931 Thus, a council held at Cologne in 1306, in denouncing the mendicancy of the Begghards, quotes Gen. III. 18: “In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane tuo,” and proceeds: “Quod ad fortes et sui compotes moraliter intelligitur esse dictum: et tales in ocio victum vendicantes, eleemosynas rapiunt, quæ infirmis et debilibus fuerant pauperibus ministrandæ.” And in objecting to their views of celibacy, “Ajunt etiam: Nisi mulier virginitatem in matrimonio deperditam doleat et dolendo deploret, salvari non potest: quasi matrimonium sit peccatum, cum tamen ipsum ante peccatum in loco sancto a sanctorum sanctissimo fuerit institutum: quæ virginitas in fœtum sobolis compensatur, per quam humana natura stabilitate perdurat,” which contrasts strangely with the teachings quoted above from “Hali Meidenhad.” Great stress, moreover, is laid upon the indissolubility of the marriage vow and the wickedness of separating husband and wife:—“Quomodo spiritu Dei agantur qui contra spiritum Dei agunt, prohibentis virum ab uxore, et e converso sine causa dimitti?”—Concil. Coloniens. ann. 1306 cap. i., ii. (Hartzheim IV. 100-101). The good fathers of the council were discreetly blind to the antagonism of their teachings to the received doctrines and practices of the church.

932 A collection of documents illustrating the history of this singular and powerful sect will be found in Baluze and Mansi III. 206 et seq.

How persistent and profound was the conviction which created the heresy is shown by its prolonged existence. Even as late as 1421 Martin V. found it necessary to issue a Bull denouncing it (Raynaldi Annal. ann. 1421 No. 4); and in Germany the council of Wurzburg in 1446, revived the old denunciations against the Begghards and Beguines (Hartzheim V. 336).

933 Their customary salutation and password was an invocation of the fallen angel—“Salutet te injuriam passus.”—“May the wronged one preserve thee!”—Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1315.

934 Trithem. loc. cit.—Raynaldi Annal. ann. 1318 No. 44.—Hartzheim Concil. German. IV. 630.

935 Krasinski, Reformation in Poland, I. 55-56.

936 Inter omnia monstra quæ unquam intraverunt ecclesiam, monstrum horum fratrum est seductivius, infundabilius, et a veritate ac a charitate distantius.—Univ. Oxon. Litt. de Error. Wicklif. Art. 103 (Wilkins III. 344).

937 Trialogi Lib. IV. cap. 15.

938 A Wickliffite tract (“De Officio Pastorali,” published by Prof. Lechler, Leipzig, 1863) takes strong ground on this point. Speaking of unchaste priests, it says (P. I. cap. viii. pp. 16-17), “Talis sic notorie sustentans curatum dat imprudenter elemosinam contra Christum ... periculosum peccatum est crimini consentire; sed sic faciunt qui taliter curato in temporalibus subministrant.” And again (P. I. cap. xvii.), “Subditi enim non debent audire missam talium sacerdotum, et per consequens non debent dare sibi oblaciones vel decimas, ne videantur consencientes crimini sic notorio in curatis.”

939 Si Deus est, domini temporales possunt legitime ac meritorie auferre bona fortunæ ab ecclesia delinquente.—Conclus. Magist. Johan. Wycliff. Art. vi. (Wilkins III. 123).

Licet regibus auferre temporalia a viris ecclesiasticis ipsis abutentibus habitualiter. Ibid. Art. xvii.

So in the proceedings conducted by Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury, against Wickliffe in 1382, among the articles presented as extracted from his writings were—

Art. 4. Quod si episcopus vel sacerdos existat in peccato mortali, non ordinat, consecrat nec baptizat.

Art. 16. Quod nullus est dominus civilis, nullus est episcopus, nullus est prælatus dum est in peccato mortali (Wilkins III. 157).

Even “verbum otiosum” and “ira quantumlibet levis” were denounced by him as mortal sins according to the University of Oxford.—Litt. de Error. Art. 210, 211 (Wilkins III. 347).

940 Arnold’s Select English Works of John Wyclif, Vol. II. p. v.—Vol. I. p. 364.

941 “God ordeyned prestis in the olde lawe to have wyves, and nevere forbede it in the newe lawe, neither bi Crist ne bi his apostlis, but rathere aprovede it. But now, bi ypocrisie of fendis and fals men, manye binden hem to presthod and chastite, and forsaken wifis bi Goddis lawe, and schenden maydenes and wifis and fallen foulest of alle.”—Of Weddid Men and Wifis, cap. i. (Arnold’s Wyclif, III. 190; also in Vaughan’s Tracts of John de Wyckliffe p. 58).—See also The Seven Deadly Sins, cap. xxx. (Arnold, Vol. III. p. 163).

In the tract “De Officio Pastorale,” alluded to above, there is a similar passage—“conjugium secundum legem Christi eis licitum odiunt ut venenum, et seculare dominium eis a Christo prohibitum nimis avide amplexantur” (P. II. cap. xi. pp. 50-51).

It is to be borne in mind that at this period no one assumed that clerical celibacy had been ordained of Christ or the Apostles.

942 Trialogi Lib. III. c. 22, 23; Lib. IV. 16 (Ed. Lechler, Oxford 1869).—Cf. Apology for Lollard Doctrines, p. 38 (Ed. Camden Soc.).

943 Wilkins III. 229,—Trialogi Lib. IV. c. 20.

944 Conclusiones Lollardorum (Wilkins III. 221-3).

945 Wilkins III. 248.

946 In 1426, ten years after the execution of Lord Cobham, a Franciscan named Thomas Richmond was brought before the council of York for publicly preaching the high Wickliffite doctrine “Sacerdos in peccato mortali lapsus, non est sacerdos. Item quod ecclesia nolente vel non puniente fornicarios, licitum est sæcularibus eosdem pœna carceris castigare, et ad hoc astringuntur vinculo charitatis” (Wilkins III. 488). This practical application of the Hildebrandine principle did not suit the church of the fifteenth century. It was pronounced heretical, and Friar Thomas was forced to recant.

Equally offensive to the memory of Gregory was the decision of the Sorbonne in 1486, condemning as heretical the propositions of the puritan Bishop of Meaux—“3. Un prêtre fornicateur ne doit pas dire Dominus vobiscum ni reciter l’office en aucun lieu sacré. Ce qui est faux et suspect d’heresie.”—“4. Les sacremens administrez ou l’office dit par un tel prêtre ne valent pas mieux que les cris des chiens. Proposition fausse et erronée dans la premiere partie, héretique scandaleuse et offensant les oreilles pieuses dans la seconde.”—Fleury, Hist. Eccles. Liv. CXVI. No. 39.

947 When, after the fearful disaster of Taas, the council of Bâle, in 1432, commenced the conferences which resulted in the nominal reconciliation of the Hussites, the fathers of the council were much scandalized at hearing the Bohemian deputies reverently quote Wickliffe as the Evangelical Doctor. In fact, Peter Payne, his disciple, who did so much to promulgate his doctrines in Bohemia, was one of the disputants (Hartzheim V. 762-4). Even as early as 1403 the errors of Wickliffe were formally condemned by the University of Prague, on presentation by the Ordinary of the diocese, showing that they were already spreading and attracting attention (Höfler, Concil. Pragensia, p. 43.—Prag, 1862).

948 Artic. Damnat. Joannis Husz, No. viii. x. xi. xii. xiii. xxii. xxx. (Concil. Constantiens. Sess. xv.)—On his examination Huss declared that these articles were exaggerated. See the proceedings in Von der Hardt, T. IV. pp. 309-11. But on the next day he defended a proposition which was virtually identical (Ibid. p. 321).

949 Poggii Florent. Descript. Hieron. Prag. (Von der Hardt, T. III. p. 69).

950 Statut. Synod. ann. 1405; 1406 No. 1; 1407 No. 3 (Höfler Concil. Pragens. pp. 50, 54, 69).

951 Pluquet, Diet. des Hérésies, s. v. Huss.—Synod. Olomucens. ann. 1413 can. 1. “asserentes etiam ... quod bona clericorum male viventium possunt rapere et eos spoliare sine pœna excommunicationis ... Ex eadem radice et hæretica pravitate dicunt alii, quod sacerdos in mortali existens peccato non possit conficere corpus Christi” (Hartzheim V. 39, 40).

952 Conciliab. Pragens. ann. 1420 can. xii., xiii.—At this time the Hussites had full sway in Bohemia; the council was held by Conrad, Archbishop of Prague, who had adopted their faith, and its canons were intended for the internal regulation of their own church (Hartzheim V. 198). In the long conferences, extending from 1431 to 1438, which resulted in their reunion with the Catholic church, there is no allusion to the subject of celibacy. The four points on which they insisted were, 1st, the communion in both elements; 2d, the reformation of morals by abrogating ecclesiastical immunity; 3d, free preaching of the Scripture; and 4th, the secularization of church property (Ibid. 760-73). How little, in fact, they differed in doctrinal points from Rome is seen in the confession of faith agreed upon at Prague in 1432 (Johan, de Ragus. de Reduct. Bohem. ap. Monument. Concil. General. Sæc. xv. pp. 182 sq.).

This did not, however, save them from the customary accusations of immorality. Thus, a contemporary describes the indulgence of indiscriminate intercourse as one of the rules of the sect (Joann. Fistenportii Chron. ann. 1419.—Hahn. Collect. Monument. T. I. p. 403), and, in 1431, Conrad, Archbishop of Mainz, in convoking a council to take action against them, says of the sect “exterminavit clerum et omnem cœlibatum commercio nephando stupravit.”—Gudeni Cod. Diplom. IV. 185.

953 Epist. Procopii Art. VIII. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 25).

954 Petit. Cæsaris No. 12 (Le Plat, Monument. Concil. Trident. V. 348).

955 Conciliab. Pragens. ann. 1420 can. viii.

956 Camerarii Hist. Narrat. de Fratrum Orthodox. Ecclesiis in Bohemia, etc. pp. 100, 109-10, 114, 121, 128.

957 Consensus in Fide inter Ecclesias Evangelicas, etc. Haidelbergæ, 1605.

958 The spirit of the sectaries of Schmidt is shown by one of their doctrines—“Propter sacerdotum nequitiam, licentiavit Deus et abjecit sacerdotium evangelicum,” and by their argument for abolishing masses for the dead “nihil prosint defunctis, sed sint solatia vivorum et repleant marsupia clericorum.”—Gobelin. Person. Cosmodrom. Ætat. VI. cap. xciii.—Cf. Theod. Vrie, Hist. Concil. Constant. Lib. III. Dist. viii.

959 See the proceedings in Baluze and Mansi, I. 288-93. As usual, the Men of Intelligence were accused of indulging in promiscuous intercourse.

960 Even soon after Savonarola’s martyrdom, Julius II. refused to listen to those who desired a condemnation of his memory. Leo X. honored him by celebrating the Epiphany of 1515 in his convent of San Marco. Julius III. declared that he would deem heretical any one who should attack him. Paul IV. assembled a congregation for the purpose of examining and deciding upon his works, and after six months’ labor they reported that his writings were unexceptionable, though a portion which reflected too vigorously on the papal court were declared to be unfitted for general perusal.—Perrens, Jérome Savonarole, Paris 1856, pp. 296-7.

961 See Baluze et Mansi I. 584-5 for the letters to the Emperor of Germany and King and Queen of Spain. Perrens (op. cit. p. 375) also gives the one addressed to the King of France, while those to the Kings of England and Hungary have apparently been lost.

962 Taceo de fornicationibus et adulteriis, a quibus qui alieni sunt probro cæteris ac ludibrio esse solent, spadonesque aut sodomitæ appellantur; denique laici usque adeo persuasum habent nullos cœlibes esse, ut in plerisque parochiis non aliter velint presbyterum tolerare nisi concubinam habeat, quo vel sic suis sit consultum uxoribus, quæ nec sic quidem usquequaque sunt extra periculum.—Nic. de Clemangis de Præsul. Simoniac. (Bayle, Dict. Hist. s. v. Hall).

963 Nic. de Clamengiis Disput. super Mater. Concil. General.

964 Nic. de Clamengiis de Ruina Ecclesiæ cap. xxii., xxxvi.—Conf. Theobaldi Conquest. (Von der Hardt T. I. P. XIX. p. 909).

965 P. de Alliaco Canones Reformat, cap. iv. (Von der Hardt T. I. P. VI. p. 425).

966 Gersoni Declarat, defect, viror. ecclesiast. lxv., lxvi.

967 Dicimus quod de duobus malis minus est incontinentes tolerare sacerdotes quam nullos habere.—Gersoni Dial. Sophiæ et Naturæ Act. IV.

968 Ejusd. Sermo de Vita Clericorum.

969 Theod. a Niem Nemoris Unionis Tract. V. cap. XXXV.

970 Theod. Vrie Hist. Concil. Constant. Lib. II., III. (Von der Hardt T. I.).

971 Nic. de Clamengiis, Disput. sup. Mat. Conc. General. This work was written in 1416, after the council had been in session for nearly two years.

972 Theobaldi Conquestio (Von der Hardt T. I. P. XIX. p. 904).

973 Item, fistulatores, tubicenæ, joculatores, 516; item, meretrices, virgines publicæ, 718.—Laur. Byzynii Diar. Bell. Hussit. A Catholic contemporary, however, reduces the number of courtezans to 450 and that of jugglers and minstrels to 320 (Joann. Fistenportii Chron. ann. 1415.—Hahn. Collect. Monument. I. 401).

974 Bernhardi Baptisati Sermo (Von der Hardt T. I. P. XVIII. pp. 884-5).

975 Concil. Constant. Sess. XLIII. can. de Vita et Honestate Clericorum.

976 De Ecclesiæ Reformat. Protocoll. cap. xxxiii. (Von der Hardt T. I. P. x. pp. 635-6).

977 Reformatorii Constant. Decretal. Lib. I. Tit. v. (Ibid. p. 679).

978 Ibid. Lib. III. Tit. x. cap. 20 (p. 722).

979 For instance, as regards the religious houses—“In nonnullis quoque monasteriis ... norma disciplinæ respuitur, cultus divinus negligitur, personæ quoque hujusmodi, vitæ ac morum honestate prostrata, lubricitati, incontinentiæ, et aliis variis carnalis concupiscentiæ voluptatibus et viciis non sine gravi divinæ majestatis offensa tabescentes, vitam ducunt dissolutam.”—Martin V. ad Brandam § iii. (Ludewig Reliq. Msctorum. XI. 409).

980 Usque adeo nonnullorum clericorum corruptela excrevit, ut morum atque honestatis vestigia apud eos pauca admodum remanserint.—Constit. Brandae § 1 (Op. cit. XI. 385). This condition of affairs was not the result of any abandonment of the attempt to enforce the canons. Local synods were meeting every year, and scarcely one of them failed to call attention to the subject, devising fresh penalties to effect the impossible. The result is shown in the lament of the council of Cologne in 1423—“Quia tamen, succrescente malitia temporis moderni, labes hujusmodi criminis in ecclesia Dei in tantum inolevit, quod scandala plurima in populo sunt exorta, et verisimiliter exoriri poterunt in futurum, et ex fide dignorum relatione percepimus quod quidam ecclesiarum prælati et alii, etiam capitula ... tales in suis iniquitatibus sustinuerunt et sustinent.” So far, however, were the decrees of the council from being effective, that the Archbishop was obliged to modify them and to declare that they should only be enforced against those ecclesiastics who were notoriously guilty, and who kept their concubines publicly.—Concil. Coloniens. ann. 1423 can. i. viii. (Hartzheim V. 217, 220).

981 Ambrosii Camaldulensis Lib. V. Epist. xii. (Martene Ampliss. Collect. III. 119-21). This was not the only case of abbots whose scandalous lives were treated with equal forbearance. See Epistt. xiii., xiv.

982 Harduini Andegav. Epist. Statut. Præf. (Martene Thesaur. IV. 523-4).

983 Alan. Charter. Lib. de Exilio (Johan. Mariæ Lib. de Schismat. et Concil.).

984 Nic. de Clamengiis de Lapsu et Reparat. Justitiæ (Ed. 1519 pp. 13-14).

985 Wilkins III. 364-5.

986 Æneæ Sylvii Comment. de Gest. Conc. Basil. ad calcem (Opp. Basil. 1551 pp. 66-70).—Cf. Sigismundi Imp. Avisam. ann. 1433 (Goldast. III. 427 sqq.).

987 Concil. Basiliens. Sess. xx. (Jan. 22, 1435).

988 Pragm. Sanct. ann. 1438 cap. 31 (Goldast. I. 403).

989 Quoniam nostri temporis clerici sunt, heu, affectu crudeles, affatu mendaces, gestu incompositi, victu luxuriosi, actu impii, et sub vacuo sanctitatis nomine sancti nominis derogant disciplinæ (Hartzheim V. 266). The council contented itself with repeating the canons of Bâle.

990 Lib. III. Tit. i. c. 3, in Septimo.

991 Quicunque alii concubinas et mulieres hujusmodi, contra præsentem prohibitionem tenere præsumentes, inhabiles censeantur ad beneficia obtinenda, et in dicta curia officia hujusmodi exercenda, nec illorum capaces efficiantur, nisi inhabilitatem suam antea per dictæ sedis literas obtinuerint aboleri.—Ubi sup.

992 Comp. Doeringii Chron. passim. Döringk was minister or head of the powerful Franciscan order in Saxony, and therefore may be considered an unexceptionable witness.

In the Polish diet of 1459, one of its leading members brought forward a series of propositions which showed the feelings entertained by the people towards papal exactions—“The Bishop of Rome has invented a most unjust motive for imposing taxes—the war against the infidels.... The Pope feigns that he employs his treasures in the erection of churches; but in fact he employs them to enrich his relations,” etc.—Krasinski, Reformation in Poland I. 96.

The councils of Constance and Bâle had produced, for a time, a spirit of great independence. John of Frankfort does not hesitate to declare that the papal authority is not binding when in opposition to the law of God—“Unde patet quod nec papalis vel et imperialis constitutio legi Dei obvians possit dici recta; nec aliquis ipsorum potest licite mandare quod sua constitutio servetur a subditis” (Johann. de Francford. contra Feymeros). According to the decisions of the Decretalists, this was rank heresy, and yet John of Frankfort was one of the leading minds of the period, and of unquestioned orthodoxy. He was a popular preacher, a doctor of theology, chaplain and secretary of the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and a bold disputant against the Hussites. He records with his own hand that, as inquisitor, he convicted and burned, July 4th, 1429, at Lüders, an unfortunate heretic who denied the propriety of invoking the Virgin and the saints. Under the skilful management, however, of Nicholas V. and Pius II. this spirit of independence died away, to again revive, in the next century, in a more determined form.

993 Ludewig Reliq. Msctorum. XI. 415.—Under Boniface IX., at the commencement of the century, claims arising from simoniacal transactions were constantly and openly prosecuted in the court of the Papal Auditor.—Theod. a Niem de Vit. Joann. XXIII.

994 Concil. Constantiens. Sess. XI.

995 Steph. Infessuræ Diar. Roman, ann. 1484 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. III. 1939-40).

996 “Si vous saviez tout ce que je sais! des choses dégoûtantes! des choses horribles! vous en frémiriez! Quand je pense à tout cela, à la vie que mènent les prêtres, je ne puis retenir mes larmes.” And again, “Ma peggio ancora. Quello che sta la notte con la concubina, quell’ altro con il garzone, e poi la mattina va a dire messa, pensa tu come la va. Che vuoi tu fare di quella messa?”—Jérome Savonarole d’après les Documents Originaux, par F. T. Perrens, pp. 71-2. Paris, 1856.

997 Ap. Chavard, Le Célibat, des Prêtres, p. 400.

998 Masselin, Journal des États de Tours, pp. 197-99.

What were the teachings and the influence on the people of such a priesthood may be guessed from a remark in one of the sermons of Oliver Maillard, a celebrated Franciscan preacher of the period. “Sunt ne ibi mulieres et sacerdotes qui dicunt quod mulieres comedentes venenum ad expellendum materiam de matrice sua, ne fœtus veniat ad partum, antequam anima rationalis introducatur, non peccant mortaliter?”—Ap. H. Estienne, Apol. pour Herodote Liv. I. chap. vi.

999 1 Henr. VII. 4.

1000 Wilkins III. 630-33.

Yet in the letter of Archbishop Morton to the abbot reciting all these enormities, he is not even threatened with deposition, but only invited to mend his ways.

1001 Froude’s History of England, Ch. III.

[1002]

John Myrc’s Instructions for Parish Priests, p. 26 (Early English Text Society, 1868).

1003 Concil. Arandens. ann. 1473 c. ix. (Aguirre V. 345-6).

1004 Concil. Hispalens. ann. 1512 can. xxvi., xxvii. (Aguirre V. 371-2).

1005 Statut. Eccles. in Braunschweig. cap. 75 (Mayer, Thes. Jur. Eccles. I. 124).

1006 Synod. Strigonens. ann. 1382, 1450, 1480 (Batthyani III. 275, 481, 557).

1007 Galeoti Martii de dictis et factis Matthiæ Regis cap. xi. (Schwandtneri Rer. Hungar. Script.).

1008 Synod. Reg. ann. 1498 c. 16 (Batthyani I. 551).

1009 Wiæ Hist. Episc. Camin. c. 41.—These irregularities were not of recent introduction. The canon referred to is copied almost literally from a synod held nearly forty years before by Bishop Henning. In fact, from the description given by the latter of the drinking, gambling, trading, and licentiousness of the ecclesiastics of Camin, there was little of the clerical character about them.—Synod. Camin. ann. 1454 (Hartzheim V. 930).

1010 Wiæ Hist. Episc. Camin. c. 42.—Synod. Sedinens. c. 5.

In West Prussia, in 1497, the synod of Ermeland expresses itself as scandalized by the priests taking their companions publicly to fairs and other gatherings, and, to put a stop to the practice, it offers to secret informers one-half of the fine imposed on such indiscretions.—Synod. Warmiens. ann. 1497 c. xxxix. (Hartzheim V. 668).

1011 Boissen Chron. Slesvicens. ann. 1494.

1012 Robles, Vida del Card. Ximenes de Cisneros, cap. xii., xiii.—Robles was chaplain to Ximenes, and presumably derived his information from the cardinal himself.

1013 Rursus in certis monasteriis dicti ordinis, ipsæ moniales apertis claustris, indifferenter omnes homines etiam suspectos intromittunt, ac extra monasteria in curiis, castris et plateis vagantes, plura scandala committunt.... Similiter religiosi qui in sacris ordinibus constituti non sunt, relicto habito regulari, matrimonium contrahere dicuntur.... Præterea omnes et singulos monachos et moniales regulam S. Benedicti hujusmodi expresse vel tacite professos, qui habitum monasticum sine dispensatione legitima reliquerunt aut matrimonia contraxerunt, ad monasteria, si illa exiverunt, redire et habitum monasticum ac velum nigrum reassumere dicta auctoritate compellatis.—App. ad Chron. Cassinens. Ed. Dubreul, pp. 902-3.

The words italicized would seem to indicate that monks and nuns occasionally married without even quitting their monasteries.

1014 Perrens, Jérome Savonarole, p. 84.

1015 Statut. Ord. Cisterc. ann. 1516 (Martene Thesaur. IV. 1636-7).

1016 Thus, in 1193, the general chapter of the order promulgated the rule—“Si contigerit mulieres abbatiam ordinis nostri ex consensu intrare, ipse abbas a patre abbate deponatur absque retractatione. Et quicumque sine conscientia abbatis introduxerit, de domo ejiciatur, non reversurus, nisi per generale capitulum.”—(Capit. General. Cisterc. ann. 1193 cap. 6—apud Martene Thesaur. IV. 1276.) The strictness with which this was enforced is illustrated by the proceedings in 1205 against the abbot of the celebrated house of Pontigny, because he had allowed the Queen of France and her train to be present at a sermon in the chapel and a procession in the cloisters, and to spend two nights in the infirmary. He adduced in his defence a special rescript of the pope and a permission from the head of the order in favor of the queen, but these were pronounced insufficient, and sentence was passed that he merited instant deposition “quia tam enorme factum sustinuit, in totius ordinis injuriam,” but that in consequence of the powerful intercession of the Archbishop of Rheims and other bishops, he was allowed to escape with lighter punishment.—(Hist. Monast. Pontiniac.—Martene Thesaur. III. 1245.)

This rule, indeed, was almost universal in the ancient monasteries. The great abbey of St. Martin of Tours preserved it inviolate until the incursions of the Northmen rendered the house an asylum for the inhabitants of the surrounding territory, and the prohibition was subsequently revived and formally approved by Leo VII. in 938, (Leonis PP. VII. Epist. vi.). In that of Sithieu, from the time of its foundation early in the seventh century, it was preserved without infraction for more than three centuries. Even the license of the Carlovingian revolution did not cause its inobservance; and when, amid the disorders of the tenth century, the Counts of Flanders became lay abbots of the convent, and discipline was almost forgotten, the mediation of two bishops was required to obtain permission, about the year 940, for Adela, Countess of Flanders, prostrated with mortal sickness, to be carried in and laid before the altar, where she miraculously recovered.—(De Mirac. S. Bertin. Lib. II. c. 12—Chron. S. Bertin. c. 23, 24.)

So when Boniface founded the abbey of Fulda, he prohibited the entrance of women in any of the buildings, even including the church. The rule was preserved uninfringed through all the license of the tenth and eleventh centuries, and when, in 1132, the Emperor Lothair came to Fulda to celebrate Pentecost, his empress was not allowed to witness the ceremonies. So when Frederic Barbarossa, in 1135, spent his Easter there, he was not permitted to enter the town, because his wife was with him. In 1398 Boniface IX., at the request of the Abbot John Merlaw, relaxed the rule and permitted women to attend at the services of the church—shortly after which it was destroyed by lightning, as a warning for the future.—(Paullini Chron. Badeslebiens. $ viii.)—An equally convincing indication of the favor with which this regulation was regarded by Heaven was afforded when Abbot Helisacar, about the year 830, introduced it in the celebrated monastery of St. Riquier, and immediately the number of miracles worked by the relics of the Saint increased in a notable degree (Chron. Centulensis Lib. III. cap. iv).—At the Grande Chartreuse, founded by St. Bruno towards the end of the eleventh century, women were not even allowed to enter on the lands of the community.—Chart. S. Hugon. Gratianopolit. (Patrolog. T. 166, p. 1571).

1017 Anon. Carthus. de Relig. Orig. cap. XL. (Martene Ampliss. Coll. VI. 93).

1018 Johan. de Trittenheim Lib. Lugubris de Statu et Ruina Monast. Ordinis cap. iii.

1019 Annuntia populo fideli meo, et dic quod Filius meus avaritiam, superbiam et luxuriam clericorum et sacerdotum amplius sustinere nec possit nec velit. Unde nisi se quantocius emendaverint, totus mundus propter eorum scelera periclitabitur.—Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1476.

1020 Quum pene in omnibus conciliis et a plerisque Romanis pontificibus super cohibenda et punienda clericorum incontinentia, et eorum honestate servanda multa hactenus emanaverint constituta; et nullatenus ipsorum reformari quiverit correctio morum: ... videretur pensandum an expediret et posset provideri quod in ecclesia Occidentali, quantum ad votum continentiæ, servaretur consuetudo ecclesiæ Orientalis, quantum ad promovendos, potissime quum tempore Apostolorum consuetudo ecclesiæ Orientalis servaretur.—Durand. de Modo General. Concil. P. II. rubr. 46 (Calixtus, p. 537).

1021 Card. Zabarellæ Capit. Agend. in Concil. Constant. cap. xii. (Von der Hardt T. I. P. ix. p. 525).

1022 Zaccaria, Nuova Giustificaz. pp. 121-2.—Milman, Latin Christ. Book XIII. chap. 12.

1023 Not having the works of Tudeschi to refer to, I give his remarks as quoted by Villadiego (Fuero Juzgo, p. 177, No. 85) from Gloss. in cap. olim, de cleric. conjug.—“Quod deberet ecclesia facere sicut bonus medicus, ut si medicina, experientia docente, potius officit quam prodit, cam tollat; sic corum voluntati relinqueretur, ita ut sacerdos qui abstinere noluisset, posset uxorem ducere, cum quotidie illicito coitu maculentur.”

1024 Sacerdotibus magna ratione sublatas nuptias, majori restituendas videri.—Platina in Vit. Pii II.

1025 Æneæ Sylvii de Concil. Basil. Lib. II.

1026 De Continentia Sacerdotum, Nürnb. 1510, Prop. 6, 7.

1027 Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1479.

1028 Serrarii Hist. Rer. Mogunt. Lib. I. c. 34.

1029 Fleury, Hist. Eccles. Liv. CXVI. No. 30-38.