SECT. I.

CENT. tion to set bounds to the tyranny of this furious XVI. pontiff, and to correct and reform the errors and corruptions of a superstitious church. Julius, on the other hand, relying on his own strength, and on the power of his allies, beheld these threaten. ing appearances without the least concern, nay, treated them with mockery and laughter. He did not, however, neglect the methods of rendering ineffectual the efforts of his enemies, that prudence dictated, and therefore gave orders for a council to meet in the palace of the Lateran in the year 1512 [f], in which the decrees of the council of Pisa were condemned and annulled in the most injurious and insulting terms. This condemnation would, undoubtedly, have been followed with the most dire and formidable ana themas against Lewis and other Princes, had not death snatched away this audacious pontiff, in the year 1512, in the midst of his ambitious and vindictive projects, do a pen o

VII. He was succeeded, in the year 1513, by Leo X. of the family of Medicis, who, though of a milder disposition than his predecessor, was nevertheless equally indifferent about the interests of religion and the advancement of true piety. He was a protector of men of learning, and was himself learned as far as the darkness of the age would admit of. His time was divided between conversation with men of letters and pleasure; though it must be observed, that the greatest part of it was consecrated to the latter. He had an invincible aversion to whatever was accompanied with solicitude and care, and discovered the greatest impatience under events of that nature. He was remarkable for his prodigality, luxury, and imprudence, and has even been charged with impiety, if not atheism. He did not, however, neglect

[f] Harduini Concilia, tom. ix. p. 1559,

SECT. I,

neglect the grand object which the generality of CENT. his predecessors had so much at heart, even the XVI promoting and advancing the opulence and grandeur of the Roman see. For he took the utmost care that nothing should be transacted in the council of the Lateran, which Julius had assembled and left sitting, that had the least tendency to favour the Reformation of the church. He went still farther; and, in a conference which he had with Francis I. king of France, at Bologna, hạ engaged that monarch to abrogate the Pragmatic Sanction [g], which had been so long odious to the popes of Rome, and to substitute in its place another body of laws, more advantageous to the papacy, which were imposed upon his subjects under the title of the Concordate, and received with the utmost indignation and reluctance [h].

VIII. The

[g] We have mentioned this Pragmatic Sanction, Cent. XV. Part II. Chap. II. sect. xvi. note [9], and given there some account of its nature and design. This important edict is published at large in the eighth volume of the Concilia Harduini, p. 1949. as is the Concordate, that was substituted in its place, in the ninth volume of the same work, p. 1867. and in Leibnitz, his Mantissa Codicis Diplomat. part I. p. 158. part II. p. 358. The history of these two pieces is given in an ample and accurate manner by bishop Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, vol. iii. p. 3.-See also on the same subject, De Boulay, Historia Acad. Paris. tom. vi. p. 61.—109. Du Clos, Histoire de Louis XI. Histoire du Droit Ecclesiastique Francois, tom. i. Diss. ix. p. 415.-Menigiana, tom. iii. p. 285.

[h] The king went in person to the parliament to offer the Concordate to be registered, and letters patent were made out requiring all the judges and courts of justice to observe this Act, and see it executed. The parliament, after deliberating a month upon this important matter, concluded not to register the Concordate, but to observe still the Pragmatic, unless the former edict was received and established in as great an assem bly as that was, which published the latter in the reign of Charles VII. And when by violence and force they were obliged to publish the Concordate, they joined to this publication a solemn protest, and an appeal from the pope to the next general council, into both which measures the university and the clergy entered with the greatest alacrity and zeal, But royal and papal despotism at length prevailed.

The

CENT.

SECT. I.

The ava

VIII. The raging thirst of dominion that conXVI. sumed these pontiffs, and their arrogant endea vours to crush and oppress all that came within the reach of their power, were accompanied with rice of the the most insatiable avarice. All the provinces of Europe were, in a manner, drained to enrich these ghostly tyrants, who were perpetually gaping after

popes.

The chancellor De Prat, who was principally concerned in promoting the Concordate, has been generally regarded as an enemy to the liberties of the Gallican church. The illustrious and learned president Hainault has not, however, hesitated to defend his memory against this accusation, and to justify the Concordate as an equitable contract, and as a measure attended with less inconveniences than the Pragmatic Sanction. He observes, that by the king's being invested, by the Concordate, with the privilege of nominating to the bishoprics and vacant benefices of the first class, many corruptions and abuses were prevented, which arose from the simoniacal practices that prevailed almost every where, while, according to the Pragmatic Sanction, every church chose its bishop, and every monastery its abbot. He observes, moreover, that this nomination was the natural right of the crown, as the most considerable part of the great benefices had been created by the kings of France, and he insists particularly on this consideration, that the right which Christian communities have to choose their leaders, can. not be exercised by such large bodies without much confusion and many inconveniences; and that the subjects, by entrusting their sovereign with the government of the state, invest, him ipso facto, with an authority over the church which is a part of the state, and its noblest branch. See Hainault, Abregê Chronologique de l'Histoire de France, in the particular remarks that are placed at the end of the reign of Lewis XIV.

The most specious objection that was made to the Concordate was this: that in return for the nomination to the vacant benefices, the king granted to the popes the annates, or first fruits, which had so long been complained of as an intolerable grievance.. There is, however, no mention of this equivalent in the Concordate, And it was by a papal bull that succeeded this compact, that the pontiffs claimed the payment of the first fruits, of which they had put themselves in possession in the year 1316, and which had been suspended by the Pragmatic Sanction. See the Histoire du Droit Ecclesiastique Francois. As this substitution of the Concordate, in the place of the Pragmatic Sanction, was a most important transaction, and had a very great influence upon the minds of the English, the transla tor judged it necessary to give here some account of that matter.

XVI.

SECT. I.

after new accessions of wealth, in order to aug- CENT. ment the number of their friends and the stability of their dominion. And indeed, according to the notions commonly entertained, the rulers of the church seemed to have a fair enough pretext, from the nature of their character, to demand a sort of tribute from their flock; for none can deny to the supreme governors of any state (and such was the character assumed by the popes) the privilege of levying tribute from those over whom they bear rule. But as the name of tribute was every way proper to alarm the jealousy and excite the indignation of the civil magistrate, the pontiffs were too cunning to employ it, and had recourse to various stratagems and contrivances to rob the subject without shocking the sovereign, and to levy taxes under the specious mask and pretext of religion. Among these contrivances, the distribution of indulgences, which enabled the wealthy to purchase impunity for their crimes by certain sums applied to religious uses, held an eminent rank. This traffic of indulgences was constantly renewed whenever the coffers of the church were exhausted. On these occasions, they were recommended warmly to the ignorant multitude under some new, specious, yet fallacious pretext, and were greedily sought after, to the great de triment both of individuals and of the commu nity.

held infe

cil.

IX. Notwithstanding the veneration and hom- The pope's age that were almost every where paid to the Ro. authority man pontiffs, they were far from being universally rior to that reputed infallible in their decisions, or unlimited of a coun in their authority. The wiser part of the German, French, Flemish, and British nations, considered them as liable to error, and bounded by law. The councils of Constance and Basil had contributed extremely to rectify the notions of the people in that respect; and from that period all

Christians,

SECT. I.

CENT. Christians, except the superstitious monks and. XVL parasites of Rome, were persuaded that the pope was subordinate to a general council, that his decrees were not infallible, and that the council had a right to depose him, whenever he was convicted of gross errors or enormous crimes. Thus were the people, in some measure, prepared for the reformation of the church; and hence that ardent desire, that earnest expectation of a general council, which filled the minds of the wisest and best Christians in this century. Hence also those frequent appeals that were made to this approaching council, when the court of Rome issued out any new edict, or made any new attempt repugnant to the dictates of piety and justice.

The cor

X. The licentious examples of the pontiffs were ruption of the lower zealously imitated in the lives and manners of the orders of subordinate rulers and ministers of the church. the clergy. The greatest part of the bishops and canons passed their days in dissolute mirth and luxury, and squandered away, in the gratification of their lusts and passions, the wealth that had been set apart for religious and charitable purposes. Nor were they less tyrannical than voluptuous; for the most despotic princes never treated their vassals with more rigour and severity, than these ghostly rulers employed towards all such as were under their jurisdiction. The decline of virtue among the clergy was attended with the loss of the public esteem; and the most considerable part of that once-respected body became, by their sloth and avarice, their voluptuousness and impunity, their ignorance and levity, contemptible and infamous, not only in the eye of the wise and good, but also in the universal judgment of the multitude [i]. Nor

[i] See Cornelii Aurelii Gaudani Apocalypsis, seu Visio Mirabilis super miserabili Statu Matris Ecclesia, in Caspar. Bur manni Analect. Hist. de Hadriano VI. p. 245. printed in 4to at Utrecht in 1727.