Chronological History of Popes Intolerable Usurpations
Hermannus Rex Nativitatem Domini Gostare celebravit, ad quem praefatus Ostiensis Episcopus post Epiphaniam pervenit in Saxoniam, & Colloquio interfuit, quod Saxons contra Heinrici fautores condixerunt, ut hoc illis probarent, se jure Henricum vitare ut excommunicatum: Quod & facto colloquio decimo quinto die post Epiphaniam, fir •• ssime probaverunt, ea videlicet ration, quia Romanus Pontifex illum eis a se in Romano Synodo anathemizatum, literis denunciavit. Adversarii autem eis objecerunt; quod Papa cum nequiverit excommunicare, eo quod expoliatus non potuerit vocari, judicari sive damnari. Ad hoc Saxons responderunt; Se judicium sedis Apostolicae nec debere retractare, nec posse; hoc cum illo potius tractandum, qui illum damnaverit, non cum Saronibus, quod damnationi ejus non interfuerint, qui sedis Apostolicae judicio nullam retractationem sed obedientiam debuerint. Ita ergo soluto colloquio 〈…〉 .
Eo tempore Hildesheime •• s Episcopus cum suis sequacibus manus Saxonum vix evasit, eo quod contra commune votum totius Saxoniae Henricianis se admiscuerit. Pro eadem etiam culpa Comes Theodoricus eodem tempore occisus est a nostrae partis fautoribus. Praeratus quoque sedis Apostolicae Legatus praedicto Episcopo, cum nollec 〈◊〉 , officium penitus interdixit. Hermannus Rex in Quintilineburg Pascha celebravit, ubi & Legatus Domini Apostolici in ipsa Pascha • hebdomada Generalem Synodum cum Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, & Abbatibus sancti Petri fidelibus, solenniter celebravit. Interfuit autem huic Synodo Gebehardus Reverendissimus Juvaniensis Archiepiscopus; Item Venerabilis Hartungus Magideburgensis Archiepiscopus, cum Suffraganeis. Item Suffraganei Moguntiae sedis de Saxonia, nam Wurceburgensis et Wormatiensis, Augustus quoque, & Constantiensis de Alemannia, quique ipsi Canonica necessitate impediti venire non potuerunt, per legationem suam se sancto Concilio repraesentaverunt, seque per omnia ejusdem Synodi statutis assensuros, mandaverunt. Rex etiam Hermannus cum suis Principibus eidem Synodo interfuit. Cum ergo omnes juxta ordinem suum consedissent, prolata sunt in medium Decreta Sanctorum Patrum de primatu sedis Apostolicae; (to wit, of Pope Hildebrand, and some others of his Gang) quod nulli unquam liceat ejus judicium retrectare, et de ejus judicio judicare. Quod de totius Synodi publica profession laudatum, & confirmatum est: et hoc utique contra Heinricianos qui fideles Sancti Petri constringere voluerunt, ut excommunicationem Domini Papae Gregorii super Heinricum, cum illis retrectare praesumerent. Quidam autem Babenbergensis Clericus, nomine Gunibertus, Romani Pontificis primati: derogare volens, in mediam Synodum se contulit, asserens, Romanos Pontifices hunc sibi primatum ascripsisse, non aliunde concessum haereditasse, videlicet, nullus de eorum judicio judicare debeat, nec illi alicujus judicio subjaceant. Qui cum aperte a tota Synodo confutaretur, praecipue tamen a quodam Laico convictus est per illud Evangelicum, Non est discipulus supra Magistrum; Cum enim hoc generaliter in omnibus Ecclesiasticis ordinibus, observandum deputetur, ne major a minore judicetur, quis hoc Vicario Sancti Petri denegare potuit, quem omnes Catholici pro Domino & Magistro venerantur? (though Christ never made nor owned the Pope for his Vicar, never excommunicated any Emperor, King, but submitted to their powers, and censures too, as this Pope ought to do, not being above his Lord, by this very objected Text) In eadem Synodo, ordinatio Wecilonis, Moguntini invasoris, & Sigefridi Augustensis, & Notberti Curiensis imo omnes ordinationes & consecrationes excommunicatorum, penitus irritae judicatae sunt, juxta decreta Sanctorum Patrum Innocentii, Leonis primi, Pelagii, atque ejus successoris Gregorii 1. Item Secta praedicti Wecilonis ejusque sociorum, sub anathemate damnata est, quae asserit, seculares suis rebus expoliatos Ecclesiastico non subjacere judicio, nec excommunicari posse, pro suis excessibus; quaeque excommunicatos absque reconciliatione recipi posse contendit. Statutum est autem ibi, ut quicunque ab Episcopo suo, nec officio nec communion privato, excommunicatus esset, etsi unjust, nullatenus tamen reciperetur ad communionem, nisi absolutus Ecclesiastico more. Similiter & pro Sacrilegio excommunicatos, decrevit sancta Synodus non recipiendos, absque solita reconciliatione, & nisi dudum, quae sacrilege sibi vendicaverant, reddidissent, &c. In fine autem Synodi sententia anathematis, cum ardentibus candelis promulgata est, in Guibertum Haeresiarcham, sedis Apostolicae pervasorem, et in Apostatas sancti Petri, Hugonem Aibanensem, Joannem Portuensem Exepiscopos, Petrum Excancellarium, Item in Leomarem Bremensem, Utonem Hildineshe • mensem, Ottonem Constantiensem, Burchardum Basiliensem, Huzmannum Spirensem Exepiscopos, Item in Wecilonem Moguntinum invasorem, Sigefridum Augustensem, Nortbertum Curiensem, in hos inquam, & in omnes eorum Complices, inevitabilis sententia anathematis promulgata est; only for their loyalty and obedience to Henry their lawful King.
Anno 1085. Synodus Moguntiae habetur, cui interfuit Imperator, ubi praesentibus Legatis Romanis, (to wit, of Pope Clements party) omnes Episcopy rebels Imperatori, deponendi judicantur; caeteri vero anathemate, ut videbatur, condemnantur. Ibi etiam communi consilio constituta est Pax Dei: Non multo post substitutis ab Imperatore per parochias abdicatorum Praesulibus. In locum Aldeberonis, Mainharans, Werciburgensis, Ecclesiae Praesul ordinatur, the Emperor still retaining his ancient right of Investitures. Bertoldus Constantiensis, of the Hildebrandian faction, thus relates and traduceth this Synods proceedings. Sed hi omnes adversarii Ecclesiae Dei, in tertia hebdomada, post finitam Synodum, suam Moguntiae collegerunt, non Synodum, sed Conciliabulum, in quo umbratilem sententiam excommunicationis, contra fideles Sancti Petri deprompserunt, utpote ne quaquam illos excommunicare valentes, sed apertissime seipsos a communion Catholicorum sequestrantes, ut non tantum judicio sanctae Ecclesiae, sed et proprio eorum judicio, sicut omnes haeretici, a Catholicis essent separati. Sedes quoque Catholicorum Episcoporum viventium, temeraria cupiditate caecati, sibi vendicare non timuerunt.
Deus autem omnipotence suis fidelibus per seipsum auxiliari non cessavit, suumque judicium super inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae mirabiliter exercuit. Nam totam pene Italiam, in qua potissimum furebant, tam magni fames obtinuit, ut homines non tantum immunda quaeque, sed etiam humanam carnem manducarent. Quam famem maudita mortalitas subsequuta est, ut nec tertia pars hominum remaneret, sed deficiente Colono, maxima pars terrae in solitudinem redacta est. Padus quoque fluvius Lo • gobardiae, ripas suas excedens, multa castella, villas, imo circajacentes regiones penitus submersit, & inhabitabiles reddidit; Ipsa etiam Capita schismaticorum eo tempore, heu misere abiere in locum suum, videlicet Parmensis, & Rhegiensis Episcopy; Thedaldus Mediolanensis non Archiepiscopus, sed Antichristus, Adalbertus & Reginherus Marchiones, & Comes Boso, & alii innumerabiles, quorum factione tota pene Italia contra Dominum Papam, & Sanctum Petrum se erexit. Hi quoque Mathildam (Hildebrands Mistress) prudentissimam ducem & fidelissimam Sancti Petri Militem multis injuriis af • ecerunt in Italia. Illis autem divina animadversione de medio sublatis, ipsa suam potestatem recuperavit, et Sanctae Dei Ecclesiae in omnibus adminiculari non cessavit, sicque ejus prudentia Mutinensi Ecclesiae & Regiensi atque Pistorensi Catholici Pastores ordinati sunt, by mere force and usurpation.
I have presented you with this large relation, how these two Popes Hildebrand and Clement, the Hildebrandian & Imperial Councils, Bishops, parties, excommunicated, execrated, deposed, slaughtered one the other, condemning each others Doctrines, practices, Decrees as schismatical and haeretical: whose judgments, because they may seem partial in their own cases, I shall acquaint you with the resolutions of two Greek Fathers, living if not during, yet very few years before Hildebrands antimonarchical Innovations and Positions. The 1. of them is Oecumenius, or whoever else was the Collector of Enarrationes in omnes Pauli Epistolas, attributed to him: The 2d. Theophylactus Bulgariorum Archiep. who in their Enarrationes in Epist. ad Roman. c. 13. v. 1, 2, 3, (written about the years 1050, & 1075. seem professedly to oppugn both his doctrine and practices; Both their Expositions of St Paul's Text are the same in sense, if not in syllables, with little or no variation: Omnis anima Potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit, &c.] Postquam abunde paravit mores auditorum, eosque docuit, ut hostibus essent benigni; hanc etiam subjungit admonitionem; erudiens & instruens omnem animam, sive Sacerdos sit quispiam, sive Monachus, sive Apostolus, (and Hildebrand was or would be reputed all three) ut Magistratibus (or Principatibus as Theophylacts translator renders it) subdantur. Nam haec subjectio non evertit, (or invertit) pietatem. Admonet autem hoc Apostolus, ostendens; Quod Evangelium non doceat defectionem, vel inobedientiam aut contumaciam, sed benevolentiam magis, ac obedientiam. Magnam ubique capitis hujus rationem habet, ostendens, non ad subversionem communis disciplinae Christi leges esse; quumque sufficientes sint, veritatis causa bellum in Nos gerant; quid, inquit, necesse est nobis ipsis superfluos procurare adversarios? Non est potestas nisi a Deo. Principatus enim esse, & hunc quidem gubernare, alium vero gubernari, nec omnia sursum ac deorsum ferri, divinae sapientiae opus esse dico, &c. Omnes ergo potestates a Deo ordinatae sive factae sunt, quamcunque consideraveris; sive patris erga filium, sive viri erga uxorem, sive alias omnes, etiam quae in animalibus sint, puta apibus, grubus ac piscibus. Ita{que} quisquis resistit potestati, Dei ordinatiom resistit. Ne abjecti viderentur Christi servi, si Principibus subjicientur, ostendit, quod parere oporteat, et non inobedientes esse Principibus; nam qui hoc facit, Deo resistit; qui Principatus constituit, &c. Enforcing all St. Paul's reasons to this purpose, formerly pressed by others in and from this Text; which no Hildebrandian shifts could ever yet elude, or enervate, especially being written to all the Saints, Church, Priests, Bishops of Rome itself, even whiles under Pagan Emperors, Princes, Senators, who ought to pay as ample subjection, obedience in all succeeding Generations to their Christian Emperors, as Paul, Peter themselves, and all Saints, Bishops, Priests of Rome in their age, actually did, and are here precisely enjoined to render to the very worst of their Pagan Caesar's.
Besides Annas Comnenas, an ancient Greek Historian, writes thus ironically of Hildebrands seditious practices; Iste vero execrandus Papa, cum spirituali gratia, & Evangelica pace tota manu ac mente, princeps a • bellum civile progreditur, ill nimirum pacificus atque Pacifici discipulus; ad Saxonum enim mittens Duces, ac tum alias multas eis conditions offerens, tum etiam se facturum eos Reges occidentis promittens, ita ad se viros allicit; usque adeo facilem ac promptam habuit ill dextram ad ordinationem Regum: against St. Paul's and Peters forecited precepts, and presidents.
Neither did the Emperor Henry alone in that age exercise Dominion over his Bishops, but the French, Scottish, English Kings then did the like, (as I shall evidence in its proper place) but the Kings of Poland too, though one of them then exceeded the bounds of Justice and Christianity. For Stanis • aus Sciepanovius, Bishop of Cracovia in Poland, in the year 1079. during Hildebrands Papacy, cum pro officio Regem Bolislauum amicis primum, post vero acerbioribus monitis admoneret verbis, ut saevitiam, expilationes, adulteria, luxum, et in rebus administrandis socordiam et ignaviam exueret, tandem cum frustra saepius monuisset, anathematis vinculo eum astrinxit. Whereupon, tulit haec justo aegrius Rex, & capta occasion, Episcopum in Templo magna immanitate obtruncavit, discerptasque corporis portiones foras canibus vescendas objecit, Octavo nonas Maii, Anno Dom. 1079. on which Gaguinus thus descants:
St. Briget of Sweden (canonized for a Saint by the Bulls of Pope Boniface the 9. and Martin the 5th. prefixed to her Revelations, l. 1. c. 41. printed Nurembergi 1521. brings in Jesus Christ himself thus complaining of 5. sorts of men, quia multipliciter offendunt me, the first whereof is the Pope, (what Pope it was she intended, I cannot certainly define, unless it was this Hildebrand) of whom Christ there thus complained; Nunc ego conquerror super te, Cap • t Ecclesiae meae, qui sedes in se • emea, quam Petro & successoribus ejus tradidi ad sedendum in ea, triplici dignitate ac authoritate. Primo, ut potestatem haberent ligandi animas, & solvendi a peccato, Secundo, ut aperirent coelum poenitentibus. Tertio, ut clauderent coelum maledictis & contemnentibus. Sed tu qui deberes solvere animas, & ad me praesentare, tu vere es animarum interfector. Ego eum institui (Petrum) pa •• orem & servatorem ovium mearum, Tu autem es dispersor et lacerator earum. Tu autem pejor es Lucifero. Ipse enim habebat ad me invidiam, & nullum concupivit occidere nisi me, ut pro me dominaretur. Tu autem tanto deteriores, quod non solum occides me, removendo me a te per mala opera tua, sed et animas occides per malum exemplum tuum. Ego redemi animas sanguine meo, & commisi ease tibi tanquam amico fideli. Tu autem tradis ease iterato inimico, a quo redemi ease. Tu es injustior Pilato, qui nullum judicabat ad mortem nisi me: Tu autem non solum judicas me quasi nullius Dominatorem, et nullius boni dignum, imo et animas innocents condemnas, et nocentes dimittis. Tu es immititor Judah, qui me solum ven ••• dit, Tu autem non solum vendis me, sed et animas electorum meorum, pro turpi lucro tuo et vano nomine. Tu es abhominabilior Iudaeis: Ipsi crucifixerunt corpus meum solum; Tu autem crucifigis et punis animas electorum meorum, quibus malicia tua et transgressio amarior est omni gladio. Et ideo, quia tu similis es Lucifero, injustior Pilato, immitior Judah, abhominabilior Iudaeis, ideo merito conqueror super te. After which she there brings in Christ himself, by S. Peters advice, passing this sentence against the Pope; Haec autem est vera justitia, ut primus qui sedet in seed tua, et opera habet Luciferi, amittat cum contemptu sedem in qua praesumpsit sedere (as Luciferian Pope Hildebrand did) et particeps sit poena Luciferi: Then she introduceth Christ himself swearing thrice by God the Father, his own body, and the holy Ghost, quod faciam justitiam super hos: and passing this memorable Judgment upon the Pope, his Ministers, Members, Vicars, adhering to him, Gladius meae severitatis in corpus tuum intrabit, qui a superiori capitis ingredietur, et sic profunde et valenter infigetur, ut nunquam extrahatur. Sedes tua mergetur quasi lapis ponderosus, qui non subsistat antequam venerit in novissimum profun • i: Digiti, id est, assessores, ardebunt igni sulphureo et inextinguibili: Brachia tua, id est Vicarii, ad animarum profectum extendi deberent; sed extenduntur ad utilitatem mundi et honorem; judicabuntur poena quam dicit David; Piant filii ejus orphani, & uxor ejus vidua, & alieni recipiant substantiam ejus: Quae est uxor ejus nisi anima? quae relinquetur a gloria coelesti, et erit vidua Deo. Filii ejus, id est virtutes quas habere videbatur, & simplices mei qui sub ipsis erant, separabuntur ab eis, & dignitas eorum & bona ad alios devolventur; et ipsi pro dignitate aeternam confusionem haereditabunt. Deinde ornatus Capitis eorum demergetur in lutum inferni, a quo nunquam consurgent: Vt sicut hic per honorem et superbiam super alios ascenderunt, sic in inferno prae aliis demergentur ita profunde, ut impossible sit eis resurgere. Let all proud Popes chew the cud upon it.
Having thus presented you with Hildebrands Antichristian practices in his life; hear Benno Cardinalis, & Sigebertus Gemblacenfis both living in that age, Anno 1085. Mat. Paris Historiae Angl. Anno Domini 1084, 1086. Vincentius Speculum Hist. l. 36. c. 82. Floreutius Wigorniensis Anno 1106. Antonin, Chron. Tit. 16. cap. 1. sect. 21. Magnum Chronicon Belgicum, p. 124. Dr. Barns, Balaeus, and others in Vita Greg. 7 Cent: Magd. 11. c. 8. 10. Chronicon Joannis Brompto • , col. 978. Henricus de Knyghton de Eventibus Angliae, l. 2. c. 3. Lambertus Schafnaburgensis Histor. Anno 1074. &c. Cuspinian in Henrico 4. learned Philip de Morney, Dr. Crakenthorp, Bishop Usher, Dr. Beard, Bishop Downham, Dr. Squir •• , with sundry others out of them, who give us this account of Hildebrands last words, repentance, absolution of the Emperor and all others Excommunications at his death. Hildebrandus Papa, qui & Gregorius VII. apud Salernium exulans moritur. Volumus vos scire, qui Ecclesiasticae curae solliciti estis; quia Dominus Apostolicus Hildebrandus, qui et Gregorius, nunc in extremis positus, ad se vocavit unum de xii. Cardinalibus quem prae caeteris diligebat, et confessus est, Deo et Sancto Petro, et toti Ecclesiae, se valde peccasse in Pastorali cura, quae ei ad regendum erat commissa, seque suadente Diabolo, contra humanum genus iram Dei et odium concitasse. Postea vero sententiam quae in orbe terrarum effusa est, pro augmento Christianitatis revocasse, dicebat. Tunc demum misit praedictum Confessorem suum ad Imperatorem, et ad totam Ecclesiam, ut opraret ei indulgentiam, quia finem vitae suae aspiciebat; et jam cito induturus erat angelicam vestem: et dimisit et dissolvit vincula omnium bannorum suorum Imperatori et omni populo Christiano, vivis et defunctis, Laicis et Clericis, et jussit suos abire de domo Theodorici, et amicos Imperatoris ascendere.
I have more largely related this History of Pope Hildebrands Antimonarchical, as well as Antichristian proceedings, upon these considerations: 1. Because he was the first visible founder, erecter of that Antichristian Papal Sovereignty & Tyranny, which his ambitious Successors have since presumed to claim, exercise over Christian Emperors, Kings, Kingdoms, Churches, Prelates: The first who attempted to excommunicate, depose, interdict the Roman Emperors, give their Crowns, Kingdoms to others; to absolve all their subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance to them, and excite Subjects to rebel and take up arms against their rightful Kings, to dethrone them, for not obeying their Papal Decrees. 2ly. Because he was the chief contriver (before & after his intrusion into Peters pretended Chair) how to deprive the Roman Emperors of their ancient hereditary Sovereign Ecclesiastical right of electing, ratifying, investing, confirming Popes, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops; and to defraud, robb all other Christian Kings, Princes, Nobles, Lay-Patrons of their Patronages, Presentations, Collations to Bishoprics, Benefices, or any other Ecclesiastical dignities, under the false pretext of Simony, Heresy, Sacrilege, Idolatry, wherewith he branded it, on purpose to monopolize the sale and disposal of them to himself and his Successors, to make all Bishops, Clergymen, and Religious Orders sworn Vassals, Feudatories, Votaries, Servants to, and sole Dependants on the See of Rome, but perfidious Traitors, Rebels to their own natural Kings, Princes, as exempted from, and having no Dominion over them, nor engagements to them. 3ly. Because he was the first Pope who violently persecuted married Priests, prohibiting all Laymen to hear their Masses, &c. unless they were totally divorced from their wives in obedience to his Papal Decrees.
Which Antichristian Usurpations, Innovations of his being the Original ground, president of all his Successors intolerable Encroachments on, proceedings of like nature against our English Kings, and their Sovereign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; and the Emperor Henries oppositions against him and his encroachments, a grand encouragement to our Kings vigorous oppositions against his successors usurpations of like nature in England; (the chief Subject of my ensuing History;) I deemed it not only expedient, but absolutely necessary, to present the world with a full and faithful Narrative of his Hildebrandian Antimonarchical Sentences, Decretals, Proceedings; the opositions made against them, which have ever since infested all Christian States, Churches, with high contests, schisms, wars between the Crown and Miter: And before I procceed to his Successors, I shall give you this further Account of these 3. particulars, beginning with the Original ground of the quarrel, Investitures and Simony.
I have formerly discovered how some of Hildebrands immediate Predecessors (by his advice and instigation) made several Decrees, Constitutions against Clergy-men's receiving Investitures, or Presentations to Bishoprics & Ecclesiastical Benefices from Lay-men's hands, under the false odious crime of Simony, to render it detestable to the ignorant vulgar, which produced little or no effect, till Hildebrand himself, as Legat to Pope Stephen the 9th. and others, put them in vigorous execution, depriving many Bishops and others, in France, Germany, under the Notion of Simo • acks, which he more violently prosecuted after he became Pope. Hence our famous Historian William of Malmesbury, living in that age, stories; Quod alii Pontifices inusitaverant (mussitaverant reads Morney) palam extulit, excommunicans electos, qui investituras Ecclesiarum de manu Laici per annulum et baculum acciperent. Unde Imperator Henricus Alemannorum, fremens quod sine sua conscientia talia praesumeret, et quod excommunicationem in eum propter Investituras Ecclesiarum promulgaverat, cum exercitu veniens Romam obsedit, Hildebrandum expulit, Guibernum Ravennatem introducit; This being the original occasion of all the Differences, Contests, Wars between them. To pass by Waltramus Naumbergensis Episc. his Libellus de Investituris in defense of the Emperors right therein, written in that age.
Joannes Aventinus reciting Pope Adrian’s Decree, made and sworn to by him and the Council of Rome, Nullum postea fore, neque Romanum, neque aliorum templorum Antistitem, nisiquem Carolus, successoresque ejus sciverint & jusserint, &c. Subjoyns, Defuncto igitur Praesule quopiam, Sacerdotes lituum cum annulo ad aulam mittebant, cui ea Princeps solenni ritu tradebat, is ejusdem fani Rector designatus erat. Ita observatum esse sine controversia ad Henrici quarti Imperium, legimus. Clarissimi quique & amplissimi viri, advenae etiam, ultro aulam frequentabant, spe dignitatis augendae, & adipiscendi Sacerdotii illecti, absque stipendio in omnibus Principi dicto obedientes erant, quemadmodum nostro aevo Romae fieri solet. Sub Henrico quarto, & Gregorio septimo cum maximo Reipublicae Christianae detrimento, de hoc aucupio armis, non citra sanguinem decertari coeptum; Imp. veterem morem (as they had just cause) a tot sanctissimis Pontificibus traditum, comprobatumque, mordicus retinere; Maximi Pontifices jam pares opibus Caesariis, in se trahere conabantur; nec amplius ferre parem, nedum superiorem, dilati ab Imperatoribus nostris, & ad id fastigii perducti, poterant. Est omnino iniquum (sicut ait Plinius) sed nobis quoque usu jam receptum, quod honesta consilia vel turpia, prout male vel prosper • cedunt, ita aut probantur, vel reprehenduntur. Inde plerum{que} eadem facta, modo superstitionis, modo pietatis, modo Christi, modo Antichristi, modo justiciae, modo tyrannidis nomina accipiunt. Diutius in se Christiani Principes, summa pietatis ac religions jactura debacchati sunt (concerning Investitures.) Vicit tandem Romanorum Flaminum fortuna.
He elsewhere observes, That Hactenus (till Pope Hildebrands Papacy) Pontifices Romani Comitiis curiatis, calatis, a Sacerdotibus, equitatu, plebe, Senatu, pex omnium generum Suffragia electi fuerant, id tum ratum fuisse reperio, si Imperatores Romani, authors fierent, qui illos, sicuti alios Episcopos ad Concilia jure suo evocabant. Caeteros quoque universos Pontifices Monachorum, Mystarum Magistros, ex consilii decreto comitiis centuriatis, per suffragia purpuratorum, more majorum, Imperatores per Germaniam, Galliam, Teutoniam, Italiam, Romanum orbem sicuti in Carolo Magno commemoravi, capiebant. After this decree against Investitures, Alii verbis quidem ambitus crimen abominabantur; sed plus auri sub magna pietatis superficie, dum se gratis dare cuncta jactant, corrasere, plurisque Sacra venum dedere. Et tu vigilantissime Gregori, quidnam faceres, si nunc demum natus esses, quando divitias, opes ambire, Sacerdotia cauponari, sacra nundinari, & quasi defectos caballos, juxta commune dictum, commutare, jus est, et longinqua consuetudo, vulgo dici saepius audio! Caeremoniae cum Pontifice, ara cum sacrificulo, templum cum aedituo, omnia venalia sunt. A Pontificibus minoribus, quos Sacrificos vocamus, sexcenti exiguntur aurei nummi, in tantum ut quosdam hoc munus obiisse poenituerit: et quosdam designatos, rursus quod non esset unde avaritiae Romanensium corvorum satiarent, abdicasse norim; fenus quod ab aliis Pontif: redditur, quotannis a templis abraditur, majus est quam ut a me (licet numerorum abaci perito) numerari queat. Tum Simonia tibi Gregori erat; nunc absentium confirmationem, annatas, ac nescio quibus aliis nominibus nuncupari audio. This sin being disguised with other specious, yea lawful Names in Popes, Bishops, Clergy-men and their Officers; which is damnable unsufferable S • money, Sacrilege and Idolatry too in Emperors, Kings, or Lay-Patrons by Pontifical Canonical Decrees: O Hildebrandian Papal Legerdemain! Antoninus (with others) makes this Popes Decree against Investitures per annulum & baculum, and proceedings thereupon against the Emperor, the ground of all their longlasting controversies; Quumque (writes he) jam pax inter Sacerdotium & regnum videretur intervenisse; rursus suadente Diabolo in Papam & Imperatorem schisma gravissimum ortum est. Cujus Schismatis causa haec fuisse videtur. Inoleverat consuetudo. praecipue in Imperio (a Caroli Magni Temporibus per 200. annos et amplius concessa et observata sub Summis Pontificibus illius temporis;) qua defungentibus Ecclesiarum Praelatis, annulus et baculus Pastoralis ad Dominum Imperatorem dirigebatur, unde postmodum unum, quemlibet de familiaribus et capellanis suis ad Ecclesiam vacantem dirigebat, ut ibi Pastoris fungeretur officio, non expectata Cleri electione. Quod Dominus Papa contra omnem honestatem fieri considerans, et jura Ecclesiastica in eo conculcari perpendens, semel, secundo, et tertio Imperatorem monuit, ut a tam detestabili praesumptione desisteret. Quumque praeceptis salutaribus commonitum, illum revocare non posset, et hoc suum esse jus allegat: ob hanc causam Gregorius Romae Concilium congregavit 110 Episcoporum; In quo primo ipsum Henricum excommunicavit Imperatorem, tanquam perjurum et Ecclesiae Dei persecutorem et subversorem. Anathematizaverunt autem insuper, omnes Ecclesiasticas personas qui de manu alicujus secularis personae acciperent Investituram, et omnes Simoniacos anathematizavit. Inde grave ortum est scandalum: ita ut nullius Haeresis tempore Ecclesia Occidentalis graviori schismate sit divisa. Hi pro justitia, alii pro injustitia agebant. Alii a Simonia non declinabant. Aliis notam avaritiae honesto nomine praetexentibus, dum hoc quod se gratis dare, jactant, sub charitatis nomine vendunt. Et (ut de Montano dicit Eusebius) sub nomine oblationis artificius munera accipiunt.
Pope, Hildebrands Decrees against Investitures and Simony, are thus recorded by Antoni • us and others; Si quis deinceps Episcopatum vel Abbatiam de manu alicujus Laicae personae susceperit, nullatenus inter Episcopos vel Abbates habeatur, nec ulla ei ut Episcopo vel Abbati audientia concedatur. Insuper, & gratiam beati Petri et Ecclesiae introitum interdicimus, suspendimus, quousque locum quem sub crimine tam inobedientiae quam ambitionis, ex quo idololatria caepit, resipiscendo non deserit. Similiter, & de inferioribus dignitatibus constituimus. Item, si quis Imperatorum, Regum, Ducum, Marchionum, Comitum, vel qualibet secularium potestatum aut personarum, investituram Episcopatuum, vel alicujus Ecclesiasticae dignitaris dare praesumpserit, ejusdem Sententiae vinculo se esse obstrictum sciat. Officium Simoniacorum, scienter nullo modo recipiatis, & quantum potestis tales sanctis Ministeriis ubi oportuerit, prohibete.
William of Malmesbury records that Hildebrands Predecessor Gregory the 6. in an Oration to his Cardinals at Rome, (when being sick and likely to die, ausu temerario persuaderent, ne se in Ecclesia Sancti Petri cum caeteris Apostolicis tumulari praeciperet, qui tot hominum mortibus officium faedasset;) used this expression to them concerning investitures. Laudatus est olim praedicandae memory praedecessor noster Adrianus primus, quod Investituras Ecclesiarum Carolo Magno concesserit, ita ut nullus Electus consecraretur ab Episcopo, nisi prius a Rege insigniretur annulo et baculo. Contra, laudatur in seculi nostri Pontificibus, quod has donationes tulerunt Principibus, Poterat tunc rationabiliter concedi, quod nunc laudabiliter debet auferri. Cur ita? Quod erat animus Magni adversus avaritiam invictus, nec facile invenisset aditum aliquis, nisi intrasset per ostium. Praeterea, per tot terrarum insterstitia nequibat requiri sedes Apostolica, ut unicuique electo accommodaret assensum suum, dum esset prope Rex, qui nihil per avaritiam disponeret, sed juxta sacra Canonum scita religiosas personas Ecclesis introduceret. Nunc omnia Palatia Regum, luxus & ambitus occupavit. Quare merito libertatem suam sponsa Christi asseverat, ne illam Tyrannus ambitioso usurpatori prostituat. Upon which pretexts, Pope Hildebrands made these Decrees, to rob Emperors and all others of Investitures, that Popes alone might enjoy the sales of all preferments.
Hence Alvarus Pelagius a Spanish Freer, flourishing about the year 1320. (though a grand Champion of the Popes Supremacy) thus complains, Mundet igitur Dei Vicarius Curiam suam consuetudinibus Simonaicis, quia ad ipsum pauci intrant, qui non solvunt. Nullus quasi pauper hodie ad Papam intrare potest, & non auditur qui non habet quod solvat. Vix aliqua petitio exauditur per eum, nisi mediantibus interventoribus corruptis pecunia. Symoniacis contractibus Ecclesia populatur, paupers excoriantur. Aurum sitiunt hodie Praelati, aurum bibunt. In muneribus judicant, in mercede respondent, in pecunia damnant, pro pecuniis celebrant: Corpus Christi pro pecunia vendunt. Pro pecunia consecrant & ordinant; & pro pecunia omnia conferunt Sacramenta. Sacramenta emunt, Sacramenta vendunt, sed gratiam non conferent quam non habent. Nihil accipitur gratis, nihil datur gratis, &c. Vendunt vocem, sigillum & calamum. Vix credo, maxim in Hispania, quod de Centum Episcopis sit unus, qui non sit Simoniacus in ordinibus & beneficiis conferendis: Nam nec propter aliud Ordines celebrant, dantes suas benedictiones, a Domino maledicti, nisi ut lucrentur pecunias: unde in una ordination lucrabitur ibi Episcopus, nunc per expressas, nunc per tacitas Simonias suarum literarum, sigillorum, portatorum, matricularum obtentu CCCC. & quingentos, et eo amplius frequenter Florenos. Nec de hoc videntur habere conscientiam, occaecati a Domino in cupiditate sua, non consuetudinem sed corruptelam verius illius provinciae allegantes. Hi ergo Praelati venales, aurum pro Spiritu sancto accipientes, lepram dederunt, & lepram sibi retinuerunt, & male quaesita mercede, non tam patrimonii facultatem quam the saurum criminum congregant, aeterno supplicio, & brevi fructu. O lepra contagiosa, lepra foetida usque ad aures Domini Sabaoth! lepra labefaciens interiora vitalia, & sacra in Dei Ecclesia sacrificia; abominabilis Deo & divinis hominibus apud homines incurabilis, soli Deo Christo Domino, qui apparere voluit tanquam leprosus, cura possibilis, sed rara & admirabilis. Quis hodie in Ecclesia Dei potest dicere verbum Pauli, Acts 20. Argentum & aurum & vestem nullius concupivi, vos ipsi scitis? Utinam non fuerit mortis occasio, a Constantino data Corona ex auro purissimo Ecclesiae sacrosanctae, in abutentibus hac corona. Omnes de Saba veniunt, id est de terra Orientali ubi nascitur aurum optimum, Gen. 2. aurum, sed non thus deferentes (Esa. 60.) ad Romanam Curiam, et plumbum reportantes. Plus ponderat aurum quod datur pro isto plumbo, quam ipsum plumbum. Nam et frequenter pro ipsa Bulla plumbea, 50. 70, &c. Floreni solvuntur. Sed pro plumbo datur aurum, ut de plumbo fiat majus aurum, quia quod quis emit, paratus est aliis vendere, et Simoniam committere. Recordentur Domini Praelati & alii Clerici de Crasso Dictatore Romano, qui aurum sitivit, & aurum bibit, aeque periit vero auro, sicut vero veneno. Petrus Cephas Ecclesiae, id est, Caput, ait, Acts 3. Argentum & aurum non est mihi. Praelatus hodie quilibet dicit; Aurum & argentum est mihi; sed non est ei quod sequitur, In nomine Jesu Christi Nazareni, surge & ambula: quia auro abutitur & aurum avet.
Not long after, the ancient Rythmus printed at the end of Nicholaus de Clemangiis his Treatise de Corrupto Ecclesiae Statu, p. 29, 30. thus complained of the Simony and Bribery of the Court of Rome;
The Author of Onus Ecclesiae (a Popish conscientious German Bishop, living above 150. years since) cap. 19. De Indispositione Romanae Curiae, thus complains, sect: 8, 11, 12. Heu, sicut olim in Romano Imperio, sic hodie in Romana Curia, est vorago divitiarum turpissima; crevit avaritia, periit Lex a Sacerdote, & visio a propheta, & consilium a senioribus: Claves Ecclesiae sunt in abusu, et servitute Simoniae et Ambitionis: Vitia enim ferme Curialium caelari, negarique vix possunt. Roma quasi gurges flagitiorum: (Sequitur ex Brigitha) Papa qui clamare deberet, Venite, & invenietis requiem animarum vestrarum; clamat, Venite ad Curiam meam, & videte me in purpura & ambitione plusquam Solomonem: Venite ad Curiam meam, & exhaurite bursas vestras, & invenietis perditionem animarum vestrarum: Sic enim clamat exemplo et facto. Ecce Roma nunc est Vorago et mammon inferni, ubi Diabolus totius avaritiae Capitaneus residet. vendens Patrimonium Christi, quod sua passion nobis promeruit: qui nobis praecepit, ut gratis demus, quod gratis acceperimus. Idcirco versum est in Proverbium; Curia Romana non petit ovem sine lana: Dantes exaudit, non dantibus ostia claudit. In Curia Romana residet superbia maxima, cupiditas insatiabilis, luxuria mihi (Christo) execrabilis, ac etiam vorago pessima horribilis Simoniae. He adds, Sylvester secundus, per Simoniam et Magicam artem Pontificatum est consecutus. (Since which time) ultra quingentos annos usque modo ex divina permissione solutus est Satanas, qui suas malas immissiones non solum in adversarios Ecclesiae, id est infidels, sed etiam in ipsius Ecclesiae membra, id est, in Christianos reprobos effundit, operando in eis fallacias, & novas & inuntatas machinationes & oppressiones. Plerique contra Ecclesiastica Statuta in Pontifices Simoniace electi, ambitiose intrusi, & aliquando in tantum vitiati fuerunt, quod rursus ab Ecclesia rejecti, e seed expulsi, damnatique sunt, ac interdum propter suos defectus manifest a Deo percussi. Cap. 20. D • Excessibus Praelatorum: & cap. 21. De Praelatorum altorumque Curatorum vita vitiosa, he thus complains: O quanta nunc est obduratio ab Ecclesia Dei! Communiter ad Praelaturas intrant Simoniaci. Praelati sunt superbi, vani, pomposi, simonaici, avari, luxuriosi, ambitiosi, aut aliter vitiosi, &c. taking their president from Popes themselves. And cap. 25. sect. 9. Simonia contra Canonum Decreta in Clero jam ubique regnat. A minori usque ad majorem omnes Clerici avaritiae student, Qui dicunt, aquam nostram, id est donum Spiritus sancti pecunia bibimus, hoc est Simoniace administramus sacramenta Dei: ideo subjungitur: Linguam nostram pretio comparavimus, &c. Et tamen ad majoris damnationis cumulum illam Simonaicam pravitatem ex inveteratae consuetudinis jure, quidam malitiose defendere nituntur, qui cum Giezi & Simone condemnabuntur.
I shall cloze up this Discourse concerning Hildebrands and other Popes Decrees against Investitures and Simony, with these memorable passages of Claudius Esspencaeus, (a learned Popish French Bishop) in his Commentary upon Paul's Epistle to Titus; wherein he complains, that Popes and Popish Councils, instead of the long expected and promised reformation of the scandalous sin of Simony, tot omnibus votis expectatum, atque a Paulo 3. viris doctissimis atque gravissimis delectis, delegata; who found and informed him, Ejus Sanctitatem hodiernorum malorum inde principium esse; quod Praedecessores ejus nonnulli prurientes auribus coacervaverunt sibi Magistros ad desideria sua, non ut a quibus discerent, quid facere deberent, sed quorum calliditate inveniretur ratio, qua liceret, quod liberet. Hinc effectum, ut prodirent adulatores potius quam Doctors, qui docerent, Papa beneficiorum omnium esse Dominum; ac ideo cum Dominus jure vendat id quod suum est, necessario sequi, in eum non cadere Simoniam: Ex hoc fonte tot in Dei Ecclesiam abusus, et gravissimos morbos irrupisse, quibus ad salutis ea desperationem fere laboret, et quorum fama ad infidels usque damnet. Hanc praecipue ob causam Christianismum deridentes atque blasphemantes. Non licere ergo nec Christi Vicario in usu Clavium, sive potestatis, ab eo illi collatae lucrum aliquod comparare, hoc est gratis datum, non gratis dare, &c. He then observes, that from the gross notorious Simony of Popes, and their open, shameless sales of all sacred things, yea sales of Dispensations, for all detestable sins, all other Bishops, Clergy-men, and their Officials, openly practiced this gainful Trade of Simony. Et ut quod quidam ait,
All which (with other historical passages hereafter cited) duly considered, it will appear most just, rational, advantageous for the Church of Christ, that as the Investitures, Donations, Collations of the Papacy itself, all other Bishoprics and Ecclesiastical Benefices, did anciently of right belong to Christian Emperors, Kings, Princes, till forcibly wrested out of their hands by Popes and Popish Prelates: so they should in all Realms henceforth resume, perpetuat thē in their hands; not in Popes, Bishops or Clergymens, who have been so universally, infamously overspread, defiled with the foulest Leprosy of real Simony, as this grand reformer of Simoniaks, Hildebrand was. Of whom yet his followers record this forged Miracle. In Gaul vice Papae praesederat concilio, ibique plures Episcopy, olim per Simoniam in Ecclesias introducti, degradati potioribus locum dedere. Unus erat, quem suspitio istius Apostasy insimulabat, sed nullis testibus argui, nullis argumentis confutari poterat: quem cum putares constrictum maxim, more anguis lubrici elapsum mirarers, ita dicendi art callebat, ut omnes eluderet. Tunc Archidiaconu, Cesset hominis eloquium, producatur in medium divinum oraculum. Scimus profecto quod Episcopalis gratia Sancti Spiritus munus est, & quisquis Episcopatum mercatur, Sancti Spiritus donum posse comparari pecunia opinatur. Coram nobis ergo, qui Judicio Spiritus sancti congregati sumus, dicat iste, Gloria Patri, & Filio, & Spiritui sancto: quod si express, & sine titubantia dixerit, constabit apud me, illum non venaliter, sed legitime praesulatu functum: Libens hanc conditionem ill accepit, nihil minus quam horum verborum difficultatem ratus; & vere, Gloria Patri & Filio, integre protulit, sed in Spirtu sancto, haesit. Suscitato cunctorum strepitu nullo conatu vel tunc, vel in reliquo vitae spatio Spiritum sanctum nominare potuit. Hujus miraculi testis fuit Abbas saepe nominatus, qui dejectum Episcopum per loca secum ducens, illius rei experimentum saepe risit: de quorum verborum certitudine dubitantem, omnis Europa confutat, quae Cluniacensis religions numerum, per eum augmentatum non nescit. If this relation, upon the Abbot of Clungy his reputation be true, I doubt this Pope with all his Successors, most Romish Cardinals, Prelates, as deeply guilty of the sin and heresy of Simony as this Bishop, would be as unable to pronounce the Name of the Holy Ghost, when ever they repeated Gloria Patri in any Council, Mass, or Church, as he.
2ly. As Pope Gregory's Decrees against Investitures, under pretext of preventing Simony, introduced all sorts of Simony, corruption, yea sales of all Sacraments and sins into the Church of Rom • ; and then this bold assertion of Canonists to justify it, Praesertim in Papa locum non videtur habere posse Simonia, quia de omnibus Ecclesiis et bonis earum libere potest disponere: unde si Ecclesiis dandis alicui Papa pecuniam recipit, non videtur committere Simoniam, quia possit bona ipsius Ecclesiae tollere & Ecclesiam. Item nec pecunia quam reciperet pro praestando gratiam spiritus sancti, vel pro praestatione sacramentorum, quia cum possit ab Ecclesiasticis, suadente necessitate, pecunias exigere; non erit judex qui possit vel debeat judicare, utrum pro alienatione gratiae spiritus sancti acciperet, aut ex alia causa, quia Papa à nemine judicatur. Concluding positively: Quod quamvis Simonia sit peccatum gravissimum, pro ipsa tamen, vel pro quocunque alio crimine quantumcunque gravissimo, Papa non potest ab alio judicari, vel propter delictum deponi, etiamsi delictum soret notorium scandalizans Ecclesiam. (Though Doctor Thi • rry, Barthol • mius Buxie • sis, in their Gloss on Gratian informs us: Legitur in Chronicis, quod Benedictus 10. qui successit Steph ejectus est de Pontisicatu, et factus est Papa Johannes Sabiensis Episcopus pro pecunia, cui impositum nomen Sylvester, et iste ettam dejectus est, et deinde iterum reparatus et restitutus est Benedictus, et iterum ejectus est Benedictus, et datus Papatus Iohanni Archipresbytero ante portam Latinam, cui impositum est nomen Gregorius • et hic ab Henrico Imperatore est depositus, et ultra montes translatus, (and that for Simony) Hoc totum uno anno factum est, et propter hoc datum fuit privilegium Henrico; to elect, constitute the Pope, as aforesaid.) So on the other hand Pope Hildebrand 's violent Decrees and Edicts against married Priests Wives and Masses, introduced all manner of Uncleaness, Whoredom, Adultery and Sodomy itself amongst unmarried Popes, Prelates; Cardinals, Clergymen, Votaries of the Roman Church; yea an avowed toleration, Patronage of Whoredom, public Stews, Whores in ROME itself, together with an annual tribute to Popes and their Officers both from Whores and Priests. Hence Johannes Andreat, Johannes de Aton, and other Canononists in their Gloss on Otho • s Constitutions, are not ashamed to publish. Videtur quod crimen Meretricii sub dissimulatione transire debet Ecciesia; Nam et Mareschallus Papae de facto exigit Tributum a Meretricibus, et hoc forte, ad ma • o malum ev • tandum non est culpandum. These public Harlots, constituted Popes themselves before Hildebrands time, and in most ages since Priests wives prohibited, they have been highly 〈◊〉 , courted like Princes and Ladies even in Rome it self at noon-day, as well as in the night, by disguised Cardinals and Clergy-men; as Paul the 3d. his own Cardinals thus informed him: In hac etiam urbe Meretrices, ut Matronae, incedunt per urbem, seu Mula vehuntur; quas affectantur de media die Nobiles, familiares Cardinalium, praesertim noctu: nulla in urbe videmus hanc corruptionem praeterquam in hac omnium exemplari: Habitant etiam insignes aedes: Yea Peter Martyr adds, Vehuntur per publicum habitu Principum; Sedent in equis gradiariis, &c. Habent secum Torquatos & Larvatos Comites, interdum etiam Cardinalium, praesertim noctu, & ancilarum sumptuosissimam gregem. Nunc, O Deus bone, quomodo Romae coercentur Meretrices? Yea, to prevent the Emperors & other Kings punishing and reformation of these abuses, they exempted all Clergy-men from their Tribunals, and the accusations of Laymen, decreeing, that no Cardinal should be convicted, condemned of adultery, whoredom, &c. but by 72. witnesses, no Cardinal Priest but by 64. no Cardinal Deacon or Bishop but by 24. nor Sub-deacon or Cardinal of inferior degree, nor Bishop but by 7. witnesses at least. And those would be more than impudent, who durst commit whoredom, adultery, or sodomy in the open view of so many Priests or Clergy men; or yet of Laymen, though disabled to accuse them by their Canons.
It is very observable, 1. That Pope Hildebrand himself, as Lambertus Schasnaburgensis, and sundry others record, was not only suspected, but openly accused, and branded for his incontinency, especially with the Countess Machtil • a, whom he divorced from her husband, that he might the more entirely and securely enjoy carnal copulation with her, Machtilda Pontificis lateri pene Comes individua adhaerebat, eumque imo colebat affectu. Ubicunque opera ejus Papa indiguisset, ocyus aderat, & tanquam Patri vel Domino sedulum exhibebat officium: unde nec evadere potuit incestiamoris suspicionem, passim jactantibus Regis fautoribus & praetipue Clericis, quibus illicita & contra scita Canonum contracta conjugia prohibebat, quod die et nocte impudenter Papa in ejus volutaretur amplexibus, et illa furtivis Papae amoribus praeoccupata, post amissum conjugem, ultra secundas contrahere nuptias detrectaret. Hence Domniz a Priest thus writes of her:
2ly. That Petrus D • m • anus living in that age, retired from Rome, as from Sodom and Gomorrah, leaving his Cardinalship and Bishopric there, betaking himself to a Hermits life, writ a Book, entitled De Correctione Episcopy & Papae: yea Gomorhaeus, describing sodomy, filthiness wherewith the Popes, Cardinals, Prelates, & the Court of Rome were then 〈◊〉 (which last Book Pope Alexander the 2d. stole from the Author and suppressed, occasionem cap • ans, quod obscaenius rem expressisset:) whence Cardinal Beronius himself is enforced thus to display the Sodomitical filthiness of that age. Vepres infausti, spinae & urticae agrum Patris-familiaes in immensum oppleverant, qui ex putore carnis, corruptionis fimo turpiter excreverant: Omnis quippe caro corruperat viam suam, ut non tantum ad ease abluendas sordes videretur satis esse diluvium; sed nefanda scelera ignem ecaelo Gomorrhaeum, quo exusta est Pentapolis, postularent. Yea Jo • nnes de Casa, Bishop of Beneventum in Italy, was so impudent as to write a Book in justification of Sodomy, styling it, a sweet and pleasant sin; confessing that he (and others of his Roman Brethren) used no other carnal copulation but this, preferred before the sacred Ordinance, and Romish Sacrament of Marriage itself, by the Pandors of the Whore of Babylon.
3ly. That Saint Bernard himself, living in and after that age, thus reprehends the pompous apparel, unchaste Sodomitical lives of the Hildebrandian Virgin, unmarried Prelates, Priests, Clergy of those times, Ministri Christi sunt, & serviunt Antichristo: honorati incedunt de bonis Domini, cui honorem non deferunt. Unde hinc est eis quem quotidie videmus meritricius nitor, histronicus habitus, satanicus apparatus, &c. Episcopy vero et Sacerdotes hujus temporis castitatem et sanctimoniam (sine qua nemo videbit Deum) tam in cord quam in corpore, quomodo student observare? Certe Dominus dixit in Evangelio ad Episcopos, haud dubium in primitiva Ecclesia, sint lumbi vestri praecincti: castitatem approbans non tantum, sed etiam praecipiens. Isti autem castitatis insigne qualiter custodiunt, qui traditi in reprobum sensum, faciunt quae non convenient? (alluding to the sodomy and filthiness of the Gentiles, Rom. 1. 24. to 30. whereof they were guilty) quae enim in occulto facta ab Episcopis, turpe est dicere. Melius itaque arbitror super hoc dissimulare & superseaere, quam aliquid unde scandalizentur innocents & inexperti, dicere. Sed ego cur verecundor dicere, quod ipsi non verecundantur facere? Imo quol Apostolus non verecundatur scribere & publicare: Dicit autem egregius praedicator; Sic, masculi in masculos operantes turpitu sinem & mercedem sui erroris reportantes. Fatres, factus sum insipiens, vos me coegistis. And in Cant. Serm. 66. Tolle De Ecclesia honorabile connubium, &c. Nonne reples eam concubinariis, incestuosis, seminifluis, mollibus, masculorum concubitoribus, et omni denique genere immundorum?
4ly. That Matthew Paris a Monk, records how Pope Innocent the 4th. his Cardinals and Court departing from Lions in France, (where they had continued near seven years) unto Milan: upon this occasion, Frater Hugo Cardinalis, quasi ex parte Domini Papae valedicens civibus Lugdunensibus, (ermonem populo fecit generalem. Et postquam omnes eleganter informasset, & informando ex parte Dom. Papae & totius Curiae civiliter salutasset, unum sermonem addidit, quem duximus huic paginae, propter Satyricam reprehensionem inserere. Amici, magnam fecimus postquam in hanc urbem venimus, utilitatem et elemosinam: quando enim primum huc venimus tria vel quatuor Prostibula invenimus, sed nunc recedentes unum solum relinquimus: Verum ipsum durat continuatum ab Orientali porta Civitatis, usque ad Occidentalem. Et erat verbum offensionis in auribus omnium mulierum, quarum infinita multitudo sermoni assedebat. Omnes enim Civitatem inhabitants, voice praeconia convocabantur ex parte Domini Papae recessuri. Haec autem i • onia in ore multorum versabatur, quia Cynice remordet universos. This Cynical Irony thus publicly uttered by the Cardinal in the Pulpit, before the Pope himself, his Cardinals, Court, Clergy, and all the Citizens summoned to hear his Farewell Sermon, preached by the Pope's appointment, and in his name, right, was certainly an unquestionable though satyrical truth, That the Pope, his Cardinals, Prelates, Court, had made that whole City (as they had done Rome whiles there) but one universal continued Stews from East to West: such was the fruit of their vowed chastity.
5ly. That Sigebertus Gemblacensis, flourishing and writing in that age, Matthew Paris, Florentius Wigorniensis, two English Monks, Johannes Brompton, Radulphus de Diceto, Aventinus, and sundry others out of them, reciting this Popes Decrees against married Priests: Si qui sunt Presbyteri aut Diaconi aut Subdiaconi, qui in crimine fornicationis jaceant (to wit, by living chastely with their own Wives) interdicimus eis ex parte omnipotentis Dei & sancti Petri authoritate, Ecclesiae introitum, usque dum paeniteant, & emendent. Si qui vero in peccato suo perseverare maluerint, nullus vestrum eorum praesumat audire officium, quia benedictio corum vertitur in maledictionem, & oratio in peccatum, testante Domino, per Prophetam, Maledicam (inquit) benedictionibus vestris, Qui vero huic saluberrimo praecepto obedire noluerint, idololatriae peccatum incurrent; Samuele instant & beato Gregorio instruente, quoniam peccatum ar • olandi est non obedire, & quasi scelus idololatriae, non acquiescere. Pass this Censure on it: Iste Papa in Synodo generali, uxoratos Sacerdotes, a divino removet officio & Laicis Missas eorum audire interdixit novo exemplo, et (ut multis visum est) inconsiderato judicio, contra Sanctorum Patrum sententiam, qui scripserunt, quod Sacramenta, quae in Ecclesia fiunt, Baptisma, Chrisma, Corpus Christi & Sanguis, Spiritu sancto invisibiliter cooperante, eorundem Sacramentorum effectum habeant, seu per bonos, seu per malos intra Dei Ecclesiam dispensentur; tum quia Spiritus Sanctus mystice illa vivificat, nec bonorum meritis amplificantur, nec peccatis malorum attenuantur. Ex qua re, tam grave oritur Scandalum, ut nullius haeresis tempore, sancta Ecclesia graviori sit Scismate discissa, his pro justitia, illis contta justitiam agentibus. Porro, paucis continentiam observantibus; aliquibus eam causa Lucri ac jactantiae simulantibus, multis incontinentiam perjurio multipliciori adulterio cumulantibus: ad haec, hac oportunitate Laicis insurgentibus contra sacros ordines, & se ab omni Ecclesiastica subjectione excutientibus, Laici sacra mysteria temerant, & de his disputant, infantes baptizant, sordido aurium humore pro sacro Chrismate utentes & oleo, in extremo vitae viaticum Dominicum, & usitatum Ecclesiae obsequium sepulturae a Presbyteris uxoratis accipere parvi pendunt. Decimas etiam Presbyteris debitas, igne cremant, corpus Domini a Presbyteris uxoratis consecratum, pedibus saepe conculcant, & sanguinem Domini voluntary frequenter in terram effundunt.
To which Aventinus subjoins: Porro paucissimis Veneri bellum indicantibus, quibusdam castitatem jactantiae quaestus ergo simulantibus, maxima pars sub honesto castimoniae nomine, stupra, incestus, adulteria passim et impune committunt. Et tu vigilantissime Gregori, quid nam faceres, si te fortuna ad nostra tempora servasset, et nunc demum natus esses, quando amare, potare, stupra, incestus committere, vim puellis infer, virgins viciare, alienas permolere uxores, (adeo ut caudax salax sacrificulorum in proverbium, vel vulgo protritum abieret,) munus sacerdotale censetur!
6ly. That Alvarus Pelagius a Spanish Freer writing about the year of Christ, 1330. in his Book De Planctu Ecclesiae, thus complained of the execrable Unchastity, uncleanness, venery, sodomy of Bishops, Priests, all sorts of Clergy-men and Votaries, especially in Spain, Apulia and Italy, ever since this Hildebrandian Decree against theirs wives. Sequitur Apoc. 18.)
I might at large inform you, what Nicholaus de Clemangiis, Archdeacon of Bayon, in his Book De corrupto Ecclesiae statu, c. 13. 14, 15. 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26. records of the Incontinency, lechery, Sodomy of Romish Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Monks, Nuns in his age, what Theodoricus de Niem. Nem. Vnionis, p. 5. & 137. Cla • dius Espencaeus, De Continentia, lib. 4. & Comment in Titum, c. 1. Cornelius Agrippa, De Vanitate Scientiarum, cap. 62, 63. Guicciardin Histor. l. 1. Polydorus Virgilius De Inventoribus Rerum, l. 5. c. 4. Mantuanus, l. 3. & 6. Cuyckius. Speculum Concubinar. Udo • ricus. Epistola ad Nicolaum De Caelib. Clericorum, Alanus Charter, cited by Joannes Marius De Scismate & Council. p. 264, 467. Gravamina Germaniae, drawn up at the Diet of No • inberg. nu. 31, & 91. with others of the Roman Religion have largely written of his Subject. But I shall conclude with the noble Picus Mirandula his brief, though sad complaint, That in Eli’s time the Priests slept with the Women at the door of the Tabernacle, but in our time they break into the sacred Houses, (& proh pudor) Women are brought in to satisfy their Lusts, and Boys that are sodomitically abused against Nature, are lent and given them by their Parents, and these Boys afterwards are made Priests. with our own Robert Holcot his Confession of the Priests in his age: Proh dolor, Sacerdotes moderni sunt Angeli Sathanae, per discordiam; Angeli Apostatici, per superbiam; Angeli Incubi, per luxuriam; Sacerdotes Priapi, vel Beelphegor. Hunc vilissimum Deum (Priapum whom he there describes) excolunt non pauci Sacerdotes moderni, Discipuli illius maligni Angeli de quo loquitur Paulus, 2 Corinth. 12. Datus est mihi stimulus carnis, Angelus Sathanae qui me colophasset. And with the complaints in Onus Ecclesiae, (written by a German Bishop of the Romish persuasion) which are very observable, cap. 8. sect. 4. Oblationes fidelium hodie rarescunt, non offerunt Decem, quoniam Ecclesiastici plures expendunt in usus meretricantium, quam indigentium pauperum, &c. cap. 21. sect. 10. 15. Ecce modo Praelati & Sacerdotes, natant in comessationibus, cubilibus, & impudicitiis; solvunt fraenum carnalis concupiscentiae, tam in se, quam in suis subditis, &c. cap. 23. sect. 8. Caeterum Sacerdotes frequenter fornicationibus coinquinantur, maxim Curati sordescunt in concubinatu adeo manifesto, quod nulla tergiversatione celari possint. Et quamvis Concubinarii sunt ab ipso officio suspensi, tamen a celebratione missarum aliisque actibus ecclesiasticis nequaquam abstinent, quin divinis se continuo immisceant, ob hoc irregularitatem incurrentes. As for the chastity of Monks and Nuns, he renders us this account out of St. Catherine of Sienna, and others, cap. 22. sect. 6. 12. Religiosi collocati sunt in religione velut Angeli, sed quamplurimi sunt daemonibus deteriores, incontinentes, dissoluti, &c. Religiosi facti sunt arma Diaboli. In Ecclesiis enim Cathedralibus quam Conventualibus hodie plerumque faeces mundi Ecclesiasticis gubernaculis praeficiuntur, utpote quibus mundus uti vel frui nequit. Tandem de moribus Monialium perversis, non audeo, imo pudeo dicere, quia suspicor, ne meis verbis quempiam virginum Deo dicatarum coetum reddam suspectum; attamen istum quoque gradum paucis attingere conor. Sunt namque nonnulla Monialium monasteria, e quibus professas juxta regulae tenorem nunquam exire vel quempiam introire decet, adeo propatula, ut ipsa loca Veneris prostibulo sint similiora, quam Dei sacrario. Hinc procacitas, stuprum, incestus mulierum sacratarum; hinc quoque verenda scandala & offendicula oriuntur quamplurima, quae singula recensere jam nolo.
What sinks of uncleanness, whoredom, adultery, sodomy, our English Monasteries were found to be before their dissolutions, you may read at large in John Bales Acts of English Votaries, the Records in the Augmentation-office. Henry Stephen his Apology for Herodotus; cap. 21. f. 183. Speeds History of Great Britain, lib. 9. cap. 21. sect. 161. p. 143, 144. John Weaver his Funeral Monuments, &c. c. 12. & 15. whose Sensualities, Adulteries, Whoredomes, Sodomies, Murders of Bastard-infants, as they defiled their Cells to their final overthrow, so let their remembrance forever stain the memory of this leacherous Hildebrand, and Religion of the Great whore of Babylon, which defiles the bed of Priests lawful marriage, and yet dispenseth for money, with such prodigious crying sins, sinners: There being at the dissolution no less than 15. Sodomitical Monks in Battle Abby, 8. in Canterbury, besides Adulterers, Whoremasters; John White Prior of Bermonsey Abby keeping no less than 20. Whores, to satisfy his insatiable lustful cloystred Virginity; which enforced Godly Christian Princes, by their Supreme Ecclesiastical Authority, to suppress when they could not reform these Nurseries of Uncleaness. These prodigious, unchaste, sodomical consequences of prohibiting Priests marriages are a sufficient evidence not only of the lawfulness, but expedience, yea necessity of their marrying, when or where they cannot live chaste without it; Gratian himself confessing, Copula Sacerdotalis, nec Legali, nec Evangelica, nec Apostolica authoritate prohibetur; the legality whereof in point of conscience, I shall briefly evidence against all Hildebrandians by these following Scripture Arguments, wherewith I long since so silenced a vaunting Romish Priest, (who held our Ministers no Priests because married) that he had not one word to reply.
1. That God himself instituted Marriage in the state of Innocency before Adam 's fall, when he had nearest communion with God; therefore it cannot defile or incapacitate any of his posterity, to be a Bishop, Priest or Minister of God.
2ly. That God's primitive command to Adam and Eve in the state of Innocency at the first institution of Matrimony; and to Noah and his Sons after the stood; Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth, by the use of lawful Matrimony; extended to Adam, Noah, and all their Posterity in succession to the end of the world; (and that as a special privilege and benediction, not a curse; it being a curse to be childless, but a blessing to have children, posterity, as the Scripture oft resolves.) Therefore to Priests, Clergy-men, they all being Adam 's and Noah 's posterity, as well, as much as others, and so not to be debarred from this special blessing.
3ly. That Adam himself, and the first born, Patriarch of every Family, during the law of Nature, even from Adam 's creation till the institution of the Levitical Priesthood, were the only Priests and Ministers of God to offer Sacrifices, instruct their Children, Families in the fear and worship of God, to bless them, and pray for them: Now these were married to propagate Mankind, perpetuate Posterity, and the Church, by God's own precept, without the least restraint or any impediment at all to their primitive Priesthood; Therefore Priests may be so too under the Gospel.
4ly. That Aaron the first High-priest under the Law, all the High-priests succeeding him, who were types of Christ himself, and entered once a year at least into the Holy of Holyes, were all married, having Wives and Children: That the other Levitical Priests, Levites and Church-officers under the Law, were all married, or permitted freely to marry without restraint, being High-priests, Priests, Levites only by descent and succession in the self-same Tribe, not by election and mere ordination; God himself prescribing what Persons they should marry, and what not; their Wives, Marriages, Children, no ways disabling or hindering them from the execution of their Priestly Offices, as the Scriptures abundantly evidence. Yea the Prophets likewise had both Wives and children under the Law; therefore all Bishops, Priests, Prophets, Ministers under the Gospel, by parity of reason may, or ought to be married, and to enjoy their Wives, Children without any impediment to their Ministry: There being no divine inhibition to the contrary, as Clemens Alexandrinus Stromatum. l. 3. & 7. long since resolved.
5ly. That Christ himself, under the Gospel, with his Mother and Disciples honored Marriage not only with their presence at it, but by Christ's working his very first Miracle, in turning water into Wine, to adorn this Solemnity, and manifest his glory thereat.
6ly. That Christ in the Gospel, not only, not repealed, but approved, ratified the use of Marriage according to its primitive institution at the creation, which he rehearsed, reducing the Jews unto it, who had swerved therefrom: adding this farther divine seal and codicil thereunto; What God hath therefore joined together, let no man put asunder. By which he justified its use, lawfulness under the Gospel, to be as universal, extensive, free from the least restriction in relation to Priests, as it was at the Creation, and before his incarnation, and prohibits Priests divorses from their Wives, by any human or Papal Roman Canons whatsoever.
7ly. That it is evident both by Scriptures, and Fathers, that the Apostle Peter himself, James, Philip the Evangelist, all Christ's Apostles except Saint John, yea St. Paul himself were married, and had Wives, without any reprehension, restraint from Christ, or disability to exercise their Apostolical, Episcopal or Ministerial functions. Therefore all other Evangelists, Bishops, Elders, Priests, Deacons, may lawfully and laudably marry, without prejudice to their Spiritual functions, as well as they: as sundry godly Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and several Popes too married and had Wives in the primitive Ages of the Church, for many hundred years after Christ, (as they ever had and still have in the Greek Churches) till, yea after Hildebrands time, when they were by force and absolute tyranny divorsed from them.
8ly. The Spirit of God resolves by Paul himself, That Marriage is honorable to ALL (whether Male or Female; Popes, Bishops, Monks, Priests, Clergy-men of all sorts, as well as others) and the Bed undefiled. Therefore to all Popes, Bishops, unmarried Priests, Votaries, unless they will deny themselves to be comprised under the universal word All, and make themselves Beasts or Angels. But Whoremongers and Adulterers (as most unmarried Prelates, Priests and Romish Votaries have been, and still are) God will judge.
9ly. God himself by the Truth inspired hand, pen of Saint Paul, gives this universal advise, if not precept to every man and woman, Let EVERYMAN (therefore every Pope, Bishop, Priest, Deacon, as well as Layman) have his own Wife, and every Woman her own Husband, rendering this unanswerable reason for it, for it is better to marry then to burn; better for every man, for any man; Therefore for Popes, Bishops, Priests, Monks, who burn as much, if not more than any others.
10ly. That marriage, (especially of Christ's Ministers under the Gospel) most lively represents, typifies to Christians, the conjugal union, love, affection that is between our Lord Jesus Christ, his Church, and every true Believer; the Church in Scripture being styled Christ's Spouse, the Lamb's wife, to whom he is said to be married, yea to be her Husband, and to whose marriage all Christians are invited. Therefore it can no ways unfit, or disable Popes, Bishops, Priests, Ministers (who pretend they have nearest approaches to, and union, communion with Jesus Christ, engrossing to themselves the Title of his Church, Spouse) to enjoy or execute their holy Functions in his Church, as Popes decree and dictate.
11ly. That God himself by St. Paul (the only pretended Patron, Pattern of Priests single, unmarried lives) hath in precise terms, in two several Epistles to Timothy and Titus, (Diocesan Bishops of Ephesus and Crete, as most Pontificians and Prelates assert) prescribed Marriage as a necessary qualification, amongst others, for all Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, allowing them, (without the least inhibition or restraint) to be the Husband of one Wife, yea to have Wives and Children lawfully begotten on them, in these positive words: A Bishop then must be blameless, the Husband of one Wife, vigilant, &c. one that ruleth well his own House, having his Children in subjection, with all gravity. Likewise must the Deacons be grave, &c. Let the Deacons be the Husbands of one Wife, ruling their Children and their own Houses well: Even so must their Wives (to wit, of Presbyters, Bishops, Deacons,) be grave, no Slanderers, sober, faithful in all things, chaste, Keepers at home, &c. Which qualifications were purposely inserted into these Texts by God's special providence, to justify the lawfulness of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons marriages, wives, and conjugal estate, against all Papal subsequent Decrees, Canons prohibiting them; Which qualifications both Gratian, and other Popish Canonists, Writers concerning the Ordination, qualification of Bishops, Priests, Deacons, recite, retain: yet impudently endeavor to elude by these two irrational shifts, diametrically repugnant to the words and sense of these unanswerable Texts.
The 1. evasion is, That the Husband of one Wife, is intended only of the time past, of Bishops, Priests, Deacons, before they are admitted in to these Orders, not present or future time; of such who are to be actually ordained Bishops, Priests, Deacons, at the time of their Ordination, or after admittance to these Orders. To wit, that no Person who hath had two Wives, either together or successively, or married a Widow, though both Wives be actually dead or divorced from him, ought to be ordained a Bishop, Priest or Deacon, or admitted to claim or enjoy the benefit of Clergy in criminal cases: but only single Persons, or such who have formerly had but one Wife, from which they must be separated either by death or divorce, before they must be ordained; their actual marriage and cleaving to one Wife, disabling them by their Papal Constitutiors either to receive Orders, or to retain or exercise these their Functions after their Ordinations.
I answer, 1. That this Papal restriction of Paul 's qualifications only to such as are to be ordained Bishops, Priests, Deacons, before their Ordination, without relating to those who are such, is 1. Directly contrary to the letter of the Text; which describes the qualifications of such who are actual Bishops, Priests, Deacons, as well at and after the time of their ordinations, as before, as the words in the present and future (not preterperfect) tense, A Bishop then must be blameless, the Husband of one Wife, &c. positively resolve. Now no Person by the Popes, Canonists, Schoolmens resolutions, is or can be a Bishop, Priest, Deacon, or exercise these Functions in the Church before he be actually ordained: Therefore this qualification applied to them as and whiles they are Bishops, Priests, Deacons, must be intended after their admission to these Orders, rather than before. 2ly. This restriction of it only to the time past, preceding their Ordinations; turns, A Bishop then must be the Husband of one wife; Let the Deacons be the Husband of one wife, into, Let him not be the Husband of one, or any wife at all, whiles either a Bishop, Priest or Deacon. A diametrical contradiction to the Texts. 3ly. The subsequent clauses relating to their wives, children, Even so must their Wives be grave, &c. having faithful children in subjection, ruling their children and their own houses well, refer not only to the time preceding their Ordinations, but subsequent thereunto, since they cannot be actually divorced from their Children, Housholds, at or after their Ordinations, against the laws of God, Nature, though they may be from their Wives: Therefore the Husband of one Wife, must have the same construction in point of Time. 4ly. All the other qualifications there actually coupled with and surrounding this (the Husband of one Wife) are principally intended of those who are actually Bishops, Priests, Deacons, both when and after they are ordained such, rather than before, viz. A Bishop then must be blameless, vigilant, sober, modest, of good behavior, given to hospitality; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy of lucre; but patient, not a brauler, not covetous. One that ruleth his own house with all gravity (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?) Not a Novice, &c. Moreover, he must have a good report of those that are without, &c. Likewise must the Deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of Faith in a pure conscience, &c. If all these qualifications be intended of such who are actual Bishops, Priests, Deacons, as well when and after they receive orders, as before their ordination, then the husband of one wife, &c. must have the self-same construction being conjoined with them. 5ly. It would be a monstrous, ridiculous, untheological interpretation to restrain all these qualifications to Bishops, Priests, Deacons, only in the time before their Ordinations, not after them: For example, every Person to be made a Bishop, Priest, Deacon must, and ought to be blameless, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; &c. before he be ordained, but when and after he is made a Bishop, Priest, Deacon, then he must be no longer thus qualified; but as he was and must be the husband of one wife, only before his Ordination, not after, so for congruity-sake (if this be the true meaning of this Text) by the same Papal interpretation, he may and must be ( 〈◊〉 to many degenerating Popes, Bishops, Priests, Deacons) blameworthy, 〈◊〉 , unsober, of ill behavior, un-hospital, unapt to teach, or an un-preaching 〈◊〉 , given to wine, awa • rier, striker, greedy of filthy lucre, impatient, a brawler, 〈◊〉 , not ruling his own House, Children well, lifted up with pride, not having a good report, not holding the mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience. And is not this • n interpretation well beseeming a Popes unerring Chair, very suitable to St. Paul's and God's own meaning? This interpretation suits well without Gildas, and St. Bernard's observations, complaints of the Bishops in their ages: Fratres, sic facit 〈◊〉 hodie, multos • 〈◊〉 Diabolos Episcopos. Ubi enim, proh Dolor, Reperiemus Episcopos, qui post adeptam dignitatem in humilitate se contincant, &c. Male vivunt, et subjectos male vivere volunt. Porro, 〈◊〉 hujus temporis avaritiam quomodo declinent? Quod enim sine miserabili 〈◊〉 non est, Christi opprobria, sputa, flagella, clavos, lanceam, crucem & mortom, haec omnia in fornaci avaritiae conflant, & profligant in acquisition tu • pis 〈◊〉 , &c. Vendunt homicidia, adulteria, incestus, fornicationes, sacrilegia, perjuria, & 〈◊〉 ad summum implent manticas suas, &c. Animarum nec casus reputatur nec salus, &c. And with Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bath his observation: •• requens est inter Episcopos aliquem invenire, qui primum suae promotionis annum dedicat sanct • ati, cumque in sua novitate factus est agnus, inveteratus aliquot dierum fit rapacissimus lupus, &c. What chaste Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Votaries, they prove after their enring into religious Orders, abjuration of Marriage and lawful wives, you have heard before: Perchance to make these Qualifications only antecedent, not concurrent with, not subsequent to their Ordinations, nor concomitant or dependent on them, as they do the husband of one wife.
The 2d. Evasion is this, That the Husband of one Wife is to be interpreted only Metaphoricallie, not properly, That is, a Bishop, Priest, Deacon, ought to have only one Wife; that is, one Bishopric, one Benefice, Church, or Ecclesiastical Living with Cure of Souls, and no more, not of a proper wedded Wife, This is a strained, pitiful eluding of these Texts, pointblanck against the words, meaning, yea fatal to the former Popish evasion.
For 1. The husband of one wife, is never taken in this sense in the Old or New Testament, for the Bishop, Priest, Parson, Rector of one Bishopric, Parochial Church, Synogogue, or Congregation, but in a literal genuine sense: Therefore it must be so intended here. 2ly. All the other recited qualifications of Bishops, Priests, Deacons, here conjoined with • it, are taken, interpreted only in their proper, not in any allegorical, analogical, tropological or metaphorical sense: Therefore this ought to be so too. 3ly. The qualifications here required in their Wives, in direct terms: Likewise must their Wives be grave, not Slanderers, sober, faithful in all things, chaste, keepers at home, &c. are all improper, unapplicable to a Bishopric, Benefice, or Parochial Church in any sense; being peculiar only to real Wives and Women; Therefore it can only be meant, interpreted of such. 4ly. These Clauses, A Bishop, Priest, Deacon, must be one that ruleth well his own House, having faithful children in subjection, ruling their own children and their houses well, are put in direct opposition to public Churches, Benefices; the children here only intended, are children begotten of their proper Wives bodies, (as the children of High-priests, Priests, Levites were under the Law) not children spiritually engendered by the ministry of the Word: as will be yet more evident by comparing these Texts with 1 Tim. 2. 15. Notwithstanding she shall be saved by Child-bearing, & ch. 5. 10, 14. If she have brought up children: I will therefore that the young women marry, bear children, guide the house, (all used in a proper literal sense, in the same Epistle;) Therefore children must be thus interpreted in these Texts too, not in a strained Metaphorical sense or construction. 5ly. If by this one Wife, be only meant one Bishopric or Benefice, then why do Popes or Popish Prelates dispense with their having Pluralities, against sundry Councils, and their own Canons, Decrees, Constitutions prohibiting Pluralities of benefices, as contrary to the Apostles institution in the Primitive Church, instituting many Bishops, Elders, Deacons, in and over one particular Church, Diocese, not one over many, as is evident by Acts 11. 30. c. 13. 1, 2. c. 14. 23. c. 15. 2. 4, 6, 22, 23. c. 16. 4. c. 20. 17, 28. c. 21. 18. c. 22. 5. Rom. 16. 3, 9, 12. Phil. 1. 1. Col. 1. 7. c. 4, 9, 12, 27. 1 Cor. 14. 29, 30, 31. 1 Thess. 5. 12. 15. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Tit. 1. 5. 7. 1 Pet. 5. 1, 2, 3. James 5. 14. Hebr. 13. 17. (See my Unbishoping of Timothy and Titus p. 35, 36, 37. &c.) Which Pluralities have been frequently complained, written against, as not only scandalous, but pernicious to the Church of God, the people's souls, and occasions of manifold inconventences, grievances, as well by conscientious Popish, as Protestant Writers in most ages; by sundry Notable Petitions even in Popish Parliaments: yea, why do they authorize Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, to hold Pluralities of Bishoprics, Benefices, Abbeys, Priories, and Ecclesiastical Dignines, by way of Commendams, notwithstanding these express prohibitions to Timothy and Titus? yet will not dispense with them to hold one lawful wife, upon any terms, which God himself expressly allows them; though they dispense with them for money to keep as many Concubines as they have Livings, enforcing Priests to pay annual Pensions to their uses for every Living they enjoy, which they must duly pay, though they keep no Concubine at all, because they have license to do it, if they please; as the German Princes in their Diet at Norimberg, Anno 1522. in Gravamina Germaniae, Cornelius Agrippa, and others complain and publish to the world. 6ly. A Layman is utterly uncapable of any Bishopric, Benefice, or Ecclesiastical preferment, before he be in Orders. And if the husband of one wife, that is, of one Bishopric, or Benefice, be a previous qualification to his ordination; a Lay-man shall then be capable of a Bishopric or Benefice before he is in Orders: so as this Text remains unanswerable, to justify the Lawfulnesse of Bishops, Priests, Deacons Marriages, notwithstanding Pope Hildebrauds or others Decrees, as Claudius Espencaeus (a learned Popish Bishop) acknowledgeth, in his Commentaries on 1 Tim. 3. 2. & Tit. 1. 5, 6.
12ly. God himself, by a prophetical Spirit, not only predicted, but in precise terms pre-condemned in this very Epistle of Paul (where he permits, prescribes Bishops, Priests, Deacons, to be the Husband of one wife) the forbidding of Priests wives marriage, as unlawful, as the very doctrine of Devils, and seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences scared with an hot iron; commanding Timothy to put the brethren in mind of these things, as a good Minister of Jesus Christ. Which, compared with Hildebrands fore-alleged confession at his death; that, suadente Diabolo, he had raised up God's wrath and hatred amongst Christians, (by his prohibiting of Priests Marriages, as well as receiving investitures from Laymens hands,) is a sufficient motive eternally to explode it.
13ly. The Glosses on Gratian resolve, Matrimonium est res sacratissima; yea the Church, Popes, Bishops, Priests of Rome have enrolled Marriage in the very list of of their 7. Sacraments, as a Sacrament and most sacred Ordinance of divine institution; by this device, they have made Popes, Bishops, Priests in their Ecclesiastical Consistories, the sole and only competent Judges of aell causes, questions concerning matrimony; which no Kings, nor other Laymen may any ways examine or determine. Moreover they have canonized Orders for another of their Sacraments, and joined it and Marriage to each other in the Catalogue of their Sacraments: It seems therefore very strange, irrational, contradictory, that this their Sacrament of Marriage should so defile their Popes, Bishops, Priests, and all other persons admitted to their Sacrament of Orders, as to render them utterly uncapable of executing or enjoying their Orders; That these 2. Sacraments should be so incompatible, inconsistent, adverse to each other, as to null, destroy one another; that the sole Judges, solemnizers of all Marriages between other men and women, should be only uncapable of this Sacrament of Marriage, yea that it should more pollute, disable them to receive, retain, execute their Sacrament of Orders, then professed single fornication, whoredom, or adultery, which they generally connive at, tolerate, dispence with in their Prelates, Priests, and other Votaries of single life: They must therefore either henceforth disclaim both Marriage and Orders from being Sacraments of their Church, which thus destroy, pollute each other: (the rather because Marriage was instituted at the creation, not under the Gospel; is common to all Pag • n Nations out of the Church, as well as to Christians in it; yea to many Birds and Beasts, (as Doves, Swallows, &c.) which couple and live together by Pairs, as well as man and wife, by a divine, natural instinct, precept, given equally to both at the very creation, Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth,) Or else admit marriage to be not only lawful, but most proper for Bishops, and persons in holy Orders, because it is a Sacrament, of which they are as capable, as any Laymen, or of any other of their seven Sacraments, to which they freely admit them without restraint.
3ly. I shall cloze up the History of Hildebrands Papacy, with these memorable Censures of his Antichristian proceedings against the Emperor Henry the 4th, written by learned Bishops of that age in justification and defense of the Emperors Sovereignty, against his New Usurpations. Valtramus Naumbergensis Episcopus shall lead the Van, who in his Notable Treatise De Unitate Ecclesiae, (written about the year 1077.) asserts from Scripture and other Evidences, Papam non habere politicum gladium, multo minus aliquod Dominium super Imperatorem; Nullo jure posse eum subditos Imperatoris, aut aliorum Dominorum, a juramento fidelitatis absolvere. Quod omnis anima sit subjecta superioribus potestatibus: atque ideo etiam Spirituales summos & infimos, politicis Magistratibus obedire debere. Papas & Episcopos non tantum nullas justas causas habere, quod Caesarem (Henricum 4.) persequantur, sed etiam in ipsa persecutione adeo modum excellere, ut plane scelerate et impie contra omnia divina et humana jura fecerant. His arguments against the Popes Supremacy from Scripture, are principally these: Nolite plures Magistri fieri, fratres mei, scientes, quoniam magis judicium sumitis; Sicut dixit Jacobus Apostolus. Ex doctrina Domini ac Salvatoris nostri; Vos, inquit, nolite vocari Rabbi: unus est enim Magister vester: Qui enim, inquit Christus, major est vestrum, erit minister vester; Qui enim se exaltaverit, humiliabitur; & qui se humiliaverit exaltabitur; Sed cum ipse unus Magister Christus, idem{que} Deus, muter tempora, & transferat regna, tenens corda Regum in dextra sua; Legimus docuisse Hildebrandum Papam, quod potestatem ipse habuerit super Reges, et super regna? et posse id facere, quod per Deum tantum fieri dicit Psalmista; Hunc humiliet, & hunc exaltet: Nam reddite, inquit, quae sunt Caesaris, Caesari; & quae sunt Dei, Deo. Quam certe regulam proprio consirmavit exemplo, dicens Petro Apostolo, Ut non scandalizemus eos, id est, ne nos Caesari contradicentes, tumultuandi eis occasionem praebeamus, vade ad mare, & mitte hamum, & eum piscem qui primus ascenderit, tolle, & aperto ore ejus invenies staterem; illam sumens da eam pro me & te. Et discite a me quia mitis sum, & humilis cord. Qui utique do • u • t Apostolos, Ecclesiam, non Regnum disponere, vel ordinare, quod nec ip • e legitur affectasse, Qui fugit in montem solus orare, cum turbae venissent rapere eum & Regem constituere. Quoniam cum in forma Dei esset, formam servi accipiens, Venit ministrare, non ministrari; juxta quod etiam Paulus: Apostolus, Cum liber esset ex omnibus, omnium se servum fecit, ut plures lucr • aceret. Unde & Gregorius Papa, cum esset Summus Pontifex, & virtutum artifex, in tantum se infra omnium humiliavit, ut prius ipse in Epistolis suis, Servus servorum Dei, se appellaverit, & hoc humilitatis nomen ad posteros quoque transmiserit, &c. (After which he subjoins) Ecce quomodo ill Minister Diaboli (Hildebrandus) Ecce quomodo insanit, quomodo nos secum in foveam perditionis mittere quaerit? Sic divisit Sacerdotia, quemadmodum Ecclesiam Dei, atque Rempublicam Imperii, quoniam partes inde segregavit sibi. Inter ipsum namque & inter Regem Henricum graves exortae sunt atque execrabiles dissidiae; Papa plurimum anitente, ut Rex deponeretur a Regia potestate pariter et dignitate; Rege vero contra nitente, ut defenderet se ab hostium suorum circumventione, qui pro parte ejusdem Papae certant, quaerebant eum opprimere; Exinde omnia scandalorum exorta sunt genera: Exinde crevit grave & diuturnum bellum, & non solum civile, sed plus quam civile bellum, & factae sunt absque divino pariter atque humano respectu, vastationes Ecclesiarum, & caedes hominum. Exinde etiam corruptae sunt divinae pariter et humanae Leges, sine quibus non subsistit vel Dei Ecclesia, vel Imperii Respublica: Exinde violata est fides, et publica et catholica: Exinde etiam crevit illa injustitia, ut pro veritate falsa testimonia, et pro fide catholica abundent perjuria, ut postquam leges bello siluere coactae, impleatur jam ista Domini sententia per Oseam Prophetam; Non est, inquit, veritas, & non est misericordia, et non est scientia Dei in terra; maledictum & mendacium, & homicidium & furtum inundaverunt, & sanguis sanguinem tetigit; Haec nunc abundant et superabundant propter Doctrinam Hildebrandi Papae, qua divisit corpus vel Ecclesiae, vel Reipublicae. Nunquid hoc est Apostolicum esse? Et in doctrina et conversatione Catholicum esse? et Gregorium, id est, vigilantem esse? et in doctrina et conversatione Catholicum esse, secundum sententiam superius propositae Epistolae? Atque cum tali Hildebrando partes habere, et ejusmodi qualia supradicta sunt, flagitia nutrire, fovere, vel defendere, nunquid hoc est, Filios Dei esse, & spirituales, & coelestes esse, juxta sententiam Scriptoris ejusdem Epistolae? Absit hoc, &c. He there proves all the Apostles equal to Peter, and all Bishops to the Pope, out of Cyprian and others.
Moreover Circa idem tempus (or some time before) scripsit & Venericus Vercellensis Episcopus, librum ad Papam, in qua eum reverenter monet, de iis omnibus, quae contra fas etjus, praesertim contra Henricum 4. fecit. Libri est Titulus, De discordia Regni et Sacerdotii; To which he subjoined his Book, De Unitate Ecclesiae servanda, to the same effect with Walthramus his Book De Unitate Ecclesiae which some attribute to Venericus. The most conscientious Bishops of that age publicly detesting, and protesting against Hildebrands Antimonarchical proceedings and sentences.
The Bishop of Triers at the same time also writ this memorable Epistle against Pope Hildebrand and his faction, in justification of the Emperor Henry the 4. Patribus, non fratribus, Dominis, non amicis, N. designatus Treverensis Episcopus, Ecclesiae devotissimas orationes in Christo. Ferre sententiam contra Apostolicum, non est tutum, imo insanum, et omnino nefarium, aliquid audere in illum, qui in vice S. Petri fungitur legatione ipsius Christi. Iste autem qui invasit sedem Apostolicam, qui inaudita elatione effertur, qui prophanis novitatibus studet, amplo nomine delectatur, quem neque Christianum appellem, quia non habet characterem, id est, pacem et charitatem, quam Christus suis militibus impressit, qua Christus suos notavit; non occurrere contra hunc, non insurgere, magnum sanctae matris Ecclesiae est periculum, et plane est contra Deum. Quis enim nescit, ex hoc quasi fonte omnis dissensionis, et capitis omnis schismatis, exclusa pace Ecclesiae, discordiam totius mundi emersisse? Quis inquam, non videt, per hunc quasi signiferum, tantum sanguinem mundi effusum esse? De multis rationibus, qui non sequitur Christum, nequeo vere appellare Christianum; ita certe nec Papam, quem video toties et tam manifestum homicidam. En bonus et sanctus Papa, cujus consiliis, cujus instinctu et ductu, membra Christi tot et tam perditis modis sunt dilacerata. En bonus pastor, qui in illos tanta crudelitate grassatur, pro quibus Christus in cruce pependit, quas ipso proprio sanguine redemit. En verus Pontifer et justus Sacerdos, qui sicut dubitat, si illud quod sumitur in Dominica mensa, sit verum corpus et sanguis Christi, item non poenitentibus etiam ea quae juste fracta sunt condonat sacramenta. Nihil certe ita impium est, et nefarium, nihil ita est detestabile et erecrabile, quod ipse curet, dum alios contra Regem armet: dum alios ad bellum quod ipse omnibus intendit, excitet. Inter has multiplices calamitates & miserias, quas patiatur et conqueritur sancta Ecclesia, mihi quoque illata est ab eo, tam superba quam violenta injuria, &c. Ut taceam mea, ut praetermittam privata; Quia malus, & non purus ejus introitus, quae minatus est, pervenit ad perditissima exempla, ne plus per hunc sancta, quae modo ertremum trahit spiritum, periclitetur Ecclesia; ex me dico, quod nullam ei obedientiam posthac servabo, nec meo judicio amplius sedebit in loco et vice Sancti Petri, quem ipse non sequitur, obstupenda abusione novitatis suae, et inauditi Decreti, against the Emperor.
This Letter was seconded by a notable Epistle of the Bishop of Verdunum in Germany, to all the Archbishops, Bishops, Princes, Dukes, Marquesses, Earls, Nobles greater and less, of the Roman Empire, and all the Clergy and people of the holy Church in justification of the Emperors cause against Hildebrand, thus recorded.
Dilectis in Christo • ratribus et Dominis, Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Principibus, Romani Imperu Ducibus, Marchionibus, Comitibus, majoribus & minoribus, Clero et Populo, Sanctae Ecclesiae Cultoribus N. Verdunensis Episcopus Dei Gratiâ, id quod est, fraternam dilection • , debitam servitutem, perpetuani in Domino salutem. Regni nostri perturbatio, & ut verius dicam, nisi Dominus avertat, proxima nimis annullatio, in maximum dolorem nos excitat, in lachrymas vocat, in miserabilem querimoniam coram Deo et hominibus nos animat. Hildebrandus qui dicitur Caput, jam est Cauda Ecclesiae; qui fundamentm, jam detrimentum est Ecclesiae. Hic dispergit, qui dicebatur congregare: hic Ecclesiam odit, qui dicebatur diligere; jam usque ad omnimodam haeresim infirmat, qudicebatur Ecclesiam sanctam confirmare. O inaudita arrogantia hominis, supra omnem Ecclesiam in se gloriantis, supra omnem malitiam male agentis, unitatem Ecclesiae scindentis: quod inauditum est, Regnum et Regem Catholicum destruere praesumentis: impio •• justificantis, pios injustissime damnantis, decreta Patrum pervertentis, Regem adulterinum extollentis, Regem liberum et legitimum etiam cum memoria nominis Regii extinguere meditantis! Perjuria fidelitatem dicit; fidem, sacrilegium facit; imoque ab initio fuit mendax pater ejus, per omnia mentitur, et in omnibus veritati contradicit. Videat Deus & judicet, videte vos & judicate: Hominem impium, hominem abominatum, membra Ecclesiae subvertentem, caput nostrum faceremus? Vos omni Ecclesiastico honor verissime destituentem, patrem nobis constitueremus? Vita sua illum accusat, perversitas damnat, obstinatio malitiae illum anathematizat. In qua re nobiscum esse, nobiscum facere, nobiscum laborem subire, assensus consilium, auxilium vestrum non recusat. De eligendo autem Pontifice, qui errata corrigat, qui destructa restituat, qui hujusmodi fortia confundat, Deo cooperante, vobiscum operabimur, Deo consentiente vobiscum sentiemus, et pro honor Ecclesiae, et pro recuperatione Regis et regni in nullo vobis deerimus: Valete.
Gotfridus Viterbiensis writing of Hildebrands excommunication and deposition of Hen. the 4th. observes, (as Otto Frisingensis living in that age had done before him) Ante hunc Imperatorem, non legimus aliquem a Romano Pontifice excommunicatum, aut Imperio privatum, nisi forte illud pro excommunicatione reputetur, quod Philippus primus Christianus Imperator ad breve tempus à Romano Pontifice, inter poenitentes legitur collocatus; aut illud quod Theodosius, ob cruentam hominum caedem a liminibus Ecclesiae legitur sequestratus (to wit by St. Ambrose his admonition, to which he submitted, not by any Papal excommunication, as some Pontificians mistake.)
The History of Philip, the 1. Christian Emperor, being much insisted on by Pope Hildebrand and other Romanists, to justify the Popes usurpations in excommunicating and deposing Kings and Emperors; is thus related by Eusebius, only as a bare report or fame, not an undoubted truth, without any mention of, or relation to the Pope. Fama est istum (Christianus nam{que} erat) cum precationum in die postremae vigiliae Paschalis, unà cum multitudine in Ecclesia Particeps fieri vellet, non prius ab Episcopo, qui tum Ecclesiae praerat (without naming the Church where, or Bishops name by whom this was reported to be done) permissum est intrare, quam se confessus fuisset, & inter eos qui peccatorum vinculis adhuc tenebantur astricti, locumque poenitentiam agentibus praestitutum occupabant, se sua sponte (not by force of any formal Anathema, Excommunication or Interdict denounced against him) collocavisset. Episcopum{que} dixisse, eum non alia conditione, nisi istud faceret, propter multa delicta quae ab eo ferebantur admissa, (whereof the ungrateful treacherous murder of his Lord and Master Gordianus the Emperor, to invade his Throne was not the least) aliquando ab ipso in Ecclesiam receptum fore. Imperatorem autem alacri animo & lubenti, Episcopo morem gessisse, & ingenuam modestiam ac religiosam piam{que} affectionem, Dei timore incitatam, reipsa declarasse memorant. Moreover, Niceph. Calistus relates the story only as a report (aiunt, or ferunt) without informing us in what Church it was, or by what Bishop; but only indefinitely; non prius tamen in conventum fidelium accedere, intercessione & impedimento ejus qui tum Ecclesiae praesuit Episcopy, permissum esse, quam confiteretur, et poenitentium numero, qui ordine & loco suo segregati, disciplina certa explorabantur, aggregaretur; quod non aliter licere, ill diceret, nisi hoc fecisset, propter multas ejus noxas, cum Ecclesiae multitudine conventus ejus festi participem fieri. Eum vero rebus ipsis timorem divim nominis, religionemque debitam rite atque sincere declarantem, obsequentem ill esse ferunt. In the margin I find these notes annexed: Episcopalis libertatis exemplum, exemplum Principis ecclesiasticae disciplinae sese submittentis. Without one word of the Pope in the whole story. Now because Fabianus was reputed Bishop of Rome at that time, Eutropius (a great advancer of the Popes authority) makes bold to assert, that he was the Bishop. Isti primi omnium Imperatorum Christiani Romae facti sunt, (though converted to the faith by Origen's Letters, (not the Popes) as most record) & in die Paschae, id est, in ipsis vigiliis, cum interesse voluisset, & communicare mysteriis, a Fabiano Episcopo Romano (though neither Eusebius, Nicephorus, nor others before him, aver it) non prius est permissum, nisi confiteretur peccata sua, & inter poenitentes staret; nec ullo modo copiam sibi mysteriorum futuram, nisi prius per poenitentiam culpas, quae de eo ferebantur plurimae, diluisset. Then he concludes only with a, Fertur igitur libenter, quod a Sacerdote sibi imperatum fuerat, suscepisse, divinum sibi inesse metum, & fidem religions plenissimam rebus atque operibus comprobans. Which incertain Report, how little it makes for Hildebrands excommunication or deposition of Henry the 4th, absolving his subjects from their allegiance, setting up Rudolphus in his royal throne, making him dance attendance barefooted three days together in frost and snow at his palace gate, without admitting him entrance to his presence, upon his humiliation and repentance; when as the Emperor Philip was presently admitted upon his confession and repentance to the Church and Sacraments the very next morning, and neither excommunicated nor deposed for murdering his predecessor and usurping his throne; (as Henry was only for defending his right of Investitures against this usurping Pope) let all indifferent Readers resolve.
If any desire further satisfaction concerning the oppositions then made against Hildebrands Antimonarchical seditious, pernicious, heretical doctrines, and Apologetical ple • s for the Emperors right, let them peruse Melchior Goldastus his Collectio Scriptorum Apologeticorum pro Henrico Quarto; adversus Criminationes Gregorii 7. Papae. Hanoviae, 1611. Matthius Flaccius Illyricus his Catalogus Testium Veritatis, p 202. to 240. Laurintius Schafnaburgensis Historia, Centuriae Magdeburgensis Cent: 11. c. 7, 8, 9, 10. Sigeberti Gemblacensis Chronicon; & Aventinus Annal. Boiorum, l. 5. to which I shall refer them.
Having represented you with this large account of Pope Hildebrands Antimonarchical, heretical, diabolical positions and practices during his life, give me leave to mind you of one memorable fabulous prediction (which Cardinal Baronius very seriously insists on, though Onuphrius with others, style it, inconcinna fabilla, invented by nescio quis fabulator) portending them, yea his antichristian usurpation of the very Title, Sovereignty, Throne of Christ himself. Cum filius esset fabri lignarii, ex • armentis ordine compositis, inscium ipsum has literas ordin c •• seruiss, quibus adstans, homo literatus legerit, ex ea compositione scandularum, Dominabitur a mart usque ad mare: This (writes Baronius) was, prae • st • nsum divinitus sign • m 〈…〉 ductante namine) quod fabri filii, (Gregora) futura esset amplissima in mundo auctoritas: yea as the learned Lord Morney, and Bishop 〈◊〉 the Inferre; Qu • d solium ipsius Dei invasurus, Thronumque Christi Regis nostri involaturus esset, d • quo illud a Psalmographo editum est oraculum, Dominabitur a mari usque ad mare. Which text Alvarus Pel 〈◊〉 asserts with an Ergo, to belong to every Pope; Ergo Vicarius ejus in terris, omnis Papa, habet omnem potestatem in terra quam Christus habet: 〈◊〉 hoc facit quod Zacharias ait de Christo, c. 9. 10. Potestas ejus a mari usque ad mare; & Psal. 71. 8. Et, dominabitur a mari usque ad mare;] Strange Antichristian shameless blasphemy.
It is now more then high time to take my farewell of Pope Hildebrands Papacy, whose Antichristian Heresies, Treasons, Schisms, Usurpations, Corruptions, transmigrated after his death into sundry of his immediate Successors, trained up under him, as his devoted creatures. It is Hermoldus his observation, that after Henry the 4. had deposed this Pope Hildebrand the second time, and installed Clement in his Chair: ex illa die orta schismata in Ecclesia, qualia non fuerunt in •• ebus antiquis: & ii quidem qui videbantur perfectiores & colum • ae in Ecclesia Dei (in his repute, being an Hildebrandian) adhaeserunt Gregorio; caeteri, quos 〈…〉 Caesareus agebat, sicuti sunt Wibertum, qui & Clemens. Duravitque Schisma hoc 25. annos. Defuncto enim Gregorio, succ • ssi • Des • derius. post qu • m Urbanus, deinude Paschalis, qui omnes Imperatorem cum Papa suo excommunicationis sententia damnaverunt: Continentes se (not daring or being able to to reside in Rome, or Italy) apud Reges Franciae, Siciliae, & Hispaniae, qui Catholicam partem tueri videbantur.
After Hildebrands death, Desiderius Abbas Cassinensis, styled Victor 3. Papatum iniit, non Cardinalium aut Romani populi suffragus electus, sed a Machtylda meretrice, ac suae factionis Nordmannis intrusus: qui Gregorii successor constitutus, Gregorii ipsius partes, a dicta Machtylda ejus amatrice edoctus, fortiter tueri caepit, adversus Imperatorem, & Clementem ejus Papam, indignum ratus, ab ejusdem sui praedecessoribus diabolicis moribus degenerare. But before he could vomit forth against the Emperor, illud animi venenum, quod odio plus quam Neroniano, in illum conceperat, veneno per suum Ministrum Subdiaconum, dum missaret in calicem injecto (as Herman. Contractus, Carsulanus, Petrus Praemonstratensit, Knyghton & alii plures relate) or, as Vicelius, Volaterranus, and other Hildebrandians, qui ab Henrico Caesare, vel a Clemente Pontifice id procuratum esse malitiose contingunt:) which proves, the consecrated wine, not to be really transubstantiated into Christ's own natural glorified blood or body, uncapable of any poison, or at least able to allay its mortiferous quality. Platina, Martinus Polonus, Vincentius, and others write, Eum dysenteria periisse, quod neque a suspitione data veneni alienum est: Nam & in dysenteriam, veneno petiti, interdum incidunt, corruptis ac labefactatis intestinis, as Balaeus observes.
Before his death, as some relate; in Synodo Beneventana, cui Apuliae & Calabriae intererant Episcopy, Clementem (qui authoritate Imperatoris sedem tenebat, santique Petri Ecclesiam armis tuebatur) inde (armis Machtyldae) expulit a Sacerdotali honor & officio, privavit & anathematis vinculo constrinxit; styling Clement, Haeresiarcha, qui vivente sanctae memory praedecessore meo Gregorio Papa, Romanam invasit Ecclesiam, Antichristi praecursor, et Sathanae signifer, qui oves Christi dispergere, mactare, laniaregue non desinit: Charging him as the author of all the persecutions raised against Hildebrand. In this Synod in pursuit of Hildebrands Decree against Simoniacks, he published these new Constitutions against Investititures, if Chronicon Cassinense may be credited.
Constituimus, ut si quis deinceps Episcopatum vel Abbatiam de manu alicujus Laicae personae susceperit, nullatenus Episcopus, vel Abbas habeatur; neque ulla et, ut Episcopo vel Abbati adhibeatur reverentia. Insuper, ei beati Petri gremium & introitum Ecclesiae interdicimus, quosque locum, quem sub tanto crimine ambitionis, & inobedientiae (quod est scelus idololatriae) caepit, resipiendo non deserit. Similiter etiam de inferioribus Ecclesiasticis gradibus dignicatibusque constituimus. Si quis item Imperatorum, Regum, Ducum, Principum, Comitum, vel cujusvis potestatis secularis, Episcopatum, vel quamvis aliam Ecclesiasticam dignitatem dare praesumpserit, (though they constantly did it before as their Founders or Patrons, by a Legal and (natural Right) ejusdem Sententiae vinculo se astrictum noverit; cum Trecenti & octo Patres in Niceno Concilio, omnes hujusmodi vendentes, & ementes, excommunicaverint; censentes, ut qui dat, & qui recipit, anathema sit; Cum hujusmodi igitur Episcopis, Abbatibus, aut Clericis reliquis qui communicate, aut orat, aut ipsorum audit Missas, una excommunicationis sententia plectitur, qui ne Sacerdotes quidem rite putari possunt. Poenitentia vero & communio a nemine nisi a Catholico suscipiatur. Quod si nullus adsit Catholicus Presbyter, rectius est sine visibili communion persistere (excellent Antichristian Divinity!) & invisibiliter Domino communicare, quam eam ab haeretico sumendo, a Deo seperari. Nulla enim (ut ait Apostolus) conventio Christi ad Belial, neque pars aliqua fideli cum infideli, omnis autem haereticus infidelis est. Simoniacus vero quia haereticus, idcirco infidelis; nam sacram Christi communionem quamvis visibiliter & corporaliter Catholici propter imminentes haereticos habere non possunt: dum tamen mente Christo conjuncti sunt, ejus communionem invisibiliter sumunt. His sudden death prevented the expected success of these Decrees.
After this Victors decease, sublatis Gregorio & Victore capitibus perniciosae dissensions, Aventinus records, fesso to cladibus orbe Romano, placuit utriusque partis Episcopis jure atque literis, non armis atque ferro, more barbarorum, disceptandum esse. Fit igitur Conventus Garslungi, tertiodecimo Calendas Februarii, convenient Episcopy Germaniae, Galliae, utriusque partis. Ubi consedere, Conradus Episcopus Trajectensis ita verba fecit: Ad pacem, quam nobis, Patres consulti, Servator noster abiturus reliquit, stabiliendam convenimus; vim, temeritatem, violentiam, errores pestiferos eorum qui coeleste donum contaminare non erubescunt, gladio duplici, ense ancipiti ad vivum resecare utriusque instrumenti testimoniis, juxta praeceptum Christi refellere, operae precium duximus. Josues hostibus astutis, fallacibus juramentum, quod mendaciter extorserunt, servavit. Nabocodrosoro impio regni Judaeos, regesque eorum fidem frangentes immortalis caeli majestas per Hieremiam atque Ezechielem vates suos coarguit, seque spretum testator. Qui juramentum contemnit, foedus spernit, pactum solvit, fidem frangit, illum despicit, per quem juravit, illi facit injuriam, cujus nomini adversarius credidit. Vivo ergo, dicit Dominus, juramentum quod sprevit, foedus quod praevaricatus est, ponam in caput ejus; Nunquid qui solvit pactum, effugiet? Non considerandum cui, sed per quem juraveris. Multo enim fidelior est ill, qui propter nomen Dei tibi credidit, quam tu qui occasion divinae Majestatis hosti tuo, imo jam amico moliris insidias. De Tiberio et Nerone non solum saevissimis tyrannis, sed impurissimis quoque monstris, praeceptum legimus, Reddite Caesari quae Caesaris sunt: & Deum timete, Regem honorate, Principibus qui non sine causa gladium portant, etiam si mali fuerint, non modo dicto audientes estote; Verum pro • is supremum Deum deprecamini, quo tranquillam quietamque vitam agamus: Omnis enim potestas a Deo est: qui potestati resistit, divinae providentiae repugnat. Idcirco ambitiosi & superbi sunt, qui illud Domini Deique nostri elogium, Quodun{que} solveris super terram, erit & solutum in coelis: & quodcunque ligaveris super terram, erit & ligatum in coelis; perfricata front interpretando adulterant, suae libidini servire cogunt, et nobis, seu pueris, atque omnium rerum imperitis a • tu illudere student. Quasi vero nesciamus, peculiare esse sacris vatibus divinae sapienciae consultis pro capacitate auditorum, diversis nominibus idem appellare, eandem rem pro diversitate effectuum, modo propriis, modo translaticiis verbis, quod idem valet, nunc figurare, nunc simpliciter dicere, crebris similitudinibus, frequentibus proverbiis atque exemplis, aptis comparationibus, et hujusmodi tanquam luminibus rem illustrare, animum atque aures, tanquam stimulis ferire, & ut sunt varia ingema, varia orationis sententiarumque supellectile homines instruere, docere, recreare, rapere, trahere, movere, oblectare. Et ut D. Aurelius Augustinus docet, Veritas divina ita tradita, ita ornata, tecta, plus movet, plus delectat, plus honoratur, quam si nuda absque vest prostitueretur. Nempe animus noster, quamdiu mortali carcere clausus detinetur, nolit velit, rebus fluxis, fragilibus, quae videri tangi solent, nimium addictus est. Ad aeterna & clara quae cerm, tactu sentiri nequeunt, ca cutit atque hebebatur, nisi igniculus ingenii hisce fomentis motus excitetur. Proinde, prout aeternus id quod subobscure de vinculo dixit, apud Joannem aperte, apud Matthaeum, Marcum, Lucam apertissime explicat. Pax vobis, inquit; sicut misit me pater, & ego vos mitto. Accipite Spiritum sanctum; quibus remiseritis peccata, remittuntur: & quorum retinueritis, retenta sunt. Et ut concordiam assereret, & unum se verum Pastorem esse indicaret, ubi dixt siquidem, Amas me? pasce oves meas; id est, Ite in mundum universum, predicate Evangelium omni creaturae; atque, Data est mini omnis potestas in coelo & in terra; Ite ergo, docete omnes gentes. Hanc ob causam, aperuit discipulis mentem coelestis Doctor, ut intelligerent Scripturas, Mosen, Prophetas & Psalmos; Jussitque eos in nomine suo poenitentiam, & remissionem peccatorum praedicare, apud omnes gentes, testesque horum esse. Has ergo ob causas Hildebrandus ambitione in praeceps abivit, cum potestatem immortalis Dei, cujus nuncius duntaxat est, sibi usurpavit: Ita mores, ita tempora, ita homines sunt. Male consuluisset rebus humanis suprema illa Majestas, si ita gladium in manum mortalis cujusquam traderet. Quis concupiscentiae humani finem staruerit? aut quis moderaretur? Ne sapientissimus quidem aequo animo tantum onus tulerit. Non necesse habemus, ut quispiam nos doceat, quonam pacto spirituali potestate, vel ut verjusdicam, dispensatione atque procuratione divini peni (Oraculorum enim coelestium promi atque condi duntaxat sumus) Petrus ejusque Collegae usi fuerint. Clarius luce in Lib: quem de gestis Legatorum Christi Lucas Medicus scripsit, liquet, arma nostrae militiae Spiritus, non ferrum, neque rapinae, caedes, homicidia, perjuria sunt. Nimirum lorica, thorar, galca, baltheus, ensis, Scutum, sunt Pax, Amor, Justitia, Spes salutis, Veritas, Sermo Dei, Fides. Quae munera divina saepius Imperator noster Christianissimus ultro Hildebrando obtulit, sed ipse accipere recusavit. Then relating the Emperors manifold virtues, he adds, Rei militaris, juris, civilium morum, divinarum, humanarumque recum peritia, fortitudo propemodum nimia, non modo inter reges excellens, sed inter illos quoque, quorum hac sola virtus fuit: Jam perpetuum pacis, pretatis, atque religions studium, in paupers liberalitas, majora tribuentis quam a Deo petuntur. Clementia in devictos, benignitas in amicos, erga milites benevolentia, in nullo unquam Germano Romanove tanta fuere Principe. Quod si flagitiosissimus is foret tyrannus, tamen ei obtemperandum, nequaquam resistendum esset. Prohibent humanae leges, decretaque Patrum adversarios, hosts, inimicos, accusators, testes, atque judices esse. Augustus cum in Italia cum Hildebrando pacem facit, paucorum scelere atque perfidia Saxonia excidit; perfidus tyrannus qui perfidiae graves poenas reddidit, spreta religione jurejurandi, violata affinitate, necessitudine eam invasit. Nemini privato nisi ante in integrum restitutus fuerit, dica scribi potest, &c. Post quam haec ita dicta factaque sunt, Gebhardus Salisburgensis, Boiorum primarius Episcopus, aetate, eloquentia, scientia, egregie praeter caeteros Hildebrandinos Venerabilis, cui socii respondendi provinciam demandarunt, omnino obmutuit, ne hiscere quidem potuit. Not long after this as Aventinus and Albert Stadius Anno 1085. record: Altus Conventus in Maium Moguntiacumque edicitur, ubi lis ea componatur, paxque confirmetur utriusque factionis consensu, Caesariani peracto conventu discedunt, Gregoriani manent inter seque dissentire coeperunt. Tetrarchae Saxoniae, Theodoricus maritus sororis Eckberti hujus gentilis, Theodoricus Uto Hyldeshaimensis Episcopus, frater ejus Conradus, sectam Hildebrandi velut impiam sceleratamque, abjurant; quo magis poenitentiam prioris Sectae approbant, ad Rom. Pont. (Clementem 3.) Imperatoremque se transferunt, &c.
In the mean time Otho, a person of a turbulent spirit, (Hildebrands favourite, and Legate in Germany to depose Henry, and set up Rodulphus in his throne, Cardinal of Hostia) for his Turbulency, per Machtyldam meretricem, & Nordmannos Apuliae Dominos, invito Imperatore ad Papatum evehitur; in opposition to the Emperor and Pope Clement: Benno Cardinalis gives him the name not only of Turbanus for his turbulent Spirit, but stiles him also; SCISMATICUM, HAERETICUM, & Liberii Arriani Socium, Qui, ne Venenum erroris eorum perciperetur, quasi mel veneficorum more admiscuit. Scripturas enim intention fallendi mendaciis astute addidit: & in error cum suo Hildebrando perseverans, cum Angels Apostatis in abyssum relegatus est. This Pope took upon him the name of Urbanus 2. instead of Turbanus, being in truth Turbator Orbis, vel porius turbo et procella. Sigebertus Gemblacensis, Magnum Chronicon Belgicum, and others, render us this account of his Papal advancement and proceedings: Machtyldae auxiliis Urbanus Apostolicum obtinuit thronum, frequentibus Conciliis excommunicans cum Imperatore Guibertum; Hinc in Ecclesia scandala, & in regno augescunt dissidia, dum alter ab altero dissidet: Dum regnum & sacerdotium dissentit; dum alter alterum excommunicate, dum alter alterius excommunicationem, aut ex causae, aut ex personae praejujudicio despicit, et dum alter in alterum excommunicandi authoritate magis ex suo libitu, quam ex justitiae respectu abutitur. Et Authoritas illius, qui dedit potestatem ligandi et solvendi omnino dispicitur. Nimirum, ut cum pace omnium bonorum dixerim, haec sola novitas (ne dicam heresies) nedum in mundo emerserat, ut sacerdotes illius, qui dicit Regi Apostate, & qui regnare facit Hypocritam, propter peccata populi, docerent populum, malis Regibus nullam subjectionem, et licet eis Sacramentum fidelitatis fecerit, nullam tamen deberi fidelitatem: nec perjuros nominari qui contra Regem senserint; imo qui Regi paruerit, pro excommunicato habendum; et qui contra Regem fecerit, a noxa injustitiae et perjurio absolvendum. These were the new antichristian, antimonarchical Paradoxes by which this new Pope and Hildebrandian faction supported their party, and deluded their proselytes.
The Hildebrandian German Princes and Prelates hearing of Urbans advancement to the Papal chair by their confederates in Italy, Quintilburgii cum Hermanno Rege Saxonum, mense Aprili convenient, ad praetextum mutatae voluntatis, dictum Wezilonis Moguut. Archimystae calumniantur, haereseos condemnant, qui spoliatum rebus suis, legibus divinis non oportere parere jactasset; denique se Ecclesiam sacram esse causati: Ottonem quem supra devotum diximus a Siguevino, Weziloneque Moguntino & Coloniensi archimystis, sibi imponunt Urbanum, qui quasi ab urbe Roma, devotusque & profugus, sine lare, sine grege diutius erraverit. Extat de hac re hoc Distichon.
This Urbanus rigavit, fovit et produxit perniciosa illa semina quae ipse Hildebrandus jamdudum sparserat. Guilbertum Ravennatem, qui & Clemens 3. quod esset ab Imperatore electus, Imperatoremque ipsum ercommunicavit: atque ab eodem Ci mente, ipse quoque excommunicatus fuit, as Vincentius and others relate. Mense itaque Maii, Imperator, Proceres, Duces, frequenter convenient. Item Petrus Portuensis Episcopus duo Flamines Romani, Legati Clementis tertii Pontificis maximi archimystae, hi atque minores Pontifices Galliae, Germaniae, Wezilo Moguntinus, Angelbertus Treverensis, Segivinus Agrippinensis, Luitmarus Bremensis, Theodoricus Verdunensis, Hainricus Leodiensis, Conradus Trajectens • s, Udalricus A • cstatensis, Meginardus Fruxinensis, Otto Reginoburgensis, Rupertus Bambergensis, Hermannus Spirensis, Otto Constantiensis, Burckhardus Losaniensis, Sigelridus Augustanus, Gebliardus Pragensis, Uto Hildeshaimensis, Hainricus Badebornensis, Erpho Monasterii, Volckmarus Mindensis, Bibo Tullensis, Burckhardus Basilensis, Otto Argentoratensis, convenient: adsunt Legati aliorum Pontificum Galliae, Italiae, Germaniae, communi omnium consensu Hildebrandi secta pietate Christianae repugnans, explosa, exibilata est. Ottonem, qui et Urbanus, superiores Patres numero quantuordecim, videlicet, Gebhardus Salisburgensis, Harduicus Maydenburgensis, Adalbero Wirtzburgensis, Altmannus Bathavensis, Bernardus Mersburgensis, Guntherus Citiensis, Benno Moesianus, Albertus Vangionus, Burckhardus Halberstatensis, Hermannus Mediomatricus: & hi quatuor devoti supposititiique pontifices per studia partium facti, Reginardus Mindensis, Wigoldus Augustanus, Gebhardus Constantiensis, Hainricus Bambergensis, (qui deserta Reipublicae causa ad priorem factionem redeunt) sacrilegii, irreligiositatis accusant, convincunt; in numeroque impiorum computant. Superiores quos nominavi, quatuordecim Episcopos, albo Pontificum eradunt, Senatu sacerdotum movent, crimine perduellionis, perjurii, perfidiae, homicidii, parricidii eosdem condemnant. Hermannum Regem, Eckbertum Saxonem, Welphonem Boium proscribunt, eadem censura devovent; Senatusconsultum proscribitur tale; Devota capita quae numeravimus, velut contagio ab omnibus vitentur Christianis: quandoquidem a nobis secessionem fecerunt, non nos ab illis; ad concionem sacram, quemadmodum promisere, venire detrectant, pietatem Christianam polluunt, concordiam contaminant, Ovibus desertis, ad hosts Reipublicae profugiunt, ad bella, incendia, homicidia, parricidia, latrocinia, rapinas non solum cohortantur, verum etiam Duces sunt. Crebrobenigne vocati reverti noluerunt; versutos, obscuros, veteratores, vafros, se esse factis produnt, & nos experimentis sentimus. Egregii sane Pastores quibus gregem tuum crederes. Nemo oves persequitur, nullo viso Lupo tamen fugiunt. Quidnam designassent, si eos fortuna ad tempora Domitiani, Deciique servasset?
Inter haec Imperator (to vindicate his ancient Legal Right of Investitures, and conferring Bishoprics, notwithstanding Hildebrands, Urbans, and other Popes Decrees to wrest it from him) desertis gregibus pastores dat, Bathaviae Hermannum filium Luitholfi Ducis Charionum, Juvavensibus Berchtoldum Mosburgensem Principem, Meginardum Literis & facundia insignem, Wurtzburgio praefecit, Mediomatricibus Brunoni filium Alberti Suevi imponit, sed mex eundem ob savitiam abdicat. Posthac cum exercitu atque Archiepiscopis & Minoribus Pontificibus, in Saxonam transitum facit. Hermannus Rex cum conjuratis sacratis prophanis Transalbim fugam capessit. Caeteri Saxons deditionem faciunt, jurejurando fidem Imperatori donat Augustus Hardovicum Herveldensium Praesulem, sacrarum Literarum per quam peritum, sapientem bonumque Archimystam Maydeburgensem designat. Is tertio Idus Julii à Wezilone Moguntino, Segivino Agrippinensi Pontifice, & aliis pleris{que} Episcopis consecratur, Imperator{que} exercitu Saxoniam perlustrat. After the Emperor had disbanded his forces, Saxons ab Episcopis devotis concitati, (such was their restless treacherous Episcopal genius) absque cunctatione deficiunt, arma resumunt, Augusium cedere finibus suis compellunt. The Emperor thereupon collecting his forces, notwithstanding the perjured Bishops and rebellious Saxons former treachery, endeavored out of his transcendent clemency, to reclaim them by his graciousness, instead of cutting them off as incorrigible Traitors. Rursus induciae fiunt, pacis conditions ab utrius{que} partis amicis dicuntur. Hainricus pacata Saxonia in Franciam ob Quadragesimae solennem abstinentiam redit. During his absence there, Episcopy odio excoecati pacem rursus interturbant, copias cogunt, extra sines Turogorum, Saxonum perducunt, • omi lacessere armis Imperatorem statuunt, Wurtzburgium obsident. (O the obstinacy, treachery of Hildebrandian Prelates!) Augustus obsessis auxilio venit: Several battles are fought with various success between both parties, related by Aventinus, Anonymi Historia, De Vita Henrici 4. Caesaris, Dodechinus Appendix ad Marianum Scotum, Otto Frisingensis, Abbas Urspergensis, Bertoldas Constantiensis, Grimston, Cuspinian, Sabellicus and others in the Life of Henry the 4th; over tedious to rehearse.
To pacify these unchristian wars and differences Anno 1090. Valtramus Megburgensis Ecclesiae Antistes, quum esset favens praecipue Henrico Regi, missis literis ad Ludovicum Comitem suggerens ei, ut se subderet dicto Regi; tueretur partes ejus; In quibus literis tanquam pro defensione ordinationis Dei, re autem vera favendo Regi, laborans, beatae men oriae Gregorio Papae, & piae recordationis Rodolpho Regi, & Principibus, qui jam in somno pacis requieverant, obloquendo detrectarant, dicens eos, quasi non fuerint sic periisse, affirmans eis malum principium fuisse quos finem pessinum contigisset habuisse, quarum literarum modus iste est.
Valtramus Dei gratia id quod est, Ludovico Serenissimo Principi circumstantia orationum, semetipsum ad omnia devotissimum. Omni Regno utilis est concordia, desiderabilis est Justitia: Haec enim virtus, mater est probitatis, & conservatio totius honestatis: Qui autem intestina grassando dissentione, ad humani sanguinis alios irritat effusionem, profecto vir sanguinum est, atque illius particeps, qui nostrum sanguinem sitiens semper circuit, quaerens quem devoret. Tu igitur gloriosissime Princeps, attendens, quomodo Deus pacis est, & non dissensionis: quod ex te est, pacem cum omnibus habeas; Deus charitas est, Diabolus odium. Tota Lex & Prophetae, in dilection pendent. Qui odit autem fratrem suum, homicida est, nec habet partem in Christi Regno & Dei. Hoc ipsa veritas; hoc discipulus ill veritatis protestatur, qui de pectore Dominico Evangelii profundius potatus veritatem, fluminis impetu laetificat abundantius Civitatem Dei. Sed ill vas Electionis qui usque ad tertium Coelum, non secundum hominem sed per revelationem Jesu Christi Evangelium suum didicit, Omnis inquit, anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit. Non est enim potestas nisi a Deo. Qui autem resistit potestati, Dei ordinationi resistit. Sicut amici nostri in mulierculas, & simplex vulgus somniant Regiae potestati subdi non oportere; falsum est: Ergo quod omnem animam potestati subdi oporteat. Sed nunquid veritas mendacii arguenda est? An experimentum quaerant ejus qui in Apostolo loquebatur Christus? An aemulemur Dominum? Nunquam fortiores illo sumus? fortiorem se confidit, qui Dei Ordinationationi resistit, quoniam non est potestas nisi a Deo: sed quod ait Propheta: Confundantur omnes qui pugnant adversum te Domine, & peribunt viri qui resistunt tibi. Radulphus, Hildebrandus, Eggebertus & innumeri Principes, Dei Ordinationi in Henrico Imperatore restiterunt; et ecce quasi non fuerint perierunt quia profecto necesse est malum fuisse principium, quorum finis pessimus subsequutus est. Nunc ergo, quoniam qui ex adversa sunt suis, adversum nos eminus digladiantur ratiotinationibus, vestro judicio, ubi jus, vel etiā in vestro judicio conferamus, domicilio tantum non suo usurario, sed Christi & antiq. Patrum utamur testimonio. Ac ne forte recusetur, lex hujus esto certamini, vel me in populorum transire sententiam, vel ex nostro triumpho vos Dom. nostro Imperatori lucri faciamus. Attendatur & illud. Si quis aliter evangelizat, praeter quod evangelizatum est vobis, Anathema sit; hoc Anathema non de prophanae novitatis usurario, sed de tertio intonuit coelo, De istis autem qui ignorantes Dei justitiam, & quaerentes suam statuere, justitiae Dei non sunt subjecti; fiducialiter dixerim, maledicetur illi, & turbenedices; qui insurgunt in me confundantur, servus autem tuus laetabitur, quoniam (ut ait Dominus) sine me nihil potestis facere: nec damnas justum quum judicabitur illi; Tu quis es qui judicas alienum servum? suo Domino stat aut cadit.
To this challenging Letter Ludovicuus returned a satyrical answer (written by Herrandus Halverstadensis Episc. to whom Ludovic delivered Valtrams Letter to be perused and answered) which those who please may peruse in Dodechimus his Appendix, at or near which time Valtramus, Niemburgensis Episcopus, scripsit pro Henrico 4. contra Papam librum.
Pope Urban being driven out of Rome by Clement in partibus Campaniae morabatur, & ab omnibus Catholicis debita reverentia colebatur, viz. a Constantinopolitano Imperatore, & a Philippo Francorum Rege, aliisque diversorum regnorum Principibus tam Ecclesiasticis, quam Secularibus, excepto Teutonicorum regno, ubi multi ex Catholicis in partem excommunicatorum, avaritia decepto, sponte sua se transtulerunt. Romani quoque turrim Crescentii, quae eatenus Domino Papae obediebat, dolo captam, ducere tentaverant: Guibertum quoque haeresiarcham, quem jamdudum expulerunt, iterum Roman intrare, & sanctam Ecclesiam, suis non benedictionibus sed maledictionibus infestare, permiserunt. Whereupon, Dominus Papa Urbanus generalem Synodum Beneventi collegit, & sententiam anathematics super Guibertum haeresiarcham & omnes ejus complices, Synodali judicio confirmavit. Soon after Welpho Boiariae Dux, multos contra Henricum Imperatorem excitavit, ut ipsum novum Regem eligere decernerent, si quorundam pigritia sive malevolentia eos non impediret, because the Emperor refused to restore his Lands and Goods forecited by his Treason, in adhering to Hildebrand and Urban, nec vellet permittere ut Apostolica sedes a Guiberto haeresiarcha invasa, Urbano cononice disponeretur; notwithstanding this excommunication, Multi ex Alemannia Henrico Regi reconciliati sunt, & excommunicationem sedis Apostolicae communem sibi cum Henrico facere, which they valued not at all; Anno 1093. Some Monks of Hildebrands faction deserted their Monasteries in Germany. Nam alia veteriosa excommunicatio, quam piae memory Gregorius Papa, super Guibertum & ejus complices fecit, jam adeo majores in Alemannia contaminavit, ut quique religiosi se inter eos (Salva Catholica communion) perduraturos desperaverint. (Anno 1092, & 1093.) Dominus Papa Urbanus Natalem Domini in terra Sancti Petri extra Romam celebravit. Nam Guibertus haeresiarcha, ita se prope domum Sancti Petri incastellavit, ut non facile absque humaui sanguinis effusione expelli inde potuit, & Urbanus nondum Romam absque armata manu intrare potuit, Guibertistis quidem & excommunicatis multum adhuc ibi praevalentibus, nec facile se absque violentia expelli permittentibus. Henricus quoque Imperator in Longobardia jam biennia morabatur, ibique circumquaque terram Welphonis, Ital. Ducis, praeda, ferro & incendio vastare non cessabat, ut eundem Ducem & ejus prudentissimam uxorem (Machtilda • , Pope Hildebrands Mistress) a fidelitate Sancti Petri discedere, sibique adhaerere compelleret; sed frustra; Nam Dux in sua sententia perstitit, ipsique satis viriliter restitit. This year (1093.) by the solicitation of Pope Urban, & Machtilda, Conrade the Emperors Son deserting his Father, a patre decessit, & Welphoni Duci, reliquisque fidelibus Sancti Petri contra patrem cum suis adjuvit. Whereupon by Urbanus appointment, a Mediolanensi Archiepiscopo & reliquis fidelibus Sancti Petri, in Regem coronatur, aunente Welphone Duce Italiae, & Machtilda ejus charissima conjuge. Civitates quoque de Longobardia, Mediolana, Cremona, Lauda, Placentia, contra Henricum in viginti annos conjuraverunt, qui omnes praedicto Duci fideliter adhaeserunt. Transitus etiam Alpium in Longobardiam obtinuerunt, ut fautores Henrici ad ipsum non possent proficisci. Augustenses Episcopum quem Henric. illis dedit, expulerunt, ipsique sibi Catholicum pastorem canonice elegerunt, qui Eporegiensem Episcopum in castello, quo transitus Alpium custoditur, captivavit. Metensis Ecclesia & Tullensis & Virdunensis, ab obedientia Egelberti Treverensis excommunicati, eique non amplius obedituras apertissime mandaverunt. Quorum Metensis, refutatio Episcopo, quem Henricus eis dare voluit, ipsi sibi canonice pastorem eligere, eum{que} a Gebehardo Constantiensi Episcopo sedis Apostolici Legato consecrari fecere. This Popes Legat the same year held an assembly at Ulin, where Welpho Duke of Bavaria, his own Brother Bertoldus; whom he had made Duke of Germany, with sundry Princes, Bishops, Abbots, Religious persons entered into League and Oath against the Emperor Henry, Ut ipsi Episcopo Constantiersi omnimodo secundum statuta Canonum obediretur, & ut Duci Bertolde secundum legem Alemannorum obsecundaretur, a septimo die Decembris usque in Pascha, & a Pascha in duos annos. Hanc pacem singuli Principes qui convenerunt, tam majores quam minores juraverunt, & per potestatem suam usquequaque viritim jurare fecerunt. The next year they drew into this confederacy Duke Wilpho, France, Alsatia, and many parts of Germany, even to Hungary. These were the fruits of Hildebrands Successors and confederates to set up not only Subjects of all sorts against their lawful Prince, but the Son against the Father; the People against their lawful Bishops, yea Bishops themselves against their lawful Archbishops appointed by the Emperor, adhering faithfully to him against Urban their Anti-Pope; And not satisfied herewith.
Anno 1094. They solicited and procured Praxedis the Empress to fly away from her Husband, to his capital Enemies, first to Duke Welpho and Machtilda his Wife, Qui gratanter eam susceperunt & honorabiliter tractaverunt, and then to Pope Urban; Quae se tantas tamque inauditas fornicationum spurcitias, & a tantis passam fuisse conquesta est, ut etiam apud inimicos fugam suam facilem excusaret, omnesque Catholicos ad compassionem tantarum injuriarum sibi conciliaret. Then her scandalous complaints to defame the Emperor must be published in a great Synod first held at Constance by Geberhardus the Popes Legate, and spread over all Germany to alienate his Subjects from him then; in Lombardy, Italy and Rome; God in the mean time during these Rebellions, plagued and punished these seditious Hildebrandrians not only with intestine wars, but most grievous pestilences, famine, inundations, prodigious flies, caterpillars, corrustations, earthquakes, tempests, prodigies from year to year, to bring them to repentance, recorded at large by Historians. Yet though many of the vulgar sort of people, and other persons were reclaimed, yea brought to confess and lament their sins thereby, yet the Pope, Prelates, Clergy and Ringleaders of this obdurate Hildebrandian factions (all be it many of them were cut off by sudden death, to their great grief and prejudice of St. Peters cause) still proceeded impetinently in their antichristian, antimonarchical Treasons, rebellions, excommunicating their Opposites afresh in all places; and so cauterized the consciences of their own party by their unchristian Anathemaes, that their great Advocate Bertoldus Constantiensit, informs us: Magna tamen in illis partibus (viz. Boiaria, Franca, Teutonica, Alsatia) sancta mater in devitatione excommunicatorum perpessa est, quas utique vix devitare posset, si non jamdudum Dominus Papa sententiam excommunicationis quodammodo cum Apostolica authoritate temperasset. Nam multos ipso more praedecessoris sui venerabilis Papae Gregorii, de excommunicatione seclusit. videlicet, viatores, rusticos, servos & ancillas, uxores & filios, quos tamen perversa voluntas eodem vinculo excommunicationis non astrixerit. This salve found out for this inconvenience, (for which Cardinal Benno and others taxed Hildebrand of Heresy) An. 1094. in Galliarum Civitate, quam Ostionem vulgaliter dicunt, congregatum est generale Concilium, a venerando Hugone Lugdunensi Archiepiscopo & see is Apostol. Legato cum Archiepiscopis, Episcopis & Abbatibus diversaram provinciarum 17. Cal. Novembris, in quo concilio renovata est excommunicatio in Henricum Regem, et in Guibertum sedis Apost. invasorem, et in omnes eorum complices. And not contented herewith: Item Rex Gallicarum Philippus excommunicatus est (as well as the Emperor, and that in his own Realm by his own Bishops in obedience to this Pope) eo quod vivente uxore sua aliam superinduxerit. Item Simoniac. haeresis, & incontinent. Sacerdotum sub excommunicatione damnata est. The like was decreed in the Council of Constance, held by the Popes Legate the same year, who prohibited the people under pain of excommunication not to resort to the Masses and divine Offices of Simonians or married Priests, which many thereupon in Alsatia refused to do.
Urban not daring to reside at Rome, by reason of Clements party there overpowering him, celebrated the Nativity at Pisa, where Dagobertus the Bishop most studiously serving him, he honored him and his See with a Pall and Title of Archbishopric. By this Popes treachery, Henricus in Longobardia morabatur paene omni regia dignitate privatus. Nam filius suus Conradus, jamdudum in Regem coronatus, se ab illo penitus separavit, et Dominae Mathildae caeterisque fidelibus sancti Pe • ri, firmiter conjunctus, totum robur parerni exexcitus in Longobardia obtinuit. Dominus Papa Deo & S. Petro prosperante (whom he intities to these unnatural, prosperous Treacheries and Rebellions) jam paene ubique praevaluit, & in media Longabardia, in Civitate Placantina, inter ipsos Schismaticos & contra ipsos generalem Synodum condixit, ad quam Episcopos Italiae, Burgundiae, Franciae, Alemanniae, Boiariae, aliarumque Provinciarum, Canonica et Apostolica authoritate missis Literis convocavit, (without either the Emperor or the Kings Mandates, the only lawful ancient Summoners of General, National, and Provincial Councils too, as the premises evidence) Ad quam Synodum tam innumerabilis multitudo confluxit, ut nequaquam in qualibet Ecclesia illius loci possit comprehendi. Unde & Dominus Papa extra urbem in campo illam celebrare compulsus est. In hac Synodo Praxedis Regina jamdudum ab Henrico separara (by the Popes and Mathildaes persuasion and advice, to defame her Husband) super maritum suum Domino Apostolico & Sanctae Synodo conquesta est, de inauditis fornicatorum Spurcitiis quas apud maritum passa est: cujus querimoniam Dominus Papa cum Sancta Synodo satis misericorditer suscepit, eo quod ipsam tantas spurcitias non tam commisisse quam invitam pertulisse pro certo cognoverit: (She and they fathering her abominable Adulteries on the Emperor) Unde & de poenitentia pro hujusmodo flagitiis injungenda illam clementer absolvit, quae & peccatum suum (therefore not the Emperors) sponte & publice confiteri non erubuit (to shame the Emperor rather than herself) Ad hanc Synodum Philippus Rex Galliarum legatum suum direxit, seque ad illum iterarripisse, sed legitimis sociis se impeditum fuisse mandavit, unde inducias sibi usque Pentecost. apud Dominum Papam Synodo intercedente impetravit; Dominus autem Hugo Lugdunensis Archiepiscopus ad eandem Synodum vocatus, ab Officio suspenditur, eo quod ipse non venerit nec legatum cum canonica excusatione illuc pro se direxerit, [a just reward for excommunicating his Sovereign.] Now because so many were excommunicated▪ that few of their Party could be admitted to the Lord's Supper, without some mitigation of the laws, they enacted amongst other things in that Synod, Ut quilibet rite ad confessionem venientibus Eucharistiam non denegemus, quos solo corpore non mente inter excommunicatos manere, nec tamen eorum Sacramentis communicare, cognoscimus. They likewise condemned Priests and Deacons Marriages under the nick-name of Nicholaitans, and Investirures under the Title of Simony, in pursuance of Hildebrands Decrees, which they then ratified. Item haeresis Nicholaitarum [i.] incontinentiam Subdiaconorum, Diaconorum, & praecipue Sacerdotum, irretractabiliter damnata est, ut deinceps de officio se non intromittant, qui in illa heresy manere non formidant, nec populus eorum officia nullo modo recipiat, si ipsi Nicholaitae, contra haec interdicta ministrare praesumant. In hac quoque Synodo haeresis Simoniacorum penitus damnata est, ut quicquid & in sacris ordinibus, & in Ecclesiasticis rebus, data & promissa pecunia acquisitum Simoniace videretur, pro irrito haberetur, nullasque vires habuisse, & habere judicaretur. His tamen non Simonaice & nescienter a Simoniacis ordinati sunt, misericordia in servando ordine concessa est; qui vero scienter ab hujusmodi ordinati sunt, cum suis ordinatoribus irrecuperabiliter damnati sunt, for receiving Investitures only from Laymen.
Item in Guibertum haeresiarcham sedis Apostolicae invasorem, & in omnes ejus complices [wherein the Emperor was principally intended] sententia anathematis Synodali judicio cum ardentibus candelis iterum promulgata est. In hac Synodo quatuor millia fere Clericorum & plusquam triginta millia Laicorum fuisse perhibentur. After which Conradus Rex filius Henrici, [whom the Pope had traitorously, unnaturally set up in rebellion and oppostion against his Father] Domino Papae Urbano, Cremonam venienti obviam progreditur, eique stratoris officium exhibuit, quarto Idus Aprilis. Deinde fecit ei fidelitatem juramento, de vita, de membrir, & de Papatu Romano. Dominus autem Papa in filium Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae recepit illum, eique Consilium & adjutorium ad obtinendum regnum, & ad Coronam Imperii acquirendam, coram populo firmissime promisit, salva quidem justitia illius Ecclesiae, & Statutis Apostolicis, maxim de investituris in spiritualibus officiis a Laico non usurpandis.
After which this Pope presumed to summon a Synod at Claremont in France by his own authority, ad quam diversarum Provinciarum Episcopos, missis literis Canonica vocatione invitavit. Whereupon, In Galliis ad Clarum montem generalis Synodus a Domino Papa in octav. Sancti Martini congregati est, in qua 13. Archiepiscopi cum eorum Suffraganeis fuerunt, & 205. Pastorales virgae numeratae sunt. In hac Synodo Dominus Papa eadem Statuta quae in praeterita Synodo Placentina confirmavit, insuper & Philippum Regem Galliarum excommunicavit, eo quod propria uxore dimissa, militis sui uxorem sibi in Conjugium sociavit. Philip the next year, Jamdudum pro adulteriis excommunicatus, tandem Domino Papae, dum adhuc in Gaul moraretur, satis humiliter ad satisfactionem venit, & abjurata adultera, in gratiam receptus est, seque in servitium Domino Papae satis promptum exhibuit:
This Pope encouraged by these his successful Usurpations in France, Ibi etiam aliam Synodum in tertiam subsequentis Quadragesimae hebdomodam Turonis celebrandam denunciavit. In tertia hebdomada Quadragesimae Dominus Papa Synodum celebravit cum diversarum Episcopis Provinciarum, in Civitate Turonensi, ubi iterum suorum praeteritorum Statuta Conciliorum, generalis Synodi assensione roboravit; & non multo post Episcopum Strazburgensem, de excommunicatione resipiscentem recepit in communionem, ita tamen ut de illatis criminibus se expurgaret. In these Synods, to weaken the power of Kings and Princes he stirred up great multitudes to cross themselves, for the holy wars, under Peter the hermi • and others, though with ill success, His temporibus maxima multitudo de Italia, & omni Gaul & Germania Hyerosolymam contra Paganos, ut liberarent Christianos ire coepit, cujus expeditionis Dom. Papa maximus author fuit. Nam & in praeteritis Synodis studiosissime omnes de hac expeditione promovere eamque eis in remissionem omnium peccatorum faciendam firmissime commendavit: omnes quoque qui se ad hoc iter devoverunt, signo crucis seipsos in vestibus notare fecit, quod etiam signum quibusdam, in ipsa carne notum apparuit. Unde & a quampluribus Dei ordination & inspiratione ipsum iter incaeptum fuisse credebatur. Nimium tamen simpliciter innumerabilis multitudo popularium iter illud arripuit, qui nullo modo se ad tale periculum praeparare noverunt & potuerunt. Unde et eorum non parva pars occubuit quae terram Ungarorum satis impudenter devastare praesumpsit, reliqui vero subsequentem multitudinem Rex Vngariae terram illam intrare, non permisit, cujus etiam non minima pars ad introitum Vngariae occubuit. Non erat autem mirum quod propositum iter ad Jerusalem implere non potuerunt, qui non tali humilitate & devotione ac deberet illud iter adorti sunt. Nam et plu • es Apostatas in comitatu suo habuerunt, qui abjecto religions habitu cum illis militare proposuerunt. Sed & innumerabiles foeminas secum habere non timuerunt, quae naturalem habitum in virilem nefarie mutaverunt, cum quibus fornicati sunt, in quo Deum mirabiliter, sicut israeliticus populus quondam, offenderunt. Unde post labores, pericula et mortes, tandem cum Vngariam non permitterentur intrare, domum macte cum magna tristitia caeperunt repedare. Such was the ill success of this holy Cheat, designed for other ends.
Joannes Aventinus renders us this account of Conrades Rebellion against his Father and his proceedings against him, when incorrigible. Augustus jam ad statum pristinae Majestatis, universis pacatis, Hildebrando sublato, Urbano profugo rediisse videbatur & redierat, nisi filius suus Conradus, aemulus paternae potentiae fax & turbo novae discordiae fuisset. Is suasu Urbani & Machtyldae filiam Rogeri Normanni Siciliae reguli uxorem ducit; a Patre decessit, Italiae regnum sibi vendicat, moxque ad eum omnes inimici Augusti provolant. Augustus frustra crebro ad filium Legatos mittit, sibi insidiari non desinentem, ex professo sub magna superficie pietatis exercitus, proceres, milites sollicitantem, nequicquam orat, obsecrat, ne tam infandum scelus adversus genitorem (qui eum hactenus consortem Imperii successorem testari perseveraverit) committat; sed surdo cecinit Augustus. Clemens tertius Vrbe a Conrado pellitur. Urbanus restituitur; mox invicem diras inferiasque dicunt. Urbanus acta Hildebrandi tueri, Clemens rescindere pergit. Imperator quoque summa ope contra Urbanum nititur. Moveri rursus Civitas Christiana, & dissensio Civilis, quasi permistio terrae erumpere coepit, scinditurque populus Christianus, pauci reperti, qui veram pietatem, injustae potentiae anteponerent; partium studia, quae extincta erant, gliscunt. Neque illis modestia, neque ullus est modus contentionis; utrisque cupiditas victoriae haud satis moderata; multos mortals ea lues extinxit, remque Christianam pessundedit; dum alteri alteros quovis modo vincere volunt. Urbanus criminando Imperatorem, plebem Christianam exagitat occulte largiendo, indulgendo, pollicitando, magis incendit, ita ipse clarus, potens factus, ex libidine sua victoria utitur, plusque sibi ac successoribus spinarum ac potentiae, quam pietatis, atque amoris comparavit sub titulo Christi, pro sua magnitudine amplitudineque laboravit. Namque uti paucis verum absolvam, post illa tempora quicunque concionem divinam agitavere honestis nominibus, quasi jura Ecclesiae, libertatemque religions defenderent, et quo Romani Episcopy authoritas maxima foret, bonum publicum simulantes pro sua quisque potentia certaverunt. Imperator quidem contra haec summa ope connisus fuit: And by all possible means endeavored to reclaim his Son Conrade from his Unnatural Rebellion, but could not prevail, being intoxicated by Urban and Machtylda; whereupon, Is ubi filium ad sanitatem reducere non potuit, in Agrippinense Colonia hybernat octavo Idus Januarii ad Aquas Granias ad Conventus Procerum Imperii agendos concedit. Ibi habito eorum, quibus venire, sententiam dicere jus erat, Concilio in Senatu, ita verba fecit: O fidissimi Civium; piissimique amicorum, Romani Imperii proceres, Christianaeque familiae columen, id vos oro & per Dium immortalem, per Majestatem Imperii, per salutem & dignitatem vestram, per jusjurandi religionem, qua nobis & Reipub. astricti estis obtestor, ut po • ;it is gratia atque odio in commune consulatis, & Rempublicam capessatis; pietatem, pacem jam pridem factione atque perfidia paucorum terris depulsam, vestro labor, vestraque industria reducem stabilite; saevior tempestas rursus fluctibus obruit, me in Imperium natum educatumque; quem Deus summus rerum arbiter, & vos Imperatorem rebus humanis imposuistis, non inimicus, neque hostis, sed quod falsum esse, & neminem credere percupiam, filius meus illecebris foemineis captus, quem genui, participem regni feci, successorem declaravi, contra jus Gentium, adversus jus naturae et sanguinis necessitudinem, contra divinum edictum, immemor beneficiorum, oblitus naturae, non solum dignitate, sed et vita privare conatur parentem, cui vitam, dignitatem, quicquid denique habet acceptum refer necesse est, extinguere con • ititur, Dux facti foemina est: diutius quam filio placet me Deus servat, vitam quam natura mihi donat, proles mea mihi invidet. Expectare semis fata recusat. Quae sane nostrae sunt injuriae nihil ad vos. Verum nunc vestrum duce foemina occupavit regnum, vi & armis tenet. Vos in mea injuria despecti estis, vestra beneficia mihi excepta sunt, non me, sed vos contemnit. Vestra res agitur, audaciam hominum spectate. Non opus est malis geniis, homini ex homine plurima mala; Vni animalium, homini, ambitio honoris, avaritiae immensa cupido; nulli rerum major libido, nulli rabies acrior. Quid reliquum est, nisi ut caeteri omnes, ab hoc, quasi in loco illustri constituti, exempla sibi sumant, parricidia passim impune committant! Si ulla apud vos est memoria Conradi avi, atque Henrici parentis mei, majorumque vestrorum, nolite pati Imperium vestro sanguine atque sudore partum, per scelus et parricidia tabescere; per amplitudinem, salutemque vestram, per immortalem majorum gloriam obsecro, auferte procul in ultimas terras ex Germaniae victrice Gentium flagitium hocce, hactenus inauditum. Defessum tot civilibus praeliis Orbem Romanum asserite a vitiis, scelere immanissimo Rempublicam Christianam vindicate; poenas impietatis scelerati reddant, sentiant sacrilegi impostores, Germanicam virtutem nondum a majoribus degenerasse, vos Majorum vestigiis inniti decet, terrori pessimis, quibus{que} bonis patrocinio esse. Quod tum fiet si uno consensu filium meum minorem natu, majore ob scelera exhaeredato atque proscripto, Caes • rem declaraveritis. Haec ubi Augustus dixit, pauci, quibus omnia alia atque sides & Respub. chariora erant, contra nitebantur, Caeteri omnes indignitate facinoris • commoti, aequa postulare Augustum censent, ejusque▪ postulatis annuunt ex consilii decreto: more majorum Hainricum filium Augustum impuberem adhuc Caesarem consalutant, isque se nunquam a patre defecturum solenni ritu jurat. Jamque Civile bellum, parricidialisque pugna parabatur. Imperator cum exercitu in Italiam intrat, Nordmannos, Machtyldam atroci proelio superat, Castella, oppida, vicos, Mantuam, Florentiam obsidet, expugnat, capit. Romanos supplices obviam procedentes, datis acceptis{que} mandatis domum dimittit. Urbanus in Hispaniam aufugit. Eodem anno interea, dum Caesar in Italia belligeratur; Welpho Augustum Rhetiae capit, populus Sacerdotes praedae fuere. Complures qui in Templum maximum confugerant ab irato teste ibidem contrucidati sunt; Sigefridus Episcopus ab ara retractus in vincula conjicitur, Wigoldus Hildebrandinus, author hujusce belli, Civibus Episcopus imponitur. Postridie, licet pollutus homicidio, sacrificat. Vix sacra perpetrarat, morbo corripitur atque expirat. Circa eundum temporis tractum universi Episcopy, Principes, faces et antesignani civillis belli, quo septemdecim annos Respublica attrita fuit, uno anno extincti sunt. A memorable judgment of God upon them for their Rebellions, Seditions, Treasons. After this, Dominus Papa Urbanus been dispositis rebus in Gaul, post reconciliationem Regis Franciae & multa Concilia, tandem in Longobardiam cum multo triumpho & gloria repedavit. Anno 1097. Dominus Papa tandem ad Apostolicam sedem cum magna gloria & tripudio reversus Cardinalibus gloriosissime celebravit nativitatem Domini cum suis: quippe tota Romana urbe pene sibi subjugata praeter turrim Crescentii, in qua adhuc latitabant Guibertini. Domina egregia Dux et Marchionissa Machtylda, devotissima Sanctae Ecclesiae filia, ipsa pene sola cum suis complicibus Heinricum & haeresiarchum Guibertum, complicesque eorum jam septennio prudentissime pugnavit, tandemque Heinricum de Longobardia satis viriliter fugavit, & ipsa recuperatis suis bonis, Deo & Sancto Petro gratias refer non destitit.
Pope Urban continued at Rome Anno 1098. maintaining wars and contests both there and in Italy with Clement his Competitor: at last having manfully enough either appeased or finally conquered most of his Enemies, Anno 1099. Romae Dominus Papae generalem Synodum 150. Episcoporum & Abbatum & Clericorum innumerabilium in tertia hebdomada post Pascha collegit, in qua Synodo, confirmatis suorum antecessorum statutis, etiam sententiam Anathematis super Guibertum haeresiarcham, et omnes ejus complices iteravit (if the many former excommunications of him had been valid, what need this reiteration of them?) Statuit quoque ibi, ne communicare praesumerent, qui concubinas haberent, nisi prius ease omnino demitterent. De Hierosolymitano itinere multum rogavit ut irent, & fratribus suis laborantibus su • currerent. Our Historians Eadmerus, Radulphus de Diceto, and others record, that Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury was present in this Roman Synod; Ubi ex • ommunicationis sententia tam Laicos qui investituras Ecclesiarum dant, or more pristino conferentes (as Radulphus de Diceto words it) quam illos qui easdem de manibus laicorum accipiunt, et qui sacris eos initiant, &c. or taliter post acceptum honorem munus consecrationis impendere praesumentes, a communion fidelium Synodalis auctoritas decrevit extorres, as Diceto renders it. Upon which account, Anselm peremptorily refused to consecrate any Bishops who received investitures from the King, of which in due place, Simeon Dunelmensis, and Johannes De Brompton, who register this Constitution, render the reasons thereof given by Pope Urban, in these ensuing terms.
An. 1099. Urbanus Papa 3. Ebdomada Paschae magnum Concilium tenuit Romae: In quo recisis recidendis & statutis statuendis, in adversarios sanctae Ecclesiae Excommunicationis sententiam in omnes laicos investitaras Ecclesiarum dantes, et omnes easdem investitu • as de manibus illorumaccipientes, nec non omnes in officio sic dati honoris hujusmodi consecrantes, cum toto Concilio Papa intorsit; Eosque Anatheniatis vinculo colligavit, qui pro Ecclesiasticis honoribus Laicorum hominum homines fiunt, dicens, Nimis execrabile videri, ut manus quae in tantam eminentiam excreverant, ut quod nulli Angelorum concessum est, Deum cuncta creantem, suo signaculo creent, et eundem ipsum pro redemptione, et salute totius mundi summi Dei Patris optutibus offerunt, in hanc ignorantiam detrudantur, ut ancillae fiant earum manuum quae die ac nocte obscaenis contactibus inquinantur, sive rapinis, ac injustae sanguinum effusioni addictae, commaculantur. Which blasphemous reasons being uttered, Fiat, fiat, ab omnibus est acclamatum, & in his Concilium consummatum.
The Emperors Henry the 3. & 4. notwithstanding all Hildebrands, Urbans, and other Decrees against Simony, would not part with, but still maintained and exercised their ancient Right of Investitures, in conferring Bishoprics; and the Papacy itself, according to the forecited Decrees of Popes themselves, used by their Predecessors, as these Presidents in the eleventh Century after Christ (when Investitures were most eagerly decried, decreed against,) will evidence, besides others which I pretermit.
The Emperor Henry the 3. having constituted Clement the 2d. Pope by his Imperial Authority, Anno 1048. about the same time he made Humfridus his Chancellor Bishop of Ravenna in Italy, Theodoricus Bishop of Constance, his Arch-chaplain, Bishop of Aquisgran, Herardus Bishop of Spire, Theodoricus of Verdunum, and one of his Chaplains Bishop of Basil, Henry his Chaplain Bishop of Augusta, A • elbero Bishop of Mets, and Eberhardus Bishop of Trevers, within the compass of one year, in the places of those who fled or were removed, as Hermannus Contractus, and others record, who also inform us, That Anno Dom. 1049. this Emperor elected, and made Poppo Brixiensis Pope, and sent him to Rome to be installed, that the same year he made Gotebastus Patriarch of Aquileia after Eberhardus his decease, and likewise elected and made Bruno Pope, sending him to Rome to be installed. That he designed by his Imperial authority Meinwerchus to be Bishop of Padeborn: and Anno 1051. he constituted Luitpoldus Archbishop of Mainz in the place of Bardo deceased, Rumoldus Bishop of Constance in the place of deceased Theodoricus, and Egelhardus Bishop of Magdeburg after Memfred. Anno 1052. he promoted Henry to the Archbishopric of Ravenna after the poisoning of Humfridus. Anno 1055. he instituted Hatto Bishop of Trent, Echardus Bishop of Brixia, and Eugelbertus of Minden. Anno 1056. he ordained Gomradus Bishop of Nemets, and Hermannus Archbishop of Agrippinae. Anno 1060. he made Sigefridus Archbishop of Colen, Euchardus Bishop of Nemeri, Otho Bishop of Maspurgh, and at the Romans petition elected, and constituted the Bishop of Parma Pope in the place of Pope Nicholas then deceased. Anno 1062. Egerhardus Bp. of Magdeburg dying, he constituted another who succeeded him. Anno 1063. Henry Bishop of Augusta (a proud lecherous Prelate) overfamiliar with the Empress Agneta, was thereupon besieged by the Emperors forces, and surrendering himself to mercy, all the rest were dismissed; at Episcopy pudenda sign • cuspide transfigit, whereof he shortly dying, Henry the 4th. succeeding his Father Henry the 3d. Imbricum fecit Augustinum Epise. An. 1065. Henry the 4th. made Altmannus his Chaplain, Bishop of Patavia; An. 1066. he elected Conrade Archbishop of Trevers, who though opposed by the Hildebrandian faction, prevailed at last. After which he constituted Henry de Werle, Bishop of Padeborn, Udo Bishops of Heildethei • , Hardicus Bishop of Magdeburg, who had great contests with their Hildebrandian and Rodulphian Competitors, but prevailed against them in conclusion. Anno 1084 he deposed Adelbero Bishop of Wirtzburgh, for adhering to the Pope against his allegiance, and placed Meginhardus in his See, who being violently dispossessed thereof by Adelbero, the Emperor again ejected this intruder and re-placed Meg •• hardus in the Bishopric; yea he deprived no less than 14. German Archbishops and Bishops for their rebellions against him at once, and put others in their places, by his Imperial power, as I have already evidenced.
Pope Cl •• meant notwithstanding all the excommunications denounced against him by Urban, would not quit his Right to the Papacy, nor the Emperor his Prerogative of conferring Bishoprics and Churches by Investitures; But on the contrary, this very year, Cardinal Benno, with others of the Emperors and Clements party, meeting in a Synod of Rome, after many admonitions & summons to Urban & his schismatical Party to appear before them, and renounce their seditious, turbulent, schismatical Practises, Heresies, and sophistications, denounced this ensuing sentence against them as incorrigible Schismatics & Heretics, and ordered all their Decrees made in their forecited Councils at Platentia, Claremont, Rome, & elsewhere, to be publicly burnt as heretical; thus enrolled to posterity by Card. Benno and others out of him.
Adelb • rtus Episcopus S. Ruffinae Sylvae Candidae, Johannes Episcopus Hostensis. Hugo Episcopus Praenestinus, Albertus Episcopus Nephesinus. Benno Cardinalis Presbyter urbis Romae, Romanus Cardinalis urbis Romae, Octavianus, Cardinalis Presbyter designatus, Paulus Primicerius Romanae Ecclesiae, Nicholaus, Electus Abbas, S. Sylvestri urbis Romae, N. Abbas S. Paneratii urbis Romae, & Clerus: Et clarissimi Principes Laici, Theobaldus Chirebii, & Udalricus de S. Eustathio, & populus Romanus, omnibus Deum timentibus, & salutem Romanae Reipublicae diligentibus.
Nolumus ignorare prudentiam vestram, quod ad destruendas heresies noviter ab Hiltebrando inventas, & antiquas sub nomine pietatis, impie ab ipso renovatas, & ad defensionem fidei Catholicae, et ad exterminandam impietatem eorum qui noviter ipsam fidem Catholicam (quantum in ipsis erat) scindere non timuerunt, Deo author; Nonis apud Sanctum Blasium convenimus, octavo Idus apud S. Celsum, septimo Idus apud sanctam Mariam in Ecclesia quae vocatur Rotunda. consedimus, ipsas Heresies damnatas, sicut Majores nostri, et nos dammamus, omnes Sectatores, communicatores, complices semel, damnatae pravitatis pari sort censemus, ne si vel paululum taceamus, consentire videamur. Eos vero qui authoribus errorum communicant, data securitate, libere veniendi & abeundi, vocamus, & ut per Majores suos Dominum Roynerium, & Johannem Burgundionem cursum suum, agant admonemus, securitatem integram in quantum possumus, usque ad festum omnium Sanctorum proponimus, etiam cum in causa sua defecerint, neminem circumvenientes, nullius sanguinem, sed omnium vitam, & honorem sitientes, nec seditiones in populo commoventes. De causa enim sua diffidere videtur quisquis auctor est seditionis. Pacem vero & dilectionem sinceram proponimus omnibus, pacem & veritatem & unitatem Catholicoe Ecclesiae amplectentibus, ut simus filii Patris nostri, qui in coelis est. Qui enim ex patre Diabolo sunt, opera patris sui faciunt, conspirationibus, & seditionibus cujus filii sunt manifest ostendunt. Nos vero illius Discipuli esse desideramus, cujus Doctrina etiam inimicis sane est intelligenda. Orent pro nobis Ecclesiae filii, ut crescat Sermo Domini. Data