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Mr. Milman divides his ground into fourteen sections, partitioning them by dates sufficiently important in the eyes of a student of these things. But the general reader is most content with a simpler partition, which gives him a few large outlines and conspicuous points of rest. So, having cloven his thousand years midway, somewhere about the middle of the eleventh century, we shall proceed to divide the five remaining centuries before the Reformation into two periods nearly equal, - that of the glory of the Papacy, and that of its decline. Of these, the former - from the middle of the eleventh to the end of the thirteenth century - is marked, at the beginning, middle, and end, by three eminent names, - Gregory VII., Innocent III., and Boniface VIII., - one marking the rise of papal supremacy, another its highest power and glory, and the last its most extravagant pretensions. With the latter date begins the reaction, and the long decline, lasting more than two centuries, to the Reformation. In so large a field, the eye naturally seeks for points of prominence and rest. Instead, therefore, of attempting to trace the author's course in detail, we shall dwell a little on the topics of special interest associated with those three memorable names.

The vision of the Church as a Christian empire, or organized spiritual power, independent and supreme among the powers of the world, might have remained an empty vision or an impotent wish but for the indomitable will of one man, Gregory VII., the greatest of the Popes, whose reign began A. D. 1073. For five-and-twenty years, under the name of the monk Hildebrand, he had been the ruling spirit at Rome. In his remote convent in France, he had long brooded in secret over the vassalage and corruption of the Church, until his vision had become a fervid and imperious faith, which no delay, defcat, or resistance could ever conquer. By his courageous counsel, Leo IX. had refused to accept the papal office as the Emperor's gift; and when, in town and village, men looked for the pompous procession that should accompany him to Rome, they saw only two monks journeying barefoot, - the new Pope elect, and the strong-hearted Hildebrand, his counsellor. Not till the authority of the Church had sanctioned the choice would Leo assume the robes or style of office. A new spirit of energy and force was breathed through the policy of the papal court. At every fresh proof of bold and sagacious counsel, men said, "It is Hildebrand, the lord of our lord the Pope." For five-and-twenty years, under Leo, Victor, Stephen, Nicolas, and Alexander, Hildebrand now held the reins of power. When, at Alexander's death, the people, with one voice, cried that none but he should sit in St. Peter's chair, he shrank a while, in seeming, perhaps real, awe of the high responsibility; then for eleven years so firmly, proudly, and powerfully he bore it, that the Church feels the pressure of his hand to this day.

The task of Hildebrand was to secure, first, the entire independence of the Church on any human power; and, secondly, the absolute devotion of its priesthood. On these two, and his sense of the imperative need of them, hinge the characteristics of his rule, - his uncompromising severity, his subtile and double-dealing policy, his implacable cruelty at need, his deference to the strong, his vindictive arrogance to the defeated and weak. We shall understand him best, and judge him most fairly, if we see his work from his own point of view, not ours. If the visible Church is verily God's kingdom upon earth, it must assert its divine supremacy over all human law, and its claim to execute the Divine justice upon its adversaries.

The immediate peril as well as the chief scandal of the Church lay in the corruption of the clergy. Many, of the higher orders, were mere feudal chiefs and barons, - fighting, tyrannizing, hunting, revelling, after the type of those halfbarbaric chiefs. The priesthood had become a refuge for landless lords and younger sons. It was a rank in the state, a rank rapidly growing into a caste, more hateful and tyrannous than the priestly caste of Hindostan. A bishopric would descend by birthright to the eldest son; a church would be given as dowry with a portionless daughter. Ecclesiastical dignities were openly bought and sold. A child of five or six years would be installed into the sacred office, and, "stammering two words of his Catechism" for response, be invested with the charge of souls; while, in the lower orders, the ignorance was such that many a priest would "scarce know A from B."* This great scandal and danger, the degrading and secularizing of the clergy, its tendency to become a rude, feudal, despotic caste, severed from the life and central authority of the Church, and hopelessly unfit for its sacred function, - this was the evil which Gregory would meet; and at all cost and hazard he would strike at its very root.

That root, as with deep sagacity he saw, was close entangled with a married and hereditary priesthood. Against this he declared unrelenting war. It was his hardest battle, - one so implacably waged, that, when an abbot had torn out the eyes and tongues of certain non-conforming priests, Gregory upheld and approved and promoted him for it. From a very early time, spite of St. Peter's example and St. Paul's advice, the marriage of priests had been held a scandal; at best an indulgence, needing special penance or dispensation, and in the more popular view a crime, to be forbidden altogether. In England and Germany alone the people's good sense and domestic feeling gave another turn, and the best of the humbler clergy at least were married men. The monk Hildebrand shared in the general ascetic notion. The Pope Gregory saw the policy of attaching the clergy solely and absolutely to the Church. For them there must be no interest, no affection, no human tie or duty, but what they should find in that. True, it was waging war with the most powerful motives of human nature; but what should the monk, who held all austerities acceptable service, know of that? True, wherever the experiment was tried, and as long as the experiment was tried, it led to horrible scandals, and sins such as may not be even named. What was that to the Pope, strong in his conviction that he could put down all irregularity, - at any rate pardon it, - and who saw the strict need of making the clergy a body of partisans, immoral perhaps, fanatic or sceptic, worldly or devout, cunning or mystical, as the case might be, but at any rate thorough-going partisans, the more unscrupulous the better, - mere limbs of the one organization, tools to be handled by the one executive will? He saw that family ties, like feudal ties, would diminish so much from blind allegiance

* See Gieseler.

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to the Church. Therefore there must be no property, to be turned to a family estate; the Church alone should possess anything. There must be no wife or children; or, if affection owned such ties, policy must disown them; if they could not be denied, they should be at any rate dishonored; under a ban of ignominy, they should not stand in the way of that perfect service the Church required.

The struggle shook the local churches to their centre. Many of the clergy preferred to resign their charges rather than forsake wife and child. Let the Pope, said they, find angels instead of men. "The Lord's flock," says a contemporary, " is wretchedly scattered, the shepherds themselves setting on the wolves. The people cruelly use their license to insult the clergy. Wherever they go, they meet outcries, pointing of fingers, and blows. Some flee away, destitute and poor. Some are mutilated of their limbs, some put to death by lingering tortures. The Church's mysteries are spurned, children deprived of baptism, and sinners of confession. The Lord's body is trodden under foot, and the Lord's blood poured out wantonly; while many false and profane teachers vex the Church." Bitter was the struggle, frightful the scandal and cruelty, shocking the corruption and levity, caused by this remorseless policy throughout the entire Middle Age; yet there has been no yielding, to this day. And though the worst immoralities were openly connived at, though wars were fought and fortunes squandered by certain of the Popes themselves, for their own offspring, yet of the innumerable army of the Church's servants, not the humblest pastor, not the loneliest missionary, may cherish one thought of home, or know the dearest human ties. All must be sacrificed to that inexorable vow whose burden has bent down many a galled heart to bitterness and despair.

The next great struggle of Gregory is known as the Controversy of Investitures, - that is, the right of temporal princes to invest with sacred orders, - a battle, though begun and heroically waged by him, not finally decided till long after he was dead. As his open challenge to all princes and potentates of the earth, he declared the clergy wholly free from feudal obligation, and responsible to the Pope alone. Not a bishop might be appointed but by him; and at the papal summons the prelate of England or Germany must come to receive his robes of office in Rome. If any should disobey, " their blessing should turn to cursing, and their prayers to sin." On the feudal model, St. Peter was regarded as a lord paramount, or suzerain, holding of his own right the kingdoms of the earth in fee. In his name the Pope might depose emperors and kings, and all princes should kiss his feet. Of which doctrine St. Bernard said, "I dread for you neither poison nor sword more than the lust of domination."

A battle as long and a victory as doubtful now awaited Gregory in his conflict with the Empire. Henry IV. of Germany was a mere child six years old, when his powerful father's death left him heir of the Roman Cæsars, and nominal sovereign of all Central Europe. He had grown up through a wayward, indulged, and intemperate boyhood, and was a young man of twenty-three at Gregory's accession. With his imperial succession the Emperor claimed to inherit the imperial right to nominate, or at least confirm, all officers of the Church; and the example set by the sovereign was duly followed by prince, duke, and knight. The violence of Henry in his secular rule had already driven the country to rebellion and civil war. Saxon peasants had torn his favorite castle to the ground; a mob in Cologne had driven its insolent bishop away in terror of his life; and Henry swore (it is said) that he would yet ride his rebellious subjects with boot and spur. Here, if anywhere, was a case for the spiritual power to interfere in the name of God. The Pope sided with the people; summoned the proud Emperor to his judgment-seat at Rome; threatened at his refusal to "cut him off as a rotten limb," and passed on him the terrible ban of excommunication. The double terror of the people's rage and the Church's curse at length broke down the passionate pride of Henry. Humbled and helpless, he crossed the Alps at mid-winter, groping among the bleak precipices and glaciers, the peasants passing him in a rude sledge of hides down those dreadful slopes, and went to supplicate mercy and pardon of Gregory, at the mountain castle of Canossa. "Here," in the words of Gregory's own account, "he came with few attendants, and for three days before the

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