qui patres suos, spiritualem scil. et carnalem, subdola ceperit factione. Iste est, qui praeceptis dominicis in utraque tabula contradicit.'

Döllinger, 1.c. ii. p. 143.

Paul. Bernried, 1.c. n. 108, p. 99.

$4.

The assertion that Gregory's measures had no lasting result of any importance is not proved, because shortly after his reign 'even' saints of the Church like St. Bernard and St. Hildegarde complain of the great corruption that everywhere prevailed, nor because the secular clergy, as well as the older and more recent orders, soon show a great falling off.1 Ascetics and saints are precisely those who, in such a matter, would see most clearly and judge most severely. What would St. Bernard say of the world now? In what terms would St. Hildegarde condemn the tendencies of this age to rationalism and materialism? The moral and religious life of any age can only be judged relatively. Our opponents ought to show that the times after Gregory were not better than those before his pontificate, as St. Peter Damiani,2 for instance, has depicted them; otherwise nothing is proved. The decline was chiefly local, and never simultaneous in all countries, provinces, orders, and societies. A special dispensation of Providence has ever prevented the whole Church from falling at once into lethargy. When this has prevailed in one part, the life of the rest has been all the more active, and has eventually revivified the stricken lands. In the seventh century the Irish Church, in the eighth the English Church, in the ninth the French Church, in the tenth and eleventh centuries the Church of Germany flourished most luxuriantly, and imparted life to the rest.'3 At Clugny discipline, relaxed under Abbot Pontius, was restored by Peter the Venerable; the Carthusians maintained for centuries the rigour of their order and the virtues of their founder ; but these, exercised in secret, were unknown to the world, whilst the crimes of the age were only too apparent. St. Bernard's worthy successors amongst the Cistercians were William of Thierry, Alanus ab Insulis, the Irish Archbishop Malachi, Archbishop Peter of Tarantaise; and the

9

order earned much praise from Alexander III., and worked most beneficially in France for a long time, and in north-east Germany with special success from 1198 to 1220.7 We find at this period many distinguished abbots, for instance, Werner of St. Blaise (died 1126), Lietbert of St. Rufus near Valence (died before 1114); and founders of orders, as St. Norbert, Archbishop of Magdeburg, and others. A temporary decline should not surprise us; it is the fate of all human things. 10 Universities flourish and decay, States and societies have a period of splendour and a period of decadence, and each has many gradations. A learned Englishman, in the middle of the twelfth century, was of opinion that in every religious order there were persons who might compare with the saints of earlier times.11 Chapters of monastic orders, Councils, and Papal decrees, did much at that time towards maintaining and renewing the pristine vigour of these congregations.12 Should no attempt at reform be made because, if established, it may not be lasting? Holy men, who count it a gain to save one soul, would not thus reckon the cost of their labours.

1 Huber, pp. 9, 10.

2 Petr. Dam. 1. iv. Ep. 9, ad Older. Ep. Firm. 1. i. Ep. 15, ad Alex. II. ; 1. ii. Ep. 1, ad Card. Lib. Gomorrhian.

Möhler's Kirchengeschichte, edited by Gams, ii. p. 203.

♦ Wilkens, Peter the Venerable († 1156), Leipzig, 1857.

5 Petrus Vener. 1. ii. Ep. 12, p. 201 seq.; de Miraculis, 1. ii. c. xxviii. p. 943. Joh. Saresb. Polycr. 1. vii. c. xxi. p. 691 seq.: Siquidem Carthusienses quasi avaritiae triumphatores praecipue ubique clarescunt.' Ib. c. xxiii. p. 698, he praises the orders of Grammont with the Carthusians. Peter of Blois, pupil of John, Ep. 62, p. 268 seq. also praises the Carthusians.

• Alex. III. 1165, Ep. 311, p. 336, ed. Migne: 'Inter ceteros religiosos causam Ecclesiae prudentius defenderunt et Catholicam foverunt magnanimiter unitatem et divinis etiam obsequiis noscuntur ferventius inhaerere.' On the monastery of Clairvaux, Ep. 324, p. 349: 'Quam famosum, quam celebre Claravallense monasterium habeatur et in quanta religione quan tave hactenus honestate floruerit, non solum ad vicinorum, sed etiam ad longe positorum notitiam jam pervenit.' Cf. Joh. Saresb. 1.c. c. xxi. : 'Cistercienses B. Benedicti . . . . praecepta et vestigia sectantur ad unguem.' Also Richard of Canterbury (Petrus Bles. Ep. 82, p. 252), Stephen of Tourney (Ep. 1), Philip, Abbot of Bonne Espérance (de Contin. Clericor. c. cxxv.), William of Malmesbury (1. iv. de Gest. Reg. Anglor.).

M. H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, Etudes sur l'état intérieur des

Fr. Winter, Die Cistercienser des

Abbayes Cisterciennes, Paris, 1858. nordöstlichen Deutschlands, Gotha, 1869.

* Migne, PP. Lat. t. clvii. pp. 719 seq. 711. Papebroch, Acta SS. t. i. Jun.

19 Joh. Saresb. Polycr. l.c. c. xxi.

" Ibid. c. xxiii. p. 629.

Cf. Petrus Bles. Ep. 97, p. 305. 12 Cf. Gams in Möhler's Kirchengesch. ii. p. 608 seq.

$ 5.

Obviously I cannot now write a complete Church history; and it is useless to spend more time in making mere assertions. The whole of the twelfth century bears ample testimony to the rich results of St. Gregory VII.'s great struggle. Bitter complaints are raised in these days against the spirit of worldliness that then penetrated the whole Church; but those who make them are neither saints nor ascetics, and their right to complain may well be questioned. We may allow indeed that, in individual cases, the worldly spirit gained admittance, for it is an evil that in all times has had to be contended with. We may even allow that this spirit of worldliness in the Church contributed to the alienation of the Albigenses from Christian principles, although their external and ostensible connection with the East, the fascination always possessed by secret doctrines when artfully spread, and other causes, must not be forgotten; also that the religious condition of the south of France and north of Italy was different from that of any other part of Christendom. The 'Poor of Lyons' did, there is no doubt, originally intend to 'return to the simplicity of the Gospel;' but their view was a mistaken one, and their disobedience and self-assertion soon led them to follow the path traced by other sects. It is not untrue, though not the whole truth, that the great mendicant orders arose from a reaction, not against the Church, 'she having become rich and worldly,' but against the worldliness and luxury of her rulers and members. But, on the other hand, it is true that reform movements within the Church met with lively encouragement and support from the Holy See; that Popes always upheld and recommended voluntary poverty; and that Franciscans and Do

VOL. I.

EE

minicans, even after their first fervour, performed great deeds in instructing the people, undertook most laborious missions to Africa, America, China, Tartary, and the north of Europe, and earned unending gratitude for civilising the nations. No followers of St. Francis were ever branded as heretics for following implicitly the rule of life enjoined by their founder-for the Paulists (Minims), Alcantarists, and Capuchins did this under the protection of the Holy See-but for disobediently preferring visionary fancies to Papal decisions, for being full of separatist pride, and for disseminating actual heresy. The Fraticelli were only a sickly outgrowth from the parent stem. Other complaints, of Rome being always in the foreground, and ecclesiastical order being suffered, in her interest, to fall into decay, are merely repetitions of the current Protestant objec tions, which have been outdone by Janus. We may reasonably ask what ecclesiastical order the Church possessed independent of Rome; an order perchance like that of the various 'Churches without the Papacy,' described with so much learning by Dr. Döllinger in 1861,1 and which, in the circumstances of the Middle Ages, would have been a more chaotic and confused disorder than is well conceivable. We all agree that the 'revival of art and science in the thirteenth century, the imposing display of the power of the Papacy in the Crusades and in the world-ruling policy of Innocent III.,' would be no indemnification for the 'decay of the Christian life, to foster which is the Church's highest duty.' But this decay is far from being proved: it was not greater than in many former centuries, in which, taking them altogether, we might discover as many dark places. Consider the condition of the Frankish kingdom before and during the time of St. Boniface, the condition of Spain at the time of the Moorish invasion, and the disorders of the tenth century. In the Crusades the power of the Papacy was not manifested alone; chivalry was there in all its perfection, and religious enthusiasm in all its strength. The artists and scholars of the thirteenth century contributed as much to the religious life as to art and science, and were amongst the noblest characters that ever lived. The power of the Popes was equally a political necessity and

an instrument in the hands of Providence for planting, propagating, and protecting Christian civilisation.

1 Kirche und Kirchen, p. 156 seq.

2 Huber, p. 13.

§ 6.

In conclusion, we will venture to repeat the words of one of our most eminent theologians.1 'The great exertions of this age' (that of Gregory VII. and St. Anselm) 'had only one profound internal motive; to this unity of object they must all be referred, else they would all and each be without a real signification. But when this one and true spring of action manifested itself, it was under a multiplicity of forms, each of which laid hold of some special force or talent of the human mind; the fulness of time alone completely developed it: this whole, under its many forms, was religious enthusiasm, the renewed yearning after diyine and eternal truths which had been so long stifled in the woes and melancholy errors of the time. The flame of religion struggled for freedom, and in the glow which it diffused the chains that bound the spirit were sundered. The liberty of individuals insures the liberty of the mass; for if the individual is, as he should be, truly an organic member of the body corporate, his fate is deeply and wondrously involved in the destiny of the whole. If the body corporate be a slave, the individual cannot be free; therefore the emancipation of the body corporate is the first necessity, whence arose the struggle for the liberties of the Church known as the struggle about investitures. The Church, purchased and redeemed by the blood of Christ, cannot be the handmaid of the State: this was the watchword of the time. It was no idle comparison, but one full of significance, that identified the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free with freedom from the despotism of the State. In the early days of the struggle Gregory openly took up the first position. To insure effective action, the members must share and participate in the operations of the head; or rather, as the desire of the whole is shown only in the centre, it follows that what showed itself in the head was found and manifested