II. THE HIERARCHY, THE CLERGY AND THE MONKS.
§ 82. The Papacy and the Carolingians.
The Christianizing of the German world was in great part accomplished without the help of Rome. Hence the German churches, even those that were Catholic, troubled themselves little at first about the papal chair. The Visigoth church in Spain was most completely estranged from it. The Saracen invasion of A.D. 711 cut off all possibility of intercourse with Rome. Even the free Christian states in Spain down to the 11th century had no connection with Rome. The Frankish churches, too, in Gaul as well as in Austrasia, throve and ran wild in their independence during the Merovingian age. On the other hand, the relation of the English Church to Rome was and continued to be very intimate. Numerous pilgrimages of Anglo-Saxons of higher and lower ranks were undertaken to the grave of the chief of the Apostles, and increased the dependence of the nation on the chair of St. Peter. For the support of these pilgrims and as a training school for English clergy, the Schola Saxonica was founded in the 8th century, and for its maintenance and that of the holy places in the city, on Peter’s day the 29th June was collected the so-called Peter’s pence, a penny for every house. Out of this sprang a standing impost on all the English people for the papal chair, which in the 13th century became a money tax upon the kings of England which Henry VIII. was the first to repudiate in A.D. 1532. The credit belongs to the Anglo-Saxons and especially to Boniface of not only delivering the rich sheaves of their missionary harvest into the granaries of Rome, but also of organizing the previously existing churches of the Frankish territories after the Romish method and rendering them obedient to the Roman see. Since then there has been such a regular intercourse between the pope and the Carolingian rulers that it absorbed almost completely the whole diplomatic activity of the Romish curia.
§ 82.1. The Period of the Founding of the States of the Church.—From bequests and presents of ancient times the Roman chair succeeded to an immense landed property, Patrimonium S. Petri, which afforded it the means of greatly assuaging the distress of the inhabitants of Italy during the disturbances of the migrations of the peoples. There was naturally then no word of the exercise of sovereign rights. From the time of the restoration of the Byzantine exarchate in A.D. 567 (§ [76, 7]) the political importance of the pope grew immensely; its continued existence was often dependent on the good will of the pope for whom generally indeed the idea of becoming the court patriarch of a Longobard-Roman emperor was not an enticing one. But the pope could not prevent the Longobard power (§ [76, 8]) from gaining ground in the north as well as in the south of the peninsula. An important increase of influence, power and prestige was brought to the papal chair under Gregory II., A.D. 715-731, through the rebellions in northern and central Italy occasioned by the Byzantine iconoclastic disputes. Rome was in this way raised to a kind of political suzerainty not only over the Roman duchy but also over the rest of the exarchate in the north—Ravenna and the neighbouring cities together with Venice (§ [66, 1]). Gregory III., A.D. 731-741, hard pressed by Luitprand the Longobard, thrice (A.D. 739, 740) applied for help to the Frank Charles Martel, who, closely bound in friendship with Luitprand, his ally against the Saracens, sent some clerics to Italy to secure a peaceful arrangement. Gregory’s successor Zacharias, A.D. 741-752, sanctioned by his apostolic judgment the setting aside of the Merovingian sham king Childeric III., whereupon Pepin the Short, in A.D. 752, assumed the royal title with the royal power which he had long possessed. The next elected pope called Stephen died before consecration, consequently his successor of the same name is usually designated Stephen II., A.D. 752-757. The Longobard Aistulf had in A.D. 751 conquered Ravenna and the cities connected with it. Pope Stephen II. sought help anew of the Frankish king and supported his petition by forwarding an autograph letter of the Apostle Peter, in which he exhorted the king of the Franks as his adopted son under peril of all the pains of hell to save Rome and the Roman church. He himself at Pepin’s invitation went to France. At Ponthion, where, in A.D. 754, the king greeted him, Pepin promised the pope to restore to Rome her former possessions and to give protection against further inroads of the Longobards; while the pope imparted to the king and his two sons Charles and Carloman the kingly anointing in the church of St. Dionysius or Denis in Paris. At Quiersy then Pepin took counsel with his sons and the nobles of his kingdom about the fulfilling of his promise, bound the Longobard king by oath in the year following after a successful campaign to surrender the cities, properties and privileges claimed by the pope, and assigned these in A.D. 755 as a present to St. Peter as their possessor from that time forth. But scarcely had he retired with his army when Aistulf not only refused all and any surrender, but broke in anew upon Roman territory, robbing and laying waste on every side. By a second campaign, however, in A.D. 756, Pepin compelled him actually to deliver over the required cities in the provinces of Rome and Ravenna the key of which he deposited with a deed of gift, no longer extant, on the grave of St. Peter; while the pope, transferring to Pepin the honorary title of Exarch of Ravenna, decorated him with the insignia of a Roman patrician. When the Byzantine envoys claimed Ravenna as their own property, Pepin answered that the Franks had not shed their blood for the Greeks but for St. Peter.—Aistulf’s death followed soon after this and amid the struggles for the succession to the throne one of the candidates, duke Desiderius of Tuscany, sought the powerful support of the pope and promised him in return the surrender of those cities of the eastern province of Ravenna which still remained in the hands of the Longobards.The pope obtained Pepin’s consent to this transaction, and Desiderius was made king. But neither Stephen nor his successor Paul I., A.D. 757-767, could get him completely to fulfil his promise, and new encroachments of the Longobards as well as new claims of the pope intensified the bad feeling between them, which the conciliation of Pepin, who died in A.D. 768 had not by any means overcome.[227]
§ 82.2. After the death of Paul I. the nobles forced one of their own order upon the Romans as pope under the name of Constantine II. Another party with Longobard help appointed a presbyter, Philip. The former maintained his ground for thirteen months, but was then overthrown by a clerical party and, with his eyes put out, was cast into the street. They now united in the choice of Stephen III., A.D. 768-772.—Desiderius wished greatly to form a marriage connection with the Frankish court, and found a zealous friend in Bertrada, the widow of Pepin. When Stephen heard of it his wrath was unbounded, and he gave unbridled expression to it in a letter which he sent to her sons Charlemagne and Carloman. Referring to the fact that the devil had already in Paradise by the persuasion of a woman overthrown the first man and with him the whole race, he characterized this plan as propria diabolica immissio, declared that any idea of a connection by marriage of the illustrious reigning family of the Franks with the fœtentissima Longobardorum gens, from which all vile infections proceed, was nothing short of madness, etc. Not peace and friendship, but only war and enmity with this robber of the patrimony of Peter would be becoming in the pious kings of the Franks. He laid down this his exhortation at the grave of Peter and performed over it a Mass. Whoever sets himself to act contrary to it, on him will fall the anathema and with the devil and all godless men he shall burn in everlasting flames; but whosoever is obedient to it, shall be partaker of eternal salvation and glory. Nevertheless Charles married Desiderata the daughter of Desiderius, and Gisela, Charles’ sister, married the son of Desiderius. But before a year had passed, in A.D. 771, he wearied of the Longobard wife and sent her home. Soon after this Carloman died. Charles seized upon the inheritance of his youthful nephews, who together with their mother found shelter with Desiderius. When Hadrian I., A.D. 772-795, refused to give the royal anointing to Carloman’s sons, Desiderius took from him a great part of the States of the Church and threatened Rome. But Charles hastened at the pope’s call to give him help, conquered Pavia, shut up king Desiderius in the monastery of Corbei, and joined Lombardy to the Frankish empire. Further information as to what passed between him and Hadrian at Rome in A.D. 774 is only to be got from the Vita Hadriani (§ [90, 6]) written during the reign of Louis of France. It relates as follows: At the grave of Peter the pope earnestly exhorted him to fulfil at last completely the promise which his father Pepin I. with his own consent and that of the Frankish nobles gave to pope Stephen II. at Quiersy in A.D. 754. Charles after reading over the document referred to agreed to everything promised therein, and produced a new deed of gift after the style (ad instar) of the old, undertaking to transfer to the Roman church a territorial possession which, together with the assumed Promissio of Pepin described with geographical precision, embraced almost all Italy, excepting Lombardy but including Corsica, Venice and Istria. It is now quite inconceivable that Charles, let alone Pepin, should have given the pope such an immense territory which Pepin for a simple footing in A.D. 754, and Charles for at least three-fourths of it, must have first themselves conquered. Moreover this account of the matter is directly contradicted by the statement of all the witnesses of Pepin’s own times. On the part of the Franks the continuator of the Chronicler Fredégar, on the part of the Romans the biographer of Stephen II. in the Liber pontificalis and that pope himself in his letters to Pepin, all speak of the negociations between the king and the pope as having reference simply to Rome and Ravenna. And since all attempts to reconcile these contradictions by exegetical devices have failed, we can only regard this as a fiction designed to palm off upon Louis of France Rome’s own ambitious territorial scheme. All that Charlemagne did was to confirm and renew his father’s gifts, as Hadrian himself distinctly states: Amplius (=further, i.e. for time to come) confirmavit.—Moreover Pepin, and still more Charlemagne, would hardly have granted to the holy father by his gift absolute sovereignty over the States of the Church thus founded. By conferring the patriciate upon the two Frankish princes, the pope, indeed, himself acknowledged that the suzerainty now belonged to them which formerly the Byzantine emperor had exercised by his viceroy, the exarch of Ravenna. A more exact definition of these rights, however, may have been first given when Charles was crowned emperor, his imperial authority undoubtedly extending over the Papal States. The pope as a temporal prince was his vassal and must himself, like all citizens of Rome, take the oath of allegiance to the emperor. Judicial authority and the appointment of government officials belonged to him; but they were supervised and controlled by the Frankish ambassadors, Missi dominici, who heard appeals and complaints of all kinds and were authorized to give a final judgment.
§ 82.3. Charlemagne and Leo III.—Hadrian I. was succeeded by Leo III., A.D. 795-816. During a solemn procession in A.D. 799 he was murderously attacked by the nephews of his predecessor and severely beaten. Some of the bystanders declared that they had seen the bandits tear out his tongue and eyes. The legend vouched for by the pope himself was added that Peter by a miracle restored him both the next night. Leo meanwhile escaped from his tormentors and fled to Charlemagne. His opponents accused him before the king of perjury and adultery, and the hearing of witnesses seems to have confirmed the serious charges, for Alcuin hastened to burn the report which was given in to him on the subject. But the pope was honourably discharged and assumed again the chair of Peter under the protection of a Frankish guard. Next year Charles crossed the Alps with his army for a campaign against Benevento. He convened a Synod at Rome; but the bishops maintained that the pope, the head of all, can be judged of none; yet the pope with twelve sponsors swore an oath of purgation and prayed for his accusers. At the Christmas festival Charles went to the church of St. Peter. At the close of Mass the pope amid the applause of the people placed a beautiful golden crown upon his head (A.D. 800). The world is asked to believe that he did it by the immediate impulse of a divine inspiration; but it was the result of the negociations of years and the fulfilment of a promise by which the pope had purchased the king’s protection against his enemies. With the idea of the imperial power Charlemagne connected the idea of a theocratic Christian universal monarchy in the sense of Daniel’s prophecy. The Greeks had proved themselves unworthy of this position and so God had transferred it to the king of the Franks. As emperor, Charles stands at the head of all Christendom, and has only God and His law over him. He is the most obedient son, the most devoted servant of the church, so far as it is the vehicle and dispenser of salvation; but he is its supreme lord and ruler so far as it needs to adopt earthly forms and an earthly government. Church and state are two separate domains, which, however, on all sides limit and condition one another. Their uniting head they have in the person of the emperor. Hence on every hand Charles’ legislation enters the domain of the church, in respect of her constitution, worship and doctrine. On these matters he consults the bishops and synods, but he confirms, enlarges and modifies their decisions according to his own way of thinking, because for this he is personally answerable to God. In the pope he honours the successor of Peter and the spiritual head of the church; but, because the emperor stands over church and state, he is also ruler of the pope. The pope who gave him imperial consecration did it not by any power of his own immanent in the papacy, but by special divine impulse and authority. Hence the crowning of the emperor is only to be once received at the pope’s hand. This rank is henceforth hereditary in the house of Charles, and only the emperor can beget and nominate the new emperor.The unity of the empire is to be maintained under all circumstances, and hence, contrary to the Frankish custom of dividing the inheritance, younger sons are to receive only the subordinate rank of ruling princes.[228]
§ 82.4. Louis the Pious and the Popes of his Time.—Charlemagne’s weaker son Louis the Pious, A.D. 814-840, was not in a position to carry out the work his father had begun. But pious as Louis was, he was yet as little inclined as his immediate successor to give up the imperial suzerainty over the city and chair of St. Peter. The popes were most expressly required before receiving papal consecration to obtain imperial confirmation of their election. Leo’s successor Stephen IV., A.D. 816-817, seems indeed to have evaded it, yet still he let the Romans take the oath of fealty to the emperor, and unasked submitted to make a journey over the Alps in order to get over the anomaly of an emperor without the consecration of Peter’s hand. An agreement come to on that occasion, A.D. 816, between emperor and pope has not been preserved. A few days after his return the pope died. The newly-elected Paschalis I., A.D. 817-824, also indeed mounted the papal chair without imperial confirmation, but apologized by an embassy on the ground that he had been unwillingly obliged to act so, and praying for a continuation of the agreement made with his predecessor, to which the emperor consented. Indeed, according to a diploma of A.D. 817, extant only in a transcript, bearing the name of Louis, the king was to bestow upon the papal chair, besides what Pepin and Charlemagne had given, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, and many estates in Calabria and Naples. There was also an undertaking that only after having been consecrated should any newly-elected pope interchange friendly greetings with the emperor. All copies of this document can be traced back to a collection of imperial grants to the Romish church of the 11th century. At its basis there lay probably a genuine document, but it has been variously altered in the interests of the high church party.—Some years later, after he had decoyed to France and blinded his illegitimate nephew Bernard, who had as reigning prince in Italy rebelled against the law of succession passed in A.D. 817, Louis sent his son Lothair into Italy to quiet the tumults there, and the pope availed himself of this opportunity to crown the prince already crowned by his father as co-emperor. But scarcely had Lothair got over the Alps again when two of the most distinguished and zealous of the Frankish partisans were in A.D. 823 blinded and beheaded in the papal palace. Before the imperial commission the pope took an oath of purgation, to which 34 bishops and 5 presbyters joined with him in swearing, but bluntly refused to deliver up the perpetrator of the deed. As the pope died soon afterwards, Lothair was sent a second time to Rome, in order to enforce once and for all upon his successor Eugenius II., A.D. 824-827, the observance of imperial rights. The result of their conference was the so-called Constitutio Romano, by which the election of the pope (§ [46, 11]) was taken from the common people and given to the clergy and nobles, but the consecration was made dependent on the emperor’s confirmation and an oath of homage from the newly-elected pope (A.D. 824). Nevertheless his successor Valentine was elected and consecrated without any reference to the constitution. He died, however, after six months, and now the Frankish party came forward so energetically that the new pope Gregory IV., A.D. 827-844, was obliged to submit in all particulars to the requirements of the law. But soon after political troubles arose in the Frankish kingdom which could not fail to contribute to the endeavours of the papacy after emancipation. From his weak preference for his younger son, Charles the Bald, born of a second marriage, Louis was led in A.D. 829 to set aside the law of succession he himself had issued in A.D. 817. The sons thus disinherited rebelled with the assistance of the most distinguished Frankish prelates, at whose head was Wala, abbot of Old Corbie, cousin of Charlemagne, and the bishops Agobard of Lyons, Ebo of Rheims, etc., as assertors of the unity of the empire. Also pope Gregory IV., whose predecessors had sanctioned the law of succession now set aside, was won over and was taken across the Alps by Lothair to strengthen his cause by the weight of his apostolic authority. The pope threatened with the ban those bishops who remained true to the old emperor and had obeyed his summons to attend the diet. But they answered the pope that he had no authority in the empire of the Franks, and that if he did not quietly take himself over the Alps again they would excommunicate him. He was inclined to yield, but Wala’s counsel restrained him. He answered the bishops earnestly and moderately, and, as a last attempt at conciliation, went himself personally to the camp of the emperor, but was unable to effect anything. But next morning Louis had no army; during the night most of his soldiers had passed over to the camp of his enemy. The emperor now had to surrender himself prisoner to his son Lothair, then at a diet at Compiègne in A.D. 833, to do humble penance in church and to resign the government. His penitent son, Louis the German, however, set him free in A.D. 834. A severe judgment was now passed upon the confederate prelates at the Diedenhosen in A.D. 835. But the brothers continued constantly at war with one another, and Louis the Pious did not live to see the end of it.
§ 82.5. The Sons of Louis the Pious and the Popes of their Days.—The Treaty of Verdun, A.D. 843, put an end to the bitter war between the sons of Louis the Pious, and made of the western empire three independent groups of states under Lothair, Louis the German and Charles the Bald. Lothair I., who got the title of Emperor with Italy and a strip of land between Neustria and Austrasia, died in A.D. 855. Of his sons, Louis II. inherited Italy with title of Emperor, Lothair II. the province called after him Lotharingia, Lotharii regnum, and Charles Burgundy and Provence. Lothair and Charles died in A.D. 869 soon after one another without heirs, and before the emperor Louis II. could lay his hands upon their territories they were seized by the uncle. By the treaty of Mersen, A.D. 870, Charles took the Romanic, and Louis the German took the German portions. Thus was completed the partition of the Carolingian empire into three parts distinguished as homogeneous groups of states by language and nationality: Germany, France and Italy.—Gregory IV. had survived the overthrow of the universal monarchy of Charlemagne. His successor, Sergius II., A.D. 844-847, did not observe the obligations devolving on him by the Constitutio Romana. But Lothair I. was not inclined to let pass this slight to his imperial authority. His son Louis was sent into Italy with a powerful army, and obliged the pope and the Romans to take the oaths of fealty to his father with the promise not again to consecrate a pope before they had the emperor’s consent. But the next pope Leo IV., A.D. 847-855, was also consecrated without it, but excused himself from the circumstances of the age, the pressure of the Saracens, while making humble professions of most dutiful obedience. His successor Benedict III., A.D. 855-858, did not regard the imperial consent as necessary, and the anti-pope set up by the French party could not maintain his position.
§ 82.6. The Legend of the Female Pope Joanna.—Between Leo IV. and Benedict III. is inserted an old legend of the pontificate of a woman, the so-called female pope Joanna: A maiden from Mainz went in man’s clothes with her lover to Athens, obtained there great learning, then appeared at Rome as Joannes Anglicus, was elected pope, but having become pregnant by one of her chamberlains, was seized with labour pains in the midst of a solemn procession and died soon after, having been pope under the name of John VIII. for two years, five months and four days. This story was widely credited from the 13th to the 17th century, but its want of historical foundation is proved by the following facts: