§ 112.6. As his successor in the vicariate the chapter, in accordance with the wish of Proles, elected John von Staupitz. He had been prior of the Augustinian cloister at Tübingen, and became professor of theology in the University of Wittenberg, in A.D. 1502. Like his predecessor, he devoted himself to the interests of the congregation, and by the union which he effected between it and the Lombard Observant congregation, he greatly increased its importance. In carrying out a plan for uniting the Saxon Conventuals with the German Observants by combining in his own hand the Saxon provincial priorate with the German vicariate, he encountered such difficulties that he was obliged to abandon the attempt; but he succeeded thus far, that from that time the Conventuals and Observants of Germany dwelt in peace side by side. He directed the troubled spirit of Luther to the crucified Saviour (§ [122, 1]), and thus became the spiritual father of the great reformer. The new constitutions for the German congregations, proffered by him and accepted by the chapter at Nuremberg, A.D. 1504, are characterized by earnest recommendations of Scripture study. But of a deep and comprehensive evangelical and reformatory application of them we find no traces as yet, even in Staupitz; neither do we see any zealous study of Augustine’s writings, and consequent appreciation of his theological principles, such as is shown by the mystics of the 13th and 14th centuries. All this appears later in his little treatise “On the Imitation of the Willingly Dying Christ” of A.D. 1515. A discourse on predestination in A.D. 1517 moves distinctly on Augustinian lines, and the mysticism of St. Bernard may be traced in the book “On the Love of God” of that same year. True as he was to Luther as a counsellor and helper during the first eventful year of struggle, the reformer’s protest soon became too violent for him, and in A.D. 1520 he resigned his office, withdrew to the Benedictine cloister at Salzburg, and died as its abbot in A.D. 1524. His continued attachment to the positive tendencies of the Reformation is proved by his “Fast Sermons,” delivered in A.D. 1523.—His successor Link, Luther’s fellow student at Magdeburg, was and continued to be an attached friend of the reformer. Unsuccessful in his endeavours to remove abuses, he resigned office in A.D. 1523, and became evangelical pastor in Altenburg, and married. The very small opposition chose in place of him Joh. Spangenberg, who, unable to withstand the movement among the German Conventuals, as well as among the Observants, resigned in A.D. 1529.

§ 112.7. Overthrow of the Templars.—The order of Knights Templar, whose chief seat was now in Paris and the south of France, by rich presents, exactions, and robberies in the island of Cyprus, vast commercial speculations and extensive money-lending and banking transactions with crusaders and pilgrims and needy princes, had acquired immense wealth in money and landed property in the East and the West. They had in consequence become proud, greedy, and vicious. Their independence of the State had long been a thorn in the eye of Philip the Fair of France, and their policy was often at variance with his. But above all their great wealth excited his cupidity. In a letter to a visitor of the order Innocent III. had in A.D. 1208 bitterly complained of their unspirituality, worldliness, avarice, drunkenness, and study of the black art, saying that he refrained from remarking upon yet more shameful offences with which they were charged.Stories also were current of apostasy to Mohammedanism, sorcery, unnatural vice, etc. It was said that they worshipped an idol Baphomet; that a black cat appeared in their assemblies; that at initiation they abjured Christ, spat on the cross, and trampled it under foot. A Templar expelled for certain offences gave evidence in support of these charges. Thereupon in A.D. 1307 Philip had all Templars in his realm suddenly apprehended. Many admitted their guilt amid the tortures of the rack; others voluntarily did so in order to escape such treatment. A Parliament assembled at Tours in A.D. 1308 heartily endorsed the king’s opinion, and the pope, Clement V., was powerless to resist (§ [110, 2]). While the pope’s commissioners were prosecuting inquiries in all countries, Philip without more ado in A.D. 1310 brought to the stake one hundred Templars who had retracted their confession. The œcumenical council at Vienne in A.D. 1311, summoned for the final settlement of the matter, refused to give judgment without hearing the defence of the accused. But Philip threatened the pope till a decree was passed disbanding the order because of the suspicion and ill repute into which it had fallen. Its property was to go to the Knights of St. John. But a great part had already been seized by the princes, especially by Philip. Final decision in regard to individuals was committed by the pope to the provincial synods of the several countries. Judgment on the grand-master, James Molay, and the then chief dignitaries of the order, he reserved to himself. Philip paid no attention to this, but, when they refused to adhere to their confession of guilt, had them burnt in a slow fire at Paris in A.D. 1314. Most of the other knights turned to secular employments, many entered the ranks of the Knights of St. John, while others ended their days in monastic prisons.—Scholars are to this day divided in opinion as to the degree of guilt or innocence which may be ascribed to the Templars in regard to the serious charges brought against them.[330]

§ 112.8. New Orders.—In A.D. 1317 the king of Portugal, for the protection of his frontier from the Moors, instituted the Order of Christ, composed of knights and clergy, and to it John XXII. in A.D. 1319 gave the privileges of the order of Calatrava (§ [98, 13]). Alexander VI. released them from the vow of poverty and allowed them to marry. The king of Portugal was grand-master, and at the beginning of the 16th century it had 450 companies and an annual revenue of one and a half million livres. In A.D. 1797 it was converted into a secular order.—Among the new monkish orders the following are the most important:

  1. Hieronymites, founded in A.D. 1370 by the Portuguese Basco and the Spaniard Pecha as an order of canons regular under the rule of Augustine, and confirmed by Gregory XI. in A.D. 1373. Devoted to study, they took Jerome as their patron, and obtained great reputation in Spain and Italy.
  2. Jesuates, founded by Colombini of Siena, who, excited by reading legends of the saints, combined with several companions in forming this society for self-mortification and care of the sick, for which Urban V. prescribed the Augustinian rule in A.D. 1367. They greeted all they met with the name of Jesus: hence their designation.
  3. Minimi, an extreme sect of Minorites (§ [98, 3]), founded by Francis de Paula in Calabria in A.D. 1436. Their rule was extremely strict, and forbade them all use of flesh, milk, butter, eggs, etc., so that their mode of life was described as vita quadragesimalis.
  4. Nuns of St. Bridget. To the Swedish princess visions of the wounded and bleeding Saviour had come in her childhood. Compelled by her parents to marry, she became mother of eight children; but at her husband’s death, in A.D. 1344, she adopted a rigidly ascetic life, and in A.D. 1363 founded a cloister at Wedstena for sixty nuns in honour of the blessed Virgin, with thirteen priests, four deacons, and eight lay brothers in a separate establishment. All were under the control of the abbess. She also founded at Rome a hospice for Swedish pilgrims and students, made a pilgrimage from Rome to Jerusalem, and died at Rome in A.D. 1373. The Revelationes S. Brigittæ ascribed to her were in high repute during the Middle Ages. They are full of bitter invectives against the corrupt papacy; call the pope worse than Lucifer, a murderer of the souls committed to him, who condemns the guiltless and sells believers for filthy lucre. There were seventy-four cloisters of the order spread over all Europe. Her successor as abbess of the parent abbey was her daughter, St. Catherine of Sweden, who died in A.D. 1381.
  5. The French Annunciate Order was founded in A.D. 1501 by Joanna of Valois, the divorced wife of Louis XII., and when abolished by the French Revolution it numbered forty-five nunneries.

§ 112.9. The Brothers of the Common Life, a society of pious priests, gave themselves to the devotional study of Scripture, the exercise of contemplative mysticism, and practical imitation of the lowly life of Christ with voluntary observance of the three monkish vows, and residing, without any lifelong obligation, in unions where things were administered in common. Pious laymen were not excluded from their association, and institutions for sisters were soon reared alongside of those for the brothers. The founder of this organization was Gerhard Groot, Gerardus magnus, of Deventer in the Netherlands, a favourite pupil of the mystic John of Ruysbroek (§ [114, 7]). Dying a victim to his benevolence during a season of pestilence in A.D. 1384, a year or two after the founding of the first union institute, he was succeeded by his able pupil and assistant Florentius Radewins, who zealously carried on the work he had begun. The house of the brothers at Deventer soon became the centre of numerous other houses from the Scheld to the Wesel. Florentius added a cloister for regular canons at Windesheim, from which went forth the famous cloister reformer Burch. The most important of the later foundations of this kind was the cloister built on Mount St. Agnes near Zwoll. The famous Thomas à Kempis (§ [114, 7]) was trained here, and wrote the life of Groot and his fellow labourers. Each house was presided over by a rector, each sister house by a matron, who was called Martha. The brothers supported themselves by transcribing spiritual books, the lay brothers by some handicraft; the sisters by sewing, spinning, and weaving. Begging was strictly forbidden. Besides caring for their own souls’ salvation, the brothers sought to benefit the people by preaching, pastoral visitation, and instructing the youth. They had as many as 1,200 scholars under their care. Hated by the mendicant friars, they were accused by a Dominican to the Bishop of Utrecht. This dignitary favoured the brothers, and when the Dominican appealed to the pope, he applied to the Constance Council of A.D. 1418, where Gerson and d’Ailly vigorously supported them. Their accuser was compelled to retract, and Martin V. confirmed the brotherhood. Though heartily attached to the doctrines of the Catholic Church, their biblical and evangelical tendencies formed an unconscious preparation for the Reformation (§ [119, 10]).A great number of the brothers joined the party of the reformers. In the 17th century the last remnant of them disappeared.[331]

II. Theological Science.

§ 113. Scholasticism and its Reformers.

The University of Paris took the lead, in accordance with the liberal tendencies of the Gallican Church, in the opposition to hierarchical pretensions, and was followed by the universities of Oxford, Prague, and Cologne, in all of which the mendicant friars were the teachers. Most distinguished among the schoolmen of this age was John Duns Scotus, whose works formed the doctrinal standard for the Franciscans, as those of Aquinas did for the Dominicans. After realism had enjoyed for a long time an uncontested sway, William Occam, amid passionate battles, successfully introduced nominalism. But the creative power of scholasticism was well nigh extinct. Even Duns Scotus is rather an acute critic of the old than an original creator of new ideas. Miserable quarrels between the schools and a spiritless formalism now widely prevailed in the lecture halls, as well as in the treatises of the learned.Moral theology degenerated into fruitless casuistry and abstruse discussion on subtly devised cases where there appeared a collision of duties. But from all sides there arose complaint and contradiction. On the one side were some who made a general complaint without striking at the roots of the evil. They suggested the adoption of a better method, or the infusion of new life by the study of Scripture and the Fathers, and a return to mysticism. To this class belonged the Brothers of the Common Life (§ [112, 9]) and d’Ailly and Gerson, the supporters of the Constance reforms (§ [118, 4]). Here too we may place the talented father of natural theology, Raimund of Sabunde, and the brilliant Nicholas of Cusa, in whom all the nobler aspirations of mediæval ecclesiastical science were concentrated. But on the other side was the radical opposition, consisting of the German mystics (§ [114]), the English and Bohemian reformers (§ [119]), and the Humanists (§ [120]).

§ 113.1. John Duns Scotus.—The date of birth, whether A.D. 1274 or A.D. 1266, and the place of birth, whether in Scotland, Ireland, or England, of this Franciscan hero, honoured with the title doctor subtilis, are uncertain; even the place and manner of his training are unknown. After lecturing with great success at Oxford, he went in A.D. 1304 to Paris, where he obtained the degree of doctor, and successfully vindicated the immaculata conceptio B. V. (§ [104, 7]) against the Thomists. Summoned to Cologne in A.D. 1308 to engage in controversy with the Beghards, he displayed great skill in dialectics, but died during that same year. His chief work, a commentary on the Lombard, was composed at Oxford. His answers to the questions proposed for his doctor’s degree were afterwards wrought up into the work entitled Quæstiones quodlibetales. The opponent and rival of Thomas, he controverted his doctrine at every point, as well as the doctrines of Alexander and Bonaventura of his own order, and other shining stars of the 13th century. In subtlety of thought and dialectic power he excelled them all, but in depth of feeling, profundity of mind, and ardour of faith he was far behind them. Proofs of doctrines interested him more than the doctrines themselves. To philosophy he assigns a purely theoretical, to theology a pre-eminently practical character, and protests against the Thomist commingling of the two. He accepts the doctrine of a twofold truth (§ [103, 3]), basing it on the fall. Granting that the Bible is the only foundation of religious knowledge, but contending that the Church under the Spirit’s guidance has advanced ever more and more in the development of it, he readily admits that many a point in constitution, doctrine, and worship cannot be established from the Bible; e.g. immaculate conception, clerical celibacy, etc. He has no hesitation in contradicting even Augustine and St. Bernard from the standpoint of a more highly developed doctrine of the Church.