By tithes, legacies, donations, impropriations, and the rising value of landed estates, the wealth of churches and monasteries grew from year to year. In this way benefit was secured not only to the clergy and the monks, but also in many ways to the poor and needy. The law of celibacy strictly enforced by Gregory VII. saved the church from the impoverishment with which it was beginning to be threatened by the dividing or squandering of the property of the church upon the children of the clergy. But while an absolute stop was put to the marriage of the clergy, it tended greatly to foster concubinage, and yet more shameful vices. Yet notwithstanding all the corruption that prevailed among the clerical order it cannot be denied that the superior as well as the inferior clergy embraced a great number of worthy and strictly moral men, and that the sacerdotal office which the people could quite well distinguish from the individuals occupying it, still continued to be highly respected in spite of the immoral lives of many priests. Even more hurtful to the exercise of their pastoral work than the immorality of individual clergymen was the widespread illiteracy and gross ignorance of Christian truth of those who should have been teachers.

§ 97.1. The Roman College of Cardinals.—All the clergy attached to one particular church were called Clerici cardinales down to the 11th century. But after Leo IX. had reformed and re-organized the Roman clergy, and especially after Nicholas II. in A.D. 1059 had transferred the right of papal election to the Roman cardinals, i.e. the seven bishops of the Roman metropolitan dioceses and to the presbyters and deacons of the principal churches of Rome, the title of cardinal was given to them at first by way of eminence and very soon exclusively. It was not till the 13th century that it became usual to give to foreign prelates the rank of Roman cardinal priests as a mark of distinction. Under the name of the holy college the cardinals, as the spiritual dignitaries most nearly associated with the pope, formed his ecclesiastical and civil council, and were also as such entrusted with the highest offices of state in the papal domains. Innocent IV. at Lyons in A.D. 1245 gave to them as a distinction the red hat; Boniface VIII. in A.D. 1297 gave them the purple mantle that indicated princely rank. To these Paul II. in A.D. 1464 added the right of riding the white palfrey with red cloth and golden bridle; and finally, Urban VIII. in A.D. 1630 gave them the title “Eminence.” Sixtus V. in A.D. 1586 fixed their number at seventy, after the pattern of the elders of Israel, Exod. xxiv. 1, and the seventy disciples of Jesus, Luke x. 1. The popes, however, took care to keep a greater or less number of places vacant, so that they might have opportunities of showing favour and bestowing gifts when necessary. The cardinals were chosen in accordance with the arbitrary will of the individual pope, who nominated them by presenting them with the red hat, and installed them into their high position by the ceremony of closing and opening the mantle. From the time of Eugenius IV., A.D. 1431, the college of cardinals put every newly elected pope under a solemn oath to maintain the rights and privileges of the cardinals and not to come to any serious and important resolution without their advice and approval.

§ 97.2. The Political Importance of the Superior Clergy (§ [84]) reached its highest point during this period. This was carried furthest in Germany, especially under the Saxon imperial dynasty. On more than one occasion did the wise and firm policy of the German clergy, splendidly organized under the leadership of the primate of Mainz, save the German nation from overthrow or dismemberment threatened by ambitious princes. This power consisted not merely in influence over men’s minds, but also in their position as members of the states of the empire and territorial lords. Whether or not a warlike expedition was to be undertaken depended often only on the consent or refusal of the league of lords spiritual. It was the policy of the clergy to secure a united, strong, well-organized Germany. The surrounding countries wished to be included in the German league of churches and states; not, however, as the emperor wished, as crown lands, but as portions of the empire. Against expeditions to Rome, which took the attention of German princes away from German affairs and ruined Germany, the German clergy protested in the most decided manner. They wished the chair of St. Peter to be free and independent as a European, not a German, institution, with the emperor as its supporter not its oppressor, but they manfully resisted all the assumptions and encroachments of the popes. One of the most celebrated of the German dignitaries of any age was Bruno the Great, brother of the Emperor Otto I., equally distinguished as a statesman and as a reformer of the church, and the unwearied promoter of liberal studies. Chancellor under his imperial brother from A.D. 940, he was his most trusted counsellor, and was appointed by him in A.D. 953 Archbishop of Cologne, and was soon after made Duke of Lorraine. He died in A.D. 965. Another example of a German prelate of the true sort is seen in Willigis of Mainz, who died in A.D. 1011, under the two last Ottos and Henry II., whom he raised to the throne. The good understanding that was brought about between this monarch and the clergy of Germany was in great measure owing to the wise policy of this prelate. Under Henry IV. the German clergy got split up into three parties,—the papal party of Clugny under Gebhard [Gebhardt] of Salzburg, including almost all the Saxon bishops; an imperial party under Adalbert of Bremen, who endeavoured with the emperor’s help to found a northern patriarchate, which undoubtedly tended to become a northern papacy; and an independent German party under St. Anno II. of Cologne (§ [96, 6]), in which notwithstanding much violence, ambition, and self-seeking, there still survived much of the spirit that had characterized the policy of the old German bishops. Henry V., too, as well as the first Hohenstaufens, had sturdy supporters in the German clergy; but Frederick II. by his ill treatment of the bishops alienated their clergy from the interest of the crown. The rise of the imperial dignitaries after the time of Otto I., and the transference to them under Otto IV. of the election of emperor raised the archbishops of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne to the rank of spiritual electoral princes as arch-chaplains or archchancellors. The Golden Bull of Charles IV., in A.D. 1356 (§ [110, 4]), confirmed and tabulated their rights and duties.

§ 97.3. The Bishops and the Cathedral Chapter.—The bishops exercised jurisdiction over all the clergy of their diocese, and punished by deprivation of office and imprisonment in monasteries. Especially questions of marriage, wills, oaths, were brought before their tribunal. The German synodal judicatures soon gave way before the Roman judiciary system. The archdeacons emancipated themselves more and more from episcopal authority and abused their power in so arbitrary a way that in the 12th century the entire institution was set aside. For the discharge of business episcopal officials and vicars were then introduced. The Chorepiscopi (§ [84]) had passed out of view in the 10th century. But during the crusades many Catholic bishoprics had been founded in the East. The occupants of these when driven away clung to their titles in hopes of better times, and found employment as assistants or suffragans of Western bishops. Thus arose the order of Episcopi in partibus (sc. infidelium) which has continued to this day, as a witness of inalienable rights, and as affording a constant opportunity to the popes of showing favour and giving rewards.For the exercise of the archiepiscopal office, the Fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215 made the receiving from the pope the pallium (§ [59, 7]) an absolutely essential condition, and those elected were obliged to pay to the curia an arbitrary tax of a large amount called the pallium fee. The canonical life (§ [84, 4]) from the 10th century began more and more to lose its moral weight and importance. Out of attempts at reform in the 11th century arose the distinction of Canonici seculares and regulares. The latter lived in cloisters according to monkish rules, and were zealous for the good old discipline and order, but sooner or later gave way to worldliness. The rich revenues of cathedral chapters made the reversion of prebendal stalls the almost exclusive privilege of the higher nobility, notwithstanding the earnest opposition of the popes. In the course of the 13th century the cathedral clergy, with the help of the popes, arrogated to themselves the sole right of episcopal elections, ignoring altogether the claims of the diocesan clergy and the people or nobles. The cathedral clergy also made themselves independent of episcopal control. They lived mostly outside of the cathedral diocese, and had their canonical duties performed by vicars. The chapter filled up vacancies by co-optation.

§ 97.4. Endeavours to Reform the Clergy.—As a reformer of the English clergy, who had sunk very low in ignorance, rudeness and immorality, the most conspicuous figure during the 10th century was St. Dunstan. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in A.D. 959 and died in A.D. 988. He sought at once to advance the standard of education among the clergy and to inspire the Church with a higher moral and religious spirit. For these ends he laboured on with an energy and force of will and an inflexible consistency and strictness in the pursuit of his hierarchical ideals, which mark him out as a Hildebrand before Hildebrand. Even as abbot of the monastery of Glastonbury he had given a forecast of his life work by restoring and making more severe the rule of St. Benedict, and forming a brotherhood thoroughly disciplined in science and in ascetical exercises, from the membership of which, after he had become bishop of Worcester, then of London, and finally primate of England and the most influential councillor of four successive kings, he could fill the places of the secular priests and canons whom he expelled from their cures.As the primary condition of all clerical reformation he insisted upon the unrelentingly consistent putting down of marriage and concubinage among the priests.[281]—In the 11th century St. Peter Damiani distinguished himself as a zealous supporter of the reform party of Clugny in the struggle against simony, clerical immorality, and the marriage of priests. This obtained for him not only his position as cardinal-bishop of Ostia, but also his frequent employment, as papal legate in serious negotiations. In A.D. 1061 he resigned his bishopric and retired into a monastery, where he died in A.D. 1072. His friend Hildebrand, who repeatedly called him forth from his retreat to occupy a conspicuous place among the contenders for his hierarchical ideal, was therefore called by him his “holy Satan.” He had indeed little interest in pressing hierarchical and political claims, and was inclined rather to urge moral reforms within the church itself. In his Liber Gomorrhianus he drew a fearful picture of the clerical depravity of his times, and that with a nakedness of detail which gave to Pope Alexander II. a colourable excuse for the suppression of the book. For himself, however, Damiani sought no other pleasure than that of scourging himself till the blood flowed in his lonely cell (§ [106, 4]). His collected works, consisting of epistles, addresses, tracts and monkish biographies, were published at Rome in A.D. 1602 in 4 vols. by Cardinal Cajetan.—In the 12th century St. Hildegard (§ [107, 1]) and the abbot Joachim of Floris, (§ [108, 5]) raised their voices against the moral degradation of the clergy, and among the men who contributed largely to the restoring of clerical discipline, the noble provost Geroch of Reichersberg in Bavaria, who died in A.D. 1169 (§ [102, 5]) and the canon Norbert, subsequently archbishop of Magdeburg (§ [98, 2]), are deserving of special mention.—In the 13th century in England Robert Grosseteste distinguished himself as a prelate of great nobility and force of character.After being chancellor of Oxford he became bishop of Lincoln, energetically reforming many abuses in his diocese, and persistently contending against any form of papal encroachment. He died in A.D. 1253.[282]

§ 97.5. The Pataria of Milan.—Nowhere during the 11th century were simony, concubinage and priests’ marriages more general than among the Lombard clergy, and in no other place was such determined opposition offered to Hildebrand’s reforms. At the head of this opposition stood Guido, archbishop of Milan, whom Henry III. deposed in A.D. 1046. Against the papal demands, he pressed the old claims of his chair to autonomy (§ [46, 1]) and renounced allegiance to Rome. The nobles and the clergy supported Guido. But two deacons, Ariald and Landulf, about A.D. 1057 formed a conspiracy among the common people, against “the Nicolaitan sect” (§ [27, 8]). To this party its opponents gave the opprobrious name of Pataria, Paterini, from patalia, meaning rabble, riffraff, or from Pattarea, a back street of ill fame in Milan, the quarter of the rabble, where the Arialdists held their secret meetings. They took the name given in reproach as a title of honour, and after receiving military organization from Erlembald, Landulf’s brother, they opened a campaign against the married priests. For thirty years this struggle continued to deluge city and country with blood.

§ 98. Monastic Orders and Institutions.

In spite of the great and constantly increasing corruption the monastic idea during this period had a wonderfully rapid development, and more persistently and successfully than ever before or since the monks urged their claims to be regarded as “the knighthood of asceticism.” A vast number of monkish orders arose, taking the place for the most part of existing orders which had relaxed their rules. These were partly reformed off-shoots of the Benedictine order, partly new organizations reared on an independent basis. New monasteries were being built almost every day, often even within the cities. The reformed Benedictine monasteries clustered in a group around the parent monastery whose reformed rule they adopted, forming an organized society with a common centre. These groups were therefore called Congregations. The oldest and, for two centuries, the most important, of these congregations was that of the Brethren of Clugny, whose ardent zeal for reform in the hierarchical direction was mainly instrumental in raising again the church and the papacy out of that degradation and corruption into which they had fallen during the 10th and 11th centuries. The otherwise less important order of the Camaldolites was also a vigorous promoter of these movements. But Clugny had in Clairvaux a rival which shared with it on almost equal terms the respect and reverence of that age. The unreformed monasteries of the Benedictines, on the other hand, still continued their easy, luxurious style of living. They were commonly called the Black Monks to distinguish them from the Cistercians who were known as the White Monks. In order to prevent a constant splitting up of the monkish fraternities, Innocent III. at the Lateran Council of A.D. 1215 forbade the founding of new orders. Yet he himself took part in the formation of the two great mendicant orders, and also the following popes issued no prohibition.—The papacy had in the monkish orders its standing army. It was to them, in a special manner, that Gregory’s system owed its success. But they were also by far the most important promoters and fosterers of learning, science, and art. The pope in various ways favoured the emancipation of the monasteries from episcopal control, their so-called Exemption; and conferred upon the abbots of famous monasteries what was practically episcopal rank, with liberty to wear the bishop’s mitre, so that they were called Mitred Abbots (§ [84, 1]). The princes too classed the abbots in respect of dignity and order next to the bishops; and the people, who saw the popular idea of the church more and more represented in the monasteries, honoured them with unmeasured reverence. From the 10th century the monks came to be considered a distinct religious order (Ordo religiosorum). Lay brethren, Fratres conversi, were now taken in to discharge the worldly business of the monastery. They were designated Fratres, while the others who received clerical ordination were addressed as Patres. The monks rarely lived on good terms with the secular clergy; for the former as confessors and mass priests often seriously interfered with the rights and revenues of the latter.—Besides the many monkish orders, with their strict seclusion, perpetual vows and ecclesiastically sanctioned rule, we meet with organizations of a freer type such as the Humiliati of Milan, consisting of whole families. Of a similar type were the Beguines and Beghards of the Netherlands, the former composed of women, the latter of men. These people abandoned their handicraft and their domestic and civic duties for a monastic-like mode of life retired from the world. The crusading enthusiasm also occasioned a combination of the monastic idea with that of knighthood, and led to the formation of the so-called Orders of Knights, which with a Grandmaster and several Commanders, were divided into Knights, Priests, and Serving Brethren.—Continuation, § [112].

§ 98.1. Offshoots of the Benedictines.

  1. The Brethren of Clugny. Among the Benedictines, since their reformation by the second Benedict (§ [85, 2]) many serious abuses had crept in. After the Burgundian Count Berno, who died in A.D. 927, had done useful service by restoring discipline and order in two monasteries of which he was abbot, the Duke William of Aquitaine founded for him a new institution. Thus arose in A.D. 910 the celebrated monastery of Clugny, Cluniacum, in Burgundy, which the founder placed under immediate papal control. Berno’s successor Odo, who died in A.D. 942, abandoning the life of a courtier on his recovery from a severe illness, made it the head and heart of a separate Clugny-Congregation as a branch of the Benedictine order. Strict asceticism, a beautiful and artistic service, zealous prosecution of science and the education of the young, with yet greater energy in the promotion of a hierarchical reform of the church as a whole, as well as an entire series of able abbots, among whom Odilo († A.D. 1048), the friend of Hildebrand, and Peter the Venerable († A.D. 1156) are specially prominent, gave to this congregation, which in the 12th century had 2,000 monasteries in France, an influence quite unparalleled in this whole period. The abbot of Clugny stood at the head, and appointed the priors for all the other monasteries. Under the licentious Abbot Pontius, who on account of his base conduct was deposed in A.D. 1122, the order fell into decay, but rose again under Peter the Venerable. Continuation, § [164, 2].
  2. The Congregation of the Camaldolites was founded in A.D. 1018 by the Benedictine Romuald, descended from the Duke of Ravenna, at Camaldoli (Campus Maldoli), a wild district in the Apennines. In A.D. 1086 a nunnery was placed alongside of the monastery. The president of the parent monastery at Camaldoli stood at the head of the whole order as Major. The order carried out enthusiastically the high church ideal of Clugny, and won great influence in its time, although it by no means attained the importance of the French order.
  3. Twenty years later, in A.D. 1038, the Florentine Gualbertus founded the Order of Vallombrosa, in a romantically situated shady valley of the Apennines (Vallis umbrosa), according to the rule of Benedict. This was the first of all the orders to appoint lay brethren for the management of worldly business, in order that the monks might observe their vow of silence and strict seclusion. The parent monastery attained to great wealth and reputation, but it never had a great number of affiliated institutions.
  4. The Cistercians. In A.D. 1098 the Benedictine abbot Robert founded the monastery of Citeaux (Cistercium) near Dijon, which as the parent monastery of the Congregation of the Cistercians became the most formidable rival of Clugny. The Cistercians were distinguished from the Brethren of Clugny by voluntary submission to the jurisdiction of the bishops, avoidance of all interference with the pastorates of others, and the banishing of all ornaments from their churches and monasteries. The order continued obscure for a while, till St. Bernard (§ [102, 3]), from A.D. 1115 abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux (Claravallis), an offshoot of Citeaux, by his ability and spirituality raised it far above all other orders in the esteem of the age. In honour of him the French Cistercians took the name of Bernardines. The hostility between them and the Brethren of Clugny was overcome by the personal friendship of Bernard and Peter the Venerable. By the statutory constitution, the so-called Charta charitatis, drawn up in A.D. 1119, the administration of all the affairs of the order was assigned to a general of the order, appointed by the abbot of Citeaux, the abbots of the four chief affiliated monasteries, and twenty other elected representatives forming a high council. This council, however, was answerable to the general assembly of all the abbots and priors, which met at first yearly, but afterwards every third year. The affiliated monasteries had a yearly visitation of the abbot of Citeaux, but Citeaux itself was to be visited by the four abbots just referred to. In the 13th century this order had 2,000 monasteries and 6,000 nunneries.
  5. The Congregation of Scottish Monasteries in Germany owed its origin to the persistent love of travel on the part of Irish and Scottish monks, which during the 10th century received a new impulse from the Danish invasions (§ [93, 1]). The first monastery erected in Germany for the reception exclusively of Irish monks was that of St. Martin at Cologne, built in the 10th century. Much more important, however, was the Scottish monastery of St. James at Regensburg, founded in A.D. 1067 by Marianus Scotus and two companions. It was the parent monastery of eleven other Scottish cloisters in South Germany. Old Celtic sympathies (§ [77, 8]), which may have originally bound them together, could not assert themselves in the new home during this period as they did in earlier days; and when Innocent III., at the Lateran Council of A.D. 1215, sanctioned them as a separate congregation bound by the Benedictine rule, there certainly remained no longer any trace of Celtic peculiarities. They were distinguished at first for strict asceticism, severe discipline and scientific activity, but subsequently they fell lower than all the rest in immorality and self-indulgence (§ [112]).