat, dum ad dilatandos Ecclesias terminos, ad declarandam indoctis ct rudibus Populis Christianae fidei veritatem, et vitiorum plan- taria de Agro Dominico extirpanda", sicut Catholicus Princeps, intendis, et ad id convenientius exequendum consilium Apostolicae sedis exigis et favorem. In quo facto, quanto altiori Consilio, et majori discretione precedes, tanto in eo fcliciorem progressum tc, pnestante Domino, confidimus habiturum, eo quod ad bonum exitum semper et finem soleant attingere quae de ardore fidei et religionis amore principium ac- ccperunt. 444 APPENDIX D. 445 Sane Hiberniam et omncs Insulas quibus sol justitise Christus illuxit, ct quae documenta Fidci Christiana; rcceperunt, ad jus beati Pclri ct sacro- sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae (quod tua etiam nobilitas recognoscit) non est dubium pcrtincrc, undo tanto in cis libcntius plantationcm fidci fidelem ct gcnncn Deo gratum inserimus, quanto id a nobis intcrno exadis- trictius prospicimus cxigcndum. Significasti siquidcm nobis, fili in Christo carissime, te Hyberniae Insulam ad subdcndum ilium populum legibus, ct vitiorum plantaria inde cxtirpanda, vclle intrare, ct dc singitlis domibits Annnam unfits denarii bcato Pctri vclle soli'crc pcnsioncm et jura Ecclcsiarum illius terrae illibata ct intcgra conscrvarc ; nos itaquc, piuin ct laudabilc dcsidcrium tuum favore congruo proscqucntcs, et pctitioni tu?e bcnignum impendcntcs assensum, gratum ct acccptum habcmus, ut, pro dilatandis Ecclcsinc termini's, pro vitiorum rcstrin- gcndo dccursu, pro corrigendis moribus ct virtutibus inscrendis, pro Christianas Rcligionis augmento, Insu- lam illam ingrcdiaris ; ct qu;u ad honorcm Dei ct salu- tcm illius spcctavcrint cxcquaris; ct illius terras populus honorificc te recipiat ; et sicut Dominum vcncrctur (jure nimirnm Ecclcsiarum illibato ct intcgro fcrma- ncntc, ct sah'a bcato Pctro ct sacrosanct^ Rotnamz Ecclc- si& dc singulis domibus annua unius denarii pcnsionc}. 38 446 APPENDIX D. Si ergo, quod concepisti animo, effectu duxeris prosequente complendum, stude gentcm illam bonis moribus informare, et agas, tarn per te, quam per illos quos ad hoc fide, verbo, et vita idoneos esse perspexeris, ut decoretur ibi Ecclesia, plantetur et crescat Fidei Christianas Religio, et quae ad honorem Dei et salutem pertinent animarum taliter ordinentur, ut et a Deo sempiternse mercedis cumulum consequi merearis, et in terris gloriosum nomen valeas in seculis obtinere. Rymer's Fadcra, Convcntioncs, &c., I., p. 15. It is interesting to compare with the claims made by the above document the decision of the recent Council of the Vatican : " Si quis itaque dixcrit, Romanum Pontificem " habcre tantummodo officium inspectionis vel di- " rectionis, non autem plcnam ct snprcmam potcstatcm " jnrisdictionis in universam Ecclcsiam, non solum in " rebus, quae ad fidem et mores, scd ctiam qua* ad " disciplinam ct regimen Ecclcsice per tot inn orbcm " diffuses pertinent ; aut cum habcre tantum potiores " partes, non vero totam plenitudincm hujus supremae " potestatis ; aut hanc ejus potestatem non esse " ordinariam et immediatam sive in omnes ac singulas " ecclcsias, sive in omncs ct singulos pastorcs et fidcics ; " anathema sit." Constitutio Dogmatica prima de Ecclesia Christi, cap. iii. APPENDIX E. DECISIONS " EX CATHEDRA." " QUELLES dtaient alors les conditions de 1'acte ex " catJtcdni f Qui pcut dire ce qu'ellcs sont au- " jourd'hui ? Connait-on deux thdologicns bien " d'accord sur ce point ? Nous parlerons des actcs " ex cathcdrA quand nous saurons ce que veut dire " le mot ex cathcdrd" Most persons who have endeavoured to discover what the exact meaning of decisions ex cathedra is, will be inclined to sympathise very heartily with the above words of Perc l Gratry. Archbishop Manning tells us 2 that the Vatican Council has defined the meaning. What the Council says is this: "We teach and define that it is a dogma " divinely revealed ; that the Roman Pontiff, when he " speaks ex cathcdrA, that is, when in discharge of the " office of Pastor and Doctor of all Christians, by " virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority he defines a 11 doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the " Universal Church, by the divine assistance promised 1 Troixtime leltre d Mgr. Detchampt, p. 13. 2 The Vatican Council and ilt Uejinilwns, London, 1870, p. 57. 447 448 APPENDIX E. " to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that in- " fallibility," l &c. But some persons have been able to accept the new dogma, that the Pope has the Church's infal- libility when he speaks ex cathcdrti, precisely be- cause neither the nature of the Church's infallibility nor the meaning of ex catlicdrd have ever been defined. It would seem, then, that the definition of the Vatican Council is itself in need of definition. We must fall back, therefore, on the explanations of the phrase which have been attempted elsewhere. Those not already committed to a position, with which the meaning of ex cat/iedrd must at all ha- zards be made consistent, v/ill probably agree with "Janus," 2 that beyond excluding ofl'-hand remarks on dogmatic and ethical questions made by a pope in the course of conversation, the diolinction ex catJicdrd has no meaning. "When a pope speaks 1 " Docemus et divinitus rcvclatum dogma cssc definimus : Eoma- ' nnm Pontificcm. cum ex cathedra loquitur, id est, cum omnium " Chrisiianorum Pastorisft Doctoris munere fangens, pro supremt tua " Ajiostolica auctoritate doctrinam de fide vel moribas ab universal 14 Ecclesia tenendem defmit, per assistenliam divinum, ipsi in bcato 41 Potro promissam, ca infallibilitatc pollere, quadiviuus Hedcmjifor " Eccleisiam suam in definienda doetrina de fiile vel moriljtis in- 41 stnictam csse voluit," &c Consltluiio JJogmalica 1'rima de Eccle- " tid Ch isti, rap. iv., sub. fin. 2 Der Papst und das Cvncit., p. 127. Euylish tnvuslatiou, p. 1U1. APPENDIX E. 449 " 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 cathcdrd judgment " The moment any accidental or arbitrary condition " is fixed on which the ex catJicdrd nature of a papal " decision is to depend, we enter the sphere of the " private crotchets of theologians Just as if one " close to say afterwards of a physician who had " been consulted, and had given his opinion on a " d.'ieasc, that lie had formed his diagnosis a:*d " prescribed his remedies as a private person, and r.ot " as a physician Thus Orsi maintains that " I lonorius composed the dogmatic letter he issued in " rcpiy to the Eastern Patriarchs, and which was " afterwards condemned as heretical by the sixth " (Ecumenical Council, only as ' a private teacher ; ' " but the expression doctor privafns, when used of a " pope, is like talking of wooden iron." Some have maintained that before a pope speaks ex catlicdrd he must have thoroughly discussed the question to be decided, conferring with bishops and theologians. This appears to be the present view of Bishop Hefelc, judging from his recent most disap- 450 APPENDIX E. pointing letter to the clergy of his l diocese. But the learned author of the Conciliengeschichte does not tell us whether the consulting a synod is an indispensable condition of a definition ex cathedra, or only a piece of ecclesiastical etiquette. If the latter, the statement is nugatory ; if the former, we have the startling paradox that the infallibility of an infallible Head is dependent on consultation with fallible subordinates. Bellarmine and his fellow Jesuit, Endaemon Johannes, make it a sine qua non that the Pope should address what he defines ex catkedrti to the whole Church. Thus a decree or definition addressed to the Church in France or in Germany would not necessarily be infallible. But surely what is truth for 1 The words of our Constitution (Constitutio Dogmaiica Priwa de EcciesiO, Christi, cap. iv.) : " Romani autem Pontifiees, prout tcmpo- " rum ct rerum conditio suadebat, mine convocatis cecumenins " coneiliis aut explorata EcclcsiiB per orbern dispersa; scntenlia, " nunc per synodos particulares, nunc aliis, qure divina suppedilaljat " providenti.i, adhibitis auxiliis, &e.," contain not only an historical notice of what was done formerly, but also imply the rule, in accordance with which papal decisions ex cathedrA will always be made. Rundschreilen an den hochwiirdigen Klerus. llotttjn- burg, April 10th, 1871. But will it suffice if the Pope merely consults a synod, and then decrees what he pleases, whether the synod approve or no ? Or must at least some of the synod agree with him ? Or will it be suffi- cient if he only consults those who are known to agree with him ? " This question lias become a crucial one since 1713, when Clement "XI. issued his famous Bull Unigenitus, which he hud drawn up " with the assistance of two cardinals only." (Janus). APPENDIX E. 451 one is truth for all. How can a proposition be an article of faith for France or Germany, if it is not an article of faith for the whole Church ? Others again, would make it of the essence of an ex cathedra decision that the document should have been affixed for a certain time to the door of St. Peter's, and in the Campofiorc. [Bishop von Hefcle, in his essay on Honorius, against DC Margerie's pamphlet, Le Papc Honorins et Ic Brfoiaire Remain (Paris 1870), takes the ground that Honorius spoke ex cathcdrd on the question in hand. He says : " Who does not know that it is extremely difficult to determine when the Pope speaks ex cathedra ? DC Margerie propounds two criteria by which this may be known : " a. When the Pope proclaims in positive terms an opinion as an article of faith. Honorius, he argues, did not do this. But is not the following dictum positive : " We confess one will of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Unam voluntatem fatcmur domini Jcsu Christi. Alansi, T. xi., p. 539). "Further, Ilonorius says: 'We have not learned from the Holy Scriptures that Jesus Christ.. . has one or two energies ; but that He acts in manifold modes/ 452 APPENDIX E. (inultiformiter cognovimus operatum, Mansi. p. 542). And is not Honorius prescribing this as a matter of faith ? Toward the close of his epistle, he says : ' This, my brethren, you will with us proclaim . . . and we exhort you (hortantes vos) that you avoid the new way of talking about one or two energies, etc." (Mansi, xi., P- 543)- " In the second epistle he is still more clear : ' As to the ecclesiastical dogma, and what we are bound to hold and to teach (quantum ad dogma ecclcsiaati- cum pertinet quae tcnere vel praedicare debemns\ we are not bound to define that there is in the Mediator either one energy or two.' " Thus Ilonorius in fact proclaimed his thesis posi- tively, and prescribed it. " b. But, says Margerie (p. 43), he did not enj ;in it upon the whole world, and this is the second requisite of a dogma ex cathedra. " I do not know that a formal address to the whole Church is absolutely necessary to an ex cathedra defi- nition ; for if that be the case, the famous dogmatic epistle of Leo I. to Flavian was not given ex catJicdrd. Tut there is no doubt about the fact that Honorius would have the whole Church, and not merely the Church of Constantinople, believe what he pro- pounded." (See the Presbyterian Quarterly and Prince- APPENDIX E. 453 ton Review, April, 1872, pp. 299, 300.) Bishop Hcfele, however, published the Vatican decree on Papal In- fallibility in April, 1871, and gave in his adhesion to it, accompanying it with an interpretation on several points, as e.g., that this "infallibility extends only to revealed truth about matters of faith and morals ; " that " the definitions alone are infallible, and not the introductory statements and arguments;" and, in fine, that the reason why a papal definition is in- fallible "is not to be found in the person of the Pope, but in the divine aid." This last is certainly a re- markable interpretation : for if that was the real sense of the decree, none of the minority of the Council could have opposed. See a sharp criticism on theie pi. 'nts in von Schultc's Stctlnnj dcr Coiuiiicn, l\jf*:c nnd Bischofe, Prag. 1871. s. 336-8. II. B. S.] Another necessary condition, according to some, is that the Pope should anathematize those who dispute the decision. Lastly, the Bishop of St. Poltcn maintains ! that 1 Die/ lfhe vnd die vah-e UnfeMbarktit der rapile, von Dr. Joseph FESSLIR, Bischof von St. P lt< n, Wien, 1871. The |m- r-hL-t contains some strung; 1 inconsistencies, as professor III rchtolJ has already pointed out, c. R. . On p. .T4 Bishop KcKxIcr mainiains that the well known brief of Tins IX , t/itlti/dieeiinttr^JuDv 1, 1851), in which curtain dcKtrinc? are cond. inn d as ln-n-tical, is not a decision er cithedra ; and the bishop ridicules professor Schultc for eupposiug that a dctiuition uf an article of faith conld bo made in 454 APPENDIX E. the pope must expressly state that he Is defining, in virtue of his office, as supreme teacher in the Church. Hence he would contend that it is still doubtful whether the present Pope's Syllabus is ex catJicdrd, and therefore infallible. Would Rome allow that it is doubtful ? In considering these various, and in some cases extraordinary conditions, we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that they are for the most part artificial restrictions, invented for the purpose of excluding certain awkward utterances of popes from being ex cathedrd. Such efforts reach a climax when the view is deliberately put forth, that, 1 as no pope ever has spoken ex cathedrd from the beginning of time till now, so it is probable that henceforth till the end of time none ever will so speak. And nothing short of this desperate theory can save the Bull of Paul IV. " Cum ex Apostolatus officio," March I5th, 1809 (one condemning a book. On p. 41, however, he tells us that in theology it is a sure sign (sichercs Kennzeichen) of a dogmatic decision when any doctrine is declared by the Pope to be heretical. The pam- phlet in style is perhaps scarcely what one would have expected from a prelate. 1 What is the Meaning of the late Definition of the Infallibility of the 1' ope? An Enquiry. 1'y W. MASKELL, p. 10. Noticed by the Dean of Westminster in his recent pamphlet on The Athanasian Creed. Dean Stanley justly remarks, " Whether such interpretations " are respectful to the documents which they profess to honour may well be doubted." (p. 95.) APPENDIX E. 455 of the most terrible ever issued by a pope) from being ex cathcdrd. Every 1 condition, even down to the affixing it on the doors of St. Peter's, is fulfilled. The Bishop of St. Polten attempts to exclude it, because it is not a decision in matters of faith " keine Gfau&ensentscheidung ; " but it is most undeniably a decision in matters of morals, and these are claimed as within the sphere of papal infallibility no less than matters of faith. 1 It is perhaps worth while to quote the passages which prove this : " Cum ez Apostolatus oflicio nobin, incritis licet imparibiiH, 44 divinitiis crediti), cum Dominici gregis nobis immineat yeneralt'g, u et cxindc teneamur pro firia opcrantem." " Scribcntes etiam commtmibtis fratribua " Cyro et Sophronio antistitibus, tie novae voeif, id ett, uniut tel " gc mince, opcrationis vocabuh imis'ere vcl immorari videantur : sed u abrasa hujusmodi nova voci* ap^ellatione, unum Christum dominnm u uobiscuui iu ulri.squu uaturis diviua vcl Lmuaua pi^cdic 460 APPENDIX F. answers, (i.) We must confess that Christ had only one will. (Which was heretical.) (2.) We must not say that Christ had two conflicting wills, of which the divine will compelled the human will to act in harmony with it. (Which no one had ever dreamed of saying.) (3.) It would be better not to talk either of one will or of two wills, but to leave such a mere question of language to grammarians. (Which was no answer at all.) (4.) We must not talk either of one will or of two wills. The question cannot lawfully be discussed. (Which was a return to the absurd and disastrous policy of Zeno's Howticon ; attempting to settle a vexed question by forbidding its discussion.) In the EctJiesis the Emperor gave this fourth dictum of Honorius the authority of an imperial decree. The EctJiesis was received with great favour in the East ; and Honorius would no doubt have accepted it. He died, however, before it reached Rome, October, A.D. 638. [The literature about the case of Honorius has had an addition of some forty or fifty works and pamphlets " tern." Ilonorii PP. Ep. iv., ad enndom. LaMx?, Condi., vi., 9G9. A fresh discussion of the case of Iloiiorius lias just appeared in Germany Die Jrrlehre des Honor hi* und das vaticiinisc/ie Decret. By A. Buckgabcr, Stuttgart, 1871. The Look lias bfTi plared ou the Index, uud the uulhui' hus submitted to the condemnation. APPENDIX F. 461 within the last few years. See the article by Bishop von Hefelc, already referred to, translated in the Presbyterian Quarterly, April, 1872 ; also Hefcle's Conciliengeschichte^ vol. iii., pp. 129, 145, 264, 285. Mgr. Maret, Du Concile General ct dc la Pa it, Rcligicusc, 2 Tome, Paris, 1869. The Case of Pope Honorius, by P. Le Page Rcnouf, London, 1869, is a reply to articles of Dr. Ward in the Dublin Rci'icw, iSG8,-9 and to a work by Father Bottala. The work entitled Llonumcnta quccdain Causam Hotwrii Spectanfia, Rome, 1870, is from the press of the Ch'ilta Cattolica. Hcfele says of it, that "the notes appended are almost worthless, and wholly insufficient to justify Honorius." Another more recent work by Professor Joseph Pennachi, of the Roman University, Liber dc Honor ii I. Romani Pontijlcis Causa, is written in a worthier spirit, but it attempts to prove that " the epistles of Honorius arc absolutely catholic and give no countenance to the Monothclitc heresy." In an Appendix to the German edition of his essay on Honorius, Bishop Hefele effectually disproves Pro- fessor Pennachi's position. 11. B. S.j APPENDIX G. [Malachias was Archbishop of Armagh, and a special friend of St. Bernard, who wrote a work De Vita et Rebus Gestis S, Malachics ; see Fabricius, Blbl. Mcd. et Inf. Latin., vol. v, under the word " Malachias." Of his prophecies about the popes a full and interesting account is given by H. Weingarten of Berlin, in the Studicn und Kritikcn, 1857, S., 555-573. He was a man of singular virtue and austerity. Bernard spoke of his prophecies, which were not, however, published until 1595, by Wion, a Benedictine, in the works of his Order, under the title Lignum Vitcc, Ornamentum et Dccus Ecdcsitz, Venet. A controversy and a prolific literature sprung up about them. Protestants, like Bcngcl, extolled Malachias. Frorer published the work anew in his PropJietce Vcteres PrcndcpigrapJn, Stuttg. 1840. In these predictions in popes are described by 1 1 1 concise sayings, some of which are quite characteristic, while many of them are simple allusions to external facts and relations with play upon words. Lucius II. is described as inimicus cxpulsus his family name was Caccianemico (caccia, chase, ncmico, foe) ; and the Romans, too, expelled and stoned him. Innocent III. is comes signatus ; he 402 APPENDIX G. 463 came of the counts of Conti, who had possessions in Segni. Pius II. (/Eneas Sylvius) is de capra ct albcrgo, for he was once secretary of the cardinals Capranica and Albergati. More characteristic are the words about Gregory XI. de tribulations pads, for he lived just before troubled times (1621), and about Alex- ander VIII., cnstos montinm, for he bore six mountains on his coat of arms, which led the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus to apply to him the proverb "parturiunt montcs, nascctur ridiculus mus." (\Ycin- gartcn, p. 564.) The mottoes of some of the coming popes (eleven in all) arc, "Lumen in c(L-lo" (for the successor of Pius IX.) ; then, " religio dcpopulata," "fides intrcpida," "pastor angclicus," "pastor ct nauta," " flos fiorum," etc. The last one reads thus : " Petrus II. Romanus, qui pascct ovcs in multis tribulation ibus, quibus transactis civitas scplicolis diructur ct judcx tremcndus indicabit populum suum." Wcingartcn thinks it probable that the Benedictine Wion is the real author, or finisher, of these prophecies, by which he sought to elevate his Order, and that they were ascribed to Malachias, partly on account of the similarity of his name with that of the last prophet of the Old Testament. II. B. S.J END.