This is probably not strictly correct. Maximilian’s demand had perhaps been rendered more pressing than respectful by the necessity of conciliating his people in view of the war with John of Transylvania and the Turks. Its tone was not relished at Rome, nor could the papacy be expected to listen with as much patience to remonstrances from a prince who had just grasped the reins of power as it had to those of the mature and experienced Ferdinand, especially as Maximilian had been shrewdly suspected of secretly leaning to the tenets of the Reformers.1408 The response to Maximilian was therefore of the sharpest. Pius replied, arguing against clerical marriage and positively declaring that it would not be tolerated,1409 and to prevent further trouble Cardinal Commendone was sent to warn him that any interference with the interests of religion would be visited with the severest penalties; in fact, he was threatened with deprivation of the imperial title, and a convocation of the Catholic princes for the purpose of electing a successor.1410

The Catholic church thus definitely accepted the ancient canons, erected them into an article of faith, and resolved to meet whatever consequences might flow from their maintenance. In the existing condition of clerical morals, we are almost justified in saying that it assumed the position attributed by St. Bernard to the Manichæans of the twelfth century—that they took vows of continence in order to cover their incontinence, and that marriage was the only sexual relation which they regarded as a sin.1411 We shall see hereafter what were the results of this abnormal position.