612 Concil. Tolosan. ann. 1056 can. vii.
613 Concil. Turon. ann. 1060 c. 6.
614 Ceterum, quod excommunicavit diaconum suum propter ductam uxorem, contra canones fecisse videtur mihi, nisi forte cogente pertinacia ipsius.—Epist. Berengar. Turon. (Martene Thesaur. I. 195-6). It must be borne in mind that the persecution of Berenger arose solely from his theological subtleties, and that objections to celibacy formed no portion of his errors.
615 Art de Vérifier les Dates, s. v.
616 Concil. Pictaviens. ann. 1078 can. 9.
617 Concil. Rotomag. ann. 1072 can. 16 “de clericis uxoratis.”
618 Orderic. Vital. P. II. Lib. iv. c. 2.
619 Concil. Juliobonens. ann. 1080 can. 3, 5 (Orderic. Vital. P. II. Lib. V. c. 6.—Harduin. Concil. T. VI. P. I. p. 1599).—Propter eorum feminas nulla pecuniæ emendatio exigatur.
620 Pauli Carnot. Vet. Agano. Lib. VIII. c. 11.
621 Gregor. VII. Regist. Lib. IX. Epist. 5.
622 Gaufridi Grossi Vit. Bernardi Tironens. c. 6 §§ 51-54.
623 Gregor. VII. Epist. Extrav. 29.—Epist. in Martene Thesaur. III. 871-6.
624 Roujoux, Hist, de Bretagne, II. 98-99. The independence affected by the Breton church is well shown in a singularly impertinent letter addressed to Leo IX. by the clergy of Nantes, refusing to receive a bishop appointed by him, after the degradation for simony of Prodicus by the council of Rheims in 1050 (Martene Thesaur. I. 172-3).
625 Martene Thesaur. III. 882.—Haddan and Stubbs II. 96.
626 Gregor. VII. Regist. Lib. IV. Epistt. 10, 11.
627 Ebrardi Chron. Watinens. cap. 22-3. Ebrard was a contemporary, a disciple of Otfrid, and therefore his statement of the motives of the persecution is entitled to credence.
628 “Addens malos sacerdotes sacerdotes non esse, acsi peccator homo non esset homo.” From the tenor of Robert’s defence it is evident that it was the children of the clerks whom he disinherited. The documents are in Warnkönig, Hist. de Flandre, I. 330-3 (Bruxelles, 1835).
629 Urbani PP. II. Epist. 70.
630 Lambert. Atrebat. Epist. 60.
631 Lambert. Atrebat. Epist. 84—Paschalis PP. II. Epist. 134.—Lambert. Epist. apud Baluz. et Mansi II. 150.
632 Paschalis PP. II. Epist. 415.
633 Guibert. Noviogent. de Vita Sua Lib. I. cap. vii.
634 Concil. Claromont. can. 9, 10, 25.
In Lent of the following year (1096) Urban caused these canons to be received by a provincial council held under his auspices at Tours.—Bernald. Constant. ann. 1096.
635 Ivon. Carnot. Epist. 218.
636 Ivon. Decret. P. VI. c. 50 sqq.—Panorm. Lib. III. c. 84 sqq.
637 Ivon. Epist. 200.
638 Quod ultra modum laxaveris frena pudicitiæ, in tantum ut post acceptum archidiaconatum, accubante lateribus tuis plebe muliercularum, multam genueris plebem puerorum et puellarum.—Ibid. Epist. 277.
639 Est etiam eis publica et inexpugnabilis cum mulieribus familiaritas, quibus illæ, promissis et præmissis obligatæ munusculis, dies iniquitatis et noctes infamiæ vindicare comprobantur.—Hildebert. Cenoman. Epist. 38 (Lib. II. Epist. 25).
640 Hist. Episc. Verdunens. (D’Achery Spicileg. II. 254).
641 Audivi turpissimam famam de monasterio Sanctæ Faræ, quod jam non locus sanctimonialium sed mulierum dæmonialium prostibulum dicendum est, corpora sua ad turpes usus omni generi hominum prostituentium.—Ivon. Epist. 70.
642 Martene Thesaur. T. V. p. 1142-3.—Honorii PP. II. Epist. 91.—Guill. Nangis ann. 1123, 1124.
643 P. Abælardi Sermo XXIX.
644 Bull. Pontif. No. XXIII. ap. Hahnii Collect. Monument. Vet. I. 147. As to the reformation of the nuns of Laon, see Guill. de Nangis ann. 1128.
645 Roberti de Monte Chron. ann. 1143.
646 Nonne qui nocentes deberemus absolvere, eis malo exemplo nocemus? Nonne qui deberemus pollutos lavare, vitiorum nostrorum contagione alios polluimus?—— Sed nos, hodie indigni sacerdotes quid dicemus qui cæteris hominibus non majores sed deteriores sumus? Qui cum in conspectu hominum gradu sacerdotalis ordinis celsiores cæteris videamur, tamen cæteris inferiores vita moribusque jacemus? Radulph. Ardent. T. II. P. ii. Homil. 25.—See also Homil. 21.
647 Nihil enim est quo magis lædatur Ecclesia quam quod laicos videt esse meliores clericis.—Pet. Cant. Verb. Abbreviat. cap. lvii.
648 Hoc totum factum est rogatu Germani presbyteri, filiorumque ejus, qui post inde noster effectus est monachus.—Chron. Besuens. Chart. de tenement. German. presbyt.
649 Innocent. PP. III. Regest. v. 67.
650 Petri Venerab. de Mirac. Lib. I. c. 25.—Chron. Episc. Mindens. c. 26.
651 S. Bernardi Vitæ Primæ Lib. VII. cap. xxi.
652 Concil. Remens. ann. 1119 can. 4, 5.—“Nullus episcopus, nullus presbyter, nullus omnino de clero ecclesiasticas dignitates vel beneficia cuilibet, quasi hereditario jure, derelinquat.” Calixtus had already caused this provision to be adopted by the council of Toulouse, held in the previous June (Concil. Tolosan. ann. 1119 can. 8).
653 Cujas quotes these verses as still current in his day, and attributes to the efforts of Calixtus the suppression of sacerdotal marriage in France. (Giannone, Apologia, c. xiv.)
654 Orderic. Vital. P. III. Lib. xii. c. 13.
655 Arnulf. Lexoviens. de Schismate cap. I. II. (D’Achery I. 153).
656 Vit. S. Bertrandi Convenar. No. 13, 14 (Martene Ampliss. Collect. VI. 1028).
657 Ut clerici ejusdem ecclesiæ sicut usque modo vixerunt permaneant; hoc tamen præcipimus ut presbyteri, diaconi, subdiaconi nullatenus deinceps uxores concubinas habeant; cæteri vero cujuscumque ordinis clerici propter fornicationem, licentiam habeant ducendi uxores.—Du Cange, s. v. Concubina.
658 Epist. Alex. PP. III. in Martene Ampliss. Collect. II. 794.
659 Concil. Paris, ann. 1212 can. xvi., xviii. (Ibid. VII. 99).
660 Gregor. VII. Regist. Lib. IX. Epist. 5.
661 Roger of Hoveden. ann. 1070.—Baron. Annal. ann. 1070 No. 26.
662 Lanfranci Epist. XXI.
663 Alexand. II. Epist. 83.
664 Wilkins Concil. Mag. Britan. I. 363.
665 Camden’s Britannia, Tit. Shroppshire.
666 Decretumque est ut nullus canonicus uxorem habeat. Sacerdotes vero in castellis vel in vicis habitantes, habentes uxores non cogantur ut dimittant; non habentes interdicantur ut habeant; et deinceps caventur episcopi ut sacerdotes vel diaconos non præsumant ordinare, nisi prius profiteantur ut uxores non habeant.—Wilkins I. 367.
Polydor Virgil describes a council of London held by Lanfranc in 1078, in which—“Ante omnia mores sacerdotum parum puri quamproxime potuit, ad priscorum patrum regulam revocati sunt, estque illis in posterum tempus recte vivendi modus præscriptus” (Angl. Hist. Lib. IX.); but he has evidently mixed together the proceedings of various synods.
667 Henric. Huntingdon. Lib. VII.—Matt. Paris ann. 1102.—Henry of Huntingdon, though an archdeacon, was himself the son of a priest, and therefore was not disposed to regard with complacency the stigma attached to his birth by the new order of things.
668 Concil. Londin. ann. 1102.—Wilkins. I. 382 (Eadmer. Hist. Novor. Lib. III. ann. 1102).
669 Anselmi Lib. III. Epist. 62.
670 D’Achery Spicileg. III. 434.
671 Paschalis PP. II. Epist. lxxiv.—Anselmi Lib. IV. Epist. 41.
672 Simeon Dunelmens. ap. Pagi IV. 348.
673 See the confirmation of excommunication in which St. Anselm exhaled his fiery indignation at those who continued with “bestiali insania” to defy the authorities of the church. (Anselmi Lib. III. Epist. 112.)
Anselm was not entirely without assistance in his efforts. One of his monks, Reginald, of the great monastery of Canterbury, wrote a fearfully diffuse paraphrase, in Leonine verse, of the life of St. Malchus. It was an evil-minded generation, indeed, that could resist such a denunciation of marriage as that pronounced by the saint—
(Croke’s Rhyming Latin Verse, p. 67.)
674 Eadmer. Hist. Novor. Lib. IV.—Anselmi Lib. III. Epist. 109.
675 Wilkins, I. 378-80.—Paschalis II. Epist. 221.
676 D’Achery Spicileg. III. 448.
677 Eadmeri Hist. Novor. Lib. IV.
678 Eadmeri Hist. Novor. Lib. IV.
679 Eadmeri Hist. Novor. Lib. IV.
680 Messenii Chron. Episcoporum per Sueciam etc. p. 76 (Stockholmiæ, 1611).
681 Concil. Londiniens. ann. 1126 c. 13 (Wilkins, I. 408).
682 Henric. Huntingd. Lib. VII.—Matt. Paris ann. 1125.—Baronius (ann. 1125, No. 12) endeavors to disprove the story, but is only able to offer general negative allegations, of but little weight when opposed to the testimony of a contemporary like Henry of Huntingdon, who speaks of it as a matter of public notoriety, which covered the cardinal with disgrace and drove him from England.
Such conduct was a favorite theme of objurgation with the ascetics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—
(Du Méril, Poésies Latines, p. 133.)
So also, among the poems which pass under the name of Golias Episcopus is one of fierce invective directed against the priests, in which this is one of the principal accusations—
Mapes’s Poems (Camd. Soc. Ed. pp. 49-50).
683 Concil. Westmonast. ann. 1127 c. 5, 6, 7 (Wilkins, I. 410).
684 Henric. Huntingd. Lib. VII.—Anglo Saxon Chron. ann. 1129.—Matt. Paris ann. 1129.
685 Concil. Westmonast. ann. 1138 c. 8 (Wilkins, I. 415).
686 Rymer, Fœdera Tom. I. ann. 1144.—Post. Concil. Lateran, P. XIX. passim.—Lib. I. Tit. 17 Extra.
687 Orderic Vital. P. III. Lib. xiii. c. 20.
688 Fluit semine et hinnit in feminas, adeo impudens ut libidinem, nisi quam publicaverit, voluptuosam esse non reputet.... Fornicationis abusum comparat necessitati. Proletarius est adeo quod paucis annis ei soboles tanta succrevit ut patriarcharum seriem antecedat.—Joann. Saresberiens. Epist. 310. Well might Alexander, in ordering his ejection, say “ipsum invenerint tot excessibus et criminibus publicis irretitum, quod per eorum nobis litteras recitata auribus nostris nimium præstiterunt tædium et dolorem.”—Elmham Hist. Monast. August, p. 413.
(Wright, Polit. Songs of England, p. 9.) And another indignant churchman exclaims:—
Mapes’s Poems, pp. 156-7.
690 A woman applied to Bishop Hugh for advice “super impotentia mariti, quia debitum ei reddere non poterat,” when the prelate gravely replied, “Faciamus ergo si vis eum sacerdotem, et statim illo in opere, reddita sibi facultate, proculdubio potens efficietur.”—Girald. Cambrens. Gemm. Eccles. Dist. II. c. xviii.
691 Benedicti Abbatis Gesta Regis Henr. II. T. I. pp. 135-6; T. II. p. xxx. (M. R. Series.)
692 Chron. Monast. de Bello, London, 1846, pp. 142-3.
693 Haddan & Stubbs’s Councils of Great Britain I. 423-4.
694 Matt. Paris ann. 1208.
Perhaps it is to John’s experience in this matter that may be attributed the fact that when, in 1214, he entered into a league with his knight-errant nephew, the Emperor Otho IV., against Philip Augustus, they also declared war against Innocent III., and proposed to carry out a gigantic scheme of spoliation by enriching, from ecclesiastical property, all who might rally to their standard. They proclaimed their intention of humbling the church, reducing the numbers of the clergy, stripping those who were left of all their temporalities, and leaving them only moderate stipends. Both John and Otho had been under excommunication, and could speak feelingly of the overweening power and abuses of the church, whose members they characterize as “genus hoc pigrum et fruges consumere natum, quod otia ducit, quodque sub tecto marcet et umbra, qui frustra vivunt, quorum omnis labor in hoc est, ut Baccho Venerique vacent, quibus crapula obesis poris colla inflat, ventresque abdomine onerat.” (Lünig. Cod. Diplom. Italiæ I. 34). A few weeks later the Bridge of Bouvines put a sudden end to this prosperous plan of reformation.
695 Du Méril, Poésies Pop. Latines, p. 179.
696 Mapes’s Poems, p. 10.
697 Du Méril, op. cit. p. 171.
698 Filius autem, more sacerdotum parochialium Angliæ fere cunctorum, damnabili quidem et detestabili, publicam secum habebat comitem individuam, et in foco focariam et in cubiculo concubinam.—Girald. Cambrens. Specul. Eccles. Dist. iii. c. 8. (Girald. Opp. III. 129.) However Giraldus and the severer churchmen might stigmatize these companions as concubines, they were evidently united in the bonds of matrimony. He says himself, respecting Wales, “Nosse te novi ... canonicos Menevenses fere cunctos, maxime vero Walensicos, publicos fornicarios et concubinarios esse, sub alis ecclesiæ cathedralis et tanquam in ipso ejusdem gremio focarias suas cum obstetricibus et nutricibus atque cunabulis in laribus et penetralibus exhibentes.... Adeo quidem ut sicut patres eorum ipsos ibi genuerunt et promoverunt, sic et ipsi more consimili prolem ibidem suscitant, tam in vitiis sibi quam beneficiis succedaneam. Filiis namque suis statim cum adulti fuerint et plene pubertatis annos excesserint, concanonicorum suorum filias, ut sic firmiori fœdere sanguinis scilicet et affinitatis jure jungantur, quasi maritali copula dari procurant. Postmodum autem ... canonicas suas filiis suis conferri per cessionem non inefficaciter elaborant.” (De Jure et Statu Menev. Eccles. Dist. i.) That this condition of affairs was not confined to the canons of cathedral churches is evident from his general remarks in the Gemm. Eccles. Dist. II. cap. xxiii.
His treatise De Statu Menevens. Eccles. was written after 1215, and therefore subsequent to the death of Innocent III.
699 Innocent. PP. III. Regest. V. 66; VIII. 147.
700 De presbytero et logico. Mapes’s Poems, p. 256.
701 Hali Meidenhad, p. 7. (Early English Text Society, 1866.)
702 Innocent. PP. III. Regest. VI. 103.
703 Mapes’s Poems, pp. 171-2. This well-known poem has been attributed to the Venerable Hildebert, Bishop of Le Mans, as written on the occasion of the reformation of the French clergy by Calixtus II. (Croke, Rhyming Latin Verse, p. 85), but the character of that reverend prelate forbids such an assumption, even if the allusion to Innocent did not assign to it a later period.
704 Concil. Eboracens. ann. 1195 c. 17.—Concil. Londiniens. ann. 1200 c. 10.—Concil. Dunelmens. ann. 1220.—Concil. Oxoniens. ann. 1222 c. 28.—Constit. Archiep. Cantuar. ann. 1225 (Matt. Paris ann. 1225).—Constit. Episc. Lincoln. ann. 1230 (Wilkins, I. 627).—Constit. Provin. Cantuar. ann. 1236 c. 3, 4, 30.—Constit. Coventriens. ann. 1237 (Wilkins, I. 641), &c.
705 Matt. Paris ann. 1237.
706 Wilkins, I. 672-3.
707 De Convocatione Sacerdotum (Mapes’s Poems, pp. 180-2).
708 Mapes’s Poems, pp. 176-9.—All the poetasters of the period, however, were not enlisted on one side. There is extant an exhortation against marriage, addressed to the clergy, which consists of a violent invective against the sex, recapitulating the customary accusations against women with all the brutal coarseness of the age:—
The “Confessio Goliæ” feelingly bewails the difficulty of rendering obedience to the new regulations:—
709 Matt. Paris ann. 1250.
This Boniface was brother of the Duke of Savoy, and was one of the Italian prelates whose intrusion into the choice places of the Anglican church was a source of intense irritation. The career of another brother, Philip, is an instructive illustration of the ecclesiastical manners of the age. He was in deacon’s orders, and yet, as a leader of condottieri, he was a strenuous supporter of Innocent IV. in his quarrel with Frederic II. He was created Archbishop of Lyons, Bishop of Valence, Provost of Bruges, and Dean of Vienne, and, after enjoying these miscellaneous dignities for some twenty years, when at length Clement IV. insisted on his ordination and consecration, he threw off his episcopal robe, married first the heiress of Franche-Comté and then a niece of Innocent IV.—dying at last as Duke of Savoy (Milman, Latin Christ. IV. 326).
The indignation felt at the standing grievance of foreign prelates is quaintly expressed a century later by Langlande—
710 Nullusque eorum uxorem ducat: et si antequam sacros ordines suscepit uxorem duxerit, seu postea, si beneficium habeat, ipso privetur, et ab exsecutione sui officii suspendatur, nisi in casu a jure concesso.—Constit. Walteri Episc. Dunelmens. (Wilkins, I. 705).
711 Sir, il ne doit mie joyer du benefit de celle priviledge, car il ad forfait per vice de Bigamy; comme celui qui ad espousé vefve ou plusors femmes.—Myrror of Justice, cap. III. sect. v.
712 Concil. Londiniens. ann. 1268 c. 8 (Wilkins, II. 5).
713 Convocat. Cantuar. ann. 1399 c. 13 (Wilkins, III. 240).
714 The canon law maintained the extraordinary doctrine that the confession of the guilty woman could not be received as evidence against her accomplice, though it was good as against herself. “Unde nec sacerdotes accusare nec in eos testificari valent.... Quia ergo ista de se confitetur, super alienum crimen ei credi non oportet; sed contra eam sua confessio interpretanda est” (Gratian. P. II. c. xv. q. 3). It would be hard to imagine a rule of practice better fitted to repress investigation and to shield offenders.
715 Wilkins, II. 40.
716 Ad domos religiosarum veniens, fecit exprimi mammillas earundem, ut sic physice si esset inter eas corruptela, experiretur—Matt. Paris ann. 1251.
717 Adæ de Marisco Epist. passim (Monumenta Franciscana). How little the character of the clergy had improved under the ceaseless efforts of the preceding half century may be guessed from Adam’s description of his contemporary brethren—“Nihil aliud pervicacissima caninæ voracitatis impudentia consectantur, quam caducam fastuum arrogantiam, quam mobilem quæstuum affluentiam, quam sordidam luxuum petulentiam, auctoritatem summæ salvationis in perditionis æternæ crudelitatem depravantes; cernimus usquequaquam quasi solutum Satanam effrænata tyrannide beatam hæreditatem benedicti Dei immanissime depopulari.”—Ibid. Epist. CCXLVII. P. i. c. 18.
So Robert Langlande states
719 1 Henry VII. cap. 4.
720 Gwentian Code, Book II. chap. xxx. “Because he was begotten contrary to decree.”—Dimetian Code, Book II. chap. viii. § 27 (Aneurin Owen’s Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, Vol. I. pp. 761, 445). Of the latter of these codes, the recension which has reached us contains alterations made by Rys son of Grufudd, showing it to be posterior at least to the year 1180.
721 Anomalous Laws, Book X. chap. vii. § 19 (Owen, Vol. II. p. 331).
722 Ibid. chap. ix. (Vol. II. p. 347).
723 Ibid. Book VIII. chap. xi. § 19 (Vol. II. p. 205).
724 Ibid. Book XI. chap. iii. § 15 (Vol. II. p. 409).
725 Senchus Mor. Introduction. pp. 57-9. (Edited by Hancock, Dublin, 1865.)
726 Lanfranci Epistt. 37, 38.—Bernardi Vit. S. Malachiæ cap. iii. viii.—The rudeness of the age may be measured by the fact that when Malachi determined to adorn the venerable monastery of Benchor with an oratory of stone such as he had seen abroad, the mere laying of the foundations aroused the wonderment of the people, to whom buildings of that kind were unknown—“quod in terra illa necdum ejusmodi ædificia invenirentur”—and his enemies took advantage of the feeling to interfere with the work on the ground that such an enterprise was unheard of, and that so stupendous an undertaking could never be accomplished. This piece of presumption was promptly rebuked by the death of the ringleader, and by the finding in the excavations of a treasure which enabled St. Malachi to execute his plans (Vit. S. Malach. c. xxviii.). St. Bernard, who derived his impressions from Malachi and his companions, thus describes the Irish of Connaught, “sic protervos ad mores, sic ferales ad ritus, sic ad fidem impios, ad leges barbaros, cervicosos ad disciplinam, spurcos ad vitam. Christiani nomine, re pagani. Non decimas, non primitias dare, non legitima inire conjugia, non facere confessiones; pœnitentias nec qui peteret, nec qui daret penitus invenire. Ministri altaris pauci admodum erant.”—Ibid. cap. viii.