cardinals

after a maxim had been established, that the vicar of Christ is CHAP. amenable to no earthly tribunal, each vacancy of the holy see LXIX. might involve Christendom in controversy and war. The claims of the cardinals and inferior clergy, of the nobles and people, were vague and litigious; the freedom of choice was overruled by the tumults of a city that no longer owned or obeyed a superior. On the decease of a pope, two factions proceeded, in the different churches, to a double election: the number and weight of votes, the priority of times, the merit of the candidates, might balance each other: the most respectable of the clergy were divided; and the distant princes who bowed before the spiritual throne, could not distinguish the spurious, from the legitimate, idol. The emperors were often the authors of the schism, from the political motive of opposing a friendly to a hostile pontiff; and each of the competitors was reduced to suffer the insults of his enemies, who were not awed by conscience; and to purchase the support of his adherents, who were instigated by avarice or ambition. A peaceful and perpetual succession was ascer- Right of the tained by Alexander the Third, who finally abolished the tu-established multuary votes of the clergy and people, and defined the right by Alexan of election in the sole college of cardinals.69 The three orders A. D. 117. of bishops, priests, and deacons, were assimilated to each other by this important privilege: the parochial clergy of Rome obtained the first rank in the hierarchy; they were indifferently chosen among the nations of Christendom; and the possession of the richest benefices, of the most important bishoprics, was not incompatible with their title and office. The senators of the Catholic church, the coadjutors and legates of the supreme pontiff, were robed in purple, the symbol of martyrdom or royalty; they claimed a proud equality with kings; and their dignity was enhanced by the smallness of their number, which, till the reign of Leo the Tenth, seldom exceeded twenty, or twenty-five persons. By this wise regulation, all doubt and scandal were removed, and the root of schism was so effectually destroyed, that in a period of six hundred years a double choice has only once divided the unity of the sacred college. But as the concurrence of two-thirds of the votes had been made necessary, the election was often delayed by the private interest and passions of the cardinals; and while they prolonged their independent reign, the Christian world was left destitute

68 See Mosheim, Institut. Histor. Ecclesiast. p. 401. 403. Alexander himself had nearly been the victim of a contested election; and the doubtful merits of Innocent had only preponderated by the weight of genius and learning which St. Bernard cast into the scale (see his life and writings.)

69 The origin, titles, importance, dress, precedency, &c. of the Roman cardinals, are very ably discussed by Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1262-1297;) but their purple is now much faded. The sacred college was raised to the definite number of seventy-two, to represent, under his vicar, the disciples of Christ.

der III.

CHAP. of a head. A vacancy of almost three years had preceded the LXIX. elevation of Gregory the Tenth, who resolved to prevent the future abuse; and his bull, after some opposition, has been conInstitution secrated in the code of the cannon law.70 Nine days are alconclave by lowed for the obsequies of the deceased pope, and the arrival A.D.124 of the absent cardinals; on the tenth, they are imprisoned,

of the

Gregory X.

each with one domestic, in a common apartment or conclave, without a separation of walls or curtains; a small window is reserved for the introduction of necessaries; but the door is locked on both sides, and guarded by the magistrates of the city, to seclude them from all correspondence with the world. If the election be not consummated in three days, the luxury of their table is contracted to a single dish at dinner and supper; and after the eighth day, they are reduced to a scanty allowance of bread, water, and wine. During the vacancy of the holy see, the cardinals are prohibited from touching the revenues, or assuming, unless in some rare emergency, the government of the church; all agreements and promises among the electors are formally annulled, and their integrity is fortified by their solemn oath and the prayers of the Catholics. Some articles of inconvenient and superfluous rigour have been gradually relaxed, but the principle of confinement is vigorous and entire; they are still urged by the personal motives of health and freedom to accelerate the moment of their deliverance; and the improvement of ballot or secret votes has wrapped the struggles of the conclave in the silky veil of charity and politeness." By these institutions, the Romans were excluded from the election of their prince and bishop; and in the field of wild and precarious liberty, they seemed insensible of the loss of this inA. D. 1328, estimable privilege. The emperor Lewis of Bavaria revived the example of the great Otho. After some negotiation with the magistrates, the Roman people were assembled in the

70 See the bull of Gregory X. approbante sacro concilio, in the Serte of the Canon Law (1. i. tit. 6, c. 3,) a supplement to the Decretals, which Boniface VIII. promulgated at Rome in 1298, and addressed to all the universities of Europe.

71 The genius of cardinal de Retz had a right to paint a conclave (of 1655) in which he was a spectator and an actor (Memoires, tom. iv. p. 15-57;) but I am at a loss to appreciate the knowledge or authority of an anonymous Italian, whose history (Conclavi de Pontifici Romani, in 4to. 1667) has been continued since the reign of Alexander VII. The accidental form of the work furnishes a lesson, though not an antidote, to ambition. From a labyrinth of intrigues, we emerge to the adoration of the successful canditate: but the next page opens with his funeral,

72 The expressions of cardinal de Retz are positive and picturesque: Ony veçut toujours ensemble avec la même respect, et la même civilité que l'on observe dans le cabinet des rois, avec la même politesse qu'on avoit dans le cour de Henri III. avec la même familiarité que l'on voit dans les colleges: avec la meme modestie, qui se remarque dans les noviciats; et avec la meme charité, du moins en apparence, qui pourroit etre entre des freres parfaitement unis.

75 Rechiesti per bando (says John Villani) senatori di Roma, e 52 del popolo, et capitani de' 25, e consoli (consoli ?) et 13 buone huomini, uno per rione.

square before St. Peter's; the pope of Avignon, John the CHAP. Twenty-second, was deposed; the choice of his successor was LXIX. ratified by their consent and applause. They freely voted for a new law, that their bishop should never be absent more than three months in the year, and two days' journey from the city; and that if he neglected to return on the third summons, the public servant should be degraded and dismissed.74 But Lewis forgot his own debility and the prejudices of the times; beyond the precincts of a German camp, his useless phantom was rejected; the Romans despised their own workmanship; the antipope implored the mercy of his lawful sovereign;75 and the exclusive right of the cardinals was more firmly established by this unseasonable attack.

of the

popes from Rome.

Had the election been always held in the Vatican, the rights Absence of the senate and people would not have been violated with impunity. But the Romans forgot, and were forgotten, in the absence of the successors of Gregory the Seventh, who did not keep as a divine precept their ordinary residence in the city and diocess. The care of that diocess was less important than the government of the universal church; nor could the popes delight in a city in which their authority was always opposed, and their person was often endangered. From the persecution of the emperors, and the wars of Italy, they escaped beyond the Alps into the hospitable bosom of France; from the tumults of Rome they prudently withdrew to live and die in the more tranquil stations of Anagni, Perugia, Viterbo, and the adjacent cities. When the flock was offended or impoverished by the absence of the shepherd, they were recalled by a stern admonition, that St. Peter had fixed his chair, not in an obscure village, but in the capital of the world; by a ferocious menace that the Romans would march in arms to destroy the place and people that should dare to afford them a retreat. They returned with timorous obedience; and were saluted with the account of a heavy debt, of all the losses which their desertion had occasioned, the hire of lodgings, the sale of provisions, and the various expenses of servants and strangers who attended the court.76 After a short interval of peace, and perhaps of authority, they were again banished by

Our knowledge is too imperfect to pronounce, how much of this constitution was temporary, and how much ordinary and permanent. Yet it is faintly illustrated by the ancient statutes of Rome.

74 Villani (l. x. c. 68-71, in Muratori, Script. tom. xiii. p. 641-645,) relates this law, and the whole transaction, with much less abhorrence than the prudent Muratori. Any one conversant with the darker ages, must have observed how much the sense (I mean the nonsense) of superstition is fluctuating and inconsistent.

75 In the first volume of the Popes of Avignon, see the second original Life of John XXII. p. 142-145, the confession of the antipope, p. 145-152, and the laborious notes of Baluze, p. 714, 715.

76 Romani autem non valentes nec volentes ultra suam celare cupiditatem gravissimam contra papam movere cœperunt questionem, exigentes ab eo urgentissime omnia quæ subierant per ejus absentiam daina et jacturas, videlicet

CHAP. new tumults, and again summoned by the imperious or respectLXIX. ful invitation of the senate. In these occasional retreats, the

Boniface

VIIL

-1303.

exiles and fugitives of the Vatican were seldom long, or far, distant, from the metropolis; but in the beginning of the fourteenth century the apostolic throne was transported, as it might seem for ever, from the Tiber to the Rhone; and the cause of the transmigration may be deduced from the furious contest between Boniface the Eighth and the king of France." The spiritual arms of excommunication and interdict were A. D. 1291 repulsed by the union of the three estates, and the privileges of the Gallican church; but the pope was not against the carnal weapons which Philip the Fair had courage to employ. As the pope resided at Anagni, without the suspicion of danger, his palace and person were assaulted by three hundred horse, who had been secretly levied by William of Nogaret, a French minister, and Sciarra Colonna, of a noble but hostile family of Rome. The cardinals fled; the inhabitants of Anagni were seduced from their allegiance and gratitude; but the dauntless Boniface, unarmed and alone, seated himself in his chair, and awaited, like the conscript fathers of old, the swords of the Gauls. Nogaret, a foreign adversary, was content to execute the orders of his master; by the domestic enmity of Colonna, he was insulted with words and blows; and during a confinement of three days his life was threatened by the hardships which they inflicted on the obstinacy which they provoked. Their strange delay gave time and courage to the adherents of the church, who rescued him from sacrilegious violence; but his imperious soul was wounded in a vital part; and Boniface expired at Rome in a frenzy of rage and revenge. His memory is stained with the glaring vices of avarice and pride; nor has the courage of a martyr promoted this ecclesiastical champion to the honours of a saint; a magnanimous sinner (says the chronicles of the times,) who entered like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog. He was succeeded by Benedict the Eleventh, the mildest of mankind. Yet he excommunicated the impious emissaries of Philip, and devoted the city and people of Anagni by a tremendous curse, whose effects are still visible to the eyes of superstition.78

in hospitis locandis, in mercimoniis, in usuris, in reditibus, in provisionibus, et in aliis modis innumerabilibus. Quòd cum audisset papa, præcordialiter ingemuit et se comperiens muscipulatum, &c. Matt. Paris, p. 757. For the ordinary history of the popes, their life and death, their residence and absence, it is enough to refer to the ecclesiastical annalists, Spondanus and Fleury.

77 Besides the general historians of the church of Italy and of France, we possess a valuable treatise composed by a learned friend of Thuanus, which his last and best editors have published in the appendix (Histoire particuliere du grand Differend entre Boniface VIII. et Philippe le Bel, par Pierre du Puis, tom. vii. P. xi. p. 61-82.)

78 It is difficult to know whether Labat (tom. iv. p. 53-57,) be in jest or in

of the holy

Avignon,

After his decease, the tedious and equal suspense of the CHAP. conclave was fixed by the dexterity of the French faction. A LXIX. specious offer was made and accepted, that in the term of forty Translation days, they would elect one of the three candidates who should be named by their opponents. The archbishop of Bourdeaux, see to a furious enemy of his king and country, was the first on the A. D. 1309. list; but his ambition was known; and his conscience obeyed the calls of fortune and the commands of a benefactor, who had been informed by a swift messenger that the choice of a pope was now in his hands. The terms were regulated in a private interview; and with such speed and secrecy was the business transacted, that the unanimous conclave applauded the elevation of Clement the Fifth.79 The cardinals of both

parties were soon astonished by a summons to attend him beyond the Alps; from whence, as they soon discovered, they must never hope to return. He was engaged by promise and affection, to prefer residence in France; and after dragging his court through Poitou and Gascogny, and devouring, by his expense, the cities and convents on the road, he finally reposed at Avignon,80 which flourished above seventy years the seat of the Roman pontiff and the metropolis of Christendom. By land, by sea, by the Rhône, the position of Avignon was on all sides accessible: the southern provinces of France do not yield to Italy itself; new palaces arose for the accommodation of the pope and cardinals; and the arts of luxury were soon attracted by the treasures of the church. They were already possessed of the adjacent territory, the Venaissin county, a populous and fertile spot; and the sovereignty of Avignon

82

carnest, when he supposes that Anagni still feels the weight of this curse, and that the cornfields, or vineyards, or olive trees, are annually blasted by nature, the obsequious handmaid of the popes.

79 See in the Chronicle of Giovanni Villani (1. viii. c. 63, 64. 80. in Muratori, tom. xiii.) the imprisonment of Boniface VIII. and the election of Clement V. the last of which, like most anecdotes, is embarrassed with some difficulties.

80 The original lives of the eight popes of Avignon, Clement V. John XXII. Benedict XII. Ciement VI. Innocent VI. Urban V. Gregory XI. and Clement VII. are published by Stephen Baluze (Vitæ Paparum Avenionensium; Paris, 1693, 2 vols. in quarto) with copious and elaborate notes, and a second volume of acts and documents. With the true zeal of an editor and a patriót, he devoutly justifies or excuses the characters of his countrymen.

81 The exile of Avignon is compared by the Italians with Babylon, and the Babylonish captivity. Such furious metaphors, more suitable to the ardour of Petrarch, than to the judgment of Muratori, are gravely refuted in Baluze's preface. The abbé de Sade is distracted between the love of Petrarch and of his country. Yet he modestly pleads that many of the local inconveniences of Avignon are now removed; and many of the vices against which the poet declaims, had been imported with the Roman court by the strangers of Italy (tom. i. p. 23-28.)

82 The comtat Venaissin was ceded to the popes in 1273 by Philip III. king of France, after he had inherited the dominions of the count of Thoulouse. Forty years before, the heresy of count Raymond had given them a pretence of seizure, and they derived some obscure claim from the eleventh century to some lands citra Rhodanum (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 459. 610. Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 376-381.)