Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance

by P. L. Jacob

Fig. 209.—The Coronation of an Emperor by the Pope, the Sovereign being represented by Maximilian I.—From “Des Sainctes Ceremonies,” a Manuscript of the Sixteenth Century, in M. Ruggieri’s Collection.

The popes who were contemporary with the successors of Charlemagne, though not of special note, governed the Church with wise moderation; and as they were all patrons of the Fine Arts, Rome is indebted to them for some of her chief embellishments. Leo IV., in 847, was compelled to make Rome secure from an attack by the Saracens, who were always making incursions up to its very walls. For this purpose he constructed around the church of St. Peter a regular town—the Leonine city—which he fortified with high towers. He also fortified the places near Rome, and founded a new city, called Leopolis, which he surrounded with ramparts. Rome thus being out of danger, he imitated the example of his predecessors by ornamenting the churches, to which he gave paintings and other works of art of the value of 5,971 silver marks. The fabulous story of Pope Joan—who was said to have been elected pope, and to have concealed her sex, though she was shortly after expelled, after some great scandal—is placed by historians between Leo IV. and Benedict III.; but the falsity of the story is manifest, for there was no interregnum between the death of Leo, upon July 17th, 855, and the election of Benedict.

Nicholas I. (858–867), anathematized Photius, the usurping Patriarch of Constantinople. The empire having fallen to Michael III., a child of three years old, his mother Theodora, assisted by his uncle Bardas, carried on the government in his name. When this prince grew up, Bardas ousted Theodora, and, in order to maintain himself in power, pandered to the passions of his nephew. Michael gave himself up to such scandalous excesses that the Patriarch Ignatius excluded him from the church, and excommunicated Bardas. In six days, Photius, a layman who could be depended upon to do as he was told, was made patriarch in the room of Ignatius. This was the prelude to the separation of the Greek Church. Photius added heresy to his revolt against the pope, by asserting that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father only, and not from the Son. Nicholas’ successor, Adrian II., appointed his legates to preside at the council which deposed the Patriarch Photius. He also upheld the sentence of his predecessor against Lothair, whom he compelled to renounce his adulterous union with Valdrade. When that prince came before him to partake of the sacrament, the pope said in a loud tone of voice, as he presented the host, “If thou hast given up thy adultery, if thou hast broken off all connection with Valdrade, may this sacrament comfort thee! But if thy heart is still perverse, it will be for thy punishment.” This lofty firmness of speech was all the more praiseworthy because the pope, in thus maintaining the rights of morality, had to defy and admonish a prince who had delivered Rome from the Saracens. No one can tell whether the doubt expressed by Adrian, as to the sincerity of Lothair’s conversion, was well grounded or not; but it is at least certain that the latter died forty days afterwards, and that his death appeared to be a judgment from Heaven.

The legates of John VIII., the successor of Adrian, allowed themselves to be intimidated and corrupted by Photius. Deceived by their false representations, John VIII. at first approved of what they had done; but when he learnt the truth he publicly excommunicated at Rome both Photius and the cowardly legates who had betrayed their trust in order to curry favour with this impostor (880). John VIII. was the first pope, since the fall of the Roman Empire, who had to decide between two competitors for the Imperial crown. He declared, that as the empire had been conferred upon Charlemagne by the grace of God and the authority of the pope, he transferred it to the King of the Franks, Charles the Bald.

For a century and a half the factions of powerful Italian families and the arbitrary will of the emperors interfered with the free election of the popes, whence arose great scandals, and many unworthy persons were elevated to the pontificate. On several occasions the rivalry of parties led to the creation of anti-popes, and at one time there were as many as three claimants to the Holy See. It is little short of miraculous that the papacy should have kept its place against so many causes tending to its ruin. At last, in 1049, the Romans having sent to the Emperor Henry III., asking him to appoint a successor to the pope who had just died, that monarch assembled the bishops and grandees of the empire at Worms, and upon their advice selected Bruno, Bishop of Toul.

Fig. 210.—Portrait of the great Countess Matilda.—From a Miniature in a contemporary poem of which she was the heroine (Manuscript No. 4,922 in the Vatican Library).

Before repairing to Rome, Bruno went to consult Hildebrand, the monk of Cluny, whose reputation for virtue and ability stood very high. The latter received him very cordially, but pointed out to him the impropriety of a lay election, and persuaded him to exchange the pontifical gown for that of the pilgrim, until the people and clergy of Rome should have freely elected him.

Bruno entered Rome barefooted, and thus replied to the applause of those who had gone to meet him: “The choice of the people and the clergy, supported as they are by the authority of the canons, overrides all other nominations; I am therefore ready to return to my country if my election is not approved by all your suffrages.” By Hildebrand’s advice, the ancient customs were observed. Bruno took the name of Leo IX.; he was consecrated on the 2nd of February, and enthroned ten days later. Thus did the Roman Court proclaim that the emperors and princes did not possess absolute power over the election of the pontiffs, and the right of election, after having been thus restored to the people and the clergy, was subsequently vested in the cardinals.

With a view to reforming the morals of the ecclesiastics, to re-establishing discipline and the liturgy, and to combat false doctrines and heresies, Leo IX. held a vast number of councils, some at Rome, some at Vercelli, and others at Paris; he travelled all through France, Germany, and Italy, taking note of all the abuses which he discovered, and showing himself determined to correct them. Thanks to imperial munificence, he had increased very considerably the pontifical power. Carried away by his zeal, he accompanied the troops sent him by the emperor against the Normans who were devastating Italy. His soldiers were defeated, and he himself was taken prisoner; but the Normans did homage to their captive, and begged him to accept the homage of all their possessions in Italy, so that Leo IX. actually obtained advantages greater than ever he could have expected. The nomination of his successor no longer came within the province of the emperor, and the illustrious Hildebrand, who was at that time almost supreme in the Roman Church, directed the election under the canonical form of four successive popes, who required neither the approbation nor the support of the holy empire. The last of them, Alexander II., died in 1072, after having reigned nine years, and the bishops were deliberating on the choice of a new pontiff, when a voice was suddenly raised from amongst the people, “Hildebrand for pope, St. Peter has chosen him.” This was as the voice of God, and Hildebrand, who had been pope de facto for so many years, was enthroned under the title of Gregory VII. His first care was to arrange at a council the affairs of Italy and of France, and to contract alliances with Spain, Hungary, and various German principalities. He judged himself strong enough to undertake this severe and unwearied struggle, which he kept up throughout the whole of his reign, in the interests of the Church, against the sovereigns of Europe. He wished to obtain recognition of the independence of the Holy See, to dispossess the abbots and prelates who had been guilty of simony, reprimanding at the same time the emperors and kings who had trafficked in ecclesiastical dignities. He desired also to reform the loose morality of the clerks, at the same time that he condemned the careless indifference of the episcopate. He first attacked the Emperor Henry IV., he then threatened Philip I. with excommunication if he did not mend his ways; he launched an anathema against five of the principal members of the imperial household, and afterwards summoned the monarch himself to appear in person before a synod, to render account of what he had done. Henry IV., victorious over the Saxons, and irritated at the pope’s audacity, convoked a diet at Worms for the purpose of deposing him, and dismissed the legates whom he had sent. During this time a conspiracy was being hatched at Rome against the pope, the promoters of which were Cencius, prefect of the city, and Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna. It was brought to issue upon the night of Christmas, 1075. Gregory, wounded in the forehead while he was celebrating mass in the basilica of St. Peter, was carried prisoner from the altar into one of the towers; from which he was almost at once delivered by the people, and brought back to the altar to terminate the service. The pope showed great clemency towards the conspirators. Six weeks afterwards the Diet of Worms pronounced his deposition, and the bishops gave in their solemn adherence to the decree. Gregory VII., nowise cast down or discouraged, anathematized the emperor at a council held in Rome; and, then addressing himself to the whole Christian world, he entreated it to join him in the defence of their outraged religion. The most distinguished women of Europe—at the head of whom was Matilda, princess of Tuscany (Fig. 210), widow of Godfrey the Humpbacked—declared themselves openly for the pope, in whose favour a sudden reaction took place. Feudal Germany deserted the cause of the emperor, who was compelled to withdraw to Spires until a diet, convoked to meet at Augsburg, should decide as to the respective complaints of the two sovereigns. But the emperor, impatient to get rid of the sentence of excommunication which had been passed against him, went to meet the pope on his way to Augsburg with the Countess Matilda. This illustrious lady interposed to effect a reconciliation between the two rivals, who had an interview in the fortress of Canossa, near Reggio, when the emperor, in order to obtain his pardon, submitted to the humiliation of going on his knees to the pope to ask for it (1077). It was then that the Countess Matilda bequeathed all her patrimonial domains and all her personal property to the Church and to the Court of Rome. The unhappy Henry, ashamed of the penance which he had been made to undergo, peremptorily separated himself from the papal communion. Council after council was convoked, and in the space of two years Gregory had convoked no less than seven for discussing the general affairs of the Church. He had not omitted to secure for himself allies, while the emperor was confronted in Germany by enemies who were attempting to wrest from him the imperial crown. Henry IV. succeeded in defeating them, and then turned to encounter Gregory, against whom he had set up an anti-pope. After the victories of Fladeheim and Marburg he crossed the Alps, crushed the papal army, and threatened Rome, where Gregory, inflexible as ever, had assembled an eighth council, which excommunicated the emperor afresh. The investment of the city had lasted three years when the emperor, by the sacrifice of a vast sum of money, caused the gates of the town to be opened to him; and though Gregory attempted a last effort to assemble a fresh council, Henry was already inside with his anti-pope, whom he had crowned under the title of Clement III. The intrepid Gregory, immured in the Castle of St. Angelo, held out until the old Norman knight Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, came to his deliverance. He then convoked a tenth council, which once more excommunicated the emperor, the anti-pope, and their numerous adherents. Before the emperor could return to Rome for the fifth time, Duke Robert Guiscard deemed it prudent to return to Apulia with the pope, whose death occurred at Salerno shortly afterwards (May 25th, 1085).