Page images
PDF
EPUB

death of the Latin party, and the formal revocation of the act of submission to the pope.

The Council at Ferrara-Florence.

A. D. 1438-1439.1

Another attempt at reunion was made by John VII. Palæologus in the Council of Ferrara, which was convened by Pope Eugenius IV. in opposition to the reformatory Council of Basle. It was afterwards transferred to Florence on account of the plague. It was attended by the emperor, the patriarch of Constantinople, and twenty-one Eastern prelates, among them the learned Bessarion of Nicæa, Mark of Ephesus, Dionysius of Sardis, Isidor of Kieff. The chief points of controversy were discussed: the procession of the Spirit, purgatory, the use of unleavened bread, and the supremacy of the pope.2 Bessarion became a convert to the Western doctrine, and was rewarded by a cardinal's hat. He was twice near being elected pope (d. 1472). The decree of the council, published July 6, 1439, embodies his views, and was a complete surrender to the pope with scarcely a saving clause for the canonical rights and privileges of the Eastern patriarchs. The Greek formula on the procession, ex Patre per Filium, was declared to be identical with the Latin Filioque; the pope was acknowledged not only as the successor of Peter and Vicar of Christ, but also as "the head of the whole church and father and teacher of all Christians," but with variations in the Greek texts.3 The document of reunion was signed by the pope, the emperor, many archbishops and bishops, the representatives of all the Eastern

1 See Cecconi (R. C.), Studi storici sul Concilio di Firenze (Florence 1869); Hefele (R. C.), Conciliengesch. vol. VII. Pt. II. (1874), p. 659–761; B. Popoff (Gr.), History of the Council of Florence, translated from the Russian, ed. by J. M. Neale (Lond. 1861); Frommann (Prot.), Krit. Beiträge zur Gesch. der florentin. Kirchenvereinigung (Halle, 1872).

2 On the subject of purgatory the Greeks disagreed among themselves. The doctrine of transubstantiation was conceded, and therefore not brought under discussion.

3 Hefele (l. c. p. 741-761) gives the Latin and Greek texts with a critical discussion. Frommann and Döllinger charge the decree with falsification.

patriarchs except that of Constantinople, who had previously died at Florence, but had left as his last sentence a disputed submission to the catholic and apostolic church of old Rome. For the triumph of his cause the pope could easily promise material aid to his Eastern ally, to pay the expenses of the deputation, to support three hundred soldiers for the protection of Constantinople, and to send, if necessary, an army and navy for the defense of the emperor against his enemies.

But when the humiliating terms of the reunion were divulged, the East and Russia rose in rebellion against the Latinizers as traitors to the orthodox faith; the compliant patriarchs openly recanted, and the new patriarch of Constantinople, Metrophanes, now called in derision Metrophonus or Matricide, was forced to resign.

After the Fall of Constantinople.

The capture of Constantinople by the Mohammedan Turks (1453) and the overthrow of the Byzantine empire put an end to all political schemes of reunion, but opened the way for papal propagandism in the East. The division of the church facilitated that catastrophe which delivered the fairest lands to the blasting influence of Islâm, and keeps it in power to this day, although it is slowly waning. The Turk has no objection to fights among the despised Christians, provided they only injure themselves and do not touch the Koran. He is tolerant from intolerance. The Greeks hate the pope and the Filioque as much as they hate the false prophet of Mecca; while the pope loves his own power more than the common cause of Christianity, and would rather see the Sultan rule in the city of Constantine than a rival patriarch or the Czar of schismatic Russia.

During the nineteenth century the schism has been intensified by the creation of two new dogmas,-the immaculate conception of Mary (1854) and the infallibility of the pope (1870). When Pius IX. invited the Eastern patriarchs to attend the Vatican Council, they indignantly refused, and renewed their old pro

test against the antichristian usurpation of the papacy and the heretical Filioque. They could not submit to the Vatican decrees without stultifying their whole history and committing moral suicide. Papal absolutism' and Eastern stagnation are insuperable barriers to the reunion of the divided churches, which can only be brought about by great events and by the wonder-working power of the Spirit of God.

1 Or, as the modern Greeks call it, the papolatria of the Latins.

CHAPTER VI.

MORALS AND RELIGION.

§ 73. Literature.

I. The chief and almost only sources for this chapter are the acts of Synods, the lives of saints and missionaries, and the chronicles of monasteries. The Acta Sanctorum mix facts and legends in inextricable confusion. The most important are the biographies of the Irish, Scotch, and Anglo-Saxon missionaries, and the letters of Boniface. For the history of France during the sixth and seventh centuries we have the Historia Francorum by GREGORY OF Tours, the Herodotus of France (d. 594), first printed in Paris, 1511, better by Ruinart, 1699; best by Giesebrecht (in German), Berlin 1851, 9th ed. 1873, 2 vols.; and Gregorii Historia Epitomata by his continuator, FREDEGAR, a clergyman of Burgundy (d. about 660), ed. by Ruinart, Paris 1699, and by Abel (in German), Berlin 1849. For the age of Charlemagne we have the Capitularies of the emperor, and the historical works of EINHARD or EGINARD (d. 840). See Ouvres complètes d' EGINARD, réunies pour la première fois et traduites en français, par A. Teulet, Paris 1840-'43, 2 vols. For an estimate of these and other writers of our period comp. part of the first, and the second vol. of AD. EBERT's Allgem. Gesch. der Lit. des Mittelalters im Abendlande, Leipz. 1874 and 1880.

II. HEFELE: Conciliengesch. vols. III. and IV. (from A. D. 560-1073), revised ed. 1877 and 1879.

NEANDER: Denkwürdigkeiten aus der Geschichte des christl. Lebens. 3d ed. Hamburg, 1845, '46, 2 vols.

AUG. THIERRY: Recits des temps merovingiens. Paris 1855 (based on Gregory of Tours).

LOEBELL: Gregor von Tours und seine Zeit. Leipz. 1839, second ed. 1868.

MONOD: Études critiques sur les sources de l'histoire mérovingienne.

Paris 1872.

LECKY: History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne, fifth ed. Lond. 1882, 2 vols. (part of the second vol.). BRACE: Gesta Christi, N. York, third ed. 1883, p. 107 sqq.

Comp. GUIZOT (Protest., d. 1874): Histoire générale de la civilisation

en Europe et en France depuis la chute de l'empire romain jusqu'à la révolution française, Paris 1830; seventh ed. 1860, 5 vols. (one vol. on Europe in general).

BALMEZ, (a Spanish philosopher and apologist of the Roman church, d. 1848): El Protestantismo comparado con el Catolicismo en sus relaciones con la civilisacion europea. Barcelona, 1842-44, 4 vols. The same in French, German, and English translations. A Roman Catholic counterpart to Guizot.

§ 74. General Character of Medieval Morals.

THE middle age of Western Christendom resembles the period of the Judges in the history of Israel when "the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through by-ways," and when "every man did that which was right in his own eyes."1 It was a time of civil and political commotions and upheavings, of domestic wars and foreign invasions. Society was in a chaotic state and bordering on the brink of anarchy. Might was right. It was the golden age of border-ruffians, filibusters, pirates and bold adventurers, but also of gallant knights, genuine heroes and judges, like Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, and Samuel of old. It presents, in striking contrasts, Christian virtues and heathen vices, ascetic self-denial and gross sensuality. Nor were there wanting idyllic episodes of domestic virtue and happiness which call to mind the charming story of Ruth from the period of the Judges.

Upon the whole the people were more religious than moral. Piety was often made a substitute or atonement for virtue. Belief in the supernatural and miraculous was universal; scepticism and unbelief were almost unknown. Men feared purgatory and hell, and made great sacrifices to gain heaven by founding churches, convents, and charitable institutions. And yet there was a frightful amount of immorality among the rulers and the people. In the East the church had to contend with the vices of an effete civilization and a corrupt court. In Italy, France and Spain the old Roman vices continued and

1 Comp. Judges 5: 6; 17: 6.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »